Operation OVERLORD (1944)

117

Record raids blast Germans in Caen region

7,000 sorties batter massed troops; 1,000 heavies hit airfields

SHAEF, England (UP) –
The greatest air support ever concentrated in a single area, barring perhaps only Cassino, was thrown yesterday against the embattled Caen region by Allied medium and fighter bombers in an attempt to seal off the vast German effort to reinforce its divisions there.

The greater part of about 7,000 sorties flown by Allied bombers and fighters in support of invasion troops in 24 hours ended at midnight was directed against Nazi troop and tank concentrations on the city’s outskirts and on reinforcement columns moving along five main and one auxiliary roads, south and east of Caen.

Allied air forces were moving up for a fight to a finish. It was announced that Americans, British and Canadians were operating at least five emergency landing strips in the beach area. They were being used to refuel patrol fighters and for evacuation of wounded.

While medium and fighter bombers and strafing fighters concentrated on the Caen region, 1,000 U.S. heavy bombers and fighters “backed the attack” of invasion armies with blows against Nazi airdromes.

Simultaneously, bomb-carrying Lightnings of the Italy-based U.S. 15th Air Force attacked Luftwaffe fuel resources in Romania, hammering the “only remaining” oil refinery in the Ploești area, Rome announcements said.

Some 750 Italy-based U.S. heavy bombers also attacked oil installations, railyards and an airdrome near Venice and at Trieste and Bologna, in northern Italy, including one of the largest oil refineries available to the Nazis outside of Romania.

Taking up the air offensive in support of Allied troops after RAF heavy bombers overnight lashed four of the forwardmost Luftwaffe airdromes behind the German lines, up to 500 Flying Fortresses and Liberators swept over airdromes in Normandy and Brittany, including one at Vannes, on the north coast of the Bay of Biscay.

Escorted by some 500 Mustang, Lightning and Thunderbolt fighters which also engaged in supporting sweeps, the big. four-engined U.S. 8th Air Force bombers also answered a call from ground troops and blasted gun positions and defended areas near the north coast of France.

The “North Coast” was not identified, but it was announced the heavy bombers hit gun positions through clouds. Clearer weather was encountered over some inland targets and the airfield at Vannes, believed to be one base from which twin-engined Ju 88s and other coastal raiders launch attacks Allied shipping, was among targets hit visually.

Returning heavy bomber crews reported that “weather was the chief enemy over Normandy.” There were heavy clouds at high altitude. Temperatures were as low as 36 degrees below zero. Escorting fighters gave the bombers such perfect protection that one formation of Me 109s was unable to approach the bomber formations.

1,000 sorties made

The slightly improved weather over the continent also permitted medium and fighter bombers to return to battle after a day’s enforced lull.

In 16 hours from midnight to midafternoon, the Allied air forces had flown 4,000 sorties and dumped 5,000 tons of bombs on troop concentrations, tank columns, communication centers, and airfields.

U.S. 9th Air Force Marauders and Havocs in strength closely supported ground troops in Normandy with attacks on many enemy targets. Their objectives included railyards, track, highways, heavy gun positions and troops, spread out from one to 15 miles behind the fighting lines.

Thunderbolt and Mustang fighter bombers of the U.S. 8th Air Force also attacked German mobile reserves by bombing and strafing from low-level in front of Allied positions. Returning to their bases, they reported little combat with the Luftwaffe. One Mustang group shot down two enemy planes.

While only about 50 German fighters were reported in the battle area, the heaviest weight of Allied attacks was put directly against Nazi troops and supplies moving into the embattled Caen area.

Dozens of enemy road convoys were attacked south and east of the town. One RAF Mustang force destroyed at least 50 vehicles near Fontaine, 12 miles south of Caen, while the U.S. 9th Air Force destroyed many others. Eighth Air Force fighters attacked at least 102 other vehicles.

Block reinforcement

Defying storms during the night, the RAF’s Halifax and Lancaster four-engined bombers attacked Luftwaffe airdromes at Flers, Rennes, Laval and Le Mans to block a reported Luftwaffe attempt to reinforce its assault zone air force, and the rail center of Étampes, 35 miles southwest of Paris, where three important north-south and east-west lines join.

At the same time, Mosquitos of the Bomber Command swept over Berlin to destroy any false confidence Berliners might have had that Allied airpower was tied down by invasion operations. In a concentrated three-minute attack at 1:30 a.m. CET, the speedy Mosquitos hurled more than 30 two-ton bombs on the capital.

It was the first bombing of Berlin since May 27.

Pound communications

RAF light bombers during the night also pounded enemy communications in rear of the battle zone, while night fighters and intruder aircraft shot down four enemy planes which attempted to strike back in some force against the beachheads.

Coastal aircraft throughout the night and day cooperated with naval surface forces in a vigorous offensive against U-boats which Saturday’s noon communiqué said were threatening to attack Allied lines of communications to the assault area.

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118

De Gaulle fears Eisenhower’s political plan

Military government not acceptable to French leader

London, England (UP) – (June 10)
Gen. Charles de Gaulle told the French Independent News Agency in London that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s proclamations regarding a temporary French government in liberated areas were “obviously not acceptable for us.”

Commenting on the fact that there was no agreement between the French government and the Allied governments concerning the cooperation of French administration with Allied armies in liberated metropolitan France, de Gaulle said:

Gen. Eisenhower’s proclamations of June 6 and yesterday seem to foreshadow a sort of taking over of power in France by the Allied military command. This situation obviously is not acceptable for us and it could provoke in France itself incidents which it seems to us must be avoided.

De Gaulle also said that the issue in France of “so-called French currency without any agreement and without any guarantee from French authority can only lead to serious complications.”

The French leader said:

At the moment when battle is being joined on the soil of France, the French government is eager in the common interest to see the end to such confusion and infringement.

France brings into the great battle for the liberation of the world all the internal and external forces at her disposal… but it is obviously in full sovereignty that she intends to wage war today and tomorrow make peace.

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119

Stringer: Hitler’s West Wall mass of wreckage

By William J. Stringer

With U.S. forces in Normandy, France (UP) – (June 8, delayed)
Hitler’s supposedly invincible West Wall tonight is a sad spectacle of broken guns and pillboxes and ripped “secret defenses” along the beachfront of at least 15 miles.

When I toured mile after mile of beaches this afternoon, I saw scores of twisted masses of steel which were once powerful German guns and miles of blackened rubble which were flamethrowers and artillery blockhouses. I saw thousands of torn pieces of iron which had been secret underwater obstacles.

Hitler’s West Wall is truly a mass of wreckage. No cyclone could have done as thorough a job as Allied naval guns, artillery and demolitions.

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120

French patriots near Swiss frontier reported in revolt

Grenoble said to be under siege

London, England (UP) – (June 10)
Multiple indications of an insurrection by Frenchmen outside the tiny Allied beachhead of liberated France were highlighted tonight by reliable reports of full-scale revolt of the local population of two French Departments near the Swiss frontier.

According to advices reaching Free French circles here, much of the population of the Departments of Ain and Saône-et-Loire joined “French Fighting Forces of the Interior” – new name for fighting French patriots – to openly oppose the Germans. Fighting was reported in the towns of Bourg and Mâcon.

Another report reaching London said that the French town of Bellegarde, 18 miles from Geneva, had been cut off by patriots after heavy fighting with the Germans.

Grenoble surrounded

The newspaper La Suisse reported that other French patriots surrounded Grenoble, in southern France, and placed it under siege, but there is no confirmation of this action.

Still other reports of open fighting north of Ain and Saône-et-Loire Departments, in the Vosges Forest, where patriots contacted a German unit of 2,000 men and took 300 prisoners, were received by Free French circles.

