fgls 1 ttamujtnn fltorataij Star 1 ™Sr VOLj<^lNQ- 2^?____WILMINGTON, N. C., TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1943_FINAL EDITION_ESTABLISHED 1867 Post-War Planning Board Will Confer On City Expansion MEETING SLATED --- » Representatives Of Subur ban Areas To Be Invit ed For Talks unitsTobenamed Committeemen To Be Chos en For Various Pro jects Of Group The inclusion of suburban ,reas within the city limits i Wilmington will be the bject of discussion between venresentative citizens of out jvL districts and the city s nostwar planning board with in the near future, H. R. Em olT chairman of the board, indicated Monday night At a meeting of the boai'd it was decided to draw up a ]jjt of names from which committees would later be chosen to join in preliminary discussions whose findings till be open for public hear ■, if Such are warranted. Former Plan Killed i former plan for including su ;;;ban areas within the city limits t: Wilmington was killed in the I lower house of the last session I of the North Carolina General As sembly. The subject of much con troversy. it was not approved in its final form of presentation by local officials. While present plans are only ten tative and the meeting Monday was primarily an organizational one for the adoption of by-laws, Secretary Fred Rippy mention ed that this board will study sur vey's made by other local agen cies in connection with a prelimi nary survey that is now being planned. Cooperation with the City-County Planning Committee and the Chamber of Commerce is also the aim of the group. Regular meetings will be held: the first Monday before the second Wednesday in each month at city hall at 8 p. m. Special meetings may be called by the chairman on two-davs notice. I0L1CE TOTRAIN JMMSMANSH1P Department Members Will Receive Instruction With Weapons A training program in the use °t pistols, machine guns and riot Suns for the personnel of the Wil mington police department got un derway Monday afternoon when the first group of ten patrolmen nractieed target shooting on the tar?e at Legion field. F':e Program will continue, with approximate groups of ten men engaging in target shooting, until every member of the force is qua ked in the use of these arms. Cruel Casteen said Monday, with special emphasis being placed on pistol shooting for both slow and rtpid types of firing. Norwood Wolfe, Wilmington pat rolman, will have charge of in fraction. He has qualified as an expert :n the United States Army, P'd has had varied and consider* experience in this type of 1-finery, the chief added. The riot guns to be used are the ‘Jiauge shotgun variety equipped ■ 1 ri air-cooling systems. The prac •ce rar‘ge is that used by the Wil TfPgton Pistol and Rifle club. WEATHER jlw,, FORECAST: 1- i CAROLINA: Warmer today. 'Haslern Standard Time) J.*ptporr>i1 '■ Wcat^er Bureaif) 'Mmg 7 an81Cal rlata for the 21 h0UT« 5 ' P- r"-- yesterday. , temperature P ri, 5i. 7 30 a. m„ 39; 1:30 rr .1 ■ ,T. nr:.. 53. Maximum 63; -Ul ■■8’ M'-an 50; Normal 64. 1 30 , humidity »: 7:30 P: •• w 1:30 p. m, T„ pe of work comes. J. A. Stevens, attorney for George Hunter, requested abate ment on a taxation penalty for not listing in 1939-40-41-42. The (Continued on Page Three; Col. 8) Mountbatten Aide American war plans expert Ma jor Albert Coady Wedemeyer, has been named as U. S. Army Depu ty Chief of Staff to Lord Louis Mountbatten, head of the south east Asia command. U. S. Army Air Force photo. (International Soundphoto) FOUR NEW PUMPS ARE TO BE USED City Expects To Receive Electric Units This Morning Four additional electric pumps have been ordered by the city and are expected to arrive Monday night or Tuesday morning, Super intendent of Water and Sewage McKean Maffitt said Monday af ternoon. A special priority, necessary to obtain the pumps, was secured last week from the War Produc tion Board in Washington by City Engineer J. A. Loughlin. Mr. Maffitt also announced a revised schedule for the water tank truck operated by the city which will be in effect beginning Tuesday morning: Sixth and Nixon streets, 8-9 a. m.; Front and Castle streets, 9-19 a. m.; Lee and Lake Forest drives. 