Sea power wins on Normandy coast
…
Völkischer Beobachter (June 27, 1944)
Der letzte Funkspruch des Seekommandanten –
Die große Stunde der Marinebatterie ‚Hamburg‘
pk. Bei der Kriegsmarine, im Juni 1944 –
In der Geschichte der Kriegsmarine gehört das Datum des 25. Juni 1944 den Batterien von Cherbourg, so wie der Name der Marinebatterie „Marcouf“ mit dem ersten Tag der Invasion verbunden bleiben wird. Was sich im Einzelnen an Taten soldatischer Größe und aufopfernder Tapferkeit in Batterien und Funkstellen, in Widerstandsnestern und Stützpunkten der Kriegsmarine abgespielt hat, liegt heute noch jenseits unseres Wissens. Die knappen Funksprüche, die der Seekommandant von Cherbourg gab, sagen nichts, was über die kargen operativen Tatsachen hinausginge, klar und mit einer fast grausamen Nüchternheit. Und doch liegt in den schicksalsschweren Meldungen, die in den letzten Stunden des Kampfes in den Äther gingen, eines Ahnen um die opfervolle Größe der Verteidiger. „An alle – Heil Hitler – hier Cherbourg – Sk.“ Das war der letzte Spruch, den der Seekommandant Konteradmiral Hennecke im offenen Text absetzen ließ. Das war am 25. Juni 1944, 19,05 Uhr.
Aber bis zu dieser Stunde waren aus seinem Gefechtsstand kurz und knapp die Meldungen gekommen, die mit Blitzlichtern den Kampf der tapferen Batterien der Seefestung beleuchteten und ihre stolzen Erfolge. Sie haben in dem Endkampf um Cherbourg der feindlichen Flotte noch schwere Wunden geschlagen, als endlich einmal die schweren Schiffe in die Greifweite ihrer Rohre kamen. Schon in den Morgenstunden des 24. Juni hatten die Batterien „Hamburg“ und „Brommy“ einen Verband feindlicher Kreuzer und Zerstörer unter Feuer genommen, der – um Batterien und Leitstände treffsicherer beschießen zu können – näher an die Küste herangestaffelt hatte. In diesem Artillerieduell zwischen Küste und Seestreitkräften wurden ein Kreuzer und ein Zerstörer mehrfach getroffen, so daß beide Schiffe abdrehen mußten und sich hinter einer Nebelwand in Sicherheit brachten.
An diesem Tage lag bereits seit Hellwerden stärkstes Feuer auf den Stellungen, dass sich im Laufe des Tages, vor allem in den Nachmittagsstunden zu einem ununterbrochenen Inferno von Bombenserien, Einschlägen der schweren Schiffartillerie und der von Land herüberreichenden Feldartillerie der Amerikaner steigerte. Dennoch hielten die tapferen Kanoniere der Batterien, die auch nach Land hinschießen konnten, die Anmarschstraßen des Gegners, seine Transport- und Bereitstellungsräume unter Feuer und brachten so der schwerkämpfenden deutschen Infanterie fühlbare Entlastung. Am späten Nachmittag gegen 18 Uhr hatte das Trommelfeuer eine Intensität erreicht, die keinen Zweifel mehr über den äußersten Ernst der Lage zuließ.
Als nach einer Nacht voll Störungsfeuer der Morgen des 25. Juni dämmerte, setzten die Angriffe in fast noch gesteigerter Stärke wieder ein. Zu den schweren Kalibern der Schiffsartillerie kamen die Einschläge von Granatwerfern, die der Feind im Vorgelände der Batterien in Stellung brachte. Dabei bekamen die Verteidiger in ihren Löchern und Bunkern kaum jemals einen Feind zu Gesicht, nur immer wieder das Brüllen und Bersten des Materials, das Schüttern und Beben der Erde unter dem Trommeln der Einschläge aller Kaliber, die vor dem Sturm der feindlichen Infanterie bereits jeden Widerstand ersticken sollten.
Eine halbe Stunde nach Mittag kam etwa 13 Kilometer vor der Küste wieder ein feindlicher Kreuzerverband in Sicht. Aus den schweren Rohren der Batterie „York“ rauschte Salve auf Salve herüber, während um die Batterie selbst nahezu ununterbrochen die Erdfontänen der Einschläge standen. 13,05 Uhr: Salven von „York“ liegen deckend! Treffer auf einem der schweren Kreuzer, bei dem auch leichte Kreuzer standen.
Etwa eine Stunde später steht die Silhouette eines Schlachtschiffes in den Okularen der Entfernungsmesser: zwei Drillingstürme vorn und achtern, zwei Gittermasten – California-Klasse. Vorn und achtern blitzen die Mündungsfeuer, sechs Einschläge wirbeln im Vorgelände in die Höhe. Salventakt. Sie schießen sich heran. Und dann: Jetzt schießen alle vier Türme Vollsalve.
Die Küstenbatterien antworten. „York“ hat einen der Kreuzer erneut eingedeckt, auf dem deutlich starke Rauchentwicklung beobachtet wurde. Und wieder pfeifen und bersten Bomben um die Batterien, greifen die Tiefflieger mit ihren Geschoßgarben nach den Scharten der Geschütze.
Dann wächst wieder ein Schlachtschiff über die Kimm, es muß Prince of Wales-Klasse sein. Viererturm vorn und Achtern. Aber es bleibt unser Feuerbereich. 15,15 Uhr meldete „York“: Erneut Treffer in den Aufbauten eines Kreuzers, der hart abdreht. Indessen mannen ungeachtet des schweren Beschusses die Kanoniere Munition an die Geschütze. Schließlich läßt der Feind Nebelbomben in das Blickfeld der Batterien werfen, um die Feuerleitung zu erschweren.
Während „York“ im Westteil der Seefront kämpft, erlebt am äußersten Ostrand der Batteriefront die schwere Marinebatterie „Hamburg“ ihre große Stunde. 14,32 Uhr sinkt draußen auf der grauen See ein britischer Kreuzer im Feuer ihrer schweren Granaten. Vom Leitstand aus sehen sie deutlich, wie sich das schwere Schiff überlegt, kentert, sich langsam noch einmal aufrichtet und dann schnell auf Tiefe geht. Aber es gibt keine Pause: jetzt liegen die Salven in einem neuen Ziel. Ebenfalls ein Kreuzer, der bald nach den Treffern auf qualmt. In einer Feuerpause geht unter den Kanonieren der Batterie ein Wort um, das der Seekommandant ihnen durchgegeben hatte. „Vorbildlich!“ Indessen beobachten die Männer am Entfernungsmesser, wie der schwere beschädigte Kreuzer achtern mehr und mehr wegsackt und schließlich mit schwerer Schlagseite sinkend außer Sicht kommt. Auch der kam nicht mehr bis Portsmouth!
Und wieder brüllen die Geschütze, donnert in das Krachen der Einschläge das polternde Bersten von Flächenwürfen feindlicher Bombergeschwader, ein paar Rohre gegen die hundertfache Feuerkraft des Gegners. Sie wissen, daß sie hier ihren letzten Kampf kämpfen. Vielleicht wissen sie auch, daß sie, die vielen unbekannten Soldaten der Marineartillerie, an diesen Tagen in die Geschichte des letzten schweren Kampfes der Seefestung Cherbourg unauslöschlich den Namen ihrer Batterien geschrieben haben.
Seitdem der Seekommandant seinen letzten Funkspruch abgesetzt hatte, wenige Sekunden bevor die eingebaute Wasserbombe die ganze Funkanlage zerriss, haben die Batterien der Kriegsmarine keine Verbindung mehr. Und in der schweren Nacht zum 26. Juni, in der diese Zeilen geschrieben werden, wissen wir nicht, an welchen Stellen des Festungsbereichs noch im letzten Opfergang Marineartilleristen kämpfen und wo sich schon das große Schweigen über die Batteriestellungen gesenkt hat.
Kriegsberichter HANNS H. REINHARDT
Innsbrucker Nachrichten (June 27, 1944)
Beispielhafte Tapferkeit der Verteidiger von Cherbourg
Heftiger Abwehrkampf unserer Truppen gegen massierte Sowjetkräfte – 54 Feindflugzeuge beim Terrorangriff auf Wien abgeschossen
dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 27. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
In Cherbourg wurde den ganzen Tag über in einzelnen Stützpunkten mit größter Erbitterung gekämpft. Erst gegen Abend gelang es dem Gegner, der in den blutigen Straßenkämpfen schwere Verluste erlitt, sich in den Besitz eines großen Teiles der Stadt zu setzen. Einige unserer Widerstandsnester kämpfen dort immer noch mit beispielhafter Tapferkeit. Im Arsenal und in einer Anzahl von Marine- und Luftwaffenstützpunkten halten die tapferen Besatzungen allen feindlichen Sturmangriffen stand. Auch hier hatte der Gegner schwere Verluste. Land- und Küstenbatterien der auf der Halbinsel nordwestlich Cherbourg befindlichen eigenen Kampfgruppe unterstützen die Verteidiger der Stadt mit gutliegendem Artilleriefeuer.
Marinetruppen der Küstenbatterien, der Nachrichten- und Landdienststellen sowie an Land eingesetzte Schiffsbesatzungen haben sich bei den Kämpfen um Cherbourg unter dem Oberbefehl des Seekommandanten der Normandie, Konteradmiral Hennecke und unter Führung des Hafenkommandanten von Cherbourg, Fregattenkapitän Witt, besonders ausgezeichnet.
Die Marineküstenbatterie „Yorck“ versenkte vor Cherbourg einen leichten Kreuzer.
Im Raum von Tilly dehnte der Feind seine Angriffe auf weitere Abschnitte aus. Den ganzen Tag über hielten schwerste Infanterie- und Panzerkämpfe an. Der Feind, der durch Gegenangriffe zum Stehen gebracht wurde, konnte nur wenig Boden gewinnen.
Vor der Ornemündung zwangen unsere Küstenbatterien mehrere Transporter zum Abdrehen. In der letzten Zeit wurden zahlreiche mit Fallschirm abgesetzte feindliche Sabotagetrupps im französischen Raum im Kampf niedergemacht.
Schweres „V. 1“-Störungsfeuer lag weiterhin auf dem Stadtgebiet von London.
In Italien setzte der Gegner seine starken Durchbruchsangriffe fort. Trotz starker Artillerie- und Panzerunterstützung konnte er nur an einigen Stellen am äußersten Westflügel wenige Kilometer nach Norden Vordringen. An der gesamten übrigen Front bis zum Trasimenischen See erzielten unsere Truppen bei tropischer Hitze einen vollen Abwehrerfolg.
Bei den Kämpfen nördlich Grosseto hat sich eine Kampfgruppe unter Oberstleutnant Ziegler besonders bewährt. Der tapfere Kommandeur fand hierbei den Heldentod.
