The Daily Banner, Greencastle, Putnam County, 1 January 1945 — Page 4

THE DAILY BANNER, GREENCASTLE, INDIANA, MONDAY, JANUARY 1, 1945.

CHATEAU TONITE THRU THURS. Matinee Tuesday

DRAMATH' EXPEDITION HEADQUARTERS ALASKAN DEPARTMENT (UP)The largeit and one of the most dramatic mountain climbing expeditions in history, organized in a gallant but fiuitless attempt to recover the bodies of 19 passengers from the wreckage of an Army C-47 transport plane which crashed Sept. 18 near the summit of an unnamed peak near Mt. Brocks, was officially ended here recently. More than $1,000,000 worth of equipment was used in the ascent of the previously unclimbed 10,000-foot Alaska Range peak. Nifty men toiled long hours in

bitter cold for a month to make it possible for 14expert climbere to make the final dash to the twisted mass of dural which was oil that remained of the big aircraft. In the opinion of authorities, the ascent was a feat unequalled in the record of land rescue work and winter-season mountain climbkrg. “The great job these men havedone will set the pattern for all future rescue work in mountainous regions." a high-ranking oflicer declared. Ituried in Avalanche The transport had been en route from Anchorage to Fairbanks when it encountered nstrument weather, and presumably was drifted so far off ts course by a cross-wind that it struck the summit of the glacier-ribbed peak, ripping itrelf in half and strewing the 19 passengers down the 1,500-foot face of an avalanche track. Despite a painstaking search, none of the bodies was found. It is believed that all aboard were killed instantly, and were so deeply buried in the avalanche that the bodies never will be

found.

Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons, commanding general of thAlaskan Department, ordered all ..vailable aircraft to search for the missing plane, and it was s-ghted three days later De ‘•pile the absence of any sign of life at the crash, and the fact^) that veteran mountaineers believed the peak could not be climbed irt winter. Emmons ordered a relief party to start at once to the scene of the crash. Col. Ivan M. Palmer, Vickery, Tex., commander of Elmendorf airbase, was asstgned the task of organizing the expedition. His field assistants were Lt. Allen M. Dillman, Roosevelt, Utah, land rescue officer of the base; S Sgt. James E. Gale, Anacon-

da. Mont.; Bradford Washburn, Grant Pearson, veteran

of two

known mountain climber, and Grant Pearson, Mt. McKinley

National Park ranger.

other civilian mountain expert with the party, and Army auj thorities give him and Washburn I much of the credit for the fact

First Motorized Ascent . that yj e expedition was carried Organized along the line of a!„..» * ii#„ „„

military campaign, the expedi-

tion was larger than the Mt. nwerest expeditions and was the first completed motorized ascent ever attempted in deep snow country in winter. Tractors, trucks bulldozers, snowplows, aircraft and the previously super-secret snow jeeps were .ised. Special mountain climbing equipment was flown in from the States. A supply road was opened for 90 miles accross the wilderness to the base of the peak, often through wind-crust-

ed drifts 20 feet deep.

The men fought wild tundra nlizzards, searing sub-zero temperatures, avalanches and the treacherous ice of freezing rivers md creeks to accomplish tns task which had been pronounced impossible. Some of them had .lad friends aboard the ill-starred tiansport, and were cherishing the l,000-to-1 chance that some might still be alive. Planes were over them daily when weather permitted, parachuting food, tentage, gasoline and climbing gear. Radiomen kept the party m constant touch with its base and with the planes overhead. Motor pool men drove their .ituristic-looking snow jeeps up ^now-blanketed glaciers, dodg,ng geadly networks of crevasses, to heights never before attained by motor vehicles in the

northern mountains.

“Brad Washburn drove his jeep to 7 000 feet,” said Dillman. ••in places where even a talented mountain goat would have been in trouble. I don’t know how he

did it.”

fully searched the avalanche on American family backing e which it lay without finding any war effort to its utmost, bu

of the 19 bodies. Grant Pearson called for a vote, and it was decided that further search was useless—that the bodies never would be recovered.

