The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 10, 1943, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. XLIL, NO. 9520. —e e JUNEAU, ALASKA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1943 ‘VHMB}R ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS JAP PACIFIC OUTPOSTS ARE CRUMBLING Americans Crack German Defenses 1n Leaders of the Central Pacific Campaign FIFTH ARMY HASCAPTURED MT. SAMURCO Eighth Army, Canadians, Participate in Bloody Fighting ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN| ALGIERS, Dec. 10.—The Fifth Army has cracked German defenses on both sides at Casilina and at Mag- | nano in a bloody nine-day offensive, brought to a smashing climax when American troops seized Mt. Samucro in the “Battle of the Clouds." According to the Allied Head- quarters, who made the announce- ment, Canadian infantry tanks are spearheading. | The Eighth Army along the | Adriatic is smashing forward along an eight-mile front after forcing the second crossing at Moro River, fight- 1hg against the strongest man-made defenses and the toughest natural dbstacles. yet encounntered in Italy. Gen."Mark Clark’s veteran British and American troops have now wip- | ed out the German mountain line on both sides of the main road to “(Continued on Page Two) 'l'he Washington Merry -Go- Round, By DREW PEARSON (Mwjot Robert 8. Allen oo sctive duty.) | WASHINGTON — Don't be too| surprised -of you find President Roosevelt stepping out of the White House a few months or weeks before his term {5 up, to help\ establish and perhaps become pres- ident of the first world organiza-| tion for peace. There is nothing definite about this; and it all depends on the war. But you ‘can write two things down| as ; certain: | 1. The President under no cir- | cumstances will run again if '.he‘ war is over next year. 2. The President’s greatest mbi- tion, now that he sees the war in fairly good shape, is to help create machinery which will start - the world on the way to permanent\ peace. This was the ambition cherished by his old friend and chief, Wood- row Wilson, and the President has always hoped that he might carry| on and make final the ideal which Wilson so nobly started. PFurthermore, and despite some of the men around the White House: who want the President to run again regardless, the real fact is that he won’t consider running if the war is over. In fact, nothing could drag him into running. He has now achieved all there is to achieve in being President. He has broken the precedent of 150 years by remaining in the ‘White House three terms. He is sure to goj down in history as one of our great Pregidents. But if he stays in of- fice another term, he will exper- fence nothing new, only be bothered | with old headaches. Those who have watched the President close+up in the last two years have seen how his interest in domestic matters is flagging, while all his attentjon is focused on the war and foreign relations. This, of course, is necessary. But even if it weren't necessary, this is now the President’s main field of inter- est., NO DEAL WITH WILLKIE Equally important with winning the war, the President wants to win permanent peace after the war. Naturally, he would like to set up the foundations for that peace, and also help to guide it after the war. Whether he would be president of a new League of United Nations, or merely American representative on LES COOK IS President Signs Delaying Draffing of Fathers, Armed Forces RUSS FORCES 10.—Presi- | WASHINGTON, Dec. ‘ dent Roosevelt has approved of the | Father Draft Bill designed to de- | lay induction of prewar fathers in- | to the armed forces. This action is announced at the| | White House but the place at which | | the President acted is not disclosed. \ed into the Army by June of 1944, | urged by in order to meet the present sched- [Army has captured Znamenka, hub The President was to be seen, officials said. Hershey was reported to have {told the National Association of/ | Manufacturers, at a closed meetmg |held in New York City yesterday, that about a million pre-Pearl Har-' bor fathers will have been induct- RAILWAY HUB CAPTURED BY ;Strategic German Bastion | Falls After Fierce 3-Day Battle LONDON Dec. 10. — The Red Manpower Commissioner Paul V.