Florence rid of Germans
Eighth Army patrols push ahead from city’s suburbs
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Nelson trip is defended
FDR denies China mission is ‘kick in the teeth’
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Amendments flood House
Leaders seek vote on surplus property bill by nightfall
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Sunday visiting hours extended at Capitol
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Plans to care for returning veterans rapidly take shape
By Max Hall
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Musical therapists help Army patients
Lovell Hospital begins new program
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Willkie backs conference
Wants GOP to rally support for post-war security talks
Albany, New York (AP) –
Wendell L. Willkie was said authoritatively here today to have urged John Foster Dulles, Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s foreign affairs agent, to rally Republican support behind efforts to make the Washington post-war security conference a success.
Dulles, who exchanged views with Willkie in New York yesterday, has arranged to meet with Senators Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI) and Warren R. Austin (R-VT) in Washington tomorrow before he presents Dewey’s beliefs to Secretary of State Hull later that afternoon.
Dewey has made it plain that he opposes any permanent four-power alliance to dominate the world and wants small nations to have a voice in the international security organization for which representatives of the United States, Great Britain, Russia – and later China – may lay the groundwork at the current Dumbarton Oaks Conference.
Makes recommendation
Willkie, also an advocated of small nation representation, was reported to have urged on Dulles at their meeting that no move be made by the Republican presidential nominee or his friends that could be interpreted as interfering with the conference.
Dewey’s supporters have said there was no such intent, asserting that the New York Governor has merely offered constructive proposals in several recent foreign affairs statements.
It was Willkie’s view, as explained by people who know him well here, that an international conference was difficult to assemble and that it might easily fall apart.
The Republicans ought to handle it tenderly, he was represented as having told Dulles, giving the four power diplomats full opportunity to work out a solution that could be accepted by all. If they failed, he was said to have added, then it was time for the Republicans to speak out boldly.
May remain silent
Willkie and Dulles were understood to have made no attempt at their meeting to reach a basic understanding on foreign policy and the 1940 presidential nominee was described as likely to continue to remain silent in the campaign for some time to come.
The two joined in issuing a statement after their conference which said only that they had reviewed various international problems bearing on a world peace organization in a talk “not animated by partisan consideration or having to do with any candidacy.”
Dewey, salient about the progress of Dulles’ plans, busied himself today on state affairs after being told yesterday by Horace H. Hildreth, Republican candidate for Governor of Maine, that most, if not all, of New England would go Republican this fall.
O’Daniel sees need for housecleaning
Senator criticizes FDR administration
Birmingham, Alabama (AP) –
Senator W. Lee O’Daniel (D-TX), long an outspoken critic of the Roosevelt administration, asserted in an address here last night that “what America needs most is a thorough housecleaning in Washington.”
The Texas Senator spoke at a meeting of the American National Democratic Party of Alabama, a group which has nominated a slate of electors to oppose the regular party candidates in the November election.
O’Daniel declared that the present national administration contains elements which he said are “trying to convert this government into a socialized, communized, regimented and centralized dictatorship… Your only opportunity to break up this ring is to vote their leaders out of office.”
O’Daniel said Texas went Republican once, and added:
I don’t know what we will do this year because we’re between the devil and the deep blue sea. We have completely lost our Democratic Party and you all know our inherent shyness when it comes to the Republican Party.
‘Cotton Ed’ Smith to oppose Roosevelt
Columbia, South Carolina (AP) – (Aug. 21)
Senator E. D. “Cotton Ed” Smith, administration foe who was defeated in the Democratic primary last month in his bid for a seventh term in the Senate, plans to oppose the reelection of President Roosevelt.
He said in an interview last night he would support presidential electors nominated by the Anti-New Southern Democratic Party “who have the guts and brains and courage to vote against President Roosevelt’s election for a fourth term.”
The Southern Democratic Party has not yet set a date for nominating its electors.
Smith said he would vote in the Nov. 7 general election for the regular party nominees for Congress.
