Friday, August 31, 2012

August 31, 1944; U. S. CASUALTIES MOUNT:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, AUGUST 31, 1944:

 
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, THURSDAY, AUG. 31, 1944

 American Has Same
Rank as Montgomery;
Both Given Praise


Eisenhower Reveals
Heavy Punishment
Inflicted Upon Foe

 
DIXON, ILLINOIS, THURSDAY, AUGUST 31,1944

Allies' Lightning
Drive Finds Nazis
Fleeing for Reich
Americans Stab North
Along Last 30 Miles
to Belgian Border
Supreme .Headquarters Allied
Expeditionary Force. Aug. 31—(AP)—
British tanks captured Amiens and smashed across the Somme river today in a lightning 60-mile drive in -48 hours that found the Germans in full flight
back to the Reich before four onrushlng allied armies.
Thc British raced with American columns which overran Laon and stabbed on north along the last 30 miles to Belgium with such bewildering- speed that they overwhelmed three trainloads of German soldiers trying to escape.

Army's Casualties
Mount to Total of
284,838 August 13th
Figures Reflect Period of
Heaviest Fighting
in Normandy
Washington. Aug. 31—(AP)
Reflecting the period of heaviest fighting- in northern France, total Army casualties jumped to 281838 on August 13, an increase of 23.219 over those
ported just a week earlier.
Coupled with Navy casualties of 58.353. the latest "overall figures for the armed services is  318,791. compared with 317,816 a week ago. All figures are on the basis of those officially reported to next of kin and represent a lag of three weeks or more behind action in the field. Undersecretary of War Patterson,
who reported the latest Army casualty figures to his news conference, said they reflected the heaviest period of fighting in northern France toward the end of July—the time of the brcakthrough against fixed German positions. He added,.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

August 29, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, AUGUST 30, 1944:



COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA: WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 30, 1944.


American Armored Units
Sweep Through Reims and
Storm Across Vesle River
Whirlwind Advance Carried Several Miles
Beyond Cathedral City While Another Unit
of Patton's Army Crosses Marne at Epernay
By George Tucker.
ROME,' (AP)—
American 7th army troops and German forces fleeing up the Rhone valley from southern France were locked in heavy battle Wednesday near the Drome
river a dozen miles north of captured Montelimar.
The Americans struck Tuesday night while the enemy was making a desperate effort to cross the Drome, which runs into the Rhone from the east midway between Montelimar and Valence. The heaviest fighting centered around Loriol, south of the Drome along highway seven. The Germans threw pontoons across the stream, but whether they succeeded in getting any sizeable group across was unknown.
Meanwhile, due east near the Italian frontier, American troops were forced back to the outskirts of Briancon, a city on a 4,330-foot elevation in the Hautes-Alps, 90 miles north of Nice, by an enemy force which was reported here to have crossed into French territory from Italy.



Nazis Facing
Full Collaose
in the Balkans
Expected Bulgarian
Withdrawal to Place
Germany in Bad Spot
LONDON (AP)
Russian troops have captured Ploesti, Premier- Marshal Stalin announced Wednesday
night.
The whole Ploesti oil region is in the hands of the red army, Stalin declared in an order of the day.

Free French to
Join Allies in
Japanese War
Will Enter Conflict
After Nazi Legions
Have Been Whipped
By Leonard Millman.
(Associated Press War Editor.)
The Free French and the American navy joined Wednesday in threatening Japan with new power blows, leading Rear Adm. Alfred E. Montgomery to "look with confidence to the future and early extermination of the Japanese."
These predictions were underscored by daily air blows reaching into Nippon's inner defenses and Japanese losses in China, Burma and New Guinea.
Radio France said Free French forces would join the Pacific war after Hitler's defeat. Their .eyes will be on French Indo-China, whose doors were thrown open to Japan by the Vichy government, but the radio -promised the French would fight "until the final crushing of our "enemy in Asia."
Naval Striking Power Grows.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

August 29, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, AUGUST 29, 1944:

 
Carroll, Iowa, Tuesday, August 29, 1944 —Six Pages
American Troops Now Within
100 Miles of German Border
BY JAMES M. LONG
Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (AP)
—Swiftly advancing American troops captured historic Chateau-Thierry and Soissons today in whirlwind advances which carried them over French soil hallowed by their fathers'
blood to within 55 miles of Belgium and a scant 100 from blood to within 55 miles of the German frontier.
F i g h t i n g on ground where  t h e men of 1918 routed the G e r m a n s in t h e second b u t t le of the Marne, the GIs of 1944 s w e p t t h r o u g h C h a t e a u - T h i e r r y and raced n o r t h w a r d 25 m i l e s into Soissons in a t h r u s t which was rapidly f l a n k i n g the whole P a s - d e –
C a l a i s  d e p a r t m e n t where the G e r m a n s launch their robot b o m b s . A  n e w  a n d  m o r e d e a d ly t r a p might be forming a r o u n d the
r e m n a n t s of the G e r m a n S e v e n t h  a r m y , broken in N o r m a n d y , a n d t h e 15th a r m y , In P a s - d e - C a l a i s.

Chateau-Thierry
Marked Defeat of
Germans in 1918


Nazis Driven
From Rhone
Valley Area
Yanks Locked in Battle
With Fleeing Remnants
Near Montelimar
Rome, Italy (AP)—
American troops have driven into Montelimar on the Rhone 100 miles above Marseille. "Except for isolated p o c k e t s of res i s t a n c e the enemy now has been cleared- from the Rhone v a l l e y south of Montelimar," –the  Allied headquarters announced tonight.
United States troops and t a n k s of the American Seventh army are locked in b a t t l e ; w i t h fleeing nazis In the area of Sauzet, four miles northeast of Montelimar. The latter town is being mopped up.
An American column had reached the Rhone north of Montelimar in a surprise thrust last week.

Jap Shipping
Toll in Pacific
Rises Higher
G e n e r a l H e a d q u a r t e r s , Southw
e s t Pacific (AP)
A m e r i c an  b o m b e r s hit at Celebes, s u p p o r t in g  a r c h  of J a p a n ' s  n e w l y - c u r v ed s o u t h e r n sea r o u t e s , a n d c o n t i n u ed
t h e i r five-a-day r e c o r d for ship i n g hits in aerial s t r i k e s  an o u n c e d  t o  d a y  by h e a d q u a r t e r s.
E l e v e n J a p a n e s e vessels w e r e  d e s t r o y e d  or  d a m a g ed Sunday, i n c l u d i n g four f r e i g h t e r s and three small c r a f t  at Manado,
n o r t h e rn  C e l e b e s . The A u g u s t toll of J a p a n e s e  s h i p p i n g  in the s o u t h w e s t  P a c i f i c  101 vessels s u n k or p r o b a b l y sunk, or
d a m u g e d .