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FORECAST W ^ Served B^ Leased Wires r^~ H3t ittttttjnictt onttun vtsr «'sss _____ State and National Newa vfVL 78.—NO. 150. ___WILMINGTON, N. C., MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1945 _ ESTABLISHED 1867 Yanks, Russians Reported 10 Miles Apart; Allies Leap Danube, Reach Lake Constance; Reds In Cent Of Berlin, Germans Admit *-------H- ----- ' Soviets Take 21 Districts Around_City Russians Set Foot In Capi tal for First Time In 185 Years i nNDON. Monday, April 23—(A1) _ Waves of Soviet troops swept through the smoking ruins of 21 inner and outlying districts of Ber lin yesterday, Moscow announced last night as a Berlin report to Stockholm said Soviet tanks had burst into the center of the doom ed Nazi capital. Setting foot in the German capi tal for the first time in 185 years, the Russians already had seized one-sixth of the radio-silent capi tal and were reported within a mile of the dead center of the city at the famed intersection of Un ter, Den Linden and Friedrich ctrasse. As whole acres of the once-proud center of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich were churned into a smould ering tangle of wreckage, victory flushed Russian troops by Moscow cow's account were within 34 miles of a juncture with American troops. But reports from Allied headquarters indicated 20 miles or less separated the Western and Eastern Allies. Begrimed, dust-laden Russian fighters who have fought their way ' from Moscow and Stalingrad swarmed through Berlin's streets as 23,000 Nazi soldiers gave up one of history’s greatest struggles and were roped into Red Army pris oner cages during five days. By Moscow's account since the great offensive began a week ago more than 94"> Nazi tanks have been destroyed or captured and "80 of the Luftwaffe's last planes have been shot down or seized. Smashing forward under a hail of fire from the heaviest concen tration of artillery employed in this war, the Soviet wall of steel swept into Berlin's northern and eastern districts on a twisting 30-mile front from the northwestern dis trict of Glienicke to Wilhelms hagen and Friedrichshagen on the east, Moscow revealed. While the Soviets pushed as much as seven miles insid^ the city by Moscow's official reports, a dispatch from the blazing capi tal to the Scandinavian telegraph bureau said the escape gap to the west had been narrowed to nine miles. There vas no confirmation from the Soviet high command or from Berlin's radio transmitters, but the dispatch said the Russians had swept beyond the southwestern , suburb of Potsdam and that “it 1; is not impossible that the capital t will be entirely encircled within ihe next 24 hours.” [i T*le center of the three-quarters 5 ^circled capital was outflanked by the capture of Iluebars, Blank et. enfelde and Rosenthal, taken in a *even-mile sweep into the city in * 12-mile advance from Bernau, . , At Rosenthal. Premier Stalin’s tankmen were five and a half miles Th ct -lbe burnin6 city center. !le '’TBs Berlin correspondent. - " ard Sandeberg, relaying this spa.tch through Copenhagen, said SSI,an tank-riding tommygun 'ad pushed down through the 1 to its built-up center. cam,,!" eiIort t0 bring about the tim» rC lbe cby tor the second “ the history of Russiar k ®’,the Russians were said tc litterer]Ullied- down through debris din„ d Reimckendorf and Wed trick 't° populous workers’ dis ■ to Stettiner station. «d inegUn battle was rePort sunrisf ”g ..ln ‘be depot area a if true yestei'day and the report t only .„.„mK!an,t 'he Russians were f Tor one of°C!is fl0m °rianenburf the eld citvf anClent 6ates 0 v »•>« ff'C" *mUe <ro" RedeA,^let fmmunique said tha £ in a fepSh0Ck tr°ops, lungini f lour mu™ * surge on the north captu™d LlnS;de the city limit. ‘ensee four M,a1’ left‘wing Weis % ' our ruiles from the cen t^nimued^on^ Page Two; Col. 1 Soviet-U.S. Junction Is Sighted Soon BBC Says Americans Or-* dered Not To Fire Ahead of Troops NEW YORK, April 22.—Les* lhan 10 miles now separate the U. S. First Army and Russian troops, BBC said tonight in a broadcast heard by NBC. Quot ing its own correspondents, BBC said American gunners had been ordered not to fire ahead of their own troops. PARIS, Monday, April 23.