AMERICANS 1 ½ MILES FROM ST. LO, PUSH THEIR WHOLE LINE FORWARD (7/13/44)

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles and the occasional radio broadcast delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread.

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Normandy, 1944: Expanding the Beachhead, Operations, 1-24 July 1944
The Western Pacific, New Guinea and the Philippine Islands: Allied Advances to the Marianas, Biak and Noemfoor, 22 April-24 July 1944, and Japanese Kon and “A” Go Operations 30 May-19 June 1944
Eastern Europe, 1941: Operation Bagration – Operations, 22 June-19 August, 1944
Northern Italy 1944: Allied Advance to Gothic Line, 5 June-25 August and Gains 29 August-31 December
China, 1941: Operation Ichigo, April-December 1944 and Situation 31 December
China-Burma, 1941: Third Burma Campaign – Slim’s Offensive, June 1944-March 1945

The Nimitz Graybook

Continued from July 11.

Major General H.W. Blakeley, USA, Ret., 32d Infantry Division in World War II

Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy

Junction Flanked (Middleton) – 2
Allies Slowly Batter Down Germans’ Resistance in Normandy (map) – 3
General Montgomery is Greeted in Caen (page 1 photo) – 4
War News Summarized – 4
Push Near Latvia – 5-6
Soviet Industries to Rival American (Lawrence) – 6
1,200 Bombers Rock Munich in Second-Day Assault There (Anderson) – 7
Ancona is Shelled by 8th Army Guns – 8
Rome Communists Received by Pope (Matthews) – 9
45,000 Japanese in Wewak Trap Launch Suicidal Bid to Escape (by Lindesay Parrott, first-time contributor) – 10
They’re ‘In the Groove’ and the Natives are ‘Hep’ (photo) – 10
American Losses on Saipan 15,053 – 11
Enemy Advances North of Canton – 11
Two Forces Join on Burma Route – 12
Latest War Casualties as Reported by the Army and the Navy – 13-14
Rocket Bombs Varied (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 15
War Objector is Hero under Fire; Quaker Ambulance Driver Saves 7 – 15
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various War Zones – 16-18

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/jul44/13jul44.htm#

Red Army occupies Vilna
Thursday, July 13, 1944 www.onwar.com

On the Eastern Front... Soviet forces occupy Vilna, in Lithuania after several days of street fighting.

On the Western Front... The US 1st Army makes no progress in its attack toward St. Lo. A formal assault on the German defenses to the east of the town is now considered.

In Italy... The French Expeditionary Corps (part of US 5th Army) is attacking around Poggibonsi and Castellina, about 20 miles south of Florence.

In New Guinea... Around Aitape, the US 128th Regiment falls back to the Driniumor River. On Numfoor the final pockets of Japanese resistance are being cleared.

In the United States... The Bretton Woods conference continues.

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/13.htm

July 13th, 1944 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The last of the LST carrying the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division from Normandy put into Southampton. In the Normandy campaign just passed the division had taken 4,670 casualties. Among the six divisions of VII Corps this was exceeded only by the casualties taken by 4th Infantry Division. On August 17, 1942 when he assumed command of the 101st, Major General William C. Lee told the soldiers of the division that. “The 101st . . . has no history but it has a rendezvous with destiny.” The soldiers of the 101st had kept faith with General Lee and had met their first rendezvous. (Jay Stone)

The USAAF’s Eighth Air Force in England flies Mission 471: 1,043 bombers and 609 fighters in three forces are dispatched to bomb targets in Germany; ten bombers and five fighters are lost:

1. Of 399 B-17s, 356 bomb Munich, six bomb the railroad at Munich and three hit targets of opportunity; four B-17s are lost. Escort is provided by 292 P-38 Lightnings, P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs; they claim 2-1-2 Luftwaffe aircraft; a P-38 and a P-47 are lost.

2. Of 278 B-17s, 139 bomb Munich, 100 hit an aircraft engine plant at Munich and three hit targets of opportunity; they claim 11-4-8 Luftwaffe aircraft; five B-17s are lost. Escort is provided by 170 P-38s, P-47s and P-51s; a P-51 is lost.

3. Of 366 B-24s, 298 hit Saarbrucken marshalling yards and three hit targets of opportunity; a B-24 is lost. Escort is provided by 81 P-51s; a P-51 is lost.

Twenty eight B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions during the night.

RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk: A Ju88G nightfighter landed on the runway here today. It was based at Deelen in Holland, but apparently the crew made a navigational error after a sortie. On board were three different radar sets, all designed to counter systems used by RAF bombers. The FuG 220 is impervious to “Window”; the FuG 227 Flensburg was found to be tuned to “Monica”, used by bombers to warn of German fighters on their tails; and the FuG Naxos was tuned to H2S, which gives a downward radar scan. This will give British scientists food for thought.

Minesweeper HMS Coquette commissioned.

FRANCE: The US offensive toward St. Lo has ground to a halt. Plans for operation Cobra are being formed.

