America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

7738

Innsbrucker Nachrichten (June 15, 1944)

Schlacht in der Normandie vor dem Höhepunkt

Die deutschen Truppen behaupteten ihre Stellungen – In zehn Tagen 400 Panzer und über tausend Flugzeuge vernichtet, 13 Kriegsschiffe und 23 Fracht- und Transportschiffe versenkt

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 15. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Die Schlacht in der Normandie steigert sich von Tag zu Tag in ihrer Heftigkeit. Nachdem es dem Feind in den ersten Tagen der Invasion darauf angekommen war, an der Küste festen Fuß zu fassen, versucht er nun, nach allen Seiten seinen Brückenkopf zu erweitern. Unter den Salven schwerster Schiffsgeschütze, laufenden Luftangriffen und unter dem Einsatz neu herangeführter Infanterie- und Panzerkräfte auf beiden Seiten strebt die Schlacht ihrem Höhepunkt zu.

Am gestrigen Tage entwickelten sich besonders im Raum um Tilly, Caumont und südwestlich Balleroy heftige Kämpfe, in deren Verlauf zahlreiche feindliche Panzer abgeschossen wurden. Der Feind hatte besonders schwere blutige Verluste. Unsere Truppen behaupteten überall ihre Stellungen. Östlich Caumont nahmen eigene Panzerverbände mehrere zäh verteidigte Ortschaften. Feindliche Fallschirmjäger, die nordöstlich Saint-Lô hinter unserer Front abgesprungen waren, wurden vernichtet. Nur im Raum westlich und nördlich Sainte-Mère-Église konnte der Feind geringe Geländegewinne erzielen.

In der vergangenen Nacht wurden durch Angriffe starker Kampffliegerverbände 14 Transportschiffe mit 101.000 BRT und zwei Zerstörer durch Bomben- und Torpedotreffer entweder versenkt oder schwer beschädigt. Hiebei zeichnete sich eine Kampffliegergruppe unter Major Thomsen besonders aus.

Im Verlauf eines harten Nachtgefechtes unserer Minenräumboote mit einem von fünf Zerstörer gesicherten feindlichen Kreuzerverband südwestlich der Insel Jersey wurde ein Zerstörer in Brand geschossen. Ein eigenes Boot ging dabei verloren.

Heeresküstenbatterien beschossen vor der Ornemündung einen von einem schweren Kreuzer und Zerstörern gesicherten Landungsverband und beschädigten den Kreuzer sowie einen Zerstörer. Der Verband wurde zerstreut. Vor der Nordwestküste der Halbinsel Cherbourg erzielten unsere Küstenbatterien auf weiteren Schiffen Treffer. Zerstörergruppen und Schnellboote wurden zum Abdrehen gezwungen.

Die Härte der Kämpfe und die beispielhafte Haltung unserer Truppen aller Wehrmachtteile zeigt sich in den bis jetzt erzielten Erfolgszahlen. In den ersten zehn Tagen des feindlichen Invasionsangriffes haben unsere Truppen über 400 feindliche Panzer und über 1.000 Flugzeuge vernichtet. Nicht eingerechnet sind die zahlreichen Panzer, Geschütze und schweren Waffen aller Art, die bei Angriffen von Einheiten der Kriegsmarine und der Luftwaffe gegen die feindliche Landungsflotte untergingen.

Insgesamt versenkten Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine sowie Heeres- und Marineküstenbatterien seit Beginn der Invasion zwei Kreuzer, neun Zerstörer, zwei Schnellboote, 23 Fracht- und Transportschiffe mit 131.400 BRT. sowie 12 Panzerlandungsschiffe mit 18.300 BRT. Außerdem wurden durch Torpedo-, Bomben- und Artillerietreffer zwei schwere Kreuzer, drei weitere Kreuzer, 16 Zerstörer, 8 Schnellboote, 58 Handels- und Transportschiffe mit 235.000 BRT, 2 Landungsfahrzeuge mit 4000 BRT und ein Dampfer mittlerer Größe schwer beschädigt. Die Verluste des Feindes an Kriegs- und Landungsschiffen durch Minentreffer erhöhen diese Zahlen wesentlich.

