Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989, January 18, 1945, Image 1

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Medford mail tribune., January 18, 1945, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextChurchill Calls on Germany, Japan to Abandon War Medford Doited Ft -Full LMHd Win - - "? d Press fnU LMHd Wire a Thirty ninth Year I MEDFORD, OREGON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1945 r-w .? mm NO. 253. DEFENSE PIERCED ILERKAPITAL 2nd White Army .Overruns Fortress City of Modlin, Other Towns,' Villages. London, Jan. 18 U.R) Mar thai Stalin's fast-breaking win ter offensive was reported' to day to have crashed into Ger many some 2S0 miles southeast of Berlin and to have blasted open the way for a flanking drive to the Baltic aimed at cut ting off east Prussia. . Moscow advices said the red army was believed to have brok en across the Polish frontier Into German Silesia and to be advancing swiftly within ess than 80 miles of Breslau, Siles ian capital 225 miles from Ber lin.; To the northeast, Marshal Konstantin 'K. Bokossovsky's second White Russian army broke through the German de fenses north and northwest of captured Warsaw, overrunning the fortress city of Modlin at the confluence of the Vistula and Narew rivers, the trans port center of Przasnysz, 53 miles north of Warsaw and 17 below east Prussia, and more than 1,000" other towns and vil lages. Rokossovsky's five-day offen sive had smashed the German defenses across the corridor be twen the Vistula and east Prus sia, opening the way for a push up to the Danzig area - which would isolate all east Prussia and neutralize the bitter Ger man defense of t h e homeland province. Both Modlin, 19 miles north west of Warsaw, and Przasnysz were described by Stalin in an order of the day announcing Ro kossovsky's new successes as "Important centers of communi cations and strongholds in the German defenses." A United Press report from Moscow said Konev's advance on the Silesian frontier had cut the lateral communications be tween the German armies in the Krakow area and those flee ing Marshal Gregory K. Zhu kov's first White Russian army to the north. Berlin acknowledged the loss of Czestochowa and said the Russian captors were advancing due west, but a nazi military spokesman claimed the Russians "will find that their offensive will become entirely different at the German border." Forest Products Laboratory Asked Salem, Ore., Jan. 18 U.R A forest products laboratory in connection with Oregon State college would be established at Corvallis under provisions of a bill submitted to the senate to day by the forestry committee. Lost Sterling Boy Returns To Home It has been reported that Bobby Davis. 8-year-old boy who was lost from his parents in Medford Tuesday, has returned to his home on Sterling Creek In the Little Applegate. COB MEET POSTPONED Cub Pack 6 has postponed its regular meeting, scheduled for tonight, until next Thursday night when it will be held at the Washington school gmy. This move was taken because of the paper drive in which the mem bers are participating. SIDE GLANCES Br TRIBUNE REPORTERS Wilton White relating the peculiarly onery habits of a cow acquaintance. Vic Milnes startling Ken Grant by passing out the infor mation that Grant planned on treating everyone at the junior chamber banquet to cigaretei, First Pictures Of Luzon Invasion L -4 z American tanks, mobile guns and infantry sweep on through Luson town of San Jacinto as they bound forward unchecked and apparently unchallenged across the groat central Luson plains, gateway to Manila. Photo by Stanley Troutman, NEA-Acme photographer for War Picture Pool. i I JJMb rTrtrivr ikvvfet4v s - - v,.xw Y BULGE SHOULDER Luxembourg Attack Beats Forward in Teeth of Nazi Mortars, Machine Guns. T LAW IS FAVORED 8Y EOOD CHIEF Marvin Jones Says Agricul ture Facing Serious Man power Problem of Own. Cautiously advancing on this camouflaged Jap pillbox, these American infantrymen make sure no living resistance is left Inside after they knocked out the machine-gun that faced road to Lu son village of Manao. Photo by Stanley Troutman, NEA-Acme Photographer for War Picture PooL GROUND FORCES LOST 332,912 ON WESTERN FRONT Washington, " Jan. 18 U.R) Secretary of War Henry L. Stim son announced today -that U. S. ground forces alone suffered 332,912 casualties on the western front from D-day on June 6 to January 1. This total, which includes losses during the most severe period of fighting in the Ger man's Ardennes offensive, rep resents 54.562 killed, 232,672 wounded and 45,678 missing, Stimson told a news conference. Stlmson said the Germans have suffered great losses in the past week. U. S. ground force losses for December on the western front, Stimson said, were 74,788. These included 10,410 killed, 43,554 wounded and 20,815 missing. He added that most of the missing probably had been captured. The secretary said that the American 106th division, in its gallant stand during the battle of the bulge suffered 8,663 cas ualties more than half a divis ion's normal strength. Of these 416 were killed, 1,246 wounded and 7,001 missing. CLIFFORD ALVIN BEATTIE DIES EARLY WEDNESDAY Clifford Alvin Beattie passed away early Wednesday