War workers must walk –
ODT halts taxis; drivers blamed
…
Address by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey
October 18, 1944, 9:30 p.m. EWT
Delivered before New York Herald-Tribune Forum, New York City
It is a great pleasure to participate in this annual exchange of opinion about urgent problems of our time. Certainly, the most urgent problem we face in the world is the prevention of future wars.
We are agreed on one thing: We must not have a third World War. That means we must prevent a future war before it happens.
If any doubts remained after Pearl Harbor, they have been ended by the last desperate act of the Nazis in launching Hitler’s blind weapon of revenge, the robot bomb. This is futile savagery. But it serves to warn us against the future.
Japanese planes launched from a few aircraft carriers on December 7, 1941, struck us a devastating blow at Pearl Harbor. If we fail to make secure the peace of the world, the next war will not begin by a surprise attack upon an outlying base. It will begin when robot bombs launched thousands of miles away suddenly rain death and destruction on our major cities.
Even before this war, the airplane had reduced the size of the earth. The robot bomb has made this world of ours still smaller. It has put us under the guns of any aggressor nation that may rise to power anywhere in the world.
If there should even be a third World War, America would be in the front lines in the very first hour. That is not an argument. It is a fact.
Every American must learn the inescapable conclusion. We must never forget it. We must never again run the risk of permitting war to break loose in the world. Together with all freedom-loving people, we have had a narrow escape. We dare not take another chance. This war must be the last war.
To this end, the United States must take the lead in establishing a world organization to prevent future wars. I am more than a little tired of the defeatist attitude which some people take toward our participation in world affairs. To hear them talk, you would think the United States had never shown any competence in foreign relations. At least, not until the last few years.
Actually, from the earliest days of our nation, when Benjamin Franklin induced the King of France to enter the Revolutionary War on our side. American history is packed with diplomatic triumphs and international achievements.
Time and again, even in the earliest days of our republic, the United States wielded a moral force far in excess of its military power. In more recent years, our history is studded with a series of brilliant measures taken by able American Secretaries of State, to broaden the basis of international collaboration.
On any roll call of these great American Secretaries of State, there would stand out the names of Blaine and Hay and Root, of Hughes, Kellogg and Stimson. Their names are linked to such achievements as the Good Neighbor policy, the Open Door for China, the Hague Peace Conference, the disarmament conference by which the Japanese Navy was limited to an inferior status, the Pact of Paris to outlaw war, the World Court, the Policy of Non-Recognition of the fruits of aggression, and many measures to broaden the basis of international cooperation.
All these were great achievements carried through by men who had the respect of their country and of other nations. And every one of these great Secretaries of State I have mentioned was a Republican.
These achievements and countless others were made under administrations where the President conducted foreign affairs through the Secretary of State and our regular foreign service. These Presidents did not presume to be both President and Secretary of State. They did not presume to substitute their own personal will for the informed judgment of the American people.
If we are to be successful in our future labors to bring about lasting peace, they cannot be the property of one party or one man. It must draw its strength from all our people, everywhere. Only a united America can exercise the influence on the world for which its strength and ideals have equipped it. Of that I am deeply convinced.
I am equally convinced that to the extent that we leave our international relations to the personal secret diplomacy of the President, our efforts to achieve a lasting peace will fail. In many directions today, our foreign policy gives cause for deep anxiety.
The case of Poland is one example. Poland was the first nation to resist the oppression of Hitler. The restoration of free Poland is the outstanding symbol of what we are fighting for. Admittedly, Poland has differences with Russia that go deep in history and for which there is no simple solution. Yet Mr. Roosevelt undertook to handle this matter personally and secretly with Mr. Stalin. At their only meeting, neither our Secretary of State nor the Under Secretary was present, Instead, Mr. Roosevelt took along Harry Hopkins, who acquired his training in foreign affairs in running the WPA, But, because of the secret nature of the meeting, American public opinion has been silenced by the fear that some delicate negotiation might be embarrassed.
Mr. Roosevelt, nevertheless, has not yet even secured Russian recognition of those whom we consider to be the true government of Poland. Neither was it possible to save that immortal group of Polish patriots, led by Gen. Bor, who struck, as they believed, in coordination with Russia, only to be abandoned. After 63 days of gallant and unequal struggle, they were overwhelmed by the Nazis.
In all this, we Americans would have a clearer conscience if the voice of our people had not been stifled.
Now look to Italy. Some 15 months have passed since Italy’s surrender. We have sent over a batch of alphabetical agencies. They brought with them invasion currency bearing the legend “Freedom From Want. Freedom From Fear.” What a mockery that must seem to the Italian people.
Here is the comment of the vice president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, who has just returned from Italy. He reports “mass unemployment, hunger, despair, degradation, delinquency and painful disappointment” …because the Allies have not “helped the Italian people help themselves.” He quotes the solemn warning of the Pope as follows:
The great democracies must show greater interest and concern for Italy if she is not to plunge from one dictatorship into another.
