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V -— V fglM timtttgtim Mitruing Star 1££' V0LJ7—Nj_ii--- WILMINGTON, N. C., SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1945 FINAL EDITION " Russians Capture Krakow, Lodz And Tarnow; Yanks Battl' % To Stem New Nazi Offensive; Americans Repulse Jap Drive Near Rosario Tanks Destroy Tank Unit At Road Junction Enemy Strongly Entrench ed At Baguio, Summer Capital GENERAL MacARTHUR’S HEADQUARTERS, Luzon, | Saturday, Jan. 20,— (AP)— Japanese counterattacks near \ Rosario Wednesday night 1 were bloodily repulsed, Gen. Douglas MacArthur announc ed today. Rosario, on the left flank of MacArthur’s Luzon beachhead, is on a highway leading to Baguio, summer capital of the Philippines and the likely seat of Japanese military officials. Rosario, six miles inland from Damortis, has been the scene of bitter fighting for days. The Amer icans yesterday were reported on the outskirts, with naval guns shelling the city. The enemy was entrenched strongly in the area. One frontline dispatch predicted the digging-out job would be as difficult as it was at Pdeliu in the Palaus. To the southeast at Binalonan, a small Japanese tank unit was destroyed as the Americans tight ened their grip on the main Ma nila-Baguio highway, now in Yank hands at a half dozen places. Binalonan. where two highways intersect, was captured by the Americans last Sunday. A six-mile advance down the central Luzon plain put Yank in fantrymen at Santa Ignacia. These Americans are moving from cap tured Camiling toward a junction at Tarlac with another Yank col umn. Reports of fighting at Rosario and Einalonan followed by just a day a bitter 24-hour battle for the road junction city of Urdaneta, 27 I mdes inland from the Lingayen I Gulf beachhead. It was evident the Japanese were making a stand of it along MacArthur’s left flank, possibly be cause of important Nipponese of ficials at Baguio, larks who captured Urdaneta were reported moving south on Villasia, a town, only two miles from an important east-west high way. Before reaching that highway 'he Americans must cross the winding Agno river again. Tfie Americans took possession oi^high ground suitable for obser vation and artillery by capturing Cabarun town atop the Cabaruan nils. Here they were enveloping an enemy pocket, MacArthur's communique reported. The Caba luan are a few miles south west of Urdaneta. American warplanes, still un contested over Luzon, raked ene h' lines of communication and iiupph. Patrol bombers hit the ajama airdrome on Formosa (Continued on page Three; Col. 3) I^obe-Usaka Area Left In Flames By B-29s; Aircraft Plant Fired Washington Jan. 19. — (JP) — ra °e. lres were set in one of ni ,“ns most modem airplane P“ is today by Saipan-based B v • ’ll :;!en first strike at the e-Osaka industrial area. ^ ‘-e aig Kawasaki plant in Aka ,.jS *he primary target for Superforts which un raid w^*e:r hombs in a daylight s i. a .■ !T1l*e3 south of Tokyo with C1.p,,.m'lsibility. Returning B-29 5ionS andv??rted. heavy expl<> Ail “ n b g fmes m the inrgets. ba«p lh,fc B‘29s returned to their Was ripiapanese fighter opposition . ip'p e°cri°ed ir, a communique is 33 "slight” and anti *ctUr" .,‘c as moderate and in ‘‘s °r»rli broadcasts acknowledged eri »«.dani*8'!” and said the raid f0!. er lhe Osaka-Kobe area was the 10th major trial ,ra'"‘ -,'aPahese empire indus ?.«d -7)ll:iai'y targets this year * » '..‘’.‘*1 sinee the B-29s got h ' esvy blows last June. Kojp V.th' flr*t in the area of » "L’‘hr‘ b oiggest seaport and * 91 fta*rly a million. <* Roosevelt Is Prepared For Fourth Inaugural President, With a Grin and a Quip, Closes Books On Three Terms; Says First 12 Years Are Hardest BY TOM REEDY WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 —(fP)— President Roosevelt closed the ledger tonight on three full terms in the White House and, with a grin and a quip, got ready for his fourth inauguration tomorrow at noon. While all was hubbub in the White House for the momentous occassion, the President himself almost had to be disinterested— his desk as usual piled high with war problems. Two weeks short of 63 years. Mr. Roosevelt served up his famous smile, however, as his attitude to ward what may be the toughest four years of all. After all, he said the first 12 years are the hardest. The war has turned this next inaugural topsy-turvy. Instead of big parades and ceremonies at the capitol, it will he a quiet af fair on the porch of the WTiite House. There will be 5,000 guests, instead of the usual 25,000 or more spectators. All but a handful will stand on the lawn. Even a good part of Mr. Roose velt’s immediate family will be un able to get here. He was enroute in the armed forces and only Ma rine Col. James Roosevelt seemed able to get here. He was enrout from Burbank, Calif., but bad fly ing weather made it uncertain whether he’d be on hand. The other boys may hear th« ceremonies by sort wave