August 5, 1944; Lightning Advance to Brittany:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, AUGUST 5, 1944:

 

LIGHTNING ADVANCE TO

BRITTANY PORT TOLD;

NANTES, LORIENT NEXT

Doughboys Begin Race for

Paris as British Break Nazi

Lines at Caen

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, AEF,

Aug. 5..— (UP) —

Advance elements of an American armored column crashed into the city limits of the great French Atlantic naval base of Brest tonight as another force, racing for St. Nazaire, was reported at a point 18 miles northeast of that city.

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, AEF, Aug. 5.—(UP)—

American armor ranged the approaches to St. Nazaire and Nantes today and may have reached one or both to cut off the Breton peninsula, while another column raced toward Brest as British bombers plastered that prize port with six-ton super-blockbusters to prevent the escape of any U-boats sheltered there.

Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley's whirlwind sweep through Brittany picked up momentum steadily, inspiring confident predictions at supreme headquarters

that it would carry into St; Nazaire, Nantes, Lorient, or Brest today, if it had not already done so, and the capture of one or more of the strategic cities would be announced tomorrow.

Yankees Moving Fast

The lightning fanout had outrun reports from the front, and how far the vanguard was from its prime objectives this evening was anybody's guess. Outdated accounts put it less than 80 miles from Brest, 31 of Nantes, and 36 of St. Nazaire.

Soviets Break

Lines Before

East Prussia

Poles lighting Brilliant

Battle in Warsaw,

Winning City

LONDON, Aug. 5.-(U. P.) —

Berlin reported today that German forses

« German line north of Vbrbalii, Lithuanian village only three miles from the Bait Pnu:

Bian frontier, indicating that' they may have carried the battie across the border onto the

"holy soil" of Germany proper.

While a Nazi military spokesman did not mention a border crossing in reporting the break-through, observers pointed out that Red army flying wedges dishing through

German positions scored gains of more than three miles.

In Easy Distance

Gen. Ivan D. Chernwvsky's army was massed on a 100-mile front within easy striking, distance of East Prussia, and,his on surge heretofore have packed momentum enough to drive forward several miles at a single lunge. Virbalis is a Lithuanian

Jap Army of

30,000 Flees

On New Guinea

: ' ALLIED HEADQUARTERS,

Southwest Pacific, Aug. 5.—(AP)—

Japanese forces estimated that 30, 000 men were in full retreat today throughout the Vogelkop penin sula and Gen. Douglas MacArthar described it as an attempt to evacuate all of Western Dutch New Guinea,

Usefulness Over

The effectiveness of the Second Japanese army commanded by Gen. Fusataro Teshim was "approaching its end," he said. "There is mounting evidence of the Japanese decision to abandon .their last positions in Dutch New Guinea," the London radio said today in a broadcast recorded by CBS. Enemy transport barges are moving westward and troops are withdrawing south and west as best they can over the rugged country," the broadcast said, quoting a cabled dispatch from John Hing on .the Australian broadcasting commission.)

- Many Trapped

 Some 15,000 Japanese at Manokwari, and other forces at N bite, on Geelvink bay along the east coast, as well as 15,000 troops at' Sorong, base on the western coast of the peninsula, were by- passed when Americans landed 'July 30, at Sansapor, 65 miles above vii Sorong.

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