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

Ct SERIAL RECOKD WG 14 1944 THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. XLIL, NO. 9697. JUNEAU, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1944 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS — SUPERS MAKE 2ND ATTACK ON JAPAN YANKS CROSS VIRE IN NEW FLANK MOVE La Haye du Puis Reported | Captured in Dispatch \ —No.Confirmation | SUPREME HEADQUARTERS OF | THE ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY | FORCE, July 7. — British Second Army patrols penetrated the docks at Caen, as American troops jumped off in a new attack across the Vire River on the eastern side of the La Haye du Puits, Carentan, St. Lo arc in a threat to the enemy’s flanks in Normandy. The British Broadcasting Corpora- tion quoted a frontline correspond- ent as saying the Americans have “captured and pushed beyond La Haye du Puits” in a report, not im- mediately confirmed by other sources. Reach Caen Docks Cther patrols pushed through German defenses west of Caen at the eastern end of the Allied battle line and reached the dock area without encountering any Germans. A report from headquarters said, (Continued on Page Two) The Washington Merry -Eo -Round By DREW PEARSON | Col.” Robert S. Allen now on active service with the Army.) (@t T | WASHINGTON Many people| long have suspected the President of being a very patient man as far, as Winston Churchill and the old- fashioned British Empire are con- cerned. Just how patient he is however, has just leaked out. It is now learned that at one time the President sent a letter to Mahatma Gandhi in India which the British would not permit Gandhi to re-| ceive. | Roosevelt wrote the letter Gandhi approximately a year and | a half ago. It was a friendly, con-| ciliatory message, urging lndian; Nationalist cooperation with the| Allies in the war. Ambassador William Phillips,| FDR's special envoy to India, tried to deliver the letter personally, but| the British flaty refused permis-| sion. G.ndhi was then in jail, and! when Ambassador Phillips asked to be permitted to see him, the Brit- ish said no. They were polite but firm. Phillips was not allowed to| see either Gandhi or any other of the imprisoned Nationalist leaders.| When efforts were made to de-| liver the letter through the Brit-| themselves, the British again| to ish refused | Despite the fact that the United States was sending lend-lease weap- | ons to protect India, was using U.| S. troops in Nerth India to help) ward off the Japanese, and was| using other U. S. troops in the| Southwest Pacific to protect Aus-| tralia, the British would not per-i mit a personal letter from thej President of their chief ally to be delivered to Gandhi. | Later Ambassador Phillips talked to Prime Minister’ Churchill about the wiole matter when Churchill] was in Washington in the summer of 1943. But he got mowhere with| Churchill on any phase of the In- dian problem. On another occasion, | the President himself tried to urge| a more liberal British policy toward India, put Churchill was almost in- sulting. He virtually told FDR to mind his own business. | Ambassador Phillips was so | censed at the whole thing that he| advised the President it was futile| for him or anyone else to go back| to Indian as envoy. | In the last few days, however,| the question of delivering the let-| ter to Gandhi has been revived leased from jail, and it may be; that the British will let down the, bars and permit the President of) (Continued on Page Four) following hi. Allied Patrol | | Men, Women Who Have Fought, Bled on Global Fronis Look to Future | YANKS HAVE‘M Jack Stinnett after- a tour of | the United States, ng his ob-| | servations of a n at war) | | spending a month traveling around ('Third of a series of four articles | the country, most of it through |scenes and among people I had |known and worked with before, I think tnat among the most import- Little Resistance Encount- ot uects of cbanging, America ered_One More Alrf|e|d brought pack by the men and wo- Yet fo Be Taken men who have fouzht and bled on {the global fronts of this war, For the most part, they are quiet, un-talking people. They are ibetter versed on current even! lthan most civilians and there’s hardly a one now who can't name his Congressman and tell you why he will or will not vote for him, | Almost unanimously they think |that the end of the war (on both |fronts) iz a long time off and I've never taiked to one yet who con- Japanese counterattacks south | ¥ to e yoi M, W |siders-any of our enemies a “soft of Kamiri airdrome have been |touch,” regardless of whether the| repulsed. | : is numerical strength, Bl s | question {fighting ability, or efficiency of 3 ADVANCED ALLIED HEAD- equipment. QUARTERS IN NEW GUINEA,: i \ July 7.