Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 43, Number 114, Decatur, Adams County, 14 May 1945 — Page 1

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BIGGEST FORCE OF B-29S BLASTS NAGOYA

Kvenlh War Kan Drive Is Bunched Here ■General Electric ' Employes Program ■Held This Morning ~ * ■ho Mighty Seventh! of the Decatur plant. General Electric company the mighty seventh war K drive at 8:36 o’clock this With a half-hour outdoor attended by all of the K workers- at which Major [ Z wi< ' ,c n ' CPnlly returned ■ 28 months in the India- ’ Kiu war area, made a plea to the ! ,o y s at *h e ’ront” the purchase of bonds. BHoincident with the program, was the kick-off for Decaofficially opening the sev- ■■ war loan drive today along SK the rest of the nation, anwas made that, a ■K band of about 45 members, I^Bi>ushl largely ot veterans and of the U.S.S. Helena, ■ (l appear in this city at the ■Lir-smior high school on SH(iay evening, May 28. Navy Band Here U.S.S. Helena, cruiser, was ■> n Kuia Guif ’ iu ,he pacitic llHjiil.v. 1943. Decatur is one of cities in Indiana that will to hear the outmusical organization. the crowd of nearworkers stood in the morning sunshine on the facing plant one, where a had been erected for the and the actors of the horse act presented ■ i'liii Dolby. Raymond‘’Mickey” and Hugh Holthouse, who assisted in the halfprogram were Lloyd Ahr Gerald Zimmerman, Jjianita and Frank Hower, drum Julius Haker\ assisted technique. program was entirely localand was carried out by G. E. addition to Major Zwick, appearing on the platform sHe E. W. Lankenau, who introthe speakers; Henry Stauf- -■ president of Local 924 (CIO) |SH the UEIIMVVA and George employment manager the company. R. Holthousei city of the bond staff, made !■ announcement about the navy coming to Decatur on May SB and extended an invitation to group to attend the program. Zwick emphasized that men in the battle zones watchU" hat the home front, was doJB- “They believe this is a total ln d that everybody should ■ part in it. If you can't To Page 4, Column 4) bj/B o— Bt. David Heller •turns To States . . . David B. Heller, who has Bh" ‘ u the South Pacific more than UM 1 '* 1 - veaiß ' landed at San Francismorning and a telegram to Mr. and Mis. Henry B. mK w ' M id he would be home in ays. The message came on SB. Ilelier ‘s birthday and added ■ w ,'* leasure of that occasion. Bl' ■ r enl >sted as a clerk in * cor Ps I "' d !eft here Jan ’ jU' " ' IW2 for (Fort Harrison. ■ S i 6nt t 0 Texae f° r training IB si' , ee yeare ago last month aB;. as ralla - 'After a year there, ran9 f eri ’ed to New Guinea IB- ? r t 0 other Elands in the Pa■B?\ Zone ‘ He w as employed B - 12 ye ™ p "" ■" ‘■tempfsl THERM °METER IB? PERature READING > ~W Eath er l!B tl ’wer. n eccasior 'al thunder■"‘’moon n ° rth portion this 2 entire toIKiy m , east Portion Tues®ue‘d’y "»«’ clearin 9 late fternoon ‘ Cooler ■|Mrti Or Wu th and central uL U H d ’ y - FreSK UK north. . y winds, becomS| noptn »rly late toni B ht.

