Ferguson: Socialized medicine
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
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Stokes: Wooing Willkie among Dewey’s chief projects
Candidate disregards personal feelings
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Albany, New York –
The wooing of Wendell Willkie has become a major project with Governor Thomas E. Dewey and the managers of his campaign for the Presidency.
Just what is Mr. Willkie’s political value to the Republican Party, measured in influence and votes, is a matter for argument. But the Dewey forces would rather have him on their side, plugging for the ticket, than outside, either in a passive or an actively belligerent role.
Governor Dewey is trying to become President and he’s going about it in a very businesslike manner, without emotion, and without regard for personal feelings. It’s no secret that the two men don’t care much for each other, which is not unusual between politicians who are rivals for public favor.
Score about even
The 1940 candidate got quite a shoving around at Chicago, or rather he was just locked out coldly, but he did a little shoving around on his own when he issued his rather caustic statement about the foreign affairs plank in the platform. The party and Mr. Willkie are about even now.
But Governor Dewey, since his nomination, has made several gestures in Mr. Willkie’s direction which are plain enough in their intent. At his first press conference in Chicago, he announced that he expected to consult Mr. Willkie along with other party leaders about his campaign. And now two of the Willkie satellites, National Committeeman Ralph H. Cake of Oregon, his pre-convention campaign manager, and Sinclair Weeks of Massachusetts have been included on the newly-appointed executive committee selected by Governor Dewey and National Chairman Herbert Brownell Jr.
Willkie’s future in doubt
Mr. Weeks, likewise, was among the first invited here to confer with the candidate, as a member of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation which will see Governor Dewey here Monday. Indirect overtures through go-betweens are also now going on.
Involved basically in Mr. Willkie’s decision as to his course is whether he wants to continue in politics. This raises another question: What is Mr. Willkie’s political future? Some count him out as far as actual public office is concerned. Some think he may yet come into his own. Most agree that he is likely to keep his hand in.
Whatever are his political prospects, it also seems agreed that he probably would improve his positions with the politicians by getting into the game actively, that is, by seeking some public office below the Presidency. If he should be successful, he would have an advantageous position from which to try to advance himself to his heart’s desire, the Presidency.
May run for Senate
There is a good deal of talk about the possibility of him seeking the Republican nomination for the Senate from New York to run against Senator Robert Wagner in November.
This would offer an avenue of rapprochement with Governor Dewey and the party, and his presence on the ticket might help Republicans to swing this state against Mr. Roosevelt, with Mr. Willkie’s appeal to liberals Republicans, some Democrats, and to left-wing elements, particularly on the score of foreign policy.
Mr. Willkie has made his fight on principle on the question of international collaboration. For that reason, he attacked the platform plank. But that plank, in the end, will mean what Governor Dewey says it means, and if he satisfies Mr. Willkie, this would clear the way for the latter’s acceptance of the ticket and its program, foreign and domestic.
Jap bombers found ripped at Saipan base
Area shows results of U.S. air raids
By Mac R. Johnson, United Press staff writer
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Roosevelt: China front vital
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Democrats map work on platform
Subcommittee named; women included
Washington (UP) –
The Democrats were ready to begin spade work on their proposed “thumbnail” platform today with appointment of a 23-member Platform Subcommittee headed jointly by House Democratic Leader John W. McCormack (D-MA) and Rep. Mary J. Norton (D-NJ).
The appointments were made by Chairman Robert E. Hannegan of the Democratic National Committee. He said that the group would start immediately to formulate tentative planks for submittal to the full committee, which will be named after the convention opens July 19. The subcommittee will meet in Chicago two days before the convention gets underway.
Women to have big voice
Women will be given a big voice in drafting the platform. Eleven were appointed to the subcommittee. Those named:
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Senators Robert F. Wagner (D-NY), Carl A. Hatch (D-NM), Joseph O’Mahoney (D-WY), Harry S. Truman (D-MO), Claude Pepper (D-FL), Theodore F. Green (D-RI) and James M. Tunnell (D-DE).
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Reps. McCormack, Norton, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. (D-MD), George J. Burke (D-MI) and Ed W. Izac (D-CA).
