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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 1944)
CT3 Mil Ml ifff? ,4 Weather Forecast: Partly cloudy went of Cascades Sunday Temp. Highest yesterday 7.5 Lowest tills morning 57.4 precipitation past 24 hrs. .. 0 Thirty-ninth Year RED TROOPS DEAL NAZI OILSUPPLY Capture Stryj in Southern Poland in 7-Mile Lunge; Prussia Invasion Near. By Robert Musel United Press Correspondent London, Aug. 5 (U.R) Rus sian troops dealing a crippling blow to Adolf Hitler's dwin dling oil supply, today captured Stryj, an important Nazi base in the Carpathian foothills, and Berlin said that other Soviet forces had breached German lines near the East Prussian frontier station of Eydtkuhnen. The capture of Stryj in the region of great Galician oil fields in southern Poland by Marshal Ivan S. Konev's 1st Ukrainian army was announced in an order of the day issued by Premier Josef Stalin a victory celebrated by the firing of 12 salvos from 124 guns in Moscow tonight. Seizing the town in a seven mile advance, Konev's forces cut one of the two remaining railroads across the high Car pathians into Czechoslovakia, over which the Germans have i been routing oil to their labor ing war machines. Stryj lies only 15 miles east of Drohobycz, great refining center for the extensive oil wells of Boryslaw. Advancing westward toward Drohobycz, 1 the Russians were threatening " to seize the oil center, only one other great oil producing region the much-bombed Ploesti oil main to feed the insatiable maw fields in Romania would re of the Wehrmacht. Near Czech Border Konev's forces took Stryj ifter crossing the river of the Fame name, and as powerful elements smashed all German resistance in the city, other forces smashed southward along the railroad from Stryj to Muk acevo in Czechoslovakia, and drove to within 39 miles of the Beskid Pass border of that en slaved country. Meantime, German broad easts hinted that Russian troops already may have invaded the German soil of cast Prussia. At the same time, erupting i from the Vistula river bridge-head northeast of Krakow, other Soviet forces were less than 35 miles from the ancient capital of Poland as they raced toward the coalfields of Ger man Silesia. The Russians also were at tacking west of the Lithuanian town cf Kalvarija, 17 miles from the frontier, Berlin ad mitted, while the German High Command said that Gen. Ivan D. Cherniakhovsky's 3rd White Russian army was attempting to break through to the home of Jimkerdom from Sakaia, 25 miles north of Virbalis and 10 miles from the border. ON LAP, IS II Portland, Ore., Aug. S (U.R) Paul Jasney, national OPA meat ejiert here to study the northwest lamb situation, hint ed in a press conference today that the OPA did not favor the 30-day point holiday still sought here as a means of relieving the glutted market. Referring to a request made to the national office by OPA Administrator Charles R. Baird of San Francisco, and Portland OPA Director McDannell Brown, Jasney said that to be fair to the whole nation it might be necessary to waste something of some product in every pro ducing center from time to time. As a part answer to the over supply , he suggested shipping some cf the lamb to other west ern centers and he mentioned Seattle, Spokane. San Francisco. , and the army. When asked who m would pay the extra freight "charges to these centers if the OPA did not raise the ceiling price, he replied that freight charges always were the ship per's problem. Medford United Press Yank Tanks 8RSST wmrnmmmmmMMm VAPteiX BRITTANY J? WU J & M JL (Acme Telrphoto) American armor races virtually at will through Brittany to points 20 miles below Rennes, 81 from the south coast and 17 southwest of Dlnan In multi-pronged fanout threatening to collapse last orcanized German re sistance. Threatened are St. Nazaire. Brest and Nantes, three most imDortant Nazi U-boat base. T Rome, Aug. 5 (U.R) Eighth army troops have occupied all Florence south of the Arno river against withering enemy artil lery fire which the Germans, de spite repeated claims that the great cultural center would be an open city, have massed along the river's northern bank within the city. As dusty and battle-weary British, Dominion and Indian troops plunged to within two miles of the river on a 25-mile front on either side of the bit terly contested city, the Ger mans drew up artillery forma tions and rushed in crack para troops in a final effort to hold the Arno river line. (The London radio, heard in New York, reported that Allied troops already have penetrated into northern Florence over tem porary bridges thrown over the Arno. The Germans earlier were reported to have destroyed all but one of the six