radio, however. Another wartime effect — The President is sparing only 20 min utes of his crowded day for the whole show. He is striving to keep his inaugural address within 500 words. Lincoln’s second term start ed with only 600. Despite the simple and brief for malities, there was heavy work be ing done on the program today. Workmen rolled up the hard-to replace White House carpets; car penters hammered here and there and the domestic staff bustled hith er and yon getting set for the 1,500-person buffet that will follow the oath-taking. Making up somewhat for the ab sence of the President’s sons, grandchildren frolicked around, some too young even to know what a history-making event they shar ed. Mrs. Roosevelt and their daugh ter, Anna, had countless super vising chores. Across town, Senator Harry Tru man of Missouri got out his best bib and tucker as No. 2 man in the (Continued on Page Two; Col. 7) Anti-Extension Clique Foiled^ In Vote Motion Henry Emory, chairman of the City Planning tsoara, ana Rep. J. Q. LeGrand last night outlined the merits of the pro- ; posed City extension plan to some 60 Sunset Park represen tatives, including a small but determined group of hecklers ___ w 1 1I7QVQ STETTINIUS PLANS TO ATTEND PARLEY OF THE BIG THREE WASHINGTON, Jan. 19—(UP) — The forthcoming Roosevelt-Church ill-Stalin meeting also will include, Eor the first time, the foreign min isters of the Big Three, it was dis closed today with announcement that Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., will accompany Mr. Roosevelt. Prime Minister Winstor. Churchill already had announced that Bri :ish Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden would accompany him and it s assumed that Soviet Foreign Commissar V. M Molotov will be with Marshal Josef Stalin. Both Ed en and Molotov attended the Te heran conference in December, 1943. Cordell Hull, then U. S. Sec retary of State, was not present at Teheran, having just returned Erom the foreign ministers meet ing at Moscow. It will be the first time the Presi dent has taken a Secretary of State with him to his war paileys abroad although Hull flew to Quebec in the late summer of 1943 to sit in _ -e:_i. "D nnentmlt. Drieny on -*-11 ~v - Churchill meeting there. Stettinius made his own an nouncement at his press conference less than an hour after Mr. Roos evelt passed the-buck to him. His answers to other questions gave this further information about the meeting: 1 Confirmed that i< would be held shortly after the President’s fourth inauguration tomorrow be cause Stettinius plans to be at the interAmerican meeting of foreign ministers in Mexico City, now scheduled for February Id. 2 Hinted that the meeting of chiefs of state mignt be the fore runner of regular quarterly for eign ministers meetings as recent ly suggested by Uden. 3 Revealed that the question of making it a Big Four conference by including French Gen. Charles deGaulle was under study. 4 Refuted recent charges that president was ‘deliberately” keeping him (Stettinius! away from the Big Three meeting. When the President told ques tioners at his news conference tc ask Stettinius whether he was go ing to the Big Three meeting, a correspondent said: “But the State Department told us to ask you!” Tell him that the White House (Continued on Page Two; Col. 5) » T liu --~ r from railroading through a ; “vote” of opposition to the . park’s inclusion in the project. The meeting took place in the old Sunset Park school build- ■ ing. Mrs. Fred Coleman, wife of a Sunset Park physician, rose to dis pute with some scorn the preten sion that the vote of objection was "democratic” as its proponents had termed it when asking that it be held. No vote had been mentioned in the public notice of the open forum. The meeting broke up af- : ter, Mrs. Coleman was applauded ; by the pro-inclusion listeners. After Mr. Emory had outlined the bill and the planning board’s supplementary projects, against a running commentary from the rear of the room, Rep. LeGrand joined . him in defending it and stated flat ly that he took responsibility for the machinery of City extension which it outlined. He placed emphasis on the "guar antee” clauses which would assure the residents of the southern and eastern suburban areas of prompt service from City utility agencies (Continued on Page Two; Col. 6) -V Highway Patrol Stops Arrests For 35-Mile Speed Limit Violators RALEIGH, Jan. 19.