Die blutigen Verluste des Feindes, insbesondere an seinen Eliteverbänden, den Luftlandedivisionen, betragen ein Vielfaches unserer eigenen.

An der italienischen Front hält der starke feindliche Druck beiderseits des Bolsenasees unvermindert an. Unsere schwer ringenden Truppen leisteten auch gestern dem Feind erbitterten Widerstand, konnten jedoch schließlich nicht verhindern, daß der Feind nach Norden Boden gewann. Erneute feindliche Angriffe nördlich und nordwestlich des Sees wurden abgewiesen. Die Kämpfe gehen weiter.

Aus dem Osten werden keine besonderen Ereignisse gemeldet. Im hohen Norden wurden im Louhi- und Kandalakscha-Abschnitt mehrere starke Vorstöße der Bolschewisten abgewiesen. Unterseeboote versenkten im Schwarzen Meer zwei sowjetische Kanonenboote und einen Seeschlepper.

Nordamerikanische Bomberverbände griffen gestern das Stadtgebiet von Budapest an. Durch ungarische und deutsche Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 18 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen. Einzelne britische Flugzeuge warfen in der vergangenen Nacht Bomben im rheinisch-westfälischen Raum. Deutsche Kampfflugzeuge griffen Einzelziele in Südostengland an.

7739

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 15, 1944)

Communiqué No. 19

On all parts of the front, Allied forces continue to carry the fight to the enemy.

The heaviest fighting has taken place in the CARENTAN, MONTEBOURG and CAEN areas. Airborne troops have successfully beaten off attempts made by the Germans to retake CARENTAN, and are again pushing southward from the town. They have also advanced further to the west in the LES SABLONS-BAUPTE vicinity.

Heavy armored attacks and counterattacks persist in the CAEN-TILLY-SUR-SEULLES areas.

The development of the beaches is making good progress and the unloading of troops and stores is steadily increasing.

The Allied air forces continued their attacks yesterday afternoon and evening on communications and road convoys in CHERBOURG PENINSULA in support of our ground forces. Rail traffic was also bombed and in a surprise attack on the enemy airfield at LE MANS about a dozen enemy aircraft were destroyed on the ground.

Before dusk, heavy night bombers, with fighter escort, attacked E-boats and the dock side at LE HAVRE. During the night, they bombed railway centers at DOUAI, CAMBRAI and SAINT-POL and troop concentrations at ÉVRECY and AUNAY-SUR-ODON. Five bombers are missing from these operations.

Light bombers made night attacks on enemy convoys and concentrations moving on the roads towards the battle area.

Reports, as yet incomplete, show that 17 enemy aircraft were destroyed in air combat since noon yesterday. Fourteen of our fighters are missing. Seven more enemy aircraft were shot down over NORMANDY during the night.

7740

U.S. Navy Department (June 15, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 49

Operations for the seizure of Saipan Island in the Mariana Group have been initiated by strong POA forces.

Assault troops have effected landings on Saipan Island, following inten­sive preparatory bombardment of Saipan, Tinian, Pagan, Guam and Rota Islands by carrier‑based aircraft and by a portion of the battleships, cruisers and destroyers of the Pacific Fleet.

Landings are being continued against strong opposition under cover of supporting bombardment by our air and surface forces. Initial reports indicate that our casualties are moderate.

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 50

Assault troops have secured beachheads on Saipan Island and are ad­vancing inland against artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire. Virtually all heavy coastal and antiaircraft batteries on the island were knocked out by naval gunfire and bombing. Our troops have captured Agingan Point. In the town of Charan Kanoa, brisk fighting is continuing.

The enemy has attempted several counterattacks with tanks. These attacks have been broken up by our troops with the support of ships and aircraft.

In general, fighting is heavy but good progress is being made against well-organized defenses.

7741

The Free Lance-Star (June 15, 1944)

JAPAN BOMBED AGAIN
U.S. super-bombers attack homeland

B-29 Superfortresses of 20th Air Force strike powerful blow from Asiatic bases; sky battleships blast targets on mainland

Washington (AP) –
The Army threw a new fighting giant into the war in the Pacific today, turning loose the new B-29 Superfortress in an air attack on the Japanese homeland.

