America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

Saint-Lô seized by Yanks

Showdown struggle on in Normandy as Germans reel back
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

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The Yanks capture Saint-Lô in their bitterest battle of the Normandy campaign. The Americans seized Saint-Lô (3) today after U.S. vanguards had driven into the town yesterday and then been driven out. There was no official word of the fighting in the Lessay–Périers area, although the Nazi radio said the Yanks had started an expected attack against Lessay(1). The Americans seized a ridge overlooking the Saint-Lô–Périers highway halfway between the two towns (2). Fierce fighting continued around Noyers and Évrecy (4), towns which the British entered yesterday.

SHAEF, London, England –
The U.S. 1st Army captured bitterly defended Saint-Lô today and the British 2nd Army broke through below Caen behind a screen of almost 8,000 tons of bombs as the German line long containing the Normandy beachhead buckled in two vital sectors.

The showdown Battle of Normandy was in full swing, and Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s Allied armies had scored two significant victories in the massive onslaught aimed at breaking out of the German ring for a concerted sweep inland.

Soon after field dispatches announced the fall of Saint-Lô at the climax to the toughest U.S. battle in France, Gen. Montgomery announced that his armor had achieved a major breakthrough across the Orne below Caen.

A statement from Gen. Montgomery’s headquarters said:

The town of Vaucelles, lying on the south side of the Orne opposite Caen, is being cleared of the enemy, and strong armored and mobile forces are operating in the open country further to the southeast and south.

The most concentrated air bombardment in history paved the way for the British-Canadian breach in the German lines which broke the stalemate following the capture of Caen and sent the Allied armor careening forward toward the interior of France across the flat farmlands to the south and southeast.

8,000 tons of bombs

Fifteen hundred heavy bombers, 500 medium and light bombers, and hundreds of lighter plans pounded the German positions within a semicircle lying roughly seven miles around Caen between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m., cascading nearly 8,000 tons of explosives into a 75-square-mile area.

Four thousand Halifax and Lancaster heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force alone delivered 5,000 tons of bombs in 45 minutes. Six hundred U.S. Liberators swarmed in later to unload another great weight on the crumbling German positions.

Supreme Headquarters refused for the time being to delineate the breakthrough. The concentration of airpower indicated, however, that the attack was probably aimed across the Orne northeast of Caen, and broke out of the bridgehead maintained across the lower Orne since D-Day.

Nazi collapse threatened

The simultaneous reports from the front that Saint-Lô had fallen and the Germans were falling back in apparent preparation to abandon Périers and Lessay meant that the Normandy front was aflame everywhere, rolling forward, and threatening to collapse the overall German defenses if the original impetus can be maintained.

The following statement was issued from Gen. Montgomery’s headquarters:

Early this morning, British and Canadian troops of the 2nd Army attacked and broke through into the area east of the Orne and southeast of Caen.

The attack was preceded and supported by a very great weight of airpower organized by the Allied Expeditionary Force.

The town of Vaucelles, lying on the south side of the Orne opposite Caen, is being cleared of the enemy, and strong armored and mobile forces are operating in open country further to the southeast and south.

Heavy fighting continues. Gen. Montgomery is well satisfied with the progress made in the first day’s fighting of this battle.

Gen. Montgomery’s flat statement that a breakthrough had been achieved and his forces were advancing across the ideal tank country below Caen showed that the 2nd Army had achieved a success of gigantic proportions, which was expected to have tremendous effects on the entire battlefront.

Complete surprise

Complete surprise was achieved in the early morning offensive, despite the fact that the Germans had observation facilities over the entire length of the Orne.

This was due largely to the fact, which can now be revealed, that the series of British-Canadian assaults southwest of Caen represented an elaborate scheme to outwit Marshal Erwin Rommel on the location of the main attack. Actually, these attacks were limited in scope, involving a relatively small part of the great mass of tanks and infantry pouring into the bridgehead for 44 days.

The Germans had been packed into the Vaucelles suburb of Caen in strength, facing the British and Canadians across the Orne in the city, for nine days. But tonight, they were being cleared out of this last large inhabited area in the southwest environs of Caen.

United Press writer Henry T. Gorrell reported the conquest of the ancient citadel anchoring the center of the German defense line in a dispatch filed from the battlefront at 6:30 p.m.

