Recognize French, Roosevelt urged
…
U.S. to stand by Polish exiles
Hull hopeful of satisfactory truce
…
Heavy fighting rages on Peleliu
Marines mop up Japs on coral ridges
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
U.S. Marines fought bloody hand-to-hand battles in mopping-up operations against stubborn Japs entrenched in the rough coral ridges on the west coast of Peleliu in the Palau Islands, 560 miles east of the Philippines, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced today.
At the same time, Gen. Douglas MacArthur announced that bombers and fighters of his Far Eastern Air Force carried out new attacks on the bases south of the Philippines, particularly concentrating on Celebes, 200 miles below Mindanao.
Remaining enemy defenses on Peleliu were described in front dispatches as the toughest since Tarawa, with the Japs fighting from pillboxes lodged in the coral ridges. But the Marines made several small gains northward yesterday along the western ridge and captured six more trench mortars and 31 machine guns. Ten additional aircraft were found destroyed on Peleliu Airfield, raising the total to 127.
A communiqué revised the count of enemy dead in the Palau campaign, reporting that 6,792 Japs had been killed on Peleliu and 850 on Angaur.
In the Southwest Pacific, more than 190 Liberators, Mitchells and Lightnings hammered Jap airdromes on the northeastern coast of Celebes with 155 tons of bombs Tuesday, while carrier aircraft again hit Halmahera, just south of American-occupied Morotai.
In the 17th raid in 18 days on Celebes, U.S. bombers and fighters, ground installations, destroyed or damaged three small vessels and two barges, and shot down a reconnaissance plane.
My four years in Hitler’s gray Paree –
Nazis gleaned fortunes on black market
Written for the Pittsburgh Press
…
Allen: It’s Dewey Day in Los Angeles – C. of C. or not
By Gracie Allen
Hollywood, California –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey arrived here in Los Angeles this morning from San Francisco, and today is officially “Dewey Day.” I never thought I’d live to see the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce admit they were having a “Dewey Day” …but I guess as long as they can show that it moved in from San Francisco it’s okay.
Being a newspaperwoman, I was invited to see Mr. Dewey and being a married woman, I immediately compared him to my husband. I always compared great men to George. Sometimes I wonder if that isn’t what makes them seem so great.
But anyway, I’d say that George Burns and Governor Dewey have a surprising lot in common. Mr. Dewey is brilliant, famous, good-looking, well-built, young, and I understand he has a good singing voice. Well… George sings too.
Stokes: A new GOP
By Thomas L. Stokes
With Dewey party –
Those crusty antiquarians President Roosevelt once described as “the gentlemen who sit in their well-stocked clubs” must have had something akin to morning-after jitters when they opened their newspapers and read what the newest champion of the Republican Party is telling the folks.
Governor Dewey broke cleanly with old-fashioned Republicanism in his San Francisco speech. He frankly accepted basic New Deal doctrines that the national government must concern itself actively with the welfare of the people, ready to step in with help when the highly delicate economic mechanism of today gets out of gear.
Taking this stand, he proposed – as Wendell Willkie did in 1940 – to do it better, and with careful consideration to democratic principles.
He proposed to breathe new life into this basic philosophy by substituting a fresh, vigorous administration of public affairs for what he pictures as a confused and tired administration that is carelessly letting the nation slip into totalitarianism as it gets bogged down in the tangles of bureaucracy.
It was significant that it was in San Francisco, where 12 years ago Franklin D. Roosevelt first outlined the still-vague tenets of the New Deal in his Commonwealth Club speech, that Governor Dewey moved himself up to an almost parallel position. The test henceforth would seem to be one of performance in realizing common ideals.
Expanding economy
It was also in the Commonwealth Club speech here that President Roosevelt said that America’s industrial plant was finished, that the problem thereafter was one of distribution. Governor Dewey has recalled that statement frequently and taken issue with it.
Governor Dewey thinks he has much to offer here, promising an expanding, rather than a static economy.
His break with the past is graphically revealed by excerpts from his speech.
No man can be free when he stands in constant danger of hunger… certain government measures to influence broad economic conditions are both desirable and inevitable… if at any time there are no sufficient jobs in private employment to go around, then government can and must create additional job opportunities… the savage, old cutthroat adjustments are gone for good… the prices of major farm crops must be supported against the menace of disastrous collapse… in many directions the free market which old-time economists talked about is gone… the industrial worker, however capable and energetic he may be, cannot in modern society assure himself by his own unaided efforts con tenuity of employment… even the largest industrial corporation cannot maintain employment, if the country as a whole is undergoing depression.
‘Dog-eat-dog’ is gone
Repeatedly he said the old “dog-eat-dog” economy is gone forever.
The Republican candidate’s appeal represented a desperate effort to win California and the coast states away from President Roosevelt. The President was reported well ahead today in California.
Here is the state, so favored by nature, which was hit so hard in the last depression.
Its people flocked to President Roosevelt in 1932. Here the Okies streamed across the border from the dust bowl and the worn-out cotton lands. They created a new problem.
Here, since the war, they have come in new hordes to work in the war plants which have given California a new industrial empire, of which she is proud and jealous.
But Californians, old and new, who work in the fields and the factories, are still conscious of the past. They want no more depressions. They want no more Okie camps. Their hope is in the new war industries. They want to keep them, and keep people at work.
