The Brooklyn Eagle (June 5, 1944)
1,250 U.S. planes batter French invasion coast
Mighty blitz seen swelling to climax asked by Eisenhower
By Phil Ault
London, England (UP) –
Up to 1,250 U.S. heavy bombers and fighters raked the French invasion coast with bombs and gunfire today, carrying forward the bombardment that in four days and nights has rained more than 13,000 tons of explosives across Germany’s West Wall fortifications.
The U.S. daylight blow followed a night of almost ceaseless activity across the English Channel during which swarms of the RAF’s heaviest raiders blasted the same invasion-marked area and ranged on into the Rhineland to drop their blockbusters on Cologne.
Other British planes laid mines in enemy waters. Not a single plane was lost in the night-long operations.
Yanks launch daylight blow
Some 750 U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators, accompanied by about 500 Thunderbolt and Mustang fighters, launched the daylight blow at the West Wall this morning, their third attack on that shattered strip of coast in the past 24 hours and their sixth since the latest chain of pre-invasion bombing began Friday.
U.S. Air Force headquarters said the targets again were in Boulogne and Calais areas.
Radio Paris said U.S. bombers raided the outskirts of Pans at midday.
A steady parade of other Allied warplanes shuttled across the Channel in brilliant sunshine this morning, and other raiders picked up the offensive later in the day, although gathering clouds blotted out the high-flying formations.
Britain’s “Hellfire Corner” opposite the Pas de Calais area reverberated almost continually to the thunder of bombs landing on the West Wall 25 miles away.
The mighty aerial barrage appeared to be swelling swiftly toward the crescendo that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower told U.S. airmen he would require to accompany his invasion armies into the continent.
The U.S. 8th Air Force heavies struck twice at the invasion coast yesterday and followed through with a dusk attack on the chain of Nazi communications extending back into the Paris area, while hundreds of medium bombers and fighters of the U.S. and Allied air forces swept northern France.