—I/P)—Major J. T. Armstrong of the North Carolina Highway Patrol, said to night that no arrests for speed ing are being made by the Patrol under the 35-mile-an-hour limit ; established by former Governor ; Broughton under Emergency ^Var Powers granted by the 1943 Act, ; which expired when the 1945 As sembly convened. The State's speed limit reverted : to that of 60 miles an hour fixed by a former statute. Revival of the 35-mile an hour limit, along with other emergency powers giv en the Governor, is expected Mon day night when the Legislature, which has passed the Emergency Powers Act, is expected to for mally ratify the bill restoring these powers to the Governor. But, while State patrolmen are making no arrests under the 35 mile an hour speed limit, OPA are still enforcing this limit in North Carolina, and violators are sub ject to disciplinary measures such as having their gas and tire ra tions taken away. ■ . — ■ ' -—» / Germans Open Push To Flank U. S. Positions Allies And Enemy Race To Get Men And Equip ment Rolling PARIS, Jan. 19.—(AP) — The U. S. Seventh Army struck back today at German forces north of imperiled Strasbourg, where the enemy earlier in the day massed 10,000 troops, broke from the Rhine bridgehead and joined up with other forces farther north on a solid 75-mile front. Fighter bombers ripped into ene my armor and Doughboys drove the Germans back across the Zorn river some nine miles north of the Alsation capital. Other Ameri can blows showered down on the front, in a grim attempt to keep ihe Germans from outflanking all American positions in northeast ern France. Virtually all the 300-rmle West ern Front was aflame. Allied and Herman armies raced to see which could get their stalled offen sives rolling first in these critical winter months when Germany is :aced with crushing blows from last ana west. The British Second Army in a wo mile sweep all but cut off the Herman panhandle north of Aach m, overran seven or more towns, ind was storming the western ■amparts of the Reich and clos ng on the Roer river line some !8 miles west of industrial Dus leldorf on the Rhine. The U. S. First Army, slashing hrough the wind-driven snow as nuch as two miles along a 40-mile 'ront, had closed to within four niles of St. Vith—the way out of he now-shattered Ardennes salient —from the west as well as north. The U. S. Third Army, exploit ng a break across the Sure river >f northern Luxembourg along an light-miie front, seized Diekirch, .7 miles northeast of the Duchy's lapital nearby Bettendorf, and was making menacing gestures on he right flank at the Duchy’s lorder only eight miles west of he Siegfried fortress of Trier. (Berlin radio said the Third Ar ny had opened ar. offensive on a !0-mile front in this sector and leavy fighting was raging.) Even on the long-slumbering Hol and front, the Canadian First ^my was attacking after a batta ion of Germans wedged into its ^Continued on Page Three; Col. 3) DRAFT EVASION PENALTY PASSED Maximum Of Five Years Of $10,000 Fine Is Approved WASHINGTON. Jan. 19 — (ff) — "Draft dodger” penalties—a maxi mum of five years imprisonment and fine up to $10,000—were ap proved by the House Military Com mittee today for men 18 to 45 who wilfully leave essential war jobs. This or any other version of the Manpower Control Bill however, faces a probable stiff fight on the House floor. The committee, meeting behind closed doors, substituted the civil ian penalities, in the proposed “work-or-be-drafted” act, for the original provisions that men refus ing to take or keep war work be inducted into Army labor battal ions. The same penalties are ex pected to be set up Monday for men who refuse to take war jobs on draft board orders. Committeemen said the amend ment by Rep. Kilday (D.-Tex.) re garded by some members as the first test on National Service legis lation, was approved by a comfor table margin. However, the committee post poned until Monday a final vote on whether it will report a Nation al Service bill to the House for consideration. Meanwhile new opposition to President Roosevelt’s appeal for drastic manpower legislation took shape within the Senate’s War Investigating Committee. Senator Ferguson (R.-Mich.) .said he was “shocked” by evidence' un covered during an inquiry into manpower conditions at the Norfolk (Va.) Navy Yard this week. FBI Warns Of Three Nazi Saboteurs Coming To U.S. WASHINGTON, Jan. 19.—UP)—A nan, who clicks his false teeth, s adept at languages and slight )f-hand tricks is one of three Nazi igents FBI Director J. Edgar doover said today may be head ng for America. Hoover said the three German jorn agents had been associated )verseas with two men who were irrested by the FBI last month after allegedly landing on the Haine coast from a submarine in November. The FBI announcement said the nen are under Nazi orders to en ei the United States and it asked hat the nation be on the lookout or them. Hoover described the men thus: Max Christian Johannes Schnee nann, 44, former glass factory vorker in Pereira, Colombia, vhere he is reputed to be a Ges apo agent. Trained as wireless relegraper, he is a good swimmer Hid horseman, is proficient card player and may be posing as a gambler. Dresses well and combs us hair frequently. He is 5 feet, 11 inches tall, .veighs between 160 and 170 pounds, ;as dark eyes, brown and gray ,air, good teeth, large ears, some ;imes wears a moustache and has i handclasp tatooed on right arm. Speaks