Operation OVERLORD (1944)

405

Innsbrucker Nachrichten (July 10, 1944)

Erbitterte Straßen- und Häuserkämpfe in Caen

Missglückte feindliche Durchbruchsversuche in Italien – Wilna gegen zahlreiche Angriffe behauptet – Zwei britische Schnellboote versenkt

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 10. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Die große Abwehrschlacht im Raum von Caen griff im Laufe des gestrigen Tages auf die Stadt selbst über. Nach erbitterten Straßen- und Häuserkämpfen, in denen unsere Truppen dem Feind schwerste Verluste zufügten, drückte der Gegner unsere Linien auf den Südrand von Caen zurück. Bei Crainville scheiterten feindliche Panzerangriffe. In einer Einbruchstelle beiderseits der Straße von Caumont–Caen sind die Kämpfe noch nicht abgeschlossen. Zwischen Airei und Sainteny konnte der Feind nur geringen Geländegewinn erzielen. Südlich La Haye-du-Puits wurden mehrere feindliche Angriffe abgewiesen, westlich des Ortes feindliche Bereitstellungen durch zusammengefasstes Artilleriefeuer zerschlagen.

Bei den Kämpfen der vergangenen Woche im Südwestteil der Halbinsel Cherbourg haben sich die Kampfgruppe der 77. Infanteriedivision unter Oberst der Reserve Bacherer und die Kampfgruppe der 243. Infanteriedivision unter Oberst Klosterkemper besonders ausgezeichnet.

Im französischen Raum wurden wiederum 239 Terroristen und Saboteure im Kampf niedergemacht.

Vor der niederländischen und nordfranzösischen Küste versenkten Sicherungsfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine in der Nacht zum 9. Juli zwei britische Schnellboote, beschädigten vier weitere schwer und erzielten zahlreiche Treffer auf mehreren anderen Booten. Ein eigenes Fahrzeug ging verloren.

Im Golf von Saint-Malo zwangen Vorposten feindliche Zerstörer zum Abdrehen und beschädigten einen von ihnen.

Das „V1“- Vergeltungsfeuer auf London dauert mit nur geringen Unterbrechungen an.

In Italien zeichneten sich unsere an der westlichen Küstenstraße bei Volterra, Poggibonsi, Arezzo und an der adriatischen Küste eingesetzten Truppen gestern erneut durch besondere Standhaftigkeit aus. Trotz Einsatzes überlegener Infanterie- und Panzerkräfte, die durch starke Artillerie- und laufende Luftangriffe unterstützt wurden, gelang dem Feind nirgends der erhoffte Durchbruch durch unsere Front, In einigen örtlichen Einbruchsstellen hielten die Kämpfe am gestrigen Abend noch an.

Im Osten ließen die Angriffe der Sowjets bei Kowel nach dem hervorragenden Abwehrerfolg unserer Truppen an Heftigkeit nach. Erneute Durchbruchsversuche wurden zerschlagen.

Westlich Baranowicze fingen unsere Divisionen die mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerkräften vordringenden Bolschewisten in erbitterten Kämpfen an der Szczara, beiderseits Slonin, auf. Die Verteidiger von Wilna behaupteten die Stadt gegen zahlreiche, von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe des Feindes und fügten ihm hohe blutige Verluste zu. Nordwestlich Wilna wurden die Sowjets im Gegenangriff zurückgeworfen. An der Straße Kauen–Dünaburg sind bei Otena heftige Kämpfe im Gange. Gegenangriffe unserer Truppen hatten Erfolg. Nordwestlich Polozk scheiterten die Durchbruchsversuche mehrerer sowjetischer Schützendivisionen am zähen Widerstand unserer Truppen.

Bei den schweren Abwehrkämpfen im Raum von Orscha hat sich Major Lampfrecht, Kommandeur einer hamburgischen leichten Flakabteilung, durch beispielhafte Tapferkeit ausgezeichnet.

Starke Schlachtfliegergeschwader griffen in rollenden Einsätzen in die Erdkämpfe ein, setzten zahlreiche sowjetische Panzer und Geschütze außer Gefecht und vernichteten mehrere hundert Fahrzeuge.

In der Nacht führten Kampf- und Nachtschiachtflugzeuge wirksame Angriffe gegen den sowjetischen Nachschubverkehr. Besonders in den stark belegten Bahnhöfen Korosten, Olewsk und Rowno entstanden große Brände in Betriebsstofflagern und heftige Explosionen.

Ein nordamerikanischer Bomberverband warf gestern verstreut Bomben im Raum von Ploesti.

Einzelne, feindliche Flugzeuge warfen in der letzten Nacht Bomben im rheinisch-westfälischen Raum.

Seestreitkräfte, Bordflak von Handelsschiffen und Marineflakartillerie schossen in der Zeit vom 1. bis 10. Juli 86 feindliche Flugzeuge ab.

406

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 10, 1944)

Communiqué No. 69

Following the devastating bombing yesterday morning, armor and infantry thrusting down all roads leading into CAEN from the north and west have forced the enemy out of the town back to the line of the river ORNE. This advance was supported by naval gunfire and rocket-firing aircraft based in NORMANDY. Fighters from Britain ranged to the south and east of the town, effectively checking enemy attempts to bring up reinforcements. Reports received indicate that the enemy has suffered heavy casualties in this operation.

Patrols have crossed the river ODON a short distance above its junction with the ORNE.

In the west, an advance on both sides of the CARENTAN–PERIERS road brought Allied troops close to the village of SAINTENY.

The bridgehead over the river VIRE was further widened and strengthened in spite of stiff enemy resistance.

Small formations of fighters and fighter-bombers on patrol in the area PARIS to SAINT-LÔ and to the south attacked bridges and transport at MANTES, GASSICOURT, MONTFORT-SUR-RISLE and LESSAY. Rail embankments at BOURTH and bridges behind the enemy line were also attacked during the period from noon to midnight. Five enemy aircraft were destroyed for the loss of five of ours.

During the late evening, light bombers attacked a bridge and a rail junction north of POITIERS, ferries between QUILLEBEUF and DUCLAIR and bridges, trains and road transport east of the battle area.

In yesterday morning’s operation by escorted heavy bombers, six enemy aircraft were destroyed by our fighters. Three of our bombers and three fighters are missing.

Communiqué No. 70

In the CAEN sector, the fighting has extended to the area south of the ODON river. From the ODON bridgehead our troops have advanced through the villages of ÉTERVILLE and MALTOT. Enemy strongpoints, which were bypassed in our advance yesterday, are being systematically eliminated.

Southwest of CARENTAN, our troops advancing along the road toward PÉRIERS have liberated the village of SAINTENY. South of TILLY and south of LA HAYE-DU-PUITS, strong German armored counterattacks have been repulsed and a number of their tanks destroyed.

Widespread attacks on the enemy transportation system were carried out last night by our light bombers. Seventeen trains and associated targets on rail lines leading to the battlefront were damaged or set on fire.

Our fighter-bombers operated in the LESSAY and SAINT-LÔ sectors this morning, attacking gun positions and strongpoints.

407

The Pittsburgh Press (July 10, 1944)

British capture three towns, key height south of Caen

Yanks advance mile, extend bridgehead in central Normandy

map.071044.up
Two initial objectives captured, Caen and La Haye-du-Puits, British and U.S. forces today continued to advance along the road to Paris. The Yanks pushed 2,000 yards south of La Haye (1), captured the towns of Le Désert and Cavigny and drove to within five miles of Périers (2). The British and Canadians extended their beachheads across the Odon River, captured three villages and a key height, and pressed toward the Nazis’ Orne River line (3).

