Reconversion problems will head calendar when Congress reconvenes next Tuesday
…
WFA plan to change meat points delayed
…
Trapped Japs make numerous forays
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer
…
By Ernie Pyle
Somewhere in Normandy, France – (by wireless)
Then I moved over to an ordnance evacuation company.
These men handle the gigantic trucks, the long low trailers and the heavy wreckers that go out to haul back crippled tanks and wrecked anti-tank guns from the battlefield.
The ordnance branch’s policy on these wrecking companies is that if they don’t have a casualty now and then, or collect a few shrapnel marks on their vehicles, then they’re not doing their job efficiently.
The job of an ordnance evacuation company is often frightening, although this company’s casualties have been amazingly low. In fact, they’ve had only four and it’s still a mystery what happened to them.
The four left one day in a jeep, just on a normal trip. They didn’t come back. No trace could be found. Three weeks later, two of them came in – just discharged from a hospital. On the same day a letter came from the third – from a hospital in England. Nothing yet has been heard from the fourth.
Can’t remember what happened
And the strange part is that neither the two who returned nor the one who write from England can remember a thing about it. They were just riding along in their jeep and the next thing they woke up in a hospital. All three were wounded, but how they didn’t know. Friends suppose it was a shell hit.
At any rate, a sergeant in charge of one section of the mammoth movers, known as M19s, took me around to see some of his crewmen. They all go by the name of “the Diesel Boys.”
Their vehicle is simply a gigantic truck with a long, skeletonized trailer behind.
Like all our Army over here they were strung out around the hedgerows of the field under camouflage nets, with the middle grassy fields completely empty.
My friend was Sgt. Milton Radcliff of Newark, Ohio. He used to be a furnace operator for the Owen Corning Fiberglass Company there. He and all the other former employees still get a letter every two weeks from the company, assuring them their jobs will still be there when they return. And Radcliff, for one, is going to take his when he gets back.
Sgt. Vann Jones of Birmingham, Alabama, crawled out of his tent and sat Indian fashion on the ground with us. On the other side of our pasture lay the silver remains of a transport plane that had come to a mangled despair on the morning of D-Day.
A funny country, France
It was a peaceful and sunny evening, quite in contrast to most of our days, and we sat on the grass and watched the sun go down in the east, which we all agreed was a hell of a place for the sun to be going down. Either we were turned around or France is a funny country.
The other boys told me later that Sgt. Jones used to be the company cook, but he wanted to see more action so he transferred to the big wreckers and is now in command of one.
There are long lulls when the retriever boys don’t have anything to do besides work on their vehicles. They hate these periods and get restless. Some of them spend their time fixing up their tents homelike, even though they may have to move the next day.
One driver even had a feather bed he had picked up from a French family. The average soldier can’t carry a feather bed around with him, but the driver of an M19 could carry 10,000 feather beds and never know the difference.
Proud of their company
The boys are all pretty proud of their company. They said they did such good work in the early days of the invasion that they were about to be put up for a presidential citation. But one day they got in a bomb crater and started shooting captured German guns at the opposite bank just for fun, which is against the rules, so the proposal was torn up. They just laugh about it – which is about all a fellow can do.
Cpl. Grover Anderson of Anniston, Alabama, is one of the drivers. He swears by his colossal machine but cusses it, too. You see the French roads are narrow for heavy two-way military traffic and an M19 is big and awkward and slow.
Anderson says:
You get so damn mad at it because convoys piled up behind you and can’t get around and you know everybody’s hating you and that makes you madder. They’re aggravating, but if you let me leave the trailer off, I can pull anything out of anywhere with it.
Cpl. Anderson has grown a red goatee which he is not going to shave off till the war is won. He used to be a taxi driver; that’s another reason he finds an M19 so “aggravating.”
“Because it hasn’t got a meter on it?” I asked.
“Or maybe because you don’t have any female passengers,” another driver said.
To which Brother Anderson had a wholly satisfactory G.I. reply. He said, … [REMAINDER OF COLUMN VOLUNTARILY CENSORED]
Not all islands have rocked to bomb explosions
By Capt. Ellis M. Trefethen, North American Newspaper Alliance
…
By Erskine Johnson
…
…
Sacramento, California (UP) –
California Secretary of State Frank M. Jordan charged today that California servicemen overseas have been issued federal war ballots for the November election before they have had a chance to receive state ballots.
Under federal law, the ballots should not be issued unless servicemen have certified they had applied for a state ballot and had not received it by Oct. 1.
