Operation OVERLORD (1944)

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The Pittsburgh Press (July 20, 1944)

British storm two more cities in Normandy

Tanks smash forward down Paris road

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Battling into two towns, British armored forces had thrust eight miles beyond Caen today. Street battles were being fought in Vimont and Troarn and the British were reported massing forces for a drive toward Falaise. On the American sector of the front (inset map), the Yanks were mopping up in the Saint-Lô area.

SHAEF, London, England (UP) –
The British 2nd Army, hammering out a steadily expanding Normandy breakthrough arc, drove through nine more towns today, stormed into the streets of Troarn and Bourguébus, and sent a spearhead down the Paris road to Vimont, eight miles southeast of Caen.

Many scores of Allied Sherman tanks were smashing through the network of German fortifications on the Caen plain in wild battles of armor against the Nazis who had now massed at least five and a half divisions in a frantic effort to stem the march inland.

Allies smash on

United Press writer Richard D. McMillan reported that British and Canadian assault forces stormed six more villages in the area of the breakthrough. Whether they supplemented or duplicated the nine announced at Supreme Headquarters was not certain.

The German Transocean News Agency said U.S. and Canadian Army forces under Lt. Gen. George S. Patton had gone into action on the Normandy front. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters had no comment.

Inside the battle arc, lying an average of four miles from Caen – with advanced positions at Troarn, seven miles to the east, and Vimont, eight miles to the southeast – the British and Canadian troops captured Ifs, Cormelles, Bras, Hubert-Folie, Soliers, Four, Le Poirier, Cagny and Grentheville.

Stiff fight at Troarn

Allied infantry and tanks consolidated their grip on the nine villages while Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s armor wove through the no-man’s-land blasting out German strongpoints and turning back enemy thrusts.

The easternmost point of the Allied advance was within 1,000 yards of the river Muance, which flows east of Troarn and forms the first appreciable water obstacle east of the Orne.

The Germans were putting up a stiff fight at Troarn, but the British were bartering in from the west.

On American front

Meager reports from the American front said the 1st Army had completed the mop-up of the Vire River bend northwest of Saint-Lô and established outposts a few hundred yards southwest and southeast of the captured fortress city.

Between Saint-Lô and Caen, the Germans had been forced back below the Caumont–Tilly-sur-Seulles road to a general line about 2,000 yards – more than a mile – beyond it.

Mr. McMillan reported from the Caen front:

Stubborn fighting went on all day, and saw our troops pushing forward into some villages while German long-range batteries lobbed shells over to try to stem the impetus of our infiltrations over the bridges into the slowly widening sector of our advance.

Loop closed on Nazis

British troops bolstering the right wing beat the Germans back steadily in the Noyers sector southwest of Caen, overrunning strategic positions including valuable high ground and capturing the village of Landelles, a mile west of Noyers which was still in German hands.

On the American front, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s 1st Army advanced west of Saint-Lô and swung southeast from points northwest of the captured town, closing a loop in which a few German rearguards remained.

Above Saint-Lô, just west of Remilly-sur-Lozon, the doughboys pushed along a tiny stream and captured three villages.

“The battle south and east of Caen continues,” Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s communiqué said.

Rubble-strewn villages

The maximum advance down the trunk highway to Paris carried to Vimont, eight miles below Caen and five miles south of Troarn. Behind the British lay the rubble-strewn ruins of a dozen villages and strongpoints almost blasted out of existence by the impact

The battlefield within the breakthrough area “looks like nothing any soldier ever saw,” Mr. McMillan reported. He quoted a tank crewman as saying:

It seems to us more like a battlefield amidst the craters of the moon. It is really eerie, with its bomb craters, empty villages and pockets of German dead.

Chain of cemeteries

An earlier dispatch from Mr. McMillan said there was still fighting around the villages of Cumerille, Bigerville, Saunderville, Banneville, Campagne and Cagny, because “these places themselves are mortuaries. These villages are like a chain of cemeteries. Happily, it is mainly German dead.”

Once the British capture Troarn and secure the left flank, Gen. Montgomery will be in position to wheel inland to excellent tank country stretching south and southeast as far as Falaise, 20 miles southeast of Caen.

The Normandy weather yesterday and today was described officially as “miserable,” denying the ground forces any big-scale air support. It was better in other parts of France, and Allied planes shot up 27 locomotives and about 200 freight cars in operations extending from Bordeaux to Paris.

522

Caesar’s citadel now scene of hand-to-hand fighting

Yanks and Nazis use rifles, hand grenades in thickets filled with German dead
By Thomas R. Henry, North American Newspaper Alliance

With U.S. forces in Normandy, France – (July 16, by wireless, delayed)
The Belleau Wood of the present war is represented in the defense of the White Birch, scrub Chestnut and red-berried Mountain Ash tangle covering the 2,000-year-old Roman fortifications on the slopes of Mont Castre where the Yanks and Germans battled three days last week with rifle and hand grenades for vantage points controlling the marshes and rolling wooded country miles to the southward.

Texans and Oklahomans have now secured a high hilltop overlooking the Bay of Biscay westward of the English Channel, from which the Germans had been using field glasses. Atop the Roman walls they undoubtedly watched the landing of the invasion forces and every major move of the Allied troops.

Paratroopers with green capes

Some of the bitterest fighting of the war and also some of the heaviest losses occurred in this area. The thickets are being cleared today of the German dead, in some places piled in heaps, where they were mowed down by machine-gun crews. In a tangle of second-growth trees on land detimbered a few years ago, crawling at night silently through the brush the troops were invisible to one another.

Crack German paratroopers with green camouflage capes blended into the foliage. The prisoners said their orders were never to fire until the Americans were within ten yards, to conserve their ammunition. The fighting closely resembled Pacific jungle warfare. The hill ascent into the forest at times was very steep, through thick waist-high ferns and over sharp rocks. Germans with machine pistols were hidden in the treetops in clumps of mistletoe.

The successful assault on the north slope of Mont Castre was led by Lt. Col. Jacob W. Belke of Boonville, Missouri. At the highest ruins, cementless walls still strong after centuries. But beyond this place, he encountered mostly tunnels and trenches, built by the Germans themselves, honeycombing the mountaintops and overgrown with bushes.

“Grenades fell like hailstones,” says the company commander. At one point, a soldier was sent forward to ask a surrounded machine-gun nest to surrender. The Germans offered to negotiate. When the soldier appeared in the open, they killed him. This so enraged Sgt. Theodore Wagner of Mason, Texas, that he killed 11 Germans, captured three machine guns, using his own machine gun held against his shoulders like a rifle.

Yank lay four days alone

Yesterday, Sgt. George Parker of Tucson, Arizona, on a cleanup mission, found an American soldier with his right foot shot off who had lain four days in the brush without food. His only water was rain caught in his hand. It had rained most of the time. Shortly after the injury a tourniquet and sulfa powder had been applied by a medic who was driven off by enemy fire before he could complete the job, but promised to return later. That night the wounded man heard his comrades calling but he was too weak to reply. He felt better as the days passed, and Sgt, Parker found him cleaning his gun. He is now doing well at an evacuation hospital.

