The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, August 2, 1944, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE VOL. XLIL, NO. 9719. “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” —_— ] JUNEAU, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1944 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS — GERMAN LINES MELTING LIKE BUTTER Thousands of Nazis Trapped in New Drive RED ARMY IN PLUNGE T0 BALTIC Russians Pofig Over Vis-| tula River to Besieged Polish Capital City MOSCOW, Aug. 2—Thousands of | Germans, trapped in Latvia and Es- tonia as the result of the swift Rus- sian plunge to the Baltic Sea, 35 miles west of Riga, thrashed at the Russian nose while other Nazis fought violently in a 25-mile sub- urban arc in defense of besieged Warsaw Northwest of Warsaw, General Cherniakhovsky reopened a huge drive toward East Prussia on a 200- mile front, striking within 10 miles of pre-war frontier land. | UNDERGROU ; The German communique sug-, & gested the Russian troops are pour- ing across the broad Vistula River south of Warsaw and asserted Nazi planes “sank on the Vistula River 28 Soviet ferries crammed with troops” and also that “heavy fluc- tuating fighting” continues on the approaches to East Russia between Augutow, eight miles from the | frontier, and the Memel River. l The Germans acknowledged the loss of Kalvaria, Jelgave and Wil- | kowischken in Latvia but Birksen | has been recaptured. i The German Sixteenth and Eigh- teenth armies have been operating | in the Baltic States but these have | been split by the Russian drive to | the sea west of Riga. The size of | the forces is estimated at 30 divi- | sions or perhaps 300,000 men. No official estimate of the number trapped is given. The area is about | the size of South Carolina in the | United States of America. The Red Army is this afternoon | astride all railroads and highways leading to the Baltic States and | East Prussia, ; { | The Baltic army also this after- noon fanned off in three directions, one dashing less than 20 miles from | Riga itself, one to the northward | along the Gulf of Riga and the other toward the escape ports. The Washington, Merry - Go-Round By DREW PEARSON @Lt. Col. Robert S. Allen now on active service with the Army.) ‘WASHINGTON—One of the most‘ important behind-the-scenes strug- gles for post-war power is now being waged between the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Both outfits know that the group which speaks for the vet- erans may well dictate to Congress and the nation after the war. Both are jockeying for that advantage. Actually, the Veterans of Foreign Wars are in a better position than the Legion to get a head start on recruiting veterans of World War II. The VFW charter from Con- gress permits recruiting men be- fore they are discharged, while the | p Legion must wait until a man leaves the service before recruiting him. Fast is the VFW has picked up Aot | areas being on the west side of the | ND PO LES AT WORK THIS PICTURE WAS MADE underground in Poland behind Nazi lines, and then was smuggled out. It shows two members of the Polish underground army actually at work, receiving messages at a secret communications post—one of many that are undermining Nazi might. (Internationald ATTACK ON NAZIS MADE BY POLISH UndergroufiH—Forces Have Risen-Are Fighting in Streets of Warsaw that the Polish underground has arisen in force inside besieged War- saw and is fighting the Germans in the main streets. The Polish spokesman here said the revolt started at 5 o’clock yes- terday afternoon when the under- ground forces, under General Bor,| decided that the time was ripe to| attack the German forces. | The report said that “fighting is| now raging in the streets of War-| saw at the four main aeras of | Kercelak, Belvedere, the square of | Pulawska and the avenue, all these | Vistula River.” LT. GENERAL McNAIR DEAD, Ay "l 1y Official Killed in Ex- fosion of Allied Bomb in Normandy Fight | LONDON, Aug. 2.—Polish military | headquarters in London said tonight | FRONT LINES | RACE RIOT BREAKS OUT Philadelphi;—lransporia- tion System Tied Up- May Have Martial Law BULLETIN — PHILA- DELPHIA, Aug. 2—Leading Philadelphia citizens formed a committee and requested that Mayor Samuel declare a state of martial law throyghout the city to prevent resumption of negro and white gang fights and looting. In Washington, Jonathan Daniels, Administra- tive Assistant to President Roosevelt, told reporters the case probably will be referred to the President, indicating that the Government might seize the city’'s paralyzed trans- portation lines. PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 2.