Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 43, Number 67, Decatur, Adams County, 20 March 1945 — Page 1

XLIH. No. 67.

BLOCK GERMAN ESCAPE ROUTE FROM SAAR

JW Cross War .End Goes Far Ser Goal Here ns -—— Predict ■final Total Will I |c Over $21,000 ■ Adams county Red Cross is over the top! the determination, tin- bloodshed and sacrithe gallant Yanks who over the Rhine on the bridge into Germany and ft of iwo Jima by the marines, the people of Ad- “[ ■ cOlinly dl ° Ve theil ' S ° al and th'De * b ii R » oon today ’ c ° ntributions to IO Cross war fund totaled Mr. plus an additional comsek of $1,422.25, which will be lish April 7. The county's Quota $16,700. ™ El e. n. 11, chapter chairman and Ziner, war fund chairboth expressed satisfaction ht R the iesr.lt and predicted that total would exceed $21,bmif Final reports from district are expected this week. from the General ® company and local ein- ™ of the company, totaling ®iMl9. boosted the previous day’s |HI over .the quota mark. a t HJfmployes Contribute Heavily try Ki three-way division of the G. E, lea was made in a letter be, J. W. Crisc, executive assistta ■at in tlle Fort Wayne G. E. of>v> as follows: * of company’s donation Red Cross to Adams H|my, $1,300. nd ■3‘" cal employes cash donations, tse iti. employee deductions from ?tz during week of. April 7, sl,r.e ;a ! M today's total, the $1,422.25 is not included, credfor $2,696.75 being listed. I[K additional amount will swell ad K final total, which possibly may :e, $23,000, chapter and war a officials estiated.. The con’d from employes amount >» ■s2.Sl9. excellent returns from the 1 sections, and in Decatur, jj Geneva, Monroe, Preble and e. Mills, the fund climbed ir and reached SIO,OOO during iS K first week of the drive, which h B- launched March 1. i remaining reports from the n sections and in Decatur and places in the county will be to the total as quickly as To Page 5. Column 6) JB-15 Gas Coupons Halid On Thursday IBVashington, Mar. 20—(UP) — SW" gasoline ration coupons will ®eonte valid Thursday, the office |H Price administration announcjjß ,0(la >'- A-14 coupons will go of use after tomorrow. H™ 1 ' 1 * A ’ l3 coupon will be worth 1111 Sallons until June 21, leavthe present value of A couunchanged. TdH° PA sald dea ' ers would have rn-H US ‘ March 31 t 0 turn in A-14 ( iB" p ’ ns to ' heir suppliers for IB* 0 ae 01 to ,lieal ration boards (to ra,1 °n checks. — Woday Is Official ,Bpetiing Os Spring *HL ®y United Press calendar makea'it official tos Kring f G:?5 P ’ m ’ CWT ini be J'^K aia an d a slight ©hill in the air t>. BL tle season’s entrance in th \ ern eect ion of the country, if t .. Weatbe nman promised that " Hf ton ( rL matter Would he cleared ■k K sharply Whe “ the mercury will idBoEMocI*t TURE rea d«ng | 8J) a AT THER MOMETER ’ H I °ioo a ' 58 d Hh°on 58 H WEATHER fi in B C *J‘ h "OM Min, endBl '<l by evenln 0- f o'lowI Wed, ’«sday ’’c . tonißht and H W * r mer wL C °° * r toni Bhtg me * Wednesday afternoon.

