I FORECAST 1 '* ^ ^ ^ Served By^Leased Wire* t l itttttrtll tH 1 Tvtttt* ASSOCIATED PRESS J ;r -“~ uuuumnu 414 4114144 e^4vi4 »ss=e M —- ' ~~r"————— State and National News j VOl^^0- 121_ ______' _WILMINGTON, N. C., TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1945_ _ ESTABLISHED 186T Third Army Threatens To Trap 80,000 Nazis; Americans Invade Panay, Drive On Iloilo; Yank Carrier PL fies Attack Kobe And Kure - *___---.. ______ Losses Light In 25th Isle Taken By U.S. JJany Sections of Island Already Cleared By Guerrillas MANILA, Tuesday, March 20.— (J,—Fortieth Division infantrymen aider Maj. Gen. Rapp Brush, with Nava! and air support, invaded panay island in the central Philip pines'Sunday and rapidly closed jn on the capital city of Oloilo. The landing, on the southeastern shore, was made with practically no ioss. Gen. Douglas MacArthur said m his communique today, again achieving “complete tacti cal as well as strategic surprise.” This was the 25th Philippine in vasion and the seventh of major importance. me lames went asiiuie at xig bauan. 14 miles west of Iloilo, and immediately drove inland four miles to Cordova and eastward along the coast seven miles to Oton halfway to the capital city. "They are rapidly closing in on the city," MacArthur reported. Many sections of Panay had been well cleared by guerrillas, including parts of the southeast shore where the Yanks poured ashore. One Panay guerrilla leader was Tomas Confesor, new Secre tary of the Interior in the Philip pine Cabinet. He was the former governor of Panay. Associated Press Correspondent Tied Hampson reported Filipinos crowed the beach to welcome the Americans. The invasion was the first direct action to break the Japanese hold in the bypassed central Philip pines. It was designed in part to clear shipping routes which pass ed close to Pariay airfields. Iloilo is the outstanding port of the central Philippines and has an important airfield nearby. The capital has a population of 90,000. A headquarters spokesman said the troops encountered a small enemy force on the road before seizing Cordova. Correspondent Hampson said fil e’s flew at low level over the country behind the beachhead searching for enemy positions they might strafe, but found none. The invasion was not preceded 'ey the usual naval bombardment, although cruisers and destroyers stood by if needed. Rocket ships, too, were ready. The amphibious operation was executed by the 40th Infantry Division, originally the California 'NTn t! <-,v, ^ kiUU n Vrtrlr regiment added. The 40th was in the Luzon campaign in January. Rear Adm. Arthur D. Struble commanded the amphibious move, designed t0 clear the huge archi pelago of Japanese hindering free movement of shipping. The landing beach was 180 miles vest of the original Philippines invasion beach on Leyto, and is 2’0 miles south of Manila. Pansy. bombed frequently by heavy bombers, was an ominous threat to the convoy route to American-held Mindoro and Luzon "Rile Japan still had strength in the Philippines. Ships passed w:#h in siolet of the triangular island. * small-scale operation, oth '■ American troops landed the same day. Sunday, on Malanau island, south of Zamboanga at the southwestern tip of Mindanao. MacArthur announced gains on . Luzon fronts and another heavy *lr ra'd on Baguio, summer capi tal {,f the Philippines and sup posed Philippine headquarters of Japanese Lt. Gen. Tomoyuki Tamashita. MacArthur reported that recent topping up operattens in the Zam oaies mountains along Luzon’s nJ‘’,hwest coast resulted in an additional 2,654 Japanese- dead. ne 38th Division has been en gaged in the grim cleanup job in 'e mountain area generally west ^captured Clark Field. /o the east., the 25th and 32nd unions were converging on “aiete Pass, which leads into the '§ Cagayan Valley, against in m eas',u:j opposition. Aircraft lent ct'se support. 0l1 Mindanao, the 41st Division ank'- with tank support, steadily xpanded their positions north of ?on' ‘r*r,<l ic and Pasonanca, and . dead were found abandoned ^ die enemy. Navy Silent On Results Of Assault Fleet Units Carry Raids Into Second Consecu tive Day U. S. PACIFIC FLEET HEAD QUARTERS, Guam, Tuesday, March 20.