Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 January 1943 — Page 5

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"ALLIES SINK § JAPANESE SHIPS

MacArthur Bombers Strike

Rabaul as Anxiety in Australia Mounts.

GEN. MacARTHUR'S HEADQUARTERS, Australia, Jan. 6 (U. P.).—Allied planes, in a shattering blow at a new Japanese invasion fleet, have sunk nine and probably 10 ships, totaling more than 50,000 tons, at Rabaul, in

New Britain island, it was an-|&

" nounced ‘today. Striking at a moment when Aus-|§

tralia was fearful of a major Japanese offensive, possibly even against this continent, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's giant Consolidated liberator and Boeing flying fortress bombers attacked the Japanese fleet concentration in two waves. They planted 1000-pound bombs on eight supply ships and transports, a destroyer tender and a destroyer tied alongside it. The bombers, raiding without fighter escort, shot down six Japanese fighter planes which tried to intercept them. Only one bomber was missing when the communique announcing the raid, possibly the most successful in the Southwest Pacific campaign, was issued.

Allied Bomber Missing For two days, Australian govern-

Fment and other sources had been

expressing fears of new Japanese aggression, asserting that a powerful Japanese fleet was assembling at Rabaul, Japan's biggest base®in the southwest Pacific, lying $00 miles south of its own Truk islands base. As he had done at Milne bay and in the Owen Stanley mountains when the Japanese threatened

‘Port Moresby, New Guinea, Mac-

Arthur struck just at the moment when anxiety was becoming acute. A powerful force of the Consolidated B-24s made up the frst wave of the attack on Rabaul harbor. It was their biggest day of the war in this area.

Enjoy Good Visibility

The four-motored bombers swept over Rabaul harbor to find three ships still burning as the result of earlier attacks. Heavy gun fire from the ships in the harbor started at once. The planes remained in formation and made runs again and again over the hottest part of the harbor, picking the best targets. The bombers went in at medium level and visibility was good. They took such care that between 12 and 15 Japanese zero fighters were in the air toward the end. The Consolidateds, bristling with guns, shot down three and made for home, Then the fortresses, the second wave, went over and completed the

destruction.

Between eight and 10 zeros attacked them, and three were downed. Ships Left Burning All eight supply ships were left burning or sinking. The destroyer tender was in sinking condition and it was believed the destroyer sank also to make a total of 10 ships in one raid. . In combined operations against Japanese bases in the area between Rabaul and the Buna coast in northern New Guinea, MacArthur's heavy, medium and attack bombers and fighter planes made four

separate raids and the enemy po-|

sitions at Sanananda point 214 miles from Buna, last nest of organized resistance in Papuan New Guinea, were bombed and machined gunned.

CAPTAIN: SIBERT IS CITED AGAIN

Former Basketball Star May Have Taken Part In Naples Raid.

The chances are that Indianapolis was well represented in the devastating air raid on Naples recently. The distinguished flying cross was awarded yesterday to Capt. James William Sibert, 931 N. Grant ave. former Trafalgar high school and Anderson college basketball star. Capt. Sibert was one of 81 officers and men of the U. S. air force who received medals from Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton, commander of the American air forces in the Middle East. Received Silver Medal His friends here believe that Capt. Sibert’s award was for his part in the Naples raid. Last summer he received the silver star for action against the Italian fleet when it tried to intercept a united nations convoy in the Mediterranean. =. He lived with his sister, Mrs. Claude Harrison, in Indianapolis. He was graduated from Trafalgar high school and was a varsity basketball player four years at Anderson college. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Sibert, live in Edinburg, Ind. Capt. Sibert and Lieut. Thomas K. Dickenson of West Lafayette, who also was awarded the distinguished flying cross, both have made more than 200 hours of operational flight against the enemy.

NAZI WRITER ADMITS AGONIES IN RUSSIA

LONDON, Jan. 8 (U., P.)—An exchange telegraph agency dispatch said today that the military writer of the Brusseller Zeitung, Nazi-pub-lished newspaper in Brussels had admitted that “exhaustion of Russia appears impossible.” The writer was qouted as saying: “Last year’s phenomenon has been repeated in supernatural fashion and the Russian hydra (monster of Greek mythology) again regrows its severed head. The horrifying ears.”

