Operation OVERLORD (1944)

583

The Pittsburgh Press (July 28, 1944)

Yanks race to trap Germans

Two U.S. columns drive into Coutances, another takes Tessy
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

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New sweeping advances were made by U.S. forces in Normandy, scoring gains in the following places: (1) a drive south of Lessay and across the Ay River; (2) an advance to the outskirts of Coutances, linking up with another column (3) driving down the road from Saint-Lô; (4) a smash south of Maupertus, and (5) the capture of Tessy-sur-Vire. In addition, other U.S. troops captured high ground south of Saint-Lô (6) and advanced between Saint-Lô and Caumont. On the eastern end of the front, around Caen, the stalemate continued.

SHAEF, London, England –
Two U.S. armored columns closed in today from the north and east on Coutances, Normandy transport hub commanding the escape corridor of seven German divisions, and drove into its outskirts after making a junction.

Capitalizing swiftly on the American armored breakthrough, which shattered the German defenses in western Normandy, 1st Army spearheads struck into the edge of Coutances and completed the encirclement of Nazi troops northeast of the imminently threatened town.

The other remnants of the seven Nazi divisions north of Coutances were falling back in disorderly retreat in a panicky effort to escape southward before the Americans captured the town and cut the last practical escape routes out of the fast-shrinking pocket.

United Press correspondent Henry T. Gorrell reported from 1st Army headquarters that the columns advancing southward from Périers and westward along the road from Saint-Lô joined at Coutances and struck into the outskirts.

Another takes Tessy

Still another column of U.S. armor plunged forward five miles to capture Tessy-sur-Vire, 10 miles due south of Saint-Lô, after a duel with retiring German tanks.

Slightly to the west, a spearhead was driven two miles south-southwest of Maupertus and within less than a mile of Percy, a road town 15 miles southeast of Coutances and seven miles southwest of Tessy.

Mr. Gorrell rode up with the armored forces extending the American breakthrough to a depth of 15 miles in the Coutances area, and reported while the main force was still a little over two miles from the town that its fall appeared imminent.

Another village falls

One U.S. column struck down Lessay Road, 2½ miles below the fallen western anchor of the crumpled German defenses and captured the village of Marguerite. Slightly to the east, another moved down the Ay Valley about four miles and seized Corbuchon, seven miles north of Coutances and five southeast of Lessay.

A headquarters spokesman said the Germans were withdrawing as fast as possible along the main road down the west coast, with various degrees of confusion in their ranks.

Stronghold is outflanked

Coutances was already outflanked on the southeast by armored units which captured the eight-way highway junction of Cerisy-la-Salle, 11 miles southwest of Saint-Lô, and Notre-Dame-de-Cenilly, two and three-quarter miles southeast of Cerisy.

On the east wing of the American front, Gen. Bradley’s forces advanced two miles south of Le Mesnil-Herman, cutting a lateral road, and struck out southeast and southwest down other roads leading inland to the heart of Normandy.

U.S. infantry moved forward to improve their positions west of Caumont at the extreme eastern end of the American line, while a new attack a little over a mile southeast of Saint-Lô overran Hill 101. This assault was apparently aimed at ironing out the hump in the line immediately east of Saint-Lô.

Although the weather held down air activity in support of the American breakthrough drive, fighter-bombers based in France blasted German tanks and horse-drawn artillery a mile ahead of the American armor. Pilots reported that the advanced ground elements were beyond Saint-Martin-de-Cenilly, a mile southeast of Notre-Dame-de-Cenilly.

Supreme Headquarters did not expect to know for several days how many Germans will be rounded up as a result of the breakthrough. The seven divisions in the pocket below Coutances had taken a bad beating and were far below normal strength.

British sector quiet

The British end of the Normandy front was quiet after guns and planes broke up another German attempt to form for an attack in the Verrières area late yesterday.

United Press correspondent James McGlincy reported that one U.S. armored column advanced 3½ miles to within 1½ miles of Tessy-sur-Vire, 10 miles south of Saint-Lô. Reconnaissance airmen said the town appeared to have been abandoned by the Germans.

The Germans appeared to be in panicky retreat all along the 40-mile western half of the Normandy front as the greatest tank offensive ever mounted in Western Europe went into its fourth day. Allied Supreme Headquarters said there was no longer “any question of a line on the U.S. front.”

Slashing forward at will under a mighty umbrella of dive bombers, fighter-bombers and fighters, Gen. Bradley’s tank columns engulfed dozens of roadside hamlets and villages and appeared well on the way toward breaking completely out of the Normandy bottleneck, paving the way for a drive on Paris.

The proportions of the German rout were mounting almost hourly. More than 3,000 prisoners were taken in the first three days of the offensive and Mr. Gorrell said he counted at least 700 more streaming back from the front in trucks this morning.

Tank units self-sufficient

Considerable amounts of enemy material have been destroyed, front dispatches said. The Germans were known to have gambled all available strength on containing the Allies in the Normandy Peninsula, and a breakthrough to the interior of France probably would result in an Allied advance to the west at a pace rivalling that of the German push to the French coast in 1940.

Mr. Gorrell said:

What happens next is likely to influence the entire course of the war. We have hundreds of armored vehicles operating within enemy country right now.

He also revealed that the tank columns were self-sufficient carrying their own gasoline, ammunition and food supplies.

The stalemate continued on the British part of the front southwest and south of Caen, with British and Canadian artillery fire and supporting fighters and fighter-bombers breaking up a number of German counterattacks before they could get fully underway.

The American command was ramming at least five main armored prongs through the retreating Germans west, southwest and south of Saint-Lô, with resistance slight along the whole line. German planes heavily bombed the American lines at 3:00 a.m. today, but the advance went ahead on schedule.

584

MacGowan: Yanks fire from ditches, hedgerows near Marigny

Town strategically captured, but tactically it was still in German hands
By Gault MacGowan, North American Newspaper Alliance

With U.S. forces in Normandy, France –
Though strategically ours, Marigny, a pretty Normandy town, was still tactically in enemy hands when I approached. A battalion had the job of clearing the enemy out, while our flying columns pushed ahead on either side.

Street fighting was in progress and the enemy was shipping us from houses in the town or straggling out of it and shooting from woods just beyond, which commanded the road as we came down the valley. We, on one side, and they, on the other, could look down into the town – really little more than a village – and “see down each other’s throats,” as someone graphically described it.

Runs into orchard

It wasn’t too comfortable on our side of the road and my jeep driver from Illinois ran the vehicle into a little apple orchard, while I talked with the infantry boys shooting from ditches and from sheltering hedgerows.

This street and village fighting isn’t exactly a movie cameraman’s dream. Nor does it move with the pace you might think. It’ s more like evicting a band of gangsters out of a city dwelling in which they have barricaded themselves. There’s a lot of lying around to do, keeping the bandits engaged with your fire while the police get around at them over the rooftops.

Takes time

It takes time to locate the exact building from which their fire comes and a good deal more time than just attacking a gang of bandits, because there is not just one gang, but several, each keeping you covered lest you attempt to isolate them.

So, it’s your supporting fire against the enemy’s and it takes old hands to do the job with a minimum of delay.

It is just another variation of hedge warfare which you don’t learn on drill ground or on Hollywood sets. This is a pocket-handkerchief country with hedges wound around every one- or two-acre lot and villages that are laid out in a snakelike fashion and not on the square.

585

20 Nazis surrender to Negro signalman

With U.S. troops near Marigny, France (UP) –
A Negro signalman was stringing wire along the road near Marigny last night when a German suddenly approached him in the darkness.

He jumped and shouted: “Who dat?”

At the same time, he reached for his rifle and started firing. That brought 20 more Germans tumbling from the hedges. They had been waiting all around him and debating whether to surrender. His random shots convinced them.

The Negro shouted for help and got it.

586

Mistake bombing kills U.S. troops

U.S. 9th Air Force HQ, Normandy, France (UP) – (July 26, delayed)
About 50 Flying Fortresses and medium bombers dropped bombs shot of their assigned area and killed and wounded American soldiers during yesterday’s record 3,000-plane bombardment of enemy lines west of Saint-Lô, Maj. Gen. Lewis Brereton acknowledged today.

Gen. Brereton, commander of the 9th Air Force, told correspondents that the American casualties were much fewer than had been feared and added that:

You are practically certain to have some shorts when you have that many planes in the air and resulting smoke obscures the ground.

