America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

9093

americavotes1944

Heath: Dewey prepares to conduct blitz campaign

By S. Burton Heath

S. Burton Heath, writing a series of articles from Albany, is substituting for Peter Edson, regular conductor of the Washington Column, who is absent from Washington for a few days.

Albany, New York –
A short campaign and probably a red-hot one is beginning to shape up as Governor Dewey prepares methodically for his attempt to break President Roosevelt’s lease on the White House.

Both the Republican candidate and his campaign manager, National Chairman Brownell, declined to hint about details. They say nothing definite has been decided yet.

I think it is safe to prophesy that the Dewey campaign will begin soon after Labor Day; that it will include one – probably no more – major swing around the circuit; that it will rely heavily upon radio.

For the next month and a half this campaign probably will resemble a “pony war.” President Roosevelt will be busy as Commander-in-Chief. His supporters will taunt Governor Dewey with inaction. Mr. Dewey will go about his chores in person and through a lot of lieutenants who will appear to have a “passion for anonymity” and reticence.

But when the storm does break early in September it will be of blitz proportions, and there will be activity enough for two months to satisfy the most ambitious.

There are a number of reasons for a short campaign, and the war ranks as No. 1. Skilled politicians believe that the public would resent a long siege of oratory and travel in the midst of all-out war. Nor is it necessary for Governor Dewey to set as hard a pace as for a candidate less well known at the outset. He does not need to take weeks to introduce and identify himself; he can start right in selling his bill of goods.

This does not mean that the remainder of July and the month of August will be wasted. Quite the contrary. They are already being utilized efficiently.

Focus on 26 states

The campaign, as has been pointed out, is planned around the 26 states that have Republican Governors and which, in the aggregate, cast about 60 more electoral votes than Mr. Dewey would need to win.

Each of these states has an aggressive, successful GOP organization which elected its governor, and in turn has been strengthened by him. Each has candidates for Senate and House seeking election and reelection.

Mr. Dewey has talked with National Committee members and state chairman from all the states. He is meeting all 26 Republican Governors in St. Louis. State by state, delegations of Congressional candidates are calling on him.

These visitors have been leaving the executive chambers loud in their praise for Mr. Dewey. They are in position to go before their constituents and remark, casually:

“As Tom Dewey said to me–” or, perhaps oftener: “As I said to Tom Dewey–” That builds them up with the folks at home. It also builds up Candidate Dewey.

Possible blitz plan

Meanwhile, skilled assistants who have campaigned with Mr. Dewey in other years are quietly gathering material for the blitz in September and October, whipping it into shape, giving the candidate opportunity to know before he starts into the field what he has and how it can best be used.

Obviously, there will have to be one trip to the Pacific Coast. Naturally that would take one route – perhaps the northerly one – going, and another route – perhaps the southerly – returning. There would be stops at major cities for speeches and conferences and handshaking.

It is too early to be certain, but that one trip, plus perhaps visits to two or three major Eastern cities, and the use of radio, might constitute the campaign.

Radio will be used heavily in any event. The GOP feels that for the first time since Franklin Roosevelt entered the scene, he will be up against a skilled orator who can meet him on the air without a handicap. Every attempt will be made to capitalize on Mr. Dewey’s radio personality.

9094

Ferguson: Foreign brides

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

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9095

Background of news –
Military control of Japan

By Bertram Benedict

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9096

americavotes1944

14 renominated in Texas primary

Dallas, Texas (UP) –
Fourteen Texas Congressmen, including Speaker Sam Rayburn, won renomination in the state’s primary election Saturday, five others were running such a close race that a runoff appeared necessary and one was defeated, unofficial returns indicated today.

Mr. Rayburn of Bonham, running for his 17th term in Congress, defeated State Senator G. C. Morris, his closest opponent, by a vote of 20,840 to 16,873.

The only Congressman to be defeated was Rep. Richard Kleberg of Corpus Christi, who polled 11,836 votes compared to 19,121 for Capt, John Lyle, now serving with the Army in Italy.

Judge nominated

In the 2nd district, which has been represented by Martin Dies (chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee) for the last six terms, Judge J. M. Combs won the nomination.

The closest race in the light primary balloting was between Rep. Ed Gossett of Wichita Falls who received 24,260 votes compared to 24,115 for George Moffett of Chillicothe. Two other contests in which runoffs appeared certain were those in the 9th and 17th districts were Reps. J. J. Mansfield and Sam Russell were running a close race with their opposition.

