Operation OVERLORD (1944)

195

The Brooklyn Eagle (June 18, 1944)

German units fleeing Cherbourg area

Yanks slash five miles from Nazis’ last escape highway
By Edward W. Beattie

SHAEF, London, England (UP) –
U.S. battle patrols slashed westward to within five miles or less of the last Nazi escape road from the top of the Cherbourg Peninsula today and front dispatches said the bulk of the German forces were retreating down the highway under a hellfire of bombs and shells, leaving a band of expendables to defend the prize port of Cherbourg to the death.

Spearheads of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division that captured Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte raced on through the hills northwest and southwest of the town to within sight of the sea, almost closing the Allied lines across the peninsula, and threatening the coastal fishing villages of Barneville and Saint-Lô-d’Ourville.

United Press war correspondent Henry Gorrell reported that German trucks and staff cars loaded with troops were careening southward along the coastal highway, running a murderous gantlet of shellfire laid down by U.S. field guns in the hills above them.

To make stand elsewhere

The German position on the upper half of the peninsula was deteriorating rapidly, and it appeared the enemy high command had decided to evacuate as many troops as possible through the coastal bottleneck and make a stand on the high ground north of La Haye-du-Puits, a four-way highway junction and the key to the Nazis’ peninsular defenses.

There was no indication, however, that they intended to quit the port and town of Cherbourg itself without a fight. Front dispatches suggested that the Nazis were leaving suicide battalions behind to wreck its harbor facilities when its fall becomes imminent.

The latest Allied communiqué reported additional though slight progress in the American thrust across the center of the peninsula and in the fighting farther to the southeast, below Isigny and around Tilly.

Several villages captured

A number of unidentified villages east and west of Tilly were captured and U.S. units striking southward from Isigny advanced two miles to reach the Vire River and the Taute Canal.

United Press correspondent Richard McMillan reported that British Commandos, with heavy tank and artillery support, stormed and captured a number of German strongpoints that had been holding out for 10 days behind the Allied lines around Tilly.

U.S. forces also attacked west and south of Carentan with unannounced results in an apparent effort to straighten out their battle line in that sector.

U.S. casualties 15,883

As the battle for the prize Cherbourg port reached a climax, it was announced that U.S. troops have paid a price of 15,883 casualties in the 12-day-old French invasion, including 3,283 killed.

The Yanks drove four miles northwest of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte and captured Saint-Jacques-de-Néhou, from where they could see the peninsula’s west coast highway and the German traffic withdrawing along it.

“A partial German withdrawal from the Cherbourg area appears underway,” wrote United Press correspondent Henry T. Gorrell in a dispatch from the Saint-Sauveur area. “Our artillery is pounding the careening German vehicles, many of which are staff cars carrying officers.”

Yanks continue advance

The Yanks were reported steadily continuing their advance on the road tonight, supported by the heaviest artillery concentration they had yet used on the French beachhead. Gorrell said they were within sight of the shimmering Atlantic on the west side of the peninsula.

Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s Yanks had clamped a stranglehold on the express highway down the west side of the Cotentin Peninsula, occupying high ground west of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte dominating the road as well as Saint-Jacques, which is four miles northwest of Saint-Sauveur.

Heavy reinforcements were piling through Saint-Sauveur, and that key railroad point is now “firmly held,” official advices said. The westward American surge across the peninsula covered a 10-mile front, with the right flank approaching Bricquebec, seven miles northwest of Saint-Sauveur, and the left only four miles from La Haye-du-Puits, which controls the entire west coast communication system.

Gen. Bradley, in his first field press conference, said, “Our position is now absolutely secure and I can’t see how the enemy can kick us out.” He said that operations had succeeded largely because of “guts and valor” and “I can’t say too much for the paratroopers, who did a marvelous job and kept Germans from building up as we were struggling for a firm foothold ln the initial stages.”

Bradley added:

The enemy has had a devil of a time coming up and a hard time getting his supplies up.

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196

French patriots halt Nazis rushing to front

An advanced command post, SHAEF (UP) – (June 17)
The Allied High Command, in the first official acknowledgment since D-Day of spreading operations by the French underground, announced tonight in a special communiqué that a reinforced Army of the French Forces of the Interior had effectively tied up Nazi reserves in “its assigned role” behind the German lines.

The communiqué cited large scale sabotage which has crippled rail and road traffic, reportedly completely stopped in the strategic Rhône Valley.

It also mentioned disruption of telephone and telegraph communications, power plants, and canals, and successful battles against enemy units.

Delay Nazi troop movements

The communiqué said:

These multiple and simultaneous acts of sabotage, coordinated with the Allied air effort, have delayed considerably the movement of German reserves to the combat zone.

Simultaneously, the second French communiqué issued here on the fighting in the interior reported that German troops en route to reinforce Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt’s forces in Normandy were being held up as the result of patriot attacks along the railway line between Bordeaux and Limoges. French saboteurs have blasted the track with dynamite at several places, causing extensive damage, it was said.

Forays against communications and railways all across France, and reaching to the Paris vicinity, were reported “interfering considerably” with German troop movements to the fighting zone.

Underground army increase

Confirming previous reports that Frenchmen, including Vichy police and militia, were flocking to join the partisans, the Allied communiqué said that since the day, U.S. and British troops landed in Normandy, the French Interior Army had “increased both in size and in the scope of its activities.” It said:

Guerrilla operations against the enemy are in full swing and in some areas the Army of the French Forces of the Interior are in full control.

The communiqué gave credence to earlier reports of underground successes against the Germans in pitched fighting, particularly in the Jura sector of southeastern France. Although it mentioned no place names, the communiqué noted that the Maquis had attacked German garrisons, reportedly taking 300 prisoners, to have engaged in street fighting, and to have occupied villages in some areas. It said many Nazi detachments had been destroyed.

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197

Gorrell: Stream of Nazi transport runs hellish gantlet of U.S. shellfire

By Henry T. Gorrell

With U.S. assault forces, Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, France (UP) – (June 17)
For hours now a steady stream of German transport has been running a hellish gantlet of American artillery fire on the last coastal escape road out of Cherbourg and there is every indication that the Germans are abandoning a suicide defense force in the port city while they try to save the bulk of their forces for a fight farther to the east.

We can see the German transport vehicles careening down the highway between here and the ocean shimmering in the sunlight only nine miles away.

The road runs through an impenetrable marshland, so the Germans have scant room in which to dodge the barrage of shellfire which is raining down upon their escape corridor. The road is lined with shattered and upended vehicles – many of them staff cars which probably carried officers.

Yank advance is speedy

The occupants of these cars have been pinned under the wreckage. I passed many vehicles riddled with holes and burned out at the roadside as I followed the fast-moving American spearheads in their advance.

We are advancing steadily along hedgerows through dense woods and underbrush, fighting hand-to-hand and supported by the greatest artillery concentration yet seen in France.

Since sunset yesterday, we have covered seven kilometers (4.3 miles) north and westward from Saint-Sauveur by bypassing the enemy at Néhou and ejecting him from Saint-Jacques-de-Néhou.

The U.S. advance westward across the peninsula has been so swift that the air force has had to exercise utmost caution to avoid shooting up our own ammunition trucks and tanks.

The Germans sallied out of Néhou in a half-hearted counterattack at dusk yesterday but ran into concentrated artillery fire that shattered their ranks and flattened the village.

During yesterday’s advance, we overtook an entire German field hospital and at least one artillery battery complete with horses, wagons and a commissary filled with choice wines. Many U.S. paratroopers captured in the early phase of the invasion were liberated yesterday and today as the Germans abandoned them in their precipitate flight.

I’ve passed hundreds of German corpses during the past few days and I have been struck with the fact that most of them were shot through the head. This is a tribute to the hours of practice our doughboys put in on the rifle ranges in England waiting for D-Day.

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198

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 18, 1944)

Communiqué No. 26

Allied troops have cut off the CHERBOURG Peninsula from the rest of NORMANDY, reaching the west coast near BARNEVILLE-SUR-MER. In the center, a steady advance east of the VIRE has brought us within six miles of SAINT-LÔ.

The strongpoint at DOUVRES, which had been holding out, was captured yesterday with over 150 prisoners. We lost one man killed in the final assault.

More than 15,000 prisoners have been counted so far.

Low clouds over many parts of the battle area again restricted Allied air activity from midnight until noon today.

