The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, January 7, 1944, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. XLIL, NO. 9543. YANKS FIGHTING NAZIS IN JUNEAU, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1944 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS PILLBOXES U.S. Marines Killing Japs in Fierce Battling STRIPPED FOR INACTION FIGHTING IN JUNGLES IS RAGINGNOW Stiff Resistance in Cape Gloucester Area Is Met, Overcome ADVANCED ALLIED HEAD- QUARTERS IN NEW GUINEA, Jan. 7—8ix hundred Japanese have been slain as heavy fighting is in progress in the dense jungles of in- vaded Cape Gloucester, New Brit- ain as both sides brought up ar- 27 AVIATION | CADETS DEAD | IN ACCIDENT ‘Loaded Bus Fails fo Stop at Crossing - Freight Train Crushes It KINGMAN, Arizona, Jan. 7.— Twenty-seven Aviation Cadets were killed last night when a Santa Fe Railway freight train collided with a bus carrying 36 airmen stationed at the King- man Army Gunnery School here to the airbase. AP Features CAPTURE OF SANVITTORE NOW NEARING ; Doughboys~lJ—s—ing Gren- ades, Machine Guns, | Small Arms in Atfack | ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN | ALGERS, Jan. 7-~With grenades, | | machine guns and small arms, Am- These maps show what Japan and Germany may look like after they have been stripped by the Allies of |erican troops fought over the blood drenched stoves of San Vittore as | they assailed three bitterly contest- |ed strong points in the fortified village. The Fifth Army pressed the tillery. Strafing American planes sup-| ported the attacking Marines, bringing the total of enemy losses‘ to more than 2,000 since the Mar- ines landed December 26. The latest casualties were inflict- | ed during the slow and arduous; The Public Relations Officer said two of ten surviving are not expected to live. The first information indicat- ed the bus was returning Cadets from a night training mission to the gunnery range and did not stop at the crossing. | offensive all along the 10-mile front | straddling the road Via Casilina to vRome, | Forging ahead short distances through the snow covered moun- tains, the Americans stormed the strong defenses built by the Ger- mans to cover the key town cf territories gained by aggression. According to the recent Roosevelt-Churchill-Chiang Kai-shek declaration at Cairo, the Japanese will be forced to give up all the shaded area shown in map and be isolated in the islands shown in black. No official statement has been made concerning German territory after the war, but it is probable they too will be stripped of their conquests (shaded) and ¢loseted within the pre-Hitler borders (black). push against fierce resistance in an eastward direction from Borgen Bay. The official communique says the bitterest kind of fighting has been (Continued on Page Two) The Washington Merry - Go- Round By DREW PEARSON (Major Robert 8. Allen on sotive duty.) P | WASHINGTON — At the begin- ning of the New Year, ‘Washington officials who watch the trend of the war admit privately that “things will happen very fast” in the next few months. If pressed, they even| make flat predictions that Ger-| many will fold befores summer. Publicly, they stick to the line that it will be a long war. This is| the only sound position to take, as an official line, since no war can be successfully waged if the people spend their time peepingj around the corner for the approach of peace. But the facts allow & hopeful ex-| pectation. ‘Unquestionably the In- vasion of Europe will be a winter invasion. For many reasons, spring will be too late. February is the likeliest month. The exact time will be no secret to the Nazis, be- cause we will be pounding the French coast well. in advance. The offensive will be a tremend- ous operation, combining cross- Channel inyasion with heavy drives from Russia and Italy, plus all-out air attacks everywhere. (The Bal- kan invasion urged by Churchill is doubtful.) . Some experts go as far as to name the length of time—in days—which this big operation will require, be- fore the engd., One ghly placed official ‘says «if .will = take three months and twenty days. Thus, if the invasion starts by mid-Febru- ary, this would mean the end by early ' June, But military experts won't say such things out loud, because they fear the U. S. public will overlook the fact that the days between Feb- ruary and June will-be the bloodiest days in the history of all the world‘.s Wwars. ARMY POSTAL SERVICE Lt. Gen. Mark Clark has one technique with private soldiers; Lt. * Gen. George Patton another. On a recent visit