America at war! (1941–) – Part 5

1422

Führer HQ (April 10, 1945)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Zwischen Drau und Wienerwald zerschlugen unsere Truppen die Mehrzahl der feindlichen Angriffe. Um den Stadtkern von Wien wird am Franz-Josef-Bahnhof, beim Allgemeinen Krankenhaus, am Westbahnhof und nordwestlich der Ostbahnbrücke erbittert gekämpft. An der Marchmündung konnte der Gegner seinen Brückenkopf um einige Kilometer nach Nordwesten erweitern, während er zwischen der March und der oberen Neutra trotz zahlreicher Angriffe keinen wesentlichen Bodengewinn erzielte.

Südwestlich Ratibor dauern die örtlichen Kämpfe an. Gegen die Süd- und Westfront von Breslau traten die Bolschewisten nach der heftigen Feuervorbereitung erneut zum Angriff an, wurden aber von der standhaften Besatzung nach geringem Geländeverlust abgeschlagen.

Am Zugang zur Putziger Nehrung und in der westlichen Weichselniederung blieben feindliche Vorstöße wiederum erfolglos.

Unterstützt durch Schlacht- und Kampffliegerverbände und starkes Artilleriefeuer setzten die Sowjets ihre Angriffe gegen Königsberg von allen Seiten mit erdrückender Übermacht fort. Die tapfere Besatzung verteidigte jedes Haus gegen den bis in das Stadtinnere eingedrungenen Feind mit großer Standhaftigkeit.

Im Norden der Westfront hat sich die Lage zwischen Ems und Weser im wesentlichen nicht verändert. Gegen den tapferen Widerstand unserer Fallschirmjäger und Grenadiere konnten die über die Linie Meppen–Bramsche weiter vordrängenden Engländer nur schrittweise Boden gewinnen.

Zwischen der unteren Weser und dem Raum von Hildesheim stieß der Gegner mit einzelner Angriffsgruppen weiter nach Osten vor und schob sich näher an Hannover heran. Weiter südlich haben sich die Kämpfe von der Weser an die Leine verlagert. Göttingen ging nach hartem Kampf verloren.

Am Nordrand des Ruhrgebietes, nördlich der Sieg und im Ostteil des Sauerlandes halten unsere Divisionen dem pausenlos angreifenden Gegner stand. Trotz mehrerer tiefen Einbrüche blieb der Zusammenhang der Front durch immer wiederholte Gegenangriffe gewahrt.

Im Thüringerwald stehen die Besatzungen zahlreicher Stützpunkte im Kampf mit überlegenem Feind und verhindern so durch aufopfernden Einsatz das weitere Vordringen der Amerikaner. Auch bei Schleusingen blieb dem Feind durch unsere Gegenangriffe größerer Bodengewinn versagt. Dagegen gelang es amerikanischen Panzerkräften, zwischen Hildburghausen und dem Main weiter nach Südosten vorzustoßen.

Im Raum von Schweinfurt zwang wirkungsvolles Feuer unserer Flakartillerie den Gegner zu Boden.

Im Rücken des Feindes verbliebene eigene Kampfgruppen überfallen die amerikanischen Versorgungskolonnen und fügen durch diese Kleinkriegstaktik dem Gegner hohe Verluste zu.

Im Raum nordwestlich Crailsheim versucht der Feind die westlich der Stadt eingeschlossene Kampfgruppe zu entsetzen. Heftige Kämpfe mit unseren zu Gegenangriffen angetretenen Kräften sind im Gange.

Im Abschnitt zwischen Heilbronn und Ettlingen hält der starke Druck an. Unsere Jagd- und Schlachtfliegerverbände griffen mit Bomben und Bordwaffen wirksam in die Erdkämpfe ein und schossen elf anglo-amerikanische Flugzeuge ab.

An der Ligurischen Küste setzten die Anglo­amerikaner ihre Angriffe mit starken Kräften fort und konnten nach schweren, verlustreichen Kämpfen in Massa eindringen.