SHAEF, London, England –
British and Canadian forces slashed into the exposed German flank below captured Caen today and drove forward through three fortified villages to within less than half a mile of the Orne River defense line due south of Caen.

Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s 2nd Army, striking again while the mop-up of the Caen area was underway, stormed through Éterville, Maltot (near Esquay) and Bretteville-sur-Odon in advances up to about a mile and overran the hotly-contested height called Hill 112 commanding the Orne–Odon salient below Caen.

U.S. forces advancing down the mid-Normandy highway toward Périers captured Sainteny, five miles southwest of Carentan, and other U.S. units expanded the bridgehead across the Vire for an average gain of a mile, reaching a point only 7,000 yards from Saint-Lô.

The expansion of the Vire bridgehead almost brought the front in line with the general battle zone through the Caumont–Saint-Lô area, and a headquarters spokesman said Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s drive there “shows considerable long-term promise.”

Threaten encirclement

The British-Canadian armored force cutting in below Caen like a giant scythe began developing a possible encirclement maneuver against the German troops holding out in the Faubourg-de-Vaucelles, southern suburb of Caen.

The high ground captured by the Imperials between the Odon and Orne Rivers was the key to the entire Caen sector, and the victory put the final seal of the conquest of the great inland port.

A spokesman, however, emphasized that the Germans were still fighting fiercely all along the Normandy front, but had been obliged to throw in reserves they had been trying to build up for a showdown.

Orderly withdrawals

It was emphasized that wherever the Nazis were giving ground, they were doing so by orderly withdrawals, and nowhere was there a sign of disorganization in the enemy ranks or large-scale disengagement.

With the seizure of Hill 112 between the Orne and Odon, the British were able to command the highway running south and slightly west from Caen, leaving only the Caen–Falaise highway in German hands and relatively free of interference.

In the immediate area of Caen, which fell yesterday, German strongpoints which had been bypassed in the final assault on the city were being cleaned out.

Counterattacks held

West of Caen, the Germans counterattacked, but were held everywhere by the British.

The Americans who captured Sainteny pressed on down the road from Carentan toward Périers, the road hub controlling the territory between Saint-Lô and the west coast.

To the northwest, the Germans counterattacked strongly in the area of La Haye-du-Puits, captured yesterday, but the Americans beat off the blows and destroyed a number of enemy tanks.

Front dispatches disclosed that Gen. Montgomery’s tanks and infantry, supported by warships and rocket-firing planes, had cleared a six-mile stretch of the north bank of the Orne in Caen and on either side of the city.

Couldn’t wreck bridges

A headquarters spokesman said the final stages of the British advance into Caen were so rapid that the Germans were not believed to have had time to destroy all the bridges across the Orne.

The British first pushed across the Odon River some five miles southwest of Caen nearly two weeks ago and so developed their threat to the Orne River that the Germans committed a major portion of their armor there.

The line swayed back and forth during five German counterattacks, but the British held firmly to their bridgehead.

Americans also advance

One column of the U.S. 1st Army at the western end of the 111-mile front pushed 2,000 yards south of La Haye-du-Puits, another seized Le Désert and Cavigny, three miles southwest and three southeast respectively of Saint-Jean-de-Daye, and a third drove down the Carentan-Périers road.

Headquarters acknowledged that the Germans had made a minor gain in violent counterattacks on the Mount Castre plateau southeast of La Haye, though the Americans still held high ground there.

The liberation of Caen cleared away one of the strongest obstacles on the highway and railway from Cherbourg to Paris 120 miles to the east, and gave the Allies a first-class port which had a peacetime capacity of two million tons of cargo a year. Caen, the largest city yet captured by the Allies in France, had a peacetime population of 50,000, some 20,000 more than Cherbourg.

Once well across the Orne, however, Allied armor can fan out across rolling country without a natural defense obstacle for 20 miles. Any German attempt to make a stand short of a ridge running northwest from Falaise, 20 miles southeast of Caen, to the Caumont area was expected to touch off an armored battle that may determine the length of enemy resistance in western France.

Caen was little more than a crumbling mass of ruins when it fell into British hands yesterday, but its port installation and the Orne Canal leading seven miles northward to the sea were believed largely intact.

408

Bombers sweep northern France

Robot plane bases hammered by RAF
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer

London, England –
Hundreds of British Lancaster bombers, with a fighter escort, swept over northern France early today in what was believed new attacks on the German robot bomb launching installations, while tactical forces again hit enemy communications behind the Normandy battlefront.

An Air Ministry communiqué identified the RAF targets only as “military objectives,” but coastal observers reported the great fleets of planes took only an hour and a half to shuttle over the straits, indicating the targets were somewhere nearby.

The communiqué said RAF Mosquito bombers attacked a synthetic oil plant at Buer, in Prussia, last night. Both operations were carried out without loss.

Other Mosquito forces, together with Bostons, carried out pre-dawn raids on at least 18 trains, railways and bridges over the Seine, directly behind the enemy lines, and harassed road convoys, at one point surprising a 10-mile-long convoy of trucks near Chartres.

Fighter-bombers strafed and bombed German reinforcements moving across pontoon bridges several miles from the mouth of the Seine.

Despite bad weather, which sometimes forced fighters down to less than 300 feet, Allied planes yesterday made 3,500 sorties, including attacked by rocket-firing RAF Typhoons on German strongpoints just ahead of the troops in Caen.

Down three fighters

Only one formation of German planes was encountered over Normandy yesterday. Australian Spitfires engaged 40 enemy fighters between Lisieux and Cabourg and shot down three of them without loss.

Adverse weather hampered aerial operations from Italy, although Flying Fortresses and Liberators, with escorting fighters, hit the Ploești oil fields in Romania.

Romania’s second largest refinery at Concordia Vega, on the north side of the fields, was covered by a smokescreen, but Liberators sighted several explosions and reported columns of oil smoke 18,000 feet high. The other target was the Xenia refinery, to the northwest, which was set afire by Flying Fortresses.

Mustangs made a separate offensive sweep over the area and downed most of the 14 German planes knocked out in the raid.

409

Nazis face more secret weapons

SHAEF, London, England (UP) –
The Americans have several new secret weapons to use in their march to Berlin, Maj. Gen. Harry Benton Sayler, chief ordnance officer for the European Theater, disclosed today.

Among them, he said, is a gun with a range so great that the usual low-speed observations planes are useless as “eyes” for it and regular fighters will be used instead.

Gen. Sayler said:

We recently opened fire for the first time with the longer-range weapon against German headquarters. A pursuit plane was used fro observation. The fliers saw the German personnel trying to get away in cars and went down and shot them up.

Some of the new weapons have been used successfully in Normandy, Gen. Sayler said, but others are being held in reserve and details of them have not been released.

Gen. Sayler said that while Cherbourg was not ready yet to receive supplies in great quantities, “we hope soon to get supplies going directly to France from the United States.”

410

Nazis in France packing bags

Troops told to send belonging home
By Paul Ghali

Bern, Switzerland –
German officers garrisoned in the south zone of France on June 27 received orders to pack up their belongings and send them to Germany immediately. Each man was allowed to keep only 11 pounds of personal baggage. Shipments began on July 1.

