The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945
Page 120
Poland
900,000
Netherlands
100,000
Greece
45,000
France
150,000
Belgium
50,000
Germany
60,000
Yugoslavia, Italy and Norway
50,000
Bohemia, Moravia and Austria
30,000
Slovakia
30,000
Foreign Jews from various camps in Poland
300,000
HUNGARIAN JEWS SLAUGHTERED
To this total must now be added Hungary’s Jews. About 30 per cent of the 400,000 there have been slain or have died en route to Upper Silesia. Discussing “malicious, fiendish, inhuman brutality” in the treatment of Hungarian Jews, the Ecumenical Commission says:
“According to authenticated information now at hand, some 400,000 Hungarian Jews have been deported from their homeland since April 6 of this year under inhuman conditions to Upper Silesia. Those that did not die en route were delivered to the camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau in Upper Silesia, where during the past two years, it has now been learned, many hundreds of thousands of their coreligionists have been fiendishly done to death.”
After a fortnight to three months’ imprisonment, during which they were “selected” or worked to death, the Jews were led to the execution halls, it was said. These halls consist of fake bathing establishments handling 2,000 to 8,000 daily.
CYNANIDE GAS CAUSED DEATH
Prisoners were led into cells and ordered to strip for bathing. Then cyanide gas was said to have been released, causing death in three to five minutes. The bodies are burned in crematoriums that hold eight to ten at a time. At Birkenau there are about fifty such furnaces. They were opened March 12, 1943, by a large party of Nazi chiefs who witnessed the “disposal of 8,000 Jews from 9 o’clock in the morning until 7:30 that night,” according to the report.
JULY 5, 1944
Nazis Continue To Guess About Gen. Patton’s Army
The Nazis continued yesterday to fish for information regarding the whereabouts of Lieut. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. and the American seventh Army.
A German DNB broadcast for the European press outside Germany, reported by United States Government monitors, speculated that General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, Allied ground commander, intended “to coordinate resumption of large-scale operations with employment of a United States Army group under General Patton.” DNB said “it can be expected” that this group will attack “another sector of the Atlantic front in the very near future.”
“The group may attack the adjoining sector between the Seine and the Somme, the Pasde Calais area, or the Breton Peninsula, the occupation of which must be a very tempting prize to the Allied High Cornmand,” the Nazi broadcast continued. “Possession of Brest would provide them with another deep-sea port.”
JULY 10, 1944
JAPANESE CRUSHED
Americans Are Rapidly Mopping Up Scattered Remnants On Saipan
By GEORGE F. HORNE
By Telephone to The New York Times.
PEARL HARBOR, July 9—The furious battle for Saipan is over after twenty-five days. “Our forces have completed the conquest,” Admiral Chester W. Nimitz announced this morning.
The Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet said that the island was secured yesterday afternoon.
“Organized resistance ended on the afternoon of July 8, West Longitude date, and the elimination of scattered disorganized remnants of the enemy force is proceeding rapidly,” he stated.
The battle lasted nearly a month, including the preparatory carrier-aircraft assaults and pre-invasion bombardments. It was on June 10, before dawn broke over the Western Pacific, that the first attack began. For four days the well-entrenched defenders of Saipan, estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 Japanese troops, and other enemy garrisons and defense installations from Tinian to Rota, Guam and Pagan were shattered by powerful carrier-plane raids or bombardment by the big guns of the surface fleet, in some cases both.
FIERCE COUNTER-ATTACK BROKEN
The marines stormed ashore on Saipan’s western beaches to come finally to grips with the largest and strongest enemy force yet encountered in the Central Pacific offensive. The end came sooner than observers here had expected, for only yesterday the Admiral disclosed that an enemy counterattack had plunged through our left flank for a distance of 2,000 yards. It was one of the bitterest battles and casualties on both sides were believed to have been heavy.
And at the last report yesterday we had regained only about a third of the lost ground.
Apparently, however, the troops on the western anchor of our line advanced rapidly again, slashing forward north of Tanapag town to retrieve the losses and carry the battle forward to the island’s northeastern extremity.
Meanwhile, on the right flank marine forces advanced to their objective.
No official announcement has been made of the number of enemy prisoners taken, but it will probably be small, for the Japanese have fought all the way through with their traditional fanaticism and determination to stand or die. It can be assumed that the majority of the garrison was wiped out.
Up to the middle of last week our own forces had buried nearly 10,000 Japanese.
For our part the story of Saipan will live as one of sacrifice, for the price paid has been in keeping with the importance of the island to us. There has been no announcment of our casualties since June 30, when Admiral Nimitz disclosed that 1,474 Americans had been killed between June 14 and June 28.
Our total casualties, including dead, wounded and missing up to that date, were 9,752.
Admiral Nimitz said later he expected our losses would be relatively smaller in the final stages of the battle, and it is likely that they were during the next ten days, for we had then taken commanding positions, we had captured much material and supplies and had given the enemy fatal blows.
