Die US-Industrie muss sich umstellen
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Führer HQ (December 23, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
Die Winterschlacht in Südostbelgien nimmt weiter einen günstigen Verlauf. Unsere Truppen schlugen an der Nordfront des Durchbruchsraumes zwischen Elsenborn und Stavelot heftige, bis zu vierzehnmal wiederholte feindliche Entlastungsangriffe ab. Zu beiden Seiten der Ourthe drängen sie den geworfenen amerikanischen Verbänden mit starken Kräften nach. Auch in Mittelluxemburg schreiten die deutschen Angriffe fort. Die Zahl der Gefangenen und die Masse der Beute steigen weiter.
An der Saar wurde die Stadt Dillingen vom Feinde befreit, auf breiter Front das rechte Flussufer gesäubert. Nachstoßende deutsche Kräfte und unser Artilleriefeuer fügten den Amerikanern bei ihrem Rückzug schwere Verluste zu. Im Raum von Bitsch scheiterten erneute Angriffe feindlicher Bataillone. Zwischen den Unteren Vogesen und dem Rhein gewannen unsere Angriffe eine Reihe von Höhen und Ortschaften zurück. Im Oberelsass wurde der bei Kaysersberg und Urbeis angreifende Gegner abgewiesen oder im Gegenstoß wieder geworfen.
Unter der Führung von Generalmajor Hünten führte die Besatzung von Saint-Nazaire einen starken Überraschenden Angriff an ihrer Ostfront, warf den Gegner aus seinen Stellungen weit zurück und drang tief in das feindliche Hintergelände vor. 80 Quadratkilometer sind neu besetzt.
London und Antwerpen lagen auch gestern unter starkem Fernbeschuss.
An dem unerschütterlichen Widerstand unserer Truppen erschöpft, hat die Kraft der britischen Angriffe in Mittelitalien nachgelassen. Unsere Grenadiere zerschlugen zahlreiche Angriffe südwestlich Faenza und im Raum von Bagnacavallo. Nach erbitterten örtlichen Kämpfen konnte der Feind in einem kleinen Abschnitt den Lamone überschreiten.
In Ungarn versuchte der Feind erneut, mit starken Kräften Budapest von beiden Seiten zu umfassen. Gegen die Einbrüche bei Stuhlweißenburg sind eigene Gegenangriffe Im Gange: über den Gran vorgedrungene Gegner wurden durch Gegenstöße zurückgeworfen. Eigene Angriffe am Eipel stießen tief in die rückwärtigen Verbindungen der Bolschewisten.
Schwere Abwehrkämpfe dauern nördlich des Mátragebirges und südlich und westlich Großsteffelsdorf an. An der tapferen deutschen Abwehr brach der Angriff starker feindlicher Kräfte östlich Kaschau unter blutigen Verlusten zusammen.
In der dritten Schlacht in Kurland setzten die Sowjets ihre Durchbruchsversuche südlich Frauenburg mit stark zusammengefassten Kräften fort. Sie scheiterten erneut unter hohen Verlusten, so dass unsere Truppen einen großen Abwehrerfolg errangen. Um einzelne Einbruchsstellen sind die Kämpfe noch im Gange.
Im Küstenabschnitt südlich von Libau schlossen unsere Grenadiere in überraschendem Angriff stärkere feindliche Kräfte ein und begradigten nach ihrer Vernichtung die deutsche Front in diesem Abschnitt Sie machten Beute und zahlreiche Gefangene.
Deutsche Schlachtflieger, die bei Tag und Nacht vor allem im Raum von Stuhlweißenburg wirkungsvoll in die Erdkämpfe eingriffen, vernichteten gestern neben zahlreichen feindlichen Flugzeugen 32 sowjetische Panzer. Im Übrigen verloren die Bolschewisten durch Jäger und Flakartillerie der deutschen Luftwaffe gestern 77 Flugzeuge, davon 40 über dem kurländischen Kampfraum.
Über dem Reichsgebiet waren am gestrigen Tage keine feindlichen Kampfverbände. In den frühen Abendstunden griffen britische Terrorbomber Orte am Mittelrhein an.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (December 23, 1944)
FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
231100A 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. 259
Allied forces in the Monschau sector continued local engagements with no substantial change in position. In the vicinity of Höfen, the enemy gained a small amount of ground.
