People told to clear area 22 miles inland as soon as instructions are given
London, England –
The BBC began its 8:00 a.m. news bulletin this morning with quotations from a Supreme Headquarters’ “urgent warning” to inhabitants of the newly-occupied countries living near the coast.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower has directed that whenever possible in France a warning shall be given to towns in which certain targets will be intensively bombed.
…
Witness says first parachutists met only light fire when they landed in France
The first eyewitness account of the Allies’ invasion of Europe was given in a pool broadcast from London this morning by Wright Bryan of NBC, who accompanied the airborne troops in their landings.
His account said the first spearhead of Allied forces landed by parachute in northern France to the first hour of D-Day.
Mr. Bryan said:
In the navigator’s dome in the flight deck of a C-47, I rode across the English Channel with the first group of places from the United States 9th Air Force Troop Carrier Command to take our fighting men into Europe.
He added that just before he left French soil for the return trip, he saw 17 U.S. paratroopers, led by a lieutenant colonel, “jump with their arms, ammunition and equipment into German-occupied France.”
…
Pershing sees victory is ‘like war of liberation’ fought by sons of 1918 troops
Washington –
Washington learned officially of the invasion of Europe at 3:32 a.m. ET today when the War Department issued the text of the communiqué issued by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces.
This flash was the climax of three hours of tense waiting that followed the first German radio reports that hostilities off France had begun. Before that both the War Department and the Office of War Information said they had no information to confirm or deny the German reports.
The communiqué was handed newspapermen in the War Department by Maj. Gen. Alexander D. Surles, chief of the Army Bureau of Public Relations. With the communiqué was issued a statement by General of the Armies John J. Pershing which declared the sons of the American soldiers of 1917 and 1918 were engaged in a “like war of liberation” and would bring freedom to people who have been enslaved.
The capital awakened rapidly after the initial broadcasts. Lights flashed on and radios began to blare. Newspapermen hurried to their offices. Everybody was demanding to know whether it was “official.”
If the White House was aware of the report, there was no outward indication. Only a few lights glowed there and the customary guards patrolled up and down monotonously.
Only a few hours earlier – at 8:30 p.m. – Mr. Roosevelt had addressed the world for 15 minutes on the fall of Rome.
By 1:45 a.m., almost the entire public relations staff at the War Department had reported for duty.
Elmer Davis, director of the OWI, met about half a dozen newsmen in his office about 4:00 a.m. and told them the OWI had no assurance that the invasion was coming off this morning but thought that it might be. He said that OWI did not put out any of the German broadcast reports prior to official confirmation from Gen. Eisenhower’s headquarters.
Between the official flash and the time Gen. Eisenhower began his talk, the OWI was transmitting the text of the communiqué.
The OWI director added that ABSIE, the agency’s foreign radio, had broadcast Gen. Eisenhower’s speech in about 20 languages.
Washington (UP) –
Gen. Pershing, in a statement headed “American troops have landed in Western Europe,” said today that he had “every confidence” that the invasion would succeed.
The statement was released by the War Department.
The aged general said:
The overwhelming military might of the Allies advances. It will be joined by the men of the occupied countries, whose land has been overrun by the enemy but whose spirit remains unconquered.
Twenty-six years ago, American soldiers, in cooperation with their Allies, were locked in mortal combat with the German enemy. Their march of victory was never halted until the enemy laid down his arms in defeat. The American soldiers of 1917-1918, fighting in a war of liberation, wrote by his deeds one of the most glorious pages of military history.
Today the sons of American soldiers of 1917-18 are engaged in a like war of liberation. It is their task to bring freedom to peoples who have been enslaved.
I have every confidence that they, together with their gallant brothers-in-arms, will win through to victory.
Montréal, Québec, Canada (CP) –
Lt. Gen. A. G. L. McNaughton, former commander of the Canadian Army overseas and the man who trained the Canadians for their part in today’s invasion of the continent, said early this morning that “all I’d like to say is that my prayers are with them.”
London, England (UP) –
The German DNB News Agency today broadcast a dispatch, unconfirmed by Allied sources, that the most important airdromes in the area of the Normandy Peninsula of France had been wiped out.
Washington (UP) –
Elmer Davis, director of the Office of War Production, warned the American public today that the German radio might be trying to build up a reputation for accuracy in its news reports of the invasion so that “they can put one over on the Allies later.”
At last, the supreme moment has come. The months and years of waiting are over. Troops of the United States, the British Isles, the Dominions, contingents from occupied but unconquered countries in Europe are at this moment setting foot on the continental soil. The men who left Dunkerque nearly four years ago are returning. They left as a handful of shattered divisions, armed only with the splendor of an undying courage. They return as part of a great force supplied with every known means of beating down the enemy’s resistance.
They are commanded by generals of proven worth, in whom there is universal confidence throughout the United Nations. The preparations have been thorough. Nazi resistance has been weakened by air attacks of unprecedented destructiveness. In equipment, in training, in courage and resolution, these men are doubtless the equals of any soldiers who ever marched.
They are meeting and will meet terrible obstacles. The Nazis have had four years to prepare, and no doubt they are ready. They have had ample warning that the invasion was coming, though they did not know the time or the places. They will fight hard, for when they are beaten now, they are beaten forever.
The next few hours and days will be critical in our history, and in all human history. We must wait in patience for news that may be slow in coming. We must be prepared for losses and for reverses at some points. The shape of the battle of Europe may be slow in emerging.
Today we can only pray, in our churches with other petitioners of the Almighty or alone and in our hearts.
We cannot pray that one we love be spared if a stranger must fall in his place. But we can call upon the God of mercy and justice to strengthen each soldier in his hour of trial; to give victory with the least cost in life, in suffering and in sorrow; to grant each soldier faith in his cause and full knowledge that our love and our hope go with him.
We may pray, too, that we ourselves may be given the fortitude that these young men possess; that we may have strength to face the dreadful waiting; that we may have courage to bear the sorrow that must be the lot of so many.
We may humbly pray for untiring bodies and hearts to support all the soldiers of the United Nations who battle for victory and for the liberation of those who are in slavery.
Finally, we may pray for the knowledge and skill to create out of this slaughter a just and lasting peace.
These are our sons. God bless them.
The Brooklyn Eagle (June 6, 1944)
Battle rages at Caen; our casualties ‘light’
By Virgil Pinkley
SHAEF, England (UP) –
U.S., British and Canadian invasion forces landed in northwestern France today, established beachheads in Normandy, and by evening had “gotten over the first five or six hurdles” in the greatest amphibious assault of all time.
The Allies are fighting in the town of Caen, nine and a half miles inside the French coast, Prime Minister Churchill said today.
Gen. Eisenhower’s Supreme Headquarters revealed the Allied armies, carried and supported by 4,000 ships and 11,000 planes, encountered considerably less resistance than had been expected in the storming of Adolf Hitler’s vaunted West Wall.
Nazi broadcasts reported Allied troops pouring ashore most of the day along a broad reach of the Norman coast and to the east, and admitted invasion landing barges had penetrated two estuaries behind the Atlantic Wall.
The apparent key to the lightness of the Nazi opposition to invasion forces opening the battle of Europe was contained in a disclosure that thousands of Allied planes dropped more than 11,200 tons of bombs on German coastal fortifications in eight and a half hours last night and early today.
As the massive Allied air fleets took complete command of the skies over the invasion zone, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring issued an order of the day to his air force declaring the invasion “must be fought off, even if it means the death of the Luftwaffe.”
Late in the day, Prime Minister Churchill, making his second statement of the day to Commons, said the invasion was proceeding “in a thoroughly satisfactory manner.” Earlier he told Commons it was going “according to plan and what a plan!”
Simultaneously the German DNB News Agency reported the invasion front “has been further widened.” Nazi broadcasts throughout the day told of the amphibious assault developing on a grand scale, with fighting as deep as 10 miles inland – a figure apparently extended by the last enemy report.
Supreme Headquarters revealed late in the day that bad weather had forced a 24-hour postponement of the invasion. The Allied command gave the go-ahead order last night despite strong northwest winds and rain squalls when weather experts forecast improving conditions today. The weather was still somewhat unfavorable, however, impeding the support given the land armies by the air force.
Although detailed official reports were lacking as the tense first day wore towards a close, it was summed up by one source at headquarters in the words: “We have gotten over the first five or six hurdles.” The surmounted hurdles were described as:
The German Air Force did little or no bombing of ports from which the invasion was mounted in the last critical days.
Attacks on invasion convoys failed to reach the expected scale.
