Since Pearl Harbor –
Railroads pay $3 billion in U.S. taxes
Head of B&O cites rise in labor costs
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U.S. Congressmen visit Pontiff
Pope stresses need for charitable peace
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Widows’ pension bill approved
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Völkischer Beobachter (December 16, 1944)
In Deutschland sein heißt in Europa sein
‚Wir siegen mit Deutschland‘
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Führer HQ (December 16, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
Die feindlichen Angriffe am Rur-Abschnitt westlich und südlich von Düren haben gestern Vormittag an Heftigkeit nachgelassen. Erst in den Mittagsstunden trat die 1. amerikanische Armee mit starken Verbänden erneut zum Angriff an. In heißen Abwehrkämpfen haben unsere Truppen den beabsichtigten Durchstoß an die Rur verhindert. Mehrere hundert Gefangene blieben in unserer Hand. Die Orts- und Waldkämpfe nordöstlich Monschau halten an.
Im Kampfgebiet von Dillingen und Saarlautern setzte der Feind seine hartnäckigen Angriffe gegen einzelne Bunkergruppen fort. Zwischen der Saar und Bitsch konnte der Gegner nur nordöstlich Saargemünd geringfügig Boden gewinnen. Auf Bitsch liegt stärkstes feindliches Artilleriefeuer. An der elsässischen Nordostgrenze haben unsere Truppen neue Stellungen im Vorfeld des Westwalles bezogen.
Im Oberelsass hat sich die Lage nicht wesentlich verändert, obwohl der Feind den ganzen Tag über seine Angriffe in der Rheinebene bei Schlettstadt und in den Hochvogesen fortsetzte.
Auf dem linken Flügel unserer Front in Mittelitalien setzte der Feind nach Zuführung neuer Kräfte seine Großangriffe fort. Nach blutigen Kämpfen wurden erneute Durchbruchsversuche britischer Divisionen westlich Faenza von unseren tapferen Verbänden, zum Teil im Gegenstoß, vereitelt. Am Naviglio kam der Feind nur in einem schmalen Abschnitt einige hundert Meter vorwärts; an den Flügeln wurden seine Angriffe zerschlagen.
An der Front vor Budapest und in den feindlichen Einbruchsräumen in Nordostungarn verteidigen sich unsere Truppen zäh gegen die weiter angreifenden Bolschewisten.
Bei der Abwehr sowjetischer Luftangriffe am 14. und 15. Dezember auf Libau schossen deutsche Jäger und Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe nach den bis jetzt vorliegenden Meldungen 37 feindliche Flugzeuge ab. Damit erhöht sich die Gesamtzahl der an diesen beiden Tagen durch Luftverteidigungskräfte der Luftwaffe Mussolini sprach in Mailand und Kriegsmarine abgeschossenen Flugzeuge der Bolschewisten auf 100.
Nordamerikanische Terrorbomber griffen am gestrigen Tage Kassel und Hannover sowie einige Orte in Süd- und Südostdeutschland, darunter Rosenheim, an. Es entstanden Schäden vorwiegend in Wohngebieten. In den frühen Abendstunden flogen die Briten einen Terrorangriff auf Mannheim-Ludwigshafen. Gleichzeitig warfen britische schnelle Kampfflugzeuge Bomben auf Hannover und Osnabrück.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (December 16, 1944)
FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
161100A 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. 252
Allied progress towards Düren has given us control of the high ground dominating the Roer River on the southwest side of the town. The villages of Gürzenich, Birgel and Kufferath are in our hands and enemy counterattacks against both Gurzenich and Birgel have been repulsed. Targets in the village of Kreuzau, across the Roer River from Kufferath, were hit by fighter-bombers.
Farther north the two remaining pockets of resistance west of the Düren–Linnich sector of the Roer River have been cleared. Our units mopped up the factory area southeast of Mariaweiler and captured the castle near Schophoven.
Fighter-bombers struck at military objectives in Baal and other villages in the Jülich–Linnich area; Buir northeast of Düren; and railway yards at Rheydt, Grevenbroich, Euskirchen and Köln.
Southeast of Lammersdorf, our ground forces are mopping up Kesternich. In this sector we are encountering mine fields and wire entanglements.
Medium and light bombers attacked fortifications in five villages in the area east and southeast of Monschau.
