America at war! (1941–) – Part 5

1955

Oberdonau-Zeitung (April 19, 1945)

Sowjetischer Durchbruch wiederum verhindert!

Berlin, 18. April – Auch am Dienstag machten weder die zwischen Stettin und Görlitz angreifenden Bolschewisten noch die zwischen Wittenberge und Chemnitz andrängenden Nordamerikaner nennenswerte Fortschritte. Der sowjetische Druck war an den bisherigen Schwerpunkten überaus stark, aber ebenso energisch waren unsere Gegenangriffe. Obwohl der Feind in seinen beiden Neiße-Brückenköpfen südlich Forst und Rothenburg starke Panzerkräfte hineinpumpte und sie sofort zum Angriff einsetzte, blieben die Linien im Wesentlichen unverändert.

Im Gebiet beiderseits Küstrin und Frankfurt konnte der Feind seine Einbrüche ebenfalls nicht vertiefen. Das Ringen wogt auch hier in geringer Tiefe hin und her. Unsere immer wieder zu Gegenangriffen übergehenden Truppen meisterten die Lage und verhinderten unter Abschuss von bisher über 550 Panzern den vom Feinde seit vier Tagen mit allen Mitteln erstrebten Durchbruch nach Westen.

Auch die Angloamerikaner trafen im Elbe-Abschnitt und in Mitteldeutschland überall auf hartnäckigen Widerstand. Wie sie selbst zugeben, sei es unseren Truppen südlich Magdeburgs gelungen, die 2. amerikanische Panzerdivision auf dem Ostufer der Elbe zusammenzupressen, so dass diese gezwungen gewesen ist, sich unter Verhältnissen, die an Dünkirchen erinnern, sich mit allen zur Verfügung stehenden Fahrzeugen sogar über den Fluss zurückzuziehen.

An der Elbe und Mulde, zwischen Wittenberge und Bitterfeld, blieb die Lage, von stärkeren, aber vergeblichen Angriffen der Nordamerikaner in Richtung auf Dessau abgesehen, weiter unverändert. Der Verteidigungsraum Leipzig zog neue starke Angriffe auf sich. Der Gegner drängte südlich Bitterfeld gegen die Mulde auf Eilenberg vor und schwenkte dort nach Südwesten auf Leipzig ein. Im südwestlichen, östlichen und nordöstlichen Vorfeld der Stadt sind schwere Kämpfe mit den konzentrisch angreifenden Nordamerikanern entbrannt. Zwischen Leipzig und Chemnitz tastet sich der Feind schrittweise nach Osten vor, ohne ins Gewicht fallende Bodengewinne zu erzielen.

An der Süd- und Nordflanke der Westfront machten die Angloamerikaner dagegen einige Fortschritte. Feindliche Aufklärungskräfte, die in den nördlichen Niederlanden gegen den Dollart vorstießen, wurden blutig abgeschlagen. Am Küstenkanal, westlich Oldenburg, und ferner südlich Bremen und im Nordteil der Lüneburger Heide wechselten feindliche Angriffe und eigene Gegenstöße. An der Südflanke der Westfront drängten nordamerikanische und gaullistische Truppen weiter nach Süden. Im Vogtland sind wechselvolle Kämpfe im Gange. In Franken führten unsere Truppen energische Gegenangriffe und stießen bis zu der vom Feind benutzten Vormarschstraße durch. Dennoch setzte der nordamerikanische Panzerverband seinen Stoß östlich Nürnberg fort und erreichte den Ludwigskanal. Sein Versuch, hier nach Norden in Richtung auf Nürnberg einzudrehen, scheiterte jedoch. Auch westlich der Stadt drückt der Feind nach Süden gegen die Straße Nürnberg-Ansbach. Diesem Angriffskeil stellten sich ebenso wie dem im Altmühl-, Tauber- und Jagsttal nach Süden vorstoßenden Panzerrudel unsere Sperrverbände entgegen und fingen den, Gegner in Abwehrkämpfen und Gegenstößen auf.

Während am Neckar, südlich Heilbronn und an der Ems stärkere feindliche Angriffe scheiterten, schoben sich im nördlichen Schwarzwald feindliche Aufklärungskräfte im Nagoldtal nach Osten und Süden vor.

1956

Das große Schiffssterben bei Okinawa

5 Flugzeugträger und 8 weitere Schiffe versenkt

Tokio, 18. April – Das Kaiserlich Japanische Hauptquartier gab am Mittwoch um 16.30 Uhr folgenden Bericht heraus:

Unsere Luftwaffenverbände, die in Unterstützung unserer Besatzungstruppen auf der Hauptinsel von Okinawa die feindlichen Operationsstreitkräfte und Kriegsschiffe schwer angreifen, haben in der Zeit vom 16. bis 17. April folgende Resultate erzielen können: Versenkt wurden: Fünf Flugzeugträger (drei davon reguläre Flugzeugträger), ein Schlachtschiff, zwei Schlachtschiffe oder Kreuzer, einen Kreuzer und vier Transporter. Ein Schlachtschiff wurde beschädigt.