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Doris I. Byrne of New York, Mrs. W. T. Bost of North Carolina, Mrs. Albert E. Hill of Tennessee, Mrs. Scott Stewart of Utah, Mrs. Lucille Stewart of Kansas, Mrs. Charles G. Ryan of Nebraska, Mrs. Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming, Mrs. Sue Ruble of Oklahoma, Mrs. Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky (wife of the economic stabilization director), Mrs. Julia Porter of California and Joseph Daniels (presidential secretary).
Platform to be short
Senator Tunnell said the platform would be “short like the Ten Commandments, with a good many ditto marks at that.”
The Democrats will require less than the 4,600 words used by the Republicans, he said, “because we have a long record platform that reaches back to the end of the Hoover era.”
He acknowledged that a brief platform would relieve his party from spelling out a stand on racial issues which might antagonize the South.
“But,” he said, “I shouldn’t pay much attention to the Republican platform in that regard. They don’t.” The GOP adopted a plank advocating a permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee.
Dewey confers with Congressmen
Seeks views of Republican leaders
Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey began a series of conferences with Republican Congressional leaders today to discuss the issues of his campaign for the Presidency.
The Governor said he plans to obtain the views of as many Republican Congressmen as possible and, at the same time, offer his own ideas on important problems facing the country.
Mr. Dewey talked with Senator Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI) on foreign policy for two hours at the Executive Mansion last night, indicating that international affairs will play an important part in his drive to oust the Democratic administration in Washington.
Ten-word policy
Mr. Vandenberg, Republican expert on foreign policy, said he and the Governor were in complete accord and that the GOP position could be stated in 10 words: “We intend to preserve America and cooperate with the world.”
The Michigan Senator, second Republican Congressman to talk with Mr. Dewey, said the Governor’s acceptance speech “went over big in the Midwest” and predicted his election in November. He said Mr. Dewey was sure of 300 of the 531 electoral votes, but declined to explain how he arrived at that figure.
More conferences scheduled
Mr. Dewey will hold one more conference with Congressional representatives today before leaving for a weekend visit to his Pawling, New York, farm. Senators Warren R. Austin and George D. Aiken and Rep. Charles A. Plumley (R-VT) will lunch with Mr. Dewey. They will discuss campaign issues.
Mr. Dewey will resume conferences with Republican Congressional representatives Monday, when the Massachusetts delegation, including House Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin and Governor Leverett Saltonstall (a candidate for the U.S. Senate), visit him.
Is Dewey strong opponent? President declines to say
Mr. Roosevelt also refuses to answer query whether he’s found a running mate
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt was peppered with political questions at his news conference today, but wouldn’t give any information.
He said the answers probably would be evident sometime around next November – or maybe this month (the Democratic Convention meets July 19).
Meeting with reporters for the first time since the Republican Party nominated New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey for President, Mr. Roosevelt faced a barrage of political questions.
“Have you found a candidate for Vice President yet?” he was asked. This, the President said, sounded like an unfriendly question. He smiled, declined to answer it.
Not writing platform
Another reporter wanted to know what views Mr. Roosevelt, “as head of the Democratic Party,” had about the 1944 party platform. The President replied that he was not writing any platforms.
The question “Would you care to say whether you think Governor Dewey will be a strong opponent?” produced a roar of laughter in which Mr. Roosevelt joined.
Instead of answering, he said he was making notes for history on the procedure and methods of White House correspondents.
“Do you mean you don’t want to answer the question?” the reporter persisted. The President shook his head, chiding the reporter, a woman, for being a Pollyanna and a cheerful little girl.
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Normandy, France – (by wireless)
The six hours of nighttime go swiftly for our ack-ack battery, which is a blessing. Time races when you are firing. And in the long lulls between the waves of enemy planes you doze and catnap and the time gets away.
Once, during a lull long after midnight, half a dozen of the boys in our gun pit start singing softly. Their voices are excellent. Very low and sweetly they sing in perfect harmony such songs as “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad” and “Tipperary.”
There isn’t anything forced, or dramatic, about it. It’s just half a dozen young fellows singing because they like to sing – and the fact that they are in a gun pit in France shooting at people, trying to kill them, is just a circumstance.