— Running roughshod over| minor opposition, American infan-! They are almost unanimously | irymen captured Kornasoreb air-!bitter against labor strikes in war drome on Noemfoor Island to com-|plants for any reason but hold mno| plete two-thirds of the job assign- brief for a recalcitrant manage-| ed by Gen. Dou MacArthur, ment that is selfishly seeking ex- | who sent them ashore on Sunday. cessive profits. They are almost| Sweeping three miles along supremely confident that when the| i a TIN ADVANCED HEADQUARTERS IN July ted ates infantry units have oc- cupied Manin Islet, the last major Japanese position, three | miles from Noemfoor Island on the west coast, captured with- out opposition Wednesday. Noemfoor's northwestern coast from boys get back, the selfish in all the Kamiri airdrome, captured two fields of war endeavor will be pun-| hours after the invasion, the Am-/ished by one method or another, ericans took Kornasoren on Inde- although almos* none talks in terms | pendence Day. |of physical violence | Only one a‘rdrome, Namber, at, Theyre very much concerned | the southwestein end of the island, 2bout their respective pl in a remains to be taken, and the heay- Postwar domestiz economy bui Ive iest Japanese opposition is expect- DEVEr run across one who wants ed there. Limited sniper fire was More than a little place in the sun| the only resistance encountered at comparavie to the one he or his! Kiormasoren. neighbors held with security before | Work troops of the Royal Aus- Pearl Harbor. | tralian Air Force went ashore on| They consider postwar world col-| Noemfoor of the heels of the as-|laboration to maintain peace such| sault troops, and started facelifting @1 inevitability that it isn’t even| the bomb-battered Kamiri strip. |& topic for depate. | At Maffin Bay on the Dutch| These are new patte of | New Guinea coast, Allied troops ! thought. They are the ults of | advanced to within a mile of Sa-|broader horizons and greater depths | war, the only remaining Japanese|0f Pain and racrifice applied to field in that ar everyday living. They aren't exs| In the southwest Pacific bombers ceBtiont. They are the rule. | made a series of Independence Day | | assaults e Caroline Islands.| X § “|a licutenant commander who has| on Yap and shot down one of 20 had thrce destroyers shot fr | interceptors. The B-24s also bomb-| a0y o ek od Wolsal” alctierd | hum, including one as long | |ago as tue Battle of Clral Sea; TR N |a commander who skippers a sub-| | marine; as an ordnance captain | who is shaking apart with the after | 7 effects of malaria; asan Army nurse | | who has ministerea to hundreds of'| suffering youngsters flown out of the blood spattered islands of the | WASHINGTON, July 7. — Gen. Charles DeGaulle, head of the South Pacific; as a captain who | carried a load of shrapnel and| seven bullets out of Italy; as a| seabee from the Solgmons; and | dozens of pfc’s and corporals andh French National Committee of Lib- eration, arrived late yesterday for there pbui not i A o o |there, to pick up mentally cox;lera-m(-s with President Roose-|anq socially and politically just| velt. where they 1 ! ) 1 ¥ y left off. They've got The French leader today de-|igeas now and the problem for the | at the French delegation head- quarters, DeGaulle asserted that France must make itself ‘“great, o ani e anaopeed LY TO BRISTOL BAY J. Steele Culbertson, Supervisor with the Fish and Wildlife Service, herself | gccompanied by EarT Bright, fleet such fellows as/ ;o! them just want to get back Speaking in French to the al.alx‘ FISH, WILDLIFE MEN sergeants and seamen. | Many never hud been more than | |ten. miles from their front door | before they were inducted. Most! clared, “The year 1944 won't pass ynited States and its economists without the last German in France|ang politicians will be to catch up being killed, captured or chased with them. ¢ from our soil.” | —— e confidence that France will be able to build a political regime which will be strong and profoundly| democratic, and remake progress. | scientific division, flew to the Bristol DeGaulle left with his military Bay area today. mission Ior» the White House for| They are on a general supervisory luncheon with President Roosevelt|visit and expect to be away for neech, * about two weeks, laction in two months, the German jvi ir NALZIS LASH 152KILLEDIN OUT INNEW | CIRCUS FIRE, DRIVE,ITALY, 250 INJURED 'Six Thousand Panic Strick- en as Tent Becomes Raging Inferno Stiffening Enemy Resist- ance Mef by Both Fifth and Eighth Armies | ROME, July 7.—Lashing out from | HARTFORD, Conecticut, July 7. outposts of the heavily fortified Gothic line in the first aggressive ! destroyed the main top of the Ring- ling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus, beneath which 6,000 panic- stricken, shrieking spectators fought for escape from the enveloping | shrouds of burning canvas, jumped the | to 152 today as investigators pressed Eighth Army also measured its|inquiries as to the origin of the gains in yards instead of miles. blaze and simultaneously held under The stiff house to house battle | heavy bail five officials of the circus. | continued to rage day and night in{ The injured are counted at y the village of Rosignano where Am- jat least 25 of whom were in serious erican infant: who penetrated to | condition, and are scattered among | within 10 airline miles of Livorno,ithree hospitals. are attempting to smash through{ Not a circus performer the heavily manned strong points. in the holocaust. The severity of the fighting is| A steady stream of weary relatives shown by the official report of the ! continually went through the grim American troops, who on the pre- afsles of dead in the huge, sprawling ceding day, held half the town, and | State Armory today trying to iden- last night occupied two thirds of tify their lost ones. s battered ruins, after a struggle | Officials Arraigned reminiscent of the bitter combat at | The officials of the circus, ar- | Cassino. | raigned in police court and charged From the west coast along a sector | with manslaughter, are: J. A. Haley, extending at least 30 miles Il\l:n!d,:V.(p_pxpmdem,; George Smith, Gen- the enemy has struck back at the ‘e;al Manager; Leonard Aylesworth, | #inericans, boss canvas man; Edward Versteig, E5 chief electrician, and David Blanch- | field, chief wagon man. | After they had been detained all | night at police headquarters, Haley and Smith were held on $15,000 bail, and the others at $10,000. The hear- | ing is set for July 19 defenders of northern Italy today brought the Fifth Army’s drive toward Liverno, Pisa and Florence almost to a halt Allied headquarters said was lost .- — RED ARMIES —Fhe death toll of the fire which | § Jap Ship Hit by Bomber s Penetrate Caen Dock Area PRGN Two Targets Are Crashed in | | | | | [ A U. S. Fifth Air Force B-? oars away from its initial run over a Investigation Starts | Meanwhile, investigators are seck- | ing to establish the reason for the | startlingly rapid spread of the blaze, which all eyewitnesses agreed mush- | roomed into incredible speed from a tiny finger of flame near the main | tent entrance into a gigantic inferno of smoke and fire. | One eyewitness said a tiny flame, | that could have been put out with a | pail of water, “blazed into a fiery | mstrument of death,” as the fire | wept the huge main of WITHIN TEN MILES, WILNO Other Soviet Forces Ap- proaching Bug River 135 Miles from Warsaw LONDON, July 7.