America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

8895

Gauleiter Grohe Reichskommissar in Belgien und Nordfrankreich

General Grase Wehrmachtbefehlshaber in Belgien und Nordfrankreich

Berlin, 19. Juli –
Durch Erlass des Führers vom 13. Juli 1944 ist die bisherige Militärverwaltung in Belgien und Nordfrankreich durch eine Zivilverwaltung ersetzt worden, an deren Spitze der Reichskommissar für die besetzten Gebiete von Belgien und Nordfrankreich steht. Zum Reichskommissar für die besetzten Gebiete von Belgien und Nordfrankreich hat der Führer den Gauleiter Grohe ernannt.

Für den zu Nordfrankreich gehörigen Teil des Gebietes wird ein besonderer, dem Reichskommissar für die besetzten Gebiete von Belgien und Nordfrankreich unmittelbar unterstehender Zivilkommissar bestellt werden.

Mit dieser Neuregelung ist die Dienststelle des Militärbefehlshabers in Belgien und Nordfrankreich in Fortfall gekommen. Dem Militärbefehlshaber oblag außer der Verwaltung des ihm unterstehenden Gebietes auch die Ausübung der militärischen Hoheitsrechte in ihm. Die Ausübung dieser Rechte wird künftig durch den Wehrmachtbefehlshaber in Belgien und Nordfrankreich erfolgen. Zum Wehrmachtbefehlshaber in Belgien und Nordfrankreich hat der Führer den General der Infanterie Grase ernannt.

Am 18. Juli hat der bisherige Militärbefehlshaber in Belgien und Nordfrankreich, Generaloberst von Falkenhausen, in Brüssel die Geschäfte des zivilen Bereichs dem neuen Reichskommissar, Gauleiter Grohe, und die Geschäfte des militärischen Bereichs dem General der Infanterie Grase übergeben.

8896

Roosevelts Moskauhörigkeit –
Die USA müssen sich auf die Sowjets einstellen

…

8897

Herzen und Maschinen

pk. Normandiefront, im Juli –
Auf einer Anhöhe über dem Marktflecken Évrecy, 12 Kilometer südwestlich von Caen, steht an einer Weggabel im Schatten uralter Bäume eine der zahlreichen religiösen Statuen, die ebenso zum Landschaftsbild der Normandie gehören wie ihre sanften Täler, ihre geschwungenen Wiesen, ihre Obstgärten und breitgelagerten Bauernhöfe. Man spürt auch aus diesen Denkmälern, so arm sie sein mögen an künstlerischem Wert und Ausdrucksvermögen, daß in dieser ländlichen Provinz die Kräfte des Herkommens und der bäuerlichen Beharrlichkeit sich zähe behaupteten So mögen noch vor vier Wochen als das Gewitter des Krieges sich über ihren Häuptern zusammenzog, die Einwohner von Évrecy ihre Gebete zu der „Schwarzen Madonna“ gelenkt haben, die von ihrem Hügel über Felder und Häuser blickte. Aber die zerstörende Macht des Krieges ließ ihre Furien so grausam wie nur möglich über dieses friedliche Stück Erde rasen. Heute schaut das verlassene Standbild über ein Feld von Tod und Verwüstung.

Hier tobte vor wenigen Tagen, in der letzten Woche des Junis, als die Briten mit aller Gewalt zum Durchbruch an Caen vorbei ansetzten, die Hölle der Materialschlacht. Das Dorf selbst sank unter einem Schauer von Bomben und Granaten in Schutt. Die Äcker wurden in weitem Umkreis aufgewühlt. Auf den Wiesen liegen, aufgedunsen in der sommerlichen Glut, die Kadaver der rotbraun gescheckten Kühe, die sonst den Reichtum und Stolz des Landes bildeten. Alles ging unter in dem tödlichen Regen von Feuer und Eisen, und die wenigen, die verschont blieben, eilten davon, um das nackte Dasein zu retten. Und doch triumphierten auch in dieser Landschaft der entfesselten mechanisierten Vernichtung Geist und Seele von Menschen über die Drohungen und den Schrecken mörderischer Maschinen. Die deutschen Soldaten, die am 29. Juni der britischen Angriffswalze nördlich von Évrecy entgegentraten, durchmaßen stürmend den Feuervorhang des Feindes. Sie warfen ihn aus dem Dorf Gavrus, mußten dort eine Sturmflut schwerer und schwerster Artilleriekaliber über sich ergehen lassen, wie sie selbst die am härtesten geprüften Kämpfer des Ostens noch nirgends erlebt hatten. Es blieb ihnen keine Wahl, als dieser Lawine von Stahl vorübergehend auszuweichen. Aber als die britische Infanterie von neuem den Weg betrat, den ihre Artillerie gebahnt hatte, wurde sie vom deutschen Schwung abermals, und nun endgültig, aus den Ruinen des Ortes hinausgeschlagen.

Jetzt liegt – wer weiß auf wie lange – über dem Schlachtfeld von ehegestern Ruhe oder wenigstens das, was nach dem Höllenzauber der vorausgegangenen Tage als Ruhe empfunden wurde. Das Trommelfeuer, das manche Abschnitte zeitweilig mit 30 Einschlägen in der Minute überschüttet hatte, ist verstummt. Nur dann und wann, in unregelmäßigen Abständen, unberechenbar nach Zeit und Ziel, kommt überfallartig der Segen der Granaten von drüben herniedergerauscht, oder ein Schwarm feindlicher Jagdbomber lädt dort, wo er einen wichtigen Punkt im Gefüge unserer Stellungen erkannt zu haben glaubt, seine Last ab oder schießt aus seinen niederträchtig kläffenden Kanonen. Aber inzwischen haben unsere Männer Zeit gehabt, sich einzugraben. In der Deckung ihrer Erdlöcher sehen sie einem neuen Angriff des Briten voller Selbstbewusstsein entgegen.

Wir haben den Feind auch an den Küsten des Kanals so wiedergesehen, wie wir ihn bereits von früheren Begegnungen kannten. Zeit und Ort seiner Landung, seine Taktik und seine Methode der Kriegführung – in allem befolgte er die Regeln, von denen er sich seit je leiten ließ: nirgends anzutreten, ohne vorher eine gewaltige Übermacht an Material bereitgestellt zu haben, nicht auf seine Kämpfer zu bauen, sondern auf seine Maschinen. Es ist die deutlich sichtbare Absicht unserer Feinde, den Krieg im Westen nach den gleichen Gesetzen weiterzutreiben, nach denen sie ihn begonnen haben. Nur dort holen sie zu größeren Unternehmungen aus, wo nach ihren Berechnungen die kämpferischen Tugenden des deutschen Frontsoldaten dem toten Gewicht ihrer materiellen Stärke nicht die Waage zu halten vermögen. Freilich erleben sie es immer wieder, daß sie in ihren Kalkulationen jene magische Größe des deutschen Herzens zu gering veranschlagen.

