America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

8308

Innsbrucker Nachrichten (July 5, 1944)

Feind in der Normandie blutig abgewiesen

Schweres Vergeltungsfeuer auf London – Feindliche Durchbruchsversuche in Italien gescheitert – Hartes Ringen im Mittelabschnitt der Ostfront

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 5. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

In der Normandie trat der Feind beiderseits der Straße Bayeux–Caen in den gestrigen Morgenstunden nach schwerem Vorbereitungsfeuer mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerkräften zum Angriff an. Es entwickelten sich heftige Kämpfe, in deren Verlauf der Feind überall blutig abgewiesen wurde. Auch südwestlich Tilly brachen mehrere feindliche Vorstöße in unserem Abwehrfeuer zusammen. Am Westflügel des Landekopfes dauerten die schweren Abwehrkämpfe auch gestern den ganzen Tag über an. Alle Angriffe scheiterten unter hohen blutigen Verlusten für den Feind. Wo der Gegner in unsere Linien eindringen konnte, wurde er durch Gegenstöße sofort wieder auf seine Ausgangsstellungen zurückgeworfen.

Schwere Kampfflugzeuge griffen in der Nacht feindliche Schiffsansammlungen vor der normannischen Küste an und versenkten einen Zerstörer und ein Handelsschiff von 5.000 BRT. Ein Kreuzer wurde schwer beschädigt.

Über dem Landekopf und den besetzten Westgebieten wurden 62 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 45 viermotorige Bomber, abgeschossen.

In Mittelfrankreich wurde ein durch Fallschirm abgesetzter britischer Sabotagetrupp in Stärke von 43 Mann liquidiert, weitere 108 bewaffnete Terroristen wurden erschossen.

Schweres Vergeltungsfeuer liegt auf London.

In Italien lag der Schwerpunkt der Kämpfe gestern im Raum südlich Arezzo und nördlich Siena. Nach erbitterten wechselvollen Kämpfen konnte der Feind dort einige Kilometer nach Norden vorrücken. Seine Versuche, einen Durchbruch zu erzielen, scheiterten. An der westlichen und östlichen Küstenstraße zerschlugen unsere Grenadiere, von Artillerie und schweren Waffen hervorragend unterstützt, alle auch mit Panzern geführten feindlichen Angriffe.

Im Südabschnitt der Ostfront wurde die Stadt Kowel zur örtlichen Frontverkürzung planmäßig und ohne feindlichen Druck geräumt.

Im Mittelabschnitt dauert das harte Ringen um die Landengen zwischen den Sümpfen im Raum von Baranowlcze und Molodeczno an. Östlich und nördlich Baranowlcze wurden die Sowjets nach schweren Kämpfen in Riegelstellungen aufgefangen. Südlich Minsk kämpfen sich unsere Verbände weiter zurück. Nordwestlich der Stadt wurden heftige Angriffe der Bolschewisten abgewiesen. Hier schoss eine Panzerkampfgruppe unter Führung des Generalleutnants von Saucken in beweglicher Kampfführung in der Zeit vom 27. Juni bis 3. Juli 232 feindliche Panzer ab. Um Molodeczno wird erbittert gekämpft. Auch nordöstlich Wilna sind heftige Kämpfe mit sowjetischen Angriffsspitzen im Gange. Westlich und nordwestlich Polozk brachen zahlreiche, von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe des Feindes unter hohen blutigen Verlusten zusammen.

Schlachtfliegergeschwader unterstützten den Abwehrkampf des Heeres und fügten den Sowjets hohe Verluste zu.

Ein Verband schwerer Kampfflugzeuge führte in der Nacht einen zusammengefassten Angriff gegen Minsk. Zahlreiche Großbrände wurden beobachtet.

Bei einem Angriff sowjetischer Flugzeuge auf Kirkenes wurden 26 feindliche Flugzeuge im Luftkampf abgeschossen.

Nordamerikanische Bomber flogen nach Rumänien und warfen Bomben auf Kronstadt. Es entstanden Schäden und Personenverluste. Fünf viermotorige Flugzeuge wurden abgeschossen.

Einzelne britische Störflugzeuge warfen in der letzten Nacht Bomben im rheinisch-westfälischen Gebiet.