In the case of one group of Havoc bombers, he said, the bombing release mechanism on the lead plane went wrong and bombs plummeted down 10,000 yards short of the scheduled area. Other planes in the group immediately released their explosives.

Though practically the entire mass of bombs fell in the assigned area 9,000 yards long and 2,000 yards wide, Gen. Brereton admitted that the Army was not satisfied with the results of the mass bombardment, presumably because of its failure to bring a quick breakthrough by tanks and infantry.

The breakthrough was achieved late Wednesday and Thursday, however.

He said the bombardment was planned at the request of the Army commander, who indicated the area to be hit.

587

British claim –
Monty plays Caen battle like a champ

Some think war is almost over
By L. S. B. Shapiro, North American Newspaper Alliance

With British and Canadian forces below Caen, France – (July 26, delayed)
Despite the disappointing pace of our advance south of Caen and the violence of German resistance to every thrust made in this sector, feeling grows among all tanks in this portion of Normandy that the war in Europe may fold up quickly. The notion that the war has reached the stage comparable to August 1918 becomes more firmly fixed even as the German defensive reaction becomes more stubborn and effective.

This seemingly is an incongruous observation and yet it is an honest one. Yesterday was not a particularly good day for British and Canadian troops on this front; progress was limited to about one mile. Today there has been practically no forward movement against the screen of guns and dug-in tanks the Germans have thrown up along the ridge which dominates the Laize Valley.

Yet all along our line, I have heard officers speak in the same breath of the doggedness of the German resistance and of the expectation that the war in Europe is almost finished.

Rommel lacks reserves

Events inside Germany, the phenomenal Russian advance, and Prime Minister Churchill’s pointed observation while he was in Normandy last Sunday – all these helped to make firm this expectation. But the real explanation may be found in the battle situation on the Normandy front.

Men fighting on this front base their calculation on three points. The first is that the whole line from southeast Caen to the western shore of the Cherbourg Peninsula contains a single battle which is now in process of being fought. The second is that Marshal Rommel has brought almost everything he has into line for a last-ditch stand and has very little else to back him. The third is that Gen. Sir B. L. Montgomery is holding the initiative firmly and is fighting the sort of battle of which he is an undoubted master. The actions fought here and there along the line are still jigsaw pieces in Gen. Montgomery’s main gain which is yet to be revealed.

Like champion boxer

As one officer put it to me this morning:

Monty is playing this like a champion boxer. He knows he’s got Rommel beat. If he wanted to, he could wade in and slug to a victory. But he wants to play it nicely – to jockey Rommel into position and then let him have the haymaker.

588

Eyewitness story –
Gorrell: Yanks to try bold maneuver to trap Nazis

Germans rushing up men to stop us
By Henry T. Gorrell, United Press staff writer

Five miles from Coutances, France (UP) –
Guns are booming a prelude to the next big battle of the Normandy campaign – a bold attempt by Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s armored army to trap the German 84th Army Corps north of Coutances.

The Germans already know what we are up to and our spotters report they have rushed up reinforcements of artillery, anti-tank guns and mortars during the last few hours in an attempt to protect the bottleneck at Coutances until the 84th Corps can slip out.

Resistance is stiff

On arrival at this armored command post, I was informed that our tank spearheads had probed to within 2½ miles of the vital road junction and that other tank units, supported by motorized infantry, were dashing north and northwest of the Marigny–Coutances highway in an attempt to cut roads north of the town.

They were meeting stiff German resistance centered on Hill 176, located on one of the highways running into Coutances just south of Mont Houchon, off to our right.

Great convoy moves

A great convoy of multi-wheeled vehicles and halftracks is bringing the infantry down from Marigny to join the battle. Giant bulldozers are clearing a path for them through roads littered with burned and blasted Nazi Panther and Tiger tanks. I saw many of these scorched monsters lying overturned in shell holes at the roadside where the bulldozers had shoved them.

The countryside west of Marigny is infested with German troops bypassed in our rapid advance. That they did not fire on my jeep as I motored toward the front, I attribute to the fleet of Piper Cub spotter planes which patrols the roads at treetop height looking for signs of the enemy.

Prisoners brought in

When these Cubs spot an enemy concentration, they radio a report to batteries which at once open up. Hundreds of German prisoners are coming in from such bypassed points, including paratroops wearing camouflaged helmets and fatigue uniforms.

I watched a long line of them being herded toward prisoner pens. They were young and cocky and they walked with a spry step. There was nothing beaten about them. They merely had been outmaneuvered and had quit when they saw resistance was futile. Some of them complained that if our tanks hadn’t broken through behind them, they never would have been beaten.

589

Editorial: Gen. McNair

When the Army Chief of Staff last month inspected the Normandy beachhead, he was asked what impressed him most. Gen. Marshall replied that American troops never before under fire had fought like veterans. This was the highest tribute to the bravery and skill of America’s citizen-soldiers. It was also praise – as every soldier and officer knew – for the man who had organized and trained them.

Lt. Gen. McNair was not as well known to the public as such famous front commanders as Gens. Eisenhower, MacArthur, Stilwell and Bradley. But without his work and achievement theirs would have been impossible, as they have always said. He expanded an American Army of 1,500,000 into a team of 7,700,000. They came to him amateurs; they left him professionals. He even followed them to the fighting fronts to check on their training and perfect it, as he did last year in Tunisia where he was wounded.

It was not accident that made Gen. McNair chief of the Army Ground Forces. He had long been known as “the GHQ sparkplug.” Gen. Marshall had called him “the brains of the Army.”

So, Gen. McNair trained the G.I.s, believing that “the infantryman is our foremost soldier.” He was forever reminding his associates that other arms of the service could prepare the way, but the ground soldier must take and hold positions. When the tank loomed large, he, an old artilleryman, helped to bring up the anti-tank weapons and tactics.

He even matched the morale of more glamorous services. When the humble mud-slogging G.I. seemed neglected for the more publicized airmen, paratroopers, tankmen and others, he set up a unit to educate press and public in the Army truism that “the infantry is the Queen of Battles.”

Two weeks ago, the big training job almost done, the War Department announced that the chief of the Army Ground Forces had been given another important assignment overseas. Yesterday the Department announced that he had been “killed by enemy fire while observing the action of our frontline units in the recent offensive” in Normandy.

Americans everywhere, indebted to this great and gallant officer, join in Gen. Marshall’s tribute to him: “Had he the choice, he probably would have elected to die as he did, in the forefront of the attack.”

590

Völkischer Beobachter (July 29, 1944)

Britisch Normandie-Illusionen geplatzt –
Die Deutschen sind zu stark

Genf, 28. Juli –
Diesmal ist es ein ununterbrochenes, hartes Ringen, schreibt der Korrespondent der Daily Mail zum Kampf in der Normandie. Es lasse sich nicht mehr länger verschweigen, daß Engländer und Nordamerikaner Verluste haben, denn gegen die deutschen Bunkerstellungen und Maschinengewehrnester müsse einzeln vorgegangen werden, von einer englisch-kanadischen Kompanie sei kein einziger Offizier übriggeblieben. Langsam und gequält rollten die Kämpfe ab; es sei daher unklug, vorzeitig beurteilen zu wollen, wohin diese Offensive die Engländer und Kanadier führe.

Niemand solle zu Hause so leichtfertig sein, anzunehmen, daß das offene Gelände südlich Caen für die Alliierten ideal sei. Es wäre ideal, wenn sie bessere Tanks als die Deutschen besäßen. Das aber sei nicht der Fall. Für die alliierte Kriegführung bedeute jeder Deutsche Tankverband etwas sehr Furchtbares.

Am deutlichsten wird Allan Moorhead, der Frontberichter des Daily Express. Die britische Öffentlichkeit frage mit Recht, so schreibt er, was eigentlich der Sinn dieser Kämpfe sei, da man doch überhaupt nicht vorwärtskomme. Er könne hierauf antworten, die Deutschen hätten einige der besten Truppen an der normannischen Front. Sie besäßen die ausgezeichnetsten „Panther“- und „Tiger“- Panzer und noch schwerere Waffen.