little English but profici ent in French, Portuguese, Span ish and German. Hans Rudolf Christin Zuehls dorff, 25, former advertising and sales representative for a German firm in Bogota, Colombia, where he is reported to have made Eng lish language radio broadcasts for the Nazis. He is said to have performed similiarly for the Ber lin radio after his return to Ger many. He performs slight-of-hand tricks, prefers flashy clothes, is a good horseman and more Ameri can than German in his manner isms. He speaks German, Eng lish and Spanish fluently. He is 6 feet tali, weighs between 132 and 140 pounds, has brown hair, squinty hazel eyes, light complex ion, and two lines scored .on right forehead. He wears glasses and has false teeth, which he has the habit of clicking loudly. Oscar Max Wilms, 37, former partner in a German impcrt-ex port firm in Managua, Nicaragua, where he was a member of the German club and considered a Nazi leader. He is very active, looks and dresses like a conserva tive businessman. He is five feet, 7 inches tall, weighs 127 pounds, has blonde hair, gray eyes, high forehead, cleft chin, ruddy complexion, good teeth. He speaks English with . little accent and is proficient in German and Spanish. -—---I-----* Krakow, Old Polish Capital, Falls To Reds i Part of Krakow, ancient capital of Poland lies astride the Vistula which winds its way to Warsaw, the ‘new’ capital. Marshal Stalin has announced the capture of this city as well as Lodz and Tarnow. - - j — “ : ' Life Again Is Returning To Ruined City Of Warsaw BY EDDY GILMORE MOSCOW, Jan. 19.— (AP)—Life was returning today to the desolation that once was Warsaw. Twice ravaged in this war, Poland’s ancient capital was “a desert of wreckage,” one Moscow correspondent said, GERMANS URGED TO SAVE REICH Berlin Radio Admits That Russians Cannot Be Stopped LONDON, Jan. 19.-As Stalin’s supertanks thundered toward Ber lin, German spokesmen tonight called upon every man to save the Reich—“somehow or other.” “We cannot prevent the Russians from taking this or that town oi Poland,” said the German militarj radio. “The important task is tc bar the enemy’s way into the Reicl with sufficient forces and means.’ “All that matters now,” echoed the Deutsche Algemeine Zeitung, “is somehow or other to bar the road into the Reich.” For the beleaguered Germans there was no letup, day or night, at the front or at home. Hardly had night fallen than the Berlin radio warned that Russian bombers again were over Silesia— where they hammered Breslau last night. As Stockholm reported the Na?i.J rushing completion of a deep cir cle of defenses around the Berlin area, the German radio warned the homefront to expect further de The best it could promise was that the mixed Volksgrenadier units “which launched the offen sive in the west should be able to rectify the situation in the east.” The military spokesman made only one optimistic claim — that German lines had been streng thened before upper Silesia,” where the Nazis admitted last night that Russians had reached the fron tier. However, it admitted: “This development cannot so far be re ported from other sectors of the front as the enemy presses very hard on roads leading from War saw and strives to gain as much territory as possible within the shortest time. The initiative else where is still in Soviet hands.” rwnen triumpnaiiL j\ussiaii3 and Poles entered the city. Most of the thousands of civil ians who had survived the attack of 1939 and were caught in the final ordeal of Warsaw’s liberation had been herded off to Germany. Yet a few residents survived in the incredible destruction and stood before the ruins of their homes as the Red Army tramped through the rubble choked streets. Now the red and white flags of Poland once more fly over the wilderness of broken buildings, shattered telephone poles, snarled electric and telephone wires and uprooted streetcar lines. "Warsaw met us with terrible si lence.” said one Russian corre spondent. And yet so tough is the human race, so well does it survive the greatest catastrophes, that one writer was able to say today that ‘‘the streets are becoming unusual ly animated.” Tractors roared through the streets, clearing the debris. The sound of beating hammers echoed as the great task of rebuilding was begun. Now and again the roar of Ger man mines blowing up drowned out conversation in Warsaw’s streets and squares. The frozen Vistula v/as bridged again. Officials of the Polish Lublin provisional government were set ting up administrative offices. All the ruin was not caused by war. The correspondents for Pravda said the Germans ‘‘devastated Warsaw with the frenzy of sadists.” The Germans, he reported, set fire to Warsaw’s ghetto in the sum mer of 1943 and notning is left of it. Warsaw Poles told th$ir li berators that the city again was nut to the torch in the last three weeks. The remaining civilians said that when the recent Warsaw uprising failed,’the Germans systematically bombed sections where the pa triots were dug in. Tiger tanks raced up and down streets and sidewalks, running down women, children and the ag ed ,the Poles said. The Gestapo blewup buildings wnere civilians had been imprisoned. I The central railway station is in ruins, municipal buildings are in ashes, nothing remains of the Pa (Continued on Page Two; Col. 6) Churchill Government Wins Confidence Vote ; -t LONDON, Jan. 19.