America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (July 19, 1944)

LIVORNO FALLS TO 5TH ARMY
Yanks, Poles crumple ends of line in Italy

Allies take Ancona, east coast port
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer

New victory in Italy was achieved by U.S. forces in the capture of Livorno (1), west coast anchor of the Nazi line. U.S. troops drove toward Pisa. In central Italy, the British crossed the Arno River and captured Montevarchi (2), while on the east coast, Polish troops captured Ancona (3), Adriatic anchor of the German defenses.

Rome, Italy –
U.S. troops captured the great Tyrrhenian port of Livorno today, crumbling the western anchor of the German defenses across Italy in the biggest Allied victory of the Italian campaign since the fall of Rome.

Livorno fell to the U.S. units of Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark’s 5th Army soon after Allied headquarters announced that Polish forces had captured Ancona, the Adriatic anchor of the Nazi defense line.

The twin victories at either end of the Italian line unhinged the hard-pressed German defenses and cleared the way for a frontal onslaught against the Gothic Line, before which the Nazis were struggling to make their first stand after a precipitate flight from Rome.

Port wrecked

Virtually all the port facilities of Livorno, pre-war city of 200,000, had been destroyed by the Germans to prevent their use by the Allies as a gateway of supplies and reinforcements.

The city’s many big bridges, the only contact with the mainland, were also wrecked by the Nazis in an extreme application of the scorched earth policy.

Livorno fell to U.S. forces who had swung around it in a wide flanking maneuver and closed in from the east while other units were smashing through the formidable German fortifications guarding its southern approaches.

Push on Pisa

Front dispatches said the Germans were fighting a rearguard action near Livorno as a U.S. spearhead probed up the Arno Valley toward Pisa.

Although pushed out of Livorno, the Germans took up positions on high round north of the city and sent a continuous barrage on Livorno’s 60 docks. Even as the shells exploded, however, U.S. engineers were rebuilding the city’s battered harbor facilities which are expected, to prove of enormous value to the Allies as a supply center.

Take 2,500 prisoners

During the drive over the Cecina River, Allied troops captured approximately 2,500 prisoners, and inflicted thousands of casualties on the Germans. Since May 11, the 5th Army has taken 30,000 prisoners.

Ancona fell yesterday afternoon to Polish units of the 8th Army as the culmination of their 75-mile advance in the last few weeks. The Germans had concentrated two divisions to defend the anchor base which has a peacetime population of 95,000. The Poles badly mauled the divisions and took more than 2,000 prisoners.

The whole eastern wing of the German defenses crumpled. Other elements of the 8th Army took Offagna, eight miles southwest of Ancona, after a tough fight lasting several days.

Cross upper arms

In central Italy, British troops of the 8th Army crossed the upper Arno on a front of six miles, and to the west captured Montevarchi, 15 miles from Arezzo.

High ground just east of Città di Castello, 18 miles northwest of Gubbio in the Tiber Valley, fell to the 8th Army. Other forces established themselves upon Hill 974, four miles due east of Arezzo.

On the lower Arno below Pisa, the American drive to the river at captured Pontedera placed the Americans astride the Pisa–Florence road and split the German forces south of the Arno.

Jap-Americans gain

The Americans were consolidating the southern bank of the Arno around Pontedera, 6½ miles north of Livorno and about two miles southeast of Monte Pisano, a hill mass which dominates the western valley of the Arno as well as Livorno and Pisa.

To the east, the doughboys, including troops of Japanese descent, rushed two miles past Le Sorgenti, five miles from Livorno. The 5th Army also took Badalucco, 10 miles east of Livorno. Still farther east, Allied forces advanced up to two miles despite devastating mortar and machine-gun fire and “tremendous” artillery barrage, as well as some of the thickest minefields encountered in Italy.

[NormanStewart]

Allied tanks punch inland

Great armored battle rages; British repulse Nazi counterattack
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

Showdown tank battle for the roads to Paris raged today as British forces smashed forward below Caen and the Yanks pushed the Germans back along the western sector of the front. U.S. forces (1) after taking Saint-Lô pushed across the Saint-Lô–Périers highway. Nazi withdrawals from Saint-Lô and Lessay were believed imminent. The British forces (2) made their greatest gain southeast of Caen where they cut the highway to Caumont. They also advanced across the Orne south of Caen.

SHAEF, London, England –
Hundreds of British and German tanks were slugging it out today on the flatlands southeast of Caen in perhaps the greatest armored battle of the war as the Allies punched deeper inland along the road to Paris after withstanding the first great Nazi counterattack.

British and Canadian armor poured southward through the breakthrough corridor below Caen, pumping new strength into Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s all-out push which smashed the German ring around the Normandy beachhead.

Marshal Erwin Rommel threw all the tanks he could into a “very fierce” counterattack on Gen. Montgomery’s advancing forces late yesterday. The British and Canadians met it head-on and knocked out a large amount of the German armor.

Nazis lose equipment

Gen. Montgomery announced that large quantities of German equipment were being destroyed in the showdown battle of Normandy, indicating that he was well satisfied with the results of the first major German counterattack.

Supreme Headquarters still withheld information concerning the exact extent of the British 2nd Army progress, since the high command believed its publication now would be of assistance to the enemy.

West of Caen, the British expanded their positions around Noyers, which was still not firmly in Allied hands.

Mop-up in Saint-Lô

On the American front, the Saint-Lô area was being mopped-up despite heavy German artillery and mortar fire from heights south of the captured city. Early today, the Americans pushing down into the Viere River bend northwest of Saint-Lô reached the right bank of the river.

