‘Fantastic’ future seen in electronics
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Editorial: France battles to regain freedom against defeatist counsels of Pétain
Two voices have counseled France within recent days as to the course which she should follow for her own interests and security. The old marshal who now does Hitler’s bidding at Vichy, a pitiable figure from whom every last vestige of heroism and honor has fallen, is guilty of his final gesture of betrayal.
For four years, the “Hero of Verdun” has watched the oppressors of his people steal the food from their mouths, line free spirits against a wall, forcibly take men from their homes and hearths to slave in the mills of Germany and hold as prisoners the soldiers captured in the debacle that preceded capitulation.
He has seen no sign of mercy or magnanimity, nothing to justify the hope that one day freedom would be restored by the victors. Yet, his counsel to the people of France, with their great tradition of liberty, is to bend to the oppressor’s yoke. “Follow me,” he pleaded, knowing that he could lead them only deeper into slavery. “Do not get mixed up in the affairs of others.”
The other voice is that of de Gaulle, who has told the people of France that the time has come to prepare for their part in their own liberation – a part which calls for sabotage, a general strike in factories working for the enemy, for the guidance of Allied forces and eventually for a mass uprising.
This is a call to war by civilians who will be given short shrift by the Nazi executioners who overrun the land, who have marked their suspects and will strike ruthlessly when the slightest justification arises. France will soon be ablaze with war, with its towns and villages wrecked by the fire of friend and foe, with more acute misery than the people have known since 1918, even including the years of enslavement.
Out of this new agony will come, however, the deliverance which the French have craved, the freedom more precious to them than life itself, the arrival of their day of glory.
White House Statement on Approving the Joint Resolution on the Pearl Harbor Trial and Investigation
June 13, 1944
I have today approved the Joint Resolution passed by the Congress, extending for the further period of six months all statutory and other provisions that might prevent the trial and punishment of any persons involved in the Pearl Harbor catastrophe of December 7, 1941, and directing the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy to make an investigation into the facts surrounding the catastrophe and commence proceedings against such persons as the facts may justify.
The Secretaries of War and Navy have both suggested that I withhold my approval from this resolution, on the ground that the investigation and action therein directed might require them to withdraw from their present assignments numerous officers whose services in such assignments are needed for the successful prosecution of the war, and also on the ground that such proceedings would give publicity to matters which national security requires still to be withheld from the enemy.
If there were any doubt in my mind that the resolution might require such action by the Secretaries of War and Navy as would interfere with the successful conduct of the war, I would have withheld my approval from the resolution. I am confident, however, that the Congress did not intend that the investigation of this matter or any proceedings should be conducted in a manner which would interrupt or interfere with the war effort. On the strength of this confidence, I have approved the resolution.
The Pittsburgh Press (June 13, 1944)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Normandy beachhead, France –
On our first morning after leaving London, the Army gave us assault correspondents a semi-final set of instructions and sent us off in jeeps in separate groups, each group to be divided up later until we were all separated.
We still weren’t given any details of the coming invasion. We still didn’t know where we were to go aboard ship, or what units we would be with.
As each batch left, the oldsters among us would shake hands. And because we weren’t feeling very brilliant, almost our only words to each other were, “Take it easy.”
The following morning, at another camp, I was called at 4:00 a.m. All around me officers were cussing and getting up. This was the headquarters of a certain outfit, and they were moving out in a motor convoy at dawn.
For months, these officers had been living a civilized existence, with good beds, good food, dress-up uniforms, polished desks and a normal social existence. But now once again they were in battle clothes. They wore steel helmets and combat boots, and many carried packs on their backs.
They joked in the sleepy pre-dawn darkness. One said to another, “What are you dressed up for, a masquerade?”
Everybody was overloaded with gear. One officer said:
The Germans will have to come to us. We can never get to them with all this load.
The most-repeated question, asking jokingly, said, “Is your trip necessary?”
These men had spent months helping to plan this gigantic invasion. They were relieved to finish the weary routine of paperwork at last, and glad to start pulling their plans into action. If they had any personal concern about themselves, they didn’t show it.
I rode with the convoy commander, who was an old friend. We were in an open jeep. It was just starting to get daylight when we pulled out. And just as we left, it began raining – that dismal, cold, cruel rain that England is so capable of. It rained like that a year and a half ago when we left for Africa.
We drove all day. Motorcycles nursed each of our three sections along. We would hail every two hours for a stretch. At noon, we opened K rations. It was bitter cold.
Enlisted men had brought along a wire-haired terrier which belonged to one of the sergeants. We couldn’t have an invasion without a few dogs along. At the rest halts, the terrier would get out in the fields to play and chase rocks with never any worry. It seemed wonderful to be a dog.
The English roads had been almost wholly cleared of normal traffic. British civil and army police were at every crossing. As we neared the embarkation point, people along the roads stood at their doors and windows and smiled bon voyage to us. Happy children gave us the American OK sign – thumb and forefinger in a circle. One boy smilingly pointed a stick at us like a gun, and one of the soldiers pointed his rifle back and asked us with a grin: “Shall I let him have it?”
One little girl, thinking the Lord knows what, made a nasty face at us.
Along toward evening we reached our ship. It was an LST, and it was already nearly loaded with trucks and armored cars and soldiers. Its ramp was down in the water, several yards from shore, and being an old campaigner, I just waded aboard. But the officers behind me yelled up at the deck: “Hey, tell the captain to move the ship up closer.”
So, they waited a few minutes, and the ramp was eased up onto dry ground, and our whole convoy walked around. Being an old campaigner, I was the only one in the crowd to get his feet wet.
