America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

9868

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (August 12, 1944)

Communiqué No. 126

Allied troops have crossed the LOIRE River and have reached a point ten miles south of NANTES. Some fighting continues in the areas of NANTES and ANGERS.

In the BRITTANY Peninsula, a small part of the enemy’s one remaining strongpoint at SAINT-MALO is still holding out. Heavy fighting is in progress in DINARD. The situations at BREST and LORIENT remained unchanged.

In NORMANDY, the enemy is maintaining a stubborn defense in the MORTAIN-VIRE sector. Near MORTAIN, an Allied attack is meeting strong resistance from German armored units east and north of the town. Farther north, our troops have pushed beyond GATHEMO to the vicinity of VENGEONS, on the GATHEMO-TINCHEBRAY highway. Further gains have been made below VIRE, and the enemy has been pushed back to a point 1,000 yards south of MAISONCELLES LA JOURDAN.

East of VIRE, Allied troops advanced from 1,000 to 2,000 yards on a six-mile front in spite of determined enemy opposition. Further west, in the vicinity of SAINT-PIERRE-LA-VIEILLE, Hills 266 and 229 were captured. Patrols operating from the ORNE bridgehead through the FORÊT DE CINGLAIS and from east of the LAIZE penetrated to BARBERY.

THURY-HARCOURT and SAINT-MARTIN-DE-SALLEN were cleared of enemy, and southeast of THURY-HARCOURT the village of ESSON was taken. Fighting continues in the town of VIMONT.

During the 24 hours ending midnight August 9, the total of prisoners taken, in the western sectors, mostly in BRITTANY, reached 4,822.

In a day of widespread air activity, harbor defense, fuel depots, railway yards and bridges, locomotive depots, submarine shelters, and airfields were under attack by many formations of our heavy bombers.

The stubbornly-resisting harbor defenses of BREST were bombed at more than 20 points by small formations.

Fuel depot targets included SAINT-FLORENTIN, PACY, STRASBOURG, LA PALLICE, and BORDEAUX.

Railway yards attacked were at STRASBOURG, MULHOUSE, BELFORT, SAARBRÜCKEN, LENS, DOUAI and GIVORS.

Airfield targets included VILLACOUBLAY, TOUSSUS LE NOBLE and COULOMMIERS.

Still other targets were the submarine shelters at LA PALLICE and BORDEAUX, the locomotive depots at SOMAIN and the ÉTAPLES rail bridge, which was attacked last night.

Our medium bombers also operated against a variety of targets. Coastal batteries, which were holding out in the SAINT-MALO area, were attacked in support of our ground forces. In the FALAISE sector, mortar and artillery positions were bombed. Other targets included an ammunition dump in the FORÊT DE ROUMARE, rail targets at SAINT-MAXIMIN and at FISMES, and a temporary bridge at OISSEL.

Fighter-bombers operated both in close support of our forces and also on strafing missions in the ÉVREUX area and from PARIS southeastward to DIJON.

9869

U.S. Navy Department (August 12, 1944)

Communiqué No. 537

Atlantic Ocean.
The USS FISKE (DE 143) was sunk recently in the Atlantic by a submarine torpedo.

The next of kin of the casualties aboard the FISKE have been notified.

9870

The Wilmington Morning Star (August 12, 1944)

Big U.S. armored offensive threatens to trap 100,000 Nazis reported fleeing west of Paris

Bradley’s tanks moving at will; enemy apparently unable to parry blow rained down on all sides

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
U.S. tanks battled to close a 33-mile escape gap on an estimated 100,000 Germans reported in retreat west of Paris last night while other wide-ranging armor struck out suddenly from Nantes, burst across the Loire River barrier to southern France and plunged ten miles beyond.

American armor, in apparent control of the field, was lashing out in every direction across the northern plains of France and nowhere did the Germans seem able to parry the rain of blows, such as this new one across the Loire.

Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, chief of Allied ground forces, messaged his troops in France:

The great bulk of the German forces in Northwest Europe are in a bad way. We are ‘round behind them in many places and it is possible some of them may not get away.

Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s forces striking north from Le Mans were closing in on the entire German 7th Army – which once boasted over 30 divisions – and the Paris radio declared they had already driven through Alençon, 33 miles south of where Canadian forces were fighting before Falaise.

At the southern end of the front, his thrust across the broad reaches of the Loire within 24 hours after the river port of Nantes fell still had encountered no resistance in strength.

U.S. troops were mopping up along the north bank between Nantes and Angers, which was also captured yesterday, but there was no word of any crossings.

As the Germans were confronted with the same sort of peril with which they bewildered the French in the 1940 lightning war, captured troops reported that Field Marshal Gen. Günther von Kluge had given the signal for a general retreat.

