Operation MARKET GARDEN (1944)

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (September 20, 1944)

Hitler in command at front; British drive 40 miles to Rhine

Allied invasion thrust into Germany from Netherlands indicated
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

Bulletin

SHAEF, London, England –
U.S. and German tanks were locked in battle on 1st Army and 3rd Army fronts in France and Germany today. At least 71 German tanks were knocked out in two sectors alone, first reports said.

A dispatch from the 3rd Army said tanks were slugging it out 16 miles northeast of Nancy and that Gen. Patton’s armor knocked out 40 German Tiger tanks near Athienville yesterday. Artillery bagged three more. A First Army dispatch said 28 of 41 attacking German tanks were knocked southwest of Bitburg, German town 16 miles north of Trier.

Violent fighting of the “Cassino” type was raging in Stolberg, industrial city five miles east of Aachen, with the Americans advancing from house-to-house. Some counterattacking Nazis were using flamethrowers.

Turning the Siegfried Line, British 2nd Army troops and Allied air-borne forces drove into Nijmegen, on the south bank of the Rhine three miles from the German border, while airborne troops to the north were at Arnhem. The U.S. 1st Army smashed beyond Aachen to the Duren area and strengthened its positions across the German border north and south of Aachen. The U.S. 3rd Army closed on Metz and advanced from the Nancy area to within 45 miles of Strasbourg. French troops of the Allied 6th Army Group closed on Belfort and captured Fougerolles, 25 miles to the north.

SHAEF, London, England –
Lt. Gen. Sir Miles C. Dempsey’s patrols. were believed to have scored the first British thrust into Germany east of the embattled Dutch stronghold of Nijmegen today, coincident with disclosure that Adolf Hitler had taken direct command of the defense of the Reich.

Gen. Dempsey’s British 2nd Army troops fought a violent battle through the streets of Nijmegen after a 40-mile dash across the Netherlands to that ancient Dutch city perched on the high south bank of the Rhine River. Meanwhile, his advanced elements and troops of the 1st Allied Airborne Army were swinging around the northern end of the Siegfried Line.

Airborne headquarters in Britain reported authorities well satisfied with the progress of the aerial invasion of Holland which had already opened the way for a drive into northwestern Germany and on to Berlin.

Lt. Gen. Frederick A. M. Browning’s sky troopers were supplied again, today for the fourth straight day by aerial trains which sped across the North Sea despite rain and mist.

While the street battle went on in Nijmegen, British forces were believed to have struck the three miles eastward to the German frontier. Any such limited operation was regarded at headquarters, however, as of little tactical significance for the moment.

Germans hurl suicidal attacks

Hitler’s generalship was already in evidence all along the blazing battlefront from northern Holland to the edge of the Saar Valley. Front dispatches said crack German troops and panzer units were being hurled into reckless counterattacks that slowed the Allied advance in some sectors at a frightful cost in Nazi lives. In others, they resulted only in a slaughter of Germans without stemming the Berlin-bound Allies.

The Führer’s hand was also seen in the appearance of Nazi robot bombs on the fighting front for the first time. Field dispatches said two flying bombs crashed into U.S. positions along the Meuse River, exploding with terrific force but apparently causing few casualties among the well-dispersed troops.

First official word of the Führer’s new role, similar to that which he assumed with disastrous results on the Russian front, came from Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery at his forward command in Belgium.

Marshal Montgomery told officers and men of a Scottish division:

** The Allies have a lot to be thankful for in that Hitler has taken charge of operations. It means the enemy is commanded by a lunatic. In that respect, I’m glad the German generals failed in their bomb attempt against the Führer.**

Hitler’s decision to lead the defense of the Reich, he added, strengthened his (Marshal Montgomery’s) belief that the war in Europe would end before the close of 1944.

One major triumph was confirmed by Allied headquarters today – the capture of the great Atlantic port of Brest and the elimination of the Germans from the neighboring Crozon Peninsula, ending a month-old siege that virtually wrecked the harbor.

Troops hold path across Rhine

A second and greater victory was in the making in northern Holland where the armored might of the British 2nd Army reached the Rhine Line and threatened to break across the barrier momentarily into the open country before Berlin.

U.S. and Allied airborne troops joined the British around Eindhoven, 32 miles southwest of Nijmegen, and formed up in their rear as infantrymen, while others held open a path ahead of the Tommies as far as Arnhem, on the north bank of the Rhine 11 miles beyond Nijmegen.

First reports indicated the vital bridge across the Rhine on the road to Arnhem still was standing when the Allies broke into Nijmegen. An unconfirmed Radio Paris broadcast said British armored forces drove five miles beyond Nijmegen and effected a juncture with airborne troops moving down from Arnhem.

United Press writer Walter Cronkite, with the sky troops in Holland, said the airborne army, now equipped with light tanks and big field guns, could beat off anything the Germans might try to throw against them.

He reported that the Germans were counterattacking desperately but ineffectually with shock troops and heavy artillery, and the fighting was within sound of the German border.

At Nijmegen, the Allies were about 12 miles north-northwest of Kleve, where the Nazi West Wall reputedly ends. At Arnhem, they were less than 10 miles from the Reich, and, if the British armor can be brought up in force, in position for a smash across excellent tank country all the way to Berlin, some 260 miles to the east.

The Germans appeared to have rallied somewhat from the initial shock of the Allied airborne invasion and were fighting fanatically even when bypassed by the British armor.

They hit back with particular ferocity around Best, on the Wilhelmina Canal, six miles northwest of Eindhoven, and won back the town, but were stopped before they could cut dangerously into the Allied flank. Other Nazi units counterattacked repeatedly against the base of the Allied spearhead along the Belgian-Dutch border, but without success. Troops, tanks and guns were still pouring across the frontier to join in the big push for the Reich.

Some 80 miles southeast of Nijmegen, the U.S. 1st Army completed the encirclement of Aachen and sent armored spearheads eastward toward Cologne in a bitterly-opposed drive that had already forced the evacuation of German civilians from the Rhineland.

American 155mm Long Toms shelled Duren, 16 miles east of Aachen and 19 miles from Cologne.

Southwest of Cologne, U.S. and German troops locked in savage street battles for Stolberg and the nearby village of Büsbach. Still farther south, 1st Army troops and tanks widened their salients inside Germany in the Monschau, Prüm, Echternach and Trier areas, knocking out pillboxes on each side of their spearheads but making only yard-by-yard progress forward.

Capture many Nazis

Despite the stubbornness of the German resistance on the 1st Army front, United Press writer Henry T. Gorrell reported that prisoners were still coming in at the rate of 2,000 a day and that the 1st Army bag now totaled 180,000 men.

On Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s U.S. 3rd Army front to the south, United Press writer Robert Richards said French Forces of the Interior had joined the Americans in a two-pronged drive for the Saar Valley that made good progress in the face of heavy opposition.

One column advanced 23 miles northeast of Épinal to the Baccarat area, while a second moved 20 miles northeast of Nancy, to the vicinity of Marsal and Dieuze.

Use tanks, minefields

German panzer grenadiers, many of them veterans of the Italian and North African campaigns, opposed the 3rd Army drive and Mr. Richards reported they were using tanks, minefields and roadblocks in a stubborn fighting retreat through the forests east of the Moselle River.

At least 14 enemy tanks were destroyed in the Dieuze sector yesterday, Mr. Richards said.

Battle hard for Metz

Fighting in the Metz area to the north was still “very stiff,” with the Americans gaining ground slowly and painfully, he added.

Far to the west, all organized resistance was ended in Brest and U.S. infantrymen probed through the wreckage of the port mopping up isolated Nazi snipers. The battle for the Channel port of Boulogne was also about ended, despite bitter resistance met by Canadian troops in some parts of the town. Almost 3,000 Germans, it was disclosed, have been captured in Boulogne.

[NormanStewart]

Führer HQ (September 21, 1944)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

In Mittelholland wurde der aus der Luft gelandete Feind im Raum Arnheim durch konzentrische Angriffe weiter eingeengt. Gut unterstützt durch eigene Jagdverbände, fügten unsre Truppen dem Gegner schwere Verluste an Menschen und Material zu. Bisher wurden über 1700 Gefangene eingebracht.

Aus dem Raum Eindhoven stieß der Feind mit Panzern nach Nordosten vor. Eigene Truppen traten auch hier zum Gegenangriff an.

Nordwestlich Aachen konnte der Gegner unter starkem Panzereinsatz seinen Einbruch erweitern. Südwestlich der Stadt wurden alle feindlichen Angriffe zum Teil unter hohen Verlusten für den Gegner abgewiesen. Der eigene Gegenangriff gewinnt langsam Boden.

Im Raum Nancy–Lunéville halten die schweren und unübersichtlichen Kämpfe an. Nancy ging verloren. In Lunéville wird erbittert gekämpft.

An den übrigen Frontabschnitten nur örtliche Kampfhandlungen.

Die fortgesetzten Angriffe des Feindes auf die Festungen Calais, Saint-Nazaire und Boulogne wurden abgewiesen. Nach der Beendigung des Kampfes im völlig zerstörten Stadt- und Hafenbereich der Festung Brest hielten gestern noch einzelne Kampfgruppen in erbittertem Kampf die letzten Stützpunkte auf der Halbinsel Le Crozon.

Das „V1“-Störungsfeuer auf London dauert an.

In Italien erreichten im Raum an der Adria die schweren Abwehrschlachten ihren Höhepunkt. Es gelang hier auch gestern den heldenhaft kämpfenden eigenen Truppen, zum Teil in neuen Stellungen, den feindlichen Durchbruch zu verhindern. Nördlich und nordöstlich Florenz wurden feindliche Angriffe abgewiesen, örtliche Einbrüche im Gegenstoß bereinigt.

In Südsiebenbürgen und im Szekler Zipfel scheiterten Angriffe der Bolschewisten. Ebenso wiesen unsre Truppen im Abschnitt Sanok-Krosno heftige Angriffe der Sowjets zurück, riegelten einzelne Einbrüche ab und vernichteten 27 Panzer.

Bei Warschau versuchte der Feind, im Schutz künstlichen Nebels die Weichsel an mehreren Stellen zu überschreiten. Die Übersetzversuche wurden vereitelt, einzelne auf das Westufer vorgedrungene Kampfgruppen abgeschnitten. Auch nordöstlich der Stadt blieben wiederholte Angriffe der Bolschewisten in unserm Feuer liegen.

Angriffe südwestlich Mitau brachten nach Abwehr feindlicher Gegenangriffe Stellungsverbesserungen. In Lettland und Estland wurden die von zahlreichen Panzern und Schlachtfliegern unterstützten Angriffe der Bolschewisten abgewiesen oder aufgefangen und zahlreiche Panzer vernichtet.

In dreitägigen Waldkämpfen zerschlugen unsre Grenadiere im Kandalakscha-Abschnitt in schwungvollen Gegenangriffen zwei feindliche Brückenköpfe.

