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About Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1944)
French Speed North on Rhine as Germans Retreat in Saar Basin Superforls B-29 Again Bomb Jap Home Islands Omura Aircraft Plant, Docks of Nanking and Shanghai Targets C apital Journal French Armor Storms Mulhouse 7th U. S. Army Seizes Sarrebourg ing Nazi Stand in Vosges .ttO 56th Year, No. 278 Entered is second elast mttter i Smlem. Oregon Salem, Oregon, Tuesday, November 21, 1944 Price Five M uCV I -ir- ft Washington, Nov. 21 W The huge Omura aircraft factory on the southernmost Japanese home island of Kyushu was blasted for the third time today by B-29 Superfortresses. ' Adverse weather diverted pVrt of the mission, operating in large force, resulting in two other strikes one at the docks of Nanking and the other at Shanghai against military stor age and transhipment facilities. 55 Jap Planes Hit A 20th airforce communique said 20 attacking Japanese "planes were destroyed together with 16 probably destroyed and 19 damaged in the course of the operation. It was the first time that a B-29 mission had encoun tered fighter opposition in strength. There was little anti aircraft opposition, however. It is too early to determine whether our task force suffered any losses, the communique said. Tokyo said Japanese fighters intercepted the four-engined bombers and engaged them above the clouds in "fierce air llfiiels." Early claims that eight Superfortresses had been shot down and a ninth damaged sub sequently were enlarged to 14 downed, 11 probably downed and seven others set afire. Four Japanese planes were missing, Tokyo said. 70 to 80 Planes Used Tokyo press and radio reports recorded by the FCC said 70 to 80 Superfortresses attacked the Nagasaki and Omura areas of northwest Kyushu, southern most of the Japanese home is lands, in two waves about 9:45 ' a m. (2:45 rj.m.. Mondav. EWT). Tokyo said low-lying clouds prevented accurate bombing and asserted that "extremely slight" and "hardly any" dam age resulted. The Domei agency predicted that further "enemy losses" were expected when all reports had been received from fighter pilots. ?ajura also was hit in the Su ortress raid Nov. 5, with , aircraft plant the main ob jective. While Superfortresses con centrated on the enemy home land, other American bombers and carrier-based planes spread further ruin through Japan's shrinking, but still far-flung, Pacific empire. 118 Jap Planes Lost Planes from a carrier task force of the Pacific fleet struck again at Manila, occupied capi tal of the Philippines, Sunday (Saturday, Pearl Harbor time), setting fire to two large cargo ships and a large tanker and destroying 118 enemy planes. More than 100 Liberators from Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific command blasted oil installations and shipping Sunday at Tarakan, Borneo, with 121 tons of ex plosives. Huge fires were started, sending smoke tower ing 15,000 feet. Sixteen small vessels, including barges, were set afire in the harbor. Other Yank Raids At nearby Brunei bay, also in Borneo, other heavy bombers r scored direct hits on a destroyer and nearby docks Saturday night. A battleship and a heavy cruiser were damaged by bombs in an attack on Brunei bay two days earlier. Other land-based bombers of the Southwest Pacific and Cen tral Pacific commands raided targets ranging from the north ern Kuriles in the north to New Guinea in the south and from the Philippines in the west to the Marshalls in the east. Japanese Claim Bisection of China (By th United Prtu) Tokyo radio claimed today that Japanese forces pushing southward through Kwangsi province in China have achieved a junction with northbound Ja panese troops, thus attaining the long-sought bisection of China. "The cutting in two of China is now an accomplished fact." a Tokyo radio broadcast rec orded by United Press at San Francisco said. The broadcast, based on a dispatch from a Domei news asency correspondent in south China, did not state the point at which the junction of the two forces occurred, but pre sumably the meeting took place west of recently-captured Liu- Typhoon Bogs Down Fighting In Philippines Allied Headquarters, Leyte, Nov. 21 (U.l!) American 32nd division troops, defying a tropi cal typhoon which hogged down the remainder of the Leyte front, methodically re duced Japanese pillboxes and other strangly-fortified positions in the Limon pocket today. The remnants of an enemy force once estimated at 3000 hurled themselves repeatedly against an American road block of Limon in a desperate at tempt to break out of encircle ment, but the American lines held. An enemy night counter attack west- of the Limon-Or-moc road also was repulsed. All Traffic Halted Drenching rains, whipped by hurricane winds, were lashing Leyte. Bridges were washed out, streams becam raging tor rents and roads were turned into rivers. "All traffic, air, ground and sea, is fraught with great diffi culty and hazard and battle con ditions are becoming static," Gen. Douglas MacArthur report ed in his