Task forces raid four bases in Marianas
…
The Pittsburgh Press (June 12, 1944)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Normandy beachhead, France –
Due to a last-minute alteration in the arrangements, I didn’t arrive on the beachhead until the morning after D-Day, after our first wave of assault troops had hit the shore.
By the time we got here, the beaches had been taken and the fighting had moved a couple of miles inland. All that remained on the beach was some sniping and artillery fire, and the occasional startling blast of a mine geysering brown sand into the air. That plus a gigantic and pitiful litter of wreckage along miles of shoreline.
Submerged tanks and overturned boats and burned trucks and shell-shattered jeeps and sad little personal belongings were strewn all over these bitter sands. That plus the bodies of soldiers lying in rows covered with blankets, the toes of their shoes sticking up in a line as though on drill. And other bodies, uncollected, still sprawling grotesquely in the sand or half hidden by the high grass beyond the beach.
That plus an intense, grim determination of work-weary men to get this chaotic beach organized and get all the vital supplies and the reinforcements moving more rapidly over it from the stacked-up ships standing in droves out to sea.
Now that it is over it seems to me a pure miracle that we ever took the beach at all. For some of our units it was easy, but in this special sector where I am now our troops faced such odds that our getting ashore was like my whipping Joe Louis down to a pulp.
In this column, I want to tell you what the opening of the second front in this one sector entailed, so that you can know and appreciate and forever be humbly grateful to those both dead and alive who did it for you.
Ashore, facing us, were more enemy troops than we had in our assault waves. The advantages were all theirs, the disadvantages all ours. The Germans were dug into positions that they had been working on for months, although these were not yet all complete. A one-hundred-foot bluff a couple of hundred yards back from the beach had great concrete gun emplacements built right into the hilltop. These opened to the sides instead of to the front, thus making it very hard for naval fire from the sea to reach them. They could shoot parallel with the beach and cover every foot of it for miles with artillery fire.
Then they had hidden machine-gun nests on the forward slopes, with crossfire taking in every inch of the beach. These nests were connected by networks of trenches, so that the German gunners could move about without exposing themselves.
Throughout the length of the beach, running zigzag a couple of hundred yards back from the shoreline, was an immense V-shaped ditch fifteen feet deep. Nothing could cross it, not even men on foot, until fills had been made. And in other places at the far end of the beach, where the ground is flatter, they had great concrete walls. These were blasted by our naval gunfire or by explosives set by hand after we got ashore.
Our only exits from the beach were several swales or valleys, each about one hundred yards wide. The Germans made the most of these funnel-like traps, sowing them with buried mines. They contained, also, barbed-wire entanglements with mines attached, hidden ditches, and machine guns firing from the slopes.
This is what was on the shore. But our men had to go through a maze nearly as deadly as this before they even got ashore. Underwater obstacles were terrific. The Germans had whole fields of evil devices under the water to catch our boats. Even now, several days after the landing, we have cleared only channels through them and cannot yet approach the whole length of the beach with our ships. Even now some ship or boat hits one of these mines every day and is knocked out of commission.
The Germans had masses of those great six-pronged spiders, made of railroad iron and standing shoulder-high, just beneath the surface of the water for our landing craft to run into. They also had huge logs buried in the sand, pointing upward and outward, their tops just below the water. Attached to these logs were mines.
In addition to these obstacles, they had floating mines offshore, land mines buried in the sand of the beach, and more mines in checkerboard rows in the tall grass beyond the sand. And the enemy had four men on shore for every three men we had approaching the shore.
And yet we got on.
Beach landings are planned to a schedule that is set far ahead of time. They all have to be timed, in order for everything to mesh and for the following waves of troops to be standing off the beach and ready to land at the right moment.
As the landings are planned, some elements of the assault force are to break through quickly, push on inland, and attack the most obvious enemy strong points. It is usually the plan for units to be inland, attacking gun positions from behind, within a matter of minutes after the first men hit the beach.
I have always been amazed at the speed called for in these plans. You’ll have schedules calling for engineers to land at H-Hour plus two minutes, and service troops at H-Hour plus thirty minutes, and even for press censors to land at H-Hour plus seventy-five minutes. But in the attack on this special portion of the beach where I am – the worst we had, incidentally – the schedule didn’t hold.
Our men simply could not get past the beach. They were pinned down right on the water’s edge by an inhuman wall of fire from the bluff. Our first waves were on that beach for hours, instead of a few minutes, before they could begin working inland.
You can still see the foxholes they dug at the very edge of the water, in the sand and the small, jumbled rocks that form parts of the beach.
Medical corpsmen attended the wounded as best they could. Men were killed as they stepped out of landing craft. An officer whom I knew got a bullet through the head just as the door of his landing craft was let down. Some men were drowned.
The first crack in the beach defenses was finally accomplished by terrific and wonderful naval gunfire, which knocked out the big emplacements. They tell epic stories of destroyers that ran right up into shallow water and had it out point-blank with the big guns in those concrete emplacements ashore.
When the heavy fire stopped, our men were organized by their officers and pushed on inland, circling machine-gun nests and taking them from the rear.
As one officer said, the only way to take a beach is to face it and keep going. It is costly at first, but it’s the only way. If the men are pinned down on the beach, dug in and out of action, they might as well not be there at all. They hold up the waves behind them, and nothing is being gained.
Our men were pinned down for a while, but finally they stood up and went through, and so we took that beach and accomplished our landing. We did it with every advantage on the enemy’s side and every disadvantage on ours. In the light of a couple of days of retrospection, we sit and talk and call it a miracle that our men ever got on at all or were able to stay on.
Before long it will be permitted to name the units that did it. Then you will know to whom this glory should go. They suffered casualties. And yet if you take the entire beachhead assault, including other units that had a much easier time, our total casualties in driving this wedge into the continent of Europe were remarkably low – only a fraction, in fact, of what our commanders had been prepared to accept.
