Völkischer Beobachter (June 20, 1944)
Man kann der neuen Waffe nicht Herr werden –
Ungereimtes aus der Küche der Feindagitation
…
Man kann der neuen Waffe nicht Herr werden –
Einer Gegen sechs Stahlkolosse –
Hitler-Jugend in der Bewährung
pk. Über der Küste der Normandie wogten die grauen Wolkenpakete eines trüben Junitages. Seit die Landungsboote von der britischen Insel herüberkamen und die Flugzeuge mit den Kokarden des Feindes Truppen absetzten, mischte sich auch der Rauch von Brand und Explosionen in den windgetriebenen Wirbel des tiefen Himmels. Das Lärmen von Granaten mit Abschuß und Einschlag, die von hüben und drüben ohne Sparsamkeit versandt wurden, war in der Luft und schwellte auch in den Stunden der kurzen Frühsommernächte nicht ab.
Zwei junge Grenadiere von der SS-Panzerdivision „Hitler-Jugend“ saßen irgendwo im Raum von Caen im selbstgegrabenen Deckungsloch. „Ihr habt hier gegen feindliche Panzer zu sichern,“ hatte der Sturmführer gesagt, der selbst die Einweisung vornahm. „Vor uns müssen welche stecken, also seid auf der Hut.“
Seitdem begrenzte die Welt der beiden, achtzehnjährig der eine und drei Monate älter der andere, eine jenseitige Hecke. Daß es dahinter noch etwas gab, Wiesen, Gebüsche und ebensolche Hecken, war ihnen klar, und das Poltern der Granaten aus Geschützen und Werfern, das Bersten der Bomben und das Morsen der Maschinengewehre verrieten es ja auch deutlich genug. Aber für die beiden Soldaten waren die Hecke vor ihnen und der Weg, der am Panzerdeckungsloch vorbei dorthin führte, jetzt die einzige Geographie. Man mußte in diesem Bezirk höllisch aufpassen und sich tarnen, weil es das Leben galt.
Minuten, vielleicht aber auch Stunden saßen die beiden Jungen im Erdloch. Zwischendurch schielten sie mal zu einem Luftkampf hinauf, der sich mit milchigen Kondensstreifen in den mittlerweile aufgeklärten Himmel grub. Aber die Hecke gegenüber blieb natürlich unter Kontrolle. Vögel, die der Schlachtenlärm immer wieder aufscheuchte, huschten dort aufgeregt ein und aus. Sonst aber blieb es ruhig, bis…
Ja, bis sich die Zweige auseinanderbogen und die Stirn eines gewaltigen britischen Panzers daraus hervorlugte.
Was sich nun im Deckungsloch der beiden jungen Soldaten ereignete, war das eigentlich Heroische, mehr vielleicht, als die Tat selbst, die sich anschloss.
Wie es drüben in der Hecke raschelte, flüsterte der eine: „Still jetzt, sie kommen. Siehst du, dort steht einer.“
Der Kamerad hatte ihn längst schon erspäht. – „Ich werde ihn anspringen.“ – „Nein, lass es mich tun.“ – „Du nicht, du kannst das nicht so und…,“ er suchte nach einer Begründung, „und dann musst du auch an deine Mutti denken.“ – Wirklich: er sagte „Mutti,“ der Junge.
Sie geschah in jenen Sekunden, diese hastige Zwiesprache, die sonst dem Schreck Vorbehalten sind. Nicht Ehrgeiz und erst recht keine Angst waren es, an denen Rede und Gegenrede sich entzündeten. Nur Fürsorge, das Einstehen für den Kameraden, regierten den Augenblick.
„Los jetzt. Schieß, so viel du kannst, aber schieß nicht auf mich.“
Der eine stieß sich den Kolben des Maschinengewehres in die rechte Schultergrube. Der andere aber, der Achtzehnjährige, war mit einem Satz aus dem Erdloch. Die Panzervernichtungsmittel unter dem Arm, sprang er den Panzer an, den Giganten des Schlachtfeldes. Er allein, ganz allein, ein Hitler-Junge!
Es war das Werk von Augenblicken, aber eine Tat, die das Leben wog. Sechsmal das eigene und das Leben ungezählter deutscher Soldaten.