Wie Reuters am Donnerstag meldete, ist der US-Generalleutnant Lesley J. McNair in der Normandie gefallen. Er war bis vor kurzer Zeit Oberkommandierender der US-Bodenstreitkräfte. Der US-Generalstabschef Marshal nannte ihn einmal „Das Hirn der Armee.“

Die Ankunft einer sowjetischen Militärkommission an der Normandiefront, die aus London gemeldet wird, bedeutet nach Ansicht unterrichteter Kreise, daß die Sowjets sich persönlich von dem Stand der Operationen an der Normandiefront zu überzeugen suchen. In Moskau ist man mit dem bisherigen Verlauf der Invasion in keiner Weise zufrieden. Man erklärt, die Fortschritte der alliierten Truppen seien enttäuschend. Man habe etwas ganz anderes erwartet. In Moskau wurde angedeutet, die britische Generalität scheue offenbar allzu große Blutopfer und suche einen „billigen Sieg“ davonzutragen. Diese Taktik stehe aber in keinem Verhältnis zu den ungeheuerlichen Opfern an Menschen und Material, die die Sowjets erlitten. Moskau drängt auf Beschleunigung der Operationen unter rücksichtslosem Einsatz der zur Verfügung stehenden Truppenbestände der Engländer und Amerikaner.

591

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 29, 1944)

Communiqué No. 107

COUTANCES is now clear of the enemy and Allied armored forces have reached the sea south of the estuary of the SIENNE River. Areas of enemy resistance north of the town are being rapidly cleared.

Further progress has been made by the thrust southwest from NOTRE-DAME-DE-CENTILLY.

In support of ground operations, yesterday, fighter-bombers attacked an ammunition distribution point, enemy gun positions, enemy reserves and vehicles. Other fighter-bombers and long-range fighters, on armed reconnaissance over northwest FRANCE attacked locomotives, rolling stock, and road transport.

Targets for our medium and light bombers were eight rail bridges northwest of PARIS, an important ammunition dump in the FORÊT DE SENONCHES near CHARTRES, and rail centers north of BERNAY. Last night, light bombers attacked 18 trains and many road targets in northern FRANCE.

Coastal aircraft attacked small enemy vessels off SAINT-MALO yesterday. One boat, carrying troops, was sunk.

Five enemy aircraft were shot down over the beachhead last night.

Communiqué No. 108

Allied armored columns in the western sector continue to advance against stiffening resistance. One column has reached the coast west of COUTANCES and has taken the town of PONT DE LA ROQUE. Another column has reached HYENVILLE south of COUTANCES. Pockets of resistance at CERISY-LA-SALLE and MONTPINCHON have been mopped up.

The salient between VILLEBAUDON and SAINT-DENIS-LE-GAST has been cleared of the enemy. The town of HAMBYE has been taken.

Enemy forces are astride the VIRE south of TESSY. Southeast of SAINT-LÔ, the Allied forces have advanced several kilometers.

German military buildings near MORLAIX were attacked by fighter-bombers this morning.

592

The Pittsburgh Press (July 29, 1944)

Yanks win big tank battle

Nazi force trapped in Normandy by U.S. drive to west coast
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

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New U.S. breakthrough was scored by troops who drove through to the west coast of the Normandy Peninsula and trapped a large German force above Coutances. U.S. troops drove on from captured Coutances to within three miles north of Bréhal (1), smashed down to the west to a point less than nine miles east-northeast of Bréhal (2), surged to within four miles of the Granville–Vire road (3) and advanced to within 10 miles northwest of Vire (4).

SHAEF, London, England –
U.S. armor defeated the Germans in a big tank battle in western Normandy today and resumed the powerful drive which had captured Coutances and carried to the sea, trapping thousands of Nazi troops in a pocket to the north.

The first major German counteraction against the 1st Army offensive fanning out through Normandy was crushed decisively in a hours-long battle of U.S. Shermans and German Tigers and Panthers some 11 miles south of Saint-Lô near the east bank of the Vire River in the vicinity of Tessy-sur-Vire.

Other U.S. forces sped down the highway below Coutances, rolling up a gain of nearly eight miles in the first few hours and approaching the Bréhal road junction.

United Press writer Henry T. Gorrell reported from the front that U.S. armor, in its first big tank engagement since the Sicilian campaign, broke up a concentration of Nazi panzers and put the remnants to flight.

After German planes plastered the entire area of the tank battle, a German armored column struck in the darkness at 3:00 a.m. (local time) in an attempt to break up a parade of Shermans southward into the heart of Normandy.

After hours of savage fighting, the panzers pulled out, and when Mr. Gorrell filed the dispatch at 2:40 p.m., were retreating under a hail of bombs dropped by U.S. planes as the interrupted sweep picked up new momentum.

The setting for the tank battle was dramatic. A large number of Germans were trying to escape from the area north of the Tessy–Bréhal highway, and their chances depended on the battle.

“No doubt there will be plenty of disillusioned Germans among those captured in the next few hours,” Mr. Gorrell said.

The famous Norman hedges upon which the Germans had relied to hold back the U.S. armor boomeranged on the Nazis. This time it was the giant Tigers and Panthers, instead of U.S. forces, that were at a disadvantage, “for it is the attacking side that holds the short end of the stick in this kind of country,” Mr. Gorrell reported.

The German tanks were supported by 88mm guns, U.S. anti-tank guns also played a major role in the battle. there were casualties on both sides, Mr. Gorrell said, without estimating their extent. One U.S. command post was overrun in the first phase of the fight.

Tank and tank destroyers weaved in and out of the hedgerows, firing fast, and blasted the obstacles from the American path. A “good number” of German Tigers and Panthers were knocked out, and some Shermans were disabled.

Employing the famous leapfrog tactics used and perfected by Lt. Gen. George S. “Blood and Guts” Patton Jr. in Sicily, the west coast armored column and at least three others inland swept across the Sienne and Soulle Rivers – previously mentioned as possible enemy defense lines – and engulfed or bypassed scores of towns and villages in what was developing into one of the great American victories of the war.

The reference to the tactics used by Gen. Patton recalled recent German claims that he has taken a command in Normandy.

Though the early stages of their retreat were chaotic, the Germans now appeared to be conducting an orderly withdrawal along the entire western half of the front so rapidly that indications were they may not halt for a stand short of Avranches, at the hinge of the Normandy and Brittany Peninsulas 25 miles south of Coutances.

The German-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau said the Americans were attacking with 10 or 12 tank divisions – an estimated 2,500 tanks – in an offensive apparently designed to smash into the heart of France in an attempt to split the German armies in two and clear the southern flank for a drive on Paris.

While the coastal column bypassed Le Mesnil-Aubert in a push down the road from Coutances to within three miles of Bréhal and eight miles above the port of Granville, a second force rolled down a lateral road to within nine miles east-northeast of Bréhal, a third pounded to within four miles of Granville–Vire lateral highway and a fourth reached a point 10 miles northwest of Vire.

A front dispatch reported that Gavray, seven miles east of Bréhal and one of the focal points of the enemy retreat, was within range of U.S. mobile artillery from the north.

The Americans entered Coutances late yesterday and found it deserted, then plunged on to the west coast south of the Sienne estuary to complete the encirclement of an estimated several thousand German troops isolated in a pocket to the north.

Nazis escape

Front dispatches said the bulk of the German LXXXIV Army Corps of seven badly-battered divisions assigned to the Lessay–Périers sector before the breakthrough escaped through the Coutances bottleneck before U.S. tanks cut across to the sea.

The thousands caught in the trap, however, were expected to boost the bag for the first five days of the offensive to well over 8,000. Five thousand prisoners had been taken through yesterday, Supreme Headquarters said.

The Americans were estimated to have liberated some 400 square miles of France between Saint-Lô and the west coast since they began their offensive in the wake of a 8,000-plane bombardment of enemy lines Tuesday.

At least two of the three enemy panzer, one paratroop and five infantry divisions arrayed along the western half of the front were believed to have been destroyed as fighting units. They were the Lehr Panzer and the 5th Paratroop Divisions. In addition, virtually all tanks of the 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division were believed to have been knocked out.

Cross Sienne River

The Americans crossed the Sienne River at several points and reached the west coast at Regneville, 5½ miles southwest of Coutances, and at last reports were sweeping down both sides of the Coutances–Bréhal–Granville highway.

Mr. Gorrell reported the Germans were fighting bitter rearguard actions along some sectors of the arc below Coutances, with cooks and supply units joining in, but they were no match for the overwhelming American strength.

