Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989, April 19, 1945, Image 1

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Medford mail tribune., April 19, 1945, Page 1, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextTPAWfc? n R, Medford U Mted Press Fortieth Year Churchill Believes Nazi Gc Authority On Eve Oi WINNIE DECRIES SPECULATION ON DATE OF. V-DAY Warning on Atrocities to Be Given Whatever Govern ment Functioning. London, April 19 (U.R) Prime Minister Churchill Indi cated belief today that the au thority of the German govern ment may disintegrate within a few days. Churchill told the House of Commons that a three-power warning to Germany on war atrocities, signed by himself, Marshal Stalin and President Truman will be issued within a few days. Decries Speculation The warning will be ad dressed, he said, to the "Ger man government or whatever authority exists" at that time Indicating belief that the crumb ling nazi regime may not be functioning as an entity by the time the joint statement Is dis patched. ...j At the same time Churchill decried speculation on the date of V-Day which he said would be fixed in consultation with the "three or four" principal powers, having a mind to both military and political consider ations. He implied that no agreement on a date has yet been reached. He revealed that a special parliamentary delegation is leaving Britain tomorrow to ob tain eyewitnesses evidence of nazi atrocities. Atrocities Grow Churchill revealed that the parliamentary body is being sent at the direct request of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower who mes saged Churchill today that new discoveries of atrocities, partic ularly those in the Weimar area, far surpass anything previously found. The prime minister's an nruncement came after he had replied tartly to a member's question as to when V-Day might come. "I have no announcement to make about V-Day at the pres ent time," Churchill said, "ex cept that I deprecate premature speculations on this subject." RED ClSSTOOD . TO P. ws Washington, April 19 U.(9 lien. Dwight D. Eisenhowers headquarters has reported that large quantities of Red Cross supplies are teing delivered to American and Allied prisoners of war in German prison camps. Secretary of W-.r Henry L. Stim son said today. Stimson said the largest con centration of American prisoners Is now at Stalag 7-A at Moos burg, 25 miles northeast of Mu nich. At last reports there were 9.812 U. S. prisoners, including bout 4,000 officers and some enlisted men who had been trans ferred from Stalagluft 3 at Nurn berg, there. SIDE GLANCES By TRIBUNE REPORTERS Ray Miksche undergoing the humiliating experience of being almost knocked out In an en counter with bird cage. George Davis recounting, with gestures, his initial experiences with army routine. Ralph Koozer too busy plant ing tomatoes to answer the Phono. I Full Leased Wlr. U . - A V (Acma Telephotol The late Ernie Pyle. famous Scrlpps-Howard war correspondent killed in action on Island of Ie, near Okinawa, Is pictured here with "That Girl" his seldom photographed wife, Mrs. Gcraldine Pyle, In library ol their Albu querque, N. M, home Just Before he left for the Pacific With the couple Is their pet Shetland sheeo doe. Cheetah. Life photo by Bob Landry. FOR THIRD TIME By United Press Superfortresses raided Kyu shu for the third straight day today, Tokyo said, and American ground forces scored new gains in Okinawa and Ie in the Ryu- kyus and on newly-invaded Min danao in the Philippines. Enemy broadcasts said more than 100 B-29's bombed Kyushu, southernmost of Japan's home islands, while three other B-29's and 60 escorting Mustang fight ers attacked airfields in the Tokyo area. with Tokyo one-tenth destroy ed, foreign diplomats have evac uated the capital, the broadcasts admtited. Aim At Airfields The Kvushu raids presumably were aimed at the six airfields frnm which Jananese suicide pilots have been taking off to attack . the American fleet oh Okinawa. 330 miles south. Tokyo said the raid lasted two hours. Another broadcast said the Amarfran raiders hnmbed and strafed Tokyo airfields for half an hour. Marinpt cleared three-fourths nf Okinawa with a drive to the northern tip of the islsnd. Other marines still were embattled on Motobu peninsula jutting from the northwest coast and army troops at the south end were stalled by stubborn defense lines before Naha, the capital. A' Pacific fleet communique id that the first 18 davs of the Okinawa campaign, with associ ated nneratinns in the Rvukvu chain and air raids on Japan, had cost the Americans 7, BUD killed, wounded or captured. Hard Fight On la American assault forces on tiny Ie, three miles west of Motobu, continued gains, but were' meeting with stiff resist ance from dug-in Japanese posi tions. American ' Invasion troops drove inland today from a 35- mile beachhead on Mindanao, southernmost of the Philippines. Th Undine- was effected ' on Moro gulf