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— , ■ ■ _ *. ■ ’ „ \ l§ idPH Mmtmtfmt iMnnmtg iliar | S1 VOL^7-—NO- 178_____WILMINGTON, N. C., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1944 FINAL EDITION ESTABLISHED 1567 1 I Red Surge On Prussia Increases invasion draws near 172,360 Nazis Reported Killed Or Captured By Single Army LONDON, Wednesday, Aug. 16.— (AP')—Soviel field dispatches said Iasi night that Red army troops had crossed the Biezrza riv er in northern Poland, strik ing through a 15-mile belt oi Axis defenses guarding im perilled Fast rrussia, wnue Moscow announced that Mar shal Ivan S. Konev’s Fourth Ukraine army had killed or raptured 172,360 Germans. Konev’s troops attacking through southern Poland toward German Silesia killed 140,000 Ger mands between July 13 and Aug. 12. the special announcement said. On the basis of Moscow accouts six Soviets armies have killed or captured a total of 781,886 Ger mas since the great summer of fensive began June 23, and when three other armies presently engag ed in shattering the Reich forces are heard from the total is likely to exceed 1.000,000 Swarms of armored fighter bombers covered the Russian surge toward East Prussia, spray ing German positions at Grajewo, only two miles from the frontier in the attack along the Bialystok Lyck railway. The Russians already are endangering thousands of outflank ed German troops fighting in the Suwalki triangle a short distance above the Biebrza river sector. The Suwalki triangle, annexed to east Prussia from Poland in 1939, re cetly was invaded by Gen. Ivan Cherniakhovsky's Third White Rus sian army. When Ge’rman reserves, flung nto battle in the Suwalki area and along the East Prussian-Lithuanian border farther north, slowed Cher niakhovsky, the Second White Rus sian army went over to offensive now rolling dangerously close to the southern border of East Prussia or the fringe of the Masurian lakes famous battleground in the firsl World War. The Soviet high command daily communique was silent about this sector, but Associated Press Mos cow Correspondent Daniel De Luce said an invasion of the southerr partof East Prussia was likely it the next 72 hours. In the north Gen. Ivan Mas lennikov’s Third Baltic army had swept half-»,vay across southerr Estonia and was on the verge o] cutting the Pallinn-Riga trunk rail wav — communications back-boni linking the 200,000 stranded Ger mans of Col. (fP)en. Georg Linde mann s two Baltic armies whicl are fast withering under the blows this powerful contingent. The Russians were only 70 miles from the rtnif e* -Dirr-. Madisc. less than five miles from . Tallinn-Riga railway and 13 miles west of Antsla on the road 'an-Latvian border city and rail junction, was captured, the bulletin sait'1 'n a seven-mile advance oMthwen of Antsla, taken Monday. ra'l station of Anne, three *.es west of Antsla onthe road “imperilled Valga, also was seiz W.as well as Urvaste, seven mile* northeast of Antsla. Striking northward along the wit-Tartu highway another Soviet cn ;i!Tin swept through Mustajoe, 27 ™es southeast of Tartu and 127 miles from Tallinn, Estonian capi ,al on the Baltic. Ten miles north east of Voru they seized Vastse oiola. Pushing along the Petseri artu railway another group took umetsa, 12 miles northwest of etseri. The advance point taken 'he push northward along the ‘■est bank of Lake Pskov was Mi 'kamae, 13 miles north of Petseri. or the first time in weeks th« ussian bulletin mentioned the arsaw area, saying that Germar ounterattacks had been repulsed "st of Praga, the east bank sub ,i0 01i Ike Polish capital on th( isiula river. Russian units of Mar J-a Konstantin K. Rokossovsky’i ,rsl White Russian army last weri ““Ported within 11 miles of War Ea'v at Mostowka on the northeast Besieged Warsaw is 100 mile; outhwest of the shattered Beibrz; IVcr sector, and Zakharvo’s troop a d those under Rokossovsky hav en slowly driving a wedge be Ween Warsaw and East Prussi: ----—-^ French Patriots \ Aid In Invasion LONDON, Aug. 15.