The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 27, 1943, Page 1

» " VOL. XLIL, NO. 9533. “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE PRICE TEN CENTS ——— JUNEAU, ALASKA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1943 _MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS S. MARINES MAKE 2 NEW LANDING 26,000 TON NAZI WAR CRAFT SUNK Vessel Des?ro_yed by Brit- ish Home Fleet in Far Northern Waters | (By Associated Press) The German battlesship Scharn- | horst was sunk on the Murmansk route through the Barents Sea, off North Cape on Sunday by British Home Fleet units protecting a Rus- sian convoy the British Admlraltyi Story Behind Free Government Ads in Aiding War Efforts INVASION IS FEARED THIS WEEK Berlin Military Commenta- | ! By JACK STINNETT | | WASHINGTON, Dec. 27—A| | newspaper publisher, recently here | for a series of conferences, asked| FIFTH ARMY GAINS TWO POSITIONS Fierce Fighting Continues for Possession of Orfona PROGRESS IN ALl SECTORS ISoviet Armfifits Important Railway Near Kiev Trapping Nazis | me: “Why doesn't some one inj S { Washington tell the story of the ad-| r;ypD HEADQUARTERS IN |, MOSCOW, Dec. 27. — The Red | vertising contribution that is being| oy GYERS, Dec. 27. — American |Army’s winter offensive across the {made 10 the war effort?” | troops of the Fifth Army, attacking | | X\Lhm‘:‘g%v’;l “;j‘; ¥ ‘5‘:’5" “p'lg(‘;im the driving rains, captured two caust al hey Lol me at | i i | important high points on Mt. Sam- {Uncle Sam will get about $500,000, ¥ P {000 worth of “free advertising 1944, " lucro to mass along the stoutly de- e eding? dve:"‘f('nded road to Cassino and wedge in | ean “adver- i | ¢ closer to the village of San Vit- [ tising"—not news stories. For every | tore o | favorable mention the war effort| ajjjed Headquarters said the Brit- Vkraine is reported to have cut the Kiev-Zhitomir highways, trapping | a large German tank and infantry | force. Gen. Vatutin’s First Ukrain- | fan Army pushed forward to west | along both sides of this road, ad- vancing to within 20 miles of Zhit- omir, biggest prize of the Germans -~y announced. The German News Agency DN3, in a dispatch broadcast over the| Berlin radio, admitted the loss of | the 26,000 ton battleship saying the L, fors Get Nervous as Zero Hour Nears (Continued on Page Three) | | STOCKHOLM, Dec. 27. — Some Perlin military commentators, still EISENHOWER SAYS NALZIS LICKED, 1944 Will Createia; Allied Su- preme Staff for Euro- has had in these departments, there | g gighth Army forces brought up in their disastrous autumn attack. | guessing nervously at the zero hour {of the Allied invasion of Western A The w aShingion]Eumpe. said they believed the blow {might fall this week, even belore |the turn of the New Year. | Dispatches to neutral Sweden ifrom Berlin said this talk from the | Nazi military circles is based on the | relentless aerial hammering of Ger- | man fortifications along the Chan- Merry -gg- Roun By DREW PEARSON (Major Robert 8. Allen on sctive duty.) {has been at jeast an equal line, | maybe more, of criticism and that's| {the way Uncle Sam wants it. That's freedom of expression and freedom of the press, they say. What they are talking about are the institutional, compan,v-spon-l sored, and civic organization ads| provided gratis in newspapers, | magazines, on tse air, on billboards | |and posters. Although the Treas- ury Department has been about the! only federal agency so far to recog- nize the importance of this spread- | ing the good word, the value of it! lis now being impressed throughout | tanks to support their bloody house- | The Russians continued to edge to-house struggle for the possession | forward through the Vitebsk forti- of Ortona, the Adriatic hitching post |fied zone further north, working to the present German line in Italy. around the city from the northwest, They succeeded in occupyifig two east and southeast, coming within more blocks in the northwest corner | elght miles of this big German base. of that battered port with a popu- | The Vichy radio acknowledsed? lation of 9,000. The Germans are |that “the initiative in the Kiev sa- trying to turn it into a “little Stal- |lient has passed over to Gen. Vatutin ingrad.” | who is making prodigious efforts to Nazi forces attempted to infiltrate |enlarge the breaches in the German ‘ in the southwest corner of the port lines.” as the slow, but methudical struggle | The German communique said the ] continued, but {ney were discovered |Russians threw heavy tank and in- | and beaten off. {fantry forces into the attacks in the The tight at Ortona went into its Zhitomir area, “the battles ending |4 varying fortunes and in progress.” pean Invasion | ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN | ALGIERS, Dec. 27—Gen. Dwight D. | Eisenhower, chosen to command the main Allied invasion of Europe from he west or north, flatly predicted e will win the European war in 1944." The cool, but dynamic Texas-born general, made the unqualified pre- diction as he faced American and British correspondents in a farewell | press conference before leaving for Britain to take up his new com- mand. He previously held a series German Battleship Sent Down in Sea REDSMAKING Eisenhower Is fo Be : Supreme (ommander | To Opgn Second Front | (By Associated Press) In a worldwide broadcast last Friday noon, President Roosevelt an- nounced the appointment of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower as Supreme Commander of the Anglo-American Forces to open the second front against Germany. He made no re- ference as to the future of Gen. George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, who was reported earlier as the choice for the vital European command. | A British officer was announced |by British Prime Minister Winston urchill to take over Eisenhower's {command in the Mediterranean. Roosevelt in the address to his :l’enow countrymen at home and the armed forces overseas, made it clear Fight ANOTHER ' INVASION REPORTED Marines Sv;arm Ashore al Cape Gloucester With- out Loss of Man ADVANCED ALLIED HEAD- QUARTERS IN NEW GUINEA, Dec. 27-—United States Marines swarmed ashore in two simultaneous landings at Cape Gloucester on the western tip of New Britain yester- day to establish a second invasion front in Japan's island stronghold in the southwest Pacific. Within two hours of both land- ings by veterans of the Guadaleanal campaign, Gen. Douglas MacAr- thur's headquarters said both [the selection of Gen. EisenhOWer|peqchneads were firmly established | was approved at the recent war con- | ference in the Middle East, and said {he, Churchill and Josef Stalin in Ithe three days’ intense, consistent- iy and amicable discussions at Te- heran “agreed upon every point con- icemh\g the launching of the gigantic attack on Germany." Encirclement Movement The President added: “The Rus- |sian army will continue stern of- fensives against Germany's eastern tfront and the Allied armies in Ttaly without the loss of a man. Aerial Bombardment A heavy aerial bombardment ac- companied the landings. One ship was lost and three damaged in the operations and an additional seven planes destroyed. The Japs, how ever, lost 36 bombers and 25 fight- ers in_desperate attempts to stem the invasion tide. The landings not only gives the Allies the first foothold on the land Africa will bring. a relentless |north coast-of New.Britain. bus also YTON~While. the Sen- . {the government by OWI, the War| .dag,; with the Germans stub- WASHING' nel Coast. | 8 {eighth with t) rmans sty fd the Soviet of conferences with Allied generals sa e vie pressure on Germany from the south {secures the complete domination of digeing into cellars and The communique ate has been telling the Adminis-| For Berliners, the fifth Chrm:mas}“"‘d ]:av.v Dei partments, and the pornly in Ttaly jon Ve oney, story ar Production rd. sewers i o s 3 S| v m: tration how it must have money,'at war, was the worst in hisiory.| WAT Prod Board sewers. Emelll:_“flnjxf’]'jd e 'Vi::b‘h“t fr0nt | Gen, Eisenhower said he resisted and the encirclement will be com-|the Vitiaz Straits between New ——— ave been sealed off and attacking plete as the great American and|Britain and New Guinea. news has just leaked out that a handful of Senators quietly insert- | ed $9,900,000 in the deficiency bill | in order to build airports in their | States which neither the Army, the| Navy, the Civil Aeronautics Board nor the White House wanted. | 1t so happens that seven of the! proposed airports would benefit | seven Senators who are members of | the Appropriations Committee. Here | is what happened: | During WPA days, money Wwas; spent on building various airports | throughout the country, some of! them now uncompleted. Hence,| when the appropriations bill was| in the House, several Representa-| tives proposed money to finish 24| of these airports. However, the | Budget Bureau opposed this, saying; the airfields were not necessary. The Army and Navy also did not| Many spent the day cleaning up after Friday's heavy raid A Swedish correspondent, who toured parts of the city, sail he saw only four or five children play- ing. This was a turther indication |that the children had been evacua-|goal ted from Berlin by the thousands. - Alaskans Ante Two Millions In Income Tax want