America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

U.S. Delegation List of Tripartite Decisions at Yalta

February 11, 1945, 4:20 p.m.

List of Decisions Arrived at by the Three Heads of Government at the Crimean Conference

  1. To include the word “dismemberment” in the German terms of surrender.

  2. To appoint a committee composed of Mr. Eden, Ambassador Winant and Ambassador Gousev to study the question of dismemberment.

  3. To adopt proposal of the United States with respect to the voting procedure in the Security Council of the proposed world organization.

  4. To hold a United Nations Conference on April 25, 1945, in the United States, to prepare the charter of the proposed world organization.

  5. To authorize the United States, on behalf of the three powers, to consult the Government of China and the Provisional Government of France, with respect to decisions 3 and 4.

  6. That the five Governments which will have permanent seats on the Security Council should consult each other prior to the United Nations Conference on providing machinery in the world charter for dealing with territorial trusteeships which would apply only to (a) existing mandates of the League of Nations; (b) territory to be detached from the enemy as a result of this war; (c) any other territory that may voluntarily be placed under trusteeship.

    It was agreed it would be a matter of subsequent agreement as to which territories within the preceding categories would actually be placed under trusteeship and that no discussions of specific territories are contemplated now or at the United Nations Conference.

  7. The United States and the United Kingdom to support at the United Nations Conference, the Soviet request that the Ukraine and White Russia be admitted as initial members of the world organization.

  8. To issue the statement on Poland agreed to at the Conference.

  9. That there should be immediately established in Moscow a Commission on German reparations composed of Mr. Molotov, Sir Archibald Clark Kerr and Mr. Harriman, which would be guided by the following agreed principles: (a) Germany must pay in kind for losses caused by it to the Allied Governments; (b) the amount of the reparations to be paid by Germany should be considered by the Moscow Reparations Commission and reported by it to the three Governments; (c) the three Governments will submit to the Commission their proposals and data relating to the question of German reparations.

  10. To issue the Declaration on Liberated Europe agreed to at the Conference.

  11. To accord to the Provisional Government of France a German zone of occupation, and representation on the German Control Commission.

  12. To send a joint telegram to Marshal Tito and Dr. Subasic, the text of which was agreed to at the Conference.

  13. To hold periodic meetings of the three Foreign Ministers, the first meeting to be held in London in June, 1945.

  14. That, at their first meeting, the three Foreign Ministers will consider revision of the Montreux Convention.

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France

Top secret
ARGONAUT 149

Secret and personal for the Ambassador from Secretary of State Stettinius.

You should concert with your British and Soviet colleagues and arrange to deliver to General de Gaulle the following two telegrams from the three heads of Government as soon as possible after 8:30 p.m. Paris time, Monday, February 12.

  1. Quote: You will observe that the communiqué which we are issuing the end of this Conference contains a Declaration on Liberated Europe. You will also see that, in the last paragraph of the Declaration, we express the hope that your Government may be associated with us in the action and procedure suggested. Had circumstances permitted we should have greatly welcomed discussion with you of the terms of this Declaration. The terms are, however, less important than the joint obligation to take action in certain eventualities; and we feel that it is of the highest importance, in the interests of Europe, that the Provisional Government of the French Republic should agree, jointly with her three allies, to accept such an obligation. Signed Winston S. Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and I. V. Stalin. Unquote and end of first telegram.

  2. Quote: We have been considering the question of the control of Germany after her defeat and have come to the conclusion that it will be highly desirable for the Provisional Government of the French Republic, if they will, to accept responsibility for a zone of occupation and to be represented on the Central Machinery of Control. We should be glad to learn that the French Government are prepared to accept those responsibilities. Signed Winston S. Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and I. V. Stalin. Unquote and end of second telegram.

ARGONAUT, February 11, 1945

Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt

Yalta, February 11, 1945

My Dear Franklin, I have given consideration to your letter of February 10 about the political difficulties which might arise in the United States in connection with the ratification by the Senate of the Dumbarton Oaks Agreement because of the fact that the United States alone among the three Great Powers will have only one vote in the Assembly.

Our position is that we maintained the long-established representation of the British Empire and Commonwealth; that the Soviet Government are represented by its chief member, and the two republics of the Ukraine and White Russia; and that the United States should propose the form in which their undisputed equality with every other Member State should be expressed.

I need hardly assure you that I should do everything possible to assist you in this matter.

Yours very sincerely,
WINSTON CHURCHILL

760H.6315/2-1145

The British Foreign Secretary to the Soviet Foreign Commissar

Alupka, 11 February, 1945

Owing to lack of time there are a few questions on which we were not able to conclude our discussions during the Crimea Conference. These were
(a) the Austro-Yugoslav frontier,
(b) the Italo-Yugoslav frontier (Venezia Giulia)

You kindly undertook to study the suggestions on these questions contained in the papers which I circulated at the Foreign Secretaries meeting on February 10. With regard to (a) you will remember that the United States Delegation experienced certain doubts regarding the phraseology of our proposal. I therefore attach a redraft of my note which I would ask you to substitute for the one in your possession.

