Word: caen
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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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...
...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...
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...
That was bad news indeed for the Nazis. A war correspondent for the Berlin Lokal lanzeiger reported that on the Caen front the German soldier's happiest hours were when drenching rain falls, "the clay clings to our boots, greatcoats become soaked and heavy, and foxhole trenches fill with water. But when the storm passes and the sun emerges, the soldier's greeting to the sunlight, hissed through clenched teeth, is unprintable. For with the sun also return the swarms of enemy fighters and fighter-bombers...