Jeder Angriff der Briten und Amerikaner läuft nach dem gleichen Schema ab. Zunächst rollt über unsere Stellungen ein wildes Bombardement aus der Luft. Dann fällt das Geheul der Artillerie ablösend in den infernalischen Chor der Detonationen ein. Stundenlang kann das Trommelfeuer währen, in dessen kaum entwirrbaren Stimmen schwere Schiffskaliber – bis zu 40,6 Zentimeter – den Grundakkord angeben. In die letzten Einschläge mischt sich, nicht mehr mit dem Ohr, sondern nur mit dem Auge zu erfassen, die Explosion von Nebelgranaten, deren milchiger Auswurf das Gelände in dichten Schwaden überzieht. Aus ihrem undurchdringlichen Schleier brechen dann die Panzer hervor. Das Brüllen ihres Motors kündigt sie an, ehe ihre Umrisse auftauchen oder die begleitenden Infanteristen sichtbar werden.

Aber wie schon so oft, nicht nur auf den Schlachtfeldern unserer Väter, sondern auch in diesem Kriege, in den Wäldern und Sümpfen des nördlichen Sowjetrusslands, in den deckungslosen Feldern der Ukraine, in den Wüsten Afrikas und in den Felsenschluchten Italiens, schlagt dann die Stunde des deutschen Einzelkämpfers. Die Zahl von 1.059 Panzern, die in den ersten 30 Tagen seit Beginn der Invasion zur Strecke gebracht wurden, spricht mit der Kraft eines Hammerschlages, was unsere Soldaten an der Kanalfront geleistet haben. In ihr liegt beschlossen, daß wir keinen Augenblick das Gefühl hatten, diesem Gegner unterlegen zu sein, weder im Wert unserer Waffen, und vollends nicht im Kampfe Mann gegen Mann. Wo unsere „Tiger“ und „Panther“ auf die besten Panzer des Feindes stießen, da fiel kein deutscher Kampfwagen aus, der nicht zuvor eine Mehrzahl des Gegners außer Gefecht gesetzt hätte. Wo unsere Werfer sprechen und das gefürchtete deutsche Maschinengewehr seinen pausenlosen tödlichen Gesang anhebt, da liegt auf den Gesichtern der Gefangenen die Verstörung lähmenden Schreckens.

Gerade unter diesem Maßstab, in der Haltung gegenüber den hochgezüchteten Maschinen der Vernichtung, offenbart sich am deutlichsten, um wieviel der deutsche Soldat als Kämpfer und Mann über seinem anglo-amerikanischen Gegner steht. Läge der Feind uns heute gegenüber, ohne den Schirm seiner Luftwaffe, ohne den Panzer seines Artilleriefeuers – keiner unter uns zweifelt, daß sie schneller in den Kanal zurückfluten würden, als sie kamen, und darin liegt zugleich eine der Quellen unseres festen Zukunftsglaubens.

Eine unerschütterliche Ruhe strahlte von dem General aus, dessen Fallschirmjägerdivision in der ersten Woche der Schlacht in der Normandie einem höchst kritischen Angriff des Feindes entgegentreten mußte. Aus dem Marsch heraus wurden ihre vordersten Teile den Amerikanern entgegengeworfen, die an dieser Stelle eine Lücke gefunden hatten und mit aller Kraft hineingestoßen waren. Teile zweier deutscher Regimenter, die sich erst allmählich auf ihre volle Stärke ergänzen konnten, unter ihnen viele blutjunge Freiwillige, die hier zum erstenmal ins Feuer kamen, hatten den Anprall zweier Divisionen auszuhalten. Auf dem Gefechtsstand des Generals liefen zuerst ungünstige Meldungen ein. Feindliche Panzer waren durchgebrochen, der eigene linke Flügel hing vorübergehend in der Luft, die schweren Waffen kamen nicht rasch genug heran, es stand nicht zum Besten. In dieser Lage siegte die Nervenstärke der Führung und das Vertrauen auf die Truppe.

Die Schlachtfelder der Normandie haben manch eine Szene von gleicher Einsatzbereitschaft gesehen. Jede von ihnen spiegelt im Kleinen, was an der Front der Invasion im Ganzen vorgeht: es ist der unerbittliche Kampf, den Menschen gegen das Material bestehen müssen. Sie wissen, daß ihnen auf die Dauer der Erfolg versagt bleiben müsste, wenn das Verhältnis der Massen und Waffen, die hüben und drüben zu Geboten stehen, eine unveränderliche Größe wäre. Aber sie halten aus in dem Vertrauen, daß die Erfindungskraft des deutschen Geistes bereits die Mittel geboren hat, die in absehbarer Zeit dem Gegner die Vorteile aus der Hand schlagen sollen, auf die er sich heute stützt. Sie hoffen auf den Tag, an dem sie dem Feind unter gleichen Bedingungen entgegentreten können. In Erwartung dieser Stunde wachsen der Front selbst im Unwetter der Materialschlacht immer von neuem die Kräfte zu, um die Not des Augenblicks zu überwinden.

FRITZ ZIERKE

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Innsbrucker Nachrichten (July 20, 1944)

Vergebliche Durchbruchsversuche in der Normandie

Die Trümmer von Saint-Lô aufgegeben – Vergeltungsfeuer auf London – Erbitterte Kämpfe in Italien und an der Ostfront

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 20. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

In der Normandie setzte der Feind seine Angriffe im Raum östlich und südöstlich Caen mit starker Panzerartillerie und Fliegerunterstützung während des ganzen Tages fort, ohne daß ihm der erstrebte Durchbruch gelang. Nach erbitterten Kämpfen, die den ganzen Tag hindurch in Saint-Lô tobten, wurden die Trümmer der Stadt aufgegeben. Feindliche Vorstöße aus der Stadt heraus nach Süden sowie starke örtliche Angriffe der Nordamerikaner weiter nordwestlich brachen verlustreich zusammen.

Schlachtflieger unterstützten die Abwehrkämpfe der Erdtruppen in wirksamen Tiefangriffen und vernichteten 10 feindliche Panzer. In Luftkämpfen wurden 16 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.

