LATE NEWS New York,
N.Y.—London, England—France Monday, June 12, 1944
Day-by-Day
Review
Of the Great
Crusade
By William R. Spear
Stars
and Stripes Staff Writer
The storming of
the Continent by Allied armies from Britain was the
greatest sea-air
operation in the history of warfare. From a plan on paper,
it developed in
five days into a solid front of U.S., British and Canadian divisions,
with tanks,
artillery and supplies of all kinds solidly established, on
a beachhead 51 miles
broad from which the Germans had been driven to
the last man.
The push inland was then well under way and the enemy's
tactical
reserves were being met. ',
Its story, up to
the sixth day (Sunday) which is reported in she leading
news column on
this page, is told below in the order in which the news
developed day by
day:
D-DAY—TUESDAY,
JUNE 6
"Under the
command of Gen. Eisenhower. Allied naval forces, supported by
strong air
forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast
of
France."-—SHAEF
Communique No. 1.
This electrifying announcement at
9.30 AM was the first official word
of the great event which the
whole Allied world had been awaiting for
months with anticipation—and the
whole Axis world with dread. It was
issued three hours after the
German radio, broadcasting early-morning
alarms of naval bombardments and
paratroop landings on the French
coast., declared: "Invasion
has begun!"
Parachute and glider troops
spearheaded the big offensive. Taking off
in the night from more than a
score of bases in Britain after a terrific
assault by fleets of Allied night
bombers, more than 1.000 C47 transports
and gliders landed the- first
waves of men and equipment behind the
French coastline—over an 80-mile
stretch of the Seine Bay, by German
report, from the mouth of the
Seine River, opposite Le Havre, to the
Cotentin Peninsula, on which
Cherbourg is situated. The Allied planes
wore new zebra striping of black
and white for identification purposes.
The vast airborne operations,
which had been practiced for months, were
carried out with great precision
and very small losses, and attained a
maximum of surprise, considering
that the Germans had long expected
them—someplace.
In these same hours of darkness,
a flotilla of more than 200 minesweepers
swept channels through the large
enemy minefields which
guarded the coast in preparation
for the ships which were to land
armies on the beaches at
daybreak. The procedure in most cases was
to cut the mines loose from their
moorings—the floating mines later
were detonated by sharpshooting
riflemen stationed on the masts of the
ships. At the same time, more
than 600 guns of fighting ships—some of
the mightiest U.S. and British
battleships afloat, as well as cruisers and
destroyers—bombarded the beach
defenses.
Then, between 6.30 and 7.30 AM,
two naval task forces—one commanded
by the British Rear Adm. Sir
Philip Vian aboard the Scylla,
the other led by the U.S.:Rear
Adm. Alan Goodrich Kirk in the cruiser
Augusta, oh which the Atlantic
Charter was signed—launched their assault
forces at the enemy beaches.
These forces comprised "an immense
armada of upwards of 4,000 ships,
together with several thousand
smaller craft," Prime
Minister Churchill said.
Crack infantrymen of the U.S.,
British and Canadian Armies stormed
ashore—there were no French
troops in the initial attacks, lest they should
encounter their own people. One
of the first U.S. outfits to land was the
"Fighting First"
Division, which was the first to land in France in World
War I and had seen service in
this war in Africa and Sicily.
Also in the first waves were
daring assault engineers, specially trained
and briefed to perform vital
demolitions in the beach defenses. So accurate
was the advance information the
Allies had obtained on Hitler's defenses,
and so thoroughly had the
engineers been briefed, that some forces
reported their missions went just
as if they were on another rehearsalwhile
some suffered difficulties and
casualties.
Tanks and transport vehicles also
were landed early. A special, secret
waterproofing job had been done
on them to enable them to lumber ashore
from the landing craft in the
choppy water.
The weather was far from ideal
for the landing operations, and there
were whitecaps and four-foot
waves in the English Channel. These conditions
put the unloading behind schedule
for a while. The whole operation
had, in fact, been postponed one
day because of the weather. The
signal for it to start was
finally given by Gen. Eisenhower, despite the
unfavorable weather, because
tides and other factors also had to be
considered.
Overhead, Anglo-American air
might formed a mighty umbrella, and
(Continued op
page 2)
Review
of Assault to Date
(Continued from
page 1)
so sparse was the Luftwaffe
opposition that most Allied airmen did not
encounter a single Nazi fighter.
