Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1945)
Weather forecast: puti? lonay in- Say and Monday, mow flnro riei in hill, Bhowin in Tallay. Temp. Hlcheit Yesterday Lowert Uh T Mall Tribuna Want Ad Way Quick Results At Small Cost FORD RIBUNE United Pre full Luid Wlr United Pre full Leased Wire Thirty ninth Year MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1945 NO. 279. o)fo)M o) mem m mm a - Med uu NEARLY FALL NEAR, SAYS MAC ARTHUR; JAPS SURPRISED Land and Sea Operations Gain Vital Points; Enemy Given Ultimatum. Gen. MacArthur's Headquar ters, Luzon, Sunday, Feb. 18 f (U.R) Veteran American para troops and amphibious infantry have landed on rocky Corregl dor Island guarding. Manila bay. and its capture is assured, Gen. Douglas MacArthur announced today. "We hav.e landed on Corregl dor and seized its decisive Mints," he said in his daily com munique. ."Its complete capture Is now assured with ngnt cas ualties. . . The recapture of Ba taan and Corregldor clears the entrance to Manila bay and opens this great harbor to our fleets." The combined air and sea op eration took the Japanese by surprise. It was made Saturday two years, nine months and 11 days after Lt. Gen. Jonathan , Walnwright surrendered the is land to the Japanese invaders. MacArthur announced the re s capture of nearby Bataan penin . sula yesterday. It and Corregl dor were the last strongholds of the gallant American and Fili pino defenders of the Philip pines in 1942. Thus, 40 days after American troops landed on Luzon, Mac Arthur . wa ne rcomp1ish rnent of his three principal ob jectives in the Philippines the reconquest of Bataan, Corregl dor and Manila. It took the Jap anese a little over five months to accomplish the same objec tives. Shortly after paratroops drop ped on the top of the rock, tak ing defenses in the rear, Amer ican assault boats dashed across the narrow channel from Bataan, little more than two miles away, and landed on the south shore, "thrown the enemy's garrison into complete dislocation," Mac Arthur said. Manila, Feb. 17 (11 a. m. y-(U.R) Maj. Gen. Oscar W. Grig wold, commander of U. S. forces in Manila, called upon Japanese troops holding the Intramuros district of south Manila today to surrender or permit the evacua tion of civilians "in the true spirit of the Bushido and the code of the Samurai." (Bushido is the name given the unwritten laws supposedly governing the conduct of Jap anese nobles. The Samurai are Japanese warriors.) The ultimatum first was sent by public address system and by radio at 3 p. m. Friday and was sent again Saturday morning The Japanese are believed to have received lt. But there was some confusion in establishing radio contact with the enemy and the result of Griswold's ac tion still was doubtful at this hour. "Your situation is hopeless and your defeat is inevitable," the message said. , "I offer you honorable sur render. If you decide to accept. , raise a large Filipino flag over the Red Cross flag now flying, and send an unarmed emissary with a white flag to our lines. This must be done within foui hours, or I am coming in. In event you do not accept my of fer, I exhort you that in the true spirit of the Bushido and the code of the Samurai, you permit all civilians to evacuate the Intramuros by the Victoria gate without delay, in order that no innocent blood be shed." FRENCH AIR ACE Paris, Feb. 17 (U.R) Com Y Tnander Marin La Mesle, French ace who shot down 20 German planes in six weeks during the 1940 Battle of France, has been killed In action on the Alsace front, it was announced today. He was 32, Bombers Blast Fort Drum in Manila Bay (Acme Telephoto) . . . . . ,.tj Vr,r nrum in Manila Bay, after "Ken's Men," a B-24 unit of the Fifth S"TeStaTlSrM t!; Place a. Yank .round force, moved to wipe out last- Japreltetice ""Manila aid Tokyo radio nervously hinted Imminent American landing, on Corregldor. LOCAL MAN IN Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Archer, route 1, box 342, have been no tified that their son, Sgt. Ernest T. Archer of the air corps, will dock in New York Tuesday on the exchange liner Gripsholm. Sgt. Archer is among the 463 army officers and enlisted men who were exchanged in Switzer land for German prisoners. He has been a prisoner of the Ger mans since his plane was shot down on a bombing raid over occupied territory October 6, 1943. He suffered a bullet wound in the leg during the raid, ac cording to a previous announce ment. Mr. and