FORECAST ^ --- jsp=- tlmitujtntt UJnrmng £>tar S— 7ol- TT^-Na sio----- WILMINGTON, N. C., FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1945 ' FINAL EDITION Red Troops At German Border, Berlin Says; British Pace Thrust For Heart Of Germany; Churchill Demands Surrender Of Nazis, Japs Farm Backing Is Sought On Service Plan Marshall Silent On Call For Aid By Backers Of Measure WASHINGTON, Jan. 18.— (AP)—With objectors still ,;r from overpowered, spon sors of an 18-45 labor draft today sought to enlist agri cultural backing with testi mony that it should aid farm labor. The timetable which had called in- House military Committe ap- ' proval today was thrown over- : board. I Another call for help—to General;' oi the Armies George C. Marshall : -in an effort to get specific Army ' approval for the particular meas ure at hand, went unanswered. The . Army position for a general Na- i tionai Service Law, however, has I been stated fully, and was re-em- , phasized by Marshall yesterday. . He did not. however, specifically 1 mention the pending measure in a i message transmitted by President Roosevelt asking quick action on < manpower controls. 1 'v . m TOaay S testimony tame 11UU1 Marvin Jones, War Food Adminis trator, who endorsed the pending May bill for coercive action against men 18 to 45 who won't stay on war job., but suggested changes to aid farmers. Before calling in Jones, the com mittee through Chairman May <D Ky , author of the measure, sent an oral invitation to the Army Chief of Staff to give his views. May and other committee mem ber? were reported to feel that an outright statement from him is weeded to break the committee ] bottleneck. i Eecause of the pressure of other business—"Because he has a full dress war on his hand," one mem ber put it—Marshall declined the invitation to make a personal ap- f pearance, The door apparently was not closed, however, against a change in Marshall's mind if the commit tee shows an inclination to delay. Af,er a brief executive session following Jones’ appearance, the committee recessed until tomor- i low. but it will spend a large part ( ■ Friday's meeting hearing the ■ Army s views cm legislation to ‘ I draft nurses. ^ By a 14 to 6 vote in executive I Sesf'0n the committee rejected a , I Revised draft of the original Aus I " Wadsworth National Servicd ^ I This bill originally made every ‘ [ nan and woman up to the age ' I 01 6.i liable for assignment to in oustry. agriculture, the armed for I ces. or wherever else the services I ''eie injcnded. The amended ver I f,"y with the women eliminated 1 I «wc. ,he age limit lowered to 45 < k1S. off,ered by ReP- Andrews of 1 e'v York, ranking Republican < committee member, as a substi We for the May bill. , shortening And Oil* Returned To List Ot Rationed Food items Washington, jan. is— (UP)— rice Administrator Chester Bow lomght ordered lard, shorten ‘f- and salad ana cooking oils re * »eV° ,he ration list at 1:01 Monday and froze all retail , s °t those foods effective at nt*dmgnt tonight. he foods affected will cost oi.5c-.Mves two red points a pound tu neri"18 Monday- They were re niL . t0 rationing because sup B"'Vles1said'Ver tha" anticipated’ ei.I,'e ’hree-day retail freeze was .Lf 10 conserve supplies al he oddedSt°Ck a"d t0 prevent runs’ f .^i’f ,°‘'der coincided with a War ljn„ . . ministration directive set pi'od'i.Mi 6 about 60 Per cent of the t-i j \ . *n 01 2!1 Federally inspect Thfc (ip - tbe Jlrned forces. tional itenA ‘der removes addi' cffocri. J' trom a dwindling list Certain Tlat e rat:°n free last year. retui-nnaVf8etab^es and meats were a30 ana t0 lationing several weeks eh gran flapefruit juice and blend lUraed lastUnlghtnge jUke WerC re’ Yanks Enter Rosaria; Seal Off Jap Routes American Cruisers, Destroyers, Help Sixth Army Advance by Bombarding Town; U. S. Forces Move Toward Agoo GEN. MACARTHUR’S HEAD 3UARTERS, Luzon, Friday, Jan. 19 — (UP) —American Sixth Army Forces, sealing off Japanese routes af attack against their columns ad rarc.mg on Manila, have entered :he outskirts of Rosaria, 14 miles southwest of the Philippines sum mer capital of Baguio under cover h a naval bombardment, it was iisclosed today. In a communique covering ac ion through Wednesday, Gen. Douglas MacArthur announced that _,t. Gen. Walter Kreuger’s forces n the outskirts of Rosario were en :our.tering strong resistance. Amer can cruisers and destroyers helped hem progress by bombarding the own which is a little over five niles east of the Lingayen Gulf :oasr at Damortis, Tuesday. Broadening their pressure on the Japanese around Baguio, the Amer cans also were moving up the nngayen Gulf east coast toward igoo, 16 miles west of Baguio.! igoo was a landing point for Japa lese invasion forces on December 2. 