Denn als er aus dem Rausch des Kampfes wieder zurückfand, stand der Kamerad daneben und gab ihm mit einem Leuchten in den Augen die Hand. „Die tun keinem mehr etwas!“ sagte er und wies auf sechs große Feindpanzer, an denen die Flammen leckten. Hinter dem ersten waren noch fünf stählerne Ungetüme auf knirschenden Ketten herangekommen. Und jedem von ihnen jagte der junge Soldat das Panzervernichtungsmittel in den Leib. Man muß ein Held sein, um so etwas zu vollbringen.
Hernach auf dem Divisionsgefechtsstand war es wie vorher im Erdloch. Nur sagte jetzt jeder von den beiden nicht „ich,“ sondern „er,“ als der Kommandeur fragte, wer denn eigentlich den Löwenanteil trage. Dann nahm er Eiserne Kreuze beider Klassen und heftete sie den beiden jungen Grenadieren an die Feldbluse. Goldene Panzervernichtungsabzeichen waren einstweilen nicht zur Hand. Hier vorne ist ja die
Munition wichtiger. Darum gab der Kommandeur sechs Einzelvernichtungs-Abzeichen. Sie hätten ihre Pflicht getan und Mut bewiesen, lobte er dann die beiden jungen Soldaten, und weil gerade er, der Ritterkreuzträger es sagte, waren sie sehr glücklich. Alle, die mit dabeistanden, wie er die Bewährung auszeichnete, empfanden es wie eine Feier. Als sie später darüber sprachen, waren sie sich einig: Auf solche Jugend darf, nein: muß der Führer stolz sein.
Kriegsberichter ALEX SCHMALFUSS
Rücksichtsloser Kapitalismus
Vichy, 19. Juni –
Über die wahren Absichten der Anglo-Amerikaner gegenüber dem Komitee von Algier schreibt das Regierungsblatt Moniteur, daß die Anglo-Amerikaner de Gaulle nur solche Machtbefugnisse zugestanden-hätten, die ihnen zur Durchführung bestimmter Aufgaben unbedingt notwendig erschienen. Die Anglo-Amerikaner möchten in Bezug auf Frankreich die Hände absolut frei haben. Nach Meinung des sozialistischen „Effort“ sei eines sicher, nämlich, daß die Anglo-Amerikaner Frankreich eine Verwaltung aufzwingen würden, die aus englischen und amerikanischen Militärs bestehen würde. Da man wisse, daß sie in ihrem Gepäck den rücksichtslosesten Kapitalismus mit sich schleppten, zögen die Franzosen vor, sich in ein sozialistisches Europa einzureihen, dessen Nationen dank der Hilfsquellen ihres Bodens und dank ihrer Arbeit die Möglichkeit eines freien Lebens in Ehre und Gerechtigkeit finden würden.
Innsbrucker Nachrichten (June 20, 1944)
Schwere Feindverluste in der Normandie
London weiterhin unter Störungsfeuer – Neue Verluste der Invasionsflotte – Harte Kämpfe in Italien
dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 20. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Die Kämpfe in der Normandie verliefen gestern für den Feind besonders verlustreich. Auf breiter Front versuchte er im Raum Tilly-Livry mehrmals mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerkräften unsere Front zu durchstoßen. Alle Angriffe scheiterten. Südwestlich Tilly wurde dabei ein feindliches Bataillon völlig zerschlagen, der Bataillonsstab gefangengenommen.
Auf der Halbinsel Cherbourg fanden keine größeren Kämpfe statt. Der Feind fühlte lediglich mit gepanzerten Aufklärungskräften gegen die Südfront der Festung Cherbourg vor.
Der Raum London liegt weiterhin unter unserem Störungsfeuer.
Heeres- und Marineküstenbatterien zwangen vor der Halbinsel Cherbourg mehrere feindliche Schiffe zum Abdrehen.
Fernkampfbatterien der Kriegsmarine schossen in der vergangenen Nacht im Kanal mehrere Schiffe eines nach Westen laufenden feindlichen Geleitzuges in Brand.