And these units that were so battered and went through such hell are still, right at this moment, pushing on inland without rest, their spirits high, their egotism in victory almost reaching the smart-alecky stage.
Their tails are up. “We’ve done it again,” they say. They figure that the rest of the army isn’t needed at all. Which proves that, while their judgment in this regard is bad, they certainly have the spirit that wins battles and eventually wars.
The Free Lance-Star (June 12, 1944)
U.S. TROOPS 18 MILES DEEP IN FRANCE
Deep penetration made in center of beachhead; Cerisy Forest and Carentan taken
Germans still hold Caen; Cherbourg near isolation
SHAEF, England (AP) –
U.S. troops have driven 18 miles inland in the middle of the Normandy beachhead, capturing the whole forest of Cerisy, and the German High Command said today the strategic stronghold of Carentan had fallen to U.S. forces.
The smashing advance through the Cerisy Forest punched the deepest dent yet in the Nazi line.
Doughboys were converging on Saint-Lô, communications hub in the center of Normandy, less than nine miles away, from the north and east.
Headquarters did not confirm the fall of Carentan, guarding the narrowest neck of Cherbourg Peninsula, but said Americans were within 14 miles of Cherbourg itself from the southeast, and had punched halfway across the cape, threatening to seal off the tip.
German broadcasts said Caen, eastern bastion of the 60-mile-long front, was menaced by encirclement – with British troops slashing nine miles east of the city.
A front dispatch today said Caen had not yet been captured, although “a considerable German force has been brought to battle and hit hard.” Another story dated Sunday declared Allied troops pressed within a few miles of Caen “after blasting the Germans out of the town” late Friday. This suggested the Nazis had pulled back at least the main part of their armored force from the city.
Supreme Headquarters said further gains were made around Montebourg on the southeast avenue to Cherbourg, and reported “considerable progress” around Carentan, a vital junction.
The doughboys were cracking in the Cherbourg Peninsula Line in the center, and a Berlin broadcast reported seaborne forces had landed at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, 16 miles east of Cherbourg.
In the widening hole in the center of the beachhead to the southeast, Berlin said British formations were concentrating in the Balleroy area, 12 miles inland, flanking Cerisy Forest to the east, thus in position to aid the U.S. drive on Saint-Lô.
Headquarters said the beachhead front now had been lengthened to 60 miles, and said the German command had been forced to throw in reserves piecemeal, sapping potential strength from his anticipated major counterattack.
Naval guns cause evacuation
The Germans said Carentan, whose floodgates control the main peninsula water defense system, was evacuated in order to continue a stand on ground less exposed to allied naval guns.
As for Caen, German broadcasts said that the British drive has reached nearly to Troarn, nine miles east of that bastion, and that Allied parachutists had landed south of Caen. British troops were driving down west of Caen threatening the other flank. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel has mounted his fiercest armored counterattacks in this Caen sector, and Berlin said major British forces were concentrating for a full-fledged assault on the town.
As the U.S. frontal attack across the Merderet River on Cherbourg Peninsula reached within 12 miles of the West Coast roads – whose capture would seal off Cherbourg – Vichy radio said doughboys had pushed into Quinéville on the East Coast.
This would put Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s flank within 14 miles of Cherbourg on a four-mile front between Quinéville and Montebourg, where street fighting was reported.
The Germans, apparently reeling under the force of the first invasion week, said 300,000 to 400,000 Allied troops had already been poured into a mighty bridgehead flood and that these represented only a third of the amphibious assault forces poised in Britain to hammer home attacks against the continent.
The German radio declared:
The bulk of the huge forces of the 21st Amphibious Army Group is still standing by to pounce on some important harbor.
Report new landings
Continuing a stream of reports of new Allied landings, Berlin’s Transocean News Agency said seaborne forces had been put ashore at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue near the top of the peninsula and due east of Cherbourg yesterday.
The Germans said the Allies had crossed the Orne estuary, ferrying over tanks and threatening Caen, which Marshal Erwin Rommel by his counterattacks had made a testing point.
The crossing of the estuary forced the Germans to evacuate two towns before the Allied onslaught was checked near Troarn, by German account.
A breakthrough here would link up infantry with parachute troops which the Nazis said had landed in the Troarn area earlier.
Heightening of the prospect of encirclement of Caen was the German report of other parachute troop landings south of the town.
To the west, British troops were also flanking the town by a thrust through Tilly-sur-Seulles where armored columns were engaged in fierce combat.
Officials reports said only that British and Canadians were holding their own satisfactorily along the explosive Caen line, but field dispatches declared Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery had mounted a powerful encircling sweep, with the Allies driving ahead on both flanks around the town.
Nazis use reserves
Headquarters Communiqué No. 13, issued at 11:00 a.m., reported that intense fighting against German armored columns raged without respite in the Tilly-sur-Seulles area on the British sector of the front.
Field Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt was rushing reserves up from as far back as Paris to meet this mounting menace, but his new men and guns, and the roads over which they moved, were under bomb cannon, rocket and machine-gun fire of an Allied air armada which before noon had flown more sorties than all day yesterday.
Allied warships – among them the battleships USS Texas and Nevada and the cruisers USS Tuscaloosa and Quincy, and the British battleship HMS Warspite – hurled tons of explosives miles inland upon German guns which still were able to subject the invasion beachhead to sporadic fire.
The targets of the warships were principally the Nazis’ mobile guns, for by now virtually all fixed-position defense batteries were knocked out.
The invasion beachhead was regarded as secure and progress inland along the whole front, now roughly 55 miles wide, was viewed officially today with “sober satisfaction.”
The fight had reached the phase of exploiting the beachhead success and now, favored by the best weather since D-Day, the team of Gens. Montgomery and Bradley was expected to accelerate operations.