Mr. Jordan said his office had been receiving from servicemen federal ballots for the November election, providing for choice only of President, Vice President, Senator and Representative. Some of the ballots were mailed even in advance of the Democratic National Convention, he said.
The ballots are not valid, Mr. Jordan added, and will be returned to the senders. Other states had reported receiving invalid ballots from servicemen overseas, he said.
Boy is also killed as they fall against live wire torn down during storm
…
…
Völkischer Beobachter (July 29, 1944)
Genf, 28. Juli –
Diesmal ist es ein ununterbrochenes, hartes Ringen, schreibt der Korrespondent der Daily Mail zum Kampf in der Normandie. Es lasse sich nicht mehr länger verschweigen, daß Engländer und Nordamerikaner Verluste haben, denn gegen die deutschen Bunkerstellungen und Maschinengewehrnester müsse einzeln vorgegangen werden, von einer englisch-kanadischen Kompanie sei kein einziger Offizier übriggeblieben. Langsam und gequält rollten die Kämpfe ab; es sei daher unklug, vorzeitig beurteilen zu wollen, wohin diese Offensive die Engländer und Kanadier führe.
Niemand solle zu Hause so leichtfertig sein, anzunehmen, daß das offene Gelände südlich Caen für die Alliierten ideal sei. Es wäre ideal, wenn sie bessere Tanks als die Deutschen besäßen. Das aber sei nicht der Fall. Für die alliierte Kriegführung bedeute jeder Deutsche Tankverband etwas sehr Furchtbares.
Am deutlichsten wird Allan Moorhead, der Frontberichter des Daily Express. Die britische Öffentlichkeit frage mit Recht, so schreibt er, was eigentlich der Sinn dieser Kämpfe sei, da man doch überhaupt nicht vorwärtskomme. Er könne hierauf antworten, die Deutschen hätten einige der besten Truppen an der normannischen Front. Sie besäßen die ausgezeichnetsten „Panther“- und „Tiger“- Panzer und noch schwerere Waffen.
Wie Reuters am Donnerstag meldete, ist der US-Generalleutnant Lesley J. McNair in der Normandie gefallen. Er war bis vor kurzer Zeit Oberkommandierender der US-Bodenstreitkräfte. Der US-Generalstabschef Marshal nannte ihn einmal „Das Hirn der Armee.“
Die Ankunft einer sowjetischen Militärkommission an der Normandiefront, die aus London gemeldet wird, bedeutet nach Ansicht unterrichteter Kreise, daß die Sowjets sich persönlich von dem Stand der Operationen an der Normandiefront zu überzeugen suchen. In Moskau ist man mit dem bisherigen Verlauf der Invasion in keiner Weise zufrieden. Man erklärt, die Fortschritte der alliierten Truppen seien enttäuschend. Man habe etwas ganz anderes erwartet. In Moskau wurde angedeutet, die britische Generalität scheue offenbar allzu große Blutopfer und suche einen „billigen Sieg“ davonzutragen. Diese Taktik stehe aber in keinem Verhältnis zu den ungeheuerlichen Opfern an Menschen und Material, die die Sowjets erlitten. Moskau drängt auf Beschleunigung der Operationen unter rücksichtslosem Einsatz der zur Verfügung stehenden Truppenbestände der Engländer und Amerikaner.
v. m. Lissabon, 28. Juli –
In der Ernennung des konservativen Senators Truman zum demokratischen Kandidaten für die Vizepräsidentschaft der USA und der damit erfolgten Abhalfterung des bisherigen demokratischen Vizepräsidenten Wallace spiegelt sich wieder einmal jene Politik wider, die Roosevelt durch die Ablösung des stellvertretenden Außenministers Sumner Welles durch den Big-business-Vertreter Edward Stettinius jun, im Staatsdepartement einleitete und die man in Amerika ,die öffentliche Beerdigung des New Deal“ oder auch die öffentliche Einschaltung Wall Streets in die Roosevelt-Politik genannt hat.
Wallace ist vielleicht der einzige Mann in Roosevelts unmittelbarer Umgebung gewesen, der die auf ideale Gefühle abzielenden Weltverbesserungspläne, Menschheitsbeglückungsphrasen und sonstige Tarnungsrequisiten der Roosevelt-Politik ernst genommen hat. Wenn jetzt die New York Times erklärt, Truman sei Vizepräsidentschaftskandidat geworden entsprechend der Ablösung des Atlantik-Charta-Traumes durch eine nüchterne Realpolitik, die Amerika im Jahre 1944 brauche, so kommt in dieser Äußerung Roosevelts vollkommene Schwenkung in das Lager des Großkapitalismus klar zum Ausdruck.
