Das Moskauer Polenkomitee –
Ausgesprochene Marionettenregierung
…
Die wachen Augen
SS-pk. Langsam neigen sich zwei Hügel zueinander, deren Hänge mit dichten, grünen Getreidefeldern bestanden sind. Das Tal ist von einem schmalen Pappelwäldchen durchzogen, in dessen Schatten ein Bach dem Talausgang klickernd und hell zufließt. Auf dem Hügel nach Norden haben die ersten Linien der SS-Grenadiere sich eingegraben. Ihre Schützenlöcher fügen sich ebenso unmerklich dem Gelände ein wie die des Gegners. Allein das Wrack eines englischen Panzers, das links ab am Rande einer zerschossenen Straße gegen den Horizont steht, bietet ein deutliches Mal, wo der Kampf in den vergangenen Tagen hin und her gewogt ist. Im Schatten des vordersten Höhenzuges ist ein eiliges Kommen und Gehen, denn dort werden Verwundete verladen, Bereitstellungen bezogen, und dorthin auch schafft der Nachschub das zur Front, was in den Kämpfen verbraucht werden wird.
Wenn Kampfpause ist, herrscht im Tal idyllische Ruhe und ein Frieden, den man ungestört glauben könnte, wenn nicht die zerborstenen Stämme am Bach eine allzu deutliche Warnung aussprächen. Die Granattrichter werden von den Getreidefeldern unsichtbar in den Schoss der Erde aufgenommen.
Das Tal und die beiden Hügel liegen ständig unter gezieltem Beschuss, der spüren läßt, daß der Gegner von irgendeinem Punkt aus Einblick in das Gelände hat. Seit 24 Stunden sind unsere Grenadiere dabei, den englischen Artilleriebeobachter ausfindig zu machen. Vergeblich!
Dem alten Rottenführer, der vom Feldzug in Polen bis in die Tiefen der östlichen Steppen alles erlebt hat, was dieser Krieg dem Soldaten an Aufgaben überhaupt stellen konnte, will das nicht in den Kopf. Sein „Eigensinn“ ist in der Kompanie nicht als die störrische Willkür eines Widerspenstigen bekannt, seine Sturheit gilt vielmehr als das Zeichen eines erfahrenen Soldaten, der bisher noch mit jeder auch noch so schwierigen Lage fertig zu werden verstand.
Er nimmt sein Gewehr, macht sich aus dem schmalen Bunker der vordersten Linie davon und springt gebückt längs eines Grabens, der die Höhe des ersten. Hügels erreicht bergan. Die Pausen des Artilleriebeschusses muß er schnell und geistesgegenwärtig nutzen, wenn er nicht in den Feuerschlägen untergehen will. Nun liegt er oben und vor ihm breiten sich die beiden Hänge und das Tal, deren Lieblichkeit für ihn vollkommen versunken ist in jener besonderen Landschaftsbetrachtung des Krieges, in der es nur nach rein militärischen Gesetzen zu sehen gilt. Er späht das Gelände hinauf und hinab, doch kann er nichts entdecken. Er gibt es später selbst zu, daß es nichts Bestimmtes war, was er gesucht hat, sondern daß er sich allein von seinem Instinkt führen ließ, der ihn nun schon durch fünf Kriegsjahre begleitet hat. Er zupft sich einen Getreidehalm ab und nimmt ihn zwischen die Lippen. Er liegt, kaut und schaut.
