FORECAST v ■ ““mm‘ f“ tutttttgtfltt nrntttg #tar ““““ WILMINGTON, N. C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1944 FINAL EDITION ~ MIAMI; MOVES UP COAST INVASION OF PHILIPPINES CONFIRMED *- ★ Amphibious Forces Said To Have Landed On Suluan Island \ General MacArthur’s headquarters in the Phil ippines, Friday, Oct. 20 /m_(Armv Radio Pool Broadcast) - American invasion of the Philip pines was offciially pro claimed today by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Bv The Associated Press American invasion of the Philippines — almost two and k half years after the fall of Corregidor — was reported br radio Tokyo Thursday. Japanese reports said Ameri can amphibious forces from fleets commanded by Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Ad miral Raymond Spruance, hit the east-central Philippines and apparently landed fight ing men on small Suluan is land, in the mouth of Leyte gulf only 400 airline miles southeast oi manna. There was no American confir mation of Nippon reports that MacArthur had carried out his de clared determination of March 17, 1942. when, upon landing in Aus tralia from the Philippines, he said “I shall return.” The Japanese Domei news agen cy said, in a broadcast monitored by the Federal Communications Commission, that U. S. forces had begun their “reinvasion of the Philippines” backed by naval guns of the Pacific fleet and planes fly ing from bases in China. The Chi na coast is approximately 1,000 miles west of Leyte island. Domei said the invasion started Monday, U. S. time . It asserted "part of the enemy forces seem to have landed on Suluan island.” A Japanese imperial headquar ters communique pictured the “en emy fleet” of warships and troop transports as pushing into Leyte gulf after shore defenses had been Masted with naval shells and aer ial bombs for two days. The Jap anese said their forces were oppos ing the invasion. Domei claimed that 'U. S. Task Force 58. the mighty carrier arma da of Vice Adm. Marc A. Mits cher that has blasted the Ryukyu islands. Formosa and the northern' Philippines since Oct. 9, was not in the Leyte gulf cation. By The Associated Press O'- S. PACIFIC FLEET HEAD QUARTERS, PEARL HARBOR, Oct. 19.—American landings in the Philippines by forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur at two points threat of cutting the Archipelago w half were reported extensively today by Tokyo radio without Al lied confirmation. General MacArthur, who has vowed “1 shall return,” issued his regular communique which told of heavy plane raids from his theater •gainst Mindanao, southernmost of the Philippines, on Tuesday — the hay Tokyo said the reinvasion be lan. The communique went no far ther than that. ■Mrn. Chester W. Nimitz, whose communiques have reported pro longed carrier plane onslaughts on the Philippines this week, follow '■S neutralization raids on the Ry hkyus-Formosa line of reinforce n-diitinued on Page Two; Col. 51 LANE, NICHOLS BACK FROM MEET Mayor W. Ronald Lane and City Manager A. C. Nichols will return to the city Monday morning alter attending the International City Managers association confer ence at Chicago. The conference opened Friday morning, Oct. 13, and ended Oct. 18, and the emphasis was on muni cipal problems which will be faced after the war, and general adminis trative topics. Fred Rippy, administrative as sistant, sdisclosed yesterday that the assembly of approximately' 150 city managers *f the United States and Canada discussed general op erational problems facing the city governments. In explaining the relation of Wil mington with the conference, Rip py said that the problem of com prehensive planning and ‘how to get public participation,” was of particular interest to the Wilming ton officials. Also of interest to of ficials here was Dlannine1. finnnr ing and improving the post - war municipality, Rippy said. The City Managers association discussed the training of depart ment heads and ether administra tive personnel, and future munici pal trends along the lines of fi nance, personnel and federal-city relations. In this country, there are 562 cities under the city manager plan, and 18 in Canada. There are also five in Ireland and the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico is governed by the manager plan. Also there are seven counties in the United States, which operate under this plan, two of which are in North Carolina — Durham county and Guilford county. In North Carolina there are 25 cities under the manager form of government, including Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Ashville, Rocky Mount, and