Minesweepers succeeded in sweeping channels to the beaches without much opposition from shore batteries or from the air.
The troops got ashore with less opposition from shore guns than was believed probable.
Opposition was generally well below expectations; for instance, up to a certain time this morning, the German Air Force had flown only 30 battle area sorties.
Allied overall casualties appeared to have been relatively light. Headquarters announced they were light among airborne troops and “surprisingly small – very small” at sea.
The disembarkation went according to plan. Warships succeeded in silencing shore batteries and laying smokescreens on schedule. A U.S. battleship moved in much closer to shore than scheduled in order to silence a troublesome group of fortifications.
The minesweeping was described as the biggest and probably the most difficult operation of its kind ever attempted. Hundreds of sweepers headed the invasion fleets, clearing the water and marking channels.
The German DNB News Agency said this afternoon Allied landing barges had pushed into the estuaries of the Orne and Vire Rivers in the coastal stretch between Cherbourg and Le Havre “in the rear of the Atlantic Wall” – the vaunted defense line Hitler hoped would keep invaders off the soil of Germany.
Nazi broadcasters also acknowledged Allied tanks had cut several kilometers inland between the towns of Caen and Isigny, and admitted Allied penetrations ranging up to ten miles.
The British radio said at least two beachheads had been secured and that “Allied formations are advancing inland.” The German DNB News Agency acknowledged the Allies had put tanks ashore in at least one sector.
Some six hours after the first wave of U.S., British and Canadian assault forces landed by sea and air on the Normandy Peninsula, Prime Minister Churchill told Commons the invasion was proceeding “according to plan.”
One German broadcast reported fighting as much as 10 miles inland.
The commander of the army group now storming France was revealed to be Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, “Monty of El Alamein,” who led the famed British 8th Army all the way from the approaches to Alexandria, Egypt, to southern Italy. His command included U.S., British and Canadian troops.
German news agencies said Allied shock forces and paratroops landed along the north coast of the Normandy Peninsula – which juts out from France some 90-110 miles below the English south coast – all the way from the Cherbourg area at the northern tip to Le Havre at the mouth of the Seine, 110 miles northwest of Paris.
Airborne troops were landing deep inland on the peninsula, the official Nazi DNB Agency said, in an effort to seize a number of strategic airfields, cut off the Normandy Peninsula and capture Cherbourg, one of the two main ports for Paris.
Although the initial phase of the invasion was apparently confined to the Normandy coast of France, an Allied headquarters spokesman hinted operations may soon be extended to Holland and possibly to other countries in Western Europe.
The spokesman broadcast urgent instructions to the inhabitants of Holland to evacuate their coast to a depth of 21 miles immediately and to keep off highways, railways and bridges.
Bars speculation
Churchill said the battle which has now been joined “will grow constantly in scale and intensity for many weeks to come.” He said there were hopes that “tactical surprise has already been achieved.”
He said:
This vast plan is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that ever has occurred. It involves tides, wind, waves, visibility from both the air and the sea standpoints, and the combined employment of land, air and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy.
We hope to furnish the enemy with a succession of surprises… I shall not speculate on the battle’s course, but this I may say – this complete unity prevails throughout the Allies’ armies.
The first official word that D-Day had finally arrived came at 9:32 a.m. (3:22 a.m. ET) when Gen. Eisenhower announced the opening of a long-awaited western front in a communiqué of only 26 words. It said:
Under the command of Gen. Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France.
Issues order of the day
To his land, sea and air forces, Eisenhower issued an order of the day pledging them to “bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of occupied Europe and security for ourselves in a free world.”
Fliers report progress
The first waves of Allied assault troops pushed ashore at several points along the Normandy coast, between 6:00 and 8:15 a.m. (midnight and 2:15 a.m. ET) under a protective naval barrage of rockets and shells ranging up to 16 inches in diameter.
Allied fighter pilots returning from flights over the beachhead reported Allied infantrymen were scrambling up the shores at 7:00 a.m., apparently without heavy opposition in the early stages.
The principal German opposition at sea came from torpedo boats and destroyers, which, however, were hampered by a smokescreen thrown around the invasion armada by Allied vessels. Allied planes – Churchill said Eisenhower had 11,000 first-lines ones upon which to draw – ruled the skies virtually unchallenged.
The German DNB Agency acknowledged one of their vessels had been sunk in “violent fighting” in the Seine Estuary, but also claimed that an Allied cruiser and a large landing vessel loaded with troops had been sent to the bottom off the Normandy Peninsula.
Four air divisions reported
At least four Anglo-American airborne divisions have been observed between Le Havre and Cherbourg, another DNB broadcast said. The greater part of the landed paraunits, especially the British, can be considered annihilated, DNB said.
Allied headquarters announced some 200 Allied minesweepers manned by 10,000 officers and men were clearing the approaches to the invasion beaches. Churchill placed the total number of ships involved at 4,000, at least 1,000 greater than participated in the invasion of Sicily. In addition, Churchill said, thousands of smaller craft were taking part in the European landings.
The invasion came only one day after the fall of Rome to Allied armies in Italy and marked the second phase of the master plane to smash Nazi Germany into unconditional surrender, possibly this year. The third and final phase will be a Red Army offensive from the east.
West Point, New York (UP) –
Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower was asleep this morning when the communiqué announcing the invasion was issued from her husband’s headquarters, friends said today.
The general’s wife declined to comment. She was at West Point to see her 22-year-old son John graduate today.
Young Eisenhower, who is said to be “in the middle of his class” scholastically, is in the infantry, and will be commissioned a second lieutenant. A graduate of Stadium High School at Tacoma, Washington, and a Washington, DC, preparatory school, he is a member of the cadet choir, the Glee Club, and was formerly manager of the tennis team. Gen. Eisenhower graduated from West Point in 1915.
7,500 Allied planes hammer enemy guns studding the Channel
By Walter Cronkite
London, England (UP) –
Thousands of Allied bombing planes softened up the defenses of Western Europe for the Anglo-American invasion armies last night and early today, dropping more than 11,200 tons of high explosives on the Nazi coastal fortifications in eight and a half hours of furious attack.
The roar of bursting bombs and the motors of attacking fighter planes rolled back across the narrow Straits of Dover incessantly from midnight until 8:00 a.m. (local time) as some 7,500 Allied planes hammered at the network of enemy gun emplacements studding the Channel coast.
By midmorning, the Allied air fleets had swept the skies clear of Nazi planes, and fighters were racing as far as 75 miles inland without drawing a challenge from the battered Luftwaffe.
More than 2,300 U.S. and British heavy bombers spearheaded the great sky fleet, crashing an estimated 7,000 tons or more of bombs on the enemy’s beachhead defenses. Another 4,200 tons were dropped by tactical air forces.
It was the heaviest attack ever hurled against a single objective, and all reports indicated that the mighty barrage had all but beaten the Nazi forts into submission before the ground assault began.
A sky-filling parade of British four-engined heavies, 1,300 strong, opened the mighty assault at 11:30 p.m., thundering out in continuous waves until daybreak. The black-winged raiders struck in 10 separate formations of 100 or more planes each and spewed well over 5,000 tons of high explosives across the Nazi coastal forts.
At dawn, 1,000 U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators took up the attack sweeping out over the heads of the thousands of Allied assault troops moving on to the French coast.
Wave upon wave of U.S. and Allied medium bombers and fighter bombers followed the heavies across bombing and machine-gunning the beachheads and communications behind the battle area.
Air opposition over the French interior was described as slight. There was no immediate announcement on Allied plane losses.
By Collie Small
With a Marauder formation over the invasion coast, France (UP) –
No-man’s-land is 5,000 feet below.
It’s somewhere between the grey, Channel-washed beaches on which Allied troops are swarming from their landing barges and the brown fields beyond. The wink of gun flashes in the half-light of dawn in those fields came from Germans fighting the invasion.
My aerial grandstand seat is in a Marauder piloted by 1st Lt. Carl Oliver of Sacramento, California, a part of an unending stream of Allied aircraft, ranging from fighters to heavies, which is streaming across the Channel to support the infantry assault.
Five thousand feet is one of the lowest altitudes the medium bombers have ever bombed from in this theater but we chance the German flak to pinpoint our targets.
As we wheel off the targets and streak back toward the Channel, dawn streaks the eastern sky. Peering down I can see our troops scrambling ashore under a canopy of shells hurled over their heads by warships in a harbor that dents the shoreline.
In the half-light we can see the flashes from German shore batteries all along the coastline and inside the harbor.