Tuesday with virtual ly no opposition. The main Japanese forces, estimated at 50,000, were be llrved to have withdrawn to Davao, 95 miles east. On Luzon, American forces tightened the siege arc on Bagulo, former Japanese head quarters In the Philippines. I W,(ou(trT (cfy j, ISSN fjjBW MEDFORD, OREGON, THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1945 This Was Last Trip Home for Pyle Will Be Buried Among Soldiers He Immortalized By Mac R. Johnson United Press War Correspondent Okinawa, April 19 (U.R) Ernie Pyle will be buried among the soldiers he Immortalized. The beloved little war corre spondent killed by a Japanese machine-gunner yesterday prob ably will be laid to rest in an Army cemetery here In the Ryukyus where he covered his last campaign. The soldiers he loved brought him back from the battlefield. Bock to where the noise of the guns is distant and dull. They lifted his pint-sized frame from the ditch where he fell, victim of a sneak Japanese machine-gun ambush. One of his hands still clutched his green fatigue cap. They put him on a litter, and crossed his arms, and then parried him back to the rear. It wasn't easy. That Japanese machine-gunner seemed Jealous of his prized victim. It was five hours after Ernie was killed be fore anybody could get to his body. . Albuquerque, N. M.,' April 18 (U.R) Messages of condolence poured Into the - Albuquerque home of Ernie Pyle, the war cor- ALLIES SCORE ON ITALIAN FRONT Rome, April 19 (U.R) British eighth army forces have driven the Germans from the Argenta Gap northeast of Bologna and advanced six miles from their last reported positions to within 15 miles of the Po river, allied headquarters announced tonight. The eighth army's fifth corps poured out onto the Po plain on a four to six-mile front. It cap tured Benlvignante, 11 miles southeast of Ferrara. U. S. fifth army troops pushed to the outskirts of Planoro, seven miles south of Bologna. NOTRE DAME COACH Notre Dame, Ind., April 19. (U.R) Elmer Ripley, former bas ketball coach at Georgetown, Yale and Columbia universities, was appointed head basketball coach at Notre Dame university today. YREKA POSTMASTER Washington, April 19. U.fi) President Truman today nomin ated Maxwell F. Buffum to be postmaster at Yreka, CaU Ernie i i respondent who wrote the hu man side of the war and was killed by a Jap machine-gunner on the Pacific island of Ie Jima The messages were from peo ple of all walks of life. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal wired Mrs. Gcraldine Pyle, Ernie's wife who was known as "that girl" In his col umns: "On behalf of the entire Naval Service I extend to you our sincerest sympathy in your great loss which is also a loss to the nation." Another wire from General Joseph Stilwell said, "I have Just learned of the death of your husband on an American battle field. All American soldiers will keenly feel the loss of a man who has done so much to tell their story. HOLLfOfPOST Hollywood, April 19. (U.R) The commander of the Holly wood world war II post of the American Legion resigned today in a dispute over admission to legion membership of Japanese American war veterans. Post Commander William P. Schneider quit only a few hours after Harley Oka, world war II veteran of Japanese ancestry and central figure in the dispute, had also resigned. Oka was the first Japanese-ancestry veteran ever to become a legionnaire. Both Schneider and Oka blamed "Intolerance" by World War I Legionnaires for their decisions. U.S. Casualties Near Million Washington, April 19. (U.R) Officially announced U. S. combat casualties, approaching 1,000.000, reached an overall total of 912,200 today. This was an Increase of 12,810 In a week. Meanwhile, German casualties on the western front are mount ing by the hundreds of thousands. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson disclosed at his press con ference today that British and U. S. armies have captured 2.100.000 Germans since Normandy D-Day last June 6. Of this total, 900,000 were captured In April alone. The U. S. combat casualty total Included 813,870 army and 98.330 navy, marine corps, and coast guard losses since Dec. 7, 1941 The all-service figures for total U. S. casualties: Killed Wounded Missing Prisoners Totals .'