America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

7781

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 16, 1944)

Communiqué No. 22

Advances by Allied Forces westward from Pont-l’Abbé in the CHERBOURG PENINSULA have continued. Our troops had local successes in the TILLY sector, but the town remained in enemy hands. Active patrolling has been kept up by both sides.

Adverse weather during the morning once again restricted our air activity, which was confined to limited patrols over the supply beaches and adjacent Channel waters and the immediate battle zone.

Yesterday HMS RAMILLIES (Capt. G. B. MIDDLETON, CBE ADC RN) engaged a battery at BENERVILLE on our eastern flank, which she silenced after an hour’s duel, while HMS NELSON (Capt. H. H. MAXWELL-HYSLOP, AM RN) engaged an enemy battery north of LE HAVRE, which had been firing into the anchorage. Enemy batteries and concentrations were bombarded throughout the day by Allied cruisers.

On the western flank, the USS TEXAS (Capt. C. A. BAKER, USN), wearing the flag of RAdm. CARLETON F. BRYANT, USN, the USS NEVADA (Capt. P. M. RHEA, USN) and the USS ARKANSAS (Capt. F. G. RICHARDS, USN) carried out heavy bombardments in support of the armies near ISIGNY and CARENTAN.

7782

Völkischer Beobachter (June 17, 1944)

Unsere neue Waffe wirkt

Die Gegenrechnung den britischen Luftbarbaren präsentiert

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7783

‚Orkanartiges Artilleriefeuer über dem Invasionsbrückenkopf‘
Montgomerys Lage kritisch

dr. th. b. Stockholm, 16. Juni –
Die ungeheure Härte der sich ihrem Höhepunkt nähernden großen Schlacht in der Normandie kommt nun in den Berichten der britischen und amerikanischen Kriegskorrespondenten voll zum Ausdruck. „Die Kämpfe an den Fronten des Brückenkopfes,“ so heißt es heute in der Meldung eines Amerikaners, „rasen jetzt mit einer bisher niemals beobachteten Heftigkeit. Das Artilleriefeuer wächst stündlich zu Orkanstärke an. Man hat den Eindruck, als ob ein Steppenbrand von riesigem Umfang über die Kanten des Brückenkopfes eingebrochen ist.“

Als besonders blutig werden die Kämpfe um die Stadt Tilly bezeichnet, wo britisch-amerikanische Verbände sich unter schwersten Blutopfern den deutschen Panzern entgegenwerfen. Tilly gleicht der flandrischen Stadt Ypern im ersten Weltkrieg. Wenn die feindlichen Berichterstatter auch versichern, daß der deutsche Gegenangriff nicht unerwartet gekommen sei, so hat seine Wucht anscheinend trotzdem überrascht. Im Hauptquartier Eisenhowers sehe man der weiteren Entwicklung, so heißt es in einer anderen Meldung, zwar ruhig entgegen, gebe aber zu, daß sich die Lage der Invasionstruppen kritischer gestaltet habe.

Für Montgomery käme es jetzt darauf an, seine Front intakt zu halten, auch wenn das um den Preis von Geländeverlusten geschehe. Noch vorgestern dagegen hieß es, Montgomery habe die Lage so fest in der Hand, daß er weitere Verluste nicht mehr zu befürchten brauche und jetzt dem Brückenkopf durch neue Vorstöße den erforderlichen operativen Raum geben könne.

Die Entwicklung in den nächsten 48 Stunden, so wird in Eisenhowers Hauptquartier weiter betont, wird von ungeheurer Bedeutung sein. Wenn die Deutschen in der Normandie alles auf eine Karte setzen, wie es den Anschein habe, und es ihnen nicht gelinge, die Invasionstruppen ins Meer zu werfen, so müsse das sowohl militärisch wie moralisch auf die deutsche Kriegsmaschine einwirken, wenn es zu neuen Landungen komme und dann dürfte die Lage eintreten, daß die Deutschen alle Kräfte in der Normandie eingesetzt und andere Invasionsgebiete von Truppen entblößt hätten.