—(/P)— The thunder of U. S. and Russi^t guns 15 to 20 miles apart blended into a single victorious roar on the Berlin front Sunday as south bound Allied armies hurdled the Danube and reached Lake Con stance, 37 miles from Hitler's lt*t stand area in the Alps. Besides reacmng me uig msc that forms the western bulwark of Hitler’s redoubt, the French seiz ed Stuttgart—most important in dustrial city of south Germany, with a population of 459,000—and sealed off thousands of Germans in the Black Forest by ramming to the Swiss frontier. Tanks of the U. S. Seventh Army in a 30-mile dash seized a bridge and sped across the Danube less than 10 miles from a superhigh way leading 50 miles east to Mu nich, birthplace of Hitler’s Nazi movement. The U. S. Third Army on the east drove 11 miles on southeast in its envelopment of Czechoslo vakia within about 185 miles of the Russians fighting up Through Aus tria. While these trip-hammer blows fell in the south, the world awaited the electrifying news that the Al lies of the East and West had met in the heart of Germany. A field dispatch from the U. S. First Army front, where patrols pushing across the Mulde river east of Leipzig ran into resistance, said the Russians in that area were 25 miles from the American lines. On the U. S. Ninth Army front before Berlin, the Americans could hear Red Army commanders is suing instructions via field radios. An American pilot back from reconnaissance in an artillery spotter 15 miles east of the First Army lines said he saw German village^ ablaze from Red Army artillery and Russian columns were spotted. Correspondents on the NintH Army front were hurriedly as sembled and told that news of the junction would come in the form of a "United Nations” announce ment, probably simultaneously from Washington, London and Moscow—one more indication that the historic hour was near. For the first time it was dis closed that Allied air forces had a definite bomb line stretching an un disclosed distance in front of tha Russian armies to prevent any chance of accidental bombing. 'Adolf Hitler himself indirectly admitted that his armies of the west now stood beaten and incap able of more than guerrilla war fare. An order bearing his signature, captured by the British Second Army, told his troops to practice the guerrilla tactics "taught to u* by the Russians.’’ Hitler's great redoubt in the Alp* of Bavaria and Austria was in tha direst peril as three Allied armies pounded on south. French First Army troops in * 15-mile dash reached Stockach and Ludwigshafen, or the shores of Lake Constance 12 miles northwest of the famous resort of Constance, where the families of many high Nazis were reported holed up from the gathering Allied storm. (Radio Atlantik said the Ger mans had declared Constance an open city—the first time this had been done anywhere in the war torn Reich.) There the French were 37 miles from the frontier of Austria at\he western end of Hitler’s redoubt The French reached the Swiss frontier 20 miles west of Lake Con stance, turning the Black Forest —where once the enemy hoped to (Continued on Page Two; Col. 7) ——Vote Today (An Editorial) If you are registered, if you have any interest in municipal affairs, vote today. Otherwise you will have no right to complain of the city’s government during the next two years. You will not be entitled to open your mouth in criticism of anything the government does. Five candidates from a field of fourteen will be chosen to conduct Wilmington’s governmental life in the most trying period of the city’s existence. During their term of office the strong probabili ty is that all fighting in the world will be concluded and peace re-established. The transition from war to peace-time effort will require the most careful thought, if Wilmington is to keep pace with its opportunities to advance and improve its economic and cultural posi tion. 1 Naturally, the city government must have the leadership in undertakings for the city’s prograss and welfare. It is vitally important, then, that the five men selected for the City Council should be best fitted for the obligations they must assume, among all candi dates on the ticket. If all registered voters vote this will be accomplish ed, for the people as a whole are not likely to be wrong. It is your duty as a citizen of Wilmington to cast a ballot in today’s primary election. You cannot afford to fail in your duty. Vote today. Heavy Ballot In Council Election hAnticipated Any person who was qualified to vote in the last General Election (November 7, 1944.) and who has not changed his place of residence is entitled to vote in today’s City election, it was announced last night by H. G. Carney, chairman of the Board of Elections. Returns will be received in the City Council room, City Hall, phone 2-9190, he added. With 11,929 voters registered for today's municipal primary, H. G. Carney, chairman of the City Elections Board, last night anticipat ed a heavy ballot for the nomination of five men to the City Council. A total of 14 candidates have filed for the City Council and of I this number, two are Negroes (George W. Allen and Ben MacGhee) uje uiacK marKet, wmch congress has been told is a major cause of inequitable distribution. OPA is immediately assigning 500 ad ditional investigators for the en forcement of meat regulations. This will treble the staff •4. A special subsidy, payable in addition to all others, “to assure that no individual slaughterer who operated profitably in peacetime” will be forced out of business un der wartime conditions. This provision is effective May 1. but the subsidy will be paid at the end of the packer’s fiscal year. 5. Encouragement for feeding cattle to greater weights. This is in the form of cancellation of a scheduled reduction of 50 cents a hundred pounds in the overriding ceiling, price range and subsidy on choice grade cattle. This cut would have gone into effect July 2. 