Last night, ten enemy aircraft were destroyed by our fighters protecting the beaches.

This morning, medium and light bombers successfully attacked railway yards at RENNES. They also bombed objectives in the FORÊT D’ANDAINE, east of DOMFRONT, and other military and transport targets behind the enemy lines. All our bombers returned safely.

Fighter-bombers struck at MONTREUIL-BELLAY and SAUMUR, damaging trains, locomotives, railway bridges and highways. Fighters maintained a widespread armed reconnaissance beyond the battle zone and attacked road and rail transport on the move at many points.

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199

Völkischer Beobachter (June 19, 1944)

Flammenstreifen am Himmel Londons –
Erfolgreiche deutsche Gegenangriffe

vb. Berlin, 18. Juni –
Während über Südengland mit geringen Unterbrechungen immer wieder das Donnern der geheimnisvollen deutschen, Vergeltungswaffe zu hören ist, hat sich in den letzten vierundzwanzig Stunden die Frontlage in der Normandie kaum wesentlich verändert. Das bedeutet nicht, daß dort nicht erbittert gefochten wird. Im Gegenteil! Der Feind hat seine Versuche verstärkt, von Osten her die Halbinsel Cotentin abzuschneiden, und zwar im Raume von Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, und weiter südlich über die Nationalstraße 172, die von Bayeux über Saint-Lô nach Coutances führt.

An beiden Stellen ficht die amerikanische 1. Armee mit starken Kräften, aber sie hat dem am Freitag erzielten Geländegewinn bis zur Stunde nur noch unbedeutende Stücke hinzufügen können. Deutsche Gegenstöße haben sie von bereits erreichten Zielen wieder zurückgeworfen. Im Raum nordöstlich Caumont sind die deutschen Panzer und Grenadiere im Vordringen nach Norden. Daß diese Ereignisse nicht recht in die Erwartungen des Generals Eisenhower passen, wird aus den Berichten britischer Blätter von der Front ganz deutlich.

In der Times heißt es, daß zwar die Luftwaffe der Westmächte die deutschen Nachschubwege ununterbrochen angreife, daß aber die deutschen Verstärkungen doch die Front erreichten. Von wirklichen deutschen Großangriffen sei bisher noch nichts zu spüren; diese stünden ohne Zweifel erst bevor. Der Manchester Guardian sagt, den Deutschen sei es viel, viel leichter, Reserven heranzuführen als den Westmächten, Bevor es zur eigentlichen Invasionsschlacht komme, müsse es sich entscheiden, ob es den Westmächten gelinge, sich genügend Ellenbogenfreiheit zu verschaffen. Der News Chronicle ist der Meinung, solange die Westmächte nicht die Versicherung eines großen Hafens hätten, seien die Brückenköpfe ihre größten Feinde. Immer noch müsse das schwere Kriegsmaterial am offenen Strand abgeladen werden.

Ein Korrespondent des Daily Express steht unter dem starken Eindruck der Beweglichkeit der deutschen mittleren und unteren Führung, die oft mit den Soldaten der Westmächte geradezu Verstecken spielen. Im Übrigen bestätigt er das Missvergnügen, das die Invasionstruppen über die deutschen Scharfschützen empfinden. Man wisse nicht mehr, wie man sich davor in Acht nehmen solle. Die ständige Unsicherheit mache einen ganz müde und verdrössen.

Daß die deutsche Luftwaffe es immer wieder versteht, ihre Unterlegenheit an Zahl durch Geschick und Draufgängertum wettzumachen, erzählt der nordamerikanische Fliegerleutnant Thornhell im Daily Express. Er sagt:

Die, deutschen Flieger kämpfen wie die Teufel. Sie kämpfen auch mit viel schnelleren und viel besseren Maschinen. Bei allen meinen Flügen über reichsdeutsches Gebiet habe ich derartiges noch nicht erlebt. Seit dem ersten Invasionstag werfen die Deutschen immer mehr Maschinen in den Kampf.

Neben der militärischen gibt es aber auch eine echte politische Enttäuschung für die Westmächte. In dem schmalen Streifen Landes, den sie besetzt haben, finden sie andere Bewohner vor, als sie erwartet hatten. Sie glaubten, überall mit Jubel begrüßt zu werden und stattdessen stoßen sie vielfach bei der französischen Bevölkerung auf Gleichgültigkeit, ja stellenweise auf eisige Ablehnung. „Die Franzosen wollen gar nicht befreit werden,“ meint die Daily Mail melancholisch. Das Blatt ist ferner höchst bestürzt darüber, daß die im Verband der deutschen Wehrmacht stehenden Freiwilligen des europäischen Ostens so entschlossen gegen die Engländer und Nordamerikaner kämpfen. Man sieht an solchen Beispielen, wie seltsam sich die Welt in den Köpfen der englischen Politiker gemalt hat.

In der spanischen Presse heißt es, daß die Engländer an der Invasionsfront denselben grundsätzlichen Fehler gemacht hätten wie gegenüber der Vergeltungswaffe: Sie hätten den Feind unterschätzt. Die britische Regierung versucht zwar, mit äußerster Strenge, jede Nachricht über den Ort und den Grad der Zerstörungen zu unterdrücken, und dies ist ihr auch bis zur Stunde gelungen. Aber gerade mit solchen Maßnahmen verrät sie dem unbefangenen Beobachter im neutralen Ausland, wie schwer die Vergeltung treffen muß. Nicht einmal die Personen, die Angriffe gesehen haben, dürfen genannt werden. Auf der anderen Seite ist es aber selbst der britischen Zensur doch wieder unmöglich, wenigstens allgemeine Eindrücke von Korrespondenten zu unterbinden, aus denen sich die Wirkung selbst für die neutralen Leser erraten läßt. Wenn im Übrigen der britische Innenminister das Verbot der Herausgabe von Nachrichten damit begründet, man dürfe den Deutschen keine Angabe übermitteln, so können wir ihm versichern, daß er gänzlich unbesorgt sein kann: Die Deutschen kennen die Wirkung dieser Waffe sehr genau.

Das Madrider ABC teilt den Bericht eines schwedischen Augenzeugen mit, in dem es heißt, daß die Panik in London weit größer sei als im Jahre 1940. Obwohl bei dem ersten Großangriff die Scheinwerfer der Flak in London in einer Nacht ebenso viel Strom verbraucht hätten wie die ganze Stadt in zwei Wochen in normalen Zeiten und obwohl die englische Flugabwehr ohne Unterbrechung unter Beteiligung von etwa einer Million Uniformierter eingesetzt worden sei, habe man die riesigen Brände nicht verhindern können.

Es stehe außer Zweifel, daß diese Bombardierungen gefährliche Auswirkungen auf das in Südengland aufgestapelte Kriegsmaterial und die Invasionspläne der Westmächte haben könnten. Der Bericht trägt die Überschrift „Brände von bisher nicht gekanntem Ausmaß in London und Südengland.“

Zum erstenmal sind die britischen Flakbatterien Tag und Nacht in Tätigkeit, heißt es in einem anderen Bericht, und die United Press veröffentlicht folgende Darstellung eines Kriegskorrespondenten aus Südengland:

Die Bodenabwehr war stärker als jemals bisher. Der Himmel war hell von den Lichtkegeln der Scheinwerfer, während unzählige Geschütze ihre Granaten in den Himmel schleuderten. Im Feuerlärm hörten wir plötzlich ein furchtbares Brummen, dann konnte man wieder nur die Geschütze vernehmen, die heftigen Explosionen der schweren Granaten und das gezogene Geräusch der englischen Raketengeschütze. Der Himmel füllte sich mit dunkelroten Zickzackstreifen sowie mit blauen, grünen und gelben Stellen, als die Granaten und Raketen explodierten. Plötzlich hörte man wieder ein Krachen, das an Heftigkeit zunahm. Mein Wagen wurde hin und her geworfen. Ich gelangte nach Hause, während der Angriff noch immer im Gange war. Dann sah ich ein riesigen flammenden Streifen, der sich wie ein Meteor quer über den Himmel zog. Einen Augenblick wurde alles ruhig. Dann ereignete sich eine gewaltige Explosion, deren Luftdruck uns ins Gesicht schlug…

Solche „riesigen flammenden Streifen“ zeigen sich jetzt jeden Tag und jede Nacht über Südengland und London. Südengland und London aber sind Mittelpunkte der militärischen Kraft des britischen Weltreiches. Was hier jetzt geschieht, kann nicht ohne die bedeutsamste Fortwirkung auf das Geschehen des Krieges bleiben.