Mrs. Archer received a telegram from him in France a week ago telling of his pend ing arrival here. It is not known when he expects to arrive in Medford. VAST JOBS PLAN Washington, Feb. 17 (U.R) Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes tonight proposed that the government undertake a vast post-war conservation program to provide jobs for millions of ex-servicemen. Such a program, he added, would make for a more abund ant life for the country as a whole. The recommendations were In Ickes' annual report to President Roosevelt. It reviewed the work accomplished by various units of his department and credited them with having contributed materially to the war effort. 'One World Center' To Honor Willkie New York. Feb. 17 (U.R) The Willkie Memorial fund of Freedom House announced to night they would purchase and remodel the former New York Club in memory to the late Wen- lell L. Willkie, republican presi dential candidate in 1940. When remodeled the building will be known as the "one world center" to ''perpetuate his mem ory and his vivifying Influence upon American life," the an nouncement said. SOLIDARITY SEEN Mexico City, Feb. 17 (U.R) Mexican Foreign Minister Eze quiel Padilla, in a speech broad cast tonight, said the inter American conference opening here next Week would offer an "extraordinary opportunity" to amplify political and economic solidatory in the western hemis phere. CRASH HURTS 24 Garden City, Kan., Feb. 17 (U.R) Twenty-four persons were injured, two critically, when the bus in which they were riding struck a stalled truck-trailer out fit four miles east of Garden City on Ice-encrusted pavement early today. S NAZI PRISONERS SOLD AS SLAVES Moscow, Feb. 17 U,R) The soviet army newspaper Red Star said today that inmates of huge German prison camps in Poland and East Prussia were sold in slave markets and those unfit for work were put to death in gas chambers. Its account of murder fac tories, slave markets and prison camps was written by Maj. Al exander Mandrugyn. "Beginning with Cracow, more and more frequently we run into compounds of black, standardized barracks enclosed within several rows of electrified barbed wire," he wrote. "Prac tically every industrial commun ity boasted such slave camps with inmates from various coun tries, including France, Czecho slovakia, the Netherlands and Greece." A group of Russian officers were conducted around the Pla showa camp by a former inmate. Ferdinand Perchak, a Pole who had been interned because he jumped onto a trolly car reserv ed for Germans. Perchak said that the daily check, of inmates often was marked by murder, particularly when Superintend ent General Goett was present. "Goett would walk past rows of prisoners and woe to him whose face did not please the general," Perchak told Mand rugyn. . "In such cases, Goett would pull out his pistol and shoot the victim straight in the face. Often the general would amuse him self by ordering a prisoner to run to the gate then unleash bloodhounds who tore the vis um to pieces while the general laughed." Mandrugyn said he saw three graves, each containing 800 charred bodies. GERMANS ALL SET FOR GAS ATTACK London, Feb. 17 (U.R) Stock holm reports said today that the nazi high command had ordered renewed precautions against allied gas attacks because they believed gas might be used in reprisal against a new German "wonder weapon." The Swedish reports said or ders had been given for distri bution of new gas masks, exa minatlon of old ones, and estab lishment of gasproof shelters and public havens. STETTINIUS IN RIO Rio De Janeiro, Feb. 17 (U.R) United States Secretary of State Edward Stettinius Jr., ar rived today by plane from the Crimea where he was a member of the American delegation to the Yalta "Big Three" confer-snc. Kt5mPiliB BOMBERS IN FOG TFRAIFURT . London, Feb. 17 (U.R) American Heavy Bombers blast ed Germany for the. fourth con secutive day today when a force of 500 Eighth Air Force planes flew through heavy fog to drop 1000 tons of bombs on the Ger man western front rail centers of Frankfurt and Giessen, . Bombing by instrument, re turning pilots from some of the 350 Fortresses and 150 Mustang Fighters reported they could see fires break out in the railyards at Frankfurt, hub for four main lines leading from central Ger many to the front. Giessen is 30 miles north of Frankfurt. Anti-aircraft fire was Intense, but the Luftwaffe failed to offer opposition. The Fighters