The Italian people deserve something better than the improvised, inefficient administration which personal New Deal government is giving them.
Take now the case of Germany. Our experience in Italy should have brought about timely decisions on how to handle the invasion and occupation of Germany. As long ago as last January, Gen. Eisenhower told us we would have to deal with that problem this year. Yet, when the invasion of Germany began, there was still no official plan. Careful plans had, to be sure, been worked out by the two departments primarily qualified – the War and the State Departments. But that kind of planning goes for nothing when the President personally handles foreign policy.
There was a conference involving this very vital subject between the President and Mr. Churchill at Québec last month. Did Mr. Roosevelt take the Secretary of War or the Secretary of State to the conference? As usual, he took neither. Instead, he took with him the Secretary of the Treasury, whose qualifications as an expert on military and international affairs are still a closely-guarded military secret.
The result was a first-class cabinet crisis when it appeared that the work of the State Department and the War Department was to be scrapped in favor of a brand-new scheme produced by the Treasury. In the end, the Treasury plan was scrapped. A new plan was ordered, this time to be produced by Mr. Crowley, head of the Foreign Economy Administration. Today, just an hour ago, I was happy to learn that Allied headquarters had announced a military program for Germany.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Propaganda Minister Goebbels has seized upon the episode to terrify the Germans into fanatical resistance. On the basis of our Treasury Department’s ill-conceived proposals, the German people were told that a program of destruction was in store for them if they surrender. Almost overnight, the morale of the German people seemed changed. They are fighting with the frenzy of despair. We are paying in blood for our failure to have ready an intelligent program for dealing with invaded Germany.
Turn now to France. The unfortunate consequences of Mr. Roosevelt’s personal antipathy for Gen. de Gaulle are only too well known. We backed his antagonist, Darlan. When Darlan was assassinated, we backed Giraud. Now, with France free, Mr. Roosevelt is compelled to deal with Gen. de Gaulle, who is, in fact, heading the only existing French government. Mr. Roosevelt’s persistent refusal to grant recognition to the de Gaulle government of France is contributing to the increasing chaos behind our lines at a critical period of the war. France is Germany’s principal neighbor and knows most about German aggression. The glorious resistance the French people made during four tortured years entitles them to more generous treatment. We need France in our councils and we need her now.
One more illustration. Look at Romania. On September 12, 1944, an agreement was made restoring peaceful relations. This was no mere military armistice. That agreement fixed the future frontiers of Romania. It disposed of Bessarabia and Transylvania, two of the worst trouble spots of Europe. It dealt with economic matters.
Now, who negotiated and signed that agreement? It was signed “by the authority of the government of the USSR, the United Kingdom and the United States by Melinosky.” That treaty was signed by a representative of Soviet Russia acting in behalf of the United States.
The day after it was signed, the Secretary of State of the United States declined to comment on the ground that the terms had not been received from Moscow in time to study.
These are just a few examples of what happens when a President insists upon handling foreign affairs on the basis of personal, secret diplomacy. The result is today that no one knows what our foreign policy is with respect to Poland, France, Germany, Romania and other countries of Europe, or for that matter, South America or China. We have no hint of what commitments may have been made, and American opinion is stifled and ineffective. Yet despite these obstacles, we are fighting our way to victory and we shall achieve American participation in a world organization to prevent future wars. We are going to succeed because in this matter we have followed the American way of doing things. The handling of this vital matter has been left to the State Department where it belongs.
Many times in the past, and six weeks ago, in detail, I have set forth the principles which should govern us in the great work ahead. There are two distinct tasks. One is the immediate problem of victory – the question of what shall be done with Germany and Japan when they have surrendered. The other is the long-term problem of world organization for peace.
The first task is primarily the responsibility of the victors. It will require continued close collaboration among the four great powers, the United States, Great Britain, Russia and China. France, too, must have a voice, as well as other countries whose territory has been conquered by the Nazis, but whose heroic people have shared in the winning of the victory.
Germany and Japan must not only be utterly defeated, but also completely disarmed. As I have already suggested, it may be necessary to forbid Germany any aviation industry of her own, and the entire Ruhr, which is the heart of Germany’s heavy industry, should be internationalized. Beyond that, the war criminals, both high and low, must be brought to justice. The people of Germany and Japan must be taught, once and for all, that war does not pay.
But I cannot repeat too emphatically that the second major task, the building of a world organization for peace, should not wait upon final victory. It should go forward as rapidly as possible, to immediate solution.
The main outlines of that organization have already become clear. It must include a general assembly comprising all the peace-loving nations of the world and a council small enough for almost continuous meeting and prompt action.
This world organization must be enabled, through the use of force where necessary, to prevent or repel military aggression. It must be supplemented by a world court to deal with international disputes.
These, in essence, were almost the recommendations since drawn up by the conferences at Dumbarton Oaks. At those conferences, we have made a good start. But this is only a beginning. Important matters remain to be worked out. It would be a profound tragedy if, after having reached a broad general area of agreement on the major principles, we should now fall to impatient quarreling over things still to be settled.