Im Mittelabschnitt der Ostfront stehen unsere tapferen Divisionen in den Abschnitten Bobruisk, Mogilew und Orscha in heftigem Abwehrkampf gegen die mit massierten Kräften angreifenden Sowjets. Westlich und südwestlich Witebsk kämpfen sie sich auf neue Stellungen zurück, östlich Polozk brachen zahlreiche von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe der Bolschewisten zusammen. Südöstlich Pleskau beseitigten unsere Grenadiere einen Einbruch vom Vortag und wiesen wiederholte Gegenangriffe der Bolschewisten ab.
An der finnischen Front vernichteten deutsche Schlachtflugzeuge 23 feindliche Panzer.
Schwere deutsche Kampfflugzeuge führten in der vergangenen Nacht zusammengefasste Angriffe gegen die Bahnhöfe Brjansk und Klinzy, die ausgedehnte Brände und Explosionen verursachten.
Ein nordamerikanischer Bomberverband griff in den gestrigen Vormittagsstunden Außenbezirke der Stadt Wien an. Es entstanden Gebäudeschäden und Verluste unter der Bevölkerung. Deutsche und ungarische Luftverteidigungskräfte vernichteten 54 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 46 viermotorige Bomber.
In der vergangenen Nacht warfen einzelne britische Flugzeuge Bomben auf Landgemeinden im Raum von Göttingen.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 27, 1944)
Communiqué No. 43
The fall of CHERBOURG ends the second phase in the campaign on liberation. Twenty days after the initial assault, Allied Forces have established a firm beachhead which includes almost the whole of the COTENTIN PENINSULA and a major port.
CHERBOURG’S liberation came after a final day of fierce fighting in the northwestern part of the city.
In the battle, the enemy has lost the greater part of four Infantry Divisions, numerous naval and marine units and line of communication troops.
Lt. Gen. KARL-WILHELM VON SCHLIEBEN, commander of the CHERBOURG Garrison, and KONTERADMIRAL HENNECKE, sea defense commander of NORMANDY, have been captured.
A strong attack toward the VILLERS-BOCAGE-CAEN main road has secured CHEUX and FONTENAY and has advanced several miles in the face of heavy German armor and infantry. Progress continues.
Storms and defense clouds minimized air activity yesterday and throughout the night.
Special Communiqué No. 3
CHERBOURG WAS LIBERATED BY ALLIED TROOPS LAST NIGHT.
ENDS SPECIAL COMMUNIQUE NUMBER 3
27 June 44
Communiqué No. 44
Allied forces in the TILLY-CAEN area have crossed the CAEN-VILLERS-BOCAGE railway near MOUEN. Our advance has been made in torrential rain and against determined resistance by enemy infantry and armor.
In the CHERBOURG PENINSULA, we are continuing our attacks against the last remnants of organized opposition. Elements of the enemy’s forces are holding out in the MAUPERTUS airfield east of the CHERBOURG, and in the northwest tip of the peninsula.
Prisoners taken in the peninsula total at least 20,000 and more are being brought in.
Bad weather during this morning severely curtailed air activity but fighter-bombers attacked a train at PARENNES (east of LAVAL) and road transport in the LAVAL and ALENÇON areas.
Early this morning light coastal forces intercepted and engaged a force of enemy trawlers and minesweepers off JERSEY.
Considerable damage was inflicted on the enemy in a gun action in which coastal batteries from the island joined, and one minesweeper was hit by a torpedo. It is considered that this enemy ship may have sunk.
The New York Times (June 27, 1944)
CHERBOURG FALLS TO U.S. TROOPS
Victory in France; capture of port seals first phase of Allied liberation of Europe
Fight sharp to end; British reported near main enemy highway at base of peninsula
By Drew Middleton
Cherbourg’s capture accompanied by new drive in the east
Before Cherbourg fell, pockets of Nazi resistance were being rooted out by U.S. troops who controlled the waterfront west of Querqueville and east to Bretteville (1). Our units reached Beaumont-Hague (2) as they pushed toward Cap de la Hague (3), whence the enemy was lobbing shells into Cherbourg. Germans had held out at Hardinvast (4), at Carneville (5) and, just to the southwest, at the Maupertus Airfield. To the east, Gen. Montgomery, with forces apparently built up while the Americans were active in the west, thrust southeast of Tilly-sur-Seulles to occupy the towns of Tessel-Bretteville and Brettevillette (6).
SHAEF, England –
Cherbourg, France’s third greatest port, has fallen to U.S. troops in the first outstanding victory of the Allied campaign to liberate France.
The fall of Cherbourg, after a siege that lasted a week from the moment the first shells from U.S. field guns began to pound its defenses, was officially announced here this morning just after 7:00 a.m. BDST (1:00 a.m. ET).
With the taking of the city, the first phase of the campaign in which the Allies were forced to build up their armies without the use of a large port came to an end. It was estimated here recently that supplies for two divisions could be moved through Cherbourg within 48 hours after its fall.
Captives may total 30,000
Last night, U.S. patrols mopped up the remaining German resistance in the vicinity of the naval base and arsenal and cleaned out snipers from buildings along the waterfront, where individual Germans held out until the last.
Although there has been no official estimate of the number of prisoners yet, it is probable the city’s fall will bring more than 30,000 German soldiers and sailors into the Allied cages.
Cherbourg was the second French port and naval base to fall to Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley. Bizerte in Tunisia was taken by the U.S. Army II Corps under his command on May 7, 1943.
The struggle for Cherbourg drew to its victorious close yesterday when in the rain and chill wind doughboys mopped up the port. By nightfall, more than one-third of the port had been occupied and, by midnight, two-thirds of the city was in Allied hands.
At dawn Monday, 3,400 German prisoners had been taken and it is probable that twice that number was captured in the mopping-up operations yesterday.
The Germans were driven from five remaining strongholds during the early evening by grenade, bayonet and flamethrower and tank units that had driven to the waterfront.
By nightfall, the remaining German resistance centered around the naval base and arsenal, planned and constructed by Vauban and improved by Napoleon. Snipers along the waterfront and little knots of German troops at roadblocks fought to their last cartridge.
The battle had been sharp and costly. Pillboxes around the shattered bastion of Fort du Roule had to be taken with bazookas, Bangalore torpedoes and a final scientific rush by doughboys, dashing through rain in the face of sharp rifle and machine-gun fire.
Other bastions barring entrances to the port were bypassed by U.S. infantry, who rushed into Cherbourg all day yesterday despite flanking fire.
The Germans reported “terrific” U.S. losses. This report was unfounded, but our casualties in the fierce fighting of the last four and a half days cannot have been light for assaults on strongly held prepared positions are one of the costliest forms of warfare. But if the price was high, the prize was great.
British push on in east
As the Cherbourg battle drew to its close, the new operation to the east was pressed. British tanks and infantry smashed forward from Tilly-sur-Seulles, penetrating to a depth of two and a half to four miles and driving the enemy from the villages of Tessel-Bretteville and Brettevillette, southeast of the starting point of this limited offensive.
An Associated Press report said British troops in the Fontenay area had driven to a point one mile from the main highway across the base of the peninsula.
Yesterday, for the first time in nearly two weeks, there was violent action at both ends of the Allied front. To the east, where the Germans are strongest, the British Army was advancing against the best German troops in France.
The occupation of Cherbourg was accomplished almost exactly three weeks after the first landings. During that time, the Allies had established a beachhead of more than 1,000 square miles, had taken more than 20,000 prisoners up to last night and had completed the destruction of four German garrisons.
These successes should not obscure the fact that the Germans are still numerically strong. Their Cherbourg defense is proof that even the discounted second-line infantry divisions of the German Army fight with a resolution and ability not often met in first-class troops of any nation.
With the opening of Cherbourg to Allied transports, the stage will be set for the growth of the great Anglo-American army in France. But events of the last three weeks have shown the path to victory will be hard going.
Strongpoint bypassed
Some time yesterday morning, Gen. Bradley evidently decided to leave the remaining German strongpoints to be mopped up later, and threw the majority of his battalions into the town. Under the rush of the new troops, the Germans fighting in the streets gave way. Those who could dashed for the shelter of the old stone fortifications around the naval port where they resisted to the end.
The main position at Fort du Roule was taken Sunday afternoon, according to dispatches from the front. Since then, our infantry has had to knock out a succession of smaller forts, each of them girt with mines and protected by enfilading fire from another position.
Four German positions on the Cherbourg Peninsula front survived yesterday’s attacks, according to reports from the 21st Army Group that reached here at 9:00 p.m. last night. Three of these are to the east of Cherbourg at the Maupertus Airfield and at Bretteville and Carneville. The fourth is at Hardinvast, four miles southwest of the port.
The penetration to the sea was accomplished without much fighting. To the east, a position near Bretteville had been established, while to the west, the sea had been reached around Querqueville, which had been taken.
U.S. infantrymen fought a brisk battle with four enemy pillboxes established on a road running parallel with the harbor yesterday. The pillboxes gave each other supporting fire and had to be knocked out one by one in savage and costly fighting. Here, as at Fort du Roule, the doughboys rushed up to the pillboxes and dropped grenades down the ventilators after the reinforced concrete had withstood direct hits from field guns.
Large stores of food and liquor were found in some of the underground fortifications.
U.S. units pushing toward the western tip of the peninsula encountered some opposition at Beaumont-Hague in the Cape de la Hague area. To the east, there was none to speak of in the Barfleur–Saint-Pierre-Église area.
Warships aid British
Allied naval forces were supporting the British advances on the eastern end of the beachhead. The Luftwaffe continued to assault these warships, but RAdm. Sir Philip Vian, commander of the invasion naval forces, said 10% of all attacking aircraft had been shot down by anti-aircraft fire from his ships.
There has been some E-boat action in this area, but British destroyers and light coastal forces have brushed off two recent attacks on the anchorage without loss.
Last week’s gale probably did more damage to Allied convoys than all enemy action thus far, an Associated Press report from Allied headquarters suggested.
There has also been some shelling from mobile batteries to the east of the British beaches.
By 9:15 p.m. yesterday, the British infantry was still smashing ahead southeast of Tilly-sur-Seulles toward the Odon River in the face of small groups of German tanks, heavy machine-gun fire and surprisingly extensive minefields, according to reports from the front. At that time, one staff major believed the British had penetrated the crust of enemy defenses, according to these reports.
The battle has been fought in the Juvigny-Cheux la Gaule-Brettevillette triangle on a considerable scale. The British appear to be striking south for the high ground around Fontenay to forestall a German offensive through Caen.
As four panzer and three infantry divisions hold this sector of the enemy line, it would be unwise to expect any extensive exploitation of yesterday’s advance, which came only after three hours of extremely hard fighting.
