WEATHER
North Carolina—Fair and slight
ly warmer today and tonight, fol- '
lowed by partly cloudy and warm
Wednesday.
The Hhelhy Bnily Stett
- State Theatre Today -
“FOR WHOM THE
BELL TOLLS”
Gary Cooper — Ingrid Bergman
CLEVELAND COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1894
TELEPHONES 1100
VOL. XLIII-86
ASSOCIATED PRESS NEWS
SHELBY, N. C.
TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1945
*
TELEMAT PICTURES
SINGLE COPIES—6c
CROSSES SENIO
i IN EFFORT TO
DESTROY NAZIS
Hope To Prevent With
drawal Of Enemy Into
Southern Germany
HEAVY AlR ASSAULT
ROME, April 10—(&)—'The
British Eighth Army support
ed by a bombardment from
hundreds of guns and the
heaviest allied air assault j
ever carried out in Italy, has
crossed the Senio river in a
campaign to destroy as much
as possible of the opposing
German army before it can
withdraw into Germany’s;
southern mountain redoubt. J
Great forces of U. S. 15th air |
force bombers and fleets from the
T7. S. 12th air force and the RAF
were aloft, resuming the blasting (
of a path through German de-,
fenses tor the attacking ground
forces.
Shortly after noon, 3.400 100
pound high explosive bombs and
180,000 fragmentation bombs were
poured Into two small areas be
tween the Senio river and the San- ;
temo river.
The eastern end of the Ital
ian front hum Into flame at
7:3* o’clock last night when
hundreds of heat? £«»* open- j
ed ap. Bridgeheads were (
established on a broad front
on the north aide of the Senio
in the vicinity of Lugo. More
than 1,000 heavy bombers,
pins hundreds of lighter planes
See CROSSES Page 2 j
ASK IMMEDIATE
TKIAL FOR EPES
Mov« For Postponement
By Defense Is Expected,
However
COLUMBIA. S. C.. April 10—TAT)
—Solicitor T. Pou Taylor said to
day he would seek "immediate”
arraignment for trial of Lt. S. C.
Kpes. indicted by the Richland
grand Jury yesterday for the mur
der of his wife. Mrs. Mary Lee
Williams Epps the early morning
of January 28. but Indicated that
a move for postponement by the
defease would not be unexpected.
Taylor said that Edgar A. Brown
of Barnwell, attorney for the de
fease, was in a Columbia hospital
receiving treatment for a throat
ailment and that Brown, presi
dent pro tem of the state senate,
also was engaged in the current
session of the legislature.
TWO FACTORS
These two factors might bring
a request for postponement,
"whclh in such instances always
has been granted to legislators in
the past,” Taylor said.
The grand Jury returned a true
bill yesterdya at the opening ses
sion of criminal eburt. on an in
dictment charging that Epes "ad
ministered or caused to be ad
ministered” a pain-relieving bar
biturate to his wife and then “did
suffocate her, wrapping her In a
blanket or cloth and burying
her.”
Should the Epes trial be carried
over from this term of court, it
would come up at the next term
of criminal court which opens
here May 21.
Dr. Scarborough,
Baptist Leader,
Dies At Age 74
AMARILLO, Tex., April 10. —<AP)
— Dr. Lee Rutland Scarborough,
ern Baptist Theological Seminary at
Baptiht Theological Seminary at
Fort Worth, and former president
of the Southern Baptist convention
and the Baptist general convention
of Texas, died today. He was 74.
Dr. Scarborough conducted a re
vival service at the First Baptist
ihurch here a few years ago.
W. E. ABERNETHY
ABERNETHY
IS RE-ELECTED
Begins Tenth Year As
Superintendent Of
City System
Walter E, Atv>methy was re
elected superintendent of city
schools last night when the school
board met to elect teachers and
other school personnel for the com
ing terms. The term of superin
tendent which Is of two years du
ration, beginning July 1, will begin
Mr. Abemethy's tenth year as su
perintendent of the local schools.
Prior to holding this position he
was principal of the local high
school for seven years having suc
ceeded Capt. Ben L. Smith as su
perintendent.
All white principals and all state
alloted teachers were re-elected to
their present positions. Re-election
of the negro teachers was deferred
because of the sharp decrease in
school attendance. The board must
await a notice from state head
quarters stating the allotment of
negro teachers for the coming year
before elections can be held. Ac
tion will probably be taken at the
May meeting of the board.