There are already those among us who want to attack the work that was done at Dumbarton Oaks because it did not go far enough. There are others, equally vehement, who are fearful that the plans go too far. Extremists on both sides have missed the point.
The important point is that a beginning has been made. Let us remember that achievement can only be reached through agreement – agreement between the Executive and Congress – agreement among our people – agreement not merely among the three most powerful nations, but among some 60 nations which must join in this endeavor for it to succeed. It is imperative that the small nations of the world be brought into full partnership in this work now and not later. World opinion in the final analysis is essential to continuing success, Force, without justice, can never preserve peace. The treatment of small nations is the test of the conscience of civilization. They should have a full share in these labors from the start.
There are two great disasters which could occur to us. The first would be if a few individual rulers should, in secret conferences, try to shape the future peace of the world. The second would be for any nation involved to break up into quarreling groups over individual proposals. We must make certain that cur participation in this world organization is not subjected to reservations that would nullify the power of that organization to maintain peace and to half future aggression. The surest way to invite disaster is to insist that everything must be perfect from the start. Human progress is not made in that way, and this is a profoundly human problem.
Whatever the difficulties, we must not be diverted from our goal by the irreconcilables of either camp. We have before us vividly the grim reminder of the robot bomb which shows no nation anywhere can be safe against aggression. No single nation can make itself impregnable to attack, We can no longer rely solely upon our own defenses, or upon our own love of peace. We can and we must have a world organization to prevent future wars.
We must have two unities on which to build. One is the unity of the United Nations. The other is unity of the American people.
We are working successfully now. With 130 million of our own people, to satisfy, and with almost 60 other nations to come to agreement – I am sure none of us will get exactly what he wants. Individuals must have convictions, but if any of us insists on exactly what he wants or nothing, we will get nothing, and that would be the greatest disaster the human race has ever suffered.
Secretary Hull is working steadily with a bipartisan committee of the United States Senate in the best American fashion. I have been happy to join with Secretary Hull in non-partisan work between both parties on the drafts which have recently been completed at Dumbarton Oaks. In the end, I am convinced that we can meet all of these problems if we will use patience, wisdom and the full force of our people’s determination.
We have made a great beginning. We must hasten our labors to a successful conclusion. Our objectives and our methods must be known to our people and approved by them, so that they will be willing to support them and to sacrifice for them in all the years to come. Ten million Americans are making sacrifices today beyond any our nation has seen before. Some will come home permanently scarred. Some will never return. These tragedies must not visit us again. Our dead must not have died in vain.
We must keep our unity at home bright and fresh for the great tasks ahead. With that unity, we can give leadership in bringing lasting peace to a stricken world.
Address by Rep. Clare Boothe Luce (R-CT)
October 18, 1944
Delivered before New York Herald-Tribune Forum, New York City
Friendship and faith bring us all to this platform: Personal friendship for a great woman, Mrs. Ogden Reid; political faith in the proposition that during the next few years all political things will be ordered better if the candidate of our choice becomes the President of our nation. But not one of us, in this Forum, can prove that faith, for no man can prove or disprove what the future will bring.
The past is the only witness we can call into a Forum to testify for the future. Those who refuse to remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Let us remember so much as we can, in the twelve minutes allotted, about peace plans and peace leaders.
In time ago out of mind the Prophet Isaiah said: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace.” For thousands of years, mankind, tortured by war, has cried aloud in anguish for a leader to publish a plan that would bring the world a just and happy and lasting peace. Yet, we know that such a plan has long been published. None has ever been more widely published, or more widely approved. And by a strange coincidence, it takes exactly twelve minutes to read it: Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Unhappily, mankind has never fully accepted that Leadership, or ever put that plan for a just and lasting peace into effect, despite the fact that all other leaders and all other plans, deemed more politically practical in their day, have proven ineffectual.
Still, as Sir Thomas More said: “All things cannot be well unless all men are good, which I think will not be these many years.” That was four centuries ago. Sir Thomas is still waiting. Meanwhile our generation can take comfort and counsel of history.
The League of Nations was not, as some people suppose, the first comprehensive political plan for world peace that ever failed. For centuries men have made blueprints to prevent war. All the devices we propose or debate today have been proposed and debated and sometimes tried by other generations: peace by disarmament, peace by arbitration, peace by an international police force. Serious proposals for world disarmament began in China as early as 546 BC. Later the idea took such deep root in the heart of the Chinese people that they have been known, even down to our time, as the most pacifistic people on earth. We must note that disarmament, as a plan to prevent war, began to fail the Chinese people most pitifully when the 19th-century white imperialists, and today’s yellow imperialists, showed no similar enthusiasm for it.
Ancient Greece had a scheme of collective security: a federation that was a near approach to the League of Nations. The Greeks even had a name for it: “The Greek Amphictyony.”
