WEATHER
Mostly cloudy and mild and scat
tered showers extreme east por
tion and in mountains today fol
lowed by partly cloudy and cooler
tonight. Thursday, fair and mild.
» Tshe Hhelhy Baily star
STATE 7tfEATRE TODAY
"I LOVE A MYSTERY"
Also War Short — Pin-Up
Cartoon — Flicker - Flashbacks
TELEPHONES 1100
CLEVELAND COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1894
VOL. aLJ.1I— by
AMUUAii^u rrwuioo «rjyvo
CniiLiD I , IN. W iliJJiNil/OiJ I, lVIAtt. zi, iy4&
TELEMA1 PICTUKES
SINGLE COPIES—6c
Debacle May Result In
100,000 Casualties;
Fighting Inside Mainz
PARIS, March 21.—(/P)—The German debacle in the
Saarland and Palatinate appeared likely today to cost Hit
ler’s badly bled forces close to 100,000 casualties as the U. S.
Third Army closed to within six miles of the great chemical
center of Ludwigshafen-Mannhrim and fought inside Mainz.
Two German armies, the first and seventh, either were
wiped out or doomed except for scattered elements.
At Supreme Headquarters, it was estimated that the
swift Third Army of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., alone
had herded an estimated 30,000 Nazis into prison pens in
48 hours as it and Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch’s Seventh
Army closed new traps which might boost the overall total i
of captured in the whirlwind campaign to 75,000.
The Seventh Army, driving up from the southern bases
of the Saarland and Palatinate, did not even tabulate its
prisoners beyond the first 6,000.
^IUP5 5UU1 M OMVi UX UCV-IVCU,
scrlautern, Worms. Voelkingen,
Zweizruecken, Homberg and St.
Ingbert toppled like ten pins. The
hard hitting Americans—27 divi
sions in all or nearly 400,000 men—
were advancing speedily.
The German hold on the west
bank of the upper Rhine was
narrowed to a 35-mlle escape
gap between the Karlsruhe and
Ludwlgshafen areas and it ap
peared doubtful whether the
wounded Wehrmacht could
scrape together enough men
from the defeat to man prop
erly the Valhalla line east of the
river.
* The Germans blew their last re
maining bridges on the Rhine, leav
ing stragglers west of thg river to
death or capture.
Except for a 30-mile stretch be
tween Plrmasens and Lautersbourg
where the Germans clung to frag
ments of the Siegfried line, the
enemy was in complete rout. Nazi
forces were surrounded in three
places and threatened with immi
nent encirclement elsewhere.
The large Saarland city of f{eun
kirchen (40.5001, where steel and
iron works and coal pits abound,
was believed to have fallen, al
though there was no specific word.
The First army fighting east of
See DEBACLE Page 2
•
Japan Prepares
Homeland To
Meet Invasion
LONDON. March 21— UP)—.Ja
pan announced Imposition of mili
tary control over civilian property
and Installations today as the first
of a series of projected steps de
signed to prepare the homeland
to meet Invasion.
'The war situation clearly Indi
cates the Japanese homeland will
become a battlefield,” War Minis
ter Gen. Sugiyama said in broad
cast statement from Tokyo.
Suglyama said strong defenses
had been built and widespread mil
itary preparations had been made
for the purpose of frustrating Am
erican invasion plans.
‘ It has become necessary, how
ever,” he added, "to extend these
measures in a considerable extent.
Buildings, property and civilian
installations will be placed under
military control as a first step.
CIVIL SQUADS
"Later, according to military
heads, they will be moved or de
molished and the civilian popula
tion will be required to form civil
squads to collaborate with the
army.”
Sugiyama added that legislation
to cover these steps had been pre
sented to the Japanese Diet.
The Tokyo radio also quoted mu
nitions ministry spokesman as
saying that the evacuation of war
industries from large cities is in
full swing.
A considerable number of un
derground factories already have
been built, he said.
A44 Gas Coupons
Expire Today, A-15’s
Come In Tomorrow
Today is the last day to use A
14 gasoline ration coupons. The
new series of stamps, A-15, be
comes valid Thursday and will re
main good through June 21. The
A-15 coupons have the same value
as those expiring today, 4 gallons
each. _ . . w _
YOUNG MEN
FACE COURT
Judge Webb Says Juve
nile Delinquency Goes
Back To Home
Confronted with numerous youth
ful offenders at this term of Unit
ed States District court, Judge E.
Yates Webb, presiding, expressed
the opinion this morning as the
Shelby term neared its closing
moments that juvenile delinquency
probably goes back to home delin
■ quency.
