Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 February 1945 — Page 1
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"FINAL
+ * FORECAST: Moderate cold wave tonight ; lowest 15 to 20 degrees by early tomorrow morning; cloudy tonight and tomorrows colder tomorrow.
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Er VOLUME 55—NUMBER 301
OWARD §
By FRANK TREMAINE United Press Staff Correspondent
GUAM, Feb. 26.—Much of the center of Tokyo was believed in flaming ruins today. The fires were set by a record one-two air assault yesterday by more than 200 Superfortresses and 1000 carrier planes. Ln Some fires may be s palace grounds.
mouldering on Emperor Hirohito’s
TIMES EXCLUSIVES . . . By Our Own Writers
U. S. Seaman's ‘Tall Tale’ Brings Out Full Story of Murmansk Convoy Disaster
By WILLIAM H. STONEMAN
Times Foreign Correspondent
LONDON, Feb. 26.—~Nearly three years after it happened, . the British admiralty today produced the full story of the most disastrous convoy trip in naval history—the story of 35 ships that tried to get through to Murmansk in July, 1942, and lost 24 of their number in the process. The admiralty broke the silence which it has maintained regarding all ‘shipping losses in order to refute the tall tale of an excited American seaman, who had been
taken prisoner after the episode. | day's attack by torpedo planes.
He claimed that 35 ships had Nineteen were sunk by U-boats been sunk. : and aircraft during subsequent He further claimed that the | stages of the battle, when the
British naval escort had left the merchantmen to their fate in order to engage in naval action with German surface forces, The convoy’'s heavy losses were ~in fact—due to a two-barreled attack by German U-boats and aircraft, coupled with a threat of attack by the German battleship Von Tirpitz and the cruiser Hipper. Five ships were sunk in the first
convoy was ordered to scatter to avoid complete destruction by German surface ships. It was standard practice for a convoy to scatter upon the approach. of heavy surface raiders and the plan had worked well before. - : On Nov. 8, 1040, scattering saved all but nine of 38 ships when a
(Continued on Page 5—Column 3) ”
MANILA EYEWITNESS . . . By Lee G. Miller
Bullets and Death Make Show 'That Would Shame Billy Rose’
MANILA, Feb. 23 (Delayed). — From a lofty perch at the glassless window of ‘a building this morning I looked down on the Pasig river. From this point I could see across the battered Manila postoffice—with its newly raised’ American ‘flag—to the his-
erside building where the top stories were thronged with soldiers, including a two-star general — also correspondents and photographers. It was a show to shame Billy Rose or the late Tex Rickard. Soon after I had found a place at a window our artillery and
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Smoking, crumbling Intramuros lay quiet for a few minutes. Then we saw handfuls-of troops picking their way across the greensward toward the breaches ripped in the Yards-thick walls by the American guns, At the same ‘time half a dozen or so small barges, crammed with troops, shoved off from the Pasig’s north bank. They headed toward the hostile shore near.the Manila mint, newly battered by shelifire. The barges seemed to hesitate in midstream. I could see bursts of fire from their guns. Presently
(Continued on Page 5—Column J) »
toric walled city. I was witnessing a stirring and unforgettable event. During the night and during breakfast my billet a mile away had been rocked steadily by ®alvos of our heavy guns firing nearby. Their target was the thick walls of ancient Intramuros. There Jap seamen and soldiers still held out despite a furious drumfire from, our artillery, ranging up to 240 mm. guns. The latter were firing for the first time in the Southwest Pacific. Tom Shafer of Acme newspictures, drove me to a massive riv-
» »
HOOSIER VAGABOND . . . By Ernie Pyle
He Calls on an Old Friend, 'My Nephew’ From Near Dana