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Hamburg Is Attacked By American Planes London, March 20—(UP)—More than 400 flying fortresses and Liberator Ibomlbe re of the U. S. eighth air force attacked the German port of Hamburg today. ,The bomlbers hit the Blohm- Voee Ulboat yards, two oil refineries and the Hemmingstedt Heide refinery, and other targets in the Hamburg Port area. More than 300 Mustang fighter planes eecorted the bombers. 0 _ Americans Expand Beachhead On Panay Closing In Rapidly On Island Capital Manila. Mar. 20 — (UP) — American invasion forces expanded their beachhead on Panay, sixth largest of the Philippine islands, to more than 28 square miles today and were rapidly closing in on the capital city of Iloilo. Combat teams of Maj. Gen. Rapp Brush’s 40th division, veterans of the California national guard, reached within seven miles of Iloilo only a few hours after the invasion Sunday and may already be at the city. Iloilo, on Panay’s southern coast fronting on Iloilo strait, has one of the best anchorages in the central Philippines. The main Japanese strength on the island is believed centered around the capital, which had a pre-war population of 90,000. The landing on Panay, a 4,611square mile island in the Visaya group, and the seizure of tiny Malanaui island off southern Mindanao, also on Sunday, brought to 26 the number of islands invaded by Gen. Douglas MacArthur's American forces in the Philippines. Brush’s seasoned troops, supported by an air and naval bombardment, went ashore on Panay at. Tigbauan, 14 miles west of Iloilo, without opposition apd quickly split into two forces, one driving east and the other north. One column pushed four miles inland along a single-track gravel road through Panay’s rice paddies and seized the town of Cordova. The second force raced eastward along the southern coast, captured six villages and

(Turn To Pape 5. Column 3) QJapanese Naval Base And Port Attacked American Carrier Fleet On Attack Guam, Man. 20. —(UP) —A powerful American carrier fleet apparently broke off its assault against Japan temporarily today after launching 1,400 planes against Kure, the enemy’s biggest naval base, and the great port of Kobe yesterday. Radio Tokyo, usually first to report new raids on the Japanese homeland, said no attacks were made today. The carrier planes had bombed Kyushu, southernmost of the Japanese homo islands, on the opening day of the current offensive Sunday. Most unofficial sources expected the fleet, presumably Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher’s famed task force 58, would resume its attacks within the next 24 to 48 hours, however. Pacific fleet headquarters early today confirmed Japanese reports that the carrier planes shifted the main weight of their assault from Kyushu to southwest Honshu yesterday. It was possible that the planes caught a sizeable portion of the elusive Japanese fleet at Kure, 413 miles southwest of Tokyo. Other tempting targets at the imperial naval yard include the naval arsenal, aircraft engine plants and a 36-ton electric steel furnace. (A Japanese communique supported the .theory that some warships may have been hit at Kure. It said ships and ground facilities were damaged “negligibly” in yesterday’s raids.) The sector around Kure is among the most strongly fortified in the (Turn To Plage 2, Column 2).

Japan Admits Great Damage Done To Tokyo Broadcast Admits 'Whole Districts' Os City Destoyed London, Mar. 20.—(UP) —An amazingly frank Japanese broadcast reported by the BBC eaid today that “whole districts” of Tokyo were destroyed totally by American Superfortresses a few nights ago. The raid of which the Japanese gave a vivid account apparently was the 2,300-ton incendiary attack by more than 300 Superfortresses on March 10. “During the night we thought the whole of Tokyo had been reduced to ashos,” a broadcaster said. “That night will remain in the memory of all thoee who witnessed it.” The report compared the bombing of Tokyo with the heaviest obliteration raids on Germany, and said that more persons were bombed out than in the heaviest raids on the reich. “The man who invented and carried out the large scale attacks on Hamburg is now directing attacks on Japan from the Marianas,” the radio said. The reference apparently was to Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay, chief of the 21st bomber command. “He repeated here in Tokyo what he once learned in Germany.” “In a raid on Tokyo a few nights ago, owing to various unfavorable circumstances, fire caused by incendiaries swept away whole disstricts of the Japanese capital which burned to the ground,” the broadcast said. “As soon as the first incendiary bombs fell, the starlit night was lighted up,” he report added. “The clouds were suffused with a red glow from the ground. “The Superfortresses flew incredibly low above the gradually spreading fires. A B-29 exploded almost over the very heart of the (Turn To Page 5, Column 5). 0 Christianer Rites Thursday Afternoon

Funeral services for Miss Hilda Christianer, who died Monday, will be .held at 2 p. m. Thursday at the home, six miles southwest of Monroeville in Allen county, with Rev. Karl iHofman officiating. Burial will jbe in the iSt. Peter’s Lutheran Church cemetery. Surviving are the father, Henry; a (brother, Arthur J., and a sister, Mrs. Selma Dornseif, all of Madison township, Allen county. The body will be removed from the Zwick funeral home to the residence this evening.