This was apparent from an array of field dispatches reporting a march of conquest through Normandy, including British advances along a six-mile front east of Vire and their capture of the hilltop fortress of Thury-Harcourt, 14 miles south of Caen in the rugged country known as “Normandy’s Switzerland.”

Allied medium bombers pounded away at the German anti-tank screen which has held up the Canadians before Falaise, but even this enemy stand might be a covering action for a general withdrawal.

Gen. Bradley kept his drives radiating from Le Mans cloaked by almost complete silence, leaving the enemy guessing at which might be feints and which the big punch capable of dealing them a knockout.

Available information indicated Paris might not be one of the immediate objectives of the sweeping U.S. advance and that the Allied command was pursuing the primary aim of any well directed campaign, to destroy the enemy armies.

Thrusts in the Paris direction might be merely feints to divert enemy forces from more important battlefields. Headquarters maintained a close and mysterious silence concerning reports of progress on the road to Paris which named several cities as having been reached but which remained without official confirmation.

9871

Mad Nazi commander drives men to death

With the U.S. 1st Army in France (AP) – (Aug. 11)
Saint-Malo’s mad commander, Col. Andreas von Aulock, fought on today, squandering the lives of his men in a futile battle despite the third truce since the siege of Saint-Malo citadel began.

During this morning, von Aulock appealed for medical supplies and parties tearing white flags crossed 200 yards of no-man’s-land.

Five minutes after the truce, the battle was resumed amid a roar of cannon fire.

9872

Roosevelt visits Aleutian Islands

President sails from Honolulu in cruiser for surprise trip to Alaskan bases

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9873

Editorial: Clearing trouble spot

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9874

Editorial: Lesson for dictators

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9875

The Pittsburgh Press (August 12, 1944)

Editorial: Yes, and it works each day

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9876

Editorial: ‘Keep going!’

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9877

Kerr: Not complacency, but confidence

By Sophie Kerr

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9878

Ferguson: Loyalty

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

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9879

Priest plans sports program

May be diversion from liquor

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9880

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

On the Western Front, France – (by wireless)
What we gave you yesterday in trying to describe hedgerow fighting was the general pattern.

If you were to come over here and pick out some hedge-enclosed field at random, the fighting there probably wouldn’t be following the general pattern at all. For each one is a little separate war, fought under different circumstances.

For instance, you’ll come to a woods instead of an open field. The Germans will be dug in all over the woods, in little groups, and it’s really tough to get them out. Often in cases like that we will just go around the woods and keep going and let later units take care of those surrounded and doomed fellows.

Or we’ll go through the woods and clean it out, and another company, coming through a couple of hours later, will find it full of Germans again. In a war like this one everything is in such confusion I don’t see how either side ever gets anywhere.

Sometimes you don’t know where the enemy is and don’t know where your own troops are. As somebody said the other day, no battalion commander can give you the exact location of his various units five minutes after they’ve jumped off.

We will bypass whole pockets of Germans, and they will be there fighting our following waves when our attacking companies are a couple of miles on beyond. Gradually the front gets all mixed up. There will be Germans behind you and at the side. They’ll be shooting at you from behind and from your flank.

Sometimes a unit will get so far out ahead of those on either side that it has to swing around and fight to its rear. Sometimes we fire on your own troops, thinking we are in German territory. You can’t see anything, and you can’t even tell from the sounds, for each side uses some of the other’s captured weapons.

Foot soldier hates to be near tank

The tanks and the infantry had to work in the closest cooperation in breaking through the German ring, that tried to pin us down in the beachhead area. Neither could have done it alone.

The troops are of two minds about having tanks around them. If you’re a foot soldier, you hate to be near a tank, for it always draws fire. On the other hand, if the going gets tough you pray for a tank to come up and start blasting with its guns.

In our breakthrough each infantry unit had tanks attached to it. It was the tanks and the infantry that broke through that ring and punched a hole for the armored divisions to go through.

The armored divisions practically ran amuck, racing long distances and playing hob, once they got behind the German lines, but it was the infantry and their attached tanks that opened the gate for them.

Tanks shuttled back and forth, from one field to another, throughout our breakthrough battle, receiving their orders by radio. Bulldozers punched holes through the hedgerows for them, and then the tanks would come up and blast out the bad spots of the opposition.

It has been necessary for us to wreck almost every farmhouse and little village in our path. The Germans used them for strongpoints, or put artillery observers in them, and they just had to be blasted out.

Most of the French farmers evacuate ahead of the fighting and filter back after it has passed. It is pitiful to see them come back to their demolished homes and towns. Yet it’s wonderful to see the grand way they take it.

Four hours rest in three days

In a long drive, an infantry company may go for a couple of days without letting up. Ammunition is carried up to it by hand, and occasionally by jeep. The soldiers sometimes eat only one K ration a day. They may run clear out of water. Their strength is gradually whittled down by wounds, exhaustion cases and straggling.