—Gangs of Negroes roamed the Negro resi- dential section of Northwest Phila- delphia, smashed five hundred win- cdows, seriously injured eight white persons during a race riot. As the result of the riot, the city's public transportation system was tempor- arily tied un. Police arrested more than 300 ipersons, charging them with malic- aggravated assaul” {ious mischief, and battery, and carrying concealed and deadly weapons. Three thou- sand city policemen, and 7,000 aux- iliary officers were called out on cduty when the disorders broke out last night. Thousands were strand- ed as the result of che transpor- tation tie-up, which temporarily ~ INSTRIKE WASHINGION, Aug. 2. — The stagnated war production. Trans- RO TURKEY IS NOW TAKING | ~ WAR MOVE Breaks Off Economic and | Diplomatic Relations with Germany LONDON, August 2—Turkey has: ’:.ligned herself with the United | Nations to the extent of hreaking | loff diplomatic and economic rela- | tions with Germany. Berlin broadcasts alded Turkey's action as }ludo to war.” | Prime Minister Churchill told | |the House of Commons today that if Germany now attacks Turkey | “we will make it a common cause |and take the German menace as |well as we can in our stride.” | Germany officially has said noth- |ing with regards to the Turkish |reaction. . Berlin broadcasts said it’s “attitude would be forthdoming lonly when an official message giv- ing the proper reasons for Tur- | key's action is received in Berlin,” 1 Turkey's severance of ties with Germany was disclosed by the Turkish home radio. Premier Sara- coglu announced the Cabinet's de- |cision to make the break by telling !the National Assembly it was fe- quested by Britain with United States support. The Assembly promptly ratiffed the decision. Britain promised Turkey ‘“eco-| nomic financial help and war| |equipment.” — e - EIGHTH ARMY 15 CLOSING IN BEACHHEAD - ON FLORENCE ATSANSPOR [Brilish Tr(;;s Retake, EXPANDED\ Ground from Nazis and | pyriad Air Patrols i Enter City Outskirts ‘A"'f:rgg Pf;::)lss?l';;’?wo ROME, Aug. 2. — The dogged TWO Coasfal Eighth Army advance on Florence has regained ground lost in the n--{‘ ADVANCED ALLIED HEAD- QUARTERS IN NEW GUINEA, MBED-OUT promptly her- “a pre- Corps Most cent Gefman counterattacks, and| British troops are closing in slow- ly on the city's outer fringes, de-| spite fanatical enemy defense, riv- aling the Nazi stand at Cassino. Artillery fire and patrolling were [1eported on other sectors of the| |Italian front. Two enemy attempts| to_send patrols across the lower Arfno and infiltrate Fifth Army lines were broken up, Alexander’s Headquarters announced. " New Zealanders described a Ger- man communique as saying that| |“elite troops” are now firmly es- |tablished in the village of La Ro- mola, six and one-half miles south- west of Florence. Farther left, an Indian division occupied Castig- lione,, 10 miles from the city. A H. FISH WINNER ly expanded their beachhead at | | | | Sanspor in Northwestern New { encountered yet, that the beachhead places the Am- ericans within 600 miles from the Philippines. In British. New Guinea, against the Japs on a two and a| half mile® front in an area where| i out of a trap around Aitape. | | Allfed air patrols sank a 5,000-ton | {Jap freighter off Ambonina Island |M0nday, a thousand tonner and’ two coastal vessels off Halmahera| 1sland west of Sansapor on Sat- urday, the communique also says. were killed and that an average of 150 bombs a day ha Army, Navy Medical PATIENTS ARE d fallen in England. SHELTERED AGAIN BLASTED OUT of their former Hospital in London by a Nazi robot bomb that destroyed the building, blanket- wrapped patients are shown being received at another hospital in the British capital—a hospital already crowded, like all the others in London, by injured victims of the bombs. These numbered around 8,000 in the first three weeks of the robot blitz, Prime Minister Churchill told Commons, revealing that 2,752 persons (International Radiophoto) Efficienfon Normandy Bafflefield " By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, Aug. 2.—Accord- ing to reports filled with superla- tives reaching here, the Army and Navy medical corps have hit the top rung of efficiency in the in- vasion of France. With wounded casualties mount- ing into the thousands on the | Cherbourg Peninsula, the report of Maj. Gen. Paul R. Hawley, chief surgeon in the European theatre, [to Maj. Gen. Norman T. Kirk,| ’ Army Surgeon General, should be of some comfort to fam- ilies of men shot down in battle. Normandy wounded now are being sent back to England by reach evacuation fields behind the lines. Twenty-four to 36 hours homes. It is possible for wounded to be bedded in these hospitals here even before their next of kin can Maj. Gen. Hawley reported. . Medical corps officials here say planned for the early days of the invasion and, under direction of Rear Admiral Ross T. Mclntire, (Continued on Page Two) SEN. CLARK Arm un-ed today that Lieut.