Nazis claim they gained time
Comments in Monday night and Tuesday morning editions of German domestic papers “state that the German Command has gained time through the sacrifice of troops at Cherbourg,” the Nazi Transocean News Agency said in a broadcast to the German-controlled press of Europe, as reported by U.S. government monitors.
The German press comment, apparently designed to justify to the public a statement in yesterday’s Nazi High Command communiqué that the Nazi garrison at Cherbourg had rejected two ultimatums to surrender, went on, according to Transocean:
Thus the German Command was able to take effective military countermeasures which will become obvious at the right time.
14 warships shell Cherbourg at once
British newsman describes destruction of batteries defending harbor
By Desmond Tighe, Reuters correspondent
Aboard HMS GLASGOW, off Cherbourg Harbor, France – (June 25, delayed)
U.S. battleships and heavy cruisers, supported by two British cruisers and seven destroyers, are firing broadside after broadside into German shore batteries at vital key points on the fringes of Cherbourg Harbor in support of the Army.
The bombardment started at exactly 11 minutes past 12:00 this morning and has lasted for more than three hours with German long-range 450mm shore batteries returning the fire vigorously.
As I watched this bombardment from the bridge of HMS Glasgow, victor of the recent Bay of Biscay battle, we are steaming steadily some 15,000 yards off the breakwater of Cherbourg Harbor.
Air resounds with crashes
Our six-inch guns are blazing away as shells scream into a German fort. The air resounds with the crash of broadsides from the battleships, cruisers and destroyers. The Channel sea is whipped with wicked-looking grey-black splashes as we are straddled time and time by German shore batteries.
The German gunnery is good and although we are plastering their concrete gun emplacements with tons of high explosives some of them keep on firing.
The U.S. bombardment task force is commanded by U.S. Navy RAdm. Morton L. Deyo. Adm. Deyo is flying his flag in the heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa. Among the warships in his battle squadron are the battleship USS Texas, USS Nevada, USS Arkansas; the cruiser USS Quincy, and the two British cruisers, HMS Glasgow and HMS Enterprise. We are escorted by a strong force of U.S. destroyers. Minesweepers clear the way for us and overhead Lightnings give us constant cover.
The German shore batteries open first. Great spurts of water ruse up near the foremost minesweeper. She continues to move inshore. Again, the sharp crack of bursting shells as the batteries fire. They are sending over anti-personnel shells which burst in the air in a cloud of white smoke with flaming streamers streaking into the sea.
The Enterprise lying on out starboard beam starts bombarding.
The Nevada passes close to us and lets fly a 14-inch broadside. The air seems to shake as these shells roar away toward the German batteries with the sound of an express train.
Now all ships are firing. Our forward turrets open up with a roar. The sky is now filled with smoke. Visibility is practically nil.
We continue to blaze away with our guns at the shore battery. I watch the gunnery officer calmly giving his orders. There are three ugly cracks and we are straddled close to our stern. The German gunnery is good.
The Nevada, looking magnificent standing out of the smokescreen, her Stars and Stripes battle ensign flying high at her topmast, turns away to starboard to take up another bombardment position. She fires her after 14-inch guns with a roar. We are now being straddled by the shore batteries with alarming regularity.
It is now nearly 1 o’clock. The Nevada reappears out of the smokescreen, and as she passes close on our port beam fires point-blank a broadside of 14-inch shells. The range is so short for her that her guns are depressed to their lowest level. Again and again, she pours high explosives into the shore batteries. Some have now stopped but others still carry on.
We continue to fire away with our six-inch guns.
The Quincy appears out of the smoke. Her guns belch broadsides. The German batteries continue to pepper us. Shrapnel tinkles on the bridge structure and on the side of the ship.
The Enterprise is firing away with all she’s got. She passes close to us and the captain waves cheerfully from the bridge.
Then things get really hot. We have been scheduled to bombard for 90 minutes and the time limit is up. Three shells roar right over the ship to explode in the sea some 50 yards away. They are followed by more.
The batteries seem to have got our range. Adm. Deyo makes us a signal to retire to the swept channel. The Nevada leads us out, her guns blazing away at the shore batteries. For a time, all is quiet.
Twenty minutes later, we are again some 15,000 yards from the shore firing at one stubborn battery to the southeast of Cherbourg. The others seem to be out of action.
Aircraft are spotting for us, wheeling over the target area. We close in on the shore and then let fly with a six-gun broadside. Another and another until the gun position is covered with brown smoke curling into the air. But the German gunners continue to fire.
The captain says rather apologetically: “We are being fired at again. Lie low.” We can see the pinpoints of light from this four-gun battery as it opens fire. Then the shells scream over. The Quincy, Tuscaloosa, Nevada and Enterprise are all firing.
It is now a quarter to 4. We have been in action for three and a half hours.
We steam away from Cherbourg, our bombardment mission completed.
U.S. destroyers are laying a white smokescreen as we head north. The Tuscaloosa, Quincy and Nevada, steaming line ahead, pass us on our starboard beam. As a farewell gesture, they fire broadside after broadside of 14-inch shells into the German positions until we are out of range. The shells scream overhead.
As we steam toward our home port in the light of the setting sun, the commander speaks, “The man brace will be spliced as soon as we are in harbor.”
Byrd’s son is wounded
Is paratrooper serving with invasion forces in France
Washington – (June 26)
Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) received word today that his son, Pvt. W. Beverley Byrd, a paratrooper, had been wounded while serving with the invasion troops in France.
Pvt. Byrd, now in his early 20s, is a member of the 82nd Airborne Division. His injuries were not specified.
All three of Senator Byrd’s sons are in the armed services. Harry F. Byrd Jr., the eldest, is a naval lieutenant in the Pacific area; Beverley is the next oldest; Richard Evelyn, the youngest, is a sergeant in the Armored Infantry.
Denny: Pockets of Nazis kept on sniping as Americans overran Cherbourg
By Harold Denny
With U.S. forces at Cherbourg, France – (June 26)
The Germans fought a last-ditch defense in Cherbourg this evening, though the outcome was inescapable. Substantial elements of the U.S. forces got into the city from the south only after a piece-by-piece conquest of succeeding strongpoints and the Germans were still firing on them in the city and from two pillboxes remaining on Fort du Roule with 88mm field pieces and machine guns. The city has been considerably damaged but less than one would have thought. As a whole, it is intact, though many individual buildings have been smashed.
Dominating all was the arsenal, where the last important holdout group was still firing rifles while large portions of the structure were burning with a red glow and towering black smoke.
Holding out about equally with the arsenal was one last desperate little group of cannoneers at Fort du Roule.
It stands like Gibraltar and should have been impregnable. Its fortifications of reinforced concrete, several stories deep and tunneled into solid rock, behind one of the Maginot Line fortresses, which I visited the first winter of this war. They include an electric light plant, underground barracks, an underground hospital and abundant stores of everything conceivable, including the best wine and brandy. It has been conquered repeatedly in this battle, yet parts of it still continued to fight tonight.
Sunday one of our units overran it and apparently had it all under control. But these fortifications are connected by rock tunnels and in the night, the soldiers crawled back up and manned one formidable system of big guns protected by two lesser pillboxes armed with .30-caliber machine guns and 20mm cannon at the end of the mountain nearest the town. They opened fire both on our soldiers feeling their way through the city below and against our men farther back.
The American commander sent a strong force against it at 6 o’clock this morning and at the same time had heavy artillery and mortar fire laid down. While this barrage kept the enemy’s heads down our infantry crept up and exploded pole charges, threw in grenades and finally leaped into the positions and captured the survivors. They got about 150 there. The same troops then went over the side of “Gibraltar” and fought straight through the city, gathering up machine-gunners and snipers hiding on building tops and drove block by block straight to the waterfront.
They gathered up some hundreds of prisoners on the way and herded them clear to the water’s edge.
General leaves, guns fire
So, Fort du Roule seemed conquered once more. Yet it was believed still more Germans lurked in a gallery still deeper underground and protected by thick steel doors.
They were there when a general visited the fort and inspected the fortifications a few feet above them late this afternoon. Fifteen minutes after the general left, that hidden garrison opened fire again on the city and there ensued a remarkable artillery duel.
Our forces in the town below had brought in tank destroyers and howitzers. They fired back at the fort. Retreating to a safe distance at one side and crouching at the edge of a trench full of dead Germans, I could see the flash of our guns in the town and then a burst of fire and smoke as the shells hit around the fort’s embrasures. The fort would reply with its hard bark and an almost instant burst of a shell down below. Our guns were firing with remarkable accuracy and from my vantage point it seemed certain that some of our missiles must be getting through. After an hour, Fort du Roule was silent again and that was the end for it.
Tanks back up infantry
By Don Whitehead, Associated Press correspondent
With U.S. troops in Cherbourg, France – (June 26, 9:12 p.m.)
Fanatic defenders of Cherbourg made a last desperate effort today to hold out against doughboys closing in to wipe out the last pockets of resistance.
As we walked through the streets of Cherbourg, doughboys moved up to close in on the pillboxes that were still firing from the beach.
The Amiot aircraft plant, or what was once a plant, was a burning, charred ruins, sabotaged by the Germans in their last hours in Cherbourg.
Down the road less than 100 yards, our tanks were sitting on the beach near knocked-out enemy strongpoints, blasting at machine-gun nests still holding out. The rattle of machine-gun fire broke out intermittently.
The tanks helped the doughboys fight their way through tough, scattered knots of resistance to enter the city late yesterday. When the Germans began firing from houses along the route of advance, the tanks rolled up and blasted the positions.
In one house, a German officer and three enlisted men lay dead with bullet holes through their foreheads, neat round holes put there by an expert doughboy rifleman. The officer lay with a champagne bottle in one hand and his rifle in the other. He had decided to fight to the last.
Resistance was disorganized. Defenders, still manning guns, were German fanatics trapped like rats. There was no escape for them.
A United Press report from Cherbourg said some Germans broke most of their rifles and machine guns and had blown off the muzzles of their artillery before surrendering.
The first unit into this section of the city was led by Lt. George Myers of Cincinnati, Ohio. This was the spearhead that sliced off the eastern part of the city.
Few booby traps found
There were surprisingly few mines and booby traps left by the Germans to hamper the U.S. entrance into the city. Most opposition was from machine-gun nests and guns in the forts.
The unit here has found only two booby traps so far and the only mines were those in front of the smashed beach defenses.
Coming into the city, the doughboys hit one tough knot of resistance with a German colonel and 300 troops holed up in a building and armed with machine guns and rifles.
Lt. Benjamin Westervelt of 418 Stockholm Street, Brooklyn, New York:
We just brought up tanks and boys with automatic Browning rifles and poured fire through the windows and doors. That got ‘em. The colonel came out to surrender his men. They poured out of there through the windows and doors in streams.
