Ferguson: Gullible parents
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
…
Millett: Heaven help the man!
Wife and husband in Congress fight
By Ruth Millett
In Texas, a war plant worker who is a candidate for nomination for Congress asked for an injunction to keep his wife from competing with him in the race. The judge said nothing doing. But you can’t blame the man for trying to eliminate his wife’s opposition.
For a wife could be a deadly political opponent. Suppose, for instance, she did nothing more than to introduce into political circles the kind of talk woman pass off lightly at bridge parties. No man whose wife did that could hope to impress anybody with his fitness for an important political office.
You know the kind of talk I mean. The little story about how George got stung on a business deal. And the hilarious tale of last summer’s victory garden – which George deserted for the golf course after a few evenings’ work.
And then some of George’s peculiar notions about running a house. And how the poor dear is so forgetful he can’t even remember his wedding anniversary. And the way his wife manages him by making him think all of her bright ideas are his.
There is nobody in the world into can make a man look more incompetent, or more of a comic strip character, than his ever-loving wife.
And that’s when she is on his side. If she were running against him for a political office – heaven help the man.
Argentina, irked by Hull, recalls envoy
Dignity injured, government hints
…
De Gaulle urges reduced bombings
…
Pegler: Communist-CIO
By Westbrook Pegler
New York –
The rise of Sidney Hillman’s Political Action Committee of the CIO to a commanding position in the Democratic Party calls for a serious study of Hillman’s political and personal history and of the persistent, though often changing methods of the Communists in American affairs.
Like Hillman, many of these indefatigables are naturalized citizens in the legal sense but mere angry prejudice against as “foreigners,” and against their exasperating effrontery, is a dangerous weapon. It can be politically effective but it invites consequences as bad as the dangers which it undertakes to defeat.
Anyway, there are many native Americans in the conspiracy – notably Earl Browder, a Kansan, claiming to come of an old Virginia line – who are the more dangerous for the very reason that they would not be included in such prejudice.
The better way is to get out the books and Congressional documents and the rosters of Communist organizations and their more or less innocent subsidiaries and cram during the period of less than four months remaining before Election Day.
A big assignment
Those of us who have been at it for years realize that this is a big assignment and, this being so, it would be well for the Americans for once to take a lesson from the Communists, themselves, and organize “study groups” to learn how the Communists operate and who they are.
One reason why the few Communists could command the attendance of Henry Wallace and Francis Biddle, the Attorney General, at conferences with their man, Hillman, in Chicago, and issue to the Democratic Convention an order for the nomination of Mr. Wallace which barely was defeated, was that they are constantly at it. They are diligent where Americans are mentally lazy.
For the purpose of study by neighborhood and shop and office groups, the reports of the Dies Committee would be useful because they contain condensed information, including lists of names and organizations of the Communist front. Martin Dies’ own book, The Trojan Horse in America, is another informative authority.
Another book, amounting to a history and directory of American Communism for a certain period with detailed information on Hillman and others who carry over into the present crisis, is Benjamin Gitlow’s I Confess. Gitlow is a backslider, Browder’s predecessor in American Communism, who told all with such firm authority that the worst of his old comrades couldn’t even say he lied.
Example of Communist treachery
Ben Stolberg’s Story of the CIO, published in 1938, and his recent Tailor’s Progress, short and full of information. And, as an example of the ruthless and cynical treachery of the Communists to any American who has served their purpose, even at the risk of his life, there is Proletarian Journey, by Fred Beal. He was still in prison in North Carolina at last reports, convicted of a Communist murder in a riot. The book tells of his escape to Russia and of his disillusionment there, after which the American Communists disowned him and let him go to prison.
The Dies Committee’s data has a bad reputation for the very reason that it attacked and exposed Communism in the Roosevelt government. Thus, the New Deal propaganda agencies and the Communist intelligentsia sheered Martin Dies into disrepute as a witch-burner. And, only recently, Hillman, whom Dies had exposed, was able to move into Texas with such financial and political power that Dies knew he couldn’t be reelected to Congress and decided to sit out a term.
