Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 April 1945 — Page 1
1,°1945
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“HOME |
VOLUME 56—NUMBER 28
THURSDAY, APRIL
12, 1945
Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice Indianapolis, 9, Ind. Issued daily except Sunday
PRICE FIVE de
%
Americans Capture Weimar, Cradle Of Pre-Hitler German Republic
By REYNOLDS PACKARD United Press Staff Correspondent WEIMAR, Germany, April 12.— Weimar, cradle of the German republic which Adolf Hitler smashed in his rise to power, surrendered today to the men of Lt. Gen, George 8. Patton's 3d army who entered the city and completed its occupation at 10:30 a. m. The 80th infantry division oc-
eupied- Weimar which had surrendered to the spite desperate orders issued only today by Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler that no town or city of Germany was to surrender on pain of death to German officials. An infantry column led by Col. N. A. Costello, Arlington, Va., paraded into the old city. But most of the populace did
Americans de-
.not see the entry because they de~ liberately turned their backs on our troops and glared sulleniy at the ground. The city surrendered to our forces largely through the efforts of Erika Fischer, pretty blue-eyed auburn-haired wife of a German physician. She is half-American. Mrs, Fischer's mother is Mrs. Henrietta Hansen, a New Yorker
SPAIN SEVERS JAP RELATIONS
IN AXIS BREAK
"Wurder “of Spaniards “Charged; Chile Declares War on Tokyo.
MADRID, April 12 (U. P.).—Spain has made its first break with an axis power. It severed diplomatic
fst
relations with Japan last night be-| i%
eause Japanese troops murdered Spanish citizens at Manila.
The action was announced in an official statement released after a cabinet ‘meeting at El Pardo palace | with Generalissimo Francisco Fran-| ¢o presiding. |
In breaking relations with Japan, |,
the government disclosed it already | had made representations for indemnity for the loss of lives and] damages suffered by Spanish subJects at the hands of the Japanese in the Philippines capital.
Burned Consulate
The government charged Slreoly that Japanese troops assassina all Spanish consuliar officials a other persons Feb. 12, wantonly burned the consulate and deliberately destroyed property of Spams eitizens. (A Caracas dispatch said the Ven- | ezuelan foreign office announced | that its consul, Alberto Delfino, his| wife and son were murdered by the! Japanese at Manila Feb. 10, and their residence burned. (Venezuela alreggy is in a state of belligerency with Japan and a formal declaration of war may re-| sult from the assassination.) (Chile “officially declared war on Japan last night.) Falange Meets Spain's decision to break relations with Japan followed a meeting earlier in the day of the nationalist -Ppanish Falange, the government Political party led by Franco, The group voted to support the government in measures necessary to defend Spanish interests in the Philippines -and formally advised the cabinet of its action. The cabinet statement said that: “direct reports, of Spanish origin and officially confirmed, ‘leave no doubt of the assault carried out Feb. 12 by Japanese troops orn the Spanish consulate at Manila, where all consular officials and other persons present were assassinated, and the building was wantonly burned.”
‘GAMBLERS UNEASY ABOUT THE FUTURE
Keep Wary Eye on State And Vice Versa.
By SHERLEY UHL Gamblers in Marion county were on pins and needles today as a result of statements of an anti-gam-ing hue and cry issued by Governor Gates and Col. Austin Killian, state police superintendent. With wagering in sundry forms eontinuing apace in the county and isolated instances cropping up in the city, local risk-takers were warfly watching state police for signs of animosity. But Col. Killian today said he had received no complaints on gambling from Marion county although, he asserted, “there have
(Continued on Page 2—Column 1) LOCAL TEMPERATURES
Glenda Louise Jordan . ,
NAZI CRUELTY
10 BE AVENGED
‘Stimson, Stettinjys Pledge: ‘We’ll Not Forget.