The unit kept one of the prisoners and when a pillbox strongpoint was encountered, he was sent forward to tell the defenders that unless they surrendered tanks would be brought up and all of them wiped out.
Lt. Westervelt said:
We got 56 out of that bag. We did the same thing at other places, too, and this man convinced more than 100 Germans to surrender.
There were few civilians in the section of the city we visited. But those on the streets were giving a warm welcome to the Americans.
German luxury noted
In a wine shop, Sgt. Harold Shortsleeve of Rutland, Vermont, had his heavy machine-gun squad cleaning their weapons before moving up to take part in the action against the pillboxes still blasting away at our troops.
Sgt. Shortsleeve said with a grin:
We’re waiting for artillery and mortars to get to work and then we’ll go in to clear up the pillboxes.
In the Hôtel Atlantique were cases of wine, cognac and champagne left behind by the Germans when they fled the city.
There the shelves were filled with fine sauternes, burgundies and liqueurs. The Germans has requisitioned the hotel for labor troops of the Todt Organization. They had lived in comfort in the 500-room hostelry.
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Nazi billet found filthy, insanitary
Dirt, grease and insects in German quarters in France arouse U.S. medical officer
By Frederick Graham
Advanced 9th Air Force fighter base, on Cherbourg front, France – (June 25, delayed)
This is just to report another chipped place in that fabulous mosaic that portrays the German as a super soldier.
What we have seen of how German soldiers and officers lived here has led U.S. Army medical officers to conclude he is not like his 1914-15 prototype so far as health and sanitary conditions are concerned. Either he does not know anything about fundamental army sanitation or he us amazingly indifferent.
Headquarters of this outfit are in a lovely old building that has been used by Allied or German troops since 1940. British soldiers occupied it until Dunkerque and then German troops took over. We moved in on Jerry’s heels a few days ago – so fast in fact that he did not have time to cart off a tub of fine French butter he had requisitioned from French farmers.
According to Lt. Col. Stanley Ungar of 2 E 4th Street, New York, medical officer for this fighter wing, the Germans violated just about every rule of army sanitation, and even to a layman it is evident to more than just the eye that they were not very clean or tidy.
The building itself and latrines cannot be excused on the ground the Germans had only temporary quarters there, Col. Ungar believes. Nor can the haste in which they left be given as an excuse. Col. Ungar pointed to the thick crust of dust and grease on the floors and walls and the bed lice.
A 200-year-old stone building was used as an officers’ latrine – and col. Ungar doubts if it was ever cleaned out or even sprinkled with lime.
In the immediate rear of the house was a large decorative pond filled with slimy green water from which swarms of mosquitos flew all day and night.
Most of the Germans, including officers, slept on mattresses made of burlap and filled with straw. Bed lice crawled all over them.
The first thing Col. Ungar and his medicos did when this outfit moved in was to cover the pond with oil, pour lime into the old latrine and then seal it off. All floors were “G.I.’d” which means scrubbed with hot water and soap. New latrines were built some distance away. the straw mattresses were burned and walls and ceilings scrubbed – and as soon as paint is available the rooms are going to get a new coat of paint.
Airborne commanders named
SHAEF, England (AP) – (June 26)
It was disclosed today for the first time that Brig. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, who was sent secretly to Rome for a pre-surrender discussion with Marshal Pietro Badoglio, now commands the 101st Airborne Division, which landed on D-Day, and that Maj. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway, who commanded the 82nd Airborne Division in Sicily and Italy, led it into Normandy.
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Germans’ strength in Normandy believed far less than Allies’
Uneven complements of divisions, use of foreign troops and variations in armaments are factors
SHAEF, England – (June 26)
The uneven strength of divisions, the wide use of non-German troops and the lack of uniformity in armament contribute to the belief that the German Army facing the Allies in Normandy is a lesser vehicle than the military machine that awed Europe in 1940 and 1941.
The Germans have fought with valor and skill, but a comparison of enemy divisions with U.S. and British divisions leads inevitably to the conclusion that the Allies are stronger. Four years ago, a German division was the measure for military strength the world over. That is no longer true.
The task forces of some regular armored divisions are composed of one battalion of German Mark IV tanks and one battalion of French SOMUA tanks. The latter is a durable machine, but it was evolved in 1937.
Elite Guard armored divisions usually have more troops – up to 20,000 men – and better tanks than the regular armored divisions. The same is true to some extent, of infantry divisions. These are now divided into two categories: field service and limited employment; that is, static service divisions. The former are better equipped and include younger and tougher soldiers than the latter, whose age group is from 35 to 40. Three types of non-German troops are serving in the German Army.
There are Ost battalions of Russians. Frequently one of these makes up the third battalion of an infantry regiment, or three of them form the third regiment of a division. Sometimes they are officered by Russians, sometimes by Germans. When there is a Russian commander, he is accompanied by a watchful German assistant. Many Russians, when captured, are considered normal prisoners of war. The Russian troops have been forced into service.
The second type of “foreign” troops is the Volksdeutsche, who are regarded as Germans though born abroad. They serve in German units and theoretically there is no difference between them and German soldiers. Then there are the Hilfsfreiwilligen – “volunteers” – who serve a ammunition carriers, drivers and cooks with combat units or on lines of supply.
Here is how the divisions appear to the Americans and Britons fighting them in France. Four armored divisions have been identified in Normandy. They consist of a reconnaissance unit, a regiment of tanks, two regiments of armored grenadiers – that is, infantry – three battalions of field artillery and permanently attached battalions of anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery.
A reconnaissance unit is composed of five companies; two companies of armored cars, two companies of infantry in armored trucks and a heavy company of supporting arms. A tank regiment is composed of two battalions: one of three companies of Mark IVs, 18 tanks to a company, and one battalion of SOMUAs.
An ordinary regiment of armored grenadiers has two battalions. In an armored division, there are two regiments of these. One is carried in armored vehicles close behind the tanks. The other follows the trucks a little to the rear. Generally, the armored grenadiers are the best infantry in the German Army.
The field guns of an armored division are the 105mm gun-howitzers, while an anti-aircraft battalion is armored with the 88mm gun, which can also be used against tanks. An anti-tank battalion has both 88mm and 47mm weapons.
Elite Guard armored divisions, instead of a battalion of French tanks, have a battalion of French tanks, have a battalion of Mark Vs. The Mark V is armed with a long-barreled 75mm gun of great hitting power, while the Mark IV has a short-barreled weapon of the same caliber.
Germans tricked by D-Day diversion
‘Bluff’ fleet sent against Calais drew off enemy’s planes, British officer says
The German Air Force, absent from the Normandy invasion, went into the air to attack a “diversion” fleet that the Allies sent on D-Day into the Calais-Boulogne area, Cdr. Anthony Kimmins, British naval intelligence officer, said yesterday.
The Germans expected the Allied blow to land in that area, he said in an interview at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. He predicted that:
When the Germans’ final defense plans are found, I think we will discover that they thought we were coming in there.
Cdr. Kimmins came to the United States direct from the Normandy beaches, where he went ashore from one of the leading assault ships on D-Day. That night, he returned to England in a motor torpedo boat to report to the Admiralty and the next day he was back on the beachhead, where he stayed a week. He has been present at almost every landing of the war, including Norway, North Africa, Pantelleria, Sicily and Salerno with British troops. He was with U.S. forces in the Kwajalein landing.
The ships that went on the “bluff” invasion did not suffer much damage, he said. He added, “I think the men had a very good time. They just made a lot of noise.”
The Germans’ behavior was described by the Norman population as “very correct,” he said. Invasion, to the villagers, meant bombardment for the first time, as their agricultural land had not previously suffered from the Allied air blows and they had lived a comparatively comfortable existence during the past four years, the commander said.
The Germans were forced to use the robot planes prematurely, he said. He believed that they had all been aimed for the invasion ports, but the incessant Allied pounding of their bases had forced the Germans to shoot them at any target they could find. The planes could have been “a very serious menace” if used all at once from every site, he said.
Describing the ships in the Channel during the invasion, he said that it had been “just like walking down Broadway with traffic in all directions.” Ships “poured across” the Channel in a steady stream, in long orderly lines, massed from the British coast to the French coast, he said.
Sniping by French denied by Allies
Headquarters praises their aid to invasion forces – mine strike begun in north
SHAEF, England (AP) – (June 26)
Investigation has shown that there have been no authenticated instances of French civilian snipers’ firing on Allied troops, a special Supreme Headquarters announced said today.
On the contrary, French resistance to the Germans has been of great assistance to the Allies, it added. The statement said:
It is announced by Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, today that investigations have been made of allegations of French civilian snipers firing on Allied troops. No authenticated use of French snipers has been found.
On the other hand, Supreme Headquarters emphasized that French resistance to the Germans has been a great contribution in support of Allied operations.
Miners strike in north
London, England – (June 26)
France’s army without uniforms was reported today to have been joined in resistance by miners of northern France, who are staging a sit-down strike. This is the first instance of its kind reported from France since the invasion began.
Authoritative French sources here, which announced the strike, also disclosed that 3,000 German troops had been employed in a vain attempt to surround maquisards who have regrouped in the Ardennes. A German attack at Saint-Gervais has been repulsed with heavy losses and a German offensive has been foiled in the Chartreuse district.
French forces have taken control of some districts in Provence, where the Germans are attacking and carrying out reprisals. Twenty Frenchmen have been shot in four days at Annecy. One hundred and forty have been killed at Lambesc. The arrests of hostages are increasing in Lorraine, but railway sabotage continues.
Recent sabotage efforts have included the blowing up of transformers serving German factories in the Lower Seine region and the wrecking of a petroleum refinery in the southwest that was supplying oil fir transformers and railway engines. The Germans have been unable to restore the long-distance telephone lines from Paris that were cut on June 6.
Völkischer Beobachter (June 28, 1944)
Invasion und Gangstertum
pk. Noch in keinem Kriege haben deutsche Soldaten so klar erkannt, wofür sie kämpfen und wen sie zum Gegner haben, wie in diesen Tagen; nicht allein durch die Methoden, womit der Feind diesen Krieg führt, sind ihnen die klaren Erkenntnisse der Situation vermittelt worden, sondern auch durch die Pamphlete jener Kriegsstifter, die weitab vom Schuss ihren Haß und ihren Unflat in Kübeln über das deutsche Volk und seine Führung ausschütten.
