Operation OVERLORD (1944)

88

Der Gegenangriff unserer Reserven hat begonnen –
Schwerste feindliche Verluste nördlich Carentan

Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 8. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

In der Normandie versuchte der Feind die gebildeten Brückenköpfe zu verstärken. Neue Landungsversuche fanden aber nicht statt, östlich der Ornemündung wurde der Feind auf engem Raum zusammengedrängt und von der Küste abgedrängt. Aus seinem Brückenkopf zwischen Caen und Bayeux trat der Feind in südwestlicher Richtung zum Angriff an. Gleichzeitig hat der Gegenangriff unserer herangeführten Reserven begonnen. Um die Stadt Bayeux ist zurzeit ein heftiger Kampf im Gange, überall im feindlichen Brückenkopf halten sich eigene Stützpunkte in unerschütterter Abwehr. Die amerikanischen Truppen, die sich nördlich Carentan am Fuß der Halbinsel von Cherbourg aus der Luft und von See festgesetzt hatten, erlitten schwerste Verluste. Die eigenen konzentrisch geführten Gegenangriffe pressen den Gegner immer mehr zusammen.

In der Bucht von St. Martin an der Nordwestspitze der Halbinsel wurde ein feindlicher Landungsversuch im Feuer der Küstenbatterien zerschlagen.

Kampffliegerverbände führten in der vergangenen Nacht Angriffe gegen die britisch-nordamerikanische Landungsflotte vor den feindlichen Brückenköpfen. Brände und Explosionen wurden beobachtet. Jagdflieger allein schossen über dem Landungsraum mindestens 89 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter in der Nacht 30 viermotorige Bomber ab. Die Abschußzahlen der Flak liegen noch nicht fest. Deutsche Kampfflugzeuge griffen Einzelziele in Südostengland an.

Schnellboote versenkten bei einem Vorstoß in die Seinebucht zwei feindliche Handelsschiffe von zusammen 4000 BRT. In harten Artilleriegefechten mit Zerstörern und Schnellbooten erzielten sie zahlreiche Treffer auf den feindlichen Schiffen und wehrten auf der Rückfahrt in ihre Stützpunkte starke Luftangriffe ab.

Eine andere Schnellbootflottille griff in der vergangenen Nacht westlich Fecamp einen feindlichen Landungsverband an und versenkte aus ihm sieben vollbeladene Landungsfahrzeuge.

Unsere Sicherungsstreitkräfte beschädigten in Gefechten mit überlegenen feindlichen Verbänden durch Artillerietreffer mehrere Zerstörer und Schnellboote, die darauf den Kampf abbrachen.

Die Marineküstenbatterie Marcouf liegt seit Beginn der Invasion im Schwerpunkt des Kampfes gegen die feindliche Landungsflotte im Ostteil der Halbinsel Cherbourg. Trotz heftiger Beschießung von See her und starker Luftangriffe vernichtete sie mehrere Landungsfahrzeuge und versenkte durch Volltreffer ein feindliches Kriegsschiff vom Kreuzertyp. Nachdem sie von feindlichen Fallschirmjägern eingeschlossen war, hielt sich die Batterie gegen die überlegenen feindlichen Kräfte und sprengte schließlich den Einschließungsring. Andere Marineküstenbatterien zwangen vor Le Havre durch gut liegendes Feuer zwei feindliche Kreuzer zum Abdrehen.

Fernkampfbatterien beschossen in der Nacht vor Dover einen großen feindlichen Geleitzug.

In Italien stieß der Gegner mit starken Panzerkräften, denen Infanterie folgte, beiderseits des Baraccianosees weiter vor. Hiebei kam es im Raum von Civitavecchia und bei Civita Castellana zu heftigen Kämpfen. Aus dem Frontabschnitt nordöstlich und östlich Rom werden keine besonderen Kampfhandlungen gemeldet. Der Feind folgt unseren Absetzbewegungen nur zögernd.

An der Ostfront scheiterten erneute Gegenangriffe der Sowjets nordwestlich Jassy unter Abschuß von 31 feindlichen Panzern.

Bei den Kämpfen im Raum von Jassy haben deutsch-rumänische Truppen unter dem Befehl des rumänischen Generals der Kavallerie Racovita, des Generals der Panzertruppen von Knobelsdorff sowie des Generals der Infanterie Mieth, hervorragend unterstützt durch starke deutsch-rumänische Kampf- und Schlachtfliegerverbände, in harten Kämpfen die Bolschewisten aus tiefgegliederten, zäh verteidigten Stellungen geworfen und die eigenen Stellungen dadurch bedeutend verbessert. Der Feind hatte schwerste blutige Verluste und verlor außerdem in der Zeit vom 30. Mai bis 7. Juni rund 1400 Gefangene, 209 Panzer, 410 Geschütze und Granatwerfer, sowie zahlreiche sonstige Waffen. 323 feindliche Flugzeuge wurden vernichtet, davon 50 durch Truppen des Heeres. Der Kommandeur eines rumänischen Gebirgsjägerbataillons Major Lunga hat sich bei diesen Kämpfen besonders ausgezeichnet.

Im Finnischen Meerbusen griffen deutsche Wachfahrzeuge die Sicherung eines sowjetischen Räumverbandes an, versenkten zwei Schnellboote und schossen drei weitere in Brand, von denen wahrscheinlich eines gesunken ist.

Einzelne britische Flugzeuge warfen in der vergangenen Nacht Bomben im Raum von Köln.

89

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 8, 1944)

Communique No. 6

British and Canadian troops are continuing to make progress. Repeated enemy attacks against the 6th Airborne Division have been held. The American bridgeheads are being gradually enlarged.

The enemy is fighting fiercely. His reserves have now been in action along the whole front.

With the safe and timely arrival of merchant convoys and improvement in the weather, unloading of supplies is proceeding at a satisfactory rate. Development of the Allied beachheads continues. The supply by air of arms to our airborne troops early this morning was completely successful.

Last night, enemy E-boats operating in four groups entered the assault area and attempted to interfere with our lines of communication. A series of running fights ensued and the attacks were successfully beaten off. Three of the enemy were seen to be repeatedly hit before they escaped. During the early hours of today, E-boats were attacked off the French and Belgian coasts by coastal aircraft. One E-boat was sunk and three others sunk or severely damaged.

Our air assault in support of the land and naval forces against a wide variety of tactical targets has continued uninterruptedly and in vary great strength. The enemy air effort is as yet on a limited scale but some opposition from flak has been encountered.

Ceaseless patrols were maintained over the immediate battle positions by our fighters and fighter bombers. As targets presented themselves, small units broke off from the main patrolling force to dive-bomb and strafe armored columns, troop movements, and gun positions. Other fighters covered shipping against air and sea attack.

Behind the combat zone, other fighter bombers ranged over the country in a deep belt many miles south and southeast of the battle area, attacking armored vehicles, motor transport and troop concentrations. Other targets included railways, fuel dumps, airfields, and canal locks on the river Seine. Rocket-firing planes attacked a tank concentration west of CAEN.

Our heavy bombers in very strong force struck at railway focal points, railway yards, and airfields well beyond the battle area. This morning, medium and light bombers took advantage of the improved weather and made many sorties in the Normandy area against rail and road targets.

Our aircraft have flown approximately 27,000 individual missions in the period from dawn June 6 to midday today. One hundred and seventy-six enemy aircraft have been destroyed in the air. In the same period, our losses were 289 aircraft.

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90

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 9, 1944)

Communique No. 7

Allied troops have continued to make progress in all sectors, despite further reinforcement of German armor.