WASHINGTON,
R. Stettinius said today that 70,000 American prisoners of war held in Germany are living under “deplorable” conditions. They said, however, that the, American Red Cross, through the! International Red Cross, “has heen|
(Hoosier Heroes, Page Three)
arid is doing everything within their power” to get relief to the American prisoners. The American people, the two secretaries promised, “will not forget” the criminal Nazi treatment of the prisoriérs.e : “The perpetrators of these heiHous crimes will be .brought to justice,” they ‘said. Daily Truck Service Stimson read the statement to his press conference shortly after the International Red Cross dis-
closed in a cable from Geneva that truck convoys carrying Red Cross| food supplies started a daily service | today from Switzerland to prison camps in Germany. It informed the American Red Cross that 296 trucks are available for this work, Earlier, a state department official said that the sufferings of 1,100,000 allied war prisoners in Germany will increase as long as German resistance continues. Conditions have been growing worse, he said, ever since the Russian offensive began last winter. Stimson and Stettinius said -that
(Continued on Page 2—Column 5) |
Charles M. Olson; Theater Man, Dies
Charles M. Olson, who was known in the theater world throughout the nation, died today at his home in Carmel. He was 65. Mr. Olson, a pioneer Indianapolis film and vaudeville exhibitor, was also a nationally known heavyweight wrestler. As owner of the Lyric, he was— for several years—the only theater manager in the country booking 52 solid weeks of vaudeville. His start in the theater business
(Continued on Page 2—Column 3)
Truman Coming Here to Open
War Bond Sale Drive May 11
Vice President Harry 8. Truman will come to Indianapolis open the general sales phase of the 7th war loan drive May 11. He will speak to Hoosier war finance committee volunteers in the first network broadcast of the campaign.
TIMES INDEX Amusements ..22 Movies A
Eddie Ash ...;26 Fred Perkins. 17 Business ......31|Ermie Pyle ....17
Crossword ,...14|Ration Dates: .32 Editorials pee As Mrs. Roosevelt. 17 20|8ide Glances..18 .18 | Wm. P. Simms 18
' Aw av an
-the was happy-to-come here for the}
Official opening date of thie drive is May 14. Indiana's share of the nation's quota is $167,000,000. “This is the only war loan speaking invitation the vice president has accepted,” Eugene C. Pulliam, state war finance committee chairman, said. “Because of Indiana's outstanding war bond sales record, Mr. Truman told treasury officials
broadcast and meeting.” The, state-wide meeting ‘will be held at noon in the Riley room of the Claypool hotel.. The NBC work will tarry Pind half-hour
Her Flag Flies on Okinawa
froavBug nm come pra ge
April 12 (U.P).| | —Secretary of War Henry L. Stim{son and Secretary of State Edward
. he flag on
Maj. Glenn V, Jordan , . raised his daughter's Okinawa. » . » A SMALL Star-Spangled Banner today. flies over the Jap isle of Okinawa because 68-year-old Glenda Louise Jordan, 2524 Central ave, Jhought of her dad. Last July Maj. Glenn V. Jordan was ready to ship for the Pacific for his second tour of overseas duty. Glenda had just taken part “in an Independence day program. For it she was given a flag.
8 ” » SHE GAVE the flag to her father, saying: - “Put it up over some Jup place . somewhere.” The little flag was the first raised on Okinawa by the division ‘in which Maj. Jordan serves, He is the division assist-
(Continued on Page 2—Cqlumn 4)
SUE WESTINGHOUSE ON TRUST GHARGE Agreement With 2 German
Firms Charged.
WASHINGTON, April 12 (U.P).
|=The justice department announced
that it filed a civil anti-trust suit today against Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. charging
it with maintaining restrictive in-|
ternational cartel agreements with two German firms. In addition to Westinghouse, the suit also charged Westinghouse International with participating in the cartel agreements. The suit asked the court to hold illegal contracts of the two firms which it said allocated various countries of the world to- the various firms as. sales groun The two German firms named were SiemensSchuckertwerke and Siemens-Hal-ske, which under the agreement were given exclusive sales rights in certain European countries. The suit charged that the agreements resulted in the inhibition of the, American electrical industry and withholding of vital patents and information relating to electrical equipment from other manufacturers in the United States. The suit is one of a series «lesigned to frée ‘the American electrical industry from cartel restraints.
Rr . Cm
* | battles beyond the Oder on the ap-
‘lagainst Berlin,
who was said to have been the wife of a German general prominent in the last war. Mrs. Fischer often visited Washington and New York but declined to name her American friends in fear that her German connections might be prejudicial to them. Weimar has suffered heavily under allied ar Dba ments
— en
HE NORA - sma
Time Berlin Driv e To Put City in
Nuteracker.