Während der Jude Morgenthau auf der sogenannten Internationalen Währungskonferenz in Bretton Woods die Grundlage für die Weltherrschaft der amerikanischen Judenbanken und für das „Jahrhundert der Bankiers und Plutokraten“ schuf und sich dabei in völliger Übereinstimmung mit der offiziellen Politik des Weißen Hauses befindet, konnte die Chicagoer Konvention der Demokraten selbstverständlich nicht Henry Wallace wiederwählen, der immer vom „Jahrhundert des kleinen Mannes“ sprach.
Wallace hatte alles versucht, um sich erneut durchzusetzen. Er mobilisierte eine Reihe von Gewerkschaftsführern, um seine Wiederwahl zu erzwingen. Das gelang jedoch nicht, da die gesamten konservativen Demokraten der Südstaaten sich im offenen Aufruhr gegen ihre Parteimaschine befanden, ja sogar mit der Gründung einer neuen Partei drohten. Es bestand die Gefahr, daß die Demokraten mit zersplitterten Kräften zum Wahlkampf antreten müßten. So kam es zur Aufstellung Trumans, der Leiter des Kontrollausschusses des Senats ist und aus seiner Gegnerschaft gegen die New-Deal-Pläne niemals ein Hehl gemacht hat. Dieses Manöver hatte für Roosevelt den Vorteil, einen Mann ganz in nahe Hörigkeit zu bringen, der genauestens über seine oftmals als verschwenderisch, gefährlich und inflationsfördernd kritisierte Finanzpolitik im Bilde ist; Truman leitete nämlich bisher die Kontrolle des Senats über die astronomischen Staatsausgaben Roosevelts und gehört so zu den ganz wenigen Männern, die durch ihre genaue Kenntnis von den groben Verwaltungsfehlern Roosevelts den Schlüssel zu seiner politischen Erledigung in Händen hätten. Es erschien darum Roosevelt geratener, diesen gefährlichen Aufpasser zu neutralisieren und zugleich mit ihm die Parteidissidenz in den Südstaaten einzufangen. Dazu mußte natürlich Wallace und mit ihm das „idealistische Plakat“ der gesamten demokratischen Propaganda über Bord gehen.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 29, 1944)
COUTANCES is now clear of the enemy and Allied armored forces have reached the sea south of the estuary of the SIENNE River. Areas of enemy resistance north of the town are being rapidly cleared.
Further progress has been made by the thrust southwest from NOTRE-DAME-DE-CENTILLY.
In support of ground operations, yesterday, fighter-bombers attacked an ammunition distribution point, enemy gun positions, enemy reserves and vehicles. Other fighter-bombers and long-range fighters, on armed reconnaissance over northwest FRANCE attacked locomotives, rolling stock, and road transport.
Targets for our medium and light bombers were eight rail bridges northwest of PARIS, an important ammunition dump in the FORÊT DE SENONCHES near CHARTRES, and rail centers north of BERNAY. Last night, light bombers attacked 18 trains and many road targets in northern FRANCE.
Coastal aircraft attacked small enemy vessels off SAINT-MALO yesterday. One boat, carrying troops, was sunk.
Five enemy aircraft were shot down over the beachhead last night.
Allied armored columns in the western sector continue to advance against stiffening resistance. One column has reached the coast west of COUTANCES and has taken the town of PONT DE LA ROQUE. Another column has reached HYENVILLE south of COUTANCES. Pockets of resistance at CERISY-LA-SALLE and MONTPINCHON have been mopped up.
The salient between VILLEBAUDON and SAINT-DENIS-LE-GAST has been cleared of the enemy. The town of HAMBYE has been taken.
Enemy forces are astride the VIRE south of TESSY. Southeast of SAINT-LÔ, the Allied forces have advanced several kilometers.
German military buildings near MORLAIX were attacked by fighter-bombers this morning.
U.S. Navy Department (July 29, 1944)
Mediterranean Theater.
The USS SWERVE (AM-121) was sunk in the Mediterranean recently as the result of enemy action.
The next of kin of casualties have been notified.
Pacific and Far East.
U.S. submarines have reported the sinking of 17 vessels, including one combatant ship, as a result of operations against the enemy in these waters, as follows:
These actions have not been announced in any pervious Navy Department communiqué.