We know that it must be a disjoined and disorganized defense, for, right in this section, American paratroops floated down earlier to soften up Germans for the great armada crossing the Channel.
By now, as we across the white-capped Channel, we have a bridge of ships from England to France. They range from mighty battlewagons down to tiny, gnat-like PT boats and include all manner of transports and landing craft.
Some of the landing craft plough through the swell leaving a thin, white wake. Others have arrived off the appointed shore and appear to be just waiting.
From the cockpit of this Marauder, no-man’s-land is an eerie strip of dimly-lit coastline and fields which show dull green and brown as the first rays of the sun slant upon them. We can see the puffs of bombs and shells falling in it as the German batteries duel with the long rifles of Allied warships offshore.
Washington (UP) –
Adm. Ernest J. King, commander of the U.S. Fleet, said after a conference with President Roosevelt today that the invasion of Europe is “doing all right so far.”
London, England (UP) –
The German Transocean News Agency said today that a battle was in progress in the English Channel north of Le Havre between German naval units and Allied forces attempting to make a landing.
London, England (UP) –
Military observers said today a general Russian offensive coordinated with the Anglo-American attack from the west may be launched within the next 48 hours and almost certainly will begin before the weekend.
Moscow, USSR (UP) –
News of the Allied landing in France spread swiftly throughout Russia today and touched off enthusiastic demonstrations such as rarely have been seen since the war began. Soviet war marches, “Yankee Doodle” and the triumphal music reserved for Stalin’s victory orders followed the announcement.
Radio Berlin, monitored by NBC, has admitted bridgeheads between Le Havre and Boulogne are now firmly in Allied hands. The Berlin radio added the Allies have landed heavy armament on the beachheads.
London, England (UP) –
More than 640 naval guns, ranging from four-inch to 16-inch, are bombarding the French beaches and enemy strongpoints in support of the Allied armies, Allied Supreme Headquarters announced today.
London, England (UP) –
The German High Command in its first invasion communiqué today said Allied forces suffered “particularly heavy reverses” in the Caen area of northern France and claimed that an entire regiment of paratroopers was destroyed in that sector.
London, England (UP) –
The German Transocean News Agency said today that about 80 medium-sized Allied warships were approaching the town of Ouistreham in the estuary of the Orne River.
Washington (UP) –
Americans were warned today by Director Elmer Davis of the OWI that despite the Germans’ accuracy in announcing the invasion prior to the official Allied communiqué, German broadcasts should not be relied on in the future.
Washington (UP) –
Gen. John J. Pershing, who led U.S. troops to victory in World War I, called on his countrymen today to share his “every confidence” that American manhood again “will win through to victory” in their second great contest on Western European soil.
London, England (UP) –
The German Transocean News Agency said today that a large Allied warship had been set ablaze in the Seine estuary by artillery fire.
London, England (UP) –
The German news agency DNB said today the allies had landed “further reinforcements” by sea and air in the Seine estuary.
London, England (UP) –
The German Transocean News Agency acknowledged today that the Allies had gained footholds on several islands off the coast of France.
London, England (UP) –
German coastal artillery in France opened up with salvoes across the Channel soon after noon today, shaking towns in Southeast England.
An NBC reporter, who flew over 20 miles of the invasion coast this morning, reports that “not a single German coastal gun was firing in the entire invasion zone,” indicating that we have completely knocked out the initial line of defenses of the much-vaunted Atlantic Wall.
London, England (UP) –
Casualties among Allied airborne troops in France have been light, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces announced today.
By Sandor S. Klein
Washington (UP) –
An American sergeant, packing concentrated destruction, peered into the darkness toward France and said, “They can’t stop us.”
His four words, from an “invasion front” dispatch to the War Department, were uttered as the greatest military operation of history began “very quietly and without tension” from a small British town whose inhabitants had little idea that anything unusual was going on.
From this town, the War Department dispatch said, the liberation of Nazi Europe “began in a small way” as assault troops – relieved of practically everything but weapons – walked calmly aboard their blunt-nosed landing craft “without attracting the slightest bit of attention.”
Thus started what in a matter of hours became a roaring, flaming, crashing inferno as the battle was joined on the northern coast of France and Allied airplanes swarmed against any targets, however small, which might have “a bearing on the strength of the armies…”
The men had been briefed carefully. They knew exactly what their mission was. At the last moment, the War Department dispatch said, they were relieved of “practically everything except their arms and ammunition.”
Washington (UP) –
Specially trained, picked assault teams of the U.S. Army made the initial attack on Fortress Europe, knocking out pillboxes and other fortifications of the vaunted Atlantic Wall, the War Department said today.
Putting to use tactics perfected in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, the assault units hit the beach under cover of heavy naval and artillery fire.
These units, actually infantrymen, were given special training to spearhead the massive assault. These men were equipped with special engineer weapons.
Preparation for the assault was provided by artillery, by naval guns, by air bombardment and by waterproof tanks firing hull-down in the water.
The purpose of this is not only to knock out pillboxes but to tear up the enemy’s field of fire by providing shell craters as cover for attacking units.
First men clear mines
Each assault section is composed of 30 men – one officer, and 29 G.I. Joes. This is the capacity of the assault boats, and it is also the most convenient size unit for a single pillbox.
It is the job of the first men ashore to locate the mines, and mark safe lanes with special tracing strips. As part of this operation, the wire itself must be cut, and American soldiers have an efficient weapon for this purpose.
It is the Bangalore torpedo, which comes in long sections capable of being made into any length necessary, depending upon the depth of the barbed wire.
One member of the assault team, under cover of small arms, fixes the Bangalore, sets the fuse, and ducks for cover. The torpedo explodes with a terrific blast, blowing a wide swath through the wire. The other members of the team follow through the wire and move up the beach.
Composed of seven teams
An assault section is composed of seven separate teams of varying sizes, beginning with the riflemen who build up a line of fire to protect the others.
They are followed by wire cutters who clear out wire not blown by the Bangalores. Next in line is the Browning automatic rifle team, whose mission is to deliver fire on portholes of the emplacement and keep the heads of the enemy down.
Then there is the next team – the gunners, firing the famous bazooka rockets. Their mission is to attack the pillbox and aperture to silence enemy fire.
The climax of the entire operation is played by the soldier with flamethrower and the man with the demolition charge. These are engineer weapons, but the infantrymen have become proficient in their use.
‘Pole charges’ do trick
The final assault is accomplished by the demolition men, equipped with what are known as “pole charges.”
The “pole charge” is a device resembling an ordinary bricklayer’s hod, and upon it is placed a block of TNT. The purpose of this design is to enable the demolition men to lean the charge against the pillbox aperture.
As soon as the pillbox blows up, the entire section moves forward for another attack. During a landing operation, these tactics are repeated by many squads along a considerable front.
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt summoned top Army and Navy chiefs to the White House today for an invasion conference and prepared to lead the nation in a prayer he wrote last night as the Allied armada moved across the English Channel to France.
Mr. Roosevelt called in Gen. George C. Marshall (Army Chief of Staff), Adm. Ernest J. King (Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Fleet) and Gen. H. H. Arnold (commander of the Army Air Forces).
Meanwhile, reports poured into the White House from the War and Navy Departments on progress of the invasion.
In his prayer, which the President will deliver at 10:00 p.m. EWT – and in which he asked the nation to join – Mr. Roosevelt asked for divine battle strength “to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogance.”
‘We shall prevail’
The President’s prayer said:
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy.
Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world-unity that will spell a sure peace – a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God.
White House Secretary Early said Mr. Roosevelt began writing the prayer several days ago. He completed it, Early said, last night after he delivered his radio “fireside chat.” He was sitting in his bedroom at that time receiving telephonic reports on progress of the invasion, Early said.
The prayer was made public hours in advance of the President’s broadcast tonight in order that it might be printed in newspapers during the day so the people would know it and could say it with the President in their homes tonight.
House hears prayer
At the request of Speaker Sam Rayburn, the prayer was read in the House of Representatives when it convened today. The first copy of the prayer after it was transcribed from the President’s own handwritten copy was sent by special motorcycle messenger to the Capitol.
The President will have his first opportunity to discuss the invasion publicly when he meets at 4:00 p.m. with his regular press and radio conference.
Acting Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius Jr., meanwhile, said this is not the time for rejoicing but the time for everyone at home “to put everything he has into his job to speed the day of victory.”
Early told reporters the President’s fireside chat discussion last night about the capture of Rome had the effect of a psychological diversion. The Germans and others undoubtedly listened to it with interest, he said, and replied “I think you might call it that” when a reporter asked if it was a psychological diversion.