The night grows bitterly chill. Between firings every man drapes an Army blanket around his shoulders, and sometimes up over his head, cape-like. In the darkness they are just silhouettes, looking strange and foreign like Arabs.
After 2 o’clock, there is a long lull. Gradually the boys wrap up in their blankets and lie down on the floor of the pit and fall asleep. Pretty soon you hear them snoring. I talk with the gun commander for a few minutes, in low tones. Then my eyes get heavy too.
Night silent as the grave
I wrap a blanket around me and sit down on the floor of the pit, leaning against the wall. The night is now as silent as a grave. Not a shot, not a movement anywhere.
My head slacks over to one side. But I can’t relax enough to sleep in that position. And it is so cold. I am so sleepy I hurt, and I berate myself because I can’t go to sleep like the others.
But I’m asleep all the time. For suddenly a voice shouts “Stand by!” – and it is as shocking as a bucket of cold water in your face. You look quickly at your watch and realize that an hour has passed. All the silent forms come frantically to life. Blankets fly. Men bump into each other.
“Commence firing!” rings out above the confusion, and immediately the great gun is blasting away, and smoke again fills the gun pit.
Sleep and rouse up. Catnap and fire. The night wears on. Sometimes a passing truck sounds exactly like a faraway plane. Frightened French dogs bark in distant barnyards.
Things are always confusing and mysterious in war. Just before dawn, an airplane draws nearer and nearer, lower and lower, yet we get no order to shoot and we wonder why. But machine guns and Bofors guns for miles around go after it.
The plane comes booming on in, in a long dive. He seems to be heading right at us. We feel like ducking low in the pit. He actually crosses the end of our field less than a hundred yards from us, and only two or three hundred feet up. Our hearts are pounding.
We don’t know who he is or what he is doing. Our own planes are not supposed to be in the air. Yet if this is a German, why doesn’t he bomb or strafe us? We never find out.
Ghostly shape in the sky
The first hint of dawn comes. Most of us are asleep again. Suddenly one of the boys calls out, “Look! What’s that?”
We stare into the faint light, and there just above us goes a great, silent, grotesque shape, floating slowly through the air. It is a ghostly sight.
Then we recognize it, and all of us feel a sense of relief. It is one of our barrage balloons which has broken loose and is drifting to earth. Something snags it in the next field, and it hangs there poised above the apple trees until somebody comes and gets it long after daylight.
As fuller light comes, we start lighting cigarettes in the open. The battery commander asks over the phone how many shells were fired, and tells us our tentative score for the night is seven planes shot down. The crew is proud and pleased.
Dawn brings an imagined warmth and we throw off our blankets. Our eyes feel gravelly and our heads groggy. The blast of the gun has kicked up so much dirt that our faces are as grimy as though we had driven all night in a dust storm. The green Norman countryside is wet and glistening with dew.
Then we hear our own planes drumming in the distance. Suddenly they pop out of a cloud bank and are over us. Security for another day has come, and we surrender willingly the burden of protecting the beaches. The last “Rest!” is given and we put the gun away until another darkness comes.
G.I.s who slept with Pyle want realism in movie
Anzio veterans say good picture would show Ernie scared, just like they were
By Scripps-Howard Service
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Poll: Public revises upward guess on end of war
Nazis given six months; Japs year and half
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
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Doerr touted as American’s ‘most valuable’
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Mistrial asked in sedition case
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WAC colonel is ‘eyes, ears’ for Gen. George Marshall
She advances to her present high rank from auxiliary in only two years
By North American Newspaper Alliance
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U.S. flier bags record of 6 Nazis in one fight
U.S. 8th Air Force fighter base, England (UP) –
Capt. Fred Christensen of Watertown, Massachusetts, set a record for the number of enemy planes destroyed in a single action today, shooting down six Ju 52s – Germany’s biggest transport plane.
Capt. Christensen was leading a flight in Col. Hubert Zemke’s famed Thunderbolt group when they sighted 12 Junkers circling prior to landing over an airfield in Germany.
In a few seconds, the Americans had shot down ten of the transports.
Six fell before Capt. Christensen’s guns, bringing his total of planes downed in combat to 22 and putting him among the upper brackets of fighter aces in the European Theater.