No further attempts have been made by the enemy to break out in the Stavelot area, and the northern German thrust has been confined temporarily to the area of St. Vith, Stavelot and Malmedy. All three of these towns are in our hands.
An enemy drive that outflanked Bastogne from the north reached as far as La Roche. Fighting continues in that sector.
A large-scale thrust is being made by the enemy in the Wiltz–Bastogne area. Wiltz has been encircled, and the enemy is pushing on after an action at the town. German armor continued its advance to cut roads north, south and east of Bastogne, while a portion of the force bypassed Bastogne and continued west.
In the Echternach area, the line has been stabilized. The enemy has been checked in the areas of Dickweiler, Osweiler and Berdorf, west and south of Echternach.
In the sector east of Saargemund, we have occupied Uttweiler.
Activity in the Alsace Plain was generally limited to patrol clashes. Further local gains were made in the high Vosges south of Lapoutroie where the village of La Chappelle was cleared.
Continued adverse weather yesterday again prevented the weight of our airpower being brought to bear on the enemy.
Bombing through cloud, escorted medium bombers attacked enemy troop concentrations and supply dumps while fighters and fighter-bombers flew offensive patrols in support of our ground forces.
Enemy troops, communications and rail transport in the upper Rhine Valley were struck at by fighter-bombers. East of Freiburg, six enemy aircraft were shot down by our attacking aircraft.
According to reports so far received, four of our fighters are missing from these operations, but the pilot of one is safe.
Shortly after dark yesterday evening, heavy bombers attacked the marshalling yards at Koblenz and Bingen.
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 (December 23, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 211
Liberators of the Strategic Air Force, Pacific Ocean Areas (STRAIRPOA), bombed airstrip installations on Iwo Jima in the Volcanoes on December 20 and 21 (West Longitude Dates).
Marine Mitchell Bombers on December 21 carried out rocket attacks on shipping around the Bonins and Volcanoes.
Eleventh Army Air Force Liberators bombed and strafed targets on Onekotan in the Kurils on December 20. Our aircraft encountered meager anti-aircraft fire. All returned safely.
Supply and ammunition dumps on Babelthuap in the Palaus were strafed and bombed by fighters of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing on December 20. Similar attacks were carried out on the following day.
Marine torpedo planes bombed installations on Yap on December 21.
Seventh AAF Thunderbolts made strafing attacks on Pagan in the Marianas on December 20.
An enemy plane was strafed and burned on the ground at Oroluk in the Carolines by Navy Search Aircraft of Fleet Air Wing Two on December 20.
Neutralization attacks against enemy‑held bases in the Marshalls were continued by planes of the 4th MARAIRWING on December 21.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 23, 1944)
CLOUDS OF ALLIED PLANES BLAST NAZIS IN BELGIUM
Skies clear for air attack
Patton pounds flank of Nazi salient – Yanks win big tank battle
By J. Edward Murray, United Press staff writer
Countering the Nazi offensive, divisions of Gen. Patton’s U.S. Third Army were reported in action against the southern flank of the German salient driven into Luxembourg and Belgium, as Allied planes pounded the Germans and U.S. troops won a tank battle west of St. Vith.
BULLETIN
Paris, France –
Early and far from complete reports from today’s Allied air attacks on the German offensive said 86 Nazi planes were destroyed by American fliers.
Paris, France –
Clouds of Allied fighter-bombers, bombers and fighters swarmed into the Battle of Belgium today in perfect weather, battering Nazi panzer forces from the Ourthe River to the Rhine, and U.S. armored forces scored an important defensive victory in a great tank battle nine miles west of St. Vith.
It was the moment which the Allied command had been waiting for – the first break in the weather since the Nazi offensive was launched just a week ago – and thousands of U.S. and British planes of every type, including a great task force of Flying Fortresses and Liberators, joined the battle.
The air blow fell upon Field Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt’s columns as Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army was reported slashing into the southern flank of the breakthrough where it was indicated the Germans have succeeded in capturing Luxembourg City, capital of the principality.