Marine forces, continuing their advance throughout July 28 (West Longitude Date), are compressing the enemy into the southern area of Tinian Island. In the west coast of the island our troops are nearing Tinian Town. In the center we have made additional gains of nearly two miles. On the east coast progress has been slowed due to the difficulty of operations in the high ground near Masalog Point, but our eastern line was advanced about a half mile.
On July 27, Saipan-based Thunderbolt fighters flew 130 sorties over Tinian, strafing and bombing enemy troop concentrations, gun positions, and supply areas. Fires and explosions were observed. One of our fighters was lost.
Carrier aircraft continued attacking enemy defenses, troop concentrations and gun positions on July 28 in close support of our ground operations on Guam.
Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force attacked Truk Atoll with more than 60 tons of bombs on July 27. An estimated eight Japanese interceptors attacked our bombers, and one bomber was shot down. Two crewmen bailed out and were strafed by enemy fighters. Our other bombers shot down two enemy fighters, probably shot down one, and damaged two.
Japanese positions and installations on Jaluit, Wotje, and Mille in the Marshall Islands were attacked on July 27 by Corsairs and Dauntless dive bombers of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, and Mitchell medium bombers of the 7th Army Air Force. A single Ventura search plane of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed Nauru Island on the same day.
Orote Peninsula on Guam Island has been captured by the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade. Organized resistance ceased late in the afternoon of July 28 (West Longitude Date). Apra Harbor is being patrolled by light fleet units to prevent the few remaining Japanese from swimming to the mainland. No material change took place in our 10-mile front extending from near Adelup Point to a point on the west coast opposite Anae Island, but our patrols ranged out ahead of our lines nearly a mile in some places. A large quantity of enemy equipment and munitions has been captured or destroyed, including 30 enemy tanks, 72 field pieces and coast defense guns of various calibers up to eight inch and many motor vehicles.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 29, 1944)
Target may take year to rebuild
By Walter Rundle, United Press staff writer
…
Nazi force trapped in Normandy by U.S. drive to west coast
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
New U.S. breakthrough was scored by troops who drove through to the west coast of the Normandy Peninsula and trapped a large German force above Coutances. U.S. troops drove on from captured Coutances to within three miles north of Bréhal (1), smashed down to the west to a point less than nine miles east-northeast of Bréhal (2), surged to within four miles of the Granville–Vire road (3) and advanced to within 10 miles northwest of Vire (4).
SHAEF, London, England –
U.S. armor defeated the Germans in a big tank battle in western Normandy today and resumed the powerful drive which had captured Coutances and carried to the sea, trapping thousands of Nazi troops in a pocket to the north.
The first major German counteraction against the 1st Army offensive fanning out through Normandy was crushed decisively in a hours-long battle of U.S. Shermans and German Tigers and Panthers some 11 miles south of Saint-Lô near the east bank of the Vire River in the vicinity of Tessy-sur-Vire.
Other U.S. forces sped down the highway below Coutances, rolling up a gain of nearly eight miles in the first few hours and approaching the Bréhal road junction.
United Press writer Henry T. Gorrell reported from the front that U.S. armor, in its first big tank engagement since the Sicilian campaign, broke up a concentration of Nazi panzers and put the remnants to flight.
After German planes plastered the entire area of the tank battle, a German armored column struck in the darkness at 3:00 a.m. (local time) in an attempt to break up a parade of Shermans southward into the heart of Normandy.
After hours of savage fighting, the panzers pulled out, and when Mr. Gorrell filed the dispatch at 2:40 p.m., were retreating under a hail of bombs dropped by U.S. planes as the interrupted sweep picked up new momentum.
The setting for the tank battle was dramatic. A large number of Germans were trying to escape from the area north of the Tessy–Bréhal highway, and their chances depended on the battle.
“No doubt there will be plenty of disillusioned Germans among those captured in the next few hours,” Mr. Gorrell said.
The famous Norman hedges upon which the Germans had relied to hold back the U.S. armor boomeranged on the Nazis. This time it was the giant Tigers and Panthers, instead of U.S. forces, that were at a disadvantage, “for it is the attacking side that holds the short end of the stick in this kind of country,” Mr. Gorrell reported.
The German tanks were supported by 88mm guns, U.S. anti-tank guns also played a major role in the battle. there were casualties on both sides, Mr. Gorrell said, without estimating their extent. One U.S. command post was overrun in the first phase of the fight.
