America at war! (1941–) – Part 5

2243

Führer HQ (April 25, 1945)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Beiderseits der unteren Weser und im Frontbogen zwischen Elbekanal und Delmenhorst behaupteten sich unsere Divisionen bei geringen Geländeverlusten. An der Elbe rannten die Engländer und Kanadier vom Süden südlich Bremen und bis Delmenhorst an. Bei Horneburg hielten die schweren Abwehrkämpfe mit gleicher Stärke an. Die Stadt Horneburg wurde wiedergewonnen.

In der Schlacht um Berlin wird um jeden Fußbreit Boden gerungen. Im Süden drangen die Sowjets bis zur Linie Babelsberg-Zehlendorf-Neukölln vor. Im östlichen und nördlichen Stadtgebiet dauern die heftigen Straßenkämpfe an. Westlich der Stadt erreichten sowjetische Panzerspitzen den Raum Nauen. Nordwestlich Oranienburg wurde das Nordufer des Stettiner Kanals gegen starke Angriffe gehalten. Wiederholte Angriffe des Feindes auf Eberswalde führten zu Einbrüchen in südlichen Stadtteilen.

Während die Amerikaner an der Mulde und im sächsischen Raum weiter verhalten, erreichten sowjetische Angriffsspitzen die Linie zwischen Riesa und Torgau.

Im Nordteil des Bayrischen Waldes durchgebrochene amerikanische Panzerkampfgruppen erreichten Kamen und fühlten weiter nach Süden vor.

In Italien hat sich der Schwerpunkt der Schlacht durch vorgeschobene feindliche Infanterie- und Panzerverbände zwischen Miglia und Ferrara in die Po-Ebene verlagert. Angriffe der 5. amerikanischen Armee im ligurischen Küstenabschnitt und im westetruskischen Apennin blieben in der Masse vor unseren Stellungen liegen.

Starke kommunistische Bandenkräfte haben sich im kroatischen Berggelände bis Fiume vorgeschoben und stehen am Stadtrand im Kampf mit unseren Truppen.

Im Südabschnitt der Ostfront hat sich die Lage weiter gefestigt Der Schwerpunkt lag gestern bei Brünn, wo die Bolschewisten einen tiefen Einbruch erzielten. Nordwestlich Mährisch-Ostrau wurden erneute Durchbruchsversuche des Feindes zerschlagen.

Die tapfere Besatzung, von Breslau hielt wieder allen Angriffen in vorbildlicher Kampfgemeinschaft von Wehrmacht, Volkssturm und Zivilverwaltung stand. Die Festung steht seit 17. Februar gegen einen ungeheuerlichen Ansturm weit überlegener sowjetischer Kräfte.

Unsere Angriffe im Raum Görlitz-Bautzen machen weiter gute Fortschritte. Weißenberge wurde wieder vom Feind befreit. Die Bolschewisten hatten in diesen Kämpfen sehr hohe blutige Verluste. Umfangreiche Beute wurde eingebracht.

An der westnorwegischen Küste brachten Sicherungsfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine neun britische Jagdbomber zum Absturz. Bei Tage warfen schwere Kampfverbände Bomben im süddeutschen Raum. Anglo-amerikanische Tiefflieger setzten ihren Terror gegen die Bevölkerung mit Bomben und Bordwaffen fort. Nachts war Kiel das Ziel britischer Kampfflugzeuge.

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Ein von Korvettenkapitän Kremer geführter Panzervernichtungstrupp der Kriegsmarine eines U-Boot-Stützpunktes vernichtete in wenigen Tagen 24 Panzer.

2244

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (April 25, 1945)

FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN

ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section

DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
251100B 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) WCIA OR 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. 382

UNCLASSIFIED: Allied forces in north Holland occupied Appingedam and cleared the whole of the coastline as far east as the mouth of the Ems Estuary.

Southeast of Bremen we captured Arbergen and Tyten. We entered Zeven, between Bremen and Hamburg, and fighting continues in the town.

Enemy strongpoints in the Bremen area were attacked by medium bombers. Gun positions and troop concentrations in the area of the Ems Estuary and around Oldenburg were hit by fighter-bombers.

Targets in the communications center of Bad Oldesloe, northeast of Hamburg, were attacked by escorted heavy bombers.

Southwest of Weiden our infantry units reached the vicinity of Vohenstrauss. In the area north of Regensburg we captured Schwandorf and Burglengenfeld.

Other units in the area north of Regensburg reached the vicinity of Roding and entered Nittenau. Several bridges were captured intact across the Regen River in the course of these operations.

To the west our forces entered Lauterbach and Beratzhausen and reached the vicinity of Thumhausen, four miles west of Regensburg and three miles from the Donau River.

In a rapid advance to the southeast our armored elements reached the vicinity of Arnetsried, three miles northwest of Regen and 35 miles from the Austrian border.

South of Nuremberg, our armor and infantry advanced up to ten miles on a broad front to within seven miles of the Donau. Forces in this area were within 13 miles of units pushing downstream from the Dillingen bridgehead. Our hold south of the river at Dillingen was expanded to a width of ten miles and a depth of six miles.