It was the first fighting assignment for the sky mammoth, and the announcement also served to disclose for the first time the existence of the 20th Air Force (of which the 20th Bomber Command is a part), a world-roaming unit under the personal direction of Gen. H. H. Arnold, chief of the Army Air Forces.

The War Department withheld details of the new bombing of Japan proper – the first such attack on the mainland since the Doolittle raid of April 18, 1942.

There was no immediate hint of what part of Nippon had been hit, nor from where the B-29s went into action.

The War Department subsequently disclosed that planes taking part

The B-29, it was disclosed for the first time, is a heavily armored ship whose bombload, range and ceiling exceed that of any other plane. It is powered by four engines of 2,200 horsepower each, each carrying two superchargers. Its wingspan is 141.2 feet, as compared with the B-17s (Flying Fortress) span of 104 feet.

Arnold said in connection with the announcement:

This employment of the B-29 makes possible the softening up attack on Japan very much earlier than would be possible with aircraft hitherto known to combat.

The text of the communiqué said:

B-29 Superfortresses of the U.S. Army Air Forces 20th Bomber Command bombed Japan today.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall, in a statement on the attack made public by the War Department, said that the Superfortress introduced a new type of offensive against the enemy and “also creates a new problem in the application of military force.”

Because of the tremendous range and heavy bombload of this newest bombardment plane, said Marshall, they can strike “from many and remote bases at a single objective.”

Considered as task force

Their power is so great, the Chief of Staff continued, that the U.S. Joints Chiefs of Staff decided it would be uneconomical to confine the Superfortress organization to a single theater, and “these bombers therefore will remain under the centralized control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with a single commander, Gen. Arnold, acting as their agent in directing their bombing operations throughout the world.”

Marshall said:

The planes will be treated as major task forces in the same manner as naval task forces are directed against specific objectives.

This type of flexible, centralized control recognizes that very long-range bombardment is not a weapon for the Air Forces alone. Under the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thereafter commanders will have a voice in its employment, ensuring that maximum effectiveness will be obtained through missions which will contribute directly to the overall strategy for the defeat of the enemies.

Doolittle raid two years ago

It was the second U.S. raid on the Japanese homeland. On April 18, 1942, when U.S. military fortunes were at their lowest, the nation was electrified by word that Tokyo and other Japanese cities had been attacked from the air.

The first announcement then came from the Japanese and it was not until weeks later that it was learned that a force of B-25 Mitchell bombers under James H. Doolittle, then only a lieutenant colonel but now a lieutenant general commanding the 8th Air Force in Britain, had carried out that adventurous mission.

The Mitchells flew from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and after crossing Japan flew on to the continent. One landed in eastern Siberia, the others in China. Some of them came down in Japanese-held territory and a few of the fliers were taken captive. Months later, the Japanese themselves made it known that some of those prisoners had been executed.

7742

Japs claim Yanks landing on Saipan

No confirmation given by U.S. task force roving in area; islands shelled

London, England (AP) –
A powerful U.S. task force, which has been harassing Japanese strongholds in the Mariana Islands since last Saturday, is now attempting to land troops on Saipan Island, the Tokyo radio declared today – a daring operation which, if successful, would give the United States an ocean base within 1,500 miles of Tokyo.

The OWI said a Japanese Imperial Headquarters communiqué announced that a landing attempt was also being made at Tinian Island in the Marianas and that “heavy fighting is in progress between Japanese units and enemy forces.”

While there was no immediate confirmation of the reported landing operation, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz disclosed yesterday in his latest communiqué that the U.S. task force was still operating off the Marianas Tuesday.

It was conceivable that the force – already credited with inflicting grievous losses on Japanese shipping and airpower – might still be operating in that area.

Ambitious venture

The first reports of U.S. offensive operations in the past have come from the Japanese on more than one occasion.

An attempt to land in the Marianas would be the most ambitious venture yet undertaken by U.S. forces in their leapfrogging progress in the Pacific, during which they have moved steadily closer to the Japanese home islands in recent months with the capture of bases in the Gilberts and Marshalls.

The landing attempt followed a series of raids carried out against Saipan and other Japanese bases in the Mariana area by a powerful Allied task force, said the broadcast.