Southern California is the haven of old folks who came here to live on incomes from farms which they had left to their children in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska and Illinois, and who suddenly found the remittances stopped. They trooped in desperation to meetings where old Doc Townsend talked about old-age pensions. New evangels promised $30 every Thursday in the not-distant past.
Governor Dewey, conscious of this, speaks tonight in Los Angeles on social security. He is leaving nothing undone.
Guffey raps gold stand of Aldrich
Hits monetary plans ‘which cause wars’
Washington (UP) –
Senator Joseph Guffey (D-PA) today accused Winthrop Aldrich, New York banker who, he said, would be Secretary of the Treasury if Republicans win the Presidency, for advocating a return to the monetary conditions “which cause wars.”
Mr. Guffey told the Senate that Mr. Aldrich advocated “a return to the gold standard and Hoover economy.”
He also accused Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican presidential nominee, of paying “lip service” to nonpolitical efforts for international peace “while his prospective Secretary of the Treasury demands that the international monetary relations be left in the same hands that brought the world into a tailspin.
Mr. Guffey said:
Last Friday in Chicago, Mr. Aldrich, a disinterested New York banker and a financial supporter and adviser of Governor Dewey, came out flatly against the international monetary proposals developed at Bretton Woods. He advocated a unilateral agreement with Great Britain and the United States which would exclude
This philosophy, advocated by the man who, it is reported, would become Secretary of the Treasury in the event Mr. Dewey were to become President, is simply a return to the conditions which cause wars.
Mr. Guffey added:
Thus, we have the paradox of Governor Dewey giving lip service to an international political organization which would seek to prevent wars while his principal financial adviser speaks out against the kind of economic measures which would remove the cause of war.
Garrison: Laughs found, too, in new horror movie
Jungle Captive is woven around exploits of a mad scientist (Otto Kruger)
By Maxine Garrison
…
Millett: You think it’s priceless, others scoff behind you
When owners and friends agree on values ‘that will be the way
By Ruth Millett
…
Tigers restore AL lead to full game
Wakefield’s home run gives Bengals victory, in first game, 7–4
By the United Press
…
U.S. State Department (September 22, 1944)
Hull sent to Roosevelt the following memorandum on shipment of arms to Ethiopia. No indication has been found that the subject of the memorandum was actually discussed by Roosevelt and Churchill at Québec.
124.841/9–1344
The Minister in Ethiopia to the Secretary of State
Addis Ababa, September 13, 1944
[Received September 22]
No. 224
Sir: Supplementing my telegram No. 179, September 6, 9 AM, and previous correspondence, I have the honor to transmit herewith a letter from His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor, addressed to the President, giving to him “in fee absolute and in full and complete title and possession, the realty and premises, together with all appurtenances thereto and furnishings and moveables located thereon, on which is situated at Addis Ababa the Legation of the United States of America, together with certain additional realty specified in an attached document and deemed to be necessary and proper in order to provide an appropriate residence for the diplomatic representative.” A copy of this letter is attached for the files of the Department and an additional copy of the letter together with a copy of its enclosure (map of the property conveyed) is being retained in the files of this Legation. The map is referred to in the letter as “an attached document.”
There is also enclosed a copy of a letter from the Emperor’s private secretary, Mr. T. Worq, No. 1556/44, dated September 4, 1944, stating that the grant is “of the realty and premises, together with all appurtenances thereto and furnishings and moveables located thereon, on which is situated at Addis Ababa the Legation of the United States of America. A document, attached to the letter under reference, has also been enclosed from which it will be seen that certain additional realty has also been accorded.”
I have ascertained from oral inquiry from Mr. John Spencer, the American advisor to the Foreign Office, that it is the intention of the Emperor to include in the gift everything belonging to the Imperial family now on the property, including the buildings with their contents – furniture, furnishings, table silver and dishes. I have been informed further by Mr. Spencer that it is the intention that the gift shall be as of date of occupancy of the premises, August 26, 1943, and that no rent is to be charged from that time to the present; Mr. Spencer stated that a statement to this effect will be given to me in writing, but it has not yet been received.
Attention is invited to the statement in the letter to the President that the property now being presented was the “ancestral property of the royal family.” As I reported to the Department in my telegram No. 82, May 6, 9 AM, the Steward of the Empress informed me at that time that it would not be possible for the United States Government to purchase this property or to obtain it on a long lease as the Empress had decided to reoccupy it at the end of three years. This property had been owned by the Mother of the Empress and in view of these circumstances the action of the Emperor in presenting it to the President is the more deserving of appreciation.
The additional ground referred to in the letter of the Emperor consists of a strip of level ground adjoining the original Legation grounds and is very desirable for building sites for occupation by members of the staff of this Legation. This additional ground was added upon my mere suggestion that it would be desirable for the Legation to have that ground for the purpose indicated.
I wish to emphasize that the gift by the Emperor was purely voluntary and not due even to so much as a suggestion from me.
Respectfully yours,
J. K. CALDWELL
[Enclosure]
The Emperor of Ethiopia to President Roosevelt
Addis Ababa, 24 August, 1944
Great and Good Friend: It gives Us great pleasure to give over to you as Chief of the great and friendly Power, the United States of America, in fee absolute and in full and complete title and possession, the realty and premises, together with all appurtenances thereto and furnishings and moveables located thereon, on which is situated at Addis Ababa the Legation of the United States of America, together with certain additional realty specified in an attached document and deemed to be necessary and proper in order to provide an appropriate residence for the diplomatic representative of a Power so highly esteemed as is the Nation of which you are the Chief.
