America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

9047

americavotes1944

Truman’s victory helps Lawrence

Pennsylvanian grows in national stature
By Kermit McFarland

Chicago, Illinois – (July 22)
The slim, clipped-spoken gentleman from Missouri, Senator Harry S. Truman, who won the Democratic vice-presidential nomination here last night, brought both triumph and defeat to the Pennsylvania delegation.

Like the Republicans who were here before them, the Democrats from Pennsylvania won a certain amount of national standing by their operations at the convention.

Except that in the Republican Convention, the Pennsylvania job was done by one man, Governor Edward Martin, and there was an energetic unity of action within the delegation.

Badly split

The Democrats were badly, and in some respects bitterly, split. And it was a case of he who laughs last laughs best.

Democratic State Chairman David L. Lawrence, through the strong ties he has developed with DNC Chairman Robert E. Hannegan, tore off the last laugh. He supported Senator Truman for the nomination and was one of the half-dozen in the “inner circle” who mapped the skillful strategy which stampeded the convention for the Missouri Senator on the second ballot, although, ironically, it did not stampede his own delegation.

Deluge of telegrams

Earlier, Mr. Lawrence had been disappointed. At the first caucus, 41 delegates voted to support Vice President Henry A. Wallace for renomination.

But then as the Truman boom began to show its strength, there were indications that the delegation would break away from the CIO and Mr. Guffey and go at least half for Mr. Truman.

The CIO met this threat with a show of pressure. It arranged a deluge of telegrams from CIO locals back home – vigorous and in some cases peremptory telegrams which demanded the delegates support Mr. Wallace. These wires came in by the bunch.

CIO gallery

In addition, the CIO-PAC packed the galleries – attempting the same stunt which played such an important role in the nomination of Wendell Willkie at the Republican Convention of 1940. The telegrams and the howling galleries had the effect of stiffening some of the hesitant Truman backers, who resented the pressure.

But they also made other delegates apprehensive and as a result the hastily taken caucus just before the first ballot developed a slight gain in the delegation for Mr. Wallace.

Caught by surprise

The die was cast; the bandwagon was already rolling. But the Wallace delegates, under the spell of the “labor” threat, banked on a deadlock, at least for one more ballot. The rapidity with which other states cast off their favorite sons and climbed on the Truman bandwagon caught the Pennsylvania Wallace delegates by surprise and before they could get the standard to waving – signal for recognition from the rostrum – Mr. Truman had nearly 300 votes more than he needed to clinch the nomination.

Senator Guffey, grabbing the microphone from the delegation’s chairman, former Judge John H. Wilson of Butler, did finally offer a motion to make the Truman nomination unanimous. But since no result had been announced on the roll call, he was ruled out of order.

Consults backers

He hesitated and consulted with his backers while a few more states switched to the winner before he again asked for recognition so he could record all of Pennsylvania’s 72 votes for Mr. Truman.

Mr. Guffey was unable to conceal the humiliation that the Wallace defeat heaped on him.

When reporters sought a statement from him, he first snapped, “I moved to make the nomination unanimous, didn’t I? No other comment.”

Later he reconsidered and added:

I will be glad to support the ticket. Senator Truman is a good friend of mine. I though Wallace was stronger, but the convention differed with me.

As for Mr. Lawrence, he added considerably to his influence in national Democratic politics, for he was one of the half-dozen who engineered the Truman nomination.

9048

Senate group warns –
U.S. may face serious coal shortage

Consumers advised to stock up now

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Navy to boost strength by 383,000 men

‘Needed for Japan,’ Forrestal says

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9049

Jackie Coogan divorced for running ‘men’s club’

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World FBI organization suggested by IBM head

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9050

Full military funeral ordered –
Marines get Jap general for burial but they have to kill his bodyguards

Pittsburgher helps slaughter eight
By Keith Wheeler, North American Newspaper Alliance

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9051

Wolfert: Captured Axis troops fall into three main categories

But all share in war guilt through greed, apathy or by direct will
By Ira Wolfert

Saint-Lô, France – (July 22)
The German prisoners we are taking in France fall into three main divisions.