Es ist zwar rührend von den feindlichen Berichterstattern, die deutsche Führung davor zu warnen, „in der Normandie alles auf eine Karte zu setzen,“ nötig aber ist es noch nicht. Heute weiß jedes Kind in Deutschland, daß der Kampf gegen die Invasionstruppen in der Normandie von der Überlegung bestimmt ist, daß noch weitere Angriffe gegen den europäischen Kontinent zu erwarten sind und daß deshalb die deutsche Führung mit ihren Reserven eher haushälterischer umgehen wird, anstatt sie blindlings in den Mahlstrom einer einzigen gewaltigen Materialschlacht zu werfen.

Über den Verlauf der Kämpfe wird an Einzelheiten noch folgendes amtlich berichtet:

Am Südrand des feindlichen Brückenkopfes in der Normandie hielt auch am Donnerstag der starke Druck der Briten und Nordamerikaner an. Südwestlich Tilly-sur-Seulles warf der Feind eine frische Panzerdivision in den Kampf, um den Gegenangriff der deutschen Truppen im Quellgebiet der Aure aufzuhalten. Dennoch konnten unsere Infanterie- und Panzerverbände weiter Boden gewinnen und das letzte Stück der östlich Caumont bisher noch bestehenden Frontlücke schließen.

Beiderseits der Straße Bayeux-Saint-Lô setzten die Nordamerikaner ihren Angriff ebenfalls fort. Bis auf einen geringfügigen Einbruch bei Saint-André blieben aber alle Vorstöße erfolglos.

Mit weiteren starken Kräften leitete der Gegner neue Stöße im Raum südlich Carentan, und zwar zwischen der Tarde und dem großen Sumpfgebiet südlich Baupte nach Südwesten ein. Hier sind die schweren Kämpfe noch im Gange. Außer im Raum südwestlich Tilly machte der deutsche Gegenangriff auch östlich der Orne weitere Fortschritte. Der von Südosten her angesetzte Stoß gegen den britischen Frontvorsprung auf dem Ostufer der Orne gewann einige Ortschaften – darunter Touffreville, dass nun bereits zum drittenmal den Besitzer wechselte.

Vor der Ornemündung erschien der Feind weiter mit zahlreichen Schiffen. Im Laufe der Nachmittags- und Abendstunden entwickelten sich hier schwere Artilleriekämpfe zwischen deutschen Küstenbatterien und feindlichen Flotteneinheiten, unter denen sich vier Schlachtschiffe und eine Anzahl leichter Kreuzer befanden. Das Feuer unserer Küstenwerke lag so gut, daß sich die Kriegsschiffe einnebelten und abliefen. Ein einziges Küstenwerk wurde dabei durch ein Schlachtschiff, zwei Kreuzer und fünf Artillerieträger beschossen. Unsere Batterie hatte jedoch keinerlei Ausfälle oder Schäden und lieferte damit einen neuen Beweis für die Stärke der Atlantikbefestigungen.

Auch die Luftkämpfe nehmen täglich an Härte zu, da der Gegner in wachsendem Maße versucht, im Frontbereich wie im Hinterland alle Abwehr- und Angriffsbewegungen durch den Einsatz seiner Luftwaffe zu behindern. Die deutsche Jagdwaffe warf sich den oft in starken Wellen bis tief in den nordfranzösischen Raum vorstoßenden Bomber-, Jagdbomber- und Jägerformationen des Feindes immer wieder entschlossen entgegen. Vom ersten Morgengrauen bis zum letzten Abendlicht waren sie am Feind und erkämpften sich einen wesentlichen Anteil an den über 1.000 vernichteten feindlichen Flugzeugen, die laut Wehrmachtbericht vom 15. Juni bisher über dem Invasionsgebiet zur Strecke gebracht wurden.

Neue Schandtaten der Luftgangster

Triest, 16. Juni –
Die anglo-amerikanischen Luftgangster haben in den letzten Tagen wieder eine Reihe völkerrechtswidriger Unternehmen durchgeführt. So wurde beim Angriff auf Triest das klar mit dem internationalen Abzeichen gekennzeichnete Rote-Kreuz-Schiff Innsbruck durch mehrere Bombentreffer versenkt.

