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I"" +f + 4 * OLA. I BEMEMBEB I tlmtmjlmt anting mar sSr I 77—N0- 293« WILMINGTON, N. C., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1944 ___FINAL EDITION I Patton Breaks Back Of Nazis’ Winter Drive; Within 92 Miles Of Vienna; efuses To Accept U. S. Seizure Air Force Held SeekingUseOf Davis Hospital Local Camp Ordered To Remain Open Pending Investigation i'he Army Air Forces have placed a formal request for use of Camp Davis, especially hospital f a c i 1 it i e s , It was learned from a reliable source in Washington yesterday. Representative .. Bayard Clark, in an interview with Allen J. Green. Star-News Washington cor respondent. announced yesterday that the War Department had ord ered the big anti-aircraft artillery center to remain open pending a further investigation. It was revealed that the House Military Affairs Committee is con sidering a report, in which future use of the camp is urged by the committee's chief investigator and Col. Adam E. Potts, camp com mander. It was emphasized in the House report that Camp Davis was con structed in pre-priority days, when the supply of construction mate rials was not limited. A repor" from Col. Potts averred that “c' all the station hospitals in the Fourth Service command, the station hospital at Camp Da vis ran'.s first in health condi tions. C. mp Davis also has one of the lowest maintenance cost lates in the command,” the re port added. “Col. Potts does not like the idea of having such a splendid camp with such splendid facilities remain out of operation,” the re port continued, “especially when such camps are needed and many others with much inferior facili ties are being operated and the committee investigator concurs in this.” At Camp Davis, Col. Potts an nounced that he would lower the flag, which has waved over the post since 1941. at retreat Sunday afternoon, and the installation will be turned over to Brig. Gen. R. L. Fowler, division engineer in At lanta. Informed later In the day of the order to keep the camp open, he said he would go through with the ceremony, adding that “the re opening will be a new chapter” in the camp’s life. Dismantling ol some of the utili ties at the camp has been started but has not advanced to a stage that will affect the water and sewerage services to Holly Ridge residents. Alt-tough definite word *s to future steps was not avail able in official quarters this after noon. it is understood that the War Department’s new order halts further activ’tv along this line. In a teleg.%m to R. B Page, Publisher of “he Star-News, Felix A Grisette. Chapel Hill, of the State Planning Board, reported that he bad been advised that any j (Continued on Page Two; Col. 1) \7 SOLDIERS CALLED TO UNLOAD SHIPS IN PHILADELPHIA PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 28. — tl'P i— Army troops have been tailed to the cargo port here tc help load vessels whose sailings the fighting fronts with critical ly-needed supplies were threaten ed with delay Dy holiday absentee hm among longshoremen, Col. Alex M. MacNabb, port comman der, announced today. MacNabb said the troops, com prising a stevedore battalion oi the Army Transportation Corps, ’■'"HI arrive '..-ere from New York tomorrow. He said the action was taken fol lowing a meeting with Paul Baker Rice president of the Internationa! Longshoremen Association, anc ^presented a lasT resort to main t»in ship sailing schedules. "During the holiday season, w« hiive been able to obtain only 5( ®er cent of the required Steve "ores." MacNabb said, “holidays #l no holidays, the war continues *nd our ships must sail in order t< badly needed supplies to oui ffien on the fighting fronts.” , ~he troops are trained in th« Lading and unloading of ships anc normally would be used for tha' Purpose overseas, MacNabb said FDR Orders Soldiers \ To Take Over Plants Sewell Avery Remains At Office And Bitterly Disputes President’s Edict; Occupation Completed Within 30 Minutes CHICAGO, Dec, 28—(UP)—The Army took over plants and stores of Montgomery Ward and Co. in seven cities to day, acting under orders from President Roosevelt, but Sewell Avery, board chairman of the mail order firm, re fused to accept the Government seizure. The defiant Avery remained in his office in the Chicago headquarters until the 5 p.m. closing hour, leaving at that STETTINIUS HEADS AMERICA S PARLEY Pan American Union To Be Ignored By Mexico City Meeting WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.