America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

8036

Die Kämpfe im Pazifik –
Zwei Flugzeugträger versenkt

Tokio, 25. Juni –
Japanische Luftstreitkräfte führen seit Samstagmorgen wiederholte Angriffe auf feindliche Marinestreitkräfte in den Gewässern südöstlich von Iwoojina Ogasawara (Boningruppe). Als Ergebnis der kühnen Torpedoangriffe wurden zwei feindliche Flugzeugträger versenkt. Die Angriffe werden fortgesetzt. Japanische Störflugzeuge haben in den Luftkämpfen mit ungefähr 60 feindlichen von Flugzeugträgern gestarteten Bombern über Iwoojina Ogasawara am Samstagmorgen mindestens 37 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.

Die gegen Saipan eingesetzten starken feindlichen Schlachtschiffformationen setzten ihre Operationen trotz ihrer Verluste auch weiterhin östlich und westlich der Marianengruppe fort. Die hartnäckigen japanischen Abwehrkämpfe werden vor allem von der Luftwaffe unterstützt, die in ununterbrochenen Angriffen den feindlichen Landekopf auf Saipan, Munitionslager und Ansammlungen von Landungsbooten mit Bomben belegte.

In den Gewässern westlich von Saipan haben japanische Fliegereinheiten einen 10.000 BRT großen feindlichen Transporter versenkt. Sämtliche Flugzeuge sind wohlbehalten zurückgekehrt.

Die Minimalverluste der bei Saipan eingesetzten nordamerikanischen Flottenstreitkräfte werden unter Zugrundelegung der Verlustziffern, die von Marinefachleuten bei versenkten Kriegsschiffen auf 40 Prozent, bei schwerbeschädigten auf 10 Prozent und bei leichtbeschädigten auf 5 Prozent der Offiziere und Mannschaften geschätzt werden, auf mindestens 7.000 Offiziere und Mannschaften beziffert. Bei dieser Errechnung ist die Besatzung eines Schlachtschiffes auf durchschnittlich 1.500 Offiziere und Mannschaften, eines schweren Kreuzers auf 900, eines leichten Kreuzers auf 400, eines Zerstörers auf 300, eines großen Flugzeugträgers auf 2.000 und eines mittleren Transporters auf 500 angesetzt.

8037

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 26, 1944)

Communiqué No. 41

The liberation of CHERBOURG cannot be long delayed. Allied troops are fighting in the streets and by yesterday afternoon had reached the sea within a mile of the port on the east side.

During a day of fierce fighting with the support of naval bombardment, enemy strongpoints were reduced one by one and the town was entered at many points simultaneously. The mopping-up of other portions of the original outer defenses continues.

In the eastern sector, our progress in the FONTENAY area was maintained and our positions were further strengthened.

Further enemy counterattacks near SAINTE-HONORINE were beaten back.

Our Air Forces continued their attacks on the enemy’s supply system during the afternoon and evening yesterday and also gave immediate support to the land and naval forces assaulting CHERBOURG.

The railway network east and south of NORMANDY was subjected to many attacks. Targets included the railway yards at DREUX and CHARTRES and bridges and embankments in the same area.

Air fields at BRÉTIGNY and VILLACOUBLAY were bombed and a large formation of medium bombers attacked supply dumps in the SENONCHES area with good results.

Enemy opposition was on a limited scale yesterday though flak was intense at many points.

Troop concentrations south of CAEN were bombed last night.

Communiqué No. 42

Street fighting continues in CHERBOURG. The Germans are resisting desperately but the town is steadily being cleared.

In the northeastern tip of the peninsula, little opposition has been met. To the northwest in the CAP DE LA HAGUE area, there is still some enemy strength.

Progress has been made in the FONTENAY sector, east of TILLY, after heavy fighting and our positions are improved.

More than 20,000 prisoners have been taken in the beachhead since the landings.

Dense cloud and fog over the continent today brought our air operations to a virtual standstill.

Last night, two enemy aircraft were destroyed by our patrols over northern FRANCE.

8038

Innsbrucker Nachrichten (June 26, 1944)

Heldenhafter Widerstand der Verteidiger von Cherbourg

Hafen und alle kriegswichtigen Anlagen gesprengt – Zwei Feindkreuzer und ein Zerstörer versenkt – Zäher Widerstand unserer Truppen in Italien – Unvermindert heftige Abwehrschlacht im Mittelabschnitt der Ostfront

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 26. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Die tapfere Besatzung von Cherbourg unter Führung des Generalleutnants von Schlieben zusammen mit starken Teilen der Kriegsmarine und der Luftwaffe steht seit gestern Innerhalb der Stadt und im Hafengebiet in erbittertem Häuserkampf. Zwei Aufforderungen des Gegners, den Kampf einzustellen und die Festung zu übergeben, wurden nicht beantwortet. Der Hafen und alle kriegswichtigen Anlagen sind gesprengt. Vor dem Gefechtsstand des Festungskommandanten und vor dem Arsenal brachen die feindlichen Angriffe im Feuer der Verteidiger zusammen.

Die unter dem Befehl des Oberleutnants der Marineartillerie Gelbhaar stehende Batterie „Hamburg“ hat, selbst unter schwerem Artilleriefeuer liegend, gestern im Raum von Cherbourg zwei feindliche Kreuzer versenkt. Außerdem wurden am vergangenen Tage vier Kreuzer durch Marinebatterien schwer beschädigt. Schnellboote versenkten in der letzten Nacht einen feindlichen Zerstörer nördlich der Halbinsel Cotentin.

An der Südfront des normannischen Landekopfes brachen feindliche Vorstöße östlich der Orne vor unseren Stellungen zusammen. Ein örtlicher Einbruch wurde im Gegenangriff wieder beseitigt, östlich der Ornemündung wurde ein großer feindlicher Transporter durch Artillerievolltreffer beschädigt.

Im Raum von Tilly gelang es dem während des ganzen Tages mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerkräften angreifenden Feind unter schwersten blutigen Verlusten, die Ruinen der Stadt zu besetzen.

Im Kampf gegen drei der besten englischen Divisionen hat sich die Panzerdivision unter der Führung von Generalleutnant Bayerlein hervorragend bewährt.

Südwestlich Carentan griff der Feind nach starker Artillerievorbereitung wiederholt vergeblich an.

In der Nacht vom 24. und 25. Juni wurden nach abschließenden Meldungen vier große feindliche Kriegsschiffe und ein Frachter durch Bombentreffer schwer beschädigt. Ein seit langem im Kampf gegen England stehendes Fliegerkorps unter Führung von Generalmajor Peltz hat sich hierbei besonders ausgezeichnet.

Das Störungsfeuer gegen Südengland wurde bei Tag und Nacht fortgesetzt.

In Italien lag der Schwerpunkt der Kämpfe auch gestern im Abschnitt von der Küste bis zum Trasimenischen See. Der Feind konnte hier nach erbitterten Kämpfen mit unseren zäh Widerstand leistenden Truppen nur wenige Kilometer nach Norden Boden gewinnen.

Bei dem Seegefecht im Golf von Genua in der Nacht zum 24. Juni wurden nach endgültigen Meldungen vier feindliche Schnellboote versenkt, ein fünftes in Brand geschossen.

Im mittleren Abschnitt der Ostfront dauert die Abwehrschlacht mit unverminderter Heftigkeit an. Die Sowjets wurden in den meisten Abschnitten abgewiesen. Südlich und östlich Bobruisk konnte der Feind jedoch einige Einbrüche erzielen. Auch im Raum östlich Mogilew gewann der feindliche Angriff nach blutigen Kämpfen nach Westen Boden.

