Operation OVERLORD (1944)

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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

map.62844.heavies.ap
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:

  • The Caen–Villers-Bocage railroad has been cut.

  • The villages of Cheux, Fontenay, La Gaulle, Saint-Mauvieu and La Hout-du-Borq have all been liberated by British troops.

  • 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.

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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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Allied 2-week loss in France 40,549

SHAEF, England (AP) –
Allied troops suffered a total of 40,549 casualties in the first two weeks of operations in Normandy, headquarters announced.

Of these, 24,162 were Americans, 13,572 British and 2,815 Canadians.

The breakdown on U.S. casualties showed 3,082 killed, 13,121 wounded and 7,959 missing. The British total included 1,842 killed, 8,599 wounded and 3,131 missing.

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Cherbourg’s port now under repair

Work rushed to permit direct shipment of troops and materials from U.S.
By Gene Currivan

London, England – (June 27)
Cherbourg had hardly fallen to the Allies when Army engineers and Navy repair units were at work restoring the great harbor and preparing an entrance to Europe, more than 300 miles closer to New York than London is. Considerable time will be saved, when troops and material can be moved directly to France without a stopover in Britain.

Reports from the harbor area indicate that while the Germans had ample time to destroy the harbor installations, they apparently did not have sufficient manpower or material to wreck Cherbourg’s great breakwater or to block the two wide channels leading into the outer harbor.

Previously, in similar situations, the Germans were able to cripple ports by sinking ships at harbor entrances, but at Cherbourg, they could not attain this objective. At Naples and Tripoli, the blocking of channels was extremely effective, although Tripoli was operating at normal wartime standards within ten days.

But at Cherbourg, the Germans had little time and, more important, little tonnage to spare. Their navy being in its present shrunken state, there were no warships or merchant vessels that could be spared for such a blockade.

With the harbor restoration units, the Army sent in railway operating battalions under Brig. Gen. Clarence L. Burpee of Jacksonville, Florida, who won the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster for his handling of railroad snarls on the North African and Italian fronts. These units will have the unusual advantage of working within an area already ringed by their own countrymen. Although still under fire from the air and long-range artillery, they will probably complete their work speedily.

As soon as landing facilities have been completed, streams of railroad equipment will be shipped to the continent. Waiting to go are long lines of new flatcars, boxcars, rolling refrigerators and hospital trains. It will be one of Gen. Burpee’s duties to prepare the way for this equipment. Reconnaissance has shown the extent of railroad damage and detailed restoration plans have been worked out.

In the harbor area, which is protected by a three-mile breakwater of granite, flat beaches flank the principal port facilities, so even though dock repair takes some time, it is now possible to land troops and equipment. The land conditions on the beaches are infinitely superior to those under which the beachheads were taken, principally because of the breakwater’s protection.

Plans to raise U.S. flag he furled in Reich in 1923

London, England – (June 27)
Maj. Gen. Raymond O. Barton, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which helped take Cherbourg, is going back to Germany in this war to rehoist the Stars and Stripes he hauled down as commander of the last U.S. troops to leave the Reich after World War I.

The Colorado-born professional soldier, who grew up in Indian territory, has under his command the same two infantry companies he led out of Germany on Jan. 23, 1923.

Gen. Barton, a major back in 1923, recalled the flag-lowering ceremony as he prepared to jump the Channel on the eve of D-Day.

He said:

I hope to parade the same two companies and plant the same flag over Fortress Ehrenbreitstein just across the Moselle from Coblenz. That flag has rested in the Secretary of War’s office since the last war. I hope we can borrow it for the occasion.

My boys will do to Hitler what their pappies did to the Kaiser in 1918.

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‘BIG ARMY’ MEETING TESTS OF INVASION
U.S. replacement plan seen proved at Cherbourg for blows that are coming

Loss of men held down; timing of Russian offensive a cheering factor – Goebbels’ tactics again warned of
By Sidney Shalett

Washington – (June 27)
Allied strategy in pressing the invasion of Europe consistently will follow a pattern of striking sharp, overwhelming blows in which we will expect and accept considerable losses, but avoiding, insofar as possible, any costly stalemates in which huge forces are locked with the enemy while the attrition mounts up on both sides.

It is possible today, on the basis of the latest military information received here from the battlefronts, to make the above statement authoritatively and also to evaluate some of the significant developments on the European fronts.

Allied strategists are aiming at a knockout as speedily and as economically as possible. They have no delusions that it will be a quick or easy job to defeat the Germans in the west, but they do not want the task to cost more lives or time than necessary.

Therefore, they are determined to employ the principle of genuine “lightning war,” combined with overwhelming force, against the Germans. The landings in Normandy, first of a series of expected blows, were an example of this. We landed quickly, with an element of surprise, and in sufficient force to achieve our objectives.

Our losses in France so far have been considerable, but still they have been a good deal less than the Allied High Command expected for the job.

System of rapid replacement

One of America’s “secret weapons” in both France and Italy – and this has been stressed by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson – has been the extraordinarily effective system of immediate replacement of casualties and battle-weary troops. It worked well in Italy – Mr. Stimson gave it a great deal of credit for cracking German resistance south of Rome – and it is now working effectively against the Germans in France.

The theory is simple, but the accomplishment requires tremendous reserves and organization. What happens is this: Every 24 hours or as close to that schedule as practicable, U.S. casualties in combat division, and, to as great extent as possible, battle-fatigued troops, are replaced by fresh men.

Thus, the Germans, who have no such reserves in France, are constantly faced by an efficient, up-to-strength, offensive-minded force.

According to the best authoritative information here, the constant pressure is proving demoralizing to the Germans.

Another factor, involving the Germans’ attitude, is not helping the enemy. He knows that many of our divisions that are defeating him are in battle for the first time. Yet these “green” troops, because of the realistic and rigorous conditioning they have had, are outfighting Nazi veterans.

Germans are fighting well

Current advices indicate that the purely German units are fighting extremely stubbornly. Cherbourg proved that, although it demonstrated once again that the defeated “superman” can be consistently beaten by his betters. Where German units are mixed with foreign soldiers pressed into Nazi service, the results are not particularly happy for the foe.

So far as can be learned, the U.S. Army is in a position to carry on its replacement system throughout the Battle of Europe, provided that the flow of young, tough replacements – the under-26 group for which our military chiefs have pleaded – keeps coming into the Army. A table of expected losses has been worked out, and our chiefs think they can handle the replacement problem.

The success of the replacement system in Italy and France is viewed by some here as vindication of the “Big Army” pleas made by our chiefs at a time when there was considerable controversy over why we needed a force as large as they asked for.

The Germans have been far from infallible in divining either our potentialities or our intentions. They never dreamed we would be able to pout in so many men and so much matériel in so short a time on what they regarded as mere beaches in Normandy.

The fact that we did, is a tribute to the careful and skillful planning of our invasion leaders.

The Allied air situation over Europe at present is regarded as quite satisfactory. Our superiority over France seems to be operating as effectively as the superiority we have held in the skies over Italy. The question, “Where is the Luftwaffe?” is more than a sarcastic taunt at the moment. Our commanders really would like to throw what they can do to engage and smash the German fighter force.

There is satisfaction in official circles over the Russian military offensive. It is learned that plans were made some time ago as to what the Russians would do when we opened up in the west. The Russians have fulfilled their part of the plans.

Informed circles here predict that Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels will make further frantic efforts to split the Allies before the tottering Nazi castle collapses.

They gravely and sincerely hope that no Americans will fall for this enemy line. Allied unity, it is stressed, is of utmost importance, both in Europe and in the Pacific.

