The Brooklyn Eagle (June 8, 1944)
Main battle on as enemy’s Tiger tanks move up
By Virgil Pinkley
Invasion area
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.