Northwest of Saint-Lô, the Americans captured several villages and destroyed 16 German tanks in beating off strong counterattacks. Most of the land in the Vire bend is now in U.S. hands. Front dispatches reported signs the Nazis were beginning to withdraw from Périers to the west. There were no late reports from Lessay, western anchor of the Nazis, but its fall was expected soon.

There was every sign that the biggest armored battle of Western Europe was raging past the 24-hour as Montgomery and Rommel matched wits and tanks on the Caen plains beyond which stretched a trunk highway a little more than 100 miles to Paris.

Attack in three phases

Headquarters revealed that the Caen breakthrough was executed in three phases. One British column attacked southward from a point northeast of Caen, hugging close to the east bank of the Orne and fighting through Colombelles down into Faubourg-de-Vaucelles, the Caen suburb across the river.

While the action secured the west flank, another force attacked at the southeast corner of the bridgehead east of the Orne, covering the east flank.

Then massed armor flooded through the center crashing through the German positions knocked groggy by the most concentrated aerial bombardment of all time.

The main central column ran into German resistance “every yard of the way, but scored very satisfactory advances,” a headquarters spokesman reported.

Encirclement threatened

Some German troops were still resisting in Vaucelles. Those immediately to the south faced the threat of encirclement if the Allied armor swinging around the suburb from the east should link up with that west of the Orne around Maltot.

Aware of the danger, the Nazis hurled strong counterattacks against the Maltot area late yesterday, but suffered “very heavy” casualties with a minimum of results.

Front dispatches said British spearheads drove “several miles” beyond Caen in a major breakthrough during the first few hours of the offensive yesterday, were already across a highway running to Vimont, seven miles southeast of Caen, and had captured a number of villages and hamlets.

Nice gain, Monty says

Receiving newsmen at British Army headquarters in France, Gen. Montgomery declined to reveal the extent of the advance, but said:

We have a nice little area on the other side of the Orne River with Caen as the center… We had a very good day yesterday – an excellent day. We gained tactical surprise. The present situation down there is that we have a strong force south, southeast and east of Caen.

“Many casualties” were inflicted on the enemy on the south and east banks of the Orne, but British and Canadian casualties were “almost negligible” and losses of equipment very light, Gen. Montgomery said.

He estimated German casualties since D-Day, June 6, at 156,000 men – 16,000 killed, 80,000 wounded and 60,000 prisoners. He Germans were losing vehicles at the rate of 50 a day, he said.

Yanks cut highway

On the American half of the Normandy front, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s 1st Army cut the Saint-Lô–Périers highway, breaking the back of the enemy line in this sector.

Henry T. Gorrell, United Press writer with the Americans, said the Germans had made a withdrawal of one to two miles along a wide front stretching from Saint-Lô beyond Périers.

Weather reports from Normandy told of heavy clouds today which reduced air support for the Allied offensives.

Ronald Clark, United Press writer at the British front, estimated that U.S. and British planes had dropped a record 14,000 tons of blockbusters, smaller explosives and anti-personnel bombs on German strongpoints and other targets around Caen during daylight yesterday.

More than 2,200 bombers dropped over half the total tonnage in three hours – 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. – yesterday, pulverizing enemy strongpoints in a 75-mile-square area on a semi-circle around Caen in preparation for the tank and infantry breakthrough.

Artillery, warships aid

Hundreds of ground guns laid down a barrage reminiscent of that which cracked the German line at El Alamein in Egypt in October 1942, while the British monitor HMS Roberts and cruisers HMS Mauritius and HMS Enterprise joined in the bombardment with broadsides from the Orne estuary.

While the Germans were still paralyzed from the hall of steel and explosives, British and Canadian tanks and infantry went “over the top.”

The British apparently made their greatest advances east and southeast of Caen. East of the Caen–Vimont road, Mr. Clark reported from the front. British infantry quickly mopped up villages through which armored spearheads had already driven.

First resistance light

The first British tanks across the Orne below Caen also met only light resistance, he said, but Gen. Eisenhower’s communiqué said there was “fierce fighting” in Faubourg-de-Vaucelles today.

The railway station at Vaucelles was revealed to be in British hands.

Rommel was understood to have brought to bear a majority of the nine to 13 divisions totaling up to 150,000 men around Caen against the British gap. Many of the divisions were SS suicide units. Elite grenadiers or crack panzer outfits which fought in Russia, North Africa, Sicily or Italy, which accounts for the fierce resistance reported in latest advices.

[NormanStewart]

His pledge fulfilled –
McGlincy: Major who fell in battle first Yank to enter Saint-Lô

An ambulance carries body of hero at head of column occupying town
By James McGlincy, United Press staff writer

Saint-Lô, France – (July 18, delayed)
The body of a U.S. Army major, who had said he would be the first man into Saint-Lô, rode in an ambulance at the head of the first troops entering the town tonight.

The officer, whose name will be revered as one of the most gallant officers of the Army as long as his division lives, was killed by shellfire yesterday.

When word came this morning that the Germans were withdrawing, the alert was given to a special volunteer to attack the town. At the head of the battalion moving in for the last phases of the attack rolled the ambulance carrying the body of the major.

On D-Day, the major had stormed onto the beachhead ahead of his troops and had single-handedly wiped out a machine-gun nest. Behind him now were some of the same men who followed him then, volunteers for what they knew would be a hot job.

Hitchhiking into the town with the task force, I saw evidence of what a bloody battle this has been. Bloodstained equipment lay along the roadside. Jeeps with wounded Americans and Germans came steadily from Saint-Lô.

In the final battering ram tactics of the Americans, spearheaded by tanks and tank destroyers, Saint-Lô was left a shambles of broken buildings. In some sections, there wasn’t a decent building left.

