America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

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Review by War Secretary Stimson of the Invasion Situation
June 8, 1944

We have foothold in France. We have pierced the coastal defenses and landed troops successfully upon the German-controlled territory of the continent. We are continuing to land troops, equipment and supplies. We have shown domination of the sea and of the air in the battle zone.

All this is a great accomplishment. We have gone in against the enemy on the soil which he had stolen. We have come to grips at the beginning of the final test. At the end, there can be but one decision.

But before discussing this matter any further it should be emphasized that only the first hurdle has been taken. It would be bad indeed if we permitted super-optimism to run away with us. German troops are established in northern France in great numbers. Their air force has certainly not yet been driven from the skies. Their military command has plans of action which are undoubtedly beginning to move. We must look for the full fury of savage counterattacks in force at any early moment.

It is obvious, however, that If our men and their operations are to have reasonable protection, certain of the details of current action will have to be withheld temporarily. In due course they will be described fully and, in the meanwhile, I think we should not allow our imagination to outstrip the factual developments. I am confident that the operations will be reported soberly, and it is to the best interest of ourselves and to our men on the battlefield that we do not let our minds leap optimistically ahead of what is actually reported.

There will be hard days ahead. Let us not make them worse because of a previous, cheerful distortion of the facts.

As the reports from London have indicated, American, British and Canadian troops have landed successfully at various points on the Normandy coast from a point near the mouth of the Seine to the Cotentin Peninsula where Cherbourg is a good port. Substantial beachheads have been established. Airborne troops further inland have cut German communications and destroyed supply dumps and taken centers from which to aid the men landing on the beaches. Bayeux has fallen to our troops, and Allied seaborne and airborne forces have made contact.

The attack began around 5:00 a.m. London Time, Tuesday, which means 11:00 p.m. our time, when the first parachutists dropped on Normandy fields to be followed by troops from gliders.

This turned out to be the greatest airborne-troop operation ever attempted. Over 1,000 planes participated in carrying the troops. Little over two percent of these planes were lost, due to enemy anti-aircraft fire. There was no enemy o position in the air in this initial operation.

A little earlier on that same night, 1,000 British heavy bombers opened the attack on the beach defenses, pounding them with a great weight of bombs.

Meanwhile, the invasion fleet of some 4,000 ships in fairly rough weather was approaching the shore. Apparently tactical surprise was achieved. Enemy effort at opposition with surface craft was small. It consisted of few torpedo boats and armed trawlers which were driven off. One enemy trawler was sunk and another severely damaged. During the day we suffered inevitable losses at sea which were unexpectedly low and will be included, in due course, in the public accountings of our operations.

A little after 5:00 p.m., the guns of Allied warships opened on the enemy shore batteries and defense installations. Battleships, cruisers and other types of warships participated. Great fires and smoke rose from the coast. Overhead, the Allied feet had the protection of a tremendous cover of fighter planes.

In this first phase of the operation, German planes were comparatively few, again supporting the inference that despite all the preparations and public speculation on the invasion, the Germans were momentarily taken by surprise. This initial absence of German planes should, of course, also be attributed to the inroads made upon the Luftwaffe in the long continuing attack of American and British planes during the past year – an attack which was really the beginning of the invasion to liberate the continent.

Troops from the ships were waiting to go ashore as a great force of American heavy bombers followed up the British night bombing with an early morning attack upon the enemy’s beach defenses. As many as 1,400 bombers took part, and great sections of the German defenses crumbled under the combined destruction from the Allied planes and naval guns. Here again our losses in the air were light. Five bombers and five fighters were missing.

Approximately between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. London Time (12:30 to 1:30 a.m. Brooklyn Time), the first waves of landing forces went ashore. Beach obstacles were overcome easily at some places and with great difficulty at others. Our men had to contend with enemy shelling and mortar fire and land mines. Against the enemy batteries our dive bombers were extremely useful.

Throughout the day the Allied air forces were masters of the air situation. Once our men were advancing upon the beaches, American heavy bombers returned to attack the enemy in shore from the coast. Altogether during that day, 11,000 first-line Allied planes participated.

In the last day and a half, our beachheads have been widened and some of them united, and we have made varying progress inland. We have sustained some local counterattacks such as those at Caen, but the Germans are now gathering their strength and moving for the real counteraction. The landing of our forces on continental soil was but the first step, although it was a great accomplishment. The second step is to consolidate, repel the local counterattacks and again move forward. The mobile reserves of the enemy will undoubtedly be developed to major action against us. It would be folly to believe that the period of counterattack will be short.

Conditions will be changing from day to day. As I have said before, it is to our good to avoid excesses of optimism or pessimism. It will be an aid to our men in battle if we stick fairly close to what is actually going on today, and enter the realm of the future only with discretion. I do not care to comment further on our future plans.

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The Brooklyn Eagle (June 8, 1944)

Fight Nazi reserves in Caen-Bayeux area

Main battle on as enemy’s Tiger tanks move up
By Virgil Pinkley

Invasion area

map.060844.up
Where, says Gen, Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, commanding general of the liberation forces, “everything is going excellently.” Capture of Bayeux has opened up possibility of cutting off Cherbourg Peninsula and forcing Nazi withdrawal from the French port.

His confidence ‘completely justified’, says Eisenhower of Armed Forces

London, England (UP) –
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said at an advanced command post today, “My complete confidence in the abilities of the Allied armies, navies and air forces to do all they are asked to do has been completely justified.”

Eisenhower said in a statement:

In the early landing operations, which always are largely naval, the two Allied navies – together with elements of naval units of the United Nations under Adm. Ramsey – have excelled in the high standard of their planning and their execution any prior venture in which I have seen them engaged. Gen. Montgomery is in immediate and direct charge of all assault ground forces. Under him all troops are performing magnificently.

SHAEF, England (UP) –
Allied armies have “completed successfully” the first phase of the invasion of France, it was announced officially today, and have swung into the battle to destroy German mobile reserves moved into the assault areas.

Merrill Mueller broadcast word that reporters at Allied Supreme Headquarters in London were told that “the major battle in France is joined.” Secretary of War Stimson said in Washington the full fury of German counterattacks in northern France can be expected to begin at any moment.

The United Nations radio at Algiers reported the Allies had captured Caen, key transport hub nine miles inside Normandy and 17 miles southeast of occupied Bayeux, but confirmation was lacking.

The fighting in Normandy is now spreading and is especially savage in many sectors as the Germans throw in more and more armor, the latest word at Allied Supreme Headquarters revealed.

Germany’s famous 21st Panzer Division, which the Allies destroyed several times in North Africa and the Mediterranean Theater, only to find it reformed, is now opposing the invasion forces in the Bayeux-Caen area of Normandy.

The Allies were striking out beyond captured Bayeux in an apparent attempt to isolate the Cherbourg Peninsula and win the big port at its tip, one of the best in northwestern France.

Air sources revealed Allied planes had already begun to operate on airstrips in the assault area, big transports moving in supplies and evacuating casualties.

The completed first phase of the fighting was described officially as the securing of a foothold on the continent and the defeat of the German coastal troops in the assault areas.

The second, now in progress, is the elimination of German mobile reserves brought into the battle zone. The third, still to be fought, was the battle against the Nazis’ strategic reserves which may be moved in to counter the invasion forces.

Engagement of the German strategic reserves “is necessary before a material advance can be hoped for,” an official summary of the situation said.

The battle in France was revealed to have expanded markedly from the original combat area as the Germans threw in masses of tanks and crack infantry in an effort to stem the Allied advance before the beachhead becomes a major base and Cherbourg is cut off.

With the 21st Panzer Division already in action, fighter-bomber pilots reported Mark VI Tiger tanks were moving up to the front.