200

Zehn Tage Invasionsschlacht

Ein Frontbericht vom Landekopf in der Normandie
Von Kriegsberichter Fritz Zierke

pk. Südlich Caumont, 18. Juni –
Wieder senkt sich nach einem heißen Tag die Nacht über die grünen Weiden und Felder der Normandie. Der Mond, der in den ersten Tagen nach der feindlichen Landung die Sonne ablöste und die Landschaft in sein milderes Licht tauchte, kommt jetzt erst sehr spät empor, und seine schmale, abnehmende Sichel steht, während der Morgen schon dämmert, ohne Kraft am Himmel. Die Nacht selbst bleibt Finster – aber sie bringt keine Ruhe.

In den Lüften dröhnen ohne Unterbrechung die Motoren der Flugzeuge. Wenn zwischen zehn und elf Uhr die Erde sich in Schatten gehüllt hat, erheben sich hüben und drüben die Scharen der Bomber. In ihrem pausenlosen Gesang vermag das Ohr kaum zu unterscheiden, was kommt und geht, nur die blendenden hellen Bänke aus künstlichem Licht, die immer wieder den Schleier des Dunkels zerreißen, und die von nahem Gebrüll oder fernem Grollen begleiteten Blitze der Detonationen verraten, wo der Regen der Vernichtung fällt.

Aber trotzdem geht auf der, Erde das hastige Treiben des Krieges weiter – im Hinterland der Front und auf den Anmarschstraßen bewegter als am Tage. Es ist das alte Bild, das der deutsche Soldat aus allen Feldzügen kennt: in endlosem Zuge, auf einer Vielzahl von Straßen streben die Kolonnen des Nachschubs und neu heranrückende Verbände der Front zu. Nur eins hat sich gewandelt: Nirgends mehr vernimmt man das Schnauben der Pferde und das langsame Mahlen der Fuhrwerke, das noch im Frankreichfeldzug des Jahres 1940 seine Geräusche in diese nächtliche Symphonie mischte. Heute herrscht mit dem Recht der Ausschließlichkeit der Motor. Auch die am schwersten beladenen Lastzüge, Munitionsschlepper und Tankwagen legen im Laufe einer einzigen Nacht 100 und mehr Kilometer zurück und machen so den Plan des Feindes zunichte, die Abwehrkraft unserer Divisionen durch Unterbindung der Zufuhren entscheidend zu schwächen. Denn das ist im gegenwärtigen Abschnitt der Invasionsschlacht einer der Brennpunkte des Kampfes: die feindliche Luftwaffe setzt ihre starke zahlenmäßige Überlegenheit massiert gegen unsere rückwärtigen Dienste ein, und am Tage gelingt es ihr auch, unsere Bewegungen zu erschweren. Aber die Führung des Gegners ist nicht frei von Sorgen gleicher Art. Jedes Schiff, das im Kanal oder vor der französischen Küste von unserer Kriegsmarine oder Luftwaffe auf den Meeresgrund geschickt oder in Brand geworfen wird, bedeutet einen Verlust, der, in Lastautomobile umgerechnet, sofort dreistellige, wenn nicht noch höhere Zahlen ergibt.

Solche Ausfälle aber treffen mit verdoppelter Schärfe einen Feind, dessen strategisches Brevier hier wie an allen anderen Fronten, wo er uns entgegentrat, nur einen einzigen Glaubensartikel enthält: Erfolg durch materielle Überlegenheit. Die Masse der Panzer, die konzentrierte Wucht des Artilleriefeuers, die Zahl der Bomber – sie sollen es auch diesmal schaffen. Wie sich voraussehen ließ, hat Eisenhower auch diesmal auf jedes Wagnis verzichtet, das von diesen Prinzipien abwich, und wo er in örtlich begrenztem Rahmen riskantere Vorstöße unternahm, da erlebte er auch sofort die Enttäuschungen, die er befürchtete. Der Einsatz von Fallschirm- und Luftlandetruppen führte zu schwersten Verlusten dieser ausgesuchten Verbände, die nirgends richtig zum Zuge kamen. Der Versuch, im unmittelbaren Anschluss an die Landung in raschem Zupacken auf Caen vorzustoßen, um gleich am ersten Tage einen weithin sichtbaren Erfolg davonzutragen und gleichzeitig einen Hafen, wenn auch von geringerer Leistungskraft, in seine Hand zu bekommen, brach im Nordosten der Stadt im Feuer des entschlossen geführten deutschen Abwehrstoßes zusammen.

Von diesem ersten Fehlschlag an ist der Gegner offenbar zu seinem alten Rezept zurückgekehrt: sich zunächst so stark wie möglich zu machen, nur dort zur Aktion überzugehen, wo er sich in der Übermacht fühlt. Besonders ein Massenaufgebot an Artillerie soll neben den Kampfwagen seiner Infanterie und den Panzerbegleittruppen den Weg bahnen. Durch den gesamten Raum, den der feindliche Landekopf bis jetzt einnimmt, hat er sich mit dieser Methode Schritt um Schritt vorwärtsgeboxt. Als er am 13. Juni einen neuen Anlauf unternahm, zu weitergestecktem Angriff überzugehen und den zähen Fluss seiner Operationen zu beschleunigen, erlitt er sofort wieder eine schwere Schlappe: die stärkeren Panzerkräfte, die südlich Caumont zum Durchstoß ansetzten, mit dem Ziel, in der Richtung der großen Straße von der Vire nach Caen nach Nordosten einzudrehen und den Ostpfeiler der deutschen Abwehrfront vom Rücken her zu sprengen, gerieten in das Fegefeuer der wildesten Panzerschlacht, die die bisherigen Invasionskämpfe mit sich gebracht haben. Bei Villers-Bocage liegen die zerschmetterten Trümmer der Mark-5- und Sherman-Tanks, die hier von den deutschen „Tigern“ gepackt und vernichtet wurden. Das Gewitter, das in die Briten hineinfuhr, traf sie so überraschend, daß einige Besatzungen des Feindes in wilder Flucht ihre noch unversehrten Fahrzeuge Preisgaben, um nur das nackte Leben zu retten. Als sich dann der Überfall zur Schlacht entwickelte, zeigte sich rasch, daß der Gegner unter gleichen Bedingungen der Kampferfahrung, der Führung und dem Schwung unserer Truppen nicht gewachsen ist.

Das Kampfgelände

Gerade das Gelände aber, in dem sich zurzeit die Invasionskämpfe abspielen, bietet Briten und Amerikanern nur begrenzte Möglichkeiten, ihren eigentlichen Trumpf, die Masse des modernen Materials, mit voller Wirkung auszuspielen. Das gewellte, von zahlreichen Bachläufen durchschnittene, von einem dichten Heckennetz überzogene, allenthalben mit Obstgärten und Buschwerk übersäte Land der nördlichen Normandie ist für den Angreifer ein denkbar unsympathisches Feld. Jede Übersicht beschränkt sich hier auf den nächsten Umkreis. Auch die Augen aus der Luft können nur einen Bruchteil von dem erkennen, was auf der Erde vorgeht, und vor allem von dem, was sich auf ihr verbirgt. Die deutschen Soldaten, die früher in den schonungslos offenen endlosen Flächen der Ukraine Krieg führten oder in der baumlosen Wüste der Sicht und den Angriffen einer überlegenen feindlichen Luftmacht fast schutzlos ausgeliefert waren, finden hier, inmitten einer fast heimatlich anmutenden Landschaft Bedingungen vor, die dem Einzelkämpfer alle Vorteile bieten. Eine große Zahl der über 400 Panzer, die der Gegner bereits in den ersten zehn Tagen seit seiner Landung auf dem französischen Kampfplatz einbüßte, wurde von unerschrockenen Draufgängern zur Strecke gebracht. Die neuartigen Mittel der Panzernahbekämpfung, „Panzerfaust“ und „Panzerschrecken,“ die im Osten bereits in kritischen Situationen mit durchschlagendem Erfolg eingesetzt wurden, kommen hier noch besser zur Geltung, da ihre Träger in der Natur nirgends eine zuverlässigere Bundesgenossin finden können.