Among the people who should be reached by such study are the American workers who have joined unions, willingly or not, who may actually believe that the fight against Communism is a fight on labor, as the Communists dominate the CIO today. Philip Murray is the prisoner of the Communists. They control him and the CIO through their seats in the executive committee. Hillman is as badly off. They have got to play ball or die.
Heinz: A Free Frenchman dies to stay free
It was one of those things that happen in a war
By W. C. Heinz, North American Newspaper Alliance
…
Gave ex-husband $3 million, Barbara Hutton asserts
Dinah Shore heiress asks court to give her complete custody of their son, Lance
…
Pirates send Butcher against Giants
Dodgers humble Bucs, rout Sewell, 12–7, in late 9-run outbreak
…
Indians, with Bagby, seem like good pennant threat
…
Networks post political pay-as-you-go sign
Lift ban against Democratic song
By Si Steinhauser
Radio’s networks banned the Democratic Party theme song, “Don’t Change Horses in the Middle of the Stream” until the Roosevelt nomination, then let down the bars. That was “for free,” as they say in the entertainment world. Now the bars are up again, unless and until the Democrats contract and pay for time. After that they may sing and play their favorite song until the time runs out.
That’s the network attitude. They didn’t intend to play politics and don’t intend to do so now.
If the Demmies use the song, and it is apparent that they intend to, why doesn’t the GOP have someone write new lyrics to a “dew, Dew, Dewey Day” and give them some competition in a musical way?
“Don’t Change Horses in the Middle of the Stream” was written by the same trio who wrote “Mairzy Dotes:” Al Hoffman, Milton Drake and Jerry Livingstone.
For the rest of the campaign President Roosevelt will have to decide when he is “reporting to the nation” and when he is talking politics. In the first case the networks will give him time, in the latter the Democratic National Committee will have to pay. On the other hand, every time Mr. Dewey speaks his party will have to pay, for the very simple reason that he isn’t President – not yet, his followers would probably add to that.
Völkischer Beobachter (July 26, 1944)
Warum haben die USA kein Chinin?
Roosevelt verdient am Tod seiner Soldaten
…
Englische Kritik an Montgomery
Stockholm, 25. Juli –
Die englische Öffentlichkeit ist über die Einstellung Montgomerys zur Lage in der Normandie beunruhigt. Man habe, nach dem Londoner Korrespondenten von Nya Dagligt Allehanda, zunächst große Hoffnungen auf den angeblichen Durchbruch gesetzt, der sich jedoch tatsächlich nur als ein Vormarsch um knapp 10 Kilometer erwiesen habe. Nicht alle militärischen Beobachter Londons seien geneigt, die ganze Schuld dem schlechten Wetter zuzuschieben. Britische militärische Beobachter erklärten, daß die starke Artillerie Rommels, davon besonders seine 88-Millimeter-Geschütze, die britische Offensive gestoppt hätte, so daß diese nur eine lokale Bedeutung erhalten habe. Montgomery habe befürchtet, im deutschen Sperrfeuer die britischen Kampfwagen zu verlieren und sie darum zurückgezogen.
In der Daily Mail schreibt Liddell Hart, aus allen Kommentaren gehe deutlich hervor, daß man mit den taktischen Methoden Montgomerys unzufrieden sei.
