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--*---— ESTABLISHED 1867
Patton’s Tanks Eight Miles From Austria;
Reds Conqu^ Two-Thirds Of Nazi Capital;
Molotov Bix/cks Stettinius’ Chairmanship
- ¥_ *Lr_-i'-—_ A
Soviet Army
Drives Into
Stettin Port
Russian Bridgehead Across
Elbe River Nears
Americans
LONDON, Friday, April 27.—(AP)
-Soviet armies conquered almost
two-thirds of Berlin’s pulverized
end burning ruins yesterday, seized
the great German Baltic naval
base of Stettin and extended their
bridgehead across the .Elbe river
]7 miles from the American First
Army. As the Russians began to
forge an inner ring of encirclement
within the smoke-blanketed and en
circled German capital, infantry
end cavalry of a fourth great Rus
sian army toppled the huge arma
ment city of Bruenn (Brno), sec
ond largest city of Czechoslovakia
and one of Hitler’s last remaining
war production centers.
Berlin’s deadly street battles
paled bitter fighting in another
German fortress city. Far behind
fne lines, Soviet troops battled in
to the western streets of the long
besieged Lower Silesian capital of
Breslau, occupying 26 blocks and
several factory districts.
As the world waited ior a mree
power announcement that Red
Army and American forces had
linked up, Moscow and Berlin re
ports indicated that two historic
meetings were imminent.
West of Berlin, by German ac
count, Marshal Gregory K. Zhu
kov's First White Russian Army
yesterday raced 22 miles west
ward, by-passing the city of Brand
enburg, to reach a point only 14 1-2
miles from the American Ninth
Army on the middle Elbe.
The enemy high command said
Zhukov’s troops had reached the
Rathenow area near Ninth Army
lines on the Elbe and Ninth Army
front reports said Soviet shells
were falling a few miles from
Yank lines.
Southwest of Berlin another junc
tion neared--if, in fact it had not al
ready occurred. Here, Marshal Ivan
S. Konev’s First Ukrainian Army
extended bridgeheads on the Elbe’s
west bank and seized Strehla and
Riesa only 17 miles from the
American First Army on the Mulde
river. But First Army dispatches
said American patrols had struck
deep into the narrow corridor be
tween the Elbe and the Mulde, and
'be Swiss radio said a link-up along
a many-mile front had taken place
yesterday afternoon.
The fanatical Nazi defenders,
throwing women and children into
the death struggle, were stubborn
y defending the German capital as
.®®' battles roared through their
daY under relentless Russian
■ iilery and aerial bombardment.
7uH: ?ssault teams of Marshal
mUTl a™y’s compressing a
haf. ow>and of steel ar°und per
cZl 50J000 traPPed Nazi soldiers,
tri3,ur,ed,,he northwestern indus
Siemenstad?3 °f Gartenfeld and
At 4l. -
*al“e "me, is.onev s tank
s', * lnt0 ,he desolate rubble.
v,esternSt netf- °f Dahlem in south
snn'es ®erkn and as the two
south inf'T fr0m the north and
burg J, ? fashionable Charlotten
n.ile’ glnhho°*n y a four and a half
v-’este?nP,,VW£en them' the great
suburbs of Spandau and
nt'nUed 011 pas?e Two; Col. 3)
Cutbacks In Munitions
In Home-Stretch Drive
Afe Announced By WPB
T^A'warNGp April 26- -W
Jiounced L Pr"ductl°n Board an
cut dt0Plght that the “VE-Day”
started ” ffiUnitions already have
stretch'arled also that the home
schedule imatment drive topped its
time 1 month for the first
So r!ster f6nt m War industry will
ly prndnrt°m now on’ the month
even as th10'1 Communique said,
fionts the War continues on two
draft"a^jfi °* the cutbacks, the
industrv < esentlal men in
even without1 haVe ended sh°rtly
safd hpth°Ut regard to VE-Day,”
G ,!eport prepared by H.
tiont C le1'- WfB chief of °^era
British Take
Bremen, Push
On Dock Area
t •
Censorship Covers Yank
Positions At Reported
Junction Area
LONDON, April 26—(A’l—The
Swiss radio said tonight that
a “linkup” between the Amer
icans and Russians in the Elba
region took place thia after
noon on a front of many
miles.”