Der Kämpfer bei uns und bei den anderen

Auf den deutschen Soldaten vor allem gründet sich daher das Vertrauen, mit dem unsere Führung dem weiteren Gang der Kämpfe in der Normandie entgegensieht. Sie hat die Schwere der Aufgabe, die uns hier entgegenrückte, niemals unterschätzt, und nach den Erfahrungen der ersten zehn Kampftage haben wir noch weniger Anlass, die „Schlacht um Frankreich,“ wie sie der Feind in offener Bestätigung seiner hochfliegenden Erwartungen nennt, als eine Auseinandersetzung von bereits gesichertem glücklichem Ausgang gelten zu lassen. Wir stehen in einer der härtesten Auseinandersetzungen des Krieges. Der deutsche Soldat im Westen hat, worauf auch er innerlich vorbereitet war, in der kurzen Spanne seines neuen Einsatzes mit nüchternem Blick für die Wirklichkeit erkannt, daß der Feind sein Unternehmen mit aller Sorgfalt vorbereitet, daß er seine besten Divisionen und sein bestes Material an diese Front geworfen hat.

Neben wohlausgerüsteten, in hartem Drill geschulten Verbänden, die hier zum erstenmal in die Schlacht geschickt werden, haben die Briten auch kampferfahrene Einheiten aufgeboten, die bereits in Nordafrika und Süditalien im Felde standen. Gerade in diesem Aufgebot der militärischen Kernkraft unserer Feinde aber liegt auch unsere große Chance. Was heute auf französischem Boden gegen uns antritt, besitzt der Gegner nur einmal. Schlagen wir seine Invasionsarmee, so haben wir damit den Krieg gewonnen! Und daß wir sie schlagen können, das ist der feste innere Glaube jedes Deutschen, der nach eigenem Erleben die Werte der Menschen ermisst, die sich auf beiden Seiten gegenüberstehen.

‚Der Krieg ist mein Erwerb‘

Wir wollen uns hüten, den Gegner als schlechten Soldaten und Kämpfer einzuschätzen – und einen solchen Irrtum müßten wir selbst teuer bezahlen – aber nie und nimmer können wir glauben, daß vor dem Urteil des Kriegsgottes dieser Feind vor uns bestehen soll. Was sind denn das für Menschen, die nun ihren Fuß auf den Boden Frankreichs gesetzt haben, um Europa in ihre Gewalt zu bringen? Wir standen inmitten der Trümmer einer der schönsten normannischen Städte, als ein langer Zug amerikanischer Gefangener durch die Ruinen geführt wurde. Bei Gott, in ihrem Gesamteindruck wirkten sie kaum weniger eisig als die entfesselten Geister der bolschewistischen Unterwelt. Es sollte eine Auslese sein – fast lauter Freiwillige einer Fallschirmabteilung – aber die Mehrzahl der Gesichter verriet die Herkunft aus dem Milieu der Minderwertigkeit, das niemand mit schwärzeren Farben gemalt hat als die wenigen Amerikaner selbst, die ihre europäische Herkunft noch nicht ganz vergessen haben. In dem Auffanglager inmitten der Stadt begannen sie, während ringsum die Brände zum Himmel schlugen, die ihre Flieger gesät hatten, mit einer Gleichgültigkeit Baseball zu spielen, als stünden sie irgendwo zwischen ihren heimatlichen Steinklötzen und nicht auf dem Grabhügel von über 2.000 Franzosen, die unter ihren Bomben hingemordet waren.

Nein, sie sind einander ähnlicher, als sie selbst wahrhaben wollen, die Vertreter der demokratischen und der östlichen Weit – die „Säuberungskommissare“ Stalins und der kanadische höhere Kommandeur, der bei Beginn der Invasion den Befehl erließ, keine Flüchtlinge zu schonen: Man solle sie niederschießen oder auf der Flucht überfahren. Und hier wie dort benutzen die regierenden Banden ihre militärischen Massen lediglich als stumpfsinnige Werkzeuge: Kaum einer der amerikanischen Gefangenen wusste zu sagen, wozu er in den Krieg gezogen sei. Monatelang hatten sie in England gelebt, ohne überhaupt ihren Aufenthaltsort zu kennen, sie führen Krieg, weil man sie darauf abgerichtet hat, ohne eine Ahnung davon, wem eigentlich dieser Krieg gilt. „Wozu soll ich das wissen,“ erklärte in entwaffnender Primitivität ein junger Mensch aus Chikago, „es ist zurzeit mein Erwerb. Früher war ich Tänzer in einem Nachtlokal, dann war ich Kraftfahrer, heute bin ich Soldat!“

Wenn man nach einer solchen Begegnung unter den jungen Freiwilligen der SS-Division steht, die nunmehr neben der Leibstandarte den Namen des Führers trägt, wenn man spürt, wie in einem jeden von ihnen die Flamme lebt, die selbst die grausige Welt des Krieges in einem geläuterten Licht erscheinen läßt, dann bestätigt und erneuert sich der Glaube, in dem wir über die Schwelle dieses entscheidungsvollen Sommers traten: Unsere innere Stärke wird am Ende das Fundament unseres Sieges sein.

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Wofür?

wofur
„Der Kampf Englands ist auch der Kampf Judas“ Oberrabbiner Dr. Herz an Georg V. von England (Zeichnung: Mjölnir)

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Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 19, 1944)

Communiqué No. 27

The wedge across the base of the CHERBOURG PENINSULA is being strengthened and widened.

In the TILLY-SUR-SEULLES area, attacks by our troops have met strong opposition from enemy armor and infantry supported by heavy artillery fire.

Further east, a small counterattack was thrown back.

The enemy battery at HOULGATE, east of OUISTREHAM, has been silent for 36 hours after an accurate bombardment by HMS RAMILLIES.

Weather again retarded air activity over the battle zone from noon yesterday until day break today. Nevertheless, fighters and fighter bombers ranged from the CHERBOURG PENINSULA to LISIEUX in the east and to ALENÇON in the south, striking at communications and transport.

Bridges, railway cars, locomotives and troops were attacked by fighters between VALOGNES, BRICQUEBEC and CARTERET.

Rocket-firing planes and dive bombers attacked enemy ammunition dumps hidden in a forest; also canal bridges, ferries, motor lorries and a heavy concentration of troops between CAEN, FALAISE and MONTIGNY.

Sweeping from ARRAS and AMIENS to the outskirts of PARIS, long-range fighters searched out targets of opportunity throughout the day. They were unmolested by enemy aircraft. Attacks on road and rail targets were continued after dark by light bombers. Night fighters destroyed two enemy bombers over the beach.

Communiqué No. 28

The Allies’ stranglehold on the CHERBOURG PENINSULA has been strengthened by a series of the local advances.

An enemy attack was repulsed near TILLY where heavy fighting continues. In the CAEN area, enemy shelling has increased considerably.

Allied warships continued to give support in the eastern flank yesterday by engaging enemy mobile batteries. North of CAEN, successful shoots were carried out by HMS DIADEM against a concentration of enemy armor.

Bad weather severely restricted the activity of the Allied Air Forces this morning.

Heavy bombers escorted by fighters attacked pilotless aircraft emplacements in the PAS-DE-CALAIS and airfields in Southwest FRANCE. Among the airfields were BORDEAUX-MÉRIGNAC, CAZAUX, LANDES-DE-BUSSAC, and CORME-ÉCLUSE. Seven bombers and 16 fighters are missing.

Fighter bombers attacked an airfield near RENNES and fighters flew patrols over the beaches and the Channel.

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Innsbrucker Nachrichten (June 19, 1944)

Das Störungsfeuer auf London dauert an

Schwerpunkt der Kämpfe in der Normandie im Raum Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte – Luftwaffe versenkte einen Zerstörer und 18.000 BRT – Heldenhafter Widerstand auf Elba – Besonders schwerer Kampftag in Italien

Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 19. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Das Störungsfeuer auf London und seine Außenbezirke dauerte auch gestern während des ganzen Tages und in der heutigen Nacht mit wechselnder Stärke an.