The 500-square-mile pocket south of Stuttgart is being steadily reduced.

Ulm was captured by units making simultaneous thrusts from the northwest and from the southwest. Units advancing from the north reached the city in a drive of 15 miles.

Twenty miles to the south, our forces advanced 25 miles eastward to reach the Iller Canal.

Additional penetrations were made into the Schwartzwald Forest Pocket. another crossing of the Rhine River, at Kems, put our forces within eight miles of Basel, Switzerland.

Allied forces in the west captured 39,089 prisoners 23 April.

An airfield at Flensburg; road and rail traffic in the Berlin area and from Eggenfelden, southeast of Landau, to Praha; strongpoints in Dillingen; airfields at Augsberg, Landsberg and München; railyards at Ingolstadt, Landau, Plattling and in Czechoslovakia and the Donau River Valley were attacked by fighter-bombers. Many enemy aircraft were destroyed or damaged on the ground.

An oil depot near Sschrobenhausen, northeast of Landsberg, was attacked by medium and light bombers.

Eight enemy aircraft were shot down during the day. According to incomplete reports, two of our medium bombers and ten of our fighters are missing.

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/
2245

U.S. Navy Department (April 25, 1945)

CINCPOA Communiqué No. 343

A general advance was made by troops of the XXIV Army Corps on Okinawa on April 24 (East Longitude Date) resulting in the capture of Kakazu Town in the center and an important strongpoint at Hill 178 on the left flank. Our ground forces were supported by heavy naval gunfire and low-level attacks by aircraft of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. Enemy de­fenses at Tanabaru were in process of being reduced as Army troops continued to advance on April 25.

Marines of the III Amphibious Corps continued to patrol northern areas of the island on April 24 and 25.

As of 0600 on April 25, United States soldiers and Marines on Okinawa and surrounding islands had killed 21,269 of the enemy and had taken 399 prisoners of war. A total of 115,279 civilians have come under jurisdiction of U.S. Military Government authorities.

At the end of April 22, 889 soldiers of the XXIV Army Corps and 257 Marines of the III Amphibious Corps had been killed in action on Okinawa. A total of 4,879 officers and men of the XXIV Army Corps were wounded and 289 were missing. The III Amphibious Corps suffered 1,103 wounded and had 7 missing.

Carrier aircraft of the U.S. Pacific Fleet attacked airfield installations on islands of the Sakishima group on April 24.

Search planes of Fleet Air Wing One destroyed a small cargo ship, sank six fishing craft, sank a whaling vessel and damaged a small cargo ship in the water east of Kyushu on April 24.

On April 24 and 25, Corsair and Hellcat fighters of the 4th MarAirWing attacked targets in the Palau and Marine bombers and fighters struck runways and other installations on Yap in the Western Carolines.

The following are enemy killed and taken prisoner during mopping up operations on Iwo Island and islands of the Marianas and Palaus during the week of April 15 to April 21 (inclusive):

Killed Prisoners of war
Iwo 360 246
Saipan 4 7
Tinian 38
Guam 38 21
Peleliu 6
2246

The Pittsburgh Press (April 25, 1945)

THIRD ARMY 30 MILES FROM AUSTRIA
Elite guard defenders of redoubt crack

Patton’s men capture 19,000 in day

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2247

Hitler’s hideout blown up

Direct hits scored with 6-ton bombs on Fuehrer’s Alpine home

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2248

Stalemate broken on Okinawa

Yanks seize height north of Naha

GUAM (UP) – Troops of the 7th Infantry Division broke the stalemate of Southern Okinawa today in seizing a new height on the western sector north of the capital city of Naha.

Behind a pulverizing naval bombardment which blasted a path through strong Jap defenses, the Army troops hammered across the hilly terrain and captured an important high position west of Ishin village.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz also disclosed that elements of the III Marine Amphibious Corps had landed on Henza Island, east of Okinawa’s Katchin Peninsula, and Kouri and Yagachi Islands, north of Motobu Peninsula. There was no opposition at Henza and Kouri, but some enemy remnants were still being mopped up on Yagachi.

Japs fear B-29s

The breakthrough in the southern line came as the Americans prepared the northern section of Okinawa for the next phase of the march on Japan and the Tokyo radio admitted that “nothing now seems possible to stop” the extermination of the Jap nation.

Tokyo said:

The enemy seems bent upon using them [B-29s] to utterly destroy the Yamato race in a manner far greater in fury than any bombings our Axis partners in Europe experienced.

In the carrying out of the enemy’s announced program for total extermination of the Japanese nation, nothing now seems possible to stop this vicious enemy.

3,130,000 homeless

The frank acknowledgment was made in a Tokyo report, disclosing that Superfortresses destroyed 770,000 homes and rendered 3,130,000 persons homeless at Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe and Nagoya.

