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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 1943)
Weather Forecast: Bain In lowlands, now in hM Sunday. Temp. Hlfhett yesterday 08 Lowest yesterday 44 precipitation pait M hrs. U Um Th MAIL TRIBUNE Want Ad Way Quick Results At Small Cost Tribune DFORD United Pita-FuU Leased Wire United Press Full Leased Wire yt Tbirty-piphth Year MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1943 NO. 183 I! mst mm L J UUi Me V.: MELITOPOL, KEY . TO CRIMEA LINE TAKEN BY REDS Dnieper Bulge Encirclement Drive 4Gains Stubborn Defense Ends. London, Sunday, Oct. 24 OI.PJ Soviet forces' under Gen. Feodor I. Tolbukhin ended the bloodv, 12-day street battle of Melitopol yesterday, capturing the Nazi stronghold that had barred the way of an assault across south ern Russia's steppes to the Cri mea or a thrust to the west. The ;;lctory Implemented the Red , "army's encirclement campaign In the Dnieper bulge, Gen. Ivan S. Konev's Red forces, driv ing forward in a supreme effort to entrap an estimated 750,000 Nazis, seized the junction of Verkhovtsevo, straddling the rail lines from Dnepropetrovsk to Zanamenka and Krivoi Rog, and advanced to little more than 20 miles from Dnepropdzer zhinsk, western guardian of Dnepropetrovsk. Germany's stubborn defense of Melitoool. anchor point of her vaunted "Crimea line." cost her the lives of two full divisions 30.000 men of whom more than 4000 were killed yesterday as the I Red army routed the Nazis out JLof the northern section and jsained possession of the whole city which before the war had a population of 70.000. Melitoool's fall was announced by Premier-Marshal Jotef -Stalin, whose order of the day was am plified by the regular operation al and supplementary commu nity ues broadcast by Moscow., With Melitopol fallen, a grim race was expected between the Russians, heading for the new vulnerable Crimea, and the Ger mans attempting to evacuate an estimated 90,000 effectives from the peninsula by means of their recently-built railway to Kher son and Nikolaev. It was signifi es;! that the German radio re ported Soviet landing craft massing in the Kuban and along the Sea of Azov coast prepara tory for attacks along the Cri mea's coasts. v Moscow s communiques re ported that more than 9500 Gor mans .were slain In yesterday fighting, which was highlighted by Melitopol with additional fo cal points in the Dnieper bend, south and southwest of Kremen chug; below Pereysaslav, and south of Rechitsa on the Gomel front. Slicing across the Dnieper bulge, Konev's forces met and beat down repeated German In fantry and- tank counter-attacks killing more than a regiment normally 3000 men in fighting that at times became savage hand-to-hand encounters. FRIENDLY CHATS Moscow. Oct. 23 U.R) For elgn ministers of the United States, Great Britain and Russia held thier fifth business session of the three-power conference today shortly after Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Foreign Commissar V. M. Molotov con cluded a private talk described as a friendly exchange of ideas. IThe business meeting lasted two hours and 20 minutes breaking up at 6:20 p. m and a sixth session was scheduled xur tomorrow, ine cumeieiu.c was reported to be proceeding In an 4 n kwvI aw a r t rlnm T-1 t A an atmosphere irankness. Correction London, Oct. 23. (U.R) The Exchange Telegraph News wire today carried the following correction: "Please correct the preced ing article to read: 'President Roosevelt's cold has devel oped into grippe repeat grippe (a feverish cold) not gripe as previously sent." " Soldier Finds - v, V s Sw i f2 sV.,M-i ' ILL- SfW . , Although the Italian soldier above U dead tired, he la still very much alive. In the shadow of a Nail plane, which was wrecked only short time before when Allied bombers strafed the railroad marshal . linf yards at Crotone, Italy, this weary warrior fell asleep. VALIANT HELENA BY BOLD RESCUE Washington, Oct. 23 U,R) About 160 survivors of the valiant cruiser Tielena, which sank or helped sink, or damage 16 Japanese warshihs Detore n finally was sent to " bottom, now are ready to fight again as a result of a dsuUng rescue from enemy-heitf territory in the - South Pacific, the navy revealed tonight. The rest of the nearly 1,000 survivors were rescued from the oilcovered waters of Kula gulf after the Helena was sunk last July 7. when Japanese shells finally sent her to the bottom at the close of a brilliant Amer ican victory which saw nine enemy warships turned intj flame-swept wrecks and five others badly battered. The 160-odd