Ganze Pulks Terrorbomber abgestürzt
…
US-Flugplätze in China ausgeräuchert
Tokio, 30. Juli –
Das Kaiserliche Hauptquartier gibt bekannt:
Japanische Luftwaffenverbände führten am 27. Juli nachts Überraschungsangriffe auf Liutschau in der Provinz Kwangsi sowie Sutschang in der Provinz Hunan und am 28. Juli nachts auf Kweilin durch und zerstörten die auf den Flugplätzen stehenden Maschinen der in China stationierten amerikanischen Luftwaffe.
Das Gesamtergebnis der an beiden Tagen erzielten Erfolge stellt sich wie folgt dar: 48 große und 35 kleinere Flugzeuge und ein weiteres unbekannter Bauart gingen in Flammen auf, 15 große und 20 kleinere sonstige Apparate wurden zerstört, 19 Flugplatzeinrichtungen wurden in Brand geworfen oder zerstört. Der Gegner verlor somit durch diese Angriffe insgesamt 119 Flugzeuge.
Schweres „V1“-Feuer auf Groß-London –
Feindangriffe in der Normandie blutig abgewiesen
Neuer Vorstoß auf Florenz zerschlagen – Heftige bolschewistische Angriffe abgewehrt – Gegenstöße deutscher Panzerverbände im Raum von Kauen
dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 30. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Die Durchbruchsversuche der Nordamerikaner hielten gestern beiderseits der Vire bei Moyon und im Abschnitt Beaucoudray–Percy den ganzen Tag über an. Sie wurden in erbitterten Kämpfen überall blutig abgewiesen. 28 Panzer und 7 Flugzeuge wurden dabei durch Einheiten des Heeres abgeschossen. Auf dem Westflügel durchbrachen unsere von den Hauptkräften vorübergehend abgedrängten Divisionen von Coutances her die feindlichen Linien nach Süden und bezogen neue Stellungen im Raum Gavray–Trelly. An der übrigen Front des Landekopfes führte der Feind nur südlich Juvigny einen erfolglosen örtlichen Angriff.
Jagd- und Schlachtfliegerverbände schossen in Luftkämpfen sechs feindliche Flugzeuge ab. In der Nacht führten starke Verbände schwerer Kampfflugzeuge wirksame Angriffe gegen Bereitstellungen des Feindes südöstlich Caen und im Raum südwestlich Saint-Lô.
Im französischen Hinterland wurden 27 Terroristen erschossen.
Schweres „V1“-Vergeltungsfeuer liegt weiter auf London und seinen Außenbezirken.
In Italien zerschlugen unsere Truppen auch gestern wieder alle Angriffe, die der Feind mit indischen, südafrikanischen, neuseeländischen und englischen Divisionen zum Durchbruch auf Florenz führte. Südwestlich der Stadt in unsere Stellungen eingebrochener Gegner wurde nach heftigem Kampf im Gegenangriff zurückgeworfen.
Bei Säuberungsunternehmen im italienischen rückwärtigen Gebiet verloren die Terroristen in der Zeit vom 12. Mai bis 24. Juli 8.300 Tote und 7.500 Gefangene.
An der Ostfront wurden im Karpatenvorland sowie südlich und nördlich von Reichshof feindliche Angriffe abgewiesen oder im Gegenstoß zum Stehen gebracht. Im großen Weichselbogen warfen unsere Truppen den über den Fluss übergesetzten Feind in Gegenangriffen zurück.
Zwischen Warschau und Siedlce stehen Truppen des Heeres und der Waffen-SS weiter in schweren Kämpfen mit vordringenden sowjetischen Kräften. Die vorübergehend abgeschnittene Besatzung von Brest Litowsk schlug sich unter Mitnahme der Verwundeten zu unseren Linien durch.
Zwischen mittlerem Bug und Olita fingen unsere Truppen heftige Angriffe der Bolschewisten bei Bialystok und nordöstlich Augustow auf. Im Raum von Kauen trat der Feind zum erwarteten Großangriff an. In erbitterten Kämpfen wurden mehrere Einbrüche durch Gegenstöße unserer Panzerverbände abgeriegelt.
In Lettland blieben Angriffe der Sowjets gegen die Stadt Mitau und nordöstlich Ponewisch erfolglos. Zwischen der Düna und dem Peipussee behaupteten unsere Grenadiere ihre Stellungen gegen starke von Panzern unterstützte sowjetische Angriffe.
An der Landenge von Narwa rannte der Feind mit starken Kräften gegen unsere Stellungen an. Verbände des Heeres und germanische Freiwillige der Waffen-SS errangen hier einen vollen Abwehrerfolg, brachten dem Feind schwere Verluste bei und schossen 58 feindliche Panzer ab.
Schlachtfliegerverbände versenkten auf der Weichsel mehrere vollbeladene Fähren und Landungsboote des Feindes.
In der Nacht griffen schwere Kampfflugzeuge feindliche Truppenansammlungen und Bereitstellungen östlich des großen Weichselbogens an.
Nordamerikanische Bomber führten Terrorangriffe in Mitteldeutschland und gegen die Stadt Bremen. Die Bevölkerung hatte Verluste. Durch Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 34 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 31 viermotorige Bomber zum Abschuß gebracht.
In der Nacht warfen britische Störflugzeuge Bomben auf Orte in Westdeutschland.
Zum gestrigen OKW-Bericht wird ergänzend mitgeteilt:
In den schweren Kämpfen im Raum Saint-Lô–Lessay haben sich in den letzten Wochen in Abwehr- und Gegenangriffen besonders ausgezeichnet:
Die 17. SS-Panzer-Grenadierdivision „Götz von Berlichingen“ unter Führung ihres schwer verwundeten Kommandeurs Brigadeführer Ostendorf und seines Vertreters, Standartenführer Baum.