morn' ing in a local nursing home. He was born July 28, 1871, in Sul livan county, Ind., and was a member of Masonic lodge 19, Fort Collins, Colo. Funeral arrangements are in charge of Perl funeral home and will be announced later. Jap Officials Leave Manila As Loss of Capital Looms By United Press The early fall of Manila to Gen. Douglas MacArthur's ad vancing forces was suggested to day in field reports from Luzon that the Japanese have begun evacuating key personnel by air from the Philippines capital. While Admiral William F. Haisey's third fleet maneuvered behind a curtain of radio silence, news of furtive northward flights from Manila by Japanese FEWER DEATHS IN Deaths in Jackson county dur ing 1944 totaled 478, according to a partial vital statistics report under preparation by Dr. A. E. Merkel, county health officer. This figure was 27 less than in 1943 when the total was 505. Five principal causes In 1944 were: Heart and circulation, 256; cancer and tumors, 43; accidents, 62: respiratory, 23, and early infancy, 21. In 1943 the same principal causes were; Heart and circulation, 243; cancer and tumors, 67; accidents, 55; respiratory, 43, and early in fancy, 23. Dr. Merkel explained that tuberculosis, not long ago one of the leading death causes, dropped in 1944 to 14th on the list, making the Jackson county rate. 15 in 100,p00 population. While in the state it was 30 in 100,000 and in the nation 40 per 100,000 people. transport planes reached MacAr thur's headquarters. It was believed the Japanese were evacuating high military and possibly civil leaders to northern Luzon or even For mosa, although enemy broad casts have insisted repeatedly that a desperate defense of Ma nila would be made. Only 65 miles north of the Philippines capital, American armored and infantry forces were reported massing for a new southward lunge expected soon to carry all the way to the great Clark field air center 25" miles away. The latest headquarters an nouncement disclosed a 17-mile spring by American forces on the northwest flank of the Lin- gayen beachhead, widening the foothold to 65 miles and sealing off the Pangasinan peninsula. Tokyo reported new B-29 Su perfortress "nuisance" raids on the Japanese capital, the Osaka- Kobe area and Korea, but said no bombs were dropped. The planes apparently were on re connaissance. Tokyo also reported forma tion of a new all-powerful Jap anese political party and hinted it might be used as a club to force the resignation of Premier Gen. Kuniakl Koiso. . Paris. Jan. 18 (U.R) Ameri can Third army forces crashed into the southeastern shoulder on the deflated Ardennes bulge today in a new attack across the. Sure river in the area of Diek- irch, 15 miles north of Luxem bourg City. Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's attack in northeastern Luxem bourg some five miles from the German border brought virtu ally ail of the thin Nazi crescent in the Ardennes under the fire of the American First and Third armies. Second Army Gains . To the northwest, the British Second army broke into Ger many at a new point. Lt. Gen. Sir Miles C. Dempsey's troops, stepping up the pressure on the German pocket west of , the Roer, gained up to two and a half miles and seized Susteren and Echt above Sittard. They stabbed across the border direc tly east of Susteren. "Elements at MaJ. Gen. Ray mond O. Barton's Fourth divi sion and Ma. Gen. Stafford L. Irwin's "Red Diamond" Fifth division Jumped off at 4 a. m. today In the new Luxembourg attack, , , They forced the Sure river de fense line from the south some where near Dieklrch and beat forward in the teeth of a storm of German mortar, machine gun and small arms fire. On the opposite shoulder of the salient, , other American troops put a squeeze on St. Vith in the concerted effort by the First and Third armies to Jolt the Germans back to the start ing line of their winter offensive. Nails Stubborn Closing in on the town which is the anchor point of the Ger man penetration into Belgium, American columns had St. Vith two-thirds encircled from the north, west and southwest at distances ranging from five to eight miles. Robert W. Richards. United Press war correspondent, re ported in a dispatch written on a hilltop overlooking the Sure river and Diekirch that Third army units again today "wit nessed what once was a familiar sight German forces falling back toward the Reich border, which here was only three and a halt miles to the northeast." Sherman tanks dotted the snow-blanketed hills, and their 75's threw shell after shell into Diekirch and 30-caliber machine guns kept up a continuous chat ter. BURMA ROAD OPENING WON'T BE CURE-ALL Chungking, Jan. 18 (U.FD Opening of the Ledo-Burma road, expected soon, will not mean that an unlimited quan tity of supplies will pour into China from India, Ma). Gen. Robert B. McClure, chief of staff of U. S. forces in China, warned today Washington, Jan. 18 (U.R) War Food Administrator Marvin Jones today endorsed work-or-be- drafted legislation which would cover all men between 18 and 45 not now in the armed forces. He said the measure, which the committee hopes to send to the house tomorrow or early next week, would not affect the Tydings amendment which pro vides