Editorial: Communiqué language
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Background of news –
Senate seats for ex-Presidents?
By Bertram Benedict
Herbert Hoover, our only living ex-President, was listened to with considerable respect by the 1944 Republican National Convention. The reemergence of Mr. Hoover has reawakened proposals that former Presidents be given seats without votes in the Senate, where theirs would be the voice of experience.
Rep. Canfield (R-NJ) has introduced the bill to make former Presidents voteless members of the Senate. They would receive the same remuneration as elected members. Mr. Canfield points out:
President rate high in their ability to voice with force and accuracy the views and aspirations of a great number of their fellow-citizens. Congress is itself the nation’s sounding board of public opinion.
A precedent exists in Congress for voteless members. The House has four such – a delegate each from the Territories of Hawaii and Alaska, a resident commissioner each from the possession Puerto Rico and the Commonwealth of the Philippines. The two delegates are elected for two years, the commissioner from Puerto Rico for four years; the commissioner from the Philippines is appointed by the President of the Commonwealth. The four traditionally speak only on subjects affecting their constituencies.
Example of John Quincy Adams
Only two former Presidents of the United States have been elected to Congress. One was John Quincy Adams, who was elected to the House for nine terms beginning two years after his retirement from the Presidency and lasting until his death.
The second Adams as a member of the House fulfilled the purpose for which seats in the Senate are now sought for all ex-Presidents. Disdaining partisanship, he spoke out fearlessly on almost all topics of the day. A former Secretary of State, he became chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House.
Prof. W. E. Ford has written of him as a member of the House:
At the time of his election, no member has sat in the House who possessed such varied experience and appropriate qualities. He was familiar with the inside political history of 40 years abroad and at home… As a debater, he was listened to with respect and, when aroused, with nearly as great fear, for his integrity was unquestioned his information vast and ready… His Congressional service [was] quite the most important part of his career.
Johnson member of Senate
Andrew Johnson, leaving the White House on March 4, 1869, came close to being elected to the U.S. Senate by the Tennessee Legislature in that year. In 1872, he was defeated for election to the House, but in 1874 was sent to the Senate. He served during the brief special session of 1875, in the course of which he denounced President Grant for aspiring to a third successive term. Johnson died before the Senate met for regular session in December 1875.
Grant left the Presidency a poor man, and for a time subsisted on income from a trust fund set up for him by friends. That may have been one reason why he tried for a third term. When his trust income dwindled, he joined a brokerage firm; its failure in 1884 threw him into personal bankruptcy, and ultimately Congress had to revive for him the rank of general, with salary. His memoirs brought in large sums only after his death.
Some of our recent Presidents (Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Hoover) could fall back upon private means after leaving the White House. Others, like Coolidge, found remunerative pursuits open to them. Taft became Chief Justice. In Great Britain, a retiring Prime Minister almost always remains in Parliament.
Poll: Third in U.S. fail to save waste paper
Some not convinced of need for drive
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
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Six Yanks given British medals
Brigadier of 29th Division decorated with DSO
U.S. 1st Army HQ, France (UP) – (July 7)
Over the hill where the guns were rumbling in battle, the sergeant was “otherwise occupied” and unable to be present when Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery pinned high British decorations on the chests of six Americans ranging from sergeant to major general.
But he arrived out of breath at the last minute and a special ceremony was staged in his honor before a battery of news cameras. The sergeant was Asa C. Ricks of Pharr, Texas, and he received the Military Medal of gallantry on D-Day, when he took command of his company after all officers had been killed or wounded, and defended a bridge.
Brigadier gets medal
Gen. Montgomery had already pinned the Military Medal on Sgt. Philip Streczyk of New Brunswick, New Jersey, who received the Distinguished Service Order the other day from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for this single-handed capture of a German machine-gun nest, an officer and 21 men on June 6.
Others and their decorations were: Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor (101st Airborne Division) of Arlington, Virginia, DSO for “fearless leadership” in the river crossing which outflanked Carentan.
A brigadier general of the 29th Infantry Division, DSO for personally leading a division in assault near Vierville.
A colonel, DSO for leading the assault at Vierville-sur-Mer inland beyond the beach under heavy fire.
Others unable to appear
Another colonel, DSO for total disregard of his own safety and calmness in the face of heavy enemy fire near Fréville.