8309

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 5, 1944)

Communiqué No. 59

The Allied advance southwards in the COTENTIN Peninsula made further progress during the day, particularly in the vicinity of SAINT-RÉMY-DES-LANDES and BLANCHELANDE. Our troops to the west and north of LA HAYE-DU-PUITS, and now within four miles of the town. A small gain was also made southeast of SAINT-JORES.

In the CAEN area, Allied forces were engaged in fierce fighting south of the village of CARPIQUET.

There was a considerable increase in air activity yesterday. The principal effort was directed by our fighter bombers against enemy communications – road, rail and water – over a mile wide area extending from NANTES in the west to CAMBRAI in the east. Considerable damage was caused to trains, tracks, barges, motor transport and flak towers, in the ANGERS-TOURS-LAVAL area.

In the immediate battle zone south of CAEN, and at LESSAY on the extreme western flank, targets were attacked in direct support of our ground forces.

There was a series of encounters with enemy fighters during these small operations and a number were destroyed. Our losses were small.

Last night, the railways at VILLENEUVE-SAINT-GEORGES and ORLÉANS were attacked by heavy bombers, 14 of which are missing. Light bombers also attacked successfully enemy reinforcements, particularly in the western battle sector. They also hit rail targets south of PARIS.

Coastal aircraft attacked enemy shipping off BRITTANY during the afternoon and in the Channel last night.

Communiqué No. 60

Further advances have been made by Allied forces in the base of the CHERBOURG Peninsula although resistance is strong and the enemy is well-positioned on high ground.

Most progress was made in the coastal sector. SAINT-NICOLAS-DE-PIERREPONT and NEUF-MESNIL have been liberated and some units are now approaching LA HAYE-DU-PUITS.

In the CAEN area, the enemy is counterattacking strongly.

Our position at CARPIQUET remains firm.

During the night, coastal aircraft heavily attacked concentrations of E-boats and other vessels between DIEPPE and GRAVELINES. One armed auxiliary vessel blew up and several other craft were damaged.

Bad weather again interfered with air operations this morning.

Heavy bombers attacked airfields in BELGIUM and HOLLAND. They were escorted by fighters which subsequently strafed a variety of ground targets, including railway yards, power stations and airfields.

Medium bombers escorted by fighters bombed two bridges over the River ORNE, a fuel dump at SENONCHES, a rail junction at L’AIGLE and a supply depot in a wood 20 five miles southwest of DREUX. Two of the medium bombers are missing.

Fighter-bombers attacked flak positions in the CAEN area and railway targets near LAVAL.

8310

U.S. Navy Department (July 5, 1944)

Remarks by Secretary of the Navy at Press Conference

For Immediate Release
July 5, 1944

You have the news review for this week. I would like to make these further observations:

The Navy’s desire is to present the news of the war so far as naval action is concerned as realistically as is humanly possible. It is desired that news be angled neither optimistically nor pessimistically; any such attempt carries the implication that the people of the country are not able to place proper evaluation upon events of the war. The Navy does not believe that to be the case.

At the conclusion of a recital of news such as has been related today, I am always struck by the fact that the net impression left is a distinctly favorable one; the cumulative effect of such impressions cannot but lead subconsciously to the conclusion that the war is relatively close to being over.

That is not the case. I am saying that as much to myself as to you. What is happening now is that, logistically speaking, we are getting close to the place where we can force the enemy in the Pacific to stand up and fight; but I have no illusions but that the fighting which the enemy will do when he is cornered will be bitter and costly. In battering down the outer rim of Japanese defenses we have been successful, and that work has gone at a somewhat faster pace than had been hoped for. The main battles, however, which will be necessary before Japanese power can be destroyed are still to come. It is likely that these final battles will occur on land, and that means the application of infantry power with all of the accompanying elements of assault over vast areas.

The war in the Pacific goes well, but it is a long war.

Communiqué No. 529

Pacific and Far East.
U.S. submarines have reported the sinking of 17 vessels, including two combatant ships, as a result of operations against the enemy in these waters, as follows:

  • 1 light cruiser
  • 1 destroyer
  • 2 medium tankers
  • 5 medium cargo transports
  • 3 small cargo vessels
  • 1 large cargo transport
  • 3 medium cargo vessels
  • 1 small cargo transport

These actions have not been announced in any previous Navy Department communiqués.

8311

The Free Lance-Star (July 5, 1944)

YANKS REACH LA HAYE-DU-PUITS
Battling foe in city’s streets today

Actions flare up on British front

SHAEF, England (AP) –
Doughboys fought hand-to-hand late today through the streets of La Haye-du-Puits, German anchor on their western flank in France, after seizing the railway station 300 yards from the heart of that important junction town.