— (£>) — Complete disorganization of G e r m a ny’s communications throughout France was claim ed by authoritative French sources today as patriot forces struck with new intensity to assist the Allied invasion in the south and the sledge-hammer blows in the west. The independent French news agency reported from Bern that 10,000 French patriots were “advancing toward Vi chy” and that hundreds more were joining them as they push ed ahead. The agency said six other de tachments of French forces of the interior were moving on Bordeaux. The dispatch did not say where the patriots were coming from or how they were armed. A communique issued through the French press service report ed that French forces of the interior killed 800 Germans, wounded 300 and took 100 pris oners during the past 24 hours while seizing the towns of Breton, Serignac, Lannion and La Cl'arte, in Brittany. The report said the delivery of equipment from factories working on German production had been halted by sabotage. It listed the Englebert works near Compiegne and the liquid air factory at Rheims as among 1 the "many” whose output had been stopped. The French were officially silent on E. F. I. activity in the area of the southern invasion but a spokesman said the Ma quis had undoubtedly joined up with the Allies in large" num bers at the beachhead, while ripping up roads, demolishing bridges and clearing minefields in the rear. Gen- Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, Allied commander in the Mediterranean, issued in structions to civilians in the south, warning them not to block roads, not to try to cross combat lines, to report on Ger man movements and to main tain discipline City’s Incinerator Ready In February Completion date for the construction of Wilmington’s proposed $125,000 incinerator has been set for the last of February? J. A. Loughlin, city engineer, announced yes teruay. Although architectural plans have not been completed for the building, ground survey work has | been started and construction is ! scheduled to begin^vithin the next I 30 or 40 days, Loughlin said. The building, which was approv ed Monday by the War Production Board, will be constructed at the corner of Moore and Dickinson St. and will cover the lot from Dickin son through to Wood streets, City Manager A. C. Nichols said yes terday. A preference rating of AA-3 has been granted for the purchase of necessary materials. The incinera tor will be a three-story structure with two 112-ton units, either or both of which may be utilized at once. ELLIOTREPORTS NEW TYPHUS CASE One more case of typhus has been reported to the Consolidated Board of Health, Dr. A. H. Elliot, city-county health officer, disclos ed last night. This case brings the total num ber of typhus cases to develop within the past several weeks to nine, and the total for the year to approximately 13. At the same time, Dr. -Elliot said that the infantile paralysis situation in this vicinity has “greatly improved’’ in the past several days due both to the com ing of cooler weather and the cooperation of mothers in limiting the activities of their children. Two cases of polio now remain under quarantine in New Hanover county. -V POLIO VICTIM DIES l HICKORY, Aug. 15.—OP) —Henry i E- Benge, three-year-old son oi . Mr- and Mrs. John H. Benge, diec ' at the emergency polio hospita: , yesterday one hour after arriving 1 The Benges child was the eight! patient to succumb at the hospital * where 230 cases have been treated. * Robert Scott Heads Insurance, Safety For ACL Railroad The formal appointment of Robert Scott as director of safety and insurance of the Atlantic Coast Line railroad, with offices in Wilmington, was announced yesterday by C. McD. Davis, president of the railroad. Scott was formerly director of safety, and was in charge of insurance. The new appoint ment places Scott in charge of the entire insurance depart ment, in addition to his duties in the safety department. ILLNESSFATAL TO H.J0WARD W. H. Howard, Sr., of 316 South Third St., prominent Wilmington citizen who retired from the posi tion of general passenger agent of the Atlantic Coast Railroad campany last year, died at Bul luck Clinic yesterday afternoon after a lengthy illness. He is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Harry T. Paterson, of this city; one son, W. H. Howard, Jr., U. S. Army now overseas; and two brothers, H. W. Howard of Cartersville, Ga., and A. N. Howard, U. S. Army. Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later date. -V PRIORITY GROUP TO MEET RALEIGH, Aug. 15.