Background of news –
Presidents out of Congress
By Bertram Benedict
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Eighth Army flanks Bologna, nears city from southeast
Yanks within eight miles of stronghold, capture two peaks to southwest
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
NOTE: This column by Ernie Pyle was part of his general running story of the battle of Okinawa, written during the campaign that led to his death. It is believed that other instalments were filed by him and will be received for publication.
OKINAWA (by Navy radio) – The company commander, Capt. Julian Dusenbury, said I could have my choice of two places to spend the first night with his company.
One was with him in his command post. The command post was a big, round Japanese gun emplacement, made of sandbags. The Japs had never occupied it, but they had stuck a log out of it, pointing toward the sea and making it look like a gun to aerial reconnaissance.
Capt. Dusenbury and a couple of his officers had spread ponchos on the ground inside the emplacement and had hung their telephone on a nearby tree and were ready for business. There was no roof on the emplacement. It was tight on top of a hill and cold and very windy.
My other choice was with a couple of enlisted men who had room for me in a little gypsy-like hideout they’d made.
It was a tiny, level place about halfway down the hillside, away from the sea. They’d made a roof for it by tying ponchos to trees and had dug up some Japanese straw mats out of a farmhouse to lay on the ground.
I chose the second of these two places, partly because it was warmer, and also because I wanted to be with the men anyhow.
Mustache trouble
My two “roommates” were Cpl. Martin Clayton Jr. of Dallas, Texas, and Pvt. William Gross of Lansing, Michigan.
Cpl. Clayton is nicknamed “Bird Dog” and nobody ever calls him anything else. He is tall, thin and dark, almost Latin-looking. He sports a puny little mustache he’s been trying to grow for weeks and he makes fun of it.
Pvt. Gross is simply called Gross. He is very quiet, but thoughtful of little things and they both sort of looked after me for several days. These two have become very close friends, and after the war they intend to go to UCLA together and finish their education.
The boys said we could all three sleep side by side in the same “bed.” So, I got out my contribution to the night’s beauty rest. And it was a very much appreciated contribution too. For I had carried a blanket as well as a poncho.
These Marines had been sleeping every night on the ground with no cover, except their cold, rubberized ponchos, and they had almost frozen to death. Their packs were so heavy they hadn’t been able to bring blankets ashore with them.
Our next-door neighbors were about three feet away in a similar level spot on the hillside, and they had roofed it similarly with ponchos. These two men were Sgt. Neil Anderson of Coronado, California, and Sgt. George Valido of Tampa, Florida (Incidentally there’s another Neil Anderson in this same battalion).
So, we chummed up and the five of us cooked supper under a tree just in front of our “house.” The boys made a fire out of sticks and we put canteen cups and K rations right on the fire.
Other little groups of Marines had similar little fires going all over the hillside. As we were eating, another Marine came past and gave Bird Dog a big piece of fresh roasted pig they had just cooked, and Bird Dog gave me some. It sure was good after days of K rations.
Several of the boys found their K rations moldy, and mine was too. It was the old-fashioned kind and we finally realized they were 1942 rations and had been stored, probably in Australia, all this time.
Making conversation
Suddenly downhill a few yards. we heard somebody yell and start cussing and then there was a lot of laughter. What had happened was that one Marine had heated a K ration can and, because it was pressure packed, it exploded when he pried it open and there were hot egg yolks over him. Usually, the boys open a can a little first, and release the pressure before heating, so, the can won’t explode.
After supper we burned our K ration boxes in the fire, brushed our teeth with water from our canteens, and then just sat on the ground around the fire, talking.
Other Marines drifted along and after a while there were more than a dozen sitting around. We smoked cigarettes constantly, and talked of a hundred things.
As in all groups the first talk is of surprise at no opposition to our landing. Then the talk drifts to what do I think about things over here and how does it compare with Europe? And when do I think the war will end? Of course, I don’t know any of the answers but we’ve been making conversation out of it for months.
The boys tell jokes, they cuss a lot and constantly drag out stories of their past blitzes and sometimes they speak gravely about war and what will happen to them when they finally get home.
We talked like that for about an hour, and then it grew dark and a shouted order came along the hillside to put out the fires and it was passed on and on, and the boys drifted away to their own foxholes or hillside dugouts, and Bird Dog and Gross and I went to bed, for there’s nothing else to do after dark in blackout country.
The life of Harry Truman –
New President’s ‘one and only’ Bess always belonged to ‘best people’
He never looked at any other but her
By Frances Burns
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Roosevelt ‘talk’ with God atop mountain disclosed
Late President’s two-hour communion, alone, occurred during his last days
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Little theater aids young film actors
Studio backs project for training of new talent – and idea clicks!
