The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945

by The New York Times

  The enemy is fighting bitterly and has attempted several counter-attacks with tanks, but they have been broken up by our troops with the support of aircraft and warships lying offshore. Thus the most important battle fought so far in the Pacific offensive, now reaching to within 1,465 statute miles of Tokyo and a threat to the Japanese homeland itself, was going well for the invaders.

  Tonight’s communiqué was the second of the day issued by Admiral Nimitz. The first confirmed previous Japanese reports that Saipan was being invaded.

  American Marines attack Japanese defensive positions during the Battle of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, 1944.

  ENEMY BATTERIES SILENCED

  Tonight’s communiqué follows: Assault troops have secured beachheads on Saipan Island and are advancing inland against artillery, mortar and machine gun fire. Virtually all heavy coastal and anti-aircraft batteries on the island were knocked out by naval gunfire and bombing. Our troops have captured Agingan Point. In the town of CharanKanoa brisk fighting is continuing.

  The enemy has attempted several counter-attacks with tanks, but these attacks have been broken up by our troops with the support of ships and aircraft.

  In general, fighting is heavy, but good progress is being made against well-organized defenses.

  In the earlier announcement Admiral Nimitz told how under cover of supporting bombardment by air and surface forces, following an unprecedented four-day battering of Saipan and other islands throughout the Marianas group, our forces were still pouring ashore. He said reports thus far indicated that our casualties in the initial stages were moderate.

  The first assault troops went in yesterday and were supported in their battle on the beachheads by a naval bombardment maintained all last night.

  STAKES ARE HIGH

  Saipan is the largest island central Pacific forces have ever assaulted and perhaps the best defended, for it is believed to have been reinforced with materiel and fighting men in recent months. The Japanese, obviously aware of the stakes involved, are going to defend it bitterly and they are in a position to inflict severe punishment on landing forces.

  There is no question that the operation is the most important yet staged in the central Pacific area. Because of the land mass involved—Saipan is twenty and three-quarters miles long and five and one-half wide with an area of seventy-five square miles—and the heavy defenses, it will be the scene of the first encounter between large numbers of amphibious attackers and large numbers of land troops of the enemy’s army.

  Its importance is heightened by the proximity to Japan itself and the fact that victory will bring at an early date the next phase of the crushing of Japan, concentrated air attacks by land-based bombers from all sides. Possession of Saipan would bring to the enemy with shocking emphasis the realization that the final phases of our advance are near at hand.

  It would sever communication lines with its many bases eastward and to the south and leave to the withering process thousands upon thousands of men and tremendous quantities of materiel that Japan cannot afford to lose.

  The effect upon the morale of the Japanese people cannot fail to be staggering.

  Coming with the bombing of Japan itself by land-based Superfortresses, the assault in the Marianas, if it is as successful as it is expected to be, will be difficult for the enemy propagandists to explain away and to convert by their own special type of sophistry into another Japanese victory.

  JUNE 16, 1944

  B-29’S MAKE DEBUT

  Tokyo Reports Assaults on Industrial Heart Of Kyushu Island

  By SIDNEY SHALETT

  Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

  WASHINGTON, June 15—The air war against the heart of the Japanese Empire has begun, the War Department announced this afternoon. B-29 Superfor-tresses of the new Twentieth Air Force, which is part of a new “super-air force” under the personal command of Gen. H. H. Arnold, bombed Japan today, a special communiqué revealed.

  There are three epochal factors in the announcement:

  First, that the monster B-29, half again as big as the Flying Fortress, is in operation.

  Second, that the type of aerial attrition that reduced Germany to the stage where an invasion of Europe could be launched has commenced against Japan proper.

  Third, that, in creating the Twentieth Air Force, a special organization that is not subject to the jurisdiction of any theatre commander, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have set up what virtually amounts to a separate air force.

