Operation OVERLORD (1944)

[NormanStewart]

600 ships drilled shells into coast

British, U.S. and lesser navies aided invasion – merchant seamen in landing craft

SHAEF, England – (June 6)
Guns of Allied battleships, monitors and cruisers fought a violent duel with the batteries of coastal guns that stud Adolf Hitler’s Atlantic Wall in the early hours today while destroyers and special assault craft crept in to hammer beach defenses and mortar and machine-gun position.

The pre-invasion shelling was thundered by 600 British warships, the Associated Press reported from London. In the greatest minesweeping operation in history, 10,000 British and Americans guided the assault forces.

The naval bombardment which followed the opening aerial assault was provided by men of war of both the United States and the Royal Navies. Under its cover, landing craft manned by U.S. bluejackets and British sailors and marines swept toward the shore. Some of the larger landing craft were manned by men of the British and Norwegian merchant navies.

All the landing craft were provided with dual-purpose guns, which can be used against either enemy aircraft or shore defenses. The main protection against the Luftwaffe was offered, however, by Allied fighters which spread an air umbrella over landing craft and transports.

Lurking on a flank

The navies were also prepared to counter enemy surface craft, which in the last three weeks had been concentrating off the south coast of the Brittany Peninsula, which placed them on the flank of the first landings.

The enemy forces known to be available were made up of destroyers, E-boats and R-boats as well as a number of U-boats, which, however, are difficult to operate successfully in the shallow waters of the Channel. Most of the submarines, however, are further south in the Bay of Biscay ports.

The proportion of naval vessels, including landing craft, is about three British to each two American craft. A substantial contribution has been made by the Royal Canadian Navy and ships of the Norwegian, Polish, Dutch, French and Greek navies as well. In all the American landing craft the guns are manned by the U.S. Navy, but the British have pressed Royal Marines and gunners of the Royal Armored Corps into service.

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U.S. Fleet trained in Britain

A British port – (June 6)
U.S. men-o’-war and landing craft were trained and prepared for the invasion at U.S. naval stations in the British Isles.

From many of the bases the gigantic invasion armada that attacked the coast of France today had sortied in an endless procession of ships – ships of all types wearing the Stars and Stripes and Union Jack, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers and landing craft.

The U.S. Navy’s part in the invasion has been months in the making. Several large naval bases, particularly the one at Londonderry, Northern Ireland, have been used by our Navy since shortly after the U.S. entry into the war. But soon after the Québec Conference last September decided definitely upon the tremendous operations which have now been started, the U.S. naval forces in Europe under Adm. Harold R. Stark, commenced a great expansion of the base and of training facilities available in the British Isles.

In less than a year, naval stations and base facilities of various kinds were secretly built, organized or established and through them have been “processed” thousands of officers and bluejackets.

Crews have been trained in the special techniques of landing groups of flotillas; officers and men have been taught protective measures against gas; thousands of the famous Seabees practiced the construction of docks, causeways, jetties, barges and ferries, and in cooperation with the Army, many actual landing exercises and full-dress rehearsals were held in preparation for D-Day.

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2,000 tons every 10 minutes

London, England (AP) – (June 6)
British warships alone loosed a tornado of fire west of Le Havre, pouring 2,000 tons of shells every ten minutes, with 600 ships firing everything from four- to 16-inchers, surprising and stunning shore batteries, whose return fire was sporadic.

Six of Britain’s greatest battleships defied coastal batteries by moving into the Channel’s narrow waters to add their devastating salvos to the tumult.

A British naval commentator revealed today that 300 naval vessels in amphibious exercises sailed within ten miles of the French coast last September.

[NormanStewart]

Weather outlook in Channel is uncertain; invasion postponed a day because of storms

London, England (AP) –
The weather, which caused a 24-hour postponement of D-Day, is still one of the biggest invasion worries, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force chiefs disclosed early today.

At midnight a strong wind blowing from the northeast raised whitecaps in the Dover Strait and high waves swept the beaches, and the wind showed no signs of moderating.

Although the weather will not be permitted to halt the flow of reinforcements, improvement in the weather would make operations very much easier, for there was a great amount of seasickness among the first troops crossing. Many got wet disembarking.

A naval officer just returned from the beaches said that, taking the operation as a whole, the weather probably was worse than at the time of the Sicily landings.

Deteriorating weather during the day yesterday forced the bombers of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force to attack at low altitudes, risking heavy flak.

The temperature dropped to 50 degrees at 10:30 p.m. and the sea was smooth, although a haze reduced the visibility, which in the afternoon afforded glimpses of the French coast.

In the morning, when the signal was given, the wind was blowing from the west and northwest so hard that a few tank landing craft had their engines swamped and could not go on, and headquarters said that other ships reported considerable seasickness among troops in the crossing.

Toward dawn the wind lost some of its strength and the sea was moderate and, after a daybreak shower, the sun broke through the clouds and there were intermittent sunny period throughout the morning.

The weather may have affected the reception received by the aerial attackers. Supreme Headquarters sources said that weather, as the attack started, was “very bad” for flying, the fliers ran into such hazards as brief thunderstorms over the Channel and clouds in some places 5,000 feet thick.

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London, England – (June 6)
Weather reports from the scene of the invasion of Europe are notably absent from Allied and German dispatches tonight. In the Strait of Dover nearly 200 miles northwest of Gen. Sir Bernard Montgomery’s beachheads, however, rain fell at dusk. The sky became heavily overcast in the afternoon and the French coast, once visible during the day, vanished from sight. It was hazy over the sea at nightfall but the surface was still smooth as a light northwesterly wind blew toward France.

Security regulations prohibit reports of weather in the English Channel where the invasion is now underway, but they do allow mention of conditions in the Strait between Dover and Calais, the narrowest strip of water between Britain and France.

[NormanStewart]

Germans predict further landings

Sudden stab at Paris feared by military spokesmen; surprise admitted

London, England (AP) – (June 6)
Berlin military spokesmen predicted in broadcasts tonight that further Allied landings would be made in Western Europe and suggested apprehensively that there might be a sudden stab for Paris.

Describing the situation as “still obscure,” Capt. Ludwig Sertorius said that:

Maybe the bulk of the enemy invasion troops are still at sea or at this moment are engaged in landing.

A commentator for Transocean declared:

Further Anglo-American transports are en route, partly in the Channel and partly north of Cherbourg. The Bay of Saint-Malo is thought to be a particularly likely target for major sea and airborne landings. The coastal areas between the estuaries of the Somme and the Seine are another candidate for invasion.

He added that an attack on the Boulogne-Calais region was not anticipated “for the time being.” This portion of France is the closest to England.

Caught napping, German says

A German war correspondent, Heinz Priet, in a broadcast from “the Normandy front,” painted a gloomy picture of the German situation. He said that the Germans had been caught napping.

Earlier, German propaganda had harped on the theme that the Germans were glad that the final test had come in the west and were confident that the outcome would mean German victory.

German radio commentators and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels acknowledged that this attack was no mere sham and that the real test in France had come at last. According to the German radio:

The enemy believes the situation in Germany to be the same as in 1918, but he is mistaken. The ears of the Germans are shut against enemy propaganda and slogans. The nerve campaign recently launched by the enemy in connection with the question if invasion likewise failed to impress the German people. We are ready to receive the enemy.

Aware of Allied strength

Underlying the torrent of words was a note of relief that the war of nerves was finally at an end, but, despite the vaunted confidence in ultimate victory, the commentators were aware of the might of the Allies’ assaults. One said:

It need not be specially emphasized that superiority at sea as regards size and number and kind of naval forces is clearly on the side of the two strongest naval nations – the United States and Great Britain.

