Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 July 1944 — Page 2
Downpour Drowns Out Big Scale Action as Nazi
Army Retires.
By VIRGIL PINKLEY United Press Staff Correspondent
SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, A. E. F, July 21.—British and American troops plunged ahead through six villages today despite a downpour which drowned out big-scale action on the Normandy front, and German armor was reported pulling back from the nose of the breakthrough salient southeast of Caen under an encirclement threat. Canadian troops drove forward a few hundred yards from St. Andre-Sur-Odon to capture the neighboring village of St. Martin de Fontenay, a little over four miles south of Caen. Five villages scattered along the British and American fronts had Been taken earlier. Both allied and German troops soaked miserably in their slit trenches while a 36-hour downpour continued. Nazis Forced Back
The Germans threw in a sharp counter-thrust against the Canadian front below Caen, but were turned back. To the west British forces scored gains against light opposition south of the Caumont-Tilly-sur-Seulles
road. i A'United Press dispatch from the Caen front reported that the battle *gtill is going well” with the definite failure of the German counterattack, and “it now’ is safe to say - that the allied offensive is over the hump.” Troarn Fight Rages
The battle of Troarn on the left flank of the Caen pocket raged into its second day, with British assault forces fighting ahead from the captured rail station on the edge of the town. On the left flank, other British forces were fighting street battles in Evrecy, southwest of Caen, and the village of Bougy a mile and a half to the northwest. St. Andre-sur-Orne was captured, clearing the bank of the river four miles due south of Caen, and to the west a drive more than four miles below Tilly-sur-Seulles overran the village of Monta.
Seves Captured
American forces closing in on Periers, central base of the German defenses on the first army front, captured Seves, 2'z- miles north of Periers; Raids, on the Carentan-Periers highway four miles to the north; and Les Mesnil Bury, eight miles southeast = of Periers on the St. Lo highway. ° Front reports said the Nazi command was trying to rush armor to the Normandy front from northern France and Belgium. In that con-
EXPLOSION at Port Chi
has been wounded. . KILLED ‘Ensign Gilbert Mordoh, 1118 8
«| Capitol ave. . . Capt. Johh W. Askren, 6440 Broad-
way. First Lt, Merle Theodore Cummings, 3303 E. 19th st. MISSING Sgt. John A, Biggins, y4314 Park ave. 8S. Sgt. Courtney B. Gerrish, 124 S. Traub ave. . Pvt. Donald C. Smith, R. R. 13.
WOUNDED
T. 5th Gr. Vincent O. Losey. 335 N. Wallace ave. 8 2 ” ENSIGN GILBERT MORDOH. son of Mr. and Mrs. Mallah Mordoh, 1118 8. Capitol ave., was Killed when the two ammunition ships at
Port Chicago, Cal, exploded recently, He received his commission in
January, and was sent to the Pacific coast after a brief assignment in Washington, D. C. He received nis training at the University of Notre Dame. Ensign Mordoh was 22 and was graduated from Manual high school, where he was captain of the football team. ’ He was graduated from Purdue university in 1943 as a mechanical engineer. During college he played on the varsity fQotball team. Survivors, besides the parents, re thrée brothers, Albin, Sol and Leon, all of Indianapolis, * » ” os CAPT. JOHN W. ASKREN, son of Attornéy Earl J. Askren and Mrs. Askren, 6480 Broadway, was killed in action July 1, his parents were notified yesterday. He was a member of the field artillery in the New Guinea sector and had been in the army since July 3, 1943. He was sent to the Pacific in February. Capt. Askren received his training at Ft. Bragg, N. C.; Ft. Sill, Okla.; Camp Young, Cal, and San Luis Obispo, Cal. He received general staff training in Hawaii. A former employee of the Yeneral Electric Co. in York, Pa., he received a degree in electrical engineering in 1937 from Purdue university. He was a graduate of Shortridge high school and was a member of Eta Kappa Nu, an honorary engineering fraternity. He is also survived by a brother, Robert, an artist in New Rochelle, N.Y, = eerie er set - » ” . FIRST LT. MERLE THEODORE CUMMINGS, nephew of Mrs. Mae Dobbs, 303 E. 19th st, and Mrs. June Newgent, also of Indianapolis, was killed in action in France on D-day, June 6. His last letter home was dated June 3. Born in Greencastle, Lt, Cum-
nection, the royal air force last night carried out a concentrated)
mings was 23 and is the son of Mr. and Mrs, Sherod Cummings, Paris,
is ECC ]!P.HH PH — ALLIES DRIVE ON Hoosier Heroes: Ensign Mc IN NORMAN RAIN ci
| dianapolis ‘men to the list of dead, {while three are missing and one
Killed;
Fog
{
Ensign Gilbert Mordoh >. killed in Port Chicago explosion.