Der Himmel in der Normandie ist in diesen Tagen wechselnd. Graue Wolken ziehen niedrig und zerfetzt über die Täler und Hügel des Landes. Jetzt braust von Norden her ein Windstoß das Tal hinauf und fährt in die Getreidefelder, daß die Halme wie die Wellen eines Meeres sich senken und wieder steigen. Gelb treten dabei die Granattrichter aus den grünen Wogen hervor, und dort – ein einziger Blick hat genügt – erspäht sein scharfes Auge zwischen dem Grün und Braun einen Fleck grauer Farbe, der nicht in die Landschaft zu gehören scheint. Langsam arbeitet er sich durch das Getreidefeld den Hang hinab. Immer wieder pfeifen, während er sich vorsichtig voranarbeitet, die Granaten des Feindes heran, um mit spitzem und bösem Knall vernichtend zu detonieren. Längst ist ihm wieder der graue Fleck im dichten Grün des Getreides entschwunden, aber er weiß, wo er ihn zu suchen und zu finden hat. Er durchläuft das Wäldchen und überspringt den Bach. Nun geht es wieder hügelan. Und plötzlich zeichnet sich vor ihm im Getreidefeld eine dunkle Stelle ab, die er lange beobachtet. Er hört leise Geräusche, die er nicht zu deuten vermag, deren Natur aber sein empfindliches Ohr als feindlich empfindet. Längst hat er das Gewehr zu sich herangezogen und den Sicherungsflügel herumgelegt.
Wieder nähert sich ein Windstoß dem Getreidefeld. Der Rottenführer geht langsam hoch, und jetzt, wo die große Woge des Sturmes die Halme beugt, erspäht er die Uniform eines Gegners. In der gleichen Sekunde bricht ein Schuss. Wieder hält die Erde den Soldaten in ihrem bergenden Arm, und er wartet, was nun geschieht. Doch das Getreidefeld bleibt still bis auf ein leises Stöhnen, das aus der Richtung des dunklen Fleckes zu ihm dringt. Mit wenigen Sätzen pirscht er sich heran. Der Feind hat seinen artilleristischen Beobachter mit einem kleinen Gerät in der Nacht vorgeschickt. Aus der Verborgenheit des Getreidefeldes hat der Beobachter das Feuer ins Ziel gelenkt. Fast in der gleichen Sekunde trommelt der Gegner ein wahlloses Störungsfeuer über das Tal und die beiden Hügel. Dann erlischt das Feuer, als wäre einer Lunge das Atmen vergangen.
Nach einer Stunde kehrt der Rottenführer aufrecht in seinen Bunker zu den Kameraden zurück.
SS-Kriegsberichter Dr. ROLF BONGS
Innsbrucker Nachrichten (July 28, 1944)
Steigende Heftigkeit der Abwehrschlacht im Osten
Erbitterte Kämpfe bei Saint-Lô – Im Zuge einer Frontbegradigung Lemberg, Brest-Litowsk, Bialystok und Dünaburg geräumt
dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 28. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Im Kampfraum beiderseits Saint-Lô setzten die Nordamerikaner ihren Großangriff den ganzen Tag über fort. Während ihnen östlich Saint-Lô einige unwesentliche Einbrüche gelangen, wurden unsere Truppen südwestlich der Stadt in erbitterten und beiderseits verlustreichen Kämpfen weiter nach Süden und Südwesten zurückgedrängt. Die Gegenangriffe zur Schließung der an einigen Stellen aufgerissenen Front sind im Gange. 75 Panzer wurden abgeschossen. Im Abschnitt von Caen führte der Gegner nur erfolglose Angriffe geringen Umfangs.
Jagd- und Schlachtfliegerverbände schossen in Luftkämpfen zehn feindliche Flugzeuge ab.
Torpedoflieger versenkten in der Nacht zum 27. Juli in der Seinebucht einen feindlichen Tanker von 4.000 BRT und beschädigten vier Transportschiffe mit 25.000 BRT und einen Zerstörer schwer.
Im Ostteil der Seinebucht erzielte eine Heeresküstenbatterie mehrere Treffer auf einem feindlichen Schlachtschiff.
Sicherungsfahrzeuge eines deutschen Geleits schossen vor der Loiremündung von acht angreifenden feindlichen Jagdbombern sechs ab.
Im französischen Raum wurden 42 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.
Schweres „V1“-Vergeltungsfeuer liegt fast ununterbrochen auf dem Großraum von London.