In der Nacht griffen Kampf- und Nachtschlachtflugzeuge feindliche Bereitstellungen nördlich Caen mit guter Wirkung an. In Munitions- und Betriebsstofflagern entstanden Brände und Explosionen. In der Nacht vom 18. auf 19. Juli schossen Nachtjäger über Nordfrankreich 30 viermotorige britische Bomber ab.

Batterien der Kanalinsel Alderney schossen einen feindlichen Geleitzerstörer in Brand, der nach heftigen Explosionen sank.

Im französischen Raum wurden erneut 151 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.

Das Vergeltungsfeuer auf London dauerte die ganze Nacht über an.

In Italien drang der Feind in erbitterten, für ihn besonders verlustreichen Kämpfen in den Südteil von Livorno und in die völlig zerstörten Hafenanlagen ein, wo heftige Straßenkämpfe entbrannten. In den Abendstunden wurden unsere Truppen auf Stellungen nördlich der Stadt zurückgenommen. Nordwestlich Poggibonsi scheiterten zahlreiche Angriffe des Gegners. Westlich Ancona gelang es dem Feind, nach erbitterten Kämpfen auf dem Nordufer des Esinoflusses mit schwächeren Kräften Fuß zu fassen. Seine mit besonderer Wucht entlang der Küstenstraße geführten Angriffe brachen dagegen sämtlich zusammen.

An der Ostfront stehen unsere Divisionen im Raum östlich Lemberg in schweren Abwehrkämpfen. Feindliche Durchbruchsversuche in Richtung auf die Stadt selbst wurden aufgefangen. Von Kowel hervordringende starke sowjetische Kräfte wurden am Bug zum Stehen gebracht.

Auch im Mittelabschnitt dauern nördlich Brest heftige Kämpfe an. Im Raum von Grodno auf das Westufer des Njemen übergesetzte sowjetische Kampfgruppen wurden in Gegenangriffen zurückgeworfen. Im Seengebiet nordwestlich und nördlich Wilna sowie zwischen der Düna und Ostrow wurden starke Angriffe der Sowjets in wechselvollen Kämpfen zerschlagen und einige Einbrüche abgeriegelt. Allein im Abschnitt eines Korps wurden hier in den letzten sieben Tagen 215 feindliche Panzer vernichtet.

Der Stabsgefreite Unger in einer Panzerjägerabteilung schoss gestern mit seinem Geschütz elf schwere sowjetische Panzer ab.

Die Luftwaffe führte zahlreiche Tiefangriffe gegen feindliche Bereitstellungen und Kolonnen und vernichtete wiederum zahlreiche Panzer und über 230 motorisierte und bespannte Fahrzeuge. In Luftkämpfen und durch Flakartillerie wurden 56 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen. Starke Verbände deutscher Kampfflugzeuge richteten schwere Angriffe gegen die sowjetischen Nachschubstützpunkte Molodeczno, Nowosokolniki und Welikijes Luki.

Nordamerikanische Bomberverbände führten von Westen und Süden Terrorangriffe gegen West-, Südwest- und Süddeutschland. Vor allem in den Wohnbezirken der Städte München, Koblenz, Schweinfurt und Saarbrücken entstanden Schäden. Die Bevölkerung hatte Verluste. Durch Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 61 feindliche Flugzeuge zum Absturz gebracht. In der Nacht griffen britische Störflugzeuge das Stadtgebiet von Bremen an.

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U.S. Navy Department (July 20, 1944)

CINCPAC Press Release No. 480

For Immediate Release
July 20, 1944

More complete reports of the carrier aircraft attack on Guam Island on July 18 (West Longitude Date) raise the tonnage of bombs dropped to 401 from the previous total of 148 announced in Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas Press Release No. 479. Widespread and heavy damage has been done to military objectives on Guam as a result of coordinated aerial bombing and shelling by surface ships.

Pagan Island in the Northern Marianas was bombed twice on July 17.

Chichijima and Hahajima in the Bonin Islands were attacked by Liberator search planes of Group One, Fleet Air Wing Two, on July 18. The attacks were made from low level. Eleven seaplanes were damaged and four coastal vessels were set afire by strafing. At Hahajima a small cargo ship was sunk. Several fires were started among buildings on the seaplane base. Anti-aircraft fire was moderate. All of our aircraft returned.

On Saipan Island, shore‑based artillery and aircraft are being used to neutralize enemy defenses on Tinian Island. Selected targets are being shelled from the sea by our light surface units. As of July 17, our forces have buried 19,793 enemy dead.

The naval base at Dublon Island in Truk Atoll was bombed on July 18 by 7th Army Air Force Liberators. Two of eight airborne enemy fighters were damaged by our planes. Seven of our planes received some damage, but all returned. Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force, Catalina search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, and Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing continued neutralization raids against enemy positions in the Marshalls on July 18.

Amphibious operations for the assault and capture of Saipan Island were directed by VAdm. Richmond K. Turner, U.S. Navy Commander Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet. All assault troops engaged in the seizure of Saipan were under command of Lt. Gen. Holland McT. Smith, USMC, Commanding General Fleet Marine Forces, Pacific. Maj. Gen. Sanderford Jarman, USA, has resumed command of Saipan as Island Commander.

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The Pittsburgh Press (July 20, 1944)

Hitler, 13 aides injured by assassination bomb

Adolf burned, bruised in headquarters blast; believed ‘inside job’

hitler43
Adolf Hitler, escapes assassin’s blast

Bulletin

London, England –
A German broadcast at 7:00 p.m. CET repeated the announcement of the attempt on Adolf Hitler’s life and followed through with martial music in place of a previously scheduled discourse on “The Extermination of Rats.”

London, England (UP) –
The official German news agency DNB announced that Adolf Hitler and 13 of his top military and naval collaborators were injured today in an attempt on the Führer’s life when a bomb exploded during a conference at the Führer’s headquarters.

DNB listed Hitler’s injuries as slight burns, bruises and a light concussion of the brain.

The weight of the blast fell upon a cluster of gold-braided Nazis around him. They included seven generals and two admirals. Three were seriously wounded and 10 others, among them Gen. Alfred Jodl, chief of Hitler’s personal military staff and an ardent Nazi, escaped with minor injuries.

Radio Berlin subsequently charged the Allies with the attempt on Hitler’s life, asserting:

Fate protected the Führer’s life from an attempt by the enemy, who has so often worked with murderous methods and who once again tried to achieve with murder what he couldn’t achieve by fair methods.

Benito Mussolini, “Premier” of the Republican Fascist state in northern Italy, appeared to have escaped the bombing by a few minutes.