Anzio beachhead. He has been overseas since October, 1042, and served in the North African and
in Ttaly. He entered the service in 1941. Pfc. Harvey A. Smith, Donald’s brother, has been held by the Japanese since the fall of Bataan. Pvt. Smith's brother, Keith, is serving with the marine corps in the South Pacific and has not written home since the battle of Tarawa. The family has not heard from another brother, Pvt. Gerald Smith, since December. He is a veteran of the battles at Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal and Bougainville, A younger brother, Charles, will enter tember.
8 » »
T. 5TH GR. VINCENT O. LOSEY, nephew of Mrs. Clifford E. Champion, 335 N. Wallace ave, was | wounded July 1 in Italy, his aunt ‘was notified yesterday. He enlisted in 1937 and was stationed with the headquarters-com-pany of Ft. Harrison for some time. He served two years in the Panama Canal zone and served two years overseas, in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. Technician Losey formerly lived at North Vernon and is a graduate of the North Vernon high school. ” s 2
PFC. ROGER FRANCIS MecGUIRE, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roger McGuire, 933 Chadwick st. has been awarded the purple heart and an oak leaf cluster for wounds received in the Southwest Pacific. Entering the marine corps in October, 1943, he went overseas Dec. 29, 1943, and took part in the first
Three From Here Missing and
Sicilian campaigns before - arriving!
the marine corps in Sep-!
_ 8. Bgt. Courtney B. Gerrish ‘eo missing over Romania.
"Vincent Losey Roger McGuire Wounded Honored
CAPT. WENDELL C. PHILLIPPI has -bene awarded the silver star for bravery on the Italian front, {the war depdrtment - announced today. Capt. Phillippi, who formerly lived at 4447 N, Delaware st, was communications officer during an attack on Dec. 8, 1943, .when the enemy knocked out radio communicatinos with the assault companies, On his owh initiative he led in laying wire to each assault com pany and made numerous trips to
h, Capt. Askren, Lt. Cummings ‘One Wounded
MES
ve
S. Sgt. William Lanham . , . died of wounds received in Italy.
‘~rth st, has been awarded the nze star for “meritorious serv2’ with an air transport comand’s supply service in the South weifie. ; - He was commissioned at Indiana niversity in 1935, ‘where he resived his law degree in 1936. He ntered the service in 1941 and ttended the infantry school at Ft. Jenning, Ga. the command and seneral staff school at Ft. Legvenvorth, Kas. and thd staff officers’ "school at Washington, D. C. Before geing to the Pacific he served with the Alaska operations division of the general staff. He has a 5-year-old son, Steven, and a brother, Pf¢. Phil Donnelly, stationed at Hollandia, New Guinea.
“8 » 2
THE WAR DEPARTMENT today confirmed thé report that 1st Lt. Leo F. Welch Jr, vice president of John R. Welch & Co, is missing in action in the Central Pacific area. Lt. Welch, who is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Leo.F. Welch, 4310 Broadway, was a navigator of a Liberator bomber attached to the 7th army
inspect the lines under such severe | enemy fire that the entire repair squad was either wounded or) killed. . Capt. Phillippi was wounded but continued with his duties until the following day. He was awarded the purple heart. He entered the service June 10, 1941, and has served as a communications officer and a headquarters company executive. = = 4 LT. COL. MARC DONNELLY, Bloomington attorney and husband of the former Miss Dorothy Stevens,
invasion of the Marshall islands.
6130 Kingsley drive, and son of Mr. and Mrs. Ward Donnelly, 5228 E.
By REYNOLDS PACKARD United Press Staff Correspondent
bat patrols of the 5th army stabbed across the Arno river today, while
{the Germans, entrenched on Monte {Pisano guarding the approaches to | Pisa, opened a long-range artillery
bombardment of the big rail hub at Ill, Where he had resided since he bombardment of newly captured Courtral, Belgium, and outlying Was 5. He was graduated from the Livorno.
yards.
