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

by The New York Times

  The Times received little news of the campaign, but it was only a matter of time before Berlin would fall. There was no hint of the atrocious treatment meted out to the German civilian population by Soviet soldiers maddened by the destruction they had seen in the Soviet Union and the evidence of the extermination centers for Jews, one of which they liberated in January when Auschwitz was occupied. On the Western Front progress was again slower. Eisenhower favored the strategy of the broad advance and launched four separate operations against thin German resistance. On February 8, Montgomery began a campaign in the north to clear the area between the River Meuse and the River Rhine. The U.S. Ninth Army reached the Rhine at Düsseldorf on March 1, Bradley’s Twelfth Army Group reached the Rhine six days later, while in the south the Sixth Army Group reached Mannheim in the south that same day. On March 7 American soldiers surprised German guards at the Remagen Bridge over the river and captured it intact, opening the way for speedy deployment to the eastern bank. By late March, crossings had been made all along the river and the drive into Germany could begin.

  With the rapid progress made in early 1945, fighting in winter weather, the major Allies realized that there was real urgency now in reaching political agreements about the peace. The final wartime summit at the Crimean resort of Yalta was to be Roosevelt’s last. The three leaders decided to set up the United Nations Organization and a conference was arranged for San Francisco in May 1945. Stalin agreed to intervene militarily against Japan once the war in Europe was over. Most important of all, the Western Allies finally accepted Stalin’s plan for Poland: territory seized by the Soviet Union in September 1939 would remain Russian, while Poland would be compensated for its loss with territory carved out of eastern Germany. The London Poles rejected the Yalta decision but The Times, which had shown increasing impatience with Polish opposition, ran an editorial that regretted Polish intransigence in the face of a solution that “has much to recommend it.” Tito, on the other hand, got everything he wanted. In early March he became the new Communist prime minister and would soon become dictator of a reconstituted Yugoslavia.

  When it came to accepting Soviet help against Japan, the Western Allies had mixed feelings, since it was now evident that Japan could perhaps be defeated by American efforts alone. Bizarrely, however, a poll of captured Japanese showed that the majority still thought Japan might win the war in the end.

  On January 9 the American Army landed on Luzon and by March 3 the capital, Manila, was again in American hands. On February 19 a force of 60,000 marines, brought by a fleet of eight hundred ships, landed on the island of Iwo Jima, within striking distance of the Japanese home islands. There were 22,000 Japanese dug into deep defensive positions and the battle was long and fierce, but on February 23 the iconic image of the Stars and Stripes flying on Mount Suribachi was photographed and two days later the photo appeared in The Times. By March 26 the island was secured at the cost of almost the entire Japanese garrison and 5,931 Marine deaths. At this point the Twenty-First Bomber Command, under Maj. General Curtis LeMay, had launched the first firebombing attacks on Japan, killing 100,000 people in the raid on Tokyo on the night of March 9–10, 1945. The Times had announced a few days before in an editorial that “Japan cannot be knocked out of the war with bombings alone,” but the U.S. Army Air Forces commander, General Henry “Hap” Arnold, hoped it could.

  JANUARY 5, 1945

  BESIEGED AMERICANS MOVING OUT TO ENGAGE NAZIS AT BASTOGNE

  Germans Now Threaten Alsace and Lorraine in New Offensive

  By DREW MIDDLETON

  By Wireless to The New York Times.

  SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, Allied Expeditionary Force, Paris, Jan. 4—Armored and infantry units of the American First Army, fighting over rugged terrain in the teeth of a snowstorm, smashed into the northern flank of the German salient in Belgium on a thirteen-mile front today, hammering out gains of three and a half miles in some sectors.

  Lieut. Gen. George S. Patton’s American Third Army, after having repulsed a series of ten heavy German counter-attacks in thirty-six hours, has regained the initiative and is again striking northeastward from Bastogne and toward St. Hubert on the west. At last reports only eleven miles separated the two American armies struggling to close the neck of the Belgian salient against bitter opposition from German infantry and tanks.

  Meanwhile Allied troops striking from the west into the head of the salient have driven the Germans out of Bure, four and a half miles southeast of Roche-fort, six and a half miles northwest of St. Hubert.

  SEVENTH OUT OF REICH

  The growing success of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s counter-offensive against the German salient in the north must be balanced by an Allied withdrawal in the south.

  American Seventh Army troops have now withdrawn from German soil from Sarreguemines east to the Rhine.

  The Germans thrusting southward on the flat ground east of Sarreguemines have advanced five miles from their starting point and have reached the neighborhood of Achen, three miles southwest of Rimling and six to seven miles west of Bitche.

  An American withdrawal from the Wissembourg gap, gateway to the German Palatinate, was forced by further German progress southeastward through the Bannstein forest southeast of Bitche. The Germans are attacking anew at Barrenthal and Philippsbourg, threatening to break through onto the plain northeast of Hagenau forest.