Another remarked:

The invasion propaganda that the Anglo-American news services began today and Monday morning leaves no doubt that the Anglo-American military leaders are pursuing very big aims… Anglo-American war correspondents have already given detailed descriptions of last preparations for the invasion of Western Europe. They reported in the past 24 hours that gigantic concentrations of troops and material were taking place in the south of England.

A speaker for Transocean reported that life remained “normal” in Berlin and there were “no excitement, no extra editions, no special radio announcements.” DNB quoted a Foreign Office spokesman

Various German broadcasts reported by the Office of War Information said that the occupied countries had taken the news of the invasion quietly.

Dr. Goebbels unleashed a long-prepared assortment of anti-invasion propaganda on the French. Its theme was “Don’t help the Allies, for you will be sorry when all your country is handed over to the Bolsheviks by the Allies.”

For German consumption, Dr. Goebbels said:

The German nation is listening to one single command and this is the Führer’s command. Under his command, we have overcome even the most serious crisis.

[NormanStewart]

Eisenhower gave signal in trailer

Directs operations from camp in country; weather was his biggest ‘headache’

London, England – (June 6)
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower pressed the button for the invasion of France from a camp set deep in the heart of the sleeping English countryside. There, in a motor trailer, he is directing the first phase of the most gigantic amphibious operation ever conceived.

Surrounded only by a nucleus of his field commanders and staff officers, the supreme commander made his decision after the final weather forecasts had been handed to him. The general had had little sleep in the preceding 24 hours. But it could never be guessed, watching his stride, fresh and alert, between his office on wheels and his wardroom lined with maps.

Prior to making his momentous decision, Gen. Eisenhower called at the mansion headquarters of one of the airborne units, where the big Douglas airliners were assembling with their loads of troops, destined to land in France. Then it was only a few hours to the “hour.” The ships were in mid-Channel, the Navy was concentrating a bombardment power never paralleled and every airfield was reverberating with the sound of aircraft.

Radiating calm confidence, Gen. Eisenhower spent a great part of yesterday laughing and chatting with troops waiting to cross the Channel by sea and air to open the assault on German-occupied Europe. Later, he watched from a rooftop the mighty airborne armada form up preparatory to winging its way toward France.

Yesterday afternoon, Gen. Eisenhower met a small group of British and American press and radio representatives in his command shack, a plain, bare-walled structure about 20 feet square, with canvas roof and walls of stained pine boards. The general told his audience that the weather had been the biggest Allied headache in the selection of D-Day.

Gen. Eisenhower, slouched in a chair behind his big, tattered desk, talked with the correspondents for nearly two hours. The only sign of the weighty decision on his mind was an occasional tap of his finger for emphasis and the lighting of one cigarette after another.

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London, England (AP) –
Gen. Eisenhower is directing the invasion of Western Europe from an advance outpost in England, SHAEF said early today, denying a report broadcast by the Brazzaville radio that the commander had established headquarters on French soil.

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Patriot armies put at 8 million

London, England (UP) – (June 6)
The Allies placed on the alert today – ready for action when needed – an underground army estimated at eight million European patriots organized to strike mighty blows for the liberation of their own countries.

A statement broadcast by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against premature uprisings, counseled patience and ordered the patriots to prepare and stand ready for the signal. Reports from underground leaders said that the underground armies were prepared and awaited only the Allies’ signal.

Soon afterward, the first broadcast orders to underground forces since the invasion began went over the air. They advised the peoples of Northern and Western Europe that a new phase of the air offensive had started in which special leaflets would be dropped, perhaps only one hour before attacks were made, warning populations of areas to be raided.

Patriots were ordered to leave towns when such leaflets were dropped and to go into the country, keeping off main roads. All residents within 22 miles of the coast were told to leave this area, taking only what they could carry.

[NormanStewart]

Special hospital vessels evacuate Allied wounded

London, England (UP) – (June 6)
U.S. and British soldiers wounded as the first waves of Allied invasion forces surged across the beaches of France today have already been evacuated in special hospital landing craft that penetrated to the shore closely behind the assault troops.

Many lives have been saved by naval doctors who performed emergency operations on operating tables anchored to the decks, while on shore, under fire, Army surgical teams have established first-aid stations on the battlefields.

Wounded men unable to return to the fight were carried swiftly by litter teams to the landing crafts, after having received initial treatment in the frontline first-aid stations.

As soon as the hospital craft were full, they turned back and plowed their way through the crowded beachhead seas to big ships, aboard which the wounded were lifted in slings and taken to base hospitals in England.

[NormanStewart]

Montgomery sees a Rommel riposte

Gauges foe on desert victory; message to troops is full of confidence

Gen. Montgomery’s HQ (AP) – (June 6)*
Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, leading Allied armies in the grand assault on France, believes Field Marshal Erwin Rommel – the Desert Fox he trapped on Africa’s sands – will try at once “to knock us back into the sea.”

The little gray general who chased Marshal Rommel across North Africa predicted to correspondents on May 15 that the German general entrusted with ground defenses in the West “will commit himself on the beaches.”

Gen. Montgomery said:

He is a disrupter and to disrupt the invasion he will try to hit us early.

The general based his prediction, made public today, on a long study of Marshal Rommel’s methods in battle, and of the man himself.

“I have supreme confidence,” declared the hero of El Alamein, who broke the back of the German desert army there and then pursued him to the ultimate Afrika Korps disaster at Cap Bon, Tunisia.

Gen. Montgomery studied the characteristics, habits and fighting methods of Marshal Rommel – he even kept a picture of the Nazi general above his table in his desert caravan – and came to know him at an impulsive commander who preferred the quick decision to slow slugging.

Gen. Montgomery told the correspondents that his battle plans were based on a study on human nature.

He said:

It is important to know human nature and what men can do – to get men into the right places doing the right job.

As no two men are alike, so Gen. Montgomery believes no two divisions are alike.

He said:

You may think so, but I assure you they are different. The commander who thinks divisions are all alike will lose battles. No division is equally good at everything. One division does one thing well, another does another thing best. And it is the commander’s responsibility to see that the right divisions are in the right places at the proper time.

Gen. Montgomery praised the leadership of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in drawing the British and Americans close together, asserting:

We are the only two peoples in the world who could have done it – teamed up for this great show.

Gen. Montgomery expects a hard fight, sees the German soldier as good as any in the world, but he believes the German High Command is not up to its old standard.

He said:

Put the German on some ground and let him stay there long enough and it takes a bit of doing to get him off – it takes a bit of doing.

[NormanStewart]

80 cartridges, three grenades given each American for initial assault

Flamethrowers and dynamiters prepared – poker teaches men value of franc – 125 million maps guided forces

London, England – (June 6)
As U.S. invasion assault units moved to their assembly points each man was a walking arsenal. Besides his 80 rounds of ammunition, he carried three grenades. Some were armed with rifles, some with Springfields which had grenade launchers; others had Browning automatic rifles, flamethrowers and TNT pole charges.

U.S. troops each had 200 francs to spend on the other side. To get the hang of the value of the France, they played poker and other games in the little spare time they had while waiting.

They learned German for “Halt! Put up your hands” and French for “Which way is the Boche?” Civilians were not allowed to talk with them.

Three hundred square miles was the area of one marshaling area in England from which the troops were sent to embarkation points. Miles of new roads were made. Others were widened and strengthened. New bridges were erected and 150 miles of new railway track were laid.