Among smaller-scale actions reported was that of a guerrilla attack against a German detachment in Brittany where 20 Germans were killed and war materiel was captured.

Free French London headquarters tonight reported destruction of 50 railway engines in the Saône-et-Loire Department, which contains the Le Creusot Armament Works, and such extensive damage to transformers in the region of Lunéville that factories there will be forced to operate on one-third of their usual electrical power for two months.

Refugees returning

These reports coincided with Berne dispatches indicating that many Frenchmen who sought refuge in Swiss territory had returned to Maquis – the French “bushwhackers” of Upper Savoy Province – and that the original sabotage army had been increased “manifold” because Allied landings encouraged previously timid civilians to join clandestine work called for by Gen. Eisenhower to impede the Germans.

A German report repeated that the Allies are parachuting pigeons to the French so that they can send back valuable information, and a Madrid news dispatch to London said that the Germans are offering a 2,000-franc reward for each Allied pigeon captured.

Transocean reported that 25,000 British Union Jack flags have been discovered in Paris.

Vichy radio said all militiamen in the region had been called to active duty. Radio Paris announced drastic suppression of telegraphic communication in a large region of France, the Germans announced that Frenchmen violating stringent emergency decrees would be shot on the spot and the Laval Cabinet dissolved the French Youth Organization to enroll members in the German Labor Corps.

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121

Brooklynite swims 200 yards to land under German fire

A Brooklynite’s grim story of swimming 200 yards to the invasion coast of France in the first wave, under constant heavy fire, was related yesterday in a rebroadcast interview conducted by NBC’s George Hicks in London.

Frances James Agusta, gunner’s mate on a small landing craft, described “heavy casualties” as the personnel in the boat swam to shore with “many being hit while in the water.” Most of the fire was from artillery pieces, he said, with the rest being machine-gun fire.

Agusta declared:

The wounded do not cry or moan. They sit there and try to hold what part of them is wounded. The rest of the landing force continue on the job and leave the casualties for the medical corpsmen.

Asked what the major landing problems were, he stressed minefields which had not been cleared and the heavy tides. His grueling experiences found him in the water three hours.

Agusta concluded:

I’m a little tired, have swallowed some oil and was a bit scared. Otherwise, I’m all right.

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122

Beattie: Showdown battle in France may knock Nazis out of war

Reporter reviews the invasion
By Edward W. Beattie

EDITOR’S NOTE: Edward W. Beattie, in charge of the United Press staff at Allied Supreme Headquarters and a veteran military reporter, has filed the following “balance sheet” on the first five days of fighting in the invasion. He obtained his information from land, sea and air officers who are in close touch with the situation at SHAEF.

London, England (UP) – (June 10)
The Allies are working under a specific plan in their invasion of the Norman coast and that plan has two limits – maximum success and minimum success.

In five days of fighting, they have neither achieved maximum success nor have the Germans been able to confine them to the minimum requirements of the time table. In other words, there have been both triumphs unci disappointments.

Surprise achieved

Military observers here believe that, as of tonight, the following are the outstanding accomplished and potential developments of the battle of Normandy:

  • The Allies achieved a measure of tactical surprise, threw the Germans off balance temporarily on Tuesday morning and secured beachheads before a strong counterattack could be started.

  • The Germans are attempting desperately to cling to their stronghold of Caen and to protect the big port of Cherbourg through which the Allies could funnel reinforcements and heavy equipment.

  • The enemy now has ten divisions deployed tor frontline action with few more held in close reserve.

  • The showdown battle is still to come. When it comes, in the opinion of some military experts, the Allies may be able, by winning decisively, to knock Germany out of the war before any Allied soldier sets foot on the soil of the Reich.

Disappointment to Nazis

It’s safe to say that the five days have been a big disappointment to the German High Command, which counted on the beach defenses to cut the invading force to shreds or – at the very worst – upon quick, heavy counterattacks to obliterate it on chosen battlegrounds behind the beaches.

The Germans failed at both stages and with Allied sea and airpower behind it, the invading army should be able to hold what it has won.

That much I am permitted to tell you after soliciting the assistance of the most authentic sources of information on the progress of the Normandy campaign at Gen. Eisenhower’s headquarters.

The tactics of Marshal Erwin Rommel show that he thinks our initial effort threatens: his dispositions indicate he believes that we threaten firstly the port of Cherbourg, secondly Rouen, on the road to Paris.

Allies prove power

We have already proved our ability to crack the outer defense line. We’re now in process of proving that our forces have the ability to hold their gains in the face of heavy counterattacks. Our advance has been made despite the handicap of bad weather, which delayed supporting operations by sea and in the air. With clearing weather, our advantages in these respects should begin to bear weight.

This will help when we meet the counterattack of Rommel’s ten identified divisions along the road to Paris, probably within the next week.

Rommel and his supreme commander, Marshal von Rundstedt, will be afraid to commit themselves too heavily to this battle because they do not know yet where, when and at what strength the Allies plan other assaults on the continent.

Decisive battle forecast

The final showdown will probably come when both sides are fully deployed – and this deployment will not come until the grand strategy worked by the Allied Combined Chief of Staffs has been unfolded. The initiative is now ours.

When Rundstedt is forced to throw in his strategic reserve, the Allies will have their chance to win the showdown battle. This certainly will be before the end of summer, probably in late July. By that time, the Red Army should be hitting Fortress Europe from the east with the greatest concentration of fighting men ever thrown into action.

The opinion of many observers here that a clear-cut victory on some French battlefield would end the war against Germany before the Rhine had been crossed depends on many factors, such as the progress of the Russians, progress of the drive up Italy, the growing power of air attack and the political state of Hitler’s satellite coalition.

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123

Munro: Shorty’s ‘Honey’ tank invades Kraut camp

By Ross Munro

With the Canadians in France (UP) – (June 9, delayed)
They had practically written off the “Honey” tank, with its crew, when “Shorty” drove it back into camp.

Only one gun was working, there were bullet holes through some of the lighter armor and the turret and the hull had been scorched with grenade and shell blasts.

But trooper J. C. “Shorty” Mackensie of Rouyn-Noranda, Québec, the driver, climbed from the bow turret with his face smoked as black as a minstrel’s, and told me this story of a wild night foray into German lines on the perimeter of the beachhead.

Roar through main street

He said:

We are way out in front, with our Shermans, making reconnaissance. We come to a town, so we button down our turrets and belt right through the main street wide open, with Jerries bouncing grenades off us.

This sturdy little former miner said that with him in the tank were trooper Harry “Happy” Webb of Welland, Ontario; trooper Wilfred “Bing” Miller of Walkerton, Ontario, and a sergeant who doesn’t want to be named but who fought in tanks in Italy for three months and knows his way around.

Shorty continued:

An 88 opens up on us, so I zigzag our Honey around through a field. The fourth shot is so close it rocks us and the fifth nearly gets us. But we breeze off and whoop down a road.

And there we are, breezing right along, see, when we run right into a Jerry camp. There is a barrier over the road, so I swing Honey around and beat it back, with Jerries leaping out of bushes and ditches to heave grenades at us.

Nazis beaten off

They smack us with machine guns and swarm all around us a couple of times. We beat them off with our guns, but these slowly go out of action and it isn’t very long out of action and it isn’t very long before we have only a revolver and one machine gun left. It looks pretty bad.

Mackenzie said that just about then, it got dark:

So we get outta that tight spot and go off into the fields, flat out, until I guess we’re about half a mile or so from the Jerry camp. Then we decide to bed down alongside the tank for the night – a fellow’s got to sleep sometime.

A German patrol found them a short time later, the trooper related, and the sergeant challenged the Jerries.

He explained:

But there weren’t no answer. We didn’t shoot and they didn’t either. The Jerry patrol commander just stands there with his men behind him and looks, then went away. We thought we were going to get it for sure then, but, instead, we get some sleep.