Völkischer Beobachter (August 23, 1944)
Politischer Terrainverlust der USA in Italien –
‚Wiederaufbau ist Illusion,‘ gesteht Professor Croce
‚Keine Freiheit, keine Möglichkeit zu arbeiten – Italienisches Wirken absolut zwecklos‘
…
Hartes Ringen an den Invasionsfronten
Berlin, 22. August –
In der Normandie griffen am Montag die Kanadier erneut an mehreren Punkten mit starken, auf schmale Frontstücke zusammengeballten Kräften an der oberen Dives und an der Vire an, um auch hier den Bewegungskrieg zu erzwingen. Die Hauptangriffe erfolgten bei Cabourg, beiderseits der von Caen nach Pont-l’Évêque und Lisieux führenden Straßen sowie an der Vie bei Grandchamp und Livarot. Unsere Truppen vereitelten in harten Kämpfen die feindlichen Durchbruchsversuche und schlugen westlich Lisieux sowie an der mittleren Toncques vor ihren neuen Widerstandslinien den nachdrängenden Feind blutig ab. Im Raum von Trun hielten sie die zwischen Trun und Chambois geschlagene Lücke trotz heftiger feindlicher Angriffe offen und setzten auch hier die in Gang befindlichen Frontbegradigungen fort.
Der zweite Schwerpunkt lag wie schon, an den Vortagen wieder im Raum Dreux. Da der feindliche Vorstoß von Vernon flussabwärts durch eigene Gegenangriffe liegengeblieben war, versuchte der Gegner an der Avre, einige Kilometer westlich Dreux, einen Brückenkopf zu bilden, um dadurch seinem Angriff seineabwärts eine breitere Basis zu geben. Der von zahlreichen Bombern unterstützte Vorstoß führte zur Bildung einer etwa fünf Kilometer tiefen Brückenstelle, die im Laufe des Tages ebenso wie der an der Seineschleife bei Mantes errichtete kleine Brückenkopf angegriffen wurde. Die schweren Kämpfe an diesen beiden Stellen dauern noch an. Im Raum von Étampes fühlte der Feind weiter in Richtung auf die Seine vor. Stärkere, aber erfolglose Angriffe richtete er gegen den Übergang bei Malesherbes. Von Orleans aus hatte der Gegner in den letzten Tagen Panzeraufklärung nach Nordosten und Osten vorgetrieben. Nachdem diese mehrfach wiederholten Unternehmen gescheitert waren, holte er noch weiter nach Süden aus, um unsere Sperren bei Pethiviers durch Umfassung auszuschalten. Seinen an der Loire aufwärts nach Südosten vorgehenden Panzern verlegten unsere Sperrverbände aber hier den Weg. Die Fortschritte des Gegners im Raum Dreux–Orléans waren somit auch am Montag infolge des sich versteifenden Widerstandes unserer Truppen nur geringfügig.
An der südfranzösischen Küste brachten die Vorstöße des Feindes zwischen Cannes und dem oberen. Verdon gegen die südlichen Ausläufer der Provencealpen ihm trotz heftiger Angriffe nur geringere Fortschritte. An der Westseite des Landekopfes hat sich der Gegner der Stadt Aix ebenfalls nicht weiter nähern können. Seine Versuche, diesen Platz vom Norden her zu umgehen, führten bisher zu keinem Erfolg. Im Schwerpunkt der feindlichen Vorstöße bei Hyeres und im nordöstlichen Vorfeld, wo vor allem gaullistische Panzereinheiten schwere Verluste hatten, gewann der Gegner vom Norden her Boden. Schwere Kämpfe, in die von See her feindliche Schlachtschiffe und Kreuzer eingriffen, sind hier im Gange.
