GOP council sets outline for platform in 1944 fight
Party pledges responsible post-war participation in organization to attain permanent peace in free world
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We have oil for 300 years, expert tells conference
By Dr. Frank Thone, Science Service staff writer
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Ernie Pyle has just arrived in the United States after more than 14 months with U.S. troops in the British Isles, Africa and Sicily. The following column was dispatched before he left Sicily. After a rest of about two months, Mr. Pyle will return to the war fronts, probably in the Pacific theater.
Somewhere in Sicily, Italy – (by wireless)
We are writing these few days about the spectacular bridging of a practically bottomless hole blown in a northern Sicilian coast road by the Germans in their retreat toward Messina.
It took our engineers 24 hours to bridge this enormous gap, but the men of the 3rd Division didn’t just sit and twiddle their thumbs during that time.
The infantry was sent across on foot and continued after the Germans. Some supplies and guns were sent around the roadblock by boat, and even the engineers themselves continued on ahead by boat. They had discovered other craters blown in the road several miles ahead. These were smaller ones that could be filled in by a bulldozer except that you couldn’t get a bulldozer across that vast hole they were trying to bridge.
So, the engineers commandeered two little Sicilian fishing boats about twice the size of rowboats. They lashed them together, nailed planking across them, and ran the bulldozer onto this improvised barge. They tied an amphibious jeep in front of it, and went chugging around Point Calava at about one mile an hour.
‘Engineers’ homemade Navy’
As we looked down at them laboring along so slowly. Lt. Col. Leonard Bingham, commanding officer of the 3rd Division’s 10th Engineers, grinned and said:
There goes the engineers’ homemade Navy.
The real Navy during the night had carried forward supplies and guns in armed landing craft. These were the cause of a funny incident around midnight. Our engineers had drilled and laid blasting charges to blow off part of the rock wall that overhung the Point Calava crater.
When all was ready, everybody went back in the tunnel to get out of the way. When the blast went off, the whole mountain shook and you quivered with positive belief that the tunnel was coming down. The noise there in the silent night was shocking.
Now just as this happened, a small fleet of these naval craft was passing in the darkness, just offshore. The sudden blast alarmed them. They apparently thought they were being fired upon from the shore. For just as our men were returning to their work at the crater edge, there came ringing up from the dark water below, so clear it sounded like an execution order, the resounding naval command:
Prepare to return fire.
Boy, you should have seen our men scatter! They hit the ground and scampered back into the tunnel as though Stukas were diving on them. We don’t know to this day exactly what happened out there, but we do know the Navy never did fire.
During the night, Maj. Gen. Lucian Truscott, commanding the 3rd Division, came up to see how the work was coming along. Bridging that hole was his main interest in life that night. He couldn’t help any, of course, but somehow, he couldn’t bear to leave. He stood around and talked to officers, and after a while he went off a few feet to one side and sat down on the ground and lit a cigarette.
Private orders general around
A moment later, a passing soldier saw the glow and leaned over and said, “Hey, gimme a light, will you?” The general did and the soldier never knew he had been ordering the general around.
Gen. Truscott, like many men of great action, has the ability to refresh himself by tiny catnaps of five or 10 minutes. So instead of going back to his command post and going to bed, he stretched out there against some rocks and dozed off. One of the working engineers came past, dragging some air hose. It got tangled up in the general’s feet. The tired soldier was annoyed, and he said crossly to the dark, anonymous figure on the ground:
If you’re not working, get the hell out of the way.
The general got up and moved farther back without saying a word.
The men worked on and on, and every one of the company officers stayed throughout the night, just to be there to make decisions when difficulties arose. But I got so sleepy I couldn’t stand it, and I caught a commuting truck back to the company camp and turned in. An hour before daylight I heard them rout out a platoon that had been resting.
They ate breakfast noisily, loaded into trucks, and were off just at dawn. A little later three truckloads of tired men pulled into camp, gobbled some breakfast, and fell into their blankets on the ground. The feverish attack on that vital highway obstruction had not lagged a moment during the whole night.
