Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 43, Number 177, Decatur, Adams County, 28 July 1945 — Page 1

theWar. Alftlsc Is Chores!

11. No. 177.

PLANE CRASHES EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

Resume Attack On Japan Base

ili Hippes Inland Sea Graveyard Mp Ships ' J ■’ier Airplanes BfKe New Trail Os Dflth Against Japs lli 28 — < UP) The * sSSSI , ' : "' ril ' r Ktr ‘' te * n • i * sto| y inland sea into a of wrecked and burniHg JaKese ships today as some Kplam-s of Adm. William I' ]{K's third fleet resumed H (in the Kure naval base, through s.kyfSTof flak and fighters. Halt riean and British fliers new trail of death and , ju. iK»ss waters still dotteu rtßhulks of 308 enemy ships in an<l Wednesday. Press correspondent .I.illusion reported from \ off Japan that on Hie reports from many ear S enemy battle fleets ’/£ ri 'd such severe blows s three-day assauii be ft 9BKor the duration. This -J* JBHB Press correspondent gg-gHM Ilolicrccht reported from It ISlKii. John S. McCain's flag'XjK a pilot said Kure harbor •S wi,h burning ships.” -.i. damaged in earlier * rSSßwas a mass of explosions t Hoberecht said the Other ■K jfißJ l '" l i' l ' I ' ll similarly. One io bombs. Another had ;e ji re! . ; ls t ( . ln a m] ~n n'3|Mir" wave oi attacking dive spotted ” mi of Nasaka .lima liar- , ||'3SBl! tside Kure. her decks liilC .mil her , superstructure eci dlMBs. I,le lasl ,ua jor fighting ‘ i |n P<'rial navy, were i’ouibs ami rocket r -■s||Er i "eday. iifsi f lißßai> ‘Se broadcasts said about nistj^B'i'i'a' planes attacked wide sou,, iern Honshu and irK’’||BKii Shokoku today, concen--0,1 Kure and the inland saal thc targets f iS, WI Hiroshima, southern ()- i ■ ;i ‘kßmd Takamatsu. a ] so ga some 250 r K fighters from Iwo struck ,JaBB all( ' other targets in area, and that a small s,l,)< ' ltorls mined the inoff west Honshu. rp P° rts from the m ‘ i'.' fleet, maneuvering alsight of the Honshu Halsey’s fliers had fineST Q'iay the job they started ~ complete neutralizaf the Japanese fleet. ■ rn To Page 4, Column S) tS of r»q Over Japan Stress flying over lined the “City of med for Decatur, e crew hail from re, Lt. George J. commander; Lt. , navigator and W. Turner, left teen approved toy general of the nt group. It is luperfort’s cylinflag, the pole of ►ecatur’e location IERMOMETER IE READING 70.. 'HER » scattered show||||j|lB nti ,hunderstorm s today, be- ! aeneral 'y fair tonight and Litt,e change in temper-

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

Landing Ship, Sub Chaser Are Lost Washington, July 28. — (UP)— The navy today announced the loss of a medium landing ship and i submarine chaser. The landing ship, LSN-59, was lost in the Okinawa area as a result of enemy action. Two enlisted men were wounded. Their next of kin have been notified. Normal wartime complement of the ship is 58 men. The subchaser, SC-521, was lost as the result "of a marine disaster” in the South Pacific area. No casualties were suffered. 0 Afflee Takes Over Duties As Briton Leader Formally Assumes Office As British Prime Minister London, July 28. —(UP) —Prime Minister Clement Attlee took office, formally as head of Britain’s first full fledged Labor government today and prepared to leave at once for the Big Three conference in Potsdam.Informed diplomatic quarters said neither Winston Churchill nor his former foreign secretary Anthony Eden would return to Potsdam with Attlee, who is expected to resume the Big Three discussions tomorrow’. Attlee and the six key members of his inner cabinet took their oaths of office at a privy council convoked by King George at Buckingham Palace. Immediately afterward, they were- hurried through cheering street crowds to a private meeting in London’s Beaver Hall, where Attlee laid down his party’s platform to 393 newly-elected Laborite members of commons. A special transport plane was understood to be waiting .at Croydon airdrome to take the prime minister and his new foreign secretary,‘Ernest Bevin, to Potsdam later today. Sir Edward Bridges, secretary to the cabinet, and Gen. Sir Hastings Ismay, formerly Churchill's military advisor, will accompany (Turn To Page 6, Column 7) o Says Collaboration Urged By Petain General Testifies At Petain's Trial Paris, July 28 -r- (UP) — Gen. Paul Andre Doyen testified today that Marshal Henri Philippe Petain urged French collaboration with the Nazis even after the sensational arrest of Pierre Laval in December, 1940. Doyen was head of the French armistice commission delegation in 1940-41. He testified at Petain’s treason trial that after the arrest of Laval for his temporary banishment from the Vichy regime, he received a letter signed by the old marshal which said: “Laval’s departure does not mean the end of collaboration with the Germans. This will continue as before.” Bald, 72-year-old Michel Clemenceau, son of France s first world war “Tiger,” opened the sixth day of testimony as the state’s ninth witness. Doyen followed him. Petain shuffled listlessly into the French high court and sat slumped impassively in his chair as the witnesses testified. Clemenceau, his white ■ waxed mustache bristling, by inference accused Petain of guilt in the imprisonment of former premier Paul Reynaud and the assassination of Georges Mandel, Reynaud’s interior minister. He told of visiting Reynaud and Mandel in their Portalet fortress prison before “alas for them, (Turn To Page 6, Column 8)