to the front lines, General Clark found a soldier busy scribbling a V-mail letter on his mess-kit. The soldier looked a5 though he had lost his last friend, so General Clark asked him what was Wrong. “Oh, I'm getting a little weary of this life, sir,” replied the soldier. “What's your trouble?” asked General Clark. “Why, I haven't received a letter in five days, Gendtal” replied the soldier. “What does the Post Of- | | itary services; REAL LIFE ROMAN CE_pick Haymes, singer of songs dedicated to Romance, and his preity wife, Joan Marshall, enjoy a book in a moment of pleasant relaxation. Rockél Plahe Now Success; Will Open New Travel Vistas WASHINGTON, Jan. 7—Whole Jet propulsion, commonly called new Vislfl: bflf t;;ofléfl lplflfle t,:lmtve! rocket propulsion, eliminates the are opened by the disclosure that a} B & fighter plane using “jet propulsion” pléwllfil. Inst.ead of the propellor has been developed and pronounced | “Piting” the air to pull the plane a success in new plane visions which | forward, jet propulsion in a séries awakened scientific research yem‘s“of explosions not unlike a Fourth ago, and was announced jointly last | of July Tocki shes i night by the Army Air Forces andi Tl‘ 7 AKYPOUREL, puts pe Jltarmed. he new plane uses engines de- the Royal Air Force. 4 | signed and developed by a group The new plane has already com- . pleted several hundred test flights“mder Capt. Frank Whittle of the RAF, who as far back as 1939 re- without mishap and quantity pro- | b duction will begin soon. ported that he was working with Today's planes of orthodox design |? Plower type rotary compressor, have about reached their speed t)\e rotar-bearing compressor being limits, and the jet propulsion is re- | iauid cooled. garded by engincers as the logical| The kind of fuel Capt. Whittle's next step. engines use is not disclosed. Manpower Barrel in United Stales Again Filling Up Is Report By JACK STINNETT rhave now WASHINGTON, Jan. 7.—Thist100-000 a month. column may be a few weeks or| month, the discharges hit 112, reached something like In one recent ,000. time you are going to hear it over | (complete disability discharge) rat- | mately 85000 men a month are Principal factors in the solution|Peing released who are capable of are: (1) discharges from the mili-| 'aKing over civilian jobs. Some ) curtailment ' of have only one leg, one arm or one {eye but they are finding that the problem is practically solved. production in those wartime indus- | tries which already are over-pro-| G00r of industry is wide open. duced or are no longer important| As guards, filing clerks and all to the type of warfare we now am‘lhc way up the line to executives, involved in. | they are re-establishing themselves. Starting with No. 2, it'’s no longer | Business, big and small, is tickled nitions than we know what to do Ports being made to Selective Ser- with. Powder and shell-loading | Vice and the War Manpower Com- plants are being cut back. So are mission, tank factories. So are several other These 85000 or so availables & wartime industries, but these are month, however, wouldn't unmentionable. They might give|enough, if it weren't for the fact the enemy some clue as to what |that wartime industries also are cut- direction we are taking. | ting back. Out of these folding plants, 1abor | In a number of cases, War and is being released at the rate of \Nayy De L Navy partment plants are s - thousands a week to fill in where | ting down. In somz instances, m_ fice Department think we are over here—a- bunch of grcheologists?” “personally, I think five days is pretty good service from the United States to the front lines, son,” re- S B A A (Continued on Page Four) employment is short. £tatistical | oyj i 4 information on this is unobtaln-’;;?masmi‘:,w:;fi t:,:::‘::fp r:\d:mo:]:- able; but there is no great mystery | But there are two other factors: about what is happening in cut-| (1) over-expansion in certain crit- backs from the armed forces. | ical materials that formerly appear- Discharges from the mlhtnryl (Continued on Page Two) # months previous, but within that| About 29,000 of these got CDD| and over again; the labor manpower ing. But on the average, approxi-| any secret that we have more mu- Pink with them, according to re-| be 1 Army officials said C. L. Hick- ey, engineer of the freight train, said his train was going at the usual speed of about 45 miles an hour “when he saw the flag- man at the crossing wave down the bus.” Hickey said the bus appeared to stop at a warning whistle from the train, then went out of control. Bodies and the