America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

7965

Innsbrucker Nachrichten (June 23, 1944)

Neuer Erfolg unserer Kampf- und Torpedoflieger

Zwei Zerstörer, ein 10.000 BRT Truppen-Transporter und ein 8.000 BRT Frachter versenkt; Zwei Kreuzer, zwei Zerstörer, drei Frachter mit 28.000 BRT und vier weitere Schiffe schwer beschädigt

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

In der Normandie trat der Feind gestern mit starken Kräften gegen die Landfront der Festung Cherbourg zum Angriff an. Heftige Kämpfe, in die starke feindliche Schiffsartillerie und Luftstreitkräfte eingriffen, entwickelten sich besonders an der Südost- und Ostfront der Festung. Wo einige unserer Widerstandsnester in der weitgespannten Festungsfront verlorengingen, sind Gegenangriffe im Gange. Küstenbatterien des Heeres und der Kriegsmarine griffen während des ganzen Tages in die Erdkämpfe ein und erzielten Treffer in feindlichen Bereitstellungen und Panzeransammlungen.

An der übrigen Front des Landekopfes fanden nur örtliche Kämpfe ohne größere Bedeutung statt.

Unsere Artillerie nahm feindliche Schiffsansammlungen und Ausladungen vor dem Landekopf unter Feuer. Zwei Frachter wurden getroffen, zwei feindliche Kanonenboote in der Ornemündung zum Abdrehen gezwungen.

Kampf- und Torpedoflieger versenkten in der vergangenen Nacht zwei Zerstörer, einen Truppentransporter mit 10.000 BRT und einen Frachter mit 8.000 BRT Zwei Kreuzer, zwei Zerstörer, drei Frachter mit 28.000 BRT und vier weitere Handelsschiffe wurden schwer beschädigt.

Über der normannischen Küste und den besetzten Westgebieten wurden gestern 72 feindliche Flugzeuge zum Absturz gebracht.

Das Störungsfeuer auf London hält an.

In Italien trat der Feind nach beendeter Umgruppierung gestern erneut fast auf der ganzen Front zum Angriff an. Im Raum nördlich Grosseto konnte er nach erbitterten Kämpfen unsere Front wenige Kilometer nach Norden zurückdrücken.

In allen übrigen Abschnitten wurde der Feind unter schwersten Verlusten abgewiesen. Uber 30 Panzerkampfwagen wurden vernichtet oder erbeutet.

Die dritte Flakbrigade hat in Italien in der Zeit vom 1. bis 20. Juni 114 feindliche Flugzeuge und 69 Panzer abgeschossen.

Seit Beginn des feindlichen Großangriffs in Italien wurden 1046 feindliche Panzer vernichtet oder erbeutet.

Im Süden der Ostfront scheiterten örtliche Angriffe der Sowjets an der Strypa, nordwestlich Tarnopol und südlich des Pripjet.

Im mittleren Frontabschnitt haben die Bolschewisten mit den erwarteten Angriffen begonnen. Die auf breiter Front mit Panzer- und Schlachtfliegerunterstützung geführten Angriffe wurden in harten Kämpfen abgewiesen, örtliche Einbrüche in sofortigen Gegenstößen bereinigt. Beiderseits Witebsk sind noch erbitterte Kämpfe im Gange.

Auch zwischen Polozk und Novoschew sowie nordöstlich Ostrow führte der Feind stärkere Vorstöße, die erfolglos blieben.

Starke Verbände schwerer deutscher Kampfflugzeuge führten einen zusammengefassten Angriff gegen den Flugplatz Mirgorod. 20 viermotorige Bomber und große Betriebsstoff- und Munitionsvorräte wurden vernichtet.

Einzelne britische Flugzeuge warfen in der vergangenen Nacht Bomben im Raum von Hamburg.

Deutsche Kampfflugzeuge griffen Ziele in Ostengland an.

