~SDAy, MAY 8, 1945 THE MIC HIGAN DAILY PAGE SEVEN fnv S- ' Started German Territory in Europe Shrinks To Nothing in Less Than Two Years (Continued from Page 6)- Gen. Eisenhower's British and Amer-I ican forces on July 10, 1943. Fifteen days later Mussolini was ousted in Rome-the first serious break in the axis structure. Striking swiftly on Sept. 3, after completion of a 38-day campaign in Sicily, Gen. Montgomery's troops in- vaded the toe of Italy. The fifth Army of Gen. Mark W. Clark landed at Salerno below Naples and after a blood battle with the Germans, estab- lished a beachhead six days later, almost simultaneously with an- nouncement of the surrender of the government of Marshal Pietro Badog- lio which had succeeded Mussolini. The first of the big three in the Axis had been knocked out of the war. = ,a l T HE MOTHER W HO WA ITS.. This war will not end til her Through a bitter winter campaign, the Americans and their allies made but slow progress from Naples, fought the bloody battle of Cassino, estab- lished the beachhead at Anzio below Rome and finally on May 11 launched the offensive which carried them to Rome on June 4. The Palazzo Venezia where Mussolini's balcony stands was turned into a museum. Invasion . .. Two days after the first fall of an axis capital, the greatest amphibious invasion force of all time touched land in Normandy. The D-Day for which American factories had been turning out weapons since Dec. 7, 1941, had dawned. Untried American divisions quickly proved they could beat Hitler's best veterans. Despite the strength of the Germans' -Atlantic wall, the invasion stuck. The results were not long showing in Berlin. Second Battle of France The first 49 days after Gen. Eisen- hower's forces landed in Normandy were spent in securing, enlarging and building up the beachhead. Extreme- ly bloody battles were fought in beat- ing the Germans back from one hedgerow and sunken road to the next. Cherbourg, the Allies' first major port in France, was taken by American troops on June 27 just three weeks after D-Day after a bitter fight. Then, American, Canadian and Allied troops liberated France in one of the swiftest campaigns on record. They did it from a beach- head-one of the most unusual of military feats. While still depending on beach in- stallations for a flow of supplies, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley struck out on July 25 for the great objectives of the invasion. Bradley's U.S. First Army broke through at St. Lo and began throwing armored hooks westward toward the Normandy coast which repeatedly trapped large numbers of German troops. Taking command of a new U.S. Third Army, Lt. Gen. George S. Pat- ton began a. sensational sprint south- ward through Avranches into Brit- tany, sent roaming columns speeding westward and southward to Brest at the tip of Brittany, St. Nazaire, Lor- Sent, Nantes and across the Loire, then turned his main forces eastward in a stabbing offensive which seemed aimed straight at Paris. boy comes home. Let us rest on our labors. 719 North University Mortain area he had mounted his fiercest armored counterattack to- ward Avranches in the mistaken be- lief that he could split the Allied armies and bring them to disaster. Suddenly all these German forces were threatened with entrapment. The attacks by Montgomery and the newly created First Canadian Army under Lt. Gen. D.D.G. Crerar became an anvil upon which Patton and Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges of the U.S. First.-Army beat the German 7th Army to pieces. Metz first. In quick succession the U. S. Seventh and First French ar- mies to the south, and the U. S. First and Ninth armies went on the offensive, with some help from the British Second army at the extreme northern end. The French pushed through the Bclfort Gap near the Swiss border, the Seventh army broke through to Strasbourg at Saverne and Patton made sensational gains and captured Metz, an old Roman fortified city which never before in modern times probably was the greatest of them all in power and effectiveness. Marshal Ivan Konev led off with a smash from his Vistula bridgehead toward Krakow, toppled that strong- hold of ancient Polish kings and con- tinued at a 13-mile-a-day clip into Germany's industrial Silesia to break across the Oder River, most import- ant natural defense line in the east- ern Reich. Marshal Gregory Zhukov hit with similar power, toppled Warsaw, the blackened and ruined Polish capital not Dragged into the German disaster nad been taken by assault. which had stood up under so many were a newly organized German 5th The Ninth army had broken the months of Soviet attack, and sped on tank army and a substantial part of permanent works of the Siegfried through western Poland. the 15th army charged with the de- Line above Aachen, and that city had While Berlin thus became directly tense ofthe rocket coast and the re- fallen Oct. 20 after an 11-day at- menaced, two other Soviet armies mainder of northern France. tack and siege. The First and closed on East Prussia and began an Byn ug. 21 Gen. Montgomery was Ninth armies now began some of amazingly swift overruning of that able to proclaim that the bulk of their bloodiest battling through the proud and rich old Junker strong- German forces in northwestern pillboxes and "community diggings" hold. Germa