Baldwin: No. 1 strategic triumph

Fall of Cherbourg judged beginning of the end for German war machine
By Hanson W. Baldwin

London, England – (June 27)
The capture of Cherbourg three weeks after the first landing in Normandy represents the greatest Allied strategic triumph of the war.

It may well be written by future historians as a decisive victory, for Cherbourg’s loss probably means the beginning of the end for the Germans. If anything can be forecast in war, it seems to mean – unless the enemy has “secret weapons” of undreamed-of potentialities – that the Germans have lost their last chance for victory or even for averting defeat.

This is not to say that the enemy has “thrown in the sponge” or that he is likely to do so soon. In one sense, the bitter, week-long defense of Cherbourg by second-rate troops and the hard, slow fighting in Normandy are disappointing. Tactically we can expect only more of the same; just as Cherbourg’s capture took somewhat longer than we had hoped and expected, so future battles in France are likely to be protracted and difficult.

Nevertheless, June 27 must go down as a red-letter day for the Allies, for Cherbourg’s fall means the bankruptcy of German strategy.

Single hope fading

For more than a year, German strategy has been plain. Adolf Hitler has made every possible effort to strengthen his forces in the west, some of his best generals and his best troops were assigned to France and the Low Countries; the German strength in these countries was increased from about 32 to more than 60 divisions, partly at the expense of other areas, since Stalingrad, Germany has been pinning her hopes for a limited victory upon one event and one alone: the repulse of the Allied invasion of the West.

Hitler hoped to make our repulse so bloody and so definite that he would win a great moral and psychological victory as well as a military one. His western flank thus freed of threat, he then undoubtedly planned to concentrate all his strength against Russia and force a negotiated peace.

There was never much doubt that when the Allies attempted the invasion of Western Europe, they could get ashore. But there was some doubt about our ability to hold a foothold; despite the German boasts about the impregnability of the Atlantic Wall, it is known that Field Marshal Gens. Gerd von Rundstedt and Erwin Rommel counted chiefly upon a counterattack to repulse the Allied invasion. Our quick penetration of the Atlantic Wall at considerably less cost than anticipated has now been followed by the capture of a port.

The German defense of the West has been based upon the defense of ports, for they knew, as we knew, that if the Allies were to retain their foothold in France, they had to have a port. If there was ever any doubt of this, the heavy storm of a week ago dispelled it.

Gale hampered unloading

It has now been revealed that a 75-mile gale from the northeast blew squarely on the invasion beaches in the Bay of the Seine and almost halted unloading for three and a half days. This gale was part of the freakish June weather – the most unusual in 25 years – which has hampered our unloading of supplies and reinforcements and air activities. So far most of the weather “breaks” have been against us.

It was for these reasons that the capture of Cherbourg this morning was hailed with relief by our supply experts. It is realized that German demolitions and the bombings and bombardments to which the port had to be subjected before German resistance was stamped out will probably delay full use of the port for some time.

But Cdre. William Sullivan, USN, the salvage expert who helped raise the Normandie and who was in charge of clearing North African and Italian harbors, is already at work in Cherbourg, together with Army engineers and British experts.

Nothing the Germans were able to do can prevent us from using the sheltered anchorages inside the Cherbourg breakwaters. A great granite breakwater 650 feet wide on a rubble base and 20 feet wide at the top protects the outer roads; smaller breakwaters give added protection in the inner harbor. The measurements of the entrances to the outer breakwater are one and a half miles by three-quarters; the outer harbor was not and probably could not be blocked completely.

The docks and unloading facilities may be wrecked, but they are of far less importance than the breakwater, for a sheltered anchorage for our ships and relatively smooth water for our small craft are what the Allies need, as last week’s gale proved.

Gateway to France

We now have that anchorage. That is to say, we shall shortly have a gateway into France through which supplies and reinforcements can be sent continuously in greater and greater quantity regardless of the weather. In addition to the facilities of Cherbourg, we have our landing beaches, over which so far, a truly phenomenal number of men and tons of equipment have been landed, and the small but important facilities of a dozen little ports between Cherbourg and the Orne River.

All this means that our foothold in France is now absolutely secure. Regardless of enemy counterattacks that may yet develop the Germans can no longer hope to throw us into the sea.

It was not possible to make such certain statements until Cherbourg was captured. Even a more protracted defense of that port by the enemy, if coupled with more bad weather, might have proved embarrassing to us.

Now we are certainly in France to stay. The Germans will try – and may be able – to contain our beachheads and to bottle us up in the Cotentin Peninsula in a sort of second Anzio, but they cannot expel us. That in itself is a great, probably a mortal, blow to German strategy.

The capture of Cherbourg means, therefore, in my opinion, the beginning of the end in Europe. It does not mean the end; a battle has been won, not the campaign. But the French, Russian and Italian offensives and our air bombardments are great hammer blows toward that end.

The enemy will try to prolong the agony of war. But after Cherbourg, the knowledge of the bankruptcy of German strategy must become more and more evidence to the German people.

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McMillan: Hours of shelling hack British path

Creeping, barrage booms in wake of static blasting as Tommies carve gains
By Richard D. McMillan, United Press correspondent

With the British forces in France – (June 27)
Hundreds of guns, spaced a few yards apart, opened a barrage today over a front of several miles. After they had pounded the German positions for two and a half hours, the infantry went over to take village after village in hand-to-hand fighting.

After days of pouring rain, the weather improved and the troops looked to their planes to sweep down to aid them in softening up the innumerable German strongpoints in their path.

At the attack hour, the big “Monty” barrage was changed to a creeping one. Every three minutes, the barrage was advanced 100 yards ahead of the troops.

Fighting is developing, the British attack is gaining momentum and it looks as if the offensive front is going to expand.

The British advance has been made against stubborn opposition and tough positions. In the countryside, the Germans are in trenches and bunker defenses. In the villages, they are fortified in strong stone houses, which must be attacked by the infantry one by one. Resistance seems to be intensifying.

Fierce fighting raged around the village of Rauray, three miles southeast of Tilly-sur-Seulles. It was from this area that the Germans launched their counterattack.

The troops have had to fight through mud almost as bad as that I saw in Flanders in World War I.

A comparative lull on the British part of the front had permitted the building up of reserves in armor and in bringing up infantry reinforcements, and the British now pack a powerful punch. Further, they were cheered by the American capture of Cherbourg.

Greene: Charred tanks litter roads

By Roger D. Greene, Associated Press correspondent

At the British front in France – (June 27, 7:15 p.m.)
A heavy tank and infantry battle between the British and Germans raged tonight a few miles west of Caen and southwest of that stronghold, and moving up to the front I saw evidence that German armored formations had taken a terrific beating near Saint-Manvieu.

In a single field, there were many charred hulks of German tanks, their gun muzzles twisted, steel sides burst by direct British hits and frameworks reddened by fires which had consumed their crews.

German guns had checked the British advance at Saint-Manvieu during the night, but now the British were moving again. They had taken Cheux, Saint-Manvieu, Colleville and other hamlets.

Vilander: Naval guns hit west of Caen

By Everett Vilander, United Press correspondent

With a British naval task force – (June 26, delayed)
At 8:15 this morning, I watched the 15-inch guns of the monitor Lord Roberts open up in support of British and Canadian ground troops driving on Caen.

Within the next 100 minutes, they had poured 60 tons of high explosives into the concentrated area near Carpiquet Airfield, about three miles west of Caen, at a range of less than ten miles.