7966

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 23, 1944)

Communiqué No. 35

Operations against the fortress of CHERBOURG are proceeding satisfactorily. Offensive action and local attacks have effectively pinned down enemy formations in the eastern sectors.

In preparation for our ground operations, waves of fighter-bombers attacked the strongly fortified German positions encircling CHERBOURG during the day and again at dusk yesterday. They went in, often at pistol range, to bomb forts, concrete pillboxes, ammunition dumps, oil stores and troop concentrations. Medium bombers also took part. Our aircraft flew through intense ground fire.

Strong forces of heavy bombers attacked rail and road transport, barges, and oil containers between the coast and PARIS, and the rail junctions at LILLE and GHENT. During these operations, six enemy aircraft were destroyed. Ten of our bombers and nine fighters are missing.

Light and medium bombers destroyed a steel works near CAEN. Fighter-bombers attacked bridges northeast of PARIS.

In ALDERNEY, one of the Channel Isles, gun posts and barracks were the target for bombers and fighters. During the evening, other formations raided fuel dumps at FORÊT DE CONCHES and BAGNOLES-DE-L’ORNE, railway yards at SAINT-QUENTIN and ARMENTIÈRES and tracks and fuel tanks at DREUX and VERNEUIL.

After dark, heavies attacked the rail centers at RHEIMS and LAON in force thus completing the biggest air effort for some days. Seven bombers are missing.

Rail targets at LISIEUX, DREUX, and ÉVREUX were the night targets for our light bombers.

Last night, our fighters and intruders destroyed seven enemy aircraft over northern FRANCE.

The weather over the beachhead has moderated and unloading is proceeding.

Special Communiqué No. 2

Since the 10th June, 1944, the French Forces of the Interior, in association with the Allied plans, have continued to harass the Germans by increasing acts of warfare and sabotage in the rear of the German lines.

In many regions, fighting has reached such proportions that the enemy has been forced to send considerable forces against the Marquis, without succeeding in overcoming them. The enemy has attacked the Marquis of the VERCORS and the AIN with armored forces, artillery and aircraft. Resistance forces have been compelled to withdraw at various points after inflicting losses on the enemy.

In addition, numerous engagements are reported from the PYRENEES, the VOSGES, the MARNE, the ARDENNES, the AISNE and the CREUSE. Elements of several German divisions and a large number of local defense troops are estimated to have been contained inside FRANCE by the action of the resistance forces.

Many cuts on the railways, and numerous obstacles on the roads have effectively hindered the passage of German reinforcements to the beachhead. In this way, two armored divisions have been seriously delayed in Southwest France.

In the BORDEAUX region, the railway lines BORDEAUX-LA ROCHELLE, LA RÉOLE-PÉRIGUEUX, BAYONNE-ANGOULÊME have been sabotaged. A large number of small bridges of the route Nationale BORDEAUX-POITIERS have also been destroyed.

Railway cuts have also been reported throughout the RHÔNE Valley and in BRITTANY, the LOIRET, AISNE and the area north of PARIS. The railway depot at AMBÉRIEUX has been sabotaged for the second time.

Strong resistance groups have occupied several localities in the departments of the JURA, AIN and HAUTE-SAVOIE, and have taken over the administration and the supply of the civil population.

After four days of hard fighting, the Forces of Resistance were compelled to evacuate one of those towns, after blowing up the railway bridges, the locomotives and the telephone lines. German losses were heavy.

In many regions, the enemy telecommunication installations, both underground and overhead, have been cut.

Many canals, in particular in the CANAL DU NIVERNAIS, the lateral canal of the MARNE, have been made unusable.

This systematic disorganization of enemy transport by the FFI has contributed directly to the success of Allied operations in NORMANDY.

7967

U.S. Navy Department (June 23, 1944)

Communiqué No. 527

Pacific and Far East.
U.S. submarines have reported the sinking of 16 vessels, including one naval auxiliary, as a result of operations in these waters, as follows:

  • 11 medium cargo vessels
  • 4 small cargo vessels
  • 1 medium naval auxiliary

These actions have not been announced in any previous Navy Depart­ment communiqué.

