Operation OVERLORD (1944)

[NormanStewart]

The Brooklyn Eagle (June 25, 1944)

Yanks seize last Cherbourg heights

Hundreds of foe are captured as city’s fall nears
By Edward W. Beattie

SHAEF, London, England (UP) –
U.S. infantrymen captured the last heights overlooking Cherbourg and stormed down the slopes to within 1,000 yards of the flaming port today, sweeping up hundreds of exhausted prisoners and huge quantities of arms and ammunition abandoned by the retreating Germans.

Battered and stunned by the hellfire of bombs and shells rained on them from land, sea and air, the Nazi defenders still fought back with fanatical fury, but front dispatches said Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s Yankee veterans were beating them back foot by foot into a narrowing deathtrap inside the city.

Two of the three forts on the southern approaches to the port fell to the attacking Americans yesterday and United Press war correspondent Henry T. Gorrell reported from the battlefield that the last hours of Cherbourg’s siege were at hand.

Massed batteries of German 88mm cannon were firing over open sights into the ranks of the attacking Americans, while hundreds of hidden enemy machine guns fired incessantly from the farmhouses and fields bordering the main highway into Cherbourg.

Bradley’s doughboys were slugging their way through the maze of enemy defenses, however, and there were indications that the four-day assault had knocked much of the fight out of the 30,000-odd Germans holding the port.

Two Nazi generals dead

Two of their divisional generals were dead and front dispatches said hundreds of exhausted captives were being marched back into U.S. lines through a gantlet of jeering French peasants.

Late Saturday, the doughboys launched a final attack from their newly-won heights under a ringing order to “Push the b******* over and walk into town.” With a bayonet charge, they captured a huge stronghold of 16 subterranean rooms which had somehow absorbed the shock of the tremendous three-dimensional bombardment.

Henry T. Gorrell of the United Press watched the charge from an observation point itself only two kilometers (just over a mile) from Cherbourg. Earlier he flew over the besieged city in a Piper Cub observation plane and reported seeing the Americans “advancing en masse toward their final objectives.” “The infantry’s advance is rapid,” Gorrell said.

Nazis may try sea dash

He also noted a number of German ships in the harbor, possibly meaning that the enemy would make other evacuation attempts like Saturday’s pre-dawn getaway aboard seven small merchant ships escorted by E-boats and armed landing craft.

The British blockade patrol promptly sank two of the vessels, seriously damaged three others and left them wallowing helplessly off Cherbourg, while the remaining two succeeded in running through to Alderney in the Channel Islands. The British forces suffered superficial damage and a small number of casualties.

Supreme Headquarters said that if the enemy garrison did not surrender within a few hours, the fighting might develop into slow and costly street battles.

Americans reach heights

Gorrell reported from the front, however, that the Americans reached heights overlooking the city at 3:20 a.m. with only slight resistance.

About 1,250 Germans had surrendered in the Cherbourg area in 24 hours, and this fact, plus the enemy’s failure to react to the breaching of the port’s perimeter defenses, “indicates a rapid deterioration of the enemy morale and ability to defend Cherbourg much longer,” a front dispatch said.

More than 300 Marauder medium bombers saturated Cherbourg’s defenses in a series of raids before noon, but a thick weather front precluded almost all aerial support in the afternoon.

Citadel spouts flame

Richard McMillan of the United Press said long-range cannon, field artillery, naval guns, tanks and infantry as well as planes were “all massing fire upon the citadel, which is belching smoke and flames as the Germans attempt to destroy it.”

Fires were burning in the center of the city and at several points east and south of it, according to a London Evening News dispatch, by a correspondent who flew over the front. The reporter said:

There was an air of fateful brooding over Cherbourg, but there were no signs of the battle which was raging in the suburbs. The enemy, one felt, was like a rat in a hole nervously awaiting the fate soon to overtake him.

German broadcasts admitted Saturday that the Americans had managed to capture several strongholds, breaking into Cherbourg’s outer defenses at three points through the use of heavy shellfire. The Allied command is using 10 divisions in the assault on the fortress, Berlin asserted.

The German DNB Agency said particularly heavy fighting was raging for Cherbourg’s airdrome west of the city, which had been under Allied shellfire for several days and hence no longer useable by the Luftwaffe.

The U.S. column, which slugged its way north of La Mare à Canards, had advanced more than a mile in 36 hours of grueling fighting from one German strongpoint to another.

At Allied headquarters, where reports are apt to be up to 24 hours old, it was stated that the Germans, including 40-year-old coastal defense crews who had been thrown into the line, were battling savagely with no sign of a surrender. The Germans in and around the town number 30,000 at a minimum, it was said, including marine units, Todt Organization workers and dockhands.

They include the remnants of four divisions – the 91st, the 77th, 70th and 243rd Divisions, the last named composed mostly of Bavarians and Austrians.

The commanders of the 91st, a Gen. Falley, and of the 243rd, Gen. Hellmich, have been killed in the battle for Cherbourg, headquarters announced.

The 77th Division suffered heavily when it tried to break through as the Americans cut across the base of the Cherbourg Peninsula. A few units got through but the bulk fell back to Cherbourg with bloody losses.

There were few changes elsewhere on the French invasion front except that northeast of Caen, the British captured the wrecked village of Sainte-Honorine-la-Chardronette after heavy fighting in which 12 German tanks were knocked out.

The bulk of four German tank divisions is concentrated around Caen, the primary counterattack area for the Germans if Field Marshal Erwin Rommel should try to compensate for the loss of Cherbourg by wiping out the east part of our bridgehead.

[NormanStewart]

Gorrell: Norman countryside set afire by big guns

Massed batteries fire into onrushing Yanks; peasants hand out cognac to doughboys
By Henry T. Gorrell

Outside Cherbourg, France (UP) – (June 24, 7:10 p.m. CET)
U.S. troops battering the Germans back along the flaming road to Cherbourg were within 1,000 yards of the port tonight, and the order has gone out to our infantry: “Push the b******* over and walk into the town.”

From a vantage point on the road overlooking Cherbourg, I see massed batteries of German 88s firing over open sights into the onrushing Americans.

The whole countryside seems to be on fire from a frightful storm of bombs and shells. Flames are licking up the slopes of the hills dominating the city.

Sound resembles surf’s roar

The roar of small-arms fire rolling back from hand-to-hand fighting just down the road resembles the roar of surf on a rocky shore during a tropical storm.

The Germans have dug into the outlying houses around Cherbourg and are covering the roads with machine-gun fire while their heavy artillery is trying to halt the main American forces closing in from the south and southwest.

As I joined the forward companies moving up for the assault, I saw dozens of subterranean concrete and steel pillboxes that had been bypassed in the initial sweep and mopped up later.

Dead as yet unburied

Black smoke mushroomed up from the ruined pillboxes and the Germans, Poles and Russians who manned them are piled up in grotesque heaps of dead or crammed into nearby prison-cages, trembling in terror at the crash of their own shells.

In the heat of the battle, there has been no time to pick up even American dead, let alone enemy dead, and the bodies of fallen Germans lie in roadside ditches covered with blood-soaked coats and blankets.

The advance is progressing under the personal direction of an American general who many times today escaped death by the narrowest of margins.

French peasants who remained in their partially ruined farmhouses as the battle of Cherbourg swirled around them are dashing back and forth, handing out cognac to tired frontline doughboys.

Fighting is going on all around this post, but the peasants line the road to watch hundreds of captured Germans streaming back to the rear.

French hoot Nazi prisoners

Many of the peasants hoot derisively at the Nazis and draw their hands across their throats, yelling “Dirty Boches!”

All indications tonight are that the siege of Cherbourg is entering its final hours. The Germans must now surrender or die fighting in the streets. Militarily, Cherbourg is untenable.

Word has just come back that the doughboys have fought their way across the pillbox-studded heights overlooking the port, where the Germans had their last major defense line.

Poked dynamite down periscope

The captain of an infantry company told me how Cpl. John D. Kelly knocked out a pillbox with concrete and steel walls six feet thick.

The captain said:

We were pinned down by machine guns with dead and wounded all around us when I saw this guy carrying a long pole. It was Kelly with his pole charges – long sticks with a charge of dynamite on the end.

He dropped three or four of them down the hole where the periscope sticks out of the pillbox and smoked the Heinies out. He did all this under heavy fire.

[NormanStewart]

Germans threaten 10–1 ‘reprisal’ on U.S. captives

By the United Press

A German DNB Agency broadcast, reported to the United Press Saturday by the FCC, quoted a German High Command announcement that it had received reports that the Allies were shooting Nazi prisoners taken around Cherbourg and threatened a 10–1 reprisal on U.S. prisoners “if these reports should prove true.”

The German broadcast followed by a day the disclosure in Commons by Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden that the British government had full evidence showing the Germans murdered in cold blood 50 Allied war prisoners after they tried to escape from a prison camp near Breslau last March and that “exemplary justice” would be meted out to the guilty after the war.