White school teachers for the
coming year were elected, but the
list of the faculty for the coming
year will not be published until
contracts have been accepted at
the close of th^ present school
term.
T wo Japs Killed
For Each American
In Okinawa Fight
WITH 24TH ARMY CORPS ON
OKINAWA, Ryukyu Islands, April
10—(AF*)—Two Japanese have been
killed lor every American killed or
wounded In the first nine days of
fighting on Okinawa Island, a 24th
Corps spokesman said today.
American casualties, he said, In
clude a very small percentage of
killed while the counted enemy
losses are almost entirely of dead.
By comparison the rate of Jap
anese dead to American casualties
on Saipan and Iwo Isalnds was one
to one, on Luzon in the Philip
pines four to one, and on Leyte
in the Philippines seven to one.
LIONS READY FOR
LADIES NIGHT
Preparations are about complete
for thfe Lions Ladles night which
will be held Friday evening at 7:30
o’clock at the Charles hotel with
Bob Patton, humorist and after
dinner speaker of Morganton as
principal attraction. Athos Rostan
will be the toastmaster and Presi
dent R. J. Rucker of the Lions
club will open the meeting. The
speaker will be introduced by R.
H. Cooke, who is in charge of the
program.
There will be no meeting of the
Lions club tonight the time for a
regularly scheduled meeting.
FRUIT CROPS HURT
ROXBORO, April 10—</P)—Vir
tual destruction of the entire fruit
crops in Person county is report
ed by County Agent H. K. Sanders
due to the frost in this section
last week.
Vienna’s Fall Imminent;
Reds Beyond City Head
For Munich And Prague
LONDON, April 10.—(/P)—Russian forces beyond
Vienna headed today for Munich and Prague and a link-up
with the allies in the west as Soviet storm units within the
Austrian capital battled the Germans for the last few blocks
of the city.
Moscow radio said “the fall of Vienna is imminent.”
rar to tne nortn otner nussian
troops along the Baltic coast had
captured the East Prussian capital
of Koenigsberg after a massive 33
hour barrage had softened three
lines of fortifications surrounding
that cradle of Prussian militarism.
The seizure of Koenigsberg was
hailed in the Russian press as one
of the great victories of the war,
comparable to the breaching of the
Siegfried Line in the west.
A Moscow dispatch said Mar
shal Feodor I. Tolbukhin's Third
Ukrainian army “was making
startling progress” in its drive
west of Vienna toward Linz and
Munich. The army's exact po
I
sition was not given, however,
since the Germans in many
sectors were unaware of the
scope of the Russian advance.
Below Vienna another wing of
Tolbuhkin's army had thrust
within 133 miles of Adolf Hitler’s
mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden.
Moscow dispatches reported that
Tolbukhin’s forces had crossed the
Danube immediately northwest of
Vienna near Nuzdorf and were be
lieved to have gotten across some
12 miles farther up stream in the
vicinity of Tullin. Neither crossing
See VIENNA’S Page 2
When 2 Fronts Join
It Will Be V-E Day
| ' - ..-«■»«-<■ ...
Officials Expected To 'Declare' Organized Warfare
At An End When East, West Forces Meet
HAMELIN, April 10.—(fP)—A juncture between Brit
ish-American and Russian forces may well be the time
chosen by the three powers to declare all organized warfare
with Germany at an end.
Such a declaration would give German soldiers one of
two choices—they could either surrender and be treated as
prisoners of war or continue fighting and be hunted down
as franc tireurs or guerrillas, having no legal military status.
judging oy me morale oi me
German troops captured in the past
two weeks there is little doubt what
the German soldier’s choice would
be. Those still willing to die for
the fuehrer are few and far be
tween.
The western front is that in
name only. There is no real
German front left. The resis
tance now being encountered by
American forces, except in the
Ruhr pocket, is unorganized and
little more than strong guerril
la opposition.
For example, the Ninth Army
spearheads driving east toward
Berlin since bypassing the Ruhr
have not encountered a single or
ganized German division. They
have been met only by convales
cents. anti-aircraft crews and some
several hundred odd ^.units ordin
arily found only in rear areas .
FEW DEFENSES
Military men feel the Germans
are incapable of erecting any bat
tle front in the west, except per
haps for a short stand along the
Elbe and immediately before Berlin
itself.
In the words of one operations
officer, the situation in the west is
now “more of a political than a
strategic problem.”