Die Luftwaffe setzte auch in der letzten Nacht die Bekämpfung der Schiffsansammlungen vor dem Landekopf erfolgreich fort. Nach zahlreichen Bombentreffern wurden schwere Explosionen beobachtet.
Bei dem bereits gemeldeten Angriff deutscher Kampffliegerverbände in der Nacht vom 18. zum 19. Juni wurden nach abschließenden Meldungen zwei weitere Handelsschiffe mit 18.000 BRT und ein Zerstörer versenkt. Außerdem wurden ein weiterer Zerstörer, ein Tanker von 8.000 BRT und ein Frachter von 7.000 BRT schwer beschädigt. Eine Fliegerdivision unter Führung von Generalmajor Körte hat sich bei diesen Einsätzen besonders ausgezeichnet.
Über dem Landekopf und den besetzten Westgebieten wurden gestern 29 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.
Die schwache Besatzung der Insel Elba setzte auch gestern im Nordteil der Insel den Kampf gegen den weit überlegenen Feind hartnäckig fort und brachte ihm schwerste Verluste bei. Sie wurde in der vergangenen Nacht auf das Festland übergeführt.
In Mittelitalien hielten die starken Angriffe des Feindes auch gestern an, ohne daß es ihm gelang, den erhofften Durchbruch zu erzielen. Besonders erbittert tobte der Kampf im Raum von Perugia, wo der Feind in mehreren aus starken Infanterie- und Panzerkräften gebildeten Angriffsgruppen gegen unsere Front vorstieß. Gegenangriffe unserer Truppen brachten die feindlichen Angriffe zum Stehen.
Aus dem Osten wurden außer erfolgreichen örtlichen Abwehrkämpfen südöstlich Witebsk keine Kampfhandlungen gemeldet.
Leichte deutsche Seestreitkräfte beschädigten im Finnischen Meerbusen zwei sowjetische Schnellboote.
Vor der Karelischen Landenge eingesetzte Sicherungsfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine schossen fünf sowjetische Bomber ab.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 20, 1944)
Communiqué No. 29
Coordinated attacks all along the north front in the CHERBOURG PENINSULA have brought the port under artillery fire. After liberating the town of BRIQUEBEC, Allied troops made further advances toward the village of RAUVILLE-LA-BIGOT.
East of VALOGNES, our troops gained some ground. Another advance reached to within two miles of VALOGNES and cut the road from there to BRIQUEBEC.
Further east, the enemy was once again driven from TILLY-SUR-SEULLES after fierce fighting.
Heavy day bombers attacked the PAS-DE-CALAIS yesterday afternoon striking through thick clouds at the pilotless aircraft launching sites. From this second attack of the day, three bombers are missing. Small formation of medium bombers and fighter bombers also attacked these targets.
In spite of bad weather, light aircraft escorted shipping and patrolled the beaches. Some fighters broke through the cloud screen to bomb and strafe locomotives, motor vehicles, barges and warehouses behind the lines. They encountered intense flak at low level. From these operations, two medium bombers and 15 fighters are missing.
Communiqué No. 30
Allied troops are attacking the outer defenses of CHERBOURG.
MONTEBOURG has been liberated and our forces are on the three sides of VALOGNES, where heavy fighting is in progress.
Our positions in the area of TILLY are firm. Very heavy fighting continued near HOTTOT yesterday.
Bad weather in the battle area limited air operations until midday today.
Fighter-bombers and bombers with fighter escort attacked flying-bomb bases in the PAS-DE-CALAIS area during the morning. Several hits were scored on these and other military installations.
Other formations of fighter bombers hit a bridge over the LOIRE near NANTES, destroyed a railway bridge at GRANVILLE, and bombed rolling stock and motor transport at TRAPPES, southwest of PARIS.
Fighter bombers also successfully attacks railway tracks at a number of places both north and south of CHARTRES. Twelve Fw 190s attempted to interfere with operation. Five of them were destroyed in the air combat for the loss of three of our aircraft.
U.S. Navy Department (June 20, 1944)
Communiqué No. 526
The submarine, USS GRAYBACK (SS-208), is overdue from patrol and must be presumed to be lost.
