Army men under 32 eligible for paratroops
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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.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 9, 1944)
NAZIS BEGIN CAEN WITHDRAWAL
Berlin hints at retreat as British forces drive near heart of port
Americans pierce German front in center, push into La Haye for fourth time
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
As the British drove forward into Caen and a decisive battle raged, the Nazi began withdrawing some forces from Caen indicating they were ready to evacuate that port (1). U.S. forces cut a hole in the center of the Nazi front (2) with the capture of Saint-Jean-de-Daye and drove near Pont-Hébert. U.S. forces again drove into La Haye-du-Puits and made new advances along both sides of that road junction (3).
SHAEF, London, England –
British troops smashed into Caen Saturday, sweeping through 12 suburban forts in a juggernaut offensive to within half a mile of the center of the city, and Berlin hinted that the Germans were abandoning the burned and battered bastion on the road to Paris.
Official Allied advices said that German big guns and tanks were on the move along the last two available roads out of Caen under fire of British and Canadian forces that had severed 12 highways serving the road center, indicating that evacuation of the city had begun.
Patrols may already have penetrated the inner city, and it appeared that Gen. Sir B. L. Montgomery’s British 2nd Army had met and mastered the main German force facing the French beachhead in a battle that may go down as one of the decisive actions of the war.
Yanks back in La Haye
U.S. troops at their end of the 120-mile offensive front swept into La Haye-du-Puits for the fourth time and on their east flank captured Saint-Jean-de-Daye, drilling a deep hole near the center of the German front.
Hundreds of German prisoners were taken as the British hacked through stone villages in Caen’s western, northern and northeastern outskirts where German resistance, fierce when the attack started before dawn, wilted late in the day under the overpowering assaults.
German heavy guns and tanks, it was indicated, were withdrawing to a new line below Caen and the Berlin radio, pessimistic throughout the day on the battle for the city, said last night that “it is not improbable we may shorten our lines by withdrawing them beyond Caen.”
Caen big as Cherbourg
Caen, with a population of 50,000, is as big as Cherbourg and ranks as France’s seventh port. It lies nine miles from the sea but has a large floating basin and huge docking space with outlets to the coast through the Orne River and Canal.
The 11:30 p.m. Allied communiqué reported steady gains were made Saturday on all active portions of the front, with the Americans back in La Haye and holding all high ground in the area.
After capturing Saint-Jean seven miles southeast of Carentan, the Yanks linked two spearheads in the central sector and plunged on south toward important Pont-Hébert through a hail of fire from 88mm and rocket shells, leaving the enemy’s main forts behind.
May change war’s course
But the flaming focal point of the entire battle area was Caen, where the British were slashing away at the buckle of the German front in fighting which an official commentator said might change the course of the war.
If Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s main armored forces can be smashed in the present battle, the 120 miles to Paris may be covered far more swiftly than has been anticipated, it was said.
Late dispatches from the front said Canadian anti-tank gunners knocked out 17 German tanks yesterday. They reported the battle was largely an infantry and artillery operation and that the first thrust had cracked most of the strong ring of German defenses around Caen.
Attack on 7-mile front
The Tommies attacked on a seven-mile front running from southwest to north of Caen at Gen. Sir B. L. Montgomery’s favorite hour – about 4:30 a.m. under a waning room. More than 450 RAF heavy bombers and additional U.S. mediums had softened up the German defenses with almost 3,000 tons of bombs in high-precision attacks beginning at dusk Friday.
Just before the troops moved forward, hundreds of massed guns flashed through the blackness in a famous “Monty barrage.”
The British leaped to the attack from points little more than two miles from the heart of Caen in positions they had held since D-Day, but those last few thousand yards, bristling with fortifications, were as tough as any encountered by Gen. Montgomery’s veteran desert warriors.
The Germans fought back stubbornly, but late in the day the British had pushed froward their front from 2,500 yards to two miles, reaching within half a mile of the heart of the city at some points, front dispatches said.
Huge casualties reported
Captured in the advance were 12 fortified villages, including Galamanche (three miles north-northwest of Caen), La Bijude and Lébisey (both two miles north-northeast), Couvre-Chef (one-and-a-half miles north), Hérouville (two miles northeast), Épron (three miles north) and Buron and Gruchy (both three miles northwest). The closest approach to the center of Caen was believed from the Couvre-Chef direction, where a British spearhead reported well south of that station on the railroad to the coast.
Huge casualties were reported being inflicted on the Germans as the 2nd Army smashed forward with every type of arms including flamethrowers and flail tanks which acted as land-going minesweepers. Spokesmen cautioned that their own losses may prove severe.
Yanks back on offensive
Front dispatches said that the Yanks went back to the offensive along almost the full 40 miles of the western sector after a night-long barrage, scoring most heavily in the Saint-Jean-de-Daye sector.
