The Pittsburgh Press (February 4, 1945)
REDS BATTLE FOR ODER CROSSINGS
Yanks assist Berlin drive with big raid
Russians storming Frankfurt, Kustrin
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REDS BATTLE FOR ODER CROSSINGS
Fall of Manila due in few hours
U.S. advance guards believed already in outskirts of capital
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer
Closing in for the kill, U.S. troops were expected to reach Manila today as two columns drove down on the Philippines capital from the Malolos and Sabang areas to the north and a third U.S. force drove against the city from the beachhead south of Manila Bay.
ALLIED HQ, LUZON, Philippines – Gen. Douglas MacArthur predicted yesterday that U.S. troops would be in Manila by today, climaxing the 108-day Philippines campaign.
It was believed here early today that advance elements had possibly reached the capital’s outskirts.
The official daily war bulletin issued at 6 a.m. today (5 p.m. Saturday ET) placed Maj. Gen. Robert S. Beightler’s 37th Infantry Division vanguards “less than” 15 miles north of Manila as of 6 p.m. Friday.
MacArthur, visiting the 37th Infantry Division’s advance units, said at 3 p.m. Saturday: “I believe we’ll make it tomorrow (Sunday).”
It may be stated today that the exact time of our entry into Manila is still uncertain, but it seems possible that advance elements may at least be in the outskirts by the time this is published. Capture of the city was believed to be a matter of hours.
Jap casualties for the first three weeks of the Luzon campaign, which started Jan. 9, were 33,000, it was announced. This compares to 1,271 Americans killed, 219 missing, and 4,099 wounded – a total of 5,389 or a ratio of almost 6-1 over the enemy.
The daily headquarters communiqué today, covering action through Friday, placed the 37th Infantry Division less than 15 miles from Manila, the 1st Cavalry Division to the east 22 miles north of Manila and the 11th Airborne Division coming up from the south 34 miles away. The prongs of the northern and southern pincers were within 53 miles of a junction un the center of the ancient city.
Dispatches from the 37th Infantry Division sector Saturday indicated U.S. troops were near the northern edge of the city.
Reported two miles away
The British radio quoted an unidentified American broadcaster using a mobile transmitter from the front lines that forward patrols had pushed within two miles of Manila without opposition.
The 37th Infantry Division’s new advance represented a gain of about three miles from positions last held before the town of Malolos, 17½ miles from Manila.
To the east, Maj, Gen. Verne D. Mudge’s 1st Cavalry Division veterans of Leyte pushed across the Angat River at the town of Bustos, 22 miles north of Manila. Patrols of that force had reached Sabang, on the north bank of the river 1½ miles north of Bustos, Thursday, but the main body was then well to the rear.
Near highway junction
The 1st Cavalry Division moving down Highway 5 was nine miles north of Biga, 13 miles from Manila and near which Highway 5 merges with Highway 3. The 37th Infantry Division moving down Highway 3 was five miles west of Biga.
At the southern end of the front, in Batangas Province, Maj. Gen. Joseph M. Swing’s 11th Airborne Division troops, who had driven ashore Wednesday, pushed through the town of Caylungon and were 27 miles due south of the Cavite Naval Base.
Troops of Maj. Gen. Charles P. Hall’s 11th Corps driving eastward across the northern tip of Bataan were meeting increasing resistance, the bulletins said, as they reached the vicinity of Balsic, eight miles east of Olongapo and within six miles of sealing off the top of the bloody peninsula.
Advance in north
At the extreme northern end of the Luzon front, Maj. Gen. Innis P. Swift’s First Corps troops battled through the rugged Caraballo Mountains for a two-mile advance 26 miles southeast of Baguio.
Steady progress was also reported near the headwaters of the Pampanga River, where nine Jap tanks were knocked out and heavy casualties inflicted on the Japs. The stubbornly-defended town of Umingan was captured by the 25th Infantry Division.
Heavy bombers, meanwhile, battered Cavite and Corregidor, starting numerous fires and explosions. Jap planes raided U.S. positions on Lingayen Gulf by night without causing damage.
