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-— _ 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)