Operation OVERLORD (1944)

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.

470

The Pittsburgh Press (July 16, 1944)

YANKS CLOSE ON THREE NAZI BASES
Bradley’s men sweep through 25 more towns

Battle into Lessay and Saint-Lô, near Périers
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer

map.071644.up
Pushing forward slowly, U.S. forces in Normandy almost had “in the bag” the three Nazi bases of Lessay, Saint-Périers and Saint-Lô. The Americans stormed into the outskirts of Lessay (1), gained four miles north of Périers (2), and were a mile from Saint-Lô. The British front in the Caen area (4) was quiet with a big new offensive in prospect.

SHAEF, London, England – (July 15)
U.S. troops battled today into the outskirts of Lessay, west coast anchor of the German line, and swept through 25 more villages in gains up to four miles across a front stretching east to Saint-Lô, where the Yanks launched a knockout attack on that key road center.

CBS correspondent Larry LeSueur reported that the Germans evacuated Lessay as the Americans entered the outskirts under a protective shell barrage.

A great test of arms, perhaps one of the decisive armored battles of the war, was declared officially to be impending around Caen, on the British wing of the front as the Germans began a drumfire barrage in preparation for a massive counterattack.

Two miles from Périers

A German Army estimated at 100,000 men was lurching slowly backward under the steady American pounding which carried Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s troops to within two miles of a third enemy bastion, Périers, six miles southeast of Lessay.

The doughboys smashed down to the Ay River estuary on an eight-mile front from the sea to east of Lessay and pushed a spearhead within 300 yards of the heart of the small port which German rearguards were defending bitterly.

Getting across the Ay, flooded by the Germans to a width of several miles, presented a serious problem but the companion advance in the Périers direction was threatening to outflank the water barrier.

Ground regained at Saint-Lô

For the fifth straight day, the Yanks launched a dawn attack on Saint-Lô, this time starting suddenly without a preparatory barrage and in the first hour driving back to the area of Martinville, a mile east of the wrecked city, after having given ground in that area Friday under counterattacks.

Saint-Lô was virtually encircled with the Americans holding dominant ground on all but its south and southwest approaches. The new attack was called officially a “strong action” designed to bring about Saint-Lô’s fall.

The heaviest enemy shelling since the Saint-Lô attacks began met the U.S. infantrymen and a few German tanks rumbled into action, precipitating heavy battles which were reported still raging late Saturday.

Massive infantry surge

United Press’ James C. McGlincy reported that Saturday’s advances on Saint-Lô consisted of the reduction of three powerfully fortified hedgerows in close-quarters fighting recalling the massive infantry surges of the last war.

German SS Elite Guard officers were threatening to shoot the city’s defenders if they wavered, another United Press front reporter, Henry T. Gorrell, said, “and even the cocky paratroopers, the cream of the German Army, now are digging furiously to stem the machine-like advance of the U.S. Army.”

These desperate measures were costing the Yanks heavily for every yard gained, but slowly and surely the front reports said, the Germans were giving way and suffering enormous losses which were almost impossible for them to replace.

Yanks bury 6,349 Nazis

It was announced that since D-Day, the Yanks have buried 6,349 German soldiers whose bodies had been left behind by their retreating comrades.

The Americans advanced a mile on a four-mile front in the Lessay sector, maintaining their mile-a-day pace since launching their attack down the west side of the Cherbourg (Cotentin) Peninsula 12 days ago.

The most sweeping gains of the day, up to four miles, came in the center sector above Périers where the Americans plunged ahead at an accelerated pace after joining up

They captured Saint-Patrice-de-Claids, three miles north of Périers and six towns on the northeast approaches of the town, and Crèvecœur and Deauville on the road from Saint-Jores.

The Americans drove within a mile of the important Lessay–Saint-Lô lateral road, putting it within easy field piece range and limiting the Germans’ use of it, captured in this sector were La Grande Hairie and La Creterie.

The Americans were driving on without air support through a heavy ground fog and an intermittent drizzle in advances which placed Saint-Lô, Lessay and Périers within their immediate grasp.

Shortly before noon Friday, Gen. Bradley had ordered his troops to step up the attack on the three resistance centers. Slowly, like a creeping tide, the front was squaring out as the Yankees gained elbow room which will pay heavy dividends when armor is thrown into the battle on a grand scale.

Every sign pointed to the early beginning of the biggest battle of the invasion in the Caen sector, where about 200,000 German troops with the better part of six panzer divisions were aligned against Lt. Gen. Sir Miles C. Dempsey’s British 2nd Army.