Then there were the long Pax Romana and the long Pope’s Peace of the Middle Ages. We may note, in passing, that these great periods of peace were not planned in any blueprint sense. The secret of these peaces was law – the interpretation and growth of law, divine and human.
But as they lasted longer than any other peaces since, perhaps it is the beginning of wisdom today, in speaking of peace, US speak first of “peace with justice.”
After independent or “sovereign” nations developed again in western Europe in the sixteenth century political machines to keep the peace were invented by the score, and failed by the score.
Among them were the plans of Emeric Cruse in 1623, Hugo Grotius in 1625, William Penn in 1694, Abbot St. Pierre in 1731, Jeremy Bentham in 1786 and Immanuel Kant’s untried “Perpetual Peace” plan in 1795. Government by law, not by men, was Kant’s keystone for a peaceful modern world structure. A great contrast to Kant’s plan was the personal plan of Czar Alexander the First in 1804.
This became the basis of the Holy Alliance of 1815, finally pressed upon Europe with the full weight of the Czar’s prestige as the absolute ruler of Europe’s most powerful nation. His plan was a curiously Russian blend of shrewdness and mysticism, generosity and ambition which perhaps did not die with him. In the Czar’s secret instructions to his ministers in England, which he wrote in his own hand, we find these phrases… “never beginning a war until all the resources which the mediators of a third party could offer have been exhausted… and give birth to a league… a new code of the law of nations… those who should try to infringe it would risk bringing upon themselves the forces of this new union.”
Another peace plan, and perhaps the most elaborate and important of all, was the “Great Design” of Henry the Fourth in 1584. Very recently this name has been used by President Roosevelt, the fourth-term candidate, to describe his own plans for a lasting world peace.
The great design of Henry the Fourth provided for a confederation of states, each contributing specified quotas of foot soldiers, guns and ships to a common military peace force, this force was to act under the direction of a senate, or sort of supreme security council, representing fifteen participating states of Henry the Fourth’s day. The senate, sitting in perpetual session, had the power to create appropriate subcommittees, or an assembly. The plan was never put into effect, probably because France’s rival powers worried less Henry the Fourth, a wily diplomat and a strong leader of a strong nation, might use its “police force” to achieve the domination of Europe. Nevertheless, the “great design” became the master pattern for many other peace machines. The latest edition of the “great design,” which we all must hope is the best one, has just been published under the name of “The United Nations” by the conferees of Dumbarton Oaks – published, but not complete in detail, so not yet accepted by any of the Allied governments.
Here the past offers its testimony to the future for whatever it is worth to those who can interpret it correctly. The main incompletion of detail in “The United Nations” great design for world organization is the very detail that prevented Henry the Fourth’s original from being tried out at all. This is the detail concerning the ultimate control by the senate – or security council – of the international police force to be put at the disposition of the organization. For in Roosevelt’s and Churchill’s and Stalin’s day, as in Henry the Fourth’s, the international police force is plainly recognized as the “teeth” in the plan; and in our times, as 360 years ago, the great unanswered question about those teeth is, “Who puts the bite on whom?”
Several days ago, Under Secretary of State Stettinius called upon the American public to ponder that question, in order to hasten the realization of a truly effective world organization. No doubt in great public debate in this free democracy we will find a fair and a workable answer where the men of Henry the Fourth’s time failed. But it must be an answer that will be accepted, not only by Soviet Russia and Great Britain and China, but acceptable to all the little participating nations of Europe and Asia.
But why did the peace plans that were tried out in the past fall? The answer is relatively simple: they failed because they were technical machinery – blueprints – and nothing more. Then what more than good technical machinery is needed? Winston Churchill gave part of the answer in a telegram he recently sent a great League of Nations statesman, Viscount Cecil of Chetwood, on the occasion of Cecil’s eightieth birthday. Churchill wired: “The war could easily have been prevented, if the League of Nations had used courage, and had there been loyalty to associated nations.”
History has justified Mr. Churchill’s verdict. The League’s machinery never received the full and constant support of the great powers pledged to it.
All the past gives witness to this great lesson for the future: A machinery for peace will be no better than the willingness of governments and peoples to support it with continuing courage, and use it with constant vision.
On November 11, 1918, a great wartime President, Woodrow Wilson, hastily penciled a message to the American people. It began: “The Armistice was signed this morning. Everything for which America fought has been accomplished.”
Twenty-four years of League of Nations history have made a mockery of that thrilling message. For not only did Asiatic and European governments fail to use the League machinery with courage and vision but the world’s greatest power refused to use it at all. In 1920, the American people, through their Senate, formally rejected the League. Afterwards three Republican Presidents made no effort to enter it. Then in 1933 came a Democratic President – Franklin Roosevelt. Because of the waxing power of Hitler and Japan, the need for collective security from then on became ever greater. But in his seven years in office before the war broke, in Europe, our President again and again renounced the League. The lack of courage and vision deplored by Churchill in Europe’s statesmen was also lacking in America’s.