Generalfeldmarschall von Kluge Oberbefehlshaber im Westen
dnb. Führerhauptquartier, 7. Juli –
An Stelle des gesundheitlich behinderten Generalfeldmarschalls von Rundstedt hat Generalfeldmarschall von Kluge den Oberbefehl im Westen übernommen.
Der Führer hat in einem herzlich gehaltenen Handschreiben dem in den schwierigsten Lagen hochbewährten Feldmarschall von Rundstedt seinen besonderen Dank ausgesprochen und seine Verwendung für Sonderaufgaben in Aussicht genommen.
Führer HQ (July 8, 1944)
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Der Feind setzte seinen Großangriff gegen den Westflügel des Landekopfes mit zusammengefassten Kräften fort und dehnte ihn auf die Abschnitte bis zur Vire aus. Südwestlich Airel und südwestlich Carentan konnte er nach starker Artillerievorbereitung in unsere Abwehrfront eindringen und geringfügig Boden gewinnen. Zwischen Le Plessis und La Haye-du-Pults wurde der Gegner unter besonders hohen Verlusten abgewiesen.
Bei der Säuberung des Waldgeländes östlich La Haye-du-Puits verlor der Feind in erbitterten Nahkämpfen über 300 Tote und 270 Gefangene. Vorübergehend in La Haye-du-Puits eingedrungener Feind wurde nach schweren Straßenkämpfen wieder geworfen.
Im französischen Raum wurden 213 Terroristen und mit Fallschirm abgesetzte feindliche Saboteure im Kampf vernichtet.
Kampf- und Schlachtflugzeuge griffen belegte Ortschaften und Flugplätze im Landekopf mit guter Wirkung an.
Über den besetzten Westgebieten und dem Landekopf wurden gestern 96 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 73 viermotorige Bomber, abgeschossen. Schnellboote torpedierten im Ostteil der Seinebucht einen feindlichen Zerstörer, der mit einer starken Explosion in die Luft flog. Ferner vernichteten sie ein feindliches Torpedoschnellboot und beschädigten ein weiteres schwer. Im gleichen Seegebiet schossen Sicherungsfahszeuge zwei britische Schnellboote in Brand und brachten einen Jagdbomber zum Absturz.
Truppen des Heeres und der Waffen-SS vernichteten im ersten Monat der Invasionskämpfe 1059 feindliche Panzer und schossen 237 Flugzeuge ab. In Luftkämpfen und durch Flakartillerie wurden außerdem 1.418 feindliche Flugzeuge zum Absturz gebracht.
Im gleichen Zeitraum wurden durch Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Heeres- und Marineküstenbatterien 56 Handels- und Transportschiffe mit 348.600 BRT. und zahlreiche kleinere Nachschubschiffe und Landungsboote versenkt. Weitere 45 Handels- und Transportschiffe mit 269.000 BRT. wurden schwer beschädigt. An feindlichen Kriegsschiffen wurden 2 schwere Kreuzer, 4 weitere Kreuzer, 26 Zerstörer, eine Fregatte und 10 Schnellboote versenkt. Mehrere Schlachtschiffe, 22 Kreuzer, 25 Zerstörer, 13 Schnellboote und 28 Landungsspezialschiffe erhielten schwere Beschädigungen. Nicht eingerechnet sind die durch Minentreffer verursachten feindlichen Schiffsverluste.
Das schwere Feuer der „V1“ liegt unablässig auf dem Raum von London.
In Italien lag das Schwergewicht der feindlichen Angriffe gestern im Raum nordwestlich Siena, wo der Gegner trotz Einsatzes starker Infanterie- und Panzerkräfte keinen nennenswerten Erfolg erreichen konnte. Im westlichen Küstenabschnitt, im Raum südwestlich Arezzo, bei Mentone und Gubbio sowie an der Adriaküste führte der Feind ebenfalls starke, von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe, die von unseren Divisionen in harten Abwehrkämpfen bis auf geringe örtliche Einbrüche abgewiesen wurden.
