The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 11, 1944, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LXIV., NO. 9830 JUNEAU, ALASKA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1944 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS —_— ] YAN KS CAPTURE ENEMY PORT OF ORMOC Americans Drive Into Reich on 10 Mile Front 2,400 PLANESRED ARMY IS ’War Bonds fo Value of | FIRST ARMY | ADVANCESIN HEAVY SNOW Hodges Men Are 20 Miles| from Cologne - Ger- mans Weakening PARIS, Dec. 11—First Army in-!| fantry and tanks today advanced a | mile and a quarter through the first | snowfall, driving the weakening, but | still determined Germans, from Uuy Reer Valley towns of Dhorn and | Echtz. The latter city is two and a half miles northwest of the brown | ruins of Duren. The main force of Lt. Gen. Court- ney Hodge's drive along the 10-mile front was through more than six inches of deep snow in the area west, | northwest and southwest of Duren, a Roer River stronghold of 39,000 Jjust 20 miles over open country from Cologne. To the south Gen. Patton’s Third Army beat down counter-attacks in the steel city of Dillingen and near Saarlautern, fought the severest kind of battles, house to house. In Saarguemines, Roden and Fraulatern, the Third Army is fight- | | LOVELY LT. LO!S GATES, Rochester, somewhere near the front in France, After looking at Lois, we're inclined SHERMAN WAS WRONG RAID GERMAN WAR TARGETS Tawes to Skies Over Reichland LONDON, Dec. 11.—Sixteen hun- dred American heavies and 800 fighters, the greatest fleet of four- {engined craft ever mounted in aerial warfare, raided Germany’s rail cen- |ter with 6,000 tons of explosives today Fortress and Liberator fleets from ‘Blil(\in- based United States Air | Force took part in the coordinated operation which shook the Reich. Heavy bombers from all three air forces in the European theatre and | British Lancasters and Mosquitos | jolted three German cities in the ‘Rhllx before noon. {a fuel plant at Osterfeld and refin- eries at Meiderick and Bruckhausen | were targets. | The Berlin radio reported bomb- ers from the 15th Air Force over Austria, heading for southern Ger- many, the third raid from Italy in‘ v three days. N. Y., attached to a field hospital | The size of the British-based force uses her field helmet for a footbath. | meant that almost 17,000 pilots, | to disagree with General Sherman’s ' | payigators, bombardiers and gun- | This is an official U. S. Signal Greatest Fleet in History| Railyards and | POISED FOR FINAL BLOW Russians Are Conceniraled Unique The sum of $132,000 in war bonds ‘Wn\ realized at the war bond auc- tion sponsored by the Rotary and |Lions Clubs of Juneau, which was Near Danube Ready for Assau“ on Budapesi ig;\ll: };/:]cllcrduy afternoon in the | ... | The first article went on the i 1onclon; SRevi 24 RUSSIAN plock at exactly 2 o'clock, with troops drove on Bucharest today|gyqpioneers remaining on the job {from positions seven miles nunhmlml the last article had been dis- and five miles south Of the City|poceq or at 9 o'clock last night. as Moscow advices said a great FrE The auction was one of the most gpnic swept. the N_“”” inside the |y njque ever to be held in Juneau eapital fortifications. |The Juneau - Douglas Telephone Gen. Malinovskyl's g b B sc'jo“d,Compuny had put two lines into | Ukraine Army is also poised uec”he hall e 4 50 bids could be received, ‘fl]i]«‘-li-xr:bl(vr:'l ;]x:cfi}l::::x}z’:::f]:;g‘Bnd KINY had an announcer on Fiult 10 thiat direction. “This abtask| 00 scene: Iylg an apfount ef the { § 4 |dpings until the station went off | | was expected any hour but, as yet, A R \ Bicre are no_offitial Russien’ reciiBe 8ir ST aiclook. ‘Hundrech at- | ports. tended the auction which was a| There is heavy shelling of PcsL!mo"L pronounced success. Women | That section of the city is on the|Proved as good at bidding as the | lenst side of the Danube. It appear- |Men., ed that the Russian command felt| The auction required the services| |the Germans might consider the|of four auctioneers working in re-| | situation as hopeless and not make lays. Thus, when one shouted him- ia battleground out of the city itself \sclf hoarse another was available| Other Russian columns, to the far|for relief to allow the first to get. ! | north of Budapest, reached the Slo- lhh “second wind” and go at it| | vakian frontier on a front at least|again. 