Operation OVERLORD (1944)

449

The Pittsburgh Press (July 14, 1944)

Germans retreat in Normandy

U.S. 1st Army drives ahead along whole 42-mile front
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

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Nazis move back in Normandy before U.S. forces on the left side of the Allied line, with U.S. troops closing on Périers and Lessay (1), and driving to within less than a mile and a half of Saint-Lô (2). On the eastern side of the front, the British fell back slightly east of Caen (3).

Planes serviced fast by beachhead crews

Washington (UP) –
U.S. fighter planes are being serviced in 20 minutes on temporary runways in France, enabling them to complete four or five “spot missions” daily, the War Department said today.

Ninth Air Service Command soldiers clamber over fighter planes as they roll in along 1,000-foot runways. They pump in several hundred gallons of gasoline and replace expended ammunition. This prompt and nearby service enables the fighters to operate over the battle zone without auxiliary gas tanks, the War Department said.

The air above the landing strips is often filled with 9th Air Force fighters “queueing up” to land.

SHAEF, England –
The U.S. 1st Army drove forward along its entire 42-mile Normandy front today in the wake of what was described officially as a general German retreat, capturing four villages and pushing within a little more than a mile of Lessay, the Nazi western defense anchor.

The grim and bloody battle for Saint-Lô, central base of the German line, raged unabated for Supreme Headquarters had no information later than front reports which said the American onslaught was resumed after a setback at the outskirts of the wrecked town.

Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s whole line hinged on Saint-Lô was swinging southward, shoving the stubborn Germans back through hedgerows, groves and marshes in slow but steady retreat.

U.S. control of the Atlantic coast was advanced as far south as the mouth og the river Ay, west of Lessay. U.S. forces won the area slightly southeast of Saint-Germaine-sur-Ay, two and a half miles northwest of Lessay, posing a new threat to that key town against which other forces were pushing down the road from La Haye-du-Puits.

Line straightened out

In the area above Périers, where the Americans were less than three miles from this stronghold. Gen. Bradley’s troops straightened out their line for a frontal assault on the town by capturing a number of strongpoints.

The hamlets of Es Aubris and La Vincenterie, about four miles south of Sainteny and flanging Périers to the northeast, fell to the advancing doughboys, along with Auxais, three miles southeast of Sainteny.

The Americans pushed forward 500 yards along the road from Sainteny to the village of Raids, four miles above Périers.

Late yesterday, the Germans tried to mount a counterattack toward Auxais, but were turned back handily without slowing down the American advance.

Road center taken

The road center of Les Champs-de-Losque, seven and a half miles northwest of Saint-Lô, fell to U.S. troops who probed further southward beyond it. From Les Champs, a valuable lateral road runs northward through Saint-André-de-Bohon to Carentan. Its entire length was now open to the Americans.

The only activity reported on the British section of the Normandy front was an attempt by the Germans to mass tanks west of Caen.

Highest ridge seized

A U.S. outflanking column seized the highest ridge overlooking Saint-Lô, hinge of the enemy line guarding the invasion roads to central Normandy, from the east, but a front dispatch from James McGlincy, United Press staff writer, said the frontal assault on the fortress town from the northeast had rolled to a temporary halt a little more than a mile away.

The Americans reached a village a mile from the edge of Saint-Lô in bloody fighting late yesterday afternoon, but later withdrew 200 yards to less exposed positions and dug in, apparently to await the arrival of other forces storming down from the north and northwest against lighter resistance for a general assault on the hilltop citadel.

The attack from the northwest was resumed this morning along both banks of the Vire River after a number of German rearguard counterattacks were beaten off during the night, Mr. McGlincy said. The northwestern column was about six miles from Saint-Lô, but steadily closing in, while another force was three miles away to the north.

Nazis gain near Caen

At the eastern end of the front, the Germans recaptured Colombelles and Sainte-Honorine, just east of Caen, in a counterattack while Lt. Gen. Sir Miles C. Dempsey’s British 2nd Army continued to regroup for the next stage of the Allied advance toward Paris, 120 miles east of Caen.

Front dispatches said the latest U.S. advances around Saint-Lô raised a treat of encirclement and made that stronghold, already pounded into rubble by artillery and bombs, untenable. Nevertheless, the garrison was not expected to capitulate or abandon the town until the Americans capture high ground to the south.

Gain highest ridge

The Americans gained the highest ridge overlooking Saint-Lô from the east with the capture of the village of La Barre-de-Semilly while other forces cleaned out all enemy snipers and strongpoints north of the Bayeux–Saint-Lô highway and advanced down the road to within a mile of the town. Already in American hands was similar high ground to the northeast.

Northwest of Saint-Lô, the Americans made faster progress. Crossing the Taute River, they pushed completely through the woodlands Bois de Hommet and captured the villages of Saint-Martin, Les Champs-de-Losque and Le Hommet-d’Arthenay, the latter six miles northwest of Saint-Lô.

On the north bank of the Taute, another column reached the outskirts of Auxais, a village three miles southeast of Sainteny.

450

Allies blast refineries, railyards

Budapest area bombed by planes from Italy
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer

Bulletin

London, England (UP) –
British Lancaster heavy bombers attacked German flying bomb bases in northern France without loss today.

London, England –
Five hundred U.S. bombers from Italy smashed at four oil refineries in Hungary and railway yards in Budapest today while another big bomber formation crossed the English Channel in clearing weather to strike at targets on the continent that were not immediately identified.

Three of the oil refineries were in the Budapest area, and the attacking force, which included Liberators and Flying Fortresses, reported good results. The fleet was accompanied by a strong force of fighter planes.

The three oil refineries have a combined capacity of 358,000 tons of crude oil annually. The fourth refinery was located five miles southwest of Budapest. The raiders encountered a considerable number of enemy fighters and shot down several, it was announced.

Railyards raided

Another formation of Liberator bombers attacked the Mantua railway yards in northern Italy today encountering neither flak nor fighters, it was announced.

Thunderbolt fighter-bombers carried out damaging attacks on railway yards crowded with freight trains, at Beauvais and Montdidier in central France, the U.S. Tactical Air Force announced. En route home they strafed 10 freight cars on tracks between Chantilly and Creil, damaging all of them.

Ninth Air Force units in Normandy, it was disclosed today, made a series of attacks yesterday against enemy bridges, an airfield, motorized columns, gun positions, troops, barracks and entrenchments, mostly in the battle area west of Lessay.

Seven planes missing

During the afternoon and evening, Thunderbolts knocked out more than 50 freight cars and left others buried in debris. From these and other operations, seven aircraft were missing.

Eighth Fighter Command Mustangs and Thunderbolts made offensive sweeps over France today, knocking down five German planes and strafing trucks and flak towers, all without loss of a single plane.

Weather improved

The daylight raids followed a new strike into Germany last night by RAF Mosquito bombers which scattered two-ton blockbusters over industrial objectives in the Ruhr and mined enemy waters without loss.

With the weather somewhat improved both over the Channel and Normandy, British and U.S. Air Forces were expected to provide stronger support to the ground forces battling in France. Tactical operations were reduced to 500 sorties yesterday because of a low ceiling and occasional rain.

Hit many targets

The force which crossed the straits in early daylight included considerable bombers, but not in the strength of the previous three days during which the Americans hurled about 3,300 planes in obliteration raids on Munich, the Nazi shrine of Germany.

Although the operations over France yesterday were carried out by comparatively small forces, the U.S. 9th Air Force and the British 2nd Tactical fighter-bombers and rocket-fighters hit numerous targets by Army request with good results.

Down 16 Nazi planes

The Germans sent about 50 planes into the air behind the battle area, and 16 of them were shot down. Seven Allied planes were lost.

One Canadian Spitfire squadron based in Normandy claimed the biggest victory for French-based units. It sighted 12 Fw 190s south of Caen and in a brief dogfight destroyed 10 without loss.

The U.S. 9th Air Force lost six of the seven Allied aerial casualties and claimed four of the 16 victories.