When it gets light, we come back to our outfit, and were our guys surprised to see us show up! That sure was a night.

Gorrell: Grenades smoke out Nazi nest and paratrooper lets ‘em have it

By Henry T. Gorrell

With U.S. airborne troops, somewhere in France (UP) – (June 10)
They shot one of my mates in the leg. I smoked them out of their nest with grenades and let them have it one by one with phosphorus bombs. The speaker was Pvt. Charles E. McGary of Paducah, Kentucky. He had just exchanged his drenched clothing for a German jacket and a French farmer’s pants.

James H. Talley of Texarkana, Texas, said:

I was deep in the swamp and saw a German sniper sloshing down the road shooting. I bumped him off and then three more came up looking for me with rifles. Then one was hit by shrapnel – the other two plunged into the water and came toward me crying “Kamarad!”

For two hours, the little group of paratroops had been fighting through a backcountry swamp dotted with enemy gun positions. They were equipped with nothing heavier than rifles. Their own naval shrapnel as well as German machine-gun bullets buzzed all around. First, they had stormed an 88mm gun post and annihilated its crew. Then they took on one machine gun next after another, systematically cleaning them out with grenades and knives.

Now wet and muddy, they were resting under some apple trees, cleaning their pistols, bayonets and clothes. They were telling me all about it.

Pvt. Arthur Boyung of Milwaukee said:

In some cases, the Germans were so scared they wouldn’t come out even though they could see we were going to blow them up. We didn’t have time to argue, so the Germans went up with their own guns.

Donald McFarland of Alameda, California, told me he and three other paratroopers rushed one machine-gun nest and killed five Germans without receiving a scratch.

Then, Pvt. Francis M. Jirinee of Springfield, Ohio, held out a German canteen:

I took a sip. It wasn’t water; it was the most powerful applejack I have ever tasted.

“There’s plenty more in that barn back there,” Jirinee said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. He mentioned something about some bodies being there, too.

The little group had started the day as members of several different units. Coming together under the avalanche of shells and shrapnel in the swamp, they had decided to stick it out as buddies the rest of the way.

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124

Editorial: Our operations in France reflect wise leadership

It is not immodest or chauvinistic to say that the part Americans played in the landing on Normandy’s coast reflected the greatness of the nation and the vision, the wisdom and courage of its leadership. That memorable incident cannot be detached from the history of the past and considered as an event of a day. It was the culmination of a great deal of labor, mixed with purpose and vision, of conferences and plans, of determination and of a sustaining faith in the ultimate triumph of a cause and an ideal.

If a number of things had not happened and policies had not been initiated years ago, before Pearl Harbor but while war loomed as a certainty in the eyes of all but those who would not see, Allied troops would not now be on the soil of France and victory and peace would be more distant prospects.

The time of decision is brought closer simply because the obstructive tactics of isolationists were not permitted to prevail and the nation began to prepare for a challenge which from the beginning was inevitable.

Even before Pearl Harbor, the United States, through the operation of Lend-Lease, was sustaining hard-pressed potential allies. The exchange of destroyers for Atlantic bases was an aid to Britain in desperate hours when the U-boat was rampant. The building up of the Army and Navy and the adoption of Selective Service, a politically unpopular move under the existing circumstances, have been factors in placing in the field a great army of millions, perfectly trained and equipped, and capable of holding its own and even mastering the armies of the world’s most traditionally militaristic nation.

The task of placing an army of hundreds of thousands of men on the Normandy shore and supporting it with 4,000 ships and some 11,000 planes, while at the same time carrying on a war in the Pacific and a campaign in Italy, really began nearly five years ago, when German panzer divisions crashed over the frontier of Poland and it became apparent that marauders were again on the loose.

In the face of bitter opposition from some of the less realistic elements of Congress and from other quarters, the preparation went forward, while America-Firsters, political demagogues and some sincere but deluded lovers of peace raised their voices in angry protest. Finally, of course, the tragedy of Pearl Harbor revealed strikingly the justification for every move that had been made. And then, in the course of a short time, a navy that lay at the bottom of Pearl Harbor was dominating the North and South Pacific and making the Atlantic as safe for transports as a ferry trip across the Hudson, and a great army was being whipped into shape and industry was accomplishing miracles of production.

Now, deep in crisis, it is possible to report that everything is proceeding according to plan, a plan vaguely conceived some years ago when Hitler loomed large on the horizon and it became clear that democracy would have to fight in order to survive, a plan refined and perfected in Washington and Casablanca, Québec and Tehran, a plan into whose formulation and fulfilment many elements of greatness have entered.

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125

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 11, 1944)

Communiqué No. 12

Good progress has been made on the right. Our troops are now fighting in the outskirts of MONTEBOURG. To the southwest of the town, we have held enemy counterattacks attempting to stop our advance west of the main CHERBOURG railway.

U.S. troops have liberated LISON and have advanced several miles southward on a broad front. In the vicinity of TILLY-SUR-SEULLES there is heavy fighting. The enemy has strong armored forces in this area and is stubbornly resisting our advance along the river SEULLES. A particularly effective bombardment was carried out in this area by HMS ARGONAUT (Capt. E. W. L. Longley-Cook, CBE RN) and HMS ORION (Capt. J.P. Gornall, RN).

Allied warships also gave support to the armies yesterday by bombarding mobile batteries and enemy concentrations.

This morning, the Allied Air Forces continued their supporting operations in spite of adverse weather. Strong forces of heavy day bombers attacked airfields, bridges, gun positions, and other targets ranging from the battle are to the vicinity of PARIS. Objectives in the PAS DE CALAIS were also bombed. They were escorted by a strong force of fighters which attacked enemy tanks and lines of communication.

Medium bombers, fighter-bombers and fighters attacked many targets behind the battle area including two railway bridges over the river VIRE, military trains, railway sheds and yards, armored cars, and troop concentrations. Fighters maintained patrols over the battle area and shipping into the Channel. There was little enemy opposition in the air, though intense flak was met at some points.

Seaborne supplies are arriving at a satisfactory rate.

Enemy E-boats were active again during the night and a number of brisk gun actions ensued during which one of the enemy was destroyed. Several of the enemy were damaged by gunfire before they evaded the pursuit. Early this morning, our coastal aircraft attacked enemy E-boats off OSTEND and left two of them on fire.

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126

Völkischer Beobachter (June 12, 1944)

Fahrplan des Gegners in Unordnung –
Weiterer Aderlaß der Invasionsflotte

Verlegenes Verschweigen der schweren Verluste

vb. Berlin, 11. Juni –
Aus den verbissenen Bemühungen der englisch-amerikanischen Invasionstruppen an der Küste der Normandie ergibt sich immer wieder, daß es dem Feinde auf die Gewinnung des großen Hafens Cherbourg in erster Linie ankommt. Sein Besitz würde eine kürzere und leistungsfähigere Nachschubverbindung mit England bedeuten, aber dies ist dem Feinde durch den hartnäckigen deutschen Widerstand verwehrt geblieben. Daher muß der Nachschub der Invasoren weiterhin an die offene Küste des westlichen Teils des Departements Calvados und des südöstlichen Teils der Halbinsel Cotentin gelegt werden, wo es der Gegner bisher nicht fertigbringen konnte, wesentlich über den Feuerbereich der 38-Zentimeter- und 40,6-Zentimeter-Geschütze seiner Schlachtschiffe und Monitoren hinauszugelangen. Umso empfindlicher treffen den Feind die Verluste, die seine Nachschubtruppen auf See erleiden. Diese Verluste wachsen sich, wie der Wehrmachtbericht vom Sonntag zeigt, zu einem dauernden empfindlichen Aderlaß an der feindlichen Invasionsfront aus.