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 61

A Pacific Fleet submarine torpedoed a SHŌKAKU-class carrier on June 18 (West Longitude Date). Three torpedo hits were obtained and the Japanese carrier is regarded as probably sunk.

Supplementing POA Communiqué No. 59, the following more detailed information is now available concerning the strike by carriers of the Fifth Fleet against units of the Japanese fleet on June 19:

  • One small carrier of unidentified class previously reported damaged received two aerial torpedo hits.

  • One destroyer previously reported damaged sank.

Two additional Japanese Navy twin‑engined bombers were shot down by carrier aircraft returning to our carriers after attacking the Japanese force.

Ponape Island was bombed on June 20 by 7th Army Air Force Mitchell bombers, and on June 21 by 7th Army Air Force Liberators. Gun positions were principal targets.

Seventy tons of bombs were dropped on Truk Atoll by Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force on June 20 and 21. On June 20, five enemy aircraft attempted to intercept our force. Two enemy fighters were damaged, and one Liberator was damaged. On June 21, nine enemy aircraft attempted to Inter­cept our force. One Liberator was damaged and one enemy fighter. All of our planes returned.

Corsair fighters and Dauntless dive bombers of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, Catalina search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, and Navy Hellcat fighters carried out attacks in the Marshalls on June 20 and 21, bombing and strafing gun positions and targets of opportunity.

7968

The Free Lance-Star (June 23, 1944)

CHERBOURG BATTLE NEAR END
Germans resist strenuously but Yanks close in

City surrounded by fighting Yanks

SHAEF, England (AP) –
Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s finely tuned U.S. assault troops have stormed over one of the three fortified peaks dominating Cherbourg’s military harbor, Supreme Headquarters announced today, and speedy fall of the city is expected.

Describing Cherbourg defenses as “fairly formidable,” a headquarters announcement said a “prolonged siege is unlikely now.”

Attacking with a storm of artillery fire, and a huge array of instruments od destruction, the Americans captured a height at Tourlaville, four miles from the sea southeast of Cherbourg. The Germans had been reduced to machine guns, small arms and light artillery in defending their pillboxes and prepared defenses.

Americans and Germans were so closely interlocked in the grim battle that Allied air forces were unable to give the close battlefront the support that marked the opening of the all-out attack yesterday.

British and U.S. planes concentrated on “quarantining” the battle area, hitting rail, and road communications in a semi-circle 100 miles deep in France as the Americans clamped a visa on Cherbourg and smashed at the other two remaining hilltop bastions.

Many Germans trapped

Three German divisions, mixed with German naval units and a defense garrison, were believed caught in the American clamp.

The Germans apparently had withdrawn completely from the eastern tip of the peninsula in order to concentrate on defense of Cherbourg.

A Canadian press correspondent reported that the Germans may have evacuated Caen, at the eastern end of the Allied line in Normandy and dispersed their forces outside the city because of the terrific bombing to which the long-contested town had been subjected.

The Germans were making a desperate bid to hold the strategic port as long as possible. Everywhere fierce resistance was encountered and a particularly vicious battle was being fought for control of the big airfield at Maupertus, five miles east of the city.

Fighting is severe

Inside the besieged port, the German garrison stood up stubbornly under yesterday’s 1,000-plane assault on the forts and pillboxes comprising the city’s defense. U.S. ground troops had to fight for every inch of their advance.

Only slight German resistance was reported by U.S. troops which cut off the eastern tip of the peninsula by capturing the road junction of Saint-Pierre-Église and then driving two miles westward and taking Carneville within sight of the sea.

A report from the 21st Army Group headquarters said this advance provided “strong indications” the Germans had abandoned that tip of the peninsula despite strong fortifications in the Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue area on the eastern coast.

On the western tip of the peninsula, the Americans went forward in the area of Beaumont-Hague against scattered resistance, cutting off whatever Germans are in that area.

