America at war! (1941–) – Part 5

Führer HQ (April 21, 1945)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

In der großen Schlacht zwischen dem Stettiner Haff und den Sudeten wehrten sich unsere Truppen mit verbissener Entschlossenheit gegen den Ansturm der Bolschewisten. Ans engem Raum zusammengefasste Panzerarmeen des Feindes haben die Front an mehreren Stellen aufgerissen. An stehengebliebenen Frontteilen und in der Tiefe des Schlachtfeldes leisten eigene Kampftruppen hartnäckig Widerstand und fesseln starke Kräfte der Sowjets. Nordwestlich Görlitz stehen unsere Panzer in der Abwehr heftiger Angriffe. Gegenangriffe gewannen an einzelnen Stellen Boden. Aus der Einbruchslücke südlich Sprembergs trieb der Feind seine Panzerspitzen bis in den Raum von Kamenz vor. Die tapferen Besatzungen von Bautzen und Spremberg zerschlugen alle Angriffe. Zwischen Spremberg und Cottbus führten die Bolschewisten starke Panzerkräfte nach. Vorgeworfene Teile drangen bis in die Räume Jüterbog und Wilnsdorf vor, wo Kämpfe im Gange sind. Im Abschnitt Görlitz-Cottbus wurden in den Leiden letzten Tagen 211 Panzer vernichtet. Bei Frankfurt schlugen unsere Verbände alle Angriffe zurück. Im Raum östlich Berlin wird in der Linie Fürstenwalde-Straußberg-Bernau erbittert gekämpft. Angriffe gegen diese Orte brachen verlustreich für den Feind zusammen. Die Bolschewisten dehnten ihre Angriffe auch ans die nördliche Oderfront aus, wo zwischen Schwedt und Stettin zahlreiche Übersetzversuche vereitelt wurden. Zwei örtliche Brückenköpfe sind abgeriegelt. Fliegende Verbände und im Erdkampf eingesetzte Flak der Luftwaffe griffen wirksam in die Erdkämpfe ein und vernichteten 75 Panzerkampfwagen und mehrere hundert Kraftfahrzeuge. 200 Flugzeuge wurden abgeschossen. Im Süden der Ostfront scheiterten erneute Durchbruchsversuche der Sowjets südlich St. Pölten, nördlich Mistelbach und nordöstlich Mährisch-Ostrau. Zahlreiche Panzer wurden vernichtet. Segen die Westfront der Festung Breslau geführte Angriffe in Divisionsstärke blieben bis auf einen geringen Einbruch erfolglos. Gegen die Festung Pillau nahm der Feind seine Angriffe mit starkem Materialeinsatz wieder aus, der erstrebte Durchbruch blieb ihm aber versagt.

Die Seefestung Gironde-Süd wurde gestern nach Verschluss der letzten Munition und nachhaltiger Zerstörung der Hafenanlagen vom Gegner überwältigt. An der unteren Ems drängte der Gegner unsere Truppen nach heftigem Kampf bei Aschendorf in den Raum beiderseits Papenburgs zurück. Nördlich Friesoythe sind heftige Kämpfe um einen feindlichen Brückenkops am Küstenkanal im Gange. Beiderseits Delmenhorsts, in dessen Südteil der Gegner eindrang, und südlich Bremen hat sich die Lage bei wechselvollen Kämpfen nicht verändert. Die aus der Lüneburger Heide nach Norden angreifenden britischen Divisionen erreichten auf breiter Front die Elbe, wurden jedoch an unseren Brückenköpfen bei Ardenburg verlustreich abgeschlagen. Im Harz dauern die schweren Abwehrkämpfe um den Brocken im Abschnitt Eligenrode und mit den von Osten gegen den unteren Harz angreifenden feindlichen Kräften an. Am Brückenkopf von Dessau brachen stärkere Angriffe amerikanischer Infanterie- und Panzerverbände unter hohen Verlusten zusammen. Weiter südlich toben erbitterte Kämpft mit dem in Bitterfeld und Delitzsch eingedrungenen Feind. Während sich der Gegner im Großraum Chemnitz—Planen auf örtliche Ausklärungsvorstöße beschränkte, erzwang er an der Elster und im Fichtelgebirge trotz zäher Gegenwehr unserer Truppen tiefere Einbrüche. Südöstlich und südlich von Nürnberg, dessen tapfere Besatzung, aus engen Raum zusammengedrängt, dem Feinde weiter zähen Widerstand leistet, verhinderten unsere Verbände größeren Bodengewinn der mit starken Kräften nach Süden angreifenden Amerikaner. Die in den Meinhartwald vorgestoßenen feindlichen Kräfte konnten ihren Einbruch nach Süden erweitern und erreichten mit vorgeworfenen Ausklärungsverbänden den Raum von Göttingen. Gleichzeitig verstärkte sich der Druck ans der Linie Heilbronn-Pforzheim. Aus einem Einbruchsraum bei Tübingen gewann der Gegner in schweren Wald- und Ortskämpften nach Nordosten Raum.

