La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959, April 21, 1945, Image 1

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La Grande evening observer., April 21, 1945, Image 1

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Newspaper Page Text0 Lf Weather Data for 24 hours to 7 u. in. April 21: Temperature: Maximum 78 Minimum 42 Forecast Partly cloudy tonight pnd Sunday. ESTABLISHED 1896 Yanks Close in On Hitler Retreat New Push Launched Over Elbe PARIS, April 21 (UP) American troons were report ed storming tlie Kibe river line at a new point northwest ol Berlin today in a major bid to break through' and join the Red army in the final as sault on the German capital. Word of the new crossing at tempt on the If. S. ninth army front before Berlin was flashed by the German DNB news agency as three other allied armies in the south struck along a 200 mile front for Hitler's last re doubt in the Bavarian Alps. In the Brunswick area, SS in fantry riding- armored vehicles thrust deep into the positions of the U. S. Ninth army. Several Tf : WITH U. S. NINTH ARMY. Germany, April 21 (UP) The U. S. Ninth army has been put on the alert or a junction with Russian spearheads near the Elbe river, it was revealed to night. groups containing several hund red men each were engaged in the stabs. The largest was in the juea of Koenigsluiter, 10 miles southeast of Brunswick. Front dispatches said many of the Germans were being mopped up. An 84th division counter blow hurled back the main Nazi thrust after infiltrating units ad vanced halfway across the corri dor toward the remnants of Ger 1 ii'an forces pocketed in the Harz wald area. DNB said the Americans at See AMERICANS . . . Page 7 School Musicians Meet in Eastern Oregon Festival Ratings were given today in the Eastern Oregon high school music festival, being held at the local college, for string solos, string ensembles, brass solos, chum solos, woodwind solos and instrumental ensembles. The competition continued during the afternoon. Both regional and section rat ings are. given at the event, the regional being higher than the sectional, starting at 1 and going mrough 5, with 1 the highest. Ratings for the various events follow: String solos, violin, sen ior division Mary Kirby, St. Francis academy, Baker, 2; Wil liam Gorger, St. Joseph's acad emy, Pendleton, 2; Jacqueline 5-mith, St. Francis, 1; Irvin Wright, La Grande, 3; Iris Roy, St. Joseph, 1 ; Beverly Smith, La Grande, 2; Geraldinc McGinnis, St. Francis. 2: Violin, junior division Patrie- w mienel, La Grande, 2; Donna Gordon, La Grande, 2; Donald arn, St. Joseph, 2; Doris Jean Giay, La Grande, 1; Jack Evans. W Grande. ! vinl.-i Rnvprlv See SCHOOL . . . Page 7 Baseball Results American U York 001 000 OiKI 1 ashinlon 200 000 00 a i ' ; lonliam anil n-ilr: W'ol.'c i l rerrclJ. . St. Lfmii aj fchicagu, pftlpnu't . 'JI4 o ( ''stonu w nfiu W1 2'l9 .2 j N'evisom at)lJ H,ria; Hnusmi.iiP ! ;'ods" (7)t fMson (ai anS'cWal- i L-ev;-(i).g, n01 Olio (WO CO 2 d kMroit 001 (0 )0 JfhJ 01-:) JJ, c: ,P: )7 1 -wiuice aiiUMTiis.iwnv: rrr ...rfiVi... kif)"e- J "'Kr anri fiinhnrrie r3 Q Boston(ai Philadeli, raV Jago too 200 100 4 'ttsburgh 201 000 0003 13w3 erringer and Livingston; -Linc--.--,.i. ,1)5, ij Ro if L V''l If rv y W i TV sj PRESIDENT BUYS FIRST POPtY Standing oi the president's desk, little Margaret Ann Forde, S. pins the first Buddy Poppy of the 1945 Buddy Poppy salo on President Truman's lapel. Margaret is daughter of a disabled ex-sorvice man and made the trip to Washington from the Veterans of Foreign Wars national home for widows and orphans of ex-service men i.i Eaton Rapids, Mich., where she and her sister and two brothers are now living. Churchill Hints He May Retire After V-E Day BRISTOL, Eng., April 21 (UP) Prime Minister Churchill hint ed today that he might retire rr be retired after the defeat of Germany. In a speech accepting the free dom of this city, he said that he "or whoever stands in my place i will have to ask war-weary