1944. French Troops Reach Rhine; British Breach Siegfried Line

"Quaking Under the Terrifying Blast of Modern War"

The dragon's teeth of the Siegfried Line, the German defensive fortification also known as the Westwall, 1945 (source)

From the Derby Evening Telegraph, November 20, 1944:

French Troops Reach the Rhine; British Inside Siegfried Line

French troops, after their spectacular drive near the Swiss frontier, have reached the Rhine and entered the famous fortress city of Belfort, Paris radio announced today.

British troops east of Geilenkirchen have broken into the heart of the Siegfried Line, and American troops, moving forward under a thunderous barrage, are advancing east of Aachen and are fighting in the streets of Metz.

Grit and Guns Smash New German Defences

British Second Army, fighting alongside the U.S. Ninth, have won a clear-cut victory in their hard battle to pierce the Siegfried defences.

Terrific Allied fire-power has crocked the buttressed line, report correspondents, and wide gaps are being torn in the Ruhr defences.

Guts and grit of Allied troops, and an unequaled avalanche of shells and mortar bombs crushed German opposition near Geilenkirchen.

Germany is quaking under the terrifying blast of modern war waged with all the force and violence the Allied armies can muster, Reuters' correspondent said to-day.

New pillboxes and road blocks built to support the old Siegfried defences have been smashed.

All Sectors Advance

More towns and villages ahead of Geilenkirchen have already fallen and, in the words of a Second Army spokesman, "We are pushing on in all sectors."

The Germans have collected all the odds and ends they can muster in a bid to stop the Allied advance. After reinforcements had been thrown into the line, they succeeded in slowing down the progress in determined battles. There is nothing, however, to indicate that the offensive is losing momentum.

Although British troops have penetrated the first formidable Siegfried Line barrier, they must filter through the depth of these defences which probably run all the way to the Ruhr.

"An entry into the Siegfried Line does not by any means push us beyond it," a British Army spokesman said.

This morning Allied troops were pushing forward in heavy rain.

At several points there was almost a complete absence of active enemy resistance, and signs of a slackening of the terrific fight waged by the Germans at the start of the present offensive.

For example, not a shot was fired when General Hodges's troops sent patrols into one small town and other troops likewise reported little resistance.

Bill Downs, Columbia commentator, broadcasting from Holland to-day, said: "Our commanders all up and down this part of the line are still talking about the perfection of the tough battle for Geilenkirchen which ended by the capture of the town yesterday by combined American and British troops working together in team never surpassed before in this war."

Maas Retreat

In the Maas pocket, the front west of Venlo, seems to be "loosening-up" with the Germans fighting rearguard actions.

Advances up to three miles were made yesterday.

British troops drove across the Deurne Canal without opposition yesterday. There has been no heavy fighting for the last 48 hours, and the advances that have been made have been virtually unopposed.

One spokesman said, "The troops just walked forward."

Columns driving from Helden are now only five miles from Venlo and the German frontiers.

All-Out Reich Defensive

A German radio commentator declared this afternoon, "The entire population of Western Germany is to-day locked in a hard and exacting defensive battle against the renewed onslaught of the enemy armies.

"The whole German population is taking the deepest concern in these battles. The whole German transport system has been put at the disposal of this, the most heavily attacked front."

1949. The Kremlin Calls for a Big Four Conference

Moscow Shows New Willingness to Lift the Berlin Blockade

Delegates greet each ahead of proceedings at the Big Four conference of foreign ministers in Paris on May 1, 1949. Maurice Coue de Murville is seated on the right; in the center John Foster Dulles and Dean Acheson are moving to be seated. Andrey Vyshinsky is seen nearby shaking hands with Robert Murphy (Photo by Gjon Mili for Life magazine - source)

Bill Downs

CBS Berlin

April 26, 1949

Well, we finally have gotten the word from Moscow, but it comes as an anticlimax.

The Tass statement this morning that the Kremlin is willing to lift the blockade in exchange for a time and place for a foreign ministers' conference on Germany is being read with interest here. It represents a major compromise on the part of the Russians. When they clamped on the blockade ten months ago they did so because the Western powers introduced new currency here.