1957

Schaltet Truman Senat und Kongress ein?

Antrittsrede des Präsidenten vor dem Kongress

Berlin, 18. April – Truman hielt am 16. April vor dem Kongress seine erste Rede. Angesichts des furchtbaren Erbes, das Truman von Roosevelt übernommen hat, ist es nicht verwunderlich, dass er bei diesem Versuch sich mehr mit Hoffnungen für die Errichtung einer zukünftigen Friedensorganisation beschäftigt, als mit dem Krieg selbst.

Was diesen anbetrifft, beschränkte er sich darauf, festzustellen, dass dieser noch harte und schwere Kämpfe kosten wird und übernahm gleichzeitig die These von der sogenannten bedingungslosen Kapitulation. Bei der amerikanischen Innenpolitik scheint das Bestreben Trumans zu sein, gegenüber dem ehrgeizigen, skrupellosen und diktatorischen Vorgehen seines Vorgängers nunmehr wieder mehr das amerikanische Volk durch Senat und Kongress seine Geschicke selbst bestimmen zu lassen.

1958

Führer HQ (April 19, 1945)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Am dritten Tag der großen Abwehrschlacht vor Berlin warfen die Bolschewisten Menschen und Material in bisher nicht gekanntem Ausmaß in den Kampf. Unsere tapferen Truppen hielten, durch das Beispiel ihrer Offiziere mitgerissen, dem feindlichen Massenansturm stand und vereitelten alle Durchbruchsversuche. Südlich Frankfurt (Oder) behaupteten unsere Verbände ihre Stellungen gegen weit überlegene sowjetische Kräfte. Die beiderseits Seelow bis östlich Müncheberg vorgedrungenen Bolschewisten wurden durch sofortige Gegenstöße abgeriegelt. Südlich Wriezen brachten unsere Panzer den angreifenden Gegner nach harten Kämpfen zum Stehen. Nach unvollständigen Meldungen wurden gestern erneut 218 Panzer vernichtet.

Auch westlich der Lausitzer Neiße griffen die Bolschewisten mit allen verfügbaren Kräften an. Trotz des verbissenen Widerstandes unserer Divisionen konnte der Gegner nach schweren Kämpfen und Verlust zahlreicher Panzer nördlich Görlitz und nordwestlich Weißwasser schmale Angriffskeile bis in den Raum östlich Bautzen und an die Spree beiderseits Sprembergs vortreiben. Gegenangriffe sind im Gange.

Starke Jagd- und Schlachtfliegerkräfte griffen auch gestern in die Abwehrschlacht ein und brachten der schwer ringenden Erdtruppe fühlbare Entlastung. Sie vernichteten trotz starker Abwehr 95 weitere Panzer und Sturmgeschütze, schossen außerdem 20 bewegungsunfähig und brachten 109 Flugzeuge zum Absturz.

Im Süden der Ostfront lag das Schwergewicht der Kämpfe beiderseits Mistelbach, südlich Brünn und nördlich Mährisch-Ostrau. Die mit starken Kräften bei Mistelbach angreifenden Sowjets wurden nach geringem Geländegewinn aufgefangen. Im Raume südlich Brünn stehen unsere Verbände in schwerem Abwehrkampf, in dessen Verlauf der Feind bisher über 30 Panzer verlor. Im Kampfabschnitt nördlich Mährisch-Ostrau scheiterten erneute Durchbruchsversuche des Gegners an dem entschlossenen Widerstand unserer Truppen, östlich Troppau eingebrochene Kräfte wurden im Gegenangriff nach Norden zurückgeworfen.

Die tapfere Besatzung von Breslau schlug an der Süd- und Westfront erneute starke Angriffe der Bolschewisten ab.

Bei Pillau setzte der Feind seine Angriffe fort. Sie wurden großenteils schon in der Bereitstellung, durch schwere Artillerieträger der Kriegsmarine wirksam unterstützt, zerschlagen oder abgewiesen.

An der Ostküste des Stettiner Haffs vernichteten Kampffähren der Kriegsmarine ein großes sowjetisches Munitionslager.

Am inneren Verteidigungsring der Gironde-Festung brachen starke Angriffe des Gegners in erbitterten Kämpfen erneut zusammen. Auch die Besatzung von Dünkirchen behauptete sich gegen den mit Panzern und Schlachtfliegern angreifenden Feind und fügte ihm hohe Verluste zu.

In den letzten Tagen nahmen schwere Küstenbatterien der Kriegsmarine von der Kanalinsel Alderney aus die von Kommandotruppen in kühnem nächtlichem Unternehmen ausgekundschafteten Panzer- und Brennstofflager im Nordwestteil der Halbinsel Cotentin unter Vernichtungsfeuer. Umfangreiche Zerstörungen wurden beobachtet.