This was the first important naval bombardment on the eastern flank of the coastline in support of advance forces since D-Day.

West of us, the battleship Rodney pumped 16-inch shells throughout the morning at the prearranged target, just ahead of our advancing infantry and tank troops.

Since early morning, at least one warship has been firing constantly, and as I write, everything movable on this ship is bouncing like a Mexican jumping bean. The Roberts is firing over our heads and the other warships around us keep up a thunderous rocking of noise.

The cruisers Argonaut and Diadem, working with aerial spotters, fired sporadically all morning at German batteries northwest and north of Caen.

The Germans brought up numerous mobile guns and shelled the anchorage with increasing intensity from positions in the woods near the coast east of the Orne River, causing a number of casualties but little damage to our ships. The counterfire did not hinder our unloading operations, however.

Nearby the cruiser Belfast, in collaboration with an aircraft observer, engaged a shore battery, but there have been no reports on the effectiveness of the shelling.

315

Germans sobered by Allied blows

Triumphs in France, Russia and Italy bring warnings of serious dangers
By Raymond Daniell

London, England – (June 27)
The Allied triumphs in Italy, Russia and the Cherbourg Peninsula are having a sobering effect on German propagandists who only a few days ago were vaunting the rather apocryphal success of their “secret weapon.”

Now their tune is that Germany’s plight is grave indeed and that the time has come for every German to shed his last drop of blood that “Europe may live” and escape that chaos that awaits it if Russia and the Western Allies smash Germany’s “protective wall.”

German spokesmen seemed to agree today that, with the fall of Cherbourg, the Allies’ rapid advance northward in Italy and the Russians’ great westward drive, the war had entered the decisive phase. That view is shared here, where it is believed that the Red Army’s summer offensive has as its purpose a complete breakthrough of the German defenses. Now that the Allies have a firm foothold in the west, British as well as German military experts feel that the final phase of the war is beginning.

Soon after Cherbourg’s fall, a German Foreign Office spokesman was quoted as saying that the time had come when it would be seen whether “this is the last hour for Germany or her big chance.” He predicted that the decision would be reached quickly. Germany, he said would adopt defensive measures everywhere except in the south, where, he pointed out, her allies are “threatened.”

Lt. Gen. Kurt Dietmar gave cold comfort to German radio listeners tonight. He said that, despite heavy attacks by a superior enemy on three fronts, Germany could hold her own “because we have to.”

Capt. Ludwig Sertorius took a less gloomy view. He said that, now that Cherbourg had fallen, more landings were to be expected. Events, he predicted, will justify the German commanders’ judgment in holding back their operational reserves instead of “frittering them away” in an attempt to reinforce Cherbourg.

Berne, Switzerland – (June 27)
The breakdown of relations between the German Army and the Propaganda Ministry was further accentuated today by the surprise and fear with which the announcement of the loss of Cherbourg was greeted by the German people, neutral dispatches from Berlin said tonight.

The Propaganda Ministry is solely responsible for this state of affairs, the Tribune de Genève said.

For, during two whole years, it insisted to the public that the Atlantic Wall was invincible. Today the man in the street recalls yet another slogan that it issued at the beginning of the invasion: If the Allied soldiers could not seize a large port [the reference at the time was apparently to Le Havre], their men would be thrown back into the sea. Today the man in the street in Germany is told that the Allies have that large port – Cherbourg – and he does not pass that fact over lightly.

The Propaganda Ministry has given undue prominence to German war correspondents’ dispatches from the Normandy beachhead, all emphasizing the “technical superiority of the Allies’ High Command.” Today one reads that:

The Allies have superiority in manpower, in the air, on the sea and in matériel, as against which we are pitting only our fanatic ardor in an effort to compensate our present status.

More Canadians volunteer

Ottawa, Canada – (June 27)
Since the invasion of France, it is reported, there has been a big rise in the number of volunteers for overseas service. All men overseas are volunteers.

1 Like
316

Allied bombs hit all over Europe

U.S. and RAF ‘heavies’ strike in Pas-de-Calais and Poland, Italy, Reich and Balkans
By David Anderson

SHAEF, England –
Clearing weather late yesterday enabled formations of both U.S. and British heavy bombers to resume their attacks on the Nazis’ flying bomb bases in Pas-de-Calais while missions against enemy military objectives near the Normandy front were carried out by the lighter planes of the U.S. 9th Air Force.

Solid accomplishments of Allied airpower were effected over Hungary, Yugoslavia and Poland.

Several hundred Royal Air Force bombers flew out soon after last midnight in the direction of France.

The RAF struck “in great strength” at targets in France, said a British announcement early Wednesday.

The lull in activity of the air forces based in Britain, due entirely to poor flying conditions, did not affect the Mediterranean Theater, whence the U.S. 15th Air Force sent 500-700 Flying Fortresses and Liberators for attacks on targets in the Budapest area and at Brod, a key railway town in Yugoslavia.

Stiff Luftwaffe opposition was reported in the Budapest area.

Monday night, British Halifaxes and Wellingtons of the Italy-based forces bombed the Aquila oil refinery at Trieste, the largest refinery in Italy.

Blow from bases in Russia

The blow in Poland was by daylight Monday, when our “heavies” from the bases in Russia of the Eastern Command, U.S. Strategic Air Forces, blasted a Nazi synthetic oil plant at Drohobych in the Galician region. U.S. and Soviet fighters flew as escort.

One clearly defined objective of the 9th Air Force planes operating on the periphery of the Normandy battle zone is the Nazi system of filling stations. Our medium bombers and fighter-bombers methodically search out and destroy enemy fuel dumps.

Two Thunderbolts failed to return from missions that included attacks on railroads, rolling stock and Nazi road transport near Alençon, Laval and Rennes in an area some 120 miles from east of the Normandy front to Nantes on the estuary of the Loire River.

The 8th Air Force employed up to 250 Fortresses and Liberators that pounded the enemy’s pilotless plane emplacements in the Pas-de-Calais area, using both visual and instrument bombing. Five heavy bombers and three fighters were lost.

Defense against the flying bombs has been a preoccupation of the Air Defense of Great Britain and the 2nd Tactical Air Force, two RAF commands. Their efforts were supplemented by the Bombed command, which sent out Halifaxes with a strong fighter escort yesterday afternoon on an attack in northern France.

317

Asks more U.S. newsmen

London paper wants increase in those with British troops

London, England – (June 27)
Commenting on the grumbling over the lack of publicity in American newspapers for the part British and Canadian troops have played in the battle for Normandy, Lord Beaverbrook’s Daily Express said today:

Now, why not have a few more American newspaper correspondents accredited to the British fighting forces in France? At present there are only three. These few bear witness faithfully to the quality and valor of the British, but many more Americans await the chance.

318

De Gaulle’s visit set early in July

President approves the dates selected by general; French optimistic

Washington – (June 27)
Gen. Charles de Gaulle, head of the French Committee of National Liberation, is expected to visit Washington between July 5 and 9. President Roosevelt said today that the general had suggested these dates and that he was informing him that the time was satisfactory.

When the President pleaded ignorance of the effectiveness of the French resistance movement in Normandy because he had not yet been there for first-hand observation, he was asked whether he was contemplating such a trip. The President laughingly replied that he was not talking in terms of implication.

