Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 43, Number 68, Decatur, Adams County, 21 March 1945 — Page 1

I XLIII. No. 68.

tfask Force Smashes Remnants Os Japanese Fleet

NAZI DEFENSES WEST OF RHINE COLLAPSE

w Warships Lagedr 600 wanes Wrecked *Ramcd Task Force 58 Mpipples Jap Fleet fin Daring Attacks p fiom, Mar. 21.-(UP)-Dispatch--11 famed task force 58 today IHt.'d the toll of two days of darilißair attacks on the Japanese |B| in its home bases to at least ifßrarships damaged and GOO or aircraft wrecked. RBmiral Chester W. Nimitz said Sunday and Monday on Kure anil other bases in it inland sea had crippled the ® Bving remnants of the Japanese a time when it was rushto meet an anticipated of Japan itself. cat ricr-borne fleet of 1,000 C. S navy planes broke off late Monday. A Japan■j communique said -the task ■B, including its escort from the fleet was “fleeing southward” MB rd the Marianas with JapanS|Baircraft in “close pursuit.” ■Srtio Tokyo said, however, that SHewero “plenty of possibilities” ■Busk forte might renew its atEBtnitz'* communique on the at■B listed 15 to perhaps 17 warkßs as damaged, but late radio llßaielies from task force 58 .said ■Bast 17 and possibily more warBB ver, ‘ '“ft smoking and bomb Bed. ■Hie toll included a minimum of aircraft carriers, probably jlHliat remained in the Japanese V gB, and two or more battleships. J sai( l- In addition, six were sunk and seven Baged. number of Japanese planes BBmyed or damaged was revised rSl "^B :lle dispatches from 575 to at 600 ‘ hopes of rebuilding her SHl'led air force and fleet were rwS^B s!lp d.'’ United Press war corLloyd Tupling reported the flagship of Vice-Admiral A. Mitscher, commander of IB force 58. ■sjimitzs communique reported ■ specific .results on the basis of ißiininary reports: Japanese Ships n k— Six small freighters. — One or two battletwo or three aircraft carl "’ n “Slit aircraft carriers or carriers, two escort, carpi ■»> nne keavy cruiser, one light ■k. four destroyers, one subinc'. one destroyer escort and freighters. Japanese Planes down— 200. on the ground—27s. I^Bmaged—More than 100 in first alone. ri »' r " rn Tc Pagw 4, Column 6) r H Restore 12,000 • bounded York, Mar. 21.—(UP)—SecjW'y of Navy James Forrestal 18, ay that as many as 12,000 e 15,300 Americans wounded *o Ji.ua might be completely j^B ore<J to health. * old a Red Cross luncheon iB ‘ lat between 6,000 and 7,000 I. e wounded returned to their ',° ns before the conquest of . haxl been achieved. ißfre ' e bas ' s our P as t experjf ’ We have reaeon to hope -- ass " r « you we intend to h nA ,l<>l>e if we c an—that W ; 00 and 12 - 0(w °f the i |BZ Oanded on Iwo will be so a ) rw>i reStOred t 0 health as — —ZT ° f omplete activity.” RATURE READING a T ther momi-ter W :00a -m. : £ t. » 44 ' ifibuj * oni 9ht and fair i »'MLt C °° ler *°“*h and MB

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

American Submarine Barbel Reported Lost 'Washington, March 21— (UP) — The navy announced today that the American submarine Barbel has Ibeen lofet, presumably in the Pacific or far eastern waters. Forty American undersea craft have ibeen lost during this war. Less than a month ago, the navy disclosed that the submarines Eseolar and Shark were overdue from patrol and presumed lost. ■iThe Barthel was skippered by Lt. Cmdr Conde L. of Norfolk, Va., It carried a normal complement of 65 men. All of its crew are listed as missing in action and their next of kin have been notified. o Continuing Aerial Blows At Germany British Lancasters Drop 11 -Ton Bombs London, March 21—(UiP)—British Lancasters, carrying 11-ton bombs, continued the aerial pounding of Germany’s transportation centeis today, hitting (he railway bridge across the Weser river near Bremen and railway yards at Munster. 'The attack by the British heavies followed those of albout 2,000 American planes today which hit nine air fields in northwest Germany and a tank plant at Plauen in central Germany. One force of Lancasters struck the railway bridge at Wester this morning. A second force, escorted by Spitfires, made a heavy attack on the _Munster railway yards on the main line from Osnalbruck to the Rurhr. Among the airfields attacked by the American planes in the renewed campaign to knock out the partially revived luftiwaffe were bases for jet-propelled Messerschmitt 262’8. iSome 1,300 Flying Fortresses and Liberators of the eighth air force were escorted by more than 700 mustange fighters in the daylight sweep across northwestern and central Germany. One formation struck deep into Germany to bomlb the Plauen tank plant 55 miles south of Leipzig. Others hit air fields near Hopsten, Rheine, Achtner, Alhern Hesepe, Handorf Zwijschenahn Wittmundhavn, and Marx.

