The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, January 24, 1945, Page 1

THE DAILY ALAS “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” ‘A EMPIRE THE LIBRARY CONGRESS SERIAL RECORD MAR 1- 1945 COPY e e imma =t GIFT VOL. LXIV., NO. 9867 JUNEAU, ALASKA, WEDNESD \Y, JANUARY 24, 1945 MEMRER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS SIANS BREAK IN TWO KEY CITIES Americans Near Big Airfield on LuzonIsland [ SPEARHEADS APPROACHING BAMBAN BASE Beyond Town Lies Thirteen Airstrips-Land-based Planes in Adion | By C. YATES McDANIEL Associated Press War Correspondent GEN. MacARTHUR'S HEAD- | QUARTERS IN THE PHILIP- | PINES, Jan. 24—Field dispatches | disclosed that spearheads of the | Fourteenth Army Corps are ap- | proaching bomb-blasted Bamban, last town and Jap base barring th way to Clark Field and its thirteen | airstrips. | Although the communique issued today located the main body about 10 miles north of the big military base, Bamban is six miles from Clark Field and just beyond the town lies Bamban River where the Japanees are likely to make their | first real stand in the Luzon cam- | paign. | The Fourteenth Army Corps slow- ed the drive southward toward the | field yesterdap to straighten the lines around Capas, while the First | Army Corps extended the left flank castward seizing a huge store of enemy supplies, while planes ripped into Japanese positions near Bataan. The Fourteenth Army Corps swung i \ \ | ; \ | (Continued on Page Three) The Washington Merry - Go-Round By DREW PEARSON (Lt. Col. Robert S. Allen now on active | service with the Army.) | WASHINGTON—As Franklin D.| Roosevelt began his fourth term as President of the United States, tW0|oyn jnitiative and sent an assur- | great problems to the exclusion of almost all others are on his mind: 1—Winning the war as quickly as possible, and 2, winning the peace after the war. Many of those close to the Presi- dent say his concentration on these problems is so intense that when they are settled he would like to step out and retire to the peace and quiet of Hyde Park. Roosevelt's absorption with things | military and diplomatic, his veering | away from things domestic is the most important basic change in the | 12 long years since 1933. In the days before the war he| met with scores of politicians, economists, business leaders. Even-! ings after dinner in the early years his Brain Trust would bat out ideas galore on the economic state of the nation—bat them into the air, discuss them, reject many, accept a few. Those were the rela- tively carefree days of “picking the rabbit out of the hat,” having a new trick for the cconomic ills of the nation. At that time also, Roosevelt got around among his fellowmen, de-' spite his physical hgndicaps, more than any other President in his- tory—even more than William| Howard Taft: His travel record| formed a restless zig-zag graph | across the map of the U. 8. A. When he wasn't traveling, Mrs. Roosevelt was, and her reports came in almost daily by private| White House wire or telephone. | Today the old Roosevelt Brain| Trust is gone, and the new brain | trust which surrounds him is com-| posed of Admirals and Generals.| His concentration at night is not| upon economic ideas tossed up by the Columbia professors, but on; the map of the Pacific and the; map of Europe, where blue, red,| green and yellow tabs indicate the “number of divisions Stalin has thrown into the battle of Poland,| the amount of armor von Rund- stedt has in reserve in the west,| the exact whereabouts of the battleships, cruisers, airplane car-| riers and destroyers guarding the islands of the Philippines. More than any other one man, Roosevelt helped to build up that armada, and he watches every bar- | nacled bottom—knows when it was| last scraped, the calibre of its guns, J (Continued on Page Four) | | | B-29S HIT ]Sur_vivors of Torpedoed Steame NAGOYA IN HEAVY RAID Cloud Covefi’;avenls Good Observation of Bomb- ing Results WASHINGTON, Jan, 24. — B-29s smashed Japan's aircraft center of Nagoya again today, destroying or damaging 62 planes which rosz to a fierce defense of the Honshu Island of the Japanese homeland. Gen. H. H. Arnold announced one of the “sizeable force” of giant American bombers was shot down. The Chief of the Army Air Forces and the head of the Twentieth | Bomber Command, said a cloud cover prevented good observation of bombing results. e - SENATORS WILLBACK PEACEACT ‘Sixteen Solons Tell FDR|' They Will Back World Organization WASHINGTON, Jan. 24—Sixteen new members of the