Deutscher Abwehrerfolg an der Invasionsfront
Berlin, 25. Juli –
Im Westabschnitt der Invasionsfront gingen im Laufe des Montags schwere Luftangriffe der Nordamerikaner auf den Raum zwischen Saint-Lô und Périers nieder, Mehrere hunderte vier- und zweimotorige Flugzeuge warfen ihre Bombenlasten auf die kleinen Dörfer im Raum südlich und südwestlich Amigny und die Straßen im frontnahen Hinterland. Schweres Artilleriefeuer löste die Bombardierungen ab. Dann trat der Feind mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerverbänden zum Angriff an. In erbitterten Kämpfen errangen unsere Truppen einen eindrucksvollen Abwehrerfolg. Von einem unbedeutenden, durch Gegenstöße abgeriegelten Einbruch nördlich Amigny abgesehen, blieb die alte Hauptkampflinie fest in unserer Hand. Die Kämpfe dauern weiterhin an.
Im Abschnitt der zweiten britischen Armee ist der Feind dagegen immer noch damit beschäftigt, seine Stoßdivisionen in die frontnahen Bereitstellungen vorzuziehen. Das Zögern der Briten ist in Anbetracht ihrer schweren Verluste verständlich, die sie bei ihrem letzten Angriff im Orneabschnitt erlitten. Sie haben erlebt, daß unsere Grenadiere trotz Trommelfeuer und massierter Flieger- und Panzerangriffe das Stürmen nicht verlernt haben. Gegen Kanadier, die sich nach mehrstündigem schwerem Artilleriefeuer in den Besitz einer wichtigen Höhe setzen konnten, trat eine zumeist aus Ostkämpfern zusammengesetzte Kompanie zum Gegenangriff an. Sie schob sich unbemerkt an den Nordrand der Höhe heran und drang dann mit der blanken Waffe von rückwärts in die Gräben der Kanadier ein. Der Widerstand wurde rasch gebrochen, der Rest der feindlichen Besatzung gefangen. Die Höhe war damit wieder in eigener Hand und der geplante zweite Angriff der Briten über die Höhe hinaus nach Süden unmöglich geworden.
Ebenso wenig wie die Grenadiere ließen sich unsere Panzerjäger durch das schwere feindliche Trommelfeuer und den Masseneinsatz britischer Kampfwagen aus der Ruhe bringen. Einer der feindlichen Panzerkeile stieß während der Kämpfe südlich Caen auf eine Pakabteilung, die in wenigen Stunden 35 britische Panzer abschoss und damit dem feindlichen Stoßkeil das Rückgrat brach.
Die leichte Wetterverbesserung führte besonders in den Abend- und Nachtstunden zu Luftkämpfen, in denen neben den erfahrenen Jagdfliegern auch Nachwuchsjäger zu Erfolgen kamen. Gegen Abend schossen sie im Kampf gegen einen mehr als doppelt so starken feindlichen Jagdverband sieben Doppelrumpfige nordamerikanische Flugzeuge ab. Ritterkreuzträger Hauptmann Weiß errang dabei seinen 114. und 115. Und Ritterkreuzträger Leutnant Groß seinen 50. Luftsieg. Einige Stunden später brachte ein junger Nachtjäger in 3000 Meter Höhe seinen ersten viermotorigen Bomber zum Absturz und erzielte damit für sein Nachtjagdgeschwader den 500. Nachtabschuss.
Innsbrucker Nachrichten (July 26, 1944)
Im Westen Abwehrschlacht großen Ausmaßes
Erfolgreiche deutsche Gegenangriffe – Feindlicher Großangriff auf Florenz – Hohe Panzerverluste der Sowjets
dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 26. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Im Verlauf der schweren Kämpfe südlich Caen gelang es dem Feind, westlich der Straße Caen–Falaise in unsere Stellungen einzubrechen und weitere Infanterie- und Panzerkräfte nachzuführen. Unsere fanatisch kämpfenden Truppen verhinderten jedoch das Ausweiten der feindlichen Einbrüche und traten dann in den Nachmittagsstunden zum Gegenangriff an. Nach erbitterten Kämpfen waren am Abend die alten Stellungen wieder voll in unserer Hand, die Verluste des Feindes sind hoch. 18 Panzer wurden abgeschossen. Auch nordwestlich Saint-Lô tobt eine Abwehrschlacht großen Ausmaßes. Nachdem die ersten feindlichen Angriffe, die unter stärkster Artillerie- und Luftwaffenunterstützung vorgetragen wurden, abgewiesen waren, gelang es dem Feind, an einigen Stellen in unsere Front einzudringen und die Straße Saint-Lô–Périers nach Südwesten zu überschreiten. Gegenangriffe sind im Gange. Seit den heutigen Morgenstunden haben die Kämpfe mit großer Wucht auch auf den Raum nördlich Périers übergegriffen.