The Allied prisoner bag, meanwhile, was described at Supreme Headquarters as “well over” the 15,000 announced a few days ago for the period since the June 6 landings.

Underground busy

Bloody hand-to-hand fighting for Cherbourg was matched over two thirds of France where the French underground is striking at the Germans on a dozen “inner fronts,” tying up “several German divisions” in combat, a special communiqué from Gen. Eisenhower’s headquarters reported.

The French patriots, the Supreme Command announced, have blocked movement of German troops against the bridgehead, have fought several pitched battles; have even occupied several towns in various parts of France.

Despite the biggest Allied air effort in more than a week, embracing more than 6,000 sorties, Gen. Bradley’s attack on Cherbourg made only a little progress. A mixed German force of three divisions of garrison troops, marines and sailors fought with the stubbornness of Stalingrad in the French-built fortifications protecting the harbor.

In the British-Canadian sector to the east, the Germans struck with a tank attack two miles southwest of Tilly-sur-Seulles, but were beaten off. British reconnaissance parties three miles east of Caen encountered determined resistance.

Allied bombers struck and destroyed a steel works just outside Caen. The Germans had been converting it into a fortified point to block the Allied forces standing less than half a mile away.

The wind dropped and the weather improved off the Allied beachhead, permitting the Allied to resume, after four bad days, the unloading of supplies.

7969

Fifty Allied officers are slain in Nazi prison camp

…

7970

Japs on Saipan fighting thirst

Low water supply may finally break down enemy defenses

At a command post on Saipan, Mariana Islands (AP) – (June 22, delayed)
As the battle for Saipan enters its second week, it begins to appear that lack of drinking water may turn out to be the fatal weakness of this island’s strong defenses.

There is evidence that the water supply is critically low behind the Jap lines. Prisoners invariably beg for water when brought in and many have to be forcibly restrained from snatching the canteens of their American captors.

The naval artillery smashed big Jap water distilling apparatus and fresh water tanks before the first waves of Marines hit the beaches at Charan Kanoa. Since then, the Japan probably have existed on the island’s few wells and rainwater cisterns, most of the latter already empty because of the extremely light rainfall since the invasion.

Promises of plenty of drinking water proved an effective means of getting Japs to come out of their pillboxes and surrender – which they are doing here in large numbers.

“Why die of thirst?” says an American voice in Japanese language through loudspeakers near the frontlines.

You’ve fought as well as any soldier of the Emperor should do. Now come out with your hands up and have a drink of this good water so you’ll be alive to serve your country when the war is over.

U.S. forces are rationed two or three canteens of water daily but the supply on our side of the lines is increasing as more and more distilling plants are set up. Water has been given a number one priority – on a parallel with ammunition.

7971

20,000 Japs seen doomed on Saipan

Men are left to fate by fleet routed in fight this week

USPACFLT HQ, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (AP) –
Twenty thousand Japanese, apparently abandoned to their death by a routed Nipponese fleet, were hit high and low today on Saipan by a U.S. invasion army which now outnumbers the foe.

Sensing almost certain victory in the distant Marianas as the aftermath of a one-sided sea triumph, the reinforced Yanks scaled the heights and probed the flatlands of that island gateway to Japan, China and the Philippines.

The scales were tipped heavily in favor of the United States Monday by “Task Force 58,” a newly-disclosed fast and mighty armada with perhaps 20 of the nearly 100 U.S. carriers in action against Japan.

Saipan’s potential naval support was sent scurrying between Luzon and Formosa into the far China Sea by carrier planes of this specialized group which sank one Japanese carrier, heavily hit three others and damaged a battleship and cruiser. In all, four enemy ships were definitely sunk and 10 others hard hit.

Big assignment

Task Force 58, which Navy officials in Washington said has been assigned “the entire Pacific Ocean to the gates of Japan as its stamping ground,” thus paved the way for a stepped-up drive on Saipan itself. Last night, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz reported that the invasion of that island, 1,500 miles from Tokyo but 3,800 miles from Pearl Harbor, was going well.

