Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 43, Number 61, Decatur, Adams County, 13 March 1945 — Page 1

■jjOIII. N°- 61 -

AMERICANS NEAR VITAL GERMAN HIGHWAY

■uestrin Falls I Soviet Army I East Front ■Nazi Reports Say ■Russians Seek To ■Link Bridgeheads ■andon, Mar. 13-(UP)-Nazi ■ rH said today that the Red was battling to widen and up bridgeheads across the ■.. ri ver for an impending all||m drive toward Berlin, 30-odd ■ s to the west. ■v fall of Kuestrin, 38 miles ■ of Berlin and anchor of the ■ttered Oder river line, was to speed the inarch on ■cerman capital. The fortress ■ was captured yesterday after battle. ■,-rlin broadcasts said the Sov- ■ had attacked with especially ■onit forces from bridgeheads Utbe west bank of the Oder Lebus. 10 miles south of ■■strin, and Klessin, eight mile ■th. Lebus lies 33 miles east has conceded that the ■dans hold six small bridgeacross the Oder on both ■rs of Kuestrin east of Berlin, ■scow has not confirmed offi■ly that the Red army was ■oss the river. However, part ■newly-captured Kuestrin is on ■ west bank, and it is possible ■ the Soviets crossed the river ■'.hat point. (■ar to the northeast, Marshal ■nstantin K. Rokossovsky’s secWhite Russian army broke !K>ugh to the gulf of Danzig the capture of Puck, 15 miles of the Polish port of ■ynia, and Sellistraw, three south of Puck. than 100 other towns and were captured and thouof enemy troops killed in breakthrough. . column seized Quasseven miles southwest of and eight miles northwest ■ Danzig, in an advance to withgHsix miles of Danzig bay midbetween the two ports. also was captured. IBioth Danzig and Gdynia were flames from repeated Soviet and bombing, and both expected to fall to the Sov- ■; within a matter of days. ■Kuestrin, main stronghold Berlin, was captured by Gregory K. Zhukov’S ■ (Turn To Page 6. Column 7) « — 0 ■rihsh Air Force ■ommers At Barmen ■kMiilon, Mar. 13.—(UP)—British ■lionibers. escorted by RAF, PolCzech fighters, attacked the gWnununicatione and industrial ■* !1 of Barmen on the outskirts of Ruhr today. British heavyweights were ■ rt of a long procession which I( ie<i out of Britain toward Gerbut targets of other fortn- ■“””' not disclosed. The U. eighth air force had announced activity by late aftergW 011 - British Mosquito bombers Berlin last night. ■ihn Edward Brake ■ies In Cincinnati Edward Brake, 64, native ■ r . Catur ’ died Monday evening lß;i<Ua Unna ‘ 1 ’ wbere lie had since 1928. Surviving are ■L. S1 ? en3 ’ Mrs. WilleheTenia ■J Ch’Mgo, Mrs. Louise Te■mt a . a 'brother, Bernard ■? ’ ot Cincinnati. ■ a l ‘m ra ? Prvicee wUI be hf * w at ■athotin at tbe ®t. Mary’s ■) <J Chl!reh here - with Rev. ■ i‘ Burial will ■*lv w n Decatur cemetery. The „! ar rive here Thusday ■ aad d n may be v!ewed at the Gil■fofth° a - funeral holne until ■ J ll ■ <SoJrll t^ e reading U 8:00 THERMOMETER ■ 10:00 - 30 ■ Noon 37 ■ ci ttF Weat her ■"at not *° cold teai\i et " le,da y '"creating g| • continued miid.

