The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, July 31, 1944, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE ’ VOL. XLIL, NO. 9717. “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” JUNEAU, ALASKA, MONDAY, JULY 31, 1944 THE LIBRARY OF SERIAL RECORD AUG 12 1944 COPY i 6IF MEMBER ASbOClATk D PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS YANKS BREAK THROUGH TO AVRANCHES Warsaw Reported Reached by S King George 300 Yards Distant When Two Nazi RED ARMY MOVING ON FOR BERLIN Kaunas Is ap—tured After| Fatal Sunday for Nazis ~Conflicting Advices LONDON, July 31.—The Germans | indicated early this morning the Russians may have reached Warsaw proper as the Nazi communique ac- knowledged the fall of the former Lithuanian capital city of Kaunas | after a fateful Sunday in which other Soviet forces stormed seven miles inside the Suwalki triangle in East Prussia. “At Warsaw, the German troops prevented the Soviet forces from breaking through to the town,” the German news agency DNB said, but shortly after, a Berlin radio com-‘ mentator said the Russians were drawn up in an arc, six miles from Warsaw and within sight and easy artillery range of Warsaw's old spires. The last Moscow bulletin placed the Soviet forces ten miles from Warsaw. The Berlin radio told of a fresh retreat of the Germans below War- saw and the military spokesman obviously was preparing the Ger- | man home front with early news of the fall of Warsaw. Kaunas, the second city in Lith- uania has a population of 150,000 and lies 35 miles east of the pre- war East Prussian frontier on the Niemen River. A Moscow report reported Red troops were well west of Kuanas and the Germans were throwing in many fresh men reserves to halt the | Russian push in East Prussia itself. All along the meandering front of 1,000 miles, the Russians reported progress. They have captured a total of 1,144 localities and the sixth | large pocket of Germans trapped since the summer offensive began on June 23. They have liquidated a vast territory. The Washingion Merry - Go-Round By DREW PEARSON . oL Robert 8. Allen. now on sctive service with the Army.) (Editor’s Note—This is the sec- ond of Drew Pearson’s columns telling the inside of the Chicago merry-go-round.) . WASHINGTON—After Hannegan, Hague, Kelly and Flynn got their telephone instructions direct from the President to put across Sen- ator Truman, they found their job complicated by the fact that they had a letter from FDR endorsing not only Truman but also Justice Bill Douglas. Finally, after a lot of inside de- bate, they decided to take the bull by the horns and make the letter public, even though it only half- way proved their point. The effect, however, was bad. Delegates ac- cused Hannegan of holding out re- garding Douglas. A half-truth, they said, was as good as a lie. By this time, the grass roots re- volt had got alarmingly out of the bosses’ control. Senator Barkley of Kentucky, learning that FDR had turned thumbs down on him for V.P. de- cided to turn thumbs down on FDR for a fourth term. He started to withdraw his nominating speech.| It was only the midnight inter- vention of Mayor Wilson Wyatt of Louisville which finally deterred him. Meanwhile, Mayor Kelly’'s own Illinois delegation bolted his leader- ship and refused to go for Truman.| Secretary of the ' Interior Ickes, though a member of the President's| Cabinet, led the revolt. “The only thing I am interested in,” Ickes told the Illinois delega- tion in secret caucus, “is the re- |from Ketchikan, was seized by the Japanese early is flyin; over mmy plm PT. RITIDIAN Pacific Ocean STATUTE MILES PACIFIC OUTPOST—Map shows details of island of Guam, once a stepping-stone on the Clipper route from U. S. to the far east. It in the war, recently attacked by United States planes and warships, then invaded and U. 8. flag now EXTENSIVE AIRBLOWS many, French Bases and Oil Fields 1000 American planes, 7,700 of them heavy bombers, attacked the Munich | area in central Germany and French airfields as well as Rumanian oil | works at Bucharest and Ploesti. Twelve hundred Fortresses and Liberators fromr Britain cast new destruction in Germany and France and another force of more than 500 heavy bombers of the U. S. Fifteenth Air Frce in Italy struck Rumanian object ves within 180 miles of the Ruscifn front lines. Fundreds of other planes operated tactically, attacking before the ad- vancing Americans and Britons in Normandy. Formations totalling 220 American Marauders and Havocs bombed a wire area behind the battle zone in spotty weather, strik- ing railyards and bridges from