D-PLUS-ONE—WEDNESDAY,
JUNE 7
"Allied
forces continued landings on northern coast of France . . . satisfactory
progress was
made. . . ."Allied
troops have cleared ail beaches of the enemy and
have, in some
cases, established links with flanking beachheads."—SHAEF
Communiques
3 and 4.
While heavy fighting raged
inland, the wiping out of the last German
resistance on ail the beaches
where the Allied landings were -made was the
outstanding development of the
second day of operations. The main
beachhead was about in the center
of the bay between the promontories
on which the big ports of
Cherbourg and Le Havre are located, and
it was enlarged, by German
admission, to a width of 20 miles and a
depih of at least six miles.
There was another, important beachhead west
of there at Port en Bassin.
The weather continued bad, but
troops and supplies and equipment
continued to pour across the
English Channel onto the beaches. More
troops and equipment also were
flown across, the Germans reporting
that the principal airborne
landings were made on the Cherbourg peninsula.
Allied aircraft maintained a 200
to 1 air superiority over the beachheads.
They flew 13,000 sorties at a
cost of only 31 planes, and their total
losses since the initial landings
were 70 planes, most of them hit by flak
rather than Nazi fighters.
Announcement was made that Lt.
Gen. Omar N. Bradley, one of
America's foremost infantry
experts, was commanding the U.S. ground
forces. British Gen. Sir Bernard
L. Montgomery is the Allied ground force
commander. Gen. Eisenhower
himself cruised off the beachheads
for 4 hours during the day. He
commented that his confidence in the
armies, navies and air forces
"has been completely justified" and that "all
troops are performing
magnificently."
D-PLUS-TWO—THURSDAY,
JUNE 8
. "Bayeux has fallen to
our troops . . . contact established between our
seaborne and
airborne troops . . . continuing to make progress . . .
bridge/leads
being gradually enlarged . . (German) reserves in action
along the whole
front."-—SHAEF
Communiques 5 and 6.
In the early morning of the third
day the Allies drove the Germans
out of a French town for the
first time and occupied it amid cheers
and flowers from the populace.
The town was Bayeux, which has a
well-known cathedral and is
situated on the main highway and the railroad
running between Cherbourg and
Paris. It was important because
it provided a base for Allied
drives southwestward across the neck of
the Cherbourg peninsula and in
other directions inland into Normandy.
A smaller village, Ste. Mere
Eglise, was taken by U.S. glider troops on
the peninsula about midway
between Bayeux and Cherbourg.
And some 17 miles east of Bayeux,
the British and Canadian armies
joined forces for the first time
since their landings and pushed toward the
German base at Caen. This city
was subjected to a tremendous bombardment
by Allied artillery and by
warships offshore, among which was the
British battleship Nelson. The
Allied beachhead to the north of Caen
was extended, by German report,
to a width of 36 miles and a depth of
11 miles.
This day saw the German tactical
reserves, including panzer outfits,
committed to action in every
sector. These reserves are mobile "alarm
troops" held in readiness
behind the West Wall garrison troops to rush into
action where needed. Von
Rundstedt still had not committed, however, his
strategic reserves held in
readiness deeper in France, obviously still uncertain
whether this was the main Allied
attack or whether new landings in
possibly greater force impended
elsewhere.
At SHAEF, the first phase of the
fighting—securing a foothold and
defeating the local German
reserves—was pronounced accomplished and
the second phase—overcoming the
tactical reserves—entered upon.
The Luftwaffe put in an
appearance for the first time, but did not
seriously challenge- the Allied
air umbrella. By midday, the score sheet
for operations since H-hour
showed 27,000 Allied sorties flown at a cost
of 289 planes, representing a
loss of barely one per cent. Of the comparatively
few Nazi planes sent up 176 were
destroyed.
It was disclosed that Lt. Cmdr.
John D. Bulkeley, who won the
Congressional Medal of Honor for
his exploits in power torpedo (PT) boats
in the Philippines, was
commanding a fleet of these speedy little craft
.brought secretly to the ETO to
combat German E-boats attempting to
interfere with the naval shuttle
across the Channel.
D-PLUS-THREE—FRIDAY,
JUNE 9
"Continued
progress in all sectors . . . landings continued on all beaches . . .
bypassed
strongpoints of enemy resistance steadily reduced . . . American troops
are across the
Carentan-Valognes road (below Cherbourg) in several places and
tiave cut the
broad-gauge railroad to Cherbourg.—SHAEF Communiques 7 and 8.