1941. Below Rosario, Kreuger's men tere fanning out swiftly over the lighways which connect the moun-| tair.s around Baguio with the cen tral Luzon plain. Gen. MacArthur announced the capture of the road junction of Urdaneta. and said the American grip was tightening on the highway which runs south from Baguio. Urdaneta lies on the north-south highway connecting Manila with Baguio—already cut both below and above Urdaneta—and on east west roads connecting the beach head town of Dagupan with Nativi dad, San Quintin and Umingan in the interior. If the Japanese wish to move any considerable forces against American troops moving south to ward Manila, they would need these j highways to get them out of the mountains to the north where they now are seeking cover. Japanese forces made several counter-attacks against American troops along the road toward Po 201-rubio, nine airline miles north of Urdaneta. but were beaten off. Although the ground gains re ported in the communique were argely in the important left flank sectoi, MacArthur confirmed that (Continued on Page Three; Col. 4) Many Yank Troops Killed In French Railway Wreck PARIS, Jan. 18.— (UP)—An undetermined number of troops were killed and injured yesterday when a train carry ing over 500 persons plowed through the station of the Nor man town of St. Valery-en-Caux. French press reports said _w 1 no __J OAO DECEMBER LOSS SET AT 74,788 rotal American Casualties Since D-Day Rise To 332,912 WASHINGTON, Jan. 18.— UP) — rhe heavy fighting along the West ern Front during December cost American ground forces 74,788 casualties, boosting total losses on hat front since D-Day to 332,912. Secretary of War Stimson, re pasing the figures today at his lews conference, said the Decem >er losses included most of the 2,554 casualties previously report ed during the first three weeks lecember 15 to January 7—of the lig German counter offensive in he Ardennes. Against these American losses, itimson estimated German casu lties for the month at 110,000 to 30,000, including 50,000 taken pris >ner by the Allies. The December casualties on >oth sides covered the Allied drive igainst Germany early in Decem aer as well as the first two weeks >f the German counter offensive. Overall Army casualties during he war for all theaters as com Diled by the War Department up ■ « Tomiorv 7 and reflecting fight ng up to the early part of De cember, Stimson said, are 580,495. ' Coupled with the latest Navy to tal of 83,364, this puts U. S. com Dat casualties since Pearl harbor at 663,859. "An indication of the severity of the fighting during the early part Df the German push into the Ar dennes was given by Stimson s disclosure that the 106th Inf&ntry Division, caught in the first surge near St. Vith, suffered 8,663 casu alties. This included 416 killed, 1, 246 wounded and <,001 m.ssmg. Most of the latter, Stimson said, are presumed to be prisoners.^ This division, which the Ger mans claimed they had wiped out and which already has returned to action, made ‘‘a gallant stand’ at the center of the German drive but was partly overrun, Stimson “It was the contribution of men of this division, and of other less heavily hit divisions in the area, which helped to make possible the halting and repelling of the ene my,” the Secretary added. xlj\j pu ouao uiv/u v vxu injured. American soldiers, assisted by townspeople worked all night and throughout today taking victims from the telescoped wreckage. Authorities said at least 70 bod ies had been removed but the to tal would not be known until to morrow. The accident was attributed to faulty brakes. The train crashed through buffers at the end of the platform tracks and plunged into the street. It ripped up the sta tion from end to end. The engineer and fireman were killed. The train was composed of 48 wooden cars, only 10 of which remained intact The Ministry of Transport sertt a senior official to carry out an investigation on the spot. St. Valery-en-Caux, about 40 miles north of Rouen, is famous as the place where the bulk of the British 51st Highland Division was trapped and taken prisoner by the Germans in June, 1940. Army Court Martial Set For Captured Saboteurs \ NEW YORK, Jan. 18.