‘Manila Derby’
A front dispatch reported that as Gen. MacArthur approached the front lines Saturday and heard the crash of Jap mortars in one sector, he received a tremendous ovation from Filipinos lining the roads and throwing flowers in the path of his jeep.
United Press staff writer H. D. Quigg with the 37th Infantry Division reported the Yanks were wearing hibiscus blossoms in their helmets as they thrust down Highway 3 in a driver to win the “Manila Derby” against the 1st Cavalry division moving down Highway 5 along the east bank of the Pampanga River.
A CBS correspondent reported from Luzon that pilots of the 1st Marine Air Wing swept over one of Manila’s principal streets at 200 feet without meeting anti-aircraft fire. The pilots reported no traffic was moving in Manila, but that it was possible that Japs had some tanks and armor hiding in strategic spots and were planning “futile house to house fighting.”
Civilians ordered out
A United Press dispatch from the 37th Infantry Division’s front said the Japs ordered civilians to evacuate Manila – the city’s population had been swelled from 673,000 to one million with the influx of war refugees – and roads leading northward from the city were clogged with weary natives.
The dispatch said that two columns of gray and white smoke rose 4,000 feet over the city. They came from the railroad yards and dock areas, indicating the Japs might have begun destroying military installations. It reported that only a few Jap troops and marines remained in the city.
Oder River battle sighted by Yanks on Berlin raid
Fighter pilots report 10-to-1 Russian superiority in barrage east of Nazi capital
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Yanks push through forest deep into Siegfried Line
First Army threatens two rear West Wall anchors – French advance below Colmar
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‘Fight to last,’ Jap general says
By the United Press
Japan “will defend the Philippines until the last” and will fight on to final victory “even though Tokyo should be reduced to ashes,” Gen. Iwano Matsui, president of the Asia Development Headquarters of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, told a Tokyo rally today.
Matsui’s speech, broadcast by Tokyo radio and recorded by United Press at San Francisco, emphasized Japan’s East Asia policy and declared the Nipponese would not “abandon the Philippines to Anglo-American aggression.”
The Japanese general declared that President Jose Laurel of the Tokyo-sponsored Philippine Quisling government “must not taste the bitter cup as Aguinaldo did 40 years ago.”
Dancer survives war’s hazards, is hurt on ship en route home
She phones G.I.s’ kin from hospital bed
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Perkins: AFL stymies Soviet unions temporarily
But victory may be voided by new group
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
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Loan agencies curb sought
Sen. Byrd to ask corporations’ control
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Poll: Public favors large U.S. Army and Navy during peacetime
Armed Forces totaling three million are envisioned as safeguard against war
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
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London paper says –
Roosevelt dominating Big Three talks
Outspoken American attitude reported
LONDON, England (UP) – The Sunday Observer, usually well informed diplomatically, indicated today that President Roosevelt was playing a dominant role in the Big Three conference, expressing an outspoken American attitude on differences in Allied policies.
The Observer said:
Hints from high Americans officials suggest that President Roosevelt is going to play (or is perhaps already playing) a most active part at the Big Three conference. He has made it clear that he will be outspoke on differences in policies of Allies and will make several proposals on how to settle them.
U.S. ready to bargain
The Observer said the United States opposes any totalitarian or authoritarian regimes, “whether of right or left that may be sponsored or propped up by Russia or Great Britain,” and that Mr. Roosevelt was believed to be strongly critical of British policy in Greece and Italy and Russian policy in Poland.
The United States is prepared to use its many bargaining counters, especially economic to enforce open-door politics and is likely to ask from Russia that no Communist governments be sponsored in liberated countries of the Russian zone, the Observer said.
The newspaper added that Mr. Roosevelt favors settlement of Germany’s future now rather than at a peace conference and has rejected all lenient peace proposals although not going as far as British and Russian advocates of harsh terms.