We had hardly got aboard when the lines were cast off and we pulled out. That evening the colonel commanding the troops on our ship gave me the whole invasion plan in detail – the secret the whole world had waited years to hear, and once you have heard it you become permanently a part of it. Now you were committed. It was too late to back out now, even if your heart failed you.
I asked a good many questions, and I realized my voice was shaking when I spoke but I couldn’t help it. Yes, it would be tough, the colonel admitted. Our own part would be precarious. He hoped to go in with as few casualties as possible, but there would be casualties.
From a vague anticipatory dread, the invasion now turned into a horrible reality for me.
In a matter of hours, this holocaust of our own planning would swirl over us. No man could guarantee his own fate. It was almost too much for me. A feeling of utter desperation obsessed me throughout the night. It was nearly 4:00 a.m. before I got to sleep and then it was a sleep harassed and torn by an awful knowledge.
Völkischer Beobachter (June 14, 1944)
‚Das US-Volk müsste sehen…‘
Atlantikwall eine bittere Realität
Die schweren Verluste der Invasionsstreitkräfte führen zu herber Kritik
vb. Wien, 13. Juni –
Noch ist sehr viel zu tun, meldet Reuters Sonderberichter aus dem taktischen Hauptquartier des Generals Montgomery in der Normandie – und schon sind Ströme von Blut geflossen, ehe nach einer Woche die Invasionstruppen mehr als einen schmalen Küstensaum des Landes in Besitz nehmen konnten, übereinstimmend verzeichnen die Meldungen von jeder neuen Gefechtsberührung, daß der deutsche Widerstand sich zunehmend versteift. Folgerichtig müssen die englischen und amerikanischen Verluste mit der fortschreitenden Konsolidierung der deutschen Abwehr steigen.
Die Klagen der angelsächsischen Öffentlichkeit über die Heere von Toten und Armeen von Verwundeten, die Großbritannien und die USA auf Churchills und Roosevelts Betreiben für Stalins Westoffensive opfern mußten, klingen sehr herbe. Und ein Major der amerikanischen Streitkräfte, der die Bestattung der Gefallenen zu leiten hatte, sagte voller Bitterkeit: „Das US-Volk müsste sehen wie viel Blut und Leben es kostet, den Deutschen ein so kleines Strandstück zu entreißen.“ Er bezog seine bittere Äußerung nur auf einen kleinen Abschnitt von wenig mehr als 2,5 Kilometer breite in der Nähe von Vierville auf der Halbinsel Cherbourg. 750 Tote fand sein Kommando noch an dem Strand, die gleiche Zahl sei jedoch von der Flut schon wieder ins Meer zurückgespült worden. Hunderte von Metern weit lagen die Toten wie hin gemäht einer neben dem anderen – schreckliche Beweise für die „Zähigkeit und große Wildheit,“ mit der, wie der Militärkorrespondent des Daily Express meldet, die Deutschen überall fechten.
Die Situation an der Invasionsfront, bemerkt dieser Korrespondent, dürfe man solange mit keinerlei Optimismus in London oder Washington betrachten, als es den Alliierten nicht gelungen sei, wesentlich tiefer als bisher aus dem schmalen Küstensaum in das Landesinnere durchzustoßen. Diesem Ziel aber vermochte die deutsche Verteidigung einen noch nicht überwundenen Riegel vorzuschieben, so daß der Schluss nicht von der Hand zu weisen ist, sie habe ihre besonderen Absichten im Sinn, wenn sie dem Gegner die Breitenausdehnung an der Küste und die Verbindung seiner Landeköpfe untereinander nicht härter erschwerte. Daß der Atlantikwall, wie es voreilig in den ersten 48 Invasionsstunden aus anglo-amerikanischen Meldungen tönte, nur ein Bluff sei, entkräften mit deutlichem Nachdruck mittlerweise verschiedene Londoner Blätter, insbesondere die Times tritt dieser Auffassung mit einem ausführlichen eigenen Bericht entgegen.
„Behauptungen, wie daß der Atlantikwall nur Bluff ist,“ schrieb das englische Blatt, „dienen dazu, die Opfer zu unterschätzen, die unseren Truppen beim Ansturm gegen die Küste abverlangt wurden. In nicht wenigen Fällen hat sich im Gegenteil der Atlantikwall als so stark herausgestellt, daß es zweifelhaft blieb, ob unsere Truppen überhaupt am Strand Fuß fassen konnten, und immer wieder mußten neue Kräfte gegen die Verteidiger eingesetzt werden.“ Die Kämpfe der Invasionstruppen bezeichnet der Militärkorrespondent der Times daher als außerordentlich hart. Es sei sehr zweifelhaft, schreibt er, ob man überhaupt von einem Durchbruch durch diesen Wall sprechen könne, Denn letzten Endes bestehe er nicht nur aus dem Stahl und dem Beton der vordersten Linien, deren Festungswerke auch noch nicht überwunden sind und ständig weiterfeuern, sondern auch aus den taktischen und strategischen Reserven, die mehr oder weniger weit hinter ihm stünden. Noch immer nicht habe man, trotz der forcierten Anlandungen zur See und aus der Luft, für die man erschreckend hohe Verluste in Kauf genommen habe, die deutschen Eingreifreserven schlagen können, geschweige denn an die strategischen heranzureichen vermocht.