Congressman discusses tomorrow’s jobs –
Answer to ‘farm problem’ depends on workers’ pay
Industrial machine must be kept going after war to insure farmers’ prosperity
By Rep. Wesley E. Disney (D-OK)
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President Roosevelt’s Fireside Chat 26
On the armistice in Italy
September 8, 1943, 9:00 p.m. EWT
Broadcast audio:
My fellow Americans:
Once upon a time, a few years ago, there was a city in our Middle West which was threatened by a destructive flood in the great river. The waters had risen to the top of the banks. Every man, woman, and child in that city was called upon to fill sandbags in order to defend their homes against the rising waters. For many days and nights, destruction and death stared them in the face.
As a result of the grim, determined community effort, that city still stands. Those people kept the levees above the peak of the flood. All of them joined together in the desperate job that had to be done – businessmen, workers, farmers, doctors, preachers – people of all races.
To me, that town is a living symbol of what community cooperation can accomplish.
Today, in the same kind of community effort, only very much larger, the United Nations and their peoples have kept the levees of civilization high enough to prevent the floods of aggression and barbarism and wholesale murder from engulfing us all. The flood has been raging for four years. At last, we are beginning to gain on it; but the waters have not yet receded enough for us to relax our sweating work with the sandbags. In this war bond campaign, we are filling bags and placing them against the flood – bags which are essential if we are to stand off the ugly torrent which is trying to sweep us all away.
Today, it is announced that an armistice with Italy has been concluded.
This was a great victory for the United Nations – but it was also a great victory for the Italian people. After years of war and suffering and degradation, the Italian people are at last coming to the day of liberation from their real enemies, the Nazis.
But let us not delude ourselves that this armistice means the end of the war in the Mediterranean. We still have to drive the Germans out of Italy as we have driven them out of Tunisia and Sicily; we must drive them out of France and all other captive countries; and we must strike them on their own soil from all directions.
Our ultimate objectives in this war continue to be Berlin and Tokyo.
I ask you to bear these objectives constantly in mind – and do not forget that we still have a long way to go before we attain them.
The great news that you have heard today from General Eisenhower does not give you license to settle back in your rocking chairs. and say:
Well, that does it. We’ve got 'era on the run. Now we can start the celebration.
The time for celebration is not yet. And I have a suspicion that when this war does end, we shall not be in a very celebrating frame of mind. I think that our main emotion will be one of grim determination that this shall not happen again.
During the past weeks, Mr. Churchill and I have been in constant conference with the leaders of our combined fighting forces. We have been in constant communication with our fighting allies, Russian and Chinese, who are prosecuting the war with relentless determination and with conspicuous success on far distant fronts. And Mr. Churchill and I are here together in Washington at this crucial moment.
We have seen the satisfactory fulfillment of plans that were made in Casablanca last January and here in Washington last May. And lately we have made new, extensive plans for the future. But throughout these conferences we have never lost sight of the fact that this war will become bigger and tougher, rather than easier, during the long months that are to come.
This war does not and must not stop for one single instant. Your fighting men know that. Those of them who are moving forward through jungles against lurking Japs – those who are landing at this moment, in barges moving through the dawn up to strange enemy coasts – those who are diving their bombers down on the targets at rooftop level – every one of these men knows that this war is a full-time job and that it will continue to be that until total victory is won.
And, by the same token, every responsible leader in all the United Nations knows that the fighting goes on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that any day lost may have to be paid for in terms of months added to the duration of the war.
Every campaign, every single operation in all the campaigns that we plan and carry through must be figured in terms of staggering material costs. We cannot afford to be niggardly with any of our resources, for we shall need all of them to do the job that we have put our shoulder to.
Your fellow Americans have given a magnificent account of themselves – on the battlefields and on the oceans and in the skies all over the world.
Now it is up to you to prove to them that you are contributing your share and more than your share. It is not sufficient simply to put into war bonds money which we would normally save. We must put into war bonds money which we would not normally save. Only then have we done everything that good conscience demands. So, it is up to you, the Americans in the American homes – the very homes which our sons and daughters are working and fighting and dying to preserve.
I know I speak for every man and woman throughout the Americas when I say that we Americans will not be satisfied to send our troops into the fire of the enemy with equipment inferior in any way. Nor will we be satisfied to send our troops with equipment only equal to that of the enemy. We are determined to provide our troops with overpowering superiority, superiority of quantity and quality in any and every category of arms and armaments that they may conceivably need.