10-11 a. m.; Greenfield and Twelfth streets, 11-12 a. m.; Sixth and Nixon, 1-2 p. m.; Front and Castle, 2-3 p. m.; Lee and Lake Forest, 3-4 p. m.; Greenfield and Twelfth, 4-5 p. m.; At the present rate of consump tion the truck is refilling about (Continued on Page Three; Col. 1) —-v AIR FORCE CHIEF HAILS HIS CREW Arnold Says Cost In Men And Planes Justified By Work WASHINGTON, Oct. 18. — (A>1 General H. H. Arnold today hailed the achievements of American air men as overwhelmingly Justifying the cost in men and money. The chief of the Army Air For ces. commenting crisply on discus sion of the 60-bomber, 593-man crew loss in the October 14 raid over Schweinfurt, Germany, term ed the loss incidental. “You can’t run a war on a dol lar basis,” he asserted, “but if you want to put it on that basis consider the dollars in what we have destroyed.” General Arnold had invited to Air Force headquarters in the Pentagon building over two-score reporters, news executives, radio commentators and columnists. In each chair was found a schodl days-style tablet and sharp pencil. The general, flanked by aides with charts and pictures, sat near the head of a long table. As many guests as could sat around the table. Others occupied chairs that lined the walls. “I just want to talk,” the gener (Continued on Page Three; Col. 1) •r T 1 Housewives Are urged To Help ‘Home Front’ "Inflation is one of our most dangerous foes and is now attack ing our home front. This can be prevented only if housewives will keep the Home Front Pledge, which will be given to them when they register for War Ration Book No. Four next week. Rationing and price ceilings are our wea pons, and they will be effective only if each and every citizen makes an honest effort to abide by the regulations of the Office of Price Administration,” said Mrs. Julian Morton, who with Mrs. Emsley Laoey and Mrs. W. H. Henderson, Jr., is a member of the Community Service Panel, now launching the Home Front Pledge Campaign in Wilmington. This group has talKea to civic, club heads on the subject ^ dur ing the past few weeks, but the campaign got underway officially las? week when OPA officials spoke to housewives here. “The purpose of this campaign is to keep down inflation and stop black market operations, contin ued Mrs. Morton. ‘ Contrary to toe belief of many, OPA does not wato to ■snoop'; tho'. WJU for ‘snooping if au b toe same patriotism that our boys 011 th,! ^att!fbev the rejSK We should obey tne 1 of our country as they a e ok Registration for kaiion (Continued on Page Three; Col. 5) *\ ALLIES POURING REINFORCEMENTS im0 WAR FOR ITALIAN MAINLAND; RUSSIANS SMASHING NAZI ARMIES k fAT ADMITTED Berlin Acknowledges Loss Of Ground Before Red Drive 23 VILLAGES~SEIZED Nearly 4,000 Germans Killed And Much Ma teriel Taken LONDON, Tuesday, Oct. 19.—,(/p) — Russian troops smashing four miles deeper into tlie Dnieper river loop to flank hundreds of thousands of German troops “are throw ing the enemy back, destroy ing his forces, and clearing him from one populated place after another,” Moscow an nounced early today. Berlin acknowledged its troops were giving ground under the impact of 300,000 Russians attacking south ward toward the Dneprope trovsk-Kiev railway, main lifeline of Axis troops de ployed along the Dnieper bend to the east and in the Gvimen tn the smith The Red army overran 23 more villages, killed nearly 4,000 Germans, destroyed or captured scores of tanks and guns, smashed every Axis at* said a midnight communi tempt to stem it yesterday, que supplement recorded by the Soviet monitor from a Moscow broadcast. 16 Guns Captured In one area the Russians said their troops had forced the Ger mans to “beat a hasty retreat” from a village, and captured 16 abandoned gun's with their trac tors and many other weapons. This was only a small part of the booty declared swept up during the day. Developing what may be a dis aster for the Germans all along their crumbling Dnieper line, the Russians also announced fresh gains below Gomel, north of Kiev, and at embattled Melitopol, where bitter street fighting had rolled into the seventh day. The Russians surrounded and smashed blockhouses and strong points built around one square in Melitopol, the supplement said, cleared several districts of the city, and decisively defeated a German counterattack southwest of the city near the railway lead ing to the Crimea. A total of nearly 7,000 Germans fell on all fronts during the day, and 153 tanks were knocked out or captured for a two-day bag of 324, the supplement said. In ad dition 79 guns, including many 88 mm., were destroyed or seized, it said. A Moscow broadcast communi (Continued on Page Three; Col. 4) r— ' ' . —■ - Cordell Hull And Anthony Eden Arrive In Moscow For Parleys MOSCOW, Oct. 18. — (/P) — U. S. Secretary of State Cor dell Hull and British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden have arrived in Moscow for the long awaited tri-power conference with Soviet Foreign Commis sar Vyacheslav Molotov, it was announced tonight. (The conference presumably will seek an agreement on war objectives and post-war colla boration between the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union.) Hull and Eden were accom panied by W. Averell Harri man, newly named U. S. Am bassador to the Soviet Union; Green Hackworth, U. S. State Department counsel; James Dunn, political adviser; Maj. Gcu. John Dean, U. S. Army; William Strang, British assis tant under-secretary for foreign affairs; and Lt. Gen. Sir Hast in':* Ismay, chief of staff to tii, British minister of De fta> e. The meeting of United States British and Russian secretaries CORDELL HULL is expected to deal largely with the post-war political mat ters—specifically what sort of Europe is to be shaped once victory is won. and what should be done to preserve the peace. This view prevails generally despite the recent assertion by Prada, communist party or gan in Moscow, that the second front and the complete defeat of Hitler is the main question for the meeting. Edward R. Stettinius, acting secretary of state, mentioned both today in declaring that the oonferencr should contribute greatly to achievement for the goal “we are all striving for, the compVete defeat of the ruthless Nazis and the estab lishment of a just and last ing peace.” Out of the conference may come military conversations for close coordination of the Red army’s efforts with Anglo American forces when Allied armies close in on Germany for the kill. The prime concern, however, of Secretary of State Hull, foreign Secretary Eden and Foreign Commissar Molotov is believed to be to lay the groundwork for an understanding on hand (Continued on Page Two; Col. 1) FIRST PRISONERS ! TO BE EXCHANGED War Department Announc es That 17 Ameri cans To Return WASHINGTON, Oct. 18— iJfl — 'The first repatriation of American ['prisoners in Germany was under way tonight, the War Department disclosed, with four American of ficers and 13 enlisted men in a group returning to the United States. Several thousand prisoners hail ing from various parts of the Brit ish Empire also are on their way home from German prison camps. The War Department announced that under an agreement between the United States and Germany for mutual repatriation of sick and wounded prisoners the first group of American personnel already is “being embarked at Goteborg, Sweden.” The group, comprising grades from first lieutenant to private, will return to the United States by way of England. “The British and American pris oners of war who are being re patriated at this time.” the de partment said, “are the first to be repatriated from Germany. “It is expected that further re patriation movements will be agreed upon from time to time.” The limited number of Ameri can personnel exchanged as com pared with the British prisoners of war, is due, the department said, to the fact that there are relatively few Americans held by the Germans. ---1 Rommel’s Forces Battle Three Guerrilla Armies LONDON, Oct. 18.—(tP)—Three guerrilla armies—Yu goslav “regulars” under Gen. Draja Hihailovic, Gen. Josip (Tito) Broz’ red-starred bands, and a resurgent Albanian guerrilla army — were reported locked in bitter battles with Marshal Erwin Rommel's forces over a wide western Balkan front tonight. Mihailovic’s forces, launching their first big offen sive since the German occupation of garrisons formerly held by Italians, was said by government leaders at Cairc to be smashing toward the Danube river loop in northeast » dll Uti UiQ Oil/ti V towns in a definite menace to German river traffic. Tito’s liberation army, wrecking rail links and trains in a retreat from Zenica, in Bosnia, continued their attacks elsewhere against re inforced German garrisons be tween Sinj and the port of Split on the Dalmatian coast, and near Bakar, southeast of the Susack Fiume port area, a free Yugoslav radio broadcast said. The newest drain of Rommel’s already thinly-drawn forces in the Balkans was in Albania. Some 35, 000 Nazis were reported in Cairo dispatches to have been rushed from Macedonia to Albania to re inforce German forces under al most daily guerrilla attacks. There was no hint mat the forc es of Tito and Mihailovic, long i at odds, had joined to oppose the j invaders of their homeland, but; it appeared that some of their ac-! tivities might overlap. Bands rep resenting both forces are fighting ] in Bosnia and in