11 miles long. A Soviet communi- | The hall was jammed until the que said more than 40 places fell]dmner hour and even after the $132,000 Sold Here at Auction Sunday after slow start, “times and finally Hank Harmon's girdle which, a was sold four wound up in pocket., selling a $25 bond each time it changed hands. In the first hour and a half $60,000 in bonds was sold. Biddin was mostly spirited, but when the bond buyers showed signs of lethargy they were pepped up by the fast-moving patter and antics of *the auctioneers. Airplane Trips High Among items bringing a good price after spirited bidding were the airplane tickets. Passage from Juneau to Anchorage on Alaska Airlines brought $1,050; a trip from | Anchorage to Juneau on a Woodleyf Airways was awarded to the pur-| chaser of a $1,000 bond, Juneau | to Sitka and return, $500; Juneau | to Seattle via PAA, $7,600 1bough'. by Mrs. Belle Simpson); Juneau to Seattle via PAA, Joe Angell, for $5,000. Johnny Walker Black Label !Scotch was the leader on the liquor | specials, selling for $1,000 in bonds | per quart most of the way. | During the after-dinner bidding | {lull, Wallis George of the Juneau It had been the means of | | west coast of Leyte Island, | campaign The Washington Merry - Go-Round By DREW PEARSON Col. Robert S. Allen now on active (L, service with the Army.) WASHINGTON— three years since the backbone of the Pacific Fleet was virtually wiped out at Pearl Harbor, and despite the top secrecy of the ad- mirals and generals, scme of the inside facts regarding that tragedy can now be revealed. ing progress is nec Army is at grips with the Germans, | It has now been " base Seventy-ninth Division way yesterday. | places cluding the streets of Reichshoffen, a mile south of Neiderbrown vivid—and heated-—description of war. Corps photo. (International) e TROOPNO. 4, GIRL SCOUTS, HIT IT HIGH Troop No. 4 mpr.\mml Siegfried Line. m" beyond Saarlautern| rily slow ] right the Seventh inside the Dillingen and On Patton’s the east side of the big French | at Haguenau, into which the forced its | fighting raged in several Heavy the Haguenau area, in-| in French First Army troops in| Girl Scout ners were in Lhe skies over Germany. (OLD WAVE HITS PARTS OF NATION (By Associated Press) !yuberday in the Second UkrmneJ Aty Arive vorth’ and-nertheust of} | the capital. | A Berlin broadcast said a tre- ;mmdnus Soviet offensive was in the | {making in the Vistula bridgehead at| ‘Bmanov Poland, and a large hca]e‘ drlve‘ aimed at Cracow, can be ex-| \pected 13 ADMIRMS OF ~ NIPPONNAVY ARE 1 luntil people returned downtown. INEW FLEET hungry mob went home for eat: | teteprone vids” started woming’ keeping the auction booming along | |Cald Storage tolephoned I a $5,000 forder, and Frank Herman bought | a stunt by Jack Fletcher for $500. Some night in the near future, Fletcher is to wipe up the lobby of the Capitol Theatre from an all-four position with the public | admitted free to superintend n\ex | clean-up job. During a short lull at the end| |of the auction, while last totals were being computed, Albert Peter- son played two selections on his accordion and after the total was| announced, the audience sang The first article put on the block was Edith Danielson’s pre-war | OF BRITISH There have been two basic Teas- gouthern Alsace captured the defen- ons for hush-hush secrecy and last sive center of Thann, 10 miles noth- week’s whitewash of Kimmel and west of Mulhouse, and pressed east- Short. One is the already admitted ward against German units with- fact that several other officers in drawing across the Rhine. both Army and Navy—including _— some really top-bracket men—were involved. The other is the clash of opinion inside the Cabinet in 1941 regarding the wisdom of sending the strong note to the Emperor of Japan proposing that Japan get out of all China and offering a non-aggression pact if she would. Both Roosevelt and Secretary Hull felt that the United States had appeased Japan long enough that during this appeasement.!apan had reached out farther and far- 3 | ther, even taking bases in French tary Afla”’s