Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 March 1944 — Page 1
FORECAST: Cloudy with some Hkelinon of rain tonight ; decreasing cloudiness tomorrow ; warmer early tonight; slightly colder tomorrow.
owAr?% VOLUME 55 NUMBER 14
4 By LOUIS
USS
The most stfiking thi
F. KEEMLE Foreign Editor -
ng about the overwhisimite
Russian offensive, aside from the great area of Soviet territory regained so quickly, is the fact that the Russian "army is now completely master of the military situation. The Germans apparently are no longer capable of effective counter-attack anywhere from west of the Pripet
Dirt Farmer Lea
ds Hoosier GOP
Ralph Gates (left) and his successor, John Lauer.
LAUER ELECTED T0 PARTY HELM
Gates Resigns as Chairman Of State Committee to
Run for Governor.
By NOBLE REED Out of the hills of Vermillion and
Although Mr. Gates has been openly campaigning for the guber-
natorial nomination many months,
used the power of my office in the furtherance of my personal fortune.” Mr. Lauer, a towering six-footer with the weathered face of a man of the soil, and a close personal
friend of Mr. Gates, announced that
he will “continue the party policies that have been in effect for the past few months.” He is Republican chairman of the sixth congressional district, having succeeded Secretary of State Rue Alexander when the latter resigned last fall. Mr. Lauer's selection for the chairmanship resulted from the simple “process of elimination”
(Continued on Page 3~—Column 3)
LOCAL TEMPERATURES
6am... 32 7am... 31 8am... 32 Sam... 34
36 39
10a m..... 11a m.... 12 (Noon).
41 1pm... 42
Glass of Beer ~ Soon May Cost | 1 Penny More
| Those steel pennies may come in handy for Indianapolis brew | quaffers who, after April 1, can expect to fork over an extra cent for their suds in some bars at least, A check of better-known taverns and the Indiana Brewers Association revealed that some beer managers are wearying of absorbing the avalanche of war taxes and probably will decide to pass the new 1 cent a glass levy on to
MNUTT FAVORS TIGHT" 4-F PLAN
Proposes ‘Not Even Minority Will Be Able to —~ Evade Duty.
BULLETIN PROVIDENCE, R. IL, March 28
(U. P)~Maj. Gen. Lewis B. | Hershey, director of selective service, said today that he is prepared to ask -the war and navy departments to induct physically deferred men (4 F's) into “work battalions” if such a move appears’ necessary fo advance the war effort.
WASHINGTON, March 28 (U.P). —War Manpower Chief Paul V. McNutt, reiterating personal-oppo-sition to national service legislation, proposed today that “crushing” manpower demands of the future be
(Another Story, Page Nine)
met in part by tightening control over 4-Fs “so that not even a small minority will be able to evade their duty.” McNutt told a house military affairs © subcommittee investigating draft deferments that although a national service law “would have been helpful 18 months ago.” he feels now that “the job has been done.” “Why undo it?” he asked.
22 War Workers Are Killed As Hotel Bursts Info Flame
SAN FRANCISCO, March 28 (U. P.).~Fire, believed to have been set by a pyromaniac, raced through the 50-room New Amsterdam hotel last night, killing at least 22 .persons, most of them sleeping ship- , yard workers, and injuring 21 The blaze, which climaxed a.series of fires last night in cheap
hotels and rooming house in the area south of Market st, spread with lightning rapidity through all floors of the building, trapping many of the occupants and burning others to death in their sleep. The fire broke out about midnight and firemen fought for two hours before the flames were brought under control. Four hours after the fire had been
TIMES FEATURES ON INSIDE PAGES
discovered, ambulance crews and rescue squads still were carrying out the bodies of the dead and the unconscious forms of those overcome by smoke.
Amusements. . 12 8 16 16 «10 . 10 13 nO
Movies
serene
Obituaries ...
