Newspapers / Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, … / June 12, 1944, edition 1 / Page 1
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_. . i FORECAST ---- - REMEMBER forecast *** WILMINGTON AND VICINITY■ Vai* ■■ ■ ahk ^partly cloudy and not quite so warm PEARL HARBOR Temperatures yesterday: High ^ 71~_ AND BATAAN VOlT77.—NO. 122 -r ---:---j---——-5 _WILMINGTON, N. C., MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1944_FINAL EDITION_ESTABLISHED 1867 ^ _ Once Again Yanks Go Over The Top In France Keminiscem oi a oauie scene in me last war, American soldiers are shown going over the top somewhere in Normandy. In the trench In the foreground, a second wave of men await their turn to climb ths hill before them and go into action against the enemy. Official U. S. < signal Corps Radiophoto. (International Soundphoto.) Big Parade To Feature Bond Drive The opening of the Fifth War Loan drive today, designated as “Civilian D-Day,” will be observed in Wilmington with a full program. Climax of the day will be a mam moth parade composed of enlisted men, WAVES, WACS, SPARS and Marines. Wilmington aims to secure $5, 707,000 of the country’s $16,000, 000.000 quota. North Carolina’s goal is $148,000,000. Beginning at 9 a. m. retail store employes will gather at the Bailey theater for a bond sale rally. Each employe has undertaken to sell 5300 in bonds. Addresses will be given by three Bluethenthal fight er pilots: Lt. Col. Andrew J. Rey nolds, deputy base commander, Capt. Robert J. Weaver, and First Lt. MacArthur Powers. At 9:30 retail stores will be open ed and the sale of bonds and stamps will be made by employes. Stores will feature window dis plays designed for the campaign. A parade led by the band from the Marine Corps Women’s Re serve at Camp Lejeune will launch the Fifth War Loan campaign at the North Carolina Shipbuilding company, which has a quota of 8250,000 (the largest quota the company has had). Major J. C. Bell, Marine public relations offi •tr, will address the shipbuilders. At 6:45 p. m. the parade will start, led by a color guard which will include a WAC, a WAVE, a SPAR and a Marine each carrying an American flag, and composed of troops from the Antiaircafi Ar tillery Training center; a detach ment of the 679th AA Ordnance company, one of the Army’s crack Negro organizations; two compan ies of WACs, one from the Fourth Service Command’s troops at Camp Davis and one from the An tiaircraft Artillery school; bands from Camp Davis, including the 142nd and 143rd Army Ground Forces bands; and a big Marine hand from Camp Lejeune. The parade will proceed west on Market from Fourth to Front; r.orth on Front to Red Cross ttreet; east on Red Cross to Third (Continued on Page Eight; Col. 3) Pescara Falls To Eighth Army; Fifth Gains On Eastern Coast -—* - ---1 LIBERATORS BAG 22 JAP PLANES ADVANCED ALLIED HEAD QUARTERS, New Guinea, Monday, June 12.—(JP)— Apparently catch ing the Japanese off guard, Lib erators of the Fifth Army Air Force raided Palau Friday, de stroying 22 planes on the ground in the first daylight raid by land based planes on the enemy island fortress only 536 miles from the Philippines. Headquarters announced today that the Liberators were not in tercepted, indicating the Japanese were taken by surprise. Palau first was raided March 29, 30 and 31, when carrier-based planes sank 28 Japanese ships and destroyed more than 160 airplanes. The first attack by land-based planes was Thursday night and in the dark ness results were not observed. In addition to destruction of 22 grounded planes Friday, many buildings in the vicinity of Palau’s airdrome were blown up. a head quarters spokesman said. He add ed that “this remarkable extension of Lt. Gen. George C. Kenney’s bomber line is the result of our capture of Dutch New Guinea air bases within the last two months.” Truk, in the central Carolines 1, 000 miles east of Palau, under went a heavier attack on the same day. Ft. Bragg Infantrymen Will Get Decorations FORT BRAGG, June 11 —W— Seven 100th division soldiers will receive decorations for heroism from Maj. Gen. Withers A. Bur ress division commander, in cere monies here Thursday marking the division’s observance of In fantry Day. Combat infantry badges Will be awarded to three men who served in major American battles abroad and Soldier’s