One U.S. column alone took 1,500 prisoners yesterday, including 50 officers. An entire medical company of the 17th SS Panzer Division was captured.

The American advance from the east-northeast toward Bréhal carried through Saint-Denis-le-Gast, 10 miles away, while the forces driving due south toward the Granville–Vire highway were south of Percy, where German Marshal Erwin Rommel held a military conference only a few days ago.

Outdated by reports

Normandy information at Supreme Headquarters late today was outdated by front reports of the big tank battle and U.S. advances beyond the points mentioned by a spokesman here.

The spokesman said the Americans captured Saint-Malo-de-la-Lande, 3½ miles northwest of Coutances, and reached the coast in that area. They reached the area of Lengronne, 2½ miles west of Saint-Denis-le-Gast, and southeast of Saint-Lô advanced a mile in the area of Saint-Jean-des-Baisants.

Push toward Vire

Vire was under long-range threat from a column that had driven through Tessy-sur-Vire, 10 miles south of Saint-Lô.

Gorrell reported in another front dispatch that the German Air Force appeared in strength last night for probably the first time since D-Day and heavily bombed the advancing Americans, but Allied anti-aircraft guns put up a heavy barrage.

British Mosquitoes struck back at the Germans with attacks on 18 trains over a wide area extending from Granville to Paris, the lines over which the enemy would move up reinforcements to the threatened front.

The rest of the Normandy front continued quiet, with only artillery and patrol action reported from Saint-Lô west to Caen.

Bad weather hampered air support this morning, but the skies cleared just before noon and fighters and fighter-bombers again went out in strength in an effort to better their record of yesterday – 70 German tanks destroyed south of Coutances, nine probably destroyed and 25 damaged; 884 enemy motor transport vehicles destroyed, 12 probably destroyed and 116 damaged.

Bradley’s dawdling fooled Nazi commander

U.S. 1st Army HQ, Normandy, France – (July 28, delayed)
Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s deliberately dawdling tactics during the first phase of the American drive through the hedge country here deceived Gen. Hauser, commanding the Nazi troops, into thinking that he had plenty of time to reorganize his forces after the aerial bombardment Tuesday. But tonight, German troops are racing for their lives before it is too late.

With only three southbound roads of escape open, Gen. Hauser has issued orders to his rearguard battalions to allow the troops freedom from air attack as they retreat.

593

Wolfert: Nazi divisions demoralized as American trap closes

Germans travel in disjointed units trying to hook up with main force
By Ira Wolfert

With U.S. forces, south of Coutances, France – (July 128, delayed)
A string 18 miles long has been drawn around the throats of remnants of perhaps seven German divisions trapped in a triangle whose southernmost point was below Notre-Dame-de-Cenilly when I left the front after 6 o’clock tonight. This string is expected to be the hangman’s rope in another few hours. U.S. armored forces fought through these 18 miles of Germans in exactly 56 hours, once they were shaken loose by the infantry.

The fighting is going on sporadically almost all along the roads running southwest from Canisy to the sea. And the fighting indicates demoralization among the German divisions caught in the triangle

Broken from divisions

The Germans are traveling in disjointed units, some equipped with mobile artillery and mortars and others being merely medical companies or rifle platoons. They seemed to have been broken from their divisions and to be wandering generally in a southeast direction from Coutances trying to join up with the main German forces in the southeastern corner of the Cherbourg Peninsula. The dead of seven German divisions was identified by their insignia in the fighting along the edges of the triangle today.

The only fighting I saw today came when bands of Germans tried to sneak across our line running southwest of Canisy. They were an odd mixture of troops, but were commanded by canny Nazi officers who waited until our column, rumbling past them, offered a soft spot; then they hir with all they had to break through and scoot southeast to safety.

Lie in hiding

These bands of desperate, very frightened men lay in hiding until a segment of our column arrived which offered them the chance of local superiority, then they turned loose their mortars, mobile artillery, machine guns and whatever else they had and tried to force their way through.

As a result, the part of the front I toured, making a circle within view of twin church spires that dominate Coutances, was a series of briefly flaring hotspots, with large, tranquil spaces in between with nobody of lesser rank that of general exactly sure what lay to the right or left or ahead or behind.

The Germans are sharing this confusion. The demoralization of German troops was illustrated by one encounter when howitzers, moving up to support our armor, were attacked by the Germans in force. Rifle fire killed an American riding on the top of a truck and as he fell sideways to the ground Nazi machine guns opened up.

Wreck two tanks

Lt. John Staples of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, led a reconnaissance party down a county lane, saw a German suddenly pop up from behind a hedge and open fire on his party with a bazooka. More Germans with bazookas then opened up, destroying two or three Yank tanks in the party and clipping the rack off the back of the third tank; it wads very fine and very firm-nerved shooting. Lt. Staples cut loose with all his machine guns, while those who could dismount from their vehicles and deployed as infantry and destroyed the bazooka positions.

Then German mortars and machine guns started their brisk fire. Our artillerymen took up rifles and ducked through the fields looking for the Nazis. Florentino Castillo of Hatch, New Mexico; Clayton Long of Niles, Michigan, and Edgar Hess of St. Mary’s West Virginia, were looking along cautiously together. Pvt. Castillo saw a little white dog frisking down the road from a chateau, then saw a German officer strolling casually along behind it, as if out for an afternoon walk. He and the German pointed rifles at each other simultaneously, by Pvt. Castillo shot first and the German was dead before he could pull the trigger, one bullet piercing his heart and two going in his stomach.

Before the echo of Pvt. Castillo’s shots died out, 11 Nazi soldiers climbed out of holes on the chateau grounds and came forward waving upraised arms and shouting, “Kamerad!” They were all that were left of a platoon that had been forced to continue the fighting by the officer holding a gun to their backs. When the officer was killed, they jumped at the chance to surrender.

Nazis demoralized

These German troops were demoralized completely. When I asked one of them what effect the bombing of July 25 had on him, he began to cry. He cried in a broken, helpless fashion, and it was impossible for him to answer my question with words.

For several hours after that, the area was quiet. Then suddenly the firing began again with American cars having to run a gantlet of bullets on high ground just beyond the village. Among the cars manning the gantlet was one bearing senior officers who huddled down low in their jeep and let the bullets clip the hedges alongside them as they passed about their duties. Two lieutenants in a car with a senior officer took up rifles and wanted to go after the German machine guns, and they had to be shouted down by the senior officer.

The officer told me after he finished shouting:

I know exactly how they feel. They had to shout me back to my maps when I took up a Tommy gun to chase some Heinies this morning.

The Luftwaffe made a brief appearance overhead while I was talking with the officer. Eighteen Messerschmitts started strafing but four of our Thunderbolts got on their tails and chased them out of sight. I saw one Messerschmitt nose-diving toward the earth from a thousand feet, with glycol streaming from it.

594

Shapiro: Fanatical Nazi resistance below Caen puzzles Allies

British and Canadians stopped cold by fiercest enemy opposition since D-Day
By L. S. B. Shapiro, North American Newspaper Alliance

With British and Canadian forces below Caen, France – (July 27, delayed)
Out of the tortured, rubble-strewn terrain that marks the rolling battlefield between the Orne River and the town of Bourguébus, one dominating fact emerges. It is that the German formations opposing the British and Canadian troops are fighting more effectively now than at any other time since D-Day.

Whether or not this is merely a coincidence, they have retaliated with a new degree of frenzied violence since the attempted coup within Germany. They have, temporarily at least, stopped our advance and there was only one reply when an Allied officer in the line was asked for an explanation.

“Jerry is throwing everything he’s got into this fight,” he said, “and that’s plenty.”

Fighting like madmen

There is no tendency to blame the weather or the artillery fire or the air support or any of the many facets of a modern battle that can be used to concoct an excuse for failure to move forward. The only possible story is that the Germans are fighting like madmen and are using superbly the weapons they have at their disposal.

Sullen, exhausted prisoners coming into our lines can give few clues to explain this development, but several explanations are put forward. One is that, since last Friday, young, fanatical Nazi officers have been promoted to take charge of formations on this front and have imbued their men with or bullied them into new powers of resistance.

Another is that they have a special plea from Hitler to hold on pending the arrival at the front of so-called new victory weapons. A third explanation is that the full extent of the German crisis has been revealed to the troops and they have been exhorted to make the supreme effort to stabilize the front on the theory that retreat means collapse everywhere.