Strong attacking force
The German radio said Allied pressure northward along the canal from Caen to the Bay of the Seine had increased this morning.
It declared the Allies had thrown 20 regular divisions and four to five airborne divisions into their 55-mile front.
Ferry terminals at the mouth of the Seine were shot up by RAF rocket typhoons yesterday.
The Germans asserted their bouncers sank a 7,000-ton Allied troop transport in the Bay of the Seine and damaged another.
The German Air Force was little in evidence yesterday, but Allied planes had to cope with intense flak in many places.
An improvement in the weather, which permitted the RAF heavies to pound rail bottlenecks behind the German Western Front last night, gave the Allied air arm a field day over France.
Medium and fighter-bombers spread havoc among von Rundstedt’s concentrations and fighters were working so closely in contact with ground troops today that they were able to spray destruction into Nazi frontline strongpoints holding up sector advances.
Despite German claims of E-boat attacks on a powerful Allied convoy guarded by cruisers as it was crossing the western part of the Bay of the Seine, SHAEF regarded the enemy’s overnight E-boat action as on a diminished scale.
It was pointed out, however, the fight against the torpedo sting of German small boats must be […] the Germans have hundreds of them and, so far, have not dared to bring into the invasion zone anything large than E-boats and destroyers.
Headquarters followed up midnight Communiqué No. 12 with an official tribute to American progress yesterday on the beachhead’s right wing. It called the situation “excellent – could not be better.”
Bond campaign is begun in country
Strong effort will be made here to reach district quota; $16 billion is goal
…
Roosevelt broadcast to start bond drive
Texarkana, Arkansas (AP) –
Momentum already built up in the Fifth War Loan was termed “terrific” by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. today as he arrived to open the $16-billion bond drive.
The Secretary declared the results thus far were “better than OK.” He said he would announce the cost of the advance from Sicily to Rome and estimate the cost of the war this year in a four-network broadcast officially opening the bond campaign at 9:00 p.m. CWT tonight.
President Roosevelt will speak from Washington on the program.
Morgenthau found Texarkana flying thousands of flags and packed with 20,000 visitors.
Texas Democrats refuse to change
Dallas, Texas (AP) –
The Texas State Democratic executive committee by a vote of 37–6 today refused to certify the name of Texas Democratic presidential electors named at a pro-Roosevelt convention for printing on the July primary ballot.
The committee turned down a request by pro-Roosevelt Democrats to submit at the Party primary a question for binding presidential electors to vote for the party’s candidate for President.
Merritt Gibson, chairman of the Resolutions Committee, said that the question has been decided at the state convention, out of which the Roosevelt backers walked after losing two test votes.
Two million words combed by censors
SHAEF, England (AP) –
SHAEF censors scrutinized 2,500,000 words in the first five days of the invasion. An official estimated they deleted an average of less than one word from every hundred. They also viewed 35,000 still pictures and 106,000 feet of movie film.
U.S. dead are buried in France
Heavily blasted field is first American cemetery
At a U.S. beachhead cemetery, France (AP) – (June 9, delayed)
Stretched out on their backs with their pitiful personal belongings lying beside them on this bomb-blasted, shell-scorched bit of the Normandy beach lie the American dead – men and boys who paid the supreme price for wresting this strongly fortified position from the Nazis in a daring daylight amphibious assault.
They lie here mutely waiting while troops dig long trenches for temporary mass burial. Nearby, also awaiting burial are the bodies of 10 Germans and two Britons.
Negro troops digging these common graves labor silently with an occasional awed glance at the stiff forms under the white covers that had been thrown over them.
This is America’s first cemetery in France in this war. It is not a pretentious place. A few days ago, it was a German minefield separating the beach defenses from the rugged pillboxes and forts in a steep hill that rises a few hundred yards from the ugly, rock-strewn beaches.
When the Americans swarmed onto the beaches through murderous surf, angry German guns mowed them down. The cold greedy water of the wrathful Channel, lashed by a three-day wind, clutched at some, sucking them down.
This battle was so fierce that our grave registration officers – men who bury the dead and tell the folks back home about them – had to spend most of their time in foxholes. When the enemy retreated into the hills, these officers gathered their weary men and began bringing bodies to this place – where the green grass is turned black from the fury of high explosives.
Another cemetery is being prepared nearby because this hallowed ground is too small to care for the men who will not fight again.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 12, 1944)
Communique No. 14
The fusion of our beachheads is now complete and a coastal strip some 60 miles long is firmly in our hands. Its depth is being increased steadily.
Slight advances were made east of CAEN.
U.S. troops in the CHERBOURG PENINSULA have made further progress to the north and west. Additional road crossings over the coastal inundations are in our hands.
Further east the enemy was driven from the whole of the FORÊT DE CERISY. Fierce fighting between British and enemy armored units continued between TILLY-SUR-SEULLES and CAEN.
Allied warships have been giving deep supporting fire in the center and close support on the flanks of our armies.
Striking in very great strength, our aircraft today hammered enemy airfields and communications over a 400-mile arc from SAINT-NAZAIRE to LILLE. Armed reconnaissance, and medium-level bombing missions were flown from the tip of the CHERBOURG PENINSULA over the battle area and southeastward to JUVISY.
The largest single striking force of heavy day bombers ever dispatched from ENGLAND struck this morning at a broad belt of 16 airfields, from DREUX to LILLE, and at six rail bridges in the SAINT-NAZAIRE and PARIS areas. Strong forces of fighters, which escorted the bombers, scored against a variety of rail targets on their return flight.
The rail system focusing at RENNES was a major target for the day, with fighter bombers severing in numerous places the railway lines leading to the city. Meanwhile, medium and light bombers carried out a succession of attacks on the railway installations there and highway junctions to the south of the battle area.