319

Völkischer Beobachter (June 29, 1944)

Unsere Stunde wird wieder kommen –
Im Zentrum des Sturmes auf Europa

Auch die äußerste Kraftanstrengung unserer Feinde wird vergeblich sein

vb. Wien, 28. Juni –
vb. Wien, 28. Juni –
„Das zwölfte Jahr der Neuorganisation unseres Volkes wird an die Front und an die Heimat härteste Anforderungen stellen,“ sagte der Führer in seiner Rede zum elften Jahrestag der Machtergreifung. „Wie sehr aber auch der Sturm an unsere Festung toben und heulen mag,“ so fuhr der Führer fort, „am Ende wird er sich wie ein Gewitter eines Tages legen und aus finsteren Wolken wird dann wieder eine Sonne hervorleuchten auf diejenigen, die standhaft und unerschütterlich, ihrem Glauben treubleibend, die Pflicht erfüllen.“ Heute stehen wir im Zentrum des Sturmes, der gegen Europa entfesselt worden ist und den der Führer kommen sah.

Briten, Amerikaner und Bolschewisten haben sich mit dem Einsatz des ganzen Kriegspotentials an Menschen und Material zum Sturm gegen das Bollwerk der abendländischen Kultur, im Westen, im Osten und im Süden vereinigt, um die langen, zähen Kämpfe des vergangenen Jahres, in denen ihnen trotz allem Raumgewinn der strategische Erfolg versagt blieb, womöglich mit einer einzigen gewaltigen Anstrengung zur Entscheidung zu bringen. Sie haben dabei Erfolge errungen, haben die Halbinsel Cotentin abgeschnitten, haben mit zehnfacher Übermacht die Festung Cherbourg angegriffen und mit der Unterstützung der Artillerie ihrer Schlachtschiffe zum großen Teil niedergekämpft.

Damit haben sie sich nach schweren, drei Wochen dauernden Kämpfen unter hohen Verlusten die normannische Halbinsel als Brückenkopf gesichert. Sie haben eine Ausfallsstellung gewonnen, aber noch keinen Platz für große Ausladungen, wie sie ihn brauchen, denn die Hafenanlagen vor Cherbourg sind zerstört. Bei dem großen Unterschied von Ebbe und Flut aber ist der Hafen, der keine natürlichen Möglichkeiten bietet, ohne die technischen Einrichtungen für lange Zeit unbrauchbar. Auch die operative Freiheit müssen sie sich aus der Halbinsel Cotentin heraus und an der Front von Caen bis Coutances erst noch erkämpfen, und zwar ohne von See her durch die schweren Geschütze ihrer Kreuzer und Schlachtschiffe unterstützt zu werden.

Zunächst wird der Gegner den Vorstoß auf Cherbourg als einen Erfolg, der ihm besonders wegen seiner psychologischen und propagandistischen Bedeutung wichtig ist, nach Kräften auszuwerten suchen, schon um damit der moralischen Wirkung der neuen deutschen Waffe „V1“ auf die Bevölkerung in England zu begegnen. Daß den Amerikanern und Engländern der Durchbruch zu der Hafenstadt gelungen ist, haben sie, wie aus ihren eigenen Berichten hervorgeht, nicht der überlegenen Tapferkeit ihrer Soldaten, sondern der vielfach größeren Zahl, der Masse ihres Materials und im Besonderen der zahlenmäßigen Überlegenheit ihrer Luftwaffe zu verdanken. Der deutsche Soldat hat gekämpft, als er auch auf einen taktischen Erfolg nicht mehr hoffen konnte, und er hat sich in den Widerstandsnestern oft genug mit der blanken Waffe verteidigt. Seinem Heldentum blieb die Krönung durch den Siegeslorbeer versagt – darüber aber soll sich niemand täuschen: Der Tag wird kommen, an dem die Früchte auch dieses Kampfes reifen werden. Keine Tapferkeit ist umsonst, kein Opfer vertan. Aus der blutigen Saat der Schlacht um Cherbourg wird zur rechten Zeit die Ernte reifen.

Niemand soll auch glauben, daß wir die Materialüberlegenheit der Gegner als unausweichliches Schicksal hinzunehmen hätten. Dieser Krieg wird nicht nur von dem Soldaten, sondern auch von dem Techniker, Wissenschaftler und Arbeiter ausgefochten. Und wie im Kampf an der Front zuletzt nicht die Masse Mensch entscheidet, sondern der kämpferische Wille des einzelnen Soldaten, seine Standhaftigkeit und innere Überlegenheit, so entscheidet in dem stillen Krieg auf dem Schreibtisch, auf dem Zeichenbrett, im Laboratorium, auf dem Versuchsfeld und in der Fabrik nicht die rohe Masse des erzeugten Materials, sondern seine Wirksamkeit. Als uns die Engländer, vorwärtsgestoßen von Roosevelt und der amerikanischen Judenschaft, den Krieg erklärten, waren wir mit neuen Waffen besser gerüstet, als sie ahnten. Dann haben sie von uns gelernt, haben den Vorsprung zum Teil ausgeglichen, haben auf dem einen oder anderen Gebiet mehr Waffen erzeugt als wir. Sie meinten, dass wäre die Entscheidung und sie brauchten nun nur ihren gewaltigen technischen Apparat gegen uns abrollen zu lassen, um ganz Europa zu zermalmen. Sie werden erfahren, daß es ein Irrtum ist.

Wir setzen der Masse ihres Materials neue Waffen von größerer Wirksamkeit entgegen, auch in der Kriegstechnik entscheidet wie in der Politik zuletzt die Idee. Wie unsere politische Idee ihrem brutalen Materialismus überlegen ist, so wird sich der deutsche Erfindergeist gegen ihre Fabrikation durchsetzen und eine neue Entwicklung bewirken. Das ist mit der deutschen Vergeltungswaffe „V1“ schon geschehen, aber das ist erst der Anfang. Andere Kriegsmittel werden folgen und eingesetzt werden, genau zu der Stunde und genau in der Lage, die ihre größte Wirksamkeit gewährleistet. Das wird nicht zu früh sein, wie ja auch der Führer mit dem Einsatz der „V1“ den rechten Augenblick abgewartet hat, trotz der ungeheuren Belastung, die manchen wohl veranlasst hätte, die Sprengmittel vorzeitig zu lösen. Wir dürfen aber auch vertrauen, daß keine Minute zu spät das technische Gleichgewicht hergestellt sein wird. Denn was auch die Engländer und Amerikaner durch ihren Luftterror zerstört haben mögen, sie haben die Wirtschaftskraft des europäischen Kontinents nicht lahmgelegt und werden sie nie lahmlegen können.

Wie an den Soldaten, so werden auch an das Volk in der Heimat noch härteste Anforderungen gestellt werden, so lange, bis die Gewalt des feindlichen Sturmes gebrochen ist. Daß sich das deutsche Volk nicht zerbrechen läßt, das hat es dem Gegner, der uns durch seinen Luftterror zu zerschmettern suchte, bewiesen. Damit haben wir eine moralische Position gewonnen, eine Bereitschaft der Herzen, eine Kraft des Willens, aber auch eine Festigkeit des Glaubens, die sich auch in den letzten schwersten Proben bewähren wird, bis eines Tages die Sonne wieder leuchtet über dem deutschen Volk, das dann gegen eine Welt von Feinden den Sieg erkämpft hat und damit das Leben und die Freiheit.

