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. ..II— ^—■ FORECAST ^ ■—■ *1 "" g=P” ilmtngtmt fflnnttng Star — V0L- 77-rXa-2- _WILMINGTON, N. C., SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1944 ■ _ FINAL EDITION Navy 1 ells Philippine Fightftory ISSUES COMMUNIQUE jj Lost Six Ship* To More Than 60 For The Japanese WASHINGTOnTnov. 17— ,T>,_The navy reported today „ the Philippines battle :hich cost the Japanese more thgn 60 warships and said that some damaged American craft already have returned to duty. Summing up the furious Oct. 22-27 battle in the long ed naval communique of the war, the department _ identi fied’six American ships lost in action, including the light carrier Princeton. This sink ing had been announced pre viously. The six ships lost; the Prince ton ;lwo escort carriers—the Saint Lo and Gambier Bay; two de £,royers—the Johnston and Hoel; one destroyer escort—the Samuel B, Roberts. "A few lesser craft also were reported lost. "The Japanese arc still wonder ire what hi; them,” the Navy said. The number of damaged Ayneri can vessels were not disclosed, the Navy said, for security reasons. Alter announcing the American ship losses, the communique said: "Against this, the Japanese de finitely lost two battleships, four carriers, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and an undeter mined number of destroyers. These ships were seen to go down. So severely damaged that they may have sunk before reaching port, Era in any event removed from action for from one to perhaps six months, were one Japanese battleship, three heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and seven de stroyers. In addition, damaging Id's were noted on six battleships, lour heavy cruisers, one light crui ser and ten destroyers.” ■ The victory not only made pos sible,” the Navy added, “the con tinuing supply of men and muni tions to General Douglas MacAr thur's successful invasion forces, but by its magnitude can conser vatively be said to have greatly reduced future casualties in both bin and waterborne equipment.” The United States forces pro tecting the landing of troops on Leyte were the target for three Japanese naval groups, totalling— v.trout considering submarines — (Continued on Page Three; Col. 1) [ -—V ML LOAN DRIVE WPS SELECTED Under the leadership of R. W. G:ilpl.:ni county farm agent, and •U:; Ann Mason, county home de monstration agent, a county cam pjign. organization for areas out sioe the city limits, has been set :or the Sixth War Loan drive. Charles F. Jones, of East ‘Wingion has been named chair of community leaders, headers selected are: Castle “5Ws, A. Ludeke and Mrs. '■ Mishoe. Masonboro, Mrs. Traister. Kures Beach, •‘•n, Clarence Danner; Bradley’s preeit' Mrs. I. T. Dexter; Myrtle Mrs. H J. Ottoway, East Wmmgton, Mrs. Jones and J. ^•‘Z; Winter park and Audubon, -*• «zd Mrs. W. F. King, and Mrs V Ltem''eilb'a-g: Gordon Road, E. Covil. "nghtsboro, Mrs. F. A. Jor £ and Mrs. A. G. Seitter; Middle J. }\ Peterson; Mur "•'s,:Uc- Mrs, Geo. H. Murray; l^nuedjin p.,ge Three; Col. 3) Slayer And 1 Victim Otto Steve Wilson, said to have confessed murder of two Los An geles women, and Virginia Lee Griffin, one of the victims. WILSON IS CLEARED IN OTHER MURDERS LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17.—(*— Homicode detectives, after ques tioning Otto Steve Wilson about a series of mutilation slayings in widely-separated parts, of the country, virtually concluded today that he is not responsible for any other than the ones to which he has confessed. Lieut. Harry Hansen disclosed that requests had come from 20 or 30 cities to interrogate the 31 year-old former janitor-waiter on unsolved crimes such as the ones for which he is held here—the slaying and butchery of 26-year old Virgie Lee Griffin and Lillian Johnson, 38. “Some of these crimes were committed 10 or 12 years ago,” Hansen said, “but we have pretty well accounted for his time dur ing that period. He was in the Navy from 1930 to 1939, and so far as we have been able to learn, not in the localities mentioned at the time of the various crimes.” Among cities submitting mur der as possible acts of Wilson were Tulsa, Ey Paso, Dallas, Den ver, St. Louis, ansas City, Chi cago, Seattle, Portland San Diego and San