Allied Air Forces maintained strong and steady pressure all day in support of the U.S., British and Canadian land armies. Some 1,000 Flying Fortresses and Liberators paced the thousands of planes in action, hammering bridges, rail targets and airdromes far out beyond the beachhead. U.S. Marauders and Havocs hit rail targets In the Cherbourg Peninsula, and Thunderbolts dive-bombed Nazi armor and traffic.

Spokesmen emphasized that until considerably larger forces on both sides have been engaged in decisive fighting, it will be impossible to gauge the success of phase two – the elimination of mobile reserves.

At present, some phases of the invasion are ahead of schedule, some even with it and some behind, it was said.

The Germans have already switched some air reserves to fields near the battle area. Geographically they have the big advantage of a large number of airdromes within 100 miles of Bayeux and Caen. But it was questionable how many planes the strained German Air Force would be able to commit to the operation until the Allied overall plan becomes more apparent.

Developing Allied successes on the third day of the invasion were reflected in a statement by Gen. Eisenhower that his confidence in the Armed Forces under his command had been “completely justified” and that the troops were “performing magnificently.”

British troops astride the Paris-Cherbourg railroad were reported by the Nazis to be striking southeastward from Bayeux in the general direction of Caen, 17 miles distant, where a violent street battle was going on.

The U.S. 9th Air Force disclosed the Allies had established landing strips in Normandy and at least limited aerial service to the beachhead had been opened with the moving in of supplies and the evacuation of casualties.

At least one high-ranking officer has already flown in and out of the assault area. He was Maj. Gen. Ernest E. Down, commander of a British airborne division, who landed and after a “considerable” stay returned aboard a Mitchell bomber.

German broadcasts said thousands of paratroops yesterday descended from an armada of planes in the vicinity of Coutances on the west coast opposite Bayeux in an apparent effort to throw a wall across the peninsula some 40-50 miles below Cherbourg on a direct trunk railway to Paris.

Other airborne landings were made at frequent intervals along the west coast of the peninsula near Granville, a port 15 miles south of Coutances, and the road junction of Lessay, 13 miles north of Coutances, the German DNB Agency said. Granville was also bombarded, DNB said.

Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, commander of the expeditionary force, told a correspondent aboard a British warship off coast, “Everything is going excellently.”

The Allies have already thrown back one German counterattack on the approaches to Caen, nine miles inland and 28 miles southwest of Le Havre, and Gen. Eisenhower reported in his fifth communiqué the invasion at 11:00 a.m. (5:00 a.m. ET) today:

Progress continues despite determined enemy resistance. Fierce armored and infantry fighting has taken place.

Eisenhower also disclosed that seaborne infantry and tanks driving inland from beaches along a front of 60 or more miles have made contact with paratroops and glider-borne forces landed behind the enemy’s defenses, presumably in the Caen and other areas,

The fall of Bayeux. a town of 7,736 population five miles from the Normandy north coast and about halfway between Cherbourg and Le Havre, to a British Empire force yesterday split the enemy’s coastal forces and cut his main highway and railroad from Cherbourg to Paris.

A spokesman for Eisenhower said the capture of Bayeux “opens up an advance in many directions.” He called the town a focal point for highway and railway communications.

If the German report of Allied paratroop landings in the Coutances area of the west coast, 36 miles southwest of Bayeux, proves true, all of Germany’s communications with Cherbourg would be threatened and the enemy would be obliged to evacuate the area.

Cherbourg is one of the two principal ports for Paris and has one of the best harbors in France.

German broadcasts indicated the British had secured beachheads along a stretch of the coast starting well east of the mouth of the Orne River to a point northwest of Bayeux.

Gen. Kurt Dittmar, German military commentator, said the Allies were fighting on a broad front of 140 miles, but Radio Berlin reported Montgomery so far had hurled into battle only eight to 11 divisions – possibly 165,000 men – of the 80-odd divisions at his disposal.

Berlin said U.S. units already in action included a tank division and the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. U.S. airborne troops were resisting stubbornly between Carentan, six miles west of Isigny, and Saint-Pierre-Église, 23 miles to the northwest and 11 miles east of Cherbourg, DNB said.

Both German and Allied accounts indicated the Allies had won the first round by establishing themselves securely on the Normandy coast, but both sides agreed the decisive battle had not yet been joined.

German Marshal Erwin Rommel was reported rushing reinforcements from his two armies into the threatened area for an attempt to save Cherbourg, and the Allies were obviously building up strength with all possible haste.

Radio Vichy broadcast a statement released by Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, German supreme commander in France, warning his armies “there can be no question of giving way.” Rundstedt said, “There will be no withdrawals. The Atlantic Wall will be defended to the last man.”

The German DNB Agency predicted the battle within the next few days would “reach an inferno without precedent in the history of wars.”

U.S. and British battleships returned to England to replenish their munitions, but were already back pounding away at enemy strongpoints and covering the endless chain of landing craft ferrying reinforcements and supplies to the beaches.

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Stimson: Counterblow by Nazis near

Expects furious attacks to come ‘any moment; warns of optimism

Washington (UP) –
The full fury of German counterattacks in northern France can be expected to begin at any moment, Secretary of War Stimson said today.

He cautioned the public to guard against excessive optimism and to await disclosures of actual accomplishments which of necessity must be temporarily withheld from the enemy.

Stimson said:

The Germans are now gathering strength and moving in for their real counteractions.

He described Allied losses in the initial landings and in the air as unexpectedly light.

The first step in the operation to establish beachheads, has now been accomplished, he explained. The second step is to consolidate them and repel local counterattacks and then move forward.

The invasion began around 11:00 p.m. ET Monday night (5:00 a.m. Tuesday in Europe). Then the first paratroopers dropped in Normandy, followed by glider troops. Over 1,000 planes participated in the greatest airborne operations ever attempted, with losses only slightly over 2% from anti-aircraft fire.

During the first phases, German planes were comparatively few, supporting the inference that despite all public speculation, the invasion caught the Germans by surprise. However, inroads on the Luftwaffe by British and U.S. Air Forces during the past year – actually the commencement of the Invasion – played its part.

Turning to Italy, Stimson described the fall of Rome as a “happy augury,” the result of a well-conceived and executed flank movement against the enemy.

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WAR BULLETINS!

Red troops open drive in Romania

Moscow, USSR (UP) –
Red Army troops, taking advantage of heavy enemy losses, opened counterattacks against the German lines north and northwest of Iași in Romania and captured two important heights, it was announced today.

Rommel mans coast with ‘revenge troops’

Stockholm, Sweden (UP) –
The Stockholms-Tidningen’s Berlin correspondent reported today that Nazi Field Marshal Erwin Rommel has manned the French coast with “revenge troops” pledged to avenge Allied bombing of German cities.

Red Star predicts early Soviet offensive

Moscow, USSR (UP) –
The Russian press again published detailed reports on the progress of the Allied Western invasion today and the official army newspaper Red Star predicted that Soviet armies “soon” would launch a complementary offensive against Germany from the east.

Wright warns strikers of dismissal

Lockland, Ohio (UP) –
The Wright Aeronautical Corporation warned striking employes today at its $155,000,000 plant where no airplane engines have been produced since Invasion Day to return to their jobs by Friday midnight or be dismissed.

Badoglio in Rome to form new cabinet

Rome, Italy (UP) –
Marshal Pietro Badoglio arrived in Rome today accompanied by leaders of all political parties from Naples and Salerno and by most of the members of his former government. He said he hoped to form a new government.

Bombings destroy Marshalls airstrips

HQ, CENPAC Forward Area (UP) – (June 1, delayed)
Japanese remaining on islands in the Marshalls have been bombed so thoroughly they have been left without a single usable airstrip and U.S. fliers have not sighted an enemy plane aloft since Jan. 31, Maj. Gen. Willis H. Hale said today.

Churchill: Great dangers overcome

London, England (UP) –
Prime Minister Churchill told Commons today that the Allies have overcome “great dangers,” although he warned against over-optimism of the invasion and said that “enormous exertions lie before us.”