— (jF) — The state manpower priorities commit tee of the War Manpower Com mission will meet here tomorrow to rule on manpower priorities and employment ceilings recommended by WMC area directors for essen tial employers of 25 workers or less and other essential employers, Dr. J. S. Dorton, WMC state direc tor, said today. i Six Lumber Operators Fined $39,000 ! For OP A Ceiling Price Violations ELIZABETH CITY, Aug. 15 _UP)—Six individuals operating and controlling lumber com panies in the south were or dered to pay fines totaling $39, 000 by Judge I. M. Meekins in federal court here today when they pleaded nolo con tendere to Office of Price Ad ministration charges of crimi nal violation of price ceiling* set for southern pine and hard wood lumber. The criminal charge* were lodged against J. W. Well* of Montgomery, Ala., B, H. : Oates of Kenansville, N. C., W. A. Gooch of Hallsboro, N. C., J. P. Jamieson and L. L. Shert i zer, both of Montgomery, and i L. A. K#ig of Belhaven. s The OPA charged that they : individually, and as associ ates, sold and delivered to “numerous persons, firms, and corporations large quantities of southern pine and hardwood lumber at prices in excess of ceilings.*” The indictments furthef charged the defendants with “causing lumber shipments to be misrepresented, upgraded, falsely invoiced and illegal commissions added, resulting in sales being made at whole sale in violation of ceiling prices.” Each individual was fined $6,500. At the same time, Judge Meekins took into con sideration a treble - damage settlement of a claim made by the QPA at Montgomery, Ala., in the sum of $6,000 and paid by one of the companies. Total fines and penalties to the de fendants totaled $45,000. Norman C. Shephard, district OPA enforcement attorney, t 4 said the charges grew out of a long-term investigation of sales by the J. W. Wells Lumber company and its associated companies and partners by OPA investigators. Shephard said the J. W. Wells company, of Montgom ery, with branches at Lumber City, Ga., Milligan, Fla., and Hallsboro, N. C., was the prin cipal defendant in the OPA ac tion. Other firms named in the action were listed by Shephard as: The J. W. Wells Lumber company, Belhaven, N. C.: the Wells - Lacy Lumber com pany, Brunswick, Ga., and Lumber City, Ga.; the Wells Oates Lumber company, of Kenansville and Currie. N. C.; the North Carolina Lumber * (Continued on Page Three; Col- 6 IAousands Of Allied Troops Hit Mediterranean Coast Of France In Move To Join Normandy Force rRAPPED ENEMY HAMMERED HARD Eisenhower’s Troops Get Strangle Hold On Foe In Coffin Corridor SUPREME HEADQUAR rERS ALLIED EXPEDI riONARY FORCE, Wednes lay, Aug. 16. — (fP) — The Germans chught in the Nor mandy death trap were being lammered mercilessly today n the climatic battle for lorthwestern France and in American officer declared the enemy forces “have ceas ed to exist as an army.” Rain, which fell in sheets across the battlefield and sent the swarms of warplanes back to bases, was the only hope of Field Marshal Gen. Guenther Von Kluge trying to ex tricate his forces through a shell fraught gap below Falaise now nar rowed to nine miles. As Gen- Dwight D. Eisenhower’s troops in Normandy tightened their grip on the entrapped Nazis a new Allied invasion on the southern eoast of France tore another breach in the crumbling walls of Hitler’s Uuropean fortress British and Canadians on the north and Americans on the west and south closed in on the pocket fiar the kill which will mean the greatest victory for Allied arms in the west in this war. Even should the bulk of the 50, 000 or more Germans believed still in the trap manage to elude the Allied armies, they will be in no condition to stand and fight be fore Paris, for an officer declared the Seventh army had lost most of its equipment and material. Americans advancing four miles or more were seizing great stores of ammunition and equipment, and hundreds of prisoners were stream ing back through the American lines. The roof of the German corridor in Normandy’s hills and hedgerows \yas caving in, with Canadians storming to within a mile of pivot al Falaise, nine miles above where the Third American army is pound ing north against fierce resistance in an attempt to close the trap. American forces at the west end of the corridor drove forward two to four miles, while British troops pressing down from the north stfirmed the German citadel of Vassy, and were threatening Conde-sur-Noireau. Squeezed on all sides, the Ger mans were probing the south limits of the trap for a weak spot through which their thousands of confused