Schlachtflieger griffen feindliche Bereitstellungen im Landekopf mit gutem Erfolg an und beschädigten vor der Küste ein großes Transportschiff schwer. In Luftkämpfen wurden elf feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.
Im südfranzösischen Raum wurden wiederum 110 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.
Schweres „V1“-Vergeltungsteuer liegt weiterhin auf dem Großraum von London.
In Italien hat der Großangriff gegen den Raum südlich Florenz begonnen. Der erwartete Durchbruch ist dem Gegner nicht gelungen. Erst nach schwersten Kämpfen und unter besonders hohen Verlusten konnte er geringen Geländegewinn erzielen. Weitere Angriffe gegen unsere neuen Stellungen wurden zerschlagen. Nördlich Arezzo und beiderseits des Tiber scheiterten feindliche Angriffe unter Abriegelung örtlicher Einbrüche. An der adriatischen Küste trat der Feind erneut zum Angriff an. Heftige Kämpfe sind dort noch im Gange.
Kampffähren der Kriegsmarine beschädigten vor der westitalienischen Küste zwei britische Schnellboote.
Bei Angriffen auf Nachschubgeleite in der Ägäis brachten Sicherungsfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine, Bordflak und Jagdflieger von 15 angreifenden Bombern 7 zum Absturz.
In Galizien brachen zwischen dem oberen Dnjestr und Lemberg zahlreiche von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe der Sowjets blutig zusammen. Im Stadtgebiet von Lemberg warfen unsere Truppen den Feind im Gegenangriff zurück.
Im Abschnitt einer Armee wurden in der Zeit vom 14. bis 23. Juli 553 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen. Hierbei hat sich die hamburgische 20. Panzergrenadierdivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Jauer besonders ausgezeichnet.
Im Kampfraum zwischen oberem Bug und Weichsel gewann der Feind gegen den San und den Raum von Lublin weiter Boden. Südöstlich Lublin wurden dagegen alle feindlichen Angriffe zerschlagen.
Zwischen Brest-Litowsk und Grodno sowie östlich und nordöstlich Kauen scheiterten alle feindlichen Durchbruchsversuche an der zähen Abwehr unserer Divisionen.
Auch an der Front zwischen Dünaburg und dem Finnischen Meerbusen errangen unsere Truppen gegen alle Durchbruchsangriffe der Bolschewisten einen vollen Abwehrerfolg. 47 feindliche Panzer wurden dort abgeschossen.
Hauptmann Weißenberger, Gruppenkommandeur in einem Jagdgeschwader, errang an der Ostfront seinen 200. Luftsieg.
Feindliche Bomberverbände griffen Orte in West- und Südostdeutschland an. Besonders in Stuttgart entstanden durch einen erneuten Terrorangriff Schäden und Personenverluste. Einzelne feindliche Flugzeuge warfen außerdem Bomben auf das Gebiet der Reichshauptstadt und auf Orte in Ostpreußen.
Luftverteidigungskräfte brachten 51 feindliche Flugzeuge zum Absturz.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 26, 1944)
Communiqué No. 101
In the area west of SAINT-LÔ, Allied troops have advanced up to 3,000 yards on a wide front and have crossed the PÉRIERS–SAINT-LÔ road at a number of places. South of CAEN, fighting has been very bitter and enemy counterattacks, some supported by armor, have continued all day. Our initial gains have been held and fighting continues in the area of MAY-SUR-ORNE, VERRIÈRES and TILLY-LA-CAMPAGNE.