Today’s broadcast said that attempted landings were made from a force of 20 transports which appeared off Saipan about 6:30 a.m. (local time).

About 70 landing barges and 20 or more special craft were employed in the actual landing operations, Tokyo said.

Task force assault is most sustained

USPACFLT HQ, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (AP) –
The most sustained task force assault of the Pacific War by bombarding battleships, cruisers and destroyers and by repeated waves of carrier planes focused attention today on the Japanese-held Mariana Islands, including the former U.S. outpost of Guam.

The Marianas were the fiery core of action ranging along more than 3,000 miles from the Kurils, where another task force shelled the enemy within 500 miles of Japan, south of Palau, gateway to the Philippines.

The latest reports:

  • Extended through the fourth straight day the shelling and bombing attack on the Marianas, 1,500 miles southeast of Tokyo.

  • Disclosed a two-day task force raid on Kurils bases 1,060 miles northeast of Tokyo.

  • Made clear that Central and Southwest Pacific bombers are ganging up on Truk and Southwest Pacific planes are hammering steadily at Palau in order to prevent those two Carolines naval and air bases from interfering with the Marianas operation.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, in his third communiqué this week on the Marianas, said that warships, including big battlewagons, opened up their guns on Tinian and Saipan Monday and that carrier planes Tuesday prolonged the attacks they began Saturday. He gave no inkling that the operation has ended.

The warships, which had to sail more than 500 miles west of Truk and more than 1,000 miles beyond their nearest big base at Kwajalein lagoon in the Marshalls, started fires with their shells at Tanapag Harbor, the town of Garapan and the sugar mill center of Charan Kanoa on Saipan.

The communiqué said:

Our ships suffered no damage.

Also on Monday, planes from the flattops spread their attack 175 miles north of Saipan to Pagan Island where three enemy planes were downed, bringing the four-day toll to at least 144. The sinking of 13 Japanese ships, including four warships, and damaging 16 others was previously announced.

7743

YANKS NEARLY CUT PENINSULA
Push ahead despite strong Nazi defense

Germans reported to be using 600 tanks to spearhead violent counterattacks; British give ground as enemy gains new power

map.61544.ap
Allies drive at center: Arrows show Allied drives and German counterattacks on the Normandy beachhead (black line). While the Allies drove at the center, the Nazis concentrated their main attacks at the ends of the battle line, now about 100 miles in length.

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
U.S. troops have surged powerfully ahead in their stab into the Cherbourg neck, Allied headquarters announced today, and Berlin reported that less than six miles separated the spearhead from the West Coast communications linking Cherbourg with France.

The gains were hammered out in spite of furious counterattacks all along the 100-mile invasion front in which the Germans had thrown about 20 divisions and 600 tanks.

Allied headquarters reported that U.S. infantry and parachute troops, supported by tanks had scored further gains west of Carentan, said Allied soldiers were holding firm everywhere else despite the massive nature of the German counterstroke and were inflicting heavy losses on the enemy.

British retire

This was after it was acknowledged that the British at the eastern end of the line had been forced to give up Troarn, their anchor nine miles east of Caen, and Villers-Bocage, one of their two advance points 15 miles southwest of Caen.

Further heavy counterattacks in the Villers-Bocage area were turned back yesterday evening, headquarters said, and the British were still secure in their hold on Caumont, their other most advanced point, 20 miles southwest of Caen.

Seventeen German tanks, including eight 60-ton Tigers, were knocked out in the fierce armored battling yesterday, headquarters said. The other eight tanks were Panthers armed with 75mm guns.

At the western end of the line, the Americans first moved forward on a nine-mile front to the Les Sablons-Baupte area, south of Sainte-Mère-Église and only about seven miles from high ground overlooking La Haye-du-Puits on the west coast road and rail line leading to Cherbourg.

The Berlin radio commentator, Ludwig Sertorius, then reported that they had gained another three and a half miles to the west, reaching Prétot which is less than six miles from La Haye-du-Puits itself.

Vise closing on Cherbourg

map.61544cp
The close-up of the Cherbourg Peninsula battleground shows how U.S. invasion armies were cutting halfway across the peninsula to Pont-l’Abbé, a point about eight miles northeast of the enemy communications center of La Haye-du-Puits. Despite new and stiff German resistance, particularly around Carentan, U.S. forces hoped to press ahead toward Valognes, a crucial communications center, and finally cut off the German garrison.

