United Press selects –
Army, Navy dominate grid all-Americans
By Leo H. Petersen, United Press sports editor
…
United Press selects –
Fear Blitzkrieg hits German home front with full Nazi force
Leaders try to arouse people to deadly sacrifices by stressing consequences
By Nat A. Barrows
Third of a series
Stockholm, Sweden –
Day and night, matching its tempo with the thunder of Allied guns across the Rhine, Nazi home front propaganda struggles desperately to arouse every last shred of hatred, fear, and sacrifice.
Like the penetrating effects of bomb-blast concussion, this outcry of the doomed National Socialist gangsters is reaching, with stunning influence, throughout the Germany. The pace quickens in ratio to the Allied advances.
Over 39 radio wavelengths, in every Nazi newspaper, and on every Nazi platform, the stooges echo their masters’ cry: “Struggle and sacrifice… Struggle and sacrifice.”
Fear is the keynote of this nationwide barrage: Fear of defeat, fear of what the Allies will do, fear, fear, and more fear. Just under the surface of all these cleverly devised psychological tricks lies what Winston Churchill has called, “the dull whining note of fear” among the Nazi bosses themselves.
Worry about own necks
They are not worried about the people; they are worried about their own necks. No longer can they dangle luring conquests as the prize for successful resistance against our armies. So now, driven back into their own limited home front, from the control over 325 million persons, they have only one alternative.
That alternative is to arouse home front Germans to the utmost sacrifices by mesmerizing them with deadly fear of the consequences of defeat.
Here are some typical examples culled from Nazi papers reaching Stockholm:
Deputy Gauleiter Holz, in trying to bolster the morale of the Volkssturm boys and old men in Franconia, told that unit of the People’s Army that they must never surrender, never bend their proud German necks under the feet of the Mongols and Jews, never cry for mercy.
Asks fight to finish
He said:
The word capture does not exist for the Volkssturm man. There is only the fight to the finish. And when the last round has been fired, there is still the bayonet and the rifle butt, and finally, you have got your two hands to strangle the enemy.
In Dresden, Prof. Boerger told a mass meeting that the Germans are not going to lament in times of distress… “No, we want revenge, revenge, and we have but one will: To use the cruelest means ever invented by German brains.”
Dr. Robert Ley, the Labor Front leader, appears to be making speeches every day to spread the Nazi doctrine of “sacrifice and more sacrifice.” It was he who recently shouted: The “military people’s war today has become the holy German national war,” treason caused the disasters in the Caucasus and Africa, and by the Channel, “but treason inside the home front cannot live – as we saw on July 20.”
‘Never capitulate’
He also has said:
I firmly believe that we will again change the courses of fate… Should setbacks occur, we will take and manage them but we will never capitulate. Whoever wants to annihilate us must descend into the grave with us.
The Völkischer Beobachter, Nazi Party organ in Berlin, certainly has never failed in its task of reflecting and espousing Nazi policies. Now it is outdoing earlier breathless efforts. It has one basic note in its editorials, which the readers find under one guise or another in every edition:
History demands of every individual a decision, which cannot be evaded. This decision is struggle and sacrifice until victory.
Quote Hitler
Then there is that question, reportedly from Hitler – the now strangely silent Hitler – which Joseph Goebbels is busily spreading among the Herrenvolk: “May God forgive me for what it have to do in the last week of war.”
Goebbels’ ward heelers do not attempt to interpret the meaning behind this beyond implying that it signifies a new terror weapon. Obviously, it can be interpreted in several ways, not the least of which strikes close to the German civilian.
And so, the tirades blare forth incessantly, and always around the corner lurk Himmler’s Gestapo brutes ready to wipe out the merest sign of internal defection.
In his 1944 New Year’s speech, Hitler called it, “a hard and heavy year ahead for Germany.” For once Adolf permitted himself an understatement.
Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
Well, the eastern portion of our War Bond tour is over and we head back to California tomorrow. I’m a bit disappointed not to have seen any snow, but New York is so crowded this season they just couldn’t find room for it.