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

Area Rent Director In Decatur Thursday John E. Williams, area rent director from Fort Wayne, will be at the Decatur post office Thursday, from 9:30 a. m. to 3 o’clock in the afternoon, to answer any questions which may be asked by landlords • or tenants in regard to rent control problems. Person® wishing information or rental regulations are invited to call on Mr. Williams. o Increase Fund To Stale Department House Committee Favors Increase Washington, Mar. 13 —(UP)— The house appropriations committee recommended today that congress loosen its purse strings and give the state department more money to achieve its foreign policy objectives. The recommendation was made in a bill to provide $259,109,700 for the state, justice and commerce departments and the federal judiciary during the 1946 fiscal year. The figure represented an increase of $23,225,608 over appropriations for the current fiscal year, and the state department alone received an increase of approximately that amount. The committee cut $13,620,100 from the total approved by the budget bureau. The committee endorsed the department’s foreign objectives and said it was disinclined ‘‘to restrict or delay their attainment because of insufficient appropriations.” An appropriation of $71,878,400 was recommended for the state department for the fiscal year, exclusive of overtime pay for employes, compared with a corresponding figure of $47,070,588 for the current year. In its justice department recommendations, the committee departed from usual practice and increased the amount approved by the budget bureau. The bureau had approved an estimate of $92,322,500, compared with $lO3,(Turn To Page 2, Column 1) - o— Miss Fern Stucky Joins Army Nurses (Mies Fern J. Stucky daughter of 'Mr. and Mrs. Ervin Stucky of Monroe, has joined the army nurses corpfl and has been commissioned a second lieutenant. She is a graduate of Michael IReese hospital in Chicago. ffjt. Stucky ha® been assigned to Camp McCoy, Sparta, Wis., and will report there March 22. Her father is one of the leading business men in Monroe, operating a hatchery and furniture etore. —o Red Cross War Fund Near Half-Way Mark Workers Urged To Complete Canvass The Red Cross war fund is near the half-way mark, the total up to last evening being $8,170.31, Mrs. Ruth Hollingsworth, secretary of the home service office, reported. The county’s quota, including $2,700 for the local chapter is $16,700. Included in today’s contributions is the donation from the benefit basketball game staged last Thursday by the industrial league teams. The proceeds from the game amounted to $208.91. In addition, the proceeds from the canteen conducted during the game amounted to $16.55. Clarence Ziner. county chairman of the war fund drive, urged the workers to complete their canvass this week. The goal can be reached this week, if the section and district captains and their workers complete their canvass, Mr. Ziner reiterated. Contributions from the industrial group and plant employes have not yet been reported. These, along with the final results from the ruraiy business and residential sections in Decatur, Berne and Geneva, are expected to send the fund over the top, Mr. Ziner estimated.

Huge Force Os B-29s Showers Fire On Osaka Big Jap Industrial Center Is Target Os Latest B-29s Attack Washington, March 13 —(UP) — Hundreds of superfortresses'showered firy destruction upon a third great Japanese city tdoay with an incendiary bomb attack on Osaka. (The Superfortresses attacked “in very large force,” the 20th air force announced. That meant that Osaka’s w’ar factories got punishment comparaible to that handed to Tokyo and Nagoya, both of which were hit by upwards of 2,000 tons of fire bomlbs. iB-29’s from Saipan, Tinian and Guam participated in the attack. “Superfortresses from Maj. Gen. Curtis E. Lemay's 21st bomber command today (March 14 Japanese time) carried out, in very large force, an incendiary attack upon strategic industrial targets in Osaka, Japan,” an announcement said. “The mission was similar in form to the strike last Friday day against Tokyo and Sunday against Nagoya, the 20th air force announced at the war department. B-29 aircraft participated from Saipan, Tinian and Guam. Further details will be announced as soon as additional information (becomes available.” The attack was the second against the important industrial city of Osaka. 0 Ohio River Levels Continue To Fall By United Press The lower Mississippi river was absorbing the flood crest of the Ohie river today as water levels continued a fall begun yesterday. The hio river stags at Cairo, 111., was 53,3 feet. The stage at S'hawnteeitown, 111., was 55.6. Cincinnati showed 26.5 and Evansville. Ind., 4'8.2, a fall of .01. o Large Tokyo, Nagoya Areas Are Destroyed Great Damage Done By B-29 Assaults Guam, Mar. 13— (UP) — Reconnaissance photographs showed today that Superfortresses destroyed more than 16y z square miles in the center of Tokyo and 1 1 /, square miles—2Bs city blocks—in Nagoya in their two heaviest raids of the war on Japan. Fifteen fires still were burning in Nagoya, Japan’s principal aircraft manufacturing center and .third largest city, when photographs were taken late yesterday, some eight hours after a 2,000-ton B-29 incendiary raid. The remainder of the fires kindled in the five-quare-mile target area in the center of Nagoya either had been extinguished or burned themselves out. The area leveled by flames totalled 34,300,000 square feet. Specifically, the photographs showed 13.6 percent of the total roof area of the Aichi aircraft works damaged, one main sub-as-sembly building gutted and 13 miscellaneous buildings destroyed. Moderate damage was indicated at the Tsukiji plant of the Daido Electric Steel company, the Nissan chemical plant, the Atsuta factory of the Nagoya arsenal, and the Sumitomo light metals plant. Maj. Gen. Curtis Le May, commander of the 21st bomber command, freely conceded that the Nagoya raid was not as successful as the 2,300-ton fire attack on Tokyo Saturday. He hinted that fast work by fire fighters at Nagoya had limited 'the destruction. One out of the 300 B-29s which raided Nagoya failed to return yesterday. One also was lost in the 300-plus plane strike at Tokyo Saturday. * Almost every man returning from Monday’s Nagoya raid had hie own description of how the city looked from the B-29’s. Lt. Clark Kollker, McNabb, 111., (Turn To Page 2, Column 2)

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Tuesday, March 13,1945.