Poles, Russians fight well

Any one or all of these explanations may fit the situation, but none explains the sturdy resistance of Russian, Yugoslav and Polish elements which form probably 20 percent of the German formations.

Whatever form of bribery or compulsion has been practiced on them, they are fighting effectively enough to point up the power of discipline and training upon the peasant mind. They desert when they have the opportunity, but their German noncoms see to it that they have precious little opportunity, and so long as they are in the line, they do their work like automatons.

Whether this is the beginning of unforeseen German strength on this front or a last superhuman effort before they collapse remains a very lively question.

595

The Afro-American (July 29, 1944)

ARTILLERYMEN IN FRANCE CORRECT OFFICER WHO THOUGHT THEM QUARTERMASTERS
Tan gun crew stuns Germans; Nazis call artillery ‘whispering death’

Part of mixed unit; boys with long toms called Army’s best
By Ollie Stewart, AFRO war correspondent

With advanced U.S. forces, France –
We were about three miles from the German lines. Heavy gunfire was continuous and German ack-ack was spattering mushroom bursts of flak as our planes dived over their lines and our observation grasshopper planes sailed placidly along, spotting the German guns and radioing back their positions.

When a white colonel saw colored troops in the midst of all this, he said: “This is the first time that I have ever seen quartermasters up so close to the front line.”

Staff Sgt. Eugene W. Jones of 1611 W Butler St., Philadelphia, replied:

Sir, we are not quartermasters, we are field artillery and we have just been given a firing mission. Want to watch us lay one on the target?

One of best in Army

That was my introduction to the first colored 155mm howitzer outfit in France, one of the best groups of artillerymen in the Army, white or colored. Two battalions have been in action for weeks and had a big part in the taking of La Haye-du-Puits. Another unit operating 155mm Long Toms has just arrived.

These hardworking gunners will tell you frankly that they know they are good. Their officers told me that they are good. White infantrymen who won’t budge unless these guys are laying down a barrage say that they are good and German prisoners ask to see our automatic artillery that comes so fast and so accurate.

Late in the afternoon, I was conducted to a cleverly concealed gun of one battery engaged in shelling a target miles away by 1st Sgt. John Clay of Louise, Mississippi.

As we arrived, Staff Sgt. W. G. Gaiter of Seaside Heights, New Jersey, had a field phone in his hand and said quietly “fire mission” and all twelve men jumped to alert. “Base deflection so and so,” said Gaiter, and the men automatically twisted dials causing the big gun to swerve to the described position. “Load with charge so and so and fire.” Gaiter snapped.

It happened so quickly that I had no time to put my fingers to my ears. Boom, went the gun, and you could hear the heavy projectile whispering on its way. “Cease firing, end of mission,” said Gaiter, and the men had the gun open and clean even as he spoke. End of mission means that the target has been demolished, which usually comes after one shot from these boys.

New Jersey lad ace gunner

Gunner at this post was baby-faced Donald Morre, 21, of New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was at Rutgers when drafted. The kid is known as one of the best gunners in the Army. The boys tell a story of another outfit firing at a German observation post in a church steeple during the fight for La Haye-du-Puits. They missed several rounds, but Moore and his gang blasted the steeple at first shot. I saw what was left of the church.

Others in the gun crew are: Cpl. Ozzie Jones of Birmingham, Alabama; Cpl. George Hood, Pvt. Perry Cockrell and Pvt. Eseasy Redmand, all of Lexington, Mississippi; Pvt. Willie Allison of Columbus, Georgia; Pvt. Isaac Rolle of West Palm Beach, Florida; Pfc. Lester Dobson of Patterson, Georgia; Pfc. Allan Davis of New York City; and Pvts. Jefferson Stockard of Oxford, Mississippi; Nathaniel Davis of Chula, Mississippi; and Eddie Scott of Reddick, Mississippi.

Artillery whispering death

The Germans call our artillery whispering death because the shells don’t whine and the lads sit at the guns day and night, ready for the phone to ring. Before arrival of the Long Tom the group had two white and two colored battalions, but now it has three colored and one white battalion, with white officers except two chaplains, Capt. H. C. Terrel of Birmingham, and Lt. Carranza Holliday of Longview, Texas.

On the roads nearby and all around the gun crews are signs of bitter fighting. Our boys entered the area before the mine detector crews and found dead Germans and Yanks and many cattle. I saw dead swollen livestock all around that perfumed the neighborhood; also much discarded equipment, German and American. I saw one American helmet, still full of clotted blood, where a sniper had scored a direct hit on the helmet.

Snipers were still around and I approached each hedgerow cautiously. That first night, I wrapped a blanket around me and slept in a foxhole without undressing. The gun crews had their shoes on for five days. There was no laughter or loud talk as every man realized that this is serious business, with death stalking all day and hovering in the air at night.

Save thousands of lives

Unmindful of this, however, these men take pride in taking the lead in every big push and they will have performed a memorable service for the Allied cause. Their accurate fire preceding advancing infantry columns has saved thousands of lives and softened many targets the gunners never see.

As I crawled through the brush to a camouflaged position, a message came over the field phone that enemy planes were approaching the area. I was already nervous and dived into a foxhole dug by the Germans, but these men stayed at their posts, some manning machine guns, others cursing Jerry as they calmly scanned the sky overhead.

Stewart describes work of artillery unit in Normandy

By Ollie Stewart, AFRO war correspondent

With advanced U.S. forces, France – (by cable)
Every member of our field artillery unit that I have talked to in this sector has expressed nothing but contempt for the German 88s when compared to the 155mm howitzers they operate.

This unit, a part of a four-unit artillery group including a battalion of 105’s and two 155mm Long Toms, has been termed “one of our best units” by the colonel at corps headquarters.

All are specialists

Every man in the unit is a specialist with a definite job to do for which he has had intensive training. To fire one shell requires the use of precision instruments and the latest equipment known to modern warfare.

The headquarters or command post is the nerve center which directs the fire of all battalions under its command. The battalion headquarters likewise has a fire direction network of phones to direct the fire of three firing batteries under its control, and finally the battery commander directs the fire of his four guns.

Experts in unit

All along the line are radio experts, observation post experts, surveyors, computors, gun crew chiefs, machine-gunners, recorders and dispatchers. Dug in the ground, the draftsmen chart the exact position and elevation of the gun necessary to score a hit on the target, and also the power charge to be used.

The guns are dispersed but the fire of all of them can be directed on any given area.

When the big push begins and a heavy barrage is called for, the corps commander may order “serenade,” which means that perhaps the battalion will aim to fire all guns simultaneously so that the target is completed blanketed by fire. The effect is frightfully devastating and a wide area is pulverized.

Usually, however, the artillery is used to knock out gun positions, tanks, or ammunition dumps. The muzzle of the howitzer is covered except when firing to keep the enemy from spotting the position. After firing, the barrel is lowered and hidden.

The battalions have their own mine detector squads and signal section for stringing wires.

Our troops 9% of invasion force

SHAEF, England –
Colored soldiers, now constituting nine percent of U.S. troops in Normandy, are contributing generously to the Allied effort, the War Department recently announced.

Maj. Gen. Cecil R. Moore, chief engineer, in this theater, recently praised their accomplishment of engineer tasks. He said that one battalion volunteered its free time for six weeks to expedite special programs of construction.

An engineer firefighting company is credited with saving millions of dollars’ worth of such vital supplies as gasoline, paint, lumber, and other stocks in depot of the United Kingdom.

Two colored signal construction battalions in Normandy have earned praise for signal installations there. They rehabilitated German communication lines and instruments for our use and captured a number of prisoners.

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596

Troops in France perform many tasks amid hazards

By Master Sgt. W. A. Johnson

Somewhere in France –
Since D-Day, colored soldiers here have been making vital contributions to the fight for victory as they perform their manifold jobs amid dangers from artillery and shellfire, bombs and exploding mines.

Along the shorelines, DUKWs (2½-ton amphibian trucks), manned by a driver and his assistant, shuttle supplies between the cargo vessels and the central point ashore where the cargo is transferred to waiting trucks.

The convoys of trucks, loaded with men, food, ammunition and equipment, protected by anti-aircraft artillery units, proceed along the road to the ordnance depots which receive, sort, store and issue supplies to the units.

Ammunition protected

The ammunition depot, operated by Tech. Sgt. M. C. Darkins, whose wife, Mrs. Beulah Darkins, is a Baltimore schoolteacher, is carefully concealed and protected by the barrage balloons which prevent strafing and precision bombing.