Bernardino, Calif., Han sen said. Los Angeles also had a couple of unsolved cases about which Wilson was questioned. Wilson denied all of them, and asserted he had not been out of California since 1941 except for two weeks spent in Las Vegas, Nev. Dr. J. Paul De River, police psychiatrist, completed a prelimi nary examination of Wilson today and wrote a detailed report for the homicide bureal, describing him as a “sado-masochist, a sad istic lust killer and a sexual psy chopath.” He explained the first term "means he has a desire t® inflict pain on others and recefves an unconscious pleasure from re morse.” _ Iterators’Strike Cripples Telephone Service In Ohio ,.t. LLMBl'h. 0 , Nov. 17.—CV)—A t^„,?eadin2 '‘trike of operators WepkoRt- communications r;: "ee 'arat ti.d four smaller Qj° citles tonight. °“t ip C;l;’ operators walked with Dayton °P to ’,1 ’ n° <iJil suddenly this mor Ci.10 BeMT1'? a dispute w'th the Pu:a:i01! *e!cPbone Co. over im ColumK..01 0lU'°t-town personnel. 7s ,uiri Toledo operators fay 6n-i 'f Xfci,ia> Tii-rn, Find >t.t Vie,-Sville. Strike Votes I'ts , uicd tonight in other ci *i!h ih.n,Cp"‘,£,lor* are affiliated Prone \c ,r“- 1 deration of Tele on. ,!l' independent un Vj ctr- t opr; j,,. ,U; '-r Board, given the it' v,‘. a'; i, y Perkins, referred o;, , u; ce at Cleveland, G p111 d.!j; ek-io-work older to ■ '-‘JCk Cleveland, presi 1 dent of the federation, and local union officials at communities tied up by the walkout. When this was not obeyed, the board ordered Pollock and Jean nette Reedy of Dayton, president of the federation’s southwest area council, to appear for a cause hearing at Cleveland tomorrow. Long distance serivce got the hardest blow, since local service in Dayton, Columbus and Toledo is maintained by the automatic dial svstem. But some smaller ex changes are manual and in those where all operators Quit, as in Xen ia, the community was isolated. Personnel from other department was recruited for long distance boards in the metropolitan areas and many men sat where Women had worked before. Every outboard call was challenged and the sub scriber asked to cancel unless the call was emergency. 1 Eisenhower Sends Six Armies Thundering Against Enemy On 400-Mile Battlefront Reds Take Key Hungarian Rail Junction . _ SOVIETS CON £ VITAL TRUNKS Tank And Infantry Forces Fighting Way Toward Austrian Border LONDON, Saturday, Nov. 18.—(JP) — Russian troops captured the key Hungarian rail junction of Fuzesabony yesterday, advancing up to four miles on a 65-mile front and hurling the enemy back into the Matra and Bukk mountains northeast of be sieged Budapest, a Moscow communique announced last night. The fall of Fuzesabony, 60 miles northeast of the Hungarian capi tal, gave the Russians control of a 27-mile section of the Budapest Miskolc trunk railway, which al so has been cut 10 miles east of Hatvan, an important junction only 26 miles from the capital. Hatvan was reported under at tack from three sides and Mos cow announced the seizure of Czar.y, five miles southeast of Hatvan, and Szambok, nine miles southwest of the terminal of a line running over the mountains into central Slovakia, 38 miles be yond. Strong Russian tank and infan try forces were fighting their way slowly along invasion paths to Austria and Czechoslovakia in a big flanking maneuver pivoting on Budapest’s grimly-defended out skirts. No change was reported in the battle along the fringes of the capital, but Berlin said they were increasing in violence. At the top end of the front the Russians climbed 1000 feet up in to the Bukk mountains near the Czechoslovakian border, seizing the village of Huta in a flanking movement on Miskolc, Hungary’s fiftieth city. By seizing Huts, five miles south west of Miskolc, these Alpine units struck to within two miles of the enemy garrison’s westward escape route out of Miskolc, which also (Continued on Page Three; Col. 8) HIERS, NICHOLS CONFER ON PORT By ALLEN J. GREEN Star News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON, Nov. 17. — J. T. Hiers, general agent of the Wil mington Port Commission, and City Manager A. C. Nichols today conferred with war shipping ad ministration officials on port busi ness but wartime security regu lations precented disclosure of de tails of the conference. Mr. Hi£rs said the meeting wai preliminary to the South Atlantic and Florida ports conference here next week at which “matters of def inite importance to the Port of Wil mington” will be considered. The port will be represented at the three day conference by Mr. Hiers and by William G. Broadfoot, a member of the advisory commit tee of the conference. Mr. Nichols returned to Wilmington last night. “We are definitely hoping that Maritime commission officials can find some way to help us' in our (Continued on Page Three; Col. 7) -V Capital Thinks Hurley Liable To Be Appointed Ambassador To China WASHINGTON, Nov. 17.