—W—Carrier planes of an American task force, attack ing Japan for the second straight day, raided Kobe and Kure on Honshu island and other enemy installations around the inland sea Monday, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced today. The carrier planes, which had swarmed on Kyushu island, south of Honshu Sunday, attacking in strength estimated by Tokyo at 1,400, dealt the second day’s as sault on the same day that more than 300 Superforts dropped 2,500 tons of incendiaries on Nagoya, Japan’s third largest city. In hitting Kobe, the carrier planes pounced on Japan’s largest shipbuilding city and port while it still was smouldering from the 2,500 ton incendiary attack made Saturday by the B-29s. Kure is a Japanese naval base. xne communique suppuea no details on results accomplished by the carrier’s Hellcats, Helldiv ers and Avengers either Sunday or Monday. The inland sea of Japan is a lifeblood artery through which Nippon moves vital supplies from Korea, Manchuria and China to the homeland. Kure, Japan’s most important naval base, is 200 miles west of Osaka, another city hard hit by tt)e Superforts. Today’s communique reported a continuing search for enemy snipers on conquered Iwo and air raids on the Bonins, the Kuriles, the western Carolines, the Palaus and the Marshalls. The one-two punches of the car rier planes and the Marianas-bas ed B-29s came at a time when Tokyo radio broadcasts made it clear so many Japanese are flee ing their cities that evacuation problems have gotten out of hand. A Tokyo broadcast Monday ap pealed to authorities in Shizuoka prefecture southwest of Tokyo to 'promptly supply foo<J to these air raid damage victims even though they may not possess air raid damage certificates but as long as they are recognized as people fall ing in this category.” The broadcast, a domestic one, also gave instructions for helping “those who have alighted frcVn trains” in finding lodging and food. A communique issued at U. S. Pacific Fleet headquarters here confirmed the Sunday raid on Kyushu air fields by “a strong force of carrier aircraft.” Vice Adm. March A. Mitscher’s carrier task force—which raided the Tokyo-Yokohama areas Feb ruary 16-17 and again February 25-26—was undoubtedly still rang ing south of Japan. Some 350 of the Marianas-b3sed Superfortresses, the largest fleet yet in a ten-day series of massive incendiary blows at Japan’s in dustrial heart, participated in the new Nagoya raid. Enemy Dooms Own Men In Span Blasts American Planes Rain Hail ' Of Death Into Ranks , Of Germans i PARIS, Tuesday. March 20.—OF) —Three rampaging U. S. tank divi sions of the U. S. Third Army, racing up to 15 miles through the toppling Saarlancr, thrust within 14 miles of Kaiserslautern yester day in a bid to crush 80,000 en emy' troops in a giant vise and paralyze any attemted German stand east of the Rhine. Many of these badly-needed Ger man troos were doomed when the enemy blew two Rhine bridges at Mainz, 12 miles in front of yet an other armored division, the U. S. Fourth, which set the stage for the Nazi debacle with a break through along the Rhineland plain. Two thousand more Germans were trapped in the western Saar, and hundreds of others were driven to their death in a rain of steel from thousands of U. S. warplanes flailing every avenue of retreat. Guns and tanks were abandoned and scattered along the line of flight. Already driven more than half the Saarland and Palatinate— their last holdings west of the Rhine—and routed from their final foothold in northeastern France by the U. S. Seventh Army, the Germans were faced with even greater peril to their vaunted Rhine line farther north. The U. S. First Army east of the Rhine struck northward more than two miles, reached the plains leading to the Ruhr at two points, and enlarged its bridgehead to 18 miles wide and eight miles deep. Opposite the Ruhr itself, the U. S. Ninth Army cleared the way* for a possible Rhine cross!ng by ordering German civilians evacu ated from the west bank cities of Uerdingen, Homber, Ossenberg, Orsoy and Rheinhausen. With fighting manpower more urgently needed at home, the Ger man high command was report ed giving up long-held positions in Hollond north of Nijmegen be tween the Wall Rhine and Neder Rhine. Allied patrols reached the Neder Rhine and saw few Ger mans in their path. The U. S. Seventh Army was 14 miles from a junction with the Third Army in the heart of the Saar Basin after breaking clear through the Siegfried Line east of Saarbruecken. Such a juncture would seal off Saarbruecken, the capital, and most of the basin’# steel mills. As the Seventh Army moved into Germany on a 60-mile front, tne £rencn £ mn urmoreQ divi sion on the east flank invaded Ger many near the ^hine and captur ed Scheibenhard, 10 miles west of another enemy escape hatch at Karlsruhe. This was the first time French units had invaded Ger many since their homeland fell to the Germans in 1940. American troops a few miles to the northwest fought three miles into Germany north of captured Wissembourg, and battled Ger man tanks in Ober Otterbach. Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Fly ing columns, engulfing 30 more towns, were bringing blitzkrieg warfare home with a vegeance to the country which gave it birth. The Third was traveling on the treads of enough fast-rolling tank* to fill seven comlete armored divisions, while overhead fighter bombers were pouring bombs, bulf lets and rockets on the enemy. The Fourth Armored Division, capturing Bad Krueznach. raced eight miles east of the shattered Nahe river line toward Mainz. Kaiserslautern, a traffic city of 61.000 through which passes nearly all roads to the Rhine, was in the path of the Tenth, Eleventh and * new and as yet unidentified Ar mored Division. Swinging eastward and south eastward almost shoulder to shoul der, these hard-hitting outfits all were about 14 miles west or north vest of the city. The 11th Armored Division cross ed the Nahe river in a 15 mile ad vance, and linked up with the un identified armored division in th* vicinity of Merzweiler, 14 mile* northwest of Kaiserslautern. (Continued on Page Two; Co^ *) Plasma At Front An Army medic connects trans Cusian tubes to bottles of freshly "nixed blood plasma at an advanc sd station on the Western Front. Plasma, processed from blood do nated through the American Red 3ross, provides another vital link from the home front to the men in khaki. City Council Election Set Primary Slated For April 23; Final Vote For May 8 A primary election of City Coun cil nominees was ordered for April 23 by the present City Council and the City Board of Elections at a special meeting yesterday. The munieipal election, at which time five members of the City Council will be chosen from the list of primary nominees, will be held May 8, it was announced. During Tne joint meeting, Er nest Beale and Robert Strange were named to the Cfty Board of Elections by the Council. Ex-officio members of the board are August L. Meyland. clerk of court; Adrian B. Rhodes, register of deeds; and H. G. Carney, chairman of the County Board of Elections. The registration books will be opened at 9 a.m., March 31, and closed April 14. They will be avail able at the polling precincts in Wil mington township under the same conditions as used by the County Board of Elections. All persons previously registered on the present general election books for Wilmington township and who have not changed their places of residence are eligible to vote in the primary and regular munic ipal elections without further reg istration. Any person having moved from one ward or precinct to another and having resided in another ward or precinct for a period of four months will be required to regis ter in the ward or precinct to which he removed. The person also will be required to first secure a removal certificate from the reg istrar of the old ward or precinct to the registrar of the new ward or precinct. The deadline for those desiring to file for candidacy was set for 6 p.m. April 13. The present City Council is com posed of Ronald Lane, mayor; Ed gar L. Yow. R. S. Romeo and Gar land Currin. Food Shortage Probe Slated By Congress Republicans Attack Ad ministration View On Farmers » WASHINGTON, March 19.