U. S. Senate| advised the President they would | back formation of a United Nations | organization to world peace. The publicans preserve and six Re- on their 10 Democrats got together letter to the White House. comprise the new Senate in the Seventy-Ninth ance They membership Congr They wished the President suc- cess at his confercnce with Stalin and Churchill. The freshmen Sen- ators said “we believe this govern- ment should use all reasonable means to assure our allies and other nations we intend to s in the direction and responsi for settlement of this war maintenance of peace.” They suggested further “agree- ment among the major Allies be concluded as soon as possible to demilitarize Germany and keep it demilitarized.” — e BUSINESSMAN IS NEEDED TO HEAD RFC SAYS JONES Fired Secretary Puts Proper Administration Up fo Congress WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 — Je Jones, fired as Secretary of Com- | merce to make room for former Vice-President Henry A. Wallace.‘ said here today the question before Congress is not where the Recon- struction Financ e Corporation’s| powers are to be located, “but, the proper character. of their admin- istration.” The Texan made his assertion in a statement prepared for the Sen- ate Commerce Committee, which and and its tremendous lending powers from the Commerce Department and re-establish lending agencies under independent control. Wallace is to testify tomorrow. “The man who is given the vast responsibilities contained in the RFC Act should be a man of proven sound business experience,” Jones said. “He should be a man who will attract to him men of sound judgement and business knowledge gained through experi- enpce in business,” DO 1ne sarvivors of the hou & gr ing in the Pacific for sever: photo from Navy) | { i chant vessel. 1} JAP BASE IS POUNDEDBY SUPERFORTS Iwo Jima Base Is Hit wit Good Results by Planes from Marianas 24—Super- | WASHINGON, Jan. \is considering a bill auithored by forts skt off heavy explosions in a 'Senate George to remove the RFC |raid against Japanese military in-| stallations on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands. The Superforts swept up from their base in the Marianas with- |planes and only “slight to me- |dium” anti-aircraft fire. Returning crews reported results.” The War Department said |the raid was the third by Super- forts against Iwo Jima, enemy base | attack the B-29 base in the Mari- anas, - s Liberty ship John A ten of its crew members off the West Coast in November, doed liuberiy Shi SESLL | N urvivoisof Torpe Dies Commitiee Just Refuses fo Die; Wili Heep Going i'md How { out encountering any enemy fighter from which Japanese planes fly to; # The vy disclo Crew members of the enemy-sunk out with a chéer as their rescue ship arrived at a West Coast port shortly after the siz |RESIGNATION By JACK STINNETT WASHINGTON, Jan | was to be the streamlined Congre | 80 what happens? The House more than sworn in when it | another standing committee to the 47 that each other’s feet. It is, of course, | committee to inv can activities. already are tripping o the old “Di The establishm tee, in perpetuity | session that A. S. “Mike” Monror (D-Oka), put into the amendments clarifying the acti |of committee set | under the Maloney-Monroney bi study the modernization and sire | lining of Congress. ame in th permanent group was a neat | llamentary trick engineered by | wily parliamentarian from Tul Miss., bushy-haired John E. R. Parliamentary experts on the couldn't recall that any such c ‘.gmimmm had ever been established by setting aside the rules, circum ling hearings and ramming throu |a vote with no more than cu | debate. Rankin's measure 0l ally Two) Johnson are shown as they await r ed January 19 the los 944, by cnemy submarine action. (AP Wire- 24, — This | igate un-Ameri- { nt of the commit- hopper tivities am- Establishing the committee as a| Hill ait Rescue Germans Are Rushing from ' Ardennes Salienf;Highways Check Full; Faltering Signs ~ Not Noticed * WARGIVEN on Other Fronis PARIS, Jan. 24.