Besides battering into La Haye-du-Puits, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s men scored advances of more than two miles along the entire front near the town, six miles inland from the western coast. A field dispatch said the railway station fell shortly after 9:00 a.m. (local time).

The Germans counterattacked with infantry and tanks, throwing in giant Tiger tanks for the first time on the U.S. sector in Normandy in a vain effort to save the town, the dispatch added.

Violent fighting also flared at the eastern end of the front near Caen. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel attacked heavily against the lower tip of the British wedge southwest of Caen, seeking to break through the Allied line. Canadian troops were forced back in the battle for Carpiquet Airfield, due west of Caen.

SHAEF, England (AP) –
The U.S. 1st Army has battled the Germans out of 17 villages and hamlets in its explosive assault down the Cherbourg Peninsula during the past 24 hours, driving the Germans back to within one mile of La Haye-du-Puits, western anchor of Nazi defenses in Normandy.

On the eastern extreme of the bridgehead front, Canadians fought hand-to-hand today with stubbornly resisting Germans for Carpiquet Airfield three miles from Caen, while the British to the south beat off new German tank attacks with heavy enemy losses.

Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s tireless U.S. doughboys, attacking in a jagged 20-mile arc from Carentan to the west coast of the Cherbourg Peninsula, advanced from a half-mile to two-and-a-half miles in swampy, canal-creased country.

Six-road junction

U.S. columns converging on La Haye-du-Puits, an important six-road junction, were within two miles of the town on the west, three miles on the north, a mile on the northeast and three miles on the east. Capture of the town appeared imminent.

Progress was far from easy. The Germans resisted heavily in all sectors, and a particularly violent engagement was going on a half-mile south of newly-captured Saint-Jores, east of La Haye.

The long-quiet Carentan sector erupted into bloody fighting when the Americans launched an attack down the Carentan–Périers road. The doughboys advanced half a mile in an attack starting at noon yesterday.

Each foot of the advance had to be covered with artillery. Swamps and canals channelized the fighting to the narrow area along the road.

On the Carentan–Tilly-sur-Seulles sector of the front, there was only patrol activity.

East of Gavrus, at the butt of the Odon River bridgehead, the Germans launched a night counterattack, but it was smashed by Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery’s big gun batteries. Another similar attack to the south three hours later was also smashed.

Light opposition

The British advance which captured Verson, two miles below Carpiquet and four miles southwest of Caen, encountered only light opposition. But to the north, where the Canadians captured Carpiquet, three miles west of Caen, the Germans resisted violently and beat back all attempts to capture the airfield.

Field Marshal Gen. Erwin Rommel had tanks dug in on a ridge overlooking the airfield. These tanks swept the field with fire and even rocket-firing Typhoons failed to dislodge them. Digging tanks in to the turret is a device the Germans used with considerable success in Russia and at Cassino in Italy during the past winter.

Slightly improved weather allowed the Allies to put up over 3,500 planes in support of the bridgehead yesterday and at least 23 German planes were shot down.

8312

americavotes1944

Wagner declines vital party post

Refuses chairmanship of Democratic Platform Committee; another is sought

Senator Robert F. Wagner (D-NY), two-time chairman of the platform-making Resolutions committee at Democratic National Conventions, has declined the job again and party leaders were reported today to have offered it to a prominent House member.

The Democratic National Committee expects to announce the name of the new chairman before the weekend. That will permit appointment of a subcommittee which will assemble in Chicago before July 17, hold hearings, and put up a scaffolding for erection of the 1944 national party platform.

The subcommittee will have no power to act. The convention itself, which begins July 19, must create the resolutions and other major committees.

Scrap may develop

It will be in the Credentials Committee that a scrap may develop over seating fourth-term or anti-fourth-term delegates from some order of business will have to pass on Southern demands for the restoration of a rule that a two-third vote is necessary to nominate.

One reason Wagner turned down the resolutions chairmanship is that he is attending an international monetary conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The conference will probably overlap the Democratic candidate picking.

Except for the Democrats’ planning, the Fourth of July was largely a holiday politically. New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican presidential nominee, took things easy.

George renominated

In Georgia, a quiet Democratic primary was marked by the efforts of Negroes to vote. They were refused permission, but their efforts laid the basis for a court test.