Has slight lead

In the 3rd district, Rep. Lindley Beckworth of Gilmer was holding only a slight lead over Capt. D. S. Meredith Jr., and a runoff appeared inevitable. A similar situation resulted in the 7th district where Rep. Nat Patton was running a close race with District Attorney Tom Pickett of Palestine.

The runoff primary is scheduled for next month.

9097

Millett: Motherhood takes grit

Wartime bride has stern future
By Ruth Millett

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9098

americavotes1944

pegler

Pegler: Communist-CIO

By Westbrook Pegler

Chicago, Illinois –
Although Sidney Hillman and the Communist-CIO coalition have been momentarily rebuked by the reactionary, or American Democrats, in their nomination of Harry Truman instead of Henry Wallace for the Vice Presidency, they will discover on their arrival home when they have had time to unpack and put on something loose, that their hero, President Roosevelt, has neither repudiated this faction nor suffered any impairment of its devotion to him.

The Communist-CIO, or popular front, is still in action with its vast power to levy on the pay of millions of workers for its campaign funds and Mr. Roosevelt still welcomes its support.

It is still a Communist organization, infested with many men who not only oppose the American system of government with propaganda and systematic organization but, in times past, have gone into the streets in violent, lawless rebellion against the authority of government in many American communities at the cost of many American lives.

It still represents the will and purposes of many men who showed their hatred of the United States as a nation by impeding the early preparations of the Americans for war while the first classes of the draft were training with broom-handles and stove pipes.

‘Communist’ used too carelessly

These are general accusations which I shall develop in detail in a few days, realizing that the term “Communists” has lost some of its evil meaning through careless use and the New Deal’s propaganda to the effect that anyone who is a “liberal” or a “progressive” is likely to be called a Communist these days.

Incidentally, Mrs. Roosevelt, who did not come to this convention but made a speech at the last one, is one of those who have tried to persuade the country that “certain groups,” meaning those who consort with Communists, if not the Communists themselves, are misunderstood martyrs to their harmless convictions.

This convention did for the Democratic Party something that Mr. Roosevelt was unwilling to do either for the party or for himself. By spreading his approval over number of aspirants for the Vice Presidency, the President made it possible for the reactionaries to get rid of Mr. Wallace and nominate a protégé of one of the most degraded politicians in American urban history, Tom Pendergast of Kansas City.

That was as far as he would go, however, toward repudiation of Sidney Hillman’s group. So, he left himself still in a position to cooperate with them in the campaign and, if elected, to collaborate throughout a fourth term or as long as he might hold office in that term.

President’s own creation

The fact remains hugely apparent that the Hillman front is a creature of President Roosevelt’s own. He is fond of personal comparisons to divinity, so it might be said that he fashioned the clay and breathed life into it with definite intent. The CIO is the mother of the Hillman front, known both as the Political Action Committee and Citizens’ Committee for Political Action.

Mr. Roosevelt humored his creation through its violent attacks on government in many helpless cities and towns, condoned its brutalities and, far from rebuking Frank Murphy, the Governor of Michigan, for flinching in the presence of mobs, endorsed Mr. Murphy’s betrayal of the Americans of Michigan by sending him to the Supreme Court.

At this convention, sensing the revolt of the Americans and their indigent abhorrence of the conspiracy, Mr. Roosevelt permitted his party to sacrifice Mr. Wallace. But Mr. Wallace was not running for the Presidency. He was running for the Vice Presidency. Mr. Roosevelt was already the presidential nominee, even before the opening gavel, and Mr. Hillman’s front was even more enthusiastic for him than for Mr. Wallace.

Thus Mr. Hillman got his first choice and there is nothing in past performances to justify the slightest hope among the American Democrats that Mr. Roosevelt will turn against the Communists, if reelected.

He has already shown his regard for the Communists in the parcel of Earl Browder, the titular leader of the conspiracy, in the interests of “unity,” in his connivance at the cancellation of a deportation order against Browder’s wife (an active, alien-born Communist), and in the grant of draft deferments to a number of CIO unioneers who, by violent action, led strikes against American war plants during the life of Stalin’s alliance with Adolf Hitler. The Hillman front is still Mr. Roosevelt’s own Communist wing.