An der Düna sind ebenfalls erbitterte Kämpfe im Gange, während östlich Polosk und südöstlich Pleskau von Panzern und Schlachtfliegern unterstützte Angriffe der Sowjets scheiterten. In diesen Kämpfen hat sich die sächsische 24. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Versock hervorragend bewährt.

Schlachtflieger unterstützten den Abwehrkampf des Heeres, vernichteten zahlreiche Panzer sowie eine große Anzahl von Fahrzeugen und fügten dem Feind schwere blutige Verluste zu.

Durch Jäger und Flakartillerie wurden 37 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.

In der Nacht griff ein starker Verband schwerer Kampfflugzeuge den Bahnhof Smolensk an. Zahlreiche Großbrände wurden beobachtet, große Mengen an Nachschubmaterial vernichtet.

Auf dem Balkan haben unter dem Oberbefehl des Generalobersten Löhr stehende Truppen eines Gebirgskorps in dreiwöchigen schweren Kämpfen in den Bergen Südalbaniens kommunistische Bandengruppen zerschlagen. Der Feind verlor außer 3.000 Toten zahlreiche Gefangene, viele Waffen aller Art sowie große Munitions- und Versorgungslager.

Ein schwächerer feindlicher Bomberverband griff in der letzten Nacht das Stadtgebiet von Budapest an. Sieben Flugzeuge wurden abgeschossen.

Britische Flugzeuge warfen in der letzten Nacht Bomben im rheinisch-westfälischen Raum.

8039

The New York Times (June 26, 1944)

AMERICANS IN CHERBOURG, FIGHT WAY TO DOCKS
Warship guns aid; smash forts blocking advance of infantry into vital port

Battles in streets; British gain two miles in barrage-led drive from Tilly-sur-Seulles
By Drew Middleton

Transatlantic port being wrested from the enemy

map.62644.ap
Cherbourg was entered by U.S. troop columns from three directions. Two of the stubbornest points of resistance were Fort du Roule (1) and Octeville (2). While the Germans still fought at Fort du Roule, our forces hammered their way in from the south and the east. Our dive bombers and warships were called upon to silence the fort on Pelée Island (3) and Fort des Flamands (4). Smoke rising from the arsenal in the naval establishment (5) suggested demolitions there by the Germans.

SHAEF, England –
U.S. infantry drove into the streets of Cherbourg from the east, south and southwest yesterday, and a spokesman at headquarters said last night that the city was “almost in our possession.”

After five days of the hardest fighting of the campaign, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s doughboys were driving the German defenders from house to house and street to street into the interior of the city last evening, and one battalion was only a few hundred yards from the docks.

A United Press correspondent at the front said some troops had even reached the docks and had surprised Germans in the act of blowing up installations.

The forces that entered from the south silenced Fort du Roule, the last German stronghold in that area, yesterday afternoon, to open their way into the city.

However, later reports from the front said that some Germans had crawled back into the fort through tunnels and from intact pillboxes were firing at the Americans from the rear.

Navy shells port defenses

Other forces smashed into the city in the afternoon from the east and southwest after storming German positions on high ground on both sides of the city, while guns of a powerful Allied squadron of battleships and cruisers, commanded by RAdm. Morton L. Deyo, flying his flag in the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa, knocked out German guns on the far side of the harbor that had been harassing our advancing troops.

The entry into Cherbourg, France’s third largest port, was a major victory and all signs of such triumph are in evidence yesterday. Hundreds of dazed German soldiers surrendered as tanks rumbled along the cobbled streets and a white flag fluttered from one battered blockhouse.

Some Germans continued to fight to the last. Snipers moved from house to house, trading shots with oncoming U.S. machine-gunners, and fired their pieces until their last round or until they died by grenade or bayonet. Whole sections of the city were ablaze and a great pall of smoke hung over the port where the Germans had blown up stores and had fired fuel.

So swift was the American advance in the final phase that bombing by the clouds of fighter-bombers that hung over the city had to be restricted because of the danger to U.S. troops. But the bombers had done their job, for when the troops moved forward yesterday morning, German artillery fire was pitiful and inaccurate, and prisoners were already coming in from the most heavily bombed fortifications. One infantry unit swept up 300 in its first advance.

Far to the east of the American sector in Normandy, the British again hammered their way forward, advancing more than two miles southeast of Tilly-sur-Seulles on what reports from the field described as an eight-and-a-half-mile front. There was fighting around Fontenay-le-Pesnel, two-and-a-quarter miles southeast of Tilly, and the British smashed one strong German counterattack in the area.

Part of this area will undoubtedly become the main battle sector with the fall of Cherbourg, for it is here that the enemy has concentrated his armor, and it is here that a successful offensive would offer him the greatest rewards. The Germans are worried about the Allied attack here. They say a great fleet of transports has disgorged fresh divisions off the mouth of the Orne River during the past two days and predicted that Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery would open an offensive as soon as he had these troops in line. The Cherbourg fight moved at a tremendous pace yesterday, faster than it had since Gen. Bradley hurled his divisions up the peninsula after they had broken through to the sea around Barneville a week ago. Our troops were looking down into the city from some of the high ground to the south by late Saturday, but Fort du Roule still held out during the night.

Yesterday morning, as the field guns resumed their iron clamor, the Americans drove the Germans out of field positions on the high ground and assaulted Fort du Roule.

The advance from the west progressed over high ground west of Équeurdreville. Here again, a fort was knocked out and the road from Cherbourg west of Beaumont was cut again – it had been cut farther west Friday – and patrols fought their way into the area just west and south of the naval base in the region of the Municipal Stadium on Rue de la Bucaille.

Other units to the southwest met bitter resistance in the area of Sainte-Croix-Hague, but these Germans have probably been outflanked by the advance further north. A few enemy detachments were still reported holding out in the area of Bois du Mont du Roc.

In other areas, prisoners drifted in by twos and threes, and sometimes by the dozen. Some complained of lack of ammunition, others of a terrific hammering by American artillery. The enemy suffered heavy casualties. Along the Cherbourg-Valognes road, the dead were so thick that a path had to be cleared through the bodies so that jeeps could pass to the front.

Two German generals have been killed in Normandy since Friday. On Saturday, the German radio announced the death of Lt. Gen. Richter and that of Gen. Stegman, who was killed in action at Cherbourg.

Here and there across the stricken field, the Germans fought bravely. German troops were defending the airfield at Maupertus, five miles east of the city, with bitter tenacity. German gunners served their weapons in the port area under the accurate fire of Allied battleships and cruisers until the guns were knocked out.

Except for fighting around Maupertus, there was little sign of the enemy in the Barfleur-Saint-Vaast area. Once occupied, Barfleur, a fishing port with long docks, will be useful for the Allies.

While the infantry, supported by tanks, were cracking Cherbourg’s last landward defenses, Allied cruisers and battleships were engaging in a duel with German batteries in the port. One by one, the German batteries “Bromm” and “York” under the command of RAdm. Hennecke, naval commander in Normandy, were knocked out by Allied shells, according to the enemy. Above the forts circled observation planes of the U.S. and British Fleet Air Arm, the British spotting for warships.

An unofficial but reliable estimate received by this correspondent yesterday said that the capture of Cherbourg would complete the destruction of four German divisions – the 91st, the 77th, the 243rd and the 109th, the latter under Lt. Gen. Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, who also commands the whole Cherbourg garrison. Remnants of these four units, plus German paratroopers and marine and naval units in the city, probably will bring the total Allied bag to about 32,000 effectives.

8040

top.banner.rep.conv

EDGE LEADS DRIVE TO BROADEN PLANK ON FOREIGN POLICY
Group led by Governor insists Republicans take a stronger stand on post-war unity

Pennsylvania for Dewey; votes of Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee, South Dakota help make his nomination sure
By Turner Catledge

Chicago, Illinois – (June 25)
A demand by outspoken Republican internationalists, headed by Governor Walter E. Edge of New Jersey, that the party stand up and “take it” on the international issue, stood tonight as the chief possibility for important new development at the party’s national convention, which opens in the Chicago Stadium at 10:15 a.m. CT tomorrow.