Heavy street battle

The Americans also fought their way back into Montebourg, 14 miles from Cherbourg and headquarters said street fighting was in progress. But the fighting here was fluid, and the Germans in midafternoon claimed they were again in possession of the town.

U.S. troops were also engaged in heavy fighting in the Pont-l’Abbé area, four miles north of Prétot, and along the road from Montebourg to Quinéville on the coast.

The Americans hammered out gains both in the Pont-l’Abbé area and around Quinéville, which represents the Allied right flank, headquarters said.

The heavy nature of the fighting was plainly indicated by the German High Command, which said the battle is “approaching a climax” and growing more violent every day with the Allies hitting hard in all directions to enlarge their bridgehead.

The German communiqué added:

Among salvos of heaviest naval guns, incessant air attacks and with freshly brought up infantry and tank forces being thrown into action on both sides, the battle is approaching a climax.

Push toward Cherbourg

The U.S. advance was on a nine-mile front westward from Carentan toward high ground controlling the last German roads leading to Cherbourg.

Violent German reaction to the threat to the lifeline was expected, and it was likely that further U.S. advances would be only after the costliest fighting.

The Yankees plunged to the Les Sablons-Baupte area, south of Sainte-Mère-Église and west of Carentan. Seven miles to the westward is high ground overlooking La Haye-du-Puits, through which runs the last remaining major north-south highway on the peninsula still in German hands.

The advance placed the Americans nearly halfway across the peninsula at its narrowest point.

Hand-to-hand fighting surged between Germans and troops of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division in the streets of Montebourg, 14 miles southeast of Cherbourg.

U.S. artillery was shelling the road from Montebourg to Valognes to the northwest, and the doughboys controlled the road from Quinéville, on the coast, to Montebourg, but the town itself changed hands from hour to hour.

U.S. airborne troops spearheaded the fighting around Carentan and besides pushing to the west shoved the Germans back more than a mile south of the town.

Heavy troop movement

Allied fliers reported more movement on the roads behind the German lines last night than at any time since D-Day.

While a great weight of Allied bombs was being thrown against this movement, an announcement came that several hundred RAF four-engined Lancasters and a fighter escort, in a quick switch to American bombing tactics, had blasted German E-boat pens at Le Havre before dusk last evening with six-ton “factory busters.” It was the RAF’s heaviest daylight attack of the war. A second assault was directed against the same targets during the night.

Enemy broadcasts reacted to the new Allied attention of Le Havre, lying just east of the beachhead, with surmises that it portended a forthcoming land move in that direction.

East of Villers-Bocage to Troarn, beyond battered and besieged Caen, great tank battles raged with undiminished intensity into their fourth day. The Germans were using elements of four armored divisions.

Send in reserves

With the German counterattacks mounting in fury, there were indications that Field Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt had decided to draw off some of his reserves in other portions of France to meet the Allied thrusts.

Appearance of the second German panzer division – the best armored unit in the German Army – indicated the Germans were making a supreme effort to seal off the Allied beachhead.

The next two or three days are expected to show whether the German High Command has been forced to throw reserves into the battle piecemeal – as in the past nine days – or has been able to keep them intact for a final, all-out counterattack.

7744

Bombers attack French targets

Widespread sweeps by Fortresses and Liberators

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
A force of between 1,000 and 2,000 U.S. Fortresses and Liberators and escorting fighters swept over France this morning, bombing airplane plants, airfields and railroad facilities in a dozen places.

Berlin radio reported an attack on the great industrial city of Hannover in Germany while lighter Allied warplanes from bases in Normandy and Britain continued their widespread support campaign in a smashing follow-up to an 1,100-bomber operation overnight.

As a part of the latter operation, several hundred Lancasters blasted E-boat pens at Le Havre with six-ton “factory busters” in daylight.

Twenty-eight hundred tons of explosives were dropped on the port in two separate attacks, the first, just before dusk, being the RAF’s heaviest daylight bombardment of the war and its first high altitude daylight precision effort.