— (UP) —I The Army received two Nazi sabo-| teurs from the Federal Bureau of Investigation tonight and will try them before a military commission on a charge of violating "the law of war.” The penalty upon conviction is death, life imprisonment, or any lesser penalty the commission deems fitting. Military Police of the Second Ser vice Command received custody of William Curtis Colepaugh, native born American citizen, and Erich Gimpel, a German national, at 7:10 p. m. and took them to the military prison on Governor’s Is land to await trial. Maj. Gen. Thomas A. Terry, head of the Second Service Command, also announced the composition of the military commission which will try the two men who were land ed in Frenchmen’s Bay of the Maine coast by a German sub marine and were arrested a month later by FBI agents in New York. The date of their trial will be announced after the commission has met and organized. It will de termine whether the trial will be open to public and press. Eight Nazi spies and saboteurs previously landed on the American coast by submarine and rounded up by the FBI also were tried by a military commission. Six were electrocu ted, one was sentenced to life, and another, who turned prosecuting witness, was sentenced to 30 years. The commission for the new trial is composed of the following: Col. Clinton J. Harrold Col. Latrop R. Bullene; Col. John B. Grier; Lt. Col. Harlan Besson; Maj. Thomas J. McGinnis; Maj. Basil B. Elmer; Maj. Edward A. Belanger. Terry appointed Maj. Robert Carey. Jr., to serve as trial judge advocate; First Lt. Kenneth F. Graf as his assistant; and authorized as sistant Attorneys General Tom C. Clark and T. Vincent Quinn to as sist in the prosecution. Maj. Thayer Chapman was named as Cole paugh’s defense counsel, assisted by Maj. Robert B. Buckley. Maj. Charles H. Reagin will be Gimpel’s counsel, assisted by Maj. John Haigney. Colepaugh and Gimpel went ashore from a submarine in a rub- ( ber boat the night of November 29, carrying $60,000 and instructions! from their Nazi masters to embark! on a campaign of sabotage and! espionage aimed at America’s war! effort. They walked to Bangor, Me., where they took a train for Boston. After three weeks in the New York area, FBI agents nabbed | them and their arrests were an I nounced January 1. \c Yanks, Reds Praised For War Efforts Enemies Warned Of Untold Suffering If They Con tinue War LONDON, Jan. 18.—(UP) —Terming the great Arden nes battle an “ever-famous American victory . .. likely to shorten this war’’ and praising the punctuality of the Red Army, Prime Minister Chur chill today dramatically de manded the immediate, un conditional surrender of Ger T^nv and Japan. Speaking on behalf of the Unit Bu ..auons in the first direct sur -err’er demand by any “Big Three” leader, Churchiil told Germany and Japan: “If you surrender now, nothing . you will have to endure after the i var will be comparable to what you otherwise are going to suffer luring the year 1945.” _»,e surrender demand was the unexpected climax of a two-hour speech in Parliament in which , Bhurchill painted a highly optimis- ] ic picture of the military situation , around the world, lavishly pra# :d American military accomplish ments, disclosed that on the Wes- ' ;ern Front the American war ef- ‘ 'ort is more than double that of ’ Britain and told the world the j | 'Big Three” military alliance was ' stronger than it ever had been. : 3n the political side Churchill ad- 1 nitted minor “misunderstandings ■ and difficulties” among the Allies, J .vhich he hoped the coming con- 1 erence would erase, reiterated Britain's determination to establish an orderly democratc government • a Greece, pledged ■ ”ioit to Mar shal Tito in Yugoi-uvia even if i :his means abandoning King Peter, , and dashed Italy’s hopes of be- . coming