America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

8680

Führer HQ (February 14, 1945)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

In der Slowakei wurden stärkere feindliche Angriffe in harten Gebirgskämpfen abgewiesen, einige Einbrüche abgeriegelt. Die 3. Gebirgsdivision errang dabei einen besonderen Abwehrerfolg.

Im Raum südwestlich Breslau warf der Feind neu herangeführte Kräfte in die Schlacht. Trotz des zähen Widerstandes unserer Truppen, in deren Reihen Volkssturm- und Alarmeinheiten stehen, konnte der Gegner in Niederschlesien nach Westen und Nordwesten Boden gewinnen. Im Verlauf der erbitterten Kämpfe ging Bunzlau verloren. In Sorau wird gekämpft. Zahlreiche feindliche Angriffe gegen die Festung Glogau wurden von der Besatzung abgewiesen.

Im südlichen Pommern führten die Sowjets vergebliche Angriffe. Die zäh kämpfenden Verteidiger von Arnswalde, Schneidemühl und Posen hielten heftigen feindlichen Angriffen stand.

Im Südteil Westpreußens setzten die Bolschewisten nach Zuführung neuer Kräfte ihre Durchbruchsversuche in den Räumen Könitz und Tuchel fort. Schwere Kämpfe sind hier im Gange.

Versuche des Gegners, unsere Front beiderseits der Autobahn Elbing–Königsberg von Westen und bei Zinten von Osten her einzudrücken, scheiterten ebenso wie Fesselungsangriffe zwischen Wormditt und Landsberg.

An der kurländischen Front blieben zahlreiche sowjetische Vorstöße in Kompanie- bis Bataillonsstärke erfolglos.

Zwischen dem Niederrhein und der Maas, südöstlich Gennep, errangen unsere Truppen gestern einen großen Abwehrerfolg. Sie zerschlugen die Masse der englischen Angriffe oder warfen den Feind im Gegenangriff wieder zurück.

Durch die Überschwemmungen an der Rur sind die Amerikaner zu Umgruppierungen gezwungen, die unsere Artillerie durch starke Feuerschläge bekämpft.

In den Straßen von Prüm, in das der Feind von neuem einbrach, wird heftig gekämpft. An der Sauer standen unsere Verbände auch gestern in heftigen Abwehrkämpfen gegen den aus seinem Brückenkopf zwischen Wallendorf und Echternach angreifenden Feind.

Von der übrigen Westfront werden beiderseitige Stoßtruppkämpfe bei Saarlautern und zunehmendes Artilleriefeuer an den Fronten in Elsass-Lothringen gemeldet. Im Abschnitt von Hagenau scheiterten mehrere feindliche Angriffe.

In Kroatien verstärkte sich der feindliche Druck im Raum von Mostar. An den übrigen Fronten dauern die Säuberungskämpfe an.

Anglo-amerikanische Tiefflieger und Bomber griffen am gestrigen Tage Orte im Ober- und Mittelrheingebiet sowie im Münsterland an. Nordamerikanische Terrorflieger warfen Bomben auf Städte in Südostdeutschland. Besonders in Wien entstanden Schäden in Wohnvierteln und an Kulturbauten. Die Briten richteten in der vergangenen Nacht Terrorangriffe gegen das Stadtgebiet von Dresden. Durch Luftverteidigungskräfte verloren die Anglo-Amerikaner gestern 37 Flugzeuge, darunter 15 viermotorige Bomber.

Das Vergeltungsfeuer auf London wird fortgesetzt. Auch der Raum von Antwerpen liegt ständig unter unserem Fernbeschuss.

Unsere U-Boote, die seit längerer Zeit mit einem Luftmast ausgerüstet sind, versenkten mit Hilfe dieser Neuerung in küstennahen Gewässern um England und in den Welten des Ozeans in unermüdlichem hartem Einsatz ach Schiffe mit 51.000 BRT.

In Posen haben sich das Sturmgeschützersatz- und Ausbildungsbataillon 500 und die SS-Kampfgruppe Lenzer bei der Verteidigung der Stadt durch beispielhaften Einsatz ausgezeichnet.

Bei den Kämpfen im Samland, die zur Vernichtung von Teilen zweier sowjetischer Gardeschützendivisionen führten, hat sich die norddeutsche 58. Infanteriedivision unter Führung des Generalleutnants Sie wert besonders bewährt.