Landings have continued on all beaches and bypassed strongpoints of enemy resistance are being steadily reduced.

During yesterday, there was desultory firing from some coastal batteries, which were again silenced by gunfire from Allied warships.

Allied aircraft continued to support naval and land forces by attacks on a variety of targets. Late in the day, weather over northern France caused a reduction in the scale of air operations.

Our heavy bombers, in strong force, attacked railway targets and airfields beyond the battle area yesterday morning. They were escorted by medium forces of fighters. These and other fighters strafed ground targets, shooting down 31 enemy aircraft and destroying more than a score on the ground. From these operations, three bombers and 24 fighters are missing.

Medium bombers attacked a road bridge over the Seine at
Vernon, fighter bombers struck at troop and transport concentrations, gun positions, armored vehicles, and railway and road targets behind the battle lines.

Fighters patrolled over shipping and the assault area. Twenty-one enemy aircraft were destroyed. Eleven of our fighters were lost but two of the pilots are safe.

Rocket-firing fighters attacked German E-boats in the Channel leaving one in a sinking condition.

Last night, heavy bombers, in force, attacked railway centers at Rennes, Fougères, Alençon, Mayenne, and Pontaubault. Five heavy bombers are missing.

Light bombers struck at railway targets behind the battle area during the night.

For the first time since 1940, Allied air forces are able to operate from French soil.

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91

The Brooklyn Eagle (June 9, 1944)

McMillan: Finds liberated French strong for Gen. de Gaulle

By Richard D. McMillan

With Allied forces, France (UP) –
All the French people with whom I have talked in the countryside, in the villages and in the townships of the liberated area are surprised that there is any difference of opinion among the French on support of Gen. Charles de Gaulle.

They say:

We are all solidly behind our leader de Gaulle. He, as well as Great Britain and America, has been our constant hope through our darkest hours. He is the only leader for us.

I found the French ignorant of what the British people had suffered while holding out against German air raids, the submarine campaign and the constant threat of invasion following Dunkirk. The French were even surprised to learn Britain had rationing. They believed Britain was a land of plenty,

Canadian corvette finds U.S. craft at sea too

Off invasion coast, France (UP) –
Seeking a place to land her convoy, the Canadian corvette Prescott signaled a U.S. cruiser: “Do you know where the port authorities are?” The cruiser answered, “No, I’m a stranger here myself.”

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92

Cherbourg lifelines cut by Allies

Nazis fear loss of port as we extend beachhead
By Virgil Pinkley

SHAEF, London, England (UP) –
U.S. armored forces driving westward against hard fighting into the base of the Normandy peninsula have cut and highway to Cherbourg, the two main Nazi lifelines to the great port, it was announced officially today.

A spokesman at Gen. Eisenhower’s headquarters revealed operations generally “continue satisfactorily, with the beachheads enlarging” on the fourth day of the Allied invasion of northwestern France.

The Germans reported a great naval armada of several hundred vessels sailed eastward past Cherbourg toward the assault area, early today, evidently to pour powerful reinforcements into the beachheads.

Nazi reports also said an armored spearhead was approaching Saint-Lô, 20 miles southwest of Bayeux and halfway across the peninsula, and the Germans might be forced to abandon Cherbourg in the face of the developing Allied drive to isolate it.

Front dispatches revealed Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, commander of U.S. invasion forces, had gone ashore in France as his troops were battling their way into the vital transport network supplying the enemy garrison at Cherbourg.

At Supreme Headquarters here, it was revealed Bradley’s forces, battling hard and grimly, had struck across the 27-mile stretch of the Cherbourg-Carentan highway at several places.

Advance elements, pushing on beyond the highway, cut the broad-gauge railroad between Carentan and Saint-Mere-Église, seven miles to the north. An obscure German High Command reference to Allied troops striking out from the Saint-Mere-Église beachhead indicated the town might be in American hands.

British forces continued to edge forward in the Caen area against stiff German resistance and counterthrusts which had still not reached the proportions of a big-scale battle.

The main weight of Marshal Rommel’s counteraction was centered around Caen. It included considerable amounts of armor, which the Germans had moved up well forward.

German prisoners have been taken in sizable numbers, the spokesman said, the total now running into four figures.

The weather, one of the knottiest problems of the invasion, took a slight turn for the worse early today, the wind kicking in briskly from the southwest.

The word at Supreme Headquarters late in the day was that the invasion could be considered “making satisfactory progress.” But as Allied beachheads expanded, Nazi resistance stiffened. The weight of armor engaged by both sides was increasing, and the fighting was severe.

All enemy thrusts along the battle arc from the neighborhood of Caen to above Saint-Mere-Église were held and ground was gained afterward.

That statement from headquarters suggested the possibility, without clarification, that U.S. and British beachheads had been joined to form a continuous front.

A late report said the Americans were at Formigny, eight miles west-northwest of Bayeux, Wednesday evening, and presumably they had advanced since then. The capture of Bayeux by British forces was announced yesterday.

An advance unit of the U.S. 9th Air Force was revealed to have arrived in France, and front dispatches disclosed Royal Air Force squadrons were already established on the Normandy beaches to give the land armies short-range support.

A Berlin dispatch to the Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet said German military authorities admitted their forces were retreating under the pressure of Allied reinforcements and may be forced to abandon Cherbourg, one of the principal harbors on the French coast and railhead of a trunk line to Paris.

U.S. tanks and infantry on the west flank battling fiercely in an effort to capture Carentan, hinge of the German line, and key points along the Carentan-Cherbourg highway, while British Empire forces were reported nearing the conquest of Caen, beleaguered communications hub 40 miles to the east, front reports disclosed.

Canadian forces alone were credited with capturing a dozen Normandy towns in a southward drive across the Bayeux-Caen stretch of the main Cherbourg-Paris railway and highway. Landing continued on both the U.S. and British-Canadian beachheads and bypassed enemy strongpoints were being reduced steadily.

The Berlin dispatch to the Stockholm Aftonbladet said the Germans feared a linking of the two beachheads – the American between Carentan and Cherbourg and the British Empire between Bayeux and a point west of the Orne estuary – was imminent.

Such a junction, the dispatch quoted the Germans as saying, would make the Nazi situation “very difficult” and perhaps force the abandonment of Cherbourg.

The German-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau, also in a Berlin dispatch, reported tank spearheads from Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s forces were approaching Saint-Lô, 20 miles inland, after violent battles six miles southwest of Bayeux and at the Suelle River, southeast of Bayeux.

A total of 10 German divisions – 150,000 men – have been identified in action, and reconnaissance reports indicated these were steadily being reinforced by railway and highway despite day-and-night Allied aerial attacks on enemy communications.

Diminishing winds speeded further the landing from ships of fresh troops, tanks, trucks and other equipment on both the U.S. and British-Canadian beachheads along 60 or more miles of the coastline between Cherbourg and Le Havre, the latter only a little more than 100 miles from Paris.

However, clouds that descended from 1,000 to 1,500 feet seriously hampered air support of the ground forces this morning, reducing the early formations of daylight raiders to isolated task forces.

The outcome of the U.S. attack on Carentan. at the joint of the Normandy Peninsula, and the highway linking it with Cherbourg, 27 miles to the northwest, was expected to go a long way toward deciding the fate of Cherbourg itself, one of the best harbors on the French coast and with a direct trunk line to Paris.

Escape roads menaced

The loss of Carentan and the highway would leave the German garrison of Cherbourg only secondary roads over which to withdraw from the port and at the same time would pave the way for a U.S. thrust across the 20-mile neck of the peninsula to the west coast. Allied air and naval ascendancy were also expected to play a part in dooming Cherbourg, which would provide an ideal base for a full Allied offensive in France.