The prospect that Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York would become the presidential nominee and that Governor Earl Warren of California would be called upon to take the vice-presidential honor increased hourly.

The dominant party leaders, moreover, were intent upon centering on such policy declarations as would permit the Republicans to launch the 1944 election campaign with the utmost in harmony.

The likelihood of Mr. Dewey’s nomination increased immeasurably with a caucus of the 70-vote delegation of Pennsylvania, which went unanimously for the New York Governor. With this force, plus what he already had amassed in the states of New York, Illinois and California, Mr. Dewey had more than half the number of delegates needed to guarantee his nomination, while the addition of smaller delegations, either in whole or in part, ran his prospective total to well above the required 529.

Other states on bandwagon

Other states that climbed on the Dewey bandwagon during the day were New Jersey with 34 of 35 delegates, Michigan with 41, South Dakota with 11, Tennessee with 19, Connecticut with 16 and Massachusetts with 30 of 35.

After a conference, Governors Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts, Raymond E. Baldwin of Connecticut, William H. Wills of Vermont and Robert O. Blood of New Hampshire decided to support Governor Dewey and to notify Governor Bricker of their position.

The one possibility – it decreased from a “probability” to a “possibility” during the night – of a fight over the platform was the most tangible promise to date that the party conclave might rise above a dull meeting on ratification.

Governor Edge at first threatened to take the matter to the floor of the convention itself and there to insist upon a stronger and clearer stand in favor of international post-war collaboration than has yet been seriously proposed. He was uncertain of his course late tonight, however, after some of the convention managers had said that any attempt to tamper with the “official” foreign policy plank might result in a stronger “nationalist” position.

Any possibility of a serious contest over the presidential nomination had vanished well before today’s events. Selection of Governor Dewey as head of the national ticket had become so much a foregone certainty that his managers were considering plans to bring him to Chicago for an acceptance ceremony before the convention adjourns – Wednesday night or Thursday.

Bricker drive keeps on

Backers of John W. Bricker of Ohio were still boosting their candidate, but they conceded candidly that the drift seemed to be away from them. They had never claimed any more than a one-to-three chance for their man. They continued to reject, however, the suggestion that Mr. Bricker should withdraw before the balloting starts, and take the honor of putting Governor Dewey’s name before the convention.

Spokesmen for former Governor Harold E. Stassen had not determined what to do about their candidate, in the light of the evident Dewey bandwagon movement, and so continued for the time being with original plans to have his name presented.

The question of a vice-presidential candidate had not been so definitely settled, due to the persistent reluctance of Governor Warren, who will deliver the “keynote” address at tomorrow night’s session, to take it. Mr. Warren arrived in Chicago today and immediately reiterated his earlier assertions that he is not seeking, and does noy want, any place on the ticket. He said, further, that he had put his own California delegation under obligation not to advance him and not to support him if some other delegation puts him in nomination.

Governor Warren is regarded by most observers as the odds-on choice of the convention delegates for the vice-presidential place and therefore is expected to be induced to take it by the sheer pressure of the demand for him.

With the main candidate contests thus developing into lopsided affairs, the possibility of fireworks had reposed, before today, in the one slight chance that Wendell L. Willkie, the 1940 nominee, might come to Chicago, or send a statement, demanding changes in some of the party declarations. This possibility was waning with each passing hour, however.

Edge talks of the platform

It was under such circumstances that Governor Edge’s demands and warnings immediately captured the interest of the delegates and spectators, who literally swarmed about the hotel lobbies all day and far into the night.

Addressing the New Jersey caucus at the Hotel Blackstone, and after expressing his own hope that the delegation would support Governor Dewey – which it did – Governor Edge swung into his discussion of the platform.

The veteran leader said:

I am worried about the platform. I’m a definite internationalist. Either we take the responsibility to maintain the peace, or we do not, and all this talk of “peace force” is silly. We cannot escape a very leading position in world affairs. It is better to be a party to war with its mass murder, and I believe that the Eastern and coastal states feel that way about it. I’m sorry about the Midwest. But let’s give our nominees a platform that the Eastern and coastal states will be proud of.

Ready for convention fight

I hope the plank [on world affairs] will be satisfactory, but I’m serving notice here and now that I am willing and ready to carry the fight to the convention floor. It must be an out-and-out American plank.

At this point, after applause, a delegate moved that the New Jersey delegation be bound by resolution to support Mr. Edge’s stand. Before the question could be put to a vote – it was carried unanimously a few moments later – Senator Hawkes asked to be excused from voting on it, since he was a member of the Resolutions Committee.

Senator Hawkes added that he had seen Senator Austin, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee, only a few minutes before and that Senator Austin had expressed approval of the plank in the form in which it then stood, the form of which Governor Edge disapproved, and that the plank had been unanimously recommended by the subcommittee to the full committee.

In an impromptu press conference a few moments later, Governor Edge said that his principal objection lay in the use of the words “peace force” in the plank, in referring to maintenance of peace by the United States after the present war.

He asked rhetorically:

What the devil is “peace force”? If it is force, it’s force and it’s better to tell the public about it, and not kid them.

Plank authors give warning

Authors of the compromise plank, which was unofficially adopted yesterday by the Resolutions Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs said that some changes might be made in the wording, but insisted that the substance of the plank would not be changed. Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, who headed a pre-convention group of Republican leaders who evolved the declaration on the model of the so-called Mackinac Charter, warned that tampering with the proposal now might result in a greatly more “nationalistic” declaration.

Senator Vandenberg said:

If Governor Edge carries the fight to the convention floor, he may get the very thing he dislikes the most.

Leaders who have had opportunity during these few days to canvass opinion and feeling among the delegates and who, of course, assume that they represent the sentiments of their home districts, said that there was a strong current of “nationalist” and even “isolationist” in certain quarters of the party.

Governor Edge will likely await the official report of the Resolutions Committee, which was wrestling today with several other planks, before taking any definite action. The contest between national and international approaches to political problems was being waged over the party’s policies on international trade.

A subcommittee headed by former Governor Alf M. Landon of Kansas was trying to compose the views of two groups. One of these, led by Mr. Landon himself, favored a declaration favoring trade reciprocity among nations. The other, said to be sparked by former Senator Joseph R. Grundy of Pennsylvania, was reported as insisting that the party reassert its traditional doctrine of high tariffs in strongest possible language.

Drift to Dewey continues

The drift toward Mr. Dewey was marked throughout today and tonight as state delegations arrived, looked over the lay of the land, and went into caucus.

The Missouri contingent met for an hour, and then announced that it had divided – 19 for Mr. Dewey, four for Mr. Bricker, five not voting and seven absent.

The Illinois group, numbering 59, caucused late last night, and on a count of noses pledged 50 to Mr. Dewey. The nine others were regarded as largely favorable to Mr. Bricker.

The Oklahoma delegates were represented as lined up 22 for Mr. Dewey and one for Mr. Bricker, the one Brickerite being Senator E. H. Moore.

8041

top.banner.rep.conv

Favors rewriting international law

Proposed draft of Republican platform would prohibit robot planes
By C. P. Trussell

Chicago, Illinois –
A rewriting of international law to restore morality in the dealings of nations, to prohibit under extreme penalties such devices as robot planes, such practices as the execution of prisoners and other procedures repugnant to civilized society is proposed in the draft of the foreign policy plank submitted for the Republican platform, it was learned tonight.