Es erübrigt sich, über den jüdisch-bolschewistischen Gegner noch Worte zu verlieren, denn unsere Ostkämpfer haben mit eigenen Augen gesehen, gegen welches Untermenschentum es hier zu kämpfen gilt, welche Gefahr der Zivilisation von dieser Seite droht. Nicht nur Deutschland, sondern ganz Europa. Umso perfider erscheinen uns die Argumente, die man von London und Washington aus in die Welt hinaussandte und die von der Befreiung Europas vom Joch des Nationalsozialismus sprechen. Jene „christlichen“ Soldaten, die man gegen uns aufmarschieren ließ, entpuppten sich als Kulturschänder, Mörder und Gangster, die nicht nur gegebene Befehle ausführten, wenn sie ihre Bomben auf Wohnviertel deutscher Städte warfen und Tausende von Frauen und Kindern umbrachten, sondern sie erklärten sich auch identisch mit den Auftraggebern, indem sie sich selbst als Mörder-Vereinigung bezeichneten.
In den Tagen der Invasion erhielten wir nun gerade im Westen die Beweise für die aller Menschlichkeit hohnsprechende Art der feindlichen Kriegführung, wenn wir sahen, wie feindliche Jagdflugzeuge im Tiefflug über Flüchtlingskolonnen hinwegflogen und mit ihren Bordwaffen französische Frauen und Kinder niedermachten, dann wieder zurückkehrten und verwundete oder auch schwerverwundete auf den Straßen liegende Zivilisten noch einmal unter Feuer nahmen. Es überraschte uns nicht mehr, als wir bei einem in Gefangenschaft geratenen kanadischen Hauptmann Notizen über eine Offiziersbesprechung fanden, in denen es wörtlich hieß, daß die den Verkehr im Invasionsraum behindernden französischen Flüchtlingskolonnen rücksichtslos zu überfahren und zu beschießen seien.
In Caen lenkten britische Aufklärer nach dem ersten Bombardement der Stadt die „Liberators“ auf das Hippodrom, in dem Tausende der Zivilbevölkerung Zuflucht gesucht hatten, da es als nichtmilitärisches Objekt genau zu erkennen war. Die Briten warteten, bis weitere der Flüchtlinge im Hippodrom versammelt waren, um dann den Massenmord mit umso größerem Erfolg zu begehen. Sie beschossen nicht nur mit Bordwaffen deutsche Mannschaftswagen, sondern griffen auch zivile Krankenautos des Französischen Roten Kreuzes an, bombardierten weit sichtbar gekennzeichnete Hospitäler und Verbandplätze und fuhren ihrerseits in den gleichen Nächten mit hellerleuchteten Lazarettschiffen von der Normandieküste nach England, weil sie wussten, daß deutsche Schnellbootkommandanten niemals eines solchen Verbrechens fähig sein konnten, Torpedos auf einen Transport mit Verwundeten abzuschießen.
So schreiten die Invasoren über Berge von Frauen- und Kinderleichen, die zu Tausenden in den Städten und Dörfern der Normandie liegen, in die Landstraßen hinein. Der Zynismus dieser Art Menschen, die sich selber als „Befreier“ Frankreichs bezeichneten, ging noch weiter: Kanadische Fallschirmjäger, die im Raum Caen abgesprungen waren, zwangen französische Frauen und Kinder, sich nach der Art von Wegelagerern zu tarnen, indem sie sich hinter diesen am Straßenrand aufgestellten harmlosen Zivilisten im Straßengraben verbargen, um in den ersten Stunden der Invasion, in denen die Absprungräume noch nicht restlos gesäubert waren, ahnungslos vorbeifahrende Fahrzeuge abzuknallen. Sie verbargen sich in Scheunen und forderten unter Bedrohung mit der Waffe französische Bauern auf, in ihrer unmittelbaren Nähe der Feldarbeit weiter nachzugehen, um so ungestört aus dem Hinterhalt glatten Meuchelmord begehen zu können. Was bedeutet dagegen schon die Nachahmung des sowjetischen Beispiels, erbeutete Lastwagen mit Offizieren und Soldaten in deutschen Uniformen zu besetzen.
Die Liste dieser verbrecherischen Methoden erhebt keinen Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit, aber sie genügt, um die hinterhältige Kampfesweise des Gegners zu charakterisieren. Man legt sich als deutscher Soldat trotz dieser schon in der Sowjetunion und auch in Italien Wiederholt erlebten Gangstermethoden gerade in diesen Tagen immer wieder die Frage vor, wie ein englischer oder us.-amerikanischer Soldat solcher Verbrechen fähig sein kann. Man stellt diese Überlegungen an, obwohl die Terrorflieger in deutschen Gefangenenlagern oder vor englischen Mikrophonen längst eine Antwort darauf gaben. Weit aufschlussreicher als all diese Äußerungen kalten Zynismus ist jedoch die Antwort, die uns eine im Nachlass eines kanadischen Seemannes gefundene amerikanische Zeitschrift gibt.
Das amerikanische Magazin Look veröffentlichte in seiner Ausgabe vom 4. April 1944 das Ergebnis eines Rundbriefes in einem Jungenklub in Neuyork, wo Neun- bis Dreizehnjährige aufgefordert werden, folgende Fragen zu beantworten:
Was würdet ihr mit Hitler tun, wenn ihr ihn Befangen hättet? In einer Bildreportage, die Aufnahmen von sechs Jungen, ihre Namen und ihr Alter bringt, werden dann der Leserschaft die Antworten serviert. Die Aussagen dieser Vertreter der jüngsten us.-amerikanischen Generation möchten selbst dem Gegner die Schamröte ins Gesicht treiben. Aus diesen Erklärungen, die deutlich die Federführung des Juden aufweisen, spricht nicht nur ein infernalischer Haß, sondern auch eine an das Unglaublichste grenzende Verderbnis und Unmoralität.
Bis auf eines erklärten sich diese Kinder eines modernen Staates, der einen Anspruch auf Zivilisation und Ehre erhebt, bereit, den Führer persönlich zu ermorden. Sie gehen aber noch weiter und schildern die Foltermethoden, die sie dabei anwenden wollen mit einer so brutalen Grausamkeit, daß man zurückschreckt vor diesem Abgrund an innerer Verkommenheit und Fäulnis; von Herzlosigkeit zu sprechen, bedeutet schon eine zu milde Verurteilung dieser niederen Gesinnung und Schlechtigkeit, die mehr als auf eine in Haß erzogene Jugend auf ihre Erzieher und Führer zurückfällt. Man glaubt Stellen aus dem Talmud zu lesen, wenn man dies Pamphlet in den Händen hält, das bisher ohne Beispiel in der feindlichen Hetzliteratur dasteht und die Hassartikel eines Juden Rosenfeld, der über die Sterilisation des deutschen Volkes plädierte, weit in den Schatten stellt. Jetzt erkennt man die Ursachen und Ausgangspunkte der Gangstermethoden, mit denen die seit Jahren in einen abgrundtiefen Haß gegen Deutschland erzogenen und aufgeputschten Trabanten Judes diesen Krieg gegen anständige und faire Soldaten wie auch gegen Frauen und Kinder führen.
Unsere Begegnungen mit diesen Söldnern einer jüdisch-kapitalistischen und bolschewistischen Clique haben uns oft genug Beweise geliefert, daß dieser Haß nicht allein dem Führer gilt, sondern dem ganzen deutschen Volke, seinen Männern, Frauen und Kindern ohne Ausnahme. Wir wissen schon lange, daß es in diesem Ringen auf Leben und Tod keine Gnade mehr geben kann und darf und jeder einzelne Gegner ein verantwortlicher Vollstrecker dieser verbrecherischen Befehle ist.
Wir erkennen weiter, daß Haß nur mit Haß beantwortet werden kann, und das werden wir tun und schwören es bei unseren gefallenen Brüdern, unseren gemordeten Vätern, Müttern, Frauen, Kindern und Schwestern.
Kriegsberichter MAX KARL
Deutsche Verteidiger mauern sich ein –
Im Endkampf um Cherbourg
Von unserem Berichterstatter in der Schweiz
b—r. Bern, 27. Juni –
Während des Endkampfes in Cherbourg kann auch der Feind nicht umhin, die außerordentliche Tapferkeit anzuerkennen, mit der die deutschen Soldaten aller Waffengattungen auf diesem Platz und in seiner Umgebung bis zum letzten ausharren und kämpfen.
Alle Darstellungen anglo-amerikanischer Berichterstatter geben Beispiele von der Hartnäckigkeit, mit der die deutschen Truppen sich schlagen. Zahlreiche Stützpunkte und Widerstandsnester hielten und halten sich im Rücken der Amerikaner. Ja, als diese eine der stärksten Stellungen, das Fort du Roule bereits fest in der Hand zu haben glaubten, wurde es ihnen durch einen plötzlichen Zugriff der Deutschen nochmals entrissen.
Auf amerikanischer Seite erklärt man dazu, daß dieses Fort durch ein Netz von unterirdischen Gängen mit der Stadt Cherbourg selbst verbunden sei. Aus diesen Gängen seien die Deutschen, nachdem die Amerikaner den oberen Teil des Forts schon genommen hatten, wieder in die Stellung gelangt. „In diesen geheimen Gängen“ heißt es weiter, „sind nicht nur Maschinengewehre, sondern auch gewaltige Küstengeschütze aufgestellt. Die amerikanischen Infanteristen haben wiederholt versucht, die Eingänge zu diesen unterirdischen Gewölben zu finden, mußten aber jedesmal unverrichteter Dinge zurückkehren.“
Über den weiteren Kampf um diesen Stützpunkt wird unter anderem noch berichtet:
In dem Fort haben sich die deutschen Soldaten eingemauert. Wir sehen verschiedene Öffnungen in den Fassaden, die erst vor kurzer Zeit mit Zement verschlossen worden sind. Der Zement ist noch feucht. Ein Eindringen war unmöglich. Alles war zugemauert und nur Löcher für die Geschütze waren offen und aus diesen blitzte es in kurzen Abständen.
Nicht weniger erbittert wird in der Stadt Cherbourg selbst gekämpft. Darüber wird berichtet:
In jeder Straße sind Scharfschützen und MG-Posten in Häusern und Dachstuben verborgen. Schwarze Rauchwolken liegen über der Stadt, da große Brände seit mehr als 12 Stunden in den Docks und im Arsenal wüten. Die Deutschen leisten rund um die Stadt Widerstand, in Granville, Beaumont-Hague und Saint-Croix-Hague. Gleichzeitig scheint die Haltung der Besatzung der Küstenbatterie von Cap Hague darauf hinzudeuten, daß die Deutschen, wenn sie auch Cherbourg als Verteidigungsstellung aufgeben, doch die Absicht haben, die Alliierten an der Besetzung des Hafens so lange wie möglich zu hindern.
