Lewis’ call for strike vote may be halted
Legal basis lacking, operators say
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Trolley upsets on curve – 60 hurt
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GOEBBELS PROMISES WAR TO LAST GERMAN
Fanatical fight demanded by Nazi leader
Hitler pictured as Prussian king
LONDON (UP) – The German DNB News Agency reported today that Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels visited the Silesian front recently and reiterated that Germany would fight to the last man and never capitulate.
The Nazi leader acknowledged that the amount of Germany’s material equipment had reached a low stage, but argued that a fanatical fight by all the people behind Adolf Hitler would overcome the handicap.
Talks to home guard
Goebbels, according to DNB, made the visit to the Silesian front in Southwest Germany during the last few days and talked to members of the Volkssturm (home guard) and youth organizations at Goerlitz and Lauban.
The Nazi broadcast came almost simultaneous with other reports from the continent, indicating an increasing tension among the Germans, including the beleaguered Nazi High Command.
A Stars and Stripes dispatch from the Third Army front quoted German prisoners that Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt had been ousted from the Western Front command and replaced by Field Marshal Walther Model. The prisoners described the shakeup as preparations for a last-ditch defense by the Nazis.
Tries to aid morale
An earlier DNB dispatch disclosed that Nazi officials had ordered all workers in evacuation areas to report immediately to military authorities. It also warned that “every person of military age” must carry identification papers.
Goebbels’ reported visit to Silesia was believed an attemnpt to bolster the morale of the German people facing the onslaught of the Soviet armies on the Eastern Front.
The Propaganda Minister attempted to portray Hitler as another “great king of the Prussians” with the ability to lead Germany to victory if the people remained behind him after setbacks as well as triumphs.
Goebbels claimed that the immediate danger of being overrun by the Red Army “no longer can frighten us” and said that instead of panic, the Russians now were meeting a unison of hundreds of thousands of German soldiers on the Eastern Front.
Battle in Munich
The Moscow radio, meanwhile, quoted reports from the German frontier that serious disturbances had broken out in Munich, with the town entirely surrounded by SS troops. The broadcasts claimed that shooting had occurred in eastern Munich.
A Berlin dispatch to the Stockholm Morgon-Tidningen said the German capital was being prepared for a final stand. Empty street and subway cars have been filled with stones and concrete and overturned at strategic street corners, the article said.
Bungling of war program laid to federal officials
Army and WPN named as Senators probe Detroit’s labor and manpower troubles
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JAPANESE RESISTANCE STARTING TO CRACK ON IWO
Marines split enemy force along coasts
Resistance appears to be diminishing
GUAM (UP) – Jap resistance on Iwo began to crack today as three Marine divisions tightened their stranglehold on two big enemy pockets along the north and east coasts.
The Marines widened their corridor between the two pockets and closed in on the enemy from the south, east and west in gains of up to several hundred yards in fierce fighting.
“Resistance during this morning appeared to be diminishing although the enemy continued to hold prepared strongpoints tenaciously and snipers were active,” Pacific Fleet headquarters announced in the first communiqué on the fighting on Iwo in some 36 hours.
In final stages
The announcement indicated that the 20-day-old campaign on Japan’s front doorstep was entering its final stages, with the end of organized resistance in sight.
However, the remnants of the original enemy garrison of 20,000 – now probably fewer than 4,000 – were battling to the death and more bloody fighting appeared in prospect before final victory.
The 3rd Division smashed ahead the last few hundred yards to the sea on the northeast coast yesterday, completely severing Jap troops on the north shore from those on the east.
Continuing the attack today, the 3rd Division had widened its hold on the northeast beaches.
Meet tough resistance
The Japs in the north were pinned between the 3rd Marines, in the center of the northeastern beaches and the 5th Division pressing along the northwest shoreline to within 1,000 yards of Kitano, northern tip of the tiny island.
The 4th Division, on the east coast, was meeting the toughest resistance in a frontal drive from the south against the main enemy pocket, but was hacking out limited gains.