First there is the Nazi from the occupied countries and the greatest proportion come from Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Ukraine, White Russia, Georgia and the Baltic countries, however, are also represented.

Then there are the Germans who themselves seem to represent the “occupied” country, meaning old Germany and Austria. Last – and least – are the Nazis themselves: The Hitler Youth, the SS (Elite) troops and so forth.

The German High Command seems to be treating its subjected soldiers as it treats the Allies. Its Slavs, Czechs, Balts, Austrians and old-type Germans are treated as the Italians were treated in Africa. They are the expendables. They fight the rearguard actions when the gasoline is short, as it seems to be for the Germans here. They are given no gasoline with which to escape with their equipment. And when the shells are scarce, they are rationed very stringently among these members of the German armies.

Get puzzled look

Whenever we drive for anywhere these are the people we take first, and scattered among them, salting and firming them, are the proper Nazis – the hard, young, killer-type of men who have known no other adult life but one of war. These soldiers get a puzzled look when you ask them to think on what they have just gone through and see whether their idea of the glories of warfare is the same as the Nazi idea.

The fact that the old-type Germans – the non-politicals – are tired old men from a kind of Nazi-occupied country within Germany was made clear to me in numerous conversations I have had with prisoners, particularly during the last week when the fighting reached a considerable fury in this narrow sector.

What the Germans, which I saw taken, said was so nearly identical that they can almost be quoted as one. These Germans, on whom Nazification had not taken hold so deeply, are fed up with Hitler and the Nazis, but they do not know how safely to get rid of them. they are not yet desperate enough to turn their guns against the Nazis who have a hold on their heads.

They have no sense of guilt over having started the war, and, therefore, see no reason why any people should exact vengeance from them personally.

“We are a little people,” they say. I heard this continually in wheedling, whining tones. “What could we do about it?” They blame the death and destruction that has come finally to them too, along with the rest of the world, simply on the mysterious malevolence they refer to as the war, and not on Nazism.

The attitude of the incorrigible Nazis is still that the Führer cannot be wrong. They still insist there will be an offensive that will win the war for Germany, and soon there will be secret weapons suddenly unveiled – the Luftwaffe will rise again, there will be enormous guns, and then 10,000 years of Nazified peace.

Parrot-like tone

It is plain in most cases that the Nazis saying all this do not believe it themselves. What they are saying and talking by rote comes with a parrot-like tone in their voices and a blank look in their eyes.

It was odd to see these three types of Nazis come shuffling together out of the ruins of Saint-Lô. They, like the Americans who fought them there, hardly had heard of the town until a few weeks ago. Now Saint-Lô has been nearly levelled to the ground. The walls of structures that still remain stick up crazily like broken bones out of a pile of dead.

The Germans soldiers walked humbly along a road that smelled strongly of death. It was impossible to distinguish among the three types as they slogged along and it was hard to see why anyone should bother to distinguish among them. Whatever their plight at the moment, they had brought this on themselves and on the rest of the world.

It was they who had made the landscape gaunt – the non-German Nazis with their greed; the non-Nazi Germans with their apathy and tolerance of the Nazis; and the Nazis themselves by their direct will. They all seemed to be accomplices in the same terrible, shocking crime.

Carlisle: Doughboys hail accuracy of 75s

Knocked out tanks prove sharpshooting
By John M. Carlisle

With U.S. forces in Saint-Lô, France – (July 22)
There were five Nazi Tiger tanks knocked out. They stood idly nearby, battered and abandoned, in a sunken road behind the hedgerow where the company was resting back of the lines.

One of them was thrust in the hedgerow itself, a twisted hulk beyond repair. Some of the G.I. Joes stood around it, and most of them were smiling. They liked the deadly accuracy of our 75mm guns on our own tanks that had knocked out these Tigers a couple of days ago.

Pvt. William J. Rosen of Royal Oak, Michigan, said:

Our tanks made some sharpshooting direct hits on that old Tiger there. That, sir, was fancy shooting, very fancy. When I was doing defense work back home and working on the tank arsenal assembly line, I never dreamed our boys could shoot that well.