9099

Maj. Williams: Radio waves

By Maj. Al Williams

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9100

New York puts tax ‘bite’ on three nightclubs

City gives them bills totaling $232,000 for back sales and business levies

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9101

Navigator gasps for breath but leads men to goal

Bombardier, though wounded in head by flak, drops bombs squarely over target
By Leo S. Disher, United Press staff writer

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Japs name new Korean governor

By the United Press

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9102

Little Steel for civilian goods seen

WPB acts to meet war needs first

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9103

Money conference called successful

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9104

Pirates, Dodgers clash in night tilt

Bucs eye Series sweeps; timely rallies snatch Sunday bargain card

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Nicholson hits four homers to tie loop mark

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9105

Post-war road boomed by OWI

Farm-to-market program included

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9106

americavotes1944

FDR spoke to convention from ‘Shangri-La’

President gave location cue
By Si Steinhauser

“Shangri-La” was the cue word – suggested by the President – to the West Coast where President Roosevelt waited in his private railroad car to make his acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention. It was also the codeword used in all conversations between radio technicians and executives in setting up the lines used and the auxiliary emergency lines which weren’t used – but were there – set up in case of failure of the President’s private radio lines.

The President spoke through field equipment lettered appropriately enough for the man in the White House, WTOP (W for Washington and TOP for the remainder of the call letters for a capital station). This equipment goes whenever the President goes within the continental United States, in case he decides to make a broadcast.

Before he left, Washington and the Nazis had him in Cherbourg – where he wasn’t – the President talked with Clyde Hunt, chief engineer for CBS Network, and Carlton Smith, Washington executive for NBC, and disclosed his plans. They in turn had confidential chats with their chiefs in New York, Paul White for CBS, and Bill Brooks for NBC. Leonard Reinsch, radio director for the Democratic National Committee, was the only other person in on the “Shangri-La” broadcast.

Wires were set up at WBBM in Chicago and in a master control booth in the Chicago Stadium. The talk came first to that booth and from there was distributed to all networks and the stadium public address system.

Engineers waited for the cue words “Shangri-La,” threw switches and the President was on the air. No one in Chicago – among radio people – actually knew where the President was. They knew he was on the Pacific Coast but only Pacific Coast telephone-radio engineers who set up the lines to his train – under Navy Guard – knew whose train they were “wiring for radio.” Of course, the Secret Service, military attachés and others of the President’s confidential staff knew. So far as radio is concerned, he still spoke from Shangri-La, from where he said Gen. Jimmy Doolittle took off to bomb Tokyo.

You can start a lot of endless arguments about that “no person to person” communication by radio with reference to the President’s talk by radio.

He addressed his remarks directly to the chairman and the delegates and said “you” four times in his first two paragraphs. Which, say Republicans, was person-to-person communication.

Of course, if you tried that, the station permitting you to do so could lose its license.

Convention broadcasts and political speeches always bored us, but sitting in on the announcement of a state poll and hearing a Wallace faithful add “until hell freezes over” to “One for Wallace” will not be forgotten.

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americavotes1944

CIO-PAC leaders boast of vast organization

Real powerhouse of 4th term activity is confident of registering 14 million voters’
By Henry J. Taylor, Scripps-Howard staff writer

New York –
How the CIO Political Action Committee operates its $3-million slush fund and how its chief, Sidney Hillman, kept Henry A. Wallace in the vice-presidential race is the kind of thing you can learn in hotel rooms and Pullman cars when the CIO kingpins are in a mood for talking.

My education began in a talk with Mr. Hillman at his Democratic Convention headquarters just after the convention ended and continued in a Twentieth Century Limited club-car eulogy by Richard Roman, Hillman press chief.

Mr. Roman said:

Political Action is clicking because the PAC boys have the knowhow. After the bloody battles fought for industrial unionization, political organization is a picnic.

Recall fight in organize

Mr. Hillman who pyramided a Lithuanian darning needle into a multi-million-dollar union czarship and a comfortable seat in White House inner circles, recalls as really tough “the fights against fanatics for the ‘open-shop’ and company unions, yellow-dog scabs bought by company money, crooked police as in the Indiana steel riots, and sometimes even against state militia.”

But in the political field, who is to stop the quick-thinking boys with the tried and tested knowhow? As long as nobody in a democracy stops voters from voting, they claim, nobody’s going to stop them from organizing the vote and supporting anyone they please.

Mr. Hillman, the “yes” and “no” man at the convention and already the real powerhouse of fourth-term activity, will tell you to figure it out for yourself. Or you can roll along in club-car comfort and listen to Richard Roman.

Bosses lacked vision

Mr. Roman explains:

In America, political bosses never really saw the picture in terms of mobilizing the masses. They didn’t have any imagination, and they didn’t understand much beyond turkeys at Christmas.