Mr. Roosevelt, in his talk last night, had warned that victory over Germany “will be tough and costly.” People in the capital recalled the somber warning when they awakened to discover that the long-awaited invasion had begun.
Washington (UP) –
When the invasion came early today, President Roosevelt was sound asleep and the White House was quiet except for a message center through which came official reports of last-minute developments.
Being one of the few persons in Washington who knew exactly when the invasion would occur, the President retired early in the evening after his radio broadcast, but was undoubtedly up early canvassing the latest official dispatches.
American soldiers, the sons, brothers, husbands and friends of all of us, have at last hurled themselves against Hitler’s Europe, where they will fight it out with the Nazi armies for the cause of world freedom.
They are united with the British in an undertaking which is recognized as the most difficult in military history and one which could not succeed unless it had been planned with care and skill and driven forward with irresistible might.
It will end triumphantly, however, because of the certainty that it is being directed brilliantly, that every essential element of power has been provided and that the men of all ranks will bring to their task a high order of resourcefulness and courage.
Naturally, the hopes and the fears and the pride of all Americans go out in these hours of terror and of trial to the men who swarm upon the beaches of Europe behind a curtain of fire from guns on the ships and from bombers, and who make their way forward through a veritable inferno to their objective.
No one at home can visualize the scene. Attempts to describe it must necessarily be feeble and futile. It will bring a test of human valor against all of the genius and the cunning that have gone into the Nazis’ long preparation to meet the challenge of this day – a challenge which involves their survival.
The German soldier dies hard. This much must be conceded to him. He mans his gun to the last and goes down fighting. The invaders know this as they start on the long road to the Reich and to the gleaming goal of peace.
Our job at home, now that the suspense is ended and the battle is in progress, is to capture as much as we can of the spirit which the soldier brings to his rendezvous with history. This is a stern mood, one which precludes baseless hopes and delusions, which takes into account the strength of the enemy, also his vulnerability. It is a spirit of quiet confidence, of dogged determination, with little passion. Nor is there anything in this deadly enterprise that even vaguely resembles glamor.
The soldiers on the beaches realize, of course, that this is a job that has to be done and they are bent on doing it well, regardless of the cost. Half a world away, they are setting the tone for the home front – a tone influenced by faith that whatever they give to the cause of victory during these next few months as the tide of battle sweeps in from the Channel and the sea and over tine continent toward the Reich will be worthwhile.
These young men are fighting for old ideals and old rights. It is not enough to be with them in spirit as they struggle forward. Unless those who remain at home work tirelessly and endure bravely, they will fall short of being worthy of those who represent them on the churned, blighted battlefields of the world.
Washington (UP) –
While Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark leads his 5th Army forward north of Rome, Mrs. Clark is preparing to fulfill her “partnership in this war” by assisting in the 5th War Loan Drive.
The energetic wife of the 5th Army commander said she was “very excited and very humble” when she heard the news of the fall of Rome – and very grateful that her husband had been spared.
She said:
But my heart was heavy because I couldn’t help thinking of the families of all those who fell in Italy before the 5th Army got to Rome.
Victory can’t be unmixed and give only joy, because we must think of those who die and are wounded.
To do her part at home, Mrs. Clark is active in the sale of bonds, having traveled more than 300,000 miles in previous drives.
Urging women to accept their responsibility in the bond drives and other war work, Mrs. Clark said:
There has never been a time in history when women could do so much as they can now – and I have no patience with those who are idle.
London, England (UP) –
**Gen. Eisenhower warned millions of patriots in Europe today against a premature uprising as the Allied forces landed in France, but urged them to prepare and stand ready for the signal that will hurl them into the greatest revolt in history.
Eisenhower said:
The day will come when I shall need your united strength. Until that day, I shall call on you for the hard task of discipline and restraint… follow the instructions of your leaders… be patient. Prepare.
Eisenhower’s message went out over Allied radios to all the peoples of Western Europe, where an underground army estimated at more than 8,000,000 has been built up during the four long years of occupation.
The Allied commander said:
I know I can count on your steadfastness now, no less than in the past.
Messages from underground leaders reaching the United Press said the patriot armies were prepared to strike and were awaiting only the signal from the Supreme Allied Command.
De Gaulle in London
Gen. Charles de Gaulle, leader of the French liberation forces, arrived in London and conferred with Eisenhower and Prime Minister Churchill, apparently on military matters. De Gaulle was believed to have told Eisenhower that French resistance forces were prepared for an all-out effort when the Supreme Command was ready for them.
The French resistance movement, which military experts agreed was one of the finest underground armies in Europe, is estimated to contain 150,000 armed patriots. Led by the Maquis, the patriots have battled the Germans continuously for four months and forced the Nazis to keep troops, badly needed in Russia and Italy, on French soil.
Supplies and material have been pouring into Europe’s underground caverns for many weeks.
In accordance with Eisenhower’s plea against recklessness, exiled leaders of Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands appealed to their people by radio today to wait and obey Allied instructions and be wary of German trickery.
King Haakon of Norway told the Norwegians they “must not let their enthusiasm lead them into a premature uprising.”
Church bells announce news; courts open with brief ceremony
George C. Tilyou, head of Steeplechase Park, Coney Island, said, “The park will be closed today. This is not a day for amusement.”
Brooklyn’s millions greeted news of the invasion today with prayer, with some restrained jubilation and with work.
Men and women gathered in churches, in stores, in shops and factories and courtrooms and prayed for victory and the safe conduct of sons and brothers and husbands through their ordeal by fire on the soil of France. And often the eyes were moist while lips moved in prayer.
Church bells announced the invasion news and almost every church had planned invasion services.
Every Supreme Court part in Brooklyn and Long Island was adjourned until tomorrow, by direction of the Appellate Division. The five County Judges in Brooklyn, after a brief ceremony at noon which included a minute of silent prayer adjourned for the day. Most of the lesser courts also adjourned.
The Brooklyn Hebrew Home and Hospital for the Aged, 813 Howard Avenue, instituted a fast day, along with prayers for the success of the invasion.
Don prayer shawls
News of the invasion reached the institution very early and spread quickly among the 640 elderly inmates. At 5:45 a.m., 15 of the elderly men donned prayer shawls, and carrying shofar, or ram’s horn trumpet – normally blown only twice a year, on the two High Holy Days – paraded through the neighborhood streets, summoned the people to Invasion Day services at the adjoining synagogue. More than 1,000 persons crowded the synagogue hall when prayers for success of the invasion began, at 7:00 a.m. ET.
The sports world marked the day in its own way. The Dodgers-Philadelphia night game at Ebbets Field tonight, the only baseball game in the metropolitan area today, was called off. So were all horse races, not only in the New York area, but throughout the country, except for one racetrack in California. Prize fights scheduled for MacArthur Stadium tonight were put off to tomorrow.
Night war workers were the first in Brooklyn to get word of the invasion… Some wondered, skeptically, if it wasn’t another false report… Some prayed… Some shouted with release of tension long restrained… Many turned grimly back to their worn benches, determined to give the enemy not one moment of time lost.
In the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the borough’s hugest war industry, thousands were at work at 4:30 when a voice broke in abruptly over the loudspeaker system: “The invasion has begun!”
Spontaneously, as if by prearranged signal, workers stood up for a moment of silent prayer, returned at once to their work.
At the Bethlehem Steel yards, the chattering radio interrupted a night music program with the first news of invasion at 4:00 a.m. ET. There was a shouted “hurray!” and then, over the sprawling yards, men in overalls, men holding tools in their hands, stood beside their workplaces while their lips moved in solemn prayer.
At the Bendix Aviation Corporation plants, the first report was the definite and official word from Gen. Eisenhower’s headquarters. And here the men simply bent to their jobs. Said a head timekeeper who had watched the phenomenon:
Nobody stopped. You could hear remarks like, “We’ll clean up the Nazis then get to work on the Japs.” But everyone agreed the best way to help the boys who were going through hell over there was to keep on working.
At the Sperry Gyroscope Company, 40 Flatbush Avenue Extension, some of the night workers declined to believe the first reports as the radio doled them out at 4 o’clock. Then a foreman telephoned, came back with the report that yes, this time it was true. The invasion was on. The men went back to their jobs, worked silently and without interruption.
At the Frederick Loeser store on Fulton shortly after it opened at 9:00 a.m., the entire store personnel gathered on the street floor and, led by Capt. M. M. Witherspoon, chaplain of the 3rd Naval District, joined in prayer for the success of the invasion, the safety of the men in the invading legions.