—German re- ports said the Russians are ad- vancing within 10 miles of Wilno, where, according to Moscow, the Nazis have declared martial law Smashing beyond the old Polish bastion of Kowel, the Russians are approaching the Bug River at a point 135 miles southeast of War- saw, along the main trunk line irtually all of the prewar Polish rontier has been crossed save the section before Luniniec in the Pripet marshes. Wilno, a city of 207,000, has changed nationality six times since the last war, and lies but 97 miles from the border of East Prussia A Moscow dispatch quoted Yustas Paletskis, Chairman of the Presi- dium of the Supreme Soviet of Lithuania, as saying that the Ger- man martial law edict barred per- sons from the streets between 8 p m. and 5 a. m. and forbade the gathering of groups greater than two persons. Paletskis said there are uprisings at Kaunas, Marianpole and Vilnius. While at least four Russian Army groups pushed westward, other So- viet forces mopped up bewildered tent the | circus yesterday afternoon just after the first act of the afternoon per-| formance had ended and perform- | ers were at the entrances awaiting | their cues for the second act « vas Is Coated Police Prosecutor James Je announced his preliminary in gation established that the huge | | canvas tent was coated with a water- proof solution of gasoline baraffine before the circus left ils winter quarters at Sarasota, Florida, early this year in May. i Witnesses of the appalling e | commented on the thick oily na- | ture of the billowing flames and smoke Among other agencies investigat- ing for the State Attorney’s Office, Friday, was a special committee appointed by Mayor William Mor- | tensen. 1 | Started at Top In contrast to storfes of various| persons present that the blaze orig- inated low in the tent, Hal Oliver and circus press representative: id | that the “fire definitely started in the roof of the tent.” | He added: “We have a theory! which we're not making public | now,” and further declared that, German stragglers east of Minsk, | “absolutely no credence is being giv- | leagues behind the main front. Mos- en any theory of incendiarism or cow said 5,000 were killed last night, sabotage.” and the midnight communique list- Circus Staff Heroes | ed 9,000 Germans killed. Survivors agreed that the circus | ——————— staff tried valiantly to prevent panic Japanese transport (upper), off the north coast of New Guinea. The ‘ enemy craft was slowed by the attack. Then as bombs bursts almost | conceal the transport (lower), the ship is hit by bombs as the plane made another run. (AP Wirephoto from Army Air Force Wholesale Bur'niing of Equipment Along New Highway Now Charged | EDMONTON, Alberta, July 17 Charges of “wholesale” destruction of equpment and material along the Aluska Highway are “not true,” asserts Col. Frederick K. Stron, Jr., v Comand:ng Officer of the North- |v\ Service mmand, U.S. A The Colonel's statement was 18 sued as rhe result of a story writ-| Defenders Down Large Number of Robots-New Era of Air Power Seen ten by couver Province, who said: “Fires burn aight and d: at great dumps al Dawson Creek, B. C, the terminus of the highway and a huge amount of equipment, includ- ing unusued arc “are being de- stroyed wholesale.” | Col. Sirong 3did: “The charges that the United States Army's sal- vage of material at Dawson Creek and For: St. John is wasteful, and that Canadians are not given a chance to purchase United States equipment are not true. The Can- adian Government is being given every opportunity to absorb such material as the Urited States Gov-| ernment will not have essential need. A board of officers has been | Dawson Creek to ex amine material being salvaged, and if the material, when reconditioned, meet with United States! minimum standards, it is a staff reporter of the Van- LONDON, July 7.—-More flying bombs smashed the London ar last night after a lull of several hours, while rescuers were still dig- ging out- the victims of Thursday morning’s barrage The Air Minigtry said there were casualties, but les damage, and that the defenders had oné of their best days in downing “a large pro- portion” of the robots. Grim Londoners are paying with their blood to watch the birth of a new era of arr power, with the wppointed at does not SIX PASSENGERS IN ON ALASKA AIRLINER An Alaska Airliner, in from An- | chorage yesterday afternoon, brought |to Juneau the following: Harvey and Harriet LaZelle, J. B. Sledge Frank Marshall, Mose Morris, and |F. G. Franzen. Leaving this morning on the re- | | | The Indian saint has