In Holland haben unsere Truppen nach schweren Kämpfen im Isselbogen, in deren Verlauf 38 Panzer und Panzerspähwagen vernichtet oder erbeutet wurden, weiter westlich neue Stellungen bezogen.

Während sich die Briten zwischen Ems und Weser im Allgemeinen ruhig verhielten, griffen sie in der Lüneburger Heide weiter stark an. Soltau fiel nach hartem Kampf unter Abschuss von 19 Panzern in Feindeshand. Auf schmalem Raum stößt der Gegner hier nach Norden vor. Um Lüneburg und Uelzen sind heftige Kämpfe entbrannt.

Der Kampf zwischen Ruhr und Rhein ist beendet. In wochenlangem schwerstem Ringen haben Truppen aller Waffengattungen unter dem Oberbefehl des Generalfeldmarschalls Model überlegene Kräfte von zwei amerikanischen Armeen gebunden und ihnen in vorbildlicher Pflichterfüllung bis zum letzten Atemzuge Widerstand geleistet. Der Gegner erlitt hierbei schwere Verluste an Menschen und Material.

Im Mittel- und Unterharz halten unsere Kampfgruppen dem starken Druck der Amerikaner stand. In einigen Abschnitten eingebrochener Feind wurde in Gegenangriffen aufgefangen oder geworfen.

Die Besatzung von Magdeburg leistet, in einzelne Kampfgruppen aufgespalten, im Westteil der Stadt noch tapfer Widerstand.

Im Kampfabschnitt Dessau-Bitterfeld blieb die Lage bei wechselvollen Kämpfen lm wesentlichen unverändert.

Der zähe Kampf um Halle und Leipzig hat den Gegner hohe Verluste gekostet und ihn zum Abziehen starker Kräfte von anderen Frontabschnitten gezwungen. Die im Südteil von Halle auf engem Raum zusammengedrängte Besatzung behauptet sich weiter gegen alle Angriffe überlegener Kräfte. Unsere im westlichen und südlichen Vorfeld von Leipzig stehenden Truppen wurden vom Feind auf die Elster und den südlichen Stadtrand zurückgedrückt. Von Norden erzwangen die Amerikaner einen tieferen Einbruch, der zu heftigen, noch andauernden Straßenkämpfen führte.

An der Front beiderseits Chemnitz und im Raum von Hof verlief der Tag bei vereinzelten feindlichen Aufklärungsvorstößen ohne besondere Ereignisse, östlich Plauen vernichtete ein Stoßtrupp elf Panzer, mehrere motorisierte Fahrzeuge und fügte dem Gegner hohe blutige Verluste zu.

Um Nürnberg wurde den ganzen Tag über von der tapferen Besatzung am Burggraben, in der östlichen Vorstadt und an der Pegnitz heftig gekämpft. Der nach Südosten vordringende Feind wurde aufgefangen und durch Gegenangriffe in der Flanke gefasst. Westlich davon schob sich der Gegner von Norden und Westen an Ansbach heran. Die aus dem Nagold-Tal nach Osten angreifenden feindlichen Bataillone wurden von den Höhen östlich Bad Liebenzell im Gegenangriff geworfen, beiderseits Calws bis zu achtmal wiederholten Angriffen verlustreich abgewiesen. Weiter südlich erzielte der Gegner dagegen mehrere Einbrüche.

Die Abwehrschlacht in Mittelitalien nahm unter gleichbleibendem starkem Materialaufwand des Feindes und beiderseits hoher Verluste ihren Fortgang. Hierbei gelangen den Amerikanern an der ligurischen Küste und südwestlich Bologna wiederum nur örtliche Einbrüche. Im Abschnitt Medicina blieben die feindlichen Regimenter trotz stärkster Artillerie- und Fliegerunterstützung vor unseren Stellungen liegen. Südwestlich des Comacchio-Sees hat sich die Lage durch einen tieferen Einbruch nordwestlich Argenta verschärft. Gegenmaßnahmen sind im Gange.

Das Reichsgebiet wurde bei Tage von stärkeren Kampfverbänden angeflogen, die vor allem die Insel Helgoland und mehrere Kleinstädte in Süddeutschlandangriffen. In der Nacht warfen Kampfflugzeuge Bomben auf die Reichshauptstadt.

In norwegischen Gewässern versenkte ein Vorpostenboot ein britisches Unterseeboot.

1959

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (April 19, 1945)

FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN

ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section

DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
191100B 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
(21) WOIA FOR OWI WASHINGTON FOR RELEASE TO COMBINED U.S. AND CANADIAN PRESS AND RADIO AT 0900 HOURS GMT.