The next of kin of casualties of the GRAYBACK have been so notified.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 57
U.S. Marines and Army infantrymen are continuing to advance on Saipan Island closely supported by aircraft bombing by Army and Marine artillery and naval gunfire against severe enemy artillery fire. Our troops now hold the entire southern portion of the island from the southern outskirts of Garapan across to the center of the western shore of Magicienne Bay. Several strong pockets of enemy resistance within this area are being heavily attacked by our forces.
During June 19 (West Longitude Date), the airfields on Tinian Island were bombed by our aircraft and shelled by our surface units.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 450
For Immediate Release
June 20, 1944
Truk Atoll was bombed by Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force on June 18 (West Longitude Date). Airfields on Moen Island were principal targets. No fighter interference was encountered and anti-aircraft fire was meager.
A single 7th Army Air Force Liberator bombed Ponape on June 18.
Nauru Island was attacked on June 18 by 7th Army Air Force Mitchell bombers which shelled and bombed anti-aircraft emplacements and buildings. Anti-aircraft fire was intense but inaccurate.
Enemy positions in the Marshalls were attacked during the day and night of June 18 by Catalina search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, Corsair fighters and Dauntless dive bombers of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, and Navy Hellcat fighters. Anti-aircraft fire did sufficient damage to a Dauntless dive bomber to force it down on the water before reaching its base. The crew was rescued by a Catalina search plane of Group One, Fleet Air Wing Two.
The Free Lance-Star (June 20, 1944)
CAPTURE OF CHERBOURG BY YANKS IMMINENT
9th Infantry Division now only four miles from port city
Germans fall back on city’s defenses
Where Yanks close trap on Germans
Arrows indicate U.S. advances including the breakthrough to the west coast of the Cherbourg Peninsula between Barneville and Saint-Lô-d’Ourville, thereby trapping thousands of Germans to the north. The principal other U.S. gain was a drive east of Vire River to within less than six miles of Saint-Lô.
Bulletin
New York (AP) –
Troops of the 9th Infantry Division have captured Saint-Martin-le-Gréard, four miles from Cherbourg, the London radio said today in an NBC-recorded broadcast.
SHAEF, London, England (AP) –‘
U.S. troops plunged within four miles of Cherbourg late today in an all-out offensive of mounting fury, and also seized Valognes, 10 miles southeast of the great harbor.
The veteran U.S. 9th Infantry Division spearheaded the deepest drive directly south of Cherbourg – a death pocket for perhaps up to 50,000 Nazis – advancing to Saint-Martin-le-Gréard only four miles away.
On the southeast approach to the transatlantic port, other doughboys seized Valognes and pushed a mile beyond, and cleaned the Germans out of bypassed Montebourg, four miles from Valognes.
The Germans were falling back upon the inner perimeter of Cherbourg’s defenses, Associated Press correspondent Roger Greene said in a dispatch from U.S. field headquarters. He added the Germans fell back from Valognes “without attempting a major stand.”
The power drive directly south of Cherbourg carried the 9th Infantry Division battering ram nearly six miles north of captured Bricquebec.
On the eastern coast of the trap tightening steadily on Cherbourg, a U.S. column drive two miles north of Quinéville.
Montebourg, won and lost by the Yanks in bitter street fighting and then bypassed in the push to Valognes, has now been completely occupied, Supreme Headquarters said.
Repulse counterattacks
Toward the eastern flank of the long Normandy front, British forces battling against a wall of Nazi armor struck two miles southwest of Tilly-sur-Seulles and seized Hottot-les-Bagues. Two Nazi counterattacks aimed at retaking the town were beaten back.
U.S. forces on the west coast also made progress north of Barneville, where the first breakthrough was made sealing off the top of Cherbourg Peninsula. Opposition in this sector was reported light.
The Germans have three semi-circular defense lines around Cherbourg, with the biggest stretching out six miles from the port. Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s offensive has pierced deep through this line and has apparently reached the second defense wall.
Air reconnaissance disclosed the Germans have been demolishing the port of Cherbourg and that it is in bad shape, indicating they had given up hope of holding it for very long.
There were indications the Germans were weaker on the western side of the peninsula than in the east.