320

‚Britische Vorhut‘

SS-pk. Er heißt Rubert Haquin. Aus der Normandie stammt er und wurde am 17. Dezember 1922 in C. geboren. Es ist das gleiche C., das die deutschen Grenadiere gegenwärtig am Nordostrand von Caen gegen die anglo-amerikanischen Aggressoren verteidigen. Es muß für Monsieur Haquin, weiland in der Uniform der britischen Fallschirmjäger, ein erregendes Gefühl gewesen sein, nun als Gefangener in seine Heimat zurückzukehren, die er leichtsinnig Jahre früher mit den flüchten den Engländern verließ, und die Trümmer von C. und Caen als schmerzliche Mahnzeichen seines Irrtums vor sich zu sehen. Er gehört zu jenen, die nach dem Zusammenbruch Frankreichs den britischen Parolen mehr glaubten als den Tatsachen, die durch die deutschen Armeen geschaffen waren. Er ging nach England hinüber und verdingte sich als Arbeiter. Dort ist er aber von seinem britischen Freund den selbst über das wahre Gesicht der Anglo-Amerikaner aufgeklärt worden – und zwar furchtbarer, als er es je ahnen konnte.

Wie viele französische Arbeiter in England, so wurde auch er eines Tages aufgefordert, sich militärisch ausbilden zu lassen, um im Falle einer Invasion zur Befreiung seines Vaterlandes vom deutschen Joch mit der Waffe in der Faust bereit zu sein. Abgesehen davon, daß Monsieur Haquin gar keine Möglichkeit gehabt hätte, sich dieser freundlichen Aufforderung zu entziehen, meinte er doch gutgläubig, damit etwas Treffliches zu beginnen.

Als die Invasion dann plötzlich begann, wurde Monsieur Haquin in eine Fallschirmjägeruniform gesteckt. Allerdings gab man ihm und seinen französischen Kameraden eine andersfarbige Mütze – nicht die rote, die bei den, englischen Fallschirmjägern üblich ist, sondern eine grüne. So hoben sie sich recht greifbar von den echten Söhnen Albions ab.

Während der Kämpfe in der Normandie wurden diese französischen Arbeiter in englischen Uniformen immer in vorderster Linie verwendet. Gewiss ist es eine der vielen beredten Gesten Englands, in Frankreich den angeheuerten Franzosen wenigstens beim Kampf den Vortritt zu lassen – und beim Sterben!

Monsieur Haquin war zusammen mit fünfhundert französischen Arbeitern in einer britischen Kampfgruppe eingesetzt. An die Spitze befohlen, mußten sie – so wie sie, da waren, unerfahren und überhaupt nicht dafür ausgebildet – gegen deutsche Minenfelder vorgehen! Die Engländer benützten also diese unter betrügerischen Verlockungen angeworbenen und in Uniformen gezwungenen Franzosen dazu, sich mit ihren Leibern eine schaurige Gasse durch deutsche Minenfelder zu bahnen, um dann die britischen Kampfgruppen. ungefährdet hindurchschleusen zu können. Dreihundert der französischen Arbeiter fanden dabei den Tod. Ein anderer Teil wurde schwer verletzt, von den anderen weiß Monsieur Haquin nichts mehr zu berichten. Er selbst geriet in die deutschen Linien und gab sich – völlig niedergebrochen, angefüllt mit einem unbändigen Haß auf die englischen Freunde – gefangen.

So also sieht die Befreiung aus, die England der Normandie bringen will. Es zerstört die Städte und Dörfer des Landes, das es befreien will, bis weit ins Hinterland hinein durch seine Mörderpulks und begräbt unter den Trümmern gnadenlos Hunderte von unschuldigen Männern, Frauen und Kindern. Seine Tiefflieger feuern auf die Flüchtlinge, die dem Schrecken des Krieges und dem britischen Bombenterror zu entrinnen versuchen, auf offener Landstraße. Sie morden den Bauern auf den einsamen Farmen, das Vieh auf den Weiden. Und nun noch dies: Sie jagen hunderte französischer Arbeiter, die einfältig ihren Befehlen folgen, in das Feuer der deutschen Waffen und benutzen sie als lebendige Minenräumer! Das alles zusammen ist: Befreiung durch England. Das alles zusammen ist das Bild des perfiden Albion, das mit heuchlerischen Reden um die Seelen der europäischen Völker wirbt… Das alles zusammen ist für Europa Tatsache genug und bedarf keines Kommentars.

SS-Kriegsberichter WALTER BÜHROW

321

Innsbrucker Nachrichten (June 29, 1944)

Schwere Kämpfe im Mittelabschnitt der Ostfront

Im Raum Cherbourg halten sich weiterhin deutsche Stützpunkte – London seit zwei Wochen unter dem andauernden Feuer der ‚V1‘ – Erbitterte Kämpfe südwestlich Siena – Voller Abwehrerfolg westlich des Trasimenischen Sees

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 29. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

In der Normandie dehnte der Feind seine starken Angriffe auf fast 25 Kilometer breite aus. Besonders erbittert waren die Kämpfe im Raum südwestlich Caen, wo der Gegner in dem buschigen, unübersichtlichen Gelände einen schmalen Einbruch erzielen konnte. Der in den Abendstunden einsetzende Gegenangriff deutscher gepanzerter Kampfgruppen drängte die feindlichen Angriffsspitzen auf engstem Raum zusammen. Der Gegner erlitt schwerste Verluste an Menschen und Material. Allein eine Panzerabteilung vernichtete dabei 53 feindliche Panzer. In diesem Abschnitt haben sich bei den Kämpfen der letzten Tage die 12. SS-Panzerdivision „Hitler-Jugend“ unter Führung von SS-Standartenführer Meyer, insbesondere die Kampfgruppen des SS-Sturmbannführers Olbötter, besonders ausgezeichnet, östlich der Orne brachen wiederholte von starker Artillerie unterstützte Vorstöße des Gegners blutig zusammen.

Im Raum von Cherbourg halten sich mehrere unserer Stützpunkte auch weiterhin gegen die feindliche Übermacht. Der Hafen ist zerstört, die Einfahrt immer noch gesperrt.

Ein Vorstoß feindlicher Zerstörer gegen die Kanalinseln wurde durch deutsche Sicherungsstreitkräfte abgewehrt. Eines unserer Vorpostenboote kämpfte dabei die Geschützbedienungen eines Zerstörers nieder und brachte ihm aus nächster Nähe zahlreiche Artillerievolltreffer bei. Der feindliche Zerstörer geriet in Brand und wurde nach schwerer Detonation sinkend zurückgelassen. Zwei eigene Fahrzeuge gingen im Verlauf des harten Seegefechts verloren.

Über dem Landekopf und den besetzten Westgebieten wurden 41 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.

London liegt nunmehr seit zwei Wochen unter dem andauernden Feuer der „V1.“

In Italien kam es gestern zu besonders erbitterten Kämpfen im Raum südlich und südwestlich Siena, wo der Gegner geringe Fortschritte erzielen konnte. Hart westlich des Trasimenischen Sees errangen unsere Divisionen erneut einen vollen Abwehrerfolg. Wiederholte, mit zusammengefassten Infanterie- und Panzerkräften geführte Durchbruchsangriffe wurden hier im Nahkampf unter Abschuß einer Anzahl feindlicher Panzer zerschlagen. Ein örtlicher Einbruch wurde abgeriegelt. Bei den schweren Abwehrkämpfen in diesem Abschnitt haben sich die 1. Fallschirmjägerdivision unter Generalleutnant Heidrich und die 334. Infanteriedivision unter Generalmajor Böhlke durch besondere Tapferkeit und Standhaftigkeit ausgezeichnet.