(REF NO.)
NONE

(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR

Communiqué No. 376

UNCLASSIFIED: All organized resistance in the Ruhr Pocket has ceased and Allied forces have virtually completed mopping up the last enemy stragglers in this area.

In Holland, our forces advancing from the Arnhem area have occupied Wageningen and Ede and reached the Zuider Zee north of Barneveld.

West of the Ems River near its mouth, and around our bridgehead over the Küsten Canal the enemy is offering stiff resistance.

Beyond the Aller River, Verden and Soltau have been captured and our columns advanced ten miles north of Schneverdingen. Uelzen, now almost cleared of the enemy, has been surrounded and we advanced north of the town to the outskirts of Lüneburg, and east to Rosche.

Our units attacking south into the Harz Mountains gained two to four miles. Magdeburg has been cleared to the Elbe River. In the bridgehead across the Elbe, we repulsed two small counterattacks.

We entered Leipzig from the west with infantry and tanks and reached the west bank of the Elster Canal. In the Chemnitz area our units encountered small arms and bazooka fire at Auerswalde.

Our infantry gained up to 12 miles on a 14-mile front in the Zwickau area and Zwickau and Lengenfeld have been cleared. We met strong resistance at Lengenfeld from dug-in tanks and infantry.

South of Lengenfeld we cleared Treuen. East of Zwickau we reached the vicinity of Wildenfels and cavalry elements are near Thierfeld.

Farther south we reached the vicinity of Sachsgrün and our patrols advanced six miles east, crossed the Czechoslovakian border, and reached Gottmannsgrün.

South of Hof we entered Schwarzenbach and Weissenstadt.

In Nuremberg, our units which entered from the north and from the east joined, and other elements drove into the city from the south. Resistance decreased as we knocked out enemy gun positions. The suburb of Furth and a nearby airfield were captured.

South of Nuremberg we reached Schwand, and to the west, Ansbach has been largely cleared. Farther west towards Heilbronn we reached Jochsberg, Westheim and Grab.

South of Pforzheim we reached Horb, on the upper Neckar River. Freudenstadt, communications center in the Schwarzwald Forest, was captured and the advance extended five miles farther south.

In the Rhine Plain, our units pushed as far south as Dinglingen. Enemy resistance in Oberkirch was overcome and long-range guns which had been firing on Strasbourg were silenced.

Allied forces in the west captured 37,427 prisoners 17 April, bringing the total prisoners captured in the west since D-Day to 2,093,002.

On the French Atlantic Coast, we have cleared the entire north side of the Gironde Estuary. The attack continues on the southern side of the estuary where we have pushed the enemy into his last defensive positions on the Verdon Plain.

The naval base and fortress Island of Helgoland and an airfield on the Island of Düne, near Heligoland; railyards, transformer stations and other rail facilities at Rosenheim, Traunstein, Passau and Straubing in southern Germany and at Kolín and Pilsen in Czechoslovakia were attacked by escorted heavy bombers in very great strength.

Fighter-bombers hit targets ahead of our ground forces and attacked rail targets elsewhere in northwest Germany; rail and road transport and airfields in central Germany and as far east as Pilsen and Prague in Czechoslovakia, and rail targets in southern Germany including the yards at Gunzenhausen, Eichstätt, Ingolstadt and Denkingen.

Enemy barracks at Oldenburg were attacked by medium bombers; an oil storage depot at Neuburg, communications targets at Jüterbog and Falkenberg were hit by medium and light bombers, and enemy airfields in the Ulm area were attacked by medium and fighter-bombers.

Targets in Berlin were attacked last night 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/
1960

U.S. Navy Department (April 19, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 337

The XXIV Army Corps launched an offensive of substantial force against enemy defense lines in the southern sector of Okinawa on April 19 (East Longitude Date). In the early morning hours, powerful concentra­tions of Army and Marine artillery joined with battleships, cruisers, and lighter units of the Pacific Fleet to deliver one of the largest bombardments ever made in support of amphibious troops.

Under cover of this fire and supported by great flights of carrier aircraft, Army Infantrymen of the 7th, 27th and 96th Infantry Divisions moved off to the attack between 0600 and 0800. By noon the left and right flanks of our lines were reported to have moved forward from 500 to 800 yards and our forces captured the village of Machinato. The enemy was resisting our advance stubbornly with artillery, mortars, and light weapons.

Our troops are now striking at a fortified line which is organized in great depth and developed to exploit the defensive value of the terrain which is dissected by ravines and terraced by escarpments. These fortifications whose northern perimeter follows an uneven line across the island at a point where it is about 8,000 yards wide are about four and a half miles north of Naha on the west coast and three and a half miles north of Yonabaru on the east coast. They include interlocking trench and pillbox systems, blockhouses, caves and the conventional Japanese dug‑in positions. During the forenoon, U.S. Army Infantrymen were engaged in knocking out strongpoints and penetrating and destroying segments of the outer lines.