Following yesterday morning’s operations in support of ground forces in both the CAEN and SAINT-LÔ sectors, smaller formations of Allied aircraft continued close support of our ground forces throughout the day.
Numerous tanks, gun positions, strongpoints and motor transport just forward of our line and an enemy headquarters west of SAINT-LÔ were among targets attacked by fighter-bombers and fighters.
Other formations of both fighters and medium bombers attacked communications targets, including bridges, fuel dumps, supply depots, railyards and trains behind the enemy lines.
At least 25 enemy aircraft were destroyed yesterday. Seventeen of ours are missing.
Communiqué No. 102
In the western sector, the Allied advance has continued to make steady progress and the battle area has been extended.
East of the ORNE, the enemy is making every effort to block our entry to the open country southeast of CAEN, and additional enemy reinforcements have been brought into the area.
Allied attacks have been heavily engaged by defensively-sited armor, artillery and mortar fire.
In one locality our forces have repulsed a heavy enemy counterattack which was strongly supported by tanks.
Small forces of medium bombers operating in poor weather bombed enemy positions in the SAINT-LÔ area and a fuel dump near ALENÇON this morning.
Formations of fighter-bombers struck at enemy bivouac areas, machine-gun positions and other tactical targets which were indicated by our land forces.
U.S. Navy Department (July 26, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 90
An attack launched by our forces on Tinian Island in the early morning of July 25 (West Longitude Date) resulted in rapid advances and the entire northern quarter of the island is now in our hands. Our line is anchored below Faibus San Hilo Point on the west coast and extends to Asiga Point on the east coast. During the day, one of our battleships located and knocked out several camouflaged blockhouses. Selected targets continue to be bombed and strafed by our aircraft. Our troops have counted 1,958 enemy dead.
Saipan‑based Thunderbolt fighters of the 7th Army Air Force, supporting ground operations, dropped firebombs and strafed troop areas, a railroad junction, coastal guns and barracks on Tinian Island on July 24. Other Thunderbolts attacked Pagan Island, in the Northern Marianas, scoring bomb hits on the airfield and taxiways.
Carrier aircraft continued support bombing of Guam, attacking Japanese ground installations on July 25, and also bombed enemy positions on Rota Island.
Seventh Army Air Force Mitchells attacked Jokaj Island in the Ponape group on July 23. On July 24 a single Liberator bombed Truk, starting fires visible for 30 miles. On the same day, fighter‑bombers and light bombers of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing and medium bombers of Fleet Air Wing Two raided bivouac areas, anti-aircraft and coastal gun positions on the Japanese‑held islands in the Marshalls. A Navy Ventura bombed Nauru Island on July 24.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 91
Enemy forces cut off on Orate Peninsula on Guam Island made desperate attempts to escape during the night of July 24‑25 (West Longitude Date) but did not succeed in penetrating our lines. On the morning of July 25, our forces counterattacked, supported by intense artillery and naval gunfire and bombing, and drove about 3,000 yards up the peninsula. We now control the southern half of the peninsula, with the remainder of the defenders trapped on the northern portion.
Our northern and southern forces have joined their lines and now dominate the area on the west coast between Adelup Point on the north and to a point opposite Anae Island on the south.
Our counterattack on Orate Peninsula destroyed at least 12 enemy tanks. The Japanese lost 400 dead in their attempt to break out of their trap on the peninsula.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 26, 1944)
Yanks crack Nazi line with great tank attack
U.S. offensive gains four miles to end Normandy stalemate
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
Ending the stalemate in Normandy, U.S. forces have driven four miles into the German lines west of Saint-Lô. On the eastern end of the front, the British were driven back slightly by Nazi counterattacks into the northern edges of Tilly-la-Campagne and May-sur-Orne (1). The Yanks in the Saint-Lô sector smashed ahead on a four-mile front and Saint-Giles and Marigny (2). Other U.S. forces reduced a German bulge north of Périers in preparation to storming that town (3).
