North Carolina Newspapers

-1 FORECAST ---7-7—: - ^ m Served By Leased W ires Partly cloudy and warm today. f + ASSOCIATED PRESS Yesterday’s temperatures: III W I I W I I I I XI I and the High, 83—Low, * 62. J ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ III */— V I ■ UNITED PRESS , W * With Complete Coverage of —“77Z" State and National News t^Ts^NO. 119. -:-L_ I!-——---------WILMINGTON, N. C., SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1945 _ ESTABLISHED 1867 Third Army E^ves To Outskirts Of Coblenz, First Slashes Across Highway At Two Points; Kobe Razed By 2,500 Tons Of Incendiaries Record Load Hits Japans Fifth Center Fires May Prove Devasta ting Due To Low Water Supply GUAM, Saturday, March 17.— -More than 300 Superfortresses showered 2.500 tons of incendiary bombs over a five-mile target area in the heart of Kobe, Ja pan's fifth city, early today in their fourth devastation raid in seven elapsed days on Japanese war industry. The record load of fire bombs was poured into the heart of the great shiobuilding, ship repair and general industrial center of near ly 1.000.000 population, starting at about 4 a.m. In pursuance of new tactics, the Superfortresses swept over the target at low altitude to increase bombing accuracy and to handi ng anti-aircraft gunners. T.iere was every reason to be lieve fiies had been started which would rival those that burned 24 square miles of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Japan’s first three cities, in the previous devastation raids. Today's attack may prove a ca tastrophe. Though Kobe is Japan’s chief industrial port, it lacks large rivers and canals and its water supply for fire fighting is consid ered dangerously low. Only Kyoto remained of Japan’s "big five'’ industrial cities to feel the weight of a merciless fire bomb attack intended, as the com munique on today’s raid said, to destroy Japan’s industrial produc tion of war essentials. Kobe lies 225 miles west-south west of Tokyo and 25 west of Osa ka. Kyoto is 40 miles northeast of Kobe. The load of 2,500 tons of incen diaries dropped on Kobe was a rec ord. There were five pounds of unquenchable fire for every inhab itant of the great city — but the bombs were dropped into an area so small that each square miles received 1.000.000 pounds. Tokyo was attacked last Satur day with 2 300 tons of bombs and 17 square miles of its heart were destroyed. Monday came the turn of Nago Ja. Japan's third city. Two thou sand tons of fire bombs were hurl ed into a live square mile area and 1®'o squat-: miles were burned. Wednesday about 2,300 tons were dropped cn Osaka, the second city, and five square miles were de sl roved. Ip each instance more than 300 superfortresses attacked, in the Predawn hours of the morning. testimonial was provided by enemy broadcasts — evacuation of non-essential people from the big He, cities, merger of printing fa n:les newspapers, revision of i-aircraft defense, a decision to include Premier Gen. Kuniaki Koi ‘ ir all imperial headquarters meetmgs as an equal member. -v_ JAPS REPORT DAMAGE Thousands Killed, Hurt, Homeless After Raids WASHINGTON, March 16— (U.R)— t °UsanUs of persons were burned death, thousands were seriously Jured and many thousands were “ade homeless in the Superfor <TSS a«ack on Tokyo last Satur a Japanese official spokes man said today. ‘ Tokyo announced also that, with ,, ,e fate of the empire now at dP. , Emperor Hirohito had or ^ /ca that Premier Gen. Kunkiaki b J|so take part as an equal mem Jrm fuu,re meetings of Japanese p la* headquarters chieftains. ,1 • he frank statement on air c“;« tosses and the decision to in v'l,6 tioiso—a genera], but one tio, ln® 0-vil office—in delibera u‘,s the Japanese supreme war et ship—disclosed urgent anxi . " .°yer the prospect of additional a . attacks and the threat of invasion of Japan, '-act,io Iguchi, spokesman for the n,. ,anefie board of information, losses 'hC statement on air raid )rp’Uchi disclosed that Superfor leaffT’ have dropped propaganda Bo details altacks ^ gave _S. Aircraft Carrier Midway Ready For Launching Workmen put the finishing touches on the hull of the new 45,000-ton aircraft carrier, the U S. S. Midway, which will be launched at Newport News, Va., March 20. The gigantic flattop will carry more than 80 planes, which may be twin-engined. (AP Wirephoto). Roosevelt Says Nation Mast Tighten Belt To Help Supply Foreign People CITY PROMOTION CHOICES DENIED Civil Service Commission Rejects Council's Recommendations The Wilmington Civil Service Commission, hewing to the senior ity line and setting aside con flicting recommendations by the City Council, last night nomina ed Lt. I. L. Padrick and Pvt. E. E. Bullard, of the City Fire De partment, for promotion to the grades of captain and lieutenant