Operation OVERLORD (1944)

58

Congress marks day with prayers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Senator Alben W. Barkley, Majority Leader, said:

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

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

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

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

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

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59

City greets news quietly, solemnly

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

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

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

Churches held special services

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

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

Mayor leads in prayer

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

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

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

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

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

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

Large crowds are lacking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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60

Editorial: Let us pray

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

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

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

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

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

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61

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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62

Editorial: The invasion

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

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

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

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63

Editorial: France

It is the strange but noble destiny of France to welcome passionately in secret an army of invaders that must bring more destruction and death upon her, who has suffered so much and so long. It will soon be four years since the armistice with Germany was signed after six disastrous weeks. What a monstrous irony it is to recall the strictly “correct” behavior of the Nazi troops in Paris. The Parisians were nit impressed. The artificial, clumsy, Teutonic politeness was soon thrown off. In 1941, Pétain’s “honorable peace” had turned into reneging of the armistice terms. The Nazis put a stranglehold upon French industrial and economic life, made almost two million French captured soldiers do forced labor, refused to reduce the enormous overcharge for the support of the army of occupation.

Violence, sabotage inevitably followed. The slaughter of “hostages” began. It is now in its fourth year. The work of the French groups of resistance has been continuous. In the face of death, they have never flinched. They are now ready and waiting to aid the friendly invaders, not merely by information but by arms. French soldiers are among the friendly invaders. In Africa, in Italy, in the air and on the sea, Frenchmen have fought for us and for themselves.

In these fateful hours, Americans send their wishes and hopes to these brave and enduring fighters for freedom. For the mother of modern freedom, Americans have a kindness that is more than historical. Who that has been in France, that federation, we might call it, of little provinces or countries, each with its individual charm, can help loving it? Unyielding and indomitable people of France, have faith and courage! We are coming.

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64

Editorial: Weapons and the invasion

Where were those “secret weapons” of the Germans when Allied troops swarmed over the sands between Le Havre and Cherbourg? That rocket shell of diabolically ingenious Nazi physicists which was loaded with so lethal a charge of liquid air and uranium salt that it could destroy all life within a range of 500 yards – where was it? And what about the preposterous German bomb which, when it exploded, would freeze everything within a quarter of a mile and clog the Channel with icebergs to block transports? So far as we can tell at this early stage of the invasion, both sides used weapons that have been familiar ever since the Allies landed at Salerno.

When Hitler began his depredations neither side had today’s weapons. The equipment evolved in four years came only in stages, by way of Russia, North Africa and Italy. Hence the invasion was conducted with the aid of an accumulated engineering experience. Bombers of unprecedented carrying capacity and range, troop-laden gliders towed by “locomotive” planes, rocket guns big and small, radio-controlled shells with wings, radar, machines to generate steam and oil fogs that conceal square miles, jet-propelled fighters – the invaders had them all and more to boot. These are the engineering surprises of the present war. In 1918, we could speak chiefly of gas and the tank.

A foothold was gained on the shores of France partly because of these innovations, but largely because of a plan and an organization without a parallel. We have not only to think of 4,000 larger vessels in the Channel, 11,000 planes in support, several hundred naval vessels to cover the transports, tanks, special artillery in every size and for every destructive purpose, balloon barrages, but also of a masterly coordination of movement in three dimensions. Everything had to be thought of – from dehydrated food to typewriters, from mine sweeps to binoculars. We may be sure that the engineer was everywhere the director and coordinator. For this was essentially a stupendous engineering enterprise. If Addison could eulogize Marlborough at Blenheim as he who “rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm,” what shall we say of Eisenhower and a terrific mechanical tornado?

In the swirl of this directed tornado, we must include a mighty armada of transatlantic freight-carriers and the factories of Chicago and St. Louis, the oil refineries of Tulsa, the jeep and tank plants of Detroit and Toledo, the tailoring lofts of New York. No wonder a thrill runs through millions of workers in North America and Britain. They, too, are human gears and levers in a titanic invading machine. The screech of the tool that saws steel 5,000 miles from France is echoed in the screech of shells in flight. Science and technology interwoven with daring on French beaches to fashion a spiritual fabric in which the democracies are wrapped – that is what the invasion means.

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65

Völkischer Beobachter (June 8, 1944)

Harte Kämpfe an der normannischen Küste –
Kraftvolle Abwehr gegen die zweite Angriffswelle

Große Verluste des Feindes an Menschen, Waffen, Schiffen, Flugzeugen

Berlin, 7. Juni –
Nachdem die deutschen Truppen am Nachmittag des 6. Juni die zwischen Cherbourg und Le Havre aus der Luft gelandeten Briten und Nordamerikaner teils ins Meer geworfen und teils auf schmale Küstensäume zurückgedrückt hatten, begann der Feind, wie erwartet, in den Abendstunden die zweite Angriffswelle. An zahlreichen Stellen flogen schwere Bomber mit angehängten Lastenseglern in Gruppen von je 100 Flugzeugen und mehr in das normannische Küstengebiet ein. Zahlreiche Staffeln gerieten in das Sperrfeuer der Flak oder die Geschoßgarben der deutschen Jäger.

Die Masse der Lastensegler ging im Orne-Abschnitt nieder. Die übrigen klinkten südlich Le Havre, im Raum von Carentan sowie an der Ost- und Westküste der Halbinsel Cotentin aus. Außerdem bombardierten schwere Verbände des Feindes die Abriegelung der Landestellen und das Hinterland. In harten nächtlichen Kämpfen rieben unsere Truppen die Masse der in ihrem Rücken gelandeten Fallschirmeinheiten auf und säuberten das Hinterland von Versprengten. Die Verluste des Gegners an Menschen und Waffen waren außerordentlich hoch. Die Höhenrücken im Innern der normannischen Halbinsel und das Gelände zwischen Orne und Vire sind von zahllosen abgestürzten Lastenseglern und gefallenen Fallschirmspringern bedeckt. Mehrfach gerieten geschlossene Einheiten in deutsche Gefangenschaft.

Gleichzeitig legte der Feind mit schwerer Schiffsartillerie eine Feuerglocke über die alten Landestellen und begann Verstärkungen an Land zu bringen. In einem Abschnitt schoben sich zwischen den ausgebrannten oder noch schwelenden Wracks von über 30 großen Landungsfahrzeugen die vollbesetzten Boote an den Strand heran. Die Küstenverteidigung und unsere in Wellen angreifenden Kampfflugzeuge hielten unter den Briten und Nordamerikanern blutige Ernte. Von Bomben getroffen sank unter anderem ein etwa 6000 bis 7000 BRT großer Transporter. Während der Ausschiffung griffen leichte deutsche Seestreitkräfte die in der Seinebucht zusammengezogene feindliche Landungsflotte an.