- Meta Given .. 13 J. W, Hillman
In Indpls. ... In Service
Ruth Millett , 10 vaenes 13 12 12
] | Womens News 13]
Three times last night, firemen were summoned to fires in other small hotels and rooming houses in the same district, and in all cases, they reported, a definite odor of gasoline or kerosene was discovered. All were extinguished before any serious damage was done, Most of the hotel rooms were occupied by sleeping shipyard workers. Many of them fled to the
land ‘in nets held beneath them by firemen. One woman was believed to have broken her back when she landed,
4 4
+
-P war as may be necessary to facili-
on Fa 2am 08
nearest windows and attempted to].
TUESDAY, MARCH
marshes to the Black sea. Their efforts to hold out at such points as Tarnopol and in the exposed salient northéast of Kanenets Podolski are ending disastrously.
Even the big southern
wedge which the Germans
have maintained so tenaciously between the lower Dniester and Bug rivers appears to be in great danger as the Russians slash away at their dwindling lines of retreat
far to the rear.
’
CRISIS IN WAR NEAR, STIMSON WARNS SENATE
Opposes Any Modification In Controls to Insoire
False Optimism.
WASHINGTON, March 28 (U. P.)—Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson said today that “we are approaching a crisis in the war effort” and urged congress not to modify the stabilization program in any way which might “give false hopes about the early termination” of hostilities. Testifying before the senate banking committee, which is considering extension of the stabilization program, Stimson said he hoped congress would continue the rogram” for such time after the
tate and protect the conversion of industry from war work to fullfledged peace-time economy of production and employment.” Discussing price control from the “standpoint of the military effort” and asserting that the returning soldier will be vitally .affected by domestic conditions in the postwar period, Stimson added:
Warms of False Hopes “The vitally important objective is to avoid doing anything which will either give false hopes about the early termination of the war or which will in any way tend to disturb the morale of the soldier in
"in contrast to its ex-
ceeded in avoiding a dangerous rise he added. He attributed
The 7,500,000 men and women in the army, he added, have a huge stake in the soundness of the dollar. | More than 5,000,000 dependency allotment checks aggregating almost | $300,000,000 are sent out each month; army insurance totals al-
most $74,000,000,000, represented by! 10,000,000 polices;
Love Victor At Anzio in Photo Finish
By ROBERT V. VERMILLION United Press War Correspondent ON THE 5TH ARMY BEACHHEAD, Italy, March 27 (Delayed) —An American army nurse
ing of cannon on the Anzio beachhead tonight, but the wed-
ding almost didn’t come off be- .
cause of a surprise German air raid that caught the bride in her shower. 2 » » The raiders finally went home and 2d Lt. Genevieve Clarke, 26, Allison Park, Pa. and Lt. Thomas G. Rose, 33, Lancaster, O., marched up to a crude altar in the beachhead hospital area for the first real front-line wedding of the Italian campaign. About 300 nurses, officers and G. L's sat around on empty ammunition cases with their steel helmats-at their feét, and a small organ wheezed out the bridal chorus from Lohengrin, while all around the horizon our big guns
(Contimed on Page 2=Column © pa yt Pl 33
YANKS HAMMER
perience in world war I, has suc-
NAZI AIRDROMES
Hundreds of Bombers Roar Deep Into France jn Big Assault.
LONDON, Hundreds of American Flying Fortresses struck at German air bases
in France for the second straight war bond pur- {day today, bombing four big fields! ed t chases by servicemen total about 45 to 165 miles from Paris in three , ,,.ihle Russian move in the
$60,000,000 a month thrgugh payroll directions.
deductions, and, in addition, men| overseas send home each month approximately $20,000,000 in addition to regular allotments, Stimson disclosed. “I think that everything .possible should be done to safeguard the value of these savings as evidence of our good faith towards the men who are carrying ‘the fight to the enemy,” he added. “The plight of the families in a period of rapidly rising prices is too easily visualized to require any elaboration.” - Senator Robert A. Taft (R. O.) told Stimson the price control act would be continued but. that amendments were indicated “to correct injustices.”