men, however made their way to Vella La vella island, then in Japanese hands, where they split up into two groups. When American commanders learned that they were on the island, a bold rescue operation was ordered executed. Eight destroyers were assigned to cover two destroyer-trans ports the Dent and Waters whose job it was to get inshore as close as possible and-take off the survivors in small boats A rendezvous was established shortly after midnight and the first group was removed safely. Marines, covering the operation. stood guard against possible Jananese patrols. Then the Dent and iWaters nroceeded through moonlit wa ters to another point where the second group wasferescued. A Japanese . plane flew directly overhead, but theT ships with held fire and vMte not de tected. En route back to Gua dalcanal, the convoy was spotted by enemy reconnaissance planes which dropped bombs but failed to cause any damage. OF AXIS VIEWED London.- Oct. 23. (U.PJ Rest lessness and defeatism were re ported spreading in Nazi Europe today, and Istanbul dispatches quoted a once-leading German war correspondent, who desert ed and fled to Turkey, as say ing that "Germany will collapse quicker than one thinks." Asserting that the reich al ready had lost the war. Dr. Kurt Rey, Balkan expert for the Frankfurter ZeitungV who fled with his wife from Sofia, told a United Press correspondent in Intanbul that "Hitler and his accomplices are continuing the war ... in order to prolong their rule over an exhausted QUICK COLLAPSE r.H unhappy Germany." Resting Place JIBES SENATORS AND IS REBUKED Washington. Oct. 23. (U.R) Sen. Ralph O. Brewster, R.; Me., tonight characterized . -' as- .'a. further illustration" o American ineptitude" criticism of himself and four other ' globe-trotting senators voiced in London by Mayor Earl Riley of Portland. Riley, to Britain for two months, charged in an interview that the senators had developed most of their impressions of Great Britain from their Dor chester hotel rooms.' Brewster said Riley's Inter view "confirms my impressions that the British are past masters in the art of. dealing with for eign relations." He said that if U. S. Ambassador John Winant snnroved "any such irrespons ible statements, ne is iar less wise than I believe him to be.", Referring to the fact that Rilev "and his fellow travelers' are guests of the British minis try of information, Brewster said thev were apparently pay ing dividends on tne nospitauiy extended to them. Tne sena tors, he said, had their expenses pam Dy tne unuea amies gov ernment. He suggested that the diver gence in viewpoint perhaps il lustrates the old adage: "Whose bread I eat, his song I sing." Of Rilev s reference to tne Dorchester hotel, Brewster said he was willing to agree that they did not "live the life of Riley." II! L.LU I V HUUI1UL. Viva WEDS SECRETARY London. Oct. 23. (U.R) David Lloyd George, the 80-year-old Welsh radical who produced some of Britain's greatest poli tical sensations 20 to 30 years ago, amazed his friends today by marrying his private secre tary. Miss Frances Stevenson, a quarter of a century his junior. They slipped over ta tne Guildford registry office for the ceremony, attended only by the bride's sister and the former prime minister's parliamentary secretary. Lloyd George's daughter., Me gan, introduced Miss Stevenson to her father in 1913. The un usually attractive yountf woman was mistress of Mis? Megan's school. She came for dinner and remained to become the ris ing parliamentarian's private secretary. CLARIFY DHAFT APPEALS Washington, Oct. 23 (U.R) The house la scheduled to con sider next week a bill confirm- ing the authority of Selective Service Director Lewis B. Her shey over draft classification appeals. NAZI INDUSTRIAL CITY OF KASSEL BLASJEDBYRAF Cologne and Frankfurt Also Hit in Raids That Cost 44 Planes. . London, Oct. 23 (U.R) Brit ish and Canadian bombers blast ed and burned the western arms and engineering centers of Ka sel with more than 3,300,000 pounds of bombs last night, and hammered nearby Cologne and Frankfurt with a lesser weight of explosives in one of the RAF's most widespread opera tions of the war. Forty-four bombers and . one fighter were lost in the night operations, which also included the mining of German waters and intruder forays against western Europe by fighter com mand planes. The raid was the most costly for the RAF since the night of Aug. 23 when 58 bombers a record were lost against Ber lin. The price was considered well worthwhile, however, for it was believed that Kassel, a city of 217,000 packed with