Dover Straits are calm and hazy

London, England (UP) –
The weather over the Straits was calmer today with light variable westerly and southerly breezes and the sky covered with a film of light clouds. The sun was trying to break through in places, the temperature at 8:00 a.m. was 50 degrees and the barometer steady.

Roundup Rome criminals freed by Nazis

Rome, Italy (UP) –
Police today continued a roundup of a horde of criminals released from prisons by the Germans a few hours before they withdrew from Rome.

Demoted general patient in Army hospital

Miami, Florida (UP) –
Lt. Col. J. F. Miller of Miami, who was demoted from major general and sent home by Gen. Eisenhower allegedly for telling a London cocktail party, that “the invasion will take place before June 15,” today was a patient at the Army Air Forces Hospital at Coral Gables, Florida.

2,379 U.S. casualties in final Rome drive

Washington (UP) –
The U.S. Army suffered 2,379 casualties in Italy during the three days preceding the fall of Rome, Secretary of War Stimson said today. U.S. Army casualties in Italy through May 30 stood at 57,529, he said, of which 9,964 were killed, 38,554 wounded and 5,011 missing. This compared with a total of 55,450 on May 27.

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McMillan: Allied flags dot freed countryside as people go wild with joy

Writer believes Nazi West Wall is a bluff; prisoners say defenses were not finished
By Richard D. McMillan, representing combined Allied press

In this dispatch written for the combined Allied press, Richard D. McMillan, famous United Press war correspondent, reports that a tour of at least one French coastal area convinced him that the vaunted German “West Wall” was a myth.

With the Allied invading forces, France (UP) –
Our tanks are rapidly widening a great budge inside the Atlantic Wall.

I have just completed a tour of the frontline covering nearly 30 miles. We have captured towns and villages and the whole countryside is beflagged with Union Jacks, the Stars and Stripes and the French Tricolor.

Crowds are cheering the British and other Allied troops, shouting:

Bravo, Tommies, we knew you would come. We have been waiting for you. Now we will kill these hated Germans.

People wild with joy

When I entered Bayeux, the inhabitants were crazy with joy. As we reached the town, a squadron of our medium bombers flew over low. Crowds pointed upwards, waving their hands as if the airmen could see them.

The French said:

That is what frightened the Germans most. They scurried underground like rabbits whenever your fliers came over. During the last few days before the invasion, your air attacks were terrific. We could read fear on the faces of the Germans.

As I drove into Bayeux, I passed long lines of German prisoners. On the roadside the bodies of German and Allied dead lay unburied. For the moment, every man was needed for fighting.

Coast wall doesn’t exist

What surprised me most was the weakness of the German defense line. I examined with great care the so-called Atlantic Wall along this coast. It constitutes the biggest bluff of the whole war for it simply does not exist. Some prisoners told me that the Germans had been frantically trying to complete defenses but that the task had been too vast for them. Although we have pushed far into land without encountering serious opposition, it must not be Imagined that the Germans will not react as soon as they have grouped their panzer forces. They have armored division elements and some tanks from another panzer unit in this area.

They tried to hold us In the region of Caen and Bayeux but our tanks were in greater force. We have thrown into battle British and American tanks and self-propelled guns.

Say Nazi courage waning

Some of these actions have been responsible for enemy. It is a demoralizing the fact that all the French people with whom I talked spoke of the Nazi loss of courage. They may not be beaten but they are near to it.

Prisoners also said that the defeats in Russia and Italy are known to the rank and file and they realize it is all up with their cause.

Absence of enemy air activity was another major surprise of the battle of the beaches. We must have pounded enemy airfields so systematically that they were unable to get their air force into the skies. They had a wonderful target during the first two days, as offshore ships there were thousands of ships of all sizes, loaded with troops, armor and munitions, while smaller craft kept up a ferry service to and from the bigger vessels and shore. I did not see a single ship hit.

The opening of the western front was a flawless operation. It showed all the signs of a master mind. The vast machine worked without a real hitch.

Equipment pours ashore

I looked down the coastline to see thousands of ships. It looked like the Solent filled with all kinds of craft for a regatta.

Armor poured ashore and fresh troops unloaded hourly and streamed toward the frontline while warships fired thousands of salvoes at coastal batteries. Our airborne and parachute forces were dropped at many strategic points, greatly aiding disorganization and baffling the enemy.

As the battle of the bridgehead developed, it was evident that the Germans were trying their utmost to recover from their initial surprise. They had staked all their cards on our landing over a short 21 miles between Dover and Calais. We knew that to be their strongest link in the so-called Atlantic Wall. So, we took the longer route and caught the enemy napping.

I sailed with a convoy of armor from a British port and saw the entire operation on the beaches. It all went according to plan with such comparatively small losses that I could hardly believe that this was really the Western Front.

Then as I drove with the spearhead of our attack over sunbathed and through towns. I soon made aware that this was a great day. The French people screamed “Liberation!” and joy was overflowing from their hearts.

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Counterattacks begun, Nazis claim

London, England (UP) –
The German High Command said today that Allied forces were attacking toward the southeast from their Bayeux-Caen beachhead in France, and that the German reserves had opened counterattacks on the Normandy coast.

The daily communiqué from Berlin reported:

In Normandy, the enemy tried to reinforce bridgeheads which he has built up, but no new landing attempts took place.

U.S. troops, who won a foothold north of Carentan at the southeastern base of the Cherbourg Peninsula, “suffered very heavy losses,” the Nazis said, and “concentrated German counterattacks are pressing the enemy closer and closer together.”

The Germans said an attempted landing in the Bay of St. Martin at the northwest tip of the peninsula was smashed by coastal guns.

German fighters were credited with shooting down 89 Allied planes, including 30 four-motored bombers, in night air battles over the landing area.

Invasion films flown to various U.S. cities

Transcontinental & Western Airlines announced today that several thousand pounds of invasion film were being shipped via their planes to various cities and towns throughout the country so that the public may witness on the screen the invasion as it took place. The films have a B priority.

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Caen houses stood one minute, gone next, says Long Island flier

A U.S. fighter-bomber base (UP) –
One minute the houses of Caen were sitting side by side and the next minute there weren’t any houses in the center of the town at all.

There was nothing but flames, rubble and flying dust, Capt. James F. McCarthy, 26, Massapequa, Long Island, Thunderbolt pilot, told about it today.

He said:

I have never seen anything in my life which frightened me more. I have never seen such devastation, such sudden destruction.

We dropped down through the overcast on inspection. All of a sudden Caen just went completely to pieces in the center. Sidewalks, trees, houses, parked vehicles seemed to melt away.

At first, we didn’t realize what had happened. Then we noticed rapid blinking from the coast and realized the town was being subjected to heavy naval gunfire. A heavy naval broadside had blown out the belly of that German strongpoint.

7575

U.S. troops peril 2nd Jap airport on Biak

…

7576

Nazi retreat in Italy fast becoming rout

By Robert Vermillion

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Air armadas continue blitz, support troops

By Walter Cronkite

London, England (UP) –
The full striking power of the Allied air arm crashed down on the bomb-riddled German defenses in northern France today in the wake of a shattering double blow by the RAF night raiders against railway targets in the suburbs of Paris and a hidden Nazi fuel depot 12 miles behind the invasion coast.

Clearing skies over the Channel and the battle zone sent thousands of Allied warplanes thundering out at daybreak in what appeared to be their biggest ground-support operation since the beginning of the invasion.

A huge aerial task force of some 1,000 U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators escorted by about half that number of fighters blasted bridges, railway targets and airdromes over a wide area ranging from 100 to 150 miles south, southeast and southwest of the Normandy beachheads.

Clouds of medium bombers and fighter-bombers also shuttled across the Channel in continuous waves to strike at other urgent targets marked for destruction by ground force observers.