Grizzled, heavy-shouldered

*—jSsSSSS

PLANE IN FLIGHT PICKS MAN OFF GROUND

out without loss of life or serious

injuries.

Medical reports of the climb list only four minor casualties--two cases of frostbitten feet and two slightly sprained ankles. A previous expedition into this urea, for the purpose of studying cosmic rays, had lost two men In the glacier over which Washburn led the snow jeeps. All Were Volunteers All members of the expedition were volunteers. They cams from the infantry, the airbgge. the official land rescue squad and the famed Alaska Scouts. Among those who took part in ‘he ascent were: Cpl. Eugene V. Hawkins, Santa Rita Park, Cal.; PFC. William E. Cook, ElPaso, Tex.: PFC. Richard D. Huff, Bliss.Ida. S Sgt. Donald R. Groll, Manitowoc, Wis.; Pvt. Donald E. Riley, Sheridan, Wyo.; Capt. Americo Peracca, Crokett, Cal ; Ind.; Cpl. Howard Hoffman. Sioux City, la.; S Sgt. Harry Kruvand, St. Louis. Mo.; PFC. Van H. Ballantyne, Twin Falls, ida.; T 4 Woodrow W. Page, Hackensack. N. J.; T 4 Charles .1. Perricone, New York, N. Y.; Cpl. Joseph Rosenauer, S t. Joseph, Mo.; T 4 Aden Winkelman, Rising City, Nev.; PFC. James C. Kapiloki, Westville, Ind.; Pvt. Wallace Atkinsor Boise Ida.; Capt. George Morris, San Francisco, Cal. The scene of the crash was reached on Nov. 11 by 14 handpicked men selected to spearnead the party. Supplied by transport planes which parachuted food and equipment to them, the men dug out the wreckage of the plane and care-

YOU'RE-TELLING ME! > By WILLIAM RITT Central Press Writer

GOEBBELS again warns the Germans they must not talk about the war. That ought to be easy — since there is nothing they would more gladly forget. ! ! 1 Maybe the reason Santa Claus is always so jovial and pleasant is the iact be only needs to work one day a year. 1 ! ! Police in Connecticut identified a gun-wielder because he bore a tattooed twattika. He should have known it would bring him nothing but bad luck. I I ! The Nazis boast they have a device which will enabled a submarine to stay submerged for 20 days. Shucks, that's nothing, the Germans have built a lot of U-boats that have been staying down for years. ! ! I Now that German soldiers are wearing paper underwear they are probably suffering from termites instead of cooties. ! ! ! Zadok Dumkopf thinks a tidal wave shouldn't bother Japan's militarists much since they are always wot anyway. ! ! ! While Prime Minister Winston Churchill was winning a vote of confidence in the British Parliament a nag named Churchill was winning a race in Argentina. Sounds like a swell twoway parlay.

Artists To Pick DPU Beauty Queen Five prominent Hoosier artists will come to DePauw.University on Saturday, Jan. 6, to choose the most pulcuritudinous of DePauw’s beauty-famed campus and to paint a portrait of the coed of their choice, it was announced here by Prof. A. Reid Winsey, head of the art department and faculty advisor to Kappa Pi, national art fraternity here. Artists who w.ll choose the DePauw co-ed they would most like to paint include Ruth Bobbs. Edmund Bru:ker, Elmer E. Taflinger, Randolph Coats, and Earl Beyers, all widely known in Hoosier and national art circles. Dc'fauw beauty winners w.ll have their photographs and pictures of the artists portraits published in the 1945 Mirage, student yearbook at DePauw. Almost 200 co-edl have been nominated by the 24 sororities and residence lia'ls for women on the campus, and this nu.r.ber will be reduced to 80 by a faculty art committee. When they assemble in DePauw’s Little Theater next Saturday night, the five artists will first elim.nate all but 25 of the coeds. Then, from those who remain each will select the girl he would most like to paint. At a later date each artist will come to the car.pus to paint he beauty of his choice before members of the DePauw chapter of Kappa Pi. according to plans announced by Professor Winsey nid Clarlynn Figel, editor of the /earbook Included in the program will oe a dinner for the visiting arsis, Deirauw dignitaries, and members of Kappa Pi in a private dining room at Mason Hall,