‘Pathfinder’ planes guide U.S. bombers

London, England (UP) –
Eighth Air Force heavy bombers have located their targets through clouds by following directions of highly-trained crews in “Pathfinder planes” using special instruments, the U.S. Tactical Air force revealed to the first time today.

Bombardiers in Flying Fortresses and Liberators release their loads at the time indicated by the “Pathfinders.” The effectiveness of U.S. daylight bombing has been increased tremendously by introduction of this overcast technique, it was revealed.

The Tactical Air Force officially credits much of the increased pressure on the Luftwaffe and German war industry by U.S. day bombing to the new technique.

451

Roberts: A day with Ike Eisenhower starts early and ends late

Supreme Commander reads reports, dictates orders and holds many conferences
By Edward V. Roberts, representing combined U.S. press

Allied advanced command post, France (UP) –
There’s no such thing as a “typical” day in the life of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied forces. He is apt to be in any one of a dozen different places – talking to G.I. Joe one day, Prime Minister Winston Churchill the next.

He probably spends as much time as this post as anywhere. Let’s follow Gen. Eisenhower through a day spent here recently – July 10, to be exact.

The previous night, the general remained in his office until just before midnight, reading a steady stream of reports concerning the Allied progress toward Caen. Finally, when word of the capture of the city came, he nodded his satisfaction and went to bed.

Regular American breakfast

At 8:00 a.m. July 10, he was back at his desk reading an important message from Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery. Then he went to his personal caravan for a regular American breakfast of orange juice, bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee.

Dictating for an hour and a half following breakfast, he sent a reply to Gen. Montgomery and various memoranda to Allied officers. Then he sent for his personal aide to obtain information on the Normandy action.

Four reporters stationed here as representatives of the combined British and American press were received by Gen. Eisenhower at 11:00 a.m. He saw us approaching, came out hatless to meet us and led us into the tent that serves as his office here. He told us to grab chairs and the session was on.

Sweats fluently, frequently

The general talked with us for an hour and a half, leisurely and quietly discussing the war situation, the outlook for the future and flying bombs. He talks easily in a conversational vein, smoking most of the time and hitching himself about comfortably in his chair. His language is a mixture of Kansas and the Army. He says “ennaway” for anyway and his “B’Gods” and “damns” are frequent, fluent and casual.

He asked us how we were getting along and if we had enough to do. he listened with apparent interest to a long recitation of our problems and offered some suggestions, volunteering to help out with the tough ones. As is his custom, he emphasized the importance of our “covering” his commanders, both British and American.

Gen. Eisenhower’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. W. B. Smith, arrived at 1:00 p.m., with the Earl of Halifax, British Ambassador in Washington, who was a luncheon guest. It was the first time Lord Halifax and Gen. Eisenhower had met since before the invasion of North Africa and they had much to talk about.

Reads courts-martial

After luncheon, the Supreme Commander held a telephone conference with Air Chf. Mshl. Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Allied air commander.

Next the general read the briefs on several courts-martial cases, referred to him for final action, and made an appointment for his weekly conference with the Judge Advocate General. On these cases, Gen. Eisenhower functions as a court of last resort, his powers being similar to those of executive clemency vested in a state governor or the President.

During the afternoon, more dispatches and some personal mail arrived for his attention. There was a letter from his brother, Milton Eisenhower (president of Kansas State College), and a note from the Earl of Halifax – mailed days ago but missent – thanking him for the aid American soldiers have rendered London victims of the flying bombs.

Stewed chicken for supper

Another long dictation session began at 5:00 p.m. That finished, the general jumped into his long tan Cadillac and drove to naval headquarters for a talk with Adm. Sir Bertram Ramsay, Allied naval commander.

Returning, he went into a huddle with Lt. Gen. Smith and other high general whose name cannot yet be released. Sometime after 8:00 p.m., he went to his mess for a supper of stewed chicken, fried corn and French-fried potatoes. Sgt. Leroy Ross of Morgan City, Louisiana, who served him, said Gen. Eisenhower is pretty good-natured and “joshed” him a little.

A few late dispatches occupied the general after supper. Then he went to bed with the observation that he was tired.

452

Liberated French celebrate holiday

Ceremonies solemn in Normandy area

Cherbourg, France (UP) –
With American guns firing a salute and the U.S. flag draped over the city’s war memorial, Cherbourg led the liberated portion of France today in the first free celebration of Bastille Day in five years.

A battery of twelve 105mm guns, similar to those which helped drive the Germans from the peninsula, roared out over the city at 8:00 a.m. (2:00 a.m. ET) to open the day’s ceremonies.

On Cherbourg’s memorial to the men she lost in World War I, a flag, sent by John L. Donovan of Brooklyn to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower with the request it be flown in Cherbourg to mark the U.S. Fourth of July, was hung.

High mass held

At midday, solemn high mass was held at Notre-Dame du Vœu, attended by ranking Allied officers and local leaders.

The day’s ceremonies were marked by a parade of Allied forces, including 72 French sailors from ships which aided in the beachhead landings. The parade wound along the waterfront to the public gardens where the memorial stands under a peak, atop which rests Fort de Roule, one of the bastions taken by U.S. troops less than three weeks ago.

Underground parades

Proudly marching in the parade and no longer fearful of showing themselves, was a group of French Resistance workers who fought the Nazis through the long years of occupation.

Lt. Col. Frank Howley of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, civil affairs officer, and the mayor of Cherbourg made brief speeches before the memorial.

In front of the municipal theater, official ceremonies were held to change the name of Place Marechal Pétain to Place General de Gaulle.

In the rest of liberated Normandy, smaller celebrations were held.

453

As Nazi bullets fly –
Wolfert: Hedge across field seems lifetime away – and is for some

‘They ain’t gonna shoot at you,’ 2nd Looie tells his men, but he was wrong
By Ira Wolfert, North American Newspaper Alliance

With U.S. infantry outside Saint-Lô, France – (July 12, delayed)
American troops find the Normandy farmer frugal around here. His fields are mostly less than an acre and boxed in by high hedges as if they were treasures he wanted to lock up.

He’s got them locked up tight for the hedges are thick and green and all brambly. You can’t see through them if you stick your face into them to look through. It’s like trying to look through a mask.

Under every hedge is a German slit trench – one, three or five of them, dug right into the roots of the hedges. Men who know a great deal about war built them.

A battalion today was driving due south on Saint-Lô and there were German ahead of them and on two sides of them, waiting behind hedges in every field with mortars, machine guns, rifles and machine pistols. A lieutenant would say a four-letter word. He chose the same one every time not because he liked it but because his mind was too numbed to think up a new one.

‘Ain’t gonna shoot’

“There ain’t nobody gonna shoot at you,” he said. He lifted himself out of the slit earth where he had been hiding and hauled himself through a hedge, putting his arms in front of his face to keep the thorns out. His platoon would lift and haul with him and they’d be out in an open field.

It felt terrible there. Everybody would feel all naked with the timothy and American style clover and grass reaching no higher than the leggings. The fellows would think. “Shavetail, you’ve gonna be a dead little boy if you ain’t right about nobody shooting at us.”

Platoons in the fields to the right and left would be coming through hedges and advancing at the same time, no doubt thinking the same thing about their second looies. It felt good in the thick hedges at the edge of the open field. When you are in a battle, it is hard to think that anything exists anywhere except the battle.

Best place in world

About two hours ago there as I wrote, it seemed to me there was no better place in the world to be than in those hedges. Cannon and mortar shells would pass over your head. The trajectory was in your favor. You knew that they couldn’t hit you unless you had bad luck and one fell right on your head.

That was why there were still Germans in the hedges. Our artillery couldn’t drive them the conventional six feet under, unless it hit each one separately on the head.

A couple of pigs were grunting and gobbling as they grubbed in the fields and the fellow next to me, finding his brains breathing again, said, “Look, pork chops.” Funny looking French birds were fluttering away from every shell whistle, giving off soft, wet warbles as if they were clearing their throats. Only it sounded beautiful.

