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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 1944)
PattonV Third Army Spurts Forward on 60-Mile Front Weather Forccut: Cloudy with occasion al rain tonliht and WcdJies : day; Uttle change In tempera ture). Temp. Htthest Telterdav - 4S Loweit thU morning 35 Pieclp. put 24 hours . ..Trace Thirty-ninth Year 48 JAP VESSELS LATEST COUNT IN Recap on Friday Raids Shows Cruiser, 3 Destroy ers Among Ships Sunk. By UnlUd Preu ' American carrier-based planes sank or damaged a total of 48 Japanese vessels, some of them warships, in a heavy attack on Luzon in the Philippines last Friday, a recapitulation showed today and Tokyo again made fantastic claims of. destroying four . American battleships or heavy cruisers in Leyte bay yes terday. The revised figures for the at tack on the invasion-marked capital island revealed that 20 ships including a heavy cruiser and three destroyers, were sunk, nine wrecked, and 19 damaged. EarAy reports of the raid had shoW only 18 ships sunk and five damaged. In addition 119 planes were destroyed or dam aged. . Tokyo Claim High Tokyo radio's claim that four warships were sunk and six transports damaged at Leyte about noon yesterday was wholly without confirmation. Ground activity In the Philip Dines was halted by tain and Gen. Douglas MacArthur's troODS presumably were await ing clearing skies before making the final assault on the enemy's Ormoc pocket on the northwest coast of Leyte.. i . The. J. a p a n.e s e apparently seeking revenge for' the B-29 raids on Tokyo, raided the Su perfortress base at Salpan In the Marianas twice yesterday and lost 13 planes in the second at tack. The first raid was made by only two or three planes but in the second total of 13 par ticipated. All were destroyed, six of them being shot down by army fighter pilots and the seven by antiaircraft batteries. Jap Bases Bombed American bombers continued their neutralization raids on widespread enemy bases in the Pacific. MacArthur's southwest Pacific bombers and fighters hit airfields on Cebu and Negros, south of Luzon; Matina airdrome at Davao, Mindanao, and ship ping off Palawan, all in the Philippines. Eight planes were destroyed in the attacks together with three barges. A delayed dispatch disclosed that a U. S. task force hurled almost 5,000 shells into Matsuwa island, in the Central Kuriles, on November 20. Matsuwa is an important Japanese air base ap proximately 1,050 miles north of Tokyo. Fires among installa tions were visible 30 miles at British Commonwealth Spends $634 Per Second To Produce Essential War Needs London, Nov. 28 U.R) The colossal measure of Britain's war effort was revealed for the first time today in a government White paper showing that the British Isles alone produced 102,000 planes 'and 25,000 tanks and suffered almost 700, 000 civilian and military cas ualties in the first five years of World War II. Living under direct enemy attack almost continuously from the beginning of the war in Sep tember, 1939, British munitions workers nevertheless turned out 70 per cent of the war ma terials produced by or made available to the British com monwealth the White paper dis closed. Most Mobilized The official report showed that Britain's war spending has reached the astronomical height of $634 per second, and that the proportion of her population mobilized for war is perhaps greater than that of any other belligerent power. Other statistics, revealed now only because the war has prog ressed to the point where abso lute secrecy is no longer essen tial, included: ' 1 Britain armed lor Med United Pre Hull Resigns f ' 1 President Roosevelt yester day accepted "with great re gret" the resignation of the all ingec. of State Cordell Hull (top), and four hours later nomi nated Hull's understudy. Under secretary Edward" R.'Stettinlnst Jc. (lower) to be his successor in the No. 1 cabinet post. FAG SHORTAGE STILL MYSTERY Washington, Nov. 28 (U.R) The House of Agriculture com mittee failed today in an at tempt to learn the cause of the cigaret shortage, but, according to Chairman John W. Flanna- gan, Jr., D., Va., "eliminated the tobacco grower as the rea son." Committee members learned that the United States is pro ducing more cigarets than ever before in its history. They were told that, although there is a three to four per cent reduction in the quantity available to ci vilians this year as compared with last year, this year s civil' Ian supply is 50 per cent great er than the average for 1935-39. San Francisco school children travel for less than half-fare on the city's street cars and buses, now number 4,500,000 men and 500,000 women out of a total population of about 47,000,000. 