Official reports indicated that the Luftwaffe was rising to meet the challenge in increasing numbers, but the Allied fliers everywhere maintained an overwhelming superiority and swarms of fighter planes kept a tight cover over the beachhead troops.

The first official reports said Allied air forces lost 62 fighters, one medium bomber and 15 heavies in the 24-hour period, while 102 Nazi planes were destroyed, including at least one enemy troop carrier.

U.S. losses in that period numbered 39 fighters, two heavy bombers and one medium raider.

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Mosley: ‘Chutists silenced coast guns six hours before invasion

By Leonard Mosley

Behind the Atlantic Wall, France (UP) – (June 6)
I parachuted into Europe at two minutes past 1:00 a.m. today, six and a half hours before seaborne forces began their invasion of France and I have experienced a lot since then.

I was near the shore hiding from a Nazi patrol as I watched the first Allied forces go ashore from the sea at 7:15. I have seen a few thousand paratroops and glider-borne troops whom I nominate now as the bravest most tenacious men I have ever known hold a bridgehead against Hitler’s armies for over 16 hours despite overwhelming odds. I believe the things they have done are almost solely and completely responsible for the great success the invasion has had in this sector.

There is a helluva battle going on here as I write and bullets and mortar bombs, not to mention a couple of snipers, are producing conditions in my vicinity not conducive to consecutive thinking. My typewriter got a bad bashing when I rolled on it after a hard landing when I parachuted into France with it strapped to my chest.

Job to silence coast gun

Our job was to silence a vital coastal battery which, if still in operation, might have blown our ships to bits as they came in to shore. We silenced it. Our other just as vital job was to secure two important bridges over a canal and river north of Caen to prevent their being blown up and to hold them against all comers until the main armies arrived.

We’re still holding there and they’re still intact.

This story began in a great black bomber C for Charlie on the biggest airfield in Britain. There were Lancashiremen, Yorkshiremen and Northumbrians In the “stick” of paratroopers. Preceding them by half an hour were gliders and planes of paratroopers who were going to make a do-or-die attempt to take those vital bridges. The gliders were going to crash themselves on the buttresses of the bridges and then aided by paratroops were to capture the bridges and surrounding land.

Aim to prevent counterattacks

It was our job to come in a half-hour later to “infest” the whole area for 100 miles around to prevent the Nazis from counterattacking. The general had said the other day:

Only a fool would invade in bad weather and on a heavily-guarded stretch of enemy territory like this. Well, I am going to do it.

Our plane, third in the formation, headed for France. We doodled for an hour, then from the pilot came the signal. “Up hook your chutes.” It was five minutes to 1:00 when the light snapped off and a hold in the plane opened. Under it we could see the coast of France. A garish sight it was, for flak from the coast defenses was spurting flame everywhere.

A light flashes green and we are all madly shuffling down the hole into space. The tremendous roar of the slipstream, and then the blissful peace of the soft night as your chute develops. But this time we were not going down to a safe landing on the dropping ground, but to enemy territory covered with poles and holes and thick with enemy looking for us.

Lands in orchard

I came down in an orchard outside a farmhouse. As I stood up with my harness off and wiped sweat off my brown-painted face, I knew I was hopelessly lost. Dare I go to the farmhouse? Suddenly there was a rip and a tear in my flapping jumping smock, and I flung myself to the ground as a machine gun rattled. There were two more smashing explosions – hand grenades this time.

I dived through a bunch of nettles and fought my way through a tangle of barbed wire into the next field and began to run at a crouch. Then suddenly at the other end, there were two figures. They were coming toward me and were carrying guns.

There was a crash of gunfire and both men crumpled not 15 yards from me. Into the field stealthily came five men to challenge me, and I was with our own paratroopers again.

Nazis taken by surprise

With a counterattack developing against this headquarters, this is no moment to write too long about what followed. For two weary hours, we wandered through the countryside. We shot up a Nazi car speeding down a lane. Just after 3:00 a.m., we made our rendezvous. I dropped my heavy equipment and made my way to the bridges.

Here the battle had ceased. Both the river and canal spans were in our hands and firmly held. Only beyond in the west country could tracers be seen and the noise of battle heard as we beat back Nazi counterattacks.

But the situation was grim. There was no doubt of that when I got to headquarters. We had taken the Nazis by surprise, but they knew what was happening now and we could expect their tanks at any moment at the bridgehead quarters in a copse overlooking the river Orne.

Equipment arrives

At 20 minutes past 3:00 a.m., every paratrooper breathed a sigh of relief as he heard bombers coming in slow, towing gliders. We watched them unhook and dive steeply for earth. We saw one caught by ack-ack fire and fly around for three or four minutes a great ball of flame. We heard the crunch of breaking matchwood as gliders bounced on rocks and careened into still-undestroyed poles.

It was hard to restrain an impulse to cheer for out of every glider were pouring jeeps and anti-tank guns and field guns. We knew if the Nazis came now, we could hold.

A glow began to appear in the eastern sky and there was a roaring that grew to a thunderous roll that never stopped. We knew the climax phase of the invasion was approaching. Here were bombers swarming like bees to give the Nazi defenses their last softening. We were about two miles away, but the shudder of explosions lifted us from the ground.

As dawn came, I moved nearer the coast. Wrecked gliders littered fields and orchards. I saw a shape in a tree. It was a man who jumped before me in our stick but he was beyond help. The ripped body of a young Nazi nearby showed he hadn’t died unavenged.

Once patrols were a few yards from us but we dodged them and reached high ground overlooking the coast. Under cover of naval ships, invasion barges were coming in, firing.

We shook hands in knowledge that the invasion at long last had begun. Since that time, we have heard little of that invasion because ours has continued to be largely a private war. The Nazi reply to our arrival was infiltration into our positions with armored cars, mobile guns and hordes of snipers.

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‘Ike’ aids rescue of soldiers on derelict barge

By Stanley Burch

On board a British warship off invasion beaches (UP) – (June 7, delayed)
The Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Allied forces, and the naval commander-in-chief, en route on their dramatic cruise across the Channel to obtain first-hand battle reports, aided today in the rescue of a handful of drifting soldiers.

About half across on the cruise that carried them within five miles of the enemy, Adm. Sir Bertram Ramsay swung his binocular toward port and then reported to Gen. Eisenhower: “There seems to be a landing barge in trouble.”

As we came nearer to the barge, lurching helplessly at the side of the convoy channel, the men signaled they needed help.

From the bridge was flashed the signal: “We’ll tell the next home going ship.”

Only a mile or so nearer France, we met a returning landing craft, passed on the message and gave the bearings of the drifting barge.

A little later, what appeared to be a drifting raft was sighted. The order came from the bridge for the doctor to stand by to remove the men.

Eisenhower peered through his glasses but as we swung nearer, the “raft” turned out to be a derelict empty patch of balloon. Eisenhower grinned and remarked, “The photographers will be disappointed.”

They were. They had been waiting for the most distinguished rescue scene of the war.

In the conferences held In the captain’s cabin, the Supreme Commander obtained up-to-date exhaustive information on the battlefront situation 30 hours after H-hour.

He undertook this audacious, unescorted trip because he knew he could obtain infinitely more valuable information on the progress of the battle than by relying on cross-Channel signals.

When Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, commander of invasion forces, left the conference and climbed down to his launch, he grinned up confidently. Eisenhower stuck up his thumb and called good luck.

Coast Guard saves 444 off invasion beaches

By Carrol Barber

With the USCG Rescue Flotilla (UP) – (June 7, delayed)
Small 83-foot cutters of the Coast Guard Rescue Flotilla, operating with both U.S. and British forces, have rescued at least 444 soldiers and sailors from drowning and have been instrumental in keeping casualty lists far below the numbers anticipated.

The wooden cutters accompanied initial invasion waves to within 1,666 yards of the beaches. Coast Guard Boat 16 commanded by Lt. (jg.) R. V. McPhail, achieved the highest record, picking up 126 survivors from three ships stricken within a half mile of the beach.