Capt. Sam H. Ball Jr., of Texarkana, Texas, for leadership of a combat engineer battalion which cleared underwater obstacles near Vierville with heavy casualties, DSO.
These also received decorations but were unable to appear for the ceremony: Sgt. Leonard G. Lomell of Point Pleasant, New Jersey (who captured a machine-gun nest on D-Day, Military Medal), Infantry Capt. Richard J. O’Malley (Military Cross for assault on Montebourg) and Sgt. Norman Day (Distinguished Service Medal for great courage in getting vehicles ashore).
McGaffin: ‘Busy day’ on Saipan Island includes mop up of caves
Major tells how Yanks persuaded Japs in one cavern to surrender
By William McGaffin
With U.S. forces on Saipan, Mariana Islands – (delayed)
Today we visited the boys of Maj. James A. Donovan Jr.’s Command. The major himself ushered us into his command post, in a hollow under a spreading tree. “It’s been a busy day,” he said with a grin.
The young major, only 27 years of age, who hails from Winnetka, Illinois, and is second in command of this battalion, was very happy about the gains his boys had made yesterday – 1,400 yards – although one company had suffered 38 casualties from a sudden burst of enemy fire as they were digging in for the night. Since D-Day, this particular company has lost all but one of its original officers.
Clean out caves
Maj. Donovan explained that his men had come on a network of caves 50 yards away from us and that they were engaged in cleaning them out.
A couple of Jap soldiers rushed out at that moment in an attempt to put up some resistance. They were killed.
Then, as we watched, our boys approached the lip of the cave cautiously and, although their knowledge of Japanese is limited, managed to persuade the multitude inside to come out.
Civilians emerge
A long file of more than 150 began to emerge, some of them men in home guard uniform, but mainly Jap civilians – old men, young women carrying babies on their backs, and some old women too feeble to walk who were carried on litters by our medical corpsmen. Apparently, they had been in the cave ever since invasion day.
The sound of other caves being flushed out was also discernible. This time it was the lethal sound of dynamite and flamethrowers, for these caves were full of Jap soldiers who wouldn’t budge. It was dangerous business. Those cave-dwellers were well armed.
Maj. Donovan told how one of his lieutenants had shot a Jap sniper shortly before we arrived, right in the command post area, and 20 minutes later got it himself when he approached one of the surrounding caves.
Steele: Japan strives to wean China from Allies
But Chungking knows how enemy operates
By A. T. Steele
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Hubbub over speech irks Argentina’s ‘strong man’
War Minister Peron explains that U.S. State Department summary mutilated his talk
By Allen Heron
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‘Pappy’ O’Daniel told to explain
Washington (UP) –
The War Production Board today asked Senator W. Lee “Pass the Biscuits, Pappy” O’Daniel, anti-New Deal Texas Democrat, to explain how and where he obtained newsprint for his revived W. Lee O’Daniel News, now being issued as an anti-fourth-term organ.
Arthur R. Treanor, director of the WPB’s Printing and Publishing Division, write the Texan asking him to state whether he had complied with WPB newsprint regulations and to send the WPB “a copy of a typical issue” of the paper.
Earlier this week, Mr. O’Daniel disclosed that he had acquired enough newsprint “for at least 150,000 copies” and said he had stored it “in my own warehouse under lock and key and day and night guards before I started publication on the glorious Fourth of July.”
Stokes: ‘Farmer’ Dewey welcomed home by friendly neighbors
Celebration rubs off presidential glitter in nonpartisan way; he greets ‘em by name
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Pawling, New York –
Over the weekend, Governor Thomas E. Dewey was going through the transformation seemingly essential to a presidential candidate at his 486-acre farm here, well-equipped with the usual things, including cows and ducks and corn and hay.
It’s the American way – and nonpartisan.
The result, as usual, was to rub off the glitter and glit of the crusading District Attorney tracking down crime in the big city, the smooth efficiency of the Governor of New York, even the glamor of the Republican presidential candidate. It made him, for the time, the owner of a farm, concerned most of all with getting in the hay.
Lowell Thomas, the radio announcer and also one of the New York “farmers” in this community, in his welcome home talk here yesterday kidded the Governor about staying away so long, gadding off to big cities like Chicago, and all the time there’s that hay standing, and it looks like rain.
Mr. Thomas boasted about how he had finished tossing his own hay and, nice neighbor that he is, had gone over and pitched a bit at the Dewey place. To which the Governor retorted that if that had happened, it was the first work Lowell Thomas had done in 21 years.