Bad weather prevents Ninth Air Force bomber operations and restricts the fighters; fighters fly armed reconnaissance in the Sens-Montargis area, hitting rail and highway traffic, warehouses, barracks, and armored cars and tanks; rail lines and bridges are hit in the Saint-Florentin-Dreux-Evreux-Chartres-Mamers-Gassicourt areas; IX Tactical Air Command fighters furnish area cover, bomb troop concentrations, vehicles, and gun positions in the Lessay-Coutances area, and attack rail traffic west of Angers, a landing field west of Alencon, a marshalling yard at Vendome, and a bridge at Tours.

GERMANY:

U-2512, U-3010 laid down

U-2325 launched.

ITALY: The French Corps is attacking 20 miles south of Florence, Italy.

The Fifteenth Air Force in Italy dispatches 581 bombers to attack targets in northeastern Italy; B-17s hit marshalling yards at Mestre and railroad bridges at Latisana, Pinzano al Tagliamento and Venzone; B-24s bomb marshalling yards at Brescia, Mantova and Verona, and oil storage at Porto Marghera and Trieste; P-38s and P-51s fly escort; other P-51s carry out a sweep over the Po River Valley.

Aegean Sea: The Allies take Symi island, north of Rhodes.

LITHUANIA: Vilna falls to the Soviet Army. Once part of Poland, the Lithuanian capital has been occupied by German troops since June 1941; now its garrison, prevented from surrendering by SS troops, has been annihilated. Among the casualties were paratroopers dropped into the city to “stand or die”. Many were killed on the way down, others died as they landed on the city’s roofs; the rest were wiped out in combat in the ancient streets. The way is now open for the Russians to cut off the Baltic states and advance into East Prussia. The indications are that the Wehrmacht is falling back to a new defence line on the Polish border just 55 miles from Warsaw.

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: The Red Army, demonstrating that it is powerful enough to strike anywhere along the eastern front, has launched a two-edged drive from the Ukraine aimed at crossing the river Bug and capturing Lwow, one of the principal cities of pre-war Poland. The Russian forces, commanded by Marshal Konev, are advancing on the town of Brody where they aim to trap some 40,000 Germans in a “cauldron” where they could be systematically annihilated.

There is an important political aspect to this new Soviet advance, for the Bug marks the so-called Curzon Line which Stalin wants recognized as the new western boundary of the Soviet Union. This would mean that Lwow, much loved by the fiercely patriotic Poles, would fall under Soviet Control.

PACIFIC: Task Groups 58.3 and 58.4 arrive off Guam to participate in the preinvasion bombardment. Task Force 58 now consists of:

Task Group (TG) 58.1:

- USS Cabot (CVL-28) with Light Carrier Air Group Thirty One (CVLG-31)

- USS Hornet (CV-12) with Carrier Air Group Two (CVG-2)

- USS Yorktown (CV-10) with CVG-1

TG 58.2

- USS Franklin (CV-13) with CVG-13

- USS Wasp (CV-18) with CVG-14

TG 58.3

- USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) with CVG-8

- USS Lexington (CV-16) with CVG-19

- USS Jacinto (CVL-30) with CVLG-51

TG 58.4

- USS Essex (CV-9) with CVG-15

- USS Langley (CVL-27) with CVLG-32

- USS Princeton (CVL-23) with CVLG-27

U.S.A.: The 21-minute U.S. Army documentary “Liberation of Rome” is released in the U.S. This short film depicts the successful Allied advance into Rome, freeing it from German control during World War II.

Destroyer escort USS Doyle C Barnes commissioned.

U.S.A.: The 21-minute U.S. Army documentary “Liberation of Rome” is released in the U.S. This short film depicts the successful Allied advance into Rome, freeing it from German control during World War II.

"The Liberation of Rome"

Headline: "Roosevelt Worries Wallace's Backers by Keeping Silent.
Vice President is Reported Confident of an Expression from the White House."

In all fairness to President Roosevelt, his apparent blindness towards Stalin's oppression & atrocities was perhaps not as total as it seems.
Despite polls showing Wallace favored by 65%, and Truman only 2%, FDR "allowed" Truman to take the Vice President post from Wallace.

And we often forget how close America came in dodging the Wallace bullet -- had FDR died a mere 82 days earlier, Wallace would be president and both America and the world would be a very different place.

Of course, today, both Americans and the world have their Progressive Henry Wallace, and we can see the results:

“LITHUANIA: Vilna falls to the Soviet Army. Once part of Poland, the Lithuanian capital has been occupied by German troops since June 1941; now its garrison, prevented from surrendering by SS troops, has been annihilated. Among the casualties were paratroopers dropped into the city to “stand or die”. Many were killed on the way down, others died as they landed on the city’s roofs; the rest were wiped out in combat in the ancient streets.”

The second sentance is poorly written. Were the paratroopers German or Russian? Were they dropped in 1941 or 1944? I have read it 5 times and cannot figure out which.

webmaster@etherit.com

I would have to say that they were German. The “stand” part of stand or die is what makes me think that. You wouldn’t stand if you were the attacking force, only the defender.

Did a quick look. I think they were the 16th Fallschirmjäger Regiment.