--Masses of Ger- man troops b the faltering E: the ashes of the Ardennes salient in Belgium, virtually erased by the ]‘Anu-ncun capture of St. Vith. packed troop trains on three lines ve been spotted deep | in Germany, apparently rushing for | ern Front from | ish pilots attacked one of 65 SOVIETS ARE NOW MASSED, ODER RIVER Street Fightin?n Two Cen- ters Reported-Atfack Made on Poznan BULLETIN — LONDON, Jan. 24—The First White Russian Army has captured Oppeln, upper Silesian Capital city on the Oder River and smashed to Breslau, within 149 miles of | | | | t- of the merchant vessel and COMGRESS Meeting Secret But Men- bers Say War Legisla- northeast from Dusseldorf to Hann- over. Significantly, it is reported, trains are moving southwest to the | | Ardennes area, empty. The high- | ways from Ardennes are choke full| capture of the central Poland of eastbound traffic, which is also | hinge stronghold of Kalisz under violent continuing American | after a four-day battle by the aerial assault, which, two days g0, | Sixth Russian Army group. accounted for 1,000 vehicles. Berlin, Stalin announced to- night. The northern Russian Army is tonight 134 miles from Berlin. Stalin announced the | tion Not Mentioned Backers promptly boost was made for national service legislation. The meeting is an annual event, started last year. Members that |attended heard talks by Gen. !George €. Marshall, Adm. Ernest King, Secretary of the Navy For- restal, and Secretary of War p Cheer ‘ oy Rayburn told a Sam that after a meeting is bound to “considerable psychological on the current, drive for “work, fight or jail” legislation. According to those attending none of the speakers mentioned the leg isl ation, but Representative Wadsworth, ene of the leading ad- vocates of national service pro- posals, said “it didn't hurt.’ Wadsworth and others said the talks dealt primarily with the pro- gress.of the war, stressing the need of an all-out war effort. JAP ISLANDS STRUCK BY MANY PLANES Carrier Force Aircraft Hif Okinawa, 350 Miles from Japan UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET HEADQUARTERS, PEARL HARBOR, Jan. 24.-—-Admiral Wil- liam A. Halsey’s Third Fleet carrier UNA((EPTEW force, prowling in Japanese territory all this month, sent planes to blast WASHINGTON, Jan. 24. — The | okinawa Island and Ryukyus Island resignation of Frances Perkins has ., sunday. been turned down by President| aqmiral Chester W. Nimitz said | Roosevelt and she will continue t0 | getails had, as yet, not come con- be Secretary of Labor, it is learned | corping this fourth strike so far in authoritatively. Difficulty in selecting a candidate | 105 south of the Japanese main- from the ranks of labor acceptable |1, to both' the AFL and CIO is gen- | Tyne Tokyo radio in an uncon- erally given as the reason for her|fimeq report that Naval raiders continued tenure in office in face of | were hitting Okinawa Sunday, said ,;m-r expressed desire to quit, 1550 carrier-based aircraft attacked Frances Perkins formally submit- | p,,pors and airfields for nine hours, re- have effect” o give ing of their mer- | | election but refused to ac inauguration. the President orally gowned and 34 damaged. et it shortly after his | B 4. g | Frances Pe s served New York | . ‘ March of Dimes PlState as Labor Commissioner for | 9113 years before appointmnet to thm‘a“ A’e P'a(ed Cabinet in 1933 and has been under | fire throughout most of her stay in | K 'Now in Juneau | Washington | e LEGISLATORS ARRIVE — Dr. C. A. Pollard, Kasiiof, Repre- | sentative from the Third Division, | arrived in Juneau yesterday to at-| tend the Seventeenth Terriwnal} Legislature. Also arriving were| Representative Walter E. Huntley | of Palmer, and Mrs. Edward Coffey iof Anchorage, to join her husband, vsiS?nate President Coffey. While in | _'Juneau the Coffeys will be guests at the Gastineau Hote], The March of Dimes jars are set up now in just about every shop and other place of business in town. A!l that's needed is to fill them up by next Tuesday. Give a dime at least, in fact, all the dimes one can spare. The whole fund is in aid of crippled children, so those jars ought to be full long before the deadline, three-houre | January against Okinawa, only 350 | Enemy Not Faltering “Despite the huge scale German Ass ed Press correspondent Rog- [er Greene, who has been close to Field Marshal Bernard Law Mont- gomery's headquarters. He added, however, “momentus events” are in the offing. Amgrican Firts and Third armies pushed on in pursuit of the with- drawing Germans from the Arden- nes toward the orginal line from which von Rundstedt started his drive, almost six weeks ago. : 11 Towns Captored Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s com- munique listed 11 towns captured and farther south the U. S. Seventh Army “made a limited withdrawal in the general area east and north of Haguenau.” Supreme Headquarters announced yielding most of Haguenau Forest but “no large towns.” Five or six German divisions have been exert- ing pressure in this section of