The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, May 22, 1945, Page 1

HE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LXV., NO. 9968 HODGES ARMY COMING TO PACIFIC WAR d On Jap JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS | PRICE TEN CENTS 945 e Flaming Oil Use NIPSSEARED |Warning Issued as Japs | FROM CAVES BY MARINES Forfress ShFBallered as Yanks Take Hills- Tanksin Advance By James Lindsley (Associated Press War Correspondent) GUAM, May' 22—Troops of the Seventy-Seventh Infantry and First Marine Divisions joined today in the frontal assault from the north on final ridges defending the bat- tered Okinawa fortress city of Shuri, which one General said no longer is of military value. Fierce action raged all yesterday along the fiery battlefront. The Yanks moved relentlessly ahead. Several counter-attacks were WASHINGTON, May 22 — The War and Navy Departments re-| ported today that the Japanese have been making a “fantastic ef- | fort” to bomb the western U. S.| mainland with “free” balloons. | The long-range balloons, made of {paper and carrying small bombs, | are unmanned. Some of them are known to have landed or dropped explosives in isolated sections but there has been no damage to property, the joint statement said. This was the first time that the public generally had been told of ,the balloon attacks, although they were known to many newspaper- men and others. | The joint statement said the dis- closure was being made so that a ' Atiempt Bombing Wesl U.S.by “Free” Balloons ~ALEUTIANS Warning Issued ! With, the approach of warm weather and the end of the school | season, the statement added, “it| is desirable that people and es-| pecially children living west of the| Mississippi River be warned of this| possible hazard and cautioned under | no circumstances to touch or ap-| proach any unfamiliar object.” The Army and Navy said they wanted to reassure the nation that the balloon attacks are so scat-; tered and aimless that they do not! constitute a military threat. The balloons, which carry a few small bombs, were described as being of gray, white or greenish- blue paper and about 33 feet in diameter. The main purpose of the — Gls BEING RELEASED | First Fifteen Eligible for Discharge Landed at Anchorage HEADQUARTERS, Alaskan De- partment, May 20.—Delayed) —Fif-! teen GIs, eligible for discharge un- der the Army's point system with‘ tfrom two to five years service in Alaska and the Aleutians, arrived here today from the Aleutians. Officers said their airplane jour- ney back to the United States was being expedited in an effort to make them the first such group back from Alaska. On arrival in the States,| they will go immediately to demos< bilization stations, where they hope anese On ‘800AmericansDieinJap Raid on U. S. Carrier bloodily repulsed. One of thém was Public safety campaign could be made by a large enemy force which undertaken to prevent possible included soldiers wearing American damage or injury from the balloons. | Marine uniforms and carrying U. S. There is always a possibility, the weapons. statement said, that unexploded Taira Town, just north of Shuri, bombs may be found in isolated was taken by the Seventy-Seventh SPots, concealed in wooded areas Infantry Division in the day's most Or buried beneath melting snow. bombs, it was Sfigi.ris beliz;;/ed t‘f{;e |to be discharged. They are among to set brush and forest fires. e 75 b 1 balloons are unmanned and can—fzgrvzil_‘ T Mflml not be controlled by the enemy. | They ran from the plane to Lhej However, the two services warned‘airpon restaurant where some saw ' that the bombs are dangerous and a woman for the first time in as long’ should not be touched by anyone|as two years. Tley ordered steak! portance and the break-through to spettacular gain. ) = TR : Brig. Gen. Walter Dumas of the | Tenth Army Staff told Associated B R I I A l N | S ‘ | the city will not be followed by | immediate occupancy. i i Press Correspondent Vern Haugland that Shuri, in the center of the line, no longer has military im- All high ground around Shuri, whose ancient castle fortress is shattered by shells and bombs, must | be secured before any use can be | made of that second city of Oki- S Coalifion Government Ends| e i i e 3o 2 gy —Porlioment Nowfo | Be Dissolved hundred yards from dearly-won Sugar-Loaf Hill in the Sixth Ma- | rine sector on the west flank. | | Half Moon Hill is believed con- By James F. King S Only 63 miles from Japan Jap planes, setting off cne of this war's great episodes of hercic action. tens of explosives and thousands of gallons of aviation gasoline were fired and shook the great carrier as she steamed out of control straight for Japan. The Japs reattacked five times to “finish off” the crippled More than cne-third of her men were casualties and 800 are dead or missing. carrier, escaped and reached Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York, under her own power! deckside falling back frem the blast only to return immediately and renew their victorious assault against Lisli the flames. G&H;htfrew Sa ndsT by on . 