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Bronze Star Medal To Sgt. Edward Tricker The Bronze Star medal, for heroic achievement, has been awarded to Sgt. Edward F. Tricker, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ed G. Tricker of Monroe route one, and husband of Mrs. Vivian M. Tricker, of the same address. The award was made by Major Gen. .Horace L. Mcßride, commanding general of the 80th Infantry division. Sgt. Tricker, who entered the service in October 1942, is with Co. B of the 305th Engineer's Battalion, in the European theater of operations. Sgt. Tricker is a 1939 graduate of the Pleasant Mills high school. o Last Diehard German Resistance Crushed Finally Still Guns Os War In Europe London, May 14.— (UP) — Red armies and Yugoslav patriots were believed today to have crushed the last diehard German resistance in southeast Europe, finally stilling the guns of war on the continent nearly a week after the reich’s surrender. (BBC said a detachment of British troops has taken possession of the fortified German island of Helgoland in the North Sea.) At sea, 14 perman submarines and two motor torpedo boats had put into British ports and surrendered. Eight more U-boats were expected at the American naval base at Londonderry iu northern Ireland today. A Soviet communique reported that Red armies had taken 1,060,000 prisoners in the first five days attar Germany's unconditional surrender became effective last Tuesday midnight. Os these, nearly 800,000 German troops were captured in Czechoslovakia and Austria, where diehard Nazis fought on despite their high command’s orders to surrender. The communique mentioned no further fighting in these areas, however, and it was likely that (Turn To Page 4, Column 3) o Fred Schueler Rites Tuesday Afternoon •Funeral services for Fred Schueler, 'Who died Saturday morning at his home in Prelble township, will be held at .2 p. m. Tuesday at the home and at '2:30 o’clock at the St. (Paul’s Lutheran church, with the Rev. (A. S. Koehler officiating. Burial will Ibe in the church cemetery. The ibody was removed from the Zwick funeral home to the residence Sunday.

Regional Meeting On Social Work Friday Local Persons To Attend Conference Members of the Adams county welfare department and others interested in social welfare work, are planning to attend the northeastern regional conference on social work in Fort Wayne on Friday, May 18. An all day conference will be held at the Chamber of Commerce, with a luncheon meeting at the Anthony hotel from 12:30 to 2.15 during the afternoon. The conference sessions will be resumed again at 2 o’clock at the C. of C. building. Mrs. Faye Smith Knapp, director of the Adams county department of public welfare, is chairman of the resolutions committee. Talks will be made by leaders in social and veterans’ affairs work, among them being Dr. Thurman A. Rice, secretary of the state board of health; Major Harvey D. Stout, assistant director of state veteran s commission; Fred F. Stolte, veteran’s representative of the U. S. employment service, and other aide speakers. Mrs. Knapp, Mrs. Albert Coppess, secretary of the local township tiuetee association, and others will attend. Tickets may be obtained from Mrs. Ruth Hollingsworth, secretary of the Red Cross home service office, who also will attend.

Big Mindanao Airdrome Now In Yank Hands American Columns Advance In Smash To Split Mindanao Manila, May 14. — (UP) —Two hard-pushing columns drove within 40 miles of each other today in a smash to split Mindanao lengthwise following the fall of the island’s biggest airdrome. While the Americans pushed ahead in the Philippines, 1,600 miles to the southwest in New Guinea, the sixth Australian division cleared Wewak village and peninsula after a bitter fight. And adding to mounting blows throughout the southwest Pacific theater, heavy bombers dumped 260 tons of bombs on the Toshien factories, one of Japan’s largest military stores on Formosa. The planes, which battled heavy flak, left the target area “a mass of flames,” according to a communique. In the Mindanao fighting, Major Gen. Rapp Brush’s 40th division quickly overran Delmonte airdrome with its three strips after a speedy 12-mile advance from its Macalajar bay beachhead. The 40th routed an enemy force east of the airfield and drove on two miles more along the Sayre highway. Sweeping up from the south, 31st division elements made steady progress against moderate resistance from its last reported position at Marmag, 40 airline miles from the 40th division spearheads. To the south, the 24th division met stiffer fighting aroumj Davao, but a communique reported a Japanese group was defeated in the area of volcanic Mount Apo. The fighting on Luzon subsided somewhat but. American troops (Turn To Page 2. Column 2) O Austria Government Seeks Recognition Independence From Nazis Proclaimed

London, May 14. —(UP)—The So-viet-supported government of Austria today proclaimed the country’s independence and restored republican laws in an apparent bid for Anglo-American recognition. The proclamation, broadcast by radio sender Austria, in effect dissolved the Anschluss with Germany and presumably reinstated Austria’s constitution of 1920. “All Nazi laws are abolished and republican Jaws restored,” the broadcast said. The move further snarled Euro-, pean affairs for the western Allies. Both the United States and Britain have yet to recognize the Austrian government set up by Premier Dr. Karl Renner with Soviet support. The United States and Britain also were tangling with Marsal Tito’s Yugoslav government over control of the Italian port of Trieste and with Russia over the arrest of 16 Polish underground leaders. The Austrian broadcast announcing the country’s “independence” recalled that the United States and Britain, along with Russia, had made Austrian independence one of their war aims. The broadcast said representatives of three political parties had signed the declaration of independence. Each ministry in the Renner government, it added, includes three state secretaries—one from each party—to assure impartiality. The United States and Britain (Turn To Page 4, Column 4) Sgt. Robert Keller To Army Hospital (Staff Sgt. Robert E. Keller, son of Mr. and (Mrs. Ed Keller of 1116 W. Monroe street, a veteran of the Pacific war area, who returned home on April 2 after three years in Australia, New Guinea and the Philippines, was taken to Baer Field hospital yesterday. The war veteran suddenly took ill and up to noon today his case had not been diagnosed. Sgt. Keller entered the army an January, 1941.