Plato said: “No one can be a true statesman… who has not room for courage in peace as in war.”
Lacking true statesmen with the courage to wage peace, the Allies are now waging war.
Let us hope that when our second V-Day comes, our President, whoever he is, will not assure us that a peace plan alone will guarantee that Utopia lies just around the corner. Let us hope that our President will have the valiance of spirit even in the jubilant hour of victory to tell us that tears and sweat and sacrifice still lie ahead in the waging of a just and durable peace; and that not only he, but his many successors must wage it.
Governor Dewey has clearly grasped this courageous concept of waging peace. I believe that he will wage it unremittingly.
In our national unity lies our real strength to wage peace. We the People must be one in spirit with our President.
We pray that our armies will soon be victorious everywhere, so that we and our President may embark on that endless adventure of peacemaking.
Völkischer Beobachter (October 19, 1944)
Reichsführer-SS Himmler:
Den Feind fanatisch anpacken, festhalten und aufreiben
Appell vor den ersten Volkssturmkompanien
In Ostpreußen, 18. Oktober –
Der Reichsführer-SS hielt heute in einer Stadt Ostpreußens den ersten Appell des Deutschen Volkssturms ab. Auf dieser Kundgebung wurde das Dekret des Führers über die Errichtung des Deutschen Volkssturms verkündet.
In ernster entscheidungsschwerer Stunde für des Reiches Sicherheit und Bestand hat der Führer den Deutschen Volkssturm aufgerufen. Alle deutschen Männer von 16 bis 60 Jahren, soweit sie noch nicht im Wehrdienst stehen, sind aufgeboten zur Verteidigung des Reiches. Kein glücklicherer Tag für dieses bedeutsame geschichtliche Ereignis konnte gewählt werden als der Jahrestag der Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig. Keinen geeigneteren Ort konnte diese aus deutschem Opfergeist geborene historische Stunde finden als die kleine ostpreußische Stadt, die bereits Frontnähe atmet.
Sonnenüberglänzt liegen die abgeernteten ostpreußischen Fluren, teils noch als Stoppelfelder, teils in brauner Scholle, teils schon in dem jungen Grün der Wintersaat; weidende Kühe auf grünen Wiesen, Pferde, die sich in den Koppeln tummeln, Menschen, die unentwegt hier wie überall ruhig ihrer Arbeit nachgehen, Frauen und Kinder, Greise und junge Burschen, ein friedliches Bild. Aber nahe ist die Front. Irgendwo vor den Toren der Stadt treffen wir einen Treck von deutschen Menschen, die mit Pferd und Wagen das Notwendigste ihrer Habe aus ostwärtigem deutschem Raum vor dem bolschewistischen Ansturm ins Reich zurückgeführt haben.
Die sonst so nüchterne Exerzierhalle der ostpreußischen Garnisonsstadt trägt nur geringen Schmuck. Die Zeichen der Bewegung schmücken die Halle, und auf der Breitseite sind mit den Standarten die Abordnungen der SS, der SA, des NSKK, des NSFK und des politischen Führerkorps aufmarschiert. Inmitten der Exerzierhalle stehen in Reih und Glied ausgerichtet die Männer der ersten ostpreußischen Volkssturmeinheiten. Harte, ausgeprägte Gesichter sieht man hier von Männern, die ihr Leben lang nichts als Arbeit und Pflichterfüllung kannten. Vielfach haben sie im letzten Weltkrieg und auch im gegenwärtigen Selbstbehauptungskampf des deutschen Volkes bereits am Feind gestanden.
Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler nimmt die Meldung der angetretenen Formationen entgegen und entbietet den Volkssturmmännern seinen Gruß. Mit den Weisen des Musikkorps der Wehrmacht klingen die kernigen Stimmen der Volkssturmmänner und der Männer der Formationen zusammen. Sie singen das zum Kampflied der Nation gewordene Lied: „Volk ans Gewehr.“
Widerwillige Einsicht des Gegners:
Deutsche Innenfront ohne Riss
Deutschlands moralischer Panzer unzerstörbar
Von unserem Berichterstatter
…
Führer HQ (October 19, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
In Holland zerschlugen unsere Truppen östlich Helmond die mit stärkstem Artillerie- und Schlachtfliegereinsatz geführten Durchbruchsangriffe des Gegners. Zehn Panzer wurden abgeschossen. In dem heißen Ringen um Aachen vereitelten unsere Panzergrenadiere feindliche Angriffe südwestlich Würselens und entrissen den Nordamerikanern eine Reihe vorübergehend verlorener Bunkerstellungen. Haus um Haus am Stadtrand von Aachen wird erbittert gegen den von Norden, Osten und Süden angreifenden Feind verteidigt.
Schnelle deutsche Kampf- und Nachtschlachtflugzeuge griffen mit beobachteter guter Wirkung feindliche Nachschubstützpunkte in diesem Kampfraum an.
