July 26, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JULY 26,1944:

 

SAN MATEo, CALIFORNIA, WEDNESDAY, JULY 26,1944

AMERICAN TANK ARMY

SMASHES 4-MILE HOLE

IN FRONT AT NORMANDY

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS  AEF (U.P.) July 26,

Two American armored armored columns leading a frontwise offensive by Gen. Omar N. Bradley's First army smashed  the German   lines in Normandy today, and captured the highway towns of Marigny and St. Gilles, sonthwest of St. Lo, as they drove inland up to four miles.

TWO TOWNS OCCUPIED

Marigny, seven miles from St. Lo and the biggest town on the Oputances highway, and St. Gilles, midway between Marigny and Sit. Lo, were the first big prizes in the break-through offensive which overran some half-dozen towns and villages in the first few hours of the drive.

Front dispatches reported that Bradley's armor, in scoring the second big break-through of the Normandy campaign and the first by massed American tanks on which sharp-shooting doughboys rode, had blasted a four-mile-wide gap in the German defenses.

CRASH GERMAN LINES

Bradley’s armor swarmed out of its camouflage nests in a thundering herd to crash the German lines. One column raced the road to Marigny for a four-4-mile gain and the other knifed in against St. Gilles. Both towns fell a few hours after the big push got under way in the wake of preliminary thrusts yesterday.

Allies Shell Sumatra;

Tinian Japs Lose 100 to 1

Guam Forces

Isolate Nips

In Harbor Area

PEARL HARBOR, July 26.—(U.P.)—

American assault forces, lulling Japanese at a ratio of 8 to 1, linked their beachheads on the west coast of Guam and began a battle of annihilation against enemy pockets isolated on the rim of the Apra harbor naval anchorage today.

On Tinian island, another of the last remaining enemy bases in the Marianas, marines killed enemy troops at the rate of almost 100 to1 in advances that won them complete control of the Ushi point air field as well as one-third of the

4500-foot air strip, itself.

Hundred to One

A total of 3724 Japanese Japanese dead, as against a total of 458 American dead, was reported in the first summary of casualties for both islands.

The marines on Tinian have lost 15 men as compared to 1324 Japanese killed by the leathernecks, the first summary revealed. American casualties on Guam so far total 3018—including 443 killed, 2,366 wounded and 209 missing—compared

with 2400 known Japanese dead. ,

The Tinian casualties also included225 wounded.

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