This is private information just received by your correspondent from a most reliable source in France.

French military experts here believe that this news confirms recent reports that the Nazis are preparing for the eventual evacuation of France. But they also feel that the decree may well mean that several, if not all, German divisions in the south of France are making final preparations for forthcoming battles.

The total number of Wehrmacht divisions in the south zone is estimated by these experts at 18.

One thing appears certain. This German luggage, which presumably contains the booty of four years of pillage in France, will gave a long and hectic journey before it reached its destination. Communications from central and western France have become so disrupted that it recently took Dr. Braillard, Vichy delegate to the International Radio Broadcasting Committee, 50 hours to reach Lausanne from Paris, a trip which, before the war, required only seven or eight hours.

411

Casey: A dead Nazi’s pictures bare war tragedy

Captured La Haye an awesome sight
By Robert J. Casey

On the U.S. front in Normandy, France –
South of La Haye-du-Puits, U.S. troops today were slowly blasting through more hedges, stone walls and ranks of unconvinced Germans on their way to the promised land of flat country where a man has a chance to see what he is fighting.

The weather, as usual, was rotten and mud thick and plentiful in fields and roadways, and the going was still tough and dangerous from one end of the line to the other, but when various corps spokesmen announced that “progress was satisfactory” you felt inclined to believe them.

Town a terrible sight

We got into La Haye in force yesterday morning and crashed through the principal defenses at the railroad station. To one who had looked at it across the lovely valley in the British sun of five years ago, the town was an awesome and terrible sight.

There was no charm about it now. Snipers were still sending out venomous fire from skeletons of rooftops. Rocket guns – “screaming meemies” – were dropping their howling slugs promiscuously from some concealed spot in orchards south of the town. The infantry moved about close to the battered walls, with heads well down and necks pulled in.

The ditches leading into the town were cluttered with German dead. Along hedgerows, turned over clear of the road, was a procession of the skeletons of burned and tortured trucks.

At the end of a side street under a tree, a dead German lieutenant, whose name had been Franz Ritter, lay grazing sightlessly into the rainy sky. Around him were scattered belongings that probably had been loose in his pockets when he fell – his paybook, military identity card, certificate of good standing in the Nazi Party, and a collection of snapshots, mostly of himself.

An American doughboy cradled his carbine under his arm and picked up some of the photographs. Looking through them, he said:

You can tell a lot about this guy from these. Look, here he is as one of those mugs in the Youth Movement.

He held out a picture of Franz in socks, shorts and military shirt, a sour-faced boy of about 17.

That’s about the time he started listening to this Hitler. And here he us as a member of the labor battalion.

Arrogant expression

That picture showed him in front of a barracks, leaning on a shovel and looking on the world with the same arrogant expression that now was frozen into his face by death.

And here he is as an officer, a bright new shavetail with a swastika on his arm. I suppose the whole world was his that day. All his folks were sending him congratulations and maybe presents.

The doughboys turned the picture over. There was a date on it: Feb. 17, 1944. That, as the doughboy said, probably had been the greatest day in the life of Franz Ritter, the Hitler Youth, the eager young laborer, the stiff-necked soldier of the Reich, the arrogant lieutenant. And on that day, he was less than five months from July 9 and only a few hundred miles from the muddy slopes of La Haye-du-Puits – a town of which he probably had never heard.

The doughboy bleakly said:

He’s had some hard luck, but you can’t say he didn’t ask for it. He was a Nazi and he was a sniper.

He laid the pictures back in a neat pile where he had found them and turned away. Franz Ritter continues to stare up into the rain.

412

American jeep lifts curtain on Cherbourg’s bleak years

Arrival of Yanks recalls Prussian-like entry of Rommel four years before
By W. C. Heinz, North American Newspaper Alliance

Cherbourg, France – (July 7, delayed)
On June 18, 1940, the mayor of Cherbourg, a thin, white-haired, white-mustached old man in a black suit, black tie and black shoes, stood with his staff on the steps of the little city hall here in the Place de la Republique and watch silently while a German tank roared up and gnashed to a halt. Four years and nine days later that same thin, old man in the same black suit, tie and shows and with his staff again around him, stood on the same step and watched while an American jeep swirled to a halt on the same spot.

Today in that same little city hall, you heard from that same chin, little man and one of the members of that same staff the story of those two days. The story that 73-year-old Dr. Paul Reynaud and 71-year-old Eugene Simon, his deputy mayor, told you, however, is also the story of the four years between, the story of two armies, and the story of the little people caught in the tide of this war.

‘Walked past us’

M. Simon said:

When the German tank halted, the top flew open and out climbed three German officers, all cleanshaven and in clean uniforms. While we stood and watched, not knowing what to do, they just walked past us and into our offices.

They said nothing to us but we could hear them talking in the mayor’s office, and then in a moment everyone outdoors snapped to attention as Gen. Rommel walked past without looking at us. We could hear Rommel shouting in the office, and then he came out, followed by the others, and again they walked past us without saying anything and drove away.

“Here we call Rommel the little man,” M. Simon said, and you could tell from the way he smiled when he said it that what the French here mean by that is only that little field marshal’s short stature.

People ignore band

Next day, however, the officers were back. They came back with orders that life was to go on as usual. Mayor Reynaud’s only comment on that was that it was a thing which was easily said.

As you sat, then, in the little office with the big desk and with chairs covered with red plush and listened to these two pale, old men with their black suits and their soft, slow way of thinking, you heard how on the next morning a Nazi military band marched into the Place de la Republique and gave its first concert in a bandstand which you could see through the window still standing there, dusty and in need of paint.

“Nobody went to hear the concert,” M. Simon said, “and after a month, the concerts stopped.”

Barges flop

You heard, too, how in a few days the Germans began building barges for the invasion of Great Britain, and how, when they put the barges into the water and loaded them with tanks in rehearsal, many barges were overturned and many tanks and German soldiers were lost.

You heard how the Germans, like children in their ignorance, actually though that the English Channel, for which their word is “canal,” was only 20 miles wide and how they went into the schoolrooms and tore down the maps, and when they saw that the Channel was 70 miles wide, they shouted in fury that the maps had been faked, and tore them up.

You heard, too, about the Nazi naval captain of the port. He was the former captain of the luxury liner Bremen who, before the war, received a gold medal from the Cherbourg Chamber of Commerce.

Commits suicide

M. Simon said:

If you want his name, you may find it in the cemetery. The Germans say that he committed suicide.

Then the two pale, old men, one wearing the Cross of Lorraine and the other the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor, told you about German planes. They told you how, in the hard fall and winter of 1940 and 1941, they watched German planes wing overhead on their way to Britain.

The mayor said:

We watched them leave by the dozens and come back in twos and threes. Then we knew that there was something over there.

After that, the two men told you, there were long years of waiting. They told of five ounces of bread a day, of no tea, no coffee, no cheese and only eight ounces of meat a month – this in the most fruitful part of France.

Nazis grow nervous

They told of the growing nervousness of the Germans at the news of the U.S. landings in France, and how they wanted to laugh and sing but couldn’t, and of the orders of evacuation, of the fight for the city, and then of how they stood in their old, black suits on the steps of the old city hall and watched the American jeep as it swirled to a stop.

You heard that when the jeep drove up the men in it were not cleanshaven and were not in bright, smart uniforms. They were grimy and dirty and there was dust on their clothes, but when they got out of the jeep, they didn’t walk stiffly past the pale, old men, but strode up to them and shook their hands.