Senator Walter F. George easily won renomination. Rep. Cox of Georgia’s 2nd Congressional district, a critic of the Federal Communications Commission, was apparently headed for return to the House and Reps. Peterson of the 1st district and Gibson of the 8th district held commanding leads over their opponents.

In Mississippi, Rep. John E. Rankin held a strong lead in the state’s 1st district congressional race, heading his opponents by about eight to one. Rep. Whitten held a three-to-one lead in the 2nd district while Rep. Abernathy held a lead of about 4,000–300 in the 4th district with half the precincts counted.

8313

Smashing aerial raids on France

Troop concentrations and railroads are hit by British

Bulletin

London, England (AP) –
U.S. Fortresses and Liberators bombed airfields in Holland and Belgium, rocket bomb nests and other targets in the Pas-de-Calais Department of France today in swift continuance of devastating attacks by the RAF from the Channel coast to the German Ruhr.

Up to 500 U.S. planes, half heavy bombers and half convoying fighters, carried out the forenoon assault in cloudy weather with opposition as scant that all returned.

London, England (AP) –
In one of the most devastating series of night assaults since the Normandy invasion began, British heavy and light bombers smashed as railroads, troop concentrations and flying bomb nests in France last night, while Mosquitos struck anew at the enemy’s fuel supply by blasting a synthetic oil plant in the Ruhr.

Indications that Germany was getting another pounding today came from the German radio which said that bomber formations were approaching the northwestern part of the Reich.

During the sweeping overnight operations, which climaxed a July 4 display of aerial might in which nearly 5,000 planes ranged over the continent yesterday, RAF Lancasters and Halifaxes pounded railway yards at Villeneuve-Saint-Georges on the southeastern outskirts of Paris and at Orléans, 75 miles to the south.

The blows renewed a campaign – recently interrupted by bad weather – to disrupt the movement of enemy supplies and reinforcements to the Normandy battlefront.

Another formation of British heavies plastered launching ramps for flying bombs in northern France – the second heavy attack in less than 24 hours on the lair of the robot raiders which continued to drone across the Channel during the night.

Fourteen heavy bombers were reported lost in the attack on railyards below Paris while 13 planes were lost in raids on the Ruhr and the rocket bomb nests and in minelaying operations. The Germans asserted 40 four-engined bombers were downed during the night.

Mosquitos and Bostons of the 2nd Tactical Air Force also ranged over France during the night, making what Allied air headquarters described as a record number of attacks on German communications.

8314

U.S. warships and planes blast Jap bases on Fourth

USPACFLT HQ, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (AP) –
Guns of U.S. warships and rockets of carrier planes shattered Japanese bases on the Fourth of July 700 miles south of Tokyo.

Saipan, on the invasion route to Japan, is seven-eighths in the hands of still advancing U.S. Marines and soldiers.

Noemfoor, on the invasion route to the Philippines, is falling in a lightning operation to infantrymen, reinforced by paratroopers.

The latest task force thrust toward Nippon, aimed at the Volcano (Kazan) and Bonin Islands, resulting in the sinking or beaching of three Jap destroyers, the sinking of two other ships and the destruction in sky battles of 64-80 planes at a cost of nine U.S. carrier aircraft.

These fast-breaking developments along a Western Pacific war front of more than 2,000 miles – from the Bonins to Dutch New Guinea’s Geelvink Bay – were reported in a series of communiqués last night and today.

Reports Guam attack

Tokyo radio added to the flaming action the unconfirmed report that carrier-based U.S. planes raided Guam, south of Saipan, Monday.

The enemy air base of Rota, between Guam and Saipan, was shelled by warships and bombed by carrier planes Sunday.

The Volcano-Bonin attack was a two-day operation which raised to 36 the number of Nipponese ships sunk and to 826 the total of enemy planes destroyed since the Western Pacific offensive opened June 10. U.S. losses for the same period were listed as 160 planes – and four warships damaged, but none sunk.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz said the Fourth of July attack also left an enemy destroyer dead in the water and burning, damaged several small cargo ships and set fire to harbor installations and warehouses.

Carrier planes opened the operation the day before, blasting Iwo Jima in the Volcano group, shooting down 39 interceptors for certain, probably bagging 16 more and destroying or damaging 24 on the ground. Three raiders were lost.