for deferment of men es sential to agriculture, "But I wouldn't want the Tyd ings amendment used as a smoke screen," he said, "and neither would you. It is right to screen these men carefully to see that those deferred under the amend ment are clearly engaged in farming." v Problem Faced Jones said agriculture faces serious manpower problems. The same tvoe of young men needed by the armed forces are neeaea in many phases of agricultural wnrlc. he Raid. ''-The committee had planned tc draft a bill today providing pen alties for any of the estimated 18,800,000 selective service reg istrants 18 to 4a who refuse local board requests that they take, or stay In, essential war Jobs. It de cided during a two-hour morning session to delay action, however. Agricultural organ 1 z a 1 1 o n spokesmen have opposed any form of national service, fear ing lt might result in further de pletion of already-short farm labor pools. They have protested actions already taken to reduce the number of farm deferments SUBS ADD 24 JAP VESSELS TO TOLL Washington', Jan. 18 flJ.R) U, S. submarines have sunk 24 more Japanese ships, including four combat vessels, the navy announced today. The four warships were a destroyer and three escort ves sels. The others included three transports, five tanks and 12 cargo vessels. These sinkings raised to 958 the total of Japanese ships sent to the bottom by American sub marines. The maintenance of the high rate of sinkings evidenced the advantages derived from Ameri can seizure of bases closer to the enemy's homeland and its lines of supply to its purloined em pire. Air Priority for Roosevelt Dog; All a Mistake Officials Declare Washington, Jan. 18 (U.R) Everybody seemed to agree to day that the transcontinental A priorlty airplane ride taken last week by Blaze, 115-pound bull mastiff destined for Col. Elliott Roosevelt's actress-wife, Faye Emerson, was a mistake. But If Chicago, Jan. 18 (U.R) Actress Faye Emerson, wife of Col. Elliott Roosevelt, said today she was positive that her husband had not request ed a priority for a dog ship ped to her In Hollywood from Washington by army trans port. "It must have been a mistake," she said and de clined further comment Mist Emerson stopped her be tween trains. anybody knew how Blaze got his priority, they weren't talking. MaJ. Geo. Harold L. George, commander of the air transport command, announced that an in quiry into the Incident showed "an error of Judgment" had been made. Measures would be taken, he added, to "correct pro cedure so that similar mistakes would not occur in the future. White House Secretary Steph en T. Early and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson both had already commented that it was a mistake. The incident also drew some congressional attention. Rep Clare Hoffman, R., Mich., called the attention of the house to it by reading a letter from a sol dier who had been on duty in Australia (or three years with out relief, and then commenting: "I wonder what he would think if he knew that three men who might have been his bud dies were put off a plane be cause someone thought it was necessary to bring in a dog from Europe." Victory May Be Distant But No Longer In Doubt Prime Minister Asserts London, Jan. 18 (U.R) Prime Minister Churchill declared to day that the Ardennes battle had been turned into "an ever- famous American victory" which he believed "is more likely to shorten this war than lengthen it. Speaking before the house of commons, Churchill called upon Germany and Japan to abandon the war unconditionally, reiter ating the unconditional surrender formula, and said "nothing" would induce the allies to enter into negotiations with the enemy before that surrender occurs. OVERWHELMING FORCES WITH ALLIES "Both in the west and In the east," he said, "overwhelming forces are ranged at our side. Military victory may yet be distant, It certainly is costly but it is no longer In doubt." Appealing for allied unity In the war's final phase, he asked: "Can we achieve that complete unity and that new Impulse in time to achieve decisive military victory with .the least pos sible prolongation of war's misery or must we fall into Jabber, paDei ana aiscora while victory is still delayed?" Churchill told the house of commons that American losses in repelling Field Marshal Karl Von Rundstedt's counteroffensive had been 60 to 80 times those of the British and that the engage ment was "the greatest American battle of the war." Revealing that Britain has 67 divisions at the front between 670,000 and 700,000 troops he declared that the United States has put twice as many troops into the field against the Germans, presumably between 1,300,000 and 1,400,000 men. BULGE BATTLE MAY SHORTEN WAR ' "I do not hesitate today to give my own opinion," Churchill said, "that the decisive breaking of the German offensive In the west is more likely to shorten this war than to lengthen It. "This is the greatest American battle of the war and will be regarded, I think, as an ever-famous American victory." Churchill promised that unremitting pressure would be main tained against the Germans "on the whole eastern and western fronts and on the long front in Italy," but emphasized that "mili tary victory may yet be distant." Tribute To Reds He paid tribute to the red army attack in Poland and East Prussia, saying: Marshal Stalin is very punc tual. He would rather be before time than late in combinations of the allies." In a full-dress review of the war, Churchill said: 1 British troops "by the skin of their teeth" foiled an Elas plot to establish a "Trotskyist" regime with totalitarian liquida tion of all oppenenta. 