Friendly and neighborly
The two of them kidded the hokum, and yet there was something friendly and American and neighborly about the reception given by several hundred of his townsfolk and farmfolk who gathered in the little park back of the butcher house here on the main stem. Under its sheltering trees were some men, more women, and lots of children who looked with natural envy at the two slicked-up Dewey boys – Tom, 11, and John, 7.
Lowell Thomas emphasized the nonpartisan nature of the welcome home, how Democrats, too, were included, and, once he had opened the subject, a couple of Democrats made themselves known – both drunk. They carried on an undertone of comment from the sidelines. Their champion, Squire Roosevelt, also lives in Dutchess County.
Dewey calls ‘em by name
Mayor Bert Green, who presided at the welcome-home ceremonies, told about how Neighbor Dewey and his beautiful wife had gone off to Chicago and came back with something really handsome for a Pawling citizen, but he said they in Pawling liked to think of the Governor as the farmer who keeps his buildings and fields in good order.
The Governor fell in with the mood and paid tribute to the folks here who had been so nice to him, the druggist, the butcher, the baker, the doctor – he called their names and they nodded, smiling.
This neighborly spirit, the Governor said, was what distinguished America, what made it great. It’s what we are fighting for, he said.
And one of the nicest things was when one speaker referred to Mrs. Dewey, and son John, at her side, turned and smiled up at her.
Vandercook: AEF fears job depression
Returns from invasion area
By Si Steinhauser
Just back from Normandy where he covered the invasion for NBC, John W. Vandercook says:
Our American fighting men are more interested in whether they’ll have a job when they come home than whether they’ll get to vote at the fall election. They have a definite fear of unemployment and another depression.
British soldiers have been greatly liberalized through their contacts with Yanks. They’re going home to change England. The New Deal position is now a British Conservative Party policy while the Labor and Liberal parties are thinking of something further to the left.
Our Americans boys want to come home to the same country they left, just the good old USA with all of the privileges that go with being a real American, including the right to say who’ll be boss in the nation’s capital.
Vandercook said the medical men of the Army are real heroes.
They serve day and night under constant fire, and in Normandy, the Nazis have deliberately fired on them. Because of their loyalty to the wounded, our casualties have a better-than-average chance of medical care within 10 minutes after they are hit and are likely to be in the hands of skilled surgeons within a half hour at the most. Because of fine air cooperation, these wounded can be taken from France to England or America in a matter of hours.
No army has ever had more or better equipment than ours in Italy and France and there have never been armies with such complete confidence. But that does not minimize the morale of our enemy. The German Army’s morale is higher than that of the civilians they left behind. Anti-war spirit in Germany has no leader, so we are still in for a fight.
Our greatest mistake here at home is to minimize the weight and importance of the Italian campaign. It is now facing its decisive test.
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Train wreck’s cause hidden
Death toll may go beyond 19
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Acute emergency in steel cited
Labor shortage held threat to output
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Normandy, France – (by wireless)
The commander of my ack-ack crew is Sgt. Joseph Samuelson, a farm boy from Odebolt, Iowa.
“Sam” is a quiet fellow with a mellow voice. His mouth is very wide and right now his lips are chapped and cracked from the cold climate. He is conscientious and the others like him.
Two of the crew are from the same hometown – Manchester, New Hampshire. They are Pvts. Armand Provencher and Jim Bresnahan. In fact, there are six Manchester boys in this battery, and 15 in the battalion. They all went into the Army on the same day at the same place, and now they are firing within a few miles of each other in France.
Pvt. Provencher is of French-Canadian extraction and is the only one of our crew who speaks French, so he does all the foraging. His family speaks French in their home back in New Hampshire. I had always heard that the French-Canadian brand of French was unintelligible to real Frenchmen, but Provencher says he doesn’t have any trouble.
Three of the boys are from Massachusetts – Cpl. Charles Malatesta of Malden, Pvt. George Slaven of Southbridge, and Pvt. Walter Covel of Roxbury.
Covel has heavy black whiskers and it takes two razorblades to shave him. With a two-day growth, he looks like a hobo, and then when he cleans up, you hardly recognize him. He asked if I’d say hello for him in the column to his mom and Bernie. I didn’t ask who Bernie was, but it probably wouldn’t be hard to guess.