Until today the Kremlin has been saying that the prerequisite for lifting the blockade, particularly in Berlin, would be the withdrawal of the West mark. Now, according to Tass, the Soviet Union is willing to lift the blockade and discuss the currency question later.

However, the successful meeting yesterday in Frankfurt overshadows this conciliatory statement from Moscow, and it can be expected that the Western powers will be too busy aiding the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany to consider immediately the Russian proposal for a foreign ministers' conference. After a working West German state is created, then perhaps a diplomatic move will be made for four-power discussions of the German question.

General Clay says that the new West German constitution should be in shape for ratification by the middle of next month. It still is not certain how the German people will be given a chance to vote on it, whether by plebiscite or through their eleven state parliaments.

The people must then select their representatives to the new parliament, civil servants must be hired, a capital chosen, and official buildings obtained. Then the new government will be able to function. Whether all this can be done by June 15, as predicted by General Clay, remains to be seen.

The new Federal Republic of Germany will occupy a two hundred mile, crescent-shaped strip of land that stretches from Denmark and the North Sea southward to the border of Switzerland and Italy. It has some forty-five million people and contains the rich coal fields and industrial complex of the Ruhr valley. It has two excellent ports in Bremen and Hamburg.

But, most important of all, it will have a free, democratic government.

This is Bill Downs in Berlin. Now back to CBS in New York.

__________________________

Bill Downs

CBS Berlin

April 27, 1949

The Berlin Blockade is ten months and one day old today, and the atmosphere of hopelessness and fear of war that has plagued this city during its economic siege is gradually being replaced by what is called "cautious optimism."

The rapid series of developments in Moscow and Washington pointing to a lifting of the blockade has left everyone here a little breathless, and a little skeptical. This skepticism is the byproduct of the on-again, off-again tactics of the Communists and is a natural reaction.

What people question here is the sincerity of the Russian offer to lift the blockade in exchange for a foreign ministers' conference. The most hopeful sign in Berlin is that the Communist press and radio is being extremely coy about the whole thing.

The Russian-licensed newspapers are looking the other way until they receive their directives. They print the bare facts of the Tass statement and our State Department's counter-proposals without comment. Only the headlines proclaim: "Agreements Still Possible"—"Will there be new talks on Germany?"

However, the blockaded Berlin press is again climbing on the rapprochement bandwagon.

Claiming to have special sources in the Soviet zone, these newspapers say that the Soviet military administration has ordered all technical preparations for the lifting of the blockade to be carried out immediately.

The German press service says that railroad officials in the Russian zone have been instructed to prepare the Berlin-Marienborn rail line into the British zone for resumption of traffic. The autobahn highway from Berlin to Helmstedt also is ready for use. The controversial bridge at Magdeburg, which was one of the technical difficulties referred to by the Russians when they slapped on the blockade, now is ready for use. The Berlin canals also are in order.

This latest Soviet approach is believed to be a counter-move to frustrate our sponsorship of the new West German state. General Clay and the State Department's chief adviser on Germany, Robert Murphy, both maintain that the Western powers will go ahead with their plans for the new government no matter what happens. They hope it will be set up by July 15.

However, the question now is whether the West German politicians will be at all anxious to proceed with the political division of Germany if the economic barrier is removed by a lifting of the blockade.

This is Bill Downs in Berlin. Now back to CBS in New York.

1945. Nazi Germany on the Verge of Collapse

Goebbels Says the Reich is "Tumbling into Ruins"

Sergeant J.D. Eilbeck posts a sign of Adolf Hitler reading "No Way Out" outside the 156th Brigade headquarters, April 4, 1945 (source)

Fifteen days after this article was published, Bill Downs gave a firsthand account of the Nazi surrender to Field Marshal Montgomery at Lüneburg Heath on May 4, 1945.

