ttmitutfim untltut I jillE -— _ State °anS National Newi fjjTSZmjM- ~ , WILMINGTON, t^Vm^DAY, MAY 19« ~~-ESTABLISHED lief _ w ■ __ Last Assault Is Underway, Stalinjays Russians Make Bid For En tire City On Soviet May Day LONDON. Tuesday, May 1.—(JP) -Russian troops raised the red banner of victory over the gutted shell of the German Reichstag in Berlin yesterday and were split ling the" city's last Nazi defenders today in what Premier Stalin de scribed as the “last assault.” Berlin was not yet finally won, but Stalin's special May Day order, issued “during the victorious com pletion of the war”, left little doubt that the city’s end—and the end of the war—were close at hand. The Russians stepped up their overwhelming assault for Berlin to unprecedented proportions in a possible bid to win the entire city today while the Soviet union cele brates May Day, its traditional holi riav. Soviet troops were within a mile of tearing the capital into two isolated pockets each less than nine square m'les. They had won ihe ministry of interior near the Reichstag, were laying siege to Hitler’s underground fortress in the Tiergarten, were at Berlin’s trium phal arch, the Brandenburg gate, and were across the Spree river from Berlin's cathedral. German broadcasts admitted that ihe 10-day battle for the devastated capital was as good as lost, while Premier Stalin in a May Day order of the day, said that the war teas approaching its end and de clared: “the last assault is on.” Stalin said that 1,800,000 Germans had been killed or captured during the last three to four months of fighting on the eastern front. His announcement meant that 11,540, 000 German casualties had been in flicted by the Red Army in less Ilian four years of war. »,uuu more Aazi troops sur rendered in Berlin, raising to 65, .)00 fne toll of enemy dead and captured in four days, north of the dying capital Red army troops, lolling out mile-an-hour gains across Mecklenburg province, seiz ed the Baltic port of Greifswald and smashed with 42 miles of Rostock. The island-bound port of ■ fcwinemuende was isolated. Far to the south, Gen. Andrei ! >■ Yeremenko’s Fourth Ukrainian Army captured. Moravska-Ostrava, He„ "Pittsburgh of Czechoslova ks ’ while cavalrymen of the Second Ukrainian Army plunged jnrough the Morava river valley toward a junction that would roll tp a German salient in eastern Moravia. Capture of the famous Reich stog building, which was wrecked ' by fife in February, 1933, four Weeks after Hitler assumed pow- , and was used by the Nazis ®s a pretext for seizing dicta torial powers, was announced in ■ Moscow's nightly war bulletin. Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov’s hajile-gnmed Fii%t White Rus- . *ian Army street fighters captur- j , Germany's legislative cham ,ers after they had stormed over tne Molke river bridge from Moa r1 ■ ®nd seized the ministry of the i interior. '• Sweeping across the barricades Wlde Koenigsplatz, they broke 0 Reichstag and “hoisted laid °anner victory”, Moscow (Continued on Page Three; Col. 4) "4 Wounded Are Taken To Peace Conference To See Security Plan FRANCISCO, April 30—UP) *aii 6 Navy brought 54 wounded fn °J's and Marines today to see liL "emselves how the United Na „ ' are trying to organize to ent another war. . y°unS men, they were am non cases. Some had lost both Jl' lorrie an arm in the Pacific v, ,hey came from the Navy awaPyta at Mare Island. 35 miles how much interest ... nad |n this conference—while house* iLt1 w rear of the opera snt ,, before today’s session like these'. Way'~they said thin®s sepWn!re interested. We want to tliisP ^- had a biS stake in CQmp' • We want to see what Comes out of this war.” ' Argentina Gets Seat Over Red Objections SAN FRANCISCO, April 30——Over stern Russian objections, the United Nations conference voted 31 to 4 tonight to give Argentina a place immediately in its peace-shaping councils. Thus the first full-scale floor scrap of the conference ended in a Soviet defeat. Eloquently but in vain, Russian Foreign Commissar Molotov had pleaded that the ballot be delayed, that there hadn’t been time enough U. S. DISPUTES AUSTRIAN RULE State Department Says It Does Not Recognize Government WASHINGTON, April 30—(U.R>— The United States today emphati cally lined up with Britain in re fusing to recognize the provisional Austrian government which has taken over in Russian-occupied Vienna without hindrance from Moscow. The State Department said flat ly that it does not recognize the government which is headed by one-time Austrian Chancellor Karl Renner. The British earlier had turned thumbs down. The State Department admitted that, except for a brief Russian note saying the government was in the making, the United States was not consulted on the develop ment. When asked if it loomed as a new sore spot—along with the Big Three Polish dispute — in American - British - Russian rela tions, a qualified American offi cial said it would take “ a few days to decide.” (Continued on Page Three; Col. 1) ‘ xui nuosia iu jiuuj ingv. .nrua o case. He questioned whether the South American country is free of Fascism. And, he said, if Argentina • is to be invited to send statesmen to San Francisco, so. too, should the Russian-recognized Polish govern ment in Moscow. There was a measure of con solation for the aggressive Rus-* sian, however, in the fact that the conference approved with scarcely a ripple the admission of the Sov iet White Russian and Ukrainian republics to the conference. Belgian’s foreign minister. Paul Henri Spaak, urged delegates to heed Molotov's bid for delay to preserve “precious unity” among nations sponsoring the conference —Russia, Britain, China and the United States. But Secretary of State Stettinius and a horde of Latin Americans sprang to the support of Argen tina. And when it came to a show down, there were 28 votes against delay, and then only 4 in opposition to issuing Argentina an invitation to the conference. Eleven nations did not vote. Russia had swung the votes of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Greece. Not even Belgium went along. And when the result was announced, Molotov and his fel low Russians stalked from the glittering auditorium of San Fran cisco's opera house with Czech (Continued on Page Three; Col. 6) 32,000 INMATES FREED BY YANKS Germany’s Most Dreaded Extermination Camp Is Captured By HOWARD COWAN DACHAU, Germany, April 30.— —Dachau prison, Germany’s nost dreaded extermination camp, las been captured and its surviv ng 32,000 tortured inmates freed ay outraged American Doughboys who killed or captured its brutal garrison in a furious battle. Dashing to the camp atop tanks, lulldozers, self - propelled guns— inything with wheels—the fighting ifanks of the 42nd and 45th Divi sions hit the notorious prison north vest of Munich shortly after the unch hour yesterday. Dozens of Nazi guards fell ur. ler withering blasts of rifle and :arbine fire as the soldiers, catch ng glimpses of the horrors within he camp, raged through its bar •acks for a quick cleanup. The troops were joined by trusty irisoners working outside the larbed wire enclosures. French nen and Russians, grabbing up veapons dropped by the slain SS guards, acted swiftly on their own o exact full revenge from their ormentors. Sorting of the liberated prison ;rs was still under way today but ;he Americans learned from camp (Continued on Rage Three; Col. 4) COMMUNISTS LEAD VOTES IN FRANCE Political Analysts Caution On Conceding ‘Com munist* Trend PARIS, April 30.—UP—The Com munist party won a sweeping vic tory in yesterday’s French munici pal elections, the tabulation of more than 15,000,000 votes showed today, but political analysts were cautious about conceding that the nation as a whole had “gone Com munist.” The trend toward the leftist movement, however, was undeni able. By 8 o'clock tonight returns had been received from all but the most remote provincial areas. A breakdown of the figures in dicated the Communists had won nearly 25 per cent of the estimat- ; ed total vote of 18,000,000. Less ; than one per cent of the electorate - endorsed Communist candidates in • 1935 when the last previous French municipal elections were held. Socialists and that group of par ties lumped together under the heading of “resistance organiza tions” also polled substantial sup port. The latter blocs sprang from the erstwhile French underground movement, and can be classified as leftists. Truman Chooses Friend As Administrative Aide WASHINGTON, April 30—m— Big EdMcKim who followed Presi dent Truman as a soldier and as a political campaigner, became his chief administrative assistant to day. The 49-year old Omaha, Neb., insurance executive was sworn ip for the $10,000 job by Justice William O. Douglas of the Supreme Court. Tne oath was administered at the same time to John W. Snyder, St. Louis banker, as Fed eral Loan Administrator and. Ed win W. Pauley of California as American member of the repar ations commission with the rank of ambassador. The 184 pound McKim, six feet one inch tall, has been serving President Truman unofficially I since his old. battery commander entered the White House April 12. He had told reporters he plan ned to return to Omaha where he was executive vice president of the newspaper division of the Mu tual Benefit Health and Accident Association. However, McKim said today, the President urged him to enter his official family and he obtained a leave of absence from the company for which he has worked for 18 years. Truman was commander of Battery D of the 129th Field Artil lery, 35th Division, during the first world war, and was muster ed out with the reserve rank of : major. 