Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 June 1944 — Page 1

VOLUME 55—NUMBER 90

FORECAST: Fair today and tomorrow; slightly warmer tomorrow.

SATURDAY, JUNE

24, 1944

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice Indianapolis 9, Ind. Issued daily except Sundsy

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PRICE FOUR CENTS

Storm Victim Digs In Rubble, Smiles As She Finds Pictures Of Service Sons

By FRANK K. NOLL United Press Staff Correspondent

McKEESPORT, Pa., June 24.—A middle-aged a

tears forming an irregular face

white line on her begrimed

, searched feverishly today through the rubble of what

was once her home in the devastated little town of

Greenock.

Turning over a mound of mortar and brick .about the

‘spot where the living room

should have been, she knelt

down and extracted two flat objects from among the

debris. Then, smilling through ~ articles in her had ou voice: = “I found them.” ”

w

her tears, she clutched the a note of triumph in her

They were pictures of her two servicemen sons—one

a soldier, the other a sailor.

That was all this woman was able to sslvageand some were not as lucky as she—in the wake of a tornado

FLEET ATTEMPTING

CHERBOURG FLIGHT

YANKS BREAK RING OF FORTS AROUND CITY

Convoy of Merchantmen And Warships Shot Up

In Channel.

By VIRGIL PINKLEY United Press Staff Correspondent ALLIED SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, - London, June 24.—American troops broke through the Cherbourg defense perimeter today and supreme headquarters revealed that British warships intercepted and wrecked a German convoy which tried to break out + of the beleaguered Normandy port last night, An allied spokesman said that

unless the Germans surrender within the next few hours, the bat-

By HENRY T. GORRELL United Press Staff Correspondent ABOARD OBSERVATION PLANE OVERLOOKING CHERBOURG, June 24—From this

vantage point in a grasshopper Soties Diane 1 Sun: ues uly sus strongpoint still firing Simi eciavsun. svi) Seine mating Cherbourg. Floating like a seagull over the battlefront in a Piper Cub observation plane, I can see the remains of scores of German strong points with what had been fine guns of all calibers. Now they are masses of twisted steel,

tle of Cherbourg probably will develop into fighting at close quarters through the streets of the city. “Progress against Cherbourg is slow but steady as systematic advances continue,” the spokesman said a few hours after United Press War Correspondent Henry T. Gorrell reported from outside Cherbourg that the Americans had driven within little more than a mile of the city limits. The full import of the German vonvoy's attempt to make a run

Nazis Shof by Own Officers At Cherbourg

By RICHARD D. McMILLAN United Press Staff Correspondent BEFORE CHERBOURG, June 24. —German officers in Cherbourg have begun carrying out their commander’s orders to shoot on sight any Nazi who leaves his position, Under the threat of their officers’ rifies and pistols, the trapped enemy soldiers were dying by thousands as their strongpoints were mowed down under the steamroller barrage of the

group of German soldiers who disregarded the order of commanding Gen. Dietrich von Schlieben to “fight with heroism to the death.” They sald they preferred to risk

YANKS ARE IN SAIPAN CAPITAL

Enter Garapan Virtually Unopposed; Others Fight

Up Mountain.

By RICHARD W. JOHNSTON United Press Staff Correspondent ABOARD EXPEDITIONARY FLAGSHIP, SAIPAN, June 24.— American patrols in Saipan entered the suburbs of Garapan, capital city of the Japanese Marianas, almost unopposed today while other forces of leathernecks and doughboys fought their way up the junglecovered slopes guarding Mt. Tapot-

for it was not clear immediately.| chau

Official advices failed to reveal whether it represented a desperate Punkerque in miniature.

Seven Merchantmen

The convoy consisted of seven ‘merchantmen escorted by warcraft. British light naval forces pounced on it as it tried to break out of the port. Two merchantmen were destroyed, three damaged badly, and the remainder of the:convoy sought Selfuge at Alderney in the chanhel

el Svitis fotiad sillened hues ficial damage and a small number

(Continued on Page 2—Column 6)

LOCAL TEMPERATURES

6am.....88 0am... Tam....66 1llam... Sa.m...69 12 (Noon).. 78 fam.... 78

TIMES FEATURES

Other marines circled the palisades above the Magicienne bay beach town of Laulau in an advance of about one mile, The entire southwestern section of Saipan below Aslito has been turned into a mighty.artillery base which hurls shells day and night along the mountainside.