Mehrere der sichernden Kriegsschiffe erhielten Torpedotreffer. Weitere Schiffsverluste hatte der Feind durch das Feuer schwerer Batterien und durch hochgehende Seeminen.

Nach dem Niederkämpfen der hinter unseren Küstenbefestigungen aus der Luft abgesetzten Truppen drückten unsere Verbände von neuem auf die Landestellen. Ein kleinerer Brückenkopf im Gebiet der Viremündung und nördlich davon sowie die Widerstandsnester im Innern der normannischen Halbinsel wurden beseitigt.

Die Lage der einzelnen Landepunkte zueinander läßt Rückschlüsse auf die Absichten des Gegners zu. Die Nordamerikaner versuchen durch ihre am Vire und gegenüber der Kanalinsel Jersey an Land gebrachten oder abgesetzten Kräfte die normannische Halbinsel mit Cherbourg abzuschnüren. Aus den Vorstößen der im Raum der Orne-Mündung stehenden Briten ist weiterhin erkennbar, daß der Feind seinen dortigen Brückenkopf zu erweitern erstrebt. Kennzeichnend für den bisherigen Ablauf der Kämpfe ist neben dem riesigen Aufgebot des Gegners an Menschen, Waffen, Schiffen und Flugzeugen vor allem die Tatsache, daß er alle seine verfügbaren Kräfte immer nur in dem gleichen Raum einsetzt. Die sowohl in den Morgenstunden, wie in den Nachmittagsstunden vor der Küste zwischen Calais und Dünkirchen beobachteten feindlichen Verbände hatten offenbar nur die Aufgabe zu täuschen. Sie haben bislang jedenfalls keinen Landeversuch gemacht.

In den ersten 24 Stunden der Invasion hat sich der Feind durch rücksichtslose Opfer starker Kräfte und durch Masseneinsatz seines von zwei Weltreichen bereitgestellten Materials eines etwa 40 Kilometer breiten, jedoch nur wenige Kilometer tiefen Küstenstreifens sowie einiger kleiner Landestellen bemächtigen können. Dieses Ergebnis mußte er mit riesigen Verlusten an Menschen sowie zahlreicher Schiffe, Flugzeuge und Waffen bezahlen. Der Gegner hat die Stärke der deutschen Abwehr zu spüren bekommen, und jeden Schritt weiter beantworten unsere Truppen durch immer härter werdende Gegenschläge.

66

Italienische Front: Nebenkriegsschauplatz –
‚Deutsche Führung urteilt richtig‘

e. a. Italienisches Hauptquartier, 7. Juni –
Der anglo-amerikanische Invasionsversuch hat im faschistischen Italien sogar die Räumung Roms und alles, was damit zusammenhängt, in den Schatten gedrängt.

Die Kommentare der italienischen Presse arbeiten den Zusammenhang, der zwischen den Ereignissen an der Südfront und dem Invasionsversuch in Frankreich besteht, klar heraus. Regime Fascista schreibt:

Die deutsche Führung ist nicht überrascht worden. Sie wußte, daß die Anglo-Amerikaner, wenn sie den Krieg fortsetzen und nicht mit den Bolschewisten brechen wollten, den Befehlen Stalins gehorchen mußten. Noch besser wußte die deutsche Führung, wo die Landung erfolgen mußte. Sie hat sich dabei durch die große Offensive in Italien nicht ablenken lassen, die aus politischen Gründen Rom zum Ziel hatte.

Die ersten Nachrichten aus Frankreich trösten uns nach der Bitterkeit, mit der wir den Verlust Roms vernommen haben. Immer mehr überzeugen wir uns davon, daß unter rein militärischen Gesichtspunkten die italienische Front nur ein Anhängsel der Entscheidungsschlacht ist, die die Anglo-Amerikaner in Frankreich führen müssen.

Auch Republica Fascista bringt die Räumung Roms mit dem Invasionsversuch in Zusammenhang und schreibt, in beiden Fällen gehe es um die europäische Kultur, aber es sei absurd, anzunehmen, weil Rom geräumt worden sei, würde Europa dem feindlichen Ansturm erliegen. Im Gegenteil sei das von farbigen Truppen geschändete Rom zum Symbol der für die Zukunft der europäischen Kultur kämpfenden Truppen geworden.

67

Kurschat: Das Aushalten an der Ostfront erhält seinen Sinn

pk. Die Invasionsschlacht um Westeuropa hat begonnen! Wie ein Lauffeuer dringt diese Nachricht in den Mittagsstunden des 6. Juni durch die Stellungen unserer Grenadiere an der östlichen Abwehrfront gegen den Bolschewismus. Die gespannten Erwartungen der bevorstehenden Ereignisse haben sich aufgelöst in ein tiefes Gefühl der Erleichterung. Keiner unserer Ostfrontgrenadiere unterschätzt den Ernst der Lage und die Schwere der Aufgaben, die den Kameraden an der Kanalfront aufgebürdet sind. Keiner aber verkennt auch, daß der Invasionsbeginn das Heranreifen der endgültigen Entscheidung über Sieg und Niederlage in diesem Weltringen gewaltig vorantreibt.

Ohne Zweifel steht der Invasionsbeginn mit der augenblicklichen Lage an der Ostfront in ursächlichem Zusammenhang. Das eherne Halt, das unsere Ostgrenadiere den durch den Wintervormarsch maßlos gewordenen Sowjets von Narwa bis zum unteren Dnjestr boten, unsere glänzenden Abwehrerfolge an der Südfront – die Zerschlagung des bolschewistischen Großangriffs beiderseits Tigins, die Bereinigung der Brückenköpfe von Butor und Rascäti und der Flußschleife von Koschnitze und endlich die deutsch-rumänischen Angriffserfolge nördlich Jassy – ließen gewiß die Forderung Stalins nach der Invasion in Westeuropa in den letzten Wochen immer dringender werden. So mußte sich das alliierte Oberkommando endlich bequemen, dem Befehl des Kremls zu folgen und in das Blutbad der Invasion zu steigen.

Die gefährlichen Entwicklungen dieses Winters an der Ostfront erhalten durch den Auftakt der Entscheidungsschlacht in Westeuropa ihren Sinn. Wie oft haben sich die deutschen Grenadiere im Süden der Ostfront während der schwerwiegenden Absetzbewegungen vom Unterlauf des Dnjepr über Ingulez, Ingul und Bug zum Dnjestr gefragt, ob es keinen Ausweg gebe, die rückläufigen Bewegungen aufzuhalten. Einige frische Divisionen hätten Entscheidendes erreichen können, und jeder wußte, daß im Westen ein ganzes Heer bestausgerüsteter, ausgeruhter Verbände lag. Manchmal wollten sich in die Herzen jener fast bis zur Erschöpfung kämpfenden Soldaten Zweifel einschleichen an das Sinnvolle des Opfers, das sie Tag für Tag bringen mußten. Aber sie fanden in den Stellungen am unteren Dnjestr das Bewußtsein ihrer eigenen Stärke wieder, wenn auch mancher sich vielleicht fragen mochte: War die Freigabe riesiger Gebiete wirklich gerechtfertigt? Wäre durch den Einsatz von Westreserven nicht doch die Lage im Osten früher zu stabilisieren gewesen?