Der Hafen ist nicht mehr benützbar und Meldungen aus der Stadt besagen, daß es viel Zeit beanspruchen wird ihn zu säubern, da Schiffe in den Einfahrten versenkt wurden und schwere Zerstörungen an den Anlagen festzustellen sind. Die Rolle der deutschen Marineartillerie wird verschiedentlich betont. Ein Korrespondent der Agentur Reuter hat an Bord des schweren Kreuzers Glasgow am Sonntagnachmittag den Kampf zwischen einem großen Geschwader unter Führung des amerikanischen Konteradmirals Deyo gegen die deutsche Marineartillerie erlebt.
Die deutschen Küstenbatterien eröffneten das Feuer Punkt 12,10 Uhr. Sofort waren alle alliierten Kriegsschiffe an der Beschießung beteiligt. Die deutschen Batterien schossen sehr gut, so daß Konteradmiral Deyo das Zeichen zum Abbruch der Beschießung gab. 20 Minuten später waren wir wieder aus einer Entfernung von 15.000 Meter vor Cherbourg. Alle Schiffe feuerten auf eine Küstenbatterie südöstlich von Cherbourg, die immer noch antwortete. Andere Küstenbatterien schienen dagegen zum Schweigen gebracht zu sein. Plötzlich erhielt die Glasgow einen Treffer. Konteradmiral Deyo gab neuerdings den Befehl zu weiterem Rückzug, da nun die Aufgabe des Geschwaders zu Ende war.
Warum die Aufgabe des Geschwaders zu Ende war, obwohl die deutschen Batterien, wie der Treffer auf die Glasgow zeigte, noch durchaus kampffähig waren, wird nicht angedeutet.
Dr. Koppen: Unser Kampf
Berlin, 27. Juni –
Als die Briten und Amerikaner am 6. Juni zur Invasion antraten, erinnerten wir an jene Taktik des Kremls, die in den alliierten Ländern die Volksstimmung für einen vollen Einsatz an einer Landfront großen Stils dadurch mobil machte, daß sie das Schlagwort in Umlauf setzte: Schnelle Beendigung des Krieges durch zweite Front. Moskau war sich bewusst, damit einer weitverbreiteten Friedenssehnsucht entgegenzukommen, gleichzeitig aber gerade die Kreise für sich einzuspannen, deren wachsende Kriegsmüdigkeit sonst die gemeinsame Kriegführung ungünstig hätte beeinflussen müssen. Nach dem Gefühl des Mannes auf der Straße in London und Neuyork wurde also nach langem Zögern der Sprung über den Kanal in der Absicht unternommen, in diesem Jahr die Entscheidung zu erzwingen und damit den Krieg abzukürzen.
Man hatte bereits vergessen, daß schon bei der Verkündung der Atlantik-Charta von dieser „Verkürzung des Krieges“ gesprochen worden war, wovon vor allem eine damals von Eden im Unterhaus abgegebene Erklärung zeugte. Es war damals auch in der englischen und amerikanischen Presse die Ansicht vertreten worden, daß nun der Krieg durch die gemeinsame Anstrengung der Alliierten, zu denen ja die USA bald zählen würden, spätestens in zwei Jahren ein Ende finden müsse. Diese Rechnung hatte aber den entscheidenden Faktor außer Ansatz gelassen: die unerschütterliche Standfestigkeit des deutschen Volkes, die sich als das wahrhaft entscheidende Moment in diesem Krieg erweisen wird und ganz besonders in dem kampfdurchtobten Sommer 1944, in dem an allen Fronten mit höchstem Einsatz gerungen wird.
Es ist dieses unbeirrbare Selbstgefühl, der Glaube an die eigene gute Sache, das stolze Bewusstsein des eigenen Wertes, die denkbar wirksamste innere Verfestigung des nationalen Organismus und die daraus hervorgehende unbedingte Gewissheit der Selbstbehauptung in allen Wechselfällen, die früher sogar kleinen Völkern für gewisse Epochen eine überragende Stellung verschafft hat – den Spartanern und Athenern so gut wie später den Niederländern, Schweizern und Schweden. Erst recht bestimmt das als beherrschendes Motiv den geschichtlichen Ablauf, wenn diese Antriebe ein großes und traditionsgesättigtes Volk beseelen und zu höchster Leistung und Kampfkraft emporreißen. Das deutsche Volk hat in diesem Krieg bewiesen, wie sehr in ihm all diese sittlichen Kräfte lebendig sind, die einer Nation die höchste Weihe verleihen und ihren Anspruch auf freies Leben und Wirken bestätigen, das ihrer würdig ist.
Eine solche Haltung angesichts einer Fülle von kriegerischen Erfolgen zu zeigen, würde an sich noch nicht viel bedeuten. Weit schwerer aber wiegt auf der Schale der Geschichte der Beweis von Seelenstärke inmitten schwerer Prüfungen, die das Letzte an positiver Leidensfähigkeit und vor allem auch an Geduld abfordern. Auch heute noch ist das Geschehen an den Fronten wesentlich dadurch bestimmt, daß der deutsche Soldat durch seine höhere Moral, altererbte Tugenden, Disziplin und unvergleichlichen Todesmut aufwiegen muß, was der Feind an Zahl und Material voraushat. Wie er sich immer wieder unerschrocken in die Bresche wirft, wie er auch dort, wo die materielle Überlegenheit des Gegners besonders stark gegen ihn ausschlägt, also in der Luft und auf dem Meer, keineswegs auf Angriffsgeist verzichtet, so wird auch das deutsche Volk keinen Augenblick wankend in dem Entschluss, durch verstärkten Einsatz auf dem technischen Sektor den Ausgleich zu schaffen, der sich schon anbahnt und in absehbarer Zeit noch weit gewichtiger in Erscheinung treten wird.
Wir werden in den kommenden Monaten noch mit mancher Belastungsprobe zu rechnen haben. Wie wir aber in den letzten eineinhalb Jahren des Krieges unsere Unbeugsamkeit dem Feind so unzweideutig bewiesen haben, daß er seine im vorigen August angekündigte große Propagandaoffensive gegen den Selbstbehauptungswillen des deutschen Volkes überhaupt nicht zu starten wagte, so wird der Gegner auch diesmal nicht die Entscheidung zu erzwingen vermögen, die ihm als Kampfziel vorschwebt und die ihm als so unbedingt notwendig erschien, daß er diesmal alles auf eine Karte setzt. Diese Karte wird nicht stechen und in dieser Gewissheit werden wir alles Geschehen der nächsten Zeit zu beurteilen haben.
Dieser Kampf ist alles andere als ein einseitiger Aufzehrprozeß, dessen Ergebnis sich mit dem Rechenstift ermitteln ließe. Im Verlauf eines Krieges zählen nicht nur die einzelnen militärischen Vorgänge, sondern die Auswirkungen aller moralischen Kräfte, die in den beteiligten Völkern lebendig sind. Es zählen jene unwägbaren Dinge, die noch immer die meisten Kriege entschieden haben, und es zählt vor allem der Lebenswille des Starken gegenüber der Vernichtungswut seiner Feinde. Daß es aber diesmal um die letzten Dinge geht, das weiß jeder Deutsche, zumal ihm der Gegner genau vorgerechnet hat, welche Pläne er gegen ein unterlegenes Deutschland im Schilde führt.
Wir haben uns in diesem Krieg stets bewusst von jenem leichtfertigen Überschwang freigehalten, mit dem das England der Chamberlain, Churchill und Derby in Erwartung eines schnellen und leichten Sieges in seinen „reizenden“ Krieg eingetreten ist, von jenem zahlenwütigen Optimismus, in dessen Zeichen sich die Yankees in Unkenntnis der Kraft ihrer selbstgewählten Gegner in das Kriegsabenteuer Roosevelts hineinschleppen ließen. In dieser realistischen Gemessenheit waren wir auch hart im Nehmen und werden es künftighin weiter so halten, bis unsere Stunde schlägt.
Denn solange ein Volk kämpft, erhält es sich die Möglichkeit, die der alte römische Wahlspruch in die Worte zusammenfasst, dass das Glück die Tapferen unterstützt. Das Nachlassen der moralischen Spannkraft war es, dass, wesentlich verschuldet durch eine schwache und glaubenslose Führung, uns im November 1918 zu dem bitteren Gang nach Compiègne gezwungen hat. Die Leichtgläubigkeit verantwortungsloser Piraten der öffentlichen Meinung war es, die uns vor jetzt genau 25 Jahren die Feder in die Hand drückte, welche die Unterschrift unter das Diktat von Versailles vollzog.
Der Feind wagt heute selbst nicht mehr an die Wiederholung eines solchen Selbstmordes zu glauben. Er versucht daher sein Heil auf den Schlachtfeldern und verleiht sich Vorschußlorbeeren, wie es Churchill tat, als er am Vorabend des Einsatzes der „V1“ bei einem Essen in der mexikanischen Gesandtschaft sich zum soundsovielten Male einen Siegestermin festlegte, indem er ankündigte, der Kampf werde in wenigen Monaten entschieden sein. Das wird nur in dem Sinn zutreffen, daß auch der konzentrische Ansturm, der nach der Besetzung von Rom begann, nicht zu dem Ziel geführt haben wird, dass sich die Roosevelt, Stalin und Churchill gesetzt haben.
Er wird zerbrechen an der festgefügten Kampffront der Massen und Herzen, die ihnen das deutsche Volk entgegensetzt. Dann wird die Stunde der Entscheidung schlagen, die den tiefsten Sinn dieses Krieges erfüllt.
Dr. WILHELM KOPPEN
Innsbrucker Nachrichten (June 28, 1944)
In unerschütterter Standhaftigkeit
Noch immer verteidigen sich zahlreiche Stützpunkte im Raum von Cherbourg – Schwere Kämpfe an der italienischen Front – Erbitterte Abwehrschlacht östlich der Beresina – Bei Kirkenes 77 sowjetische Flugzeuge abgeschossen
dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 28. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
In der Normandie lag der Schwerpunkt der Kämpfe wieder im Raum südöstlich Tilly. Während des ganzen Tages griffen starke feindliche Infanterie- und Panzerverbände, von schwerster Schiffsartillerie unterstützt, unsere Front an. Ihr Ansturm brach am zähen Widerstand unserer tapferen Divisionen zusammen, die dem Feind durch Gegenangriffe an einigen Stellen das am Vortag verlorengegangene Gelände wieder entrissen. Nur in einem Abschnitt konnte der Feind nach hartem, wechselvollem Kampf seinen Einbruchsraum geringfügig erweitern. Er hatte schwerste blutige Verluste und verlor weit über 50 Panzer, östlich der Orne wurde ein feindlicher Stoßtrupp restlos vernichtet.
Im Raum von Cherbourg verteidigen sich immer noch zahlreiche Stützpunkte des Heeres, der Kriegsmarine und der Luftwaffe tapfer und ihrer Pflicht getreu. Die Einfahrt in den Hafen von Cherbourg ist dadurch dem Gegner nach wie vor verwehrt, wenn auch die Trümmer der Stadt im Besitz des Feindes sind. Auch im Nordost- und Nordwestteil der Halbinsel Cherbourg halten sich noch eigene Stützpunkte in unerschütterlicher Standhaftigkeit.