8681

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (February 14, 1945)

FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN

ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section

DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
141100A February

TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR
(2) NAVY DEPARTMENT

TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(3) TAC HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) MAIN 12 ARMY GP
(5) AIR STAFF
(6) ANCXF
(7) EXFOR MAIN
(8) EXFOR REAR
(9) DEFENSOR, OTTAWA
(10) CANADIAN C/S, OTTAWA
(11) WAR OFFICE
(12) ADMIRALTY
(13) AIR MINISTRY
(14) UNITED KINGDOM BASE
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM ZONE
(18) SHAEF REAR
(19) AFHQ for PRO, ROME
(20) HQ SIXTH ARMY GP

(REF NO.)
NONE

(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR

Communiqué No. 312

Allied forces east of Nijmegen have occupied Griethausen south of the Rhine River. We have also made progress to the east of Kleve and have cleared most of the Reichswald Forest despite stronger enemy resistance. East of Gennep, our troops have extended their bridgehead across the Niers River.

Enemy positions east of the Reichswald Forest and troop concentrations at Kapellen and Sonsbeck to the southeast, were repeatedly attacked by rocket-firing fighters and fighter-bombers. Local communications points at Weeze, Uedem, Kevelaer and Xanten were struck at by medium and light bombers.

We have cleared the enemy from Prüm, and have repulsed two counterattacks by infantry and tanks, one and one-half miles northeast of the town.

Farther to the south, our forces have taken Vianden, on the Our River. Our infantry east of the river has captured Ammeldingen, two miles northwest of Wallendorf, against stiff resistance.

North of echternach, we have taken Ferschweiler and have reached a point one-fourth miles west of Ernzen. Across the Sauer River from Echternach the town of Echternacherbrück has been captured, and we have captured a number of pillboxes in the vicinity of the town. Our bridgehead across the Sauer and the Our Rivers is now ten and one-half miles wide and two and one-fourth miles deep.

Fighter-bombers attacked targets in the battle area east of Vianden and north of Echternach.

Enemy activity increased somewhat in the Hardt Mountains and northern Alsace Plain. The enemy was particularly active north of Pfaffenhofen where our patrols encountered heavy small arms fire at Oberhöfen, southeast of Haguenau, the factory area which German forces penetrated was cleared.

Harassing enemy artillery fire was received at several points on the upper Rhine.

The enemy’s rail system for the supply and reinforcement of his forces was strongly attacked throughout the day.

Northeast and east of the Ruhr, fighter bombers and rocket-firing fighters disabled or damaged a large number of locomotives and hit other rail and road transport.

Railyards and other communications targets mainly west of the Rhine from Düsseldorf to Köln, and rail traffic concentrations at Neuenkirchen, Zweibrücken and Grünstadt, and from Karlsruhe south to the German-Swiss frontier were hit by formations of fighter-bombers.

Other fighter-bombers struck at rail transport and supply routes in Holland.

Medium, light and fighter-bombers attacked motor vehicle depots at Schwelm and Iserlohn in the Ruhr, railway bridges at Euskirchen, Sinzig, Neuwied-Irlich, and southwest of Neuss, and targets at Wittlich, northeast of Trier, and Bad Sobernheim, north of Kaiserslautern.

Last night, heavy bombers in very great strength attacked Dresden and the synthetic oil plant at Böhlen, south of Leipzig. Magdeburg was also bombed. Light bombers continued attacks on rail and road communications north and west of the Ruhr.

COORDINATED WITH: G-2, G-3 to C/S

THIS MESSAGE MAY BE SENT IN CLEAR BY ANY MEANS
/s/

Precedence
“OP” - AGWAR
“P” - Others

ORIGINATING DIVISION
PRD, Communique Section

NAME AND RANK TYPED. TEL. NO.
D. R. JORDAN, Lt Col FA2409

AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/
8682

U.S. State Department (February 14, 1945)

711.90F/2-1445

Memorandum of Conversation Between the King of Saudi Arabia and President Roosevelt, Aboard the USS Quincy

February 14, 1945

I. The President asked His Majesty for his advice regarding the problem of Jewish refugees driven from their homes in Europe. His Majesty replied that in his opinion the Jews should return to live in the lands from which they were driven. The Jews whose homes were completely destroyed and who have no chance of livelihood in their homelands should be given living space in the Axis countries which oppressed them. The President remarked that Poland might be considered a case in point. The Germans appear to have killed three million Polish Jews, by which count there should be space in Poland for the resettlement of many homeless Jews.

His Majesty then expounded the case of the Arabs and their legitimate rights in their lands and stated that the Arabs and the Jews could never cooperate, neither in Palestine, nor in any other country. His Majesty called attention to the increasing threat to the existence of the Arabs and the crisis which has resulted from continued Jewish immigration and the purchase of land by the Jews. His Majesty further stated that the Arabs would choose to die rather than yield their lands to the Jews.

