The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, March 20, 1945, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL.ENIV,NO. 994 - b ln s o NO. 9914 JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1945 MLMBLR Abb()( IA TED PRESS PRICE TEN CEE'ITS TWO MORE JAP HOMELAND CITIES HIT German Defenses in Saar Basin Collapsing YANKS ON RAMPAGE | AT FRONT American Seventh, Third| ArmiesNearing Junc- tion on Rhine PARIS, March 20.—The German defenses in the Saar Basin have col- lapsed while the rampaging Amer- ican Seventh and Third armies raced toward imminent junction near the Rhine. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army flanked the Siegfried Line and the alternate Unsbrueck lines in the | Saar Palatinate and in sweeping gains moved to within four miles of the second Palatinate city of Kaiser- lautern, which is within nine miles of Mainz, and 23 miles from the chemical center of Ludwigshafen. Gen. Patch's Seventh Army broke completely through a 12-mile stretch of the Siegfried Line between Saar- bruecken and Zweibruecken. The pocket around Saarbruecken and the | great steel mills of the Saarland is all but closed if not already closed, | | since reports on developments are | lagging behind, delayed by security\ blackouts. In the Kaiserlautern area thc‘ armies are but 20 odd miles apert and are coming closer together fast. | More than 50,000 of an onginullyl estimated 80,000 Germans. of enemy's Pirst and Seventh armiesw have already been counted as casual- \ ties. In seven blazing days of Gen. Patton’s offensive he inflicted aH least 45,000 casualties on the orig- inal 80,000 Germans in the Rhine, | Moselle and Saar pocket. Corre- spondent E, D, Bell said, in a dis- | patch, that prisoners alone totaled | up to 20,000. The Seventh Army has | taken at least 4,000 additional. The U. S. First Army, east of the Rhine, overran more than two score | | villages and smashed into the out- | skirts of Bonn, on the Rhine’s east bank. Gen. Hodges' forces have | advanced south to clamp an iron| grip on a 24-mile stretch of the river. | MRS. J. H. McGRATH, OF SITKA, HOUSE GUEST HERE | Mrs. J. H. McGrath, wife of a| Sitka cafe owner, is visiting here, the house guest of Mrs. Virginia| Grover and Miss Mary Coleman. | | The Washingtion Merry - Go-Round By DREW W PEARSON (Lt. Col. Mbfll 8. Allen now on sctive service with the Army." | WASHINGTON —They haven't been published but President Roose- velt has issued some very important | now orders to the Army Civil AI—, fairs Branch on the occupation of | newly-captured German cities. The orders indicate quite clearly that Roosevelt is for a tough peace. Friends say he has been shocked at reports that Allied officials now occupying one-fifth of prewar Ger- | many have yet to find a Nazi who| admits he’s guilty of anything. i F.DR. also learned with surprise that the Army Civil Affairs Branch | ~ First Navy Nurse on Iwo First Navy flight nurse to set foot | MANILA, March 20—Fortieth Di- on a battiefield during the heat of action was this girl from Oberlin, Ensign Jane Kendeigh of Oberlin O. She bends over a seriously wounded Marine and renders first aid to the badly injured vietim of the raid on Iwo Jima airtrip. He is lying on the edge of the airstrip. 200 000 Men Monthly “Will Be Mustered Oul After Nazis Defeated MOGOK IS 0CCUPIED IN DRIVE:: { British Troops Enier Ruby! Capital - B29s Make Long Raid Flight CALCUTTA, March 20 — British Thirty-Sixth Division troops have occupied Mogok, the world’s ruby | |center, 65 miles southeast of Man- dalay, and an equal distance from ‘the west Burma road city of La- shio, in an Allied drive to rid the area of the - north Mandalay< {Lashio Road of Japs. A Reuters dispatch said Fort Dufferin, Japanese stronghold in the center of Mandalay, was cap- tured by American and British troops. Strategic air force B-29 bombers, | flying almost 3,000 miles on one of the longest missions ever flown by | iberators, raided enemy communi- | cations at Kra Isthmus, in Thai- |land, some 245 miles southwest of Bangkok Results of this raid are |reported to be excellent. Capture of the Mogok communi- ', INNETT j WASHINGTON, March 20.