In giving over this property, it is our pleasure to be giving personally to you and through you to the American Nation, ancestral property of the Royal Family. May the measure of our particular attachment to it serve to indicate in a small way, the measure of Our attachment and the attachment of Our People, to that great Power which has ever stood by Us and Our Nation in the hour of need, and to its esteemed Chief, the President of the United States of America.
Your Good Friend
HAILE SELASSIE I, K. of K.
Address by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey
September 22, 1944, 11:00 p.m. EWT
Broadcast from Los Angeles, California
During the past two weeks I have traveled once again across this great continent of ours, from Albany to Coeur D’Alene, then down the magnificent sweep of the Pacific Coast from Seattle to your great city of Los Angeles.
I wish it were possible for every American to share this rich experience. Only to see the natural wealth and beauty of our country – to talk with our people where they live – is a profound and moving refutation of the defeatist New Deal doctrine that America has passed its prime. Our country is still young, still vigorous, still capable of growth once we get a national administration which believes in our economic system and in the American people – there is no limit to America.
In the course of this trip, I have talked with thousands of people, individually and in groups – to labor leaders and farmers, to cattle men and ranch hands, to politicians, to business and professional people, to soldiers and sailors, to housewives and newspapermen. I have done some talking, but a lot more listening.
The most moving thing about my trip this year is that I find our people, wherever they live, are in a mood to work together. They want a national administration in Washington that will help them work together. They are thoroughly fed up with government policies which divide the West from the East and the Middle West from both. They are fed up with policies which divide the farmer, the businessman and the working man into rival and contending groups.
Men and women from all parts of our country have been fighting and working side by side in this war. They want to work together with the same unity when peace comes. They want to meet the problems of reconversion fairly and justly, without advantage to any section over any other section of the country.
The great industrial plants you have built here in the West to produce for war must have an equal opportunity to convert to peacetime production with the industrial plants of the East and the Middle West. The workers in all our war plants wherever located must have an equal opportunity for peacetime jobs.
Our people are thinking very much alike upon the major questions of our day. Moreover, they are approaching these questions in a similar mood. They are searching for constructive answers to our problems. They are keenly aware of the mistakes and blunders of the past. They want to put those mistakes and blunders behind. They are not thinking in terms of the past. They are thinking in terms of the future.
First in the minds of all of us is the winning of the war. Everyone is agreed that the war can end only with the complete defeat of Germany and Japan, right in Germany and Japan. We want nothing short of total crushing victory. That comes before everything else. Then we want to get the men and women in our Armed Forces back home as promptly as possible.
The next thing uppermost in the minds of all our people is the securing of a lasting peace. Among the thousands of people that I talked with was an Indian mother in Wyoming. She was leading her little two-year-old son by the hand. She had a Gold Star pinned on the blanket she wore over her shoulders. She came up to me and pointed to the little boy and said: “His father killed in France.” Then she said: “You make sure we never have another war.”
That Indian mother spoke what is in the hearts of all Americans today. They want America to join with the other peace-loving nations of the world in building a permanent organization for peace. And they know that if this great undertaking is to succeed, it must not be the work of one party or of one man. Representing the aspiration of all our people, it must be a bipartisan effort, having the support of all people.
Everywhere people knew and approved of the joint efforts of Secretary Hull and myself to establish bipartisan cooperation for a permanent world organization to maintain lasting peace.
A third important thing on everybody’s mind is the question of jobs here at home after the war is over. From one side of the country to another, our people are determined that we are not going back to the 10 million unemployed we had in 1940. They know that under the New Deal we had to have a World War to get jobs. You don’t have to tell people that. They haven’t forgotten it. And they are worried about it.
They are worried about it because they remember that in all those long years from 1933 to 1940, this country failed for the first time in its history to achieve real economic recovery and go ahead of previous decades.
The American people are thinking about the problem of how we are to obtain economic security without sacrificing our personal freedom. Last night in San Francisco, I discussed the philosophy of government which I believe we must establish if we are to achieve the goal we seek – freedom and opportunity with the fullest measure of economic security.
Tonight, I am going to talk about another aspect of this great question: How we are to obtain greater security for the men and women of this country in their personal lives and what the United States government should do about it?
It is nothing new for Americans to be concerned about social progress. Social progress in America did not begin in 1933. It began when the first settlers came to this continent. It was in the blood of those who came to these shores to found a new kind of nation. It has been and is insistent as the growth of our country. It is in our blood today.
Let us look at one of our important social laws today. Let us consider where we stand and where we go from here.
In 1935, our Social Security Act was passed by a nonpartisan vote of overwhelming proportions. Just once in the nine years since then has there been any attempt to improve and extend that social progress. That was in 1939 when a few changes were made. There have been many recommendations since but there have been no results.
Men and women everywhere are eager for concrete definite proposals. They want to know what we can do to bring about the better life that we are seeking. Accordingly, I propose that our program for social progress be broadened and strengthened, and that we move forthwith to do these things:
First, the Social Security Act should be amended to provide old-age and survivors’ insurance for those who most desperately need protection and are not now covered by Social Security or some other pension or retirement system.