Front line fighting men feel that
one or two armored divisions or
infantry combined can set out for
any place in Germany now and
reach it within a reasonable time.
Most military men believe the
joint chiefs of staffs in Wash
ington will fix some definite
line In Germany to which eith
er the Russians or the western
front allies will advance and
then halt, waiting for the forces
opposite to move up and join
See WHEN JPage 2
----
HEAVIES RAID
K1E SUB BASE
Third Hard Blow At North
Sea U-Boat Nests In
24 Hours
Bv HENRY B. JAMESON
LONDON, April 10.— m —Six
hundred British heavy bombers last
night raided the Kiel shipbuilding
yards, largest submarine assem
bling center in Germany, in the
RAF’s third major blow at North
Sea U-boat nests in less than 24
hours.
The attack came only a few
hours after British Lancaster
LONDON, April 10. -(/Pi
More than 2,150 17. S. bombers
and fighters carrying a massive
aerial offensive on German air
fields into its fourth straight
day, struck at jet-plane bases in
the Berlin area today, follow
ing up a night attack by 600
RAF bombers on Germany’s
largest submarine assembly
yards at Kiel.
bombers hit submarine shelters at
Hamburg with 22,000 and 12,000
pound bombs for the second time
during the day. The air ministry
said many large fires were observ
ed after the night raiders hit three
Kiel yards.
Allied bombing now apparently
See HEAVIES Page 2
T/4 RAY ALLEN
T-4 ALLEN WINS
FRENCHMEDAL
Croix De Guerre Awarded
Ray Allen By French
Government
Technician Fourth Grade Ray L.
Allen, husband of Mrs. Ray L. Al
len of 211 East Sumter St., was
recently awarded the Croix de
Guerre for meritorious service in
connection with military operations
| against an enemy of the United
States. The award was presented to
him by a French officer in the pre
sence of General Patton and other
high ranking Allied officers.
The croix de guerre is one of the
highest ranking awards given by
the French government for valor
in action, being comparable in
rank to the Distinguished Service
Cross, second highest war medal
awarded by the U. S. government.
The croix de guerre was won by
Dr. T. B. Gold during the first
World War, but Sgt. Ray Allen is
thought to be the first Shelby or
Cleveland county service man to
have won it in the present con
flict.
Sgt. Allen is serving with the
902nd Ordnance Heavy Automo
tive Maintenance Company which is
l?usy repairing heavy vehicular
equipment of General Patton’s
hard-hitting, swift-moving Third
Army.
Sgt. Allen entered service in De
cember, 1942, and after completing
his training in the United States,
sailed for an overseas station in the
European theater of operation. He
was wounded on July 20, 1944, but
the wound was slight and he has
completely recovered and returned
to duty. Prior to entering service
Sgt. Allen was employed by the
Moore and Stewart Supply Com
pany in Shelby.
Chinese Resisting
Japs In Laohokow
CHUNGKING, April 10.— (tP) —
The Chinese high command ac
knowledged today that Japanese
forces had entered Laohokow, for
mer site of an advanced U. S. air
base 200 miles northwest of Han
kow, but said the garrison still
was battling stubbornly within the
city.
Four hundred of the invader
were slain, the announcement said.
The Chinese reported their coun
terattacking forces in northwestern
Honan province had fought into
the town of Changsuichen, 70 miles
from the Shensi border.
NAVY BOMBERS
HIT 15-SHIP
JAP CONVOY
Destroyer And Large
Freighter, Sunk, Other
Vessels Damaged
ATTACKED SATURDAY
MANILA, April 10.—(/P)—
Four navy Liberator bombers
attacked a 15-ship Japanese
convoy Saturday, sinking a
destroyer and a large freight
er and seriously damaging
another destroyer before the
rest of the convoy could flee i
toward Swatow on the China
coast, Gen. Douglas MacArth
ur announced today.
Other Philippines-based bombers
raised the day’s bag to 10 ships
sunk as they ranged enemy ship
ping lanes at will from the Neth- 1
erlands East Indies to Formosa.
Ground troops on Luzon Is
land, meanwhile, continued pres
sure on trapped Nipponese forces
but progress was generally slow
because of the difficult terrain.
The far-ranging bombers struck
at military installations and fuel
and munitions dumps with heavy
bomb loads in a succession of raids.
Two Liberators exploded a huge
ammunition dump at Keelung,
Formosa. More than 75 other
planes hit targets on the China
sea coast and the Formosa west
coast with a total of 171 tons of
bombs.
