The Daily Banner, Greencastle, Putnam County, 20 March 1944 — Page 1

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*+♦+«■**+++♦♦+* THF. WEATHER + hain or snow + + T TT + + + ++ ++ ++ ^j|

THE DAILY BANNER IT WAVES FOR ALL"

lU’ME FI FT'. TWO

GREENCASTLE, INDIANA, MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1944.

NO. 129

UTO STEALING EPIDEMIC HITS CITY SATURDAY

s w^ E ;S E : s p REVAIl5 NAZIS READY

I VEHICLES RECOVERED Bl T TWO OF CARS WERE KKl’ORTED wrecked An epidemic of auto stealing hit eencastle Saturday night, authored reported Monday morning. Tin Ford coupe of Dr. Earle Wisean, parked in front of his home on rham street, was stolen between 2 id 4 o’clock Sunday morning. It s found wrecked just north of the jment plant Monday morning by eriff Paul Grimes. A machine, oelonging to Charles uncan, 207 south Indiana, was stolfrom in front of that address und midnight Saturday. Sheriff nil Grimes found this car about 30 a. m. Sunday, wrecked near the g Walnut bridge west of the city. A truck belonging to Frank Canila was taken from the Cancilla mr mi west Washington street but s found back of the Currie tin OP on cast Franklin street a short jne later. The thieves attempted to even >al the Chevrolet car owned by lief of Police Ralph Hammond, is auto was pushed from 211 south di&na and found at the intersection Jackson and Seminary streets, out 2 blocks away. Clifford “Abie” Frazier reported at his car was shoved away from front of his home and that the ition had been re-wired but that e battery was too low for the jeves to get it going. K. E. Nicholson, east Berry street ;ar!y lost his Buick. It was pushed ra or three blocks but failed to

art.

I Monday was the first day of | spring, but old man winter held on and real winter temperatures prevailed, as the mercury stood near the 20 mark Monday morning. However, with spring here it can’t be long until better weather will be with us.

INBRIDGE SENIORS IN PLAY HERE TUESDAY EVE

The senior class of the Bainbridge Kh School will present a hill billy lay entitled “The Campbell’s Aic 3ming,” at the Greencastle High jchmil auditorium Tuesday night. Hatch 21 at 8 o’clock. |The cast is as follows: la Brannigan, Who lives for her

JAPS CALL ALL SEAMEN MOSCOW, March 20. Tass said today that Japan was mobilizing into her Navy all merchant sailors up to 80 years old and numerous students. The dispatch quoted the newspapei Asakmi.

Sunday Blizzard One of The Worst

Sunday’s blizzard, the last for the winter of 1943-44, was one of the worst of the year. It started raining early in the day and the rain turned to ice as it fell, due to the low temp - erature, and soon the ground and all things outdoors was covered with ice. Traffic moved slowly because af the danger, and later in the day the sleet turned to snow and one of the hardest snowstorms of the past winter held during the afternoon. Several inches of snow covered the ground at dark, at about which time the snowfall ceased and the evening was a beautiful winter night.

FOR INVASION SAYS WRITER

MILLION MEN STAND WATCH NIGHT AND DAY FOR RIG PUSH BY ALLIES

By Ralph -E. Heinzen NEW' YORK, March 20 (UP) The Germans say that a million men sta.nd watch day and night in “Fortress Europe’ under the high command of Field Marshal Edwin Homm'.d to resist any Allied landing attempt from Spain to Finland. While I was spending 13 months in German internment at Baden Baden I was permitted to compile reports about these defense- works by talking with persons who had seen portions of the line before they were interned, and from German military publications. I have seem small segments of the coastal works near the Spanish border on my way to freedom and I made a personal inspection of 31 forts in the inner defense arc along the Rhine whfen Gestapo guards took some of us there. This is the German pre-invasion defense picture as made available to internees at Baden Baden by German

agents:—

From Hendaye, Franco-Spanish frontier, to the Hague, Netherlands, stand 8,000 cannon planted permanently behind steel and concrvte and 3,000 mobile guns. In the waters off that coast are millions of mines, steel obstacles planted from Hendaye to Petsamo, toms of assault craft and submerged

wrecks.