Though the Americans were hard-pressed for a time on their beachheads on the east coast of the Cherbourg Peninsula between Cherbourg and Carentan. a spokesman for Gen. Eisenhower said they were now receiving a regular stream of reinforcements.

It was learned some Americans pushed ashore in Cherbourg Bay, which stretches seven miles east and 10 miles west of the port, on D-Day, but the present location of these units was not disclosed. German broadcasts have reported U.S. troops near Saint-Pierre-Église, 11 miles east of Cherbourg.

Fight for Caen is tough

British Empire forces were finding Caen, midway between Cherbourg and Le Havre on the trunk railway and highway to Paris. tough nut to crack as street fighting raged on into its fourth day, but a correspondent at the front said the communications center should fall “within an hour, perhaps minutes.”

The British 6th Airborne Division was the first to drive into Caen, and it has since been joined by seaborne forces from the beachhead at the mouth of the Orne River, nine miles to the north.

Other British elements 15 miles to the west were reported well south of Bayeux, also on the Cherbourg-Paris railway and highway, in an apparent drive to cut the Normandy Peninsula in half.

Probe Canadian lines

Front dispatches said the Germans were probing the Canadian perimeter with 30-35 tanks at a time in preparation for a full-scale counterattack, but Canadian units and massed artillery firmly entrenched on slopes beyond Bayeux threw back each thrust. A three-hour tank battle was reported in one sector.

German reinforcements were revealed to be moving up steadily all around the Allied beachheads despite a rain of bombs, bullets and even rockets from thousands of Allied planes. Reconnaissance pilots said in some places the enemy was using horse-drawn vehicles, presumably because of a shortage of gasoline.

Though one of the original landings was known to have been made near Le Havre, there have been no further Allied reports from the area. A German broadcast claimed Allied forces in the Seine estuary area had been wiped out.

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93

WAR BULLETINS!

Invasion so far satisfies Roosevelt

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt said at his news conference today that the invasion of Europe is making slow progress, but, he added, it is progress.

Mr. Roosevelt would not enter into an elaborate discussion of the Allied thrust into the coast of France except to say that his reports from the front today were essentially the same as those in the newspapers.

Asked whether the Allies had taken Caen yet, the President said he had not had any report of it.

Algiers to pray for invasion forces

Algiers, Algeria (UP) –
All churches and synagogues in Algiers will offer special prayers for the invasion forces this weekend. American, British and French chaplains will participate.

6-ton blockbuster rips Normandy rail cut

London, England (UP) –
The Royal Air Force dropped at least one six-ton super-blockbuster in a deep railway cut on a primary German reinforcement line in the Samur area south of the Normandy battlefront last night, it was announced today.

Gen. Bradley lands in invasion area

London, England (UP) –
A dispatch from Normandy said today that Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, commander of U.S. ground forces in France, went ashore yesterday to get a first-hand picture of conditions in the invasion area.

Refugees run into Nazi battle troops

London, England (UP) –
The Paris radio reported today that people fleeing from the battle zone in France were meeting endless columns of German motorized units.

‘Massive new landings’ reported by Vichy

London, England (UP) –
Allied gliders and paratroops have made “massive new landings” in the Falaise area some 22 miles below Caen on the Normandy Peninsula, Radio Vichy said today.

Light rain continues over Dover Straits

London, England (UP) –
A light drizzle continued over the Straits of Dover at 1:00 p.m. today following an all-night rain. A southwesterly wind increased, making the sea choppy. Clouds hung low and visibility was less than a mile at times.

RAF established on Normandy beaches

London, England (UP) –
Front dispatches disclosed today that RAF “squadrons” were now established on Normandy beaches.

Nazis: 240,000 Allies on beachheads

London, England (UP) –
The German DNB Agency said today that reinforcements landed in Normandy during the night boosted Anglo-American strength on the beachheads to 15 or 16 divisions – perhaps 240,000 men.

Nurses in battle blouses off for France

London, England (UP) –
A party of U.S. nurses, en route to France, embarked from a coast town aboard a transport yesterday. The nurses wore battle blouses, breeches and gaiters and marched aboard carrying duffle bags.

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94

Invasion boat shot full of holes, but Brooklyn sailor, 30 others escape

An invasion port – (June 8, delayed)
Coast Guard Spc. Thomas Conk of 800 Rogers Avenue, Brooklyn, returned today in an infantry landing craft full of holes. The crew of 31 was unhurt despite the fact a German 88mm shell had made an 18-inch hole in the ship’s armor and exploded on the deck.

The crew stuffed blankets in cracks in inner compartments and bailed furiously all the way back.

Conk said:

We almost sank a dozen times. How we made it, I’ll never know. I guess our number just wasn’t up.

Prayers answered, says mother

Mrs. Mary Conk, the sailor’s mother, who has been praying at mass daily for the safety of her three sons in service, said today she was “positive” her prayers were answered in the miraculous escape of her son. “I attend 9:00 a.m. mass every day at Holy Cross Church,” she said, “to pray for all boys in addition to my three sons.”

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95

Former grid star rescues survivors of mined U.S. ship

By William R. Higginbotham

Aboard U.S. transport, off France – (delayed)
Navy Lt. John Tripson, former Detroit Lions football star, commanded a landing boat which helped rescue survivors from a small U.S. craft blown up by a mine 400 yards offshore.

We had started across the lines of ships through a shell-filled strip of channel from this transport, bound for the mainland beach when we saw the ship go up in a geyser of water.

Big John of Mission, Texas, ordered the landing boat around to help pick up survivors. While the stricken ship smoked and three other vessels larger than ours moved in to aid, we hauled from the water six oil-smeared survivors, two of whom were crying piteously for help. Big John scooped one out of a wave with one hand.

In the midst of the rescue, an officer on a bridge of a ship yelled: “Watch out. German planes overhead.”

“Twist her tail, coxswain,” ordered Tripson and we raced away from the concentration of ships with our survivors crouched on the deck.

One man who pulled away the stricken vessel in a rubber boat was stripped naked. Others had been blown at least 30 feet.

McMillan: Nazi retreating so fast they fail to bury their dead

By Richard D. McMillan

With the Allied invasion army, France (UP) - (June 8, delayed)
The Germans got out of here so fast they didn’t even stop to bury their dead.

On D+2 – 48 hours after the invasion assault – the biggest phenomenon of the battle of Western Europe is still the amazing lack of Nazi resistance in this large slice of French soil around Bayeux, which the Allies have liberated.

By letting us grab off Bayeux, a vital point on the Bayeux-Caen highway, his troops farther out on the Normandy Peninsula have been placed in grave danger.

Why didn’t the enemy try to hold out? One theory expressed by officers here is that we succeeded in landing so much material – tanks, anti-tank guns and other armor – the Germans are withdrawing their isolated panzer units to mass them for a resounding counterattack.

That may be, but meanwhile the Allies are consolidating their grip on the very considerable hunk of territory we’ve already sliced off and it seems unlikely the Nazis would be able to resist the steel jaws we are closing upon them.

Everyone was asking, “Where is the Luftwaffe?” Back on the beaches, thousands of supply vessels are disgorging infantry divisions, stores, munitions, gasoline and food with the regularity of an English port in peacetime. It all seems very mysterious.

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96

U.S. ‘Fighting First’ joins British 50th on French coast

SHAEF, England (UP) –
Two famous infantry divisions – America’s Fighting First and Britain’s 50th Division – were revealed today to be fighting together on the Allied beachhead in France.

Comprising men from every state in the Union, the 1st Infantry Division went into its latest action with a one-time private as its commander.