25 Divisions Defeated By Allied Army Only Report Of German Resistance Reported In Brenner Pass ROME, April 30 —(lPt— German armies in Italy have been “vir tually eliminated as a military force” by the shattering onslaught of the Allies, Gen. Mark W. Clark announced tonight as American Fifth Army troops marched into the great arsenal city of Turin and found it already in the hands of Italian patriots. Gen. Clanc, commander of the 15th Army Group, declared that the long, bitter campaign which began on the shell-swept beaches at Salerno in September, 1943, had ended except for mopping up scat tered Nazi resistance. More than 120,000 German pris oners and tremendous quantities of arms and equipment have been swept up in the maelstrom set off by the British Eighth Army 22 days ago and joined by the Amer ican Fifth Army a week later. Twenty-five Nazi divisions have been ripped to shreds. “The military power of Ger many in Italy has practically ceas ed, even though scattered fighting may continue as remnants of the German armies are mopped up,” said General Clark, commander .of the 15th Army Group, in a state ment to correspondents at his “Troops of the 15th Army Group have so smashed the German armies in Italy that they have been virtually eliminated as a military force. Twenty-five Ger man divisions, some of the best in the German army, have been torn to pieces and can no longer effectively resist our armies.” ■ British Eighth Army forces, sweeping beyond captured Venice, drove across the Piave river at a point only 74 miles by highway, from Trieste around the head of the Adriatic sea, A Belgrade an nouncement said Marshal Tito’s Jugoslav partisans were fighting the Germans through the streets 3f Trieste. Elements of the American 91st Division and South African armor ad forces captured Treviso, north 3f Venice, and British troops seiz ed an important bridge across he Piave near Nervesa. The vet eran U. S. First Armored Divi sion captured more than 12,000 prisoners in the past 24 hours, in aluding four German major gener als. Units of the American 10th Moun ;ain Division, leading the Pur suit of enemy remnants through he Alps toward the Brenner Pass, ;rossed Lake Garda in storm boats tnd captured Benito Mussolini’s 'orrner Villa on the west short at Harganano. They then Cut one of he few escape roads left to Bren ier Pass. The only report of Ger nan resistance was in that area. - i Peace Plans Reported Set Before Nazis Himmler Confers In Den mark With Bernadotte, Stockholm Says STOCKHOLM, Tuesday, May 1-—W—The newspaper Dagens Nyheter said today Count Folke Bernadotte, Swedish emissary who reportedly has been acting as a go-between for peace be tween the Allies and Germany, had forwarded the German an swer to capitulation demands to an Allied legation in Stockholm Yesterday, LONDON, April 30.—(.?>)— The Free Danish Press service in Stockholm said that Heinrich Himmler conferred in Denmark this morning with Count Folke Bernadotte, the neutral Swedish emissary by whom he sent his of fer to surrender Germany to Bri tain and the United States last week. • In London British cabinet minis ters held a long meeting today, then some of them met with Prime Minister Churchill late tonight, studying the latest reports on the situation. A full cabinet meeting is sche duled for early Tuesday, before the House of Commons meets, at which time it likely will be decid ed whether Churchill might make a statement in the Commons dur ing the afternoon. The British Press Association stated that “there is no longer any doubt that armistice moves are in progress and moving swiftly.” The Himmler-Bernadotte meet ing, said to have taken place at Aabenraa just north of the Ger man-Danish border, was believed to be the second conference of the two men in two days. Since it had been officially dis closed that last week’s surrender offer by Himmler reached the western Allies through Bernadotte reports of a pew contact gave rise to speculation that a new phase in German surrender at tempts had opened. The first offer was refused be cause it was not addressed to Rus sia as well as to Britain and the United States. There was no indication wheth er Himmler was now ready to yield ti all three powers. N Dispatches from Stockholm said that the Swedish foreign office as well as American and British sour ces minimized the importance of the report that talks were in pro gress between Bernadotte and Himmler in Denmark. American Minister Herschel Johnson and Bri tish Minister Sir Victor Mallet made long visits at the foreign office but American legation sourc es insisted that Johnson’s visit (Continued on Page Three; Col. 5) Extension On Contract Is Refused By Miners NEW YORK, April 30.