Innsbrucker Nachrichten (August 23, 1944)
Anhaltend scharfer Druck des Feindes
Erfolgreicher Gegenangriff nördlich Mantes – Sowjetische Angriffsspitzen im Süden der Ostfront zum Stehen gebracht – Ein Kreuzer versenkt
dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 23. August –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Westlich der unteren Seine drängt der Feind unseren Absetzbewegungen auf dem Touquesabschnitt beiderseits Lisieux scharf nach. Bei und westlich Évreux sowie zwischen Eure und Seine leisten unsere Divisionen dem mit starken Kräften nach Norden angreifenden Gegner zähen Widerstand. Er konnte nur unter schweren Verlusten geringen Geländegewinn erzielen. Unser Gegenangriff gegen den feindlichen Brückenkopf nördlich Mantes warf den Gegner nach schweren Kämpfen weiter auf den Fluss zurück.
Südlich Paris griff der Feind unsere vorgeschobenen Sicherungen mit starken Kräften an und drängte sie auf die Seine zurück. Weiter südlich wird an der Yonne gekämpft.
In Südfrankreich behauptet sich die Besatzung Toulons weiter gegen den angreifenden Feind in erbitterten Kämpfen. Südlich der Durance setzten sich unsere Divisionen unter starkem feindlichem Druck befehlsgemäß weiter nach Westen ab. An den Passstraßen der französisch-italienischen Grenze wurden mehrere Terroristengruppen unter hohen blutigen Verlusten geworfen und größtenteils aufgerieben.
Kampf- und Schlachtflugzeuge griffen den feindlichen Übersetzverkehr über die Seine nördlich Mantes mit guter Wirkung an. Mehrere Pontonbrücken und vollbeladene Fähren wurden zerstört.
Im Seegebiet nördlich Le Havre versenkten Räumboote und Unterseebootjäger drei britische Schnellboote und beschädigten drei weitere.
Auf der Saint-Malo vorgelagerten Ile de Cézembre wehrte die noch immer hartnäckigen Widerstand leistende Marinebatterie den Angriff eines feindlichen Zerstörerverbandes ab. Sicherungsfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine schossen über der französischen Atlantikküste sieben feindliche Bomber ab. Zwei eigene Fahrzeuge gingen nach Bombentreffern verloren.
Das Vergeltungsfeuer der „V1“ auf London dauert an.
In Italien nahm der Feind seine Durchbruchsversuche im adriatischen Küstenabschnitt gestern nicht wieder auf.
Im südlichen Bessarabien und in der Moldau griffen die Sowjets mit starken Panzer- und motorisierten Kräften weiter an. Deutsche und rumänische Verbände brachten die feindlichen Angriffsspitzen nach tiefen Einbrüchen an mehreren Stellen zum Stehen.
Nordwestlich Baranow zerschlugen unsere Truppen, durch Artillerie und Werfer hervorragend unterstützt, stärkere sowjetische Kräftegruppen. Südöstlich Warka und nordöstlich Warschau wurden erneute Durchbruchsversuche der Sowjets vereitelt. Eine Panzerdivision schoss allein bei diesen Kämpfen 52 feindliche Panzer ab.
Zwischen Bug und Narew traten die Sowjets unter Einsatz starker Panzer- und Schlachtfliegerkräfte erneut zum Angriff an. In schweren Kämpfen wurde der Feind in den rückwärtigen Linien aufgefangen.
Im Einbruchsraum westlich Modohn wurden die Bolschewisten im Gegenangriff nach hartem Kampf zurückgeworfen. Westlich des Pleskauer Sees scheiterten zahlreiche feindliche Angriffe.
Kampf- und Schlachtfliegerverbände griffen an den Schwerpunkten wirksam in die Erdkämpfe ein und zerstörten in Tiefangriffen zahlreiche feindliche Panzer, Geschütze und mehrere hundert Fahrzeuge. Durch Jagdflieger und Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe verloren die Sowjets an der Ostfront gestern 62 Flugzeuge.
Bei einem Luftangriff britischer Flugzeuge auf einen nordnorwegischen Stützpunkt schossen Sicherungsfahrzeuge weitere sieben Bomber ab. Vier davon wurden allein von einem Vorpostenboot zum Absturz gebracht.