There was no confirmation
from Allied sources.
PARIS, Friday, April *7—(AW
Heavily-gunned U. S. Third Army
tank columns battled eight miles
from Austria yesterday in a bid
■fr,.- o cwift chnwrlnwn with last
stand enemy troops massing at
the border, and in the north th«
British captured Germany’* *ec
ond greatest port of Bremen.
As these blows fell on the north
and south segments of dismem
bered Germany, Allied capitals of
Europe buzzed with rumors start
ed by a Swiss radio report that
the Americans and Russians had
met in the Elbe river area on “a
front of many miles.”
Censorship covered American
positions at the reported junction
area. But a front dispatch from
the U. S. First Army told of a
patrol moving at will through Ger
man lines between the Mulde and
Elbe rivers.
Bremen fell after a whirlwind
assault of two days, and only snip
ers remained in the rubble to
challenge the victorious British
moving through the dock area of
what once was a city of 350,000
people.
While the world awaited confirm
ation that the Americans and Rus
sians had met somewhere near
Berlin, Gen. Patton’s XJ. S. Third
Army in ground-eating strides was
95 miles from a junction with the
Red Army in Austria that would
convert Czechoslovakia into a
giant German trap.
In close echelon with the XJ. S,
Seventh and French First Armies,
Patton's forces broke across the
Danube at three points—leaving
that river line shredded along a
180-mile front and Munich imperil,
ed by three separate American
columns each about 40 miles from
the city.
Some 20 divisions in these Three
Armies were pressing steadily
southward, bent on engulfing the
Nazi Alpine redoubt before the SS
troops could get set for a stand.
A decisive battle appeared to
be shaping up on Patton’s front
nearest Austria, where Germans
were massing in the mountain,
passes 70 miles from Hitler’*
Berchtesgaden to meet the shock
of the south-bound tanks and Infan
try,
rne rrencn sweep along via
Swiss border completed the en
velopment of the Black Forest,
where trapped Germans were sur
rendering by the thousands.
The U. S. Seventh Army, seiz
ing 11,335 prisoners, was rampag
ing through the mountains more
than 30 miles south of the Danube,
Its bridgehead at Dillingen r>o\y
was 21 miles wide and the 10th
Armored Division smashing
straight south was only a mile
from Memmingen, 31 miles south
of the Danube and 35 miles from
the Austria border.
Farther east, the 12th Armored
Division turned up unexpectedly
at Munsterhausen, 19 miles south
west of Augsburg, a city which wa*
being quickly outflanked by num
erous columns some 10 miles or
less away.
In the center of the front, Ger
man troops in flight from falling
Berlin crowded the Elbe's east
bank—where a few weeks before
they fought to hold off the Ameri.
cans—clamoring to be taken pris
oners bv the U. S. Ninth Army
before the Russians engulfed them.
Other Eleventh Armored force*
pressed miles farther east to the
vicinity of Furholz, eight and a
half miles from the Austrian bor
der, and= on south to Roehmbach,
10 miles from Austria. Advanced
units were about 95 mile* from
last reported Russian positions.
Patton’s troops crossed the Dan
ube for the first time on an 18
mile front and all but encircled
the stronghold of Regensburg,
which lies about 00 miles west
(Continued os Page Two; Col. d)
Pointless Discussion
Anthony Cominotto, right, head chef at San Francisco’s St. Fran
cis Hotel, holds up his hands in dismay, wondering what to do for
ration points as United Nations Conference representatives jam the
dining room. John Renaud, left, assistant chef, and Alfred Baratti,
catering manager, look equally perplexed as they display a few
kitchen remnants. '
Witness Describes Shock
Over Molotov Objection
By EWALDO CASTRO
Associated Press World Service Writer
SAN FRANCISCO, April 26—CD—Here is the inside story of how
Soviet Commissar Molotov stunned the United Nations Conference
today by blocking the election of Secretary of State Stettinius as
permanent chairman.