6. Immediate increases aggrega ting $7,000,000 annually in ceiling prices for Army beef, also, a slid ing scale increase in, the general subsidy for choice, good and com mercial grades of beef, with a maximum increase of 25 cents a hundred pounds when cattle, are (Continued on Page Two; Col. 3) STALIN ACCLAIMS PACT WITH POLES New Treaty Binds Three Slavic Governments To Moscow MOSCOW, April 22—(/B—Signa ture of a 20-year treaty of friend ship,mutual aid and postwar col laboration by the Soviet Union with the Warsaw Polish provisional government marks the binding of three Slav governments to Moscow in a solid accord. After signing the pact last night in the Kremlin, Marshal Stalin hailed it as of “great historical significance” and declared, “now it is possible' to say with assurance that German aggression has been checked from the East.” The treaty gives the rapidly, ex (Continued on Page Two; Col. 4) New Meat Ration Plan Would_ Increase Supply WASHINGTON, April 22.—(TP)— ] The- Government announced a sweeping revision of the meat price and distribution structure design ed to give housewives more meat and eliminate packers’ financial losses. The new program, stemming ; from vigorous complaints to Con gress against the present setup, is expected to increase slaughterers’ ; gross revenue by upwards of $34, : 000,0000 a year.- This comes from $15,000,000 in increased subsidies, $12,000,000 in cancellation of sched ; uled reductions, a $7,000,000 in ; crease in Army beef ceilings and , an expected pork subsidy boost. ; It permits no increase in retail . ceilings ~~ • . , The annual meat subsidy bill heretofore has run about $560,000, 000. __ The 10-point program was work ed out jointly by the OPA, the Of fice of Economic Stabilization, the War Food Administration and the War Department. It provides for: 1. Control of the amount of slaughter by non-federally inspect ed packers, with a view to divert ing more meat to federally inspect ed packing houses. The purpose of this step is to move more meat across state lines, away from pro ducing centers, and thereby achieve mbre equitable nationwide distribution. 2. A limit on the amount of live stock farmers may slaughter to sell. This is to increase the supply of meat moving in regular com mercial channels. 3. A “rigorous” drive against (Continued on Page Two; Col. 3) Former Heads Of Jap Reign Are Captured Will Be Turned Over To Philippine Govern ment For Trial MANILA, Monday, April 23.—UB —Two additional cabinet members and accused collaborationists of 'he fallen Japanese dominated Philippine puppet government have been captured near Baguio, be sieged Commonwealth summer ca pital on northern Luzon. Gen. Douglas MacArthur said in his communique today the cabinet members were Claro M. Recto, minister of foreign affairs, and. Rafael Alunan, minister- of agri culture and commerce. Four members of the cabinet were captured last week as Yanks af the 33rd Division closed in on Baguio. They were Jose Yulo, chief justice of the supreme court; An tonio De Las Alas, minister of finance; Teofilo Sison, minister of the interioir, and Quentin Paredes, minister of justice. All are to be confined for the duration as a matter of military security and then turned over to the government of the Philippines a_ a • _ i LUr 111 lUii On Mindanao island, meantime, the 24th Division continued its drive eastward toward Davao along the highway and the valley of the big Mindanao river, while bom bers swept enemy concentrations and lines of communication. Heavy bombers sank or damag ed an 8,000-ton transport and four other vessels off Formosa and wrecked a 7.000-ton freighier transport at Saigon, French Indo china. Rail installations in Indo China were heavily pounded. Bombers of all categories drop ped 130 tons of bombs on northern Borneo at the cost of one plane lost to antiaircraft fire. Targets included airdromes, oil produc ing areas and barracks. MacArthur announced that Aus tralian ground forces had killed an additional 1,214 Japanese troops on Bougainville, New Guinea and New Britain islands. In the lightly-opposed drive to ward Davao, the Yanks captured Fort Pikit, 40-odd miles inland on the main trans-island highway, Saturday. This gave them control of a junction where a new feeder highway from the rich Cotabato valley of the south joins the main Davao road. The Davao city limits were 42 miles away. The Japanese are ex pected to make a bitter stand at Davao. Some 50,000 Nipponese troops are estimated on the is land, second largest of the Philip pines. Over 11,738 Japs Killed On Okinawa Figure Excludes Number Killed By Marines; le Falls To Yanks GUAM, Monday, April 23.