Im Südabschnitt der Ostfront petzten die Sowjets ihre örtlichen Angriffe zwischen dem oberen Dnjestr und Kowel mit stärkeren Verbänden fort. Sie wurden blutig abgewiesen. Im Mittelabschnitt leisten unsere Soldaten den überlegenen feindlichen Kräften an allen Stellen verbissenen Widerstand. Im Verlauf der Abwehrschlacht wurden den Bolschewisten hohe Menschen- und Materialverluste zugefügt. Auch die eigenen Ausfälle sind beträchtlich.
Beiderseits Baranowicze dauern die Kämpfe in unverminderter Heftigkeit an. Die Trümmer des Ortes wurden dem Feinde kampflos überlassen. Nördlich Baranowicze wiesen unsere Truppen zusammengefasste Angriffe der Bolschewisten im Nahkampf ab. Der feindliche Druck auf Wilna verstärkt sich weiter. Südöstlich der Stadt sind erbitterte Kämpfe im Gange. Am Ostrand scheiterten von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe der Sowjets. An der Eisenbahn zwischen Wilna und Dünaburg wurden feindliche Angriffsspitzen in harten Kämpfen aufgefangen. Südöstlich Dünaburg und an der Düna nordwestlich Dzisna führte der Feind mehrere erfolglose Vorstöße. Nördlich Polozk brachen stärkere, von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe der Bolschewisten zusammen.
Kampf- und Schlachtfliegerverbände griffen laufend sowjetische Kolonnen an und vernichteten über 250 feindliche Fahrzeuge. In der Nacht wurde der Kampf gegen den feindlichen Nachschubverkehr fortgesetzt.
Ein starker nordamerikanischer Bomberverband flog gestern Vormittag nach Mitteldeutschland ein und warf Bomben auf mehrere Orte. Besonders im Stadtgebiet von Leipzig entstanden Gebäudeschäden und Personenverluste.
Weitere nordamerikanische Bomber griffen von Süden einfliegend einige Orte in Oberschlesien an.
Luftverteidigungskräfte vernichteten bei diesen Angriffen 92 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 71 viermotorige Bomber.
Die unter persönlicher Führung ihres Geschwaderkommodore Major Dahl kämpfende IV. Sturmgruppe, Jagdgeschwader 3, mit ihrem Kommandeur Hauptmann Moritz zeichnete sich durch Abschuß von 30 viermotorigen Bombern besonders aus.
In der Nacht warfen einzelne britische Flugzeuge Bomben auf Berlin und im rheinisch-westfälischen Raum. Zwei feindliche Flugzeuge wurden zum Absturz gebracht.
Damit verlor der Feind gestern über dem Reichsgebiet und den besetzten Westgebieten insgesamt 188 Flugzeuge, darunter 144 viermotorige Bomber.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 8, 1944)
Communiqué No. 65
In the CARENTAN sector, our troops advancing from the east have extended the bridgehead over the River VIRE. Further north other Allied units have pushed down the road from CARENTAN towards SAINT-JEAN-DE-DAYE. These two converging forces are now within two miles of the town.
Our air forces were active in close support of the land fighting yesterday afternoon and evening. Machine-gun nests and road junctions were under intermittent dive-bombing attacks throughout the period.
A strong force of heavy bombers effectively attacked a concentration of troops, tanks, guns, and strongpoints north of CAEN before darkness last night. Two thousand three hundred tons of explosives hit the target area.
Further damage was inflicted on the enemy’s transport system from SAINTES and ANGOULÊME, 200 miles south of NORMANDY, to MEAUX, east of PARIS. The TOURS LA RICHE railway bridge over the LOIRE was attacked by medium bombers, and fighter-bombers struck at railway yards, tracks, and motor convoys. An ammunition trains on the NIORT–SAUMUR Line exploded after a dive attack.
Early this morning, heavy night bombers attacked railway yards at VAIRES in the eastern outskirts of PARIS.
U.S. Navy Department (July 8, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 75
Before dawn on July 6 (West Longitude Date), several thousand Japanese troops launched a desperate counterattack directed against the left flank of our line on Saipan Island. In this attack, our lines along the western shore were penetrated up to 2,000 yards, and the enemy reached the outskirts of Tanapag Town. The counterattack was halted before noon, and our troops began to push the enemy back. In this assault, the fighting was very severe and numerous casualties were incurred. It is estimated 1,500 Japanese troops were killed. Meanwhile, on the right flank, our forces continued their advance and are now a little more than a mile from the airfield at Marpi Point.