Im Mittelabschnitt der Ostfront gewannen die Sowjets im Verlauf der erbitterten Abwehrschlacht an einigen Stellen weiter Raum. Die Besatzungen von Bobruisk und Mogilew setzten dem mit überlegenen Kräften anstürmenden Feind harten Widerstand entgegen. Östlich der mittleren und oberen Beresina sowie südlich Polozk dauern die schweren Kämpfe mit den vordringenden Sowjets an. Südöstlich Polozk scheiterten erneute feindliche Angriffe verlustreich für die Bolschewisten.

Bei den Kämpfen südöstlich Pleskau hat sich die ostpreußische 121. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Oberst Löhr hervorragend geschlagen. Schlachtfliegerverbände griffen wirksam in die Erdkämpfe ein und fügten dem Feind schwere Menschen- und Materialverluste zu.

Ein Verband leichter deutscher und finnischer Seestreitkräfte beschoss im Finnischen Meerbusen sowjetische Batteriestellungen auf der Insel Narvi und versenkte einen feindlichen Bewacher.

Ein nordamerikanischer Bomberverband griff gestern das Stadtgebiet von Bukarest an. Deutsche und rumänische Jäger brachten zwölf feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter zehn viermotorige Bomber, zum Absturz.

Nordamerikanische Bomberverbände führten gestern Vormittag einen Terrorangriff gegen die Stadt Saarbrücken. In der Nacht warfen einzelne britische Flugzeuge Bomben im rheinisch-westfälischen Gebiet und im Raum von Saarbrücken.

322

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 29, 1944)

Communiqué No. 47

More Allied forces have crossed the river ODON and the width of the bridgehead has increased. Allied armor has been heavily engaged south of the river. There has also been heavy fighting, including armored clashes, north and northwest of CAEN.

Enemy resistance had ceased in the area of the MAUPERTUS Airfield east of CHERBOURG. A few strongpoints remain to be dealt with in the CAP DE LA HAGUE area.

Bad weather again restricted air activity during the afternoon and evening, but armed reconnaissance flights were carried out in the CAEN–LISIEUX–MÉZIDON area. Attacks were made on enemy road transport at several points and a railway bridge at the SAINTE-HONORINE-DU-FAY. According to preliminary reports, 26 enemy aircraft were destroyed. Six of ours are missing.

Last night, our heavy bombers, 20 of which are missing, attacked the railway centers of METZ and BLAINVILLE in eastern FRANCE.

During the night, two enemy aircraft were shot down over northern FRANCE.

Communiqué No. 48

Our hold on the crossings of the river ODON has been strengthened after further heavy fighting in the TILLY–CAEN sector.

Enemy forces which had been bypassed in the area of MONDRAINVILLE and TOURVILLE were eliminated and counterattacks against the base of our salient were firmly repulsed.

North of CAEN, Allied troops have achieved small local gains against fierce opposition.

Fighting continues in the CAP DE LA HAGUE area.

Since the landing in NORMANDY, 121 German tanks have been destroyed by our troops.

Thick cloud and rain squalls restricted air operation this morning.

Fighter-bombers, however, continued the attacks on enemy troops and transport moving towards the battle area. Their targets included road and rail bridges near MONTFORT-SUR-RISLE, CHERISY and SAINT-PAUL-DE-COURTONNE (west of BERNAY), locomotives and trains at ORLÉANS and near FLERS, and rail junctions at VIERZON.

Attacks were made on enemy R-boats and minesweepers off LE TRÉPORT and on self-propelled barges at CAUDEBEC near the mouth of the SEINE.

In a series of encounters, eleven enemy planes were shot down for the loss of four of our aircraft.

323

The Free Lance-Star (June 29, 1944)

ALLIED FORCES REPEL NINE NAZI COUNTERATTACKS
British widening breach in lines

Nazis send two armies into armored fight near Caen; Yanks mopping up

SHAEF, England (AP) –
The Germans were reported today to have thrown the bulk of their 15th and 17th Armies into the defense of Caen in an attempt to halt the British flanking thrust south of the inland port.

But Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s men smashed nine counterattacks in 24 hours and widened a breach in the enemy lines.

Supreme Headquarters announced British infantry and armor were streaming across the Odon River southwest of Caen in an ever-widening bridgehead.

Field dispatches said the German command had sent virtually the entire strength of the two armies into fierce armored fighting raging on three sides of the city.

The German communiqué said the British were attacking on a 17-mile front and had achieved a “minor break-in” in the bushy terrain southwest of Caen. One German tank formation destroyed 53 Allied tanks, the communiqué declared. The German Hitler Youth 12th Tank Division was said to have distinguished itself in the fighting.

‘Murderous barrage’

A field dispatch from Associated Press correspondent Roger Greene said hundreds of British guns laid down a “murderous barrage” against German armored forces moving up to attack the British right flank and quoted British officers as saying “German movement on the roads is being slaughtered by our planes.”

The Germans threw 150 tanks into flank attacks yesterday, the dispatch said, and much hand-to-hand fighting occurred in the woods where the British hunted down Germans in camouflaged nests.

Heavy fighting, including large-scale tank clashes, raged at distances of two to four miles from the strongly-defended German base in eastern Normandy. Little change, however, has occurred in the front positions in the past 12 hours.

While British tanks beat against the enemy in a flaming battle at points less than four miles southwest of Caen in an eastward thrust that would strangle the city’s communications, other forces battered the enemy from the north and northwest in fighting almost equally as bitter.

Americans mop up

Westward, the Americans on the Cherbourg Peninsula were mopping up isolated resistance in the Cap de la Hague, where it was unofficially estimated that about 3,000 Germans are still holding out.

The bag of prisoners taken there continued to increase. It was officially announced that Germans captured by U.S. forces in France from D-Day to Tuesday night totaled 28,849.

The fighting around Caen in the present stage is a typical big tank battle, with none knowing exactly where the frontlines are and towns being overrun, only to be retaken a few hours later.

The Supreme Command said:

Every British advance has been met with a most violent local counterattack. It is to be expected the Germans will make a coordinate major counterthrust.

It is considered unlikely that the battle for Caen will be decided before Marshal Erwin Rommel makes such an all-out bid.

Luftwaffe active

In the air, the long-dormant German Air Force sprang into life under a protecting cloak of clouds to support Rommel’s desperate bid to drive back the British, but 27 enemy planes were downed.

Indications that the Germans were moving strategic reserves from Germany into France to meet the Allies in Normandy was seen in a heavy RAF bomber attack last night on Metz, a railroad center near the German-French border. Improving weather gave promise the Allies would be able to bring mote strength into supporting air assaults.

A German report last night of a U.S. attack in the Saint-Lô sector in the western part of the Allied fighting zone lacked confirmation by Supreme Headquarters.

324

Reports U.S. battle casualties

Washington (AP) –
U.S. casualties in the war, including the first two weeks of battle in Normandy, total 251,158. Of these, 55,206 are dead – 35,104 soldiers and 20,102 Navy, Marines and Coast Guard personnel.

Secretary of War Stimson reported today that through June 13, U.S. Army casualties were 179,923, of which 32,022 were killed, 73,638 wounded, 37,796 missing and 36,467 prisoners. These figures, he explained, did not include casualties in France because compilation of casualties from individual names transmitted from the field to the War Department lagged behind actual events.

To be added to them, however, was the report of Supreme Allied Headquarters that during the first two weeks of fighting in France, U.S. casualties totaled 24,162 with 3,082 killed, 13,121 wounded and 7,959 missing.

29th Infantry Division is led by Gerhardt

SHAEF, England (AP) –
Maj. Gen. Charles Hunter Gerhardt, son of a general and veteran of the last war, was revealed today as commander of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division in action at Normandy.