[NormanStewart]

4 U.S. bomber fleets blast France, Germany and Balkans

Yanks rake robot ramps, rail targets
By Walter Cronkite

SHAEF, London, England (UP) – (June 24)
Four flights of U.S. heavy bombers blasted France, Germany and the Balkans today, maintaining constant aerial assault on European on rail targets, airfields and the Calais rocket coast and Cherbourg Peninsula in France.

Three heavy bomber task forces sallied from Britain. The first pounded airfields and rail bridges: the second struck in Northwest Germany. and third hit nine robot bomb installations near Calais and switching stations near Boulogne.

The assault on the robot bomb ramps was the tenth by the heavyweights of the 8th Air Force this week, following an earlier raid by Havocs and Thunderbolt dive bombers. The Thunderbolts, providing top cover for the bombers, followed the Havocs’ bombs down in steep dives, loosening loads of heavy demolition bombs.

A third assault on the flying bomb installations was made by a daylight flight of British Lancasters and Halifaxes, escorted by fighters. One bomber was lost.

The day’s bomber operations opened with an attack on Cherbourg’s crumbling defenses by Marauders, which roared out at daylight to pitch 250 tons of bombs on four groups of heavy German guns, delaying the final lunge of ground troops into the prize port.

The once heavily-defended city greeted the Marauders with only slight ground fire and there was no enemy interception.

Although the sky was nearly clear of German aircraft, one squadron of Spitfires flown by Norwegian pilots engaged 12 Me 109s over Caen and shot down four without loss. Six of 15 Me 109s found aground on an airdrome in France were destroyed.

Meanwhile, numerous formations of 9th Air Force dive bombers and rocket-firing fighters of the RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force roared out over France to attack a series of rail targets ranging in a wide 200-mile arc from the Paris area to Granville on the south coast of Cherbourg Peninsula.

[NormanStewart]

Gorrell: Twisted steel and battle debris mark Nazi boast at Cherbourg

By Henry T. Gorrell

In a Piper Club over the Cherbourg battlefront, France (UP) – (June 24)
This Grasshopper spotter plane is tickling along only a few hundred feet above the battlefield on which the Americans are contesting with the German defenders of Cherbourg.

Below, I can see American infantrymen advancing en masse along winding roads and across fields pockmarked by huge bomb craters toward their final objectives.

From the heights dominating Cherbourg southward, I saw only one German strongpoint still firing. What had once been a formidable line of fortifications in depth is now just a part of the steadily piling debris of battle.

As this tiny ship hovers like a seagull over the battlefront, I can look down into the remains of scores of German strongpoints with what had been fine guns of all calibers, now just a mass of twisted steel.

Gun crews are corpses

No one is manning these guns. Their crews are corpses amid the wreckage, like ants after you’ve walked down their hill.

The front line shortly after noon appears to be along the heights to the north of La Mare à Canards, from which the last German gun emplacements are firing at the advancing doughboys. There are other guns firing from the Cherbourg valley and from concrete platforms on the east side of the Cherbourg Harbor. I can see the flash of the guns and the bursts of their big shells in the smoke of the charred hilltops where our advanced infantry is pushing.

The pilot of this Cub is Lt. Peter A. Daly, 8148 Woodhaven Blvd., Glendale, Long Island. He is giving firing orders to our batteries of Long Toms a few thousand yards to the rear of the ground across which we fly.

Watches for shells to hit

He pinpoints the enemy targets and then watches for the burst of our shell.

“On the way.” comes the message from below. “Firing for effect… How’s that?” “Perfect,” Daly replies. “Pump it to them.”

Entire hillsides are aflame, sending up columns of gray-brown smoke. Medium and P-47 bombers have just been over this area, showing tremendous brown scars of craters against the green cow pastures. I can smell the smoke and feel the concussion.

Dives to avoid flak

Suddenly the German ack-ack opens up on us. Daly shouts, “Flak,” and then points to a shell burst a few yards off our left wing.

He throws the Cub into a power dive. I’m wishing right now that I could retract my head into my shoulders as the Germans send flak and tracers after us.

We seem to float downward, but eventually we are hedgehopping along the treetops out of range. That gives me an excellent view of shattered pillboxes, farmhouses and knocked-out enemy guns and vehicles.

Daly starts up again and we are floating over Cherbourg. Our artillery is pouring shells into the outskirts and there are fires in the center of the city.

Ships, railyards smashed

In the harbor are a number of ships, apparently German. The railyards are a jumble of broken locomotives and cars.

Swinging back over the battle line, we see a double line of dough boys walking slowly up the sides of a road lined with broken pillboxes and wrecked German transport. The troops are under heavy shellfire, but they keep slogging forward.

Beyond is a green hillside with the wreckage of an American Thunderbolt strewn over several hundred yards.

It seems that every crossroad south of Cherbourg has taken a direct bomb hit and is piled high with wrecked German vehicles, motor and horse.

Heading back, the radiophone warns us, “There’s a plane just behind you.” I feel again as if I’d like to haul in my head, expecting the crash of .50-caliber machine-gun slugs in the fuselage. But it’s only another spotter plane coming in for a landing in the French pasture, which is our airport.

[NormanStewart]

Völkischer Beobachter (June 26, 1944)

Französische Passion 1944

Von Kriegsberichter Fritz Zierke

pk. In Caen, 25. Juni –
Nun sind die Gewitter des Krieges, die seit Wochen ihre Vorboten über den Himmel Frankreichs geschickt hatten, mit wilder Wut losgebrochen, und sie rasen grausamer, als es die finstersten Seher vorausschauend verkündet hatten. Denn es gibt Grenzen der menschlichen Vorstellung, über die nicht einmal die Fieberträume der Furcht hinausdringen, es gibt Wirklichkeiten, die erst dann ihre ganze Abgründigkeit offenbaren, wenn sie den Menschen in ihren Strudel reißen. In einen solchen Abgrund blickt heute Frankreich – und ein Zittern geht durch seinen gepeinigten Leib.

Bis an die Schwelle des vergangenen Frühjahres war Frankreich von den schlimmsten Schrecken des Krieges verschont geblieben – mehr als jedes andere der großen europäischen Länder. Als wir in sechs Wochen von der Maginotlinie zum Atlantik flogen, zeigte der Krieg noch ein menschlicheres Antlitz. Nirgends, es sei denn in Serbien und Griechenland, hinterließ er weniger tiefe Spuren. Nur dort, wo wir die ersten Breschen in das feindliche Land schlugen und wo der Gegner, bereits schwankend, sich noch einmal zu aussichtslosem Widerstand stellte, an der Maas und an der Somme, an der Seine und der Aisne, sanken Dörfer in Schutt, fiel auch in einige Städte die Brandfackel der Schlachten, aber das alles wirkte doch wie ein Spuk, der ebenso rasch verflog, wie er kam. Und so blickten wir damals halb fragend auf die Karawanen der Flüchtlinge, die sich über alle Straßen des Landes wälzten.

Wovor flohen sie? Nicht eigentlich vor der Wirklichkeit des Krieges, die weit weniger grausam war als ihr Wahn, sondern vor Gespenstern, die eine aberwitzige Schreckpropaganda ihrer Regierung entfesselt hatte. Und schon auf dem Wege, als der Krieg, schneller als ihre den Schritt beflügelnde Angst, sie überholte, wurden sie ihrer Täuschung inne. Sie kehrten, erleichtert, ernüchtert, zum Teil beschämt und verbittert in ihre Dörfer und Städte zurück, und nur sehr wenige fanden verbrannte Erde und Ruinen vor, wo sie blühende Felder und freundliche Häuser verlassen hatten.

An jene Flüchtlingsscharen des Jahres 1940 mußten wir auf Schritt und Tritt denken, als uns der Krieg nun abermals durch die französische Landschaft trug. Ein verwandtes Bild und doch ganz anders. Damals fuhren sie in großen Lastwagen mit hochbeladenen Fuhrwerken, in Zügen ohne Ende strömten sie dahin, um von ihrem Besitz zu retten, was sich retten ließ – heute wandern sie einzeln, mit bescheidensten Kartons, mit einem Bett, manche nur mit ihrer letzten, freilich schönsten Habe, ihren kleinen Kindern, die Landstraßen entlang. Damals waren sie sinnlos davongestürzt, ohne zwingende Not, heute gingen die meisten, als es zu spät war. Oft genug war an sie die Aufforderung gelangt, ihre gefährdeten Städte zu verlassen – aber sie wollten ihr nicht folgen. War es die stille, feste Liebe zur Heimat, Haus und Herd vor allem, die sie festhielt – war es der trügerische Glaube, daß auch diesmal alles weniger schlimm kommen würde? Die sich diesem Wahn hingaben, sind inzwischen fürchterlich erwacht – sie wissen jetzt, wie es aussieht, wenn Briten und Amerikaner ihre Kreuzzüge für Menschlichkeit und „Freiheit von Not“ führen.