Small groups of enemy planes raided our positions on Saipan before dawn on July 6 and on the night of July 6‑7. Bombs were also dropped near some of our ships but did no damage. One enemy plane was shot down. Isely Field on Saipan was shelled by shore batteries on Tinian Island before dawn on July 6, but the enemy batteries were quickly silenced by destroyer and artillery fire.
Supplementing Communiqué No. 72, it has been determined that 32 enemy aircraft were destroyed and 96 damaged on the ground by our carrier aircraft in attacks on Chichijima and Hahajima on July 3.
Nineteen of the aircraft destroyed and 34 of those damaged were two-engine bombers.
Some of this total may have been damaged in previous strikes by our aircraft.
Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force dropped 43 tons of bombs at the Dublon Island Naval Base in Truk Atoll on July 6. Five of approximately 12 enemy fighters which attempted to intercept our force were shot down. Three of our aircraft received minor damage.
Nauru Island was bombed by Liberator and Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force on July 6. Incendiary bombs started fires visible for 30 miles.
Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing attacked Wotje and Maloelap Atolls on July 6, bombing and strafing remaining enemy defense installations.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 8, 1944)
BRITISH ADVANCE INTO CAEN
Defenses cracking under all-out push
Americans also lunge forward in center of Normandy front
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
SHAEF, London, England –
Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery hurled the full weight of the British 2nd Army at Caen along a seven-mile assault arc today and by evening his shock troops had advanced an average of one mile through at least seven outlying villages to within one-and-a-half miles of the heart of the city.
Front dispatches reported even more impressive gains in the new offensive aimed at blasting open the 120-mile road westward to Paris. They said advanced elements were within half a mile of the center of Caen and named two villages captured in addition to the seven announced at headquarters plus parts of two more.
Reports reached headquarters that the Germans were moving big guns and armor south and southeast of Caen and vehicular traffic was heavy along the only two of 14 roads radiating from the city which were still in Nazi hands.
The headquarters report of German movements, not amplified, appeared to hit at a Nazi flight from Caen under the drubbing impact of Gen. Montgomery’s full dress offensive to escape the threat of entrapment in the partially encircled city.
Zero hour at 4:20
Zero hour was 4:20 a.m. today. British and Canadian troops went over the top after the heaviest artillery bombardment of the Normandy campaign had softened the German positions in and around the great inland port of Caen. This evening, a headquarters spokesman said the day’s advances were “highly satisfactory.”
Officially reported overrun in the converging assault on Caen were the villages of Gruchy, Buron, Saint-Contest and Épron, while parts of Lébisey and Hérouville were in Allied hands. Other reports added Galamanche and La Bijude to the list of captured villages.
Headquarters spokesmen also announced the capture, in addition to the tight little knot of villages in suburban Caen, of Malon, four miles northwest of the center of the town; Bitot, three miles north-northwest, and Colombelles on the Caen Canal, two-and-three-quarters northeast.
Capture Saint-Jean
U.S. forces driving forward on the central front in Normandy captured the town of Saint-Jean-de-Daye, eight miles north of Saint-Lô, and the nearby village of Goucherie.
Driving on beyond Saint-Jean, U.S. forces who smashed across the Vire River joined another column pushing down from the north, and both forces are now well over six miles southwestward of Isigny, the hinge position at the southwest corner of the Seine Bay.
The Americans probably hold an important crossroad south og Saint-Jean, headquarters sources reported in describing the expansion of the bridgehead west of the Vire.
Seize high ground
Farther westward other U.S. forces seized all high ground southwest and southeast of La Haye-du-Puits, sealing the doom of that western anchor of the German defense line.
Making a small but important advance southwest of La Haye, the Americans reached the village of Lemont. A like advance in the Mont-Castre forest carried almost to the village of Gerville.
Headquarters reports indicated that Caen was under a grave threat from the north. British units battering through the thick-set defenses had advanced up to a mile-and-a-half to a point a quarter-mile below the Couvre-Chef rail station, about halfway from the takeoff line to the center of the city.
Canadians gain
At the same time, Canadian troops were attacking from the northwest with like success.