In der Nähe von Revigno wurde ein gleichfalls eindeutig mit dem Zeichen des Roten Kreuzes gekennzeichnetes Flugzeug, das zur Bergung von in Seenot geratenen amerikanischen Fliegern aufgestiegen war, von feindlichen Flugzeugen angegriffen und beschossen.

Ein weiteres Rotes-Kreuz-Flugzeug wurde bei Pola bombardiert. Außerdem wurden Fischerboote bei der Insel St. Andrea von feindlichen Jägern beschossen und dabei vier Fischer schwer verletzt.

7784

Verworrene Innenpolitik der USA –
Katalog der Präsidentschaftskandidaten

Von unserer Stockholmer Schriftleitung

dr. th. b. Stockholm, 16. Juni –
In wohlbemessenen Dosen hat Roosevelt immer wieder die Meldung verbreiten lassendes scheine noch nicht sicher oder wahrscheinlich, daß er zum viertenmal kandidieren werde. Dabei hat kein ernsthafter Mensch jemals daran gezweifelt, daß er das nicht versuchen würde. Wenn jetzt also der Daily Express aus Washington meldet, in Kreisen, die dem Weißen Haus naheständen, erkläre man, daß sich Roosevelt nun doch endgültig entschlossen habe, zum viertenmal zu kandidieren, so ist das alles andere als eine Sensation. Wer als Vizepräsident kandidieren soll, ist allerdings weniger klar.

Der bisherige Vizepräsident Wallace versucht zur Zeit, Bolschewisten und Tschungking-Chinesen durch zu nichts verpflichtende Reden zu beglücken. Seine Aussichten sind nicht groß. „Big Business“ liegt ihm nicht. Anders ist es mit Wendell Willkie, der als republikanischer Kandidat ausgespielt hat – noch einmal wollen sich die Republikaner durch eine Scheinoffensive wie 1940 nicht aufs Glatteis führen lassen – aber doch in einzelnen Staaten des Mittelwestens über eine ansehnliche Zahl von Anhängern verfügt, die er als Morgengabe in die politische Ehe mit Roosevelt einbringen könnte.

Sollte Wendell Willkie wirklich als Vizepräsident von den Demokraten aufgestellt werden, was durchaus noch nicht sicher ist, so würde sich das innerpolitische Bild noch mehr als bisher verwirren. Zum Schluss dürfte niemand mehr recht wissen, für wen oder für was er wählt, so fließend sind die Grenzen zwischen den Parteien geworden. In Roosevelt und Dewey, dem wahrscheinlichen Kandidaten der Republikaner, stehen sich zwar zwei ausgeprägte Persönlichkeiten gegenüber. Mit einem Gegensatz der Charaktere und Temperamente aber läßt sich ein Wahlkampf allein kaum bestreiten.

Auf welcher Grundlage und mit welchen Parolen der Wahlkampf auch immer ausgefochten werden wird – feststeht, daß er sich auf das Feld der Innenpolitik beschränken muß, es sei denn, es käme während des Wahlkampfes zu einer militärischen Katastrophe für Roosevelt.

Die Demokraten werden auf die „Fortschritte“ hinweisen, die das Land in den letzten elf Jahren gemacht hat. Die Republikaner werden demgegenüber betonen, daß „frisches Blut“ notwendig sei. Die Republikaner werden das Zentralisierungsbestreben der Regierung angreifen. Die Demokraten werden entgegnen, daß ohne eine gewisse Zentralisierung Reformen nicht möglich seien. Die Republikaner werden erklären, daß die Agrarpolitik der Regierung zu einer Warenverknappung geführt hat. Die Demokraten werden von einer Stabilisierung in der Landwirtschaft sprechen. Die Republikaner werden es als verfassungswidrig bezeichnen, daß ein Mann über zwei Perioden hinaus Präsident ist. Die Demokraten werden entgegnen, daß man Roosevelt als Führer im Kriege nicht entbehren könne. Die Republikaner werden behaupten, daß die Kriegsanstrengungen nationale Einigkeit erfordern und daß das amerikanische Volk mehr und mehr republikanisch gesinnt sei. Die Demokraten werden das auf das bestimmteste verneinen.