Afraid fall silent

There wasn’t much talking in the hedges. Most of the fellows when afraid fall silent. Only one in about every ten becomes talkative. Words come out of him in a steady, high, irritating babble. He tries to talk out the fears silently inside and edge away from the talkative one.

Mostly what you heard in the hedges was the flat and wiry-seeming sound of shallow breathing. Lungs don’t work very well when a man is afraid and breath becomes very short. Then the lieutenant said his four-letter word and fellow lifted up and scraped and tore their awkward way through hedges.

After that they stood on the soft grass and there was nothing between them and the enemy’s bullets except the warm, summer air. So thin that air was. It seemed that the fellows looked across maybe a hundred feet of grass to another hedge just like the one they had left. Only there were Germans in that hedge.

Like a sore thumb

Everybody felt naked standing there. You felt you were sticking up like a sore thumb, waiting to be banged again by a hammer. The hedge across the field seemed a lifetime away for some of the fellows. That’s just what it was – their lives ended before they made the once-mighty German Reichswehr a broken thing.

It’s not putting up what you might call, if you weren’t in it, a really serious fight. It’s more than a rearguard action in this sector. Some of the Huns seem to want to surrender, but in every hedge, there is some tough, wise, old cookie. A horny-hearted veteran of long years of war, who fires his weapon until you come right up to him and tap him on the shoulder. He is likely to have his toilet kit all neatly wrapped up in a handkerchief, sitting beside him in a slit trench, waiting for a trip to prison camp. Then when you come right up to his hedge, he steps away from the Huns and says: “Kamerad”. If the marksmanship has been bad across that field, he’s got a chance of being taken prisoner.

Always some leftovers

All the same, there continues to be, day after day, one or five or eight of those guys, leftovers of our artillery and mortar fire, still in there trying. They sit directly in front of us or they sit in hedges to the right and left and when the guys in our faces are shooting good at us, the guys to the right and left hold still and wait until we have passed and then try to get us in the back.

The race across the open field goes fast for a platoon that’s not being shot at. In other places, platoons drop and belly their way forward trying to grenade the Nazis out. Everybody shoots everything he has and there is a fearful racket.

The first platoon to gain the German hedge runs enfilading fire on the hedges in the fields on both sides of it and other platoons come up under their protection, crouching and running fast and throwing themselves into their hedges with the thud and thump of a football team smashing a line.

That way the battalion advances and that way the whole of civilization advances on Saint-Lô, a French town that nobody I know of ever heard of until a few weeks ago.

454

Battle fatigue caused death of Gen. Teddy Roosevelt

Ill four days with heart attack
By Henry T. Gorrell, United Press staff writer

U.S. 1st Army HQ, France –
A full military funeral was being arranged today for Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, 56, whose death Wednesday night was attributed to a heart attack aggravated by battle fatigue which resulted from almost continuous combat activity since D-Day when he led a first wave of assault troops onto the Normandy beaches.

It was expected that he would be buried in a cemetery not far from that landing spot and in the country where his brother Quentin was killed in World War I.

Carrying on the fighting traditions of his father, the former President and Rough Rider, he had been in the thick of the battle of France for weeks.

Ill four days

He had been ill four days but declined medical attention to remain in the frontlines with soldiers of the 4th Division of which he was deputy commander. Friends said he had never fully recovered from pneumonia which he contracted shortly after his arrival in Britain.

He died peacefully in his tent, attended in his last hours by Army doctor Maj. Kenneth McPherson of Beckley, West Virginia, and surrounded by doughboys who knew him as “the fightingest little guy in this man’s army.”

Overage for combat duty, he obtained special permission to lead an invasion assault force.

Lands early

He hit the Cotentin beaches 16 minutes after H-Hour, wearing coveralls, his only weapon an Army .45 pistol. Hobbling on his cane, he waved on his doughboys whom he led into the interior under fire from German 88mm cannon, rockets and concrete-emplaced machine guns.

He personally supervised the demolition by engineers with TNT of the seawall at the beach. I landed in one of the waves behind the first in which the general was the leader. I found Gen. Roosevelt in the thick of it, cheering on his men and loving the hot smell of battle.

I noticed something wrong with his thumb and asked his young aide, Lt. Stevie Stevenson of Texas, what was the matter. Lt. Stevenson replied:

The general’s luck is still holding out. It’s just a scratch from a piece of shrapnel.

In the last hours of the Battle of Cherbourg, he led a reconnaissance in force almost to the sea in which has come to be regarded as one of the bravest acts of this war.

He walked a long way through country infested by German strongpoints at the head of a battalion, past machine-gun nests and snipers, and almost reached the sea northwest of the city.

Covers star with gum

One of his pastimes was to cover the general’s star on his steel helmet with chewing gum and walk along the front areas, mingling with the assault troops. Once when he was walking along, I saw an infantryman stick his head out of a slit trench and ask: “Who’s that guy?”

“Not so loud,” one of his mates hushed him. “That’s the toughest little fighting man in this Army. That’s rough ridin’ Teddy Roosevelt.”

Wounded in last war

Gen. Roosevelt was born in Oyster Bay, New York, Sept. 13, 1887. He graduated from Harvard in 1909.

In World War I, he commanded the 1st Battalion of the 26th Division in the offensives at Cantigny, Soissons, Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne and was wounded twice.

After the war, he entered politics and served under President Warren G. Harding as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1921. He ran for Governor of New York in 1924 but lost to Alfred E. Smith. Under President Herbert Hoover, he served as Governor-General of the Philippines.

He returned to military duty before the outbreak of the present war and in December 1941 was made a brigadier general. He went to Britain as assistant commander of a division and later saw action in the North African and Sicilian campaigns.

He commanded the first combat team to attack Oran in the North African landings in November 1942.

He and his son Quentin II, a captain, fought together in North Africa and were cited together for gallantry in action. The general received an Oak Leaf Cluster representing a second Silver Star for going to a forward observation post and remaining there until threat of a counterattack had been repulsed.

His decorations from World War I included the Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, the Purple Heart, Legion of Honor and Croix de Guerre.

One of four sons

He was one of four sons of the former President, all of whom distinguished themselves in the service just as their father did before them. One brother, Lt. Quentin, attached to the 95th Aero Squadron, was killed in action near Chamery, July 14, 1918.

Another, Maj. Kermit, who served with the British and U.S. armies in World War I, died June 4, 1943, of illness while serving with the U.S. Army.

The third, Archibald B., served as an infantry captain in World War I and was wounded while leading a trench raid March 11, 1918. Archibald, now a lieutenant colonel, was wounded June 20 in fighting on Biak Island off the New Guinea coast in the Southwest Pacific. Gen. Roosevelt was married in 1910 to Eleanor Butler Alexander of New York. Besides Capt. Roosevelt, their children are Mrs. Grace McMillan, Theodore III and Cornelius of the U.S. Navy.

455

Editorial: Bastille Day

This is the last Bastille Day that France will be imprisoned by Germany. today – even though only the tiny tip of Normandy has been liberated by Allied arms – the hearts of Frenchmen everywhere are lifted in hope after four years of night.

Americans share France’s prayers. By long tradition the two republics are friends and comrades in democracy, bound together by mutual sacrifices one for the other. But more than sentiment is involved. There is self-interest too – our own. For, without a strong and healthy French democracy, there is little chance of a free Europe or a peaceful Europe rising from this war.

Before victory France still must suffer a great deal. And afterward her burdens will be heavy and her problems hard. The sheer physical problem of rebuilding a country shattered by war and tyrants will be tremendous. But even more difficult will be the task of security, of preventing World War III which a weakened France could not survive.

Of this all Frenchmen are thinking today. Some of their leaders are thinking only in terms of physical force, of better strategic frontiers and buffer states, of keeping the old enemy disarmed and of making France the biggest military power outside of Russia, of European alliances to put teeth in any international organization.

How much force is necessary, and in what form, we do not know. But we doubt that any Maginot Line, even a modern model which blocks the skies, will be sufficient. Indeed, the same old Maginot psychology in newer and subtler form may be her undoing again.