Um ihren Lesern die Schwierigkeiten auf, dem Brückenkopfgelände zu veranschaulichen und Churchill und seine Generale für das Blutbad zu entschuldigen, für das sie doch die Verantwortung tragen, gibt die Times eine ausführliche Schilderung des deutschen Verteidigungssystems. Hinter den ersten Maschinengewehrnestern lägen dicke, aus Stahl und Zement errichtete Blockhäuser, und weiter wieder schwer befestigte Maschinengewehrstellungen, in denen der Feind vielfach so entschlossen aushält und die sich selbst als so widerstandsfähig erwiesen, „daß die englischen und amerikanischen Soldaten überhaupt nicht an sie herankamen.“
Die schwersten Bombenangriffe gegen diese Festungswerke und der schwerste Beschuss von See her, der jedem Angriff regelmäßig voranging, hätten diesem deutschen Atlantikwall nichts anhaben können. Mit wütendem Feuer sei aus den Festungswerken jeder Landungsversuch beantwortet worden, und es sei bestimmt kein leichtes, gegen ein solches Abwehrfeuer von See her zu landen. Das versichern selbst Angehörige von Stoßtrupps, die mehr Kämpfe als diese gesehen haben. Sie seien sich sämtlich einig in dem Eindruck, daß sie derartiges bisher noch nicht erlebten. Lassen wir den einfachen Soldaten zu Wort kommen, den Tom, den Dick und Harry, die wir zum Angriff auf den deutschen Atlantikwall über den Kanal setzten. Ist es schwerer gewesen, als sie es erwarteten? Jedenfalls war das, was sie vorfanden, kein gigantischer Bluff, und für sie ist heute der Atlantikwall eine bittere Realität.
Ähnlich muß zur Entschuldigung der hohen blutigen Verluste der Daily Express in seinem Leitartikel schreiben, daß die deutschen Befestigungswerke zwischen Narvik und St. Jean de Luz vielleicht in der Art ihrer Anlage unterschiedlich seien – aber sie seien alle stark, „furchtbar stark.“ In der Normandie stellten sie einen Wall mörderischer Kreuzfeuersysteme dar, durchsetzt mit mächtigen Bunkern, vor denen geschickte Drahtverhaue, Minen und sonstige Sperren errichtet seien, und „Wo die Ingenieure des Ministers Speer keinen Zement zur Hand hatten, wußten sie andere Ideen zu verwirklichen.“ Da das englische Volk die endlosen Lazarettzüge sieht, die von Süden her auf die Insel hinaufrollen und da die englische Presse infolgedessen weder die blutigen Opfer noch die Schwierigkeiten der Invasion länger verschweigen kann, werden, wie immer, auch die ersten Stimmen auf die Suche nach den Verantwortlichen gelenkt, indem eine erste vorsichtige Kritik die immer länger werdenden Unfall-Listen ihrer Untersuchungen unterzieht.
Alliiertes Oberkommando schweigt sich aus
Der Kriegskorrespondent der Times schreibt, hilflos seien die Landungsfahrzeuge den schweren Brechern einer stürmischen See ausgeliefert gewesen und seien dann zu Wracks zerschlagen worden. Manchester Guardian spricht von verzweifelten Bemühungen, das Landungsmaterial an den Strand zu schaffen, und erwähnt dann die „immer länger werdende Unfall-Liste.“ Sobald man nämlich seinen Blick den Kämpfenden an Land zuwendet, stelle man ein allgemeines Dunkel fest, das über den alliierten Operationen laste. Es würden überhaupt nur sehr wenige Nachrichten über den Fortgang der Kämpfe ausgegeben. Infolgedessen könne man sich bei der Beurteilung der Lage an der französischen Küste kaum auf etwas stützen, was das alliierte Oberkommando sage. Jeder, der sich daher mit diesen und ähnlichen, mit der Invasion im Zusammenhang stehenden Fragen befasse, stehe höllische Qualen aus, da er vom alliierten Oberkommando keine Antwort erhalte.
Auch in Neuyork ist die Stimmung nach den anfänglich optimistischen Meldungen von der Invasionsfront merklich zurückgegangen. Wie Efe meldet, habe sich am Sonntag und Montag der US-Bevölkerung sogar eine gewisse Unruhe bemächtigt, weil die von den Deutschen gemeldeten Schiffsversenkungen nicht dementiert worden seien, und weil von alliierter Seite bisher keine Verlustmeldungen herausgekommen wären. Die katholische Wochenschrift Tablet in London meint in diesem Zusammenhang, die Nordamerikaner pflegten nur in sehr seltenen Fällen zu beten, entweder nur nach Niederlagen oder wenn sie sich in irgendwelche Abenteuer stürzen, und die Invasion sei in der Tat ein sehr großes Abenteuer.
Erfolgreiche Abwehr und Gegenstöße
Berlin, 13. Juni –
„Die Deutschen haben auf unserem linken Flügel Gegenangriffe gemacht und an einzelnen Stellen mußten die Alliierten Gelände aufgeben“ lautete eine am Montagabend in London ausgegebene Meldung. „Trotz der Tatsache, daß Montebourg noch immer in den Händen der Deutschen ist, haben sich die Nordamerikaner nach Westen gewandt,“ hieß es an anderer Stelle. Abgesehen davon, daß die Nordamerikaner inzwischen westlich von Sainte-Mère-Église blutig abgeschlagen wurden, enthalten diese beiden Meldungen das britische Eingeständnis, daß der an den beiden äußersten Abschnitten des normannischen Brückenkopfes angelegte deutsche Sperrriegel hält.
Er widersteht nicht nur den Verbreiterungsversuchen des Feindes, sondern unsere Truppen brachen am 12. Juni im Gegenstoß von Norden her in den sackartigen Frontvorsprung ein, den britische Kräfte einige Kilometer nördlich Caen über die Orne hinweg in Richtung auf den Bois de Bavent vorgetrieben hatten. Der Angriff kam so überraschend für den Feind, daß er die ersten neun Panzer bereits verloren hatte, bevor er noch an Gegenwehr denken konnte. Die übrigen britischen Kampfwagen mußten sich im Feuer zurückziehen.