bridges span ning the river at this point. Because of the tremendous historic, architectural and artis tic value of the great Tuscan city, it seemed most likely that the Allies would hold off shell ing the city until the last mo ment in the hope that the Ger mans would pull out without bit ter and devastating street to street fighting. It was feared, however, that the Germans would take advan tage of this situation to bog down the Allies along the Arno river as they have at Pisa, the ancient Tyrrhenian city on the far western Allied flank. ' New Deal "Incompetence" Is Charge of Governor Dewey Pawling, N. Y., Aug. S (U.R) Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, com pleting a 2.350-mile trip through pivotal mid-western states, re turned to his Pawlinfc farm to night after charging the Roose velt administration has "failed to show a degree of cor.petencc" necessary to prepare the nation's war industries for peacetime in duction. The republican presidential nominee said he planned to get his first real rest since he began the trip which took him through Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri and Indiana. The governor re tired to the seclusion of his Quaker Hill farm immediately after stepping from his special car at 7:37 p. m. Dewey's latest attack on the New Deal came at a press con ference, which was held aboard the train en route from St. Louis. Full Leased Wire MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, Push on Big Ports of Nazi Casualties Set At 9,000,000 Since War Start By United Press The German .army has lost 9,000,000 men killed, wounded or missing since the beginning of the war almost five years ago and is left with 4.000,000 troops to face the combined power of the United Nations, ABSIE, the American broadcasting station in Europe, said Saturday night. The broadcast, recorded by CBS monitors, said the Wehr macht numbered 3,000,000 men at the outbreak of the war in Sept. 1939, and added 2,000,000 men to this force in each of the five succeeding years. ABSIE said 7,500,000 of the German casualties were inflict ed by Russian armies. And as serted almost 1,000,000 of their total losses were suffered since the beginning of July in Rus sia, France and Italy. Those casualties, it said, prompted the recent German generals' revolt against tw Nazi regime. Spike Rumors Army To Occupy Hotels San Francisco, Aug. 5 (U.R) Rumors that the army service forces might take over five ma jor San Francisco hotels were spiked tonight by Charles Lawr ence, Jr., acting director of the President's committee for con gested production areas in Washington, D. C. He had been assured by rep resentatives of the Army Serv ice forces, Lawrence notified the San Francisco office of the CCPA that it is not planned at this time to take over any hotel accommodations in ' San Fran cisco. Hollywood, Aug. 5 (U.R) Actress Bette Davis was dazed for a short while on the sound stage today when two stage hands moving a barn door set accidentally clipped her on the head. He told newspapermen that to bring about orderly reconver sion there must be extensive planning, and challenged the ability of the present democratic administration to prepare post war blueprints. "There is no one thing that can be done to speed reconver sion," he said. "You could do one thing well and still the whole thing can break down. For ex ample, a large automobile com pany may have a hundred com panies that manufacture parts to be fed into the main plant. If so much as one of those com panies is not handled with equal speed, the other 99 and the main company and all the employes of all of them wil be idle. "It requires a degree of com petence never yet shown by the present national administration in anything." mm X3v VS w is St H" Brittany $$S'$Se"e Boy':.;. Bognolt Fcugerti Ih FRANCE: JL 40 MILES TO NiNTf t T. NAZAIRE 7 B ATTLE INJURED KILLS 45 NEGROES Valdosta, Ga., Aug. 5 (U.R) Atlantic Coast Line railroad of ficials tonight blamed a broken rail for the wreck of a speeding passenger train near here last midnight which killed 45 Negro laborers and injured 38 others, but miraculously spared the lives of battle casualties from Normandy who were en route to an army hospital. The railroad announced to night that its earlier count of 48 dead had been revised down ward following a careful check of the dead. The Negroes, members of a railroad work gang homeward bound to Alabama for the week end, were disgorged from a car which was torn open by the im pact, and their bodies, broken and mangled, scattered over the ground. In another car, bodies of the Negro workers were thrown to gether and "stacked like cord wood," according to Capt. Val entine Bay, provost marshal of the nearby Moody army