Die schwere Abwehrschlacht an der italienischen Südfront nahm in den bisherigen Schwerpunkträumen mit gleichbleibender Heftigkeit ihren Fortgang. In schweren, äußerst harten Kämpfen, die vom Feinte weiterhin mit Hohem Materialeinsatz gefühlt wurden, verhinderten unsere tapferen Divisionen alle Durchbruchsversuche des Gegners.

Der Großraum Berlin war gestern das Angriffsziel amerikanischer Bomberverbände. Außerdem wurden zahlreiche süddeutsche Orte durch schwächere Verbände mit Bomben belegt. In der Nacht wurden wiederum Wohnviertel der Reichshauptstadt von Terrorfliegern bombardiert.

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (April 21, 1945)

FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN

ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section

DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
211100B 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. 378

UNCLASSIFIED: Allied forces in Holland advanced in the sector west of Barneveld, despite stubborn enemy opposition, and captured the village of Hoevelaken, two miles east of Amersfoort.

West of Bremen we captured Delmenhorst and closed farther around the defenses of Bremen. East of the Weser River, Allied armored elements in a series of outflanking thrusts took Visselhövede and Hemslingen, cut the main railway north of Rotenburg, and rushed down the Hamburg-Bremen autobahn for more than 20 miles. We are in the vicinity of Zeven, about midway between Bremen and Hamburg.

Our armor is on the outskirts of Harburg, just south of Hamburg, we captured Winsen, thus extending our hold on the Elbe River.

Rail lines between Bremen and Hamburg; road and rail transport in the Bremen-Hamburg-Berlin area; enemy shipping north of Wangerooge; fortified positions and strongpoints near Papenburg, west of Oldenburg, and near Stade were hit by fighter bombers and rocket-firing fighters.

Northeast of Braunschweig the enemy counterattack of estimated division strength, launched to the southeast in the direction of the Klötze Forest on April 19, has been sealed off and our troops are attacking to regain lost ground.

South of Dessau our armor and infantry elements are fighting in Bobbau-Steinfurth, Wolfen, and the vicinity of Bitterfeld against strong enemy resistance including self-propelled guns.

Our cavalry elements captured a 94-car enemy railroad supply train near Halle.

Leipzig is now completely in our hands and our armored units northeast of the city gained 1,500 yards to reach a point on the Mulde River south of Eilenburg.

Southeast of Hof our infantry cleared Selb, Thiersheim, and Wunsiedel and advanced to the vicinity of Redwitz. Farther south other elements reached the vicinity of Kemnath while our armor captured Grafenwöhr.

Our infantry captured an enemy airfield nine miles southeast of Bayreuth seizing some bombs and other equipment.

In the Harz Mountains Pocket our units south of Halberstadt have taken Thale, Quedlinburg, and Ballenstedt. West of Thale we entered Hüttenrode where an enemy counterattack was repulsed.

All organized resistance in Nürnberg has ceased. Twelve miles to the southeast we are encountering stubborn resistance in Neumarkt.

Southeast of Rothenburg, we captured Feuchtwangen, after a six-mile advance.

Stuttgart was virtually encircled as armored units from the northeast advanced 25 miles to Ohmden, east of Kirschheim unter Teck, and other forces swung north to Aich, ten miles south of Stuttgart.

To the southwest, a broad wedge was pushed 20 miles to Rottweil, north of the Swiss-German border, and more than 25 towns were taken in the area. Gains up to five miles southward were made in the Schwartzwald Forest and south of Lahr. In the Rhine River Plain, we advanced to Forchheim.