Im Walde von Roetgen dauern die Stellungskämpfe fort. Nordwestlich Épinal wird im Raum von Bruyères seit Tagen heftig gekämpft. Gegenangriffe unserer Truppen südöstlich Remiremont warfen den Feind aus seinen Stellungen. Unsere Artillerie schoss ein feindliches Betriebsstofflager in Brand.
Das Störungsfeuer der „V1“ auf London geht weiter.
Die Angriffe der 5. amerikanischen Armee in Mittelitalien nahmen im Laufe des Tages an Heftigkeit zu. Entschlossene eigene Gegenangriffe warfen den Feind aus kleineren Einbruchsstellen und eroberten eine wichtige Höhe zurück. Erst in den Abendstunden konnte der Feind unter hohen Verlusten geringe Einbrüche an der Straße nach Bologna erzielen. Der starke britische Druck im Raum von Cesena hält an. Bei Säuberungen im rückwärtigen italienischen Heeresgebiet wurden neuerdings zahlreiche Bandengruppen zerschlagen. Mit ihren Lagern fiel reiche Beute in unsere Hand.
In Mittelgriechenland wurde die Stadt Theben im Zuge unserer Absetzbewegungen geräumt.
In Serbien wird vor allem in den Räumen östlich Kraljevo und Kragujevac sowie südöstlich Belgrad gekämpft.
Um Debrecen stehen unsere Truppen in schweren Kämpfen mit dem nach Norden vordringenden Feind. Deutsche Schlachtfliegerverbände vernichteten über 100 sowjetische Fahrzeuge und zahlreiche Geschütze. An der Front der Waldkarpaten kam es westlich des Vereckei- und des Czirokatalpasses zu örtlichen Kämpfen. Westlich des Duklapasses wurden stärkere feindliche Angriffe abgewiesen.
Die Schlacht an der ostpreußischen Grenze zwischen Sudauen und Schirwindt dauert mit steigender Heftigkeit an. Eydtkau ging verloren, aber unsere tapfer kämpfenden Truppen verhinderten den von den Sowjets erstrebten Durchbruch. In der dreitägigen Schlacht wurden bisher 250 feindliche Panzer vernichtet.
Auch südöstlich Libau sowie zwischen Doblen und der Rigaer Bucht setzten die Bolschewisten ihre starken Angriffe fort. Sie wurden unter Abschuß von 38 Panzern abgeschlagen.
In Mittelfinnland verlaufen unsere Absetzbewegungen nach Norden und Nordwesten wie vorgesehen. Nachdem bolschewistische Angriffe auf und nördlich der Eismeerstraße gescheitert waren, ist der Feind heute früh erneut zum Angriff angetreten. Die Kämpfe sind in vollem Gange.
Bei einem Terrorangriff anglo-amerikanischer Bomber auf Bonn wurde das Stadtgebiet schwer getroffen, unter anderem fielen die Universität, viele Kulturstätten und 16 Krankenhäuser den Bomben zum Opfer. Weitere Terrorangriffe richteten sich gegen Kassel und Köln. Einzelne britische Flugzeuge warfen in der vergangenen Nacht Bomben auf Hannover und Mannheim.
Bei den erfolgreichen Kämpfen um das Fort Driant haben sich Hauptmann Weiler, Kommandeur des III. Bataillons Regiment Stössel und neben ihm die Leutnante Wösner und Hohmann durch vorbildliche Tapferkeit ausgezeichnet. Mit ihrem Stoßtrupp haben sie starken Feind in den Kasematten und Gängen der Festung eingeschlossen und vernichtet.
In den Kämpfen im südungarischen Raum zeichnete sich das Flakregiment 12 unter Führung von Oberstleutnant Jansa aus.
In den Waldkarpaten haben sich die märkische 8. Panzerdivision unter Führung von Generalmajor Frölich und die unter Führung von Generalleutnant Prinner stehenden Artillerieverbände eines Panzerkorps besonders bewährt.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (October 19, 1944)
FROM
(A) SHAEF FORWARD
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
191100A October
TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR (Pass to WND)
TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(2) FIRST US ARMY GP
(3) ADV HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) FWD ECH (MAIN) 12 ARMY GP
(5) AEAF
(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) ETOUSA
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM Z APO 871
(18) SHAEF MAIN
(REF NO.)
NONE
(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR
Communiqué No. 194
South of the Scheldt, Allied forces made progress westward to within 3,000 yards of Breskens. We made good gains east of Schoondijke and southwest of IJjzendijke. On the east side of the Dutch salient, we captured Venray yesterday morning, and, to the southwest, our forces are now some two miles south of the Venray–Deurne road. Gains have also been made along the north side of the railway east of Deurne. Fighters and fighter-bombers supported our ground forces in Holland. Other fighter-bombers, striking at the enemy’s supply routes to Holland, attacked railway targets north and west of the Ruhr.