—The other day Brig. Gen. Frank T. Hines, | head of the Veterans' Administra- | tion, appeared before the House Ap- 11)1 opriations Committee. He had all | the facts and flguxes n\ lus (mge)- tips and reeled the others was one that made real news His declaration that after the fall of | :rmany, the Army planned to mus- m out an average of 200,000 men ‘a month. At the conclusion of his testi- mony, one of the members of the committee thanked General Hines and said what a pleasure it was to‘ have him before the committee be-! cause he always had his material in perfect form and knew whereof he | spoke. | Hardly had the General's testi- mony come out than Army officials hastened to disavow that they had any such plan. The general was embarrassed, but off the record, some officials, even in the Army, Ineedn’t be. At the rate of 200,000 a month, it would take the Army more than three years to muster out il ‘enure personnel, if the draft law’ stopped working tomorrow — and we| iwould still have the Navy and the| Marines. Those comparauve tew who wit- nessed the administration of oath {of office to new Secretary of Com- merce Henry A, Wallace tell this |one: Associate Justice Black of the | Supreme Court (who incidentally| also had confirmation troubles in the was using known Nazis to control cations center controlling three all- ‘senate when President Roosevelt civil population of occupied Aachen.|weather roads threatened the flank |apnointed him to the hight court)! He became thoroughly burned Upiof those enemy forces still astride yas administering the oath. at these reports, and has issued strict orders that the Army is only | to restore power, light, sewage andl water supplies, in conquered areas. After that the Germans will have‘ to shift for themselves. The President also ordered the Army not to select prominent Ger- mans to put in charge of occupned‘ zones. In Aachen the Army had| found that all prominent people‘ had been tied up with the Nazis,| but despite that fact the Army) persisted in selecting one of them | to be mayor because he was well- [ known in the community. Instead | the Army has been instructed to find people who were never tied up| with the Nazi Party, even though| unknown, and to elevate them to, places of authority. Rogsevelt’s final step was to| (Continued on Page Four) | the Burma Road. — e, | WHITTIER IS UNDER QUARANTINE, IS REPOR Whittier, Prince William Sound terminus of the Alaska Railroad. is reported under quarantine but what- ever is the epidemic, it is said not to be serious and under control. GRAND JURY PICKED DURING AFTERNOO The Grand Jurors were picked at |2 o'clock this afternoon and were. Alexander at 2:30 o'clock. Mean- { while, the Clerk of the Court’s office was busy swearing in witnesses, i He forget to tell Wallace to raise his right hand before he started. It was only after it was over that he |noticed that the new secretary’s arms were at his sides. His face| clouded, but cleared as he said: |“Give me your,right hand, Henry, and you're mn.%* WALLACE is going to hold a series of meetings to get his new depart- {ment acquainted with him"and his plans, but intimates say he won't| | follow Secretary of State Stettinius’| Imove in having a band present and| holding the affairs in Constitution| Hall. Those close to Wallace in his new| job are positive he will go very slow in shaking up the department. Few | e | being charged by Judge George F. non pnave ever taken a cabinet job) with fewer gommitments, Conse- ! adind . canpo e s o (Continued on Page “Two) are saying that he, | | | PANAY ISLE | Signal Corps Pictures Site, Prisoners’ Massacre ISINVADED ONSUNDAY 'Yank Forces Make Surprise . Landing-Proceed 4 Miles Inland | By JAMES HUTCHESON (AP War Corespondent) vision infantrymen with Naval and air support invaded Panay Island, &g !in the Central Philippines, S\mday and rapidly closed in on the caplm city of Iloilo. The landing on the southeastern shore was made with p)‘ncticnlly‘ no loss, Gen. Douglas MacArthur said in 4his communique, again g achievuw ‘complete tactical as wel]) as strategic surprise.” | & This is the twenty-fifth invasion |§ in the Philippines, and the seventh |¥ of major importance. | The Yanks went ashore at Tig-| Lauan, 14 miles west of Iloilo, and | {immediately drove inland four miles to Cordova and eastward along the\ coast seven miles to Oton, half- (ompany Plant Desl_royed BIG ACTION By Fire; Loss Is $250,000 Many sections of Panay Island’ March 20— had beemy ‘well cleared of the enemy by guerrillas, including parts lof the southwest shore where the | Thrust fo Clear Germans from Upper Silesia- Nazis Open Dikes | Yanks poured. aghore. BULLETIN-LONDON, March !" 