Nazi attack expected

The entire British sector was ominously quiet except for patrolling and the swelling German barrage which a commentator said meant that “there is pending a very large-scale German attack.”

The attack was anticipated with some satisfaction for the best formula for sweeping advances is to smash the enemy’s armor in one major battle, as Gen. Sir B. L. Montgomery demonstrated in his desert campaigns.

A front dispatch from Ronald Clark, United Press writer with the British said a flood of Allied men and material was pouring into the Anglo-Canadian line.

The air forces were able to put in only 1,000 sorties Friday, one-eleventh of D-Day’s display, but fighters scored heavily in dogfights with German formations, shooting down 25 enemy planes.

Only about 50 sorties were flown during Saturday’s muggy forenoon.

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471

Wolfert: Nazis run gantlet of gunfire form own officers to surrender

Escape in dead of night to give up; some killed on way to U.S. lines
By Ira Wolfert, North American Newspaper Alliance

With the U.S. infantry outside Saint-Lô, France – (July 13, delayed)
Finally, about one o’clock this morning an end we all had been hoping for came. There was no moon at the time but there was a kind of pearly quality to the darkness, and when something stood up in the open field you could make out the shape. Anyway, you could tell whether it was a man or tank.

There had been an air raid a mile or so back; then the Germans had laid in some shells to keep us awake, and our boys talked back for quite a while to show them we were awake. But now there is the quiet you get in a field at night when, no matter how soft you try to make your breathing, you can still hear your breath making a tickling little noise as it crawls in and out of your nose.

A Nebraska boy on outpost duty lay in a hole under a hedge chewing cigarette tobacco to give himself the feeling of having a smoke. There was an open field in front of him, boxed in all around by hedges. Suddenly the voice he wanted to hear and has been waiting for through the long, long dangerous day spoke up from the hedge beyond and to the right.

“Kamerad!” it said. “Nicht schießen!”

There was a rapid, excited panting for breath. “Halt!” our boy cried, and the cigarette tobacco sprayed out of his mouth in the excitement and clung like hair to his lips. “Halt! You–!” he cried.

Cry heard again

“Kamerad! Kamerad! Bitte nicht schießen (Friend! Friend! Please don’t shoot)” the voice repeated.

The Cornhusker’s finger was on the trigger of his rifle but he couldn’t see anything to shoot at except the hedges, and he thought a long time about what to say next, listening, as he thought, to the German tale coming in a rapid, begging, panting breathless voice and trying to pick out a word that would make sense to him.

“Hands up!” he said finally. “Get out in the open with your hands up!”

Big, baggy shapes

The German passed the word to his companions. He was the interpreter. “Hands hop,” he said excitedly. “Die hands hoch.”

He came out from the hedge and stood in the open field, a black, baggy shape in the pearl-colored darkness, trembling and crouched over a little, trying to plead with hands clasped behind his head.

Then another shape came out from the hedge behind him, and a third and a fourth, and still more, all baggy and black-looking and all crouched over pleadingly.

“He’s brought the whole damn Hitler army with him,” the Nebraskan shouted, and for a moment in that dim field it really looked that way. It really looked to his excited eyes like the beaten-up pulp of a gutted army, but it turned out to be only seven boys led by a 19-year-old German corporal from Carlsbad serving his Führer as a rifleman.

Psychological warfare

The corporal had sampled some of our psychological warfare put out by a mobile radio broadcasting company, a combined British and American unit which had won medals for itself by talking some 2,200 Germans into coming out of their tunnels and forts in Cherbourg.

The situation here is quite different from Cherbourg and much indicative of the breakdown in morale, at least in that part of the German Army now fighting on the Cherbourg Peninsula.

At Cherbourg, the Germans were surrounded and had no hope of being rescued to fight again for their Führer. Here the rear was open for a retreat if the German command would permit it.

In this case our psychological warfare, aided by our crushing weight of firepower, talked the Germans into defying the orders of their Nazi masters and into running away from the bullets shot at them by their officers and into the American bullets in order to surrender.

Some are Poles

In all, 18 men gave themselves up in the early hours of this morning. Some of them are Poles, but most are Germans. How many more were killed trying to do so is not yet known, but there must have been many, for each of these 18 was shot at by his own officers on his way to us.

How many more Germans want to surrender but are afraid to walk the dangerous path to our lines is also not yet known, but the prisoners I spoke to as they came in all said that whole companies would surrender if they could find a way to do so.

That seems to be the problem to work out a path along with the Germans may surrender. And until this is worked out the fighting here will continue to be the hard, slow work of hopping from hedge to hedge. The Nazi’s best chance for life is to fight off our assault, and these beaten-up, sagging bags of Nazi “supermen” that we are fighting here want to keep on living. Oh, yes, that is very high on their minds – to keep on living.