Es ist an dieser Stelle bereits an einem der ungeheuerlichsten Beispiele – an einem freilich nur neben anderen – aufgezeigt worden, mit welchen Methoden die Horden der Invasion über die Städte tief im Hinterland der Front hergefallen sind. (Vergleiche „VB.“ vom 15. Juni: „Das Verbrechen von Saint-Lô.“) Was damals, drei Tage nach Beginn des feindlichen Angriffs, in den Elementen sichtbar wurde, läßt sich heute im Gesamtbild erfassen – und dies Bild ist für Frankreich wahrhaft erschreckend. Zehn Tage Invasionsschlacht haben dem Lande bereits tiefere Wunden geschlagen als die sechs Wochen des Sommerfeldzuges von 1940 – und dabei feiert die Zerstörungswut der anglo-amerikanischen Geschwader täglich neue Orgien und verschlingt eine Stadt nach der anderen. Soviel ist bei jedem denkenden Franzosen im eigentlichen Kriegsgebiet und im weiteren Hinterlande der Front inzwischen klargeworden: wenn der Krieg in den bisherigen Formen weitergeht und wenn unsere Gegner sich tiefer in das Land hineinbohren könnten, so wäre das gleichbedeutend mit dem Ende Frankreichs.

Was die Normandie, eine der Kernprovinzen des Landes, heute schon an seelischer und materieller Substanz eingebüßt hat, läßt sich noch gar nicht ermessen. Der einfache Mann sieht und empfindet vielleicht nicht einmal so sehr den unwiederbringlichen Verlust einiger der stolzesten und reichsten Einzeldenkmäler der französischen Geschichte und Kunst – er beklagt vor allem die radikale Austilgung ganzer Landstädte und Zehntausender von Menschen, die unter ihren Trümmern begraben wurden, überall dort, wo sich wichtigere Durchgangsstraßen kreuzten, setzten Eisenhower und sein britischer Beigeordneter für den Luftkrieg ihre Bomber mit einer Rücksichtslosigkeit ein, für die selbst dieser Krieg kein Beispiel kennt. Niemals ist für einen derartig geringen militärischen Nutzeffekt – denn eine Unterbrechung des Straßenverkehrs ist bei dem engmaschigen und ausgezeichnet gepflegten französischen Netz ein Ding der Unmöglichkeit – die Flut absoluter Vernichtung gleich skrupellos und gleich mörderisch entfesselt worden. Es gibt ein rundes Dutzend normannischer Städte, die buchstäblich nur noch Trümmerhaufen sind. In Saint-Lô versucht man vergeblich zu erkennen, wo früher die Hauptstraßen verliefen – der frühere Stadtkern ist nur noch ein wildes Gemisch von Trichtern und Steinen, er ist nicht einmal, sondern mehrfach von Bomben ungeheuren Kalibers umgepflügt worden.

Niemals wieder, dass ahnen die Flüchtlinge, die diesen Stätten des Grauens als letzte den Rücken kehren, wird aus den Ruinen neues Leben erblühen. Wenn das deutsche Volk im Angesicht seiner ausgebrannten Städte den festen Glauben hegt, daß mit den Glocken des Friedens zugleich die Stunde des Wiederaufbauens schlagen wird – woher soll Frankreich die Kraft zu einem solchen umfassenden Werk nehmen? Verfielen nicht schon vor dem Kriege, im Wohlstand seines Überflusses, in seinen fruchtbarsten Landschaften stattliche Bauernhöfe von ehedem starben in den von der Natur stiefmütterlicher behandelten Departements nicht ganze Gemeinden ab, weil die nachlassende Volkskraft einfach nicht mehr ausreichte, das Bestehende zu erhalten? Und bis zu welcher Höhe werden die blutigen Verluste des französischen Volkes in diesem Kriege noch ansteigen? Schon heute kann man rechnen, daß allein die die Invasion vorbereitende Bombenoffensive und die ersten zehn Tage des Invasionsfeldzuges selbst 40.000 Franzosen das Leben gekostet haben. Wer die chaotischen Massengräber gesehen hat, in die sich ganze normannische Städte in wenigen Stunden verwandelten, wird geneigt sein zu bezweifeln, ob diese Zahl nicht weit hinter der Wirklichkeit zurückbleibt.

Die Gefühle, mit denen die französische Nation dieses Schauspiel der Vernichtung begleitet, lassen sich schwerlich auf eine einfache und allgemeingültige Formel bringen. Soviel ist gewiss, daß in den geschändeten Landstrichen selbst der Haß gegen England und die USA in wenigen Tagen zu einer Flamme angeschwollen ist, die nicht mehr erlöschen wird. Englische Gefangene waren bestürzt über die Drohungen und Verwünschungen, die ihnen auf ihrem Marsch durch die französischen Dörfer entgegenhallten – die Rolle der Befreier, in der Roosevelt und Churchill aufzutreten gedachten, ist schon gründlich ausgespielt. Sicherlich waren die französischen Massen in einem bis zur Selbstverleugnung gehenden Maß bereit, manche von den Handlungen unserer Feinde als ein Gebot kriegerischer Notwendigkeit zu entschuldigen – der Krieg aber, den die Anglo-Amerikaner nun nach Frankreich getragen haben, findet bei keinem mehr, der ihn sah oder gar am eigenen Leibe erlebte, Fürsprache und Verzeihung.

Wir sahen die verängstigten Flüchtlinge, die sich in die Straßengräben kauerten oder im tarnenden Buschwerk verkrochen, sobald sie nur das Geräusch eines amerikanischen Flugzeuges in der Luft vernahmen. In den ersten Tagen hatten einzelne Optimisten noch geglaubt, sie würden verschont bleiben von den Menschenjägern der demokratischen Welt, wenn sie mit weißen Tüchern oder mit Fahnen des Roten Kreuzes ihre Wagen und Karren kenntlich machten. In der Wahllösigkeit des mechanisierten Mordes verflogen bald die letzten Illusionen. Der Mann, der die Leiche seiner schönen jungen Frau aus der Hölle des brennenden Saint-Lô fuhr, sagte kein Wort in seinem gefrorenen Schmerz, aber seine Mitbürger, die gesehen hatten, wie die Beklagenswerte an seiner Seite auf offener Straße von einem Tiefflieger mit dem Maschinengewehr umgebracht worden war, als sie nebeneinander aufrecht dahingingen, riefen in wildem Grimm die Rache des Himmels auf die Mörder herab.

Niemals verspürte man aus einem politischen Gespräch mit Franzosen in der jüngsten Vergangenheit eine heißere Leidenschaft und tiefere Wahrheit, als aus dem Aufschrei einer alleinstehenden Frau, die mit tränenden Augen auf die Ruinen ihres Dorfes blickte – dabei hatte ein gnädiges Schicksal ihr eigenes Anwesen verschont. „Wenn ihr Deutschen diesen Krieg nicht gewinnen solltet,“ so sprach sie, „so will ich nur für eines am Leben bleiben: Ich will noch den Tag sehen, an dem Stalin auch die Engländer auffrisst. Sie haben es doppelt verdient, an euch so gut wie an uns!“

Es wäre falsch, wollte man diese Gefühle und die Regungen tätiger Vergeltung in der französischen Seele verallgemeinern, wenn auch im Kampfgebiet selbst der deutsche Soldat heute eine Hilfsbereitschaft findet wie nie zuvor, wenn die Wünsche der weit überwiegenden Mehrheit der Bevölkerung für den Sieg unserer Waffen ehrlich sind und aus tieferer Quelle entspringen als der Hoffnung, nur so den vollen Schrecken des Krieges zu entrinnen. Abseits des Feldes der Not und Verwüstung scheint das französische Volk noch kaum erfaßt zu haben, daß heute auf den Fluren der Normandie sein Schicksal im Spiele ist. Die lahme Tatenlosigkeit des Abwartens, die seit dem Zusammenbruch von 1940 Frankreichs Tun und Denken kennzeichnet, liegt selbst in diesen Stunden der Entscheidung wie ein Schleier über dem Lande, und die Brandsäulen von Rouen und Caen, von Flers und Falaise wirken nicht weiter, als ihr feuriger Schein reicht. Es ist, als müsse die anglo-amerikanische Sintflut noch tiefer in das Land einbrechen, ehe Frankreich hinter den künstlichen Deichen seiner selbstmörderischen Ruhe erwacht. Der Weg der französischen Passion ist noch nicht an seiner letzten Station angelangt – und selbst in Frankreichs besten Herzen wohnt nicht der feste Glaube, sondern banger Zweifel, ob er sein krönendes Ende in einer Auferstehung findet.

[NormanStewart]

Schwere Abwehrkämpfe im Osten –
Beispielhafte Tapferkeit der Verteidiger Cherbourgs

Fortsetzung des schweren Störungsfeuers auf London und seine Außenbezirke

dnb. Führerhauptquartier, 25. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Im Kampfraum der Festung Cherbourg erlitt der Feind gestern bei seinen Angriffen gegen unsere Widerstandstruppen, die mit beispielhafter Tapferkeit aushalten, besonders schwere Verluste. Erst nachdem in den Abendstunden südwestlich und südöstlich Cherbourg einige unserer Stützpunkte nach erbitterten Nahkämpfen verlorengingen, konnte der Gegner dort die Stadtränder erreichen. Im Raum von Tilly trat der Feind mit starken Kräften zum Angriff an. Die Kämpfe sind dort in vollem Gange.