Van Zora Martin, jr.. of Ruth
| erford county, 21 year-old young
man charged with transporting
a stolen automobile from Spartan
burgh. S. C. to Rutherfordton was
ordered to serve 10 months in a
federal reformatory at Montgom
ery. Ala.
On yesterday afternoon Judge
Webb imposed sentences of three
and one-half years each in a fed
eral penitentiary on William How
ard Ward and Morris E. Fondaw,
two young men who pleaded guilty
to carrying off the safe from the
Candler postoffice and robbing it
of more than S3,800.
Charles A. Morgan, of Gaston
oounty, was sentenced to serve a
year and a day for failing to re
port for induction.
LIQUOR CASES
Christy Farris and James E.
Brackett, charged with manufac
turing whiskey were each sen
tenced to serve a year and a day
after they had been convicted by
See YOUNG Page 2
Italy Seeking Big
Three Permission To
Make War On Japan
WASHINGTON, March 21. —(/P)
—Italy is seeking Big Three per
mission to declare war on Japan,
with this country and Russia re
portedly in favor of such a move.
Now classed as a "co-belligerent,”
but still under an Allied commis
sion, Italy has a two-fold objec
tive: 1. To establish a long-range
basis for lend-lease assistance, and
2. To obtain some kind of repre
sentation at the San Francisco se
curity conference next month.
Italy now is at war with Ger
many, but when that enemy falls,
Italian claims to lend-lease aid will
vahish unless she also is partici
pating actively in the war against
Japan.
British approval for a war de
claration has not been forthcom
ing.
RUSSIANS PUSH
TO OUTSKIRTS
OF STETTIN
Reds Now Hold Virtually
All Of East Bank Of
The Oder
MENACE TO BERLIN
MOSCOW, March 21 .—(£>)
—The First White Russian
army, now in possession of
virtually the entire east bank
of the Oder from the Baltic
to its confluence with the
Neisse, crowded siege artil
lery to the very edge of Stet
tin today after wiping out
the enemy’s Altdamm bridge
head.
The menace to Berlin grew hour
ly as Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov
probed many places along the river,
seeking springboards for his next
big attack east and northeast of
ruined Berlin.
Marshal Ivan S. Konev still is
engaging in liquidating trapped
garrisons in Breslau and Glogau on
the upper Oder, but has moved ad
ditional units of his first Ukraine
army group to the Neisse line south
east of Berlin.
In East Prussia, Marshal Al
exander M. Vasilevsky, for two
years chief of staff of the Red
army, was staging the final kill
in a dwindling German pock
et along the coast southwest of
Koenigsberg.
Disclosure that Vasilevsky had
taken over the third White Rus
sian army front after the battle
death of Gen. Ivan Cherniakhovsky
was made in Marshal Stalin's order
of the day yesterday saluting the
capture of Braunsberg. one of two
German bastions in the pocket.
4.000 PRISONERS
Vasilevsky's seizure of Brauns
berg gathered 4,000 prisoners into
the bag. That figure is expected
to be more than duplicated when
the nest of resistance in nearby
Heiligenbeil is crushed.
Zhukov took Altdamm with one
fierce lunge after a series of hard
actions had reached this suburb,
less than five miles from Stettin
proper. Front dispatches said an
aviation factory with more than
1.000 new engines intact, an air
plane assembly plant and a torpedo
factory were among the booty.
As in Kolberg last week, Russian
storm units found German dead
hanging from makeshift gallowes
in Altdamm. An Izvestia dispatch
said an order from Hitler had been
found, saying that troops leaving
positions voluntarily should be shot
on the spot. On bodies in army
uniform were signs reading “Hang
ed because I fought badly.” The
corpses of executed civilians had
a sign saying "I was hanged be
cause I evacuated.”
WHAT’S DOING
TODAY
7:30 p.m.—Midweek prayer
and praise service at First
Baptist church.
7:30 p.m.—Fellowship hour at
Central Methodist church.
7:30 p.m. — Regular prayer
meeting at Presbyterian church.
THURSDAY
3:00 p.m.—Mass meeting of
Kings Mountain association at
First Baptist church.
7:30 p.m.—Mission revival
meeting at First Baptist
church.
7:00 p.m—Regular meeting of
Kiwanis club at Hotel Charles.
7:30 p.m.—C.A.P. meets at
armory.
7:00 p.m.—Gillespie chi|>ter
of Royal Ambassadors meets
at First Baptist church.
War Department Steps In
To Enforce Curfew In N. Y.
ii&vv i uxvxv, iviaiui 41—{/r)—
The War department, in a move
interpreted as the government’s
first counter-measure against May
or La Guardia’s curfew extension,
has ordered all military personnel
to leave places of entertainment
by midnight.
