forecast ^ ^ „ ^1^ — - _ ^ ^ ^ ^ Served Bv Leased Wires umumtmt iniinmtn s>tar is:, —■—■ __ 4^ State and National News j ^j8:=NO1103:----WILMINGTON, N. C- TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1945. ' " ~ FINAL EDITION ‘ First Army Sh^ps Cologne, 11 Miles Away; Marines Use T/fo Airfield; Gain 400 Yards; Berlin Is Pounded By 2,000 American Planes Vital Height Is Seized By Leathernecks Japs Using Every Type Of Weapon To Stem Amer ican Drive U. S. PACIFIC FLEET HEAD QUARTERS. Guam, ft Tuesday, peb 27—i/P)—I wo Jima's captured southern airfield was put to Amer ican use for the first time Mon ...• while doughty U. S. Marines advancing up to 400 yards cap tured an important hill overlook ing most of the remaining Japa nese positions. Adm. Chester W. Nimitz report ed today that two-seater Marine observation planes were using Mo toyama No. 1 while Third Marine Division elements won most of the second airfield, Motoyama No. 2, in the center of the bitterly-con tested island. Use of Motoyama Airfield No. ] indicated that fighters soon may be lying off that major airdrome. 750 mile3 from Tokyo. Third Division Marines captured Hill 382. east of the central air field. Militarily, the hill is as great a prize as captured Mt. Suribachi. From it artillery observers will be able to direct murderous fire on Japanese positions. Opposition to the accelerated American push increased through out the day.- The deeply-entrench ed enemy threw a heavy rain of artillery shells and rockets at the advancing Yanks in the eighth day of this fiercest fight of the Paci fic war. All but the northeast tip of Mo toyama airfield No. 2, a two-strip fighter field, was in American hands. ine runways uu muiu.yauia 1 were being rushed into condi tion to accommodate American figluers and bombers. Massed Japanese infantrymen, using every type of defense, threw against the advancing Marines probably ihe thickest hail of rifle and machinegun fire of the Iwo campa;gn. Artillery fire and blasts of the huge enemy rockets were heavy, but the high ground of the cen tral plateau finally was won and held by the Third Marines. The Fourth Marine Division cap tured a commanding hill near the east coast. Niiliilz said mopping up w a s progressing on southern Iwo. and ‘ little enemy fire fell on the in ferior of our beachhead during the day." Admiral Nimilz made no further mention of the Fifth Fleet carrier plane strike against the Tokyo area starting Sunday. It was pos sible the task force still was deep in enemy waters. Mopping up continued south of captured Mt. Suribachi on the loathern end of Iwo. By 6 p.m. yesterday, 3.568 Jap anese dead had been counted. Nine enemy prisoners were taken. This was the first mention of prisoners. Meanwhile. Marine observation planes landed on the southern Iwo airstrip, captured Tuesday. These were the first American aircraft to land on the strategic island only miles south of Tokyo. The Japanese capital and the •mire homeland island of Honshu will be well within range of Yank fighters and bombers flying from Iwo, supplies and equipment continu •Q to pour ashore on lwo’s littered "caches. Road conditions were im proved. Liberators bombed Chichi Jima he Eonin Islands, immediately '•he north, hitting oil storage v,eas and shipping. The Palaus, leu ami Pagan werc other tar The central airfield on Iwo (Mo >dr ‘d A'o. 2i ij the first fighter e within reach of Tokyo to The Th ^ the Pacific war. rin» n • ’ Fourth and Fifth Ma c„ , Visions launched an attack the fitut0 complete the capture of mem ? .S;nking after a bombard ier 0l enemy Positions by Amer caa warships and artillery, bupwrted by naval and land_ - aircraft, the Leathernecks ,‘aa the easi-west runway and strip' t"°'tllirds of the north-south it ': 'niy. resistance was stiff, as for hk r i!aSt week in the fiSht fhrouffh J6ld' Heavy fighting raged Phoughout lhe day Adm. Nimitz dav s communique early Mon • ilmday night, u. S. time). U. £>. lakes Verde Isle Off Luzon, Mindo ro Latest Invasion Takes Enemy By Surprise and Secures Western End of Shipping Route from Manila to the United States MANILA, Tuesday, Feb. 27.—OP) Veteran 24th Division troops, tak ing the Japanese completely by surprise, invaded small Verde is land between Luzon and Mindoro Sunday to secure the western end of the vital shipping route through the Philippines from the United States to Manila. The Eighth Army Yanks “went ashore with practically no loss,'’ Gen. Douglas MacArthur sa;d in his communique today. He termed Verde, which hes midway in the narrow Verde is land passage, “the key to the control of the main navigational route through the central Philip pines.’’ With the battle for Manila end ed. MacArthur announced that 3. 