—(U.R)— John L. Lewis’ United Mine Work ms tonight refused to agree to a JO-day extension of their existing mthracite contract expiring at midnight, and the controversy was almost immediately referred to the War Labor Board in an attempt to prevent a strike in the all-impor tant hard coal producing field. The 72,000 anthracite miners al ready had voted to go on strike if 10 agreement was reached, and in effect, Lewis tonight told the men to stop work at midnight. He indicated that the strike already lad started. Within an hour, Secretary of La lor Frances Perkins had certified ilie controversy to the WLB. In Washington, WLB Chairman Ueorge W. Taylor said an emer gency meeting of the board had ieen called. Lewis had called the union’s tri listrict scale committee into ses sion after a meeting of the negotiat ng committee, the operators and Mrs. Perkins had ended without igreement. “The tri-district committe,’’ he ;aid, “by unanimous vote, has •esolved to request the miners to vork in the industry when the op erators agree to the secretary of la bor’s proposals for a new con tract.” Mrs. Perkins had announced that the operators rejected a proposal for $1.50 a day travel time for the miners. She recommended that the UMW extend the contract, pending further negotiations. Mrs. Perkins at the meeting to day proposed as compromises the payment of time and one-half for one-hour travel and lunch time amounting to $1.50 a day, reduc tion of the original vacation pay demand from $100 to $75 a year, and payment of a shift differential. She discarded the demands of the miners for a 25 per cent general wage increase and payment of 10 cents a ton royalty to the union. The premium proposal offers wage differentials of four and six cents an hour for second and third shift workers, contrasted to UMW demands for a 10' and 15 cents premium. She also proposed two minor adjustments. Her compromise was accepted in full by the union, she said, but op erators disagreed on the travel time provision which has never been included in the anthracite contracts. -----;__ _4 Carrier Named For Roosevelt -«— The U. S. S. Franklin D. Roosevelt, second in the class of the world’s largest, strongest and fastest aircraft carriers, stands on the ways at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn. Launching of the 45,000 ton ship, named in honor of the late president, was scheduled for April 29. (AP Wirephoto from U. S. Navy) DOUGHBOYS ARE 17 MILES FROM DAVAO Guerrillas Advance Along Talikud Nine Miles From Port MANILA, Tuesday, May 1—OP— Overrunning elaborate gun em placements, 24th Division Dough boys swept to within 17 miles of Dvao city Sunday while guerrillas seized five-mile-long Talikud is land, nine miles off that big Min danao port. Maj. Gen. Roscoe Woodruff's Yanks drove 10 miles from Digos up to the western shore of Davao gulf against disorganized resistance Gen. Douglas MacArthur reported Wday. The extensive system of antiair craft positions and intact coastal guns seized in the advance indicat ed the Japanese expected and had prepared for an assault on Davao gulf proper. Instead, the Ameri cans came overland from their landing in Moro gulf. Lack of opposition on the south ern approaches nonetheless sur prised the Americans, who expect a stiff fight for Davao, one of the major ports of the Philippines and a Japanese strongpoint. The roads were bobby-trapped, but otherwise there was little to impede the swift foot soldiers. P-T boats, darting swiftly into the bay, again shelled shore posi tions. On northern Luzon, the 37th Di vision, which helped take Baguio Friday, pushed five miles north to seize La Trinidad, where the Jap< anese once had a large concentra tion camp for Americans and other United Nations nationals. MACHINATO TAKEN BY U. S. FORCES Jap Atrocity On Hospital Ship Talked By Ameri can Doughboys By LEIF ERICKSON GUAM, Tuesday, May 1. —UP)— Twenty-Seventh Infantry Division Doughboys captured important Machinato airfield on Okinawa’s west coast Sunday, Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced to day. Twenty-nine Japanese aircraft, attacking American forces off Oki nawa, were shot down Tuesday. Sunday and Monday carriar air patrols downed another 25—total of 54 for the two days. There was no mention of dam age to fleet units. Carrier planes raided Tokuno, Amami and Kikai islands in the northern Ryukyus Sunday and Mon day, attacking landing craft, coas tal shipping, fuel dumps, barracks and airfield installations. Five Ja panese planes 'were destroyed on the ground. Navy search aircraft also struck the northern Ryukyus, sinking one cargo ship and leaving another in a sinking condition. Another group of Navy search planes ranged north cf Kyushu, where they destroyed one small cargo ship, one coastal vessel, one patrol craft and a number of small craft. Capture of Machinato airfield placed Maj. Gen. George W. Grin er’s 27th Division Doughboys with in 2 miles of Okinawa’s capital city, Naha, population 66,000. Naha (Continued on Page Three; Col. 5) Shooting Of Mussolini Related^ By Executioner By GEORGE BRIA MILAN, April 30—CP)—1The beat en, mishapen body of Benito Mus