—(UP) Secretary of State Edward R. Stet tinius, Jr., will head the United States delegation to the forthcom ing meeting in Mexico City of “delegates of the United and As sociated Nations of the Americas” which, for the first time since 1938, will ignore the Pan Ameri can Union, it was disclosed to night. The conference, to be held ap proximately February 1 to Febru ary 15, will replace the consulta tive meeting of American foreign ministers which Argentina has re quested through the Pan American Union to consider problems of the Buenos Aires government’s “inter national relations.” Neither Argentina nor el Salva dor will be invited. Were the Pan American Union consulted and its procedural machinery used, an in vitation would have to be extend ed to both countries because they are members of it. Groundwork for the conference —the first ever planned without prior consultation with the govern ing board—will be laid tomorrow at a meeting here of State De partment officials and ambassa dors of friendly Latin-American nations. Purpose of the “junta of ambas sadors” is to arrange to by-pass (Continued on Page Two; Col. 1) FORMER SAILOR ADMITS KILLING CAUF. HEIRESS SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 28—(A>i —A young man appeared at the FBI office here today and volun teered a confession that he killed Georgette Bauerdorf, 20, Holly wood oil heiress, in her apartment last October, but police regarded his story with skepticism. Police Inspector Frank Ahern said the man, who gave the name of John Lehman Sumter told him he had spent some time in a men tal hospital, that he was discharg ed from the Navy in 1940 for men tal disability, and that he sub sequently had joined the Army and later served two years in Lea venworth prison for forgery. He said he had accosted Miss Bauerdorf on the street, begging money for coffee, and she ha taken him to Ocean Beach and later to her apartment, where he killed her when she resisted his advances. Ahern said there were discre pancies in the story and that whan he asked the man to describe how he killed the girl he repeatedly referred to the account in a detec. tive magazine he brought with him, saying Ahern could “read aR about it in there.” * Sumter was booked on an open charge, held for Los Angeles au thorities. Nat J. L. Pieper, Federal Bureau of Investigation chief here, said the man first appe. red at his of fice .with the voluntary confession He said he was bom at Cutbbert. Ga., August 26, 1922. Pieper turn ed him over to police. The nearly nude body of Miss Bauerdorf was found last October | 12 in the bathtub of her sister’s apartment where she was living while her family was in the east. An autopsy disclosed she had been criminally attacked and strangled. WtWIVUb tuiuuiuJ t CAucpt 1U1 an earlier formal statement in which he refused to give up man agement of the concern and bitter ly disputed the legality of the Government action. After his departure, Army offic ers also left the plant. A few min utes earlier, seven new Army of ficials had arrived, apparently in tending to spend the night in Av ery’s office. Occupation of the plant was com pleted this morning within 30 min utes, soldiers posting placards pro claiming that the facilities of the firm were the property of the U. S. Government. The Government seizure, order ed by the President at 10:50 a. m„ was equally swift in other Ward properties in Detroit; Jamaica, N. Y,; St. Paul, Minn.; Denver; San Rafael, Gal., and Portland, Ore. Mr. Roosevelt, in a statement on the seizure, said the confidence of its decisions by the head of one of the greatest corporation of this country — Sewell Avery, chairman of the board of Montgomery Ward and company.’ Avery and company attorneys had rejected a War Labor Board directive ordering it to accept maintenance of union membership by the United Mail Order Ware house and Retail Employes Union (CIO) and to grant wage increases, retroactive in several cases by more than two years. Wards had maintained that the WLB only had the power to advise and no legal authority to enforce its directives. Avery, following a lengthy con ference this afternoon with Maj. Gen. Joseph W. Byron and other Army officers ordered to take ov er the Chicago plant, issued a statement asserting that Wards “cannot in good citizenship accept or obey the commands of those who have no legal power to give them and who are seeking to de prive Wards of its Constitutional rights and liberties.