swept over a wide area from north of Frankfurt to as far south as Munich and mm, setting fire to trains loaded with military vehi cles. Two bombers were lost and two Fighters were reported miss ing. seek Injunction Los Angeles, Feb. 17 (U.R) - Woof, a 5-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier, tonight was prom ised another day in court after the dog lost the first round of a court fight to save her from a death sentence. Superior Judge Walter Gates denied a writ of habeas corpus for Woof, condemned to die In the lethal gas chamber next week for fatally biting 21-months-old Marguerite Derenger Tuesday night. Cafe Owner Grady C. Terry, who says common law gives every dog his day in court, sought the habeas corpus writ. But Judge Gates held that a dog was personal property, and, as such, is not subject to action un der a write of habeas corpus. Undismayed by his court fail ure today Terry said he would return to court Monday for an injunction to stay the execution GERMAflPORT U-BOATS SINK 7 London, Feb. 17 -- (U.R) A German communique said today that Nazi U-boats, tracking an Allied convoy .bound for Mur mansk, sank seven fully laden ships, one destroyer and one es cort vessel off the Russian coast. Torpedo-carrying planes pre viously had sunk four ships and five destroyers in the heavily guarded convoy, Berlin said. New Haven, Conn., Feb. 17 (U.R) Alan Ford, 20-year-old aquatic star, set another world swimming record today, with a time of :49.4 second for the 100 yard free style In a 20 yard pool. E Four Mile Break-thru May Force German Retreat to New Line. Paris, Feb. 17 (U.R) Field Marshal Sir B. L. Montgomery's Canadian 1st army flanked the twin Siegfried bastions of Goch and Calcar today. It paralyzed the entire German position south of Kleve with a four-mile break through that cut the Goch-Cal- car highway. Both Goch and Calcar were made valueless as defensive an chors by the sudden plunge through the German line two and one-half miles northeast of Goch along the Kleve-Uedem highway. The breakthrough may force the enemy to fall back seven miles to his next line, be tween Kevelaer and Xanten. A British column spearing down from Kleve found a weak spot in the Goch-Calcar line and crashed through Friday after noon, breaking in behind the nazi 116th panzer division. They cut the Germans to shreds and swept up nearly 1,000 bomb- dazed prisoners, raising the total captured in the 10-day offensive to 6,000. Other British columns were closing in on Goch from four directions and on Calcar from two under a hail of artillery and mortar flrs.v; FrorH 1 dispatches said the fall of both bastions was imminent. Goch was all but encircled by steady British advances north, east and west of the town and the nearest column was only one mile away from the northwest where Welsh and Scottish fight era captured Asperden and Her borst, and fought into Kessel. T FOR QUONG CHIN Portland, Ore., Feb. 17 (U.R) Hing.Quong Chin, 75, Portland Chinese, found today that he will have to wait two more years before he can achieve the goal on which his heart has been set for 56 years. Tears welled In his eyes when V. S. naturalization officials here told him he would nave to wait at least that long aftei Chin had filed his declaration of in tention become an American citizen. During more than half a cen tury Chin had been waiting at the "gates of citizenship" barred by the Exclusion Act. Only re cently the law was changed to admit persons born in China Chin's wife, Zuan Cue Chin. 64, also filed her declaration. The Chins have a marned daughter and a son in Califor nia, BE WAR SHRINE Rome, Feb 17 (U.R) Two thirds of bomb-battered Casslno. scene of fierce fighting last spring, will be left in ruins as a war shrine, lt was announced to day. One-third of the town, at the foot of the Abbey of Mount Cas slno, will be rebuilt by the Ital ian government. PACIFIC LUXURY PLANES Washington, Feb. 17 (U.PJ Pan-American Airways said to night that lt is ready to buy $30, 000,000 worth of giant new lux ury planes for service over the Pacific after the war If the gov ernment is willing. t LONO STRIKE ENDS Minneapolis, Feb. 17 (U.R) The 11 months old labor dispute at the Minneapolis studios of radio station KSTP was at an end today following confirma tion of settlement. RUSSIANS CHALK EASTERNjECTOR Red Planes Hit Berlin Sub urbs Oder Dams Are Blasted. London, Sunday, Feb. 17 (U.PJ Russian troops, smashing across the enemy's Quels river