Innsbrucker Nachrichten (December 18, 1944)
Neuerdings zur Umgruppierung gezwungen
Durchbruchsversuche bei Faenza vereitelt – Schwerer Kampf bei Budapest
Von unserer Berliner Schriftleitung
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Oberdonau-Zeitung (December 18, 1944)
Churchill will Millionen Ost- und Westpreußen aus ihrer Heimat brutal verjagen
Eisenhower ist wieder festgefahren!
Fernschreibbericht der Berliner Schriftleitung der OZ
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Freie Franzosen rechnen mit de Gaulle ab
De Brinon über den Terror unter dem wachsenden Druck des Bolschewismus
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Salzburger Zeitung (December 18, 1944)
Der Stellungskrieg im Westen
Eisenhower tritt auf der Stelle – Auch im Osten Versteifung des deutschen Widerstandes
rd. Berlin, 17. Dezember –
Wie ein energischer Schlussstrich steht unter dem militärischen Ereignis der verflossenen Woche die Meldung des sonntäglichen Berichtes über eine erneute Kampfpause an der Front östlich Aachen.
Die Entwicklung in den letzten sieben Tagen lieh deutlich erkennen, dass Eisenhower bestrebt ist, durch eine gleichzeitige Schwerpunktbildung im Kampfraum Aachen und zwischen Saar und Oberrhein unsere Kräfte derart aufzusplittern, dass ihm endlich der so energisch und dringend benötigte Bewegungskrieg wieder möglich werde. Aber obwohl die in den Artillerieschlachten von den Amerikanern eingesetzten Materialmassen etwa das Vierfache der in der Normandie eingesetzten Menge betragen dürsten und obwohl auch die Zahl der Soldaten erheblich verstärkt wurde, tritt er weiterhin aus der Stelle.
Im Aachener Raum sehen sich die Verbände der 1. US-Armee weiterhin westlich und südlich Düren aus dem Westufer der Roer gefesselt. An der Saar konnten Einheiten der dritten US-Armee in erbitterten Häuser- und Bunkerkämpfen vor allem am Westrand von Dillingen sowie um Saarlautern nur wenig an Boden gewinnen, wurden dann jedoch durch unsere schneidigen Gegenangriffe getroffen und erneut zu Boden gezwungen. In dem anschließenden Frontabschnitt lag der angreifende Schwerpunkt der 7. nordamerikanischen Armee im Raume von Bitsch. Es gelang ihren sehr starken Panzerkräften, in Richtung auf Weißenburg Boden zu gewinnen. Diese Einbrüche wurden jedoch von unseren Abwehrverbänden abgeriegelt. Im Elsass, wo der Feind am Sonntag nordöstlich Schlettstadt vor unseren Gegenangriffen zurückweichen musste, machte er erbitterte Anstrengungen, dieses Gelände wieder zurückzugewinnen. Die hartnäckigen Kämpfe dauern noch an.
Genauso wie an der gesamten Westfront die Aktivität der verteidigenden Truppe gegenüber den Angreifern immer wieder und immer stärker in Erscheinung tritt, zeigt auch der Brennpunkt der Ostfront im Südabschnitt eine Versteifung des deutschen Widerstandes. So herrscht jetzt an den bisherigen Schwerpunkten südlich und nordöstlich des Plattensees und vor Budapest unter dem Eindruck der hohen Verluste, die die Bolschewisten bei ihren bisherigen Angriffen hinnehmen muhten, nur geringe Kampstätigkeit. Das Schwergewicht seiner Anstrengungen verlegte der Feind zwischen Eipel-Fluss und Mátragebirge, wo der von starken Kräften vorgetragene Durchbruchsversuch an unserer hartnäckigen Gegenabwehr scheiterte.
Führer HQ (December 18, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
Starke deutsche Kräfte sind am 16. Dezember um 5,30 Uhr in breiter Front aus dem Westwall nach einer kurzen, aber gewaltigen Feuervorbereitung zum Angriff angetreten und haben die vordersten amerikanischen Stellungen zwischen dem Hohen Venn und dem Nordteil Luxemburgs im ersten Ansturm überrannt. Die große Angriffsschlacht nimmt, von starken Jagdfliegern geschützt, ihren Fortgang. Einzelheiten werden, um dem völlig überraschten Gegner keine Anhaltspunkte zu bieten, erst später bekanntgegeben.
Im Kampf mit der feindlichen Luftwaffe über dem Frontgebiet haben Geschwader unserer Jagdflieger nach bisher vorliegenden Meldungen 48 feindliche Jagdbomber abgeschossen. Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe vernichtete außerdem 21 feindliche Flugzeuge. In der Nacht griffen starke Kampf- und Nachtschlachtverbände die feindlichen Bewegungen und Nachschubzentren mit guter Wirkung an.