I obtained the account from one who was there.
Chairman of delegations of 46 United Nations assembled in the
conference hall of the veterans building. They comprised a steering
commiuee. xneir jod was 10 set
up an organization for operating
this conference intended to build
a world organization to keep peace.
As temporary chairman, Stettin
ius called the meeting to order
as chief delegate of the nation—
the -United States—which is host
to the conference, it was the cus
tom of long diplomatic practice
Stettinius immediately be acclaim
ed permanent chairman.
Britain’s Anthony Eden, an old
hand at international conferences,
offered what he thought was a
routine motion. He proposed that
as their first official act, the dele
gates name Stettinius to preside
over this conference in America’s
San Francisco.
Then Molotov spoke up. Less than
two weeks ago he was not even
a conference delegate. Marshal
(Continued on Page Nine; Col. 5)
United States Lines
To Buy 19 C-2 Ships
Built By Local Yard
WASHINGTON, April 26 —(/TO—
The United State Lints Co., has
arranged for the purchase of 19 C-2
cargo ships, the Maritime Commis
sion announced today.
The 459-foot, 15, 1-2 knot, vessels
will be built by the North Carolina
Shipbuilding'Co., yard at Wilming
ton, N. C. No additional construc
tion is involved, however, since the
ships already are on order for the
Commission’s account.
The company will receive a con
struction parity payment of about
$1,400,000 for each ship. This is in
tended to offset higher United
States labor and material' costs.
The 19 vessels will cost in the
neighborhood of $53,350,000.
OPINION IS VA E
ON PEACE PJ! EY
* -
Local Citizens Express
Vague View On World
Plan For Security
After many days of extensive
Associated Press and United Press
coverage on the preliminaries and
the opening of the United Nations
Conference at San Francisco, a
Star-News reporter last night at
tempted to gain a cross section
of local opinion on the work now
under way at the Golden Gate.
The results of the survey need no
comment. '
A single question, “do you know
the purpose of the San Francisco
Peace Conference”, was asked.
“The San Francisco Peace Con
ference?” asked a somewhat be
wildered restaurant o p e r a;tor
“Don’t know anything about it”, he
continued and went on with his
work.
A well-known public official an
swered: “It seems to me that its
a meeting to prevent future wars.
When asked if he though it was
a conference to settle the peace
terms of this war, he replied, “no,
it seems that the idea is to seek
a solution to preventing future
wars.” ,
A former newspaper mans
opinion was sought. He was scan
ning a newspaper and said, “I
was just reading about it here. I
guess it’s to settle the peace terms
of this war but it also seems that
(Continued on Page Two; Col. 3)
--—--;--%
Quaker Democrats bet
ForFull_ Truman Term
WASHINGTON, April 26. —(A>)—
Henry A. Wallace’s 1948 presiden
tial stock slump today as Penn
sylvania’s Democratic leadership
hitched up a bandwagon for Presi
dent Truman’s election to a full
term.
The action put into the Truman
1948 camp two of Wallace’s fore
most supporters for the Vice Pres
idential nomination at Chicago last
summer. Senator Joseph F. Guf
fey and his sister, Mrs. Emma
Quffey Miller, Democratic nation
al committeewoman.
News 'that the Pennsylvanians
had pledged Truman their support
during- a White House call this
morning was revealed under re
porters’ questions,
It was not made in the fashion
which announcements of that type
usually follow. The group did not
come out of President’s office ana
say “we’re for Truman in 1948.”
Instead, State Democratic
Chairman David L. Lawrence, ap
pointed spokesman for the dele
gation, started off with:
“We came down here to pledge
our support to the President.”
Republicans as well as Demo
crats have “pledged their support
to the President” on current pro
blems of war and peace. The' re
porters pursued the pledge furth
er.
(Continued on Page Nine; Col. 6)
Peace Parley
In Deadlock,
Row Is Seen
Russian Minister Assures
Public Of Solution On
Polish Problem
SAN FRANCISCO, April 26—UP)
—Russian Commissar Molotov
catapulted the World Security Con
ference into a tight deadlock to
day tr blocking the election of
Secretary of State Stettinius to its
chairmanship.