4the invasion of Panay is the tirst directaction aimed at break- | 20—The First White Russian Army has captured Altdam, ing the Japanese hold on the by-| suburban bastion four miles passed Central Phlhppmcs east of Stettin, Premier Stalin announced tonight. Earlier he MANY PRICES; REASONGIVEN ~ FROM AR 'Germany's Largest Freight | C‘thlflg Is Pflfl(lpal C0m~; Yardsy AflO"?er Jun(_g pocket southwest of Koenigsberg modify Put on Price , to the Third White Russian shortage of boat lumber and labor; "0“ Afe Bombed Army. Seizure of Altdam liqui- Markup, Mar(h 19 7 large quantity of red salmon gear, dates the powerfully fortified German bridgehead on the east 1 LONDON, March 20 — British | including 150 shackles, new web just| bank of the Oder River before By STERLING GREEN {heavy bombers today attacked | completed. Stettin. WASHINGTON, March 20—The Germany’s largest freight yards at| It is estimated that 40 seine, o OPA last night froze the price on Hamm and another railway junc- boats burned, representing $900) 1 ,ONDON, March 20. — Russian {markups on some 300,000 retailers tion at Recklinghausen on the each, also lost are store, trap hang- | roops launching a renewed of- |selling clothes, dry goods and house northern fringe of the Ruhr. jings and gear that might curtail’ fapcive in Hungary, smashed within furnishings. In continuing the devastation of trap of catch during humpie season. j.cs than twelve miles 6f Komaron The aim of the agency is ex-|the Nazi communications system,' Thke Shepard Point Packing com- ., the Danube, northwest of Buda- plained to insure consumers to get hundreds of other warplanes raked pany's plant was purchased last' poct the German Command said. |the benefit of lowered factory enemy positions close to the {mm year jointly by the New England Berlin broadcasts said the Red prices which are forthcoming. This resuming of the pounding Fish Company and Wes Army had also thrust out their huge The action is announced by Price cost the Germans nearly 5,000 ve- ics, formerly known the Pioneer g.ive to elear the Germans from Administrator Chester Bowles as hicles yesterday. Sea Foods Company, and was then | yner Silesia, capturing Neustadt. half of the War Production Board Some 500 planes took part in this owned by the Parks family. The two! Moceow dispatches were silent and OPA plan to cut clothing costs twin blow, delivered ahead of an- companies used the Shepard Point | concerning these fronts, as they re- rom six to seven per cent and other large-scale attack by U. S. boat repair station, storage com- ,,.teq the Germans trapped in a | “return greater quantities of lower Eighth Air Force Fortresses and pany and private fishing boats, net qwindling pocket on the east Prus- | priced goods to civilian markets.” Liberators. They stayed out later storage dnd repair shop. . | sian Coast southwest of Koenigsberg, | Each store is frozen to the than usual and were still bombing | Low water pressure made fighting | | had opened coastal dikes flooding 4 markup margin that was In use as the British fleet made its way, the fire futile by the 16 men tmpluy-‘mC lowlands in efforts to halt th as of date March 19. home. jed at the plant. | Soviet extermination push i RN e The U. S. Ninth Airforce flew; Four Coast Guard boats were dis-| The German Loml’r:mnd declared ! ! pAIROLS RAlD more than 1,000 sorties from fo]_‘p’ll(htd to the scene, plus about 50| | the Third Ukrainian Army lashing | ward Continental bases before noon, | ishing boats, but they were unable | oue northwest, of Budapest, carried losing one fighter. Four Nazi ships to quell the blaze which had an hour | peuong Tata, 12 miles from Kom- were destroyed on the ground und or more start. |aron, a German stronghold on the one in the air | Danube's south bank at the Hun- | ROME, March 20—Patrols raided the German lines in strength along ithe entire 50-mile Army front yes- |terday while artillery hammered The RAF made their twenty -‘ No 'N(REASES FOR garian-Slovakian frontier eighth consecutive raid on Bcrlin‘ Komaron is 45 miles northwest of cnemy outposts and communication routes. last night. Approximately 8,000 Al- Budapest, and 84 miles from Vienna, | an offensive to overrun the remain- | No substantial changes have been lied planes swarmed over Germany while Neustadt is 25 miles west of | yesterday in one of the greatest the Oder River but only three miles mass sweeps this year. rrnm the Czechoslovak frontier. ir WASHINGTON 'VLIIL]) 20 — The G 4 d ' House Appropriations Committee 1:]:5(1 b:‘l""““ Sactorice be Incusbial- |has’ disallowed the Budget Bureau| “5>'c 9 . . el rhe German pocket southwest of made, however, in positions, the Allied Headquarters communique states. The Signal Corps caption for this official picture said it showed some of the bones of 150 American pris- eners of war which it is claimed were shot and burned alive by the Japancse at Puerto Princesa, Palawan Island, Philippines. (AP Wirephoto from Signal Corps) CORDOVA, Alaska, ¥or the second time in six months fire has ravaged the Cordova sal- mon packing industry. Fire Sunday night, .said to have originated in the power planc, troyed cannery buildings, houses and machine shops of Shepard Point Packing Company, | six miles northeast of Cordova. Unoificial nigures estimate ‘the to- tal loss will run at least to $250,000} or more. S Losses that hit hard the forth-| coming red season include 35 gill net | |L oats, average value at $2,000 each; 35 skiffs, valued at $125 each, al- must irreplacable on account of the| tacking along the 80-mile front in The Ninth Air ‘Force lost 0 planes in the day’s operations, while | the Allies destroyed 67 German planes yesterday, 47 of them combat and 20 on the ;,round reommendation Tor . s $10000 n- | Koenigsberg has now been shaved to crease for an Alaska Experimental | ;.. .L' } 100 4 fan. 