By ROBER MUSEL United Press Staff Correspondent
CONDON, April 12.—Moscow reported today that violent fighting had blazed up in the Red army’s Oder river bridgehead on the approaches to Berlin. At the same time American mobile forees raced toward the Naz capital from the west. “Soviet troops are waging fierce
LONDON, April 12 (U. P.) —A. broadcast Berlin dispatch to | Zurich, recorded by the B. B. C., | said today that the only bright thing left for the Berliners was the spring sunshine.
proaches to Berlin,” a Moscow
broadcast said. The report indicated that Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov had lighted the fuse of his long brewing pish
with-U. 8, 8th army
cracker, 30 Miles From Berlin Zhukov's reported onslaught hit the German defenses in the Oder valley about 30 miles due east of Berlin. There he had massed in his bridgehead across the Oder a great array of Soviet troops and Arms. Only yesterday formidable forces of Cossack cavalry were reported on the move, evidently into positions to spearhead a lightning sweep westward. ; The Soviet high command never
ing in front of Berlin. But Berlin {and Moscow reports have mgde it | |evident that Zhukov has won a springboard beyond the river for {the climaetic assault, now apparently beginning. Drive for Hitler Lair
The Germans reported last night that their army had lost Klessin, on the Berlin side of the Oder 33 miles east of the capital. In the Danube valley west of virtually - conquered Vienna, another Red army push was aimed at Berchtesgaden and the Bavarian
| (Continued on Page 6—Column 4)
Surrender Brings NaziDeath Decree
LONDON, April 12 .(U. P.)— The German high command reported today that Gen. Lasch, who surrendered at Koenigsberg, had been sentenced to death by hanging. The Nazis yesterday branded Lasch a coward for giving up %o the Russians at the end of the week-long siege of Koenigsberg, capital of East Prussia. - Moscow .had announced the capture of Lasch. The death sentence apparently was imposed in absentia as & token implementa~ tion of a new decree by Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler providing the extreme penalty under such ‘circumstances, “General Lasch was senténced by a court-martial to death by hanging for his cowardly surrender to the “enemy,” a German communique said.’ “His kin will be held responsible.”
ahi) the heart of Nazidom =n a nut-
officially reported the Oder cross-|.
Among the famous buiildngs which I found smashed when I entered with our forces were the houses of the poets, Goethe and Schiller, the old city hall, and the Temple Herrenhaus in the famous Weimar park, The house of Franz Liszt, the musician, was one ‘of the “few historical motffuments in Weimar which Towalned Butack:
CE TW oi
iE Is Report Violent B
THE be APs wey GE
At least one-third of the city has been smashed. The historic chamber where the national assembly approved the constitution of the German republic in 1919, is wrecked. Less than a month following the revolution, on Nov. 9, 1918, the new chancellor under a peoples’ council fixed the date for elections to the constitutional
i VIR.
ET.
‘Hell- on-Wheels' Commander
Acme Telephoto
Brig. Gen. Isaac D. White, commanding general of the 2d “Hell-On-Wheels” armored division which stormed across the Elbe river at Magdeburg, and started down the “home stretch” to Berlin. .
FIFTH ARMY THRUST NEARS NAVAL BASE
British 8th on Other Italian Front Crosses River.
ROME, April 12 (U, P.).—American troops of the 5th army today stormed into Carrara, one of the last: obstacles before the big La Spezia naval base on Italy's. western coast. The American drive up the Ligurian coast came almost simultaneeously with a forcing of the Santerna river by the 8th army on the eastern side of Italy. Italian partisans joined the U. 8. troops in pushing into Carrara, only 12 miles west of La Spezia, already under steady attacks from Mediterranean air force bombers. Other 5th army forces also were steadily moving up the Ligurian
(Continued on- Page 2-—Column 8)
1900 DEAD OR HURT IN ITALIAN BLAST
ROME, April 12 (U. P.).—Almost 1900 Italian eivilians and an urdetermined number of allied service personnel were killed or injured today when a munitions ship exploded in Bari harbor, 135 miles east of Naples. Pirst accounts from the scene indicated the disaster was even greater than" that which occurred on Dec. 2, 1943, when German bombers blew up five munitionsladen American ships, at Bari, wrecking the harbor and causing about 1000 casualties, At least 267 Italians were believed to have been killed in the blast today and another 1600 were injured.
Today's Rumor: Leipzig Chosen By Hitler for His Armageddon
* defended and held by all means available.”