For France’s worst weakness in 1939 was not external, but internal. She was divided. She was sick. She was easy prey for the germs Hitler spread. She fell quickly because she had lost the unity which had once made her strong. The most dangerous enemy was within.

To the old divisions are now added new ones. The most terrible legacy left by the retreating Nazi army and fleeing Gestapo will not be the physical destruction but the spiritual poison which sets Frenchman against Frenchman. The damning of personal enemies or competitors as Vichyites, the feuds between Giraudists and de Gaullists, the suspicions and rivalries within the de Gaulle regime itself, and all the other strains multiplied for victims of military occupation and émigré intrigue, will make unity more difficult. Many will think the cure should be a blood purge instead of patient reconciliation.

The test of Gen. de Gaulle, or of any other Frenchman who aspires to leadership, will be his ability to heal old wounds instead of making new ones, and his reliance on democratic processes instead of the semi-dictator methods of the Algiers regime. France must replenish her strength from within.

456

Editorial: Teddy Junior

Brig. Gen. Roosevelt, Teddy Jr., the fighting son of fighting Teddy the First, is gone. He died in bed, of battle fatigue. But he was as certainly a war casualty as if a bomb or a bullet had got him, as he led his men, half his age, onto the Normandy beachhead.

For all the days since D-Day he had been building up the exhaustion which finally took him away. That he wasn’t killed in action as, at the head of his doughboys, he directed reconnaissance in force on Cherbourg through enemy territory infested by machine-gun nests and snipers – that is one of the many miracles of a charmed life which finally ended in repose.

But the same miracle had hovered over his many times before – in two world wars. At Cantigny, Soissons, in the Argonne and at Saint-Mihiel in World War I, he was young. Thirty years later, he was 56. But despite his age, in the Mediterranean and in Normandy, he was what one of his men described him – “the toughest little fighting man in this Army.”

Those years, however, finally took their toll; did what bombs and bullets couldn’t. Though wounded twice in the first war and twice again in this, the enemy could never get him. That remained for time and the exhaustion that years and strain bring on – such strain as only a brave heart can hear, to the end.

Few who have been in battles had been honored by more decorations than this soldier son of a solder, and none deserved them more.

“Rough Rider” was painted on the jeep he rode in Normandy and Teddy Jr. carried a .45. They didn’t have jeeps on San Juan Hill but they did have .45s. And who said there’s nothing in heredity?

457

Völkischer Beobachter (July 15, 1944)

Schiffssterben an der Calvadosküste –
Im Kampfflugzeug über dem Brückenkopf

pk. Die dringlichste Aufgabe der Kampfgeschwader im Westen – das haben die ersten Wochen der Invasion gezeigt ist der unentwegte Angriff auf die feindliche Flotte, angefangen vom kleinsten Mannschaftslandungsboot bis zu den großen Fahrgastschiffen, Transportern, Tankern und Kriegsschiffen der verschiedensten Klassen.

Über dem Wasser der weiten Seinebucht, über der von Leuchttrauben erhellten Strandlinie von Calvados, in der Orne- und Viremündung erlebten wir wiederholt diesen zähen Kampf unserer schweren Kampfflugzeuge gegen den anlandenden Feind. Wohl bot das Dunkel der Nacht wesentlichen Schutz gegen die feindliche Jagdabwehr, erschwerte aber zugleich das Auffinden der Schiffsansammlungen, die den Nachschub an Truppen, Munition, Treibstoff und Verpflegung zum Brückenkopf gewährleisten. Mit allen Mitteln der Täuschung versuchte und versucht der Gegner, seine wertvollen Ladungen zu verbergen. Sobald Angriffe unserer Bomber gemeldet werden, bemüht er sich, durch künstliche Nebelschwaden seine Schiffseinheiten der Vertikalsicht zu entziehen. Der Bodenwind aber ist ein unzuverlässiger Bundesgenosse, und zuweilen lenken die in falsche Richtung abgeblasenen Nebelfahnen erst recht die Aufmerksamkeit der Besatzungen auf lohnende Ziele.

Hilft den Anglo-Amerikanern das Versteckspiel nicht mehr, merken sie am anschwellenden Dröhnen der deutschen Motoren, die sich im Sturzflug den Schiffen nähern, an der Wirkung der ersten gefallenen Bomben, daß ihre Schiffspulks erkannt sind, dann löst der Feuerbefehl für die Flakgeschütze schlagartig einen Hagel von aufwärtssteigenden Granaten aus. Von Land und von See her schlängeln sich die „roten Mäuse“ der leichten Flak zu den verräterischen Leuchtbomben, von denen einige mit grünlichen Flammen verlöschen. In den Ständen unserer Kampfflugzeuge beobachten wir nun das gewaltige Schauspiel der Farben, wenn die feurige Abwehr sich zu roten Riesenkegeln und Sperrwänden steigert, wenn schwere Batterien und Flakkreuzer ihre stahlsprühenden Blitze neben uns setzen. Die tödliche Sprache der Geschütze wird verschlungen von der Lautstärke der Motoren.

Pausenlose Einsätze

Unsere Kampfflieger haben in den vergangenen Wochen gewetteifert, ihre an allen Fronten, erworbenen fliegerischen Erfahrungen hier an der normannischen Küste zu verwerten. Die Hauptlast der nächtlichen Angriffe lag naturgemäß bei den altbewährten Geschwadern, die das Wasser des Kanals und das englische Festland von zahllosen Flügen her kennen. Nacht für Nacht saßen die Männer in ihren Flugzeugen, die Bombenlast in den Schächten und an den Rümpfen. Der Einsatz der einzelnen Besatzung stand mehr denn je im Vordergrund, wenn es darum ging, im Schein der Magnesiumleuchten die Ausladungen am Strand mit Spreng- und Splitterbomben zu stören, Frachter und Kriegsschiffe herauszupicken, um sie mit schwersten Kalibern im Gleit- und Sturzflug anzugreifen. Unvergesslich bleiben die Eindrücke im Gedächtnis haften, und noch in den nüchternen Gefechtsberichten klingt die Spannung dieser Minuten nach. So berichtet Oberleutnant B., wie er einen gesichteten Kreuzer in Brand setzte:

Als zur Erhellung des Zielraumes Leuchtbomben gesetzt wurden, erhielten wir von den Kriegsschiffen gutliegendes, schweres Flakfeuer. Ich flog eine Rechtskurve und griff aus neuer Richtung den Kreuzer an. Die Abkomm-Marke des Bombenzielgeräts lag ruhig auf Schiffsmitte, als ich die Bomben-auslöste. Kurz vorher hatte leichtes und mittleres Flakfeuer eingesetzt. Mehrere Splitter gingen ins linke Höhenruder. Unsere schwerste Bombe fiel als Volltreffer mittschiffs backbord, die andere ins Wasser. Mit der Detonation hörte das Flakfeuer schlagartig auf. Dreißig Sekunden später beobachteten wir auf dem schweren Kreuzer einen heftigen Zündschlag mit hohem Rauchpilz. Das Schiff blieb brennend hinter uns liegen.

