Canucks and British Add Weight to Paris Drive
ARMORED FORCES
Weather
Forecast: Partlr cloudy to
night and UXIncsdav, with
Mattered thunder norms and
showers In mountains. I.lttle
change In temperature. Temp.
Highest yesterdnv 8
Lowest tills morning 49
Medford
3 1 MBUNE
CRASH DEEP INTO
CAEN AREA LIO
Tremendous Rolling Barrage
Precedes Attack; Yankees
Converge on Le Mans.
United Prut Full Leased Wire
United Press Full Leased Wit
Thirty-ninth Year
MEDFORD, OREGON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1944
NO. 117.
American Troops Receive Ovation
. , ... ,JL ( v4rm Rndio-Telephoiof
French civilians oj liberated Rennes. provisional capital of Brittany, give American armored columns a
tumultous ovation as they pour through the city in pursuit ol swiftly retreating German occupation army
which had held the people in bondage-for I:ur years. Photo by NEA-Acme stall photographer Andy Lopes
lor War Picture PooL
I1PAMRF Tfil n
Ji II I lii-UL. I ULL
By United Press
Premier Gen. Kuniaki K0I50
warned the Japanese people to
day that Japan faced 'difficul
ties of unprecedented serious
ness" as further Allied progress
was reported through Ihe Pa
cific. Koiso's message, broadcast by
the Domei News Agency and re
corded by the United Press in
San Francisco, cited the Amer
ican occupation of the Marianas
as "an attempt to obtain a quick
decision in the war and presents
the appearance as if to strike at
our homeland in a single blow."
Advance In Guam
On Guam, American forces'
with air support struck three
miles northward in a day to
squeeze Japanese defenders into
a tiny area at the northern end.
A communique from Admiral
Chester W. Nimitz revealed that
carrier aircraft bombed and
strafed Japanese Sunday on
Mount Santa Rose, one of the
last two remaining elevations on
which the enemy could mount
defense bastions.
Nimitz announced that navy
and army Liberators continued
attacks in the Carolines and
nearby enemy bases Friday and
Saturday.
In the southwest Pacific, the
far eastern air force was be
lieved to have successfully com
pleted an intensive two-months
campaign to neutralize Yap isl
and in the western Carolines.
American forces continued
counter-attacks against Japanese
forces trapped on British New
Guinea and the total enemy
death toll in the campaign was
estimated at nearly 6000.
Allied planes were disclosed
to have sunk a 1300-ton freighter
transport at the Banda islands
south of Coram in the Dutch East
Indies.
Pvt. Stanley Morgan
In Hawaii Hospital
Pvt. Stanley Clyde Morgan,
wounded during the battle of
Kninnn In its latter stapes, is now
In an army hospital in Hawaii,
according to information re
ceived by his grandmother, Mrs.
Tessie Morgan, and a brother,
Richard Morgan, of 850 King
street. Pvt. Morgan has been
awarded the Purple Heart medal.
The serviceman has been in
the army abeut a year and a
half and is the son of Mr. and
Mrs. F. N. Morgan, Lakevicw.
He had been serving with a
medical corps unit.
SIDE GLANCES
By
TRIBUNE REPORTERS
Roy ("Noah") Hockathorn
busily at work constructing a
boat in his Haven street home
garage.
Medford Conch-Elect Al Simp
son scouring the city in search
of a domicile.
Annis Scripter almost but not
quite making the sale of a well
viewed dress. -.
Giant, Armored Trucks Take
British Into German Lines
With the British and Canadians Advancing Beyond Caen,
Aug. 8 (U.R) The big bombers faded away in the darks and
streams of colored tracer shells spurted across No-Man's Land.
Then the British and Canadian? rolled out their secret weapon
giant, armorplated lorries jam-packed with assault infantry.
The big break-through was on.
Down highways marked off;
on either side by streaks of bril
liant tracers, the armored lorries
smashed through the enemy;
lines, unloading their cargoes of
tough fighting men deep inside
the German positions to rip and
disorganize the foe.