  The importance of this new phase of the Pacific war was emphasized by statements from Gen. George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, who termed it the beginning of “a new type of offensive against our enemy”; from General Arnold, commanding general of the AAF, who declared it was “the fruition of years of planning for truly global warfare,” and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, who asserted that the action had “shortened our road to Tokyo.”

  The history-making communiqué was confined to the following bare statement, personally handed out by Maj. Gen. Alexander D. Surles, War Department Director of Public Relations, at 1:39 o’clock this afternoon:

  “B-29 Superfortresses of the United States Army Air Forces Twentieth Bomber Command bombed Japan today.”

  No details of where we struck the enemy, or how hard we hit, were revealed, although it was understood that the War Department would release this information as quickly as it felt the story might be told without imperiling security.

  While the War Department did not disclose the location of the necessarily huge bases from which the “Superforts” flew, it was revealed by James Stewart, Columbia Broadcasting System Far Eastern correspondent, in a broadcast from Washington today, that the B-29’s had flown from “somewhere in West China.” Mr. Stewart, recently returned from Chungking, said the B-29’s “took off and landed on Chinese bases” constructed entirely by the hand labor of 430,000 Chinese farmers.

  Additional historical significance was added to the bombing, our first air attack on Japan proper since the small-scale raid on April 18, 1942, by carrier-based planes led by Lieut. Gen. (then colonel) James H. Doolittle, by the fact that it occurred on the same day that American landings on Saipan in the Marianas, another step on the road to Tokyo, were announced.

  WE GET THE NEWS FIRST

  For once the Tokyo radio failed to beat us in announcing the news of the B-29 raid. The Tokyo radio was on the air twenty minutes after the War Department told the story, but it talked only about its version of the Saipan landings. Elmer Davis, Office of War Information director, congratulating the Army both on bombing Japan and “scooping” the enemy on the story, suggested that the Japanese might be “trying to cook up a story that will gloss over their losses.”

  A B-29 Superfortress, 1944.

  JUNE 17, 1944

  Winged 1-Ton Bomb Bared; German Weapon Is Erratic

  By RAYMOND DANIELL

  By Wireless to THE New York Times.

  LONDON, June 16—For the last twenty-four hours parts of England south of a line drawn from Bristol to The Wash have been bombarded intermittently by robots. Most of the night and in daylight these one-ton bombs with wings and engines but no pilots have sailed in to blow up in haphazard fashion.

  There is little doubt that this is Adolf Hitler’s “secret weapon.” In fact the Germans say it is. This is their answer to the breach that Anglo-American armies of liberation have made in their Atlantic wall, but whether it was dictated by a spirit of revenge or by necessity, providing some comfort for their own suffering people, is speculative. Maybe it is a combination of both, but the military value of the new weapon remains to be proved.

  In announcing to the public several hours before the Germans got around to it that the Nazis were using their secret weapon at last, Home Secretary Herbert Morrison advised the country to carry on with its war work until danger was imminent and to duck as fast as possible when the broken thrumming of one of Hitler’s newest engines of destruction ceased and its light died out.


  “There is no reason to think that the raids will be worse than, or indeed, as heavy as the raids with which the people of this country are familiar and which they have borne so bravely,” he said.

  There is something a little eerie and unsettling about the idea of 2,000 pounds of TNT whizzing around the sky with no direct human control, but after the experiences of these peoples with the indiscriminate bombings in 1940, that idea can be accepted with reasonable equanimity.

  These veterans of the air raids knew last Tuesday night that the war in the air had entered a new phase, although security considerations kept their newspapers from telling them so. When Mr. Morrison announced in the House of Commons today that this country was being bombarded by pilotless aircraft sent into the air by Germany, everyone breathed more easily. That was something everyone could accept even if he did not understand it.

  The robot planes first made their appearance in the skies over southern England on Tuesday night. They were so few and the evidence was so scanty it was decided to keep silent and let the enemy show his hand. That he did last night to a point where silence had lost its virtue. So, with admirable timing. Mr. Morrison made his statement.

