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iflnrmmj Btixt 1 WILMINGTON, N. C., MONDAY JANUARY 22, 1945 _ _ FINAL EDITION nnenberg In New Offensive; American A Cillery Raking German Retreat; Yanks Capture Tarlac, 65 Miles From Manila - +I---—------*-X _ City Is Left In Ruins By Jap Torches Two Important Airfields Also Taken By Sixth Army GENERAL MacARTHUR’S HEADQUARTERS, Luzon, Monday, Jam 22.— (AP) American liberation forces have captured Tarlac, provin cial capital, 65 airline miles north of Manila, headquarter? announced today. Tarlac, a highway and railroad hub, is 22 miles north of Fort Stotsenburg and Clark field, once the principal U S Army posts on Luzon Island. The airfield has been the almost constant target of American Army and Navy planes since the Yank in vasion forces first moved into the Philippines with the landing on Leyte Island last October 20. Occupation of Tarlac cut the Am ericans 43 airline miles inland from the Lingayen Gulf beach head. where the Yanks landed on Luzon January 9. The city was taken Friday (Phil ippine time) by two American co lumns, which also scooped up two nearby airdromes. frontline cnspatcnes sa:a tne city was left a smouldering ruins by the Japanese who evidertly had doused every house with gasoline and then applied torches Tarlac was a scene of complete devasta tion. its Filipino inhabitants stun ned and homeless. The Americans came down from Santa Ignacia. on the right flank of the liberation front and also took Victoria and La Paz, northeast and southeast, respectively, of Tarlac. The Japanese made a counter attack Thursday night on American positions at Moncada, town on the Manila north highway in the cen ter of the invasion thrust, but were bloodily repulsed, the communi que said. With the two new airdromes cap tured at Tarlac, the Americans now have five fields on Luzon for fur ther devastating thrusts at Japa nese supply lines and troops. Biggest field is at Lmgayen, near the original beachhead Two small er fields were acquired in the capture of Carmen and Rosales, on the south bank of t ie Agr.o river in the central sector. The capture of Tarlac, Victoria snd La Paz indicated that Gen. Douglas MacArthur's invasion spearheads on the right flank are a: last Manila-bound with the speed denied them while forces bn ♦he left flank were disposing of Japanese opposition in the foot h;lls of the Benguet mountains. MacArthur announced yesterday 'hat ’he Manila north highway "as in American control from Si son' \a 'he north, down to Pani about 40 miles, nnd tiiat Japa nese forces in north Luzon there e Were sev ered from those In ♦he south. The Americans on the left flank i,, ,'!se advanced, reaching the u SKtrtg cf San Manuel near "nere the central Luzon plain «eaks off from a shoulder of the f,en“uet mountains, and. cosrsing lne Agn0 river near Santa Maria, (Continued 011 Page Three; Col. 7) sailors Three Children Die in Fire Started By Their Own Carelessness *!«>?. Jan 21. —(UP)— A three children were burn ,h;" death in their bedroom today !n‘e- resulting from their il,’ : ca'-e’«s use of matches, swept Th» Rdxb’lry tenement. dead are Ed vard Adams ■ Ricaard, 3, and Judith. 2, chll whr? 5 Flreman 1-C John Adams Bin- d'x ,1S at sea. His wife and Ve‘ ’ :0:uh-old daughter, Janet, othe- nospRaRzed with burns. An ts] !■ ~on 'vas visiting relatives at “V™? of the fire. Tif‘i„ei=n°i0rs reported that a ter xp1°sion preceded the blaze, babj^aJ.Tied,MrS- AdamS and •ble * ,0 to safety, but were un chiis'0, orce their wav into the fiarrp a ? r0om because of the three S'«A score of residents of the ed tn r\' J "’00tien block were forc 55 000 lie<:’ anc* damage was set at SUPERFORTRESS GUNNER DANGLING IW AIR OVER TOKYO Waist gunner on a superfortress, Sgt. J. R. Krantz, of Hickory Point, Tenn., had a close call, when Jap anti-aircraft fire blasted his B-29 gun blister. It left him dangling from his plane (arrow) live miles over the Japanese capital, for nearly fifteen minutes by one leg fastened in a safety strap before crewmen managed to pull him back into the plane. Official U. S. Army Air Forces photo. (International Soundphoto). ✓ FDR HELD WARY OF SECRET PACT President Desires To Avoid Charges Of Sub-Rosa Agreements By JOHN M. HIGHTOWER WASHINGTON, Jan. 21. —("JPi— "President Roosevelt Is expected to take extraordinary precautions to reassure Congress abouc the re sults of his projected conference with Churchill and Stalin Even more this year than in previous wartime sessions the chief executive evidently desires to avoid, or offset beforehand, any possible charges of secret agree ments or special deals withheld from the American people and Congress. After both, the Moscow confer ence in the fall of 1943 and the subsequent Big Three meeting at Tehran, Mr. Roosevelt and for mer