Die 353. Infanteriedivision unter Führung ihres Divisionskommandeurs Generalleutnant Maul mann, das Fallschirmjägerregiment 5 unter seinem. Kommandeur Major Karl-Heinz Becker, das Fallschirmjägerregiment 9 unter seinem Kommandeur Major Kurt Stephani und das Fallschirmjägerregiment 15 unter seinem Kommandeur Oberstleutnant Gröschke.
In den schweren Abwehrkämpfen südlich Florenz hat sich die Hessisch-Thüringsche 29. Panzergrenadierdivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Fries erneut hervorragend ausgezeichnet und bewährt.
Innsbrucker Nachrichten (July 31, 1944)
Zunehmende Erbitterung der Kämpfe
Weitere Ausdehnung der normannischen Schlacht – Sowjetischer Durchbruchsversuch bei Warschau verhindert – Unsere U-Boote versenkten 22.000 BRT
dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 31. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Der Feind dehnte in der Normandie seinen mit großem Materialeinsatz geführten Großangriff gestern auf die gesamte Front von südwestlich Caen bis zur Westküste der Halbinsel Cotentin aus. Die Kämpfe werden auf beiden Seiten mit immer zunehmender Erbitterung geführt. Südlich Hottot wurden alle feindlichen Angriffe zerschlagen. Beiderseits Caumont konnte der Feind einen tieferen Einbruch in unsere Front erzielen. Eigene Gegenangriffe sind dort im Gange. Nordwestlich und westlich Torigni-sur-Vire scheiterten starke Durchbruchsversuche der Amerikaner. Mit besonderer Härte tobten die Kämpfe südlich Sourdeval und südlich Cerences. Gegen den tief eingebrochenen Feind sind Panzerverbände zum Angriff angesetzt. Aus dem Raum nördlich Sourdeval schlug sich eine vorübergehend von ihren Verbindungen abgeschnittene Panzerkampfgruppe der Waffen-SS zu unseren Hauptkräften durch.
In der Nacht griffen Kampfverbände feindliche Schiffsansammlungen vor der Orne- und Seinemündung an. Der Feind verlor elf Flugzeuge.
Im französischen Saum wurden 97 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.
Deutsche Schnellboote griffen in der vergangenen Nacht einen feindlichen Geleitzug unter der englischen Küste östlich Eastbume an und torpedierten drei große Schiffe.
Schweres Vergeltungsfeuerliegt fast ununterbrochen auf London.
In Italien hat der Feind seinen Großangriff auf Florenz infolge der erlittenen Verluste gestern nicht fortgesetzt. Er führte nur starke örtliche Angriffe südlich und südöstlich der Stadt, die unter hohen Verlusten zusammenbrachen.
Im Osten wird zwischen den Karpaten und dem Finnischen Meerbusen weiter mit äußerster Härte gekämpft.
Im Karpatenvorland scheiterten zahlreiche feindliche Angriffe. Bei Sambor schoss eine Panzerdivision von 30 angreifenden Panzern 20 ab. In verschiedenen Abschnitten warten unsere Truppen den Feind im Gegenangriff zurück.
Im Raum von Warschau wurde in schweren Kämpfen ein Einbruch starker feindlicher Kräfte auf die Stadt verhindert. Nach Abwehr wiederholter sowjetischer Angriffe auf Siedlce setzten sich unsere Truppen dort auf neue Stellungen weiter nördlich ab.
Zwischen dem mittleren Bug und Olita wurde die Front gehalten. Bei Kauen setzten die Bolschewisten ihre Angriffe fort und konnten sich trotz zähen Widerstandes unserer Truppen der Stadt bemächtigen.
In Lettland sind um Mitau und bei Birsen heftige Kämpfe im Gange. Westlich Ostrow wurden bolschewistische Angriffe im Wesentlichen abgewiesen.
In der Landenge von Nariva schlugen unsere Divisionen zusammen mit Einheiten der Kriegsmarine auch gestern alle Durchbruchsversuche starker sowjetischer Kräfte in harten Kämpfen ab. Der Feind hatte besonders hohe Verluste an Menschen und Material.
Schlachtgeschwader setzten bei Tiefangriffen zahlreiche feindliche Panzer und Geschütze außer Gefecht und zerstörten mehrere hundert Fahrzeuge.
Ein nordamerikanischer Bomberverband griff gestern das Gebiet von Budapest sowie einige andere Orte in Ungarn und Kroatien an. Deutsche und ungarische Luftverteidigungskräfte vernichteten 15 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 11 viermotorige Bomber.
Unterseeboote versenkten drei Handelsschiffe mit 22.000 BRT, zwei Bewacher und ein Minenräumboot.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 31, 1944)
Communiqué No. 111
An Allied armored column has entered AVRANCHES after an advance of more than 12 miles.
Another column moving south from BRÉHAL is within three miles of GRANVILLE.
Heavy fighting continues in the area of GAVRAY, PERCY and TESSY-SUR-VIRE.
In the CAUMONT sector, the Allied advance has made further progress and we have captured the high ground east of SAINT-MARTIN-DES-BESACES.
An enemy attack in the NOYERS area was beaten off yesterday evening after hard fighting.
Medium bombers attacked tactical targets in the CAUMONT area and fuel dumps near ARGENTAN and CHÂTEAUDUN.
Fighter-bombers and fighters attacked targets in close support of the ground forces, road transport behind the battle zone and rail targets in the region of BLOIS and ORLÉANS.
Six enemy aircraft were destroyed during the day. Eight of ours are missing.
Four enemy aircraft were shot down over FRANCE during the night.
Communiqué No. 112
Allied troops in the western sectors have entered the town of GRANVILLE and are mopping up the whole area between ARVANCHES, GRANVILLE and BRÉHAL. Other pockets of resistance are being cleared and heavy fighting continues northwest of TESSY and in the PERCY area.