Druggist sets up store
George Slaven is the entrepreneur of the battery. Back home he owns a drugstore, which his wife is running while he is away fighting. His wife keeps sending him stuff from the store until he has built up a miniature drugstore over here. He has such things as aspirin, lip pomade, shampoo and so on. He used to have a stock of cigars but they’re all gone now. The boys say he gets more packages from home than any 15 other men in the battery.
Slaven and Malatesta are the only married men in the crew. Malatesta wanted me to tell his wife in the column that he loves her. So, since it is springtime and there’s no law I know of against a man being fond of his wife, here goes.
Pvt. Bill Mallea of Shelton, Connecticut, is the oracle of the group. He tells long and fascinating stories and thinks about the world situation and has a great sense of fun. He is the oldest man in the crew, although he isn’t so old.
He’s political-minded, and says he is going to become an alderman in Shelton after the war. He calls himself “Honest Bill” Mallea. He is one of the ammunition carriers, and during lulls in the firing at night, he curls up in an ammo dugout about 20 feet from the gun pit and sleeps on top of the shells. He sleeps so well you can hear him snoring clear over in the gun pit.
All are pleasant lads
I didn’t pick up much about the rest of the boys, but they are all pleasant lads who work hard and get along together. These others are Cpl. Henry Omen of Depew, New York; Pvt. Harold Dunlap of Poplar Bluff, Missouri; Pvt. Norman Kimmey of Hanover, Pennsylvania; Cpl. Clyde Libbey of Lincoln, Maine; Pvt. Jerry Fullington of Fremont, Nebraska, and Cpl. Bill Nelson of Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
Cpl. Libbey is from the potato-growing country in Maine, and I told him “that girl” and I stayed all night in Lincoln about seven years ago. But unfortunately, all I could remember about Lincoln was that we stayed there, so our attempts to dig up some mutual acquaintance or even a building we both remembered fell kind of flat.
On my second day with the battery, the boys asked their officers if it was all right for them to write in their letters home that I was staying with them. The officers said yes, so the boys all got out paper, and since it had turned warm for a change, we sat and lay around on the grass while they wrote short letters home, using ammunition and ration boxes for writing boards. When they got through, all of them had me sign their letters.
The boys say they didn’t choose ack-ack but were just automatically put into it. They do like it, however, as long as they have to be in the Army. They are all over being gun-shy, and now that they have been through their opening weeks of war, they aren’t even especially afraid.
Their battery commander is Capt. Julius Reiver of Wilmington, Delaware. He stays up all night, too, directing their firing from his dugout, where information is phoned in to him.
Völkischer Beobachter (July 9, 1944)
Zwei weitere Flugzeugträger bei Saipan versenkt
Tokio, 8. Juli –
Zwei weitere US-Flugzeugträger sind in den Gewässern bei Saipan gesunken, wird von einem japanischen Stützpunkt im Zentralpazifik am Samstag gemeldet. Die Versenkung der beiden Flugzeugträger, die erst jetzt bestätigt werden konnte, erfolgte am 18. und 19. Juni.
Damit steigt der Gesamtverlust der Alliierten in den Gewässern der Marianen und der Bonininseln in der Zeit von dem ersten Erscheinen der alliierten Flottenstreitkräfte am 11. Juni bis zum 30. Juni auf 50 versenkte und beschädigte Kriegsschiffe.
Von der Invasionsfront –
Kampf um ein Schloss
SS-pk. Verwildert und sturmzerzaust liegt das alte normannische Schloss zwischen Park und See. Der uralte Wehrturm ragt steil in die stumme Nacht empor. Er wächst mit seinen kantigen Quadern wie ein Sinnbild des Unvergänglichen zur doppelten Höhe des angebauten Schlosses hinauf.
Von hier oben gleitet der Blick weit über das normannische Flachland hinweg; über das unendliche Netz der- Heckengevierte und Parkwiesen eilt er zu einem flachen Höhenzug, der sich im Osten im Halbkreis um den Schauplatz lagert, in welchem das turmbewehrte Schloss wie im Mittelpunkt einer riesigen Arena liegt.
Wie trügerisch ist dieser tiefe Friede, in den die Sommernacht gebettet zu sein scheint. Die beiden deutschen Posten, die in dieser Einsamkeit auf Wacht stehen und hinter der Kronenrampe des Turms eine Beobachtungsstelle eingerichtet haben, kennen die Tücken des Gegners und lassen deshalb ihre Augen keine Sekunde zur Ruhe kommen. Sie sind das Auge und das Ohr ihrer Batterie, sie sind die treuen Wächter ihrer Kameraden.