Westlich der Ornemündung setzte der seit Tagen eingeschlossene Stützpunkt Douvres den Kampf fort. Nicht zuletzt ist es auf hartnäckigen Widerstand seiner tapferen Besatzung und der übrigen noch mitten im feindlichen Brückenkopf sitzenden Widerstandsgruppen zurückzuführen, daß die nördlich Caen zusammengezogenen britischen Kräfte bisher noch nicht zum Angriff antraten.
Die Hauptstöße der Briten erfolgten am Montag im Bereich der von Bayeux nach Südosten und Süden ausstrahlenden Straßen. Um hiefür Kräfte freizubekommen, überließen sie ein weiteres Stück des Brückenkopfes den Nordamerikanern, die ihrerseits auf den Raum westlich Bayeux nach Südwesten drückten. Den beiderseits der Straße Bayeux-Caen und Bayeux-Tilly nach schwerer Bombardierung der Stellung und des Hinterlandes mit Panzerunterstützung angreifenden Briten lieferten unsere Truppen schwere Kämpfe.
Weiter nördlich hat sich der Feind in den teilweise überschwemmten Niederungen der Vire festgelaufen. Südöstlich Isigny versuchte er bei Nacht den Fluss zu überschreiten und in das Dörfchen Montmartin einzudringen. Er wurde im Gegenstoß gefasst und auf das Ostufer des Flusses zurückgeworfen.
Westlich der Vire-Mündung lag das Schwergewicht des nordamerikanischen Angriffs bei den Höhen westlich Carentan. Auch diese Vorstöße scheiterten. Mehrfach gingen unsere Truppen hier und westlich Sainte-Mère-Église den Feind mit der blanken Waffe an. Bei Pont-l’Abbé, dass mehrfach den Besitzer wechselte, wie zuvor bei Carentan, Chef du Pont und Montebourg, waren die Verluste der feindlichen Infanterie außerordentlich hoch. Daß es gelang, die Nordamerikaner auf der Halbinsel Cotentin aufzuhalten und den vom Feind erstrebten Durchbruch auf Cherbourg zu verhindern, ist das besondere Verdienst des im Kampf gefallenen Generals der Artillerie Marcks. Obwohl er nach einer schweren Verwundung im Osten eine Beinprothese trug, war er stets in vorderster Linie zu finden. Als Führer und Kämpfer war er seinen Truppen ein leuchtendes Vorbild soldatischer Haltung und Leistung.
Noch schwerer als die Verluste bei Carentan und Montebourg wiegen die Ausfälle, die die Nordamerikaner an der äußersten Nordostecke der Cotentinhalbinsel hatten. Hier waren beiderseits Barfleur zwischen St. Vaast und Cosqueville am Donnerstag und Freitag stärkere Kräfte auf die Luft- und Seewege an Land gebracht worden. Alle diese Gruppen waren bis Montagabend vernichtet. Dennoch hatte der Feind seine Absichten gegen den Abschnitt Barfleur offensichtlich nicht aufgegeben. Seit Sonntag beschießen feindliche Kriegsschiffe, unter ihnen vier nordamerikanische und ein britischer Kreuzer, unsere Verteidigungswerke.
Beispielhaft war die Haltung der Besatzung der Marineküstenbatterie von Marcouf, die unter Oberleutnant der Marineartillerie Ohmsen eingedrungene feindliche Kräfte im Gegenstoß vernichtete, die Werke von neuem besetzte und sofort wieder erfolgreich in die Artillerieduelle vor der Cotentinhalbinsel eingriff.
US-Negerstaffel über München
Genf, 13. Juni –
Das Londoner Exchange-Büro wartet mit einer besonders bemerkenswerten Meldung zum anglo-amerikanischen Luftterror auf. Danach begleitete eine ausschließlich aus Negern gebildete US-Jagdgruppe die Bombengeschwader auf ihrem Wege nach München. Exchange betont, daß diese Negerstaffel auch von einem Neger-Obersten geführt werde.
Diese Meldung ist ein bedeutsamer Beitrag zum Roosevelt-Krieg „für die Zivilisation“ und zur „Rettung der Kultur.“ Es bleibt den Kriegsbrandstiftern des Weißen Hauses vorbehalten, sich einer Negerstaffel zu rühmen, die gegen deutsche Städte angesetzt ist, um den Bombenterror gegen wehrlose Menschen, gegen Kulturstätten, Krankenhäuser und Kirchen voranzutragen.
Das Exchange-Büro, das offenbar sehr stolz auf seine Meldung ist, scheint zu vergessen, daß man in normalen Zeiten den Neger in den USA als Paria behandelt, der auf den Plantagen als Sklave gehalten wird, der in der Industrie als Lohndrücker verachtet und verfolgt wurde und den man den weißen Arbeitern als Objekt des Hasses auslieferte. Aber als Roosevelt und seine jüdischen Helfer sich am Kriege beteiligten, da wurden die Neger plötzlich umworben. Frau Roosevelt machte sich eine besondere Ehre daraus, in Negerversammlungen zu sprechen und sich mit den schwarzen Weibern photographieren zu lassen. Da vergaß man die Greuel an Negern, vergaß, daß man sie mit Vorliebe teerte, federte oder lynchte. Das alles sollte mit einem Mal nicht gewesen sein. Im Gegenteil, Roosevelt versprach den Negern alle Freiheiten für die Nachkriegszeiten, ohne im Ernst auch nur daran zu denken, jemals eine dieser Versprechungen einzulösen. Aber man brauchte die Neger als Kugelfang. Deshalb wurden Negerbataillone aufgestellt und Fliegerstaffeln aus Negern zusammengefasst.
