The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, January 6, 1944, Page 1

VOL. XLIL, NO. 9542. GERMANY’S BIGGEST BALTIC PORT RAIDED Nazis Make New Stand on Polish Frontier Maj RESISTANCE T0 SOVIETS | STIFFENED Field Marshal von Mann- stein Takes Up Position fo Stop.Russians THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” JUNEAU, ALASKA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1944 e ME| MBI-R ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICETENCF.NTS By Associated Press The German army of Field Mar- shal von Mannstein has retreated to the Pripet Marshes and reformed for another stand along the prewar Polish frentier west and south of Olevsk, the customs station which the Soviets captured Monday. This stiffeneG resistance on the' main route from Kiev to Warsaw developed as the massive drive of General Vatutin's First Ukraine Army swept southward toward the Dniester River and the prewar Ru- manian border at an accelerated pace after the capture of Berdichev, pivetal rail center 20 miles south of Zhitomir. Frontline dispatches say that von <Mannstein has taken up positions favorable for defense, the left flank protected by the marshes, and is (Con'.lnued on fage Two) The Washington Merry - Go- Round By DREW PEABSON (Major Robert 8. Allen on active duty.) WASHINGTON—FDR came into 1944 with one of the greatest gifts given to any President or any per- son—miraculous good health. In his party on the trip to Cairo and Teheran was his personal phy- sician, Rear Admiral Ross T. Mc- Intire. As soon as they got back to Washington, Admiral McIntire put his patient on the scales to see how much he had gained or lost. This has been the prime index of the President’s health from the be- ginning. Since he cannot take regular exercise, it has always been a problem to keep his weight within normal tange. When he came into office in 1933, his weight was 186, and Mr. MclIntire has held it within the range of 184 to 191 ever since. When he looked at the scales after Teheran, the Admiral's eyes brightened. The figure was 189. He was afraid the heavy dining and lack of & swimming might have brought on extra weight—or, con- versely, the hard travel and tension might have reduced the President’s weight. dangerously. “The fact that he stood this trip i | | without substantial change of ,u goui; Pacific bombers from al weight is a good indication of his physical condition,” says Melntire. “Anything under 190 is satisfactory.” The trip was less of a strain than those to Casablanca or Quebec, be- cause the conferees did not keep the usual Churchillian hours.| Churchill was not well, and he let the others,go to bed early. There STIRLING SILHOUETTE—outlined against the gathering dusk of a winter afternoon is a S lnz, one of Brflam s unvorlanl and bcst known bomber types. MARINES IN Paramushiro Island BIGDRIVE, { Invading Forces Forging Ahead-Five Nips Down in Air Attack, Saidor BULLETIN—London, Jan. —A radio broadcast from Ber- picked up here, quotes a DNB dispatch from Tokyo stat- ing that Australian troops have made a new landing on Cape Gumbi, on the north coast of New Guinea. ADVANCED ALLIED HEAD-| IN NEW GUINEA, QUARTERS Jan. 6.—The United States Marines | at- invaded Cape Gloucester, New Britain, have driven east three| miles, using tanks and guns, A strong force of Marines at- tached to the U. S. Sixth Army has pushed in the direction of Borgen Bay against stiff Japanese resist- ance. All enemy opposition, and sev- eral counter-attacks have been re- pulsed. Five Nip planes were downed at- tempting to attack the American forces at Saidor where the Yanks have extended their holdings. A bomber of the South Pacific Air Force scored a direct hit on an' enemy cruiser at Kavieng, New Ireland, and two heavy cruisers were severely damaged, if not sunk, ! carrier in the same area a few days ago. GLOUCESTER Blasted by IDA TARBELL DEAN, WOMEN AUTHORS, DIES First Becam; Known in "Muckracking” Era- ‘ Authority on Lincoln | BRIDGEPORT, Conn., Jan. Ida M. Tarbell, 86, dean of Amer- ican women author: dead as the result of pneumonia. | Tda M. Tarbell, first | widely known in the “muckraking” era of magazine writing when she indited scathing articles on John D. Rockefeller, Sr.; and the Standard Oil Company, later Was recognized as a biographer. of unsual skill and especially as an authority on Abra- {ham Lincoln. ‘ She also was a humanitarian, a' feminist and a deep student of socio- logical questions, especially those re- lating to women in business and 1 industry. { Dissected S. O.. | Miss Tarbell's dissection of the structure and methods of the old Planes, 6.