Five Miles More

Near week's end an Allied communique on Normandy told its story in five glum words: "There is nothing to report." Next day, at the midnight news conference a briefing officer opened the session wryly : "Well, gentlemen, I hope the Russians have done something today." General Montgomery's offensive east of Caen, which had jumped off to such a promising start early in the week, had clanked to a grinding stop. Infantrymen, mopping up the ground taken, had es tablished a sound and useful bridgehead across the Orne River barrier, and the Allies were unquestionably in better position for the next push, but that was about all.

Rugged German resistance had blocked anything remotely like one of Monty's old desert breakthroughs; the Allies had failed to bring off their prime objective of entangling the German armor in a battle of destruction. For the moment the Allied problem was to gather more power, wheel it into position, get another drive started.

While It Lasted. The first drive had been good while it lasted. Montgomery sent it away at 5:30 a.m. with the greatest barrage and air pounding of his violent career. Thousands of cannon worked over the target area, thousands of R.A.F. and U.S. bombers battered and steamrollered the little towns that could serve as enemy strong points (but even then some airmen growled that it "looked like another Cassino"*).

Part of the German tank forces had been beautifully feinted out of position by a preliminary thrust at Evrecy, southwest of Caen. Then the real blow was hurled east of Caen, as Allied tanks, vehicles, infantrymen moved forward. The battlefield was spectacular, wreathed in clouds of golden yellow dust, through which the sullen sun shone like a dull copper disc.

For one of the first times since El Alamein, Monty had his tanks out ahead of the infantry. The attack rolled forward irresistibly--for five miles. Then it stalled in front of a murderous screen of German 88-mm. guns, mortars, cleverly emplaced tanks firing like mobile pillboxes. The tanks could not plow into the wall of fire that faced them; they had to be drawn back without achieving a major clash with German armor. Correspondents applauded Monty's economy of casualties.

Still the Weather. There were some reasons for the stoppage. The terrain was still tough for attack--but it will always be tough until the Allies can force a genuine breakthrough into the open country between Caen and Paris. The battleground was so restricted that German reconnaissance had ample warning of the push--but the battleground will always be restricted while the Allies remain bottled up on the Normandy peninsula. The weather was vile; dust-dry one day, bucketing rain the next two or three--but even the most loyal correspondents were weary of apologizing for the fighting weather.

Whether Montgomery was over-economical of loss or what, the fact was that the Normandy operation was a stalemated disappointment. This week the weather was clearing again and German commentators predicted two fresh offensives, one near Caen and another at the west side of the front, where hard-hitting Lieut. General Omar Nelson Bradley has been moving up new U.S. divisions. The Allies said nothing at all, but this might be it.

*Among ardent strategic airmen a"Cassino"is an overblown operation in which bombers that should be striking at the enemy's heart are used instead to whittle at his fingertips, the targets are broken to complete rubble, and the whole project sags to a halt because of sluggish work on the ground.

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