2 More than one-third of all men in the United Kingdom be tween the ages of 14 and 64 are under arms, and almost half the women between 14 and 59 are in the armed forces, full time civil defense or industry. 3 By the close of 1943 Brit ain had lost 11,500,000 tons of shipping, two-thirds of the ton nage with which she entered the war. 563,000 Casualties 4 Casualties in the armed forces of Great Britain alone numbered 563,000 by the end of last September, including 176, 000 killed; for the rest of the empire, casualties totaled 363, 000, including 67,000 killed. 5 One out of everr three houses in Britain has been destroyed or damaged in air raids or by robot bombs, and civilian casualties up to the end of August numbered 57,298 killed and 78,818 injured. 6 Another 29,629 British merchant seamen were killed by enemy action, and ,4,173 in terned by the enemy since the- start of the war. In the production fiejd, A 6 L- Jy . FORD -full Lund Wire T Reds Wedge Five to Nine In to Mountain Defenses Rains Bring Stalmate. London, Nov. 28 (U.R) The Red Army broadened its offen sive front in eastern "Slovakia to more than 79 miles today, wedging five to nine, miles Into theformldable chain of moun tain defenses linking the Ger man' armies in Poland and Hun gary. ' V. v Elsewhere on the long eastern front, gale-lashed rains en forced an uneasy lull in the fighting, with both Berlin and Moscow predicting that the stalemate might be broken at, any time by the long-awaited Russian winter offensive. Tough mountain troops of Gen. Ivan I. Petrov's 4th Ukrainian army hammered out the only important gains re ported in Moscow's early morn ing war bulletin, swinging their northern flank down across the Polish border into Slovakia in bold maneuver that cut off the southern entrance to Dukla Pass" and virtually lated its Nazi defenders. the iso- ALLIED SHIPPING LOSSES AMOUNT TO 5,758 SHIPS Washington, Nov. 28. (U.R) The United States and Britain, in the first complete report on wartime shipping losses, reveal ed today that allied and neutral countries lost 5,758 merchant ships an average of between three and four a day from the start of the war in September, 1939, to the end of 1943. The losses, which included 753 American vessels, represent ed 25,472,000 gorss tons, or some 37 per cent of all merchant ship ping afloat in the world just be fore the outbreak of hostilities, , Based on official figures from the British government and the U. S. War Shipping Administra tion, the report was Issued through the Office of War In formation to give the first over all picture of the price in mer chant ships paid by the allies in the battle to keep a steady stream of supplies to the far- flung world battlefronts. The report listed no losses be yond the end of 1943, but an unofficial United Press tabula tion showed at least 17 losses for this year, 13 of them Ameri can ships. This would raise total losses to 5,775. - ish aircraft plants, operating under strict blackout conditions and freqquently under attack, produced 10,018 heavy bombers, 2,389 of them in the first half of 1944, compared with only 41 in all of 1940. Fighter plane production has now reached 940 planes a month. . 722 Warships Built In Britain's special field, ship construction, the White paper revealed that 722 major war ships were built in the five war years, along with 5,022 other vessels. The statistics on merchant shipping disclosed the extent of German U-boat inroads showing that Britain's ocean-going fleet at the end of 1943 totaled 13, 500,000 gross tons, 29 per cent less than the 17,500,000 tons on hand in 1939, despite 'construc tion of 4,500,000 tons of new shipping in that time. On the home front, the White paper reported that 4,500,000 of the United Kingdom's 13, 000,000 homes were damaged by enemy action, among them 202,000 destroyed or damaged beyond repair. The civilian cas ualties included 7,250 children Bpt-Jand 23,757 women killed. MEDFORD, OREGON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, FIRST WITNESSES CALLED TO STAND IN BAILEY TRIAL Establishment, of Death of ,. Victim First Order After Completion of Trial Jury. First witnesses in the trial of Fred A. Bailey were called shortly before noon, and their testimony tended to establish the corpus delicti, or proof of death. Mrs. Mahle Brock, south of Med ford housewife, and Louis J. Upp, were named as alternate Jurors. A regular jury, in the trial of Fred A. Bailey, San Quentln camp escapee, Indicted for first degree murder of Ira Clyde Carman, 45, millworker, - last September 3, was completed in circuit : court yesterday after noon. Selection of two alternate Jurors, from a special venire of six persons, was started at open ing of court today. The