The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, May 5, 1943, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LXI., NO. 9335. U. 5. OUR FORCES | CLOSING IN ONBIG BASE German Counter - Attacks Thrown Back Through- | out North Africa ALLIED HEADQUARTERS AFRICA, May 5.—American and French forces are smashing along the Mediterranean toward Bizerte | and have reached a point only 10 miles from there. Other American units are closing in from Mateur and have driven to within only five miles of Fer ville, Axis naval base across the lake from Bizerte. Allied advices said Ferryville is about 10 miles northeast of Ma- teur, taken by the Yanks on Mon- day, and eight miles across Lake Bizerte from Bizerte, itself. This finds the Americans to have penetrated to within artillery range of the strongly fortified Axis base. The advance was made after beat- ing back a German counter-attack at Djebel Cheniti north of Lake IN Achkel, lone water defense pro- | tecting the southern approaches to the Ferryville naval base. Drive on Tebourba Pushing out from Mateur to the east and southeast, the Americans also have made five miles in this direction, repulsing another light enemy counter-attack launched on the Djebel Makna ridge, on the east side of the River Tine. In this thrust, the Americans are aiming at Tebourba, 18 miles west of Tunis and about the same dis- (Continued on ;@ge Three) The Wakhington Merry - Go-Round By DREW PEARSON (Major Robert S. Allen on active duty.) WASHINGTON.—Many an Am- erican mother is hearing from her boy, I B i —— | JUNEAU, ALASKA, WE! DNESDAY, MAY 5, 1943 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTY =] WILL BAYONET JAPS FROM KISKA Yanks Within Shelling Distance Of Bizerte Monigomery Gels Flying Fortress Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery (facing camera), co mmander of the British Eighth Army, meets members of the U. Dwight D. Eisenhower when the Fortre: in North Africa. This picture was radioed from Cairo to New York. crew of an American Flying Fortress (background) ‘Vlénglh of Polifical Campaign This Year | “Why don't you write? I haven't had a letter from home for | ages.” And she knows she has writ- | ten faithfully every day. The explanation’ is the U-boa which the War Department regrets [ing the ASSASSIN HUNTEDIN " BULGARIA (By Associated Press) Axis radio reports said the streets of the Bulgarian capital city of t, |Sofia are deserted. All roads leav- Axis dominated state are to say caused the loss of “several blocked as a wide search is being million pieces of mail” during me;madc for the assassins. of first three weeks of March alone. But still the mother wonders why some of her daily letters don't get through. Even if a third of | | | Col Athanas Panteff, former Chief of Police who was slain last Monday. “The population of the Bulgarian capital has been ordered to stay them were sunk her boy should /&t home during a large scale raid have received 20 letters in month. Unfortunately, it doesn't work; that way. If she writes 30 letters a month all those letters may have accumulated in the Port of New York or some other port waiting for a convoy outward bound. Con- voys cannot leave every day or two. So all 30 letters might go into one ship and if that ship is sunk her son will have no mail for a month. There is no solution to this prob- lem except to keep on writing. CLARE LUCE AND HENRY WALLACE Vice President Wallace doesn't know it but his most vigorous critic, Congresswoman Clare Luce, and her husband now have their personal attorngy stationed on Wal- lace’s BEW staff. He is Alexander Hehmeyer, who has handled the legal work for Mr. and Mrs. Luce for some time and who now sits in one the BEW post-war planning committee for air routes. This is the same prob- lem over which the Vice-President and the beautiful Congresswoman from Connecticut tangled. Behind all this is interesting background. Several months ago Time Magazine, of which Henry Luce is publisher, printed a line- up of future presidential timber listing among others Vice-President Wallace. The accompanying write- (Continued on Page Four) the made "by the police and army to detect the ringleaders of the recent attack,” the Berlin radio said. The radio broadcast was heard by the Associated Press which also said that “only children up to 12 years of age and old servants are given permission to buy food dur- ing the forenoon, telephone connec- tions and trunk lines between Bul- garia and foreign countries are blocked and nobody is allowed to leave his house.” Frank assertions about the dras- tic measures are suggested that the little Balkan Kingdom was the first to desert the Kaiser in the first world war. In grave unrest, Panteff was buried Tuesday as the