defense line, yesterday drove to within 60 miles of Dresden, capi tal of Saxony, while Berlin re ported that the medieval fortress town of Sagan, southeast of Ber lin, had fallen. While Moscow reported that sky-filling fleets of Russian planes, flying 10,000 sorties a day, were lashing the outskirts of Berlin ahead of Soviet spear heads, the Red army chalked up important new gains all along the front. Soviet assault forces broke Into the encircled lower Slleslan capital of Breslau, encircled and wiped out a huge enemy group in Pomerania, and all but cut the last escape route for enemy troops in the Vistula fortress of Grudziadz. . Russian columns drove to within 50 miles southwest of the port of Danzig, and in East Prus sia toppled the Nazi strongholds of Wormditt and Mehlsack. The enemy's hold on East Prussia's 14,000 square miles of territory was reduced to a mere 600 square miles. In Poland the Russians- won almont complete control of the encircled city of Foznan, on tne Warsaw-Berlin railroad. Enemy troops were cleared from the east bank of the Warta river and Were left holding only the area of the "citadel" on the west bank. At the north and south of the Red army's vast eastern front, the Germans, however, launched violent attacks. Southeast of the Baltic port of Stettin, the Red army hurled back vicious enemy blows In the area of Stargard, 19 miles from Stettin. In this area, Berlin reported that the Oder dams between Fiddlchow, 20 miles south of Stettin, and Zehden, 84 miles northeast of Berlin, had been blown up. No explanation was offered. E TAX CUT Salem, Ore., Feb. 17 (U.R) The argument that lowered tea eral Income taxes would Increase national income and curb fed eral spending today was con trasted with labor's claim that the working man would be harmed under such a system as the proposed 22nd amendment to the constitution came before the Oregon legislature. The house committee on taxa tion and revenue took under ad visement pro and con hearing arguments last night on whether Oregon should join 18 other states which have petitioned con gress within the past six years to call a constitutional conven tion and submit to the people a 25 per cent celling on federal Income, gift and inheritance taxes. Rep. John Hall, Portland, sponsor of the resolution (HJR 5) said all groups would bene fit under a 25 per cent limita tion because there would be more income in the hands of the taxpayers, production and investment would be encourag ed, more jobs would be created, and a lower tax rate would cur tall "wasteful government ex penditures." ZURITA BOUT SIGNED Philadelphia, Feb. 17 (U.R) Juan Zurita of .Mexico will de fend his NBA light- Mght cham pionship against Ike Villlami of Trenton, N. J., In a 15 round bout at Philadelphia's Conven tion Hall April 9, lt was an nounced today. Chicago, Feb. 17 (U.R) War Mobilization Director James F. Byrnes is planning no action to curtail sports for the duration of the war. WAR BULLETINS Br United Presa Lt. Gen. Harushige Nimo mlya, 67. who was relieved re cently of his post at minister of education in Premier Gen. Kuniaki Koiso't Japanese cabinet-, died in Tokyo Saturday, the Tokyo radio said In a broadcast heard by the FCC. By UnitedPress Isolated Chinese troops in altera China hire won con trol of a 25 mile strip of the Canton-Hankow railway from the Japanese and are blocking enemy attempt in several places east of the railway to open up another land route, a Chinese communique said Sat urday. - London, Feb. 17 (U.R) Here's the latest version of the old ope about the farmer's daughter. It's true. too. When Flying Officer J. P. Crlip parachuted from his night bomber, he fell halfway through the roof of a Belgian farmhouse. He wriggled through the roof into a room below. "There was a scream from a young woman." Crisp said. "I had balled out into the bed . room of the farmer's daugh ter." GERMANS TO GET London, Feb,' 17 (U.R) Russian Commentator David Zas- lavski said tonight that occupa tion of the German Reich will be a "rough but beneficial school ing for the German people." - Broadcasting from Moscow by radio, Zaslavski said that the Yalta conference passed the death sentence on German fas cism and militarism. . He said "old Germany" Is dead and will never reappear In Eu rope. "Never again will the Ger mans succeed in repeating their felony of the post-Versailles pe riod and control their wolf ears under grandmother's nightcap the social democratic hood," he said. "Annihilation of the Ger man general staff implies anni hilation of all possibility of form ing new fighting units. "Old Berlin will be liquidated. New Berlin wiU not be the cen ter of military designs. It will not be a bandits' nest, feeder of crime and larder of the canni bals." Zaslavski said that under Al lied control the Germans will learn how to live among peoples of Europe. 