  Since it seems likely that the Germans guide their gadgets on some sort of radio beam it is interesting to note that tonight the British Broadcasting Corporation announced that its programs were liable to interruption or cancellation without notice.

  Pinpointed in searchlights, the Germans’ new toy looks a little like a miniature fighter plane. It flies on an undeviating course at about one thousand feet and gives a telltale glow from its tail. Its engines, which have an ominous, rhythmic throb, die out a few seconds before the whole mass plunges to earth and explodes with a terrific lateral blast.

  These infernal flying machines are believed to be designed for launching from a roller coaster, like tracks suddenly halted on the upgrade, so they are airborne at a terrific speed and at an altitude of about two hundred feet

  They seem to attain an altitude of 1,000 feet or so and hold it until they blow up either by accident, design or contact.

  Last night the Germans sent along a small number of ordinary bombers, apparently to observe and report where the mystery missiles were landing.

  JULY 2, 1944

  JAPANESE LAUNCH SOUTH CHINA DRIVE

  By The Associated Press.

  CHUNGKING, China, July 1—The Japanese have launched their long-expected general offensive northward from the Canton area, the Chinese High Command announced tonight, with the enemy making an effort to join with forces driving down the Canton-Hankow railway through battered Hunan Province which, if successful, would be a disaster for the Chinese.

  The general northward advance began in Kwangtung Province June 28, the Chinese said, reporting that heavy fighting was in progress along the route. The invaders lunged forward in striving to accomplish the juncture with their forces at Hengyang, about 225 miles from the Japanese-held Canton area and ninety-five north of the Kwangtung border.

  An unconfirmed report said Japanese forces had landed on the coast of Fukien Province and were heading for Foochow, a few miles inland. Such a landing might be another Japanese move to prevent an American landing on the China coast and to neutralize all Allied air bases between the coast and the Peiping-Hankow and Canton-Hankow railroads.

  There also was an unconfirmed report of a Japanese landing at Pakhoi, on the southwestern coast of Kwangtung, which might presage a thrust through Kwangtung into Kwangsi Province.

  The High Command, aware of the gravity of the situation, was known to be rallying forces for a stand to prevent a junction of Japanese forces, but doubts were expressed openly as to ability of the Chinese to arrest the onslaught.

  In the new drive from the Canton area, first three, then six Japanese columns were reported to have driven northward, their main weight apparently thrown in the direction of the important highway and river junction of Tsingyun, about 110 miles south of the Hunan Province border. This offensive began a few days before the Chinese mark the beginning of the eighth year of hostilities on July 7.

  The Chinese High Command claimed battered Hengyang, vital rail junction of the Canton-Hankow route, with lines to Kwangtung and Kwangsi to the south, still was in Chinese hands. Evidently fighting raged within the city.

  A rail station apparently has fallen to the slashing attack by three Japanese divisions besieging the city, for a communiqué of Lieut Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell’s headquarters told of its bombing by American planes. Two days ago a Stilwell headquarters bulletin reported American bombs had been hurled against Japanese positions at Hengyang.

  Junction of enemy forces with the Hengyang troops would give the Japanese virtually complete control of 1,000 miles of railway north and south all the way from Peiping through Honan, Hupeh, Hunan and Kwangtung Provinces to Canton. Such an unbroken rail route would solve the supply problems of the Japanese, heretofore dependent upon sea lanes and river and overland routes, all open to attack.

  It also would slice China in two, sealing the eastern coast against the eventuality of American landings, and appeared to be aimed at the same time at neutralizing established American air bases in the country.

  The Chinese claimed to have smashed another Japanese attack, this one from Chekiang Province, and aimed at supporting the drive in Hunan, 300 miles to the west, and to have seized the enemy base of Chuhsien, about twenty-five miles east of the Kiangsi border.