Secretary of State Hull went to considerable lengths to empha size that there had been no secret arrangements. But they failed to stop all Congressional critics from voicing suspicions that actually there were unreported understand ings. The problem is further sharpen ed now by the task the President faces in winning Senate acceptance for a world security plan which would carry with -t full fledged American participation in world affairs. Exactly what steps Mr. Roose velt has planned as a means of reassuring Congress and the Na tion about what goes on at the (Continued on Page Two; Col. 6) Roosevelt Asks Jones To Quit Cabinet Post WASHINGTON, Jan. 21. — (UP) — Secretary of Com merce Jesse Jones disclosed tonight that he has acceded to President Roosevelt’s request that he relinquish his post as Secretary of Commerce and head of Government financing ----* agencies so they can be turned FATHER, DAUGHTER HELD IN MURDER Columbus Man And Girl Charged With Kins man’s Death (Special to The Star) WHITEVILLE, Jan. 21.—David Long. 49. resident of the Nakina section of Columbus county, was fatally shot with a .22 rifle Satur day night on the road in- front of the home of his brother-in-law, Johnnie Rhodes. He was a Colum bus county Superior court-crier. His brother. Troy Long, and his 18-year-old niece, Caribelle Long, are held in the county jail pend ing an inquest scheduled for Tues day. The shooting is reported to have occurred during an argument over a long-disputed piece of land near Nakina, but details were not aval able. The accounts of two eyewitness es to the shooting, Johnnie Rhodes and Mrs. Nola Rhodes, ’indicated that Troy Long fired the fatal shot, according to information giv (Continued on Page Two; Col. 3) ‘G I Joe’ Of New Hanover Is Named Man Of The Year -i “G-J Joe” of New Hanover coun ty war selected as Wilmington’s Outstanding Young Man of 1945, accoiding to an announcement yesterday at a luncheon meeting of Junior Chambers of Commerce of the Eastern District, at 1:30 p rn at the Friendly banquet hall. In announcing the award. Wal ter J Cartier, intermediary be tween the secret nominating com mittee and the Jaycees, said that “without doubt, the man of the year, as far as our community is concerned, might be shuffled up and called the men of the year— our boys in the armed services.” Immediately following the an nouncement, a moment of silent prayer was held for all men and women in service. In connection with the celebra tion of National Founder's Week, Bob Abe.rnethy, of Gastonia, presi dent of the North Carolina Junior Chamber of Commerce, gave a brief hi-'tory of the organization and defined the Junior Chamber as “a group of young men joined together in a friendly spirit to in culcate civic consciousness by means of active participation in constructive projects which will improve the community, State and Nation.” In his review, Mr. Abernethy gave t resume of the founding of the Chamber at St. Louis, Mo., in 1915, by Henry Geisenbier, and said tha1 young men were at work doing great things as far back as 1776. Washington, Jefferson, Ham ilton and members of the first Continental Congress had achieved fame and importance before they had reached age of 35. "We as young men owe a deep debt to those feliow brothers, sis ters and Jaycees who are fighting a rnost gallant fight on all battle fronts,:’ he declared. “Aie we complaining about do ing a little work? Will we be able to shew them that we prepared a better community and State and are preparing a better Nation for them? ” he asked. “Th» young men of America should be represented at the peace table because the ones of our age limit (21-35 years) are the ones that are bearing the brunt of this war," he avowed. Jack Q. LeGrand, New Hanover's representative to the State Legisla ture spoke on some of the proj ects of the current General As sembly with particular emphasis on a bill which he has introduced (Continued on Page Two; Col. 2) over to Henry A. Wallace who bowed out Saturday after one term as Vice President. He made public an exchange of letters between Mr. Roosevelt and himself which disclosed that the Pres'dent, in requesting the resig nation, had hoped Jones would consider a new Government post and mentioned that several am bassadorships were vacant. Jones bluntly retorted that “I can best be helpful in the line of my life's work—business and fi nance—but I seek no job.” Mr. Roosevelt’s letter, dated Sat urday, said that his only reason for requesting the resignation was that Wallace had asked for the Commerce Department post ‘‘and deserves almost any service which he believes he can satisfactorily perform." *1 told him (Wallace) this at the end ol the campaign in which he displayed the utmost devotion to our cause, traveling almost inces santly and working