Unter den Mitgliedern der „Murder Incorporated,“ jener Mördervereinigung, die sich des Bombenkrieges gegen Frauen und Kinder besonders rühmte, fanden sich bekanntlich auch Neger.
Innsbrucker Nachrichten (June 14, 1944)
Harte Seegefechte vor der Invasionsfront
Feindliche Transporter und Zerstörer von der Luftwaffe versenkt – Feindliche Panzeraufklärungstruppe vernichtet
Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 14. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
In der Normandie stieß eine gepanzerte Kampfgruppe in den feindlichen Brückenkopf östlich der Orne vor und brachte dem Gegner hohe Verluste an Menschen und Material bei. An der übrigen Front des Landekopfes führte der Feind mehrere durch Panzer, schwere Schiffsartillerie und starke Fliegerverbände unterstützte Angriffe, die abgewiesen wurden. Im Gegenangriff gewannen unsere Truppen einige vorübergehend verlorengegangene Ortschaften zurück. Eine bis in den Raum südlich Caumont vorgestoßene feindliche Panzeraufklärungsgruppe wurde restlos vernichtet.
Bei den Kämpfen auf der Halbinsel Cherbourg hat sich ein Sturmbataillon unter Major Messerschmidt besonders hervorgetan. Oberleutnant Ludwig, Führer einer Sturmgeschützbrigade, schoss am 12. Juni 16 feindliche Panzer ab.
In der Nacht zum 13. Juni kam es vor der Invasionsfront wieder zu harten Seegefechten. Torpedo- und Schnellboote erzielten neben Artillerietreffern 2 Torpedotreffer auf Zerstörern. Auf dem Rückmarsch gingen drei eigene Schnellboote durch massierten Angriff feindlicher Jagdbomber verloren.
Die Luftwaffe versenkte zwei Transportschiffe mit 8000 BRT sowie zwei Zerstörer und beschädigte drei weitere Frachter mit 25.000 BRT.
In Italien setzte der Feind auch gestern mit zusammengefassten Kräften seine Angriffe beiderseits des Bolsenasees fort. Nach schweren Kämpfen in dem zerklüfteten Gebirgsgelände wurde der Gegner westlich des Sees überall abgewiesen. Auch östlich des Sees scheiterten zunächst die laufend wiederholten starken Angriffe. Erst in den Abendstunden konnte der Feind dicht östlich des Sees Gelände gewinnen. In der vergangenen Nacht setzten sich unsere Truppen dort unter scharfem Nachdrängen des Feindes wenige Kilometer nach Norden ab.
In den schweren Abwehrkämpfen der letzten Woche haben sich die dem 1. Fallschirmkorps unterstellten Verbände, vor allem die Panzerabteilung 103 und das Pionierbataillon 3, erneut durch besondere Tapferkeit ausgezeichnet.
Feindliche Jagdbomber griffen in den Morgenstunden des 13. Juni vor der italienischen Westküste wieder ein deutsches Lazarettschiff an.
Aus dem Osten werden keine besonderen Kampfhandlungen gemeldet. Wachfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine bekämpften auf dem Peipussee sowjetische Wachboote und beschossen feindliche Batterien auf dem Ostufer des Sees mit gutem Erfolg.
Nordamerikanische Bomber griffen am Vormittag des 13. Juni Wohngebiete der Stadt München an. Es entstanden Schäden, die Bevölkerung hatte Verluste. Durch Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 37 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.
In der vergangenen Nacht drangen einzelne feindliche Flugzeuge in den Raum von München und in das rheinisch-westfälische Gebiet ein. Fünf feindliche Flugzeuge wurden zum Absturz gebracht.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 14, 1944)
Communiqué No. 17
West of TILLY-SUR-SEULLES, our armor found the enemy flank and struck south with great effect.
Advance patrols of our forces have now reached CAUMONT despite vigorous reaction on the part of the enemy.
In the sector between TILLY-SUR-SEULLES and CAEN, armored clashes continued to take place. There is strong pressure in the CARENTAN area.
Early yesterday evening, after a midday lull caused by bad weather, Allied aircraft resumed the offensive in one of the most concentrated efforts since the opening of the campaign. Enemy fighter opposition was sporadic but many of our aircraft encountered anti-aircraft fire.
Heavy day bombers with fighter escort attacked six bridges on the north-south railway system across the BREST PENINSULA and the airfields at BEAUVAIS/NIVILLERS and BEAUMONT-SUR-OISE.
Further to the southeast, two large formations of fighter-bombers attacked railway bridges over the LOIRE at LA POSSONNIÈRE and PORT-BOULET; another formation patrolled the ÉTAMPES-ORLÉANS railway seeking out traffic.
Throughout the CHERBOURG PENINSULA and in the immediate battle zone, large groups of fighter-bombers and rocket-firing aircraft attacked German troop concentrations, motor transport and other targets indicated by our ground forces.
Medium and light bombers in considerable strength bombed fuel dumps in the FORÊT D’ANDAINE and at DOMFRONT and SAINT-MARTIN, and the highway junctions at MARIGNY and CANISY. Beachhead patrols continued throughout the day and evening.
During the night, our fighters shot three enemy aircraft attacking the beachhead. Light bombers without loss attacked the railway yards at MÉZIDON.