Solche Kontroversen und noch manche andere müssen also ausreichen, um einen Wahlkampf zu bestreiten, dessen Bedeutung für den weiteren Kriegsverlauf zwar groß, aber noch nicht entscheidend ist. Der Ruck nach der republikanischen Seite hält zwar an, aber es bleibt weiter zweifelhaft, ob die Mehrheit der Bevölkerung der Vereinigten Staaten bereit ist, „in der Furt die Pferde zu wechseln.“ Alles hängt, wie gesagt, von der weiteren militärischen Entwicklung ab.

Neutrale Beobachter in den Vereinigten Staaten sind in ihrer Beurteilung der öffentlichen Meinung nach dem Beginn der Invasion sehr vorsichtig. Sie weisen darauf hin, „daß die meisten Amerikaner eigentlich erst seit der letzten Woche ähnlich wie Willkie entdeckt hätten, daß die Erde rund ist.“ Die Kämpfe in der Normandie stießen nicht nur, weil hunderttausend amerikanische Truppen in sie verwickelt seien und schwere Verluste erlitten, auf tieferes Interesse, als man ursprünglich vermutet habe. Man müsse abwarten, ob diese Reaktion anhalte, vor allem aber abwarten, welche Folgen ein ernsthafter Rückschlag haben werde.

7785

Judenanmaßung in Rom –
‚Glücklichere Zeiten sind angebrochen‘

Von unserem Berichterstatter in Italien

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7786

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 17, 1944)

Communiqué No. 23

Allied troops continue their advance with leading elements in SAINT-SAUVEUR-LE-VICOMTE. Local advances were made in the face of heavy enemy opposition between CAUMONT and TILLY. East of CAEN, a strong enemy attack was beaten off.

Throughout yesterday Allied cruisers and destroyers engaged gun batteries which the enemy had established on the eastern bank of the river ORNE.

Concentrations of enemy armor northeast of CAEN were bombarded by HMS RAMILLIES (Capt. G.H. Middleton, CBE ADC RN).

Merchant convoys continue to arrive at beaches steadily and in safety.

Adverse weather again restricted air operations yesterday afternoon and evening. Heavy bombers attacked enemy airfields near PARIS and LAON and objectives in the PAS-DE-CALAIS. Railway targets, road transport and tanks behind the battle zone were attacked by fighters and fighter-bombers, and an ammunition dump near CAEN by medium bombers. Fighters also flew protective patrols and escorted the bombers.

During the night, our light bombers attacked supply dumps in the CHERBOURG PENINSULA. Two enemy aircraft were shot down over NORMANDY.

7787

U.S. Navy Department (June 17, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 53

U.S. Marines supported by elements of an Army infantry divi­sion have improved their positions on Saipan Island, and are driving forward toward Aslito Airdrome. Harassment of our beachheads by enemy mortar fire has been considerably reduced.

On the night of June 14 (West Longitude Date), enemy torpedo planes launched an attack against our carrier force, but were repulsed without damage to our ships.

Our heavy surface units bombarded Guam Island on June 15.

Liberators of the 11th Army Air Force bombed Matsuwa, Paramu­shiru and Shimushiru on June 14. Five enemy aircraft were airborne near Matsuwa but only one attempted to attack our force, and did no damage. Fourteen enemy fighters appeared over Paramushiru and several made attacks causing damage to one of our planes. One enemy fighter was probably shot down and an enemy medium bomber was damaged. Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Four also bombed Paramushiru and Shumushu on June 14. Fifteen enemy fighters attacked our force, causing minor damage to several of our aircraft. Shimushiru was again attacked by 11th Army Air Force Liberators on June 15.

Army, Navy and Marine aircraft of Central Pacific Air Forces bombed objectives in the Marshall Islands and Eastern Caroline Islands on June 13 and 15 (West Longitude Date).