—| becoming | | American Aleutian Bases BY NORMAN BELL ALEUTIAN BASE, Jan. erican raiding plar blasted the Japs on Paramushiro Island on New Year's Day. Manned by full sized crews, th(‘ | bombers braved the wintry chm Pacific skies at night to keep the its home soil. It is cold at Paramushiro Island,| colder than in the Aleutians. Crashing high explosives, bombs routed the Japs from their warm beds in the middle of the night. The bombers of the North Pacific Task force, the group under which the Na erating, arrived over the big Para- | mushiro after midnight on New Year's Day, Japan time, after |a long flight ‘from the Aleutian base. Cominodore Gehres, Commanding |the fleet of the Air Wing said: |“New Years is a big holiday for ! Japan. We wanted to help them celebrate. We stirred them up, all right. We could tell by their excit- |ed radio chatter.” Sixty 626 pounders were dropped but because of the darkness it was impossible to determine the dam- age done. All planes returned safe- 1 Lt. Joseph Peter Weibler, who led {the mission, reported it was so cold, | Asscciated Press War Correspondent | G,HAm-‘ first 1944 date with the enemy on| v and Army planes are op-| side and the bombers and escorting BIG PROBE 1S STARTED ONSHIPPING ,Crackmg of llbeny Ships| in Alaska Waters In- veshgated Now SEATTLE, Jan. 6. — Merchant mariners “were ready to jump over- | board drop of the bhat,” but continued to | sail them for a year lest being ac-| cused of sabotaging the war effort,| one union official told ml(‘r\'mwels after conferring with Sen. Mon C. | Wallgren, here making an investi- | gation into the “cracking” of nine such vessels in the Pacific. James Greathouse, “patrolman” lof the Pacific Coast Marine Fire- {men, Oilers, Watertenders and Wi- ipers Association, said: “We have kept our mouths shut about war in- | formation. If we complained about !the Liberty ships, there would have |been a wave of indignation about }uur sabotaging the war effort, so we kept sailing them. Now, Wall- gren and Magnuson are bringing |out the fact. That’s a good thing. |Our men are getting sick and tired |of it. The Government should not | corapel any man to go out on those | ships, they ought to be junked.” | Wallgren Investigating Sen. Wallgren, on investigating | Liberty ships, has called for im- |mediate halt in converfion of the ships to troop transports and cited similarity in the cracking of five | freighters. They were: ’ The Ss. John P. Gaines, one-half of which foundered in Alaska wa- ters November 25, with a presumed !loss of 10 lives. The Ss. Valery Chkalov, a lend- lease Liberty ship sailing under the | Russian flag, both halves of which |were towed separately into Adak, ‘Alaska without loss of life. Ships Make Port The Ss. James M. Whistler, which |cracked to 7 feet below the water line, and, although opening and |closing 1': feet, made an Alaskan port. The Ss. John C. Ainsworth, which also cracked at No. 3 hatch and was patched in an Alaskan port. The Ss. Chief Washakie, which |parted at No. 3 hatch outboard and |down both sides when 50 miles ont of Dutch Harbor. Held only by her patched and is now docked here. Congressman’ Warren G. Magnu- |son’ also making a probe, boarded |the Ss. Henderson Luelling. Master Makes Statement After inspecting cracks at hcth |the fore and after ends of No. 4 |hateh on the Luelling, Magnuson | Capt. August Eckholm, who was also (Contlpucd on Page Six) from Liberty ships at the| took a statement from her master| ‘muwr of the S. S. Joseph Henry| the windshields iced inside and out-| oo 1 GUADALCANAL, i ons, Jan. 6.~Major Gregory Boy- nn,lun of Okanogan, Washington, |is officially credited with shooting {down his 26th Jap plane to tie the 'record set by his fellow Marine, | Maj. Joe Foss. | Boyington, who is 30, is a former In the Solom- | jor Boyington Gets 26ih Nip Plane; Ties ‘ Record of MajerFoss' AIR FLEET China Boyington got his 26th Jap in a| airdrome ! when he downed six out of 20 in-| are| ' MARITIME LIFELINE raid over the Rapopo Zeros. Five more probables. Two Cors tercepting listed as were lost. Spray from streams of wafer played on a burning manufacturing building froze on this Chicago fire wires, (AP Wirephoto) doublebottoms, she made port, was| (Congress Tock Recess By Leffing Bump engine and nearby pole and electric Firemen quelled the five-alarm blaze in near zero weather. Nation Go *Adion Delayed STETTIN IS BOMBED BY member of the Flying Tigers in A"a(k Is Carried 0u| in Moonlight - Berlin Hit Second nght in Row IS BEING BATTERED Fure Flghhng in Zero Weather Nty v R Pkt Credited with Being Downed by Raiders | LONDON, Jan, 6.