Decatur, Indiana, Monday, May 14,1945.

Dane King Reopens Parliament I”'"' 4 "" SB B IF |jUßa> : » BRINGING BACK DEMOCRACY to his native land, King Christian of Denmark and Queen Alexandria are shown as they rode through the streets of Copenhagen, amid cheering throngs, on their way to reopen the Danish Parliament. The Nazis had planned to make Denmark a model protectorate, but were actively opposed by patriots up to the day of German surrender to the Allies.

New Presbyterian Pastor Installed — —v Services Are Held Here Sunday Night The auditorium at the Presbyterian church was filled Sunday evening for the installation of the Rev. John W. McPheeters as pastor. The Rev. John Norman Morrison, of Anthony Boulevard church. Fort Wayne, moclerayjr of the district, presided and the organ prelude was played by Mrs. Carrie Haubold. Paul M. Saurer sang “By the Waters of Babylon,” and Rev. George William Allison, of the First church in Fort Wayne, gave an inspiring sermon on the subject, “Unexpected Constingencies.” Installation followed with the Rev. John Yundt of Westfield church. Fort Wayne offering prayer, the Rev. A. K. Korteling of Bluffton giving the charge to the new pastor and the Rev. D. R. Hutchinson of Huntington the charge to the congregation. It was an impressive service and was attended by a number of visiting ministers from this and surrounding cities. At the conclusion of the installation a reception was held for Rev. and Mrs. McPheeters in the lecture room of the church. The ladies aid and the guild served refreshments. The Rev. McPheeters and family moved here May 1 from Farmington, 111. He succeeds the Rev. (Turn To Page 2. Column 1)

Sgt. Donald Death Is First Decatur Veteran Discharged

First Sgt. Donald Death, 27, son of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Death of this city, and a veteran of 34 months service in the South Pacific willi the army air forces, is the first Decatur soldier discharged from the service under the point system. Sgt. Death, with more than 100 points to his credit as compared to the minimum 85 necessary for discharge, was released from gervice Sunday at the Smyrna army air base at Nashville, Tenn. Decatur’s first discharged veteran of World War II under the point system, enlisted in the army in December. 1939, receiving his early training at Maxwell Field, Ala. He was one of the first Americans to land in Australia after the outbreak of the war December' 7, 1941, having been sent overseas in January of 1942. He graduated from Decatur high school in 1938. ) His nearly three years abroad took him to all parts of Australia and New Guinea. In addition to his credit points for length of service, Sgt. Death is also holder of the Bronze star. He returned to the states last November and recently completed a six weeks

War Bond Display In Schafer Window The center display window of the Schafer Store is devoted to a seventh war loan exhibit this week, coincident with the opening of the mighty seventh today. Bonds may be purchased at ’the store through Mrs. 'Adrian Burke, a registered issuing agent for the IT. S. treasury. Mrs. Burke’s husband, who was elected to the city council, is serving with the army overseas. o Curtail Lend-Lease Shipments To Russia More Big Cuts Are Expected To Follow Washington, May 14 —(UP) — More big lend-lease cuts, including a slash of nearly 50 percent in U. S. war aid to Britain, were in prospect today following curtailment of the bulk of this country’s $300J)00,000 a month shipments to Russia. At the same time top U. S. officials were said on good authority to believe the drastic cut in lend-lease to the Soviet Union might figure in relaxing the stalemate of the Polish situation. Though the Russian curtailment assertedly was based solely on ’the fact that Russia is no longer a fighting ally, it was said

(Turn To Page 2, Column 4)

rps ’ I — i course as an administrative instructor at Orlando, Fla. Sgt. Death’s wife, whom he married in Sidney, Australia, March 18, 1944, and their small son reside with her parents in Long* Island, N. Y. Mrs. Death was a Red Cross worker in Australia and returned to this country last May.