Bom- front to Evreaux, as far south as Tours. ELDON DALY IS VICTIM OF BOATFIRE Believed E(Ey of Man Found in Charred Hulk that of Ketchikan Man KETCHIKAN, Alaska, July 31— The body of a man believed to be Eldon J. Daly, President of the Ketchikan Spruce Mills, and one of Alaska’s best known business men, was found in the charred hulk of a small boat in which Daly had left alone yesterday morning to spend a week at the Bell Island Hot Springs. Details are not yet available, but a passing craft, late yesterday, saw a smoking hulk about 35 miles investigated and found the unidentified body inside and made the report on arrival here. (Continued on Page Four) Officials left to investigate, but their boat has not yet returned. HIT NAZIS Huge Forces Bomb Ger- | LONDON, July 31.—More than 3,- | STIFF FIGHT ATFLORENCE, ITALY FRONT Germans Hurli ng Them- selves Info Artillery Fire of Eighth Army ROME, July 31.—Counter attack- |ing at every opportunity, Nazi in- {fantry and tanks hold the Eighth ‘Arm_( at Bay Hills, five to seven jmiles southwest of Florence, at a | cost. hardly likely to prove worth- |while to the enemy’s depleted ar- |mies, Allied Headquarters said. The artillery laid down thunder- ing curtains of fire as the German units lashed out in an effort to knock the Allied spearheads farther back from the defenses of Florence. Along the Fifth Army's 30-mile front on lower Arno River, big guns on both sides continued to trade fire across that stream. There are no indications the Am- southern limits of Pisa on the east coast, The Polish troops are fighting in the streets of Senigallia, about 40 miles below Rimini and 90 miles airline from the Po River. — .- STOCK QUOTATIONS NEW YORK, July 31. — Closing quotation of Alaska Juneau mine stock today is 6%, American Tel. and Tel. 168, Anaconda 25%, Beech ' Aircraft 10, Bethlehem Steel 62%. Curtiss-Wright 5%, mon 154%, International Harvester 6%, Kennecott 32%, North Am- erican Aviation 8%, New York Cen- tral 19%, Standard Oil of Califor- nia 57%, United States Steel 58%. Dow, Jones averages today are as follows: industrials 148:11, rails 41.29 utilities 23.90. —————— PLANE DOWN; 26 ARELOST WASHINGTON, July 31— The ‘War Department announces that a C-54 transport presumably went down last Wednesday between Ice- land and Newfoundland with 26 aboard including 15 Army and three Navy stretcher cases. The trans- ericans have penetrated beyond the | Guam Harbor Is Occupied by Planes Usi;d‘Airf ield- Stars and Stripes Flying at Many Places UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET HEADQUARTERS IN PEARL HARBOR, July 31. — Am- erican warplanes are using Guam’s Orote Peninsula airfield, and Am- erican warships are anchored i Port Apra harbor. The onetime American Pacific stronghold island on the route to the Orient took on the resemblance of former American occupancy and the Stars and Stripes are flping over many places on Guam. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, in a communique, says “Our ships are now using Port Apra Harbor on the west coast of Guam, site of the former American naval base, and several of our aircraft have landed |and taken off from the Orote Pen- linsula airfield.” On Tinian Island, another of the southern Marianas group, Ynited |States Marines have captured an- |other Tinian town and swept ahead to bottle the Jap defenders on the lisland’s southern end. Resistance increases steadily as the Amexica) |compressed from 4,000 to 5,000 Jap: |anese troops in an increasingly | {ever smaller pocket. Restoration of Guam’s Port Apra | Harbor to American control meant a sort of home-coming to hundreds | of naval officers and enlisted men| from the warships anchored in the | harbor, and they recounted previous | occasions when in Apra to rest, they went ashore to Agana, Capital | City of Guam ROBOT BOMBS BUSY AGAIN ON WEEKEND i British Def&s Improve| |allowed the plane to sideslip into| But Casualties Are Chalked Up LONDON, July 31.—British anti- craft units and fighter pilots scored new successes over sporadic salvos of robot bdbmbs hurled at Southern England and the London area over the weekend. But some of the bombs broke through, causing damage and cas- ualties. Much of London's popula- tion left the clty during the week- end. In spite of the improved de- fenses, reported damages included hits on a children’s playground, a YMCA building, hospital and several houses. Royal Air Force bombers returned to the Pas de Calais area and struck at supply depots where massive con- Dupont com-} ¥ Cope crete structures are believed con- nected with the new German threat to flying 10-ton rockets. Pink Salmon Run Starfs in (ordovaArea CORDOVA, Alaska, July 31.