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^CtT—NO. 122._ WILMINGTON, N. C., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1945 ESTABLISHED 1867
______*-- 1 - ■ _;_ —
Three Cities
Taken; Enemy
Force JBroken
Mainz, Worm# and Zwei
bruecken Swept Up In '
Rapid Drive
PARIS. Wednesday, March 21—
ir-The U. S. Seventh and Third
Armies formed a junction in the
Saarland yesterday in a great co
ordinated assault that virtually wi
ped out the last German resistance
west of the Rhine and captured the
historic cities of Saarbruecken,
v.eibruecken and Worms.
Contact between the two armies
was made at a point about 12
miles v/est of Kaiserslautern by
elements of the Seventh Army’s
Sixth Armored Division and the
Third Army’s 26th Infantry Di
vision.
The Third Army, which drove
tough Kaiserslautern, reached
the ancient Rhine-bank city of
Mainz.
Saarbruecken, a city of 135,000
population and the capital and ec
onomic center of the industrial
Saar, fell to Lt. Gen. Alexander
M. Patch's Seventh Army as did
Zweibruecken, 17 miles to the east.
Worms, or. the Rhine about mid
way between Mainz and Ludwig
shafen-Mannheim, was seized in a
lightning stab by the Fourth Ar
mored and 90th Infantry Divisions
of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s’
Third Army.
The sensational drive by the two
American armies operating in uni
son disposed of the German
Seventh army and bottled up much
oithe German First army—the last
two enemy armies west of the
Rhine.
Under the unrelenting assault,
the enemy's defenses in the Saar
land saiient collapsed and Nazi
troops were attempting to flee
eastward by the thousands under a
storm of explosives from Ameri
can war planes.
Tlie fail of Saarbruecken and
veibruecken foretold the possible
swift evacuation of all Germany
west of the Rhine.
Saarbruecken fell to the 70th Di
vision, which crossed the Sear,
sliced through the West Wall and
stormed the city from the west
against light opposition.
Zweibruecken fell to the Third
Division, which had breached the
west Wall after three days of
firece fighting.
The comparatively easy conquest
of the two stubborn cities dramati
cally symbolized the complete col
lapse of the Nazi defenses of the
Saar-Mi.selle triangle.
Thousands of Germans were cap
tured, one front dispatch saying
that the Third Army alone bagged
possibly 20.000.
At the same time. German re
sistance east of the Rhine semed
to falter ar.d Lt. Gen Courtny H.
Hodges’ First Army broadened its
cast bank bridgehead to 24 miles
"'ith advances measuring up to 4,
000 yards.
un a dav of crushing aeieat 101
German arms, Gen. Eisenhower
himself boldly pointed toward the
sector of the Reich presumably
text marked for destruction,
broadcasting a proclamation warn
ing all German civilians and for
eign workers to flee from the great
liuhr industrial area.
This 600-square mile region just
•cross the Rhine from three Al
lied armies—the U. S. Ninth, the
Canadian First and British Second
-is Germany’s industrial heart
and now that Silesia and the Saar
”av lien under Russian and
An avalanches is the ene
Jn5' big unconquered indus
hia i.ea.
A - air forces have been
- ■'*, the Ruhr for weeks and
r. battered again yesterday
as 0; rt of the mighty Western
Fr,,! assault. .
attention of medium and
hg bombers and fighters, how
directed mainly at maul
Germans fleeing from the
u in wild disorder.
• Columns were bombed
?' fed continuously and at
a 0 German motor vehicles
ocked out with bombs,
md bullets, adding to th
a s’ terrific toll of the last
th ■? ,ys
. ; 1 e motion of the Third and
“Vl’11;n Armies pocketed thou
tar.ds • Germans in a sack ter
1 es 1-ng and eight wide extend
'Contiiiieti on Page Two; Col. >)
Enemy Fails
To Sink Any
U. S. Vessels
Daring Attack Inflicts
Crippling Damage,
Nimitz Says
U. S. PACIFIC FLEET HEAD
QUARTERS, Guam, Wednesday,
March 21—(/P)—American aircraft,
flying from the mighiest carrier
fleet ever assembled, attacked the
Japanese fleet in the empire s in
land seas Monday in one of the
boldest exploits of the war, and
damaged 15 to 17 enemy warships,
including one or two battleships,
and destroyed at least 475 planes.
