The Brooklyn Eagle (June 11, 1944)
Yanks halfway across peninsula, key towns taken
By Edward W. Beattie
Invasion zone: This is the war arena where the Allies are now battling the Nazis. The “inland Atlantic Wall” of the enemy is indicated on the map (1) stretching from the coast to Paris. On the Cherbourg Peninsula (2), the Allies threaten complete isolation on Cherbourg itself, Meanwhile, reconnaissance planes report the Germans trying to rush supplies and men (3) toward the battle zone.
SHAEF, England (UP) –
Invading Allied armies have linked up a solid 42-mile beachhead belt on the Norman coast and U.S. forces, in a powerful, two-pronged drive through the Cotentin (Cherbourg) Peninsula, today threatened the first-class, modern port of Cherbourg with early capture.
In an all-out effort to break a four-day deadlock around Caen near the east flank of the invasion front, Allied artillery of every caliber and medium bombers and fighter-bombers in overwhelming strength delivered an obliteration bombardment on German positions there Saturday. The air phase of the assault was described as the most concentrated of the war, with the possible exception of the blow that destroyed Cassino.
Latest information at headquarters indicated that good news – very good news – could be expected shortly, but correspondents were not permitted to speculate on its nature.
A U.S. column striking due west across the Cotentin Peninsula was reported to have traversed more than half its 25-mile width and was nearing the highway running up the west side, severance of which would complete Cherbourg’s isolation.
Another column battling due north from positions above Carentan, still German-held, had by the enemy’s own admission, driven the Nazis to the north tip of the peninsula and Radio Berlin said “the battle of Cherbourg has begun.” Stockholm reports said the Yankees were only ten miles from the port.
Allies join forces
Struggling through German-created floodwaters along the coast, the Americans captured Trévières and Isigny to join forces with Anglo-Canadian forces in the Bayeux-Caen sector, where heavy battles were raging last night. Sainte-Croix, seven miles southeast of Bayeux, has also been captured, making a total of 13 towns known to have been liberated by the Allied armies.
Official reports here said the main beachhead was now 30 miles wide, from near Caen to the Isigny area, but front dispatches said the front stretched unbroken for 42 miles from beyond Caen to the edge of Carentan, counting the curving shoreline.
U.S. Rangers and Commandos were reported making hash of German communications in bold thrusts behind the enemy lines and were taking a heavy toll of Nazis in ambushes. At one point, a small group of specialized Allied troops waylaid a large body of enemy troops and, holding their fire until the range was less than 100 yards, let go a volley that killed 250.
Blast installations
The air forces were now operating from at least five landing strips in the beachhead area, assisting Britain-based air and sea armadas in pounding enemy installations and patrolling the cross-Channel supply lanes. Three feeble enemy efforts to attack Channel traffic, two by motor torpedo boats and one by planes, were broken up without damage to Allied convoys, Allied Invasion Communiqué 10, issued Saturday night, revealed.
More than 5,000 prisoners have now been captured, it was announced, and more than 2,000 Allied wounded have been landed at one British port alone.
Allied headquarters reported that the French underground was striking widespread blows at the Germans in areas back of the battle line, some of a “most violent nature.”
The Brazzaville radio in French Africa, heard by NBC, said that a state of siege had been declared in Cherbourg.
Leaders on ground
Gen. Sir B. L. Montgomery, commander of British ground troops, has set up advance headquarters in France, joining the U.S. field commander. Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, in on-the-spot direction of the battle, it was announced.
The invasion forces made “satisfactory progress” on all sectors during the day, Allied headquarters announced Saturday night. For the first time, the Germans were trying to use their “last ditch” weapon – the U-boat – but so far Allied air and sea patrols had kept the underseas raiders from interfering with cross-Channel traffic.
Earlier reports said that Canadian troops, throwing back counterattacks by the three German tank divisions, had three-fourths encircled Caen, while a Canadian spearhead to the west drove far inland from Bayeux against diminishing resistance.
Drive on stronghold
At Carentan, near the base of the Cherbourg cape, where the Germans still held a pivot in the coastal communications system, U.S. troops were attacking relentlessly eastward from Isigny and south from Sainte-Mère-Église.