—(U.f»)— Congress moved in on the increas ingly serious food shortage situa tion today. The Senate voted unanimously to investigate all phases of food pro duction and distribution. It au thorized 55,000 for the inquiry by a Senate Agriculture subcommit tee and gave the committee broad powers. Three resolutions calling for a similar inquiry \yere introduced in the House. One specifically would authorize an investigation to de termine if foreign nations were stockpiling meat supplies in this country "at the expense of citi zens of the United States”; if gov ernment directives are discourag ing meat production, and what ef fect lend-lease shipments are hav ing on civilian and military meat supplies. House Kepuoncans spearneaaei a general attack on Administra tion food policies. They accused Government agencies of “interfer ing with, harassing and hopping on our farmers”; charged that‘‘the Government has done everything possible to discourage the food producer, tc drive him out of bus iness and to create the food short age which the American people de mand now be alleviated,” and chided President Roosevelt’s re cent press conference statement that no decent person would ques tion the allocation of food to liber ated areas. Assistant War Food Administra-' tor Grover Hill said meantime that there is no danger of a meat “famine” despite the 10 per cent cut in civilian allocations for the next three months. He made the statement after the American Meat Institute at Chicago report ed, on the basis of a Nation-wide survey, that shortages are ‘bor dering on famine in many parts of the country.” The situation also had repercus sions abroad. London dispatches said the recent U. S. decision to slash Lend-Lease meat shipments to Britain from 200,000,000 pounds to 25,000,000 pounds during the next three months probably means that meat rations for Britons will be reduced to only one serving per person each week. Ottawa dis patches said Canada may attempt to boost meat shipments to Brit ain in an effor to offset sharply reduced U. S. Lend-Lease ship ments. The Senate inquiry is based on a resolution by Kennth S. Wher ry, (R-Neb.). The Senate War In vestigating Committee already is examining the entire food supply problem and will issue a report in a few eeks. , ‘‘The House resolutions were in troduced by Reps, ugust H. Andre sen, (R-Minn.), Edward H. Rees, (R-Kans.), and Clinton P. Ander son. (D-N.M.). Andresen and Rees would authorize the Agriculture Committee to find out how cur rent shortages developed. Ander (Continued on Page Five; Col. 3) Red Cross Chairman Says Drive Off To Good Start With residents quickly rallying to' the plea of the Amerioan Red Cross for continued and greater support, the outlook for a success ful 1945 War- Fund drive was “bright” here last night, accord ing to Robert Strange, campaign chairman. The success of the campaign, which was opened officially yes terday morning at a “kick-off” breakfast at St. Paul’s Lutheran church parish house, was attribut ed to the “feeling” people have toward the Red Cross, ‘realizing they can depend on it to aid their man in the service.” Strange said that the firms he has visited had equaled or exceeded their quotas, and that campaign head quarters had received requests for thousands of ‘Memos for Joe.” A list of all people who send the “Memos” and the serv icemen to whom they are sent will be kept for public record at the Wilmington Public Library, Strange added. Speaking at the “kick-off’ break fast the Rev. Walter B. Freed, pas tor of St. Paul’s Lutheran church, told the assembly of division work ers “as you go forth to participate in this Red Cross appeal, you’re going to help provide the means to bring hope to those in despair”. The minister termed the Red Cross the “cross of hope to many servicemen and women and many on the home front.” Mr. Freed, who was introduced by Strange, related the incident of a woman who learned the whereabouts of (Continued on Ptjge Two; Col. 7) \,t Port Authority Bill Passes State Senate Shipment Of 30,000 Lend-Lease Pre-Fabri cated Houses To Be Handled Through Local Terminal By Salisbury Co. The unopposed passage in the Senate of the North Carolina Ports Authority bill, providing for the appointment by the Governor of a seven-man group to recommend improvements in the ports of Wil mington, Southport and Morehead City and issuance of State reve nue bonds to finance them, was reported from Raleigh last night by Rep. J. Q. LeGrand. Together with the disclosure earlier yesterday that 30,000 Lend Lease prefabricated housing units, manufactured by the Salisbury plant of the Walsh Construction Co., of New York City, and other firms allotted contracts by Fed eral agencies, would be exported development enthusiasts as a “very auspicious” beginning of the traffic year 1945. Cyrus D. Hogue, Port Commis sion official, expressed apprecia