for~es n nothweomr- hurriedly thrown up behind the Sieg- France had met with definite, com- hried Ln b t i On Feb. 4, 1945 the day Marshal plete, decisive" defeat and that the fried Line. end of the war was in sight. Every village was fortified and Stalin met President Roosevelt and ould Pfte rw sg very osition tenaciously held.Prime Minister Churchill at Yalta in The strategy, if successful, would e st ea y the Crimea Conference, the flash of have paved the way for a possible The slaughter was heavy in the thCrmaonenchefshf hanking ofe the norther end ofsthe urtgen Forest southeast of Aah- Soviet cannon could be seen in Ber- flanking of the nothern end of th en, but at length the Allied battle in. Russian soldiers could see Amer- Siegfried Line, but Field Marshal .neican planes banking for bomb runs Sir Bernard L. Montgomery was un- line was drawn up to the Roer, 20O abe odrvete 0miest A-miles west of Cologne, over the German capital. able to drive the 50 miles to Arn-d.On Feb. 8, Marshal Montgomery hem in time to exploit the position Patton found the going just as hard began an attack toward the Emmer- gained by the British First Airborne as he drew up to the Saar River in ich crossing of the Rhine near the division. After eight days of heavy Germany's Saarland and began at- Holland border, and on Feb. 23 the fighting from their encircled position, tacking the Siegfried Line at Dillen- U.S. First and Ninth Armies along the airborne "red devils" were forced mans out of Alsace along the Rhine. the Roer, which had been such a to withdraw across the Noder Rhine. gen near Saarlautern. The French bloody obstacle, opened the long- Already Patton's forces were plun- were not quite able to clear the Ger- awaited offensive for the Rhineland. ging south of Paris and across the mans out. Events Move Swiftly Seine northwest of Paris to carry out It had now become evident that a Spectacular events followed in even more audacious plans. turning point inside Germany had spectacular order. The First Army The underground in Paris rose in been reached in the July 20 attempt seized Cologner. March 6. The battle. The city of light and symbol on Hitler's life. The purge of Ger- next day the Ninth Armored Division of liberty in thz western world was man generals and others involved captured a bridge at Remagen before liberated on Aug. 25, just a month in that unsuccessful plot had en- it could be destroyed, and seized a after the break-through at St. Lo, abled the Nazi party to strengthen bridgehead on the east side of the by French and American troops en- its hold more than ever in the deter- Rhine. The same day Patton's Third tering the city. mination to fight on to the bitter end, Army made a 32-mile break-through On Aug. 15 the army of France and the high hopes of July for an and reached the Rhine above Cob- under Gen. Jean de Lattry de Tas- early end to the war faded. lenz, then with the U.S. Seventh signy and the U.S. 7th Army under Even the August breakthrough of Army began a whirlwind drive to Lt.-Gen. Alexander M. Patch invaded the Russians into the Calati Gap in capture the Saar and Palatinate southern France from the Mediter- Romania and the falling away of German prisoners surrendered faster ranean in a huge and skillfully co- Germany's satellites one by one did than they could be counted. ordinated action which speedily won not affect German morale in the Five German armies had been de- control of the whole coast. The Ger- disastrous way as in 1918. ' stroyed as fighting units and the mans began a precipitate withdrawal The Russians entered Bucharest Reich robbed of its third most pro- from all southern France, but by the on Aug. 31 after a revolution in i ductive industrial region, the Saar. As first of September the German 19th Romania, entered Sofia Sept. 16 after the Allies closed up to the Rhine Army was fighting for its life up the forcing Bulgaria to end the war, com- ;from Holland to Switzerland they Rhone Valley where it had been in- pelled Finland to sign an armistice - discovered one reason for the Ger- slicing across the French Alps. mns nd turn against the Germans Sept, man defeat. Photographic interpre- ss9, tOO&. lielgradE Oct. 19 with the tation of the results of Allied air WohileAlld forces in the -orth and ,id of Yuguzlav partisans and reached raids had, if anything, underestimat- outh neared a junction, the Anmeri- the edge of Budapest in Hungary in ed the damage. Large cities were an First and Third Armies began the first week of November. British - aseries of amazing dashes toward and Greeks drove the Germans out the Rhine. Old battlefields along the Marne. the Aisne, the Oise, were of Greece in October and Albanians reached and passed with bewildering reclaimed their capital of Tirana. rapidity. The Americans hurtled inH t of e lep n in l dt~ th TTm u -Ar onne bNat- ateo h ug It 9I mu I: rI " r ' - --. -. _ ยข . ,>-; , ^ .,, _ I 1 \_ i i * OUR HAPPINESS at one victory cannot let us suffer a defeat. The war is hlf won; we must win it com letly before we stop working for that victory. more than ever before. Let us strive Out-generaled, out-numbered and overwhelmed by superior equip- ment, fire power and air power, the Germans seemed powerless in the face of lightning moves such as they themselves had employed so successfully to conquer France in 1940. Chartres, 