8. aircraft carrier Franklin was hard struck by a string of bombs from nected with Sugar Loaf Hill by tunnels. This means of reinforce- ment and supply aided the Japa- nese in driving the Marines off Sugar Loaf's summit ten times be- fore the crest finally was held after the eleventh attack. The Fifth Regiment of the First (Continued on .Paaz Two) The Washington Merry - Go-Round By DREW PEARSON (Lt. Col. Robert 8. Allen now on active service with the Army.) (NOTE: Having outlined Rus- sia’s recent lack of coopera- tion with the United States in Germany and other parts of Europe, Drew Pearson today presents some of the mistakes of American officials on the other side of the Russo-Am- erican ledger.) WASHINGTON—Against the un- fortunate Soviet transgressions which have marred our present Russian relations, must be chalked up a list of petty mistakes and needling of which U. S. officials have been guilty. None of these are basically important in American eyes, but to the Orientally minded Russians, always suspicious and made more so by long years of dip- lomatic snubbing, they are exag- gerated out of proportion and be- come very serious. Before the San Francisco Con- ference opened, for instance, Foreign Minister Molotov took up in Washington the question of ro- tating the chairmanship among the “Big Four” inviting countries. Lord Halifax at that time pro- posed a compromise and it was presumed this would be adopted. Other delegates were amazed, therefore, when Secretary Stet- tinius permitted the Mexican For- eign Minister to propose Stettinius’ name as full-time chairman of the 5 ] | | i Triesle 'HEAVY RAID | Marshal Tito Execules Sy Ships Sunk, 36 Small LONDON, May $2—Yugoslavia’s| By Dean Schedler | LONDON, May 22—Prime Minis~ ke SMBA Simusd the ! | rounding area, giving rise to specu- T 3 4 | { Trouble - | ONFORMOSA About-face Toward | (raff Damaged - Fight- ' Marshal Tito appeared today to/ ter Churchill, faced by the Labor | face in : his Coalition Government, was ex-| 1 who is not familiar with them. i dinners. i | i w i | aning |§ REPORTED | Occupation of Port ing Fierce Near Manila (Associated Press Correspondent) | !have executed a cOmplete about-| Party's decision to withdraw from | occupation of Trieste and the-sur-| | lation London that he might| pected today to ask King- George; | VI to dissolve Parliament and | bave received a friendly suggestion thereby precipitate Britain's first, {rom Moscow to change his stand. |general election in 10 years. ' Diplomatic sources close to the! { 3 G { British Foreign Office said the| | Political circles predicted that | gjuation was “definitely improved” | Parliament would be given about|ang there were indications of an Ithrce weeks to wind up its affairs‘em.ly solution. \nnd that the election would be| Tito was withdrawing his Parti- ! fixed for July 5—provided Churchill san forces from southern Austria, acts by Thursday. If he delays until | one of the points of dispute, nnd {May 30, the alternate date for the| election probably will be July 11. Yugoslav occupation headquarters | |had been removed from Trieste, The developments brought from | although both British and Partisan /and other European problems—the the London press—which has been | troops remained in the Adriatic urging an early “Big Three” con- ference to ‘settle the Polish issue; assertion that such a meetisg now is out of the question until late July or August. While Cnurchiil would name an interim “caretaker” Government pending the election, British edi- torial writers expressed belief it would not carry the full weight of authority necessary at an interna- tional conference. | Termination of the Coalition | Government—which was formed in the dark days of 1940 when the | Germans were rolling the British; | Army back toward Dunkerque— became a certainty yesterday when 1,100 delegates to the Labor Party convention refused to sanction fur- ther labor participation. “Are you in favor of our ministers remaining in the Government until the end of the war with Japan?” the chairman asked the delegates. Only two hands went up. Labor Party leaders previously | had demanded a general election next fall and had rejected Chur- 1chill's proposal for a “Yes-or-No” referendum on whether the present Parliament should be prolonged. The decision promised a prompt | withdrawal of Labor Ministers from ithe Churchill Government to pre-| 'pare for the expected election cam- | members also are {Italy a long-term status of the | disputed territory and with the