Indo-China, just as Hitler had reached out for Czechoslovakia and uuNGKING, Dec. 11. — Chiang Austria before he finally precipi- goi ghek h: agreed, in principle, tated war. to participation in the Communist Secretaries Knox and Stimson, | National Government in direction of however, felt that the United States the Chinese military affairs, it is| was not prepared and that the note | authoritatively reported, | to the Emperor would bring war., The agreement followed the recent They favored continued \ppcase- ;,oumment changes particularly ih | ment and went on record in writ-! the appointment of Foreign Mumtcr‘ ing to that effect. ! | Soong to the additional post of Act- | In the end, Roosevelt and Hull|ing Premier, the most important | overruled them. They felt that development which could occur in| Japan could not be appeased any lhclfcml critical time. longer without serious loss of U. P gt i . WARBONDIS AWARD otz 3 FOR BEST DECORATION AT CHRISTMAS TIME However, the written opinions of Knox and Stimson remain in the| Juneauites are urged to get Christ- mas trees ready for the conte: record and would have had to come sponsored by the Juneau Chamber out in any court martial of Admiral Kimmel and Gen. Short. That is of Commerce which will give a $25 | war one reason for the failure to court martial. INEFFICIENCY having the best-decorated tree AT PEARL HARBOR { other outdoor Christmas display. In addition, the entire record of| several Pearl Harbor Admirals,| the Christm: Generals and Junior Officers {the Chambe pretty bad as far as efficiency is! concerned. There is no question but that the War and Navy Depart- ments in Washington acted| Mrs. Alf N. Monsen arrived last promptly on November 27, one day | Saturday from Seattle by PAA planie after the note was sent to the|and will spend the hotiday season Emperor, to warn Pearl Harbor. |With The Empire gang. On that day, both Kimmel and “’ g Short were notified the negotia- | THOMAS HERE tions with Japan had broken down, “that Japanese action was un- | CHIANG KAI SHEK |- FALLS INTO LINE, { Agrees to Participation of Communists in Mili- | or Tree Committee for - M MO! HERE registered at the Juneau let, is (Continued on Page Four) {Hotel, | anncunced |sored by | will bond to the Juneau resident Clarence E. Warfield is head of | Jason J. Thomas, from Hawk In-| A sticky blanket of snow, ranging thre thirteen Alice Thorne; topped the Saturday | :::”i‘;ptl;v:é’é"mm[ e o afternoon bond sales of its com- | today. The forecast is for generally petitors with the sale of $10,625 in |, e of the same. {bonds and $88.35 In stamps, it 15| Nineteen persons died in traffic by Mrs. Don Foster, | accidents traceable to hazardous for the Scout driving conditions during the week- | end. troop-mates| The U. S. Weather Bureau at Chi- with $2,063; ' cago said the snow extended as far | Catherine Bavard, second, $602;|south as Memphis and Dailas and |Iva Jean Schuttpeltz, third, $240.80, !reported freezing had grippéd the anrl Jn\whnu Hared, fourth with|State, panhandle of the Guif of | Mexico, with' a hard freeze hitting bonds sold | the truck gardens and citrus crop It is the lowest temperature since 1916 in Amarillo. Towa City reported 13 inches of | snow, and the lowest temperatute in North Platte, Nebraska, is eight | degrees. SUPERS FLY by Mrs. Earl Cleveland and Mrs. drive chairman Counc:l vann Sabin led her lin individual sales lll.l]n”w\ of the given' with the understanding | |that they should be credited to the| troop as a whole, rather than to| {individual girls, This troop is spon- sored by the Rebekah Lodge. Next Saturday the troop spon- St. Margaret’s Guild will conclude the Scout drive and it is| hoped that the people of Juneau| again give the Girl Scouts| their splendid support in nsslstlng: them to equal or surpass the record | of former sales. e — | LATE WAR BULLETINS WITH THE U. S. ELEVENTH ARMY IN ALSACE—-Haguenan, im- 1 poxtaht communications and supply | | city, 18 miles north of Strasbourg, fell to the American troops tonight. were FRLE S : (By Associated Press) American planes raided the Tokyo linland sea area on Saturday, the Tokyo radio reported. One B-29 flew over the Capital | City and “dropped incendiaries” and later two others appeared separately