As Always...Thanks Homer J.

Ernie Pyle sees combat himself.

The quiet heroism of the troops getting ready for battle impressed Pyle.

Anticipation is the Worst

IU Archives

Pyle with Bob Hope during World War II.

IN NORMANDY, July 13, 1944 – Lt. Orion Shockley came over with a map and explained to us just what his company was going to do.
There was a German strong point of pillboxes and machine-gun nests about half a mile down the street ahead of us.
Our troops had made wedges into the city on both sides of us, but nobody had yet been up this street where we were going. The street, they thought, was almost certainly under rifle fire.
"This is how we’ll do it," the lieutenant said. "A rifle platoon goes first. Right behind them will go part of a heavy-weapons platoon, with machine guns to cover the first platoon.
"Then comes another rifle platoon. Then a small section with mortars, in case they run into something pretty heavy. Then another rifle platoon. And bringing up the rear, the rest of the heavy-weapons outfit to protect us from behind.
"We don’t know what we’ll run into, and I don’t want to stick you right out in front, so why don’t you come along with me? We’ll go in the middle of the company."
I said, "Okay." By this time I wasn’t scared. You seldom are once you’re into something. Anticipation is the worst. Fortunately this little foray came up so suddenly there wasn’t time for much anticipation.
*
The rain kept on coming down, and you could sense that it had set in for the afternoon. None of us had raincoats, and by evening there wasn’t a dry thread on any of us. I could go back to a tent for the night but the soldiers would have to sleep the way they were.

We were just ready to start when all of a sudden bullets came whipping savagely right above our heads.
"It’s those damn twenty-millimeters again," the lieutenant said. "Better hold it up a minute."
The soldiers all crouched lower behind the wall. The vicious little shells whanged into a grassy hillside just beyond us. A French suburban farmer was hitching up his horses in a barnyard on the hillside. He ran into the house. Shells struck all around it.
Two dead Germans and a dead American still lay in his driveway. We could see them when we moved up a few feet.
The shells stopped, and finally the order to start was given. As we left the protection of the high wall we had to cross a little culvert right out in the open and then make a turn in the road.
The men went forward one at a time. They crouched and ran, apelike, across this dangerous space. Then, beyond the culvert, they filtered to either side of the road, stopping and squatting down every now and then to wait a few moments.
The lieutenant kept yelling at them as they started: "Spread it out now. Do you want to draw fire on yourselves? Don’t bunch up like that. Keep five yards apart. Spread it out, dammit."
There is an almost irresistible pull to get close to somebody when you are in danger. In spite of themselves, the men would run up close to the fellow ahead for company.
The other lieutenant now called out: "Now you on the right watch the left side of the street for snipers, and you on the left watch the right side. Cover each other that way."
And a first sergeant said to a passing soldier: "Get that grenade out of its case. It won’t do you no good in the case. Throw the case away. That’s right."
*
Some of the men carried grenades already fixed in the ends of their rifles. All of them had hand grenades. Some had big Browning automatic rifles. One carried a bazooka. Interspersed in the thin line of men every now and then was a medic, with his bags of bandages and a Red Cross arm band on the left arm. The men didn’t talk any. They just went.
They weren’t heroic figures as they moved forward one at a time, a few seconds apart. You think of attackers as being savage and bold. These men were hesitant and cautious. They were really the hunters, but they looked like the hunted. There was a confused excitement and a grim anxiety on their faces.
They seemed terribly pathetic to me. They weren’t warriors. They were American boys who by mere chance of fate had wound up with guns in their hands sneaking up a death-laden street in a strange and shattered city in a faraway country in a driving rain. They were afraid, but it was beyond their power to quit. They had no choice.
They were good boys. I talked with them all afternoon as we sneaked slowly forward along the mysterious and rubbled street, and I know they were good boys.
And even though they aren’t warriors born to the kill, they win their battles. That’s the point.

I question whether Wallace would have dropped the bombs. He sure as heck would not have founded NATO and engaged in the Cold War with the Sov’s. Probably would have left the South Koreans to their communist fate. After all, shouldn’t they be allowed to be a workers’ paradise like Magadan?

Colorado tanker: "I question whether Wallace would have dropped the bombs.
He sure as heck would not have founded NATO and engaged in the Cold War..."

I don't know how many statues there are to Harry Truman, but some years ago I saw one, in Athens, Greece.
It was in honor of his aid during Greece's civil war.

Of course, Greek leftists despise it, and often damage it, but so far as I know, it's still there:

Few Americans today know that Greece erupted in civil war after WWII. We have seen hints of it in Churchill's discussions about the Greek resistance and the mutiny of the Greek Army in Egypt. After the Nazis evacuated, Churchill rushed troops to Greece to support the government against the communist partisans. By 1947, however, a bankrupt Britain could no longer afford to prop up Greece, so Truman stepped in. Something else a President Wallace probably would have screwed up.

Interestingly, Stalin opposed Tito's support of the Greek communists. He thought it was a waste of money because the U.S. and Britain would never allow the approaches to the Bosporus and key to Mediterranean communications to fall into communist hands.