The first mail was sent from
Britain for the U.S. forces on the Continent,
and that may be the
"lead" for the account of Friday.
The fighting itself grew more
severe on the British-Canadian front before
Caen, on the left flank, while
the Americans on the right flank made
"further progress on
Cherbourg peninsula. Their cutting of the highway
and railroad below Cherbourg,
from which they were within 17 miles,
jeopardized the German hold on
the key port.
The Cherbourg campaign took on
the aspect of a double pincers movement,
.by German accounts. They told of
airborne landings at Lessay,
near the west coast, for a drive
across the center of the peninsula from
there and from the Carentan
beachhead on the east coast; and other
airborne landings at Granville
and Coutances on the west side in connection
with dirives across the neck
northeastward from there and southwestward
from Bayeux.
Gen! Bradley went ashore from his
command ship to direct the American
campaign on the scene of action.
The Germans claimed they were
able to hold on to the town of Carentan
back of the American bridgehead
but admitted the loss to U.S. parachutists
of Fort Marcouf, an armored
fortress with a rocket battery on the east
coast.
Hand-to-hand fighting was
reported in the ruins of Caen and heavy tank battles took place in the
vicinity. ' • ' . ' • Bad weather still hampered
unloading on the beaches, and for the first time, it also restricted aerial
activity.
Arriving in London in connection
with the offensive were Gen. George
C. Marshall, U.S. Army chief of
staff; Adm. Ernest J. King, commander-in- chief of the fleet and chief of
naval operations, and Gen. Henry Arnold,commander of the U.S. Army Air
Forces.
D-PLUS-FOUR—SATURDAY, JUNE 10
"American
troops captured Isigny . . . British and Canadian troops stood firm-,
in the Caen area
. . . continuous fighting in other sectors . . . progress continues
along whole of
the beachhead . . . Trevieres is, in. our hands."—SHAEF
Communiques 9 and 10.
The Germans flooded an area of
about 1,000 square miles in the Carentan
area at the neck of the Cherbourg
peninsula, but the Yanks made good
progress above and below there.
To the north they pushed patrol's
west of the main road between St. Mere, Eglise.and Valognes and^the
Germans admitted falling back "to a shortened defense line south of
Montebourg" there. Montebourg is about 15 miles from Cherbourg,
Valognes about ten.
On the other side of Carentan
they took. Isigny, while east of there on
the road to Bayeux other troops
captured Trevieres.
The steady buildup of the
beachheads continued and they were so well
established by the fifth day that
Gen. Montgomery went ashore in a
duck and set up his headquarters
in France. And RAF fighters were
operating from airfields on
French soil for the first time since the retreat
from Dunkirk in 1940.
Solemn
Nation
Greeted
News
With;
Prayers
Absenteeism Went
Down,
The Strikers
Went Back-
All U.S. Wanted
to Help
WASHINGTON, June 11—
The tension broken at last, the
American people, gathering in great cathedrals and small village churches,
prayed for the success of the attack and
the safety of their sons when the news was flashed that the long awaited
assault on occupied Europe had begun.
In response to a suggestion by
President Roosevelt, .D-Day throughout the nation virtually Became a day of .prayer.
Churches remained open day and
night in Washington, and in Virginia screaming
air-raid sirens ; summoned
citizens to prayer meetings;
The Home Front rose as one man to
express its determination to back the fight. War plants on the East Coast reported
absenteeism was down 50 per cent.
A 300 per cent increase in the
number of blood donors swamped the Red Cross ;
WAC recruiting went up ten per
cent.
Only hours after the landings in France
the nation moved to recognize the valor of the men storming Continental beaches.
'
Approving a bill recommended by Secretary
of War Henry L. Stimson, the Senate Military Affairs Committee voted to boost
the pay of men holding expert infantrymen's badges by five dollars a month,
with an additional five-dollar
increase for soldiers awarded
combat infantrymen's awards.
Although Stimson asserted that
the proposed increases were not "intended as money compensation for the
hazards and hardships involved." which "cannot be
paid for in money,'' he declared
that the additional pay would be a vital contribution to the maintenance of
morale and individual initiative.
Even more indicative of the
nation's determination to support the men at the front was the disclosure by
the War Labor Board that not one AFL union was on
strike.
ejt
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