Stokes: Chance to lead
By Thomas L. Stokes
…
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
…
Fame, fortune meant nothing to Ernie Pyle
Reporter dedicated his life to the people
By Dick Thornburg, Scripps-Howard staff writer
…
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
…
‘Is this trip–?’
Heusser poses question, does training pay?
…
Too old at 77 –
Barrow turns down offer to become baseball czar
…
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/
U.S. Navy Department (April 20, 1945)
CINCPOA Communiqué No. 338
After a day of heavy attacks on the enemy’s fortified positions in the Southern Okinawa Sector, the XXIV Army Corps had advanced about 1,000 yards generally by the morning of April 20 (East Longitude Date). The 7th Infantry Division penetrated enemy defenses up to 1,400 yards in its zone of action near the east coast. Heavy naval guns continued to bombard enemy strong points and Marine and Army artillery supported the advancing infantry with carrier aircraft delivering close support. Most of Yonabaru Town was destroyed. The enemy resisted our attacks bitterly in all sectors of the fighting in the south.
On Ie Shima, Tenth Army troops continued to drive eastward against strong resistance from isolated enemy positions on April 20. Simultaneously, operations were began to destroy enemy forces holding Iegusugu Peak. At the end of April 18, 736 of the enemy had been killed on the island.
Patrols of the Marine III Amphibious Corps continued to cover the rugged country in Northern Okinawa on April 20 while operations against small groups of the enemy in Motobu Peninsula were continued.
In the early morning hours of April 20, several small groups of enemy aircraft approached our forces in the Okinawa Area and retired without causing damage.
The following is the complete list of ships sunk by enemy action in the Okinawa operation and the associated attacks on Japan from March 18 to April 18:
Destroyers:
- HALLIGAN (DD-584)
- BUSH (DD-529)
- COLHOUN (DD-801)
- MANNERT L. ABELE (DD-733)
- PRINGLE (DD-477)
Minecraft:
- EMMONS (DMS-22)
- SKYLARK (AM-63)
Destroyer Transport:
DICKERSON (APD-21)
Gunboat:
- PGM 18
- LST 477
- LCI (G) 82
- LCS (L) (3) 30
- LCT (6) 876
Ammunition Ships:
- HOBBS VICTORY
- LOGAN VICTORY
During the same period the following Japanese ships and aircraft were destroyed by our forces participating in the same operations:
- 2,569 aircraft destroyed
- One YAMATO-class battleship
- Two light cruisers
- Five destroyers
- Five destroyer escorts
- Four large cargo ships
- One medium cargo ship
- 28 small cargo ships
- 54 small craft
Numerous enemy torpedo boats, speed boats and other types of small craft.
Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force on April 19 bombed installations on Truk in the Carolines. On the following day, a search plane of Fleet Air Wing One sank a small sailing vessel in Truk Lagoon.
Army bombers of the 7th AAF also struck Arakabesan and Koror in the Palaus scoring hits on antiaircraft emplacements on April 19. Corsair and Hellcat fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing bombed miscellaneous targets in the Palaus and on Yap in the Western Carolines on the following day.
The Pittsburgh Press (April 20, 1945)
REDS 7 MILES FROM BERLIN
U.S.-Russian juncture indicated
Soviet tanks smash into defenses before burning Nazi capital
…
‘Salutes’ from Allied guns mark Hitler’s 56th birthday
German radio broadcasts news of defeats instead of usual speech by Fuehrer
LONDON, England (UP) – Adolf Hitler, the defeated dictator, observed his 56th, and probably last, birthday today.
There were no celebrations in his dying empire for the most hunted man in history. The only victory salutes came from the guns of Allied armies closing in on him from east and west.
Berlin, where in Hitler’s heyday the red flags with the black swastikas flew and his storm troops paraded, echoed with the artillery of the oncoming Red Army, reported only 10 miles away.
The German radio, which once boomed Hitler’s birthday speeches from Berlin, had only news of fresh defeats to offer. The re was no indication the Fuehrer would make a birthday broadcast, although a Swiss report said 21 gauleiters had asked Goebbels last week to persuade Hitler to speak for the sake of morale.
The same dispatch, quoting a Munich source, said Goebbels and Himmler had refused to act on the matter.
The Fuehrer was believed to be in his mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden, planning a “twilight of the gods” finale to his career of conquest. Some recent reports have suggested Hitler still was in Berlin, but few believed he would remain that close to the Red Army if he could help it.
A Zurich dispatch, quoting a German diplomat who supposedly left Berlin last week, said the Reich capital had been stripped for its capture. According to the report, all Nazi organizations and government offices had been evacuated to the Bavarian redoubt, where Hitler plans his last stand.
Martin Bormann, Nazi Party leader for Southern Germany including the Bavarian Alps and Berchtesgaden, warned potential deserters of sinking Germany, “whoever breaks his oath is a scoundrel. We will observe with watchful eyes.”
Expels Nazi official
Hitler himself expelled from the party a deputy gauleiter named Tesche, from the Gau area including captured Halle and Merseburg, according to a DNB report. Hitler ordered, “I degrade you and expel you from the party for the cowardly attitude expressed in your phone call. You can regain honor only by trying yourself to the utmost in immediate front service.”
In a different tone, Hitler thanked the gauleiter of Franken Province, where a few thousand Nazis made a desperate last-ditch stand in the capital of Nuremberg.
Hitler said in his message:
We are now starting a fight as fanatical as that we had in our ascent to power years ago. However great the enemy’s superiority may appear at the present moment, we will yet break it as we did in the days of old.
Split indicated
Similarly, Goebbels in his weekly article in the magazine Das Reich said, “the hour of last triumph awaits us,” but he at least tempered it by adding, “it may sound fantastic today but it is nonetheless true.”
But there were signs of a split in the propaganda line as Hitler’s henchmen made their last, desperate attempts to keep the Germans fighting. Goebbels in his article called for a “people’s war,” saying that “m the fight against the terrible aims of the enemy all means are justified and permitted.”
The German radio, on the other hand, issued what it called “important instructions” to German civilians to comply strictly with the rules of international warfare, which limit fighting only to soldiers uniformed or otherwise clearly identified.
A good job for Hitler –
SS guards bury ‘hell hole’ dead
Arrogant Nazis work under British bayonets
By Richard D. McMillan, United Press staff writer
BELSEN CAMP NEAR HANOVER, GERMANY, APRIL 20-Nazi SS Elite Guardsmen today gathered the bodies of the hundreds of inmates who died in this hellhole.
Guarded by British troops with tommy guns ready and bayonets fixed, the once arrogant guardsmen dragged the bodies from huts and hoisted them into trucks.
Hungarian prisoners of war were brought to help with mass burial. British troops had entombed hundreds of bodies from the mounds of dead the Nazis left behind.
When I visited the inernment camp today I had to stand in line with 150 or more of the Hungarians and like them be fumigated before I could pass down the lines of huts where British doctors estimate more than 300 persons - Men,
(continued on Page 4, Column 4.)
Okinawa Japs pounded from air, sea, land
Greatest offensive in Pacific underway
Heaviest offensive of the Pacific war has been launched by U.S. forces in Southern Okinawa. The Americans pushed to within 3½ miles of the capital, Naha. Tokyo reported a landing attempt southwest of Naha which would flank the capital. The Japs held only small pockets on Motobu Peninsula and Ie Island. U.S. fighters from Iwo airfields raided a Tokyo airfield (inset map).
GUAM (UP) – U.S. troops lunged to within three and a half miles north of Naha, the capital of Okinawa, in the most powerful offensive of the Pacific war today.
Radio Tokyo said other troops attempted to land on the south coast of Okinawa about eight miles southeast of Naha yesterday from a 30-ship invasion fleet, including 20 transports and several battleships.
Such a landing would outflank Naha, a city of 65.000, and clamp a pincer on its garrison of 60,000.
Smash deep bulges
Three Army divisions – possibly 45,000 men – smashed deep bulges into both flanks of the Jap line across southern Okinawa yesterday under cover of the greatest coordinated air, ship and artillery bombardment ever given American troops for the size of the target anywhere in the world.
Front reports said Americans now were less than 6,200 yards north of Naha and approaching Machinato airfield on the west coast and nearing the northern end of Yonabaru airstrip on the east coast. They were 3½ miles from the town of Yonabaru.
A hill overlooking Shuri, two miles inland from Naha, was all but cleared in the center of the line. The town of Machinato, a mile north of the airfield of the same name, was captured in the initial phases of the offensive yesterday.
Key ground won
Maj. Gen. John R. Hodge, commander of the XXIV Army Corps, said his forces had made “good gains” in the heart of the enemy’s main line of resistance. Key ground had been won, he said.
Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, commander of the Tenth Army, said the offensive was going “just about as we expected.”
“The Japs have as well an organized line as I have ever heard of anywhere,” Gen. Buckner said. “We all know that we still have to use a blowtorch and corkscrews to get them out of their caves.”
Tokyo radio said the amphibious forces attempted to land on the southern coast at Chinen and Minatokawa, 4½ to 5 miles south of Yonabaru, but were driven off.
Tokyo also claimed that Jap naval units had entered the Okinawa area and shelled two American-held airfields.
A Melbourne dispatch said the Australian Information Department intercepted a Tokyo broadcast that the Jap army and navy had launched a general attack in the Okinawas. The information department was quoted as saying that the broadcast suggested the Jap navy may have gone out for a big engagement.
While the troops were battering through the strong Jap lines on Okinawa, Army Mustang fighters from Iwo heavily raided the Atsugi airfield at Tokyo in the first large-scale fighter attack on the enemy’s capital.
Early reports listed 102 Jap planes as destroyed or damaged in the surprise attack on Atsugi yesterday. Returning American pilots said they sighted rows of from 200 to 300 Jap bombers and fighters lined up on the field.
In the raid, 21 Jap planes were shot down, 22 probably shot down, 26 destroyed on the ground and 33 damaged. A large cargo ship was also sunk off the coast and a medium-sized freighter left burning south of Tokyo.
Lt. Gen. Buckner launched the big offensive on Okinawa with elements of the 7th, 27th and 96th Infantry Divisions early yesterday.
Swarms of carrier planes and the big guns of battleships, cruisers and destroyers off shore also aided the infantrymen.
A Blue Network correspondent described the fighting on Okinawa as the heaviest of the Pacific War and “it is going to be bloodier by the moment.”
Gain on Ie Island
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz disclosed that Tenth Army troops on nearby Ie Island moved south of Iegusugu Peak, further compressing the small enemy pocket in the southeastern corner. He said the island’s airstrip was already being used by observation planes.