Heavy aerial blows
The all-out Cherbourg drive was coupled with what happened to be the greatest air effort since the first days of the invasion, and more than 1,500 U.S. heavy bombers bombed targets in Germany and the rocket bomb platforms in the Pas-de-Calais area on the French coast.
Drawing new strength from other sectors of the Normandy beachhead, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley sent his troops surging northward in what Supreme Headquarters called “coordinated attacks along the entire north front.”
Over the heads of the advancing doughboys, American big guns hurled streams of shells into the great port (France’s third largest), defended by possible 50,000 German troops now caught in the closing Yankee trap.
The deepest wedge was driven into the German ring of fortifications from the southwest. A column sweeping forward from captured Bricquebec, 11 miles below the port, hurled the Germans back to the outskirts of Rauville-la-Bigot, a village between six and seven miles south and slightly west of Cherbourg.
Communiqué No. 29 from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters said other U.S. columns to the east were driving forward in twin moves to flak Valognes, ten miles southeast of Cherbourg, after sweeping around Montebourg and cutting off isolated pockets of Germans there.
Wedge widened
The American wedge across the Cherbourg Peninsula is now 16 miles at its widest point and eight miles at its narrowest. Expanding to the north, Gen. Bradley’s Yankees are now racing rapidly toward the main German defense line six miles south of the port.
It was expected that a matter of hours would show the strength of these defenses and whether the Germans can manage to swing the muzzles of the port’s long-range guns from the sea to repel a land attack.
The German-held Channel Islands have guns capable of shooting to the Cherbourg Peninsula at extreme range, but headquarters said there is no reason to believe “they can seriously interfere with the American advance.”
German troops all along the north front were reported apparently badly disorganized. Front dispatches declared many of the high Nazi officers had been killed and, in some sectors, units had been cut to pieces.
No gains were reported in the Carentan area to the south and it seemed apparent that Bradley was content merely with holding actions there while driving all-out for Cherbourg.
The building up of the beachhead forces and supplies was hampered yesterday, however, by a wind of 25 miles an hour which whipped up five-foot waves along the beaches. A 60-mph gale swept the Channel.
1,500 U.S. bombers hit rocket coast
Oil refineries and war plants in Germany also attacked robot bombs continue to fall in southern England
SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
More than 1,000 U.S. heavy bombers, possible the greatest force in history, today simultaneously attacked rocket-bomb platforms in the Pas-de-Calais and an array of objectives in central Germany ranging from oil refineries to airplane and tank plants.
The giant armada equaled if it did not surpass that sent out last Wednesday to attack French airfields, bridges and the Emmerich oil refinery in Germany.
With its big fighter escort, the entire sky fleet totaled upward of 2,000 planes.
The heavy bombers blasted synthetic oil plants and oil refineries around Hanover, Hamburg, Magdeburg and Politz, a tank depot near Magdeburg, and an airplane wing repair and parts plant near Brunswick.
The Germans reported the U.S. fleet was attacked by large formations of fighters and that heavy air battles were fought.
16 land in Sweden
Stockholm reported 16 of the heavy bombers made forced landings at the Malmö Airport.
Returning crewmen said they found clear weather over Germany but were forced to bomb through a cloud cover over the Pas-de-Calais. Today’s giant operation took a part of the fleet more than 550 miles, almost to the Polish border to hit Politz, about 10 miles north of the Baltic seaport of Stettin in far eastern Germany.
While the U.S. bomber and fighting fleet was coursing across Europe and smashing again at the ramps from which Germany’s rocket-bombs are launched, lighter Allied aerial forces swarmed across the Channel in improving weather and renewed the harassment of German forces in Normandy.
Today’s bomber formation was the fifth force of more than 1,000 heavyweights the U.S. Air Force has sent out since D-Day.
The big assault was the third within 24 hours against the Pas-de-Calais area from which rocket bombs continue to stream into southern England today.
The Germans put up a heavy flak barrage over the Pas-de-Calais in defense of their rocket installations.
Luftwaffe grounded
The German Air Force hugged the ground yesterday and last night, however. There were no reports of a German plane being shot down during that period. Allied losses were three heavy bombers, two mediums and 15 fighters – all victims of anti-aircraft fire.