SHAEF, London, England –
Two U.S. armored columns leading a front-wide offensive by Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s 1st Army smashed through the German lines in Normandy today and captured the highway towns of Marigny and Saint-Giles, southwest of Saint-Lô, as they drove ahead up to four miles.
Marigny, seven miles from Saint-Lô and the biggest town on the Coutances highways, and Saint-Giles, midway between Marigny and Saint-Lô, were the first big prizes in the breakthrough offensive which overran some half-dozen towns and villages in the first few hours of the drive.
Front dispatches reported that Bradley’s armor, in scoring the second big breakthrough of the Normandy campaign and the first by massed U.S. tanks on which sharp-looking doughboys rode, had blasted a four-mile-wide gap in the German defenses.
Gen. Bradley’s armor swarmed out of its camouflage nests in a thundering herd to crash the German lines. One column raced to Marigny for a four-mile gain and the other knifed in against Saint-Giles. Both towns fell a few hours after the big push got underway in the wake of preliminary thrusts yesterday.
At the same time, other U.S. forces went over the top all along the line, attacking across the Sèves River toward Périers on the western wing and slashing far beyond Saint-Lô at the eastern end of the U.S. section of the Normandy front.
The western section of the offensive was launched at dawn today in conjunction with the breakthrough attack a few miles west of Saint-Lô. It extended all the way to the Atlantic coast in the Lessay area, and began with a smashing artillery barrage.
Forcing the Ay River east of Lessay, the Americans established a bridgehead on the lower side.
Gen. Bradley caught the Nazis flatfooted when he threw his tanks into the push west of Saint-Lô. The initial impact of the massed armor carried through the German main line, the reserve line beyond, and at latest reports the forward elements were shooting up artillery positions far in the enemy rear.
Tonight, the Americans were credited with knocking out 36 medium and light tanks, five Mark IV and Mark V heavies, 14 of French make, six self-propelled guns and 33 halftracks. The conservative figure included only knockout vehicles which the Germans had not been able to salvage.
The greatest tank charge in the history of American warfare had the thunderous support of 155mm Long Toms and swarms of dive bombers which paralyzed the German defenses and wiped out entire Nazi units.
On their other wing, the Americans pushed down to Montrabot, 9½ miles east of Saint-Lô, to find it deserted.
Front dispatches said the entire American line moved forward an average of two miles, meeting only sporadic resistance at many points.
Sherman tanks clustered with Doughboys riding Russian fashion, self-propelled Long Toms, and every kind of battle vehicle charged the German fortifications to score the breakthrough hailed by front correspondents as perhaps the most significant single development on the French front since D-Day.
United Press writer Henry T. Gorrell reported:
This was the second breach in the wall of Fortress Europe since the invasion.
I saw the tanks go forward into the assault behind an artillery barrage and dive-bombing by Thunderbolts and Spitfires. At the same time, rocket-carrying planes patrolled the battle area, searching for the German Panther and Tiger tanks reported in the path of our armor.
Spaced 50 yards apart, the tanks churned forward in a symmetrical phalanx. Doughboys astride them did their fighting from their bucking mounts, under orders to dismount only when necessary.
Directly behind the advance guard came the self-propelled artillery, then more infantry mounted on halftracks, then more tanks and finally another layer of mobile infantry.
Giant bulldozers accompanied the cavalcade, gouging out passageways in the Normandy hedgerows and topping fortifications in the path of the massed armor.
Troops atop the frontline Shermans sprayed every hedgerow with fire. It had been raining earlier, but the battlefield dried out quickly and the armor churned up a choking pall of dust.
The Nazi defenders of the Saint-Giles area were stunned by the record weight of explosives dropped on them yesterday by U.S. bombers, and were thrown off balance in a frantic shift of strength aimed at, but failing, to anticipate the focal point of the onslaught.