Capt. Witherspoon read the prayer of Gen. Clark on the eve of the entry into Rome, and then Gen. Eisenhower’s pre-invasion prayer. Then he pronounced his own prayer that God teach us to “catch the spirit this day of the sacrifice by our boys overseas.” Several hundred customers waited in a roped-off area until the employees could return to their normal duties.
Early this afternoon, storekeepers up and down Kings Highway closed their stores and joined with other residents in an open-air invasion rally in Joyce Kilmer Square, Kings Highway and East 12th Street. Clergymen of every denomination led in prayers.
In the Midwood section, the neighborhood merchants held a similar mass meeting at Avenue and East 14th Street. Prayers were offered by Rabbi M. J. Mintz.
At the Wheeler Shipyards, Cropsey Avenue, and Coney Island Creek, several hundred workers joined in a brief prayer service.
There was an outdoor prayer service by the men of the Naval Receiving Barracks, Flushing and Vanderbilt Avenues, at 8:00 a.m. Civilian passersby paused and stood at a strict attention.
The Brooklyn Jewish Center, 667 Eastern Parkway, it was announced, will hold D-Day services at 8:30 p.m.
Alfred B. Auerhaan, safety director of the Arma Corporation, announced that Arma employees responded to the invasion news by 300 of them offering to visit the Red Cross Blood Donor Center, 57 Willoughby Street, and donating a pint of blood each. That will bring Arma employees’ total to more than 1,000 pints since Jan. 1 – a record equaled or exceeded only by the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Person riding on the subway trains readily spoke to perfect strangers today when the subject was the invasion. Many said that, recalling the false armistice of the last war and how quickly it was followed by the real armistice, suspected that the unauthorized Associated Press report of the invasion Sunday “meant something.”
Employees of the Borough President’s office were given two hours off about noon today for Invasion Day prayers. The majority visited churches but a few visited their homes during the work intermission.
By Sandor S. Klein, U.S. staff correspondent
Washington –
The “Western Front” invasion of Europe is backstopped by the greatest merchant fleet in world history.
Today these ships are carrying men and supplies from this great “arsenal of democracy” in numbers and quantities that dwarf anything seen in the last World War. And they are doing it in comparative safety, thanks to the Allied victory over Germany’s vast U-boat fleet in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Adolf Hitler had counted on submarines to thwart the long-planned Allied invasion of “Fortress Europe.” But his trump wasn’t high enough. The United Nations drew a higher hand. For months now, Allied sea and air forces have been destroying U-boats faster than Germany can build them and preventing those escaping destruction from doing much harm. Some ships are still being sunk but they are comparatively few in number; fewer, in fact, than the number of U-boats that are being destroyed.
The exact number of merchantman ships available is not known. But this is certain from production figures available: The so-called “bridge of ships” which did so much to bring victory to the Allies in the last war was a narrow catwalk compared to the great merchant armada spanning the Atlantic today.
By the summer of 1942, the navy and the army had perfected anti-submarine methods. Using everything it had in the way of small craft the navy began escorting coastal convoys. Army and navy planes coordinated their offshore patrol activities. By the fall of the year, the U-boats were finding it tougher and began moving into other areas.
Meanwhile, the navy gave top priority to the construction of special types of hundreds of anti-submarine vessels – destroyer-escorts, frigates, patrol boats and corvettes. It turned to the building of dozens of escort aircraft carriers.
By the latter part of 1942, the submarine menace had been brought sufficiently under control to permit U.S. participation in the invasion of North Africa.
Then, last year, as definite plans for the Western Front invasion began to germinate, the Battle of the Atlantic took a new, important turn. The Allies switched from “protective tactics” to a war of extermination against the U-boats. Special escort carrier task forces were turned loose to seek out and destroy U-boats wherever they could be found. These were supplemented by the huge fleet of anti-submarine surface ships and long-range bombing planes.
Meanwhile, Allied bombers operating from Britain smashed at German submarine-building centers, factories producing parts for the submersibles and at U-boat bases along the French and Norwegian coasts.
Thus, Hitler’s navy found itself in a two-way squeeze; one aimed at impairing U-boat production; and the other, striking at the raiders themselves.
Their effectiveness of anti-submarine measures is reflected in the monthly joint Anglo-American announcements of operations issued during the last six months. For example, during the six-month period from May to October 1943, a monthly average of 25 submarines destroyed was chalked up. This is 10 more per month than Nazi shipyards are now believed capable of producing.
By Richard C. Hottelet
London, England (UP) –
I watched the first landing barges hit the beach exactly on the minute of H hour. I was in a 9th Air Force Marauder flying at 4,500 feet alone 20 miles of the invasion coast.
From what I could see in these first few minutes there was nothing stopping the assault parties from getting ashore. I spent about half an hour over enemy territory. We flew over and bombed some of the coastal fortifications but, except for some light flak from inland positions and from some types firing at us, we saw no enemy gunfire.
The only other sign of life in enemy territory were some white and yellow parachutes dotting the ground where our parachutists had hit.
The weather was favorable to the operation.
Offshore Allied warships were bombing the enemy coast. They seemed to do it without any opposition. The Luftwaffe just didn’t seem to be there.
My fellow Americans:
Last night when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass to success thus far.
And so in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and day, without rest – until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home – fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them – help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too – strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our Armed Forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto, our sons wheresoever they may be.
And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment – let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace – a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 6, 1944)
Shortly before midnight on 5 June, 1944, Allied light bombers opened the assault. Their attacks in very great strength continued until dawn.
Between 0630 and 0730 hours this morning, two Naval Task Forces, commanded by RAdm. Sir Philip Vian, KBE DSO, flying his flag in HMS SCYLLA (Capt. T. M. Brownrigg, CBE RN), and RAdm. Alan Goodrich Kirk, USN, in USS AUGUSTA (Capt. E. H. Jones, USN) launched their assault forces at enemy beaches. The naval forces which had previously assembled under the overall command of Adm. Sir Bertram Ramsay, made their departure in fresh weather and were joined during the night by bombarding forces which had previously left northern waters.
Channels had to be swept through the large enemy minefields. This operation was completed shortly before dawn and, while minesweeping flotillas continued to sweep towards the enemy coast, the entire naval force followed down swept channels behind them towards their objectives.
Shortly before the assault, three enemy torpedo boats with armed trawlers in company attempted to interfere with the operation and were promptly driven off. One enemy trawler was sunk and another severely damaged.
The assault forces moved towards the beaches under cover of heavy bombardment from destroyers and other support craft, while heavier ships engaged enemy batteries which had already been subjected to bombardment from the air. Some of these were silenced. Allied forces continued to engage other batteries.
Landings were effected under cover of the air and naval bombardments and airborne landings involving troop-carrying aircraft and gliders carrying large forces of troops were also made successfully at a number of points. Reports of operations so far show that our forces succeeded in their initial landings. Fighting continues.
Allied heavy, medium, light, and fighter-bombers continued the air bombardment in very great strength throughout the day with attacks on gun emplacements, defensive works, and communications. Continuous fighter cover was maintained over the beaches and for some distance inland and over naval operations in the Channel. Our night fighters played an equally important role in protecting shipping and troop carrier forces and in intruder operations. Allied reconnaissance aircraft maintained continuous watch by day and night over shipping and ground forces. Our aircraft met with little enemy fighter opposition or anti-aircraft gunfire. Naval casualties were regarded as being very light, especially when the magnitude of the operation is taken into account.
Völkischer Beobachter (June 7, 1944)
dnb. Berlin, 6. Juni –
Der seit langem erwartete Angriff der Briten und Nordamerikaner gegen die nordfranzösische Küste hat in der letzten Nacht begonnen. Wenige Minuten nach Mitternacht setzte der Feind unter gleichzeitigen heftigen Bombenangriffen im Gebiet der Seine-Bucht starke Luftlandeverbände ab. Kurze Zeit später schoben sich, geschützt durch schwere und leichte Kriegsschiffeinheiten, zahlreiche feindliche Landungsboote auch gegen andere Abschnitte der Küste vor.
Die Abwehr ließ sich an keiner Stelle überraschen. Sie nahm den Kampf sofort mit aller Energie auf. Die Luftlandetruppen wurden zum Teil schon beim Absprung erfaßt und die feindlichen Schiffe bereits auf hoher See wirksam unter Feuer genommen. Viele Fallschirmeinheiten wurden aufgerieben oder gefangen, andere von hochgehenden Minen zerrissen.