Senate Votes Probe Os Food Situation Congressmen Irked At Food Shortages Washington, March 20.—(UP) — Congress was getting set today for a careful look at the nation’s food basket and the reasons why its contents are dwindling so rapidly. IThe senate got a jump on the house iby approving a $5,000 appropriation for a special investigation dry an agriculture sulbcommittee. IBut the house was not far behind. Its rules committee tentatively scheduled arguments late this afternoon on a resolution Iby Rep. Clinton IP. Anderson, D., N. M., to create a five-man special committee for a similar investigation. The measure provides SIO,OOO for the inquiry. . Like the resolution approved by the senate yesterday, Anderson’s would grant the investigating committee wide powers to look into such things as the 12 per cent cut in civlian meat allocations for the next thjee months and the effect of lend-lease on ithe supply for American civilians. The resolution reflected congressional irritation over prospects that Americans will have to do with less food while greater supplies are shipped overseas. Anderson pro(Turn To Pagie 2, Column 4).

Decatur, Indiana, Tuesday, March 20,1945.

Tommies Effect Daring Rescue WWK \ ‘Ms/' y • I|||iii it«i H| ' L Hi r nF AHk ' < IN ONE OF THE MOST DARING mercy missions of the war. four British destroyers raced down an Arctic fjord far behind German lines and saved 525 Norwegian men, women and children from German slave patrols on Soroy island off North Cape. Here, one of the rescued, a Norwegian girl suffering from two broken arms, is carried down the gangplank at a British port following the daring mission. This is a British Admiralty radiophoto.

Indiana Solon Is Missing In Action Princeton, Ind., [March 20 —(UP) —(Staff Sgt. Gene lECkerty, a member of the Indiana house of representatives in 1943 and 1945, was missing in action in Germany since Felb. 25. Eckerty was the only member of the lower house of the state general assembly who was unable to attend the 1945 regular session because he was in service. o — Youth Is Fined For Reckless Driving Richard Roe, 17-year-old youth of near Monroe, was fined $5 and costs Iby Mayor Jo’hn B. Stults in city court Monday after Roe pleaded guilty to reckless driving. The youth was arrested early Sunday morning by city police, who charged Roe with driving on Mercer avenue at a speed of 80 miles an hour.

Sgt. Hahnert, Long Missing, Is Now Presumed To Be Dead

Staff Sgt. Calvin G. Hahnert, 23, son of Mrs. Eliza M. Hahnert, and the late George A. Hahnert of Monroe, who has been missing in action over Berlin, Germany, since March 8, 1944, is now presumed to be dead, the war department has notified the mother. S/Sgt. Hahnert, a gunner on a B-24 Liberator, was on a volunteer bombing mission over Germany, from which he did not return. No word of his whereabouts has been received by the war department. His plane was' seen to crash in the vicinity of Celle, in northwestern Germany. It has never been learned if he parachuted to safety. The young gunner was one of six men out of his group to volunteer for the special bombing mission, from which 65 planes failed to return. He had 15 missions to his credit, 13 of which had been made with his regular crew. He had received the air medal, with three Oak Leaf clusters. He and his crew had also been cited for “exceptional meritorious achievement, while participating •in separate bomber combat missions over enemy-held territory.” S/Sgt. Hahnert was born in Monroe, July 22, 1921. He was graduated from Monroe high School and had attended Purdue university. He enlisted in the

Delbert Augsburger Wounded In Germany Pfc. Dellbert Augsburger, whose wife resides in Monroe, waa wounded in comlbat in Germany, on March •1, the war department has notified relatives. The message stated that further information would be sent to Mrs. Augslburger from the hospital where 'her husband is a patient. Pfc. AugaHtuTger joined the army on Dec. 5, 1942. His mother is dead and his father lives at Wolf Lake, 0 Decatur Man Back From Jury Service Charles E. Hocker, a member of the federal petit jury in Judge Swygert’s court at South Bend, is home after serving three weeks on the jury. The jury has been dismissed until next June, Mr. Hocker said.

