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.