The man who shook hands with the mayor was Lt. Col. Frank Howley of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, head of the Allied civil affairs unit in Cherbourg, but no one has to tell you of the civil affairs unit or what it has to do here. You can see that everywhere on the face of this city and in the faces of the two old men and the other people.

1 Like
413

Editorial: Caen cost 33 days

The British capture of Caen has broken a dangerous stalemate in the Battle of Normandy. Caen was scheduled for capture a month ago. The British took part of it on D-Day, but had to retreat quickly. The enemy then succeeded in holding up the British advance for 33 days.

It is no secret that Allied victory depends on slashing, rapid advances, and that Nazi strategy is to contain the Allies within a fixed line where attrition is heavy. In this case, the Nazis achieved a temporary stalemate without calling out their major strategic reserves. That makes the Allies’ task ahead all the more difficult.

When went wrong with Gen. Montgomery’s plans will probably remain a mystery until after the war. Some of the experts are suggesting that his famous super-caution may have tricked him into a slower and, in the end, more costly operation than necessary. This criticism strikes us as premature.

Bad weather may have accounted for most of the Caen stalemate. Many of those 33 days were such that Gen. Montgomery could not land supplies on the beaches to build up his forces, and could not use his great air superiority to turn the balance. Apparently during the past two weeks, he has had infantry and artillery superiority amounting to a 4-to-1 advantage in firepower. Whether he was or was not slow to use it, he had taken advantage of it fully in this successful two-day offensive.

Another reason why criticism seems to us premature is that much depends on the next big move by the Allies. The German General Staff still does not know whether Gen. Eisenhower will put all his eggs in the Normandy basket, or whether he soon will make other landings in the region of Le Havre or Brest, or even in Belgium or Holland.

Events may prove that the Caen delay was due more to Gen. Montgomery’s overcaution than to the Germans’ refusal to be caught off balance by drawing their main reserves toward Normandy, which in turn delayed an Eisenhower invasion elsewhere.

Whatever the explanation, it must be admitted that little was achieved by the Allies in the period between the fall of Cherbourg and that of Caen, compared with the miraculous first period of the invasion. Three or four more Caen clinches would carry us close to the fall stalemate for which the Germans are fighting. Every week counts now.

414

Simms: State control of press, radio, films alarms friends of France

By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

Cherbourg, France –
Among the things which have alarmed friends of France the most was the decree of the Provisional Government in Algiers placing press, radio and films under state control.

The Algiers ordinance would seem to destroy freedom of the press and other means of public expression. The state would have the say as to who could run newspapers. The French Information Agency alone would have the right to circulate government communiqués, domestic and foreign news and to acquire the services of foreign news agencies.

Movies could not operate until authorized by the Commissioner of Information.

Tempered ruling hoped for

Events here, however, lead to the hope that the Algiers degree may be somewhat tempered in practice. Supposedly, all newspapers and periodicals which carried out Nazi or Vichy policy were to be confiscated. Yet none of that seems to have happened here.

One of the oldest newspapers in this part of France is Éclair of Cherbourg. After the German occupation, it turned collaborationist. But when the Americans marched on the port, the editor fled to Paris, leaving the paper in the hands of his brother-in-law, M. Hamel.

New name for paper

After the fall of Cherbourg, Algiers Regional Commissioner François Coulet began to apply the law. He ousted Hamel and appointed Roger Pillet, a newspaperman and member of the resistance group, as editor. Printers and other employees of Éclair struck. They contended Hamel had never written any collaborationist stuff. He had only managed the property as he had done before 1940, and throughout the occupation he had carried on “in a spirit of friendly cooperation with the workers,” they maintained.

Subprefect Leviandier, a Coulet appointee, who was called in to arbitrate, decided to give the newspaper a new name, La Presse cherbourgeoise, and to go on publishing with the old staff, including Hamel as managing director and Pillet as editor.

Commendable discretion

Throughout all this the U.S. Army’s Civil Affairs officers remained aloof.

Whether this incident means a more democratic formula will be followed remains to be seen. Certainly, Commissioner Coulet, who has wide powers, appears to have used commendable discretion.

In England, many liberal Frenchmen had looked askance at the Algiers press-radio regulation. They observed that the road to liberty is hardly through dictatorship. They said that if democracy is to be restored in France, the way to do it is not by abandoning the principles which are the foundation of democracy.

415

Völkischer Beobachter (July 11, 1944)

Unverblümte Kritik an den Invasionsstrategen –
‚Eine durchaus nicht zufriedenstellende Lage‘

dr. th. b. Stockholm, 10. Juli –
Als die Armeegruppe Montgomery in der Nacht zum vergangenen Samstag zum Großangriff antrat, da handelte sie nicht aus freiem Entschluss, sondern unter dem Zwang ihrer eingeengten Lage. Es galt und es geht ihr heute noch darum, eine „durchaus nicht zufriedenstellende Lage“ zu wenden. Der Ausdruck stammt von dem bekannten Militärkommentator der USA, Hanson Baldwin, der in der New York Times den bisherigen Verlauf der Invasion einer kritischen Prüfung unterzieht.

Von einem Besuche des Brückenkopfes nach London zurückgekehrt, schreibt er:

Das Vorrücken der Briten und Amerikaner in der Normandie war langsam und mühsam. Es kann nicht bestritten werden, daß der Verlauf der Kampfhandlungen eine Fehlrechnung für uns wurde. Die amerikanische Offensive, die am Montag begann und von der man sehr viel erwartet hatte, entwickelte sich mit einer niederschmetternden Langsamkeit. Es kann wenig Zweifel darüber herrschen, daß unsere Erwartungen nicht verwirklicht wurden und daß wir unseren Fahrplan nicht einhalten konnten. Und dabei liegt die für uns erfolgreiche Sommersaison bereits zur Hälfte hinter uns.

Es verdient festgestellt zu werden, daß Baldwin als ersten Grund für die unerfreuliche Entwicklung des Kampfverlaufs die erbitterte und geschickte Verteidigung der Deutschen bezeichnet. Erst an zweiter und dritter Stelle, so schreibt er, kämen das ungünstige Gelände und das Wetter. Als weiteren Grund nennt Baldwin die Unerfahrenheit der Offiziere bei den neu in den Kampf geworfenen amerikanischen und britischen Divisionen. Die Geschicklichkeit der Deutschen beim überraschenden Eindringen in die gegnerischen Linien und der Einsatz ihrer Scharfschützen haben diese Unerfahrenheit noch problematischer gemacht. Die Überlegenheit an Menschen und Material bilde eben keinen Ausgleich. Sie kann sich vor allem auch dann nicht geltend machen, wenn es, wie auch Baldwin erkannt hat, an der Weite des operativen Raumes fehlt.

Ist aber diese Weite durch die bisherige Taktik zu gewinnen? Baldwin antwortet mit Nein und fügt daran eine ziemlich unverblümte Kritik an Montgomery:

Bisher haben wir eine vorsichtige Taktik angewandt. Wir waren nicht Zeugen von Panzerkeilen und des Ausnutzens schwacher Punkte beim Gegner, die eine hervorragende Rolle bei den Kämpfen in Rußland spielten. Während der ersten Invasionswoche gab es mehrere Gelegenheiten, wo wir bereit sein mußten, unsere Panzerdivisionen ebenso zu riskieren, wie das die Deutschen und auch die Sowjets taten. Damit allein hätten wir militärische Ziele erreichen können. Bisher aber war der Krieg in der Normandie ein Krieg des Infanteristen und unser Vormarsch geschah in dem gleichen Tempo, wie ein Soldat zu Fuß marschiert.