While the American offensive picked up momentum, a front report said the impetus of the British attack below Caen faded out today. The Germans were making sharp counterthrusts, and stepping them up to the scale of major activity, while the Nazi air attack in the Caen area last night was one of the heaviest since the invasion.
United Press writer Ronald Clark reported:
It must be stated that the Allies holding the curving belt of country roughly three miles deep below Caen are not in an enviable position.
The German Transocean News Agency reported that British troops and material were being unloaded continuously at the Orne estuary above Caen under cover of smokescreens.
The agency said:
It is not impossible that the present attacks are merely the curtain raisers to a large-scale breakthrough attack planned by Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery west of the Orne.
While still refusing to pinpoint the focal points of the new American offensive, Supreme Headquarters acknowledged that Gen. Bradley’s forces had made several new crossings of the Saint-Lô–Périers highway in an apparent thrust toward the communications hub of Coutances and were assaulting an enemy bulge five miles northeast of Périers.
Nazi bulge squeezed
The Americans squeezed the mouth of the German bulge to two miles and reduced its depth to one-and-a-quarter miles preparatory to a frontal attack on Périers, nine miles north of Coutances.
The American attack got off to a slow start shortly before noon yesterday after 3,000 bombers had blasted a path five miles wide and two miles deep with nearly 6,000 tons of bombs in an unprecedented bombardment.
Germans who survived the rain of steel and explosives laid down heavy artillery and mortar crossfire on the main roads of advance, forcing the Americans to fight cautiously along fields and hedgerows.
Nazis in pocket killed
Other Germans moved into positions abandoned by the Americans just before the aerial bombardment and further slowed up the advance. Several hundred Germans led by a fanatic lieutenant colonel held out in a bypassed pocket until all were killed.
Once the troublesome enemy pockets had been cleared out, the Americans advanced into the no-man’s-land of huge craters, burned-out vehicles and corpse-filled foxholes churned up by the massive aerial bombardment and began to pick up momentum.
Mr. McMillan, with the British 2nd Army, said the battle for May-sur-Orne and Tilly-la-Campagne, on either side of the Caen–Falaise highway, had developed into an artillery and infantry-slogging match.
Occupy ends of villages
Germans and British or Canadian troops occupy opposite ends of May and Tilly, as well as several other embattled villages on an arc five to six miles southeast of Caen, Mr. McMillan said.
Mr. McMillan said:
Using their customary tactics, the Germans have barricaded themselves in houses which have been converted into strongpoints, while anti-tank guns have been posted on streets.
Reports reaching Allied headquarters indicated the German command was gambling everything on containing the Allied beachhead in the Normandy Peninsula after discarding a proposal by Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, former commander in the west, to withdraw behind the Seine and Loire Rivers to take advantage of shorter communications.
Eisenhower visits beachhead in France
By Howard Cowan, representing combined U.S. press
A SHAEF ACP – (July 25, delayed)
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the Allied beachhead in Normandy for the sixth time today to hold eleventh-hour conferences with Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery and Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley before U.S. and British ground forces merged in an all-out attack.
After crossing the channel in his private plane, escorted by four Spitfire fighters from the dominions, the general took time out to talk with G.I.’s at the landing strip while waiting for a transport train to Gen. B. L. Montgomery’s headquarters.
Sgt. Griffith Harris of Cos Cob, Connecticut, shoved a five-dollar bill at the Supreme Commander and asked him to sign it for a short-snorter collection.
The general joked about trading a one-dollar bill for the five as he grinned and scrawled his name.
By that time, more than 50 other G.I.’s were digging out bills. The general signed them all.