Sharpshooting anti-aircraft gunners and relays of swooping fighter pilots blasted dozens of Nazi robot planes out of the sky overnight and the Allies appeared to be getting the range on this new weapon today, the sixth of the “buzzbomb” blitz.
The Germans tried a handful of comet bombs June 13, but did not set the sustained attacked going until June 15.
In one district alone, four flying bombs were shot down by night fighters within a few minutes. Three exploded in the air in quick succession.
The Germans were launching the robots in no particular order. Sometimes as many as five came over almost together.
In daylight today, the Germans kept winging the one-ton bombs into England at sporadic intervals. The British Air Ministry announced that new and secret measures were being taken to wipe out the cross-Channel attacks.
Home folks warned
As flying-bomb delirium swept Germany, there were indications of increasing uneasiness among Nazi propagandists that the German population was due for a tremendous letdown.
In extolling the new weapon and giving elaborate reports of panic in London, German broadcasters voiced frequent cautions against expecting too much.
Dispatches from some neutral countries reported many Germans now believe Germany will win in Western Europe within the next few weeks and they are singing the “We Are Sailing Against England” song again.
“Please don’t believe in miracles,” warned a Berlin radio political spokesman, Dr. Scharping. “Hard trials are still ahead.”
Trapped Nazis are told to surrender
New York (AP) –
German troops cut off at Cherbourg by the U.S. advance were warned over BBC facilities today that their position was hopeless and that surrender would be their wisest move.
“Any attempt to evacuate you through the coastal waters of Cherbourg Peninsula would be pure suicide,” the Germans were told.
The warning, made in German by a British officer, reminded the Germans that other German troops under command of Col. Gen. Jürgen von Arnim had been trapped by the same U.S. 9th Infantry Division on the Cap Bon Peninsula in Tunisia and had not regretted their decision to surrender.
Estimating their number at 20,000, the speaker said:
I am addressing myself to the German soldiers who have been cut off on the Cherbourg Peninsula.
The warning, as reported to the OWI, then went on to tell the Germans that the American wedge to the sea was being strengthened and that:
The further you are being driven back, the more the pocket in which you are trapped and which is surrounded by the sea on three sides, is being tightened, the more your concentrations of troops and vehicles become vulnerable to bombing and strafing by Allied planes and the destructive fire from Allied naval guns.
Destroy 300 Jap planes at Saipan
Enemy hit in biggest Pacific air battle since Midway
USPACFLT HQ, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (AP) –
U.S. carrier pilots and warship guns have destroyed an estimated 300 Japanese planes off Saipan to win the biggest Pacific air battle since Midway, while a land surge captured a vital airstrip and sealed off the southern end of the island.
In a vicious battle lasting several hours, the offshore task force smashed a sustained Japanese aerial assault Sunday. Adm. Chester W. Nimitz said the first information reported only one U.S. vessel damaged.
Imperial Japanese Headquarters declared, without confirmation, that 300 U.S. planes were destroyed and one battleship, two cruisers, a destroyer and one submarine were sunk during the battle. A broadcast enemy communiqué also said Japanese airmen were still attacking U.S. ships.
With the land battle still raging to their north and southwest, Seabees began preparing the newly-captured Aslito Airstrip, on Saipan’s Central Pacific middle defense arc. Its capture climaxed the long drive toward air bases strategically dominating the oceanic approaches to Tokyo.
Forces cut off
Pushing through tangled cane fields and swamps, U.S. Marines and Army troops traversed the island on a wide front to reach Magicienne Bay on the east coast, three and a half miles from the western landing beach. In this mile-and-a-half advance since Friday, some Japanese forces were cut off in the arrowhead of Nafutan Point, Saipan’s southeastern extremity.
The Japanese aerial thrust – their biggest since Midway – included some planes apparently based on distant carriers and using nearby shore bases for shuttle landings, the U.S. communiqué said.
It added that systematic U.S. bombing and strafing of airfields on Guam and Rota “sharply limited” the effectiveness of the Japanese shuttle land fields. Designation of these two islands, approximately 100 miles south of Saipan, indicated enemy carriers were some distance from the Marianas.