And where does our dominating power come from? Why, it can come only from you. The money you lend and the money you give in taxes buys that death-dealing, and at the same time life-saving power that we need for victory. This is an expensive war – expensive in money; you can help keep it at a minimum cost in lives.
The American people will never stop to reckon the cost of redeeming civilization. They know there never can be any economic justification for failing to save freedom.
We can be sure that our enemies will watch this drive with the keenest interest. They know that success in this undertaking will shorten the war. They know that the more money the American people lend to their government, the more powerful and relentless will be the American forces in the field. They know that only a united and determined America could possibly produce on a voluntary basis so huge a sum of money as $15 billion.
The overwhelming success of the Second War Loan Drive last April showed that the people of this Democracy stood firm behind their troops.
This Third War Loan, which we are starting tonight, will also succeed – because the American people will not permit it to fail.
I cannot tell you how much to invest in war bonds during this Third War Loan Drive. No one can tell you. It is for you to decide under the guidance of your own conscience.
I will say this, however. Because the nation’s needs are greater than ever before, our sacrifices too must be greater than they have ever been before.
Nobody knows when total victory will come – but we do know that the harder we fight now, the more might and power we direct at the enemy now, the shorter the war will be and the smaller the sum total of sacrifice.
Success of the Third War Loan will be the symbol that America does not propose to rest on its arms – that we know the tough, bitter job ahead and will not stop until we have finished it.
Now it is your turn!
Every dollar that you invest in the Third War Loan is your personal message of defiance to our common enemies- to the ruthless savages of Germany and Japan – and it is your personal message of faith and good cheer to our allies and to all the men at the front. God bless them!
La Stampa (September 9, 1943)
LA GUERRA E’ FINITA
Badoglio annuncia alla Nazione che la richiesta di un armistizio è stata accolta dal gen. Eisenhower
Le forze italiane cessano ovunque da ogni ostilità contro gli anglo-sassoni ma sapranno reagire contro eventuali attacchi da qualsiasi altra provenienza
Resa all’ineluttabile
Soffochiamo il flotto di amarezza che ci sale dal cuore. Scriviamo. Ancora ci risuona nell’orecchio la voce del grande soldate, che poco fa annunciava al popolo il compiersi di un destino ormai ineluttabile. Era la voce di un uomo che ha servito la Patria con le armi in eventi fortunosi e memorabili. Con Diaz, che lo aveva chiamato al suo fianco dopo Caporetto, aveva preparato all’Italia la grande ora solare, l’ebrezza infervorante di Vittorio Veneto. Succeduto a un condottiero improvvisato nella direzione dell’impresa etiopica, aveva prontamente riparati gli errori del suo predecessore, e portate le armi italiane vittoriose ad Addis Abeba. Immaginiamo il sentimento del Maresciallo, nell’atto in cuoi adempiva al duro compito riservatogli dal destino, il più duro che il destino potesse riservare ad un italiano e ad un soldato: quello di annunciare le fine di una guerra, in cui la sorte è stata avversa all’Italia. Energica e ferma, la voce di Badoglio ci è apparsa in qualche instante velarsi di tristezza. Non si può chiedere a nessuno, neppure ad un animo fortissimo, l’impassibilità di fronte alle sventure della Patria.
Ma la realtà va guardata in faccia, anche se è una faccia ingrata. E’ inutile illudersi. Le guerre si combattono fino a che c’è speranza di vittoria, o almeno di una pace meno dura. Quando anche questa speranza è perduta, insistere sarebbe follia. Se avesse insistito, Badoglio si sarebbe reso responsabile di un delitto. Altre mamme, altre spose italiane avrebbero pianto la morte dei loro figli e dei loro mariti. Altre citta avrebbero conosciuto la furia devastatrice dei bombardamenti nemici. Per quale scopo, con quale utilità? E’ assurdo supporre che il nemico, la cui strapotenza di mezzi appariva di minuto in minuto più schiacciante, ci avrebbe fatto tra quindici giorni condizioni migliori di quelle che ci farà oggi. Nessun uomo di coscienza e di umanità si sarebbe mai preso la responsabilità di chiedere al popolo nuovi sacrifici solo per aggravarne la situazione.