medals will go to four who helped rescue five un conscious men from a burning plane here May 11._ . Germans Lose 70,000 In Italian Fight ROME, June 11—UPl-The Fifth and Eighth armies, pressing close behind the mauled Germans who have lost 70,000 men in a month, sped northward today in a general ten-mile advance that over-ran the important industrial city of Pes cara on the Adriatic coast. Midway oh the Italian peninsula east of Rome the former German bastion of Avezzano also fell to the Eighth army which was fight ing over difficult rolling wooded land heavily mined and studded with stubborn rear guards. Avez zano lies on the important lateral road from Rome to Pescara and the Eighth was methodically clear, ing it of the enemy. The Fourteenth German army, which turned to make a brief and costly stand six miles north of Viterbo, was in full retreat again and the Fifth army pushed ten miles north of that city. There were indications the Ger man flight was even faster than before since mine sweepers steam ed into Santo Stefano to find that port, 80 miles northwest of Rome and 25 miles beyond Allied pa trols advancing up the coast, abandoned. The Tenth German army, which had been falling back more slow ly, accelerated its retreat as the Fourteenth’s swift withdrawal un covered its right flank and Indians of the British Eighth army seized not only Pescara but Chieti, anoth er provincial capital farther in land; the coastal resort of Franca ville five miles south of Pescara, and Sulmona. The Fifth army continued to meet only slight opposition as it roared north, capturing Montalto di Castro, 60 air line miles north of Rome, ten miles beyond Tus cania and 24 miles west of Viter bo, and the small town of Can nino, about ten miles northeast of Montalto di Castro, the farthest announced point of advance so far. Other towns to fall were Tessan (Continued on Page Eight; Col. 6) SOVIETS ATTACK ,; ON NORTH FRONT LONDON, Monday. June 12. — 1 (IP) — The Red army, opening a ' major offensive on the Karelian ] isthmus above Leningrad, has j smashed 15 miles through the < strong Finnish Mannherheim line * and captured 82 towns and villag- 1 es, Premier-Marshal Stalin dis closed last night in an order of the , I The Russian assault, on a 25 mile-wide front between Lake Lad oga and Gulf of Finland was aim ed at knocking out Finland, Ger many’s co-belligerent in the war against Russia, and was launched after Finland had rejected Russian armistice terms which included a demand for the expulsion of seven Nazi divisions operating in Fin land. Other Red army offensives were expected to unfold soon on the long front from the Baltic to the Black sea as part of the Allied master plan aimed at defeating Germany this year. Reports from uneasy Finland said the massive Russian assault began Friday—three days after the Allied invasion of western France. -V Japanese Attacking Gates Of Changsha CHUNGKING, June 11. — (^P) — Japanese driving from the north are hammering at the very gates of Changsha, their major objec tive in the all-out Hunan province offensive, the Chinese high com mand announced tonight, but there was no confirmation of an enemy claim that the invaders already had entered the beleaguered Canton - Hankow railway city. -V-— POPE GIVES THANKS ROME, June 11. — (fl5) — Pope Pius XII emerged from the Vati can late today to give thanks to the Madonna of Divine Love that Rome had been spared. By ERNIE PYLE WITH AMERICAN FORCES IN' FRANCE, June 11.—Due to * last minute altered arrange ment I didn’t arrive on the beachhead until thfe morning after D-Day after the first wave of assault troops had hit •hore. By the time we got here the beaches had been taken and fighting had moved a couple miles inland. All that remained on the beach was some sniper and ar tillery fire and the occasional startling blast of a mine gey sering brown sand into the air. that plus the gigantic and piti ful litter wreckage along miles °f shore line. Submerged tanks and upturned boats and burned ‘fucks and shellshattered jeeps and sad little personal be longings are strewn an over on these bitter sands. That plus bodies of soldiers lying in rows of covered’ blan kets, the toes of their shoes sticking up in line as though on drill. And other uncollected bodies still sprawling grotes quely in sand or half-hidden by high grass