THE BATTLE OF FRANCE

The ODON, CAEN, CAUMONT and now AMIENS. Those last two days have been great ones for the Division. It is 65 miles from VERNON to AMIENS, and by driving on through last night’s rain and mud, our troops this morning burst into AMIENS, and are now on the RIVER SOMME, famous and bloody river of the Iast war, destined by the enemy in 1944 to be a main defensive line against which our attack was to spend itself. The Division's recent exploits have been sealed by the capture of the GERMAN 7th Army Commander. He was taken, along with his staff at his tactical headquarters, and his capture is a notable prize for us. The advance continues. 

This tremendous leap forward from the bridgehead over the SEINE compares very favourably with any other armoured thrust delivered either by friend or foo during the last five years. It brings with it tremendous new possibilities of encirclement and speedy extermination of those GERMAN troops who lie between the axis of our advance and the coast. It also makes possible the speedy liquidation of many of the flying bomb launching sites lying in the region of FECAMP, DIEPPE and ARREVILLE, and although the greater concentration of these sites is to be found some ninety miles to the North, in the vicinity of CALAIS itself, each new advance helps to relieve the pain and suffering which Southern ENGLAND and the LONDON area have nobly born since June 13th. 

Today has so boun a great one for troops of the First CANADIAN Army, for their drive on ROUEN achieved success, and they were given a rapid greeting as they passed through the streets of the city. Sporadic fighting still continues in some parts of the town, but the brain issue is undoubtedly decided.

The AMERICAN drive towards the BELGIAN frontier continues at its usual pace, and U.S. armour is now beyond LAON, and had reached a point only 30 miles from the BELGIAN Province of HAINAUT. During their great drive from AVRANCHES to their present positions, General Patton’s men have inflicted 148,000 casualties upon the enemy. These include 70,000 prisoners of war, 18,000 killed and the remainder wounded. Other AMERICAN columns are now pushing forward from their NANTES bridgehead and have reached a point 10 miles up the river EPTE. 

At present, there is no fresh information about the progress of the AMERICAN Column which was directed Eastwards towards the frontier town of METZ, but unofficial reports speak of further excellent progress towards the frontier.

General Eisenhower held a Press Conference in LONDON today. He was able to announce that the Allied programme in FRANCE is now five days ahead of schedule. PARIS had been liberated earlier than had at one time been expected, whilst the vigour and resource of the French Forces of the Interior had far exceeded our most ambitious forecasts. 

He announced also that his command now consisted of two Army Groups.

General Montgomery commands 21 Army Group and General Bradley now has an equal position as commander of the U.S. 12th Army Group. General Eisenhower emphasised that General Montgomery had not been demoted, and he explained that during the days of the bridgehead it had been the Allies' policy to concentrate all forces under one field commander. Now that the bridgehend had so greatly expanded, and the forces employed were so greatly increased, it was a natural and militarily sound decision to grant to General Bradley the full powers of an Army Group Commander. 

In the South of FRANCE the Allied 7th Army is pushing quickly up the RHONE VALLEY and has reached a point between VALENCE and LYONS. On one 12 mile stretch of road they captured 2,000 lorries and 110 guns, and the GERMAN 19th army is now reduced to a parlous state in respect of both artillery and transport. Other forces have pushed Eastwards beyond NICE, and are making their way through enemy minefields as they approach the ITALIAN frontier. 

Nazi refugees have been making their way across the SPANISH frontier, and accompanying them are many of their FRENCH sympathisers who now see that their conduct during the last four years has for ever alienated them from the land of their birth. The SPANISH Government is looking after the wants of these newest of refugees through the agency known as 'Auxilio Social'. Here indeed the wheel has come full circle, and the piteous days toward the end of the SPANISH war when thousands of Republican Spaniards made their tortured way to PERPIGNAN on the FRENCH side of the frontier are now repeated with a cynical twist, for the Nazis have became the new refugees of EUROPE, and it is Franco who is now playing host to those who once were the most formidable weapon in his so-called Nationalist forces.

THE RUSSIAN FRONT

Tonight the guns of MOSCOW have sounded a great salute, for Red Army troops have now reached the ROMANIAN capital of BUCHAREST. Yesterday, General Malinovsky's troops surged forward and took PLOESTI, where the GERMANS had committed the town to the flames. By nightfall, assisted by RUMANIAN engineers and units of the army, the fires in and about the oil installations had been quelled, and there was no live GERMAN left in the town. This advance was sensational indeed, but it is capped by this more recent thrust which has taken our Allies into the RUMANIAN capital. At the present moment envoys of King Michael are in MOSCOW awaiting the conditions of armistice. In CAIRO BULGARIAN representatives are shortly to receive the Allied terms at the hands of Lord Moyne, and with the conclusion of those two sets of …………is the corner-stones of Hitler's fortress in South Eastern EUROPE will have been torn away. Tonight GERMAN radio first claimed that the situation in RUMANIA. was obscure, but when it became apparent that RUSSIAN successes could no longer be concealed, the tone of the broadcast at once altered, and the RUMANIAN people was threatened with direst punishment for any injuries and damage which they might inflict upon GERMAN forces.