Während sich der Sternenhimmel strahlend über dem kleinen Erdenstern wölbt, wird die Stille, die eben noch ewig zu sein schien, mit einem Schlage zerrissen. Zunächst blitzt es in der Ferne an vier Punkten auf, als wolle die Erde den gestirnten Himmel mit reicherem Glanz überbieten. Dann faucht es zischend durch die Luft, das Geräusch wächst den beiden Männern als kreischende Dissonanz rasend schnell entgegen und zerbirst mit Donnerwucht unmittelbar unter ihnen. Einzelne Sprengstücke der feindlichen Granaten pochen knöchern an das Turmgemäuer, als suche der Tod einen Weg durch die dicken Quadern ins Innere zu finden.
Wenige Minuten später rauscht die nächste Salve heran. Eines der Geschosse trifft den Turm und zerbirst krachend an seiner Flanke, so daß die festen Mauern unter dem harten Schlag erbeben und die beiden Männer sich rasch zu Boden kauern. Der Turm hält dem scharfen Schlag zwar stand, doch trägt er eine schwere Wunde davon. Im Mauerwerk klafft ein breites Loch, dessen Steine im nachhallenden Getöse herabrieseln.
Viel verhängnisvoller ist es aber, daß durch den Einschlag die hölzerne Treppe im Innern des Turmes zerstört wurde.
Die beiden Männer tasten vorsichtig in die Bodenluke hinein, wo die suchenden Füße jedoch über abgründiger Leere schweben. Da der Turm auch von außen nicht besteigbar ist, sind die Männer abgeschnitten von aller Welt.
Sie geben trotz allem sofort ihre Funkmeldung über die Trefferlage und das beobachtete feindliche Mündungsfeuer an ihre Batterie durch und warten dann den Morgen ab in der Hoffnung, mit Hilfe des Schlossherrn oder der zur Ablösung anrückenden Kameraden einen Weg über die zerstörte Treppe ins Freie zu finden.
Bald darauf setzt der Feind das Artilleriefeuer in verschärftem Umfang fort. In gewohnter Materialverschwendung schüttet er Salve um Salve gegen die beiden Männer über dem Schloss. Nach einer halben Stunde steigert er seine Feuerkraft nochmals durch den Einsatz von Brandgranaten, durch die es ihm gelingt, einen abseitigen Geräteschuppen in Brand zu schießen. Der Schlossherr, ein greiser Marquis, wird mit seinem Personal durch den Flammenschein aus dem Keller gelockt, um die Zerstörung aufzuhalten. Da, als die Franzosen über das freie Gelände eilen, schlägt eine neue Salve von Granaten in den Park. Die heimtückischen Flammenzungen lecken gierig nach den Gewändern und den unbedeckten Körperteilen der Franzosen. Dann bietet sich das schauerliche Schauspiel dar, daß drei menschliche Gestalten als lebendige Fackeln durch die Nacht geistern – ein grausiges Symbol für den Verrat des Feindes.
Im ersten Morgengrauen zeigt sich die Turmtreppe in ihrem obersten Teil nur so weit zerstört, daß man mit Hilfe einer von unten herangebrachter Leiter die Lücke schließen kann.
Doch fast im gleichen Augenblick, in dem die Männer unter diesem Glücksfall aufzuatmen beginnen, rauscht ein Geschwader feindlicher Flugzeuge heran. Die Zeltbahnen gewähren den beiden Wächtern auf den Zinnen notdürftige Deckung. Obgleich die Tarnungsfarbe mit dem Turmuntergrund nicht übereinstimmen, sind die Männer besten Muts. Die Standhaftigkeit des Turmes gegen den schweren nächtlichen Beschuss bedeutet ihnen auch jetzt ein gutes Omen.
Dann aber, als sie durch die Lochringe der Zeltbahn dem Flug des Feindes folgen, erfaßt sie wirklicher Schrecken; sie sehen, Wie unmittelbar über ihnen der gesamte Pulk der Flugzeuge Fallschirmspringer aussetzt, die als weiße Federwolken am Himmel schweben und deren Landeziel nichts anderes als der Schlosspark bildet.
Es beginnt ein Kampf um Leben und Tod.
