America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

7910

The Free Lance-Star (June 21, 1944)

U.S. AND JAP FLEETS LOCKED IN BATTLE
Full-scale naval engagement believed in progress off Philippine Islands

U.S. commanders eager to bring enemy to action

USPACFLT HQ, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (AP) –
Giant battle fleets of the United States and Japan faced each other today in the 1,500 miles between the Philippines and Marianas amid indications that preliminary blows may have already opened a history-shaking naval engagement.

“Possibly the entire Japanese fleet” has entered the area, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz disclosed. It was the first report on the whereabouts of the long-sought Navy of Nippon since its crushing defeat at Midway in June 1942.

Eager and ready for battle is the Fifth Fleet with “enough muscle… to take care of everything” in the words of the confident Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet.

A Japanese naval spokesman was quoted in a Berlin broadcast today as saying Nippon’s air and naval forces “have successfully engaged an American fleet,” but Tokyo radio, in another broadcast to the homeland, quoted an Imperial Headquarters communiqué as acknowledging “we have suffered considerable losses of ships and planes.”

Hard land battle

On the embattled Saipan, in the Marianas 1,500 miles southeast of Tokyo, the going is still tough. The Yanks called on planes, artillery and guns of warships to help crack bitter resistance of an estimated 20,000 Japanese, a Nimitz communiqué last night reported.

The communiqué said:

Our troops now hold the entire southern portion of the island from the southern outskirts of Garapan [principal city of 10,000 six miles up the southwest shore] across to the center of the western shore of Magicienne Bay [three and a half miles up the island’s southeast side].

To the south of Saipan, enemy airfield on Tinian were shelled by warships and bombed by planes. Saipan was invaded June 14.

What may prove to have been the first preliminary blow of a showdown naval fight was struck Sunday from enemy aircraft carriers. Their planes, flying from the direction of the Philippines by way of Guam and Rota in the Marianas, paid a frightful cost of 300 aircraft in trying unsuccessfully to sunk U.S. carriers and battleships of the invasion fleet. Last night, Nimitz told a press conference that not one combat ship was sunk.

Then the admiral issued an electrifying hint that the enemy blow was paid back with success Monday. He said cryptically it was possible that damage was inflicted on elements of the enemy fleet that day.

Has abundant power

Nimitz assured a press conference the Fifth Fleet packs sufficient “power to be favorable to us in a decisive engagement,” even if it is massed more than 1,000 miles beyond the U.S. advance naval base in the Marshalls and 3,800 miles from Pearl Harbor.

He said:

We hope the Jap fleet will stay in that [Philippines] area. As long as they stay, we have a chance to get at them.

Ready to figure in a decisive naval engagement is an “unsinkable carrier,” the 3,600-foot Aslito Airdrome captured by Marines and soldiers.

Also ready to send land-based bombers into action is the air arm of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. His planes are poised within bombing range of the Philippines and adjacent ocean area at captured Mokmer Airfield on Biak in the Schouten Islands off North Dutch New Guinea. Today, he announced the capture of two more airfields on Biak.

600 planes destroyed

The destruction of the enemy’s 300 carrier planes, extremely costly because of the long training required for carrier pilots, raised to nearly 600 the total Japanese air losses in the Marianas since the U.S. carrier task force moved against that segment of Nippon’s inner defense perimeter.

Nimitz said:

If we lost 600 naval planes in two or three days, we’d be very unhappy, even with our plane production.

Nimitz emphasized that he had expected Japan’s violent reaction at Saipan because it is in the last island defense line before China and the Philippines.

The 72-square-mile island was invaded “on the assumption the Japanese would bring out everything they possible could.”

He expressed conviction Japan no longer possesses the naval strength to use the Marianas for an offensive, but “the Japs need to hold them to keep us from penetrating west of their island defense line.”

“And north, too,” interposed RAdm. C. H. McMorris, chief of staff, with an eye on the Japanese homeland.

Nimitz said the Aslito Airdrome will promote “control of the air in the immediate Marianas area.” But, considering all the angles, he noted the Japanese hold the advantage of land-based air reconnaissance west of the Marianas and that the first concern of the U.S. Fleet must be to safeguard the Saipan invaders. Even so, he was supremely confident.