The stolid Russian also rejected
a British compromise.
What was to have been a rou
tine, initial business meeting of
chiefs of delegations,' broke off
abruptly, its tasks far from com
plete, its participants stunned and
amazed at prospects of another
Big-Three row.
After setting off his explosion,
Molotov proceeded calmly into a
news conference to give public
assurances of an eventual solution
to a controversy already flaming
among Russia, Britain and the
United States—over a knotty Po
lish problem.
A_3 A_ 1_ 1___1 _ i _
iiuu AiVlU lic.it) lit 111UVCU VI i tv
the conference’s first plenary ses
sion to pledge full cooperation,
Russia’s “inflexible” support, in
erecting a new and powerful peace
keeping organization.
According to customary proce
dure at international gatherings,
this was the session which -would
have ratified the Steering Commit
tee’s selection of the leader of
the host nation’s delegation as per
manent chairman or president.
That was what Britain’s Anthony
Eden had proposed at this morn
ing’s Steering Committee meeting.
And that was what Molotov block
ed, along with a British compro
mise of four rotating chairmen.
Delegates had no ready reason
for Molotov’s action. They thought
perhaps Russia regarded the chair
manship question of such import
ance that the foreign commissar
was sparring for time in which to
consult Moscow.
In the light of what happened
at the Steering Committee meet
ing, many in the assemblage at
the late afternoon plenary session
waited impatiently for translations
of Molotov’s address. He didn’t
mention the morning activities.
Bespectacled, balding, dressed in
blue, Molotov asserted:
"I should like to assure the con
ference our country is devoted to
the cause of setting up an organi
zation to protect the peace. I wish
you to know that the Soviet Union
can be relied upon to protect the
(Continued on Page Two; Col. 5)
U, S. Fifth Seizes Verona,
Sea ling Off^ Brenner Pass
Patriots Reported Capturing All Major Cities; Nazi Armies South
Of Alps Appear Disorganized; Mussolini Reported
Fleeing Villa Near Milan
ROME, April 26—Gf)—The U. S.
Fifth Army captured the railway
center of Verona in a lightning 20
mile stab today, virtually sealing
off the Brenner pass escape route
of German troops in Italy, and
Swiss reports said patriots were
seizing control of all major cities
in northern Italy including Milan,
Turin and Genoa.
Nazi armies south of the Alps ap
peared entirely disorganized and
prisoners were being rounded up
by the thousands. A captured Ger
man corps commander, Gen. Von
Schwerin, who was taken by the
British Eighth Army, said ‘‘I know
the situation for German soldiers
in north Italy is hopless.”
The total of prisoners bagged
by the two Allied armies since
they opened their all-out offensive
soared well past 60,000. The Eighth
Army alone seized 20 enemy tanks
and 40 guns and destroyed nearly
1,000 vehicles as it swept up to the
Adige river in the last 24 hours.
(A partisan-controlled radio in
Milan reported tonight that the Ital
ian liberation committee had taken
over the administration of the
whole of northern Italy, said a
British broadcast recorded by CBS.
(The Swiss Telegraph Agency re
ceived reports from “reliable sour
ces” that Benitor Mussolini, who
on Wednesday was reported flee
ing from his villa near Milan, had
been captured by Italian patriots
in the town of Pallanza on the
western schore of Lake Maggiore.)
Fifth Army forces smashed
through the Nazis’ formidable I
Adige defense line near Verona,
and a terse Allied communique
said armored units driving up the
western shore of Lake Maggiore.)
ward Genoa” against heavy fire
from mobile and coast defense
guns.
Radio reports indicated that Ital
ian patriot forces were seizing con
trol of all the major cities of north
ern Italy, including Verona, with
the Nazi garrisons either fleeing
or surrendering. The great centers
of Milan, Turin, Genoa and many
smaller places were reported in
patriot hands or on the point of
succumbing.
The Rome radio declared that
“the insurrection in northern Italy
is sweeping away all German re
sistance.”