The enemy fleet thus was hit in
its home waters for the first time,
but no actual engagement between
surface units was announced.
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz an
nounced the daring attack today in
a communique which said pre
liminary surveys of damage show
ed that two or three aircraft car
riers, four light carriers, two
cruisers, four destroyers and vari
ous other war vessels also were in
cluded in the bag.
Six freighters were sunk and a
number of ground Installations
were destroyed.
Admiral Nimitz said the brilliant
raid inflicted “crippling damage”
on the Japanese fleet, which was
decisively whipped last October in
the second battle of the Philippine
seas.
Although Nipponese fliers made
many attempts to bomb the Amer
ican armada, not a ship was lost.
One ship, not identified as to
class, was seriously damaged, but
is returning to port under its own
power.
“A few others sustained minor
damage, but all are fully opera
tional,” Admiral Nimitz said.
The Pacific Fleet, whose planes
twice routed the Japanese fleet
last year, swung northeast after a
day of destructive attacks on the
enemy air force on Kyushu, south
ernmost of the Japanese home is
lands. One hundred enemy planes
were destroyed there.
On Monday, Adm. R. A.
Spruance moved ships of his Fifth
Fleet into position from where
Vice Adm. Marc A. Mitscher sent .
his carrier planes—Hellcats, Cor
sairs, Helldivers and Avenger tor
pedo-bombers—in the first sea
borne attack on the home bases of
the enemy in Japanese inland sea.
The report of the sinking of six
small freighters and damaging 22
other ships, the latter mostly com
batant vessels, was described as
only preliminary. This indicated
the likelihood of even greater dam
age or a revision of types of ships
blasted by the Yank bombs and
This is the preliminary report
from Admiral Spruance, who wa*
in tactical command of the fleet
forces:
Sunk: six small freighter*.
Damaged: one or two battle
ships, two or three aircraft car
riers, two light aircraft carriers or
escort carriers, two escort car
riers,, one heavy cruiser, one light
cruiser, four destroyers, one sub
marine one destroyer escort *even
freighters.
American planes also destroyed
a large number of installation*, in
cluding hangars, shops, arsenal*
and oil storage facilities.
The communique did not specify
which parts of the inland sea were
the targets of the raiding aircraft.
The inland sea is bounded on three
sides by three of the Japanese
home islands—Kyushu to the west,
the southern portion of Honshu to
the north and Shikoku to the south.
It is clogged with scores of small
islands.
Likely targets were Sasebo and
Nagasaki, naval bases on Kyushu.
Sasebo is by reputation one of the
four great naval bases of Japan.
It has a large fleet anchorage with
extensive machine shops and re
pair facilities as well as several
drydocks and considerable
arsenals.
At Nagasaki, there are addi
tional facilities for fleet anchor
age.
The bold foray into the heart of
Japan’s dwindling sea power un
doubtedly will mean the erasure of
the Imperial fleet as a source of
opposition in the future.
Carrier planes may have hit
enemy ships undergoing repairs of
damage suffered in the Japanese
fleet’s grandiose but unsuccessful
three-pronged attempt to break up
(Continued «n Page Two; Go*
Guaranteed Wage Plan
Study OrderedBy FDR
President Also Indicates He Is Not Planning
Action Against LaGuardia for Violation
Of Curfew Edict
WASHINGTON, March 20.—(£>)—
President Roosevelt today ordered
a study of plans for a guaranteed
annual wage, described by the War
Labor Board as “one of the main
aspirations of American workers.”