In New York City, which still is
holding out at a 1 a.m. Oasis; the
order came as a surprise to cafe
owners, barkeepers, and grumbling
soldiers.
The first inkling anyone had of
the order was when military police
suddenly appeared in the plush
coniines oi me oionc ciud ana or
dered all army personnel to leave.
The second service command
then confirmed that a midnight
curfew enforcement order had
been issued and a few minutes la
ter in Washington the War de
partment announced that all ser
vice commands had been instruct
ed to live up to the “letter and
spirit” of War Mobilizer James F.
Byrnes’ curfew request.
AIMED AT N. Y.
Although the order was issued
See WAR DEPARTMENT Page 2
3
SURRENDER FLAGS LINE GERMAN STREET—White surrender flags
wave from buildings along a street in Kettig, Germany, as a lone Ameri
can jeep moves along the thoroughfare. This town is northwest of Cob
lenz which fell to the Americans recently. The jeep is attached to the
Fourth Armored division of the U. S. Third Army.
General Assembly
Adjourned Today
Senate Recedes From Amendment To State Hospital
And Medical Care Bill
—
RALEIGH, March 21.—(/P)—The 1945 general assem
bly, which appropriated a record-breaking $232,000,000 and
arranged for the continuation of a substantially balanced
budget, adjourned sine die today.
Adjournment came a few minutes after the senate
agreed to recede from its amendment to the state hospital
and medical care bill. It had voted to split a $1,000,000 con
tingent appropriation for the care of indigent patients, di
recting that half of the amount should go to the construc
tion or enlargement of rural hospitals. That provoked a
FIVE HURT IN
AUTO ACCIDENT
Constable Bob Kendrick
And Prisoner Most Ser
iously Injured
Constable ''Sob Kendrick sustain
ed several fractured ribs, Woodrow
Tessneeer, a prisoner in his custody
had a broken leg, Deputy Sheriff
Fred Blanton sustained- lacerations
and bruises, and two prisoners, A.
K. Harris and Grady Metcalf were
less seriously injured last night
about 11 o’clock when Constable
Kendrick's automobile ran amuck
at Patterson Springs and landed
astraddle the railroad in a four foot
cut.
Constable Kendrick and Woodrow
Tesseneer are still confined in the
Shelby hospital. The others were
given first aid and were dismissed.
STEERING GEAR LOCKED
Constable Kendrick and Deputy
Sheriff Blanton had been to Ben
Dover’s place on the Grover road
to investigate a disorder. They
were returning with three persons
in the back seat who were charged
with being intoxicated. Mr. Ken
drick says as he went to make the
turn from the Grover road at Pat
See FIVE Page 2
High School Band To
Give Benefit Concert
For Red Cross Friday
For the third year the Shelby
High school band will present a
concert Friday night at 8:15 o’
clock in the senior high school au
ditorium for the benefit of the
Red Cross drive. Tickets are on
sale for 25c and 35c and all pro
ceeds will be donated to the Red
Cross.
An excellent program has been
planned and under the direction
of Miss Dorothy Parker, the group
has received thorough training. A
large crowd Is expected to attend
this benefit concert.
i
t
A
Ugnt tnat lasted two days.
The house, however, agreed to
iccept a senate amendment direct
ng that a four-year medical school
not be established at the Univer
sity of North Carolina until a
survey is made by an agency sim
ilar to the Rockefeller foundation.
The house already had adopted
a resolution setting high noon as
the time for adjournment. As that
hour approached, the house clock
was stopped.
The senate temporarily delayed
action on the adjournment resolu
tion.
The house refused yesterday to
accept the senate amendments and
the measure went to a conference
committee, which later recom
mended that the senate recede
from its action in splitting a $1,
000,000 contingent appropriation
for the care of indigent patients.
The senate split the appropriation,
earmarking $500,000 for the indi
gent patients and the other $500,
000 for the construction or en
largement of rural hospitals. Last
night the senate refused to accept
the conference committees recom
mendations.
An attempt to have the senate
reconsider its refusal vote was lost
today, 23-22, with President Bal
See GENERAL Page 2
SPRING COMES
IN OFFICIALLY
Officially spring came in at 6:30
o’clock yesterday afternoon with
the arrival of the vernal equinox.
Actually it came to Shelby several
weeks ago with the advent of the
balmiest March weather experienc
ed by the city in a long while.
Seed houses have been doing a
great business in garden seeds and
hardware stores report that the
warm weather has had a marked
effect on the sale of garden tools.
