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.