Farther south, Thirteenth Air
Force heavies and mediums ranged
over Borneo, wrecking four barges
See NAVY Page 2
Cherryville
Woman Recovers
Missing Child
NEWARK, N. J., April 10.—(^P)—
The only child of Mrs. Blythe
Ingle, 20, of Cherryville, N. C., wi
dow of a soldier who had never seen
their 16-months-old girl, was re
turned to her mother early today
after a six-hour poftce search. Po
lice arrested T^ary'Florence Russ,
21, on a charge of attempted kid
napping.
Miss Russ appeared with the
baby, who had been missing from
the Pennsylvania railroad station
since 3 a.m., today, at the Travelers’
Aid Society desk at 9 a.m., and was
taken to police headquarters.
She told police she was employed
in a war plant. No explanation of
the alleged attempted kidnapping
was available from police.
LEFT CHILD
. Irs. Ingle told police the child,
Ruth, had fallen asleep while she
and the child were waiting to catch
a bus to return to the horde of her
sister, Mrs. Palmer Black, of Clif
ton. They had been visiting her
p ents, Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Ab
sher, in North Carolina. She said
she left Ruth on a couch in the
women’s lounge to step into the
washroom, and that when she
came back a woman was playing
with the baby.
A while later, Mrs, Ingle said, she
was persuaded by another woman
to go to an all-night coffee stand
across the street. She left Ruth in
the care of the woman who had
played with her. ,
When she came back, Mrs. Ingle
said the child, her suitcase, and
purse were missing.
Nazi Murder Factory Discovered By Yanks
LIMBURG, GERMANY, April
10—(/P)—American troops have
discovered a German “murder
factory,” rivaling any house of
horror dreamed up by fiction writ
ers, where it is estimated 20,000
persons viewed by the Nazis as
“undesirables,” were systematical
ly slain.
Located in an insane asylum
near Limburg, the terror-filled
establishment was under direction
of a tall, scar-faced 70-year-old
Nazi surgeon, assisted by a hus
ky 45-year-old chief woman’s
nurse and middle-aged chief war
den, Allied officer* said. On the
V
staff were SS (Elite Guard) offi
cers from Berlin.
Tales told by German residents
of the village of Hadamar, four
miles north of Limburg, led U. S.
First army officers Lt. George
Walker of Deshler, Ohio, and Capt.
Alton H. Jung of San Antonio,
Tex., to question officials in the
village, and resulted in locating
the asylum.
ONE OF SIX
Maj. Harvey M. Coverly, Sau
salito. Calif., ordered the arrefct of
the three in charge of the “fac
tory,” said by the officers to be
one of six set up by the Nazis in
side Germany to dispose scientifi
cally of unruly slave laborers or
those who had outlived their use
fulness.
German civil authorities esti
mated 15,000 victims were gassed
and cremated and another 5,000
killed by drugs or poison and bur
ied in communal graves.
The stench of burning bodies
caused Hadamar residents to com
plain, and the bishop of Muenster
lodged protests with the asylum
officials. That caused the Nazis
to switch from gas to hypoder
mic injections and from crema
tion to mass burial.
The slayings were described as
“mercy killings” authorized by a
1939 Nazi statute.
Two investigations, Capt. Brin
kley Hamilton, a British officer
attached to an American Infan
try division, and Lt. W. R. John
son, Loveland, Colo., told a ma
cabre story of death and torture
and ghoulish feasts by drunken
executioners in the asylum, where
300 crazed inmates were permitted
to run free in underground dun
geons.
“Nobody would believe if, said
See NAZI Page 3
Yanks At Point
Only 120 Miles
From Berlin
PARIS, April 10.—(/P)—Ninth Army tanks and infan
try crashed into the burning Prussian stronghold of Han
nover late today and reached a point to the east of the super
highway 120 miles from Berlin.
North of Hannover, British tanks and infantry cut a
20-mile gash in paper-thin German defenses and started £
race for Hamburg, Germany’s leading port and second larg
est city. Hamburg was 60 miles away in that sector, but
only 50 miles distant in the area of besieged Bremen.
The American First Army burst out onto the Thuring
ian plain alongside the Third Army, advancing three miles
east of Northeim to a point 128 miles southwest of Berlin.
Lt. Gen. Cotfrtney H. Hodges’ troops advanced almost to
the foothills of the Harz mountains.