Rocket-firing aircraft attacked the military ferry at BERVILLE-SUR-MER. A ferry boat and a pier were left burning. Other rocket-firing planes on armed reconnaissance struck at a variety of armored targets and motor transport in the combat zone.
Batteries at LA PERNELLE and at JOULIME, both near the tip of the CHERBOURG PENINSULA, were attacked shortly before noon.
Our fighters continued their patrols over the beach and adjacent Channel waters. Eleven enemy aircraft were destroyed in this area, for the loss of eight of ours.
President Roosevelt’s Fireside Chat 30
Opening Fifth War Loan Drive
June 12, 1944, 10:00 p.m. EWT
Broadcast audio:
Ladies and gentlemen:
All our fighting men overseas today have their appointed stations on the far-flung battlefronts of the world. We at home have ours too. We need, we are proud of, our fighting men – most decidedly. But, during the anxious times ahead, let us not forget that they need us too.
It goes almost without saying that we must continue to forge the weapons of victory – the hundreds of thousands of items, large and small, essential to the waging of the war. This has been the major task from the very start, and it is still a major task. This is the very worst time for any war worker to think of leaving his machine or to look for a peacetime job.
And it goes almost without saying, too, that we must continue to provide our government with the funds necessary for waging war not only by the payment of taxes – which, after all, is an obligation of American citizenship – but also by the purchase of War Bonds – an act of free choice which every citizen has to make for himself under the guidance of his own conscience.
Whatever else any of us may be doing, the purchase of War Bonds and stamps is something all of us can do and should do to help win the war.
I am happy to report tonight that it is something which – something nearly everyone seems to be doing. Although there are now approximately 67 million persons who have or earn some form of income (including the Armed Forces), 81 million persons or their children have already bought war bonds. They have bought more than 600 million individual bonds. Their purchases have totaled more than $32 billion. These are the purchases of individual men, women and children. Anyone who would have said this was possible a few years ago would have been put down as a starry-eyed visionary. But of such visions is the stuff of America.
Of course, there are always pessimists with us everywhere, a few here and a few there. I am reminded of the fact that after the fall of France in 1940, I asked the Congress for the money for the production by the United States of 50,000 airplanes per year. Well, I was called crazy – it was said that the figure was fantastic; that it could not be done. And yet today we are building airplanes at the rate of one hundred thousand a year.
There is a direct connection between the bonds you have bought and the stream of men and equipment now rushing over the English Channel for the liberation of Europe. There is a direct connection between your Bonds and every part of this global war today.
Tonight, therefore on the opening of this Fifth War Loan Drive, it is appropriate for us to take a broad look at this panorama of world war, for the success or the failure of the drive is going to have so much to do with the speed with which we can accomplish victory and the peace.
While I know that the chief interest tonight is centered on the English Channel and on the beaches and farms and the cities of Normandy, we should not lose sight of the fact that our armed forces are engaged on other battlefronts all over the world, and that no one front can be considered alone without its proper relation to all.
It is worth while, therefore, to make overall comparisons with the past. Let us compare today with just two years ago – June 1942. At that time, Germany was in control of practically all of Europe, and was steadily driving the Russians back toward the Ural Mountains. Germany was practically in control of North Africa and the Mediterranean, and was beating at the gates of the Suez Canal and the route to India. Italy was still an important military and supply factor – as subsequent, long campaigns have proved.
Japan was in control of the western Aleutian Islands; and in the South Pacific was knocking at the gates of Australia and New Zealand – and also was threatening India. Japan had seized control of the Central Pacific.
American armed forces on land and sea and in the air were still very definitely on the defensive, and in the building-up stage. Our Allies were bearing the heat and the brunt of the attack.
In 1942 Washington heaved a sigh of relief that the first War Bond issue had been cheerfully over-subscribed by the American people. Way back in those days, two years ago, America was still hearing from many “amateur strategists” and political critics, some of whom were doing more good for Hitler than for the United States – two years ago.
But today we are on the offensive all over the world – bringing the attack to our enemies.
In the Pacific, by relentless submarine and naval attacks, and amphibious thrusts, and ever-mounting air attacks, we have deprived the Japs of the power to check the momentum of our ever-growing and ever-advancing military forces. We have reduced the Japs’ shipping by more than three million tons. We have overcome their original advantage in the air. We have cut off from a return to the homeland, cut off from that return, tens of thousands of beleaguered Japanese troops who now face starvation or ultimate surrender. And we have cut down their naval strength, so that for many months they have avoided all risk of encounter with our naval forces.
True, we still have a long way to go to Tokyo. But, carrying out our original strategy of eliminating our European enemy first and then turning all our strength to the Pacific, we can force the Japanese to unconditional surrender or to national suicide much more rapidly than has been thought possible.
Turning now to our enemy who is first on the list for destruction – Germany has her back against the wall – in fact three walls at once!
In the south, we have broken the German hold on central Italy. On June 4, the city of Rome fell to the Allied armies. And allowing the enemy no respite, the Allies are now pressing hard on the heels of the Germans as they retreat northwards in ever-growing confusion.
On the east, our gallant Soviet Allies have driven the enemy back from the lands which were invaded three years ago. The great Soviet armies are now initiating crushing blows.
Overhead, vast Allied air fleets of bombers and fighters have been waging a bitter air war over Germany and Western Europe. They have had two major objectives: to destroy German war industries which maintain the German armies and air forces; and to shoot the German Luftwaffe out of the air. As a result, German production has been whittled down continuously, and the German fighter forces now have only a fraction of their former power.
This great air campaign, strategic and tactical, is going to continue – with increasing power.
And on the west, the hammer blow which struck the coast of France last Tuesday morning, less than a week ago, was the culmination of many months of careful planning and strenuous preparation.