special .venire drawn in cludes L. J. Upp, route 3, Med- ford; Lottie M. Howard, Law rence Duff, George Childreth, L. C. House, all Medford, and Mrs. Mable Brock, route 2. Mrs. Brock, wife of an orch- ardlst, residing just outside the southern, city limits, and L. C. House, California-Oregon Power company maintenance foreman, were the first called for ques tioning on their qualifications to sit as alternates. Two alternates will be select ed. They hear all testimony in the case but take no part in the final deliberations unless an emergency, arises that will cause a -vacancy in the regular?jury, . Two Women On Jury The regular jury, after both state and defense had exercised challenges, is composed of two women and ten men, as follows: ward Spatz, Medford; Frank W, Houston. Talent; Stella Hughes, Medford; Ray Zulauf, Phoenix; Robert M. Miksche, C. A. Mar shall, Gladys L. Roberts, route 2, Frank Sauer, route 2, Ernest S. Madden route 4, Everett Fin- ley route 2, and David A. Hood, route 2, Medford. Following selection of the al ternate jurors and opening state ments of both sides, the first witnesses for the state will be called. District Attorney George W. Neilson said Mrs. Hazel Rob- bins and Mrs. Rose Jones, Cen tral Point district residents, near the Elden place, where Carman was found fatally beaten, would be the first, followed by Deputy Coroner Carlos Morris, and lo cal doctors. The defendant appeared in court today neatly dressed and shaved and watched the pro ceedings with Interest. He was flanked by Attorney Roy Demp- sey of Marlon, Indiana, a friend of the Bailey family. Death Penalty Discussed Jurors were asked by both sides if they had any conscien tious or religious scruples against infliction of the death penalty. Defense questioning brought out the jury could re commend life imprisonment. In yesterday s Mall Tribune it was inadvertently stated the present murder trial was the first in this county in more than 15 years. Bernard Joseph Lotka Camp White soldier, charged with the slaying of his baby boy born out of wedlock, was tried, and convicted of second degree murder less than two years ago and is now serving a life sen tence in state prison. It Is expected the present trial will be in the hands of the Jury Thursday afternoon. ARMY PLANES TO BE E A squad of army planes is scheduled to be in Medford Thursday to promote bond sales in connection with the sixth War Loan drive now In progress, The planes were at a Portland field over the week-end and are booked for Marshfield and other coast towns today and tomorrow, It is understood that the planes will be on display at the Medford air base and will make lights over the city. In the group are a P-38 Lightning, B-17 Flying Fortress, P-51 Mustang, C-47 transport and B-24 Liberator. Will Attend Medford Conferenc f; Y(? l J Y """Sf. M mi mm wmwmwm im 'f ROMMEL KILLED : BYiSANTA ROSA- FIGHTER PILOT Santa Ana.,- Cal.,' Nov.' 28. (U.R) A 20-year-old Santa Rosa, Cal., fighter pilot today was be lieved to be the allied fighter who killed Nazi Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. - Films released by the army air corps show bullets from Lt. Har old O. Miller's Thunderbolt pur suit ship pouring into a German staff car, the only German staff car shot up on July 24, the day the Nazi radio says Rommel was fatally hurt in such a strafing. Thoroughly checked by the countries olst 5,758 merchant air forces redistribution center in the southern California area, Miller's story and films were im pressive, though both the army and the lieutenant emphasized that an official claim could be made only if Rommel had been seen to die. The German radio announced that Rommel met his death when his staff car was strafed by a plane July 24. Only one car was straica on that day. and the films in Lt. Miller's gun camera show he did it. . Miller, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Miller of Santa Rosa, where the elder Miller Is a bar ber, enlisted in the air corps in April. 1942, and trained in Nashville, Tenn. E SKY FLEET London. Nov. 28 (U.R) A great sky fleet of 750 or more British heavy bombers lashed at two Rhlneland railroad centers and other forward supply bases for the German armies of the west last night, while a strong diversionary force of Mosquito raiders dropped scores of two-ton blockbusters on Berlin. At the same time, a belated an nouncement revealed that two picked squadrons of RAF heavies breached the vital Mitteland and Dortmund-ems canals last night in a daring double blow that partially crjppled the German system of military communica tions at a critical moment in the western campaign. In one of the boldest and most successful canal-busting missions of the entire war, the