—The pink salmon run in Prince William Sound started last Friday, and more than 500,000 fish poured into the three local canneries. For two days cannery crews worked 16 or more hours daily to keep up with the procession. port was enroute from Scotland to Mitchell Field. There are about 142 carats to the ounce. U. S. Vessels. LIBERATORS SMASHFOUR NIP DROMES General MacArlhur s Air Force Makes Big Raid in Sorong Sector ADVANCED ALLIED HEAD- QUARTERS IN NEW GUINEA, July 31.—Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Liberators smashed four Jap air- dromes in the Sorong sector at the northwest tip of Dutch New Guinea. The heavy raid was announced this Monday morning. The Liberators attacked Moemi, Sagan, Otawite and Utaron airstrips last Saturday and almost nullified Japan’s remaining air strength in | New Guinea. Meanwhile, bombers bombed and strafed the east coast of Halmahera, across the | Halmahera Sea. The sector lies directly between\ New Guinea and the Philippines, the major goal of MacArthur’s forces. | Mitchell medlumi when Allied planes shot down 15 Jap planes over Halmahera and de- stroyed 30 on the ground. LIER AT CORDOVA IS KILLED | Motor Conks, s, Plane Dives| Into Eyak Lake-Van Brocklin Is Victim CORDO VA, Alaska, July 31.— Robert L. VanBrocklin, private flier | |for two years |nessman and councilman, led Saturday afternoon when the |motor of his Aeronca Lycoming wplnne conked out as he was Lrying |to make it to the municipal field. VanBrocklin put his plane into| !a sharp bank but lack of power | |Ekay Lake, 50 feet off shore. Employees of the Cordova Air and pulled the plane to the bank was in eight feet of water. the plane, and doctors and many on artificial respiration, no results. VanBrocklin had been water about 15 minutes and doc- and possible internal injuries. William Miller, a passenger in tke rear seat of the two-seater plane, managed to extricate him- self and was taken to the hospital with cuts but otherwise unhurt. LSl L R MISS LEHAND, SECRETARY T0 FDR, IS DEAD WASHINGTON, July 31. — Miss Marguerte Alice Lehand who served as President Roosevelt's personal | | years, died today at Chelsea, Mas- sachusetts, of cerebral embolism. Her death was announced at the White House. She had been stricken unexpectedly. She retired as the President's secretary in December 1942, because of ill health, but had improved somewhat since that time. saying: “Her memory will ever be held in affectionate remembrance and appreciation, not only by all members of her family but by the wide circle of those whost duties brought them in contact with her.” The Halmahera attack was a fol- | lowup of the raid of last Thursday | and respected busi- was kill- ! Service got a rope on the tailskid | in five minutes, where the cockpit | Elmer Hedstrom and Perry Davis| dove and ‘pulled VanBrocklin (rom; willing hands tried for three hours; but with in the, tors believe he died from shock | secretary for more than a score of | The President issued a statement | Mines By JOHN F. CHESTER FIFTH ARMY ADVANCE HEAD- QUARTERS IN ITALY, July 28.- (Delayed)—Two German mines ex- ploded less than 300 yards from where King George of England, | | Pacific Ocean TERNATE & TIDORE & Boelal ° | Molukka Sea MAKIANG GORAITJ! 15, 1 | | i Archbishop Francis Spellman of | Explode in lfaly New York, Lt. Gen. Mark Clark and other British and American military leaders were lunching today. The American soldier who set off the mines inadverently, was killed instantly. The concussion was felt at the lunch table but none were injured. HALMAHERA LELAI PT. Halmahera wiIDt % 15, o LIBOBC BOO 15, @'y 19 KOHAU 30 STATUTE MILES HALMAHER A — Map shows Jap-held Halmahera, an island of the Molucca group in the Dutch East Indies. Great Unknowns fo DEWEY HITS NEW DEAL'S DEPRESSION Says Roosevelt Adminis- fration Isn’t Ready for Peace (By Associated Press) Touching off verbai fireworks at the start of a week of Intense political activity, Republicar. Presi- dential nominee Thomas E. Dewey | told reporters in Pittsburgh toda; that as he sees it, the “United States | simply cannot face another period like the Roosevelt depression which lasted eight years.” | { lion men were “unemployed con- tinuously from 1933 through 1940,” Dewey declared the New Deal has also failed to plan for post-war re- conversion, “It may not be long,” he said, “be- fore a most vital thing faces every American—his opportunity to work.” Dewey stopped off in Pittsburgh enroute to a meeting of Republican Governors in St. Louis which will share