Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989, February 25, 1945, Image 1

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Medford mail tribune., February 25, 1945, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextWeather rorveuti Bun day and Mono&y lightly cloudy, UtUt cHang to temperature. Temp. Hlfheit yeiterday 85 Loweit- this mornlni 24 Vn The Mill Tribune Want Ad Way Quick Results At Small Cost Medford Tribune United Press Full LMMd Wire UrJttj Pre Full Leued Wire Thirty ninth' Year MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25. 1945 NO. 284. on Jl 7j Nl JL IK 7nun7Wm A j iyjuu u iyj n ED I k HEART OF JAPAN E WITHIN A WEEK Adm. Nimitz Report Attack Now Underway Vital Bases' Raked U. S. Pacific Fleet Headquar- ters, Guam, Sunday, Feb. 25 U.R) A great force of American carrier-based aircraft are again attacking Tokyo and ' its sur rounding military and naval in stallations for the third time within a week, it was announced today. Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz disclosed in a brief special com munique at 7:15 p. m. (PWT) that the Fifth fleet carrier task force commanded by Vice Adm. Marc A. Mitscher had returned to strike again at the heart of the Japanese homeland. There were no details of the action. The strike followed two days of punishing blows dealt by Mitscher s navy and marine air- men last Friday and Saturday when 809 Japanese planes were destroyed or damaged.. The Fifth fleet, under the overall command of Adm. R. A. Spruance, had again accomplish ed the "impossible." After standing to within 300 ' miles of the Japanese main is land of Honshu last week end without meeting any enemy sur face or air attack, they turned southward to support the Iwo Jima landing two days later. Now, in less-than -a week, they had returned to scourge Tokyo again. Two-Day Assault More than 1,200 American war planes roared over Tokyo for two consecutive days in the first great naval-air strike against the enemy's capital and it was believed that a force equally as large was again bat tering the important installa tions ringing the city. Naval, military and air instal lations were being raked by the avenging carrier airmen. The brief communique re leased by Nimitz merely said that the attack was going on. As in the previous raid, Mitscher's task force was maintaining ra dio silence while in enemy ' waters. , Text of the communique: "Carrier aircraft of the Fifth fleet are attacking military, naval and air installtions in nd around Tokyo. Adm. R. A. Spruance is In command of the Fifth fleet, Vice Adm. Marc A. Hitscher is in tactical command of the fast car rier task force making the at tacks." Tokyo radio reported the at tacks before Nimitz' special an nouncement was made. Japanese broadcasts said that U. S. carrier-based planes had raided the Tokyo-Yokohama area Sunday morning. The broadcast, recorded by FCC, said the planes "are now carrying out an echelon attack." Tokyo radio, as usual, claimed that Japanese air units were in tercepting the raiders. Tokyo said the attack occurred at 7 a. m. Japanese time. Mitscher, master of carrier i a r f a r e, had undoubtedly 'brought his great carrier task force just as close to Honshu as before. Standing 300 miles off the main island last week, he directed incessant aerial assaults against Tokyo and the surround ing area which spread fires throughout the capital. Superfortresses had joined In the all-out air assault against Tokyo last. They appeared over the burning city while more than 1,200 carrier planes still roared over the area. There was no hint of the amount of damage being caused to Japan's vital naval and mili tary installations. But it appeared that Japan's major docks and anchorages were being singled out for spe cial attention in the latest carrier-borne strike. HOTEL FIRE TOLL 19 L Tacoma, Wash.. Feb. 24 (U.FS T Fire Chief Charles J. Eisen bacher tonight officially ended th search of the ruins of the Maefair apartment house which was destroyed by fire a week ago and said the final death toll would be 19. Iwo Jima Invasion Casualty J I -if A Is- -. vCv f - - javeev (Acme Telepholo) A Marine casualty from first assault wave at Iwo Jima rests on a bed ot life preservers aboard a Coast Guard LCVP puffing on a cigaret while on way to hospital ship lying off shore. Coast Guard ohoto. STATERS DEFEAT IDAHO 44-33 TO TIE Corvallis, Ore., Feb. 24 flJ.R) The Oregon State - College Beavers regained a tie for the top position in the northern di vision basketball standings here tonight when they defeated the University of Idaho Vandals, 44 33. The Idahoans were much