Eisenhower holds edge over Germans
Nazis kept guessing about next move
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
SHAEF, London, England – (July 15)
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, after having picked the most advantageous point on the entire French and Low Country coast for the invasion, has maintained since D-Day “complete strategic ascendancy over the enemy,” Supreme Headquarters state officially today.
It is now known that after 40 days of fighting the Germans, who tried to hold the beaches at all costs, are still confused about Allied intentions and unable to make a satisfactory realignment of their forces, the headquarters spokesman added.
Of the 60 divisions which were available to the Germans on D-Day for the entire Western European defense, about 20 to 25 are now engaged in Normandy – 11 to 12 on the American sector.
Attacks five beaches
Gen. Eisenhower snatched the advantage from the enemy at the moment of landing by smashing onto five beaches along a 15-mile front with assault forces so large that they equaled one-eighth of all German armies in the west, the spokesman said.
Sixty German divisions probably amount to 720,000 to 900,000 men which means that the Allied invasion army must have been between 90,000 and 112,000 men.
Used mathematical formula
He added:
The Germans had no clear convictions where our first landing was going to be. As a result, they fell back on a mathematical formula based on the theory that the danger of a landing increased with the proximity to England.
In Normandy, Gen. Eisenhower knew he was going to face eight enemy divisions. His troops were thrown against seven infantry and one panzer divisions.
The density of the German defense forces varied with the locality. Northward the density was reduced sharply toward the northern tip of Holland.
Few on southern coast
Southward it dwindled also but less sharply and from the Seine River on around the coast to Cherbourg, there was about one division for every 20 miles.
All the way from the mouth of the Loire River to the Spanish border, there were only three divisions of inferior quality.
On France’s Mediterranean coast, there was one division to every 30 miles on the western side and thinning out to one division for 60 miles in the easily-defendable Nice–Cannes area.
Russians praise U.S. invaders
With the U.S. Army in Normandy, France (UP) – (July 14, delayed)
A Russian general and two colonels, making the first Soviet visit to the American beachhead, said today that they were “pleased and impressed” and that the Americans were now in position where they can open up and go places.
The Russians were taken to the prisoner cages, where their eyes lighted when they looked upon the throngs of imprisoned Nazis.
They thought most of them a puny lot and one of the officers remarked: “All of the big Germans are already under the soil of Russia.”
The general was impressed by American air superiority. “In Russia,” he said, “we could not have our camps above ground as you Americans do here.”
His only criticism of U.S. methods was that we weren’t secretive enough. He said too many people had access to the situation maps at various headquarters.