Japan's Third Largest City Is Deluged With Huge Weight Os Bombs

Warns Brilain Os Hard Task In Japan War Churchill Victory Speech Is Warning Os Future Dangers London, May 14.— (UP) —Tired but defiant, Prime Minister Churchill indicated in his victory speech last night that he intends to lead Britain “till the whole task is done and the whole world is safe and clean. Churchill warned the people of Britain that they still face a fight to beat Japan and to preserve democracy in Europe. In what observers interpreted as a warning that Britain would not tolerate strong-arm politics, Churchill, said “there would be little use in punishing Hitlerites ... if toalitarian or police governments were to take the place of the German invaders.” Churchill also took the opportunity to let loose five years’ pent-up anger on Eire's Prime Minister Eamon De Valera, scoring him for the “shame” he had brought Ireland by his neutrality policy. Churchill described De Valera's policy as “so much at variance with the temper and instinct of thous : ands of southern Irishmen who hastened to the battlefront to prove their ancient valor.” Indicating his desire to stick to his post, Churchill said: “I wish I could tell you tonight that all our toils and troubles were over. Then indeed I could end my five years’ service happily, and, if you thought you had had enough of me and that I ought to be put out to grass, I assure you I would take it with the best of grace. “But, on the contrary. I must warn you . . . that there is still a lot to do.” Threaded throughout his speech were references to his advancing age and the tremendous load he has carried in five years at 10 Downing Street. Listeners thought he sounded tired, and lacked his usual fire. But the old-time Churchillian rhet(Turn To Page 2, Column 5) Two Berne Soldiers Freed From Germans

Pfc. Charles Taylor, Lt. Bailey Are Free Word of the liberation from German prison camps of two Adams county soldiers was received over the weekend. Those liberated are: Pfc. Charles Edwin Taylor, 33, of Berne. Sec. Lt. Robert Bailey, 26, formerly of Berne. Pfc. Taylor, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Taylor, of southeast of Geneva, has been liberated from a German prison camp, the war department notified his wife, Mrs. lola Taylor, Sunday night. Taylor was first reported missing on December 20, but later was reported a German war prisoner. Pfc. Taylor was an infantryman with Gen. Patton’s Third army. He entered the service April 7, 1943, and was sent overseas in September, 1943. His wife and daughter, Patsy, reside with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Leon Von Gunten, at Berne. Taylor was employed at the General Electric plant in this city prior to entering service. T<t. Bailey, son of Mr. and Mrs. Dan Bailey, of Van Wert, 0., was a resident of Berne at the time he entered service. A bombardier on a B-17, the (Turn To Page 2, Column 1)

Young Cyclist Has Leg Broken Saturday Sheldon 'Egley, 10-year-dld eon o>£ Mr. and iMrs. Ralph 'Egley, 731 Walnut street, sustained a complete fracture of the left leg, between the knee and ankle, at 2:30 o’clock Saturday afternoon. The youth was riding his bicylce on (East Jackson street when it was struck iby an auto driven by Mrs. Elma Gaunt, of Decatur route 5. He was taken to the Adams county memorial hospital. The youth also sustained minor cuts and bruises. 0 Gestapo Chief Is Indicted On Murder Charges General Eisenhower Denounces Coddling Os Nazi Officials London, May 14 — (UP) —-The United Nations war crimes commission has indicted gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler on charges of mass murder in the notorious massacre of Lidice and the Jewish extermination program, it. was learned today. At least five Allied governments have lodged charges’ of war criminality against Himmler, the bespectacled former school teacher who became Nazidom’s chief hangman. The war crimes commission has indicted him, it was revealed, on at least seven counts. It ranked him No. 1 on the list of Nazis charged with the obliteration of Lidice in an argy of revenge for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, and with wholesale atrocities in Nazi concentration camps. The disclosure of the indictments against Himmler came as he apparently played an elusive game of hide and seek with Allied authorities in northwestern Europe. Reports that he had fallen into Allied hands were denied. One said he had been seen at the headquarters of the German high command under the wing of which he evidently was seekingsanctuary until the status of that body and Admiral Karl Doenitz’s government is decided. The Russian government organ Izvestia demanded the immediate arrest, trial and execution of Doenitz. It reflected a Soviet