In den gestrigen Mittagsstunden führten nordamerikanische Bomber Angriffe gegen mehrere Orte in Nord- und Nordwestdeutschland. Im Stadtgebiet von Koblenz entstanden Gebäudeschäden und Personenverluste. In der vergangenen Nacht richteten sich feindliche Terrorangriffe gegen München-Gladbach und Budapest. Luftverteidigungskräfte schossen 37 feindliche Flugzeuge ab.

Im Kanal und im Indischen Ozean versenkten Unterseeboote vier Schiffe mit 26,000 BRT und zwei Fregatten. Drei weitere Schiffe wurden durch Torpedotreffer schwer beschädigt.

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In den Ostkarpaten zeichnete sich das schwäbisch-bayerische 1. Bataillon des Gebirgsjägerregiments 13 unter Führung von Hauptmann Ploder und das schwäbisch-bayerische Feldersatzbataillon 94 unter Führung von Hauptmann Kresse durch hervorragende Tapferkeit aus. In den schweren Abwehrkämpfen in Lettland haben sich die schwäbische 105. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant von Mellenthin, die bayerisch-pfälzische 132. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Wagner und die sächsische 24. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Oberst Schultz durch Angriffsschwung und Standfestigkeit hervorragend bewährt. Leutnant Sauer in einer Sturmgeschützbrigade schoss mit seinem Sturmgeschütz in zwei Tagen 14 Panzer ab.

[NormanStewart]

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (September 21, 1944)

Communiqué No. 166

There has been heavy fighting in the area of NIJMEGEN where Allied land and airborne forces have linked up. The base of the Allied salient has been widened and airborne landing have been further reinforced.

Fighters and fighter-bombers provided escort and support for these airborne operations and also provided support for the ground forces.

Allied troops in BELGIUM advanced to the line of the LEOPOLD CANAL and made substantial gains to the SCHELDT west of ANTWERP.

Mopping-up continues in the area of BOULOGNE south of the LAINE River.

The German garrison and fortified positions at CALAIS were subjected to a strong and concentrated attack yesterday afternoon and evening by heavy bombers, one of which is missing.

In southern HOLLAND, our ground forces have crossed the GERMAN border to SCHARPENSEEL, five miles northeast of HEERLEN, under heavy German artillery fire. Stubborn fighting is in progress at other points along the front, particularly at STOLBERG, east of AACHEN and on the outskirts of BIESDORF, east of the LUXEMBOURG town of SIEKIRCH, where, earlier, a strong enemy counterattack was repulsed and 17 German tanks knocked out.

In the MOSELLE Valley, heavy enemy resistance is being encountered south of METZ, with fighting centering around SILLEGNY. Our forces also are engaged in the vicinity of CHÂTEAU-SALINS, 18 miles northeast of NANCY. Our troops advancing northeast of CHARMES have reached the towns of MOYEN and MAGNIERES.

Gains have been made along the entire sector northwest of BELFORT. Opposition has been slight and the enemy is relying principally on lightly-defended road blocks to stay our advances. Several small towns have been occupied.

The enemy south of BELFORT has confined his activity to patrolling with moderate support from artillery and mortars.

A force of 19,312 enemy troops under Gen. Elster has been taken prisoner after a mass surrender south of the LOIRE River.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (September 21, 1944)

AIR ARMY RESCUE REPORTED
New offensive hits Siegfried Line

Allied mobile forces race over Rhine after taking bridge intact
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

*Cracking the Rhine Line, British 2nd Army tanks and U.S. airborne troops raced northward from Nijmegen for a reported rescue of an Allied airborne force trapped in the Arnhem area of Holland. Meanwhile, the 1st Canadian Army and Polish troops cleared virtually the entire south bank of the Scheldt estuary to open the captured port of Antwerp to Allied shipping. The U.S. 1st Army launched a new offensive against the Siegfried Line below Aachen. The U.S. 3rd Army drove against Metz and advanced from Nancy, while the Allied 6th Army Group continued its drive toward Belfort.

Bulletin

SHAEF, London, England –
**Counterattacking German troops were thrown back with heavy casualties by the U.S. 1st Army in an hours-long battle northwest of Trier today, while to the southeast Nazi tank losses mounted past the 100-mark on the third day of a great armored battle on the 3rd Army front.

SHAEF, London, England –
The U.S. 1st Army opened a new offensive against the Siegfried defenses southeast of Aachen today while to the northwest Allied mobile forces raced beyond the Rhine toward an imminent junction with airborne troops encircled in the Arnhem area of Holland.

Berlin in effect reported that sky troopers at Arnhem had been relieved by U.S. and British forces pouring over the Rhine on a Nijmegen road bridge captured in a battle through the streets of the strategic Dutch town which is a gateway to Northwest Germany.

The Allied campaign in Western Europe is “well over a month” ahead of schedule, a broadcaster reported from Paris on his arrival from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s new command post in eastern France, adding that “so now it is forward to Berlin.”

The U.S. 8th Air Force sent about 500 of its Flying Fortresses and Liberators to the Rhineland to hammer the strongholds of Mainz, Coblenz and Ludwigshafen, directly in front of the U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies.

Despite bad weather other Allied air formations continued pouring strength into Holland, Allied headquarters disclosed that 11,500 sorties had been flown in the airborne operation which began Sunday, not including the gliders involved.

Headquarters advices disclosed that Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges’ 1st Army had struck out through the dank, mine-strewn Hürtgen Forest southeast of Aachen in a new drive on German soil.

Details were few regarding the scale and progress of the new attack in the sector where a few days ago Gen. Hodges drove a wedge through the Siegfried Line.

The battle was reported going on in the area south and east of Stolberg, 642 miles east of Aachen, with the doughboys making progress against stiffening resistance.

The imminent linkup of the armored column speeding up from the Nijmegen area and the airborne force at Arnhem 10 miles to the north will clear the way for a further swing around the Siegfried Line, which ends at Kleve, 18 miles southeast of Arnhem.

The German DNB News Agency reported that the Germans had captured the staff headquarters of the 1st Airborne Division north of Eindhoven, but there was no confirmation in responsible quarters.

Of three bridges across the Rhine which were attacked by massed Allied tank forces, DNB said, the Germans blew up two and held a third.

However, dispatches from the Allied front told of the capture of the Nijmegen road bridge by the British 2nd Army with the aid of U.S. airborne units who crossed the river northeast of Nijmegen and advanced along the northern bank.

At Arnhem, the Allied position was unchanged, with the heaviest fighting going on around the town, United Press writer Ronald Clark reported. He said the British had strengthened the flanks of their north-south axis in Holland and “there now appears no chance that the enemy will be able to cut across the axis.”

The Nazis were throwing their zealously hoarded tanks into battle at a number of points. Armored clashes of mounting intensity were reported from both the 1st and 3rd Army fronts.

A German military spokesman quoted by the Berlin radio reported a “narrow passage of communications” between the Nijmegen and Arnhem groups, indicating that advanced elements had made a junction. He said the passage was under heavy gunfire and virtually useless as a supply route.

Only a few narrow canals between Nijmegen and Arnhem barred the way to the broad German plains sweeping 260 miles beyond the Dutch border to Berlin, and it appeared that the Germans had little left in the immediate area to halt the American and British thrust.

First word of the dramatic crossing came in a front dispatch from BBC correspondent Stewart McPherson, who reported that the Americans made an assault crossing near the main highway bridge late last night and cut in behind the Germans who were defending the span against a British frontal attack.

Under the front and rear attack, the Germans broke and fled, leaving the key bridge intact for a flood of British armor to stream northward to the rescue of the airborne troopers at Arnhem.

At the same time, headquarters revealed that the U.S. 1st Army to the south drove another spearhead into Germany at Scherpenseel, 11 miles north of Aachen, after a swift advance across the narrow neck of Dutch soil separating Belgium from the Reich.

Other 1st Army troops were locked in a violent battle for the German factory town of Stolberg, while Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army closed to within six miles of Metz and ground slowly forward against fierce armored counterattacks northeast of Nancy.

The Germans, faced with the possible loss of 100,000 men pinned against the Dutch coast west of Nijmegen, as well as a direct invasion blow toward Berlin, were throwing every available man, gun and tank into the Netherlands battle.

Fight hard for bridge

Handpicked Nazi troops fought like wild men to hold the Nijmegen bridge and other German tank and infantry units, backed up by heavy artillery, struck repeatedly but vainly against the west wall of the thin Allied corridor stretching up from the Belgian frontier to Nijmegen.

Strong German forces still remained inside Nijmegen even after the breakthrough across the Rhine bridge. They were fighting from house to house and street to street with U.S. paratroopers who rode the turrets of British tanks rifles and machine-guns blazing.

The original U.S. airborne force landed in the Nijmegen area had been assigned to take the bridges and hold them open for the advancing British armor, but they were repulsed twice in the first 48 hours. Meanwhile, the Germans poured in heavy reinforcements from the west and simultaneously tried desperately to wipe out the airborne pocket around Arnhem – believed to be predominantly British paratroops.

Nazi planes attack

The Nazi Air Force sneaked into the battle under cover of a heavy ground mist that hampered but did not stop the flow of Allied airborne reinforcements to the front, but front reports said the enemy’s raids were on a hit-and-run scale and generally had little effect. In one savage raid on Eindhoven Tuesday night, about 20 German bombers inflicted heavy destruction on the Dutch city and killed 60 townspeople.

The main German ground attacks against the Allied corridor to the Rhine centered in the area east of Turnhout. near the base of the spearhead. particularly in the Groot Bosch area on the Belgian-Dutch border.

Expand base

Headquarters said. however, that, the base was being expanded steadily and that men and armor were moving up swiftly and in strength to join the assault across the Rhine.

The breakthrough at Nijmegen came at a critical point in the battle when the airborne troops at Arnhem had been under terrific pressure from all sides for more than 48 hours. Front correspondents with the surrounded paratroops said the sound of Allied guns in the south was drawing steadily closer and that hope for an early juncture with their main forces was rising.

Meanwhile, Gen. Hodges’ 1st Army troops battled across the neck of Holland above Aachen against heavy shellfire to the town of Scherpenseel, five miles inside the border.

Tighten noose on Aachen

Other 1st Army infantrymen to the south tightened their noose around Aachen, leaving only a narrow escape corridor open to the northeast. The noise of heavy demolitions from inside the city suggested the enemy garrison might be preparing io abandon it and withdraw toward the Rhine.

United Press writer Jack Frankish reported that the 1st Army was meeting its bitterest opposition since D-Day all along the front, encountering German flamethrowers for the first time on one sector. Ten Nazi tanks were knocked out at one point, while heavy casualties were inflicted on German troops fighting a house-to-house battle for Stolberg.

Drive toward Saar

Equally ferocious resistance faced Gen. Patton’s troops farther south as they slugged their way slowly eastward from the Moselle River toward the Saar Valley. One infantry force battered into the Sillegny area, about six miles south of Metz and about the same distance east of the Moselle. Two 3rd Army spearheads were also fighting their way northeast of Nancy against strong German armored forces.

A dispatch from United Press writer Robert C. Richards said at least 53 enemy tanks, including some 60-ton Tiger tanks, were smashed by the Americans in fighting that often raged almost “tread-to-tread.”