By Maxine Garrison
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Millett: ‘Me Firsters’ destroy patriotic effort
‘Little Old Lady’ does more than share of what others ought to be doing
By Ruth Millett
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Coscarart to join Pirates Friday
‘Time’ call rubs pout 3 runs as Bucs drop 7-6 opener to Redlegs
By Chester L. Smith, Press sprots editor
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Oberdonau-Zeitung (April 19, 1945)
Sowjetischer Durchbruch wiederum verhindert!
Berlin, 18. April – Auch am Dienstag machten weder die zwischen Stettin und Görlitz angreifenden Bolschewisten noch die zwischen Wittenberge und Chemnitz andrängenden Nordamerikaner nennenswerte Fortschritte. Der sowjetische Druck war an den bisherigen Schwerpunkten überaus stark, aber ebenso energisch waren unsere Gegenangriffe. Obwohl der Feind in seinen beiden Neiße-Brückenköpfen südlich Forst und Rothenburg starke Panzerkräfte hineinpumpte und sie sofort zum Angriff einsetzte, blieben die Linien im Wesentlichen unverändert.
Im Gebiet beiderseits Küstrin und Frankfurt konnte der Feind seine Einbrüche ebenfalls nicht vertiefen. Das Ringen wogt auch hier in geringer Tiefe hin und her. Unsere immer wieder zu Gegenangriffen übergehenden Truppen meisterten die Lage und verhinderten unter Abschuss von bisher über 550 Panzern den vom Feinde seit vier Tagen mit allen Mitteln erstrebten Durchbruch nach Westen.
Auch die Angloamerikaner trafen im Elbe-Abschnitt und in Mitteldeutschland überall auf hartnäckigen Widerstand. Wie sie selbst zugeben, sei es unseren Truppen südlich Magdeburgs gelungen, die 2. amerikanische Panzerdivision auf dem Ostufer der Elbe zusammenzupressen, so dass diese gezwungen gewesen ist, sich unter Verhältnissen, die an Dünkirchen erinnern, sich mit allen zur Verfügung stehenden Fahrzeugen sogar über den Fluss zurückzuziehen.
An der Elbe und Mulde, zwischen Wittenberge und Bitterfeld, blieb die Lage, von stärkeren, aber vergeblichen Angriffen der Nordamerikaner in Richtung auf Dessau abgesehen, weiter unverändert. Der Verteidigungsraum Leipzig zog neue starke Angriffe auf sich. Der Gegner drängte südlich Bitterfeld gegen die Mulde auf Eilenberg vor und schwenkte dort nach Südwesten auf Leipzig ein. Im südwestlichen, östlichen und nordöstlichen Vorfeld der Stadt sind schwere Kämpfe mit den konzentrisch angreifenden Nordamerikanern entbrannt. Zwischen Leipzig und Chemnitz tastet sich der Feind schrittweise nach Osten vor, ohne ins Gewicht fallende Bodengewinne zu erzielen.
An der Süd- und Nordflanke der Westfront machten die Angloamerikaner dagegen einige Fortschritte. Feindliche Aufklärungskräfte, die in den nördlichen Niederlanden gegen den Dollart vorstießen, wurden blutig abgeschlagen. Am Küstenkanal, westlich Oldenburg, und ferner südlich Bremen und im Nordteil der Lüneburger Heide wechselten feindliche Angriffe und eigene Gegenstöße. An der Südflanke der Westfront drängten nordamerikanische und gaullistische Truppen weiter nach Süden. Im Vogtland sind wechselvolle Kämpfe im Gange. In Franken führten unsere Truppen energische Gegenangriffe und stießen bis zu der vom Feind benutzten Vormarschstraße durch. Dennoch setzte der nordamerikanische Panzerverband seinen Stoß östlich Nürnberg fort und erreichte den Ludwigskanal. Sein Versuch, hier nach Norden in Richtung auf Nürnberg einzudrehen, scheiterte jedoch. Auch westlich der Stadt drückt der Feind nach Süden gegen die Straße Nürnberg-Ansbach. Diesem Angriffskeil stellten sich ebenso wie dem im Altmühl-, Tauber- und Jagsttal nach Süden vorstoßenden Panzerrudel unsere Sperrverbände entgegen und fingen den, Gegner in Abwehrkämpfen und Gegenstößen auf.
Während am Neckar, südlich Heilbronn und an der Ems stärkere feindliche Angriffe scheiterten, schoben sich im nördlichen Schwarzwald feindliche Aufklärungskräfte im Nagoldtal nach Osten und Süden vor.