Die Ostfront hat die ihr vom Führer gestellte Aufgabe auch ohne die Hilfe der Divisionen des Warteheeres im Westen lösen können. Eine Auslese von hervorragenden Offizieren und in allen Feuern des Winterkrieges zu Stahl gehärteten Männern hat einem vielfach überlegenen Gegner getrotzt. Und nun sehen diese Männer, die so lange vergeblich in der scheinbaren Sinnlosigkeit einen Sinn suchten, warum der Führer in rücksichtsloser Entschlossenheit den Osten zugunsten der drohenden Invasionsfront hintanstellen mußte. Nun erkennen sie das geschichtliche Verdienst, das sie sich um die Schonung der Westreserven erworben haben, und sagen sich mit berechtigtem Stolz, daß es nicht zuletzt ihrem winterlichen Aushalten zuzuschreiben ist, daß heute eine ungeschwächte Abwehr der anglo-amerikanischen Invasionsarmeen entgegentreten kann. Die Grenadiere der Ostfront verfolgen den Kampf ihrer Kameraden mit den heißesten Wünschen. Geht es diesmal doch nicht um eine Entscheidung auf einem Teilgebiet des Krieges, sondern eben um das letzte Wägen, ehe es die Siegesschale niedersinken läßt. Es ist der feste Glaube der Ostfront, daß die Kameraden im Westen bei diesem Wägen nicht zu leicht befunden werden. Denn die Männer, die heute an der Kanalküste stehen, sind ja fast durchweg zunächst durch die Schule des Ostkrieges gegangen, die beste Schule, die einem Soldaten zuteilwerden und die auch das intensivste „Invasionstraining“ nicht wettmachen kann.

Kriegsberichter HEINRICH KURSCHAT

68

Staatsmänner zum Überfall auf Europa

Staatschef Marschall Pétain hat einen Appell an das französische Volk gerichtet, in dem er alle französischen Dienststellen, Eisenbahner und Arbeiter auffordert, auf ihrem Posten zu verbleiben.

So heißt es in dem Appell:

Franzosen! Verschlimmert unser Unglück nicht durch Taten, die tragische Repressalien über euch bringen könnten. Die unschuldige französische Bevölkerung würde die Folgen tragen. Nur durch Wahrung strengster Disziplin kann Frankreich gerettet werden. Gehorcht also den Befehlen der Regierung, erfülle jeder seine Pflicht. Die Umstände der Schlacht werden die deutsche Armee vielleicht veranlassen, in den Kampfzonen besondere Maßnahmen zu ergreifen. Fügt euch dieser Notwendigkeit!

Der Poglavnik Dr. Ante Pavelitsch erklärte einem DNB-Korrespondenten:

Die Geschichte Europas kennt das Wort Invasion seit jeher. Sie kam immer von Osten, und es handelte sich immer mehr oder weniger um halbwilde Horden, die in zivilisierte Gebiete Europas hereinbrachen, um zu plündern und zu zerstören. Die Invasion der Anglo-Amerikaner auf dem europäischen Kontinent kommt zwar nicht aus dem Osten, hätte jedoch dieselben Ergebnisse. Die Anglo-Amerikaner könnten einer Invasion des bolschewistischen Rußlands in Europa nichts entgegenstellen oder sie verhindern.

Das kroatische Volk schwur seinen unabhängigen Staat, für den es durch Jahrhunderte lebte und kämpfte, auf den es ein Recht hat, und für den es politisch und wirtschaftlich reif ist. Die anglo-amerikanische Invasion wird daher vom kroatischen Volk so aufgefaßt, als ob man es seines eigenen Staates berauben und anderen Völkern unterordnen wolle.

Aus diesem Grunde ist das kroatische Volk bereit und entschlossen, alle seine Kräfte für den gemeinsamen Kampf einzusetzen und mit dem deutschen Volk gegen jede Invasion zu streiten, denn es weiß, es kämpft für seine Freiheit und seinen Bestand.

Generaloberst Milan Neditsch, der serbische Regierungschef, sagte gegenüber einem DNB-Korrespondenten:

Auf jeden Fall wird die Londoner Rechnung, welche Serbien und die Serben in eine mit der Invasion verbundene Balkanaufstandsbewegung einsetzt, falsch sein. Wir wissen, daß uns die Anglo-Amerikaner an die Bolschewisten verraten und verkauft haben. So wandelt sich für uns wie auch für die anderen Südostvölker das Invasionsproblem in den konkreteren Fall des unerbittlich antibolschewistischen Kampfes, welchen wir schon bald drei Jahre mit steigendem Erfolg führen. Die Invasion ändert an Serbiens Standpunkt nichts. Wir sind bereit, alles für das Wohl unseres Volkes zu opfern. Wir glauben ebenso wie das deutsche Volk unerschütterlich daran, daß, wer in den jetzigen Versuchungen und Bedrängnissen durchhält, nicht nur das eigene Leben, sondern auch die Zukunft der ganzen Nation, ja ganz Europas gerettet hat.

Ministerpräsident Quisling betonte in einer Unterredung mit einem DNB-Vertreter:

Der europäische Kontinent habe ein Stadium seiner historischen Entwicklung erreicht, in dem die verschiedenen Staaten und Völker nach einer europäischen Einheit strebten, um ihre Freiheit und Existenz behaupten zu können. Das Dasein Europas müsse gegen Weltmächte verteidigt werden, die außerhalb Europas entstanden seien und die im Zeichen einer fortgesetzten Expansion den alten Erdteil mit Vernichtung und Ausbeutung auf Jahrhunderte hinaus bedrohten. England und Amerika mit ihren kapitalistischen und imperialistischen Eigeninteressen und der Weltimperialismus des Bolschewismus versuchten die rettende Neuordnung Europas mit allen Kräften zu hindern. Für jeden Europäer, der die Liebe zum eigenen Land und Volk mit dem Verständnis für das Schicksal an das Europas verbindet sei die Lage angesichts dieser Umstände völlig klar.

69

Gegnerischer Großangriff westlich Rom –
Die Mehrzahl der Feindbrückenköpfe zerschlagen

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 7. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Die feindliche Landungsoperation an der Nordküste der Normandie zwischen Le Havre und Cherbourg wurde während des ganzen Tages durch starke Seestreitkräfte unterstützt. Zahlreiche im Rücken unserer Küstenbefestigungen abgesetzte Luftlandeverbände sollten diese Landung erleichtern und das Heranführen unserer Reserven verhindern. Sie wurden zum größten Teil nach kurzem, hartem Kampf aufgerieben, nachdem sie schon beim Absprung durch unsere Flak schwere Verluste erlitten hatten. Es gelang dem Feind von See her, an mehreren Stellen Fuß zu fassen. Die Mehrzahl seiner Brückenköpfe wurde jedoch im Gegenangriff zerschlagen. Zahlreiche Landungsboote liegen ausgebrannt vor der Küste.