behind the beach. That plus an intense grim determination of work - weary men to get the chaotic beach organized and get all the vital supplies and reinforcements moving more rapidly over it from stacked-up ships stand ing in droves out to sea. Now that it is over it seems to me a pure miracle we ever took the beach at all. For some of it was easy but in this spe cial sector where I now am our troops faced such odds that our getting the shore was like me wxiippxug uc jjuuia uwwu iu pulp. In this column I want to tell you what opening the sec ond front in this one sector entailed so you can know and appreciate and forever be humbly grateful to those both dead and alive who did it for you. Ashore facing us were more enemy troops than we had in our assault waves. The advan tages were all theirs; the dis advantages all ours. The Ger mans were dug into positions they had been working on for months. Still they weren’t yet all complete. A 100-foot bluff a couple of hundred yards back from the beach had great concrete gun emplacements built sight into the hilltops. They opened to the sides instead of front, thus making it very hard for naval lire UUUl IUC avnvu them. They could shoot paral lel with the beach and cover every foot of it for miles with artillery fire. Then they had hidden ma chine gun nests on the for ward slopes with cross fire taking in every inch of the beach. These nests connected with networks of trenches so the German gunners could move about without exposing themselves. Throughout the length of beach running zigzag a couple hundred yards back from the shoreline was an immense V shaped ditch 15 feet deep. No thing could cross It, not even a man afoot until fills had been made. And in other places at the far ends of the beach where the ground was flatter (Continued on Page Eight; Col. 2) AMERICAN TROOPS ADVANCE ON CHERBOURG PENINSULA’ DESPITE NAZI RESISTANCE 9 ' ___* - 7.000 WARPLANES HAMMER FRANCE 1.000 U. S. Heavy Bomb ers Spearhead Attack On Normandy S U f K Li M Hi xl Jii A u QUARTERS ALLIED EXPE DITIONARY FORCE, June 11.—(£>)—Spearheaded by 1, 000 U. S. heavy bombers, nearly 7,000 Allied warplanes supporting Allied armies en larging their beachheads in Normandy today dealt the Germans the heaviest series of daylight blows since the in vasion began. U. S. Flying Fortresses and Lib. erators smashed at nine ' enemy airfields, eight bridges, a German army headquarters and other ob jectives in an area stretching from the beachhead to Paris and as far north as Vau de Calais. At the same time fighters kept up a day-long pounding of communica tion lines and enemy convoys. Mustangs, Thunderbolts and Lightnings dive-bombed and blast ed enemy targets, shooting up more than 300 railroad cars, 85 trucks, a number of tanks and ar mored cars, 25 locomotives and a dozen oil tanks. ixrduqutuicia Ui lire OUcUeglC Air Force announced that five German planes were destroyed and that three heavy bombers and eight fighters were missing from all the day’s operations. Since D-Day, until 6 p. m. Sun day, headquarters of the Strategic Air Force announced, planes of the Ninth Air Force alone flew more than 13,000 sorties, averag ing about 100 flights per hour over enemy territory despite bad weath er which grounded all except re connaisance planes for 24 hours June 9. Since H-Hour, the announcement said, mediums, light and fighter bombers of the Ninth have drop ped more than 5,800 tons of bombs ! in and around the battle- zone. Fighter-bombers alone have hit more than 800 different objectives. C-47 troop carriers and gliders have flown more than 1,000 opera tions. Altogether, the announce ment said, the Ninth has lost 112 planes since the invasion began, excluding gliders abandoned after unloading. Forty German planes out of the small forces willing to challenge the Allies were shot down by the Ninth Air Force. While Allied planes based in Britain and on newly-won air strips in France were battering at the Nazis, Hitler’s Balkan de fenses were pounded by American oeavy bombers which flew from their new bases in Russia to smash at two Romanian airfields north of Bucharest and complete their shuttle trip back to Italy. -V Wilmington Flier Lands In France A U. S. FIGHTER BASE IN ENGLAND, June 11.