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Show This Is the Way It Happened Long Awaited 'Second Front' Spells Liberation for Many Occupied European Countries Nazi sources first broke the story, announcing that naval units were shellinff Le Havre, France, and that landing craft were nearing the shores. Landing attempts, general along the English channel coast, fol-lowed fol-lowed In reality the arrowed diagram of planes and ships from England to France. Light broadened on the horizon . . . Thousands of planes blotted out the pale sky as their wings carried them onward to the thunder of their engines . . . Below, more than 6,000 ships of all types moved in a mass over the English channel . . . Short moments later, hundreds of paratroopers tumbled from the planes and the sky over French Normandy was filled with the little white billows of their 'chutes; big battleships battle-ships opened up a quaking fire on the French coast, and then landing vessels coked their snub-noses onto the sandy beaches and U. S. and British troops poured ashore, with tanks and other equipment equip-ment unloaded behind them. The Invasion of Europe was on, the second front had been established! estab-lished! Thus did June 6, 1944, go down In history as the date on which the democratic powers ol U. S. and Britain Brit-ain challenged Adoli Hitler's "New Order" on his own battlegrounds of western Europe, the mighty gate to the Nazis' continental fortress, organized or-ganized under dominion of the German Ger-man wehrmacht. Taking place 80 miles across the channel from England, the first Allied Al-lied landings were made between the great ports of Le Havre and Cherbourg Cher-bourg on the French coast, while masses of planes and ships bombarded bom-barded Dieppe, Abbeville and Boulogne, Bou-logne, farther to the east. From the start, the invasion was a fight to the finish, with German destroyers and E-boats attacking the huge Allied fleet off the French coast. German reservists concentrated concen-trated behind the lines for emergency emer-gency service, rushed forward to meet U. S. and British paratroopers descending from -the skies, and to combat Allied armored units pressing press-ing inland, with tanks. In the thunderous crescendo of the early fighting, the Allies penetrated pene-trated from seven to ten miles Inland, In-land, and reinforcements were put ashore to support the attack. Under supreme command of U. S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, with British Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery Montgom-ery In charge of ground troops and British A dm. Bertram Home Ramsay Ram-say leading the naval forces, U. S. and British fighting men spearheaded spearhead-ed the Invasion, receiving support from smaller units of Norwegians, Poles, Dutch, French and Greeks. As the Allies secured beachheads on the French coast and thrust Inland In-land toward Paris, German forces counterattacked vigorously under icy, 69-year-old Field Marshal von Rundstedt and storied Erwin Rommel. Rom-mel. Adolf Hitler, himself, reportedly report-edly rushed to the invasion area to preside over the enemy's military mili-tary directorate. Speaking In Britain's house of commons after the invasion got under un-der way, Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared that the landine operations were supported by 11,000 first-line aircraft, available for use In any particularly critical sector. The Allies' invasion came after the victorious assault on Rome and weeks of Intensive aerial bombardment bombard-ment designed to wreck enemy communications, com-munications, defenses and Industry in the west. Throwing the full weight of the U. S. Fifth and British Eighth armies ar-mies at the Germans in the Italian offensive, the Allies successfully tied up an estimated 25 divisions, or about 300,000 Nazis, In that country. Rather than call upon additional reserves to stem the Allies' determined deter-mined drive in Italy, the Nazi high command decided on a laborious retreat re-treat up the mountainous peninsula to the north, where they could eliminate elimi-nate the constant threat of landings in their rear and yet fall back upon , the last rugged peaks of the Apennines Apen-nines for a natural defense. Although German Marshal Albert Kesselring managed to pull the bulk of his forces out of the trap Allied Commander Gen. Harold Alexander Alexan-der had set by attacking at Cassino to the south and then later at Anzio at the enemy's back to 'the northwest, north-west, the vigor of the U. S. and British Brit-ish drive resulted in the infliction of heavy casualties. Not only was a high toll taken of German troops in the line and of their rearguards putting up a desperate des-perate delaying action, but Allied war planes ranging over the enemy's ene-my's route of retreat shot up hundreds hun-dreds of vehicles wheeling Nazi soldiers sol-diers and equipment to the north. Because of their refusal to send more troops into Italy and thus draw upon their precious reserves for the invasion from the west, the German high command com-mand was compelled to surrender surren-der Rome and the hoot of the big peninsula. SOFTENED UP Important factor in the Allies' landings on the French channel coast was the prolonged bombardment bombard-ment of enemy positions within the whole area by fleets of thousands of U. S. and British war-planes of all types, from flashy fighter-bombers to the more ponderous Flying Fortresses For-tresses and Lancasters. Fortifications, airfields, railroads, power stations everything of use to the Nazis in the defense against the invasion came under the bomb-sights bomb-sights of Allied airmen. By hammering at railroad lines, the Allied command sought to disrupt the transport of troops and supplies to the areas where landings might be made. Not only did Vichy's collaborationists col-laborationists plead with French engineers to stay at the throttles throt-tles in the face of the severe bombardments, but the Germans Ger-mans even rushed key transport squads to help in keeping open the battered rail communications. communica-tions. Thus was the invasion launched only after the most careful and thorough thor-ough destruction of essential elements ele-ments in the enemy's defenses. FORTRESS BARRIERS Despite the extravagant propaganda propagan-da of Hitler's "Atlantic Wall," the Nazis reportedly have taken no chances on putting all of their chips on it; on the contrary, not only have they spoken of the necessity of launching decisive counterattacks counter-attacks against the Invading forces, but they also have constructed defenses de-fenses as far back as the German frontier. In constructing these defenses far to the rear of the English channel, the once-masters of the "blitz" have recognized the full weight which Supreme Su-preme Commander Gen. Eisenhower Eisenhow-er will be able to throw at them. As a result, not only have they built strong fortifications of concrete and steel for miles back of the French coast, but they have also converted the once heralded Maginot line into a defensive bastion, to support their own famed Seigfried or "west wall." |