Battling north from Sainte-Mère-Église, another U.S. column was driving on the enemy stronghold of Valognes, 11 miles southeast of Cherbourg, against fierce resistance from the German 109th Infantry Division. Correspondents reported that the Americans were “dangerously close” to Cherbourg itself.
Radio Paris said that the beachhead on the peninsula was bounded on the northeast by Quinéville, eight miles above Sainte-Mère-Église, and on the north by Émondeville, four miles north of Sainte-Mère-Église. A paratrooper division and four infantry divisions are making a concerted drive northward for Cherbourg, German-controlled broadcast said.
Control road network
The capture of Trévières, nine miles west of Bayeux, late Saturday gave the Americans control of a high road network over the coastal inundations which the Germans had effected by means of sluice gates. The flooding was substantially relieved by the capture of a number of the gates, which were closed to divert the tides.
The Germans flooded some of the coastal flats to a depth of seven feet above Carentan and the control gates in that sector must be captured before the Americans can complete their bridgehead chain, even after Carentan falls.
Bloody armored battles continued for the fourth day in the Caen area where the Germans were fighting to retain the eastern flank of the bridgehead against a breakthrough toward Rouen and Paris, itself only 117 miles beyond Allied spearheads.
Caen bypassed
Front reports, revealing that Allied armored units had bypassed Caen and approached the city from the south said that a slight withdrawal had been made in that sector under the trip-hammer German counterblows. Canadian troops were assailing Caen from the west and British airborne and regular units were maintaining intense pressure from just north of it.
Two of the three German armored divisions in the Caen sector were identified as the 21st Panzer Division and the 12th SS Panzer Division, a crack combat unit developed from the Elite Guard.
The improved weather enabled every type of Allied combat weapon to be brought into full play. For the first time since the desperate days of 1940, the Allies were using air bases on French soil, with U.S. C-47 transports steadily bringing out wounded and U.S. Spitfire fighters operating from at least two airfields on the beachhead.
Glider trains on job
Most units are up to their full strength in medium and heavy artillery, thanks to the herculean accomplishments of the aerial and sea supply system. Glider trains were making regular flights to areas not serviced by landing strips.
Paratroops, who have performed one of the most brilliant roles in the entire operations, have escaped with far less casualties than expected, front reports said. One unit of 400 U.S. airborne troops, isolated four hours, fought its way to the main Allied line and in the process captured double their number of German paratroopers, who had dropped almost on top of them shortly after the initial landing. The enemy paratroopers included SS troops and units of the 1st Parachute Division, which had fought at Cassino.
Nazis’ positions perilous
Executing a brilliant master invasion plan, the Allies had now put the enemy in a position where almost any move involved great strategic danger. They had so consolidated their positions on an extended portion of the French coast that Field Marshal von Rundstedt could hardly hope to erase them without committing large forces of his strategic reserves. That would invite other powerful Allied landings at any place along the coast from the North Cape to Spain where the Allied command might choose to strike.
Henry Gorrell of the United Press reported in a front dispatch that German placards had been seized ordering the garrison troops in Normandy to “delay the Americans as much as possible and stand fast to the last man” – an indication that they could expect no reinforcements.
Gen. Montgomery, commander of British invasion forces, sent congratulations to the famed British 50th Northumbrian Division, veteran desert fighting force, which has “gained all its objectives” so far in the invasion. The Northumbrians are in action around Caen.
Navy’s invasion secrets disclosed; ‘Fly straight up’ plane one of them
Washington (UP) – (June 9)
The Navy tonight permitted brief mention of a whole batch of secret or improved weapons, some of which are being tested now on the European invasion front.
These weapons – with many others which may not even be hinted at – were unveiled for newsmen in a recent tour of naval establishments authorized by Secretary of Navy Forrestal.
The reporters inspected:
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A new twin-engine fighter plane of unprecedented firepower which climbs practically straight up.
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The Navy version of the jet propulsion plane.
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Improved rockets and rocket guns.
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Battleships with 100 times the firepower of battleships built three years ago, and a new 27,000-ton battlecruiser which will be the first vessel of its kind in the U.S. Fleet.
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Aircraft carriers from whose decks twin-engined medium bombers will be able to take off. And much else.