Surprise for Nazis
Engineers had been busy for
days preparing the lorries and
they came as a complete sur
prise to the Germans. A surprise
also was the method of guiding
them by tracers, as pathfinders
guide the big bombers in the air.
The lorries followed the first
wave of tanks. They swept up
to the battlcfront directly from
the machine shops where they
had been fitted with special ar
mor, paused to take on their
loads of infantrymen, and then
rolled on across the bomb-pocked
pathway carved by the bombers
which had just dropped 6000
tons in the biggest tactical bomb
ing of the war.
They came up to the front un
der heavy camouflage and the
enemy could not have known
about them until his machinegun
and artillery shells were bounc
ing 'harmlessly off the plated
monsters.
OPEN NEXT WEEK
Packing plants of the city and
valley are scheduled to start op
erations for the season next
Tuesday, with most of them run
ning by Thursday. Picking of
Bartletts will start next Monday
in some orchards, and be general
by mid-week. Clarence Pankey
of the Reter Fruit company re
ports a fair crop, with good size
and quality He also states that
as a result of a campaign waged
by growers there is less scab
than last year and the year be
fore. ,
Wages in orchards and pack
ing plants, under an OPA ruling,
will be the same as last year, it
is reported.
SCORCHING EARTH
Moscow, Aug. 8 (U.R) The
Germans burned houses, farms
and other installations along the
East Prussian frontier today in
the first application of the
scorched earth policy to their
"holy" soil as Red armies closed
in along a 215-mile arc.
Two more Russian armies
the 1st Baltic and 2nd White
Russian were revealed to have
Joined In the mounting battle for
East Prussia as Gon. Ivan D.
Chcrniakhovsky's 3rd White
Russian a;my bogged down five
to 10 miles from the border In
the face of heavy resistance from
reinforced Nazi troops.
in Rennes
EIGHTH AND NAZIS
IN FURIOUS FIGHT
ON BANK OF ARNO
Rome, Aug. 8 (U.R) Eighth
army troops pushing to the
southern bank of the Arno river
five miles southeast of Florence,
encountered strong German po
sitions today, and were locked
at once in furious battle. In
the southern suburbs, other
British soldiers prepared for a
final assault against the ancient
city.
While allied patrols crossed
the Arno east and west of Flor
ence in advance of the Impend
ing battle, an estimated 100,000
refugees crowded in the British
and German held sections of the
city imperturbably carried on a
normal routine. Despite the
German shelling of southern
Florence, Italian families carry
ing market baskets thronged the
streets.
British forces, trying to ex
tend their holdings on the south
ern bank of the Arno before
launching the push aimed at
driving the enemy northward
to his gothic line, were held up
at a hill known as Point 557.
Germans there fought desper
ately against being driven back
against the southern bank of the
Arno.
At that point there were no
significant changes in the lines,
and the balance of the sector
stretching from Florence to the
Tyrrhenian sea was generally
quiet. .
LIEUT. BEASLEY
LISTED MISSING
Second Lt. Harry M. Beasley,
bombardier of a B-17, has been
declared missing in action over
enemy territory in Europe, ac
cording to Information -oceived
by his wife, the former Barbara
Schmidt, Riverside, Cal and his
parents-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. E.
F. Schmidt, 325 West Fourth
street, Medford. Lt. Beasley had
been In England since March
and In the last letter from the
officer, dated July 20, he stated
that he had just returned from
his fourth mission, with the
plane full of flak hdles and one
dead motor.
Lt. Beasley had been In serv
ice since October of 1941. gradu
ating as a bombardier from the
Carlsabd. N. M., field. He later
trained at Alexandria, La., leav
ing there for England Before
entering the service he was em
ployed by Fluhrer's bakery.
Mrs. Beasley is emploved at a
post exchange at March Field,
near Riverside.
INTERVENTION IN
TRUCKER STRIKE
BELIEVER LIKELY
Roosevelt May Act to Halt
Walkout of 50,000 Driv
ers and Freight Handlers.