tion last night of “the effective ness with which Rep. LeGrand and Sen. Roy Rowe, of Pender, introduced the measure to the leg islative houses and worked for fTS passage”. “It is the first definite recog nition ever accorded by the State Legislature to the importance to the State of its seaports” he*said. “It keeps North Carolina in line with other seaboard states which (Continued on Page Five; Col. 7) SENATE PASSES HOSPITAL BILL Measure Amended To Pro vide Grant For Rural Expansion RALEIGH, March 19 —W- The Senate today passed a State-wide hospital and medical care bill af ter amending the measure to pro vide that $500,000 of a $1,000,000 contingent biennial appropriation for indigent patients be used for grants for construction or enlarge ment of rural hospitals and health centers. Three hours of debate went into passage of the amendment, of fered by Sen. Lumpkin of Frank lin. The amendment provides that the North Carolina medical care commission created in the bill make grants in aid to rural hos pitals or health centers provided that no grant exceeds 50 per cent of the total cost involved and that not more than $125,000 be made available for any one project. The amendment sliced in half funds appropriated in the original bill on a contingent basis to match Duke funds for care and treatment of indigent patients. The original $1,000,000 appropriation would not be made available until the emergency salary promised teachers and low-salaried State employes has been paid. The re (Continued on Page Two; Col. 5) PRICE MARK-UPS FROZEN BY OPA Agency Moves To Reduce Cost of Clothing, Furniture Items WASHINGTON, March 19.—(U.R)— Paving the way for consumers to benefit by future price reductions, the Office of Price Administration tonight ordered approximately 300,000 retail stores in the coun try to ‘freeze” their price mark ups at the level prevailing today. Retail stores affected are those selling clothing textiles, furniture and house furnishings. Under provisions of the order— hailed by OPA as “one ofthe most important events in retail price control” since the general maxi mum price regulation went into effect in May, 1942—the additions retailers may add to wholesale costs are pegged and will not be allowed to increase. The order is the prelude to con sumer benefits from reductions possible under the joint War Pro duction Board-OPA textile and clothing order which will put greater quantities of lower priced wearing apparel on the market, of ficials said. It also forestalls any evasions of the pricing program, now in the planning stage, for in creasing the quantities of less ex pensive furniture on the market. (Continued on Page Two; Col. 2) Byrnes Admits Inability To Enforce Curfew Edict WASHINGTON, March 19—(U.R)— War Mobilization Director James F. Eiyrnes acknowledged today that ha is powerless to force New York or any other city to abide by his midnight curfew edict but, in an appeal to partiotism backed up by President Roosevelt, he put the rest of the Nation on Us honor not to follow the example of Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia. (Wilmington clubs, when inform ed of Director Byrnes’ admission last night, seemed to be “mark ing time” until a policy was es tablished by club owners as a whole here. (The owner of Stacy’s Tavern, on the Carolina Beach road, said “our policy won’t be changed since we have always closed at midnight. The only difference is that where we’ve been cutting the music off at 11:55 and having our customers out by 1, now we’ll give them ten or 15 minutes to get out. The main measure that affects us is the “brownout”, since our building is set back off the road.” (The proprietor of Joe’s club, also on Carolina Beach road, said, “If everybody else stays closed, I’ll do the same. If they don’t, I’ll go back to my old hours. I plan to continue complying with the curfew until I see what the others are go ing to do.” (The owner of St. John’s Tavern, at Second and Orange streets, said he would “follow the suit of the others” and, in regard to the Fin ca room, would continue complying until he saw what others were go ing to do.) In a 600-word answer to La Guar iia’s defiant extension of the cur-| few to 1 a.m., Byrnes conceded that he cannot enforce the edict without the cooperation of local police. But he said that voluntary compliance