He said:

I can’t control Japanese fleet movements. If I did, there definitely would be a naval engagement.

7911

YANKS FIGHTING INSIDE CHERBOURG
Powerful assault overcomes Nazi defenses in suburbs – full of city due hourly

Possibly 50,000 Germans face surrender or death

Allies press toward Cherbourg

map.62144.ap
Enlarging the wedge driven across the Normandy Peninsula to cut off the port of Cherbourg from the rest of France, Allied forces were reported within a few miles of the city in the vicinity of Saint-Martin. Arrows on map indicate direction of Allied drives.

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
U.S. troops smashed within 1,500 yards – less than a mile – of Cherbourg’s waterfront today, driving between two fortress bastions under cover of air and artillery bombardment.

The fall of the great supply port seemed only a matter of hours tonight.

The piledriver offensive crashed through the suburbs along the inland road between Fort du Roule and Fort Octeville, Nazi strongpoints shuddering under bombs as well as leaflets calling on the trapped Nazis to surrender.

Nazi demolition squads worked feverishly to cripple the port – through which the Allies could pour a flood of men and supplies into Normandy.

Other advances

Another force rolling the trapped Germans back on the left flank seized Acqueville, at the base of Cap de la Hague, the land finger jutting northwest of Cherbourg and possible offering a chance of escape by sea.

Troops on the right flank advanced beyond Valognes, and Supreme Headquarters declared “good progress” was made toward the prize harbor today.

Supported by powerful artillery and air bombardment, veteran U.S. troops assaulted Fort du Roule, within a mile of Cherbourg’s docks, and Fort Octeville, bastion two miles in front of the military harbor area, blasted by Nazi demolitions.

Last-ditch stand

The Germans staged a last-ditch defense in these strongpoints, and fighting was reported in the built-up suburban section of France’s third largest port.

Eighty Nazi tanks have been destroyed by the Allied liberating armies to date, Supreme Headquarters said.

Heavy fighting was reported in the Tilly-sur-Seulles area near the center of the front, and a U.S. spearhead to the west had pushed within two miles of Saint-Lô, communications hub of Normandy.

The assault upon the two forts at Cherbourg sprang forward from Saint-Martin-le-Gréard, four miles south of the port.

Fort de Roule, a major key to control of the besieged German stronghold, stands atop a 450-foot hill.

The French worked for more than a century building up Cherbourg’s forts and defenses and the Germans are now making a last stand in the inner ring – which embraces part of the city itself.

Smoke hung over the city as the trapped German defenders carried out hurried demolitions in the strategic harbor, now in plain view of the attacking U.S. troops.

Escape cut off

German defenses have stiffened and there are indications the Nazi High command has ordered a house-to-house fight by some 25,000 to 50,000 Germans now left with virtually no chance to escape. Allied broadcasts last night urged the trapped garrison to surrender.

Although the three main roads to Cherbourg from the south run into one main highway bottleneck just outside the city, U.S. troops were apparently closing in from three sides – south, west, and east.

Communiqué No. 31 from Supreme Headquarters this morning announced that the towns of Valognes, Les Pieux, Couville and Rauville-la-Bigot were in Allied hands, but the advance U.S. line runs some distance beyond these points.

The suburban and city area which now has become a battlefield has an estimated population of 60,000. The population of the city proper, according to latest reports, is approximately 33,400 and an additional 27,000 live in the suburbs.

Doubt sea shelling

Despite German reports, the Supreme Command said it has no knowledge that Allied warships were shelling Cherbourg from the sea and declared such an attack was unlikely.

The port is protected by seven heavy coastal forts which should be much simpler to take by land assault than from the sea.

Only patrol activity was reported elsewhere on the Normandy beachhead except in the Tilly-sur-Seulles area.

The British announced the capture of Onchy, three and a half miles southwest of Tilly. At the same time, the Germans launched three heavy counterattacks on the newly-taken British strongpoint of Hottot, two miles south of Tilly. The attacks were reported held, but the situation in the village itself was obscure.