Northward to Petsamo on Finland’s northernmost tip are similar emplacements. Some 1.700 cannon have been planted practically one to the mile along the 1,000 mile Norwegian coast, de’eply cut by Fjords and difficult for landings at best. Acres of minefields have been

to Petsamo,

“ye Brannigan, Ma’s oldest grand- | daughter Frances Sutherlin ~ tty Brannigan, Ma’s youngest | granddaughter Elaine Sallust lick Brannigan, Ma’s grandson David Elliott talpa Tapp, The hill billy servant

Thelma Koessler

,ldad Tapp, Catalpa's father

Charles Cox

’’ru.s Scudder, Who wants to marry [Mr Claude Knauer iffiey Scudder, His nephew

Jack Arthur

jhigston Campbell, Kaye’s fiancee . Charles Lukenbill ^ gust a Campbell, His aristocratic mother June Thralls Director—Mrs. L. R. Nelson. Assistant director—Mrs. Marie

Itchell.

IKS. ROSE GARDNER FUNERAL HELD MONDAY AFTERNOON

C. Of C. Banquet Tuesday Evening The annual dinner meeting of the Greencastle Chamber of Commerce will be held Tuesday evening at the Gobin Memorial church at 6:30 o’clock. The speaker will be Col. A. W. Owsley of Muncie, who will speak

on the subject “Tomorrow, when the I pi an ted from hendaye

World is Free.” I .some to explode on contact and othCoi. Owsley is former National e,. s operated electrically from shore. Commander of The American Legion Coastlines are bristling with flame and is one of the outstanding speak-1 throwers and smoke batteries, acers of the nation and an audience of cording to descriptions published by

upward of 150 will hear him. J. J. the Germans.

Eitel, president of the Chamber of, isj 0 eyewitness tmnfirmatian of Commerce, will preside. There will such features is possible, of course, be an election of nine new directors but the foregoing in r digest of what

an American internee is told at Bad-

en Baden.

Germans say the face of nature has been lifted in vast camouflaging

operations.

Behind the coastal defenses they picture an intermediate defense system across the plains of Picardy, straddling the Somme, from Flanders to the Argonne This is a rough approximation of the line on which we fought most of world War I. Behind this they still tell you of a third barrier, the Siegfried line, originally built to counter the French Maginot line, now completely overhauled and ready to protect the Rhine. I visited this line last December near Strasbourg and saw 31 empty fortresses and casemates along less than two miles of that vital river front. No troqps or guns are i.n the line now but the forts are ready. I dipped my handkerchief in the rhine and hung it to dry on a

onds of French and Italian laborers have been pressed into construction of a Mediterranean wall on the French, anchored at either end in the Alps and Pyrenees. The intermediate line through the World War I battlefields corresponds to what Gen. Maxim Weygand tried to establish to halt the German tanks when he was summoned from Syria to replace Generalissimo Gamelin in May, 1940 a connected chain of strong points at crossroads in the Somme plains which sweep widely with hardly a hillock for cover. It is cbove all a.n anti-tank defense system par excellence, according to the German boasts. There are minefields, deep tank traps, pitts, upended seel rails and concrete posts to raise a tank so a gun can pierce its belly. The western air defense is aid to consist of a.n inter-locking system of concrete runways, underground hangars and communications. Despite German propaganda, the Atlantic wall is not continuous like the great wall of China There are places on the north Brittany coast between Brest and Morlaix where there are not a single fortified position within 10 miles bu.t thvre are natural obstacles to make a landing most difficult Tbe coastal bunkers are said to contain bombproof barracks with electric lights and in some cases, gas dud water.

Duncan Files For Putnam Treasurer

BIG JAP BASE OF LORENGAN IN ALLIED HANDS

CAPTURE PAVES WAV I OR NEW \SN\VI.TS ON WIDESPREAD FRONT ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, SOUTHWEST PAI.F1C, March 20 —.(UP)—American troop . iptu, ,ng the big Japanese (base •>. Lim n iu held all the vital areas o! th Ad miralty Islands today, opeiung t way for new assaults t n tin al.fudybattcred enemy loldings fro Guinea to Truk, 610 miles to th north in the Carolines.

SERVING COUNTRY SOVIET FORCES

PRESS F3JWO IN BESSARABIA

Lt, Alvon V.

Ellis and wife have returned to Hammer Field, Fresno, Calit. He graduated from the Army Air F o r c e s Pilot School (advanced two engine), Stockton Field, Stockton, Calif.,

Feb. 4, 1944.

Alvon V. Ellis

Peter R. Duncan, well known local man, is the first Democrat to file as a candidate for county office. Mr. Duncan made formal declaration Saturday with Omer Akers, county clerk, that he would seek the Democratic nomination for Putnam treasurer subject to the May primary. Mr. Duncan has a wide acquaintance due to the fact that he was employed by the interurban company for many years and has always resided in this community.