—W—A 210 pound former Tennessee state foot ball player landed a damaged Thunderbolt on a landing strip in France while American engineers cleared the last 100 feet for him. The pilot was Lt. Andrew Cal houn of Memphis. Tenn. He was followed to the ground by his squadron leader, Maj. J. A. Ca rey, 27 Jackson Drive, Lake For est. Wilmington, N- C.. who weights 150 pounds, and both returned to England squeezed into a Thunder bolt cockpit not built for two. “I had to dodge Bulldozers and Scrapers when t came down, Cal houn said. “The engineers certain ly were glad to see me, because they had been out of communica tion with the fighting forces since D-Day. They rushed me for news of how the war was going and were amazed to see how far our lines had advanced on a map I pulled out.” -v Yugoslav Partisans Capture German Base LONDON, June 11—Yugo slav partisans of Marshal Tito, working closely with Allied troops hacking away at Hitler's back door in the Balkans, announced to night the capture of the German base at Pousnik in Slovenia, and the Croatian town of Korenica, seven miles south of Zagreb. As the Yugoslav partisans car ried the fighting to the Nazi forces in the Balkans, Allied forces aided the guerrilla fighters with land, sea and air attacks. On The Lookout For Nazi Snipers j I A couple of British soldiers, driving inland from a French beach head, take shelter behind an American M-10 tank destroyer as Ger man snipers try to hold up their advance. The Nazis were forced to retreat as Allied reinforcements arrived. Signal Corps photo. (Int.) Allies Begin Draft Of Surrender Terms WASHINGTON, June 11.—(JP)—With the invasion of Europe well under way Allied diplomats are drafting sur render and occupation terms which are understood to call for complete industrial demobilization of Germany. the European advisory council in London, composed of American, British and Russian diplomats, sub ject to final revision and approval of the Moscow, London and Wash ington governments. They are being rushed into a final working agreement because Allied leaders feel they must be prepared for possibility, no mat ter how remote, of a German col lapse- From the White House down there is no evidence in official quarters here that a collapse is expected. The plan for what to do when victory comes considers two main contingencies; (1) that the German surrender will be given by a gov ernment or a military command capable of halting resistance on all fronts effectively or (2) that the Germans will break down piece meal, losing their armies and their territory in prolonged retreat. -V Shuttle Bombers Return To Italy ALLIED HEADQUARTERS. Naples, June 11. — (R) — U. S. heavy bombers taking off from new bases in Russia and personal ly commanded by Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker. chief of the Allied Mediter ranean air force, landed in Italy :oday after bombing Axis Balkan lir fields during their return trip :o the Italian bases they left nine lays ago. Headquarters here named only ■ :he Focsani airdromes near Galati. Romani, as the targets. ] (A communique from the east- ^ ?rn command^ U. S- Strategic Air tounced that more than 1 000 Am crican planes based in Russia and Italy and supported by Russian Dilots, teamed up to blast targets 1 it Constanta and Giurgiu in Rom- 1 mia and Smederevo in Yugoslavia !1 WAR vv uivi\uivd (jvvavjuiy j p WASHINGTON, June 11. —(R)— t rhe American Automobile Asso ciation today said war workers i is a group are reckless drivers, t completely disregard wartime \ speed regulations and are notori- i Dusly indifferent to any and all 1 measures of car conservation. i FRENCH PATRIOTS KILL QUISLINGS IRUN, Spain, June 11. — (IP) — French partisans have occupied strategic centers in the cities of roulouse, Limoges .and Tarbes n southern France and have shot ,the prefects of police, mayors and oth er collaborationist authorities in all three cities, direct dispatches reaching here said today. The dispatches did not make plear whether the actions consti tuted a general uprising, saying on ly that important points in the :hree cities, as well as in the reg ions surrounding them were oc pupied by the partisans. (A major uprising by French patriots, extending from Metz to \vignon—almost the entire length jf eastern France—and including a ‘major coup” at Bellegarde near he Swiss border, was described ;oday in Swiss and Swedish news- . paper accounts, the Office