Battle with knives

The Germans were strongly dug in at Château-Salins, barring the eastward push to the Rhine, and Mr. Richards said the Americans at one point fought with knives and bare fists to beat off an infantry counterattack in that sector. Other U.S. forces were advancing in the Dreux and Moyenvic areas, east and southeast of Château-Sains.

[NormanStewart]

Nazi bombers rain death on Dutch fete; 65 killed

Raid stops Eindhoven liberation celebration; resident says freedom’s price not too high
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer

Eindhoven, Holland – (Sept. 20, delayed)
This debris-littered town of 100,000, whose celebration of liberation by the Allies was cut short by a German air raid, dug out today after its worst beating of the war – but still believing the price of freedom was not too high.

Sixty-five of the inhabitants were killed, 150 wounded seriously and damage was estimated in millions of dollars.

Site of an important radio works, Eindhoven had known air raids before, both German and Allied. None matched the one last night for suddenness and savagery.

Thirty minutes before the raid, crowds were cheering American and British soldiers who entered the town Monday.

Flags, bunting shredded

Dutch flags, which had been brought out of hiding after four years to fly for 24 carefree hours with bunting in bedecked streets, hung in burned shreds today from charred poles.

Streets where children had danced to accordion music, where crowds jammed around American vehicles so thickly that traffic was halted, were strewn with glass, brick, stone and cherished possessions.

The anti-climax to the celebration came between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. A rumor spread through the crowds that 117 German tanks were counterattacking the town.

Some tanks did get within shelling distance of the main British armored corridor and dropped a few rounds near a road north of here before they were eliminated.

As the rumors mounted, part of the troops were evacuated.

I was dining with Bill Downs of CBS at a hotel near the center of the city when I first noted panicky civilians outside running out and we started for headquarters.

Queen’s pictures hidden

From some of the windows the Dutch, fearful of German return, had removed flags and pictures of Queen Wilhelmina. Most of the American and British troops seemed to be gone. A few civilians stood wonderingly before houses.

Just before we reached headquarters, a lone German, twin-engined bomber swept over and dropped orange, yellow and green flares.

The town was without air-raid shelters so we sped toward the open country. We got only as far as the town park before the first bombers arrived.

Eindhoven pays fiddler

We lay on the ground while bombs ringed us and explosions within 100 feet showered us with twigs, branches and dirt. Shrapnel clipped through the leaves above. Ammunition exploded in deafening bursts.

Eindhoven was paying the fiddler.

Today cheerfulness was returning to the town. As the Allies pushed on toward the front, the inhabitants took time to look up from their rooms and shovels, smile and shout “hello.”

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (September 22, 1944)

Gegenangriff nördlich Maastricht–Aachen

Berlin, 21. September –
In Mittelholland setzten die deutschen Truppen am Mittwoch im Raum Nimwegen–Arnheim ihre konzentrischen Angriffe gegen die in geringem Umfang noch weiter aus der Luft verstärkten feindlichen Kräfte fort, die erneut schwere Verluste hatten. Die dramatischen Kämpfe um den schmalen Korridor, den britische Panzerkräfte durch ihr Vordringen nach Nordosten zur Hilfeleistung für die bei Nimwegen gelandeten Luftlandeeinheiten zu öffnen versuchten, spitzten sich weiter zu. Immer wieder in den Flanken getroffen, konnte der Panzerkeil zwar Boden gewinnen, aber seine Angriffe zur Verbreiterung der schmalen Schleuse scheiterten.

Auch am Maas-Schelde-Kanal, wo die Briten weiterhin bei Neerpelt nach Westen angriffen, hielt der Eckpfeiler an der Basis der feindlichen Einbruchsstellen den heftigen Stößen stand. Die Lage im mittleren Südholland hat sich somit nur unwesentlich gegenüber dem Vortag verändert. Das gleiche gilt für unseren Brückenkopf südlich der Westerschelde. Auch hier blieben den Kanadiern, die nördlich Gent unter Einsatz sehr schwerer Panzerkräfte seit zwei Tagen unsere Stellungen aufzureißen versuchen, von geringen Vorteilen im Brennpunkt des Angriffs abgesehen, Erfolge versagt.

Die im Wehrmachtbericht angesprochenen Kämpfe nordöstlich Echternach, bei denen der feindliche Brückenkopf an der Sauer zerschlagen wurde, haben eine größere Bedeutung, als es auf den ersten Blick erscheinen mag. Aus den örtlichen Kämpfen der letzten Tage hatte sich das Bestreben des Feindes abgezeichnet, durch gleichzeitige Angriffe in der Eifel aus dem Sauer-Brückenkopf ein Stück unserer befestigten Stellungen westlich der Prüm herauszubrechen. Unsere erfolgreichen Gegenangriffe an der Sauer haben den südlichen Stoßkeil des Feindes bis auf bedeutungslose Reste auf das westliche Flussufer zurückgeworfen. Gegen die nördliche Angriffsgruppe sind ebenfalls Gegenstöße angesetzt.

Das Schwergewicht der Kampfhandlungen an der Westfront lag weiterhin im Raum um Aachen. Im Maastrichter Zipfel konnten die Nordamerikaner durch ununterbrochene, von heftigen Bombardierungen und schweren Feuerüberfällen begleitete Angriffe etwas Boden gewinnen. Wenige Kilometer nördlich der bisherigen Kampflinien bezogen unsere Truppen zum Ausgleich der feindlichen Einbrüche noch auf niederländischem Boden neue Abwehrstellungen und schlugen hier weitere feindliche Vorstöße ab. Durch diese Verlagerung der Front vertiefte sich die Flanke nordwestlich Aachen. Dort griff der Feind ebenfalls mit starken Kräften an, um die Stadt von Norden zu überflügeln. Nördlich Maastricht und Aachen sind eigene Gegenangriffe im Gange. Auch östlich Aachen verstärkten unsere Truppen ihrerseits den Gegendruck. Westlich Stolberg schlugen sie feindliche Angriffe ab und südöstlich der Stadt zwangen sie den Feind zur Aufgabe vorübergehend gewonnenen Geländes.

Bei einem dieser Gegenstöße vernichtete eine ostmärkische Panzerkampfgruppe 22 nordamerikanische Panzer. Über die Hälfte davon wurde von Panzergrenadieren auf Entfernungen zwischen 30 und 100 Meter mit „Panzerfaust“ und „Panzerschreck“ abgeschossen. Im gleichen Kampfabschnitt brachten drei „Tiger“-Panzer innerhalb einer halben Stunde sechs schwere nordamerikanische Panzer zur Strecke und drückten dadurch die ganze feindliche Stoßgruppe auf ihre Ausgangsstellungen zurück. Dem durch unsere Gegenstöße aufgesplitterten feindlichen Angriffskeil gingen starke eigene Stoßtrupps meist bei Nacht zu Leibe. Sie bereinigten in der vorletzten Nacht einen feindlichen Einbruch dadurch, daß sie in erbitterten Nahkämpfen an einer Stelle fünf, an anderer vier verbissen verteidigte Bunker zurückgewannen. Gegenstöße der Nordamerikaner wurden durch unsere Artillerie niedergehalten und blieben ohne Erfolg.

Im südlichen Teil der Westfront blieb der Raum Metz–Lunéville weiterhin hart umkämpft. Die Nordamerikaner verstärkten ihren Druck gegen den Brückenkopf Metz, ohne Vorteile gewinnen zu können. Bei Lunéville setzten sie ihren am Vortage begonnenen Gegenangriff gegen unsere auf breiter Front vorgedrungenen Truppen fort. In Lunéville selbst gingen die erbitterten Kämpfe weiter. Nördlich und südlich der Stadt prallten Angriffe und Gegenstöße in rascher Folge aufeinander. Feindliche Einbrüche wurden durch eigene Bodengewinne aufgewogen. Hier und nördlich Épinal, wo sich der Feind wieder etwas vorschieben konnte, dauern die Kämpfe an. Trotz aller Anstrengungen und Verluste hat der Feind seine durch unsere vorausgegangenen Gegenstöße aufgebrochenen Positionen an der Mosel bisher nicht wieder aufbauen können.

[NormanStewart]

Führer HQ (September 22, 1944)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Im Raum Arnheim wurden die eigenen Angriffe zur Vernichtung der dort eingeschlossenen Reste der 1. englischen Luftlandedivision fortgesetzt. Uber Nimwegen nach Norden angreifender Feind wurde nördlich der Stadt aufgefangen. Südlich Nimwegen gewinnen eigene Gegenangriffe langsam Boden. Jagd- und Schlachtflieger unterstützten die Abwehrkämpfe des Heeres im holländischen Raum und vernichteten 38 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 20 schwere, zur Versorgung der feindlichen Luftlandetruppen eingesetzte Transportflugzeuge und 12 viermotorige Bomber. Zehn anglo-amerikanische Bomber wurden außerdem durch Verbände des Heeres abgeschossen.

Im Raum Aachen wurden mehrere mit Panzern geführte Angriffe des Feindes unter Abschuß von neun Panzern abgewiesen. Südöstlich der Stadt verstärkt sich der feindliche Druck.

Bei Pont-à-Mousson und im Raum Nancy–Lunéville wurden mehrere Angriffe des Gegners teilweise im erfolgreichen Gegenstoß unter hohen Verlusten für den Feind abgewiesen, örtliche Einbrüche bereinigt. Im Raum Remiremont trat der Feind mit stärkeren Kräften zum Angriff an. Die schweren Kämpfe um die Stadt halten an.

Die Verteidiger der Festung Boulogne stehen seit Tagen in schwersten Abwehr kämpfen gegen weit überlegenen Feind. Gegen Calais führte der Gegner gestern starke Luftangriffe. Die Besatzung von Saint-Nazaire wies mehrere feindliche Angriffe ab.

Im Raum nördlich Florenz scheiterten zahlreiche mit zusammengefassten Kräften geführte feindliche Angriffe in erbitterten Kämpfen. Ein örtlicher Einbruch wurde abgeriegelt. An der Adria setzte der Feind infolge der in den schweren Kämpfen der letzten Tage erlittenen hohen Verluste seine Durchbruchsangriffe nicht fort. An der. gesamten Front wurden örtliche starke Angriffe abgewiesen. Am 20. September wurden insgesamt 106 Panzer des Gegners vernichtet.

Im südwestlichen Siebenbürgen stehen ungarische Truppen im Kampf mit feindlichen Angriffsspitzen. Unsere Verbände zerschlugen im Szekler Zipfel sämtliche Angriffe der Bolschewisten. In Westrumänien setzten eigene Schlachtflieger 23 Panzer außer Gefecht und zerstörten zahlreiche Fahrzeuge.

In der Abwehrschlacht im Raum von Sanok und Krosno halten die schweren Kämpfe mit neu herangeführten Kräften der Bolschewisten an. Unsere Gegenangriffe beseitigten unter Abschuß zahlreicher Sowjetpanzer örtliche Einbruchsstellen.

Bei Warschau scheiterte ein neuer Übersetzversuch des Gegners bereits auf den Flussinseln. Es wurden über 200 Gefangene- eingebracht.