His Majesty stated that the hope of the Arabs is based upon the word of honor of the Allies and upon the well-known love of justice of the United States, and upon the expectation that the United States will support them.

The President replied that he wished to assure His Majesty that he would do nothing to assist the Jews against the Arabs and would make no move hostile to the Arab people. He reminded His Majesty that it is impossible to prevent speeches and resolutions in Congress or in the press which may be made on any subject. His reassurance concerned his own future policy as Chief Executive of the United States Government.

His Majesty thanked the President for his statement and mentioned the proposal to send an Arab mission to America and England to expound the case of the Arabs and Palestine. The President stated that he thought this was a very good idea because he thought many people in America and England are misinformed. His Majesty said that such a mission to inform the people was useful, but more important to him was what the President had just told him concerning his own policy toward the Arab people.

II. His Majesty stated that the problem of Syria and the Lebanon was of deep concern to him and he asked the President what would be the attitude of the United States Government in the event that France should continue to press intolerable demands upon Syria and the Lebanon. The President replied that the French Government had given him in writing their guarantee of the independence of Syria and the Lebanon and that he could at any time write to the French Government to insist that they honor their word. In the event that the French should thwart the independence of Syria and the Lebanon, the United States Government would give to Syria and the Lebanon all possible support short of the use of force.

III. The President spoke of his great interest in farming, stating that he himself was a farmer. He emphasized the need for developing water resources, to increase the land under cultivation as well as to turn the wheels which do the country’s work. He expressed special interest in irrigation, tree planting and water power which he hoped would be developed after the war in many countries, including the Arab lands. Stating that he liked Arabs, he reminded His Majesty that to increase land under cultivation would decrease the desert and provide living for a larger population of Arabs. His Majesty thanked the President for promoting agriculture so vigorously, but said that he himself could not engage with any enthusiasm in the development of his country’s agriculture and public works if this prosperity would be inherited by the Jews.

890F.515/1-2445

The Acting Secretary of State to the Foreign Economic Administrator

Washington, February 14, 1945

My Dear Mr. Crowley: I refer to your letter of January 24, 1945, addressed to the Secretary, reviewing certain aspects of lend-lease assistance to Saudi Arabia in the past, and recalling discussions between officers of the Department and the Foreign Economic Administration with regard to the desirability of placing the Saudi Arabian supply program on a more permanent basis and of substituting some other form of assistance for lend-lease aid. Your letter suggests that any new means of financing a supply program for Saudi Arabia should take effect at the beginning of the 1946 fiscal year, that is, on July 1, 1945.

While the Department is aware of the reluctance of the Foreign Economic Administration to continue lend-lease aid to Saudi Arabia after June 30, 1945, and will continue to press its search for a feasible alternative procedure, no definite plans have yet matured. In the Department’s judgment it would be unwise to assume that such plans can be developed and put into effect before July 1, 1946.

To provide sufficient time for consideration of all the factors involved, because of the political importance of assuring an uninterrupted flow of essential supplies to Saudi Arabia, and in furtherance of the war effort, it is requested that the Foreign Economic Administration take the measures necessary to make lend-lease help available to Saudi Arabia until July 1, 1946 on approximately the same basis as during the calendar year 1944.

The Department and the Foreign Economic Administration have already proposed to the British Embassy the continuation of the joint supply program for Saudi Arabia during the first semester of 1945 at the same level as in 1944. Conceivably it might be necessary to continue at this level throughout 1945 and the first six months of 1946. Aid to be extended to Saudi Arabia during the first half of 1945 would be financed from the current Foreign Economic Administration budget, while that extended during the latter half of 1945 and the first six months of 1946 would be charged to the 1946 appropriations of the Foreign Economic Administration. It is therefore suggested that the necessary provisions be made in your 1946 budget estimates to allow for help to Saudi Arabia as indicated above. The Department of State will be glad, if requested to do so, to support the inclusion of lend-lease funds for Saudi Arabia in your 1946 estimates.

The foregoing is based on the assumption that during the entire period to July 1, 1946, a joint American-British supply program for Saudi Arabia similar to that in effect in 1944 will be in operation. Should the British contribution to the joint program be decreased or withdrawn, help for Saudi Arabia might be needed on a scale larger than that indicated above.