. Of the army wounded, 261,596 Tribune United Prut arnment Disintegration FOR POLAND IS REJECTER Blf U.S. State Department Reiterates Firm Stand on Agreement Reached at Yalta Parley. Washingtdfi, April 19 (U.R) The United States today turned down Russia's second request that the provisional Polish gov ernment of Warsaw be invited to the San Francisco Security conference. The State Department reiter ated its firm stand that Poland will not be represented at the United Nations parley unless a new "government of national unity" is formed before the con ference begins next Wednesday. Agreed at Yalta Russia, Britain, and the Uni ted States agreed at Yalta to foster such a new Polish regime. But it has not been set up. Ap parently there have been differ ences of opinion as to Interpre tations fit the Yalta agreement. The ' State " Department cony firmed that the Soviet govern ment, In a note received here yesterday, had reiterated "the Soviet request that the present provisional government now functioning In Warsaw be Invited to send representatives of the conference at San Francisco." This is the government that first was set up at Lublin. Receipt of the note had been announced but Its contents had not been officially disclosed. Request Rejected Russia's first request that the Warsaw government be Invited to San Francisco was rejected by the United States and Britain on March 31. A beHef Is current here that Big Three Representatives likely will be unable to agree on a new, broadened Polish govern ment In time for the conference. The whole difficult problem will be thra:htd over this week end by the British, American and Russian foreign ministers and the other Big Three diplomats who have been trying unsuccessfully at Moscow to agree on a new Po lish regime. The situation now rests with President Truman, Secretary of State Edward .. Stettinlus, Jr., British Foreign Mlnlstei An thony Eden, who Is already here, and Russian Foreign Commissar V. M. Molotov, who Is en route from Moscow. The British and American dip lomats who have been working on the problem with Molotov at Moscow also are here. LIGHTS TO SHINE IN BRITAIN NEXT WEEK London, April 19. (U.R) The British blackout will be lifted Monday except for a five-mile coastal belt, Home Secretary Herbert Morrison announced to day. It has been five years and eight months since the tights have burned at night in Britain. ,.162,505 37.920 200.425 ,.498.803 ' 45,554 542.357 . 83,928 10.595 94.521 - 70,636 4,261 74.897 .813,870 98,330 912,200 813,870 have returned to duty. Full Leased Wlr NO. 24. OLD HOUSES TO be remove NEWCITY PARK Council to Call for Bids For Removal to Make Way For City Improvement. Four old dwellings on East Main street on the site of the proposed new ci'y park will be removed In the near future, city councilmen at the last meeting having authorized the city attor ney to issue a call for bids for their removal. The dwellings, including the Mansion cafe, are at 501, 511, 517 and 523 East Main street. City Superintendent Frank Rogers stated today that the call for bids would bs Issued soon and that the contractor could either demolish the buildings or re move them In their entirety. The site for the park does not In clude the service station at the comer of Main street and Haw thorne or the buildings on the west side of Hawthorne. Members of the city planning commission last night approved the council l post-war program, jon to be anonunced in a com plete form, Mayor Clarence A. Meeker stated this morning. 11 BY $75 VERDICT Hollywood, April 19 (U.R) Joan Barry today tried to fig ure how to raise her 18-month-old daughter as a multi-millionaire's child on the $75 weekly check she'll be getting from Charlie Chaplin, the baby's legally-adjudged father. She said she didn't think It could be done The red-haired Miss Barry, one-time drama protege of the 56-year-old comedian, said she was bewildered and 'shocked beyond words" at the news Su pcrior Judge Clarence Kincaid had ignored her plea for SI 500 monthly support for the baby and $50,000 attorney's fees. Kincaid yesterday ordered Chaplin to pay Miss Barry $75 a week for Carol Ann's support, $5000 for attorney's fees and court costs. Hypnotism Used To Combat Mental Ills Contracted In War New York, April 19. (U.R) Doctors In uniform have turned the "magic" of hypnosis on bat tle casualties whose wounds don't show. seeking quick cur. for "com bat fatigue" and neuroses, psy chiatrists in U. S. army, navy, merchant marine hospitals and field stations are hypnotizing mental victims of the war and obtaining results one. consid ered impossible. Their progress was reported by R. A. Motherlant in the May Issue of Mechanix Illustrated magazine. He said hypnotism in mental treatment was proved safe, efficient and lasting. WHITE HOUSE LUNCH Washington, April 19 U.R) President and Mrs. Truman lunched today In th. White House with Mrs. Roosevelt. Mrs. Truman was driven over from the Blair house across the street. Th. President walked over from th. executive wing of th. White House. HOOVER URGED Washington, April 19 (U.R) Appointment of former Presi dent Herbert Hoover as a dele gate to the San Francisco secur ity conference was urged In t. senate today by Sen, Homer E. Capehart, R, Ind. Twin Stronghold Fall Threatens Collapse Of Nazis' Central Front Paris, April 19. (U.R) The twin German strongholds of Leipzig and Halle fell to the American first army today in a crushing: double victory which threatened the complete collapse ot tha Nazis' central front. The two cities, keystones of the enemy's entire defensiv. system in central Germany, were taken by first army doughboys only a few hours apart today in