Our units are continuing the battle in Aachen, meeting stubborn resistance in house-to-house fighting. Fighters and fighter-bombers made a concentrated attack in building in the northwest section of the city where enemy forces are holding out. Just to the northwest of Aachen, our forces have destroyed a large number of pillboxes and have made gains against strong opposition. Units which closed the gap northeast of the city repulsed two counterattacks by infantry and tanks. Railway targets along the Düsseldorf–Düren–Aachen line and elsewhere on lines leading westward to Aachen were attacked by fighter bombers. Northeast of Hürtgen, small counterattacks were repulsed.
We consolidated and improved our positions at several points in the Vosges foothills where the enemy continued to oppose our advances stubbornly and made more vain counterattacks. Two hundred enemy prisoners were taken in a series of successful local actions southeast of Cornimont. A strong force of heavy bombers, with fighter escort, attacked industrial targets and railway yards in the Köln and Kassel areas. Other escorted heavy bombers struck at the railway center of Bonn.
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 FA Ext. 9
AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/U.S. Navy Department (October 19, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 160
Carrier aircraft of the Pacific Fleet on October 16, 17 and 18 (West Longitude Date) continued to attack whatever enemy aircraft and shipping could still be found in the Manila area, Luzon Island, in the Philippines.
On October 16, aircraft from one group of carriers encountered up to 40 aggressive enemy planes over Clark Field, destroying 20 of them in the air. Another 30 or 40 planes on the ground were probably destroyed or damaged.
Incomplete reports show that on October 17 over Manila our fighters shot down 17 enemy planes which, although airborne, did not prove aggressive. An additional 13 enemy planes were shot down in the air and 15 were destroyed on the ground at Clark and Nichols Fields. Barracks, fuel dumps, hangars and ground installations at the two airfields were also heavily bombed.
On the same day in the south harbor of Manila Bay, an oil tanker, four medium cargo ships and a floating drydock were destroyed. In addition, six large or medium cargo ships were damaged in Manila Bay while a large oiler was damaged in Mariveles Harbor.
Preliminary reports show that our own losses for the action on October 17 were four planes, two pilots and two aircrewmen.
On October 18, carrier‑based planes in a strike against enemy shipping in the south harbor of Manila Bay sank an oil tanker and damaged two large cargo ships, two large transports, six medium cargo ships, four small cargo ships and two medium oil tankers. Four enemy aircraft were destroyed over the target while one was probably shot down and one was damaged on the ground.
Seventh Air Force Mitchells bombed runways and installations on Nauru Island on October 17. One Mitchell sustained minor damage. Heavy to moderate anti-aircraft fire was encountered.
Corsairs of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing on the same day bombed and strafed runways and storage areas at Ponape Island. Fires were started. Anti-aircraft fire was moderate.
Corsairs and Dauntless dive bombers continued bombing and strafing attacks on enemy‑held positions in the Marshall Islands on October 17 and 18. Two planes were slightly damaged by antiaircraft fire at Jaluit on October 17, while one plane was shot down and another damaged at Jaluit on October 18. There were no personnel losses.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 591
For Immediate Release
October 19, 1944
Adm. C. W. Nimitz (USN), CINCUSPACPOA, has received from Adm. W. F. Halsey Jr. (USN), Commander, Third Fleet, the comforting assurance that he is now retiring toward the enemy following the salvage of all the Third Fleet ships recently reported sunk by Radio Tokyo.
The Pittsburgh Press (October 19, 1944)
TOKYO: U.S. PHILIPPINE INVASION UNDERWAY
Assault by MacArthur reported
Almost all U.S. Pacific forces massed in area, enemy claims
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer
…
Allies advance along 25-mile Holland front
Nazis falling back toward Maas River
By J. Edward Murray, United Press staff writer
…
Father killed in France –
Baby of unmarried Yank to be given home in U.S.
Roosevelt intervenes to order priority for infant to be flown from England
…
Army casualties mount to 384,895
Washington (UP) –
U.S. Army casualties exclusive of air forces in France, Germany and the Low Countries from D-Day through Oct. 3 totaled 174,780, the War Department announced today.
These included 29,842 killed, 130,227 wounded and 14,711 missing. Casualties of the 7th Army which landed in southern France are included.
Total Army casualties in all theaters through Oct. 6 were 384,895, an increase of 33,602 since the last figures announced Oct. 5.
The Navy lists 68,480 total casualties through Oct. 18 for Navy, Marine and Coast Guard personnel. This gives a grand total of announced service casualties of 453,379 in all categories.
The Army totals to date:
| Dead | 75,562 |
| Wounded | 208,392 |
| Prisoners | 52,537 |
| Missing | 48,404 |
The War Department explained part of the increase was due to a revised and improved statistical system which permitted more up-to-date reports than previously.
Dewey indicts Roosevelt on foreign policy
Secret negotiations called bar to peace
Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey, accusing President Roosevelt of handling foreign relations on a “basis of personal secret diplomacy,” promised today to submit foreign policy to popular support if he is elected President in November.