In the same draft, it was disclosed authoritatively, the proposals for the establishment of post-war collaboration for maintenance of the peace leave room for the setting up of a Supreme United Nations Council, under which there could operate an assembly for dealing with international political problems and “regional tribunals” for the settlement of questions arising at various parts of the globe, the tribunals to function somewhat in the manner of large-scale circuit courts.

This, in addition to points of the plank disclosed previously, reportedly underwent discussion within the Platform Drafting Committee today as substantial agreement on a 16-point agricultural plank was reached after hours of consultation between the convention Committee on Agriculture and the Mackinac Island advisory group which made the party’s initial declarations last September.

At almost the same time, the Committee on Labor completed its trial draft of a plank which was expected to advocate the amendment of the National Labor Relations Act to “carry out both the spirit and purposes of the act” and specifically deprive the NLRB of authority arbitrarily to determine the kind of collective bargaining agent for workers employed in a plant and confer that authority upon the workers.

It was also expected that recommendation would be made for a reorganization of the Department of Labor “under a Secretary satisfactory to labor.”

Signs also appeared that the Republicans would attempt to get out front with specific plans and programs for the reconversion of industry to peacetime production.

Recommendations for a post-war readjustment of the tax structure to peacetime levels at the earliest practicable date were asserted to form a major phase of a plank submitted to the Platform Drafting Committee on Post-War Business, headed by Senator E. H. Moore of Oklahoma.

In this matter, the Moore Committee took direct issue with Henry Morgenthau Jr., Secretary of the Treasury, who recently contended that too-rapid approach to peacetime tax levels could not be expected.

Despite the spurts of action by plank-drafting committees and a four-day pre-convention start, no assurances were given by leaders tonight that the platform would be completed for presentation to the convention Tuesday as scheduled.

After an all-day session of the Drafting Committee, Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, the chairman, announced that it would work far into the night and reconvene again tomorrow morning.

After the formal appointment tomorrow of the Resolutions Committee, and its organization, a public hearing will be held to hear Van A. Bittner, assistant to Philip Murray, CIO president, in the United Steel Workers and a leader of the CIO Political Action Committee, and spokesmen for other national organizations which have not been heard by platform groups.

Not until after these spokesmen had been heard, Mr. Taft indicated, would the Resolutions Committee settle down in executive session to work out the final platform draft.

Program for agriculture

The 16 points upon which the committee and the Mackinac Island advisory body reached substantial agreement late today were, in brief, as follows:

  • Denunciation of “bungling” and “impractical” production programs.

  • Recognition of the role of agriculture in providing wealth and prosperity for the nation and demand that it receive equal encouragement and maintenance with labor and industry.

  • A philosophy of abundance, rather than scarcity.

  • Freedom by agriculture from “regimentation and impractical bureaucracy.”

  • Recommendations for a reorganization of the Department of Agriculture under experienced administration free of politics and regimentation.

  • U.S. markets for American farmers.

  • Protection of the farm economy by fair prices.

  • Opposition to subsidies “as a substitute for fair market prices.”

  • Advocacy of support prices, commodity loans or a combination of both, with specialized means of meeting price situations in specialized fields.

  • Demand for the orderly disposal of surpluses without disruption of production and without benefit to speculative profiteers.

  • Control of future surpluses through the finding of new uses for products, the development of new markets and efficient domestic distribution.

  • Research looking to the discovery of new crops and new uses for existing crops.

  • Approval of farmer-owned and operated farmer cooperatives.

  • Consolidation of farm credit under administration by a non-partisan board.

  • “Adequate and fair” tariff protection to prevent foreign competition with American agricultural products.

  • The making of life more attractive for the family-type farmer, with the development of rural roads, rural home and farm electrification and the elimination of the basic evils of tenancy wherever they are found to exist, and a “serious study and search” for “a sound program of crop insurance with emphasis upon establishment of a self-supporting program.”

On this latter point, the platform framers propose a comprehensive program for soil, forest, water and wildlife conservation and development and of irrigation projects as far as possible at state and local levels.

In discussing the tentative agreement by the agricultural plank drafters, Governor Bourke B. Hickenlooper of Iowa, chairman of the convention committee, explained that it was not certain that all of the points would be included in the draft submitted for party action.

To avoid overlapping

At one or more points, he brought out, the views and recommendations of the committee and its advisors overlapped those of the Foreign Trade Committee, headed by former Governor Alf M. Landon of Kansas, which worked through tonight on a proposed plank that was reported to be weighted heavily with protective tariff declarations. While there was agreement in general view between his committee and that of Mr. Landon, Governor Hickenlooper said, care would be taken to avoid infringements upon jurisdictions.

The Platform Drafting Committee, Senator Taft disclosed today, would be unable to hold the platform to 1,500 to 2,000 words, as had been hoped when the policy committee began its preparatory work. In fact, Mr. Taft observed, it will be “darn long.”

The Drafting Committee continued to pledge its members to secrecy as to what was going on within the west ballroom of the Stevens Hotel, where it was reported to be working through the night on such platform subjects as Negro problems, equal rights for women, social security, post-war organization of the Armed Forces, control of insurance and the coal industry and the St. Lawrence Seaway, besides the planks submitted by special committees.

8042

‘Heavies’ hit Nazis in France five blows

8th Air Force bombers attack from Pas-de-Calais to Toulouse – RAF and 15th strike
By David Anderson

South of France now gets attention of Allied fliers

map.62644.heavies.ap
Behind the Normandy beachhead (shown in black at 1), U.S. and British planes continue to blast airfields and communications, while in the Pas-de-Calais area (2) they kept up their battering of rocket bomb installations. In central France, they attacked enemy plane nests at Bourges and Avord (3). Flying to points not far from the Spanish border, Allied airmen struck at fuel depots and airdromes around Toulouse and Blagnac (4). Meanwhile, Italy-based bombers smashed at railroads and bridges north and west of Marseille (5), on the southern coast.

SHAEF, England –
Flying high over the Normandy battle zone and southward another 400 miles to within 70 miles of the Spanish border, a powerful force of U.S. heavy bombers yesterday attacked a Nazi fuel dump and airdromes in the Toulouse area.

Other Liberators and Flying Fortresses striking from Italy blasted bridges over the Rhône River at Avignon, 170 miles east of Toulouse, and other enemy traffic and oil targets north and west of Marseille.

The 8th Air Force’s Fortresses and Liberators from Britain, also smashing at targets among the Nazis’ flying-bomb installations in Pas-de-Calais, made a third attack in the evening on Luftwaffe fields in northern France and bridges southeast of Paris. The airdromes hit included Villacoublay and Brétigny.

Steady Allied attacks from west and south Sunday night were indicated by Nazi radio reports of planes over Germany and the Danube area.

While these heavy-bomber missions were being carried out, medium and light components of the Allied air forces swarmed across northwestern France in search of German troop movements and on wrecking jobs against specific objectives.

The battle within the Battle of France is being waged relentlessly against the enemy’s pilotless plane installations in Pas-de-Calais.

Thousands of U.S., Canadian and British bombers and fighters continued yesterday their hammering of the well-concealed, strongly built placements buried in woods and scattered among farms in the strip of France back of the coast from Dieppe to Ostend, about 30 miles in depth.

In the twelve hours ended at 3:00 a.m. Sunday, at least 1,000 heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force went on duty over the Pas-de-Calais area.

Liberators of the 8th Air Force attacked 12 power stations connected with the robot bases and returned without loss.

The Nazis’ pilotless planes continued smashing homes and killing people in the south of England yesterday, although in a greatly reduced scale compared with last week.

Allied air operations in every form against the Nazis were stepped up yesterday compared with Saturday. Some idea of the scope of these operations will be gathered from Saturday’s activity when 6,000 sorties were flown on 200 missions.

The persistent U.S. and RAF fighter-bomber attacks on enemy communications leading in the direction of Normandy were maintained yesterday with the same intensity that has marked recent operations.