Konnte am Samstag außer den bedeutenden Erfolgen der deutschen Minensperren die Versenkung von 53.000 BRT an größeren feindlichen Schiffen sowie zahlreichen kleinen Landungsfahrzeugen durch Angriffe deutscher See- und Luftstreitkräfte sowie Küstenbatterien in den ersten vier Invasionstagen gemeldet werden, so sind innerhalb von 24 Stunden bereits weitere 33.000 BRT hinzugekommen. Dabei ist von den feindlichen Verlusten an Kriegsschiffen noch abgesehen. Aus den Gefechtsmeldungen ergibt sich, daß es sich bei den Versenkungen feindlicher Nachschubfahrzeuge nicht nur um besonders gebaute Landungsschiffe handelt, die unmittelbar am Strande mit Hilfe von Landeklappen entladen werden können, sondern auch um Transportdampfer aus der Handelsflotte. So befindet sich unter der Beute der deutschen Kampfflugzeuge ein Fahrgastschiff von 9.000 BRT und unter der Schnellbootsbeute ein Fährschiff von 5.000 BRT. Raumgehalt.

Offensichtlich ist der Feind dazu übergegangen, die größeren Transporte, für deren Einsatz der US-General Eisenhower schon die Entladekais der Häfen Cherbourg oder auch Le Havre zu besitzen hoffte, notgedrungen bereits jetzt zum Nachschub an die offene Küste zu benützen, wo sie nur durch die Zwischenschaltung kleinerer Landungsfahrzeuge entladen werden können. Der versenkte Fährdampfer war eines jener Schiffe des Kanaldienstes der Friedenszeit, die inzwischen zur Beförderung zahlreicher kleiner Landungsboote eingerichtet worden sind. Sein Untergang durch Torpedoschüsse deutscher Schnellboote ist deshalb eine besonders fühlbare Einbuße des Schiffsraumes, den der Feind für den ersten Abschnitt der Invasion bereitgestellt hat und Jessen Auffüllung aus dem Tonnagebestand für mögliche weitere Pläne es natürlich vermeiden möchte.

Es war angesichts dieser Sachlage zu erwarten, daß die Kämpfe auf See vor der Invasionsküste an Härte außerordentlich zunehmen würden, wie es jetzt im Wehrmachtbericht hervorgehoben worden ist. Am ersten Tage schrieb die Londoner Presse selbstgefällig, daß der Einsatz feindlicher schwerer Seestreitkräfte, die in den verhältnismäßig flachen Kanalgewässern vor der U-Boot-Gefahr geschützt und außerdem durch einen starken Luftschirm gesichert seien, die deutschen leichten Seestreitkräfte „einfach beiseite fegen“ müßten. Auch in diesem Teil ist der Invasionsfahrplan der Engländer und Amerikaner in Unordnung geraten. Denn die im Feuer jahrelanger Kanalgefechte gehärteten deutschen Seeleute haben sich auch durch das Massenaufgebot großer feindlicher Kriegsschiffe nicht erschüttern lassen. Schon in der ersten Nacht standen deutsche Torpedoboote und Vorpostenboote furchtlos im Feuer schwerster Schiffsgeschütze und führten die ihnen gestellten Aufgaben durch. Seitdem sind deutsche Zerstörer, Torpedoboote, Schnellboote, Räumboote, Vorpostenboote usw. Nacht für Nacht im Kanal am Feind gewesen, der für seine Transporte möglichst den Schutz der Dunkelheit und noch dazu des künstlichen Nebels benutzt. Sie haben ihm in erbitterten Kämpfen schwere Schäden zugefügt.

Wie empfindlich der englische Seebefehlshaber an der Invasionsfront, Admiral Ramsay, auf diese Angriffserfolge deutscher leichter Seestreitkräfte reagiert hat, beweist die erkennbare Verstärkung der feindlichen Nachschubsicherung, besonders durch Zerstörer, Fregatten und Korvetten. Es sind die gleichen schnellen Geleitfahrzeuge, die der Feind auch bei dem Schutz seiner Geleitzüge auf dem Atlantik für Nachschub aus Amerika nicht entbehren kann, übrigens hat, wie der Wehrmachtbericht vom Sonntag meldete, ein deutsches Unterseeboot vor der Westküste der Bretagne, also am Westausgang des Kanals, aus einem feindlichen Sicherungsverband einen Zerstörer herausgeschossen. Zur gleichen Zeit ist die englisch-amerikanische Flotte bestrebt, auch weit links und rechts von der jetzigen Invasionsküste die deutschen leichten Seestreitkräfte in anderen Seegebieten zu fesseln.

Dies erwiesen die See- und Luftgefechte im Norden der Biskaya ebenso wie die Vorstöße feindlicher Schnellboote im Raum vor der belgisch-holländischen Küste, wo bei Ymuiden deutsche Schnellboote angegriffen wurden, und neuerdings auch in der äußeren Deutschen Bucht, wo ein feindliches Schnellboot den Untergang im deutschen Feuer fand.

Mit welcher Erbitterung die Seekämpfe im Kanal geführt werden, geht daraus hervor, daß die deutschen leichten Seestreitkräfte bei ihrer Bekämpfung des feindlichen Nachschubs mitunter bis fast auf Steinwurfweite in Gefechtsberührung mit dem Feinde kommen. Dieser unerhörte Angriffsschneid gegen einen materiell weit überlegenen Feind bleibt, wie der am Samstagabend vom Oberkommando der Wehrmacht mitgeteilte Untergang von einem Zerstörer und drei Vorpostenbooten verdeutlicht, nicht ohne Verluste auf unserer Seite. Aber er verbürgt auch die bedeutenden Versenkungserfolge gegen die Invasionsflotte und ihren Nachschub. Während jedoch die deutsche Kriegsmarine ihre Verluste in den Kanalkämpfen in aller Offenheit behandelt, schweigt die englische Admiralität bezeichnenderweise weiterhin völlig über die immer zahlreicher werdenden Schiffsverluste der Invasionsflotte, die durch deutsche Torpedos, Granaten, Minen und Bomben mit vielen Tausenden von Soldaten und Hunderten von Panzern und anderen schweren Waffen auf den Meeresgrund versenkt worden sind. Diese feindlichen Schiffsverluste, die das Invasionsprogramm sichtlich behindern, werden sich auf die Dauer nicht verheimlichen lassen. Beispielsweise ist bereits in Stockholm aus Kreisen norwegischer Emigranten bekannt geworden, daß in der Nacht der ersten Landung unter anderen ein mit norwegischen Marinesöldnern Englands bemannter Zerstörer untergegangen ist. Er wurde, wie es heißt, von einem Torpedo oder einer Mine mittschiffs getroffen und explodierte sofort.

Die Schiffsverluste der Invasoren durch deutsche Minensperren sind ein Kapitel, das der Feind, weil sie sich natürlich meist außer Sicht deutscher Streitkräfte vollziehen, besonders in Dunkel zu hüllen versucht. Aber in den ersten feindlichen Augenzeugenberichten wurde fast regelmäßig davon erzählt, daß Schiffe der Invasionsflotte durch deutsche Minen in die Luft flogen. Inzwischen hat Eisenhower solche Berichte vollständig verboten. Die Zusammenfassung des deutschen Wehrmachtberichts vom Samstag, wonach mindestens 20 größere und mittlere Einheiten des Feindes und zahlreiche kleine Landungsboote durch deutsche Minensperren gesunken sind, bleibt daher sicherlich hinter der wirklichen Höhe der feindlichen Minenverluste noch erheblich zurück. Der Minenkrieg hatte in den letzten Wochen vor der Invasion im Kanal bereits ein besonderes Ausmaß erreicht. Der Feind mußte nach eigenem Geständnis eine Anzahl von Minensuchfahrzeugen vor der schmalen Invasionsküste einsetzen und, wie das vom Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gemeldete Gefecht schwerer Küstenbatterien mit feindlichen Minensuchverbänden vor der Halbinsel Cherbourg zeigt, ist auch dieses Kapitel des Seekrieges vor der Invasionsküste keineswegs abgeschlossen.