A Tokyo radio broadcast said “it has been announced in Tokyo that the Japanese Navy in the near future will win a great naval victory in the Central Pacific. We are all waiting for the news.” Probably intended solely for domestic propaganda, this announcement might be a hint that now-distant Japanese surface units would close in for action.
U.S. forces hold a five-mile-long coastal strip on the western shoreline, where they have expanded from their original beachhead at Agingan Point.
Japs call Saipan situation grave
By the Associated Press
Japanese fears that Saipan Island, where U.S. invasion forces are now engaging enemy forces, will be used as a base for shuttle bombing missions over Tokyo by B-29 Superfortresses flying from the island to China were expressed in a Berlin broadcast of a Tokyo dispatch today.
The dispatch said:
Competent Japanese sources are fully conscious of the seriousness of the situation. American heavy bombers, especially those of the B-29 type operating from Saipan air bases, would have no difficult in launching systematic attacks on Tokyo only 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) away.
In view of these facts, it is safely assumed that both sides will fight bitterly for possession of Saipan.
New fighter aces bag Nazi rockets
SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
The U.S. 9th Air Force is producing a new type of fighter “aces” among its fliers who have joined the sky patrols waiting to shoot down German rocket bombs.
Mustang pilot Lt. Lewis Powers of Albuquerque, New Mexico, shot down two and shared another with an RAF fighter last night in addition to one he hailed the previous night.
Lt. Powers sighted the first coming in at about 2,000 feet. He dived on it, gave it several bursts and watched it crash.
U.S. gun bags first robot plane
SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
A few seconds after shooting the last bolt into place on a 40mm gun destined for Normandy, an alert U.S. Army maintenance crew used the weapon to bag what is thought to be the first pilotless plane shot down in southern England.
A second hit was scored with the second round after Capt. Albert E. Reuning of Jackson, Mississippi, commanding officer, spied a projectile hurtling toward the field.
Committee okays Army promotions
…
More recognition for South is asked
Richmond, Virginia (AP) –
Governor Colgate Darden Jr. has given his approval to a proposal by Alabama Governor Chauncey Sparks calling for more recognition of the South in Democratic councils and a sympathetic recognition of its social and economic problems in the writing of the next Democratic platform.
The Virginia Governor informed Sparks that he believed “sound and constructive” suggestions to that effect were made by Governor Sparks. The latter had asked for opinions from other Southern governors.
Among the Alabama chief executive’s suggestions, which have also been approved by North Carolina Governor Broughton, was that the South should be given the Vice Presidency spot if President Roosevelt is renominated. Broughton is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for that office.
Sparks also suggested that the platform should “recognize the inherent right of every state to control its internal affairs” and should call for “equal economic opportunity for every section.”
Editorial: On to Cherbourg!
By The Washington Post
The success of the American forces in cutting off the Cherbourg Peninsula has placed the enemy on the horns of an extremely difficult dilemma. Two courses, neither of them pleasant, are open to Rommel. On the one hand, he can throw into the Battle of Normandy troops and material he has been saving for use elsewhere. He cannot yet be sure that the landings in Normandy are the only ones planned by the Allies. His actions to date suggest that he is convinced there will be more landings elsewhere. To meet the problem such new landings would create he must keep an iron reserve of the bulk of the 50-60 German divisions in France and the Low Countries. Yet if her fails to reinforce the German troops now being pushed out of the Cherbourg Peninsula or facing annihilation in Cherbourg itself, the position of the Allies will be greatly strengthened.
Much hard fighting may still be necessary to take Cherbourg. But it will be taken, and even if the Germans demolish its port facilities, it will be a great boon to our troops. It will greatly simplify the problem of supply and make possible the deployment of a much larger Allied force in France than has been the case hitherto. Our operations in Normandy have necessarily been hampered to date by the lack of such a first-rate port.
We have much reason to be gratified at what the Allied forces have already accomplished. It is true that we have paid a tragic price for those gains. American casualties during the first 10 days of the Normandy operation amounted to more than 15,000, of which more than 3,200 were killed. Yet these losses represent only a fraction of the losses that were anticipated during the months and weeks while plans for D-Day were going forward. In those days, the idea was seriously advanced in responsible military circles that Allied casualties during the first phase of the liberation might be as high as a quarter of a million or even half a million men. Fortunately, these estimates proved wrong. Considering the enormous difficulty of the task we had to face, our casualties have been very moderate indeed.