fortune, and I've not heard a dissenting veice. Of course, ‘they would al] rather be home, but who wouldn't? The man I came to visit is Lt. Jack Bales, another farm boy from down the road near Dana, Ind. Jack is a sort of nephew of mine. He isn’t exactly a nephew, but it's too compiicated to explain, I used to hold him on my knee and all that sort of thing. Now he's 26, and starting to get bald like his “uncle.” Jack's folks still live just.a mile down the road from our farm. But Jack left the farm and Went to the University of Illinois«dnd got educated real good, and was just
IN THE MARIANAS ISLANDS (Delayed) —Before starting ‘out on my long tours with the navy, I've decided to visit the famous B-29 Superfortress boys who are bembing Japan from here. This came about largely because I have “kinfolk” flying on the B-26’s, and I thought I'd kill two birds by visiting and writing at the same time. 80 here 1 A cn a screencd porch in my underwear, comfortable as a cat, wih the surf beating on the shore and a lot of bomber pilots swimming out front. ~ The B29 boys, tfom commandant clear down to lowest enlisted men, live well out here. ‘They are all- appreciative of their good
”
LABOR . . . By Roger W. Stuart
‘Illegal Labor Draft," Union Says in New Bedford Row
. NEW BEDFORD, Mass., Feb. 26. —People in this town know there's a war on, all right, Most of them have sons or bgothers in the armed forces. And the windows of many homes are graced with gold stars. They know, too, what war pro-.
duction means and what it is to spring into the breach when
Ye
(Continued on’ Page 9—Column 1)
nN . ° » considerable springing themselves, these last three years. But they can be stubborn, these New Englanders. War or nos war, they're inclined to become angry when a government agency-—or a combination of agencies — tells them where they shall work. They're jealous of what they consider their “rights.” Which {is one reason why the war manpower commission's efforts to force workers out of local fine goods textile mills into two tire fabric plants, essential to the war effort, haven't proved successful. The situation, however, is crammed with complexities. " The “labor draft” as ‘the unlonists like to call it, is offensive to them, ’ Long opposed to any kind of work-or-fight legislation, they are particularly set against the .idea of the manpower commission reducing the employment ceilings in
out in a hurry. ‘They've done
" TIMES INDEX
Amusements , 6Inside Indpls, 9 Business ,,... 7 Jane Jordan.. 15 Comics ...... 15| Movies, ....... 6 Crossword ... 15 Obituaries .., 4 Editorials .... 10 Radio ....... 15 Peter Edson.. 10 Mrf. Roosevelt 9
Freci .. 15|8ports ,...... 12 Meta Given... 11 Thos. Stokes.. 10
o
Heart Of Tokyo In Ruins After Heaviest Air Raid
Bombs fell near the stables bureau of the imperial household ministry on the palace grounds, as well as near
Omiya palace, residence of the emperor's mother, a mile ‘and a half away, Tokyo said. (The American Broadcasting Station in Europe said about 25,000 square yards in the heart of Tokyo was in flames following the double raid, N. B. C. monitors reported. :
WPB DEMANDS LIST OF “VITAL 18:29 WORKERS
Agency Acts to Prevent Drafting of ‘Hard Core’ Of War Employees.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (U. P.)oew The war production board under{took today to determine what in[dustrial workers in the 18-29 age] - | group are so vital to war produc 3 :
~
[tion that they ought to have draft deferments. In its role of draft certifying H agent, the WPB called on all war | ” industries to submit lists of .their| occupationally deferred employees in that category. The agency's aim is to prevent the drafting of what [it called the “vital hard core” -of 'war workers. Meanwhile, local draft boards were under orders to start drafting a large number of the 1,500,000 ‘deferred men in the 30-33 age bracket. Selective service announced on Saturday that men in that bracket will be deferred henceforth only if they are “necessary to” as well as “regularly engaged in” essential work. In the past the deferment test for this age group was merely whether a man was regularly engaged in an essential activity.