and flew over Tokyo, “one about an hour without dropping one bomb.” The broadcast was recorded by the Federal Communications Com- mision. The second sortie over the Japa- nese Capital City was followed an hour later in a one-hour long raid “on Seto Naikai, Jap designatio vanguards for inland sea and coastal area.” Budapest. No indications were given as to | |exactly how many planes were en- LONDON- Labor Pax-!gaged on the raid on “inland sea |ty has vote( Churchill’s | area.” EConlition C victory m‘ | Europe but . the next | i general elec LONDON—A Broadcast from Al- iers tonight said the Red Army | have entered flaming [3 P S Pressmen on Slnk Newspapers Suspei ST. LOUIS, Dec. 11.—Three d | newspapers appeared as usual a suspending publication for tl days when 125 press room emplo quit their jobs in a wage disp Negotiations for a new wage ( tract began immediately. k Govern- | ‘ve officers to report ater than ATHENS ment has or and men o! for military tomorrow. 0'T( A. Dermc jand is reg Hotel from WN in town Baranof e OVERTOKYO ON PACIFIC - REPORTED KIllEDi | | (By Associated Press) ‘The Japanese announce the deaths |Crafi Will Join Amencan i e maier | War Vessels fo Bring related to the American reinvasion | Japan '0 KfleeS | | of the Philippires. | Admiral Hideo Yano, former Chief |of the Navy Press Section, who on| LONDON, Dec. 11—A great new October 4 himself announced deaths | British Pacific Naval Command |of seven Admirals, is on the new has been created in addition to the | | Uncle Sam. | Bruce Kendall, “God Bless America.” Chairman Bob Martin announced | that he wished to thank all his| iloyal and untiring workers in the campaign, saying that without their help it would have been impossible to make so many bond sales for The committec and workers fll‘t:‘ Auctioneers — Scotty Abrams, Walter Thompson, Hank Harmon. In charge of artlcles—-—'l"ny Bel- | (ford and Linn Forrest. | Bid spotters Jack Fletcher, list, according to a statement issued |present Far Eastern Fleet | by the Navy Headquarters at YOkO-‘ It was created to join the United | suka Naval i“.“’:’. 1bmtes sea power in an ull-outl G R |offensive to bring Japan to her POLICE COURT FINES |knees, the Admiralty declared. | This annodncement reflected | Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s| promise that Britain would send |the greatest possible forces to the Orient to help defeat Japan and Leo Navarro was fined $25 on a|the fleet 'is to be commanded by Admiral Sir , Bruce Fraser who, drunk and disorderly conduct charge; Willie George, drunkenness, |$ince August, has been. commander of the Far Eastern Fleet. $25; Andy Peters, disorderly conduct, Simultaneously, it was disclosed | $25; J. Ritter, drunk and disorderly | conduct, $25; Edward Alegaya, dis- |that the Far Eastern Fleet is to be | centered in the Indian Ocean as| orderly conduct, $25; Nick Peters, drunk and disorderly conduct, $25; |the East Indies Station Command, and Mrs. Mary Navarro, drunk and | which lapsed when the Japanese !uverran the Malay Peninsula and disorderly conduct, $25. ————— | captured Singapore. This fleet is| STOCK QUOTATIONS | io be commanded by Vice-Admiral | Sir Arthur Power, who has been 3 g _ second in command under Fraser. NEW YORK, Dec. 11. — Closing | ynder the new set-up, it is be- quotation of Alaska Juneau mine j.veq that Fraser's fleet will op- | stock today is 6, American Can 90%, | o ate under the command of Ad- Anaconda 28%, Beech AWCraft 13%, | \ia) Chester W. Nimitz in the Bethlehem Steel 64%, Curtiss- by, “uia “Gen, Douglas MacAr-| Wright 5%, International Hflrvehcer,mm in the Southwest Pacific | 81%, Kennecott 36%, Nortii Ameri-| 0 o0 o 5 . S can Aviation 9, New York Central |SITatesy | em“" . 21%, Northern Pacific 19%, U. 8.| | Steel 58%, Pound $4.04 Dow, Jones averages today are| 116 BRI'ISHERS |as follows: industrials, 151.62; rails, ; 4 lities, 25.65. KILLED, V BOMBS st Saturday, American Can' aconda 217, Beech Aircraft| LONDON, Dec. 11.—German V| ‘hlehem Steel 647 , Curtiss- | bombs killed 716 persons and se- 3%, International Harvester |riously injured 1511 in the United | nnecott 36, North American | Kingdom during November, the 9, New York Central 21%, | Ministry of Home Security said to- ) 1 Pacific 19%, U. S. Steel |day. Of those killed, 269 were men, d $4.04. 