British fliers blasted enormous holes in the canal wails and choked off the flow of water-borne traffic moving over those routes to the western front. TRIBUNE United Pihi Full 1944 Mayor C. A. Meeker (left below), for a meeting here Thursday at sored by the League of Oregon . . I i-v;yy V x Xy v - J if V V JVYfM J : 'X- '-YY 'I i attend are f red L. inkster, (upper lett), of Oswego, league presi dent) George P. Stadelman, (center), mayor of The Dalles, and O, L. Wood, mayor of- Coquille. LEAGUE OF CITIES WILL MEET HERE T City officials of Jackson and Josephine counties, and civic leaders interested In postwar municipal programs, will meet at the Jackson County Chamber, of Commerce on Thursday. Invi tations to attend the meeting, sponsored by the League of Ore gon Cities and the city of Med ford, have been sent to city of ficials of Ashland, Butte Falls, CentrarPdirrt, 'Eagle "Point; GoW Hill,' Grants Pass, Jacksonville, Phoenix, Rogue River and Talent by Mayor C. A. Meeker, who is on the board of directors of the league, and League President Fred C. Inkster of Oswego. ' Proposed federal and state legislation of particular interest to cities, postwar planning, and exchange of information on local municipal problems will feature the evening's program. Meeting with local officers of the county will be Mr. Inkster, Mayor Geo. Pf Stadelman, The Dalles; Mayor O. L. Wood, Coquille; and Her man Kehrll, league executive secretary and director of the University's Bureau of Municipal Resarch and Service. Local arrangements for the meeting have been made by Mayor C. A. Meeker and City Re corder Ralph H. Woodford. Among the federal programs and policies scheduled for discussion are the two highway aid bills now pending in congress, federal surplus property bills as they re late to cities, and provisions of the War Mobilization Recovery act with reference to local plan ning, and proposed federal air port aid legislation. Proposals for the revision of the local bud get law for retirement legislation for public employees, planning controls in the suburban and metropolitan areas, and new revenue sources for cities will also be discussed. i.very city, every commun ity, must be prepared to assume Its proper responsibilities in the postwar period," said Mr. Inkster in issuing the call for the meet ing, -n is futile to hope for a better world unless we can pre pare for better communities right here at home.' Now is the time for planning. Now is the time for engineering. Now is the time to plan financing. Now is the time to develop plans for co ordinating local postwar pro grams with those of the state and federal government. In this ef fort the League of Oregon Cities seeks to be of assistance to every city and to every community to the end that local government will continue to make its maxi mum contribution to the demo cratic way of life." NEXT ROTARY SPEAKER HERE THURSDAY NIGHT Third lecture in the Rotary In stitute of International Under standing will be tomorrow eve ning at the high school auditor ium with C. Hartley Grattan as the speaker. Grattan, who re sides In Tuckahoe, New York, is a contributing editor of Harper's magazine and Is considered one of the nation s leading authori ties on Australia and the South west Pacific, on which he will speak. The lecture is scheduled for 8 p.m. and there it no charge, Leased Wire NO. Ay of Medford, will be host mayor the Chamber of Commerce, spon Cities, Among those planning to FOR YULE MAIL Postmaster Frank DeSouza said today Southern Pacific will operate a special train between Dunsmuir, Calif., and Ashland to handle parcel post Christmas mail, with corresponding move ment southbound. First north bound train will be placed in operation Dec. 1 and south bound trains will begin next day. Trains will leave Dunsmuir at 7 p. m., arriving in Ashland at lZiul a. m. and will leave Ash- .land. -at -l&OVis,- m, and arrive in Dunsmuir at 6:30 a. m. Parcel post mall will be han dled by the special trains for all post offices including Yreka L FRAUD, IS CHARGE Reno. Nev.. Nov. 28. fll.B Nullification of Doris Duke Cromwell's Nevada divorce in a New Jersey court was obtained through "fraud and imposition" on the part of James H. R. Crom well "for the ulterior nurnose . of extorting money." Judge William V. Knichl ruled todav in formal findings of fact on his orally granted affirmation of Mrs. Cromwell's Nevada decree. Citing evidence presented bv Mrs. Cromwell's attorneys in the reopened proceedings, McKnight ruled that New Jersey courts had no jurisdiction in the mari tal squabble since Mr. Crom well's residence had been estab lished in Nevada, and prior to that In Hawaii, and since Crom well's claims to New Jersey resi dence were