'Station, “in the belief there is e o AN e, gl nothing new in the Alaska situa- with the Russians within one ety jvJSUf}lng Tha.: yarsiia o three miles respectively of Brauns- berg and Heilingbeil, the enemy’s Lord Allred Douglas Passes Away, Sussex ”‘f"_’h“’““ last two major towns in that area e committee approved an ap- s, oot LONDON, March 20—Lord Alfred Douglas, 74, scholar, poet and friend propriation of $37,500 for the Ex- B X % periment Station, the same as the POLICK UWE NOTES of Oscar Wilde, died at his home in Sussex today. He was the eldest'y oyious year = The following three persons »\(-xe fined $25 each this morning surviving son of the Marquis of Queensbury. | ] City Magistrate’s Court on rharxes of drunk and disorderly conduct: AR FROM SEATTLE Virginia Heath, re Minnie Borbridge, Fritz and Mrs. Pritz Willard. T g | IMMUNIZATION Cl.lNlC | BE HELD WEDNESDAY e e oty Gaminise: tion clinic will be held Wednesday 1mornlng at 10 o'clock in the Juneau |Public Health Center, Room Territorial Building. Dr. C. C.| Carter, Juneau Health Officer, will| be in charge. el enine FROM PORTLAND registering from Carl Jones, of Seattle (s a guest Portland, Oregon, is staying at the at the Baranof Hotel. Gastineau Hotel IN HUNGARY Berlin said the Russians are at-| and | KOBE, KURI RAIDED BY TASKFORCE | | | Carrier Planes Swarm Over Nippon Sections in Two- day Attack By VERNE HAUGLAND (AP War Correspondent) U. S. PACIFIC FLEET HEAD- QUARTERS, Guam, March 20 — Carrier planes of the American | task force, attacking Japan for the I«ccond straight day, raided Kobe jand Kure on Honshu Island, as well as othér enemy installations around the Inland Sea of Japan, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz an- nounces, | Carrier planes which swafmed |over Kyushu Island, south of Hon- !shu Sunday with ah attacking !strength estimated by Tokyo of 11,400 planes, dealt their second day’s assault on the same day and more than 300 Superforts dropped 2,500 tons of incendiaries on Na- goya, Japan’s third largest city. Hitting Kobe, carrier planes also 'pounced on Nagoya while it was still smoldering from Saturday's 12,500-ton incendiary raid by Super- | forts, and on Kure, the Japanese navnl base. Admiral Nimitz' communique plied no details of ‘the resulty’ complished by the carriers’ Hell- cats, Helldivers and Avengers, either Sunday or Monday. The Inland Sea is Japan's life- blood artery through which Nippon moves vital supplies from Korea, Manchuria and China to the home- land. ‘The communique reported a con- tinuing search for enemy snipers - 'on Iwo Jima, and air strikes on the Bonin, Kurile, western Caroline, Palau and Marshall Islands. p- OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION | U. 8. PACIFIC FLEET HEAD- QUARTERS, Guam, March 20 — ! Japan’s greatest shipbuilding center and her most important Naval base were targets of American carrier- Lased planes as continued lashings of Nippon's home islands con- | tinued. | A radio silence blanketed the | powerful carrier task force as it noved in close to the Jap main- !land, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz ! disclosed. Naval fliers shifted attacks north- ward and hit the Naval base at Kuri and shipbuildinng center of Kobe. | A Tokyo radio broadcast picked 'up here said Mitscher's task force 'is “retreating” southward after a two-day attack and Tokyo claimed 10 American warships were sunk or damaged and 83 planes were downed - e - 'COAL OPERATORS SAY NO PROGRESS MADE | WASHINGTON, March 20—Bi- tuminous coal operators reported their negotiations for a new con- |tract with the United Mine Workers had “made no progress.” Ten days hence the old contract is due to expire. A strike vote has been or- dered. The operators called in news- papermen to announce the dead- !lock in the presence of John L. Lewis, UMW President, who com- mented only: “We still hope to reach an agreement.” e - STOCK QUOTATIONS NEW YORK, March 20 — Closing quotation of Alaska-Juneau Mine stock today is 6%, American Can (93%, Anaconda 317%, Beech Air- |Lrufl 11%, Bethlehem Steel 727%, Curllss-wfl(ht 6, International Huvesur 8, Kennecott 37, North IAmgncan Aviation 10, New York Central 237, Northern Pacific 21, U. S. Steel 627%, Pound $4.04. Dow, Jones averages today are Willard |as follows: Industrials, 156.37; rails, 61.74; utilities, 27.80.