Truman Inspects Troops In Occupation Zone .. Ji ■ ' A< pf* TOURING THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION ZONE in Germany during a recess of the Big Three conference, President Harry S. Truman, accompanied by Gen. Dwight. D. Eisenhower, inspects troops of the 82nd Airborne division at Frankfort.

Tokyo Reports Sea-Air Baffle Rages Off Malay Says Allies Persist In Attempting To Invade Puket Island Manila, July 28 — (UP) —Radio Tokyo said today that a fierce airsea battle was raging off the Malayan peninsula as Allied troops for the fifth day persisted in their attempts' to invade Puket island. The Japanese Domei agency claimed enemy suicide planes had sunk "one Allied cruiser and heavily damaged another which was probably a converted aircraft carrier.” Domer said the Allied naval task force had pushed up in close support of a second landing on Thursday and that today its heavy guns were raking shore installations on I’uket with a tremendous bombardment. Domei said “fierce fighting” continued in the island’s coastal areas. The agency declared, that “enemy’’ troops “frustrated” in their initial attempt to land at Puket on Wednesday had made a second landing Thursday storming the beaches in “rubber boats and small craft.” There was still no Allied confirmation of the landing. Later Domei said the ' “second unsuccessful attempt” to land on the northwestern tip of Puket took place at 3 p. m. (Japanese time) Thursday, and that Japanese garrison units were successful in driving the invaders off the beaches “late Thursday afternoon.” i But the broadcast indicated that the fight, both on sea and land, still continued without mentioning a third landing attempt, Manila observers said, if the Japanese report is true, it is fairly obvious that the 30 by 15-mile island if captured would make an (Turn To Page 3, Column 3) Two Girls Injured In Accident Friday Miss Joan Voglewede, 18, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond daughter of Mrs. Verena Meyer of Voglewede of west of Decatur, and/ Mise Marjorie Meyer, 18, Fifth street, received first aid at the hospital following an auto mishap on the Lewton road last evening. Miss Voglewede received a cut in her left hand which required three clamps and Miss Meyer remained at the hospital for an xray of her neck and shoulder. Charles Loshe, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Loshe was driving the car when it slipped off the stone surface and grazed a free. The car was slightly damaged and none of the other occupants was injured.

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Saturday, July 28,1945.

Franklin Blossom Dies At Girard, 0. Word has been received here of the death of Franklin Blossom, former resident of Adams county, at his home in Girard, O. Only near-surviving relative is a halfbrother, Omer Blossom of Marion. The body will be brought to tfi,e Zwiek funeral home here tonight. Funeral arrangements have not been completed. o Big Three Resume Conference Today Clement Attlee To Replace Churchill Potsdam, Jufy 28. —(UP) —The Big Three was scheduled to resume its conferences today, with British Prime Minister Clement Attlee replacing the defeated Winston Churchill. In all probability, the final communique will not be issued until Premier Stalin has returned to Moscow and President Truman is safely enroute to Washington. If there has been any discussion of Russia’s possible entry into the Japanese war, observers believed that the verdict would not be revealed until the fact had been accomplished. Potsdam officials felt assured that the British government changes will not break the continuity of the Big Three’s planning since Attlee was included in all prior sessions. (Turn To Page 3, Column 3)

Sgt. Paul Chronister Member Os Honored Armored Division

The members of the Seventh Armored division, which fought through France, Holland, Belgium and into Germany, beyond the Rhine, have been highly commended by Major Gen. Robert W. Hasbrouck, commander, for the enviable record they made in driving through enemy country. Sgt. Paul W. Chronister, son of Mrs. Tena Chronister, 1003 W. Monroe street, was a. member of the famous outfit and received a copy of the letter, which follows: “If you came ashore with the. division over the Omaha or Utah beach beginning August 9, 1944,* you will remember how the 7th armored spearheaded the Third army drive across France —how it slammed into Chartres with all guns blazing, forced a crossing of the Seine at Tilly, captured Chateau Thierry and sped on to drive the ‘Krauts’ out of Verdun and seize the bridges across the Marne intact, a remarkable advance of 60 miles in 19 hours. Then came that tough crossing of the Moselle and some hard slugging at iMetz where the Germans had had time to organize their defenses in the fortifications and on the dominating terrain. "Possibly if you joined the division as a reinforcement you are