Captivity Is A Family Affair **y* l ***7*^*" l A ,,ri **• - 1 • - 'll; » ■■■ UNUSUAL IN THIS LINEUP of Nazi prisoners of war taken in Trier, Germany, by the advancing U. S. Third Army, is the woman and boy, apparently her son. who were with their husband and father when captured. The captives do not seem particularly unhappy with their lof.

Film Studios Close As Workers Strike Entire Industry Is , Tied Up By Strike Hollywood, March 13— (UP) —A tiwo-day strike of stage crews left movie stars twiddling their thumbs and almost every major studio in town shut down today while the unions battled it out with producers and the war labor board. A jurisdictional dispute between two AiFL unions claiming to represent 78 screen set decorators mushroomed into a squaMble that tied up the whole film industry and left 15,00® workers out of a job. Stars and stage hands who braved the picket lines spent yesterday sitting around on empty sets. When machinists, electricians, carpenters and painters joined the walkout in sympathy, harried producers told everybody they “might as well go home.’’ HeUbert Sorrell, president of the powerful conference of studio unions, ordered 8,000 union members off the jolb to force the studios to recognize the AFL set designers’ local 1421, painters’ international union as bargaining agent for the 78 set decorators. He demanded producers follow a war labor board order recognizing the painters’ Union until the WLiB could settle a dispute between it and local 44, AFL international theatrical stage employes. iThe producers association said the studio bosses were caught in a battle between the two unions and their hands were tied. Both groups had threatened to strike, the producers said, so they had a walkout on their hands whichever union they recognized. (Sorrell accused the WUB dillydallying in settlement of the dispute and said he called the strike to “put an end to its stalling around.” , WLB chairman George W. Taylor wired strike leaders to halt the walkout or they’d halt action on the dispute immediately. Sorrell said he had enough support to keep the strike going indefinitely. The producers said they had 190 unreleased films that could supply the customers for nine months and they would bet the strikers ran out of money before the studios ran out of pictures. o Mrs. Nathan Nelson Is Injured In Fall Mrs. Nathan C. Nelson fell on a cement walk at the rear of her home, 217 South Seventh street, at about 10 o’clock this morning and fractured her left knee cap. She was removed to the hospital and an operation will be held Wednesday morning, Mr. Nelson said. Mrs. Nelson had stepped to the back yard to show workmen a tree that she wished removed, when the accident happened,

Fifth Army Seizes Mount Spigolino Rome March 13. —(UP) — Fifth army troops' have captured Mount Spigolino, important Appennine peak 14 miles west of the PistoiaBologna highway, headquarters said today. American units stormed the 5,900 foot peak Sunday and killed seven Germans and captured four in wiping out the last pocket of resistance. Germans attempted to recapture the height yesterday but were repulsed. (Elsewhere in the central sector of the Fifth army front, American and Brazilian troops were reported to have made slight improvements in front line positions. Northwest of Mount Belvedere the Brazilians killed three and captured the remaining 10 in a German raiding party. o Coal Operators May Appeal To Courts Seek To Block Vote On Miners' Strike Washington* Mar. 13 —(UP) — A court ruling remained the only hope today of southern coal producers to block the $300,000 strike poll of the nation’s soft coal miners. The producers’ first effort ended in failure yesterday when three federal agencies rejected their request to cancel the scheduled March 28 balloting. There was no immediate announcement of plans for an appeal to the courts, although it had been promised previously by Edward R. Burke, president of the southern producers. Mine operators were scheduled to continue work on a reply to the wage demands of president John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers, and Burke may urge other regional groups to join the southerners in any court action. The national labor relations board, war labor board and labor department yesterday said the vote would have to be taken as scheduled. The NLRB has halted all other work to devote the next 15 days to preparing for the unprecedented poll. The vote will be'not only the largest, but it will be the most expensive ever taken under the Smith-Connally “anti-strike" law. The NLRB says it will cost the government “conservatively” $300,000 to find out whether the nation’s 400,000 soft coal miners “wish to permit an interruption of war production in wartime as a result of this dispute.” That’s 75 cents per miner. It’s more than one third of the NLRB’s entire budget for the year. And it’s $30,000 more than a full year's expenditures by the national mediation board, which handles railroad labor disputes. The NLRB is recruiting 4,000 (Turn To Page 5* Column 2)