Igrandchiidren - Dorothy Hostetler ^ ^ coming year during the me et-

i Music during the dinner, will be furnished by the High School

Dance Orchestra.

Milton Singer To Close Fashion Shop Milton Singer, popular proprietor the Fashion Shop, has been accepted for service with the U. S. Navy and will leave for duty in the near future. Because of this Mr. Singer stated Monday that he is forced to sell the stock and fixtures of his ready-to-wear business. The store will be closed all day Wedneslay and the sale will start on Thurs-

lay.

Six years ago, Mr. Singer and his family moved to Greencastle and opened the Fashion Shop which has been one of the popular mercantile establishments here. They have always participated in all local and civic affairs and Greencastle will feel the loss of this businessman and his family.

j Funeral services for Mrs. Rose Pt'dner, age 67 years, who died at , r home in Russellville Friday *ht, were held from the RussellJKe Christian church Monday afterV>n at two o’clock. Burial was in Russellville cemetery. | She was married to Burt Gardner, ho survives, together with a son (id daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mri. f'non Wayne Gardner; four grandildren; and two sisters. Mrs. Bessie jobbins and Mrs. Bertha Hodgkins

of Indianapolis.

Harold Stewart has found another (Radiosonde” device released by the S. Army Signal Corps. It was ■und near his house on Wood street .i'h deflated rubber balloon and f'pe paper parachute. Albert Dobbs, .ho mailed It to Dayton, Ohio, re its this is about the sixth one ^mnd in two years. Amateur scient ‘j* 1 ’ !i r°und the high school believe (* e r »dio sends signals back to Day- - n on altitude, barometric pressure, (Jnd velocity and possibly wind drift.

Council To Open Fire Truck Bids

- •

The main item of business before the city council tonight during its regular session wifi be the opening of bids for a new fire truck. A sum of $l6.. r >00 was recently appropriated for this purpose and after the State Tax Board approved the action, the council at its last meeting voted to advertise for bids for a truck to be opened this evening at

7:30 o’clock.

OVER AXIS EUROPE

LONDON, March 20 (UP) Hundreds of American planes, paced by four-engined Flying Forts, spread now destruction through Axis Europe today on the sixth day of around-thc-clock (pre-invasion raids

from Britain and Italy. LOCAL BOY PROMOTED

AIR TRANSPORT BASE IN

fort, beating to it the British who . , „ ,, sang :n 1939 that they’d hung their INDIA Clellan. Ash of Greencastle,

washing on that famous line. The Germans boast they’ve poui'. d 10,000,000 t'vns of concrete into the Atlantic wall and that the strength, ening goes on. Hundreds of thous-

Ind. has been promoted from Oirporal to Sergeant. It has been announced by his commanding officer. He has been in the army since

July 25, and is a cook.

Spearheaded by tanks, tiismotii.;ert troops of the first cav dry di\ occupied Lorengau Saturday .ill h i completing the campaign lor tin strategic Admiralit a which be :un Feb. K9 with a landing on L. •

Negros Island.

“This completed th. occupation oi all vital areas in the Admiraltie. Gen. Douglas MacA’thur’s communique said. "The remnant of th enemy garrison were drivi n into tl. hills to the south, abandoning many hundreds of dead.’ A spokesman, empha-i/iiig ln,r the campaign was carried . ut at "th. smallest cost to our forces," -aid the remaining Japanese troops on Manus “undoubtedly are scattered and diorganized and cannot possibly mount an important counter-attac k.” American destroyers ..ided the final thrust into Lorengau. w i n t. cavalrymen and tanks destroyed 7 i enemy bunkers and eaptui. d quantities of arms and equipment a.; the oiorganized Japanese fled to the hill: With control of the Adnnralitic. and the airfields at Lorengau anb Momote, the American ton s .■ : manded positions that virtually completed the blockade around the isolated Japanese in the Bi-m irk arehi pelago and opened bases tor attach on New Guinea, 240 miles to the south and Truk. Allied troops, steadfastly hold m; the (beachhead lines at Empress Agusta bay on Bougainville in the Solomons, repulsed another Japan esc attack Friday morning, a dispatch from Adin. William F. Hu! advanced headquurt r s reported 1 Japanese left 195 dead ins le th" American lines, in addition to others on the outside of the perirnetei they were thrown back by troops, tanks and artillery.