Twenty million of us – farmers and farm workers, domestic workers. employees of non-profit enterprises, many government employees, and those who work for themselves – are left without this protection as the law now stands. What kind of security is it which leaves all these people unprotected yet puts the high-salaried officials of large corporations in the system, whether they need it or want it or not?
Why should farm families be denied the benefit of this system of old-age security? Why should farm workers be denied security? Why should domestic servants be excluded? Why should those who work for themselves be denied this security? Why should large numbers of white-collar workers be excluded? Because there are difficulties of administration? That is not a good enough answer.
In bringing about the necessary broadening of old-age and survivors’ insurance, we will, of course, meet with many problems. We will have to adopt different methods of collecting the Social Security tax in order to avoid a bookkeeping burden upon small employers, family-type farmers or others we seek to protect. If we make up our minds that protection against old age is something to which every American is entitled, we shall find a way to reach that objective.
A serious omission in the list of those covered at the present time consists of the men and women now in military service. Those who once worked in jobs covered by old-age insurance and who stepped out of those jobs to enter the service of their country, suffer a gap in their old-age benefit credits. Unless the law is charged, their reward for serving their country may be a net reduction and loss in their old-age or survivors’ benefit. The law must be changed promptly to correct this injustice.
Second, we must widen the provisions of unemployment insurance to include the groups which are now unprotected.
Here again there will be problems, but they can and will be solved.
Third, the employment service, originally handled by the states and taken over by the federal government during the war, should be returned to the states as soon as practicable. After all, jobs are in the states, not in Washington – we hope. The employment service must be where employment is and in the hands of people who know local conditions.
Employment service and unemployment insurance are clearly parts of one and the same job. They ought to be handled in the same office by the same administrator. To provide benefits without providing employment service is to do less than half the job. After all, it is another job a man wants – and as soon as possible.
Fourth, we must help to develop means for assurance of medical service to those of our citizens who need it, and who cannot otherwise obtain it. This is a task that must be carried out in cooperation with our medical men. There can be no group better able to advise on medical care than the medical profession. Yet, unhappily, this is the very group which the New Deal has managed to alienate.
Our free and independent medical profession has advanced medical science in America ahead of every other nation in the world. Its freedom has made it great. It should be encouraged, not discouraged. Let us enlist the leadership and aid of the doctors of America in organizing our private and public hospitals as well as our other services into a fully effective system to protect the health of all our people.
Fifth, the states and the local communities must be encouraged to establish the fullest information service for veterans.
When the veteran comes back to his hometown, he should be able to get prompt and expert counsel as to his rights and opportunities. The G.I. Bills of Rights is a nonpartisan law. It rightly recognizes service to veterans as a part of the cost of the war and as a national responsibility.
But that is not all that needs to be done. Every veteran should be able to talk over his plans with someone at home. There should be someone who can tell him where to look for the best possible job, how to go after the job, how to continue his education if he wants to. There should be someone to tell him where to find the local, state or federal agency that can best help him meet his problems. The state and the home community can do this best because they alone have an intimate understanding of the personal problems involved.
This is already being demonstrated in my own State of New York. We are proud of the effective work being done by our Veterans Commission, headed by Lt. Gen. Hugh Drumm. It takes our state service to the place where the veteran lives, where he is known, and where he expects to work. Other states and communities are doing a similar job, I am sure all others will.
Here is a program to pick up and carry forward an American system of social progress. The years 1945-1949, for which we are selecting a new administration will be largely peacetime years. But the pattern that will shape them is a pattern that has been slowly forming through the agonizing years of war.
Out of the suffering of war, there has emerged a high resolve in the minds of the American people that the world we live in must become a better world.
To that end we must work together to increase the security of the individual against the hazards of old age, of unemployment, of ill health. We must work together to increase the security of our society against the hazards of mass unemployment, falling prices and periodic depression. But we must never forget that security alone is only half of our goal. The other half is freedom and opportunity. Without these, there can be no real security.
America became great because of the courage and resourcefulness of her men and women. America became great because in this country there was unlimited opportunity. It is for us who have inherited America to keep her great by making sure that in this country there is always opportunity.
Völkischer Beobachter (September 23, 1944)
Jeder Deutsche soll ausgeplündert werden –
Hull enthüllt brutale Raubpläne
…
Die Kämpfe in den Niederlanden
vb. Berlin, 22. September –
Die Panzer der britischen 2. Armee, die von der belgisch-niederländischen Grenze nach Norden vorgedrungen sind, haben sich zuerst bei Eindhoven und dann bei Nimwegen mit den beiden nordamerikanischen Divisionen vereinigt, die dort gelandet waren.
Sie sind über die Maas und über der Waal gekommen und versuchen gegenwärtig, noch weiter nach Norden vorzustoßen, um sich auch bei Arnheim mit der dritten aus der Luft gelandeten Division, diesmal einem britischen Verband, zu vereinigen. Aber während der Vormarsch in den ersten Tagen ziemlich schnell vor sich ging, ist seitdem eine gewisse Stockung eingetreten. Die Deutschen haben frische Kräfte herangeführt. Während ein Teil der Eingreifregimenter die nach Norden gezielte Spitze des Gegners aufhält, greifen andere die langen und empfindlichen Flanken des schmalen Keils an und bringen mehr als einmal Verwirrung in die Reihen des Gegners. Währenddessen gerät die britische Luftlandedivision bei Arnheim in zunehmende Bedrängnis. Von allen Seiten umstellt, ist sie in der Stadt selber auf Schmalen Raum beschränkt, zum Teil aufgespalten und hat schwere Verluste gehabt.
