June 11, 1944; U.S. TROOPS SMSH ACROSS NORMANDY PENINSULA:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JUNE 11, 1944: 

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY

FORCE, Sunday, (AP)—

U. S. troops smashed a third of the way across the Normandy peninsula Saturday in a drive to seal off the prize port of Cherbourg and captured two town* and a handful of villages under cover of allied fighters striking from newly-seized airfields in France.

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS

IN ITALY, (AP)

Nazi forces in Italy, fleeing northward in a rout that the allied command declared had become a "catastrophe," turned to make a stand of stubborn but not fully-disclosed proportions late Saturday around a village some miles northeast of Viterbo, which is 40 miles above Rome.

 

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA: SUNDAY, JUNE II, 1944.

Progress Made in Move to

Seal Off Peninsula Below

Prize Port of Cherbourg

Americans Plunge Third of Way Across Lower

Neck, Capture Two Towns and a Handful of

Villages; Nazis Withdraw to Shortened Lines

(See map of Normandy coast on page 8, showing in detail

the fighting zone.) ,

By James M. Long.

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY

FORCE, Sunday, (AP)—

U. S. troops smashed a third of the way across the Normandy peninsula Saturday in a drive to seal off the prize port of Cherbourg and captured two town* and a handful of villages under cover of allied fighters striking from newly-seized airfields in France.

A German broadcast placed the Americans near Montebourg, only 15 miles southeast of Cherbourg, after the Germans had withdrawn to "shortened defense lines."

Allied headquarters bulletin No. 10 issued just before midnight said "allied progress continues along the whole of the beachhead." This meant that the American, British and Canadian troops now were attacking heavily along a 50-mile stretch between Caen in the east and Montebourg in the northwest.

 German 14th

Fleeing North

to Mountains

Disorganized Units

Finally Hake Stand

Far North of Rome

By Noland Norgaard.

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS

IN ITALY, (AP)

Nazi forces in Italy, fleeing northward in a rout that the allied command declared had become a "catastrophe," turned to make a stand of stubborn but not fully-disclosed proportions late Saturday around a village some miles northeast of Viterbo, which is 40 miles above Rome.

George Tucker, Associated Press correspondent with the 5th army in the field, wrote in a dispatch timed 9:30 p. m. Saturday night that the previously almost-unopposed race of the allies to overtake the retreating Germans had slowed perceptibly when they ran into a maze of German 88-mllllmeter and anti-tank guns in and around the village.

The allies brought up tanks, infantry and artillery, and the fighting "quickly assumed the character of a sizable action," Tucker said.

Indications were that the 5^th army, which has advanced at a speed of about 15 miles a day since the fall of Rome last Sunday, had succeeded in Its racing efforts to overtake and engage some important units of Col, Gen. Eberhard von Mackensen's 14^th army.

Capturing the ancient town of Tuscania, 13 miles northeast of Tarquintt, which fell Friday, the 5th army had fanned out with just such on overtaking battle intended.

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