Paris high school and attended
{ The patrols were probing German
Three main lines from Germany Eastern Illinois Teachers college, defenses on the north bank of the
through Belgium and into Prance pass through Courtrai, which serves
Charleston. Lt. Cummings entered the service
| Arno, where the enemy was be{lieved to have constructed strong
as a feeder junction for all north- | in March, 1941, and completed offi- Peints of pillboxes and anti-tank
western France. Depend on Fortifications
As Rommel pulled back his armor from the plains southeast of Caen ! to avoid the threat from strength- | ened British positions on either | side, the Germans depended mainly | on their anti-tank and other fortifications to steam the British push, and only short-lived clashes of!
armor were reported in feeler thrusts. Altogether the allied armies
scored gains or pinched off German pockets in 13 sectors, most of them line-straightening operations | along a 90-mile fighting front.
United Press War Correspondent |
cer's training at Ft. Benning, Ga. e was sent to England in October, 1942. Other survivors are two sisters, Mrs. Georgia Mullins, Paris, and Mrs. Fern Severson, Iowa, and another aunt; Mrs. George Givens, Paris. 2 o o 8. SGT. WILLIAM P. LANHAM, a veteran of the North African, Sicilian, and Italian campaigns, died June 68 of wounds received in action in Italy. He is the brother of Floyd Lanham, 4929 N. Vermont st.
n n s SGT. JOHN A. BIGGINS, gunner |
Ronald Clark said sheets of rain |20d radio operator on a B-24 Lib-
descended on the battlefront and the heaviest downpour since D-day continued today. The new advances carried British troops five miles due south of Caen along both banks of the Orne, and at most places they were less than 8 mile apart on either side of the river,
MORTGAGE ON CHURCH TO BE BURNED SUNDAY
The Rev. R. T. Andrews will speak at the mortgage burning of Phillips Temple, Colored Methodist Episcopai church at 6:30 p. m. Sunday. Bishop C. H. Phillips of Cleve- | land, O, presiding bishop of the | first Episcopal district of the Colored Methodist Episcopal church, will be the speaker at the morning service at 11 a. m. There will be an nld-fashioned basket lunch in the afternoon.
Tune 'n WIRE
8:30 to (1:00 P. M. Tonight . . ,
SULLIVAN'S “The
Direct from Garfield Park
Sponsored by
GILBERT and
of Penzance”
LS. AYRES
(erator, has been missing in action jover Germany since July 7. The
|war department notified his par- |
ents, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Biggins, (4314 Park ave. last night. Sgt. Biggins has been in the servlice since October, 1941, and has been overseas about two months. At [the time he was reported missing he was based in England, but was first sent to Northern Ireland and was stationed only three miles from his Is 25 now and came to the United States when he was 6. Another brother, Thomas P, is with the infantry at Camp Roberts, Cal. A sister, Margaret, resides at the Park ave. address.
o ” 2 S.SGT COURTNEY B GERRISH. | grandson of Mrs. Maude Zeller, 124 | 8. Traub ave., with whom he made his home before entering the Serv- | ice, has been missing in action over ‘Romania since July 4. | He was a radio technician and {gunter on a Liberator and in a let- | ter dated June 24 told his grand- | mother he expected to be going on| {his first mission 1n a few days. He was based in Italy at the time. Sgt. Gerrish was graduated from Washington high school and ‘attended Butler university two years. He was active in track and basketball { while at Washington, He entered the service ¥eb, 27, 1943, and arrived in Italy June 9. Before entering the service he was
employed by P. R. Mallory & Co.! i
A brother, Richard, is stationed at Camp Adair, Ore, and an uncle, Robert Zeller, is stationed at
Pirates Shumaker, Cal. Sgt. Gerrish is the |
son of Harlow Gerrish of the Lorraine hotel and has a sister, | Patricia, living with his grandmother, and an 8-year-old brother, Robert, living in Muncie. y & = PVT. DONALD V. SMITH, son of Mr, and Mrs, Charles N. Smith, R.R. 13, has been missing in action in Italy since May 217.
He has three brothers serving overseas, one of them a prisoner of the Japanese, od His parents have received no word Pvt. Smith for almost seven ths, when he wrote from the
birthplace, Belfast, Ireland. He |
military targets in southern Ger- | many.
guns especially at fording sites in {an effort to halt the American drive toward Pisa. : The main body of Lt. Gen. Mark | Clark's 5th army, already spread | along a 25-mile front on the south bank. was cleaning out the German
Yanks Push Toward Pisa
ROME, July 21.—American com- |
d Italian Gains ian- Gain points by-passed in thé rapid ninemile drive to the Arno from Livorno. | The few German positions were between the Antifosseto canal, a! few miles north of Livorno, and: the river, and apparently were, left behind by the main Nazi forces | for delaying purposes. Virtually every caliber of gun was being fired by the Germans from Monte Pisano, where the - enemy had a clear view of Livorno and, also Pisa, just to the north. Field| guns and anti-aircraft batteries lined the heights of Monte Pisano, ‘with machine gun pillboxes stretched along the approaches. American engineers that the Germans, before fleeing Livorno, methodically had destroyed every potentially valuable port faellity and sank !6 ships in the harbor.