In Italien tastete der Feind unsere gesamte Front durch zahlreiche örtliche Angriffe ab. Der Schwerpunkt der feindlichen Aufklärungsvorstöße lag im Abschnitt südlich Florenz und an der adriatischen Küste. Alle Angriffe wurden vor unseren Stellungen abgewiesen.
Seit den frühen Morgenstunden ist der Feind in breiter Front südlich Florenz erneut zum Großangriff angetreten. Heftige Kämpfe sind entbrannt.
An der Ostfront hat die große Abwehrschlacht zwischen den Karpaten und dem Finnischen Meerbusen an Heftigkeit noch zugenommen. Nachdem es dem Feind an verschiedenen Abschnitten gelungen war, zum Teil in unsere Front einzubrechen, wurden zur Kräfteeinsparung in einigen Abschnitten vorspringende Frontbogen zurückgenommen. Im Zuge dieser Frontbegradigung wurden nach Zerstörung aller militärisch wichtigen Anlagen die Städte Lemberg, Brest-Litowsk, Bialystok und Dünaburg geräumt.
In Galizien setzten sich unsere Truppen befehlsmäßig auf neue Stellungen im Karpatenvorland ab und schlugen dann alle Angriffe der scharf nachdrängenden Sowjets ab.
Westlich des San sind wechselvolle Kämpfe mit vordringenden feindlichen Angriffsspitzen im Gange.
Zwischen dem oberen Bug und der Weichsel wurden von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe der Sowjets in erbittertem Ringen nach Abschuß zahlreicher feindlicher Panzer abgewiesen.
Im Abschnitt Bialystok und Kauen scheiterten örtliche Angriffe der Bolschewisten. Nördlich Kauen sind heftige Kämpfe mit feindlichen Panzer- und Aufklärungskräften im Gange.
An der Front zwischen Dünaburg und dem Finnischen Meerbusen brachen wiederum zahlreiche schwere Angriffe verlustreich für den Feind zusammen.
Starke Schlachtfliegerverbände unterstützten die Abwehrkämpfe des Heeres und vernichteten in Tiefangriffen 71 feindliche Panzer und über 400 Fahrzeuge. In der Nacht waren der Bahnhof von Wilna und sowjetische Truppenansammlungen westlich Lublin das Angriffsziel schwerer deutscher Kampfflugzeuge.
Nordamerikanische Bomber führten einen Terrorangriff gegen Budapest. Durch deutsche und ungarische Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 29 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 26 viermotorige Bomber, zum Absturz gebracht.
In der vergangenen Nacht warfen feindliche Flugzeuge Bomben auf einige Orte in Westdeutschland und in Ostpreußen. In der Stadt Insterburg entstanden Schäden und Personenverluste. Drei Flugzeuge wurden abgeschossen.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 28, 1944)
Communiqué No. 105
In the western sector, Allied forces have maintained their rapid advances.
Our troops have pushed forward west of MARIGNY to the vicinity of CAMPROND and south-west to the vicinity of CERISY-LA-SALLE.
Other formations have advanced south of PÉRIERS.
Ground has also been gained west of CAUMONT.
South of CAEN, our positions remain firm.
A number of attempts by the enemy to develop counterattacks have been broken up by our artillery and supporting aircraft which were active throughout yesterday on both sectors.
In the western sector, fighter-bombers patrolled ahead of the advancing armored columns, attacking tank units, gun positions, defended hedgerows and observation posts as far as COUTANCES and southward to VILLEBAUDON.
In the eastern battle sector, rocket-firing aircraft scored hits on tanks and motorized infantry targets.
East and south of the battle area, fighter-bombers in strength attacked rail targets. In the AMIENS–SAINT-QUENTIN area in an ammunition train was blown up. Other rolling stock was attacked and rails cut in many places.
During yesterday, at least 23 enemy planes were destroyed in the air. Twenty-one of our aircraft are missing from all operations.