First Army Within Easy Striking Distance Os Military Superhighway

Four Billion Slash In Budget For Navy Washington, Mar. 13. — (UP) — President Roosevelt asked congress today for a 1946 fiscal year budget of $23,719,153,050 for the navy. This is a reduction of more than $4,000',000,000,000 from the figure for this year. The president also submitted a request for additional contract authorizations of $3,088,012,624 for the navy. About half of this, or $1,513,012,624, would be new authorizations. The balance would be continued from the current fiscal year. 0 Iwo Island Battle Nears Mopup Stage Marines Gradually Crushing Resistance Guam, Mar. 13. — (UP) —The 23day battle of Iwo neared the mopup stage today. Marines of the fifth division gradually were crushing .the last organized resistance in a shrinking pocket along the north coast of the tiny island only 750 miles south of Tokyo. Probably fewer than 1,000 of the original garrison of 20,000 remained in the pocket, but They were fighting to the death against marines armed with flame throwers, tanks and guns. Their back to the sea, they faced only death or capture —and few prisoners were being taken Army fighters operating from the captured airfields on Iwo and warships offshore supported the fifth ’division’s attacks with bombs and shells. The campaign along the northeast and east coasts already was in the mopup phase. The third and fourth divisions were rounding up scatteied enemy snipers in the rock-ribbed area. Only a single enemy pocket of resistance remained by 6 p. m. yesterday. Army fighters bombed and strafed targets on Chichi Jn the Donin islands north of Iwo Jima in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire yesterday. Q Propose Creation Os Nine New Generals Nominations Made By Pres. Roosevelt I ( Washington. Mar. 13 —(UP) — l President Roosevelt today propos- . ed the creation of nine new generals to give the army its greatl est galaxy of four-star officers on i active duty in the U. S. history. He nominated nine lieutenant I generals to the temporary rank ■ of general. At present there are i only two generals on active duty and four five-star “generals of the army.” s Those nominated for promotion • to four-star rank were: ■ Joseph T. McNarney, deputy i supreme Allied commander in the • Mediterranean theater. s Omar N. Bradley, commanding ; general of the 12th army group in Europe. ! Carl Spaatz, commanding gen- ; eral of the U. S. strategic airforce i in Europe. George C. Kenney, commanding s general of the far east airforces. ’ Mark W. Clark, commanding i general of the 15th army group > in Italy. 1 Walter Krueger, commanding 1 the sixth army in the Philippines. Brehon Somervell, commanding t the army service forces. > Jacob L. Devers, commanding s the sixth army group in Europe. 1 Thomas T. Handy, deputy chief > of staff to Gen. George C. Mar--1 shall. Four-star generals now on ac- ) tive duty are Malin Craig, who (Turn To Page 5, Column s>,