air field who directed operations of mili tary police dispatched to the scene. It required four hours, Bay said, to extricate one of the men. "But when we cut our way to him, he was able to walk away from the wreckage the only walking wounded taken from the car," Bay said. The wounded troops from the Normandy battlefields were rid ing in a Red Cms hospital car, last coach of the 14-car train. The derailment occurred in a desolate, palmetto-dotted sec tion of southwest Georgia that was almost Inaccessible to rescue parties. The train was en route from Savannah to Montgomery, Ala. The scene was described by Turner Rockwell, editor of the Valdosta Times, as "a terrible, mangled mass of bodies and parts of bodies." BULLETIN Chicago. Aug. 5 (U.R) Five Chifago White Sox errors gave the Detroit Tigers an equal num ber of unearned runs Bnd a 5-3 victory over the Chicagoans be fore 17,257 here tonight. The Sox. who had previously hand ed Hal Ncwhouser three of his six defeat, touched the Tiger southpaw for 11 hits but could n't stop him from winning his 17th of the season. With the score tied at 3-all, Detroit scored their victory runs In the ninth with an error, a fielder's choice end an intentional pass filled the bases. Jim Outlaw then drilled a single over second to score both markers. t 1944 STRIKE LEADERS 10 BEJRRESIED Violation Anti-Strike Law Is Charged in Warrants Troops Back Ultimatum. Philadelphia, Aug. 5 (U.R) U. S. Attorney Gerald A. Glee son tonight authorized Issuance of warrants for the arrest of James McMcnamin and three other leaders 'of the Philadel phia Transportation company strike, charging them with vio lations of the Smith-Connally anti-strike law. The others named were James Bixie, also known as James Dix on; Frank Carney and Frank Thompson, members of the strikers executive committee. The warrants were turned over to the U. S. marshal's office for service immediately, Gleeson said. McMcnamin and other leaders called the strike early last Tues day and it was put into effect by the men reporting for duty, but saying they were "sick." The controversy started when the transportation company upgrad ed eight Negro employes to the position of operators. The strik ers contended that the action threatened their seniority. Hayes In his ultimatum to night said that "the war cannot wait while the employes of this company make up their minds whether they will come back to work or not." "Federal troops are being brought to Philadelphia to see to it that operations are re sumed in accordance with the provision of the president's exec utive order," he said. "It is not my intention to re place by any soldier any civilian employe who is ready and will ing to work. Soldiers will be used only to operate vehicles which otherwise would remain idle. Soldiers will ride as guards on every bus, trolley, subway or elevated train thut runs over this system. These armed mili tary guards will go on duty this evening. The soldier drivers will be assigned to transit operations as soon as they are available." Deadline Set The ultimatum directed all employes to report (or the "first regular shift" on Monday be ginning at 12:01 a. m., and that "steps will be taken at once to drop from the company's em ployment rolls all who do not re port at the scheduled time or present a physician's certificate of Illness." He cautioned that those who report and later leave their Jobs "will likewise be dropped from the rolls unless they present a doctor's certificate." He read a ruling by Frank L. McNamce, regional director of the War Manpower Commis sion, which said that no other employer could hire an em ploye of the Philadelphia Trans portation Co. "I know that these are all drastic measures," he said, "but when we are fighting a war, our first consideration must be the advancement of the war effort. "Evcr day these troops have to be kept here means a day's delay in getting them to the battle fronts. We cannot shell any Germans or Japs with troops who drive transit vehicles in Philadelphia." Portland, Ore., Aug. 5 (U.R) Oregon's fifth war bond sales topped the quota by more than $60,000,000 E. C." Sammons, state chairman of the Oregon War Finance committee, an nounced today. Final tabulations from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco sot Oregon's total at $187,701,038 in comparison with the $125,000,000 quota. Taking a last minute spurt, E bond sales reached $44,628, 508 after lagging for weeks be hind the $38,000,000 quota. Tribun United Press Full Or?" S PETITION Ul 1 1TE AREA FOR SI1 AMISSION Setic onange in Absentee Voter's Law to Insure Count of Soldier Ballots. Portland, Ore.Aug. 5 (U.R) Democratic party workers were circulating petitions in Multno mah county today calling for a special session of the state leg islature to amend the absentee voters" law so that service men and women would be insured an opportunity to vote. The petition is in accordance with a resolution passed by the Portland Lodge of the Elks which petitioned Gov. Earl Snell to "immediately" call a special session . . . for the pur pose of enacting legislation to change the independent candi date filing date from Sept. 23 to Aug. 15 or some date there abouts, to give soldiers addition al time to receive and return their ballots for the November election. 