Hates snipers

Pvt. Rosen talked of the snipers upfront. He said:

I’m getting so I hate them. They pot away at us all the time. Then when they run out of ammunition, they climb down and surrender. One of them got four or five of our men before we got him.

Pvt. Rosen then pointed to a cabbage patch in the middle of the open field. He said, proudly:

There were 40 Jerries and their officers in one pocket there and one of the last things we did was wipe them out. Our artillery had them pinned down, firing into them and behind them. we pinned them down with rifle fire from the front. We never gave them a chance. Our artillery is all right, mate, better than all right.

Across the back hedgerow, in another field, Pvt. Casimer W. Przetacznik of Detroit was cleaning his rifle. His arms and hands were scratched from the thorns of the hedgerow, but they had healed. But the scars still showed.

Dives through hedgerows

He said:

I just dive through those hedgerows when we have fixed bayonets and are advancing. Sometimes the Jerries are on the other side. They always surrender when you get that close to them. I learned right off the bat not to go through any hedge openings. The Jerries have them zeroed in with mortars.

Nearby was Pvt. Russell L. Dornbush of Muskegon, Michigan, a platoon runner, who was helping some pals clean a heavy machine gun. They handled it with all the care that a watchmaker handles expensive watches.

He said:

It’s not just kidding up there. Those burp guns [Jerry automatic pistols that look like portable machine guns] are popping at you from the hedgerows all the time. A bullet from a burp gun hit my cartridge belt, right over my stomach. I guess I turned 30 colors of the rainbow and…

9052

Briton who escaped Nazis leads tanks below Caen

O’Connor, captured in 1940, escaped last fall
By L. S. B. Shapiro

With British and Canadian forces below Caen, France – (July 22)
Lt. Gen. Sir Richard Nugent O’Connor, commander of the tank forces that broke through into the area below Caen, paid high tribute to the assault formations that gained the original bridgehead and made it possible for him to gather his tanks for the battle that is now raging.

Gen. O’Connor told this correspondent shortly after he arrived:

Whatever the future may hold, there will be nothing to touch the beach landings and the seizure of the lodgment area.

The commander, looking fit and obviously happy to be in action again after confinement in an Italian prison camp for three years, spoke almost exclusively about the feat of the assault troops on D-Day when he was interviewed for the first time in France today.

Praises assault troops

He said:

I honestly do not believe there has been a greater military feat than that done by the assault formations. The Americans particularly had bad luck when they found a whole German division sitting on the beach where they landed and they fought their way through to take Cherbourg.

It was a magnificent show, the whole assault feat. Don’t let that be sidetracked by whatever the future may hold. There will be nothing to touch it.

Gen. O’Connor returned to action after a few months’ rest in England. He was a tank commander under Gen. Sir Archibald P. Wavell in the North African desert warfare of 1940 when he was captured. He escaped in Italy during the advance up the peninsula last October.

Not so good for tanks

I asked the general what his most vivid impression of fighting is now, as compared with four years ago.

He said:

Most striking to me is that I never have been the British Army so well trained and so fit as the forces in Normandy. As for the Germans, they still are very brave men, but they are stretched. I think it is significant that they didn’t attack our forces heavily during the first stormy days after the D-Day landings. Now they have brought their crack divisions into line instead of holding them as strategic reserves. Yes, I think they are badly stretched.

Looking over the country on which his tanks are fighting, he said:

Of course, this is altogether different from desert warfare. Wide outflanking movements by tanks such as we had in the desert is not easy here. The desert was the tank commander’s country.

9053

Col. Palmer: Hitler’s purge forerunner of Nazi collapse

End of European war seen by Christmas
By Col. Frederick Palmer, North American Newspaper Alliance

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9054

americavotes1944

Editorial: The picking of Truman

Candidate Roosevelt said:

I shall not campaign in the usual sense for the office. In these days of tragic sorrow, I do not consider it fitting. Besides, in these days of global warfare, I shall not be able to find the time.

Also, “I do not wish to appear in any way as dictating to the convention.”

But the record as developed in the Democratic Convention does not support Candidate Roosevelt’s words.