Die beiden einsamen Männer auf dem Turm wissen genau, wie gefährlich dieser im Rücken der Front landende Feind für die Kameraden in den vorderen Linien werden kann. Sie wissen aber auch, wie wenig sie allein gegen diese Übermacht auszurichten vermögen, und sie wissen, wie gefährdet ihre eigene Lage ist.
Aber sie handeln sofort. Der eine von ihnen jagt Magazin um Magazin aus seiner Maschinenpistole den Fallschirmjägern entsagen, während der andere, da durch das eigene Feuer die Turmstellung längst verraten wurde, aus mehreren Handgranaten eine geballte Ladung herstellt, und mit ihr die Holztreppe des Turmes bis in die Tiefe hinein zerstört, um dem Gegner die Angriffsmöglichkeit zu erschweren.
So kämpfen zwei Männer gegen mehr als zweihundert Gegner einen ungleichen Kampf, sie kämpfen in ihrer Einsamkeit auf hoffnungslos verlorenem Posten.
Elf feindliche Fallschirmjäger konnten bereits vor der Landung ausgeschaltet werden, etwa zwanzig weitere fallen alsbald durch Garben der Maschinenpistolen und durch Handgranaten in der näheren Umgebung des Schlosses.
Damit aber haben die beiden Männer alles getan, was sie tun konnten. Sie besitzen keinen Schuss Munition und keine Handgranaten mehr. Sie müssen zusehen, wie sich die gelandeten Feindtruppen formieren und zum Sturmangriff gegen den Turm ansetzen.
Zunächst wird ein regelrechter Spähtrupp eingesetzt, der, von Busch zu Busch vorspringend, den Schlosseingang gewinnt und dann durch das Innere des Schlosses in den Sockel des Turmes vorstößt. Von dort aus geht es die Treppe empor – allein der Angriff muß dort, wo die Treppe aufhört, kläglich abgebrochen werden.
Ein schwerer Granatwerfer wird in Stellung gebracht. Die erste Granate, die in steilem Flug die beiden Männer auf dem Turm erledigen soll, verfehlt ihr Ziel, fällt zur Erde zurück und verletzt mehrere Männer aus des Feindes eigenen Reihen.
Als damit auch dieses Unternehmen fehlgeschlagen ist, beginnt der Feind mit der Ausräucherung der beiden Deutschen vom Innern des Turmes her.
Er legt Sprengladung um Sprengladung in die Fundamente, in immer stärkeren Explosionen wankt das Gefüge der Quader.
Schon sind aus dem Sockel an zwei Seiten die Grundsteine herausgeflogen, schon hat sich der uralte Turm ein wenig zur Seite geneigt, schon lodern die Flammen prasselnd in den Trümmern der trockenen Holztreppe auf und senden einen erstickenden Qualm, mit Pulvergasen vermischt, in die Höhe – da, als niemand mehr auch nur den geringsten Preis auf das Leben der beiden deutschen Beobachter gesetzt hätte, begeben sich diese an ihr Funkgerät und setzen mit abgemessenen Takten einen Funkspruch an ihre Batterie ab, der bei der Gegenstelle wahrhaftes Grausen verursacht und aus den Worten besteht:
Sofortiges stärkstes Zielfeuer auf eigenen Standpunkt!
Das Feuer springt bald darauf in wilden Sätzen durch die frühe Morgenluft, es schlägt hart und unerbittlich in die Reihen der Fallschirmjäger, es folgt dem Gegner in alle Deckungen, die er sucht, in alle Gräben und Hohlwege, in denen er sich verbirgt, es zerstampft den Granatwerfer zu einem korkenzieherartigen Gebilde, es stürzt sich auf die kleinsten Gruppen des ziellos umherirrenden Feindes. Nie wurde von einem Beobachtungsstand eine zielsichere Feuerleitung gegeben als von diesem Turm aus, da die einzelnen Schüsse fast um Meterbreite auf jeden einzelnen Gegner herangelenkt werden können. Weder der Beobachter noch der Funker lassen sich jetzt, da ihre Schicksalsstunde gekommen ist, durch den beizenden Brodem beirren, der durch die Luke aus dem Turminnern herausfegt, sie achten auch nicht auf die Sprengstücke, die ihnen an den Köpfen vorbeizischen, sie sehen nur die Aufgabe, den Feind mit dem von ihnen gesteuerten Granatensturm zu vernichten.