Bri- I 1;.in "for a new leap forward, for : b new lifting of the soul and body" to defeat Japan. . j Churchill said that in the event , there was a new prime minister he would support him, whoever , it may be, but did not elaborate further. However, a general elec- i lion will be held after V-E day. i "We have the Japanese to fin ish," Churchill said, "and we have to stand absolutely with our great American ally in paying off at the other end of the world debts as heavy as ever wee in flicted on us." He called on Britain to help prosecute "this second war . . . to a conclusion free from any doubt." Churchill again dampened l.ilk ol a premature V-E day. "We have no intention of en couraging any festivities or thanksgiving until we are a.-sur- j cd from our military o nnnd- s that the task l iete that everyone may cheer. he said. The refcrnce was taKen as indication that victory would pioclnimed only after all pi-el e. German resistance have V" erased. SlST AiiMY tfROlT allied a-en y: tv-t-hire mirVh t.v-y lU'-'f. .1 sald'$,'j,.v 0 rfb'.' C :$). .n. u-il i- Hi i NU1 Aoi fift)VImt'SJ UiiW Amir.W.ns o Parnlnirn(8)iid Vrfci 0... last .'cjilVf-Gciman w - (rV Q:iaeluni)giini by n-.f i . . ii. . . . Sv. train toS-nu"l. inrn.-.vv passed through Stettin. I "T: K- I .'.cm I.A (iKAMJK, Elephant Steaks? No It Hasn't Quite Come to That Yet PORTLAND, Ore., April 21 (UP) Employes at the Port land livestock yards gaped to day when a 6300 pound ele phant lumbered out of a box car. "Has meat rationing come to this'.'" somebody remarked. Inquiry brought the news that the elephant was headed for Jantzcn Beach, amusement park located near the livestock yards. The loading dock was the nearest rail connection and Ihe pachyderm walked the rest of the way. Leaders of Nazis Fleeing to Norway LONDON", April 2i (UP) Leading nai partv members ale fleeing to Norway aboard what planes the iuftwaffe has left, dis ratches from Sweden reported to day. While other reports told of pi ace riots m Berlin and Mun ich, the SW-ckholm newspaper Morsonlidningen re:ort?d mys terious plane movements over the Sweduh - Norwegian border the past two nights. Swedes near 111? border saw iai'fce numbers of planes on their way to Norway. Contrary to the practice of allied planes in main '.axing blackout, tlnse planes switched on th-.-ir lights mime- iiatelv afti r lilev flew over land npau-ntly mistaking Swedish , i,irier rcciiii for Norw ay. ' i Torture :a i it -Flghle, . .-; ,i.n. e;ai;.,.i; t.mdrerl en a t-'l -;i',vivtr O :-.:iii-..o: w. o o l(Klll- . :-..- (ni -hided '. m-.- tempt -.1 "T.VsvW with . IT) .3)Ar (tW V U ' ,.. v. -i' tV Smrr. ir t:-.ts f o onrf Wallowa Covfifiti OREGON SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 21, 194o Kyushu Is Pounded By B-29s By United Press More than 300 Superfortresses bombed Kyushu again today and American ground forcos complet ed conquest of the central Philip pines ahd battered out new gains in the bloody battle for southern Okinawa. The B-2'l's, hitting Kyushu for the third time in fivo days, blast ed nine bases for the Japanese suicide planes which were hlamid for sinking some of the 15 American war vessels lost off Okinawa and Japan during the last month. Navel Losses Revealed A Pacific fleet comunique list ed for the first time the naval losses between March 18 and April 18. Included were five destroyers Halligan, Bush, Co noun, N. L. Abele and Pringlo; two mine craft Emmons and Skylark; the destroyer transport Diekerson; five smaller warships; and two ammunition ships , Hobbs Victory and Logan Vic tory. During thu same period the Americans' destroyed at least 100 Japanese vessels, including a Yamato class battleship. Advance on Okinawa On Okinawa, three American divisions drove deeper into tl.o enemy's last ditch defense line less than three and a half miles north of Naha, the capital. Ad vances up to a mile were reported all along the four mile line across Ihe southern end of thi island. Other troops on nearby Ie is land continued