Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 May 1940 — Page 1
The Indianapolis Times
FORECAST: Partly cloudy and warmer tonight; tomorrow partly cloudy with showers in afternoon or night.
FINAL HOME
VOLUME 52—NUMBER 60
MONDAY, MAY 20, 1940
Entered as at Postoffice,
Second-Class Matter Indianapolis.
PRICE THREE CENTS
Ind.
NAZIS HAMMER TOWARD COAST AFTER DRIVE ON PARIS STALLS
LEADERS HERE | ACT TO OBTAIN
AVIATION UNITS
One Firm Reported Ready /
To Build 10-Million Plant in City.
(Editorial, Page 10)
Indianapolis moved swiftly today, both here and in Washington, bringing new aircraft plants to Indianapolis.
I. J. (Nish) Dienhart, Municipal Airport manager, and Myron Green,
Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce | were in Wash-|
industrial secretary,
ington conferring with Federal of-]
ficials. In Indianapolis Mayor H. Sullivan called the Works Board and City Engineer M. G. into conference on what will have to do to provide facilities for the hoped-for new plants,
Aircraft Leaders Confer
Also in conference in Washington were representatives of leading aircraft manufacturers mapping the expansion of manufacturing facili-| ties to meet President Roosevelt's request for an air armada of 50,000 military and naval planes. It was reported from Washington, also, that a leading manufacturer already has selected Indianapolis] for the site of a new $10,000,000 plant to be constructed as soon as| Government approval is obtained. There were Washington Popes too, that the Allison divisio General Motors plant will be lier expanded and that a proposed new $10,000,000 engine research labora- | tory may be built here by the Gov- | ernment, Under the President’s air-defense expansion plans, the Government plans to advance capital as loans to private firms in financing factory additions. The President also has urged that new plants be moved inland as a precaution against coastal raids in event of an invasion of this country
Allison Represented
The Allison which the city already has played | a major role in national defense, was represented at the President's meeting in Washington today. Facilities of Indianapolis and its Municipal Airport for aviation development are well known in Washington and considered unexecelled by any other inland city in the country. There are more than 200 acres at Municipal Airport owned by the City and available for industrial development. Some time ago, at the instigation of Mr. Green, the Works Board invited all the leading aircraft manufacturers in the nation to pick Indianapolis as a site for future development, and offered them land they would need at the airport at $1 an acre. The Mayor and his Board were considering a renewal of that offer and were considering ways and nieans ot putting the port in shape for such an expansion.
New Impetus Given Plan
company, through
It would be necessary, for instance, to build a sewage system, ana to extend gas and water mains and power lines to the port. A great deal of grading and filling would be necessary, and roads would have to be built. The meeting today was to get a picture of what will have to be dene, if and when the offers of land aie accepted, and how it can be financed.
This meeting was called Saturday | by Mayor Sullivan, and has received |
(Continued on pate Two)
FAIR WEATHER HERE
TO REMAIN A WHILE:
LOCAL TEMPERATURES
. m, 59 10 a. m. . 1 vn 6) Maw ...Y . mM. . 62 12 (noon)... 76 « M ... 67 1pm ... 7
There will be no more rain until tomorrow afternoon or night, the Weather Bureau said today. It will get warmer tonight, the Bureau said. Rainfall over the week-end was .68 of an inch.
TIMES FEATURES ON INSIDE PAGES
10 | Movies 1] 14 Mrs. Ferguson 10 «+. 13 Pegler 1 «+. 10! Pyle . 15 Questions 10] Radio 10 Mrs. Roosevelt 9 9 Scherrer 3 | Serial Story Inside Indpls. 10 Society Jane Jordan.. 5 Sports .. Johnson .,... 10 State Deaths. 16
Crossword Editorials Financial Flynn Forum Gallup Poll.
3, 3
Reginald |
Johnson | the City]
[ Nazi forces for a nine-mile loss.