Trotz fortgesetzter heftiger Luftangriffe und schweren Beschusses durch die feindliche Schiffsartillerie griffen die Geschütze des Atlantikwalls ebenfalls sofort in den Kampf ein. Sie erzielten Treffer auf Schlachtschiffeinheiten und den sich einnebelnden Landungsbooten. Der Kampf gegen die Invasionstruppen ist in vollem Gange.
Auf Befehl Moskaus haben sich nun die Briten und Amerikaner entschließen müssen, das unabsehbare Risiko der so lange hinausgezögerten Invasion auf sich zu nehmen. Damit hebt eine ungeheure Kraftprobe an, für die der Feind seine seit Jahren gesammelten und aufgesparten Reserven in breitester Front einsetzen wird. Die deutsche Führung ist auf diesen Waffengang vorbereitet, in dem es um die Verteidigung Europas, seiner Freiheit und ewigen Größe geht. Das deutsche Volk ist sich bewußt, daß es seine ganze so oft bewährte Seelenkraft aufzubieten hat, um diese sieghafte Entscheidung, die nicht nur ein Kampf der Waffen ist, herbeizuzwingen. Es tritt in diesen neuen Abschnitt des Krieges mit dem unerschütterlichen Mut und Vertrauen ein, die es in nun fast fünf Jahren eines harten und opfervollen Ringens stets beseelt haben, die ihm große Erfolge schenkten und ihm die Kraft gegeben haben, auch allen Wechselfällen gegenüber in Ehren zu bestehen und nur noch entschlossener alle Energien anzuspannen, um seine Zukunft zu sichern.
In dieser Stunde wächst es erst recht an den Anforderungen, die der Generalangriff des Feindes an uns alle stellt, an der Größe der geschichtlichen Aufgabe, deren Bewältigung in unsere Hand gegeben wird. Wir gehen in diesen Kampf mit der leidenschaftlichen Entschlossenheit, ihn nicht früher zu beenden, bis der Sieg unser ist und damit Leben, Ehre und Freiheit unseres Volkes auf Generationen hin gesichert sind. Das deutsche Volk schart sich in dieser schicksalsschweren Stunde in festem Glauben an den Triumph seiner gerechten Sache um den Führer, den Garanten des Sieges und einer Zukunft, die, unserer Nation würdig, den Sinn unserer Geschichte erfüllt.
vb.
Von Helmut Sündermann
Berlin, 6. Juni –
In den gleichen Morgenstunden des 6. Juni – fast genau vier Jahre nach der britischen Dünkirchen-Niederlage – ist gleichzeitig eine militärische Entscheidung begonnen und eine politische Entwicklung mit dem Siege Moskaus abgeschlossen worden. Als die anglo-amerikanischen Truppen sich zum Angriff gegen den Kontinent aufmachten, hat die Sowjetpolitik einen außergewöhnlichen Erfolg errungen – sie hat eine Armada zweier großer Staaten für ihre Zwecke in Bewegung gesetzt.
Es war bereits in den ersten Augusttagen des Jahres 1941, als die britische Sunday Times die folgenden bemerkenswerten Worte schrieb:
Selbst wenn die Invasion den Engländern Zehntausende von Toten und Verletzten kosten würde – so bemerkt man in Moskau – dürfte eine derartige Offensive trotzdem nicht unterlassen werden.
Dieser vor nunmehr fast drei Jahren veröffentlichte Satz enthält alles, was auch heute noch zu sagen ist. Was man damals in Moskau „bemerkte,“ führen die Churchill und Roosevelt nunmehr nach langem Zögern, aber wortgetreu aus. Es ist wahrlich eine Sowjetoffensive, die wir im Westen erleben.
Dieses Wort gilt nicht nur für die Beweggründe, sondern auch für die Ziele der Operation, die der us.-amerikanische Invasionsgeneral Eisenhower eingeleitet hat. Wenn er den Krieg nach Frankreich hineinträgt, so tut er es mit de Gaulle im Rücken – dem Manne, der in Algier sich bereits als Intimus des Bolschewismus erwiesen hat. Und wenn Eisenhower das Ziel hat, vom Westen her den Krieg gegen Deutschland voranzutragen, so geschieht es auf Grund einer militärischen Konzeption, deren Hauptabsicht ist, die deutsche Kraft im Osten zu brechen. Ein bolschewisiertes Frankreich und ein den Sowjethorden preisgegebenes Europa – das sind die wahren Parolen, für die die anglo-amerikanischen Soldaten ihre blutige Aufgabe begonnen haben.
Die deutsche Auffassung, daß der europäische Lebenskampf, der um die Rettung des Kontinents vor der bolschewistischen Niedertrampelung geht, im Westen genauso entschlossen geführt werden muß wie im Osten, erweist sich heute als richtig und vorausschauend» Wenn sie unvermeidlich zur Folge hatte, daß manche Position im Osten und Süden aufgegeben werden mußte, so hat sich auch dies als zweckmäßig erwiesen: auch ein Söldnerheer ist gefährlich, auch das Landsknechttum, das für fremde Interessen kämpft, muß mit der gleichen Entschlossenheit bekämpft werden wie die Horden des Ostens. Deutschland und Europa sind durch die Ereignisse nicht überrascht worden. Sie erkennen das Gebot der Stunde, und das heißt im Westen ebenso wie im Osten: die Kulturvölker unseres Kontinents vor der sicheren Vernichtung retten!
Daß es eine Sowjetoffensive ist, die sie unternehmen, mag manchem einfachen anglo-amerikanischen Soldaten, der in dieses blutige Abenteuer gesandt wurde, heute noch nicht so klar sein wie den Völkern Europas. Auch in ihrer Heimat mag es manche geben, die – von Phrasen umnebelt – den wahren Kern der Sache noch nicht durchschauen. Aber – das dürfen wir heute sagen – es wird bei ihnen ein blutiges Erwachen geben, ein Erwachen, das sich heute schon ankündigt und das die Churchill und Roosevelt und ihre ganze Judengesellschaft, die zwei Reiche in das Fahrwasser des Bolschewismus gesteuert haben, hinwegfegen und eine neue, gereinigte Welt zum Aufstieg bringen wird. Das wird die Sache der Zukunft sein: Die Angelegenheit des Tages aber ist der Kampf, der leidenschaftliche Kampf um die Vernichtung des bolschewistischen Verbrechertums, das von Westen her die Tore nach Europa aufbrechen will, nachdem sie ihm im Osten durch die deutsche Wehrmacht verschlossen sind. Aber es wird sich zeigen, daß auch dort Deutschland auf der Wacht war und ist.
Berlin, 6. Juni –
Der durch wochenlange Bombardierungen von Befestigungen und Verkehrswegen angekündigte Angriff der Briten und Nordamerikaner auf die nordfranzösische Küste hat in den ersten Morgenstunden des 6. Juni begonnen. Kurz nach Mitternacht wurden bei Trouville, bei Caen und an der Nordostküste der normannischen Halbinsel zahlreiche Fallschirmspringer und Lastensegler beobachtet. Gleichzeitig erfolgten heftige Luftangriffe auf die wichtigsten Küstenplätze zwischen Cherbourg und Le Havre sowie im Abschnitt Calais-Dünkirchen. Die sofort alarmierte Küstenverteidigung nahm die Fallschirmjäger schon beim Landen unter Feuer und rieb in Gegenstößen starke Teile der sich laufend noch weiter verstärkenden Luftlandetruppen auf.
Andere Gruppen wurden durch hochgehende Minen vernichtet. Während dieser für den Gegner äußerst verlustreichen Kämpfe schoben sich zahlreiche Landungsboote an die Küste zwischen Orne- und Viremündung. Beim Hellwerden wurde ein starker feindlicher Flottenverband im Seegebiet westlich Le Havre erkannt. An den beiden Flügeln durch Schlachtschiffe, Kreuzer und Zerstörer geschützt, sammelten sich im Inneren der Seinebucht zahlreiche Landungsfahrzeuge aller Art und Größe. Deutsche Torpedoboote griffen diese Schiffsansammlungen entschlossen an. Bei ihrer Annäherung versuchten die feindlichen Streitkräfte, sich durch Einnebeln der Sicht zu entziehen. Fliegerstaffeln halfen ihnen dabei und legten im Tiefflug dicke Nebelbänke rings um die Schiffe. Dennoch schossen unsere Boote ihre Torpedos und ihre gesamte Artilleriemunition mitten zwischen die dichtgedrängt liegenden Fahrzeuge und erzielten gute Treffer. Dann kehrten sie zur Munitionsergänzung vollzählig zu ihrem Stützpunkt zurück.