their drive. Through Wednesday 736 Jap anese had been killed on the is-Sc-3 KYUSHU . . . Page 7 Former La Grande Man Is Killed In Plane Accident Friends in La Grande have ' i '.n advised of the death in i ranee of Oliver E. Tudor, a for mer resident of La Grande, and a flight olficer in the ferrying division of tho army air trans port command. He had landed on the army field and was taxing his plane along the landing strip when the propeller flew off and sheared through the cabin, killing the pilot instantly. The accident oc curred last December 5. Tudor was best known as a guitar player, and after leaving La Grande he was employed in the movies in Hollywood, appear ing with Gene Autiy. He also was an intimate of Smiley Bur nette, with whom he made num erous personal appearance tours prior to entering the army. His widow and three children hv? in North Hollywood. Tudor, who was familiarly known as M on tie, attended Greenwood school here, and left about 10 years ago to go to Cahf- ornia. of Allied Airmen Revealed our lads were half-starved and soft from yeals iti prison camp. "The guards fixed bayonets and an officer yelled in Urrmun quirk mJirciv'r,s we start.yl run(Un,g and s'timbling tjie mlrics ',-'S'rt in. i'hiy slashed our backs, shoulders, and groins. If a PAHIS. Anril 21 (VP) Gen. D.i Eiieihowor blxt issi0d orders (hut tff victim of nasi torture ait itarvalion in overrun camps be gilcn a eecenl burial by German ctviliait. iBisenbwerl'i chif)of staff, Maj. Gen. WaltoroBedori Smith, re tailed the me today by the supreme comntTfSr. Burial parlirai are recruited from the civilian pogdatjtr)! of the nearest towns, given rnoels, and made to bury the bodies pro F(0)y. The workers must take their own V.hos if they expect to eat during the task(5) man stumbliand fell, Kj)vould get the bayonet and be clubbed with rifle butts. ' German civilians stood along the road and laughed at us. Thj nwinv! h?-ff)'Ai':: dogs which woH mh in on the fallen ) GERMANY f S-i r ' mm7 .... J HNQVt '"T MU0iffMUT S fniHAH, I huuJ 'i cimtut.j'""" I Ml.f 6m "j 111 .l.,wV jtlKl p- f ' mini ytm.lNV J MUNICH" f ' ' " V. M'-. ,.v(' J I 1IIYI IT. POIVTIN " lv V """"U" AUSTRIA . K )Jr NAZIS' LAST BASTIONS FALLING As great American a. id Russian armies drive across Germany, overrunning all rosistanco and at the gates of iho capital itsolf, they also are moving ever closer to a junction to tho south, where they aro driving at iho Bavariai Alps to prevent a marshalling of the disrupted onomy forces for a last stand. The map shows the relative positions of ihe various allied units yesterday. Leslie F. Smith Elected Head of Scout Committee Leslie F. Smith, a member of ihe high school faculty, was elected chairman of the Mt. Em ily district council of Boy Scouts at a mectng of the district com mittee last night in the Presby terian church. Ho succeeds Itev. A. J. Stanley, who resigned. Claire Cahill, field executive, urged that the various troops co operate more fully by providing their membership quotas on the distreit committee. After a dicussion of the com missioner staff and extension rommittee, it was announced that Smith will appoint neighborhood commissioners and committee men in the near future. Lee Reynolds explained a new acivanccment award which will be inaugurated at the court of honor to be held April 30 in Bak- or. A discussion of the waste pa- per drive next Wednesday r.rought out the information that there will be no house to house collection on that date, and that the various scout groups will have to gather their paper and turn it in to a central depot be fore pick-up day. The summer camp at Wallowa and Anthony lakes was discussed end it was the sense of the meet 'ng that every troop leader, par ent and employer be urged to give boys every chance to take advantage of the camping aclivi tics. cruor K1VE CENTS Allies Control Half of Hitler's 'Greater Germany' By Unl'au Pross Allied armies have occupied one-half of the 225,256 square miles of Adolf Hillor's "grcator