He arranged a military inspection trip, which conveniently took him through Chicago for a secret conference with convention leaders, and then proceeded to run the meeting by remote control.

The platform and vice-presidential choice were his own.

Before the convention, Mr. Roosevelt told his loyal friend and Vice President, Henry Wallace, to run – for the latter was unwilling to do so without his support. Mr. Wallace ran – and was killed off by a letter which damned him with faint praise.

Before the convention, Mr. Roosevelt also told his loyal friend and “deputy” president, Jimmy Byrnes, to run – and then nodded for his withdrawal after the convention was in session.

Backers of Mr. Wallace and Mr. Byrnes felt they had been double-crossed, and said so.

Another presidential letter was flashed approving Justice Douglas – but by that time the confused delegates looked on it as perhaps just a trick to divide the Wallace forces.

Another vice-presidential candidate, Senator Barkley, has also been given presidential approval in an open race – but also got the gate.

These various vice-presidential candidates, it developed, had all been mere scenery. Mr. Roosevelt’s handpicked national chairman, Hannegan, and the big-city bosses – Kelly of Chicago, Flynn of New York and Hague of New Jersey – had been told that the real choice was Senator Truman, and they put him over very neatly.

The record is that Mr. Roosevelt did dictate to the convention and did play partisan politics – despite his high-sounding assurances.

Regardless of the political hocus-pocus which led to Senator Truman’s nomination, he was the best available running mate.

On a statesmanship basis, Mr. Truman is “a first-rate second-rate man,” rather than a top flight potential successor in the White House – and, being an honest and modest person, he knows it. But he is excellent for the Roosevelt purpose, which is to pacify as many of the warring Democratic factions as possible.

Mr. Truman’s single asset was apparent but not real – his left-wing CIO support was in the fourth-term bag anyway. So, the same presidential hand that raised up the unpolitical Wallace in the unwilling convention of 1940, struck him down in 1944 because he was no longer useful.

But Mr. Truman is almost a complete campaign asset. Although originally sent to the Senate by the notorious Boss Pendergast, he has established an excellent Senate record. He has many political assets which will help pacify the smarting factions of a divided party.

Mr. Truman’s chief appeal to the public is his record as chairman of the Senate committee uncovering war contract frauds – “honesty in government,” and “the taxpayers and soldiers’ friend.” He has a good World War I record. He is not too old.

As an “average man,” he may be a campaign relief to many ordinary Democrats who are fed up with the unfailing cleverness and superior charm of the indispensable man. Also, Mr. Truman has no potent political enemies.

Maybe the humble but well-liked Truman can get more support for the Commander-in-Chief from his own political general staff and party field commanders, which he needs. Maybe that is the main reason that the best politician in the business – unless Mr. Dewey licks him – ditched half a dozen of his loyal friends in favor of Mr. Truman, who was not his friend and did not aspire to be Vice President or President.

9055

Editorial: Time to hit hard

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9056

Editorial: Personal post-war planning

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9058

Where the radio broadcasters get their news

By Grove Patterson, The Toledo Blade editor

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9060

Foreign correspondent describes Savo battle

First-hand story of Japanese attack on USS Quincy, Vincennes and Canberra
By Roger H. Wood

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Sea strength must, for U.S.

Manila Bay hero awakens nation

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9061

Dragon Seed hailed as fine war movie

Picture underlines senseless waste and horrors of conflict
By Howard Barnes

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9062

I DARE SAY —
Good old blood and thunder films just the ticket – for this writer

By Florence Fisher Parry

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9063

Hopper: Jimmy Durante makes a hit with everybody in Hollywood studio

By Hedda Hopper

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9064

Army spends $11 billion on new projects

19,000 jobs completed since start of war

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$1 billion shaved from stock values

News from Berlin, Tokyo spurs selling
By T. W. Kienlen, United Press staff writer

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9065

Two sentenced to five years for treason

Charged with helping Nazi saboteur

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9066

Völkischer Beobachter (July 24, 1944)

In der Normandie und in Italien nur örtliche Kämpfe –
Abwehrschlacht im Osten tobt in größter Erbitterung

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 23. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

In der Normandie wurde gestern südlich Caen erbittert um einige Ortschaften gekämpft, die mehrere Male den Besitzer wechselten und schließlich in unserer Hand blieben. Bei Angriffen südwestlich Caen erzielte der Feind einen örtlichen Einbruch, der abgeriegelt wurde. Die 21. Panzerdivision unter Führung von Generalmajor Feuchtinger, die seit Beginn der Invasion sich immer wieder ausgezeichnet hatte, hat sich in den Kämpfen der letzten Tage erneut bewährt.