DNB said Hitler was about to confer with Mussolini when the explosion occurred and that after the debris had been cleared and the wounded cared for, the Führer “resumed his work and conferred with Mussolini as intended.”

Göring, Goebbels nearby

The Nazi propagandists also recorded that Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring – whom Hitler had picked at the outset of the war as the heir to his leadership – arrived shortly after the explosion and conferred with Hitler. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels also arrived afterwards.

One of the four seriously injured was Lt. Gen. Schmundt, chief adjutant of the German Army since 1938 and described by the German Transocean News Agency as “belonging to the closest following of Hitler.”

The DNB dispatch indicated that the blast in Hitler’s headquarters – one of the most closely guarded places in the world – was intended to include Mussolini among the victims, as well as Hitler and his top commanders.

Officers clustered around Hitler apparently received the full strength of the blast, shielding Hitler himself. The Führer’s wounds were described as slight. Those listed as seriously injured were: Lt. Gen. Schmundt, Col. Brandt, Lt. Col. Borgmann, and Borgmann’s aide Berger.

The following were listed as receiving minor injuries: Gen. Alfred Jodl (chief of Hitler’s personal staff), Maj. Gen. Günther Korten (Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe), Gen. Buhle, Gen. Karl Bodenschatz (liaison officer between Hitler and the Air Marshal’s office), Gen. Heusinger, Gen. Scherff, Adm. von Puttkamer, Adm. Voss.

Details not given

DNB did not specify whether the explosion was caused by a bomb planted inside the room in which Hitler and his commanders were conferring or whether the explosion might have been from a bomb launched from an Allied plane and pinpointed as in recent attacks on German headquarters in Holland and France. The second possibility was regarded as unlikely.

The fact that the attempt evidently occurred inside Hitler’s personal headquarters – as difficult to penetrate as the White House or No. 10 Downing Street – raised speculation in London that it might have been an “inside job” by Germans disgruntled with the conduct of the war and hopeful for a negotiated peace if the leader of Nazism were removed.

This is the first assassination attempt, so far as is known, in which Hitler was injured. The only previous publicized attempt was Nov. 8, 1939, when a bomb exploded in a Munich beer hall shortly after the Führer appeared at a Nazi Party meeting there. This was regarded at the time as a Gestapo trick to strengthen the German home front.

It was considered possible that Hitler’s injuries were more serious than was broadcast to the world by DNB and that the agency’s careful statement that the Führer resumed his work and received Mussolini and Göring was a coverup.

Observers believed the attempt on Hitler’s life was in some way connected with a 14-hour interruption of communications between Germany and neutral countries yesterday and today.

Blast probably yesterday

Although DNB said the explosion occurred “today,” it was considered possible that it occurred yesterday and that communications with Sweden and Switzerland were cut to permit the German propagandists to get their stories in order.

London observers believed there was at least an outside chance that the explosion was the work of the European underground, which has been growing increasingly bold and adept at sabotage and killing. Some analysts also expressed interest in a possible connection with the recent reported estrangement between the conservative Prussian generals and the Nazi hierarchy.

Recalling “the Reichstag fire” plant which enabled the Nazis to seize power by blaming the Communists, they believed some Nazi, possibly Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler, might have concocted this as a plot which could be blamed on the anti-Nazi generals, who now recognize that the war is lost.

Lean to ‘inside job’

Most authorities familiar with the Nazis leaned to the theory that it was an “inside job.”

Allied psychological warfare experts were surprised only that the attempt had not occurred earlier. They said that all the conditions prerequisite for some such drastic occurrence in Germany had long been bubbling beneath the surface. The sequence included the dismissal of the old and trusted Field Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt from command of the defenses in France, the sacrifice of more than 500,000 men in an effort to hold untenable positions in Russia, failure to write off the Baltic States which now imperil defense of the Reich itself, the growing army of discontented slave labor which is frightening the German home front, and inability to halt or even ameliorate the Allied bombings.

Hitler once escaped by only 11 minutes

By the United Press

Adolf Hitler escaped assassination Nov. 8, 1939, when a bomb exploded in the historic Bürgerbräu Hall in Munich only 11 minutes after the German dictator had left the building. The explosion killed eight persons and injured more than 60.

The hall was ringing with the cheers of Hitler’s 500 “Old Veterans” celebrating the anniversary of their unsuccessful “March on Berlin” with the Führer in 1923, when an explosion from an attic room showered the ceiling upon the Nazis below.

Goebbels blamed British

Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels blamed the British for “an obvious attempt on Hitler’s life,” and by Nov. 22, the Gestapo had arrested two British agents: Sigismund Payne Best, 54, and Capt. Richard Henry Stevens, 46.

The agents were kidnapped from Venlo, Holland, where they had gone to investigate a fake German peace proposal. British authorities believed that Best and Stevens were later killed by the Gestapo.

Georg Elser, 36, a mild-mannered Munich workman, was charged with placing the bomb in the attic and allegedly confessed, linking Otto Strasser, leader of the “Black Front” in Paris, with the plan. Elser, it was said, intended that the bomb explode while Hitler was speaking.

Many rumored attempts

There have been other rumored attempts on Hitler’s life but not verified by Nazi sources. They included:

A plot to kill Hitler while he was touring the Polish battlefront in 1939; a foiled shooting at the Kroll Opera House in the same year; a shooting in Vienna in 1938 in which a Stormtrooper was killed by mistake, and another in which Hitler’s chauffeur was reported killed when he exchanged places with the dictator.

Many persons were arrested in Copenhagen in March 1935, when a widespread plot to assassinate Hitler and other Nazi leaders was reported uncovered; and Jan. 10, Ernst Niekisch, a German writer, was sentenced to life imprisonment for plotting with 20 others in another attempt to kill Hitler.

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TŌJŌ CABINET OUT, ‘MODERATES’ IN
We can’t win, warmonger’s bloc admits

First step in move for peace hinted
By the United Press

…

8902

British storm two more cities in Normandy

Tanks smash forward down Paris road

map.072044.up
Battling into two towns, British armored forces had thrust eight miles beyond Caen today. Street battles were being fought in Vimont and Troarn and the British were reported massing forces for a drive toward Falaise. On the American sector of the front (inset map), the Yanks were mopping up in the Saint-Lô area.

SHAEF, London, England (UP) –
The British 2nd Army, hammering out a steadily expanding Normandy breakthrough arc, drove through nine more towns today, stormed into the streets of Troarn and Bourguébus, and sent a spearhead down the Paris road to Vimont, eight miles southeast of Caen.

Many scores of Allied Sherman tanks were smashing through the network of German fortifications on the Caen plain in wild battles of armor against the Nazis who had now massed at least five and a half divisions in a frantic effort to stem the march inland.