From the Lancashire Daily Post, April 19, 1945:

BRITISH TROOPS REACH THE ELBE

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

FLEEING HUNS ARE SHELLED AND BOMBED

Montgomery's troops have reached the Elbe at several points east of Lüneburg.

Lüneburg itself has been captured and the Germans trounced before the Elbe, are racing pell-mell over the Lüneburg Bridge under our shell fire and air attack.

The way is now believed open for our armour to close up to the Elbe on vast stretches.

American troops met in the center of Leipzig, yesterday, after clearing all German resistance except for a pocket around the City Hall, where the commander refused a call to surrender.

General Bradley announces that the American armies must pause temporarily before going on to the next phase of the thrust into the Reich.

HAMBURG—10 MILES

According to Bill Downs (C.B.S.) Montgomery's armoured columns have reached a point less than 10 miles from Hamburg.

British troops have reached the outskirts of Emden, says Brussels radio.

The Canadians have captured the port of Harderwijk on the Zuiderzee, 15 miles north-east of Amersfoort, where the Germans were recently reported to be doing a "Dunkirk" towards western Holland.

The Germans are heavily counter-attacking the Canadian line on the Küsten Canal, south of Papenburg in the Ems sector.

The wholesale flooding of the Hook of Holland started yesterday when the Germans blew a 300-yard gap in the sea wall, sending the waters of the Zuiderzee pouring into the rich farmlands below sea level.

The floodwaters are sweeping southwards towards Amsterdam, but unless more dykes are blown they should stop about 10 miles north of the city.

Only a narrow strip of land along the western coast of the Hook will remain above water.

RECORD ADVANCE

The Third Army had by this morning advanced further in one continuous offensive than any other army in the history of war (says a correspondent).

By reaching the Czechoslovak frontier, armour has covered 500 miles by road in the 46 days since the Third Army launched its offensive from Trier.

Another two-day advance would bring Patton so close to Konev, that it will become dangerous for either side to use long-range artillery.

The junction of the armies and the demarcation of the limits of their advance is therefore imminent.

Patton's men are less than 100 miles from Prague.

First Army troops at Leipzig are now apparently little more than 40 miles from the Russians.

Another Son of the Ex-Kaiser Captured

Another son of the late Kaiser Wilhelm has been rounded up at Frankfurt, it was stated at Shaef, to-day. Which son it is was not disclosed.

He is one of more than 400 suspects now held in gaol as political prisoners, following a two-week drive carried out under the orders of Military Government in Frankfurt to round up fanatical Nazi "werewolves" and other anti-Allied agents.

GOEBBELS' GLOOMY SPEECH TONIGHT

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TO TELL HUNS BANK ON 'LUCKY STAR'

Never before have the matters been on the razor's edge as they are to-day, said the advanced text issued by the German News Agency, of a broadcast which Goebbels will deliver to-night, on the eve of Hitler's 56th birthday.

Never before has the German people had to defend its bare life under such enormous dangers and by a last all-out effort make sure that the Reich does not break apart.

This is not the time to celebrate the Führer's birthday with the usual words, or to express our traditional good wishes to the Führer. To-day it is necessary to say more and this will be said by a man who has earned this privilege before the Führer and the nation.

REICH "TUMBLING"

Flourishing towns and villages throughout Europe have been transformed into fields of craters. The most outstanding civilisation the world has ever seen is tumbling into ruins.

To-day we are living through the last act of a gigantic tragic drama, which began in August, 1914, and which we Germans interrupted on November 9th, 1918—the outbreak of the German revolution—at a moment when the decision was just about to come.

This is why it had to be done all again and why it had to begin again on September 1st, 1939 (German invasion of Poland). What we thought to spare ourselves in November, 1918, we have to do now two and threefold.

There is no getting away from it—unless the German people turn their backs on a life worthy of human beings and live an existence of which most primitive tribes in Africa would be ashamed.

Let us act like men and like Germans, follow our leader without reserve, and stake our hopes on our lucky star, even if that star is clouded over for the time being.

Let us not be cowards in misfortune, but stay defiant, not offer the world the spectacle of miserable servility but hoist the old Swastika flag instead of the white flag of surrender.