A new system of telephone exchanges and lines was set up. In one area alone, the Army laid down three new landing fields and extended seven more for the Air Force.

Pre-invasion staff conferences were held in specially guarded buildings within sight of France. Staffs had detailed maps showing the landing areas. Every other item connected with the invasion was worked out to the second.

Security measures in “invasion” areas were not only thorough but severe on the soldier who offended against rules. According to one security officer, an unbriefed soldier talking to one who had been briefed for the invasion was out behind barbed wire until the initial assault was over to prevent “harmful talking.”

U.S. invasion forces had the use of 125 million maps, most of which were based on aerial photography.

In the last two years, the War Office directorate of military survey has produced more original maps of France than that country has made since the days of Julius Caesar. The largest-scale maps produced for the invasion were on a scale of 1 to 25,000.

Nine training centers were available in Britain for British and U.S. assault troops. Many square miles of populated countryside had to be cleared so live ammunition could be used.

One hour before they left for the invasion beaches, many soldiers had a good meal of pork chops and plum pudding. Some even had this meal immediately after a substantial breakfast of bacon and eggs. As they left for embarkation points, each received a “landing ration” and a bag of chocolate candy.

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Radio program for invaders

London, England (UP) – (June 6)
A broadcasting service to provide entertainment and keep the invasion forces informed on developments on all war fronts will be started at 5:55 a.m. tomorrow, SHAEF announced today. The program, to be called the AEF Program, will be broadcast over one of the overseas services of the BBC.

[NormanStewart]

Fires of France dim golden moon

Blazes on coast described by fliers who photographed first assault wave
By Gene Currivan

Somewhere in England – (June 6)
As the large golden “invasion” moon was sinking this morning and shafts of dawn touched the eastern sky, great fires raged on the northern French coast, where the Allied armies had established a beachhead.

Offshore great armadas of warships, with air cover the like of which had never been seen, fired continuous broadsides over the sandy beaches and onto the land beyond. Below the trajectory of shellfire, fighting men representing many of the nations of the earth scrambled ashore.

From the coast of England to the French beaches of the Channel, the relatively calm water was churned by wave after wave of ships, some large enough to cast their eerie shadows in the early morning glow and others darting through like so many water-bugs. As they neared the shore great bombing salvos roared from gun emplacements on the land. As the ships moved relentlessly forward, the larger ones firing as they plowed ahead, tremendous geysers mushroomed from the sea. It looked as if the Channel were dotted with a strange assortment of fountains.

Shells fail to halt invaders

While the early waves of landing craft disgorged their passengers on the beaches and equipment rolled forth from others, shells from German guns concealed in ridges and embankments became intense, but there was no slackening in the stream of men and materials. It seemed that no power on earth could impede the momentum of this unending flow. At one point, at least, they continued in through meadows and woodlands.

This bird’s-eye view of the start of history’s greatest invasion as pieced together here this morning from the reports of the first two U.S. reconnaissance-photograph pilots to return to England. Still in their flying suits, they sat around the briefing room, while more than 1,000 photographs that they had taken were being developed, and told their stories even before Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had broadcast to the world the announcement of the invasion.

Best German radio

They knew before they took off that they were to photograph the initial movements of D-Day. A couple of hours later, the German radio broadcast the news, but it was not until after they had returned with history already recorded on their films that the world knew certainly that the long-awaited day had arrived. The pilots were Lt. Col. G. A. Shoop of Beverly Hills, California, a former Army test pilot and commanding officer of an air station, and Maj. Norris E. Hartwell of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

These men cruised over the invasion area for almost two hours, photographing sometimes from only 500 feet in the face of deadly anti-aircraft fire. Not only did they encounter German fighter opposition. Everywhere they looked they saw fighters, but they were always Lightning, Thunderbolts, Mustangs, Spitfires or some other kind of Allied plane. They saw swarms of troops moving ashore and scurrying for cover and at other points they saw them walking nonchalantly along the beaches as if they had just completed tiresome maneuvers and were taking in the sights.

On another beach where the men had come under direct and withering fire, there were casualties and several trucks could be seen blazing. But equipment and men continued to pour ashore and, as soon as a ship had unloaded, it backed out and started away for another load. Meanwhile, the Navy kept up an incessant barrage, firing like artillery into the inner reaches and preparing the way for the advancing columns.

First flight as commander

Col. Shoop, who came to England as a test pilot a few months ago and expected to return to the United States last week, but was held here by the Army, was making his first flight as a commanding officer. When he first crossed the French coast at about 7:00 p.m., he said, there were a few fires burning, but about an hour later, when the Navy laid down its barrage, the coast was a mass of flames and most of the small villages along the shore were crackling to destruction.

Maj. Hartwell said that he had seen no sign of a naval battle and it seems that the Allied navies had complete control of the waters. It was obvious, he said, that the Germans had cluttered the water near the beaches with all kinds of obstacles, but nothing appeared to hinder the passage of the landing craft for long.

Col. Shoop and Maj. Hartwell were the first to go out and the first to return. All day long, other teams followed them on similar missions and they themselves were looking forward to another flight over the invasion coast this afternoon.

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Realism tempers Algiers jubilance

French realize that beginning of liberation means new ordeal for country
By Harold Callender

Algiers, Algeria – (June 6)
In this temporary capital of France, where a half-million persons or more have relatives in France and thousands have homes there, the invasion, so long and so impatiently awaited, was greeted today with joy tempered by the realization that the beginning of liberation was another ordeal for France.

Frenchmen clung to their radios as fragments of news trickled through all day long. Clusters of people read bulletins in newspaper offices. Crowds stood in the central square to listen to Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s speech to France, relayed by loudspeakers.

The French recently out of France were far more excited than those long resident in Algiers, who have been largely on the margin of the war. Some of those from France have fought in resistance groups and been arrested by the Gestapo, fired on by German troops or locked in German prisons. There are some 23,000, mostly youths, who have recently escaped from France, while the émigrés who have swollen the North African population since the beginning of the war may number 400,000.

Many of these Frenchmen know intimately the parts of the coast invaded today. Many have homes that will be engulfed by the tide of battle. Many have wives and children in the area between the Allied landings and Paris. Yet they are glad that the landings have come at least, for they have long awaited it as an ordeal indispensable to liberation.

Some of these Frenchmen have helped to organize the underground, which is now officially called the interior French forces and forms part of the army. It embraces some 200,000 organized armed combatants who have awaited this day to coordinate their efforts with those of the Allies. Their role is not unlike that of parachutists behind the enemy’s lines.

The presence of Gen. de Gaulle in London became known to the public only after the invasion had begun. It seemed appropriate that he should be there to speak to the French nation with encouragement and advice in what was called today the second battle of France.

[NormanStewart]

French, Belgians see hope revived

But feelings on D-Day are mingled with fear for safety of relatives

Frenchmen, Belgians and Netherlanders now in New York – members of those nations whose homelands lie directly in the path of the invasion – learned yesterday of the Allied landings in Europe with mingled hope of victory, fear for their friends and families in the new battle zone, and relief that the long waiting had finally ended.

Many prayed at home or in their national churches. Some sang their patriotic songs. Some celebrated, drinking toasts to the invasion and the rapid liberation of their homes. Some speculated grimly on the battles still ahead.

At the French Canteen, 63 W 44th Street, the French Military Mission gave the news to André Czerwinski, the “concierge,” at 9:00 a.m. ET.