Sincerely yours,
JOSEPH C. GREW

8683

The Pittsburgh Press (February 14, 1945)

4,000 PLANES RIP GERMANY
Cities in path of Russians shattered by Yanks and RAF

Reds at Queis River, only 70 miles from Dresden rail center

BULLETIN

LONDON, England – Marshal Stalin announced tonight that the Russians had captured Freystadt, 15 miles northeast of Sagan; Jauer, 11 miles south of Liegnitz; Neusalz, 19 miles northwest of Glogau, and a number of other Silesian towns.

easterntfront0214.map
Aiming for Dresden, Soviet forces on the Queis River were bolstered by U.S. and British raids on the Saxony capital. To the north, the Germans reported a Soviet bridgehead across the Oder River east of Berlin.

LONDON, England (UP) – Nearly 4,000 Allied planes blasted and burned German cities in the path of the great Russian flanking drive south of Berlin today.

Chief target of the U.S. and Royal Air Force heavy bombers was the Saxony capital of Dresden, now less than 70 miles from Red Army spearheads.

The attack was opened by night when some 1,400 RAF planes blasted Germany. Nearly 800 of them concentrated on Dresden, where they lighted vast fires visible to the advancing Red Army.

U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators took up the assault by day, sending some 2,250 planes over Germany, including 1,350 heavy bombers. One large U.S. formation dropped a new bomb load on Dresden while others hit Chemnitz, 38 miles to the southwest, and Magdeburg, 70 miles southwest of Berlin.

Marshal Ivan S. Konev’s First Ukrainian Army, meanwhile, pressed against the Queis River, third of the six barriers before Dresden, on a nine-mile front.

Hit rail network

The Anglo-American raids on Dresden struck the network of rail and highway arteries and depots upon which the German Army is dependent to supply its forces falling back on the city.

In addition to two “very heavy” and “highly concentrated” attacks on Dresden, the RAF targets announced by the Air Ministry were:

A synthetic oil plant at Bohlen, near Leipzig, 82 miles southwest of Berlin; Magdeburg, 75 miles west-southwest of the German capital; Nuremberg, 225 miles south of Berlin, and Bonn and Dortmund, in the Rhineland.

16 bombers missing

Sixteen British bombers were missing, but a communiqué said some may have landed in Allied territory on the continent.

The American targets in addition to Dresden were: Chemnitz, 38 miles to the southwest; Magdeburg, and a bridge across the Rhine at Wesel, in the area of the Canadian First Army offensive.

More than 900 Mustang and Thunderbolt fighters shepherded the U.S. heavy bombers over Germany.

The American bombardiers were able to fix their sights on the Dresden targets visually, and reported good results, The industrial section of the city was hit.

Many government offices in Berlin are known to have been evacuated to Dresden, which never before felt any great U.S. Eighth Air Force attack.

Dresden’s pre-war population of 640,000 has been swelled much above that figure by the tide of evacuees from other heavily-bombed German cities and from the regions of the east.

It is a great freight center and has extensive railroad shops. Chemnitz also has large freight yards capable of handling 3,500 cars daily.

First three-way attack

It was the first time in the war that the elements of all three of the major Allies had been coordinated in the blow at Germany. Whether the Anglo-American air support for the Red Army was a fruit of the Yalta conferences was not known.

In addition to the First Ukrainian Army’s drive against the Queis River, the Germans reported a Soviet advance to the north. Berlin said the Red Army had bypassed both the Queis and the Tschirne River barriers by reaching Sorau, eight miles west of Sagan, at the confluence of the Queis, Tschirne and Bober Rivers.

Set to drive south

From Sorau the Russians were in a position to strike 72 miles southwest to Dresden with only two river barriers, the Neisse and the Spree, to hurdle.

On the Berlin front, First White Russian Army forces have established a “major” bridgehead across the Oder at Reitwein, 35 miles east of the capital and five miles southwest of Kuestrin, Nazi broadcasts said.

The Germans also said street fighting was raging in Lebus, on the west bank of the Oder 33 miles east of Berlin and five miles north of Frankfurt. These forces presumably had cut the Kuestrin-Frankfurt railway at Lebus and were within a half mile of the west bank railway between the two cities.

Northeast of Berlin, Russian forces advanced to within five miles of the Danzig-Stettin-Berlin railway.

The Second and Third Ukrainian Armies, meantime, regrouped in Hungary under 73 generals for resumption of offensives aimed at Vienna, Bratislava and Bohemia after completing the liberation of encircled Budapest.

Budapest, ruined capital of Hungary, finally fell yesterday to the two armies following a 50-day siege in which 49,000 enemy troops were killed and 110,000 captured. The Nazi commander, Col. Gen. Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, and his staff were captured in their headquarters in an underground sewer.

Eighth to be freed

Budapest was the eighth European capital to be liberated by the Red Army. How many of its pre-war population of 1,116,000 remained in the city was not disclosed immediately.