Allied forces in the west captured 64.667 prisoners 19 April.

On the French Atlantic Coast, all resistance in the Gironde Estuary Pocket ceased and the German commander and his staff were captured.

Railyards and other rail facilities at Neuruppin, Oranienburg, Nauen, Wustermark, Brandenburg, Seddin and Treuenbrietzen were attacked by escorted heavy bombers in strength. Other escorted heavy bombers made a heavy attack on a fuel depot at Regensburg, and at Klatovy, Zwiesel, and Mühldorf.

Rail and road traffic near Jeßnitz, Riesa, Dresden, Plzen, and Wittenburg; railyards at Aulendorf, north of Weingarten; Memmingen, Nördlingen, Wittenburg, and Ebenhausen, south of Ingolstadt, were hit by medium, light and fighter-bombers.

Fuel depots at Annaburg, Deggendorf; an ordnance depot at Staubing, and an ammunition dump at Ingolstadt, were attacked by medium and light bombers. A large oil storage dump near Torgau was hit by fighter-bombers.

Enemy airfields near Ludwigslust, Brandenburg, Riesa, Dresden, Plzen, Ulm, Ehingen, Laupheim, Augsburg, Ingolstadt, and Riem, east of München, were bombed and strafed by medium and fighter-bombers. Many aircraft were destroyed on the ground and others were damaged.

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/

U.S. Navy Department (April 21, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 339

The XXIV Army Corps pressed its attack against the enemy in the southern sector of Okinawa on April 20 and 21 (East Longitude Dates) making small gains through heavily defended areas. On the approaches to Hill 178, the high ground changed hands several times on April 21 in the bitterest kind of fighting. Small gains were made by our forces in other segments of the lines. Naval guns and Army and Marine artillery continued to bombard enemy emplacements with heavy fire and carrier aircraft attacked troop concentrations in the southern part of the island.

Marines of the III Amphibious Corps reduced the remaining pockets of enemy resistance on Motobu Peninsula on the afternoon of April 20 and brought the entire area under their control.

Tenth Army troops placed the United States Flag on the summit of Iegusugu Peak on Ie Shima on the morning of April 21 after overcoming bitter resistance from caves, pillboxes and other strongpoints. Our forces are engaged in mopping up operations on the island which is now in our possession.

On the night of April 20-21, enemy aircraft attacked Yontan and Kadena airfields causing minor damage. Carrier aircraft from the U.S. Pacific Fleet attacked air installations in the Sakishima group on April 19 and 21, shooting down one plane and strafing several others on the ground.

Hellcat and Corsair fighters of 4th Marine Aircraft Wing bombed targets in the Palaus on April 21.

The Pittsburgh Press (April 21, 1945)

3 ARMIES DRIVE ON ALPINE REDOUBT
British storm into suburbs of Hamburg

U.S. 1st, 3rd, French peril Nazi fortress

Allies take Bologna, big gateway city to Nazi-held Po Plain

Hundreds of tanks spill out into valley for drive north – German escape road cut

B-29s batter Kyushu bases of Japs’ suicide planes

Yanks on Okinawa gain in drive on Naha – 15 U.S. war vessels lost off island

GUAM (UP) – Upwards of 300 Superfortresses today blasted the Kyushu bases of Jap suicide planes blamed for the sinking of some of the 15 American war vessels lost in the Battle of Okinawa and Japan during the past month.

On Okinawa itself, three U.S. divisions thrust deeper into the enemy’s last-ditch defense line less than 3½ miles north of Naha, capital of the island, on the third day of the greatest ground offensive of the Pacific war.

Advances of up to a mile were reported all along the four-mile line extending across the southern end of the island yesterday. Swarms of planes and the big guns of warships joined massed land artillery in an unprecedented supporting bombardment.

The big fleet of Superfortresses bombed nine airfields on Kyushu, southernmost of the Jap home islands. The raid was the third in five days on the suicide-plane bases, but two of the airfields – Usa, near the northeast coast, and Kushira, in the south – were hit for the first time.

A XXI Bomber Command announcement said the attacks covered the “length and breadth” of Kyushu.