Der Pott passte nicht mehr ins Visier

Von einem anderen nächtlichen Unternehmen, bei dem vermutlich ein Schlachtschiff getroffen wurde, erzählte uns wenige Stunden nach seinem Angriff Feldwebel D., ein Hamburger Junge, der die Schiffstonnage auch aus seinem Hafen her kennt. Ein 6.000-Tonner Wurde bereits vor Neapel von ihm „unter Wasser getreten,“ ein weiterer vor dem Landekopf von Nettuno. Er suchte sich in der Seinebucht ein Kriegsschiff heraus, das nach Land und See durch Zerstörer und Kreuzer abgeschirmt war. Er berichtet:

Ich nahm das Feindschiff ins Visier und drückte leicht an. Während es immer steiler dem Wasserspiegel zuging, in dem sich die Bomben spiegelten, verbesserte ich den Kurs. Nur noch im Unterbewusstsein nahm ich das immer heftiger werdende Flakfeuer wahr. Fadenkreuz auf Schiffsmitte. Der Pott passte kaum noch ins Visier. Mit leichtem Erschrecken warf ich einen Blick auf das Armaturenbrett: Der Geschwindigkeitsmesser zeigt erhebliche Stundenkilometer und dabei hatte ich nur Wenige hundert Meter Höhe. Ein letztes Zielen und das schwere Kaliber stürzten allein weiter. Durch starkes Ziehen versuchte ich dem Gefahrenbereich der unausbleiblichen Explosion zu entgehen. Aber der Druck war so gewaltig, daß ich wie von Riesenkräften in den Sitz gepresst wurde und mir Blut aus der Nase stürzte. Wieder den Steuerknüppel nach vorn – Linkskurve, um die Wirkung zu beobachten. Ein gewaltiger Sprengschlag in Schiffsmitte mit heller Stichflamme und dicker Qualmwolke. Während ich mir das Blut vom Gesicht wischte und mit Abwehrbewegungen aus dem Feuerbereich der Flak strebte, sah ich weitere Zündschläge und Brände auf See. Ich bin überzeugt, daß wir Maßarbeit geleistet haben und daß nach dieser Nacht der Feind wieder einige Schiffe weniger hat.

Blick von der Steilküste

Soweit die Beobachtungen unserer Kampfflieger von ihren Erfolgen. Sie werden bestätigt durch Meldungen der Kriegsmarine und von Land her. Es bedeutet in diesen Tagen ein besonderes Erleben, die Materialschlacht in der Normandie von jener Steilküste, die im Osten die weite Seinebucht begrenzt, mit Aug und Ohr aufzunehmen. Die Stützpunkte hier liegen zurzeit wohl etwas am Rand der großen Auseinandersetzung. Aber Tausende von Bombentrichtern, Zerstörungen und Flugzeugtrümmern künden von vielen feindlichen Bomberangriffen und abgeschlagenen Landungsversuchen auch in diesem Abschnitt.

Tag und Nacht wummern in westlicher Richtung die Salven der Langrohrgeschütze. Nahgefechte der Schnellboote wechseln ab mit Feuerüberfällen der eigenen Artillerie auf Schiffsansammlungen in der Ornemündung. Mit hereinbrechender Nacht meldet der Nachrichtenapparat den Anflug eigener Kampfverbände. Für die Männer an den Geschützen und Geräten beginnt damit das sich fast allnächtlich wiederholende Schauspiel, dem sie von ihrem erhöhten Standort aus mit Spannung folgen. Achtzig bis hundert Meter steigt der Sandstein senkrecht vom Strand empor. Den wachsamen Augen entgeht von diesem Plateau aus kaum ein bedeutendes kriegerisches Ereignis in ihrem Sichtbereich.

Die Nacht wird erhellt durch zahllose Scheinwerfer, die den Himmel abtasten. Flak streut mit roten Perlschnüren und grellen Blitzen ihre Granaten in den Luftraum. Über den Stellungen, über dem Brückenkopf und über dem Wasser der Seinebucht ist das Dröhnen der Kampfflugzeuge, die dem Lichtzauber der Leuchtbomben zustreben. Im Nordwesten glüht noch ein Widerschein des versunkenen Tagesgestirns. Aus dem Dunkel des Wassers, dort, wo wie funkelnde Trauben die Magnesiumleuchten hängen, schießen Stichflammen hoch, grellweiß und rot verglühend. Sekunden später trifft die Schallwelle des Sprengschlages das Ohr. Stundenlang währt der Kampf der Kampfflugzeuge gegen die Schiffe.

Strandgut als Erfolgsmeldung

Wenn ein fahler Morgen dämmert und das Geschehen der Nacht als unwirkliches Schauspiel in übermüdeten Gehirnen nachwirkt, bedarf es vielleicht einer handgreiflichen Bestätigung des Erfolges. Die Männer der Stützpunkte an der Steilküste haben ihre Erfahrung. „Acht Stunden etwa nach solchen Angriffen“ – so erklären sie – „können wir feststellen, was diesmal dran glauben mußte.“ Ein langes Seil, oben befestigt, pendelt an der steilen Wand hinunter bis zum Strand. Wie geübte Hochalpinisten seilen sich dienstfreie Kanoniere ab, laufen den Strand entlang. Vergnügt bringen sie einiges Strandgut nach oben: Aus wasser- und luftdichten Verpackungen holen sie Zwiebäcke, Zigaretten, Kaffee; Kisten von Granaten, Kartuschen, Verbandmaterial, Kanister treiben an. Eine Schicht von Öl am Strand – die qualmende Fackel in der letzten Nacht war ein ausbrennender Tanker. Wer zählt die Leichen der Verbrannten und Ertrunkenen, die das Meer noch nicht behalten wollte…

Im guten Fernglas erscheint die Küste von Calvados und die Ornemündung. Das sind keine Felsen, die aus den Wellen herausragen – dort liegen große Frachter auf Grund. Ein Schlachtschiff, einstmals der französischen Kriegsmarine zugehörig, liegt gekentert in der Nähe des Strandes. Aus dem flachen Wasser ragen hie und da Mastspitzen, Schornsteine. Gemeinsam haben hier Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine und Küstenbatterien mit Bomben, Minen und Granaten ihre Opfer gesucht. Viel liegt im Schoße des Wassersverborgen…

Die Ladung eines Frachters

Der Landser, der in seinem Loch liegt oder an seinem Geschütz den anstürmenden Feind abwehrt, vermag sich vielleicht nicht recht vorzustellen, welche Hilfe die ständige Versenkung oder Beschädigung der feindlichen Schiffstonnage auch für ihn bedeutet. Ein Beispiel sei hier für viele genannt. Von Torpedofliegern wurde bei einem schweren Angriff ein Dampfer von 6.300 BRT versenkt. Die Ladungsliste dieses Frachters wurde aus dem Wasser geborgen. Sie verzeichnete als geladen – und damit zu den Fischen geschickt: 193 Panzerspähwagen, 30 Panzer, 13 Jagdeinsitzer in Kisten verpackt und 2 Millionen Schuss schwere Flakmunition.

Der Feind hat vor der normannischen Küste schwere Verluste einstecken müssen, nicht anders als in den harten Kämpfen im Brückenkopf. Große Ansammlungen der Invasionsflotte liegen nach wie vor an mehreren Landungsstellen. Der Gegner wehrt sich mit allen ihm zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln – seit kurzem auch mit zahlreichen Sperrballonen – gegen die Bedrohung seines Nachschubs aus der Luft. Mit Härte und Verbissenheit kehren die Besatzungen unserer Kampf- und Torpedoflugzeuge immer wieder zu diesen Schwerpunkten zurück. Sie wissen um den Einsatz. Den Feind, den sie sonst nach langem Anflug auf seiner Insel und in seinen Häfen zu treffen wussten, finden sie jetzt vor den Toren der europäischen Festung. Ihr Leben war und ist unstet, von Kampf erfüllt. Jeder Verlust in ihren Staffeln und Gruppen bedeutet verstärkten Einsatz, ohne Kompromiss – bis zur Entscheidung.

Kriegsberichter HELMUT JACOBSEN

458

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 15, 1944)

Communiqué No. 79

More ground was gained by the Allies in the base of the CHERBOURG Peninsula. West of LESSAY, our patrols have advanced through SAINT-GERMAIN-SUR-AY against light opposition to LES MÉZIÈRES. We have approached more closely to LESSAY by taking BEAUVAIS and LA JOURDAINERIE. A few miles further east, we have taken LA LONDE and have reached the flooded basin of the AY river.

Driving south through GORGES and SAINT-GERMAIN, our units reached LES GRANGES and linked up south of LE HOMMET with troops advancing around the east of the GORGES marshes.

Between SAINTENY and the VIRE river, and in the area east of SAINT-LÔ, a number of local advances were made.

There is nothing to report from the remainder of the front.