The hardest fighting was descending the southern slope where the Roman fortifications, built under the personal supervision of Julius Caesar, were more elaborate and had been greatly enlarged by the Germans. They were so perfectly concealed that tanks were driven over their tops without jarring them.

Battle over caves

Caesar had planned the mountain stronghold against attack from the south. The company emerging from the forest with its tanks, was cut off when the Germans knocked out the tanks. The remnants of the company were reorganized with parts of other decimated units under command of Lt. Hubert Miller of Syracuse, New York, who advanced over an open field after other units had captured points protecting the flanks.

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Story behind Saint-Lô victory –
McGlincy: ‘God bless you, keep you,’ says letter beside a body

Also on the battlefield there is strewn other little things a man treasures
By James McGlincy, United Press staff writer

With U.S. forces in Normandy, France –
A photographer had just finished shooting a picture of it and there it lay – a helmet with a clip of cartridges next to it, and sticking out from under it a letter which ended, “God bless you and keep you until you are home in my arms again.”

This is the road to Saint-Lô, the road down which our task force stormed into the town. The helmet, the cartridges and the letter lie behind the hedgerow where the Americans had dug in for a while. On the other side of the hedgerow were German foxholes. On this side were ours.

Now all around them lies the debris of battle – yet it is more than that because the articles strewn about are such small, warm personal possessions. There are tubes of shaving cream, packs of cigarettes, razorblades, postcards of French towns, foot powder, newspaper clippings – and those letters.

One of the clippings is from a newspaper in Connecticut, a copy of a letter a boy had written while he was still in England. It wasn’t literary or flowery, just sincere. It read:

I’m tired of war and being away from hm. But we want to get it over with. I’ll be glad when we lick the Germans and the Japs.

Nearby is a letter from his wife. I shouldn’t read other people’s mail but somehow it seems that these letters ought to be told – plain, everyday letters that people write to the ones they love.

It’s one way of telling what happens here – of how bodies are mangled and lives are tangled so that the objective can be attained – a town like Saint-Lô.

That boy’s wife wrote:

I’m glad you like it, being you have to be there. I know it’s some pretty country over there and it will be quite an experience. You can tell me lots when you come home.

‘God bless you’

There is a writing pad with only a couple of lines scribbled on it in pencil: “Dear Julia: Here I am once more to say hello and let you know that I’m in the very best of health.” That was written before the deluge of fire.

But most pathetic of all was that letter under the helmet, which said:

Goodnight, Sweetheart. God bless you and keep you until you are home in my arms again. I love you more than anything or anyone in this world. Always, Lillian.

This is the story behind the headline, “Yanks Take Saint-Lô.”

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524

Völkischer Beobachter (July 21, 1944)

Die neue Feldschlacht im Westen:
Beginn des zweiten Invasionsabschnittes

Feindliche Generaloffensive an allen Fronten

vb. Wien, 20. Juli –
Seit 48 Stunden tobt im Raume von Caen eine Feldschlacht, die trotz ihrer vorläufigen örtlichen Begrenzung als der Beginn des zweiten großen Abschnittes der Invasion betrachtet werden darf.

Der Feind hat am 18. Juli – genau sechs Wochen nach seiner Landung auf französischem Boden – zum Durchbruch aus der Enge des Landekopfes in der Normandie angesetzt. Damit ist auch die Schlacht im Westen in das Stadium wichtiger Entscheidungen gerückt und die Generaloffensive der Feinde Europas auf allen vier Fronten entbrannt. Dafür zeugen nicht nur die militärischen Vorgänge im Westen, Osten und Süden, sondern auch die neue weiträumige Bomberoffensive, die am gestrigen Mittwoch große Gebiete Süddeutschlands heimgesucht hat.

Tage und Wochen höchster Spannung, größter Anstrengungen und ernstester Bewährung stehen Front und Heimat bevor. Wehrmacht und Volk sehen ihnen mit eiserner Entschlossenheit und unbeirrbarer Zuversicht entgegen. Alle Anstrengungen, die der westliche Feind seit dem 6. Juni in seinem normannischen Landekopf unternommen hatte, gehorchten zwei einander ablösenden Gesetzen: Nach dem ursprünglichen Invasionsplane sollten schon in den ersten Tagen des gewaltigen, seit zwei Jahren mit Hilfe der gesamten plutokratischen Kriegsindustrie vorbereiteten Angriffes die Häfen Cherbourg und Le Havre genommen und mit Hilfe starker Luftlandeverbände eine breite und tiefe Ausfallstellung in der Normandie gewonnen werden.

Dieses Programm, für das die riesigen Luftflotten und Seestreitkräfte der USA und Britanniens zur Verfügung standen, ist sowohl an der Widerstandskraft der örtlichen Befestigungen des Atlantikwalls wie an der Zähigkeit der im Landeraum stehenden schwachen deutschen Verbände gescheitert.

Sobald diese Tatsache feststand, entschloss sich die feindliche Führung unter Verzicht auf eine Änderung ihres taktischen Planes, durch sture und mühselige Kleinarbeit das zu erreichen, was im ersten großen Wurf nicht gelungen war: Sie pumpte den Landekopf unaufhörlich mit Truppen und Material voll, säuberte in wochenlangem Ringen unter schweren Verlusten die Halbinsel von Cherbourg und drang ohne Rücksicht auf die Opfer bis zu den immer noch küstennahen Städten Saint-Lô und Caen durch, um halbwegs brauchbare Ausgangsstellungen für die eigentliche Offensive zu gewinnen. Was nach dem ursprünglichen Plan in drei Tagen geschafft werden sollte, ist nun in sechs Wochen notdürftig bewältigt worden. Und nicht einmal das mit taktischer Geschicklichkeit, sondern ausschließlich durch• den Einsatz immer neuer Materialmassen. Bombengeschwader, Schiffsgeschütze und Artilleriemassen waren das Kennzeichen dieser ganzen ersten Phase der Schlacht um Frankreich.

Am Dienstag, den 18. Juli, fühlten sich nun Eisenhower und Montgomery endlich stark genug, den deutschen Verteidigern der Normandie die Feldschlacht anzubieten: Während die Amerikaner im Westabschnitt des Schlachtfeldes gegen den Trümmerhaufen von Saint-Lô antraten, brachen die Briten – wie gewöhnlich mit Kanadiern in vorderster Linie – aus ihrem kleinen Brückenkopf östlich der Orne, nach stundenlangem Trommelfeuer von Bomben und Granaten, wiederum von der schwersten Schiffsartillerie unterstützt, heraus, um in südlicher Richtung die von Caen nach Westen und Südwesten, das heißt nach Lisieux und Falaise führenden Straßen zu gewinnen. Neben dem Durchbruch „ins Freie“ verbanden sie damit augenscheinlich die taktische Absicht, die noch im Südteil von Caen stehenden, an das Ufer der Orne angelehnten deutschen Verbände abzuschneiden, nachdem sie in den Vortagen das Dorf Maltot am Westufer der Orne besetzt und damit die Flanke jener deutschen Verbände gewonnen hatten.