The enemy has been driven from the ground immediately south of GAVRAY and Allied troops have also advanced on each side of TORIGNI-SUR-VIRE.
In the CAUMONT area, Allied progress continues and we have taken SAINT-GERMAIN-D’ECTOT, CAHAGNES and SAINT-MARTIN-DES-BESACES. Hill 309, east of SAINT-MARTIN, remains in our hands in spite of several enemy counterattacks.
Rail targets south of the battle area were attacked by escorted medium and light bombers. Rail bridges at FORGES, CHARTRES, south of DOMFRONT, and across the LOIRE, south of TOURS, were bombed with good results. Elsewhere, poor visibility prevented immediate assessment of results.
Fighter-bombers were active in close support of our ground troops.
Two airfields in northern FRANCE were attacked by small formations of heavy bombers shortly after noon.
U.S. Navy Department (July 31, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 98
Marine and Army troops on Guam swept completely across the island during July 30 (West Longitude Date) and established a line from Agana Bay on the west coast to Pago Point on the east coast. Patrols sent out to reconnoiter the southern half of the island have encountered only sporadic resistance. Through July 30, our troops have counted 6,205 enemy dead and have interned 775 civilians. Close support is being given our advance troops by surface ships which are now firing from both sides of the island.
Troops of the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions continued their advance on Tinian Island during July 30 (West Longitude Date) and have forced the enemy into a small pocket near Lalo Point at the southern tip of the island. Difficult terrain in this area impeded progress during the day. Our attack on the last enemy defenses began in the early morning, and was preceded by more than two hours of bombing and naval gunfire.
On July 29, Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force dropped nearly 75 tons of bombs on Japanese installations and an airfield at Truk. Several enemy fighters attempted to intercept our bombers. One enemy fighter was destroyed, another probably destroyed and two more damaged. Four of our planes were damaged but all returned.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 31, 1944)
Six German divisions decimated by Yanks
First Army enters Avranches, seizes port of Granville
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
Allies capture more towns in France in the surge through the Nazi lines. In the western sector, U.S. troops (1) captured Granville, drove into Avranches and occupied Torigni-sur-Vire, while the British (2), who advanced some five miles below Caumont, seized Saint-Martin-des-Besaces.
Bulletin
SHAEF, London, England –
A Normandy broadcast for the British radio said today that 1st Army headquarters announced that U.S. troops had captured Avranches.
SHAEF, London, England –
The U.S. 1st Army stormed across the See River into the western Normandy anchor base of Avranches after a 12-mile advance today and engaged the German garrison in a violent street fight, and 14 miles to the northwest captured the big port of Granville.
Supreme Headquarters announced that the foremost spearhead of the 1st Army, striking down the west coast, had established itself firmly in Avranches at the base of the Normandy Peninsula, and a field dispatch revealed the capture of Granville, which was already under German artillery fire.
The collapse of the German left wing became a debacle under the triphammer blows of the 1st Army breakthrough drive which headquarters said had decimated six Nazi divisions and laid open the way to interior France.
United Press staff writer Henry T. Gorrell reported the capture of Granville, and with it Torigni-sur-Vire, transport junction seven miles southwest of Saint-Lô. At the same time, the British 2nd Army’s new offensive on the Caumont front overran Saint-Martin-des-Besaces, four and a half miles southwest of Caumont.
A headquarters spokesman said the German 77th, 91st, 352nd, 243rd and 353rd Infantry Divisions and the 5th Parachute Division had been torn to shreds in less than a week of the showdown battle in western Normandy, and most of them were now probably no more than a number on the German Army list.
Allied air fleets, taking advantage of improving but still hazy weather, swarmed to the attack on the retreating Germans. They concentrated their fire on bridges and railyards behind the enemy lines, and hammered heavily at the scattered sectors where the Nazis attempted to mount rearguard counterthrusts.
Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s 1st Army and Lt. Gen. Miles C. Dempsey’s 2nd Army were pumping heavy blows into the entire western half of the Normandy front, breaking the German grip on strongpoints and battering the enemy back to new sectors.
Almost as significant as the American landslide was the British advance in the Caumont sector, where a new attack had overrun Hill 309, its 1,000 feet the greatest elevation thus far achieved by the Allies in Normandy, and drove some miles farther into Galet, six miles below Caumont.
The easternmost U.S. troops and westernmost British forces swung toward each other from Torigni-sur-Vire and Saint-Martin-des-Besaces and were nearing a junction which would carve out a pocket of Germans to be mopped up at will.
The Avranches bridgehead across the See River was regarded at headquarters as extremely important. Its establishment in force was believed to have shattered any chance the groggy German left wing had of seizing a foothold anywhere near the present coastal positions at the base of the Norman Peninsula.
Gen. Bradley, whose ready initiative has sparkled throughout the breakthrough drive which wrecked the German positions in western Normandy, could be expected to exploit his new advantage quickly, moving up infantry and artillery to strengthen the spearhead while tanks fanned out south and southeast.
To the east, other U.S. forces bypassed Torigny–Caumont highway down the railroad to the southeast. They took two hamlets within a couple of miles of the British right flank. While the Anglo-American junction was reported prospective, some sources believed it had already been effected.
The effect of the moves was first to eliminate one German salient and second to create another, in which the Nazis between Torigny and Tessy-sur-Vire faced a growing threat of envelopment.
Tessy had been one of the most stubborn points in the German defenses, with the 2nd Panzer Division, which moved across from Caumont, counterattacking savagely in an attempt to block the American drive aimed at the key road hub of Vire.
The German were also fighting back hard around Villedieu today in an effort to block the advance down the main road to the See River. It appeared that the armored column which drove into Avranches was the only American force so far to reach the river.
Substantial pockets of resistance remained considerably north of Villedieu, and two miles above the town the Germans were doggedly defending a roadblock.