Bridges, fuel, Nazi tanks and rolling stock in the Dreux-Chartres-Mantes area were blasted and shot up. On the railroad between Chartres and Mantes, west of Paris, the tracks were severed in four places and direct hits were scored on a tunnel.

An outstanding success was achieved by a group of U.S. fighter-bombers that attacked chokepoints on the railway linking Paris and Orléans, a 75-mile stretch of electrified line carrying heavy traffic. It runs through a series of deep and narrow cuttings. Seven of these cuttings were bombed, the rails ripped up and the banks sent tumbling onto the roadbeds.

8043

Denny: Blasting of forts viewed from ‘box seat’ on cliff

By Harold Denny

With U.S. forces before Cherbourg, France – (June 25)
Few battles have been as visible and as spectacular as today’s. I watched much of it from the edge of a cliff looking directly down on most of Cherbourg, like a box seat at a theater. It was the forward observation post of one of the leading elements in this assault and for a while an officer watched and gave directions for the supporting artillery fire.

In today’s battle were our infantry, artillery, tanks and even our warships, while the Germans were fighting back with heavy coastal guns, field artillery, machine guns, rifles and nasty-sounding rockets. And the operations of all these were spread out in full view on the stage below.

The day was warm and brilliant.

A big quarry had been dug into a cliff on the edge of the village of Hau Gringore, a suburb of Cherbourg, where 300 prisoners were taken when it fell yesterday. The quarry was still making trouble, however. With tunnels it was connected with the coastal plain and with Fort de Roule on our left, still unconquered then. Sometimes the Germans crept through the tunnel, fired a few bursts in our direction and retreated back. So, guards were posted there and eventually the mouth of the tunnel was blown up, after a dozen or two French men, women and children, with their baggage, dogs and cats, had been ushered from their shelters to a point beyond the town.

Three women captured

Among yesterday’s prisoners, an officer told me, were three women. One was a Ukrainian girl, together with her very young Ukrainian husband, who said they had been brought here as captives and forced to work as servants of the Germans. The girl was in an advanced state of pregnancy.

On our left, between us and Fort du Roule, was a fire-blackened ridge up which the Germans would sometime creep and open fire with machine guns. We could hear our infantry toiling up its slope.

To our right, across a green valley dotted with gray, little red-roofed houses and garden patches crisscrossed with hedges, was a ridge topped by German fortifications. Troops from another American unit were advancing on it from the other side of the ridge and American tanks could be seen nosing about on our side of the ridge. Those Germans were trapped.

City proper little damaged

Tourists who visited France in better days will remember the six-mile-long breakwater studded with the medieval-looking French fortifications that made this artificial harbor. On your left, as you used to enter Cherbourg on the liner Normandie from New York, you probably noticed an old fort and lighthouse on Île Pelée, which forms one doorpost of the main entrance through the breakwater. As your ship steamed farther in through the inner breakwater, you may have seen a similar old fort, Des Flamands, on your left as you turned into the French Line pier.

From my box seat, I could see the western half of the town of the ship canal, just to the west of the French Line pier. The city itself looked little damaged, but empty and dead. Few civilians are left there now.

Pelée and Flamands made nuisances of themselves to our troops yesterday, so at 8 o’clock this morning, our dive bombers smacked them and also Fort du Roule and the German positions on the ridge to our right. When I arrived in the frontline an hour later, Flamands and Pelée were silent, and smoke poured from the fortifications on the ridge to our right. The forts on the ridge still fired, however, and 88mm shells occasionally came in from Fort du Roule. And on a sandspit to my left of Flamands, as I saw it, were three determined 88s – pestiferous guns, with a hard, flat report and a shell that comes so fast you can hardly duck. They had fired all night and were at it again today.

Navy guns back artillery

Sitting beside me with field glasses was Army Lt. James S. Timothy of Washington, DC. He was observing for some 81mm howitzers behind, and this was an artilleryman’s dream. He called for blank range and down came his shells smack on the target. Billows of gray and yellow smoke, sand and black-burning explosive poured up, and we could see the Germans running for their dugouts. Lt. Timothy sent in shell after shell, but the Germans had their guns mounted in dugouts. They ran the guns out on tracks to shoot and then withdrew them. The German fire grew less frequent but persisted.

This was what we wanted to pacify; those forts that had been holding us up, geysers began appearing in the water just off Fort des Flamands. The Navy was firing a “ladder,” each shell moving in closer to the guns on that sandspit. Finally, they fell directly on the enemy positions. Then our ships opened up with shells that turned that little strip into a hell of red flame, black smoke and yellow dust.

I sat beside a Navy observer and could hear over his telephone the gibberish in which one officer on a distant ship conversed with him. The Navy gave the Germans a few more salvos and that was the end of that opposition.

Then the German nebelwerfers in the city began their big incendiary rockets toward our men off the right. They make an indescribable noise – something like titanic horse whinnying, or a gigantic aching creak – and you can see their missiles sail through the air. They make great bursts of flame where they hit and send up clouds of oily black smoke. They set grass fires and it seemed that the Germans were trying to burn our fellows out that way.

15 scout way into town

Meanwhile, an audacious patrol of 15 men, led by Lt. Shirley Landon of Spokane, Washington, went out around the right edge of the ridge and into the town, to scout the best way for the infantry to enter the city. We watched them anxiously through glasses as they skirted hedges and dodged behind the buildings below. Lt. Timothy and his mortars were ready to give fire support to them if they got into trouble.

We watched Lt. Landon, walking ahead, signal his men and they deployed across an open field and disappeared behind some buildings. They were daringly far into the town. We heard rifle fire down where they were but could see nothing. A general came up and watched, too. There was perhaps half an hour of suspense, which we relieved by watching our tanks maneuver across a valley, and then someone shouted.

Up the lane towards us came two doughboys and after them a long line of Germans with their hands clasped over their heads. Other doughboys walked at their flanks and a few more brought up the rear. I counted 78 prisoners before a startling explosion in my ear jarred my count and mystified me until I learned it had been one of our own blasts. Afterward, I learned there were 81 prisoners.

A Frenchman in the town met the patrol and pointed out the Germans in a ditch at the edge of a highway behind it. Pfc. William K. Petty of Indianapolis went in and flushed them out. Three started to pick up their rifles but they were instantly disarmed and all marched back.

Things were getting warm again on that right-hand ridge. At times this afternoon, it was like watching a circus, where so much was going on in different rings that it was impossible to see everything.

Those German fortifications were wreathed in smoke, and vehicles parked near them had disappeared. Yet some of them kept shooting. One 175mm coastal gun took potshots at one of our warships. It was just as if our warships had lost their tempers. They cut loose on the fortress then. Vast explosions shook the ground and pillars of smoke and dust rose. Then we saw a white flag go up above the skyline. The warships ceased firing. A few minutes later, we saw a long column of Germans come out of the fort and march toward our tanks in formation to give themselves up. Everybody on the cliff cheered, and that’s how the way was cleared for our infantry attack into the town, which began soon after. The way was not entirely cleared. Some surviving nebelwerfers still fired at us, and the enemy artillerymen and machine-gunners persisted. But the way had been cleared enough for our fellows to go ahead.

8044

Americans drive closer to Leghorn

Reach point 32 miles from port city, which Germans seem ready to quit

…

8045

Japanese losses in Marianas soar

Nimitz checkup adds three warships to damaged list and 109 planes downed
By George F. Horne

USPACFLT HQ, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – (June 25)
One hundred and nine aircraft and several damaged ships have been added to the enemy’s losses in the Marianas campaign as a result of a more complete checkup.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz stated in a communiqué this afternoon that the latest reports on actions in the Marianas and Philippine Sea areas last Sunday and Monday brought enemy plane losses up considerably and added a heavy cruiser, a light cruiser and a light aircraft carrier to the roster of enemy fleet units damaged by our aircraft.