Zamboanga Is Captured By Yank Forces Veteran U. S. Troops Fan Out Rapidly On Southwest Mindanao Manila, Mar. 13—(UP)—Veteran U. S. troops fanned out rapidly in southwest Mindanao today against only disorganized Japanese resistance after capturing the administrative city of Zamboanga. The swift drive firmly estab-1 lished a bridgehead three miles | long and nearly two miles wide along Basilan Strait and brought the fall of Zamboanga city, four villages and two valuable airdromes. The effect of the initial sur-1 prise of the invasion, now in its fourth day, continued. Gen. Douglas MacArthur emphasized in his communique that the Japanese had not yet been able to effectively organize their forces. In the first 30 hours after the landing, seasoned jungle fighters of Maj. Gen. Jens A. Doe’s 41st division barreled through three miles of elaborate steel and concrete pillboxes to reach Zamboanga. Japanese forces, which fled to the surrounding hills, peppered the advancing troops with machine gun and mortar fire, but the communique said the enemy inflicted “only minor loss to our troops.” (A Domei news agency dispatch recorded by FCC, claimed that American casualties in the Mindanao operations totaled approximately 160 killed or wounded. It - (Turn To Page 6, Column 7) O | Tired Nazi Soldier Cut Wires To Bridge Prevented Blow-Up Os Ludendorff Span Remagen Bridgehead, Germany, Mar. 12.— (Delayed) — (UP) —The Ludendorff bridge acroes the Rhine fell intact to the first army because a. German soldier, “tired of fighting,” deliberately cut demolition charge wires, a German prisoner said tonight. The prisoner, a curly-haired German engineer sergeant in a demolition company, told his captors that he had been informed the German captain in charge of blowing up the bridge had committed sui--1 cide after its capture. The sergeant's story was among ; the first from German sources of ’ sabotage by a member of the Ger- ’ man army. He was among 33 en- , gineers assigned to the bridge who were captured today while figl g as infantrymen in Luebsdorf, one 1 mile south of Linz. “The bridge was supposed, to have been blown up in mid-after-noon,” the sergeant said. “When only two explosives went off. a company was sent to investigate. “They returned in a few minutes saying the wires had been cut , and they were unable to find the explosives.” , The engineers who originally wired the explosives returned to the bridge about 5 p. m. with addition- , al dynamite charges, but found the trestle already in American hands, , the prisoner said. Fleeing into bushes, the enginj eers hid out until nightfall, then returned to their outfit. The en- . gineer captain in charge of the de- ’ straction of the bridge shot himj self in the head when informed . that the span had been captured intact, the prisoner said. Afl for the soldier who cut the , demolition charge wires, the pris(Turn T,o Page 2, Column 2),

Price Four Cents.

American Forces Advance Eastward Nearly Two Miles/ Close On Highway Paris, Mar. 13 — (UP)—American forces in the , Remagen bridgehead drove eastward nearly two miles today, covering half the distance to the Ruhr-Rhine-land superhighway, and were revealed to have thrown a pontoon bridge across the Rhine. Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges' first army headquarters reported that German artillery which had been plastering the bridgehead appeared to have been withdrawn across the military highway against which the doughboys were closing. Four scattered counterattacks : against the perimeter of the American foothold in inner Germany broke against the stonewall stand of the constantly reinforced first army units. Troops, armor, and supplies now were across the Rhine over two bridges—the big Ludendorff i span and a supplementary pontoon bridge which Hodges’ engineers were revealed to have thrown across the river. One American column striking out at the northeast corner of the bridgehead —the Nazis said the ninth armored division was attacking there—gained nearly a mile northeast of Hoiyief. Front dispatches did not disclose the specific location of tso advance within about two miles of the superhighway or Autobahn. But they said the U. S. vanguard was that close to the traffic artery, and 24 hours earlier had reported the distance as four miles. Gains of about 400 yards were reported at the southern end of the bridgehead. The towns of Honnef and Hoenningen, on the east bank of the Rhine 10 miles apart, marked the general northsouth limits of the pocket. Street fighting was going on in both towns. Artillery fire on the Rhine bridges and the American pocket itself fell off sharply with the reported withdrawal of the Nazi field pieces across the highway. Between 9 a. m. and 4 p. m., today not a shell fell in the area of the bridges. Twenty-five planes tried to dive-bomb the bridges. A number were knocked down. The heaviest counterattack of ’ the day was launched at 9 a. m. ! in the area of Hargarten, three ! miles east of Remagen at the ! center of the bridgehead. Two • of six tanks leading it were I knocked out. By 11 a. m. the entire attack had petered out, and four tanks were destroyed. Allied broadcasts reported that ' a U. S. first army onslaught be--5 ginning early this morning had • shoved out the rim of the pocket t across the Rhine and it now was • six miles deep and 11 miles wide. A broadcast Nazi dispatch ! from western front headquarters f said the battle of the Remagen- - bridgehead was the “most embit- - tered struggle of the entire west- ) ern front." The U. S. ninth armored division attacked northeast i of Honnef, riverside city which (Turn To Page 5, Column 3) 0 ’ Eisenhower Lauds Allied Air Forces London, March 13. —(UP) — The 8 Allied air forces were credited today by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower f with playing a tremendous part in e crushing Germany. ‘‘ The supreme commander express--8 ed his opinion in a message of tribute to air chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris after visiting Juelieh, Dueren, and Muenchen Gladlxtch, II three of the heavest battered cities 1 ‘ in Germany. As the Allied armies advance inl' to the Rhineland, Eisenhower said, d they arei confronted everywhere L ' “with striking evidence of the effectiveness of bombing campaigns B carried on for years by the bomber command and since 1942 by the eighth air force.”