Communiqué No. 106
In the western sector, there has been some progress south of LESSAY where Allied troops have advanced down the LESSAY–COUTANCES road to the vicinity of MARGUERIN.
Further east, our forces have advanced up both banks of the river AY to the area of CORBUCHON.
On the PÉRIERS–COUTANCES road, a strong armored thrust has joined the westward drive from MARIGNY in the outskirts of COUTANCES. Our forces have passed through NOTRE-DAME-DE-CENILLY and are continuing down the road to the southwest. Another force has passed through MAUPERTUS, north of PERCY. Our forces have taken TESSY-SUR-VIRE and have continued along the road southwest of the town. We are eleven kilometers from GAVRAY.
South of SAINT-LÔ and CAUMONT, we have improved our positions.
Our aircraft continued their support of the ground forces, concentrating on road and rail targets, as weather permitted. Light and medium bombers cut rail lines radiating from PARIS to MONTARGIS, DIJON, MOULINS, TOURS, and ROUEN. Supply stores near BRÉCEY and CAILLOUET were hit. Fighter-bombers later destroyed rolling stock in railyards at BUEIL and near MAINTENON.
U.S. Navy Department (July 28, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 93
There were no material changes on our lines on Guam Island during July 26 (West Longitude Date). On the Orate Peninsula, our forces are continuing their attack against more than 2,000 enemy troops entrenched in dugouts and pillboxes. The defenders are employing artillery, automatic weapons, and mortars in considerable quantities. In the southern sector our lines are unchanged. Delayed reports indicate that severe fighting took place before dawn on July 25 in the northern beach area. In places enemy infiltration tactics succeeded, but by early morning the attack was repulsed with an estimated loss of 2,000 enemy troops.
During July 26, carrier aircraft bombed the airfields near Agana Town on Guam and at Rota Island. Gunboats are being used in close support of our troops on Guam.
On the night of July 26, a single Liberator search plane of Fleet Air Wing Two made a low-level attack over Truk Lagoon, obtaining two direct hits on a cargo ship and bombing a group of small craft.
Ponape and Nauru Islands in the Carolines and remaining enemy positions in the Marshalls were attacked by aircraft of the Central Pacific shore‑based air force on July 26.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 94
Our forces on Guam Island made substantial gains in all sectors on July 27 (West Longitude Date).
Northern forces extended their beachhead east to a point near the outskirts of Agana Town and advanced several hundred yards along the entire northern front.
In the central sector Marines drove inland more than two miles from Apra Harbor and occupied Mounts Tenjo, Alutam, and Chachao. In the south our troops advanced more than a mile in an easterly direction. The southern terminus of our beachhead remains at a point on the west coast opposite Anne Island.
Marines driving northwest on Orote Peninsula against stubborn enemy resistance secured an estimated 500 additional yards.
Conservative estimates indicate that our forces have killed 4,700 enemy troops on Guam.
On Tinian Island Marines, pivoting on our eastern anchor above Masalog Point, advanced more than three and a half miles along the west coast, capturing the airfield above Gurguan Point. Coastal batteries on Tinian were shelled by battleships on July 27.
On Saipan Island, our troops have now buried 21,036 enemy dead. Of our own troops previously listed as casualties, 5,434 have now returned to duty.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 487
For Immediate Release
July 28, 1944
The American flag was formally raised on Guam Island on the morning of July 26 (West Longitude Date) at the headquarters of Maj. Gen. Roy S. Geiger, USMC, Commanding General, Third Amphibious Corps.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 28, 1944)
Yanks race to trap Germans
Two U.S. columns drive into Coutances, another takes Tessy
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
New sweeping advances were made by U.S. forces in Normandy, scoring gains in the following places: (1) a drive south of Lessay and across the Ay River; (2) an advance to the outskirts of Coutances, linking up with another column (3) driving down the road from Saint-Lô; (4) a smash south of Maupertus, and (5) the capture of Tessy-sur-Vire. In addition, other U.S. troops captured high ground south of Saint-Lô (6) and advanced between Saint-Lô and Caumont. On the eastern end of the front, around Caen, the stalemate continued.