Marshal Konev’s First Army drove to within 70 miles northeast of Dresden with the capture of Klitschdorf, on the Queis River 26 miles from the border of Saxony.

The Russians also reached the Queis at Neuhammer, nine miles north of Klitschdorf, in an advance of 9½ miles from the Bober River, a tributary to the Oder.

Threaten Sagan

Sagan, site of the three big American and British war prisoner camps eight miles northeast of Neuhammer, was threatened by the breakthrough. Johnsdorf, seven miles east of Sagan, and Ruekersdorf, nine miles northeast, were also captured.

The Germans were believed to have moved most Allied prisoners from the Sagan camps, but it was possible the Red Army would overtake and rescue some of them.

Deep in a German salient east of Sagan, Marshal Konev’s forces began a battle of annihilation against the encircled German garrison of Glogau, on the Oder 119 miles southeast of Berlin.

Glogau was formerly chief supply base for Nazi troops holding a bridgehead on the east bank of the Oder midway between Berlin and Breslau, but German broadcasts indicated the bridgehead may have been abandoned.

8684

Allies close on Rhineland road, rail hub

Flood slows drive of Canadians on Goch

…

8685

Yalta decisions boast hope of early V-Day in Europe

London observers believe Hitler and his gang may be holed up or finished off in weeks
By William H. Stoneman

LONDON, England – Speculation regarding the date of “V-Day” has been revived by the Yalta conference. Most serious people with enough knowledge to form an opinion now put it well ahead of previous estimates.

Last night’s statement by James F. Byrnes (director of U.S. War Mobilization and Reconversion) that Allied leaders “do not ignore the possibility of the early collapse of Germany” but “are not counting on it” is regarded as definitely cautious by these people.

His statement that they are planning on major operations in March involving more men and material than ever before is not taken to preclude the possibility of very sudden developments.

The opinion here in London is that a quick finale to the war in Europe is now on the books and that it can happen any time. It definitely is, believed that Hitler and his henchmen will be holed up in Berchtesgaden or finished off in a matter of weeks.

It is also the growing conviction that guerrilla warfare will be limited in scope. Everybody agreed that the final concerted blow at the Reich from the east and west will outdo anything seen before and those who can gauge its proportions and its direction do not think it can fail.

Although there has been much talk about the weather and swampy ground, the Germans themselves are not planning on it to stave off the evil day.

Denude Western Front

They talk daily of the impending assault by the U.S. First Army toward Cologne. Yet they have been forced by the Russian advance on Berlin to denude the Western Front of such potent units as the Sixth Panzer Army. A number of first class but badly battered paratroops units-are being depended upon to brace Field Marshal Gen. Karl von Rundstedt’s forces facing the British and Americans.

Irrespective of what the Germans may be telling themselves about the possibility of defending Berlin, it is regarded here as a hopeless proposition. Yalta’s achievement in coordinating the movements of Russian and Anglo-American armies should make it impossible for even the agile Germans to do much more switching of large forces.

It is believed here that Hitler may be able to stage a last stand in the Bavarian Mountains, but that this will be nothing more than troublesome. Guerrilla warfare throughout Germany now is thought to be unlikely because it simply would subject the civilian population to additional hardships and countermeasures without any prospect of reward. Even France, which always had the prospect of eventual liberation, was quiescent for two years after its occupation, it is pointed out.

Can play ‘possum

Germany’s only possibility for a comeback as a military power will lie in playing ‘possum for an extended period.

The present plans for control of Germany, accepted at Yalta, call for a high degree of military supervision and do not seem to require formation of a responsible central government of Germans in the near future.

Local German officials undoubtedly would be held responsible for the administration of towns and villages, but they would enjoy little political authority. Any confusion which results from the abolition of established governmental machinery must be accepted by the Germans as just another reminder that war doesn’t pay.

8686

Two main prizes in Manila seized

Battle’s end in sight, MacArthur declares

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – Nichols Field and the U.S. Navy’s wrecked anchorage at Cavite were back in American hands today.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur proclaimed triumphantly that the end of the battle for Manila is in sight.

With Manila’s two main military prizes reconquered, Gen. MacArthur’s tanks and infantrymen swarmed in from all. sides to finish off the remaining Japs trapped along the flaming waterfront and around Fort McKinley, on the city’s southeastern outskirts.

The doomed Japs were writing off their three-year stay in Manila in a last orgy of fire and blood. Thousands of terror-stricken Filipinos escaped into the American lines with word that the Japs were massacring men. women and children indiscriminately in the teeming residential districts still under their control.