an equal member of the . United Nations. Churcnill borrowed from Lin coln's Gettysburg address to state lis government’s position concern ing Greece, Yugoslavia and Italy. “We have one principle about liberated ’ountries or repentant satellites.” he said. “1 will s.tate it in the broadest, most familiar terms: ‘Government of the people. oy the people, for the people’ set rp on the basis of free and univer sal suffrage election with secrecy of the ballot and no intimidation.” He gave the Germans and Jap anese the alternative of untold igony or honorable but uncondi tional surrender to the humanitar- : an impulses of the conquering Al- i ies. The surrender demand undoubt edly was made after consultation (Continued on Page Three; Col. ’2) - * Patton Opens Huge Assault On Coblenz Allies Pick Up Winter Of fensive Cut Short By The Enemy PARIS, Friday, Jan. 19. — (UP)—Allied armies picked up their winter offensive Thursday where it was inter rupted by the Ardennes cam paign and struck for the heart of the Reich on a 115-mile front, paced by British armor in a new invasion of the Rhineland, while the U. S. Third Army launched a pow erful attack in Luxembourg pointed at Germany’s Coblenz. Another Third Army column struck a mile farther through the Vloselle Valley on Reich soil east )f Luxembourg despite strong ;ounter-attaciks that temporarily von back the town of Butzdofe. _,t. Gen. Goerge S. Patton’s Army vas closing on the Reich along a 15-mile front, fresh from its tri umphs in the Ardennes pocket and >ulwarked by at least two brand lew devisions. While one British column crash id across the German border in a \ew attack from just north of Dutch iittard, 40 miles from Dusseldorf, mother was beating north between, he Maas and the frontier, extend ng its gains in a thre-day drive o four miles. Five towns were ;eized in the latter drive, which lad hewn a deep wedge into the Herman salient jutting into Hoi ana at rtoermona. Patton's Fourth and Fifth Infan cy divisions launched the Third Lrmy’s new attack, throwing six tridgeheads across the Sure river >n either side of Diekirch, three niles from the German border, in idvances of two miles along a 10 nile stretch of the river. The right flank of this drive took he Third Army to the German torder near Hoesdorf, five miles ;ast of Diekirch. Other forces cap ured the Luxembourg border city )f Rosport only six miles northwest >1 the big German base at Trier, nfantry battled into Diekirck itself »s well as the fortified town of 3ettendorf, three miles to the east. Two detachments cf British com nandos crossed the eastern Ichelde estuary and raided Zierik ;ee on Schouwen island in western Holland and brought back prisoners n a possible prelude to still other offensive moves on the long-stabi ized Dutch flank. The battle of the bulge itself Irew into its last phase with U. S. (Tirst Army troops pounding within hree miles of St. Vith and mop ting up numerous small pockets tf resistance in company with the rhird Army. More than 30,000 pris tners have been taken since Mar shal von Rundstedt sent his Pan sers rolling across the Ardennes. Only in Alsace, where the Ger mans were disclosed to be attack ing with 13 divisions of possibly 30.000 men, had the Allies failed ;o wrest back the full initiative. Montgomery’s infantry and anks, supported by hundreds of (Continued on Page Three; Col. 7) RAF Aids Russian Drive In Upper, Lowery Silesia LONDON, Jan. 18.—(.P)—The Ger man radio reported that Allied oomber formations were ranging aver Upper and Lower Silesia to night. indicating that the RAF had *one to the support of the Russian anslaught by hammering enemy supply lines on the Eastern Front. Prage in Czechoslovakia left the lii after signaling the approach of ;nemy bombers. The force possibly could be Torn Italy, but it was more likely shat Lancasters were hitting Silesia ifter a long journey from Eng and Russian night bombers also might be in action. A small force of Flying For sresses based in Britain bombed the Kaiserlautern railyards which feed supplies to German troops on the 3aar front today while medium bombers and fighter-bombers based in Italy struck at communications in northern Italy. The only opposition for the Brit ish based bombers was the weath er, with driving rain storms in their homeward path. The planes from Italian bases operated in gen erally good weather. Approximately 100 four-engined giants of the U. S. Eighth Air Force, screened by 100 Mustangs, poured 300 tons of explosives on the - Glutted Nazi rail hub at Kaiser- 1 slautern and strafed railroads near 1 Heidelberg, 60 miles to the west, sawing up eight locomotives with : machine gun fire. The American raid followed an ■ ;arly morning attack by RAF Mos- : ^uitc bombers on Magdeburg, 75 miles west of Berlin. [—-.