Even earlier setups like the IWW and labor’s Non-Partisan League only nibbled at the edge of mass action. To really get rolling in political action you need dynamic thinking. You’ve got to spread wide, solidify and hit hard. That’s new in American politics. The Democratic Party is 140 years old. We’re only one year old, so what’s the answer? As Mr. Hillman says, it’s the knowhow.

The CIO-PAC, with headquarters in New York operates through union officers in plants in every industrial community. A hundred thousand shop stewards are the hard core of Mr. Hillman’s technique. They are the immediate, hour-by-hour bosses of five million subordinate union members working under them.

No money worries

They receive and distribute political literature in seven languages, get running reports on the votes of Congressmen and on what the dynamic PAC thinkers think of each vote.

They are told whom to go down the line for at each municipal, state and national election. The money flows in with the greatest of ease, collected by the 100,000 stewards and by inter-union contributions. The present money-raising slogan is “A Buck for Roosevelt – Our Friend.”

PAC leaders already have more cash in their treasury than the Republican and Democratic parties combined. “Money doesn’t worry us,” says Mr. Roman.

New registration technique

The clincher for getting out the right kind of vote resulted from another piece of “dynamic thinking.” Mr. Hillman’s study of state election laws revealed that in many states, statutes do not specifically require a citizen to go to the registration place to register. The PAC decided it could legally bring the place to the registrant, and is doing so in a big way.

PAC stewards set up registration outfits inside the factories, opposite the timeclocks. Outgoing workers are checked through the registration booths, one by one.

Mr. Roman explains:

This is in the country’s interest. Mr. Hillman keeps saying it is a patriotic duty to vote. That’s the basis of the Democratic system. Isn’t it? And besides we help the war effort by saving our workers’ time.

Will register 14 million

Spokesman Roman said:

Inside the factories and around the towns this fall, we’ll register 14 million workers, 600,000 in New York City alone. Only last night Senator Pepper agreed publicly that working with us in Florida gave him the biggest turnout he ever had in the industrial centers. Everybody knows what we did in Pennsylvania for Senator Guffey. Wait until you see what we do for FDR.

He was asked:

What about what you weren’t able to do for Henry Wallace in the convention? Some say Hillman’s support even hurt him.

Mr. Roman laughed. He said:

The day before Mr. Wallace came to Chicago, he telephoned Mr. Hillman there and said he couldn’t figure where he had more than 205 votes on the first ballot. Henry Wallace was ready to withdraw. He had prepared a statement and read it to Mr. Hillman. He planned to have it read from the platform, thank his helpers, release his delegates and kiss the boys goodbye.

Now, Mr. Hillman didn’t like this idea at all. He showed Wallace where we had an additional 200 delegates from him controlled by our men, although Mr. Hillman didn’t want to show his hand so early. He told Wallace he could guarantee him over 400 votes at the kickoff. Charlie Michaelson is working with us and he confirmed this to Wallace.

Wallace agreed to come to Chicago and try to pick up the rest himself. How badly did we hurt him? Sidney Hillman is the man who kept Wallace in the race.

9108

americavotes1944

Perkins: Democrat-CIO tie-up to help GOP strategy

AFL resentment may split labor vote
By Fred W. Perkins, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
Republican plans to drive a wedge in the organized labor vote and to produce an approximate balance which might swing the November election got a shot in the arm from the events in the Democratic conventions.

The obvious plan is to encourage belief among leaders and members of the American Federation of Labor that if President Roosevelt is elected again, the CIO will be more firmly anchored as a political partner of the administration, and thus in position to expect more of the governmental favors about which the AFL has already complained publicly.

The factor on which the Republicans are counting is the tie-up of the CIO with the Democratic ticket, making it apparent that a Dewey victory would leave the AFL in more favorable position than if Mr. Roosevelt goes in again.

AFL suspicious of CIO

Although some AFL leaders and a number of local organizations are backing Mr. Roosevelt, the existence of a Republican chance for votes among the 6,500,000 claimed members of the AFL was shown by the watchful eye which AFL leaders kept on CIO activities in Chicago.

What some AFL leaders think of their politically active rivals is indicated by an article in the AFL News Service. Answering the question, “How much weight will the CIO Political Action Committee swing in the November elections?”, Philip Pearl, AFL publicist, wrote:

It’s hard for the public to tell because the PAC is a rather tricky outfit. Already it has gone underground and left a new organization to front for it, called the National Citizens’ Political Action Committee.

This is in accordance with the typical Communist technique. The reason given is that unions, under the Connally-Smith Act, are forbidden to make political contributions and that therefore a new committee was necessary to raise campaign funds by voluntary contributions.