SHAEF, London, England –
Two U.S. armored columns closed in today from the north and east on Coutances, Normandy transport hub commanding the escape corridor of seven German divisions, and drove into its outskirts after making a junction.
Capitalizing swiftly on the American armored breakthrough, which shattered the German defenses in western Normandy, 1st Army spearheads struck into the edge of Coutances and completed the encirclement of Nazi troops northeast of the imminently threatened town.
The other remnants of the seven Nazi divisions north of Coutances were falling back in disorderly retreat in a panicky effort to escape southward before the Americans captured the town and cut the last practical escape routes out of the fast-shrinking pocket.
United Press correspondent Henry T. Gorrell reported from 1st Army headquarters that the columns advancing southward from Périers and westward along the road from Saint-Lô joined at Coutances and struck into the outskirts.
Another takes Tessy
Still another column of U.S. armor plunged forward five miles to capture Tessy-sur-Vire, 10 miles due south of Saint-Lô, after a duel with retiring German tanks.
Slightly to the west, a spearhead was driven two miles south-southwest of Maupertus and within less than a mile of Percy, a road town 15 miles southeast of Coutances and seven miles southwest of Tessy.
Mr. Gorrell rode up with the armored forces extending the American breakthrough to a depth of 15 miles in the Coutances area, and reported while the main force was still a little over two miles from the town that its fall appeared imminent.
Another village falls
One U.S. column struck down Lessay Road, 2½ miles below the fallen western anchor of the crumpled German defenses and captured the village of Marguerite. Slightly to the east, another moved down the Ay Valley about four miles and seized Corbuchon, seven miles north of Coutances and five southeast of Lessay.
A headquarters spokesman said the Germans were withdrawing as fast as possible along the main road down the west coast, with various degrees of confusion in their ranks.
Stronghold is outflanked
Coutances was already outflanked on the southeast by armored units which captured the eight-way highway junction of Cerisy-la-Salle, 11 miles southwest of Saint-Lô, and Notre-Dame-de-Cenilly, two and three-quarter miles southeast of Cerisy.
On the east wing of the American front, Gen. Bradley’s forces advanced two miles south of Le Mesnil-Herman, cutting a lateral road, and struck out southeast and southwest down other roads leading inland to the heart of Normandy.
U.S. infantry moved forward to improve their positions west of Caumont at the extreme eastern end of the American line, while a new attack a little over a mile southeast of Saint-Lô overran Hill 101. This assault was apparently aimed at ironing out the hump in the line immediately east of Saint-Lô.
Although the weather held down air activity in support of the American breakthrough drive, fighter-bombers based in France blasted German tanks and horse-drawn artillery a mile ahead of the American armor. Pilots reported that the advanced ground elements were beyond Saint-Martin-de-Cenilly, a mile southeast of Notre-Dame-de-Cenilly.
Supreme Headquarters did not expect to know for several days how many Germans will be rounded up as a result of the breakthrough. The seven divisions in the pocket below Coutances had taken a bad beating and were far below normal strength.
British sector quiet
The British end of the Normandy front was quiet after guns and planes broke up another German attempt to form for an attack in the Verrières area late yesterday.
United Press correspondent James McGlincy reported that one U.S. armored column advanced 3½ miles to within 1½ miles of Tessy-sur-Vire, 10 miles south of Saint-Lô. Reconnaissance airmen said the town appeared to have been abandoned by the Germans.
The Germans appeared to be in panicky retreat all along the 40-mile western half of the Normandy front as the greatest tank offensive ever mounted in Western Europe went into its fourth day. Allied Supreme Headquarters said there was no longer “any question of a line on the U.S. front.”
Slashing forward at will under a mighty umbrella of dive bombers, fighter-bombers and fighters, Gen. Bradley’s tank columns engulfed dozens of roadside hamlets and villages and appeared well on the way toward breaking completely out of the Normandy bottleneck, paving the way for a drive on Paris.