* “The Congress, which is the sole lawmaking authority under the ConsMtution. has given the Presi dent no power to seize the non war business of Montgomery Ward,’’ he said. Shortly after the seizure became effective. Government attornyes filed a petition in Federal Court (Continued on Page Three; Col. 5) - - 1 Awaits War’s End Munching a piece of stale bread, Charalambros M. Makris is seated on the only remaining beam in the ruins of his home in the Pelopon nesus area of Athens, Greece. Of ficial OWI photo. (International) MITSCHER SEES JAP NAVY’S END Liquidation Of Fleet Prob able Within a Year, He Says U. S. PACIFIC FLEET HEAD' QUARTERS, Pearl Harbor, Dec 28.— (UP) —The Japanese fleel probably will be liquidated withir a year if “the present rate of at trition is maintained,’ Vice Adm Marc A. Mitscher, veteran of fas' carrier task force operations, saic today on his return to the Pacific Mitscher expressed h i s opinioi that "by next summer the Jap: will be sitting on a decidedly un easy seat in their empire’ as hi predicted that the enemy’s fleet will be cleaned up in another year Admitting that many thing; could happen to either shorten o: prolong the war, including the pos ibility of another fleet action witl the Japanese, he said: “They’ve reached the p o i n where they’ll throw in everything I think in another year we shouli have their navy cleaned up. If w< can’t get them into a sea fight, wi will be in a position to get aftei them with Army and Navy bomb ers.” While the admiral insisted tha he was not indulging in prediction he smiled with confidence of thi eventual result of the Pacific bat ties. What job Mitscher has been giv en still is a naval secret that th< enemy probably would like tc know, but it is permissible to saj that he has been reassigned to this (Continued on Page Three; Col. 1) Stimson Is Confident Of Disaster^ For Nazis WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.—(UP)— Secretary of Wa Henry L. Stim son, reporting "some very impor tant” Allied gains in Belgium and Luxembourg during the past two days, voiced confidence today that the Allies are winning their crucial Western Front test and said “time will reveal that this German throw of the dice will have disastrous consequences for him.” On the darker side was disclo sure that announced American war casualties have jumped 65,973 in the past two weeks. The increase does not take into account the ad mittedly heavy casualties suffered in the fierce fighting since the Germans launched their counter-of fensive December 16. With Army figures running only through December 14. the-overall total of U. S. combat casualties for all services was listed as 628,441, including 134,143 killed, 355,877 wounded, 75,772 missing and 63, 649 prisoners of war. Assessing the Western Front fighting, Stimson said that Allied gains in the past two days were registered in attacks on both the northern and southern flanks of the base of the German wedge. He said that instead of the Germans being able to expand the base— which he termed a necessary pre ) k liminary to any further appreci able Nazi advances westward—A1 lied attacks have compressed it! width to 20 miles. Warning that it is too early tc predict what additional forces thi enemy can muster, he said, how ever, that “for the past two day the Germans’ gains have been neg libible and their losses in men am armored vehicles heavy. On the A1 lied side, gains, some very impor tant, have been made along botl flanks of the salient. “Meanwhile, our attacking for ces are increasing m strength and organization. The enemy has com-_ mitted almost all of his crack Pan. zer divisions to the battle.” While there still remains the pos- f siblitity of diversionary thrusts, lie said, the enemy must renew his ’ assault with a tremendous effort —‘‘he has no choice; most of the cards are on the table.’’ Stimson lauded the valor of American fighting men and also praised the part played by the Air Forces. He also paid tribute to the Amer ican press and radio commentators and reporters for their “restraint and freedom from yielding to the temptation to make violent citi (Continued on Page Two; Col. 5) Soviet Units In Budapest Nearing Goal Bloody Street Fighting Rages; Tovaros Is Captured LONDON, Dec. 28—(£>)— Russian troops captured 12 more eastern suburbs of Budapest today, one of them six miles from the heart of the city, as other units swept on westward to within 58 miles of the Austrian fron tier and 92 miles from Vienna, Austrian capital. The Russians were only two miles from the eastern city limits of Budapest. As shock troops of two power ful Red armies fought in the streets of the half of Budapest on the west bank of the river and through the eastern suburbs, the others pushed on westward along both sides of the Danube where in curves westward between Hung ary and Czechoslovakia toward Vienna. Marshal Rodion Y. Malinovsky’s Second Ukraine Army striking north of the great river reached the Hron (Garam) river on a 30 mile front from Leva (Levice) down to the Danube, thus reach' ing points within 65 miles east cf Bratislava, Slovak capital, and SB miles from Vienna. Simultaneously, below the riv?r in Hungary, elements of Marshal Feodor I. Tolbukhin’s Third Ukraine Army drove 34 mies northwest of Budapest along :he main railway to Vienna and cap tured Tovaros, only 63 miles south east of Bratislava and 92 miles i from Vienna. A total of 3,494 German and : Hungarian prisoners were taken during the day’s bloody fighting , in Hungary and Slovakia, the Mos ; cow communique said. -V ; Five Yanks Are Shot And Stomped In Face By Nazis At Bastogne 1 WITH AMERICAN FORCES OR ; THE WESTERN FRONT. Dec. 2f —(UP)—An American lieutenanl and four Doughboys, who had snr rendered after being surrounded by the Germans west oi ’ Bastogne, were shot in cold blood by their Nazi captors who thei stomped their faces with hobnailed boots. The story was told by a survivor, who crawled to American line* severely wound .d and describee the atrocity while a doctor treated | hi's wounds* There were six in the patro I which was forced to surrender, the 1 survivor related The German perfunctorily questioned the mer and then shot them. When thes fell to the ground, the Nazis kick ed them brutally in the face with their heavy boots. The survivor said he stifled z temptation to cry out from pair from the stomping and played dead, la.er crawling back to his own lines. American authorities said tnej had checked and verified thi story. 1,200Big U. S. Planes Hit 14 Nazi Railheads Luftwaffe Grounded By Heavy Clouds As American Liberators And Forts Bomb Enemy; Four Bombers Lost LONDON, Friday, Dec. 29— (UP)—Four powerful fleets of Al lied heavy bombers, paced by 1, 200 American Fortresses and Lib erators, attacked ai least 14 rail centers along the Rhine yester day, raiding through thick clouds that grounded the Luftwaffe for the first time in six successive days of Allied assaults. The main blow was struck by the American bomber fleet, escorted by 700 fighters, which hit 10 trans port targets between the Germans' Belgian battlefront and the Rhine. Not a single German fighter was encountered and the raiding fleet lost only four bombers to ground fire, with all fighters returning safely. The day’s heavy bomber as saults opened at 6 a.m. when a — strong force of RAF Lancasters smashed rail workshops at Opla den, 12 miles north of Cologne. The American fleet devastated its targets by shortly after noon, and a second RAt force roared out in the afternoon to hit Cologne. A third RAF force of Lancasters and Halifaxes returned to the at tack last night with raids on rail targets at Bonn and Munchen Gladbach, both vital transporta tion arteries west of the Rhine The same overcast conditions which grounded the Luftwaffe also kept U. S. Ninth Air Force tactical planes out of the air. Front reports said the Ninth failed to fly a single sortie, although some few planes of the Second Tactical (Continued on Page Two; Col. 5) CHURCHILL, EDEN END ATHENS TALK Pair Expected To Present Views On Regency To Greek King ATHENS, Dec. 28.