---* Haunting The Nazis At Front i.- • . * * Wearing white camouflage capes and headgear, a couple of mem bers of the First Army’s 30th Division are shown on patrol on a snowy hillside somewhere near the embattled town of Stavelot, Belgium. The American at right holds a bazooka ready. (International). 24 JAP VESSELS BAGGED BY SUBS Five Tankers Included With Destroyer And Escort Ships WASHINGTON, Jan. 18. —— American submarines have slash ed a big new gap in the Japanese fighting fleet sea supply lines, the Navy announced today. A communique disclosed that undersea raiders ranging deep in to Pacific and Far Eastern waters had bagged an additional 24 ene my vessels including four combat ant ships. Significant was the inclusion in the toll of five tankers—two large, two medium and one small — a category in which the enemy has been short for some time and where the pinch of attrition hurts most. The tanker shortage has been considered a major factor in the timidity of the Japanse fleet, due to the difficulty of replenishing fuel supplies to the men of war at sea. Today’s announcement brought to a total of 94 the number of Japanse fleet tankers which have fallen victims to American subma rines. The combatant vessels claimed in today’s announcement included a destroyer and three escort ves sels. Others in addition to the tank ers. were a large cargo transport, a medium cargo transport, eight medium cargo vessels, a medium transport and four small cargo vessels. Submarine warfare overall has accounted for 103 combatant ships sunk, including 13 cruisers, 45 de stroyers, three tenders and 40 mis cellaneous, and 855 noncombatant ships for a grand total of 958 of all types. ITALIAN AMBASSADOR ROME, Jan. 18.—(UP)—The Ital ian government officially confirm ed today the appointment of Al berto Tarchiani as ambassador to Washington. He soon will leave for the United States._ ATTACKS ON CHINA COAST CONTINUING Tokyo Sees Major Land Offensive In Asia By Chinese U. S. PACIFIC FLEET HEAD QUARTERS, Pearl Harbor, Jan. 18—(UP)—A great four-way Ameri can aerial attack that exploded against a 1,000-mile arc of the Chi na coast from Hianan island north to Shanghai yesterday appeared to be continuing today as Tokyo warned that the assaults were tied in with the Chinese plans for a major land offensive on the Asiatic continent. Activities of the major partner in the shattering attack — Admiral William F. Halsey’s Third Fleet carrier force—remained cloaked in radio silence today after Tokyo re ports of 300 carrier planes blasting Hainan island, Hong Kong and Can ton yesterday (Japanese time). A communique from Fleet Ad miral Chester W. Nimitz today re ported continued land-based air at tacks on four targets from the Ca rolines to tneVolcanoes. Air in stallations at Iwo Jima were hit January 15 and Rota in the Mari anas, Babelthuap in the Palaus and Yap in the Carolines were struck. Nimitz announced that the sink ing of the French light cruiser Lamotte Picquet January 11 dur ing the Third Fleet’s attack on Sai gon resulted in no deaths among Frenchmen. The communique gave no furth er information on Halsey’s Third Fleet operations. However, details of Wednesday’s climatic assaults, broadcast by Ra dio Tokyo and reported in dispatch es from China, said that five ma jor targets on or near the China coast were rocked by planes from the Third Fleet, by the China-based U. S. 14th Air Force, and by B-29’s from secret bases in China and from the Philippines. Hong Kong, the major target, was attacked from three directions. Canton was next in importance with two attacks, while Formosa, Shanghai and Hainan each were blasted by single assaults. A communique from Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault's 14th Air Force today disclosed that fight ers and bombers swept the entire perimenter of Japanese - occupied China Tuesday and Wednesday Erom Hong Kong north to Shang hai. They destroyed or damaged 135 ;nemy planes. 