(c) At our meeting on February 10 I mentioned our attitude towards a pact between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, and suggested that an indication of our views might be conveyed to the Bulgarian and Yugoslav Governments. You said that you would consider my suggestion.

I also circulated at our meeting on February 10 papers on the subject of
(d) Greek claims upon Bulgaria, more particularly in regard to reparations;
(e) the Allied (Soviet) Control Commission in Bulgaria;
(f) Oil equipment in Roumania.

I should be grateful if you would consider the points raised in the foregoing three papers.

May I also ask you to give favourable consideration to the proposals regarding
(g) Relief Supplies for Europe, contained in a paper which I enclosed in a separate letter today, and

(h) the despatch of personnel to the Soviet component of the Control Commission for Germany in London, in regard to which I attach a memorandum.

Monsieur V. M. MOLOTOV

The Pittsburgh Press (February 11, 1945)

Yanks take Roer River dams

Canadians to north reach Rhine, close on West Wall anchor

Cavalry flanks Japs in Manila

Drives five miles around edge of city

GEN. MACARTHUR’S LUZON HQ, Philippines (UP) – The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, tightening the trap around Japs holding out in southern Manila, has crossed the Pasig River in a wide outflanking maneuver southeast of the capital and is within three miles of Manila Bay.

Troops of the 37th Infantry Division, widening their bridgehead across the Pasig in the center of the city, pushed ahead in house-to-house fighting on a front almost two miles long and within a mile and a half of the southern edge of Manila.

Battle in second week

As the Battle of Manila entered its second week, Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s daily war bulletin announced that the Japs had converted houses and public buildings into pillboxes and fortified strongpoints and were using artillery against the advancing Americans.

The bulletin disclosed that Maj. Gen. Verne D. Mudge’s 1st Cavalry Division, which made the first penetration of Manila last Saturday, had advanced five miles in its outflanking drive around the eastern side of the 14-square-mile city.

The cavalry struck eastward through New Manila, a northeastern suburb of the capital, and then plunged four miles southward to force the Pasig near the town of San Padro Makato, a mile southeast of the city’s lower boundary and five miles southeast of the river’s mouth at Manila Bay.

Striking to west

Gen. Mudge’s men were in position to strike westward to Manila Bay just below Manila and hopelessly trap the enemy still holding parts of the city south of the Pasig. The drive carried to within three miles of 11th Airborne Division troops fighting up from the south.

Inside Manila, Maj. Gen. Robert S. Beightler’s 37th Infantry Division systematically swept the city south of the river and at one point were about two miles northwest of the 1st Cavalry Division’s new bridgehead.

Dispatches said the Japs in Manila were fighting fiercely, holding out to the death in each strongpoint.

Great areas destroyed

It was said the Japs could not hold out much longer, but the destruction they are wreaking on the city is increasing steadily. By the time the last Japs are slain, great areas of Manila will be almost ashes.

Sixty miles north of Manila, around the upper Pampanga River, forward elements of Maj. Gen. Edwin Patrick’s 6th Infantry Division advanced four miles southeast into the town of Laur, 22 miles from the east coast of Luzon. That drive was threatening to split the entire island in two.

Along the Villa Verde trial, at the northern end of the American lines, elements of the 32nd Infantry Division continued advancing toward the Cagayan Valley which sweeps up to the northern Luzon coast.

Pounding Corregidor

Liberator bombers meanwhile continued pounding Corregidor Fortress at the mouth of Manila Bay and the Mariveles section of southern Bataan. They dropped more than 101 tons of bombs which set fires in both areas.

The Tokyo radio reported the Americans were concentrating vessels off the south of Manila Bay, possibly in preparation for an invasion of Corregidor.

Tokyo shaken by Superfortresses, quake

B-29s give capital heaviest pounding

Four go AWOL in England, ‘discharge’ solves in U.S.

Yanks will be shipped back overseas for court martial or other action

After Mrs. Boettiger phoned –
Another colonel gave ‘A’ to Roosevelt’s dog blaze

Elliott’s promotion before Senate Monday

Meat supplies to be scarcer

More ‘utility’ beef going to Army

Carrier aircraft bag 2,472 planes

‘Still in 4-F,’ Sinatra quoted by close friend

NEW YORK (UP) – Actress Marilyn Maxwell disclosed today that crooner Frank Sinatra had confided to her that he was “definitely in 4-F.”

Miss Maxwell, a close friend of the 118-pound singer, said he told her that he “knew” because of a punctured eardrum.