‘I Watch Bombardment’

Sitting in the forward battalion command post almost directly above Garapan, I watched the bombard ment play along still higher cliffs. The Japanese virtually abandoned the foothills and coastal ‘plains to defend ravines and are fighting from a succession of limestone cliffs

(Continued on Page 3—Column 1) WAR ANALYSIS—

NOOSE AROUND

Fortress Appears Doomed »

As Nazis Report Drive

Gains in Power.

BULLETIN

LONDON, June 24 (U. P.).— Premier Josef Stalin announced in an order of the day today that Russian troops had forced the Svir river between Lakes Ladoga and Onega, advanced 12% to 18% miles, and captured mere than 200 inhabited localities.

By HARRISON SALISBURY United Press Staff’ Correspondent MOSCOW, June 2¢ (U. P.) —Russian assault forces stormed the main hedgehog positions defending Vitebsk today, tightening a stranglehold on the almost isolated White Russian fortress. Front dispatches indicated that quick blows cutting the last Ger-mmn-held rail’ facilities t of Vitebsk had virtually doomed the great base, probably the strongest fortified point on the entire NaziSoviet front. (The German high command said the Russian offensive “increased in power and extended to further sectors.” Strong Soviet forces broke into German positions on both sides of . Vitebsk, east of Mogilev, 85 miles to the south, and on both sides of the SmolenskMinsk highway.) Soviet field dispatches said the central front offensive was developing smoothly, with Russian units

(Continued on Page 2—Column 8)

SWARMS OF, PLANES LASHING CHERBOURG

Italy-Based Fliers Attack Ploesti Oil Again.

BULLETIN LONDON, June 24 (U. P.)—

LONDON, June 24 (U. -P)— Hundreds of allied planes streamed across the channel today to give aerial support to ground troops besieging Cherbourg and to attack communication lines deep in France, while Italy-based American bombers attacked for the second straight day Plosesti oil

Today the Encircling Front,

Hitler's Doom, Is Fulfilled

which struck the McKeesport district last night, hitting particularly hard the communities of Greenock and Boston. On a visit to these two towns this morning I saw what the storm had done. It moved through the area like a

giant vacuum cleaner.

Houses and barns were lifted

intact from their foundations and deposited, heaps of

rubble,

a short distance away.

Residents who had escaped injury returned to look

unbelievingly at what was once their homes.

Some rum-

maged through the debris for personal items, anything

Rules Are Rules . . . But Those Japs!

Blue eyes filmed with tears held back because sailors don't cry,

Joyce Sieveking, 3606 E. Michigan in the men's navy she will do her

Hoosier Heroes—

MA)... VAUGHAN DIES IN ACTION

Former Policeman Here Killed Over France on

Invasion Day.

Two Indianapolis servicemen, including Maj. J. W. Vaughan, one of the first local policemen to enter the service, have been killed in action, and another, previously reported missing now is a prisoner. KILLED Maj. J. W. Vaughan, 62¢ E. 38th st. Alfred Thompson, 1908 S. Pershing st. PRISONERS 8. Sgt. Robert B. Reed, 912 Arbor ave. 8S. Sgt. Joseph Bruno, ae E. Washington st. Second Lt. Er C. Moftitt, 218 S. Emerson stZ NOUNDED Pvt. Forrest Fells, 321 » » ® MAJ. J. W. VAUGHAN, a paratrooper, was killed in action over

(Continued on Page 2—Column 4)

YANKEES THREATEN NAZI FLANK IN ITALY

Drive Inland From Sea,

Seize Roccastrada.

ROME, June 24 (UP)-—American armored forces drove six miles

E. 15th st.

st., tells the world if she can’t be part as a junior WAVES recruiter.

Navy Rejects Joyce, 10; She'll Give WAVES A Hand.

