America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

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

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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

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

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

Power chairman gets approval

Senators split along party lines


Mass is planned for fire victims

Community memorial service also set

De Gaulle ends conferences with President

Officials amazed at prevailing harmony

Closer to Philippines –
Doughboys mop up on Noemfoor

One of the airfields already in use
By Don Caswell, United Press staff writer


Japan to face sea and air blitz

Superfortresses, Saipan to aid new attacks

Wants 100,000 ships –
Navy boosts amphibious craft goal

Losses, new needs bring action


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.

Pacific storm sinks former luxury liner

President Grant crew loses 100-day fight

Imagine! No steaks for weeks!
War fates dealt ‘cruelly’ with Rome’s idle rich

St. Louis gal who felt sorry for ‘nice Nazis’ said Fascists were ‘just having fun’
By Carleton Kent, North American Newspaper Alliance

4,000 planes batter Nazis around Caen

1,000 hit oil plants in Austria, Hungary
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer

SHAEF, London, England –
More than 4,000 Allied planes roared over the flaming Norman battlefields yesterday and laid a shattering barrage across the German frontlines around Caen, while a mighty sky fleet of well over 1,000 Italian-based raiders bombed Nazi oil refineries and airfields in Austria and Hungary.

Headquarters announced that the overall number of sorties would total more than 4,000, including 1,200 flown from Normandy airfields in close support of U.S. and British ground attacks.

Wireless station set afire

Headquarters announced that Normandy-based fighters shot down two German planes against a loss of one. Meanwhile, Spitfires of the air defenses of Great Britain set fire to a wireless station at Combourg, 20 miles southeast of Saint-Malo, and strafed various targets from Brittany to Laon.

Wave upon wave of U.S. Marauders thundered over the heads of the charging British troops throughout the morning, splattering their bombloads upon enemy gun batteries and strongpoints in the Caen sector, many of which were still smoldering from a savage, 2,500-ton night bombardment by the RAF’s heavyweights.

Thunderbolt fighters covered the Marauders and raked the enemy lines with machine-gun and cannon fire. Nearly 100 Thunderbolt fighter-bombers, attacking from treetop height walked their bombs across German defenses. Not a single German plane attempted to interfere with the raid, and the Nazis threw up only a feeble anti-aircraft barrage that caught one Marauder.

Smash rail bridge

Simultaneously, other Marauder formations reached inland to smash a railway bridge across the Eure River at Nogent-le-Roi, 70 miles southwest of Paris, and another across the Loire at Saumur.

At midafternoon, another force of thunderbolts and Lightnings bombed the network of railway lines feeding into the battle area, hitting 40 points between La Chapelle and Combourg, between Craon and Laval, and in the neighborhood of Rennes and Alençon.

The Nazi robot bomb bases along the Pas-de-Calais area were attacked by medium-sized forces of U.S. 8th Air Force Liberators and Flying Fortresses.

Swarms of U.S. fighters covered the four-engined giants and, meeting no enemy opposition in the air, they fanned out over northern France to bomb and strafe targets of opportunity on the ground.

Wreck 20 planes

One Mustang formation commanded by Col. William J. “Wild Bill” Cummings Jr. of Lawrence, Kansas, and led today by Maj. Henry B. Kucheman Jr. of Richmond, Virginia, flushed a secret German airdrome in a forest southeast of Paris. Twenty enemy planes were destroyed on the ground at Dreux Airfield, south of Paris. Another Lightning fighter group shot up 11 locomotives, 50 freight cars and a flak tower, all without meeting a single enemy fighter. German anti-aircraft gunners, however, shot down 10 heavy bombers and one fighter.

Between 500 and 750 Flying Fortresses and Liberators, accompanied by probably as many fighters, swarmed up from their Italian bases to join in the assault on Axis Europe, blasting three oil refineries and three airfields in the Vienna area and another airdrome at Veszprém, 65 miles southwest of Budapest.

Returning crewmen said only weak enemy fighter opposition was encountered over Vienna, where the bombers touched off huge fires and explosions in the Floridsdorf Creditul Minier and Fanto Vösendorf refineries. The Floridsdorf refinery, in the northern suburbs of Vienna, is Austria’s largest crude oil distillation plant.