Targets of the U.S. “heavies” today ranged from Nantes, La Possonnière and Angoulême to Beauvais, La Frillière and Bordeaux. The force comprised 1,090 bombers and several hundred more fighters, possible approximating yesterday a record 1,500-bomber force.

The multiple attack, the deepest penetration of France since the invasion, took the bombers over a 300-mile expanse from Beauvais, 40 miles north of Paris and 100 miles east of the battle line, to Bordeaux, 300 miles south of the battle zone.

Angoulême is 70 miles northeast of Bordeaux, La Possonnière 50 miles east of Nantes, which is 120 miles south of the battle zone. La Frillière is eight miles east of Tours.

A force of Mosquito bombers attacked the synthetic oil center of Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr last night to keep the increasing assault on Hitler’s war machine going around the clock.

7745

Adm. Halsey given new command in Pacific War

…

7746

What war bonds mean –
Prisoners of Japan look to civilians for freedom

By Russell Brines

…

7747

De Gaulle visits beachhead area

French are instructed to resume civil organization

London, England (AP) –
The French Committee of National Liberation reported today that Gen. Charles de Gaulle during his trip to the Normandy beachhead had “left everywhere instructions regarding resumption of civil administration, organization of supplies, and public relief.

In a communiqué issued through the French Press Service, the committee said de Gaulle had been given a “most moving demonstration of courage and devotion by the population of Isigny and that elsewhere he was greeted in the same atmosphere of immense fervor.”

De Gaulle, back in Britain after a triumphant reception on French soil, today laid before British and American political and military councils a claim of enthusiastic support from newly-liberated Frenchmen to back his demand for recognition of the French Committee of National Liberation as the voice of France.

De Gaulle was said to be planning tentatively to return briefly to Algiers to report to the French Consultative Assembly on the result of his discussions with the British and with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, before proceeding to America to see President Roosevelt.

The London press hailed the general’s swift trip to the Normandy front with the expressed hope it would help solve the ticklish situation.

De Gaulle warmly hailed during brief visit to France

…

7748

Gable returns to civilian clothes

…

7749

Allies advancing lines in Italy

Stiffening resistance from Nazis broken after third day

…

U.S. bombs hit Kecskemét Field

…

7750

Allied foothold is called firm

Stimson: Fighting to continue until Nazis defeated

Washington (AP) –
War Secretary Stimson said today the Allies have established a firm foothold on the European coast.

“I believe we are there to stay until all of France is liberated and Germany defeated,” he asserted, although cautioning that “we must expect counterattacks greater than any yet met” in the fighting in Normandy.

Stimson told a news conference that destruction or heavy damage to nine bridges over the Seine River by Allied Air Forces was one major factor in slowing down development of a major counterattack – “a delay longer than we could reasonably have counted upon.”

The Secretary said:

The fuller information which has come on the initial landings of our men on the French coast is a case in point to illustrate the desirability of not reaching hasty conclusions. The West Wall was no myth or pushover. At various places, the landings were relatively easy, thanks to an element of tactical surprise, a careful choice of the general region for the assault and the destruction of German communications by our preceding air attack.

But everywhere German offshore mines, beach obstacles, guns and pillboxes were a dangerous hazard.

Stimson noted that Allied forces suffered casualties in the operation “but not as many as our commanders were obliged to calculate upon beforehand.”

7751

27 die in blast at Pearl Harbor

…

7752

Organization for peace is planned

Roosevelt outlines conception of international project

…

7753

Divisions ashore in France listed

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
Here is how Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s “first team” in Normandy lines up along the beachhead, so far as officially announced:

  • At Montebourg, 14 miles southeast of Cherbourg, the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.
  • At Sainte-Mère-Église and Carentan farther south, the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions.
  • At Isigny and to the south, the U.S. 29th Infantry Division.
  • At Trévières and to the south, the U.S. 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions.
  • Bayeux sector, the British 50th Infantry Division.
  • Between Caen and Bayeux, the 3rd Canadian Division.
  • Orne River sector, the British 6th Airborne Division.
7754

Mosley: Paratroopers spring trap on 600 German grenadiers

By Leonard Mosley

With British 6th Airborne Division, France (AP) – (June 12, delayed)
Paratroop Capt. Charles Bliss had that grin on his face that always means something brewing.