An der übrigen Westfront wird weiterhin am Rur-Abschnitt westlich und südlich Düren, in den Bunkerstellungen bei Saarlautern, bei Bitsch und vor dem Westwall an der pfälzisch-elsässischen Grenze gekämpft. Im Oberelsass sind unsere Truppen im Gegenangriff wieder in Kaysersberg eingedrungen.
Lüttich und Antwerpen lagen unter stärkstem Fernfeuer.
In Mittelitalien haben die feindlichen Angriffe westlich Faenza an Stärke und Ausdehnung nachgelassen. Beiderseits Bagnacavallo endete der mit verstärkten Kräften geführte Ansturm der kanadischen Verbände auch gestern unter blutigen Verlusten mit einer Niederlage.
In Ungarn schlugen unsere Truppen starke sowjetische Angriffe südlich des Plattensees ab. Im Kampfabschnitt Szécsény, scheiterten erneute, diesmal nach Osten zielende feindliche Durchbruchsversuche. Im Gegenangriff wurde eine Frontlücke geschlossen. Zwischen Bükkgebirge und dem Hernád bezogen wir neue Stellungen, die gestern gegen heftige sowjetische Angriffe behauptet wurden.
Nordamerikanische Terrorflieger warfen am Tage Bomben auf Orte in Oberschlesien und Südostdeutschland.
In der Nacht führten die Briten unter abermaliger Verletzung schweizerischen Hoheitsgebietes einen Terrorangriff gegen die Innenstadt von München. Es entstanden erhebliche Schäden in Wohngebieten, an vielen Kulturbauten und anderen öffentlichen Gebäuden, darunter mehreren Krankenhäusern. Andere Verbände warfen eine große Zahl Bomben auf Ulm. Auch der rheinisch-westfälische Raum war das Ziel weiterer feindlicher Luftangriffe. Luftverteidigungskräfte schossen 36 anglo-amerikanische Flugzeuge, darunter 24 viermotorige Bomber, ab.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (December 18, 1944)
FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
181100A 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. 254
Fighting has increased in intensity from the Monschau area southward to the southern end of the Luxembourg-German border, with the enemy continuing his attacks. Both infantry and armor are now in action, and in some sectors the enemy has made use of small groups of parachutists. Gains were made by the Germans near Honsfeld, southwest of Vianden, and south of Echternach.
The enemy’s efforts to give air support to his attacking ground forces, resulted in aerial battles in which we destroyed 108 of his aircraft for the loss of 33 of our fighters. Most of the action took place over the Monschau Forest and adjoining areas, though combats also developed farther north in the Rheine, Münster and Bocholt regions.
Fighter-bombers, operating mainly against road traffic in the Monschau area, and rail traffic radiating from Köln, destroyed or damaged large numbers of locomotives, rail cars, armored fighting vehicles and motor and horse-drawn vehicles. Much of the road traffic was moving eastward on the road running along the Roer River to the east of Monschau; other operations against road traffic were carried out between Monschau and Prüm.
In the Saar Valley, Allied forces are making steady progress in the Dillingen and Saarlautern areas. Northeast of Saargemund, we have made gains north of Walsheim. Fighter-bombers attacked fortified towns in the Saar region and bombed an ammunition dump east of Koblenz.
In the Bitsch area, heavy fighting continues around the Maginot Fortified Line. Enemy resistance slackened slightly, but remains stubborn.
Northeast of Wissembourg, our units have captured a half dozen villages inside germany, including Schweighofen and Kapsweyer. Our forces are now facing the Siegfried Line at many points.
Medium bombers, two of which are missing, attacked the Siegfried Line defenses between Oberotterbach and Steinfeld, including fortifications, pillboxes, tank traps and wire entanglements.
Fighter-bombers operating in the Kaiserslautern, Speyer and Pforzheim areas shot down four enemy aircraft and attacked rail lines, locomotives, railyards and cars, and motor transport.
In the high Vosges Mountains, our ground forces freed Kaisersberg. On the Alsace Plain some ground was lost to strong enemy counterattacks.
Fighter-bombers, one of which is missing, struck at barges, bridges, road blocks and barracks in the Colmar, Freiburg and Neustadt areas. A rail bridge at Freiburg was attacked by medium bombers.
Last night, heavy bombers attacked industrial and railway targets in Ulm.