A member of the French Army in the last war, round, white-aproned M. André kept busy all morning announcing D-Day to men who came in for coffee or beer and sandwiches. Grouped about a large wall map of France, sailors and merchant seamen pointed out their towns, speculated about military advances, worried aloud about their families. At 9:30, a group of 30 sailors on their way out of New York stopped at the canteen, heard the word “invasion.” They broke into “La Marseillaise.”

Jan François and Marcellin Fiquet, officers of the French Merchant Marine, learned at the canteen that D-Day had come.

Said prayer, then beer

“I wondered if I should go to church,” François explained. “But I am too happy. I said a prayer here by myself and then we ordered beer.” As he talked, he took a hostess’ red hat, perched it on the back of his head, and began to sing “Les Bérets,” a song in praise of the girls in northern France. Marcellin Fiquet has not been home in four years. His wife and son are in Caen.

“They say the Allies are there today,” he said soberly.

Then he and Jan François clicked their beer mugs again, “au succès de l’invasion!”

At the Church of St. Vincent de Paul, 123 West 23rd Street, the Rev. Henry V. Hall said the 8:30 mass. Ignorant of the invasion, he was puzzled by the constant sound of feet as he faced the altar. As he turned toward the people halfway through the ceremony, he found the number of his congregation doubled.

So many worshipers bought six-day candles at the Church of Our Lady of Notre Dame, 40 Morningside Drive, early in the day that, later in the day, requests could not be met, said the Rev. Thomas J. Brown, the pastor.

In the Netherlands Club room of the Seamen’s Church Institute, one man said, “We’re glad it’s started. The beginning of the end. But how long will it take even yet?”

Diamond workers quit

Belgian relief organizations redoubled their work and business stopped in the diamond industry centers as workers clustered in whispering groups in W 47th Street. But many feared to discuss the news of the day with strangers, lest harm overtake their relatives at home.

Henri Fast of the Belgian Information Center, 630 5th Avenue, was at his telephone by 5:00 a.m., giving the news to his compatriots.

All morning, Belgians came into St. Albert’s Church, 433 W 47th Street, the only Belgian church in New York. A sobbing woman dabbed her eyes as she reached the vestry.

She said:

I just wound a kerchief about my head this morning. I didn’t even brush my hair this morning. I have a son in the Army. All I want to do today is pray.

At the Diamond Center, Inc., 15 E 47th Street, president Marcel Ginsburg, who in pre-Hitler days was president of the Beurs voor Diamanthandel in Antwerp, said all Belgian and Dutch workers observed a minute of silence at 11 o’clock.

He declared:

All business has stopped. They are praying and listening to the radio, thinking about their families abroad, and wondering where and how they are.

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Aerial aerobatics a Nazi claim

London, England (AP) –
The German radio asserted today that German parachutists were used in combating Allied airborne troops even before they landed in France. These Nazi parachutists, the Germans said, “dropped onto Allied gliders and set them afire, as well as shooting their occupants.”

[NormanStewart]

Invasion’s greatest problem was shipping of huge supplies

700,000 separate items needed, many of these in millions; planning began here and in London two years ago

London, England – (June 6)
The battle now raging on the beaches of Western Europe was fought – and its planners believe won – in the war rooms of London and Washington two years ago.

For the U.S. Army, now attacking side by side with the British in the greatest military venture of all time, this is the beginning of the end for Adolf Hitler, just as the turning of the tide in North Africa in 1942 was the end of the beginning for the Allies.

Plans for this operation were roughed out while we were still young in this war. It was recognized then that the difficult problem would not be men. Our commanders knew they could raise and train enough troops and that they could count on a certain high standard of skill and courage. The great problem was furnishing supplies and getting them to the battlefield with the men.

When Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called Lt. Gen. John C. H. Lee to be deputy commander in the European Theater of Operations and head of service of supply over here, he handed him the biggest job of its sort that has ever fallen on the shoulders of any man.

As our operations on the continent progress and expand we in time will have fighting forces there that will dwarf the American Expeditionary Force of the last war and this machine age war requires double the amount of materiel for each man needed in the last war.

It requires, for example, 700,000 separate items, ranging from tanks to watch-springs and many of these must be provided in millions. For instances, there is one vehicle to each six men.

Counting in everything, such as trucks, clothes and weapons, it takes ten tons of organic equipment to get one man into the European Theater of Operations and it takes 60 pounds of supplies per day to keep him here. Under combat operations, each man will need one ton of supplies a month, ammunition, clothing, food, medical supplies, etc.

In combat, one pair of shoes lasts on the average only two weeks and clothes are quickly torn to rags,

So overshadowing is the logistical factor in warfare that Gen. Lee believes that when Germany collapses it will be a logistical breakdown.

The landing on the continent was originally conceived on a large scale. But as Gen. Eisenhower got down to detailed work on it, he enlarged its power and rate of acceleration. A year ago, supply services were called on to step up greatly their preparations to keep up with the greater tactical demands. It has been stepped up since then and undoubtedly will be again.

Lest anyone in America think that now that we are breaching Hitler’s fortress we can let down, it is worth knowing that our commanders here recognize that our needs in most items will become greater and our supply problems more difficult in direct ratio to the progress of our invasion.

Gen. Lee and his subordinates have left nothing to chance and have calculated all quantities of the myriad items needed to a scientific nicety, based on statistics of past operations and allowing a liberal safety margin. Cargo ships have brought supplies to these islands according to a rigid timetable and they have been handled at ports with a celerity that has given them a remarkably quick turnaround.

British railways have operated with similar precision and so have truck convoys, which day and night one sees or hears rumbling through the highways. Gradually a surplus was built up in depots scattered everywhere, on which the Armed Forces can draw in an emergency.

Until now, streams of supplies from the United States have been funneling into this country. They will now be siphoned out onto continental beaches.

With the invasion comes a radical shift in the whole supply line. As soon as we are well established and have continental ports functioning the bulk of supplies will go directly from American ports to the continent, bypassing Britain.

This correspondent spent a considerable time in the period just preceding D-Day at Service of Supply headquarters, watching Gen. Lee and his key men handling their gigantic affairs. Their officers were going 24 hours a day.

Messages came and orders were dispatched and officers moved in and out on vital errands. Yet there was no tearing of hair, no shouting. Everybody was abreast or ahead of his job and they even had time to tell how they were doing it.

At the end of one especially strenuous day, Brig. Gen. Royal B. Lord, Gen. Lee’s Chief of Staff, relaxed and said:

Yes, each problem does look formidable when you first approach it. But I try not to see it as one big problem but as a combination of a number of little ones, each of which is easy enough to solve.

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U.S. chiefs show optimism on push

Marshall, King and Arnold at White House for conference with the President

Washington – (June 6)
While giving out no fresh information on the progress of the invasion, the reaction of both the War and Navy Departments today was that the first phases seemed to be “going well.”

Gen. George C. Marshall (the Chief of Staff), Adm. Ernest J. King (the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations) and Gen. H. H. Arnold (Air Forces commanding general), the “big three” of the American invasion planners on this side of the Atlantic, were summoned to the White House this morning for an hour and a half conference with President Roosevelt.

They exchanged greetings with newsmen as they left the White House, but outside of a remark by Adm. King that the big push is “doing all right so far” they made little pertinent comment.

Navy’s prayers with boys

At his morning press conference, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal said, “The Navy’s prayers and hearts are with the boys who are doing the job over there.”