FINAL ROUND

Our enemies may wound us, but they can never kill us. They can knock us about, but never force us to our knees. They can torture but not humiliate us.

Now that we have entered the final and decisive round of the war, shall we abandon all our ideals and all our hopes of a better future in the confusion of the misfortunes that have befallen us?

The war is approaching its end. The madness which the enemy has unleashed upon mankind has already gone beyond its climax.

The leader of the enemy coalition has been struck down by that very fate which kept our Führer alive on July 20th, amid dead, wounded and ruins, that he might complete his work.

A few years after the war Germany will blossom as never before. Her ravaged countryside will be studded with new and more beautiful towns and villages inhabited by happy people.

We shall once again be friends with all nations of good will and with them will heal the scars of our heavy wounds.

If we prevail the work begun in Germany in 1933 and so rudely interrupted in 1939 will be continued. Other nations will join in, not under coercion, but freely.

We shall never leave him (Hitler) in the lurch whatever the danger. May God give him health and strength, and preserve him from all dangers. The rest can be left to us.

In the midst of peril Germany celebrates her greatest triumph. If history tells that this country's people never abandoned their leader and their leader never abandoned its people, that will be victory.

Another Swindle

It can be assumed that Goebbels has already made the speech, if only for a gramophone record. These records will be played tonight from the German radio stations, including the Berlin radio, if it is still on the air.

Neutral reports say that there is not the slightest likelihood that Goebbels is in Berlin. It is most likely that with other Nazis—he had taken to the Bavarian "redoubt."

1948. Threats of Violence Overshadow West Berlin Elections

Heavy Police Presence in West Berlin as Voters Go to Polls

"The Resurrection," an East German propaganda cartoon depicting West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer as the successor to Adolf Hitler (source)

Bill Downs

CBS Berlin

December 5, 1948

Western Berlin streamed to the polls today in the city's first free elections in two years, and indications are that an extremely heavy vote is being cast despite threats of reprisal from the Communist-dominated government of East Berlin.

The polls have been open for seven hours now. Officially more than 40 percent of the vote is in the ballot boxes, while the American-licensed radio in Berlin said that as of a half hour ago 75 percent of the vote is in. On the basis of the early voting, some German officials are predicting that between 80 and 90 percent of the Western Berliners will cast their ballots—something more than a million voters.

Since the Communists for the past month have been pleading, demanding, cajoling, and even physically trying to keep the people away from the polls, a large vote will be interpreted as a protest against Soviet occupation policy and an endorsement of the stand of the Western powers in this Berlin crisis.

So far the elections have been quiet. Paradoxically the heaviest and earliest vote came in the districts which border on the Soviet sector. French patrols were called out once in the heavily industrialized Reinickendorf district when three Soviet soldiers, carrying Tommy guns and accompanied by three German civilians, walked across the French-Soviet border toward one of the polling sites. The Russian soldiers withdrew when the French patrol arrived.

So far twenty-two persons have been arrested for interfering with the elections. In the Kreuzberg district in the American sector, fourteen persons were arrested after one man tried to use false documents and entered the polls as an election official. He revealed the names of others under German police questioning. In Spandau, in the British sector, eight men were arrested demonstrating before a voting place.

Some ten thousand German police are alerted and guarding the voting places. American, British, and French troops have been confined to barracks and are under standby orders.

The threat of violence is still here. There are increasing rumors that attacks against the polls will be made tonight. During the night, many election posters and official election placards were torn down, and some polling places were smeared with red paint. Anti-election pamphlets are being thrown from windows of the elevated railway.

The airlift is having fog trouble again today, and only a few planes are getting in or out of the city. Early this morning, an American Air Force C-54 leaving the Faßberg airport crashed and burned shortly after taking off. The three crew members were killed. The plane was carrying a load of coal to Berlin.

This makes a total of sixteen Americans who have died flying over the Russian blockade. Six others killed were British.

This is Bill Downs in Berlin. Now back to CBS in New York.