An anderen Stellen der Seinebucht stellten Vorpostenboote den Gegner ebenfalls erfolgreich zum Kampf. Im Sperrfeuer der Küstenbatterien sanken weitere Fahrzeuge, darunter ein größeres Kriegsschiff. Die feindliche Schiffsartillerie erwiderte das Feuer und beschoß mit Spreng-, Rauch- und Nebelgranaten die Verteidigungswerke. Die Granaten wie die fortgesetzt über den Bunkern abgeladenen Bomben blieben ohne Wirkung. Inzwischen ging der Kampf gegen die im Raum von Caen abgesetzten britischen, Luftlandetruppen und gegen die bei Carentan abgesetzten nordamerikanischen Verbände weiter. Zahlreiche Gefangene fielen dabei in diesen ersten Stunden bereits in unsere Hand. Zur Ablenkung der Abwehr warfen britische Flugzeuge östlich der Orne lebensgroße, mit Sprengladungen versehene Puppen ab. Das Täuschungsmanöver wurde rechtzeitig erkannt, über die Kampfzone hinweg flogen ununterbrochen feindliche Fluggeschwader ein und bombardierten die Küstenwerke sowie die Bahn- und Straßenknotenpunkte im Raum zwischen Le Havre und Cherbourg. Aber ebenso pausenlos rollten die Salven der Batterien unseres Atlantikwalls und der Geschütze der Eingreifdivisionen.
Schon bald nach Beginn des Unternehmens war zu erkennen, daß die Briten und Nordamerikaner ihren Hauptstoß zunächst gegen die Räume Caen, Carentan und Cherbourg richteten. Unter dem Schutz massierter Bombenwürfe und dem schweren Feuer der Schiffsartillerie führte der Feind seinen an der Mündung sowie am Ostrand der normannischen Halbinsel aus der Luft und von der See her gelandeten Kräften laufend Verstärkungen und an einigen Stellen auch Panzer zu. Hiezu kamen aber auch dann die deutschen Gegenschläge.
Beiderseits Cherbourg waren die feindlichen Luftlandetruppen bereits zerschlagen, bevor sie sich noch zum Kampf formieren konnten. Hohe blutige Verluste hatte der Gegner vor allem im Raum von Caen, wo die Briten große Mengen von Sturmbooten einsetzten und die vernebelte Steilküste mit Hilfe von Enterleitern zu überwinden versuchten. Durch die Vorstrandsperren und das Abwehrfeuer wurden zahlreiche Boote vernichtet, und nur unter schweren Verlusten konnte der Feind einen Teil seiner Panzer an Land bringen. Im Gegenstoß waren hier bis zum Mittag auf schmalem Raum bereits 35 feindliche Panzer vernichtet.
Im ganzen Küstenabschnitt zwischen Cherbourg und Le Havre sind die Kämpfe in vollem Gange. Weitere Teiloperationen des Feindes richteten sich gegen die Kanalinseln Jersey und Guernsey. Neue starke Schiffs verbände näherten sich im Laufe des Vormittags auch der Küste zwischen Calais und Dünkirchen. Der große Waffengang an der nordfranzösischen Küste hat begonnen. Er fand die deutschen Truppen überall bereit.
Von Erich Glodschey
Wenn man den Schauplatz der jetzt erfolgten feindlichen Landung in Nordfrankreich auf der Karte betrachtet, dann wird es schnell klar, daß die Wahl des ersten Landungsplatzes stark von den Bedingtheiten des Seekrieges beeinflußt sein mußte. Wer nur die Entfernung zwischen der englischen und französischen Küste in Betracht zieht, mag sich vielleicht wundern, daß der Feind nicht die engste Stelle des Kanals, wo er nur 20 Seemeilen, also nicht einmal 40 Kilometer breit ist, zum ersten Sprung über die See gewählt hat. Ob sich die Landung in der Seinebucht nun als der Hauptstoß erweist oder was der Feind sonst an Landungen beabsichtigt, das muß sich noch erweisen. Für den ersten Stoß aber mußte der US-General Eisenhower danach trachten, möglichst viel Schiffsraum in greifbarer Nähe bereitzustellen und eine möglichst starke Unterstützung durch schwere Seestreitkräfte zu erlangen. Die Bereitstellung von Schiffsraum erfordert entsprechende Reeden und Häfen. Der Einsatz von schweren Seestreitkräften verlangt eine gewisse Bewegungsfreiheit. Dies ist in der Mitte und in der Westhälfte des Kanals in höherem Maße gegeben als an der Kanalenge, wo die Küstenbatterien über die Meeresstraße von Dover und Calais hinwegschießen.
Im Osten des Kanals bot nur die Themsemündung genügenden Raum für die Bereitstellung größerer Landungsflotten, denn die Häfen im Raume von Dover bis nach Brighton sind nur klein und im Wesentlichen auf den Verkehr der Eisenbahnfähren und Seebäderdampfer zugeschnitten. Von der Mitte des Kanals nach Westen aber sind von Portsmouth und Southampton über Portland nach Plymouth große Häfen vorhanden, die meist an tiefen Buchten liegen. Im Raume zwischen diesen Häfen und der französischen Küste, besonders der Seinebucht und der Bucht von St. Malo, entwickelte sich in den letzten Monaten eine Seekriegstätigkeit von zunehmender Stärke. Häufige Schnellbootunternehmungen und ein reger Minenkrieg zeugten davon. Dazu kam auf der feindlichen Seite das Erscheinen größerer Zerstörer und auch Kreuzer, besonders Flakkreuzer, die dort bisher nicht aufgetreten waren. Die heftigen Gefechte deutscher Torpedoboote und Schnellboote mit diesen Schiffen führten in den letzten Monaten zu manchen schönen Versenkungserfolgen.
Besonders trat in den- Meldungen die Insel Wight hervor, hinter der eine weite Reede liegt, deren schmale Zugänge einen guten militärischen Schutz und eine Deckung gegen schlechtes Wetter auf See bieten. Wie erinnerlich, war es im April eine Mitteilung des Wehrmachtberichtes über die Bombardierung feindlicher Schiffsansammlungen hinter der Insel Wight, die sehr frühzeitig auf das jetzt umkämpfte Seegebiet des ersten Abschnittes der Invasion die Aufmerksamkeit lenkte. Dies kennzeichnete die Wachsamkeit der deutschen Führung.
Von der Insel Wight zur Halbinsel Cotentin, wo zwischen den Kaps Barfleur und de la Hague der große Hafen Cherbourg liegt, ist der Kanal etwa 55 Seemeilen oder 100 Kilometer breit. Von der Halbinsel Cotentin schlingt sich dann in flachem Bogen ostwärts die weite Seinebucht bis zur Mündung der Seine mit dem großen Hafen Le Havre. Die Entfernung vom inneren Teil der Seinebucht bis zur englischen Küste beträgt 80 Seemeilen oder 150 Kilometer. Dieser Raum gestattet also die Entwicklung schwerer Seestreitkräfte, von denen jetzt eine Anzahl Schlachtschiffe außer Kreuzern und Zerstörern zur Seitendeckung der feindlichen Landungsflotte eingesetzt worden ist. In diese Masse von Schiffen, die sich zur Tarnung in starkem Maße des künstlichen Nebels bediente, sind die deutschen Torpedoboote und anderen leichten Seestreitkräfte in der Nacht der ersten Landung schon frühzeitig hineingestoßen.
Besonderen Wert hat der Feind zweifellos auf einen ausgedehnten Schutz der Seestreitkräfte und Landungsfahrzeuge aus der Luft gelegt. Auch dieser Schutz ist übrigens stark vom Wetter auf See abhängig. Auf jeden Fall hat schon das erste Landungsunternehmen an der nordfranzösischen Küste den Feind vor viel schwerere Aufgaben gestellt als bei seinen Landungen in Nordafrika und Süditalien oder gar auf den kleinen Pazifikinseln, wo er eine gewaltige örtliche Überlegenheit auf kleinem Raum konzentrieren konnte. Leichten Herzens werden sich die feindlichen Schlachtschiffe und Kreuzer bestimmt nicht in den Kanal begeben haben, der auch an seinen breiten Stellen für die schweren Seestreitkräfte ein enges Gewässer bleibt.