Allies smash on

United Press writer Richard D. McMillan reported that British and Canadian assault forces stormed six more villages in the area of the breakthrough. Whether they supplemented or duplicated the nine announced at Supreme Headquarters was not certain.

The German Transocean News Agency said U.S. and Canadian Army forces under Lt. Gen. George S. Patton had gone into action on the Normandy front. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters had no comment.

Inside the battle arc, lying an average of four miles from Caen – with advanced positions at Troarn, seven miles to the east, and Vimont, eight miles to the southeast – the British and Canadian troops captured Ifs, Cormelles, Bras, Hubert-Folie, Soliers, Four, Le Poirier, Cagny and Grentheville.

Stiff fight at Troarn

Allied infantry and tanks consolidated their grip on the nine villages while Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s armor wove through the no-man’s-land blasting out German strongpoints and turning back enemy thrusts.

The easternmost point of the Allied advance was within 1,000 yards of the river Muance, which flows east of Troarn and forms the first appreciable water obstacle east of the Orne.

The Germans were putting up a stiff fight at Troarn, but the British were bartering in from the west.

On American front

Meager reports from the American front said the 1st Army had completed the mop-up of the Vire River bend northwest of Saint-Lô and established outposts a few hundred yards southwest and southeast of the captured fortress city.

Between Saint-Lô and Caen, the Germans had been forced back below the Caumont–Tilly-sur-Seulles road to a general line about 2,000 yards – more than a mile – beyond it.

Mr. McMillan reported from the Caen front:

Stubborn fighting went on all day, and saw our troops pushing forward into some villages while German long-range batteries lobbed shells over to try to stem the impetus of our infiltrations over the bridges into the slowly widening sector of our advance.

Loop closed on Nazis

British troops bolstering the right wing beat the Germans back steadily in the Noyers sector southwest of Caen, overrunning strategic positions including valuable high ground and capturing the village of Landelles, a mile west of Noyers which was still in German hands.

On the American front, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s 1st Army advanced west of Saint-Lô and swung southeast from points northwest of the captured town, closing a loop in which a few German rearguards remained.

Above Saint-Lô, just west of Remilly-sur-Lozon, the doughboys pushed along a tiny stream and captured three villages.

“The battle south and east of Caen continues,” Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s communiqué said.

Rubble-strewn villages

The maximum advance down the trunk highway to Paris carried to Vimont, eight miles below Caen and five miles south of Troarn. Behind the British lay the rubble-strewn ruins of a dozen villages and strongpoints almost blasted out of existence by the impact

The battlefield within the breakthrough area “looks like nothing any soldier ever saw,” Mr. McMillan reported. He quoted a tank crewman as saying:

It seems to us more like a battlefield amidst the craters of the moon. It is really eerie, with its bomb craters, empty villages and pockets of German dead.

Chain of cemeteries

An earlier dispatch from Mr. McMillan said there was still fighting around the villages of Cumerille, Bigerville, Saunderville, Banneville, Campagne and Cagny, because “these places themselves are mortuaries. These villages are like a chain of cemeteries. Happily, it is mainly German dead.”

Once the British capture Troarn and secure the left flank, Gen. Montgomery will be in position to wheel inland to excellent tank country stretching south and southeast as far as Falaise, 20 miles southeast of Caen.

The Normandy weather yesterday and today was described officially as “miserable,” denying the ground forces any big-scale air support. It was better in other parts of France, and Allied planes shot up 27 locomotives and about 200 freight cars in operations extending from Bordeaux to Paris.

8903

8,500 U.S. planes hammer Germany in four days

…

8904

Yanks drive on –
Nazis fall back before Pisa

By James E. Roper, United Press staff writer

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Casualties in Italy now total 73,166

…

8905

conv.dem.top.banner

Thursday, July 20
Call to order at 11:30 a.m. CWT by Temporary Chairman Governor Kerr of Oklahoma
Invocation by Rabbi Louis Binstock of Chicago
National anthem by Lucy Monroe
Report of committee on permanent organization
Resolution to confirm committees selected by the several states
Address by Permanent Chairman Senator Jackson (D-IN)
Report of committee on platform and resolutions and its adoption
Reports of other committees and their adoption
Recess until 8:15 p.m.
Call to order at 8:15 p.m. by Permanent Chairman Jackson
Invocation by the Rev. Joshua Oder of Chicago
National anthem by Danny O’Neill, USS Lexington
Address by Mrs. Helen Gahagan Douglas, vice chairman, California State Committee
Address by war correspondent Quentin Reynolds
Roll call for presidential nominations
Appointment of committee to notify successful candidate

Wallace and Truman camps spar to land knockout punch

Bitter behind-the-scenes battles split convention; Senator’s supporters waver
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Bulletin

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago said today he had “changed my mind” about Senator Harry S. Truman for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination because the Missourian “doesn’t want the job.” Senator Truman later today told the United Press, “I am not a candidate, but will accept the nomination if the delegates want me.”

Chicago, Illinois –
The Democratic National Convention nominates President Franklin D. Roosevelt for a fourth term today with both Wallace and Truman forces claiming Mr. Roosevelt’s blessing in the bitterly-contested vice-presidential nomination.

As the convention entered its third session, with presidential and vice-presidential balloting scheduled for late today and tonight, Edwin Pauley of California publicly claimed President Roosevelt’s support for Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO).

Mr. Pauley, National Democratic Committee Treasurer and newly-elected California National Committeeman, told his state delegation that Mr. Roosevelt is convinced Senator Truman will cost him fewer votes than any other candidate for Vice President.

“And I could not make such a statement,” he added, “if I didn’t have the approval of the President!”

Wallace forces confident

Wallace forces, contending they had more than 400 first ballot votes, presented an equally confident claim of Roosevelt support. Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall, a Wallace leader, said his side would go on assuming that Mr. Roosevelt still favored Mr. Wallace’s renomination until the President told the convention “in writing” that he had changed his mind.

The Wallace people said the balloting couldn’t come too soon to suit them.

National Chairman Robert E. Hannegan, who has been plugging Senator Truman, still refused to comment on the so-called “Truman letter” in which the President was reported to have stated that he would be happy to have the Missourian for his 1944 running mate.

Hannegan is challenged

Wallace supporters had challenged Mr. Hannegan to produce such a letter. Governor Arnall, expressing skepticism, said he did not believe Mr. Roosevelt would “permit himself to be ‘used’ by those who would misquote him.”