French Call on Their 75° s
in the hope of| \ 2 is war-defense
Thousands of French 75's, the famous 3-inch guns of the World War, like the one shown above, have been rushed into the Meuse | salient in France in an effort to halt the advance of German mechanized columns. Firing at point-blank range, the guns are said to have | stopped some of the 30-ton and 70-ton mobile fortresses in the spearhead of the German attack. | ® & &
German lron Monsters Slowed
On Hot Plains of Picardy
Sleepless and Hunary Soldiers Continue Battle to Death With No Signs of Exhaustion.
By RALPH HEINZEN United Press Staff Correspondent FRENCH ARMY GENERAL HEADQUARTERS, Western Front, {May 20.—French tanks have gone into action in the battle between the River Somme and the Oisle Canal, on the hot plains of Picardy, and in [the first French victory of the German blitzkrieg Saturday threw back
Fifty miles from th their bases of supply, the German advanced mot—————orized columns were in some diffi-
culty under the intense French 92 DEAD HERE OF |counter-attacks and generally it was
|apparent here that the whole GerFive Killed in Accident Near
man drive had been slowed. Both big and little French tanks Ft. Wayne in Heavy Rain.
are in the battle. The French consider them the best in Europe. The great lumbering 7T0-ton tanks fire field guns and the smaller 15 and 20-ton tanks have heavy armaments Two Indianapolis persons, injured several weeks ago in City auto ac|cidents, died over the week-end of | their injuries. | In Indiana six persons were Killed
of machine guns and pom-pom antitank guns to destroy columns of lin week-end wrecks, five of them in one accident.
motorized infantry. The Indianapolis dead are:
Both big and little tanks have proved excellent weapons because MRS. MARGARET KNUDSEN, 78, injured Feb. 3. She died Saturday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Herman H. Rinne, 3046 Park Ave.
JOHN BIRT, 68 of 431 E. Louisiana St., injured March 1. He died last night in City Hospital. The deaths brought the City toll this year to 29, compared to 18 at this time last year. Dead in the state were:
DALE WILLIAM WELLS, 24, of (Continued on Page Three)
37,041 CITY HOMES ARE SUB-STANDARD
32.42 Per Cent of Total, WPA Survey Shows.
Approximately 37041 dwelling [units, or 32.42 per cent, of the total! lin Indianapolis are sub-standard, a! U. S. Department of Commerce sur-| vey of real property showed today. The survey is being conducted by the WPA to bring figures compiled | in 1934 up to date. Sub-standard dwellings are defined by the Department as those
{can crowd in closer and do much | [more destruction. The Germans have continued the tactics they used in Poland—tanks massed in the spearhead of the attack, preceding long columns of infantry which are carried into battle on pneumatic tired trucks. Against such a steel front there is only one report—more tanks. After anti-tank mines had been blown up in the German path— destroying many of the German tanks—there were none to stop the second wave. French tanks and 75's, however, offered a wall against which the Germans were unable for the moment at least to keep up their pace despite fighting of the fiercest sort. Again and again French tanks circled over the flat terrain to dash in to attack German columns from the flanks, while the field guns firing point blank blasted the German tanks. The Allies have now had time to realign their forces. Both armies, fighting for days with little sleep or food, have shown no signs of exhaustion.
COAL ACT UPHELD
is cc constitutional.
in need of major repairs, or which
have shared, or no inside sanitary| PARIS, May 20 (U. P.).—Gen.
they have much thicker armor plate | than the German ones and hence |
|
Weygand. Marshal Foch's Heir, Famed as Strategist
SWEDES SPURN REICH DEMAND, WRITER HEARS
Report Hitler Insists Troops Be Given Passage to Aid Force at Narvik. By PETER C. RHODES
United Press Staff Correspondent
STOCKHOLM, May 20 (By Tele-
phone to New York).—Sweden has
rejected German demands for per- | mission to ship materials and men
across Sweden for the relief of the besieged and garrison at Narvik, Norway, peachable sources said today. Negotiations continued, but the, present situation, informants said, |
unim- |
was that the demands had been | made and rejected and that Sweden|
had said
she would fight against]
any violation of her neutrality from |
whatever direction. Adolf Hitler should not be captured or wiped out, and that it should not weaken German prestige by retreating across the Norwegian frontier into Sweden. The commander of the German garrison, one Gen. Dietl, was said here te be a close friend of Hitler.