Serbia. Exiled Yugoslav government in formants said at Cairo that Mi hailovic’s part-time farmer-soldiers had captured Bra’, Palanka and Zubukovac in southeastern Serbia and were driving toward Donji Mi lanovac, on the western end of the Danube loop above the Iron Gate rapids. Fighting back desperately against these newest threats to his Balkan forces, Rommel sent his planes over Serbia and into the interior in fierce raids on guerilla held villages. German raiders struck also at the area north of the Albanian border, where Tito’s forces were reported to have captured the town of Andrijevica, only 10 miles above the frontier. The Moscow radio said that the Germans had lost 1.200 killed and wounded in a battle against Par iContinued on Page Three; Col. 5) ENEMY SPEARHEAD BROKEN IN BURMA One Of Three Jap Columns Forced Into Scatter ed Retreat CHUNGKING, Oct. 18.— W—One ol three Japanese columns, driv ing north in western Yunnan prov ince in an attempt to forestall a Chinese move south into Burma to join a possible Allied offensive (from India, has been broken up and forced into scattered retreat, the Chinese high command said today. The Chinese communique, which touched only briefly for the first time in a number of days on the operations in western Yunnan, identified the column as one which had pushed to the Salween river opposite Luku and said it had suf fered severe losses. (On the west Burma front, a British communique from New Delhi reported a successful land attack Saturday on the Japanese held town of Maungdaw on t h e Burmese coast about IOC miles northwest of the important port of Akyab. The communique also reported a number of diversionary raids. “(Both the British and an Amer ican communique told of the usual softening up, pre-offensive aerial blows over widespread areas of Rnvwia ^ The high command here had previously reported the arrival of the Japanese column on the west banks of the Salween behind which the Japanese were apparently try ing to force the Chinese forces. This forcing move was regarded as an attempt tc upset any Chi nese plan of collaborating with possible Allied attempts to recap ture the north Burma stronghold of the Japanese at Myitkyina. Myitkyina is 105 miles west of Luku which is 55 miles north of Pao Shan on the Burma road and 70 miles north of the principle Japanese base for their drive northward in Yunnan at T e n g Yueh. The communique gave no de tailed information as to the ac tivities of the other two columns, also driving northward, saying only that “the fighting in western Yun nan is still fierce” It added that fighting continued with “no change in conditions” in the Siachungkow, Chiehtou and Kutungohieh areas. The Chinese estimated the total Japanese forces in the Yunnan area at approximately 12,000 men. In western Chekiang province on China’s eastern front, the Chinese said they were routing a three (Continued on Page Three; Col. 6) FOE IS REPELLED Fifth And Eighth Armies Slowly Pushing Ger mans Back PORTS REBUILT Debarkation Facilities Per mit Big Shipping Program ALLIED HEADQUAR TERS. Algiers, Oct. 18.—I/P) —Important new Allied landings of men and material have been made on the Ital ian mainland in recent days, it was disclosed tonight as the forces of Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark and Gen. Sir Ber nard L. Montgomery slowly pushed the Germans back in heavy fighting. Reconstruction of port and other facilities has reached a point to permit much big ger debarkations than previ ously. Upon arrival at vari ous southern Italian ports, troops, tanks, guns, ammuni tion, food and other supplies are moving swiftly up both the Mediterranean and Adri atic coasts to the fighting fronts and over tortuous mountain roads to the cen tral sector. Thanks partly to this im proved supply, it was an nounced today that Clark’s Fifth Ai-my veterans of Sa lerno had driven beyond the Volturno river and “firmly , occupied” the towns of Can cello, Ruviano and Nerrone, while Montgomery’s Eiorhth was stabbing westward through the Apennine moun tains toward Rome. Fires Back of Lines As the Fifth and Eighth Armies pushed the Germans back in yes terday’s fighting, some fires were observed behind the enemy’s lines, indicating the destruction of sup ply dumps in anticipation of a quick move backward. The Nazis at the front continued to fight as stubbornly as usual, however, while these behind-the i line operations were in progress. The enemy’s next stand on the west coast is likely to be inland from Gaeta and along the Garigli ano