funeral pro- cession proceeded through deserted streets to the measured tread of | | : soldiers with their footsteps only ;!0 someone who will carry on his ‘pnllclcs, If he doesn’t choose to run, “silent treatment” he gave the in 1940 will be AN ALASKAN ARMY BASE— just as effective in keeping other aspirants out of the race and set- ting up another convention without other than himself or someone he might breaking the deathly silence. e, — Don’t send Sergeant Wilbur Jones (that's his name) any more fixed- text telegraphic messages, because he doesn’t trust them. Sergeant Jones, 17 months in Alaska, recent- ly received army fixed-text mess- age number 85 from his wife. After 36 hours, a correction was made. What Mis. Jones had sent was message 35. The texts: No. 35—"All my love, darling.” R BUY WAR BONDS No. 85—"son born;” | the By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, May 5. — think that was idle chatter Postmaster General tee) Frank C. Walker be devoted to the campaign. Don't think it was when Republican National mittee Chairman Spangler, ordinarily a fellow, let loose sarcasm at the idea. idle chatter Com- Harrison E. very mild a lot of wrathful provided for his personal use by Gen. arrived at an air field near General Mentgomery's headquarters LIEUT. GEN. ~ ANDREWS IS Starling Fireworks DEAD, CRASH ; ?Commande} of U. . Forces Don't} |, . ween| in European Operations (Chairman or‘ the National Democratic Commit- suggested that this year's convention be held later and that only a month or two Killed in Iceland LONDON, May |General Frank W. Andrews, Com- in European operations theatre, was killed Monday in an airplane acci- dent in Iceland. The plane crashed in an isolated locality but full information is un- As a matter of fact, those might available. result in 1944 campaign which you will see enacted. There’s no doubt now but what strategy Andrews became the eighth Unit- ed States General killed or missing in the present war. Lieut. the 1944 campaigns are on. The “fourth term talk,” that “anti-|was one of the few officers of his third term” movement in several 'ank with a pilot's rating. He held states (so far, it has been mostly a names of and Dewey, and of Wendell Willkie as Square-jawed, deeply-tanned candidates: | fighting man and character fizzle) ; Gdvernor repetition of the Bricker, Stassen potential Republican several World War distance flight records Lieut. Gen. Andrews was a hard- stically 5. — Lieutenant | Gen. Andrews was 59. He| T NAZIS FALL - BACIK; TAKE NEW LINES Can't Withstand Heavy So- | viet Attacks-Air Fights Are Continuing LONDON, May 5.—The' German radio announces the Nazi troops | have fallen back to new defensive | positions in the western Caucasus | sector, just west of Krymskaya, 17 miles northeast of Novorossisk. The DNB, German news agency, said the Germans withdrew “after | withstanding heavy Soviet attacks #|in the Kuban Delta for the past four day: Krymskaya, abandoned by the | Germans, is only 17 miles northeast of the naval base. The withdrawal is said to have been to positions 20 | miles above the port of Novorossisk. | According to broadcasts from Moscow, picked up her ground fighting northeast of Novorossisk has mounted and is keeping pace with the terrific air battles in the | Kuban Valley. | The German Air Force is re- ported to have lost more than 125 planes in the past two days. The heavyweight Soviet artillery pounding the Nazis northeast of e Black Sea Port which is still | 'germnn held, although the Rus-| { |slans have been south and east of | Novorossisk for some time | | The last published Soviet war {front may showed the Red Army| line stretching northward from the | |Black Sea to the Sea of Azov and| across the Kuban Delta but with | a considerable bulge in the middle| |line. It is not unlikely that the smost serious current fighting is| now going on along this bulge. The | territory bisects the highway and| |railway leading to Novorossisk and | other Caucasian connections. | - - DORTMUND i | | manding the United States Forces' IS pouNDED | | | - BYBOMBERS Bembs for Kis News dispatches lately have told of repeated Army Air Corps bombing raids on Japanese-held Kiska Island in the Aleutians. ka Flight Sirip ' ling BLOWWILL FALL SOON ~ ON ENEMY WashingloriliOt‘)'servers Say Our Attack Is Cer- fain by Fall By JOHN HIGHTOWER (Associated Press Writer) WASHINGTON, May 5. — When the time comes to throw the Jap- |anese out of the Aleutians, au- thorities here agree the job will be done by American troops land- under fire and fighting with guns, bayonets and grenades until the last enemy surrenders or dies. | The blow might fall this spring jor summer. It is certain to come | by fall | It will come when the Pacific | war reaches a point where Kiska (Will be useful as a base for Am- lerican operations such as air at- e, jmcks on the Japanese Kurile Is- This is the first picture released by the air forces of one of the principal targets—. a flight strip the Japs have been and gulleys for land based aircraft, A train of bombs is heading down to at left and filled in at right. trying to level out of Kiska's hills Note how they have excavated add new bomb caters and more trouble for the Japanese. More Detailed Report On Surfac e Battle in Bering__Sea March 26 By WILLIAM L. WORDEN Associated Press Correspondent AT SEA WITH A U. S. NAVAL TASK FORCE, March 26.