for the success of the ticket in a great many parts of the country,” he wrote. “Though not or. the ticket himself, he gave of his utmost toward the victory which ensued. “He has told me that he thought he could do the greatest amount of good in the Department of Com merce for which he is fully suited, and I feel, therefore, that the Vice President should have this post in the new administration.” He conceded that his letter was “very difficult ... to write” be cause cf his “long and splendid friendship” with Jones and, the “excellent way” in which the out going Cabinet member carried out many difficult tasks during his years of Government service. Jores said that “with all due re spect, Mr. President, while I must accede to your decision, I cannot agree with either of you.” “You refer very kindly to our long friendship and our splendid relations during all these years, and you state that you appreciate my splendid services to the Gov ernment. and the excellent way I have carried out the many diffi cult tasKr- during these years,” he wrote. ' You are also good enough to say that 1 have your full confidence, and that you are very proud of all I have done during these past years, and that you hope I will continue to be part of the Govern ment, probably in a diplomatic post. “I+ is difficult to reconcile these encomiums with your avowed pur pose to replace me ... as Secre tary ol Commerce, which carries with it the vast financial and war production agencies within the Re construction Finance Corporation and its subsidiaries, so that you can give the post to Henry Wal lace as a reward for his support of you ir. the campaign.” Jones said that he had gotten satisfaction from his long service (Continued on Page Two; Col. 4) WAR PRODUCTION CAINS SLIGHTLY Six Major Categories Re j port Shortage Despite Increase I _ WASHINGTON. Jan. 21.—(UP)— December production of civilian munitions gainly slightly over No vember but fell short of schedule in six major categories, the War Production Board reported 'tonight in a survey emphasizing that man power problems are acute. Underscoring the Government's argument for National Service legislation, the WPB warned that January schedules call for tre mendous increases in such vital battle equipment as aircraft, ar tillery ammunition, Navy rockets, heavy truck tires, and communi cations wire. Although December production showed an aggregate gain of one per cent over November, it missed schedule in the output of aircraft by two per cent; ships, including maintenance, four per cent; com munications and electronic equip ment, four; ammunition, one; com bat and motor vehicles, one, and miscellaneous equipment and sup plies, two. The survey, prepared Dy miana G Batcheller, WPB chief of op erations, predicted that even the high rate of January production will be boosted latei in the year. “Even the latest schedules shown are frequently tentative,” it said. “Many of the programs call for production rises through the first half of 1945 and then for a slumping off. While this could mean that needs will decrease af ter mid-year, it means more often only that rock-bottom minimums have been set for the more distant months, with the schedules to be increased as soon as needs can be more accurately determined.” j The WPB listed the following j December gains over November j which it said “are scarcely cause for cheering”: artillery ammuni tion, 5 per cent; critical aircraft, 32; heavy field artillery, 12; 60 mm and 81 mm mortars, 61; tanks, 11; heavy-duty trucks, 11; com munications wire, 6; truck and bus tires. 10, and cotton duck, 6. Discussing the components of production, the survey said that (Continued on page Three; Col. 1) Belgian Bulge Shrinks To Area 0[150Miles French Roll Across Southern Alsace As Enemy Threat To Strasbourg Stemmed £or Time; British Advance In Holland PARIS, Jan. 21.—(/P)—1The Ger mans were retreating to the Sieg fried Line tonight from the shat tered stump of their Ardennes sal ient in a storm of artillery fire as the U. S. Third Army surged ahead nearly five miles and Allied armies struck along 300 miles of the west ern Front. Lt. Gen. George S. Patton was battering from the west and south against what once was the Belgian bulge—now shrunk to 150 of its once 1,000 square miles—and rak ing with shell fire the fleeing troops and vehicles trying to get back into Germany from northern Luxem bourg at Vianden. Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges’ First Army some 28 miles qprth had closed from north and west to within three miles of St. Vith, without whose excellent roads and railways many Germans might be trapped. Nowhere did the Germans hold positions more than ten miles west of the Siegfried Line along the Axis of their deepest penetration, which had carried almost 45 miles west toward the Meuse. The French First Army’s sur prise offensive rolled on across southern Alsace’s snowfields, al though the scope of its advance was masked by censorship to make the most of the surprise achieved when the push opened Saturday. The German drive was stemmed at least momentarily nine miles north of Strasbourg, where the en emy threw in crack troops and tanks rushed down from the Bel gian bulge. The Nazis had five or six divisions massed on that front and were attacking repeatedly. The British Second Army stormed ahead two more miles in its drive across the Holland appendix and the western German border north of Aachen, biting deep into the en emy-held bulge between Geilenkir chen and Roermond despite a snow storm and rising resistance. Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny’s French First Army was fighting in a partial news blackout designed to exploit the surprise achieved when the drive opened Saturday and caught the enemy off guard. It was reported officially, how ever, that the French were push (Continued on Page Two; Col. 7) British Invade Ramree Island On Burma Coast NEW DELHI, Jan. 21.— (AP)—British amphibious troops successfully invaded Ramree Island today in the third of a series of leap frog advances this month down the KOISO SAYS JAPS ON LINE BETWEEN SURVIVAL, DEATH WASHINGTON, Jan. 21.—(UP)— Japan announced a drastic man power mobilization law today as Premier Kuniaki Koiso told a crit ical parliament that, with the American forces on Luzon and aerial attacks on the Japanese homeland intensifying, the country was on the dividing line between survival and death. Koiso asked for unity so that Japan might be better able to fight “no matter when or where the enemy may attempt to invade our land.” Tokyo radio, announcing the new law, said that all classes of labor, including students, unemployed men and women and older persons who had retired, would be mobiliz ed and that all unemployed per sons, male and female, would be registered and would be liable to a labor draft. In coi nection with the law, Tokyo said, travel facilities would be lim ited, school entrance requirements would be tightened and large [groups of labor would be trans ferred. A bird that slave labor might be sent to Japan from occupied countiies seemed implied by a no tation that the government had “taken general steps to abolish any barriers’’ between the home land and occupied territories. Employers must apply for a la- J bor quota and the government will J (Continued on page Three; Col. 5) < -- i Hungary Is Cut Back To Pre-War Frontier LONDON, Jan. 21.— UP) —Hun- 1 gary, under Allied-imposed arm- < istice terms, is cut back to the same frontiers it held before Hitler i began carving up Europe and Hun- l gary joined him in the enterprise, i Both of Hungary’s predecessors ] in Soviet-enforced surrender—Fin- ] land and Romania—returned to the j Soviet Union the territory incor- I porated by Moscow after the be ginning of German conquest in £ 1939. j Hungary is stripped of all her c land gains at the expense of Yugo- j slavia, Czechoslovakia and Robon a. and is shoved back into her 1937 ( boundaries. This means surrender of Transylvania to Romania. Romania, promised Transylvania in the settlement of last Septem ber 13, gave up Bessarabia to the Soviet Union. Moscow had annexed Bessarabia under agreement with Romania in June, 1940, but Hitler ' gave it back to Bucharest after he Marched east. Finland under armistice term? , signed last September 19 lost the < port of Petsamo in addition to , other territories gained by Russia in the treaty ending the first Fin- j (Continued on page Three; Col. 1) i *Burma west coast which have carried a total of more than 80 miles. Landing troops went in on the northern and northwestern beaches of the 50-mile long island after . Royal Navy guns and a heavy con . centration of Allied aircraft blast ed the shore defenses. This latest jump of 50 miles and the successful seizure of the northern areas of the isjand gave the Allies a base flanking south Burma and created a major threat to the Japanese, already on the defensive and in serious plight in northern and central Burma. Kyaukpyu, on the northern tip of the island and the chief center of population, was occupied by the India jungle fighters and veteran commandos under command of Lt. Gen. Sir Philip Christison. tome opposition was encountered on the ridge between Gonchwein and Ondae west of Kyaukpyu but this area was being mopped up. Meanwhile, in northern Burma the battle to reopen an overland supply route to Oiina was all but ooncluded. Having broken the back of the Japanese defenses in that area, converging Chinese forces were driving for a junction at the Burmese village of Mongyu where the Ledo road joins the | old