The Caen area even farther to the east was quiet.

A gale continued to blow in the Channel. Six-foot waves whipped over the invasion beaches, making unloading of supplies impossible for the time being.

Bad weather hampered aircraft over the battle area, but fighter-bombers blasted Cherbourg guns and forts. Many of the missions took to the air from landing grounds in Normandy.

7912

German infantry shortage glaring

Gen. Eisenhower’s advanced post, England (AP) –
A glaring shortage of infantry in Normandy has compelled Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt to commit his prized panzer units to the actual line of battle instead of holding them in the rear as a striking weapon, and information reaching Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters today is that at least 78 Nazi tanks have been destroyed.

Reporters at advanced headquarters have been told that von Rundstedt is now in a position where he cannot bolster his crumbling Normandy defenses without weakening other areas, including Pas-de-Calais and Southwest France.

Sending the panzers into frontline battle, von Rundstedt sacrificed 18 Panthers and 27 Tigers, as well as other types. In addition, it was said here, many more German armored units have been crippled.

7913

Heavy attack made on Berlin

Bombers fly eastward to possible bases in Russia

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Correspondent ‘reeling’ in heavy Berlin raid

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7914

Americans seize Saipan airfield

300 enemy planes lost as Japanese are pushed back

Aboard joint expeditionary force flagship off Saipan, Mariana Islands (AP) –
Rolling back remnants of two Japanese divisions, U.S. forces have swept across Saipan Island to seize strong control of the southern part of the island and Aslito Airfield, its greatest prize.

This 3,600-foot field is necessary for protection against developing Japanese air attacks. U.S. land-based planes will soon operate from here, replacing carrier aircraft which so far have done a lone-handed job in keeping the skies clear.

The enemy lost 300 planes in a vain attempt to cripple the amphibious force which stormed ashore six days ago. They did not succeed in sinking a single ship.

The Americans expanded an 8,000-foot beachhead into nearly a third of the island, smashing across it clear to Magicienne Bay and to a short distance south of Garapan. The line from near Garapan skirts the strongly defended Mount Tapochau, the extinct volcano towering over the center of the island. Then the line extends toward Magicienne Bay, thence southwards along the coast, where a small body of Japanese are trapped on rocky Nafutan Point, Saipan’s southeastern extremity.

The landing of Army reinforcements and heavy artillery on the southern beaches in support of hard-pressed Marines, who have borne the brunt of the fighting, paved way for a general attack along the entire line. Supported by coordinated artillery and naval gunfire and powerful aerial strength, the Americans struck the Japs at many points.

The attack around Charan Kanoa, where the Americans were once compelled to withdraw almost to the beach, started in a heavy tropical downpour which drew a rain curtain over the opposing troops.

7915

Japanese report big naval battle

Enemy makes fabulous claims of U.S. ships sunk

New York (AP) –
A Japanese broadcast said today that a “fierce naval battle” is raging in the Central Pacific off the Marianas.

The British radio said “a Japanese spokesman was quoted as saying that this battle would have far-reaching effects on the Pacific war situation.” CBS recorded the London report of the Japanese broadcast.

There was no confirmation from Pearl Harbor and no indication when Adm. Chester W. Nimitz might have more to say about the operations.

The Tokyo radio, meanwhile, asserted today than a U.S. battleship listed in a Japanese communiqué yesterday as sunk by planes off the Marianas June 16 was of the 45,000-ton Iowa class.

The enemy broadcast, entirely without confirmation, said another battleship claimed to have been heavily damaged was of the 35,000-ton North Carolina class “and went down to a watery grave the night of June 15 off the Marianas.”

The broadcast went on:

Two out of four United States aircraft carriers which were heavily damaged and set ablaze or left heavily listing the night of June 17 were of the 24,000-ton Essex type while another of the 10,000-ton Independence type which had been converted from a cruiser. A fourth appeared to be also of the Essex type.

Thanks Jap Navy for ‘cooperation’

Navy chief confident U.S. forces can deal with situation

Washington (AP) –
Adm. Ernest J. King, Navy commander-in-chief, declaring appreciation for the “long expected cooperation” of the Japanese Navy in apparently moving into battle position, expressed confidence today in the outcome of a prospective naval engagement in the Western Pacific.