The presence of the two divisions, both veterans of World War I, in the invasion forces was announced last night by Allied headquarters.

Acclaimed as the “epitome of an infantry-artillery team,” the Fighting First has one of the most enviable records of the Army. In World War I, it was the first U.S. Army division to reach France, one of the first to meet the enemy and the first to attack.

In this war, the Fighting First came to England in August 1942, and later joined the invasion off Africa, where it distinguished itself at Gafsa, El Guettar and in the final Tunisian drive around Mateur.

From there, the men of the 1st Division went to Sicily, landing at Gela, where they added to their achievements.

The British 50th Division, known as the “Geordies,” established an exceptional record in the last war and in this conflict joined the 8th Army in Africa when the Germans were thrusting toward Cairo. At Mareth, it was given the job of frontal attack, and although it suffered heavily, the 50th Division’s fighting played a big part in holding Marshal Erwin Rommel’s forces while New Zealanders smashed the right flank, sending the Germans fleeing into North Tunisia.

Bayeux mob beats up, ‘crowns’ a Quisling

Townsfolk go temporarily berserk, shove collaborationist through streets
By Alan Moorhead

Bayeux, France (UP) –
The French of this town have gone temporarily berserk with the joy of freedom after four years of pent-up hatred for the Germans and welcomed the opportunity to punish the collaborationists.

The chief collaborationist of Bayeux, who is also the head of the “Anti-Bolshevist League,” has just been shoved through the main street by a hilarious and demonstrative crowd.

A gray-haired squat figure, blood was running down the side of his head. His shirt was half torn off, his right leg was scratched and a wreath of roses crowned his head in an ironical takeoff of a ceremonial.

His eyes were filled with fright and he stared wildly as he tried to dodge blows aimed at him. A young French guerilla armed with an Allied rifle tried to keep the people back, but they kept surging forward.

A while ago, the crowd grabbed one of the collaborationist policemen and he was being beaten by the screaming townspeople.

Thus France was observing her liberation.

The delight of the people was mingled with a sudden outburst of four years’ pent-up hatred of the Germans and their followers. This was different from Tunisia and Italy. Hatred of the Germans overshadowed all else here.

For the moment, the people were too dazed to celebrate. Their main thought was to grab the enemies who have repressed them since 1940.

A similar dispatch filed by John Hetherington said the townspeople of Bayeux started a roundup of pro-Vichy residents, but that most of them had fled with the German armies.

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Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 9, 1944)

Communiqué No. 8

U.S. troops are across the CARENTAN-VOLOGNES road in several places and have cut the broad-gauge railway to CHERBOURG. Further gains have been made west and southwest of BAYEUX.

Fighting is severe in the area of CAEN where the enemy is making a determined effort to stem the advance. The weight of armor on both sides in increasing and heavy fighting continues in all areas. The enemy strongpoints previously bypassed have now been eliminated. The whether has deteriorated but our beachheads are being steadily developed.

Poor visibility and stormy weather reduced Allied air activity to a minimum over the battle area today.

Before dawn this morning HMS TARTAR (Cdr. B. Jones, DSO DSC RN), with HMS ASHANTI (LtCdr. J. R. Barnes, RN), HM Canadian ships HAIDA (Cdr. H. G. de Wolf, RCN) and HURON (LtCdr. H. S. Rayner, DSC RCN), ORP BŁYSKAWICA, HMS ESKIMO (LtCdr. E. N. Sinclair, RN), ORP PIORUN and HMS JAVELIN (LtCdr. P. E. N. Lewis, DSC RN) in company, intercepted a force of German destroyers which had previously been reported off Ushant by coastal aircraft.

The enemy were sighted and our ships turned towards them, avoiding their torpedoes. In the course of the action, at times conducted at point-blank range, HMS TARTAR passed through the enemy’s line. One enemy destroyer was torpedoed and blew up. A second was driven ashore in flames. Two others escaped after receiving damage by gunfire.

HMS TARTAR sustained some damage and a few casualties, but continued in action and has returned safely to harbor.

Unsuccessful attempts were again made after dawn by E-boats to enter the assault area both from east and west. They were intercepted and driven off by light coastal forces. Off the Pointe de Barfleur in a short gun action hits were observed on two of the enemy before they escaped.

During the night destroyers under the command of RAdm. Don Pardee Moon, USN, intercepted a force of heavily armed enemy craft between the mainland and the Îles Saint-Marcouf, and drove them off.

During the 24 hours to 0800 this morning, 46 targets were engaged by Allied warships. Spotting for these shoots was carried out both by aircraft and military Forward Observer Officers, who had been landed with the assault troops.

HMS BELFAST (Capt. F. R. Parham, DSO RN) wearing the flag of RAdm. F. G. H. Dalrymple-Hamilton, CB, and HMS FROBISHER (Capt. J. F. W. Mudford, RN) have done considerable execution on enemy concentrations. This morning, HMS FROBISHER neutralized two enemy batteries and destroyed an ammunition dump.

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98

Hohe feindliche Schiffsverluste –
Heftiger Panzerkampf südöstlich Bayeux

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 9. Juni –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

An der Küste der Normandie gelang dem Gegner, wenn auch unter hohen Verlusten durch die Angriffe der deutschen Seestreitkräfte und der Luftwaffe, die Verstärkung seines Landekopfes, östlich der Orne gewann unser Gegenangriff weiter an Boden. Aus dem Landekopf westlich der Orne griffen feindliche Panzerkräfte Bayeux umfassend an und stießen weiter nach Westen und Südwesten vor. Sie wurden etwa zehn Kilometer westlich der Stadt aufgefangen. Unsere aus dem Raum von Caen zum Gegenangriff angetretenen Panzerspitzen stehen nunmehr südöstlich Bayeux in heftigem Kampf.

Aus dem Brückenkopf Ste. Mère Église nach Norden und Süden vorstoßender Feind konnte gegen unsere hartnäckigen Widerstand leistenden Truppen nur wenig Boden gewinnen.

Vor der Ostküste der Halbinsel Cherbourg versenkten Schnellboote in der Nacht zum 8. Juni einen feindlichen Kreuzer und einen Zerstörer. Ein weiterer Zerstörer und ein Panzerwagenlandungsboot wurden durch Torpedotreffer schwer beschädigt.

In der letzten Nacht versenkten unsere Schnellboote im gleichen Seegebiet aus einem feindlichen Verband zwei große Landungsschiffe mit zusammen 9.200 BRT. Durch unsere Minensperren erleidet die feindliche Landungsflotte laufend weitere schwere Verluste.

Auch die Luftwaffe setzte mit Kampf- und Schlachtfliegerverbänden ihre Angriffe gegen die feindliche Landungsflotte mit gutem Erfolg fort. Sie versenkte am 7. und in der Nacht zum 8. Juni sechs Transporter mit insgesamt 38.000 BRT und ein Landungsfahrzeug. Außerdem wurden vier Transportschiffe mit über 30.000 BRT und acht Speziallandungsschiffe schwer beschädigt. Ein schwerer und zwei leichte Kreuzer erhielten Bombentreffer.

Jäger und Flakartillerie schossen 45 feindliche Flugzeuge ab.

An der italienischen Front hielt der starke feindliche Druck gegen unsere Sicherungstruppen westlich des Tiber, im Küstenabschnitt und beiderseits des Vicosees während des ganzen Tages an, ohne daß der Feind nennenswerte Erfolge erzielen konnte. Die Stadt Tarquinia wurde von unseren Truppen aufgegeben.

Von der übrigen Front werden keine besonderen Kampfhandlungen gemeldet.

