America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

5336

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (December 8, 1944)

FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN

ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section

DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
081100A December

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. 244

In Holland, ground activity yesterday was confined to a number of patrol clashes. Weather severely curtailed air operations, but fighter-bombers cut rail lines in Holland and successfully attacked two goods trains, one northeast of Zwolle and the other between Zwolle and Amersfoort.

Farther south, our forces in the Roer Valley, from Linnich to Jülich, encountered moderate enemy artillery and mortar fire. Southeast of Hürtgen, we have made small gains to the east, south, and southwest of Bergstein. Our units north of the town made little progress against stiff resistance.

In the Metz area, we have captured the Fort Saint-Quentin and the Fort de Plappeville, west and northwest of the city.

In the Saar Valley, Allied forces east of the river have penetrated into the Pachtener Buchwald Forest. Southeast of Saarlouis, we have taken Hostenbach and reached Fürstenhausen and Grossrosseln. House-to-house fighting continues in Sarreguemines. Our forces to the southeast have taken Ettingen. Other units have entered Enchenberg, and occupied several nearby villages against stiffened resistance.

Heavy fighting took place in Merzweiler, farther east, where part of the town was lost to a counterattack.

North of Colmar in the Alsace Plain, we made a slight advance despite vigorous enemy resistance and counterattacks.

In the southern high Vosges, the Thur River Valley is being cleared and our units have reached Thann where fighting continues.

Early last night, light bombers attacked Köln.

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/
5337

The Pittsburgh Press (December 8, 1944)

PATTON 10 MILES IN GERMANY
Saar mines captured by U.S. soldiers

Third Army drills into Siegfried Line
By James McGlincy, United Press staff writer

…

5338

RECORD QUAKE ROCKS JAPAN
Most populous area of homeland hit, Tokyo radio says

Broadcasts insist, however, that only ‘slight’ damage has been caused
By the United Press

…

5339

Yanks lead behind Japs on Leyte coast

Enemy convoy of 13 ships sunk

…

5340

Medal of Honor awarded to Bong

38 planes destroyed by top U.S. ace

…

5341

parry3

I DARE SAY —
After three years

By Florence Fisher Parry

It was Sunday. I was working in my office downtown. My brother came in and said in a funny voice: “The radio says the Japs have blown up Pearl Harbor.”

“It can’t be,” I said.

“No, it’s a mistake, I guess. But call up The Press.”

I said: “They’ll think I’m crazy. Pearl Harbor! The very idea.”

But I called, and whoever answered was sitting out in Editorial room, away from the UP room.

“Must be a mistake,” he said. (There’s no place as quiet as the desk on a Sunday afternoon, and his voice made the whole thing more dream-like.)

“But I’ll see,” he said, humoring me.

An instant after, the world’s hair was standing on end. The war was here, then, every nerve end in us was exposed. Sensitives, we, then. Eating, sleeping, thinking war with every atom of our being.

But three years is a long time.

Sleeping sickness

I reach sleepily for the dials to get the early news. Oh yes, it’s December 7. Well! How time flies. I think I am listening to the broadcast, the habit of getting it with my morning ablutions is so fixed that I know the commercial blurbs that come before and after by heart.

But combing my hair I suddenly realize that I haven’t heard a word of the news. Men are dying like flies all over the world, needless, horrible deaths they are dying, it is being broadcast, and I comb my hair and forget to listen.

There on the table lies, neglected, a map of Europe glued to a convenient lap board, and bright colored push pins with pretty round knobs are stuck all along the Western Front. My, oh my, how many pins! There’s really no more room, they’re so bunched there at the Saar! …Maybe I’d better pull out a few and stick them in the other map I have somewhere of the Pacific, there around Leyte. But the pins have been there for ages; why, the Cologne pins and the Leyte pins haven’t budged for I don’t know how long! The map has grown so static that we’ve lost all interest in it.

“Do you still want this old map?” I am asked, and I answer: “Oh, stick it up there on the mantel for the time being.”

Anne goes on to tell me about the sugar she got yesterday and I hold out for leaving the curtains hang another week, never mind HOW black the smog has made them.

“What date is it?” Anne wants to know.

“December 7.”

“Dear me, only 12 shopping days left! WHAT will I do about that doll!” she says.

The radio voice goes on. Saarbrücken… Revolt in Athens… Italy… Britain sore… Leyte fighting deadlocked.

December 7… December 7…

Three years.

The edge has dulled

We have grown numb, calloused, insensate to the very meaning of war. We find it difficult to concentrate when the war news comes on the air, when we pick up the paper and read the headlines. We can look at the pictures now, the sprawled dead, the bloated children, the abandoned skeletons, the great Fortresses blown to bits 25,000 feet high. This is not WE. This pain is not OUR pain, this death not OUR death.

Three years. And people are tired and resentful of war much in the same way that they are tired and resentful of the smog and the delayed laundry and the insolence of those whom war has made brazen and cocksure. They are tired of war films and war stories and war talk, and all this giving and giving and giving.

The first fine edge is dulled. We who were made so extraordinary for a while, we who burned and prayed and for a while were cleansed, look at us now. Look at us.

I think of the way we felt at the first submarine sinkings… at the fall of France… at Dunkerque… the ordeal of London… I think of the way we felt when we saw those first G.I.’s at our Variety Club Canteen and in the stations.

How brave, how caught up, how selfless, we!

Three years ago merely. Three years.

“Anne,” I say. “Where IS that other map of Asia and the Pacific? I haven’t put pins in it for perfect ages.”

“On top of the hall bookcase, remember? You put it there when the Japs began crowding us back.”

5342

Union curbed by court in DeMille case

Hearing scheduled for Dec. 15

…

Top bond goal, Treasury urges

…

5343

Wants his daughter –
Man runs wild, kills four, wounds two

Ex-serviceman wages deadly gun battle

…

5344

UAW’s pledge of no strike to be voted on

Ballots to be mailed about Jan. 15

…

5345

Willys plant begins output of jet robots

Flying bombs similar to Nazis’ V-1

…

5346

Big Three meeting may be delayed

…

5347

Youths accused as arsonists

…

5348

Simms: Small nations get new hope in U.S. stand

Noninterference policy reiterated
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

…

5349

U.S.-British ‘understanding’ reported by Lord Halifax

London’s envoy to Washington discusses Allied policy in liberated territories

…

10,000 volunteers needed by Nurse Corps

…

5350

In Washington –
House raises pay for office help

But only members’ aides benefit

…

On new appointees –
Senate to hold open hearings

Stettinius expected to be first witness

…

5351

WMC official asks curbs on illegal hiring

‘Statutory’ penalties for violations urged

…

Home front laxity blamed for lag in war production

Industrialists convinced most of people still not sold on urgency of situation
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer

…

5352

Allies enlarge bridgehead in Italy

British, Poles within 3 miles of Faenza

…

5353

B-29s, B-24s and warships blast Jap base on Iwo Jima

Superfortresses strike at island from which enemy raids Saipan, and hit Tokyo again

…

U.S. Fleet avenges Pearl Harbor raid

…

5354

Hitler reported partly paralyzed

By William H. Stoneman

…

5355

Film star honored by animal society

…