Beiderseits der Ornemündung und nördlich Carentan sind heftige Kämpfe mit stärkerem Gegner entbrannt, dem es bis jetzt noch gelungen ist, diese Brückenköpfe, wenn auch mit schweren Verlusten, zu behaupten.

In den frühen Morgenstunden des 6. Juni griffen deutsche Torpedoboote in der Seinebucht einen feindlichen Schlachtschiffverband, der zusammen mit Kreuzern und Zerstörern die Landungsflotte sicherte, mit gutem Erfolg an. Leichte deutsche Seestreitkräfte stießen in der Nacht zum 7. Juni westlich Le Havre gegen einen britischen Zerstörerverband vor und erzielten mehrere Torpedotreffer. Ein Zerstörer blieb brennend Hegen. Küstenbatterien der Kriegsmarine fügten im schweren Artillerieduell Schlachtschiffen und Zerstörern starke Schäden zu. Auf den von der Kriegsmarine ausgelegten Minensperren sind mehrere feindliche Einheiten durch Minentreffer gesunken.

Die beiderseitige Kampftätigkeit in der Luft war gestern durch das Wetter stark behindert. Über dem Landungsraum wurden durch Luftverteidigungskräfte nach bisherigen Meldungen 104 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.

In Italien trat der Feind nach Versammlung starker Kräfte im Raum westlich Rom wieder zum Großangriff an. Mit überlegenen Infanterie- und Panzerverbänden gelang es ihm, beiderseits der Küstenstraße vorstoßend, nach erbittertem Kampf in unsere Stellungen einzubrechen. Auch nördlich Rom konnte der Gegner trotz heldenhaften Widerstandes unserer Truppen einen tieferen Einbruch erzielen. Schwere Kämpfe sind hier noch im Gange.

Östlich Rom führte der Feind wieder während des ganzen Tages heftige, aber vergebliche Angriffe gegen unsere Stellungen bei und westlich Tivoli.

Im Osten kam es gestern nur zu Säuberungskämpfen im Raum nordwestlich Jassy. Starke Kampf- und Schlachtfliegerverbände griffen in die Erdkämpfe ein. Und fügten den Sowjets hohe Menschen- und Materialverluste zu.

Bei der Bekämpfung des feindlichen Nachschubverkehrs durch die Luftwaffe wurden zahlreiche Bahnhöfe nachhaltig zerstört und mehrere Eisenbahnstrecken unterbrochen. In der Nacht waren besonders die Bahnknotenpunkte Proskurow und Schmerinka das Angriffsziel schwerer deutscher Kampfflugzeuge, die starke Explosionen und ausgedehnte Brände hervorriefen.

Der Kampf gegen die kommunistischen Banden auf dem Balkan wurde im Monat Mai besonders erfolgreich durchgeführt. Der Feind erlitt schwerste blutige Verluste und verlor außer 17.200 Toten 8.700 Gefangene und Überläufer. Zahlreiche Geschütze, leichte und schwere Infanteriewaffen, Munitions- und Vorratslager wurden vernichtet oder erbeutet.

Nordamerikanische Bomberverbände warfen auf verschiedene Städte in Südosteuropa Bomben und verursachten besonders in Ploesti, Kronstadt, Turnu-Severin und Belgrad Schäden und Personenverluste. Durch deutsche und rumänische Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 21 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 13 viermotorige Bomber, vernichtet.

In der vergangenen Nacht warfen einzelne feindliche Flugzeuge Bomben auf das Stadtgebiet von Mannheim.

70

Auslandsecho zum Invasionsversuch

Berlin, 7. Juni –
Der Beginn der lang erwarteten Invasion hat in Europa und der übrigen Welt ein überaus starkes Echo gefunden.

PARIS: In der französischen Presse findet die Invasion unter Heranziehung aller zur Verfügung stehenden Einzelmeldungen natürlich stärkste Beachtung. Kartenskizzen zeigen das kampffeld und weisen darauf hin, daß Frankreich wieder einmal Schlachtfeld geworden ist. Die Kommentare bringen zum Ausdruck, daß die Anglo-Amerikaner Sich auf Druck Moskaus in dieses Invasionsabenteuer stürzen mußten, durch das sie in schwere, verlustreiche Kämpfe verwickelt würden, die von der deutschen Heerführung bis in die letzte Einzelheit vorbereitet seien. Die deutsche Armee verteidige an der französischen Küste Frankreich, das Reich und somit Europa.

BUDAPEST: Zum Sprecher der ungarischen Meinung macht sich das Blatt Esti Ujsag mit den Worten:

Es geht um die Entscheidung der Frage, wem Europa gehören soll, den Engländern, der amerikanischen Plutokratie oder dem bolschewistischen Terror, Die ungarische Nation wünscht von ganzem Herzen ihren deutschen Kameraden Glück. Wir Ungarn glauben und vertrauen unerschütterlich darauf, daß die letzte große Probe den Sieg an die Fahnen der für Europas gerechte Sache kämpfenden Helden heften wird.

BUKAREST: Die rumänische Zeitung Ecoul schreibt:

Unser Volk muß wissen, daß es der schwerste Augenblick ist, in dem es seinen Willen, die Ereignisse zu überleben, wie hart sie auch immer sein mögen, beweisen muß.

Und Curentul stellt fest, daß die von Stalin geforderte Invasion jetzt von den Anglo-Amerikanern ihre Verwirklichung finde. „Wir bleiben dabei aufmerksame Wächter im Osten, denn hier steht unser nationales Territorium auf dem Spiel.“

PRESSBURG: Die slowakischen Zeitungen heben alle die Bedeutung der Abwehrschlacht am Atlantikwall hervor. In dem Kampf Deutschlands, schreibt Gardista, sehe das slowakische Volk den Kampf um die Freiheit Europas, zugleich aber auch den Kampf um die eigene slowakische Freiheit.

AGRAM: Die kroatische Hrvatski Narod schreibt:

Man fühle die Größe und Bedeutung dieses Ereignisses, das jeden einzelnen Kroaten angehe, da von seinem glücklichen Ausgang der Bestand des kroatischen Staates abhängt.

SOFIA: In Bulgarien unterstreicht Sarja die Notwendigkeit einer nüchternen und ruhigen Betrachtung der Ereignisse. Die Schlacht im Westen sei entscheidend. Das bulgarische Volk sei sich in diesem entscheidenden Augenblick einig in dem Willen, seine Freiheit um jeden Preis zu wahren.