He told his news conference the
inquiry—requested by the WLB—
will be made by the Office of War
Mobilization’s advisory board of 12
headed by O. Max Gardner, former
North Carolina Governor. The
board is composed of public, labor,
farm and management represen
tatives.
At the same conference, held an
hour earlier than usual and con
fined for the first time in months
exclusively to domestic phases of
the Kvar, the Chief Executive:
1. — Stood by War Mobilization
Director Byrnes and his midnight
curfew, but indicated he wasn’t
planning any action against New
York for relaxing the ban.
2. —Promised a statement Friday
on the food situation, saying the
country ought to know what’s hap
pened.
3. —Described as "iffy” a ques
tion whether the Government had
any plans to keep the coal mines
running in event of failure of the
operators and unions to reach a
contract agreement.
4. —Said it would depend on the
individual case a good deal when
asked if he favored penalties
against workers who fail to get into
essential war jobs, as well as
against employers who disregard
employment ceiling. He added
that the Government is trying to
get manpower the best way it can.
(Continued on Page Seven; Col. 1)
JUNIOR COLLEGE
MEASURE PASSED
County Salary Amendment
Also Approved By
Senate
■■ '■ — i
The N. C. State Senate last night
approved a bill providing for a
junior college in New Hanover
county and likewise passed a
measure which would permit the
board of County Commissioners
to increase salaries of County em
ployes.
Both measures, introduced by
Rep. J. Q. LeGrand last week,
were passed without opposition.
The junior college proposal, pre
pared by Cyrus D. Hogue at the
instigation of the New Hanover
county Board of Education, will
authorize the County Commission
to call an election to establish the
school and to levy a tax not to
exceed seven cents per $100 to
initiate its operation.
While no definite site has been
located for the college, reliable
sources indicated last night that
the Lake Forest housing project
if abandoned by the Federal Hous
inj Authority after the war, would
make an ideal location. It also was
pointed out that the Lake Forest
school building, one of the Coun
ty’s most modern, was ideally
suited for this purpose.
The County salary amendment
will allow increases in individual
wages up to $1,200 yearly; At pres
ent, the County can increase sal
aries only by $700.
Another measure, a County Box
in°4 Regulation bill, was not in
cluded in the Associated Press
report on the Legislative Record
but Rep. LeGrand earlier yester
day expressed the opinion that it
would pass with ease.__
RED CROSS AIDE
STRESSES NEED
Rotarians Hear Plea For
Continued Support
In Drive
At the Tuesday meeting of the
Rotary club, Harry Bliss, staff
member of the American City Bu
reau of the American Red Cross,
who is heading the current Red
Cross drive in Wilmington, made
an appeal for contributions to the
organization's war funds.
Introduced by Rabbi M. M. Thur
man, Mr. Bliss, a member of the
International Kiwanis staff, Ro
tarian and former Chamber of
Commerce secretary, emphasized
his speech with the Rotary motto,
“he profits most who serves best.’’
He said that a contribution to the
Red Cross was not a gift but an
opportunity to investin the Amer
ican way of life by helping the boys
who are fighting for it.
“We are going to win this war
he stated, ‘because the boys fight
ing it were sired by the builders
of this country, raised under the
system of free enterprise, found
by the men who built this Nation
to be the best and only way for
this country. These boys have been
taught ‘he profits most who serves
best’”. . ,, , ,
“Let us make certain that when
a soldier reaches behind him for
something, be it gun, plasma or
anything else, what he reaches f|r
will be there.
“If he is wounded, let us be sure
there is a Gray Lady at his side
to write his letters.