Inzwischen geht die Stoßrichtung des Generals Dempsey aber keineswegs nur nach Norden. Es ist deutlich, daß auch er die Lage des auf Arnheim vorspringenden Angriffskeils nicht auf die Dauer als befriedigend anerkennen kann. Dafür ist dieser Keil zu schmal. Mit seiner Breite von wenigen Kilometern ist er ständig Flankenangriffen ausgesetzt, und schon Einbrüche von geringer Tiefe müssen ihn in eine schwierige Lage bringen, da seine einzige Vormarsch- und Nachschubstraße von den beiden Rändern des Keils nicht sehr weit entfernt ist. Daher versucht Dempsey seit Montag, den Keil nicht nur voranzubringen, sondern auch zu verbreitern. Aber das ist ihm bisher nur an der Basis, und auch da nur unwesentlich, gelungen. Im Wesentlichen gleicht sein Frontvorsprung im Norden immer noch einem weit vorgestreckten, aber dünnen Arm. Diesen Arm gleichsam anschwellen zu lassen, ihn stärker und kräftiger zu machen— technisch ausgedrückt: noch ein oder zwei Zufahrtstraßen zu gewinnen – ist offenbar ein ebenso heftiges Bestreben des Generals Dempsey wie das Vordringen nach Norden.
Daß ihm dieses Bestreben der Verbreiterung des Keils bisher nur unzulänglich geglückt ist, hat seine guten Gründe. Seine Kräfte, vor allem die zur Verfügung stehenden Panzer, reichten gerade aus, den Vormarsch auf der einen nach Norden führenden Straße zu erzwingen. Für den Angriff auch noch an anderen Teilen der Front seiner Armee waren seine Kräfte bis zur Stunde nicht ausreichend genug. Damit fällt aber auch ein klärendes Licht auf die Darstellung, die stellenweise im Ausland über die Pläne des Generals Eisenhower verbreitet wird: daß nämlich dieses Unternehmen der kombinierten Erdoffensive und Luftlandeoperation bereits von Beginn an in den Absichten Eisenhowers gelegen habe und von ihm als ein entscheidendes Unternehmen seit Wochen geplant worden sei. Für ein Unternehmen, das man auf lange Sicht plant, macht ein General sich im Allgemeinen stärker schafft er Schwerpunkte. Das aber ist hier zweifellos nicht geschehen. Der General Eisenhower hat seine Kräfte ziemlich gleichmäßig über die ganze Westfront verteilt. Von dem alten militärischen Grundsatz, daß man an der Stelle der Entscheidung überhaupt nicht stark genug sein kann und daß man dafür eine gewisse Vernachlässigung auf anderen Kampfschauplätzen in Kauf nehmen darf, ist hier nichts zu merken. An der belgisch-niederländischen Grenze waren am Sonntag die Kräfte des Gegners nicht stärker massiert als vor Aachen oder in Lothringen. Wir wollen damit nicht behaupten, daß es Dempseys Divisionen an Zahl der Streiter oder der Panzer fehlte. Im Gegenteil, die Stärke seiner Verbände geht genugsam aus der Härte der Kämpfe in den Südniederlanden hervor. Aber stark sind alle sechs Armeen des Gegners, und die Kräftegruppe, die zum Einfall in den Niederlanden bereitstand, war nicht stärker als die anderen, die bei Aachen oder an der Mosel kämpfen.
Der Grund für die Verbindung von Luftlandungen und Vorstößen auf der Erde in den Niederlanden lag, das zeigen die Ereignisse der letzten Wochen ganz deutlich, in dieser einfachen Tatsache: Dempsey kam ebenso wenig weiter wie sein linker Nachbar, der kanadische General Crerar. Alle seine Versuche, nach Norden durchzubrechen, scheiterten an der deutschen Abwehr im belgischen Kanalsystem. Erst als der General Eisenhower sich davon überzeugen mußte, daß Dempsey aus eigener Kraft das Hindernis der deutschen Abwehr nicht überwinden werde, hat er ihm eine Unterstützung aus der Luft gegeben. Diese Unterstützung hat in der Tat genügt, an der einen Stelle von Dempseys Front, die den Luftlandeorten am nächsten lag, seine Divisionen nach Norden zu reißen. Dort aber, wo hinter der deutschen Front solche Luftlandungen nicht gewesen waren, konnte auch Dempseys neuer Angriff keinen oder nur unwesentlichen Boden gewinnen. So ist es zu dem schmalen Keil gekommen, der sich von Neerpelt über Nimwegen hinaus in der Richtung auf Arnheim erstreckt.
Die Vorgänge gerade der letzten Tage beweisen, daß dem General Dempsey und seinen beiden Vorgesetzten das Unbefriedigende durchaus zum Bewusstsein gekommen ist, das trotz der Erfolge der ersten Tage in der geringen Breitenausdehnung des vorgetriebenen Schlauches liegt. Da Dempseys Armee aus eigener Kraft nicht vermochte, diesen Keil zu erweitern, wird er vermutlich Verstärkungen bekommen. Es stehen also, mit oder ohne Pause, neue Kämpfe in den Südniederlanden bevor. In sie geht der deutsche Soldat mit dem Bewusstsein der soldatischen Überlegenheit, dass gerade durch die Ereignisse der letzten Wochen neu gestärkt ist.