Saint-Jean was occupied almost without resistance after the Yanks crashed in heavy force across the Vire River and the Vire-Taute Canal leading into it and joined forces in a surge toward Pont-Hébert, four and a half miles farther south.
Under the power and consistency of the American attacks, German resistance seemed to be wavering, a front dispatch from Henry T. Gorrell said, but was still well organized.
Gradually advancing
The Germans were still matching the Yanks almost blow for blow farther west, but Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s troops were gradually if not spectacularly forcing their way to the open country inland from the Cherbourg Peninsula.
On the coastal side of La Haye, they swept through Biémont, two and a half miles southwest, and drove on toward the estuary of the Ay River, where the sheltered harbor of Saint-Germain possessed landing facilities of some importance.
The Yanks cleaned out the entire western side of the Mont-Castre forest east of La Haye.
Five miles from Périers
Farther inland, the doughboys were only five miles from the junction of Périers at two points: near Le Plessis on the main road in from the north and in the Sainteny sector on the Carentan road from the northeast.
The Germans, although hard put to do it, were still reinforcing the American sector.
An Allied commentator, asked to describe the situation in La Haye, said:
It can’t be said that the city is fully liberated although the mayor holds in his hands a speech of welcome which he hopes to deliver shortly to American troops.
Yanks and French close on Livorno
Three Nazi outposts of Gothic Line seized
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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Suicide attack on Saipan costs Japs 1,500 killed
Enemy pierces U.S. lines in charge before dawn, but is halted after half day
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – (July 8)
Desperate Jap troops cornered on the northern tip of Saipan Island opened a string counterattack against U.S. forces before dawn Thursday and scored a net ground gain of about three-fourths of a mile at a cost of approximately 1,500 dead, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced today. U.S. casualties were also numerous.
A Pacific Fleet communiqué also disclosed a total of 66 Jap planes were destroyed and 96 damaged in the previous-announced carrier attacks on Chichi and Haha Islands in the Bonin group.
Marines and soldiers who have been closing in for the kill on Saipan halted the Jap counteroffensive after a half-day of severe fighting.
The enemy drove 2,000 yards into our lines before the U.S. troops smashed back and stopped the fanatic Japs trying to sell Saipan as dearly as possible.
The right flank of the U.S. forces continued to advance and reached a point slightly more than a mile from the uncompleted airfield at Marpi Point at the extreme northern end of the 15-mile-long island.
“Several thousand” Japs participated in the counterattack. They lunged against the American left flank before sunrise and reached the outskirts of Tanapag Town, captured by U.S. troops several days ago.
The enemy assault was pinned down before noon. Then the Americans began pushing the Japs back and recovered approximately 800 yards of the ground they had lost.
The counterattack appeared to be a hopeless gesture by the remnants of a garrison which now faces either death or capture on the narrow northern tip of Saipan.
While the ground fighting reached a new peak of intensity on the northwestern shore, the Jap garrison on Tinian Island, two and a half miles south of Saipan, opened an artillery barrage against U.S.-held Isely Airfield across the Tinian Channel.
U.S. destroyers and artillery on Saipan quickly silenced the Jap batteries.
Dr. Goebbels: Germans warned of ‘grave danger’
‘May not fight again for 10 to 50 years’
London, England – (July 8)
Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels told the German people today that the Reich is in “grave danger” and that if it is destroyed, Germany “will not have a chance to repeat this struggle for another 10, 20 or 50 years,” the DNB News Agency reported.
Goebbels’ warning, coming almost immediately after Adolf Hitler’s admission to German industrialists that the Reich’s industries were being far outstripped by the Allies, was directed to a mass meeting of 200,000 Germans at an unidentified town “in the east” and broadcast for German consumption.
Warns of nation’s fate
In an apparent attempt to frighten the German people into working and fighting with the energy of desperation, Goebbels said:
Our enemies have made it cynically clear what fate awaits the nation in the event of the defeat they hope and strain for.
Our enemies will not be satisfied with destroying our industries, paralyzing our economic life, transporting our soldiers and workers to Siberia and slashing our country to pieces.
No, they wish on their own testimony to destroy the German nation in its national substance.
‘Still chance for victory’
“Every single German must now act as though his life is in danger,” he said.
Despite the deepening crisis, Goebbels told the Germans they “still hold all chances of victory in our hands,” asserting that the Allies face growing difficulties, too.
Goebbels said the real decisive fighting was still to come. He said:
At Cherbourg, German troops not only fought to the last cartridge but to the last drop of blood, showing that the word capitulation did not exist in their vocabulary.
He would have died, but –
19 quarts of blood, plasma poured into wounded Yank
Liver ruptured, spleen shattered and stomach perforated, now he’s recovering
By Thomas R. Henry, North American Newspaper Alliance
With U.S. forces in France – (July 5, delayed)
The body of an American soldier was completely refilled with blood – five quarts – to save his life in the course of a two-hour operation.
