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26 St
is now in the process of being squeezed dry. Thousands of Germans have either laid down their arms in surrender or they have been Hquidated on the field of battle. But other thousands escaped what we hope will be their fate of ultimate destruction. Streaming out of the flaming bottleneck they ran the gantlet of allied artillery fire and they braved the strafing from the skies above, which was carried out by thousands of American, British, and Canadian aircraft. A British staff officer declared that the Germans managed to extricate most of their armor from the Falaise pocket. This straight, unqualified declaration, has been tossed Ughtly to one side by those who refuse to believe that the German is capable of any further resistance in western France.
The Germans headed for the left bank of the River Seine, intent upon crossing that stream to the right bank. When aerial and ground reconnaissance revealed this fact, allied aircraft directed their offensive against the bridges which span that river. They destroyed many of them, but not all. Some of those structures which were heavily damaged, we learn tonight, have been repaired. The Germans are still retreating. Front line reports declare they are being hemmed in against the river barrier, but in the same breath the announcement reveals that the enemy troops were swimming across the Seine and that they were being ferried to the other side.
On the northeast side of the River Seine, stands the German fifteenth
'n^ January, 1945
army. Units of the German seventh army, which has been so badly mauled in the Normandy fighting, are endeavoring to join the fifteenth on the right bank of the Seine. German losses will unquestionably be heavy. Beyond the River Seine are the German robot bomb installations from which the enemy has sent his mechanical instruments of death in an indiscriminate attack upon the people of the British Isles. North of these are the German occupational forces in the Low Countries. It is the hope of the allied high command that they will be destroyed. But General Eisenhower stated in unquivocal language that even were the seventh German army to be destroyed, and a major victory thus to accrue to the allied arms, this victory would be only the first of a series which would have to be won before the French republic was freed from the trampling feet of the German invader. There is not one statement issued by the supreme commander which could be construed as meaning that a quick and easy triumph is in sight on the fields of France.
Are we in Paris yet? This question is on the lips of every American citizen. Yet General Eisenhower said in words which could be understood by even a child that Paris was not the immediate goal of the allied armies. Although the value of Paris, from a moral point of view was not underestimated, the French capital is but a waystation on the line of march of the allied troops. The supreme objective always has been and always will be, the destruction of German armies on the field of battle. Only by