Millions of tons of weapons and supplies, hundreds of thousands of men assembled in England, are now being poured into the great battle in Europe.
I think that from the standpoint of our enemy we have achieved the impossible. We have broken through their supposedly impregnable wall in northern France. But the assault has been costly in men and costly in materials. Some of our landings were desperate adventures; but from advices received so far, the losses were lower than our commanders had estimated would occur. We have established a firm foothold. We are now prepared to meet the inevitable counterattacks of the Germans – with power and with confidence. And we all pray that we will have far more, soon, than a firm foothold.
Americans have all worked together to make this day possible.
The liberation forces now streaming across the Channel, and up the beaches and through the fields and the forests of France are using thousands and thousands of planes and ships and tanks and heavy guns. They are carrying with them many thousands of items needed for their dangerous, stupendous undertaking. There is a shortage of nothing – nothing! And this must continue.
What has been done in the United States since those days of 1940 – when France fell – in raising and equipping and transporting our fighting forces, and in producing weapons and supplies for war, has been nothing short of a miracle. It was largely due to American teamwork – teamwork among capital and labor and agriculture, between the armed forces and the civilian economy – indeed among all of them.
And every one – every man or woman or child – who bought a War Bond helped – and helped mightily!
There are still many people in the United States who have not bought War Bonds, or who have not bought as many as they can afford. Everyone knows for himself whether he falls into that category or not. In some cases his neighbors know too. To the consciences of those people, this appeal by the President of the United States is very much in order.
For all of the things which we use in this war, everything we send to our fighting Allies, costs money – a lot of money. One sure way every man, woman and child can keep faith with those who have given, and are giving, their lives, is to provide the money which is needed to win the final victory.
I urge all Americans to buy War Bonds without stint. Swell the mighty chorus to bring us nearer to victory!
Völkischer Beobachter (June 13, 1944)
Eisenhowers Rezept verdorben –
Aufmarsch im Feuerhasel
vb. Berlin, 12. Juni –
Der gegenwärtige Abschnitt der Entwicklung an der Invasionsfront kann immer noch als eine Art von Zwischenstadium betrachtet werden. Die Engländer und Amerikaner sind an Land gekommen. Nun suchen sie die günstigsten Stellungen für die große Schlacht der Panzer und der Grenadiere, die in der Normandie über kurz oder lang entbrennen muß. Gleichzeitig marschiert auch Deutschland mit der Masse seiner eingreifenden Divisionen auf, die es aus dem Innern Frankreichs herbeiholt. Während diese Bewegungen vor sich gehen, hat sich das eigentliche Bild der Frontlage in den letzten 48 Stunden, seitdem die Amerikaner und Engländer die beiden Brückenköpfe – den von Bayeux und den nördlich Carentan – vereinigt haben, nicht wesentlich verändert.
Der Gegner ist am Fuße der Halbinsel auf Carentan vorgestoßen und hat die Stadt in hartem Kampf genommen. Dagegen ist ein anderer Versuch, vom Südosten her Cherbourg zu nehmen, nach anfänglichen Erfolgen zurückgeworfen worden. So wogt der Kampf an den ausgezackten Rändern des Brückenkopfes hin und her, aber sein Umfang selber hat sich in den letzten Tagen kaum noch verändert. Vor allem ist deutlich geworden, daß der Gegner diesem Brückenkopf nach dem Lande zu keine größere Ausdehnung zu geben vermocht hat, als sie bereits Ende vergangener Woche bestand. Der Brückenkopf hat eine beträchtliche Breite, aber eine nur geringe Tiefe. Er bildet immer noch einen Küstensaum.
Und in diesem Saum herrscht der Gegner nicht unbeschränkt. Der Atlantikwall besteht in diesen Tagen seine große Probe. Seine Werke haben schon bei der Annäherung dem Gegner schwere Verluste zugefügt, aber seinen vollen Wert beweist das System gerade erst in diesen Tagen, da ein Teil der Anlagen zerstört oder überrannt ist und an dem anderen die Gegner vorbeizuflitzen versuchen. In Maschinengewehrnestern, in Betonbunkern und Panzerwerken halten sich die Verteidiger, aus ihren Geschützrohren, aus ihren Gewehrläufen und aus ihren Flammenwerfern schlägt dem Feind immer von neuem ein schweres Feuer entgegen. Während er sich vorne an der eigentlichen Front erbittert genug mit deutschen Panzern oder mit den zahlreichen Scharfschützen der Infanterie herumschlagen muß, dröhnen hinter seinem Rücken oder an seiner Flanke unaufhörlich die deutschen Abschüsse. Er kann sich nicht frei entfalten, so gern er es auch möchte.
Wir müssen uns klarzumachen versuchen, was diese beiden Tatsachen: die geringe Tiefenausdehnung des Küstenraums und das Hereingesprengtsein der weiterfeuernden Werke des Atlantikwalls, für den Gegner bedeutet. Er weiß, daß die eigentliche Schlacht noch bevorsteht. Er weiß, daß er sie gegen weit stärkere Verbände auszufechten haben wird, als er sie bei der Landung traf. Er muß sich für diese Schlacht vorbereiten. Er muß zunächst für die an Zahl beträchtlichen Truppen, die er hinübergesandt hat, immer wieder Ersatz für die Ausfälle, er muß Munition, er muß Treibstoff, er muß Lebensmittel hinüberschaffen. Ein Teil davon geht über See. Die deutsche Kriegsmarine und die deutsche Luftwaffe haben ihren Einsatz in den letzten Tagen noch verstärken können, und bevor die Transportschiffe noch den Strand erreichten, sind viele von ihnen mit ihren Insassen in die See gesunken. Er kann dann diese Schiffe keineswegs dort ausladen lassen, wo er gern möchte, denn er muß immer wieder fürchten, in das Feuer von deutschen Küstenbatterien zu geraten. Er ist also von vornherein in der Wahl seiner Landeköpfe beschränkt. Das zwingt dazu, den größten Teil der Transporte weiter durch die Luft zu leiten. Auch hier gerät ein Teil bereits unterwegs in das Feuer der deutschen Jäger und Zerstörer. Für diejenigen Lastensegler aber, die ankommen, muß der Landeplatz wieder sorgfältig ausgesucht werden, und die Wahl ist dabei beschränkt, weil auch hier das Feuer der deutschen Werke zu fürchten ist.