Coast Guard Boat 34, commanded by Lt. (jg.) Gordon W. Grafos, with 32 rescues achieved the best record of those cutters assigned to the Eastern Task Force, composed of British units.

7580

Nazi prisoners on French coast awestruck over ‘chute landings

By S. L. Solon

With Allied Expeditionary Forces (UP) – (June 7, 1:00 p.m., delayed)
Allied forward troops, advancing steadily against undiminishing German resistance, were on the outskirts of Caen today and joining up with the Canadians.

They resumed their advance after several hours’ sleep under skies crisscrossed by ack-ack and tracer bullets.

A German tank counterattack has been smashed, but the Luftwaffe was making a desperate effort to check the advance and there was constant bombing of the beach area during the night. The skies were never without the roar of planes – usually mixed Allied and German craft.

Hold area extending inward

In this sector, the Allied troops have a good hold on a large area extending well inland.

We witnessed the arrival of the great airborne army which landed last night. Hundreds of airplanes swept overhead, flying low and disgorging colored parachutes, marking different paratroop units, and the sky was filled with bunches of multicolored silk like unfolding flowers.

The French nearby cheered the spectacle which probably was the largest formation of airborne and paratroop units ever used on a military operation.

German prisoners watched with awe the manifestation of power and almost appeared to show admiration at the fantastic sight of thousands of armed men dropping from the skies.

The glider-borne troops were fighting to break one of the toughest German defense areas. Paratroops who landed earlier to secure bridgeheads across a canal and river on the left bank, secured their first objective in a victory over superior forces.

The victory was achieved at a heavy cost, particularly to one battalion, but it saved far greater casualties which would have resulted from a frontal drive and they did a vitally important job in securing the left flank where the danger of German pressure was greatest.

Wounded return, pale and grim; praise heroism of invasion medics

By Dudley Ann Harmon

An invasion port, England (UP) –
This is the other end of the invasion – the return of the landing boats bearing the wounded.

These are the boys who didn’t get past the beaches and the water obstacles. They come back now with blood staining their hastily-applied field bandages.

They lie pale and still on their litters. For them the invasion is no success, the assault no walkover.

Wounded praise medics

I manage to catch a few words with one of the more lightly wounded as he hobbles off a LST with a bandage on one hand and his trousers torn to the knee.

He says:

The medics are doing a terrific job on the beaches. They have been right there giving morphine and bandaging wounds with bullets flying around their ears.

He continued:

I saw some boys with arms or legs blown away and they were getting tourniquets right away. I guess I was hit by a mortar shell or something. I fell down and when I came to, an army doctor was right there. He gave me morphine and sulfa powder and then I walked back down the beach under my own power.

Cling to their few possessions

Some of the wounded walk off the ship, slowly and painfully. Some of them are carried off stretchers borne by Negroes.

I watched the wounded pour ashore for hours. Here was one who puffed a cigarette and tried to look chipper; there was another with a smile; some were pale and unhappy.

On their litters they clutched the few personal things they had managed to hold – knives, cartons of cigarettes or boots with the sand of the French beaches still clinging to them.

The medicos were doing a terrific job here, at the wrong end of the Glory Road, too.

7581

Stress ideals of peace, Pope asks reporters

By Eleanor Packard

…

7582

Editorial: No rift appears between Hitler and German people

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7583

Editorial: Court-martial delay

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7584

Völkischer Beobachter (June 9, 1944)

Erfolge unserer Kriegsmarine und Luftwaffe –
Feindliche Invasionsflotte erlitt erhebliche Verluste

Fünf Schiffe von 31.000 BRT allein durch die Luftwaffe versenkt – Mehrere Transporter, Frachter und Kriegsschiffe schwer beschädigt

vb. Berlin, 8. Juni –
Seit der ersten Nacht der englisch-amerikanischen Aggression in Nordfrankreich haben die deutschen Seestreitkräfte bereits weit draußen auf dem Kanal den Kampf gegen die feindliche Invasionsflotte begonnen. Tag für Tag gibt der Wehrmachtbericht einen Einblick in die Heftigkeit dieses Kampfes der leichten deutschen Seestreitkräfte. In der Nacht zum 8. Juni waren die Kämpfe besonders lebhaft und führten unter anderem zur Versenkung von neun vollbeladenen feindlichen Landungsschiffen allein durch unsere Schnellboote im Westteil der Seinebucht, und zwar ohne eigene Einbuße.

Aber auch unsere Luftwaffe blieb nicht untätig und erzielte, nachdem sie schon in der Nacht zum Mittwoch mit guter Wirkung Ausladungen und Schiffsansammlungen angegriffen hatte, in der Nacht zum 8. Juni besondere Erfolge.

Das Hauptquartier des Generals Eisenhower vermeidet, es bezeichnenderweise, das Thema der Schiffsverluste zu behandeln. Aber es ist bemerkenswert, daß das Marineministerium in Washington schon mit einem winzigen Teilgeständnis begonnen hat, indem es den Untergang von zwei US-Zerstörern und einem Landungsschiff für Panzer in der ersten Nacht zugab. Seit den Erfahrungen mit den US-Berichten über Pearl Harbour weiß man, daß gerade solche Teilgeständnisse an Stelle der völligen Ableugnung ein Zeichen besonders empfindlicher Schiffsverluste sind. Tatsächlich müssen die feindlichen Augenzeugenberichte trotz ihrer vorsichtigen Fassung immer wieder zugeben, daß die englisch-amerikanische Landungsflotte und die sie begleitenden Seestreitkräfte bereits in der ersten Nacht auf See und vor der Küste empfindliche Verluste erlitten haben. Die als sehr ausgedehnt geschilderten deutschen Minensperren haben vielen feindlichen Schiffen ein vorzeitiges Ende bereitet. Die Torpedoboote und Schnellboote, die Granaten der Küstenbatterien und die Bomben der Flugzeuge haben zahlreiche weitere Treffer erzielt.

Für die deutschen leichten Seestreitkräfte war der Kampf im Kanal seit 1940 immer hart. Er hat die Kanalfahrer erprobt. Sie haben nun in den schweren Invasionskämpfen im Raum der Seinebucht zwischen dem Kap d’Antifer und dem Kap Barfleur ihre Aufgaben gegen einen materiell mit größten Mitteln antretenden Gegner hervorragend erfüllt. Wie sie sonst mit feindlichen Zerstörern und Schnellbooten kämpften, so warfen sie sich nun auch den schweren Seestreitkräften entgegen. Torpedoboote stießen mit unerhörtem Schneid, gleich als die feindliche Aktion begann, mitten in ein feindliches Schlachtschiffgeschwader hinein. Die Schnellboote haben Nacht für Nacht den feindlichen Nachschub gestört und damit erneut gezeigt, was sie zu leisten vermögen.

Mit vorbildlicher Standhaftigkeit haben sich auch die Sicherungsstreitkräfte, die Vorpostenboote, Minensucher usw. eingesetzt. Diese kleinen Sicherungsfahrzeuge waren ständig weit draußen in See die vorgeschobenen Beobachter der Küstenfront, der sie schon bei Dieppe durch die erste Meldung so wertvolle Dienste geleistet hatten. Wie bei Dieppe, so führte auch in der Invasionsnacht ein deutsches Vorpostenboot den Kampf bis zum Letzten, während die Kameraden auf den anderen Booten ebenfalls ihre Munition bis zum letzten Schuß verfeuerten, ehe sie wieder einliefen. Der Ablauf der feindlichen Maßnahmen ist dadurch zweifellos empfindlich gestört worden.

Wie übrigens aus einer amtlichen deutschen Meldung hervorgeht, haben neben unserer Kriegsmarine auch Verbände deutscher Kampfflugzeuge sehr erfolgreich in die Kämpfe an der normannischen Küste eingegriffen und dem feindlichen Nachschubverkehr starke Verluste beigebracht.