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 54

U.S. Marines and Army troops advancing east across the south­ern portion of Saipan Island, made gains averaging 1,500 yards during the night of June 15‑16 and on June 16 (West Longitude Date). The area now held by our forces extends from a point just south of Garapan for a distance of approximately five and a half miles to Agingan and extends inland two miles at the point of deepest penetration. Our forces have captured Hinashisu due east of Lake Susupe.

Our positions were under sustained enemy fire during the night of June 15‑16, and before dawn on June 16 the enemy launched a determined counter­attack. This attack, which was broken up, cost the enemy heavily in lives and destroyed more than 25 enemy tanks.

Early in the morning of June 16, our troops launched the offensive which resulted in general advances. Some of our forward echelons penetrated the naval air base at Aslito Airdrome, but were later withdrawn under severe enemy fire.

During the action on June 16, our aircraft bombed and strafed enemy positions, and during the night of June 15‑16, enemy strongpoints were shelled by our ships.

On June 15, one of our destroyer transports encountered five enemy coastal cargo ships and sank them. Twenty‑nine survivors were rescued and made prisoners of war.

CINCPAC Press Release No. 448

For Immediate Release
June 17, 1944

As the South Pacific has become relatively quiet, Adm. William F. Halsey Jr., USN, has been relieved of command of the South Pacific Area and the South Pacific Force. He will henceforth command the Third Fleet which will operate in the Pacific Ocean in the same way that the Fifth Fleet is operating under command of Adm. Raymond A. Spruance, USN.

7788

The Free Lance-Star (June 17, 1944)

YANKS MAY CUT OFF GERMANS IN CHERBOURG
Americans push onward across peninsula

Heavy artillery hits escape road
By Wes Gallagher

Bulletin

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
U.S. troops punched forward two to three miles today in the developing drive to choke off Cherbourg Peninsula.

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
U.S. troops driving to punch off the top of the Cherbourg Peninsula brought the Germans’ last escape road under hammering artillery fire today, and a U.S. fighter pilot reported signs of German flight from the cape and its great port.

One U.S. column beating west of Carentan fought within four miles of La Haye-du-Puits, the Nazis’ last main road junction at the shortest neck of the peninsula, and forces farther north had cut Cherbourg’s western railway by seizing Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte. Still other Americans had recaptured Montebourg, 14 miles southeast of Cherbourg.

Even as artillery blasted the Germans’ last road on their dwindling western strip of the peninsula, an American pilot said he saw enemy trucks and staff cars moving south, and declared he believed the Germans “want to get out of there, but our troops are moving in fast as hell.”

‘Another Sevastopol’

Cherbourg threatened to become another Sevastopol for the Germans, with their escape cut off except by sea, as happened in the Crimea.

Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, commanding six U.S. divisions fighting in two Army corps, said 3,283 Americans were killed and 12,600 wounded in the first 11 days of the invasion. These 15,883 casualties included reports up to last midnight, he told a press conference in France.

U.S. losses are expected to be higher than those of the British and Canadians – figures as yet undisclosed – because the U.S. 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions met the heaviest fighting on landing. Going ashore in the center, these units ran into a Nazi division holding maneuvers on a difficult beach. Both the British and Canadians made their original landings comparatively easily – as did other Americans on the west flank – although they have been engaged in heavy fighting since then.

Counterblows beaten

On the eastern end of the battlefront, Supreme Headquarters declared strong German attacks were beaten off east of Caen, and a headquarters officer said two unsuccessful Nazi counterblows in the Troarn area, seven miles beyond Caen were “extremely costly” to the enemy.

Toward the center, the Allies punched out local advances despite heavy opposition between Caumont and Tilly-sur-Seulles, the communiqué said.

The German High Command said Nazi counterattacks had regained the greater part of the forest area south of Bavent, three and a half miles north of Troarn, and east of the Orne River.

The biggest news of the day was the weather, which again blew at “force four” from the north. Any wind from “force three” or above delays unloading on the beachhead, Supreme Headquarters said.

It was officially disclosed that Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, U.S. ground commander, has two Army corps under his command, the Fifth and the Seventh. The Fifth is composed of the 1st, 2nd and 29th Infantry Divisions while the Seventh includes the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the 4th Infantry Divisions.

