Here are excerpts from articles on the Butler Eagle’s front page June 8, 1944.

OUR PLANES USING LANDING STRIPS IN NORMANDY WAR ZONE

ALLIED SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, London, June 8 — Allied armies have “completed successfully” the first phase of the invasion of France, it was announced officially today, and have swung into battle to destroy German mobile reserves moved into the assault areas.

The fighting in Normandy is now spreading, and is especially savage in many sectors as the Germans throw in more and more armor, the latest word at Allied supreme headquarters revealed.

Germany’s famous 21st Panzer division, which the Allies destroyed several times in North Africa and the Mediterranean theater, only to find it reformed, now is opposing the invasion forces in the Bayeux-Caen area of Normandy.

... With the 21st Panzer division already in action, fighter-bomber pilots reported that Mark VI tiger tanks were moving up to the front.

ALLIED COLUMNS SWEEP NORTHWARD FROM ROME

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, Napal, June 8 — Four powerful Allied columns swept 15 to 40 miles beyond Rome in headlong pursuit of the beaten German 14th army and front dispatches indicated that the Nazi retreat degenerating rapidly into a disorganized rout.

Harried every step of the way by the onrushing American and British columns, the Nazis were reported putting the torch to everything in their wake, blowing up bridges and highway junctions in a desperate attempt to escape.

Low-flying Allied war planes machine-gunned the fleeing enemy, while a force of almost 500 American Flying Fortresses and Liberators swung out of the Riviera to blast their supply and reinforcement lines leading to France.

AMERICANS SEIZE MOKMER AIRFIELD

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, Southwest Pacific, June 8 — American Sixth Army troops who captured Mokmer airdrome on Balk Island, and drove westward toward Borokoe airfield today under the support and the Allied air and naval bombardment.

The U.S. forces overcame the final Japanese resistance at Mokmer on Wednesday after a column circled through precipitous hills and palisades and surprised the enemy from the rear.

BIG GERMAN SMASH IS EXPECTED NOW, STIMSON WARNS U.S.

WASHINGTON, June 8 — Allied invasion forces are pouring reinforcements and supplies into their beachheads in France, but “only the first hurdle has been taken” and “we must look for the full fury of savage counterattacks in force at an early moment,” Secretary of War Harry L. Stimson said today.

... “Germany troops are established in northern France in great numbers,” he said. “Their air force has certainly not yet been driven from the skies. Their military command has plans of action which are undoubtedly beginning to move. We must look for the full fury of savage counter attacks in force at an early moment.”

NORTHERN FRANCE UNDERGOES HEAVY AERIAL ASSAULTS

LONDON, June 8 — Full striking power of Allied air arm crashed down on the bomb-riddled German defenses in northern France today in wake of a shattering double blow by the RAF’s night raiders against rail targets in the suburbs of Paris and a hidden Nazi fuel depot 12 miles behind the invasion coast.

Clearing skies of the channel and the battle zone sent thousands of Allied warplanes thundering out at daybreak in what appeared to be their biggest ground-support operation since the beginning of the invasion.

A huge aerial task force of some 1,000 American Flying Fortresses and Liberators escorted by half that number of fighters blasted bridges, railway targets and airdromes over a wide area ranging from 100 to 150 miles south, southeast and southwest of the Normandy beaches.

DRIVE ON FRENCH PATRIOTS PLANNED

LONDON, June 8 — The Vichy government ordered its militia today to mobilize for an all out attack on their own people who have resisted the German occupation and now are aiding the Allied liberation of France.

The order for the immediate mobilization of 20,000 for an attack against French resistance forces followed a new Allied call upon organized French patriots to strike the German communications with “the full force of all resources.”

JAP GARRISON IS TRAPPED AT KOHIMA

SOUTHEAST ASIA HEADQUARTERS, KANDY, Ceylon, June 8 — British Imperials captured strategic Aradura spur, a mountain height, below Kohima overlooking the highway running south to Imphal, and left a Japanese garrison trapped in a small pocket, it was announced today.

SOVIETS SEIZE TWO IMPORTANT HEIGHTS

MOSCOW, June 8 — Red army troops, taking advantage of heavy enemy losses, opened counter-attacks against the German lines north and northwest of Iasi in Romania and captured two important heights, it was announced today.

POPE PIUS RECEIVES GENERAL MARK CLARK

VATICAN CITY, June 8 — Pope Pius XII received Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark for a 10-minute private conference in the Vatican library today.

Later the Pope went into an outer room and greeted members of Clark’s party which included high-ranking Fifth Army officers and officers of the Allied military government.

WAR IN BRIEF

AIR WAR — Full striking power of Allied air arm crashes on German defenses in northern France in the wake of RAF night raids against rail targets in Paris suburbs and Nazi fuel dump 12 miles behind invasion coast.