of War information reported. About 100 French patriots were said to have ' seized the Bellegarde railway sta lion. location of a Nazi headquar- 1 lers, and to have ‘‘proceeded sys lematically to sabotage all the in- 1 sta'llations- About a mile away, the , reports said, 481 Germans were i tilled and 150 prisoners taken in 1 “violent clash” between Ger nans and patriots last Thursday ) -v Republican Chairman Target Of Attacks WASHINGTON, June 12- —(£>)— ' 1 fight to supplant Chairman Har ison E' Spangler will be carried iefore the Republican national ommittee when it reorganizes for fie presidential campaign after the 1 arty’s Chicago nominating conven- i ion, it was learned today. 1 A member of the romn uee, t .’ho declined to be quoted by name, 1 Did a reporter that he and others c rould oppose Spangler’s reelection } t- a meeting which is expected to ie dominated by the wishes of the iarty’s presidential nominee. I MESS LAUDED 5Y HEADQUARTERS 7urious Battle Rages As Germans Launch Counterattack SUP R E M E HEAD. QUARTERS ALLIED EXPE DITIONARY FORCE, Mon lay, June 12.—(/P)—Ameri can troops, making news vhich headquarters declared ;d today was “excellent—it could not be better,” plunged ;o the outskirts of Monte jourg, 14 miles southeast of che prize port of Cherbourg, dashed half-way across the Cherbourg peninsula, and Irove deeply southeast to wards St. Ilo Sunday in fu rious battle with the Ger nans. frill nur i n cf thr» miHnio'tif! communique No. 12 which an lounced these gains and heavy fighting on the British wing of the Normandy invasion front below lib erated Tilly-sur-Seulles, headquar ters said the American progress >n the right wing towards Cher courg was “extremely good news." The American also won high of ficial praise for an advance on heir own left wing,.in the center )f the 50-mile Allied front. Headr juarters disclosed that they had liberated the town of Lison, 10 miles south of the coast below Is gny and, in a continuing push on i broad front, had moved several miles farther south and east to he forest of Cerisy. The situation around Carentan, oig town in the neck of the Cher bourg peninsula, was described as “obscure.” The Germans still held he town but Americans were ad vancing deep along each side of t. West of St. Mere Eglise, on the •oad to Cherbourg, Americans who rave crossed the main peninsular railway in several places still are fighting stiffly, beating off repeat ed German counter-attacks. The Sermas said there were missive lew landings of troops and equip ment Sunday on the east coast of die peninsula, and the Allies an lounced that rail yards, junctions, iridges and the airfield at the city if Cherbourg itself were bombed ind strafed during the day^ The Germans conceded that it vas obvious that the Allies intend ed to seize Cherbourg and the top >f the peninsula and “make it a ilatform for the second phase of he invasion.” The Allied communique an lounced that in the vicinity of Til y-sur-Seulles the Germans had hrown in heavy armored forces ind were stubbornly resisting the 3ritish advance along the Seulles ■iver. Tilly-sur-Seulles is a dozen niles inland, southeast of Bayeux. ts capture by the British with the lid of heavy naval artillery, plus he American surge past Lison, put most of the beaches out of range >f German guns. There was strong indication, that he German defense command of field Marshals Rommel and Von lundstedt was committing its ar nor and reserve troops piecemeal ilong the entire deepening beach iead in a desperate effort to con ain the Allied drive generally ra her than stopping it in detail by verwhelming concentration of orces. The rolling American offensive Continued on Page Eight; Col. 5); .-!*> Last Stop — This Is France — All Out American airborne infantrymen leap from their glider on to French soil a few moments after the craft rolled to a stop at a point not far from a front position where the fighting was in progress. These men followed close on the heels of the paratroopers that had dropped from the skies a short time be* fore and blasted enemy installations and disrupted communications. (U. S. Signal Corps RadiophotaJ. ,C" ' 1
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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June 12, 1944, edition 1
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