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 18, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 207
Carrier-based aircraft of the Pacific Fleet continued attacks on enemy shipping, installations and rolling stock in and around Luzon in the Philippines on December 15 (West Longitude Date). Complete reports for December 13 and 14 and a preliminary report for December 15 reveal the following damage inflicted by the three days of operations:
SHIPS SUNK:
- One large transport
- Three medium oilers
- Ten cargo ships
- Two landing vessels
- Twelve small vessels
SHIPS DAMAGED:
- Four destroyers
- Two destroyer escorts
- Ten cargo vessels
- Twenty-five small cargo vessels
- Twenty-five landing barges
ROLLING STOCK DAMAGED:
-
Eight railroad trains and locomotives strafed and burned.
-
At least twenty-five military vehicles destroyed and an undetermined number of other vehicles damaged in a severe attack on a two-hundred truck troop convoy near San Jose northeast of Manila.
MILITARY INSTALLATIONS DAMAGED:
Numerous military buildings, bridges, piers, warehouses, barracks, gas and oil storages, antiaircraft and aviation facilities.
Complete reports for December 13 and 14 and a preliminary report for December 15 disclose that sixty-one enemy planes were shot down over Luzon. An additional two hundred eight enemy planes were destroyed on the ground and one hundred ninety-two were damaged. Fires were started in dispersal areas. Incomplete figures for December 13 and 14 reveal that we lost twenty planes due to enemy action.
On December 15, Liberators of the Strategic Air Force attacked air targets on Iwo Jima in the Volcanos. On the following day, a force of Liberators returned to drop one hundred twelve tons of bombs on airstrip installations. They were intercepted by three enemy fighters. One of our planes was damaged by anti-aircraft fire. Other Liberators bombed the airstrip again during the day.
Mitchells of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing attacked a small enemy transport between the Bonins and Volcanos with rockets on December 16. Two explosions were seen.
Avengers bombed the airstrip on Yap on December 16. Liberators of the Strategic Air Force struck Woleai in the western Carolines on the same day.
The 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing bombed and strafed shipping and other targets at Babelthuap in the Palaus on December 15 and 16. An enemy launch was sunk.
Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing One bombed airstrip installations on Pagan in the Marianas on December 15. Meager anti-aircraft fire was encountered.
Planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing and Fleet Air Wing Two continued neutralization raids on enemy-held bases in the Marshalls on December 15 and 16.
Communiqué No. 559
Pacific and Far East.
U.S. submarines have reported the sinking of 33 vessels, including 12 combatant vessel – a light cruiser, 3 destroyers, 6 escort vessels, a minesweeper and a minelayer – was a result of operations against the enemy in these waters:
- 1 light cruiser
- 3 destroyers
- 6 escort vessels
- 1 minesweeper
- 1 minelayer
- 1 large tanker
- 1 medium tanker
- 14 medium cargo vessels
- 2 medium cargo transports
- 3 small cargo vessels
These actions have not been announced in any previous Navy Department communiqué.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 18, 1944)
YANKS COUNTER NAZI DRIVE
Enemy push gains several miles
Plane battles swirl above 1st Army front; Germans hurl robots
By James McGlincy, United Press staff writer
BULLETIN
U.S. 9th Army HQ, Western Front (UP) –
The Germans are using a new type secret weapon along the Western Front, it can be revealed today. The weapon appears to be a small rocket projectile.
Paris, France –
Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges unleashed his U.S. First Army countermeasures today against the biggest German offensive of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s western campaign, the first impact of which carried the Germans several miles across the Belgian and Luxembourg frontiers.
Dispatches from the fluid, 70-mile battlefront said Gen. Hodges’ Doughboys had sprung to the task of sealing off the penetrations of the American positions by Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt’s counteroffensive which plunged at least three spearheads into Belgium and Luxembourg.
For the second straight day, great air battles swirled over the First Army front.
Field reports up to early afternoon said that the American and British airmen had destroyed 20 German planes, probably downed three more and damaged 13. Three U.S. Thunderbolts were lost. The Nazis lost 103 planes yesterday against the American’s 33.
Along with his planes, Rundstedt threw into his mad bull charge, regarded as an all-or-nothing bid to turn the First Army’s line and upset Gen. Eisenhower’s winter offensive, a vicious array of V-bombs and paratroopers.
Round up paratroopers
Supreme Allied Headquarters reported that about 10 more parachute troopers were dropped on the Ninth Army front, flanking the First Army to the left, last night. Six of them were captured.
A complete security blackout blanketed the First Army front after the day’s early reports were in. The move, a customary one in the first phase of new operations involving any appreciable change of positions, was taken to keep the Nazis from knowing the whereabouts of their forward elements whose communications might be cut off, and to obscure from the enemy standpoint the American countermeasures.