touger than the night before when the Staters won 50-28. Af ter 10 minutes of play, the Van dals held an 11-10 lead and held doggedly within shouting dis tance until late in the second half. The Beavers held a 23-18 half- time lead but in the second half the Vandals kept on their heels until finally the Staters broke away with a scoring spree which rolled the count up to 41-28 arid coasted home with reserves fin ishing the game. "Red" Rocha, Oregon State's six-foot, eight-inch pivot man, dropped through six field goals and three free tosses for an eve ning's total of 15 and a series total of 31." Len Pyne played a stellar game at guard for the Vandals and contributed 12 points in the scoring column. The victory left the Staters tied .with the University of Ore gon for first place with the Washington State Cougars not far behind. JAPS VOW DEATH Aboard Adm. Turner's Flag ship off Iwo Jima, Feb. 25 (ELD) (Via Navy Radio) (U.R) Tokyo radio said today that Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner whose forces supported the Iwo Invasion "must not re turn home alive." Describing Turner and Adm R. A. Spruance as being respon sible for the killing of "count less numbers of our own younger and elder brothers on various is lands throughcut the central Pa cific," the enemy broadcast said "they have indeed led their men to the point vhere they are in deed close to the Japanese main land." "But they find themselves In a dilemma as they are unable to either advance or recede." The broadcast concluded by saying that "this man Turner shall not return home alive he must not and will not." San Francisco, Feb. 24 (U.R) The dairy market was un changed today. ;j .-vr EDS ADVANCE UP SEAL OFF DANZIG London,. Sunday, Feb. . 25 (U.R) Red army troops advanc ing on a 65-mile front up the f ollsh Corridor and across eastern Pomerania, yesterday hacked to within 33 miles south of Danzig and 64 miles from the Pomeranian coast in a drive to seal off the former free city and its twin Baltic port of Gdynia Troops of Marshal Konstantin K. Rokossovsky's 2nd White Rus sian army threatened the Nazi stronghold of Preussisch Fried land in Pomerania and in the "Polish Corridor" drove to a point nine miles from Starboard, an outer bastion of Danzig. In East Prussia, Red army forces tightened the steel 1 arc around trapped enemy forces southwest of shell-ruined Koen igsberg, reducing the enemy pocket to 320 square miles. In the lower Silesian capital of Breslau, eighth city of Ger many, Russian infantrymen slashed deeper into the city streets in grim house-to-house battles with un estimated 100. 000 Nazi troops who were un der orders to defend the city to the last man. Soldiers of Marshal Ivan S. Konev's 1st Ukrainian army captured another 15 blocks in the southern area of the city and won the suburb of Oltaschin, four miles south - of the . town center. ALLIEDliBERS KEEP UP NON-STOP DRIVE ON NAZIS London, Feb. 24 U.R) Heavy bombers from Britain blasted oil refineries and U-boat yards in northwest Germany today and tactical planes lashed railroads and front objects as allied air men flew more than 6.500 sorties In the 12th consecutive day of the non-stop aerial offensive. The British Second and Amer ican Ninth tactical airforces put almost 4,000 medium and fighter-bombers into the area, pound ing German rail communications from the front lines deep Into the reich. They also blasted enemy troops and supplies moving up to reinforce the fronts In the face of the allied ground offensive, striking with particular fury at enemy objectives opposite the Canadian First and American Ninth armies driving toward Cologne, TH AND FIRST NEAR TO COLOGNE, SEO TOWNS Roer River Line Wobbles In Drive For Rhine As Julich Falls Paris, Sunday, Feb. 25 (U.R) The American 9th and 1st armies, seized 13 more fortified towns and battled -to within 16 miles of Cologne last night as they drove nearly five miles across the Cologne plain in their two-day-old offensive. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower spurred his armies forward with a demand for complete annihila tion of nazi forces defending the Rhine, and his men responded gallantly by bringing their two day total of captured towns to 23. . One anchor of the formidable Roer river line toppled when the last Germans were driven from Julelich, leaving the city a ruin ed shambles comparable to St. Lo, and the second wavered as infantry battled halfway through Dueren. Only at Dueren was the 22 mile wide American bridgehead pinned against the Roer. Else where the plunging tank and in fantry teams were two to five miles inside the river line and rolling on for the Rhine. The offensive front was wid ened to 31 miles during the day when the 9th army's northern wing swept up against the west bank of the Roer on a nine-mile stretch to cover the flank of the assault. The advance captured forseien, Oberbruch, Kempen and Schanz. -' The British 2nd army remain ed quiet along the -Roer and Mass (Meuse) rivers. But the Ca nadian 1st added new fury to the allied assault by jumping off at dawn under a five-hour ar tillery barrage in a new drive for the Rhine. The attack gained a mile in the first few hours and there were signs that the Ger mans were withdrawing to high ground to meet it. The greatest gains were scor ed by Lt. Gen. George S. Pat ton's 3rd army as it smashed five miles deeper into disordered German defenses east of the Luxembourg border, seizing 21 more towns. LABOR DISPUTES Chicago, Feb. 24 (U.R) Labor disputes involving some 20,000 workers at two major war pro duction centers tied up output of weapons and ships tonight and threatened to spread to oth er areas. The war labor board stepped into one of the strikes today with a back-to-work to 7,000 strikers at the Jngalls Shipbuilding Corp. at Pascagoula, Miss. In Detroit government of ficials studied means to stop a widening strike of 13,000 work ers and 154 inter-plant drivers which was in its second day at the main Dodge plant of the Chrysler Corp. Officials said the dispute might stop production at all Chrysler Corp. plants. In Chicago, however, day shift employes of the cam and gear department of the Dodge Chi cago plant stayed on the jobs today. They ignored the strike of 75 co-workers employed on the second shift. At New Orleans, a strike in volving 1,500 Lane Cotton Mills workers was threatened over a dispute involving the company's refusal to grant paid vacations. The executive board of the textile workers union (CIO) voted to call a strike Monday un less the vacation demands were granted or unless the union was assured of federal seizure of the mills. Rome, Feb. 24 (U.R) The condition of Pope Pius XII is greatly Improved, the Vatican announced today. IMPERIL OUTPUT GUNS AND SHIPS DISTRICT 4 TITLE Medford high defeated Ash land 46 to 33 last night to win the District 4 championship, be fore a packed house. The Black Tornado was ahead at the half 23 to 11, and was never seri ously threatened. They will next play the District Three winner for the right to enter the state meet at Salem. In 'the first game, Klamath Falls defeated Grants Pass 32 to 22. Ashland won second, and the Pelicans third place. . Sportsmanship awards were presented to Jack Lutz of Grants Pass and James Noreen of Klamath Falls. The outstanding players were listed as: Rlggs, Medford, Sarnuelson. Ashland, Noreen, Klamath Falls, Ross, Medford, Riebel, Grants Pass,' Watson, Medford, Palmar, Klamath Falls, Jandreau, Ash land, Lutz, Grants Pass, and Thorn, Klamath Falls. ADOLF DECLARES WAR TO TURN Speech Broadcast By Aide Threatens All Who Falter . Sorry For Self London, Feb. 24 (U.R) Adolf Hitler, in a speech read by a henchman, said today that the war will turn in Garmany's favor during "1945" and grimly promised the "elimination" of any German vho falters during the struggle. The German radio reported Hitler's first reported speech since Jan. 30, 1945. The German DNB agency said lt was read for him at a Munich Nazi party cele bration by Secretary of State Hermann Esser. As he had on Jan. 30, he made little effort to gloss over the struggle which faces Germany. He said that each German "must throw evevythlng into the bal ance so as to free our people from this plight." "There must be no doubt that national socialist Germany will carry on the struggle until the historical turning point takes place, and this will happen dur ing the present year," the speech said. Hitler said that to preserve the German nation, its people must be ready "to shoulder every sac rifice in order to safeguard this life for the future." "My own life has only such value as it has for the nation," he said. 