Charles said:

This is going to be good. Do you remember the gap we left in our lines just around Bréville? Well, Jerry’s found it at last and he’s coming through. We have a report of at least 600 panzer grenadiers advancing through the woods and believe they’re going to try to drive through Ranville to break our line and gain the east bank of the river. well, what we are going to do to those Jerries should make a nice little story for you. Look.

He pointed along the walls and through the orchards and when you looked hard, you could see British troops everywhere.

They were well dug in among bushes and grass, and only the green camouflaged tops of their helmets poked around the skyline – that and the muzzles of their Brens, heavy machine guns and Stens.

See for approach

It was just before noon that we saw out first Germans. Over on the other side of the dropping zone, you could suddenly see figures moving among trees. We watched them forming up into batches of 10-15 men.

No one fired at them. Only the dull boom of artillery from somewhere away in the distance, and the busy hum of fighting planes disturbed the placid Saturday morning.

Shortly after noon, the German attack began. In those batches of 10 and 15, spread out over 200 or 300 yards, the German infantrymen came in at a run. They moved through the waving corn in the black ploughland until they reached a line of wrecked gliders. Then, they fell on their faces and lay there. After a few minutes they got up again, ran forward, then fell flat again. It went on like that for about 400 yards. Still, no one fired.

Mortar gun fires

From somewhere in the wood now a German mortar gun was going into action and its shells fell all around us and in the serried rows of gravestones in a churchyard. Splinters fell among us. There were casualties. But there was no retaliation.

Stretcher-bearers wriggled forward and dragged wounded men away, but never showed themselves against the skyline.

Now the enemy was gaining confidence from the stillness. Smelling no danger, his loping advances were longer, his periods flat on the ground of only a few seconds duration. He came on fast. He kept on coming until he was about 100 yards away. Then at a prearranged signal every automatic weapon, every rifle in the paratroops’ line opened up. It was a roar that set your teeth chattering with shock.

You suddenly saw the Germans grimacing wildly, clutching their bodies, throwing up their hands, then falling by the dozens into the corn. They all flung themselves down and the British paratroops continued their fire.

Rain of bullets

A rain of bullets surged across those 100 yards of French farmland and battered into the huddles on the grass. The earth was scuffed up in showers of corn and went down as if under a flail.

But the Germans weren’t beaten yet. One of their officers rose to his feet and called to his men, and those not wounded charged once more. This time, the paratroops held their fire even longer, and it was 23-30 yards when the small-arms barrage hit the enemy.

Fingers squeezed triggers almost simultaneously up and down the line. In writhing heaps, the Germans went down again. And now the remnants turned and began to flee.

Bullets chased them across the field as they raced for woods. But only a few made that shelter, for now our shells and mortars came into play and plastered a river of steel between the enemy and the sanctuary for which he was racing.

Hundreds killed

By 10 o’clock, it was all over, and the dropping zone was littered now not only with gliders and containers, but with hundreds of enemy dead and enemy wounded.

On Sunday morning, the Germans tried again to blast through to Ranville.

Once more they came in batches, and once more the British mowed them down with the same grim efficiency. That same morning, they had enough and went limping away to the safety of the marshes beyond the Orne.

With the men who had killed them – boys from Lancashire, Yorkshire, Somerset – I went into the woods to see the flotsam and jetsam this short but bloody war had left. Everywhere was death. But it was Nazi death. At least 400 had been killed and nearly 2,000 made prisoners. And in breaking the whole of a German regiment and capturing its commander, British losses did not number over 50 all told, including wounded.

7755

Editorial: Montgomery’s return

…

7756

Editorial: Scrapping ships

…

7757

German prisoners display treachery

With British forces in France (AP) – (June 12, delayed)
German prisoners on the Western Front have to be watched almost as carefully as Japanese in the Pacific.

Three British soldiers and a photographer were standing in a doorway watching a column of Nazi captives passing through a village late yesterday. Suddenly there was a violent explosion. All four were killed. One of the German prisoners had tossed a hand grenade which he had somehow managed to hide.

Facts about the behavior and control of anthracite mine fires, published recently by the government, will provide mining engineers with life- and property-saving information.