In Südostfrankreich wurden in einem von Banden stark verseuchten Gebiet 268 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.

Schweres „V1“-Vergeltungsfeuer liegt weiter auf dem Großraum von London.

In Italien führte der Feind auch gestern nur zahlreiche örtliche Angriffe, die abgewiesen wurden. In einigen Abschnitten waren die Kämpfe in den Abendstunden noch im Gange.

Im Osten tobt, die Abwehrschlacht mit großer Erbitterung weiter. Im Raum von Lemberg erreichten feindliche Angriffsspitzen den Ostrand der Stadt. Weiter nordwestlich stoßen motorisierte Verbände der Bolschewisten auf den San und westlich des oberen Bug in den Raum von Lublin vor. Unsere Divisionen leisten hier überall dem vordringenden Feind erbitterten Widerstand.

Auch zwischen Brest-Litowsk und Grodno sind heftige Kämpfe im Gange. Zahlreiche Angriffe der Bolschewisten wurden abgewiesen, eingebrochener Feind zum Stehen gebracht.

Nordwestlich Grodno wurden die Bolschewisten im Gegenangriff weiter nach Osten zurückgeworfen. Nordöstlich Kauen fingen unsere tapferen Grenadiere wiederholte Angriffe der Sowjets auf.

Zwischen Dünaburg und dem Peipussee wurden starke Infanterie- und Panzerkräfte der Bolschewisten unter Abschuß von 50 Panzern im Wesentlichen abgewiesen. In zwei Einbruchsstellen sind noch heftige Kämpfe im Gange. Nach Zerstörung aller kriegswichtigen Anlagen wurden die Ruinen von Ostrow und Pleskau geräumt.

Schlachtfliegergeschwader griffen wirksam in die Erdkämpfe ein und fügten dem Feind hohe Menschen- und Materialverluste zu. 59 feindliche Flugzeuge wurden zum Absturz gebracht. In der Nacht griffen Kampffliegerverbände den Bahnhof Molodeczno an. Es entstanden Flächenbrände und Explosionen.

Ein nordamerikanischer Bomberverband warf Bomben im Raum von Ploesti. Durch deutsche, rumänische und bulgarische Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 28 feindliche Flugzeuge vernichtet.

Auf den Spuren der Invasoren

Genf, 23. Juli –
Der Daily Express-Berichterstatter Allan Moorehead gibt folgenden Lagebericht aus Caen: Die ganze Stadt mit ihren Vororten sei zwar jetzt „befreit,“ doch frage man sich, wenn man durch die Straßen gehe, was eigentlich „befreit“ wurde; denn das gesamte Arbeiter- und Geschäftsviertel stelle nach dem schweren Luftbombardement nur noch „einen Friedhof normalen Lebens“ dar. Die Bomben hätten das gesamte Aussehen der Stadt derart verwandelt, daß mit einem Schlage alle Caen mit der Vergangenheit verknüpfenden Bande durchschnitten wurden.

Aber nicht nur in Caen sehe es so aus, sondern in einer Ortschaft nach der anderen, durch die man in den alliierten Brückenkopf fahre. Geschichtliche Dinge gebe es so gut wie überhaupt nicht mehr und fast alle Merkmale der Kultur seien ausgelöscht.