i Allies the present status of occupa- | settled through diplomatic chan- port. To Discuss Status There were indications of Tito's apparent readiness to discuss with | tion. Sources close to the British' Foreign Office believed the matter of immediate occupation would be nels, rather than through direct talks with Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, Allied Mediterranean commander. It was believed in London that the Yugoslavs were prepared to agree to a peaceful but temporary | settlement of the dispute and would | press their territorial claims at the peace conference. No Annexation This was borne out by a Bel-| grade broadcast of an editorial | which appeared in the Communist Daily Borba, published in the Yugo- | slav capital. The paper declared the Yugoslav Government had stressed! “that it does not intend to annex these territories unilaterally before a peace conference that will finally settle the question of the Slovene coast line and Trieste, ie. before; the “possibility of a direct agree-| ment between Italy and Yugo- slavia. The editorial added these reasons, Yugoslavia is pre-| pared to discuss the situation . . . “that for| | Thirty-Eighth paign. Liberal !so as to find, in agreement with| | the Allies a solution that will sat- |isfy both parties and will not be contrary to the interests of the !population of these territories.” conference instead of rotating the, - c:xlfllrmnnshlp, Molotov, not under- | €xpected to wlck}drnw, “:‘d Chlilx:t stamding English, did not realize bl probeny il j‘“": o Seppin ¥ ministers and junior is what, was happening and Suemnlus'w complete his Interim Govern- i (Continued on Page Four) ment, (Associated Press War Correspondent) MANILA, May 22—The heaviest air strikes ever made on Formosa in four months of raiding by Philippines -based bombers were reported today as U. S. infantry- men wiped out 500 encircled Japa- nese on Central Luzon Island and drove toward a junction on Min- danao, slowed only by blown bridges. Associated Press War Correspond- ,ent Russell Brines reported from the Fifth Air Force that airmen returning from last Saturday's record raid on Formosa had sunk six ships and 36 small craft and damaged 14 other vessels of all types. A total of 9,000 tons of explosives have been rained on Formosa war industries, airdromes, transporta- | tion facilities and military installa- tions since the first bomber struck !from the Philippines January 11. Trapped Japs Wiped Out Just three days after capture of Ipo Dam in the Manila watershed, Doughboys of the Forty-Third Di- vision, aided by Guerrillas, wiped out two-thirds of a large enemy force trapped in the area, a spokes- man at Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Headquarters reported today. A tank-led column split Japa- nese troops by seizing Metropolitan Road and then liquidated organ- ized resistance south of Thatkey Highway. At least 500 enemy bodies were found. A few miles to the southeast, the Infantry Division drove toward Wawa Dam. Some 150 planes of the Fifth Air Force paved the way with explosives and fire bombs. ‘The First Cavalry ran into stiff opposition nine miles south of In- fanta on Central Luzon’s east coast while other Yanks drove steadily ahead down Balete Pass toward the Cagayan Valley, bread-basket of Northern Luzon. Air Support Bombers and fighters closely sup- | ported the Balete action, plastering | objectives with 238 tons of explo- sives.In North Central Mindanao, the Thirty-Pirst and Fortieth Divi- sions were only 25 miles apart in their drive to split the second- largest Philippine Island. Between 1 VlCnanm'{l.nrn >P7uqr Two) At sea, the cruiser anta Fe, foreground, pulls away frem the burning Es: the badly listing ship, victim of a Jap dive bombing attack 63 miles off the Japanese mainland on the Island of Henshu, seems almost about to capsize. Driven back by flames and exploding bombs and rockets, mem- kinawa —_— FIRST ARMY. ASSIGNED T0 STALK JAPS u. s Troofllal Slashed | Through France, Seig: friedLine, Redeployed By Brack Curry (Associated Press War Correspondent) WASHINGTON, May 22 — The American Pirst Army, which blazed a path for Allied troops aeross the German frontier and broke :the Siegfried Line, soon will be stalking Japanese. » Numbering 150,000 men a momnth ago, the Army, commanded by Gen. Courtney H. Hodges, is being 're= deployed by way of the United States, with 30-day furloughs awaiting its members here. It is the first sizeable contingent the War Department has officially announced will move from the European theatre to the Pacifie; Troops of the First Parachuted into France before H-hour on (e Day. Then, in one of the most dramatic campaigns in American military history, the army slashed through France, Belgium and into Germany, killing or capturing hun- dreds