Supported by planes operating off captured Aslito Airdrome and outgunning the Nipponese on the ground, the Yanks drove ahead more than a mile on the east side of the island at Magicienne Bay.

In the center, they were scaling 1,540-foot Mount Tapochau. In the southeast tip, they had wiped out half of an unspecified total of trapped Japanese and seized 500-foot Mount Nafutan.

Today Tokyo conceded in a dispatch heard over the German radio that the Yanks are pouring ashore, along with heavy guns, on Saipan.

Nimitz’s communiqué said:

Heavy pressure is being maintained night and day against enemy troop concentrations and defense works by our aircraft, Army, Marine artillery and naval gunfire.

Bombing fails

The only mention of enemy air action was an attempt to bomb U.S. transports but it “did no damage.”

Assessing Monday’s attack far to the west of Saipan on the Japanese fleet, Navy Secretary Forrestal said in Washington:

Our fleet did a magnificent job, but the Navy is not going to be satisfied until the Japanese fleet is wiped out.

He said the Japanese “never came very far to the eastward” and “we were able to send home but one air attack at very long range from our carriers just before dark.”

The dynamite punch of the task force was obviously a painful surprise for the Japanese whose carrier planes, at a cost of 353, superficially damaged two U.S. carriers and a battleship Sunday.

Japs alarmed by Saipan situation

By the Associated Press

Etsuzō Kurihara, chief of the Naval Press Section of Japanese Imperial Headquarters, declared in a formal statement broadcast by Tokyo today that the “battle situation in the Saipan area is the most critical one since the beginning of the war.”

The statement, recorded by the Office of War Information, said a major effort would be necessary to turn back advanced naval elements “centered around more than 20 aircraft carriers and more than a dozen battleships with more than 100 transport ships.”

Kurihara’s statement said:

The enemy’s plan of advance is the greatest since the beginning of the war in the strength of the main force and in the furiousness of the enemy’s fighting morale.

The statement broadcast on the Japanese home radio as well as abroad acknowledged the Saipan operation as an “advance of the enemy into our inner line.”

7972

Japanese admit Pacific losses

Tokyo describes battle as ‘forestalling action’

…

7973

Submarines sink 16 Jap vessels

Underwater craft operating close to Japan

…

7974

Germans recapture town in North Italy

New York (AP) –
Winston Burdett of CBS broadcast from Rome today that the Germans have recaptured Chiusi in Italy, a town 25 miles southwest of Perugia and about nine miles southwest of Lake Trasimeno. The British occupied the town Tuesday.

7975

americavotes1944

Boom for Byrd

GOP Congressmen see him as possibility for second place

Washington (AP) –
A boom for Senator Byrd (D-VA) as the vice-presidential candidate nominee on the Republican ticket developed today among GOP members of Congress.

House Republican Leader Martin (R-MA), who will be the permanent chairman of the Chicago Republican convention convening Monday, told newspapermen “there appears to be a great deal of sentiment for Senator Byrd.” He added that, “I’ll have to get to Chicago before I know just how strong this sentiment is.”

Rep. Knutson, Republican leader of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters he would arrive in Chicago Saturday, and would promote the idea of offering the Virginian the second place on the Republican ticket.

Rep. Eaton (R-NJ), ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was in the group discussing the convention and commented:

Senator Byrd is a great national asset. His party label doesn’t mean a thing. He’s an American.

Knutson said that with Byrd on the ticket, “We can carry Virginia, the Carolinas and several other Southern states.”

While observing that there is substantial sentiment for the Virginian, Martin did not express any personal preference, reminding those with whom he talked that his responsibility was to preside over the convention.

Disclaimed by Byrd

Byrd promptly said, “I am not a candidate on any ticket whatsoever.” He would not comment when newsmen told him that sometimes men are drafted at political conventions.

He said he had not heard of the announced plan of Rep. Knutson (R-MN) to work for him at Chicago and emphasized, “I am not a candidate and haven’t been a candidate.”