— (De- layed)—This small U. S. naval task force fought a Japanese fleet twice its size today and disrupted enemy plans for four hours in a surface duel. It retired without the loss of a ship The battle was joined 50 miles off toward the enemy and engaged the southernmost Jap ship. | The Jap vessels at this moment also’ were closing on us. Our de- stroyers, coming out of the smoke, saw one enemy cruiser with four out of five gun turrets out of action, and the American destroy- ers delivered torpedo and five-inca gun fire across both enemy heavy ships. | The captains of the U. S. de- Powertul Force of Brifainig |y Zhe ecie mas joiocd b0 mlom ol L adcyecs: haw ai laash one . faspeda Four-engine Planes Make Raid LONDON, May 5. A powerful force of Britain's big four-motored bombers delivered a heavy satura- tion raid last night over the Ger- and now this battle over the lengths |known among men simply as “The man industrial city of Dortmund, of the campaigns, are all opening General.” He had been an advocate in which thirty planes failed to re- Pacific and North meet, where the Bering Sea owned, and the | where ice blocks the Bering Sea inl the winter. One Japanese heavy cruisér is known to have been s awed and 1 other vessels al- acst certainly hit The e¢nemy ccnvey, headed far e Western Aleutians, scattered euns of a caliber too large to be for years for a big Army Air Force turn, the Air Ministry ammuuced,[,,"d turned back to the west. ignored. Suppose for the moment that the|of the few officers of his age and ;slight ground haze, said the com-‘ Republicans hold their convention rank to hold an active flying li- | munique. | I[und was a champion of heavy ,four-engined bombers. He' was one in the usual months of June and cense. July, and Democrats hold off until} Andrews told his friends that over the Visibility good, with the target was | exception | of a | First reports indicated that the /bombing “was well concentrated.”! September. In those two or three)he was urged to give up flying but | This was the first major attack months, the sentiments of the vot- | he had replied: “I don't want to of the war on Dormund, the main ers toward the Republican nom- inee will be pretty well crystallized; will have worn off; | the war situation will be a couple its final outcome |veteran of 30 years in the infantr: his “novelty” of months nearer (if it isn’t already over). The President, gauging public sentiment, will be in a much bet- ter position to decide whether he ibe one those generals to die |in bed.” The death of Andrews left his Deputy, Maj. Gen. Harry Ingless of 0 jand Signal Corps in temporary command of the American Euro- pean troops. wants to run again or pass the hat Democratic party any prospective candidate favor. Furthermore, the neminee would be in the position of running along for a couple of months without an opponent. That kind of shadow-boxing never helped any one score a knockout. (Continued on Page Two) If it seems almost sacrilegious ! BISHOP ALSO KILLED PITTSBURGH, Pa. May 5—Ad- (paw Leonard, Jr., says his father, Bishop Adnaw Wright lost his life in the same crash in which Gen. Andrews was killed “on a flight to Iceland.” Leonard, Jr., said he was inform- Bishop Leonard was representing 31 Protestant denominations in a tour of the United States and Over- seas Service posts. His headquarters | was in Washington, D. C. | ——-—— Your heart is one-hundredth of |your total weight, Leonard, | Bishop of the Methodist Church,| | casterly transport exit to the Ruhr 3Valley Its teeming industries city |was hit before as a part of gen- ral missions, but never as an ex-| iclusive target. | The massed assault raid was the | first at night to be held over Ger- many since they finished off their |blazing in the April offensive. . Heavy attacks on Essen Friday | |night were followed by a smash- ! |ing daylight assault on the indus- trial targets at Antwerp by Unit- ed States Flying Fortresses. It was iindicated that a great fleet of four-engined bombers made the 350-mile trip to Dortmund. Ob- servers estimated that several tons ed that one of the enlisted men of explosives were probably dropped | Republican | aboard the plane is a survivor. on that city, which in normal peacetime had a population of ! half a million | > o0 000000 000 | WEATH REPORT T § o . (0. 