However, the hotel people have arranged a white Christmas for us. They promised to mail our laundry home before the 25th.
We’re a little nervous about the trip home. The railroads are doing a wonderful war job but there’s no experience like being wedged into a railroad coach for 3,000 miles. Maybe travel used to broaden one, but now it’s just the opposite.
No matter who gets on the train in New York they get off in California looking like Sinatra.
So, Susanna, I’m off to California, but it isn’t with a banjo on my knee. It’s George. We got the last seat available.
Völkischer Beobachter (November 30, 1944)
Motorisierte Bunden – Tumulte – Sperrzone um Brüssel
Bolschewistensturm gegen Pierlot
Das Volk hungert, Säuglinge sterben, Demonstrationen sind verboten
…
Führer HQ (November 30, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
Bewegungen englischer Verbände im Raum von Nimwegen und vor unseren Maas Stellungen in Südostholland wurden von unseren Batterien unter Feuer gehalten und wiederholt zersprengt. Im Kampfgebiet östlich von Aachen setzen die Amerikaner trotz hoher Verluste ihre Angriffe hartnäckig fort. Durch unsere Gegenangriffe nordwestlich und westlich Jülich verloren sie mehrere hundert Gefangene. Bei Hürtgen dauern die schweren Orts- und Waldgefechte an. Im gesamten Kampfraum wurden durch unsere Abwehr in den letzten beiden Tagen 26 feindliche Panzer vernichtet.
Im Umkreis von Metz leistet eine Reihe von Befestigungen immer noch tapferen Widerstand.
Gegen unsere Stellungen an der lothringischen Grenze drückt die 3. amerikanische Armee weiter mit starken Kräften vor. Beiderseits des Forstes von Saint-Avold und südlich Saarunion scheiterten gegnerische Angriffe. Im Raum nördlich Buchsweiler behaupteten unsere Verbände ihr Hauptkampffeld gegen den andringenden Feind und gewannen durch Gegenstöße einige Orte zurück.
Unsere im Elsass kämpfenden Divisionen haben nach den jetzt vorliegenden Meldungen vorgestern insgesamt 48 Panzer und 9 Panzerspähwagen vernichtet oder erbeutet. Infolge dieser Verluste hat sich der Feind gestern an den bisherigen Schwerpunkten auf örtliche Angriffe beschränkt. An den Gebirgshängen westlich Mülhausen schob er sich mit stärkeren Kräften an unsere neuen Stellungen heran. Aus einem Brückenkopf nördlich des Hüningenkanals wurde der Gegner im Angriff geworfen und erlitt hohe Verluste.
Verstärktes Fernfeuer lag bei Tag und Nacht auf dem Gebiet von London, Antwerpen und Lüttich.
In Mittelitalien säuberten unsere Truppen zwei kleinere feindliche Einbruchsstellen am Monte Belvedere und südwestlich Vergato und machten dabei Gefangene. Westlich Imola gewannen bewährte Fallschirmjäger neue Höhenstellungen. An der französisch-italienischen Grenze erlitt der Feind bei örtlichen Kämpfen am Mont Cenis hohe Verluste.
In der Ägäis zerschlug die Besatzung der Insel Piscopi einen neuen britischen Landungsversuch nach kurzem hartem Kampf.
Auf dem Balkan wiesen unsere Verbände bei Mostar stärkere feindliche Angriffe ab. Im Raum von Knin in den Dinarischen Alpen hat der Druck des Gegners nach seinen schweren Verlusten der letzten Tage erheblich nachgelassen.
In Südungarn kamen die starken bolschewistischen Angriffsverbände vor einer Abwehrfront hart westlich Fünfkirchen zum Stehen.
In Mittelungarn hielt die Kampfpause an. Im Raum von Miskolc scheiterte trotz starker Artillerievorbereitung ein erneuter Durchbruchsversuch der Bolschewisten an dem zähen Widerstand der deutschen Truppen. Auch im ostslowakischen Grenzgebiet blieben die angreifenden Sowjets nach geringem örtlichem Bodengewinn liegen.