La decisione dell’Italia è deli resto ineccepibile sotto ogni punto di vista. Il pipilo italiano non abbandona le armi, è rimasto senz’armi. Si ritira da una lotta che non è più in condizione di combattere. Nessuno poteva pretendere che esso si offrisse inerme alla offesa nemica, passivo bersaglio si suoi potenti mezzi distruttivi. Una tale ostinazione, un tale gratuito suicidio non sarebbero stati di utilità per alcuno. Fino a che ha avuto la possibilità di resistere, l’Italia l’ha fatto, e l’ha fatto con onore. Non si può negare la superba dimostrazione di valore che il nostro soldato ha offerta sui campi di battaglia, in condizione di perpetua inferiorità di mezzi. Questo ci consente di proclamare che l’Italia esce dalla guerra con onore. Tutto può essere perduto: ma l’onore è salvo.
Non sappiamo che cosa ci riserverà l’immediato avvenire. Ogni illusione sarebbe fuori luogo. La guerra è stata dura, la pace sarà forse durissima. Ma dobbiamo fortificare in noi la decisione di affrontare, in concordia di spiriti, le difficoltà della ricostruzione. Abbiamo commesso dei grandi errori, ma abbiamo in noi la possibilità e la capacita di superarli. In questo tristissimo momento il nostro pensiero va ai gloriosi Caduti e ai combattenti tutti, che hanno tenuto alto, sui campi di battaglia, il prestigio delle armi italiane. Va alle popolazioni delle citta straziate dai bombardamenti nemici. Va alle genti intrepide della Sicilia e della Calabria che hanno conosciuto l’amarezza dell’invasione straniera. Va al nostro Sovrano, che, come già il 25 luglio, dimostra oggi di non essere sordo alle voci delle aspirazioni popolari, e accetta ancora una volta le responsabilità delle supreme decisioni. La guerra è costata molto all’Italia la sangue, lutti, rovine. Ma la storia ammaestra che anche le avventure possono essere lievito di nuova vita e di feconda ripresa. Il popolo italiano non può morire. Il popolo italiano non morrà.
La notizia alla Casa Bianca
Roosevelt e Churchill hanno avuto un nuovo colloquio – Il Presidente parla di un incontro con Stalin
Washington, 8 settembre –
La notizia dell’armistizio con l’Italia è stata immediatamente comunicata a Roosevelt e Churchill. Era questa la notizia per la quale Churchill si è trattenuto a Washington cosi a lungo. Presumibilmente egli si tratterrà a Washington ulteriormente allo scopo di discutere col Presidente Roosevelt sulla situazione che s’è venuta determinando.
Finora né alla Casa Bianca né al ministero della guerra l’avvenimento è stato ufficialmente commentato.
La frequenza dei colloqui fra Roosevelt e Churchill in queste ultime ore aveva resa febbrile a Washington l’aspettativa per nuovi grandi avvenimenti. I due capi di stato si sono incontrati stamane dopo un lungo colloquio avuto fra di loro ieri sera.
Il segretario particolare di Roosevelt ha dichiarato che Churchill ed il Presidente americano hanno avuto oggi numerosi incontri ed hanno inoltre conferito coi membri del loro seguito.
Si considera adesso come possibile che Churchill e Roosevelt aspettino ora ulteriori notizie sulla possibilità di una conferenza con la Russia che è stata associata con le potenze occidentali nelle discussioni sulla situazione dell’Italia. Si ritiene che la creazione di una commissione mediterranea nella quale l’Unione Sovietica sarà rappresentata apre, una nuova possibilità di approcci ed ha tanto avvicinato la possibilità di una conferenza a tre da permettere a Roosevelt di fare, ieri, delle predizioni ottimistiche in questo senso.
Questa commissione è considerata a Londra a Washington come prototipo per simili organizzazioni che possono fornire i necessari strumenti per una collaborazione anglo-sovietica-americana in altre parti d’Europa.
Roosevelt ha dichiarato che sono stati realizzati progressi, dopo la conferenza di Québec, particolarmente in questi ultimi giorni in vista di un incontro fra lui Stalin e Churchill, Roosevelt ha aggiunto che si possono attendere nuovi progressi al riguardo nelle prossime 24 o 48 ore.