BELGRAD: Der militärische Mitarbeiter der serbischen Nachrichtenagentur Rudnik betont, daß dem Feind weder eine taktische noch eine strategische Überraschung gelang. Die großdeutsche Wehrmacht sei für alle Eventualitäten gerüstet gewesen.

HELSINKI: Die Invasion bildet auch das Hauptthema in Finnland, wobei der von Moskau ausgeübte Druck auf die Engländer und Nordamerikaner besonders betont wird. So schreibt Uusi Suomi, die Invasion sei notwendig geworden, weil die Westmächte aus Gründen der politischen Zusammenarbeit der Alliierten gezwungen gewesen seien, die Sowjetunion auf diese Weise Zu entlasten.

OSLO: Die norwegische Fritt Folk spricht von einem Triumph der deutschen Führung, deren Ansicht sich restlos bewahrheitet habe. Nun wisse es jedermann, daß es richtig war, im Osten hinhaltend zu kämpfen, um zu der großen Abrechnung im Westen gerüstet zu sein.

BERN: Wenn in der Schweiz im ersten Augenblick hier und da noch Zweifel herrschen mochten, ob es sich bei der neuen Landung nicht nur um ein neues Dieppe-Unternehmen größten Stils handle, ist im Laufe des Tages überall die Überzeugung zum Durchbruch gelangt, daß wirklich der große und ernst gemeinte Invasionsversuch der Anglo-Amerikaner begonnen hat. Der Bund stellt fest, „daß die militärische Abwehr bereit war und sich nicht überraschen ließ.“

MADRID: Die spanische Zeitung Arriba schreibt:

Im Abwehrabschnitt der Festung Europa stehen die besten Truppen Deutschlands mit dem besten Material bereit, In diesen Männern brennt eine Kampfleidenschaft, die fähig ist, Wunder zu erzeugen. Ihre Moral ist hart wie Stahl, ihre Kampftechnik ist unberechenbar stark, ihre Kriegskunst ist ungewöhnlich und ihre Führung wunderbar.

LISSABON: Das Vertrauen in die deutschen Waffen ist in Portugal wieder sehr stark in den Vordergrund getreten. An der kommenden Entscheidung hat Portugal ein großes Interesse und hofft, daß die deutschen Waffen durch ihren Erfolg auch den berechtigten portugiesischen Ansprüchen auf Selbständigkeit in seiner Innen- und Außenpolitik zum Durchbruch verhelfen.

TOKIO: Der 6. Juni wird für lange Zeit als derjenige Tag im Gedächtnis bleiben, an dem die Morgenröte der neuen Weltordnung begann, erklärte der japanische Regierungssprecher Okasaki. Der zuversichtliche Ton von deutscher Seite und die in scharfen Gegensatz dazu stehende Unsicherheit der bisherigen feindlichen Stimmen unterstreiche, wie die Aussichten beurteilt werden könnten.

71

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 7, 1944)

Communique No. 4

Allied troops have cleared all beaches of the enemy and have in some cases established links with flanking beachheads. Inland fighting generally is heavy.

An armoured counter-attack in the CAEN area in Tuesday evening was repulsed. Enemy resistance is stiffening as his reserves come into action. The landing of troops and sea-borne military supplies continues on all beaches despite the North Westerly wind which had persisted since the assault.

Shortly before dawn today, light coastal forces, while sweeping to the eastward, encountered a superior force of enemy craft. Action was immediately joined and damage was inflicted on the enemy before he could make good his escape.

Enemy coastal batteries which were still in action yesterday have been silenced by Allied Naval Forces. It is not yet known whether all have been finally reduced.

Today Allied aircraft have been directing the fire of the USS TEXAS (Capt. C. A. BAKER, USN) wearing the flag of RAdm. CARLETON F. BRYANT, USN and HMS GLASGOW (Capt. S. P. CLARKE, DSO RN) who, together with other Allied warships, have been engaging inland targets behind the beaches.

Allied aircraft of all types and in great strength have again closely supported our land and sea forces.

Early this morning airborne operations were resumed on a very large scale, supplies and tactical equipment being delivered to our ground forces.

In two operations this morning, medium and light bombers attacked large troop concentrations and military buildings close behind the enemy line as well as gun positions in the battle area and railway lines south of the battle area.

Road, rail and other targets, including armoured vehicles, troop concentrations, gun positions and ammunition dumps were also attacked during the morning by fighter bombers.

Heavy bombers, in medium strength, attacked focal points on the road system in the area south of CAEN early this afternoon. Fighters escorted the bombers and also strafed and bombed railway yards, locomotives, trains of oil tank cars, flak towers, radio installations and airfields over a forty-to-fifty-mile arc south and southeast of the battle area.

Continuous patrols were maintained over shipping, the beaches and the battle area. More enemy aircraft were encountered than on Tuesday and a number of them were shot down.

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72

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 8, 1944)

Communiqué No. 5

Bayeux has fallen to our troops, which have also crossed the Bayeux-Caen road at several points. Progress continues despite determined enemy resistance. Fierce armored and infantry fighting has taken place.

Contact has been established between our seaborne and airborne troops.

The steady buildup of our forces has continued. During the night, forces of E-boats made unsuccessful attempts to interfere with the continual arrival of supplies.

Support fire from Allied warships continued throughout yesterday.

Our air forces have given invaluable support to the ground troops on all sectors of the front. Advantage was taken of favorable weather over northern France yesterday afternoon and evening to attack enemy rail and road centers, concentrations of men and materiel, and to bomb airfields and other targets up to 100 miles in advance of our troops. More than 9,000 sorties were flown in tactical support of land and naval forces.

Out for the second time yesterday, heavy bombers with fighter escort in the late afternoon attacked airfields northwest of LORIENT, and railroad bridges and focal points in the area from the Bay of Biscay to the Seine. The bombers encountered no enemy fighter opposition but our fighters reported shooting down 6 enemy aircraft in combat and destroying more than a score on the ground.

After bombing rail and road objectives in the immediate zone of operations, medium and light bombers flying as low as 1,000 feet just behind the enemy lines, strafed gun emplacements and crews, staff cars and trains. Allied fighter bombers and fighters were also extremely active, flying armed reconnaissance over the assault area, covering naval operations and carrying out low-level attacks on bridges north of Carentan and in the Cherbourg Peninsula.

Coastal aircraft attacked naval enemy units in the Bay of Biscay and Channel areas and at least two E-boats were sunk.

Last night heavy bombers in strong force continued attacks on railroad centers at Achères, Versailles, and Massy-Palaiseau and Juvisy on the outskirts of Paris and a concentration of enemy troops and transports some 12 miles south of the assault area.

Anti-tank guns, motor transports and considerable supplies were delivered to our ground troops by very strong air transport and glider forces.

Small enemy air formations attempted attacks on the beaches and night intruders appeared over East Anglia.