The proportions of the German rout were mounting almost hourly. More than 3,000 prisoners were taken in the first three days of the offensive and Mr. Gorrell said he counted at least 700 more streaming back from the front in trucks this morning.
Tank units self-sufficient
Considerable amounts of enemy material have been destroyed, front dispatches said. The Germans were known to have gambled all available strength on containing the Allies in the Normandy Peninsula, and a breakthrough to the interior of France probably would result in an Allied advance to the west at a pace rivalling that of the German push to the French coast in 1940.
Mr. Gorrell said:
What happens next is likely to influence the entire course of the war. We have hundreds of armored vehicles operating within enemy country right now.
He also revealed that the tank columns were self-sufficient carrying their own gasoline, ammunition and food supplies.
The stalemate continued on the British part of the front southwest and south of Caen, with British and Canadian artillery fire and supporting fighters and fighter-bombers breaking up a number of German counterattacks before they could get fully underway.
The American command was ramming at least five main armored prongs through the retreating Germans west, southwest and south of Saint-Lô, with resistance slight along the whole line. German planes heavily bombed the American lines at 3:00 a.m. today, but the advance went ahead on schedule.
Fortresses rock arms centers, oil fields
Seven bombers lost; Greek railyards hit
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
…
Foretaste of Axis doom –
Blacker Friday may follow ‘Black Thursday’ for Nazis
Russian and U.S. victories doom Goebbels’ ‘total’ mobilization soon after its start
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
…
British gaining toward Florence
Yanks, Germans mass for battle of Pisa
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
…
10 Jap ships sunk by U.S. task force
Americans move up on Tinian and Guam
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer
…
Japs deny slaying of B-29 fliers
By the United Press
…
Italian war prisoner party is off; too many protests
Cancellation of Jeannette affair believed due to Legion charge of insult to Gold Star mothers
…
I DARE SAY —
You can’t make people over!
By Florence Fisher Parry
I can’t help feeling bad over the defeat of Senator “Cotton Ed” Smith of South Carolina. I keep worrying about him and what he’ll do after 36 years in the Senate. He is getting old, you know. His life can’t make new habit patterns. They’ve been fixed for a long time; they’ve woven into the tapestry of Washington and the Senate, and he’ll be lost and miserable.
I don’t know why I should worry about him. I don’t know him. One time he sat at a Senate hearing in which I happened to participate in an unimportant way. But there was a wry, dry quality in his humor that I liked. He was what you might call a character down there in Washington.
And now he’s suddenly a defeated old man with nothing to do but retire and die. Oh, yes, that’s what happens nearly always. Human beings are strange creatures, simply yet wonderfully made. To each one his own life habits become a kind of rut which in times cuts deeper and deeper; and the wheels of his every day just naturally travel along in that rut until the end of the road.
Doctors know this. The really wise doctor never prescribes a complete change of life for his patient. He may prescribe a short change of scene; but if he is really wise, he adapts his prescription as closely to the life his patient has lived before as is possible, knowing that to dislocate the habits of a lifetime too abruptly and violently can work great harm.
The wise physician
I remember one time I was very sick. Yet I kept putting off going to see a doctor. I was afraid. I was afraid he’d prescribe for me an impossible regime, and I knew that were he to do anything so drastic, it would completely defeat his chances of restoring me to health.
Imagine them, my great relief when after finally going to see this certain doctor, before he did anything else, he ascertained the tempo of my life and just what pace I had established, just how packed and urgent my days.
And only then did he prescribe my treatment, not attempting to reduce my life’s tempo, not risking dislocating it from the habit groove which had become the very core and nerve and essence of me.
I lived for a time in Pasadena, and I’ll never forget the homes there that had been built by men whose doctors had told them they had to retire, and who died before their mansions of retirement were completed.