—WP) —Appointment of trouble shoot er Patrick J. Hurley as Amer ican ambassador to China ap peared a strong likelihood to night. Both Chinese and American diplomats expressed the opin ion that Major General Hurley might be able to unravel some of the gravely tangled lines of Chinese-American relations. He has been handling many of the duties of ambassador in Chungking since last August as personal emissary of Pres ident Roose elt. The President said today that he had picked a success or to Ambassador Clarence E. Gauss, who resigned at the time General Joseph W. Stil well was recalled. . The name will probably he sent to the Senate for confir mation as soon as Chungking goes through the formality of declaring the appointee per sona grata. to Saves Fliers Cpl. Grace Sharkey (above), a Wac from Philadelphia, is official ly credited with saving the lives of the crew of a Liberator bomber crew which crashed and burned while she was aboard as an observ er at an Eighth Air Force station in England. (AP wirephoto). SENATOR SMITH OF SXJS DEAD LYNCHBURG, S. C., Nov. 17.—W) —Sen. Ellison D. Smith (Cotton E dean of the Senate and bitter critic of the new deal, died suddenly to day at his home in this tiny South Carolina town near which he was born 80 years ago. Death was caused by Coronary Thrombosis. His son, Farley, said the senator had seemed in good health and had eaten breakfast about an hour before he died alone in his room at 10:15 a.m. He had planned to return to Washing ton next week to resume his duties. Smith established a record for length of Senate service when on Aug. 4 he passed the 35 years and five months mark held by the late Sen. William B. Allison of Iowa. He tried for a seventh term but was defeated in the democratic pri mary last summer by Gov. Olin D. Johnston. For the greater part of his long service, the chunky, fiery-talking South Carolina planter was among the most regular of regular party democrats. But he began to break away from regularity after Roose velt’s first term, because of his dislike for various new deal poli cies, and finally he became one of the most vociferous of anti-Roose veltians and anti-new dealers. He won his nickname, Cotton Ed, —a cognomen he loved—by cam paigning on a platform promise of helping the cotton farmers of the South. In early years he often rode into a town for a political speech astride a cotton bale in a mule drawn wagon—and by unceasing ef forts to carry out his promise by legislation: The funeral will be held Sunday at 3:30 p.m., at the home, Tangle wood. Burial will be in the family plot in St. Luke’s Methodist church near here. Smith let it be known that he voted for Mr. Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936 but not afterward. Last sum mer he called a meeting of farmers in Washington and promoted an or (Continued on Page Three; Col. 4) -—-* Mac Arthur’s Doughboys Straddle Ormoc Highway Trapping^ Japanese Unit GENERAL MACARTHUR’S HEADQUARTERS, Philip pines,, Saturday, Nov. 18.—(JP) — Rain-drenched doughboys straddled Ormoc highway with a strong roadblock a mile south of Limon today, trapping rem nants of a Japanese regiment, as elements of the U. S. 32nd division were thrown into the battle of Leyte for the first time. A headquarters communique announced completion of a dou ble envelopment movement by two units of the 24th division, cutting the highway below Li mon, four miles from Pinamo poan at the northern end of Or moc corridor. Japanese supply columns at tempting to break through to Limon were destroyed, the communique said. The infer ence was also that enemy for ces caught in the gap were cut bff from escape, except