26 locomotives and thousands of tons of shipping, in duding a destroyer escort and a ;ransport in Hong Kong harbor. A force of P-51 Mustangs, strik ng airdromes at Shanghai, caught he Japanese b> surprise Wednes- ! lay. Sixty eight Japanese planes vere destroyed on the ground, in duding 27 fighters and 41 bomb- ' :rs. The enemy was able to send mly two fighters into the air and me of these was shot down. Of the locomotives destroyed, !2 were blasted in the Anyang rail : rards on the Beiping-Hankow rail vay in north China. Another loco- : notive was destroyed at Hong Cong and three enemy transports i vere bombed in Amoy harbor. i Russians Put Steel Noose Around Lodz Unconfirmed Reports Say Konev’s Forces Across Reich Line LONDON, Friday, Jan. 18. — (UP) — Red Army troops have reached the border of German Silesia, Berlin said last night, although Moscow placed the onrushing Soviet forces 11 miles from the Reich. The Russians announc ed also that other Soviet forces had clamped a huge pincer on Lodz, second city of Poland. Unconfirmed reports said that fast-moving tank spearheads of Marshal Ivan S. Konev’s First Ukranian Army, which has cover ed more than one-quarter of the distance to Berlin in the first week of the Red Army’s paralyzing win ter offensive, already had invad ed Germany. The Soviet High Command, how ever, reported only that Konev’s forces had captured Szarlejza, 11 miles from the border and 85 miles from the great German city of Breslau. The Russians were 256 miles southeast of Berlin. Konev’s army also drove to with in three miles of Krakow, the an cieiu capuai oj. .roiana wriose rail was prematurely announced Wed nesday by the Lublin radio, by tak ing Bibice due north of the city. Other troops of his army advanced to within 21 miles east of Da browa, easternmost of the indus trial cities of the rich Polish-Ger man Silesian basin. Simultaneously, other Russian troops northwest of Warsaw smash ed toward Danzig and the south ern borders of East Prussia along a 51-mile front, driving to within 15 miles of Germany’s easternmost province. Another Red army was reported advancing into East Prus sia from the east. Along a curving 500-mile front in Poland, three Soviet armies lung ing toward Germany yesterday swept up more than 1,950 Polish towns and settlements in advances up to 22 miles. In the Balkans, Marshal Rodion Y. Malinovsky’s Second Ukranian Aimy virtually completed the lib eration of battle-tom Budapest, comrletely clearing Pest, the east ern half of the city, of German and Hungarian troops. Only a small area of Buda, on the west bank of the Danube river, remained in enemy hands, but all German resistance in Pest ceased when 20,000 enemy troops surrend ered yesterday. During the 22-day sieze of the cicty, 59,390 Germans and Hungarian troops were cap tured, Moscow announced. Marshal Josef Stalin issued three orders of the day marking the So viet victories in Poland but it wa* Konev’s advance toward Germany (Continued on Page Five; Col. <) —-v Moscow Reports Poles Of Lublin Have Moved Government To Warsaw LONDON, Jan. 18 —(UP)— The Soviet-endorsed Lublin provisional government of Poland already ha* moved to Warsaw, who§e capture by Soviet Army forces was an nounced Wednesday, press dis patches from Moscow said today. An exchange dispatch quoted “unofficial reports” in the Russian :apital, but there was no immedi ite confirmation forthcoming here sr from official Moscow sources. However, United Press War Cor respondent Henry Shapiro had re sorted from Moscow last r.ight that he mayor of Warsaw, Marian Spy lalsky, had said the provisional Government would move from Lub in to Warsaw upon its liberation ,o “live in the ruins, build bar •acks and govern Poland from Warsaw.” Provisional President Eoleslaw 3erut and Premier Osubka-Moraw ;ki had confirmed they would e» ablish their administration in War ;aw immediately. They described ;uch action as “most important or moral and psychological rea ons,” Shapiro said

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view