At the Pentagon, a formal request of War Department correspondents for some comment from Gen. Marshall was answered by Maj. Gen. A. D. Surles, Director of Public Relations, with the following note:

In view of the fact that neither the Secretary of War nor the Chief of Staff has anything to add to the news coming from Supreme Allied Headquarters for the present, neither will hold a press conference today.

Secretary of War Stimson, passing a correspondent in the corridor, remarked that the first reports indicated the invasion was “going very well.”

Informed military sources here seemed convinced that the progress of the Allied armies would become more difficult as the Germans were able to oppose their full available strength against the sectors where we are advancing. No one holds out any hopes of easy going.

Big Allied force indicated

There was encouragement in the reports from Allied headquarters that indicated we had followed what some military men call “Rule No. 1” for a successful invasion: We had applied sufficient force to the points where we made our initial landings. The tremendous numbers of ships, landing craft and planes employed, implying the movement of a sizable number of men and the materiel with which to back them, indicates that this was the large-scale venture that will be necessary for victory.

Observers conceded there was nothing in the first reports to indicate that all the pressure would be applied in the section of northern France where the landings were made, but they discouraged excessive speculation on this point.

The War and Navy Department’s officials promised to supply as much background as possible on the invasion, although they have stressed that the main news will break from Europe. The background supplied today was more in the nature of description of preparations rather than interpretation on what is taking place, although spokesmen admittedly were handicapped by a lack of information.

At the War Department, Brig. Gen. John Magruder, newly-appointed press spokesman, made plans to see reports between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. ET each day to attempt to explain developments.

[NormanStewart]

Swedish population rejoices at invasion

Premier and foreign minister, however, reiterate neutrality

Stockholm, Sweden – (June 6)
The peal of church bells and the roar of guns accompanied the invasion news in Stockholm today. It was coincidence, however, for today was Swedish Flag Day and King Gustav’s name day, which is always celebrated with the ringing of church bells and a 21-gun salute.

The invasion was the only subject of conversation in Stockholm today although the stolid Swedes did not throw confetti or streamers or give any noisy expression of their feelings.

The afternoon newspapers kept publishing extras throughout the day, the first one being on the street well before 11:00 a.m. (local time). After that, new extras kept appearing every hour.

While there was no mistaking the joy of the population that the invasion had begun with hopeful signs of initial success, there was equal satisfaction here that the Allied had picked the Normandy coast and not Norway, as such a move might conceivably have brought Sweden into the war.

---

Christian E. Günther, Swedish Foreign Minister, speaking yesterday on the occasion of Swedish Flag Day, reiterated that Sweden would “openly stand by her attitude and policy” on neutrality and added that the Swedish people “had no reason to do penance.”

Mr. Günther’s remarks were echoed by the Swedish Premier, Per Albin Hansson, who said that Sweden was “ready now and in the future to meet any possible storms that might sweep the country.”

The statements of the two Swedish leaders were broadcast domestically by the Swedish radio and reported by the Federal Communications Commission.

[NormanStewart]

Allies link radios to inform Europe

Coordinate radio stations to broadcast an unprecedented propaganda campaign

Allied radio stations in the United States, England, North Africa and Italy were coordinated early yesterday morning for an unprecedented propaganda campaign directed at Germany and the occupied countries. At the hour of invasion, the broadcasting facilities were linked together in an international chain to insure a maximum audience on the continent for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s statement to “the people of Western Europe.”

The overseas branch of the Office of War Information working closely with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the State Department, put into operation planes calling for transmissions in 22 languages on a 24-hour basis. Religious, political, educational and labor leaders throughout the day entered the local OWI studios at 214 W 57th Street to make recordings that were later broadcast on shortwave to the difference language groups overseas.

The OWI broadcasts from New York were based on a detailed pattern designed to instill confidence in the ultimate victory of the Allies but to recognize the hazards yet to be faced.

Chief points in OWI plan

A summary of the chief points in the OWI’s psychological warfare operations follows:

• Naval, air and ground forces participating in the action were referred to as “the Allied Expeditionary Force” rather than as “the Armies of Liberation.” Use of the words “second front” and “invasion” were omitted in favor of the words “landing” or “landings.”

• The occupied countries were asked for the most part to maintain discipline and await official orders before engaging actively in the fight. Foreign workers within Germany, potentially a source of major aid to the Allies were warned that the invasion was not their D-Day but rather their mobilization day.

• The only direct appeal for aid was made to transportation workers to sabotage communication facilities between Nantes and Antwerp.

• Broadcasts directed at German troops in Western Europe were discontinued on the ground that the Nazi soldiers would be otherwise occupied, the time being devoted to additional programs for Central Europe. Troops far from the front were warned, however, that in modern warfare there was no safety anywhere. The names of German commanders were omitted as far as possible to avoid glorifying them in the eyes of the audience within Germany.

• References to food or relief supplies for the occupied countries were being withheld pending formal announcement of such plans. There was no mention of “secret weapons.”

• Any organized resistance to the Nazis within Europe was treated solely as part of the Allies military operations and not as necessarily indicating a possible revolt by the European peoples.

• The broadcasts recognized that the German defenses were strong and their equipment of a high order. No suggestion was made of any deterioration in Nazi morale.

• Major emphasis was placed on the Allied superiority in arms and the determination of Allied soldiers to win final victory. The many countries represented in the Allied forces were listed.

• The reaction of Americans at home was described as one of calmness born of confidence in Gen. Eisenhower and the Allied fighting men.

It was at 3:48 a.m. yesterday that the OWI picked up the BBC’s announcement that Gen. Eisenhower’s statement to the European peoples would follow in a minute’s time. It was piped to the OWI transmitters in the eastern part of the country and sent back to Europe. Stations in Algiers, Tunis, Italy and Cairo also carried the message.

Unlike the day of the North African invasion, however, transatlantic receiving conditions were not too good and at 4:18 a.m. the local OWI had to abandon its relay of programs from London. Throughout the morning, atmospheric conditions continued to result in relatively weak signals that in the city made shortwave reception difficult, though the BBC was at all times audible.

The OWI’s efforts were reinforced by other broadcasts from the Western Hemisphere. Shortwave stations in Toronto, Winnipeg and Newfoundland carried news of the invasion from Canada while outlets in Cuba, Panama City, Brazil and other South American countries were heard giving details.

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Wives of D chiefs voice fortitude

Mrs. Roosevelt stresses the cost ahead; faith asked by Mrs. Eisenhower

Washington – (June 6)
Women whose husbands are bearing the brunt of the invasion responsibility shared their D-Day thoughts with the women of the country.

Mrs. Roosevelt’s message was that everyone must accept the fact that this is only a beginning, not an end, that there will be much to go through, but that the women of the country will go through it in the way they have met all the tests of history.

She said at her press conference:

Until the heavy invasion machines land, we are not very secure. This type of war is costly – people must go through anxiety, suffering, loss. The cost of liberation to many of these countries will be great at the moment of liberation. Retiring armies will take their toll and the invading armies also have to take their toll as the country is fought over.

This is not a happy day.

She said that she got the invasion news from her husband before she went to bed last night and slept very little.

Mrs. Eisenhower’s message

Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, off to her son’s West Point graduation into the Army today, left behind a message for NBC broadcast, “Let’s have faith, cheerfully wish them luck and work a little harder than ever before.”

The wife of the commander of the invasion forces also said in her message, read by NBC commentator Nancy Osgood:

We know now that our men are attacking our enemies. We know that they will be victorious. But we also know they will have many trying hours ahead, hours in which we shall find it difficult not to be restless and unnerved. We are eager to help in some big way, and yet, if we could ask our fighting men, they would tell us – Ours is the job to fight, yours to help, by remaining as cheerful and as busy as possible.