The AFL article continued:

But a more practical reasons is apparent. That one is to take the CIO name out of the organization’s title. The Communist stooges behind the PAC are canny enough to realize that the initials CIO are enough to give any outfit a black eye.

This article also asserted:

If the President is elected to a fourth term, it will be in spite of rather than because of the CIO’s help. As for candidates for lesser office, they are likely to find that the benison of the CIO in 1944, as in former years, will turn out to be the kiss of death.

UMW attacks

Republicans believe that such ideas, if accepted widely among the rank-and-file AFL membership, would produce a real split.

The CIO and its political views and works are under steady attack in the publications of the United Mine Workers, whose president, John L. Lewis, will make an effort in a September convention to convince the half-million coalminers that their interests do not lie with the political leader they have followed in three elections.

1 Like
9109

americavotes1944

Stokes: Democrats try to please all but nobody’s quite happy

Concessions made to various groups intended to keep party from falling apart
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
The Democratic Party goes into the campaign tossing “asides” to Right and Left – spelled with capital letters – like a character in an old-fashioned melodrama.

In its ticket, its platform and otherwise, it made compromises to try to hold together, for another election, a party vehicle that is beginning to fall apart.

Party leaders, operating under orders from President Roosevelt, threw concessions here and there, like fading bouquets. Everybody got something, but nobody is quite happy.

The South was gratified at the dropping of Vice President Henry Wallace, which was relished the more because they were permitted to kill him off in the public arena. Pleasing to the South, too, was the omission in the platform of a specific indictment of the poll tax and a declaration for granting the vote to the Negroes in the South, although they protested mildly at even the generalized form of the plank.

Texas still raging

Mississippi and South Carolina seem to be back in the fold. But Texas is still out, rampant and raging. And there is talk of promoting a third party in the South to rally about Senator Byrd of Virginia if he will permit it – which is doubtful.

Negro organization leaders resented the appeasement of the Southerners by failure to condemn various restrictions and discriminations by name, as had the Republicans, and in the ousting of the Vice President, whom they recognize as a champion. The chief hope of the Democrats to hold a substantial part of the Negro vote is that the proven interest of President and Mrs. Roosevelt in their welfare may outweigh the clear-cut commitments by the Republicans.

CIO discouraged

Staunch New Dealers and labor lost Henry Wallace, but in Senator Harry S. Truman they got a much more acceptable second man than they might have if the Southerners and conservatives had gotten their full head.

But CIO leaders and the rank and file were discouraged over the outcome of the convention, more so, perhaps, than the facts warranted. For at this, the first convention since creation of their political agency – the CIO Political Action Committee – they did very well, all in all.

They still have much to learn about politics, although they are progressing fast. They lost their best trading point when they came out for President Roosevelt well ahead of the convention and upon this the President capitalized in his calculations.

Gesture of appeasement

The easing out of Vice President Wallace was a gesture of appeasement to businessmen and middle-class folks from whom Democrats expect to attract votes this year on account of the war, but who were represented as likely to refuse to vote for the President if Mr. Wallace were kept in the line of succession to the White House.

There’s a lot of talk about this group and its hostility to the Vice President. How large it is no one seems to know. It is just possible, of course – and this is one of the risks of political compromise – that it might be offset by workers who might stay away from the polls due to the rejection of Mr. Wallace, either through indifference or because of the failure of CIO political organizers to be as zealous as they would if he were on the ticket.

9110

americavotes1944

Dewey aides plan session in city

Pawling, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican presidential candidate, returns to Albany today after a weekend at his farm to complete the program he will place before the GOP Governors’ Conference at St. Louis Aug. 2 and 3.

He devoted most of the weekend to preparing an agenda for the conference. It included post-war reconversion, unemployment insurance, taxation and relief for returning soldiers.

Mr. Dewey and his running mate, Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, will put the finishing touches to the program at a conference in Albany Wednesday. Governor and Mrs. Bricker will be overnight guests at the Executive Mansion.

En route to St. Louis, Mr. Dewey will stop at Pittsburgh to meet with Pennsylvania Congressmen and experts on labor, business and agriculture. He declined to say whether John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine workers, would attend the Pittsburgh meeting.

Mr. Dewey said Hamilton Gaddis, his assistant secretary, and Douglas Mode, attached to the Republican National Committee, are already in Pittsburgh making arrangements for the meeting.