High Point, and Wilmington, which went under the new form of government in 1941. -V CARRIER FORCES CONTINUE ATTACK U. S. PACIFIC FLEET HEAD QUARTES, Pearl Harbor Oct. 19 — (jP) —Halsey-Mitscher carrier forces renewed their relentless at tacks on the Manila area Oct. 16, 17 and 18 and bagged an addition al 99 airplanes, sank six ships and damaged 23. These figures, announced by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz in a communique tonight, increased the destruction on the Japanese since Oct. 9 through Oct. 18 to 1,333 plus planes, 86 ships sunk and 127 ships damaged in the Ryukyus, Formosa and the Philippines. In addition, 75 small craft were destroyed and 80 damaged. Most important currently is the neutralization of Japanese air fields in the Philippines, particu larly the Manila area. With radio Tokyo reporting Gen. Douglas MacArthur landings on Suluan and Leyte in the central Philippines, the steady Halsey Mitscher poundings would prevent the Japanese from counterattack ing by sea and air. Japanese air pow.er must be virtually eliminated from the en tire Philippines, with Adm. Wil liam F- Halsey, Jr.’s planes keep ing the Manila airfields knocked (Continued on Page Seven; Col. 7) iWPB Appeals To Children To Be “Paper Troopers ” Wilmington School pupils have keen doing splendidly in their aste paper drive, say the group ^n‘Ch is sponsoring and encourag es the effort. llle nation's stockpile will' be *e, siderable larger as a result of •ei* 'vork, and the leading units c'i !he .beiter off financially be Mp? v th,®,prizes aggregating 150 , ‘* tne Wilmington Paper Stock *°epany has put up. camPaign was initiated with ll v,*l?os® of closing on October ,in hght of a special appeal War*, a KruS> chairman of the ins . °;Jcti0n b°ard. for continu icran ntributi°ns of waste and either IitPCr’ is anticipated that «n school children will go Acting paper throughout the winter or other groups take up we job when they stop. ...... Mr. Krug’s telegram, received by the Star - News on Thursday, reads: “Due to seiousness of waste paper situation the War Produc tion board joins with U. S. Victory Waste Paper Campaign committee of the American Newspaper Pub lishers association in; appealing for adoption of “paper trooper” pro gram Wherever possible. Paper trooper” program has now enlist ed about one million school chil dren and may be the foundation of national household waste paper collection system which will insure continuous flow of waste paper for the duration. “Plan provides official recogni tion of splendid work our school children are doing and offers new incentives for greater effort.” ; WELL ACROSS BORDER Berlin Broadcast Admits Russians Digging Deep er Into Reich LONDON, Friday, Oct. 20. — (/P) — A huge Red army, composed of Moscow and Sta lingrad veterans and sup ported by waves of tanks and planes and hundreds of big Soviet guns, has begun the first Russian invasion of pre war Germany, smashing sev eral miles into East Prussia and still was making headway at midnight, Berlin announc ed early today. The fall of Eydtkau, border town 37 miles east of the ten-way junc tion of Insterburg, and 87 miles from the East Prussian capital of Konigsberg on the German Baltic coast, was announced officially yesterday by the German high command. Moscow, as is usual at the un folding of important operations, kept silent about the offensive which Berlin said was backed by 600 tanks and supported at both ends of a flaming 200-mile front by two other massive armies attack ing on the northern and southern ends of the imDerilled Junker homeland. A dramatic midnight broadcast from Berlin quoted a German front correspondent as saying that the Russians still were digging deeper into the ancient land of the Teu tonic knights, and adding: “No battle in the East has ever seen such concentrations of Rus sian air forces and seasoned cam paigners cannot recall a similar surfeit of Russian artillery and tanks-” Another broadcast made earlier said the Russians possessed “an unheard of numerical superiority.” While the Germans often em phasize their own inferiority dur ing a severe Nazi reverse, Moscow dispatches previously said that the Russians had massed a tremendous force along the East Prussian fron tier, where an army has been poised for two months. Berlin said German reserves were being rushed to the front, presumably these include units of the new home army of all males between 16 and 60, whose forma tion Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himm ler announced Wednesday in a speech somewhere in East Prussia. Without - mentioning the East Prussian sector the Moscow radio last night said “the war has enter ed its final stage” now that Soviet armies are swarming into Czecho slovakia on a 171-mile front, bat tling German-Hungarian forces around the strategic road and rail hub of Debrecen in Hungary, and annihilating Axis- troops in Bel grade, invaded Yugoslav capital. (Continued on Page Two; Col. 3) _v_ Blind Solve Production Puzzle For Contractor DENVER, Oct. 19.