'Therefore I am working re lentlessly at the reestabllshment and consolidation of our fronts for the defensive and the offen sive, at the production and em ployment of old and new wea pons, at the stiffening of the spirit of our resistance, and, if necessary, just as in previous times, at the elimination of all wreckers who either do not join in the struggle for the pres ervation of our nation or who want to oppose it." Hitler said he almost was sorry that Allied bombers hadn't wrecked his hoaise at Berchtes gaden, for lud such action been carried out, he could have shared this additional burden with his people. T Baker, Ore., Feb. 24 (U.R) Under consideration of Governor Earl Snell and the state high way commission is a proposal by a delegation of Salem busl ness men to construct a 50-mile highway from Grant county to Baker via Whitney and Sumpter according to A. S. Grant, presi dent of the Baker county Cham ber of Commerce. Grant has Just returned from Salem. DESTRUCTION OF ENEMY IN SOUTH MANILAIS TOLD MacArthur Reports Enemy Out 'of Philippines Soon Losses Heavy Gen. MacArthur's headquar ters, Luzon, Sunday, Feb. 25 (U.R) Gen. Douglas MacArthur today announced the destruction of the trapped Japanese Manila garrison and forecast that the entire Philippines Archipeligo soon would be freed from an enemy he said had been doomed by his heavy losses. MacArthur, 22 days after his troops first entered Manila, an nounced that elements of Ma J. Gen. Robert S. Belghtlcr's 37lh Infantry and Maj. Gen. Verne D. Mudgc's First .Cavalry had overwhelmed the last enemy po sitions In Intramuros, the ancient- section of South Manila. They "completed the destruc tion of the trapped garrison," he said. And 12,000 enemy bodies already have been found In Ma nila with "many more to come." Some 3,000 civilians whom "the incorrigible enemy" had herded into Intramuros, including a number of Catholic priests and nuns, were fieed. MacArthur said the enemy "apparently expected to turn the tide of battle in a supreme ef fort." He har tailed, and Mar Arthur's communique said:'1 "This operation and the'' tre mendous and disproportionate losses In men and material sus tained during the progress of our advance through Luzon, fol lowing the catastrophic defeat In Leyte, dooms General Yama shita's Philippine campaign and presages the early clearance of the entire archipelago." Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, whose armies captured Bataan in the early days of the war, Is the Japanese commander In the Philippine. His army on Luzon has been split. On Leyte, first major Philippine Island to be liberated by MarArthur's men, Japanese losses were more than 112,000 m;n. American troops are also levy ing a mounting toll of the trap ped and desperate Japanese gar rison of Corregidor, rocky island In the entrance ot Manila bay POINTlALUE OF LARD, MARGARINE, COOKING OILS UP 'Washington, Feb. 24 (U.R) The office of price administra tion tonight Increased the ra tion point value of lard, shorten ing, salad and cooking oils and margarine, effective at 12:01 a. m. Sunday. A tight supply situation neces sitated raising the margarine point value from three to five points a pound, OPA said. Like wise, lard, shortening and salad and cooking oil values had to be increased from two to tour points per pound, it said. Values for creamery butter and farm butter, OPA said, will remain unchanged at 24 and 12 red points, respectively. Lard production fell substan tially below last year's total and Is now behind 1945 schedules, OPA said. Government set-asldes of lard for war uses also are ab sorbing a large percentage of federally Inspected lard. Shortening and salad and cooking oils may be used inter changeably with lard, OPA ex plained, so it was necessary to increase their point values simul taneously. .WELDERS EYE PROPOSAL Seattle, Feb. 24 (U.R) A pro posal to return to work will be submitted to a mass meeting of the striking welders at two ship yards here at the request of Mayor Wlllalm F. Devin. The welders have already rejected a proposal to return to work de spite promises of no discrimina tions against them. WAR BULLETINS Br Unltad Press - A. Japanese short-wave broadcast, recorded by .the FCC. said Saturday that Ja pan will dedara war on Tur key. The broadcast was in Italian beamed to the Euro, paan continent. Washington, Fab. 24 (U.PJ Gen. Nocolaa Radescu, pre mier of Romania, disclosed in a speech broadcast by the Bucharest radio tonight that an attempt had been made to assassinate him earlier in the day as he sat in the ministry of Interior. AT 16 MILLIONS Estimated value of agricul tural products in Jackson coun ty is placed at $16,000,000, ap proximately three million dol lars more than last year, in the annual report of County Agent Robert G. Fowler. Half of the total, came from the pear crop, and seed crops, beef cattle, grain, hay, dairy products, and poultry made up the balance the report shows. The report was filed last December with the Oregon state college extension service at Cor vallis. Receipts from turkeys were not up to expectations, due to adverse spring weather condi tions, and late hatch. However, the- prospects for next year are good, and the county agent fig ures there will be an increase in the number of birds this sea son. The prospective production is estimated at 100,000 fowls. The 1944 output was between 40,000 and 45,000 birds. 