Der Schwerpunkt der Kämpfe in der Normandie lag am vergangenen Tag im Raum Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte. Es gelang hier dem Feind, unter stärkstem Einsatz seiner Artillerie und Luftwaffe, unsere Sicherungen zu durchstoßen und die Westküste der Halbinsel Cherbourg bei Barneville-sur-Mer zu erreichen. Die Abriegelungsfront unserer Truppen ist südlich und nördlich davon gebildet.

Der feindliche Brückenkopf östlich der Orne wurde weiter eingeengt. Feindliche Gegenangriffe mit Panzern scheiterten. Beiderseits Tilly griff der Feind auf breiter Front mit stärkeren Infanterie- und Panzerkräften an. Alle feindlichen Angriffe brachen erfolglos zusammen.

Nordöstlich Saint-Lô wurde ein Einbruch vom Vortag im Gegenstoß bereinigt. Hier hat sich die 3. Fallschirmjägerdivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Schimpf besonders hervorgetan.

Kampffliegerverbände versenkten vor dem Landekopf zwei Handelsschiffe mit 18.000 BRT und einen Zerstörer. Vier weitere Handelsschiffe mit 29.000 BRT und drei Zerstörer wurden schwer beschädigt.

Marineküstenbatterien beschädigten westlich der Halbinsel Cherbourg ebenfalls einen feindlichen Zerstörer.

Auf der Insel Elba verstärkt sich der Feind durch neue Zuführungen. Die Inselbesatzung leistet unter Befehl des tapferen Kommandanten Generalmajor Gail heldenhaften Widerstand und hat dem Gegner schwere Verluste beigebracht. Vor weit überlegenem Feind mußten sich unsere Truppen schließlich auf den Nordostteil der Insel zurückziehen. Die Kämpfe gehen weiter.

Torpedoboote versenkten östlich der Insel Elba ein britisches Schnellboot und beschädigten zwei weitere schwer.

Im Abschnitt von Grosseto bis Perugia war gestern ein besonders schwerer Kampftag. Mit zusammengefassten Kräften griff der Feind während des ganzen Tages an, ohne daß es ihm gelang, größeren Geländegewinn zu erzielen. Zu besonders heftigen Kämpfen kam es im Raum südwestlich und südlich Perugia, wo unsere Truppen verbissen Widerstand leisteten und wiederholte, von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe zum größten Teil im Nahkampf zerschlugen.

Im Osten scheiterten örtliche Angriffe der Sowjets im Karpatenvorland, an der Beresina und beiderseits Witebsk unter hohen Verlusten für den Feind.

Schwere deutsche Kampfflugzeuge führten in der vergangenen Nacht einen zusammengefassten Angriff gegen den Bahnknotenpunkt Sarny, der große Brände und Explosionen verursachte.

Ein nordamerikanischer Bomberverband flog nach Nordwestdeutschland ein und führte Terrorangriffe gegen mehrere Städte. Besonders in den Wohngebieten von Hamburg, Bremen, Hannover und Wesermünde entstanden Schäden und Personenverluste. Durch Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe und der Kriegsmarine wurden 16 feindliche Flugzeuge vernichtet.

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The Free Lance-Star (June 19, 1944)

NAZIS FAIL IN ATTEMPT TO BREAK FROM TRAP
9th Infantry Division cuts peninsula below Cherbourg

Over 25,000 Nazis caught in pocket
By Wes Gallagher

Breakthrough below Cherbourg

map.61944.ap
Arrows pointing to Saint-Jacques and Saint-Lô-d’Ourville indicate where U.S. troops have broken through German lines to cut off Cherbourg. The Americans reached the coast Sunday.

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s U.S. troops squeezed within eight miles of Cherbourg today and shelled the strategic port with their big guns tonight.

Steadily strengthening their hold all across the peninsula, the Yankees turned back a single desperate German attacks to break out of the trap, struck out both north and south to widen their cordon and captured Bricquebec, only 11 miles south of the southern edge of Cherbourg.

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
The U.S. 9th Infantry Division has crushed a German attempt to burst out of the American trap bottling up perhaps 25,000 to 40,000 Nazis below Cherbourg, hurling back a thrust 13 miles due south of the port, SHAEF announced today.

The Germans lashed out in the darkness in a heavy local attack near Saint-Jacques-de-Néhou, but were thrown back with heavy losses.

Toward the eastern flank of the 116-mile Normandy front, British forces battled into the northern end of shell-torn Tilly-sur-Seulles, with the Germans still holding in the southern part of the town between Bayeux and Caen.

Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s troops, laying siege to Cherbourg after thrusting a seven-mile-wide corridor clean across the peninsula, are now building up strength for “the next step,” Supreme Headquarters said.

German guns laid a heavier shell barrage on American-held Carentan, stronghold near the eastern base of Cherbourg Peninsula.

Other Americans on the northeastern end of the ling choking off Cherbourg fought toward the port from the Montebourg area, 14 miles to the southeast.

Local advances were scored on other sectors of the beachhead, SHAEF said.

Germans in trap

The Americans quickly broadened the corridor flung across Cherbourg Peninsula.

The trapped Germans appeared to have the choice of fighting to the death or surrendering.

The spearhead of Gen. Bradley’s spectacular drive to capture the big port of Cherbourg, developed by Napoleon, was the U.S. 9th Infantry Division. The capture of a French naval base would be an old story for this division, for the 9th Division broke through German defenses to take Bizerte, Tunisia, 13 months ago under Maj. Gen. Manton S. Eddy.

U.S. forces that severed the peninsula were busy widening their breakthrough path to the Atlantic coast, which even last night was seven miles wide. They were driving the Germans down toward La Haye-du-Puits, into what appeared to be another trap.

If this spearhead takes the town of La Haye, the Germans in that area will be in another pocket – between Saint-Lô-d’Ourville and the Atlantic coast.

A third U.S. column under Bradley’s command struck south of Lison to within six miles of Saint-Lô, important rail and highway junction in the Fire River Valley.

Fighting in streets

Almost all the advances on the Normandy beachhead reported today by Supreme Headquarters were on the American side except at Tilly-sur-Seulles, 11 miles west of Caen, where a British division broke through German defenses in a small breach and was fighting in the streets of Tilly.

All along the rest of the beachhead front, there were brisk small actions as Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, Allied ground commander, built up his forces for a typical “Monty” punch backed up by thousands of big guns.

Beach areas were quiet and unloading of men and materiel proceeded at a rapid rate.

One officer returning to Britain said that it was quieter behind the lines on the beachhead than in southern England, where the Germans sent over hundreds of rocket bombs, causing casualties and damage, particularly among the civilian population.

But in six days of incessant bombardment with the new weapon, the Germans had failed to halt the dispatch of a single ship to the beachhead.

On the beachhead side, the German Air Force had virtually disappeared, which might be an indication that Marshal Erwin Rommel was conserving his forces for an all-out attack.

Using old guns

German troops in the Cherbourg area are not of the highest quality, and they have been using many horse-drawn guns. Many of which have been knocked out by Allied strafing planes.

The Germans have a strong perimeter defense around Cherbourg and undoubtedly Hitler’s orders will be to hold on to the last. There is no chance for the German garrison to escape, since the Allies control all sea and air routes.

The German-held Channel Islands, which have many heavy guns, may give the Allied western flank a good deal of trouble, but so far, U.S. and British battleships have been able to deal with any coastal defenses encountered.

While the Germans were expected to attempt destruction of the port of Cherbourg, they are unlikely to prevent its use by the allies. The naval docks, especially, are hewn out of solid rock and there is little the Germans can do against these.

‘Desert Rats’ in line

It was disclosed today that on the eastern end of the beachhead, Montgomery has under his commander the British 7th Armored Division, famed as the “Juba,” or “Desert Rat” Division.

“Monty” was apparently biding his time, as always, to launch an all-out blow to beat a way out of the beachhead and into the open country of France.

When the time comes, it is more than likely that the “Desert Rats,” who Montgomery insisted be brought to England, will be playing a major role in the assault.

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Launching area for rockets hit

U.S. heavies strikes at Pas-de-Calais bases

SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
U.S. heavy bombers 500 to 700 strong hammered Hitler’s rocket-bomb launching area at Pas-de-Calais today as more of the pilotless explosives hurtled over into England, and other big Allied planes struck heavily at German air bases in southwestern France.

Fighter-bombers, attacking at the rate of one a minute, drove home a three-ply assault in direct support of the invasion forces. One wave pounded trapped German forces on northern Cherbourg Peninsula.