|yles. He expressed intent on legis-|of the system of railroads 1mkxng McNutt to veto the legislation. The President's approval jation to prevent induction ‘of any the Dnieper River bend with the ' NOW | of this group of fathers until all area south of Kiev, Premier Stalin’ raises the question of whether Mc- \“amble physically fit men who are announced in a special order of the Nutt will resign as the legmlnuon\ {removed from McNutt any author- | ity over the Administration of the Selective Service System which in charge of Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey The authority vested in Major | General Hershey, Selective Service Director, came under McNutt's di- | rectives previously and how exten- sively the act delays the induction of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers remains {out of the bill. non-fathers are put into uniform. The ‘“escape” clause written in the bill requested by selective ser- | vice officials, however, provides this *|induction plan not to be allowed| |fenses in to effect the “usually regular and| orderly flow of the nation’s man- | power in the armed forces.” Senator Burton K. Wheeler con- | tended that the clause took force Tokyo Reports Sinking Of U. S. Battleship Just 1 Days Affer launchmgg 'HONORED;SON GIVEN MEDAL Award Mad;;y Brig. Gen. 0'Connor for Heroic Deed, Canadian Pilot WHITEHORSE, Y. T, Dec. 10— Two-year-old Leslie Rand Cook has received an air medal of the United States Army for his father, Les‘ Cook, famous Canadian bush pilot! who was killed in an airplane wreck | a year ago. | The decoration was awarded for a‘ previous perilous flight Cook made | at night to take medical officers; from Whitehorse to a point on the| Alaska Highway, north of wmze-; horse. } Cook landed the plane by the| glare of truck headlights. The op-‘ eration saved a soldier’s life. | “Leslie Cook is one of the men; who helped develop the North Country,” Brig. Gen. James A. O’Connor, Northwest Service Com-! mand said in making the award. D IMPROVEMENTS ON U.S. BOMBERS ARE ANNOUNCED LONDON, Dec. 10—A deadly punch has been added to America’s already formidable Fortresses by an In-| creased 2,000 pounds of high ex-| plosives while both Fortresses and Liberators now bristle with ndd|~ tional defense guns. In announcing the improvements | the Eighth United States Air Force | said its heavier bombers are now' far more deadlier weapons with the | addition of external bomb racks | which will increase the Fortresses bom load to four tons, together with chin turrets on’ the Fortresses and two new power turrets. The Liberators new bomb racks are bolted across the wings between' the engines, but in half an hour it H af it, is a matter of detail. The main B S G T O S (Continued on Page Foun will mean some sacrifice in range | and speed, however, 4 {was launched only four days ago at | 3 transport and communication was | bombers almost exclusively, as night | raiders over German territory. Two |Mosquitos are missing from the ynouncing a liberation of the volun- LONDON, Dec. 10.—-Tokyo pro-| pagandists are now sinking Ameri- can battleships as fast as they are | launched, months even before they are ready to put to sea. The Berlin radio broadcast, pick- ed up here, quoting & Tokyo re- port, soberly announccs the sink- ing of the 45,000 ton U. S. 8. Wis- consin “in one of the biggest sea battles off Bougainville.” The super battleship Wisconsin | | | Philadelphia, on the second anni- versary of Pearl Harbor, and wil| not be in commission before next April. REI(H H RADIO SILENT; RAF OVER AGAIN LONDON, Dec. 10.—Berlin radio stations went off the air tonight |indicating that night raiders are| over the continent in a quick se- iquel to the daylight raids today on railway and transport targets in Northwest Germany by Royal Air Force Mosquitos. Today’s low level assault on Nazi a complete reversal of the tactics previously employed by the Royal| Alr Force, that of using a fleet of | raid. Nazi raiders quiokly ‘struck back at Britain, setting off London's isirens tonight for’ the first time | {since December 1. WASHINGTON, Dec. 10. +- The House passed the Senate bill to re- imburse naval personnel a total of } $6,552 for personal property lost in fires in the quarters of the 12th Naval Construction Battalion- at Long Island, Alaska, on December 26, 1942, and again on May 26, 1943. {that Znamenka had fallen |day. i The Soviet column that smashed into the town was one of several driving through