Supreme Allied Headquarters characterized the American tank victory west of St. Vith as “the first and a very important defensive victory.”
The battle raged between St. Vith and Vielsalm, which is nine miles due west on the wandering Salm River. Here, SHAEF revealed, two of the German main spearheads attempted to link up but U.S. armored forces, rushing into battle, prevented the juncture.
SHAEF characterized the weather over the breakthrough area as “absolutely perfect.” The sun shone brilliantly and in blue skies the dominant Allied airpower was thrown into battle for the first time since the Nazi attack was launched.
The attack was started by RAF heavy bomber formations last night attacking Rhineland transport centers and communications. In early morning, a great formation of Flying Fortresses, diverted from their ordinary strategic bombing to tactical duties, roared over the confused battle lines.
Some 400 American heavies, with an escort of 700 Thunderbolts and Mustangs, smashed at rail and road targets just forward of the American lines in Belgium and at the jampacked railyards at Ehrang, near Trier and at Kaiserlautern, west of Mannheim.
The Ninth Air Force and the 19th and 29th Tactical Air Commands were out in full strength.
“This is just the weather we have been waiting and praying for,” pilots said.
The Germans were out in force, too, and big dogfights raged over the battle areas.
Reports from the first 100 Ninth Air Force sorties – and the figure was expected to top 1,000 before the day was over – said that 12 tanks and 18 German planes had been destroyed. The planes were shot down in two dogfights over the Trier and Koblenz areas.
U.S. dive bombers were crashing loads of high explosives on Nazi panzer columns and it was anticipated before the day was over they would roll up one of the biggest tank slaughters of the war in the west.
Five U.S. planes had been reported lost at this point.
U.S. military spokesman refused to confirm or deny reports that Gen. Patton had wheeled Third Army forces northward to drive into the southern flank of the Nazi salient.
However, a SHAEF spokesman said Gen. Patton had yielded Ensdorf, southeast of Saarlautern, while continuing to hold the Dillingen and Saarlautern bridgeheads across the Saar River. German reports had said these bridgeheads were yielded in the course of Gen. Patton’s redeployment of his forces northward.
The capture of the Luxembourg City radio station returned to the air after several days’ silence with a broadcast of German programs similar to those beamed from the transmitter before its liberation.
Striking sat the blackest hour of the Ardennes battle, with Nazi panzer spearheads riding within 20 miles of the French border and 29 miles from the gateway city of Sedan, Gen. Patton’s roughriding tanks and armored troop carriers were said to be knifing squarely into the base of the enemy salient on the southeastern border of Luxembourg.
The German High Command reported that on the northern rim of the salient, U.S. forces attacked strongly along the 15-mile front between Stavelot and Elsenborn.
Allied headquarters spokesmen pointed out that the only possible way to deal with the enemy offensive was by a quick and powerful counteroffensive. They pointed out that the nearest major forces available for that job would be Gen. Patton’s divisions, whose front at one time extended up into the critical area.
If the report proved correct, and there seemed little reason to doubt it, Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt’s gamble for a breakthrough hung on the verge of failure.
The Nazi spearheads were already almost 50 miles beyond the base against which Berlin said Gen. Patton was hammering, and tens of thousands of crack German infantrymen were tangled in fierce battles with bypassed U.S. units throughout the 1,000-square-mile pocket.
Berlin located Gen. Patton’s counterattack in the Echternach area, about 35 miles below the northern shoulder of the enemy salient, which was being contained by U.S. First Army forces in the Malmedy–Stavelot–St. Vith triangle of eastern Belgium.*
The Germans claimed Patton had been called in to help the First Army after Rundstedt’s forces had chopped up seven U.S. divisions inside the pocket in a battle that field officers said was building up swiftly into the greatest slaughter in history.
DNB said the Third Army counteroffensive had made no immediate progress against the German lines.
Meanwhile, Allied headquarters reports said that by Thursday noon, the vanguard of von Rundstedt’s army had driven more than halfway across Belgium within 20 miles of French soil and 29 miles from the historic Sedan Gate.