056 Japanese dead had been count ed on Corregidor fortress, besides the sealed-off enemy troops who have been blowing themselves up by touching off underground nm I munition stores. Far-ranging American bombers | hit Formosa and north Borneo in their relentless campaign against enemy airdromes and shipping. In the Marakina watershed reser vation, First Cavalry and Sixth Division troops driving southeast of Manila easily repulsed three Japanese counterattacks as they encountered ‘'increasing enemy' re sistance.” Northwest of Manila, 40th Divi sion troops which earlier in the campaign captured Clark air cen ter. went after enemy groups in caves and ravines of the Zamoales mountains. Northeast of Manila across the central Luzon plain, Yanks of the 23th Division, moving toward the Cagayan valley, captured Lum boy on the Balete Pass road. They also took Luna, within three miles of Carranglan. The latter is on a road forking east off the Balete Pass route. The 32nd and 33rd Division, op erating extensively in the sur rounding mountains, raided enemy camp areas along Balete road. Philippines Are Returned I To People By Mac Arthur MANILA, Tuesday, Feb.. 27.—LP>—Gen. Douglas MacArthur, j standing on the steps of war-scarred Malacanan Palace today turned the civil government for liberated areas of the Philippines over to WPB OFFERS PLAN TO SAVE WORKERS Move Would Keep Some In 18-29 Age Group From Draft y .. i ■ - WASHINGTON, Feb. 26.—n, vice president of Arguentina, 1 leclared today he desired full res- i oration cf cordial relations with j he United States and Russia but f said the possibility was unlikely ■ hat his country would find tot- > ering Germany’s behavior suffi- , :ient cause to declare war against i he N.aizs.) : The cure of the economic pro 'ram came in a resolution entitl- ( id “An Economic Charter For The ( Americas” which was described , tuthoritatively as a fundamental j ixpression of United States for- ^ ugn policy throughout the world. Tied to the economic charter vere several specific resolutions (Continued on Page Three; Col. 4) t Foe Announces New Battle Along Oder, Neisse Fronts LONDON, Tuesday, Feb. 27.—(.T)—German broadcasts said last night that heavy battles had erupted on a 100-mile front along the Oder and Neisse rivers facing Berlin and Dresden and declared that COMMONS MAY r BIG THREE FACTS Churchill Expected To Di vulge Results In Con fidence Debate LONDON. Feb. 26— OJ.R1—Prime Minister Winston Churchill, open ,ng a three day debate in Oom nons tomorrow. Is expected to jive the world the first full ac count of the Big Three Crimea conference by one of the princi pals. The debate will be based on Churchill’s motion: “That this louse approves the declaration of joint policy agreed to by the three powers at the Crimea Conference and 'in particular welcomes their ietermination to maintain unity of action not only in achieving the j ’inal defeat of the common enemy mt thereafter in peace as in war.” | i (Continued on Page Three; Co!x6) Red Army flanking forces to the north had speared to within 23 miles of Stettin, Pomeranian capital and Baltic port at the mouth of the Oder. Moscow did not confirm the Nazi Transocean agency’s report of spreading tank and infantry actions on the main front—possibly a pre lude to an all-out Soviet offensive by upwards of 1,000000 Russians veterans in the crack First Russian and First Ukraine Armies. Transocean said the First Ukraine Army now had reached the Neisse “everywhere’’ along a 60 mile front south of the Oder con fluence, 50 miles southeast of Ber lin, and that German and Russian armored forces were locked in a “Merry-go-round of death” as the Soviets attempted to force the river. A brief Soviet communique, an nouncing capture of five localities in East Prussia during slow one mile gains, and the seizure of 15 more blocks in besieged Breslau, did not mention any fighting on the main front inside Germany. Dis patches from the Soviet capital, however, told of heavy reconnais sance and the usual activities pre ceding a major offensive. (Continued on Page Three; Col. 5) Lewis Hints Of New Strike By United Mine Labor WASHINGTON, Feb. 26. — :JP, — rohn L. Lewis opened his 1945 oam jaign for more pay for coal miners oday by serving formal notice tha* i strike of nearly 400,000 miners nay be just around the corner. Lewis acted under the Smith lonnally Act, which requires 30 lays’ notice and a Government toll of workers prior to a strike 'he act, which Lewis denounced oday as “a grotesque slave slat le,” was passed over Presidential 'eto in July, 1943, amid a wave of eaction to United Mine Workers trikes that year. Hurling charges that government ifficials and operators are engag 'd in a “conspiracy” against the IMW. Lewis and his policy com nittee served the formal notice hat a labor dispute exists and a trike may occur in 30 days. A National Labor Relations 5oard# spokesman said a poll on he question of striking probably : would be held in 30 days. It would be the largest such poll the board has undertaken. The UMW contract with the bitu minous operators expires March 31, and negotiations between Lewis and the operators begin Thursday. A month later the anthracite con tract will come up. Lewis has not divulged what wage demands he will make, rut it is generally believed he is con sidering something like a 25 cent general increase in the present Da sic rate of $1 an hour, plus other concessions. Lewis voiced his criticism of the Smith-Connally Act in a lette: to Secretary of Labor Perkins, to whom the strike notice was sent, ffe quoted President Roosev-!t with whom he fell out aftei the steel strike of 1937. as saying the ict would “provoke strikes in /ital war plants which otherwise would tot occur.” I German Lines Seem Broken At Ruhr Basin Von Rundstedt Seeks To Rally Disorganized Forces PARIS, Tuesday, Feb. 27. —