Im Nordmeer griff eines unserer Unterseeboote einen Kreuzer der Dido-Klasse an. Nach drei Torpedotreffern brach der Kreuzer auseinander und sank.
Nordamerikanische Bomber griffen das Gebiet von Wien und einige Orte in Oberschlesien an. Deutsche und ungarische Luftverteidigungskräfte schossen 57 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 51 viermotorige Bomber ab. In der Nacht wurden über Westungarn drei weitere feindliche Bomber zum Absturz gebracht.
Zu dem heutigen OKW-Bericht wird ergänzend mitgeteilt:
Die niedersächsische 19. Panzerdivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Källner hat sich in den schweren Kämpfen südostwärts Warka durch unerschütterliche Standhaftigkeit und hervorragenden Angriffsgeist besonders ausgezeichnet – In den harten Abwehrkämpfen bei Wilkowischken hat sich eine Kampfgruppe der Panzergrenadierdivision „Feldherrnhalle“ durch besondere Tapferkeit hervorgetan.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (August 23, 1944)
Communiqué No. 137
Allied forces have liberated SENS, on the east bank of the River YONNE. PITHIVIERS and ÉTAMPES are also in our hand.
North of DREUX, other units are moving northward between the rivers SEINE and EURE. A drive northward between DREUX and VERNEUIL has liberated NONANCOURT, and the advance has carried to a point north of SAINT-ANDRÉ-DE-L’EURE.
To the west, considerable advances have been made along the whole Allied front between L’AIGLE and the sea. In the center of this wide sweep our forces are fighting in LISIEUX.
North of the town our forces have surged forward all along the line, captured CABOURG, HOULGATE, VILLERS-SUR-MER and DEAUVILLE along the coast and have reached TROUVILLE, PONT-L’ÉVÊQUE and the line of the River TOUQUES further south.
South of LISIEUX, our troops have established a broad bridgehead extending for several miles further east across the ORBEC River.
Other troops have advanced across the river VIE through VIMOUTIERS, crossed the River TOUQUES and have reached the area of the town of ORBEC.
Continuing the advance from GACÉ, our troops have captured L’AIGLE.
The FALAISE pocket has been eliminated.
Allied fighter-bombers and fighters continued to pound the enemy at SEINE crossings, destroying more than 200 vehicles, 15 boats and barges and six tanks. These attacks, made through rain and cold, were often delivered at 200 feet despite heavy anti-aircraft fire and strong air opposition.
More than 150 railway cars were destroyed or damaged by other formations operating to the east and southeast of PARIS. Marshalling yards at DIJON and CHAGNY were attacked with good results.
At least 31 enemy aircraft were destroyed in the air and six on the ground. Preliminary reports show two of ours are missing.
During a gun action fought Monday morning south of CAP D’ANTIFER between light and coastal forces of the Royal Navy and an enemy patrol of armed trawlers and R-boats, one trawler was severely damaged and an R-boat destroyed. Two other R-boats received serious damage.
U.S. Navy Department (August 23, 1944)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 527
For Immediate Release
August 23, 1944
A Japanese convoy consisting of three cargo ships escorted by two destroyers was attacked by two Navy search Liberators of Group One, Fleet Air Wing Two, on August 22 (West Longitude Date) near Chichijima in the Bonins. A bombing attack conducted at low level resulted in sinking two of the enemy cargo ships, and the third was left on fire. One Liberator was lost in this action.
Liberator bombers of the 7th Army Air Force attacked Yap Island during daylight on August 21, bombing bivouac areas and airfield installations. Anti-aircraft fire was meager. A single 7th Army Air Force Liberator bombed Asor in the Ulithi Islands on the same day, encountering no opposition. All of our aircraft returned.