Quick to take advantage of the news blackout, Nazi propagandists sprang the word that the German command “expected that at least in the first phase of the attack the resistance would be greater.” To that statement by the DNB News Agency was appended the assertion that “the speedy collapse of organized defense considerably simplified the task of the German command, and it is not unlikely that the next few days will bring further surprises.
Pressure strong
DNB said the “northern part of Luxembourg has already been crossed on a wide front.”
A United Press dispatch from the front before the news blackout was imposed said German pressure was strong along most of a 50-mile front, but the Americans were resisting fiercely and had succeeded in keeping a hold on German territory around Monschau, where the heaviest weight of the Nazi offensive appeared to have been concentrated.
“At other points the Americans continued to resist in some areas within the general German advance,” the dispatch said. The statement was no clarified, but appeared to suggest that some First Army units were fighting behind the advanced positions of the Nazis.
Attack grows
A headquarters communiqué said the German onslaught was mounting in weight and fury as the Nazi High Command hurled into battle crack infantry and armored reserves that apparently had been drawn from the German Army’s carefully-hoarded strategic reserve.
The communiqué reported one German spearhead had plunged across the border into Belgium near Honsfeld, 2½ miles inside the frontier and about 20 miles south of Monschau. A second crossed into Luxembourg some 32 miles farther south below the border town of Vianden, 14 miles south of the German-Belgian-Luxembourg border triangle. A third was inside Luxembourg south of Echternach, 12½ miles south-southwest of Vianden.
As the Germans made their big push, the U.S. Third and Seventh Armies to the south continued their grinding advance into the Siegfried Line fortifications guarding the Saar Valley and the Rhine Palatinate.
Front dispatches reported both armies making steady progress against increasingly heavy opposition, and broadening their wedges in the West Wall.
At the southern end of the Allied line, units of the French First Army gave ground under a blistering Nazi counterattack, but the thrust was apparently a diversionary effort coordinated with the big push on the U.S. First Army front.
While the First Army front swayed back under the German push, other units at the northern flank of Gen. Hodges’ line closed in steadily on the Roer River line and the fortress town of Düren, gateway to Cologne.
Smash into Rölsdorf
Units of the 83rd Infantry Division smashed into the village of Rölsdorf just west of the Roer River on the outskirts of Düren and began a house-to-house mop-up of the Nazi garrison.
The Germans were reported putting up a stubborn but losing stand for their few remaining positions on the west bank of the Roer.
A total of 845 Germans were captured on that sector and on the Nazis’ offensive front to the south yesterday, and First Army headquarters said U.S. bazooka squads and tank destroyers were taking a heavy toll of German armor as they fell back.
The main weight of Rundstedt’s offensive was apparently centered on the Monschau Forest area south of Monschau, where the enemy’s armor and shock troops opened the attack at 7:00 a.m. Sunday CET behind a heavy artillery and aerial barrage.
Use old path
Striking through the same corridor used by the Germans in their drive into France and Belgium in 1940, the Nazis quickly overran the forward American defenses and crossed the Belgian border into the Honsfeld area before running into heavy opposition.
Simultaneously, fresh German divisions joined the attack all the way down to the southern end of Luxembourg, supercharged by an order of the day from Rundstedt proclaiming that: “Everything is at stake. Your great hour has struck.”
A copy of the High Command order found on a dead German officer indicated strongly that the Nazis were committing themselves to their biggest effort since D-Day in an attempt to disrupt the American drive on Cologne to the north.
Blast Nazi tanks
A sudden break in the weather, which had favored the enemy throughout the first 30 hours of the offensive, gave the U.S. Ninth and British Second Tactical Air Forces a clear crack at the Germans late in the day and they made the most of it. Ninth Air Force fliers along destroyed 25 German tanks and armored vehicles in a few hours, along with hundreds of railway cars and trucks.
Driven out of the skies by daylight, the Nazi planes came back after nightfall with a series of heavy bombing and strafing attacks on the First Army’s front and rear areas.
While the enemy’s best and strongest divisions fought for a breakthrough in the north, Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch’s U.S. Seventh Army troops pushed methodically into the Siegfried forts on the southern Rhine.
Gain on 21-mile front
Gen. Patch’s divisions slugged their way three miles and more into Germany on a 21-mile front extending westward from the Rhine at Berg and Lauterbourg through Wissembourg to Bobenthal against varying opposition.
Field dispatches said only elements of five German divisions, plus some fortress troops, were holding the 30-mile-wide belt by Siegfried fortifications menaced by the Seventh Army drive. All but two of these divisions were said to be far below combat strength, and it was believed the Nazis could not muster more than 10,000 men on that sector.