Als erste Kämpfer auf See an der Invasionsfront haben, wie berichtet, Korvettenkapitän Hoffmann, Chef einer Torpedobootflottille, als erprobter Führer bei Torpedoangriffen und Minenunternehmungen gegen den Feind, sowie der Korvettenkapitän der Reserve Rail, Chef einer der zähesten unserer Vorpostenflottillen, vom Führer das Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes erhalten. In diesen Flottenchefs sind alle die unbekannten Seekrieger der Kanalfront ausgezeichnet worden, die sich seit 1940 in dauernden Kämpfen mit feindlichen See- und Luftstreitkräften bewährt haben und nun aus den leichten Seestreitkräften vor der Invasionsküste noch größere Leistungen herausholen, um das bitter ernste Ringen der Kameraden an Land gegen die englisch-amerikanische Aggressionsarmee mit allen Kräften zu unterstützen.

ERICH GLODSCHEY

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Was Berichterstatter der Gegenseite melden –
In der Hölle der Invasionskämpfe

Stockholm, 11. Juni –
Die anglo-amerikanischen Berichterstatter können nicht umhin, auch weiterhin die außerordentlich schweren Verluste der Invasionstruppen zu betonen. Der mit den ersten britischen Fallschirmjägern abgesprungene Kriegsberichterstatter des Daily Sketch schreibt: „Mörserfeuer, Maschinengewehre und die Kugeln von deutschen Scharfschützen machen meine Nachbarschaft so unsicher, daß ich keinen wohlformulierten Bericht abfassen kann.“ Nach dem Absprung sei er in einem Obstgarten gelandet und habe dort die Überreste des Mannes, der vor ihm den Sprung in die Tiefe wagte, von den Deutschen zerschossen in den Bäumen hängen gesehen.

Der englische Korrespondent schildert dann, wie er selbst nach einigem Bemühen den Anschluß an die Trümmer seiner Abteilung gefunden habe und diese dann gegen Morgen und seitdem ununterbrochen unter schweres deutsches Feuer genommen wurde. Einige Häuser hätten die Briten besetzt gehabt, doch sei es jedesmal ein Wettrennen mit dem Tode gewesen, wenn man zur Nachbarschaft hinüberwechseln mußte. Um die immer enger werdende Stellung herum hätten deutsche Scharfschützen in den Bäumen gesessen und auf jede Bewegung mit gutgezielten Schüssen reagiert. Patrouillen, die die arg beengten Fallschirmjäger ausschickten, um diese Scharfschützen zum Schweigen zu bringen, seien, ohne ihre Aufgabe erfüllt zu haben, zurückgekehrt, denn es war zu schwer, sie ausfindig zu machen und noch schwerer, sie zu töten. Jede umliegende Straße sei unpassierbar gewesen, während das Fallschirmjägerbataillon immer mehr unter den ständigen Gegenangriffen der Deutschen zusammenschrumpfte. Nur dadurch, daß immer neue Absprünge erfolgten, habe man die Stellung zunächst halten können.

News Chronicle stellt fest, daß die Anglo-Amerikaner größte Opfer bringen müßten. Die ersten Angriffstruppen, die den Strand zu stürmen versuchten, seien unter dem fortgesetzten deutschen Kreuzfeuer zusammengebrochen. Neue Truppen habe man in den Kampf werfen müssen, die über die Leichen hinwegstiegen. Die Deutschen hätten eine furchtbare Feuerwalze auf den Strand gelegt, und zwar nicht nur mit Maschinengewehren, sondern auch mit Schnellfeuerkanonen. Sehr schwere Verluste hätten die Amerikaner an einigen Küstenstellen erlitten. Die Deutschen hätten die Landungsfahrzeuge sofort unter Beschuß genommen, ehe sich noch ihre Falltüren öffneten. „Deshalb zweifle ich daran,“ so meint der Korrespondent, „daß die Deutschen von uns überrascht wurden.“

Das ganze Schauspiel, das sich dem Beobachter an der nordfranzösischen Küste bot, sei unglaublich gewesen. Nicht nur viele Tote und Verwundete habe man gesehen, sondern auch Schiffe, die brannten, andere, die sanken, und mit allem möglichen schweren Kriegsgerät voll beladene Landungsfahrzeuge, die auf der stürmischen See herumtrieben. Leichen schwämmen auf dem Wasser und über der ganzen Szene habe eine dichte, schwere Rauchwolke gelegen. In der Hölle könne es nicht schlimmer sein.

Daily Mail bringt einen Bericht aus einem südenglischen Invasionslazarett. Die meisten Insassen seien schwer verwundet gewesen. Bei vielen von ihnen habe man nur Augen und Mund aus den Verbänden hervorschauen sehen. Diejenigen, die noch sprechen konnten, hätten gesagt, es sei ein wahres Wunder, daß sie überhaupt zurückkamen. Einige unter ihnen hätten nicht einmal französischen Boden betreten, geschweige denn irgendetwas Genaues von der Invasion gesehen, als es sie auch schon getroffen hat. Einer bemerkte:

Überall um uns herum schlugen Geschosse und Maschinengewehrgarben ein. Es war die Hölle los. Auch Opfer der Kraftwagenunfälle, die sich in den nervösen Stunden kurz vor Beginn der Invasion noch in England selbst ereigneten, hätten sich in diesem Hospital befunden.

Ein anderer Amerikaner, der mit den US-Luftlandetruppen nach Frankreich kam, erklärte, daß er als Kriegskorrespondent trotz langer Erfahrung niemals etwas Ähnliches erlebt habe. Die auf französischem Boden stattfindenden Kämpfe suchten an Heftigkeit und Blutigkeit ihresgleichen. Ohne Schlaf und ohne Ruhe kämpften die anglo-amerikanischen Soldaten mit dem Mut der Verzweiflung unter Umständen, die den kaltblütigsten Menschen zum Zusammenbruch bringen könnten. Die gelandeten Truppen hätten noch keinen Augenblick Ruhe gehabt. Die deutsche Abwehr sei hart, und wiederholt hätten die amerikanischen Luftlandetruppen nur unter Aufbietung ihrer äußersten Kraft der Vernichtung entgehen können.

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Auch im Invasionsraum Idealismus dem Materialismus überlegen –
SS-Panzerdivision ‚Hitler-Jugend‘ bewährt sich

Vom entschlossenen Einsatz der SS-Panzerdivision „Hitler-Jugend“ im Kampf gegen die Aggressoren im Invasionsraum, gibt folgender Bericht eines Kriegsberichterstatters dieser Division ein höchst anschauliches Bild. Der hier waltende Geist unserer jüngsten Kriegsgeneration wird sich stets dem anglo-amerikanischen Materialismus überlegen zeigen und verbürgt zusammen mit dem gleichen Geist, der das gesamtdeutsche soldatische Geschlecht beseelt, mit unerschütterlicher Gewißheit den deutschen Sieg.