is expected to every city in the Nation to show fighting men that “we are willing to make some small sacrifice while we call upon them to make the supreme sacrifice.” His statement was regarded as a slap at the patriotism of La Guardia and of New York night spot owners who were elated by the mayor’s challenge of Byrnes’ authority. Byrnes’ admission of Govern ment impotency meant that all ci ties could follow Laguardia’s lead but he put them on their honor not to do so and emphasized that his appeal “has the full approval of the President of the United States.” From all indications, LaGuardia for now will be a lone wolf in his defiance. A United Press survey of other cities showed they would continue to observe the curfew. Many municipal officials denounc ed LaGuardia for not cooperating. The only other major curfew defection so far was by the Michi gan liquor control commission. It ruled that bars would remain op en until midnight central time, de spite the fact most Michigan com munities observe Eastern time. This means a one hour extension for those communities if they want to take advantage of it. But Laguardia got strong sup port among some members of Con gress. Democratic Reps. Emanuel Heller and Sol Bloom and Rspub Contlnued on Face Five; Col, 5) t t r-—_.* FDR’S New Aide Col. Richard Park, Jr., 33-year old general staff officer, of Wash ington, D. C., has been named to succeed the late Maj.-Gen. Edwin Watson as military aide to Presi dent Roosevelt. Nazis Report SovietjGains Breakthrough In South east Said To Have Advanced Rapidly LONDON, Tuesday, March 20— (#)—Russian troops battered within two and three miles of the belea guered East Prussian outposts of Braunsberg and Heiligenbeil yes terday while Berlin reported that Red Army tanks had plowed 17 to 25 miles through Nazi defenses in a three-day offensive southeast of Breslau aimed at clearing indus trial Upper Silesia. There was no Russian confirma tion of the Soviet breakthrough in extreme southeastern Germany, but Berlin said that massed Soviet forces had clamped a great pincer on the war production area west of the Oder river and had broken into Neustadt in a 25-mile dash from the river at Cosel. Industrial Neustadt is only three miles from the border of Czecho slovakia. Restricting its communique to a report on the Red Army’s grim battle to wipe out trapped enemy forces southwest of the East Prus sian capital of Koenigsberg, Mos cow disclosed that the Third White Rusian Army had squeezed the Germans’ evaporating coastal poc ket to little more than 100 square miles. Advancing along a 25-mile front in gains up to three miles, Rus sian tanks and infantry seized more than 30 towns and villages and 2.138 prisoners, and brought the last two big enemy strpngholds of Eraunsberg and Heiligenbeil, 32 and 25 miles southwest of Koe (Continued on Page Two; Col. 1) Himmler Reported Active In Plot To Slay Hitler From one of the conspira tors Louis P. Lochner has ob tained a remarkable account of the attempt of last July 20 'to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Lochner, chief of the former Associated Press Bureau in Berlin, is again in Germany expecting to return to the Nazi capital. By LOUIS P. LOCHNER Copyright, 1945, by the Associated Press BONN, Germany, March 19.— (JP)—Col. Gen. Ludwig Beck, form er chief of staff of the Germany army who resigned when he realiz ed Hitler’s reckless course, was the spiritual as well as active leader in the plot to assassinate the Fuehrer, and Heinrich Himmler ivas in on it. One-armed one-legged Colonel Count Claus von Staufl’enberg, a hero of the First World War, was the man who actually placed the bomb under Hitler’s chair. These and other specific details of last July 20's attempt on Hit ler’s yfe were given me by a man who himself was delegated to con tact the Allies and try to “sell” them the new setup in Germany after Hitler’s death, and also to offer peace. The fiist talks among the con spirators occurred in December, 1941, immediately after Hitler's declaration of war on the United ’ States. My informant said that America’s * entry made defeat a certainty to every thinking Ger man. Alilitary officers contacted men like Dr. Karl Goerdeler, Paul Lejeune-Jung, H. Johannes Popitz (Continued on Page Two; Col. 4)

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