Another battered communications routes to the southeast over which the Nazis were trying to reinforce their armored divisions in the Tilly-Caen sector. The third stream bombed the area north of Paris, disrupting enemy reinforcement lines.

U.S. heavy bombers slashed at rocket installations after a night assault by the RAF, in which one plane was lost, and a raid in the same area Sunday by big U.S. bombers.

Other formations hit airfield targets including Bordeaux-Mérignac, Cazaux, and Corme-Écluse near the coast west of Cognac.

A rare stretch of bad June weather was still hampering air operations.

Deception fails

Fighter-bombers blasted to pieces one concentration of several hundred Germans. Col. Donald Blakeslee’s U.S. Mustang group saw what looked like a big procession of citizens out for a ride in horse shays, but when the pilots “buzzed” the cavalcade for a closer look, German soldiers dived for cover. The ammunition-loaded “shays” were sent up in a string of firecracker explosives while horses scampered across the fields.

The Germans are apparently making increased use of horse-drawn vehicles, indicating perhaps a shortage of motor vehicles or necessity of using horses to go over or around battered roads.

More than 1,300 U.S. heavy bombers hammered oil refineries and storage points in the Hamburg area and three enemy airdromes in Northwest Germany yesterday, while 250 other heavy bombers pounded the Pas-de-Calais area.

The Germans hurled more winged bombs at southern England today, carrying their attack with these new weapons into its fifth day.

Although the German threw up a flak barrage described as one of the heaviest yet encountered, not a single enemy fighter arose to challenge the mighty U.S. aerial fleet which struck into Germany yesterday. About 500 U.S. fighters accompanied the heavy bombers.

Only two German aircraft were sighted all day yesterday by U.S. 9th Air Force Thunderbolt, Lightning and Mustang pilots, who made more than 1,000 individual flights.

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Churchill: Victory is closer

Predicts full success will come this summer

London, England (AP) –
Prime Minister Churchill, in a speech delivered at the Mexican Embassy four days ago and permitted to be published only today, said the months of this summer may “bring full success to the cause of freedom.”

He said the invasion of Normandy was a great tactical surprise to the Germans who did not know it was coming until they saw the ships and:

It may be that events will occur in the next few months which will show us whether we are soon to be released of the curse which has been laid upon us by the Germans.

The invasion was launched “in full accord” with the Russians and the decisions reached at Tehran, he added, “and although the execution of the plans adopted there is far from being complete, it is being steadily unrolled, the months of this summer may be the victories of this Allied campaign bring full success to the cause of freedom.”

Touching on political aspects of the war, the Prime Minister said efforts were being made “to achieve permanent cooperation and to build up an organization after which this war will strengthen the bonds between all our nations and will succeed in preserving peace.”

He said:

We look forward to the future in which the rights of small nations will be upheld and protected and in which the strong will use their power under the law for the protection of the weak.

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German Red Cross cars suspicious

An Allied airstrip, France (AP) –
U.S. fighter pilots grew suspicious today of the relatively large number of vehicles behind German lines bearing Red Cross markings.

Pilots said the Germans either have an abundance of wounded or are traveling under false colors.

Lt. David Fuller of Warehouse Point, Connecticut, said:

About eight out of every ten vehicles we sighted had a big Red Cross on them. That seems an unusually high percentage to me.

Pilots meticulously avoid firing on automobiles with Red Cross insignia. The only way they can make sure they are genuine is to drop low while flying 300 miles an hour or more. This is dangerous with flak batteries around.

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Yank-held beach becomes France’s busiest seaport

On a U.S.-held beach in Normandy, France (AP) –
This has suddenly become France’s busiest port.

More shipping was landed here Sunday and sent into U.S. lines then passed through Cherbourg during an entire month of normal operations.

And still it is pouring in. Liberty ships, LSTs (Landing Ships, Tanks) and converted ocean liners lie offshore by the scores with their umbrella of barrage balloons.

Their cargo bears a simple stenciled codeword for their destination. To thousands of sailors and soldiers who toil here day and night this beach is their temporary hometown. All it needs is a Chamber of Commerce.

There are no houses – just tents and foxholes.

The foxholes with boards and dirt thrown over the top are more desirable residences. The canvas G.I. tents aren’t flak-proof. Jerry comes over as soon as it gets dark and trigger-happy gun crews on the ships offshore join with the anti-aircraft lads on the beach in an ack-ack show rivaling London’s.

“There have been more killed and hurt from falling flak than from bombs,” said Lt. Col. William Hunnel of Buffalo, New York, director of operations for the Army transportation outfit at headquarters here.

One raider came in too low last night.

“He must be bucking for a sergeant or something,” said Pvt. A. M. Pollock of Brooklyn, New York, as the German plane flew threw a field of tracer fire.

A minute later, the flaming plane started a long drive into the sea.

German fortifications attract the most interest. Elaborate oil paintings on the walls of a tunnel alongside a gun show the beach and landmarks with the exact range noted alongside. The gunners didn’t have to be able to read to operate an 88mm gun.

Inside the tunnel under about 40 feet of earth are thousands of rounds of 88mm ammunition. The big shells were stored like bottles of wine. They are 1943 vintage. Four Germans still lie sprawled in front where the U.S. Rangers killed them on D-Day.

The signs of fierce battles on the beach are rapidly disappearing.

Twenty bulldozers are busy clearing roads. A detail of prisoners is collecting stray pieces of clothing, helmets, and canteens, and sorting them into huge piles. Trucks haul them away for salvage.

Road signs have gone up. Yank MPs keep the traffic moving on the right side of the road, instead of the left.

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Essary: Recalls agony of peacetime Channel crossing

Getting past French columns ordeal for veteran travelers
By Helen Essary, Central Press columnist

Washington –
The weather and the Channel tides timed the invasion of France, Allied chiefs explain. Crossing the English Channel is regarded by many people as the most disagreeable experience any traveler can have, said President Roosevelt the other day. The sea moves fast there. The waves roll high and the winds blow strong. There were tens of thousands of men to be got across the water and landed on enemy territory on the shores near Cherbourg, Le Havre and Calais, Mr. Roosevelt added.

I used to think I was landing on enemy territory even in those jolly old pre-war touring days when I tottered off the Channel boat at Cherbourg, Calais or Le Havre. Those fierce able-bodied French females who pushed me around the customs office – especially at Calais – made me feel unwanted on French territory (this is definitely an understatement).

There was no Parisian chic about these ladies. They wore no stays to bind their physical proportions. Their smacked back “cheveux” were not done according to the “dernier cri” of the Rue de Rivoli. Their broad denim aprons had not been created by Paguin nor any other couturière.

But how those women could wave their arms and yell and shove. I suspected them of being descendants of Madama La Farge, whom Charles Dickens pictured knitting in a Paris square as Le Guillotine lopped off the heads of the aristocrats.

When the news of the Nazi invasion of France startled the world four years ago, I wondered how Hitler’s warriors could have got past those custom house grenadier-esses. Bucking the French customs with their assistance was a trial to break the stiffest backbone. You always knew you were going to lose your luggage.

You knew the train on which you had a compartment (suspicious word) would leave without you because you were certain to be the last to escape from this landing madhouse.

You went stumbling up and down steps, across cobblestones – there always seemed to be so many cobblestones – across railroad tracks at the heels of strange, foreign characters. These characters fought over your bags and suspected you of concealed American cigarettes and typewriters, whose shouts you could not understand regardless of the opened Phrase Book for Travelers you held in one hand. With the other hand, you clutched an umbrella, a “lightweight” coat, a paper parcel of silver spoons you had “picked up, my dear, at one of those adorable, open-air markets in London,” a mile of colored tickets, your passport, your landing card, your pound note for which you were sure you were not going to be paid your francs’ worth at the ”exchange” wicket, and your Paris-Herald without which, if you were a true American, you never traveled for fear you would not know the “rate of exchange.”

The heavy fear of the things you had to have in order to land in France was sometimes more than an uncultured American could cope with. Especially if the wind over the Channel was blowing extra strong, I once saw a harried nervous lady tourist drop her purse and her passport over the side of the boat into the sea. The French authorities would not let her off the boat without identification. She may be there yet for all I know.