“Saint-Lô fell this afternoon,” Mr. Gorrell said in his flash disclosing the significant U.S. victory after a bloody, swaying battle which for ferocity outdid the earlier fight for Cherbourg.

Strongest Nazi position

With Saint-Lô fallen after an all-out defense, the Germans were deprived of their strongest position for a stand on the perimeter of the Allied beachhead.

Coincident with their grudging surrender of Saint-Lô under the heaviest American pressure, the Germans carried out a general withdrawal along most of the line for between a little more than a mile and nearly two miles, Gorrell reported.

The Germans appeared to be straightening out their lines preparatory to taking up defense positions along the east-west ridges in Normandy, Mr. Gorrell said.

Fall foreshadowed

The fall of Saint-Lô was foreshadowed by the disclosure that U.S. assault forces had stormed back into the town hub of seven main roads radiating to all parts of Normandy, and the admission by the German radio that the furious battle was nearing a climax as U.S. troops closed in from three sides.

Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s army drove within a mile and a half of Saint-Lô July 12. Since then, the Americans and Germans had been slugging it out around the town.

Yesterday, the U.S. vanguard crashed into Saint-Lô, which is 175 miles west of Paris, only to be driven out and to forge back through its outskirts for violent fighting with bayonet and grenade in its battle-scarred streets.

Suburb captured

Shortly before Mr. Gorrell reported the capture of Saint-Lô, it was disclosed that the Americans had seized suburban Sainte-Croix-de-Saint-Lô, a mile from the heart of the wrecked town.

Allied headquarters announced that U.S. shock troops had brought the arterial highway northwestward to Périers under small-arms fire from a ridge 200 yards above it and about midway between the towns.

Premier Tōjō out as chief of Jap Army

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Allies threaten two Italian ports

Close to Livorno and Ancona to the east
By Clinton B. Conger, United Press staff writer

U.S. battleships hammer Guam

Former U.S. Navy base blasted 13th day

Trapped Japs kill civilians, selves in cave of horrors

Marines waiting outside hear screams of doomed babies, women and old men

‘Darn sight longer’ war predicted by air official

Stimson’s assistant says fighting in Europe is ‘awfully tough for Allies

Washington (UP) –
An “awfully tough” war in Europe that will last “a darn sight longer than anyone back home thinks except the military” is predicted by Robert A. Lovett, Assistant Secretary of War for Air.

Mr. Lovett, just back from a three-week visit to Britain and a tour of the Normandy beachhead, hit sharply at what he called “the unreasoning optimism that is prevailing back here.”

Although the German Air Force had been temporarily knocked out as a serious threat to Allied air supremacy, he said, a comeback “may eventually be expected.” And, he added:

I see the German Air Force revamping itself to play a new role, with such things as pilotless aircraft.

Mr. Lovett said difficult weather over France was hampering Allied aerial activities almost constantly, while the terrain on Normandy, cut up by hedges and walls into innumerable small fields about the size of six tennis courts each, was difficult for the ground forces.

He told how a six-day period of good weather last February, unprecedented for 30 years, had given the Allied Air Force an opportunity to smash German plane production in preparations for the June 6 invasion.

“That was the end of the Luftwaffe as a first-class striking force,” he said.

Warning of the danger of a comeback, however, he said the Germans could replace major factories in five or six months. He said since D-Day, German aircraft production had enjoyed a comparative respite from attack and it would be necessary to return and destroy the rebuilt plants again in the next four months.

Wallace given farewell pat by Roosevelt

Vice President going to Chicago to face foes
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Caucus votes 41–21 –
State Democrats split on Wallace

Even Cabinet members on opposite sides
By Kermit McFarland

War materials hit by strike in Bradford

Army, Navy officers seek to end walkout

Dewey charges plot against soldier vote

Demands ‘campaign of deceit be exposed’

Stokes: New Deal’s control of party at stake in Wallace dispute

Gleeful conservatives see chance to move in and regain rule
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Arizona, Montana vote in primaries

Taylor: Democrats really afraid of trend in critical states

By Henry J. Taylor, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Perkins: Democrats to heed labor demands ahead of white-collar plea

It’s safe bet the organized 15 million will get more than the unorganized 20 million
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer


Wallace denounced by Smith followers

Allen: Running mate for Roosevelt means VP – not Eleanor

And as long as No. 2 spot is wide open race, how about George Burns for the job?
By Gracie Allen