King said:

The sooner the Japanese fleet fights, the better we’ll be satisfied.

He made his statement after Navy Secretary Forrestal had reported that despite strict radio silence from the Pacific there have been some indications that U.S. forces “may have succeeded in catching up with all or a part of the Japanese fleet yesterday.”

Forrestal added that there is, however, “no definite information” as to the prospective engagement.

Forrestal reported that the Japanese fleet has been sighted at “various times during the last few days, milling around from 500 to 800 miles to the westward of Saipan Island” in the Marianas east of the Philippines.

A Japanese broadcast recorded in London said today that a “fierce naval battle” is raging off the Marianas.

Attack from carriers

Forrestal said Japanese planes attacked U.S. naval units near Saipan Sunday and indicated that the planes apparently came from carriers which at that time were some 500 miles to the westward.

The Japanese plan, he continued, seems to have been to launch thew aircraft, with the idea that after attacking they would be able to land for refueling on Guam and Rota, Japanese-held bases in the Marianas.

He continued:

We have no other details of the resulting air battle other than the fact that our forces were ready for the attack.

Our carrier aircraft and ships’ anti-aircraft guns wiped out most of the Japanese planes.

At Pearl Harbor, Adm. Nimitz has reported that the Japanese have lost at least 600 planes since action began in the Marianas.

King, asked about the prospective engagement there, said that the communiqué from Nimitz speaks for itself and, combined with Forrestal’s report, covers the situation “as accurately as we know it.”

Shows no worry

“You are not worried about the outcome?” he was asked. “No,” he replied, shaking his head.

He added that in any major operation, losses must be expected, in fact, are allowed for in preparation and plans for the action. But, King continued, the losses to date in the Marianas “have been less than allowed for.” He said he referred to all types of action in the air, on the sea and among troops fighting on land.

King also disclosed that plans long under consideration had been reviewed again for close cooperation of the British with U.S. forces in the war against Japan when it is possible to swing strength to the Pacific and away from Europe.

7916

Hundley reported in beachhead area

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Thunderbolts hit carrier at Genoa

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7917

Southerners fail to slash FEPC aid

Senate prolongs life of agency in battle over funds

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7918

Woman Marine wants to free man at once

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Lyttleton makes personal apology

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7919

Two Jap airdromes on Biak captured

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12 more U.S. planes land in Sweden

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7920

Editorial: Superior ordnance

While the major credit for the success of the invasion of France and the campaign in Italy obviously should go to the men who face the bullets, the enterprise could not have been so successful were it not for the superb equipment in the hands of the troops, equipment which enabled them to blast down strong German defenses.

It is not generally realized how many new weapons have been designed during this war. Gen. Brehon B. Somervell, commanding general of the U.S. Army Service Forces, recently said that “with the exception of the Garand rifle, there is hardly a piece of equipment un use today that existed at the beginning of the war.”

It is a bit difficult to think of Uncle Sam as an outstanding designer of implements of war, because he has been interested almost solely in the peacetime arts. In World War I, this country did not distinguish itself through the designing of brand-new weapons. But in this conflict, the inventive genius of America really got into stride.

Gen. Somervell points out that the best test of the value of American equipment is the fact that:

Our field commanders, instead of calling for equipment patterned after foreign models, as they did in the last war, are completely satisfied with the Made-in-USA weapons. They’re not asking for any British or German equipment.

The achievement of the ordnance division is more remarkable when it is remembered that the Germans had the advantage in this field as, being the aggressors, they laid their plans far ahead. They framed the pattern for the new type of warfare and they knew what type of equipment they wanted to prosecute such a war. It is to the credit of America that it surpassed the war’s creators in inventiveness and ingenuity.

7921

Editorial: Nazi air strength

Unleashing of Germany’s “secret weapon,” the rocket bomb, against England – a device which has demonstrated only nuisance value – has stirred discussion of Germany’s air strength.