respectively. Justifying their choice over the Council’s selections, Lt. H. W. Corbett and Pvt. R. N. Sellers, Chairman N. S. Westbrook point ed out that the Civil Service bill stipulates that “due consideration" be paid to seniority factors in all promotions, and tendered his opin ion that “harmonious "cooperation" and “no disgruntlement” were likely to follow promotions made in observance of length of service. “Wilmington is fortunate in hav ing a very fine body of men in its Fire Denartment’’ Mr. Westbrook added, emphasizing the difficulty of pieking outstanding members from the whole group, “They are well above the average in intelli gence; they are well read and well informed.” Lacking the merit-system reports on any of the candidates for Ad vancement except those picked by the Council, the Commission mem bers interviewed Chief J. Luddie Croom. Capt. C. N. Rivenbark and Capt. F. A. Tatum, whose esti mates of their subordinates’ per formance had gone to make up the merit-ratings held by J. Fred (Continued on Page Three; Col. 2) FDR Rejects Idea That Policy Will Starve Own Country WASHINGTON, March 16.—(U.PJ— President Roosevelt said today it is a matter of common decency for the United States to help feed foreign people who otherwise might starve. He vigorously defended the Ad ministration’s policy of extending such help. And he flatly rejected the idea that such a policy would lead to a starvation diet for this country. He told his news conference that he was aware of some opposition to reducing American consumption of certain items so that people of less fortunate nations do not starve. Such an attitude is not de cent, he said, and actually the American people are a decent peo ple. Mr. Roosevelt said it was a mat ter of fact that we have got to tighten our belts more before Ger many and Japan are beaten. And he thought the country would back up that idea. He said, however, that he could not bring himself to think that this country had suffered greatly or was going to, when the Ameri can standard of living is compared with that of other countries. He added that he thought his feelings not only reflected the Ad ministration’s attitude, but that of a large majority of the people. His discussion was touched off by reference to the recent crea tion of a government committee that will examine and control the export of items other than actual military and Lend-Lease ship ments. He said this had aroused criticism in some quarters and charges that the United States (Continued on Page Eight; Col. 7) ROMANIA FETES RUSSIAN ENVOY U. S. and Britain Watch Situation With Aloof Attitude BUCHAREST, March 16.— MP) — American and British representa tives are remaining aloof from lo cal manifestations of enthusiasm for the new national democratic front government of Romania un der Premier Dr. Petru Groza. The missions of these two pow ers are not exactly throwing them selves into this enthusiasm. But Groza’s government appar ently has the full backing of the Russians, and while there is a pos sibility that its base will be broad ened (by the inclusion of other po litical elements) it appears to be a going proposition as now consti tuted. (A Washington dispatch said Thursday that after the overthrow of Groza’s predecessor, Nicolas Radescu, late last month, the Unit ed States invoked the Crimean Charter in an effort to prevent Romania from falling into the hands of a Communist minority. Groza is Communist supported. A State Department official said, “We are discussing the situation with the British and Soviet •govern ments.” Andrei Vishinsky, Soviet Rus sia’s vice commissar of foreign affairs, has been a popular figure in the Bucharest demonstrations since his arrival yesterday. (Vish insky also was in Bucharest when Radescu was overthrown and Gro za named to succeed him.) When he got off the train he walk (Continued an*Page Three; Col. 1) Lewis Rejects Coal Operators* Plan But Invites Continued Negotiations WASHINGTON, March 16.—(A?)— John L. Lewis’ soft coal miners received and quickly turned down today an operator counter-propos al on wages unofficially estimated to net them nearly 50 cents a day. The union rejection was immedi ate and definite, holding to the miners’ original proposals which operators had figured would cost them more than six times what they offered. But the UMW pol icy Committe couched its turn down to language inviting continu ation of negotiations for “real col lective bargaining.” The operators made proposals of their own on six of the 18 pay de mands made by Lewis, and turn ed thumbs down on the other doz en. The rejected list was topped by Lewis’ principal claim for a royalty of 10 cents a ton, estimat ed at $60,000,000 a year, for a union health and rehabiliitaton fund. The producers estimated that Lewis’ whole