At Democratic conclave –
Liberal benefits to veterans urged

NAM pleads for private employment

Fate of Wallace delivered in a pale green envelope

Anonymous messenger hands letter, dated July 14, to Senator Jackson


Texas delegation battle shifted

2,000 planes rip Germany in U.S. pincer assault

Fliers from Britain hit robot experimental plant; Italy-based raiders attack in south
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer

London, England –
Two U.S. air fleets, totaling about 2,000 planes, struck from Britain and Italy today at Peenemünde, birthplace of Germany’s flying bombs, another Baltic experimental station, the great aircraft center of Friedrichshafen, and the Memmingen Air Base 60 miles southwest of Munich.

The U.S. 8th and 15th Air Forces teamed in the pincer attack on northern and southern Germany. The raid mounted from Britain may have interrupted work on rocket projectiles which Stockholm newspapers speculated might be aimed at the United States.

Crewmen of the nearly 750 Flying Fortresses and Liberators reported that they planted their bombs squarely on the Peenemünde and Zinnowitz targets, touching off great columns of smoke over the mysterious plants.

Three land in Sweden

Stockholm dispatches said three Fortresses landed near Malmö.

Italian headquarters announced the double-barreled raid on Friedrichshafen and Memmingen. Bern reported heavy explosions were audible from the direction of Friedrichshafen, but no German planes were seen in action against the Allied bombers. One U.S. bomber landed at the Dübendorf Airdrome in Switzerland.

The Flying Fortresses and their escort of 500 fighters sent a great weight of blockbusters and incendiary bombs crashing down on laboratories and other buildings at Peenemünde, 60 miles northwest of Stettin, and Zinnowitz, both on the Baltic Sea coast.

Weather good

Other unidentified targets in Northwest Germany were also hit by the 8th Air Force armada, which flew out from Britain in the first good weather in many days.

The fighter escort in the raid on North Germany shot down 21 enemy planes and lost two.

Crewmen said they saw their bombs crash on three buildings, comprising the target, where the Germans were understood to manufacture chemicals for use in connection with their flying bombs.

The raid on Peenemünde was the first since RAF bombers hit the town on the night of Aug. 17, 1943, killing several of Germany’s top scientists in a surprise attack that was believed to have set back experimental work on robot bombs by a number of months.

Making new robots

It was possible that the experimental stations at Peenemünde and Zinnowitz were now engaged in manufacturing and testing rocket projectiles which Swedish reports said carry 10 tons of explosives and are 25 times more destructive than the present jet-propelled missiles.

The air correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph said yesterday that reports the Germans have robot projectiles powerful enough to be sent to New York “cannot be completely disregarded.”

British four-engined Stirlings and Halifaxes last evening attacked robot bomb installations on coast of northern France while Mosquitoes raided Berlin. All bombers returned safely. A fighter which helped escort the bombers to northern France was lost, but the pilot was rescued.

Despite the heavy attacks on launching platforms in northern France, the Germans continued to hurl their robot bombs against London and southern England and additional damage and casualties were reported both last night and today.

College damaged

Censorship restrictions were lifted to permit disclosure that robot bombs recently had damaged the 325-year-old Dulwich College in London, though no casualties resulted.

For three hours after midnight, the southeast coast rocked under the vibration of a heavy bombardment across the strait and some reports said the salvoes of big guns could be heard among the crash of bombs.

With clearing weather, the Allies opened their large-scale air activity this morning over the Normandy battlefront, with strong forces of U.S. Marauders and Havocs ranging over the British front shortly after dawn to smash at tank and vehicle concentrations.

During the night, 2nd Tactical Air Force Mosquitoes bombed bridges over the Seine, including the important one at Vernon, and attacked river barges with cannon. Intruders destroyed at least one German plane during the night.

Fly 3,000 sorties

Supreme Headquarters announced that in yesterday’s 3,000 sorties, of which nearly 1,000 were in direct support of troops, 24 German planes were destroyed at a loss of 10 Allied aircraft.

Approximately 250 German fighters were reported over the battlefront yesterday, although they confined most of their activities to hit and run strafing of troops rather than aerial combat.

MacArthur fliers blast five ships

Troop-laden transport among those hit

Four powers to open talks on peace plan

Post-war parleys to begin next month