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472

French Force of the Interior are part of AEF

Executions by Nazis to be punished

SHAEF, London, England (UP) – (July 15)
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower announced today that the French Forces of the Interior under Maj. Gen. Joseph-Pierre Kœnig are a combatant force and form an integral part of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

The Allied Supreme Commander issued his statement after receiving conclusive evidence that the Germans were labelling the French resistance forces as francs-tireurs (free shooters) and executing them.

Openly bear arms

He pointed out that the members of the FFI openly bear arms against the enemy and are instructed to conduct their operations in accordance with the rules of war. They are provided with a distinctive emblem, he said, adding that he regards them as an army under his command.

Under these circumstances, he warned, German reprisals against the resistance troops violate the rules of war. Such crimes only strengthen the determination of the United Nations to bring the war to a speedy, victorious conclusion and see that justice is carried out, he said.

Guilty to be punished

Every effort will be made to trace the authors of any atrocities committed against the members of forces under his command, he said, and steps to this end are already being taken. The guilty will be brought to swift justice, he added.

The London radio, heard by the United Press in New York, charged the Germans had executed a group of French patriots in Dax, 32 miles northeast of Bayonne. Quoting reports from San Sebastian, Spain, the broadcast added that a large-scale street battle had taken place in Bordeaux between resistance groups and the Fascist militia.

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McGlincy: Americans winning Saint-Lô the hard way – with blood

Advance of three hedgerows costly day’s work, but Yanks show they can beat Hitler’s fanatics
By James C. McGlincy, United Press staff writer

Outside Saint-Lô, France – (July 15)
“Advanced three hedgerows.”

That’s the way the message read which reached this command post this afternoon. It summed up the whole bloody battle for Saint-Lô.

In the attack on Saint-Lô, which began Monday, a gain of three hedgerows represents a sizable advance.

This isn’t a spectacular battle. there are no breakthroughs, no end runs, no big bag of prisoners – just a steady fight day after day that is whittling down both sides.

The Germans are being beaten here. But it’s no garden party. It’s a rough show, probably as rough in its way as the initial landings on the toughest beaches on D-Day.

Ceaselessly all week

The outfit attacking Saint-Lô has fought ceaselessly all week. Almost every day it has been the same story – our boys have jumped off in the morning.

They’ve found energy when they thought there was none left. Maybe they’ve had one- or two-hours sleep. Maybe none at all. Maybe they’ve been shelled all night. But in the dawn, they’ve gotten up and started forward gain.

Today was no exception. The boys started forward at 5:15 and by late afternoon they could count a maximum advance of half a mile. I’ve just looked at these boys. They’re tired, their eyes are bloodshot. Their faces are dirty and bearded. And their morale is high.

Having a tough time

But they aren’t kidding themselves. They have been having a tough time and they will be mightily grateful when they can have an end to it.

One of those kids came to Maj. Paul W. Prznarich of Mesa, Arizona, to report this evening. He was Henry H. Noonan of Santa Ana, California. He was just a private but he knew his fighting, this thin kid with the serious eyes and four days growth of whiskers.

He squatted on his heels and told what he’d seen. The Germans had one field covered by a machine-gun set with its muzzle dead level with the ground so that you didn’t have a chance even lying down.

“Do you know how their artillery is spotting us?” he asked.

Periscopes over hedges

“They’ve got periscopes which stick up over the hedges five or ten feet and they can see you every time you stick up your head.”

He told how the boys had been dropping all around him. He shook his head as though he couldn’t quite understand it. In the same tone, he told how he spotted a German in a foxhole.

He said:

I stopped and emptied the whole magazine of a Tommy gun in it. I wasn’t taking any chances. I didn’t wait to see if he was dead. I just ran on.

He wasn’t bragging about killing the German. He told it as matter-of-factly as he told the rest of it. It gives you an idea how tough these boys have gotten up here watching their buddies go down beside them.

Life only a game

They’re fighting some tough babies too. They found a copy of a German paratrooper’s credo on a prisoner. Among platitudes about what a grand and glorious thing it is to die for the Fatherland and Führer, it said: “We parachutists know how to die because life is only a game for us.”

They’re fighting as though they believe that. They’re being pounded by a mighty array of guns which is never silent for a whole minute, but they’ve got the terrain on their side.

One of these days the capture of Saint-Lô is going to be announced and you may be sure that it was won the hard way – with the blood and guts of American kids who have got the stuff to overcome Hitler’s tough young fanatics.

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