air plane factories and rail insta lations, thus joined 17 other heavily raided German cities listed as more of a liability than an asset to the German war production machine. British Typhoon and Mustang fighter-bombers carried the of fensive . forward in daylight Saturday, damaging at least la locomotives and setting freight trains afire in "train busting attacks over northern France Two Focke Wulf 190 fighters were shot down -by the British before they were able to get off any return fire, the air min istry announced. Canadian Halifax and Lancas ter four-engined bombers in the procession over Kassel loosed the heaviest weight of bombs ever dropped by the RCAF. Th' air ministry news service an nounced that "well over" 1,500 long - tons of bombs were dropped on Kassel, leaving huge fires and a smoke pall 18,000 feet high hanging over the city , Crew reports and photographs confirmed that the raid, four teenth of the war on Kassel and the fifth heavy one of the past six months, was "highly effective." Pilots saw three tre mendous explosions rip through the city as block-buster and in cendiary bombs showered from the giant bombers. War Bulletins London. Sunday, Oct. 24 (U.R) London had a brief air alert early today, marking th eighth straight night in which German planes have been over th city on small attacks, Th alert started shortly alter midnight and lasted about 30 minutes during which anti-aircraft fir biased in on London district. A heary rapid-fir barrag met other enemy raiders which flaw over an East An glian coast town. Some raid ers dropped flares but there war no reports o: bomolngs, London, Oet. 23 (U.R) Axis land anal sea transport lines through th Carman occupied Balkans are under increasing ly heayy attack. Allied reports disclosed tonight, and Turkish dispatches said th followers of Rd. Vladimir Match, yet ran coast peasant party lead er, had launched a new attempt to unify Jugoslav factions aalnst th Axis. In western Jugoslavia from point east of Fiume to th old borders with Albania and Montenegro, th partlsa forces of Gen. Josip Brosovich wr harassing German (all lines and roads. CHANGE UNLIKELY Washington, Oct. 23 ' (U.R) There Is little chance that the senate will change the languare of the post-war peace resolution on which it starts debate miii- day, a United Press poll lndicat ed tonight. TO HALT ALLIED E Use of Tanks and Massed Infantry Beaten Back Lull in Campaign. ' Allied Headquarters, Algiers, Oct. 23. (U.R) The Germans are using tanks in desperate counter-attacks to slow the steady Allied drive on Rome, but Fifth army gunners have knocked out a number and with their infantry have driven the enemy from commanding heights on the crucial front north of Alife, it was disclosed today. On the Adriatic sector, the Eighth army captured Lupara, 14 miles northeast of Campobas- so, and a'i along the 91-mile mountain iront Allied troops bit deeper into German defenses while British and American fliers ranged up the Appenine peninsula and cut three vital Nazi rail arteries. The Eighth army also hurled back a weak German counter attack in the area of Montecil- fone south of Termoli but it was in the Alife area that the enemy made his most determined ef forts, using massed artillery and infantry as well as tanKS. The artillery shelled the American positions in the town then the Infantry ana tanKS smashed forward only to run into the' deadly horizontal fire of U. S. anti-tank guns which scattered the tanks and wrecked or set afire a number. The .Ger-J man infantry broke and re- rrpated. There was no Indica tion that American tanks had taken part in the battle except possibly as mobile artillery fir ing from oacK oi tne iiguums' line. Thn ' Americans then drove mile north of Alife and occupied ridges lining either side of the upper Volturno, moving wiinin 18 miles of the new inland an chor of the Nazi line at Venafro, Eighth army troops moving along the opposite side of the Matese mountains were also ad vancing on Venafro by way of the Nazis Isernia strongnoia but still had some 25 miles to SO- ., All along tne iront me aura were consolidating meir posi tions and searching out gullies and hills for pockets of Germans left behind in the Nazis' retreat from the Volturno earlier in the wwlc. In the air. Allied bomDers rnntlmmd the relentless pound Ino nf German rail links which already was slowing up and re ducing arrival of reinforce ments on the enemy front, ac- enrdine to reconnaissance re ports. EISENHOWER SEES LONG, BITTER WAR (By United Press) Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, preme Allied commanaer in North Africa, warned Saturday night in a radio broadcast from Algiers that victory is a "long. long way ahead. 