— (UP) — Prime Minister Churchill and For eign Secretary Anthony Eden of Great Britain have left Athens, echoing with the gunfire of civil war, for London where they will recommend personally to King George of Greece that he accept a regency as a preliminary step to solving the problems of the strife-torn country, it was an nounced today. Before they left, Damaskinos, archbishop of Athens and Greece, who presided over a two-day con ference of Greek leaders sum moned at Churchill’s request Tuesday,, told them the conferees wanted a regency set up immedi ately as an “essential prelude to the solution of many other prob lems before the conference,” ac cording to a communique from British Ambassador Reginald Leeper. “Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden undertook on behalf of His Maj esty’s government to recommend their acceptance of this course to the King of the Hellenes,” said the communique. Authoritative quar ters said the two British leaders may take the matter up personal ly with King George of Greece when they reach London. It was believed the direct action was designed to overcome the King’s reported coolness toward a regency. A regency would replace the government of Piemier George Papandreou, which is opposed by the Greek ELAS, armed forces oi the Left-Wing EAM, the National Liberation Front. The British have supported the Papandreou govern ment, and their troops are fight ing the ELAS. It was understood that Papan dreou had sent the King his res ignation and i ged the appoint ment of a three-member regency ELAS delegates to the confer ence reportedly favored establish (Continued on Page Two; Col. 2) i ENEMY LANDINGS AT MINDORO FAIL \mericans Destroy 20 More Jap Planes At Clark Field ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, L,eyte, Philippines, Friday, Dec. !9.—(UP)—The Allied garrison on Mindoro Island in the western Philippines encountered neither rapanese air nor ground activity Wednesday in the wake of the iapanese naval task force attack ruesday night, it was disclosed. The Allied communique disclos ed that 20 Japanese planes, addi :ional to those previously announc ed, were destroyed in the bom oardment of Clark Field in the Manila area Tuesday, making a Ihree-day total of 144 enemy planes wrecked or damaged by Lt. Gen. George C. Kenney's airmen. In mopping up operations on Leyte Island, 912 more Japanese have been Killed, the communique said. It was believed here that the Japanese might attempt a follow up on their first naval attack against Mindoro Tuesday night despite the losses which Allied (Continued on Page Two; Col. 1) -V Submarine Seawolf Lost After Taking Heavy Toll Of Foe WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.— (/P) - Loss of the 145-ton submarine Sea wolf, which had taken a heavy tol of Japanese shipping was announc ed today by the Navy which pre sumed that the crew of at leas 62 men had perished. It was the 34th submarine anc the 239th U. S. Naval vessel los from all causes in this war American submersibles, however have sunk 934 Jap ships. The five-year-old Seawolf, skip pered by Lt. Cmdr. Albert M. Bon tier of White Plains, N. Y., wa: the second submarine of tha name to meet disaster. The firs Seawolf ran aground in 1920 on ar island off lower California anc sank during salvage operations. G Is At Bastogne Peeved By Relief Horning In On Their Nazi Slaughter WITH AMERICAN FORCES ON CHE WESTERN FRONT, Dec. 27. (Correct) —(UP)—They said to ■ay they knew their business, vhich is killing Germans, and hey were not a little peeved at lomebody else horning in on the line-day fight they had waged gainst encircling German forces ?ho wanted Bastogne and didn’t set it. When their ammunition ran low, tiey just shot a little straighter. That was what they said, the American infantrymen who held He highway town of Bastogne, af tr American armor broke into the cty about 5:10 p.m. yesterday in «relief dash which culminated one d the most daring armored thrusts of the war. They admitted they were glad to see the tanks. “Of course, we ain’t talking about armor, mind you,” said T-4 Domonic J. Rochetto, 23, Spring Valley, N. D., after he and his buddies had talked of the private character of the fight. “We are al ways plenty glad to see armor and the Air Corps. But we don’t need no infantry help right onw.” “Those Germans were too young for us,” said Pfc. Raymond De rosier, Hartford, Conn., who ad mits being 24 years old. “Hell, they are gust kids. Yesterday, me and two other guys captured