Front dispatches said the U.S. 1st Army’s multipronged offensive – involving at least six divisions and 600 tanks – had cracked the western half of the Normandy front wide open and the Germans were in headlong flight, abandoning tanks and guns in their frantic efforts to shake off their pursuers.
Germany’s toughest troops – the 2nd SS Division Das Reich, the special favorite of Adolf Hitler – “threw the sponge” yesterday and began surrendering by the hundreds as U.S. tanks slashed across their roads of escape, dispatches revealed.
More than 10,000 prisoners have already been taken in the first six days of the offensive, which has carried 44 miles through the enemy lines, and the total was mounting hourly.
Gen. Bradley’s tanks and mobile infantry were advancing so rapidly their only communication with headquarters was by radio. The Germans were not even pausing to plant mines to cover their retreat, and town after town was captured intact.
Swarms of U.S. bombers, fighter-bombers and fighters further harassed the enemy retreat, blasting, strafing and shelling rear roads clogged with fleeing German columns. More than 500 vehicles, including upwards of 70 tanks and scores of self-propelled guns were reduced to blistered, twisted, smoldering steel in the Roncey–Gavray area alone.
The Americans broken into Avranches, at the hinge of the Norman and Brittany Peninsulas, after a wide swing advance from the Bréhal–Gavray–Percy area to the north that had earlier bypassed the port of Granville, 14 miles to the northwest, and dozens of other towns and villages, dooming heir garrisons to death or capture.
Avranches lies on the south bank of the See River estuary – previously considered a possible enemy defense line – and the Americans presumably swept across the river to engage the defenders in a street battle.
In their smash into Avranches, the Americans drove down the main inland highway some eight miles east of Granville and passed through the junction town of La Haye-Pesnel. Another column moving along the coast from Bréhal was only three miles northeast of Granville.
From Avranches, the Americans could punch south or southwest into Brittany, splitting the German forces in western France in two; southeast into the heart of France; east toward Paris, 155 miles away, or northeast in an attempt to encircle German armies still clustered on an arc around Caen.
Elements of the British 2nd Army, which moved into positions on the American left flank around Caumont, were also gaining momentum on the second day of their coordinated offensive.
A front dispatch from United Press staff writer Richard D. McMillan, dated “with an advanced British infantry patrol” at 11:00 a.m. (5:00 a.m. ET), said British tanks had made “further fresh important gains” during the morning and had reached one high point above five miles from their starting line.
Advancing along a seven-mile front in the wake of a heavy aerial bombardment, the British captured or bypassed scores of towns and villages on an arc stretching from Saint-Jean-des-Essartiers, three and a half miles southwest of Caumont, to Saint-Germain-d’Ectot, four and a half miles northeast of Caumont.
The Tommies seized high ground east of Saint-Martin-des-Besaces, five and a half miles south of Caumont, but extensive minefields and difficult terrain were slowing their advance east and northeast of Caumont.
A dispatch from an advanced command post disclosed that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had expressed extreme gratification over the results of the fighting in Normandy in the last week and was viewing the immediate future of the campaign with high optimism.
He conferred briefly Saturday with both Gen. Bradley and Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, commander of all Allied troops in France, and found them “obviously pleased” with the Allied progress, the dispatch said.
U.S. divisions participating in the offensive down the western half of the Norman Peninsula were disclosed to be the battle-tested 1st, 4th, 9th and 30th Infantry Divisions and the 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions, comprising the U.S. XIX Corps.
The divisions put to rout elements of at least 10 German divisions and “practically destroyed” two of them, the veteran 2nd SS Das Reich and the Panzer Lehr Divisions. The 2nd SS Division Das Reich was estimated to have lost at least 70 of its 100 tanks in the last 48 hours, while the Panzer Lehr Division were also deprived of most of its vehicles. Personnel of both divisions was said to have been “decimated.”
Several enemy pockets were still holding out behind the front, and Gen. Eisenhower’s communiqué at 11:00 a.m. (5:00 a.m. ET) reported “heavy fighting” in the Gavray, Percy and Tessy-sur-Vire areas, 15 to 23 miles above Avranches. Their plight was hopeless, however, and it was only a matter of time before all were captured or killed.
In most cases, the Germans surrendering in batches as soon as surrounded, or cut off from the rest of the front. More than 1,500 were captured yesterday alone in the triangle formed by Saint-Denis-le-Gast, Roncey and Notre-Dame-le-Cenilly, including 500 from the touted 2nd SS Division Das Reich.
Many appeared voluntarily at prison cages. Seventeen surrendered to Henry T. Gorrell, United Press staff writer, and several other correspondents near Roncey.
Three Yanks invent hedgerow cutter
SHAEF, London, England (UP) –
Two G.I.’s and a lieutenant who saw that the Normandy hedgerows were impeding the Allied advance and invented a device to reduce their effectiveness as German defenses are going to be rewarded by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a frontline dispatch said today.
While details of the invasion were kept secret, it was revealed that the Supreme Commander had asked for a full report so the inventors could be “suitably rewarded.”
It was said the men made their first devices from salvaged pieces of German equipment and showed them to their superior officers who reported to headquarters.
A large order for the manufacturer of the device has been placed in England.
Gorrell: Hitler’s professional killers turn yellow as Yanks hit
One-time ‘tough boys’ cringe, surrender in flocks as Americans take fight out of them
By Henry T. Gorrell, United Press staff writer
With U.S. tanks north of Gavray, France – (July 30, delayed)
Hitler’s professional killers, the dread elite SS who bullied the occupied countries and directed the extermination of thousands of Jews, cracked up today.
They acted like they say all killers do by turning yellow when the odds turned against them. I saw the one-time “tough boys” cringing and surrendering by the hundreds.
In France, they were supposed to have kept the Poles, and the Georgians of the Caucasus, fighting for the Nazis by holding pistols at their backs. They may have been tough once, but U.S. bombers and fighters and tank took the fight out of them.