them. Missourl’s Chairman| WASHINGTON, Dec. 27. — One; Cannon of the House Appropria- out of every three persons in the tions Committee made a hot speech |nation’s capital, Alaska, Nevada opposing the airports and they were and Connecticut filed income re-| The effectiveness of 1t is being| | highlighted behind the scenes now | because in mid-January, the Treas- | ury is going to kick off with its third great war loan sale. The| is $14,000,000,000—approxima-| |tely four billion less than the sec-| ond war loan garnered. “ | That campaign was characterized | by Seeretary of the Treasury Mor- genthau as “the greatest advertis- | ing operation in the history of the | world,” and when he said it, hel was giving out bows, not taking| them. { | Nearly 74,000 “free” newspaper | |ads, valued at more than $4,500,000 went into that one campaign alone, and the word “free” is used in quotes because they didn't cost the government a cent, being contrib- | uted’ either by public spirited in- dividuals, groups, companies or the| newspapers themselves. In maga-! zines, on the air, and in other me- dia, a similar job was done. | eliminated .from the bill. [turns last year for their 1941 earn- Red Army spearheads thrown back in counterattacks. A Berlin military spokesman is quoted on the Paris radio as say- ling that picked Soviet units have proken the German lines in the Zhlobin area between Vitebsk and Zhitomir. 1,300 Planes Hit One Area LONDON, Dec. 27—More than 1300 aircraft of the Eighth United States Air Force, in a task force attacked special military installa tions in the Pas de Calais ar The force included the largest num- ber of heavy bombers ever dispat- ched by the Eighth U. S. Air Force. RORSE T SN Ten Perish 10J0 SAYS OFFENSIVE REAL THING Jap Premier Declares | In Hames! Fierce Fighting Raging NEW YORK, Dec.+27—Ten per-| an impulse to qualify his prediction of victory in 1944 and modestly added that only time would tell whether he is the right man for the | job ahead of him. He indicated he !would leave soon to take over his Inew duties and said his task would ‘bc to create on Allied supreme staff to run the big invasion. | Eisenhower said: “My own per- sonal job immediately of course will 'be to do what we have done here, |that is, weld the directing team to- |gether in such a way that no real | triction ever develops, that people | trust each other and work in unison, |and that we will go into this thing with our full weight. “1 believe we have developed here come as near as is humanly possible to the elimination of friction, which has been typical of Allied actions in the past, The only thing needed for us to win the European war in 1944 is for every man and woman {all the way from the front line to the remotest hamlet in our two countries to do his or her full duty.” that sense of partnership which will ' British forces attack other points on the compas: “The commander selected to lead | the combined attack on these and other points is Gen. Eisenhower. His performances in Africa, Sicily and Italy have been brilliant. He knows by practical and successful exper- ience the way to coordinate air, sea and land power. All these will be under his command. “Liéut. Gen. Carl Spaatz will com- mand the entire American strategic bombing force now operating against Germany. “Gen. Eisenhower gives up his command in the Mediterranean to a British officer. “We now pledge that the new commander of our powerful ground, sea and air forces, vital to the Medi- terranean, will stand by his side until every obpective in that bitter theatre of war is ateained.” Japan Is Next President Roosevelt did not neglect the opportunity to note that Japan too will feel the weight of the tre- Enemy Supply Lane Severed United States Sixth Army troops severed the western route of the enemy supply at Arvawe on the southwest coast of the inland about 30 miles from Cape Gloucester. Long Island Occupied American forces also occupied the Long Island and Vitiaz Straits. Re- ports from the headquarters of Maj. Gen. Willlam Rupertus, com- manding the invasion troops, said his majority of which a veterans of Guadalcanal, are tematically pushing through jungle trails toward Cape Gloucggter. e SHIPS.0 ENEMY ARE sons lost their lives and 10 others on varigu_s Fron‘s SENT DOWN But when the bill reached the/ings. The national average is on€| pree advertising for the gover b e 2 U 40 mendous new blows. e sa at Senate, an appropriations sub-|out of five. In Alaska 3558 per- committee put the 24 partly finish-icent of the population filed returns ed WPA airports back into the de- numbering 25,807 for a total tax bill ficiency bill. The