■. • ■ i ... ■■= K Eighth Army Air Corps on Oct. 1, 1942, and received gunnery training at Denver, Col., bombardier training at Las Vegas, Nev., and dive bombing training in Tennessee. Besides his mother, he is survived by three brothers, Herman of Fort Wayne; Don of Hartford City, and Howard of Urbana, and two sisters, Mrs. Alta Row of Fort Wayne and Mrs. Ltfe Miller of Bluffton. His mother is still hopeful that word of his safety may be received later. »

American Ground, Air Forces Close For Kill On Thousands Os Nazis

East Prussian Fortress Falls To Red Forces Stalin Announces Braunsberg's Fall To Russian Army London, March 20 —(UP) — The capture of Braunslberg, East Prussian fortress 38 miles southwest of Koenigs'berg. was announced by Marshal Stalin today in an order of the day revealing that Marshal Alexander M. Vassilevsky Was commanding the third White Russian army. Braunslberg, on the coastal railway near the Baltic, was one of three large East Prussian cities still in German hands. The others are the capital city of Koenigsiberg and Heilinglbeil, eight miles northeast of Braunslberg. iSttalin order announcing the capture of Braunsberg and presaging the early end of the East Prussian campaign -was addressed to Vassilevsky. This was the first word that he had taken over the command vacated by the death in action of Gen. Ivan D. Cherniakhovsky a few weeks ago. Vassilevsky had been chief of the general staff of the red army. He was named in an order of the day announcing the capture of Sevastopol on May 9, 1944, indicating that he directed the siege. In southern ISilesia at the other end of the eastern front, Nazi quarters reported that tWo converging Russian drives in the Czechechoslovak border area threatened to trap the defenders of the upper Oder valley south of Oppeln. Berlin reports of brisk fighting in the highly industrialized southwestern corner of Silesia indicated that Marshal Uvan iS. Konev was trying to blas't open the approaches to (Turn To Page 5, Column 7) Q

Equinoctial Storms Hit South Indiana x Three Cities Hard Hit Monday Night By United Press Equinoctial storms left a heavy toll of damage in three southern Indiana cities today. Madison and Shelbyville swept up debris from violent windstorms last night and Salem was flooded by a cloudburst yesterday which resulted in a flash flood breaking 50-year records. It was the second time in three days that southern Hoosier cities were visited by high-velocity winds. The latest storms came on the eve of the official arrival of spring at 6:38 p. m. today. They followed more than a week of abnormal temperatures ranging as high as S 3 degrees. The Madison damage was estimated at more than $100,600 by police chief Ralph E. Hord. Shelbyville’s loss was not so great, but a war plant was damaged badly. Salem merchants counted heavy damage from overflow waters of Blue river as they seeped into stores and shops and ruined merchandise. The windstorm plunged Madison into darkness, damaged at least 50 residences and posed a new relief problem for American Red Cross workers who were engaged in rehabilitation work for victims of the recent Ohio river flood. At Shelbyville, the Chambers corporation counted a heavy loss when a smoke stack was leveled, shattering the roof and damaging equipment. The plant is engaged totally in war production. Homes were unroofed and other (Turn To Page 5, Column 1),

Rotary Governor ' f

Carl J. Klepper, of Huntington, former Decatur man, is slated for election as governor of district 154, Rotary International, at the annual meeting in Chicago late this spring. Carl Klepper To Be Governor Os Rotary ■ " ■ ■ — # Former Decatur Man District Governor Carl J. Klepper, manager of Cloverleaf Creameries, Inc., in Huntington, president of the Chamber of Commerce and former president of the Rotary club in that city, will be officially elected district governor of district 154 Rotary International, at the annual meeting in Chicago, May 30 to June 2, Leo Kirsch, president of the Decatur club was advised today. Mr. Klepper is a son of Mr. and Mrs. William A. Klepper of Mercer avenue. He has resided in Huntington since 1934, when lie was appointed manager of the creamery plant there. The 154(11 Rotary district comprises the northern one-third of Indiana. As district governor it will be Mr. Klepper’s duty to visit every club in his district. Jack Yarian, of Flora, is the present district-governor. Mr. Klepper did not, have any opposition for the office of district governor and Mr. Yarian has sent word to Indiana Rotary clubs of Mr. Klepper’s selection. The Decatur club' endorsed his