A dispatch from a correspondent with the U.S. 2nd Armored Division said a German general, commander of either the 17th SS Elite Guard Division or the 243rd Infantry Division, was reported killed by Allied bombing planes while attempting to rally his troops for a stand against the onrushing Americans in western Normandy. The news came from a doughboy of the 2nd Armored Division who made his way back to the American lines after having been captured near Saint-Denis-le-Gast.
There is no adequate term to describe the pathetic performance of the members of the Nazi murder clubs. “Whipped puppy dogs” is too mild.
It was true that they had lost most of their tanks and artillery, much of which I saw as miles long masses of burning, twisted steel along the narrow dirt roads north of Gavray.
But if they had any fight left in them, these Nazi strongarm boys could have kept the American infantry busy for days stalking them in and out of the Norman bridgehead.
‘Good story ahead’
It was at Notre-Dame-le-Cenilly that I first heard of the astounding turn of affairs – the surrender in large numbers of remnants of Germany’s most famous division, the 2nd SS Division Das Reich.
The commanding general of a U.S. armored division, racing toward the front in a jeep, waved to me and shouted:
Come on. There’s a good story ahead. The tough boys of the SS are tossing in the sponge.
We followed the general in a jeep toward Roncey where Americans were reported to have wiped out more than 500 wheeled German vehicles.
Tanks clog ahead
The road was clogged with American tanks, tank destroyers and halftracks rushing in every direction. There were bodies of many Germans in the ditches, most of them killed within the last 16 hours.
In Roncey, which was still burning from bombing and shelling, I witnessed a fantastic sight – Germans were coming into the town square in large unescorted groups French civilians jeered at their former masters and tossed flowers to passing doughboys.
The SS men did not ask questions. They simply walked into an enclosure in front of the town hall to await instructions from the overworked MPs.
Nazis raise hands
With Robert J. Casey of The Chicago Daily News, Jack Thompson of The Chicago Tribune and Harold Austin of The Sydney Morning Herald, I walked about a mile east to inspect the still-smoldering equipment.
Suddenly, we met 17 German soldiers walking in our direction carrying a white flag. Mr. Thompson called to them to “halt” and they meekly raised their hands. I searched them in self-defense. Meanwhile, six French women gathered and began hissing the Germans, who wore the shoulder flash of the Das Reich Division.
We told the Germans to follow the French into Roncey where they would find a prisoner of war cage, and walked on another quarter of a mile.
Hearse outlasts panzers
Along the line of burned-out German vehicles caught in the U.S. artillery and aerial barrage were small youngsters playing with German gas masks and grenades. We shooed them away.
Inside a stone shack alongside the column of wrecked tanks and guns, we saw an old-fashioned, wooden, horse-drawn hearse. It was a bit charred but could be repaired easily.
This old-fashioned relic, probably in use before World War I, had outlasted the best of Hitler’s steel “blitz” machines.
Doughboy sees Nazi general die
With U.S. 2nd Armored Division, France (UP) –
A German general commander of either the 17th SS Elite Guard Division or the 243rd Infantry Division was reported today to have been killed by Allied bombing plans while attempting to rally his troops for a stand against the onrushing Americans in western Normandy.
News of the Nazi commander’s death came from a doughboy of the 2nd Armored Division who made his way back into the American lines today after having been captured near Saint-Denis-le-Gast.
Held near tanks
The American said he was being held under guard beside a big column of German tanks, guns and caterpillar tractors – the wreckage of which a United Press staff writer saw along a side road near Roncey yesterday – when the unidentified general was killed.
The soldier said he saw a general with red collar tabs on his uniform standing outside a farmhouse near the armored column outlining a plan of attack to his officers.
He was a big shot because everyone heil-Hitlered him and clicked their heels, including the colonels, the doughboy said.
Shrapnel hits general
Then our planes dived down and there was a terrific series of explosions. They were strafing the Germans in nearly every direction and I saw a piece of shrapnel hit the general in the forehead. He staggered and then stumbled away alone.
A search party was sent out this morning to recover the general’s body for identification purposes.
The escaped Americans, whose name was withheld, got to his feet after the plane attack, rounded up 80 docile Germans and delivered them to a prisoner of war cage inside the American lines.
Leaning Tower destroyed?
Nazis roll back toward Florence
British beat back counterattacks
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
…
Secret weapon helps Yanks to pocket Japs on Tinian
U.S. planes already operating from captured Orote Peninsula on Guam
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer
…
Reconversion main theme in Dewey’s visit
Peacetime work is vital, he declares
By Kermit McFarland
Dewey parade tonight
Pittsburgh’s second chance to get a look at Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate for the Presidency will come this evening when he leaves the William Penn Hotel at 9:15 p.m. ET for his return trip to the Pennsylvania Station.
Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican candidate for President, came here today to trade ideas with local leaders over plans for shifting Pennsylvania industry from wartime production to peacetime operations.
That was the Governor’s summary of his purpose in breaking his journey to a conference with 25 Republican governors so he could spend a 13-hour day in meetings here with representatives of industry, business, labor and war veterans.
Mr. Dewey also sandwiched in a few hours for practical politics, despite the weekend statement of Republican County Chairman James P. Malone that the Governor’s visit was “non-political.”
Opportunities for work
The nominee said:
It may not be long before the most vital thing that faces every American is his opportunity to work, either for himself or for someone else.
I’m entirely satisfied that with competent governmental policies, the opportunities in this country are still unlimited.
Mr. Dewey accused the Roosevelt administration of failing utterly to meet the problem of unemployment before the outbreak of the war and of failing to prepare now to meet the problem at the end of the war.
‘Roosevelt depression’
He said:
We’re making gratifying progress in the fighting of the war, but governmentally, we are making no progress in preparing for what is to follow.
We will elect a President whose term will be in peacetime. As I see it, the United States cannot face another period like the Roosevelt depression which lasted eight years, with more than 10 million men unemployed continuously, from 1933 to 1940, inclusive.