Da Algeri si annuncia che, 48 ore dopo lo sbarco dell’VIII Armata in Calabria, il generale sir Harold Alexander è arrivato sulla penisola italiana a bordo di un aereo pilotato dal vice-maresciallo dell’Aria sir Arthur Cunningham, comandante l’aviazione tattica nel Mediterraneo. Il generale Alexander si è intrattenuto col generale Montgomery.
Il generale Giraud ha ispezionato alcuni reparti armati nei pressi di Casablanca ed ha pronunziato un discorso nel quale ha detto fra l’altro che desiderava che essi si battano alla perfezione e sfruttino nel miglior modo possibile il materiale bellico fornito dagli Stati Uniti.
A Casablanca Giraud ha ispezionato quindi la corazzata Jean Bart.
Secondo una corrispondenza si giornale France il governo avrebbe proposto si principali governi alleati di riconoscere la Francia come una delle nazioni unite. Il comitato francese, aggiunge il giornale, nel caso non dubbio che la proposta venisse accettata sarebbe trattato in seno si consessi internazionali su un piede di completa eguaglianza con gli altri governi.
Processo di razionalizzazione
Una mostra del concorse di impiegati tecnici e anche operai manuali
Berlino, 8 settembre – (Mondar)
Da New York si apprende che il colonnello Lindbergh sta effettuando delle prove a grandi altezze con apparecchi da bombardamento.
A quanto pare, Lindbergh intraprenderà fra breve un viaggio all’estero in missione segreta.
Gli ultimi combattimento per ritardare l’avanzata nemica
Salerno, Benevento e località dell’Italia meridionale bombardate da formazioni avversarie
Il Comando Supremo ha diramato il Bollettino numerino 1201:
Sul fronte calabro, reparti italiani e germanici ritardano in combattimenti locali l’avanzata delle truppe britanniche.
L’aviazione italo-tedesca ha gravemente danneggiato nel porto di Biserta cinque navi da trasporto, per complessive 28 mila tonnellate; nei pressi dell’isola di Favignana un piroscafo da 15 mila tonnellate è stato colpito con siluro da un nostro aereo.
Formazioni avversario hanno bombardato Salerno, Benevento e alcune località delle provincie di Salerno e di Bari, perdendo complessivamente dieci velivoli; tre abbattuti dalla caccia italo-germanica e sette dall’artiglieria contraerea.
Gen. AMBROSIO
Völkischer Beobachter (September 9, 1943)
Zum zweitenmal dem Bundesgenossen in den Rücken gefallen –
Feiger Verrat der italienischen Regierung
Badoglio liefert Italien dem Feind bedingungslos aus – Gegenmaßnahmen getroffen
Seit Wochen vorbereitet
dnb. Berlin, 8. September –
Der amtliche britische Nachrichtendienst hat heute abend aus dem Hauptquartier des Generals Eisenhower bekanntgegeben, daß die italienische Regierung die bedingungslose Kapitulation der italienischen Streitkräfte angeboten habe. Eisenhower habe die Kapitulation angenommen und Italien einen militärischen Waffenstillstand gewährt, der von seinem Vertreter und einem Beauftragten Marschall Badoglios unterzeichnet wurde. Der Waffenstillstand sei mit der Unterzeichnung sofort in Kraft getreten.
Inzwischen hat auch Badoglio, nachdem der König und er selbst noch am 8. September jeden solchen Gedanken als Verleumdung zurückgewiesen hatten, in einer Bekanntgabe im römischen Rundfunk die Kapitulation bestätigt. Er gab zu, Eisenhower um Waffenstillstand ersucht zu haben. Tatsächlich fand die Unterzeichnung schon am 3. September statt. Die italienischen Streitkräfte mußten demgemäß – so erklärte er – jede feindselige Handlung gegen die englisch-amerikanischen Streitkräfte einstellen.
Seit dem verbrecherischen Anschlag auf den Duce am 25. Juli und dem mit den Engländern und Amerikanern vorbereiteten Putsch zur Beseitigung der bündnistreuen faschistischen Regierung war die deutsche Führung auf diesen offenen Verrat der derzeitigen italienischen Regierung vorbereitet, und sie hat daher alle erforderlichen militärischen Maßnahmen getroffen. Der verräterische Anschlag gegen die Verteidiger Europas wird am Ende genau so scheitern wie alle ähnlichen Unternehmungen.