Unsere gepanzerten Angriffsgruppen gewannen südwestlich Mitau gegen zähen feindlichen Widerstand weiteres Gelände.

In Lettland und Estland haben unsere heldenhaft kämpfenden Truppen erneuten Durchbruchs versuche starker sowjetischer Kräfte auch am achten Tage der Schlacht zerschlagen. In Abwehr und Gegenangriff wurden gestern 103 feindliche Panzer vernichtet oder erbeutet. Im Nordteil Estlands sind die befohlenen Absetzbewegungen aus dem Narwa-Abschnitt planmäßig verlaufen.

Nordamerikanische Bomber griffen am gestrigen Tage mehrere Orte im ungarischen Raum an. Bei Terrorangriffen auf westdeutsches Gebiet entstanden Schäden besonders in Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Koblenz und Mainz.

---

In Siebenbürgen hat sich ein Alarmbataillon unter Führung des Hauptmanns Arnhardt durch besondere Standhaftigkeit hervorgetan.

Am unteren Narew haben sich das Jägerregiment 49 unter Führung von Oberstleutnant von Salisch und die Sturmgeschützbrigade 259 unter Führung von Major Tolckmitt in Angriff und Abwehr hervorragend geschlagen.

In den schweren Abwehrkämpfen an der Adria haben sich die Verbände des 76. Panzerkorps unter Führung des Generals der Panzertruppen Herr, unterstützt durch Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe sowie durch Heeres- und Marineküstenartillerie, besonders ausgezeichnet. In der Zeit vom 26. August bis 20. September wurden allein von diesem Korps 661 feindliche Panzer vernichtet.

Bei Warschau zeichnete sich die niedersächsische 19. Panzerdivision unter Führung des Eichenlaubträgers Generalleutnant Källner durch hervorragende Standfestigkeit und erfolgreiche Gegenangriffe aus.

[NormanStewart]

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (September 22, 1944)

Communiqué No. 167

The Allied drive northwards through NIJMEGEN continued yesterday against increasing enemy opposition. Our armored forces, having captured the bridge at NIJMEGEN in conjunction with airborne troops, crossed to the north bank of the WAAL and pushed on north. The town of NIJMEGEN has been cleared of the enemy.

The base of the Allied salient has been widened on both sides of EINDHOVEN. We have reached SOMEREN on the east and we are fighting in the area of WINTELRE on the west.

Fighters and fighter-bombers supported the operations in HOLLAND. Some enemy aircraft were encountered, principally in the areas of NIJMEGEN and LOCHEM. Twenty enemy aircraft were shot down for the loss of four of our fighters.

In the SCHELDT Estuary, we have captured TERNEUZEN and are steadily mopping-up the southern bank east of the LEOPOLD CANAL.

In the BOULOGNE area, the enemy has been confined to the high ground southwest of the town. An enemy strongpoint in the FORÊT DE LA CRECHE on the outskirts of the town was attacked by medium and light bombers.

Troops crossing into GERMANY from Southern HOLLAND have advanced to within three miles of GEILENKIRCHEN. In the STOLBERG–BÜSBACH area east of AACHEN, mopping-up is in progress and we are engaged in house-to-house fighting in STOLBERG. East of the town, our troops have gained high ground.

Further south, Allied troops are clearing the HÜRTGEN FOREST against moderate artillery fire and are also mopping-up in the area of LAMMERSDORF. Numerous counterattacks have been repulsed near DIEKIRCH and one unit has destroyed 28 enemy tanks.

South of METZ, our forces advanced to within six miles of the city. Along the MEURTHE River, we have cleared LUNÉVILLE and our troops have taken high ground along the west bank five miles to the southeast. Other units are in the vicinity of FLIN on the MEURTHE River, five miles northwest of BACCARAT.

Railway centers at EHRANG, GEROLSTEIN and PRONSFELD in GERMANY were attacked yesterday by medium bombers.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (September 22, 1944)

AIR ARMY’S PLIGHT CRITICAL
Sky troopers hold out in patch of hell

Secret courage keeps ‘em going, writer says
By Alan Wood, representing combined Allied press

This is one of the first dispatches from the “pocket” in Holland in which British troops of the 1st Allied Airborne Army are surrounded by the Germans.

With airborne troops in Arnhem area (UP) – (9:00 a.m. CET)
It’s a nasty morning – cold and misty – and the Germans are plastering us plentifully with mortars and big guns. Machine guns have just opened up on the right.

In this patch of hell, our men are holding the few civilian houses that still stand.

An old lady in black stumbled out of one of them a few minutes ago, and a British soldier ran out and put his arm around her. She collapsed, and he carried her down to safety in a cellar.

It is now just five days and five nights – sleepless – since we flew out from England. God knows from what secret source of strength these fighting men have drawn the courage which has kept them going.

Only one thing is certain – they will keep going until the British 2nd Army gets here.

Yesterday, the Germans brought up loudspeakers and called on us to surrender. A bunch of glider pilots yelled their heads off swearing abuse at the enemy in reply.

More and more of our secondary guns are coming into action on the other side of the river (north branch of the Rhine toward which the British 2nd Army is advancing). They have just knocked out with a direct hit a German Mark IV tank coming to attack us. We don’t know exactly where the bulk of the 2nd Army is, but we will be here and ready when they come.

Dakota transport planes flying through a flak barrage dropped more supplies this evening, right here where we wanted them.

In a dispatch from the Arnhem “pocket” dated yesterday, Stanley Maxted, writing for the combined Allied press, says:

The troops are being asked to do more than flesh and blood should have to endure, but as their commander said, “They are of good heart. These airborne men are magnificent…” When the 2nd Army arrives they may be told one of the epics of the war.

[NormanStewart]

Yanks beaten back in Reich

First Army mops up inside Stolberg, but falls back in south
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

Bitter resistance was met by Allied forces on the Western Front. The U.S. 1st Army was forced to retreat above Trier, but was mopping up the Germans in Stolberg, near Aachen. The U.S. 3rd Army was engaged in a fierce tank battle near Château-Salins. The British 2nd Army battled furiously to relieve a British airborne force at Arnhem, in the Netherlands, which was reported in a critical plight. 1st Canadian Army troops mopped up along the Scheldt River estuary, while the Allied 6th Army Group on the south fought off German attacks near the Belfort Gap.

SHAEF, London, England –
A heavy German counterattack has forced back U.S. 1st Army troops northwest of Trier, it was announced officially today, and British airborne troops fighting against heavy odds in the Arnhem area of Holland are in a “critical” plight.

A dispatch from Stolberg, 612 miles east of Aachen, said U.S. forces were mopping up the northern section of the city as the Germans tried to move out an aircraft parts factory.

Latest reports to Headquarters said German artillery was pounding the Arnhem “island” of British troops dug in on the north bank of the north branch of the Rhine while a relief column of British 2nd Army tanks struggled vainly to puncture the constricting Nazi noose.

A dispatch from the Arnhem pocket at 9:00 a.m. reflected the desperation of the situation there, the correspondent marveling at what has kept the British going since Sunday and saying that “only one thing is certain – they will keep going until the 2nd Army gets here.”

A German dispatch broadcast by the Berlin radio described most violent fighting in Arnhem, key stronghold commanding the approaches to northwestern Germany, which had been raging since Sunday, indicating that the British had captured the town but were unable to consolidate their victory.

Headquarters sources said that on the right wing of Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges’ 1st Army front near the center of the Luxembourg-German frontier the Americans had been forced to pull back an undisclosed distance.

The setback came in the sector east of Diekirch, 23 miles northwest of Trier and 12 miles northwest of Echternach. The significance of the strong counterassault by the Nazis on their home soil was not apparent immediately.

The British airborne force which dropped down in the Arnhem area Sunday was disclosed to hold a sector stretching westward from the city along the north bank of the river.

The exact depth and width of the island was not disclosed.

A battle of extreme violence was going on in the wet, hazy reach of pastureland between Arnhem and Nijmegen, 10 miles to the south, where the Allies forced the Rhine and struck up toward Arnhem.

Hopes raised by unofficial reports that the 2nd Army had established a tenuous link with the Arnhem pocket were dashed by the dispatch from the Arnhem area and the subsequent lack of any report at headquarters on a junction.

The relief column ran into heavy resistance two miles north of Nijmegen – eight miles short of Arnhem – and up to the noon hours today had not been able to break the stalemate there, headquarters sources reported.

The plight of the Arnhem forces was intensified by a bad turn in the weather which cut down the reinforcement missions flown by Allied planes. Yesterday the air forces carried in a substantial number of troops.

The Germans were revealed to have been counterattacking the U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies all along the front from north of Aachen to south of Lunéville.

The 1st Army withdrawal east of Diekirch was in sector where one of the deepest penetrations of the Reich had been made. It was not clear whether the spearhead was still inside Germany.

North of Aachen, a counterattack near Geilenkirchen was repulsed without loss of ground. Southeast of Aachen, slow progress was reported in the drive through the Hürtgen Forest against green camouflaged pillboxes and roadblocks. The battle was centered about five miles southeast of Stolberg.

Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s veteran U.S. 3rd Army was locked in a swaying tank battle east of the Moselle River that outmatched in fury anything yet seen in the western campaign.

After five days of reckless counterattacks that failed to halt the eastward progress of Gen. Patton’s spearheads, the Nazis hurled fresh panzer divisions into the fight this morning and wheeled up strong artillery forces to support the counterblow. The Yanks destroyed 246 German tanks in the five days.

Guns move up

Pooled dispatches filed late yesterday from the Arnhem sector said British artillery had reached the area just south of the Rhine estuary and was shelling German assault positions around the beleaguered sky troops.

Radio Berlin continued to trumpet obviously exaggerated claims of losses inflicted on the Arnhem pocket. After admitting the juncture, Berlin said the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem had been “completely liquidated” and then announced that the “liquidation” was still in progress.

United Press writer Ronald Clark reported from the 2nd Army front that increasing numbers of British tanks, with U.S. paratroops and British infantrymen riding their turrets, were moving across the Nijmegen bridge to join in the battle to the north.

Batter lifeline

German tanks, troops and artillery battered at the narrow lifeline stretching up 55 miles from the Belgian border to Arnhem, and Mr. Clark reported that the enemy attacks were mounting in force.

A headquarters communiqué said British and U.S. troops were steadily widening the base of their salient jutting across the Belgian-Dutch border, pushing 16 miles beyond Eindhoven to Someren on the east, and six miles westward to Wintelre.

On the 3rd Army front, Gen. Patton sent his armored divisions lunging eastward within 25 miles of the Siegfried Line and ran head-on into a great concentration of German panzers massed on the open plains between Château-Salins and Dieuze.

Gain near Metz

North of the Château-Salins–Dieuze battle, 3rd Army infantrymen hacked out small advances in the thickly-defended arca around Sillegny, six miles south of Metz. To the south, other tank and infantry forces cleared the Germans from Lunéville and pushed out along the Meurthe River 15 miles southeast of that town to the Baccarat area. Flin, five miles northwest of Baccarat, was captured yesterday.