Those Channel tides were exciting and fun if you were not rocking about on their uncanny crests, so to speak. I spent a season at a small and elegant Channel resort – “Bexhill-on-Sea.”

Near Boulogne, where many of our soldiers landed on the French side, many of the beaches were sandy.

I spent one night at a spot where the swimmers, Gertrude Ederle and others, were in training. After a dinner of langouste (lobsters without the big claw), I had taken myself to bed in a many-windowed room facing the Channel.

All night long, a towering lighthouse twirled its beams across my poor face. When I had finally got to sleep, I was awakened by the noise of the tide rushing in. At low tide the beach had stretched out as wide as two blocks, it seemed to me, but now I could hear the sea charging about under the foundations of the inn. And I thought how sad it would be if I were washed out to sea in this unknown land without a friend to identify “body of drowned woman washed up on shore” like the captain’s little daughter in “The Wreck of the Hesperus.”

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Editorial: The prize

Cherbourg Peninsula assumes historic importance in this greatest of military enterprises. Allied generals saw that its possession would send the war far forward because it would mean the difference between landing men and armor on the beaches, often in rough seas, and disembarking in the security of a safe harbor.

German estimates, which may or may not be accurate, are that a half million Allied troops have been out ashore in Normandy. The landing of an army of this size, with all necessary supplies and equipment, is a miracle of human endeavor. It must not be forgotten that this task was accomplished with severe losses – losses in men, in shipping, equipment, as the littered beaches and the debris in the wash of the waves prove.

Cherbourg today is a wrecked city and a ruined port. Installations were greatly damaged by Allied attacks from the air, and the Germans completed the work of demolition. Restoration of the port to usability will not be a lengthy job, however, and possession of the city will make possible an uninterrupted flow of supplies from Britain to France as the invasion expands to ever greater proportions.

Cherbourg becomes the first great objective of Allied armies because it was assigned the role of serving as the keystone of the invasion, the source of power for steady, devastating blows which will carry the forces of liberation toward their final objective.

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LIFE (June 19, 1944)

Invasion surgeon

Gen. Hawley provides quick care for wounded
By Mary Welsh

London, England –
There are thousands of American fighting men slogging through the invasion who, next year or some year soon after, will be home again, living their lives peacefully without any dog tags. In any previous war, these same men would never go home. Their post-war identification would be a fixed cross with their name, rank and serial number.

These returning thousands will be composed of the men hospitalized for battle wounds who this time will not die. The Army Medical Corps has reduced the death rate of hospitalized wounded from 8% in World War I to 3% in World War II. There are many more casualties who, if injured in 1918, would have been long invalided. In 1944, these wounded will recover quickly and completely.

The man who, more than any other, is responsible for pushing back these margins of pain, disability and death on the second front is a solid, freckle-faced surgeon named Paul Ramsey Hawley, who is a major general in the U.S. Army. Gen. Hawley comes from College Corner, Ohio, a town he likes. He also likes precision in speech, medicine and manners, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, his job. He came to England from Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Barracks in September 1941 to study English medical methods under the Blitz. After Pearl Harbor, Hawley stayed on to become chief U.S. Army surgeon in the European Theater. As head ETO surgeon, Gen. Hawley has assembled in one vast organization some of the top U.S. talent in surgery. He has also assembled medicine and huge stores of blood plasma, sulfa drugs, penicillin and new anesthetics like sodium pentathol which can go to forward-zone hospitals because its use does not require elaborate equipment. But Gen. Hawley and his chief surgical consultant, inexhaustible Col. Elliott Cutler of Harvard’s Medical School, put only a portion of their faith in medicine alone. They know how necessary good surgery is in treating battle casualties.

Gen. Hawley has keyed his entire organization to the principle that the earlier the surgery on many types of wounds, the better the soldier’s chance of full recovery. His watchword is: “Get the surgeon to the patient, not the patient to the surgeon.” The invasion wounded will not have to undergo unnecessary feats of endurance, for Gen. Hawley has worked out a “chain of evacuation” system to insure them speedy medical treatment and surgery. His gentle-handed legions of first-aid men, litter bearers, ambulance drivers, hospital train and aircraft crews are skilled in moving casualties quickly and with expert precision. His doctors’ system of sorting wounds quickly routes soldiers in need of immediate surgery to completely equipped hospitals only a few miles behind the front.

In Gen. Hawley’s “chain of evacuation,” there are 10 halting places. In every one of them, and en route between, men may be treated according to their needs. Most wounded will bypass several of them.

The Hawley chain is composed of: 1) first-aid men, 2) litter bearers, 3) battalion aid stations, 1,000 yards or less from the front, 4) division clearing stations, about eight miles back, 5) evacuation hospitals, 15 to 30 miles behind the lines, 6) field hospitals, paralleling the evacuation hospitals, 7) hospital trains and ships, 8) station and general hospitals in secure areas where patients may remain six months if necessary, 9) convalescent hospitals, 10) the United States of America.

First-aid men, one for each platoon of infantry, move onto the battlefield just behind the fighters. In paratroop outfits they jump with the soldiers. Under shells, bombs and mortar fire, they give instant aid to the wounded. If a casualty can walk, he goes with temporary dressing to the battalion aid station by himself. If he can’t walk, the first-aid man makes him comfortable, with morphine if necessary, then directs litter bearers to him.

At battalion aid stations, doctors, working in tents or available buildings, give treatment for shock, control hemorrhage, relieve pain, administer transfusions, immobilize fractures. These numerous small units do not attempt major surgery. They simply prepare the wounded for traveling in the greatest possible comfort.

The first real wound-sorting nation in the evacuation chain is the division clearing station, whose functions are similar to those of an emergency room in big city hospitals. Here experts in wound-diagnosis decide which men need priority in travel and treatment, which can more safely wait. Meanwhile, they change dressings, check tourniquets, prevent infection, relieve pain. Most soldiers hit by ordinary bullets feel little pain for the first couple of hours.

From division clearing stations, all but the most lightly wounded move back in ambulances to evacuation hospitals, two or three hours behind the front. Here doctors are equipped to do major surgery, but since evacuation hospitals must be ready to move with the troops, they take in only men they expect to recover quickly. Annexed to each evacuation hospital is a field hospital which stays stationary longer. To these field hospitals go urgent chest and abdominal cases who will not be moved until they are out of danger.

From either evacuation or field hospitals the way back from the front is comparatively smooth. Shining, clean hospital trains and ships heavily staffed by nurses and doctors take casualties to big station and general hospitals in England where there are experts in every type of medicine and surgery, either on staff or on call. Many of these large U.S. hospitals, now quartered in Nissen huts in England, complete with their own kitchens, laundries and electric power plants, are scheduled to follow the invasion across the channel.

To save travel, the rule of the chain of evacuation is that the patient must be evacuated no farther to the rear than his condition warrants. But sulfa drugs, penicillin and other new methods of treatment now make it safe and virtually painless for many men to travel far distances before they get definitive treatment. For instance, brain wounds may cause no pain at all, since no sensory nerves are in the brain. Thus, if they are not otherwise hurt and if sulfa has been administered early, men with shrapnel in their heads may now travel straight back to the big hospital.

Gen. Hawley’s statistical staff has figured out from its African and Italian experiences, just how many of what kind of patients invasion doctors may expect and what the hazards of their injuries are. They have learned that high explosives – bombs, shells, mines and mortar – cause 82% of all wounds, small arms only 18%, and that the soldier is most apt to be hit in the arms or legs. They know, too, that 15% of all combat casualties receive abdominal, pelvic and chest wounds and that these are the cases which must be most quickly attended. In the last war, the AEF mortality rate from abdominal and pelvic wounds was 43%. During three months of hard fighting in Africa last year, the U.S. Army Medical Corps managed to hold the rate to 21%. With his mobile, forward-zone field hospitals, Gen. Hawley hopes to reduce this percentage even further. On the second front, soldiers with serious abdominal and chest wounds will reach the operating tables of these field hospitals a scant two or three hours after they are hit.

Without the strictest adherence to military precisions and what the Army calls SOP (Standard Operational Procedure), Gen. Hawley’s complex organization could never work. Except in big hospitals, a patient may never be attended by the same doctor twice. The nurse who puts on a bandage may be 50 miles away when it is taken off. To ensure that the treatment of any type of injury or illness “be continuous and conform to one plan rather than altered with each change of medical officers.” Hawley and his staff compiled a Manual of Therapy which standardizes every medical treatment and surgical operation down to the kinds of anesthetics to be given, the exact amount of drugs, types of bandages, kinds of stitches, sixes of shrapnel to be removed.