Am 3. September bereits unterzeichnet
dnb. Stockholm, 8. September –
In einer Sondermeldung der Reuter-Agentur nach Abgabe der Erklärung General Eisenhowers wird gesagt, daß der Waffenstillstand am 3. September bereits unterzeichnet wurde, doch wurde vereinbart, daß er erst in einem Augenblick in Kraft treten würde, der für die Alliierten am günstigsten sei. Dieser Augenblick sei jetzt gekommen.
In einem Bericht über die Verhandlungen, die zum Waffenstillstand führten, erklärt Reuter weiter:
Vor einigen Wochen trat die italienische Regierung an die britische und die amerikanische Regierung mit der Absicht heran, einen Waffenstillstand abzuschließen. Ein Zusammentreffen wurde arrangiert und hat auf neutralem Gebiet stattgefunden.
Es wurde dem Vertreter der italienischen Regierung sofort verständlich gemacht, daß sie bedingungslos zu kapitulieren hätte. Mit diesem Einverständnis wurden die Vertreter des alliierten Oberkommandierenden bevollmächtigt, den Italienern die militärischen Bedingungen des Waffenstillstandes mitzuteilen.
Der Anschlag auf Europa
Wien, 8. September –
Die Regierung Badoglio und auch der italienische König haben mit ihrem Verrat an dem bisherigen deutschen Bundesgenossen das Schimpflichste getan, was man überhaupt im menschlichen Leben kennt: Sie haben versucht, sich bei den Feinden Italiens dadurch beliebt zu machen, daß sie einen feigen und hinterhältigen Anschlag auf den Bestand Europas ausführten. Indem sie den Waffenstillstand am 3. September Unterzeichneten und versuchten, die deutsche Führung glauben zu machen, daß sie an der Seite Deutschlands weiterkämpfen würden, verfolgten sie die Absicht, den Engländern und Amerikanern eine Hintertür in die Festung Europa zu öffnen.
Damit hat eben dieser italienische König zum zweitenmal Verrat an Deutschland geübt. Allerdings hat er vielleicht nicht damit gerechnet, daß wir aus den Erfahrungen des ersten Weltkrieges gelernt haben würden und infolgedessen rechtzeitig Maßnahmen ergriffen haben, die sich in allerkürzester Zeit in einer Weise auswirken werden, wie sie vielleicht von den italienischen Verrätern nicht vorhergesehen worden sind.
Die ganzen letzten Monate über, nämlich seit dem 25. Juli, da der Mann gestürzt wurde, dem Italien seinen glänzenden Platz in Europa und in der Welt zu verdanken hat, nämlich der Duce Benito Mussolini, war es nicht immer möglich, die Zusammenhänge eines Dramas aufzuzeigen, das sich in Italien abgespielt hat und das mehr und mehr dem jetzigen Ende entgegenging. Damals hatte eine verräterische Clique italienischer Militärs, die den Krieg in der Heimat gegen die Männer der Bündnistreue dem Krieg an der Front vorgezogen hatten, den italienischen Regierungschef in eine Falle gelockt und ihn einfach verhaften und abführen lassen. Dabei hatten sie sich einen Augenblick im Leben dieses großen Mannes ausgesucht, da seine Widerstandskraft durch eine schwere innere Erkrankung gelähmt war.
Nachdem Mussolini gestürzt war, ging es mit Italien im Sturmschritt bergab. Nicht nur, daß die italienischen Truppen es teilweise ganz offen ablehnten, am Kampf gegen die englischen und amerikanischen Invasoren teilzunehmen, nicht nur, daß hiedurch zeitweise auch gewisse Rückwirkungen auf die in Italien befindlichen deutschen Truppen spürbar wurden, versuchten sie auch, mehr oder minder versteckt hinter dem Rücken des deutschen Bundesgenossen den Feinden direkten Vorschub zu leisten. Es war klar, daß solche Machenschaften nicht verborgen bleiben konnten, nachdem wir hatten beobachten müssen, daß sich im Schutze des faschistischen Aufbaues eine verhältnismäßig kleine Clique gewisser italienischer Persönlichkeiten augenscheinlich schon seit längerer Zeit mit den Feinden Europas in Verbindung gesetzt hatte.