crumbling Nazi de- the Dnieper bend and fan- from the Kremenchug ning out | bridgehead. The capture of the heavily for-, |titied German bastion cut the last of four rail lines centering in that' town, and brought the weight of the Russian Dnieper bend offen- sive directly against Kirovograd, next stronghold in the path of the Red Army forces threatening to |outflank Krivoi Rog. day said’ after three days of fierce fighting, and he | termed: the town a ‘“powerfully’ strong point 1h the German de=" fenses in the Kirovograd direction.” The loss of Znamenak left the whole German position west of the lower Dnieper River in dire threat. Stalin's order of the BEAT DOWN ATTACKS LONDON, Dec. 10.—Gen. Kikolai Vatutin's army beat down mass German attacks west of Kiev where one of the epic tank battles of the war is raging, and another Soviet army has plunged five miles inside the Dnieper bénd to within 18 miles of the enemy's citadel of Kirovo- grad, the Moscow midnight com- munique said. Gen. Vatutin's army, which has given up ground for the past two days, knocked out 75 more German tanks in the area northeast of Chernyakhov and 80 miles west of Kiev, and have inflicted very heavy losses on the enemy's manpower. Attempt Break Through Although the Russians wrecked 350 German tanks have cut down more than have and 5,000 {of the attacking enemy infantrymen ‘on! nued on Paze Two) (ensorship Regqulafions Liberalized Head Censor Wants Noi Monkey Business from Any Other Source WASHINGTON, Dec. \ 10. — An- tary censorship restrictions on the | pressp and radio, Director of the Office of Censorship Byron Price, today placed in his own office | greater responsibility for clearing material for publication and broad- cast, This fundamental change in the censorship policy, Price said, “means in effect that the Office of Censorship will itself undertake to act as the appropriate Authority under codes” by passing on mater- ial in restricted categories whether or not it has been officially an- nounced by other government agen- cies. The Office of Censorship, how- ever, will not originate news, Price pointed out, saying that numerous restrictive requests from Govern- ment agencies have been elim- ——o—— BUY WAR BONDS inated in encouraging a more lib- (Continued on Page T'o) |is certain, Admirz: Chester W. Nimitz, Pacific Fleet Commander, and his suborindate Army, Navy and Marine Corps officers who are directing Central Pacific operations, are shown inspecting Army troops who are participat- ing in current operations aginst the Jap-held Gilbert Islands. Left to right: Rear Admiral R. K. Turner, USN, commanding amphibious forces, Central Pacific operations; Vice Admiral R. A. Spruance, USN, command(‘r Central Pacific force; Admiral Nimitz, Brig. Gen. Henry B. Holmes, Jr., USA, Chief of Staff, Army forces, Central Pacific area; Lieut. Gen. Robert C. Richardson, Jr., USA, commanding general, S. Army forces, Central Pacific Area; Maj. Gen. Ralph Smith, USA, commanding general, 27th Infantry Division; Maj. Gen. H. M./Smith;, USMC, and Rear Admiral Chagles H, MeMgrris, USN, Deputy,Command- er in Chief and Chief of Staff, U, 8. Pacific Fleet. Amalakd Press photo from U. 8. Navy. s Bougainville/F. D. R. VISITS MALTAAFTER CONFERENCES DogsAld Marines Bougamwlle | as Tribute from Am- erican People VALETTA, Malta; Dee. 10.~Tray- | elling by plane President Franklin | D. Roosevelt visited this bomb- '\ marked: British Mediterranean base on Wednesday and presented its people with an illuminated scroll on | | behalf of the American people, and | declared thé United States would stand staunchly with the British | Empire and the other Allies after the war to make “it a victory that | is worthwhile.” Enroute from the series of epic; conferences in which he and Prime Minister Chpdchill engaged in the Middle East, the President arrived in a huge Douglas four-engined troop transport with an escort of 20 Lightning and Spitfire fighters. Defenders Saluted The scroll, be cast in bronze and placed in Valetta’s main square, saluted Malta and its defenders for “valorous serv- !ice far above and beyond the call of ‘dutv." during the dark period while | Nazi aircraft kept the island under {a virtual constant alert. After a stay of three hours, Presi- dent Roosevelt departed for an un- ' announged’ destination. The Presidént’s plane touched the wopld's mostsbombed