Baldwin fordert, daß jetzt an die Stelle der Vorsicht Kühnheit treten müsse. „Die Zeit der Kühnheit ist gekommen und die. der Vorsicht vorbei,“ so schließt er seinen Artikel.

Die ersten 48 Stunden des feindlichen Großangriffs, die erbitterten Kämpfe um Caen und La Haye du Puits haben indessen gezeigt, daß – um mit Baldwin zu sprechen – der Krieg in der Normandie, jedenfalls was sein Tempo anbetrifft, dank der auch vom Gegner restlos anerkannten Tapferkeit des deutschen Grenadiers ein „Krieg des Infanteristen,“ des verbissen ringenden Einzelkämpfers geblieben ist. Auch wo dem Gegner ein Einbruch gelang, kann von einem raschen Vordringen nicht die Rede sein. Jedes Städtchen und jedes Dorf wurde, so lautet eine Meldung der Associated Press, „zu einem zweiten Cassino. Jede Hausruine wurde von den Deutschen zu einer Festung gemacht, gespickt mit Pak und Maschinengewehren, gesichert durch Minen und Scharfschützen.“ Der harte deutsche Widerstand wird den General Montgomery zwingen, noch mehr Truppen und Material in den Kampf zu werfen. Er wird alles daransetzen müssen, um aus seiner bisherigen Zwangslage herauszukommen.

416

Standgerichte in Cherbourg –
Die demokratischen Freiheiten regieren schon!

vb. Berlin, 10. Juli –
Die unglückliche Normandie, deren schönes Land von dem Krieg verheert wird, den die Engländer und Amerikaner wieder nach Frankreich hineingetragen haben, erfährt neue Leiden durch ein brutales System rücksichtsloser Ausnutzung ihrer Bevölkerung.

In der von den Schiffsgeschützen und Bomben stark zerstörten Stadt Cherbourg war die erste Tätigkeit der feindlichen Eroberer, die gesamte männliche Bevölkerung zwischen 18 und 45 Jahren für wehrpflichtig zu erklären und sie rigoros zu den Söldnerscharen des Generals de Gaulle einzuziehen. Außerdem etablierte sich sofort ein Standgericht der sogenannten „freien französischen Regierung,“ das mit ungezählten Verhaftungen und bedenkenlosen Todesurteilen fieberhaft an der Arbeit ist.

Es wiederholt sich auf französischem Böden das gleiche Schauspiel, das der Welt überall geboten wurde, wo die sogenannten Verfechter der demokratischen Freiheiten ihren Fuß hinsetzten. Erinnern wir an Nordafrika, wo das von Moskau dirigierte Algier-Komitee ein Schreckensregiment errichtete, dem schon Tausende zum Opfer fielen, oder an Italien, wo unter den Augen und mit Förderung der anglo-amerikanischen Militärbehörden in Moskau ausgebildete italienische Kommunisten die innerpolitische Herrschaft an sich rissen und tatsächlich trotz hoher Kommissare aus London oder Washington, trotz der AMGOT und selbstverständlich ohne jede Rücksicht auf die Bonomi-Regierung das Heft in der Hand halten. Erinnern wir daran, daß die Engländer und Amerikaner entgegen allen großspurigen Versprechungen in jedes der angeblich „befreiten“ Länder nur Hunger, Elend und Krankheiten einschleppten, und daß von den versprochenen Weizenladungen und den Kühlschiffen mit Fleisch an den „befreiten“ Küsten Europas noch keines gesichtet wurde, während viele Transporter vollgeladen mit gestohlenen Gütern in umgekehrter Richtung über den Atlantik zurückfuhren.

Die Meldungen aus Cherbourg wirken deshalb besonders unerfreulich, weil dort die emigrierten Landsleute der ohnehin schon schwer genug leidenden französischen Bevölkerung sich schamlos dafür hergeben, die männliche französische Bevölkerung in den Dienst der Armeen zu pressen, die Frankreich zu einer Wüste zu machen beabsichtigen, und die Heimattreue der Einwohner mit der Gewalt ihrer unrechtmäßigen Terrorjustiz zu bestrafen.

In diesen Maßnahmen kommt einmal die ganze Wut der Invasoren über die Stellungnahme der französischen Bevölkerung zum Ausdruck, die keineswegs ihren Befreiern mit Jubel um den Hals fiel, sondern ihre Ablehnung an den englischen und amerikanischen Kriegsgefangenen deutlich bewies, während sie sich durch spontane Hilfeleistung für die deutschen Soldaten unmissverständlich auf die Seite der Verteidiger ihres Heimatlandes stellten. Zum anderen verraten die Aushebungen aber auch den dringenden Bedarf der Invasionstruppen an der Auffrischung ihrer oft ausgebluteten und schwer zusammengeschlagenen Verbände.

Die Franzosen aber, die von den Urteilen des Standgerichts in Cherbourg betroffen oder zum Waffendienst gegen ihre eigenen Landsleute, oft gegen ihre eigenen Verwandten gepresst wurden, mögen von der so oft angekündigten Befreiung ihres Vaterlandes durch die Soldaten des General Eisenhower eine andere Vorstellung gehegt haben. Viele hundert Personen sind in Cherbourg bereits in den kurzen Tagen seit der Einnahme durch die Anglo-Amerikaner eingekerkert worden und harren ihrer Aburteilung, die in vielen Fällen nach den Ankündigungen der rachsüchtigen Emigrantenfranzosen das Todesurteil bringen wird.

Wenn eine amtliche Verlautbarung der Invasoren die Verhaftungen als notwendig kennzeichnet, „weil die betreffenden Personen für die allgemeine Sicherheit und die alliierten Operationen gefährlich sind,“ so wird damit die Einstellung weiter französischer Kreise in der Normandie deutlich genug erklärt und zugegeben, daß die Franzosen von allen vielleicht gehegten Hoffnungen auf ihre „Befreiung“ gründlich geheilt sind, sobald sie mit den englischen und amerikanischen Truppen und den in ihrem Gefolge daherkommenden feindlichen Verwaltungsbehörden erst einmal in Berührung geraten sind.

Ganz gegenteilig verhalten sich weite Landstrecken im Operations- und Aufmarschgebiet der deutschen Armeen zu unseren Truppen. Die Bevölkerung unterstützt unsere Soldaten durch großzügige Bereitstellung ihrer vorhandenen Mittel. Sie liefert ihnen Lebensmittel, steht bei der Betreuung unserer Verwundeten hilfreich zur Seite und benimmt sich überhaupt so kameradschaftlich, daß mehrfach der ausdrückliche Dank der deutschen Militärbehörden ausgesprochen werden konnte.

417

Die ‚Befreiung‘ in der Normandie –
Antijüdische Gesetze aufgehoben

Paris, 10. Juli –
Mit Billigung der anglo-amerikanischen Militärbehörden hat ein Vertreter de Gaulles bekanntgegeben, daß alle von der legalen französischen Regierung seit dem Waffenstillstand erlassenen Gesetze in dem besetzten Teil der Normandie aufgehoben sind. Dabei wurde unterstrichen, daß sich diese Maßnahme vor allem gegen die antijüdische und antifreimaurerische Gesetzgebung Vichys richte. Etwas anderes war nicht zu erwarten. Dieser Krieg ist der Krieg des Judentums und deshalb werden die ersten Maßnahmen der Feinde immer zugunsten der Juden verhängt.