Ovtrespondent ; LONDON, 12. —8tockholm reports said to-
day that Adolf Hitler and his henchmen personally would lead the Nazis in their Armageddon at Leip
zig, throwing -all their Secret weapons and possibly poison gas into a climactic battle to the death, Heinrich Himmler, chief of the gestapo, the 8.8. elite guard-and the German home army, providing the
ro
4 «
He signed his statement as leader of the S. 8.
at &] ‘high party ewhes and Nazi gauleiters het er intend to
die with Germany on the unconfirmed Stockholm re-
Record Fleet of 400 B-29's Raid
nA Ars Age
aitle Be
convention which was to form the republic. The convention "met for the first time in Weimar Feb, 6, 1919. Formation of the republic moved quickly. By Feb. 10 the convention adopted a law fixing a provisional government and the constitution was adopted July 31. There were several reasons for choosing elmer as the conven«
atone; x
eyond
Ag wT fr IE a
tion site. . Being the town where the two great poets, Goethe and Schiller, lived, it was associated with the idea ,of reason-over-force, or republicanism, espoused by the poets. Removal of ° the government seat, even temporarily, from Berlin to Weimar also marked a
(Continued on 8 Page 2-Column 6)
AL IN BERLIN ‘HOME STRETCH ER SWEEPING ACROSS ELBE.
rel Kaw
AACR
the Oder
or 1 TR
[Speed of Drive Indicates Nazi Capital
May Be Reached by Nightfall; 3d Dashes 46 Miles.
By BOYD
D. LEWIS
United Press Staff Correspondent
PARI
S, April 12.—American 9th army - tanks
raced across the Elbe river into the 50-mile “home stretéh” before Berlin today. U. S. 3d army columns broke into ‘the Germans’ east front supply bases with a 46-mile dash for Leip-
zig and Halle.
Censored field dispatches said the 9th .ormy’s second “Hell on Wheels” armored division was riding full-tilt for
the doomed Nazi capital after
in 12 hours that carried up
a spectacular 55-mile advance to and across the Elbe at an
undisclosed point near Magdeburg. Magdeburg, Berlin's main outer bastion, 60 miles south
west of the capital, was outfl icant breakthrough and the
anked by the explosive Amer speed of the drive indicated
Berlin itself might be reached by nightfall. May Have Captured Bridge
One or more of the six Elbe bridges in the Magdeburg area possibly was taken intact by the American armored
rush, suggesting that the fleeing Germans had duplicated
their disastrous blunder in failing to blow up the ‘Rhine bridge at Remagen last month, * Se Fanatical Nazi Elite Guards still fought hard and with
{some success to prevent the American 7th army from
breaking through on the roads to Nuernberg and their “last
redoubt” in southern Bavaria.
But elsewhere on the long
Western front Germany's defenses were coming apart at
an incredible rate. Lt. Gen. Ge 95 to “46 tailed blazing armored. stake that threatened to outflank Berlin from the south and cut the!
Plants in Tokyo Reich in two.
By UNITED PRESS
Patton's ‘men were reported at
An American aerial armada of | {the gates of Halle, 15 miles north-
400 or more B-29 Superfortresses and fighters blasted today at Japanese ‘war plants in the Tokyo area and at Koriyama, 110 miles north. The fleet, possibly the largest yet hurled at Japan from land bases, split . over the enemy homeland, with half bombing the Musashina aircraft plant in Nakajima, a Tokyo suburb. The rest attacked aircraft plants and a power plant at Koriyama.
major blow in the Tokyo area, flew 3800 miles in the round trip between their Marianas bases and Koriyama. Mustang fighters joined the group from Iwo island, 750 miles south of Tokyo. Returning crew members who bombed one of the two industrial targets in the Koriyama area said
(Continued on Page 2—Column 1)
| west of Leipzig and 77 miles southwest of Berlin, in a weakly- -opposed | advance that carried within 90 miles of the westbound Red army. Patton's men enveloped and broke into Bt we advanced
Ei S. Patton’s American 3d army riddled wagh the enemy's central defenses in a
LONDON, April 12 (U. P)—~ German Transocean News . agency said today that American 3d army troops have reached the Lichenberg area, 70 miles mertheast of Nuernberg and emily 21 miles from the Czechoslovak border,
| another 11 miles to capture’ Wei{mar, birthplace of the ill-fated =
(Continued ol Page S—Column 1)
On the War Fronts
April 12, 1945 The B-20's, striking their 15th |wegypprN FRONT—American 9th PACIFIC — Large B-20 fleet blasts
army across Elbe, last water barrier before Berlin. Third army captures Weimar, breaks loose in drive jo cut Germany in two.
EASTERN FRONT-—-Moscow reports
Savage battle beyond the Oder;
Red army columns reported 20 miles west of Vienna in drive aimed at Hitler's Berchtesgaden
"fortress.
Japanese war plants in Tokyo area and at Koriyama; battlk of southern Okinawa stalemated fourth day; Americans gain on Luzon. ITALY American 5th army storms into Carrara, 12 miles from ‘La Spezia naval base; British force Santerno river at east end of front.