soldiers might escape. Some of them braved the hail of shells and bombs sealing off the escape hatch and fled during the night, and unofficial estimates were that 50,000 or more of the 100, 000 to 200.000 in the Seventh army still were held in the trap.li But as hundreds of the enemy, hands raised in surrender, trooped into the Alied lines, Gen. Eisenhow. er declared the Germans were “taking a sound beating.” New Invasion Front Opened j Allied troops scored a new victory yesterday when they invaded the southern coast of France be tween Marseille and Nice. Overall picture of the ter ritory involved in the fighting is shown above. ITALIAN FRONT REPORTED QUIET ROME, Aug. 15—UP)—A brisk en gagement developed when Fifth army patrols made contact with German patrols three miles south east of Pontedera yesterday but in all other sectors the Italian land front was quiet except for artil lery duels. Allied headquarters said today. German shelling of Florence al; most ceased and the Allied posi tion there “continues to imporve steadily,-’ headquarters added. Although there was some interfer ence from snipers, food, water and medical supplies continued moving into the city in great volume for the civil population. Allied tanks and mortars engag ed the enemy on both sides of the Arno bend west of Signa. Eighth army troops mopping up pockets of resistance in the Em poli area killed at least 25 Ger mans. At Florence it was fearned that five of Florence's beautiful bridges were blown up without any prior announcement to Florence citizens who had been dealing with the Ger mans seeking an' understanding with the Allies to save the city’s historic and artistic treasures. Citizens along the river front were ordered out of their homes about 72 hours before the demolitions took place. High Florentine sources said Field Marshal Gen. Albert Kessel ring ordered the bridges destroy ed because he was determined that the Allied pursuit of the Ger mans north of Rome should not be repeated north of Florence. TOBACCO FIRM TO SOME LOWER FLORENCE, S. C., Aug. 15—IIP)—' Flue-cured tobacco on the North Carolina and South Carolina border belt market was firm to one-cent lower today, the Was Food Administration reported. The general average for Mon day was the highest of the season, 4.104,124 pounds selling for an average of $43.82 '■* Great Aerial r leets Batter Enemy F orces LONDON, Aug. 15'i—tt.{AP)—Three thousand Americar and British planes, two-thirds of them bombers, cast 8,00( tons of explosives on a score of enemy air bases and air dromes in Belgium, Holland and Germany today, while an other powerful force of Italian-based heavyweights hop ped the Mediterranean to southern France and blasted i wide path for the new ground invasion there. A force of 1,100 RAF Lancasters*-* and Halifaxes and nearly 1,000 U. S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators churned up enemy air strips wrecked buildings, and ieft flam ing wrecks of 180 to 270 Nazi planes caught parked on the fields. Fighters escorting the American bombers also destroyed a number of planes on the ground, disabled 62 locomotives, and destroyed or damaged 188 railway cars. Moderate enemy opposition in the air was encountered, the bombers knocking down 13 planes and the fighters bagging 14 for a total of 27. Sixteen bombers and five fighter failed to return. Last night RAF Mosquitos agai struck Berlin, hurling blockbustei on the battered Reich capital. Nor of the Mosquitos, which also lai mines in enemy waters, was lost. The fresh daylight attacks wei aimed at squelching any attempl by the Germans to gather the: depleted sky strength for suppo: of their desperate ground force back-tracking before victorious A lied troops in France. • Patton Leads Third Army In Big French Offensive SUPREME HEADQUAR TERS ALLIED EXPEDI TIONARY FORCE, Aug. 15— (#)—Fiery Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., is the tactical genius who drove the rampant Third U. S. army across Brit tany, through Le Mans and then northward through Alen con, completing the southern jaw of the trap on the Nazi Seventh army. The controversial, gravel voiced Patton, has been lead > ing an army literally “born in battle” Aug. 1. It has been on the offensive since the day it was created and never has let up a minute. Living down the soldier-slap ping incident in Sicily which put him under a cloud last fall. Patton justified