In der letzten Nacht griffen schwere Kampfflugzeuge feindliche Schiffsansammlungen vor der normannischen Küste an. Ein Speziallandungsschiff wurde in Brand geworfen. Es entstanden Explosionen.
Die Marineküstenbatterie „Yorck“ zwang einen feindlichen Zerstörer und einen Schnellbootverband, die in den Hafen von Cherbourg eindringen wollten, zum Abdrehen.
Vor der niederländischen Küste und im Kanal beschädigten Vorpostenboote mehrere britische Schnellboote.
Schweres Feuer der „V1“ liegt unaufhörlich auf dem Raum von London.
An der italienischen Front wurde auch gestern wieder im Abschnitt zwischen der Küste und dem Trasimenischen See erbittert gekämpft. Der Feind versuchte erneut, mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerverbänden unsere Front zu durchbrechen. Es kam zu schweren, wechselvollen Kämpfen, in denen der Gegner jedoch nur auf dem äußersten Westflügel Boden gewinnen konnte. In allen übrigen Abschnitten wurde er unter hohen blutigen Verlusten abgewiesen.
In den schweren Abwehrkämpfen westlich des Trasimenischen Sees haben die 29. Panzergrenadierdivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Fries, die 4. Fallschirmjägerdivision unter Führung von Oberst Trettner und die 336. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Faulenbach, hervorragend durch Artillerie und Flakartillerie unterstützt, alle mit überlegenen Kräften geführten Durchbruchsversuche des Feindes unter besonders hohen Verlusten für den Gegner, zum Teil im Nahkampf, immer wieder abgewehrt.
Im Mittelabschnitt der Ostfront dauern die erbitterten Kämpfe im Raum Bobruisk und Mogilew an. Nach Räumung der Städte Orscha und Witebsk hat sich die schwere Abwehrschlacht in den Raum östlich der mittleren und oberen Beresina verlagert.
Südöstlich Polozk scheiterten wiederholte Durchbruchsversuche der Bolschewisten. Südöstlich Pleskau brachen örtliche Angriffe des Feindes zusammen.
Schlachtfliegerverbände unterstützten die Abwehrkämpfe des Heeres und vernichteten zahlreiche feindliche Panzer, über 100 Kraftfahrzeuge und eine große Zahl Geschütze.
Schwere Kampfflugzeuge führten am Tage einen Angriff gegen den Bahnhof Kalinkowitschi. Auch in der Nacht wurde der sowjetische Nachschubverkehr erfolgreich bekämpft. Besonders in den Bahnhofsanlagen von Smolensk entstanden Brände und Explosionen.
Bei mehreren feindlichen Angriffen auf Stadt und Hafen Kirkenes brachten Jäger und Flakartillerie in den gestrigen Abendstunden und im Verlauf der Nacht 77 sowjetische Flugzeuge zum Absturz. In heftigen Luftkämpfen errangen Oberleutnant Dorr und Leutnant Norz allein je zwölf Luftsiege.
Ein starker nordamerikanischer Bomberverband führte gestern Vormittag einen Angriff gegen das Stadtgebiet von Budapest. Deutsche und ungarische Luftverteidigungskräfte vernichteten 21 feindliche Flugzeuge.
Deutsche Kampfflugzeuge griffen in der letzten Nacht Einzelziele in Südostengland an.
Amerikanische Gemeinheit
Kinder auf die Suche nach Blindgängern geschickt
Genf, 28. Juni –
Eine schwere Anklage richtet Daily Telegraph gegen nordamerikanische Soldaten, die nach Übungen mit scharfer Munition zum Aufsuchen und Entfernen von Blindgängern ins Gelände geschickt wurden. Die damit beauftragten Soldaten scheuten die mit der Suche verbundene Gefahr und stifteten Schuljungen mit Geldspenden an, ihnen die gefährliche Arbeit abzunehmen (!). Dabei sei schon eine Anzahl Kinder, die die Grohe der Gefahr nicht kannten und mit großem Eifer ans Werk gingen, getötet worden.
Offiziell sei u. a. dem Erziehungsausschutz von Nottinghamshire eine als stichhaltig erwiesene Anzeige zugeleitet worden, wonach die bezahlte Suche von Kindern nach Explosivstoffen Todesfalle und schwere Verletzungen ausgelost habe. Der Ausschuss habe sich zu einer entsprechenden Beschwerde an den englischen Erziehungsminister genötigt gesehen, der dringend gebeten worden sei, sich in der Sachs unverzüglich mit den Militärbehörden in Verbindung zu setzen.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 28, 1944)
Communiqué No. 45
In the battle southeast of TILLY-SUR-SEULLES, Allied armor succeeded in widening the breach created by the infantry on Monday. Advancing on a four-mile front, our forces have driven across the main VILLERS-BOCAGE–CAEN road after particularly heavy fighting on the left in the area of TOURVILLE. The enemy is resisting stubbornly but the advance continues to make good progress.
In the vicinity of CHERBOURG, Allied forces made progress in cleaning out enemy remnants hemmed in the horns of the peninsula.
After a two-day lull enforced by weather, the Allied Air Forces yesterday operated over a widespread area in northwest FRANCE, ranging from CHERBOURG and LA ROCHE-SUR-YON in the west to ORLÉANS, PARIS and beyond in the east.
Operations in support of our ground forces were largely carried out by fighters and fighter-bombers. Attacks were concentrated on enemy reinforcements moving northward along several routes.
Successful attacks were made on numerous trains carrying troops and equipment between PARIS and ORLÉANS. Other targets included marshalling yards at ARTENAY and TOURY, and road and rail traffic and focal points near RENNES, CHARTRES, SAINT-NAZAIRE, LAVAL, NANTES, PARENNES, FLERS and east of PARIS.
The attacks were continued into the night by our light bombers. An enemy headquarters south of the battle area and a telephone center in the BREST PENINSULA were bombed with good results.
Other fighter-bombers attacked airfields at VILLENEUVE-VERTUS, CONNANTRE and COULOMMIERS.
Last night, our heavy bombers struck at rail centers in VITRY-LE-FRANÇOIS, and VAIRES east of PARIS. Others were over military installations at PAS-DE-CALAIS, following up two daylight attacks on similar objectives. A small force of heavy day bombers attacked an aircraft at CREIL.
Twenty-three enemy aircraft were destroyed during the course of these operations. Thirteen of our bombers and eight of our fighters are missing.
Communiqué No. 46
The Allied attack southwest of CAEN is making steady progress in spite of more bad weather and intense opposition.
The enemy was drive out of RAURAY, southwest of FONTENAY, where resistance had been most stubborn. After further heavy fighting in GRANVILLE and TOURVILLE, our armor and infantry crossed the river ODON south of TOURVILLE, on a front of about two miles.
Our advance continues towards the high ground south of the ODON.
In the CHERBOURG PENINSULA, enemy strongpoints east and west of the city are being steadily cleaned up.
Early this morning, two destroyers HMCS HURON and HMS ESKIMO encountered three armed enemy trawlers near the Channel Islands. Action was joined and two of the enemy ships were destroyed by gunfire. The third which made off during the action was believed to be damaged.
Adverse weather this morning restricted air operations over the battle area to a limited number of patrols.
In the LAON District, where better weather prevailed, our heavy bombers attacked airfields at COUVRON, ATHIES and JUVINCOURT. They also hit the railway yards at SAARBRÜCKEN across the German frontier. Escorting fighters strafed and dive-bombed locomotives, railroad cars and trucks.
The New York Times (June 28, 1944)
BRITISH CUT RAIL LINE IN SWEEP WEST OF CAEN
Gain up to five miles; new drive presses foe back on 7-mile-wide front despite mud
Called major blow; enemy knots hold out near Cap de la Hague and Maupertus
By Drew Middleton
Montgomery’s new offensive gathers momentum
Southeast of Tilly-sur-Seulles, the British rolled forward more than five miles (1). In taking Colleville (A on inset), they cut the railroad from Caen. At Mouen (B), they severed the highway paralleling the railroad and they pushed across the Odon River into Tourville. Another thrust eastward enveloped Saint-Manvieu (C). As the Americans completed the mopping up of Cherbourg (2), repairs to the port went forward. Some German units were still resisting at Cap de la Hague (3) and at the Maupertus Airdrome (4), east of the liberated port.
SHAEF, England –
The British Army on the east of the Normandy bridgehead has launched an offensive that in its initial stages has been strikingly successful.
Some of the finest divisions under the British flag, tempered by many campaigns and whetted to razor edge by the flying bomb attacks on their homes, have smashed forward from Tilly-sur-Seulles, gaining four to five miles on a seven-mile front and battering crack German divisions in their path.
Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s first large-scale offensive began as the U.S. occupation of Cherbourg was completed yesterday. The importance of the capture of that port can now be evaluated in terms of prisoners taken. In the last four days of the fighting for Cherbourg at least 25,000 Germans were captured. It is estimated that since D-Day, the Germans suffered approximately 70,000 casualties in killed, wounded, missing and prisoners throughout the Norman front. More than 32,000 of these are prisoners, which is close to the strength of three German infantry divisions under the present establishment.
It is probable that 2,000-3,000 Germans of the Cherbourg garrison escaped from the port by sea either to the Channel Islands or to ports to the south, such as Saint-Malo.
The first British successes in Gen. Montgomery’s offensive are these:
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The Caen–Villers-Bocage railroad has been cut.
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The villages of Cheux, Fontenay, La Gaulle, Saint-Mauvieu and La Hout-du-Borq have all been liberated by British troops.
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Crack German divisions holding the sector southeast of Tilly have been badly mauled in an advance through heavy mud in the face of sharp fire from enemy anti-tank and field guns.
The troops were also mopping up enemy remnants at Tourville, Colleville and probably Mouen, and Granville was being entered, said an Associated Press dispatch from the British front.
The British advance is in a southeasterly direction, as if Gen. Montgomery were trying to encircle the German defense bastion of Caen while at the same time, he ended any chance of a major German counteroffensive through Caen to the sea.
British infantry and armored units were fighting with their traditional doggedness under the worst possible weather conditions. Five big enemy tanks were knocked out by one six-pounder anti-tank gun in yesterday morning’s fighting. The Tommies were driving the enemy from position to position in the thickly wooded country.
Big battle developing
There is every indication that one of the biggest battles of the campaign is developing on the British front. On the American front, for so long the busiest sector, activities have been confined to counting prisoners and preparing Cherbourg for the flow of Allied supplies and reinforcements. U.S. and British naval parties are already working in the port, while men of the U.S. Navy are repairing damaged installations.