Blast airfields

Widespread damage was also inflicted on the nearby Zwölfaxing Markersdorf and Münchendorf airfields, all fighter bases covering Vienna, and on the Hungarian field.

The RAF was out in force last night, hurling 450 four-engined Lancasters and Halifaxes into a 2,500-ton raid on the German battlelines at Caen, while other raiding formations hit enemy communications lines in northern France and a force of Mosquito borders stabbed at Berlin. Other warplanes ranged over in France, Belgium and Holland on intruder patrols, shooting down at least nine enemy planes.

Thirty-three British planes were lost in the night operations.

Yank trapped four days by robot bomb explosion

Army cook loses all sense of time until rescued from building basement

americavotes1944

Barkley hinted as leading call for 4th term

May make speech nominating Roosevelt

Wallace to talk from Seattle tomorrow

Great Falls, Montana (UP) – (July 8)
Vice President Henry A. Wallace was here today en route from China to Washington, DC, where he will make a confidential report to President Roosevelt, Public Relations Officer Edward F. Carr of the Great Falls Army Air Base announced.

Mr. Wallace is en route to Seattle, where he plans to make a radio address, tomorrow afternoon at 6:30 p.m. ET, telling of his tour.

Washington (UP) – (July 8)
Democratic circles, in the throes of fresh speculation over vice-presidential prospects at the party’s national convention, circulated a report tonight that Senator Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley (D-KY) would make the speech nominating President Roosevelt for a fourth term.

There were some who believed that the President would insist on the renomination of Vice President Henry A. Wallace. But there were others who felt that Mr. Roosevelt would not remain adamant if opposition threatened to destroy convention unity. All, however, eagerly awaited Wallace’s radio address from Seattle tomorrow in the hope that he might drop some hint as to his own future plans.

Meanwhile, new names were listed as added starters in the vice-presidential speculative sweepstakes – a game that was being played by Democrats and Republicans alike. These were War Mobilization Director James F. Byrnes and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Others previously mentioned include House Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX), Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO) and Barkley.

Mr. Barkley was at his home in Paducah, Kentucky, and was not available for comment on the report that he would take the convention lead in calling for a fourth term. DNC officials here professed to have no knowledge of Barkley’s plan, but at least one of them said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the report were true that the Kentuckian would place Mr. Roosevelt in nomination.

Such an act by Senator Barkley would be final proof of his full reconciliation with the President following the Majority Leader’s angry reaction to the tax bill veto.

Democratic National Chairman Robert E. Hannegan, who conferred for an hour with the President last night, leaves for Chicago with his staff tomorrow to open headquarters and complete final plans for the convention July 19.

At Democratic headquarters here, it was indicated that this committee plans to draft a short platform in which emphasis will be placed on a clear, forthright foreign policy plank and on the past record of the administration.


Byrd: Radicals threaten party

Roanoke, Virginia (UP) – (July 8)
Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) today called upon the Democratic Party to return to “the greatest Democratic declaration in existence” – the party’s 1932 platform – and to reinstate the two-thirds vote in national conventions.

In a surprise address before the Virginia State Democratic Convention, Mr. Byrd said that disunity is threatening the Democratic Party as never before, and that a “return to sound principles of government” would do much to reassure the American people.

The delegates, later in the day, adopted a unanimous resolution to oppose a renomination of Henry A. Wallace as Vice President. The resolution asserted that Mr. Wallace “has become a convert to doctrines and ideologies foreign to the faith and traditions of Virginia.”

Mentioned by some Southern Democrats as a possible anti-Roosevelt presidential candidate, Mr. Byrd said the present cleavage in Democratic ranks was one “of basic principles.”

He said the Party could never be destroyed by a defeat from the Republican Party, but only by “the infiltration of alien philosophies” into its ranks. He said that repeal of the two-thirds rule had “stripped the South of its real power and voice in Democratic councils.”

Mr. Byrd said:

Communist-dominated radicals, who seek to infiltrate our party, were working for the abandonment of the American Constitution and the propagation of class and racial discrimination.