Reading Eagle (August 23, 1944)
PARIS LIBERATED BY 50,000 FRENCHMEN
Capital seized after four days’ street fighting
No immediate word is given of U.S. troops entering city; Vichy officials are captured
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YANKS DASH 140 MILES INTO GRENOBLE
Sensational thrust flanks Lower Rhône
Allies complete encirclement of Marseille; invaders near Toulon arsenal
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NAZIS JAMMED TIGHTER IN SEINE TRAP
Flight of battered foe called ‘rout’
50,000 prisoners taken from Argentan salient; dead are uncounted; Dutch and Belgians advance in drive toward Le Havre
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Pitkin: Paris city of rebellion
Most people never bowed to swaggering Nazi conquerors
By Dwight L. Pitkin
The Germans entered Paris on June 14, 1940, in a lightning conquest of France that stunned a world which thought the French Army and the Maginot Line invincible.
They goose-stepped up the broad Champs-Élysées and under the Arc de Triomphe built by Napoleon. Hitler came and gloated atop the Eiffel Tower.
The German occupation forces sought to win the French to their side, needling them with propaganda that the democracy of the Third Republic was decadent and that France had a place in the German new totalitarian order. A small minority which had always been Fascist-minded collaborated, but the mass of people in Paris and the rest of France silently and hopefully awaited the day of liberation. A vast underground army was organized throughout France.
The city was rebellious and hungry during four years of Nazi activity.
It was a city that had experienced four years of queueing up for food, cycling or walking to work, curfew hours, firing squads, black markets and the strutting of Nazi officers who monopolized the best hotels, the best shows and all the comforts that pre-war Paris had enjoyed.
Paris had suffered from Allied air raids against German targets within the area of the capital – such as the Renault Works and Le Bourget Airport. German radio broadcasts had perhaps exaggerated civilian casualties, which were estimated in the thousands. But Paris had suffered more than in World War I when the Germans besieged the city from a distance of 20 miles and fired shells from long-range guns that left scars still visible on some of the mellow gray buildings.
Virtual ghost city
Since the German occupation, Paris, whose pre-war population was 2,829,746, has been virtually a ghost city, its young men prisoners of war in Germany, children evacuated to the countryside, monuments standing like stage scenery at the end of a play ready to be packed and carted away. Lack of fuel shut down the metro system. There was no gasoline to operate the big green buses or taxicabs.
During the occupation, the Parisians pulled into a shell. Their relations with the Germans were usually correct and polite, but there was a frigidity the Germans could not mistake. At streetside cafés, the Parisians sat apart from the Germans.
The Germans carried on their customary antisemitic campaign, rounding up thousands of Jews who were sent away to concentration camps. A puppet press followed the Nazi line. When the Germans ordered all Jews to wear black and yellow stars as identification, Gallic humor had its answer. Non-Jewish Parisians blossomed out with black and yellow breast handkerchiefs.
Police raids became routine as the Germans sought to stifle the developing underground army. Youths were rounded up for forced labor in German war factories.
Executions frequent
Reprisal executions were frequent. Fifty Parisians were shot for the killing of one Nazi lieutenant. But stern Nazi measures did not prevent sabotage.
Paris made some semblance of keeping up theatrical activities and cultural life. Sacha Guitry produced new plays. The well-to-do tried to keep up an appearance of gaiety. But a good pre-war meal cost 20,000 francs (nominally $400).
Fashion designers attempted to keep their concerns going by creating new styles which found an outlet through Switzerland.
Most of Paris’ famous attractions are believed to have escaped damage during the occupation. Th Eiffel Tower, at one time reported scrapped to provide the Nazis needed metal, still stands. Other special attractions are the famous boulevards, the many bridges and squares, the formal parks, and Tuileries Garden, the Bois de Boulogne, the fine churches of which Notre-Dame is best known, notable buildings including the Louvre, the Hôtel des Invalides, the Pantheon, the Palais-Royal and the opera.
Most famous of the squares at the Place de la Concorde, where Marine Antoinette was executed, and the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile on a summit at the end of the Champs-Élysées. Under this arch, France’s Unknown Soldier of World War I is entombed.
During the occupation, the custodians of the shrine were fined 6,000 francs for exceeding the gas quota allotted for the flame burning over the tomb. But the Nazis never dared extinguish this flame.