now been re-|{ToM the point of view of social engineer, and Ed Dahigren, in the |turn trip'were C. T. O'Neill, Mrs |H. Simmer, Mrs. Florendo and in- fant, and H. B. Friele. Oren Ad- dleman was listed for Cordova. Pilots for the trip were McDonald and is registered at the Baranof and Currie, and the first move to the exits wWas | flying bomb now and perhaps later orderly. la giant rocket bomb, in the opin- Many children were seen laughing |jo, of many ) airmen. excitedly while making their Way| pyyme Minister Winston Churchill, through the tiers of seats, but when |, * " q.ciccion or the menace of flames roared with terrifying .speedhh" flying bombs, yesterday dis- ing, screaming, terror-stricken mass. |*¢7°d killed and 8,000 injured Sethe, ciifldren . dropped to the |85/ the result of .the missles He ground and. were trampled uncon- |Promised thaf all measures within scious, others dropping behind them human power would be used to were tangled In the blazing canvas. |counteract the robots, and no letup ———— o would be allowed in the prosecution M. J GENTNER ARRIVE lof the war in Prance. M. J. Gentner, of Mt Vernun,‘ $ = MRS. RUSSEL HERE L. E. Russel. of Ketchikan, a Washington, has arrived in Juneauk Mus. Hotel, Army destroyed " SRR 10 FIRE DEPARTMENT T0 HOLD WEEKLY DRILLS At the regular monthly meeting of the Juneau Volunteer Fire De- partment, held last evening at the Fire Hali, it was decided to hold drills every Tuesday evening Tentative plaus were also made for a film to be shown in Septem- ber, in order tn raise money for is a guest at the Gastineau Hotel. | necessary expeises. Jap Homeland B-29s Hit Great Naval Base at Sasebo and Steel Center af Yawata WASHINGTON, July 7.—Sup- erfortresses of the United States Twentieth Air Force bombed the Japanese naval base at Sasebo, Kyushu Island, and the steel center at Yawata tonight in the second attack of the huge B-29s on the Japanese mainland. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Forces, an- nounced the attack in a com- unique, and for the third time since Pearl Harbor, American planes have rained bombs on Japan proper. Sasebo is comparable to the United States naval establish- ments at Norfolk, Va., or Brem- erton, Wash. Sasebo was hit for the first time since the start of the war and lies west of Yawata, the target of the first Super- fortress attack on the Jap home islands on June 15. No additional information was given out immediately. Sasebo lies just north of the great Japanese port of Nagasaki. Ak (R BIG CHINESE COMEBACKIN HUNANPROV. Defenders ;eak Siege of Hengyang and Remove Threat fo Cut China CHUNGKING, July 7. — Chinese | troops made a smashing comeback in Hunan Province, breaking the stege of Hengyang and driving back a distance of 25 miles the main body of Jap troops which had by-passed that vital rail junction in their drive south along the Hankow-Canton railway. A Chinese Army spokesman de- clared the victgry was scored with the aid of reinforcements moving up from the southwest and “removed for some time to come” the Jap {hreat to occupy the vital rail line and cut China in two. The announcement of the sudden suc came as China entered the eighth year of her war with the Jap invaders, and “she is confident that with the help of the United Nations she eventually will drive the enemy from her soil,” the Army spokes- man said. Only scattered Jap remnants, which are now being surrounded and wiped out, remain at Leiyang, a rail- way town 34 miles southeast of Hengyang. The spokesman emphasized that credit is due the American Air Forces which, he said, disorganized the Jap supply lines, particularly on the main artery, the Siang River, by bombing and strafing attacks on hundreds of boats and small river craft, > ALLIED ARMIES WILL GET NEW WAR MATERIAL WASHINGTON, July T7.-—Anglo- American armies in Normandy are approaching the point when they will hit the Nazis with four times the amount of high explosives and projectiles that the enemy are able to deliver Acting Secrelary of War Robert Patterson said that included are all types of arms and enormous quantities of metal explosives, which will be given our troops to “throw at the enemy on both tQe con- tinent and in the Pacific.”