The Japs launched a large-scale attempt to infiltrate the 4th Division’s lines with heavy mortar and sniper fire support Thursday night, but ran into a stonewall defense. A total of 564 enemy troops were killed, the communiqué said.
Blast Chichi Island
A small group of Jap planes approached Iwo early Friday, but retired without attacking, the communiqué said.
U.S. planes continued to strike at Chichi Island in the Bonins, north of Iwo.
Navy search Privateers bombed runways and other installations on Wake Island Friday, and attacks on Kusaie and Ponape in the Eastern Carolines and on the Palaus were carried out Thursday and Friday.
Christianity losing influence on Japs, escaped soldier says
Roman Catholics show least decline in land where people are too busy for church
By Richard T. Baker
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
IN THE MARIANAS ISLANDS (delayed) – Over here the Marines have an expression all their own for the Japs. They call them “Japes,” which is a combination of “Jap” and “Ape.”
Now the fliers are taking it up, and there are various versions of it. I notice a lot of people unconsciously pronouncing Japan as “Jaypan,” just as in Africa we always used to say “A-rab” instead of “Arrab,” as we were taught in school.
Further they carry it into multi-syllables, such as saying “We’re going to Jay-pan-man-land tomorrow.”
Another slang word over here is “gear,” which apparently means a big shot. For example:
Every afternoon a soldier brings about 50 letters written by enlisted men, into our hut for the officers to censor. The officers in this hut have a rule of done the letters right now. and getting it over with. They take about six apiece, and they’ve all through in a few minutes.
The boy who brings the letters around is a Spaniard – Pvt. Gustavo Gonzalez of Galveston, Texas. He talks with an accent and is quite a character. The fliers enjoy kidding back and forth with him.
When Pvt. Gonzalez came back for the letters, they were all finished. Apparently, the other huts don’t do so well by him, and he has to wait. For as he left, he turned at the door and said to the officers: “You guys are all right. If I was a gear, I’d promote you all.”
Keep him supplied
One day while I was with the B-29 crews, Sgt. Fauad Smith pulled out a pack of cigarettes and said “How does that look?” He was pointing to the tax stamp on the package. It was the familiar orange-colored stamp of New Mexico.
“The folks keep insisting on sending me cigarettes,” he said. “I write and write and tell them we can get more than we want over here, but they don’t believe me.”
I’ve been amazed at the number of men flying these Tokyo missions in the B-29s who already have served one tour of combat duty in the European Theater.
Of the 10 men in our hut, two are combat veterans, even though they’re very young.
Veterans of Europe
Maj. William Clark of Bayhead, New Jersey, flew his 50 missions out of Africa in B-17s, and so did Capt. Walter Kelly of Philadelphia. In fact, Capt. Kelly and I were together at Biskra Airdrome on the edge of the Sahara Desert just two years ago this month.
They are both heady, wise pilots, who have learned the tropical ways of wearing shorts and spending half their time just lying on their cots. And they don’t seem to mind at all that they’re starting all over again on this side of the world after having done their share on the other side.
One of the things most needed for morale among fliers over here is the setting up of some kind of goal for them – the setting of a definite number of combat missions to be flown, whereupon they would automatically go back to a rest camp.
The way it is now, they are Just flying in the dark, so to speak. They’re just going on and on until fate overtakes them, with nothing else to shoot for.
Of course it’s probably too early yet, and the war on both sides of the world too desperate. to set up a final mission total whereupon a B-29 flier goes home for good.
They’re going to have to go to rest camps and then come back for more missions a couple of times before they finally go home. But no rest-camp goal has yet been set. They say it has to come from Washington, and Washington is slow about it.
It’s no good to create a rest camp out here. The boys would just as soon lie on their own cots as to go to a rest camp. What they want is a change, something far away – lights and girls and companionship and modern things and gaiety. And somebody better hurry!