seven and killed five before they knew we even were near them. “It’s all in knowing how, mister. You just got to learn this fighting business right.” Not all the Americans left ii Bastogne were talking. There wa: a long line of ambulances fili;|; away from the city along the opei highway route, taking priority ov er incoming supplies, which stil are arriving by air in part. Rochetto and his friends leaned on their Garands in the shadow o: a shelled building and told how i felt to fight inside the Bastogn< pocket. “Mostly we minded the rain snow and cold,” Rochetto said "God bless them C-47’s and then Thunderbolts. They really kept ui going when things got tough. (Continued on Page Thritf; Col. 4) r -- Foe Battered Back Along A 35-Mile Front — Third Army Push May Be Decisive Battle Of I German War „ PARIS, Dec. 28—(/P)—Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third -1 Army, with a typical light ning blew, was believed to night to have broken the back of the German winter offen sive and was battering back the enemy’s southern flank on a 35-mile front in what may be the war’s decisive battle. (Berlin radio announced tonight that German spearheads menacing the Meuse river as well as that on the southern flank had been withdrawn “according to plan” as the U. S. First and Third Armies attacked fiercely from north, west and south.) 11 E xiaiiiiiiei mg genus up , in six days through the wooded hills of Belgium and northern Lux- 1 embourg, Patton’s powerful mo- , bile army, punching up from the south, rescued the heroic Ameri* 1 j can garrison at Bastogne and to the east beat back the German wave after it had swept to within ; 13 miles of Luxembourg’s capital. The hard-driv.ng Patton, Ameri ca’s No. 1 tank general, was given the job of stemming the enemy’s surprise offensive three days after von Rundstedt struck December 16 and tonight, Associated Press Correspondent Hawkins declared, it appeared the back of the Ger man drive was broken. Simultaneously, the XT. S. First Army hit back savagely from the north, carving out gains of almost a mile and a half in the northwest corner of the German salient point ed toward the fortress of Liege and the Allied feeder highways to the port of Antwerp. These twin developments, fraught with peril for the German plan to split the Ailied armies and slash across their lifelines, presumably were up to noon yesterday, and subsequent levelopments shroud ed in a security blackout may have marked up ’ lore gains. One thing was clear. Today, the 13th since the Germans rolled out of the Reich and through the thin held American lines in the Arden nes, was the first that no enemy gains were reported. On the contrary, the three Ger man armies committed to the (Continued on Page Two; Col. 3) -V GENERAL FLIES FROM U. S. TO BE WITH UNIT WITH U.S. 3RD ARMY TROOPS In Bastogne, Dec. 28. — (UP) — ; Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor of the 101st Air Borne Division, who 1 was in Washington when his divi sion was trapped inside Bastogne, flew the Atlantic Ocean, and slip ped through enemy lines in a speeding jeep to be with his men in . the final phase of the battle, It may be revealed tonight. The fighting general, comman der of one of America’s toughest divisions, left Washington Christ mas Eve. He arrived inside the Bastogne pocket two days ago, after a wild dash through enemy territory in a jeep carrying him, his aide and one other officer. By the time he got there, his men already had knocked out nearly 150 German tanks, 25 en emy halftracKS and had fought, off as many as four German divisions at one time in a desperate battle to keep the enemy from the vital Belgian road center. His division arrived at Bastogne i with other American troops alrea : dy there, and decided to stay and fight it out to the last. i At the end of the first day, the . German roops were blocked in an [ attempt to storm the city from the east. They fanned out to the north an ultimately . completed the en ' circlement of Bastogne. But they ; failed to break the iron ring whi-h , the Americans established aroun/ the city. On Christmas Eve. the Bastogne garrison was completely surround ed At 3 a.m. Christmas morning, ' the Germans launched the biggest (Continued on Page Two; Col. B);
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