-~Germany’s big- gest port on the Baltic, Stettin, was blasted by the Royal Air Force heavy town wreckers last night and Berlin was bombed by Mosquito raiders. The douhje edged assault is cal- culated to disrupt the emergency supply and to stem the battered Capital from recovery and shatter the maritime lifeline to the Russian front. The Stettin assault was carried out in bright moonlight on a heavy u-umd-awrmo!mmht loose on’ well concentrated objoe 5 tives. ¥ Besides hmlnl Berlin for the sec- ond night in a row, thus allowing the Capital City but one night's surcease since Sunday, Mosquitoes also directed other blows at targets in western Germany and northern France. Fifteen aircraft were lost. Assorted attacks included a 1,300 mile round trip to raid Stettin, port city of 260,000 population, and 75 miles northeast of Berlin. Stettin was last hit on April 20 when 90 buildings and a 50 acre chemical factory were destroyed. Dispatgches recelved in London from Stockholm report the arsenal and important Deutsche Werke naval shipyard at Kiel, were almost completely destroyed in yesterday's heavy bomber raids by big U. 8. bombers and escorting fighters. The raiders are eredited with also shoot- ling down 95 Nazi planes, the big~ rest score since December 11 in the a'tack on Emden when 138 fighters were destroyed, 'FIFTH ARMY FIGHTING IN SAN VITTORE | | Two Japanese freighters have also |Standard Oil Company, the nation- planes reached their targets by {been blown up at Koepang, Timor. The Australians have \vlde corporation dissolved in 1911 pushed | by the Supreme Court of the United isking the uncertainty of the wea- along on Huon Peninsula in the States, was written in the early years ther and overcoming navigational vicinity of Cape King William, less than 80 airline miles from Saidor. 'of the century. It was contemporan- eous with Lincoln Steffens “Shame difficulties. The bombers were met by anti-| — > BELGIANS Long Awalted Offensive of By JACK STINNETT The poll-tax battle also was side- WASHINGTON, Jan. 6. capital has one topic of conversa | tion that went through the holida: namely: that if ever a session of | Congress let the country down, the — The| tepped as southern Senators from ght States which would be n(recud | threatened a filibuster. The cradle-to-grave social security | plan, urged by the President months Clark’s Men Starts in Driving Storm ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN 5f the Cities” and Charles Edward aircraft fire and at least one of the| were no late sessions, Ccming at the end of a hard year, this indicates that Roosevelt, | more than any other President, has mastered the art of health under strain. For ten years he has main- tained a pace which has killed other Presidents in a shorter time. SECRET OF FDR’s HEALTH Secret of FDR's health is a com- bination of three factors—his per- iodic change of environment, in a trip to Hyde Park or a cruise down the Potomac; his ability to put aside troubles and sleep soundly; and his willingness to submit to limitations of diet. The President eats three meals a day like any ordinary citizen, and he has not gone in for the new- fangled notion that it is better to, eat four or five light meals a day. But when he is tired, or has cold, he skips a meal entirely, or simply has milk toast or a bowl of rice. (Continued on Page Four) 'Ketchikan Ciy | Russell's “Soldiers of the Common Good,” the chief sponsor of all this | work being S. S. McClure. Magazine Editor | Miss Tarbell devoted five years to | the research on which her oil articles Fathers Enact Role of Cupid KETCHIKAN, Alaska, Jan. 6. —With Congress in a log jam of subsidies, the Ketchikan City Council expressed approval of the principle of voting brunette, comely City Clerk Leah Brad- ley two weeks’ extra vacation for “honeymoon purposes,” pro- jan associate editor of “McClure’s | Magazine.” She depicted Rockefel- {ler and his early associates as ruth- {less barons of business