A Genoa station describing it
self as the “voice of the committee
of national liberation” announced
that the Nazi garrison of the port
laid down its arms at 9 a.m. today.
A patriot-controlled Milan station
said partisans were fighting the
Fascist “black brigade” through
the streets of that city of 1,115,000
population.
An Associated Press Correspon
dent abroad an American bomber
said he cruised as far north as
Verona without seeing any sign of
fighting and that the Po valley was
“a scene of utter peace.” He saw
American tanks roaring northward
between Namtova and Verona.
Headquarters announced that a
(Continued on Page Three; Col. 4)
-V
German Radio Announces
Goering Quits As Chief
LONDON, April 26— (ff) —The
German Hamburg radio announc
ed tonight that Reichsmarshall
Hermann Goering had resigned as
head of the dying Nazi air force
because of an “acute” heart illness,
while a high ranking German gen.
eral staff member captured by the
Americans predicted that Adolf Hit
ler would die with his troops in
encircled Berlin.
The captured German general—
unidentified in a U. S. Ninth Army
front dispatch but termed “inter
nationally known and one of the
best informed members of the Ger
man general staff”—predicted the
war would end within a few days
and said that Goering probably al
ready had been executed.
The Hamburg station said that
portly Goering, whose proud air
force has been blasted almost to
extinction, had been succeeded by
Gen. Ritter Von Grein who was
made a marshal. The text of the
announcement:
“Reichsmarshal Goering who
has been suffering from heart
trouble for some time and whose
condition has become acute has
asked the Fuehrer to be relieved
of his command as chief of the
Luftwaffe at a time when his
(Continued on Page Two; Col. 1)
i
YANKS NEARING
GULF OF DAVAO
Other Forces Maintain
Pressure On Jap-Held
Baguio
MANILA, Friday, April 27.—UP)
—Twenty-fourth Division infantry
men under Maj. Gen. Woodruff
gained 12 miles across southern
Mindanao Wednesday to approach
within 20 miles of Davao gulf.
When the Yanks reach the gulf
they will be only 25 road miles
south of a prime target in the
Philippines, the excellent hemp
port of Davao.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s com
munique today also reported the
33rd Division maintained its pres
sure on Baguio, the Philippine sum
mer capital on northern Luzon,
while bombers and fighters drop
(Continued on Page Two; Col. 4)
OKINAWA HEIGHTS
TAKEN BY YANKS
Infantrymen Drive Deep
Into Japanese Secon
dary Defenses
GUAM, Friday, April 27—■'#)—In
fantrymen of Maj. Gen. James L.
Bradley’s 96th Division drove a
wedge into the deep Japane.se sec
ondary defenses on southern Okina
wa yesterday by capturing high
ground in the center of the line.
The heights, just east of Urasoe
Muar village, were won in an
attack which followed a general
Japanese withdrawal under heavy
artillery shelling.
Fleet warships, meantime,, con
tinued their close fire support,
knocking out numerous enemy ar
tillery batteries, gun emplacements
and defense installations.
Maj. Gen. John R. Hodge, com
mander of the 24th Army Corps—
which includes the Seventh, 27th
and 96th Divisions—reported all key
features of the outer Japanese de
fense line now secured by the
Yanks in the eighth dayo f their
grand offensive toward Naha, the
capital city, about three and one
half miles to the south.
Hodge said the Americans con
trol “skyline ridge” across the
Ryukyu island, 325 miles south of
Japan itself.
A Tenth Army spokesman said
the 7th, 27th and 96th Divisions had
driven the Japanese from all key
positions in their first heavily for
tified defense zone.
“We are now only a few hun
dred yards from the next Jap “one
(Continued on Pa?p Two: Col. 2)
Former French Chief
Surrenders To Await
High Treason Trial
PARIS, April 26.— CP) —Marshal
Philippe Petain surrendered to
French officials at the Swiss bor
der today to await trial in France
on a charge' of high treason, for
which his scheduled prosecutor an
nounced he would ask a sentence
of death—with clemency.