German Force Awaits Order
It was said that a German force!
had been concentrated for landing
was reported to be _. determined that the Narvik garrison | #
on the Swedish Gulf of Bothnia]
coast, and was ready to move at Hitler's order. Two reasons were given why the order, believed in some quarters to be imminent has been withheld: 1. Hitler's preoccupation with the! Nazi blitzkrieg on the Western Front; 2. The thought iy an open attack on Sweden might b and and Russia to her at But a United Press informant represented Hitler to be getting more anxious over the Narvik situation and it was believed in|
|
weakening German =~
2 WN
FRANCE
Rowen
—
PARIS® < l=
NETHERLANDS
EJ »
BELGIUM Brussels’ Germon drive on Pons diverted toward
ay
Times Telephoto
Fierce Allied resistance diverts German drive on Paris.
DENY CAPTURE OF ST. QUENTIN
some quarters that he might force Fpench Claim sol Isolated Nazi
the issue. by a final peremptory | demand or by action, at any time.
The Norwegian official agency said |
that Norwegian forces had taken a hill near the Bjornefjell Mountain, close to the Swedish frontier post of Risbgransen in the Narvik area. 1t was reported by the agency tha
only a small German force remained abandoned
Advances Brought Quickly Under Control.
PARIS, May 20 (U.P). —Ger-|
t many 's blitzkrieg tank wedges have |
their drive southwest-
inside Narvik while the main force ward toward Paris because of pow- |
were south of the Rombak Fjord, erful
(Continued on Page Three)
1940 WHEAT LOAN AVERAGES 64 GENTS
Wallace Acts After Sharp Declines for Week. WASHINGTON, May 20 (U. P.) —
Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. a 1940]
Wallace announced today
wheat loan program averaging about |
64 cents a bushel to producers. Mr. Wallace's announcement, approved by President Roosevelt, followed a week of sharp drops in wheat values during which the crop’s value declined approximately 32 cents. Department officials said that the announcement of the loan at an| average rate of 64 cents a bushel]
means that, with 1940 conservation ly in the St. Quentin region west of WASHINGTON, May 20 (U. P.).— and parity payments of 19 cents a | the Serre River and west of the | The Supreme Court today ruled that bushel the National Bituminous Coal Act, | operating in the AAA program are! with its comprehensive regulation of (assured an average return of at least the $2,000,000.000 soft coal industry, 83 cents a bushel at the farm, re-|
added, wheat
|gardless of market pr ees.
|
farmers co- Sambre-Oise Canal.
| ward,
pressure on their left flank by | the French, and because of the] threat that Allied forces retreating in western Belgium might wheel and attack their right flank, a military informant asserted today.
U. S. facing war, 50% now say in poll
Duce awaiting “sure winner,” says Simms......Page
Lindbergh asks sphere defense plan...
3
hemi.Page
Admiral Stirling urges 6point defense plan
3
Page 11
Nazi air methods rurprise 11
The Germans swung their main spearhead of attack toward the west and northwest, it was said, and despite terrible losses to five mechlanized divisions, attacked ferocious- |
They were ad-
vancing westward and northwestit appeared.
Nazis Feel Counter Pressure
A French spokesman denied German claims to the capture of St. Quentin, asserting’ that only a German motorcycle unit reached that important town and was quickly chased out. North of St. Quentin, however, the Germans drove deeper into France, and were reported to have attacked Peronne, only 60 miles
Prices
4 J meeting today that the 70-year-old | tory.
facilities, or those which lack heating equipment. A dwelling also is defined as sub-
1.51 persons per room. The survey showed that 33,702 dwelling units were physically sub-standard while only 579 units were sub-standard on an occupancy basis.
PIERRE S. DU PONT
WILMINGTON, Del, May 20 (U. P.).—Pierre S du Pont, most prominent member of the du Pont family, today retired as chief executive of the far-flung E. I. du Pont de | Nemours & Co. enterprises.
the company announced after their
o | executive had decided to retire and that his post as chairman would
9 be filled by Lammot du Pont, who . 14| was moved up from the presidency.|21 elected to become French.