'The Germans will learn how to sit at a common table," he said. "So far, whenever they have been admitted to that table, they immediately put their feet on it. Never again will this hap pen." Salem. Ore.. Feb. 17 (U.R). James J. Richardson of Portland has been named by Governor Earl Snell as chairman of the state committee to plan living memorials to be dedicated to service men who have died in World War II. A state committee meeting will be called soon to consider various suggestions. Included in the committee named by Snell are eight members from Port land and one each from Eugene, Baker, Salem, LaGrande, Hood River, Grants Pass, Corvallls and Pendleton. IN STATE HIGHER Salem, Ore., Feb. 17 (U.R) The traffic death rate In Oregon was slightly higher in 1944 than In the previous year, although there was a reduction of 8 per cent In the pedestrian faUlity rate. Secretary of State Robert 8. rarrell reported today. RICHARDSON HEADS MEMORIAL BOARD FLEET ISLES JOJAPAN Tokyo Reports Iwo Invasion Opens Details of Air Raid Lacking. U. S. Pacific Fleet Headquar ters, Guam, Sunday, Feb. 18 (U.R) Adm. Chester W. Nimlti announced today that a power ful American battle fleet had carried the bombardment of Iwo island into a third day. and Tokyo claimed American troops nad begun Invading that "door step" island to Japan, 750 miles south of the Nipponese capital. A bulletin Issued at 10:30 a. m. (7:30 p. m. Saturday WET) reported that one ship in a task force of Adm. Raymond A. Spruance's U. S. 5th fleet had been damaged by "intense" Japanese fire from Iwo. which was being blasted by naval ar tillery shells or airplane bombs tor tne 74th consecutive day. Carrier planes of the attack- ing force strafed the Bonin islands of Chichi and Hah a north of Iwo, damaging 23 grounded planes and exploding an ammunition barge. Warship anti-aircraft batteries shot down two Japanese planes attacking the mighty warship aimada in what n.i tk- t4 , enemy attack to stnke back. Tokyo claimed the Americans had attempted to land on th southeastern- coast- 'of Iwo' at" v.uv m. in,, rpaucne uma sap urday morning but were r. pulsed. Ten minutes later an other force battled ashore at a point two miles to th north, east, the enemy said, without adding any claim to having re pulsed it None of Tokyo's claims wars confirmed by Adm. N units al though from the scope of th three-day operation it appeared momentous developments were at hand in the Battle of the Pa cific. Nimltz bulletin did not say whether attacks by some 1,200 carrier planes on the Tokyo-Yo- ' kohoma area jf Tokyo were con tinuing into the third day. "Further reports on th at tacks on Tokyo by aircraft are unavailable," Nimltz said. But Toky reported that the carrier planes attacked Japan for six hours yesterday second day of the attack. A high officer here said a radio silence which had blacked out details of the Tokyo assault was "beautiflul," meaning that as long as the Jap anese did not attack the carriers and escorting warships t h a American commanders would not break silence. (The FCC reported that a high Japanese air defense official ad mitted Saturday that many resi dents of Tokyo spent almost the entire day In underground shel ters, seeking refuge from the American attacks. He warned that civilians may have to spend most of our lives underground in the future.) TOKYO CLAIMS 24 By United Press Tokyo radio claimed Saturday night that 23 U. S. warships and transports had been sunk In the waters around Iwo Jima in the Volcanoes. The Japanese broadcast, re corded by United Press in San Francisco, asserted that ships instantaneously sunk" were: on battleship, three cruisers, three warships "of lndentifled type." Other sunken vessels Included a cruiser, four transports and two mine sweepers while on cruiser and eight landing trans ports were damaged, the enemy broadcast said. 71 NURSES HONORED Allied Headquarters, Luzon, Feb. 17 (U.R) Bronze stars today were given to 71 army nurses for their valiant work In the Santo Tomas prison hospital during the Japanese occupation, it was announced. 5