by small, scattered bands. East of Ormoc road, action in mountain fighting around the Mt. Minoro-Badian area was limited to mopping up of en emy pockets by the dismounted first cavalry and elements of the 34th division. Several suicide charges by enemy parties were wiped out, while American artillery con tinued to pound Japanese posi toins throughout the corridor. The American 7th division repulsed an enemy attack at Tabgas, 11 miles south of Or moc, the final goal of the cur rent Yank squeeze. This is the third assault smashed by the 7th on the coastal road leaeding to Ormoc, including the repul sion of a landing attempt. Leyte-based fighter planes attacked enemy small craft on the west coast and bombed shore installations south of Ormoc. COURT ORDER PUTS TRUCKERS ON SPOT BOSTON, Nov. 17.—(J)—Superior Judge Raoul Beaudreau tonight is sued an order forbidding union truck drivers to refuse to move perishable goods stored at the Bos ton i 'arket terminal. The order also forbade officers of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (AFL) to interfere with truckmen transporting goods from the terminal. Obtained by the Boston Market Terminal company, a cooperative food receiving and distributing con cern, the order will become effec tive as soon as it can be served on the respondents. Those named in the action also were commanded to appear in Suf folk court next Tuesday to show cause why the restraining order should not be made permanent. Those named as respondents were P. H. Jennings, trustee of the local; President John M. Sul livan, “John Doe, Richard Roe” and “all other members of local 25.” The court action was described by lawyers as “unusual” in that the State Labor Relations act for bids the courts to issue such an injunction where labor disputes are involved unless it is possible to prove “irreparable injury” has oc curred. Judge Beaudreau found in h i s ruling “that unlawful acts are be ing committed and will be com mitted by the respondents unless they are restrained and that sub stantial and irreparable injury to the complainants property will fol low.” The court action came as “holi daying” drivers refused to return to work in an intra-union dispute over local elections. -V Paris Count In Madrid, Spanish Broadcast Says NEW YORK, Nov. 17.—UP)—'The Count of Paris, pretender to the French throne reported arrested in France this week, is in Madrid, the Spanish radio said tonight in a broadcast reported by the FFC. The count was reported by the Paris radio to have been wound ed and taken prisoner by French partisans near Perpignan, but the Spanish broadcast denied this. ARGENTINE MEET OPPOSED BY U.S. WASHINGTON, Nov. 17.— — United States has informed the other Latin American republics that it is opposed to Argentina’s request to hold a foreign ministers meeting to thrash out that na tion’s diplomatic isolation. The American views were ex pressed, it was learned today, in a note circulated to all the em bassies of Western Hemisphere na tions in Washington, except Argen tina. The United States’ document was in close agreement with a note distributed a few days ago by Mex ico. The Mexican note recommend ed that the Argentine proposal to the Pan-American Union be turned down and that foreign ministries in the hemisphere spend more time deciding how to deal with the ticklish Argentine problem. As a result, Latin diplomats here expressed the opinion that it would be impossible to hold a meeting of foreign ministers on the Argen tine question this year, and ex tomely unlikely that any confer enc; can be called until 1945. The United States, paralleling the Mexican views, held that Unit ed Nations problems and the war are far more important and must be considered before Argentina’s case. The way was left open for a foreign ministers meeting on world security plans and the Amer ican document indicated that the Argentine situation could be dis cussed incidentally to such a con ference. However, it was made quite clear that this government does not believe that Argentina should be among those invited to parti cipate on an equal status. A third document, from Chile, has also been dispatched. The Chi lean view tends to favor accept ance of the Argentine proposal but states that Chile would be ready to follow the decision of the rest of the American republics. None of the other countries in the hemisphere have formally pre sented their opinions as yet. TT ALLIES POUR 50,000 TONS OF BOMBS UPON REICH DURING MONTH LONDON, Nov. 17.