“If he is a prisoner, let us ma ce
sure he has a chance to increase
(Continued on Page 2; Column 11
Three Leaders For World
Are Termed Insufficient
“Refuse to abdicate to Roose
velt, Cliurchill and Stalin!” Rabbi
M. M. Thurman urged a capacity
audience of Junior Chamber of
Commerce members and their
guests in the Friendly Restaurant
banquet room last night as climax
to an address in which he describ
ed the quality of leadership as no
restricted, ready - made inheri
tance, but a product of self-appli
cation open to trial by any man.
"No three leaders are enough for
the whole world,” he said.
The meeting which heard his
speech, “Leaders Are Not Bom”,
was presided over by W. Elliot
O’Neal and favored with pre
liminary remarks by Lewis F. Or
mond, comptroller of the Atlantic
Coast’Line Railroad Co., who sug
gested as a Jaycee project, the
effort to “fix in the community’s
life” veterans of World War II.
H. A. Patrill introduced Rabbi
Thurman.
The qualities of leadership, not
inborn, but cultivated, were listed
by Rabbi Thurman as humility,
patience, daring, thoughtfulness,
to economic success and passing
popularity, passionate detestation
of injustice and tne determination
to use one’s whole ability.
“Bide your time” he told his
attentive listeners, whom he de
scribed as potential leaders of the
future, “People are not prone to
accept new ideas. What was good
enough for their grandparents is
good enough for them”. A leader
must expect repeated set-backs;
his reaction to them is the gauge
of his leadership.
Patience, however, and t h e
hard-learned quality of humility,
must not qualify daring. “A lead
er is essentially a disturber of the
peace”, the Rabbi pointed out,
ready to brave being reviled, or,
he added significantly, “cruci
fied”. Criticism should mean noth
ing, Jie said, to a man who has
satisfied his conscience that his
course is right and his causes are
just. . .
“If you Christians are Christ
like” he asserted “you should pre
fer those causes as the Prince oi
Peace would have you do, while
we Jews can be glad to be in the
minority, no matter how oppress
ed, who are not asleep nor un
touched by the holocaust.”
(Continued on Page Two; Col. 1)
t
V
--
Reds Capture'
Altdamm And
Wipe Out Foe
Other Soviet Forces Slash
Into Pocket South Of
Koenigsberg
LONDON, March 20.—OP—Rus
sian troops, laying open flaming
Stettin to a final assault, today
captured the Pomeranian capital’s
last outpost of Altdamm, 70 miles
northeast of Berlin, and wiped out
the powerfully fortified German
bridgehead there on the east bank
of the swampy lower Oder river,
Moscow announced. -
Far to the east, other Soviet
forces slashed into the enemy’s
partly-flooded East Prussian pock
et southwest of Koenigsberg, cap
turing the • ancient bastfm of
Braunsberg and 40 other’; towns
and hamlets.
Moscow announced these vic
tories in two orders of the day,
and a communique said that more
than 3,COO German officers and
men and more than 300 guns were
captured in the fighting in East
Prussia yesterday and today.
At the same time, the Germans
said that Marshal Feodor I. Tol
bukhin had hurled 200,000 of his
Third Ukraine Army troops, and
supporting armor, into a new of
fensive in northwestern Hungary,
sweeping within 58 miles of the
Austrian frontier on the road to Vi
enna.
Moscow has not confirmed this
operation, which the Germans said
began last weekend, and created
a ‘temporarily critical situation”
for the Nazis. Berlin said the Rus
sians were beyond Tata, which is
10 miles southeast of the big Dan
ube river stronghold of Komarom
(Komarno).
Another German broadcast indi
cated that Marshal Konev’s First
Ukraine Army had smashed
across the Moravian-Upper Siles
(Continued on Page Seven; Col. 3)
ALUEDBOMBERS
HIT MOAT PENS
Jet Planes Fail To Block
Attack On Nazi Oil
Refineries
LONDON, March 20.—(U.R)—Al
lied heavy bombers, defying sav
age attacks by Nazi jet-propelled
planes, struck U-boat yards, oil
refineries and rail centers in
northwestern Germany today, and
tonight RAF Mosquitos gave Ber
lin its 29th straight night assault.