Dispatches several days ago placed the division in the vicinity of Isigny.

Gerhardt, 49, took command of the division in July 1943 after it reached England.

He is a crack shot, great believer in physical fitness and filled with competitive spirit. He issued open challenge during training to any man in his division to a shooting match with either pistol or rifle for a two-dollar side bet.

Gerhardt is a rugged disciplinarian and a great individualist and believes in being with his fighting men.

He graduated from West Point in 1917, where he played football, basketball and baseball. He served with the 89th Infantry Division in the last war and participated in the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives.

325

Editorial: Forbidding future

Allied intelligence is picking up more and more evidence of internal rifts and disorders behind the German fighting lines in France. It makes very pleasant reading.

For example, there is the report, as relayed by Maj. Gen. E. R. Quesada, commander of the U.S. 9th Air Force, that German ground forces are feuding with the Luftwaffe and stealing its fuel and other supplies. According to Gen. Quesada, ground troops needing gasoline for their hard-pressed mechanized units may operate a little longer but the ground troops have to get along without air support.

Then there is the growing activity of French patriot guerrillas and saboteurs. They are cutting communications and transportation facilities right and left. In the mountains of southeastern France, the Maquis are fighting in such strength that they have repelled several German punitive expeditions.

The Germans are particularly annoyed by operations of guerrilla bands in the south because Berlin regards that area as the likely spot for another Allied invasion of France, in which case the guerrillas would be of immediate and direct assistance to the invaders.

Naturally, the Germans do not relish the prospect of fighting against enemies in front of them and at their backs, too, but there doesn’t seem to be much they can do about it outside the borders of their own country. As long as they are in France, they face growing Allied armies in front and strengthened French patriot operations behind.

And even when they retire eventually behind the frontier defenses of Germany, there is no guarantee that the German people will view with complaisance the prospect of being on the receiving end of invasion for a change. Furthermore, there are millions of enslaved foreign workers in Germany who can be counted on for increasing acts of sabotage as the tide of liberation sweeps closer.

326

Völkischer Beobachter (June 30, 1944)

Die Weissagung von Caen

pk. Sagen und Märchen haben in dieser Zeit scheinbar ihren Sinn verloren. Wie lange ist es her, daß wir kein Buch mehr gelesen, daß wir in keiner Frontbuchhandlung mehr geständen haben? Wo sind die Werke, die wir zurücklassen mußten, weil wir unser Gepäck immer und immer wieder verkleinern mußten? Heute geht mir eine Geschichte nicht aus dem Sinn, eine dunkle Ballade, eine alte Volkssage, die hier im Angesicht der Normandie, vor der zerstörten Stadt Caen, doppelte Bedeutung erhält.

Es war einige Monate vor der Invasion, als ich diese herrliche Stadt, die mehr noch als Rouen Haupt und Herz der Normandie genannt werden kann, zum letzten Mal besucht hatte. Ich stand vor der Kirche Sainte-Trinité, welche die Gemahlin Wilhelms des Eroberers, Mathilde von Flandern, gestiftet hat, ich stand in Saint-Étienne, wo der Eroberer Englands selber begraben liegt. Auf der Empore stand ich neben der Orgel und hatte wirklich manchmal das Gefühl, zu fahren, wie einst die alten Ritter, die dort hinten im Chor mit ihrem Herzog sich Verewigt hatten, wenn ihre Geschlechterwappen im Gestänge des Gitters hingen und in ihren bunten Farben mit den Kirchenfenstern um die Wette leuchteten.

Neben mir stand ein Mann aus Caen, der ebenso gut ein Bauer wie ein Lehrer sein konnte und der mit seinen fünf Knaben ebenfalls auf den Orgelboden hochgestiegen war, um ihnen das Kleinod ihrer Heimat zu zeigen. Ich kam mit dem Mann in ein Gespräch, das sich um die angekündigte Invasion drehte und um das Schicksal, das dieser Stadt dann vielleicht drohen könnte. Nein, er glaube nicht an die Invasion, sagte jener Mann damals, und er wolle auch nicht, daß die Engländer kommen würden. Caen zu zerstören, sei ein Wahnsinn, den er sich niemals vorstellen könne. Und dann erzählte er mir die Sage von seiner Vaterstadt und der Geschichte des englischen Weltreiches, das auf geheimnisvolle Weise mit dem Schicksal dieser Stadt verbunden wäre. Wenn Caen einmal zerstört werden solle, dann sei auch das Ende des britischen Reiches nicht mehr fern, mit seinen Domen stürze auch das Gebäude des englischen Königreiches zusammen, das sich dann endgültig soweit von der Gründung Wilhelms des Eroberers entfernt hätte, daß es reif zum Untergang sei.

So sprach der normannische Bauer, oder was er sonst gewesen ist, und ich erinnere mich erst heute wieder all seiner Worte und der Geste, mit der er seinen blonden Söhnen über die Scheitel strich, als wenn er sie behüten müsse vor einem dunklen Schicksal, das ihnen auferlegt werden könnte. Vielleicht lebt der Mann mit seinen fünf Söhne heute schon nicht mehr, der mir dort an einem Sonntag das Geheimnis seines Landes anvertraut hat. Vielleicht liegt er schon unter den Trümmern seines Hauses begraben wie Tausende seiner Mitbürger, vielleicht irrt einer oder der andere der Knaben jetzt vater- und mutterlos durch das Land, weil anglo-amerikanische Luftgangster ihre Heimat zur Wüste und ihre Stadt zu einem Schutthaufen gemacht haben. Caen, die herrliche, die Gründung Wilhelms des Eroberers, ist nicht mehr. Wie zahllos andere normannische Städte, wie Coutances, Avranches, Lisieux und Bayeux, die keine andere militärische Bedeutung hatten, als daß sie in jenem Küstenstreifen lagen, den die Engländer für ihre Invasion ausersehen hatten, ist es sinnlos zerstört worden. Längst blieb kein Stein mehr auf dem anderen, Flammen züngeln aus Tor und Gebälk. Rauch steigt auf, eine süße, stickige Luft erfüllt den Himmel, Krähenschwärme ziehen darüber, hinter endlosen grauen Weiten sucht das Auge vergebens den Horizont.

Und dennoch kann so ein Ereignis, kann ein einzelnes Menschen- oder Städteschicksal nicht ohne Zusammenhang sein mit dem großen Geschehen. Der Mann aus Caen hatte schon recht, wenn er die alte Volkssage erzählte und die Weissagung wieder aufleben ließ, daß auch ein Weltreich nicht bestehen kann, wenn es auf solchen Methoden der Völkerunterdrückung und des Mordes aufgebaut ist. Es gibt eine höhere Gerechtigkeit, auch wenn sie nicht immer im Leben der-Völker gleich sichtbar in Erscheinung treten sollte. Einmal kommt die Stunde, in der Weltgeschichte zum Weltgericht wird!

Sagen und Märchen haben nur scheinbar in diesen Tagen ihren Sinn verloren. In Wirklichkeit sind sie nach wie vor geheime wurzelhafte Kräfte, die das Leben der Völker aus den unerkannten Tiefen speisen. Aus Dichtung und Mythus wird auch die lauteste und unmittelbarste Gegenwart gestaltet. Und wenn dieser Kampf einmal zu Ende sein wird, der heute an den Küsten Europas tobt und der uns ohne Gepäck und ohne Ballast, lediglich auf uns selbst und die Kraft unserer Herzen gestellt, gegen eine Hölle von Bomben und Flugzeugen stehen heißt, dann werden auch die Stimmen der Dichter und der Weissagung wieder laut, die wir vergessen haben und für welche auch die Sage von der Stadt Caen, die Geschichte von der Schuld und dem Untergang eines Weltreiches, nur ein Beispiel ist.