On the same broadcast, Mrs. Harold Stark, wife of the admiral in command of all U.S. naval forces in the European Theater, also gave practical “keep busy” advice, and said:

May the troops have all the luck in the world, so that victory may come quicker.

Mrs. Carl Spaatz, whose husband commands the strategic Air Forces in Great Britain, commented:

As an air wife, I am tremendously proud of our Air Forces, especially the magnificent pre-invasion job they have done. That great softening-up job will be responsible for saving the lives of many thousands of American soldiers and sailors.

Offers comforting thoughts

This should be of the greatest comfort and pride to the families of Air Force men, especially to those families whose men are missing, or may have been killed in action.

And she gave another comforting thought:

Never in history has a greater military undertaking been so carefully planned. Everything has been thought of and done to give that man of yours the best possible chance of coming through this terrific action.

Mrs. Alan G. Kirk, wife of the admiral in charge of U.S. invasion task forces, added her assurance that valuable lessons had been learned in the amphibian operations in Africa, Sicily, Italy and the Pacific, and said:

Consequently, we can be certain that this, the biggest landing of all, will be most successful. Here at home, we can believe in success as well as wish for it.

Mrs. James Doolittle, wife of the Tokyo raider, who commands the 8th Air Force in England, said:

Our troops expect even more than our confidence – they expect us to keep our chins up. We need more than ever before to slow that we have courage.

The Doolittles have a son in the 9th Air Force in England, and so Mrs. Doolittle gave this message to mothers:

Your sons are fighting to make victory possible. As Gen. Doolittle has said to me so often: “My boys are tops. They never stop to think of what may happen to them. They just do their job.”

[NormanStewart]

Canadians win goal, Premier declares

Progress thrills Parliament; Québec Bloc sets precedent

Ottawa, Canada – (June 6)
Canadian troops taking part in the Allied landing in France “have successfully achieved their first objective and are making good progress,” Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King informed the House of Commons this afternoon in making his report on the day’s great events.

At the same time, he warned that:

The task of having landed is but a prelude to the more urgent task of maintaining this first foothold and of maintaining it so strongly that the enemy cannot dislodge the Allied forces.

Opposition leader Gordon Graydon said:

There are no divisions of opinion, no cleavages in thought in this House as we rivet our attention upon the progress of the long-anticipated offensive in Europe.

From the ranks of the French-speaking members, Maurice Lalonde rose to acclaim, in the French language, “the historic fact that from the belfry of time has rung out the hour of the deliverance of France.”

With the permission of the House, he asked that the French national hymn should be sung, and for the first time in Canadian parliamentary history, all the members joined in singing “The Marseillaise.” They following with “God Save the King.”

---

Toronto, Ontario, Canada (CP) – (June 6)
Canadians of every faith went to their churches today to bespeak the help of God for their fighting men with the Allied invasion forces in Europe.

In almost every Canadian city, there were special services in the churches, which also remained open during the day for private prayer.

[NormanStewart]

Invasion cuts job of Atlantic Fleet

Adm. Ingersoll: Supply task now is to keep ‘expenditures replaced’

Washington – (June 6)
All the American men and material needed for the invasion of Europe had been convoyed to the United Kingdom by the Atlantic Fleet, and now the fleet’s greatly reduced job will be to keep the “expenditures replaced,” Adm. Royal E. Ingersoll, Atlantic Fleet commander, declared here today.

Adm. Ingersoll, who attended a press conference with James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, and Adm. Ernest J. King, Commander-in-Chief of the fleet, also said that Atlantic Fleet warships, from “battleships down,” and Navy aircraft based in the United Kingdom were aiding the invasion.

U.S. battleships, he declared, were presumably bombarding German concrete shore defenses as they did in the Marshalls invasion, where at Kwajalein the Pacific war craft moved within 1,200 yards of the shore.

Adm. Ingersoll is regarded in the Navy as one of the unsung heroes of the war, for it was his Atlantic Fleet that escorted the troops and munitions to Great Britain and the Mediterranean and also won the Battle of the Atlantic against submarines. Adm. King introduced the publicity-shy Adm. Ingersoll as “a great sea officer and a great commander.”

Adm. Ingersoll emphasized that the men and material needed for the invasion were in place, and that the Atlantic Fleet’s job should now be easier while taking care of invasion needs from this point on.

Furthermore, he declared, although there have been reports that the U-boat packs would return to the Atlantic when the invasion started to prey on communication lines from America to England, this threat “is not yet in evidence.”

Adm. Ingersoll said that since Jan. 1, 1942, the Atlantic Fleet has escorted more than 7,000 across the Atlantic “and only lost ten,” and none of these was a troopship. There were other ship losses in the Atlantic, he added, but those occurred among ships not escorted by the fleet.

The admiral said the Germans “gave us some bad knocks in the beginning,” but despite this, the men and munitions got through.

The pre-invasion battle with the U-boats was a battle of wits and scientific developments, in which the Nazis sometimes were ahead of us, and we fortunately were usually ahead of them, he said.

Nazi planes still remain a threat, Adm. Ingersoll reported. In the Mediterranean within the last two to three weeks, a convoy of more than 100 ships was attacked by 40 German aircraft, he revealed. The convoy fought off the raiders by itself, shooting down 18-20 of them and not losing a ship.

Adm. Ingersoll said that as of last Saturday, the Atlantic had 1,511 ships assigned to it for duty or training.

[NormanStewart]

Hull calls fight all-time ‘pivotal’

‘Cause of mankind never more truly represented,’ he says; Pershing confident

Washington – (June 6)
Secretary of State Hull, vacationing in Hershey, Pennsylvania, said today that the Allied invasion armies were “waging the most pivotal battle of all time.”

Edward R. Stettinius Jr., Acting Secretary of State, declared that “the liberation of Europe has now begun.”

Andrei A. Gromyko, the Soviet Ambassador, looked to “a speedy and complete victory over the enemy.”

The Norwegian Embassy declared that the men and women of Norway “salute their comrades in arms in the firm hope that D-Day is Doomsday for the tyrants and Resurrection Day for the civilized world.”

Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippines, broadcast from Saranac Lake, New York, to his people that “every blow struck for freedom anywhere in the world is a blow struck for our own freedom,” and that “day by day the forces of liberation are advancing irresistibly toward the Philippines.”

Labor pledges made

American labor pledged its all-out support on the home front.

William Green, president of the AFL, in a telegram to the presidents of all affiliates, called for uninterrupted production “under any and all circumstances.” He said:

Until Hitler is crushed, every worker enrolled in the army of production must consider himself part of the invasion forces of the United States and conduct himself accordingly.

Philip Murray, president of the CIO, in a message to President Roosevelt, declared that no CIO member on the home front ever “by thought, word or action will be untrue to our fighting men and to the great goal of our victory effort.” He pledged “our complete loyalty in any steps or any sacrifices that may be necessary” and asserted:

No violation of our no-strike pledge can be tolerated by the consciences of our members.

Mr. Stettinius told his press conference that he and Mr. Hull were in communication concerning the invasion before daylight and that the State Department was keeping in constant touch with the War Department on the situation.

Statement by Hull

The statement by Mr. Hull was as follows:

Our brave Allied armies today waging the most pivotal battle of all time never more truly represented the cause of liberty and of mankind.