'This is a hard war, a Ditter bloody war," Elsenhower said Make no mistake. It vm do a long, long way to final vic tory, over a bitter rough road Our men know it and are read for it. But they want to be assured above all else that the home front is behind them." Eisenhower made his state ment on a program with Sec retary of Treasury Henry mor genthau, Jr., who reported on progress in war bond drlvt-s and on his tour of the fighting fronts. The addresses were car ried by CBS and NBC networks in the United Stales. TENOR OUT OF ARMY San Diego, Oct. 23 (U.R) Army Private Giovanni Zavatt', 30, who before Joining the arm in 1941 was listed as one of the nation's youngest leading oper atic tenors, today was given a medical discharge at Ft. Rose cranr,, where he has been sta tioned since completing recruit training. Jap Freighter lanlu rejoice after slnkine of Jan Lae, New Guinea, but do not stray from ack-ack Bolors run In case of a Jap air attack. Inability to maintain supply lines was one of the chief reasons the Nipponese were forced U evacuate the stratcrio airbase at lu , THREATEN STRIKE Chicago, Oct. 23 U.R) The Big Five" operating brother hoods threatened tonight to tie up the nation's major railroads with a strike in early December unless President Roosevelt in tervenes in the stalemate witn a special fact finding board over wage demands. " The Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen joined the four other brotherhoods Locomotive in aineers. Firemen and Engine- men, Order' of Conductors, and the Switchman's Union of North America today in ordering a strike ballot among its members. The brotherhoods ' said It would take 30 days to complete the strike vote by its 330,000 members and another week to set the date for. the strike but they made it very clear that there was time enough for presi dential intervention, possibly through the appointment of an other board to consider their demands. Washington, Oct. 23 (U.R) The War Labor board threat ened today to refer the strike of 22,000 Alabama coal miners to President Roosevelt unless the mines begin reopening Mon day. It appeared probable that such action would result In renewed government operation of the mines. Strikers then would be subject to criminal penalties under the Smith-Con-nally war labor disputes law if they attempted to block any resumption of operations. ON STATE ROADS Portland, Ore., Oct. 23 U.R) Oregon snow plows today had cleared the earliest snowfall in a decade from the state's high ways with the exception of the heavy fall still on McKenzle river pass. The Portland weathr Bureau bureau also warned that fur ther snows were coming late to day and ordered up small craft warnings along the Oregon coast. Rains were predicted for western Oregon below the usu al winter snow line. NEW GUADALCANAL BASE Guadalcanal, Oct. 23 (U.R) A new airfield on Vella Lavella island, the northernmost Allied airfield in the Solomons islands has been in operation for sev eral weeks for both combat and transport planes, it was revealed today. Seattle, Oct. 23 (U.R) The University of Washington made a powerful bid for a Rose Bowl Invitation today by upietting the undefeated all-star eleven of the Fourth Air Force with a dispbv of team brilliance that routed the airmen 27-7 before a crowd of 15.000- Sunk at Lae frelrhter In waters off coast el E KEPT OFF COAST . Allied Headquarters, South west Pacific, Sunday, Oct. 24 (U.R) The strong Japanese force around Satelberg, 10 miles north of Alllcd-held Finschhafen on the Huon peninsula of New Guinea, withdrew, inland Friday after trying desoerately to break through t6 the coast, leaving 510 dead troops, a communique an nounced today. Gen. Douglas MaoArthur's communique reported that the Japanese are now 1100 yards west of Katika, which is three miles north of Finschhafen air drome. The enemy was thrown back from Katika after occupy ing the village last week In heavy fighting. m Heavy Australian artillery and mortar fire pounded Japanese) positions to pieces while pow erful forces of Billy Mitchell me dium bombers hammered them aerially Thursday and Friday afternoons. In Thursday's raid the bomb ers poured 55,000 rounds of 50 caliber machincgun ammunition into the Japanese lines and rained 221 tons of bombs on the area. The Japanese have now been driven back to the Satelberg area and possibly can withdraw by land trails northward, a headquarters spokesman said. Liberator bombers swept over enemy bases in the