By VICTOR PETERSON JOYCE SIEVEKING is a 10-year-old girl with blond hair. In that respect she is just like lots of other little girls. But Juyoe wanted to join the navy ... the men's side, It was with a .catch in her throat and tears welling in her eyes that she tried to tell the story of her burning mission in life. “Not Old Enough” “I've wanted to join up for two years,” she sighed, “but Daddy didn’t think I was old enough.” Her parents are Mr. and’ Mrs. FP. L. Sieveking Jr., 3606 E. Michigan st. “Then at Christmas time I got a book with "questions and answers about the navy,” she de-

(Continued on Page 2—Column'$8)

STRIKES REPORTED IN NORTHERN [TALY

Bloody Combats Raging in

Nazi-Held Areas.

By PAUL GHALI Times Foreign Correspondent BERN, June 24—Strikes and bloody combats headline today’s news from northern and central Italy. There were a general strike in Genoa and partial strikes in Turin, skirmishes were reported in Milan between the Germans and the Italian partisans with armed S. S. (elite guards) and militia guarding factories to prevent sabotage and conspiracy.

Encounters Fascist legion,

between the 02d supported by the

a 8.8. and partisans grew in intensity

in Lombardy. Bloody combat was waging in Coni province, the Adige valley, Ortisei and near Mon Adamello. ; Sailors at La Spezia have mutinied and dock workers are on strike. In Como prison prisoners were released by a band of partisans wearing wehrmacht and Fascist militia uniforms who made their get away before their true identities was discovered. These are the latest reports from Mussolini's neo-Fascist precinct, according to today's Geneva news-

they: could salvage. the wreckage.

Some simply stood and stared at

One woman recovered her purse, which contained

several hundred dollars.

A quart of milk lay by: the roadside, and a kitten was licking the top. One of a contingent of soldiers which had moved into the town during the night, as a precaution against plundering, poured some of the milk for the kitten. “There is no use in everybody being hungry today,”

he said.

140 DEAD, 1000 HURT IN'TWO STATES TORN BY FREAK TORNADO

2 DEWEY FOES SEE 290 VOTE ON 1ST BALLOT

Stassen and Bricker Aids Expect New Yorker To Get 385.

By LYLE C. WILSON United Press Staff Correspondent CHICAGO, June 24 —Stassen and Bricker headquarters estimated today that they had an aggregate of 260 to 290 first ballot votes against the presidential nomination of Gov-

ernor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, whose band wagon was beginning to move impressively here today.

4 Spokesmen . for Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio estimate that

Dewey will have 385 votes on the first ballot in the Republican national convention meeting here June 26. That would leave a field of slightly under 400 delegates

Earl three; seven.

Richert’s column, page Thomas L. Stokes, page

which the Stassen and Bricker estimaters evidently believe will cast favorite son votes on early ballots. Gen. Joseph H. Ball (R. Minn.) spokesman here for Lt. Cmdr. Harold E. Stassen, former governor of Minnesota, told a press conference today that he will place Stassen in nomination and expected 60 to 65 votes on the first ballot. Bricker spokesmen claimed 200 to 225 first ballot votes. Ball added that the foreign relations plank proposed for the Republican national convention contains some “rubber words” but that Stassen could run for President on its’ positive provision. He made this statement as the platform makers rapidly approached agreement on some of their most perplexing problems, including the manner in which the United States should participate in postwar world affairs. Prospects for Dewey's nomination on an early ballot boomed with apparently reliable reports that Pennsylvania's 70 Republican national convention votes would go for the New Yorker, The convention meets Monday. } The booming drive going on for Governor Earl Warren of California as second man on the Dewey ticket, is nothing new. For six months he has been in a position where only his agreement to accept was needed to make him top contender for the vice-presidential nomination. Warren, whose delegation will arrive here tomorrow, does not want the job, having more urgent busi-

(Continued on Page 2—Column 3)

WASHINGTON

A Weekly Sizeup by the Washington

New Dealers Nip Southern Bloc 'Revolt'

By ALLEN DRURY United Press Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON, June 24—New Dealers in the senate took advantage of the closing hours before a six weeks’ adjournment yesterday to attempt to head off an incipient “southern Democratic” revolt against President Roosevelt.

PATH OF RUIN CUT THROUGH TEN COUNTIES

‘Entire Districts in West

Virginia, Pennsylvania Are Devastated.