Outlined by Peck
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1945
Hoosier Has 'Fu
Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postotfice Indianapolis 9, Ind. Issued daily except Sunday
(B. B.C, heard by Blue Network, said part of the imperial guards barracks was demolished by a bomb which
fell in the palace precincts.) Radio Tokyo said “enemy night bombers” following up the daylight raids crossed the Japanese coast in the direction of the capital, but did not say whether they had dropped any bombs. deh (Continued on Page 5—Column 1)
YANKS NEARING DUESSELDORF AND COLOGNE
Foxhole
t-Lined'
American Troops Storm Into Rhineland Stronghold. BULLETIN U. S. FIRST ARMY HEAD-
QUARTERS, Western Front, Feh. 26 (U. P.).—American troops captured Blatzheim on the Rhineland plain and struck on beyond it to within 11'¢ miles of Cologne.
| |
By BOYD D. LEWIS United Press Staff Correspondent | PARIS, Feb. 26.—Ameri-| can troops stormed into -the Rhineland stronghold of Erkelenz and drove an armored |
wedge beyond the town to] within 17 miles of Duesseldorf today. Other American tank columns to the south broke loose on a bruad military highway less than 13 mules | from Cologne. wi Far to the south, Lt. Gen. George 8S. Patton's rampaging 3d army tanks began to roll through thej German flank in a broad end run that threatened to sweep down the valley of the Moselle to Coblenz on the Rhine.
2000
dropped more than 1250. tons of high explosive bombs and at least 500,000 incendiaries on Berlin today.
German capital.
\weight. of explosives
PRICE FIVE CENTS
PLANES OCK BERLIN BY DAYLIGHT
American Bombers Drop 1250 Tons of Explosives and 500,000 Incendiaries in ~ Record Assault.
By LEO S. DISHER United Press Staff Correspondent
LONDON, Feb. 26.—Almost 2000 American planes
It was the greatest daylight Paid of the war on the
Upwards of 1200 Flying Fortresses and Liberators shepherded by 700 or more strafing fighters cascade a great and fire bombs onto’three big railway stations near the heart {of Berlin. This was the 14th straight day of a record aerial offensive against Germany. The Berlin blow was struck in support of the Red army. It nas designed to disrupt communications vital to German troops in the front lines 30-odd miles from Berlin The great air fleet pounded Berlin for an hour in what Naz propagandists called a terror attack. The American airmen dropped about 3000 tons of explosive and | incendiary bombs on Berlin. | This was the second big-scale ate German houses. {tack by daylight on the capital this \ alls stand blood- |month. On Feo. 3 about 1000 Against the wal : : | American bombers hit it with about soaked stretchers—grim testimony |ognn +00 of the battle for Baal. | Today's objectives were the Here and there among the'|gchleisisher, Alexanderplatz and piles of shattered bricks are |Berlin North rail stations. Each crippled jeeps. | lies about two-miles ffom the air a ministry building in the heart of
= .
EMPTY WALLS— Yanks Answer German Taunts By Razing Baal
By ANN STRINGER United Press Staff Correspondent 'BAAL, Germany Feb. 25 (Delayed) —Only a few empty walls and vacant lots mark the spot where once stood rows of neat
tanks lifted their crushihg bar (PF
| (Continséa on Fige 9—Column #)
The WPB’s program to save war industry’s most essential young men from the draft was outlined at a ess--conference by Gustave Peck, chairman of the agency's committee on certification of deferment requests. He said the WPB hoped to obtain deferment for 200,000 of the 780,000 men 18 through 289 now in 2-A and 2-B. : Industrie using WPB as theirmanpower claimant agency include makers of steel, aluminum, tire and components for important munitions. WPB is one of several agencies authorized to certify draftable men through 29. ; Peck said - WPB would “valuate the irreplaceability and indispensability of workers only if WPB is the proper certifying agent, and if no duplicate request is made to the army, navy, maritime commission, the war food administration or any other agency authorized to handle deferment certifications.”