Tank and tank destroyers weaved in and out of the hedgerows, firing fast, and blasted the obstacles from the American path. A “good number” of German Tigers and Panthers were knocked out, and some Shermans were disabled.
Employing the famous leapfrog tactics used and perfected by Lt. Gen. George S. “Blood and Guts” Patton Jr. in Sicily, the west coast armored column and at least three others inland swept across the Sienne and Soulle Rivers – previously mentioned as possible enemy defense lines – and engulfed or bypassed scores of towns and villages in what was developing into one of the great American victories of the war.
The reference to the tactics used by Gen. Patton recalled recent German claims that he has taken a command in Normandy.
Though the early stages of their retreat were chaotic, the Germans now appeared to be conducting an orderly withdrawal along the entire western half of the front so rapidly that indications were they may not halt for a stand short of Avranches, at the hinge of the Normandy and Brittany Peninsulas 25 miles south of Coutances.
The German-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau said the Americans were attacking with 10 or 12 tank divisions – an estimated 2,500 tanks – in an offensive apparently designed to smash into the heart of France in an attempt to split the German armies in two and clear the southern flank for a drive on Paris.
While the coastal column bypassed Le Mesnil-Aubert in a push down the road from Coutances to within three miles of Bréhal and eight miles above the port of Granville, a second force rolled down a lateral road to within nine miles east-northeast of Bréhal, a third pounded to within four miles of Granville–Vire lateral highway and a fourth reached a point 10 miles northwest of Vire.
A front dispatch reported that Gavray, seven miles east of Bréhal and one of the focal points of the enemy retreat, was within range of U.S. mobile artillery from the north.
The Americans entered Coutances late yesterday and found it deserted, then plunged on to the west coast south of the Sienne estuary to complete the encirclement of an estimated several thousand German troops isolated in a pocket to the north.
Nazis escape
Front dispatches said the bulk of the German LXXXIV Army Corps of seven badly-battered divisions assigned to the Lessay–Périers sector before the breakthrough escaped through the Coutances bottleneck before U.S. tanks cut across to the sea.
The thousands caught in the trap, however, were expected to boost the bag for the first five days of the offensive to well over 8,000. Five thousand prisoners had been taken through yesterday, Supreme Headquarters said.
The Americans were estimated to have liberated some 400 square miles of France between Saint-Lô and the west coast since they began their offensive in the wake of a 8,000-plane bombardment of enemy lines Tuesday.
At least two of the three enemy panzer, one paratroop and five infantry divisions arrayed along the western half of the front were believed to have been destroyed as fighting units. They were the Lehr Panzer and the 5th Paratroop Divisions. In addition, virtually all tanks of the 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division were believed to have been knocked out.
Cross Sienne River
The Americans crossed the Sienne River at several points and reached the west coast at Regneville, 5½ miles southwest of Coutances, and at last reports were sweeping down both sides of the Coutances–Bréhal–Granville highway.
Mr. Gorrell reported the Germans were fighting bitter rearguard actions along some sectors of the arc below Coutances, with cooks and supply units joining in, but they were no match for the overwhelming American strength.
One U.S. column alone took 1,500 prisoners yesterday, including 50 officers. An entire medical company of the 17th SS Panzer Division was captured.
The American advance from the east-northeast toward Bréhal carried through Saint-Denis-le-Gast, 10 miles away, while the forces driving due south toward the Granville–Vire highway were south of Percy, where German Marshal Erwin Rommel held a military conference only a few days ago.
Outdated by reports
Normandy information at Supreme Headquarters late today was outdated by front reports of the big tank battle and U.S. advances beyond the points mentioned by a spokesman here.
The spokesman said the Americans captured Saint-Malo-de-la-Lande, 3½ miles northwest of Coutances, and reached the coast in that area. They reached the area of Lengronne, 2½ miles west of Saint-Denis-le-Gast, and southeast of Saint-Lô advanced a mile in the area of Saint-Jean-des-Baisants.
Push toward Vire
Vire was under long-range threat from a column that had driven through Tessy-sur-Vire, 10 miles south of Saint-Lô.
Gorrell reported in another front dispatch that the German Air Force appeared in strength last night for probably the first time since D-Day and heavily bombed the advancing Americans, but Allied anti-aircraft guns put up a heavy barrage.
British Mosquitoes struck back at the Germans with attacks on 18 trains over a wide area extending from Granville to Paris, the lines over which the enemy would move up reinforcements to the threatened front.
The rest of the Normandy front continued quiet, with only artillery and patrol action reported from Saint-Lô west to Caen.