Dutch East Indies Friday afternoon and other planes attacked positions on New Britain island Thursday and Friday, LAST MONTH LAGS Washington, Oct. 23 (U.R) Overall munitions production in September was "disappointing except for a six per cent rise in output of four-motored bomb ers, Acting Chairman Charles E. Wilson of the War Production Board reported tonight. War production In general, he said, was about the same as in August and "cannot be regard ed as anything but disappoint ing." He said industry's failure to show a percentage gain in September indicates the country is approaching its production ceiling. "The diversity of the prob lems limiting over-all produc tion indicates that production Is pushing the ceiling," he said. "In some plants it is design changes. in others failure of parts or ma terials to arrive on time. Recent ly the most common complaint has been shortage of labor." PROBLEM OF PEACE Washington, Oct. 23 (U.R) Acting Chairman Charles E Wilson of the War Production Board said today that the future of America and democracy de pends on the ability of law enforcement agencies to meet home front problems in the postwar era as effective)' as they are meeting them during the war UPON NAPLES BY BEATENHUN TOLD Atrocities Listed For F. R.1 Criminals Freed, Brutality Unleashed. Naples, Oct. 21 U.R) Secre tary of the Treasury Henry Mor- genthau is carrying home to ' President Roosevelt a list pre pared by Allied military govern ment officials of 13 categories of atrocities which the Germans inflicted upon Naples before they withdrew under Allied attack. The amazing document was edited personally by Col Edgar Erskine Hume from Virginia, who heads Allied military gov ernment in Italy. One of the charges Is that the Nazis, just before fleeing Naples, threw open the doors of 13 pris ons for dangerous crlminals.Men who had been sentenced to 10:10; terms for murder, rape, homo sexuality, holdups and other crimes born killers and other pathological criminals were re leased upon a battle-shattered populace already suffering com plete disruption of Its civic ex istence. Thousands of these criminal were roaming the streets of Na ples when the Allies entered the city, but they are now being rounded up. . 'The Germans collectively and individually robbed shops, homes and even people in the streets,.;,. "Then were many murders, including those of a sadistic na ture wherein dead bodies were mutilated, especially those . of women. "German booby traps were placed where they might be set off not only by our troops but by civilians, Including children, many of whom were killed. "There was much wanton de struction of property, with phys ical harm to people, "Food supplies were destroyed or fouled. Cruel measures were taken against Italians between 18 and 35 years of age who failed to respond to the German de mands for forced labor. Many people, Including women, were beaten to make them disclose the whereabouts - of supposed valuables." Destruction of the University of Naples, described as "one of the oldest and most famous in existence, was detailed. "The library of the Royal So ciety of Naples, one of the great learned societies of the world, was housed in the university." the report said. "It was put to the torch on the twelfth of Sep tember, a little over a fortnight before we took the city. We are collecting affidavits of facultv members and students who agree that some 600 Germans entered the university, announcing that they were about to burn it in retaliation, for fighting by Nea politan students against their troops. "Cans of gasoline were brought in and the walls, furniture and books covered with it and a fire started. Firemen arrived imme diately but were refused admit tance. 'Two carablnlerl who tried to halt the destruction were taken to the front entrance and shot. Witnesses avow that the notori ous Colonel Scholl, commander of the German troops at Naples, arrived when the work of de struction was under way and read a proclamation in German and Italian announcing that the university was being wrecked as a punishment to the city of Na ples." Red-Blue Forces Maneuver In Snow Fourth Corps Headquarters, Oregon Maneuver Area, Oct. 23. (U.R) Red and Blue force of the central Oregon war game prepared for a battle in the snow today as reconnaissance forces of the two armies made contact for the first time In the seventh phase of the maneuvers. War games umpires ruled that all main bridge crossings over an eight-mile line north of Redmond, Ore., were destroyed as part of the battle plan hind ering enemy offensive warfare. , V'