  GERMANS GAIN ADVANTAGE

  The American withdrawal back to positions, which in some areas are based on the Maginot Line, covered five miles and more in some areas. Although it may turn out to be an unimportant move strategically, it is tactically important at the moment and it is certainly a decided political advantage for the Germans, who have now cleared German soil of invaders on a wide stretch and once again have invaded Alsace, as important politically to the Germans as to the French.

  The Allied armies attacking the German salient in the north fought without air support today for weather grounded the Ninth Air Force and only the British Second Tactical Air Force farther north and the Twelfth Tactical Air Command, American component of the First Tactical Air Force in the south, were able to maintain the aerial offensive against the German ground forces.

  ALLIED OUTLOOK BETTER

  It is perhaps too early to speculate on when the two American Armies will unite across the neck of the salient. It is, however, clear that the possibility of turning the German offensive into a costly defeat by cutting off and destroying some of the best German Panzer divisions is better today than it has been for the last week.

  A tank and other equipment from 212th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, sixth Armored Divisions under camouflage near Bastogne, Belgium, in January 1945.

  JANUARY 6, 1945

  SPLIT OVER LUBLIN

  Soviet Recognizes Polish Provisional Rule—U.S., Britain Back Exiles

  By CLIFTON DANIEL

  By Cable to The New York Times.

  LONDON, Jan. 5—The Soviet Union extended diplomatic recognition to the self-appointed Provisional Government of Poland in Lublin today despite appeals by Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt to defer this action until it could be considered in a joint meeting of all three great powers.

  The British and American Governments had exchanged correspondence with Moscow on this question ever since the Lublin Committee of National Liberation had constituted itself a government. It is presumed that since the Big Three previously had been personally concerned with the Polish question the correspondence was between Messrs. Churchill and Roosevelt and Premier Stalin themselves.

  The correspondence produced no agreement and the Soviet Union decided to act alone. Its decision was known in advance in both Washington and London.

  [Washington and London reacted promptly to the Moscow announcement, reaffirming their recognition of the Polish Government in exile. France’s position was described by Ambassador Henri Bonnet in Washington as the same as Britain’s and the United States’.

  A result of the Soviet
recognition of the Lublin Government is that the “unhappy spectacle of rival governments in Poland, one recognized by the Soviet Union and the other by the Western Powers,” of which Mr. Churchill warned in his speech Sept. 28 urging the Poles to accept Russia’s frontier terms, has now come to pass.

  The Soviet recognition of Lublin was no surprise, however, to anyone. It was inevitable since, as almost everyone here concedes, the Lublin Government was the creation of Communist party agents in Poland.

  Moscow’s decision is significant mainly for its bearing on inter-Allied relations and for the fact that it represents one more unilateral action in a series that seems to grow longer each week that a Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin meeting is delayed.

  It is the general opinion here that the Polish question will top the political agenda of the tri-power meeting, which Mr. Roosevelt indicated today would be held after Jan. 20. Hope that the Big Three may agree to a common policy on Poland was encouraged by the fact that Moscow recognized the Lublin regime as the “provisional Government.” This seems to leave the way open for a broadening of the Lublin Government or its amalgamation with elements of the Polish Government in exile here.

  Meanwhile the policy of the British and American Governments remains unchanged. They still recognize the Polish Government here, although since the retirement of Stanislaw Mikolajczyk as Premier they find its composition distasteful.

  LONDON, Jan. 5 (AP)—The London Poles officially expressed “regret from the point of view of United Nations unity” at the Soviet decision, but said they were not surprised at the development. Their spokesman said the Soviet action “makes more difficult our position and any hopes of reaching a settlement.”

  Diplomatic and military observers here believed that the Russians were now ready to launch their long expected offensive in Poland.

  The Soviet Union severed relations with the London Polish Government in April, 1943, in a dispute over the finding of the graves of thousands of Polish officers in the forests near Smolensk. Russia accused the Germans of having killed the officers, but the London Poles asked the International Red Cross to investigate a counterclaim by the Germans that the Russians had committed the atrocity.

  JANUARY 9, 1945

  Editorial

  WINTER WARFARE

  One of the outstanding characteristics of the war—and, as such, a token of its growing bitterness—has been the development of large-scale winter offensives on all fronts, to the complete abolition of the formerly customary winter pause. That winter pause was never certain in the east, as past invaders of Russia, including Napoleon, found out, and in this war the Russians developed the technique of winter warfare to a fine art. But “going into winter quarters” used to be a recognized rule of warfare in the west, and though the winter quarters of the last war were only muddy trenches, fighting died down during the winter months to a minimum. In fact, the German offensive against Verdun had to be postponed for ten days on account of a blizzard, which contributed to its failure. Even in this war, Hitler waited with his campaign against the west in 1940 till the balmy days of May.