Byrd was on the floor of the Senate today submitting a report by his economy committee and incidentally taking time out to accuse Senator Guffey (D-PA) of making “a cowardly attack” on an absent Senator.

Guffey had taken the floor earlier to excoriate Senator Bailey (D-NC) for a speech several weeks ago calling CIO leader Philip Murray and Sidney Hillman “communists.”

Byrd stated:

I have been in the Senate 12 years and I have never seen a more bitter, vindictive and I think more untruthful attack on an absent Senator.

He said that Senator Bailey was absent for a necessary operation. The Virginian said:

Senator Guffey knew he was not here today and yet he selected this day to make this malicious and unwarranted attack on him.

7976

americavotes1944

Roosevelt dodges 4th term queries

Washington (AP) –
President Roosevelt declined with a grin today to confirm or refute a prediction by Governor Ellis Arnall of Georgia that the Chief Executive would soon express his willingness to accept a fourth term nomination.

A reporter asked Mr. Roosevelt at today’s news conference if he planned such a statement shortly after next week’s Republican National Convention, as forecast by Arnall.

The President commented that it was the same old question taking a new form today.

“A new form in the light of recent events,” the reporter said. “Well, it won’t work,” Mr. Roosevelt replied. “Don’t I get anything for the effort?” the reporter asked. “No,” said the President and told him he would have to write it off as a total failure.

Another reporter asked the President if he will consult political leaders before making a decision on a presidential nomination. The President replied that this occasion was supported to be a news conference and that the inquiry was a boudoir question at the present time.

Roosevelt: U.S. policy is not for sale

…

7977

Ploești oil installations and ‘rocket coast’ bombed

…

7978

americavotes1944

Dewey critical of bureaucracy

Asks greater harmony between President and Congress

Chicago, Illinois (AP) –
New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey sent Republican platform drafters a message today criticizing the national administration as “a sprawling, overlapping bureaucracy” and calling for a new regime in which the President would act with Congress to “raise the federal service to a high level of efficiency and competence.”

The message from Dewey, whose supporters have contended he will win the Republican presidential nomination on the first or second ballot at next week’s convention, was read to the platform committee after Senator Vandenberg (R-MI) had presented a proposed foreign plank calling for creation of “peace forces” to prevent future aggression.

In connection with presentation of a report on the Post-War Advisory Committee on government reform, Dewey’s message said:

The national administration has become a sprawling, overlapping bureaucracy. It is undermined by executive abuse of power, confused line of authority, duplication of effort, inadequate fiscal controls, loose personnel practices and an attitude of arrogance previously unknown in our history.

The times cry out for the restoration of harmony in government, for a balance of legislative and executive responsibility for efficiency and economy for pruning and abolishing unnecessary agencies and personnel, for effective fiscal and personnel controls, and for an entirely new spirit in our federal government.

We need an administration wherein the President, acting in harmony with Congress, will effect these necessary reforms and raise the federal service to a high level of efficiency and competence.

7979

Lynchburg plant employees strike

Lost petition given as reason for walkout by 600

…

7980

americavotes1944

Essary: Many in capital head for GOP convention

Much hip-hip-hurrahing to be absent this year
By Helen Essary, Central Press columnist

Washington –
Half of official Washington is packing its bags for Chicago and the gathering there on June 26 of the Republican hopefuls. Despite the cut and dried program that awaits the delegates, and the prospect of news scarcity in the goings on there, many newspapers sent their correspondents out a week before the opening day.

I’ve been wondering about the mood of the convention. Would it be the usual compound of bands, waving flags, backslapping favorite sons and smoke-filled rooms? I called Robert Prichard, the Republican National Committee’s No. 2 man at the job of selling the country the virtues of the GOP and asked about the prospect of good cheer at his convention.