Unsere Küstenbatterien griffen trotz schweren Feuers der feindlichen Schiffsartillerie und rollender Luftangriffe wirksam in die Erdkämpfe ein. Außerdem erzielten sie mehrere Treffer auf feindlichen Kreuzern und Zerstörern.

Im Ostteil der Seinebucht schossen Heeresküstenbatterien einen Transporter von 5.000 BRT in Brand. Ein feindlicher Monitor und mehrere feindliche Kriegsschiffe wurden zum Abdrehen gezwungen. Nach Minentreffern ging im gleichen Seegebiet ein feindlicher Zerstörer unter, ein weiterer größerer Transporter geriet in Brand.

Unsere Schnellboote und Vorpostenstreitkräfte erzielten im Gefecht mit feindlichen Seestreitkräfte Treffer auf Zerstörern und Schnellbooten.

Fernkampfbatterien der Kriegsmarine vernichteten im Kanal vor Dover einen feindlichen Frachter von 7.000 BRT.

Schweres Störungsfeuer lag weiterhin auf London und seinen Außenbezirken.

In Mittelitalien griff der Feind gestern im Westabschnitt unsere Front erneut an mehreren Stellen mit starken Kräften an. Nach schweren Kämpfen, die sich bis zum Abend hinzogen, konnte der Feind im Küstenabschnitt unsere Linien wenige Kilometer zurückdrücken. An den übrigen Stellen wurden alle Angriffe zerschlagen.

Im Osten stehen unsere Divisionen im gesamten mittleren Frontabschnitt im schweren Abwehrkampf gegen die mit starken Infanterie-, Panzer- und Luftstreitkräften geführte Offensive der Sowjets. Es gelang dem Feind nur östlich Mogilew, an der Smolensker Rollbahn und besonders im Raum von Witebsk seine Einbrüche zu erweitern. An allen anderen Stellen brach der feindliche Ansturm nach harten, wechselvollen Kämpfen blutig zusammen. 252 feindliche Panzer wurden vernichtet.

Jäger und Flakartillerie brachten 42 sowjetische Flugzeuge zum Absturz.

Zwischen Polock und Pleskau führten die Bolschewisten zahlreiche vergebliche Angriffe, bei denen weitere 27 Panzer abgeschossen wurden.

Ein nordamerikanischer Bomberverband griff erneut rumänisches Gebiet an und warf Bomben im Raum von Ploesti. Deutsche, rumänische und bulgarische Luftverteidigungskräfte vernichteten 23 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 20 viermotorige Bomber.

Nordamerikanische Bomber führten in den gestrigen Mittagsstunden einen Terrorangriff gegen Bremen. Es entstanden Schäden in Wohnvierteln. Die Bevölkerung hatte Verluste.

In der Nacht warfen einzelne britische Flugzeuge Bomben im Raum von Berlin.

Durch Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden über dem Reichsgebiet und den besetzten Westgebieten bei Tage und in der Nacht 59 feindliche Flugzeuge vernichtet.

[NormanStewart]

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 26, 1944)

Communiqué No. 41

The liberation of CHERBOURG cannot be long delayed. Allied troops are fighting in the streets and by yesterday afternoon had reached the sea within a mile of the port on the east side.

During a day of fierce fighting with the support of naval bombardment, enemy strongpoints were reduced one by one and the town was entered at many points simultaneously. The mopping-up of other portions of the original outer defenses continues.

In the eastern sector, our progress in the FONTENAY area was maintained and our positions were further strengthened.

Further enemy counterattacks near SAINTE-HONORINE were beaten back.

Our Air Forces continued their attacks on the enemy’s supply system during the afternoon and evening yesterday and also gave immediate support to the land and naval forces assaulting CHERBOURG.

The railway network east and south of NORMANDY was subjected to many attacks. Targets included the railway yards at DREUX and CHARTRES and bridges and embankments in the same area.

Air fields at BRÉTIGNY and VILLACOUBLAY were bombed and a large formation of medium bombers attacked supply dumps in the SENONCHES area with good results.

Enemy opposition was on a limited scale yesterday though flak was intense at many points.

Troop concentrations south of CAEN were bombed last night.

---

Communiqué No. 42

Street fighting continues in CHERBOURG. The Germans are resisting desperately but the town is steadily being cleared.

In the northeastern tip of the peninsula, little opposition has been met. To the northwest in the CAP DE LA HAGUE area, there is still some enemy strength.

Progress has been made in the FONTENAY sector, east of TILLY, after heavy fighting and our positions are improved.

More than 20,000 prisoners have been taken in the beachhead since the landings.

Dense cloud and fog over the continent today brought our air operations to a virtual standstill.

Last night, two enemy aircraft were destroyed by our patrols over northern FRANCE.

[NormanStewart]

Innsbrucker Nachrichten (June 26, 1944)

Heldenhafter Widerstand der Verteidiger von Cherbourg

Hafen und alle kriegswichtigen Anlagen gesprengt – Zwei Feindkreuzer und ein Zerstörer versenkt – Zäher Widerstand unserer Truppen in Italien – Unvermindert heftige Abwehrschlacht im Mittelabschnitt der Ostfront

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 26. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Die tapfere Besatzung von Cherbourg unter Führung des Generalleutnants von Schlieben zusammen mit starken Teilen der Kriegsmarine und der Luftwaffe steht seit gestern Innerhalb der Stadt und im Hafengebiet in erbittertem Häuserkampf. Zwei Aufforderungen des Gegners, den Kampf einzustellen und die Festung zu übergeben, wurden nicht beantwortet. Der Hafen und alle kriegswichtigen Anlagen sind gesprengt. Vor dem Gefechtsstand des Festungskommandanten und vor dem Arsenal brachen die feindlichen Angriffe im Feuer der Verteidiger zusammen.

Die unter dem Befehl des Oberleutnants der Marineartillerie Gelbhaar stehende Batterie „Hamburg“ hat, selbst unter schwerem Artilleriefeuer liegend, gestern im Raum von Cherbourg zwei feindliche Kreuzer versenkt. Außerdem wurden am vergangenen Tage vier Kreuzer durch Marinebatterien schwer beschädigt. Schnellboote versenkten in der letzten Nacht einen feindlichen Zerstörer nördlich der Halbinsel Cotentin.

An der Südfront des normannischen Landekopfes brachen feindliche Vorstöße östlich der Orne vor unseren Stellungen zusammen. Ein örtlicher Einbruch wurde im Gegenangriff wieder beseitigt, östlich der Ornemündung wurde ein großer feindlicher Transporter durch Artillerievolltreffer beschädigt.

Im Raum von Tilly gelang es dem während des ganzen Tages mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerkräften angreifenden Feind unter schwersten blutigen Verlusten, die Ruinen der Stadt zu besetzen.

Im Kampf gegen drei der besten englischen Divisionen hat sich die Panzerdivision unter der Führung von Generalleutnant Bayerlein hervorragend bewährt.

Südwestlich Carentan griff der Feind nach starker Artillerievorbereitung wiederholt vergeblich an.

In der Nacht vom 24. und 25. Juni wurden nach abschließenden Meldungen vier große feindliche Kriegsschiffe und ein Frachter durch Bombentreffer schwer beschädigt. Ein seit langem im Kampf gegen England stehendes Fliegerkorps unter Führung von Generalmajor Peltz hat sich hierbei besonders ausgezeichnet.

Das Störungsfeuer gegen Südengland wurde bei Tag und Nacht fortgesetzt.

In Italien lag der Schwerpunkt der Kämpfe auch gestern im Abschnitt von der Küste bis zum Trasimenischen See. Der Feind konnte hier nach erbitterten Kämpfen mit unseren zäh Widerstand leistenden Truppen nur wenige Kilometer nach Norden Boden gewinnen.

Bei dem Seegefecht im Golf von Genua in der Nacht zum 24. Juni wurden nach endgültigen Meldungen vier feindliche Schnellboote versenkt, ein fünftes in Brand geschossen.

Im mittleren Abschnitt der Ostfront dauert die Abwehrschlacht mit unverminderter Heftigkeit an. Die Sowjets wurden in den meisten Abschnitten abgewiesen. Südlich und östlich Bobruisk konnte der Feind jedoch einige Einbrüche erzielen. Auch im Raum östlich Mogilew gewann der feindliche Angriff nach blutigen Kämpfen nach Westen Boden.

An der Düna sind ebenfalls erbitterte Kämpfe im Gange, während östlich Polosk und südöstlich Pleskau von Panzern und Schlachtfliegern unterstützte Angriffe der Sowjets scheiterten. In diesen Kämpfen hat sich die sächsische 24. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Versock hervorragend bewährt.

Schlachtflieger unterstützten den Abwehrkampf des Heeres, vernichteten zahlreiche Panzer sowie eine große Anzahl von Fahrzeugen und fügten dem Feind schwere blutige Verluste zu.

Durch Jäger und Flakartillerie wurden 37 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.