345 women, and 102 children under Jones averages Saturday | 16. follows: industrials, 151.31; Casualties were inflicted in south- 62; utilities, 25.59, Jern England again last night, | In City Magistrate's Court this | morning Donald James, Sitka youth, | was given a 10-day suspended sen- | tence on a drunkenness charge on ! condition he left town. RICES SATURDAY | Juneau mine stock closed {Turner. |Tom Hellan, | the ~ LEYIEISLAND STRONGHOLD SEIZED NOW .Japs Surpnsed as Resisl- ance Smashed - Trap Laid by Americans By MURLIN SPENCER Associated Press War Correspondent MACARTHUR'S HEADQU A R~ TERTER'S IN THE PHILIPPINES, Dec. 11.—Four days after the Am- erican T7th Division surprised the Japanese with swift landings on the these battle-hardened veterans smashecd through strong resistance yesterday to seize Ormoe, vital enemy port, The capture came in midafternoon after an attack launched in the early morning from the vieinity of camp Downes, on the southern out- skirts of Ormoc. While the town was the Japanese reinforcement point for the entire |Ormoc corridor and the loss rep- resents a heavy blow to the enemy, {1t does not mean that the Leyte is concluded. There is still much heayy fighting to be done before Japanese forces both north and south of Ormoc are wiped out. There have been no recent esti- mates of Japanese strength but after reinforcement moves it was lestimated at “many thousapd.” ... Three forces are converging on the trapped Japanese. The 77th, pushing southward, is expected mo- 'mentarily to join with the Seventh, moving northward, The third force has already joined the Seventh after breaking through to the coast from the eastern side of the island, “After the destruction of the enemy force,” Gen. MacArthur said, “we will be in a position to take the northern segment of the Yama- | shita line in reverse.” American warplanes ranged wide- |ly. Liberators, Lightnings and Cor- sairs bombed Visayas and three small freighters were damaged ofl Luzon, GREAT LOSS OF GERMANS WEST FRONT Harold Foss and Bob Martin. Announcer—Lt. Schaeffer . Publicity—Mrs. Nowell and Mr. Cashier-treasurer—John Young. | Assistant cashiers— Etolin Coul- | ter and Marjorie Tillotson. | Bond application writers Judy Frank, June Belford, Helen Wawrs, Helen Foss, Helen Martin, Jane Alexander, Betty Copstead, Mrs. Dorothy Plum and Miss Lang. Relief Bond application writers— LaVerne Kendall and Mrs. Jack Fletcher. Charge of telephones — Helenne Hildebrand and Pat Davis, Telephone helpers—Sgt. Lien and Cpl. Spina Contact Murphy, crew—Doc Merritt, Pat H. M. Sides, Ed Gilkie, Dorothy Plum, Carl Huer, Al Zenger, Ernie Parsons, Jack Bur- ford, Frank Herman, Lisle Hebert. | Estelle Hebert, Roald Copstead,| Ed Schaeffer, Mrs. Geyer, Senna | Powers, Olga Steele, Mrs: Hogg, | Claude Carnegie, Mabel Munson, Alva Blackerby and Ray Harring- ton. Auction recorder-Tabulator—Mil- dred Maynard. Bond application Barnhill ! The buyers were liberal in their | bidding and seldom did interest | lag. Along toward the last, one of auctioneers announced he| would buy a $25 bond for a sand- wich. Six sandwiches were soon |brought into the hall, and the six, together with a bottle of Coca-Cola, went for a $25 bond each. This was only one of many incidents which demonstrated the liberal and patriotic sentiment prevalent at the auction. checker—Sally | PARIS, Deec. 11.—~Supreme Head- quarters estimate the Germans have i lost 152,000 men in the first three | weeks of the western offensive, This toll is equal to 17 divisions. This represents almost one-fourth of 72 divisions that French authorities estimate have been fighting on the | western front. Of the 152,000 men lost, 84,000 were taken prisoners, the others killed or permanently put out of M:uon WINTER THAW HITS ALL OF ALASKA AS TEMPERATURES SOAR Alaska is getting tropical these wintry days. A mid-winter thaw bas hit nearly all of Alaska. 1In | Fairbanks the temperature shot up 60 degrees in two days—the tem- perature is 40 degrees above there today and in Anchorage it is 43 above. Around Juneau the snow is melt- ing off the high peaks and a warm wind is blowing and, of course, it is raining. Shopping Bays ut‘lll‘l’(fyln'ashlllms : 10