Das Ergebnis der ersten Tage des Kampfes gegen die Aggressoren hat deutlich gezeigt, daß die Härte auf unserer Seite ist. Die jungen Kriegsfreiwilligen der SS-Panzerdivision „Hitler-Jugend,“ die sich im rasenden Anlauf auf den Gegner geworfen haben, zeigten schon in den ersten achtundvierzig Stunden zahllose Beispiele einer überlegenen Haltung und Tapferkeit, die mit den schwierigsten Lagen fertig wird. Dreißig junge Soldaten (beispielsweise) mit ebenso vielen Gefangenen, die sie eisern festhielten, verteidigten sich über vierundzwanzig Stunden, und jedesmal, wenn die Munition knapp wurde, schlichen sich zwei wie die Indianer durch die Reihen der Engländer, um ihren Stützpunkt neu mit Munition zu versehen. In später Nachtstunde setzte der Kommandeur einige Panzer in Marsch, um die Zurückkehrenden wieder hereinzuholen. Eine Gruppe von zwölf anderen jungen Soldaten, in Gefangenschaft geraten, nutzte die Verwirrung eines deutschen Artillerieüberfalls aus, ging ihre Bewachung mit den bloßen Fäusten an und kam zurück, zornig allein darüber, daß sie ihre Gewehre drüben lassen mußte.

Ein verwundeter Kommandeur führte Seine Abteilung weiter, und es ist dies dieselbe Haltung, die jenen vor Tagen schon durch Tieffliegerangriff verwundeten Kompaniechef aus dem Lazarett ausbrechen ließ, um seine Panzer wieder zu übernehmen.

Hier zeigt sich eine Gesinnung, der die Anglo-Amerikaner nicht mit ihren Luftgeschwadern beikommen können. Kompanieweise und zu hunderten haben sich die Kanadier schließlich ergeben, willenlos auf ein Schlachtfeld getrieben, das für sie den Tod bedeutet. In langen Kolonnen marschieren sie nun über die französischen Straßen. Sie hatten ihre Löhnung schon in großen Francscheinen in der Tasche, die sie nun auf den Tisch werfen. Einige von ihnen lachen, weil sie das Gefühl haben, den Krieg auf die für sie persönlich beste Weise beendet zu haben.

In nächtlichem Panzervorstoß wurden weitere Dörfer genommen. Im Feuer der brennenden Häuser sieht man die flüchtenden Kanadier. Unerbittlich werden sie gejagt. Der Schrecken der Nacht hat sie befallen, das Entsetzen vor einer Gewalt, die sie unaufhörlich und ohne Gnade treibt. Im erbarmungslosen Straßenkampf, im Handgemenge messen sich die Gegner, die jungen Soldaten, fechten den Kampf ihres Lebens. Sie fühlen ihre Überlegenheit, die Gerechtigkeit ihres inneren Auftrags und genießen ihre ersten Siege. Verzweifelt wehren sich die Kanadier und ergeben sich, unfähig, die erste erbitterte Phase zu überstehen. Gewohnt, nur unter dem Schutze gewaltig überlegener technischer Mittel zu kämpfen, gleichsam als Aufräumer des Schlachtfeldes dann erst in Erscheinung zu treten, halten sie den Kampf Mann gegen Mann nicht aus.

In unseren Gefechtsständen herrscht kühle und gelassene Ruhe. Seit Tagen ohne Schlaf, beugt sich der Kommandeur über die Karte. Er trägt in sich die absolute Ruhe des erfahrenen Ostkämpfers mit der blitzschnellen, überlegenen Führungskunst, die mehr kennt als taktische Grundsätze, die sich auf jenem Kriegsinstinkt verläßt, der, aus zahllosen Erfahrungen zusammengeflossen, zu einer besonderen Begabung wurde. In tödlicher Logik reihen sich die Befehle zu einem lückenlosen Netz, in dem sich die Engländer verfangen müssen. Keinen Blick wirft man zum Himmel, kein Ohr hat man für das Dröhnen der Flugzeuge, keine Nervosität beeinträchtigt die ununterbrochene Arbeit an den Kartenbrettern. Im Anblick der Soldaten, deren Durchschnittsalter Jugend bedeutet, die eine Kriegsgeneration darstellt, in der sich die politische Überzeugung sozusagen in die militärische Form gewandelt hat, im Anblick der Kommandeure, die mit eiskalter Ruhe ihre Anordnungen treffen, gibt es keinen anderen Glauben als den: den neuen Weltkrieg total für Deutschland zu entscheiden.

Bomben auf eigene Fallschirmjäger

An der Kanalküste, 11. Juni –
pk. Der Küstenstrich östlich der Ornemündung ist feindfrei, und auch die Stützpunkte im rückwärtigen Gebiet dieses Abschnitts sind freigekämpft. Der Feind ist nach Westen über die Orne zurückgedrängt. Andere Feindkräfte sind in einem Waldgebiet zwischen den Unterläufen der Orne und des Dives eingeschlossen. Die noch kämpfenden Feindverbände östlich der Orne sind somit ohne Verbindung mit der Versorgungsflotte.

Bei Durchkämmung des Küstenhinterlandes stieß man auf eine Ferme, von der man wußte, daß wenige Stunden vorher in ihrer Umgebung starke Feindkräfte aus der Luft gelandet waren. Zur gleichen Stunde, als die Fallschirmjäger auf die Ferme niedergingen, konnte auch beobachtet werden, wie ein feindlicher Bomberverband auf dieses Bauerngehöft und seine Umgebung einen Bombenteppich legte. Den deutschen Soldaten bot sich ein schauriges Bild.

Die feindlichen Fallschirmjäger mußten zur selben Minute, als die 80 bis 100 Bomben auf engem Raum explodierten, den Boden erreicht haben. Viele von ihnen hingen noch an Ihren Fallschirmen und waren bereits in der Luft durch Bombensplitter getötet worden. Die meisten Fallschirmjäger aber waren in Stücke zerrissen und unkenntlich geworden. An einzelnen Leichen konnte man die gelben Fliegererkennungstücher feststellen. Sie hatten die Briten vor ihren eigenen Bomben nicht schützen können. Die Stunden später abgeworfenen Versorgungsbomben konnten ebenfalls keinem von ihnen mehr helfen.

Kriegsberichter ERWIN SPECK

129

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 12, 1944)

Communique No. 13

The U.S. advance east of the VIRE River was continued into the FORÊT DE CERISY.

In the CHERBOURG PENINSULA, enemy mobile batteries have been under a heavy fire from Allied warships, and some further progress has been made west of the inundated valley of the MERDERET River.

Intense fighting against German armor continues in the TILLY-SUR-SEULLES area.

Air operations were curtailed sharply after midday yesterday, when cloud and rain obscured much of the battle area.

After escorting heavy day bombers, our fighters joined fighter bombers and rocket-firing fighters in attacking oil tanks, rail centers, and road and rail traffic, including several hundred railroad cars, tanks and armored vehicles. From these operations, 24 aircraft, including three heavy bombers, are missing.

During the night, heavy bombers struck rail centers at NANTES, ÉVREUX and TOURS, and a railway bridge at MASSY-PALAISEAU south of PARIS.

Allied medium and light bombers and rocket-firing aircraft hammered rolling stock, a ferry terminal and road transport.

Intruder aircraft operated with success over enemy airfields in HOLLAND and FRANCE.

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The Brooklyn Eagle (June 12, 1944)

map.061244.up
Drive on Cherbourg: Allied troops moved a step closer to their coastal objective with the capture of Carentan (1). Meanwhile, a U.S. spearhead drove into the approaches to Saint-Lô (2) and British forces took a number of villages east of Caen (3) in a flanking movement. Bayeux has become the base for operations aimed at cutting off the Cherbourg Peninsula.

1,400 U.S. BOMBERS RIP FRENCH TARGETS
Record force hits bridges and airfields

Fortresses, Liberators escorted by huge armada of fighters

London, England (UP) –
More than 1,400 U.S. heavy bombers – the biggest force ever dispatched on a single mission – smashed at 16 German airfields and six bridges in France today to lead thousands of Allied planes supporting the invasion campaign in Normandy.