— (Jf) — Nine blind persons have solved a pro duction dilemma for a Denver contractor manufacturing rifle cleaning thongs for the Army. Knots which had to be tied in the thongs were slowing up work; 833 an hour was the best output. Two blind employes hired as an experiment did so well seven more were empoyed. They step ped up the output as much as 175 per cent, one of them tying 4,000 knots in seven and a half hours. -V WEATHER VAVVriST Korth Carolina: Mild Friday, dim inishing winds and rains ending in af ternoon. (Eastern Standard Time) (By U. S. Weather Bureau) Meteorological data for the 24 hours ending 7:30 p.m.. yesterday. Temperature 1:30 am, «3; 7:3 Oam, 63; 1:S0 pm, 70; 7:30 pm, 67. Maximum 71; Minimum 81: Mean 66; Normal 64. Humidity 1:30 am. 97: 7:30 am. 86; 1:30 pm, »S: 7:30 pm. 100. Precipitation Total for the 24 hours ending 7:30 pm 0.35 inches. Total since the first of the month. 3.72 inches. Tides For Today (From the Tide Tables published by U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey) High Low Wilmington-11:54a 6:34a ll:54p 7:14p Masonboro Inlet-8:22a 3:09a 9:27p 3:60p Sunrise, 8:11 a.m.; Sunset, 3:32 P-m. MoonJise, 8;1B a.m.; Moor set, 7:91 p.m, ' • - 4 V Board Of Directors, 3d Fleet P : ■■■■ . ■ _• r.; t Under overall command of Adm. William F. Halsey, Jr., the sev en admirals pictured above direct the slashing attacks of the U. S. Third Fleet against Japan’s inner defenses in the Pacific. Second in command is Vice Adm. W. A. Lee, Jr., of Natlee, Ky.; sparkplug of the fast Carrier Task Force is Vice Adm. Marc A. Mitscher, with Vice Adm. J. S. McCain, formerly deputy chief of naval operations, in direct charge of carrier units. Other Third Fleet commanders are Rear Admirals Fredericks Sherman, R. E. Davison, G. F. Bogan and H. B. Sallada. ---.. ... ,,'t_ REP. H. P. FULMER DIES SUDDENLY WASHINGTON, Oct. 19— (PI - Rep. Hampton P. Fulmer, 69-year old democratic chairman of t h s house agriculture committee am dean of the South Carolina dele gation, died suddenly late today o: a heart attack. He had just stepped out of ar elevator in the Methodist buildinf annex, where he and Mrs. Ful mer had an apartment, when h( stumbled. The operator went to his assistance and helped him into ths apartment. Within a few minute; the congressman died. Mrs. Fulmer was away at tht lime but returned a short tim< later. Rep. John W. Flannagan, Jr. (D-Va) moves up to the commit tee chairmanship. Fulmer’s death cuts the numbei of democrats in the. house to IV. compared with 212 republicans. This is the lowest number of dem ocrats in 12 years. There are four minor party members and five va cancies. The South Carolinian had served 12 consecutive -terms in the house, having first taken office March 4, 1921. He had been chairman of the agriculture committe since 1940. Throughout his legislative career and especially since he attained the chairmanship, Fulmer devoted himself to legislation designed tc better the lot of the ‘dirt farmer.” A subject of particular interest to him was what he called the un justified “spread” between prices received by the farmer for his pro duction and the prices paid by the ultimate consumer. Farmers, he maintained, w e r « injustly penalized for t h e heavy cost represented by the dispropor tionate share of food costs taken (Continued on Page Two; Col. 6) GERMANY ECHOES AIR RAID ALARMS —-< LONDON, Friday, Oct. 20.—) — Instances Indicating a break down in the solidarity between German civilians and their military in this battered city were reported tonight by a se nior American staff officer to be resulting from the harsh ness of military rules and the desire of some civilians to get out of the war. Holland may be regarded as > curtain-raiser for a new majc: offensive,” Another said: “Between Eind hoven and Nijmegen, the Secon: British army is regrouping ant reinforcing formations with on< infantry and one tank division also with parts of an Americai tank division. Preparations for i further Allied major operation be tween Waal and Meuse are ii progress.” BRITISH ADVANCE LONDON, Oct. 19. —(AP)— Bri tish troops advancing southwarc irom captured venray piougne. 