Prichard said:

The theme of the convention will be patriotism. We are going to cut down the number of bands. Of course, there will be music. But none of the old-time hurrah… Flags? Oh yes, some in the convention hall. But not all over the plane as they used to be… Elephants? Absolutely not. Tied to a string and being led around to whip up the crowds? No, sir-ee! It isn’t going to be necessary to have party mascots this time. This isn’t a circus we are putting on. We’ve got real business to transact.

All convention speeches will be shorter than ever before, Prichard promised. Seconding speeches will be limited to 15 minutes. Former President Herbert Hoover is allowed a speech of 45 minutes. Mrs. Clare Luce, who some people think may stampede the convention and get herself nominated for the Vice Presidency, will talk for 30 minutes.

Hoover and Mrs. Luce have already sent their speeches in to the Republican National Committee, where they are being peppered up or flattened out as the need calls. How long Governor Warren of California will talk is as yet uncertain. He hasn’t yet submitted his keynote speech to headquarters.

The Democrats have not gotten down to convention routine. Their committee on arrangements met in Chicago June 15 and 16. At the moment there are still some delegates unnamed.

But things will whip up in no time and as for that choice of vice-presidential nominee – why, anything can happen.

Some people think the Northern Democrats can be made to agree with the Southern, the Eastern, the Midwestern, the Northwestern and the Western Democrats (big country this), and line Henry A. Wallace up for Vice President.

Some people – not Democrats – say Mr. Roosevelt has the convention – and the country – and the world – on the spot and can get anything done he wants done. Anyhow the vice-presidential nomination will be the only fun the Democratic meeting of mid-July will provide.

I asked Miss Virginia Rishel, who gets out the Democratic Digest, official publication of the Democratic National Committee, if she thought her party’s Chicago meeting would be a merry one.

The wise Virginia said:

Oh, no! On the contrary, Hannegan, our national chairman, has passed the word down the line, “We’ve got to get down to work at once, get the work done and get out as fast as possible. This is no time for skylarking or cheering.”

Speaking of the international influence, I suppose there will be a lot said in words of many syllables at both conventions about “our foreign policy.”

Well, it is not surprising that we have no concrete foreign policy, actually most of the people in this country aren’t interested in a foreign policy simply because most of the people in this country are not interested in foreign countries.

It will take a powerful amount of sales talk to persuade half the country that the troubles and hates of Europe, Asia and Africa are our responsibility forevermore. And it isn’t impeding the war effort to say this.

I still hope, maybe it is a Pollyannish wish, but I don’t apologize for it, that some day some genius will sell the world the idea of the stupidity of war. Could anything be more imbecile than the way we killed, maimed and starved the Italians when they were fighting with the Nazis, and then suddenly changed to loving, feeding, arming and clothing the Italians the moment we captured Rome?

Before the war is over, we may be killing Italians once more. Four-legged animals aren’t half as dumb as we, the two-legged creatures provided by nature with what is supposed to be a thinking mind. Four-legged animals fight only when they have to and when they are mad.

7981

Editorial: Relief for England

…

7982

Midwest tornado is fatal to eight

…

7983

The Pittsburgh Press (June 23, 1944)

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

On the Cherbourg Peninsula, France – (by wireless)
The day after troops of our 9th Division pushed through and cut off this peninsula, I went touring in a jeep over the country they had just taken.

This Norman country is truly lovely in many places. Here in the western part of the peninsula the ground becomes hilly and rolling. Everything is a vivid green, there are trees everywhere, and the view across the fields from a rise looks exactly like the rich, gentle land of Eastern Pennsylvania. It is too wonderfully beautiful to be the scene of war, and yet so were parts of Tunisia and Sicily and Italy. Someday I would like to cover a war in a country that is as ugly as war itself.

Our ride was a sort of spooky one. The American troops had started north and were driving on Cherbourg. This was possible because the Germans in that section were thoroughly disorganized, and by now capable of nothing more than trying to escape.