—UP)— Doughboys of the 24th Army Corps have killed 11,738 Japanese and captured 27 on southern Okinawa alone, Fleet Adm. Chester W. Ni mitz announced today. This ex cludes Japanese killed by the Ma rines on northern Okinawa. In an action-packed communique, Nimitz also reported: Desperate Japanese defenders held the 27th, 77th and 96th infan try division to no gains through Sunday as heavy artillery, Naval and air bombardment continued all along the southern front. Marines of the Third Amphibious Corps occupied Taka island, east of Okinawa and seized half of Ses uko island, one mile west of Moto bu, peninsula, yesterday. Japanese aircraft made strong attacks on U. S. forces around Okinawa yesterday, sinking “one light unit’’ and causing other dam age. Forty-nine attacking planes were destroyed in one attack and four in another. The light unit may have been a destroyer; might have been a smaller ship. came r aircraft swept the Saki shima islands, southernmost of the Ryukyus, Saturday and Sunday, and Amami and other northern Ryukyus islands Wednesday through Friday, destroying 26 Jap anese planes and heavily damaging Amami airfield installations. Army Mustang fighters from Iwo Jima heavily raided Suzuka air field, 32 miles southwest of Nagoya on Honshu island, Sunday. They destroyed 26 Japanese planes and damaged 21; exploded a 6,000 to 8,000 ton ship in Ise bay south of Nagoya, sank two small oilers and one small tanker, and damag ed one small coastal vessel. Yanks on Iwo, secured March 16, killed 60 Japanese and captured 04 in a 24-hour period ending at 6 p.m., Friday. This increased Jap anese casualties on Iwo from the American invasion on February 19 through Friday to 23,049 killed and 850 captured. Nimitz corrected his Saturday communique to eliminate LST Handing ship, tank) No. 477 from the list of those sunk by enemy action in the far western Pacific between March 18 and April 18. This reduced the total U. S. losses for that period to 14. In lesser operations, a Navy search plane fired a small cargo ship and left it dead in the water off the Ryukyus and Army and Marine planes raided Marcus and Yap island airfield installations. Ferrara, Modena Menaced By Allies Above Bologna ROME, April 22 — (JP) — Allied armor in headlong pursuit of badly disorganized Nazi forces fleeing to ward the Po river from Bologna were within two miles, of Ferrara and closing in on Modena. Ferrara, immediate objective of the British Eighth Army, is 30 miles northeast of Bologna, whiie Modena is 22 miles northeast of that fallen Nazi bastion on the edge of the Po plain. A partial news blackout was im posed on the progress of the Allied forces, with the names of towns overrun in the chase being with held temporarily. The Fifth Army, driving toward Modena, important highway town, reported “fairly strong enemy rear guard resistance.” Associated Press War Correspon dent Maurice Moran, who rode over the wide battle area in a bomber piloted by Capt. William Dotson of San Antonio, Texas, reported the roads were choked with fleeing German troops and vehicles. The only town specifically men tioned as having fallen to troops un der Lt. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott was Castelfranco, 7 miles southeast of Modena. With the Eighth Army only two miles from Ferrara, the Allies were only five miles from the Po river. Great numbers of prisoners were taken as the British Eighth and Allied Fifth Armies ground up the fleeing Nazis in what Gen. Mark W. Clark, Allied ground commander, termed the “beginning of the final victory in Italy.” Many hundreds of Allied war planes bombed and strafed the retreating Germans throughout yes terday, last night and today, taking a terrific toll of men and material. Preliminary reports showed at least 425 enemy vehicles destroy ed or damaged by U. S. 12th Air Force Thunderbolts yesterday. At least another hundred were wreck ed early today. E>-25s struck at Po river pontoon bridges, and concen trations of vehicles waiting to cross. Northeast of the rampaging Fifth Army, British troops of the Eighth Army pushed within seven miles of Ferrara after capturing Monte Santo. Ferrar is an important com munications center just below the Po river and 30 miles northeast of Bologna. British troops were seek ing to cut off and annihilate Ger man segments. Molotov Is In U. S.; Big Three Talks Op en | Russian Commissar Calls On President; For eign Ministers Expected To Take Up Polish Question gr—,-v.' - ■ .jHvw ariri ■ i I ..t.ov^s. IBB RUSSIAN MINISTER MOLOTOV WASHINGTON, Apr —(gpj— Urgent conferences