Außerdem wurde in London eine neue französische Zeitung gegründet, mit welcher der besetzte Küstenstreifen der Normandie beliefert werden soll. Ihr Hauptschriftleiter heißt Louis Lewy. Die meisten seiner Mitarbeiter sind auch Juden.

US-Imperialisten gieren nach französischem Besitz

Berlin, 10. Juli –
Der Londoner Korrespondent der Tat berichtet über einen Misston, den in den Tagen vor de Gaulles Ankunft In Washington einige amerikanische Kongressmitglieder in die amerikanisch-französischen Diskussionen gebracht haben, indem sie die delikate Frage amerikanischer Marine- und Luftstützpunkte auf französischem Territorium anschnitten. Senator Reynolds verlangte seit Tagen Stützpunkte im Karibischen Meer, zum Beispiel auf Martinique, und fand auch, die beiden Inseln St. Pierre und Midriken im Nordatlantik würden ausgezeichnete Stützpunkte für die US-Flotte abgeben. Er regte an, daß Frankreich diese Besitzungen an die USA als Zahlung für die Kriegsschulden von 1914/18 (!) abtreten solle. Ein demokratischer Abgeordneter im Repräsentantenhaus meldete zudem amerikanische Ansprüche auf Neu-Caledonien im Pazifik und auf Dakar an, dessen Beherrschung den Amerikanern seit langem „für ihre Sicherheit“ lebenswichtig scheint.

Franzosen als britisches Kanonenfutter

Paris, 10. Juli –
Über das Schicksal ehemaliger französischer Soldaten, die von den Westmächten gezwungen wurden, an den Invasionskämpfen teilzunehmen, berichtete der Franzose Robert Haquin nach seiner Flucht aus der Normandie. Haquin war in einer Metzgerei des normannischen Dorfes Salenelles beschäftigt. Er wurde von den Engländern aufgegriffen. Diese „Befreiung“ geschah in der Weise, daß man ihn sofort in eine Uniform steckte. Er mußte dann beim Ausladen der Schiffe helfen. Später gelang ihm die Flucht zu den Deutschen.

Haquin berichtete, daß an dem ersten Angriff auf die Ornemündung auch etwa 500 französische Soldaten teilnahmen, die vor vier Jahren von den Engländern bei ihrer Flucht aus Dünkirchen mit nach England genommen worden waren. Diese Soldaten standen unter dem Befehl eines englischen Offiziers. Sie gerieten in ein Minenfeld, wobei 300 getötet wurden. Die übrigen weigerten sich, weiter am Kampfe teilzunehmen, und die französische Bevölkerung verhalft manchem von ihnen zur Flucht.

418

Innsbrucker Nachrichter (July 11, 1944)

Abwehrschlacht in der Normandie

Beispielhafte Tapferkeit unserer Truppen – Bei Kowel starke Sowjetangriffe abgeschlagen

map.071144.dnb

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 11. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

In der Normandie ist nunmehr auf großen Teilen der Front des feindlichen Brückenkopfes die Abwehrschlacht im Gange. Unter stärkstem Einsatz von Artillerie, Panzern und Luftstreitkräften versuchen die Anglo-Amerikaner immer von neuem, unsere Front aufzureißen, um dann in die Tiefe des französischen Raumes stoßen zu können. In beispielhafter Tapferkeit halten unsere Truppen dem feindlichen Ansturm stand. Die Verluste des Feindes sind sehr groß. Am 8. und 9. Juli wurden im Raum von Caen 102 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen.

Am gestrigen Tage trat der Feind östlich der Orne zum Angriff nach Osten an und wurde abgewiesen. Südwestlich Caen konnte der Gegner dicht hinter unserer vorderen Linie den Ort Maltot nehmen. Ein Gegenangriff unserer Panzergrenadiere warf daraufhin die feindlichen Angriffsgruppen wieder zurück. Westlich davon wurde um eine beherrschende Höhe erbittert gekämpft, die im Laufe des Tages mehrmals den Besitzer wechselte, bis sie am Abend endgültig in unserer Hand blieb. Bei Tessel-Bretteville wurden mehrfach wiederholte feindliche Panzerangriffe zerschlagen. Beiderseits der Straße Carentan–Périers griff der Feind in breiter Front an. Nach schweren Kämpfen wurde er dicht südwestlich unserer alten Stellungen abgefangen. Auch im Raum von La Haye-du-Puits wurde erbittert gekämpft. Unsere Truppen behaupteten dort überall ihre Stellungen.

Im französischen Raum wurden gestern über 50 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.

Die „V1“ belegt den Raum von London weiterhin mit schwerem Vergeltungsfeuer.

In Italien setzte der Feind in den alten Schwerpunkten seine Durchbruchsversuche fort. Trotz Einsatzes starker Panzerkräfte blieb ihm jedoch jeder größere Erfolg versagt.

Im Raum von Kowel haben Truppen des Heeres und der Waffen-SS in viertägigen harten Abwehrkämpfen den Ansturm von zehn sowjetischen Schützendivisionen, einem Panzerkorps und zwei Panzerbrigaden abgeschlagen und dem Gegner dabei erhebliche Verluste an Menschen und Material beigebracht. Bei diesen Kämpfen wurden im Zusammenwirken aller Waffen vor der Front und im Hintergelände 295 feindliche Panzer vernichtet. Die rheinisch-moselländische 342. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Generalmajor Nickel, die rheinisch-westfälische 26. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Oberst Fromberger und eine Kampfgruppe der 5. SS-Panzerdivision „Wiking“ unter Führung von Obersturmbannführer Mühlenkamp haben sich durch beispielhafte Standfestigkeit ausgezeichnet.

Im Mittelabschnitt der Ostfront stehen unsere Truppen bei drückender Hitze in auch für uns verlustreichen Kämpfen mit starken feindlichen Kräften.

Die heldenmütige Besatzung von Wilna schlug gestern in verbissenem Kampf den von allen Seiten angreifenden Feind blutig zurück. An der Stadt vorbei dringt der Gegner weiter nach Westen und Südwesten vor. Westlich der Eisenbahn Wilna–Dünaburg wurden zahlreiche An­ griffe der Bolschewisten abgeschlagen.

Südlich Dünaburg sind heftige Kämpfe mit schweren bolschewistischen Schützendivisionen und Panzerverbänden im Gange. Nördlich Polozk wiederholte der Feind nach den hohen blutigen Verlusten der Vortage seine Durchbruchsversuche gestern nicht mehr. Dagegen gelang dem Gegner südöstlich Nowoschew ein örtlicher Einbruch. Kämpfe sind dort noch im Gange.

Schlachtfliegergeschwader unterstützten in zahlreichen Einsätzen unsere schwer ringenden Truppen, besonders im Raum von Wilna. Sie vernichteten zahlreiche Panzer und Geschütze sowie über 200 Fahrzeuge der Sowjets.

Einzelne britische Flugzeuge warfen in der vergangenen Nacht Bomben auf Berlin.

419

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 11, 1944)

Communiqué No. 71

Fighting has been particularly severe in the front of the ODON bridgehead where our advance to the high ground overlooking the river ORNE was hotly contested.