Crewmen of the Superfortresses which raided the Hitachi aircraft plant at Tachikawa, 14 miles west of Tokyo, yesterday reported they “blew the factory all to hell” with several concentrations of bursts among buildings covering one million square feet.

The B-29s, four of which are missing, shot down 13 Jap fighters during the attack and probably destroyed 18 others. The crewmen said they saw one Jap plane strafing three parachuting Americans.

Hit nearby plant

Part of the fleet of some 150 Superfortresses which raided the Hitachi plant for the first time also hit the nearby Tachikawa aircraft factory.

Navy search planes ranged over the Ryukyu area and sank two small cargo ships and one motor torpedo boat and damaged two torpedo boats east of the islands.

2249

Yanks advance 35 miles in Italy

Fifth, Eighth Armies drive north of Po

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2250

46 nations gather to map peace program for world

Truman to broadcast from Washington – delegates hopeful of avoiding 1918 mistakes
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

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2251

Three veterans lose jobs, get them back by picketing

UAW and Ford reach ‘emergency agreement’ and trio returns without displacing others

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2252

The veterans :
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2253

Truman visits war office

WASHINGTON – President Treuman paid an unexpected visit today to the office of Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. Mr. Truman and Mr. Stimson were joined later by Gen. George C. Marshall, Adm. Ernest J. King and Adm. William D. Leahy.

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Violent winds kill 4

GRIFFIN, Georgia – At least four persons were killed and a score of others injured last night by violent winds which slashed through the cotton mill town of Dundee, a mile west of here.

2255

I DARE SAY —
Books and things

By Florence Fisher Parry

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2256

30,000 idle as strikes hit 4 war plants

Production of 3 auto factories curtailed

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2257

Probers change but OPA ‘gets it’

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2258

East-west linkup may come today

Red columns believed sighted by Yanks
By John B. McDermott and C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writers

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2259

Ernie’s friend wants Ernie, not bequest

LOS ANGELES, California (UP) – Eugene Uebelhardt, 45-year-old Filipino welder, said today that he would give up “every penny” of the $2,500 Ernie Pyle willed him if that would bring back the late war correspondent.

“What is money when it comes through the death of a man like that?” Mr. Uebelhardt asked when informed of the bequest from Ernie, killed last week by a Jap machine-gunner on Ie Shima.

“I’d gladly give up every penny of the money to have my friend back,” he said.

Uebelhardt, whose friendship with Pyle started on a boat just out of Manila in 1922, is working at Consolidated Steel shipyards under the name of Webelhardt.

Pyle, on a tour with the University of Indiana baseball team when he met Uebelhardt, took a special interest in the youth, helped him to enter the United States, took him to his Indiana home, and helped him through school.

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End of resistance by July 4 seen

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2261

Torture camp inmates start coming to life

Hospital set up for 3,000 victims
By Helen Kirkpatrick

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2262

Berlin afire from end to end, flight over city shows

Reporter in U.S. plane sights artillery battles raging in German capital
By Lowell Thomas, NBC war correspondent

PARIS, France – Berlin is in flames from one end to the other. Dense clouds of smoke hide most of the city.

I flew to Berlin yesterday in a P-51 Mustang with a crack pilot of the 67th Reconnaissance Group of the Ninth Air Force.

I saw the city in flames saw the bombardment going on between the Russians and Nazis, and then I raced back across half Europe to Paris last night.

‘When do we join?’

My flight came about this way: For two days I had been with the ground troops near the advancing Russians – with Gen. Terry Allen and his 104th Division Timberwolves, on the Mulde River, with the Russians only 18 miles away, and the Germans in between.

All along the front, the one thought had been: When do we join up with the Russians? An Allied pilot with the Timberwolves brought word that the Russians, some miles to the north, were driving west at top speed. It looked as though the 2nd Armored Division of the Ninth Army would be the first to make it.

Flies piggyback

So, I decided to try to find a fighter pilot who would like to take a look all up and down the front. When I was back with the 67th Reconnaissance Group, they had invited me to do this. So, there I flew in a light artillery plane – and in no time two fast Mustangs were on the line.

In one, alone, was the officer in command, Lt. Col. Dick Leghorn of Winchester, Massachusetts. His job was to fly cover, as they call it – protect us from enemy aircraft. My pilot was Lt. Col. Carl Kraft of Clarks, Louisiana, No. 2 in command of the 67th. Both were in single-seater fighter planes, with me squeezed in behind Col. Kraft. Piggyback, they call that – the most cramped position so far devised by man.

Sees artillery battle

Here are some of the things we saw.

Berlin in flames, but not entirely. Potsdam and the southern side of the city seemed comparatively undamaged. The rest was in flames, from one end to the other.

An artillery battle was going on, heavy guns on both sides going all out – dense columns of smoke blowing over Berlin, concealing much of it.

Recrossing Nazi territory – following the Elbe, and then the Mulde, to where the two join at Dessau – we saw fires every mile or so, indicating that the Russians had advanced to the middle of the German-held corridor between the rivers, or that the fires were started by Russian artillery.