Spitfires do a job on enemy mortars
U.S. unit cut down on a beach until British pilot spots guns
A U.S. fighter-bomber base, Britain (UP) – (June 6)
“It was wonderful. There they were, marching in to die, just as if they were going to a ball game,” was the report of the opening of the invasion brought back by 1st Lt. Roy L. Saux, 23, of Gretna, Louisiana, a Thunderbolt pilot, who watched the drama on the French beaches from 4,000 feet.
With 1st Lt. Jay C. Bloom, 21, of Troy, Pennsylvania, Lt. Saux told how the determination of American infantrymen and the sharp eyes of British Spitfire pilots saved one landing group from being blasted back into the sea on the Normandy coast.
Lt. Bloom said:
The Germans had hidden themselves in cliffs facing the beach and were pouring deadly mortar fire down upon the advancing Americans.
They did not have any cover except bomb-made mounds, but they pushed forward, with men falling every way you could look. It was heartbreaking to hear their leader calling through his radio: “For God’s sake, get those mortars quick! Dig them out, boys, they are right down our necks.”
A Spitfire pilot was then heard reporting that he had sighted the mortar positions, and he was ordered by an Allied controller in a landing craft to blast them out. Several Spitfires did that quickly, and the infantry continued to push inland.
The troops also encountered landmines, and Lt. Saux described their devastating effects as one group of infantrymen rushed from the boats.
He said:
Suddenly there was a large blast and when it was over many soldiers were strewn on the ground. Others got up and just kept right on going.
Göring to Luftwaffe: Halt invasion or perish
London, England (UP) – (June 6)
Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, in an order of the day to the German Air Force, said today:
**The invasion must be fought off if it means the death of the Luftwaffe.
Stockholm, Sweden – (June 6)
A German military commentator in Berlin late tonight talked of “very extensive Allied landings, backed up by aerial forces vastly superior to ours.”
This is the first time that the Germans have made such an admission about the inferiority of the Luftwaffe in Western Europe.