Must Submit Names
Peck said empiSbers -would sub-| mit names of young employees for whom deferment is sought, along| with complete information about them, thy WPB field offices. The WPB district manager in| turn will certify men considered | absolutgly essential and irreplace- | able to local” draft boards “where | final deferment authorization rests.” Peck said his 'commitee would as- | sist the field offices. ; To qualify for certification, an employee "must: 1. Be doing work included with- | in WMC's list of essential activities, | 2. Be irreplaceable from within
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INTER-AMERICAN THEATER PROPOSED
‘Natural Right of Peoples to
Live Decently’ Stressed.
MEXICO CITY, Feb, 26 (U. P.).— The United States presented to the Inter-American conference today a 10-point “economic charter of the Americas.” It is designed to protect the “natural right” eof the peoples of the Americas to live decently.
The objectives of the economic charter are: Continued mobiliza~ tion of economic resources until total victory; orderly transition from war to peacetime conditions; and a constructive basis for sound
(Continued on Page 5—Column 5)
WIFE HERE LEARNS PVT. FOSTER MISSING
The first news that Mrs, Lorena M. Foster, 3140 N. Keystone ave, had that her husband had gone into’ action was a telegram from the war department stating that he was missing. Her -husband, Pvt. Emerald L. Foster, went overseas in November, His ' last letter came shortly after He was reported miss-
Pie, Elmer C. Harter, Cambridge City, Ind, gets comfortable in what he called his version of a “fur-lined” fox hole in Germany. He made a narrow, grave-like hole, bottomed with pine boughs." On top
of that is a shelter half. ing bag. .
He is curled up in new type G. IL sleep-
HEARING SLATED
ON UNION FUNDS
Court to Hear Local’s Plea For International Office Report.
A hearing is scheduled in circuit court this afternoon on a petition demanding that international offi-
|cers of the United Brotherhood of
Carpenters and Joiners of America be ordered to produce for an accounting, records concerning more than $600,000 of union funds, « The petition was brought by Baltimore Local 101 of the Carpenters union as supplemental to a law suit filed last August against the international office located here.
Named as Defendants
Baltiniore local officials also have asked circuit court for permission to examine the personal financial records of the international officérs
| “because some of the plaintiffs’
funds were intermingled with ‘their own.” we Internationa] officers named as defendants in the actions include
(Continued on Page *5—Column 4)
MERCURY DROP HERE HERALDS COLD WAVE
LOCAL TEMPERATURES
Cam..... 50 10a m..... 32 7am 50 Na m..... 30 Sa. m?...3 12 (Noon).. 30 Sam «3 :1p.m.....30 2
A 12-degree drop in the mercury in an hour this morning warned Indianapolis that another cold wave is on its way. The temperatures are expected to drop tp 15 to 20 degrees above zero by, tomorrow morning. It was 50 above at 7 a. m, today and dipped to 38 at 8 a. m. Another three-degree drop was recorded at 9 a. m. It's to be partly cloudy and continued cold tomorrow.
|
on
|HOOSIER HEROES— 4 Listed as Dead
| German road. center west of the]
Reach Nims Line
Patton's armored and forces reached the Nims river line 20 miles west of the Moselle and about 55 miles southwest of Coblenz. Forward patrols reached the ap-/| proaches to Bitburg, last great
infantry |
Rhine in that sector, and found the town practically deserted.
ONCE there were streets in Baal, but you wouldn't’ know it. The upper floors and roofs of | houses now are crumpled in the | | streets. And where some houses |
Berlin. Beeline for Berlin The bomber formations were led by Col. Anthony A. Mustoe of Bellevue, Pa. They made a beeline
{
| once stood; there are only empty [for Berlin after crossing the north spaces. : German coast. That is what Baal looks like | The first bombs crashed on Bersince the 84th division got [lin at 11:44 a. m. (4:44 a. m. Inthrough with if. But. it was not |dianapolis time), the exact minute an easy job. (that had been plotted at Lt. Gen. The men had to fight their [James H. Doolittle 8th air force
A few Germans still inside Bit-| burg were being pounded heavily {by American mobile guns moving |
(down from Rittersdorf, 1!; miles |
And 6 Wounded
In Action Abroa [to the northwest.