amazing thing,|of $2,420,000. however, is that they went even; further. In addition to the 24 air-| ports on which the Goyernment had already spent some money, this sub- | committee added seven new air-| ports on which no money had been i spent previously. i In the sub-committee, Louisiana’s | Overton was active for a new air- port at Opelousas, La., while North| Dakota’s Nye was strong for a| WPA airport at Valley City, North| Dakota. A new airport was also! + voted at Holdenville, Okla., in Sen-| ator Thomas’s State, but the hear- ings do not show that he urged the matter. | In addition, brand new airports were voted for the State of the following Senators who are mem- bers of the full Appropriations Committee—Senator Russell, at Winder, Georgia; Senator O'Ma- honey, at Sheridan, Wyoming; Sen- ator McCarran, at Battle Mountain, Nevada; Senator Tydings, at Cum-| berland, Maryland; and Senator Lodge, at Boston, Mass. ‘The seven new airports in all are to cost $2,307,890 in addition to the $7,600,000 voted to complete the 24 unfinished WPA airports. To make absolutely sure that the airports would be built, the Senators voted | that the funds be available “until expended.” In other words, the money does not revert to the Treas- ury if the airports are not built) next year. BROTHERHOODS HALTED RAILROAD RAISES Rallroad employees didn’t know it, but the railroads were all set last (Continued on Page Four) ment in times of national stress is nothing new. In fact, archives and (Continued on Page Three) were injured in a 3-alarm fire that | raced through the fivaestory Stand- | ard Hotel structure on 42nd Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. ! HUTU RIVE REACHED BY CHINESENOW High Command Says'Mop- ping:Up Operations’ Confinuing CHUNGKING, Dec. 27.—China’s victorious troops pushed on to re- capture Kungan and reached the banks of the Hutu River, which joins Lake Tungting with the Yangtze River. “Mopping up operations against {the enemy continued,” the high command said. The communique added that op- erations began yesterday against the Japanese forces on the east bank of the river at Kungan, taken in a Christmas Day battle. Chiang Kai-Shek's Central China forces' regained more than four- fifths of thie area, overrun by the Japanese before the November sweep into the Rice Bowl district, which was turned into defeat. ——o—— DAN RUSSELL SOUTH Dan Russell left Saturday for the zz:bh with Beattie as his destina- FDR BACK IN WHITEHOUSE AFTER XMAS WASHINGTON, Dec. 27.—Cutting short the Christmas weekend which heé spent at home in Hyde Park, the President returned to the White House to try to iron out labor dis-! putes which threatened the paraly- sis of two key war industries, steel | and rail transportation. | CANADA'S CHIEF ONBRITISHFRONT | FORCED TO QUIT SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND, Dec. 27—Lt. Gen. McNaughton, Commander of the Canadian Army in Britain for more than four years, has left his post. Because of ill-health he will be unable to lead the Canadians in the invasion of western Europe. The general will return to Canada for a long rest and Lt. Gen. Kenneth Stuart, chief of the Canadian staff at Ottawa, will act temporarily as Commander, until a successor is | chosen. l STOCK QUOTATIONS NEW YORK, Dec. 27—Closing quotation of Alaska Juneau mine | stock today is 5%, American Can 84, ! Anaconda 24%, Bethlehem Steel 55 International Harvester 73, Kennecott 30%, New York Central 15%, Northern Pacific 14%, United States Steel 50%, Pound $4.04. Dow, Jones averages today ave| as follows: industrials 136.14, rails 33.12, utilities 21.79. | PRICES LAST FRIDAY Alaska Juneau mine stock closed | last Friday, the day before the Christmas holiday, at 6, American | Can 83%, Anaconda 24%, Bethle- | hem Steel 55%, Curtiss Wright 5%, | International Harvester 71%, Ken-’ necott 30%, New York Central 15%, irecorded by the Associated Press. (By Associated Press) Premier Tojo told the Upper House | of the Japanese Diet that the Allied “counter offensive has become real | and serious with fierce fighting rag- ing in various fronts,” according to a Tokyo broadcast recorded by the | United State government monitor. | In another broadcast the Tokyo | radio told the Japanese people that | recent Allied operations in the South | Pacific brought the war fo a “de-/ cisive stage, where the rise or fall of our nation will be decided.” The Premier, in the capacity of Minister of War, reviewed recent military developments. While describing the great power of the Allied drive, he insisted that the Japanese army and navy are “repulsing the enemy's counterat- tacks wherever confronted.” Japan