daily communique. Leyte-based fighters never theless continued their attacks on enemy communication lines, supply areas and waterfront in stallations along the Ormoc cor ridor. Thirty-five Japanese planes retaliated with attacks on American positions, but sev en were shot down by air pa trols and ground fire. Need 100,000 For War Work Chicago, Nov. 21 The CIO convention today was urg ed by Lt. Gen. Brehon Somer vell, army supply chief, to help recruit another 100.000 work ers foi war plants to turn out the fighting tools needed in Europe and the Pacific. "We must have these workers at once," said the general in an address prepared for the dele gates who yesterday cheered their president, Philip Murray after he urged a revision of the little steel formula limiting wages and said "we have no quarrel with business." Somervell told the conven tion that production in some items is 40 percent behind, add ing, "It all boils down to this: we are calling on American pro ductive power for a supreme ef fort lo meet a supreme crisis. The doughboy has fought his way ahead of schedule and we have to catch up with him." To the delegates who yester day heard Murray assert the CIO would continue "in the maintenance of our no-strike pledge." Somevell said: "I know that you men and women are sticking to your war jobs, but there are a lot of Americans who are not. They are turning to other employ ment in quest of greater post war security. x Ward Employes Subscribe To $9000 Worth of War Bonds Employes of Montgomery Ward company smashed into the limelight of the sixth war loan campaign early when at one of the first downtown retail sales meetings of the drive held at the store Tuesday morning they sub scribed to S9000 worth of bonds as against a quota of S4000, or upped their quota to 225 per cent. At the same time County Chairman Douglas Yeater an nounced receipt of a check of $100,000 from Montgomery Ward company as the concern's allotment here for this drive. In the last campaign they were as signed an 580,000 quota but also upped that quota this time by 20 percent. Dr. E. E. Boring, head of the retail committee, showed battle pictures at the meeting Tuesday, Block Cap tain Princchouse gave a talk and other bond selling features marked the program, including a talk by Frances Leserer, store manager. More of the rolai! sales meet ings are outlined for different stores as follows during the next two weeks, each to be held at 8:30 a. m.: Wednesday, Sears Roebuck: Friday, J. C. Pen ney's: Tuesday, Nov. 28, Wool worth's; Wednesday, Nov. 29, Russians Open Winter Drive in Western Latvia London, Nov. 20 if' Red army troops closed in today on northern escape routes for en emy troops rolled back to the outskirts of Miskolc, Hungary's fifth city, as the Germans de clared the Russians had opened their winter offensive far to the north .against .300,000 nazis pocketed in western Latvia. Late front reports said a Ger man withdrawal from Miskolc appeared imminent. Nazi escape routes to the east and west of Miskolc, 85 miles northeast of besieged Budapest, already were cut. One red army column had battled to the outskirts of Eger, 22 miles southwest of Miskolc, Russian front dispatches said. Encircling Budapest Another soviet armored unit which had rolled through Dio sgyor, three miles west of Mis kolc and within 20 miles of the old Czechoslovakian frontier, veered north to grapple for a hold on road and rail communi cations between Miskolc and the rail hub of Losonc (Lucenec) on the Vlovak border. Units of Marshal Rodion Y. Malinovsky's second Ukraine army plunged into the southern outskirts of Miskloc with the capture of Csaba and Szirma, less than one and two miles south and southeast of the city. Berlin reports on the Latvian offensive said the Russians had I thrown huge infantry, tank, plane and artillery forces against the Germans on a 30 mile front, near Liepaja, one of the two Baltic escape ports left to the nazis. Fierce Fighting Rages The German accounts said the Russians had ripped holes in the axis lines in violent fighting en- i tering its third day, but claim ed counterattacks had nullified the red army gains. The Russian midnight war bulletin said thtt southwest of Jelgava, 97 miles east of Lie paja, the Germans were dis lodged from some positions in hand-to-hand fighting. Berlin asserted fighting was particularly fierce near Prie kule, 20 miles southeast of Lie paja. Knudsen Inspecting Boeing Aircraft Seattle, Nov. 21 W) Lt. Gen. William S. Knudsen, director of the army air tactical service command, was here today to confer with Boeing Aircraft Co., officials and to inspect the company plants here and at Renton. Discussing B-29 Superfortress scheduldes, General . Knudsen commented that Boeing expects to reach capacity production in the middle of 1945. He and his party were receiv ed by Brig. Gen. Donald F. Stace, Los Angeles, on arrival here from Spokane. They will fly to Sacramento from here. Milles. and Thursday, No. 30, Fred Meyers. Dr. Boring also Tuesday an nounced the 30 block captains who will have charge of the