A commentator said that if the Germans resist strongly the battle of Caen might conceivably prove one of the decisive battles of the war.
Striking in the wake of a 2,300-ton aerial attack and one of the heaviest artillery barrages of the Normandy campaign, British and Canadian troops plunged into the burning suburbs of Caen on a broad front and began a showdown battle that may determine the length of the war in the west.
Battle hand-to-hand
Ronald Clark, United Press staff writer, reported from the front that fierce hand-to-hand fighting was raging at key points deep inside the enemy’s so-called Byron Line of fortified villages on the approaches to Caen, the Germans’ eastern anchor athwart the Cherbourg–Paris highway and railroad.
Mr. Clark said:
Progress was made in the first stages of the attack and a number of the enemy were wiped out. Our troops are sure and confident of the results.
Face 1,400 tanks
Gen. Montgomery unleased his climatic offensive against the strongest-held sector of the whole Normandy front, defended by nearly seven crack enemy panzer divisions, 1,400 tanks and 84,000 men at full strength.
But Gen. Montgomery never makes a full-scale effort unless he believes he has a better-than-even chance of success, and he has had nearly five weeks in which to build up his forces.
More than 450 huge four-engined Halifax and Lancaster bombers of the RAF struck the first blow of the long-expected offensive at dusk last night when they roared over the frontlines
Like at El Alamein
Flame and smoke still belched from Caen and its northern defenses early today as massed British artillery began a bombardment reminiscent of the mighty barrages that cleared the way for Gen. Montgomery’s breakthroughs at El Alamein and the Mareth Line in Africa.
United Press staff writer Samuel D. Hales reported from Normandy:
No cannonading like that during the first half-hour had been heard on this front since the assault on the beaches D-Day.
The barrage shifted to provide a creeping curtain of protective shells bursting a few hundred yards in advance as the infantry rose from their trenches and moved toward the German lines with Tommy guns, bayonets and grenades.
Dock area empty
Lt. Gen. Sir Miles C. Dempsey’s 2nd Army held positions two to four miles east, north, west and southwest of Caen, but the disclosure that the mighty RAF bomber force struck principally north of the town indicated the main weight of the attack was also concentrated there.
British patrols thrust into the dock area of Caen yesterday and found it empty of Germans, but Allied authorities were cautious about interpreting this as a sign that the enemy has decided to pull out of the town without a finish fight.
Nevertheless, German broadcasts belittling the importance of Caen and contending that the Allies, if they capture the town, will find only ruins was taken as a sign that they will not make a costly or protracted defense before they fall back to less exposed defenses.
The new offensive put the Allies on the march along the entire 111-mile front in Normandy.
Powerful U.S. outflanking columns were approaching the enemy’s only escape road south of La Haye, however, and the garrison soon must choose between abandoning the town or encirclement.
Advancing along the 363-foot wooded Mont-Castre plateau on the eastern flank, one column reached a point two-and-a-quarter miles southeast of La Haye, while the western force seized the village of Biémont, two-and-a-half miles southwest of La Haye.
U.S. columns converging on Périers, nine miles southeast of La Haye and 11 miles southwest of Carentan, advanced to points only five-and-a-half miles away from the north and northeast.
Gain high ground
One, advancing along the Carentan–Périers road, captured high ground 800 yards east of Sainteny, while the other pushed down the Saint-Jores road to the village of Le Plessis, two miles south of Saint-Jores.
The Americans were encountering increased German artillery and mortar fire, as well as extensive minefields and inundations in their advances along the two highways but pressed on without pause.
SUPERFORTRESSES RIP CHINA BASES
All B-29s come back from 5-pronged raid on Japan, continent
Hankow, coal port and three war centers in enemy’s homeland pounded by Yanks
By Sandor S. Klein, United Press staff writer
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U.S. fliers lash enemy at Caen
U.S. heavies hammer Vienna oil plants
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
London, England –
U.S. heavy and medium bombers pounded German troop concentrations and gun batteries at Caen and robot bomb installations in the Pas-de-Calais area today as more than 500 Italy-based Fortresses and Liberators fought their way through heavy flak and fighter opposition to hit oil refineries at Vienna and targets in Hungary.