Schon heute, 48 Stunden nach Beginn der Operation, kann festgestellt werden, daß dieser taktische Nebenzweck nicht erreicht worden ist: die bis Cagny, an der Straße Caen–Lisieux durchgebrochenen britischen Panzerkräfte fanden bei ihrem Versuch, nach Westen einzuschwenken und das Orneufer gegenüber von Maltot zu erreichen, schon in den Orten Grentheville und Soliers entschlossenen Widerstand. Auch die auf den östlichen Flügel des Angriffsraumes angesetzten Feindstöße gegen Sannerville und Troarn blieben ergebnislos. Desgleichen ließ sich die deutsche Führung durch feindliche Ablenkungsmanöver östlich der Orne im alten Kampfraum von Tilly und Juvigny nicht beirren.

Das Scheitern dieses Einschließungsmanövers beweist aufs Neue die geringen taktischen Fähigkeiten der anglo-amerikanischen Führung, selbst in Stellen, wo ihr eine gewaltige materielle Überlegenheit Hilfe leistet und vielleicht sogar das Überraschungsmoment zugutegekommen ist, denn der Entschluss Montgomerys, östlich der Orne anzugreifen, nachdem er sich in den Vorwochen unablässig und unter größtem Aufwand bemüht hatte, südwestlich Caen die deutsche Verteidigung zu durchstoßen, kam mindestens für die anglo-amerikanische Presse ganz unerwartet. Es bleibt abzuwarten, ob und in welcher Grade sich nun deren rosige Hoffnungen auf einen geradlinigen Vormarsch der motorisierten Feindverbände erfüllen werden.

Die Kriegsberichterstattung des Gegners tut sich viel darauf zugute, daß die beiden oben genannten, nach Südwesten und Westen führenden Heerstraßen durch „offenes Gelände“ und „freie Ebenen“ liefen und der Panzerkrieg damit endlich aus dem tückischen Hecken- und Gartengelände herauskäme, das durch die glänzenden Eigenschaften des deutschen Einzelkämpfers einem wahren Todesfalle für Briten und Yankees geworden ist.

Die Wirklichkeit sieht etwas anders aus. Es ist zwar richtig, daß die genannten Straßen teilweise durch etwas offeneres, welliges Gelände führen, wie es auch an anderen Stellen der Normandie mitunter angetroffen werden kann. Dazwischen befinden sich aber immer wieder Gebiete mit jenem für die dortige Landschaft typischen Gemisch kleiner Weiler, Dörfer und Einzelhöfe, mit unzähligen dicht umbuchten Garten- und Feldstücken, bewachsenen Hohlwegen und kleinen Bachläufen, das dem Panzerkrieg viel geringere Möglichkeiten bietet, als sie die Briten und US-Amerikaner aus ihren bisherigen Kriegserfahrungen in Afrika und Italien gewohnt waren. Dieser Umstand hemmt in einem gewissen Grad auch die Wirksamkeit der zahlenmäßig weit überlegenen feindlichen Luftwaffe, da er ausgezeichnete Möglichkeiten Zur Deckung gegen Fliegersicht bietet.

Es ist kaum anzunehmen, daß der Durchbruchsversuch östlich der Orne die gesamte im Landekopf aufgestaute Offensivkraft des Feindes zur Geltung bringen wird. Allein schon der Wunsch, die Bildung eines deutschen Gegenschwerpunkts in diesem Raum zu verhindern, dürfte die feindliche Führung veranlassen, noch/an anderen Stellen den „Weg ins Freie“ zu suchen. Ob solche weiteren Stöße westlich des Flusses, wo die seit Wochen heiß umkämpfte Höhe 112 bei Gavrus-Baron immer noch in deutscher Hand ist, oder bei Caumont oder bei Saint-Lô erfolgen werden, wissen wir nicht. Auch das strategische Ziel der Offensive im Westen ist noch nicht sichtbar.

Man muß auch mit der Möglichkeit, daß der Feind einen neuen Einbruch in den Atlantikwall versuchen wird, sei es, um die Halbinsel der Bretagne von Westen und von der Normandie her abzuschneiden, sei es, um das Tal der Seine von Westen und Norden her gleichzeitig zu erreichen und damit Paris in Reichweite zu bringen. Es ist aber auch müssig, sich heute über solche Möglichkeiten den Kopf zu zerbrechen.

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Versinkende Hoffnungen in England

Es ist außerordentlich lehrreich, sich den Grund eines in England aufkommenden Pessimismus, nämlich die Widersprüche der englisch-amerikanischen Publizistik über den Stand der Invasionsschlacht und über die allgemeine Kriegslage vor Augen zu halten.

Während beispielsweise die New York Times versichert: „Jedes Wort, das aus Deutschland herauskommt, zeigt den sich vollziehenden Zusammenbruch des deutschen Volkes,“ veröffentlicht die konservative Daily Mail an der Spitze ihrer Ausgabe eine Meldung ihres Genfer Korrespondenten, in der es heißt: Obgleich das deutsche Volk unter größter Anspannung stehe, mache das Reich in seiner Gesamtheit den Eindruck, als ob der Führer noch Trümpfe ausspielen werde. Einige seien der Ansicht, daß eine weitere Geheimwaffe in Vorbereitung sei. Andere wiederum neigten zu dem Glauben, daß Deutschland völlig neuartige Kriegsmethoden anwenden werde.

Was auch immer der Grund des deutschen Optimismus sein möge, schreibt Daily Mail im offenen Gegensatz zu der zitierten amerikanischen Zeitung, bestehe der Gesamteindruck, daß Deutschland noch etwas Ungewöhnliches unternehmen könne.

Hatte der amerikanische Luftgeneral Arnold schon im Jänner versichert, Deutschlands Kriegsindustrien seien ausradiert und produktionsunfähig und damit die Deutschen weit unterlegen, so können heute die erstaunten Anglo-Amerikaner in fast allen Normandie Reportagen ihrer Kriegsberichter lesen, daß die deutschen Waffen besser als die anglo-amerikanischen sind.

Daily Sketch unterstreicht in einem langen Artikel die überlegene Qualität des sogenannten kleinen Kriegsgeräts der deutschen Wehrmacht, wie Maschinengewehre, Minenwerfer, Maschinenpistolen, Handgranaten und panzerbrechende Mittel. Über unsere Panzer und Panzerabwehrkanonen schreibt der englische Kriegsberichter Buckly im Daily Telegraph:

Die deutsche Abwehrkanone ist das beste existierende Antitankgeschütz der Welt. Selbst unser 17-Pfünder ist kein geeigneter Gegner. Der „Panther“ ist ebenfalls der beste und vielseitigste Panzer, der heute in Westeuropa kämpft. Der „Tiger“ mit einem noch schwereren Geschütz und seiner Panzerung bildet auch ein tödliches Hindernis für unsere leichter gepanzerten und weniger schwer bestückten Tanks. Von Alamein bis Italien bewahrten wir im „General-Sherman-Panzer“ den wahrscheinlich besten und vielseitigsten Kampfwagen in der Schlacht. Nun ist die Lage eine andere.