8. Bw rau) . ® «Temp. Tuesday, May 4 . Maximum 50, minimum 34. e 19 @ 0 00 0.0 0 ¢ 9 o The fight was the first surface engagement of the war in the Aleu- tlans and one of the first purely naval battles and longest of the war. S No Air Power In contrast to other Pacific na- val engagements, air power took no part in the battle proper, each side relying on heavy naval guns and torpedoes and smoke screens. Although the outcome was not decisive, the Japs broke off the engagement after four hours. of shelling and made no attempt to renew the action. The engagement gave land-based American bombers, seaplanes and fighters time to come up and these planes may be searching for the fleeing Jap convoy tonight. Smoke Screen All three of them were laying down a smoke screen as they charged, but the smoke did them no gopd on the attack, providing only a refuge should they survive the withering fire of the enemy ships, deliver their torpedoes and turn around without having been put out of commission or sunk. As the destroyers attacked, the American commander moved his major vessels further south. Almost simultaneously, the flagship, which had heen out of range, closed istrike home, its flare visible to ‘t)xc flagship. Out on Hunt | Today's battle began at | All night the American sunrise. forces convoys, in the these waters for Jap Ihm'und out in a thin line {hunt for the,enemy | Just before dawn a few |vessels were located and the Am- ericans were called into battle for- | mation by Rear Admiral C. H. Mec- | Morris Jap Our force was ay uus ume mov- |ing north and the Jap vessels wer lin the horizon off the starboard bow of our flagship, an old cruiser The first Jap force sighted in- \cluded two large transports or car- (80 vessels, escorted by three de- “stroyers. Medni Island, the easternmost of the HKomandorskis, lay about 70 miles to the northwest. The Bering ISea fcepack was only a short dis- \tance north and Siberia’s Kam Ichatka Peninsula was about 180 ‘lllll“h to the west. Japanese-ogcu- |pied Attu Island was about the |same distance to the east More Japs Come [ As the American flagship was approaching within of the transports, more Jap ships arrived at full speed from the north, including at least two heavy firing distance cruisers and two or three lignt cruisers along with a trio of de- stroyers This apparently was a task force summoned to aid the convoy. The heavy Jap cruisers opened fire on the flagship at 8:39 am Just nine minutes after sunri 1 (Continued on Page Two) lands. Despite months of bombing, the |Japanese are believed to be firm- !ly entrenched on Kiska and their | supporting base, Attu Island. ! The aerjal bombings to which they have been subjected are not, cannot be sufficiently heavy to {force them to withdraw. & | _Informed persons here give sev- |eral reasons for the enemy’s ten- acity in holding the islands, and foremost among them Is that the |Japanese command had to save |something out of its grand offen- |sive on North America, which the ‘U S. fleet crushed at Midway last | June. | Kiska, with Attu and Agattu, which they then held, are all * that's left of their grandiose | scheme. | Another reason is that Kiska ean {furnish them with a good sub- |marine base if Russia gets into the Pacific war and Allied ships begin operations to Kamchatka | Peninsula. BOMBKISKA NINE TIMES | ~ ONMONDAY WASHINGTON, May 5. — The (Navy reports today that American verely dam-{had been long on the prowl in|medium bombers and fighters raid- ed Jap installations at Kiska nine |times on Monday and fires were started in the enemy camp. Hits were observed in other areas. The communique did not describe “heavy smoke seén at North Head.," | defense positions on the harbor. | Meanwhile, the Navy commun- |lque said, planes from Guadalcanal |in the South Pacific carried out attacks on enemy positions in Cen- tral and Northwestern Solomons, starting fires in at least two places. - - STOCK QUOTATIONS PRICES TUESDAY Alaska Juneau mine stock closed Tuesday at 6, American Can 8#3% Anaconda 30%, Bethlehem Steel 67, Commonwealth and Souther i, Curtiss Wright 9%, Interna- |tional Harvester 68%, Kennecott 31, |New York Central 187, Northern Pacific 17, United States Steel 567%. Dow, Jones averages Tuesday were as follows: industrials 138.18, rails 36.13, utilities 20.18. ® o e 00 00 00 0 . DIMOUT TIMES . . . ¢ Dimout begins tonight e ® at sunset at 8:55 o'clock. . ® Dimont ends tomorrow e ® at sunrise at 4:53 a.m. . ® Dimout begins Thursday at e @ sunset at 857 p.m. . ‘e o000 0900009290