Tenth Army troops in Ie Shima continued to advance on April 19 moving their lines forward south of the Iegusugu Peak. The enemy continued to resist from concealed fixed positions. Some of our observation planes have landed on the island airstrip.

Marines of the III Amphibious Corps continued to extend their control over the northern areas of Okinawa. On Motobu Peninsula, mopping up operations were still in progress.

Army Mustangs of the VII Fighter Command, Strategic Air Force, Pacific Ocean Areas, on April 19 attacked Atsugi airfield, in the area of Tokyo.

Preliminary reports show that the following damage was inflicted on the enemy:

  • Twenty-one aircraft shot out of the air
  • Two aircraft probably shot down
  • Twenty-six aircraft destroyed or probably destroyed on the ground
  • Thirty-five aircraft damaged in the air and on the ground

A large cargo ship was seen sinking off the coast and a medium cargo ship was observed burning south of Tokyo. Our aircraft strafed the ground targets at low level through moderate to intense anti-aircraft fire.

A search plane of Fleet Air Wing One sank a small coastal cargo ship in the area of the northern Ryukyus on April 19.

On the same date, Corsair and Hellcat fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing attacked buildings and installations in the Palaus and Helldiver bombers of the same force struck the airstrip on Yap in the Western Carolines.

1961

The Pittsburgh Press (April 19, 1945)

Yanks capture Leipzig, Halle

Two strongholds fall to First Army after fierce street battles

…

1962

Churchill hints Nazi regime near collapse

Warning on atrocities also revealed

…

1963

Pyle to rest among G.I.’s he loved

Writer to be buried in Army cemetery
By Mac R. Johnson, United Press staff writer

erniepylerests
From the last two paragraphs of Here Is Your War, by Ernie Pyle, written after the African campaign.

On the day of final peace, the last stroke of what we call the “Big Picture” will be drawn. I haven’t written anything about the “Big Picture,” because I don’t know anything about it. I only know what we see from our worm’s-eye view, and our segment of the picture consists only of tired and dirty soldiers who are alive and don’t want to die; of Jong darkened convoys in the middle of the night; of shocked silent men wandering back down the hill from battle; of chow lines and atabrine tablets and foxholes and burning tanks… and the rustle of high-flown shells; of jeeps and petrol dumps and smelly bedding rolls and C rations and cactus patches and blown ridges and dead mules and hospital tents and shirt collars greasy-black from months of wearing; and of laughter, too, and anger and wine and lovely flowers and constant cussing. All these it is composed of; and of graves and graves and graves.

That is our war, and we will carry it with us as we go on from one battleground to another until it is all over, leaving some of us behind on every beach, in every field… I don’t know whether it was their good fortune or their misfortune to get out of it so early in the game. I guess it doesn’t make any difference, once a man has gone. Medals and speeches and victories are nothing to them anymore. They died and others lived and nobody knows why it is so. They died and thereby the rest of us can go on and on. When we leave here for the next shore, there is nothing we can do for the ones beneath the wooden crosses, except perhaps to pause and murmur, “Thanks, pal.”

OKINAWA – Ernie Pyle will be buried among the soldiers he immortalized.

The beloved little war correspondent killed by a Jap machine-gunner yesterday probably will be laid to rest in an Army cemetery here in the Ryukyus where he covered his last campaign.

The soldiers he loved brought him back from the battlefield back to where the noise of the guns is distant and dull. They lifted his pint-sized frame from the ditch where he fell, victim of a sneak machine-gun ambush.

They put him on a litter, and crossed his arms, and then carried him back to the rear.

Jap jealous of prize

It wasn’t easy. That Jap machine-gunner seemed jealous of his prized victim. It was four hours after Ernie was killed before anybody could get to his body.

Cpl. Alexander Roberts, Army photographer from New York City, tried to get in to take pictures. He said every time anybody would try to enter the clearing where Ernie had been killed the gunner would open up.

Finally, Cpl. Roberts crawled into the clearing on his belly, pushing his camera ahead of him.

“Ernie’s face was not twisted in pain or agony,” he said. “He looked pleasant and peaceful. If there hadn’t been a thin line of blood at the corner of his mouth, you might have thought he was sleeping.”

Said he would get it

Ernie always said he would get it, that he had used up his chances. He said it again just before he landed with the assault troops on Okinawa. He told a public relations officer that he had a premonition about the campaign. And he said to another officer that he thought he would go back to the States “right after this one.”

Instead, he went from Okinawa to Ie Island because, as he told a friend, his premonition was “pretty silly as I’ve run into nothing hot yet.”

So he went on

So he went on – as he had gone from Ireland to North Africa, to Sicily, Italy, France and the Pacific – to get more stories about his beloved G.I.’s. He wanted to write about the Marines.