Ähnliche Superlative finden wir in der Beurteilung der deutschen Artillerie in den Frontberichten der Daily Mail und im News Chronicle, der den Feuervorhang der deutschen Mörser „tödlich und undurchdringlich und von erschreckender Genauigkeit“ findet, über die deutsche Luftwaffe aber urteilt der US-Kriegsberichter Reynold, die Alliierten besäßen nicht ein einziges Flugzeug, das sich qualitativ mit der deutschen „Focke-Wulff 200“ und den meisten deutschen Jägern vergleichen ließe.

Auch ohne „V1“ und das neue Kampfmittel der Kriegsmarine, über. welches in England ein so gewaltiges Rätselraten entstanden war, besteht also effektiv eine qualitative deutsche Waffenüberlegenheit, die selbst vom Gegner eingestanden werden muß. Dies widerspricht aber völlig allen Behauptungen über die Wirkung der Bombenteppiche der Terrorflieger auf das deutsche Erzeugungspotential und bedeutet für die englischen Massen das Hinschwinden ihrer größten Illusionen.

Das gleiche gilt von der Einschätzung des deutschen Soldaten durch den Feind. Das mokante Lächeln über „Hitlers Kriegsbaby“ ist den Anglo-Amerikanern völlig vergangen. Nun unterstreichen sie den Fanatismus, die Härte und Kampfgeübtheit und die für sie geradezu unwahrscheinliche Tapferkeit der Soldatengeneration, die durch die Reihen der HJ ging. Auch die Hoffnung auf eine überlegene Strategie der Alliierten verschwindet bereits, da es Eisenhower, Bradley und Montgomery selbst nach wochenlangen Kämpfen noch immer nicht gelungen ist, aus dem Brückenkopf herauszukommen.

Nachdem der bekannte amerikanische Militärschriftsteller Hanson Baldwin nach einem Besuch in der Normandie Bedenken über die alliierte Strategie geäußert hat, erklärt nun der Kriegsberichter Buckly im Daily Telegraph:

Vielleicht steckt hinter all diesem Treiben ein Meisterplan unserer Generale. Ich vermag jedoch beim besten Willen nicht die geringsten Anzeichen dafür zu sehen.

Ist es ein Wunder, daß angesichts derartiger Widersprüche, torpedierter Hoffnungen und der späten Anerkennung der Überlegenheit des deutschen Soldaten, seiner Waffen und seiner Führung die Briten sich über die Lage an der Invasionsfront keinerlei Illusionen mehr hingeben, sich fragen, wozu sie dem zweiten Blitz ausgesetzt werden müssen und Stimmungen verfallen, die alles andere, nur keine Siegeszuversicht bedeuten.

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Innsbrucker Nachrichten (July 21, 1944)

Die harten kämpfe an der Ostfront

In der Normandie 200 Feindpanzer in zwei Tagen vernichtet – 84 viermotorige Bomber beim Einstiegen ins Reich abgeschossen

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 21. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Südöstlich und südlich Caen setzte der Feind seine Angriffe mit stärkeren Infanterie- und Panzerkräften fort, ohne daß er wesentlichen Geländegewinn erzielen konnte. Auch im Raum nordwestlich Saint-Lô zerschlugen unsere Truppen alle feindlichen Angriffsgruppen. Bei den Kämpfen am 18. und 19. Juli wurden in der Normandie 200 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen.

Kampfflugzeuge versenkten im Seegebiet westlich Brest einen feindlichen Zerstörer und beschädigten zwei weitere schwer.

Bei Säuberungsunternehmen im französischen Raum wurden wiederum 285 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.

Schweres „V1“-Vergeltungsfeuer liegt weiterhin auf dem Großraum von London.

In Italien fanden gestern größere Kampfhandlungen nur im adriatischen Küstenabschnitt statt, wo der Feind geringfügige Bodengewinne erzielen konnte. An der übrigen Front führte der Gegner an vielen Stellen örtliche Angriffe, die erfolglos blieben.

Die 16. SS-Panzergrenadierdivision „Reichsführer-SS“ hat sich unter Führung des SS-Gruppenführers und Generalleutnants der Waffen-SS Simon bei den schweren Kämpfen an der Ligurischen Küste durch besondere Standhaftigkeit und Tapferkeit ausgezeichnet.

Torpedoboote beschädigten im Golf von Genua zwei britische Schnellboote.

Im Osten dauern die Kämpfe im Raum von Lemberg und am oberen Bug mit unverminderter Heftigkeit an. Unsere Divisionen leisteten den Sowjets weiterhin zähen Widerstand und fügten ihnen hohe Verluste zu. Allein eine Panzergrenadierdivision schoss dort in den letzten Tagen 101 feindliche Panzer ab.

Nördlich Brest-Litowsk warfen Truppen des Heeres und der Waffen-SS die Bolschewisten im Gegenangriff zurück. Mehrere Angriffsspitzen des Feindes wurden eingeschlossen und vernichtet, östlich Bialystok brach der Gegner in unsere Stellungen ein. Erbitterte Kämpfe sind hier im Gange. Nordwestlich Grodno wurden sowjetische Kampfgruppen im Gegenangriff geworfen.

An der Straße Kauen–Dünaburg sowie zwischen Dünaburg und Peipussee griffen die Bolschewisten mit starker Panzer- und Schlachtfliegerunterstützung an zahlreichen Stellen an. Sie wurden unter Abschuß einer großen Anzahl von Panzern abgewiesen oder aufgefangen.

Im Nordabschnitt haben sich die schlesische 255. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Melzer und das Grenadierregiment 32 unter Oberst von Werder durch besondere Tapferkeit ausgezeichnet.

Schlachtfliegergeschwader versprengten sowjetische Panzerverbände und Nachschubkolonnen. 58 feindliche Panzer und über 500 Fahrzeuge wurden vernichtet. In Luftkämpfen verlor der Feind 55 Flugzeuge.

Wachfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine schossen über dem Finnischen Meerbusen 5 sowjetische Bomber ab.

Starke deutsche Kampffliegerverbände führten auch in der vergangenen Nacht schwere Angriffe gegen die Nachschubbahnhöfe Minsk und Molodetschno.

Nordamerikanische Bomberverbände griffen von Süden und Westen Orte in West-, Südwest- und Mitteldeutschland an. Besonders in Friedrichshafen, Wetzlar und Leipzig entstanden Schäden und Personenverluste. Durch Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 47 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 45 viermotorige Bomber, abgeschossen.

