August 19, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY AUGUST 19, 1944:

COUNCIL BLUFFS. IOWA: SATURDAY EVENING. AUGUST 19, 1944.

Battle for France Assumes

Proportions of Rout; Fall

of Paris Is Believed Near*

Doubt Expressed 'Whether Yon Kluge's Battered

Army Will Be Able to Make Stand on Seine;

German Officials Flee From Paris and Vichy

RLONDON,(AP) — A Reuters dispatch from Stockholm Saturday quoted the Berlin correspondent of Attonbladet as saying three American columns were

fighting their way through the Paris suburbs. There was no allied confirmation and the Aftonbladet correspondent said his report was unofficial.

WITH THE CANADIAN  1^ST  ARMY, France, CT)—Canadian

army forces have captured a German divisional commander and his staff south of Trim and possibly have taken a second German general in the Normandy gap.

Germans were surrendering Saturday in batches of 30 and 40 to Polish troops moving south of Trun, 10 miles southeast of Falaise.

* * *

LONDON, (AP)—

U. S. spearheads have reached the Siene at points 27 and 42 miles  northwest of Paris in a slashing offensive, Berlin said Saturday, which threatened to close off the retreat of fleeing Germans below the river and to cut off Paris from western France.

River Also Forced

Southeast of the

Capital

BULLETIN

U.S. forces have crossed the Seine southeast of Paris, as well as northwest,

a. dispatch from Third Army Headquarters announced late last night. No

details were given immediately. Gen. Patton's patrols yesterday penetrated to Versailles, six miles from Paris, while other elements of his Third Army poured across the Seine River to complete what the Germans admitted to be a "far-flung encirclement" of their troops.

At the same time, Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, in a special message to his

U.S. and Allied troops, declared that "the German armies in northwest France have suffered a decisive defeat" and that the Allied victory there "has been definite, complete and decisive.

Entry Comes After Fleet

Shells Base; Allies 7 Mi.

From Marseilles

French troops entered the northern and western sections of the French naval base city of Toulon yesterday, while other forward elements of the Seventh Army reached points only nine miles from Marseilles.

Allied headquarters announced the gains last night as fast-moving American

columns ' sweeping around partially encircled

Toulon moved to within 30 miles of Avignon, gateway into the Rhone Valley route to northern France