Wenn aber nun der General Montgomery, der Oberbefehlshaber der 21. Armeegruppe (wobei die Zahl natürlich hier wie in allen solchen Fällen rein willkürlich gewählt ist) die an Land gekommenen Truppen und das Material für die große bevorstehende Schlacht aufmarschieren läßt, sieht er sich erst recht immer wieder dadurch gehemmt, daß sein Aufmarschraum nach der Tiefe so sehr beschränkt ist, und daß er nicht einmal auf diesem beschränkten Raum marschieren lassen kann, wohin er will. Er kann seine Verbände nicht so in der Tiefe staffeln, wie er gerne möchte. Und auf wichtigen Straßen und Versammlungsplätzen liegt das deutsche Wirkungsfeuer. Er hat es nicht nur zu fürchten von den weiter entfernt liegenden Batterien der deutschen Front, sondern auch aus seiner unmittelbaren Nähe, von den Werken des Atlantikwalls. Es ist zum Teil ein Aufmarsch im Feuerhagel, den die Armeegruppe Montgomery in diesen Tagen unternehmen muß. Dieser Aufmarsch ist sehr viel schwieriger als der, den der Generalfeldmarschall von Rundstedt, der deutsche Oberbefehlshaber West, und der Generalfeldmarschall Rommel, der Oberbefehlshaber einer Heeresgruppe, hier zu vollziehen haben.
Nach allem, was der Gegner vorher verkündet hatte, hat er sich das anders und vor allem viel leichter gedacht. Er hatte geglaubt, den Widerstand an der Küste schneller brechen zu können und hier ein Gebiet von einer gewissen Tiefe zur Verfügung zu haben, wo er in der Entfaltung seiner starken Panzerkräfte weniger behindert gewesen wäre. Er hat sein erstes Ziel: die Gewinnung eines Brückenkopfes, erreichen können. Aber er hat dabei einige für ihn nicht ungefährliche Veränderungen seiner Absichten in Kauf nehmen müssen. Er hat zunächst im Gegensatz zu seinem Plan Le Havre nicht in Besitz nehmen können. Hätte er diesen Halen besessen, so wäre alles viel leichter gewesen. Da er Ihn nicht besaß, mußte er entgegen seinen ursprünglichen Wünschen dem Westflügel stärkere Aufmerksamkeit widmen, als er es sich vorgestellt hatte. Er setzt hier heute stärkere Kräfte ein, als dies in Eisenhowers „Fahrplan“ stand. Er hat dort den deutschen Widerstand immer noch nicht überwinden können, obwohl er bisher nur mit den örtlichen Sicherungsstreitkräften und taktischen Reserven zu kämpfen hat. Er hat aber dafür auch in diesem vorbereitenden Stadium der Kämpfe die schwersten Verluste auf sich nehmen müssen, und er hat trotzdem der deutschen Führung die Möglichkeit nicht zu nehmen vermocht, ihrerseits den Aufmarschinder vollen Systematik der Generalstabsarbeit vorzunehmen.
Ist dieses Bild getrübt von den Wünschen eines Deutschen? Aber gerade, wenn man die Berichte der feindlichen Kriegskorrespondenten von der Front, nicht zuletzt aber die Berichte der Washingtoner und Londoner Berichterstatter neutraler Länder liest, erhält man ein höchst eindrucksvolles und in dieser Stärke doch überraschendes Bild davon, wie sehr sich der wirkliche Kampfverlauf von der Erwartung unterscheidet, die man drüben noch vor vierzehn Tagen hegte. Das ist vielleicht am stärksten in der Art zu spüren, wie die amerikanische und englische Öffentlichkeit auf die Ereignisse antwortet. Wir haben sie noch vor uns, die Berichte aus dem April und Mai, wir kennen sie noch, die amtlichen Anordnungen des Gegners für die Bekanntgabe der Invasionsereignisse. Da stand am nordamerikanischen Rundfunk Tag um Tag ein Mann vor einem Knopf, auf den er nur zu drücken brauchte, wenn der Beginn der Invasion mitgeteilt wurde, und dann sollten überall die ersten Siegesmeldungen durchgehen, dann sollte die Freiheitsstatue im Hafen von Neuyork aufleuchten, dann sollten in England und Amerika überall die Glocken geläutet werden, dann sollte in den Straßen eine wahre Konfettischlacht der Freude beginnen. Was ist davon eingetroffen? Nichts. Wenn wir den Berichter neutraler Blätter glauben würden, liegt über beiden Ländern eine Art von Beklemmung, ein gewisses Gefühl dunkler Erwartung, das durch nichts mehr genährt wird als durch die Mitteilungen von der Front über die furchtbaren Verluste, die Englands und Amerikas Elitedivisionen schon in den ersten vorbereitenden Gefechten erleiden müssen.
In einem Bericht, den das Stockholmer Aftonbladet aus den Kreisen amerikanischer überlebender der Landung erhalten hat und den wir an anderer Stelle veröffentlichen, spiegelt sich der furchtbare Schrecken wider, den die Landungstruppen erhielten, als sie den Boden des europäischen Festlandes betraten. Sie hatten so sehr auf ihre hohe Zahl und auf ihr neues Material vertraut und sie fanden eine Hölle. Das war in den ersten Tagen der Invasion so, als alles noch relativ leicht war für den Angreifer. Was werden die Amerikaner erst einmal melden, wenn die eigentliche Schlacht im Gange ist?