Südwestlich des Comacchio-Sees gelang es dem nach stärkstem Artillerie- und Schlachtfliegereinsatz angreifenden Gegner, unseren um Lugo vorspringenden Frontbogen zurückzudrücken.

In Nordwestdalmatien stehen unsere Stützpunktbesatzungen im Abwehrkampf gegen fortgesetzte Angriffe starker Bandenkräfte.

Angloamerikanische Terrorbomber richteten am Tage ihre Angriffe besonders gegen Orte im süd- und nordwestdeutschen Raum. In der Nacht flogen britische Verbände Mittel- und Nordwestdeutschland an. 27 meist viermotorige Bomber wurden zum Absturz gebracht.

1423

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (April 10, 1945)

FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN

ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section

DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
101100B April

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) AIR STAFF MAIN
(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) SHAEF MAIN
(20) HQ SIXTH ARMY GP 

(REF NO.)
NONE

(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR

Communiqué No. 367

UNCLASSIFIED: Allied forces overcame enemy resistance at Meppen and after crossing the Ems River made good advances northward beyond Lathen. East of Lingen, our units occupied Fürstenau.

South of Bremen, we captured Bassum and Riede where enemy resistance is stiffening. Armored elements have captured Niedernstocken on the Leine River and farther south other units have secured bridges intact across the river in the area of Neustadt am Rübenberge and have continued their advance.

Our units crossed the Leine River at Ricklingen, northwest of Hanover, and other elements reached a point five miles from the western edge of the city. To the south our armor captured Gestorf and cleared Hildesheim, while infantry crossed the Leine River south of the town and pushed seven miles eastward.

Northwest of Göttingen, elements which crossed the Weser River reached Bodenfelde and are fighting in Offensen and Eberhausen.

South of Göttingen, we took Diemarden and Reinhausen. We are across the Leine River on an 11-mile front from Göttingen south to a point just northeast of Witzenhausen.

East of Mühlhausen, our armor and infantry entered Altenhausen and reached the vicinity of Klettstedt.

East of Gotha, our infantry is in the vicinity of Nottleben, while farther south other elements are near Crawinkel and Stutzhaus. To the west, we repulsed a counterattack near Tambach-Dietharz.

Northeast of Suhl, we reached the vicinity of Stützerbach after repulsing a small counterattack. In the area 15 miles south of Suhl our armored elements occupied Bedheim.

Gompertshausen and Rieth, south of Bedheim, were reached by our armored elements after a 12-mile advance.

We are within four miles of Schweinfurt on both the north and south sides.

East of Ochsenfurt our armor reached Dormheim after a six-mile gain.

The southern point of the Crailsheim salient was widened against strong ground resistance supported by enemy air attacks.

Farther west our troops have pushed south from the Jagst River and forced the enemy back toward the Kocher River.

House-to-house fighting continued in Heilbronn.

Brackenheim, southwest of Heilbronn, has been captured.

South of Karlsruhe the enemy continues to hold out in the Siegfried Line fortifications.

Targets at Niderstetten, Neuenstadt and Kochendorf were attacked by fighter-bombers operating ahead of our ground forces.

In the Ruhr Pocket our infantry entered the northwestern part of Essen after meeting fairly stiff resistance. Southwest of Soest we cleared Werl and reached Wiehagen.

On the eastern side of the pocket our forces reached Hirschberg and took Meschede, moth southwest of Rüthen, our armor cleared Fredeburg, northwest of Schmallenberg, while southwest of the city we captured Saalhausen and Heinsburg.

North of Siegen we entered Hilchenbach and Büschhutten.

Ten airfields in an area 60 miles square around München, an oil storage depot at Neuberg, and an explosive plant at Wolfratshausen were attacked yesterday by escorted heavy bombers in very great strength while 13 airfields from north of Hanover southward to Ingolstadt were bombed and strafed by fighter-bombers. One hundred sixty-eight enemy aircraft were destroyed on the ground and many others were damaged in these attacks.

Railyards at Jena, Saalfeld, Bamberg, Stuttgart and near Leipzig and road and rail transport north of Nordhausen and in the Nürnberg area were attacked by medium, light and fighter-bombers.