Germany." Tho advancos by Soviet troops converging onto Borlin brought the total area under allied control to the half-way mark 112,630 square miles. "Greater Germany" includes the 182,471-squarc-mile reich end 24,064-square-mile Austria and 8,721 squaro miles of tho Czechoslovak Sudctenland. Health Nurse Is Named at College The appointment of Mrs. Bruce More-head as health nurse at Eastern Oregon college was an- nounced today by President Ro- I on J. Maaske. She replaces Miss Betty Jane Griee who has been commissioned second lien- tenant in the army nurse corps. Mrs. Meirehead, who took up j e-d in at headquarters in rapidly her duties at the school, yestei - increasing numbers. e.;.y, is well known locally. She j Smuts Expects Results is a registered nurse, having Field Marshal Jan Christian earned her rating al St. Luke's Smuts, 75, prime minister of the school of nursing in Boise. I Union of South Africa, and one JAP SPY IS HANGED MANILA, April 21 (UP) Jap anese sergeant-major Sakai Nar ioka was convicted by a military commission of spying in civilian nothes and hanged Thursday, it was announced today. men, biting their ani'dnd le,-. Eve. thing began swimming he f:ne my ess. I stumblal ,ul" tell. A marine clubbed rne with a rifle butt. "I pass.i out and when 1 came C4. It was ,ttin'ciing over 1 With a bayonet. I asked why You fliers bomWiFour wives NUERNHEKt Genujnjrj, April 21 (UP) Thfale f th...ands it Aiddican and British Brunei) listed as "missing" rnay be((v)u ned oon. 5 A processing center for allied flieis shot down over Gorman ter ritory was discovered in the nearby town of Buchcnbuhl. A master index file detailing what happid to 45,000 Anglo-(BS)-rican ai(g)-n was fouiin the center. xach captured f(g) was recorded in the master file and listed on a sepai (S) card. Hi; was given a number and his belongings were placed in an envelope with the number. Bushels of rings, watches, fruternity pins, and dugtags were found at the processing center Fighting Rages im Streets on Rim of German Capital LONDON, April 21 (UP) The Red army announced V- tunight that it had captured half a dozen of the keyy stroiiKpoints in front of Berlin and was fighting in the-" streets on the rim of the reich capital. " - A Soviet communique said Russian forces besieging IlerMn had seized Erkner, half a mile from the south- ;jl eastern edge of the city proper, together with fortified -towns scattered over an arc pressed close against the ' ' city and reaching to Bcrnau, three miles from the north eastern side of the capital. The German high command had earlier acknowledged today that Russian siege armies were storming Berlin arid that a lied army lightning thrust of more than CO miles had outflanked the doomed capital completely on the south. ; ; Nazi broadcasts said converging Soviet armies had clamped a blazing siege arc against the eastern, southeastern and northeastern suburbs of Berlin, and that Red army artil lery had begun pumping shells into the heart of the city. A German communique reported that a Soviet column had raced up the Spree valley, by-passed Berlinon the south, afld reached tho area of Jueterbog, 2b miles southwest o,f the city mid '10 miles from tho U. S. ninth army's bridgehead across. the rJbc. Supplementary broadcasts re ported Russian forces ranging the legion southwest ot Berlin in the areas ot Truenbrietzen, 211 mil-is fiom the capital, and south of Bcelitz, 111 miles southwest of Berlin. The speed with which the Kid army mobile units raced beyond Berlin indicated that the nazis had mustered every last ounce of their strength for the defense of the capital itself and on the Elbe lino to the west, leaving the city's back door unbolted. Early Breakthrough Seen A Moscow dispatch said the final breakthrough on the Bcilin front was expected this weekond. Thousands of Soviet guns and planes were pouring steel and explosives into tho elovastatcd city in a steady rain. RAF Mos quitoes joined in the bombard ment with Six separate block buster