There was no mention of opposition and it was indicated that both fighter and anti-aircraft reaction by the Japs was negligible.

A Jap broadcast said approximately 200 B-29s had raided airfields on Kyushu for four hours this morning.

Japs lose 100 ships

A Pacific Fleet communiqué listed for the first time American naval losses in operations off Okinawa and Japan between March 18 and April 18. Against 15 Americans ship sunk, the Americans destroyed at least 100 Jap vessels during the period, all previously announced.

American losses were:

  • Five destroyers: Halligan, Bush, Colhoun, N. L. Abele, Pringle.
  • Two minecraft: Emmons, Skylark.
  • One destroyer transport: Dickerson.
  • Five smaller warships: One gunboat, one LST, one LCI, one LCS, one LCT.
  • Two ammunition ships: Hobbs Victory, Logan Victory.

It is standard Navy policy to notify all next of kin of casualties before using the names of subs sunk or damaged.

The 100 Jap ships sunk included a Yamato-class battleship, two light cruisers, five destroyers, five destroyer escorts, four large cargo ships, 18 medium cargo ships and 28 smaller cargo ships. In addition, 2,569 Jap aircraft were destroyed.

The communiqué said the American losses constituted the “complete list of ships sunk by enemy action” in the month-long period – thus giving the lie to Jap claims that upwards of 100 American vessels had been sunk.

Gain 1,400 yards

American gains in southern Okinawa yesterday averaged 1,000 yards, but the 7th Infantry Division penetrated the maze of enemy defenses on the east coast to a depth of at least 1,400 yards.

The 7th Infantry Division was just north of Yonabaru Airfield and Yonabaru town, the main port on Nakagusuku Bay.

Truman message due Wednesday

Peace delegates converging on Frisco

Eisenhower asks atrocity tour

Congress urged to send delegation

Fortresses blast Munich railyards

RAF pounds Berlin six times in night

LONDON, England (UP) – Over 300 Flying Fortresses smashed rail and airfield targets in the Munich area today following a night-long RAF assault on besieged Berlin.

A U.S. communiqué said the heavy bombers were escorted by about 400 P-51 Mustangs and P-47 Thunderbolts in attacks on railyard facilities at Munich and Ingolstadt and the airfield at Landsberg 30 miles west of Munich.

British Mosquitoes raided Berlin six times during the night, dropping block-busters and other bombs into the fires raging through the Nazi capital.

German airfields also were attacked by British planes during the night. All planes returned safely.

An American announcement revealed that U.S. bombers had dropped 25,693 tons of explosives on Berlin since the opening of the daylight air offensive against the capital March 4, 1944.

A secret source with access to details of damage to aircraft industry plants in Berlin reported to the Allies that by April 25, 1944, alone, the Eighth Air Force and RAF had reduced overall production by at least 40 percent.

I DARE SAY —
A night at the movies

By Florence Fisher Parry

Three survivors of six in Iwo flag-raising visit Truman, then draw ovation in Senate

Painting of scene given to President


Mrs. Roosevelt weeps on leaving White House


Pyle and 5 G.I.’s buried together

Evergreen and wheat used for wreath
By Mac R. Johnson, United Press staff writer

ABOARD ADM. TURNER’S FLAGSHIP, Okinawa – A white cross today marked the grave of Ernie Pyle in a small cemetery 600 yards inland from “Red Beach” on embattled Ie Shima.

The white-haired little man, who rose from obscurity to become the greatest champion of little-known but important G.I.’s, was buried yesterday with five enlisted men who died as he did, in action.

Enlisted men of the Army’s 77th Infantry Division built a crude wooden coffin of boards ripped from K-ration boxes and on it they placed a wreath of Japanese evergreen and a sheaf of ripe golden wheat.

Led by general

The funeral party was led by Maj. Gen. Andrew D. Bruce, commanding general of the 77th Infantry Division. It was halted at the beach when the enemy dropped 100 rounds of mortar fire in the area.

There were no salutes. Taps was not blown. This was a cemetery for combat men in a combat zone and the ceremony was simple. It lasted 35 minutes.

A trench had been bulldozed in the brown soil of an open field. Individual graves had been dug in the bottom of the trench. The bodies of the five enlisted men and Mr. Pyle were placed in the common grave.