Also seen along the road are Signal Corps members repairing disrupted lines of communication and establishing new ones. A Red Cross flag indicates the location of a dispensary operated by members of the Medical Corps.

All of these men, the engineers who repair the bridges in record time, and others, when questioned, declare one thought foremost in their minds: the end of the conflict and a speedy return home.

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597

Völkischer Beobachter (July 30, 1944)

Neuer Ansturm gegen Florenz blutig zusammengebrochen –
Ausdehnung des Feindangriffs in der Normandie

Erbitterte Kämpfe im Osten – Zahlreiche sowjetische Angriffe abgewehrt

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 29. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Im Westteil des normannischen Landekopfes nahm die Ausdehnung des feindlichen Großangriffes gestern noch weiter zu. östlich Saint-Lô wurden starke örtliche Angriffe bis auf geringe Einbrüche abgewiesen und südlich der Stadt bei Moyon und Villebaudott feindliche Angriffsspitzen im Gegenangriff zerschlagen. Westlich davon gelang es dem Feind unter Einsatz neuer Kräfte, nach erbitterten Kämpfen weiter nach Südwesten vorzudringen. Am Westflügel des Landekopfes setzten sich unsere Divisionen im Kampf mit dem stark nachdrängenden Feind in den Raum beiderseits Coutances ab. In den neuen Stellungen wurden dann alle feindlichen Angriffe abgewiesen.

Vor dem Lahdekopf beschädigten Torpedoflieger ein feindliches Frachtschiff von 6000 BRT schwer.

Schnellboote versenkten in der Nacht zum 27. Juli vor Le Havre zwei britische Schnellboote und beschädigten mehrere andere. Ein eigenes Boot ging verloren.

Im französischen Raum wurden wiederum 189 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.

Das Vergeltungsfeuer auf London dauert an.

In Italien brach der zweite feindliche Großangriff gegen Florenz blutig zusammen. Mit etwa acht Divisionen rannte der Feind, von stärkstem Artilleriefeuer unterstützt, immer wieder gegen unsere Front an, ohne einen Erfolg zu erringen. Nach schwersten Kämpfen, bei tropischer Hitze, waren die Stellungen am Abend fest in der Hand unserer Truppen. Zwanzig Panzer wurden abgeschossen.

An der übrigen Front beschränkte sich der Feind auf schwächere Angriffe westlich des Tiber und im Küstenabschnitt, die erfolglos blieben.

Im Osten wurden heftige Angriffe der Sowjets im Karpatenvorland zum Teil im Gegenangriff abgewehrt.

Östlich des großen Weichselbogens schiebt sich der Feind mit starken Kräften an den Fluss heran. Ein übersetzversuch über den Fluss wurde vereitelt. Südöstlich Warschau und bei Siedlce dauern erbitterte Kämpfe an. Zwischen dem mittleren Bug und Kauen schlugen unsere Truppen alle Durchbruchsversuche des Feindes ab.

Im Abschnitt Kauen–Riga verstärkte sich der feindliche Druck. Trotz zähen Widerstandes der Besatzung drang der Feind in die Stadt Schaulen ein. Nach Mitau vorstoßende feindliche Kräfte würden im Gegenangriff aus der Stadt geworfen.

An der Front zwischen der Düna und dem Finnischen Meerbusen scheiterten auch gestern zahlreiche Angriffe der Bolschewisten. 43 feindliche Panzer wurden abgeschossen.

Schlachtfliegerverbände vernichteten vierzig weitere Panzer, zahlreiche Geschütze und mehrere hundert Fahrzeuge.

In der Nacht führten schwere Kampfflugzeuge einen zusammengefassten Angriff gegen den Bahnhof Molodeczno, der starke Brände und heftige Explosionen unter abgestellten Transportzügen hervorrief.

Bei der Abwehr eines sowjetischen Luftangriffes auf die Stadt Kirkenes schossen unsere Jagdflieger zwölf feindliche Flugzeuge ab.

Nordamerikanische Bomber griffen bei Tag Orte in Mittel- und Westdeutschland, darunter Wiesbaden und Merseburg, an.

In der flacht waren Stuttgart und Hamburg das Ziel feindlicher Terrorangriffe. Luftverteidigungskräfte brachten 97 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 95 viermotorige Bomber, zum Absturz.

598

Kolonnen im Tiefflug zerbombt –
Angriff in der Normandie

pk. Ihre mittlere Flak durchbohrt und durchlöchert die Nacht wie ein Sieb. Scheinwerfer schneiden das Dunkel in Stücke. Lichter flammen in der Tiefe, Fahrzeuge brennen weißgelb, rundum glühen dunkelrot wie flammender Klatschmohn – die Brände der Schober und Häuser. 4.000 Meter tief unten atmet und kämpft die nächtliche Front des Brückenkopfes von Caen bis Cherbourg. Hoch oben liegt noch das Zwielicht einer späten Dämmerung. Ein graues Licht, in dem der Verband der schweren deutschen Kampfflugzeuge auf Westkurs schwimmt. Gleichmäßig heben und senken sich die Flächen, ruhig rauschen die Motoren. Man muß den Kopf an die Kanzelfenster drücken, um unter den Rümpfen die Umrisse der schweren Minen und Sprengbomben und der großen Abwurfbehälter für Brand- und Splitterbomben zu erkennen. Die See ist von fahlem, weißlichem Grau, braun die Küste. Die Stadt liegt im Knick der Halbinsel ein Stück landeinwärts, aber gut und klar ist unser Ziel auszumachen in der mondhellen Nacht.

Klirrend kommt durch die Hörmuscheln der Befehl des Kommandeurs an alle: „Verbandsauflösung!“ und dann „Ich stürze!“ Schattenhaft schnell kippt die Maschine ab, rast hinunter. Ein Feuervorhang wächst ihr entgegen. Oben kurbeln und kurven die Kampfflugzeuge, warten. Jetzt – Aufflammen in der Tiefe, eine breite, grellweiße Bahn.

Es ist so weit. Sturz. Der Verband greift an, die alten Londonspezialisten und Zielfinder. Der Leutnant K., einer der Tüchtigsten vom jungen Segelfliegernachwuchs, kaum 21 Jahre alt, man sagt, daß seine Besatzung eine der verwegensten sei – hat die Hände leicht und locker am Knüppelhorn. Herunterfegend schwillt der Motorenlärm stoß Haft an, dröhnt in die Kabine und frisst sich durch die Fliegerhauben. Heftiger vibriert die Zelle. Steiler, schneller. In den Ohren staut sich der Druck, presst die Trommelfelle. Grell wirft sich von unten der Kegel der Scheinwerfer entgegen, tastet in die Nacht, pinselt kalkweiß dicht vorbei, bis es blau darin auf gleißt. Sie haben einen Kameraden erfasst. Wie eine Kaskade sprühen die Garbenbüschel der Flak herauf.

Zwei, drei Meter vor der Kanzel wischt es rot heran – Leuchtspur. Die Hände am Steuerhorn krampfen sich fest, drücken schärfer weg. Rauschend trommelt Motorenlärm. Schwer pressen sich die Körper zurück in die Spitze. Die Erde fliegt entgegen, Felder, Gehöfte, Straßen, die sich zu einer Spinne verdichten im Gewirr einer Stadt. Jetzt sind Kolonnen erkennbar. Panzer und Fahrzeuge. Die Feuersperre verdichtet sich, Batterien mit Vierlingen und 2-Zentimeter-Geschützen greifen ein. Nur nicht an die Abwehr denken, nicht auf die Garben sehen, nicht die Glimmsätze verfolgen, die so oft von ihren Trägern, den Geschossen, abschmelzen und als talergroße Glühwürmchen durch die Luft sirren und über die wirkliche Schusslage täuschen.