On the U.S. 1st Army front, machine-gun squads fought the Germans step by step through the ruins of Stolberg. Aachen was still under siege, although unconfirmed reports said the Germans were beginning to evacuate the city through a narrow gap in the American lines to the northeast.

Canadians take port

First Canadian Army forces in the Schelde Estuary sector along the northwestern border of Belgium and the southwestern Dutch frontier captured the Dutch port of Terneuzen and mopped up German pockets along the south bank of the Schelde.

On the U.S. 7th Army front at the southern end of the battle line, U.S. troops pushed into the western end of the Belfort Gap against steadily stiffening resistance.

At last reports, the doughboys were barely 12 miles west of Belfort after capturing the village of Palante in a 3½-mile advance from Lure. French troops moving up from the south, however, were forced to withdraw slightly in the Vermondans area, 17 miles below Belfort.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (September 23, 1944)

Die Kämpfe in den Niederlanden

vb. Berlin, 22. September –
Die Panzer der britischen 2. Armee, die von der belgisch-niederländischen Grenze nach Norden vorgedrungen sind, haben sich zuerst bei Eindhoven und dann bei Nimwegen mit den beiden nordamerikanischen Divisionen vereinigt, die dort gelandet waren.

Sie sind über die Maas und über der Waal gekommen und versuchen gegenwärtig, noch weiter nach Norden vorzustoßen, um sich auch bei Arnheim mit der dritten aus der Luft gelandeten Division, diesmal einem britischen Verband, zu vereinigen. Aber während der Vormarsch in den ersten Tagen ziemlich schnell vor sich ging, ist seitdem eine gewisse Stockung eingetreten. Die Deutschen haben frische Kräfte herangeführt. Während ein Teil der Eingreifregimenter die nach Norden gezielte Spitze des Gegners aufhält, greifen andere die langen und empfindlichen Flanken des schmalen Keils an und bringen mehr als einmal Verwirrung in die Reihen des Gegners. Währenddessen gerät die britische Luftlandedivision bei Arnheim in zunehmende Bedrängnis. Von allen Seiten umstellt, ist sie in der Stadt selber auf Schmalen Raum beschränkt, zum Teil aufgespalten und hat schwere Verluste gehabt.

Inzwischen geht die Stoßrichtung des Generals Dempsey aber keineswegs nur nach Norden. Es ist deutlich, daß auch er die Lage des auf Arnheim vorspringenden Angriffskeils nicht auf die Dauer als befriedigend anerkennen kann. Dafür ist dieser Keil zu schmal. Mit seiner Breite von wenigen Kilometern ist er ständig Flankenangriffen ausgesetzt, und schon Einbrüche von geringer Tiefe müssen ihn in eine schwierige Lage bringen, da seine einzige Vormarsch- und Nachschubstraße von den beiden Rändern des Keils nicht sehr weit entfernt ist. Daher versucht Dempsey seit Montag, den Keil nicht nur voranzubringen, sondern auch zu verbreitern. Aber das ist ihm bisher nur an der Basis, und auch da nur unwesentlich, gelungen. Im Wesentlichen gleicht sein Frontvorsprung im Norden immer noch einem weit vorgestreckten, aber dünnen Arm. Diesen Arm gleichsam anschwellen zu lassen, ihn stärker und kräftiger zu machen— technisch ausgedrückt: noch ein oder zwei Zufahrtstraßen zu gewinnen – ist offenbar ein ebenso heftiges Bestreben des Generals Dempsey wie das Vordringen nach Norden.

Daß ihm dieses Bestreben der Verbreiterung des Keils bisher nur unzulänglich geglückt ist, hat seine guten Gründe. Seine Kräfte, vor allem die zur Verfügung stehenden Panzer, reichten gerade aus, den Vormarsch auf der einen nach Norden führenden Straße zu erzwingen. Für den Angriff auch noch an anderen Teilen der Front seiner Armee waren seine Kräfte bis zur Stunde nicht ausreichend genug. Damit fällt aber auch ein klärendes Licht auf die Darstellung, die stellenweise im Ausland über die Pläne des Generals Eisenhower verbreitet wird: daß nämlich dieses Unternehmen der kombinierten Erdoffensive und Luftlandeoperation bereits von Beginn an in den Absichten Eisenhowers gelegen habe und von ihm als ein entscheidendes Unternehmen seit Wochen geplant worden sei. Für ein Unternehmen, das man auf lange Sicht plant, macht ein General sich im Allgemeinen stärker schafft er Schwerpunkte. Das aber ist hier zweifellos nicht geschehen. Der General Eisenhower hat seine Kräfte ziemlich gleichmäßig über die ganze Westfront verteilt. Von dem alten militärischen Grundsatz, daß man an der Stelle der Entscheidung überhaupt nicht stark genug sein kann und daß man dafür eine gewisse Vernachlässigung auf anderen Kampfschauplätzen in Kauf nehmen darf, ist hier nichts zu merken. An der belgisch-niederländischen Grenze waren am Sonntag die Kräfte des Gegners nicht stärker massiert als vor Aachen oder in Lothringen. Wir wollen damit nicht behaupten, daß es Dempseys Divisionen an Zahl der Streiter oder der Panzer fehlte. Im Gegenteil, die Stärke seiner Verbände geht genugsam aus der Härte der Kämpfe in den Südniederlanden hervor. Aber stark sind alle sechs Armeen des Gegners, und die Kräftegruppe, die zum Einfall in den Niederlanden bereitstand, war nicht stärker als die anderen, die bei Aachen oder an der Mosel kämpfen.

Der Grund für die Verbindung von Luftlandungen und Vorstößen auf der Erde in den Niederlanden lag, das zeigen die Ereignisse der letzten Wochen ganz deutlich, in dieser einfachen Tatsache: Dempsey kam ebenso wenig weiter wie sein linker Nachbar, der kanadische General Crerar. Alle seine Versuche, nach Norden durchzubrechen, scheiterten an der deutschen Abwehr im belgischen Kanalsystem. Erst als der General Eisenhower sich davon überzeugen mußte, daß Dempsey aus eigener Kraft das Hindernis der deutschen Abwehr nicht überwinden werde, hat er ihm eine Unterstützung aus der Luft gegeben. Diese Unterstützung hat in der Tat genügt, an der einen Stelle von Dempseys Front, die den Luftlandeorten am nächsten lag, seine Divisionen nach Norden zu reißen. Dort aber, wo hinter der deutschen Front solche Luftlandungen nicht gewesen waren, konnte auch Dempseys neuer Angriff keinen oder nur unwesentlichen Boden gewinnen. So ist es zu dem schmalen Keil gekommen, der sich von Neerpelt über Nimwegen hinaus in der Richtung auf Arnheim erstreckt.

Die Vorgänge gerade der letzten Tage beweisen, daß dem General Dempsey und seinen beiden Vorgesetzten das Unbefriedigende durchaus zum Bewusstsein gekommen ist, das trotz der Erfolge der ersten Tage in der geringen Breitenausdehnung des vorgetriebenen Schlauches liegt. Da Dempseys Armee aus eigener Kraft nicht vermochte, diesen Keil zu erweitern, wird er vermutlich Verstärkungen bekommen. Es stehen also, mit oder ohne Pause, neue Kämpfe in den Südniederlanden bevor. In sie geht der deutsche Soldat mit dem Bewusstsein der soldatischen Überlegenheit, dass gerade durch die Ereignisse der letzten Wochen neu gestärkt ist.

[NormanStewart]

Führer HQ (September 23, 1944)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Während sich unsere Abwehrfront nördlich Nimwegen gegen schwere feindliche Angriffe behauptete, ist es unseren von Osten und Westen angreifenden Verbänden gelungen, bei Veghel die Verbindung zwischen den feindlichen Kräften in Süd- und Mittelholland zu unterbrechen. Alle Versuche des Feindes zur Erweiterung seines Einbruchsraumes bei Eindhoven scheiterten in erbitterten Kämpfen unter hohen Verlusten des Gegners. In Mittelholland wurden am 21. September 30 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen.

Im Rahmen unserer Absetzbewegungen in Westholland führte eine Sicherungsdivision der Kriegsmarine mit Fahrzeugen aller Art unter schweren Luftangriffen und trotz schlechten Wetters starke Truppenverbände und deren Ausrüstung an Waffen und Gerät in unermüdlichen Tag- und Nachteinsätzen über die Scheidemündung zurück.

Starke Angriffe des Feindes im Raum südöstlich Aachen wurden in schweren Kämpfen abgewiesen, ein eigener Gegenangriff warf den Feind auf seine Ausgangsstellung zurück. Hierbei wurden 12 Panzer und Panzerspähwagen vernichtet und mehrere Geschütze erbeutet.

An der Eifelfront gewannen unsere Truppen im Gegenangriff vorübergehend verlorengegangenes Gelände am Westwall zurück und bereinigten den Rest des feindlichen Brückenkopfes über die Sauer nordwestlich Echternach. Die 5. amerikanische Panzerdivision erlitt hier hohe blutige Verluste und verlor über 40 Panzer und Panzerspähwagen.

Südlich Metz örtliche Kampftätigkeit. Im Raum Lunéville halten die schweren Kämpfe an. Eigener Gegenangriff südlich Château-Salins warf stärkeren Feind zurück. Bei Lunéville starker Feinddruck nach Osten. Alle Angriffe scheiterten an dem hartnäckigen Widerstand der eigenen Truppe.

An der oberen Mosel wechselvolle Kämpfe bei Épinal und Remiremont. Südlich Remiremont wurden mehrere feindliche Angriffe abgewiesen.

Die befestigten Häfen im Westen, besonders Boulogne, Calais und Dünkirchen, liegen weiter in schwerem Artilleriefeuer und rollenden Bombenangriffen.

Nördlich Lucca und Pistoia blieben mit Panzern geführte Vorstöße des Feindes erfolglos.

Im Raum nördlich Florenz setzte der Feind seine schweren, mit überlegenen Kräften und starker Artillerie geführten Angriffe den ganzen Tag über fort. In erbitterten Kämpfen, in denen zahlreiche Angriffe unter hohen Feindverlusten abgewiesen wurden, konnte der Gegner seinen Einbruchsraum bei Fiorenzuola erweitern.

An der Adriafront auch am 22. September nur örtliche Kampfhandlungen.

Im südwestlichen Siebenbürgen gehen die örtlichen Kämpfe weiter. Im Raum von Torenburg und im Szekler Zipfel trat der Feind zum Angriff an. Er wurde in harten Kämpfen abgeschlagen. An zwei Einbruchsstellen sind Gegenangriffe deutscher und ungarischer Truppen im Gange.

Südlich Sanok und Krosno hält die Abwehrschlacht in unverminderter Heftigkeit an. Unerschütterliche Abwehr und entschlossene Gegenstöße unserer Panzerkräfte und Grenadiere brachten die bolschewistischen Durchbruchsabsichten auch gestern zum Scheitern.

Im Mittelabschnitt blieben vereinzelte örtliche Vorstöße des Gegners südlich der Memel erfolglos.

Unsere gepanzerten Angriffsgruppen erzielten südwestlich Mitau weitere Stellungsverbesserungen und wiesen feindliche Gegenangriffe zurück.