It was these forces which registered the only new advances along the bridgehead front.

7789

3,283 dead, 12,600 wounded is U.S. invasion toll

By Don Whitehead

With U.S. forces in France (AP) –
The U.S. Army had 3,283 killed and 12,600 wounded in opening the western front in Normandy, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley said today.

The total of 15,883 casualties was for the first 11 days of the campaign, and included reports up to midnight last night, Gen. Bradley said.

He paid high tribute to the courage of doughboys in establishing the beachhead on the European continent.

The tall, tanned Missourian, looking extremely fit and in good spirits, appeared before beachhead correspondents in a group for the first time to discuss the campaign.

Bradley said casualties on the central beachhead, where the U.S. 1st Infantry Division and elements of the 29th Infantry Division landed, had run higher then anticipated, but that casualties in the peninsula area to the west had been lower than anticipated.

This casualty report confirmed Bradley’s confidence before the invasion when he predicted that the continent could be invaded without creating the bloodbath which the enemy insisted would result and which many persons expected.

Bradley’s first words to the correspondents who gathered in the tent under the shade of a huge beech tree were in praise of his doughboys and parachute troops and their leaders.

He said:

Only by guts, valor and extreme bravery on the part of the men and their leaders involved were we able to make the landing a success, and I cannot say too much for the parachute troops who dropped in the rear and made the job easier for the beach troops. They did a marvelous job.

D-Day casualties below casualties

Medical services set up immediately behind lines

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
D-Day casualties were below what had been expected and planned for and less than one percent of the American wounded who reached medical stations died, it was officially disclosed today.

The invasion medical service surpassed that available in the North African landing or in World War I.

Extensive use was made of a new anesthetic, sodium pentanal, which is administered intravenously through an operation which is quicker acting and more pleasant than ether. This anesthetic, however, is unfeasible where abdominal relaxation is required.

The most frequent type of wound was from big expensive shell fragments in the arms and legs. In World War I, there was a big proportion of chest wounds because of more static fighting.

Evacuation hospitals with nurses were set up within five miles of fighting lines four days after D-Day and were doing major surgery within two hours.

There was extensive use of penicillin and sulfa drugs and many transfusions of plasma and whole blood which were delivered by both ship and air.

Gangrene from a gas-producing bacillus, which developed in about three percent of the wounds in the last war and which was greatly feared, has been almost negligible in the Normandy operation because of quick treatment. It occurred mainly among German wounded.

7790

Yanks drive ahead in Saipan invasion

Street fighting in progress in town; task force hits Bonin and Kazan

USPACFLT HQ, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (AP) –
Grimly fighting Yank invaders, after street-by-street seizure of a coastal town and captured of its airstrip, punched slowly inland today on Saipan in the Marianas – unlocking bombed Japan’s inner defense perimeter.

Official sources also disclosed that a task force had made the war’s first attack on the Bonin and Kazan Islands, destroying 47 planes, sinking two ships and damaging 10. This completed the dramatic picture of a grand-scale air and naval operation which smashed Japan’s steel industry and every base for 3,000 miles along a defense line from Paramushiru to Palau. The Bonins were the last link.

The first eyewitness reports from Saipan, where U.S. forces which landed Wednesday along a two-mile beachhead have won the town of Charan Kanoa, supported official accounts of a bitter battle.

Civilians evacuated

After the intense battleship bombardment and the 100-ton bombing by carrier planes had forced the Japs back from the beaches, the Yanks landed on both sides of Charan Kanoa on Saipan’s southwest coast, 1,500 miles from Tokyo. The enemy evacuated Charan Kanoa’s 3,000 civilians, but Richard W. Johnston, representing combined Allied press, said they left behind a strong rearguard which had to be “cleaned out in the first Pacific fighting comparable to Europe’s house-to-house encounters.”

Summarizing the situation, he reported the Charan Kanoa Airstrip has been won but still is under enemy mortar fire; on the south end of the beachhead, Yanks opened “a powerful attack today which carried them close to the Aslito Airdrome;” on the north end, less than five miles below Garapan, that main town of Saipan was subjected to daylong American artillery fire.