At least nine German towns – Lauterbourg, Scheibenhardt, Bobenthal, Berg, Schweigen, Schweighofen, Kapsweyer, Rechtenbach and Nothweiler – were in American hands and Gen. Patch’s troops were wedging steadily northward into the deep fortress belt.
Battle for Bitche
Farther to the west, other Seventh Army units ran into stiff opposition in Bitche, where strong German forces were dug into the old Maginot Line defenses. The Americans fought their way into Hottviller, three miles northwest of Bitche, and entered Fort Freudenberg, just southeast of Bitche.
On the French First Army front to the south, German counterattacks overran a number of villages on the Alsace Plain, including Bennwihr and Mittelwihr, five miles north of Colmar, and Diebolsheim, near the Rhine,19 miles below Strasbourg.
Gain in Saar
Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army, meanwhile, hammered out small gains north of Saarlautern and pushed clear through to the eastern end of Dillingen, one of the heaviest-defended positions on the rim of the Siegfried Line. The Third Army also deepened its bridgehead into Germany east of Sarreguemines, where the Germans were forced back as much as a half-mile on a 10-mile front jutting up into the Saar.
The communiqué said Gen. Patton’s troops were advancing north of Walsheim, three miles inside the Reich, and headquarters spokesmen also reported advances 10 miles northeast of Sarreguemines, apparently in the Assweiler sector.
Combat fliers patrolling the Third Army front reported very heavy German barge and rail traffic moving up to the front, but there was no amplification of the reports.
German drive well planned
Offensive not act of desperation
By William H. Stoneman
London, England –
Field Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt’s counteroffensive against the U.S. First Army in Belgium is the result of long calculation and must not be dismissed as an act of pure desperation.
The brilliant German general has known for weeks that he must fight a great knockdown-dragout battle west of the Rhine. We have announced on many occasions that we expected it to happen between the Roer River and the Erft Canal, on the Cologne Plain. Now he has anticipated us by striking to the south, a field of his own choosing.
The forces on both sides are formidable, with the Americans definitely holding the upper hand in artillery and in the air. Whether they are superior to the Germans, equal to them, or inferior to them in tanks and infantry, depends upon the sector.
Picks weak point
We obviously do not have overwhelming forces everywhere along the German frontier and, obviously, Rundstedt has attempted to pick a point at which we are weak. Protected by weather from our air forces, and using his fabled skill in shifting troops rapidly, he certainly has massed the cream of his infantry and armored divisions for an attempted breakthrough.
Several factors are reassuring and promise a favorable ultimate outcome. Although he has a large number of infantry divisions and armored division on the front, or near it, Rundstedt’s strategic reserve is limited almost to the point of being nonexistent. The Germans have husbanded a large number of good pilots and fine, new jet-propelled aircraft for the present offensive, but we are still overwhelmingly powerful in the air. The Germans must maintain large numbers of good troops all along their frontier in order to prevent a fatal counterthrust.
Seek to disrupt Allies
They must guard against offensives by the Canadian First Army, by the British Second Army, by the American Ninth, First, Third and Seventh Armies, and by the French First Army. What we have on our hands is a skillful high-powered offensive by an army which, if successful in the first punch, still cannot go on and on.
What Rundstedt’s offensive amounts to, in effect, is an attempt to disrupt the Allied winter offensive and, by regaining some ground in Belgium and Luxembourg, to bolster German morale. Even granted the maximum conceivable amount of success, the present drive should not do more than embarrass us. If our intelligence has been good and our generals have planned carefully for such an exigency as this, then Rundstedt’s blow may rebound in his face.
Such an offensive as this can come as a surprise only to those wishful thinkers who have insisted upon thinking that the German Army is on its last legs. That theory was blasted thoroughly by our experience in the offensive which began on the First Army front Nov. 1.
Yanks advance 12 miles inland on Mindoro
Jap defense line on Leyte shattered
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33 more Jap vessels, including 12 warships, sunk by submarines
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U.S. backs early accord on Polish-Russian border
Stettinius hints agreement would aid in prosecution of fight against Nazis
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After war area tour –
6 front shortages to be investigated
Heavy ammunition leads the list
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
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5-pound steak brings $40,000 in bond rally
New York (UP) –
The wartime meat shortage was pointed up in dramatic fashion when a spectator at a Sixth War Bond drive at Castle Village, a group of private homes near the George Washington Bridge, purchased $40,000 worth of bonds and was awarded a five-pound steak.
Mrs. William Joseph, the chairman, reported a total of $300,000 was subscribed during the rally.