war

a remarkable family at that. The sons of O.A. Melcher, a i employee of the Union Pacific railroad, include a major, three captains, and a corporal with the state guard. The seventh member of the family, Mrs. Melcher, is a war worker, too she works at the Red Cross and keeps

house.

All the men in the family have worked for the Union Pacific some time during their lives. The father is employed in the office of the chief engineer. The youngest son, Robert, 19, who is in the state guard works in the freight traffic department. Maj. John F. Melcher, 31, is i r Italy. He took part in the invasion of Africa and fought through the Tunisian campaign with a tank group. Then he was transferred to the Quartermaster corps and went through Sicily and into Italy. Wiped Out Nazi Nest Capt. Willis A. Melcher, 36. is a doctor who entered the army in 1939 and was stationed it Panama two years. He returned to the United States for several months but he is again overseas. Cant. Philip R. Melcher, 27. has been kept in the country because of a football injury suffered at college. He is assigned to a prisoner of war camp at Muskogee, Okla. But the family is especially

until he was out of ammunition, picked up a Browning automatic rifle, emptied it, grabbed a machine gun without a tripod and sprayed the Nazis until all were killed. The company advanced

.nice more.

Five times during the advance ngaiml terrUc Giirman ajitillerey, Capt. Melcher was knocked unconscious by shell bursts. Once, he wrote his parents, he was “scratched by an 88,” but the wound warranted the Purple

Heart award.

After the company crossed tin , Moselle River, a German mortar crew discovered the captain on fop of a hill where he had taken I the position of an observer.! 'three motar shells blanketed th/» top of the hill and fragments lodged in Captain Melcher. He was taken to an English hos- j pital where he recuperated. The men in the Captain’s company have respected him as “the kind of an officer we’d follow anywhere he wanted to go.” CHINESE PHYSICIAN CAPTAIN IN WACt CAMP CROWDER. Mo. (UPI Was Capt. Poe-Eng Yu, new ly assigned to Camp Crowder, had a more than usually urgent reason for joining the Army, she told other officers here. Japanese oppressors have de- * 1 * * * * stroyed her home :n Amoy Fukien, China.

VONCASTLEl MONDAY & TUESDAY

It's So RornanticJ

TURNER!

JAMES CRAIG

with

JOHN

H0DIAK

Capt. Yu, sister-in-law of Lin ;

proud of Capt. Richard D. Mel- Yu-Tang, famous Chinese philos- • cher, who has received the Silver opher, formerly taugUt in Ch.na ’ < Star medal for wiping out and is the daughter of two dis- t

Franc** Gifford • Hugh Marlow* NalaKo Schafer • Keenan Wynn Horbort Rudlry A ROBERT Z. LEONARD Prod n. Serpen Play by David Hertz and Unor* Coflee • Bated on the Novel by JodlHi Kelly • Directed by Robert 7 Leonatd Produced bv^Pondro $. b« n.an AN M-G-M PICTURE

ALSO NEWS

.-ingle-handed a machine-gun tinguished Chinese physicians, nest In a Normandy Church. Hj Now she is one of the few

also received the Purple Heart women physlc.ans serving as after suffering wounds in his 1 regularly commissioned officers : ^537 p 0 i n ts f or processed lace and foot while leading his j in the U. S. Army. She studied an(1 x 134 for meat

medicine at the University of

women’s residence unit. Judging »ow.

will begin in the L.ttle Theater'the attack

at 7:30 p. m., when each con- 1

company in battle In France. His infantry company had been pinned down by fire from the enemy nest and instead of «ending the customary patrol to wipe out the Nazi group, the captain crawled toward the church, turned on his side and threw three hand gernades through a window. He destroyed the nest anil the company

•'Advanced.