The fleet of 500 bombers, escorted by Lightnings and Mustangs, struck at three oil refineries in the Vienna basin, three fighter fields covering Vienna, and a Hungarian airdrome at Veszprem, 65 miles southwest of Budapest.
Refineries hit
Among the targets was the Floridsdorf oil refinery in the northern suburbs of Vienna, which is Austria’s largest crude oil distillation plant. The Creditul Minier refinery at Korneuburg, seven miles north of Vienna, and the Fanto Vösendorf refinery six miles south of Vienna, were also hit.
Meanwhile, 8th Fighter Command Mustangs, Thunderbolts and Lightnings stalked the Luftwaffe on airdromes throughout France and dive-bombed railroad targets during the day.
Wreck 21 planes
At least 21 German planes were destroyed on the ground by bombing and strafing fighters.
The Lightning group shot up 11 locomotives, 50 railroad cars and a flak tower. While these attacks were carried out, more than 250 Flying Fortresses and Liberators of the 8th Air Force attacked enemy robot bomb installations in the Pas-de-Calais area, and U.S. medium bombers joined the furious fight for Caen.
Escorted by Thunderbolt fighters, the flying artillery laid a barrage before Caen with the loss of one Marauder from flak. They encountered no enemy aircraft over the immediate battle area.
Stream over straits
The attack in support of ground troops came as Southeast England coastal observers reported a steady procession of heavy and medium bombers crossing the straits toward the continent. Their destination was not known immediately.
RAF heavy bombers just before dawn today laid 2,300 long tons of bombs on the defenders of Caen, and the U.S. mediums continued the pressure by daylight. The tonnage dropped on the embattled Germans in the first eight hours of the offensive was probably already near the 3,000 figure.
Other Marauders during the morning corked two more German transportation bottlenecks. They reached inland to smash one railway bridge at Nogent-le-Roi, which crosses the Eure 70 miles southwest of Paris, and another over the Loire River at Saumur.
Today’s attack on the robot bomb installations near Pas-de-Calais came after it was revealed that Lancaster bombers had smashed one of the enemy’s largest flying bomb supply depots, at Saint-Leu-d’Esserent, near Paris, and that RAF Mosquito bombers hit Berlin and a synthetic oil plant in Germany’s Ruhr Valley with two-ton blockbusters.
Strong forces of Thunderbolts, Mustangs and Lightnings escorted the heavy U.S. bombers as they pounced at least seven bomb sites in northern France. Most of the targets were visible, although some formations encountered bad weather over the area.
Meet strong opposition
The British bombers, which carried out the night raid on robot bomb bases at Saint-Leu-d’Esserent, north of Paris, encountered strong aerial opposition from German fighters and intense ground fire.
Although the individual losses were not listed, the Air Ministry announced that 33 bombers were missing from the raids on Saint-Leu-d’Esserent, the Ruhr and Berlin.
As the weather cleared over the Channel, more than 1,000 planes headed across the coast after hundreds of four-engined Lancasters struck into the outskirts of Paris before dawn in another attack on German communication lines.
Hit railyard
The railyard at Vaires in the eastern outskirts of Paris was singled out by the Lancasters for the pre-dawn operations and returning pilots said the whole target area was covered with thick smoke.
Another RAF contingent hit flying bomb installations in northern France last night, as the Germans continued sending the robot weapons into southern England. Although Allied aerial attacks on the bomb bases have been reported in northern France, the Daily Herald reported the Germans were also launching the pilotless planes from Belgium.
1,100 heavies attack
The U.S. Strategic Air Force disclosed that more than 1,100 Flying Fortresses and Liberators were used in the raids on synthetic oil plants, aircraft factories and other important targets in 11 localities in the Leipzig area yesterday.
The heavy bombs and escorting fighters shot down 114 German planes during the attacks, the largest bag of enemy aircraft since May 19 when 125 were downed over Berlin. The Americans lost 36 bombers and six fighters.
It was announced at Rome that 51 German planes were shot down yesterday by Italian-based heavy bombers and fighters during raids on synthetic oil refineries at Blechhammer and Silesia.
Other Allied planes also hit the railyards at Zagreb, in Yugoslavia, and carried out widespread raids throughout northern Italy. In all the operations yesterday, 24 Allied bombers and three other planes were lost.