A spokesman at his Jersey City draft board said, however, the board has not been notified of Sinatra’s classification. The crooner was taken to Governor’s Island for observation after Army doctors in Newark had examined him.

Ernie Pyle V Norman

The Roving Reporter –
Ernie off to the wars once more – this time with Navy in the Pacific

By Ernie Pyle

Ernie Pyle is returning to the wars. This time he is with the Navy, and his field will be the Pacific. He has already left San Francisco.

After covering the American campaigns in Africa, Sicily, Italy and France, Ernie took a prolonged rest. Most of his war experiences have been with the infantry; and for a change he has been accredited to the Navy, which is now engaged in some of the war’s biggest operations in the Pacific. Ernie plans to continue with the Navy for several months and then go ashore to rejoin the beloved infantry in one of the big campaigns that lie ahead in the Pacific.

This column was written by Ernie before leaving San Francisco. Three other columns written before his departure will be printed for the next three days, and then by Thursday, February 15, we hope to start receiving some of Ernie’s columns dealing with his new assignment.

SAN FRANCISCO, California – Well, here we go again.

It has been four months since I wrote my last column, from France. In four months of non-production a writer gets out of the habit. He forgets the rhythm of words; falls into the easy habit of not making himself think or feel in self-expression.

This first column is a mankiller. Your mind automatically resents the task of focusing itself again. Your thoughts are scattered and you can’t get them together to put onto paper. Words came hard. You curse the day you ever took up writing to make a living.

So, until I’m once more immersed in the routine of daily writing, and transported once more into the one-track world of war, I’m afraid you’ll have to be tolerant with me.

There’s nothing nice about the prospect of going back to war again. Anybody who has been in war and wants to go back is a plain fool in my book.

I’m certainly not going because I’ve got itchy feet again, or because I can’t stand America, or because there’s any mystic fascination about war that is drawing me back.

I’m going simply because there’s a war on and I’m part of it and I’ve known all the time I was going back. I’m going because I’ve got to.

This time it will be the Pacific. When I left France last fall, we thought the war in Europe was about over. I say “we” because I mean almost everybody over there thought so. I felt it was so near the end I could come home and before the time came to go again, that side of the war would be finished, and only the Pacific would be left.

But it didn’t turn out that way. Now nobody knows how long the European War will last. Naturally all my friends and associations and sentiments are on that side. I suppose down in my heart I would rather go back to that side. For over in Europe, I know the tempo of the battle; I feel at home with it in a way.

Going with Navy

And yet I think it’s best to stick with the original plan and go on to the Pacific. There are a lot of guys in that war, too. They are the same guys who are fighting on the other side, only with different names, that’s all.

I’m going with the Navy this time, since the Navy is so dominant in the Pacific, and since I’ve done very little in the past on that part of the service, I won’t stay with the Navy for the duration – probably two or three months, and then back ashore again with those noble souls, the Doughfoots.

Security forbids telling you just what the plans are. But I can say that I’ll fly across the Pacific, and join ship on the other side. Aboard ship I’ll be out of touch with the world on long cruises. It may be there will be lapses in the daily column, simply because it’s impossible to transmit these pieces. But we’ll do our best to keep them going steadily.

I haven’t figured out yet what I’m going to do about seasickness. I’m one of those unfortunates with a terrific stomach on land, but one that turns to whey and jelly when I get aboard ship. I know of nothing that submerges the muse in a man as much as the constant compulsion to throw up. Perhaps I should take along my own oil to spread on the troubled waters.

Receives warnings

Friends warn me about all kinds of horrible diseases in the Pacific. About dysentery, and malaria, and fungus that gets in your ears and your intestines, and that horrible swelling disease known as elephantiasis.

Well, all I can say is that I’m God’s gift to germs. Those fungi will shout and leap for joy when I show up. Maybe I can play the Pied Piper role – maybe the germs will all follow me when I get there, and leave the rest of the boys free to fight.

So, what with disease, Japs, seasickness, and shot and shell – you see I’m not too overwhelmed with relief at starting out again.

But there’s one thing in my favor where I’m going; one thing that will make life bearable when all else is darkness and gloom. And that one thing is that, out in the Pacific, I’ll be good and stinking hot. Oh boy!

Racial charges denied by dentists

Lewis may get AFL backing in wage fight

Victory forecast for miners’ leader

PAC’s battle for Wallace is hint of things to come

CIO’s political unit fights on Capitol Hill as vigorous as for fourth term last fall
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Perkins: CIO leaders find PAC job just starting

Speech in London points up the need
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Union protests J&L defiance of WLB

Controversy hinges around plant guards

Fortresses blast fuel depot in bad weather

German submarine pens also bombed


AWOL air veteran held for burglary

Navy bans gifts of scarce items