Hoosier Heroes—
2 HOOSIER AIRMEN ON CASUALTY LIST
Sgt. F. L. Reed Killed and
J. L. Mitchell Missing.
COMBAT over Nazi territory in Europe has claimed two Indianapolis airmen among the killed and missing in action,
Second Lt. John L. Mitchell, formerly of Indianapolis. - - 2 SGT. FRANCIS L. REED, a Filying Fortress tail gunner, was killed in action Jan. 11 in a bombing mission over Ger-
many. : The 21-year-old flier, who had been missing since Jan. 11, was the | nephew of Mrs. Helen Hodges, § 1302 N. Ewing st, and made his home with her before enlisting. Sgt. Reed A former employee of the Quality Tool & Die Co., Sgt. Reed was 2
‘graduate of Technical high school.
He entered the army Dec. 5, 1942,
! (Continued gp Page. 2-—Column 1)
with
Up to 500 Fortresses protected by] a like number of United States fighter planes fanned out over northern, central and eastern France to attack Nazi airdromes at Chartres, Chateaudun, Rheims and Dijon. The new attacks carried forward Lt. Gen. Carl A. Spaatz’s campaign of attrition against the German air force a day after 1900 American planes had blasted nine German bases strung from the regions of Paris to the Pyrenees.
Fields Are Damaged
Today's bombardment extended over hundreds of square miles of France. The deepest penetration by the Fortresses carried -to Dijon, 165 miles southeast of Paris and only 65 miles from the Swiss border, The other targets were Chartres, 45 miles southwest of Paris, one of the German fields attacked yesterday; Chateaudun, 28 miles to the south, and Rheims, 80 miles north east-of Paris. United States headquarters said photographs confirmed that the American heavy bombers “severely damaged” seven of the Nazi fields
attacked yesterday and did consid-|
erable damage at the other two,
THREATEN HUNGARIAN JEWS LONDON, March 28 (U. P).—A
_-| Budapest broadcast said today that ‘|German-occupied Hungary. would
inaugurate an anti-Jewish pogrom.
* {German elements in Finland's de-
March 28 (U. P).—|
2, Tou
Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice Indianapolis 9, Ind. Issued daily except Sugday
omplete Masters Of Situation ... Nazi Initiative Lost
it appears that the German long-range plans for a
slow and orderly withdrawal
during the summer months
from the Bug, the Dniester and as a last resort the Prut rivers have bogged down into chaotic unpreparedness. The Russian ability to overcome the handicap of the ~ spring mud; their greatly superior mobility and the power with which they were able to strike in turn at so many
SWEDEN FEARS HITLER PLANS
At Key Points Along - Baltic Seacoast.
LONDON, P.). — Stockholm dispatches said today that German reinforcements have arrived at Turku (Abo) and Hango in
Swedish quarters feared Germany may be contemplating occupation of her northern partner. Supporting the belief that a new {crisis was brewing in Finland, the Stockholm newspaper Svenska Dagbladet carried a heavily-censored dispatch from Helsinki predicting that “events which will interest the whole world” were likely shortly, “causing domestic problems to re-
In addition to sending reinforce- | ments to Turku and Hango, the; Germans were said to have massed) large concentrations of troops and| materials at Stettin and other Bal-! tic ports for impending operations. “It is an open secret that the,
fensés in the Baltic sea are considerably more prominent than they were a few weeks ago,” a dispatch] {from the Stockholm bureau of! United Press said.
Peace Move Fails
Though the Germans representhemselves as apprehensive over
| Baltic area as soon as the Finnish | gulf is free of ice, the Swedish dis- {| patches implied - they might be using” their concern as a cloak under which to take over control of] Finland. Only a fortnight ago, a Finnish attempt to arrange a separate peace with Russia failed when the Finns refused Soviet demands for the inSom of 100,000 German troops in Finland and withdrawal of Finnish troops to their 1940 borders.