(Turn To Page 2, Column 6, 0 Roosevelt Asks Fund For Missouri Valley To Prepare Plans For Development Washington. March 2 —(UP) — President Roosevelt asked congress today to appropriate $4,480,000 for the preparation of plans by the interior departnnent for development of the Missouri river valley. The president explained that the estimate included funds “only for the work preliminary to actual construction of projects and must be performed irrespective of whether construction of the projects in the basin is accomplished by a valley authority or other agencies.” “In my judgment,” he said, “the proposed work will not interfere with the conduct of the war.” The president’s request was part of his long range program to divide the country into seven basic watersheds and have in each an operating authority along lines of the Tennessee valley authority. The president said provisions were being made in the war department civil appropriation act to enable the army engineers to prepare detailed plans and specificatons for its share of the project as authorized by the 1944 flood control act,

Price Four Cents.

40,000 To 50,000 Germans Believed Killed, Captured In Rhine Pocket Paris, Mar. 20 — (UP) —American ground and air forces blocked the main German escape roads from the Saar Palatinate pocket today and closed in for the kill on the thousands of Nazis fleeing for the Rhine. Between 40,000 and 50,000 of the 80,000 Germans originally spotted in the triangle formed by the Saar, Moselle, and Rhine rivers were believed to have been killed or captured during the week-long American offensive. The enemy's main escape road through Kaiserslautern, at the center of the collapsing pocket, was within almost point-blank artillery range of U.S. third army tank columns, and its fall was expected soon. Headquarters of the American first tactical air force announced that Yank fliers had sealed off the secondary escape roads branching out to the east and southeast from Kaiserslautern to Ludwigshafen and Karlsruhe. Resistance on both flanks of the German pocket appeared to have collapsed. Even the Siegfried line defenses on the southern rim of the Saar where the Nazis had been fighting a delaying action were crumbling. Upwards of 30,000 captives already were inside the third army’s cages. The seventh army, where the prisoner count lagged by several days, reported more than 4,000 taken. Between 15,000 and 20,000 of the third army’s prisoners were bagged yesterday, indicating the extent of the enemy collapse on that sector. Thousands more —their number still uncounted—were killed by the converging armies and American aerial attacks. Lt. Gen. George S. Patton|fes third army tank columns were barely four miles northwest of Kaiserslautern early today. There they were only 20 miles from a juncture with seventh army troops advancing northward through the breached Siegfried line forts near Pirmasens. A second major German communications center at Neuenkirchen. 27 miles southwest of Kaisersluatern, was only two miles from Patton’s vanguards this morning. The third enemy keystone at Mainz, on the Rhine 45 miles northeast of Kaiserslautern, also was imperiled by a tank column that drove to within seven miles of the city on the southwest. On the U. S. first army’s Remagen bridgehead front east of the Rhine, German dispatches said the Americans started a new offensive along the northern perimeter. The drive was aimed at a break-through into the open country leading northward to the Ruhr basin. Field dispatches said the bridgehead now measured 19U miles wide along the river bank and extended inland as much as eight miles. At least 16 towns in the bridgehead area were captured overnight, including Eudenbach, 2’/ 2 miles of the Rhine-Ruhr-Berlin superhighway. The first army seized a big fighter-plane strip near Eudenbach and extended its hold on the military highway to more than miles. On the third army front, the (Turn T o Page 5, Column C) O No 'Loosening' Os Farm Draft Policy Indianapolis, March 20. —(UP)— After another Hoosier draft board official tendered his resignation, Col. Rdbinson Hitchcock, state ee. lective service director, today asserted that there can be no “loosen" ing up” of the farm draft policy. Latest draft board official to resign was Chester Cook, chief clerk of selective service board No. 2 at Marion. He resigned after a mass meeting Iby farmers to protest a “tightening” of farm defermentß.