Yesterday afternoon heavy bombers attacked targets in the AMIENS area and medium bombers attacked bridges at BOURTH and MEREY.

Fighters and fighter-bombers continued their attacks on transportation targets. Rail lines were cut in the ARGENTAN, LE MANS and ALENÇON areas and LA FERTÉ was attacked. Other targets included motor transport south of CAEN, enemy positions in the SAINT-LÔ area and a radio installation near LE HAVRE.

During yesterday 25 enemy aircraft were shot down. Seven of ours are missing.

Last night, the railway center of VILLENEUVE-SAINT-GEORGES was attacked by heavy bombers, while light bombers attacked barracks northeast of POITIERS.

Two enemy aircraft were destroyed last night, one by intruders over BELGIUM and the other over the battle area.

Communiqué No. 80

Allied troops, continuing their progress on the right of our front, have pushed forward to the immediate outskirts of LESSAY and reached the line of inundations of the River AY on a front of several miles.

The enemy was cleared from the villages of SAINTE-OPPORTUNE, PISSOT and SAINT-PATRICE-DE-CLAIDS. Further east we have advanced through GONFREVILLE and NAY to the banks of the River SEVES.

Enemy artillery fire was heavier yesterday and during the night.

Fighter bombers at minimum altitude bombed and strafed enemy troops and artillery positions in the SAINT-LÔ area early this morning. Others, on reconnaissance patrols near CAEN, met a force of over thirty enemy aircraft and destroyed two of them without loss.

During the increased enemy air activity yesterday, anti-aircraft gunners in the eastern sector shot down five enemy aircraft and damaged others.

Early this morning, enemy E-boats were intercepted in the SEINE Bay while attempting to break out to the westward from LE HAVRE. The enemy force was driven off and pursued. During the chase, one E-boat was set on fire. Patrol craft were later engaged off the harbor entrance and damage was inflicted on them.

Contact was also made with enemy E-boats off CAP DE LA HAGUE, and a short engagement took place before our force withdrew under fire from the shore batteries.

460

The Pittsburgh Press (July 15, 1944)

YANKS STORM HINGE OF NAZI LINE
U.S. capture of three bastions in France near

Americans reach outskirts of Lessay
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

map.071544.up
Americans force ahead on the western end of the Normandy front, closing in on the Nazi bastions of Saint-Lô, Périers and Lessay, while on the eastern flank of the front, the British abandoned Maltot, below Caen.

SHAEF, London, England –
U.S. troops stormed today into the outskirts of Lessay, western anchor of a 40-mile German defense line in Normandy, closed against its central hinge at Périers, and gained nearly half a mile in a new drive against Saint-Lô at its eastern end.

The frontal assaults on the three key bastions of the German fortifications facing the Americans posed a direct threat to all of them, and official reports indicated they were “almost in the bag.”

Supreme Headquarters reported the capture of nine major German strongpoints on the approaches to Lessay and Périers, while field dispatches said the renewed assault on Saint-Lô had carried to Martinsville, a village a mile from the rubble-strewn citadel.

Bend back coastal end

U.S. assault units bending back the coastal end of the German line advanced about a mile on a four-mile front, overran five outlying villages, seized the entire north bank of the Ay River from the sea inland beyond Lessay, and hit the edge of the town itself.

At the center of the American front, other assault forces moved forward up to two and a half miles on a four-mile line, seizing four fortified villages and stabbing within two miles of Périers.

A headquarters spokesman said a fierce battle was raging for Saint-Lô. The latest dispatches from that sector said the Americans were battering in from the east, northeast and northwest.

British prepare drive

A “very large-scale German attack” was reported officially pending at the now-quiet British end of the French front, in which Sir Bernard L. Montgomery hoped to inflict another telling defeat on the enemy. Details were lacking.

The weather over Normandy was described officially as probably the worst since D-Day, with intermittent drizzles and dense fog virtually stopping air operations.

An estimated 100,000 German troops and tankmen were arrayed along the American front. They were giving ground slowly but steadily, and faced the threat of precipitate withdrawal to more solid defenses if their three keystone bases topple under the 1st Army onslaught.

Drive along river bank

Lacking details of the new drive against Saint-Lô as reported from the front, headquarters said, however, that “strong action” had been started to capture the town.

The American left wing reached Lessay along the north bank of the Ay River and captured the neighboring villages of Fererville (one mile to the west-northwest), Saint-Opportune (just north of the town) and Renneville, Laquerie and Pissot in a cluster on its approaches.

Overrun in the approach to Périers were Haut Perray, La Commune and Nay, along the road from Saint-Jores, as well as Saint-Patrice-de-Claids, two miles north of the Saint-Lô–Lessay highway.

The eastern half of the front remained static except for heavy artillery fire, especially around Maltot and the Canadian salient southwest of Caen. Headquarters disclosed last night that the British had pulled back from both Maltot and Hill 112 and that both now were in “no man’s land.”

Gen. Bradley ordered his troops forward in the Saint-Lô, Périers and Lessay sectors shortly before noon yesterday and by early evening they had advanced everywhere despite increased enemy artillery and mortar fire and heavy terrain obstacles.

Gain to northeast

“Very substantial gains” were reported easy and northeast of Saint-Lô, with the Americans gaining positions from which to mount the final assault on the city. La Creterie, three miles north-northwest of Saint-Lô, was also seized, with other forces consolidated their hold on newly-won terrain northwest and southeast of the city.

Halfway between Saint-Lô and Périers, the Americans drove a mile south from Les Champs-de-Losque to within a mile of the Saint-Lô–Lessay highway, backbone of the enemy’s defense line.

Effect junction

Two U.S. columns advancing around the eastern and western rim of the Marais de Gorges inundations due north of Périers effected a junction in advances of up to 3½ miles to within two miles of Périers itself.

The linkup of the two forces cleared the Germans from six square miles of marshland and put the Americans on more maneuverable terrain that should speed their advance southward.

Drive down road

Thrusting down the La Haye-du-Puits–Lessay road in frontal attacks, the Americans were less than a mile north of Lessay after capturing Beauvais. Coastal patrols west of Lessay advanced through Saint-Germain-sur-Ay against light opposition to Les Mézières.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s communiqué said:

A few miles further east, we have taken Lalonde and have reached the flooded basin of the Ay River.

461

Men died so they could celebrate –
Frenchmen dance and sing first time in five years

Yank band plays, Allied soldiers join Cherbourg in Bastille Day events
By William R. Higginbotham, United Press staff writer

Cherbourg, France –
For the first time in five long years, people danced in the streets of Cherbourg last night.

It was Bastille Day – the French day of independence – and was held in the Place de la Republique, next to the harbor where, less than three weeks ago, men died in battle so that these people could dance and sing.

U.S. soldiers, nurses and officers, British troops and French sailors who helped to liberate this historic city danced along with the French people.

While a band played, first serious tones and then American jazz, the French people looked on in almost disbelief. It had been a long time since they had witnessed such a scene.

The crowd was hushed as the band, led by Pvt. Lou Saunders of Butler, Pennsylvania, began playing. After a few serious numbers, Pvt. Saunders broke the band down to nine pieces and opened up with their theme “Time on My Hands.”

Serious faces among the crowd began to melt a little and there was scattered laughter when Frenchmen asked people to dance. Finally, the tension broke and the crowd formed a little circle as an American captain, Perry Miller, who used to teach English literature at Harvard, pushed back his helmet liner and started dancing with a tall Normandy blond.

Then the band broke into “I Go for You.” A French sailor with kinky hair and a bronze face danced alone; two Negro G.I.’s swung together; young French girls wearing the tricolor in their hair tried to step to the unfamiliar swing.

Guitarist Sgt. James R. Wilson of Lafayette, Indiana, brought the people stomping and cheering, and he stepped to the microphone and in the best hillbilly style sang of the “Hills of West Virginia.”

As the festivities ended, the band reformed in full and played “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the “Marseillaise.” A hush fell over the crowd. Men in battledress came to attention. The people stood and listened.