Walter S. Carpenter Jr. formerly
dent of the company.
Maxime Weygand, France's great military technician and strategist, is the most famous soldier of the
from the English Channel. The advance to the Peronne-San
standard if it contains more than)
RETIRES FROM FIRM
In a surprise move, directors of |
World War who is in active service now. Although past the retirement age —he is T2—the grizzled warrioi was called to the post of commander-in-chief of the Allied Armies a second time. Upon reaching the retirement age five years ago, Weygand was succeeded by Gen. Maurice Gamelin. He missed adding his name to the illustrious roll of marshals of France because the government deGod in 1925 to name no more marshals.
{shal Ferdinand Foch’s heir, but more than that, he has been credited with many of the tactical ma|neuvers that brought the Allied vicHe was Foch’s chief-of-staff at that time. Belgian born, Weygand attended the French military school and at
On Foch’s death, Weygand as-
6, T|a vice president, was named presi- | sumed the chief command of the
on Page Three)
Gen. Weygand is known as Mar- |
Gen. Maxime Weygand . . . will new commander-in-chief turn the
j of St. Quentin and were smashing
'|Crozat Canal between St. Quetin
Quentin line seriously threatened the main French communications centers in the north at Amiens, only 30 miles from Peronne, and created speculation that the Germans would strike south toward Paris if they were able to reach Amiens. The Germans sliced a path north
at this defense line with tanks, armored cars and motorcycle columns, Nazis 65 Miles From Capital
Several German light mechanized units may have reached the outskirts of St. Quentin, according to Henri Bidou, military expert of L’Intransigeant, but they have failed to break the defense line along the
and Ia Fere. The Germans had been compelled, 65 miles away from Paris, to stop their drive on the capital, informants said. All fighting continued extremely
tide in favor of the Allies?
eH
confused, a military informant said, | (Continued on Page Three)
War Bulletins
EIRE CALLS RESERVES DUBLIN, May 20 (U. P.).— The Eire government said today that it had called certain classes of reservists to the colors over the week-end because “in the present circumstances the Government decided that this action was necessary to strengthen the defense forces.”
SETS UP GERMAN RULE
BERLIN, May 20 (U. P.).—The Official DNB News Agency said today that Chancellor Adolf Hitler had empowered Col. Gen, Walther von Brauchitsch, German Commander-in-Chief, to set up a military administration for occupied western territories.
THAMES GUARD TIGHTENED
LONDON, May 20 (U. P.).— Drastic police precautions were taken at all docks in the Thames Estuary today to prevent infiltration of German Fifth Columnists in scores of ships arriving from Holland. Military security patrols and Scotland Yard operatives combed every ship for evidence of Nazi agents. Several were arrested. Members of Dutch crews were not allowed ashore.
ALLIED RESISTANCE
BOLSTERS MARKET
Higher, Volume Under Friday’s. Trading was calmer on the New
York stock market today as reports were received that the Allies were
resisting the German advance with \
more success. Most prices were higher and volume was about a million shares less than Friday's pace. An optimistic [note was the fact that steel factories will operate 73 per cent of
[capacity this week, highest since
Jan. 29. Wheat futures at Chicago led all North American grains to higher price levels, rocketing 5 to 6'4 cengs above minimum prices established at the request of Agriculture Secretary Henry A. Wallace. May wheat closed at 85! cents a bushel while corn advanced 33% to 42 cents, the May future closing at 63'2 cents a bushel.
Censors Win In the End
By UNITED PRESS Censors in Europe are getting more careful about revealing secrets that might aid the other side. A United Press dispatch received from Paris yesterday said: PARIS, May 13 (U. P).— End item.
1
SURGE TO WENT PERILS ALLIED RAILWAY CENTER
| ‘Defense Lines Stiffen Under Weygand but Germans Advance to Within 60 Miles of Channel Ports.