His liver had been ruptured, his spleen shattered and his stomach perforated from a shell explosion, all of them probably fatal wounds. He is now recovering.
This operation was part of a 60-hour ordeal for Maj. Stewart Welsh, a surgeon from Albany Medical College, who operated on wounded soldiers for this entire period with only a three-hour fitful nap, on the Cherbourg front.
Gets 14 quarts of plasma
The soldiers arrived in a state of shock. Two quarts of fresh blood were given at once to revive him to stand the surgery. This blood is donated by English civilians, flown to France daily, and delivered to every U.S. hospital base here in a big refrigerator van, touring the front continuously. The same van delivers penicillin supplies so there is no shortage possible.
During the operation, the man was given a third quart and immediately afterward two more quarts. The normal human body – no matter what the weight – contains five quarts. In addition, during and after the operation, the soldier got 14 quarts of blood plasma to counteract the shock. When he reached the operating table, Maj. Welsh had little hope that he would survive. Great quantities of blood had been lost from the liver wound. But the soldier rallied rapidly at the evacuation hospital commanded by Col. Paul Hayes of Washington.
Handles 3,000 cases
In the last two days, 185 cases of major surgery have been performed by the 32 surgeons under Maj. Welsh. Minor surgery, such as setting scores of arms and legs, is not mentioned. The surgeons work in two-men teams in 12-hour shifts, never stopping. Then they spend four hours preparing for the next shift. Brain and jaw injuries are the most frequent because the lower part of the body is protected in the small-arms fighting which is taking place behind shoulder-high garden walls along the roads.
This single hospital has handled nearly 3,000 cases since the campaign started. It is now aided by American surgical teams of specialists, moving from hospital to hospital as the burden mounts.
Although the total replacement of blood in two hours is unique, the same surgeons have had other cases which have been refilled five times – five quarts each time – in a week. This blood is burned up by gas gangrene, but the men now being evacuated are recovering.
Important experiments are underway here with a combination of penicillin and sulfadiazine on gangrene, formerly one of war’s worst scourges, but now often successfully combatted by sulfa drugs. Every victim is given a full dose of both drugs. Preliminary indications show synergic action, that is, one increasing the effect of the other.
District still behind –
U.S. over the top in War Loan Drive
Fort Pitt area falls $27.5 million short
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Oil City ace wanted to become a doctor but now he’s bad medicine for Germans
Col. Gabreski always worshipped planes; cadet program gave him chance to fly
By George Swetnam
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Power chairman gets approval
Senators split along party lines
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Mass is planned for fire victims
Community memorial service also set
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Closer to Philippines –
Doughboys mop up on Noemfoor
One of the airfields already in use
By Don Caswell, United Press staff writer
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Japan to face sea and air blitz
Superfortresses, Saipan to aid new attacks
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Wants 100,000 ships –
Navy boosts amphibious craft goal
Losses, new needs bring action
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Quick medical attention saves many Yank lives
Ample supplies and early evacuation of wounded keep casualty lists down
Washington (UP) – (July 8)
Ample medical supplies and attention and quick evacuation saved the lives of many wounded American soldiers on the Normandy beachhead, the War Department disclosed tonight.
A report by Maj. Gen. Paul R. Hawley, chief surgeon of the European Theater of Operations, to Army Surgeon General Norman T. Kirk, told the story of rapid aid to the wounded.
Gen. Hawley said the 9th Air Force “got in there fast after D-Day” and was carrying out air evacuation of wounded to England three days after the invasion. Many wounded were flown back within an hour after reaching evacuation points behind the lines. Few waited at these points more than 12 hours.
Few arrive in shock
The flight to the United Kingdom was about an hour. Ambulances quickly transferred the patients to hospitals nearby. Air has now supplanted almost all other types of evacuation.
Field hospital platoons were used as holding hospitals at airstrips and beaches for those sent to the United Kingdom.
Gen. Hawley wrote:
The condition of the casualties on arrival in the United Kingdom has been surprisingly fine. Fractures have been well splinted. Shock has been treated on the LSTs (Landing Ship, Tanks) and hospital carriers, and it is a rare patient who arrives in shock.
Both whole blood and plasma have been plentiful in every medical installation from the clearing station to the hospital. There has been enough penicillin to treat all the cases that required it and the freedom of wounds from infection has been a source of surprise to all of our surgeons.
Supply called superb
Gen. Hawley described the medical supply as “superb.” He said he found no hospital or station in France without ample quantities.
Many American soldiers owe their lives to surgeons aboard LST boats on D-Day, Gen. Hawley wrote. The Army placed an experienced surgeon on each craft. In addition, there were two young naval medical officers and about 20 hospital corpsmen.
Reception of wounded in Britain went smoothly. Specially trained Negro litter bearers handled casualties gently.