solini lay tonight in a rude wooden coffin in the Milan morgue while still-vengeful Italian partisans, moving against other former Fas cist leaders, were reported al ready to have tried and executed Marshal Rodolfo Graziani. Headquarters of the National Liberation Committee received an unofficial report that Graziani, former chief of staff of the Italian Army and loser of the first Lib yan campaign, had been sentenced this morning and the execution carried out immediately, but there was not immediate confirmation. Demonstrations continued in Mi lan during the day as funerals were held for patriots who were killed in the revolt last week. However, the prefect of the Mi lan region, acting upon instruc tions by the Italian government and Allied military authorities, is sued a proclamation ordering im mediate cessation of summary judgments and arbitrary execu tions. Violators of the order were warned that “Italian and AMC au thorities will adopt extremely severe measures.” The bodies of Mussolini, 61 year-old former dictator and Fas cist leader; his beautiful young mistress, Claretta Petacci; and 17 of his Fascist followers were re moved to the morgue today re (Continned on Page Three; CoL 4) Munich Falls After Single Fighting Day Capture Of City Hailed Second Only To Fall Of Berlin PARIS, Tuesday, May 1.—(m— Munich, birthplace of the Nazi movement and the third greatest city of Germany, fell last night to the triumphant U. S. Seventh Army after a short but savage one-day battle. Gen. Jacob L. Devers, com mander of the Sixth Army Group, hailed the fall of Munich as the accomplishment of one principal objective of his army group and declared “it may well affect the final stages of the war to a degree second only to the fall of Berlin.” au organized resistance was crushed in the three-quarters of Munich lying west of the Isar river and today Doughboys were crossing the stream to clear out sniper* from the final quarter. More than 50 miles south of thi* reputed northern citadel of the Nazis’ last-stand fortress in the Alps, other Seventh Army tanks and infantry plunged into the Ba varian Alps, 12 miles northwest of Innsbruck at the northern end of the Brenner pass, imperiling th* entire German position in the west third of the redoubt. Amid reports that the German* were trying to negotiate final sur render, Gen. Eisenhower’s armies hammered ahead in both the north and south. The U. S. First and Ninth Ar mies made two new junctions w’ith the Russians on the Elbe south west of Berlin and were about to snap shut a trap on large num bers of the capital’s defender* farther north. The U. S. 82nd Airbom Division, fighting as part of the British Second Army, forced a second crossing of the Elbe river in the Hamburg sector and drove north about two miles. The British in their own bridge head 20 miles east of Hamburg were, at least six miles beyond the river and were 25 miles south of Luebeck, whose fall would seal off the North Germar province of Schleswig-Holstein as well as Den (An unconfirmed Stockholm r«» port said German Marines muti1 nied at the Kiel naval base rathe* than go to the front.) ‘ In the south, the U. S Third Army seized control of 60 miles of the Isar river northeast of Mu nigh, crossed at three points, an<J armored columns fought 65 miles north of Salzburg, eastern ancho* of the redoubt. On the east flank, two mort crossings were made into Czech oslovakia and armored columns were heading south for what may b a big tank battle in Austria with Grman tanks moving north to meet the attack. (The Luxembourg radio said the Third Army and the Russians wer* about to meet at Linz, Austrian communications city, but there was no hint in field dispatches of any big American movement in side Austria on that sector.) Plugging at the western end of the redoubt, the French First Ar my captured the aircraft center of Friedrichschafen on the north side of Lake Constance and *t the east end of the lake plowed three miles into Austria and captured Breeenz. The Seventh Army was pound ing two steel wedges into the for midable Alpine country east of Lake Constance where, if any where, the Germans should b» able to put up a stem defense. But a dispatch from the field said that a large force of Ger mans standing guard on the north ern approaches to Innsbruck wal unofficially reported to be negoti ating for surrender. It was on this sector that the Americans were a dozen miles from Innsbruck, which controls all east-west roads through the Al pine redoubt, after capturing the Alpine town of Mittenwald. Twenty-six miles to the west, « second wedge had been driven 10 miles into Austria, and forking out along the Alpine highways two columns both were about 15 mile* from the main east-west highway leading into Innsbruck. It was the 45th Division which (Continued on Page Three; Col. 3)

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view