i 2 Big Three foreign minisk started at the State Department tonight, less than four hours after the ar rival of Russian Foreign Commis sar V. M. Molotov by air from Moscow. Molotov made a call on Presi dent Truman just after 8:10 p. m. (eastern War Time). Then, with Secretary of State Stettinius who had accompanied him to see the chief executive at the Blair House, he moved across the street to the State Department. There the two were met by Anthony Eden, Brit ish foreign secretary, and by 9:30 p. m. they were in business ses sion. Molotov’s flight from Moscow was completed at 5.46 p. m. While a call on the chief execu tive was required protocol and a Sunday night visit not unprece dented, the Sunday formalities and the speed of the program just after along and tiring trip emphasized the urgency of the Soviet official’s business. Molotov is en route to the San (Continued on Page Two; Col. 5) -: Doughboys Go Wacky* A waiting Soviet A rmy By WES GALLAGHER EAST OF THE ELBE RIVER IN GERMANY, April 22—6:15 P. M.—(12:15 P. M., E. W. T.)—GP)—The Western Front has gone Rus sian wacky, seeing Marshal Stalin’s troops around every bend, hear ing strange voices on the air and developing rumors 20 to the minute. Up to the present moment, no Russians have been sighted by the Ninth Army which has tne oniy bridgehead across the Elbe. But Russian officers have been heard, giving orders, on American Army reconnaissance receivers. And tactical reconnaissance planes of the Ninth Army have reported seeing Russian armor. And higher echelons, such as Supreme Headquarters, have for warded special sets of recognition signals to be used for contacting Russian forces. The 83rd Division which holds this bridgehead east of the river has a special task force led by a former Davidson (N. C.) star football player all ready to go out and meet the advance Red Army elements when the time comes to do so. Everyone has a favorite Russian story. There is no doubtfcthat a meet ing of the Russian and American Armies can be termed imminent —that is if the Red Army decides to come all the way to the river. It all depends on the Russians, because the American Armies are staying where they are for the moment at least. Sitting in the front lines of their bridgehead over the Elbe, Amer ican GI's could hear Russian tank men shouting to one another over (Continued on Page Two Col. 5) —t__-—— HITLER IMPLIES LOSS OF ARMIES Captured Order Outlines Revision To Guer rilla Tactics WITH THE BRITISH SECOND ARMY, April 22.—(A5)—Adolf Hit ler has admitted -by implication in an official order that the German army has been shattered by the Allied armies in the west and that German legions have been reduced to guerrilla warfare. The order, captured by British forces below Hamburg, said Allied superiority on the Western Front had ended the possibility of-major military operations by the Ger mans, and left only guerrilla meth ods “shown and taught to us by the Russians in the years 1942-44.” Hitler ordered his commanders not to attack Allied strong points, but “against his weak spots— flanks, rear, lines of communica tion—if possible in his adminis trative areas.” The text of the Hitler order: (Continued on Page Two; Col. 4) Anti-Semitic Tendency Held Rising In Holland By JOHN A. PARRIS, JR, SAN FRANCISCO, April 22,-(ff) Dutch officials today expressed concern over the increasing trend toward anti-Semitism in Holland, which they attributed completely to German propaganda. A. A. Pelt, one of the Nether lands’ assistant delegates to the World Security Conference, said that for the first time in Low Country history the people had be come race conscious. He arrived here from Holland where, as chief of the Netherlands Information Service, he has been attached to the Dutch army for six months. “I was surprised to find that people who before the war mixed with the Jews and were friendly with them have now turned against them," he said. "It is noticeable everywhere. Dutch people who feel this way can give no explana tion. But it can be attributed to Nazi propaganda, which the Dutch have had to listen to day in and day out since the country was oc cupied. "Since our armies went into Holland, our officials have had small meetings with Dutch people in an effort to find why they have become anti-Semitic. In many in stances we have managed to con vince them that only the Nazis think that way. They get furious but we make our point.” He explained that of 180,000 Jews in Holland when the Ger mans occupied the country less than 10,000 remained. The othwrs have either been deported or kill ed by the Germans. I Voters: Cast Your Ballot In Wilmington's Municipal Primary Today
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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April 23, 1945, edition 1
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