No air opposition

Johnston wrote:

Thanks to the preparatory strikes against dozens of Japanese bases in the Carolines, Nippon was unable to send aloft a single plane to interfere with landing operations.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced last night that the Yanks recoiled from an earlier reverse to score their hard-won success at Charan Kanoa. Then he added this cautious note:

Our assumption that Saipan Island would be strongly held because of its strategic location in the Japanese defense system has been proven correct. Preliminary estimates indicate there are upwards of two divisions of enemy troops defending Saipan.

7791

RAF strikes Pas-de-Calais area

Attack aimed at bases for pilotless planes

Bulletin

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
U.S. heavy bombers pounded half a dozen Nazi air bases in a great arc extending halfway around the Normandy battle zone today.

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
RAF heavy bombers smashed last night at enemy installations in the Pas-de-Calais area of France from where the Germans are believed to be launching their pilotless planes, while other British formations hammered a synthetic oil plant near Duisburg and targets in Berlin.

The night blow against Pas-de-Calais came a few hours after U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators in the last hours of daylight yesterday pounded these same installations.

Despite day and night thrusts at that portion of the French coast nearest to England – an area battered repeatedly before the invasion – the Germans kept their mysterious robot planes hurtling across the channel last night in a continuation of attacks kept up yesterday and the previous night. Damage and casualties were caused in several places in England.

Although miserable flying weather once more hampered the air support of the invasion armies yesterday, Supreme Headquarters said 2,500 sorties (individual plane flights) were flown by Allied air units – about 1,000 of them by U.S. heavy bombers and their escort in the twilight smash at the Pas-de-Calais.

The night attack on Berlin was made by Mosquitos, while British Lancasters and Halifaxes continued the Allied campaign aimed at drying up Hitler’s war machine by dumping tons of explosives on the Fischer-Tropsch synthetic oil plant at Sterkrade, about five miles north of Duisburg.

Thirty-three RAF bombers were missing from last night’s operations, described by the Air Ministry as involving a “very strong force.” This indicated about 1,000 planes were used.

7792

French landing is made on Elba

Allied forces in Italy continuing rapid strides

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7793

Robot plane hit England blindly

Several casualties as projectiles strike at random

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King George visits beachhead

London, England (AP) –
King George VI visited the Normandy beachhead yesterday, his trip marking the first time in four centuries that a reigning sovereign of England had set foot on Norman soil to visit his armies fighting there.

King George crossed the Channel on the cruiser HMS Arethusa and landed from an amphibious “duck,” Louis Wulff, Reuters correspondent representing the combined Allied press, said in a dispatch from the warship.

Before he returned safely to an English south coast naval port, the monarch lunched with Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery at advanced headquarters and made Maj. Gen. R. F. L. Keller, a commander of the British Empire. Keller, from Kelowna, British Columbia, is in command of the 3rd Canadian Division.

7794

Relentless Yanks gaining on Biak

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Stilwell forces joined by Chinese

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Japanese minimize damage of bombing

By the Associated Press

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7795

Murdered bride found in ditch

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7796

Nazi launching pilotless planes

Dangerous new weapon directed against England

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7797

Negro youth dies for girls’ murder

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35 racehorses killed in blaze

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7798

Editorial: Father’s Day

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7799

Editorial: Importance of Cherbourg

Although Nazi generals could not know exactly where the Allies would strike and consequently had to prepare their defenses for hundreds of miles along the northern coast of Europe, there is strong evidence that they did anticipate Gen. Eisenhower’s first major objective. When Allied landings were made in Normandy and American troops began driving westward to cut off the Cherbourg Peninsula, their suspicions were confirmed.

This is the most powerful of Allied operations from the beachhead, with many divisions taking part. When the Cherbourg Peninsula is severed, hundreds of square miles will be added to Allied holdings.

But size of this territory is secondary to the advantage – rather, the necessity – of seizing a port large enough to accommodate the transport requirements of a sustained European campaign. Cherbourg itself must be taken. Then, and then only – barring a successful assault on Le Havre – can Gen. Eisenhower be sure of solving the supply problem.