In der Nacht griff ein britischer Verband Orte im rheinisch-westfälischen Gebiet an. Störflugzeuge warfen außerdem Bomben auf das Stadtgebiet von Hamburg. 39 viermotorige Bomber wurden dabei zum Absturz gebracht.

Schnelle deutsche Kampfflugzeuge griffen Ziele in Südostengland an.

527

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 21, 1944)

Communiqué No. 91

Attacking from the ridge north of SAINT-ANDRÉ-SUR-ORNE, Allied infantry have captured the village. Between there and BOURGUÉBUS we have extended our hold on the high ground from the river ORNE to the vicinity of VERRIERS.

Air operations over the immediate battle area yesterday were limited by poor visibility.

A strong force of heavy bombers, nine of which are missing, made an accurate and concentrated attack last night on the railway yards at COURTRAI, in BELGIUM.

Communiqué No. 92

Allied troops yesterday continued the advance south of SAINT-ANDRÉ-SUR-ORNE against heavy enemy resistance, which developed into an enemy counterattack near SAINT-MARTIN-DE-FONTENAY. This counterattack, which was supported by armor, was repulsed with loss to the enemy.

In the area east of CAUMONT, our troops have made a slight advance.

Allied forces in the western sector have made small local gains north of PÉRIERS and along the PÉRIERS–SAINT-LÔ road south of REMILLY-SUR-LOZON. An enemy counterattack near RAIDS was repulsed.

Bad weather severely restricted air activity this morning.

Communiqué No. 93

THERE IS NOTHING TO REPORT

528

The Pittsburgh Press (July 21, 1944)

Rommel’s tanks fall back as Allies seize six towns

Rain stops big-scale action in Normandy; foe retreats to escape encirclement
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

SHAEF, London, England –
British and U.S. troops plunged ahead through six villages today despite a downpour which drowned out big-scale action on the Normandy front, and German armor was reported pulling back from the nose of the breakthrough salient southeast of Caen under an encirclement threat.

Canadian troops drove forward a few hundred years from Saint-André-sur-Odon to capture the neighboring village of Saint-Martin-de-Fontenay a little over four miles south of Caen. Five villages scattered along the British and American fronts had been taken earlier.

Both Allied and German troops soaked miserably in their slit trenches while a 36-hour downpour continued.

Canadians stop attack

The Germans threw in a sharp counterthrust against the Canadian front below Caen, but were turned back.

To the west, British forces slogged ahead 1,000 yards south of the Caumont–Tilly-sur-Seulles road.

A United Press dispatch from the Caen front reported that the battle “is still going well” with the definite failure of the German counterattack, and “it is now safe to say that the Allied offensive is over the hump.”

As Rommel pulled back his armor from the plains southeast of Caen to avoid the threat from strengthened British positions on either side, the Germans depended mainly on their anti-tank and other fortifications to stem the British push, and only short-lived clashes of armor were reported.

The battle of Troarn on the left flank of the Caen pocket continued into its second day, with British assault forces fighting ahead from the captured rail station on the edge of the town.

On the left flank, other British forces were fighting street battles in Évrecy, southwest of Caen, and the village of Bougy, a mile and a half to the northwest. Saint-André-sur-Orne was captured yesterday, clearing the bank of the river four miles due south of Caen, and to the west a drive more than four miles below Tilly-sur-Seulles overran the village of Monts.

U.S. forces closing in on Périers, central base of the German defenses on the 1st Army front, captured Sèves (two and a half miles north of Périers), Raids (on the Carentan–Périers highway four miles to the north), and Le Mesnil-Eury (eight miles southeast of Périers on the Saint-Lô highway).

Altogether the Allied armies scored gains or pinched off German pockets in 13 sectors, most of them line-straightening operations along a 90-mile fighting front.

The new advances carried British troops five miles due south of Caen along both banks of the Orne, and at most places they were less than a mile apart on either side of the river.

The Channel was lashed by a storm, which, with the rain in the fighting areas, almost completely halted aerial support for the British and U.S. troops.

529

Forget own suffering –
Kirkpatrick: Frenchmen weep for the Reds

Nazi bestiality to women bared
By Helen Kirkpatrick

Cherbourg, France –
The unspeakable treatment accorded the Russians by the Germans has left a lasting impression upon all Frenchmen who witnessed it.

One resistance leader here told me:

We’ve had a hard time, but the Russian people have suffered more than any other. We know; we’ve seen.

Plight desperate

The Germans, it seems, brought hundreds of Russian women into Cherbourg to work on the docks and railroads, unloading, digging and building. There were at least 1,000 of them.

Their plight was desperate. They were assigned no living quarters, given no clothing and little food. Some wore only burlap bags. Many dropped dead during the winter. French patriots used to sneak out at night to give them food.

Women used as slaves

The Germans used these Russian women as slaves; armed guards drove them to and from work. Among the last batch to reach here, according to my informant, were a doctor, a pilot in the Red Air Force and a young mother, who carried her one-year-old baby with her to work.

“These women were real martyrs,” said the resistance leader. “Need you ask what we French think of the Germans?”

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Indeed these Russian (OK Soviet might be better) women were treated horribly by the Germans all ex-camp survivors I spoke to can attest. Including casual mass rape, starvation and shootings for no reasons. Pretty horrifying.

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On the Normandy front –
Casey: ‘Forgotten soldiers’ keep war machine in motion

Unrecognized, engineers and Signal Corps fight battle of communications and supply
By Robert J. Casey

U.S. front in Normandy, France – (July 19, delayed)
You don’t have to look at this war very long to realize that the most important part of it, aside from the riflemen in the frontlines, is to be found in the roads behind. Actually, it is here that you get some cohesive idea of the purpose and extent of the Allied drive.

Impressions of a battle, where it is fought behind dikes and hedges, necessarily must be isolated – a tank working here, infantry crawling through an orchard against machine guns there. But in the backroads and sunken lanes, you can see the war, terrible in its power, rolling forward with all the strange gadgets and accoutrements with which modern military science has equipped it.

No one who has not been tangled in it can envision the traffic on these channels from the beaches to the front. The principal routes are still good auto roads, or had been until D-Day changed the face of Normandy. Now, literally thousands of trucks, jeeps, tanks, halftracks, command cars, tractors, bulldozers, self-propelled artillery, motorcycles, mobile derricks and tank carriers pour over them 24 hours a day.

Pavements holding up

The pavements are holding up better than you would think. If any of them could be closed, a mile or two at a time for a few hours, the road crews that did the miraculous job of constructing airplane runways in England could lay new broad pavements over the old at an astonishing rate. But they can’t be closed and engineers work in disheartening competition with traffic.

Nobody thinks much about these forgotten men of the war, these pick-and-shovel soldiers, but as you follow the highway over newly-built bridges and past blasted villages and watch it widening and straightening before your eyes, you wonder how this battle, dependent as it is on mechanized material, could have been fought without them.