In the Saar Valley, the enemy continues to direct heavy artillery fire into our bridgeheads across the river at Dilling and Saarlouis. A small counterattack in the Saarlouis area was repulsed by our artillery.
East of Saarguemines, mopping up continues in Habkirchen. We have entered Niedergailbach and Erching.
Fighter-bombers supported our ground forces in the Saar Valley, Striking at defended positions and communications behind the enemy lines. Farther into Germany, ammunition dumps were attacked.
West of the lower Vosges Mountains where the enemy is manning Maginot Line fortifications, resistance continued to be stubborn.
On the east side of the lower Vosges, our units have crossed the Franco-German frontier north of Climbach, which has been freed.
Heavy fire is coming from the Siegrfried Line at many points between Wissembourg and the Rhine River.
An additional slight advance has been made on the Aslace Plain northeast of Selestat.
Fighter-bombers attacked troop and ammunition trains and other railway targets north of the Ruhr and in Holland. Railway bridges at Zwolle and Deventer were targets for medium and light bombers. Medium bombers attacked an oil storage depot at Rüthen east of the Ruhr.
Yesterday afternoon, heavy bombers, escorted by fighters, attacked the boat pens at Ijmuiden with 12,000-pound bombs. Last night, a strong force of heavy bombers made a heavy and concentrated attack on Ludwigshafen.
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 16, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 206
Carrier-based aircraft of the Pacific Fleet on December 13 (West Longitude Date) struck at enemy shipping and installations in and around Luzon in the Philippines.
The following damage was caused:
- One medium oiler sunk at Lingayen.
- One medium cargo ship exploded and burning off Cape Bolinao.
- One small cargo ship destroyed west of Iba.
- Three small cargo ships burned at Olongapo.
- Two small cargo ships burning off Calatagan.
- Three small cargo ships burning at San Miguel Bay.
- One large transport beached and burning at Subic Bay.
- One medium oiler, beached near Iba, set ablaze.
- One destroyer or one destroyer escort damaged off Vigan.
- One destroyer and one destroyer escort damaged near Subic Bay.
- One destroyer in Manila. Harbor damaged.
A large cargo ship, a small cargo ship, a destroyer and another escort vessel were attacked in convoy.
Other damage to installations on Luzon included:
- Four locomotives and six cars destroyed at San Fernando.
- Buildings, fuel and ammunition dumps destroyed at Angeles and Clark Fields.
- Fifteen railroad cars, truck convoy and a sugar mill damaged in and near San Fernando.
In an attack on Luzon on December 15 carrier-based aircraft of the Pacific Fleet destroyed 11 Japanese airplanes and damaged 48 more. The total of enemy aircraft destroyed during December 13, 14, and 15 in the Luzon area is 235 and the total damaged 138. Meager air resistance was offered by the enemy. An attack was attempted on our surface units on December 15, but all eight planes in the enemy force were intercepted and shot down. Repeated night attacks were launched from our carriers on December 13, 14 and 15.
On December 14, Liberators of the Strategic Air Force, Pacific Ocean Areas (STRAIRPOA), bombed airstrip installations on Iwo Jima in the Volcanos. Enemy anti-aircraft fire caused slight damage to some of our planes but all returned safely. One of four attacking Japanese fighters was shot down.
Fighters of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing bombed and strafed supply facilities on Babelthuap in the Palaus on December 14.
Aircraft of Fleet Air Wing Two and the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing made neutralizing attacks on enemy-held bases in the Marshalls on the same date.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 16, 1944)
YANKS 130 MILES FROM MANILA
Landing cuts Philippines in half
Mindoro Island, south of Luzon, invaded by MacArthur’s force
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer
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U.S. may use moral force to aid Poland
Roosevelt, Churchill policies disagree
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
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Germans hurl tanks at 7th Army invasion of southern Rhineland
By James McGlincy, United Press staff writer
BULLETIN
Paris, France –
The U.S. Seventh Army today captured the French border city of Lauterbourg, nine miles west of Karlsruhe near the Rhine, unhinging crumpled German defenses of northeastern France, and poured across the frontier to storm the outposts of the Siegfried Line.