In der Nacht griff ein starker Verband schwerer Kampfflugzeuge den Bahnhof Smolensk an. Zahlreiche Großbrände wurden beobachtet, große Mengen an Nachschubmaterial vernichtet.

Auf dem Balkan haben unter dem Oberbefehl des Generalobersten Löhr stehende Truppen eines Gebirgskorps in dreiwöchigen schweren Kämpfen in den Bergen Südalbaniens kommunistische Bandengruppen zerschlagen. Der Feind verlor außer 3.000 Toten zahlreiche Gefangene, viele Waffen aller Art sowie große Munitions- und Versorgungslager.

Ein schwächerer feindlicher Bomberverband griff in der letzten Nacht das Stadtgebiet von Budapest an. Sieben Flugzeuge wurden abgeschossen.

Britische Flugzeuge warfen in der letzten Nacht Bomben im rheinisch-westfälischen Raum.

[NormanStewart]

The New York Times (June 26, 1944)

AMERICANS IN CHERBOURG, FIGHT WAY TO DOCKS
Warship guns aid; smash forts blocking advance of infantry into vital port

Battles in streets; British gain two miles in barrage-led drive from Tilly-sur-Seulles
By Drew Middleton

Transatlantic port being wrested from the enemy

Cherbourg was entered by U.S. troop columns from three directions. Two of the stubbornest points of resistance were Fort du Roule (1) and Octeville (2). While the Germans still fought at Fort du Roule, our forces hammered their way in from the south and the east. Our dive bombers and warships were called upon to silence the fort on Pelée Island (3) and Fort des Flamands (4). Smoke rising from the arsenal in the naval establishment (5) suggested demolitions there by the Germans.

SHAEF, England –
U.S. infantry drove into the streets of Cherbourg from the east, south and southwest yesterday, and a spokesman at headquarters said last night that the city was “almost in our possession.”

After five days of the hardest fighting of the campaign, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s doughboys were driving the German defenders from house to house and street to street into the interior of the city last evening, and one battalion was only a few hundred yards from the docks.

A United Press correspondent at the front said some troops had even reached the docks and had surprised Germans in the act of blowing up installations.

The forces that entered from the south silenced Fort du Roule, the last German stronghold in that area, yesterday afternoon, to open their way into the city.

However, later reports from the front said that some Germans had crawled back into the fort through tunnels and from intact pillboxes were firing at the Americans from the rear.

Navy shells port defenses

Other forces smashed into the city in the afternoon from the east and southwest after storming German positions on high ground on both sides of the city, while guns of a powerful Allied squadron of battleships and cruisers, commanded by RAdm. Morton L. Deyo, flying his flag in the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa, knocked out German guns on the far side of the harbor that had been harassing our advancing troops.

The entry into Cherbourg, France’s third largest port, was a major victory and all signs of such triumph are in evidence yesterday. Hundreds of dazed German soldiers surrendered as tanks rumbled along the cobbled streets and a white flag fluttered from one battered blockhouse.

Some Germans continued to fight to the last. Snipers moved from house to house, trading shots with oncoming U.S. machine-gunners, and fired their pieces until their last round or until they died by grenade or bayonet. Whole sections of the city were ablaze and a great pall of smoke hung over the port where the Germans had blown up stores and had fired fuel.

So swift was the American advance in the final phase that bombing by the clouds of fighter-bombers that hung over the city had to be restricted because of the danger to U.S. troops. But the bombers had done their job, for when the troops moved forward yesterday morning, German artillery fire was pitiful and inaccurate, and prisoners were already coming in from the most heavily bombed fortifications. One infantry unit swept up 300 in its first advance.

Far to the east of the American sector in Normandy, the British again hammered their way forward, advancing more than two miles southeast of Tilly-sur-Seulles on what reports from the field described as an eight-and-a-half-mile front. There was fighting around Fontenay-le-Pesnel, two-and-a-quarter miles southeast of Tilly, and the British smashed one strong German counterattack in the area.

Part of this area will undoubtedly become the main battle sector with the fall of Cherbourg, for it is here that the enemy has concentrated his armor, and it is here that a successful offensive would offer him the greatest rewards. The Germans are worried about the Allied attack here. They say a great fleet of transports has disgorged fresh divisions off the mouth of the Orne River during the past two days and predicted that Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery would open an offensive as soon as he had these troops in line. The Cherbourg fight moved at a tremendous pace yesterday, faster than it had since Gen. Bradley hurled his divisions up the peninsula after they had broken through to the sea around Barneville a week ago. Our troops were looking down into the city from some of the high ground to the south by late Saturday, but Fort du Roule still held out during the night.

Yesterday morning, as the field guns resumed their iron clamor, the Americans drove the Germans out of field positions on the high ground and assaulted Fort du Roule.

The advance from the west progressed over high ground west of Équeurdreville. Here again, a fort was knocked out and the road from Cherbourg west of Beaumont was cut again – it had been cut farther west Friday – and patrols fought their way into the area just west and south of the naval base in the region of the Municipal Stadium on Rue de la Bucaille.

Other units to the southwest met bitter resistance in the area of Sainte-Croix-Hague, but these Germans have probably been outflanked by the advance further north. A few enemy detachments were still reported holding out in the area of Bois du Mont du Roc.

In other areas, prisoners drifted in by twos and threes, and sometimes by the dozen. Some complained of lack of ammunition, others of a terrific hammering by American artillery. The enemy suffered heavy casualties. Along the Cherbourg-Valognes road, the dead were so thick that a path had to be cleared through the bodies so that jeeps could pass to the front.

Two German generals have been killed in Normandy since Friday. On Saturday, the German radio announced the death of Lt. Gen. Richter and that of Gen. Stegman, who was killed in action at Cherbourg.

Here and there across the stricken field, the Germans fought bravely. German troops were defending the airfield at Maupertus, five miles east of the city, with bitter tenacity. German gunners served their weapons in the port area under the accurate fire of Allied battleships and cruisers until the guns were knocked out.

Except for fighting around Maupertus, there was little sign of the enemy in the Barfleur-Saint-Vaast area. Once occupied, Barfleur, a fishing port with long docks, will be useful for the Allies.

While the infantry, supported by tanks, were cracking Cherbourg’s last landward defenses, Allied cruisers and battleships were engaging in a duel with German batteries in the port. One by one, the German batteries “Bromm” and “York” under the command of RAdm. Hennecke, naval commander in Normandy, were knocked out by Allied shells, according to the enemy. Above the forts circled observation planes of the U.S. and British Fleet Air Arm, the British spotting for warships.

An unofficial but reliable estimate received by this correspondent yesterday said that the capture of Cherbourg would complete the destruction of four German divisions – the 91st, the 77th, the 243rd and the 109th, the latter under Lt. Gen. Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, who also commands the whole Cherbourg garrison. Remnants of these four units, plus German paratroopers and marine and naval units in the city, probably will bring the total Allied bag to about 32,000 effectives.

[NormanStewart]

‘Heavies’ hit Nazis in France five blows

8th Air Force bombers attack from Pas-de-Calais to Toulouse – RAF and 15th strike
By David Anderson

South of France now gets attention of Allied fliers

Behind the Normandy beachhead (shown in black at 1), U.S. and British planes continue to blast airfields and communications, while in the Pas-de-Calais area (2) they kept up their battering of rocket bomb installations. In central France, they attacked enemy plane nests at Bourges and Avord (3). Flying to points not far from the Spanish border, Allied airmen struck at fuel depots and airdromes around Toulouse and Blagnac (4). Meanwhile, Italy-based bombers smashed at railroads and bridges north and west of Marseille (5), on the southern coast.

SHAEF, England –
Flying high over the Normandy battle zone and southward another 400 miles to within 70 miles of the Spanish border, a powerful force of U.S. heavy bombers yesterday attacked a Nazi fuel dump and airdromes in the Toulouse area.

Other Liberators and Flying Fortresses striking from Italy blasted bridges over the Rhône River at Avignon, 170 miles east of Toulouse, and other enemy traffic and oil targets north and west of Marseille.

The 8th Air Force’s Fortresses and Liberators from Britain, also smashing at targets among the Nazis’ flying-bomb installations in Pas-de-Calais, made a third attack in the evening on Luftwaffe fields in northern France and bridges southeast of Paris. The airdromes hit included Villacoublay and Brétigny.

Steady Allied attacks from west and south Sunday night were indicated by Nazi radio reports of planes over Germany and the Danube area.

While these heavy-bomber missions were being carried out, medium and light components of the Allied air forces swarmed across northwestern France in search of German troop movements and on wrecking jobs against specific objectives.

The battle within the Battle of France is being waged relentlessly against the enemy’s pilotless plane installations in Pas-de-Calais.

Thousands of U.S., Canadian and British bombers and fighters continued yesterday their hammering of the well-concealed, strongly built placements buried in woods and scattered among farms in the strip of France back of the coast from Dieppe to Ostend, about 30 miles in depth.

In the twelve hours ended at 3:00 a.m. Sunday, at least 1,000 heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force went on duty over the Pas-de-Calais area.

Liberators of the 8th Air Force attacked 12 power stations connected with the robot bases and returned without loss.