Allied airmen

heavy assaulls throughout tl southwest, ranging f.u a t e Foeraibaja, Java, wbei. , .n-v blast d the enemy nav .1 Fi iay nb ’ for the second bin In tlim da without Joss. Th p in I'l.si’ig a 2400-mile round ti , I. it la 1 >■ plosions and fir. I it v. i.- visihi. for 130 miles, 1 ic com nilqtii a .d (Tokyo radio said that Amirs c.i

B-24 bomlbet

again on Saturday. ( Wewak was hit for tin eighth straight day Satu lomiber.s dnq than 200 to of bombs, wllil other aerial fore struck at Hollani 200 nid- to t i west on the h< rth rn N< w Gu n . coast, where they ur.U a 3,000 too freighter, seri-'iisly dan ■ ed i il. troyer and a 5 I Solomon- has. 1 medium Is’-mb. ,• maintained their issault on Rabaul, New Brit m. (hopping 27 tons of explosives on Vunapop< township Friday

FIRST PICTURE OF EIGHT-MONTH-OLD SOUTH AMERICAN QUINTUPLETS

20 Years Ago D» GREENOAATLK

l-Mr. and Mrs. Glen Lyon saw “The j oU ies” at Indianapolis. Mr ant l Mrs. C. C. Gillen enterined at dinner and bridge. John Vermillion attended a meetK of county school superintendents Crawfordsville.

PIP -.vSKv:-;-:'

.. .•X-&-&CV.-AW. ..v..I «I||W»V-' -*

Six German Subs Sunk By British LONDON, March 20 (UP) a new German undersea offensive to interrupt the flow of troops and arms to Britain for tin' invasion of Westrn Europe was believed today ti have been nipped by the sinking of six submarines by British escort s1im)|).s the worst single (defeat yet inflated on the Nazi U-boat fleet Five rough and tumble little sloops of the secret "bird class” led b\ 'apt. F. J. Walker, Britlan's ai submarine killer, destroyed the si: U-boats on a 20-day Atlantic patrol sinking three of them within It. lours the Admiralty disclosed. Every merchant ship in two convoys guarded by Walker’s roving second escort group reached port saf< ly tout one of the sloops, the Wood p.-cker, sunk at sea eight days afte* she was torpedoed. Her crew wa* transferred to otiier ve.-sels. The (German defeat Inflicted ( i what A. V. Alexander, first Lord oi the Admiralty, called “the greatest cruise ever undertaken in this war b> • n escort gtoup," came at a thin when hundreds of ships carrying met and supplies to Britian for invu non offered the most inviting target to undersea raiders since the batti it the Atlantic began. "The chief credit for this rock on the nose for Admiral (Karl) Doenitr must unquestionably go to H. M. S Wild Goose,” Walker said. "Of tin six U-boats destroyed, four wen initially detected by the Wild Goo . who also played a major part ii their destruction.” Lt. Cmdr. 1). E. (J. Weinyss and th. crew of lia Wild Goose were cm . gradulated toy Walker "on the brii liant part you played in saving tin convoy’s bacon.” Each ship in the escort gron si. .'im I n.» re than 6 000 miles du ing the 20-day patrol and the tu ged little vessels made so many a Inks that the Starling, Walker s lip, ran out of depth charges an sank the final lUboat victim vv.t dick gun tire. OUlet sloops partie,, paling in the sinkings were the Mnj pie and the Kite. Tile climax of the cruise can w en a U-boat poked its peris.m[ above the waves only 20 years fro 1 ie Wil l (jiiose's bridge. It was sen to the li'iltoni with a deep undi water explMSion that left oil an ‘win i kagr across the sea. Naval men said escort group at tacks were proving so successfi that British U-boat hunters were ai xious to draw more German su in a n Mill to fight so they can d. troy them, just as American bomber arc attempting to lure the Luftwuffi i to th air so they can shoot dow. more Nazi fighters. Fifty-' on prisoners were talon from the submarines sunk by Wal kcr's group, ill in their early 20s an all appaiently Well fed, but th-Bnlis-i on ws reported that Ihcr was nut "much (bounce or bell Hitler left in them when they were pull ■

aboard.

MRS. LOLA R. KELCH DIED SUDDENLY SUNDAY Word was received here Monday of j thi sudden death in Indianapolis Sunday night of Mrs. Lola R. Kelc who was housemother at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house he:, for the past fifteen years. Mrs Kelch died at the home of a J niece, 'Mis. Margaret Stilt/.. Mrs. Kelch will be well remembered by many townspeople as well as those associated with the university.