Führer HQ (September 23, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
Während sich unsere Abwehrfront nördlich Nimwegen gegen schwere feindliche Angriffe behauptete, ist es unseren von Osten und Westen angreifenden Verbänden gelungen, bei Veghel die Verbindung zwischen den feindlichen Kräften in Süd- und Mittelholland zu unterbrechen. Alle Versuche des Feindes zur Erweiterung seines Einbruchsraumes bei Eindhoven scheiterten in erbitterten Kämpfen unter hohen Verlusten des Gegners. In Mittelholland wurden am 21. September 30 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen.
Im Rahmen unserer Absetzbewegungen in Westholland führte eine Sicherungsdivision der Kriegsmarine mit Fahrzeugen aller Art unter schweren Luftangriffen und trotz schlechten Wetters starke Truppenverbände und deren Ausrüstung an Waffen und Gerät in unermüdlichen Tag- und Nachteinsätzen über die Scheidemündung zurück.
Starke Angriffe des Feindes im Raum südöstlich Aachen wurden in schweren Kämpfen abgewiesen, ein eigener Gegenangriff warf den Feind auf seine Ausgangsstellung zurück. Hierbei wurden 12 Panzer und Panzerspähwagen vernichtet und mehrere Geschütze erbeutet.
An der Eifelfront gewannen unsere Truppen im Gegenangriff vorübergehend verlorengegangenes Gelände am Westwall zurück und bereinigten den Rest des feindlichen Brückenkopfes über die Sauer nordwestlich Echternach. Die 5. amerikanische Panzerdivision erlitt hier hohe blutige Verluste und verlor über 40 Panzer und Panzerspähwagen.
Südlich Metz örtliche Kampftätigkeit. Im Raum Lunéville halten die schweren Kämpfe an. Eigener Gegenangriff südlich Château-Salins warf stärkeren Feind zurück. Bei Lunéville starker Feinddruck nach Osten. Alle Angriffe scheiterten an dem hartnäckigen Widerstand der eigenen Truppe.
An der oberen Mosel wechselvolle Kämpfe bei Épinal und Remiremont. Südlich Remiremont wurden mehrere feindliche Angriffe abgewiesen.
Die befestigten Häfen im Westen, besonders Boulogne, Calais und Dünkirchen, liegen weiter in schwerem Artilleriefeuer und rollenden Bombenangriffen.
Nördlich Lucca und Pistoia blieben mit Panzern geführte Vorstöße des Feindes erfolglos.
Im Raum nördlich Florenz setzte der Feind seine schweren, mit überlegenen Kräften und starker Artillerie geführten Angriffe den ganzen Tag über fort. In erbitterten Kämpfen, in denen zahlreiche Angriffe unter hohen Feindverlusten abgewiesen wurden, konnte der Gegner seinen Einbruchsraum bei Fiorenzuola erweitern.
An der Adriafront auch am 22. September nur örtliche Kampfhandlungen.
Im südwestlichen Siebenbürgen gehen die örtlichen Kämpfe weiter. Im Raum von Torenburg und im Szekler Zipfel trat der Feind zum Angriff an. Er wurde in harten Kämpfen abgeschlagen. An zwei Einbruchsstellen sind Gegenangriffe deutscher und ungarischer Truppen im Gange.
Südlich Sanok und Krosno hält die Abwehrschlacht in unverminderter Heftigkeit an. Unerschütterliche Abwehr und entschlossene Gegenstöße unserer Panzerkräfte und Grenadiere brachten die bolschewistischen Durchbruchsabsichten auch gestern zum Scheitern.
Im Mittelabschnitt blieben vereinzelte örtliche Vorstöße des Gegners südlich der Memel erfolglos.
Unsere gepanzerten Angriffsgruppen erzielten südwestlich Mitau weitere Stellungsverbesserungen und wiesen feindliche Gegenangriffe zurück.
Die Kämpfe im Nordabschnitt haben sich zu größter Härte gesteigert. Unsere tapferen Divisionen setzten, von eigenen Schlachtgeschwadern unterstützt, den neu herangeführten sowjetischen Verbänden zähesten Widerstand entgegen. Unter Abschuß zahlreicher feindlicher Panzer wurden alle sowjetischen Durchbruchsversuche im Großen abgewehrt oder aufgefangen. Die befohlenen Absetzbewegungen im nördlichen Estland verliefen auch gestern planmäßig und vom Feind ungestört.
Deutsche Jäger vernichteten im Seegebiet vor Memel einen aus sieben Torpedoflugzeugen bestehenden feindlichen Verband und verhinderten damit einen Angriff auf deutsches Geleit.
Feindliche Bomber führten am Tage unter Ausnutzung einer für die Abwehr besonders schwierigen Wetterlage Terrorangriffe gegen Kassel und München. 15 viermotorige Bomber wurden abgeschossen.
Bei den Kämpfen am Westwall hat sich Oberfeldwebel Kalkbrenner mit seiner Kampfstandbesatzung besonders hervorgetan, indem er, dem Fahneneid getreu, seinen Kampfstand in verbissenen zweitägigen Kämpfen gegen überlegenen Feind bis zum letzten verteidigte.