The forces of savagery desperately endeavoring to destroy the human race are making their last stand. While we fight and pray, and while we know that the fighting will be hard, we confidently look forward to a great historic Allied victory. We must then pledge our all that never again shall the forces of human destruction be let loose on the world.

Mr. Stettinius issued this statement:

freedom from suffering and oppression is at last on the horizon. For the people of China and the Far East also, this day heralds the beginning of a new era.

Our men and those of our Allies are making the supreme sacrifice in order that we and all men may live in peace and freedom. For us at home this is the time not for rejoicing – that can come later – but for every one of us to put everything he has into his job to speed the day of victory.

Soviet envoy’s statement

Ambassador Gromyko’s statement was as follows:

Very good and encouraging news. The catastrophe of fascist Germany is drawing nearer. What Hitler and his criminal clique have dreaded most has happened. Germany is forced to carry on the war on two fronts.

The Soviet people wish all success to our Allies in this most important military undertaking, which is speeding up our common victory over the mortal enemy of mankind – Hitlerite Germany. I am sure that the American soldiers and officers, as well as other Allied forces taking part in this operation, will exhibit staunchness and bravery worthy of this event.

There is no doubt that the combined blows of the powerful Allied coalition will insure a speedy and complete victory over the enemy.

[NormanStewart]

Congress marks day with prayers

Members voice confidence in our arms, then resume old party contentiousness

Washington – (June 6)
Congress was stirred deeply by word that the Allied invasion of continental Europe from the north was on and turned today to prayers for speed and complete victory with a minimum of human losses.

The members voiced confidence in the skills and plans of our military and naval leaders.

“Grant that on this D-Day of liberation,” was the supplication of the Rev. Dr. Frederick Brown Harris, chaplain of the Senate, “weapons of freedom forged in fires of faith may pierce the shields of pagan steel and the cruel invaders’ walls, reared in treachery and tyranny and oppression, may crumble and fall at the boast of Allied might.

Upon our dear boys in this fearful baptism of fire, of whom we think today with special tenderness, lifting them up on the winds of our intercession as knights of Thy Righteous will, and upon the hosts of oppressed now at last to emerge from dark dungeons of thralldom pour thy enabling grave as together they strike the blow on that fair and storied land where the grapes of wrath are stored.

We pray today, this day of days, for our enemies with calloused hearts and warped minds and poisoned conceptions. Forgive them, they know not what they do.

In the House, the Rev. Dr. James Shera Montgomery prayed:

In our prayer, we bring unto Thee our heroic sons and daughters of the battle lines who have surrendered their secret hoys, their aspirations and the blessings of the years. Amid the walls and bulwarks of savage war embrace them in Thy fatherly arms, reveal Thyself unto them in mercy and hide not Thy face from them; comfort them in the face of all adversaries as their swords of righteousness prevail.

In the Senate and House, heads were bowed in silent prayer. Senators joined in reciting the 23rd Psalm. The prayer composed last night by President Roosevelt was read in both chambers.

Senator Alben W. Barkley, Majority Leader, said:

I am sure I speak the sentiment of the Senate, when I say that we all recognize the solemnity of this hour, the great, tragic importance of the events which are now in our minds and hearts, and that all we need to do, and all we probably should do now, or can do, is to pray fervently and devoutly for the success of our troops and those of our allies.

Senator Wallace H. White Jr., Minority Leader, said that the day was shadowed by the possibilities of disaster, but in it there was the substantial promise of a glorious ending.

The spirit of unity left the House as the day progress and as it continued its contest over legislation designed to extend the statute of limitations on court-martial proceedings against RAdm. Husband E. Kimmel and Maj. Gen. Walter C. Short, commanders at Pearl Harbor.

Party lines were drawn as Republicans succeeded in extending the limitation for only three months.

In the Senate, consideration of the bill to extend the Emergency Price Control and Stabilization Acts led to sharp criticism, mostly by Democrats, of the lack of flexibility in the OPA.

[NormanStewart]

City greets news quietly, solemnly

No noisy outbursts, no large crowds, but calm confidence marks reaction to invasion
By Russell Porter

The people of New York City received the invasion news calmly. There was no celebration, no outburst of enthusiasm, no sign of fear or depression. The prevailing mood was one of deep solemnity, of sober realization that this was only the beginning, that the road might be hard and bloody and that many might lose sons and brothers before the battle was won.

At first the atmosphere was charged with anxiety and worry as the majority of New Yorkers awakened to gain their first information on the landings. Later, as the good news came in of initial successes and unexpectedly light losses, a feeling of quiet confidence and encouragement spread throughout the city. In every section of the five boroughs there were faith and hope in victory and the safety of U.S. and Allied soldiers and sailors. This spirit of quiet confidence was typical of the whole nation’s reaction to D-Day.

Churches held special services

Two attitudes were characteristic of New Yorkers on this most momentous day in American and world history. One was the kneeling posture, head bowed, eyes cast down in prayer; the other was the upright stance, head lifted, eyes raised to read the news on bulletin boards and electric signs. These symbolized the city’s principal reactions – a profound intensification of religious feeling, and a great hunger for news.

The first of these reactions was demonstrated in a spontaneous desire for prayer that swept over the entire city. Churches of every denomination were crowded. Special services were held, special masses and special prayers of intercession were said, special candles were lighted. In schools, hospitals, courtrooms, public buildings, theaters, war plants, stores, stock exchanges and other places where people congregate, routine proceedings were halted for brief prayers or moments of silence in tribute and respect to the armies of liberation. Hymns were sung at D-Day assemblies in the public schools, which held one-minute periods of silent devotion. Audiences stood with bowed heads in the theaters.

Mayor leads in prayer

Mayor La Guardia led a prayer in City Hall for the success of the Allied troops and for the comfort of mothers and wives of the soldiers and sailors. Archbishop Francis J. Spellman of St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, read a “Prayer for America” at mass and later over the radio – a prayer he had composed himself, for a “just, merciful and wise” victory, for “guidance for our leaders” and “protection for our sons.” Bishop William T. Manning, officiating at the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, prayed for “speedy victory for the forces of right and freedom for the sake of all mankind,” and for “a righteous peace.” Rabbi Samuel H. Goldstein of Temple Emanu-El gave thanks for the fighting men of this and all the United Nations who have left their homes to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny and “establish justice among men and righteousness among peoples.”

All the churches and synagogues were open, from the big cathedrals to the smallest houses of worship and meeting halls. Fifty thousand attended a public prayer meeting at the Eternal Light in Madison Square.

The religious fervor was accompanied by a quick upsurge of patriotism, demonstrated particularly in a rush of blood donors to the Red Cross and in accelerated sales of war bonds and stamps.

The overwhelming demand for news from the front made itself felt on all sides. People gathered around the radios in their homes, in stores, in restaurants and bars, in taxis parked in the street and elsewhere, to get the latest bulletins, watched newsflashes on movie screens or waited at the newsstands for successive editions of the newspapers with the details.

Everywhere in the city the same spirit was reported. From the luxury apartments of Park Avenue to the tenements of the Lower East Side and Harlem, the German-American section in Yorkville and Little Italy, Chinatown and all such settlements, all the elements in New York’s melting pot reached in the same way.

Fifth Avenue, the city’s great showplace, was decked with American and Allied flags. The doors of the big churches in the avenue were flung wide open, and people kept going in and out all day long. Some of the big department stores closed at 1:00 p.m., others at 4:00 p.m. – out shut down for the entire day – so that their employees could attend church services. Many business officers closed early or gave their workers long lunch hours for the same purpose.