drive in various sections of the retaail district as follows: Paul Wilson, Jim Beard, Pat Johnson, Fred McKinney, Roy Harland, Lawrence Brown, Al Ramseyer, Russell Monesteele, Orval Lama, Walter Zosel,. William Phillips, Al Morris, Leo Childs, Tinkham Gilbert, Lief Bergsvik, Edw. Majek. Charles McElhinney, Ri chard Smart, Judge Grant Mur phy,. Carl Aschenbrcnner, Loo Reimann, W. W. Chadwick, Lyle Lcighton, Lloyd Hill, Ken neth Wilson, Carl Halvorsen, Carl Gels and Ifenry Kropp. The retail committee will meet at 11 o'clock Wednesday morning to outline further plans, other members of the committee being Ralph Bent, LeRoy Gleisner, Lyle Lcighton, Frances Leserer. (Concluded on pace 14, column 6) i"' General Allied Advance UP) On the southern end of the west ern front the French 1st army by-passed Belfort to capture Dan nemarie and reach Seppois in a drive for the Rhine. Arrows in dicate these and other allied advances including the U. S. 3rd army's advance to Kesselingen, the U. S. 1st army's capture of Hamich and the American 9th army's taking of Durboslar. 2350 U.S. Aircraft Raid German Oil Plants London, Nov. 21 UP) A record fleet of more than 1100 Ameri can fighter bombers destroyed at least 52 German planes today while the 1250 heavy bombers they were escorting plunged 4000 tons of explosives onto three zealously guarded synthetic oil plants. An 8th air force spokesman said the score of the swirling Dames over namDurg, narourg-v and Merseburg might approach the 208 destroyed on Nov. 2. Then, as today, the Germans came up to defend the huge Le una synthetic refinery at Merse burg, 100 miles southwest of Berlin. The mighty fleet was well guarded today and it struck in fine weather even as Gen. Eis enhower promised Germany a winter of remorseless bombard ment from the air. The 1100 fighter craft made up the most powerful escort ever dispatched with the bomb bers and most flew from Brit ish bases, the 8th air force an nouncement said. The Leuna synthetic oil plant at Merseburg. at almost the exact geographic center of Germany, was bombed for the 12th time on Nov. 2. It once was capable of supplying 50, 000 tons a month. The Deutsche synthetic oil refineries at Ham burg are among the largest in the reich. The great Rhenamia refineries are located six miles south at Harburg. All were ob jectives loday. More than 100 Mosquitos of RAF bomber command many carrying two-ton blockbusters hit Hannover twice last night. RAF Lancastcrs also bombed Coblenz during the night. Allies Edge On Ravenna Rome. Nov. 21 UP) Behind strong artillery, British Eighth army troops have captured strongly defended sugar factory buildings at Zuccherificio, two miles south of Ravenna on the Adriatic, allied headquarters an nounced today. The -buildings had been used as a German ob servation post. A number of prisoners were taken. West of Forli on the highway to Bologna, other British troops captured several localities in lo cal gains. German raids on the Fifth ar my sector have been beaten off. There was no major action. The Mediterranean allied air force flew approximately 1800 sorties yesterday, from which 27 aircraft are missing. These in cluded attacks by strong forces of U.S. 15th army air force hea vy bombers on an oil refinery at bBlechhammer in Upper Silesia. The Weather Partlv cloudy and fog in val levs tonight and Wednesday. Little temperature change. Max. 47. mln. 31. Monday rain, 0. River. -3.3 ft. Plan to Reverse Price Trends Washington, Nov. 21 UP) Ac tion to reverse recent price ris es described as small but dis turbing, is expected shortly, de signed as an assurance to work ers that living costs' will not outrun pay scales. Climaxing a series of admin istration moves all pointing to a decision to hold on to the principle of the "Little Steel" wage formula until after V-E day, the OPA prepared to take specific steps to hold the price line. Price Administrator Chester Bowles called a news confer ence for this afternoon but can celled it to polish further a new regulation to be put into ef fect. Associates said it prob ably will be announced tomor row. The conference was arranged on short notice after Sunday's statement by Economic Stabiliz ation Director Fred M. Vinson that "disturbing'' advances in costs of living, especially in tex tiles and clothing, "must stop." Observers believed Bowles was ready to: First, tighten controls over fabrics and wearing apparel, the items singled out by Vinson as inflated: and Meeting of Big 3 Faces Postponement Until Spring Washington, Nov. 21 UP) Plans for an early meeting of Roose velt, Churchill and Stalin appear to have hit a snag. Despite hopes freely expressed here and in London, the best prospect now - nn.in ,.i ;n tod a iu a hoiicj comj The whole schedule of post war conferences and world peace organization evidently is having to be revised in conse quence. Exactly what has happened to the projected big-three meeting before the end of this year is not certain. But presumably the way in which the European war is having to be fought full scale into the winter and the probability