list of demands would come to about $3.33 a day. Lewis and his eight-man nego tiating committee received the op erator offer, in preparation for the past wek, at a morning session. Then a recess was taken until to morrow and Lewis called together his policy committee of 250, which had been standing by since the original demands were formulated at the beginning of negotiations for a contract to supplant the one ex piring March 31._ 4 The policy committe quickly adopted this resolution: The policy committee quickly ject the counter proposals of the operators which rejects the mine workers proposals and that our negotiating committee be instruct ed to continue negotiations on the' basis of our proposals of March 1 with the hope that through real collective bargaining, a mutual satisfactory agreement can be reached.’’ The operators made no public estimate of the cost of the conces sions they offered, but unofficial ly it was figured that the changes they offered to make in vacations, (Continued on Page Three; Col. %) I—-— -* Grief enhagen Falk To Red Drive On Oder Berlin Claims Resumption Of Powerful Blow At Ramparts LONDON, Saturday, March 17.— (U.R)—Red Army troops captured the bridge town of Greifenhagen Friday to win control of a 40-mile stretch of the lower Oder south of Stettin in what Berlin called a powerful resumption of the So viet offensive into the inner Reich. Fresh Russian drives also broke out on a 75-mile front in lower Silesia, the German broadcasts said, perhaps indicating a massive double envelopment drive against Berlin. The southern push was admitted to have penetrated the main Wehrmacht defenses resting on the Sudeten hills. In the wake of these drives, Red Army troops cleaning up the Baltic coast drove within six miles of both Gdynia and Danzig, threaten ing; to push a wedge to the sea, be tween the ports, and further whit tled down the two German group ings in the Koenigsberg area of East Prussia. Bursting through--® thick con centration of German tanks and artillery, Marshal Zhukov’s First Oder 12 miles south of Stettin, in a three-mile westward push from White Russian Army seized Greif enliagen, on the east bank of the previously taken Woltin, the So viet communique said. The towns of Rosengarten, six miles southeast, and Bryenken, eight miles south of Stettin, also fell n the drive which cut the last section of the Stein-Kuestrin rail road running up the east side of the Oder. With the capture of Greifenhag en and the approach of its un doubtedly blasted highway bridge, the Russians now controlled every crossing between the big Autobahn bridge five miles south of Stettin and Niederwutzen, 40 miles up stream and only 29 miles from greater Berlin. The Germans have reported Soviet spearheads at Niederwutzen and it was possible the Soviets’ control of the river crossings extended even farther. German broadcasts said that powerful Russian armies, attack ing behind a roaring barrage, had opened a “concentric” offensive toward Stettin and the Germans’ lower Oder bridgehead. The attacks were said to have opened early Thursday, with at least 150 tanks spearheading Zhu kov’s forces which previously had driven within six miles of Stettin on the south, east and north. A great tank battle was reported by the enemy radio just south of the super highway bridge. While both sides concentrated huge forces on the front due east of Berlin, German broadcasts re ported that other Russian armies W'ent over to the offensive at three main points in Lower Silesia. The heaviest attacks were plac ed north of Ratibor, 16 miles above the Moravian gap, where the Rus sians were said to have thrown 125 tanks into attacks from a pre (Continued on Page Eight; Col. 5) TT NORWEGIAN SABOTAGE Patriots Destroy Railway Facilities In Oslo LONDON, March 16.—(U.R)—Nor wegian underground members blew up railroads, bridges, junctions and the German-guarded railway administration building in Oslo last Wednesday night in the greatest single night of sabotage of the war, it was disclosed today _ The Nazi-controlled news agency in Oslo said several persons, in cluding German sentries, were kill ed and that German police made numerous arrests. The reports were received in Stockholm. Later information to the Nor wegian information office in Lon don disclosed that the saboteurs also had cut the main rail line linking Oslo with the embarkation ports along the east side of Oslo Fjord. Bridges and trrcks were blown up between Aas and Halden —two main points through which any German evacuation of Norway would be made_ Americans Wipe Out Shimbu Line Sector Enemy Loses Heavily In Men And Materiel; Mac Arthur’s Men Slice Jap Communica tion Lines Into South Luzon MANILA, Saturday, March 17— (U.R)—The entire southern flank of the Shimbu defense line 11 