Bei der erfolgreichen Abwehr eines feindlichen Bandenunternehmens gegen die vor der dalmatinischen Küste gelegene Insel Brac hat sich ein Bataillon einer ostmärkisch-bayerischen Jägerdivision unter Führung von Hauptmann Thörner besonders bewährt.

Der englische Oberstleutnant Tom Churchill, Kommandant der Insel Lissa, wurde gefangengenommen.

Im Osten blieben auch gestern wiederholte Gegenangriffe der Sowjets nordwestlich Jassy erfolglos.

Nordwestlich Tarnopol kam es zu örtlichen Kämpfen. Unsere Grenadiere und Panzergrenadiere vernichteten dort ein sowjetisches Bataillon und ein Panzerabwehrregiment.

99

Schiffskatastrophe der Invasionsflotte –
Explosion von größtem Ausmaß

Berlin, 9. Juni –
In der Nacht zum Freitag wurde die Besatzung eines deutschen Vorpostenbootes Augenzeuge einer der sicherlich größten Schiffskatastrophen der vor der normannischen Küste versammelten britischen Flotteneinheiten. Trotz der kilometerweit hin sichtbaren Flaksperre durchbrachen deutsche Bomber vor Mitternacht immer wieder die Feuerglocke. Plötzlich erfolgte inmitten der Schiffsansammlungen eine Explosion von größten Ausmaßen. Eine breite Feuersäule von gewaltiger Höhe schoß über der Kimm hoch, um sprüht von immer neu aufbrechendem Funkenregen. Glühende Wrackteile wurden in den Nachthimmel geschleudert.

Obwohl das Vorpostenboot fast 20 Seemeilen vom Schauplatz der Katastrophe entfernt stand, konnte die Besatzung über 40 Minuten lang den Todeskampf einer großen Schiffseinheit beobachten. Über der Untergangsstelle verdichteten sich die Flammen innerhalb einer halben Stunde zu einer schwarzen Ölwolke, die bis zu einer Länge von 20 Seemeilen anwuchs und schließlich mit ihrer Spitze über unseren Vorpostenbooten in der Seinemündung stand.

Am Morgen des Freitags durchfuhr das Vorpostenboot einen breiten Ölstrom, der, umsäumt von unzähligen Wrackteilen und einigen Rettungsflößen, von der Drift immer tiefer ostwärts in den Kanal getrieben wurde. Die letzten Überbleibsel einer sicherlich bedeutenden Einheit der Invasionsflotte, die von unserer Luftwaffe in Brand geworfen und vernichtet worden war.

100

Verhör an der Kanalküste

Aus den Berichten des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht wie auch aus den PK.-Meldungen von der Front ist klar ersichtlich, daß die Kämpfe unserer Soldaten mit dem Feinde an der französischen Küste äußerst hart und erbittert sind. Die anglo-amerikanischen Generale versuchen nach ihrer Gewohnheit durch rücksichtslosen Einsatz von Menschen und Material zum Ziele zu kommen. Wie rücksichtslos sie mit ihren Truppen umgehen, das erhellt deutlich aus den ersten Verhören der Gefangenen.

SS-pk. Im Morgengrauen des kalten Regentages, in dessen ersten Stunden nach heftigen Bombardements die Engländer mit Hunderten von Lastenseglern unter der Feuerglocke ihrer Schiffsgeschütze die Invasion begannen, spielten sich mit geradezu rasender Schnelle auch die ersten Gefechte, Einschließungen und Gefangennahmen ab. An vielen Stellen, vor allem ostwärts der Orne, erschien das Schauspiel wie mit einem Zeitraffer zusammengedrängt, so schnell rollten die drei Akte ab. Der letzte zeigte die verstörten und langen Züge der Gefangenen, die verwirrt die Straße landeinwärts zum Divisionsgefechtsstand zogen.

Den meisten Soldaten, die seit zwei Jahren nichts als die Ostfront erlebt hatten, war, muß ich gestehen, der Augenblick, wo sie zum erstenmal den Briten gegenüberstanden, mit einem unbeschreiblichen Gefühl verbunden. Das also waren die Männer, die unser Land mit ihrem Bombenterror verwüsteten und vor denen unsere Frauen und Kinder zittern mußten.

Dies ist das erste Verhör

F. „Sie sind Engländer?“
A. Der Kriegsgefangene Goddard antwortet: „Ja.“

F. „Woher stammen Sie?“
A. „Aus Manchester.“

F. „Wie alt sind Sie? Haben Sie sich freiwillig gemeldet?“
A. „Ich bin 24 Jahre alt und bin nicht gefragt worden.“

F. „Wenn Sie gefragt worden wären?“
A. „Damals – ich weiß es nicht.“

F. „Sind Sie verheiratet?“
A. „Nein.“

Er versucht, mit dem Arm seine linke Brustseite zu verdecken, auf der auf seiner Tarnjacke mit Tintenstift der Name Yoan geschrieben steht.

F. „Aber das dort ist der Name von ihr, nicht wahr?“
A. „Ja.“

F. „Kennen Sie sie schon lange?“
A. „Seit drei Monaten.“

F. „Wann wollten Sie denn heiraten, im Kriege?“
A. „Wir wollten im nächsten Urlaub heiraten, aber…“

F. „Aber – was?“
A. „Damals wußte ich noch nicht, daß ich die
Invasion mitmachen sollte.“

F. „Aber bei einer geglückten Invasion bekommt man doch auch Urlaub?“
A. „Ich habe gewußt, daß die Invasion nicht glücken würde, wir haben damals mit dem Leben abgeschlossen.“

F. „Mit dem Leben? Stimmt es, daß man Ihnen gesagt hat, wir würden bei einer Invasion jeden Gegner niedermachen?“
A. „Ja.“

F. „Und Sie haben das geglaubt?“
A. „Wir haben es alle geglaubt.“

F. „Glauben Sie es noch?“

Goddard schweigt und sieht seinem deutschen Gegenüber forschend in die Augen.

Der Deutsche: „Sind Sie sehr abgespannt?“
A. „Ich bin noch sehr… ich bin noch etwas… ich bin noch ein bißchen erregt.“

F. „Waren Sie es vorher auch?“
A. „Nein, merkwürdigerweise nicht. Ich habe den ganzen Flug über geschlafen.“

F. „Wie lange sind Sie in der Luft gewesen?“
A. „Ich kann es gar nicht abschätzen, aber ziemlich lange, glaube ich.“

F. „Wo sind Sie denn abgeflogen?“
A. „Ich weiß es nicht.“

F. „Aber Sie werden doch wissen, aus welcher Gegend, oder wollen Sie das nicht sagen?“
A. „Warum nicht? Aber wir wissen es alle nicht, wir sind ja weggeschafft worden.“

F. „Weggeschafft? Wann, wohin, wozu?“
A. „Vor vier Wochen kamen wir von der Gruppe weg und in ein besonderes Lager. Nach zwei Wochen wurden wir dann wieder verladen und in ein Sonderlager ge–“

F. „Sonderlager?“
A. „Es war völlig von der Außenwelt abgeschlossen. Wir durften nicht hinaus und niemand herein. Seit diesem Tage konnten wir mit niemand mehr sprechen. Das ist ein seltsames Gefühl, sage ich Ihnen. Es ist, als ob man eingesargt wird. Wir wußten damals noch nichts von dem, was mit uns geschehen sollte. Wir ahnten es erst in den letzten Tagen. Bei Nacht wurden wir plötzlich in geschlossene Autos geschoben. Die Türen wurden verriegelt. Als wir ausstfegen, stand ein Flugzeugrumpf vor uns. Weiter war fast nichts zu sehen. Wir mußten einsteigen. Dann zog das Flugzeug an. Wir merkten, daß wir im Schlepp waren und wußten nun, daß die Stunde geschlagen hatte. Es war eine stockdunkle Nacht. Stürmisch über dem Kanal und naßkalt. Das Ganze war so, daß sich einem das Herz zusammenkrampfen konnte.“ Goddard besinnt sich plötzlich. „Entschuldigen Sie, ich weiß nicht, warum ich das erzähle. Also das war es.“

F. „Warum sprechen Sie nicht weiter?“
A. „Ich möchte nicht, bitte, fragen Sie mich nicht mehr. Ich weiß auch nichts Besonderes mehr. Ich habe dann geschlafen.“ Er steht auf, macht eine Ehrenbezeugung und wendet sich dann zu dem Posten an der Tür.