Mr. Dewey declared his purpose in visiting Pittsburgh at a news conference, held in the Forum Room of the William Penn Hotel shortly after his arrival at 8:55 a.m. ET.
Rest before conferences
Following a parade through downtown streets, the Governor and Mrs. Dewey went to their suite on the 16th floor of the hotel for a short rest before the candidate began his whirl of conferences with several hundred persons selected by local and state party leaders.
He began by seeing some 40 labor representatives, mostly AFL men picked for the purpose by David Williams, former AFL official who is now a deputy in the state Labor and Industry Department.
This was followed by a “give-and-take” interview with nearly 100 business leaders from this area, all of them obviously Republican-minded.
Steel and coal cradle
It was at these conferences – all closed sessions – that Mr. Dewey said he hoped to develop a program of governmental policies which will prevent post-war depression and expedite reconversion.
The Governor said:
Pittsburgh produces one fourth of the steel in the whole United States. Pennsylvania produces one-fourth of the coal.
While the physical reconversion of factories will not be as great a problem here as in the arms factories, which must have complete new equipment for the manufacture of autos, refrigerators, and so on, the employment will be perhaps even more acutely affected with the tapering off of production as we come closer to the end of the war.
It was for that reason that I wanted to stop in Pittsburgh to meet first-hand the people closest to the problems, from all its aspects.
Mr. Dewey said many of the answers to the problems of reconverting government to peacetime pursuits had been worked out by the conference of governors – which includes both Democrats and Republicans – but that here the main problem before him is the “too-long delayed preparation for reconversion – which involves, of course, unemployment.”
He said:
We don’t need to surrender our liberties to the totalitarianism of the New Deal and we can’t afford to.
It is my idea that the proper governmental policies can contribute enormously, and I believe successfully, to avoiding the specter of unemployment which so many now regard as inevitable. Governmental policies will make all the difference, in my judgement.
Seeks leaders’ stories
Mr. Dewey indicated his chief purpose in meeting the labor, business, farm and war veteran leaders was to hear what they had to say.
But he had several political events crowded into his busy schedule.
He had lunch and a conference with the 33 Republican candidates for Congress from Pennsylvania, State Senator G. Harold Watkins (candidate for Auditor General), City Treasurer Edgar W. Baird of Philadelphia (nominee for State Treasurer), and state and local party leaders.
Sessions with Congressmen
He held a short session with Walter Hallanan, Republican National Committeeman from West Virginia, and Congressman Charles A. Halleck (R-IN), chairman of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, met the Governor at the train and stayed through the day.
Reports that the Governor would see John L. Lewis, United Mine Workers president, were met with doubtful answers on all hands.
“Not that I know of,” Mr. Dewey said in reply to a question on that subject.
However, the Governor was scheduled to meet a delegation of 15 UMW officials tonight. John P. Busarello, District 5 president of the union, arranged the guest list.
One poke at Democrats
In his press conference, Mr. Dewey took one poke at Democratic politics.
When a reporter asked him if he thought the “don’t-change-your-horses-in-the-middle-of-the-stream” issue would play an important part in the campaign, the Republican challenger said: “That was demolished at Chicago. They changed half the horse.”
Mr. Dewey referred, of course, to the switch in vice-presidential candidates from Vice President Henry A. Wallace to Senator Harry S. Truman.
Governor Edward Martin of Pennsylvania, who was the first to greet Mr. Dewey when he stepped off the train at the Pennsylvania Station, accompanied the New Yorker to the press conference, but excused himself after the photographers finished flashing their bulbs.
Faces 50 reporters
Mr. Dewey sat on a slightly raised platform facing the corps of 50 reporters – many of whom traveled on the same train with him.
The Governor sat quietly while pictures were snapped from all angles, then quietly “dismissed” the photographers and volunteered the statement of his purpose in visiting Pittsburgh.
While he talked, he drew light puffs from a cigarette stuck in the end of a long silver holder – not as long, however, as Mr. Roosevelt’s famous cigarette stem.
Leaves at 9:44 p.m.
At a reception this afternoon he is to meet all comers, spending two hours in handshaking. This affair was planned mainly for Republican Party workers, but was open to the public.
Mr. Dewey will leave here at 9:44 p.m. on the special nine-car train scheduled as a second section on a regular Pennsylvania express train. His trip from the William Penn states at 9:15 p.m.
He goes first in Springfield, Illinois – Illinois being another “pivotal” state in this year’s election – for other similar conferences tomorrow.
Governors’ conference Wednesday
On Wednesday, he and 25 other Republican governors of the country will begin a two-day session of conferences at which Mr. Dewey hopes to develop a clear-cut program drawing a line of demarcation between state and federal functions in government.
Governor Martin will leave here tomorrow to attend that conference.
Crowds line parade route to see Dewey
Throngs applaud, but few break into cheers
By Gilbert Love
Governor Thomas E. Dewey entered the Democratic stronghold of Pittsburgh today.
At Pennsylvania Station, where the Republican candidate and his party arrived shortly before 9:00 a.m. ET, the welcome was tumultuous. A crowd waving “Welcome Governor Dewey” placards cheered wildly as the official party walked through the station to its autos for a parade through the Golden Triangle.
The sidewalks were lined with pedestrians and persons who rushed from buildings along the parade route. They applauded and waved as the Governor, near in a gray suit and figured tie, went by in an open car.
Crowd at hotel
There was little cheering along the route of the parade.
A large crowd had gathered in front of William Penn Hotel, where the parade ended. Governor Dewey waved, then went immediately into the hotel, where he was to spend the day in a number of conferences.
He will make no other street appearance until a motorcade returns him to the station by way of Fifth and Liberty Avenues at 9:15 p.m. tonight.
