Pacific News-Review
Notes And Comment On
The Progress Of The War
From June 15 To July 16
June 15: Hitler to-day began to use his “secret weapon.” Small planes, without a crew, loaded with a heavy bomb, pro pelled by the rocket type of engine, are coming over southern England from the Calais coast at intervals of a few minutes, falling haphazardly, exploding, and caus ing casualties and damage. They will net affect the course of the war: but they have a great nuisance value. The plane is called “Robot plane” and ‘‘Flying bomb.”
June 18; Americans cut off the north ern half of the Cherbourg Peninsula and isolated the port of Cherbourg, with 25,000 Germans.
June 18: The Americans who landed on Saipan Island (Marianas) have advanced eastwards across the southern part of the island against bitter Japanese resistance.
Beach-head positions have been consoli dated and the important airstrip seized.
June 19: In a terrific air battle over the Marianas the Japanese lost 300 planes.
Americans on Saipan have captured the Aslito airfield and driven across the southern end of the island to Magicienne Bay.
June 19: In an engagement between the Marianas and the Philippines, the US Fifth Fleet made a surprise attack on the Japanese Grand Fleet, and carrier based planes sank four and possibly five enemy warships, including an aircraft carrier. The US force suffered no ship losses and only 49 planes. The battle lasted until nightfall. The Japanese fleet now seems to be avoiding surface action.
June 20: Three thousand Allied aircraft are engaged on an assault on the Robot plane bases. A super-Robot, which travels at about 600 miles per hour, is reported.
June 21: Berlin was attacked by 2,000 planes to-day, in the biggest raid of the war. Berlin Radio is threatening “repri sals with big and more powerful explosives than the pilotless bomber.”
June 22: The Americans are closing in on Cherbourg and have seized an arc of high ground near the port.
June 22: The final battle for Cher bourg began to-day after a terrific air attack by 1,000 bombers. US forces have penetrated the outer-south-west defences.
June 22: Russian forces on the third anniversary of Hitler’s attack on Russia launched a great offensive in White Rus sia, and have swept vast Vitebsk, vir tually isolating that German-held town.
June 23: The Japanese on Saipan (Marianas) have been deserted by their Grand Fleet and abandoned to their fate.
June 25: The British have commenced an attack on their sector in France and advanced after a fierce fight. On the other flank, the final stage of the battle for Cherbourg has begun.
June 26: British and Canadian troops on the eastern sector in Normandy have launched a large-scale tank and infantry attack to the south, under the biggest barrage yet seen in Normandy.
June 26: Russian spearheads are inside the town of Vitebsk, northern bastion of the German so-called “Fatherland” line.
June 27: Cherbourg has been taken by the Americans. Lieut.-General Carl Wil helm von Schlieven, German commander of the garrison, and Rear-Admiral Hen necke, sea defence commander of Nor mandy, were captured. The enemy, in the battle, lost some four infantry divi sions and numerous naval and marine units.
June 27: The Russians are storming on in the East, and have captured Vitebsk and Jlobin. The next big battle will be for Minsk.
June 27: Swift advances have been
made by Allied forces in Italy. The Fifth Army, on the west coast, is now half-way from Piombino to Cecina (20 miles south of Leghorn).
June 28: British forces made a wide breach in the enemy line in the eastern section of the Normandy bridgehead.
They have crossed the Odon River, south of Caen.
June 28: The Red Army offensive has developed into a vast pincers movement against Minsk—hundreds of thousands of Germans are threatened with encircle ment.
June 29: The whole of the German front in White Russia is collapsing and the Nazis face the biggest defeat in their history.
June 30: The Allied forces in Italy have made a wide advance and are now near Leghorn.
July 2: Minsk, last German stronghold east of the 1939 Polish border, is threat ened. The Russians have advanced over 100 miles in a week.
July 2: Great German counter-attacks against the British line in Normandy have been beaten back. He has suffered heavily in tanks and infantry.
July 3: Two Russian armies now are racing to complete the encirclement of the German armies at Minsk.
July 3: The Americans have started a new offensive on the west coast of Nor mandy, on a 20-miles front.
July 3: Americans on Saipan Island (Marianas) have advanced along the whole front, and are less than five miles from the northern tip of the island.
July 4: Powerful Russian forces took Minsk yesterday and are now pursuing 12 broken German divisions.
July 4; The Americans have landed and seized airfields on Noemfoor Island, off the coast of Dutch New Guinea.
July 5: The Canadians, who began an offensive in the eastern Normandy sec tor, are now within 2\ miles of the key German base of Caen. The Americans, in the western sector, are two miles from the railway junction of La Haye-du- Puits.
July 5; US Marines, after bitter fight ing, took Garapan (Saipan), capital of the Marianas.
July 6: Mr. Churchill announced that the flying bombs in Southern England have already killed 2,752 people, and injured 8,000. Most of these casualties were in the London area. “It would be a mistake to under-rate the seriousness of these flying-bombs,” Mr. Churchill told the House of Commons.
July 6: The Nazis are making a bid to hold the Red Army in White Russia and have launched two counter-attacks.
July 8: American Super-Fortresses last night bombed targets on Kyushu, the most southerly of the main islands of Japan. Main attack was on the naval base at Sasebo and war plants at Yawata and Omura.
July 8: In the Marianas, the Jap gar rison on Saipan is now confined to the northern tip, and attempts at evacuation have been frustrated.
July 9: British and Canadian troops have captured Caen. There is general progress on other French sectors.
July 9: The Russians, still rapidly advancing, have taken the important Polish rail junction of Baranovichi and have fought their way into the streets of Vilna, capital of Lithuania.
July 10: Following immediately on their capture of Caen, British troops launched a new offensive against the new enemy line on the east bank of the Orne River.
July 10: The Russians are driving for
the Baltic Sea and huge German forces now are threatened with encirclement.
July 10: Japanese resistance on Saipan has now ended, and the Americans have a valuable base only 1,500 miles from Japan.
July 12: The Germans are counter attacking strongly in Normandy, but all thrusts have been held by the Allies. At St. Lo the Nazis are bitterly resisting the American drive.
July 12: Australia House, in London, has been damaged by a flying bomb.
July 13: Russian long-range guns have moved up to shell the frontier of East Prussia, after the break-through of tanks and mobile units which has brought the Red Army within 35 miles of German territory.
July 13: A Jap force of 45,000, trapped between the Allied forces in the Wewak- Aitape area of New Guinea, is concentrat ing for an attempt to break through, having apparently decided that it is bet ter to fight than starve to death.
July 14: The Russians are sweeping on to East Prussia, and disrupting the Ger man retreat on the central sector. Vilna has fallen and Pinsk has been evacuated by the Germans.
July 16: British troops in Normandy captured the village of Esquay; American troops are making a steady advance in the western sector. It is believed that a large-scale Allied drive in Normandy is imminent.
July 16: America and the Allied world is shocked at Tokio’s grim threat to kill all Allied airmen who bail out or are shot down over Japan. Americans who bailed out of Super-Portresses in June have been executed.