New York, N.Y.—London,
England—France Wednesday, July 5, 1944
Town 3 Mi.
From Caen
Is Captured
Germans Admit Retreat
Of Several Miles
Before
U.S. Cherbourg
Push
An Allied double punch east and west
pressed; back the Germans at both ends of the Normandy battlefront yesterday.
American troops stepped their attacks southward from the Cherbourg peninsula—forcing
back the Germans several miles by Berlin admission—and Canadian forces captured
Capriquet, only three miles west of Caen, while the British took Verson, about
4 miles slightly
southwest of Caen.
Front-line reports put the main
American thrust at the edge of a key northern hill dominating La Haye du Puits,
an .important communications center on the main road which runs from La
Haye, 13 miles due east to Carentan.
Slogging forward on a front
estimated as at least 29 miles long, the Yanks had
hard, slow going through swampy
ground on the second day of their new offensive.
Latest news at SHAEF was that the
maximum advance was about two miles, which was considered a creditable achievement
in difficult country and weather. At many places the Yanks fought their way
ahead waist-deep in water.
Battle
for Airfield
Canadian infantrymen and tanks,
supported by a heavy saturation artillery barrage and rocket-firing Typhoons,
captured Capriquet and were fighting last night for the airfield. This heavily
fortified German strongpoint has been a thorn in the Allied side since
D-plus-Two.
Nazis Quit
Polotsk Key
Rail Junction
Reds 40 Mi. Past
Minsk,
Germans Say;
Claim
Garrison Escaped
BULLETIN
Capture
of Polotsk, which the
Germans
announced earlier they had
evacuated,
was announced last night by
Marshal
Stalin in an order of the day.
Berlin announced evacuation of
the White Russian rail junction of Polotsk yesterday little more than 12
hours after Red Army tanks swept into and beyond Minsk, key German base on the
central front, in a swift advance that at some points brought the war within
110 miles of East Prussia. Loss of the two towns—Minsk,
capital of White Russia, astride
rail lines leading to Konigsberg in East Prussia and Brest-Litovsk in Poland,
and Polotsk, 120 miles northeast of Minsk, commanding roads to Dvinsk and Riga in
Latvia—left the Nazis holding only one important town in pre-war Russia.
This was the northern-front
fortress of Pskov at the southeastern tip of Lake Peipus, which has withstood
siege since the Russians liberated Leningrad last
winter and rolled back the
Germans almost to the borders of Estonia.
Nazis Give In to
Demands
Of Danes; Strike
Near End
A five-day general strike in
Copenhagen neared an end yesterday when German authorities capitulated to the demands
of the Danish Freedom Council and confined the pro-Nazi Schalburg Corps militiamen
to their barracks, a Reuter dispatch from Stockholm said last night, and failed
to enforce the curfew.
The council advised the strikers
to resume work, the Danish Press Service
said, and the strike was expected
to end today.
The W arToday
France;
Allied
double blow forces Germans back on east and west ends of Normandy
battlefront . Americans close in on La Haye du Puits, key communications
center, in the west . . . In the -east, Canadians lake Capriquet
and British capture Verson to
smash nearer Caen . . . Canadians still fighting
for airfield at Capriquet, which
could be important base for Allied air forces.
Russia; Germans announce
evacuation of Polotsk, 120 miles northeast of Minsk, claim garrisons
there and at Minsk withdrew west . . . Berlin also claims- recapture of
Stolbtsy on rail line from Minsk to Brest-Litovsk, at point where Russians
claimed to have cut White Russian capital's escape route . . .Advance continues
with Soviet vanguards at some points 40 miles beyond Minsk, Germans say.
Air—Fortresses and Liberators hit
Luftwaffe bases in north and northwest
France . . . Italian-based U.S.
heavies raid Rumania for second straight day . . .
Ninth Air Force planes attack
enemy strongpoints on Cherbourg peninsula . . .
Assaults follow Mosquito blows
against Ruhr.
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