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A scene beyond imagination –
McMillan: Bombs ‘shake the world’ to break Nazis at Caen

Volcanic spouts of flame, giant funnels of smoke rise in wake of huge raids
By Richard D. McMillan, United Press staff writer

An observation post near Caen, France – (July 18, delayed)
The whole world seemed to shake. Volcanic spouts of evil-looking yellow flame spit from the ground. Gigantic funnels of smoke swirled into the sky.

It was a scene of unholy terror that spread over Caen in the wake of the greatest aerial assault in history. No man, even in the wildest flights of imagination, could envisage that scene.

More than 2,000 bombers had rent the earth in an attack which brought 8,000 tons of high explosives showering down on German troops just south of Caen.

It was like one mighty fist sweeping from the sky that cleaved a flaming path for British troops in the breakthrough at Caen.

The assault left a huge smoke pall 50 miles wide, 20 miles deep and five miles high whirling slowly in the pink dawn around the battlefront.

This display of airpower – the greatest obliteration feat ever undertaken – must have been a terrifying onslaught for the Germans in their trenches. And it should have been convincing proof that a continuation of the war could bring only death.

British bombers opened the attack as a yellow sun began climbing through rose-colored clouds. The first bombers were divided in two forces – 450 Lancasters taking the steel factory southeast of Caen, another 450 Lancasters and Halifaxes picking a string of villages.

They dropped 2,000 tons of bombs on each target, where the Germans’ big guns had prevented the British troops from reaching open country. But that was only the first stage. The next part came after the volcanic mass of smoke and dust was allowed to drift eastward.

Then Marauders swept over to rekindle the smoldering debris. The smoke by now was soaring into the air, spreading in an ever-growing pall. It had a deathly sickening smell.

[NormanStewart]

Another Cassino?
Nazis in monastery hold 232 civilians

By Robert Vermillion, United Press staff writer

…

[NormanStewart]

Wednesday, July 19
Convention called to order at 11:30 a.m. (CWT) by Robert E. Hannegan, DNC Chairman
Invocation by the Right Rev. John Zelezinski of Chicago
National anthem by Nona Vann of the Chicago Civic Opera Company
Call for convention, read by DNC secretary Mrs. Dorothy Vredenburgh of Alabama
Welcoming speeches by Chicago Mayor Edward J. Kelly and Senator Lucas (D-IL)
Presentation of distinguished visitors
Remarks by Edwin J. Pauley, director of the convention
Appointment of committees on credentials, permanent organization, rules and order of business, on resolutions and platform
Recess until 8:15 p.m.
Sessions resume at 8:15 p.m., with the call to order by Chairman Hannegan
Invocation by the Rev. Harrison R. Anderson of Chicago
Patriotic song by Phil Regan
Address by DNC Chairman Hannegan
Address by DNC Assistant Chairman Mrs. Charles W. Tillett of North Carolina
Keynote address by Oklahoma Governor Robert S. Kerr

Byrnes out, Truman okayed by Roosevelt

President sends word to convention leaders
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Chicago, Illinois –
President Franklin D. Roosevelt evidently believes renomination of Vice President Henry A. Wallace is impossible and has sent word to the Democratic National Convention that he would be happy to run with 60-year-old Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO), head of the Senate’s munitions investigating committee.

This word broke the deadlock into which the convention was rapidly heading as it met today for its first session with Mr. Wallace present to fight for his political life after a hurry-up journey from Washington.

It looked like Mr. Truman on the first ballot now, perhaps Thursday night, with Mr. Wallace as runner-up.

Byrnes forced out

Mr. Roosevelt’s okay of Mr. Truman reached this convention after the President had forced War Mobilization Director James F. Byrnes of South Carolina, out of the contest. The President’s willingness to take Mr. Truman was revealed by National Committee Chairman Robert E. Hannegan, who told the United Press:

It is not correct that Mr. Roosevelt has set up a second and third choice [after Mr. Wallace]. But the President has indicated that he would be happy to run with Senator Truman, and that he thinks Senator Truman would strengthen the ticket.

That statement came about 20 minutes after Mr. Wallace had left the train at an outlying station, announcing he would go direct to the Stadium where the convention was in session. Instead, he went to his headquarters in the Sherman Hotel. He is chairman of the Iowa delegation but had not intended to come here until the conservative opposition to his renomination became so bitter his managers decided his only chance would be to make a personal appearance.

To give seconding speech

Mr. Wallace will deliver a seconding speech tomorrow afternoon for Mr. Roosevelt, who will be renominated for a fourth term, in time to address the delegates by radio in the evening. The second speech will give Mr. Wallace his last chance to persuade the delegates to renominate him for the $15,000-a-year Vice Presidency.

Mr. Byrnes was forced out under fire from the left – the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the fears of big industrial state leaders that Negroes would bolt the New Deal-Democratic coalition if he were on the ticket.

Sparks were flying in the last-minute vice-presidential deals. This was the second time that Mr. Byrnes reached for the Vice Presidency and pulled back in deference to the President’s wishes.

Hannegan shenanigans?

There was a faint but audible murmur of suspicion that Mr. Hannegan, a Missourian himself, did some masterminding in the development of Mr. Roosevelt’s acceptance of Senator Truman. The Missouri Senator was one of the men who helped boost the party chairman from the obscurity of local politics to the big top.

Senator Claude Pepper (D-FL) a mighty New Dealer in his own right with vice-presidential ambitions if Mr. Wallace should be cast aside, more than murmured his unhappiness and doubts. He said:

The effort to displace Mr. Wallace and to refuse to recognize the strength of the solid bloc of votes that are behind him and are loyal to him opens up in a very definite way the question as to whether this is to be an open and unbossed convention or not.