In all the thousands of words describing progress of the fighting on the Normandy front to the most minute detail, there has been little mention of German resistance by air. Undoubtedly, Allied commanders have a general idea of the size of Hitler’s once-boasted Luftwaffe. It has become plain that the German Air Force can offer nothing more than token resistance to the thousands of Allied planes now roaming almost at will over Europe.

When it was disclosed the Allied invasion forces were assembled on the English coast for six days before start of the Channel crossing, Hitler’s failure to send at least a few bombers against them points to only one conclusion. Here was the prize target of all time. Thousands of ships, side by side for miles, fully loaded with men and equipment, were sitting like ducks on a pond. Bombs dropped in their midst would certainly have taken terrible toll. Invasion might have been delayed for days.

But no planes came over, not a single bomber, in spite of the fact Berlin said it knew what was in the air. Even if the Germans had viewed it as just another bit of practice, it would have been worth shooting at.

Either Hitler had no planes to spare or he blundered again, missing an opportunity as he did following Dunkerque, when he hesitated to invade England. The conclusion must be that German air strength is on the wane, if it is not already at the vanishing point.

7922

Editorial: Japan as an air target

By The New York Times

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7923

Essary: Keep eye open for spies

Tale of a British uniform and a strange, Nazi accent
By Helen Essary, Central Press columnist

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7924

School attacked in Bilbo address

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7925

Cherbourg Naval Base is important

Besieged port is third ranking French harbor
By the Associated Press

Cherbourg, the transatlantic port for thousands of American visitors to Europe in peacetime, is the third naval harbor of France, a gun-bristling fortified city at the tip of the Normandy Peninsula jutting into the English Channel.

The triangular bay forming its harbors is protected on the north by a long and thick breakwater surmounted by strong forts, which guard the city of 36,000 peacetime inhabitants.

Through the long and steady Allied air offensive, the docks and quays and ships sheltered at Cherbourg repeatedly drew down firebombs and explosives.

The capital of an arrondissement in the department of La Manche, Cherbourg lies at the mouth of the Divette River 230 miles from Paris.

The city is said to be on the site of the Roman station of Coriallum, but nothing is definitely known about its origin. William the Conqueror founded a hospital and church there. Cherbourg was pillaged by an English fleet in 1295, and in the 14th century suffering during the wars with the English. It was captured in 1413, remaining in British hands until 1450.

Louis XIV began the task of making it a military port. Harbor works were begun under Louis XVI and continued by Napoleon Bonaparte with the French pouring vast sums into the construction.

The naval harbor, half a mile from the commercial harbor, consists of three main basins cut out of rock, and has a minimum depth of 30 feet. There are drydocks and other installations, and a naval hospital. The commercial harbor and transatlantic port is at the mouth of the Divette.

The chief industries are fishing, saw-milling, tanning, shipbuilding and metal work.

7926

The Pittsburgh Press (June 21, 1944)

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

Somewhere in France –
The war is constantly producing funny things as well as tragic things, so I might as well tell you some of our lighter incidents.

For example, the first night we spent in France one of the colonels who slept with us under an apple tree was an Army observer from Washington. Usually we don’t care for observers from Washington, but this colonel was a very nice guy and a good field soldier too, and everybody liked him.

While we were eating our K-rations next morning he said he had slept fine for the first hour, before we had moved in under our jeep for protection from the flak. He said that before we moved he had found a nice little mound of earth to put his head on for a pillow. He said that all his life he had had to have a pillow of some kind. After moving under the jeep he couldn’t find anything to put his head on.

With that he walked over a few feet to show us the nice mound of earth. When he looked down he started laughing. His excellent pillow of the night before had turned out in the light of day to be a pile of horse manure.

Another story concerns a masterful piece of wartime understatement by one of our truck drivers, Pvt. Carl Vonhorn of rural Cooperstown, New York. He had pulled into an apple orchard adjoining ours the night before, parked his truck in the darkness, spread his blankets on the ground in front of the truck, and gone to sleep.

When he woke up at daylight Vonhorn looked about him sleepily. And there on the ground right beside him, within arm’s reach, was a dead German soldier. And when he looked on the other side, there, equally close, were two potato-mashers. Pvt. Vonhorn got up very quickly.