now that it will last into next spring has had a lot to do with it. All three leaders, as Presi dent Roosevelt told reporters a faw days ago, wanted to have the conference. And Mr. Roose velt emphasized his desire for it by saying he thought it took priority over his invitation to visit Paris. Prime Minister Ike Calls for More Supplies To Crush Nazis Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, Paris, Nov. 21 Gen. Eisenhower declared today his plan for fu ture operations is to increase pressure steadily all along the western front until the Ger mans are crushed. To do this. greater supplies are necessary, the supreme commander of the western front said. "I want more supplies than we are getting and I think the soldier wants more than he is getting, both now and in the fu ture." he said. "To get peace, we have got to fight like hell for it." the com mander said. "Npw let's do it." Happy Over Breakthrough Eisenhower appeared fit as ever after a tour of all parts of the fighting zone, and said he was especially happy over the French breakthrough to the Rhine. "No single instance has pleas ed me so much in a long while as the capture of Belfort by the gallant French army and its reaching the Rhine," Eisen hower said. The general told correspon dents that his plans were to hit and hammer the Germans with increasing pressure, reaching it peak on the day the nazis finally surrender. "Unless everyone all the way through the nations those at the front and those at home keep on the job everlastingly and with mounting intensity, we are only postponing the day of victory," Eisenhower declared Maximum Effort Needed "The very maximum effort must be made on the day of surrender." Eisenhower declined to make any prediction as to when the war would end and said his call for an all-out effort both at the front and al home was his "prescription for victory." He said the weather had pre vented a full effort in the air in the current offensive but ad ded: "One thing that continues to grow to my intense satisfaction is the teamwork between the ground forces, navies and air forces." He said that while he saw no sign yet of a German crackup, the Germans were human be ings like other people and if confronted by failure after fail ure of their armed forces, they would inevitably crack. It is the allied job, he said, to con front the Germans with more and more of these failures. Not Critizing In asking for more supplies, the general made it clear that he was not critizing the efforts of the home fronts in allied countries up to now, but simply stating that still more materiel would be needed as still greater numbers of soldiers are com mitted to battle. He said he was convinced that allied peoples at home are one with the armies in deter mination that the enemy shall be given no minutes to rest. He reiterated that the enemy must be hit and hammered until he collapses. To achieve this breaking (Concluded on page 14, column 2) , . . "high time" the trio should get together again. From what they said it was clear that Stalin had expressed similar views although he con fined his latest public state ments to Ihe necessity for Anglo-Soviet collaboration lo make a lasting peace. But Stalin is tied to the east ern front in a way that Church ill and Roosevelt are not lied down in the west. In the broad est sense of the word he liter ally does command the ret! army. With Germany bent upon suicidal resistance, the red army has finally come up to the time for another winter of fensive. Officials here say that at such a time It is highly unlikely 1 that Stalin would leave Russia. 3rd Army Nears Saarbrucken in Saar Basin By-Passed Belfort Captured Allies Making Slow Gains in Aachen Sectors in Rain and Mud London, Nov. 21 UP French armor thrusting northward down the Rhine stormed Mulhouse today, and U. S. troops captured Sarrebourg, 32 miles from the Rhine, in an eastward drive col lapsing the whole German stand In the Vosges mountains The swift-paced French perhaps had already entered Mulhouse, an industrial city of 97,000, in exploitation of their Belfort breakthrough. This push was undermining German positions for 100 miles to the north. Both the American 7th and 3rd armies were beating eastward toward Strasbourg and Saarbrucken, meeting weakening rear guard resistance from Germans apparently retreating to the Rhine. The 44th division of the 7th army captured Sarrebourg (pop., 6500) 70 miles northwest of Mulhouse and mechanized patrols were stabbing onward toward Strasbourg .10 miles beyond. Third army forces fought within 18 miles of Saarbrucken in the industrially-rich Saar basin. Still farther north, tanks of the 3rd army had driven three miles into Germany. French Mopping Up Belfort French troops charged into the fortress city of Belfort by passed in the plunge to the Rhine and were fighting to clean- it '' up, a front dispatch declared tonight. Heavy reinforcements were moving into it, and into the power drive along the Rhine. The sweep into Belfort was surprising, even tp the assault French, for it and Metz taken by 3rd