So heißt es in einer Meldung des deutschen Nachrichtenbüros:

Unsere Kampffliger erschienen von der Abenddämmerung an immer wieder über den Landeplätzen und Schiffsansammlungen des Gegners und warfen große Mengen Sprengbomben auf die erkannten Ziele ab. Dabei wurden nach bisherigen Feststellungen fünf Transport- und Frachtschiffe mit insgesamt 31.000 BRT versenkt. Diese Schiffe hatten noch ihre gesamte Ladung an Bord, so daß bei den Anglo-Amerikanern beträchtliche Ausfälle an Menschen und Material entstanden. Außerdem erhielten drei Kreuzer durch Bombentreffer erhebliche Beschädigungen. Ebenso ein Transportschiff von 8.000 BRT, zwei große Frachter mit zusammen 26.000 BRT sowie ein großes Landungsspezialschiff. Ein Teil dieser Schiffseinheiten dürfte vernichtet worden sein.

In Tiefangriffen unterstützten schnelle Kampfflugzeuge und Schlachtflieger diese nächtlichen Einsätze deutscher schwerer Kampfverbände, wobei sie dem Feind ebenfalls empfindliche Verluste beibrachten. Sie beschädigten dicht vor der Küste ein größeres Schiff erheblich.

In sehr hohem Maße verwendet der Gegner im Kanal den Schutz von künstlichem Nebel oder dicken Rauchvorhängen. Der Feind nimmt die Nachteile schlechter Sichtverhältnisse für seine Navigation in Kauf, weil er die deutsche Gegenwehr zur See und in der Luft sehr ernst nehmen muß. Das gilt auch für den Nachschub zu seinen Landeplätzen. Welche Tonnage die Invasionskämpfe gerade bei der Entwicklung zu größeren Kampfhandlungen an den Landeplätzen erfordern, geht daraus hervor, daß die englische Presse berichtet, für eine einzige Division seien schon mehrere hundert Fahrzeuge verschiedener Größe erforderlich. Umso fühlbarer ist jede Einbuße an Schiffsraum für den Feind, sowohl bei der jetzigen Aktion wie bei weiteren Plänen.

Übrigens ist wieder einmal zu beobachten, daß die Nordamerikaner auch in diesem Falle in erster Linie die englische Tonnage an Kriegs- und Handelsschiffen ins Feuer schicken. Die Teile der englischen Kriegsflotte, die unter dem Befehl des US-Generals Eisenhower kämpfen, müssen auch entsprechend höherer Verluste in Kauf nehmen. Damit wird die englische Kriegsflotte als automatische Folge der jetzigen Schlacht gegenüber der US-Flotte immer mehr an die zweite Stelle gerückt. Nach englischen Eingeständnissen sind die im Kanal eingesetzten Kriegsschiffe zu 75 Prozent englische Schiffe. In den Rest von 25 Prozent teilt die US-Flotte sich noch mit früheren französischen Kriegsschiffen und anderen Einheiten der Emigrantenverbände. Auch in der Zahl der Transport- und Landungsfahrzeuge überwiegt bisher bei weitem der englische Anteil, wie in London zugegeben wird.

An schweren Seestreitkräften und Kreuzern haben die Engländer, wie die bisherigen Beobachtungen zeigen, meist neuere Schiffe eingesetzt als die Amerikaner. So werden die englischen Schlachtschiffe Nelson, Rodney, Ramillies und Warspite sowie die Kreuzer Mauritius, Scylla, Orion, Glasgow und Enterprise genannt, dazu Zerstörer der modernsten Klassen. Ferner haben die Engländer wie im ersten Weltkriege an der Flandernküste auch wieder Monitoren bereitgestellt, also flachgehende Küstenpanzerschifte mit schwerster Artillerie. Unter den US-Kriegsschiffen befinden sich nach feindlichen Meldungen die beiden ältesten nordamerikanischen Schlachtschiffe Arkansas und Texas sowie das nach Pearl Harbour wiederhergestellte Schlachtschiff Nevada. Am 7. Juni wurde im Norden der Halbinsel Cotentin ein US-Schlachtschiff des Carolina-Typs gesichtet, das sich unter dem Feuer deutscher Marineartillerie wieder zurückzog. In ausländischen Meldungen werden ferner der US-Kreuzer Augusta erwähnt sowie die früher französischen Kreuzer Montcalm und Georges Leygues, die in Dakar in amerikanische Hände gefallen sind.

Welche artilleristische Macht die feindlichen Kriegsschiffe bei der Feuervorbereitung der Landung darstellten, wird durch eine Londoner Meldung verdeutlicht, daß 640 Schiffsgeschütze vom Kaliber 10,2 Zentimeter bis 40,6 Zentimeter eingesetzt worden seien, um Feuerglocken über den Landungsstellen zu bilden. Angesichts der deutschen Batterien seien dabei die Schlachtschiffe und Kreuzer möglichst weit draußen geblieben, während die Monitore und Zerstörer im deutschen Feuer näher herangegangen seien. Die feindliche Hoffnung, dadurch die befestigten deutschen Stützpunkte ausschalten zu können, hat sich auch dort nicht erfüllt, wo der Feind unter bitteren Verlusten Kräfte an Land setzen konnte oder Luftlandetruppen in den Rücken der Batterien absetzte.

In früheren Kriegen waren Küstenbatterien meist nur zur Verteidigung nach See hin eingerichtet. Am Atlantikwall galt auch für sie der Leitsatz der Rundumverteidigung. So haben sich die deutschen Stützpunkte, wie die Meldungen zeigen, inmitten feindlicher Fallschirmjäger und Landungsverbände kämpfend bewährt. Das Beispiel der Marinebatterie Marcouf, die im Kampf auf See einen Kreuzer versenkte und nach Land hin zeitweiliger Abschnürung trotzte, ist im Wehrmachtbericht hervorgehoben worden. Jahrelang haben die Marineartilleristen im Westen auf den Feind gewartet, während ihre Kameraden an Bord hart zu kämpfen hatten. Aber es war sicher, daß die Marineartilleristen im Invasionsfalle den Seeleuten an Kampfeifer nicht nachstehen würden. Sie haben dem Feind ernste Verluste zugefügt. Die Flanderntradition des ersten Weltkrieges ist in ihnen lebendig.

ERICH GLODSCHEY

7585

Die Opfer des Invasionsversuchs steigern sich stündlich –
‚Wir kommen aus dem Risiko nicht heraus‘

Von unserer Stockholmer Schriftleitung

dr. th. b. Stockholm, 8. Juni –
„Wir können nicht behaupten, daß die Landung geglückt ist, ehe wir nicht im Besitz eines oder mehrerer brauchbarer Häfen sind.“ Diese sehr nüchterne Feststellung traf am Mittwochmorgen der Daily Telegraph, der den Invasionsversuch an der Küste der Normandie sorgenvoll als die schwerste und gefährlichste militärische Operation bezeichnet, die jemals unternommen wurde.

Der bisherige Verlauf der harten Kämpfe zwischen der Mündung der Orne und Bayeux deutet darauf hin, daß sich die Briten und Amerikaner mit allen Mitteln in den Besitz von Cherbourg oder Le Havre, am liebsten natürlich von beiden Häfen setzen wollen. Sie sind aber auf einen Widerstand gestoßen, der sie schon deshalb zu einer sehr vorsichtigen Beurteilung des weiteren Kampfverlaufes zwingt, weil er bisher allein von den Besatzungstruppen des Atlantikwalls getragen wird. Das Bild der Kampflage – darüber ist man sich auch in London vollkommen klar – kann sich also noch ungünstiger gestalten, sobald die deutschen Reserven in den Kampf eingreifen. Gerade diese für das ganze Unternehmen schicksalsschwere Frage beschäftigt die militärischen Beobachter auf der britischen Insel am stärksten. So schreibt der militärische Mitarbeiter des Manchester Guardian:

Der vorsichtige Rundstedt will soweit wie möglich im Bilde sein, ehe er seine Reserven in der einen oder anderen Richtung in Marsch setzt. Wenn wir in den nächsten Tagen in einem Gebiet Fuß fassen können, das groß genug ist, um unsere Streitkräfte zu entwickeln, dann brauchen wir, aber auch nur dann, um das Ergebnis nicht mehr zu bangen. Vorläufig aber ist der Feind zahlenmäßig überlegen. Wir kommen aus dem Risiko nicht heraus, solange das der Fall ist.