wreckage of the bus were scatiered about 100 yards alongside the railroad right-of -way. | 1‘ 1015 MOREY IN JUNEAU ON MISSION IIs First Personnel Official of Libby, McNeill and Libby for North | Miss Lois M. Morey, now in Ju- |neau and a guest at the Baranof, | lis the first personnel director of| | Libby, McNeil & Libby to be sta- |tioned in Alaska by that wellknown | concern. Her headquarters are m‘ | Anchorage and she has just com- | pleted a tour of Palmer, Fairbanks, | Anchorage and is now in Juneau| | , | southbound to headquarters, but ex- | pects to return north in April and will visit Ketchikan and Juneau on the way westward. | | Miss Morey is contacting men, {and especially women, who may be | |employed in canneries during the | | coming season. She is the first con- | itact official of the kind to be lo-| {cated in Alaska as it is the aim| {of Libby, McNeill & Libby to em- ‘ploy as many Alaskans as possible iwho desire cannery jobs. Miss Morey !will not only secure workers, both ' imen and women, but will then su- pervise living conditions, especially |for the women, at the canneries, once they have been employed. | Heretofore most of the hiring of |cannery workers has been done in the states. | Presidentls GERMAI;ARE Workingon UNABLE STEM SOVIET TIDE Tre;nendou_sEd Army 01-1 fensive Growing in Baltic Sector MOSCOW, Jan. 7—General Vat- utin's forces, gaining new miomen- tum after smashing 10 miles into prewar Poland, sped forward in a great fan-shaped offensive toward the lifelines vital to enemy opera-| tions in the Ukraine and the Dnie- per bend. The Nazis appeared unable to halt the Russian war machine over the front 175 miles long from the lower Pripet Marshes near Rakitno, - — i T R I K E AI 10 miles inside the old Polish bor- |der, to the flat steppes near Zhas- - {kov. | . | Forty miles south of Belaya- | Tserkov, the First Ukrainian Army |is ripping the Germans to pieces Follow Up RAF Night Raids in Round-the-Clock !und capturing huge stores of booty. | To the north in the Nevel sector,| Offensive ;’Genernl Bagranian's growing Bal-| tic offensive swept into deep strong cores of resistance where the Ger- BULLETIN — LONDON, Jan. 7.—American Flying Fortresses and Liberators smashed German man specter of encirclement is the industries in the southwest today |same as in the Ukraine. in the third heavy operation in ! e | | | e { | rauders rocked the invasion coast of France for the sixteenth i | WASHINGTON, Jan. 7.—Presi- dent Roosevelt is still confined to his quarters in the White House | after his attack or grippe but is| working on his budget message for the fiscal year beginning July | 1, and also warked on his annual, message to Congress. | Presidential Secretary Stephen| Early said the message would not | go to Congress on Monday when the Senate and House reconvene after the Christmas holidays. { | | | | Meanwhile dispatches from Allied | headquarters in Algiers called “com- pletely erroncous” the report that “crack Allied divisions” have landed | in Yugoslavia. This account was | time in 18 days. LONDON, Jan. 7—American Marauder Bombers today smashed military objectives in Northern U e J;n PR R0 Sinioe keep.mg bn e mu"d._meul'eports have reached Stockholm that | clock offensive rolling after the Alliod specialists and ‘froops have RAF Mosquitoes raided western| R s < landed at several strategic points on Germany last night for the stxth,me Soakt of Yugoelavis consecutive night. The Marauders returned fromr cross channel sweeps early this af- ternoon without a single loss. { | | OKANOGAN, Wash., Jan. 7.—The "mother of Major Gregory Boying- iton, United States Marine Corps, whose downing of his 26th Jap plane in the southwest Pacific has| just announced. She has received a telegram from the Navy Depart- | ment stating that he is missing in | action. The dispatch, dated from Guad-| | Ace Jap Killer Now Reperied by Navyas "Missing in Adion"g cafried by Reuters quoting Stock- | holm’s Tidningen, which in turn| credited its information to reports | from Zagreb, capital of the puppet | government in Croatia. An unofficial source in London | said the report was “probably plant- | ed by the Germans as a feeler.” The story that Allied specialists have reached Yugoslavia was also roundabout, reaching Stockholm from Zagreb by way of Budapest. - HOSTESS MARY» McCORMACK | USO Hostess Miss Mary McCor- mack who sustained an ankle in-| Jury while skiing recently, left by! steamer today for Wrangell where she will recuperate for several days' | i | alcanal, told how the former Flying Tiger made his 26th kill in a raid on Rabaul three days ago to tie the current war record of Major Joe| Foss and the first World War mark, of Eddie Rickenbacker. Boyington's mother, Mrs. E. J.