2-WAY RAIDS ON REICH IN 4TH DAY
LONDON, July 21 (U. P)—Amer-
(ican heavy bombers attacked Ger- | many from both Britain and Italy
today for the fourth straight day when the 8th air force sent 2000 | planes against aircraft plants in the southeastern Reich and the 15th bombed Brux, in the Sudetenland, 130 miles south of Berlin.
“About 1100 Fortresses and Liberators flew from Britain against face
| tories supplying the German air force after British night bombers hit targets in Germany, Belgium and northern France, The heavy bombers from Italy, flying a round trip of miore- than
; ques Teligious hatreds.” | 1000 miles, dropped their explosives g
by instruments through a smoke screen thrown up over Brux, below Dresden near the old Bohemian border. The 8th air force bombers ham- | mered an #ssembly plant at Regensburg, 55 miles southeast of Nurn-
| berg, the vital ball bearing factories!
at Schweinfurt .and Eberbach, also in the Nurnberg area, and other
FIGURES ON PEACH | CEILINGS LISTED
To eliminate reported confusion | in the peach market, OPA today announced that ceilings in the central states are set at $3.66 a bushel
land $1.99 a half .bushel for whole-
sale prices. Retail prices are not to exceed 14 to 16 cents a pound. Prices in the Southern states will slightly exceed those figures until Aug. 16 when they will level off to ceilings in this area, OPA announced.
‘BARBER SHOP FOUR
TO REVIVE OLD HITS
Old-time song hits written from 1891 to 1805 will be sung by mem- | bers of the Indianapolis chapter of |the Barber Shop Harmony group at 8 p. m, today in’ the Claypool hotel. Bb a Thé Four Harmonizers, 1943-44 | singing champions, will include “It’s {Only a Shanty in Old Shanty | Town,” on the program. John Hanjson is z
Weeks, pi
nt, ..
| motion of that organization in
| Mr. Williams’ committee will include business, civic and social lead-
"IN, $1461 BUJGLARY
leader and Holman tox
COMMUNISTS CALL | FOR SUPPORT OF FDR
Candidates on the Republican
lactionary defeatists” in a resolution adopted recently by the Indiana Communist Political association. . ’ i “It is around such candidates as | Governor Schricker and Senator | Samuel Jackson who are pledged to |unity and victory behind President ‘Roosevelt, that a solid win-the-war {unity can be established,” the resolution stated. The association also demanded a grand jury investigation into “XRay” published in Muncie by Court Asher who, the association charged, | is seeking to aid Hitler” by dividling and confusing the American people through spreading racial and
WILLIAMS HEADS JUNIOR COMMITTEE
Junior Achievement, Inc. bas named Guy Williams, president of the Guy H. Williams Co., as chairman of the committee for the pro-
Broad Ripple.
ers in that area who will promote the establishment of four or five business enterprises among youths from 15 to 21 years old. Stock (valued at 50 cents a share, with a {limit of five shares to a person, {will serve to capitalize the businesses, whose total stock is usually $50 for each firm. The young busi|nessmen and women will marge | their own companies.
| ;
SAFE TOP SAWED OFF
Burglars broke ifite the Pepsi- | Cola Bottling Co., 1030 E. New York Ist, last night, sawing off the, top of the safe and taking $1461.32 in cash and $242.13 in checks. When Jess C. Ward and John A.
came to work at 6a. m. today, they found the skylight broken and several glass bricks removed from the wall of the building.
| wife, Mrs. Frances
confirmed »
state ticket were described as ‘re- .
Lewis, employees of the company |
air force. He has been in the service since July, 1941, and has been overseas since Dec, 24, 1943. His
in Chicago. be
» CONFIRMATION ot the report that Sgt. Theodore O, Gerth, husband of Mrs. Alberta Gerth, R. R. 2, Box 548, is missing in action in the European area was made today by the war department. )
Lapt Welch, lives |
EXPECTED SOON
Russ Close in on 3 Sides Of Polish City; Near E. Prussia Border.