9067

England um eine Enttäuschung reicher –
Vergeblicher Ansturm bei Caen

vb. Berlin, 23. Juli –
Als die Briten Caen noch nicht in Besitz hatten, bezeichneten sie diese Stadt als die Schlüsselstellung für die Kämpfe in der Normandie. Folgerichtigerweise hätte man daraus schließen müssen, daß mit der Einnahme von Caen durch die Engländer die gesamte Front der Deutschen aufgerollt würde. Wenn man nur den Angaben der britischen Führung, wie sie zu Anfang der Woche in die Öffentlichkeit drangen, hätte folgen wollen, so wäre in der Tat das große Ziel auch erreicht gewesen. Wir hörten von dem endgültig erreichten Durchbruch, Wir erfuhren, daß die britischen Panzerverbände nun endgültig in freies Feld vorgestoßen seien, wir wurden schließlich darüber belehrt, daß die Schlacht in der Normandie nun ein ganz neues Gesicht, nämlich das des Bewegungskrieges, annehmen werde.

Inzwischen sind sechs Tage vergangen, inzwischen stehen die Briten 7 Kilometer südlich von Caen. Man kann den schneidenden Gegensatz zwischen dem Ziel des Generals Montgomery und dem erreichten Erfolg kaum sichtbarer machen als mit dieser nüchternen Angabe. Aus ihr werden alle entscheidenden Merkmale der letzten Kampfwoche an der Invasionsfront deutlich: der operative Durchbruch ist nicht gelungen, dass furchtbar mühsame Abringen des Gegners um jede Meile, um jede Hecke und jeden Bachlauf geht weiter, vom Bewegungskrieg kann überhaupt keine Rede sein, alles bleibt wie bei den flandrischen Offensiven der Briten 1917. Sie haben jetzt starke und schnelle Panzergeschwader, aber sie kleben damit nicht weniger am Boden wie die Infanterie des Feldmarschalls Douglas Haig vor 27 Jahren.

Manchmal weiß man nicht recht, ob man den Kämpfen im Brückenkopf überhaupt den Namen einer Schlacht geben soll. Natürlich verdienen sie diesen Namen nach der Ausdehnung des Geländes ebenso wie nach der Zahl der eingesetzten Streitkräfte. Was die Briten und Amerikaner jetzt im Landekopf stehen haben, hat die Zahl von 30 Divisionen längst überschritten. Dazu haben sie die Unterstützung durch außerordentlich starke, auch der Zahl nach übermächtigen Luftflotten. An der Erbitterung, mit der auf beiden Seiten gekämpft wird ist ebenfalls kein Zweifel, und dennoch zögert man hin und wieder, den vollen Begriff der Schlacht auf diese Kämpfe anzuwenden, weil ein wesentliches Merkmal fehlt: die großzügige, leitende und beherrschende operative Idee des Angreifers. Einmal sehen wir ihn dort einige Panzerdivisionen hinwerfen und einige Bauernhäuser erobern, dann wieder an anderer Stelle, dann wieder sehen wir ihn festliegen, dann versucht er es wieder mit den Bombenteppichen, dann werden von seinen Luftstreitkräften starke Verbände zur Zerstörung von Wohnhäusern weit hinter den Fronten abgezweigt – das Ganze macht den Eindruck der strategischen Unsicherheit und der Unfreiheit des operativen Denkens.

Natürlich ist es nicht erlaubt anzunehmen, der General Montgomery und sein Stab wüssten nicht, worauf es ankomme im Brückenkopf. Natürlich wissen sie, daß sie vor allem aus der Enge herauskommen müssen, die ihre Heeresgruppe fast erwürgt. Es ist auch selbstverständlich, daß sie sich seit den ersten Invasionstagen bestimmte Vorstellungen darüber machen, wie dieses Ziel zu erreichen wäre. Nur wenn es an die Ausführung dieser Pläne geht, dann verliert sich alles ins Kleinliche und Halbe. Auf die Karte schöne Pfeile einzuzeichnen, kann eben jeder Dilettant, erst bei der Umsetzung in die Wirklichkeit zeigt sich der Feldherr. Im Kampf mit den vielfachen „Friktionen,“ mit Nachschubschwierigkeiten, mit unerwartet hartnäckigem Widerstand, mit dem Ausfall von Vorhuten und von Nachrichtenmitteln – erst in dieser ständigen Auseinandersetzung mit den Reibungen des Alltags, die operative Idee zu entwickeln und fruchtbar zu machen, zeigt sich echtes militärisches Führertum.