army doughboys had been considered the two strongest fortresses in eastern France. Belfort is ringed by more than a score of satellite forts. It appeared the Germans were giving up theif last positions on French soil. 1 But resistance continued strong in the north, especially against the Americans and British making slow gains in the Aachen sec tors of Germany in rain and mud. General Eisenhower called for ever-increasing pressure until victory is won. Six Allied Armies Increase Pressure Six allied armies were heaping on this pressure at quickening pace. The U. S. 7th and 3rd armies, swarming eastward in the other blade of a French-American scissors, hit into broken nazi resistance described officially as sporadic and disorganized. An unconfirmed Swiss report said the French were attempting to bridge the Rhine southeast of Mulhouse. An assault was reported under way on Mulhouse itself. At the north end of the front, beyond Aachen, American and British armies had cut through fierce German opposition to within some three miles of the Roer river, the last natural defense barrier short of the Rhine near Cologne. British troops in southeastern Holland were eliminating the nazis from the west banks of the Maas before Venlo, a gate to the Ruhr. Allied Armies Push Slowly on Cologne In the battle area east and northeast of Aachen, the American 1st and flth armies and the British 2nd army pushed their lines slowly toward Cologne approximately 26 miles beyond the American vanguards and the Rhine against increasingly furious German resistance marked by tank-led counter-attacks which slowed but failed to stop the allied drive to crack the reich's strongest defenses. The Germans threw 20 to 30 tanks against American 9th army units at Schleiden, seven miles southeast of captured Geilen kirchen, but Lt. Gen. William H. Simpson's men repulsed this blow and advanced a mile and a half northeast capturing Alden hoven on the road to Julich, three miles away. Julich is a bastion on the Roer river, a strong natural defense barrier before the Rhine. Earlier the 9th army breached a formidable 10-mile-long anti-tank ditch. Five fortress groups at Metz continued firing after the German commander within the enemy-held northern portion of the" French fortress city ignored an ultimatum to surrender. Enter Maginot Line Defenses A two-mile advance on the American 3rd army wing east of Metz carried Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.'s men to points eight to 12 miles below the Saar frontier. Third army troops entered the old Maginot line defenses north of Faulquemont, 20 miles southwest of Saarbrucken, and took Lolling, 9'i miles from the Saar border. Dieuze, 30 miles southeast of Metz, was captured. The 3rd Patton's 10th armored division which drove into the Saar a major German iron and coal region has deepened its penetration of the reich to three miles in the Merzig area. This division encountered heavy enemy fire from east of the Saar river. Twelve miles to the northwest mechanized cavalry units of the 3rd army have prowled five miles into Germany up the Moselle river valley, ancient gateway to the Rhincland. The Germans fell back toward the border in the entire sector east of Metz. 1st and 9th Armies Push Forward In addition to taking Altlenhoven, the American flth army also captured Friealdcnhoven, Gereonsweiler, Neclermerz and Ungers haugen. In the 9th army's right, American 1st army troops hacked new gains out of stubbornly defended enemy positions and captured the village of Wenau, approximately 10 miles east of Aachen and six miles west of Duren on the Roer. Heavy fighting was re ported in the outskirts of the German stronghold of Eschweiler, seven miles northeast of Aachen. Above the 9th army, British troops beat off two counter-attacks and punched deeper into the Siegfried defenses, reaching the out skirls of Wurm, 3 miles northeast of captured Gcilenkirchen. Farther north, other units of the British 2nd army were rapidly completing the job ot clearing the enemy out of the Maas bulge in southeastern Holland, meeting almost no opposition as they neared Venlo. Stv e Promoted To be Gov. General Washington, Nov. 21 (U.RI President Roosevelt today nom inated one army officer to be a temporary lieutenant general, 23 to be major generals, and 73 lo bebrigadicr generals. Maj. Gen. Wilhnlm Delp St.ver, chief of staff of the army service forces, ot Niagara Falls, N. Y was recommended for promotion lo lieutenant gener - al. Bridagier generals to be ma- jor generals, and their home towns include: Frank E. Stoncr, Vancouver, Wash. Monkey Tackles Fox-Holed Soldier Leyte Nov. 21 UP' Rifle in one hand, telephone in the oth er, Cpl. Mills H. Stephens, from Raleigh, N.C., called his com- ( t mand post from a water-filled j foxhole south of Ormoc: ' There's something outside my I hole . . ." j The sound of a scuffle came lover the phone. j "Something hit me on the , shoulder. I grappled with lt, ! then it jumped off," Stephens ! resumed, ! "I knew it was too fast for a j .lap, and I took another look. Jit was a monkey." v