Kriegsberichter KURT KOELSCH

327

Innsbrucker Nachrichten (June 30, 1944)

900 Feindpanzer bisher an der Invasionsfront vernichtet

Ansturm des Feindes gegen Caen – Erbitterte Kämpfe in Italien und an der Ostfront – Erfolge unserer Unterseeboote

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 30. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

In der Normandie setzte der Feind seine gewaltigen Anstrengungen fort, um die Stadt Caen von ihren Versorgungslinien abzuschneiden und von Südwesten her zu nehmen. Unter stärkstem Einsatz von Artillerie und Luftwaffe konnte der Gegner seinen Einbruchsraum in erbitterten Kämpfen zunächst erweitern, bis ihn ein starker deutscher Gegenangriff in der Flanke traf und ihm einen großen Teil des gewonnenen Geländes wieder entriss. Zahlreiche Panzer des Feindes wurden vernichtet. Die Kämpfe dauern an.

An der übrigen Front des Landekopfes scheiterten erneute, von starker Artillerie unterstützte Vorstöße des Gegners östlich der Orne und südwestlich Tilly. Nordöstlich Saint-Lô eingebrochene nordamerikanische Truppen wurden im Gegenangriff wieder geworfen.

Im Kampfraum von Cherbourg trat der Feind auf breiter Front nunmehr auch gegen unsere Kampfgruppen auf der Nordwestspitze der Halbinsel zum Angriff an. Der Ansturm des weit überlegenen Gegners brach am Widerstand der tapferen Verteidiger unter Führung von Oberstleutnant Keil verlustreich zusammen.

Seit 6. Juni wurden an der Invasionsfront über 900 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen.

Beim Kampf im Raum von Cherbourg zeichnete sich der Kommandant eines Stützpunktes der Luftnachrichtentruppe, Oberleutnant Daimling, besonders aus.

Marinebatterien der Kanalinseln nahmen wiederholt feindliche Kriegsschiffverbände unter Feuer und zwangen sie zum Abdrehen.

Fernkampfbatterien der Kriegsmarine beschädigten unter der englischen Küste einen großen Tanker, der auf Strand gesetzt werden mußte.

Das schwere Vergeltungsfeuer der „V1“ wird fortgesetzt.

An der italienischen Front wurde an der Küste des Ligurischen Meeres und im Abschnitt südwestlich und südöstlich Siena erbittert gekämpft. Der Gegner griff hier, unterstützt von starken Panzerkräften und unter Zusammenfassung seiner Artillerie, während des ganzen Tages an, konnte aber nur wenig Boden gewinnen. Beiderseits des Trasimenischen Sees setzte der Feind seine Durchbruchsversuche infolge der an den Vortagen erlittenen hohen Verluste, die ihn zu erneuten Umgruppierungen zwangen, gestern während des Tages nicht fort. Erst gegen Abend nahm er seine Angriffe wieder auf, die noch im Gange sind.

In der Mitte der Ostfront wird weiter erbittert gekämpft. Zwischen Ssluzk und Bobruisk wurden feindliche Angriffsspitzen an einigen Stellen auf­ gefangen. Bei Borissow und südwestlich Polozk kam es zu heftigen Kämpfen mit feindlichen Angriffsgruppen. Schlachtfliegerverbände griffen wiederholt in die Erdkämpfe ein und zersprengten feindliche Infanterie- und Kraftwagenkolonnen. Südöstlich Polozk brachen auch gestern alle Angriffe der Bolschewisten blutig zusammen. Hier hat sich die norddeutsche 290. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Generalmajor Henke besonders ausgezeichnet.

In Weißruthenien wurde ein Bandenunternehmen von Sicherungsverbänden des Heeres und der Polizei unter Führung des SS-Obergruppenführers und Generals der Polizei von Gottberg erfolgreich beendet. In vierwöchigen Kämpfen wurden 342 Bandenlager und 936 Bunker zerstört. Die Bolschewisten hatten schwerste blutige Verluste. Außer 7.700 Toten verloren sie 5.300 Gefangene, zahlreiche Waffen und umfangreiche Lebensmittelvorräte wurden erbeutet.

Im hohen Norden wiesen unsere Gebirgstruppen mehrere Angriffe der Bolschewisten ab.

Ein starker nordamerikanischer Bomberverband griff gestern Vormittag Orte in Mitteldeutschland an. Besonders in Magdeburg und Wittenberg entstanden Gebäudeschäden und Verluste unter der Bevölkerung.

Einzelne feindliche Flugzeuge warfen in der Nacht Bomben im Raum von Wien.

Über dem Reichsgebiet und den besetzten Westgebieten wurden bei Tage und in der Nacht durch Luftverteidigungskräfte 34 feindliche Flugzeuge zum Absturz gebracht.

Unterseeboote vernichteten drei Schiffe mit 13.000 BRT und einen Bewacher. Im Kampf gegen die feindliche Seeüberwachung schossen sie zehn feindliche Flugzeuge ab.

328

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 30, 1944)

Communiqué No. 49

The Allied bridgehead over the river ODON has been extended on both flanks.

Elsewhere the situation remains generally unchanged.

Fighting continued north of ÉVRECY, where the enemy brought up fresh troops.

The forts in the CHERBOURG breakwater have surrendered, and mopping up continues in the CAP DE LA HAGUE area.

Rail and road transport, bridges, railway tracks and crossings behind the battle line were attacked by our aircraft yesterday afternoon and evening.

Fighter-bombers, on armed reconnaissance in the DREUX, CHARTRES, and ARGENTAN areas, destroyed more than 100 railway cars. Other fighter-bombers strafed junctions and rolling stock near PARIS, at ÉVREUX and at BOLBEC, 20 miles east of LE HAVRE. The rail line at VITRY, 100 miles east of PARIS, was severed.

Medium and light bombers attacked the viaduct between SAINT-HILAIRE and VITRÉ, and bridges in the RENNES area.

Coastal batteries on the CAP DE LA HAGUE were attacked by medium bombers.

Communiqué No. 50

Allied forces, driving their salient towards the ORNE River in the CAEN sector, have completed the enemy to throw in strong armored reserves in an effort to halt our advance. In spite of repeated counterattacks by these formations, our positions have not only been held, but improved.

Farther west, ground has been gained near SAINT-JEAN-DE-DAYE.

Resistance in the CAP DE LA HAGUE area of the CHERBOURG Peninsula has continued.

Weather severely restricted air operations between midnight and mid-morning, but improving conditions over the battle area, and southward, permitted Allied forces to complete some 1,000 sorties by early afternoon.

Flying through clouds or under low ceilings, small forces of medium bombers before dawn attacked main thoroughfares in use by the enemy in the VILLERS-BOCAGE area.

From first light, fighter-bombers and fighters, based both in BRITAIN and NORMANDY, harassed enemy movements in the area bounded by DREUX, CHARTRES, ALENÇON and ARGENTAN, and carried out armed reconnaissance as far south as TOURS.

Small forces of medium bombers attacked road and rail junctions between MÉZIDON and FALAISE. Fighter-bombers hit large warehouses at ARVILLE, east of LE MANS, and an important bridge at BEAUGENCY, as well as rail lines and machine-gun emplacements in the ORLÉANS area.

One of our fighters is missing.