Medium and fighter bombers,
swarming over the Western Front,
took a terrific toll of German
troops and civilians fleeing in pan
ic from the Saar.
Returning pilots reported Saar
roads were jammed with hun
dreds of vehicles in a veritable
“mob scene.’’ The highways were
filled with hundreds of vehicles,
moving three abreast to the east
in scenes reminiscent of the Ar
dennes retreat.
Mile after mile was left a scene
of burning vehicles and bodies. _
The planes destroyed at least
990 motor transports and damag
ed more than one thousand.
American arid British heavy
bombers, escorted by fighters, en
countered a sizeable force of Luft
waffe planes futilely attempting to
ward off the attacks. One U. S.
ortress formation engaged in a
30-minute running battle with jet
planes over Hamburg and another
encountered a group of 20 jets,
shooting down at least two.
Some 400 Liberators and Flying
Fortresses of the Eighth Air
Force, screened by 300 Mustang
fighters, attacked Germany’s sec
ond largest city of Hamburg. The
bombers blasted the Blohm and
Voss shipyards, which are making
the newest type prefabricated U
boats, and also hit an oil refinery
and the Hamburg port area.
Another oil refinery at Hem
mingstedt, some 60 miles north of
Hamburg on the Danish peninsula,
also was blasted in perfect bomb
ing weather. Last attacked on
September 1, the Hemmingstedt
refinery had been restored to pro
Continued on Page Id, Col. V
American carrier planes, attacking the Jap fleet in its home waters, have driven into Japan’s inland
sea (arrow at bottom) to severely cripple the remnants of that once-mighty armada.
Yanks Drive Into Iloilo Outskirts;
Filipino Troops Take San Fernando
-v - *
CARRIER MIDWAY
IS CHRISTENED
World’s Mightiest Will
Bear New Type Navy
Aircraft
NEWPORT NEWS, Va., March
20.—(UP)—The mightiest of all
aircraft carriers—the 45,000-ton
Midway—was christened today,
but an uncooperative tide delayed
the actual launching.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy
for Air Artemus L. Gates revealed
that when the Midway goes into
battle against Japan she will send
aloft planes so modern that they
have not yet been used in combat.
He said the carrier and her planes
will not be a ‘pleasant combination
to be contemplated by the Japa
nese warlords.”
So vast is her flight deck, that
the Midway can accommodate
more than 80 planes.
Named for the memorable 1942
battle which swung the Pacific
war in favor of the United States,
the Midway was built in drydock
instead of on the conventional
way. She was to have been floated
at 9:43 a. m. by the simple process
of letting sea water into the dock
at high tide. But the tide failed to
do its job. It fell four inches short
of expectations, so the floating had
had to be delayed. Navy officials
said they expected the tide to pick
up the needed four inches by to
morrow.
The christening proceeded as
scheduled, however.
Sponsoring the new queen of air
craft carriers was Mrs. Bradford
W. Ripley II of Dayton, Ohio,
daughter of former Ohio Gov.
Jgmes M. Cox and widow of a
(Continued on Page Three; Col. 3)
Japanese Put Torch To
Capital City of Panay
Island
MANILA, Wednesday, March 21.
— (U.R) —U. S. 40th Divison troops
have driven into the outskirts of
burning Iloilo, capital of newly
invaded Panay island, and cut all
Japanese escape routes with a 25
mile sweep around the northern
side of the city, Gen. Douglas
MacArthur announced today.
The Japanese, it was disclosed,
put the torch to the city of 9,000
on the south coast of the central
Philippines island.
Maj. Gen. Rapp Brush’s troops
pushed seven miles eastward
along the coast to enter Iloilo and
struck inland on a 15-mile front
in the 25-mile drive that cleared
the Panay plains and made con
tact with Filipino guerrillas in the
hills.