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73

Review by War Secretary Stimson of the Invasion Situation
June 8, 1944

We have foothold in France. We have pierced the coastal defenses and landed troops successfully upon the German-controlled territory of the continent. We are continuing to land troops, equipment and supplies. We have shown domination of the sea and of the air in the battle zone.

All this is a great accomplishment. We have gone in against the enemy on the soil which he had stolen. We have come to grips at the beginning of the final test. At the end, there can be but one decision.

But before discussing this matter any further it should be emphasized that only the first hurdle has been taken. It would be bad indeed if we permitted super-optimism to run away with us. German troops are established in northern France in great numbers. Their air force has certainly not yet been driven from the skies. Their military command has plans of action which are undoubtedly beginning to move. We must look for the full fury of savage counterattacks in force at any early moment.

It is obvious, however, that If our men and their operations are to have reasonable protection, certain of the details of current action will have to be withheld temporarily. In due course they will be described fully and, in the meanwhile, I think we should not allow our imagination to outstrip the factual developments. I am confident that the operations will be reported soberly, and it is to the best interest of ourselves and to our men on the battlefield that we do not let our minds leap optimistically ahead of what is actually reported.

There will be hard days ahead. Let us not make them worse because of a previous, cheerful distortion of the facts.

As the reports from London have indicated, American, British and Canadian troops have landed successfully at various points on the Normandy coast from a point near the mouth of the Seine to the Cotentin Peninsula where Cherbourg is a good port. Substantial beachheads have been established. Airborne troops further inland have cut German communications and destroyed supply dumps and taken centers from which to aid the men landing on the beaches. Bayeux has fallen to our troops, and Allied seaborne and airborne forces have made contact.

The attack began around 5:00 a.m. London Time, Tuesday, which means 11:00 p.m. our time, when the first parachutists dropped on Normandy fields to be followed by troops from gliders.

This turned out to be the greatest airborne-troop operation ever attempted. Over 1,000 planes participated in carrying the troops. Little over two percent of these planes were lost, due to enemy anti-aircraft fire. There was no enemy o position in the air in this initial operation.

A little earlier on that same night, 1,000 British heavy bombers opened the attack on the beach defenses, pounding them with a great weight of bombs.

Meanwhile, the invasion fleet of some 4,000 ships in fairly rough weather was approaching the shore. Apparently tactical surprise was achieved. Enemy effort at opposition with surface craft was small. It consisted of few torpedo boats and armed trawlers which were driven off. One enemy trawler was sunk and another severely damaged. During the day we suffered inevitable losses at sea which were unexpectedly low and will be included, in due course, in the public accountings of our operations.

A little after 5:00 p.m., the guns of Allied warships opened on the enemy shore batteries and defense installations. Battleships, cruisers and other types of warships participated. Great fires and smoke rose from the coast. Overhead, the Allied feet had the protection of a tremendous cover of fighter planes.

In this first phase of the operation, German planes were comparatively few, again supporting the inference that despite all the preparations and public speculation on the invasion, the Germans were momentarily taken by surprise. This initial absence of German planes should, of course, also be attributed to the inroads made upon the Luftwaffe in the long continuing attack of American and British planes during the past year – an attack which was really the beginning of the invasion to liberate the continent.

Troops from the ships were waiting to go ashore as a great force of American heavy bombers followed up the British night bombing with an early morning attack upon the enemy’s beach defenses. As many as 1,400 bombers took part, and great sections of the German defenses crumbled under the combined destruction from the Allied planes and naval guns. Here again our losses in the air were light. Five bombers and five fighters were missing.

Approximately between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. London Time (12:30 to 1:30 a.m. Brooklyn Time), the first waves of landing forces went ashore. Beach obstacles were overcome easily at some places and with great difficulty at others. Our men had to contend with enemy shelling and mortar fire and land mines. Against the enemy batteries our dive bombers were extremely useful.

Throughout the day the Allied air forces were masters of the air situation. Once our men were advancing upon the beaches, American heavy bombers returned to attack the enemy in shore from the coast. Altogether during that day, 11,000 first-line Allied planes participated.

In the last day and a half, our beachheads have been widened and some of them united, and we have made varying progress inland. We have sustained some local counterattacks such as those at Caen, but the Germans are now gathering their strength and moving for the real counteraction. The landing of our forces on continental soil was but the first step, although it was a great accomplishment. The second step is to consolidate, repel the local counterattacks and again move forward. The mobile reserves of the enemy will undoubtedly be developed to major action against us. It would be folly to believe that the period of counterattack will be short.

Conditions will be changing from day to day. As I have said before, it is to our good to avoid excesses of optimism or pessimism. It will be an aid to our men in battle if we stick fairly close to what is actually going on today, and enter the realm of the future only with discretion. I do not care to comment further on our future plans.

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74

The Brooklyn Eagle (June 8, 1944)

Fight Nazi reserves in Caen-Bayeux area

Main battle on as enemy’s Tiger tanks move up
By Virgil Pinkley

Invasion area

map.060844.up
Where, says Gen, Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, commanding general of the liberation forces, “everything is going excellently.” Capture of Bayeux has opened up possibility of cutting off Cherbourg Peninsula and forcing Nazi withdrawal from the French port.

His confidence ‘completely justified’, says Eisenhower of Armed Forces

London, England (UP) –
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said at an advanced command post today, “My complete confidence in the abilities of the Allied armies, navies and air forces to do all they are asked to do has been completely justified.”

Eisenhower said in a statement:

In the early landing operations, which always are largely naval, the two Allied navies – together with elements of naval units of the United Nations under Adm. Ramsey – have excelled in the high standard of their planning and their execution any prior venture in which I have seen them engaged. Gen. Montgomery is in immediate and direct charge of all assault ground forces. Under him all troops are performing magnificently.

SHAEF, England (UP) –
Allied armies have “completed successfully” the first phase of the invasion of France, it was announced officially today, and have swung into the battle to destroy German mobile reserves moved into the assault areas.

Merrill Mueller broadcast word that reporters at Allied Supreme Headquarters in London were told that “the major battle in France is joined.” Secretary of War Stimson said in Washington the full fury of German counterattacks in northern France can be expected to begin at any moment.

The United Nations radio at Algiers reported the Allies had captured Caen, key transport hub nine miles inside Normandy and 17 miles southeast of occupied Bayeux, but confirmation was lacking.

The fighting in Normandy is now spreading and is especially savage in many sectors as the Germans throw in more and more armor, the latest word at Allied Supreme Headquarters revealed.

Germany’s famous 21st Panzer Division, which the Allies destroyed several times in North Africa and the Mediterranean Theater, only to find it reformed, is now opposing the invasion forces in the Bayeux-Caen area of Normandy.

The Allies were striking out beyond captured Bayeux in an apparent attempt to isolate the Cherbourg Peninsula and win the big port at its tip, one of the best in northwestern France.

Air sources revealed Allied planes had already begun to operate on airstrips in the assault area, big transports moving in supplies and evacuating casualties.