Guaranteed Annual Pay Check Studied Committee Named To Study Proposal Washington, Mar. 21 —(UP) — The government wants to find out whether American wage-earn-ers can he guaranteed a pay check after the war for 40 hours of work every week of the year. President Roosevelt late yesterday asked the advisory board on war mobilization and reconversion to investigate the 1 subject of a guaranteed annual wage. Board chairman O. Max Gardner promptly appointed a committee to get the job started. Its members are president Eric Johnston of the U. S. chamber of commerce, president Philip Murray of the congress of industrial organizations, Albert Goss, National Grange master, and Anna Rosenberg, New York state war manpower commission director. The president ordered the inquiry on the basis of a war labor board recommendation made at the time it denied a demand by the United Steelworkers (CIO) that 86 basic steel companies be ordered to guarantee their 400.000 employes a minimum weekly wage. '’‘A guaranteed ’wage,” the WLB said at that time, “is one of the main aspirations of American workers. The search for it is a part of the search for continuity of employment which is perhaps the most vital economic and social objective of our times.” One of the first reports avail(Turn To Page 3, Column 3)

Nazis Report Reds Resume Berlin Drive Resuming Attacks For A Full-Scale • Assault On Capital ■London, March 31 —(UP) —Nazi broadcasts said today that the Red army has resumed its attacks 30odd miles east of Berlin preparatory to a full scale assault on the bomb-devastated capital. An attack by upwards of 1,000 Soviet troops southwest of the Oder river crossing town of Kienitz, 33 miles northeast of Berlin, was “warded off,” the German Transocean agency said. The official German DNB agencysaid a “certain flare-up” in fighting in the Kuestrin area, 10 miles southeast of Kienitz and 38 miles east of Berlin, indicated the Russians soon would attack in strength. German artillery was credited with scattering “major enemy deployments” southwest of Kuestrin, whose capture was announced by premier Marshal Stalin March 12. Moscclw has reported Soviet troops across the Oder well beyond Kuestrin on the Warsaw-Berlin superhighway. The Nazi reports followed by less than 24 hours the capture of Altdamm, directly across the Oder river from Stettin, and the consequent elimination of the last major German pocket on the east bank of the river north of Berlin. The clearing of the northern flank along the Oder was believed one of the last items on Stalin’s battle schedule before sending his armies into action in frontal and flaniking offensives against Berlin. Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov’s first White Russian army captured Altdamm after slashing up behind the city from the southwest and cutting its three bridge links with Stettin, three and a half miles across the Oder estuary. Over run in the advance were Podejurh, four miles southwest of Altdamm, and Finkenwald, Site of Steit'tin airfield a mile and a half southwest of Altdamm. The Germans fought for every block in Altdamm and thousands were slain the Soviet high command announced. Far to the northeast, the third White Russian army under Marshal Alexander _M. Vassilevsky, Red army chief of staff, trimmed the German pocket southlwest of Keenigslber'g to 50 square miles and captured Braunsiberg, its principal stronghold. — Army Is Taking Hand In Curfew Squabble Army Personnel To Obey Byrnes' Rule New York, Mar. 21.—(UP)—The army stepped into the New York curfew squabble today, and left night spot owners with the embarrassing job of ousting service men from their establishments at midnight while civilians enjoy an extra hour of fun. The army’s order that its personnel must obey war mobilization director James F. Byrnes’ midnight curfew on entertainment was nationwide. Its effect wSs felt first in New York where Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia announced Sunday that his police force would no longer report violations until after 1 a. m. The action came with lightning swiftness. There was no previous announcement. The army’s military police, accompanied by the navy’s Shore patrol as “observers, began making the round of Manhattan bans and night clubs at midnight. They explained the order to owners and managers, asked them to clear their premieses of service men, then left. The MP s did not approach the service men. The first reaction from night spot owners was that Mayor LaGuardia’s (Turn To Pago 2, Column S).