Die Büchse der Pandora
vb. Wien, 12. Juni –
Wenn man danach fragt, was sich der „Mann auf der Straße“ in England und in den USA von der Invasion versprochen hat, so gibt es nur eine Antwort: Er glaubte, daß dieser höchste Einsatz den Krieg schnell beenden werde. Die Sowjets hatten ihre noch zögernden Bundesgenossen auch auf diesem Feld überspielt. Sie waren es, die in die Massen in den verbündeten Ländern das Stichwort hineinwarfen, man müsse zu einem Abschluß kommen, der nur durch die Invasion zu erreichen sei, denn der Krieg sei nur zu Lande zu gewinnen. Damit wurden die Regierungen in London und Washington unter einen Druck der öffentlichen Meinung gesetzt, der die unerbittlichen Forderungen Moskaus aufs wirksamste unterstützte. Die Kriegsverdrossenheit wurde zum stärksten Antrieb eines totalen Einsatzes an allen Fronten.
Als dann in Teheran die Invasion zum Programmpunkt Nr. 1 erhoben und abgemacht war, begannen die Brandon Bracken und Eimer Davis, den kommenden Ereignissen einen revueartigen Hintergrund zu geben. Es wurde ein Schlachtengemälde von größter Farbenpracht entrollt, die Glocken sollten läuten, die Freiheitsstatue vor dem Neuyorker Hafen sollte im Strahl der Scheinwerfer aufleuchten, 700.000 Worte sollten täglich um den Erdball gefunkt werden, um den unwiderstehlichen Siegeslauf der alliierten Armeen zu schildern. Die Presse zerbrach sich nur noch den Kopf darüber, was man später mit dem erwarteten völligen Triumph anfangen sollte. Sogar der alte Ladenhüter vom „Kreuzzug“ wurde aus der Schublade hervorgeholt…
Inzwischen hat man drüben erleben müssen, daß die Invasion alles andere ist als ein Volksfest. Wenn vorher Sachverständige ihre warnende Stimme erhoben hatten, so war das zumeist als ein taktisches Manöver angesehen worden, als eine der vielen Finten, die den Gegner täuschen sollten. Was aber jetzt die Kriegsberichterstatter von der normannischen Küste melden, übertrifft bei weitem die düstersten Voraussagen, die man vordem vernommen hatte. Schlimmer als die Hölle – das ist der Kehrreim ihrer Meldungen vom Verlauf der erbitterten Kämpfe in dem Küstenstreifen zwischen Cherbourg und Bayeux, in dem jeder Fußbreit Boden mit Strömen von Blut bezahlt werden muß. In den englischen Kanalhäfen aber trifft tagtäglich ein breiter Strom von Verwundeten ein, die auch die Londoner Lazarette füllen, ohne daß sie der Schall von Siegesglocken begrüßt.
Das alles ist erst der Beginn eines Unternehmens, von dem man sich ein schnelles Kriegsende versprochen hatte und das sich nun als Auftakt zu einem langen bitteren Opfergang offenbart. Über allem lastet die dumpfe Erwartung, daß die deutsche Führung ihre Trümpfe noch auszuspielen hat und daß aus der dunklen Wetterwand über dem Kanal noch vernichtende Blitze niedergehen werden.
Times hat diesen Gefühlen Ausdruck gegeben, als sie die besorgte Frage stellte, ob der gewagte Einsatz auch den ersehnten Erfolg bringen werde. Bisher ist er nur den gewissenlosen Spekulanten zuteilgeworden, die an der Londoner Börse ihre schmutzigen Geschäfte mittels der Invasionshausse gemacht haben. Sie haben es noch immer verstanden, aus Blut Gold zu machen, und es bedeutet für die Juden, die dabei an der Spitze liegen, wenig, daß diesmal die Blüte der Jugend Englands, Amerikas und Kanadas in den Tod geschickt wird, anstatt der Hilfsvölker, die man an anderen Fronten opferte. In Moskau aber reibt man sich die Hände über das Gelingen des Planes, den man seit Jahren zäh und unbeirrbar verfolgt hat: die Alliierten in ein Abenteuer zu treiben, das ihre Kraft schwächt, ihr Selbstgefühl erschüttert und innenpolitische Auswirkungen verspricht, die der Kreml erhofft. In jedem Fall glaubt man in Moskau, daß sich Briten und Amerikaner überall, wo sie landen, als Wegbereiter des Bolschewismus bewähren werden, wie sie es in Nordafrika und in Süditalien unter Beweis gestellt haben.
Moskau, Juda und das kapitalistische Spekulantentum stehen hinter der Invasion, die man den Briten und Amerikanern wie auch den Nationen Europas als eine befreiende Tatsache hingestellt hat. Für die dunklen Mächte, die die Völker der Erde in diesen Krieg stürzten, werden die bisher sorgsam aufgesparten Divisionen der Invasionsarmeen in die Blutmühle auf dem Kontinent getrieben. Die Nutznießer dieses tragischen Schauspiels werden freilich erleben, daß sie sich gründlich verrechnet haben und daß sie die unheilbergende Büchse der Pandora öffneten, als sie am 6. Juni den Sprung über den Kanal erzwangen und damit alles auf eine Karte setzten.
Heldenmütiger Einsatz unserer Luftwaffe und Kriegsmarine
Fortgesetzte schwere Verluste der Landungsflotte
dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 12. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Im Landekopf in der Normandie ist die Lage im großen unverändert. Lücken in der eigenen Front wurden geschlossen. Alle Versuche des Feindes, zwischen Caen und Bayeux nach Süden und nördlich der Viremündung in Richtung Cherbourg Raum zu gewinnen, scheiterten. Nur Carentan ging nach hartem Kampf verloren. An der Küste beiderseits St. Vaast, östlich von Cherbourg, hielt der Artilleriekampf mit Teilen der feindlichen Flotte an.