the bloodiest street fighting sine. th. Rhine crossing. FEW SCATTERED SNIPERS LEFT A few scattered snipers were reported still holding out In tha ruins of Leipzig tonight, but all resistance was stamped out In Halle, 15 miles to the northwest. Far to the northwest, U. S. ninth army forces battled to stem fierce German counter-attack against their northern flank between Magdeburg and Brunswick. A strong German task force of perhaps 1,000 men and 70 tanks and armored units struck suddenly into the ninth army flank some 45 miles west of the Elbe early today and made considerable progress before the Americans could rally to meet the blow. PART OF NAZI FORCE SLIPS THROUGH Attacking southeastward from the Wittingen area, the Nazis slipped part of their force 15 miles through the American lines into the Kloetz forest, but their main body was checked with heavy losses after a three-mile advance. The thrust apparently was aimed at cutting clear across th. ninth army front into the Harz mountains, soma 60 miles south of the Kloetz forest. Leipzig, the fifth city of Hitler's reich and the pivot on which his entire western battle line depended, was conquered by two first army divisions early today in one ot the bloodiest, close-in fights of the war. ARTILLERY RANGE OF BERLIN. REPORT London, April 19 (U.R) Russian Armored Forces war. reported battling within artil lery range of battered Berlin at th. center of a biasing 60 mile sieg. arc today. London, April 19 (U.R) Nazi broadcasts said today that Russian Forces ..ad scored a deep advance east ot Berlin and thrust an armored spearhead across a road at an unspecified point northeast of Strausberg, a town nine miles from the capital's city limits. A German military spokes man said Marshal Ivan S. K) nev's First Ukrainian army had pushed westward up to 25 miles beyond the Nelsso river and had reached the Spree river on a 42 mile front between Cottbus and Bautzen, 68 miles from the American Third Army at Chem nitz. Moscow Vague Moscow continued to give only vague hints of th. great Soviet offensive on the broad front be fore Berlin drives In which gloomy Nazi commentators acknowledged steady Russian gains into th. shrinking waist line of the unoccupied Reich. By German account the blood iest fighting raged In the maze of defenses strung over the near approaches to Berlin. There, Transocean's Walter Plato said, the "hard struggle is becoming more acute" and the "scene of grim fighting shifted nearer to Berlin." Outposts Topple Red Army Assault Forces top pled the Berlin outposts of See low and Wrlezen, 26 miles east MAMSUSO e Schwann n J MECKIENSUAC jr.t? I ... nrnr t . r . MAUI. liUJ SAXONY. I -V. ......... "J rt . . ' stajrnrwntj iL at YTV TTO T a " ' " KUftTTIMSKKC MUMICK aoaswiint' V S W IfcV. I X SAVAKIA . X . J Aimnecn troope Slashed tn Cwcno-SiorsXta, cutting pre-war Germany In two, though Nails till hold a corridor from North Br to their BaverUn redoubt. On eastern front, Russians were reported in sight oi the burning Reich capital. Par to north, the British were within M mllce of Hamburg, had cut the Hamburg-Berlin railway line and Perm an plant for lUAd JLXiaiUi&Ca. Sfiltl t&ccu (toirtwU-- Americans Hailed With stray shots still flying In a half-dozen sections of the city, thousands of liberated allied prisoners and soma civilian lined the streets to hail tha Americans. On the part of tha civilians it was an open accept ance of Germany's defeat. German hopes for a prolonged stand in the west wer. fading fast and the fall of Leipzig was expected to speed the final dis integration of the wehrmacht. The Nazi collapse in that great central stronghold came as Gen. Omar N. Bradley announced that the three pace-making arm ies of his American 12th army group had reached their estab lished objectives and wer. paus ing before tha next phase ot their assault on tha dying retch. Two Million Captured More than 2,000,000 German were revealed to have been cap tured by the western allies since their landing In Normandy last June, almost half of them taken sine, the - Rhln. crossing six weeks ago. "Virtually every German sol dier who faced us back on tha Siegfried line on Feb. 23 Is now either killed, wounded or a pris oner," Bradley said. TO BERLIN By United Press The nearest distances to Ber lin from advanced allied line, today: Eastern front 14 miles (front east of Oder river, by German report). Western front 45 miles (from Elba river). Italian front 516 mllea (from near Comacchlo). and 23 northeast of th. capital, the Germans admitted. After th. fall of Wriezen, ona broadcast said, the Russians Moved "several kilometers" down the road to Strausberg. A Inter alarmed radio report said that after achieving a deep brcakin, a spearhead "thrust a few kilometers" beyond tha road Into Strausberg. 4- BERLIN' . gntim 4. -14. . . M((UI ' i r- MOtAVU CZECHO. f : . f- : i Vrme Tehphotot finr$$l BALTIC StA '' I Jta-t . . . I Jh " I 1 soznanI G.H.I, V r cj vii kj'tj aTVl J .....