Und es gelingt ihnen in solch vollkommener Weise, daß der deutsche Stoßtrupp, der eine Stunde später durch das Gelände kommt, fast spielend den letzten Widerstand bricht, der ihnen noch aus einzelnen feindlichen Schützennestern entgegentritt.
Als es ihnen danach in mühevoller Pionierarbeit gelingt, vom Dachfirst des Schlossgebäudes aus mittels Kletterhaken und Stufeneinschlägen die Zinnenkrone des Turmes zu erklettern, erlösen sie zwei halbbetäubte, rauchgeschwärzte Männer, die dort oben im Angesicht des Todes unerschrocken Wacht hielten.
SS-Kriegsberichter Dr. RUPERT RUPP
Führer HQ (July 9, 1944)
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
In der Normandie trat der Feind nun auch gegen den vorspringenden Frontabschnitt nördlich Caen auf breiter Front mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerkräften zum Großangriff an. In den schweren Kämpfen, die im Laufe des Tages immer mehr an Heftigkeit Zunahmen, hatte der Gegner besonders hohe blutige Verluste. Es gelang ihm schließlich, nach Einsatz neuer Kräfte, nordöstlich und nordwestlich Caen in unsere Stellungen einzudringen. Auch beiderseits der Straße Caumont–Caen führte der Feind nach heftiger Feuervorbereitung starke Angriffe, in denen er örtliche, inzwischen abgeriegelte Einbrüche erzielen konnte.
Zwischen Vire und Taute wurde während des ganzen Tages erbittert gekämpft. Unter schweren Verlusten gelang es dem Feind, hier seinen Brückenkopf über die Vire nach Südwesten etwas zu erweitern. Die Kämpfe sind auch hier noch in vollem Gange. Nordwestlich Le Plessis und südwestlich La Haye-du-Puits griff der Gegner wiederholt vergeblich an.
Im französischen Raum wurden 198 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.
Durch Kampfmittel der Kriegsmarine wurden im Seegebiet der Invasionsfront wiederum ein Kreuzer und ein Zerstörer versenkt sowie mehrere weitere Schiffe torpediert. Ein feindliches Flugzeug wurde abgeschossen.
Schweres Vergeltungsfeuer liegt weiterhin auf London und seinen Außenbezirken.
In Italien setzte der Feind seine Angriffe mit besonderer Wucht an der ligurischen Küste bei Volterra, nordwestlich Siena und an der adriatischen Küste fort. Er wurde jedoch nach schwersten Kämpfen bis auf geringe örtliche Einbrüche verlustreich abgewiesen.
In den harten Abwehrkämpfen der letzten Woche im westlichen Küstenabschnitt hat sich eine in ihrer Mehrheit aus turkestanischen Freiwilligen bestehende Infanteriedivision mit ihrem deutschen Rahmenpersonal hervorragend bewährt.
Im Osten nahm im Raum von Kowel die Wucht der feindlichen Angriffe zu. Die von zahlreichen Panzern und Schlachtfliegern unterstützten Durchbruchsversuche wurden unter Abschuß einer größeren Anzahl feindlicher Panzer vereitelt.
Im Mittelabschnitt der Ostfront hat sich die Abwehrschlacht in den Raum westlich der Landengen von Baranowicze und Molodeczno verlagert. Beiderseits Baranowicze setzten unsere Truppen den mit überlegenen Infanterie- und Panzerkräften angreifenden Sowjets zähen Widerstand entgegen. Im Verlauf hartnäckiger Kämpfe um Lida ging der Ort verloren.
Die Besatzung von Wilna wies wiederholte von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe der Bolschewisten ab. Nordwestlich Wilna wurden vordringende feindliche Kräfte aufgefangen.
An der Front zwischen Dünaburg und Polozk führte der Feind infolge der an den Vortagen erlittenen hohen Verlusten nur örtliche Angriffe, die abgewiesen wurden.
Bei den Kämpfen der letzten Tage im Abschnitt des Narocz-Sees hat sich das Heerespionierbataillon (mot.) 505 unter Führung von Hauptmann Wolf durch besondere Tapferkeit ausgezeichnet.
In der vergangenen Nacht belegten deutsche Kampfgeschwader die Bahnhöfe Korosten, Sarny, Rowno und Olewsk mit zahlreichen Spreng- und Brandbomben.