The Credentials Committee of the convention, by a vote of 18–6, today recommended the seating of both delegations from Texas. The Texas “Regular,” or anti-New Deal, delegation threatened to walk out of the convention when this word was received.

Meanwhile, members of the Illinois delegation disclosed after a lengthy caucus that they had decided to cast their 58 votes for Senator Scott W. Lucas (D-IL) for Vice President until Senator Lucas releases them.

A spokesman for the Alabama delegation said it would vote for Senator John H. Bankhead on the first ballot and then decide what to do on the next.

May postpone vote

Mr. Hannegan, in the meantime, said that while there was “always the possibility” that vice-presidential balloting would start as soon as President Roosevelt is renominated, such a schedule had not been officially decided.

This meant the vice-presidential vote might be put off until tomorrow.

The delegates in their third session installed Senator Samuel D. Jackson (D-IN) as permanent chairman and heard him declare that a change of administration in these critical times would be “frightening to contemplate” and “dangerous to make.”

Hits at Dewey

Hitting at 42-year-old Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate for President, Mr. Jackson asserted:

What the Presidency demands now is not so much a bright young man as a man of wisdom and breadth of vision.

Mr. Roosevelt will accept the nomination in a radio address tonight. His voice may calm the storm which threatens to weaken the New Deal-Democratic coalition of 1936 and 1940 in this campaign year.

Some of the President’s closest political associates here have fallen out and are beginning to call each other names. Southern leaders met in rebellious conferences last night and broke up, apparently frustrated both as to their objectives and methods of achieving them. Principally they wanted to scuttle Vice President Henry A. Wallace and put up a Southerner for his $15,000-a-year job.

Mr. Wallace is still likely to be scuttled in his contest with Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO), who has some kind of White House acceptance and the support of some of the big party bosses here, but putting a Southerner on the ticket this year does not seem likely at the moment.

Senator Alben W. Barkley (D-KY), who feels along with some others here that he has been maneuvered out of his chance at the vice-presidential nomination, jarred convention managers with a surprise request that they hold up release of his speech placing Mr. Roosevelt in fourth term renomination. That was a bald threat to run out on the assignment to propose the President’s name, but it lasted only a few hours.

Toward 2:00 a.m. today, one of Mr. Barkley’s aides said the Senator had sent a note to National Committee publicity headquarters authorizing release of the speech on schedule today.

Meanwhile, it was learned that Mr. Wallace will deliver a speech seconding Mr. Roosevelt’s nomination for the Presidency.

‘Big Four’ runs show

The presidential nomination was scheduled for midafternoon, following the address of Permanent Chairman Samuel Jackson, disposition of credentials and rules disputes, and adoption of the platform.

Mr. Barkley was evidently resentful of the smooth operations here of the Big Four – National Committee Chairman Robert E. Hannegan, who was handpicked last winter to handle Mr. Roosevelt’s reelection campaign; Chicago Mayor Edward J. Kelly, who bosses the Democratic Party in Illinois; Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague, who rules the organization in New Jersey; and Edward J. Flynn, leader of the Democratic Party in the Bronx and the manager of the President’s successful third-term campaign.

The center ring battle is over the vice-presidential nomination for which Mr. Roosevelt personally endorsed Mr. Wallace but for which Mr. Hannegan now says the President would be happy to have Mr. Truman.

Guffey gets angry

The fact that Mr. Truman and Mr. Hannegan are fellow Missourians and that Mr. Hannegan owes some of his rise to political heights to Mr. Truman makes the Wallace men more than a little suspicious that something is wrong. But there is supporting evidence that Mr. Hannegan does have a go-ahead for Mr. Truman and directly from the President.

Persuasive reports persisted that he had received a letter to that effect. Mr. Hannegan denied it. Others said that it was received and that it suggested either Mr. Truman or Associate Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas if Mr. Wallace were not acceptable to the convention.

Senator Joseph F. Guffey (D-PA) shouted what other Wallace supporters had been whispering when he said:

I doubt very much if Mr. Hannegan quoted all of the letter the President is supposed to have written. It is time that Mr. Hannegan remembers that he was elected chairman of the National Committee to serve all the members of our party, to give some of his time to the party and not all of it entirely to the candidate [Truman] of Hannegan, Kelly, Hague and Flynn.

CIO spokesmen echoed Mr. Guffey’s charge that these four men who are bulwarks of the New Deal-Democratic coalition are unfairly bossing the convention.

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Race issue dispute holds up platform

Southerners term outline ‘too strong’

Bulletin

Chicago, Illinois –
The Democratic Platform Committee completed its declaration of party policy today after defeating a Southern effort to exclude state voting regulations from federal control.

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Approval of the Democratic Party platform was held up temporarily today as members of the Platform and Resolutions Committee debated the controversial plank on racial equality.

The racial plank approved by the Drafting Committee was reported to be too strong for Southern state members of the full platform committee who wanted a declaration similar to that in the 1940 platform which simply assured equal rights under the law to all minority groups.

The drafters’ proposal was said to read:

We believe that racial and religious minorities have the rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution. Congress should exert its full constitutional power to protest these rights.

The foreign policy plank was also under discussion by the full committee, still in session only a few hours before the platform was scheduled to be offered to the convention.

New emphasis was placed on the racial issue which has divided the party by announcement that the Tennessee delegation had rescinded its decision to cast its 26 votes for President Roosevelt pending the time when it learns the content of the platform’s racial plank.

Tennessee Governor Prentice Cooper, a member of the platform committee, warned that if certain proposals should be written into the platform over Southern opposition, there would be a strong protest on the floor from Southern delegations.

A group of rebellious Southerners had previously met to adopt a resolution opposing any pledges to support anti-poll tax or anti-lynching legislation and declaring opposition to any proposal calling for “social equality” between races.

Foreign plank prepared

Senator Kenneth D. McKellar, chairman of the Tennessee delegation, said it wanted to be “free,” but that “if the platform is reasonable and has nothing out of the ordinary in it, there won’t be any trouble.”

Senator Tom Connally (D-TX), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met with the drafting subcommittee last night to discuss his proposed draft of a foreign plank providing for American participation in an international organization to maintain peace.

There appeared little likelihood of a contest over the foreign policy plank, although some of the committee members had expressed themselves in favor of an international police force.

8907

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CIO pressures delegates with Back-Wallace wires

Bundles of telegrams sent by local unions urge renomination of Vice President
By Robert Taylor, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Chicago, Illinois –
Pennsylvania’s CIO unions, backing their leaders in a last-minute drive for Vice President Henry A. Wallace for renomination, have showered the state delegation to the Democratic National Convention with telegrams.