Alsace. French First Army poilus attacked the Colmar pocket from the north and south, below Strasbourg. A front line dispatch said the French ad- vanced several kilometers north of Colmar and crossed the Ill River, a Rhine tributary, at several points. A pocket of 300 Germans is being mopped up north of Strasbourg. German Shells Dropping German 280 millimeter shells are dropping in Haguenau and Bru- math, six miles to the southwest. The threat to northern Alsace re- mained serious and there were con- siderable German movements noted in the Bitche salient. To the west, cpposite the Maas, the British Second Army fought into Heinsberg, the last important Ger- man road center west of the Roer River. In attacks that carried more than seven miles into northwest Germany, the British struck within four miles of Roermund 32 miles from Dusseldorf. MANY JAPS DI IN ATTEMPT TO TAKE HILLSIDE MYITKYINA, Burma, Jan A roadblock, established by American “Marg Task Force” | 24 the on miles south of Lashio, has become a Japanese death mill, | The enemy, for the sixth straight day, sent small forces up the steep kill against strong American posi- tions. Scores of Japanese died along ‘the mountain slopes in persistent attempts to dislodge American in- fantry and artillery units, under command of Brig. Gen. John Willey. | Up to yesterday, an artillery am- bush had killed more than 350 Japanese retreating southward. .- C. OF C. TOMORROW Guests | meeting of the Juneau Chamber of | Commerce wil be Capt. John Stew- | art, Navy doctor, who has just re- turned from the Central Pacific ! battle area, and F. E. Welch, con- struction man with the USED, tomorrow at the noon | LONDON, Jan. 24—Soviet troops |have broken into the streets of WASHINGTON, Jan., 24—Heads Mmovement, which must be consid- iy, key Silesian cities, Oppeln and of the armed forces today made a €rably weakening the Reich's west-| Glewitz, Berlin officially announced secret war report to Congress, €I defenses, there is no immediate |y rq4io, and also stated that as- claimed a big Sign the enemy is faltering,” said | ga troops of Konev's First | Ukranian Army are massed along ithe Oder River for a distance of nearly 50 miles, for what Moscow ‘says means an early crossing of the water barrier. One report said the Russians have already crossed the Oder River at an undisclosed point. The GCermans have permitted Stockholmi correspondents in Berlin to report that every ablébodied German male has been ordered to remain at his post and fight the Red Army advance. Streams of |refugees are said to be moving | vestward through Berlin, The German radio reports street battles are taking place in Oppein, Iwith a populaticn of 40,000, Op= |peln is the southern Silesian capi- (tol city and is on the east bank of |the Oder River and about 51 miles |south, of Breslau. Btreet fighting is taking place at Glewitz, the German radio also states, Glewitz has a population of 110,000, is an industrial center, {and is about 50 miles southeast of Breslau, The German communique, broad- cast this afternoon, said the Ger- {man command has been informed there is bitter fighting near Poz- |nan, 137 miles from Berlin, and |it is here, Moscow says, the Ger- mans have apparently staked the defense of Berlin. Poznan is 46 miles from the border. | { | A big battle is said to be in prospect in the south, below cap- tured Krakow, at Jablumka Pass, the natural gateway to the Reich in the northwestern corner of the Moravian frontier, In the north, the Russians are {making a drive in East Prussia to close the last German escape railway to the homeland. Moscow says the troops defend- ing the Oder River line will be swept aside like nine-pins. LT GEN. LEAR " APPOINTED T0 - NEW POSITION PARIS, Jan. 24. — Lt. Gen. Ben ted her resignation soon after the 'y, cnemy claimed 40 raiders were 'D¢ ©0ld Burma Road, about 80| Lear has been appointed Deputy | Commander of the European The- |atre, charged with administrative | matters of United States troops Su- | preme Headquarters announced. P Lear's new assignment pertains |purely to American administration and is not connected in any direc- tion with the campaign which is on an Allied basis. He has been in command of U. S. Army ground forces. | SPECULATION WASHINGTON, Jan. 24.—Lt. Gen. Ben Lear’s new assignment revived | speculation that Gen. Joseph Stil- well may be named ground forces chief, at least temporarily. Stilwell is, currently, only a four- star general without specific assign- ment. He was recalled last October as commander of U. S. forces in Asia,