airdrome at 19:50 a, m. Wednesday, after appear- ‘mg over the island out of a brilliant | blue eloud-flecked sky. Roosevelt was | accompanied by Gen. Dwight D. \_E!scnhuwm . Adm. William D. Léahy; Harry Hopkins; Maj. Gen. Carl A | Spaatz, Commander of the North- | west African Air Forces; Rear Ad- !miral McIntire, the President’s per- son physician; Major John Boet- | tiger, and Maj. Gen. Walter Smith, | Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff. Guard of Honor A guard of honor including a that they' poyval Air Force unit, 50 British | | at that time, hold one Or Marines, 50 Royal Navy men, and the opening of the allvumpmmnl‘m,,“. “Jackson Day” banquets a% 100 United States and Maltese troops 1944 political campaigns. | which” party /spokesmen will give lined up at the airtield to welcome Both major parties have s(lrcl—vme afiswers t0° a lot of ques-'the President. ed January for the 44 campaign|ijon | First to greet him was Field Mar- kickoffs. The Republican N“'JO"‘“: Those who anticipate that any shall Lord Gort, Commander-in- committee will meet in Chicago|of these “answers to a lot of Chief of Malta. Others presented to Jan. 10-11 to pick the site and | guestions” will have anything to| the President on the field were Mon- | |name the date of their conven- o tion. On Jan. 22, the Democratic (Continued on Page Two) With dogs to aid them, United States Marines make their way into the Bougainville jungle to hunt out Japanese soldiers. The dogs are used to “smell out” the cnemy and at times carry messages or assist in first aid work, Polifics Is foSee Tee Off in January; 1944 (ampalgn Start BY JACK STINNETT Natlonal committee will meet here WASHINGTON, Dec. 10.—Janu-| 1o the same purpose ary may usher in the most historic|” 1, addition the Democrats have, year of World War IL That Ye- ,omised through Natipnal Chair- | mains to be seen, but one thing|an Frank C. Walker | that month will mark |y (Continued on Page Five) | | Presents S(;dl-lfl'For Valor'| which eventuaily will, Italy TASK FORCES LEVEL MORE ISLE BASES 'Naura Bonim from Air, Shelled by Warships from Sea PEARL' HARBOR, Dec. 10.—Ag- gressive United States aircraft car- rier task forces are persistantly | erumbling Japan's outpost island defenses along more than a 1,000 miles of the Pacific sea lanes and have demonstrated their ability to strike quickly the widely separated areas by pounding Naura only four days after blasting the Marshall Islands. Nauru, phostphate-producing is- land 500 miles west of the newly-won Gilberts, was not only bombed by the carrier planes but was also shelled by guns from warships on Wednesday. Defenses Levelled Admiral Chester W. Nimitz re- ported last night that last Saturday more than 700 miles northeast of Nauru, a big task force including | several carriers, sent out planes and levelled defenses at Kwajalein Woltje, in the heart of the Mat- shalls. Two enemy crulsers were sunk, as well as an oil tanker, S were dro t vel 8 and November 24. ° Many of these same carrlers ‘sent planes out o repeated raids, first to soften up, ! then support ground forces which ! successfully invaded the Gilberts on Novembgr 20. | | (Continued on Puue Four) SUPPLY HUB OF NIPPONS IS CAPTURED Australians Take Wareo- Strong Natural De- fense Point on Huon ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN | THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, Dec. 10.-“Wareo, the strong natural de- |fense point of the Huon Peninsula jungles in the northeastern part of New Guinea and the important hub of the Japanese supply lines, has been captured by the Australian forces after a six day assault. The | capture of Wareo was made on Wednesday, according to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, The official statement says the Aussie forces late in November, stormed and won the high plateau of Sattelberg, south of Wareo, The new success has accelerated the campalgn to drive the Japs out of the entire Huon Peninsula sep- arated at the closest point by 70 miles of water from the invasion menaced pivotal Japanese island of New Britain g Pointing to the possibility of such an invasion, Allied Air Forces steadily maintained a daily series of attacks on the New Britain bases, closest to New Guinea, at Cape Gloucester, Japanese air base. In the same sector PT boats sank a Japuuese torpedo boat. | | ) l 2 Shopping Days