The completed first phase of the fighting was described officially as the securing of a foothold on the continent and the defeat of the German coastal troops in the assault areas.

The second, now in progress, is the elimination of German mobile reserves brought into the battle zone. The third, still to be fought, was the battle against the Nazis’ strategic reserves which may be moved in to counter the invasion forces.

Engagement of the German strategic reserves “is necessary before a material advance can be hoped for,” an official summary of the situation said.

The battle in France was revealed to have expanded markedly from the original combat area as the Germans threw in masses of tanks and crack infantry in an effort to stem the Allied advance before the beachhead becomes a major base and Cherbourg is cut off.

With the 21st Panzer Division already in action, fighter-bomber pilots reported Mark VI Tiger tanks were moving up to the front.

Allied Air Forces maintained strong and steady pressure all day in support of the U.S., British and Canadian land armies. Some 1,000 Flying Fortresses and Liberators paced the thousands of planes in action, hammering bridges, rail targets and airdromes far out beyond the beachhead. U.S. Marauders and Havocs hit rail targets In the Cherbourg Peninsula, and Thunderbolts dive-bombed Nazi armor and traffic.

Spokesmen emphasized that until considerably larger forces on both sides have been engaged in decisive fighting, it will be impossible to gauge the success of phase two – the elimination of mobile reserves.

At present, some phases of the invasion are ahead of schedule, some even with it and some behind, it was said.

The Germans have already switched some air reserves to fields near the battle area. Geographically they have the big advantage of a large number of airdromes within 100 miles of Bayeux and Caen. But it was questionable how many planes the strained German Air Force would be able to commit to the operation until the Allied overall plan becomes more apparent.

Developing Allied successes on the third day of the invasion were reflected in a statement by Gen. Eisenhower that his confidence in the Armed Forces under his command had been “completely justified” and that the troops were “performing magnificently.”

British troops astride the Paris-Cherbourg railroad were reported by the Nazis to be striking southeastward from Bayeux in the general direction of Caen, 17 miles distant, where a violent street battle was going on.

The U.S. 9th Air Force disclosed the Allies had established landing strips in Normandy and at least limited aerial service to the beachhead had been opened with the moving in of supplies and the evacuation of casualties.

At least one high-ranking officer has already flown in and out of the assault area. He was Maj. Gen. Ernest E. Down, commander of a British airborne division, who landed and after a “considerable” stay returned aboard a Mitchell bomber.

German broadcasts said thousands of paratroops yesterday descended from an armada of planes in the vicinity of Coutances on the west coast opposite Bayeux in an apparent effort to throw a wall across the peninsula some 40-50 miles below Cherbourg on a direct trunk railway to Paris.

Other airborne landings were made at frequent intervals along the west coast of the peninsula near Granville, a port 15 miles south of Coutances, and the road junction of Lessay, 13 miles north of Coutances, the German DNB Agency said. Granville was also bombarded, DNB said.

Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, commander of the expeditionary force, told a correspondent aboard a British warship off coast, “Everything is going excellently.”

The Allies have already thrown back one German counterattack on the approaches to Caen, nine miles inland and 28 miles southwest of Le Havre, and Gen. Eisenhower reported in his fifth communiqué the invasion at 11:00 a.m. (5:00 a.m. ET) today:

Progress continues despite determined enemy resistance. Fierce armored and infantry fighting has taken place.

Eisenhower also disclosed that seaborne infantry and tanks driving inland from beaches along a front of 60 or more miles have made contact with paratroops and glider-borne forces landed behind the enemy’s defenses, presumably in the Caen and other areas,

The fall of Bayeux. a town of 7,736 population five miles from the Normandy north coast and about halfway between Cherbourg and Le Havre, to a British Empire force yesterday split the enemy’s coastal forces and cut his main highway and railroad from Cherbourg to Paris.

A spokesman for Eisenhower said the capture of Bayeux “opens up an advance in many directions.” He called the town a focal point for highway and railway communications.

If the German report of Allied paratroop landings in the Coutances area of the west coast, 36 miles southwest of Bayeux, proves true, all of Germany’s communications with Cherbourg would be threatened and the enemy would be obliged to evacuate the area.

Cherbourg is one of the two principal ports for Paris and has one of the best harbors in France.

German broadcasts indicated the British had secured beachheads along a stretch of the coast starting well east of the mouth of the Orne River to a point northwest of Bayeux.

Gen. Kurt Dittmar, German military commentator, said the Allies were fighting on a broad front of 140 miles, but Radio Berlin reported Montgomery so far had hurled into battle only eight to 11 divisions – possibly 165,000 men – of the 80-odd divisions at his disposal.

Berlin said U.S. units already in action included a tank division and the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. U.S. airborne troops were resisting stubbornly between Carentan, six miles west of Isigny, and Saint-Pierre-Église, 23 miles to the northwest and 11 miles east of Cherbourg, DNB said.

Both German and Allied accounts indicated the Allies had won the first round by establishing themselves securely on the Normandy coast, but both sides agreed the decisive battle had not yet been joined.

German Marshal Erwin Rommel was reported rushing reinforcements from his two armies into the threatened area for an attempt to save Cherbourg, and the Allies were obviously building up strength with all possible haste.

Radio Vichy broadcast a statement released by Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, German supreme commander in France, warning his armies “there can be no question of giving way.” Rundstedt said, “There will be no withdrawals. The Atlantic Wall will be defended to the last man.”

The German DNB Agency predicted the battle within the next few days would “reach an inferno without precedent in the history of wars.”

U.S. and British battleships returned to England to replenish their munitions, but were already back pounding away at enemy strongpoints and covering the endless chain of landing craft ferrying reinforcements and supplies to the beaches.

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Stimson: Counterblow by Nazis near

Expects furious attacks to come ‘any moment; warns of optimism

Washington (UP) –
The full fury of German counterattacks in northern France can be expected to begin at any moment, Secretary of War Stimson said today.

He cautioned the public to guard against excessive optimism and to await disclosures of actual accomplishments which of necessity must be temporarily withheld from the enemy.

Stimson said:

The Germans are now gathering strength and moving in for their real counteractions.

He described Allied losses in the initial landings and in the air as unexpectedly light.

The first step in the operation to establish beachheads, has now been accomplished, he explained. The second step is to consolidate them and repel local counterattacks and then move forward.

The invasion began around 11:00 p.m. ET Monday night (5:00 a.m. Tuesday in Europe). Then the first paratroopers dropped in Normandy, followed by glider troops. Over 1,000 planes participated in the greatest airborne operations ever attempted, with losses only slightly over 2% from anti-aircraft fire.

During the first phases, German planes were comparatively few, supporting the inference that despite all public speculation, the invasion caught the Germans by surprise. However, inroads on the Luftwaffe by British and U.S. Air Forces during the past year – actually the commencement of the Invasion – played its part.