When we see the curious sight of party leaders whose official position presumes to make them impartial and objective lending themselves and the power of their official positions in the work of distributing stories that the President has repudiated his letter of endorsement to Mr. Wallace and now has laid the finger on another man, I begin personally to feel that it is time the entire situation be brought out into the sunlight. I propose to make a fight that it be done.

Mr. Pepper’s statement did not mention Mr. Hannegan and his fellow Missourian, Senator Truman, but there was no mistaking whom it meant.

Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago, the Illinois Democratic leader, was also reportedly pondering the circumstances of the President’s nod to Senator Truman and to be attempting urgently to establish telephone contact with Mr. Roosevelt.

Booms go boom!

Vice-presidential booms wilted like starched collars of delegates in the stadium as word of Mr. Hannegan’s statement regarding Senator Truman spread among them. There were a score of hopefuls last night. There were few today and even Mr. Wallace must have been shaken from the optimism which has marked his managers and persuaded some of them to make a lot of even money bets from $10 to $100 on their man against the field.

Mr. Byrnes’ withdrawal was in the form of a letter to Senator Burnet R. Maybank (D-SC) and was made public by the National Committee.

Hopkins case reported

As convention events developed, it became known that Mr. Byrnes had been in contact with Mr. Roosevelt since the former arrived in Chicago last weekend. It is assumed that the withdrawal order was issued then.

There were also reports here that Harry L. Hopkins, presumably acting for the President, had telephoned Mr. Truman that he would be a satisfactory vice-presidential nominee if Mr. Wallace cannot make the grade.

The convention took Mr. Wallace sullenly and under compulsion four years ago and conservatives are determined to get their revenge this time.

Mr. Byrnes’ withdrawal under fire from the New Deal left will aggravate the anger of conservative Democrats who view Mr. Wallace as a “Johnny-come-lately” member of the party, at best, and as the personification of the left-wing elements of the New Deal-Democratic coalition which they would disassociate from organization control.

Wallace has 325 votes

The Vice President apparently can count on 325 first ballot votes for renomination. He hopes to parlay them and Mr. Roosevelt’s personal endorsement into a nomination majority of 589.

Mr. Truman came to the Senate as a protégé of Boss Tom Pendergast of Missouri, whose power was blasted in a trial which sent him to the Federal Penitentiary. But Mr. Truman has made a name for himself on his own as chairman of the Senate committee which investigates munitions production and contracts.

Sidney Hillman (CIO political spokesman), former Democratic National Chairman Edward J. Flynn of New York, and Mayor Frank Hague (New Jersey Democratic boss) were reliably reported to have blasted Mr. Byrnes’ candidacy. Mr. Hillman denied he had vetoed Mr. Byrnes and agreed to accept Mr. Truman. But he is here to deal and speak for the powerful labor forces comprising the left wing of the New Deal-Democratic coalition.

Fear Negro vote

Negroes are not speaking for themselves. But some of Mr. Byrnes’ supporters said Mr. Glynn’s refusal to agree to Mr. Byrnes was attributed to fear that New York State Negroes would desert the Democratic ticket if he were nominated for Vice President. The shadow of Negro balance-of-power strength in nearly a dozen major states has been a threat to Mr. Byrnes from the inception of his informal candidacy.

Today’s convention business is strictly routine. Chairman Robert E. Hannegan of the Democratic National Committee calls the meeting to order and there will be the usual prayers, patriotic songs, welcoming speeches and routine announcements at the opening session. At 8:15 p.m. CWT, the delegates gather again to hear a couple of brief warmup talks preliminary to the keynote address by Oklahoma Governor Robert S. Kerr. Mr. Roosevelt is to be renominated tomorrow.

[NormanStewart]

State’s Democratic feud reopened over Wallace

Guffey backs Vice President’s renomination while Lawrence leads fight for Truman
By Kermit McFarland

Chicago, Illinois –
The opening of the Democratic “Fourth Term” Convention here today marked the reopening of the cataclysmic feud between the two New Deal factions of Pennsylvania which cost the Democrats the state election and a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1938.

The split in 1938 stemmed from rival ambitions for Governor, but it broke out again today over the two principal candidacies for the vice-presidential nomination before this convention.

The opposing lineups in the renewal of this feud are almost identical to those of 1938.

Democratic State Chairman David L. Lawrence, who is also national committeeman, is backing Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO) for second place on the fourth term ticket.

Heading the rival faction, supporting Vice President Henry A. Wallace for renomination, is U.S. Senator Joseph F. Guffey.

Siding with Senator Guffey are the CIO unions, headed by CIO President Philip Murray. Missing, so far, from his lineup are the United Mine Workers and John L. Lewis, who egged on the 1938 split and forced Thomas Kennedy, secretary-treasurer of the Mine Workers’ Union, on the CIO-Guffey ticket as a candidate for governor.

Kane for Truman

Mr. Lawrence, as in 1938, is backed by most of the prominent county leaders of the party and his own Allegheny County organization.

In the forefront of the Truman drive, so far as the Pennsylvania delegation is concerned, is County Commissioner John J. Kane, the original Truman proponent.

The Philadelphia delegation, as in 1938, is wavering between the two factions.

As the shifting vice-presidential situation now stands, the Pennsylvania delegation, with 72 votes, appears to be about evenly split between Mr. Wallace and Senator Truman, although both the Lawrence and Guffey factions are claiming lopsided majorities.

Leaders confident

Senator Guffey today predicted 58 to 60 of the Pennsylvania delegates will back Mr. Wallace, but Mr. Lawrence, while offering no figures, said he thought a clear majority would line up for Senator Truman.