An verantwortlicher militärischer Stelle in London erfährt man, daß die Operation vor dem zweiten kritischen Abschnitt stände. Landen könne man immer, da man gegenüber dem Gegner den Vorteil besitze, daß dieser nicht wisse, wo die Landung erfolgt. Das Schwerste aber stehe noch bevor: der Zusammenstoß mit den Hauptkräften des Gegners.

Auch das Kommuniqué aus Eisenhowers Hauptquartier über den weiteren Verlauf der Kämpfe ist vorsichtig gehalten. Es meldet lediglich weitere Landungen an der französischen Nordküste, ohne jedoch Ortsangaben zu machen. Die deutschen Küstenbatterien, so heißt es dann weiter, die immer noch in Aktion seien, wurden von englischen Kriegsschiffen beschossen. Damit dementiert Eisenhower, wenn auch unfreiwillig, die aus London verbreitete Behauptung, es sei bereits in den ersten Stunden der Landung das Feuer der deutschen Verteidigung zum Schweigen gebracht worden. Gegen Abend haben dann die deutschen Batterien, wie Nya Dagligt Allehanda berichtet, ihr Feuer sogar gesteigert. Es waren an mehreren Punkten wiederum kanadische Truppen, die als erste ins Feuer geworfen wurden und dabei schwerste Verluste erlitten. Da viele ihrer Landungsboote in dem hohen Seegang kenterten, ging ihre gesamte Ausrüstung verloren, so daß sie sich teilweise nur mit dem Bajonett verteidigen konnten, bis sie aufgerieben waren, überhaupt bekam die britische Bevölkerung bereits nach 24 Stunden eine Ahnung der ungeheuren Opfer, die das auf Befehl Stalins begonnene Unternehmen kosten muß. Schon am Dienstagnachmittag rollten viele Lazarettzüge mit verwundeten Engländern, Kanadiern und Amerikanern durch Südengland. General Eisenhower hat sein Hauptquartier in einem Schloß in Südengland aufgeschlagen. Dort hat sich jetzt auch Churchill eingefunden.

7586

Die Schlacht in der Normandie

Berlin, 8. Juni –
Der Dunst und der Rauch über der normannischen Küste, gebildet aus den unaufhörlichen Abschüssen von Tausenden von Geschützrohren, aus den in die Luft gewirbelten Stücken von Erde und von Ausrüstungsgegenständen hat sich gegenüber den ersten Stunden der Invasion noch vermehrt. Neue Truppen haben in den Kampf eingegriffen, neue Brennpunkte des Kampfes sind entstanden. Aber aus den Augenzeugenberichten und aus den wenn auch nur spärlichen Angaben der beiderseitigen Führung schälen sich doch langsam wenigstens in großen Zügen die Bilder des Kampfverlaufes heraus, die uns gestatten, einen ersten Überblick über die Entwicklung zu gewinnen.

Wir sehen in der Nacht zum 6. Juni gegen eine Uhr die englischen und amerikanischen Bomber sich verstärken über dem Küstenstreifen und ihr Bombardement gegen die Befestigungen mit vergrößerter Wucht fortsetzen. Wir sehen auf eine Entfernung von mehreren hundert Kilometern verstreut überall die feindlichen Fallschirme niedergehen. Wir sehen kurz darauf auch die gegnerischen Transportflugzeuge herankommen und auf den Feldern hinter dem Atlantikwall landen. Viele von ihnen geraten auf Minenfelder. In einer Folge von furchtbaren Explosionen gehen die Maschinen mit ihren Insassen in die Luft und werden zerrissen. Andere sind glücklicher. Die Gelandeten liegen nun mit ihren Waffen für einen Augenblick geduckt am Boden und springen dann auf, sich des nächsten Bahnhofs, der nächsten Straße, des nächsten Dorfes zu bemächtigen. Sie werden sofort in erbitterte Feuergefechte mit den deutschen Besatzungen verwickelt. Manche von den gelandeten Verbänden werden dabei umzingelt, ihre Mitglieder werden niedergestreckt oder zur Ergebung gezwungen, bevor sie sich noch recht entfaltet haben. Andere vermögen sich festzusetzen und feuern gegen die Deutschen, während in regelmäßigen Abständen aus der Luft andere Flugzeuge kommen, um ihnen Verstärkungen, Waffen, Munition, Lebensmittel zuzuführen.

Währenddessen haben sich von der See her langsam die Leiber der Schlachtschiffe, Kreuzer herangeschoben, in ständige Artillerieduelle mit den deutschen Festungswerken verwickelt, oft auch mitten in dem von ihnen erzeugten Nebel von schnellen und kühnen deutschen Schiffen angegriffen. Ihre schweren Granaten überschütten nun die Küste mit Feuer. Zusammen mit den Bombenflugzeugen – deren Einsatz man sich allerdings gerade in den ersten Tagen der Invasion nicht allzu stark vorstellen darf – bilden sie einen Feuerschirm. Unter seinem Schutz fahren die Landungsboote bis dicht an die Küste heran. Sie lassen die Landeklappen herunter. Soldaten, Panzer, Geschütze, Fahrzeuge strömen an Land. Aber gerade wie sie sehr nahe an der Küste sind, wie sich die dichten Massen der Soldaten und der Fahrzeuge als Ziel darbieten, eröffnen auch die leichte deutsche Artillerie und die Maschinengewehre das Feuer. Hunderte von Landungsbooten brennen aus und treiben nun steuerlos dahin, Tausende von Soldaten fallen, und über sie schließt sich die kühle See.

Für die anderen Verbände, die an Land gekommen sind, beginnt nun eine neue schwere Prüfung. Wir haben den Bericht eines gegnerischen Augenzeugen, der bei Anzio dabei war. Er findet die Erlebnisse dort vergleichsweise angenehm gegenüber der Hölle, in die er nun in der Normandie geraten ist. Zu dem Feuer der deutschen Befestigungswerke kommt das nicht minder erbitterte Feuer der Grenadiere. Die Angreifer leiden furchtbar. An vielen Stellen können sie sich nicht entfalten, werden entweder wieder in die See getrieben oder müssen auf einem schmalen Küstensaum hängenbleiben. Andere freilich vermögen einige Kilometer ins Land einzudringen oder auch sich mit den weiter südlich fechtenden Luftlandetruppen zu vereinigen. So entstehen einige Brückenköpfe. In sie entsendet der Feind von der See her wie aus der Luft immer wieder Verstärkungen und Nachschub.

So etwa war die Lage nach den ersten beiden Tagen der Invasionsoffensive. Es wurde allmählich erkennbar, daß es dem Gegner vor allen Dingen darum ging, größere Häfen zu gewinnen, die ihm erlauben sollten, Landungen von Truppen und Material gesicherter und in größerem Umfange vorzunehmen als in den ersten Kampftagen. Das Hauptziel für den Beginn der Invasion war offenbar der Hafen von Le Havre an der Seinemündung. Gerade hier sind die gegnerischen Angriffsversuche blutig gescheitert. Der Feind hat daraus wohl den Schluß gezogen, auf neue Angriffe gegen Le Havre wenigstens vorläufig zu verzichten und dafür sich zunächst auf den Versuch zu konzentrieren, den Hafen von Cherbourg mit der ganzen Halbinsel in Besitz zu bekommen. Seine Maßnahmen in den letzten Tagen deuten darauf hin, daß er plant, die Stadt vom Lande her zu nehmen, ihr also in den Rücken zu kommen.