Heir Dragged From Bed on Draft Charge
WASHINGTON, March 28 (U. P.).—William Cammack, 13-year-‘old co-heir to a $2,329,000 fortune, was arrested yesterday on charges of draft evasion by U. S. deputy
FINLAND COUP
‘New Troops Are Reported
and a signal corps lieutenant | were married against the boom-
March 28 (U.|
southwestern Finland and]
PRICE FOUR CENTS
vital points over the whole of the front are factors which upset the: German calculations. It now appears certain that the Goris will not be
able to regain the initiative.
Their problem is rather how
strong a defense they can put up against the Carpathians
and the Transylvanian Alps. FThey may be able to hol
d there because the mountain
(Continued on Page 3 —Column 5)
SOVIETS IN PRE-WAR POLAND, CUT ESCAPE LINE, SAYS BERLIN
Allison Turns
Out 50, 000th *
The 50,000th Allison engine goes to war. . .. Maj. Gen. John F.
Curry (left), commander of the
army air forces western technical
training command, and E. B. Newill, Allison general manager, look over the 50,000th engine which came off the production line at the local
plant today.
“1800 TO ATTEND,
AIRPORT DINNER
Honoring Memory of Weir Cook.
TODAY'S PROGRAM P.M.
2:00—Aviation exhibit at World
ing detachment band.
morial dinner at Scottish Rite cathedral. 7:30—Concert by Billings general hospital band at aviation exhibit. 10—Exhibit closes.
Indianapcls’ week-long tribute to] the late Col. H. Weir Cook will be climaxed tonight when 1800 citizens, army officers and fliers attend the dinner at" Scottish Rite cathedral at 6:30 p. m. to rename the municipal airport in honor of the pioneering airman.
Gen. John F. Curry, commanding officer of the army air forces western technical training command, and Lt. Gen. Joseph T. McNarney. deputy chief of staff of the army who was a close- friend of Col. Cook. Other highlights of the day's aviation program included the produc-:« tion of the 50,000th liquid-cooled
marshals who broke into his home | through a window and pulled him out of bed. An aunt stood behind the locked front door and dared them to try to break in. The dramatic arrest followed nearly two months of attempts by selective service officials to get Cammack to register. He became 18 on Jan. 25. Officials even came to his home to register him
(Continued on Page 3—Column 8)
TOMORROW'S JOB—
Auto Industry Hindered By Maze of Uncertainties
By EDWARD A. EVANS Scripps-Howard Staff Writer DETROIT, March 28.—“Imagine a nearsighted man in a dark room, wearing boxing gloves and trying to measure a jellyfish with rubber
calipers.”
That, according to Managing Director George Romney of the Automotive Council for War Production, provides some idea of how the automobile industry feels w! it finds time to think: about its post-war
The industry's future is crowded
— When
{to start by building just about
will Germany go down? How long after that’ before the Japs quit? What volume and kind of production will be needed in the war's final stages? Will there be enough synthetic rubber? How long will high wartime costs and taxes continue? And so on and, Qn. For this industry, reconversion will have to be a total process— a complete changeover df plants to production of entirely different things than are now being made. It has one certainty: It will have
(Continued on Page 3—Column 6)
STH ARMY'S GUNS POUNDING CASINO
Ground Fighting Subsides to
.-... Patrol Actions.
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, Naples, March 28 (U. P.).—The big guns of the allied 5th army continued to pound German strongpoints inside Cassino today while ground fighting all along the Italian battlefront subsided into a series of small-scale patrol actions.
mention of the weeks-old campaign to reduce Cassino, which American and Canadian army newspapers said yesterday had ended in failure, but headquarters spokesmen indicated
halted momentarily while allied artillerymen took over the job of battering the enemy's defenses. Allied shellfire was concentrated again on the Continental hotel and the Hotel des Roses, the two main German fortifications in: Cassino. Nazi guns countered with a heavy and sustained bombardment of al-
(Continued on Page 3—Column 1)
the surrounding hills.
