6,1944
Publication Days Published daily except Saturday and Sunday by Students of the University of Kansas
ice
Daily Kansan
Weather Forecast Continued fair and cool today and tomorrow. Minimum temperatures around 60.
LAWRENCE, KANSAS, TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 1944
41st YEAR
NUMBER 166
INVASION ON
First
EXTRA
Allies Strike via LeHavre, France
Le Havre is 100 miles from Paris. (This map was prepared by a member of the University Daily, Kansan staff)
Allied troops have already forced their way 10 miles inland to Caen, located on the Orne river halfway between Le Havre and Cherbourg.
The Allied invasion began with an attack on Le Havre, France, (see arrow) in which parachute troops dropped on the coast of Normandie, near the mouth of the Seine river. The 75-mile coastal strip from Le Havre to Cherbourg on the English channel opposite Portsmouth constitutes the invasion area.
D-Day Forces Land in France
(International News Service)
BULLETIN NO. 1
London (2:35) Allied Invasion Headquarters—Under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower the Allied Naval forces, supported by a strong air force, began an invasion of the coast of France.
BULLETIN NO.2
London announced that General Bernard L. Montgomery is in charge of the invasion forces. They are made up of American, Canadian and British troops.
United States army divisions made the first assault on Western Europe. The news that Americans led the attack was made officially in Washington at 4 a.m. The first waves of assault troops were specially equipped and highly trained for the dangerous task. Despite vicious fire from defending Germans, the Americans succeeded in knocking out pill boxes and other strong defense works.
The Germans broadcast that "a large Allied warship was set afire" off the mouth of the Seine river near Le Havre. They also declared that the attacks along the coast were being made "under cover of some kind of artificial fog."
At the most unexpected place the Allies began their invasion of the Continent-Le Havre, France.
Striking at early dawn (Midnight Central War Time) the invasion opened with the dropping of parachute troops on the coast of Normandie, near the mouth of the Seine river. This was followed by landing of shipborne troops.
First word of the invasion came from a German radio broadcast in which a commentator told of the dropping of the parachute troops and the landing of the seacraft, backed by the might of the guns of a battle fleet.
The invasion area constituted a coastal strip 75 miles long from Le Havre to Cherbourg on the English channel opposite Portsmouth, a distance of 140 miles.
Earliest hint of the Allies that the invasion had started came from a spokesman for General Dwight Eisenhower, who by radio told the people of The Netherlands of a pending coastal bombing and advised them to move back a distance of 22 miles from the coast.
London reported the largest fleet of aircraft yet to leave British shores was making its way over the channel for an unknown destination.
London reported that three hours after the invasion started, flyers returning from Northern France were still reporting that there was no sign of the German air force. Allied planes, bombing every air field in the Normandie and Brittany areas, and covering the landing forces, apparently were meeting no opposition from German fighter planes. Anti-aircraft fire was very heavy, however, in certain areas.
At a Thunderbolt air station, American pilots returning from the invasion front reported that Allied land forces were ashore on the coast of Normandie.
Armen commanded by Colonel Lamb said they met no enemy aircraft although they encountered considerable flak on the flight which provided protective cover for amphibious troops. All the Thunderbolts of Lamb's force returned safely.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, launched the long awaited attack with an order of the day, said
"We will accept nothing less than full victory." (continued to page four)