Im Wehrmachtbericht vom Donnerstag werden vor allem folgende Brückenköpfe, Landungsstellen und Plätze für Landungsversuche des Gegners genannt: östlich der Ornemündung, dann zwischen Caen und Bayeux, dann am Füße der Halbinsel nördlich von Carentan, bei Marcouf, dann an der Nordwestspitze der Halbinsel in der Bucht von Saint-Martin. Aus einem pk.-Bericht erfahren wir noch von stärkeren Luftlandungen des Gegners bei Coutances im Südwesten der Halbinsel. Das Bild über die operativen Absichten des Gegners wird damit eindeutig, und es wird noch ergänzt durch die Bemerkung im OKW-Bericht, daß aus dem Brückenkopf zwischen Caen und Bayeux – dem nach Breite und Tiefe umfangreichsten des Gegners – die feindlichen Truppen zum Angriff nach Südwesten angetreten sind. Das Ziel ist deutlich: die Halbinsel an der Basis abzuschnüren.

Es ist nicht so, daß in diesen Brückenköpfen nur englische oder amerikanische Truppen stünden. Unter dem ungeheuren Feuer der feindlichen Granaten und Bomben sind manche von den leichten deutschen Befestigungen zerstört worden, aber überall stehen in der feindlichen Flut noch deutsche Stützpunkte, tapfere Grenadiere und Mariner, überall stehen vor allem noch die schweren deutschen Werke. Ihre mächtigen Mauern haben den feindlichen Granaten und Bomben getrotzt. Ihre Geschütze schweigen auch jetzt zu keiner Stunde, sie halten die feindlichen Schiffe in respektvoller Entfernung oder fügen ihnen schwere Verluste zu, sie feuern auch ununterbrochen landeinwärts, ihre Granaten platzen auf den Marsch- und Nachschubstraßen des Gegners, und die Stellungen derjenigen Invasionsverbände, die weiter ins Land gekommen sind, begegnen nicht nur dem Feuer der deutschen Verteidiger, die vor ihnen liegen, sondern sie werden auch von rückwärts aus den schweren Werken immer wieder mit Granaten überschüttet. So wirken die Befestigungen des Atlantikwalls wie Wellenbrecher in einer schweren Brandung, so verhindern sie eine schnelle Ausweitung der Brückenköpfe, so helfen sie der Führung, Zeit für ihre Gegenmaßnahmen zu gewinnen.

Daß es dem Gegner, wenn er erst zum Angriff antrete, auch gelingen werde, an einigen Stellen Brückenköpfe zu gewinnen, war von vornherein klar für Freund und Feind und ist an dieser Stelle auch schon vor Monaten gesagt, worden.

Bei der weiten Ausdehnung der französischen Küste war es natürlich nicht möglich, jede Strecke so dicht zu besetzen, daß der Feind daran gehindert würde, überhaupt an Land zu gehen. Aufgabe der örtlichen Verteidigungen konnte es nur immer sein, den Feind so lange aufzuhalten, bis die Führung ihre Gegenmaßnahmen treffen konnte. Der Wehrmachtbericht vom Donnerstag verrät in einigen kargen Angaben, daß diese Gegenmaßnahmen nunmehr begonnen haben. Die Reserven haben eingegriffen. Man vermag sich vorzustellen, wie die deutsche Führung zunächst aus all den in überreicher Fülle einlaufenden und zum Teil verwirrenden Meldungen ein klares Bild zu gewinnen versucht: Wo ist der Feind überall gelandet? Wo ist er sofort vernichtet worden, und wo hat er sich stärker festgesetzt? Wo liegen nur Täuschungsmanöver vor, und wo ist der Schwerpunkt des Angriffs? Man kann sich weiter vorstellen, wie die Führung nun ihre Befehle gibt, wie die längst alarmierten und bereitstehenden Männer in ihre Panzer und andere Gefährte springen, wie die Motoren anfangen zu singen und wie nun die Heerschar zur Küste braust, dem Kanonendonner entgegen, zu dem ihre Herzen sie hintreiben. Die ersten Wirkungen der Gegenmaßnahmen werden im Wehrmachtbericht vom Donnerstag gemeldet, östlich der Orne und nördlich Carentan werden die Gegner immer mehr zusammengedrängt, und inzwischen hat der Angriff auch gegen den stärksten feindlichen Brückenkopf, den zwischen Caen und Bayeux, begonnen.

Wir sind erst am Anfang der schweren Schlacht. Auf beiden Seiten sind erst Teile der zur Verfügung stehenden Truppen eingesetzt. Der Kampf geht weiter. Er hat seinen Höhepunkt noch nicht erreicht, der Gegner ist sehr stark. Er wird neue Verstärkungen holen, er wird vielleicht auch an anderer Stelle landen. Dann werden ihm andere deutsche Truppen entgegenstehen. Ein genaueres Urteil wird erst möglich sein, wenn der Kampf in seiner vollen Ausdehnung entbrannt ist. Aber der Verlauf der ersten Tage berechtigt uns bereits dazu, dem Fortgang des Kampfes mit der Zuversicht entgegenzusehen, die die Leistungen unserer Truppen verdienen.

7587

Not in Nordafrika

Stockholm, 8. Juni –
In dem Augenblick, da britische und nordamerikanische Truppen als Invasoren an der Küste Frankreichs Fuß zu fassen versuchen, ist es nicht ohne Interesse, einige Nachrichten über das Verhältnis der Briten und Nordamerikaner zu den Franzosen in Nordafrika und über die dortigen Zustände zu erhalten.

Die Londoner Wochenschrift New Statesman veröffentlicht soeben einen Bericht ihres aus Nordafrika zurückkehrenden Mitarbeiters Raymond Mortimer, der zusammenfassend bemerkt, die Bewohner Marokkos hätten durch die Ankunft der Engländer und Nordamerikaner eigentlich nichts als Unbequemlichkeiten gehabt. Im Wesentlichen beschäftigt sich Mortimer aber mit der Lage in Algier, und darüber schreibt er:

Die Unbequemlichkeiten des Lebens in Algier sind unglaublich. Reisen nichtamtlicher Personen sind eine Plage, und selbst innerhalb der Stadt ist der Verkehr ganz unzulänglich, Die Läden sind fast leer. Am schlimmsten ist, daß die wichtigsten Medikamente ausgegangen sind. Der französische Stadtbewohner hat kaum die Möglichkeit, das Notwendigste zu kaufen, sofern er nicht auf den „Schwarzen Markt“ geht, was viele sich nicht leisten können. Man fragt sich, weshalb ein Mangel an Nahrungsmitteln besteht, da Nordafrika vor dem Krieg Getreide, Fleisch Öl und Früchte ausführte.

Mortimer versucht dann, verschiedene Erklärungen zu geben, vermeidet aber, die Versorgung der. britisch-nordamerikanischen Truppen aus dem Lande zu erwähnen; wie wenig die Westmächte für die Franzosen tun, ergibt sich aus der Feststellung, daß die Lieferung von nur 300 Lastkraftwagen das Transportproblem weitgehend lösen und daß eine einzige Schiffsladung mit Medikamenten zur Befriedigung der dringendsten Bedürfnisse reichen würde.

Zu den politischen Fragen erklärt der Engländer reichlich naiv:

Nordafrika leidet unter den Nachteilen, die stets mit einer Doppelherrschaft verbunden sind. Die Franzosen hängen aber für ihre Einfuhr von den Engländern und Nordamerikanern ab. Die amerikanisch-französischen Beziehungen sind alles andere als gut. Es besteht die Gefahr, daß der nordamerikanische Durchschnittssoldat in Nordafrika infolgedessen ein rabiater Isolationist wird.