Program to Climax Week
War Memorial plaza opened. | Concert by 52d college train- |
6:30—Col. H. Weir Cook me- |
The dinner speakers will be Maj. |
A terse communique made noj §
lied positions inside the town and in
Secret Plane ° Will Be Powered by Liquid Cooled Motor.
| THE ALLISON liquid-cooled aircraft engine, which already is
the army air forces fighter planes, is now in production for a plane { still on the secret list, E. B. Newill, general manager of the Allison | division of General Motors, said | today as the 50,000th engine rolled { off the assembly line. 2 = = Accompanied by Maj. Gen. John F. Curry, commander of the army | air forces western technical training command at Denver, Colo, Mr. Newill watched workmen put
| No. 50000. It is rated at 1800 horsepower against the horsepower of Engine No. 1 which first flew in December, 1936. In plant ceremonies marking the production of the 50,000th engine and Indianapolis’ aviation emphasis week, Mr. Newill congratulated the thousands of Alli- | son employees on their record of keeping ahead of army production quotas. He also cited the | record of Allison engines which
(Continued on Page 3—Column 4
LODGE IS REPORTED
ON ITALIAN FRON
received here yesterday.
duty in the army.
that street fighting in the town had | =
the powerplant for 50 per cent of |
the finishing touches on Engine |
1000 |
are powering the Curtiss War- |
————
MAKES USUAL p HILTON > Mo
100,000 Germans in Trap
| - As Two Russian Armies Reach Rumania.
LONDON, March 23 (U. P.).—The Berlin radio said today that Russian troops had crossed the upper Prut river in pre-war Poland—an appar‘ent acknowledgement that {the Russ army had cut the LwowBucharest railroad, the last direct link between the split southern German army group. Col. Ernst von Hammer, Nazi radio commentator, reported the Soviet crossing of the Prut in the area of Kolomyja, 48 miles northwest of Cernauti and 100 miles southeast of Lwow, where the railroad parallels the river, crossing it a few miles below that town. Von Hammer dropped a velled hint that the Russians may have smashed across the middle Prut from Bessarabia into Rumania proper. He said a Soviet attempt to take Iasi by storm had failed, suggesting that Russian assault forces had charged across the river to the town which lies seven miles | west of it at the closest point. Customary Nazi Claim Moscow dispatches had reported | earlier that the 2d army of the | Ukraine had swept down the cast { bank of the Prut to the Iasi crossing {and had sécured the crossing’s east side. : The Berlin broadcast claimed that {the Soviet troops who forced the jupper Prut in the Kolomyja area ‘had been “annihilated by a coun-|ter-attack” — a customary Nazi | propaganda claim incident to the !acknowledgment of a major Soviet
gain. {The Nazis also reported that Ruse sian forces were storming Tarnopol, ‘encircled German basé in pre-war (Poland, as well as Brody and {Knowel to the northwest. They {claimed that all the efforts had | failed. The apparent breaking of the 'Lwow-Bucharest railroad was one "of the most staggering blows the Germans had suffered in the de‘bacle on the southern front. Completes Split The main line winds down around ) [the Carpathians, and its loss com{pleted the split of the German ‘armies in the Ukraine and Bessarabia from those to the north in old Poland. The reported Russian drive to the
BOSTON, March 28 (U. P.).—Lt. | Kolomyja area carried a Soviet Col. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. now is; spearhead more than 25 miles down ‘in the thick of things on the from the last announced position at Italian front,” according to a letter | captured Gorodenka to within a
/scarit 30 miles of the Carpatho-
Lodge resigned from the U. S. Ukraine, the eastern tip of pre-war senate several weeks ago for active Czechoslovakia which Hungary
| claimed.