The Nazis’ pilotless planes continued smashing homes and killing people in the south of England yesterday, although in a greatly reduced scale compared with last week.

Allied air operations in every form against the Nazis were stepped up yesterday compared with Saturday. Some idea of the scope of these operations will be gathered from Saturday’s activity when 6,000 sorties were flown on 200 missions.

The persistent U.S. and RAF fighter-bomber attacks on enemy communications leading in the direction of Normandy were maintained yesterday with the same intensity that has marked recent operations.

Bridges, fuel, Nazi tanks and rolling stock in the Dreux-Chartres-Mantes area were blasted and shot up. On the railroad between Chartres and Mantes, west of Paris, the tracks were severed in four places and direct hits were scored on a tunnel.

An outstanding success was achieved by a group of U.S. fighter-bombers that attacked chokepoints on the railway linking Paris and Orléans, a 75-mile stretch of electrified line carrying heavy traffic. It runs through a series of deep and narrow cuttings. Seven of these cuttings were bombed, the rails ripped up and the banks sent tumbling onto the roadbeds.

[NormanStewart]

Denny: Blasting of forts viewed from ‘box seat’ on cliff

By Harold Denny

With U.S. forces before Cherbourg, France – (June 25)
Few battles have been as visible and as spectacular as today’s. I watched much of it from the edge of a cliff looking directly down on most of Cherbourg, like a box seat at a theater. It was the forward observation post of one of the leading elements in this assault and for a while an officer watched and gave directions for the supporting artillery fire.

In today’s battle were our infantry, artillery, tanks and even our warships, while the Germans were fighting back with heavy coastal guns, field artillery, machine guns, rifles and nasty-sounding rockets. And the operations of all these were spread out in full view on the stage below.

The day was warm and brilliant.

A big quarry had been dug into a cliff on the edge of the village of Hau Gringore, a suburb of Cherbourg, where 300 prisoners were taken when it fell yesterday. The quarry was still making trouble, however. With tunnels it was connected with the coastal plain and with Fort de Roule on our left, still unconquered then. Sometimes the Germans crept through the tunnel, fired a few bursts in our direction and retreated back. So, guards were posted there and eventually the mouth of the tunnel was blown up, after a dozen or two French men, women and children, with their baggage, dogs and cats, had been ushered from their shelters to a point beyond the town.

Three women captured

Among yesterday’s prisoners, an officer told me, were three women. One was a Ukrainian girl, together with her very young Ukrainian husband, who said they had been brought here as captives and forced to work as servants of the Germans. The girl was in an advanced state of pregnancy.

On our left, between us and Fort du Roule, was a fire-blackened ridge up which the Germans would sometime creep and open fire with machine guns. We could hear our infantry toiling up its slope.

To our right, across a green valley dotted with gray, little red-roofed houses and garden patches crisscrossed with hedges, was a ridge topped by German fortifications. Troops from another American unit were advancing on it from the other side of the ridge and American tanks could be seen nosing about on our side of the ridge. Those Germans were trapped.

City proper little damaged

Tourists who visited France in better days will remember the six-mile-long breakwater studded with the medieval-looking French fortifications that made this artificial harbor. On your left, as you used to enter Cherbourg on the liner Normandie from New York, you probably noticed an old fort and lighthouse on Île Pelée, which forms one doorpost of the main entrance through the breakwater. As your ship steamed farther in through the inner breakwater, you may have seen a similar old fort, Des Flamands, on your left as you turned into the French Line pier.

From my box seat, I could see the western half of the town of the ship canal, just to the west of the French Line pier. The city itself looked little damaged, but empty and dead. Few civilians are left there now.

Pelée and Flamands made nuisances of themselves to our troops yesterday, so at 8 o’clock this morning, our dive bombers smacked them and also Fort du Roule and the German positions on the ridge to our right. When I arrived in the frontline an hour later, Flamands and Pelée were silent, and smoke poured from the fortifications on the ridge to our right. The forts on the ridge still fired, however, and 88mm shells occasionally came in from Fort du Roule. And on a sandspit to my left of Flamands, as I saw it, were three determined 88s – pestiferous guns, with a hard, flat report and a shell that comes so fast you can hardly duck. They had fired all night and were at it again today.

Navy guns back artillery

Sitting beside me with field glasses was Army Lt. James S. Timothy of Washington, DC. He was observing for some 81mm howitzers behind, and this was an artilleryman’s dream. He called for blank range and down came his shells smack on the target. Billows of gray and yellow smoke, sand and black-burning explosive poured up, and we could see the Germans running for their dugouts. Lt. Timothy sent in shell after shell, but the Germans had their guns mounted in dugouts. They ran the guns out on tracks to shoot and then withdrew them. The German fire grew less frequent but persisted.

This was what we wanted to pacify; those forts that had been holding us up, geysers began appearing in the water just off Fort des Flamands. The Navy was firing a “ladder,” each shell moving in closer to the guns on that sandspit. Finally, they fell directly on the enemy positions. Then our ships opened up with shells that turned that little strip into a hell of red flame, black smoke and yellow dust.

I sat beside a Navy observer and could hear over his telephone the gibberish in which one officer on a distant ship conversed with him. The Navy gave the Germans a few more salvos and that was the end of that opposition.

Then the German nebelwerfers in the city began their big incendiary rockets toward our men off the right. They make an indescribable noise – something like titanic horse whinnying, or a gigantic aching creak – and you can see their missiles sail through the air. They make great bursts of flame where they hit and send up clouds of oily black smoke. They set grass fires and it seemed that the Germans were trying to burn our fellows out that way.

15 scout way into town

Meanwhile, an audacious patrol of 15 men, led by Lt. Shirley Landon of Spokane, Washington, went out around the right edge of the ridge and into the town, to scout the best way for the infantry to enter the city. We watched them anxiously through glasses as they skirted hedges and dodged behind the buildings below. Lt. Timothy and his mortars were ready to give fire support to them if they got into trouble.

We watched Lt. Landon, walking ahead, signal his men and they deployed across an open field and disappeared behind some buildings. They were daringly far into the town. We heard rifle fire down where they were but could see nothing. A general came up and watched, too. There was perhaps half an hour of suspense, which we relieved by watching our tanks maneuver across a valley, and then someone shouted.

Up the lane towards us came two doughboys and after them a long line of Germans with their hands clasped over their heads. Other doughboys walked at their flanks and a few more brought up the rear. I counted 78 prisoners before a startling explosion in my ear jarred my count and mystified me until I learned it had been one of our own blasts. Afterward, I learned there were 81 prisoners.

A Frenchman in the town met the patrol and pointed out the Germans in a ditch at the edge of a highway behind it. Pfc. William K. Petty of Indianapolis went in and flushed them out. Three started to pick up their rifles but they were instantly disarmed and all marched back.

Things were getting warm again on that right-hand ridge. At times this afternoon, it was like watching a circus, where so much was going on in different rings that it was impossible to see everything.

Those German fortifications were wreathed in smoke, and vehicles parked near them had disappeared. Yet some of them kept shooting. One 175mm coastal gun took potshots at one of our warships. It was just as if our warships had lost their tempers. They cut loose on the fortress then. Vast explosions shook the ground and pillars of smoke and dust rose. Then we saw a white flag go up above the skyline. The warships ceased firing. A few minutes later, we saw a long column of Germans come out of the fort and march toward our tanks in formation to give themselves up. Everybody on the cliff cheered, and that’s how the way was cleared for our infantry attack into the town, which began soon after. The way was not entirely cleared. Some surviving nebelwerfers still fired at us, and the enemy artillerymen and machine-gunners persisted. But the way had been cleared enough for our fellows to go ahead.

[NormanStewart]

Use of Cherbourg expected quickly

Limited utilization 24 hours after capture seen – Army repair units ready

SHAEF, England (AP) –
Cherbourg’s multiple harbors and elaborate port installations offered the Germans many chances for demolitions and obstructions, but it was doubtful whether their best efforts could prevent the Allies from swiftly exploiting this prize once it was securely in their hands.

Eyewitness reports have told of many fires and explosions in the dock area and apparently some attempt has been made to block the entrance to the basin where transatlantic liners once docked, but it will be a surprise if limited unloadings are not underway within 24 hours after the capture, and if a flood of men and supplies is not pouring in within ten days.

Moving in from the outside, ships come first to the outer roads of the great deep-water basin, about nine miles from east to west and two miles north to south. The basin is protected on three sides by land and on the north by some of the world’s greatest breakwaters. It is entered by two channels, each nearly 2,000 feet wide. It is regarded as impossible that the Germans can prevent the use of this anchorage, which could take many hundreds of big ships, even at low water.

Next is the inner basin, about four miles long and two miles wide, which is entered through a 1,500-foot gap in the breakwater. If the Germans have three or four big ships in the harbor – as is doubtful – they will probably try to close this channel.

Quai de France has best docks

Sticking out into the inner basin from the shore is a massive 1,800-foot quay, the Quai de France, on the east side of which are the best and deepest slip and docks, where four or five sizeable merchant ships could unload simultaneously. The entrance to this basin is about 600 feet wide, between the quay and the jetty, to the east, and there are reports that ships have already been sunk across it.