By United Press
Presidential intervention was
considered likely to be the next
step today in a strike of an esti
mated 50,000 truck drivers and
freight handlers in the midwest
as an army officer reported that
the labor dispute was interfer
ing with the movement of war
materials at Omaha and Min
neapolis. The strikers, members of the
General Drivers' Union (AFL),
were protesting against the re
fusal of more than 100 motor
freight companies to grant a 7
cent hourly wage increase or
dered by the War Labor Board.
War Goods Bogged
The strikers, by agreement
with the army, promised to keep
vital war materials moving, but
Major Alec Baxter, chief of the
highway branch of the army
transportation corps at Chicago,
said the movement of war goods
was "bogging down in the Oma
ha and Minneapolis sections" be
cause operators did not want
trucks to leave the terminals.
Meanwhile, at Philadelphia,
two of four employes of the
P h 1 1 a d e 1 p h n a Transporta
tion company, who were dis
missed "for cause" during their
alleged leadership of the six-day
transit strike which ended there
yesterday, faced military Induc
tion after cancellation of their I
occupational deferments. The
other two are over mjjitary age,
but all four are under bond Im
posed after their arrest during
the strike.
Return Ordered '
At Cleveland, the regional
WLB directed the return to work
of striking members of the
United Automobile Workers'
Union (CIO) at the National Sup
ply company, Toledo, O. About
1400 workers have been on strike
since last Friday.
At Montreal, the strike of 4000
tramway company employes en
tered its sixth day with no set
tlement in sight.
An estimated 800 to 1000
workers failed to report for the
day shift of two plants of the
Wright Aeronautical corporation
today at Paterson, N. J.
TIREDlllRAL
TAKES OWN LIFE
Washington, Aug. 8 (U.R)
Secretary of Navy James Forres
tal announced today that Rear
Admiral Don P. Moon, command
er of a task force In the invasion
of Normandy, committed suicide
on Saturday, ' apparently as a
result of combat fatigue "
Moon, 50-year-old native of
Kokomo, Ind., commanded na
val forces on the east face of the
Cherbourg peninsula In the Inva
sion operation under Rear Ad
miral Alan G. Kirk. He carried
out one of the most successful
of the beachhead landings.
He Is survived by the widow,
Mrs. Sybil H. Moon, of Arling
ton, Va., and two children, Don
P. Moon, Jr., and a daughter,
Miss Meredith W. Moon.
NAZIS POUNDED
BY BIG BOMBERS
London, Aug. 8 (U.R) More
than 600 American heavy bomb
ers pounded enemy troop con
centrations in support of the all
out Allied offensive in the Caen
sector today, while about 400
other Flying Fortresses and Lib
erators attacked enemy air
dromes and flying bomb instal
lations in northern France.
During the shattering aerial
assault to flast a way for ad
vancing Canadians south of Caen,
the Americans dropped more
than 20.000 100 pound fragmen
tation bombs on German troops
who were still dazed from the
6000-ton RAF bomber command
attack only 13 hours earlier.
POW's at Ft. Ord
Forced to Refill
120-Foot Tunnel
Fort Ord, Calif., Aug. 8 (U.R)
An undetermined ' number of
German prisoners of war at
tempted unsuccessfully to es
cape from the Fort Ord stockade
by digging a tunnel from the
recreational hall to a point out
side the enclosure, Maj. Karl F.
Bichler, commander of the camp,
announced today.
The tunnel was discovered
prior to its completion, and the
prisoners of war who had dug
it were assigned to refill it.
Major Bichler said the pris
oners had been working on the
tunnel for "some time." Using
a short-handle shovel and a hoe.
The tunnel's total length was
120 feet, and it averaged two
and one-half square feet. The
dirt shaft was supported by
lengths of rough lumber.
MCNAIR SON ALSO
DIES IN SERVICE
Washington, Aug. 8 (U.R)
The War Department today
sought further details of the
death on Guam of Col. Douglas
McNair, 37, son of the late Lt.
Gen. Lesley J. McNair.