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462

Gen. Roosevelt is buried among 2,000 fallen Yanks

Battle noise furnishes accompaniment to ‘Taps’ at cemetery near Normandy village
By Henry T. Gorrell, United Press staff writer

Sainte-Mère-Église, France –
The body of Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, who died of a heart attack Wednesday night, rested in a simple grave today among those of 2,000 fallen comrades in the U.S. Army cemetery outside this liberated Normandy village.

As the body was lowered into a white-canvas-lined grave after an impressive military ceremony at twilight last evening a final salute was fired by a rifle squad picked from thee companies the general had led in the first D-Day assault on the beaches.

The rumble of gunfire from the front interpolated the rites and furnished an accompaniment to the muffled notes of the bugle sounding “Taps.”

The general’s son, Capt. Quentin Roosevelt of the “Fighting First” Division and his buddy and aide, Lt. Marcus O. Stevenson of San Antonio, Texas, stood solemnly at attention during the ceremonies.

Around them were more than a dozen high-ranking generals; several hundred doughboys; and numerous French who had gathered at the cemetery to honor the dead American soldiers as part of the Bastille Day observance.

The rites were conducted by two Army chaplains, Col. James A. Bryant of Crystal Springs, Mississippi, and Lt. Col. P. C. Schroder of Flushing, New York (former pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Messiah).

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463

Henry: Violent fight in cemetery routs Germans

Battle for ‘Murphy’s’ is short but bloody
By Thomas R. Henry, North American Newspaper Alliance

With U.S. forces in Normandy, France – (July 12, delayed)
It was “Judgment Morning” today at the village churchyard, “Murphy’s Crossroads.”

There were screams of shells and Gabriel’s trumpet as tombstones were knocked down, graves blown open, and an hour’s death rain on a suicide company of German paratroops manning machine guns among 17th-century crosses and through holes punched through church walls.

“Murphy’s” is the soldier pronunciation of the crossroads at La Meauffe, near Saint-Lô, east of the Vire River, where a unit of Missourians and Kansans fought yesterday, ending in one of the briskest fights of the campaign.

Unit is halted

A unit under the command of Lt. Col. Joseph Alexander of Chicago jumped off at dawn yesterday and was halted in midmorning before a hedgehog village (a village whose outer defenses included barbed-wire entanglements).

There was a little church, a moated chateau, and a few farmhouses where the Germans commanded all approaches. There were machine guns behind gravestones, in chateau windows and at road corners.

The crossroads was an elaborate system of dugouts connected by long tunnels.

Caught in hail

“I got six months’ training in two hours,” Capt. Gerald E. O’Connell of Emporia, Kansas, in command of the leading company.

Caught in a death hail of machine-gun fire, the men sought shelter in the ditches. There we were observed from the steeple and pinned down for two or three hours by mortars and German 88s behind La Meauffe.

Machine guns were firing from a brush pile 20 yards ahead. I finally made a flying leap over a hedge and lay with my breath knocked out on the other side. A few minutes later, I crawled back to shelter with the others.

Attack is repulsed

A second attack at noon was repulsed, and all afternoon the men lay in foxholes under a harassing mortar fire. The night was horrible for the troops, half of whom were kept awake constantly expecting a German onslaught.

Relief came this dawn when our artillery poured 1,500 rounds into the crossroads, under which the Germans died or fled. Then the infantry, with Lt. Sidney K. Strong of St. Ignatius, Montana, leading, advanced again under cover of intermittent shelling and chateau grounds. They found the place strewn with dead.

A few prisoners were taken, but most Germans had stolen out in the night, leaving only suicide groups. By noon the place was mopped up.

I never saw before such a Golgotha as “Murphy’s” cemetery after the battle. Tombs were a heap of rubble. Graves, many of them from the 17th century, yawned wide open.

Church is demolished

Dead Germans were strewn in the surrounding fields. Glass artificial flowers were pathetic dust. Wings were clipped on two pink and blue porcelain angels over the grave of two little girls. The old stone church was near complete demolition.

The only object intact was a gilt-crowned, red-robed, life-sized figure of Jesus, on a high pedestal over a bomb-struck altar overlooking the scene with sorrowful eyes.

With Lt. Col. Harry W. Johnson of Alexandria, Virginia, today I went over the scene of yesterday’s battle where artillery landed squarely 10 yards behind a 500-yard line of elaborate dugouts.

The barrage caught the defenders eating a breakfast of macaroni and water. They never knew what hit them. one who was shaving died with his razor in his hand. Another was apparently on his knees at morning prayers.

Twenty ghastly dead boys lay in a row on the edge of a red clover field.

“They look like big wax dolls,” said Col. Johnson in pity.

It has not been long since they played with soldier dolls. Thus, Hitler scrapes the bottom of his manpower barrel.

464

De Gaullists prove adept in civil affairs

They take over in Caen with efficiency
By L. S. B. Shapiro, North American Newspaper Alliance

Caen, France –
Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s organization for the relief and rehabilitation of liberated French towns and cities is proving so brilliantly effective in the case of Caen that the pretentious preparation of Allied Civil Affairs detachments seem, to some extent, superfluous.

Even before British and Canadian troops entered the city, resistance leaders loyal to Gen. de Gaulle had, by popular consent, taken over the local administration, food control and health services with the result that Allied officers found that only limited material aid was required of them. Today, Caen is being administered by Fighting French officials acting in cordial liaison with Allied military authorities.

Allies are delighted

Allied civil officers are frankly delighted with this situation. A Canadian colonel charged with Caen’s civilian relief told this correspondent today:

The French authorities are working beautifully. What they need is our help, which is thankfully received. They asked us for oil to work a generator in a big hospital for the pumping machinery with which to restore the water system, soap, medical supplies and a very limited supply of staple foods. These we had prepared and were able to furnish immediately.

Everything else was fully organized by the officials acting under the de Gaulle organization. The city is being administered to the post by Gen. de Gaulle long in advance of D-Day.

The French preparations were meticulous, even to medical orderlies and cooks recruited from among French women in England. They all have been working magnificently with our civil affairs officers and our field commanders.

Within a few hours of the entry of our troops, the French administrators had requisitioned civilian trucks for the evacuation of homeless refugees to Bayeux. Only 3,000 required evacuation, some 30,000 electing to remain in Caen. Civilian casualties thus far counted are below advance estimates. About 650 were found in a hospital and there are about 600 civilian dead.

Worked with underground

The net result of Gen. de Gaulle’s ambitious preparations for civilian relief is that his appointees are everywhere and assuming complete control. This fits in with the plans of Allied Civil Affairs detachments whose instructions are to hand over the civil administration to the French as quickly as they can handle it. And de Gaulle appointees are quick as lightning in presenting the administrative fait accompli in every liberated town.

Everything points to the conclusion that Gen. de Gaulle made his preparations through Underground channels within France long before our invasion. Local leaders and rehabilitation problems were determined the moment Gen. de Gaulle took formal control of the resistance movement in July 1942.

465

McGlincy: Only one robot hits beachhead

By James F. McGlincy, United Press staff writer

U.S. 1st Army HQ, France – (July 13, delayed)
A German pilotless plane, either by accident or design, plummeted into the American sector on the eastern end of the Allied line in Normandy recently.

No other pilotless planes have landed on our front since then, and it is still uncertain whether this single instance was an error or an experiment by the Nazis. American officers said the Germans might have sent over the plane as a test, but the fact that there has not been any repeat performance led them to believe that it was an accident, probably due to a bad rudder or some other mechanical defect.

Nevertheless, it was conceded that the plane might have been launched from the runways later discovered in the Cherbourg area which at that time had not yet been captured.

The lone flying bomb did not land near any military installations and inflicted only minor damage.

Lt. Gardner Botsford of New York City, who investigated the incident, said that despite the tremendous explosion, the flying bomb failed to dent the earth. Pieces of metal were scattered for 100 yards but, Lt. Botsford reported, there weren’t enough to pick up or even try to begin to put together.