Our own losses have now been completely tabulated for the first time and they have been fairly severe in aircraft and fliers, although not at all large when viewed in the light of enemy losses and the magnitude of the actions involved.

The official score of the Marianas campaign from June 10 to June 23 follows:

Japan U.S.
Ships sunk 30 0
Probably sunk 2 0
Ships damaged 51 4
Barges sunk 13 0
Planes lost 747 151
Fliers lost ? 98

In addition, our forces damaged four aircraft and probably destroyed 16.

Our greatest plane loss occurred in the battle in the Philippine Sea last Monday, when our fliers attacked the Japanese task force. The damage to four of our ships, including two carriers, was reported minor.

Adm. Nimitz reported that U.S. Marine and Army forces had launched an attack against enemy ground forces on Saipan and had forged ahead against continuing stiff resistance. Advances on the western U.S. flank and around Mount Tapochau range from 500 to 800 yards.

This attack, preceded by intense naval gunfire and ground artillery preparation, occurred yesterday.

Enemy aircraft twice attacked us on Friday, dropping bombs among our transports off Saipan that did minor damage to several landing craft. That evening, a small flight of enemy planes dropped several bombs among our ground forces on Saipan Island, but casualties were very light.

The admiral’s recapitulation of damage and losses inflicted on the enemy disclosed that a week ago in the Sunday attack on our big fleet by swarms of enemy aircraft, we destroyed 402 planes, of these 369 were shot down by our carrier-based fighter planes in one of the great victories of the war for this category of warplane.

Eighteen enemy planes were brought down by anti-aircraft fire and 15 were destroyed on the ground in corollary engagements.

In this battle, we lost 27 aircraft, 18 pilots and six aircrewmen.

The communiqué said:

In the attack by our carrier aircraft upon units of the Japanese Fleet in the late afternoon of June 19 [Monday], one heavy cruiser and one light cruiser, neither of which was previously reported, were damaged.

One light carrier, not previously reported, received seven 500‑pound bomb hits. One of the three tankers previously reported sunk has been. transferred to the severely damaged category.

Twenty-six enemy aircraft were shot down, instead of the previously reported 17 to 22. We lost 22 pilots and 27 aircrewmen from 95 aircraft either shot down by the enemy or forced to land in the water.

Adm. Nimitz said the fighter sweep over Iwo Jima in the Volcano group on Friday cost the enemy 116 craft instead of 60 and said 11 more were probably shot down. We lost five fighters instead of four.

Fleet headquarters today made public the text of a message to Adm. Nimitz and the fleet from Adm. King, Commander-in-Chief, who said U.S. aircrews had established a new high in performance and that the damage done to the enemy was “unequaled in all seagoing aviation.”

Japanese claim 11 carriers

In a Dōmei broadcast from Tokyo, the Japanese claimed yesterday that thus far in the Mariana naval-air battle, U.S. losses included eleven aircraft carriers, four battleships and six cruisers sunk or damaged and more than 400 planes destroyed, the Associated Press said.

The broadcast said 70 U.S. fighters and bombers appeared over the Bonin Islands, north of the Marianas, on Saturday and claimed Japanese fighters shot down 37.

A Berlin broadcast, quoting a Dōmei dispatch, said that since Saturday morning the Japanese Air Force had sunk two carriers southeast of the Bonin Island group and a 10,000-ton transport east of Saipan.

8046

Record Berlin bomb devastation caused by U.S. attack of June 21

…

8047

Use of Cherbourg expected quickly

Limited utilization 24 hours after capture seen – Army repair units ready

SHAEF, England (AP) –
Cherbourg’s multiple harbors and elaborate port installations offered the Germans many chances for demolitions and obstructions, but it was doubtful whether their best efforts could prevent the Allies from swiftly exploiting this prize once it was securely in their hands.

Eyewitness reports have told of many fires and explosions in the dock area and apparently some attempt has been made to block the entrance to the basin where transatlantic liners once docked, but it will be a surprise if limited unloadings are not underway within 24 hours after the capture, and if a flood of men and supplies is not pouring in within ten days.

Moving in from the outside, ships come first to the outer roads of the great deep-water basin, about nine miles from east to west and two miles north to south. The basin is protected on three sides by land and on the north by some of the world’s greatest breakwaters. It is entered by two channels, each nearly 2,000 feet wide. It is regarded as impossible that the Germans can prevent the use of this anchorage, which could take many hundreds of big ships, even at low water.

Next is the inner basin, about four miles long and two miles wide, which is entered through a 1,500-foot gap in the breakwater. If the Germans have three or four big ships in the harbor – as is doubtful – they will probably try to close this channel.

Quai de France has best docks

Sticking out into the inner basin from the shore is a massive 1,800-foot quay, the Quai de France, on the east side of which are the best and deepest slip and docks, where four or five sizeable merchant ships could unload simultaneously. The entrance to this basin is about 600 feet wide, between the quay and the jetty, to the east, and there are reports that ships have already been sunk across it.

On the west side of the quay is a narrow channel, about 225 feet wide and 600 feet long, leading to the inner commercial basin and tidal drydock, which could presumably be blocked quite easily. Similarly, the entrance to the triple naval basins, about three-quarters of a mile to the west, is only about 275-300 feet across and might be blocked. The 25-foot tide offers a great advantage for swift clearing of any blocks, however, since it permits the cutting and blasting of obstacles at low tide.

Troops specially trained

The job of rehabilitation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said yesterday, will be greatly facilitated by a new unit, likely to play a prominent part in the war from now on. It is the Port Repair Ship Company, manned and operated entirely by Army engineers.

These men, dubbed “sailjers,” have been specially trained in this country for such jobs. Many of the Army divers got their experience working on the salvaging of USS Lafayette in New York, in conjunction with Navy divers. Others received their training at the Harbor Clearance School, run by the Corps of Engineers at Fort Screven, Georgia.

Among the first troops entering Cherbourg will be engineer port construction and port repair groups. These units will approach their objective, the harbor installations, by land. At the same time, engineer port repair shop companies, protected by our naval guns, will be using a water route to enter the harbor.

8048

Shell holes tied by wire to London

Underground signal center in Britain controls every message to front
By John MacCormac

London, England –
A British-American-Canadian communications center of the dimensions of a small town was busily at work 100 feet under the quiet English countryside controlling the assault on Cherbourg. Its first great function was to transmit orders for the invasion of Normandy, but its construction had been launched two years before D-Day.

Its scope is such that in one area alone, the British Post Office laid two million miles of wire. It is equipped to communicate with the nearest frontline shell crater in Normandy or eventually with the point where the Anglo-American armies will meet those of Russia.

An all-services undertaking, its hundred teleprinters and switchboard and its 14-position telephone switchboard with 200 lines and 400 extensions are operated by WRENS, ATS and WAAFs. A separate radio room, manned by Royal Signal and U.S. Army Signal Corps operators, provides a special link, enabling field troops to summon air support. A battle in France, in fact, can be directed from this center completely by radio.

This giant communications center has now cast its tentacles ac ross the Channel. One schedule, anticipating the progress to be made for a certain date after D-Day, called for 700 miles of eight-wire lines, 1,500 miles of special pole line, 30,000 miles of field cable, 400,000 yards of assault cable and 50 special radio installations.

8049

Flying chaplain says French mass

U.S. captain preaches in French and English – church bells break 4-year silence

Normandy, France – (June 25)
The bells of a local church – silenced by the Germans for the same reason that Britain’s bells were muted – rang this morning for the first time in four years. And about half a hundred natives of this small village put in Sunday clothes to join 80 dusty khaki-clad G.I.s in services at the 400-year-old Norman church.