Inside the old Walled City, where the bulk of the enemy garrison was digging in for a last stand, the Japs barricaded the streets and ordered all civilians into their homes.

Then they fired the buildings and machine-gunned the occupants as they tried to flee.

Captured by paratroops

Units of the 11th Airborne Division, advancing on Manila from the south, captured the Nichols Airfield yesterday after more than a week of savage fighting, and then pushed on along the shores of Manila Bay to take the Cavite Naval Base.

At Cavite, which was burned once by the Americans before they abandoned it in December 1941 and now again by the Japs, Gen. MacArthur’s troops captured 10 enemy seaplanes and a battery of three-inch guns intact.

Armored spearheads of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, meanwhile, broke through to Manila Bay north of the 11th Airborne, clearing the Pasay District, and wheeled north toward the Walled City. They also mopped up a small Jap pocket around Nielson Airfield, near Fort McKinley.

The 37th Infantry Division was also moving in on the Walled City from the east and southeast, in conjunction with the 1st Cavalry.

Japs lose 68,000

Gen. MacArthur announced that the Japs so far have suffered more than 68,000 casualties in the five-week Luzon campaign, against 9,683 American losses – 2,102 killed, 192 missing and 7,389 wounded.

Eighty-five miles northeast of Manila, troops of the 6th Armored Division cut clear across Luzon win their second hold on the island’s east coast at Baler. Another column previously had reached the east shore at Dingalan Bay, 30 miles below Baler. The Baler Airfield was found abandoned.

Japs beaten off

Northeast of the Lingayen beachheads, the Japs attempted a night raid on Rosario but were beaten off in short order.

Systematic mopping-up operations were reported continuing in the foothills of the Zambales Mountains overlooking Clark Field and Fort Stotsenburg, 40-odd miles north-northwest of Manila.

8687

Japs fire Catholic center, shoot fleeing refugees

Attempt to chain door fails – only 700 of 2,000 are believed to have survived
By Robert Crabb, United Press staff writer

MANILA, Philippines – The Japanese have run amok in southern Manila in a wholesale massacre of Filipino civilians trapped inside their lines.

Eyewitnesses said the Japs fired the Catholic refugee center at the College of La Concordia with incendiary grenades, after trying to chain the doors to prevent the refugees from escaping.

The center houses about 2,000 persons, including many blind, insane, wounded and sick. Only about 700 are known to have survived by running a mile-long gantlet of Jap gunfire.

Spanish-born Mrs. Denis Allmond, wife of a chief quartermaster in the U.S. Navy, escaped from the burning center with her two children, Denis Jr., 4, and Janet, 5.

Mrs. Allmond said the Japs tried several times to chain the doors of the main building at the center, which was operated by the Sisters of Charity.

Men inside the building, who had put out three fires started by the Japs, unchained the doors, and get most of the refugees out. Then the Japs mowed them down with machine-gun fire.

“All except about 700 were killed, including most of the infants,” Mrs. Allmond said.

Many of the Sisters, all of whom were Filipinos, were among the missing or known dead.

First-hand evidence of Jap atrocities was also uncovered by clean-up squads of the U.S. 37th Infantry Division. The Doughboys found the bodies of 200 Filipino men, women and children who had been killed by the Japs.

Many of the victims were bound before they were shot.

The bodies of eight members of the Filipino Constabulary were found in the Pasig River. They had been tied up, shot and then thrown into the river.

8688

Vandenberg’s silence costs shadow across Allies’ peace session

Michigan Republican refuses to say whether he’ll become delegate
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

WASHINGTON – Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-Michigan) said today he had received no invitation to be a member of the American delegation to the United Nations conference at San Francisco. He refused to say whether he would accept if invited.

Mr. Vandenberg said he had seen newspaper reports that he had been named to the delegation in a White House announcement. But he said he had not heard from either the White House or State Department.

He is one of three Republicans designated yesterday to be among the eight American delegation members.

It was believed he would accept, but so long as any question remained about his plans the degree of Republican cooperation in drafting a post-war security treaty remained in some doubt.

Asked if he would accept an official invitation, Mr. Vandenberg replied: “As the President says, that is an ‘iffy’ question.”

His remarks clouded, for the moment at least, what had been a bright prospect that Republicans would accept joint political responsibility for the San Francisco conference. That acceptance in turn had been expected to speed the proposed anti-aggression treaty toward ratification.

The other Republicans named to the delegation were Rep. Charles A. Eaton (R-New Jersey), senior minority member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Cmdr. Harold E. Stassen. the 37-year-old political fireball from Minnesota.