Although he is scheduled to make no speeches here, Governor Dewey’s visit might be called his first campaign appearance. Tomorrow he is to make an appearance for similar conferences in Springfield, Illinois, then go to St. Louis to confer with 25 Republican governors Wednesday.
Although he had not asked for a special train, nine cars were required to bring the Governor’s official party – newspapermen, Secret Service agents and others – to Pittsburgh, and the cars ran as a second section of The Pittsburgher.
As the train stopped, Governor Edward Martin and Mrs. Martin entered Governor Dewey’s car to welcome him and Mrs. Dewey to Pennsylvania. The four posed for pictures on the rear platform, then walked through the trainshed to the station.
Railroad workers applauded and waved. A group of women car cleaners had grandstand seats at the windows of an empty coach. A begrimed woman worker in slacks stood beside a woman wearing orchids, and both were applauding.
Band plays ‘Hail to the Chief’
Passing the train gates, Governor Dewey and Governor Martin walked through an aisle formed by police in the close-packed crowd. As soon as they had passed, the crowd broke and milled through the station after them, to join other cheering men and women under the outside rotunda.
A red-coated band played “Hail to the Chief” as the official party entered the autos for the parade through the Triangle.
The Democratic city administration had gone all-out to make it a good parade and keep order. Sixteen mounted policemen led the procession, and 24 motorcycle officers rode single file beside the official cars. Four to six traffic officers were on every corner and a group of city detectives rode directly behind the open car occupied by the two governors.
Governor Dewey was hatless and looked fit and confident. “Isn’t he handsome!” exclaimed a girl spectator.
On Liberty Avenue, a soldier stepped to the curb and shouted, “Remember us, Dewey!” The candidate nodded and waved.
Someone shouted “Good luck” from an office building. “Thank you,” Governor Dewey called back.
Confetti and torn paper floated down from some buildings where office workers crowded the open windows.
Men with bundles of the “Welcome Governor Dewey” placards – pennant-shaped cardboard on sticks – preceded the parade, handing them to all persons who wanted them.
Mrs. Dewey in closed car
Except for the cheers and applause, it was a silent parade, for the band did not accompany it. The musicians took a shortcut to the hotel and welcomed Governor Dewey there with another rendition of “Hail to the Chief.”
Mrs. Dewey, who has said she wants to “stay out of the show” as much as possible, rode in a closed car with Mrs. Martin.
U.S. Senator James J. Davis, a member of the official party, estimated that 25,000 persons had turned out, despite the early hour, to see the candidate.
Republican Party workers and as much of the general public as could be accommodated were to have a chance to shake hands with Governor Dewey at a reception from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Mrs. Dewey, quiet, poised, won’t be making speeches
She never has and doesn’t intend to, she says – and she’s not campaigning
By Betty Jo Daniels
Mrs. Thomas E. Dewey is not campaigning for “First Lady of the White House.”
Making her first appearance in Pittsburgh today, the wife of the Republican presidential nominee told newspaper reporters for the record: “The Governor’s opinions are mine, but if they differ, I tell him about it only in private.”
She added that she intends to make no speeches. “I never have and never intend to,” she said.
Keeps upper hand
For a woman who has been described as “shy” and “retiring,” Mrs. Dewey is surprisingly poised and has the upper hand at all times in her conversation with a group of reporters.
She speaks slowly, obviously weighing what she says before committing herself.
In keeping with her simple, direct manner she wore a two-piece black dressmaker suit with a powder blue blouse. A feathery blue pompom carried out the color scheme of blue and black on a small forward-tilted hat. She wore Cuban heeled patent leather shoes and a black patent leather handbag. Her gloves were also black.
Careful of comment
When Mrs. Dewey entered her press conference, she shook hands with each newspaperwoman. Her hands are small but she explained that their size did not interfere with her piano playing, which, she added, is not a hobby with her but for a long time was a “way of living.”
Each time she was questioned about current events and opinions, she smiled graciously and replied quietly, “I prefer not to comment on that.”
She did say that she thought voting would be very important this year, especially for women.
Her reluctance to discuss world affairs was offset by her willingness to discuss her home life. She said she would not care to outline any special way of living for anyone, but that for herself she wants to make her home for the Governor “restful.”
She’s not a clubwoman
She belongs to no social or woman’s clubs because she feels that she could not “participate actively,” but she is a member of the board of the Hamilton Nursery School in New York and a member of the Mother’s Club at Albany Academy where her two sons, John and Tom, go to school.
Mrs. Dewey gestured when she described the children’s garden at the farm, and laughed when she said that they presented her a bill for their produce recently marked “hangover.” She pays them market prices for their vegetables and they send her a statement each month. Last month, she didn’t make the payment in full – so they billed her for the balance with the “hangover” sheet.
No Southern accent
Though Mrs. Frances Hutt Dewey was born in Sherman, Texas, and spent most of her girlhood in the South, she has no trace of a Southern accent except for a soft “r” in a few words. Voice training did that for her, she said.
She appeared flustered only once, and then only slightly. That was at the comment of a woman reporter to the effect that it was strange that Mrs. Dewey had so little of the “exhibitionist” in her makeup, since she had been trained for the concert and stage.
Mrs. Dewey replied quickly with a little impatience, that she was not trained for the stage, and that she didn’t see what singing a song had to do with writing a column or making a speech.
Rommel death rumors grow in Normandy
Marshal reported hit by strafing planes
By James McGlincy, United Press staff writer
With U.S. forces in Normandy, France –
New and still-unconfirmed reports circulating in Normandy today said that Marshal Erwin Rommel, field commander of German forces in Normandy, died in a hospital at Bernay near the west coast of Normandy from injuries suffered when his auto was strafed by Allied planes.
The German Transocean News Agency said today that a German High Command official, asked by telephone about the health of Rommel, replied: “He is shaving.” Transocean added that, “This reply speaks for itself.”