Later he was telling his officers about his startling experience, and he ended his description with this philosophical remark: “It was very distasteful.”

Everybody thought that was so funny it spread around the camp like fire, and now the phrase “It’s very distasteful” has become practically a byword.

After breakfast that first morning we had to round up about fifty dead Germans and Americans in the series of orchards where we were camping, and carry them to a central spot in a pasture and bury them.

I helped carry one corpse across a couple of fields. I did it partly because the group needed an extra man, and partly because I was forcing myself to get used to it, for you can’t hide from death when you’re in a war.

This German was just a kid, surely not over fifteen. His face had already turned black, but you could sense his youth through the death-distorted features.

The boys spread a blanket on the ground beside him. Then we lifted him over onto it. One soldier and I each took hold of a foot, and two others took his arms. One of the two soldiers in front was hesitant about touching the corpse. Whereupon the other soldier said to him:

Go on, take hold of him, dammit. You might as well get used to it now, for you’ll be carrying plenty of dead ones from now on. Hell, you may even be carrying me one of these days.

So, we carried him across two fields, each of us holding a corner of the blanket. Our burden got pretty heavy, and we rested a couple of times. The boys made wisecracks along the way to cover up their distaste for the job.

When we got to the field, we weren’t sure just where the lieutenant wanted the cemetery started. So we put our man down on the ground and went back for instructions. And as we walked away the funny guy of the group turned and shook a finger at the dead German and said: “Now don’t you run away while we’re gone.”

The Germans leave snipers behind when they retreat, so all American bivouac areas are heavily guarded by sentries at night. And the sentries really mean business.

The other night a pretty important general whom I know was working late, as all our staff officers do these days. About midnight he left his tent to go to another general’s tent and talk something over.

He had gone only about twenty feet when a sentry challenged him. And just at that moment the general, groping around in the dark, fell headlong into a deep slit trench.

It was funny, even to the general, but there was nothing humorous about it to the sentry. He suspected monkey business. He rushed up to the trench, pointed his gun at the general, and in a tone that was a mixture of terror and intent to kill, he yelled: “Git out of there and git recognized, you!”

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7927

Völkischer Beobachter (June 22, 1944)

Trotz großen Kräfteverbrauchs:
Noch keine Bewegungsfreiheit für Montgomery

Berlin, 21. Juni –
An der Invasionsfront setzten die Briten ihre am Sonntagnachmittag beiderseits Tilly begonnenen Angriffe fort, ohne Fortschritte machen zu können. Wie zuvor in den Ruinen von Tilly verblutete nun die britische Infanterie vor Hottot-Fouteney.

Im Nordteil der Cotentin Halbinsel schoben sich die Anglo-Amerikaner entlang der von Barneville und Saint-Sauveur und Montebourg nach Norden führenden Straße näher an die Außenwerke der Festung Cherbourg heran. Unsere Sicherungen lieferten den vordringenden feindlichen Kräften eine Reihe von schweren für den Feind verlustreichen Kämpfen.

Um die Bewegungen unserer Truppen zu stören, setzten die Nordamerikaner wieder starke Bomberverbände ein und vernichteten dabei weit über militärische Notwendigkeiten hinaus zahlreiche Ortschaften abseits der großen Straßen, die nur noch Trümmerhaufen sind.

Östlich der Orne engten unsere Stoßtruppen den kleinen britischen Frontvorsprung noch weiter ein. Die Säuberung der Wälder von Bavent war durch das unübersichtliche, von zahlreichen Widerstandsinseln durchsetzte Gelände erschwert.