Other medium and light bombers attacked an oil refinery at Dedenhausen, oil storage depots at Bad Berka and Weißenhorn, an armored vehicle depot southwest of Leipzig, and an ordnance depot at Amberg while supply and ammunition dumps near Erfurt and at Kleinengstingen were hit by medium and fighter-bombers.

Gun positions in the Zutphen sector were silenced by medium bombers.

Enemy transport and communications in Holland and northwestern Germany were attacked by fighter bombers.

U-boat shelters and oil storage depots at Hamburg were bombed by escorted heavy bombers. Twenty-two thousand pound and 12,000-pound bombs were dropped.

During the day’s operations 21 enemy aircraft were shot down. According to reports so far received, 11 of our bombers and ten fighters are missing.

Last night, heavy bombers were over Germany in very great strength with the shipbuilding yards at Kiel as their main objective. Targets in Berlin, and enemy movement over a wide area of Germany, were attacked by light bombers.

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 FA4655

AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/
1424

U.S. Navy Department (April 10, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 328

After beating off two small counterattacks on Motobu Peninsula on the evening of April 9 (East Longitude Date), Marines of the III Amphibious Corps on Okinawa continued their advance on April 10, moving their lines generally about 2,500 yards westward to the Manna River on the south and Unten Bay on the north. Enemy submarine pens at Unten Bay and other installations were captured. On Ishikawa Isthmus, Marines moved northward to the vicinity of Tsuwa Village.

The XXIV Army Corps in the southern sector of the Okinawa battle continued to meet stubborn enemy resistance along its entire front. At 1800 on April 10 there were no substantial changes in the lines. Backed by heavy artillery fire, the enemy made several unsuccessful counterattacks against our positions. Army troops were supported by intense Marine and Army artillery fire by carrier aircraft and by naval gunfire from major units of the Pacific Fleet.

Elements of the XXIV Army Corps landed on Tsugen Island about ten miles off the east coast of Okinawa on the morning of April 10 encountering some enemy resistance.

At the end of April 8, our forces on Okinawa had killed 5,009 of the enemy and had taken 222 prisoners of war. At that time, 43,378 civilians were under care of the U.S. Military Government.

Search aircraft of Fleet Air Wing One bombed hangars and barracks on Tanega Island in the northern Ryukyus on April 10.

Army Black Widow night-fighters strafed and bombed installations in the Bonins on the night of April 9-10. VII Fighter Command Mustangs bombed docks and shipping at Chichi Jima on April 10 scoring a hit on a small cargo ship.

Targets in the Palaus were struck by Hellcat and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing on April 10.

1425

The Pittsburgh Press (April 10, 1945)

9th Army takes Hannover – 1st Army 115 miles from Berlin

Drives by U.S. tanks cave in northern and central Nazi defenses

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1426

Eighth Army shatters Nazi line in Italy, drives onto Po Plain

British push follows pulverizing air attack – Yanks on west coast gain below La Spezia

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1427

Yanks invade key island off Okinawa

Biggest artillery battle of Pacific war rages

map.041045.up
New Pacific landing by U.S. troops on Tsukata Island, eight miles off the southeast coast of Okinawa, was reported by the Japs. U.S. forces on Okinawa reached Onaha on the southeast coast. Marines in the north sealed off Motobu Peninsula and occupied half of it.

GUAM (UP) – Tokyo said today that U.S. troops have landed on Tsukata Island controlling the entrance to nearly-conquered Nakagusuku Bay naval anchorage in Southeast Okinawa.

Other troops spearing along the shore of the bay on Okinawa advanced more than a mile and a half to Onaha, on the edge of Yonabaru Airfield and a mile and a half north of the port of Yonabaru itself, a Tokyo Domei Agency broadcast said.

Bud Foster of NBC, in a pooled broadcast from Okinawa today, said U.S. infantrymen were “attacking with heavy mortar fire pouring on them from deep, thick defense lines.” He said ambulances “virtually unused before yesterday,” were moving in long lines over narrow, muddy roads carrying wounded to the beach.