The record fleet of Flying Fortresses and Liberators was escorted by strong forces of Mustang, Lightning and Thunderbolt fighters comprising an armada of probably more than 2,150 planes.

Seven bombers and 14 fighters were missing, an announcement of the mission said. U.S. fighters shot down at least 17 German planes.

From daybreak until early evening, the skies over northern France were black with raiding fleets taking advantage of clearing weather to bring the full Allied aerial striking power to the support of embattled ground troops.

In the first 18 hours from midnight to 6:00 p.m., the combined air forces had flown some 6,000 sorties and it appeared certain they would top the 10,000 mark by tonight.

Plane pound troop columns

Fighters, fighter-bombers and giant four-engined U.S. bombers swarmed over the enemy wherever they found him. They hit his troop columns with blockbusters, rockets and machine-gun fire and they tore up his road lines and airdromes in one of the most savage tactical assaults of the war.

Almost 1,000 Flying Fortresses and Liberators, accompanied by about 750 U.S. fighters, split up into dozens of task forces to roam over a vast area of northern France, bombing 15 key fighter bases and the Rennes and Amiens railway junctions.

The escorting fighters, meeting only limited enemy fighter opposition, dive-bombed and machine-gunned Nazi airdromes and road lines.

By nightfall, official reports showed that nine Allied planes were lost, excluding U.S. heavies, whose losses were not immediately announced, and at least 21 enemy fighters were shot down.

The German DNB News Agency said violent air battles raged all across the invasion beachheads and asserted that German fighter-bombers attacked Allied tank columns around Caen.

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Armed French patriots battle against Germans in south

Half-million reported in uprisings

London, England (UP) –
Unprecedented uprisings were reported throughout France today in Spanish dispatches from the French frontier as German-controlled radio stations warned all patriots they would be shot and said that the big naval base of Toulon, on the southern coast, had been bombarded by Allied naval vessels.

The reputed attack on Toulon and claims of a subsequent naval engagement in which a British warship was set afire were broadcast by the Vichy radio.

Travelers reaching the Spanish border said approximately a half-million French patriots were taking part in the uprisings, particularly in the Tarbes and Toulouse areas in southwestern France, and had engaged German troops and French militiamen in bloody fights.

The patriots were said to be well armed, possibly with supplies and equipment dropped by parachute from the Allies.

Radio information obtained in Algiers from inside France said Grenoble, near the Italian border, had been isolated for the past two days by French resistance forces, and a Zürich dispatch to the London Daily Telegraph said the patriots were trying to storm the town.

Swiss dispatches to newspapers here also reported serious patriot attacks in the area near the Swiss border, where the Germans established martial law in the railroad center of Bellegarde and carried out mass arrests in Lyon after ousting the police force and bringing in another from Loire.

The same dispatches said that big guerrilla engagements were being fought near Saint-Hippolyte and that patriots had occupied Faucille Pass in Jura in a drive toward Pays de Gex.

Berne reports indicated the Germans were suffering heavy losses on the invasion front and had closed 40 theaters and movie houses in Paris for conversion into hospitals.

Berne also reported that all telephone and telegraph communications had been suspended throughout northern France, including the capital, where water and electricity were curtailed 15%.

132

McMillan: Tanks secondary to infantrymen who lead way

By Richard D. McMillan

With British forces in France (UP) –
“This is a new kind of fighting,” an infantry major told me today as I completed a dawn tour of the British fighting front south of the Bayeux-Caen road.

This country is so thickly wooded and cut up into so many hedge-rimmed meadows that it is necessary for the infantry to go in first and locate the German gun posts and snipers, after which the tanks open fire and clean out the pockets of resistance.

The days of “naval battles on land” according to the North African desert pattern, with fleets of tanks cruising freely and maneuvering for favorable position, are gone, I discovered. Here the tank is merely a mobile, protected cannon which waddles up and plugs a few heavy shells into the German nests when the infantry can’t get through.

Most of the fighting is being done in the country lanes and hedgerows where the British Tommies are learning to stalk the Hun like an American Indian. The trick is to make the German expose himself without getting killed yourself. Since the German only reveals his position when he shoots, this is a neat art.

Gorrell: U.S. troops hunt Nazis like dogs seeking rats

By Henry T. Gorrell

With U.S. assault troops outside Carentan, France (UP) – (June 11, delayed)
The Germans have thrown their most fanatical troops and one of their most fearsome weapons – a 32-centimeter, multiple-barreled rocket gun – into the defense of Carentan, but today U.S. assault troops were digging them out of their concrete pillboxes like terriers going in after rats.

This is a key town on the Cherbourg-Paris railroad and it controls floodgates affecting acres of lowlands across which Allied troops are fighting. Field Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt has garrisoned it with crack paratroopers, the same stripe of wild-eyed young Nazis who defended Cassino to the last ditch.

These paratroops rejected an ultimatum to surrender and now picked assault troops have gone in against their pillboxes. I watched doughboys going into the outskirts from a hilltop which I reached in a captured German caterpillar motorbike driven by Chaplain Raymond S. Half of Lynn, Massachusetts, who jumped with U.S. paratroopers on D-Day and has been up near the frontline ever since helping move out casualties under enemy fire.

German gunners cut loose

The Germans were firing from concrete pillboxes, often pinning the men down in ditches where the water was knee-high. To the murderous cackle of their pandaus, machine pistols and mortars was added the scream of the rocket gun. The projectiles came over with an unearthly scream and descended as though aimed at the back of your neck with a sound like a giant pig whistle.

After the Germans refused to surrender, artillery began to weed out their emplacements one by one. Carentan has been under siege since 1:00 p.m. Saturday when doughboys captured four bridges over canals on this side of Carentan.

Moving up toward this front, I watched a column of G.I.s marching in double file at each side of the road to meet the Germans. They moved past wrecks of German gun carriers in which the blasted bodies of the crews still sprawled grotesquely, past scores of dead German infantrymen lying at the roadside where they had fallen, with never a second look.

Their eyes were fixed forward – toward the battle – and their faces were grim with anticipation. A bunch of German rockets came over with an ungodly scream and my jangled nerves vibrated. But the plodding infantrymen didn’t seem to hear. They just marched along looking straight ahead. They’ve had so much noise out to them since D-Day that they’re immune to terror.

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Mobile secret weapon none other than Flak Happy jeep

With 9th Air Force TCC, France (UP) – (June 11, delayed)
A sentry called the sergeant of the guard on a beachhead northwest of Carentan and reported, “It looks like a secret weapon approaching.”

The sergeant looked and replied, “Let it pass, that’s a flak-happy jeep.”

Flak Happy, salvaged from wreckage, was the first jeep to gain renown among U.S. troops on the Cherbourg Peninsula.

When a glider flying troops and equipment behind the lines cracked up, the jeep was damaged so badly that ordnance men abandoned it, but it was repaired so well it provided transportation for 12 glider pilots back to the beachhead to be evacuated for further missions. Among them was Flight Officer B. Ripson of Hempstead, New York.

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134

The Free Lance-Star (June 12, 1944)

U.S. TROOPS 18 MILES DEEP IN FRANCE
Deep penetration made in center of beachhead; Cerisy Forest and Carentan taken

Germans still hold Caen; Cherbourg near isolation

SHAEF, England (AP) –
U.S. troops have driven 18 miles inland in the middle of the Normandy beachhead, capturing the whole forest of Cerisy, and the German High Command said today the strategic stronghold of Carentan had fallen to U.S. forces.

The smashing advance through the Cerisy Forest punched the deepest dent yet in the Nazi line.

Doughboys were converging on Saint-Lô, communications hub in the center of Normandy, less than nine miles away, from the north and east.