political interest with can- {didate picking parties in seven States this week. The renomination efforts by Rep. | Hamilton Fish, New York Repub- lican whom Dewey criticized last week on the grounds that he raised “racial and religious issues,” is of Y| | Asserting that more than ten mil- Play Important Part In November Election (First of two articles on two great November unknowns—the Women's Vote and the Worker Vote.) By JACK STINNETT | WASHINGTON, July 31. — One { prediction can be made now: the| next President of the United States | will be that man who can make ther deepest inroads on the woman and worker votes. For the'first time in a Presiden- tial election, the women undoubtedly will outvote the men. Of the nearly | 89,000,000 potential voters in the country, approximately 45,000,000 | are women. However, in 1942 women i cast 53 per cent of the total vote in Congressional elections. Cross-| section polls and examination ot‘ w registration records indicate tmm \ in November they may cast as much | | | as 55 per cent. Of these potential women voters, | 1 | i { | | | | 16,000,000 are non - agricultural | | workers, and it ‘is assumed that their interest will be as workers as | well as women. | Following the election in 1940, Democratic National Chairman Ed| Flynn announced flatly that it was the women of the country who el- | ected Mr. Roosevelt to his third term. His statement was made on the basis of reports from party machines. Public opinion polls have indi- cated that this trend has con-| tinued, but none of any scope has| been made since Gov. Thomas E. Dewey was nominated and President | Roosevelt announced his wnllngness‘ to run for a fourth term and was nominated. Republicans here point out that Gov. Dewey has an exceptional radio | | personality, is attractive personally, is one of the best conservatively oviet Forces SMASH18 MILES T0 KEY CITY Entire Geraé; Forces in Western France Now Threatened BULLETIN — July 31.—Am- erican armored forces are fight- ing in the streets of Avranches in an effort to clinch control of the town as a springboard into central France. Granville has been seized by the Americans. Torigni sur Vire, 27 miles in- land, has been captured by the Yanks. The hamlets of La Reavierre and La Frectiere also have been taken. SUPREME HEADQUARTERS OF THE ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, July 31—A high speed American armored column, brusting through the Germans' scrambled Seventh Army, raced into Avranches in a dash of 18 miles from last re- ported positions tb establish a piv- otal line threatening the flank of the entire German defenses in western France, Avranches is 60 miles across the Normandy Peninsula from the D- Day beachheads. A firm grip on the town will en~ able the Americans’ powerful tank columns to swing around the Ger- mans toward Paris, 160 miles to the east, or chop off Brest Peninsula in an offensive to the south. Avranches is located at the elbow of a right angle formed by the Brest and Normandy peninsulas. Ready for Break At any rate, the Allies have now thrown a 500-mile arc across the (Continued on Page Six) ROSES ARE TOSSED ON U.S. TANKS Cheering Frenchmen Wel- come Yanks Info Towns By HAL BOYLE (Associated Press Correspondent) BREHAL, France, July 31.—Rose |garlanded Sherman tanks, rumbling through lanes of cheering civilians, |cracked the German rear guard defenses and rolled southward through this coastal village, as knife-brandishing French youths helped to round up hundreds of the pocketed demoralized Nazis. Not since the capture of Ferry- ville in the Tunisian campaign have the American troops received such a hero’s welcome as that ac< corded to the Yankee tankmen, The long armored columns were decorated from head to foot with red and white roses and hydrangas, showered on them in thousands by laughing and weeping men, women and children. It was a veritable battle of flow- ers, but there has been much blood spilled, too, on the whole coastal march. Rommel Runs Again The Germans tried to make a stand north of Brehal to enable \trapped Nazi elements to pull out of the fishing village of Granville, but Lieut. Gen. Omar Bradley's vast mobile wedge speared through on a hot trail after the escaping |remnants of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s broken legions. As soon as the last group of Nazis began a frantic withdrawal, the French -homes broke out the tricolor, Many of the American tanks rode into battle with French flags tied | to their radiators. In the thrust on Coutances and (Continued on 'Page Two) (Continued on Page Four) (Continued on Pnge_ Six)