466

Allied air mastery over invasion coast stops Luftwaffe, helps secure beachhead

London, England –
Seven days of air superiority over the Normandy beachheads played a vital part in making possible the successful start of the invasion of Europe. In those crucial seven days, Allied fighters and bombers flew 56,000 sorties, smashed 42,000 tons of bombs against the German defenders and destroyed 397 enemy planes.

The Luftwaffe, weakened by the long assault on replacement factories in Germany and years of combat against the ever-increasingly powerful U.S. and British air forces, was swept completely from the skies those first few nervous days. Even the German radio admitted that the Nazis seldom dared move troops or supplies except at night.

Douglas transports began the invasion five hours before H-Hour when they roared across the Channel. In eight hours, they dropped an army of 35,000 to 50,000 airborne troops behind German lines by glider and parachute.

After dawn, a train of them, 50 miles long and nine planes wide, rushed good, guns, artillery, ammunition and reinforcements.

On the second day, engineers were needed. Again, the transports took off to ferry over men to build the first Allied airstrip in France. From the second day on, the C-47s flew wounded back to England.

Meanwhile, Allied fighter-bombers and medium bombers were throwing an almost impenetrable air blanket over the beachhead. Fighters flew cover, smashed troop concentrations and hit strongpoints. Medium bombers severed the last Seine bridges to cut off Nazi reinforcements. Heavy bombers raised havoc with targets farther behind the front.

The completeness of Allied air superiority was made possible in part by the tremendous pounding given Germany by the Allied air forces for long months before.

In May, Americans and British hit Nazi Europe with 154,380 tons of bombs, averaging more than 200 tons an hour, day and night, for the entire pre-invasion month.

Well over half the U.S. fighters, bombers and transports participating in the long pre-invasion assault as well as the actual invasion of Fortress Europe are equipped with Pratt & Whitney engines and Hamilton Standard propellers.

467

Völkischer Beobachter (July 16, 1944)

Örtliche Angriffe in der Normandie verlustreich abgewiesen –
Neuer Großangriff des Gegners in Italien

Erwarteter Sowjetangriff im Raum von Tarnopol und Luzk in harten Kämpfen abgewiesen

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 15. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Im Abschnitt von Caen verlief der Tag ohne besondere Kampfhandlungen. Auf Grund der an den Vortagen erlittenen hohen Verluste führte der Feind nur örtliche Angriffe östlich und nordöstlich Saint-Lô sowie im Abschnitt zwischen Pont Hébert und Sainteny. Er wurde überall verlustreich abgewiesen.

Schlachtfliegerkräfte unterstützten die Kämpfe des Heeres im Landekopf und griffen belegte Ortschaften sowie Bereitstellungen des Feindes mit guter Wirkung an. 21 feindliche Flugzeuge wurden in Luftkämpfen abgeschossen.

Im französischen Raum wurden wiederum 37 Terroristen Im Kampf niedergemacht.

Schweres Vergeltungsfeuer liegt auf London.

An der italienischen Front nahm der Feind mit zusammengefassten starken Kräften seinen Großangriff gegen unsere Stellungen zwischen der ligurischen Küste und Poggibonsi wieder auf. In erbitterten Kämpfen wichen unsere Truppen wenige Kilometer nach Norden aus. Poggibonsi ging nach schweren Straßenkämpfen verloren.

Im Abschnitt südöstlich Arezzo und beiderseits des Tiber wurden starke Angriffe des Feindes zum Teil im Gegenstoß abgewiesen.

Nördlich Fabriano und westlich Filottrano wurden unsere Gefechtsvorposten auf die Hauptstellung zurückgenommen.

Sicherungsfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine versenkten im Golf von Genua ein britisches Schnellboot.

Im Südabschnitt der Ostfront traten die Bolschewisten im Raum von Tarnopol und Luzk zu dem erwarteten Angriff an. Sie wurden gestern in harten Kämpfen unter Vernichtung zahlreicher Panzer abgewiesen, einzelne Einbrüche abgeriegelt.

Im Mittelabschnitt erwehrten sich unsere zäh kämpfenden Divisionen der fortgesetzten sowjetischen Durchbruchsversuche durch energische Gegenstöße.

Im Seengebiet nördlich Wilna, beiderseits der Düna sowie im Raum von Opotschka wurden die auf breiter Front weitergeführten Durchbruchsversuche der Sowjets im Wesentlichen blutig abgeschlagen. Unsere Truppen säuberten einzelne Einbruchsstellen.

Die Luftwaffe griff mit starken Schlachtfliegerkräften an den Schwerpunkten in die Kämpfe ein und vernichtete in Tiefangriffen zahlreiche sowjetische Panzer, Geschütze und Fahrzeuge. 87 feindliche Flugzeuge wurden durch Jagdflieger und Flakartillerie abgeschossen. In der Nacht bekämpften Kampf- und Nachtschlachtflugzeuge den sowjetischen Nachschubverkehr und Truppenansammlungen des Feindes mit guter Wirkung.

Ein nordamerikanischer Bomberverband führte einen Terrorangriff gegen Budapest. Durch deutsche und ungarische Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden zwölf feindliche Flugzeuge vernichtet.

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

468

US-Flieger bestätigt Bombenterror –
‚Gemäß erhaltenem Befehl‘

Paris, 15. Juli –
Der Führer der Französischen Volkspartei, Jacques Doriot, der an der Normandiefront weilte, gab der Pariser Presse Erklärungen über die Einstellung der amerikanischen Kriegsgefangenen. Keiner von denen, die er gesprochen habe, seien Freiwillige gewesen. Sie schienen müde zu sein und wünschen, daß der Krieg bald zu Ende gehe. Die meisten wüssten überhaupt nicht, wofür sie kämpften. Ein amerikanischer Flieger, den er gefragt habe, wofür er die Zivilbevölkerung massakriert habe, habe gesagt, daß er seine Bomben „gemäß erhaltenen Befehlen irgendwo abgeworfen“ habe.

469

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 16, 1944)

Communiqué No. 81

Hard infantry fighting in close country continued yesterday all along the western sectors of the Allied front. Limited advances were made at a number of points notably south of the SAINTENY–PÉRIERS road and on the northern and eastern approaches to SAINT-LÔ.

In a dusk attack in the ÉVRECY area, the village of ESQUAY was captured and at midnight our troops had advanced some little distance beyond it.

Fighter-bombers penetrated 150 miles south of PARIS yesterday evening to attack transportation and supply targets in the NEVERS–BOURGES–ORLÉANS–TOURS area.

Last night, the rail centers at NEVERS and CHÂLONS-SUR-MARNE were attacked by a force of heavy bombers.

Nine enemy aircraft were destroyed in the air during yesterday’s operations. Fourteen of ours are missing.

Communiqué No. 82

Allied advances have continued on the western sector of the front.

Troops moving south on the CARENTAN–MARIGNY road have taken the village of LA TIBOTERIE. Gains have been reported south of LE HOMMET-D’ARTHENAY.

Attacking towards SAINT-LÔ from the northeast, our troops have advanced more than a mile, taking the village of EMELIE. They have reached a point within 1,500 yards of SAINT-LÔ itself, where enemy infantry today was also subjected to attack by our medium bombers.

Further east, in the TILLY–ÉVRECY area, our troops have occupied BRETTEVILLETTE. Last night’s attack through ESQUAY was developed to the west some 4,000 yards along high ground north of ÉVRECY. The enemy salient created by this attack was eliminated this morning with the occupation of GAVRUS and BOUGY.

In addition to attacking enemy frontline positions, our medium bombers, escorted by fighters, struck at rail targets at PARIS, DREUX, GRANVILLE and near ARGENTAN. Bridges at BOISSEI-LA-LANDE, AMBRIÈRES and near DREUX were also attacked.

None of our aircraft is missing.

Fighters which had escorted heavy day bombers to GERMANY this morning, attacked rail traffic at LUNÉVILLE and strafed airfield installations in BELGIUM.

Coastal aircraft attacked enemy shipping in the eastern Channel early this morning.