Supreme headquarters raised its estimate of Germans
trapped in Holland to “well over 100,000.” suggesting that
the number may be nearer estimates of Field Marshal Mont
gomery’s headquarters, which said 150,000 to 200,000 Ger
mans were sealed in yesterday behind cut railroads aiu
flooded polters.
The Canadian First army march
ed to within 15 miles of the North
Sea and 25 of the Dollart Bay U
boat base of Emdcn in the thrusts
to seal off the- landward routes
i> o the Netherlands.
The Ruhr pocket shrunk to less
than 2,000 square miles under at
tacks from the north, east and
south by the First and Ninth
armies. -Gelsenkirchcken, a flatten
ed city of 313,000, fell without a
shot. Essen, sixth large t city of
Germany, was toppling in street
fighting, and it. great Grupp works
were captured.
Siegburg < 32.000), east of Bonn
fell to the First army, which push
ed f!ve miles northeast of Lt. Olpe
Kobberode and other towms on the
east sid3 of the pocket toppled.
More than 25.000 prisoners have
be taken from the Ruhr, where
up to 150,000 originally were snared.
Resistance in the Ruhr pocket
\ described officially as crack
ing.
Hannover was deeply outflanked
from the north and south by di
visions -'f the American Ninth and
Bri‘.l:'i Second arm:
See YANKS Page X
No War Criminals
To Hide Out In Eire
Churchill Implies He Will See To It Ireland Will Offer
No Sanctuary
LONDON, April 10.—(/P)—Prime Minister Churchill im
plied today that he would see to it that no war criminals
found sanctuary in neutral Eire.
The question arose in commons
when Dr. James Little, a Presby
terian minister from Belfast, ask
ed the prime minister whether
he would “take steps to make sure
that no war criminals find sanc
tuary in any country embraced
within the British commonwealth
of nations.”
The written reply from Church
ill was: “Yes sir.”
Eire, whose leaders have chal
lenged the contention that south
ern Ireland is part of the British
commonwealth, has evaded giving
thj Allies flat assurances that Axis
war criminals would be banned.
The Eire government, however,
has served notice that anyone who
jeopardized the country’s neutral
ity or was undesirable would not
be admitted.
JAPS RESISTING
ON OKINAWA
GUAM, April 10 —UP)— Well
armed Japanese defenders of
Southern Okinawa, hurling bayo
net-wielding squads at the Am
ericans in futile counterattacks
gave ground slowly today amidst
the heaviest artillery duel of the
Pacific war.
Infantrymen of Maj. Gen. John
R Hodge's 24th U. S. army corps
were limited to small local gains
against savage resistance along a
battle line within four miles of the
capital city of Naha, but to the
north Maj, Gen. Roy S. Geiger's
Third Marine Amphibious corps
swept ahead virtually unchecked
The Marines, scoring gains up
to 4,000 yards, but off the big Mo
\ tobu Peninsula and, fanning west
' ward, occupied about half of it
I yesterday. They overran the west
| ern short of Katena Kn, onetime
I site of Japanese submarine pens
See JAPS Fa*e 2
U. S. PRISONERS
TREATED BADLY
GOETTINGEN, Germany, April
10.—(fP)—British imperial prisoners
newly freed from two German
camps said today American soldiers
captured in Field Marshal Von
'Rundstedt’s ill-fated Ardennes of
fensive had been starved and mis
treated by the Nazis.
A South African gun sergeant
fcaptured at Tobruk in June, 1942,
said the treatment of British pris
oners had not been too bad until
last December, “when the Germans
really got scared.”
Among 2,000 empire troops freed
at Goettingen and Duderstadt, he
said their Red Cross parcels failed
to arrive then and food fell off to
watery soup, bread and one-inch
squares of sausage.
“But we learned what bad treat
See U. S. Page 2
WHAT’S DOING
TODAY
7:30 p.m.—C. A. P. members
meet at armory.
7:30 p.m.—Regular meeting
of Shelby chapter 110 Order
of -Eastern Star at Masonic
Temple.
9:00 p.m.—Masonic Fellow
ship club meets at Masonic
Temple.
WEDNESDAY
7:00 p.m—Sunday school
officers and teachers of First
Baptist church meet.
7:30 p.m.—Prayer meeting at
Presbyterian church.
7:45 p.m.—Mid-week prayer
and praise service at First
Baptist church
10:00 am and 8:00 pm.—
Revival services at Central
Methodist church.