News of Col. McNair's death
was received only a few days
after the announcement that his
father, who had just relinquish
ed command of the army ground
forces, had been killed by an
American bomb In Normandy.
Santa Barbara, Cal., Aug. 8
U.R) Shocked at the double
tragedy which struck the fam
ily during the past month, Mrs.
Frieda McNair, widow of Col,
Douglas McNair, remained in
seclusion at her Hope ranch
home today with her 10-months-
old daughter, Bonnie Claire,
. Washington, Aug. 8 (U.R)
Close friends of Clare Huster
McNair, who had to face the
deaths of her husband and her
only son In battle a few days
apart, said today that she was
taking the double loss "like the
good soldier she is.
Mrs. McNair, who has been
active in Red Cross and other
home front war activities, was
notified yesterday of the death
of her son, Col, Douglas Mc
Nair, 37, In action on Guam.
Her husband, Lt. Gen. Lesley
J. McNair, was killed by an
American bomb in Normandy
two weeks ago.
TO BERLIN
By United Press
The shortest distance to
Berlin from advanced allied
lines today:
Russia 328 miles (gain of
two miles In one week.)
Italy 604' miles (gain of
three miles In one week.)
France 623 miles (un
changed for week.)
American Blitz Toward Paris Reminds
Of German Drive Which Took France
By Ralph Helnien
UP Staff Correspondent
Cincinnati, O., Aug. 8. (U.R)
There's a remarkable parallel
between the smashing American
blitz toward Paris and the Ger
man blitz of 1040 that tumbled
France In 45 days. Indeed, lt
is the same thing In reverse.
Both are overwhelming tank
operations In which the break
through permits a swift, deep
penetration that plays havoc
with the costliest and best laid
defense.
There's a parallel, too, be
tween the swift capture by the
allies of key points behind Hit
ler's Atlantic wall which his
Todt organization built In three
years at a cost of $30,000,000
out of the French taxpayers'
pockets and the turning of the
$50,000,000 Maginot line by the
Germans In 1040.
Took 43 Days
Forty-five days after the Ger
mans broke Into the tank coun
try of north France in 1940,
France surrendered. The Ameri
cans broke into tank country on
July 25.
Tho terrain from Normandy,
Brittany, or tho Loire valley to
Paris is perfect tank country.
It's hilly, but smooth with roll
ing, green fields interspersed
with forests and excellent na
tional roads. It Isn't greatly dif
ferent from the Ardennes and
Somme valley country where
Reichenaa'i tanks smashed the
C"cvf If All
I ft hr. . u$ -
j- lis
it f
4 fo&ii
(Acme Tehphato)
Pretty Jnne Churchill, Kansas City,
Mo,, socialite and third cousin ol
Britain's prime minister, sent Holly
wood actor Jon Hall back to apart-,
ment of bandsman Tommy Dorscy
(or her purse, which resulted In bat
Uft that sent Hall to hospital.
BLAZE DESTROYS
Fire early today destroyed the
jemnjl sawmill of H, F. Swingle
Xil Trail, but pumpers irom me
Rogue River National Forest
Service and the state forest pa
trol prevented its spread to near
by fields and forest land Cause
of the fire was unknown. The
mill ws located about six miles
from Trail on the old Tiller-Trail
road.
The blaze broke out about 8:15
a. m., shortly after workers had
arrived to fire up for the day's
run, and the forest pumpers
were summoned from Medford
about 9 a. m. The mill was to
tally destroyed, but lumber and
logs were saved, it was reported.
It was thought that machinery
could be salvaged.
Telephone connections to the
mill were out and no figures on
the loss were obtainable from
Mr. Swingle.
At the Medford office of the
Rogue River Forest Service it
was said that three small fires,
reported yesterday In the Union
Creek district, were thought to
be holdovers from the Ust elec
trical storm.
French army to bits and made
tho 45-day conquest of 1940 pos
sible. The new battle for Paris rcal
fy is being fought in western
Normandy where four German
panzer divisions counter-attacked
yesterday. If we win that bat
tle finally there should be no
further difficulties in reaching
Paris within a matter of weeks.