American troops engaged in this operation are hampered by low terrain which the Nazis have flooded. It is now revealed that the Germans let in the water before D-Day, not afterward, in anticipation of the Allied maneuver. But they did not, perhaps could not, spare enough troops to defend the area effectively. Furthermore, the Americans lost little time in winning control of sluices which are being used to reduce the floods in that area.

When U.S. divisions engaged in the operation succeed in taking Cherbourg, it will be a victory of top importance and will have a positive effect on the future conduct of the entire European campaign.

7800

The Pittsburgh Press (June 17, 1944)

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

Normandy beachhead, France –
In the preceding column, we told about the D-Day wreckage among our machines of war that were expended in taking one of the Normandy beaches.

But there is another and more human litter. It extended in a thin little line, just like a high-water mark, for miles along the beach. This is the strewn personal gear, gear that will never be needed again, of those who fought and died to give us our entrance into Europe.

Here in a jumbled row for mile on mile are soldiers’ packs. Here are socks and shoe polish, sewing kits, diaries, Bible and hand grenades. Here are the latest letters from home, with the address on each one neatly razored out – one of the security precautions enforced before the boys embarked.

Here are toothbrushes and razors, and snapshots of families back home staring up at you from the sand. Here are pocketbooks, metal mirrors, extra trousers, and bloody, abandoned shoes. Here are broken-handled shovels, and portable radios smashed almost beyond recognition, and mine detectors twisted and ruined.

Here are torn pistol belts and canvas water buckets, first-aid kits and jumbled heaps of lifebelts. I picked up a pocket Bible with a soldier’s name in it, and out it in my jacket. I carried it half a mile or so and then put it back down on the beach. I don’t know why I picked it up, or why I put it back down.

Soldiers carry strange things ashore with them. in every invasion, you’ll find at least one soldier hitting the beach at H-Hour with a banjo slung over his shoulder. The most ironic piece of equipment marking our beach – this beach of first despair, then victory – is a tennis racket that some soldier had brought along. It lies lonesomely on the sand, clamped in its rack, not a string broken.

Two of the most dominant items in the beach refuse are cigarettes and writing paper. Each soldier was issued a carton of cigarettes just before he started. Today these cartons by the thousands, watersoaked and spilled out, mark the line of our first savage blow.

Writing paper and airmail envelopes come second. The boys had intended to do a lot of writing in France. Letters that would have filled those blank, abandoned pages.

Always there are dogs in every invasion. There is a dog still on the beach today, still pitifully looking for his master.

He stays at the water’s edge, near a boat that lies twisted and half sunk at the waterline. He barks appealingly to every soldier who approaches, trots eagerly along with him for a few feet, and then, sensing himself unwanted in all this haste, runs back to wait in vain for his own people at his own empty boat.

Over and around this long thin line of personal anguish, fresh men today are rushing vast supplies to keep our armies pushing on into France. Other squads of men pick amidst the wreckage to salvage ammunition and equipment that are still usable.

Men worked and slept on the beach for days before the last D-Day victim was taken away for burial.

I stepped over the form of one youngster whom I thought dead. But when I looked down, I saw he was only sleeping. He was very young, and very tired. He lay on one elbow, his hand suspended in the air about six inches from the ground. And in the palm of his hand, he held a large, smooth rock.

I stood and looked at him a long time. He seemed in his sleep to hold that rock lovingly, as though it were his last link with a vanishing world. I have no idea at all why he went to sleep with the rock in his hand, or what kept him from dropping it once he was asleep. It was just one of those little things without explanation, that a person remembers for a long time.

The strong swirling tides of the Normandy coastline shift the contours of the sandy beach as they move in and out. They carry soldiers’ bodies out to sea, and later they return them. They cover the corpses of heroes with sand, and then in their whims they uncover them.

As I plowed out over the wet sand of the beach on that first day ashore, I walked around what seemed to be a couple of pieces of driftwood sticking out of the sand. But they weren’t driftwood.

They were a soldier’s two feet. He was completely covered by the shifting sands except for his feet. The toes of his G.I. shoes pointed toward the land he had come so far to see, and which he saw so briefly.