South of the VIRE bridgehead, Allied troops pushed forward towards PONT-HÉBERT, in the direction of SAINT-LÔ.

Further west, on the road to PÉRIERS an advance of more than a mile was made in the face of determined resistance.

South of LA HAYE-DU-PUITS, local gains were made. The enemy has not repeated his counterattacks in this area.

Yesterday fighter-bombers and rocket-firing fighters attacked targets south of CAEN, including tank and troop concentrations and motor transport. One aircraft is missing from these operations.

Last night, light bombers attacked enemy transport facilities in northeastern FRANCE.

Communiqué No. 72

The enemy south of LA HAYE-DU-PUITS is being pushed steadily southward. He is taking advantage of the close country to delay our advance toward LESSAY.

Allied thrusts southwest of CARENTAN and west from SAINT-JEAN-DE-DAYE are converging on SAINT-ANDRÉ-DE-BOHON.

In the ODON bridgehead area, fierce fighting has been going on. North of ESQUAY, Hill 112 has changed hands several times.

An enemy counterattack from MALTOT towards ÉTERVILLE was repulsed. A number of enemy tanks were destroyed.

East of the ORNE, Allied troops from the SAINTE-HONORINE area have advanced toward COLOMBELLES in the face of intense opposition.

In the area south of TILLY, heavy fighting near HOTTO has resulted in local Allied gains.

During the forenoon today, fighters and fighter-bombers operating from bases in NORMANDY attacked targets in close support of the ground forces.

Allied troops, including French, of the Special Air Service Regiments, have been operating well behind the enemy lines against communications and other military targets. Considerable success has attended their operations and a number of prisoners have been taken. These are being held pending transmission to this country.

420

The Pittsburgh Press (July 11, 1944)

NAZIS FALL BACK IN FRANCE
Yanks driving on transport hub of Saint-Lô

Canadians reach Orne below Caen
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

map.071144.up
Yanks opened a new offensive in Normandy today as the Canadians drove to the Orne River below Caen. The British fell back from Maltot but continued to advance toward the Orne in other areas as a big tank battle raged (1). The new U.S. offensive toward Saint-Lô (2) gained several hundred yards. South of La Haye-du-Puits, the Americans cleared out a forest on the road to Lessay and to the east advance from captured Sainteny (3).

SHAEF, London, England –
U.S. troops hit the center of the Normandy line today and plunged to within two miles of the big transport hub to Saint-Lô, field dispatches reported, and to the east, the Canadians drove an armored spearhead to the Orne River below Caen.

Pressure by U.S., British and Canadian forces on Marshal Erwin Rommel’s do-or-die line was beginning to bear fruit, and the Germans were slowly giving ground at both ends and in the middle.

Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley sent his U.S. assault forces over the top north of Saint-Lô in a new attack aimed at the core of the transport network below the Cherbourg Peninsula, and was reported in dispatches to have scored initial gains of several hundred yards.

Beginning to sag

At numerous points between La Haye-du-Puits and Caen, the Nazi line was beginning to sag, but the fighting everywhere was extremely fierce and the enemy was yielding ground only when he had no alternative.

U.S. forces captured six towns and villages scattered along the western part of the Normandy front, and at the eastern end of the line, the British and Canadians seized two more to bring the prongs of the arc thrown around the area of captured Caen to within four miles of junction below the big inland port.

Early this morning, British forces east of Caen hammered out a “most satisfactory” advance of about one mile, capturing the industrial suburbs of Colombelles and coming within four miles of the Canadian spearhead driven through Louvigny to the west bank of the Orne.

Desperate Nazi thrusts

“Extremely fierce and bitter fighting” was still going on below Caen. The Germans counterattacked repeatedly in the Orne–Odon corridor, throwing everything they had into futile attempts to recapture vital Hill 112 and the road junction a mile to the northeast.

After capturing Louvigny, two miles southwest of Caen, the Canadians consolidated their positions along the west bank of the Orne to a point northeast of Maltot.

To the west, the Americans made “substantial advances” in expanding their bridgehead across the Vire above Saint-Lô, headquarters reported. No word was forthcoming here on the new attack by the Americans, aimed at Saint-Lô from two directions, according to reports from the front.

In the Vire bridgehead sector, the Americans captured the villages of Hauts du Verney and Le Mesnil-Angot, as well as the hamlet of La Raoulerie, about three miles north of Saint-Lô. They had been unable to advance beyond Le Désert and Pont-Hébert, northwest of Saint-Lô, according to the latest advices here.

Dougald Werner, United Press staff writer at a Thunderbolt base in Normandy, reported that 9th Air Force fighter-bombers broke up two concentrations of German tanks moving northward toward the battlefront in the Saint-Lô area.

One squadron assigned to attack a strongpoint northwest of Saint-Lô spotted a number of tanks and destroyed 13 and damaged three.

Southwest of Carentan, U.S. forces widened their positions to the west and south, reaching a point a mile beyond Sainteny. East of the Carentan–Périers road, the Americans were held up south of a woods known as the Bois de Grinot and the village of La Corbinière.

On the western flank, the Americans completed the conquest of high ground in the Mt. Castre Forest below La Haye-du-Puits, reaching the southern slopes.

They pushed some 800 yards down the road from La Haye to Lessay and captured the village of Mobecq, two and a half miles southeast of La Haye.

German Marshal Erwin Rommel threw nearly 100 German tanks, including some 60-ton Tigers, into futile attempts to smash the British threat to his flank below Caen yesterday and all signs indicated that he was using his reserves at a rate that may cost him the Battle of France.

The Nazi-controlled Vichy radio said British patrols reached the Orne River, but later withdrew. The fighting south of Caen has developed into a “great battle which is now raging with fury,” the broadcast said.

15 towns captured

Though stiff German resistance slowed the British advance, the U.S. 1st Army captured 15 towns and villages in advances of up to a mile and a half yesterday on the central and western sectors of the 111-miles Normandy front.

The Americans seized Pont-Hébert and La Meauffe, four miles northwest and five miles north of Saint-Lô, advanced down the Carentan–Périers highway to within 4¾ miles northwest of Périers, and gained a mile and a half on a half-mile-wide front south of La Haye-du-Puits.

A dispatch from 1st Army headquarters in Normandy said the Americans were meeting little or no resistance in their advance west of the La Haye–Lessay road, the first report of a voluntary enemy retreat since the start of the American phase of the offensive a week ago yesterday.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s communiqué said the fighting was “particularly severe” between the Odon and Orne rivers south and southwest of Caen with the enemy “hotly contesting” the British advance to high ground overlooking the Orne.

Determined Nazi attack

Samuel D. Hales, United Press staff writer with the 2nd Army, said the British pulled out of Maltot, captured only yesterday, and took up a new line along the Esquay–Caen road during the night in the face of determined enemy counterattacks.

The British held firmly to Hill 112 overlooking the Orne, however, and Ronald Clark, another United Press staff writer with the 2nd Army, reported that Lt. Gen. Sir Miles C. Dempsey’s forces were working their way down the slopes of the hill toward the river despite a hail of enemy artillery and mortar shells from the opposite bank.

Another front dispatch said waves of German infantry attacked Hill 112 last night and, in some sections, reached Allied gun positions, but were finally driven off after an hour and a half of close-quarters fighting. Many German dead remained on the slopes of the hill.

Murky weather continued to ground the Allied air forces, preventing air support that might turn the tide of battle if unleashed in full fury.