must bring to bear the total effort for defeat of the “inordinate ambitions of the enemy,” he said. In an English language broadcast, i s U | ‘ OPTIMISTIC in the talks with Churchill and Chiang Kai-Shek in Cairo, “all manifold military plans for striking Japan a decisive force from many 'directions” were considered and “T Allied Carrier-Based War- believe the Generalissimo has gone ‘back to the capital with positive | assurances of a total victory over‘ our common enemy." \ | The President referred to the visit in! Gen. Marshall, just completed, to |the headquarters of Gen. Douglas ' MacArthur in Australia and Admiral 'Chester W. Nimitz in Hawail. He a' said the conferences there “spell | plenty of bad news for the Japs in ATPROGRESS NO. PACIFIC Commander Flefcher, Adak, Con't Reveal jug v o s i, Futufe Operafions }lnrgu:t international radio setub ever jarranged and it was so planned to ireach as many as possible of the WAD‘:':‘ 'AI;E;‘]T;AKNEVCEQ;;EIZ‘E;ISM'UUU men overseas on duty, the ce Admiral Fra a s 9 icl new North Pacific commander w‘m‘numlm. the President said, which » WS gl climb to more than 5,000,000 by | non-committal regarding the War noy¢ july prospects in this area, but was pleased at the progress to date. Warning Note The speech carried a warning, a % | g:el:lh;n Pacific 142, United States‘,ro)o was quoted as saying the Jap- i arm; d navy is “firmly Dow, Jones averages last Priday Aanes ¥, 9 wore s follows: Indusirials, 13624:| CiSORaing Bnd omolidalng Aoty rails, 33.36; utilities, 21.93. teglo offensive positions throughout |all operation areas, although there |have been some minor changes in RAFXMASRAID ‘o ' — e — STOCKHOLM, Dec. 27.—A private | Conrad Mann Berlin dispatch to the newspaper ! Passes Away Aftonigningen, said Berlin is still | burning after the Royal Air Forces’'| KANSAS CITY, Dec. 27.—Conrad Christmas Eve raid. Mann, 72, national organizer and Ten thousand bodies were recov- (financial advisor of the Fraternal eréd, it is said. A million Berliners | Order of Eagles, died today of pneu- received emergency rations in the |monia, complicated by a heart dis- past few days, ' ease. He recalled “I was on Adak last New Year's. There was nothing much here. Attu was in the hands of the Japanese. Kiska was in the hands of the Japanese. “Amchitka was just under con- struction. Adak and Amchitka are now major bases for carrying the war to Japan. The enemy forces were cleared from the Aleutians with the recovery of Attu in May and Kiska in August.” Fletcher, explained, for obvious reasons, he couldn't discuss future operations in view of the successes in cutting the Japanese strength in the North, Central and South Pacific. Fletcher said he was “more opti- mistic than some"” about the war's progress, foreboding note that heavy casualiies imight be expected in the ranks of |the American fighting men. | The President said the “war is planes in Action-Jap Base Is Captured ADVANCED ALLIED HEAD QUARTERS IN NEW GUINEA. Dec. 27.—~The sinking of a Japanese destroyer and two cargo vessels by Allied carier based planes off Ka- vieng, New Ireland, and the capture of an enemy supply base at Wan- dokai, Huon Peninsula, New Guinea, is announced by Gen. Douglas Mac~ Arthur. Rabaul Under Attack Two ore aerial blows on Rabaul, the prime Jupanese air and shio- ping base on the northeastern coast of New Britain, is also announced in the communique which revehls the Japanese have lost 71 Fighter planes sure and probably 19 more in attempting to block three Allied raids on Rabaul airdromes. The Al- lies lost 15 planes. now reaching the stage where we Ishall have to look forward to large ! casualty lists of dead and wounded end missing. War entails just that. 1t is no easy road to victory. The end }u not yet in sight.” | The President sought to under- ;mine any complacency that might |develop on the home front and he | thought he had detected a tendency on the part of some people to as- sume a quick ending of the war and | that victory is already won. “Per- haps this is the result of false rea- | soning but surely our first and fore~ most task of all concerned is winning Supplies Captured Australian troops, capturing Wan- dokai, gathered in a large supply ol ammunition and other material in- the village was preceded by sharp cluding enemy artillery. Taking of fighting and exchange of artiller; fire. The Australian casualties are described as light. i Shipping Bombed The carrier based planes of Adm. Halsey's South Pacific forces roared over Kavieng Harbor on Christmas morning to strike the shipping m the harbor. Bosides thice vessels | (Continued on Page Three) (Continued on Page Three)