Wars in civilized communities seem to leave roads with typical scars, most of them on telephone and transmission lines. You’d naturally think wires strung on poles well away from the blasts on the pavement would suffer little damage from artillery or mines, but from every pole, festoons of broken wire hang like jungle growth. Flying fragments have found these impossible targets, cut the cables and shattered the insulators.

Other forgotten soldiers

So along with the engineers march other forgotten soldiers, the never-sleeping men of the Signal Corps. Along even the most remote lanes you are constantly passing signal trucks from which new wire is being reeled out in staggering quantities, thousands of miles of it.

You run into these men under shellfire at artillery observation posts and advance CPs enmeshed in communication webs that seem always a hopeless tangle, lifting wire out of ditches onto tree branches, hunting for breaks, making spices with no apparent concern for the death whistling over them or exploding around them.

The highways of the beachhead are marked with signs put there before the war by French touring clubs or local departments, more legible German markers and directions to American units, in a variety of colors and a jargon of codenames.

MPs on the job

Despite all this, a messenger might still have to go home with his important communication were it not for the MPs, who stand at every crossroads in the entire area. They are a remarkable set of men, these. Most of them never saw France until D-Day, but they can tell you which is the shortest road to any town you may name, where you make your turnings, which roads are well-paved, which under shellfire, and they have memorized more unit codenames and locations than you would find in a transatlantic cable book.

This is remarkable enough in itself. When you consider that command posts and dressing stations and such are constantly moving, it is something close to miraculous.

Civilians mingle oddly with the traffic along the roads and caravans of war give them priority. After all, whose country is it? Their carts and cattle mingle with artillery columns and families in horse-drawn buggies ride along with halftracks and tanks. Church processions and funerals go on as if there were no constant avalanche of transport on the throbbing pavements. As far forward as artillery echelons it is no uncommon thing to see them in silent ranks with front-bound doughboys.

Flags welcome liberators

War hasn’t displaced these people. It has merely infiltrated through them and the strangely incongruous lives of military and peasantry go their independent ways side by aide but never touching.

Since long before Bastille Day, flags have been flying from houses along the battle routes – French, American, English – most of them homemade and all of them odd to look upon. Over some doors in towns are banners bearing strange devices “Hail Roosevelt and de Gaulle,” “Death to the Boche,” “Welcome Americans our Liberators.” And, of course, there are always the inevitable children at every doorstep, waving two uplifted fingers at the soiled G.I.’s.

532

Völkischer Beobachter (July 22, 1944)

Moskau treibt Eisenhower an

Stockholm, 21. Juli –
Im Daily Herald wird der schleppende, Verlauf der britisch-amerikanischen Operationen an der Invasionsfront scharf kritisiert. In unterrichteten Kreisen wird dieser Artikel auf sowjetische Einflüsse zurückgeführt. Moskau sei mehr als unzufrieden mit Eisenhower und Montgomery, und die neuen verzweifelten Anstrengungen der Briten und Amerikaner an der Invasionsfront seien auf diesen Druck Moskaus zurückzuführen. Eisenhower und Montgomery hätten Anweisung erhalten, ohne Rücksicht auf alle Verluste eine Entscheidung herbeizuführen.

533

Führer HQ (July 22, 1944)

Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

In der Normandie führte der Feind gestern östlich und südlich Caen stärkere von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe, in deren Verlauf er an einigen Stellen in unsere Hauptkampflinie einbrechen konnte. Schon am Abend war jedoch das verlorengegangene Gelände durch Gegenangriffe unserer Truppen wieder in unserem Besitz und ein feindliches Bataillon vernichtet. Starke Panzerbereitstellungen des Feindes südöstlich Caen wurden durch Artillerie wirksam bekämpft. Nordwestlich Saint-Lô scheiterten heftige örtliche Angriffe des Gegners.

Kampfflugzeuge beschädigten im Seegebiet westlich Brest einen feindlichen Zerstörer schwer und schossen dabei ein britisches Sicherungsflugzeug ab.

Im französischen Raum wurden 73 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.

Bei der Abwehr feindlicher Luft- und Schnellbootangriffe auf ein Geleit in der Deutschen Bucht schossen Minensuchboote, Sicherungsfahrzeuge und Bordflak der Handelsschiffe fünf feindliche Jagdbomber ab. Vor der niederländischen Küste beschädigten sie zwei britische Schnellboote schwer. Drei eigene Fahrzeuge gingen verloren.

Das Vergeltungsfeuer auf London dauert an.

In Italien führte der Feind fast auf der gesamten Front zahlreiche Einzelangriffe, die im Wesentlichen abgewiesen wurden. Nur am äußersten linken Flügel gelang es ihm, unter hohen blutigen Verlusten geringfügig Boden zu gewinnen. Erneute Angriffe gegen die neuen Stellungen scheiterten.

Im italienischen Raum wurden in der letzten Zeit 70 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.

Im Osten wurden durch Gegenangriffe unserer Truppen östlich Lemberg einige Frontlücken geschlossen. Nordwestlich der Stadt erzielten die Sowjets weiteren Geländegewinn. Am oberen Bug wurden die auf das Westufer| vorgedrungenen Bolschewisten in harten Kämpfen aufgegangen. Zwischen Brest-Litowsk und Grodno griff der Feind mit starken Infanterie- und Panzerkräften an, konnte an einigen Stellen weiter Vordringen, wurde aber in den meisten Abschnitten unter hohen blutigen Verlusten und unter Abschuß zahlreicher Panzer abgewiesen.

Nordöstlich Kauen dauern die erbitterten Kämpfe an. Zwischen dem Seengebiet südwestlich Dünaburg und dem Peipussee wurden zahlreiche feindliche Angriffe unter hohen Verlusten für die Bolschewisten zerschlagen. In einigen Einbruchsstellen sind die Kämpfe noch im Gange.

In Luftkämpfen verlor der Feind 83 Flugzeuge.

In der Nacht waren die Bahnhöfe Borissow und Orscha das Angriffsziel schwerer deutscher Kampfflugzeuge. In den brennenden Bahnanlagen flogen mehrere Munitionszüge in die Luft.

Nordamerikanische Bomber drangen vom Westen und Süden in das Reichsgebiet ein und griffen mehrere Orte in Süd- und Südwestdeutschland an. Besonders in den Wohngebieten von München, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen und Schweinfurt entstanden Schäden und Personenverluste. Luftverteidigungskräfte vernichteten 68 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 55 viermotorige Bomber.

In der Nacht überflogen feindliche Flugzeuge Nordwest- und Südostdeutschland und warfen unter anderem auf das Gebiet der Reichshauptstadt eine Anzahl von Bomben. 6 britische Flugzeuge wurden zum Absturz gebracht.

Unterseeboote versenkten in harten Kämpfen 9 Schiffe mit 44.000 BRT und 2 Zerstörer. 1 weiterer Zerstörer und 4 Dampfer wurden torpediert. 1 Unterseeboot schoss außerdem einen viermotorigen Bomber ab.