Erie was an old dough from the word go. He sweated and suffered with the doughfeet, shared their hopes, fears, and thrills – their lives. Today he shared death with them and it was believed he would be put to rest with them, in a G.I. Army cemetery.

Ernie would have liked that.

Ernie Pyle spent his last hours doing the job he had always done – gathering notes from G.I.’s for his columns, James MacLean, United Press correspondent, reported.

Detained by cold

A two-day-old cold had confined him to the sick bay of a transport and prevented him from landing with other correspondents in the assault waves on Ie until Tuesday. He spent that day interviewing soldiers and officers on the battlefield.

Wherever he went he was surrounded by G.I.’s who swarmed around him, forgetting the battle in progress. They tried to get him to autograph captured Jap money, American bills or invasion bills until their officers ordered the men back into position.

Milton Chase, 33, a correspondent for Radio Station WLW in Cincinnati, and a former staff member for United Press in Shanghai, said Ernie walked very carefully on Ie, because of his fear of landmines.

Mr. Chase said:

He told me that the weapon he hated worst – more than machine guns, shells or anything else – was “stumbling blindly into minefields because they explode before you can duck or take cover.”

1964

Yanks seize three-fourths of Okinawa, push to north

First 18 days of campaign cost Americans 7,895 killed, wounded or captured

GUAM (UP) – Marines completed the conquest of three-quarters of Okinawa today with a push to the northern tip of the island only 330 miles south of Japan.

The first 18 days of the Okinawa campaign, along with associated operations in the rest of Ryukyu Island chain and supporting carrier raids on Japan proper, cost 7,895 Americans killed, wounded or captured, a Pacific Fleet communiqué announced.

Navy suffers heaviest

Heaviest losses were suffered by the Navy – 989 officers and men killed, 2,220 wounded and 1,491 missing. Tenth Army Marines and soldiers lost 478 dead, 2,457 wounded and 260 missing.

Though Marines of the III Amphibious Corps had brought all of central and norther Okinawa under American control, they were still battling isolated enemy groups on Motobu Peninsula jutting out from the northwest coast.

Yanks stalled near Naha

In southern Okinawa, the XXIV Army Corps was still stalled by strong Jap positions shielding Naha, the island’s capital. The Fleet’s big guns and carrier planes were hammering the defenses.

Other forces on Ie Island three miles west of Motobu Peninsula made substantial gains in the northeast section of the island, but Jap troops in dug-in positions and pillboxes around Iegusugu Peak were resisting stiffly.

1965

Yanks ‘pausing,’ Bradley explains

‘Next phase’ now being prepared

…

1966

On Hitler’s birthday eve –
Allies seeking ‘death blow’ to Reich, Goebbels wails

Fuehrer will go forward to the very end, propagandist says in lauding leader

LONDON, England (UP) – Nazi Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels said today that the Allies have launched what may be their final offensive of the war in an attempt to deal a “death blow” to Germany.

His speech, filled with foreboding, was scheduled for delivery to the German people tonight on the eve of Adolf Hitler’s 56th birthday. The text was broadcast in advance by the official Nazi DNB Agency.

It was not known whether Hitler would also speak on what well may be his last birthday.

Goebbels said:

The last decisive round of the war approaches its end. Events never before have been balanced on the razor’s edge as now…

It seems once again all the powers of hate and destruction gather, perhaps for the last time, to surge against our fronts from the west, east, southeast and south in order to pierce them and deal a death blow to the Reich.

Goebbels said the “head of the enemy conspiracy” – presumably the late President Roosevelt – had been “crushed by fate, the very fate that on July 20, 1944, preserved our Fuehrer so he could complete his mission.”

He extolled what he called the virtues of Hitler and asked:

What could enemy statesmen oppose to these qualities of our Fuehrer?

Nothing but numerical superiority, nothing but them foolish destructive madness, thew diabolical rage of annihilation, behind which looms chaos and the final disintegration of civilized humanity.

Despite the odds against her, Germany will win the war, he said. Hitler will find the way out, he promised.

He said:

Our Fuehrer will go forward until the very end. We vow we will never let him down… Is it conceivable that a nation like ours, in the giddiness of one frantic moment, would be ready to sell its birthright for a dish of lentils?

He said the present stage of the war was the “last act of the immense and tragic drama which began August 1, 1914.”

“What we thought we could evade in November 1918, we now have made up for thrice over,” he said.

Goebbels told the Germans that it was “virile and German” to hoist the swastika where the Allies expect the white flag.

He said:

Let us show the enemy that he can hurt us, but not kill us; that he can draw blood from us, but cannot beat us to our knees; can torment us, but not humiliate us.

He asserted that the German Army had brought to Europe “prosperity, calm, order, well-consolidated conditions, work in abundance for everybody and life worth living.

The Allies, he said, left in their wake “poverty, grief, chaos, desolation, destruction, unemployment, hunger and death en masse.”