miles east of Manila has been destroyed with great loss to the enemy in men and materiel, while troops to the south have cut the enemy’s line of communication to southern Lu zon, Gen. Douglas MacArthur an nounced today. On Mindanao island, in the south ern Philippines, patrols of the 41st Division have advanced two miles north of San Ramon on the west coast, while forces inland above Pasananca and San Roque—sup ported by heavy air strikes on Japanese positions—are pushing in to the hills against enemy resis tance, MacArthur said. Troops of the 43rd Division, in collapsing the* Shimbu line with only light American casualties, have reached a point only four miles from Antipolo, southern an chor of the line which runs north approximately 10 miles to already threatened Wawa. Cutting of enemy communica tions to southern Luzon was car ried out simultaneously by troops of the 43rd and 38th Divisions who made a wide enveloping move on Japanese forces to cut Highway 1 at Maybancal, at the base of Morong Peninsula. Highway 21 is the main communication artery for Japanese being compressed on Lu zon's southern tip. Troops of the same divisions seized high ground surrounding Te resa, a mountain village some 10 mijes southeast ot Antipolo and 11 miles northwest of Maybancal. In the - Balayan bay area some 50 miles south of Manila, elements of the 158th Regimental Combat Team, in a leap frog operation along the coast of the bay cap Dagatan on the western coast of Calumpan peninsula and pushed rapidly eastward toward Mabini, 1 1-2 miles across the peninsula on Batangas bay. In the same sector, but some 30 miles to the north, the 11th Air (Continued on Page Three; Col. 3) YANKS TAKE IWO; LOSE 19,938 MEN 4,189 Marines Killed With Jap Dead Placed At Over 21,000 GUAM, March 16—(U.R)—'The Ma rines won the battle of Iwo today at a cost of 4,189 men kiled, 441 missing and 15,308 wounded—a to ta of 19,938—and the United States by their heroism won an offensive base 760 miles from the Japanese homeland. Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, Pa cific commander in chief, announc ed that organized resistance ended at 6 p.m. (4 a.m. Friday EWT) when the Third and Fifth Marine divisions broke through the Japa nese lines and reached Kitano point at the northern end of the island. Thus, as the sun was sinking over the eight-square-mile island, the Third and Fifth Marines and the Fourth Marine Division on their right won the toughest, bood iest battle of the Pacific war and their own long history. Victory came at the end of the 26th day of fighting. The toll of 19,938 casualties which the Marines paid was not com plete. The casualty figure was as of 5 p. m. It was an hour later when the Marines slashed through (Continued on Page Three; Col. 2) NAVY SECRETARY DEFENDS LOSSES Forrestal Replies To Mothers’ Criticism Of Iwo Cost WASHINGTON, March 16. — (UP) — Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal is telling moth ers anguished by the heavy Iwo casualties that there is no way to win the war but to fight. “There is no short cut or easy way—I wish there were,” he re plied to a typical letter protesting U. S. losses in the bloody battle. The letters were made public with the disclosure that somewhat more than 4,000 Marines were killed on Iwo. A high Navy official said U. S. fatalities were less than one-fifth those of the Japanese. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz put the number of enemy killed at 20,000. Here is the text of the typical letter to Forrestal: “Please for God’s sake stop sending our finest youth to be murdered on places like Iwo Jima. It is too much for boys to stand, too much for mothers and homes to take. It is driving some mothers crazy. Why can’t objectives be accomplished some other way. It (Continued on Page Three; Col. 3) AMG Control Established East Of Remagen Bridge PARIS, March 16-Allied Mil itary Government units crossed the Rhine in the Rcmagen bridgehead area today and established AMG control east of the river for the first time. As they did so, an AMG officer, returning here from Cologne, re ported that the Nazi party and German High Command were in disagreement on at least one point —how much destruction should be done before leaving an area. The AMG learned that the Nazis in Cologne wanted to demolish power houses and similar instal lations bu: the Army argued that they should be left intact except for certain key parts. In the case of Cologne, the Army won. In Cologne, largest German city yet to fall under AMG administra tion, about 100,000 civilians are scheduled to begin registration to morrow. Cologne police, 123 of whom have been cleared as politically unob jectionable, will aid in the regis tration, which will include finger printing. The police are serving under a former