9111

Pearson: Germany will quit in ‘few weeks’

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Tragedy blocks little girl’s visit to zoo

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9112

Völkischer Beobachter (July 25, 1944)

Schwere Enttäuschung im Feindlager –
Normandie-Offensive zusammengebrochen

Verlegenes Ausredegeschwätz der Anglo-Amerikaner

ka. Stockholm, 24. Juli –
Die zu Anfang der vergangenen Woche mit einem ungeheuren Aufwand an Material begonnene Offensive Montgomerys in der Normandie, die zu einem entscheidenden Durchbruch durch die deutschen Stellungen führen und den Engländern und Amerikanern endlich den Weg nach Paris öffnen sollte, ist restlos zusammengebrochen. Dies ist das Fazit über die Kämpfe der letzten Tage, das man heute in London zu ziehen gezwungen ist.

Die Offensive, so meldet der Kriegskorrespondent des Daily Express, begann am Dienstag, wurde am Mittwoch und Donnerstag immer matter und wurde am Freitag völlig gestoppt. Es sei ein peinlicher Überraschungsschluss für eine spannende Woche gewesen. Welches Gewicht man dabei auf die Offensive gelegt hatte, geht daraus hervor, daß sie, wie Stockholms Tidningen berichtet, mit dem furchtbarsten Luftbombardement eingeleitet wurde, das die Militärgeschichte je gesehen hat, und daß zu ihrem Beginn ein Sonderkommuniqué andeutete, daß es jetzt den großen Schlag gegen Rommel gelte. In dem erwähnten Bericht des Daily Express wird betont, daß niemals eine Offensive mit einer vollkommeneren Zusammenarbeit zwischen Luftwaffe, Artillerie, Panzern und Infanterie eingeleitet worden sei. Innerhalb der ersten zehn Kilometer sei alles mustergültig verlaufen, aber dann sei die Offensive ins Stocken geraten. Das Überraschungsmoment sei verbraucht gewesen, Rommel habe seine Kräfte umgruppiert und man habe kein Dorf mehr erobert, während die Deutschen sich in neuen Stellungen eingegraben hätten.

Der Kriegskorrespondent des Daily Express hat nach diesem offensichtlichen Fiasko das begreifliche Bedürfnis gehabt, eine Erklärung für den Zusammenbruch der Offensive zu bekommen, und sich an einen höheren Offizier gewandt. Der gab ihm auf seine Frage die verblüffende Antwort, das Ziel dieser Offensive sei nicht gewesen, Gelände zu gewinnen, sondern Deutsche zu töten. Wenn einmal die deutschen Armeen in der Normandie vernichtet seien, sei es verhältnismäßig leicht, Frankreich zu erobern – So sieht also die Trostpille aus, die man jetzt den Unzufriedenen im Lande reicht, nachdem der Misserfolg nicht mehr zu verheimlichen ist. Es bleibt nur die Frage, ob man nicht durch die Folge von blutigen und vergeblichen Offensiven die eigenen Armeen vernichtet, statt diejenigen der Deutschen.

Auch auf amerikanischer Seite hat man das Bedürfnis, das immer deutlicher zutage tretende Fiasko vor der Öffentlichkeit zu entschuldigen, wobei man aber gleichzeitig eingestehen muß, daß die festgesetzte Zeittabelle längst über den Haufen geworfen ist. Höhere amerikanische Offiziere sind in Äußerungen gegenüber dem Reuters-Korrespondenten deutlich von der in England und Amerika herrschenden Einstellung abgerückt, daß das offenherzige Eingeständnis der Alliierten, hinter der ursprünglichen Zeittabelle zurück zu sein, ein Zeichen für unzufriedenstellende Fortschritte in Frankreich sei. Sie gäben zwar zu, daß die amerikanischen Truppen keineswegs so weit gekommen sind, wie es nach den Invasionsplänen der Fall sein müsste, erklären aber diese Pläne nachträglich für reine Theorie. Man habe eben nicht wissen können, was die Deutschen alles täten, um der Invasion zu begegnen. Wenn sich die Deutschen dazu entschlossen hätten, sich zurückzuziehen und weiter innen im Lande zu kämpfen, dann wäre auch das Vorrücken der Amerikaner schneller vor sich gegangen.

Diese strategische Weisheit verdient wirklich festgehalten zu werden. Sie umfasst ein solches Eingeständnis der eigenen Unfähigkeit und der Abhängigkeit von den Maßnahmen der deutschen Heeresführung, daß es darüber hinaus keines Wortes mehr bedarf, um darzulegen, wer Herr der Lage in der Normandie geblieben ist.