MOSCOW, July 21 (U. P.) —Soviet front dispatches said today that Russian mobile forces were closing against Lwow from three directions for the final assault on the Polish fortress city and, far to the north, were approaching the frontier of East Prussia. Military quarters were confident of the early liberation of Lwow, the biggest German base in lower Poland, : At the same time Russian Cossacks massed .in ‘the forests along the west bank of the Bug river north of Lwow for a speedy sweep across the Polish plains toward the Vistula and Germany beyond. Near East Prussia Soil On the Baltic front, Gen, Ivan D. Cherniakhovsky’s 3d army of White Russia was fighting for the junctions controlling the roads to East Prussia and extending its gains west of the Niemen river in lower Lithuania. (Nazi broadcasts yesterday reported fighting at Augustow, eight
Marshal Ivan 8. Konev’s 1st Ukrainian army- from the Kowel area, further south, }
miles from the border of Egst Prussia. The Moscow dispatch did not specify the mileage involved in the approach to the German soil.) | Big air battles raged over the] Nieman sector as German. planes swarmed against the Soviet bridge- | heads and crossings in an attempt | to slow down the advance. Soviet confidence in quick victory at Lwow was reflected in the ais-| closure that Russian civilian service | personnel—party secretaries, teach- | ers, doctors, druggists, architects! and bank clerks—were moving in| to install a new administration im- | mediately. ; 1
i
One mobile printshop already was. publishing the first editions of a Lwow - newspaper, “Free Ukraine.” | Engineers were laying asphalt roads | to Lwow. The drive against Lwow was supported by a new offensive to the
north in the Kowel area, forming
Tuesday thru Friday _______9:45
{hea
at Wlodimierz, 30 miles & of Kowel, to-open’ the. for a assault toward Lublin, one of the key German defense points’ on the railway to Warsaw. ‘ Furious tank battles were reporte . ed along the front, with the Ger mans losing scores of armored vehicles and mere than 10,000 dead yesterday. On the northern end Gen, Ivan C, Baltic army was «closing around
of the: front, ’s 1st
SUMMER STORE HOURS: Monday _____ 12:15 P.M. to 8:45 P.M.
Saturday _____ 9:30 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.
L. §. AYRES & (0.
Daugavplis.
A. M. to 5:15 P. M.
—
work at the a service m don't mind W Distance calls __Busiest time
{ the boys are i you "give sever
_ SPONSOR FISH FRY The Veterans
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« ton all civilians ar
-armed forces h arrest or shoot
said military ele “some” leaders others had com Hellmuth Su reich ‘press chi some proof tha putschists had enemy countries thered by the cl The British -diplomatie cor British governn
‘every aspect of
and exchanging mation with | adding: “It is too ear full . appreciatio but there clear] facade of Germ Hitler.”
Claimed
British Foreig Eden told Com make a statem man crisis’ wher to do so, but ave no infor which extends possession of al A diplomatic ¢ Nazi Transocea ported that “se colonels at imp in the Reich on “The conspir give orders by was, dead,” he 1 The attempt | the Transocean carried out by v
they obeyed,” respondent repc conspirators m removed.” Claiming tha toward incident ocean continue Blame ‘F “The blood tt this attempt, di erals’ putsch, blood of the co! the death of Berger (a sten killed during tl The agency s able that the er with an enemy existed betweer
originators of rendered harm Alfred Rose ideologist, writ organ Voelki labeled the Na front” which _ combat, ‘Oper
“This move a fifth front— of the German said. The par “with his old diately resume his soldiers no before, and wi coming even m The press American and ] John G. Winai and Sir Willia constituting .th council, met | news from Gel conferred with Home Secre
ing that it m or nearly end He said Hit like the rathe: ings of a man 1 tions of his po and being dist: Hitler, Reic Goering and. Doenitz themse
" rising in a se
broadcasts eal that a “crimin cluding a nun had fallen fror rump governmi civil and milit
Attempt
Clandestine were attempti flames of revt itself as Radi lantic group,” mation from government” 2 ganization ‘“‘at has inspired 1 of citizens.” Another self broadcasting ¢ unity among « the “time has ler's ‘ regime” all “brute fo brute farce, ar Bern. and ¢§ said that “bloc to flow” in tt cities, and, w “based more knowledge, Hii gestapo chief death powers Hitler foreshas exceeding ever Even ‘thoug ently has been morale on the and in the W to their fount bound to weal Only Nazi report identified the revolt, apart von Stauffen ‘ réference to for “cowardic _ as among the the recently ¢ Rundste