  This drive, the Chinese said, had been knifing westward along the Chekiang-Kiangsirailway. The High Command said all positions taken by the Japanese since they began the campaign June 11 had been retaken, and that more than 4,000 of the invaders had been killed, including a brigade commander, Maj. Gen. Takahiku Yokoyama.

  American planes struck savagely throughout the Hengyang battle area in a wide radius, slashing at Japanese river transport, troop and cavalry concentrations, gun emplacements and installations, in an effort to stem the enemy drive along the railway.

  JULY 4, 1944

  NORMANDY BATTLE IS HEDGE TO HEDGE

  U.S. Troops in La Haye du Puits Area Find Enemy Using Bicycle Transport

  By HAROLD DENNY

  WITH THE AMERICAN FORCES, In France, July 5—Today’s fighting in this sector was just hard slugging for small gainsagainst stiffening German resistance.

  Almost everywhere on our twenty-five-mile front it was a continuation of the hedge-to-hedge fighting. Our men were digging out their cunningly concealed enemies.

  The Germans were making much use of bicycles for troop movements to counteract the interference with the rail-ways and the apparent shortage of motor transport or gasoline.

  Daily we see the highways from which fighting has been heard dotted with dead Germans lying near their bicycles. The French are gathering these cycles and we see them everywhere pedaling along the roads.

  A curious and fortunate feature of the fighting on this front is the scarcity of German artillery. The Germans gambled on dive-bombers to take the place of field artillery in the beginning of the war. They subordinated the manufacture of artillery and the training of artillery staffs. Now that the Allies have mastered the German dive-bombers and have gained command of the air, the Germans are badly outclassed in supporting fire for infantry. A considerable amount of the enemy artillery that our forces have overrun is captured Russians guns. Around La Haye du Puits, however, they had massed a number of guns. As they had direct observation over the town’s northern approaches, they raked the roads and our infantry positions. Their artillery is manned entirely by real Germans, in contrast to the impressed troops in many of their infantry units.

  The path of our troops who got into La Haye’s railway yards today and of the others who swung around the town from the west was hard all the way yesterday afternoon and today. The enemy threw seven tanks against our men west of La Haye late yesterday.

  While two of them made a demonstration to draw our fire, the five others lay hull-down behind a ridge and raked our
men in the open fields with machine guns. Our forces rushed anti-tank guns into action, however, and drove the German tanks off.

  Another brisk fight last night raged around a farm near Denneville. Our forces finally drove out what Germans were still alive. Our troops were finding many mines, though often they had been hastily laid. One variety appearing now is the “mustard pot,” which can blow a foot off any unwary soldier.

  The crew of an American long-range large-calibre artillery piece and a mischievous American fighter pilot had sport this morning with a German command post that had been discovered last night. Today this gun made a direct hit on the building housing the German staff. The Germans came boiling out and started to flee in a command car.

  The fighter pilot, seeing this, dived down and machine-gunned the car. It careened off the road and smashed against a stone wall.

  JULY 3, 1944

  INQUIRY CONFIRMS NAZI DEATH CAMPS

  1,715,000 Jews Said to Have Been Put to Death By the Germans

  By DANIEL T. BRIGHAM

  By Telephone to The New York Times.

  GENEVA, Switzerland, July 2—Information reaching two European relief committees with headquarters in Switzerland has confirmed reports of the existence in Auschwitz and Birkenau in Upper Silesia of two “extermination camps’’ where more than 1,715,000 Jewish refugees were put to death between April 15, 1942, and April 15, 1944.

  The two committees referred to are the International Church Movement Ecumenical Refugee Commission with headquarters in Geneva and the Fluchtlingshiie of Zurich, whose head, the Rev. Paul Voght, has disclosed a long report on the killings.

  This report says national “clean-ups” are periodically ordered by the Nazis in various occupied countries and when they are enforced Jews are shipped to the execution camps. Totals compiled two months ago show the following number of Jews “eradicated” in the two camps, excluding hundreds of thousands slain elsewhere: