Millett: Women becoming bitter toward ‘second war’
Wives of servicemen must learn need for extended duty for G.I.
By Ruth Millett
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Kate Smith broadcasts eloquent tribute to Pyle
NEW YORK – In her noon broadcast yesterday over the Columbia network, Kate Smith paid the following tribute to the late Ernie Pyle, famed war correspondent:
The nation which lost its leader less than one week ago has a new grief to bear this noon. For only a short time ago, the Navy Department announced that Ernie Pyle, beloved war correspondent and friend of every G.I. Joe, has been killed in action.
Died in harness
Like his Commander-in-Chief who fell last Thursday, Ernie died in harness. He was struck down by enemy machine gun fire on a little island off Okinawa. He was right up there in the front line, as always. Sweating it out with the fighting men, in the thick of battle doing the same magnificent job that he has done ever since America went to war.
United States soldiers, sailors and Marines have lost a staunch friend in the death of Ernie Pyle. He was their champion and their hero.
Suffered with men
The bald little reporter had lived and suffered with American fighting men through months of bitter fighting in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and France. He came home after those campaigns, simply, he said, because he couldn’t bear the sight of death any longer.
But it wasn’t long before he was off again, this time to the Pacific. Ernie Pyle followed the call of duty. He felt he owed it to America’s fighting men to support their valiant conquests in the Pacific. And there he met the death he had been close to so many times before.
Truman expresses sentiment
President Truman spoke these words a moment ago, and they speak the sentiments of every American who knew Ernie Pyle through his human, realistic accounts of the war. He said “no man in this war has so well told the story of the American fighting man as American fighting men wanted it told. More than any other man he became the spokesman of the ordinary American in arms.”
“Nobody knows how many individuals in our forces and at home he helped with his writings. But all Americans understand now how wisely, how warmheartedly, how honestly he served his country and his profession. He deserves the gratitude of all his countrymen. God bless him. May he rest in peace.”
Monahan: Constance Moore a singing princess
She and Dennis O’Keefe warring lovers in Vanities at Fulton
By Kaspar Monahan
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Chaplin ordered to pay Joan’s baby $75 weekly
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G.I. preview for Pyle film
Movie’s release due in July
By Maxine Garrison, Press Hollywood correspondent
HOLLYWOOD – The death of Ernie Pyle will bring no changes or additions to the film, G.I. Joe, based on the famous war correspondent’s frontline reportings.
Lester Cowan, producer of the movie in which Burgess Meredith portrays Mr. Pyle, said that the completed film will be shown first to troops on Okinawa – the self-same men who were Ernie’s “buddies.”
The film will not be released to the public until July, Mr. Cowan said.
In Washington –
Bill to give 18-year-olds 6 months training debated
Supporters of draft act amendment say it has good chance of passing
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In addition to today’s column, we will print several others which we have just received from Ernie on Okinawa. We believe he would have wanted it this way.
OKINAWA (by Navy radio) – That was one of the most miserable damn nights out of the hundreds of miserable nights I have spent in this war.
Bird Dog and Gross and I turned into our sacks just after dark. So did everybody else who wasn’t on guard. It was too early to go to sleep, so we just lay there in the dark and talked. You could hear voices faintly all over the hillside.
We didn’t take off our clothes, of course; nobody does in the field. I did take off my boots but Bird Dog and Gross left theirs on for they had to stand watch on the field telephones from 1 till 2 a.m.
The three of us lay jammed up against each other, with Bird Dog in the middle. We smoked one cigarette after another. We didn’t have to hide them under the blanket for we were in a protected position where a cigarette couldn’t be seen very far.
Like flamethrowers
Right after dark the mosquitoes started buzzing around our heads. These Okinawa mosquitoes sound hike a flame thrower. They can’t be driven off or brushed away.
I got a little bottle of mosquito lotion out of my pocket and doused mv face and neck, though I knew it would do no good. The other boys didn’t even bother.
Suddenly Bird Dog sat up and pulled down his socks and started scratching. Fleas were after him. Even the grass has fleas in it over here!
For some strange reason I am immune to fleas. Half the boys are red welted with hundreds of itchy little flea bites, but I have never had one.
Choice mosquito bait
But I’m the world’s choicest morsel for mosquitoes. And mosquito bites poison me. Every morning, I wake up with at least one eye swollen shut.
That was the way it was all night, with all of us – me with a double dose of mosquitoes, all the rest with a mixture of mosquitoes and fleas. You could hear Marines hushfully cussing all night long around the hillside. Suddenly there was a terrible outburst just downhill from us and a Marine came jumping out into the moonlight, cussing and jerking at his clothes.
“I can’t stand these damn things any longer,” he cried. “I’ve got to take my clothes off.”
We all laughed under our ponchos while he stood there in the moonlight and stripped off every stitch, even though it was very chilly. He shook and brushed his clothes, doused them with insect powder and then put them back on.
This unfortunate soul was Cpl. Leland Taylor of Jackson, Michigan. His nickname is Pop, since he is 33 years old.
Pop is a “character.” He has a black beard and even in the front lines he wears a khaki overseas dress cap which makes him stand out.
After Pop went back to bed, everything became quiet for several hours, but hardly anybody was asleep. The next morning the boys on guard said Pop must have smoked three packs of cigarettes that night. It was the same way with Bird Dog, Gross and me.
All night without even raising our heads we could see flashes of the big guns of our fleet across the island. They were shelling the southern part and also shooting flares to light up the front lines in the south.
Watch shells in flight
There were times when we could actually see red-hot shells, traveling horizontally the whole length of their flight, 10 miles away from us, and then see them explode.
Every now and then throughout the night our own company’s mortars were called upon to shoot a flare over the beach behind us, just to make sure nothing was coming In.
Once there was a distinct rustling of the bushes in front of us. Of course, the first thing I thought of was a Jap.
But then I figured a Jap wouldn’t make that much noise and finally I decided it was one of the houses the mortar boys had commandeered, crashing through the bushes. And that’s what it turned out to be.
Along about 4:30, I guess we did sleep a little from sheer exhaustion. That gave the mosquitoes a clear field. When we woke up at dawn and crawled stiffly out into the daylight, my right eye was swollen shut, as usual.
All of which isn’t a very war-like night to describe, but I tell it just so you’ll know there are lots of things besides bullets that make war hell.
The life of Harry Truman –
President, as an Army officer, gave credit where it was due
Went from National Guard to war and rapidly W on promotion – made canteen pay dividends
By Frances Burns
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Fame, fortune meant nothing to Ernie Pyle
Reporter dedicated his life to the people
By Dick Thornburg, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
Gracious, there’s a report that the Allies have captured Hitler’s personal astrologer in the Ruhr pocket. If he was any good at his trade, he probably knew he’d be a lot safer in that pocket than in Adolf’s.
This astrologer, Professor Krafft, is said to be the one who read in the stars that Hitler would rule the world. That’s just about the biggest typographical error on record.
Personally, I’m surprised that Hitler didn’t sic Himmler and the Gestapo on the stars for not collaborating with him.
Well, with his astrologer gone, about all that Hitler has left now is his intuition. My goodness, I hope we don’t capture that. It’s been doing us too much good where it is.
Pirates wind up series with Reds
Butcher hurls against strikeout king of PCL – Bucs lose second, 6-0
By Chester L. Smith, Press sports editor
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‘Is this trip–?’
Heusser poses question, does training pay?
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Too old at 77 –
Barrow turns down offer to become baseball czar
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Oberdonau-Zeitung (April 20, 1945)
Der Polenkonflikt in einem kritischen Stadium
Wachsende alliierte Gegensätze in der Polenfrage – Selbstherrlichkeit Moskaus
…
Führer HQ (April 20, 1945)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
Zwischen den Sudeten und dem Oderbruch tobt die Schlacht gegen den bolschewistischen Massenansturm mit äußerster Erbitterung. Westlich, der Lausitzer Neiße griff der Feind mit zahlreichen Schützendivisionen und acht Panzerkorps an. Im Einbruchsraum Görlitz-Bautzen-Weißwasser warfen unsere Verbände nach Westen vorgedrungene Kräfte der Bolschewisten zurück. Während heftige Angriffe beiderseits Sprembergs unter holten Verlusten für den Gegner abgewehrt wurden, konnten die Sowjets durch eine Frontlüde südlich Cottbus weiter nach Nordwesten vorstoßen und in Tarlau eindringen.
In der Schlacht vor Berlin errangen unsere tapferen Divisionen beiderseits Frankfurts einen vollen Abwehrerfolg und stellten im Gegenangriff die alte Hauptkampflinie wieder her. Bei Müncheberg und Wriezen hat sich die Lage verschärft. Trotz zäher Gegenwehr gelang es starken feindlichen Panzerkräften, aus dem Raum von Müncheberg weiter nach Südwesten und Süden bis in den Raum von Tempelburg und Buchholz vorzustoßen. Gegenangriffe sind angesetzt. Bei Wriezen war en die Sowjets neu herangeführte Verbände in den Kampf. Im Raum von Sternchen und Rötzel wird erbittert gekämpft. Nach unvollständigen Meldungen wurden in der Schlacht vor Berlin gestern erneut 226 Panzer vernichtet.
Im Süden der Ostfront gewannen Gegenangriffe südlich des Semmering gegen zähen Widerstand weiteres Gelände zurück. Bolschewistische Angriffe südöstlich St. Pölzten brachten dem Gegner nur geringen Geländegewinn.
Südlich Brünn brachen schwächere Angriffe des Feindes zusammen. Der verstärkte Druck gegen das Industriegebiet von Mährisch Ostrau blieb dank der tapferen Haltung unserer Divisionen ohne nennenswerten Bodengewinn für den Gegner.
Infolge seiner hohen Verluste griff der Feind gegen die Südwestfront von Breslau, gestern nur mit schwächeren Kräften an.
Bei Bissau hielten unsere Truppen auch gestern den Angriffen der Bolschewisten stand, nahmen eine Höhe wieder und brachten Gefangene und Beute ein.
Jagd- und Schlachtflieger vernichteten an der Ostfront weiters 83 Panzer 20 Saldengeschütze und zahlreiche Fahrzeuge. In Luftkämpfen wurden 51 Flugzeuge abgeschossen. Nach bisher noch unvollständigen Meldungen verloren die Sowjets in der Zeit vom 1. bis 19. April 2.807 Panzer.
Am Atlantik trat der Feind nach mehrstündigem Trommelfeuer und rollenden Schlachtfliegerangriffen erneut gegen die Festung Gironde-Süd au. Die erbitterten Abwehrkämpfe dauern an. Die tapfere Besatzung von Gironde-Nord wurde nach mehrtägigem heldenhaftem Kampf von starken Kräften überwältigt.
In den schweren Kämpfen im Ijssel-Bogen wurden nach jetzt vorliegenden Meldungen in der Zeit vom 1. bis 18. April 134 Panzer und gepanzerte Fahrzeuge vernichtet.
Zwischen Ems und unterer Weser nahm der Gegner seine Angriffe wieder auf. In schweren, den ganzen Tag andauernden Kämpfen erzielte er einige Einbrüche und drückte unsere Truppen in den Raum südlich Delmenhorst zurück.
Auch in der Lüneburger Heide setzten die Briten ihre Angriffe auf breiter Front fort und stießen mit Panzerrudeln bis in die Elbe-Niederung nördlich Lüneburgs vor.
An der Elbe eroberten unsere Grenadiere einige Ortschaften östlich Barby zurück und warfen südlich davon eine über den Fluss gesetzte Kampfgruppe auf das Westufer zurück.
Im Harz leisten unsere Truppen überlegenen feindlichen Kräften verbissenen Widerstand.
Während due aus engstem Raum zusammengedrängte Besatzung von Halle der Übermacht erlegen ist, hielten die in einzelne Kampfgruppen aufgespaltenen Verteidiger von Leipzig weiterhin starken Angriffen stand. Nordöstlich dauern wurden an einzelnen Stellen auf das Ostufer der Mulde vorgedrungene feindliche Kräfte über dem Fluss zurückgeworfen.
Aus dem Raum zwischen Zwickau stießen gepanzerte Kampfgruppen der Amerikaner gegen das Erzgebirge nach Süden vor. Sie wurden, wie die aus dem Raum von Hof nach Osten, Westen und Süden vorgedrungenen Kräfte, von Jagdkommandos und Eingreifreserven aufgefangen.
Unsere Angriffe in die Flau en der von Hersbruck bis Neumarkt in der Ober Pfalz durchgebrochenen Amerikaner sind in guten Fortschritten: auch zwischen Nürnberg und Ansbach sind Gegenangriffe gegen den nach Süden verbringenden Feind im Gange.
Weit vorgetriebene Panzerspitzen wurden unter Abschuss vor 17 Kampfwagen zurückgeschlagen. Die Besatzung von Nürnberg steht im Städtern in schwerem Abwehrkampf.
Zwischen Crailsheim und dem Neckar südlich Heilbronn angreifende Infanterie- und Panzerverbände blieben kurz nach Verlassen ihrer Ausgangsstellungen liegen. Lediglich westlich Schwäbisch-Hall erzwang der Gegner einen tieferen Einbruch in den Mainhardter Wald.
Nach erbitterten Kämpfen, in deinen eine größere Anzahl Panzer abgeschlossen wurde, brach eine starke feindliche Kampfgruppe in den Raum südöstlich Nagold ein und drang bis an den Neckar bei Tübingen und Rottenburg vor. Übersetzversuche über den Fluss bei Horb scheiterten. Weiter westlich drängt der Gegner auf den Gebirgsstraßen des Schwarzwaldes, im Kinzigtal in der Rheinebene südwestlich Lahr nach Süden.
An der Westfront wurden nach unvollständigen Meldungen in der Zeit vom 1. bis 18. April 1.079 feindliche ganzer abgeschossen.
An der mittelitalienischen Front lag der Schwerpunkt der Kämpfe gestern an unterem Frontbogen südlich Bolognas, beiderseits der Via Emilia und nordwestlich Argenta. Den mit starken Kräften angreifenden Amerikanern blieben trotz stärkster Artillerie- und Fliegerunterstützung wesentliche Erfolge versagt. Örtliche Einbrüche wurden in schneidigen Gegenstößen unter Abschuss zahlreicher Panzer abgeriegelt, eine nordwestlich Medicina durchgebrochene Kampfgruppe auf ihre Ausgangsstellung zurückgeworfen.
Die Insel Helgoland wurde gestern erneut von britischen Bombenflugzeugen angegriffen. Amerikanische Kampfverbände warfen Bomben auf süddeutsches Gebiet. In der Nacht waren Orte in Schleswig und die Reichshauptstadt das Angriffsziel britischer Terrorbomber.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (April 20, 1945)
FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
201100B April
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 MAIN
(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) SHAEF MAIN
(20) HQ SIXTH ARMY GP
(21) WOIA FOR OWI WASHINGTON FOR RELEASE TO COMBINED U.S. AND CANADIAN PRESS AND RADIO AT 0900 HOURS GMT.
(REF NO.)
NONE
(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR
Communiqué No. 377
UNCLASSIFIED: Allied forces in Holland occupied Harderwijk on the Zuider Zee, and reconnaissance patrols to the northeast entered Kuinre and Kampen, virtually the whole of northeastern Holland is liberated.
Defense positions, gun and infantry concentrations in the Papenburg area were hit by fighter-bombers and rocket-firing fighters. An enemy barracks at Leer was bombed by medium bombers.
The enemy has maintained his pressure on our bridgehead over the Küsten Canal but to the east we took Adelheide and closed up to the outskirts of Delmenhorst, six miles west of Bremen.
At Oldenburg, a counterattack which was forming was attacked by rocket-firing fighters. Strongpoints and troop entrenchments ahead of our forward positions in the area were hit.
East of the Aller River, the enemy suffered a decisive defeat on the Lüneburger Heide and though we are still experiencing heavy opposition inside the village of Visselhövede, our armored units advanced to within ten miles of Hamburg and are along the Hamburg-Bremen autobahn for a distance of more than 12 miles.