If anything the weather was
slightly cooler today on the first
day of spring than it has been for
several days. But leaves were com
ing out and spring insects were be
ginning to crawl. Not an overcoat
was in sight. In the words of the
song “Spring now is here.”
2,000 PLANES
ATTACK NAZI
AIRFIELDS
Oil Refinery At Bremen
Also Blasted In "Blist
ering Assaults"
VICTORY WEATHER
LONDON, March 21.—(fP)
—A Force of 2,000 American
bombers and fighters attack
ed nine air fields in north
western Germany and a tank
factory at Plauen, 10 miles
from the Czechoslovak bord
er, while another fleet of
British planes blasted a large
oil refinery at Bremen today.
Both blistering assaults were
staged before noon. Berlin said U.
S. 15th Air force bombers from
Italy were over Austria, continu
ing blows which yesterday knock
ed out all through railway lines be
tween Vienna and Munich.
It was another day of what air
men are calling “victory weather.”
RAF Lancasters also hit the rail
viaduct across the Wesel river near
Bremen ith the new 11-ton vol
cano bombs and the marshalling
yards at Muenster on the main line
between Osnabrueck and the Ruhr.
The U. S. fleet from Britain com
prised 1,300 bombers with 700
fighters which also lugged bombs.
The American planes hit air
fields located near Hopstein,
Rheine, Achmer^-Alfoern, Hfesepe,
Handorf, Zwischenahn, Wittmun
haven, and Marx, some of which
are bases for jet-propelled Mes
serschmitts.
Spring Rains Swell
Mississippi To An
Eight-Year High
MEMPHIS, March 21. — {&)—
Spring rains forced the swollen
Mississippi river to an eight-year
high here today and threatened
to prolong weeks-old flood battles
in Arkansas and West Tennessee.
The Mississippi reached 38 feet,
four above flood stage, yesterday
and the weather bureau said it
would .continue to rise slowly for
(the next few days.
Army engineers reported recent
rains had hampered fights to hold
endangered levees along th'* lower
White River in Arkansas wid in
Dyer county, Tennessee, where
thousands of acres of farm land
already have been inundated.
SUB "B ARBEL’
PRESUMED LOST
WASHINGTON, March ,21.—
(A5)—The submarine Barbu* is
overdue from patrol and pre
sumed lost with its officers and
crew, normally about 65 men.
A nav: communique today
said next of kin had been noti
fied.
The vessel, commanded by
Lt. Comdr. Conde LeRoy Rs
guet was the 34th American
submarine reported overdue and
presumed lost, and the 40th lost
from all causes, including four
sunk and two destroyed to pre
vent capture.
It was the 273rd naval vessel
of all types lost in the war.
Commander Raguet, whose
mother, lives in Norfolk, Va.,
is a son of Capt. Edward Cook
Raguet, U. S. Navy. Commander
Raguet is listed as “missing fol
lowing action.” He assumed
command of the vessel last De
cember.
Invade Inland Sea;
17 Nip Warships
Crippled In Raid
U. S. PACIFIC FLEET HEADQUARTERS, March 21.
—(/P)—At least 17 Japanese warships, including a 45,000
ton superbattleship and eight aircraft carriers, were crip
pled Monday by more than 1,000 American carrier planes
which hunted down the bulk of the enemy home fleet hiding
in Nippon’s 240-mile-lond inland sea.
The audacious raiders from Vice Adm. Marc A. Mit
scher’s world’s largest task force, penetrating a hitherto
untouched area which Japan considered safe for her navy,
also destroyed 495 enemy planes Sunday and Monday and
damaged well over 100 more.
Not one American warship was sunk, although one was
damaged seriously and others sustained minor blows as the
Japanese home-based airforce sent wave on wave against
Mitscher’s armada. All ships moved away under their
GARDNER HEADS
OWMR SURVEY
Panel Will Study Question
Of Guaranteed An
nual Wage
i WASHINGTON. March 21—UP)
—With Presidential blessing, a pa
nel of White House advisers set
out today to determine whether a
guaranteed annual wage should be
added to postwar job security
plans.
The proposal Is one which leap
ed into prominence as a demand
by the CIO United Steelworkers
last fall. It was rejected by the
War Labor board as subjecting the
steel industry to such "serious fi
nancial risks” as to be "unwork
able” in the form sought.
President Roosevelt yesterday
asked the advisory board of the
Office of War Mobilization and
Reconversion to undertake a na
tionwide study of existing wage
guarantee plans and recommend
any “further steps in this direc
tion which' may seem practicable
and desirable.”