: ® ; At the northern end of the 150An Indianapolis soldier previously |, ij allied offensive front the Ca-|
reported missing and one who has nadian 1st army advanced three died from wounds received in ac- miles or more on a five-mile line tion a month before are included |in a power drive that carried with-| on today’s list of war dead. In ad-|in less than two miles of the Hoch-|
dition six more local men have been Wald forest. wounded. . The forest, lying between Calcar|
and Uedem, formed the third and! last belt of Siegfried line fortifica- | tions between the Canadians and| the Ruhr valley, barely 25 miles to the southeast. - _ .
Great Drive Continues ‘But the Canadian and 3d army
KILLED Pfc. Arthur J. Richardson, 223 S. State ave, in Germany. Pvt. Edwin F. Kleuh, 652 N. Oakland ave., in France. Cpl. Harry L. Dunlop, 1521 Deloss st., in France. Pfc. Albert Sinclair, 722 8. Lyn- gains were overshadowed by the hurst dr., in France. great power drive of the American WOUNDED 1st and 3d armies across the Rhine-| {land plain. t. A . , Miia HR allen, 2589 W oe The entire, German defensive sys- | Pvt. Jack S. Hendriéks, 2149 tem Suarding the Ruhr and Rhine
Broadway, in Luxembourg. was buckling.
poi} s Ww being rocked by S. Sgt. Robert J. Robling, 2810 N. The Nazis were Station st., in Luxembuorg. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's bat-
Pvt. Henry PF. Brodnik, 736 N. | tering ram attack and the merciless Warmon ave., in Luxembourg. |pounding of thousands of planes. Pvt. Ivan L. Roney, R. R. 12,*Box The American 1st and 9th armies, 532, in Belgium. Pfc. Roscoe R, Branham, 402 S. Rural st., on Leyte.
(Continued on Page 5—Column 2) | ———————————————————— |
en RUSS 60 MILES FROM
Points Are Hiked BALTIC IN NEW PUSH On Cooking Items |
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (U.P.). —Housewives found higher ration values on margarine, lard, shortening and cooking/oils when they went to do their shopping today. Because of a tight supply situation, the office of price administration ordered these increases over the week-end: Margarine — From three red points a pound to five. Lard, Shortening, Salad and Cooking Oils—From two points a pound to four. - Butter was not affected. It remains at 24 points a pound.
Northern Defenses.
By ROBERT MUSEL United Press Staff Correspondent LONDON, Feb. 26. — Soviet ar-
mored forces pushed to within 60) miles or less of the Baltic today in a powerful drive to split Germany's northern defenses. Tanks and infantry struck eut through Pomerania for the Baltic after breaching the Nazi line based on the Danzig-Stettin railway at a
Nightlife Halts
ver
By UNITED PRESS Nightlife becomes America’s latest wartime casualty tonight. Promptly at.the stroke of midnight, every bar, cabaret, movie, bowling alley and other amusement place in the nation must turn off its lights and lock the doors under a government curfew aimed at saving fuel, manpowef and transpor-
Under Government Curfew:
point midway between those two big seaports, A thrust to the sea in this area would slice off the northeastern tip of Germany, along with the Polish Corridor and the Free State of Dan-
at Midnight
% 8g. of night clubs and other amuse- Tens of thousands of German
| proud, had to be removed for seThreaten to Split Germany's,
way across the Roer and all the way into Baal. = ” s » “WHEN we got to this town, guess I was in pretty bad shape,” said Pvt. William Stevenson, Norfolk, Va. “Guess I just was a little bit blue—maybe because I was scared.” This 18-year-old rosy-cheeked boy had helped string the first communications line in Baal while riflemen ‘were fighting the Germans at the other end of a street. He was a profd member of the 84th's crack 333d regiment and never stopped unwinding a spool of ‘communications wire around the crumbled brick building as b+ N
talked. “BUT the blues are gone now,” Stevenson smiled. “Guess they got. scared away.” Working with him were Pfc. Wallace Carter, Polo, Mo., and | Pfc. Robert Pilon; Hilton, N. Y. They were tired and Pilon's face almost was covered with a scrubby black beard. His bloodshot eyes were rimmed with black soot and dust. . . »
THEY were tired because they had fought up here from the river. And they had fought without a name. The red and white Railsplitter patch, of which they were so
curity reasons: No one was supposed to know the 84th division was to take Baal. But the Germans knew, and evén sent the doughboys a welcome note-~hundreds of them. . » »
IN THE NOTE, which was shot across the lines, the Germans said they were sorry the Americans had_to take off their | patches. The' Nazis also sent printed copies of the patch and explained “we want to do everything we can for you.” But this afternoon, the 84th was released from security. Now the people in the rest of the German towns in the path of the Rallsplitters will know who they are fighting. That red and white insignia can be seen a long way off. And the Railsplitters are making doubly Sure it is seen.