Da die Deutschen es nicht lieben, ihre Gegner zu unterschätzen, sind sie auch leicht bereit, die Hindernisse anzuerkennen, die sich bei dem General Montgomery der Entfaltung der operativen Idee in der Normandie entgegenstellten. Das Gelände ist eng, es ist auch durchschnitten und Panzeraufmärschen feindlich, der Widerstand der deutschen Grenadiere und Panzer ist ungewöhnlich geschickt und ungewöhnlich hartnäckig, geschickter jedenfalls und hartnäckiger, als Eisenhower und Montgomery das angenommen hatten. Diese Tatsachen also kann Montgomery mit einigem Recht für sich anführen. Aber schließlich, es sind nun fast sieben Wochen seit dem Beginn der Invasion vergangen – Montgomery hat eine ganze Heeresgruppe, also eine ungeheuer kraftvolle Streitmacht zu seiner- Verfügung, er hat sogar von der im Südosten Englands stehenden Heeresgruppe Patton Divisionen bekommen, die ursprünglich gewiss nicht für ihn bestimmt waren, er hat die unbedingte Luftüberlegenheit – mit all dem verstrickt er sich doch immer wieder von neuem in den Kampf um Waldstücke und Gehöfte, mit all dem steckt er immer noch im Bereich der Taktik, in dem Gefechtsrahmen der Divisionen, und nicht in der Strategie.

Es müssen also doch wohl noch andere Gründe zu den eben angeführten hinzukommen, das Steckenbleiben der amerikanischen ersten und der britischen zweiten Armee zu erklären. Vielleicht kommt man der Aufhellung der Gründe für das Verzetteln der Offensive Montgomerys näher, wenn man heute eine kurze amtliche Mitteilung liest, die der General Eisenhower herausgegeben hat: Soundso viel tausend Flugzeuge, sagt er, sind gestern über den Invasionsbrückenkopf aufgestiegen und soundso viel tausend Tonnen Bomben haben sie wieder abgeworfen. Man sieht förmlich den Stolz des Generals, mit dem er diese Zahlen betrachtet – und plötzlich weiß man alles.

Da oben in der Führung der Westmächte sitzen Generale, die genau so wenig wie die politische Führung dieser Länder begriffen haben, was sich in Wirklichkeit seit 1917 verändert hat. Man erinnert sich an das Vorgehen Nivelles und Haigs 1917. Zehntausend Granaten auf den Quadratkilometer deutschen Frontabschnitts sind zu wenig? Dann muß man eben zwanzigtausend, dreißigtausend, vierzigtausend nehmen. Und hinterher wunderten Nivelle und Haig sich, daß sie immer noch nicht weiterkamen. Es ist jetzt nicht anders. Noch immer sind die Generale der Westmächte Anbeter der Zahlen. Sie rechnen sich auf dem Papier Divisionen, Batterien, Luftgeschwader zusammen und dann meinen sie, so müsse es nun gehen. Aber so geht es keineswegs immer – jedenfalls nicht gegen das deutsche Heer, das nun einmal auch in dieser vorübergehenden Periode der technischen Unterlegenheit das beste der Welt bleibt. Noch immer gibt sich die Göttin des Sieges nur dem Mann des kühnen Wagnisses hin und nicht dem, der seine Entschlußkraft in der kalten Rechnung erstickt.

Zu Beginn der Zwanzigerjahre erschien ein Buch, das in Sätzen voller schwungvollem Pathos die Führung der Westmächte im ersten Weltkriege verdammte, weil sie in Stupidität und Engherzigkeit nichts anderes gewusst habe, als in frontalem Anrennen gegen die deutschen Stellungen das Blut ihrer Landsleute zu verströmen, statt ihre schöpferische strategische Phantasie durch die Erfahrung zur echten Ideenfülle befruchten zu lassen. Der Mann, der diese bittere Kritik niederschrieb, hieß Winston Churchill…

9068

Antwort an die Anglo-Amerikaner –
Reichstreues Protektorat

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