raids during the night. The muffled thundor of the bombardment was audible to American ninth urmy troops along the Elbo river, 45 miles west of Berlin, a front dispatch from that area said. (A BBC broadcast said that American and Russian patrols wero only 25 miles apart in an unidentified sector of Germany. The report was attributed to "messages reaching Moscow." A United Press dispatch from Mos cow said patrols already may HEART . . . Page 7 President Truman ! Will Welcome S. F. ; Parley Delegates i j SAN FRANCISCO, April 21 , (UP) The United Nations con ! fcience on international oigan i ization will convene in its first ! plenary session Wednesday aftcr I noon to hear a broadcast wel : coming speech by President Har I ly S. Truman from the White i House, it was announced today. I Secretary of State Edward R. j Sicttinius, jr., Governor Earl ' Warren of California and Roger 1J. Lopham, mayor of San Fran cisco, will speak on the same pro ! gram. Michael McDermoll, slate de- I parlment press director, outlined 1 probable conference parliament- 1 my procedure for the opening week beginning April 25, as dele- ' tr.tes and their secretariat check of the free world s great states men, arrived atioard an It. A. r. Liberator from New York. He was optimistic about the confer ence, and the prospects for' post war peace. 'This liipe I believe we will pull it off," Smuts said. he wasii:ig tl"A, ail herald: and children.' " Ernie Pyle On the March With Marines Writer i'X Finds Laughs '. S-; (Editor's notei Ernie PylVi wrote his daily columns sever- al days ahead of publication date as a means of preventing unbroken continuity in thi' event of temporary delays u' iranrmission. The following Is' ono of those ha wroia but few days before he met daatl)'. at the hands of a Jap machine, gunner. Others will follow for several days.) ": '', k By. ERNIE PYLfc ,:' A,. OKINAWA(By Navy. Radio) My company of marines starred moving just after breakfast. We wer-3 to march about a mile and a half, then dig in and stay In one place for several days, pat-' rolling and routing out tho few hidden Japs in that area. 1 .' We were In no danger on the march at least w: thought we weren't, so not all tho marines wore steel helmets. Some wore green twill caps, some baseball caps, some even wore civilian felt hats they, hod found in Jap4 ancsc homes. For some reason soldiers the world over like to put on odd local headgear. I've seen soldiers' in Italy wearing black silk opera hats. And over hero I've seen marines In combat uniform wear ing Panama hats. I've always enjoyed going along with an Infantry com pany on the move, even soma of the horrible moves such as we had in Italy ond Franca. But the move we made that morning here on Okinawa was really a ploaiant one. It was early morning and the air was good. The temperature was perfict. The country was pretty. We all felt that Eonsc of case when you know nothing very bad Is ahead of you. There is no weight on your spirit. Some of the boys were even smoking cigars. 0 - There are always funny' sights in a column of soldiers moving, along. Our mortar platoon had commandeered a dozen ' local Sec MARINES . . . Page 8 Z Port of Bordeaux- Reopens to Allies PARIS, April 21 (UP) Th,e port of Bordeaux was reopened for allied shipping today for tc, first time in four years follow-, 'ng the clearing of German lot'-' js from the entire Giflrnde estu i.ry. ThS campaign to cliioinate the Geiijnan pocket around the GirJ one virtually ended yestcrdayj rthen toe German commandant jjCotiin-ole Ift'in, and his entire. siwt word capiurea, tnc com- muniq added, and only a fewj nemt, troops remaining to bet mopped up. J Enterprise Soldier , I Wounded in Action I ,Army casualty lists today in- eWde the name of Pfc. Louis E. Simmons of Enterprise among the soldiers wounded hn action In the European theater of opera tions. - , Next of kin, who was notified prior to the public announce-" incnt, is listed as his father, Datv iel E. Simmons of Enterprise.