300 Too Late The Elks asserted that ap proximately 300 ballots from soldiers from Multnomah coun ty were returned too late to be counted in the May 19 prima ries. Since that time, however, the army and navy have set up airmail service to handle the ballots for the general election. After checking with clerks In all counties, Secretary of State Robert S. Farroll, Jr., said that the airmail service coupled with cooperation of clerks, would make It possible to receive bal lots from all service men in plenty of'time. Gen. Hershey Will Speak at Launching Portland, Ore., Aug. 5 U.R) Maj. Gen. Lewis B Hershey, na tional director of selective serv ice, will be guest speaker at the launching of the tanker Beacon Rock at Swan Island shipyard here next Tuesday, and Mrs. Hershey will sponsor the ves sel, it was announced today. Gen. Hershey will visit Port land during the course of a na tional tour of selective service offices. Col. Elmer Wooton and Col. Walter Delong, selective service directors in Oregon and Washington, will accompany the general here. He-Man Heroes Mussed in Series Of Hollywood Brawls By Frederick C. Othman United Press Hollywood Correspondent Hollywood, Aug. S (U.R) The rip-snortingest scries of movie fights yet, In which no body got paid for their fistic endeavours, left half a dozen top flight picture heroes dribbling blood tonight from their hand some noses. They Included Jon Hall, whose wife, Frances Langford, was overseas with Bob Hope while Hall was wounded In the neck on the home front; Edward Nor rls, the he-man of many a movie; Tommy Dorsey, the horn tooter; Pat Dane, his beautiful wife; Charles Bickford, who usually tangles with lions; Barney Old field, the race driver; Mike Ram anoff, the bogus prince and res taurant proprietor, and several others yet to be identified. The bloodiest of the brawls was at the home of Dorsey In the Sunset Plaza apartments, where he threw a party for numerous movie beauties and their escorts. The party broke up in fervent thanks and emo tional goodbyes at dawn; a few minutes later Norrls and Hall returned to pick up a purse left by a feminine guest whose name they wouldn't reveal. Miss Dane opened the door, according to witnesses, Hall threw his arms around her, and she bopped him In the nose with the purse. This, the goggle-eyed bystanders said, made Dorsey unhappy and he took a poke at his erstwhile guest. Then, as if movie doubles had E Leased Wire NO. 115. Trolley Stretcher JRI'4 itsl Mi-- (Acme Tctephoto) Guam's rugged terruin prevented stretcher bearers from carrying oas unities down this steep cliff so the) ringed up this stretcher-trolley thai swiftly nnd comfortably lowered wounded to waiting ambulances. M rlne Corps photo E ROBOT BARRAGES London, Sunday, Aug. 6 (U.R) The Nazis early today resumed their flying 'bomb barrage against the British civilian front In London and southern England following Saturday's relatively light attack by the blind missies. The sharp reduction in cas ualties and damage from ex plosions of the robot bombs yes terday was attributed to a con centrated three-day rain of Al lied blockbusters over the flying bomb installations of northern France. Royal Air Force and Ameri can heavy bombers, out again today with their loads of one and two-ton bombs, wound up three days of attack against the bomb launching platforms along the French coast of Pas do Calais to Dippe last night and recon naissance pilots said It appeared that the Germans had abandoned the sites. gone In there pitching, all was confusion. Norris found himself on the floor, with two ladies kicking him In tho stomach. Somebody rang all the door bells In tho apartment, sleepy neighbors filed out and one of them according to a celebrant who wasn't quite sure what he'd seen but thought it was a knife- went to work on Hall's neck. The handsome hall, who has been wearing embroidered skirts lately In the movies as a slave of Maria (queen of the Nile) Montez, wound up In Hollywood emergency hospital, with five flesh wounds on his neck and shoulders. He said he didn't know whether his attacker used a knife or n broken bottle. Hollywood's other battles dur ing the night were