At that time, spokesmen said, the Germans were still advancing at almost a mile-an-hour clip through a 40-mile breach in the American center, although the northern and southern flanks were holding solidly.
Headquarters revealed that the Germans had already lost at least 83 tanks and self-propelled guns in the Ardennes battle, 55 in the Bastogne–Wiltz sector at the center and 28 around Malmedy.
German tanks entered Bastogne, 10 miles northwest of Wiltz, Thursday after driving across Luxembourg, and may have already captured the former town. Beyond Bastogne, they advanced another 15 miles to St. Hubert for their deepest penetration.
There was very heavy German activity on the British Second Army front where the Nazis sent parties of 30 and 40 men across the Meuse River in daylight, presumably in an effort to determine whether any redisposition of forces is being carried out as a result of the breakthrough on the First Army front.
Break Ourthe line
The Ourthe River line halfway across Belgium had already been breached by the Germans in a sweeping advance of 15 miles or more in 24 hours and there was no indication that that pace was not being maintained as the offensive thundered into its second week.
Captured German soldiers revealed that the Nazis were suffering frightful losses in their reckless charge through the First Army center, but headquarters spokesmen admitted there was no reason to believe U.S. casualties were not equally heavy, or perhaps heavier.
One German spearhead drove 15 miles west of Bastogne, leaving a strong American garrison surrounded in the town, and reached the Saint-Hubert area, 29 miles northeast of Sedan and barely 20 miles from the French border.
Cross highway
That was at noon Thursday, and all indications were that some elements of the Nazi force had fanned out well beyond that point, possibly racing for the Sedan Gate or perhaps hooking northward to chop up the American flanks.
A second force struck across the important Bastogne–Arlon highway midway between the two towns, presumably in the Martelange sector, and thrust on to within about 30 or 35 miles of Sedan. At Martelange, the Nazis were only 21 miles north-northeast of French soil.
A third Nazi task force slashed 14 miles northwest of Bastogne to the area of Le Roche, 13½ miles northeast of Saint-Hubert, and apparently forced crossings of the Ourthe River on both sides of the town.
Concentrated in north
At the same time, powerful German tank and infantry forces were reported concentrating along the north flank of their salient, obviously preparing for another attempt to break through the Stavelot–Malmedy–St. Vith triangle toward Liège.
Significantly, a headquarters spokesman dismissed the triangle, where American Doughboys first halted the enemy offensive, as a “poor” defensive position.
The German radio continued to trumpet exaggerated claims of success all along the offensive front and asserted that only a small fraction of von Rundstedt’s operational reserves have been thrown into the battle thus far. The German drive, they said, will gather full impetus in the next few days.
U.S. strength gathers
But American strength was also gathering for the supreme test that both sides agreed could bring the war to a swift and disastrous end for agonizing months into next summer and beyond.
Headquarters spokesmen, grimly confident that the Americans would hold and ultimately crush the German offensive, refused to divulge the measures now being taken in and behind the battle lines.
At many points inside the swirling pocket overrun by the Germans in their seven-day advance across southern Belgium and northern
Storm U.S. pockets
German infantrymen pouring into the salient in the wake of their panzers were reported storming these pockets in great strength, and it was acknowledged that American losses might run high in that type of fighting.
One bypassed stronghold in the Luxembourg town of Wiltz was captured Thursday by Nazi forces following up the main armored spearhead through Bastogne and Saint-Hubert.
Mud and heavy snow were reported hampering the German tanks to some extent, particularly in forward sectors where the Americans were firmly in control of the main roads and were forcing the Nazis to use poor secondary roads or the open fields.
Soviet commission reports –
Nazis massacre 700,000; Americans among victims
Russians find proof in examination of bodies at concentration camp in Poland
Moscow, USSR (UP) –
The Soviet State Atrocity Commission reported today that the Germans tortured and massacred 700,00 persons, including some American and British citizens, at a big concentration camp near Lwów during the occupation of southern Poland.
The report was based on the examination of bodies, captured German documents, and the testimony of escaped prisoners. The victims were mostly Russians and Poles, but among them were Czechs, Yugoslavs, Netherlanders and Italians.