Es unterliegt keinem Zweifel, daß die Engländer und Nordamerikaner von Moskau gedrängt worden sind, alle ihre verfügbaren. Kampfmittel auch zur See für das Landungsunternehmen in Westeuropa einzusetzen. Seit Jahren haben sie ihre Werften auf Hochtouren arbeiten lassen, um Tonnage an Kriegs- und Handelsschiffen und Landungsfahrzeugen zu schaffen, um für die Landung und die Nachschubaufgaben gerüstet zu sein. Die Anglo-Amerikaner standen jedoch dabei unter der Belastung der vorangegangenen Schiffsverluste von vielen Millionen Bruttoregistertonnen durch den deutschen Unterseebootkrieg, dessen Erfolge die feindlichen Landungstermine erheblich verzögert haben. Dadurch wurde Zeit für die deutschen Abwehrvorbereitungen gegen die Invasion gewonnen. Ferner hat die Bindung feindlicher Kriegs- und Handelsschiffe im Pazifischen Ozean ihren Einfluß ausgeübt.
Das ganze weltweite Geschehen des Seekrieges im Atlantik wie im Mittelmeer, im Indischen Ozean und im Pazifik bleibt verbunden mit dem harten Kampf, der nun am Kanal begonnen hat und in dem alle drei Teile der deutschen Wehrmacht in einem entscheidenden Abschnitt des Krieges ihre Zusammenarbeit bewähren.
vb. Berlin, 6. Juni –
Seit heute Morgen um ein Uhr dröhnen an der französischen Küste die Geschütze, knattern die Maschinengewehre, zucken die Mündungsblitze der Schiffsartillerie durch den künstlichen Nebel, der den Umriß ihrer Leiber verbirgt. Die ersten Gefechte einer der größten Schlachten unserer Geschichte haben begonnen. Die Welt hält den Atem an. Sie fühlt, daß von diesen Stunden eine große geschichtliche Entscheidung ausgehen kann. Ob ein ganzer Kontinent, der älteste des Erdballs, unter die Herrschaft der rohesten Zerstörungskraft geraten soll oder ob er die Möglichkeit hat, sein eigenes Leben frei zu entfalten: Dies wird mit hoher Wahrscheinlichkeit in den nächsten Wochen an der Küste des Atlantischen Ozeans entschieden werden.
Jeder kennt aus seiner eigenen Umgebung in der letzten Zeit die Frage, die immer wieder gestellt wurde: „Werden sie kommen? Werden sie es wagen?“ Aber diese Frage hat nicht den Staatsbürger in Deutschland allein beschäftigt. Die Unsicherheit darüber, ob die Westmächte wirklich die Invasion beginnen würden, hat die gesamte internationale Diskussion der Fachleute während der letzten Monate beherrscht. Die deutsche Führung hat sich zu keinem Augenblick davon anstecken lassen. Sie hat alle politischen und militärischen und vor allem auch die psychologischen Gegebenheiten auf der Gegenseite gewürdigt, und sie ist seit langem zu dem Schluß gekommen, daß die Westmächte unter dem Zwange stünden, in Westeuropa zu landen. Die heutigen Ereignisse haben dies bestätigt und damit die Gesamtstrategie der deutschen Führung in den letzten anderthalb Jahren glänzend gerechtfertigt.
Die militärische Entwicklung während dieser Zeit stand im Zeichen deutscher Rückzüge. Diese Rückzüge wären zu vermeiden gewesen, wenn die deutsche Führung sich entschlossen hätte, ihre reichlichen operativen Reserven an den von Invasion bedrohten Stellen abzuziehen. Sie hat das nicht getan, und sie hat im Gegenteil aus der Ostfront Reserven herausgezogen, um sie an die Stelle zu werfen, von der sie wußte, daß hier eines Tages die Entscheidung fallen würde. Das hat manchen schmerzlichen Verzicht bedeutet – schmerzlich für die Truppe und schmerzlich für die Heimat. So ist Kiew, so ist Smolensk, so ist Odessa, so ist am Sonntag Rom verlorengegangen. Aber mit den Ereignissen dieses historischen 6. Juni gewinnen diese Preisgaben erst ihr eigentliches Gesicht.
Sie waren notwendig, damit da, wo in dem eisernen Würfelspiel die Entscheidung des Krieges fallen muß, die Deutschen die stärkste Zusammenballung ihrer Kraft besitzen, die möglich ist. Indem die Führung der Verlockung standhielt, die der Sorge um große Städte mit alten Namen, die aber auch der nie zu beseitigenden Ungewißheit über die Pläne der Westmächte entsprang, indem sie mit der äußersten Entschlossenheit an der einmal als richtig erkannten Gesamtkonzeption festhielt, hat sie die erste Voraussetzung für kommende Erfolge bereits geschaffen.
Es ist nicht wahrscheinlich, daß es bei der Landung an der nordwestfranzösischen Küste bleiben wird. Es ist eher anzunehmen, daß der Gegner nun nacheinander auch noch an anderen Stellen Westeuropas Truppen an Land setzen wird. Wo sich dann eines Tages der Schwerpunkt des Kampfes herausbilden wird, ob das an den Landestellen des 6. Juni, ob das weiter nördlich, ob das weiter südlich der Fall sein wird, das alles wird sich erst nach Tagen, vielleicht nach Wochen zeigen. Aber das eine ist bereits jetzt sicher: Die Kämpfe werden in mancher Beziehung ein anderes Gesicht tragen als die Rückzugsschlachten in der Ukraine und in Italien. Diesmal spielt sich die kriegerische Auseinandersetzung dort ab, wo die deutsche Führung seit langem die Entscheidung erwartete und wo sie darauf gerüstet ist. Sie ist im Osten wie in Italien ausgewichen, weil sie es so wollte und weil sie es für richtig hielt. Sie wird in Frankreich der Entscheidung nicht ausweichen, weil sie sie selber hier wünscht. Sie hat sich hier darauf vorbereitet, und sie wird sie auszutragen wissen.
Die Meldungen über die ersten Stunden des Kampfverlaufes, soweit sie uns gegenwärtig vorliegen, zeigen denn auch, wie entschlossen der Abwehrwille der deutschen Führung, wie überlegen ihre Maßnahmen und wie hart die ersten deutschen Gegenschläge sind. Die Kämpfe werden weitergehen, wochen-, vielleicht monatelang. Wir wissen alle, daß sie sehr schwer sein werden. Der Feind hat viel dazu getan, eine große Kriegsmacht aufzubauen, und wir zweifeln nicht an seiner Entschlossenheit, diese Kriegsstärke nun auch voll einzusetzen. Die ganze deutsche Nation erkennt den hohen Ernst der Stunden, die begonnen haben. Aber gerade darum, weil der Gegner sich nun endlich gezwungen sieht, auf dem seit langem sorgsam gemiedenen Schauplatz der Entscheidung mit seiner stärksten Kraft anzutreten, gerade darum glauben wir auch, daß von den Kämpfen dieser Wochen her das militärische Gesicht des Krieges sich wieder wandeln wird.
Die deutsche Defensivstrategie der letzten anderthalb Jahre war nichts Endgültiges. Sie war ein Mittel zum Zweck, nicht mehr. Der Plan unserer Gegner, durch eine ununterbrochene Offensive das Herz Europas zu lähmen und schließlich zu vernichten, ist seit heute Morgen in einen Abschnitt der Entwicklung getreten, der sich im Verlauf der Kämpfe zu seiner eigentlichen Krise wandeln mag. Wenn dem Gegner der Invasionsfeldzug gelingen sollte, dann wären für uns die Folgen unübersehbar. Sie würden wohl das Ende bedeuten. Wenn aber die deutschen Soldaten die Angreifer Zurückschlagen, dann sind die Folgen unübersehbar für die Gegenseite. Die Entscheidung über beides, das Schicksal unseres Vaterlandes, das Schicksal unseres Erdteils liegt jetzt in den Händen und den tapferen Herzen der Kämpfer am Atlantikwall. In dieser ungeheuren Tragweite der Ereignisse liegt die Rechtfertigung für das Aushalten, für den Widerstand und den Gegenstoß der deutschen Soldaten an der atlantischen Küste.
Wenn aber der Rauch der Geschütze sich endgültig von dem Strand der Felsenküste Frankreichs verzogen haben wird, dann wird sich auch zeigen, daß das Gesicht des Krieges ganz neue Züge erhalten hat. Militärisch gesehen aber wird dies bedeuten, daß die deutsche Führung dann freier geworden ist in ihren Entschlüssen, als sie es anderthalb Jahre lang sein konnte. Die Nation weiß, daß in der großen dramatischen Zuspitzung dieses Krieges auch die große Zuversicht liegt. Sie weiß, daß in dem Gewühl der schweren Schlachten dieses Sommers das blitzende Schwert des Gegenschlages zu finden ist.