Der feindliche Nachschub erleidet besonders unter den tapferen, unermüdlichen Nachtangriffen unserer Schnellboote fortgesetzt schwere Verluste.
Luftwaffe und Kriegsmarine versenkten trotz der vom Feind wesentlich verstärkten Abwehr drei Fracht- und Transportschiffe mit zusammen 37.000 BRT. Drei weitere große Schiffe mit 27.000 BRT und ein Zerstörer wurden schwer beschädigt.
Bei ungünstigster Wetterlage griffen Schnellbootgruppen erneut überraschend einen feindlichen Kreuzerverband und seine Sicherung an und erzielten zwei Torpedotreffer.
Der Feind verlor gestern über der Invasionsfront und den besetzten Westgebieten 17 Flugzeuge.
In Italien lag der Schwerpunkt der Kämpfe auf der Front zwischen der Küste des Tyrrhenischen Meeres und dem Bolsenasee. Nach hartem Kampf gelang es dem Gegner, beiderseits des Sees geringen Geländegewinn zu erzielen.
An der Ostfront führten die Sowjets örtliche Angriffe nordwestlich Jassy, im Karpatenvorland und im Raum südöstlich Ostrow, die blutig abgewiesen wurden.
Die Bekämpfung des sowjetischen Nachschubes wurde auch in der vergangenen Nacht erfolgreich fortgesetzt. Durch zusammengefasste Angriffe starker Kampffliegerverbände auf die Bahnhöfe Kasatin, Fastow und Kiew-Darniza wurden große Mengen an Nachschubmaterial vernichtet. Die Bahnanlagen wurden nachhaltig zerstört.
Bei Einflügen starker nordamerikanischer Bomberverbände in den bulgarisch-rumänischen Raum wurden durch deutsche, rumänische und bulgarische Luftverteidigungskräfte 18 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.
Einzelne britische Flugzeuge warfen in der vergangenen Nacht Bomben auf Berlin. Ein feindliches Flugzeug wurde zum Absturz gebracht.
Enttäuschung und Ernüchterung der Invasionisten –
Vergebliche Hoffnung auf französische Helfer
h. r. Madrid, 12. Juni –
Die Enttäuschung der Anglo-Amerikaner über die völlig mangelnde Mitarbeit der französischen Bevölkerung bei der Invasion läßt sich nicht mehr länger verschweigen. Der Mythos einer zweckvollen französischen Widerstandsbewegung, der seit Monaten und Jahren von den alliierten Nachrichtenzentralen der Welt vorgespielt wurde, bricht jäh vor den Augen der eigenen Landetruppen zusammen.
Weder die vorhergegangenen Aufrufe an die Franzosen, mit den sogenannten Befreiern Hand in Hand, zu arbeiten, noch die rührenden Geschichten der anglo-amerikanischen Kriegskorrespondenten, die von heroischen Mädchen und patriotischen alten Männern berichteten – Geschichten, die den gleichen Propagandastellen zu entstammen schienen, die die „jubelnde befreite Bevölkerung Italiens“ erfand – vermögen die Franzosen zu einer aktiven Zusammenarbeit mit den Landetruppen zu bewegen.
Der US-Korrespondent der Madrider Zeitung Arriba zitiert die bezeichnenden melancholischen Sätze der New York Times:
Unsere Soldaten brauchen die größte Unterstützung eines jeden französischen Zivilisten. Wieviel leichter würde die Aufgabe sein, wenn dort der Geist der Marseillaise von 1792 wieder erwacht wäre. Die Landung würde unter glücklicheren Vorzeichen stehen, wenn sie von etwas mehr als nur einer Vereinbarung zwischen de Gaulle begleitet wäre.
Den gleichen Skeptizismus äußert das Madrider Blatt Pueblo:
Es ist wenig wahrscheinlich, daß die Haltung der Franzosen gegenüber den deutschen Kräften zu einem wirkungsvollen Mittel der alliierten Aktionen wird.
Auch die spanische Wochenschrift Espagnol stellt fest:
Die französische Bevölkerung hat in keiner Weise feindliche Handlungen gegen die Deutschen unternommen, sei es, weil sie so grausam unter den alliierten Bombardierungen litt, oder ganz einfach, weil sie kriegsmüde ist.
Die Gründe hiefür seien aber unwichtig, meint das Blatt. Die Hauptsache sei, daß dadurch die deutsche Abwehr den Rücken frei habe, um ohne Schwierigkeiten operieren zu können.
Alle militärischen Betrachter der spanischen Blätter weisen nach wie vor darauf hin, daß die Invasion noch immer in der ersten Phase stecke. Deutschland verfolge lediglich den großen strategischen Plan, die Masse der Invasionstruppen in Frankreich zu schlagen. Dies könne im Hinterland des heutigen Brückenkopfes geschehen oder auch an anderen Stellen, wenn neue, vielleicht noch stärkere Landeplätze gesucht werden sollten. Hinsichtlich des Ablaufes der Kämpfe an der normannischen Küste schreibt das ABC:
Eisenhower dürfte wissen, daß die heutigen Anstrengungen nicht genügen, um einen wichtigen Erfolg zu erreichen. Der geringe Gewinn, der nach sechs furchtbaren Kampftagen unter schwersten Verlusten erzielt wurde, ist ein kleines Beispiel für die Kostspieligkeit einer Offensive, die die Entscheidung bringen soll. Die Hartnäckigkeit der deutschen Verteidigung erfordert vom Angreifer eine drei bis Vierfache Übermacht, und es scheint zweifelhaft, ob Eisenhower über solche Kräfte verfügt.