The commission said that after the fall of Benito Mussolini, the Germans demanded an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler from all Italians garrisoned at Lwów. Two thousand officers and men refused and were shot. Among them were five generals and 45 officers.
The report listed the names of Nazi war criminals accused of the Lwów atrocities. The list was headed by Dr. Hans Frank, chief of the Nazi-controlled General Government of Poland, several army generals and leaders of the Gestapo.
In addition to the notorious methods of asphyxiation, cremation and machine-gunning the commission said, the Germans devised a new torture by ice. In midwinter, a prisoner would be stripped, bound and put into a waterfilled barrel until he froze to death. Many victims were killed under trains.
A special composition called the “Tango of Death” was played by the camp orchestra during the mass murders, the report said, and the entire orchestra was shot later.
Pictures published by Moscow newspapers showed a performance of the “Tango of Death” while prisoners were being executed, heaps of hundreds of bodies, and a special machine for crushing human bones.
Many Polish intellectuals were reported among the victims. Among the humiliations inflicted on this group, the commission said, was forcing them to wash the staircase with their tongues and lips, then to gather rubbish in the prison yard with their teeth before they were shot.
Children of the intellectuals were reported handed over to Hitler Youth organizations and used for target practice.
Government will close all racetracks Jan. 3 to help war effort
Byrnes’ drastic order issued to save labor, critical materials; enforcement steps taken
…
New cold wave, more snow predicted for Christmas
Weather Bureau: Warmer weather today is temporary – 18-above registered downtown
…
Poll: Public wants Jap leaders punished
Gruesome methods suggested by some
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
…
Bethlehem inns as crowded as night Jesus was born
G.I.’s and British soldiers pack holy city, fill chapels for Christmas Eve services
Bethlehem, Mandatory Palestine (UP) –
A troubled Christmas approached the Holy Land, birthplace of Christ, as reinforced police continued their campaign today to eliminate the Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern gangs, comprised of hundreds of political extremists.
Using trained dogs, the police are hunting the terrorists who in the past 12 months have killed some 60 policemen, wounded Sir Harold MacMichael, former High Commissioner, and killed Lord Moyne, British Resident Minister to the Middle East in Cairo.
At the same time, Palestine is worn by war and everywhere a little down-at-heel. Yet, it enters the season of goodwill with more hope than it has for a long time.
Still many soldiers
There are still many soldiers in Jerusalem, but not quite as many as there have been in the past few Christmases.
In appearance, Palestine is rather thin and shabby. There is not much fresh paint. And there are not many new clothes to be seen. Hopes that utility suits would be made available under a government-controlled scheme were dashed when 50 Irgun Zvai Leumi desperadoes raided the government stores in Tel Aviv and stole $400,000 worth of goods.
There is a housing shortage in Palestine’s three principal towns, which has been accentuated by new arrivals from the 10,000 Jews who have been given immigration certificates under the last of the 1939 White Paper.
Palestine overflows
English-speaking people here – troops from Britain and the United States – are wondering whether this is the last time they will eat Christmas turkey in the Middle East. There are soldiers from liberated Europe with new hope in their eyes. And there are British and American civilians here who have not been home since before the war.
The comfortable U.S. Army leave camp somewhere in Palestine is filled to overflowing, and Terra Santa College in Jerusalem has been appropriated to billet G.I.’s.
The big YMCA building in Jerusalem with its pencil-thin belfry from which most servicemen get their first bird’s-eye view of the Holy City, is packed with Doughboys on leave and is fragrant with the smell of roasting turkeys.
Chapel reserved for G.I.’s
The Chapel of Innocence in the Church of the Nativity has been reserved exclusively for Americans and mass will be conducted there at 10 o’clock on Christmas Eve by an American Roman Catholic chaplain.
Hundreds of Americans converge on Bethlehem for Christmas Eve services from a radius of 1,000 miles – from Dakar on Africa’s Atlantic Coast, the periphery of the Indian Ocean, the tropical islands off Arabia and the Soviet frontier in Iran.
The eyes of all the world are on this little market town a few miles from the capital – a crescent-shaped village with steep rocky streets which cling to the curving side of a hill in Judea.