In a blistering indictment of President Roosevelt’s conduct of foreign affairs last night, Mr. Dewey charged that “secret” negotiations have been the custom, cited relations with Poland, Italy, France and Romania as “examples” and predicted that a continuation of the policy would prevent a lasting peace.
He argued:
Our objectives and our methods must be known to our people and approved by them so that they will be willing to support them and to sacrifice for them in all the years to come.
Wants no reservations
He proposed that the U.S. participate in organization of a world peace league as rapidly as possible, without waiting for the end of the war, and that it enter such a compact without any reservations which would nullify its power to halt future aggression, using force if necessary.
The Republican presidential candidate expounded his foreign policy views on a nationwide broadcast in New York before an invitational audience of 2,000 clubwomen, businessmen and civil and social leaders at the final session of the annual New York Herald-Tribune Forum.
Dewey associates believed that he had presented a severe challenge to Mr. Roosevelt, who is scheduled to speak on the subject in New York City Saturday night before the Foreign Policy Association.
Governor Dewey’s greatest response came when he declared that “this must be the last war,” and that “to this end the U.S. must take the lead in establishing a world organization to prevent future wars.”
‘Paying in blood’
The New York Governor described the present turbulent Italian situation as “the improvised, inefficient administration which personal New Deal government is giving them.”
He charged that “we are paying in blood for our failure to have ready an intelligent program for dealing with invaded Germany.”
Mr. Dewey said careful plans for Germany had been worked out by the War and State Departments it one time but protested that “that kind of planning goes for nothing when the President personally handles foreign policy.”
Dewey welcome plans announced
Downtown parade scheduled at noon
By Kermit McFarland
Governor Thomas E. Dewey will arrive at noon tomorrow for a parade through the downtown section, preliminary to his night speech in Hunt Armory, East Liberty.
Mr. Dewey’s special train will pull into the Pennsylvania Station, according to a Republican announcement, at exactly 12 o’clock ET.
The presidential candidate will be met at the station by Governor Edward Martin and taken to a motor convoy which will parade down Liberty Ave. to Fifth Avenue, up Fifth Avenue to Smithfield Street, along Smithfield to Sixth Avenue, and up Sixth Avenue to Grant Street.
He will enter the William Penn Hotel at the Grant Street entrance.
Mr. Dewey will spend the day at the hotel conferring with Republican leaders from this area and working, the headquarters announcement said, on the text of the speech he will deliver in Hunt Armory.
The Armory doors will be open at 6:30 p.m., but Mr. Dewey will not speak until 9:00 p.m. The rally will be opened at 8:00 p.m.
KDKA will carry Governor Dewey’s speech at 9:00 p.m. ET tomorrow.
Republican County Chairman James F. Malone will present candidates for statewide offices and then present Governor Martin who will introduce Governor Dewey.
Mr. Dewey will speak for a half hour and the speech will be broadcast over a nationwide radio network.
Two speakers signed
While Republicans prepared for the Dewey rally tomorrow, the Democrats signed up two more speakers for campaign-end meetings here.
Mayor Fiorella H. La Guardia of New York will appear Tuesday might at North Side Carnegie Hall to headline a fourth-term mass meeting sponsored by the Independent Citizens Committee for Roosevelt.
Gifford Pinchot, former Governor of Pennsylvania, has been added to the Democratic rally set for Nov. 2, at which Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri, candidate for Vice President, will be the principal speaker.
Spoke here in 1940
Mr. Pinchot and Mr. La Guardia, both Republicans, spoke from the same platform here on behalf of Mr. Roosevelt in 1940.
Mr. Pinchot, twice Governor, and Senator Truman will speak in Syria Mosque. The former Governor heads an independent Pennsylvania committee supporting the President.
Mr. Dewey’s parade route tomorrow is the same one he followed when he was here in July for conferences with political, business, agricultural, labor and war veteran groups.
He will be met at the station by a large representation from Governor Martin’s Cabinet, state candidates and top party officials.
Martin heads party
The reception committee, in addition to the Governor and Mr. Malone, will include Mrs. Martin, National Committeemen G. Mason, Owlett and Margery M. Scranton, State Chairman M. Harvey Taylor, Lieutenant Governor John C. Bell, Attorney General James H. Duff, Secretary of Internal Affairs William S. Livengood, Insurance Commissioner Gregg L. Neel, and George I. Bloom, secretary to the Governor.
Also present will be the statewide candidates: U.S. Senator James J. Davis, Supreme Court Justice Howard W. Hughes, Superior Court Judge Arthur H. James, Judge J. Frank Graff (candidate for the Superior Court), Senator G. Harold Watkins (candidate for Auditor General) and Philadelphia City Treasurer Edgar W. Baird (candidate for State Treasurer).
Roosevelt stymied?
Petrillo has protection of court ruling
Teeth pulled from anti-racketeering law
By Edward A. Evans, Scripps-Howard staff writer
…