“Don’t let Wallace down,” was the gist of most of the messages.

The wires arrived yesterday for each of the 72 delegates, in batches of half a dozen at a time, while CIO leaders at the convention were rallying their forces in support of the Wallace candidacy.

One delegate counted 62 messages. They poured in, even to U.S. Senator Joseph F. Guffey, who was acting as unofficial manager of the Wallace campaign and who spent most of the day in conference with the Vice President.

Most of the messages to Pittsburgh delegates came from United Steelworkers locals, while others came from units of the United Railroad Workers, United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers, Allied Stone and Clay Products Workers and others.

The telegram blitz featured a day in which CIO leaders poured on steam in the push to whoop up the Wallace campaign.

Some 125 delegates, most of them delegates or alternates, but some of them regional directors of the CIO-sponsored Political Action Committee, attended a special caucus of CIO delegates devoted chiefly to Mr. Wallace.

Cheering delegates behind closed doors – reporters were barred – were urged to go back and contact their state delegates on behalf of the Vice President’s campaign.

The meeting was hardly over before it was reported that President Roosevelt, in communication with National Chairman Robert Hannegan, had given his approval to the candidacy of Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO), on whom the opposition to Mr. Wallace has settled.

Definitely want Wallace

CIO leaders were reported not averse to Mr. Truman, in the event of his nomination, but they held out stoutly for Mr. Wallace as the only candidate they were willing to discuss for second place on the ticket.

“We want Wallace,” Sidney Hillman, chairman of the Political Action Committee, said as he entered the CIO caucus. “That’s the only statement there is to make.”

Mr. Hillman, CIO President and delegate-at-large from Pennsylvania Philip Murray, and president of the United Auto Workers R. J. Thomas addressed the CIO delegates, who comprised less than five percent of the total delegates and alternates.

Among CIO delegates

Pennsylvania had one of the largest state delegates in the CIO group, with 11 of the 144 delegates and alternates listed as CIO members, relatives of members or officers or employees of CIO organizations.

In addition to Mr. Murray, they included Joseph A. Donoghu of Pittsburgh (alternate delegate-at-large, chairman of Pennsylvania Political Action Committee), John T. Akinson of Aliquippa (alternate), and State Senator John H. Dent of Jeannette (former Rubber Workers official).

Others were Angelo Pasquarella of Philadelphia (Amalgamated Clothing Workers, alternate), Joseph Kane (employee in Philadelphia of the Political Action Committee, delegate), Ernest Palmer Jr, of Delaware County (delegate), John J. Malick of Delaware Country (alternate), Irene A Stackhouse of Bucks County (alternate and wife of a CIO member), James W. Batz of Berks County (member of the Hosiery Workers Union, alternate).

8908

I DARE SAY —
Nellie Bly

By Florence Fisher Parry

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8909

Navy to begin explosion inquiry

…

8910

Much too trivial, Hull laments

Washington (UP) –
Secretary of State Cordell Hull said today he would have been glad to offer ample comment on the explosion that endangered Adolf Hitler’s life if the Nazi Führer’s injuries had been serious enough.

As it was, Mr. Hull told his press conference, the report does not offer any substantial basis for comment.

8911

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Guffey-Lawrence factions sidestep VP showdown

Delegates at breakfast meeting hear state chairman try to minimize party split
By Kermit McFarland

Chicago, Illinois –
The rival Lawrence and Guffey factions in the Pennsylvania delegation to the Democratic convention, battling each other in a new outbreak of a six-year feud, today sought to postpone until the last possible moment feud, today sought to postpone until the last possible moment a showdown of their respective strength in the delegation.

At a breakfast tendered the delegates – ironically – by Democratic State Chairman David L. Lawrence and U.S. Senator Joseph F. Guffey, jointly, both sides succeeded in avoiding a second caucus on vice-presidential preferences – the cause of the latest split between these two who are Damon and Pythias turned Hatfield and McCoy.

Senator Guffey, in fact, didn’t even attend his own affair. He was 20 stories up in the same hotel, conferring with CIO and Wallace leaders.

Differences minimized

Mr. Lawrence, who informed the 200 delegates and friends, all from Pennsylvania, that despite his absence Senator Guffey would “split the check,” went out of his way to describe the affair as a “social gathering.”

The state chairman also made an attempt to minimize, publicly, the differences between himself and Mr. Guffey over the vice-presidential nominee.

He said:

Not even the vice-presidential nomination or anything else is going to split the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania. The Senator and myself have gone up and down the state since November trying to out the Democratic Party back where it was before 1938.

Charges continue

But the charges and countercharges which have been developing in the split Pennsylvania delegation since the battle for the vice-presidential nomination began to shape up between Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO), supported by Mr. Lawrence, and Vice President Henry A. Wallace, backed by Senator Guffey, continued on their way.

Senator Guffey’s blast at the Truman forces, which he implied were being “bossed by the well-known machine leaders, Kelly, Hague and Flynn,” aroused resentment among the Allegheny County leaders and others favorable to Senator Truman.

Caucus is opposed

When the breakfast invitations were first extended, Mr. Lawrence indicated it would e converted into a caucus. But today, both he and Senator Guffey said they thought a caucus unnecessary.

If the convention follows its tentative schedule and hears nominating speeches for Vice President tonight, a caucus before the first roll call is inevitable.

Mr. Guffey claims “55 to 60” of the 72 Pennsylvania votes. Mr. Lawrence isn’t claiming.

Wallace’s best 35 votes

The best estimates indicated Mr. Wallace’s best poll probably would be 35 votes, with 26 likely to go for Mr. Truman and eight or nine in doubt.

Among the doubtful delegates could be listed Pittsburgh’s Mayor Scully and Edward D. Johnson, chief clerk of the Public Safety Department. Both voted for Mr. Wallace at the Tuesday caucus, but they are politically beholden to Mr. Lawrence. Mr. Johnson was elected as an alternate, but has taken the place of Delegate Robert C. Malcolm of Curtisville, who is not here.

Attorney General Francis Biddle, who, as a delegate-at-large has only a half vote, also plumped for Mr. Wallace Tuesday, but if President Roosevelt, as indicated, goes for Mr. Truman, he probably will switch.

Others may switch

The tipoff on this is the attitude of Postmaster General Frank C. Walker of Scranton, who voted against Mr. Wallace at the Tuesday caucus. He told other delegates he did not wish to “vote against the Chief” – Mr. Roosevelt.

Other delegates who may switch to Senator Truman includes Clerk of Courts John J. McClean and Mayor Frank Buchanan of McKeesport. But still sticking firmly to Mr. Wallace is Irwin D. Wolf of Fox Chapel.