There was no traffic whatever on the roads. You could drive for miles without seeing a soul. We have been told that the country was still full of snipers, and we knew there were batches of Germans in the woods waiting to surrender. And yet we saw nothing. The beautiful, tree-bordered lanes were empty. Cattle grazed contentedly in the fields. It was as though life had taken a holiday and death was in hiding. It gave you the willies.

Finally, we came to a stone schoolhouse which was being used as a prisoner-of-war collection point, so we stopped for a look. Here groups of prisoners were constantly being brought in. And here individual American soldiers who had been cut off behind the lines for days came wearily to rest for a while in the courtyard before going on back to hunt up their outfits.

Most of the prisoners coming in at the time were from a captured German hospital. German doctors had set up shop in a shed adjoining the school and were treating their prisoners, who had slight wounds. At the moment I walked up, one soldier had his pants down and a doctor was probing for a fragment in his hip.

Two of three of the German officers spoke some English. They were in a very good humor. One of them, a doctor, said to me:

I’ve been in the army for four years and today is the best day I have spent in the army.

In this courtyard, I ran onto two boys who had just walked back after losing their jeep and being surrounded for hours that morning by Germans.

They were Pfc. Arthur MacDonald of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Pvt. T. C. McFarland of Southern Pines, North Carolina. They were forward observers for the 9th Division’s artillery.

They had bunked down the night before in a pasture. When they woke up, they could hear voices all around, and they weren’t American voices. They peeked out and saw a German at a latrine not 30 feet away.

So, they started crawling. They crawled for hours. Finally, they got out of the danger zone, and they started walking. They met a French farmer along the road, and took him in tow.

They said:

We sure captured that Frenchman. He was so scared he could hardly talk. We used high-school French and a dictionary and finally got it through his head that all we wanted was something to eat. So, he took us to this house. He fried eggs and pork and made coffee for us.

Our morale sure was low this morning, but that Frenchman we captured fixed it up.

The boys pulled out a couple of snapshots of the Frenchman, and they were so grateful that I imagine they will carry those pictures the rest of their lives.

At this time the French in that vicinity had been “liberated” less than 12 hours, and they could hardly encompass it in their minds. They were relieved, but they hardly knew what to do.

As we left the prison enclosure and got into our jeep, we noticed four or five French countrypeople – young farmers in their 20s, I would take them to be – leaning against a nearby house.

As we sat in the jeep getting our gear adjusted, one of the farmers walked toward us, rather hesitantly and timidly. But finally, he came up and smilingly handed me a rose.

I couldn’t go around carrying a rose in my hand all afternoon, so I threw it away around the next bend. But little things like that do sort of make you feel good about the human race.

7984

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 23, 1944)

Communiqué No. 36

Pressure on the CHERBOURG defenses is increasing. Patrols east of CHERBOURG are finding little opposition in the sector between CAP LÉVI and SAINT-VAAST.

Local fighting continues in the CAEN-TILLY area.

Early this morning, an escorted enemy convoy was intercepted south of JERSEY by light coastal forces. One enemy armed trawler was sunk. One of the convoy was left ablaze and damage inflicted on the remainder by gunfire.

Weather restricted air operations this morning.

Fighters and fighter-bombers attacked varied rail targets beyond the battle area including the yards at MÉZIDON and a junction north of LE MANS. Rail lines south of TOURS and ORLÉANS were cut. Bridges and tracks at NANTES, LA ROCHE, SAUMUR and NIORT and to the east and southeast of GRANVILLE were attacked. Locomotives and other rail targets in the PARIS and CHÂTEAUBRIANT areas were shot up.

Preliminary reports show 11 enemy aircraft destroyed. None of ours is missing.

Heavy day bombers, escorted by fighters, attacked, without loss, flying-bomb installations in the PAS-DE-CALAIS.

Coastal aircraft attacked E-boats in the eastern Channel, sinking two, probably sinking three more and damaging several others. A minesweeper was also damaged.

Reconnaissance photographs show much rolling stock destroyed in attacks by heavy night bombers on railway yards at LAON and RHEIMS last night. Main lines were effectively blocked at many points by direct hits.