Die Kämpfe im Nordabschnitt haben sich zu größter Härte gesteigert. Unsere tapferen Divisionen setzten, von eigenen Schlachtgeschwadern unterstützt, den neu herangeführten sowjetischen Verbänden zähesten Widerstand entgegen. Unter Abschuß zahlreicher feindlicher Panzer wurden alle sowjetischen Durchbruchsversuche im Großen abgewehrt oder aufgefangen. Die befohlenen Absetzbewegungen im nördlichen Estland verliefen auch gestern planmäßig und vom Feind ungestört.

Deutsche Jäger vernichteten im Seegebiet vor Memel einen aus sieben Torpedoflugzeugen bestehenden feindlichen Verband und verhinderten damit einen Angriff auf deutsches Geleit.

Feindliche Bomber führten am Tage unter Ausnutzung einer für die Abwehr besonders schwierigen Wetterlage Terrorangriffe gegen Kassel und München. 15 viermotorige Bomber wurden abgeschossen.

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Bei den Kämpfen am Westwall hat sich Oberfeldwebel Kalkbrenner mit seiner Kampfstandbesatzung besonders hervorgetan, indem er, dem Fahneneid getreu, seinen Kampfstand in verbissenen zweitägigen Kämpfen gegen überlegenen Feind bis zum letzten verteidigte.

In den schweren Kämpfen im Nordabschnitt der Ostfront hat sich das sächsische Panzergrenadierregiment 103 einer Panzerdivision unter Führung des Eichenlaubträgers Oberst Munnert durch besondere Tapferkeit und Standhaftigkeit ausgezeichnet.

Die unter Führung des Kapitäns zur See Knuth stehenden Verbände der Kriegsmarine haben sich bei den Absetzbewegungen in Westholland besonders ausgezeichnet.

[NormanStewart]

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (September 23, 1944)

Communiqué No. 168

The clearing of the BOULOGNE area has been completed with the capture of LE PORTAL.

Fierce fighting continued all day yesterday in the area of the Allied northward thrust. Other troops crossed to the north of the WAAL and after bitter fighting between NIJMEGEN and ARNHEM, our troops reached the southern bank of the NEDERRIJN (north branch of the RHINE River).

The enemy attacked the eastern side of our salient strongly but the base was further widened by a crossing of the BOIS LE DUC CANAL and on the west by fresh advances beyond VESSEM.

Our forces have captured STOLBERG, east of AACHEN, and are now mopping-up isolated enemy pockets in the town.

There has been little change from the DUTCH-GERMAN border south to the LUNÉVILLE area. Enemy counterattacks were repulsed at a number of places. German tanks and infantry were driven back by our artillery northwest of GEILENKIRCHEN after an unsuccessful counterattack.

Southeast of STOLBERG we inflicted heavy losses in repulsing German counterattacks. Stubborn resistance was met from enemy pillboxes and defended road blocks.

In the area east of DIEKIRCH, our units were forces to give some ground. Active patrolling and mopping-up continues in other sectors along the line.

In the MOSELLE Valley, an enemy counterattack was repulsed at COIN-SUR-SEILLE, five miles south of METZ.

Our troops have reached ÉPINAL and have forced crossings of the MOSELLE at many points against stiffened resistance. The roads southeastward toward REMIREMONT area heavily defended.

Further south, in the vicinity of MELAY, counter-attacks have been repulsed. The town of MELISAY, in the LURE area, has been taken.

In the RIVIERA, the resort town of MENTON is in our hands.

Transportation targets in northern FRANCE, HOLLAND and western GERMANY were attacked yesterday by our fighters and fighter-bombers which also provided close support for our troops.

Bridges and barges in HOLLAND were the targets for our light bombers last night.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (September 23, 1944)

Rescuers near air army; Yanks capture Stolberg

Patton smashes Nazi attacks to the south, knocks out 320 tanks
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

Driving to the rescue of a trapped airborne force near Arnhem, Holland, the British 2nd Army today reached one encircled unit on the south bank of the upper branch of the Rhine. The U.S. 1st Army captured Stolberg, but to the south was forced back across the Luxembourg border near Diekirch. The U.S. 3rd Army defeated the Germans in a tank battle in the area bounded by Château-Salins, Dieuze and Lunéville. The U.S. 7th Army of the 6th Army Group crossed the Moselle River below Épinal and drove against Belfort.

Bulletin

SHAEF, London, England –
A wild battle raged between Nijmegen and Eindhoven in Holland today as massed German forces led by 200 tanks drove a wedge across the British 2nd Army corridor between the two towns. Latest reports to headquarters said the issue was still in doubt.

SHAEF, London, England –
British tanks and armored cars careened through a blazing four-mile corridor of German guns to the south bank of the upper branch of the Rhine today, rescued a trapped band of paratroopers there and drove for the Arnhem bridge in a desperate race to relieve the main airborne force pocketed across the river.

Front reports said the highway span over the upper Rhine to Arnhem was still standing when the British armor reached the river after a wild ride up the Nijmegen–Arnhem highway from Elst, four miles to the south.

The British tank columns loosed a heavy barrage of cannon and machine-gun fire on German positions around the trapped airborne force in Arnhem, and headquarters spokesmen said the situation inside the town had improved considerably with the arrival of the relief party on the south side of the river.

The wearied sky troops were still fighting grimly and well to keep their foothold in the doorway to Germany, but it was admitted that their situation, after more than six days of close-quarters slugging, was touch and go.

A dramatic radio message from the airborne commander in Arnhem said the morale of his troops was high and that they would hold out in their “patch of hell” until relieved, but observers believed relief must come quickly.

Elsewhere on the long front, the battle of the German border was going well. U.S. 1st Army troops captured the ruined German factory town of Stolberg, 6½ miles east of Aachen, after one of the bitterest house-to-house fights of the campaign.

On the U.S. 3rd Army front to the south, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s tanks and tank destroyers inflicted a smashing defeat on a powerful German armored force that attempted to throw them back from the Meurthe River line.

United Press writer Robert Richards reported that the Nazis broke off the battle this morning after losing at least 60 tanks in the past 24 hours, running their losses well above 320 panzers for the last 10 days.

But the Allies’ main bid for a swift and decisive breakthrough into Germany was being made on the Dutch lowlands at Arnhem, and the fate of the entire offensive rested momentarily on the courage of the dwindling band of paratroops north of the Rhine and the British tank men on the south bank.

United Press writer Ronald Clark said exceptionally fierce fighting was in progress in the Arnhem area this morning as the encircled paratroops beat off repeated German tank and infantry attacks.

Nazis battle hard

The Nazis were throwing everything they had in the way of men, tanks and guns into an all-out attempt to wipe out the sky troops before the relief column could break through.

The first rescuing tanks and armored troop carriers reached the Rhine about 5:00 p.m. Friday evening and a pooled dispatch from a correspondent with the main force in Arnhem said they linked up with an outpost of the airborne detachment and began shelling targets designated by the airborne commander.

The critical question was whether the British could take the Arnhem bridge intact – the airborne troops were believed holding the north side of the span and the Germans the south end – or would have to make an assault crossing of the Rhine under enemy fire.

Bridge intact

All accounts reaching headquarters this morning indicated the bridge was intact, although the possibility remained that the Germans might blow it up before retiring.

Savage fighting still raged along the flanks of the Allied spearhead thrusting up from the Belgian border to Arnhem, and one strong German force threw a flying wedge across the corridor late yesterday, threatening the head of the British 2nd Army’s armored thrust.

The enemy attack smashed across the main Eindhoven–Nijmegen highway between Veghel and Uden, about 13 miles north of Eindhoven.

British troops immediately countered the flanking blow but latest reports said the situation was confused.

Battle at Elst

A violent battle was also in progress at Elst where the Germans, after being thrown out of Nijmegen, set up a bristling block of tanks and artillery to prevent the Allies from getting reinforcements through to Arnhem.

British Tommies straddling the turrets of their tanks and crouching in armored troop carriers burst through the Nazi screen and infantrymen followed up to hold open the gap for an additional flow of reinforcements.

German artillery commanded the highway north of Elst, laying down a murderous crossfire on the British armor all the way to the Rhine.

Clouds hamper aid

Low-hanging clouds and mist continued to hamper the Allied effort, making it all but impossible to ferry in supplies to the beleaguered column at Arnhem or to throw any strong aerial force against the Nazi blockade.

More than 100 miles to the south, the U.S. 1st Army hammered out an important victory inside the Siegfried Line beyond Aachen, wiping out the last organized German resistance in Stolberg, which the enemy had converted into a “little Cassino” of fortified homes and barricaded streets.

The desperate German defense of the town was attributed to their anxiety to remove an aircraft parts factory. Nazi engineers were spotted dismantling the plant, but there was no immediate indication that they had succeeded in getting its equipment out.

Repel Nazis

Elsewhere along the border there was little change in the opposing battle lines as far south as the Lunéville–Château-Salins area east of Nancy, where Gen. Patton’s 3rd Army veterans sent the Germans reeling back toward their Siegfried Line after giving them probably the worst armored beating since D-Day.

A dispatch from Mr. Richards said the Battle of the Moselle was rapidly becoming the battle of the Seille as the Germans took advantage of rain and mud to dig in all along the latter, tiny river, which lies five miles east of the Moselle, from above Metz to Momeny.

The Allied headquarters communiqué confirmed front reports that U.S. 1st Army troops had been forced to give ground in the area east of Diekirch. Field dispatches said the Americans withdrew to the Our River line in that sector, indicating they had been driven back across the German border into Luxembourg.

Armies link up

On the southern flank of the 3rd Army line, Gen. Patton’s troops linked up with U.S. 7th Army forces south of Épinal and forced crossings of the Moselle at many points against stiffened resistance.

Other 7th Army units won small gains in a battle arc looping barely 10 miles from Belfort, on the historic southwestern invasion route to Germany.

Along the French Channel coast, Canadian troops cleared the last Germans from Boulogne, rounding up some 7,300 prisoners and establishing Britain’s first direct supply line across the Strait of Dover since 1940.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (September 24, 1944)

Die Abwehrschlacht im Westen –
Von Antwerpen bis Belfort

vb. Berlin, 23. September –
Die Berichte der Korrespondenten aus dem Hauptquartier des Generals Eisenhower in Frankreich lassen Züge von Melancholie erkennen. Die letzten vierzehn Tage haben den Lorbeer etwas zerzaust, den allzu eilfertige Anhänger bereits auf das Haupt des Generals gedrückt hatten.

Die Engländer und Amerikaner werden sicherlich in den nächsten Wochen ihre Verbände zu verstärken suchen und dann neue Offensiven beginnen. Im Augenblick jedenfalls kommen sie nicht so weiter, wie sie das gerne möchten. Von der britischen ersten Luftlandedivision bei Arnheim kämpfen nur. noch Trümmer. Bei Nimwegen stockt der Angriff ebenso wie bei Aachen, in Lothringen müssen die Amerikaner örtliche Angriffe der Deutschen abwehren.