Decatur, Indiana, Wednesday, March 21,1945.

Chesty Little Fellow, Isn’t He? E_ mi .1 * ■ ■ I BKI ■kufW f > twilit.f - / / RICHARD WILLIAM FLYNN is putting on a bold front so his mother can get a better look at the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters awarded to his father,. Lt. William J. Flynn, Flying Fortress navigator, who has been in a German prison camp for about a year. Richard was born a month ahead of time, when his father came home unexpectedly on a leave in February, 1943. The Flynns live in Pittsburgh.

Red Cross Fund Still Climbing Today's report shows the Red Cross War Fund has grown to $19,611.50, approximately $3,000 over the county’s $16,700 quota. The section and district report will be found on page four of this issue. Projecls Discussed By City Councilmen Airfeild, Disposal Plant Are Discussed Establishment of a city airfield and the employment of consulting engineers to design a sewage disposal plant, were subjects that were informally discussed by the city cotincil last evening, following the adjournment of the regular meeting. A committee of citizens composed of Robert McComb, civil flight instructor, Robert Gay, George Roop and Dr. Joe Morris, appeared before the council, and discussed the possibility of establishing a city airfield. Mr. McComb, now employed at the General Electric plant,; recently completed three years as a civilian pilot instructor for the army at Ponca City, Okla. He is giving flying *lessons from the Ivitich field on Thirteenth street. The committee voiced sentiment in favor of a small airfield near the outskirts to Decatur, where sod runways could be built and the place developed as needs demanded. Mr. McComb said that about a dozen Decatur persons were taking flying instructions at Fort Wayne and that much interest was shown here by others who wished to become pilots. Morris J. McErlain. chief engineer for the Charles W. Crle and Company, South Bend, consulting engineers who Resigned the Fort Wayne sewage disposal system, spoke to the council and Mayor John B. Stults. Engineer Me Erlain invited the city officials to visit sewage disposal plants at Peru, Hartford City, and Celina, O. Last September the city of Decatur was mandated by the state board of health to correct and abate the pollution of the waters of St. Mary’s river with raw sewage, the alternative being the building of a sewage disposal plant. The city also wishes to build a city-wide system of storm sewers at the same time as a means of eliminating the present overtaxed conditions of the combined storm and sanitary sewers. The council approved the contract with Max Thieme for the building of a rural light line extension to his farm in Union township.

Nation Food Output To Be Less In 1945 Means Lacking To Boost Production Washington, March 21 —-(UP) 1 — In the face of an increasingly critical food shortage, farmers today planned to cut their output in 1945. “The will to increase production is there, .but the means are lacking,” the agriculture department reported as both President Roosevelt and congress turned increased attention to the food situation. The Agriculture’s spring survey of farmers’ plans showed that 1945 plantings of major crops may equil last year’s wartime record of 364, QOP.OO'fli acres. However, even if production from 'that acreage reaches last year’s high level the total food output —crops and livestock—will fail below 1944 because Os a prospective 2,500,000,000 pound drop in meat production. For the first time the department admitted that the American farmer ha'd reached the maximum peak of production under wartime conditions. It blamed the shortage of farm equipment and transportation and the heavy drafting of young farm workers. Short In England (London, March 21 —(UP) 1 —Prime Minister Churchill told commons today that. Britain’s food stocks have shrunk to less than 6,000,0091 tons, and prosipects were for more shrinkage to a point barely sufficient to maintain regular supplies for the nation. Shipment of foodstuffs to the liberated countries of Europe will cause stocks to go down to some 4.7'50.C00 tons (by the end of June, Churchill said. “This la’ter figure is no more than is necessary to maintain the regular flow of distribution under present conditions” he added. o Nazi Headquarters In Copenhagen Destroyed Stockholm, March 21 — (UP) 1 — The Danish press Service reported today that an attract by British mosquito planes this morning destroyed Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen. —o Two Babies Burned To Death At Capital (Indianapolis March 2.1 —(UP) 1 — Two babies were burned to death in their home today while their mother was shopping for groceries. The children were Cecil Edward Smallwood, 3, and his 19-month-old sister, Sandra May. IMrs. Helen Smaliwod 22, returned with her arms laden with food and found fire trucks at her home which was ablaze. Firemen found the bodies huddled in a corner of a room.