In the state caucus yesterday, 41 votes were revealed for Mr. Wallace, but some of these delegates supported the motion to endorse the Vice President only after it was made clear the motion would not be binding on any delegate.

For instance, Mayor Cornelius D. Scully of Pittsburgh, Mayor Frank Buchanan of McKeesport and Clerk of Courts John J. McLean voted yesterday for Mr. Wallace but on a showdown between Mr. Guffey and Mr. Lawrence they would be expected to side with Mr. Lawrence.

Some decline to vote

Senator Truman’s name was not presented to the caucus and of the 21 who did not vote for the Wallace endorsement motion, presented by Mr. Murray, about half voted “no” and the others simply declined to vote at all.

Opposition of both the Lawrence and Guffey factions in Pennsylvania to the candidacy of War Mobilization Director James F. Byrnes was instrumental in causing abandonment of the Byrnes movement by some of the White House guards. Fear of the Negro vote in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia is back of the Pennsylvania opposition to Mr. Byrnes.

The present of Mr. Guffey and the CIO leaders at the spearhead of the Wallace drive is giving little comfort to some of Mr. Wallace’s other supporters. Both the Pennsylvania Senator and the CIO are unpopular with the “unreconstructed” anti-New Dealers from the South who have been at the forefront of thee campaign to unseat the Vice President.

On second ballot, Guffey predicts

By Robert Taylor

Chicago, Illinois –
U.S. Senator Joseph F. Guffey today was quarterbacking the campaign of Henry A. Wallace for renomination for Vice President.

Mr. Guffey’s suite at the Stevens Hotel was virtually the headquarters of the Wallace campaign until the arrival this morning of the Vice President, who was to open his own headquarters. Delegations declaring for the Vice President reported their action to Mr. Guffey.

Mr. Guffey denied emphatically that Mr. Wallace would withdraw from the race, as had been reported in some convention circles, and maintained his prediction of victory on the second ballot.

West Virginian offers 30-hour workweek

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Alfred F. Chapman of Wheeling, West Virginia, who polled the largest vote of the past 20 years in his district to become a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, today advocated a post-war 30-hour workweek with 40-hour pay to bridge the readjustment era.

He also said in an interview that he favors revision of the Social Security Act to provide sliding scale benefits, collectable by persons reaching 50 years of age. He suggested a $60 monthly payment even for those qualified but employed on a part-time basis, with the amount increasing to $75 at the age of 65.

[NormanStewart]

14 more Jap ships sunk by U.S. subs

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[NormanStewart]

Death toll hits 377 in ship blasts

From 500 to 1,000 persons injured
By Edwin Emery, United Press staff writer

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[NormanStewart]

Governor Dewey confers with Wadsworth

Albany, New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican candidate for President, conferred with Rep. James J. Wadsworth, New York’s veteran Congressman, again today.

Mr. Dewey and Mr. Wadsworth began their talks last night at the Executive Mansion and continued them at the breakfast table.

[NormanStewart]

South Germany hammered by 2,000 heavies

U.S. bombers attack from Italy, Britain
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer

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[NormanStewart]

British breach Nazi lines at ‘extremely light’ cost

The following dispatch was transmitted by United Press staff writer Richard D. McMillan by radio telephone from the Caen area to his London bureau and is the first telephonic news transmission from France to England since the three days before the fall of Paris in 1940. Mr. McMillan spoke on a one-war circuit.

British 2nd Army HQ, France –
Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, wiry, black-bereted Allied assault commander, announced today that “strong armored and mobile forces” have been thrust into the breach in the German defense lines south and southeast of Caen and the first gains were made at “extremely light” cost in personnel and equipment.

Monty of El Alamein was in high spirits as he rattled off a staccato appraisal of the past 24 hours’ fighting.

‘Very good day’

He snapped:

We had a very good day yesterday. An excellent day! We gained tactical surprise. The present situation down there is that we are in strong force south and southeast of Caen. We also have a strong force due east of Caen.

We made a bound forward a few days ago which we wanted badly to make. The Germans didn’t want us to make it.

Gen. Montgomery evidently referred to the capture of Caen, where the Germans had held out from D-Day, June 6, until July 9.

It is quite obvious that our position was improved. Well, yesterday we did it. We went forward again. It was a very good day.

We now have a nice little area on the other side of the Orne with Caen as a center.

Praises Yanks

He praised the “magnificent American soldiers” under Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, who took Saint-Lô yesterday in peace with the advancing British on the left. He also spoke warmly of the valor of U.S. forces who had made great territorial gains in their dash up the Cotentin Peninsula to seize the port of Cherbourg.

The British airborne division which captured and held for six rugged weeks valuable positions on the east bank of the Orne through which the latest armored blow was launched received a “Monty accolade.”

He said:

Without doing this, it would have been impossible to do with such little casualties what we did yesterday. The men of the airborne division who thus far have died did not die in vain.

Three great teams

The general asserted that “Europe is now one great and vast battlefield with Germany in the middle, ringed by the Allies.” The Allies, he said, are three great teams.

Monty said:

The Allied team in Normandy was welded together under Gen. Eisenhower. Our motto here is “One for all and all for one.”

He spoke with admiration of the gigantic air force which Air Chf. Mshl. Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory threw at the Germans as a prelude to yesterday’s thrust.

Called flexibility

Gen. Montgomery said:

That is flexibility – when you’re able to bomb Berlin one day and hit the Germans on the ground in the battle zone the next. The air bombardment was a most inspiring sight.