Reports of the death of the “Desert Fox,” whose forces are falling back before the Americans thrust down the western shore of the Normandy Peninsula, were relayed hazily by French civilians and German prisoners. They contributed more detail to those rumors which first began to circulate yesterday.
Reported hit in lungs
These details said the bullets of strafing Allied planes wounded Rommel several times in the lungs, and that he struck his head as he was thrown from the car.
London said that BBC correspondent Howard Marshall reported from Normandy that a German senior staff officer told his captors Rommel “may be dead by now” as a result of his wounds.
Stockholm said an unusually cautious attitude by authoritative German sources toward rumors might be correct. A Berlin dispatch to the Stockholm Aftonbladet said rumors of Rommel’s injuries during a motorcar “accident” were “not confirmed” in Berlin.
It appears that a story given out here Saturday quoting a German prisoner of war that Rommel held a staff meeting at Percy as recently as last Wednesday, was untrue.
Nurse story fictitious
There have been rumors that a woman at Canisy nursed Rommel up to the time he died, but the woman appeared today to be an entirely fictitious character.
Although there is some information at Canisy to support the rumor that Rommel may be dead, Monsieur Lejeune, mayor of the town, said he had no knowledge of Rommel having been treated in the German military hospital there before Canisy was captured.
Eugene Morel, a gendarme, said the only information he had was the story started by German soldiers in Canisy about 10 days ago, but Yves Lauzach, an employee in the Saint-Lô post office who had taken refuge in Canisy, reported that a German lieutenant had told him July 26 that Rommel died at Livarot (Calvados) as the result of wounds sustained six days previous when his vehicle was strafed.
Success in Normandy –
Supply problem solution stuns Hitler and aides
Allies’ ‘secret weapon’ landed 14 divisions and supplies on beach in few weeks
By L. S. B. Shapiro, North American Newspaper Alliance
Somewhere in France –
The Allied invasion of Normandy succeeded because Hitler and the German General Staff honestly and sincerely believed it impossible. They had sound military reasons for believing it could never succeed.
The French coast along the narrow part of the channel, from Dunkerque to Dieppe, was too well fortified and too powerfully manned for an amphibious force to seize a lodgment area. So were the port areas of Le Havre, Cherbourg, Saint-Nazaire and Bordeaux.
There was only one other area pertinent to an invasion threat from Britain and this was the sandy strength of beach along the Seine Bay between the Orne River and the Carentan Peninsula. This was not so well fortified and rather indifferently manned, but – of course – a successful landing here was out of the question. This area contained no port even of minor importance.
‘Military fantasy’
Nothing more than a raid could be staged on this treacherous beach, the suggestion that many modern divisions with their immense impedimenta could be landed and supplied over this beach was a military fantasy. The venture would be suicidal.
Thus thought Hitler and his professional staff as represented by keen-minded Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt when they set about insulating Europe from Britain late in 1940.
Their thinking was valid – in 1940. In that year, any British staff officer seriously suggesting a full-scale invasion of the then-completely-unfortified Seine Bay beach would have been retired or committed to an asylum.
Large force landed
Yet in June 1944, the Allies landed a great assault force over the bare breaches of the Seine Bay. before the month’s end, 14 full divisions and their ancillary troops were landed and supplied – so completely that they were able to advance behind a weight of shells and tanks unprecedented in Western European warfare.
And all this was done without the use of a single port of substantial size. An overwhelming proportion of the millions of shells and food boxes and the thousands of tanks and guns were hauled over sandy beaches.
The solution of the supply problem – this was the sober and undramatic secret weapon of the second front, the great surprise by which the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington and London confounded Hitler and his generals.
Crux of problem solved
Supply – the most plebeian of all military duties – turned out to be the most pulsating factor in the great assault; more exciting than grease-painted Commandos, more essential than naval guns and crushing airpower.
Supply was the crux of the problem, the foundation stone on which was built the whole fabulous plan to storm at the heart of Hitler’s Fortress Europe.
Supply over beaches, the insoluble problem of 1940, had become entirely feasible in 1944. The Germans didn’t realize it. They persisted in their 1940 estimate of the problem and were caught victims of a stunning tactical surprise in 1944. This error cost Hitler his last lingering hope of victory or stalemate.
Three other factors
There were three other cardinal factors in the construction of our victory in Normandy. The first was the technical and numerical superiority of Allied weapons, many of them especially designed for carving a bridgehead out of an enemy-held coast.
The second was Gen. Montgomery’s brilliantly-conceived plan for the battle of the beaches and the prompt exploitation of D-Day success.
The third was the poor quality of the German coastal divisions which, combined with the sluggish reaction of Rommel’s command, provided us with unexpected opportunity for quick consolidation and subsequent advance.
Nazis to shoot parachuting fliers
Fear Allied help for slave workers
By Nat A. Barrows
Stockholm, Sweden –
Home front German soldiers, the police, the SS (Elite Guard), and other armed persons have received orders to shoot parachuting Allied airmen on sight, either as they float down to earth or when they reach ground.
This latest edict supplements an earlier order, given shortly after D-Day, when the Germans were afraid that Allied parachutists might be bringing weapons and uprising orders to the two million foreign slave workers inside the Third Reich. This fear of the Nazis of a “Trojan Horse,” which is reportedly causing wholesale massacres on Heinrich Himmler’s orders, is coupled with the growing campaign of hatred against the British and Americans, with emphasis on the Americans (Himmler is now commander-in-chief of the German Army of the Interior).
A French refugee now safely in Sweden tells this correspondent how soldiers and other military guards in Hamburg boast that they are carrying out the nationwide order by shooting everything that drops from Allied planes.
“I got one American today as easy as picking off a balloon,” a German soldier had told this refugee.
All of which means that we cannot underestimate the fanatical hatred which still permeates the average German. As defeat becomes more apparent, the Germans’ diabolical lust for revenge becomes more primitive.