Burma road. Only small Japanese elements of below company size remained to be mopped up by Chinese troops which have fought across Burma and another powerful Chinese force pushing west from the Sal ween front. (In Chunking the Chinese High Command confirmed that Chinese troops had recaptured Wanting, the last major obstacle to the re opening of the overland supply route. It was announced the Chi nese also retook Kiuku in Burma. The area north of the Wanting river inside the Chinese border has been cleared of Japanese troops.) Ramree island, 18 miles wide at the maximum, lies close to the • Eurma coast. The terrain north : of a line from the mouth of the ] Yandauk Chaung northeast to ! Kyaukyu is the most suitable for ; airfields and this area was the , first objective of the landing < forces. Seventh Bombardment Group I fliers returning from the opera- : ion said British Navy and landing 1 :raft dominated the beach areas, i •Jlied aircraft flying through I legligible antiaircraft fire secured : jxcellent bombing tesults. No en >my fighters engaged them. t The whole operation moved with t jrecision. One minute after the s ( Continued on page Three; Col. 6) \ Soviets Push 19 Miles In Nazi Silesia Latest East Prussian Vic tory Avenges Defeat Of 1914 LONDON, Monday, Jan. 22. — (UP)—The Red Army yes terday captured Tannenberg the shrine of Prussian mili tarism, in a new invasion of East Prussia from the south, while Soviet troops lunging 12 miles into the Junker strong hold from the east drove to within 33 miles of the capital city of Konigsberg. The capture of the historic bat tleground where the Russians suf fered their greatest defeat in the last World War came as two So viet armies, repeating almost iden tically the strategy of the Czarist armies in 1914, battled to isolate East Prussia from Germany prop er. On the 21st anniversary of the death of Lenin, the father of the Soviet Union, the Red armies were within 52 miles of effecting what may be the greatest encirclement in military history. Overnight they drove 21 miles to capture Lubawa, only 52 miles from the Baltic Sea and 72 miles southeast of Danzig. Not only in East Prussia were the Germans giving up the soil of their homeland to the conquering Red Army, which in a mighty 10 day offensive has captured almost 22,000 square miles of enemy-held territory in Poland, East Prussia and Czechoslovakia. In southeastern Germany they were falling back before Marshal Ivan S. Konev’s First Ukranian Army, which-was 19 miles inside German Silesia along a 56-mile front and yesterday advanced within 41 miles east of the Silesian capital of Breslau by capturing the German village of Reinersdorf. They also were only 16 miles from the great German fortress city of Oppeln on the Oder river. The entire rich coal and steel producing region of Gleiwitz, Hin denburg and Beuthen, termed the “Ruh~ of the East” and essential to the Nazi war machine, was out flanked on the northwest and in danger of envelopment from the rear At the same time, the Soviets, driving frontally on the Silesian coal basin, hammered to within five miles of the Polish city of Da browa, easternmost town of the regiiu. Konev's forces have covered al most half the distance to Berlin within 10 days. At two points in Poland, Russian armies yesterday drove within 207 miles southeast and 203 miles east of the German capital Five Russian armies, smashing westward as Berlin newspaper* warned that the Reich “now i* in her greatest hour of peril,” cap tured more than 1,860 towns and vi’lages—more than 600 of them on German soil. The new invasion of East Prus sia and Silesia were announced in two orders of the day issued by Marshal Josef Stalin. In a third, he reported the capture of tht great East Prussian industrial town of Gumbinnen. Driving into East Prussia from the south, Marshal Konstantin K. Rokossovsky’s Second White Ru* (Cont'nued on Page Two; Col, t) _v_ Nazi Freight Yards Blasted By Bombers In Sub-Zero Weather LONDON, Jan. 21.—(UP)— At tacking in temperatures of 87 de grees below zero, more than 900 Britain-based bombers escorted by 500 fighters today blasted freight yards at Heilbronn, Mannheim and Aschaffenburg for the second con secutive day. The Luftwaffe failed to oppose the attacks, according to prelimin ary reports, but anti-aircraft bat teries at Mannheim mounted an intense flak barrage through com plete cloud cover to drive off the attackers “It was so cold the needle on the temperature gauge ran right off the dial at 67 degrees be'ow zero,” said Capt. Regory Good. Kansa* City, Mo., pilot of a Fortress that bitted Aschaffenburg.
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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Jan. 22, 1945, edition 1
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