Approval needed

The broad outlines of the Anglo-Russian-American plans for world stabilization evidently appeal to Mr. Vandenberg.

But he had not endorsed the partition of Poland nor, especially, the apparent assignment of the cities of Wilno and Lwow to Russia. There will be bitter objection by many persons of Polish extraction in the United States. Many of them live and vote in Mr. Vandenberg’s State of Michigan.

Membership on the American delegation probably would require direct or indirect approval of allotment of pre-war eastern Poland to Russia.

Mr. Vandenberg is the key figure among the three Republicans. If he balks the momentum of early anti-aggression treaty action would diminish considerably.

Avoids Wilson’s mistake

Announcement of the delegation personnel, with Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius Jr., as chairman, followed within 24 hours the release of news that the Big Three in the Crimea had agreed on the pattern of the post-war world.

Members of Congress, with astonishingly few exceptions, were still speaking well if sometimes cautiously of the program when the San Francisco conference delegation was announced.

Unlike Woodrow Wilson, who went alone to Versailles in 1919, President Roosevelt is inviting individuals among his political opposition to help write the peace bond that he must ask the Senate to sign.

Selection of Cmdr. Stassen will be offensive to some Republicans. Although twice elected Governor of Minnesota and a potential 1948 GOP presidential nominee, Cmdr. Stassen is not loved by all his fellow party leaders. He went far beyond most Republicans for full United States participation in world affairs.

Hurt by Ball’s bolt

Cmdr. Stassen appointed Sen. Joseph H. Ball (R-Minnesota) to the Senate. Mr. Ball in turn managed the commander’s 1944 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, but finally bolted the GOP ticket last autumn. Cmdr. Stassen is smeared with that bolt. But he undoubtedly has a considerable following in the party below the grade of top leader.

Other members of the U.S. delegation will be former Secretary of State Cordell Hull with the courtesy title of senior adviser; Chairman Tom Connally (D-Texas) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Chairman Sol Bloom (D-New York) of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Dean Virginia Gildersleeve of Barnard College, New York City.

Labor not represented

There was no labor representation on the delegation, an exclusion likely to sound the alarm siren among some of the President’s union supporters. But the service man with a gun float or in a foxhole will be represented by the big bodied, blond young man from Minnesota.

There were some strictly off-record but emphatic Senate protests against the delegation personnel. Senators are jealous of their treaty powers. Among them it was remarked that the two House members, Mr. Bloom and Mr. Eaton, had no business on the delegation.

Problem for Republicans

Cmdr. Stassen’s selection was condemned as a political reward, for Mr. Ball’s bolt rather than as recognition of the fighting services. Mr. Roosevelt has posed a nice problem for some Republicans by naming Mr. Vandenberg to the delegation. The Senator recently has been discussing foreign relations in a manner both forceful and challenging. Many Republicans, including Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, have made public commitments to his ideas.

Now, if Mr. Vandenberg joins in making a treaty which he reports conforms with his major objectives, it will be difficult but not impossible, for others to go all out in challenge to the pact. Persons who know Mr. Roosevelt well do not doubt he is having a chuckle about that – wherever he may be.

Senate recognized

Discussing the delegation, Mr. Connally said:

The President recognizes the functions of the Senate and his action indicates his desire to have the utmost cooperation peep the Senate and the executive.

Mr. Ball expressed approval of the whole trend of foreign policy as charted at the Crimean Conference by Mr. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Marshal Joseph V. Stalin.

Mr. Ball’s statement seemed to ensure that Cmdr. Stassen will jump at the chance to appear again on the political stage. He is serving now on the staff of Adm. William F. Halsey Jr. Mr. Eaton is expected to accept delegate membership, but is a much lesser figure in the party than either Mr. Vandenberg or Cmdr. Stassen.

8689

Germany to scrap all rules of war

Poison gas attacks predicted in Sweden

LONDON, England (UP) – European dispatches said today that Germany has proclaimed her intention of scrapping the rules of war for a “no-holds-barred” fight to the death as a result of the Big Three’s Crimean declaration.

The new policy was said to have been set forth yesterday by Paul Schmidt, official spokesman for the German Foreign Office, in an angry outburst at the Wilhelmstrasse over the joint statement of President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin.

Stockholm sources speculated that Schmidt’s statement might foreshadow German use of poison gas.

Cites death sentence

The death sentence outlined for Germany in the Crimean declaration frees the Reich of “all moral obligations” to abide by the rules of war, the Nazi-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau quoted else as saying.

“The Germans henceforth will conduct the war with all suitable means, no matter how grim their effect,” Schmidt said.