Smashing triumphs alos were
announced for the Yanks and Fili
pinos on the island of Luzon.
There, the Filipinos seized the big
northwest port of San Fernando,
30 miles north of Lingayen Gulf,
and American 33rd Division troops
drove ten miles northward along
the coast to seize the town of Bau
ang, six miles south of San Fer
nando. That was the most north
erly point on Luzon yet reached
by the Americans.
On, Panay, MacArthur said that
40th Division, which landed Sun
day, was taking full advantage of
the Japanese confusion.
One column advanced seven
miles eastward to break into the
outskirts of Iloilo, a city of 90,000,
after first seizing Mandurriao air
field, a 1,500-yard long strip a mile
to the west.
They also seized Carpenter’s
bridge across the Iloilo river
which runs through the city.
At the same time, other forces
struck inland for an overall ad
(Continued on Page Two; Col. 4)
BRITISH FORCES
SEIZE MANDALAY
Ancient Fortress of Burma
Taken After 12
Day Siege
MANDALAY, March 20.—(U.R)—
The ancient and fabled city of
Mandalay fell to the British today
after two years, 10 months and 12
days of Japanese occupation, and
Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten, Al
lied Southeast Asia commander,
in a special order of the day re
minded his troops that the enemy
had held the ol<i Burmese capital
to be of supreme importance.
The end of the 12-day siege came
at noon while artillery of the
19th Indian Division was pound
ing Fort Dufferin, the mile-square
moated fortress dominating the
city. Four Burmese bearing white
flags and the Union Jack came
forth and reported that Japanese
troops had sneaked out of the
fort under cover of darkness.
The Sikhs, Punjabis and Gurk
has of the 19th Division immediate
ly entered the fortress in search
of any enemy troops who might
be hiding in the former British
barracks or the garden surround
ing the red lacquer palace of the
ancient Bumese kings. The palace
itself was left blazing by the
beaten Japanese, who had been
ordered to fight to the death.
It now was estimated that 500
Japanese who had been holding
out in the southern part of the
city were hopelessly trapped be
tween eastern and western prongs
of the 19th Division and the Sec
ond Division which drove eastward
from the Irrawaddy river. The be
ginning of their end was heralded
(Continued on Page Three; Col. 5)
Swedish Writer Says German People
Hate Nazi Leaders And Wait Revenge
(Editor’s note: Chris ter
Jaederlund, for 17 years Ber
lin correspondent of the Swed
ish newspaper Stockholms-Tid
ningen. has just returned to
Stockholm with the latest first
hand account of conditions in
Germany. Jaederlund left Ber
lin because he found it no long
er possible to work there.)
By CHRISTER JAEDERLUND
STOCKHOLM, March 20.—(JP)—
In all Berlin, once the fifth city of
the world, there are today habit
able accommodations for no more
than the population of New Or
leans.
Allied bombings have been so
devastating that they have redue
#
ed the houses and apartments ini
which 4,250,000 once lived to a
state in which they now can house
only about 500,000.
In the remnant of Berlin which
still stands there is gas, water and
electric light. But blocks around
the Bayrischer Platz in the south
western end of the city already
have been evacuated because it is
no longer possible to keep track
of all the time bombs which land
in the ruins.
In the east end, a “plague wall”
of masonry has sealed off a whole
block of houses in the Spittelmarkt
area where piles of corpses have
been rotting because it was found
impossible to remove them. The
wall run* from ruined house to
ruined house to prevent the spread
of infection from this district,
which once was the center of Ber
lin’s flourishing clothing industry.
In Munich there is neither light,
gas nor running water. Just as
in the cities of western Germany,
Munich’s population has been
obliged to melt snow to obtain wa
ter for cooking.
It is estimated that 20,000,000
Germans already have fled from
their homes to escape bombs and
guns. This figure is constantly
growing.
The misery which this war has
brought on other nations now has
befallen the Germans on a vast
(Continued an Page Threat Col. ))