Finally, they will get an order to sit where they are and dig in. Then another company will pass through, or around them, and go on with the fighting. The relieved company may get to rest as much as a day or two. But in a big push such as the one that broke us out of the beachhead, a few hours is about all they can expect.

The company I was with got its orders to rest about 5:00 one afternoon. They dug foxholes along the hedgerows, or commandeered German ones already dug. Regardless of how tired you may be, you always dig in the first thing.

Then they sent some men with cans looking for water. They got more K rations up by jeep, and sat on the ground eating them.

They hoped they would stay there all night, but they weren’t counting on it too much. Shortly after supper a lieutenant came out of a farmhouse and told the sergeants to pass the word to be ready to move in 10 minutes. They bundled on their packs and started just before dark.

Within half an hour, they had run into a new fight that lasted all night: They had had less than four hours’ rest in three solid days of fighting. That’s the way life is in the infantry.

9881

Maj. de Seversky: Jet propulsion

By Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky

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9882

Shapiro: Three shots in a forest and three soldiers fall!

Two Canadians and a Jerry knock each other out – they’re sorry Jerry dies
By L. S. B. Shapiro, North American Newspaper Alliance

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9883

Rules for mailing gifts to soldiers outlined

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9884

americavotes1944

Background of news –
Campaign strategy unfolds

By George Van Slyke

New York –
By his quick shift of emphasis on the war from the German front to the Pacific, President Roosevelt is credited by strategists in both the major political camps with having moved swiftly and adroitly to force the international situation as the basic issue of his fourth-term campaign, thereby stressing his role as Commander-in-Chief rather than partisan nominee, while at the same time seeking to black out tangled domestic problems which the Republicans are pressing to the fore.

The President’s trip to Pearl Harbor following closely to the heels of his fourth-term draft; his studied effort to make the Honolulu conferences “purely an American huddle” with the chiefs of our Allied nations conspicuously absent, presents a comprehensive pattern for the presidential campaign as the party leaders view the setup. They are wondering how their plans may have to be revised.

Though not stressed in the press dispatches describing the President’s activities in detail the sum total is viewed as the most authentic evidence so far presented that the administration regards the struggle with Germany as nearing an end, possibly ending before election – and therefore the situation calls for renewed emphasis on the half-won Japanese war.

Slick choice of spot

Mr. Roosevelt displayed characteristic political skill in picking Pearl Harbor for his opener of the new campaign – the one key spot in the war setup to which he could have gone to evoke the greatest emotional response and risk the least criticism of mixing politics and prosecution of the war.

While maintaining strict silence on the effect of the President’s trip, an intimation has come from high Republican sources that Mr. Roosevelt may have invited and brought into the open a free-for-all discussion of the pre-Pearl Harbor record of the administration, as yet a half-told story of diplomatic intrigue leading to the break with Japan.

True to his promise that he would not be able to campaign for reelection in the ordinary sense, as he told his personally conducted national convention in Chicago, Mr. Roosevelt is upholding his record for smashing precedent in this latest move which even his ardent admirers concede will have a marked bearing upon the political campaign.

Just as in 1940, he campaigned by visiting war plants to prove to the nation that our economic status was sound; that industry was doing a marvelous job and soothing the industrialists who had long been under attack, he now tries to hurdle the domestic troubles by keeping the Japanese war to the fore as the all-out national concern.

Double political purpose

His Pearl Harbor trip served the President a double purpose, politically. It removed him from the political scene during the convention – at least theoretically – thereby making his fourth term draft seem the more real.

Robert E. Hannegan, Democratic National Chairman, lifted a corner of the campaign curtain Wednesday, revealing a day ahead of the President’s announcement of where he had been, when, in opening the new campaign headquarters here, he said:

There is still the war in the Pacific to be won and the winning of the peace is just as important or more important than winning the war.

That was in answer to a query if the cessation of hostilities with Germany would have a direct effect on the campaign in this country and eliminate the indispensable man claim. In his talks to soldiers and sailor in Hawaii, Mr. Roosevelt maintained his role as Commander-in-Chief – the role in which he is running for his fourth term:

Your Commander-in-Chief brings you greetings from your own families, your own homes, to you here at this spot which, thank God, is still a part of the United States.

9885

The Afro-American (August 12, 1944)

2 pilots killed, 4 reported missing; Pioneer 99th members dead

Capts. Mac Ross and Leon Roberts crash; 31 Air Medals, 1 Oak Leaf Cluster awarded
By Art Carter and Max Johnson

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9886

2 rapists of WAC are sentenced

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9887

ARMY CAN’T WAIT
Gen. Hayes settles Philadelphia hate strike by cracking down on strikers

Trolleys roll once more in Quaker city; armed troops ride every car; strike leaders fired, jailed
By John Jasper

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