Aber auch unsere Soldaten nützten jeden Baum und jede Heeke aus, um an die gut getarnten Pak- und MG-Nester des Feindes heranzukommen. Überraschende, nur durch Schneid zu bewältigende Lagen waren hiebei nicht selten. Als zum Beispiel die Briten mit Panzern einen Gegenstoß führten, wurde ein deutscher Kampfwagen in Brand geschossen. Die Besatzung stieg aus. Nur ein Unteroffizier blieb im Panzer. Er jagte unbeirrt die gesamte Munition hinaus und erzielte dabei noch zahlreiche Treffer auf feindliche Panzer und die in ihrem Schutz vorgehende Infanterie. Erst nach Verschliss der gesamten Munition verließ der Unteroffizier den jetzt in hellen Flammen stehenden Panzer. Sein Kampf trug wesentlich dazu bei, daß auch an dieser Stelle der feindliche Gegenstoß missglückte.

vb. Berlin, 21. Juni –
Seitdem die Nordamerikaner und Briten in der Normandie Fuß gefasst haben, ist die Abschnürung der Nordecke der Halbinsel Cotentin der einzige Erfolg, den sie gewonnen haben. Auch dieses Ereignis aber hat ihnen nicht das gegeben, was ihr eigentliches Ziel seit der Landung ist: Operativer Bewegungsfreiheit.

Während die Truppen der amerikanischen ersten Armee bei ihrem Versuch, nach Norden Raum zu gewinnen, sich den außerordentlichen starken Werken der Festung Cherbourg gegenübersehen, ist die Gesamtmasse der Heeresgruppe Montgomery nach wie vor in einen Raum gepresst, der für sie viel zu klein ist.

Alle Versuche, sich den notwendigen Raum zum Aufmarschieren, zum Manövrieren und zum Ausweichen zu schaffen, müssen in die Tiefe, müssen nach Süden oder Südwesten gehen. Hier stoßen alle Angriffe General Montgomerys, so erbittert sie auch geführt werden, immer auf so kräftige deutsche Gegenstöße, daß in dieser Richtung den Amerikanern und Briten bisher kein Erfolg beschieden war.

Immer noch erstreckt sich das gewonnene Gelände nicht allzu weit über die Reichweite der schweren Schiffsartillerie hinaus. Diese Lage muß General Eisenhower und General Montgomery umso nachdenklicher stimmen, als sie schon seit vierzehn Tagen immer wieder frische Verbände in den Kampf geworfen haben, ohne daß diese nach Süden über eine im Einzelnen zwar flüssige, im ganzen aber festliegende Linie hinaus hätten Vordringen können.

Der Zwang, neben abgekämpften Verbänden neue in die Front hineinzuschieben oder die verbrauchten durch frische eilig zu ersetzen, erhält seine Bedeutung auch dadurch, daß naturgemäß nicht alle Divisionen Montgomerys Eliteverbände sind. Alle sind ausgezeichnet ausgerüstet, aber es gibt doch beträchtliche Unterschiede in der Ausbildung, der Führung und Gefechtserfahrung.

Neben den Teilnehmern des afrikanischen und italienischen Krieges stehen viele andere, die jetzt zum erstenmal in den Kampf gehen und die diesen Mangel in der Ausbildung noch nicht völlig haben ausgleichen können. Das bedeutet aber, in den kriegerischen Alltag übersetzt, daß diese Truppen besonders hohe, zum Teil ganz außerordentlich hohe Verluste erleiden. Der deutsche Soldat, der sich mit Recht schon den Eliteverbänden Montgomerys gegenüber überlegen fühlt, ist es gegenüber diesen anderen Divisionen erst recht. Darum auch bleiben alle Vorstöße des Gegners immer wieder in taktischen Einzelgefechten hängen und darum hat General Montgomery in dem entscheidenden Problem noch keine überzeugende operative Linie zu finden gewusst.

Es fragt sich, wie lange der Oberbefehlshaber der Invasionstruppen noch dieses Unternehmen weiterführen will, immer wieder neue Vorstöße zu befehlen und doch den genügenden Raum nicht zu gewinnen, aus dem er eigentlich erst antreten könnte zur Entscheidung suchenden Offensive. Man könnte sich vorstellen, daß er noch einmal die Kräfte des Brückenkopfes zu Gewaltvorstößen zusammenzuraffen versucht, man kann sich aber auch denken, daß er an der Möglichkeit verzweifelt, für seine Hauptstreitkräfte ein genügendes Aufmarschfeld in der Normandie zu finden, und daß er an einem anderen Teil der französischen Küste einen neuen Kampfplatz zu finden hofft.