1967

U.S. losses rise 12,810 to 912,200

WASHINGTON (UP) – Officially announced U.S. combat casualties reached 912,200 today. This was an increase of 12,810 in a week.

The U.S. combat casualty total included 813,870 Army and 98,330 Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard losses since December 7, 1941.

Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson reported that U.S. Army casualties in Europe during March “were limited” to 47,023. This included 6,214 killed, 35,443 wounded, and 5,366 missing.

Ground force losses in Europe since D-Day, he said, now total 473,215, including 79,795 killed by the Germans, 334,919 wounded, and 58,501 missing.

Mr. Stimson said that he “would not have anyone think that even in this past week or two the Allied forces in Germany have had an easy time of it; on the contrary, we have run into centers of the stiffest kind of resistance.”

The total U.S. casualties:

Army Navy TOTAL
Killed 162,505 37,920 200,425
Wounded 496,803 45,554 542,357
Missing 83,926 10,595 94,521
TOTALS 813,870 98,330 912,200

Of the Army wounded, 261,596 have returned to duty.

1968

Marshall confers with President

WASHINGTON (UP) – President Truman summoned Gen. George C. Marshall, Army chief of staff, to the White House for a 15-minute conference today.

After the conference Gen. Marshall smilingly told reporters that he had “lots and lots” of news.

“But,” he added with a grin, “I can’t give it to you.”

Gen. Marshall said he couldn’t say anything on the subject of the nearness or remoteness of V-E Day.

1969

Roosevelt’s birthday urged as legal holiday

WASHINGTON (UP) – Sen. Sheridan Downey (D-California) yesterday introduced a joint resolution to designated January 30, the birthday of President Roosevelt, as a legal holiday.

Navy bill approved

WASHINGTON – The House passed and sent to the Senate today a bill to give the Navy $24,879,510,546 to finance its knockout blows against Japan.

1970

Now?!! The war is nearly over.

1 Like
1971

parry3

I DARE SAY —
Ernie Pyle

By Florence Fisher Parry

…As I wrote these words, the news of Ernie Pyle’s death came in… And I find that I must scrap what I have written… No, death does not mean “utter and final defeat.” Not to this man, who walked its way as one marked for the dread rendezvous.

Now that the world has come, we are not in the least surprised. We see now that this man would not, could not, survive the thing that drew him back to it. Some deep compulsion sent him forth again, against his will, against all the overtures which creature comforts must have made to his tired body and more tired soul.

He was so tired; the sickness of battle had seeped into the very marrow of him. He did not want that last assignment, an assignment which no human being but himself would have had the heart to give him.

But he had to go.

Feeling the bony finger on him, he still had to go.

You have to live with yourself; and, you have to die with yourself. These are compulsions which are known only to the great, the selfless. Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life on the altar of such compulsion.

Through a glass darkly

He would have called himself a little man, an unimportant man. He did not take on stature as he grew in fame; he merely took on more humanity and humility. He did not value his life more; he valued it less and less, as it became more important to others. He never saw himself in the history books. Few great men are as great as that.

I think what made him so dear to so many was that he was frail and acknowledged that he was afraid. It gave the boys in battle a kinship with him. He admitted to the very fear that was in them; and so they got to believing that to be afraid was a common and natural thing, and not contemptible at all, nothing to be ashamed of. It gave them comfort. If he had done nothing more than that, he still would be a great man, immortal to the boys he understood so well and who will mourn him in a way peculiar and different from all other kinds of mourning…

I find myself thinking of verses in the Bible, verses that seem to sing of Ernie Pyle and all his modest brotherhood the world over.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind… charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up… seeketh not her own… thinketh no evil… beareth all things… endureth all things…

For now we see through a glass, darkly…

No longer darkly, Ernie…

How blinding clear it must be now to you!

1972

Lt. Lucas: Ernie Pyle was great reporter because he was what he wrote

Columnist feared Okinawa campaign, death of others, not his, worried him
By Lt. Jim G. Lucas, USMC combat correspondent

WASHINGTON – A month ago, at Guam, Ernie Pyle told me he was afraid of the Okinawa campaign.

I knew what he meant. He wasn’t afraid of dying. He didn’t take that into account, he was afraid of the sight and smell of death – the other fellow’s death – and of the mess a bloody show can make of a man inside.

Later, when he wrote his first Okinawa story, he said that. He wrote he’d dreaded going ashore and stepping over dead men who’d come in alive. He said he was relieved not to find them.

Ernie was a great reporter because he was your reporter. He was writing for you. I had just come through Tarawa when I read his account of the death of the young Texas captain in Italy. To me, that was the finest prose ever written. I knew, on Tarawa, that Ernie Pyle, in Italy, had written that for me. It was something we shared together.

He was what he wrote

He was a great reporter because he was what he wrote. He didn’t think of himself as great. At Guam, he was distressed if the military singled him out for special favors. His whole attitude was that this was a lot of fuss about nothing. He’d much rather sit around and be one of the boys.