Headquarters did not confirm the fall of Carentan, guarding the narrowest neck of Cherbourg Peninsula, but said Americans were within 14 miles of Cherbourg itself from the southeast, and had punched halfway across the cape, threatening to seal off the tip.

German broadcasts said Caen, eastern bastion of the 60-mile-long front, was menaced by encirclement – with British troops slashing nine miles east of the city.

A front dispatch today said Caen had not yet been captured, although “a considerable German force has been brought to battle and hit hard.” Another story dated Sunday declared Allied troops pressed within a few miles of Caen “after blasting the Germans out of the town” late Friday. This suggested the Nazis had pulled back at least the main part of their armored force from the city.

Supreme Headquarters said further gains were made around Montebourg on the southeast avenue to Cherbourg, and reported “considerable progress” around Carentan, a vital junction.

The doughboys were cracking in the Cherbourg Peninsula Line in the center, and a Berlin broadcast reported seaborne forces had landed at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, 16 miles east of Cherbourg.

In the widening hole in the center of the beachhead to the southeast, Berlin said British formations were concentrating in the Balleroy area, 12 miles inland, flanking Cerisy Forest to the east, thus in position to aid the U.S. drive on Saint-Lô.

Headquarters said the beachhead front now had been lengthened to 60 miles, and said the German command had been forced to throw in reserves piecemeal, sapping potential strength from his anticipated major counterattack.

Naval guns cause evacuation

The Germans said Carentan, whose floodgates control the main peninsula water defense system, was evacuated in order to continue a stand on ground less exposed to allied naval guns.

As for Caen, German broadcasts said that the British drive has reached nearly to Troarn, nine miles east of that bastion, and that Allied parachutists had landed south of Caen. British troops were driving down west of Caen threatening the other flank. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel has mounted his fiercest armored counterattacks in this Caen sector, and Berlin said major British forces were concentrating for a full-fledged assault on the town.

As the U.S. frontal attack across the Merderet River on Cherbourg Peninsula reached within 12 miles of the West Coast roads – whose capture would seal off Cherbourg – Vichy radio said doughboys had pushed into Quinéville on the East Coast.

This would put Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s flank within 14 miles of Cherbourg on a four-mile front between Quinéville and Montebourg, where street fighting was reported.

The Germans, apparently reeling under the force of the first invasion week, said 300,000 to 400,000 Allied troops had already been poured into a mighty bridgehead flood and that these represented only a third of the amphibious assault forces poised in Britain to hammer home attacks against the continent.

The German radio declared:

The bulk of the huge forces of the 21st Amphibious Army Group is still standing by to pounce on some important harbor.

Report new landings

Continuing a stream of reports of new Allied landings, Berlin’s Transocean News Agency said seaborne forces had been put ashore at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue near the top of the peninsula and due east of Cherbourg yesterday.

The Germans said the Allies had crossed the Orne estuary, ferrying over tanks and threatening Caen, which Marshal Erwin Rommel by his counterattacks had made a testing point.

The crossing of the estuary forced the Germans to evacuate two towns before the Allied onslaught was checked near Troarn, by German account.

A breakthrough here would link up infantry with parachute troops which the Nazis said had landed in the Troarn area earlier.

Heightening of the prospect of encirclement of Caen was the German report of other parachute troop landings south of the town.

To the west, British troops were also flanking the town by a thrust through Tilly-sur-Seulles where armored columns were engaged in fierce combat.

Officials reports said only that British and Canadians were holding their own satisfactorily along the explosive Caen line, but field dispatches declared Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery had mounted a powerful encircling sweep, with the Allies driving ahead on both flanks around the town.

Nazis use reserves

Headquarters Communiqué No. 13, issued at 11:00 a.m., reported that intense fighting against German armored columns raged without respite in the Tilly-sur-Seulles area on the British sector of the front.

Field Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt was rushing reserves up from as far back as Paris to meet this mounting menace, but his new men and guns, and the roads over which they moved, were under bomb cannon, rocket and machine-gun fire of an Allied air armada which before noon had flown more sorties than all day yesterday.

Allied warships – among them the battleships USS Texas and Nevada and the cruisers USS Tuscaloosa and Quincy, and the British battleship HMS Warspite – hurled tons of explosives miles inland upon German guns which still were able to subject the invasion beachhead to sporadic fire.

The targets of the warships were principally the Nazis’ mobile guns, for by now virtually all fixed-position defense batteries were knocked out.

The invasion beachhead was regarded as secure and progress inland along the whole front, now roughly 55 miles wide, was viewed officially today with “sober satisfaction.”

The fight had reached the phase of exploiting the beachhead success and now, favored by the best weather since D-Day, the team of Gens. Montgomery and Bradley was expected to accelerate operations.

Strong attacking force

The German radio said Allied pressure northward along the canal from Caen to the Bay of the Seine had increased this morning.

It declared the Allies had thrown 20 regular divisions and four to five airborne divisions into their 55-mile front.

Ferry terminals at the mouth of the Seine were shot up by RAF rocket typhoons yesterday.

The Germans asserted their bouncers sank a 7,000-ton Allied troop transport in the Bay of the Seine and damaged another.

The German Air Force was little in evidence yesterday, but Allied planes had to cope with intense flak in many places.

An improvement in the weather, which permitted the RAF heavies to pound rail bottlenecks behind the German Western Front last night, gave the Allied air arm a field day over France.

Medium and fighter-bombers spread havoc among von Rundstedt’s concentrations and fighters were working so closely in contact with ground troops today that they were able to spray destruction into Nazi frontline strongpoints holding up sector advances.

Despite German claims of E-boat attacks on a powerful Allied convoy guarded by cruisers as it was crossing the western part of the Bay of the Seine, SHAEF regarded the enemy’s overnight E-boat action as on a diminished scale.

It was pointed out, however, the fight against the torpedo sting of German small boats must be […] the Germans have hundreds of them and, so far, have not dared to bring into the invasion zone anything large than E-boats and destroyers.

Headquarters followed up midnight Communiqué No. 12 with an official tribute to American progress yesterday on the beachhead’s right wing. It called the situation “excellent – could not be better.”

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Two million words combed by censors

SHAEF, England (AP) –
SHAEF censors scrutinized 2,500,000 words in the first five days of the invasion. An official estimated they deleted an average of less than one word from every hundred. They also viewed 35,000 still pictures and 106,000 feet of movie film.

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U.S. dead are buried in France

Heavily blasted field is first American cemetery

At a U.S. beachhead cemetery, France (AP) – (June 9, delayed)
Stretched out on their backs with their pitiful personal belongings lying beside them on this bomb-blasted, shell-scorched bit of the Normandy beach lie the American dead – men and boys who paid the supreme price for wresting this strongly fortified position from the Nazis in a daring daylight amphibious assault.

They lie here mutely waiting while troops dig long trenches for temporary mass burial. Nearby, also awaiting burial are the bodies of 10 Germans and two Britons.

Negro troops digging these common graves labor silently with an occasional awed glance at the stiff forms under the white covers that had been thrown over them.

This is America’s first cemetery in France in this war. It is not a pretentious place. A few days ago, it was a German minefield separating the beach defenses from the rugged pillboxes and forts in a steep hill that rises a few hundred yards from the ugly, rock-strewn beaches.

When the Americans swarmed onto the beaches through murderous surf, angry German guns mowed them down. The cold greedy water of the wrathful Channel, lashed by a three-day wind, clutched at some, sucking them down.

This battle was so fierce that our grave registration officers – men who bury the dead and tell the folks back home about them – had to spend most of their time in foxholes. When the enemy retreated into the hills, these officers gathered their weary men and began bringing bodies to this place – where the green grass is turned black from the fury of high explosives.

Another cemetery is being prepared nearby because this hallowed ground is too small to care for the men who will not fight again.

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