} Hallenback, reported the grim news with the assertion that “I am con= fident he is all right and will show up somehow and somewhere.” She was accompanied to Wrangell| by her sister Miss Eleanor McCor mack. RED PATROLS CUTTING BACK OF NAZI LIN A&vamé Un its‘Threafen Communications, Leningrad BULLETIN — LONDON, Jan. 7.~The Russians in a new of- fensive tonight broke through the German lines in the Kirovo- grad area in the Dnieper bend and are surrounding the town, following a three-day advance of 25 miles along a 62-mile fornt, Moscow said toright. The communique also reported that troops of the First Ukrain- jan Army captured 70 populated places, including Klesow, 13 miles east of Sarny, rail hub, 35 miles inside old Poland. MOSCOW, Jan. 7.—Snowfalls and blizzards are acting as an aid to advance patrols cutting behind the Nazi lines and threatening the com- munications of the German forces before Leningrad, just as General Vatutin’s fast tanks and cavalry im- peril the Germans on the main lines leading to the Dnieper and the Black Sea. Gen. Vatutin's advance brought increased pressure on the Germans in the Kirovograd and Krivoi Rog, which are in the Dnieper bend, but few specific reports have been re- ceived from those sectors. A German communique said 51 Soviet tanks were destroyed in those sectors, and that intense fighting is in progress for four communication centers which lay within striking distance of Vatutin's forces. The capture of Rakitno by Vatu- tin's army was announced in a com- munique last night. His vanguards are said to be pushing on along the Kiev-Warsaw railway toward Sarny, 25 miles farther west. The fall of Sarny would endanger communica- tions between the German forces op- erating north and south of the Kiev- Warsaw line. - Oh, All Right Say‘sfiWiIIkie NEW YORK, Jan. 7.—Wendell L. Willkie today said he had no ob- jection to Chicago as the meeting place for the Republican National Convention and he is not interested in any particular city. There had been reports Willkie opposed the selection of Chicago. ‘The GOP National Committee will meet in Chicago next Monday and before returning to her duties here.! Tuesday to choose a convention city. — e | Cassino. ‘i Peak Is Captured | 'The Yanks have captured the 13,500 foot peak of Monte Maio about |one mile southwest of Viticuso. | The Americans who have entered !San Vittore from the northwest and |southwest have taken more than half of the town and are now driv- ing on three clusters of grey tum- bledowri ‘stonie bulldings where the Germans are barricaded. It is a “no quarter” fight as the Germans |are refusing to give themselves up. Close-In Fighting ‘The Doughboys had to creep up to the pillboxes and toss grenades {throu(h apertures to wipe out the defenders of San Vittore, which is |about two miles up the road from the village of San Pletro, which iwas captured by the Americans on December 18 after one of the {bloodiest and fiercest battles of the | Mediterranean theatre. While the Americans fight from ‘one pillbox, a converted house, to another, the British on the south- 'ern leg of the prong pushed the attack at Rocca Denvandro, captur- ing 79 more prisoners with a two day total of 126. Weather Cold The weather is cold, snow is fal- ling in the mountains and dense clouds aré obscuring the mountain top which has impeded movemenis of the Eighth Army on the Adriatic Coastal front. Indian troops never- theless have made a short advance west of San Tomaso. - LIEUT. STEWART SOUTH Lieut. Tom Stewart, son of Mr. and Mrs. B. D. Stewart, sailed for the south today after spending the holidays in Juneau. Stewart, form- erly stationed in the Aleutians, is going to Seattle for reassignment. IS KILLED ~ IN ACTION First Man fo Hike Over | Proposed Alaska High- way Dies, No. Africa { SEATTLE, Jan. 7—Capt. Ed Bor- |ders, who made in three months the 1600-mile hike in 1841 from Fairbanks to Hazelton, B. C., over the then proposed Alaska Highway route, has been killed in action in {North Africa, according to word re- | ceived here. | In 1941, the 19-year-old Univer- |sity of Alaska junior started from | Fairbanks on skils with his husky dog- Butch and reached Hazelton, |the first man to cover the proposed |route in winter. Borders fs.a sod"of Frank Bor- !ders of Hot Springs, Montana. He | Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Moon are injis also survived by his wife and Juneau from Skagway. ibaby in Spokane, Wash.