Nevertheless, the significance of the casualty lists should not be overlooked, particularly by those who may be inclined to misinterpret our unbroken roster of victories from the Gilberts to the Marianas. Before the seizure of Tarawa and Makin back in November the island-spotted sea stretching toward Japan looked discouragingly wide and probably few people dreamed we would go so far so fast.
At Saipan we are 1,465 statute miles from Tokyo and although the end is in sight there is still many a bitter story to be told.
Possession of strong air and sea facilities in the Marianas will, as Admiral Nimitz explained, permit us to employ our sea strength relatively near to the heart of Japan.
And then perhaps, when the entire inner defense of the enemy falls within the arc of which the Marianas form the center, sea and air power can be brought to bear on the enemy’s homeland from the north through the Kuriles and from the Asiatic mainland whence the mighty Superfor-tresses are already beginning to come. Admiral Nimitz and Gen. Douglas MacArthur can batter at arm’s length against the Philippines, against Japan itself, and against the China coast where Pacific forces will land for the final stages.
JULY 13, 1944
ALLIES SLOWLY BATTER DOWN GERMAN RESISTANCE IN NORMANDY
A grinding advance toward Lessay carried the Americans to Angoville-sur-Ay and gave them possession of the entire Forest of Mont Castre (1). Although they were still four miles from the Feriers junction they widened their spear-head by taking Blehou (2). A German counter-attack forced our troops out of Le Desert, but to the west they occupied most of St. Andrés de Bohon (3).
As one American column smashed to a point one and a half miles from St. Lo, another “began outflanking the junction by seizing St. André-de l’Epine, Le Calvaire and St. Pierre-de Semilly (4). Heavy fighting raged near Hottot les Baques (5). Around Caen the British repelled attacks southwest and the Germans clung to recaptured Louvigny (6) and battled for Colombelles (7).
JULY 20, 1944
TOJO REGIME QUITS
Failure to
Win Goals Is Cited As Cause for Stronger Executive
HIROHITO IS ‘CONCERNED’
Emperor Calls Home Minister Kido To Audience To Discuss New Cabinet Formation
Premier General Hideki Tojo’s “entire Cabinet” has resigned, the Japanese Domei agency announced last night in a wireless dispatch to Japanese-occupied areas.
The dispatch, reported by the Federal Communications Commission to the Office of War Information, quoted a statement by the Japanese Board of Information.
The Japanese announcement said that “it has been decided to strengthen the Cabinet by a wider selection of the personnel.”
“By utilizing all means available the present Cabinet was not able to achieve its objective.” the statement declared.
It said that “the Government has finally decided to renovate its personnel totally in order to continue to prosecute the war totally.”
The announcement came a day after Tojo had been divested of his concurrent post as Army Chief of Staff in continuation of a Japanese High Command shake-up that began two days ago.
DELAY NOT EXPLAINED
Last night’s Domei dispatch carried this introduction:
“Tojo’s Cabinet resigns: Premier Tojo’s Cabinet took a resolute step on July 18 and effected the resignation of the entire Cabinet.”
A Domei transmission last night at 11 o’clock [Eastern War Time] to newspapers in Japanese-occupied areas, said that on July 18 the Emperor had ordered Marquis Koichi Kido, Home Affairs Minister, into audience, with a view to forming a new Cabinet.
Marquis Kido, who, as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, is the highest adviser to the Japanese Emperor, called a meeting of former Premiers the evening of July 18 to deliberate on the personnel of the succeeding Cabinet, Domei said.
One Domei broadcast, referring to the Cabinet resignation, said:
“The reason, to put it straightforward, is that the individuality of the Tojo Cabinet was unable to keep up with the intensity of the burning war spirit of the people. The Board of Information announcement was issued July 20 (Japanese time). No explanation of the delay in making known the resignation was offered immediately.
The board’s announcement follows:
Since the outbreak of the (Greater East Asia) war the Governmenthasbeen cooperating closely with the Imperial Headquarters as one unit and has exerted every possible effort for the prosecution of the war.
At present, in face of a grave situation and realizing the necessity of a strengthened personnel in time of urgency for the prosecution of the war, it has been decided to strengthen the Cabinet by a wider selection of the personnel.
By utilizing all means available the present Cabinet was not able to achieve its objective; here, then the Government has finally decided to renovate its personnel to continue to prosecute the war totally and, having recognized the fact that it was most appropriate to carry out a total resignation of the Cabinet, Premier Tojo gathered together the resignations of each member of the Cabinet and presented them to the Emperor on July 18 at 11:40 A.M. (Japanese time) when he was received in audience.
At this time of decisive war, to have reached the stage existing today is causing the Emperor much concern, because of which the present Cabinet is filled with trepidation, and in apologizing for the Government’s meager power to the men on the fighting front and the 100,000,000 people of Japan who continue to work towardcertain victory, it has been decided that this Cabinet should be dissolved.
Thus, for the purpose of assuring a successful prosecution of this war, we anticipate with great anxiety the appearance of a new strong Cabinet at this time without loss of opportunity.
