I DARE SAY —
Meantime – on the home front
By Florence Fisher Parry
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Simms: Allies, French cooperate well
Invasion chiefs aid in liberated areas
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
Cherbourg, France –
Despite dire predictions of critics of Anglo-American policy, the collaboration between the Allies and Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s representatives in France is working out very well.
The appointment of Paul Renault as mayor of Cherbourg was in line with de Gaullist procedure. Article III of the Algiers ordinance regulating such matters calls for the Vichyites and the installation in their stead of officials appointed or elected prior to September 1939.
Similarly, Vichy’s subprefect here has been supplanted by a local engineer, M. le Viandier, a leader of the Committee of Liberation. He was put in officer by the de Gaullist regional commissioner, Francois Coulet. The subprefect at Bayeux, likewise appointed by M. Coulet, has a similar political background. Apparently, this procedure will be followed throughout the rest of France.
Allies approve
Meanwhile, far from offering objections, the civil affairs branch of the Allied General Staff is looking on with approval. Instead of elbowing the French out of the way and insisting on bossing things, it is making itself helpful but unobtrusive. It neither seeks nor wants political power. On the contrary, it wants only non-interference with Allied military operations. That, of course, presupposes reasonable law and order behind the lines, and as long as these few requirements are met its main job will be to facilitate the task of the French civil authorities in charge.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and everybody under him are leaning backward in their desire to leave practically everything but the fighting to the French. To conserve the local food supply for the French, towns behind the front are “out of bounds” for soldiers. The purchase of anything except nonessentials is taboo. The armies of liberation are not living off the land; they are bringing everything with them.
Sleeps on floor
An icy drizzle was falling when I arrived in Cherbourg. I was badly in need of a dry place to sleep. At headquarters in a furnitureless house, I asked if they could direct me to a hotel. The answer was a polite reminder that we were not supposed to discommode the inhabitants.
“We sleep on the floor right here,” I was told. I spent the night on a filthy mattress left by the Germans in a wrecked house through the roof of which a cold rain trickled and turned to mud the dust and plaster which littered the floor.
Tales about Washington trying to ram Vichyites or Fascists down the unwilling throats of liberated Frenchmen and otherwise meddle in France’s affairs seem ridiculous here. So far, the French and the Allies are getting along well.
But a good word on behalf of his Allies from Gen. de Gaulle to the people of France, just now beginning to emerge from four years of Nazi blackout, would go a long way towards a still better understanding.
Roosevelt, de Gaulle confer in new spirit of harmony
President rules out discussion of recognition of French Committee
By R. H. Shackford, United Press staff writer
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Visit revives French-U.S. amity
De Gaulle viewed as symbol of new nation
By Hal O’Flaherty
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American Airlines official dies
Cleveland, Ohio (UP) –
Hollis R. Thompson, 45, vice president of American Airlines, was found dead in his room at Hotel Statler today.
Coroner Samuel R. Gerber said that Mr. Thompson, a New Yorker, died of a stroke during his sleep the night before last. Mr. Thompson had arrived here on a business trip July 5.
Keynoter’s son not impressed
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (UP) –
Governor Robert S. Kerr said today he hoped the Democratic delegates to the National Convention would appreciate his keynote address more than his six-year-old son, Billy.
Mr. Kerr quoted this exchange of questions and answers after he had read part of his address to Billy:
“How many pages to your keynote speech?”
“About 20.”
“How many did you read to me?”
“Three.”
“Do I have to go to the convention?”
“No, son, you don’t.”
Mr. Kerr said he had whittled another two and a half minutes off the keynote address, to be delivered July 19 in Chicago, but said it was “still five minutes too long.” He refused to estimate length of the address in minutes.
10,000 Jap civilians warned to surrender to Yanks on Saipan
Enemy remnants bottled up by Americans on northern tip of Marianas Island
By Rembert James, representing combined Allied press
Aboard joint expeditionary force flagship off Saipan (UP) –
U.S. military commanders today designated a road to surrender for the 10,000 to 15,00 civilians still hiding out on Saipan Island, while the victorious Yanks surged forward to deliver the death blow to the battered Jap garrison bottled up at the northern tip of the island.
A single highway was designated as the road to surrender for civilians, almost 7,000 of whom have already been interned.
The rest, including Saipan business owners, insular government officials and white-collar workers with their families, have cowered in hiding places in the hills and canebrakes on northern Saipan.
Pamphlets dropped
By word of mouth, and by pamphlets dropped from airplanes and shot from mortars, the Americans offered water, food and complete safety to those who accept.
Meanwhile, Marines and Army forces pushed in to destroy the remnants of the defending forces under circumstances in which no one could doubt that the end of military operations was in sight.
The Japs were penned into a space extending roughly two miles in each direction except for a slim area from Marpi Point at the northern end down the western coast toward Tanapag Harbor.
Hold only airfield
The Japs had already lost everything of value on Saipan except the Marpi Point airfield, where most of their troops have apparently chosen to die at the base of a sheer cliff 600 feet high.
They still held an entrenched pocket on the west coast, but were under heavy attack by the Army’s 27th Infantry Division troops there, while Marines pushed on northward.
The Americans on the other hand held approximately nine-tenths of the island, including the important Isely Airport (formerly Aslito), the town of Garapan and the harbor of Tanapag, as well as the island’s highest peak – Mt. Tapochau.
‘Gung Ho’ Raider chief wounded in Saipan battle
Col. Carlson hit while aiding Marine
By Mac R. Johnson, United Press staff writer
With U.S. Marines, Saipan, Mariana Islands – (July 23, delayed)
Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson, 48-year-old founder and leader of the famed “Gung Ho” Marine Raiders, was wounded in one leg and one arm by Jap machine-gun bullets on the eighth day of the Saipan campaign and has been evacuated by transport plane.
Col. Carlson’s wounds, received while he tried to help a wounded private to safety, were not serious.
The Marine leader, plans officer for the 4th Marine Division, went to a forward observation post as a frontline observer June 22 while the Marines were assaulting the important Hill 500 on the southeastern slope of Mt. Tapochau, west of Magicienne Bay.
With him were Lt. Col. Justice M. Chambers of Washington, and Pvt. Vito A. Cassaro of Brooklyn, a radio operator.
Hit while aiding private
Japs spotted their observation post and sprayed the area with hundreds of rounds of machine-gun bullets, one of which hit Pvt. Cassaro in the leg.
Col. Carlson picked up the wounded radio operator and attempted to remove him from the area of fire but was hit himself in the leg and arm.
Meanwhile, Marines turned rifles, Browning automatic rifles and machine guns against the enemy positions and Col. Chambers, under cover or the protective fire, removed Col. Carlson.
Spurns help
When stretcher-bearers appeared on the scene, they attempted to get Col. Carlson out first, but the Raider chief turned down the offer on his prerogative as the ranking officer and refused to be removed, saying: “Vic Cassaro was wounded first. Take him back first.”
Col. Carlson organized his “Gung Ho” Raiders in San Diego, California, living up to the slogan which means work in harmony. Officers and men exchanged ideas at weekly meetings in which enlisted men had as much right of expression as their officers.
He led the Makin raid in August 1942, with then Lt. Col. Jimmy Roosevelt as second in command. His raiders killed all but two of Makin’s Japs in a 36-hour fight.
Fought on Guam
Another achievement of the hardened Marine leader was 20 days spent behind Jap lines on Guadalcanal, living off the land and captured stores while the raiders killed 500 of the enemy and gained valuable information.
An inspiration leader, Col. Carlson never took cover when he led his men through Jap snipers, defensive positions and machine-gun nests. He can be called the most beloved officer by the enlisted men of the Marine Corps.
Col. Carlson wears three Navy Crosses, a Purple Heart from a previous wound and two Presidential Unit Citation ribbons.
Patriot raids replace Allied plane attacks
French disrupt Nazi communications
SHAEF, England (UP) –
Lt. Gen. Joseph-Pierre Kœnig ’s French Forces of the Interior, estimated at 500,000 armed men, have sabotaged German communications in France so completely that the Allied air force is now concentrating on fewer targets and the Nazis are forced to channelize their movements into the battle zone, an Allied headquarters spokesman disclosed today.
Paying tribute to the FFI, a Supreme Headquarters special communiqué said that the Vercors, and part of the department of Gers, in the southwest, Doubs and Ain, near the Swiss frontier, and Ardèche, in the southeastern Rhône Valley, had been liberated.
A spokesman interpreted this to mean that the sectors were under Maquis control and that no enemy movements through these areas were possible unless heavily escorted.
A French spokesman added that traffic was stalled entirely in Brittany in northern France, in the Pyrenees–Lyon areas, and on nine main routes, including the Calais–Reich and Paris–Belfort lines which are being cut an average of two to five times daily.
Nazis battle desperately in central Italy
Allies slowed near German Gothic Line
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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12 Jap ships destroyed by task force
113 planes blasted in Bonins, Volcanos
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
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Congressmen swab way to England as deckhands
Philadelphia Republican learns maritime problem the hard way
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Germans predict drives by British
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Stimson: U.S. soldiers equal any in world
War Secretary pays tribute to 36th, 85th and 88th Division
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
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General fired for criticizing Hitler speech
Von Rundstedt ouster shows Nazi power
By Nat A. Barrows
Stockholm, Sweden –
Field Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt dared to criticize Hitler’s latest speech. That was an affront to Der Führer and, combined with the High Command’s dissatisfaction over the poor German defense against the Allied push in Normandy, was sufficient to cause the German decision to remove von Rundstedt as their Western Front commander.
This change in top command on the Western Front is only a thinly disguised symptom of the crisis in Nazi leadership, proving again that Hitler still retains powerful control over his political and military subordinates, according to the interpretation given to the move here.
Ouster termed political move
Bern, Switzerland –
Politics once more appear to have the upper hand over military exigencies in Nazi Germany.
On July 3, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt was awarded the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and simultaneously received a press accolade for his military “merits.” Der Führer even wrote him a personal letter of appreciation.
Today, four days later, von Rundstedt “for reasons of heath” is out as commander-in-chief of Germany’s Western Front, replaced by Marshal Günther von Kluge.
It is, of course, obvious, that “reasons of health” have nothing to do with von Rundstedt’s removal. His departure comes at the very moment when Nazi propagandists are playing up the cruelties of war. And he is a man known for his moderate Nazi sympathies and relative leniency in suppressing French patriots.
No doubt, now that the Gestapo are arresting French hostages by the thousands, he is considered too moderate to rule over divided France.
Casey: Yanks’ barrage a war ‘for keeps’
By Robert J. Casey
On the U.S. front in Normandy. France –
The American southward push in Normandy took a new turn this morning with a successful attack across the Vire River.
This widens the previous front considerably and gives the Germans new worries in the Saint-Jean-de-Daye area which is six or seven miles from Saint-Lô.
If any observer had thought that the American drive was a mere token performance, the operations since yesterday afternoon certainly should show their error.
There have been few artillery barrages in anybody’s war thicker, more continuous, or noisier than that which has blasted this ever-widening front for the last 18 hours. It started yesterday and is still going on with a din such as the world has probably not heard since the last war’s Battle of Verdun.
You wonder, as you hear these guns firing in such masses and so close together that their echoes blend in one continuous roar that shakes your diaphragm, how do much ammunition could have been hauled across the Channel in such a short time.
If you never realized before that this is a war for keeps, you realize it now and so undoubtedly do the Germans.
It surely sounds like one.
Steele: Faith in Allies keeps China in war 8th year
Refugees from Japs doom separate peace
By A. T. Steele
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Yanks can take it, too!
Kirkpatrick: G.I. victim of robot bomb rescued from 4-day trap
Only slightly injured but very hungry after entombment
By Helen Kirkpatrick
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Harrington: The Flying Wallendas ‘look down into hell’
By Mary Harrington, United Press staff writer
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