Immer noch kämpft der Kamerad im Fangnetz der Scheinwerferarme. „1500 Meter hoch,“ schreibt der Beobachter, Feldwebel G. Er ist ruhig und besonnen, aber jetzt fasst ihn die Erregung, die Wut. Mit der einen Hand reißt er die Bordkanone aus der Zurrung, löst mit der anderen die Anschnallgurte und schiebt sich vor in die Kanzel, flucht. „Ich werde schießen!“ schimpt er, „wollen mal sehen…“

Und mit einem Seitenblick hangt er wieder am Höhenmesser, meldet fort und fort die Meter über Grund, die Sekunden sind wie langsam sich lösende Tropfen, die gemessen in den großen Becher der Zeit fallen. „Zwei, drei, vier – 900 Meter,“ ruft die Stimme in ihrer harten oberschlesischen Mundart. „Bomben klar!“ Befehl des Leutnants. Wieder huschen einige hundert Meter vorbei. Und nun das „Ich werfe – raus!“ des Flugzeugführers. Jetzt müßten sie abfangen und ausdrehen aber sie tun mehr, diese Jungen, die hier Nacht um Nacht ihre Bomben in den Brückenkopf knüppeln. Sie denken an die Kameraden, die Grenadiere und Panzermänner, und stürzen weiter mit ihren fallenden Bomben.

Das „Hinterhaus,“ Funker und Schützen, hetzen nach vorn: „Schießt – und hinein!“ Der Rausch hat sie gefasst. Sie sind so jung, aber so hart schon gehämmert im Feuer von London bis Hull wie edler, biegsamer Damaszenerstahl. Ratternd tost die Kanone. Stellungen sind klar erkannt. Feuer deckt. Die Straße wird abgeschrubbt. Geballter fasst die Feindabwehr sich zusammen.

Plötzlich ein weites, breites Aufhellen, Aufprickeln. Hundertfach entfaltet sich ihr Splitterbombenfeld. Sie haben die richtige Sorte mit. Aber hunderte rasante kleinste Splitterbomben. Wie erloschen ist mit einem Schlage das Leben. Scheinwerfer verglühen, Batteriestellungen schweigen. Fahrzeuge brennen auf. Jäh fasst der Druck des Abfangens den Körper, presst auf, den Magen und in die Lehnen zurück. „Schussfeld frei fürs Hinterhaus.“ Unteroffizier W., wir nennen ihn alle nur unseren Steppke, den „zarten Mann in der Wanne,“ radiert blitzschnell für den Kameraden die seitab gelegenen Scheinwerfer aus der ist frei. Der Funker, Unteroffizier H., streut ebenfalls über Stellungen weg. 19 Jahre ist der eine, 20 der andere, Schüler beide. Nah druckt sich das schwere Kampfflugzeug an den Boden und wetzt querfeldein. Bäume, Häuser und Dörfer strudeln vorbei. Eine weiße Leuchtkugel steigt auf, noch eine. Dort sind die eigenen Linien, Erkennungs-Signal schießen. Rote Sterne entfalten sich, stehen sekundenlang und verglühen langsam. Rauschend mahlen die Motoren auf Heimatkurs.

Kriegsberichter Dr. HARALD JANSEN

599

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 30, 1944)

Communiqué No. 109

Allied forces pushing south from COUTANCES have linked up with our forces in LENGRONNE. The whole of the road between these two towns is in our hands. An enemy force south of the river SOULLE has been surrounded and is being steadily eliminated in spite of determined efforts to break out.

Our troops advancing to the west have crossed the river SIENNE in several places.

PERCY and the PERCY–HANBYE road are in our hands.

Heavy fighting continues in the area of TESSY.

Further east, an advance of a mile has been made astride the river SEULLES in the area of SAINT-VAAST.

Throughout yesterday, in changeable weather, Allied fighters and fighter-bombers closely supported our advancing troops. At least 20 tanks were destroyed; fighters trapped an enemy convoy crossing a bridge over the river SIENNE near GAVRAY and destroyed 12 tanks.

Enemy troops, gun positions, and bridges were hit in attacks southwest of COUTANCES, and near AVRANCHES and SAINT-LÔ.

Many railway cars and armored and motor vehicles were set on fire by fighters operating in the rear of the immediate battle zone and at VENDOMME and in the ROUEN–AMIENS–ARRAS AREA.

Escorted heavy bombers, using instruments, attacked airfields at JUVINCOURT and LAON–COURVRON.

Five enemy aircraft were destroyed during the day’s operations. Five of our fighters are missing.

Communiqué No. 110

The Allied advance continues in the western sector. BREHAL, CERENCES, and GAVRAY have been occupied and Allied troops are pushing on beyond these towns.

Pockets of enemy infantry and armor which had been bypassed are being steadily eliminated. Attempts to break out with tank support by enemy encircled in the areas of LENGRONNE and SAINT-DENIS-LE-GAST were frustrated, and more than 30 tanks were knocked out. A strong counterattack in the area of TESSY-SUR-VIRE was beaten back.

In the GAUMONT area, an advance of three miles has been made south of the town, and Allied troops have reached the SAINT-JEAN-DES-ESSARTIERS and LES LOGES. To the east of CAUMONT, our troops have gained ground in spite of strong enemy resistance, very difficult ground and extensive minefields.

A force of heavy and medium bombers attacked tactical targets in the CAUMONT area this morning in support of the ground action there. Both visual and pathfinding techniques were employed due to the cloud layer which extended to within 2,000 feet of the ground.

Fighter-bombers continued to support our advancing columns in the western sector.

Armed reconnaissance patrols were flown as far eastward as AMIENS, PARIS and CHARTRES.

600

The Pittsburgh Press (July 30, 1944)

Yanks smash five gaps in Nazi line

Germans stampeding southward; Americans wipe out three divisions
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer

map.073044.up
Deeper into France through five gaps in the German lines went U.S. forces as the Germans gave way, with a tank battle, in the region of Tessy-sur-Vire, the only major Nazi opposition. One U.S. forces (1) drove within three miles north of Bréhal, and smashed to the west coast of Normandy at Regnéville and Saint-Malo-de-la-Lande. Late dispatches said Nazis in the pocket above Coutances were wiped out by a U.S. force which swept down from Lessay. U.S. troops also drove to within three miles of Bréhal from the east-northeast (2), closed on the Granville–Vire road (3) and aimed a spearhead toward Vire (4). East of Saint-Lô, the Americans advanced three miles toward Torigny (5), while on the eastern end of the front, the situation was unchanged in the Caen area.

SHAEF, London, England –
Triumphant U.S. doughboys poured through five gaping holes in the German battle lines in western Normandy today, lunging six miles beyond captured Coutances to the sea and wiping out the last survivors of three of the seven Nazi divisions caught in the path of their armored columns.

The entire Nazi left flank buckled and broke, sending a torrent of U.S. infantrymen and tanks racing southward toward the port of Granville only eight miles beyond the farthest point of the advance last night.

Crack German units rushed in from the east stiffened the enemy lines momentarily at some points, particularly west of the Vire River below Saint-Lô, but nowhere were the battered Nazis able to halt the American juggernaut.

German pocket eliminated

The German pocket north of Coutances was eliminated by a U.S. force that, driving forward 16 miles in six hours, swept down from Lessay to join up with two other armored spearheads that had fused at Coutances and pushed on to the sea.

United Press writer Robert C. Miller reported the destruction of the enemy pocket in a delayed dispatch from the Coutances front, of the fate of several thousand Germans trapped above Coutances by the first two U.S. columns that reached the city.

A high military spokesman revealed, however, that three enemy divisions, almost half the force that attempted to stop the U.S. offensive, had been destroyed.

Attack hurled back

The Germans put up their bitterest resistance in the Tessy-sur-Vire area west of the Vire River. The German 2nd Armored Division, rushed from the Caen front, hurled a savage counterattack against the advancing Americans, only to be smashed back with heavy losses. For the moment, however, Tessy became a no-man’s-land as the two tank armies sparred around its outskirts.

The counterblow failed to halt the stampede of the main German force to the west. Enemy vehicles were jammed bumper to bumper along the highways in a disorderly retreat toward Brittany, piling up tanks and transports at broken bridges under merciless attack from low-flying Allied planes.

New push to east

The American advance down the west side of France began paying off in relation to the front as a whole when a new Yankee push gathered momentum southeast of Saint-Lô. This column advanced three miles Saturday to within two miles of the important crossroads of Torigny against slight resistance as the Germans withdrew.

More than 7,000 prisoners had been captured in the breakthrough to the west and a great many others, some fighting like cornered animals, others huddled in caves and forests, were being mopped up by U.S. infantry. Two huge groups were liquidated southeast of Coutances, with the help of dive bombers.

The escape of all enemy units remaining north was cut off when U.S. troops finished cleaning up Coutances and drove on southwest to the coast.