Chaplain officiates

Capt. Nathaniel B. Saucier of Coffeeville, Mississippi, a regimental chaplain, read the burial service for all six.

Mr. Pyle’s body was wrapped in a blanket like any officer or G.I. and a dog tag wired around his body.

Five hundred yards away, on the spot where Ernie was killed by Jap machine gun bullets, soldiers erected a sign which reads:

AT THIS SPOT THE 77TH INFANTRY DIVISION LOST A BUDDY
ERNIE PYLE
18 APRIL, 1945

Japs smashed in Central Philippines

Yanks kill 5,000 on Cebu Island

‘Human bomb’ used by Japs against tanks


Slayer of 3 dies in electric chair

Editorial: Postal workers need aid

Editorial: A veteran takes office

Editorial: Tribute to Ernie

Greenwich, Connecticut, is not a metropolis, like New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh or Washington. It’s a city of the size that Ernie Pyle would have liked as his home.

It is interesting therefore that from Greenwich came the first editorial written about Ernie Pyle’s death. Within an hour and a half after the death was reported, the following was sent to Scripps-Howard offices in New York by Niver W. Beaman, editor of The Greenwich Times:

Ernie Pyle, war correspondent, is dead, killed by a Jap machine gunner, and the greatest tribute that can be paid him is the sense of personal loss felt by millions of Americans who never even saw this hard-working little man.

When President Roosevelt died suddenly last week, the comment most often heard was “It is just as though someone in my own family had died.” Although Ernie Pyle held no public office, his death has brought the same stunned exclamations.

Ernie Pyle was not the typical war correspondent. He wrote not of tactics and strategy. He went into the lines with the fighting men and wrote of them as individuals, naming them by name and city. He described his reporting as a “worm’s eye view of the war.” He could have lived with the generals. He preferred the enlisted men.

He wrote homely little pieces about his friends – and every man in uniform was his friend, because he shared their dangers, asked no special privileges, talked their language. And he wrote their language.

Often the reader of Pyle’s column in Scripps-Howard newspapers and other newspapers in which it was syndicated, knew personally the men of whom he wrote because Ernie met thousands of fighting men, and named them, described them, made them live in print.

If the reader didn’t actually know one of the men whom Ernie met, the reader knew somebody almost like him. If it wasn’t your brother, Joe, or your son, Junior, or the kid that lived next door to you, and often it was, it was a G.I. so much like your own that you had the feeling of being with your very flesh and blood. That was Ernie Pyle’s great talent – the ability to take you with him. He was a great reporter but more than that he was a grand, modest, scared, brave little guy.

Edson: Solution hunted for mix-up over air agreements

By Peter Edson

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Ferguson: Ernie Pyle

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

My last letter from Ernie Pyle came from Albuquerque:

I haven’t written you in a long time. Your piece which I was reading last night gave me the chance. One sentence struck me as so thoughtful, so true (men who have slept in foxholes and endured the hardships of actual war, develop a profound pity for the misfortunes of humanity) at least that’s the way I feel. I’m not sure all soldiers do.

My vacation hasn’t been much of a vacation. The public pressure has been unbelievable I’m taking of for the Pacific in a few days, I certainly Mrs. Ferguson don’t itch to go, but feel I must. I don’t suppose any of us will be the same by the time this whole thing is over.

He went to the Pacific and will not come back, dear, shy, lovable Ernie. To his personal friends and millions of devoted readers, the world will not be the same without him.

But Ernie wouldn’t have wanted eulogies. He gladly shared a soldier’s life; he did not try to avoid a soldier’s death. It seems a fitting climax to his great career as interpreter of American fighting men, that he should walk into the valley of shadows with those who went that way. They were his comrades in arms, his pals, and in death they are not divided.

His last dispatches are accounts of their valor, fellowship and mirth under stress of war. He leaves life with his genius at its full flower. He went at high tide – and all who do are blessed.

Let there be no lamentations for Ernie Pyle, although we who are bereft of him may sorrow for ourselves. He has found peace.

Background of news –
German shipping

By Bertram Benedict

Millett: G.I. Joe’s girl understands smallest of attentions

French think Yanks make too little of love and that’s okay at home
By Ruth Millett