SAFE LOOTED OF $266 Burglars last night escaped with $266 from a safe of the Bowes Seal Fast Corp., 225 N. Pine st., Richard Whipple, 3511 N. Wallace ave., com-

pany secretary, reported to police.

VITAL TUNISIAN

HILL CAPTURED

British Tale Eminence 30}

Miles From Bizerte; Axis Ports Bombed.

By EDWARD W, BEATTIE United Press Staff Correspondent LONDON, Jan. 6—British forces in Tunisia have seized a strategic hill position approximately 30 miles southwest of Bizerte while at the other end of the African battlefront, forward - elements of the eighth army stabbed at axis defenses around Misurata, only 125 miles east

{of Tripoli, dispatches reported today.

A British brigade supported by the R. A. F. and American artillery drove German units from strong hill positions, 15 miles west of Mateur, apex of the northeastern Tunisia defense triangle. . Radio Morocco reported that patrols of the British eighth army meanwhile were striking at the defenses of Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Korps at both approaches to Misurata, 200 miles east of Tunisia. Misurata Is Occupied

Italian rear guards had evacuated Buerat el Hsun, 75 miles southeast of Misurata, the broadcast reported, and British troops occupied that gulf of Sirte town immediately. American and British planes from the Middle East pounded "Sousse, reinforcement port on the Tunisian east coast, in a smashing daylight raid yesterday. Axis installations were damaged. American flying fortresses operating from bases in Tunisia, battered the east coast port of Sfax, scoring probable hits on an axis cruiser and directly hitting two other enemy ships. Medium marauder bombers raided the axis air field at Kairouan, 30 miles west of Sousse. U. S. Strength Grows

Meanwhile Lieut. Gen. Magk W. Clark, formerly of Indianapolis, whose secret visit laid the groundwork for the invasion of North Africa, had been placed in charge of the newly formed American fifth army. London observers said the appointment indicated the growing strength of United States forces in North Africa. The battles of Tunisia and Tripolitania were gradually merging, and the forces of Marshal Rommel and Lieut. Gen. Walther Nehring were so close together that they were drawing on the same pool of supplies and men. Mud restricted operations on the northern sector in Tunisia, but on the southern sector, where the Germans had suffered heavy losses in futile efforts to turn the allied right flank, heavy fighting was reported raging. ‘

Beg Pardon! Town

Bombing an Error

READING, JKas., aJn. 6 U.. PP)... —Residents of this Lyons county community krew today why they had difficulty sleeping on New Year’s night. The town was bombed. Residents of the community reparted that two officers from the Topeka air base have visited the city and rendered an opinion that bombardiers raistook the lights of Reading for flares on a bombing range five miles north of town. Citizens reported .a number of 100-pound practice bombs fell on the community. No damage was caused, although one struck within 100 feet of a house. The bombing was done from an altitude of 8000 feet.

tide against the

terminate stage.

Meanwhile the Germans are gain-

forces and strengthen their defen-

sive position. They apparently are determined to hold to the last ditch and will be hard to dislodge. In the air, the allied forces are superior and are doing considerable damage to axis communications and port bases. The enemy seems to be conserving his air strength for the real test to come. The British eighth army is still able to advance and present indications are that Marshal Erwin Rommel’s German army either will have to try to stand at Tripoli or retreat across the Tunisian border to join forces with Gen. Walther Nehring. In the Pacific, major developments may not be expected from allied initiative in the immediate future. The Japanese, however, may strike in force at any time. Australian reports of a large Japanese naval concentration at Rabaul on New Britain island, east of New

the situation in the two other principal theaters of war—North Africa and the Far East—is in an inde-

In Africa, the allied ground forces in Tunisia ‘have been balked by the weather in their drive to chase the axis info the sea. Tanks are unable to operate in the seasonal mud and the opposing forces are sparring, awaiting the propitious time to strike for a decision. That may not be until next month.

ing valuable time to build up their

Germans in the winter campaign,

Guinea, were denied by Navy Secretary Frank Knox, but they indicate that the Australians are looking for a new Japanese blow. On returning from a tour of the fronts, Maj. Gen. Millard F. Harmon of the army air force told correspondents that the present lull is temporary and that “neither we nor the Japanese are going to continue this way indefinitely.” On Guadalcanal, the Americans are making some progress, but it is a slow process. They landed there last Aug. 7 and took a three-mile stretch of beach. They now hold 18 miles of beach. According to a dispatch from Robert Miller, United Press correspondent at Guadalcanal, the American marines and the soldiers who joined them after the original land-

Guadalcanal, extending five miles inland from the beach. They also have the nearby islands of Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo.

ing hold an 80-square-mile area of]

SOUTHERN BLOG GAINS IN POWER

New House Lineup Likely To Affect Many of FDR’s

Objectives.