Ein starker nordamerikanischer Bomberverband griff gestern Vormittag Außenbezirke der Stadt Wien an. Es entstanden Gebäudeschäden und Personenverluste. Deutsche und ungarische Luftverteidigungskräfte vernichteten 30 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 26 viermotorige Bomber.
In der Nacht warfen einzelne britische Flugzeuge Bomben im rheinisch-westfälischen Gebiet.
Unterseeboote versenkten zwei Schiffe mit 11.000 BRT.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 9, 1944)
Communiqué No. 67
The attack on CAEN continues, with our infantry making steady progress covered by heavy artillery and air support. Every house and farm has been made into a center of resistance which is defended stubbornly.
On the west, further gains have been made on both sides of LA HAYE-DU-PUITS. Allied forces have advanced two miles southwest of SAINT-JEAN-DE-DAYE.
Our fighters and fighter bombers ranged from the LOIRE to the channel, and from PARIS to NANTES, attacking enemy transportation. Tracks were severed on the main rail lines from PARIS to both LE HAVRE and ORLÉANS. More than 150 railroad cars were destroyed. Near ÉVREUX, direct hits were registered on the mouth of a rail tunnel.
Small formations of heavy day bombers struck at railway chokepoints at ÉTAPLES, junctions at L’AIGLE and the MANTES-GASSICOURT bridge, while medium and light aircraft hit a large railway bridge at NANTES.
Normandy-based aircraft, in close support of our troops, attacked earthwork fortifications and gun and mortar positions before our lines. Others strafed troops moving by rail towards the front and destroyed three tanks and other military vehicles.
During yesterday, 24 enemy aircraft were destroyed on the ground and six in the air. Our losses were 12 heavy bombers and five fighters.
U.S. Navy Department (July 9, 1944)
Joint Statement
For Immediate Release
July 9, 1944
The following statement on submarine warfare has been approved by the President and the Prime Minister:
Hitler’s submarine fleet failed on all counts in June 1944. Not only were the U‑boats unable to halt the United Nations’ invasion of the continent, but their efforts to prevent the necessary supplying of our constantly growing Allied Army in Europe were made completely ineffective by our countermeasures.
The U‑boats apparently concentrated to the west of the invasion during the month, relatively few of them being disposed over the Atlantic. Their sinking of United Nations’ merchant vessels reached almost the lowest figure of the entire war. For every United Nations’ merchant vessel sunk by German submarines, several times as many U‑boats were sent to the bottom.
The President has also approved the recommendation of the Prime Minister that the following additional special communiqué be released with the U‑boat statement:
Thousands of Allied ships have been moved across the Channel to Normandy and coastwise to build up the Military Forces engaged in the liberation of Europe. No merchant vessel of this vast concourse has been sunk by U‑boat with the possible exception of one ship. In this case doubt exists as to her destruction by U‑boat or mine.
This is despite attempts by a substantial force of U‑boats to pass up‑channel from their bases In Norway and France. Such attempts were of course expected and U. S. and British Air Squadrons of coastal command, working in cooperation with the surface forces of the Allied Navies, were ready.
From the moment that the U‑boats sailed from their bases they were attacked by aircraft of coastal command. Both aircraft and surface forces followed up sighting reports, hunting and attacking the U‑boats with relentless determination.
The enemy were thus frustrated by the brilliant and unceasing work of coastal command and the tireless patrols of the surface forces and have suffered heavy casualties.
Operations continue.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 76
Our forces have completed the conquest of Saipan. Organized resistance ended on the afternoon of July 8 (West Longitude Date) and the elimination of scattered, disorganized remnants of the enemy force is proceeding rapidly.
Aircraft of our fast carrier task force attacked Guam and Rota on July 7‑8 (West Longitude Date). Runways, anti-aircraft batteries, coastal defense guns and barracks were subjected to rocket fire and bombing. On July 7, nine enemy fighters apparently attempting to fly from Guam to Yap Island were shot down by our combat air patrol. Six twin‑engine enemy aircraft were destroyed on the ground and two were probably destroyed near Agana Town at Guam. We lost one fighter and one torpedo bomber in these raids.
Twenty‑two tons of bombs were dropped on Truk Atoll on the night of July 7‑8 by Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force. There was no interception, and all of our planes returned safely.
During July 7, Mille, Jaluit, Taroa, and Wotje were harassed by Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, and a search Catalina of Group One, Fleet Air Wing Two, attacked Taroa before dawn on July 7. We lost no planes.