The manual recommends surgical techniques which a few years ago were considered revolutionary. Proof that these practices are correct is provided by corps of experts in toxicology, pathology, bacteriology, serology, parasitology and entomology. They deal with problems too complicated for average hospital laboratories, hunting down every evidence of unusual diseases, rare germs, worms, bugs. They are the Army’s insurance against outbreaks of food-poisoning or amebic dysentery, typhoid, dozens of other epidemics.

Some of Gen. Hawley’s specialists are searching for the cause of otitis, an inflammation of the ear which grounds a high percentage of fliers and sometimes makes them deaf. Another expert is studying the behavior of typhus virus, imported from Naples. Typhus has been reported in eastern Germany and Gen. Hawley wants all possible answers on how to treat it and the other diseases which may develop in starved, overcrowded Europe.

Just before D-Day, Gen. Hawley said of this great medical machine which he has spent two years in perfecting:

It’s like a beautiful ship, ready on the ways for launching. Let’s hope it doesn’t go aground or capsize.

As D-Day came and went and the wounded eddied quickly back from the first invasion wave to beachhead battalion aid stations and to floating hospitals completely equipped with clamped-down operating tables, it was apparent that Gen. Hawley’s “beautiful ship” was doing a beautiful job indeed on its crucial first run.

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I suspect the General’s medical approach and program was far superior to those of the Axis. Certainly more superior to those of the US Civil War when the most used tool was the saw.

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Beachheads of Normandy

The fateful battle for Europe is joined by sea and air


Americans crawl ashore through gun and artillery fire onto a French beach. Many were knocked down by the waves, lost their guns and ammunition.

The weather was not good for invasion last week along the coast of Normandy. Rain soaked the streets of the lovely old city of Caen, capital of the Norman Empire, and splashed against the gray walls of the cathedral at Bayeux. Along the beaches from Cherbourg to Le Havre fog blew in with the west wind.

But in spite of the heavy surf, troops and supplies came in by sea as paratroops and glider-borne infantry came by air to drop inland. Whenever the skies cleared, if only for an hour, Allied planes attacked the German airfields, railroads and troop concentrations. By the end of the week, the American beachhead at the mouth of the Vire had been consolidated with the British beachhead to the west of the Orne, Bayeux and Isigny had been captured and there was heavy fighting near Caen. Within four days after the first landings, U.S. Thunderbolts and RAF Spitfires were flying from airfields in France.

By week’s end, too, the first strategic objectives of the campaign had emerged. The Allies were trying to take Cherbourg as fast as possible. According to the Germans, from whom most news of the actual fighting was still coming, the Allies had made three new tank landings and had dropped paratroops near Lessay in an attempt to sever the Cherbourg Peninsula. Meanwhile, also according to the Germans, who threatened to stop giving out news unless the Allies gave out more news, the Allies were fighting east of Montebourg, less than 15 miles could be crossed, the Allies would have one of France’s best ports – used extensively by Americans in the last war – where supplies could be landed and whence an attack on Paris could be mounted.

While the weather was still had, the whole attack, supplies and all, moved slowly. Gen. Montgomery, field commander for the U.S., British and Canadian armies, moved his headquarters to France. Gen. Eisenhower called a council of war on a battleship off the French coast. By prearrangement, Gen. Marshall, Gen. Arnold and Adm. King turned up in London to get a closer look at what was going on. The fighting grew more desperate, the tempo of thrust and counterthrust more furious. Caen held out stubbornly against British attacks. The success of the invasion was still not certain. The Germans had 50 divisions at their disposal in France and their Luftwaffe had still not thrown in its strength, whatever its strength might be. The Allies had other armies to throw into the battle for Cherbourg or into landings on other beaches along the invasion coast.

The pictures were taken by LIFE photographer Robert Capa who went in with the first wave of troops. Although the first reports of landings indicated little opposition, his pictures show how violent the battle was and how strong the German defenses. His best pictures were made when he photographed the floundering American doughboys advancing through the deadly hail of enemy fire to goals on the beaches of Normandy.


The first wave of U.S. assault troops race through boiling surf to the beach. From the higher ground tapping machine guns have brought down several men in the water. This landing was one of the U.S. seaborne attacks made on June 6 between Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue and Isigny.


Troops crouch behind shallow-water obstacles installed by Germans. Tanks out of camera field to the right move up to silence German fire. These men waited for second wave of boats, then followed the tanks up the beach. Two landing craft may be dimly seen at left.


Crawling through the water, U.S. soldier edges toward the beach. Immense excitement of moment made photographer Capa move his camera and blur picture. The Germans were still pouring machine-gun and shellfire down on the beach, apparently from concrete pillboxes.


Men in the second wave also take cover until all their boats have come in. Behind them men are jumping into water to their necks. Their heads can be seen just above surface. Combat engineers cleared lanes through obstacles farther offshore so that boats could get in.


Thin black line of invasion force assembles on the beach for push against German positions on heights, obscured by haze and battle smoke. Men pause on beach to get water out of their equipment and to make sure that another wave is following so they will not be cut off.


Loaded with four vehicles, a U.S. LCT cruises easily toward shore. Plume of white smoke drifting across beach is from smoke shells laid down by naval guns to screen landing forces outlined against the smoke at right is an LCT (Landing Craft, Infantry).


The scene of battle was overhung by dark, heavy clouds, dirty weather, which hampered Allied air cover, whipped up six-foot waves in the Channel. During the crossing, many of the men became violently ill. But despite their illness, they were quietly and effectively heroic. The ships shown in this picture are only the forward fringe of enormous armada which carried the landing force to France. Larger craft offshore were unloaded by smaller boats. Some were unloaded by giant “rhino” rafts made of rectangular steel chambers bolted together.

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Casualties

Ships bring back wounded and dead


In Coast Guard LCT, medical officer, wearing two bars on his big Navy-type helmet, prepares to give transfusion to crewman hit by German shell fragments.

After photographer Capa made the acutely real landing pictures which appear on the preceding five pages, he left the hazardous beach in a Coast Guard LCT which was evacuating the wounded and dead to a hospital ship standing offshore. As he waded out to get aboard, his cameras were thoroughly soaked. By some miracle, one of them was not too badly damaged and he was able to keep making pictures. The excitement was not over by a long shot.

As Capa’s LCT pulled away from the beach, it was hit three times by shells from German shore batteries. Several of the Coast Guard crew were killed and others seriously wounded. The boat began to list badly, but it managed to get back to the hospital ship. There, most of the wounded were taken off, despite the list and heavy seas. One man, however, was too seriously hurt to be moved, and it was necessary for a medical officer to give him a plasma transfusion on the spot. As he prepared to do this, Capa snapped the picture shown above. The next picture, showing a few of the first men to fall in the invasion of Europe, was made by Capa after he had boarded the hospital ship.


The first dead of the invasion, shrouded in white bags, are laid in neat rows on the deck of a U.S. hospital ship, which takes them back to English graves.

Although the extent of the U.S. casualties in the Normandy landings has not yet been announced, they were generally lighter than expected. The wounded have received magnificent care. The evacuation chain set up by Maj. Gen. Paul R. Hawley, head ETO surgeon, appeared to be working smoothly. Invasion reporters who never got to France at all found a minor epic in the return of the wounded to English ports on the day after the first assault. Some of them walked off the ships, with their uniforms torn and their bandages hastily applied, but swiftly and safely carried out of the battle zone. Others came on stretchers carried by Negro litter bearers, their personal belongings piled beside them. some carried their boots, with French sand still clinging to the soles, on their litters. Many spoke of fine work done by medical men on the beaches. Said one man, “They’re right in there, giving morphine and bandaging wounds while the bullets whiz past their ears.” Another report told of a difficult abdominal operation performed in a pitching LST under improvised lights.

Three wounded Canadians chose an unorthodox but astonishingly simple method of getting themselves to a hospital in England. According to a dispatch to the New York Times, they walked out of a dockyard to which they had been brought and hailed a taxi. Their leader, Lt. C. R. Bond of the Royal Canadian Navy, said to hospital attendants, “We’re back from France.”