little lulus, too. but paled by comparison. The 68-year-old Oldfield took on the debonair Prince Mike, who has done all his fighting with words and legal writs, over a traffic row and dropped him with one punch. Seems that the i i 1.1 r t l nA I pimi'u cui inn mi in Hum ui win- Ileitis. Bickford, whose best known fight was with a lion that nearly killed him In a movie, took on some strangers In the Somerset House, restaurant de luxe, whose conversation didn't sound pa triotic to him. With he-man Bickford was super-press agent Russell Bird well, who produced an account ot the fisticuffs that could run into tho next column. Suffice to say here that Bickford knocked them all out, one, two and three Or so said Birdwcll. PORT IS ENTERED AFTER 140-MILE DASHJNJ DAYS Penetration of St. Nazaire Believed Near Paris Drive Looms Next Move, By Edward W. Beattie United Press War Correspondent Allied Supreme Headquarters, London Sunday. Aug. 6 U.PJ . Triumphant American tank forces smashed into the famed World War port of Brest Satur day after a sensational 140-mile dash in five days to the tip ot the Breton peninsula, and simul taneously scaled off the whole, vast cape by reaching the mouth of the Loire near Nantes. Unofficial reports here said that Nantes, and possibly St. Na zaire as well, had been invest ed by the Americans, whose ad vance had thrown a net around four depleted German divisions whose strength might total 25, 000 men. Adding to a day of stunning triumphs, the Yanks also tore 29 miles eastward from the base of the cape, captured Mayenno and crossed the Mayenne river in a powerful new drive on Paris, made possible now that the big entry port of Brest la withni our graps. ' British troops, following up an abrupt German withdrawal from the Odon river salient southwest of Caen, seized the enemy's erst while anchor positions at Villers B o c a g e and Aunay-Sur-Odo, Breaking into rolling tank ter rain from the confining hills and hedges of the Bocago country, the British applied tremendous pressure and the German retreat was believed continuing beyond the Orne. Near Nanles In their advance to the Loire river mouth, the Yanks captured Rcdon, Allied headquarters an nounced, and smashed on 30 miles to reach the river at a "point to the southeast, ' which would put them In the immedi ate vicinity of Nantes. The Loire estuary is several miles wide along its 25-mile east west course from Nantes to tho sea and by reaching the river the Americans scaled off tho peninsula as effectively as if they had first struck to the At lantic at St. Nazaire, just north of the estuary. Robert C. Miller of the Unit ed Press reported in a dispatch filed from France at 8:15 p. m. (2:15 EWT) that it had been an nounced "elements of American armor are within the city lim its of Brest." He also reported that an Amer ican force had driven across tho Mayenne river, which runs 40 miles cast of Rennes, In an ap parent drive toward Paris, 120 miles beyond the stream. The eastward drive was launched from newly captured Fourgeres, 25 miles southeast of Avranches, and Involved a one day smash of 27 miles to tho Mayenne river at a point two miles below the city of Mayenne. Defense Crumbling Another spearhead plunged several miles below St. Glides Do Bois, Itself only 18 miles north cast of St. Nazaire. as the dough boys ran roughshod In all direc tions against disintegrating en emy defenses In tho Brittany area. It was just a little over 27 years ago that the Americans be gan landing at Br.st, making It the main debarkation port of the first AEF. More than 300,000 troops eventually were landed there along with 250.000 horses. This time they came from a different direction and in a far different manner, rumbling overland in a tide of tankpower to climax one of the stupendous drives of the war As they ap proached, more than 100 RAF heavy bombers blasted Brest harbor to forestall the escape of Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz's main U-boat fleet. The last previously reported position of the two Brest-bound columns had been approximate ly 100 miles cast of the port and they thus appeared to have cov ered that distance in about 48 hours a speed of 50 miles a day. British troops crashing trough In tho wake of tho retreat cap tured tho deserted but heavily mined fortress of Villers-Uocage, tho strongholds of Evrccy and Esquay and more than a score of other key points as the enemy fell back across the Orne on an eight-mile front, abandoning an area totaling altogether about SO squaro miles. To cover the withdrawal, tha enemy launched a furious coun-' ter-attack from recaptured Vira In tho center, but the British held their lines and were being joined late Saturday by ait American column