Monty said magnificent Allied equipment, including tanks mounting 17-pound guns “in every way superior to the anti-tank guns the Germans have,” had helped inflict many casualties on the enemy while Allied casualties on the first day of the push into central France were “almost negligible.”

“We will have no trouble beating the Germans in battle,” he concluded confidently.

[NormanStewart]

Kirkpatrick: Cherbourg begins return to semblance of Normandy

Shops reopen, increasing number of civilians return to liberated port
By Helen Kirkpatrick

Cherbourg, France –
Cherbourg has been liberated for three weeks and two days now and the city is beginning to return to a semblance of normalcy, with more and more shops opening and an increasing number of evacuees returning.

In most respects, the people say, they are far better off than they were under the Germans. In one or two ways, there are little differences but they are ones the French don’t mind since the Germans are gone.

The curfew remains but it is now enforced by the French police and detained citizens do not risk being shot out of hand because they have been found on the streets after 10:00 p.m. CET.

The food situation is not too bad and will improve as the battlefront moves forward and transportation to the rich Norman countryside is gradually restored. Food prices are lower than they were under the Germans and vast quantities of food are available which, for four years, found their way into Germany instead of here.

Rations vary

Some items of food have disappeared that were to be found formerly; others have turned up. Here and there, rations have been decreased, but now the people can obtain their full rations whereas during the German regime, they were seldom able to secure them. The greatest shortages are sugar, tea, flour, shoes and clothes.

Shops are selling some inferior coffee as during the past four years – 10 percent coffee and 90 percent ersatz – acorns and oats – a brew that is unrecognizable. Rations for three persons amount to 140 grams (50 ounces) a month – a package which would last three Americans two days if they were careful. Under the Germans, there was a pound of sugar a month per person. Today, only children receive sugar. The Germans rationed meat at 90 grams (over 3 ounces) daily per person but there was seldom any to be found in their rich cattle country as it was all shipped to Germany. Now there is an unlimited amount available and its price is controlled. Formerly, meat could be obtained at 300 francs a pound - $6.

Milk supply rises

Although this is France’s greatest dairy province, the French had no milk under the German regime, even for children. Now it is plentiful. The Germans forced the farmers to sell to creameries, which made butter and cheese for shipment to Germany.

Butter was rationed at 200 grams (about 7 ounces) a month but never could be found except in the black market. Now there is ample. The Germans ration of bread was 150 grams (5½ ounces) daily, which has now decreased to 100 grams (3½ ounces) but will improve as the city becomes better organized and flour can be brought in from the outside. Flour is not obtainable.

Traffic light

The only traffic on the streets is military, with an occasional car belonging to a French official. All city utilities are operating except streetcars and buses, and outside of the port and arsenal areas, there is little damage.

All organization and feeding of civilian life is being run by the French administration, and local officials are under Provincial Commissioner François Coulet. American and British civil affairs officials are here to help and they say that the French organization is good.

The time will come when imports of clothing, soap and some food – flour and sugar notably – will be required. How this will be accomplished depends on what agreements are reached in Washington and London.

[NormanStewart]

Guam attacked second day by battleships

Island most heavily battered in Pacific

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Tokyo explains removal of Tōjō

By the United Press

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[NormanStewart]

Taylor: ‘Referee’ Roosevelt ‘takes it on lam’ not one day too soon

President avoids making decision in factional fight over Vice President
By Henry J. Taylor, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Chicago, Illinois –
When President Roosevelt went “away from Washington for the next few days” he left in the nick of time.

Men to whom Mr. Roosevelt is politically beholden are demanding that he settle the fights here, and there is no way he could do it.

For after 11 years the party now operates only on the presidential nod and without it, deliberations wallow in guesswork and confusion. Yet Mr. Roosevelt’s nod to one leader is a black eye to another. And Mr. Roosevelt now has to keep from distributing black eyes.

For example, Vice President Wallace is crunched in a crusher between four party stalwarts. Senator Joseph F. Guffey (D-PA) and Sidney Hillman of the CIO Political Action Committee prop him up while Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City and Mayor Ed Kelly of Chicago knock him down.

Mr. Roosevelt does not owe much to Mr. Wallace, but he owes a great deal to all four of these men. And none of them is bashful in requiring Mr. Roosevelt’s support in exchange for 11-year favors they have done.

Truman slips off path

Guffey and Hillman say that dropping Wallace would cost Mr. Roosevelt Pennsylvania and “liberal votes throughout the country.” Mayors Hague and Kelly contend that keeping Mr. Wallace would lose New Jersey, New York and Illinois.

Mr. Wallace as a personality disappears in all this and Mr. Roosevelt’s problem becomes how to meet his own political debts to either two of the four without defaulting on the others.

Meanwhile, National Chairman Robert E. Hannegan, committed to Senator Truman, his political godfather in their home state of Missouri, is entitled to his own demands.

In theory, the national chairman is neutral in any race within the party, but Hannegan’s foot slipped off the beaten path in Chicago. By going overboard for Senator Truman, he now needs Mr. Roosevelt’s blessing for Truman or he bogs himself down as manager of Mr. Roosevelt’s campaign through the early liquidation of his party prestige.

South on protest limb

The result: Samuel Rosenman of the White House inner-circle, on arrival here is reported by Hannegan’s friends as stating that Truman would be acceptable to Mr. Roosevelt, which means Mr. Roosevelt would have to appease the CIO.

Next, Mississippi, Virginia and other Southern leaders went out on the end of a protest limb by caucusing for Senator Harry F. Byrd for President, hoping lightning might strike Mr. Byrd for second place.

Byrd is approximately the last Democrat that Mr. Roosevelt might wish to endorse, and yet he is committed to appeasing these conservative Southern elements.