On the other hand, I know a man who was sent home from the Mayo Clinic to die of a swift and mortal disease. Well, he hadn’t expected to die so young. He had already cut out for himself so awfully much to do.
“Why, I can’t afford to die so soon!” I remember hearing him say, “If I just would be given enough time to get things shaped up better!”
So, he pitched into the business of shaping things up. You should have seen him stand up against the scythe! Far from slowing his pace, his tempo seemed to increase with each urgent day. He moved mountains. He performed miracles. There were moments when even the image of the close, relentless specter dissolved before his burning eyes.
I tell you he literally held off death at arm’s length for four years, and only then, when things finally shaped up, as he put it, he walked upstairs, took off his clothes and crawled into bed and died.
Like clocks
Yes, human dynamos like hat are man-made; they are geared to a certain performance and run their course according to the tempo established within them. It’s a bitter thing, it’s a dangerous thing to interfere with that tempo! That’s why it’s a sad thing when a lifelong Senator, never mind his deserving or undeserving, crashes down into defeat.
That’s why, I guess, I keep thinking today of “Cotton Ed” Smith.
No one so ignorant but knows himself better than does the wisest outsider! And be he reformer or healer or even friend, there is no one who is privy to the inner mechanism of another or who dares, without risk, tamper too roughly with the delicate mechanism within another’s solitary itself.
For human beings may be likened to clocks – crude and delicate – large and small – simple and intricate. Each one sets its own tick, some fast, some slow; some erratic, some even; and although the hour hands of all may conform in establishing their circle around the dial within the hour, the inner mechanism, the inner tempo, can be as different as that of a wristwatch to a majestic grandfather’s clock upon the stairs!
Governor Dewey repudiates ‘Ham’ Fish
Congressman blasted on racial issue
Albany, New York (UP) –
Asserting that “anyone who injects a racial or religious issue into a political campaign is guilty of a disgraceful un-American act,” Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican presidential nominee, today repudiated the candidacy of Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY).
Mr. Dewey’s statement was prompted by an interview with Mr. Fish printed in the New York Post. The interview quoted Mr. Fish as saying that “the Jews are for President Roosevelt and the New Deal.”
Mr. Dewey said:
Two years ago, I publicly opposed the nomination and election of Congressman Fish. The statements attributed to him confirm my judgment expressed at that time.
Anyone who injects a racial or religious issue into a political campaign is guilty of a disgraceful un-American act. I have always fought that kind of thing all my life and always will, regardless of partisan considerations.
I never accepted the support of any such individual and I never shall.
Two years ago, after his nomination for governor, Mr. Dewey said, “I would not vote for Hamilton Fish even if I were a resident of his district.” At that time, Mr. Fish’s district included Dutchess County, where the summer homes of Mr. Dewey and Mr. Roosevelt are. The Governor votes in New York City, however.
Majorities reduced
Previous attempts to draw Mr. Dewey out on the Fish controversy were unavailing, despite an appeal by supporters of Augustus Bennet, who will oppose Mr. Fish in the primary.
Mr. Fish has been a consistent winner in his district for many years and won last year despite the opposition of Mr. Dewey and other Republican leaders. His majorities, however, have been reduced until last year when it reached approximately 4,000. Previously he carried the district with as much as 40,000 votes.
Running in the 29th district this year, he will oppose Mr. Bennet who has already received the endorsement of the Democrats. The district includes Delaware, Orange, Rockland and Sullivan counties.
Fish replies to Governor Dewey
New York (UP) –
Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY) said today that “I will bet a dollar that Dewey does not carry a single district in New York City that is predominantly Jewish.”
Mr. Fish offered the bet shortly after Governor Thomas E. Dewey had repudiated Mr. Fish’s candidacy for reelection on the ground that he had injected a racial issue into the campaign.
“I am for the election of the Dewey-Bricker ticket and will support it loyally as a Republican,” Mr. Fish said, but he predicted that his repudiation by the presidential candidate would increase his [Fish’s] majority in the 29th Congressional district, “as the people of my district resent any outside political interference.”