Rail targets between Hamburg and Bremen were bombed.
Armored columns captured Lüneburg and pushed on to the Elbe River south of Lauenburg where the enemy is offering strong opposition.
In the area 35 miles northeast of Braunschweig the enemy launched a counterattack in approximately division strength, supported by 25 tanks, halftracks and self-propelled guns. Attacking rapidly to the southeast, enemy task forces bypassed our units and penetrated 15 miles in the direction of the Klötze Forest before our forces brought the situation under control.
We repulsed two small counterattacks in our bridgehead across the Elbe River south of Magdeburg where our fighter-bombers attacked enemy armor and troop positions. South of Zerbst, in the bridgehead area, fighter bombers destroyed or damaged a large number of enemy-fortified buildings and five heavy guns.
Enemy pockets of resistance west of the Elbe River between Lüneburg and Wittenberge were hit with bombs and rockets.
In the Harz Forest Pocket, we entered Quedlinburg, Elbingerode, and Ballenstedt.
South of Dessau we are near Bobbau Steinfurth after heavy fighting. An enemy counterattack near Bitterfeld was repulsed. Our units cleared Halle, and Leipzig is almost clear of the enemy.
We reached the area of Chemnitz and our infantry entered Oberlungwitz southwest of the city. South and southeast of Hof, we cleared Schwarzenbach and Weißenstadt, and entered Pilgramsreuth and Kirchenlamitz.
Farther south, we entered Bischofsgrün and reached an area five miles northeast of Bayreuth.
Our units advancing from the west and from the east made contact eight miles south of Nuremberg to completely encircle the city. Inside Nuremberg the enemy has been driven into an area one mile square where house-to-house fighting is in progress.
Southeast of Nuremberg, our units reached Neumarkt. We captured two airfields near Furth, west of Nuremberg, and to the southwest we reached Merkendorf.
We captured a number of towns in a five-mile advance south of Rothenbürg. East of Heilbronn we captured Fichtenberg and Mittelrot.
Between Heilbronn and Nuremberg, we captured 8,101 prisoners in 24 hours including three generals, 150 firemen who were in Nuremberg defense units, and a train load of German women auxiliaries.
Tübingen, southwest of Stuttgart was captured. We hold a 20-mile stretch of the upper Neckar River and the road from Strasbourg to Tübingen, through the Schwartzwald Forest, is in our hands.
In the Maritime Alps we made additional progress in the area of the town of Briel which we captured.
Allied forces in the west captured 50,626 prisoners 18 April.
On the French Atlantic Coast, our units clearing the Gironde area continue to make progress. Additional gains have been made in the Pointe de Grave sector over flooded, marshy ground and against stubborn resistance.
Rail facilities at Falkenburg and Alserwerda; between Berlin and Dresden; at Pirna, southeast of Dresden, at Karlsbad and Usti in Czechoslovakia, were attacked by escorted heavy bombers in strength. Rail targets in the Torgau area and along a broad front southeastward to Prague were hit by fighter-bombers.
Railyards at Ulm and Neu-Ulm, an ordnance depot at Neu-Ulm, a rail bridge at Donauwörth on the Ulm-Nuremberg line, and a supply depot at Donaueschingen, 50 miles southeast of Strasbourg, were attacked by medium and light bombers. At Pasing, near München, escorted heavy bombers attacked a transformer station serving electric railways leading to the Bavarian Mountains.
Gun positions and ammunition dumps at Dunkerque were attacked by medium bombers.
Shipping on the Zuider Zee and around the Ems estuary was hit by fighter-bombers and rocket-firing fighters. Two ships were left sinking and another was damaged. Objectives on the Island of Helgoland were attacked with 12,000-pound bombs.
A number of enemy airfields were bombed during the day. In addition to many enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground, 30 were shot down in combat. According to reports so far received six of our heavy bombers and 13 fighters are missing from the day’s operations.
Targets in Berlin were bombed last night by light bombers.
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 FA4655
AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/