2 The allies will enforce the Yugoslav regency agreement even If King Peter persists in his veto. 3 Britain has no Intention of accepting Italy as a partner on a par with the United Nations. 4 Britain has no need of Spain despite her recent over tures for a place In the post war European structure. S German forces will with draw or be expelled from north ern Italy "any time now." Peter Warned He said King Peter must "quit stalling" on the regency agree ment drawn up by Prime Min ister Ivan Subasic and Marshal Tito or the monarch would be "left in the lurch." Peter rejected the agreement earlier this month on grounds that he believed he should have some word in the selection of regents who would rule pend ing a plebiscite to determine whether the people of Yugo slavia wished him to return as king. Churchill said Peter has a "matter of days" in which to change his mind. Churchill said he and Premier Stalin agreed on a joint policy for Yugoslavia at their confer ence in Moscow late last year, but he denied that the questions of division of territory or post war spheres of interest were raised or discussed at the meet ing. Red Greeks Lashed Churchill lashed out violently at Greek communists, charging them with plotting to establish a totalitarian state. He remain ed totally Intransigent toward Greek leftists and proclaimed his complete faittvin the policy followed by his "government In Greece. His defense of Britain's con duct in Greece was expected to precipitate a bitter debate by labor members. Churchill ap peared to be deliberately baiting his critics. He charged that Elas forces had executed 1,200 to 1,500 hos tages, most of them with knives and axes. A British officer re ported Elas troops had murdered groups of 15 to 20 hostages and thrown their bodies in ditches, he said. Thousands of other hostages were dragged along the roads and many were left to die, he said. "Tell me the old, old story," Interrupted Communist William Gallagher. "We have heard all these lies before." Commies Fear Truth "I am reading you facts," re plied Churchill. "You don't like them. I am telling you the truth and you fear truth." ' In Greece, he said, Britain's policy has been to support or establish the most coherent and substantial government machine that could be found to deliver available food, maintain toler able conditions of law and order and hold elections at the earliest possible moment. "I have never been connected with any large enterprise of policy on which I was mora sure in mind and conscience of the rectitude of our motives, the clarity of our principles and the vigor and precision of our suc cess of our action than what w have done In Greece," he said. Charging that Greek com munists had plotted to seize pow er when the British withdrew, he said: "Of course, lt Is not against the Germans that they were try ing to fight to any extent They ' were simply taking our arms, lying low and awaiting the mo ment when they could seize power and make Greece a com munist state with totalitarian liquidation of all opponents." - BLACKW GI'S TO BE EXECUTED . Paris, Jan. 18 (U.R) Fly American . soldiers who stole "huge quantities" of gasoline from the army, sold it on the Paris black market for as much as $60 a gallon and lived in lux ury on the profits have been sentenced to death, the army an nounced today. ' Col. Clarence Brand, staff Judge advocate of the Seine sec tion, said the death sentences first meted out in the army black market scandal were handed down by a general court-martial on specific charges of desertion in time of war and conspiracy to steal army gaso line. Brand refused to reveal names and addresses of the condemned men. Other members of the gang will be tried this week, he said, while army undercover agents Intensify their drive to round up the remainder of the offen ders. One of the condemned men, Brand said, had "two apartments and several mistresses." DISTILLERY BUY Salem, Ore., Jan. 18 (U.F9 Purchase of the Waterfill and Frazier and Shawhan distilleries by the Oregon and Washington liquor commissions in 1943 will be investigated by a five-man Oregon legislative committee it became evident today after the Oregon house of representatives alcohol committee endorsed a resolution providing for the com mittee. The resolution, already pass ed the senate. It is expected to pass the house. Meanwhile the education was readying bills which will ask for some $5,000,000 in additional funds for Oregon schools. In creased state aid would help re lieve the shortage of teachers, proponents of the bills believe. A series of bills were submit ted to the house Judiciary com mittee. Three of them, brought in by the secretary of state's of fice, concerned motor vehicle laws and were largely admin istrative, giving the department larger authority in license regu lation violation cases.