An der übrigen Ostfront verlief der Tag im Allgemeinen ruhig.
In der zweiten Abwehrschlacht in Kurland haben die unter dem Oberbefehl des Generalobersten Schörner kämpfenden Verbände des Heeres und germanischer Freiwilliger der Waffen-ff wiederum einen vollen Abwehrerfolg errungen. An ihrer Standhaftigkeit zerschellte der Ansturm von 70 sowjetischen Schützendivisionen und zahlreichen Panzerverbänden, die vom 19. bis 25. November unter starkem Artillerie- und Schlachtfliegereinsatz gegen unsere Front anstürmten. Die Bolschewisten verloren 158 Panzer sowie 34 Flugzeuge und hatten hohe Ausfälle an Menschen und Material.
Unter dem Schutz einer geschlossenen Wolkendecke griffen nordamerikanische und britische Terrorflieger West- und Nordwestdeutschland an. Schäden entstanden vor allem in den Wohnvierteln der Städte Hannover, Hamm und Dortmund. Störangriffe richteten sich in der vergangenen Nacht gegen Hannover und das südliche Reichsgebiet.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (November 30, 1944)
FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
301100A November
TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR
(2) NAVY DEPARTMENT
TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(3) TAC HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) MAIN 12 ARMY GP
(5) SHAEF AIR STAFF
(6) ANCXF
(7) EXFOR MAIN
(8) EXFOR REAR
(9) DEFENSOR, OTTAWA
(10) CANADIAN C/S, OTTAWA
(11) WAR OFFICE
(12) ADMIRALTY
(13) AIR MINISTRY
(14) UNITED KINGDOM BASE
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM ZONE
(18) SHAEF REAR
(19) NEWS DIV. MINIFORM, LONDON
(REF NO.)
NONE
(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR
Communiqué No. 236
In the Geilenkirchen–Jülich sector, Allied forces launched an attack west of Linnich. We have troops in Beeck and gains were made in the vicinity of Lindern. Koslar has been cleared and other advances have been made in this sector.
Fighter-bombers, supporting our ground forces, attacked enemy targets in the Linnich area and destroyed an ammunition dump at Stetternich.
Farther north, air attacks ranged from the channel coast to the Ruhr Valley. Around Dunkirk, medium, light and fighter-bombers attacked fortifications and enemy positions. Fighter-bombers and rocket-firing fighters went for transportation targets in northern and eastern Holland, and across the frontier. They attacked road vehicles, locomotives, railway trucks and barges, and cut railway lines in many places. Medium and light bombers struck at the railway bridges at Zwolle and Deventer. During the afternoon, light bombers attacked targets in the Duisburg area, and escorted heavy bombers went for targets in Dortmund.
In the Düren–Hürtgen sector, our ground forces repulsed counterattacks at Inden and Lammersdorf north of Frenz, and fighting continues for both towns. Resistance ended in Jüngersdorf and after bitter fighting, Langerwehe was cleared. Gains were made in attacks in the Merode area west of Düren. Farther south, our forces continued to push out of the Hürtgen Forest. Kleinhau and Hürtgen were captured.
In this sector, enemy troop concentrations immediately northwest of Düren and at Elsdorf and Pier were attacked by medium bombers. Fighter-bombers dive-bombed and strafed targets in the villages of Lucherberg, Merode, Winden and Geich.
In the Saar Valley, we consolidated previous gains and pushed eastward. We have troops near Carling, west of Saarlautern, and other units reached the vicinity of Sarre-Union where we hold high ground.
Medium and light bombers struck at ordnance and motor transport depots at Limburg east of Koblenz, targets at Willich, northeast of Trier, and supply depots at Landau and Rastatt.
Gains were made against spotty resistance at many points west of Haguenau], in the Vosges Mountains, and on the Alsace Plain west of the Rhine.