- portation officials said ¢is 6,000 op- RENOMINATION, GUARD MEET 10 BE WAR TALK CHEERING Reveals Invasion Planned with Premier Stalin at Teheran Meet LONDON, Aug. 2—British Prime Minister Winston Churehill dis- lclosed today the Normandy invas- lion, coordinated with the Red Army offensive, is the result of an agreement yith Staiin at Teheran. He said that the Axis Armies are {recoiling on “every battlefront ail |over the world.” | News from Normandy, he told a (cheering House of Commons, was extremely good, as the “First Am- Aug. 2—The Americans have swift- Plane within an hour after they crcan Army is advancing down the | | Atlantic Coast, and might well be approaching the important railway Guinea to ten miles, Headquarters later, some of them are on hos- center of Rennes, about half way announces. No resistance has been Pital trains in the United States, ,cross the base of the Brest Pen- despite the fact neaded for base hospitals near their’, c,jq » | Of Italy, he said, “we may hope operations of the utmost vigor will be continued by General Alexander i | the be notified of their injuries. Airiang his army throughout the sum- Yanks crossed the lower Drinjumor €vacuation from France has NOW mer and autumn,” but he added,| River Valley in an eastward drive Subplanted almost all other types,that while things are going well| there, “it is the Russian Army {which has done most of the work the enemy has been trying to break channel evacuations by boat were jn tearing the guts out of the Ger- man Army.” Robot Bomb Toll Churchill brought the war sharp- {ly home by the Briton's disclosure [that 4,135 persons have been killed |by rocket bombs, 14,000 injured, land 17,000 homes destroyed since e attacks began on June 15, He sald that the invasion of Normandy on June 6 fulfilled the ‘ thy PRI BRITTANY NOW GOAL OF YANKS Doughbo—y-s—Fan Out in Wide Sweep - Nazis Rockfd Back BULLETIN — SUPREME HEADQUARTERS OF ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, Aug. 2.—The multiple prongs of the American and British ar- mored forces have stabbed deep- ly into the twisted German lines, striding toward Brittany, breaking in the center and threatening to circle three huge pockets of the enemy. Bradley’s spearheads are racing toward Rennes and other forces toward Brest, France’s great port. The British are four miles north of Vire and only 16 miles separate the British and American spear- heads tonight. One American column is pointed toward Paris. SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, Aug. 2—The British Sec- cnd Army has broken through the center of the German lines and the fighting Tommies threaten to crush Marshal von Kluge's forces on the high ground south of Caen in ‘Normandy. Field dispatches said that in the |¢outh, American troops are send- ing spearheads knifing through German resistance as soft as but- |ter toward a “second Cherbourg,” Ithe isolation and capture of Brit- |tany Peninsula and its two big ports of Brest and St. Naizare. Fanning out through Pontorson, 13 miles south of Avranches, Gen. Omar Bradley's dcughboys are within 30 miles of Rennes in the |center of Brittany Peninsula, base- line and provincial capital. Although Brittany Peninsula is 100 miles wide and 150, miles long, |roughly a dozen times as large as iCherbourg Peninsula, the capture ‘w,‘s proceeding at a much faster clip (as German resistance falls apart. The break in the center of the German line by Lieut. Gen. Sir Miles Dempsey’s British threatens to engulf the remainder of the enemy defenses, which suffered a loss of 20,000 prisoners in a week of destruction or near destruction of a dozen German divisions. Dempsey’s Britons rocked- the Nazis on their heels for 12 miles, and from Caumont, Associated Press Correspondent Roger Greene quoted one British officer as say- ing “Rommel must stand and fight |for the high ground between Vil- |lers Bocage and Caen. I think we can destroy him there.” GERMANS ARE SURRENDERING IN BIG DROVES |All Jeeps Bound for Rear Are Loaded with Cap- fives as Mo[al Cracks more than 400,000 new members since Pearl Harbor, while the Le- gion’s gains have been relatively « By ED BALL WITH THE AMERICAN TROOPS IN BRITTANY, Aug. 1.