Communiqué No. 18
The armored battle continued in the TILLY-CAEN area. The enemy has counterattacked constantly in a furious attempt to stem our advance. We are holding firm and vigorously searching out weak points in his attack.
In the CHERBOURG PENINSULA, the enemy is fighting fiercely. His heavy counterattacks in the north have forced us to give some ground in the vicinity of MONTEBOURG.
Further south we have made some gains. An enemy counterthrust on CARENTAN has been repulsed.
In one of their most active mornings, Allied air forces today operated almost unopposed from the BREST PENINSULA to BELGIUM and HOLLAND and penetrated deep into eastern France.
The effort of heavy day bombers exceeded even yesterday’s figures. Targets included airfields at LE BOURGET, CREIL, ORLÉANS-BRICY and ÉTAMPES-MONDESIR, in FRANCE, at BRUSSELS-MELSBROEK in BELGIUM, and EINDHOVEN in HOLLAND.
After escorting the bombers, our fighters hit numerous road, rail and military targets in FRANCE. Two enemy aircraft were destroyed. Fifteen bombers and eight fighters are missing from these widespread operations.
Before dawn, medium and light bombers hit communications targets near CAEN, in close support of our ground forces. Attacks were made on a marshalling yard at MÉZIDON and against bridges and traffic centers at AUNAY-SUR-ODON, FALAISE, VIRE, VIMOUTIERS, and FLERS. Other formations struck far into the interior, bombing traffic points and moving targets in the CHARTRES region, southwest of PARIS, rail tracks west of LAVAL and railway guns south of the battle area.
No enemy fighters were encountered in these operations, but anti-aircraft fire was heavy. One medium bomber is missing.
Fighters, fighter bombers, and rocket-firing fighters, some of them operating from bases in NORMANDY, gave close support to troops in the CHERBOURG PENINSULA, cutting railroads and attacking large enemy convoys. Other fighters scored rocket hits on barges and batteries. Coastal aircraft harassed E-boats near LE TOUQUET.
Shortly after midnight, seven enemy M-Class minesweepers were intercepted west of the MINQUIERS ROCKS by ORP PIORUN and HMS ASHANTI (Cdr. J. R. Barnes, RN) while on patrol. Action was joined at about 3,000 yards, the enemy being illuminated with star shells. The enemy vessels were repeatedly hit and scattering, some of them sought shelter under the guns of the coastal batteries on the island of JERSEY.
Of the seven enemy vessels engaged, three were observed to sink and one was seen to receive such damage that its survival is considered unlikely. Of the remaining three, two were left stopped and burning fiercely.
Northeast of CAP DE LA HAGUE, three enemy patrol vessels were intercepted and attacked early this morning by light coastal forces commanded by Lt. H. ASCOLI, RNVR, the first ship in the enemy line was hit with a torpedo and the second set on fire.
U.S. Navy Department (June 14, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 48
Attacks directed against enemy positions in the Southern Marianas continued on June 13 (West Longitude Date).
Battleships, cruisers, and destroyers of the Pacific Fleet bombarded Tinian and Saipan Islands on June 12. Large fires were started at Tanapag Harbor, and in the towns of Garapan and Charan Kanoa. Our ships suffered no damage.
Further air attacks were coordinated with the naval shelling of Tinian and Saipan.
Pagan Island was attacked by carrier aircraft on June 12. Enemy installations were well worked over and three enemy aircraft were destroyed and one probably destroyed.
In operations on June 11, our forces have reported the following additional losses: Three fighter planes, one dive bomber, and four flight personnel.
More than 60 survivors of an enemy ship bombed and sunk northwest of Saipan on June 11 have been rescued and made prisoners of war.
On June 12 and 13, ships and aircraft of the Pacific Fleet attacked enemy installations in the Kurils. A fleet task force bombarded Matsuwa Island and aircraft bombed Shumushu and Paramushiru Islands with airfields as their principal targets.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 443
For Immediate Release
June 14, 1944
CINCPACFLT, has received a preliminary report from RAdm. J. F. Shafroth, USN, president of a board of inquiry convened to investigate an explosion and fire which occurred on May 21, 1944, among a group of landing craft moored in Pearl Harbor.
The following casualties were caused by the explosion of ammunition being unloaded and the subsequent fire:
- DEAD: Army 8, Navy 9, Marine Corps 10.
- MISSING: Army 53, Navy 21, Coast Guard 26.
- INJURED: Army 56, Navy 143, Coast Guard 3, Marine Corps 159, civilian 19.
This accident was originally announced in Pacific Fleet and POA Press Release No. 414.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 444
For Immediate Release
June 14, 1944
On June 11, an explosion occurred near a magazine maintained by the Naval Ammunition Depot on Oahu Island. Several torpedo warheads being transferred from a truck to a platform were detonated in the explosion. Some damage was caused in the magazine area and minor damage was done to power lines and railroad tracks.
Three men were killed and seven are missing as a result of the accident. The names of casualties are being withheld pending notification to the next of kin. A court of inquiry of which RAdm. T. S. Wilkinson, USN, is senior member, has been convened to investigate the accident.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 445
For Immediate Release
June 14, 1944
Liberator bombers of the 7th Army Air Force and Liberator search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, Group One, bombed Truk Atoll during daylight on June 12 (West Longitude Date). Airfields were hit and several fires started. Approximately 15 enemy fighters attempted to attack our force. One of their planes was shot down, two probably shot down, and four damaged. Two additional fighters were probably destroyed on the ground. All of our planes returned.
Ponape Island was bombed by 7th Army Air Force Liberators on June 12.
Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, Group One, attacked Ocean and Nauru Islands on June 12. Barracks and anti-aircraft positions were hit.