‘By THOMAS L. STOKES Times Special Writer

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6.— The most important political fact to be faced by President Roosevelt in the new congress is the rise of the South, with its basic economic and

social conservatism, to a position of power and influence it has not enjoyed since the New Deal swept into Washington a decade ago. This will have impacts in many directions, with possible effects upon the president’s existing social and economic reform program, his legislative objectives for the next two years and his own and other New Dealers’ ambitions to retain control of the party at the 1944 convention,

Power Increases

Now, however, the southern Democrats are far more than a tail

capitol went up proportionately with the whittling down in the last election of Democratic representation from states outside the south. A sober statistic or two will tell the story. Take the house, where the two major parties are very closely divided as a result of the November election, with 222 Democrats and 208 Republicans, four members of other parties and one vacancy caused by the death of a Republican. Democrats from the 11 southern states hold 103 seats of the 222. Add the 27 Democratic seats in the border states, where conservatism largely prevails—Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia—and the total is 130, well over half of the Democratic mem-

bership.

Dig Tooth From Sailor's Throat

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (U. P.). —An unidentified sailor with a “toothache” in his esophagus went to a surgeon instead of a dentist and the tooth was removed by an abdominal operation. The naval medical bulletin reported that the sailor swallowed a false tooth, set in a two-inch plate, while he was asleep. He was taken to the U. S. naval hospital at Corpus Christi, Tex., and doctors found it was impossible to remove the tooth by way of the throat. An incision was made in the

on the dog, for their power at the]

stomach and an esophagoscope used to find the tooth. It was grasped with forceps, and by slow and - skilful maneuvering was withdrawn. ‘

MKINNEY RESIGNS FLOOD BOARD POST

E. Kirk McKinney has resigned from the Indianapolis board of flood control commissioners. His resignation, tendered to Mayor Tyndall before he took office last week, became effective Dec. 31. Mr. McKinney was an appointee of former Mayor Sullivan, who named him to the board Jan. 1, 1941 for a four-year term. The two remaining members of the board are M. G. Johnson, who serves as an ex-officio representative of the city ‘engineer’s office, and Tino Poggiani, who has served -three years of a four-year term to which he was appointed by the Marion county council with the approval of former Mayor Sullivan, Mayor Tyndall has taken no action to fill the position.

HAILLAUX TO SPEAK

Homer Chaillaux, Americanism director for the American Legion, will talk on world events at a meeting of the Indianapolis Piano

Friday at the D. A. R. chapter

house, 824 N. Pennsylvania st.

Except Record

‘Teachers’ association at 10 a. m.|-

Today's War Moves|LEBRUN IN AFRIC!

By LOUIS F. KEEMLE United Press War Analyst

While the Fussians appear to have turned the

FREE FRENCH CL!

NEW YORK, Jan. 8 (U. P).The Fighting French Braziu ile radio, heard by the FCC, reru ted today in a broadcast to France and the French empire that Albe © Labrun, president of France, h:d ar rived in North Africa. Lebrun escaped to Africa fom the occupied zone of Franc: ile broadcast said. : Lebrun, 71, was elected pre:icent of France in 1932 and re-elec icc in 1939. Thus, if he were in p sicitn to assume French leacerst pn in Africa, he could do so as th duly constituted president of the 1 rench republic, ending at once th: pgolitical problems which have haset the allies in Africa.

BICYCLE RIDER HUR' A bicycle-autorhobile aceide if; today sent Earl Irwin, 67, of 1:1. I. 1ith st. to St. Vincent's hospital with a broken leg. “ The bicyc er was struck by an auto. drivcr hy Carl Creed, 39, of 525 S. 3o:art ave, at English ave. and Sherman dr.

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