—(Delayed) {promise made to Stalin at Teheran |that such a plan would be put into | operation by the end of May or Gene had been killed in‘ 3 erators of trolleys, subway trains| an e an Allied bomb |44 pusses walked out, wfter union | “Ew YORK DIST [ i mb | i which ! of its targes du”"g{trouble growing out of miring of! | - LOSING IN HELD THURSDAY EVE st paltry. At the start of the war, the Legion had more than one million members, the VFW only a quarter million. But today the VFW magazine has the largest overseas circulation of any non- Governmental publication, is now read by 300,000 men monthly. As a result, VFW is picking up mem- hers at the rate of 5000 a week, while Legion officials fret, plan their own recruiting drive later. »a reason for VFW success has becr a policy of tacitly bucking v 3. VFW helped paint the 1 as “anti-labor,” then turn- ! bombs am \merican Legion on key policy| L s were released | iture release of forward elements in the Amer! E Genera, was in ground fore £ an observer. +-oo—n FiLOM SITKA Some ¢ | over our G¥l s by Allied air- | Haltiek - bs Eof Juneau Elks Lodge, No. 420, has o | received notice he has been named i |to receive the honor without at- | tending a convention. His district HERE | wroand and attempted to ar- ¢ 4 deal whereby all CIO and T (Contiued on Page Four) an int wbardment of the| . ht enemy eparation for the |cig trogei OROTRAGPS. X men accol . announcement | made by cral Brereton, District Deputy Grand Exalted Rul- until recently, | €¥ by the recent national convention | covers the lodges at Ketchikan, Lk has arrived here Wrangell, Petersburg, Junieau, Sitka latest L h by the Yanks in Norm Tactical A *orte Commander, who i v said there y.umber of cas-| John Walmer, Past Exalted Ruler of the Army’s| of the Elks at Chicago. Walmer is perhaps the first Elk 1 s, ut the |spd Skagway which hé must visit " during his term of one year. Arthu from § Jut ‘The Juneau Unit of the Territorial Guard will meet Thursday evening and Wenddll L. Willkle, Represen- |21 Fas Mendenlisll Rifle Rargw {0} | get their final practice for the big| tative Hamilton Pish, Jr., has won | po o "wnion i coheduled for Sun- | renomination as the Republican | s or S candidate for Congress from '.he'flay 2 Aumat -0, | There is a possibility that the 20th New York District as the un-| ;227 8 & PS8 0 o eams | official count in 237 voting precincts | i iy | of 278 gave Fish 13,541 to 10,506 for | his opponent, Augutus W. Bennett. | Said Fish: “The people of this | district are primary conscious and opposed to outside interference of any kind. They are fully competent to choose their own candidates.” NEW YORK, Aug. 2.—Despite the opposition of Gov. Thomas E. Dewey still wide open for all members. | Everyone is encouraged to be out there Thursday night, battling for one of the positions and to help out with some manual work which the | Range Officer has found necessary. | Transportation will be arranged | as-usual and all members should be DUCKERING IN TOWN dressed in coveralls and equipped | William Duckering, of College, Al- | With rifles. aska, is in Juneau and is a guest — oo — at the Baranof Hotel. BUY WAR BONOS MISSOURI (By Associated Press) Senator Bennett Champ Clark apparently has been unseated as primary, by Attorney General Roy McKittrick, who campaigned as an'and the defeat .of Japan will be| |Administration supporter, and|shortr, perhaps much shorter, than | ing in big droves this evening and sharply criticized Clark for his pre- war and foreign policy stand. McKittrick held an early lead |the beginning of June. The Soviet leader promised in turn, he said, Maz “the whole of the Russian |Armies would be thrown, as indeed they have been, into a ‘general battle in the East.” Other highlights of Churchill’s war summary were: One—“I'm in- | | and the position on these teams are (the result of yesterday’s Missouri creasingly led to feel that the in- {terval between the defeat of Hitler {1 atv one time supposed.” Praises Navy | Two: The U. S. Navy alone is —American armored forces, storm- ing into Brittany close behind the floundering Germans, reached Pon- torson, 13 miles south of Avranches, late today. The German retreat lost all signs of order as American spearhead tanks after skirting the | coast at Pontaubault, sped south- | west down the highway, racing | through a little rail and highway | junction, the town of Bree. The Germans are still surrender- | their morale which appeared crack- | ed under American blows north of | Avranches has hit its lowest ebb of nearly 20,000 on the basis of “"‘jalready double the size of Japan’s,|since the invasion. Except for a state’s 4500 precincts. However, some 30,000 absentee ilots must be counted. \wnters will be greatly strengthend (Continued on Page Two) |official returns from 3600 of the gnd the British fleet in the Asiatic| few die-hard Nazi officers and non~ ar- coms who still showed signs of (Continued on Page Six)