Capt. Donald M. Cleary, chaplain of the 9th Air Force fighter group here, aided by 1st Sgt. Kenneth Reilly of New York, celebrated mass and delivered two sermons, one in French – which Cleary speaks fluently – and the other in English.

Later in the day, Capt. Cleary, whose home is in Rochester, New York, celebrate another mass for 9th Air Force fighter-bomber pilots before they left to bomb Cherbourg, and a third for patients at a nearby hospital.

Capt. Cleary is the only chaplain with the 9th Air Force in France now and one of the chaplains in the U.S. air forces to wear a pilot’s wings, with the letter “S” in the middle. “S” stands for service pilot and means the chaplain is qualified to fly any aircraft in the air forces so long as it is not in combat.

Before the war, Capt. Cleary was chaplain at the Albany, New York, prison for four years and chaplain at Cornell University for seven years.

Capt. Cleary stated that the French people in this section suspected him at first when he scouted up and down the coastline in the course of his work. They thought he was going to “requisition” their cattle, but when he did not and they learned that he was a Catholic priest they became very friendly.

The French told Capt. Cleary that the Germans had used some churches to quarter troops, and at this village, citizens said that in the four years the Nazis occupied the country, they saw only one German soldier attend mass.

8050

29 robot nests set in Cherbourg area

Invasion bares Nazi sites of massive structures for mounting severe blows
By Frederick Graham

On the Cherbourg front, France – (June 25)
The Allied invasion of France probably saved Britain from even more severe bombing by robot planes. When the Germans retreated to Cherbourg, at least 29 sites, from which the enemy planned to launch pilotless planes, were found.

None of these sites was finished, but it seems likely that, if given time, the Nazis would have turned the Cherbourg Peninsula into a nest for these weapons.

The Germans appeared to have been building at least three types of launching platforms – two probably for jet-propelled pilotless planes and the other apparently for rockets. Only two of the latter-type sites have been found.

Fifteen sites in this area are of concrete and steel construction and rather simple. Usually, they consist of two parallel rows of concrete piling sunk in the ground. These stretch about 100 feet. Each carries a single tail on which the wheels of the robot plane ride. At the base, the piling is only eight inches above the ground, but at the takeoff point, the elevation is two feet six inches.

To the rear and the left of these tracks is a square, solid concrete building sunk deep in the ground. To the right and rear of the tracks, there are usually three or more long, slim concrete buildings which, from the air, look like skis. What these were used for is unknown.

Twelve other sites, similar except that the ski shed is missing, were found.

Technicians show interest

Two sites in which 9th Air Force technicians showed the deepest interest were altogether different and much larger. Frenchmen requisitioned by the Germans to work on these believe they were for launching huge rockets. It is significant that all the sites found so far point in the direction of some British port.

Today, this correspondent toured one of the two large sites which may have been meant for rockets. It looked like a foundation for something gigantic, like a pyramid.

About eight miles southeast of Cherbourg, sink in the bottom of a valley rimmed by round, orchard-covered hills, it looked as if work had been suspended for some time. There was little engineering equipment around – perhaps a dozen concrete mixers, and these were rusty.

The entire site, estimated at 80 acres, was pockmarked by the big bombs of the Allies’ heavy bombers.

Joseph Heronard, a 29-year-old native of a nearby village, who worked on the job for the Germans, said that all the workers on the project believed the area was to be used for rocket launching. If it was, there were no signs of how the rockets were to be launched and nothing resembling launching equipment.

Rich concrete mixture

Heronard said the mixture used in the emplacements and buildings was rich – two and a half measures of sand for one of cement – and was reinforced by lattice-type steel rods. These rods were half an inch thick and ran up and down, making a square of 18 inches.

A small-gauge railroad for hauling supplies to the concrete mixers and from these to the pouring funnels was still here, but no rolling stock was visible.

Beneath some of the completed structures were deep tunnels, many twisting and turning to serve as baffles against bomb blasts.

Heronard said that the labor on job consisted on “requis” or Frenchmen requisitioned by the Germans, Spanish men and Russian women. He said the entire job was under Todt Organization supervision, but a French company held a subcontract.

According to Heronard, the lot of the Russian women on the job was particularly hard and many were beaten by German straw bosses.

About two months ago, work on the site was halted because of Allied bombings, Heronard said.

8051

Army task eased by Bailey Bridge

Easily built, it spans 240 feet without pontoons – supports big tanks

SHAEF, England (Reuters) – (June 25)
A sketch drawn on the back of an envelope four years ago has played a big part in the American advance to Cherbourg.

It was the first rough draft of the Bailey Bridge, the most remarkable bridge in the history of military preparations, one that rapidly spans road gaps and replaces bridges blown up by the enemy.

Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery has said:

It is quite the best thing in that line we have ever had. It will be needed everywhere we operate in Europe.

It was revealed tonight that the bridge can cover without pontoons any gap up to 240 feet and much wider spaces with pontoons.

The inventor, Donald Coleman Bailey of the British Ministry of Supply, would not disclose the special metal used, but said, “we don’t like park railings.”

This bridge has greater strength and is more adaptable than previous types. It can cope with the ever-increasing weight of tanks.

All parts are light. Even the heaviest such bridge can be handled easily by six men. It fits together like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. After being built on rollers on the edge of a gap, it can be pushed over by the building crew without mechanical aid.

It is made up of 17 parts, with nine more for foundations. Only one steel pin is needed for each joint.

8052

French patriots gain new status

Forces of Interior put under Kœnig, acting by authority of Gen. Eisenhower

SHAEF, England – (June 25)
The French Forces of the Interior received today a status in the Allied operations comparable to that of the invasion forces.

Supreme Headquarters, which had already been moved to compliment the resistance forces on the positive contribution that their disruptive activities against the Germans had made to the battle of the beachhead, accepted them into partnership in the campaign for the liberation of their country. It announced tonight that Brig. Gen. Joseph-Pierre Kœnig, commander of the French forces in Britain, chief of the French military mission at headquarters and military delegate for liberated French territory, had been appointed commander of the French Forces of the Interior. The announcement said:

Gen. Kœnig is acting under and by the authority of the Supreme Commander [Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower] in directing the operations of the resistance forces in France.

The first message that the hero of Bir Hakeim had to deliver to his new command was one of the “warmest commendation” from Gen. Eisenhower. Gen. Kœnig predicted that the underground would play an “ever-increasing” part in the liberation campaign.

The elevation of the status of the underground was regarded as one of the first fruits of Gen. Eisenhower’s announced military agreement with Gen. Kœnig and the basis for another piece of practical cooperation that might lead to a more friendly understanding among the French, British and Americans. One outcome of the broader recognition of the French underground will probably be an effort to arm its forces more adequately.

Tolerance urged in France

Berne, Switzerland – (June 25)
Some leaders of the resistance movement in France are preaching tolerance under the watchword, “France first,” and their action implies a rebuke for all who advocate a general “purge” as a prerequisite to reconstruction.

The plea is made by the National Council of Resistance, which supports Gen. Charles de Gaulle and the French Committee of National Liberation. Its purpose is to rally the masses whose sole link hitherto has been detestation of the Germans and whose resistance has been merely passive.

The council disapproves of the publication of lists of “collaborationists” in which no distinction is made between those who deliberately mislead and those who have been misled. The council says:

The latter should not be driven into the arms of the occupant but, on the contrary should be welcomed by the resistance movement after due repentance.

Since the armistice, the population has become weary of “purges” ordered by every new Minister. Moreover, many minor government servants, from road menders to stenographers, resent being called “collaborationists” because they kept their jobs in order to live.