In den schweren Kämpfen im Nordabschnitt der Ostfront hat sich das sächsische Panzergrenadierregiment 103 einer Panzerdivision unter Führung des Eichenlaubträgers Oberst Munnert durch besondere Tapferkeit und Standhaftigkeit ausgezeichnet.
Die unter Führung des Kapitäns zur See Knuth stehenden Verbände der Kriegsmarine haben sich bei den Absetzbewegungen in Westholland besonders ausgezeichnet.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (September 23, 1944)
Communiqué No. 168
The clearing of the BOULOGNE area has been completed with the capture of LE PORTAL.
Fierce fighting continued all day yesterday in the area of the Allied northward thrust. Other troops crossed to the north of the WAAL and after bitter fighting between NIJMEGEN and ARNHEM, our troops reached the southern bank of the NEDERRIJN (north branch of the RHINE River).
The enemy attacked the eastern side of our salient strongly but the base was further widened by a crossing of the BOIS LE DUC CANAL and on the west by fresh advances beyond VESSEM.
Our forces have captured STOLBERG, east of AACHEN, and are now mopping-up isolated enemy pockets in the town.
There has been little change from the DUTCH-GERMAN border south to the LUNÉVILLE area. Enemy counterattacks were repulsed at a number of places. German tanks and infantry were driven back by our artillery northwest of GEILENKIRCHEN after an unsuccessful counterattack.
Southeast of STOLBERG we inflicted heavy losses in repulsing German counterattacks. Stubborn resistance was met from enemy pillboxes and defended road blocks.
In the area east of DIEKIRCH, our units were forces to give some ground. Active patrolling and mopping-up continues in other sectors along the line.
In the MOSELLE Valley, an enemy counterattack was repulsed at COIN-SUR-SEILLE, five miles south of METZ.
Our troops have reached ÉPINAL and have forced crossings of the MOSELLE at many points against stiffened resistance. The roads southeastward toward REMIREMONT area heavily defended.
Further south, in the vicinity of MELAY, counter-attacks have been repulsed. The town of MELISAY, in the LURE area, has been taken.
In the RIVIERA, the resort town of MENTON is in our hands.
Transportation targets in northern FRANCE, HOLLAND and western GERMANY were attacked yesterday by our fighters and fighter-bombers which also provided close support for our troops.
Bridges and barges in HOLLAND were the targets for our light bombers last night.
U.S. Navy Department (September 23, 1944)
Communiqué No. 546
Mediterranean Area.
During recent operations in the Mediterranean, the following U.S. vessels were lost as the result of enemy action:
- PTs‑202, 218, 555
- LST‑282
- YMS‑21
- YMS‑24
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 129
Carrier‑based planes bombed Yap Island on September 21, finding new worthwhile targets, no airborne opposition and only moderate anti-aircraft fire.
Enemy forces on Peleliu Island were slowly but steadily being pushed toward the northern end of the island during September 22. Garekoru Village and a small, unnamed island along the east coast were occupied by U.S. Marines. Approximately three‑fourths of the island is now in our hands.
On the same day, seven barges were sighted in the narrow channel between Peleliu and Ngesebus Islands. One was sunk by our patrol vessels and the remainder dispersed. These were destroyed by bombing, strafing and ships’ gunfire after being beached on Peleliu. In the action, a small supply dump was also set afire.
At sundown on September 22, 7,020 enemy troops had been killed on Peleliu while 950 had been killed on Angaur.
Pagan and Anatahan in the Marianas were attacked by 7th Army Air Force Thunderbolts on September 21. On the same day, Corsairs of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing strafed the phosphate plant and storage facilities on Rota Island.
Seventh Army Air Force Liberators attacked shipping in the harbor at Chichijima in the Bonins on September 21. One barge was sunk and near misses were scored on a freighter. Large explosions in the harbor area were caused. Meager anti-aircraft fire was encountered.
Seventh Army Air Force Liberators bombed Marcus Island on September 21 and gun positions and areas surrounding the airfield at Ponape were bombed on September 21 by 7th Army Air Force Mitchells.
On the same day, Jaluit Atoll was attacked by Corsairs of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing.
The Pittsburgh Press (September 23, 1944)
Rescuers near air army; Yanks capture Stolberg
Patton smashes Nazi attacks to the south, knocks out 320 tanks
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
Driving to the rescue of a trapped airborne force near Arnhem, Holland, the British 2nd Army today reached one encircled unit on the south bank of the upper branch of the Rhine. The U.S. 1st Army captured Stolberg, but to the south was forced back across the Luxembourg border near Diekirch. The U.S. 3rd Army defeated the Germans in a tank battle in the area bounded by Château-Salins, Dieuze and Lunéville. The U.S. 7th Army of the 6th Army Group crossed the Moselle River below Épinal and drove against Belfort.
Bulletin
SHAEF, London, England –
A wild battle raged between Nijmegen and Eindhoven in Holland today as massed German forces led by 200 tanks drove a wedge across the British 2nd Army corridor between the two towns. Latest reports to headquarters said the issue was still in doubt.
SHAEF, London, England –
British tanks and armored cars careened through a blazing four-mile corridor of German guns to the south bank of the upper branch of the Rhine today, rescued a trapped band of paratroopers there and drove for the Arnhem bridge in a desperate race to relieve the main airborne force pocketed across the river.