Turning to Italy, Stimson described the fall of Rome as a “happy augury,” the result of a well-conceived and executed flank movement against the enemy.

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WAR BULLETINS!

Red troops open drive in Romania

Moscow, USSR (UP) –
Red Army troops, taking advantage of heavy enemy losses, opened counterattacks against the German lines north and northwest of Iași in Romania and captured two important heights, it was announced today.

Rommel mans coast with ‘revenge troops’

Stockholm, Sweden (UP) –
The Stockholms-Tidningen’s Berlin correspondent reported today that Nazi Field Marshal Erwin Rommel has manned the French coast with “revenge troops” pledged to avenge Allied bombing of German cities.

Red Star predicts early Soviet offensive

Moscow, USSR (UP) –
The Russian press again published detailed reports on the progress of the Allied Western invasion today and the official army newspaper Red Star predicted that Soviet armies “soon” would launch a complementary offensive against Germany from the east.

Wright warns strikers of dismissal

Lockland, Ohio (UP) –
The Wright Aeronautical Corporation warned striking employes today at its $155,000,000 plant where no airplane engines have been produced since Invasion Day to return to their jobs by Friday midnight or be dismissed.

Badoglio in Rome to form new cabinet

Rome, Italy (UP) –
Marshal Pietro Badoglio arrived in Rome today accompanied by leaders of all political parties from Naples and Salerno and by most of the members of his former government. He said he hoped to form a new government.

Bombings destroy Marshalls airstrips

HQ, CENPAC Forward Area (UP) – (June 1, delayed)
Japanese remaining on islands in the Marshalls have been bombed so thoroughly they have been left without a single usable airstrip and U.S. fliers have not sighted an enemy plane aloft since Jan. 31, Maj. Gen. Willis H. Hale said today.

Churchill: Great dangers overcome

London, England (UP) –
Prime Minister Churchill told Commons today that the Allies have overcome “great dangers,” although he warned against over-optimism of the invasion and said that “enormous exertions lie before us.”

Dover Straits are calm and hazy

London, England (UP) –
The weather over the Straits was calmer today with light variable westerly and southerly breezes and the sky covered with a film of light clouds. The sun was trying to break through in places, the temperature at 8:00 a.m. was 50 degrees and the barometer steady.

Roundup Rome criminals freed by Nazis

Rome, Italy (UP) –
Police today continued a roundup of a horde of criminals released from prisons by the Germans a few hours before they withdrew from Rome.

Demoted general patient in Army hospital

Miami, Florida (UP) –
Lt. Col. J. F. Miller of Miami, who was demoted from major general and sent home by Gen. Eisenhower allegedly for telling a London cocktail party, that “the invasion will take place before June 15,” today was a patient at the Army Air Forces Hospital at Coral Gables, Florida.

2,379 U.S. casualties in final Rome drive

Washington (UP) –
The U.S. Army suffered 2,379 casualties in Italy during the three days preceding the fall of Rome, Secretary of War Stimson said today. U.S. Army casualties in Italy through May 30 stood at 57,529, he said, of which 9,964 were killed, 38,554 wounded and 5,011 missing. This compared with a total of 55,450 on May 27.

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McMillan: Allied flags dot freed countryside as people go wild with joy

Writer believes Nazi West Wall is a bluff; prisoners say defenses were not finished
By Richard D. McMillan, representing combined Allied press

In this dispatch written for the combined Allied press, Richard D. McMillan, famous United Press war correspondent, reports that a tour of at least one French coastal area convinced him that the vaunted German “West Wall” was a myth.

With the Allied invading forces, France (UP) –
Our tanks are rapidly widening a great budge inside the Atlantic Wall.

I have just completed a tour of the frontline covering nearly 30 miles. We have captured towns and villages and the whole countryside is beflagged with Union Jacks, the Stars and Stripes and the French Tricolor.

Crowds are cheering the British and other Allied troops, shouting:

Bravo, Tommies, we knew you would come. We have been waiting for you. Now we will kill these hated Germans.

People wild with joy

When I entered Bayeux, the inhabitants were crazy with joy. As we reached the town, a squadron of our medium bombers flew over low. Crowds pointed upwards, waving their hands as if the airmen could see them.

The French said:

That is what frightened the Germans most. They scurried underground like rabbits whenever your fliers came over. During the last few days before the invasion, your air attacks were terrific. We could read fear on the faces of the Germans.

As I drove into Bayeux, I passed long lines of German prisoners. On the roadside the bodies of German and Allied dead lay unburied. For the moment, every man was needed for fighting.

Coast wall doesn’t exist

What surprised me most was the weakness of the German defense line. I examined with great care the so-called Atlantic Wall along this coast. It constitutes the biggest bluff of the whole war for it simply does not exist. Some prisoners told me that the Germans had been frantically trying to complete defenses but that the task had been too vast for them. Although we have pushed far into land without encountering serious opposition, it must not be Imagined that the Germans will not react as soon as they have grouped their panzer forces. They have armored division elements and some tanks from another panzer unit in this area.

They tried to hold us In the region of Caen and Bayeux but our tanks were in greater force. We have thrown into battle British and American tanks and self-propelled guns.

Say Nazi courage waning

Some of these actions have been responsible for enemy. It is a demoralizing the fact that all the French people with whom I talked spoke of the Nazi loss of courage. They may not be beaten but they are near to it.

Prisoners also said that the defeats in Russia and Italy are known to the rank and file and they realize it is all up with their cause.

Absence of enemy air activity was another major surprise of the battle of the beaches. We must have pounded enemy airfields so systematically that they were unable to get their air force into the skies. They had a wonderful target during the first two days, as offshore ships there were thousands of ships of all sizes, loaded with troops, armor and munitions, while smaller craft kept up a ferry service to and from the bigger vessels and shore. I did not see a single ship hit.

The opening of the western front was a flawless operation. It showed all the signs of a master mind. The vast machine worked without a real hitch.

Equipment pours ashore

I looked down the coastline to see thousands of ships. It looked like the Solent filled with all kinds of craft for a regatta.

Armor poured ashore and fresh troops unloaded hourly and streamed toward the frontline while warships fired thousands of salvoes at coastal batteries. Our airborne and parachute forces were dropped at many strategic points, greatly aiding disorganization and baffling the enemy.

As the battle of the bridgehead developed, it was evident that the Germans were trying their utmost to recover from their initial surprise. They had staked all their cards on our landing over a short 21 miles between Dover and Calais. We knew that to be their strongest link in the so-called Atlantic Wall. So, we took the longer route and caught the enemy napping.

I sailed with a convoy of armor from a British port and saw the entire operation on the beaches. It all went according to plan with such comparatively small losses that I could hardly believe that this was really the Western Front.

Then as I drove with the spearhead of our attack over sunbathed and through towns. I soon made aware that this was a great day. The French people screamed “Liberation!” and joy was overflowing from their hearts.

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