the con viction of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower that "Old Blood and Guts”. was one of Ameri cans finest field commanders. The supreme commander, re vealing today that Patton was on the marching wing of the Third army, said it was ‘‘where he belongs.” (In Washington the Senate Tuesday confirmed Patton’s promotion to the permanent rank of major general. The Senate military affairs com mittee had withheld approval of the* nomination since last October over the soldier-slap ping incident but indorsed it unanimously after disclosure of his new role. Reprimanded by Eisenhower, Patton publicly apologized to his troops. (Senator Chandler (D-Ky) said committeemen agreed Patton was “a great soldier” who had been "sufficiently difiplined.’O NAZI DEFENDERS QUICKLY ROUTED Invaders Make Landings On 125 - Mile Front In Toulon Area ROME, Aug. 15. — (/P) — Thousands of Allied troops, mainly Americans and French, swarmed onto the south coast of France on a broad front between Marseille and ‘Nice today, seized and extended firm beachheads against inconsequential Ger man opposition, and drove northward with the avowed intention of joining the Al lies in northwestern France. An Allied communique at 10:40 p.m., said American and French troops before dawn took the Sen tinel islands of Port Cros and Le vant, 10 miles off the coast, and seized Cap Negre, on the mainland due north of the islands and 28 miles east of Toulon. Other specific locations were not , given, the beaches being placed I w*in 4U~ 1 or coast between Marseille and Nice. ^he Germans said the focal point of the Allied invasion was at St. Raphael, 30 miles northeast up the coast from Cap Negre, and also said there were landings west of Toulon and at Bormes, 25 miles east of that onetime naval base. American airmen who flew over the beaches late in the day said there was no sign of any concerted enemy opposition and that Ameri can vehicles were "running ail over the countrys'de.” The official night statement said, "On the beaches of the mainland, where landings were successful against light opposition, the opera tion is proceeding satisfactorily.” " adding that, "substantial numbers of Allied troops, together with guns, munitions and supplies, had been landed across the beaches of south ern France by dark this evening. "The beachhead has been ex I tended and widened during the day’s operation. "Enemy opposition remains spo i radic, and no enemy air attaick* I have yet been reported.” Word from the beaches indicat ed that German prisoners taken in sporadic, light fighting showed al ‘ most total demoralization, primar 1 ily as a result of the American breakthrough in northwestern _ France, which they realized meant . that the fatherland's downfall was near. One dispatch from a correspon t dent in the field said that by after noon the invaders were well Into southern France and going ahead fast against Germans who were ® caught entirely by surprise. Allied casualties were reported to have e been slight. Thousands of Allied parachutists and airborne troopers landed well ^ inland at 4:30 a.rri., also against *• scanty opposition, following the im s portant opening blow against the ■ offshore islands. A Dicked force had neutralized the islands’ big guns silently to pave the way the tactical surprise of the mall seaborne landings which followed. Backed by more than 800 war ships of all sorts — the greatest naval force ever assembled in the Mediterranean —the first seaoorne troops went ashore in broad day light at 7:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m., EWT) at several un dentified points be tween Marseille and Nice—a 125 mile stretch of Rocky coast. “The army of France is in being again, fighting on its own soil," said a proclamation by Gen. Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, the Allied commander in chief. Distributed by plane, his proclamation told the French the primary aim of the new invasion was "to drive out the Germans and join up with the Al lied armies advancing from Nor mandy,” to form a solid front across France. Heavy aerial bombardment pre ceded the invasion in a final in stallment of the aerial softeaing up process that had been in pro gress for three days. The air forces announced that (Continued on Page XtkCM* CM. 4
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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