of thousands of Nazis. United H states PFirst Army troops were -redited with the capture of Paris. Breakitig' through fhe vaunited Siegfried Line to lead the way across the Reich’s frontier, the First seized and established Remagen bridgehead over the Rhine. ¢’ Hodges' men, too, were the first to make junction with the Rus- sians at the Elbe. Hodges, a tough and resilient commander, * has served over 40 years in the Army. He worked his way up through the ranks from buck private. [ AIRPOWER 10 BE USED:. In the next ten hours almest 100 But the Franklin Pictured are the firefighters Test Will Be Made gn Blockade of Japan But= Invasion Planned = WASHINGTON, May 22—Ameri- sex-class carrier USS Franklin as "bers of the gallant sip’s crew cluster forward'on th: flight deck, awaiting assignments to fire-fighting details. | heads on the China coast to a direct assault on the Japanese home islands themselves.” | Manstield said Russia’s entry in he conflict might produce these [t ‘ two Chinese states: | “Onme (the Chinese Communists) | would be allied to and, in a sense, i dependent on Russia; the other | (the Chungking Government) would | be, in a sense, anti-Russiain, but ‘woula be dependent on itself for isurvival and not on any outside power.” % “I cannot envisage, if this comes to pass, the United States main- taining more than a passive in- terest in Chinese affairs,” he said, “because to do otherwise would place us in an extremely embarras- sing position.” Mansfield added that he believes the United States rightfully is sup- porting the Chiang Kai-Shek Gov- ernment, but “we are hoping that Former Asia Observer Says Unified China Vital Before Soviet Enfry WASHINGTON, May 22—Repre- sentative Mansfield, (Democrat,| Montana), predicted today that Russia will join the war against| Japan. NETHERLANDS REPORT HINTS BERLIN SNARL Stettinius lakes Leave| from Conference fo | Confer with Truman | By John M. Hightower | (Associated Press Diplomatic News Ediior) SAN FRANCISCO, May 22 -Sec- | retary of State Stettinius leaves the United Nations Conference for| a hurried trip to Washington to | can military men are inclined to put air power to the test in the blockade of Japan, increasing it %® a destructive fury far beyond - thing Germany suffered at s worst. At the same time, however, there are ample signs that land and sea forces will be built up and prepared for a land invasion of the Japanese home islands in_the event that blockade fails to do the major part of the job of bripging the Japs to surrender, The Allied aim is to bring abduyt the earliest possible defeat of the . enemy while holding Allied I to a minimum. Every facility being strained to concentrate WM |types of war power against Japan to do that job. Strength of all sorts is being built up for a quick kni out. But there also is little doul that airpower will be given the portunity to prove the claims of its enthusiasts, 4 Many of our top-ranking Ar'my. Navy and air strategists believe there is a good chance that Japan may quit the war when defeat be- Mansfield added in a speech pre- pared for House delivery that un- less China is unified soon, such a development might split China |into two separate states. | Disunity in China said Mansfield, who recently served as a personal observer for President Roosevelt in the India- Burma-China theatre, it may force this country to switch its strategy |in the war with Japan. If China is not unified, he de- |clared, “it is quite possible that we jwm shift our plans for beach- is so great, China will settle its own' internal affairs and achieve a degree of real unity.” -s APPOINTMENT Frank S. Glaser has been ap- | pointed Biological Aide for the | Alaska Native Service for its pre- | datory animal control work and is to be stationed at Nome, Alaska. R s SAMSON FAMILY HERE and Mrs. Samson and family, are guests at the Mr ! of San Francisco | Gastineau Hotel confer with President Truman on|comes obvious rather than contihtle mounting war-end crises in Europe. | fanatical resistance. Some of them His departure from the confer-| hold the opinion that the Emperor ence, at which he is the official may give the word for an end to host, follows trips homeward by ! resistance once defeat is certain Russian Foreign Commissar .Mulo-‘tor the Japanese. Events will prove tov, British Foreign Secretary An-|whether defeat'will Hecome obvious thony Eden "and French Foreign|to Japan thrgugh the effects of air Minister Bidault. There is some power and blockade, or only after talk that Foreign Minister Padilla | troops land on the shores of the of Mexico also may depart soon.)Japanese home islands. Unlike the others, however, Stet-| For some 2,000 years, Japan has tinius plans to return within a few never lost a war. Japanese propé a3 (Continued on fiage Five) (Continued on