If you sat down with Ernie to talk about someone, he knew he wanted you.

If you sat down because he was Ernie Pyle, he was unhappy and uneasy.

The announcement that Ernie Pyle was coming to the Pacific caused a lot of excitement. Marines, privates to generals, wanted him. The boys who went to Iwo Jima were disappointed because he didn’t go along. They felt compensated because he was on a carrier off shore. But I heard many complaints because he wasn’t with them on the beach.

Friend wounded

When I flew out of Iwo Jima, I found Ernie at Adm. Nimitz’s press headquarters on Guam. I stopped to tell them about Sgt. Dick Tenelly, a 4th Division combat correspondent who once worked with him on the Washington Daily News. Dick was wounded early in battle. I told Ernie that Sgt. Tenelly might lose a leg.

It hurt him.

“God, I hope not,” he said. “Dick deserves better than that.”

He wanted to know how it happened. I couldn’t tell him much only that Sgt. Tenelly had been shot through both legs, and evacuated before I could see him. He told me about men he’d seen wounded in Europe, and what it did to him.

Scared to death

“I’m on the next one, you know,” he said. “I’m scared to death.”

I said he didn’t look scared.

“Did you ever see anyone who did?” he asked. “But I don’t sleep much at night thinking about it.”

He said he wanted to get “the feel” of the Pacific war, and that was the reason he was going with the Marines to Okinawa. It wasn’t because he wanted to get into any more trouble.

“The Marines want you along,” I said. “The boys on Iwo are sore because you weren’t there.”

“They’re a cheerful bunch,” he grinned. “Want to get me hurt, do they? I’m glad I wasn’t. That must have been a rough one.”

We assured him it was.

Made war real

You didn’t have to meet Ernie Pyle to know him. It helped, perhaps, but his gift was that he was able to leave something of himself in every piece he wrote.

They’ll bury Ernie in the Pacific, but he won’t be forgotten. I wish he’d been able to see more of the Pacific war. He wouldn’t have liked it – he’d have hated it bitterly – but he’d have been able to make a lot of others hate it with him. Because when he wrote of war, he made it real, perhaps because it was so real to him.

1973

Chaplain, Marine brave Jap fire to get Pyle’s body

By Jack Hooley, Blue Network war correspondent

IE ISLAND (April 18) – Ernie Pyle died here on Ie Island at 10:15 in the morning. An hour later, word of his death had spread over open water as far as Mi Island, two miles away. Relayed by an artillery officer at the front by radio, by blinker light and by word of mouth, it had spread from Ie to the ships standing off shore – all in that short time.

The facts are quickly told. Ernie Pyle went ashore the evening before. In the morning, having heard that our troops were engaged in heavy fighting for a time below a mountain peak on the tiny island, he set out for the spot with Lt. Col. Joseph Coolidge.

The two men bumped along in a jeep over the narrow road taken by our troops the day before. As the jeep rounded a corner, a sudden burst of fire from a Jap machine gun hidden on a ridge sent both men scrambling for a ditch.

The gunfire stopped. Both had been through this kind of thing before.

Death came instantly

After a few minutes they peered cautiously over the edge. Another burst of fire and Col. Coolidge ducked back. He turned to Ernie.

The veteran correspondent lay on his back, too still for life.

Death had come instantly from three bullet wounds in the temple.

Every bit of movement brought a burst of fire from the hidden Japs, but finally Col. Coolidge managed to crawl to cover and submit his report.

Tank men helpless

For a long while, Ernie’s body was inaccessible. Finally, the chaplain of the outfit asked for volunteers to bring him in.

First three tanks moved up. Their appearance was the signal for the machine-gunner to open up with such a steady fire that the crew men were helpless inside the tanks.

When they retired, Cpl. Alexander Roberts of New York City volunteered to go alone. From the point beyond which the Yanks had retired about 125 yards back of the bend in the road, Cpl. Roberts crawled to the jeep.

He found Pyle’s face beneath the helmet he wore, peaceful in death. In his left hand, Ernie clutched the Marine fatigue cap he always wore.

Preferred cap

“A helmet is a lot of iron for a man like me to carry around,” he said to me recently, “so when I get to a safe place I switch to a cap.”

With the way shown by Cpl. Roberts, the chaplain, who had not wished to risk four lives, crawled over the ground with a litter bearer and they made 80 yards of the return trip before the machine gun opened upon them.

Four hours after his death, Ernie Pyle’s body was inside our lines again.

The boys in the lines out here were thrilled when Ernie Pyle came out to the Pacific. G.I.’s, Marines and youngsters on the ocean knew that he didn’t have to but they were glad he came anyway.

“We had waited for him so long,” said one of them today.

1974

Body of woman who died 33 years ago found in home

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