—<£>)—More than 50,000 tons of explosives al ready have cascaded on the Reich this month from the bomb racks of 16,000 Fortresses, Liberators, Lan casters and Halifaxes which await only a break in the weather to pass the 100,000-ton mark. Britain based bombers and fight ers were grounded today, but Am erican planes from Italy swarmed over southern Germany in a fol low-up punch to yesterday’s 6,000 plane onslaught. Seven hundred 15th Air force heavy bombers raided oil plants and other targets in southeastern Germany, Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia, doing most of the bombing by instrument in bad weather. They were escorted by 350 fighters. Flying Fortresses at tacked rail yards at Salzburg^ in former Austria, a junction of lines between Munich, Vienna and Italy. Breaks in the undercast over Duren, Eschweiler, Julich and Heinsberg enabled bombardiers to work visually, a great advantage because of the proximity of the targets to Allied ground troops. 3 Former Officials Will Aid Belgians Disarm Maquis IjONDON, Nov. 17.— UP) —The Brussels radio announced tonight that the Allied mission in Brussels had won a promise from three former Belgian ministers that they would support Prime Minister Hu bert Pierlot’s government in its ef fort to disarm the country’s resis tance groups and “do everything in their power to maintain order.” This development was interpreted as strengthening the hand of Pier lot’s government, embroiled in a grave crisis by its order to "White Army” members to surrender their arms by Saturday midnight, dis band and join the regular army. The three former ministers— Communists Albert Harteaux and Raymond Dipsy, and Ferdinand Demany representing the resist ance— who had walked out of the cabinet in opposition to its deci sion on the Marquis issue yester day, gave their promise to Maj. Gen. G. W. E. J. Erskine, chief of the Allied mission to Belgium, after a conference this evening. A communique, broadcast after the conference, said the three still opposed the decision, but that they were yielding “to wishes of the government and the Allied armie “Gen. Erskine asked the minis ters to do everything in their pow er to avoid acts which might pro voke friction with the Allied forces the communique said. “The minis ters took note of this and agreed to do everything in their power to respect the laws and maintain or der. On the question of laying down arms the ministers will do every thing in their power to have this gesture made, in order to follow | (Continued on Page Three; Col. Z) - - - - * Too Young! ] An under-age honorable dis charge has been recommended at Camp Crowder, Mo., for Pvt. James Copeland (above) 15, whose age was discovered when his par ents got in touch with a Selective Service board. The youth had reg istered as being 18 and was induct ed at Fort McClellan, Ala., Aug. 19. He lives at Birmingham, Ala. RAF MARSHAL LOST ON FLIGHT TO ASIA I LONDON, Nov. 17.—(IP)—Air Chief [Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, ithe British tactician who provided | the aerial umbrella for the June 6 invasion and who was to direct fhe air strategy in increased offen sive against Japan, has been lost enroute to his new Southeast Asia command. La d y Leigh - Mallory, who was traveling with her husband in a special plane, also is missing. The plane has not reached its destination, said an Air Ministry announcement tonight. It was dis closed that a wide - spread search has yielded no trace. The Air Ministry said further de tails would be announced when available, but it was known here that a search already had been conducted along the standard route taken by Leigh - Mallory’s plane. The craft had flown to the Medi terranean area and, after dismiss ing its escort, continued alone. It was flown by a veteran RAF crew picked by the air marshal to ac company him to his new com mand and work with him there. The 52-year-old flying knight was enroute to take up under Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten a task which he had performed brilliantly