421

2,000 planes pound Munich; Toulon ripped

U.S. bombers defy weather and flak
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer

Bulletin

London, England –
Twenty bombers and two fighter planes were listed as missing in today’s raid over Munich, Germany, the U.S. 2nd Tactical Air Force announced.

London, England –
U.S. warplanes estimated at more than 2,000 strong defied bad weather and violent anti-aircraft fire today to invade southern Germany and smash at targets in the Munich area, while Liberators based in the Mediterranean area struck at big port of Toulon on the southern French coast.

More than 1,100 Fortresses and Liberators were in the task force, surrounded by an escort of 70 Thunderbolt, Mustang and Liberator fighters, which flew through bad weather to lay their bombs by instruments through a solid blanket of clouds over Munich.

Escorted by Mustangs

The Mediterranean-based Liberators, meanwhile, flew with an escort of Mustangs through heavy flak to bomb naval installations at Toulon. Returning crew members reported they encountered no enemy fighters and saw a good pattern of bombs fall on the target area.

The new two-way raids came as SHAEF announced that Allied aircraft had flown 158,000 sorties during the first month of the invasion, with a total loss of one percent. The announcement listed 1,284 planes lost as against a destruction of 1,067 enemy planes.

The number of enemy planes listed as destroyed did not include those destroyed or damaged in attacks on airfields, airfield factories or assembly plants, the report said.

Crewmen returning from the raid on Munich today said they did not encounter any interference from enemy fighters, but that flak directly over the target was very heavy.

Berlin battered

Berlin radio, acknowledging the attack, said the raiders encountered “powerful opposition,” but in early broadcasts made no specific mention of fighter interception.

The raid on Munich area targets followed an attack on Berlin during the night by Royal Air Force Mosquito bombers.

Second Tactical Air Force Mosquitoes ranged over northeastern France to attack road and rail transport along the German supply lines to the battlefields last night, despite bad flying conditions.

The Seine River ferries were assaulted: six troop trains bombed and strafed together with several focal points for troop movements. The raids were carried out in the area bounded by Paris, Amiens, Lille and Saint-Quentin by RAF, Australian and New Zealand squadrons.

Attack Nazi tanks

Supreme Headquarters announced that fighter-bombers and rocket-firing fighters attacked German tank and troop concentrations and motor transport south of Caen yesterday in direct support of Allied troops.

Two Mosquito fighter pilots staged a private 30-minute blitzkrieg on long camouflaged German freight trains south of Poitiers. As the trains entered a tunnel, the pilots shelled the rear cars, then swung around and caught the front end with machine-gun bullets as it emerged from the tunnel, blowing up the engine.

422

De Gaulle to rule liberated areas

French group backed as authority by U.S.

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt said today that the United States has decided to accept Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s French Committee on National Liberation as the actual working authority for civilian administration of the liberated areas of France.

Mr. Roosevelt told his news conference, however, that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied Supreme Commander in Europe, would continue to have complete and clear-cut authority over all military questions in France and would decide when any given part of France is ready for civilian government.

Tells about parleys

Telling about his talks last week with Gen. de Gaulle, the President explained that this country was accepted the French Committee as the de facto authority for government of France. De facto recognition means that a condition is accepted as existing, but it does not carry the complete legal and diplomatic acceptance, which is called de jure recognition.

President Roosevelt said the United States was prepared to use as a basis for further relations with the French National Committee the recent drafts for restoration of civil administration which have been worked out by the French and British. Those drafts, according to Gen. de Gaulle, were worked out on a “technical” level and require further negotiation.

The President said those agreements were being redrafted. Asked whether the United States would sign an agreement or a memorandum, he replied that it probably would be a memorandum.

Asked whether his announcement meant that all recent difficulties between the United States and the French Committee of National Liberation had been ironed out during the conferences with the French leader, the President replied that if a time limit were put on the question, the answer would be yes.

Gives example

He emphasized repeatedly that the plans call for Gen. Eisenhower to have the final word and to determine what would be classified as civilian areas.

Asked whether Gen. Eisenhower would be able to deal with French groups other than the French Committee of National Liberation, the President said that the best way to describe that would be by example.

After the Allies have captured a town in France and moved in, he said, members of Gen. de Gaulle’s committee would appear before a committee on civil administration set up by Gen. Eisenhower and suggest names of people to run the city – mayors, councilmen, and so forth.

Discusses currency

Other groups may appear before the same committee, the President said, and it will be up to Gen. Eisenhower’s committee and Gen. Eisenhower himself to determine in such cases who shall administer the area.

Mr. Roosevelt said there is some talk at present about letting the French National Committee issue a new currency. He emphasized that the question had not been decided but added that he could see no reason why the committee should not be granted authority to issue a new temporary currency.

423

54,000 Nazis taken prisoner in Normandy

Invasion going well, Montgomery says
By the United Press

Allied forces in Normandy have captured more than 54,000 prisoners and are “developing our offensive operation in accordance with our plans,” Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, commander of ground forces in France, said today in his first message to his troops in a month.

Gen. Montgomery’s message, broadcast by the London radio, said the first month of the invasion has given “good ground for satisfaction.”

He said:

The pace has been hot and it was clear that someone would have to give ground sooner or later. It was equally clear that Allied soldiers would see it through to the end and would never give up, and so the Germans have been forced to give ground, which is very right and proper…

We have given the enemy forces a tremendous pounding and we know from prisoners what great losses they have suffered. We have enlarged and extended our lodgment area and, in that area, we are very firm and secure…

And so, to every Allied soldier in Normandy, I said, “Well done!” Well done, indeed! You have done a great task in a manner which is fully in keeping with the great traditions of the fighting stock of which we all come!

424

Eisenhower warns of tough fighting

Says Allies will battle for every foot
By Edward W. Roberts, United Press staff writer

Allied advanced command post, France –
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said yesterday at his first press conference since the invasion that the overall war picture could be viewed with optimism sobered by the very definite conclusion that from now on, the Allies would have to fight for every foot of ground.

Reviewing the war situation including the robot bomb and the weather, Gen. Eisenhower confided that if President Roosevelt planned an early visit to the European War theater, he had not been advised of it.

The Allied commander called the robot bomb a damnable thing, but said that it did not appear that in the measurable future it would be made more effective.

Sees heavy losses

The Allies, Gen. Eisenhower said, must now be prepared in all their operations right round the perimeter of their lines for bitter fighting of the most strenuous character, with resultant heavy losses to all.

NBC’s Merrill Mueller reported that Gen. Eisenhower said the possibility of a crack in German morale was not excluded but that he believed Gestapo control of Germany was so complete that hope for an internal collapse was false.

Discusses optimism

He acknowledged that in view of the tremendous Allied victories of the last two years in Africa, Sicily, Italy, Russia and the Pacific, people in general could not be blamed for allowing optimism to rise greatly.

Gen. Eisenhower indicated his satisfaction with the progress the Allied armies are making in Normandy.

The American drive on the Allied west flank in Normandy, he said, will be continued as part of his overall plan.

Weather big worry

Discussing the weather, Gen. Eisenhower indicated that it was still one of his chief worries. He said he would swear that he did not believe there had ever been a time when anybody had been as lucky with the weather as the enemy had since D-Day.

The Earl of Halifax, British Ambassador in Washington, visited Gen. Eisenhower and lunched with him before he started on a tour of U.S. military installations.

At a press conference, Lord Halifax said that he was not in Britain to arrange another conference between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.