Accordingly, Senator Alben W. Barkley and Speaker Sam Rayburn step in to fill the vacuum. Senator Barkley is to nominate Mr. Roosevelt, but beyond that there is not a cheer in the House.

Associate Justice William O. Douglas, second choice of the Guffey-Hillman-CIO group, is a prime favorite of Roosevelt. He really speaks the President’s language. His top sergeant here is Thomas G. “Tommy the Cork” Corcoran, who is still bobbing around in White House waters and serves as advance agent for both Mr. Roosevelt and Justice Felix Frankfurter. Nobody here owes Douglas, Corcoran or Frankfurter anything, but Douglas’ tie-in with the President puts him in the swim.

Easiest to slip in

Similarly, along comes James F. Byrnes, reportedly the President’s choice from the beginning. His present place as “assistant president” makes him, next to Wallace, the easiest to rationalized into the “don’t change horses” theme.

Yet age, the unhappy impact of Byrnes poll-tax record on the sentiments of Negroes in the North and some impressions here in Chicago that Byrnes is short-circuiting other leaders’ candidates are backfiring on Mr. Roosevelt for making Byrnes his “secret” choice – if that is what he did before he went “away from Washington for the next few days.”

The South Carolinian has begun actively campaigning for the Vice Presidency, working down from the top levels. He has a choice layout on the 17th floor of the Stevens, unlisted and well-guarded. He uses the freight elevator to escape the lobby, and then duplicates this performance to reach a similar setup which he maintains as sleeping quarters at the Blackstone across the street. He calls in leaders, chiefly the big four – Guffey, Hillman, Hague and Kelly, along with Hannegan and Ed Flynn. But Byrnes is reported losing ground.

This whole meeting is not sitting well with many of the ballot-box chieftains who have to get out the vote, especially not well with Guffey, Hillman, Hague and Kelly, who are the real sparkplugs of the show and the true pillars of power in the party.

[NormanStewart]

Anti-Roosevelt forces back Byrd

By Brooks Smith, United Press staff writer

Chicago, Illinois –
Nearly 100 votes were pledged today to Senator Harry F. Byrd for the Democratic presidential nomination by angry Southern delegates who knew that their protest against President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s renomination was futile but who made it anyway, shouting “This is liberty!”

Meeting last night on the eve of the convention, some 300 Southerners jammed a hotel ballroom here and noisily approved a resolution opposing any platform plank which called for social equality between the races and demanding restoration of the two-thirds rule.

Guffey in picture

The resolution, offered by Wright Morrow, a Houston, Texas, delegate, called for “a return to the principles of constitutional government as held by Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson,” denounced attempts to enact anti-poll tax legislation and demanded that the federal government leave the states free to fix voting regulations.

Meanwhile, Southern sentiment remained divided on the Vice Presidency.

Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall conferred with Senator Joseph Guffey (D-PA) soon after arriving and announced that Georgia would cast her 26 votes for Henry Wallace as planned. He said “things look brought for the Vice President.”

Tennessee backs Cooper

Tennessee pledged her 26 votes to Governor Prentice Cooper as a favorite son and South Carolina planned to support War Mobilization Director James F. Byrnes.

Monroe Redden, chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Executive committee, said he was more optimistic than ever before over the chances of Governor J. M. Broughton for second place on the ticket. Numerous delegates, including those from Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Pennsylvania, had expressed interest in Mr. Broughton and several had said they would vote for him, Mr. Redden said.

Several states, such as Texas, postponed action on whom to support for Vice President, waiting to see “how the situation jells.”

The Texas delegation’s action was hailed by John U. Barr, national chairman of the Draft-Byrd-for-President campaign, as “overwhelming proof to the New York communists that the Democratic Party of the South is determined to have no further truck with any alien minority.”

Mr. Barr said:

We Democrats can’t win with Roosevelt and the only hope we have lies in Harry Flood Byrd of Virginia – young, courageous and without the taint of all the sour connections that have put our party in the woeful disrepute it now suffers.

Louisiana’s 22 votes and Mississippi’s 20 were pledged to Mr. Byrd under the unit rule. Mr. Byrd will also get scattered support from Florida and possible South Carolina and Virginia.

The Southern revolt does not threaten the renomination of Mr. Roosevelt but the danger of a bolt in the Electoral College remained. The Texas group has warned that its electors will be free to vote as they please if the National Convention fails to meet its demands. Similar sentiment was found in the Louisiana delegation where Louis Riecke of New Orleans, a Democratic elector, said he would bolt the President if the South fails to get adequate consideration by this convention.

[NormanStewart]

Stokes: Breach among Democrats manifest in platform fight

Two philosophies are clashing in feud between North, South; something must give
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Chicago, Illinois –
As wide as the Mississippi in flood time in the lowlands of Arkansas is the breach in the Democratic Party between the Northern branch and what are coming to be called again “the Confederates” of the south, so noisily do they raise their rebel yells here in Chicago.

The cleavage stood out stark and clear, like the cloudy profile of a coming storm, in the Democratic Convention which opened here today. Two philosophies are clashing, and something must give.

It is manifest in the fight over the platform. The Northern wing, backed by labor and by Negroes in the big cities – at last released for effective political action by the New Deal – is demanding clear-cut pronouncements against racial discriminations, for the right of franchise for Southern Negroes promulgated by the Supreme Court, for abolition of poll taxes which disfranchise poor whites as well as Negroes in eight Southern states.

South wants Byrnes

The South, particularly the bourbon element entrenched in the tight little political machines represented in delegations here, is resisting bitterly, drawing within itself jealously, its temper up.