Second day’s blow

On the second day, cruisers and destroyers moved in to shell Iwo Jima while rocket-firing planes attacked both it and Hahajima in the Bonins. In that attack, 25 enemy planes were downed and six raiders were lost.

On Saipan, invaded June 14, Marine heroes of Tarawa and the Marshalls and infantry veterans of Central Pacific invasions left the worst terrain behind them as they squeezed the Japanese into the northeast corner. More than 7,000 of the enemy have been slain.

In the Southwest Pacific, Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s 6th Army troops which quickly won an airfield on Noemfoor opened a powerhouse push Monday toward a second drome, backed by reinforcements parachuted to the beachhead.

8315

De Gaulle will arrive Thursday

Elaborate Washington welcome is being planned

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americavotes1944

FDR overseas trip called conjecture

Washington (AP) –
Presidential Secretary Stephen Early today characterized as “pure speculation” published conjecture that President Roosevelt may be planning another overseas trip which might lead to his acceptance of a fourth-term nomination from abroad.

Some of Mr. Roosevelt’s recent news conference comment has given rise to speculation on another foreign trip but in each instance, the President has accompanied his remarks with laughter or gestures which left reporters unable to decide whether he was teasing them or dropping a hint.

8316

Monetary expert defends his plan

Parleys continued by 44 United Nations representatives

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8317

Allies advancing toward Florence

Eighth Army drives to within five miles of Arezzo

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8318

17 Jap vessels sunk in Pacific

Washington (AP) –
Navy Secretary Forrestal reported today the sinking of 17 Japanese vessels, including a light cruiser and destroyer, by U.S. submarines operating in Pacific waters.

He disclosed the latest bag of U.S. underseas craft at a news conference at which he reported that the submarines deserve “the lion’s share of the credit for knocking the props from under Japan’s conquest.”

Forrestal said that the rate of sinking of the Japanese merchant fleet would be accelerated “and has caught up with the Jap retreat.”

Japan, he said, “is losing merchant ships faster than she can afford to” and continuation of the current trends “will leave her by the end of 1944 with a sizable and growing deficit.”

The war against Japan, he said, had moved at “a faster pace than we had hoped for.”

8319

Eisenhower observes Normandy battle area

SHAEF, England (AP) –
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower returned to his headquarters today after celebrating the Fourth of July by flying with Maj. Gen. Elwood Quesada on an observation trip over the Normandy battle area.

Eisenhower flew in a Mustang over the combat area with Quesada, chief of the U.S. 9th Air Force Fighter Command.

New Army ace downs 28th plane

A U.S. 8th Air Force fighter base, Britain (AP) –
Lt. Col. Francis Gabreski of Oil City, Pennsylvania, became the top scoring U.S. Army Air Force fighter pilot today by shooting down his 28th plane near Évreux, France.

8320

Texas convention action attacked

Jesse Jones protests again binding of electors

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8321

americavotes1944

GOP party heads talk with Dewey

Plans are mapped out for campaign strategy

Albany, New York (AP) –
Telephone conferences with party leaders kept Governor Thomas E. Dewey abreast today of fast unloading organization plans which appeared likely to concentrate the direction of senatorial and Congressional, as well as presidential, campaigns in New York City headquarters.

The Republican presidential nomination who spent a quiet holiday at the Executive Mansion yesterday, has conferred frequently by telephone with GOP National Chairman Herbert Brownell Jr. Otherwise, he has attained remarkable seclusion for a presidential candidate since his return to Albany last Saturday from Chicago.

Thus far this week, Dewey has had no appointments with party leaders and has expressed the desire not to hold conferences at his farm near Pawling, New York, where he will go Friday for a “homecoming” celebration and rest.

Meanwhile, however, the Dewey strategy board has been busy with plans to weld the customary Congressional and senatorial campaigns into the drive for the Presidency. Tentative arrangements are also underway for a conference with other Republican Governors in an attempt to enlist their active support in the vote-getting battle.

8322

Editorial: Retribution

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8323

Editorial: War correspondents

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8324

is this about the battle of the Battle of the Philippine Sea or something else?

1 Like
8325

Our submarine activity against the Japanese merchant fleet.

1 Like
8326

The Pittsburgh Press (July 5, 1944)

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

In Normandy, France – (by wireless)
The Germans are methodical in their night air attacks on our positions in Normandy, as they are in everything else. You begin to hear the fair, faraway drone of the first bomber around 11:20 every night.