The Pittsburgh Press (June 20, 1944)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Somewhere in France – (wireless)
Would you be interested in hearing how we spent our first night in France? Well, even if you wouldn’t…
Just after supper we got an order to unload our vehicles from the LST. One of those big self-propelled bargelike things, made of steel pontoons bolted together, came up in front of our ship and the vehicles were driven off onto it.
These barges are called rhinos. They move very slowly, and it took us an hour to get to shore. Then the beachmaster signaled us not to land, for the tide wasn’t right. So, we had to loaf around out there on the water for another hour.
They were blowing up mines on the beach, and some of our bug naval guns were still thundering away at the Germans. The evening was cloudy and miserable, and it began to rain as we waited. We were all cold.
At last, the beachmaster let us in. The barge grounded about fifty yards from shore, and runways were let down.
Every one of our vehicles had been waterproofed, so that the engines wouldn’t drown out while going through the surf.
I came ashore in a jeep with Pvt. William Bates Wescott of Culver City, California. Wescott is a good-looking, intelligent man of 26 who used to be a salesman for the Edgemar Farms Dairy at Venice, California. He is at war for the first time, and all this shooting and stuff are completely new to him, but he is doing all right.
Wescott’s wife works in downtown Los Angeles, and just in case you want to take her some flowers for being the wife of such a nice guy, she’s a girl who makes Pullman reservations for the Southern Pacific Railroad at Sixth and Main.
Wescott and I were the first ones off the barge. I had waterproofed my typewriter by taping it up in a gas cape. But the water came only to the floor of the jeep. We didn’t even get out feet wet, but the waves did slosh in and get the seats of our pants wet.
It was several miles to our bivouac area. On the way we passed many bodies lying alongside the road, both German and Americans but mostly German. Some of the French people along the roads smiled and waved, while others kept their heads down and wouldn’t look up.
It was dark when we got to our bivouac, a grape and apple orchard on a hillside. We pulled in and parked under a tree. First, we posted sentries, and then Wescott dug into his big ration box in the jeep and got out some grapefruit juice crackers and sardines.
While we were eating, the first German planes of the night came over. One dropped its bombs not awfully far away – enough to give us
It was midnight by the time we had finished eating and got a camouflage over the jeep in preparation for the first light next morning. We decided to get what sleep we could. We didn’t have our bedrolls yet, but we did have two blankets apiece. We just lay down on the ground.
Another jeep had pulled under the tree with us. Altogether, our little group sleeping on the ground consisted of two colonels, three enlisted men and myself. We slept in all our clothes.
German planes kept coming over one by one. Our guns kept up their booming and crackling all night long, in fits and jerks.
After an hour or so, one of our colonels said we’d better move our blankets so our heads would be under the jeeps because pieces of flak were falling all over the orchard.
He said the flak wouldn’t kill you unless it hit you in the head. I said I guessed it would if it hit you in the stomach. He said it wouldn’t. I still think it would.
Anyhow, I moved my head under and left my stomach out in the open. My hand was right behind the front wheel, under the fender. It was a good place, but the headroom was so scant that every time I would turn over I would get a mouthful of mud from the fender.
Then we got cold. Our two blankets might as well have been handkerchiefs, for all the warmth there was in them. We lit cigarettes and smoked under our blankets. We couldn’t sleep much anyhow, for the noise of the guns.
Sometimes planes would come in low, and we would like there scrunched up in that knotty tenseness you get when waiting to be hit.
Finally, daylight came. At dawn, our planes always come over and the Germans leave, so the days are safe and secure as Far as the air is concerned.
We all got up at dawn, welcoming a chance to move around and get warm. Pvt. Wescott opened some K rations and we ate a scanty breakfast off the hood of the jeep. Then a colonel made a reconnaissance tour. When he came back, he said that our little orchard, which looked so rural and pretty in the dawn, was full of dead Germans, killed the day before. We would have to help bury them pretty soon.
That was our first night in France.