Knocked Down 5 Times

But the men were halted again l.y German fire from a hedgeAgain Capt. Melcher led

He fired his carbine

M.chlgan and Johns University.

Hopkinj

j {BIBLE STORY HELPED GREENSBURG, Ind. (UP) — County Clerk Earl Woodward rightfully kept his (hopes high, thinking of the Biblical loaves of bread and fish wlfch fed .» multitude, when the OPA granted him only four pounds of sugar and 75 points for meat to feed 2,268 election workers. The next week the OPA sent him an apologetical letter and enclosed coupons for 68 pounds of sugar,

ELECTION TIE-IN IND1ANAPOLS, Ind. (UP)A pre-election sign in a shod repair shop amused passers-hyl tor It’ read, “Vote for Cats Pail —a darned good heel.” Sou campaigners called their ponents worse names th in tha'J

The Corinthian Class of Methodist Sunday Scho 1 meet Tuesday evening at 7:(j with Mrs. Naylor, Coal Apart ments. Mrs. Simms will give I d'.-votlons and Mrs. Tennant ’ give a book review.

large'

W?‘

testant will pose in a fra ne on the stage. j This unique plan for choosing yearbook beauty queens is in line w.th the plan of DePauw's Kappa Pi chapter for bringing prominent artists to the campus to demonstrate their art by actually working from a moc!:i before DePauw students. The series was inaugurated last year when Wayman Adams, one of America’s foremost portrait painters demonstrated his technique in painting a portrait of Dr. Lisgar Echait, professor of philosophy here, before DePauw

art students.

Country Reading

Club To Meet

Country Reading Club will meet with Mrs. Daniel Hutche-, son, Wednesday afternoon at 2:00. Mrs. James Torr will have charge of the responses and Mrs. Lycurgus Stoner will have charge of the program. REMARKABLE FAMILY OMAHA, Neb. (UP)—Its pro- ’ bably just another 100 per cent

THEY’RE HAPPY FOR THEY’RE GOING HOME TO U. S.

lUP

" - I

H! v

*"5 n ° t fT J hc 8 round by a plane In full flight has been proved by ground, upper left; towed up to the plane, right, and climbing in, lower left. As 6 the flyer^eaves the £? U " d ' 1 ‘ e p “ ne ® ‘° w , r °P e has engaged the pick-up loop beginning his ascent with no shock. Climbh^ifnnn, !, Ke . 0f ., 5 d 1 eRrec ® or bcUer - ‘he plane pulls Conway in a swift but smooth take-off As on L P niak , p h t0 h K P ane ’ P°" Way shinnle « up the guide, grabs the doorsill and is helped in. Tests ?. n P 16 f t l S k '. up ,av ® b ® en n:ad * for ov er a year, and now the experiment has advanced to Such a noint g standardization will be seriou.slv considered. Thesa ara official A AF photos, ftniernatinn,/ • SCARS FROM THE SECOND BATTLE OF THE PHILIPPINE!

HITLER DEFIES ALLIED NATIONS

■ir

Officers and men of an infantry division wave hap pily to the photographer near the West rn fn and for good reason. They’re going home—to the U. S. These men were either wounded or d’.coi ated twice. U. S. Signal Corps Photo. (Intemation al Soundphoto)

THIS JAP AIRCRAFT PLANT GETS 40 DIRECT HITS l ICi 'nil

■IE ,

toied m'sllnVn° f iP* bombi “« * U>e Mitsubishi Aircraft plant at Nagoya, Japan, by B-M dustnr target Thi^nh t k * po “ rin * from mor * ‘ *0 direct hit* on the Important Nip « rlal . y rget. This photo waa received In UUa country by RCA radiophoto. (International Soundphott)