Elements which crossed the Vosges captured Andlau and Saint-Maurice at the edge of the plain against strong resistance.
In a drive southward from Strasbourg, Erstein was captured and our units reached Matzenheim. Gains also were made in the southern Vosges Heights.
COORDINATED WITH: G-2, G-3 to C/S
THIS MESSAGE MAY BE SENT IN CLEAR BY ANY MEANS
/s/
Precedence
“OP” - AGWAR
“P” - Others
ORIGINATING DIVISION
PRD, Communique Section
NAME AND RANK TYPED. TEL. NO.
D. R. JORDAN, Lt Col FA2409
AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/U.S. Navy Department (November 30, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 193
Between October 20 and November 26 (West Longitude Date), 81st Army Division units killed 1,300 Japanese and captured 142 prisoners on the island of Peleliu in the Palaus. Main points of resistance offered by these remnants of the enemy garrison were the caves on the island. Our forces lost 92 killed, 622 wounded and 5 missing.
Bombers and fighters of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing attacked enemy-held bases in the Palaus on November 27, setting fire to buildings on Babelthuap and sinking one barge.
Venturas of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed and strafed installations on Wake Island on November 28. One plane was damaged by anti-aircraft fire but returned safely.
Installations on Hahajima in the Bonins were hit by a Mitchell of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing on November 28.
Before dawn on November 28, a small force of Japanese bombers attacked Saipan and Tinian in the Marianas. A few bombs were dropped, causing no damage. One enemy plane was destroyed and another probably destroyed.
Fighters of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing bombed installations on Rota in the Marianas on November 28. On the same date, 7th Army Air Force and Marine fighters bombed and strafed the airstrip on Pagan. One Japanese plane was destroyed on the ground.
Planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing and Fleet Air Wing Two made bombing and strafing attacks on Ponape in the Carolines on November 28, encountering moderate anti-aircraft fire.
Neutralizing attacks were continued on November 28 on Japanese-held bases in the Marshalls by planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing and Fleet Air Wing Two.
The Pittsburgh Press (November 30, 1944)
Hard fighting slow Yanks; Nazis show sign of cracking
New drive launched by French 1st Army south of Strasbourg
By J. Edward Murray, United Press staff writer
…
U.S. casualties reach 536,950
Increase for week totals 8,155
Washington (UP) –
Announced casualties of the U.S. Armed Forces today reached the total of 536,950, an increase of 8,155 in the past week.
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson said that the total of announced Army casualties now stands at 461,058. A Navy casualty list released today showed 75,892 casualties among Navy, Marine and Coast Guard personnel.
The casualties were divided as follows:
| Army | Navy | |
|---|---|---|
| Killed | 89,840 | 29,480 |
| Wounded | 258,106 | 32,600 |
| Missing | 57,514 | 9,326 |
| Prisoners | 55,598 | 4,486 |
Secretary Stimson said 124,533 of the Army wounded have returned to duty.
Mr. Stimson released the following area-by-area list of Army casualties through October 1944:
| Killed | Wounded | Missing | Prisoners | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asiatic | 1,122 | 1,603 | 921 | 159 | 3,805 |
| Central Pacific | 2,344 | 5,273 | 622 | 10 | 8,249 |
| Europe | 45,316 | 136,642 | 28,500 | 25,277 | 235,735 |
| Middle East | 823 | 639 | 1,886 | 1,693 | 5,041 |
| North Africa | 25,876 | 79,216 | 5,564 | 13,376 | 124,032 |
| North America | 1,305 | 1,052 | 52 | 0 | 2,409 |
| Philippines | 1,101 | 1,690 | 14,933 | 12,892 | 30,616 |
| South Pacific | 2,504 | 7,278 | 504 | 8 | 10,294 |
| Southwest Pacific | 4,420 | 9,661 | 2,029 | 1,065 | 17,175 |
| TOTALS | 84,811 | 243,054 | 55,011 | 54,480 | 437,356 |