There was still some fighting to the northeast and northwest of Cherbourg. German troops were holding out at Maupertus Airfield, five and a half miles east of the city, at midday yesterday, but it is probable that this obstinate position had been surrounded. There were no reports of enemy opposition further to the east around Barfleur.
Small groups of German troops were also resisting to the northwest of the port in the Cap de la Hague area, where the enemy claimed to have established a line in the Jobourg area, three and three-quarter miles southeast of Cap de la Hague.
It was revealed yesterday that the U.S. VII Corps took Cherbourg. This corps was composed of the 4th, 9th and 79th Infantry Divisions, commanded by Gens. Raymond O. Barton, Manton S. Eddy and Ira Wyche. Maj. Gen. Lawton Collins commands the corps.
To the soldiers and officers of these divisions, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley paid tribute yesterday. These troops, he said, have done a “magnificent job.” He added:
Their bravery and skill indicate the highest degree of training and are in accordance with the best tradition of our military service.
The Army commander said in a courtly message to the French population of the peninsula:
It is a pleasure to be able to say to the people of France, “Here is your first large city to be returned to you.”
Gen. Collins and Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow, who led the V Corps, both have received the Oak Leaf Cluster and Distinguished Service Medal for their services in the Cherbourg Peninsula, the former for the assault on Cherbourg, the latter for planning and executing the drive across the peninsula that made the city’s capture possible.
Montgomery’s congratulations
Gen. Bradley received a letter of congratulation from Gen. Montgomery on the capture of Cherbourg. The British commander wrote:
You have a fine army full of brave fighting men, and it is a great honor for me to have such an army under my command.
Whatever damage the Germans have done to the port’s installations, its capture will enable the Allies to move supplies through one of the largest ports on Europe’s west coast. Even if the docks have been wrecked by demolitions, the Allies will be able, until these are repaired, to land supplies on the beaches in the inner harbor from anchorage sheltered from the waves by the great sea wall.
The outer roadstead within this wall provides room for 100 of the largest merchantmen in the 1,250 acres of water, while the inner roadstead has a water area of 16 acres and 1,968 feet of quays. In peacetime, the port handled 1,200 tons of cargo on a normal day, but under wartime requirements, it may handle five times as many tons.
The importance of such a port to Allied planes plus the destruction of four German divisions in Cherbourg – the 91st, 77th, 243rd and 709th Divisions – make Cherbourg’s capture not only the end of the first phase of the campaign but an Allied triumph of the first magnitude.
The British are striving to win a second outstanding Allied victory in France. Eleven burned-out enemy tanks marked their advance in the Saint-Manvieu sector yesterday. The infantry plodded through mud to attack new German formations late yesterday as the assault was pushed with undiminished vigor.
The offensive began early Monday morning from north of the Seulles River. Swiftly the British drove the Germans off the open ground sloping down toward the Odon River, which joins the Orne at Caen. It is hardly a river in the American sense, being only about 20 feet wide.
According to reports from the front, the British have cleared up that area between Odon and Seulles Rivers as far to the southeast as Mouen and Colleville on the Villers-Bocages–Caen highway.
The British infantry, supported by tanks, encountered strong enemy resistance at the Colleville crossroads, only seven miles southwest of the center of Caen yesterday. They were fired on by German tanks and anti-tank guns, and spirited fighting flared up in this area yesterday evening and continued into the night.
The British advance was heralded by 150-200 fighter-bombers, which, despite bad weather conditions, bombed and strafed enemy troops throughout the battle area. By late afternoon, the Germans admitted a breakthrough three miles wide and two miles deep.
It is too early to assess the British offensive in relation to the remainder of the Allied tactical picture. This correspondent believes it is not a holding attack designed to pin German divisions to a particular area, but the first of many blows to be struck by both sides in what has now become the most important in the Normandy sector. It is a major attack, whatever its objectives, with first-class troops involved on both sides.
On the right, the British are fighting in a thickly wooded area almost ideal for infantry battles. On the left, they are approaching the plain of Caen, a flat area with little cover in which armor can be massed to the greatest advantage.
If armor is to be used in the latter stages in this area, the British will have the edge. They have destroyed more than 100 German tanks since D-Day, and their own losses have been far less. The stage seems set for a renewal of that armored superiority which the British enjoyed in Africa in 1942 and 1943.
Escape convoy intercepted
London, England (Reuters) – (June 27)
Closing within a hundred yards of a German convoy attempting to pass along the Cherbourg Peninsula to the Channel Islands, a Canadian motorboat flotilla sank one German escort, sank or damaged several trawlers and prevented the convoy from reaching its destination, it is revealed today.
The flotilla suffered only two casualties.
Denny: Cherbourg given to French as their liberated city
By Harold Denny
Cherbourg, France – (June 27)
U.S. forces formally occupied Cherbourg today and forthwith presented it to the French people as the first large city to be returned to them. In a square that hissed with snipers’ bullets yesterday and was still blotched with German placards today, an American general this afternoon gave the city a Tricolor made from red, white and blue parachutes in which the vanguard of our invasion attacked from the skies June 6, and in return he received French thanks for the liberation.
The general was Maj. Gen. J. Lawton Collins of New Orleans, who earlier commanded a division at Guadalcanal and who, it is now permitted to say, commanded the U.S. VII Army Corps that made this brilliant drive across the peninsula and up to its metropolis.
Gen. Collins entered the city today in an armored car and he wore a steel helmet, but the whole sense of today’s simple ceremony was not that of an arriving conqueror but of a rescuing friend. This was French soil. We and our Allies on land, on the sea and in the air had driven off the invader and here the land was returned to its own again.
The exchange of honors took place in the Place Napoléon on the steps of the Hôtel de Ville at 4:00 this afternoon, only a little over six hours after the last German stronghold in the arsenal at the west side of the port surrendered and its 200 defenders marched out under a white flag.
Our troops were still scouring the city for lurking snipers, and an occasional rifle cracked. Germans who had changed into civilian clothes were being rounded up in large numbers, usually on denunciation of the French. Firetrucks were rushing about stopping a few fires that smoldered after the fighting ended. But the city was at peace at last, and it gave one a queer feeling to drive at ease through roads and streets that only a few hours ago were full of death.
And now had come the rounding out of the first phase of our invasion. We had a real port through which to supply our future and growing operations.
The city seemed dead and deserted early this morning. Few of its inhabitants had remained, and these were in hiding. But as the fighting died down, they began to come back at 9:00 this morning. While the arsenal held out, a group of French municipal employees who had kept large French, American and British flags throughout the occupation, took them out and hoisted them over the entrance of the Hôtel de Ville, where they fluttered throughout today’s ceremony.
U.S. Army band at ceremony
White-bearded Mayor Paul Reynaud of Cherbourg was among those gathered on the Hôtel de Ville steps. A composite company of men from various units that yesterday were fighting and last night slept in muddy foxholes in a driving rain was formed up facing the Hôtel de Ville, and with them a U.S. Army band.
A sizable crowd had gathered by 4:00 – old men and women with smiles again in their strained faces and laughing young people. An American soldier appeared with an accordion and had a group of these trying to sing “Home on the Range.” The air was brought with happiness. U.S. fighter planes, that yesterday were strafing Germans on the city’s edge, wheeled low over the city and dipped in salute. The French in the streets cheered and waved.
Gen. Collins’ subordinate generals gathered beside the French notables on the City Hall steps. Then up rolled Gen. Collins to an armored car while the band rendered flourishes and ruffles.
Mayor Reynaud spoke first, thanking the soldiers of a sister republic for deliverance from four years of tyrannous occupation. Then Gen. Collins expressed gratification that our troops, as part of a great Allied effort, had returned this first important French city to France. The general spoke in French and ended with “Vive la France!” which brought a joyful shout from the crowd and an answering cry of “Vive l’Amérique!”
The band played the “Marseillaise” while troops presented arms and the French looked transported. Then “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played.
Gen. Collins and his generals went inside the Hôtel de Ville for a few minutes to visit the French officials, then departed, and the city took up the business of returning to normal life.
German leaders surrender
The beginning of this happy ending came at 4:30 yesterday afternoon, when the commander of Fortress Cherbourg, Gen. Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, and the commander of the naval forces formerly based in Cherbourg, RAdm. Walter Hennecke, surrendered themselves in circumstances unusual for senior officers.
Most of the city by that hour had been occupied by our forces, but part of the western half was still held by the enemy, and there were still unconquered gunners in Fort du Roule at the southern edge of the town.
The commander of U.S. troops trying to clean up the west side arrived in person just as his men had discovered the mouth of another tunnel at Fort Saint-Sauveur at the southern margin of the city west of Fort du Roule. The Germans were firing from its mouth.
The American commander ordered up artillery and prepared to blast a way into the tunnel. Just then, German voices were heard crying “Cease firing!” The Americans held their fire and out came a German lieutenant goose-stepping and carrying a white flag. He informed the American commander that Gen. von Schlieben was there and wished to surrender himself and the men in the tunnel with him.
The American commander accepted this and out came Gen. von Schlieben and the admiral and then the soldiers to the astonishing total of 800.
Gen. Collins was touring frontline positions in an armored car when this happened, and he was informed by radio. The German general and admiral and their aides were taken in command cars, guarded by a cavalcade of guards in jeeps, to Gen. Collins’ headquarters, while Gen. Collins hurried there to receive them.
Gen. Collins tried to persuade Gen. von Schlieben then to surrender the fortress and avoid further, needless sacrifice of life. At that time, except for two guns deep in the face of a cliff at Fort du Roule which had resumed firing, the only serious center of resistance was in the naval arsenal, where the Germans were still firing rifles, although much of the arsenal was ablaze around them.
Gen. Collins asked Gen. von Schlieben why he permitted his men to go on fighting after he himself had surrendered since their sacrifice could give no material delay to our operations.
“I learned in Russia that small groups can achieve great delays,” the German replied.
He declined to comment when the American general asked him why he had not resisted on the outer rings of hills admirably suited to defense.
The German officers were allowed to clean up and eat and were then sent farther to the rear. They will be evacuated according to the usual procedure and, of course, in accordance with their rank.
Gen. von Schlieben is an enormous man, both broad and tall. He was still wearing a helmet when he surrendered. He would fit the Hollywood ideal of Prussian Junker. The admiral is short, stout and steely-eyed.
This morning, a powerful loudspeaker mounted on a truck was wheeled up near the naval arsenal, and an American officer told the garrison in German that their leader had surrendered and there was no hope for them unless they also surrendered. They complied at 9:45 this morning.
Unlike so many towns through which we have moved in this march through Normandy, Cherbourg is fairly intact. Many buildings were smashed at the edges, where bitter fighting took place, and many structures in the center are pitted from the fire of German guns, which still stand at the street corners. But this city as a whole survives.
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