The Observer believed the President would suggest that the German frontier be not along the Oder River, but about halfway between the Oder and the 1939 Polish frontier. Similarly, while supporting a Curzon Line settlement in Poland, he was said to oppose the “Curzon A” settlement supported by Churchill preferring “Curzon B,” under which Poland would retain Lwow and the Galician oil fields.
The Big Three, the Observer said, is likely to discuss a new Polish settlement providing for diffusion of the London and Lublin government, in which the political parties and groupings in London and in Lublin would cooperate, the Observer said.
Early German collapse
The Sunday dispatch said the No. 1 priority item, on the agenda of the meeting is “What to do in case of early German collapse.” Since post-war plans for Germany have already been worked out the Big Three now has only to discuss the final details, the newspaper said.
They are also expected to make a final demand for Germany’s surrender, the newspaper said. The Germans have suggested that the “Big Three” will issue a new version of Wilson’s Fourteen Points.
The Germans have issued such suggestions in hope unconditional surrender terms may be modified, the Dispatch said, adding that “this is wishful thinking in hopes that owing perhaps to Allied differences there may be a chance of conditional terms.”
The Sunday Times said the first task of the meeting will be to decide on the final measures to end Nazi resistance and treatment to be given the defeated enemy. It added that the Nazi leaders are obviously apprehensive that the Allied statesmen may appeal to the German people “over the heads of the gangsters in control,” and that the Germans “seem to think such action might lead to that crack of which they are so terrified.”
The Sunday News of the World editorialized that it is taken for granted the three leaders are now meeting somewhere in Europe or outside, adding that “the Big Three have gotten together for the last time before the trumpets of peace replace the drums of war… the future of a dying Germany is priority number one at this fateful conference.”
U.S. prepares hard terms for Germany
‘Big Three’ expected to give approval
WASHINGTON (UP) – The State Department is preparing what it regards as hard, realistic and practicable peace terms for Germany.
These plans contemplate that Germany’s war potential must be destroyed or at least rigidly controlled; that its standard of living must not be allowed to improve faster than that of any neighbor states which were ravished by the Nazis, and that Germany should help reconstruct Europe to the maximum of its ability.
The broad outline was painted coincidentally with confirmation here that the “Big Three” leaders are expected to give quick, formal approval to armistice terms for Germany which have been prepared by the European Advisory Commission.
Changes possible
President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Marshal Joseph Stalin may find it necessary to make some changes. But it is anticipated that their approval of the terms to be handed the German High Command when and if the Nazis surrender unconditionally will be more or less routine.
The controversy in this country over a “soft” or a “hard” peace for Germany reached a climax last fall when the so-called Morgenthau Plan was publicized. Compared with some of the proposals of the Morgenthau Plan – such as the flooding of all German coal mines, it might be said that the State Department’s ideas are less drastic.
But it was pointed out that they were also believed to be far more realistic. For example, most of the nations surrounding Germany are dependent upon her for coal.
French need coal
France, always deficient in coal, could hardly be expected to agree to the flooding of mines, thereby cutting off her main source of supply.
There is no inclination here to give the impression that the steps to be taken to keep Germany unarmed after this war are near completion.
Some of the decisions that will have to be made cannot be done until after the war is over. It will be impossible to decide what industries are to be destroyed, transferred or controlled until it is known what industries are left after the final battles are over.
To determine zones
According to the Army and Navy Journal, the “Big Three” conference “is expected to determine the zones of Germany which the military forces of the several powers will occupy after conquest” but warned that no responsible officials here placed credence in reports that the Hitler regime would collapse internally.
Recent press feelers, “largely through the medium of German business moguls” have been ignored because they lacked authority, the Journal said.
The Journal said:
Since Hitler… is to be punished by the United Nations, it is obvious that to recognize him by negotiation would be to give him a standing that would embarrass later treatment of him.
It is therefore with some agency other than Hitler that surrender might be discussed, and other than the “Free Germany” Committee created by Marshal Stalin from captured German generals, no such agency is now on the horizon.
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Army pilots destroy 6,686 aircraft
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New B-29 field opens in Marianas
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