3 1-2 miles deeper into the Ger man Maas river bridgehead ir Holland today and with a strong American force converged upor the key town of Amerika, astride one of the main railroads leading eastward into Germany’s indus trial northern Rhine: and. The Germans, given no respite after their costly defeat at Ven ray and faced with possible en trapment on the Maas west bank, began hastily retreating from strong positions northeast of Ven ray, and to the south and south west fell back before powerful American and British drives. It was the eighth day of an Allied offensive to eliminate the Ger man Maas salient and prepare (Continued on Page Two; Col. 4) polisMrleys ARE SUSPENDED LONDON, Oct. 19.—(ff)—The con fences in the Soviet capital be tween the riva\ Polish factions from Lublin "and London have been suspended without final de cision, the Moscow radio said tonight. The Lublin group is standing firm on its demand that acceptance by the London del egation of the 1921 Polish constitu tion be made the basis for any negotiation?. The radio, said both groups achieved ‘clarification of their re spective points of view,” and that the conferences will be renewed .‘‘in the nearest future” after Pre mier Stanislaw MikolajCzyk con fers with his exile cabinet in Lon don. The Polish National Liberation committee’s delegation has return ed to Lublin, the radio added. On Oct. 13, the broadcast said, the Lublin group conferred with Marshal Stalin, Prime Minister Churchill, their respective foreign ministers and American and Brit ish ambassadors in Moscow. Then on Oct. 16 Premier Miko lajczyk was quoted as saying he “intends to coordinate his point of view with that of his colleagues in London in order to receive the necessary powers to continue the negotiations in the nearest future, the broadcast declared J ' ? ... $20,000,000 DAMAGE TO CITRUS CROP _ " City Alerted If Hurricane Should Come A Washington advisory is sued at 12:30 midnight said the hurricane had moved slow ly north or northeast during the past three hours and was then centered about 45 miles southwest of Charleston. The Wilmington weather bu reau said at 1:30 o’clock this (Friday) morning that winds here would reach their highest velocity at about 4 o’clock and probably not exceed 45 or 50 miles an hour. Only heavy rain and moderate ly heavy winds had been felt here up until 11:45 o’clock last night, as the hurricane moved up the state, and reports indicated that 1 the storm probably would not 1 reach hurricane proportions in ■ this area, but high winds were expected to strike some time be tween 1 and 2 a. m., today. Red Cross, Coast Guard and the Tide Water Power company were on the alert but a definite lull in wiqas ana uaes at aoutnport ana Wrightsville Beach was reported about 11:30 p. m. At 11:20 p. m„ the wind at Southport was reported to have slowed down to 32 miles an hour • and the barometer had been i standing at 29.70 for an hour. The ' tide was said to be normal and no unusual high tire was noted, ■ a Coast Guard report said. 1 A 10:20 p. m. report received 1 by the Coast Guard said that the ! storm had struck Charleston with winds from 60 to 70 miles-an 1 hour and that the city was in darkness. The winds in Southport at 10 p. m. had reached a velocity of from 50 to 65 miles-an-hour, vary ing according by gusts, an offi cial Coast Guard report said. The barometer reading at Wrightsville Beach at 10:40 p. m. . was 29.58, a drop from the 5:30 p. m. reading of 29.72,_ a Weather Bureau representative’ reported. He said at 10:40 p. m. that the wind was very strong and a heavy rain was falling. The tide was quite high with the wind from the northeast. Residents who had not already left the beach, in response to the 4 p. m. warning from the Weather Bureau, were told at 10 p. m. to leave immediately, he added. They were given plenty of time to leave before dark and preparations for shelter in Wilmington were made for those who had no place to stay, he explained. Communications lines of the At lantic Coast Line Railway were down south of Florence, but #3 .lines were reported down north of Florence, an 11 p. m. report said. Trees were blown across A. C. L. tracks between Charleston and Mt. Holly and slight damage was re ported done to several day coach es. - Tide Water buses were sent to Wrightsville Beach to bring into town all persons who wanted to leave and 12 Queen City buses were sent to Carolina Beach. At 9:15 p. m., Red Cross workers at the disaster committee headquar f the tobacco warehouses dam aged. Heaviest property damage, le said, was in western Pinar Dei ilio. All U. S. residents in Havana vere reported safe and uninjur id. Ji