By JOE ALEX MORRIS
United Press Foreign News Editor German mechanized armies hammered powerfully across the World War battlefields of the River Somme toward the English Channel today after French counter attacks had checked their frontal drive on Paris. A jagged front stretching from the River Oise to St. | Quentin and Peronne was the scene of fiercest fighting as | the Allied forces struggled to halt the Nazi offensive against ' the main communications centers of northern France and ‘the Channel ports, about 60 miles away. French military spokesmen claimed that their new 'commander-in-chief, Gen. Maxime Weygand, had stiffened defense lines that were still holding at Le Fere and St, | Quentin against intensified German thrusts but it was admitted that the fighting had surged to the outskirts of those towns and swept past St. Quentin on the north to Peronne,
Strike at Base of German Wedge
Dispatches from both Paris and Berlin indicated French counter-attacks had struck at the base of the German wedge driven into France, but the Germans claimed they had been repulsed, that the French-Belgian forces were pursued west» ward after a vain stab at Maubeuge. The German advance toward Peronne imperiled the center of railroad lines needed by Allied defenders in the north and threatened to cut off the British armies in that sector and in Belgium (from which they are retiring to an unspecified line) from the rest of France.
But it was still impossible to tell whether the Germans were concentrating everything on a drive through or around Amiens to the Channel ports, or whether they would follow previously-indicated strategy of trying to take Amiens and then moving southward against Paris.
Fighting Appears More Stubborn
In any event, the fighting appeared to be more stubborn on the part of the Allies who reported they were giving ground to the Germans in the St. Quentin-Peronne sector slowly and at a high price. The Allied anti-blitzkrieg assault had begun none too soon. The Germans were 65 miles from Paris; 85 from the French Channel ports. They were storming through Belgium, 60 miles from the Belgium coast and the British, mainstay of the Belgian defense line, had admitted that they might be forced out of Belgium altogether, to make a stand at Dunkerque, France, only 40 miles from Dover. The withdrawal of Allied forces from Begium, threatening the German left flank in France, was said to be one reason for the Germans abandoning their attack on Paris. Spirits were rising slightly in both France and Britain, but it was nowhere claimed that the Germans had been stopped or that the hour of peril for Paris and London was past. Italy Continues War Talk
Italy seethed with war talk. Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano said Italy would plunge into the war as soon ' as Benito Mussolini gave the word. Adolf Hitler again had changed the map of Europe, contingent upon a German victory, by incorporating inte the Reich the districts of Eupen, Malmedy and Moresnet (Continued on Page Three)
Pursuing Foe —Berlin
BERLIN, May 20 (U. P.).—German armies repulsed an Allied counter-attack with heavy losses along the Sambre River at the French frontier, the High Command said today, and resumed a pounding offensive through Belgium and France toward the English Channel,
German forces are
Line defenses along the Sambre, Somme and Oise Rivers, the High Command communique said. In Belgium, it stated, the Germans crossed the Dendre River and reached the headwaters of the Scheldt River as the “British retreated by forced marches toward the Channel ports.” In France, the High Command said, German tanks and motorized columns thrust forward to the World War battlefield on the Somme River, along the road from Cambrai to Peronne after previously reaching San Quentin, “French and Belgians suffered heavily” when they were repulsed in attempting to break through near Maubeuge, south of Valenciennes, the communique said.
Southwest of the Maubeuge sector, in the San Quentin area, the Germans appeared to be making
“continuing to pursue the in both Belgium and in the wide wedge driven into the French Maginot
retreating enemy”
| their biggest drive toward the | English Channel at the mouth of the River Somme, 65 miles from Peronne, in conjunction with the advance of their right wing through Belgium toward the Channel ports. The advance of motorized columns to the 1916 battlefield of the Somme, on the Cambrai-Peronne road, as reported by the High Come mand, indicated that a triangle formed by Cambrai-Peronne-San Quentin was the scene of most des« perate fighting. The Nazi air force redoubled its attacks, the High Command report= ed, with German dive bombers and destroyer planes (carrying cannon) smashing enemy tank columns move ing north from the French town of Laon and compelling them to fall back. The French thrust north from (Continued on Page Three)