Sure Truman backers include County Commissioner John J. Kane and Mr. Lawrence (both half-vote delegates), Register of Wills John M. Houston, City Treasurer James P. Kirk, Coroner William D. McClelland, Mrs. Marguerite Naughton and County Commissioner George Rankin.

New letter ‘the bunk’

Leaders of the Lawrence faction swore that Democratic National Chairman Robert E. Hannegan, Truman promoter, has a new letter from President Roosevelt saying the Missouri Senator is “acceptable” to him as a running mate.

Senator Guffey said that was “the bunk.” He declined to say whether he had been in touch with Mr. Roosevelt, but Lawrence forces claimed he tried unsuccessfully all day yesterday to reach the President by telephone.

Congressman Francis J. Myers, nominee for the U.S. Senate, was the only speaker at today’s breakfast, aside from Mr. Lawrence.

Lawrence, Guffey praised

As a candidate whose chances might be endangered by a split in the party organization, he praised Senator Guffey and Mr. Lawrence for “walking throughout the state arm in arm” building up the Democratic machine.

He said:

Unless the vote is heavy, we may not carry Pennsylvania, regardless of how beloved the President is by the people. But if we get out the vote, victory is sure.

Mr. Lawrence pleaded for “strong” finance, labor and women’s campaign committees in each county and said it was “amazing” how many members of organized labor are not registered to vote.

8912

americavotes1944

Nye is victor for renomination

Bismarck, North Dakota (UP) –
North Dakota Secretary of State Thomas Hall said today that Senator Gerald P. Nye was virtually assured of renomination in the June 27 primary election in North Dakota.

Unofficial figures from canvassing boards in 32 counties plus previous totals gave Mr. Nye a lead of 956 votes over Lynn U. Stambaugh, former national commander of the American Legion.

All figures will remain unofficial until the state canvassing board meets July 27. Latest tabulations gave Mr. Nye 38,169 votes, comparted to 37,213 for Mr. Stambaugh and 35,680 for Rep. Usher L. Burdick.

Incumbents win in three primaries

By the United Press

Late returns from Tuesday’s primary elections in three states decided all contests today, with all incumbents renominated in Arizona and Lief Erickson, 38-year-old State Supreme Court Justice, conceded the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Montana. In Wyoming, Charles E. Norris of Laramie won the Democratic nomination for Congress.

Senator Carl Hayden, who has served in Congress ever since Arizona became a state, polled 29,327 votes to win the renomination by a 2-to-1 margin and Reps. John Murdock and Richard Harless received 29,414 and 26,910 votes respectively to win by a wide margin. Governor Sidney P. Osborn polled 34,797 votes to win renomination by a 3-to-1 margin over his nearest opponent. Jerrie Lee won the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

Both Austin Middleton and former governor Roy E. Ayers conceded the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Montana to Mr. Erickson, who held a lead of more than 6,000 over Mr. Middleton. Republican Governor Sam C. Ford won renomination by a 6-to-1 margin.

Montana had no senatorial contest this year and both incumbent Democratic Congressmen were unopposed for renomination.

8913

Caesar’s citadel now scene of hand-to-hand fighting

Yanks and Nazis use rifles, hand grenades in thickets filled with German dead
By Thomas R. Henry, North American Newspaper Alliance

With U.S. forces in Normandy, France – (July 16, by wireless, delayed)
The Belleau Wood of the present war is represented in the defense of the White Birch, scrub Chestnut and red-berried Mountain Ash tangle covering the 2,000-year-old Roman fortifications on the slopes of Mont Castre where the Yanks and Germans battled three days last week with rifle and hand grenades for vantage points controlling the marshes and rolling wooded country miles to the southward.

Texans and Oklahomans have now secured a high hilltop overlooking the Bay of Biscay westward of the English Channel, from which the Germans had been using field glasses. Atop the Roman walls they undoubtedly watched the landing of the invasion forces and every major move of the Allied troops.

Paratroopers with green capes

Some of the bitterest fighting of the war and also some of the heaviest losses occurred in this area. The thickets are being cleared today of the German dead, in some places piled in heaps, where they were mowed down by machine-gun crews. In a tangle of second-growth trees on land detimbered a few years ago, crawling at night silently through the brush the troops were invisible to one another.

Crack German paratroopers with green camouflage capes blended into the foliage. The prisoners said their orders were never to fire until the Americans were within ten yards, to conserve their ammunition. The fighting closely resembled Pacific jungle warfare. The hill ascent into the forest at times was very steep, through thick waist-high ferns and over sharp rocks. Germans with machine pistols were hidden in the treetops in clumps of mistletoe.

The successful assault on the north slope of Mont Castre was led by Lt. Col. Jacob W. Belke of Boonville, Missouri. At the highest ruins, cementless walls still strong after centuries. But beyond this place, he encountered mostly tunnels and trenches, built by the Germans themselves, honeycombing the mountaintops and overgrown with bushes.

“Grenades fell like hailstones,” says the company commander. At one point, a soldier was sent forward to ask a surrounded machine-gun nest to surrender. The Germans offered to negotiate. When the soldier appeared in the open, they killed him. This so enraged Sgt. Theodore Wagner of Mason, Texas, that he killed 11 Germans, captured three machine guns, using his own machine gun held against his shoulders like a rifle.

Yank lay four days alone

Yesterday, Sgt. George Parker of Tucson, Arizona, on a cleanup mission, found an American soldier with his right foot shot off who had lain four days in the brush without food. His only water was rain caught in his hand. It had rained most of the time. Shortly after the injury a tourniquet and sulfa powder had been applied by a medic who was driven off by enemy fire before he could complete the job, but promised to return later. That night the wounded man heard his comrades calling but he was too weak to reply. He felt better as the days passed, and Sgt, Parker found him cleaning his gun. He is now doing well at an evacuation hospital.

The hardest fighting was descending the southern slope where the Roman fortifications, built under the personal supervision of Julius Caesar, were more elaborate and had been greatly enlarged by the Germans. They were so perfectly concealed that tanks were driven over their tops without jarring them.

Battle over caves

Caesar had planned the mountain stronghold against attack from the south. The company emerging from the forest with its tanks, was cut off when the Germans knocked out the tanks. The remnants of the company were reorganized with parts of other decimated units under command of Lt. Hubert Miller of Syracuse, New York, who advanced over an open field after other units had captured points protecting the flanks.

8914

English say Roosevelt will visit continent

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Nazi super-robots to hit U.S., Japs hint

By the United Press

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