Das zweite Verhör

F. „Sie sind Major?“
A. „Sie sehen es aus meinem Soldbuch, Sir.“

F. „Wo sind Sie geboren?“
A. „Auch das steht in meinem Soldbuch, Sir.“

F. „Gedenken Sie immer so zu antworten?“
A. „Würden Sie anders antworten?“

F. „Wollen Sie uns beide vergleichen? Ich würde mein Gesicht nicht wie ein Verbrecher oder Bandit mit Ruß schwärzen, wie ihre kanadischen Männer es auf ihren Befehl taten!“
A. „Der Krieg erfordert manches.“
F. „Es gibt Dinge, die ein Gentleman nicht tut. Nie! Sie können gehen.“

Das dritte Verhör

F. „Sie sind Mr. Mortimer?“
A. „Ja.“

F. „Was wollten Sie eigentlich hier in Frankreich?“
A. „Wie, bitte?“

F. „Wollten Sie hier einkaufen?“
A. „Einkäufen?“

F. „Ja, Sie hatten doch einige tausend Francs in der Tasche.“
A. „Das Geld habe ich bekommen, es ist falsch. Wir hätten so viel haben können, wie wir wollten.“

F. „Haben Sie auch das neue Invasionsgeld mitgehabt?“
A. „Ja, auch.“

F. „Geben Sie mal her.“
A. „Ich habe es nicht mehr, es war in meiner Hose.“ Er zieht seine Tarnjacke über die nackten Knie, unter denen die Hose fehlt.

F. „Wo haben Sie denn Ihre Hose gelassen?“
A. „Ich habe sie ausgezogen.“

F. „Erzählen Sie! Sie sind auch Fallschirmjäger?“
A. „Ja. Aber ich bin es erst seit 24 Stunden. Ich war vorher noch nie geflogen und mir war auf dem Flug über dem stürmischen Meer sehr übel. Ich habe mich dauernd übergeben. Als wir landeten, war ich halb krank. Das heißt, wir landeten gar nicht. Der Pilot hatte in den Regenwolken vollkommen die Orientierung verloren und verlor durch seine unsicheren Manöver auch dauernd an Höhe. Schließlich sichteten wir noch andere Flugzeuge und gingen ganz herunter, bis wir plötzlich merkten, daß wir gar nicht die französische Küste unter uns hatten, sondern noch das Meer. Das Flugzeug schlug auf das hochgehende Wasser und sank mit seiner Last blitzschnell, wir konnten kaum heraus und uns an die Tragflächen klammern, bis die auch untergingen. Mit ihnen die Hälfte meiner Kameraden. Ich ahnte das Ende schon und hatte meine Schuhe und schließlich auch meine Hose ausgezogen, um besser schwimmen zu können. Ich war anderthalb Stunden im Wasser, ehe ich an Land kam. Ich gestehe, daß ich vollkommen fertig war. Es dauerte kaum drei Sekunden, da war ich von einer deutschen Küstenstreife gefangengenommen. Sie konnte mich buchstäblich ‚verhaften.‘ Wir haben Pech gehabt.“

F. „Glauben Sie, daß die anderen jenseits der Orne mehr Glück gehabt haben?“
A. Nach einer langen Zeit mit skeptischem Lächeln: „Sie haben wenigstens ihre Hose. Die hat uns Eisenhower doch nicht abgesprochen.“

F. „Hat er Ihnen denn etwas abgesprochen?“
A. „Ist den Deutschen nicht sein Aufruf, sein Tagesbefehl an uns bekannt?“

F. „Nein, nämlich?“
A. „Wir seien die Befreier Frankreichs. Wir sollten uns allerdings darauf gefaßt machen, daß wir draufgingen, denn es würde sehr schwer werden. Wir sollten uns keine Illusionen machen.“

F. „Sie sprechen nicht gerade voller Hochachtung von Ihrem Höchstkommandierenden.“
A. „Er ist ein Amerikaner. Das sagt für uns alles.“

F. „Sie mögen die Amerikaner nicht?“
A. Jetzt folgt eine Antwort, die so überraschend ausfällt, daß der Deutsche ihn noch ein zweitesmal fragt. Mortimer wiederholt sie wörtlich noch einmal: „Nicht leiden? Ich kann schon den Anblick dieser gottverfluchten Yankees nicht ertragen.“

So endete eine Liebe.

SS-Kriegsberichter JOACHIM FERNAU

101

Die Londoner Börse im Fieber –
Geschäfte mit der Invasion

vb. Wien, 9. Juni –
Während das englische Volk in bedrückter Sorge das Abenteuer der Invasion verfolgt und während fern vom Schuß in den Vereinigten Staaten die ahnungslose Masse einem noch nicht erlebten Reklamerummel um die Invasion zum Opfer fällt, verrät eine Meldung aus dem Daily Herald vom 7. Juni mit erschreckender Schamlosigkeit, zu wessen Nutzen und Profit die englischen und amerikanischen Heere in das voraussichtlich größte Blutbad der Geschichte gehetzt werden. Die „größte Hausse aller Zeiten“ habe die Invasionsnachricht an der Londoner Börse ausgelöst, die spekulationsträchtigen Werte seien wie wild gekauft worden und hätten einen Gesamtkursgewinn von rund 50 Millionen Pfund Sterling an einem einzigen Tage erzielt. Die Spekulanten seien vor gieriger Erregung in den Börsenstuben geradezu übereinander gefallen.

Den Soldaten der anglo-amerikanischen Armeen und den Völkern, die ihre Söhne auf dem Schlachtfeld opfern sollen, wird der lügnerische Wahn vorgespiegelt, es gelte von den Invasionsküsten aus die gewalttätige Unterdrückung durch das Nazisystem aus der Welt zu vertreiben und den demokratischen Freiheiten zu ihrem Recht zu verhelfen. Der König von England und Präsident Roosevelt überboten sich in der blasphemischen Scheinheiligkeit von Gebeten, deren heuchlerische Gotteslästerung die Kraft der Allmacht für die Sache des Union Jack und des Sternenbanners zu bemühen wagte. Was aber geschieht in Wirklichkeit, während der Wahnsinnige von Washington und Georg von England sich in diesen Gebeten prostituierten und während Zehntausende von Invasionssoldaten vor und auf dem nordfranzösischen Strand ihren letzten Atemzug aushauchen? Die Börsengauner streichen ihre Gewinne ein!