The cleavage is plainly revealed in the hot contest over the vice-presidential nomination. The New Deal wing which draws its strength from the masses in the big cities of the East and Midwest, white and black, is demanding the renomination of Henry Wallace.

The Southern leaders, and conservatives elsewhere, will have nothing of him. The South wants James F. Byrnes of South Carolina, former Senator, former Supreme Court Justice, now War Mobilization Director. The North is fearful of his selection, saying it might lose the Negro vote in key urban centers of the East and Midwest.

Byrd given support

The cleavage appears even over the presidential nomination itself, which is assured for Roosevelt, in a protest from sections of the South. In rapid succession, delegations of three states voted to support Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia – Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. He may muster as many as a hundred protest votes, for he has scattering support elsewhere in the South, and his Virginia delegation is expected to plump solidly for him.

By political magic which is the envy of other politicians, high and low, President Roosevelt has been able to hold the diverse and conflicting elements of the Democratic Party together through three elections, and, on account of the war, may hold it together again. But it is coming unsewed at the seams. This is plain enough in what is going on here.

[NormanStewart]

At platform hearings –
World setup to keep peace is endorsed

Witnesses testify on foreign plank

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Mrs. J. Borden Harriman told the Democratic National Convention Platform Committee today that it is time to establish the international organization of nations to prevent future wars as promised in the Moscow Declaration and the Connally Resolution approved by Congress.

Mrs. Harriman, former Minister to Norway, was among witnesses appearing before the committee as it turned to the vital foreign policy issue, with the broad outlines of the party’s foreign plank apparently already agreed upon.

She added a warning that a national movement has been started by citizens who are willing to “slug it out with all and sundry who are sowing the dragon seed of World War III.”

Isolationists assailed

She said:

I refer to the isolationists, the so-called nationalists… to the cynics and defeatists, to the business-as-usual bunch, and to any little group of willful men that may crop up.

Mrs. Harriman recommended that the international organization:

• Guarantee relief from war to all nations with the “peace-loving nations” pledged to advance together against an aggressor.

• Establish means for peaceful settlement of disputes and for advancement of human rights.

• Create agencies for international cooperation in such fields as trade, labor, currency stabilization, agriculture and aviation, to promote an expanding world economy.

Ely Culbertson, bridge expert, representing a group called Fight for Total Peace, Inc., told the committee a federal alliance between the United States, Great Britain and “a collection of small nations” would not cost this nation its sovereignty because the only sovereign right any of the countries would give up is the right to wage war of aggression.

Police force urged

Mr. Culbertson also called for an international police force.

Frederick J. Libby, executive secretary of the National Council for Prevention of War, urged the party to support a “peace offensive,” a statement of peace aims based on the Atlantic Charter.

Other proposed planks calling for U.S. participation in an international organization with power to prevent aggression were submitted by the National Peace Conference, representing 16 organizations; the League of Women Voters and the Women’s Action Committee for Victory and a Lasting Peace.

Connally will testify

But the man whose recommendation is expected to carry the greatest weight will not be heard until the committee adjourns its open hearings late today and meets in executive session to begin drafting the platform. He is Senator Tom Connally (D-TX), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, author of the Senate-approved Connally Resolution and a special adviser to the Platform Committee.

Mr. Connally has drafted a proposed plank of less than 300 words which was reported to beat the approval of President Roosevelt. It is expected to call for a post-war association of sovereign nations to maintain peace. It was understood that Senator Connally favored language advocating specific authorization of military force to prevent aggression, to contrast with the Republican platform pledge to support “peace forces” against aggression.

Platform Committee Chairman John W. McCormack (D-MA), House Majority Leader, said the committee expected to begin whipping the platform into shape for submission to the convention tomorrow.

Domestic issues

The committee completed hearings on domestic issues yesterday, receiving lengthy statements from AFL President William Green and CIO President Philip Murray. They submitted recommendations for labor, reconversion, foreign policy and other planks.

Both urged U.S. participation in a post-war association of nations, reconversion programs to assure full employment after the war and immediate repeal of the Smith-Connally anti-strike law. Mr. Murray read the text of the program adopted at a CIO Political Action Conference at Washington last month.

Racial issue paramount

Mr. Murray also added to the flood of testimony on the racial issue – an explosive one for the Democrats – by urging the committee to draft a strong plank condemning racial discrimination.

The party’s declaration on the race issue promised to rival the foreign plank in importance.

[NormanStewart]

Nominees picked in three states

By the United Press

A “decisive victory” for Governor Sidney P. Osborn, who won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Arizona by a 2-to-1 margin, and a substantial lead piled up by Senator Carl Hayden (D-AZ), running for renomination, highlighted light primary election returns from three states – Arizona, Montana and Wyoming – today.

In Montana, where a three-way battle for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination was the principal feature of an otherwise dull primary, Lief Erickson, 38-year-old justice of the State Supreme Court, was leading Austin B. Middleton and former Governor Roy E. Ayers.

In the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Governor Sam C. Ford was far out in front of his only opponent, former Congressman Dr. J. Thorkelson of Butte.

Governor Osborn was conceded the Democratic nomination in Arizona by William Coxon, who extended congratulations for winning “a decisive victory.”

Senator Hayden, and Reps. John Murdock was Richard Harless were leading their opponents for renomination on the Democratic ticket.

In Wyoming, where the only contest was for the Democratic nomination for Congress, Charles E. Norris of Laramie was leading Clyde C. Winters.

[NormanStewart]

Allies advance near Burma base

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[NormanStewart]

Introducing Skipper Homeier, ‘nice little nasty brat’

12-year-old youngster plays Nazi juvenile in new movie

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