Über all diesen Feststellungen liegt ein Hauch von Verdrossenheit. Von ihnen gewinnt man aber auch erst das richtige Licht zur Beurteilung der Vorgänge im August. Als die Nordamerikaner einmal bei Avranches durchgebrochen waren, stießen sie in Mittelfrankreich in freies Gelände. Hier standen schwache deutsche Sicherungstruppen, die sich dem Gegner auch entschlossen entgegenwarfen, aber keine Armeen. So konnten die Amerikaner mehrere Wochen lang große Strecken Landes schnell überwinden. Es war selbstverständlich, daß unter solchen Umständen sich auch die beiden deutschen Armeen aus der Normandie zurückziehen mußten. Ihr Rückzug war schwierig. An vielen Stellen wurde der Zusammenhang der deutschen Truppen unterbrochen. Eine eigentliche Front bestand nicht mehr. In die Lücken schoben sich amerikanische und britische Panzerverbände. Auch in Nordfrankreich und schließlich in Belgien konnte so der Vormarsch der Verbände der Westmächte im Sturmtempo vor sich gehen.

Diese Ereignisse sind nun, das ist heute deutlich zu sehen, beim Gegner auf das gründlichste missverstanden worden. Da sein Vormarsch so schnell vor sich ging r glaubte man drüben, das müsse immer so weitergehen. Da die Deutschen in der Schlacht und auch im Rückzug natürlich auch Verluste hatten, bewegte man sich im Hauptquartier Eisenhowers bereits in den rosigsten Träumen. Man hoffte, wenn man an den Reichsgrenzen ankommen werde, dort überhaupt keinen organisierten deutschen Widerstand zu finden.

Das alles sind nicht nachträgliche deutsche Unterstellungen. Im August sind beim Feind genug Äußerungen gemacht worden, die diese Hoffnungsseligkeit bestätigen. Von solchen weitgespannten Erwartungen aus wird die Kühle des Tones verständlich, mit der heute aus der Umgebung Eisenhowers berichtet wird. In Wirklichkeit hätte es nur einen Weg gegeben, diese stürmischen Hoffnungen zu verwirklichen; die deutschen Armeen in Frankreich zu vernichten. Man weiß, daß der General Eisenhower das mehr als einmal versucht hat; man weiß auch, daß es ihm misslungen ist. Die Kriegsgeschichte wird die Gründe prüfen. Heute genügt die Tatsache, daß ein wesentliches Stück der Operationspläne des Gegners nicht erfüllt werden konnte.

Die Gefechte und Rückzugskämpfe im Monat August sind von einem großen Teil der Weltöffentlichkeit so verstanden worden, als gehe es dabei um den Besitz von Paris, Orléans, Lyon, Verdun, Lille, als gehe es um den Besitz von Frankreich. Man konnte sie nicht schlimmer missverstehen. Nach dem Tage von Avranches war es ohnehin klar, daß die deutsche Führung darauf verzichten würde, Frankreich zu behaupten. Das ist keine billige Hinterherweisheit. Unsere Leser erinnern sich, daß solche Gedanken bereits sehr früh in den Spalten des „VB“ ausgesprochen wurden. Die Schlacht in Frankreich hatte ein ganz anderes Ziel. Und sie ging um einen ganz anderen, viel höheren Preis, als um den Besitz von Paris oder Verdun; ob es den Deutschen gelingen werde, eine neue Front aufzubauen. Von dieser Frage hing das Schicksal des Feldzugs im Westen ab.

Heute kann mit Gelassenheit, aber nicht ohne Erleichterung festgestellt werden, daß dieses Ziel erreicht ist. Gestützt auf die alten Befestigungen an der Grenze des Reiches, verstärkt durch die neuen Systeme der Schanzarbeit in diesen Monaten, mit der Neugruppierung der aus Frankreich heimgekehrten Divisionen und mit Unterstützung frischer Verbände aus dem Reich, so ist dem Generalfeldmarschall Model von neuem die erstaunliche Leistung gelungen, die er acht Wochen vorher in Polen schon einmal vollbracht hatte. Diese Front ist biegsam, sie ist an verschiedenen Stellen verschieden stark, aber sie ist da, und ihre einzelnen Glieder stehen auch im taktischen Zusammenhang miteinander.

[NormanStewart]

Führer HQ (September 24, 1944)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

In Mittelholland landete der Feind gestern erneut stärkere Kräfte aus der Luft mit Schwerpunkt im Raum südlich und südöstlich Nimwegen. Eigene Truppen traten sofort zum Angriff an. Die schweren Kämpfe sind noch im Gange.

Die eigenen Absetzbewegungen in Westholland nehmen den geplanten Verlauf. Südöstlich Aachen und an der Eifelfront wurden auch gestern alle Angriffe des Gegners abgewiesen. Die starken Angriffe des Feindes östlich Lunéville führten zu Anfangserfolgen, wurden dann aber abgefangen. Seit Beginn der Kämpfe vernichteten unsere Panzerverbände hier 106 schwere amerikanische „Sherman“-Panzer. Die in den Brückenköpfen Épinal und Remiremont kämpfenden eigenen Truppen wurden nach schwerem Kampf auf das Ostufer der Mosel zurückgenommen. Die erbitterten Straßenkämpfe in Remiremont halten an. Südlich der Stadt wurden zahlreiche Angriffe des Feindes abgewiesen, ein Einbruch im Gegenstoß bereinigt. In Boulogne leisten die Reste der Besatzung in ihren Stützpunkten südlich des Hafens immer noch tapfersten Widerstand. In Saint-Nazaire und Lorient blieben feindliche Angriffe erfolglos. Marinefernkampfbatterien nahmen Folkestone und Dover wirksam unter Feuer.

Der Großraum von London lag auch gestern unter dem schweren Feuer der „V1.“

In Italien erzielte der Feind in den auch gestern im Raum Firenzuola anhaltenden schweren Kämpfen geringen Bodengewinn, nachdem mehrere Angriffe unter hohen Verlusten an der eigenen Abwehr gescheitert waren. An der Adria wurden bei auflebender Kampftätigkeit mehrere örtliche Vorstöße des Gegners abgewiesen.

Aus dem südwestlichen Siebenbürgen wird anhaltende örtliche Kampftätigkeit gemeldet. Beiderseits Torenburg sind neue Durchbruchsversuche des Gegners an der zähen Abwehr und durch erfolgreiche Gegenangriffe deutscher und ungarischer Panzerkräfte gescheitert. Bei vergeblichen Angriffen überlegener rumänischer Verbände im Raum südlich Neumarkt erlitt der Feind hohe Verluste: örtliche Angriffe der Bolschewisten im Szekler Zipfel und in den Ostkarpaten blieben erfolglos. Vor den Karpatenpässen im Raum südlich Sanok und Krosno dauern die schweren Kämpfe an. Gegenstöße unserer Panzerkräfte und Grenadiere verhinderten auch gestern die feindlichen Durchbruchsversuche. Unsere gepanzerten Angriffsgruppen haben südwestlich Mitau bisher 91 Panzer und 184 Geschütze des Gegners vernichtet oder erbeutet. Die im Nordabschnitt fortgesetzten Angriffe massierter bolschewistischer Infanterie- und Panzerkräfte wurden auch gestern unter Abschuß zahlreicher feindlicher Panzer abgewiesen oder aufgefangen. Verbände der Luftwaffe griffen mit gutem Erfolg in die erbitterten Kämpfe ein. Trotz starken Drucks der Bolschewisten gehen die Bewegungen unserer Truppen planmäßig weiter. Die Luftwaffe schoss in den beiden letzten Tagen an der Ostfront 73 feindliche Flugzeuge ab und vernichtete 51 Panzer, mehrere hundert Fahrzeuge sowie zahlreiche Geschütze.

Bei Kämpfen gegen Banden in der nordöstlichen Slowakei wurden nach bisher vorliegenden Meldungen über vierzig Sowjetkommissare gefangengenommen.

Tagesangriffe nordamerikanischer Bomber richteten sich gegen einige Orte in Südostdeutschland und im Sudetenland. Bei Nacht griffen britische Bomber rheinisch-westfälisches Industriegebiet und besonders die Städte Neuß und Düsseldorf an. Luftverteidigungskräfte schossen über dem Reichsgebiet und dem holländischen Raum 32 anglo-amerikanische Flugzeuge ab.

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Bei den Kämpfen um Metz und die Moselstellungen hat die Fahnenjunkerschule VI Metz wiederholte Angriffe überlegener feindlicher Kräfte zerschlagen. Durch hervorragende Tapferkeit und Standfestigkeit hat sie wesentlich zum Halten des Brückenkopfes beigetragen. Bei den schweren Kämpfen nördlich Florenz hat sich die aus Soldaten aller Gaue des Reiches zusammengesetzte 334. Infanteriedivision in Abwehr und Gegenangriff unter Führung von Generalleutnant Böhlke hervorragend bewährt.

Durch besondere Tapferkeit haben sich auf dem italienischen Kriegsschauplatz ausgezeichnet: Hauptmann Holtmann, Kommandeur des I./Grenadierregiments 1059, Hauptmann Hauber, Kommandeur des II./Fallschirmsturmregiments, Hauptmann Boine, Kommandeur des III./Fallschirmsturmregiments.

Bei der Verteidigung eines Brückenkopfes im Raum von Torenburg hat sich der Kommandeur eines ungarischen Infanterieregiments, Oberst Böscörmenyi, durch persönliche Tapferkeit und besondere Standfestigkeit hervorgetan.

Bei den Kämpfen im Raum von Warschau hat sich eine aus Truppen des Heeres, der Fallschirmpanzerdivision „Hermann Göring“ und der Polizei zusammengesetzte Kampfgruppe unter der Führung von Major Max Reck durch besondere Standfestigkeit und Entschlussfreudigkeit ausgezeichnet.

[NormanStewart]

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (September 24, 1944)

FROM
(A) SHAEF FORWARD

ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section

DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
241100A Sept.

TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR (Pass to WND)

TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(2) FIRST US ARMY GP
(3) ADV HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) FWD ECH (MAIN) 12 ARMY GP
(5) AEAF
(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) ETOUSA
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM Z APO 871
(18) SHAEF MAIN

(REF NO.)
NONE

(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR

Communiqué No. 169

Heavy engagements continued yesterday in the Allied salient in Holland.

Fighting was particularly fierce in the vicinity of Arnhem where the enemy is expecting strong pressure. We have increased our hold on the area between the Nederrijn and the Waal. Our positions in the Nijmegen area have been improved and we have strengthened the bridgehead over the Bois-le-Duc Canal near the base of the salient.

Our airborne operations were further reinforced during the day.

Ahead of the transport aircraft and gliders, fighters and fighter-bombers in strength dropped fragmentation bombs on numerous gun positions and carried out low-level strafing attacks. Many batteries were silenced. Other fighters provided escort and cover for the airborne operations. The enemy was active in the air and a number of combats with our fighters resulted. According to reports so far received, 27 enemy aircraft were shot down. Fourteen of our fighters are missing.

East of Antwerp, our forces advanced after establishing a bridgehead across the Meuse–Escaut Canal. Northwest of the city, we have made a slight advance.