intent on {bullding up an oil monopoly for personal aggrandizement. The work {later was edited, collated in two were based and during that time was | vided she “takes proper cogni- zance of the meaning of leap year.” The action was taken, Coun- cilman Harry McCain said, with 1\'olurnes and published in 1904 as :“A History of the Standard Oil Com- Born on Farm Ida Minerva Tarbell was born on a farm in Erie County, Pennsylvania, ! the proviso that she unchange |2 4T b Eric Cour 5 ‘The land had' her employer this year while changing her name, ‘and also unjoin the WACs or the WAVEs. Miss Bradley is a former tea- cher here and hails from Co- quille, Oregon. been cleared by a grandfather whom Ishe knew, soap was still made on ithe place in her girlhood and much {of the winter meat was cured venison | from deer killed in adjacent forests. (Continued on Page Three) night fighter planes and one of the bombers were caught in the con-| WARNED ON centration of Jap searchlights but managed to escape in the clouds before the ground fire could concentrated. ROOSEVELT - ISSHAKING OFF GRIPPE WASHINGTON Jan. 6—Presi-| | | dent Roosevelt is still trying to| shake off the effects of the grippe | but reamined in his White House quarters today and continued to work on his annual message to Congress to be delivered next Tues- jdny, probably in person, be| INVASION TAre Told fo Keep in Homes | when Military Op- erafions Start LONDON, Jan. 6. — In the name of the High Command of the United Nations, the British Broadecasting Company .today radioed preinvasion pleas to the Belgians to remain home when the military operations get lln.er'ly. The broadcast said: “If you are on roads you will obstruct the Allied air forces which must be free to attack the enemy’s communications.” [ J one just concluded did. ‘That summer recess, when mem- bers of the House and Senate were supposed to go back home for a lot of political pulse-feeling, was to get great results. Members came back with dukes up and heads full of ideas. session would be a stormy one, nobody doubted either that { things would be done. So what happened? Three months later Congress folded for the holi- ! days. The tax bill (some $8,000,000, 1000-0dd short of Treasury demands) | was left hanging between the House |and Senate. So was the mustering out pay for service men. So was the problem of votes for the service men and women. So was the wage increase for non-operating railroad but big Nobody doubted that the | ago, still languished in commitees, ALGIERS, Jan. 6.--Mud-caked Am- On the positive side, Congress! erican troops, opening the long backed up the administration's for- lawaited Fifth Army offensive with eign policy with a vote of confidence British troops on a 10-mile front for some sort of participation in!in driving sleet and rain, have postwar international co-operatfon smashed and battered their Wway | for world peace inside the pillbox maze at San- Vit- With a good deal of fanfare and tore, where they are fighting the much words, it passed the innocuous Germans for the remaining half of law declaring that pre-Pearl Harbor the town. | fathers shouldn't be called up in the), American and British ground draft until other sourc were ex- forces, supported by wave upon hausted — a policy that Selective wave of American Invader dive vice had announced months be- | bombers which twisted through low fore, Investigating committees made most of the headlines as war ex- travagances and executive depart- ment ineptnesses were delved into-— | but out of all these investigations there didn’t come one piece of con- | |hanging clouds to lay salvos of |bombs on the enemy’s gun posi- tions, advanced an average of a !mile the first day of the offensive along the 10-mile front. The advance is on a front five miles wide on either side of the workers, in spite of the fact that a Istrike impends. So was the crude oil price increase. The vital subsidy program, on | which our whole pattern of inflation or inflation-controls may be based, was sidetracked until February 17. structive legislation. Bills were in- | troduced and they may be considered | Via Casilina, main road to Cas- after the second session of the 78th |50 and Rome. The British surged Congress convenes next Monday, but to date the score is zero. | (Continued on Page Two) forward in the five mile southern half of the sector from west of ' T (Continued on Page Two)