Yanks linked With Guerrilla Force On Panay Offensive Breaks Into The Suburbs Os Burning Iloilo Manila, Mar. 21 —(UP) —American troops linked with strong Filipino guerrilla forces on Panay today in an offensive that hurst into the suburbs of burning Iloilo and swept through more than 250 square miles of the island. The lightning strikes of Maj. Gen. Rapp Brush’s 40th division, which threw- the Japanese into disorder on Panay’s south central plains, ripped through three key rodd towns and tumbled Mandurriao airdrome, with its big 4,500foot runway. The rapidly developing campaign on Panay, sixth largest of the Philippines, was disclosed in Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s communique which also revealed new important gains on Luzon and continuation of neutralizing air attacks on Formosa and Japan’s shipping lanes in the China sea. Brush’s seasoned troops ovee* ran Japanese machine-gun points and small arms resistance in a two-pronged offensive that carved out a beachhead 18 miles deep and 14 miles wide on Panay’s southern coast. One column raced seven miles in one day along the hard-surface coastal road, captured the sevenspan carpenters bridge across the Iloilo river and stormed into the suburbs of the capital, already aflame from large ■ fires. The extent of the blazes indicated the Japanese were attempting the same destruction of Iloilo and its 90,000 inhabitants as they did at Manila. At the same time, Brush's second force speared inland to seize Janiuay, 18 miles north northeast of Iloilo. From there it made a sharp turn to the east, raced seven miles to the big road junction of Potoan and continued another eight miles eastward to capture Barotac Nuevo, miles northeast of Iloilo. The drive inland enabled the American troops to join with Panay’s strong guerrilla forces, said to be the best organized in the entire Philippines. At Pototan, 17% miles north northeast of Iloilo, Brush's troops (Turn To Pagte 2. Column 4) Capt. Ted Schindler Missing In Action

Berne Pilot Listed Missing Over Italy Capt. Ted Schindler, son of Mr. and IMrs. John W. Schindler, of Berne, pilot on a B-24 Liberator, has been missing in action over Italy since Feb. 28, the war department notified the parents late Tuesday. Since last Friday the parents awaited confirmation or denial of a report tHat their son was missing in action. The parents had received a letter from the wife of a co-pilot on Capt. Schindler’s bomber, "that she had been notified by the war department that her husband was missing. The fateful news arrived in a message from the war department. Capt. Schindler was probably on his 31st bomlbing mission when the tragedy happened. He was credited with 30 missions up to February 27. He and his brother, Capt. Hallman Schindler, both received their promotions effective Feb. 26. They were attached to the same air force and had gone through training together. As far as known Capt. Hallman Schindler is still based in Italy. (Capt. Ted Schindler enlisted in the air corp on January 28, 1943. He and his brother went overseas last year. a

England Is Bombed By German Planes (London, March 21 —(UP)—German planes bombed northern and southern England last night for the first time in nearly two weeks. Damage and casualties were reported in an air ministry-home security ministry communique. One raider was shot down. o Coal Conference In Indefinite Recess Operators, Miners Hurl Accusations Washington, Mar. 21 —(UP) — A soft coal wage conference went into “indefinite recess” today. Both union and operator forces said it was uncertain when they would resume negotiations. Their present contract expires in only 10 days. Signs of early government intervention were increasing. These developments followed a public quarrel yesterday in which spokesmen for the operators and the United Mine Workers accused each other of blocking progress toward agreement on a new two-year work contract. Charles O’Neill of the operators said the producers felt that no progress whatsoever had been made since the negotiations started on March 1. When the negotiators recessed today UMW president John L. Lewis went to his hotel suite “to write some letters.” O'Neill retired to his room for a conference with fellow operators. (Howard T. Colvin, acting director of the laibor department's conciliation service, said intervention by his representatives was “a possibility.” He said the two conciliators who have been observing negotiations between the United Mine workers’ president and the operators are ready to enter the dispute on a moment's notice. “We will mo evin time to prevent a work stoppage,” Colvin said. The present contract expires in 10 days and UMIW tradition has been “no contract, no work.” The