(Turn To Page 2. Column 3) 0 Corn Club Conies! Deadline Is June 1 50 Farmers Enroll To Date In Club Harve Ineichen, president of the Adams county five-acre corn club, announced today that the final date for entry into the club contest is June 1. He further stated that the contest has done much to spread the use of hybrid seed corn and to draw attention to the cultural and fertilizer practices that increase corn yields. The project is jointly sponsored by the First State Bank of Decatur. Bank of Berne and the club officers. The club officers are: Harve Ineichen, president; Walter Thieme, vice-president; Benj. D. Mazelin, secretary-treasurer; Eli Schwartz and Clifford Mann, directors. Fifty-nine farmers have joined so far this year. They are: Benj. D. Mazelin, Stanley Arnold, Edwin Reifsteck, E. W. Busche, Delmore Wechter, Charles Meyers, Edison £<ehman. Leßoy Boehm, Bill Arnold, Harry Aschleman, Verl Laut(Turn To Page 2, Column 6)

jk tor Seif jpr, & Country Buy' Bonds 'EwEHj

Price Four Cents.

Nine Square Miles Os Nagoya Aflame After Devastating 500-Plane Attacks Guam, May 14 — (UP) —More than 500 superfortresses blasted nine square miles of Nagoya into a flaming ruin with 3,500 tons of bombs today in the heaviest and most concentrated fire raid ever made. The B-29 armada — biggest of the war —deluged Nagoya, Japan’s main aircraft manufacturing center and third largest city, with more than 500,750 fire bombs at the rate of 40 tons a minute for nearly an hour and a half. Returning crew members reported a 17,000-foot. smoke column covered the area and that the glow from flames crackling through the heart of file city was visible 60 miles at sea. They said there was no fighter opposition ami only meager anti-aircraft fire. A Japanese communique admitted fires still were burning five hours after the start of the raid, but. insisted that “most” bad been quelled. It said 400 B-29s participated, of which eight had been shot down and nine damaged. The attack exceeded in weight most raids made by the American eighth air force and RAF against Germany. It underlined official warnings that Japan faced even greater destruction than the shattered Reich unless she surrendered. Radio Tokyo said another huge American air armada of nearly 1,000 carrier planes was raiding southern Japan for the second straight day, apparently concentrating on bases from which Japanese suicide planes have been attacking American shipping’ off Okinawa. On southern Okinawa, U. S. marines were slugging it out. with desperate Japanese in the northern outskirts of the capital city of Naha in a battle as bloody as any on Iwo. One marine company lost 50 percent, of its strength in the past two days. Other Japanese attempted to land behind American lines five miles northwest of Naha and were wiped out to the last man. A Tokyo broadcast said 100,000 American troops have been landed on Okinawa. Air bases on the island were being expanded to handle 200 American aircraft, the broadcast said. The B-19 raid on Nagoya, 165 miles west of Tokyo on the main Japanese home island of Honshu, marked a renewal of the fire raids in which superfortresses burned out 53.68 square miles of Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe and Kawasaki in March and April. More than 32 square miles of Tokyo were burned out in three attacks and 5.36 square miles of Nagoya in two raids during the earlier offensive. Today's mighty armada coi<centrated on nine square miles of northern Nagoya, an area crowded with flimsy homes, numerous “shadow” factories and the huge Mitsubishi electric works and Chigusa plant of the Nagoya arsenal. B-29s from Guam, Tinian and Saipan rendezvoud near Iwo for the attack and thundered north In columns of 11 planes to a squadron without fighter escort. The vanguard hit Nagoya at 8:15 a. m. Tokyo time from medium altitude and the parade of destruction continued uninterrupted with methodical precision for nearly 90 minutes. Each squadron dropped its entire bombload in one minute. It was an all fire-bomb raid. Each superfortress carried about seven tons of the'army air force’s deadly new M-69 fire bombs, which spray flaming gasoline jelly over a radius of 30 yards. z They are dropped in clusters of 38.