Tank spearheads join

Two armored spearheads which had joined in the final assault on Coutances were now pushed in a powerful push down the coast which was driving the fleeing enemy almost into the arms of another tank force which had carried out a swinging advance southward and then to the west.

The latter forces was already shelling with heavy artillery all the enemy escape roads between it and the sea and had shot forward almost 10 miles overnight, capturing Saint-Denis-le-Gast and Lengronne and advancing within three miles of Bréhal and eight of the valuable port of Granville.

Meanwhile, on the eastern flank of the breakthrough near Tessy, the Germans launched their first great counterblow, front dispatches revealed.

Luftwaffe bombs lines

During Friday night, the Luftwaffe bombed U.S. lines in that sector in heavy strength, then at dawn, Mark VI Tiger and Mark V Panther tanks attacked the west, touching off a major battle.

Except for valuable blows put in by U.S. anti-tank guns, it was a battle of tank versus tank since heavy artillery and air support were called back because of the closeness of the fighting. The first lunge of the Tigers and Panthers overran one U.S. position and a number of Sherman tanks were knocked out, but within a few hours the situation was under control and the enemy withdrew, leaving a number of tanks smoking on the battlefield.

Joining forces with another armored column which had crossed the Tessy-Bréhal road in the Maupertus sector to the west, the Yanks continued their advance toward the Granville–Vire road.

Ninth Air Force headquarters in France said that 70 Nazi tanks were destroyed Friday south of Coutances by Allied planes, and British headquarters listed 271 destroyed, probably destroyed or damaged in a three-day period.

The U.S. 1st Army was keeping the enemy so off-balance that it appeared impossible he would be able to make a stand short of a line running inland from Avranches at the neck of the Breton Peninsula.

400 square miles cleared

In cleaning out the German salient pushing up east of Saint-Lô, the Yanks captured Saint-Jean-des-Baisants and pushed on a mile, promising an early linkup with the column moving toward Torigny.

Since the Yanks started forward Tuesday, using the same “leapfrog” tactics in taking over from the infantry that Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr., perfected in Sicily, the Yanks have enveloped an area of 400 square miles.

Absolute quiet was reported Saturday from the British sector.

601

Allied airmen wound Rommel, prisoner says

U.S. 1st Army HQ, Normandy, France (UP) – (July 29)
A captured German captain said today that Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, field commander of the German armies in Normandy, was wounded and unconscious six hours after Allied planes strafed his motorcar behind the British-German fronts recently.

The captain said Rommel jumped from his car into a ditch when the planes swooped down on him.

Since Rommel was reported to have attended a battle conference on the American front the day before the opening of this week’s U.S. offensive, it was presumed that he had recovered.

Unconfirmed rumors circulated that a French woman had told Allied officers that Rommel died of his injuries. Responsible authorities said they had been unable to find anyone who had talked with the “French woman.”

The BBC said the rumor that a French Red Cross nurse had reported Rommel dead was one of many circulating in the American area in Normandy.

602

Völkischer Beobachter (July 31, 1944)

Schweres „V1“-Feuer auf Groß-London –
Feindangriffe in der Normandie blutig abgewiesen

Neuer Vorstoß auf Florenz zerschlagen – Heftige bolschewistische Angriffe abgewehrt – Gegenstöße deutscher Panzerverbände im Raum von Kauen

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 30. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Die Durchbruchsversuche der Nordamerikaner hielten gestern beiderseits der Vire bei Moyon und im Abschnitt Beaucoudray–Percy den ganzen Tag über an. Sie wurden in erbitterten Kämpfen überall blutig abgewiesen. 28 Panzer und 7 Flugzeuge wurden dabei durch Einheiten des Heeres abgeschossen. Auf dem Westflügel durchbrachen unsere von den Hauptkräften vorübergehend abgedrängten Divisionen von Coutances her die feindlichen Linien nach Süden und bezogen neue Stellungen im Raum Gavray–Trelly. An der übrigen Front des Landekopfes führte der Feind nur südlich Juvigny einen erfolglosen örtlichen Angriff.

Jagd- und Schlachtfliegerverbände schossen in Luftkämpfen sechs feindliche Flugzeuge ab. In der Nacht führten starke Verbände schwerer Kampfflugzeuge wirksame Angriffe gegen Bereitstellungen des Feindes südöstlich Caen und im Raum südwestlich Saint-Lô.

Im französischen Hinterland wurden 27 Terroristen erschossen.

Schweres „V1“-Vergeltungsfeuer liegt weiter auf London und seinen Außenbezirken.

In Italien zerschlugen unsere Truppen auch gestern wieder alle Angriffe, die der Feind mit indischen, südafrikanischen, neuseeländischen und englischen Divisionen zum Durchbruch auf Florenz führte. Südwestlich der Stadt in unsere Stellungen eingebrochener Gegner wurde nach heftigem Kampf im Gegenangriff zurückgeworfen.

Bei Säuberungsunternehmen im italienischen rückwärtigen Gebiet verloren die Terroristen in der Zeit vom 12. Mai bis 24. Juli 8.300 Tote und 7.500 Gefangene.

An der Ostfront wurden im Karpatenvorland sowie südlich und nördlich von Reichshof feindliche Angriffe abgewiesen oder im Gegenstoß zum Stehen gebracht. Im großen Weichselbogen warfen unsere Truppen den über den Fluss übergesetzten Feind in Gegenangriffen zurück.

Zwischen Warschau und Siedlce stehen Truppen des Heeres und der Waffen-SS weiter in schweren Kämpfen mit vordringenden sowjetischen Kräften. Die vorübergehend abgeschnittene Besatzung von Brest Litowsk schlug sich unter Mitnahme der Verwundeten zu unseren Linien durch.

Zwischen mittlerem Bug und Olita fingen unsere Truppen heftige Angriffe der Bolschewisten bei Bialystok und nordöstlich Augustow auf. Im Raum von Kauen trat der Feind zum erwarteten Großangriff an. In erbitterten Kämpfen wurden mehrere Einbrüche durch Gegenstöße unserer Panzerverbände abgeriegelt.

In Lettland blieben Angriffe der Sowjets gegen die Stadt Mitau und nordöstlich Ponewisch erfolglos. Zwischen der Düna und dem Peipussee behaupteten unsere Grenadiere ihre Stellungen gegen starke von Panzern unterstützte sowjetische Angriffe.

An der Landenge von Narwa rannte der Feind mit starken Kräften gegen unsere Stellungen an. Verbände des Heeres und germanische Freiwillige der Waffen-SS errangen hier einen vollen Abwehrerfolg, brachten dem Feind schwere Verluste bei und schossen 58 feindliche Panzer ab.

Schlachtfliegerverbände versenkten auf der Weichsel mehrere vollbeladene Fähren und Landungsboote des Feindes.

In der Nacht griffen schwere Kampfflugzeuge feindliche Truppenansammlungen und Bereitstellungen östlich des großen Weichselbogens an.

Nordamerikanische Bomber führten Terrorangriffe in Mitteldeutschland und gegen die Stadt Bremen. Die Bevölkerung hatte Verluste. Durch Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 34 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 31 viermotorige Bomber zum Abschuß gebracht.

In der Nacht warfen britische Störflugzeuge Bomben auf Orte in Westdeutschland.

Zum gestrigen OKW-Bericht wird ergänzend mitgeteilt:

In den schweren Kämpfen im Raum Saint-Lô–Lessay haben sich in den letzten Wochen in Abwehr- und Gegenangriffen besonders ausgezeichnet:

Die 17. SS-Panzer-Grenadierdivision „Götz von Berlichingen“ unter Führung ihres schwer verwundeten Kommandeurs Brigadeführer Ostendorf und seines Vertreters, Standartenführer Baum.

Die 353. Infanteriedivision unter Führung ihres Divisionskommandeurs Generalleutnant Maul mann, das Fallschirmjägerregiment 5 unter seinem. Kommandeur Major Karl-Heinz Becker, das Fallschirmjägerregiment 9 unter seinem Kommandeur Major Kurt Stephani und das Fallschirmjägerregiment 15 unter seinem Kommandeur Oberstleutnant Gröschke.

In den schweren Abwehrkämpfen südlich Florenz hat sich die Hessisch-Thüringsche 29. Panzergrenadierdivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Fries erneut hervorragend ausgezeichnet und bewährt.