U.S. destroyers and other warcraft have already entered Nakagusuku Bay, the broadcast said.

Landing reported Sunday

U.S. sources were unable to confirm the reported east coast developments, but said the greatest artillery battle of the Pacific war was underway in the southwest coast sector as the U.S. XXIV Army Corps stormed deeper into defenses shielding the capital city of Naha.

Gen. O. P. Smith, deputy chief of staff for the Tenth Army, said more battalions of artillery were supporting the ground forces than ever before in the Pacific. The concentration of guns per yard nearly equals the maximum known in warfare, he said.

Domei said U.S. troops landed on Tsukata Island some eight miles off the southeast coast of Okinawa Sunday afternoon. The dispatch made no claim that the forces had been repulsed and it was possible the Americans quickly overran the tiny island.

During the landing operations, Tokyo said, Jap forces – presumably with artillery – sank one large American destroyer and a small craft.

More than two-thirds of the Okinawa coast of the bay has already been cleared by XXIV Army Corps troops. Yonabaru, its principal port, lies at the southwest corner.

Once Nakagusuku Bay has been cleared, the American command will have an excellent naval anchorage within easy striking range of the Jap homeland and the China coast.

Battle for caves

On the west coast and in the interior, U.S. soldiers were fighting from cave to cave and pillbox and pillbox, in a battle as vicious and as savage as ever fought in the Pacific, front dispatches said.

Gains were limited to enlarge the Americans fought to enlarge their wedge in the enemy’s major defense line two miles above Machinato Airfield and four miles north of Naha.

United Press writer Edward Thomas reported from the front:

The troops are doing a lot of traveling on their bellies in slow advances. One general described “White Hill” as the strongest prepared position he ever had seen and said steel and concrete reinforcements made it similar to spots in the Siegfried Line.

The 184th Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division captured a triangular Jap point of resistance centered on a burial vault in fierce fighting, but lost it to a Jap counterattack. Reorganizing, the Americans attacked from two sides and recaptured the point, this time holding it.

Jap broadcasts estimated that more than 100 U.S. warships, including eight battleships, were shelling Okinawa.

Naha itself, the largest and most modern city in the Ryukyu Island chain, was gradually being flattened by the unprecedented bombardment.

Jap guns were also laying down a heavy barrage.

In northern Okinawa, Marines of the III Amphibious Corps sealed off Motobu Peninsula and occupied half of it in advances of 3,000 to 4,000 yards against scattered and ineffective enemy resistance yesterday.

Blast 7 Jap planes

The thrust to the north completed the occupation of 160 of Okinawa’s 485 square miles.

Ten Jap planes attacked the Okinawa area during last evening and seven were destroyed. Two U.S. planes were lost in a collision over the Jap-held portion of the island. Their pilot parachuted, but the Japs fired on them as they floated toward the ground and little hope was held for either.

The Japs attempted several suicide boat attacks on American shipping off Okinawa. One suicide boat blew up too soon and the two Jap crewmen were killed as they attempted to swim to shore. The others were driven off before they could do any damage.

1428

Germany writhes in bloodbath –
Anti-Nazis rise up to call Hitler a master murderer

By Paul Ghali

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1429

Captive mines may be seized

Question referred to Davis by WLB

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1430

Army will speed names of liberated

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Minister to U.S. dies

WASHINGTON – Dr. Stephanus F. N. Gie, Union of South Africa Minister to this country and a delegate to the San Francisco Conference, died yesterday of a cerebral hemorrhage.

1431

I DARE SAY —
A new kind of housecleaning

By Florence Fisher Parry

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1432

U.S. delegation to vote as unit

Majority to rule, Stettinius says

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1433

Woman, 45, held after trysts with Nazi prisoner

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Joan Barry called to witness stand

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1434

Black market talk called gossip by OPA

Official’s statement arouses senators

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1435

German gold to be problem for diplomats

Will be in custody of Army until peace

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1436

Japs threaten big attacks

GUAM (UP) – Radio Tokyo said today that Japan was determined to send its “whole fleet and whole air force” into action to halt the American offensive in the Ryukyus.