Kennzeichnend für den rein spekulativen also echt jüdischen Hintergrund dieser Londoner Börsengeschäfte ist die Tatsache, daß die Hausse rein fiktive Werte betraf. Europäische Regierungsbonds wurden wie besessen gekauft, heißt es im Daily Herald – und da es sich dabei kaum um Schatzanleihen des Deutschen Reichs gehandelt haben dürfte, wurden also wohl die Papiere jener Regierungen ohne Land gehandelt, deren Einflußlosigkeit nicht nur in ihrer definitiven Ausschaltung aus Europa besteht, sondern täglich offensichtlicher wird, wenn Moskau es vermag, mit einem leichten Stirnrunzeln des Mißvergnügens Ministerpräsidenten und Kabinette, ja selbst Könige in der Versenkung verschwinden zu lassen, die von der Londoner Diplomatie zu hohler Wichtigkeit so lange aufgeblasen waren. Die größten Kurssteigerungen seien, wie Daily Herald mitteilt, in den Papieren der französischen Eisenbahngesellschaft zu verzeichnen gewesen, und die Aktien der Midi, die 1940 nur 17 Pfund Sterling notierten, hätten plötzlich auf 60 gestanden, während die Aktien der Nord von 19 auf 73 in die Höhe schnellten. In nichts kann die bodenlose Niedertracht der die Invasion antreibenden jüdischen Kriegshetzer deutlicher zu Wort kommen! Was stellen in London gehandelte Werte französischer Eisenbahngesellschaften überhaupt dar? Wer verfügt denn in London über Lokomotiven und Waggons, die auf französischem Boden rollen? Über Gleise und Stationsanlagen, die in Frankreich stehen? Und abgesehen davon, daß auf gar keinen Fall englische Aktienbesitzer über diesen Besitz auch nur ein Wort mitzureden haben, ist es doch gerade im Verein mit ihren amerikanischen Kumpanen die englische Luftwaffe, die den von den Aktien einmal repräsentierten Gegenwert weithin pulverisiert, ins Nichts auflöst.

Solche Vorkommnisse und Zustände sind in den letzten elf Jahren unserem Denken soweit entfremdet worden, daß wir hinter den Kulissen der Londoner Börse den jüdischen Irrsinn erkennen. Von der Gefahr befreit, uns durch die scheinbare Sachlichkeit von Haussen und Baissen, von Kursnotierungen und Aktienbewegungen den gesunden Sinn verdämeln zu lassen, vermögen wir von dem schamlosen Beispiel der Londoner Börsenspekulation die Brücke zu schlagen zu der grinsenden Zustimmung, mit der die Juden in Moskau das blutige Unterfangen der Invasion an der französischen Nordküste nicht anders als ihre Rassegenossen an der Londoner Börse begleiten. Wenn es eines neuen Beweises dafür bedurft hätte, daß hinter diesem Krieg und seinen Ereignissen die zerstörende Kraft des internationalen Judentums als Antreiber und Nutznießer steht, hätten wir ihn aus dem Daily Herald herauslesen können.

102

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (June 10, 1944)

Communiqué No. 9

U.S. troops have captured ISIGNY.

Despite unfavorable weather conditions the disembarkation of further men and material was uninterrupted.

Withstanding heavy enemy attacks delivered yesterday morning by infantry and armor, British and Canadian troops stood firm in the CAEN area.

Our forces have made contact with strong enemy forces near CONDÉ-SUR-SEULLES.

There is continuous fighting in other sectors.

Adverse weather during daylight yesterday confined our air activity to limited patrols over the immediate battle area and to coastal aircraft operations. An enemy destroyer, driven ashore off BATZ in the BREST Peninsula earlier in the day by naval surface forces, was attacked and left a smoldering hulk. One enemy aircraft was shot down 20 miles off BREST by anti-E-boat patrols flown over western Channel waters.

Last night a strong force of heavy bombers, eight of which are missing, attacked enemy airfields at FLERS, RENNES, LAVAL, and LE MANS in northwestern FRANCE, and the railway center at ÉTAMPES. Light bombers pounded enemy communications in the rear of the battle zone. Weather conditions remained unfavorable.

Night fighters and intruder aircraft shot down four enemy planes over the beachhead.

Coastal aircraft are cooperating with naval surface forces in a vigorous offensive against U-boats which are threatening to attack our lines of communication to the assault area.

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103

Communiqué No. 10

Allied progress continues along the whole of the beachhead. Trévières is in our hands.

On the eastern sector, severe fighting is in progress against strong enemy armored forces. In the Cherbourg Peninsula, our advanced patrols are west of the main railway in several places. In the Carentan sector, heavy fighting continues.

Intensive air operations in support of our ground and naval forces were resumed this morning in better weather.

Heavy bombers attacked enemy airfields in Brittany and Normandy. Their fighter escort remained in the zone of operations strafing enemy armor and transport. Other fighters attacked similar targets over a wide area.

Our medium bombers and their fighter escorts twice attacked targets close behind the enemy. These included road and rail transport, troop and tank concentrations, bridges and communication centers.

Widespread air cover was maintained over our beaches and the Channel.

Few enemy fighters were seen but flak was heavy at many points. According to reports so far received, three enemy aircraft have been destroyed. Seven of our fighters are missing.

Further troop carrying and support operations to our forward formations were completed during the morning.

Allied warships have maintained their activity on the eastern and western flanks of the assault area in support of our ground forces.

Last night, enemy E-boats operated to the west of the assault area. They were intercepted by light coastal forces under the command of Lt. COLLINS (RN) and a number of brief engagements ensued. Some damage was inflicted on the enemy. Neither damage nor casualties were sustained by our forces.

Enemy patrol vessels heading toward the assault area this morning were attacked off Jersey by our coastal aircraft which also dispersed a cluster of E-boats.

An unsuccessful attack was made by enemy aircraft on an Allied merchant convoy. One of the enemy was destroyed by gunfire from HMS WANDERER (LtCdr. R. F. WHINNEY, RN). There was no damage to the convoy or its escort.

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104

The Brooklyn Eagle (June 10, 1944)

Four French towns fall in Cherbourg drive

Report Yanks 10 miles from port; Isigny stronghold seized
By Virgil Pinkley

SHAEF, England (UP) –
Allied forces advanced on all fronts on the Norman Peninsula, it was officially announced today, and German sources reported that a U.S. armored column had driven to within 10 miles of the prize port of Cherbourg.

U.S. forces captured Trévières, nine miles west of Bayeux, the Allied announcement said. It was the fourth town to be taken by the Americans, who previously had taken Sainte-Mère-Église, Isigny and Formigny, as well as assisting in the capture of Bayeux.

Advancing U.S. patrols in the northern Cherbourg peninsula cut the Carentan-Sainte-Mère-Église-Valognes road at a number of places, it was announced.

The coastal stronghold of Isigny and Sainte-Croix had fallen earlier in the Allied drives to link up their beachheads along a front of nearly 60 miles.

Use air bases in France for first time

It was also announced that the Allies, for the first time since 1940, were using air bases on French soil, with heavy transports and U.S. Spitfires operating from two airfields on the peninsula.

The opening of landing strips increased Allied air control over the peninsula and also permitted the evacuation of wounded by air for the first time since the invasion began.

The capture of Trévières east of Isigny late this afternoon gave the Allies another foothold on the extensive flooded area on which the Germans had relied to cover Carentan and the approaches of the Cherbourg Peninsula.

The invading troops, by closing the sluices against the strong channel tides, have already been able to clear some small stretches of land to the east of water which covers the low-lying terrain up to as much as seven feet.

However, the main sluices just north of Carentan must be taken and put into use before the main inundations can be brought under control.

In the general offensives today, some of the heaviest fighting raged the Canadian-held sector due west of Caen and in Caen itself, where the Germans had thrown in additional tank forces.