The entire front from Geilenkirchen area to the Meurthe Valley remains relatively unchanged, with stubborn enemy resistance and numerous counterattacks in all sectors.

In the Aachen area, our patrols are meeting fire from the outskirts of the city, where the enemy appears to be well entrenched. Stolberg is being cleared of isolated German pockets, but southeast of the town our troops are meeting stubborn resistance in their advance. East of Büsbach, a counterattacking German force was driven off with an estimated loss of 40 percent of its strength.

German pockets are being mopped-up in the sector bordering northern Luxembourg, and our units along the entire German-Luxembourg frontier are receiving moderate artillery fire from the enemy.

South of Metz, stubborn enemy resistance continues, and a small counterattack at Pournoy was broken up by our artillery. We have made gains nine miles north of Nancy, where the town of Morey was freed. Enemy tanks and infantry are offering strong opposition in the area east of Nancy.

Our troops have advanced to the vicinity of Bénaménil, ten miles east of Lunéville.

Gun emplacements on the island of Walcheren in the Scheldt Estuary were attacked by a small force of heavy bombers.

Strongpoints at Calais were attacked by medium and light bombers.

Fighter-bombers hit fortified positions in the Trier area.

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 FA Ext. 9

AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (September 24, 1944)

Air army patrols reach British; gliders land more men in Holland

Arnhem battle called decisive struggle of west by Germans

Still holding out in the Arnhem area on the north bank of the upper Rhine (inset map A), encircled airborne army patrols pushed to a junction with the British 2nd Army, which had driven to the south bank of the river and was reinforced by a new glider-borne force. A German tank force which thrust a wedge across the British corridor between Eindhoven and Nijmegen was repulsed. The U.S. 1st Army, while falling back across the Luxembourg border in the Diekirch area (inset map B), to the north captured the German industrial city of Stolberg. The U.S. 3rd Army smashed Nazi tank attacks in the area bounded by Château-Salins, Dieuze and Lunéville east of the Moselle River, and the Allied 6th Army Group drove against the Belfort Gap on the south.

SHAEF, London, England (UP) –
Patrols from the heroic Allied parachutist band cut off around Arnhem fought their way south across the upper branch of the Rhine Saturday and established contact with the British 2nd Army as a new sky army of thousands of Anglo-American troops swept down by glider to join the crucial battle.

Berlin called the struggle at Arnhem the decisive test of the war in the west and in an attempt to nip off the allied corridor Adolf Hitler sent 200 tanks lunging against its base 25 miles to the south. They were hurled back after temporarily cutting the vital Eindhoven–Nijmegen highway and driving a wedge in the salient.

Patrols pushing across the river from the airborne “island” established the “barest sort” of contact with the British rescue force, Allied headquarters said, but the fact that they were able to get across sent hopes soaring that a full junction would soon be made.

Furious battles raged along the 60-mile length of the Allied salient across Holland, but despite waves of counterattacks by crack SS and panzer units, the Allies were able to widen the corridor in at least two sectors.

Westward of Eindhoven, gains of four to five miles were made on a 12-mile front, while in the Nijmegen sector along the main branch of the Rhine, Lt. Gen. Sir Miles C. Dempsey’s 2nd Army infantry pushed eastward three miles, capturing Beek on the German border.

A sky train 170 miles long – extending unbroken from British bases to Holland landed the new sky army. Scores of DC-3 “Dakota” transport planes towed hundreds of big gliders bulging with troops and supplies. The reinforcements were landed successfully despite strong opposition from enemy ground defenses and also from the Luftwaffe, headquarters announced.

RAF and U.S. fighter planes in strength provided cover for the landings.

The reinforcements apparently were landed outside the pocket of airborne troops on the north bank of the river, since a special bulletin announced specifically that they descended in support of the 2nd Army’s drive.

Berlin said that reinforcements were landed between the two branches of the river but were not able to smash open the German “bolt” position north of Nijmegen on the southern branch or break through to the rescue of the parachutists around Arnhem.

Main bridge intact

Linking up with a smaller airborne force on the south bank of the river, the British found the main bridge to Arnhem still intact but it was unclear in late reports which side controlled the crossing.

The Arnhem area became the flaming local point of virtually the entire 250-mile front as sharp but inconclusive battles were fought along the West Wall inside Germany and battered enemy panzer forces withdraw to the Moselle sector after losing 317 tanks in 11 days.

The capture of Stolberg, five miles east of Aachen, was formally announced although strongpoints in the main city and industrial suburbs remained to be mopped up. With a population of 17,000, Stolberg is the largest German city yet taken.

Detour Nazi roadblock

Driving on four miles beyond Elst after detouring a German roadblock at that Dutch town, the British 2nd Army breasted withering fire from their flanks to reach the upper Rhine, a smaller branch of the main stream which had been forced at Nijmegen.

Against fanatical resistance from SS and other crack units, the British were now battling to effect a crossing and bring full relief to the paratroopers, mostly British units but including two groups of Polish reinforcements. Although they had been fighting against increasing odds for six days, the airborne troops’ commander messaged that morale was still high especially with rescue apparently so near.

Beyond the upper Rhine, which nearer the sea becomes the Lek, there is only the small tributary, Ijssel, separating the Allies from the rolling plains of Northwest Germany and the Ruhr, and the battle for the Reich was being fought along the water barriers rather than the already partly-turned West Wall.

Dispatches from Berlin via Zürich quoted a German War Office spokesman as calling the battle for Holland “decisive for the entire war in the west,” and said that Adolf Hitler had rushed suicide units of his own private guard to the Arnhem area.

Despite the short distance separating the 2nd Army from the main airborne force across the river, only several hundred yards, the situation of the parachutists was still described at headquarters as “touch and go.”

Meanwhile, a huge panzer force backed by crack infantry groups lashed out at the narrow British corridor through Holland in the area between Veghel and Uden, respectively, 12 and 15 miles north of Eindhoven. In a surging, bloody battle the enemy succeeded in smashing across the main Eindhoven–Nijmegen road, jugular vein for the units across the Rhine, but with the help of low-flying typhoon rocket planes British infantry succeeded in stemming the assault and clearing the road.

Batteries rain heavy fire

German batteries were still raining down heavy fire on the supply artery, however, and official dispatches said the German attack had achieved “a certain amount of success.”

A similar but smaller attack from the west, where some 70,000 to 100,000 Germans have been cut off by the British drive, was smashed and the British went on to widen their corridor to 18 miles in the Eindhoven area on a 12-mile front.

United Press writer Ronald Clark reported that the whole of Central Holland had become a series of separate battlefields, with the Germans fighting fiercely from small, bypassed villages, utilizing whatever local forces were still intact.

Rain and low clouds prevented the air forces from joining in the main Arnhem battle early Saturday but later in the day huge forces of fighters and bombers were reported heading for Holland.

First Army breaks attack

On the 1st Army front, U.S. artillery drove back a counterattack northwest of Geilenkirchen where the Yanks had driven across the frontier from Dutch Maastricht, and another counterblow was beaten back in the Büsbach area southeast of Stolberg, costing the Germans 40 percent of the forces involved.

Heavy enemy resistance was encountered in the Hürtgen Forest in the same general area, where the Germans had thrown up an elaborate system of pillboxes and roadblocks behind the breached main defenses of the Siegfried Line.

The Americans were forced to give ground for the second straight day east of Diekirch, which is in Luxembourg, where dispatches indicated Friday the Yanks had been thrown back from German soil.

A German communiqué asserted that the Americans had been cleared from their own river bridgehead at the Luxembourg frontier in the Echternach area, with heavy casualties inflicted on the U.S. 5th Armored Division.

Front dispatches said the Germans lost 60 more tanks in the Moselle River in 24 hours in contrast to “considerably smaller” U.S. losses and the enemy was reported withdrawing from the Lunéville–Château-Salins area to a new defense line behind the Seille River.

Taking advantage of rain and mud which hampered American efforts to disrupt the defense preparations, the Germans were reported digging in strongly behind the 40-foot-wide Seille, which parallels the Moselle south of Metz and joins it above the citadel.

The Germans were apparently still determined to hold Metz at all costs and were strengthening its perimeter forts.

Sixth consolidating gains

Units of the 6th Army Group which had thrown a number of bridgeheads across the Moselle farther south were consolidating their gains despite counterattacks which at one point numbered nine in 24 hours. Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch’s 7th Army from the south was working closely with the U.S. 3rd Army in these operations.

On the Dutch southwest coast, 1st Canadian Army troops bottled up the German remnants on the south side of the Schelde estuary between the sea and the Leopold Canal while Polish troops on their right cleared out the Axel-Hulst nearer Antwerp. Northeast of the port, a Canadian unit fought its way across a canal just northeast of the city in a drive to clean out the troublesome enemy garrison in Fort Mexem.

It was announced that the Canadians captured more than 9,000 prisoners at Boulogne.

[NormanStewart]

Arnhem battle crucial, Washington believes

Washington (UP) –
Military observers, confident of a final Allied victory in the great battle now raging along the Rhine for the Arnhem bridgehead, said tonight that this campaign may be the most decisive of the war.

Whatever chance the Allies have of ending the war before next spring may be lost, they said, if the Germans succeed in holding off our heavy armor long enough to annihilate the airborne army now hanging on to the Rhine positions.

If the Allies break through the enemy positions in force, they would have a chance to end the war before winter, the observers said. This breach would mean that the West Wall had been outflanked, the barrier of the Rhine River bridges and the Ruhr road to Berlin thrown open.

The battle is now in its most delicate stage for the Allies, seesawing and swirling with such rapidity that it is impossible to get a clear picture of it here. However, some decision should become apparent within the next week, it was believed.

[NormanStewart]

Fliers bolster troops in Holland

London, England (UP) –
Huge forces of bombers and fighters streaked across the Channel toward the continent this afternoon, possibly going to the aid of Allied forces in Holland, as an estimated 500 Italian-based heavy bombers hammered industrial targets in the Sudetenland.

Other squadrons of U.S. 15th Air Force heavies lashed at railroads in southern Austria and bridges in northeastern Italy, while three formations of Mitchell bombers blasted the German-held 5,000-ton cruiser Taranto at the La Spezia Naval Base. The warship, which the Nazis had so placed as to block the harbor entrance in the event La Spezia fell to the Allies, was set afire, it was reported from Rome.

Hit bow, stern

German anti-aircraft batteries threw up a terrific barrage, but bomb-strike photos showed explosives fell across the Taranto’s bow and stern, and amidships. There was no immediate announcement of the specific targets hit by the Lightning and Mustang-escorted bombers in the Sudetenland and Austria.

Despite yesterday’s bad weather, the 9th U.S. Air Force flew 750 sorties during which it dropped 200 tons of bombs on rail communications, motor transport and power stations in the vicinities of Coblenz and Saarbrücken, Germany. Six planes were lost, but the pilots of two were safe, it was announced officially.

U.S. and French P-47 Thunderbolts of Brig. Gen. Gordon P. Saville’s 12th Tactical Air Command struck at German locomotives and vehicles along the Rhine in good weather Friday after being grounded for almost a week by bad weather.