One New Dealer went so far as to introduce a resolution to abolish the | electoral college and provide for! the direct popular election of President. Senator Joseph F. Guffey (D. Pa.) introduced the resolution which immediately touched off a heated debate between administration supporters and southern Democrats. Guffey said his resolution was prompted bythe recent action of the Texas state Democratic convention freeing its electors from voting for the Democratic nomineé unless the national convention meets southern demands. . South Carolina and Mississippi are considering similar action. Senator Carl A. Hatch (D. N. M.) declared that if the southern plan is carried out in November, “the constitution will be changed faster than it has ever been changed before.” Senator Claude Pepper (D. Fla.),

'| (Continued on Page 2—Column 7)

RATION OFFICE INTRUDER SHOT

Police Claim Chicago Man Attempted Burglary at

Richmond.

RICHMOND, Ind. June 24 (U. \P.).—A man who said he was William Joseph Pelligrini, 33, Chicago usd car dealer, was wounded critically shortly before last midnight in an attempted robbery of the Wayne county ration board office. Police Patrolman Donald Thomas said he discovered Pelligrini and a companion, who escaped, in the office trying to open a safe which contained a large quantity of ration coupons. When the men fled at his call to surrender, Thomas fired at them through a rear glass door. Pelligrini was found a block from the office, a bullet wound in his lungs. Police broadcast a pickup order for the second man. They said a quantity of explosives had been found at the ration office safe.

PITTSBURGH, June 24 (U. P.).—A distaster of major {proportions confronted Western Pennsylvania and North Central Virginia today in the wake of a tornado which cut a wide path of death and destruction the two-state area last night. Rising steadily during the dayas new victims were removed from the wreckage of hundreds of buildings and homes, the death toll stood at 140, with approximately 1000 others injured and property damage amounting to at least $3,000,000. West Virginia, where many towns were hard hit, counted 104 dead and at least 500 injured, property dam-

age was estimated at a million dollars. !

Pennsy Damage Heavy

In - western Pennsylvania, the

{death toll reached 36, with another

500 hurt and property damage in the hard-hit McKeesport area alone being estimated at $1,000,000, not counting damage to many other communities in the area. While of serious proportions, the toll of lives and damage to property failed to approach the cost of previous tornadoes in the nation. In April, 1936, a tornado concentrated in Georgia cost 472 lives: in 1932 a storm in Alabama killed 330. The highest previous property damage was recorded in 1927 in the Illinois area, when property loss amounted to $100,000,000. The storm, which struck at dusk, highballed through 10 counties in the two states. Whole Districts Devastated

Whole districts were virtually devastated by the power of the storm, which struck with such speed and concentrated fury that buildings appeared to explode when the twister materialized. Some victims were propelled helter-skelter from their homes. In rural areas, cows, chickens, pigs and other livestock were scattered over the landscape. Railroad cars were lifted into the air and deposited on their sides. Some communities reported as many as 40 to 50 houses demolished, with hundreds of others damaged. The storm appeared to be at its worst when it hit Shinnston, W. Va., where 54 were known dead and

east of Pittsburgh, where 18 were known dead and some 200 injured. Demolishes Houses Zona Haught, a Red Cross worker at Shinnston, said: “The tornado demolished houses like they were cardboard. Roofs were taken off houses just like

Staff of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers

WASHINGTON, June 24. —Administration and other

ree TT

pieces of paper.”

‘ON INSIDE PAGES

Amusements ,.10, Movies .......10 r ace Pegler . sssrbhane 8 Comics sacar ® Beale Pyle . Crossword

eres

Democratic politicoes watch the Republican convention with more interest than they'll confess. What's done at ; _ Chicago will influence their own calculations on foreign kh and domestic policy, political strategy. : edition ¢ t your Saturday Here's the Chicago picture as it shapes up now: Times is Republican motif is harmony and dispatch. Plans call

for adoption of a platform agreeable to all without serious : ; nomination of Dewey on first ballot; nomination of a vice

paper La Suisse. PETIEN 1 ‘Indianapolis Times jou an ne Chitags he ad News, Ine.

By LUDWELL DENNY