Mr. Fish said:
When I referred to the fact that the people of Jewish origin are largely in favor of the New Deal, I stated a fact that everybody knows. I made no attacks whatever, and never have, on the Jewish people. I have never been antisemitic.
War program affected by 8,000 strikers
1,400 quit Detroit plane engine plant
By the United Press
…
Teamsters’ Union faces new war
…
Curbs on bond speculation in 6th War Loan planned
Treasury finds some large subscribers made quick, safe profit during last drive
By Ned Brooks, Scripps-Howard staff writer
…
MacGowan: Yanks fire from ditches, hedgerows near Marigny
Town strategically captured, but tactically it was still in German hands
By Gault MacGowan, North American Newspaper Alliance
With U.S. forces in Normandy, France –
Though strategically ours, Marigny, a pretty Normandy town, was still tactically in enemy hands when I approached. A battalion had the job of clearing the enemy out, while our flying columns pushed ahead on either side.
Street fighting was in progress and the enemy was shipping us from houses in the town or straggling out of it and shooting from woods just beyond, which commanded the road as we came down the valley. We, on one side, and they, on the other, could look down into the town – really little more than a village – and “see down each other’s throats,” as someone graphically described it.
Runs into orchard
It wasn’t too comfortable on our side of the road and my jeep driver from Illinois ran the vehicle into a little apple orchard, while I talked with the infantry boys shooting from ditches and from sheltering hedgerows.
This street and village fighting isn’t exactly a movie cameraman’s dream. Nor does it move with the pace you might think. It’ s more like evicting a band of gangsters out of a city dwelling in which they have barricaded themselves. There’s a lot of lying around to do, keeping the bandits engaged with your fire while the police get around at them over the rooftops.
Takes time
It takes time to locate the exact building from which their fire comes and a good deal more time than just attacking a gang of bandits, because there is not just one gang, but several, each keeping you covered lest you attempt to isolate them.
So, it’s your supporting fire against the enemy’s and it takes old hands to do the job with a minimum of delay.
It is just another variation of hedge warfare which you don’t learn on drill ground or on Hollywood sets. This is a pocket-handkerchief country with hedges wound around every one- or two-acre lot and villages that are laid out in a snakelike fashion and not on the square.
20 Nazis surrender to Negro signalman
With U.S. troops near Marigny, France (UP) –
A Negro signalman was stringing wire along the road near Marigny last night when a German suddenly approached him in the darkness.
He jumped and shouted: “Who dat?”
At the same time, he reached for his rifle and started firing. That brought 20 more Germans tumbling from the hedges. They had been waiting all around him and debating whether to surrender. His random shots convinced them.
The Negro shouted for help and got it.
Mistake bombing kills U.S. troops
U.S. 9th Air Force HQ, Normandy, France (UP) – (July 26, delayed)
About 50 Flying Fortresses and medium bombers dropped bombs shot of their assigned area and killed and wounded American soldiers during yesterday’s record 3,000-plane bombardment of enemy lines west of Saint-Lô, Maj. Gen. Lewis Brereton acknowledged today.
Gen. Brereton, commander of the 9th Air Force, told correspondents that the American casualties were much fewer than had been feared and added that:
You are practically certain to have some shorts when you have that many planes in the air and resulting smoke obscures the ground.
In the case of one group of Havoc bombers, he said, the bombing release mechanism on the lead plane went wrong and bombs plummeted down 10,000 yards short of the scheduled area. Other planes in the group immediately released their explosives.
Though practically the entire mass of bombs fell in the assigned area 9,000 yards long and 2,000 yards wide, Gen. Brereton admitted that the Army was not satisfied with the results of the mass bombardment, presumably because of its failure to bring a quick breakthrough by tanks and infantry.
The breakthrough was achieved late Wednesday and Thursday, however.
He said the bombardment was planned at the request of the Army commander, who indicated the area to be hit.