The STB dispatch, published in Stockholm newspapers, said mention of the Crimean declaration caused “by far the worst explosion” foreign correspondents ever have witnessed at a Wilhelmstrasse press conference.

The Swiss Telegraph Agency said the official German Foreign Office publication Diplomatische Information commented that the Red Army in eastern Germany already had “placed itself outside any moral qualification.”

Nazi arms stolen

“There would be no surprise if such a plan of destruction as the Yalta statement revealed would bring the complete ‘demoralization’ of war,” the publication said.

It contended that the statement, far from hastening Germany’s defeat, would steel the spirit of resistance inside the Reich.

The publication said:

Every doubter and every optimist throughout Germany now understands that Germany as a nation and Germans as individuals could not fare worse than if they capitulated now.

Reliable reports reaching Stockholm from Berlin said Nazi authorities were concerned over extensive thefts of arms from Volkssturm (home guard) barracks outside Berlin.

The Nazis were said to fear that foreign workers, war prisoners and native anti-Nazis may try to stab the German Army in the back as soon as military events force the Gestapo to loosen its grip on the German home front.

A Berlin dispatch to the Stockholm newspaper Dagens Nyheter said German authorities had ordered that all guns, rifles, pistols, machine-guns, tommy guns, signal pistols and hand grenades must be registered by February 20.

The arms are needed for the Volkssturm, the dispatch said.

8690

More trouble for OPA –
Fish crisis develops on first day of Lent

Men who catch ‘em insist on higher meat ration before they go back to sea

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8691

Strong post-war tax plan urged

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Army studies fate of 2 Nazi spies

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8692

I DARE SAY —
The indispensables

By Florence Fisher Parry

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8693

Poll: Majority admit failure of make real sacrifices

Greatest number of those who defend record cite relatives in service
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion

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8694

With a reporter in the Pacific –
Supplies move up as Yanks move in on Japs

By Lee G. Miller, Scripps-Howard staff writer

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8695

Auctioneer calls bribe charge ‘lie’

Denies testimony in government records

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Patterson urges draft of nurses

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8696

He’s still cheerful –
Triple amputation revealed to end ‘basket case’ rumors

G.I. loses two legs and a hand
By Douglas Larsen

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Labor pushes fight on work-or-else

Leaders testify at Senate hearing

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8697

Officer convicted of neglect of duty

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8698

Simms43

Simms: Russian war against Japan called certain

Reds have scores to settle with Tokyo
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

WASHINGTON – Russia’s entry into the war against Japan, perhaps at a not distant date, is now regarded as just about certain.

The selection of San Francisco as the meeting place of the first conference of the United Nations, and of April 25 as the date, may or may not have significance. Russia may or may not give notice to Japan terminating their non-aggression pact on April 26, 1946. But whether she does is not regarded as particularly important.

What is important is the fact that Russia has many important scores to settle with Japan and that he hardly would overlook the present opportunity to wipe them from the slate – pact or no pact.

Treaty cited

Much is being made of the Soviet-Jap treaty as barring Russian involvement in the Pacific war. Russia, however, had a similar treaty with Poland – which treaty, incidentally, does not expire until the end of this year – but that did not prevent her from joining Germany in September 1939 and dividing that country between them.

Russia’s stakes in the Western Pacific are materially greater even than those of the United States. Unless Japan, like Germany, is forced to surrender unconditionally, and her war machine dismantled, she will continue to block Russia’s access to the Pacific.

Contrary to the popular impression, Siberia is one of the richest parts of the globe.

Has one good port

The vast empire, considerably larger than the United States, faces the Pacific, or rather the seas between the mainland and Japan’s island chain. Yet at present it has only one fairly good port – Vladivostok. As long as Japan remains a first-class power, she bottles up Siberia.

Russia is also vitally interested in Manchuria. The Chinese Eastern Railroad shortcut between Chita, on the Trans-Siberian, and Vladivostok crosses Manchuria, now a puppet of Japan. Russia built the Chinese Eastern but Japan cheated her out of it when Russia was weak. The warm water port, Port Arthur, on the Yellow Sea, once belonged to Russia but now is Japanese.

These are just some of Russia’s interests in East Asia. So, make no mistake about it: Russia intends to sit at the peace table when Japan is liquidated. This means she must come into the war, When, however, is another story. Russia certainly will do her own timing and neither the Soviet-Jap pact nor any pressure which we might try to bring on her is likely to affect it in the least.

8699

Wounded on cots lowered to sea as carrier burns

Life preservers keep improvised rafts afloat and many are rescued but ship is lost

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Nimitz commands from Guam base

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