Site Offered For Hospital Addition Ground Is Offered In Wabash Township A discussion on the advisability of building an additional unit of the Adams county memorial hospital on a tract of ground offered free as a site in Wabash Twp., will be held at a meeting of interested citizens in connection with the monthly meeting of the Adams county medical association next Tuesday evening. The joint meeting, to which residents from Decatur, Berne, Monroe, Geneva, Preble and Linn Grove have been invited, will be held at (he Grover Neuenschwander cabin on highway 118, one-half mile west of Berne. Letters have been mailed by a committee of Berne citizens to groups of citizens in the areas mentioned. The committee members are, C. 11. Sprunger, Brice Bauserman. C. T. Habegger, C. H. Musdman, E. J. Schug and J. H. Yager, all of Berne. The letter states, “On various occasions we have been reminded of the apparent need of further facilities at the Adams county memorial hospital. . . . To relieve such over-crowded conditions for future years, a five-acre grove in Wabash township was recently offered as a donated site tor an additional unit to the Adams county memorial hospital.” The letter states that members of the medical association will meet with the invited group.

ggr gZTw .. I unfamiliar with the dash across France but you remember the division's long trek up into Holland and its defense of the British Second army’s supply lines. You will recall the fighting by the 7th armored when they tried to cut those lines. Then came Saint Vith. If you were there, you will never forget Saint Vith nor how the 7th armored hung on to that (Turn To Page 5, Column 5).

Flames Leap From Great Building As B-25 Bomber Crashes Into 78th Story

Eyewitness Tells Os Confusion In Great New York Building Following Crash . Editor’s note: The author of the following diepatch is president of ’the James W. Irwin Company, management consultants and former city editor of the Chicago Herald & Examiner.) By JAMES W. IRWIN (Written for the United Press) New York. July 28—(UP)— At about 10 a.m. today I was sitting alone in my office on the 75th floor of the Empire State building. Outside the windows there was a dense fog. The roar of airplanes going overhead is a familiar sound to those of us who have offices in this giant structure. But this morning I heard one coming that seemed to be headed right my way. I ran into the hall as the roar increased.. Just as I hit the hall the plane struck. A girl elevator operator had. just opened the door of the elevator shaft on my floor. The blast blew her all the way across the hall. She is in the next office as I dictate this to the United Press. No first aid has reached us yet. We are isolated. There are at least 11 other casualties on this floor alone. Mostly women, some of them badly burned. I am told that the plane struck the building several floors above my office. That would be hard to tell from here. The hails are still so full of fumes that we are afraid to use the stairs. The screaming and general hubbub up here is so terrific that I can hardly hear over the telephone, but now things are quieting down. All of my windows are gone and the hallways are littered with glass. 1 don’t want to claim too much, (Turn To Page 6, Column 6) O Nip Premier Seeks To Rally Japanese Russian Move May Be Next In East Washington, July 28.—(UP) — Japan’s rejection of the three-pow-er surrender offer today set the stage for the final act in a colossal Allied war of nerves and bombs against the Japanese. The next move in the Far Eastern drama may be Russia’s. It would logically be the next great psychological step by the Allies in their effort to persuade Japan to quit before utter destruction. Japan’s immediate rejection of the peace offer from Potsdam was expected. It was not anticipated by the greatest stretch of the imagination that the present militaristic Japanese leaders would deliver themselves over to the Allies for almost certain trial and punishment as war criminals. The major anticipation was that the surrender offer would give the war-weary people of Japan ammunition to start pressure on their leaders —pressure that could become great enough to force present leaders out of office. Tokyo radio said Premier Kantaro Suzuki would address a “grand rally of sure-victory-for-the-decisive battle” today—an evident attempt to hold the people behind the war effort. The Japanese radio promised that Suzuki would tell of “firm and unshakable measures to cope with the final decisive battle between Japan and America.” Now that the war of nerves is underway on a grand scale —accompanied by relentless bombardment of the Japanese homeland — the Allies are expected to use every possible means to make the JapCTurn To Page 6, Column 4)