LITTLE REACTION
There was little immediate con
gressional reaction.
Senator Taft (R-Ohio) said he
thought such a study entirely
proper, adding: "It will be difficult
See GARDNER Page 2
ALLIESRAH)
COPENHAGEN
STOCKHOLM, March 21— (/Pi —
Danish sources said some 30 Allied
planes bombed Copenhagen at noon
today. Reports from Malmoe said
the headquarters of the Gestapo
and the port area in the eatsern
section of the Danish capital were
attacked.
The newspaper Bxpressen said
the shell house, which was head
quarters of the Gestapo, was des
troyed by the blasts from eignt
bombs.
The Free Danish press service
said the Germans had been hold
ing 25 Danes as hostages in the
building since the RAF destroyed
Gestapo headquarters at Aarhus.
The Nyboder district of Copen
hagen, where the Germany army
has a headquarters, also was struck
these reports said. One bomber
landed in the sea off Landskrona,
Swedish sources said.
U. S. Troops Fight Their Way
Int > Capital City Of Panay
MANILA, March 21.—(AV-Amer
ican troops fought their way into
the burning city of Iloilo, capital
of Panay, as they expanded then
hold today on that central Philip
pine island.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, an
nouncing that troops of Maj. Gen.
Rapp Brush’s 40th division had
reached the outskirts of the city,
reported “heavy fires” were burn
ing.
The Americans raptured the
Iloilo airdrome and Carpenter's
bridge over the Iloilo river at
the eastern approach to the
capital.
Another 40th division column
drove 25 miles northward from
Sunday’s invasion beachhead at
Tigbauan, to overrun the coastal
plain inland from Iloilo and join
forces with strong guerrilla units.
Panay is the 25th Philippine island
invaded in the liberation Cam
paign.
Other guerrillas, on northern Lu
zon island, wiped out the Japanese
garrison at San Fernando and
seized that Lingayen Gulf port. San
See U. S. TROOPS Page 2
UVYll JJUWC1.
Combat lasses of the carrier
planes “were extremely light.”
These first fragmentary ac
counts of the most daring naval
action of the Pacific war were
pieced together today from a pre
liminary report of Adm. Raymond
A. Spruance of the U. S. Fifth
fleet and first hand accounts of
pilots given to Associated Press
Correspondent Hamilton W. Faron
with Mitscher’s task force.
The fliers, who swept over Ja
pans major naval bases and scores
of air bases assigned to defend
them, told Faron their bombs and
rockets smashed into:
A battleship of the Yamato class
(the 45.000-ton Musashi was sunk
last October in the battle of Leyte
gulf in the Philippines and her sis
ter ship, the Yamato, was dam
aged. They were Japan’s two big
gest battleships.)
BIG CARRIER
A battleship converted into a big
aircraft carrier.
Three large aircraft carriers.
Four small, escort type carriers.
A heavy cruiser.
A light cruiser.
Four destroyers.
A destroying escort.
A submarine.
In addition, six small surface
craft, including one oiler, were
sunk. Seven others, including two
oilers and four large cargo ships,
probably were sunk.
98 Per Cent Of
Navy, Marine
Wounded Recover
NEW YORK, March 21.— (/Pi —
Ninety-eight of every 100 navy
men and marines wounded in the
first three years of war have re
covered.
Navy Secretary Forrestal, re
porting this today in a talk
prepared for a Red Cross
kinrheon, said that among the
marines, about 75 out of every
100 wounded have been able to
return to active combat duties.
‘•We will do everything in our
power to keep that record good,"
the cabinet officer declared. "I
mention it here because of a ten
dency to regard all casualties as
fatalities.
“It is easy, for example to speak
of our ‘losses’ at Iwo Jima as 19,000
men, forgetting that of his total
15,300 were wounded. Our reports
idicate that between 6,000 and 7,000
of the wounded had returned to
their divisions before the fall of
Iwo. that between 11.000 and
12.000 of the men wounded on
Iwo will be so completely restored
to health as to be capable of com
plete activity."
EXCELLENT CARE
“Our wounded and sick.” For
restal said, “are being given all of
the care and thought that scien
tific and hospital practice of the
country can provide, and the Red
Cross is performing its full share
| in that magnificent accomplish
ment."
Asserting that Japanese soldiers
; “are driven by a combination of
j mysticism and fanatic frenzy which
; drags war down to a low level of
human debauchery," the navy chief
j added:
“It was against such enemies
; that 60,000 marines walked up
i up the grim and desolate beacn
es of Iwo Jima. Let us keep in
bee 98 PER CENT Page 2 t
1