Wir kennen die Gedanken des gegnerischen Oberbefehlshabers nicht, aber auf jeden Fall wird deutlich, daß er unter dem unveränderten Zwang steht, sich das Gebiet erst zu schaffen, in dem er seine Streitkräfte wirklich entfalten kann. Dies bedeutet aber auch die unveränderte Gültigkeit des Satzes, daß die Hauptkämpfe in der Invasionsschlacht erst bevorstehen.

7928

Telegrammwechsel zwischen dem Führer und dem Ministerpräsidenten Tojo

dnb. Berlin, 21. Juni –
Der japanische Ministerpräsident Tojo hat dem Führer in einem Telegramm aus Anlass der ersten erfolgreichen Schläge gegen die anglo-amerikanische Invasion in Europa erneut Japans Entschlossenheit zum Ausdruck gebracht, seinerseits alles daranzusetzen, um die gemeinsamen Feinde vernichtend zu schlagen und den Endsieg zu erringen.

Der Führer dankte dem japanischen Ministerpräsidenten Tojo in einem Telegramm, in dem er seiner Überzeugung von dem endgültigen Sieg und seine Genugtuung darüber ausdrückte, daß Japan im gleichen Geist entschlossen ist, die Feinde Deutschlands und Japans bis zur Vernichtung zu bekämpfen.

Ebenso fand zwischen Reichsaußenminister von Ribbentrop und dem japanischen Außenminister Schigemitsu ein in herzlichen Worten gehaltener Telegrammwechsel statt, in dem der unbeugsame Wille zum Ausdruck kam, den anglo-amerikanischen Angriff siegreich zurückzuschlagen.

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Ein 45.000-Tonnen-Schlachtschiff!

Einzelheiten zu den Erfolgen der Japaner bei den Marianeninseln

Tokio, 21. Juni –
Zu der vom japanischen Hauptquartier am Dienstag gemeldeten Versenkung eines amerikanischen Schlachtschiffes bei den Marianeninseln werden folgende Einzelheiten bekannt:

Es handelt sich um ein 45.000 Tonnen großes modernes Schlachtschiff, das zur Iowa-Klasse gehörte. Die Versenkung erfolgte bei der Insel Guam.

Bei einem der schwerbeschädigten Schlachtschiffe handelt es sich um eines vom Typ Nordcarolina, dass 35.000 Tonnen groß ist. Dieses Kriegsschiff erhielt schwerste Treffer in den Gewässern der Marianen. Zwei der vier Flugzeugträger, die entweder schwer beschädigt oder in Brand geworfen wurden oder schwere Schlagseite aufweisen, gehören zu der 24.000 Tonnen großen Essex-Klasse; bei einem dritten handelt es sich um einen umgebauten 10.000-Tonnen-Kreuzer der Independence-Klasse. Von den beiden versenkten Kreuzern gehört einer zu einer großen Type, während sich unter den vier beschädigten drei schweren Kreuzern befinden.

Wie der Bericht besonders unterstreicht, handelt es steh bei diesen Angaben um sorgfältig überprüfte und bestätigte Einzelheiten.

Der ‚günstige Augenblick‘

Bern, 21. Juni –
Die Neue Zürcher Zeitung kann nicht umhin, festzustellen, daß das nationalsozialistische Deutschland die Welt wieder einmal mit einer kaum für möglich gehaltenen Überraschung in Erstaunen versetzt habe. Das Blatt schreibt wörtlich:

Hitler befolgte auch in diesem Fall seinen altbewährten Grundsatz, bis zum günstigsten Augenblick sein Vorhaben zu verbergen, aber es dann unter Aufbietung aller Kräfte rücksichtslos durchzuführen. Die neue Waffe war zweifellos schon seit längerer Zeit fertig und ihre Verwendung im letzten Winter hätte die Moral der leidenden Bevölkerung selbstverständlich in wünschenswerter Weise gehoben und die Aufgabe der Regierung erleichtert. Die Versuchung schon damals zu beginnen, war sehr groß. Aber der deutsche Führer besaß Nervenkraft genug, um den Tag abzuwarten, den er für den geeignetsten hielt.