30-34 GROUP TO FACE INDUCTION Washington, Feb. 24 (U.R) Selective service tonight decreed induction for a considerable number of presently deferred men in the age group 30 through 33. Heretofore Industrial defer ments have been granted men 30 to 34 who were "regularly engaged in" essential work. Henceforth, selective snrvlre said In a new memorandum to local boards, such men must also be "necessary to" as well as reg ularly engaged in essential ae tivlties to have a chance for de ferment. The new regulation means, se lective service said, that nh ally fit men in the 30-33 group wno ao not meet the "necessary to" test Will fflPf. thk rtf-n-na. of Induction "to the extent ne cessary to fill the calls" of the armed forces. It ends completely the grant ing of deferment to physically fit men in the age group who do not hold Indispensable posts in war .Droduction or amtlni civilian activities. Selective service told local boards that requirements of the armed forces for combat re placements have "sharply in creased" and that the supply oi physically fit men in the age group 18 through 25 is "prao tically exhausted." It also point ed out that the supply of men 28 through 29 is "extremely limited." VATICAN CLAIMS Rome, Feb. 24 (U.R) The semi-official Vatican News Serv ice said today that It was be lieved In Vitlcan City that President Roosevelt "hurriedly returned to America due to the fact his condition of health is not too good." PRESIDENT SICK I HALF IWO FIELD; 2,799 ENEMY DEAD Sea and Air Forces Aid' Drive On Stiff Japanese Defenses U. S. Pacific Fleet Headquar ters, Guam, Sunday, Feb. 25 (U.R) Tank-led U. S. marinea won control of half of Iwo's vital central airfield Saturday and expanded positions along the entire northern front, Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz an nounced today. The bloody strug gle for the island has now taken a toll ot at least 2,799 Japanesa dead. The Americans smashed into the middle area of the 5,525-foot airfield where Japanese govern ment offices and military head quarters are located. They brav ed a terrible concentration of enemy gunfire from the most elaborate and difficult enemy de fense system yet encountered in the Pacific. Covered by a gigantic land, air and sea bombardment,, daunt less fighting men of the 3rd. 4th and 5th divisions hurled their weight at the complicated maze of Japanese pillboxes and fortifications and broke through) despite intense enemy fire. Heavy weapons and rocket fire raked the advancing ma rines, Nimitz reported. But tha American troops, swept 300 to) 500 yards northward through, the interlocking concrete pill boxes, blockhouses and fortified caves manned by fanatical Jap anese., , J Troops on Mt. Surlbachl were mopping up enemy remnants on the southern sector of the beach, head while the northern forces opened their all-out assault. Supplies continued to pour ashore to support the new of fensive and Japanese artillery fire already has begun to de crease as a result of the U. S. gains the largest single day's gain of the bloody campaign. - All areas crossed were heavily mined by the Japanese. By 6 p. m. Saturday, the Americans had reached the mid dle area of the central airfield, had pushed forward several hun dred yards on the west and had begun a drive which expanded the beachhead northward along the east coast about 600 yards. . PORTLAND HOTEL Portland, Ore., Feb. 24 (U.R) The mysterious disappearance of a couple registered at a Port land hotel as Dr. and Mrs. D. B. Gates was investigated tonight by police. Chester Patterson, t a x I c a b driver, reported that he had been Instructed to pick up the couple every . evening at ten o'clock. Dr. Gates told Patterson that he had only a short while to live and he was out to enjoy him self. . The taxlcab driver, who said Dr. Gates told him he had $35, 000 on his person, said he had promised to notify authorities If Dr. Gates and his wife did not show up as scheduled. The two have not been seen since February 18, Patterson said In his report to police. A check disclosed that they had not checked out of their hotel and their luggage was still there, California Estate Waits Nazis Fall San Liuis Obispo, Cal., Feb. 24 (U.PJ The distribution of a $450,000 estate to ,17 German relatives of a wealthy, Prussian born rancher who died In Fresno, February 2, today awaits the fall of the nazls and the subsequent finding of the relatives In the war-torn country.