There's really no defendable line
between the present American
positions and Paris.
Can Deiend Paris
Paris can be defended If the
Germans decide to risk the de
struction of the city. In 1871
Paris resisted the besieging
Prussian armies for many bitter
and hungry months.
I remember the French gov
ernment's last day In Paris, June
10, 1940. The previous evening
Propaganda Minister Jean Prou
vost, the owner of Franco's big
gest daily newspaper, the Paris
Solr, told the American corres
pondents: "Paris will bo defend
ed from house to house, from
street to street, from roof to
roof." It sounded nice, but we
all knew Premier Paul Rcynaud
had assembled cars that very
evening to take the whole gov
ernment and the ministers and
their wives and sweethearts to
Tours.
Prouvost'i good Intentions
really were bravado. Certainly
they didn't make military sense
because Generalissimo Mnxime
Weygand, as supreme allied com
NAZIS HANG EIGHT
RANKIN. OFFICERS
FOR CONSPIRACY
Sentence Carried Out Two
Hours After Court Con
fession in Murder Try.
London, Aug. 8. (U.R) Eight
high German officers involved
In the plot to assassinate Adolf
Hitler on July 20 and overthrow
his Nazi regime were hanged to
day only two hours after sen
tence of death had been passed
on them by the provincial court
in Berlin following a sensation
al two-day trial.
Berlin announced officially
that the eight men were sen
tenced to dca'th for "honorless
ambition, for high treason and
treachery."
Abrupt Ending
The trial came to an abrupt
end today after the eight made
a "confession" of their guilt and
official German accounts indi
cated that the conspirators, in
cluding a field marshal and three
generals, had been hanged pub
licly. The condemned traitors were
Field Marshal Erwin von Witz
leben, who, according to some
German accounts, directed the
anti-Hitler conspiracy; Col. Gen.
Hoeppncr, Maj. Gen. Stieff, Lt.
Gen. von Hase, Lt. von Hagen,
Lt. Col. Bernardis, Capt, Fried-
rich Klausing, and Lt. Count
York von Wartcnburg.
The "confessions" came at the
close of a carefully staged two
day trial in the plenary cham
ber of the provincial court in
Berlin, where a hand-picked tri
bunal of Nazi judges and Ger
man general staff officers heard
a damning indictment that
charged the eight officers with
attempting to murder Hitler on
July 20 in order to take over
tho government and sue for
peace with the allies.
In addition to the eight ex
ecuted, the army court expelled
the following from the army:
General of Communications
Troops Frllgicbcl, Maj. Gen. von
Trcsckow, Col. Hansen, Maj.
Haycsscn, Lt. (retired) Count von
dcr Schulenbcrg.
The expulsion and death sen
tences were carried out at the
same time, the Transocean news
agency said.
The alleged testimony Indi
cated that as far back as Feb
ruary, 1043, tho plot against Hit
ler was brewing, and that by the
end of that year negotiations
were underway among the group
to actually carry out the attempt
on the fuehrer's life.
Soldiers customarily are ex
ecuted by the firing squad and
death by hanging is employed
only for the lowest criminals.
mander, had told the govern
ment that Paris couldn't be de
fended even if every house was
used to shelter snipers. Wey
gand told Rcynaud that any
army with a hundred bombers
and a thousand tanks could cap
ture Paris in 24 hours despite
any defense but would destroy
the city in doing so. That same
formula stands today 100
bombers and 1000 tanks and
Paris lost In flames if it li de
fended. Pari. Rail Hub
Paris Is militarily important,
however, and beyond the morale
building aspect of Its recapture.
All railroads have their termi
nals in Paris. None runs
through. They are linked by a
belt line which our bombers
have cut often In past months.
By taking Paris, the allies
would immediately cut the five
main French railroad systems.