On the west side of the quay is a narrow channel, about 225 feet wide and 600 feet long, leading to the inner commercial basin and tidal drydock, which could presumably be blocked quite easily. Similarly, the entrance to the triple naval basins, about three-quarters of a mile to the west, is only about 275-300 feet across and might be blocked. The 25-foot tide offers a great advantage for swift clearing of any blocks, however, since it permits the cutting and blasting of obstacles at low tide.

Troops specially trained

The job of rehabilitation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said yesterday, will be greatly facilitated by a new unit, likely to play a prominent part in the war from now on. It is the Port Repair Ship Company, manned and operated entirely by Army engineers.

These men, dubbed “sailjers,” have been specially trained in this country for such jobs. Many of the Army divers got their experience working on the salvaging of USS Lafayette in New York, in conjunction with Navy divers. Others received their training at the Harbor Clearance School, run by the Corps of Engineers at Fort Screven, Georgia.

Among the first troops entering Cherbourg will be engineer port construction and port repair groups. These units will approach their objective, the harbor installations, by land. At the same time, engineer port repair shop companies, protected by our naval guns, will be using a water route to enter the harbor.

[NormanStewart]

Shell holes tied by wire to London

Underground signal center in Britain controls every message to front
By John MacCormac

London, England –
A British-American-Canadian communications center of the dimensions of a small town was busily at work 100 feet under the quiet English countryside controlling the assault on Cherbourg. Its first great function was to transmit orders for the invasion of Normandy, but its construction had been launched two years before D-Day.

Its scope is such that in one area alone, the British Post Office laid two million miles of wire. It is equipped to communicate with the nearest frontline shell crater in Normandy or eventually with the point where the Anglo-American armies will meet those of Russia.

An all-services undertaking, its hundred teleprinters and switchboard and its 14-position telephone switchboard with 200 lines and 400 extensions are operated by WRENS, ATS and WAAFs. A separate radio room, manned by Royal Signal and U.S. Army Signal Corps operators, provides a special link, enabling field troops to summon air support. A battle in France, in fact, can be directed from this center completely by radio.

This giant communications center has now cast its tentacles ac ross the Channel. One schedule, anticipating the progress to be made for a certain date after D-Day, called for 700 miles of eight-wire lines, 1,500 miles of special pole line, 30,000 miles of field cable, 400,000 yards of assault cable and 50 special radio installations.

[NormanStewart]

Flying chaplain says French mass

U.S. captain preaches in French and English – church bells break 4-year silence

Normandy, France – (June 25)
The bells of a local church – silenced by the Germans for the same reason that Britain’s bells were muted – rang this morning for the first time in four years. And about half a hundred natives of this small village put in Sunday clothes to join 80 dusty khaki-clad G.I.s in services at the 400-year-old Norman church.

Capt. Donald M. Cleary, chaplain of the 9th Air Force fighter group here, aided by 1st Sgt. Kenneth Reilly of New York, celebrated mass and delivered two sermons, one in French – which Cleary speaks fluently – and the other in English.

Later in the day, Capt. Cleary, whose home is in Rochester, New York, celebrate another mass for 9th Air Force fighter-bomber pilots before they left to bomb Cherbourg, and a third for patients at a nearby hospital.

Capt. Cleary is the only chaplain with the 9th Air Force in France now and one of the chaplains in the U.S. air forces to wear a pilot’s wings, with the letter “S” in the middle. “S” stands for service pilot and means the chaplain is qualified to fly any aircraft in the air forces so long as it is not in combat.

Before the war, Capt. Cleary was chaplain at the Albany, New York, prison for four years and chaplain at Cornell University for seven years.

Capt. Cleary stated that the French people in this section suspected him at first when he scouted up and down the coastline in the course of his work. They thought he was going to “requisition” their cattle, but when he did not and they learned that he was a Catholic priest they became very friendly.

The French told Capt. Cleary that the Germans had used some churches to quarter troops, and at this village, citizens said that in the four years the Nazis occupied the country, they saw only one German soldier attend mass.

[NormanStewart]

29 robot nests set in Cherbourg area

Invasion bares Nazi sites of massive structures for mounting severe blows
By Frederick Graham

On the Cherbourg front, France – (June 25)
The Allied invasion of France probably saved Britain from even more severe bombing by robot planes. When the Germans retreated to Cherbourg, at least 29 sites, from which the enemy planned to launch pilotless planes, were found.

None of these sites was finished, but it seems likely that, if given time, the Nazis would have turned the Cherbourg Peninsula into a nest for these weapons.

The Germans appeared to have been building at least three types of launching platforms – two probably for jet-propelled pilotless planes and the other apparently for rockets. Only two of the latter-type sites have been found.

Fifteen sites in this area are of concrete and steel construction and rather simple. Usually, they consist of two parallel rows of concrete piling sunk in the ground. These stretch about 100 feet. Each carries a single tail on which the wheels of the robot plane ride. At the base, the piling is only eight inches above the ground, but at the takeoff point, the elevation is two feet six inches.

To the rear and the left of these tracks is a square, solid concrete building sunk deep in the ground. To the right and rear of the tracks, there are usually three or more long, slim concrete buildings which, from the air, look like skis. What these were used for is unknown.

Twelve other sites, similar except that the ski shed is missing, were found.

Technicians show interest

Two sites in which 9th Air Force technicians showed the deepest interest were altogether different and much larger. Frenchmen requisitioned by the Germans to work on these believe they were for launching huge rockets. It is significant that all the sites found so far point in the direction of some British port.

Today, this correspondent toured one of the two large sites which may have been meant for rockets. It looked like a foundation for something gigantic, like a pyramid.

About eight miles southeast of Cherbourg, sink in the bottom of a valley rimmed by round, orchard-covered hills, it looked as if work had been suspended for some time. There was little engineering equipment around – perhaps a dozen concrete mixers, and these were rusty.

The entire site, estimated at 80 acres, was pockmarked by the big bombs of the Allies’ heavy bombers.

Joseph Heronard, a 29-year-old native of a nearby village, who worked on the job for the Germans, said that all the workers on the project believed the area was to be used for rocket launching. If it was, there were no signs of how the rockets were to be launched and nothing resembling launching equipment.

Rich concrete mixture

Heronard said the mixture used in the emplacements and buildings was rich – two and a half measures of sand for one of cement – and was reinforced by lattice-type steel rods. These rods were half an inch thick and ran up and down, making a square of 18 inches.

A small-gauge railroad for hauling supplies to the concrete mixers and from these to the pouring funnels was still here, but no rolling stock was visible.

Beneath some of the completed structures were deep tunnels, many twisting and turning to serve as baffles against bomb blasts.

Heronard said that the labor on job consisted on “requis” or Frenchmen requisitioned by the Germans, Spanish men and Russian women. He said the entire job was under Todt Organization supervision, but a French company held a subcontract.

According to Heronard, the lot of the Russian women on the job was particularly hard and many were beaten by German straw bosses.

About two months ago, work on the site was halted because of Allied bombings, Heronard said.

[NormanStewart]

Army task eased by Bailey Bridge

Easily built, it spans 240 feet without pontoons – supports big tanks

SHAEF, England (Reuters) – (June 25)
A sketch drawn on the back of an envelope four years ago has played a big part in the American advance to Cherbourg.

It was the first rough draft of the Bailey Bridge, the most remarkable bridge in the history of military preparations, one that rapidly spans road gaps and replaces bridges blown up by the enemy.

Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery has said:

It is quite the best thing in that line we have ever had. It will be needed everywhere we operate in Europe.

It was revealed tonight that the bridge can cover without pontoons any gap up to 240 feet and much wider spaces with pontoons.

The inventor, Donald Coleman Bailey of the British Ministry of Supply, would not disclose the special metal used, but said, “we don’t like park railings.”

This bridge has greater strength and is more adaptable than previous types. It can cope with the ever-increasing weight of tanks.

All parts are light. Even the heaviest such bridge can be handled easily by six men. It fits together like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. After being built on rollers on the edge of a gap, it can be pushed over by the building crew without mechanical aid.

It is made up of 17 parts, with nine more for foundations. Only one steel pin is needed for each joint.

[NormanStewart]

French patriots gain new status

Forces of Interior put under Kœnig, acting by authority of Gen. Eisenhower

SHAEF, England – (June 25)
The French Forces of the Interior received today a status in the Allied operations comparable to that of the invasion forces.

Supreme Headquarters, which had already been moved to compliment the resistance forces on the positive contribution that their disruptive activities against the Germans had made to the battle of the beachhead, accepted them into partnership in the campaign for the liberation of their country. It announced tonight that Brig. Gen. Joseph-Pierre Kœnig, commander of the French forces in Britain, chief of the French military mission at headquarters and military delegate for liberated French territory, had been appointed commander of the French Forces of the Interior. The announcement said:

Gen. Kœnig is acting under and by the authority of the Supreme Commander [Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower] in directing the operations of the resistance forces in France.