| headquarters.
PSS Somers speared to the “Great rlin area” shortly bee : °
{by daylight, Germdm communica-
{quitos had dropped 400 tons of ex
UMW TAKES 1ST STEP | TOWARD COAL STRIKE
{them legally to call a strike in the {nation’s bituminous coal mines.
For something over an hour the bombs - hailed down in 100-ton bunches. Te Today's attack brought the total weight of bombs dropped on Berlin by the Americans to about 18,000 tons. It is now the 8th air force’s “most bombed city.” Cologne ranks second with 15,000 tons and Munich third with about 12,000. The royal air force joined in the daylight offensive against the Reich. A big force of Lancaster bombers escorted by Mustangs smashed at a synthetic oil plant in the Ruhr industrial center of Dortmund.
"Great Bomber Column German broadcasts said a great
fore noon and cleared it about 1 p. m. (7 a. m. Indianapolis time), « After the Feb. 3 raid on Berlin
tions were off ‘schedule for days. Neutral sources furnished lurid descriptions of terror and havoe in the capital. } R. A.P. Mosquito bombers rocked Berlin with two-ton block busters . last night for the sixth straight night, The air ministry said the Mose
plosives on the capital in’ the past week. Erfurt, Mainz and Bremen also were ‘attacked by the R.A. F. last night:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (U. PJ, —The United Mine Workers today took action which would enable #
They did so by formally notifying three federal agencies that consider a dispute exists with the operators “within the meaning of the Smith-Connally act.” This act set up machinery for taking of strike votes after a 30-day “cooling off” period. W
————————————— CHURCHILL DEBATE SET +» LONDON, Feb. 26 (U. P.) —Prime Minister Churchill will open pars liamentafy debate on the Crimea conference tomorrow with a speech expected to last about two hours.
ment places that the curfew must be obeyed. . New York ‘operators had hoped that La Guardia had won h concession for them during the two days he spent in Washington last week. But La Guardia said he Sou promise them nothing more an:
. | “Reasonableness will be exercised
during the week of adjustment.”
troops in the area would be cut off from all escape except by sea. On the Berlin front, the Ger mans appeared to have thrown in their aerial reserves. They were attempting to break up preparations’ for a frontal assault on the capital from the Russian bridggh¢ads on the Oder, 30-odd
On the War Fronts
(Feb. 26, 1945) | PACIFIC—Marines mop® up last WESTERN FRONT— Yanks 13 miles from Cologne. Troops storm into| field. Americans annihilating Rhineland stronghold of Erkeling| last defenders in Manila. :
miles to the east. ‘The army organ, Red Star, said German and Soviet fighter planes
Throughout the nation there was
were engaged in major battles over
| and near Duesseld orf. | AIR WAR 200 U. 5. pianes ‘raid EASTERN FRONT—Russians drive] pey)in, iE within 60 miles of Baltic in of-|
(Continued on Page SeColumn 3)
fensivé to split German notth|
few yards of Iwo's central aire