false. Charging Cromwell with "fab rication of evidence" and "sup pression of known material facts," McKnight's decision termed the New Jersey proceed ings "a pathetic picture of how far greed for money can carry one down." TO A war emergency radio outfit has been set up at the Chamber of Commerce by the Valley Music company to promote sale of bonds during the Sixth War Loan drive. The radio outfit is a duplicate of those used by the army for work in the field and is one of several maintained in Medford for emergency use. A public demonstration of how the emergency sets work will be given at the Chamber of Commerce tomorrow night be tween 7 and 9 o'clock, according to Charles Clay, Sr., of the war bond committee. The radio was set up by Dwight Allbrlght. ODT WARNING San Francisco, Nov. 28 (U.R) The office of defense trans portation today reminded Pa cific coast motor freight trans port concerns "not to accept property for transportation over circuitous routes where adequate common carrier service is avail able over direct route." CENTER OF DRIVE WITHIN 10 MILES OF SAARBRUCKEN t . i ' i- Ninth Army Drives Two Wedges to Roer River Say Upper Rhine Crossed Paris, Nov. 28 U.R) Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Third army spurted forward two to fiva miles toward the German bor der today on a 60-mile front, the center of which was over-run ning the outposts of Saarbrucken less than 10 miles from the great frontier fortress. The American Ninth army drove two wedges to the Roer river 21 miles west of Cologne and forged an assault arc around the fortified city of Jullch, whila to tts right the First army won two-thirds of Langerwehe, last stronghold before Duren, Say 'Rhine Crossed French reDorts circulated that . Allied troops had crossed the up- . per nnine norm of Strasbourg, but supreme headquarters said no word of any such action had been received and that a cros sing was highly improbable. une Benin radio said that at Sarre Union and along the Rhlna southeast of Hagenau, German - rear guards harassed by both ' U. S. Third and Seventh army forces were covering a with drawal of the main Nazi forces to new lines. The Nazis said a "great" tank battle was raging south of Sarre Union, 10 miles south of Sarre- guemines, with 200 American tanks and elements of a French armored division engaged. Nail Outlook Bad In one of the gloomiest Nazi prophecies since Gen. Dwight D. Elsenhower opened his six-army winter offensive, a German Transocean news agency corres pondent on the western front said: . "After considering all the probabilities for the coming win. ter battle, one must concede that : the Germans will be obliged to give ground and yield several places during the attacks of the enemy, who disposes enormous quantities of material and con siderable anjied force?." The Nazis said an "expected' new offensive of the U. S. Third army against the forefleld of the west wall is in full swing," and acknowledged the retreat In the wake of which Patton's troops were advancing at a pace prom ising to carry his entire line into Germany within, a matter of days. 5th Near MtrUn - Patton's 95th division, alone was closing against the border on a six-mile front in the area of Merten, 13 miles west of Saar brucken, while other units wheeled in against the border city on the rim of the Saar. The 95th cleared seven size able towns Olzing, Oberdorff, ureitenacn, xromborn, Remer ing, Helling and Remelsang. Other units advanced three to four miles east of Steenberg, passing through' Hombourg-Hant and Seinbouse, six miles east of St. Avoid, to within less than 10 miles of Saarbrucken. The weather was clear - and cold over the Cologne front, en abling Thunderbolt and Light ning dive bombers to give the First and Ninth armies close support for the third straight day. Several groups of medium bombers also flew low over the front to blast German positions behind the lines. MENTION OF GANGSTER EXCITES D0RSEY TRIAL Hollywood, Nov. 28 (U.R) The name of Bugsy Siegel, one time member of "Murder Inc.," and pal of Allen Smiley, intro duced during selection of jurors for trial of the horse fancier and Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Dor- sey, today brought defense at torneys to their feet shouting for a mistrial. ' SIDE GLANCES By ' TRIBUNE REPORTERS Justin Smith limping as the result of an encounter with the younger set and refusing to state whether or not he was fully in sured. Herb Craln wondering why his official trip to Portland couldn't have been set the day of the championship game. Chloe Fairweather patrlotlcal ly doing her Christmas shopping early. Jackson County sales to date in the Sixth War Loan are "E" Bonds ......... $147,375 Total Sales ' $532,502