Enemy positions in the Marshalls were attacked by Ventura and Catalina search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, Corsair fighters and Dauntless dive bombers of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, and Navy Hellcat fighters on June 12 and during the night of June 12‑13.
The Free Lance-Star (June 14, 1944)
STIFF GERMAN RESISTANCE SLOWS ADVANCE
Fierce battle rages in area around Caen
Yanks fighting to hold Montebourg
SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
The Germans have flung four armored divisions into fierce fighting to hold their eastern battle line bastion of Caen, the Allied Command announced tonight, and heavy fighting is raging at Montebourg and Troarn at opposite ends of the 100-mile front with both towns changing hands in the last 24 hours.
The savage German counteraction on the eastern flank in Normandy followed a British drive 23 miles inland outflanking Caen from the west, and the armored struggle is rising in intensity.
The four Nazi armored divisions were hurled into the area between Caen and Caumont, 20 miles southwest, seized in the hard British punch.
Battle for Montebourg
The U.S. 4th Division fought the Germans fiercely for Montebourg, 14 miles southeast of the strategic port of Cherbourg, and the great guns of the British fight to hold Troarn, a town seven miles from Caen taken in an outflanking drive on that bastion to the east.
Both Germans and the Allies have fought into and been thrown out of Montebourg and Troarn in the last 24 hours, headquarters said.
The greatest single striking force of planes in war’s history – 1,500 U.S. Liberators and Flying Fortresses – battered targets in France and Germany today in air support of the invasion.
Meanwhile, in the Carentan area south of the bitter Montebourg battle, other Americans of the largest U.S. force ever thrown into fighting in this war chopped deep gashes in the Nazi defense of Cherbourg Peninsula.
U.S. armored forces there smashed the Germans back, and the Berlin radio acknowledged a withdrawal of several miles west and north of Carentan, with doughboys thus apparently cutting half to two-thirds of the way across the narrowest neck of the peninsula.
Some ground lost
Headquarters said Americans fighting in the Montebourg area had to give some ground along the road to the sea.
The Supreme Command said in describing the whole battlefront:
In some area, we continued our advance and in others the Germans had some local successes.
The four Nazi armored divisions plunged into battle around Caen, Tilly-sur-Seulles, Troarn, and Caumont included the 21st and 13th SS Divisions. It was unknown whether all the armor of these units was committed in battle, but all their infantry was.
The Germans said Caen itself was in flames and was being attacked from all sides. Berlin also reported Allied armored thrusts south of Caumont.
Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery launched a squeeze on Caen with his thrusts reaching 23 miles inland into the area southwest of the big anchor city.
Striking as he often did against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in the African desert, Montgomery, Allied ground commander, sent tanks rumbling south of Bayeux along the central sector of the front. They smashed through Caumont and Villers-Bocage, then turned east and north to drive savagely into the German flank protecting Caen on the west.
Heavy bombardment
Caen itself was under heavy naval bombardment from Allied warships. A flier who flew over the city said it seemed “scarcely possible for life to exist there.”
The British tanks struck with “great effect,” the Allied Supreme Command announced.
A fierce German counterattack was made on British forces in newly-captured Troarn in an attempt to blunt or cut off a Montgomery pincer coming to flank Caen on the east.
It was the old Montgomery tactic of attacking on the flanks to cut off a large force of Germans and take them prisoner or destroy them rather than push them back.
On the western end of the Allied beachhead, now enlarged to a 100-mile fighting front, Americans used armored forces to break a deadlock at Carentan. The German radio acknowledged a Nazi withdrawal west and north of Carentan “to spare German lives.”
Berlin conceded that Americans advancing on strips of non-flooded land had infiltrated Nazi lines northwest of Carentan, and taken a number of villages.
Admit town lost
A Transocean broadcast said the Nazis had lost Tilly-sur-Seulles, which several times has changed hands. The German High Command claimed recapture of a number of unidentified localities, and declared Nazi tanks breaking into the beachhead east of the Orne River had inflicted heavy casualties. The Germans said Allied tank thrusts south of Caumont and near Tilly-sur-Seulles were broken up and destroyed.
The Allies, aided today by fair weather, have already seized a foothold in France of 600-700 square miles, and captured more than 10,000 prisoners. Allied officers estimate 250,000 Germans are engaged in Normandy. Berlin, apparently trying to picture Allied successes as due to overwhelming numbers, has placed the figures of Allied soldiers as high as 500,000.
Expanding Allied pressure has in three days enlarged the length of the battlefront from 60 miles to nearly 100, forcing the Nazi defenders to spread their forces over a greater area.
U.S. troops who plunged through the Cerisy Forest pushed southwest several miles toward the important German communications hub of Saint-Lô.
The German radio said Saint-Lô was a mass of flaming rubble from Allied air bombardment.
Nazis lose heavily
Supreme Headquarters said the Germans were expending a large number of soldiers in a furious assault on Troarn, east of Caen.
Troarn is the left arm of a Montgomery pincer movement closing in on Caen. The right arm is the double blow below Tilly-sur-Seulles and the Caumont and Villers-Bocage roads.
In a Berlin broadcast, the German Transocean Agency declared that Nazi forces broke through American lines and into Carentan late Tuesday but:
Montgomery hastily ordered heavy British warships to the support, which, with all their gun, shelled the Carentan area, whereupon the Germans withdrew again to hill positions more advantageous for defense.
Transocean said the “situation changes hourly” in the Carentan area as attacking U.S. forces try to “widen their bridgehead toward the south and west.”
The Allied drive has placed the ground forces out of range of warships in many places on the bridgehead for the first time. U.S. and British battleships are still supporting the flanks of the battle area, but the center is rolling on with the aid of air support only.