One of the most dramatic yet
hopeless, costly, and futile pha
ses of the war was the 1940
flight from Paris. I closed the
United Press bureau and follow
ed the government to Tours on
June 10th, about 12 hours after
the government fled. I drove
100 miles through roads packed
solidly with humanity. All Paris
fled tho approaching Nails,
either afoot or In automobiles
and on bicycles. The flight block
ed the French army's retreat and
permitted the Germans to cap
ture more than a million French
prisoners.
Supreme Headquarters, AEP,
Aug. 8 (U.R) Two Canadian
and British armies, striking be
hind a tremendous rolling bar
rage of aerial bombs and artil
lery fire, crashed deep into tha
German battle lines below Caen
in a full-scale drive on Paris to
day, while American flying col
umns from Brittany converged!
on Le Mans, little more than 100
miles from the French capital.
At both ends of the twistina;
100-mile front Allied armored
forces were tearing to shreda
the long-prepared German de
fenses barring the western and
southwestern roads to Paris.
Left Flank Falters
The enemy's left flank already
was disintegrating under tha
lightning thrusts of Lt. Gen.
Omar N. Bradley's American
tanks and mechanized infantry,
and the right flank below Caen
appeared to have been gravely
menaced by the new Canadian
British offensive.
The main Allied power ap
parently was concentrated on
the Caen sector, where tha
Canadian first army pushed off
shortly after midnight this morn
ing and advanced almost four
miles on both sides of the Caen
Falaise highway in the first few
hours.
All Initial objectives wera
taken In the opening phase of:
the attack, and front reports In
dicated the Canadians still wera
pounding ahead against strong
enemy opposition.
Planes Add Havoc
Massed Canadian and British
guns poured murderous shellflra
Into the German lines, whila
wave upon wave of Allied war
planes streaked In' over tha
charging troops to spray tha
Nazi defenders with bombs and
gunfire.
More than 600 American
heavy bombers hit the enemy's
front line positions shortly after
mid-day, splattering 20,000 100
pound fragmentation lines across
the three -mile -wide corridor
through which the Canadians
were attacking.
The RAF opened the bombard
ment at midnight, sending mora
than 1,000 four-engined bombers
across the channel to unload
6.000 tons of bombs on tha
enemy Just 15 minutes befora
the zero hour.
The Canadians officially wera
reported holding Garcclles, St.
Aignan do Cremesnil, and Roo
quancourt, all within a six-to-seven-mlle
arc southeast of Caen,
after bypassing- strong enemy
positions nt Tilly-La Cnmpagne,
May-Sur-Orne, and Fontenay-La
Marmlon.
Mop Up Mines
Infantrymen following up tha
armored thrust' presumably
were monplng un the screen of
minefields, dug-ln tanks, and
antitank guns thrown up around
those enemy strongholds.
British armored forces on tha
Canadian right flank battled to
extend their bridgehead arross
the Orne north of Thury-Har-court,
while the Americans
swept In on the Sarthe river Una
from the west at a pace that ap
peared to have demoralized tha
retreating Germans.
' Only at tho center of tho bat
tle line was the Allied advanca
on Paris Imperiled, and front
dispatches Indicated that Ameri
can troops were beating back
four German tank divisions
hurled Into a desperate counter
attack that the Nazis hoped
would drive through to the sea-
coast at Avranches and split tha
Allied armies In two.
Peril On Flanks
The German panzers wera
fully committed to the counter
blow at thb hinge of the Ameri
can and British lines northwest
of Mortaln, and faced possible
encirclement If their flanks to
the north and south should give
way.
No new developments wera
reported from the Brittany front,
where Bradley's armored units
were fighting In the outskirts of
Best, St. Mnlo and Lorient. Part
of the Lorient garrison was re
ported trying to quit In defiance
of their commander's "stand-and-die"
orders, and a German
communique hinted the port
may already have fallen.
Last Anchorage
Restaurant Burns
Anchorage, Alaska, Aug. 8
(U.R) A fire believed caused by
a short circuit burned tho roof
off the one restaurant which has
remained open for business dur
ing the strike of the Culinary
Workers union, now In its fiftll
day.
Forced to close Its doors be
cause of the fire, not the strike,
the owner estimated damage at
several thousand dollars.