Expect Senate O.K. Os World Charter Today Congress Assured Os Having Hand On Troop Issue ■Washington, July 24—(UP) — The Senate was expected to ratify the United Nations Charter today with President Truman’s assurance that Congress will have a hand in deciding what troops this nation will pledge to the keeping of future peace. Mr. Truman addressed a special message to the Senate to clear up the point, the most controversial question to arise in a week of debate on the treaty setting up a new world peace organization. His message, radioed from Pottsdam, Germany, was schedued to be read to the Senate today. Informed sources said in contained a promise that the President intends to let Congress decide by majority vote of both houses the terms under which this nation will pledge armed contingents for the security council to use in putting down aggression. The message was designed to allay Senate fears on two counts: 1. The possibility that the President would seek by executive agreement to ignore Congress and arbitrarily give the council control over any portion of American military might. .2. The possibility that agreements between the security council and member states on military quotas must be ratified as treaties by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. Debate during the past week developed arguments on both points. Some Senators argued that the President would have no right to make such commitments through executive agreements. Others argued that the agreements would not be regarded as treaties because: (Turn To Page 6. Column 3) Q Mrs. Jared J. Reed Dies This Morning Heart Attack Fatal To Former Resident Mrs. Jared J. Reed, 61, native of Adams county and h resident of Decatur until about two years ago, died suddenly at 2:30 o’clock this morning at her home, 115 West Butler street, in Fort Wayne. Death was attributed to a heart attack and was unexpected, as she had been in fairly good health. Mrs. Reed was born in Union township, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Wertzberger and was a lifelong resident of the county until moving to Fort Wayne. She was a member of St. Catholic church in this city. Her 1 husband formerly operated the Reed Elevator in Decatur. Surviving in addition to the husband are two sons, Ralph Reed of Decatur and Richard, with the army, now stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison; two daughters, Mrs. Bernard Schlink, with her husband, a soldier in North Carolina, and Agnes Reed, at home; one brother, Barney Wertzberger of this city, one sister, Mrs. Gertie Kintz of Fort Wayne, and three grandsons. Three children are deceased. 'Funeral services will be held at 9:30 o’clock Tuesday morning at the home in Fort Wayne and at 10 a.m. at St. Patrick's Catholic church, with burial in the Catholic cemetery at Fort Wayne. The body will be removed from the van & Sons funeral home to the residence Sunday afternoon.

’ T Buy War Savings Bonds And Stamps

Price Four Cents.

Plane Explodes As Pilot, Lost In Foq, Crashes In World's Greatest Building New York, July 28. —(UP)—A B--25 bomber crashed and exploded in the 78th floor of the empire state building today and the upper part of the tallest building in the world instantly became a blazing inferno for hundreds of office workers perched 1,000 feet above the street. The plane was lost in a fog when it struck. It broke into a giant, spectacular burst of flame. The explosion rocked midtown Manhattan. Two hours later police reported at least 19 dead. Flames raged out of control in .six floors of the building for 40 minutes. Three elevators crashed from the 80th floor to the ground. Glass and debris rained into the street. The plane struck the north side of the building, penetrated a wing of the floor, destroyed everything in its path and went out the south wing of the building. Part of it landed on the roof of the 12-story Waldorf building on 33rd street. Six of the dead were reported to be soldiers, some of whom presumably were members of the plane's crew of five. Only the fact that it was Saturday morning, when many offices are closed, prevented a far greater disaster. The 78th floor was unoccupied. On the 79th floor, occupied by offices of the war relief service of the National Catholic Welfare Council, several persons were killed. Nine bodies were reported found on the 79th floor. Three bodies were taken from two of thu fallen elevators. The third war empty. An enormous crowd gathered in the street and the largest amount of fire fighting apparatus ever as-* sembled in New Yory City was rushed out in four fire alarms. Glass and debris continued to shower down for almost an hour. The 34th street foyer of the building was converted into an emergency receiving station. Belivue hospital sent all available doctors, nurses and disaster equipment. The crash came like a peal of thunder, and many of those who heard it .dismissed it as such. The morning had been heavy with humidity and the skies were’ overcast. When a mass of flames spevred out from the tower, observers first believed lightning had struck the building. Then reports flashed from the stricken skyscraper that a Mitchell bomber had rammed the east side of the tower, exploded, and bounced off in flames to the roof of the old Waldorf building on 33rd street, adjacent, to the Empire State. At 10:30 the tower was still blazing, and firemen found a large tire from the plane on the Waldorf building roof. William Yates, elevator operator in the building, said he saw the plane blown back from the tower after it crashed. Yates was returning to the building from a barber shop, he said. Yates reported that glass was still raining into the streets half ’an hour after the explosion, and said he saw several persons cut. At 10:30 there were no available reports of specific casualties. Reports from LaGuardia field (Turn To Page 6, Ctolumn 3) SII,OOO In Prizes At Indiana 4-H Club Show Indianapolis. July 28 — (UP) — Prizes totaling more than SII,OOO will be offered at the annual Indiana 4-H Club shoifr at the State (Fair grounds Sept. 3-5, President U. C. Brouse of the State Fair Board announced today. Premiums to be paid in the club department for various livestock and vegetable contests total $8,481. The remainder of the funds will be offered by various farm associations, Brouse said.