Meanwhile, Japanese propagandists, in their output for domestic and overseas consumption, continued to focus attention on the loss of Saipan as a means of whipping up the people’s fighting spirit. The propagandists appealed for still greater efforts on the “production front” and urged the Japanese to achieve a “protracted war,” dismissing any ideas of a war of comparatively short duration.
Tojo, known among his colleagues as the “razor blade” because of his sharp tongue, held office since the fall of the Konoye Cabinet Oct. 17, 1941, and headed the Government that ordered the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
JULY 21, 1944
FUEHRER ‘BRUISED’
Bomb Wounds 13 Staff Officers, One Fatally—Assassin Is Dead
Adolf Hitler had a narrow escape from death by assassination at his secret headquarters, the Berlin radio reported yesterday, and a few hours later in a radio broadcast to the German people he blamed an “officers’ clique” for the attempt to kill him. His address disclosed a movement in the armed forces to overthrow him and his regime. He announced that a purge of the conspirators was under way.
Thirteen members of his military staff were injured, one fatally and two seriously, by a bomb set off at an undisclosed place while many of his highest advisers were assembled around him. The man who played the role of assassin, Hitler said, was Colonel Count von Stauffenberg, one of his collaborators, who stood only six feet away from him as he hurled the bomb. Von Stauffenberg is dead, Hitler announced.
Waiting to see Hitler before the assassination attempt was Benito Mussolini. Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, who rushed to Hitler’s side, was in the immediate vicinity. Hitler escaped with singes and bruises.
ARMY CLIQUE BLAMED
While Dr. Joseph Goebbels and Nazi radio propagandists at first tried to put the blame for the attempt to kill the Fuehrer upon the Allies, Hitler himself exploded the bombshell by announcing that the culprits were a group of German Army officers. He thus confirmed reports of a serious rift between the Nazi High Command and German military elements.
In his broadcast, recorded by the Federal Communications Commission, Hitler told the German people: “If I address you today I am doing so for two reasons: first, so that you shall hear my voice and know that I personally am un-hurt and well, and, second, so that you shall hear the details about a crime that has no equal in German history.
“An extremely small clique of ambitious, unscrupulous and at the same time foolish, criminally stupid officers hatched a plot to remove me and, together with me, virtually to exterminate the staff of the German High Command. “The bomb that was placed by Count von Stauffenberg exploded two meters [slightly more than two yards] away from me on my right side. It wounded very seriously a number of my dear collaborators. One of them has died. I personally am entirely unhurt apart from negligible grazes, bruises or burns.
“This I consider to be confirmation of the task given to me by Providence to continue in pursuit of the aim of my life, as I have done hitherto. … “In an hour in which the German Army is waging a very hard struggle there has appeared in Germany a very small group, similar to that in Italy, that believed that it could thrust a dagger into our back as it did in 1918. But this time they have made a very great mistake.” Hitler concluded by saying that the “criminal elements” would be exterminated ruthlessly. He spoke for only six minutes, shrieking in maniacal rage as he described the circumstances of the attempted assassination that nearly killed him and his entire staff.
He said that the annihilation of what he called the criminal clique behind the attempted assassination would give to Germany the “atmosphere” that the front and the people needed.
That the attempt to kill him was coupled with efforts to provoke a report in the German Army was indicated in Hitler’s address when he called upon German troops and civilians to refuse to obey the orders of the men he called “usurpers” and to kill them. He revealed also that Heinrich Himmler, his Minister of the Interior and chief of the Gestapo, had been put in charge of the home front army, with special powers to deal with the emergency. The vesting of Himmler with special powers even beyond the authority he already enjoys was taken as an indication that Hitler and his immediate Nazi entourage were squaring off for a possible life and death struggle with the Army.
How serious was the clash between t
he Nazi ruling circle and the “usurpers” of whom Hitler spoke was evident also from his statement that “accounts would be settled in a National Socialist manner” with his enemies in the armed forces.
Hitler’s own characterization of the situation compared it to 1918, when Germany was making her last vain effort to hold back the deluge. He spoke of the “stab in the back,” a slogan he used so successfully in stirring up the German masses against the Weimar Republic, whose leaders he had accused of bringing about the German defeat in World War I by undermining morale and letting down the armed forces in the field. The specter of 1918 hovered ominously over Germany in yesterday’s developments.
A telephone dispatch from The New York Times bureau in Berne, Switzerland, last night noted that telephone communications between the Reich and the outside world had been cut since midnight Tuesday. All attempts to reach the Reich by telephone through neutral quarters last night received the answer “gespert”—closed.
After Hitler, Doenitz and Goering had spoken on the radio a mysterious broadcast was picked up in London on the Frankfort wavelength by a “Wehrmacht officer” who appealed to like-minded men to help “save our cause.”
JULY 21, 1944
MOTHER SAYS TRUMAN SHOULD STAY IN SENATE
KANSAS CITY, July 20 (AP)—The 91-year-old mother of Senator Truman does not want her son to be Vice President. She believes he should stay in the Senate where “he can do more good.”