  This time, however, the Germans launched their most ambitious offensive in the west in the midst of winter, and at this very moment American and British troops are battling the enemy amid a raging snowstorm which would have made fighting unthinkable in the past. The great Battle of the Bulge is assuming more and more the aspect of the final stages of the Battle of Normandy, which led to the establishment of a huge pocket with a narrow opening at Falaise. Not only is the bulge shrinking which the Germans drove into our lines; it is assuming the contours of a sack which the British are holding tight at the western end and which the American First and Third Armies are trying to close farther east by concerted counter-offensives from the north and south. They have already succeeded in cutting one of the last two roads open to the Germans for supplies and retreat; they have brought the last remaining road under artillery fire from both sides; they have narrowed the remaining gap between them to less than ten miles. Within the sack thus forming are reported to be three German armored divisions and considerable numbers of other German troops.

  It would be premature to expect too much, for the Germans are masters in escaping traps. Even in Normandy they slipped out most of their troops through the Falaise gap when it was only six miles wide. But the chance for great success is there, and it appears unlikely that the Allies will permit themselves to be diverted from making the most of it by the German efforts around Strasbourg and Venlo.

  JANUARY 10, 1945

  Yanks Land from 800 Ships; MacArthur Ashore With Men

  By GEORGE E. JONES

  By Wireless to The New York Times.

  ABOARD AMPHIBIOUS FLAGSHIP, in Lingayen Gulf, Jan. 9—History’s greatest overseas invasion is landing thousands of troops on the road to Manila today. American soldiers are pushing through marsh-studded beachlines, heading for the open country and near-by hills, from which the enemy can reinforce troops and support them with artillery.

  More than 800 ships participated in this convoy, which traveled under constant surveillance from aircraft and submarines. Not a single troopship was damaged as the line of transports and escorts, stretching for eighty miles, threaded its way through the narrow channels and glassy open seas.

  The climax of a hazardous voyage came west of Corregidor when a Japanese destroyer, putting out from Manila Harbor, attempted to break into the troopships. The destroyer was sunk within our vision by American destroyers before it could do any damage.

  In number of troops involved this invasion may not compare with Normandy, but that fact is offset by the long, hazardous journey of the Lingayen force under the over-all command of Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid.

  ON FIFTEEN-MILE BEACHHEAD

  By WILLIAM C. DICKINSON

  United Press Correspondent

  WITH MacARTHUR’S FORCES, on Luzon, Wednesday, Jan. 10—American Sixth Army forces, completing under the personal direction of Gen. Douglas MacArthur the largest amphibious operation of the Pacific war, today held a fifteen-mile beachhead on Lingayen Gulf.

  With almost no initial ground resistance and with but slight loss to our shipping despite fierce and fanatical Japanese air attacks, vast numbers of men and enormous quantities of guns, armored equipment and supplies have been placed ashore.

  While no exact information was forthcoming from General MacArthur’s advanced headquarters on Luzon as to the exact depth of our advances from the four landing beaches, it was known that deep penetrations had been made at some points and only scattered light resistance had been encountered anywhere.

  It was believed that all units had reached or passed beyond their first day objectives in the daylight hours following our landing at 9:30 A.M. yesterday.

  Battleships and other units of the Seventh Fleet began fierce preliminary bombardments which knocked out every Japanese shore battery which might have ranged on our vast armada of more than 800 vessels with their supporting and protecting hundreds of warships.

  General MacArthur went ashore only a few hours behind his assault troops and only a short time after Lieut. Gen. Walter Krueger Sixth Army commander, had established headquarters ashore and taken over active command of the operations from Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, Seventh Fleet commander.

  General MacArthur waded ashore from his barge accompanied by Lieut. Gen. Richard K Sutherland, his chief of staff, and congratulated his leaders on the progress so far made. He urged them to keep driving ahead—no letting the Japanese get set in any position to bar our advance.

  General MacArthur told correspondents that the entire Lingayen Gulf operation was progressing “better than could have been expected” and that all units were making good progress against little or no resistance.

  “The Jap was apparently taken completely by surprise,” he said “He apparently expected us from the south, and when we came in behind him he was caught off base. The entire operation so far had been a complete success.”

&nb
sp; He said it was not yet apparent where the Japanese would make their main defense stand, but that there “is no doubt that the battle for Manila and the entire Philippines will be fought and won on the great central plain north of Manila.”

  He was smoking a new corncob pipe and appeared bronzed and rested.

  “I slept well last night,” he said “in spite of some little disturbance created by the Japanese during the night.”

  Although our ground forces went ashore standing up with almost no opposition, we suffered some loss and damage to shipping en route here and during the preliminary bombardments and carrier activities.

  The Japanese lost heavily, seventy-nine planes shot down, a midget submarine, two destroyers, one coastal vessel and many small craft sunk by our attacks. These losses are in addition to those inflicted by the Third Fleet forces of Admiral William F. Halsey which gave coordinated support to our landings.

  A considerable measure of strategic surprise was attained through our recent feints in the direction of Batangas and other points.

  The landing itself was completely uneventful. Not a shore battery fired as the hundreds of American vessels steamed into the gulf before dawn. After a shore bombardment of more than two hours, in which battleships—including restored pre–Pearl Harbor veterans—participated, in greater strength than in any previous Southwest Pacific operation, the swarms of amphibious tanks, alligators, buffaloes and larger landing craft moved in almost unmolested.