55 miles southwest of Paris, Patton suddenly unmasked his real intent and wheeled northward toward the Seine. Field Marshal Gen. Guenther Von Kluge, German commander in the west, had stripped the defenses of Brittany, and drained divisions from the 15th Army north of the Seine to Bolster his defenses in the rugged territory below Caen on the Allied left flank, where the ferocity and de- termination of Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's British Second Army and Canadians had led him to believe that the main attack would be deliv- ered. Here Von Kluge held on, despite Patton's spectacular penetrations toward Paris, in the apparent de- lusion that as long as the Caen anchor positions held the Allies would riot venture far inland. From the I i A 1 1 11 27he J/1eneltJ e/ 126 EAST HURON STREET Phone 4241 t .1 ;' UNITED IN VICTORY " ,V is .n Y l~ 7 s s1 A SALUTE TO OUR PARTNERS IN FREEDOM! " a rrw rre r r l v f- \ If vl -_--.A- - -- A_ i. 7_.._'7 ..,.. a singie ay e e seiu~vtxg g uv tleground where their fathers fought for six bloody weeks in 1918. Belgium was invaded Sept. 2. Lt.-Gen. Sir Miles C. Dempsey's British Second Army tanks made an astounding march of more than 200 miles in four days. roaring through the Belgian capital of Brussels, the big fort of Antwerp, and into the Netherlands. On Sept. 6, just three months after the invasion and on the 44th day of the offensive which had begun at St. Lo, and with more than 400,000 casualties inflicted upon the Ger- mans who had lost 25 divisions and suffered heavy casualties to at least 18 others. Gen. Eisenhower prcclaim- ed the Battle of Germany about to begin. His armies already had probed German soil, the liberation of France and Belgium was all but complete. the freeing of the Netherlands not far off. Battle of Siegfried Line The men around General Patton{ believed that, if they had received enough gasoline to keep their spear- heads in motion four more days, they would have rolled completely through the Siegfried Line and then could have driven straight to Berlin.! It proved impossible, however, to move up sufficient supplies through hub-deep and broken-down con mmu- nication lines to keep pace with the fast-moving spearheads. Patrols penetrated the Siegfried Line and entered Metz on the Mo- selle, but had to retreat for lack of support. When Patton's suppliesj caught up with him. the GermansI had re-entered Metz and spread a-j long the Moselle. Progress thence- forth was slow and costly. Lt.-Gen. Courtney H. Hodges' U.S. First Army, which had spread swiftly across Belgium, trapping & destroying a huge pocket of Ger- mans at Mons, entered Germany below Aachen Sept. 13 after pre- liminary probings in the area of Trier. Hodges penetrated to the outskirts of Aachen and drove a narrow hole through the concrete and steel works of the Siegfried Line in the first 7 days. and when he too lacked the supplies and force to exploit his gains, the Allies turned their atten- tion to gaining a large supply port. The First Canadian and British Second Armies began the costly cam- paign to root out the Nazis south of the Waal in Holland and free the mouth of the Schelde to permit sup- ply convoys to enter the relatively undamaged harbor of Antwerp. On Sept. 17 there opened a huge ground and air attack in which the First 'Allied Airborne Army went into ac- tion and parachute troops were drop- ped at Nijmagen and Arnhem in an attemnt to seize the bridges across Then, Dec. 16, Field Marshal Karl von Rundstedt, the German commander in the west, launched his su-prise offensive into the Ardenne along the path of the 1940 German breakthrough. Von Rundstedt threw three armies against a sector lightly held by Amer- ican rest troops with the minimum objective of throwing Eisenhower's winter offensive off schedule and per- haps with the maximum objective of reaching Antwerp and trapping the Allied armies in the north. He prob- ably hoped to paralyze Eisenhower's forces so that they would not be able to strike in the winter when Marshal Stalin's Russians were expected to mount another offensive in Poland. The blow involved American troops in their greatest battle since Gettys- burg in the Civil War. Thousands - were trapped and overrun and Amer- ican casualties mounted to more than 50,000. But trapped American units fought back valiantly, held off and delayed the German offensive, and with the aid of some British divisions prevent- ed a bieakthrough across the Meuse or at Sedan. Especially valiant were the stands at St. Vith and encircled Bastogne wrere Brig. Gen. Anthony McAu- liffs, commander of the 101st Air- borne Division, made the short but historic reply, "Nuts," when served with a. demand to surrender his surrounded forces. Reacting promptly, Patton's Third army moved up and attacked in force on the south flank of the 50-mile deep German salient six days after von Rundstedt opened his drive. Field Marshal Montgomery took charge on the northern side of the salient. At the end of a month the Allies virtually had erased the salient and large forces of Germans were in hur- ried withdrawal, perhaps to meet the dire peril posed by the Russian offensive in the East. Battle in the East ... On Jan. 12, 1945, Stalin began his fourth great winter offensive. It Son .- - r i i x s SALUTE THE VICTORS IN I N FIIRO. TI- F PACIFIC II U!