Hieraus ergab sich für uns die selbstverständliche Verpflichtung, nunmehr den Schutz der Festung Europa in einer ganz anderen Weise zu organisieren und neu aufzubauen. Daß uns hierbei gewisse faschistische Kreise immer behilflich sein würden, weil sie am Glauben an die Festigkeit der Freundschaft zwischen Nationalsozialismus und Faschismus festhielten, ist zu erwarten gewesen. So gelang in der Zeit, da die Verräterclique ihr unsauberes Geschäft mit Engländern und Amerikanern betrieb, der Aufbau der neuen Verteidigungsfront im Süden der Festung Europa.
Selbstverständlich kann diese Verteidigung nicht etwa an den deutschen Grenzen erfolgen, sondern Europa wird weit vor den Grenzen Deutschlands verteidigt werden. Ebenso selbstverständlich ist, daß von den Gefolgsmännern Mussolinis gewisse faschistische Gruppen Seite an Seite mit den deutschen Soldaten gegen die Feinde Europas kämpfen werden, zu denen nunmehr der italienische König und die Regierung Badoglio hinübergewechselt sind.
Insofern haben die heute bekanntgegebenen Ereignisse auch etwas Positives, weil sie nunmehr ganz klare und eindeutige Verhältnisse schufen. Wir wußten seit dem Putsch gegen Mussolini, daß das Italien Badoglios und des Königs nicht mehr unseres Vertrauens würdig ist. Von da ab hat sich Deutschland in Europa auf sich selbst gestellt und alle Sicherungen getroffen, die notwendig waren, um die Festung Europa zu schützen.
Stalino nach Zerstörung aller militärischen Anlagen geräumt –
Abwehrschlacht im Donezbecken geht weiter
dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 8. September –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Die Schlacht im Donezbecken dauert mit unverminderter Heftigkeit an. Im Laufe der beweglich geführten Kämpfe wurde zur Verkürzung der Front die Stadt Stalino nach Zerstörung aller kriegswichtigen Anlagen planmäßig geräumt. Auch im Kampfgebiet von Charkow griff der Feind unter schonungslosem Einsatz seiner Kräfte unsere Stellungen an, wurde aber in erbitterten Kämpfen unter hohen blutigen Verlusten zurückgeschlagen. An zahlreichen Stellen des mittleren Frontabschnitts wurden starke, jedoch örtlich begrenzte Angriffe der Sowjets nach hartem Kampf abgewiesen. An der übrigen Ostfront fanden nur noch am Kubanbrückenkopf lebhafte örtliche Gefechte statt.
Die Luftwaffe griff in den Schwerpunkten der Abwehrschlacht mit starken Verbänden wirksam in die Erdkämpfe ein. Der Feind verlor gestern an der Ostfront 106 Panzer und 77 Flugzeuge. In den schweren Abwehrkämpfen im Raum von Orel und von Ssewsk hat sich das westfälische Grenadierregiment 58 besonders ausgezeichnet.
In Südkalabrien fühlte der Feind gestern nur an einigen Stellen gegen unsere Gefechtsvorposten vor. Seine Versuche, die deutsch-italienischen Sicherungen abzuschneiden, mißlangen. Feindliche Kräfte, die in der vergangenen Nacht im Golf von Eufemia in Kalabrien landeten, werden seit heute früh konzentrisch angegriffen. Beim Vorstoß gegen den Hafen von Biserta in der Nacht zum 7. September erzielten deutsche Kampfflugzeuge Treffer auf fünf feindlichen Transportern und Handelsschiffen mit zusammen 28.000 BRT. Ein Teil dieser Schiffe kann als vernichtet angesehen werden.
Durch Tagesangriffe feindlicher Bomberverbände auf das Gebiet von Brüssel entstanden unter der Zivilbevölkerung hohe Verluste und große Zerstörungen in Wohnvierteln.
Sicherungsfahrzeuge eines deutschen Geleits schossen vor der norwegischen Küste von acht erfolglos angreifenden feindlichen Torpedoflugzeugen drei ab. Über den besetzten Westgebieten wurden vier feindliche Bomber und in der vergangenen Nacht an der deutschen Westgrenze ein schnelles britisches Störflugzeug abgeschossen.