river, which is some 20 miles i north of the Volturno and about j 30 airline miles from Rome. Gaeta was Mussolini’s “secret port” for sending Italian troops , to Spain in 1937 in violation of (Continued on Page Three; Col. 2) -■ --1 Meeting Is Scheduled For Scrap Drive Heads A meeting of all scrap commit teemen has been called by W. A. Stewart, county chairman of the salvage drive, for Tuesday, 2:15 p. m. to be held at the Brigade Boys’ Club, at which time James B. Vogler, North Carolina execu tive secretary of the War Pro duction Board, will speak. Mr. Stewart said that Mz\ Vog ler will announce his topics of dis cussion, and he urges all mem bers of the committee to be pres ent. Mz\ Stewart was appointed to his present position as county chairman of salvage drive and county chairman of industrial sal vage of the Seventh Congression al District last week. Kirke Simpson Says: Triple Crises For Foe Dominate The War News Triple crises for hard - pressed Nazi forces in Italy, Russia and the Balkans dominate the war news. The whole 2,000 mile south eastern flank of the German de fense front from the Sea of Azov to the central Adriatic is aflame with attack and appears to be slowly collapsing. That a Nazi retreat from the Crimea and the great Dnieper bend is in progress is admitted from Berlin. That is what the conceal ing phrase “detaching move ments” used in German official reports from the Russian front re ally means. It admits failure to halt Red army incursions across the river, and below it. South of recaptured aporozhe, Moscow says a deadly pincer attack is closing on all enemy troops in the eastern end of the Dnieper loop and south of the river, including those in the Crimea. A reported wide-based Russian thrust across the upper side of the river loop, west of Dnepropetrovsk, 4s within r-edium caliber range of the main railroad supplying the bend front. Fanned out southward or westward, this thrust could cut at the only transportation routes available to the foe for the escape, or supply, of forces holding the whole lower end of the Dnieper Crimean defense line. Russian observers report the sit uation potentially even more criti cal for the Germans than was the Stalingrad trap which cost the Nazis more than 300.000 men in prisoners alone. Berlin advices stress the size of Red armies being thrown into the action both in the upper trans - Dnieper bridgehead positions and to the south in the Melitopol battle. That both oper ations have become desperate rearguard stands to permit escape of the Dnieper loop defenders and the Crimea garrison is virtually admitted by Berlin in using the “detaching movement” phrase. In Italy, Anglo-American forces appear to have made good their footing in the Volturno plains north of the river,' and to be driving up the left bank of the stream farther east toward a junction with the columns in the center, already north of Vinchiaturo. The objec tive appears to be to turn the flank of the Nazi defense line north of the lower Volturno, strongly es tablished in the hills that rim the Volturno plain. The stubbornness of the Nazi stand above the punctured Voltur no line is itself significant. It in dicates that fight-to-the-last orders for each successive defense posi (Continued on Page Two; Col. 3) Vessel Launching Will Feature Shriner’s Fete ! The launching of the S. S. Kathay by Miss Julia May Raney will be the highlight of the Sudan Temple Cold Sand Ceremonial to be held here Tuesday when Masonic mem bers of the eastern half of North Carolina meet for their annual fete under the leadership of their potentate, L. A. Raney. Formerly a two or three-day cele bration was held each year with parades, town decorations, and ela borate ceremonies in the hometown of the potentate, who is the high est officer. This position, held this year by Mr. Raney, brings the celebration to Wilmington, but due to wartime conditions the attrac tion is condensed into a one-day V affair and the launching was cho sen as an appropriate main event. The 100 candidates for the Sudan Temple of Mystic Shrine, highest degree of the Masonic Order, will register at 12 noon at the Cape Fear Armory. The initiation cere mony and business meeting will follow at 1 p. m. At 3:30 p. m. the Sudan Temple band of Raleigh will present a 30-minute concert at the shipyard followed by the launch ing at 4 p. m. Miss Jean Whitley of Windsor, Va., and Miss Barbara Uthrell of Goldsboro will be attendants for Miss Raney. Among those on the program will (Continued on Page Three; Col. 6) A