The 89-year-old former Vichy
Chief of State was met at the
frontier by Lt. Gen. Joseph Pierre
Koenig, commander of the French
forces of the interior at the time
of the Normandy invasion and be
fore. Petain extended his hand, but
Koenig did not respond.
The commissar of Dijon and a
French guard of 30 men also were
present at the frontier station of
Valorbe to form an escort for the
aged marshal and his wife, who
proceeded by automobile to Les
Hospitaux-Neufs and there board
ed a special train for Paris. He I
is expected in Paris before dawn.
U. S. Jeeps Run At Will,
Free 50,000 Prisoners
WITH THE 69TH INFANTRY DI
VISION BEYOND MULDE RIVER,
April 26.—W—A jeep patrol run
ning at will through disorganized
German lines overran 11 Allied
prisoner of war camps and hos
pitals today and reported that in
two camps alone were more than
50,000 freed prisoners, including
8,600" Americans.
The U. S. First Army patrol,
disarming whole columns of Ger
mans marching toward tfte Amer
ican lines, pressed on to a town
where they found the bodies of two
Russian Cossacks who had been
killed in a small-scale patrol action
only a few hours before.
The liberated Allied prisoners of
war were so numerous that the
small patrol told them to stay
where they were while plans were
made to bring them out.
"I can’t even estimate how
many were in other camps,” said
Maj. Fred Craig, Friendship,
Term., on his return from a pa
trol beyond the Mulde toward the
Russian lines along the Elbe.
‘‘But everywhere we went pri
soners went wild with joy to see
us.”
Because of a news blackout on
the positions of American and Rus
sian lines converging in the nar
row corridor between the Mulde
and Elbe rivers, it was impossible
to give the exact location of the
camps.
‘‘In one camp,” said Craig, ‘we
found 20,112 prisoners, and among
them were 267 Americans. This
camp was built by the Germans in
1941 for French prisoners and
there still are thousands of them
there.
‘American boys told me they
had been shuttled from place to
place to keep them from falling
into our hands as we advanced,
and that this was the fifth camp
they had been in.
“Their guards pulled out four
nights before, leaving them to
shift for themselves.
‘We also overran a camp which
Allied prisoners themselves said
contained 30,000 men, of whom
about 6,000 were Americans. We
didn’t have time to count them.
“In this camp there were some
3,000 ambulance cases, most of
them suffering from malnutrition.”
“In another German hospital we
found 7,000 wounded—half of whom
were Germans suffering from bul
let wounds,” Craig continued.
“There were only five Americans
here. One was a lieutenant of the
Second Infantry Division captured
only three nigh^p ago.
“We found that almost all doc
tors and nurses in German hos
pitals were carrying weapons and
we disarmed all we ran across,”
he said. The German medical per
sonnel said they were afraid that
the advancing So>viet troops would
massacre them and the Nazi pa
tients.
(Continued on Page Nine; Col. 4)
t
Mussolini Is Reported
Captured By Patriots
LONDON, April 26.—(U.R)—Benito
Mussolini, Fascist dictator who led
Italy into a war that brought her
disaster, has fallen into the hands
of Italian patriots as he attempted
to flee from Allied armies and
anti-Fascist risings in north Italy,
unconfirmed Swiss reports said
tonight.
The Swiss telegraph agency said
patriots found Mussolini in the
town of Pallanza on the west shore
of Lake Maggiore. The lake lies
near the Swiss border north of
Milan.
The report was not confirmed by
ether sources. No authoritative Al
lied source has announced Musso
lini in custody. Radio Rome late
this evening said that he and Ro
nerto Farinacci, former Fascist
party general secretary, were at
i monastery at Como, east of Lake
Maggiore, where they were recog
nized by the local population.
CThe Office of War Information,
reporting the Swiss agency dis
patch, said it quoted “reliable sour
:es” on his capture at Pallanza.)
Mussolini was said to have fled
northward from Milan, now re
portedly in the hands of Italian
patriots, the Swiss reports said.
Radio Rome said that he went
!rom Milan to Comi, where he and
Farinacci sought shelter at a mon
istery.
It was assumed that Mussolini
(Continued on Page Nine; Col. 6)