Front reports said the highway span over the upper Rhine to Arnhem was still standing when the British armor reached the river after a wild ride up the Nijmegen–Arnhem highway from Elst, four miles to the south.
The British tank columns loosed a heavy barrage of cannon and machine-gun fire on German positions around the trapped airborne force in Arnhem, and headquarters spokesmen said the situation inside the town had improved considerably with the arrival of the relief party on the south side of the river.
The wearied sky troops were still fighting grimly and well to keep their foothold in the doorway to Germany, but it was admitted that their situation, after more than six days of close-quarters slugging, was touch and go.
A dramatic radio message from the airborne commander in Arnhem said the morale of his troops was high and that they would hold out in their “patch of hell” until relieved, but observers believed relief must come quickly.
Elsewhere on the long front, the battle of the German border was going well. U.S. 1st Army troops captured the ruined German factory town of Stolberg, 6½ miles east of Aachen, after one of the bitterest house-to-house fights of the campaign.
On the U.S. 3rd Army front to the south, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s tanks and tank destroyers inflicted a smashing defeat on a powerful German armored force that attempted to throw them back from the Meurthe River line.
United Press writer Robert Richards reported that the Nazis broke off the battle this morning after losing at least 60 tanks in the past 24 hours, running their losses well above 320 panzers for the last 10 days.
But the Allies’ main bid for a swift and decisive breakthrough into Germany was being made on the Dutch lowlands at Arnhem, and the fate of the entire offensive rested momentarily on the courage of the dwindling band of paratroops north of the Rhine and the British tank men on the south bank.
United Press writer Ronald Clark said exceptionally fierce fighting was in progress in the Arnhem area this morning as the encircled paratroops beat off repeated German tank and infantry attacks.
Nazis battle hard
The Nazis were throwing everything they had in the way of men, tanks and guns into an all-out attempt to wipe out the sky troops before the relief column could break through.
The first rescuing tanks and armored troop carriers reached the Rhine about 5:00 p.m. Friday evening and a pooled dispatch from a correspondent with the main force in Arnhem said they linked up with an outpost of the airborne detachment and began shelling targets designated by the airborne commander.
The critical question was whether the British could take the Arnhem bridge intact – the airborne troops were believed holding the north side of the span and the Germans the south end – or would have to make an assault crossing of the Rhine under enemy fire.
Bridge intact
All accounts reaching headquarters this morning indicated the bridge was intact, although the possibility remained that the Germans might blow it up before retiring.
Savage fighting still raged along the flanks of the Allied spearhead thrusting up from the Belgian border to Arnhem, and one strong German force threw a flying wedge across the corridor late yesterday, threatening the head of the British 2nd Army’s armored thrust.
The enemy attack smashed across the main Eindhoven–Nijmegen highway between Veghel and Uden, about 13 miles north of Eindhoven.
British troops immediately countered the flanking blow but latest reports said the situation was confused.
Battle at Elst
A violent battle was also in progress at Elst where the Germans, after being thrown out of Nijmegen, set up a bristling block of tanks and artillery to prevent the Allies from getting reinforcements through to Arnhem.
British Tommies straddling the turrets of their tanks and crouching in armored troop carriers burst through the Nazi screen and infantrymen followed up to hold open the gap for an additional flow of reinforcements.
German artillery commanded the highway north of Elst, laying down a murderous crossfire on the British armor all the way to the Rhine.
Clouds hamper aid
Low-hanging clouds and mist continued to hamper the Allied effort, making it all but impossible to ferry in supplies to the beleaguered column at Arnhem or to throw any strong aerial force against the Nazi blockade.
More than 100 miles to the south, the U.S. 1st Army hammered out an important victory inside the Siegfried Line beyond Aachen, wiping out the last organized German resistance in Stolberg, which the enemy had converted into a “little Cassino” of fortified homes and barricaded streets.
The desperate German defense of the town was attributed to their anxiety to remove an aircraft parts factory. Nazi engineers were spotted dismantling the plant, but there was no immediate indication that they had succeeded in getting its equipment out.
Repel Nazis
Elsewhere along the border there was little change in the opposing battle lines as far south as the Lunéville–Château-Salins area east of Nancy, where Gen. Patton’s 3rd Army veterans sent the Germans reeling back toward their Siegfried Line after giving them probably the worst armored beating since D-Day.
A dispatch from Mr. Richards said the Battle of the Moselle was rapidly becoming the battle of the Seille as the Germans took advantage of rain and mud to dig in all along the latter, tiny river, which lies five miles east of the Moselle, from above Metz to Momeny.
The Allied headquarters communiqué confirmed front reports that U.S. 1st Army troops had been forced to give ground in the area east of Diekirch. Field dispatches said the Americans withdrew to the Our River line in that sector, indicating they had been driven back across the German border into Luxembourg.
Armies link up
On the southern flank of the 3rd Army line, Gen. Patton’s troops linked up with U.S. 7th Army forces south of Épinal and forced crossings of the Moselle at many points against stiffened resistance.
Other 7th Army units won small gains in a battle arc looping barely 10 miles from Belfort, on the historic southwestern invasion route to Germany.
Along the French Channel coast, Canadian troops cleared the last Germans from Boulogne, rounding up some 7,300 prisoners and establishing Britain’s first direct supply line across the Strait of Dover since 1940.