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Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 22, 1944)

Communiqué No. 94

A number of enemy counterattacks on both western and eastern sectors of the front have been repulsed with a total of at least 14 enemy tanks knocked out.

A limited number of aerial patrols were operated during the period from midnight to noon today.

535

The Pittsburgh Press (July 22, 1944)

Two Nazi counterattacks smashed on French front

Allies wreck 14 German tanks as mud, rain bogs down British offensive near Caen
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

Gestapo kills general in France

London, England –
A report reached certain Allied intelligence quarters today that a serious conflict between Nazi SS troops and the German Army over the recent Oradour-sur-Glane massacre resulted in the assassination of a German general. The unidentified general was reported assassinated by the Gestapo. He had gone to investigate the massacre when intercepted by Gestapo agents, the report said.

SHAEF, London, England –
Allied armies knocked out 14 German tanks yesterday in repulsing two futile counterthrusts mounted despite heavy rain which stalled the British push across the Caen plains toward Paris, it was officially announced today.

The limited counterattacks were repulsed south of Saint-André-sur-Orne below Caen and along the Périers–Saint-Lô highway south of Remilly-sur-Lozon.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s shortest communiqué of the French campaign said today that “there is nothing to report,” and late in the day the word at Supreme Headquarters was the same.

A spokesman revealed that Gen. Paul Hausser, old-line Prussian officer, was commanding the German 7th Army facing the Americans in Normandy.

The German Transocean News Agency reported that the British had massed more than 10 divisions east of the Orne River, were moving up still more troops, and a “new major assault seems imminent.” The enemy report, lacking any immediate support in responsible quarters, said artillery fire was already increasing east of Caen but “the expected new attack has not yet started.”

British and Canadian forces waited in foxholes, trenches and ditches half-filled with water on an arc extending nearly five miles beyond Caen for clearing skies to resume their march toward Paris, 112 miles to the east.

Ground fog and low-flying clouds further immobilized operations and front reports told only of occasional artillery and mortar fire and routine limited patrols. Virtually all planes were grounded.

Desultory clashes were reported at Troarn, seven miles east of Caen, with the British vanguards in the outskirts and about 1,000 yards north of the town. South of Caen, the British were established firmly in Saint-André-sur-Orne, four miles down the Orne River, but headquarters retracted a previous announcement that they had taken Saint-Martin-de-Fontenay, a few hundred yards farther south.

A London broadcast said that “half of Troarn” was still in German hands, but the “fighting is going well for us.”

On the western half of the front, the U.S. 1st Army inched to within 4,000 yards north of Périers, made slight gains at several points south of the Périers–Saint-Lô highway and won positions 1,500 yards west of the Vire River four miles northwest of Saint-Lô.

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Background of news –
Heavy bombers support troops in Normandy

By E. C. Shepherd

London, England –
The effectiveness of close support by intense heavy bombing gives fresh significance to Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s dictum that the air battle must be won before the land battle can begin.

Close support of heavy bombers helped to admit the Allied forces into Caen and, intensified, has helped the Allies to break out of Caen to the open ground to the south. The 1,000 heavy RAF bombers that opened the bombardment at dawn on July 18 encountered no fighter opposition, nor did most of the bombers during the morning.

The Germans had 500 or 600 fighters within range of the fighting. They have of late sent them out on patrol in packs of 40 and 50 but have generally avoided combat. If they still refuse battle, the Germans must expect to see their troops driven from one defensive position after another by such a bombardment as no artillery concentration has yet been able to produce.

If the Luftwaffe accepts the challenge and seeks to protect its troops from the heavy bombers next time, it can heave no guarantee that its fighter force will not be reduced to impotence. The Americans have learned in brilliant operations over Germany how to guard heavy bombers from fighter attacks and the RAF has been taking tips from them on the best method of employing fighter escorts for heavy bombers.

The Germans seem to have underestimated the possible power of close support by heavy bombers. Apparently, they expected the main close support to be given the Allied troops by their fighter-bombers.

Planes pave way for troops

The Allied air arm has been brought in to pry the German troops from their prepared positions and open the way from the Allies’ mobile land forces. This weighty form of close support came, not from local bases, but from stations in Britain against which the German Army can do nothing.

Apart from anti-aircraft fire, air defense of the orthodox kind is the only answer to this massive development in close support. The Germans, lacking adequate fighter defense, must expect it to continue.

We are entitled even at this early stage to doubt their ability to defeat or seriously, modify it. We can expect the big bomber radically to change the nature of battles, being justified in regarding it as suitable for use in close support of troops wherever air superiority has been established. It is usable with such a devastating effect in breaking defensive positions that it is likely to become an essential part of the barrage which usually opens an attack.

Two of the chief purposes which heavy bombers have thus far served far exceed the original idea of making troops “keep their heads down” while tanks and infantry go forward. Already the close support of heavy bombers has been scientifically directed to breaking the enemy’s strongest points and obstructing roads along which help might be brought to his forward positions.

New bombing technique

By bringing the whole technique of precision night bombing to this task Britain’s heavy bombers have made heavy and close support possible. They have been able to take on targets on the battlefield without endangering the lives of the adjacent British troops.

They have introduced a bombing method whereby an enormous weight of explosives can be put down on prescribed objectives in a short time without having to send over bombers in close formations which give flak its best chance. They have armed themselves by using bright-burning ground flares as target indicators with a means of identifying targets through smoke and dust.

In the dawn attack which opened the battle south of Caen, Britain’s heavy bombers sent down 5,000 tons of bombs in 40 minutes on targets nominated by the Army. No other means could have accomplished this.

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McGlincy: Saint-Lô captured by 29th Division

Tired troops win tough battle
By James McGlincy, United Press staff writer

U.S. 1st Army HQ, Normandy, France –
The U.S. 29th Division, one of the first combat units to go overseas, was in the forefront of the Allied invasion of Normandy, and it was that former National Guard outfit which captured Saint-Lô after days of almost continuous fighting, it may now be revealed.

All the accolades that can be given troops should be given the 29th Division which fought until its men were exhausted, until it seemed impossible that men could stand on their feet any longer, until it seemed they finally must give in and withdraw from the lines.

But they didn’t give in, and they didn’t withdraw in spite of the losses they took. They fought until there was nothing except their stout hearts to keep them driving. Their bodies were tired, but still they had that spark left which makes men fight when they no longer know why they are fighting.

The 29th Division arrived in England in October 1942. A National Guard outfit, the division was composed originally of men from Maryland and Virginia, with a sprinkling of boys from Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, but eventually they got all kinds of replacements until now the outfit includes men from all parts of the nation.

After rigorous training in Britain for 20 months, they finally got the assignment for which they were prepared.

And in carrying out that assignment, they wrote a battle epic which, when the full story can be told, will go down in history as one of the greatest of all time.

538

Reds impatient with Allied delay in France

Claim terrain in west favors advance
By James Aldridge, North American Newspaper Alliance

Moscow, USSR – (by wireless)
Each day Soviet observers get more worried about lack of development of the war in the west. The general attitude is: “You’ve established your position; now go ahead and develop it.”