— (UP) —Bol stered by the improved military and political situation, the Church ill coalition government today won a larger vote of confidence than the House of Commons accorded it six weeks ago, although a large number of labor members again abstained from voting. The vote was 340 to 7, compared to 309 cast December 8, of which 30 were against the Government. The total House membership is 315. In both instances, the princi jle question at issue was Britain’s policy in Greece. The vote, forced by * motion of Sir Richard Acland, leader of d the Commonwealth party, culmi nated a two-day debate which was s opened yesterday by a two-hour v Churchillian flight of oratory j which took all the fight out of his a opponents. / The Prime Minister and Foreign * Secretary Anthony Eden, who clos- e ed the debate for the Government, f were cheered loudly as they left 8 ;h6 House together after the vote was counted. The reduction in the vote against f Churchill appeared to be due to t( n [Continued on Page Two; Col. 3) n Soviet Units Are Circling East Prussia Moscow Silent On Actual Invasion of German Silesia LONDON, Saturday, Jan. 20.— (UP) —The Red Array yesterday reached the border of German Silesia 228 miles southeast of Berlin, captured the great Polish cities of Lodz, Krakow and Tarnow and hammered 31 miles inside East Prussia in one of two offensives opened on the blaz ing Eastern Front. Adding victory to victory, the Red Army was forging a great encirclement of East Prussia, as it approached within three mile# of the southern frontiers of the Junker stronghold on a 60-mile front. Simultaneously, the Red Ar my opened another new offensive in southern Poland, driving 50 miles forward to within two miles of the city of Nowy Sacz. The Red Army’s great drive to the Silesian border 61 miles due east of Breslau already has out flanked the big German industrial cities of Beuthen, Hindenburg and Gleiwitz. Berlin said that almost 3,000,000 Soviet troops were on the march along a twisting 650-mile front from East Prussia to Czechoslo vakia. In one of the greatest days in the Red Army’s history, Mar shal Josef Stalin issued five order* of the day. Five Soviet armies, carving out gains up to 31 miles, seized 2,750 towns and villages In East Prussia and Poland and killed thousands of enemy troops fleeing under the lashing blows of Soviet planes, which flew 35,000 sorties in the last three days, Russian tanks, in fantry, artillery and cavalry. Every possible Nazi river and railroad defense line was being shattered and Russia’s eight-day old offensive -still was gathering momentum. The Moscow radio said: "Catas trophe has fallen on the German armies in Poland. The entire East ern Front has collapsed. Only im mediate surrender can help the Germans now.” In East Prussia, Marshal Stalin announced, Gen. Ivan D. Cherniak, hovsky’s Third White Russian Ar my in a five-day offensive broke strong German lines, routed fanat ical resistance by Nazi veterans aided by ragtail home guard units, and advanced 28 miles along a 37 mile front. Cherniakhovsky’s forces were 31 miles inside East Prussia at Krau pischen and only 16 miles north east of the rail hub of Insterburg. They drove to within four miles of Tilsit by taking Ragnit and cleared the northeastern corner of Germany’s easternmost province, by capturing 600 towns and vil lages. Lodz, Poland’s greatest industri al center which had a pre-war pop ulation of 672,000 persons, 63 miles southwest of Warsaw, fell in a 29 Continued on Page Three; Col. 3) -V jerman Bridgehead On Senio River Is Crushed By Allies ROME. Jan. 19.—UPi—A German iridgehead on the east bank of the lenio r.ver in the area of Fusig aro or the eastern end of the taliari Front has been broken and ne survivors have been driven ack to their original position*, le Allied Command announced to ay Activity along the entire front till war confined to patrolling, nth the enemy particularly ag ressive in the eastern Po valley gainst the British Eightn Army, .merican Fifth Army combat pa •ols continued to probe deep into nemy positions and tangled with lerman parties in scattered en agementr near the center of the ne. It was disclosed today that the rst trained Italian combat units > fight alongside the Allies are ow in the line on the Eighth Ar ly’s section.
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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Jan. 20, 1945, edition 1
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