(Turn To Page 2, Column 6) O Preference To Vets In Government Jobs Lists Regulations For Vet Preference Washington, Mar. 21. — (UP) — The civil service commission today announced regulations under which veterans are to receive preference in getting government jobs not requiring civil service examinations. Congress passed legislation last year requiring r referential tre ■ ment for veterans in federal hiring. The civil service commission has already announced rules for granting such preference in jobs requiring civil service certification. The commission said all jobs in the Tennessee valley authority, the federal bureau of investigation, the board of governors of the fed era! reserve system, and the inland waterways corporation were outside the civil service act. Small numbers of jobs in other agencies are similarly unclassified. The new regulations, conforming with the veterans’ preference law, provide that no non-veteran shall be hired as, elevator operator, messenger, guard or custodian as long as a qualified veteran is available. Whenever experience is counted in consideration for a job, the ■length of time spent in service will be counted if the applicant just before entering the service held a job similar to the one for which he is applying. First choice for all jobs will be applicants with “10-point preference” who were formerly employed by the agency concerned. Tenpoint preference ratings are given disabled veterans, widows of veterans who served in lactive duty during a war or in a campaign for which a campaign badge was authorized, and wives of disabled veter(Turn To Page 5, Column 3),

Price Four Cents.

Yankee Third. And Seventh Armies Join Annihilating Few Thousand Os Nazi Troop Survivors Paris, Mar. 21 — (UP) — All organized German resistance in the Saar-Palatinate collapsed today as the American third and seventh armies joined forces. The combined forces wheeled in to the Rhine to annihilate a few thousand Nazi survivors along a bridgeless, 29-mile stretch of the river bank from Ludwigshafen to the Karlsruhe crossing. In one of the most decisive victories of the western war, the two American armies had wiped out. all but about 10.090 of the 80,000 or more Germans who held the vast Saar-Moselle-Rhine triangle at the start of the offensive one week ago. Saarbruecken, Zweibruecken, Kaiserslautern, Wissembourg, Mainz and Worms, the keystones of the German defensive system, were in American hands or on the verge of capture this morning. A sixth and even greater prize, the sprawling Rhine chemical center of Ludwigshafen was menaced by two armored columns of the third army that raced to within six miles west and northwest of the city. The last major German escape port across the Rhine at Woerth, opposite the east bank city of Karlsruhe, also was imperiled by seventh army troops who smashed through the Siegfried defenses beyon| to the southwest. Not a single Rhine bridge was standing as the Americans struck for the river flhie morning. The panic-stricken Germans faced the prospect of mass surrender or a suicidal crossing in boats and barges under the fire of American warplanes. Far to the north, the American first army exploded a new offensive northward from its Remagen bridgehead and swept out into open tank country less than a dozen miles from the southern flank of the Ruhr basin. On the heels of the first army breakthrough, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower broadcast a grim z warning to the German civilian population and the thousands of foreign slave workers inside the Nazi lines to get out of the Ruhr immediately. Eisenhower declared that the entire Ruhr was about to become*a battle zone. But even the new sweep of the Ruhr was overshadowed by the spectacular triumph of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s U. S. third army and Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch's seventh army in the south. Vanguards of the two armies linked up at two points 12 and 27 miles west of Kaiserslautern, pinching off the entire Saar basin to the west. The juncture stripped Germany at a stroke of vast coal and steel producing facilities in the ’industrial basin and left only the imperiled Ruhr as a Nazi arsenal. Saarbruecken, capital of the Saar, was captured by the seventh army in a fast-breaking attack across the Saar river to the southwet that swiftly engulfed the German defenders. Zwei(Turn To Page 4, Column S) 0 Roosevelt Appeals For Red Cross Fund Washington, Mar. 21. — (UP) — President Roosevelt refuses to indulge in the pastime of predicting how soon the war will end. In his radio appeal in behalf of the $200,000,000 Red Cross war fund last night, the president said flatly that “I do not know when victory will come.” He said he does know that millions of men are fighting outside their native land and many of them owe their lives and well-being to the Red Sross. He appealed to the nation to over-suhecribe the Red Cross war fund.