under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower here. He was named Allied air com mander-in-chief in Southeast Asia on October i5. Sir Trafford, was responsible for launching the unprecedented tacti cal air offensive which preceded, accompanied and followed the West ern Front D-Day. He was named air commander in-chief of the Allied expeditionary air forces when it was constituted at the end of 1943. In that com mand he controlled history’s great est assembly of air power. Previous to that he was air officer com manding-in-chief, RAF fighter Com mand. __ 3RD ARMY 2 MILES FROM SAAITS GATE British Second Thrusts To Maas As Planes Fly Sullen Skies SUPREME HEADQUAR TERS ALLIED EXPEDI TIONARY FORCE, PARIS, Nov. 17.—(/P)—Gen. DwifVt D. Eisenhower’s six attacking Allied armies, swelled to a fighting force of 1,2V,000 men with a similar number in reserve, ground ahead today on scattered sectors of the 400-mile western front in their vast winter push toward Berlin. The U. S. Third Army, loosing its armored might across the Mo zelle north of embattled Metz for the first time, sent tanks charg ing eastward to little more than two miles from the edge of the Saar basin—important source of Germany’s war might—as infan. try swung north to within a mils of the junction of the German, Luxembaurg and French borders. Third Army doughboys pushed to within a mile of the fortress city of Metz at two places on the south and at another on the north, bu prisoners said the garrison was preparing to stand to the death with Gestapo guns barring escape to the east. The U. S. First Army s infantry and tanks to the north drove an other two miles into Germany, capturing several towns and roll ing up within six miles of bomb blackened Duren—a point which a front dispatch placed only 28 miles short of the Rhine and 14 miles inside the Reich. The U. S. Ninth Army synchro nized with the First to repel a German counterattack northeast of Aachen, knocking out at least 11 of the 45 Tiger and Panther tanks involved. One thousand prisoners were taken in the first 24 hours of fighting but late reports said the Ninth was striking stiffer resis (Continued on Page Three; Col. 4) 32NDMVISiON IN LEYTE FIGHT GENERAL MacARTHUR'S HEADQUARTERS, Philippines, Nov. 18. —(fP)— General MacAr thur today permitted mention for the first time of a fifth division now on Leyte island—the 32nd, vet eran of some of the toughest of all the tough battles in the south west Pacific jungles. This “red arrow” division, com posed mostly of Wisconsin and Michigan men, was announced be ing in action on the Ormoc road, where it had already made some advances. Throwing in of the red arrow division added to the American forces a unit which ^on its first battle flags of World War II in the fantastic Papuan campaign when the entire division was flown over the Owen Stanley mountains to wipe out a large Japanese force at Buna in some of the heaviest fighting of the war up to that time. Later, the division moved against the Japanese at Saidor, but found the going there comparatively easy. At Aitape, however, it again met the Japanese head-on as the enemy attempted to break out of the now famous Wewak trap. . a v 4 m FR Hopes tor Quick Action On Youth Training Plan WASHINGTON, Nov. 17.—UP)— Presiden' Roosevelt voiced hope that the new Congress this winter will enact legislation for compul sory, one-year federal training for young Americans. In a news conference, he indicat ed thought of a more general pro gram than the year of peacetime military training which some are advocating to establish a trained army reserve. Mr. Roosevelt said the degree of military training would be up to the legislators. He recalled the physical benefits derived by those who' served in the Civilian Con servation Corps, the desirability of teaching people to brush their teeth and keep clean, and asked, should we, for instance, teach girls cooking: The questioYi of peacetime mili tary training seems certain to bring prolonged controversy in th# new Congress. The issue was raised at Mr, Continued on Page Three; Col. 2) /, 4*
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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Nov. 18, 1944, edition 1
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