The first message that the hero of Bir Hakeim had to deliver to his new command was one of the “warmest commendation” from Gen. Eisenhower. Gen. Kœnig predicted that the underground would play an “ever-increasing” part in the liberation campaign.

The elevation of the status of the underground was regarded as one of the first fruits of Gen. Eisenhower’s announced military agreement with Gen. Kœnig and the basis for another piece of practical cooperation that might lead to a more friendly understanding among the French, British and Americans. One outcome of the broader recognition of the French underground will probably be an effort to arm its forces more adequately.

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Tolerance urged in France

Berne, Switzerland – (June 25)
Some leaders of the resistance movement in France are preaching tolerance under the watchword, “France first,” and their action implies a rebuke for all who advocate a general “purge” as a prerequisite to reconstruction.

The plea is made by the National Council of Resistance, which supports Gen. Charles de Gaulle and the French Committee of National Liberation. Its purpose is to rally the masses whose sole link hitherto has been detestation of the Germans and whose resistance has been merely passive.

The council disapproves of the publication of lists of “collaborationists” in which no distinction is made between those who deliberately mislead and those who have been misled. The council says:

The latter should not be driven into the arms of the occupant but, on the contrary should be welcomed by the resistance movement after due repentance.

Since the armistice, the population has become weary of “purges” ordered by every new Minister. Moreover, many minor government servants, from road menders to stenographers, resent being called “collaborationists” because they kept their jobs in order to live.

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French protest U.S. news article

Analysis of differences with U.S. criticized; Roosevelt hits by Algiers paper
By Harold Callender

Algiers, Algeria – (June 25)
The French Committee of National Liberation has protested to the American diplomatic mission here against The Stars and Stripes’ publication of an article from the United States News saying that the differences between President Roosevelt and Gen. Charles de Gaulle had been caused by the President’s reluctance to sanction the return of French overseas possessions without guarantees for American security.

But a weekly here, that professes simon-pure de Gaullism, has published a long attack on Mr. Roosevelt on the assumption that he seeks “to acquire strategic bases at the expense of the French Empire.”

What impresses Frenchmen who are not extremists is the fact that the United States News article was published on French soil by an official American newspaper just when anti-American sentiment here has been stimulated by Gen. de Gaulle’s denunciation of American policy in France and the consequent severe comments in the American press. Frenchmen point out that The Stars and Stripes is widely read by Frenchmen here who cannot make fine distinctions between the source of an article and the instrument of its distribution.

Frenchmen concerned for future relations with the United States are disturbed by the whispering campaign to the effect that U.S. troops are unpopular in North Africa and will be even more unpopular in France. They wonder what the motive for this can be unless it is to alienate France from the West in the interest of what is called a continental policy based on the alliance with Russia that Gen. de Gaulle has advocated.

Even those who are friendly to the United States say, “You must not treat us like a conquered country.” Thus, they imply that there is a danger of such treatment. This is the popular version of the long-existing official fear of the Allied Military Government in France.

This fear and Gen. de Gaulle’s recent criticism of the Allied policy in liberated France have encouraged the tendency to look with frank distrust on the liberators of France, above all the Americans, to whom imperialistic aims of various kinds are widely attributed in private conversation and sometimes in print. One French observer said:

This is pure folly, for we shall rely on the United States for machinery for French factories, most of which have been destroyed or robbed of their equipment by the Germans, and in our weakened condition we shall have to count on America for protection for our empire.

[NormanStewart]

Battle for Cherbourg

Time as well as harbor is at stake, for defense lets foe prepare for next blow
By Hanson W. Baldwin

London, England – (June 25)
The battle for Cherbourg, which was reaching its climax tonight, is a battle for time as well as conquest.

The eventual issue, as far as Cherbourg is concerned, is not in doubt; U.S. patrols have pushed into the streets of the city and at least one German propaganda agency has written the city off. There has never been much doubt, since our rapid penetration of the Atlantic Wall and our severance of the approaches to the Cotentin Peninsula, that Cherbourg would fall. What has been in doubt is how long the battle would take.

Cherbourg is naturally defensible by either land or sea; stouthearted defenders with the will to die might hold it for a long time. Obviously, it is to the German interest to make a protracted and vicious defense. The longer the facilities of the port can be denied to us by combat and by demolition, the better it will be from the German point of view. For the Germans know as well as we do the difficulties of unloading over open beaches; they know that the larger our armies grow in Normandy, the harder will be the task of supplying and reinforcing them unless we have a port.

Allies hampered by weather

They know, too, that our building to date has been made more difficult by unfavorable weather; gales and low overcasts have hampered our landing craft and reduced the margin of our air superiority. A long defense of Cherbourg, therefore, would give the enemy time. He might have the opportunity to overtake us in the supply and reinforcement race and he would be able to strengthen his positions along the high ground south and east of the Cotentin Peninsula.

The fierce fighting in Cherbourg and the bitter enemy resistance on the eastern flank of the Allied beachhead reveal something of the enemy’s intended strategy. The Germans have not yet committed the bulk of the strength of the rest of their divisions to Normandy. There are some 60 enemy divisions in France and the Low Countries and at least half of these could be thrown against us. But today there are not more than elements of 14-17 divisions facing our troops in Normandy, including those units hopelessly encircled in Cherbourg.

In a considerable part, this slow German buildup is the result of our interference by air with the enemy’s communications lines. But in part the slow rate of German reinforcement is deliberate; the enemy has not “shot the works” in Normandy because he fears another Allied landing elsewhere.

British offer threat

Such a strategy of cautious waiting would explain the fierce resistance offered on the British sector of our beachhead, the enemy has been constantly and consistently trying to whittle down the British bridgeheads across the Orne River and has so far strongly opposed with the majority of his tank forces the inland expansion of the British flank. It is the British flank that is outside the Cotentin Peninsula proper; it is the British flank that offers the eventual threat to Le Havre, to Rouen or to Paris.

The containing of our Normandy beachheads within the Cotentin Peninsula, therefore, seems to be the enemy’s strategy. Meanwhile, he appears to be trying to build up a mobile reserve to meet any other landing.

The enemy knows as well as we do that the Cherbourg Peninsula along will not be a sufficiently large base for an operation as huge as the conquest of France. He fears the great numbers of U.S. divisions that have never yet been in action but are trained and ready. The enemy is not likely to commit his full strength to battle either in the air or on the ground until he is certain that we shall not strike again against the coast of Western Europe.

Such a strategy explains the furious defense of Cherbourg, the holding and bitter delaying resistance south of the Cotentin Peninsula and the counterattacks against the British flank. The triumph of such a strategy would be to rob us gradually of the initiative that the Allies have not yielded since June 6 and to halt slowly the momentum and impetus of our Normandy drive. The failure of such a strategy would mean the rapid conquest of Cherbourg by the Allies and the expansion of the British flank southward and possibly eastward.

That is why the news tonight is encouraging. But time is still an important element in the victory.

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Normandy wounded evacuated swiftly

Navy ‘overprepared’ because estimates exceed casualties

Aboard a U.S. cruiser, off the French coast (UP) – (June 24, delayed)
The task of moving thousands of wounded men from the Normandy beachhead to Great Britain by sea has almost been completed and was accomplished with complete success, Navy Capt. George Dowling said today.

Of the total wounded, slightly more than 5,500 were Germans or members of the polyglot forces making up the enemy armies in the invasion area.

Capt. Dowling said that his medical forces had been 50-75 percent overprepared for their task in the invasion. “We got ready for the worst – which of course didn’t happen,” he said.

Capt. Dowling used his experience in the Mediterranean, gleaned from handling the casualty evacuation in Sicily, to estimate what he needed in the invasion. In the early stages, the handling of all casualties fell entirely to naval transports and LSTs, which were rigged to take care of at least 200 wounded each after depositing their cargoes ashore.

Then practically every small craft which went to the beach, including the comparatively commodious, if flat-bottomed, types such as Tank Landing Craft (LCTs) were pressed into service to keep the lines of wounded moving.

The greatest percentage of the wounded have only minor injuries to arms and legs.

[NormanStewart]

French cut hair off girls who were kindly to Nazis

Bricquebec, Normandy, France – (June 25)
With the goose-stepping enemy cleared from this village, Frenchmen are having their revenge on those who collaborated or fraternized with the Nazis and the hair has been sheared from the head of many a woman who was friendly to Nazi troops during the four-year occupation.

Lt. Francis Carpenter of 117-01 Park Lane South, Kew Gardens, Queens, reported that he was in the main square when he saw a crowd around a young girl.

He said:

Someone had the girl by the hair. Then I saw the flash of scissors and great chunks of black hair fell from her head. I asked a Frenchman the reason and he said she had been a friend of the Germans.

An American MP and I made an effort to keep the crowd moving, but without success. They soon had her bald, and she ran away sobbing.

Previously, Alfred Grey Jr. of 529 Crown Street, Brooklyn, New York, while driving through Bricquebec, had seen another girl completely baldheaded “running away from a crowd.”

Grey said he had also seen a buxom middle-aged woman “operating” on another girl with a pair of barbers’ clippers.