French protest U.S. news article

Analysis of differences with U.S. criticized; Roosevelt hits by Algiers paper
By Harold Callender

Algiers, Algeria – (June 25)
The French Committee of National Liberation has protested to the American diplomatic mission here against The Stars and Stripes’ publication of an article from the United States News saying that the differences between President Roosevelt and Gen. Charles de Gaulle had been caused by the President’s reluctance to sanction the return of French overseas possessions without guarantees for American security.

But a weekly here, that professes simon-pure de Gaullism, has published a long attack on Mr. Roosevelt on the assumption that he seeks “to acquire strategic bases at the expense of the French Empire.”

What impresses Frenchmen who are not extremists is the fact that the United States News article was published on French soil by an official American newspaper just when anti-American sentiment here has been stimulated by Gen. de Gaulle’s denunciation of American policy in France and the consequent severe comments in the American press. Frenchmen point out that The Stars and Stripes is widely read by Frenchmen here who cannot make fine distinctions between the source of an article and the instrument of its distribution.

Frenchmen concerned for future relations with the United States are disturbed by the whispering campaign to the effect that U.S. troops are unpopular in North Africa and will be even more unpopular in France. They wonder what the motive for this can be unless it is to alienate France from the West in the interest of what is called a continental policy based on the alliance with Russia that Gen. de Gaulle has advocated.

Even those who are friendly to the United States say, “You must not treat us like a conquered country.” Thus, they imply that there is a danger of such treatment. This is the popular version of the long-existing official fear of the Allied Military Government in France.

This fear and Gen. de Gaulle’s recent criticism of the Allied policy in liberated France have encouraged the tendency to look with frank distrust on the liberators of France, above all the Americans, to whom imperialistic aims of various kinds are widely attributed in private conversation and sometimes in print. One French observer said:

This is pure folly, for we shall rely on the United States for machinery for French factories, most of which have been destroyed or robbed of their equipment by the Germans, and in our weakened condition we shall have to count on America for protection for our empire.

8053

Battle for Cherbourg

Time as well as harbor is at stake, for defense lets foe prepare for next blow
By Hanson W. Baldwin

London, England – (June 25)
The battle for Cherbourg, which was reaching its climax tonight, is a battle for time as well as conquest.

The eventual issue, as far as Cherbourg is concerned, is not in doubt; U.S. patrols have pushed into the streets of the city and at least one German propaganda agency has written the city off. There has never been much doubt, since our rapid penetration of the Atlantic Wall and our severance of the approaches to the Cotentin Peninsula, that Cherbourg would fall. What has been in doubt is how long the battle would take.

Cherbourg is naturally defensible by either land or sea; stouthearted defenders with the will to die might hold it for a long time. Obviously, it is to the German interest to make a protracted and vicious defense. The longer the facilities of the port can be denied to us by combat and by demolition, the better it will be from the German point of view. For the Germans know as well as we do the difficulties of unloading over open beaches; they know that the larger our armies grow in Normandy, the harder will be the task of supplying and reinforcing them unless we have a port.

Allies hampered by weather

They know, too, that our building to date has been made more difficult by unfavorable weather; gales and low overcasts have hampered our landing craft and reduced the margin of our air superiority. A long defense of Cherbourg, therefore, would give the enemy time. He might have the opportunity to overtake us in the supply and reinforcement race and he would be able to strengthen his positions along the high ground south and east of the Cotentin Peninsula.

The fierce fighting in Cherbourg and the bitter enemy resistance on the eastern flank of the Allied beachhead reveal something of the enemy’s intended strategy. The Germans have not yet committed the bulk of the strength of the rest of their divisions to Normandy. There are some 60 enemy divisions in France and the Low Countries and at least half of these could be thrown against us. But today there are not more than elements of 14-17 divisions facing our troops in Normandy, including those units hopelessly encircled in Cherbourg.

In a considerable part, this slow German buildup is the result of our interference by air with the enemy’s communications lines. But in part the slow rate of German reinforcement is deliberate; the enemy has not “shot the works” in Normandy because he fears another Allied landing elsewhere.

British offer threat

Such a strategy of cautious waiting would explain the fierce resistance offered on the British sector of our beachhead, the enemy has been constantly and consistently trying to whittle down the British bridgeheads across the Orne River and has so far strongly opposed with the majority of his tank forces the inland expansion of the British flank. It is the British flank that is outside the Cotentin Peninsula proper; it is the British flank that offers the eventual threat to Le Havre, to Rouen or to Paris.

The containing of our Normandy beachheads within the Cotentin Peninsula, therefore, seems to be the enemy’s strategy. Meanwhile, he appears to be trying to build up a mobile reserve to meet any other landing.

The enemy knows as well as we do that the Cherbourg Peninsula along will not be a sufficiently large base for an operation as huge as the conquest of France. He fears the great numbers of U.S. divisions that have never yet been in action but are trained and ready. The enemy is not likely to commit his full strength to battle either in the air or on the ground until he is certain that we shall not strike again against the coast of Western Europe.

Such a strategy explains the furious defense of Cherbourg, the holding and bitter delaying resistance south of the Cotentin Peninsula and the counterattacks against the British flank. The triumph of such a strategy would be to rob us gradually of the initiative that the Allies have not yielded since June 6 and to halt slowly the momentum and impetus of our Normandy drive. The failure of such a strategy would mean the rapid conquest of Cherbourg by the Allies and the expansion of the British flank southward and possibly eastward.

That is why the news tonight is encouraging. But time is still an important element in the victory.

Normandy wounded evacuated swiftly

Navy ‘overprepared’ because estimates exceed casualties

Aboard a U.S. cruiser, off the French coast (UP) – (June 24, delayed)
The task of moving thousands of wounded men from the Normandy beachhead to Great Britain by sea has almost been completed and was accomplished with complete success, Navy Capt. George Dowling said today.

Of the total wounded, slightly more than 5,500 were Germans or members of the polyglot forces making up the enemy armies in the invasion area.

Capt. Dowling said that his medical forces had been 50-75 percent overprepared for their task in the invasion. “We got ready for the worst – which of course didn’t happen,” he said.

Capt. Dowling used his experience in the Mediterranean, gleaned from handling the casualty evacuation in Sicily, to estimate what he needed in the invasion. In the early stages, the handling of all casualties fell entirely to naval transports and LSTs, which were rigged to take care of at least 200 wounded each after depositing their cargoes ashore.

Then practically every small craft which went to the beach, including the comparatively commodious, if flat-bottomed, types such as Tank Landing Craft (LCTs) were pressed into service to keep the lines of wounded moving.

The greatest percentage of the wounded have only minor injuries to arms and legs.

8054

Big Allied force fights in Mogaung

British Chindits and Chinese get much booty at enemy base in North Burma
By Tillman Durdin

…

8055

French cut hair off girls who were kindly to Nazis

Bricquebec, Normandy, France – (June 25)
With the goose-stepping enemy cleared from this village, Frenchmen are having their revenge on those who collaborated or fraternized with the Nazis and the hair has been sheared from the head of many a woman who was friendly to Nazi troops during the four-year occupation.

Lt. Francis Carpenter of 117-01 Park Lane South, Kew Gardens, Queens, reported that he was in the main square when he saw a crowd around a young girl.

He said:

Someone had the girl by the hair. Then I saw the flash of scissors and great chunks of black hair fell from her head. I asked a Frenchman the reason and he said she had been a friend of the Germans.

An American MP and I made an effort to keep the crowd moving, but without success. They soon had her bald, and she ran away sobbing.

Previously, Alfred Grey Jr. of 529 Crown Street, Brooklyn, New York, while driving through Bricquebec, had seen another girl completely baldheaded “running away from a crowd.”

Grey said he had also seen a buxom middle-aged woman “operating” on another girl with a pair of barbers’ clippers.