Our own planes patrol above us until darkness. It gets dusk around 11, and you are suddenly aware that the skies which have been roaring all day with our own fighters and bombers are now strangely silent. Nothing is in the air.

The ack-ack gunners, who have been loafing near their pup tents or sleeping or telling stories, now go to their guns. They bring blankets from the pup tents and pile them up against the wall of the gun pit, for the nights get very cold and they will wrap up during the long lulls in the shooting.

The gunners merely loaf in the gun pits as the dusk deepens into darkness, waiting for the first telephoned order to start shooting. They smoke a few last-minute cigarettes. Once it is dark, they can’t smoke except by draping blankets over themselves for blackout. They do smoke some that way during the night, but not much.

In four or five places in the wall of the circular pit, shelves have been dug and wooden shell boxes inserted to hold reserve shells. It is just like pigeonholes in a filing cabinet.

When the firing starts, two ammunition carriers bring new shells from a dump a few feet away up to the rim of the gun pit and hand them down to a carrier waiting below, who keeps the pigeonholes filled. The gun is constantly turning in the pit and there is always a pigeonhole of fresh shells right behind it.

The shells are as long as your arm and they weight better than 40 pounds. After each salvo the empty shell case kicks out onto the floor of the pit. These lie there until there is a lull in the firing, when the boys toss them over the rim of the pit. Next morning, they are gathered up and put in boxes for eventual shipment back to America, where they are retooled for further use.

Each gun is connected by telephone to the battery command post, in a dugout. At all times one member of each gun crew has a phone to his ear. When a plane is picked up within range, the battery commander gives a telephonic order, “Stand by!” Each gun commander shouts the order to his crew, and the boys all jump to their positions.

Everybody in the crew knows his job and does it. There is no necessity for harshness or short words on the part of the gun commander. When a plane either gets shot down or goes out of range, and there is nothing else in the vicinity the command is given, “Rest!” and the crews relax and squat or lie around on the floor of the pit, but they don’t leave the pit.

Sometimes the rest will be for only a few seconds. Other time it may last a couple of hours. In the long lulls the gunners wrap up in blankets and sleep on the floor of the pit – all except the man at the telephone.

It is the usual German pattern to have a lull from about 2:00 to 4:00 a.m., and then get in another good batch of bombing attempts in the last hour before dawn.

The nights are very short here now – from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. – for which everybody is grateful. It actually starts breaking a faint dawn just about 4:30, but the Germans keep roaming around the sky until real daylight comes.

Our own patrol planes hit the sky at daylight and the Germans skedaddle. In the first few days, when our patrol planes had to come all the way from England, the boys tell of mornings when they could see our planes approaching from one direction and the Germans heading for home at the opposite side of the sky.

As soon as it is broad daylight and the last “Rest!” is given, the boys crank down the barrel of their gun until it is horizontal, and then take a sight through it onto the stone turret of a nearby barn – to make sure the night’s shooting hasn’t moved the gun off its position. Then some of them gather up the empty shells, others get wood fires started for heating breakfast, and others raise and tie the camouflage net.

They’re all through at 7:00 a.m., and half of the shift crawl into their pup tent beds while the other half go to work with oil, ramrod and waste cloth to clean up and readjust the gun. There will be no more shooting until darkness comes again.

8327

Völkischer Beobachter (July 6, 1944)

Der Lage im Pazifik

Tokio, 5. Juli –
Wie das Kaiserlich japanische Hauptquartier zur Gefechtslage auf Saipan meldet, sind die an Zahl weit überlegenen feindlichen Truppen unter Einsatz von Flugzeugen und Schiffsgeschützen mit zahlreichen Panzern in die japanischen Stellungen auf dem nordöstlichen Teil der Insel eingebrochen. Es finden gegenwärtig heftige Kämpfe statt.

Starke feindliche Bomberverbände griffen die 2.000 Kilometer von Tokio entfernt liegenden Ogasawara-(Bonin)-Inseln an. Die Angriffe, die sich vor allem gegen die Inseln Tschitschijima und Iwojima richteten, wurden von Flugzeugen der in der Nähe kreuzenden feindlichen Flugzeugträger ausgeführt. 18 Bomber wurden mit Bestimmtheit abgeschossen.

An dem Angriff gegen die Insel Tschitschijima beteiligten sich auch feindliche Kreuzer und Zerstörer. Schwere Kämpfe mit den Kriegsschiffen sind noch im Gange.