Gaining inside Germany, the U.S. Seventh Army met tough opposition in its invasion of the southern Rhineland, as action on the Western Front included: (1) U.S. troops gained inside Saarlautern. (2) Third Army forces entered Niedergladbach, as Seventh Army troops to the southeast closed on Bitche. (3) The Seventh Army was across the German border near Wissembourg. (4) Other Seventh Army troops crossed the border near Lauterbourg in a patrol action, but withdrew.
Paris, France –
The Germans rushed crack panzer reserves into battle in the southern Rhineland today in an effort to halt the latest American penetration of the “holy soil” of the Reich, but the Seventh Army hammered our new gains against almost point-blank fire from the Siegfried Line.
At least two and probably more of Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch’s Seventh Army divisions were already across the German frontier at the Wissembourg Gate near the eastern tip of France and others were rapidly approaching the border along a 19-mile front.
To the north, battles of attrition – which Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, commander of the 12th Army Group, said were costing the Germans four to five men for every American lost – raged on in the other two American bridgeheads inside Germany.
The U.S. First Army tightened its siege arc around the Roer River stronghold of Düren on the Cologne plain by smashing the last enemy resistance in Gürzenich, Birgel and Kufferath, all one-half to 3½ miles south of Düren, and won high ground in the area overlooking the floor.
Other First Army troops liquidated the last two German pockets along a 16-mile stretch of the Roer north of Düren, mopping up a factory area southeast of Mariaweiler and capturing a castle near Schophoven.
Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army, holding down the center of the Western Front, won another city block in Saarlautern in the face of stiff enemy resistance and ground out advances of up to a mile and a half along an 11-mile front near Habkirchen, to the southeast.
Elements of Gen. Patton’s 35th Infantry Division entered the burning German village of Niedergladbach, six miles northeast of Sarreguemines, and nearby Erchingen.
A Supreme Allied Headquarters spokesman revealed that the German command had shifted elements of a crack panzer division from one of the northern sectors into line opposite Gen. Patch’s Seventh Army boring into the Palatinate, historic invasion corridor to central and southern Germany.
Colliding head-on with the advancing Americans, the Germans fought bitterly, but were gradually falling back into the Siegfried Line defenses, at most points only a little more than a mile behind the Palatinate frontier.
Gen. Patch’s 103rd Infantry Division made the Seventh Army’s initial crossing into Germany, pushing over the frontier four miles west of the border fortress of Wissembourg at 1:05 p.m. yesterday.
Gain six miles
The 45th Infantry Division slightly farther west crossed the frontier 45 minutes later after gains of more than six miles in as many hours. Though there was no definite confirmation, it appeared that both columns were one to two miles inside Germany at a point 35 to 36 miles south of the Rhineland industrial centers of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen.
Some 10 miles east of Wissembourg, the 79th Infantry Division rolling north along the west bank of the Rhine sent a patrol consisting of an officer and several enlisted men across the frontier near Lauterbourg, but the group later returned to Alsatian soil.
Numerous pillboxes, including a line of bunkers camouflaged to resemble houses, were overrun in the advances. Climbach, four miles west of Wissembourg, was captured, and one column was within a mile of Wissembourg itself.
Nazis hurl barrage
The Germans poured a vicious barrage from fixed guns in the Siegfried defenses against the Americans, but failed to halt the advances. Doughboys doggedly punched ahead through red-roofed villages and forest paths.
Behind the lines, front dispatches said, supply units were bringing up thousands of artillery shells to feed armor and the big guns moving forward for a concerted assault on the Siegfried Line at what may be its weakest point.
Many captured
Numerous prisoners were rounded up, most of them expendables left behind as rearguards while crack regiments pulled back into the Siegfried Line. Among those captured were a number of youths wearing the armbands of the Volkssturm (Nazi People’s Army).
Some 25 miles west of Wissembourg, Seventh Army forces were finding the road junction of Bitche, eight miles south of the border, a hard nut to crack. Enveloped on three sides, including the north, the Germans continued their bitter resistance from a ring of steel and concrete forts around the town. Some of the forts had been built to resembled farmhouses, but with walls six to nine feet thick.
Yanks meet no opposition in push onto Mindoro beach
By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer
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Every Jap ship at Manila blasted
U.S. fliers destroy, damage 347 planes
By Lloyd Tupling, United Press staff writer
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