Large crowds are lacking

Except for the churchgoers, there were no unusual crowds. It was apparent that war workers had stuck to their jobs turning out more equipment for the Armed Forces instead of taking the day off to rush into the streets and demonstrate.

This was also true in Times Square, where people lined the sidewalks to watch the electric bulletins on The New York Times Tower but did not congregate in abnormal fashion; in Wall Street, and in the other main thoroughfares throughout the greater city.

If anything, the street crowds in the center of the city were smaller than normal yesterday and last night, presumably because people were staying home to listen to the radio and read the papers.

President Roosevelt’s invasion prayer was read to the audiences of Broadway theaters, which were crowded last night, as were the nightclubs. The audiences were kept informed of late news developments through announcements from the stage.

In some restaurants, no food or liquor was served during President Roosevelt’s broadcast of his prayer. Radios were turned out so the diners could listen and join in the prayer if they chose, and many did so.

In Wall Street, the buying and selling of stocks and bonds was halted briefly at both the New York Stock Exchange and the Curb Exchange while prayers were offered.

Wounded veterans of the Italian, North African and Pacific campaigns in this war joined in the prayers at the veterans’ hospitals in the city, while veterans of world War I took part in nonsectarian services held by American Legion posts and other veterans’ organizations. They made heartfelt pleas that casualties would be light in the Battle of Europe.

Soldiers and sailors of the United States and the allies, especially British and Canadian soldiers and British and French sailors, appeared on the streets in the usual numbers and were eyed with even more than the ordinary respect. They appeared to share the solemn mood of civilians. There did not seem to be as much skylarking as usual among the men on leave in the big city. Last night, they were not roistering around streets to any great extent. On the contrary, they were sitting in the United Service Organizations and other canteens, their ears glued to the radios, or their eyes fastened on the newspapers, just like everybody else.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: Let us pray

The President’s prayer last night was the nation’s prayer. This nation was born in the only revolution in history made in the name of God. It was born of the conception that the rights of man are not conveyed to him by any accident of class or color, race or creed, are not conferred or withheld by any government, but are given him by God as the inalienable birthright of the human being. it is to defend this inherent right of the human being, the right of free will, against the most ambitious tyranny that ever shadowed the earth that we are today storming the beaches of Europe with the legions of all the people, conquered and marked for conquest, who would rather die fighting than live as slaves.

We have come to the hour for which we were born. We go forth to meet the supreme test of our arms and of our souls, the test of the maturity of our faith in ourselves and in mankind, and it is fitting that in this hour we at home, citizens of all confessions and no confession, should follow the ways of our fathers and solemnly place the fate of our country, our cause and our sons, in the hands of God.

We pray for the boys we know and for millions of unknown boys who are equally a part of us. A year, two years ago, they were the grinning, careless youngsters we saw on the campuses and ballfields and streets of every American town. Now they are steeled and exalted into men; they are the heroes in the hardest and most crucial adventure in history. All too literally, their flesh and their spirit are our shield, the shield of the Republic. “Lead them straight and true, O Lord of Hosts; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness to their faith.”

We pray for our country, this country that is ourselves, as strong as we are strong, as great as we are determined to make and keep it great. In the eyes of our soldiers, looking back for one last look at home as they go forward into the unknown dangers before them, we see that “home” means to them all the world is fighting for. In this moment of pure light that burns away all trivial issues, they see the war aims with perfect clearness, and so do we. Our prayer is to be worthy of their courage and their faith in us and the future and brave enough to keep on fighting for peace when they have won it for us.

The cause prays for itself, for it is the cause of the God who created men free and equal. Victory may be hard to win, but it is as certain as the eventual triumph of good over evil is always certain. In this searching hour we are humble as well as proud. We know that we are paying not only for the awful sins of those who willed war but for the sons of those who did not will peace hard enough to take responsibility to maintain it. We are paying also for our own sins. Let us pray for the grace to avoid committing them over again. On our knees let us seek the wisdom to turn the victory we will buy with a great price into a reign of justice.

[NormanStewart]

Blood donors swamp Red Cross; 300% rise in bookings in city

Thousands of New Yorkers, anxious to take some active part in D-Day swamped blood bank centers in Manhattan and Brooklyn yesterday in their eagerness to make blood donor appointments. By 8 o’clock last night, weary volunteer workers reported a 300% increase in “future bookings” over a normal day.

As early as 8:30 a.m. yesterday, the telephones in the booking rooms began to ring. Shortly thereafter, the number of women answering these calls for the New York chapter of the American Red Cross had to be doubled. One man reported that he had telephoned steadily between 9:00 a.m. and noon before he was able to make an appointment.

Hundreds of men and women appeared at the center, 2 E 38th Street, without appointments and waited as long as three hours to fill in when cancellations occurred. These were far below average. Other persons, unable to wait, made appointments for the future.

Invasion “jitters” apparently directed many to the blood bank. One woman, who waited two hours for a possible cancellation, said she was too nervous to sit at home and listen to the radio. Others revealed that they had wandered aimlessly, wanting to do something “useful,” until they found themselves in the neighborhood of the centers.

The long line of potential donors contained many who had never given blood before and an equal number who had. One man was waiting to make his 15th donation. Two women were celebrating their birthdays as well as D-Day. A family of three waited three hours “just in case our nephews and cousins who are taking part in the invasion might need the plasma.”

Servicemen and women, who are rushed through without appointments, also helped to swell the crowd. A dozen sailors appeared en masse. WACs and SPARS came in twos and threes. A soldier who had 25 minutes between trains thought there might be time for him to give blood.

Col. Earle Boothe, director of blood donor service, urged volunteers to keep appointments to assure a steady flow of plasma during the next few critical months. He appealed to residents not to relinquish their resolve to donate blood if they could not obtain immediate appointments.

The United Press reported a similar rush in Washington to give blood.

[NormanStewart]

Editorial: The invasion

The first reports from the battlefront sound like an answer to the prayer that accompanied our troops, smashed by Allied bombers and by the guns of the United Nations’ navies at least sections of the vaunted German “Atlantic Wall” have crumbled, and our troops are established on beachheads along a front from Le Havre to Cherbourg, while Allied parachute and glider troops leaping beyond the “wall” are fighting in Caen, nine miles in the interior, and according to enemy reports even north of Rouen, 41 miles from the coast.

Certainly in the first phases of the invasion, Allied strategy has been brilliant. Instead of striking at the high cliffs opposite Dover, where the Germans expected the attack, and had therefore placed their heaviest fortifications, Gen. Eisenhower struck at the low-lying sandy beaches of Normandy, using methods which had produced such excellent results in Sicily, at Salerno and at Anzio. And the location of the landings also indicates the further plan, which seems aimed at putting the whole Normandy Peninsula into Allied hands as a base for a drive up the Seine Valley directly on to Paris. But the landings in Normandy are merely the first of a series which may now be expected to crash other beaches of France, both north and south, and possibly those of other countries as well.

Yet though the enemy’s “Atlantic Wall” has proved to be quite vulnerable in spots, the German Command has still mobile armies estimated at some 50 divisions in France, in which it has placed its main reliance to bring the Allied invasion to a halt. These armies will counterattack and attempt to drive the allies back into the sea. As Gen. Eisenhower said, the landing is but the opening phase and great battles lie ahead. But the enemy armies can scarcely move until they are certain where the main blow is to come from, and they cannot be quite certain while other invasions are still pending. That is the advantage of the initiative, which is now firmly in Allied hands.