WEDGE OUTER DLl’LNM.S OF

I AVOW; DISORt. \NTZ1 i» NAZIS FALLING BACK

MOSCOW, Maich 20. (UP) led armies of the Ukraine poured across the Dniester river mio Bessarabia on a 3l-mile front tohav and wedged the outer defenses of Lwow in thi Carpathian foothills, dtivin,, disorganiz-

ed German forces lie! >ie them.

The German pus

era front now has .un . n that the quii . i . i command wa nn v. ■ t hold positions, but how m l can disengage befon tbe eo increasing Russian attacks.

on the southtie so perilous

the Nazi

In an operath a .;. , :.be i j. -lantastic for its speed and ruthlessness,” Marshal Ivan S. Konev’s 2nd Ukrainian Army forced tin Dniester river border of pre-war Rumania on 31-mile front yesterday and captured more than 40 towns and villages on the southwe. i bank. The crossing, coming only 12 hours after the Soviets had reached the left bank of the river, broke tiio Dniester line behind which the Germans had been expected to attempt to rally their forces after the rout they suffered along tl southern Bug

river.

Konev’s men swarmed across the Dniester between 3 mipol and Altig-ilev-Podolskl ovei b n a and pontoon bridges which tin Germans had no time to destroy in their precipitate flight. The only town captured by Konev identified in the Soviet midnight communique was Sornki. five miles south of Yam pul, wim was t iptured Saturday, and .P2 miles northeast of the Prut river, the 1941 Km- iauRumanian border which tin Germans crossed in their invasion nearly three years ago. Konev’s forces also widened their hold on the northeast bank of th: Dnieper to 62 miles and broke into the suburbs of Mo dev-podolski, en he railway from Zhmerinka to CYr-

nauti.

Ukrainian guerillas came out of hiding as the Soviets advanced at breakneck pace and joined in the battles of annihilation against the ‘iiemy. Guerilla detachments were

•redited with intel i eptill treat of regiments of t 14th Infantry Division ti more than 200 prisoners he flags of three regii nents and large spoils. North of Mogilev-Pu lussians tightened tin i iround Vinnitsa with tin Jtiishavka. four miles b ')ne Soviet unit cut aei ■my’s route of retreat 1.500 Gorina! in two u tig. Forty-live Gennar self-propi lb 11 guns vv -. Marshal Gregory K. ; Ukrainian Army broke h lefense ring of Lwow, 1 most important con

hubs in southeast

he rcJermau pturing well as , dooui, the

tun th.

the m-

killed

£ lightk.s and

•rn

™. „...^ were horn about threw years . v o

DEMOCRAT RALLY There will be a Democratic meeting held in the assembly room of the court house Wednesday evening, March 22 at 7:30 o’clock. The public is urged to attend. Come, bring your friends. Boy Scout District Court of Hoi mi tonight at 7:30 at Gobin Memori; ! church. W. E. Edington chairman ■as arranged a fine program. Public 1 lavlt.-d

of the Get ment is in t 71 miles ea pturing Ktt t pm suit ini ie enemy, b laterial,” tin ild. "Many y the Germ.i r materials

bet

he captun mid of Ki - an foothill; "Aflet e: loops in li osses on t lower and .•omniand . ibandoned itol "S ol w

•d in tin town.”

More th. n 10 idIn r i vere si ized by the 1st leepening drive into pn ncluding S. ratln, 57

•isl of Lwow.

(German broadcasts said the Kasdans also were attacking Kowl, 98 niles inside the (ire-wai I'oliKh bordr and 125 miles northwi ;t of Kfoaents German troop: have partly •v.e.'.uate.l Kowvl Berlin acknowl*

dged.)

-Vs, 1st ie outer of the

n\a

with

strong'a r pathLwow'. Is, our l heavy

th in . iiianSoviet high arniH weru n and large • Tt vaptur-

also

U my in \U A-ar i*oland, ilt.; north-

O 0 t> «£• » 0 {i Today's Weather * acd O Loch! Temperature ♦> » <i «• ft « » o C' Increasing cloudiness tonight; rain or snow Tuesday.

Minimum

0 a. m.

7 a. m.

8 a. m

9 a .m. .

10 a. m

11 a. ni

12 noon

„ 3i

1 p n.

• i in.