Excellent flying weather favored the Allied Air Forces this morning and great fleets of heavy and lighter bombers as well as fighters swept into the attack.
Heavy air attack
The weather first cleared late yesterday and about 2,000 planes, including U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators, attacked before dusk, hitting airfields and a string of railroad bridges across the foot of the Brest Peninsula from Vannes to Saint-Malo – a likely route for German reinforcements up the west side of the Cherbourg Peninsula to the sector where the U.S. 4th Division is battling below Cherbourg. The German Air Force offered little resistance.
Using five new landing strips and open fields, fleets of 9th Air Force transports poured in supplies and technicians by glider.
The whole Normandy invasion has depended to a great extent on the Allied air superiority, it was said at headquarters, and the Allied bombardment and strafing attacks have had “marvelous” delaying action on German reserves despite frequent bad weather.
Report new stab
Only a matter of hours after Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had reported to President Roosevelt that eventually “the Nazis will be forced to fight throughout the perimeter of their stronghold,” the Vichy radio quoted a Berlin military spokesman as saying important Allied shipping had been sighted in the Bay of Biscay off southwestern France near the Spanish coast.
There was no Allied report of any shipping in that area, some 400 miles from the Normandy fighting.
Eisenhower informed his commanders and troops that “the accomplishments in the first seven days of the campaign have exceeded my brightest hopes… I truly congratulate you.”
The evening communiqué yesterday said more than 10,000 prisoners were taken in the first week.
PEARL HARBOR SCANDAL!
Shocking condition revealed in report to Congress
German alien had contact for warning system not finished at time of attack
…
1,500 U.S. bombers strike foe today
Greatest single force in air history hits France, Germany
SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
Fifteen hundred U.S. heavy bombers – the greatest single striking force in air history – attacked France and Germany today in concert with up to 750 U.S. heavies which struck Hungary and Yugoslavia from Italy.
The oil lifelines for Hitler’s thirsty war machine were hit hard, part of the big task force from Britain hitting the oil refinery at Emmerich, Germany, while the Mediterranean force attacked half a dozen oil refineries in Hungary and Yugoslavia – including the Shell Koolaz, five miles south of Budapest, the largest in Hungary.
Other Britain-based Fortresses and Liberators aimed their bombs at six enemy air bases beyond the beachhead in the unrelenting campaign to wipe out nests of German Air Force opposition. Others hit bridges in France and Belgium.
Thousands of flights
Supreme Headquarters announced that in the first seven days of invasion, 56,000 individual flights were made by the Allied air forces with the loss of 554 planes – less than one percent of the attacking force.
In that time, 42,000 tons of bombs were dropped. The 8th Air Force led with about 16,000 sorties and the 9th had 15,500.
The U.S. force aggregating upwards of 1,500 bombers and fighters attacked among other targets the Le Bourget and Creil airfields at Paris, Étampes-Mondesir and Châteaudun in France; Brussels-Melsbroek in Belgium and Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
Attack from Italy
Meanwhile, another U.S. heavy bomber force, the German radio said, surged up from Italy from the south in the Munich area both yesterday and last night.
The air armadas took full advantage of ideal weather in stepping up the assaults on German fighting forces and strategic targets far inland. It was described here as “a marvelous air support campaign getting more satisfactory every day.”
In direct support of troops battling in Normandy, large forces of U.S. Marauders and Havocs and fighter-bombers swarmed across the sun-glistening channel all day. The fighters extended attacks to German shipping while a separate force of U.S. Lightnings patrolled defensively over the Allies’ sea lifelines.
King George receives U.S. commanders
London, England (AP) –
Gen. George C. Marshall, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, and Gen. Henry H. Arnold, commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces, were received today by King George VI in separate audiences at Buckingham Palace.
White star insignia used by all Allies
SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
The white star insignia appearing in photographs from the Normandy battlefront is a symbol for the entire Allied Expeditionary Force and should not be confused as the identification for the U.S. Army or any one nation, headquarters announced today.
The symbol is daubed on every Allied machine, both on the ground and in the air.
Editorial: Roads to Berlin
There are many roads to Berlin, and tough, gaunt, battle-hardened men, grim and resourceful, will be plodding along most of these roads before many weeks have passed.
One road runs east from Normandy to Paris and thence northeast through scarred territory in which Americans have fought before, including the Argonne Forest. It is this highway to the Reich that has commanded world interest since the Allied landings in France.
And of course, there is the road up from Italy, rough – especially in its passage through the Alps – and long. There are other possible avenues of approach to Berlin, including that from the east, where the Russians, after a brief rest, have massed for the renewal of their mighty drive to free their own soil and break through to Germany.
For the moment, while Gen. Eisenhower’s forces are establishing themselves on the continent, this new phase of the war commands absorbing interest everywhere. The attack across the Channel is a military epic. It is an enterprise that Napoleon feared to undertake. Hitler, with all his audacity and his great yearning to conquer England, quailed at the prospect.
But eventually the war in Europe will settle into the pattern drawn at Tehran, a pattern which called for envelopment of the Reich through steady progress from a number of directions toward the one objective – Berlin – or unconditional surrender by Nazis somewhere along the way to avert the destruction of their homeland.
American and British thoughts and hopes will center in Western Europe, but the large operations may develop in the east by Red armies which are now at a high peak of power even after three years of bitter fighting and heartbreaking losses.
The source which holds the greatest danger and which demands the heaviest safeguards is as mystifying to the German High Command as was the place and time of the invasion. Hitler’s problems of defense multiply and grow more complex as crushing defeat draws closer.