For the past three days, articles by three leading Soviet commentators – Gen. Galaktionov, “The Observer” and K. Demidov – have taken the entire British press to task. The Russian writers do not like the tendency of the British press to apologize for the static situation on the Western Front.

These Soviet commentators disagree with American and British newspapers which say it is difficult to advance and maneuver from such a small area as the Allies hold in Normandy. They point to El Alamein in North Africa and to Italy as examples of how the Allies did and can maneuver and attack from small areas if they want to do so.

Says Reds’ job harder

Gen. Galaktionov also points out that as far as maneuvering is concerned, the Allies are better off in France than the Red Army is in White Russia. He says it is easier to maneuver along the good roads of France than it is in the marshland stretching from Vitebsk to Vilna and beyond.

Another criticism by these three writers is against the idea of the British and American press to go along with German Propaganda Minister Goebbels to divide the East and West into more important and less important fronts. Although the Allied newspaper comment has insisted that the Russian front is the more serious one for Germany, this flattery is not welcomed here. To these Soviet commentators, it seems to be an encouragement to Germany to put most of her weight on Russia.

Cite Tehran agreement

On Wednesday Mr. Demidov pointed out in Pravda, the Communist Party organ, that only one-tenth of the German Army is facing the Allies in France. Yesterday, “The Observer” repeated it in the same publication and stated that on July 8, the 2nd Airborne Division of the Reichswehr was taken from Normandy to Vilna where it was destroyed. To the Soviet commentators, the efforts of the Allies are still unbalanced.

For the most part these critics ask for no more than increased vigor and volume in the Allied attacks. They remind us of the Tehran agreement, which states that the Allies would attack in volume from the west and south as the Red Army attacked in volume in the east. The Red Army is attacking in volume, they say, but they are still waiting for the main Allied forces to be thrown into the battle in the west.

When this is done, the writers aver, Germany will be defeated quickly and completely.

539

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 23, 1944)

Communiqué No. 95

In the CAEN sector, east of the ORNE, Allied troops have cleared the enemy from the village of ETAVAUX. Our forces advanced southeast of ÉTERVILLE and MALTOT is in our hands.

North of PÉRIERS, we have crossed the SÈVES River in the vicinity of the village of SÈVES.

Fuel dumps at FORÊT DE CONCHES, MESSEI and CHÂTEAU DE TERTU were attacked by medium bombers early yesterday evening. Escorted night bombers attacked rail lines at BOURTH and military buildings near VANNES.

Bridges near BREST and CHOLET were hit by fighters and fighter-bombers. Locomotives were attacked, tracks severed and trucks destroyed in the areas of LORIENT, CHARTRES and ANGERS.

Two of our aircraft are missing.

Communiqué No. 96

Allied troops east of CAEN have cleared the enemy from the village of ÉMIÉVILLE. Enemy counterattacks were repulsed in the regions of yesterday’s advance near MALTOT and near SÈVES in the western sector.

Medium and light bombers, this morning, attacked six rail targets leading to the battle zone. Results were unobserved.

Other bombers, before dawn, harassed enemy communications at ROUEN, VIERZON and a number of SEINE crossings.

540

The Pittsburgh Press (July 23, 1944)

Allies battling in morasses of French mud

British take half of Troarn stronghold
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer

map.072344.up
Fighting through morasses of mud, British forces have seized commanding heights in Troarn (1) as torrential rains slowed fighting in Normandy. Two Nazi counterattacks were repulsed, by the British south of André-sur-Orne (2) and by the Americans on the Saint-Lô–Périers highway (3). The Yanks were two miles from Périers.

SHAEF, London, England – (July 22)
British troops, fighting through morasses of mud like those in the last war, have won commanding heights inside Troarn, German stronghold seven miles east of Caen, and 14 enemy tanks have been knocked out in scattered actions across the wind- and rain-swept front, it was disclosed today.

British troops ironed out the Nazi salient south of Caen by capturing Maltot and Etavaux. Maltot is three miles west of Saint-André-sur-Orne on the Caen–Aunay highway. Etavaux is one mile northwest of Saint-André. A number of Nazi counterattacks were turned back, Saturday night’s communiqué said, with the promising British offensive of last week bogged down in the worst weather of invasion.

Lone air attack

Bumping their way through storm clouds, a force of about 200 U.S. Marauder and Havoc bombers and RAF Billy Mitchells bombed three fuel dumps and one railway target south of the battle zone in the lone major air operation of the day.

The Germans launched two limited counterattacks Friday despite the soggy weather, one south of Saint-André-sur-Orne on the Caen front and the other on the Saint-Lô–Périers highway in the American sector. Both were thrown back with severe enemy losses.

Third time in Troarn

The British entered Troarn for the third time Saturday and won the western half of the town before a torrential downpour caused a half-hour suspension of fighting. Smashing across the wooded rise just outside Troarn against fierce machine-gun and light arms opposition, they won high ground dominating the remaining German positions in the eastern half of the town.

Otherwise, the battle had bogged down, but German broadcasts said that Allied guns in the Caen area were drumming out a preparatory barrage for “a large-scale attack in the near future.”

For nearly eight hours, the weather had clamped a stalemate on the battlefields and there was no prospect of its lifting.

British rush stopped

The first great rush of British armor through the Caen gap had ended, because the Germans were once more in wooded terrain after being driven across the rolling farms just east of Caen. The infantry now faced the job of digging them out of one strongpoint after another.

Behind every grove, the Germans had concealed 88mm guns which pinned down the infantry until Allied infantry could get a bearing on the enemy batteries. Rocket-firing Typhoon fighters gave invaluable support Friday until the weather forced them down.

Two miles from Périers

On the American sector, doughboys huddled in foxholes where water was up to their armpits and their supply traffic was interrupted by the impassibility of all except the hardest surfaced roads.

Before the mud made further advances impossible, the Yanks had driven within two miles of Périers, strongpoint of the broken Saint-Lô–Lessay line, and taken positions 1,500 yards west of the Vire southwest of Saint-Lô.

Allied headquarters reversed itself on three towns reported captured Friday – raids on the Carentan–Périers highway, Berigny on the Saint-Lô–Bayeux highway, and Saint-Martin-de-Fontenay, just below Saint-André-sur-Orne. All three are still in German hands, the report of their capture being due to “mistaken map-reading.”

Hill 112, key height just northeast of Esquay in the Caen sector, is still in British hands, although the Germans are once more in possession of Esquay itself as well as Maltot to the north.

German broadcasts again asserted that strong reserves of an Allied army group commanded by Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. had been observed in the Caen area and that a new Allied offensive will not long be delayed. More than 10 British divisions are concentrated in the area, the Germans said.

A Berlin broadcast of a German communiqué said that the British launched “major attacks” Friday and broke into the main German line at several points, but were thrown back by counterattacks. An entire Allied battalion was wiped out, the communiqué asserted.