Yanks ride ‘em like cowboys –
Gorrell: Camouflaged tanks come out of hiding to smash Nazis in complete surprise
Normandy drive so sudden that no shells fall among U.S. troops
By Henry T. Gorrell, United Press staff writer
With U.S. armored forces on the Normandy front, France –
First came giant American bulldozers, smashing holes in the hedgerows and battering the German roadblocks to rubble, and then came a long, waddling line of tanks on which infantrymen were crouched like cowboys.
That was the way we broke through today near Saint-Lô and sent the Germans scuttling out of their trenches along the hedges and retreating southward toward Marigny and Coutances. The blow fell on the enemy with complete surprise and terrific force.
Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley had accumulated this armored force under camouflage in the back areas all during the time that the infantry smashed against the fanatical Nazi SS troopers, fighting like madmen to pin the Americans down into warfare of World War I type.
Today he ordered the camouflage thrown off and the great armored army moved across the front, past the entrenched doughboys who rose up out of their slit trenches to cheer as the tanks and bulldozers churned past them.
Following close on the bulldozers, the tanks banged through the hedges and rolled across fields which our terrific bombardment had pitted like the craters of the moon.
This was a great, self-sufficient army entirely on treads and wheels.
Along with the giant Sherman tanks rolled self-propelled Long Tom gun mounted on tank chassis, halftrack ambulances equipped with mobile operating tables, vehicles loaded with mines, bazookas, anti-tank guns, grenades and other heavy weapons for the tank-riding infantry.
In the wake of the armor rolled, huge halftracks crammed with tough infantrymen ready to jump out inside the breach and exploit the breakthrough. Special vehicles near the head of the mighty procession carried engineers equipped with explosive devices to clear any obstacles the bulldozers couldn’t smash.
So secret had been the preparations that not a single enemy shell fell among the vehicles as they moved up to the front through village streets lined with enthusiastic Frenchmen who looked with awe and wonder at the armored army.
As I watched the armor pour across what had been the front, I could read in the faces of the doughboys who waved and cheered them on the hope that this audacious thrust would deal the enemy a heavy blow here at the base of the Cherbourg Peninsula.
As the procession slashed southward, it dropped off special armored traffic cops wearing red armbands to guide the following vehicles through the proper hedge holes. Up in the front where the fighting was toughest, the “tank-busting” troops steadied themselves on their bucking Shermans and poured streams of automatic fire into the hedges along which the Germans had dug their trenches.
Dust rises
Great columns of dust rose over the line of advance.
The commanding general kept in touch with the tanks by walkie-talkie radio. At one point I heard him ask his battalion commander somewhere up forward in a Sherman: “As you moving?”
“Yes,” the reply came back, “but slowly due to difficult terrain – no contact yet.”
The general replied, “Get in there and gain contact.”
“Roger, I’m pushing them,” was the response.
Through glasses we could see the tanks weaving their way across bomb-torn field which Bob Casey of the Chicago Daily News, an old artilleryman himself, remarked reminded him of the battlefields of World War I.
Soon German prisoners came stumbling back through the gap. Some of them, punch-drunk from shelling and bombing, surrendered as soon as they saw our tanks.
They said yesterday’s bombing by 3,000 light and heavy bombers on the American front had wiped out entire German units.
Infantry in high spirits
I have been with this armored force for the last two days awaiting today’s attack. The infantry was in high spirits as it was ordered to mount the leading tanks for the attack. The men ran forward clutching their automatic weapons, eager to get at the enemy which had forced them to live in foxholes for many long days and nights on the front.
One doughboy told me:
I don’t care what lies ahead. What counts is that we’re busting their line.
I saw a bulldozer go by bearing the warning “Achtung, Adolf!” Its pilot was the first to smash a hole through the hedges near Saint-Giles.
Force never halted
As the bulldozer shoved out, I heard the commander giving priority next to a company of engineers on halftracks whose mission was to weed out mines that might delay the forward tanks.
And so we rolled up to the front along roads as peaceful as a country lane back home until we hit the front. The great force never halted. It just bucked on through and vanished into the German rear to wreak its havoc.