Bradleys’ forces seize Isigny

Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s U.S. forces seized Isigny and six miles to the west battled fiercely for Carentan, bastion of the German defenses athwart the base of the Normandy Peninsula, while the right wing drove toward Cherbourg.

The U.S. Army newspaper Stars and Stripes said the Americans were only 17 miles from Cherbourg, the big port vital to the buildup of the invasion foothold. A later Stockholm dispatch quoted German sources as saying the most advanced column of U.S. armor – evidently that striking northward from captured Sainte-Mère-Église – was 10 miles from Cherbourg.

British and Canadian forces drove through Sainte-Croix, about seven miles southeast of captured Bayeux on the highway to Caen, and pushed nearly two miles south of the highway to the vicinity of Condé-sur-Seulles, 11½ miles west of Caen.

Berlin: Landing repulsed

The German High Command said the Allies tried to land directly south of the mouth of the Seine near Trouville, 25 miles northeast of Caen. The attempt failed “in the face of the fire of our coastal batteries, with heavy losses for the enemy,” a Berlin communiqué reported. It said one warship was sunk and others turned away.

The communiqué conceded reverses in the Bayeux-Caen area, where it said heavy tank fighting continued. In that sector, “after a bitter struggle, the enemy succeeded in pushing back our covering lines, behind which our reserves are taking up position,” it reported, claiming that in the first three days of the invasion, more than 200 Allied tanks were knocked out and “several thousand” prisoners taken.

Front dispatches said the German 21st Panzer Division was assembling in the Caen region, while the 12th SS Panzer Division was moving into positions west of Bayeux and south of the Bayeux-Caen railway.

U.S. Thunderbolt fighter-bomber pilots returning from Normandy told of miles-long German supply convoys clogging the roads leading to the battlefront from the south and east. One Thunderbolt formation left a 10-mile trail of blasted and smoking German trucks on a Normandy road.

Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, is now “with his men in France,” another war correspondent revealed in an undated dispatch.

The correspondent said the Allied beachhead at that time was “similar in size to the Anzio beachhead before it was extended” and contained 20 villages, hamlets and “clusters of houses.”

105

LATE NEWS BULLETINS!

May commandeer travel space for wounded

Washington (UP) –
Defense Transportation Director J. Monroe Johnson, in what amounted to a stay-at-home request to would-be summer vacationists, today advised the public that railroad and bus space may be commandeered without notice because of returning invasion casualties.

First wounded arrive in England by plane

London, England (UP) –
The first wounded to be evacuated by air from Allied beachheads on the Cherbourg Peninsula in France arrived in England early today, Allied headquarters announced.

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106

McMillan: Yanks save day for Tommies after battle rages in chateau

By Richard D. McMillan

With British-American forces, France (UP) –
Welsh Tommies chased the Nazis from the dining room of their chateau headquarters into the gilded Louis XIV salon and then into the bedrooms.

They almost had control of the situation when German reinforcements arrived with 88mm guns and opened fire. The Welsh retired into the undergrowth outside the building. Their situation was critical.

Then, just in the nick of time, a battalion of veteran U.S. infantrymen appeared unexpectedly from the west, slogging through the underbrush. They swarmed into the chateau with machine guns. They smashed up a lot of furniture, and drilled a lot of holes in the walls and windows and also in a lot of Germans. Soon there were no more Germans.

That was how U.S. and British invasion troops made their second junction today west of Bayeux.

The Welshmen had a hard fight to get the chateau in the first place. Their thrust west from Bayeux was preceded by a night-long barrage by British long toms and field guns.

Shortly after starting out, the British turned a corner and ran into a formation of German 88s. The Germans were more surprised than the British. A few bursts of gunfire destroyed the gun crews.

This action cleared a path across a stream for the British. Fording it, the British brought up more munitions and prepared for the attack on the German command post.

The chateau proved a tough nut to crack. It was like Indian warfare. Posting themselves at windows, the defenders sniped at the Tommies. A machine-gunner told me the Nazis first tried to make a stand in the cellar. Dislodged from there, they made a fighting retreat upstairs. Then the room-to-room battle developed.

Scribe in low-flying plane sees bombs blow Nazi tanks sky-high

By Collie Small

Aboard a Marauder over Cherbourg Peninsula, France (UP) –
A moment ago, this plane dove low on a German panzer formation hiding in a forest southeast of Caen and I watched tons of high explosives blow the German tanks sky-high.

We apparently caught the Germans by surprise. Not a single tank turned its turret upward as the flight swept in with bomb bays open. We weaved through a light flak barrage thrown up by mobile ack-acks as easily as if the shells were popcorn bulbs.

Just had time to note that the tanks were camouflaged to avert just such an attack as this. Then the bombs shrilled downward and the entire wood area burst into flames. We were so low by then that this plane leaped violently with every explosion of its own bombs.

Looking back, I saw blotches of fire melting into each other. One patch of woods had vanished in a puff of smoke. Columns of black smoke, rolled up from the green woods as if a fuel dump had been hit. Not a single German tank was moving.

As we swerved off over the trees, I saw Caen burning fiercely directly ahead and three coastal villages smoking off to the right. Near one shell-wrecked village, I made out a line of American trucks shuttling along a tree-fringed country road, their white stars plainly visible. Farm buildings on the road were flattened where the battle had rolled past.

As we approached Caen, I saw leaping flames make ugly red patches in the gray blanket hovering over the city. Five minutes farther on, captured Bayeux was quiet and although the cathedral town appeared to have been shelled heavily, no smoke or fire was visible. However, a junction on the main rail line to Cherbourg off to the left was burning furiously.

As pilot 1st Lt. Garland C. Oliver of Sacramento, California, turned the plane toward the Channel, I saw hundreds of Allied ships ranged like a summer regatta in a crescent-shaped bay. The early morning sun was glistening on their barrage balloons.

The shoreline presented a striking contrast to D-Day, when it seemed to be erupting in great spouts of smoke and flame. Today, it was quiet except for a scattering of men, trucks and barrages. The German shoreline batteries were silent.

Ambassador to Spain predicts new landings

Barcelona, Spain (UP) –
Additional Allied landings on the continent will be made soon, Carlton J. H. Hayes, U.S. Ambassador to Spain, predicted in an address here last night.

He said:

The huge military operations will develop soon from all sides – operations whose nature will not be invasions but liberations. We Americans have no doubt of the outcome.

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Planes swarm to aid invaders as skies clear

By Walter Cronkite

London, England (UP) –
Thousands of U.S. and British warplanes went to the support of Allied invasion armies in France today, taking advantage of improving weather to strike at German troop concentrations, airports, rail centers and gun posts behind the Normandy front.

A 1,000-plane fleet of Flying Fortresses, Liberators, Mustangs, Thunderbolts and Lightnings bombed and gunned many airdromes in Brittany and Normandy, Nazi strongpoints near the battlefront, and targets of every variety.

The daylight fleet of U.S. planes struck in the wake of perhaps 750 British heavy bombers which defied night storms to smash at the most forward airdromes behind the German lines, impeding a reported Nazi attempt to reinforce its air squadrons in the battle area.

While the RAF heavy bombers were pounding four airfields in northern France, a force of Mosquitos struck at Berlin for the first time since May 27. They dropped more than 30 two-ton bombs in a lightning attack just before 1:30 a.m. (local time).

In the 12 hours up to noon, the Allies had flown nearly 3,500 sorties, including the RAF night activity, dumping perhaps 5,000 tons of bombs on German strongpoints.

One phase of the air battle shifted to the sea, where U.S. and RAF bombers operating under the Coastal Command were flying ceaseless patrols in search of U-boats revealed to be threatening to attack Allied lines of communications to the continental beachhead.

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