chief, ousted by the Nazis in 1933, who has been rein stated by the Allies. Capt. James H. Denison of De troit, Mich., first AMG officer to operate on German soil in the 4 achen area, said only 34 persons had been arrested for violating military law in Cologne and most of these were minor cases. Denison said the AMG first was concerned with establishing civili an order and then food supplies, with displaced persons being giv en preierence over the German population. In this class are all Allied and other foreign workers whom the Germans imported. Six teen thousand were found in the Cologne area, he said. Third on the list is restoration of utilities—not for the sake of the civilians but to give the Army the use of them, he explained. Denison said the German food rationing system was being used in Cologne with new ration cards being issued to each civilian after he registers. The amount of food Cologners will get will be less than under the Nazis, with the maximum set at 1,500 calories. The average prob ably will be 1,250 calories against a daily caloric average in the Unit ed States of 3,800. No food is being brought in for civilians—both they and displaced persons are fed from existing sup plies. In homes, shops and public warehouses, these are estimated to be sufficient for three months. * - ■ *8 Surrender Is Demanded Of Nazi Bastion Seventh Army Crashing Through Into Germany From South ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF CO BLENZ, With The American Third rmy, March 15.— (6:40 p.m.)—(U.R) —American Third Army troops pressed to the outskirts of Coblenz against light resistance today and broadcast to its German garrison a demand to surrender or die. The capture of the city is believ ed a matter of hours. PARIS, March 16.—(JP)— The U. S. First Army slashed across the great Ruhr superhighway at two points east ol the Rhine today, and southward a sensational break through by the Third Army 20 miles beyond the Moselle river set up two German armies for imminent annihilation. These two seasoned, hard-hitting armies were dealing tremendous body blows to the reeling armies of the Reich, while the Seventh Army was crashing through into Ger many from the south. The Moselle-Rhine triangle—80 miles from top to bottom and 85 miles wide at the base—was col lapsing under the terrific impact of the Third and Seventh Armies and it appeared that soon not a German would stand on the soil of the Reich west of the Rhine. The First Army, carrying a fight to the enemy fraught with the most immediate peril, deepened the Rhine bridgehead to seven miles, swept a mile north to .within three miles of the open plains of Germany, and smashed the first big tank-led counterblow. The Third Army broke loose along the Rhine Valley on a 14 mile rampage that cleaved through the heart of the enemy defenses between the Rhine and the Mo selle 60 to 70 miles north df the Germans fighting in defense of the Saar Basin and the Bavarian Pala tinate. The Seventh Army was ham mering at the underside of this huge bulge in a co-ordinated of fensive along a 50-mile front that gained up to four miles and over whelmed the 200-year-old French fortress of Bitche, never before taken by storm. The Germans were falling back into the Siegfried Line, which had been reached at some points, and were deluging with artillery shells Seventh Arrfiy troops who had fought up to the western outskirts of the Saar’s capital of Saarbruesk en, 23 miles west of Bitche. Gen. Eisenhower dealt this pow erful three-army blow as the Ger mans renewed predictions that three other armies—the Canadian First, the British Second and the U. S. Ninth—were about to storm (Continued on Page Three; Col. 2) ____v NUERNBERG BOMBED Berlin Also Attacked For 25th Night LONDON, March 16— (U.R)-Royal Air Force bombers again heavily attacked southern Germany to night, blasting the Nazi party cen ter of Nuernberg and the rail hub of Wuernzburg, 60 miles to the northwest. Berlin also was attack ed for the 25th consecutive night. The Air Ministry said that Bri tish warplanes “in strength’’ hit the two big transport and com munications junctions, through which supplies pass both to the ^ Italian front and the southern sector of the Western Front where the U. S. Seventh Army is on the move. Earlier today, American bom bers from Italian bases continued their support of Russian ground forces. They hammered synthetic oil refineries in the Vienna area and blasted several of the main Austrian railroads supplying Ger man troops on the Budapest front. Liberators and Fortresses of the 15th Air Force concentrated on the Vienna refineries, said to pro duce approximately 10 per cent of all Germany’s gasoline. They are particularly valuable to the me chanized units of the Wehrmacht fighting the Soviets in Hungar^.