What the broadcast failed to say, however, was that U.S. warships and planes have already destroyed or damaged more than 25 Jap warships and 2,000 aircraft sent against them in the past month.

1437

4 million starving civilians with Nazis in Holland trap

By Helen Kirkpatrick

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Big Nazi factory found in cliff

Plant along Weser hidden from air
By Clinton B. Conger, United Press staff writer

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1438

Flier who bombed Yamato sees ship burn from sea

Lieutenant rescued after spending four hours on raft in midst of Jap task force
By Mac R. Johnson, United Press staff writer

ABOARD ADM. TURNER’S FLAGSHIP, Okinawa – A young Navy pilot parachuted from his burning plane into the middle of the doomed Jap task force off Kyushu Saturday. He watched from the water for four hours while the Japs tried futilely to save their 40,000-ton battleship Yamato.

The pilot, Lt. (j.g.) William Ernest Delaney of Detroit was rescued under the cover of smoke from the burning Yamato by a twin-engined Navy patrol bomber piloted by Lt. James R. Young of Central City, Kentucky, while a second bomber circled the area to divert any enemy fire.

Four hits on Yamato

Lt. Delaney told newsmen today that he scored four direct hits on the super-battleship with 500-pound bombs from 1,400 feet, but the resulting explosions set his dive bomber afire.

He said:

There was a loud explosion under the fuselage. Then the cockpit filled with smoke and fumes. One wing was on fire.

I was afraid the plane would explode and ordered my crew (runner and radioman) to jump. They bailed out five miles southwest of the Jap task force. I watched their parachutes open. Then I jumped.

Warships circle him

Lt. Delaney said he landed in the water in the middle of the enemy task force and inflated his life raft. Enemy warships circled him wildly. He stayed out of the raft most of the time so it would be more difficult for the Japanese to detect him.

Once a Jap destroyer approached within 400 yards of the raft, but pulled away when the crew apparently decided the raft was empty.

“At first, I was so cold and tired when the Jap ‘can’ approached, I thought of giving myself up,” Lt. Delaney said. “But I decided they might only shoot me, so I stayed behind the raft.”

Yamato dead in water

Lt. Delaney said the Yamato was dead in the water and never did change its position in relation to him, indicating that both he and the battleship were drifting in the same direction at the same time.

He said:

I saw planes of our second main wave attack the enemy force about 2 p.m. At least one more bomb hit was scored on the Yamato, because I saw a huge pillar of black smoke go up from her.

Over on the horizon, there was a terrific flash and explosion. I guess that was a Jap destroyer blowing up.

Lt. Delaney saw another destroyer approach close enough to throw a line to the Yamato, but it pulled away when the second wave of planes appeared.

Plane spots raft

One of the planes spotted Lt. Delaney’s raft and dropped dye to mark the position. Lt. Young and Lt. Richard L. Simms of Atlanta, Georgia, piloting another patrol plane, spotted the marker.

Lt. Simms said:

The Yamato was enveloped in clouds of black smoke. We flew over the area at 100 feet and saw hundreds of Jap survivors from the sunken ships clinging to bits of wreckage. They didn’t have boats or rafts.

Young went down to pick up Delaney while I circled the remaining Jap ships to keep their attention.

Lts. Simms and Young both returned to their base. The patrol planes sent out to relieve them could find no trace of the Yamato, which had sunk in the meantime. Two cruisers and three destroyers were also sunk in the air-naval battle and two more left burning.

It was Lts. Young and Simms who spotted the enemy task force early Saturday. Their radio message brought swarms of carrier planes.

1439

Col. Palmer: Yanks flying huge amounts of gas to front

400 miles by air to supply Patton
By Col. Frederick Palmer, North American Newspaper Alliance

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1440

Bitter battle in Heilbronn makes city another Cassino

German stand indicates fortress may be part of Nazis’ last redoubt in south
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer

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1441

Liberated Yanks return to U.S.

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