America at war! (1941–) – Part 5

2146

126 Jap planes blasted in battle

Marines land on two isles off Okinawa

GUAM (UP) – U.S. aerial forces destroyed or damaged 126 Jap planes and six ships in two days of battles along an 850-mile front from Japan to the Southern Ryukyus.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced the heavy toll of Jap aircraft today. He also revealed that U.S. Marines had landed on two more islands off Okinawa and disclosed that Army troops had killed 11,738 Japs and captured 27 on Southern Okinawa.

The Jap planes, of which 105 were destroyed, were accounted for by Mustang fighters from Iwo and carrier planes from the U.S. task force in the Ryukyus. In addition, a large force of B-29 Superfortresses from the Marianas may have destroyed many others in a raid on Kyushu’s airfields.

Flying a 1,500-mile roundtrip mission from Iwo, the Army Mustangs destroyed or damaged 47 planes in an attack yesterday on Suzuka Airfield, 32 miles southwest of Nagoya on the principal Jap home island of Honshu.

Of the planes destroyed, nine were shot down and 17 wrecked on the ground. The others were damaged or probably destroyed. The Mustangs also swept over Ise Bay, south of Nagoya, to sink two small oilers, one small tanker and a 6,000- to 8,000-ton ship and damaged one coastal vessel.

Carrier planes shot down 49 planes from a “substantial” Jap force which attacked American ground and naval forces in the Okinawa area yesterday afternoon. The Japs succeeded in sinking one light fleet unit, Adm. Nimitz said. Further identity of the craft was not disclosed. The raid followed one on a smaller scale Saturday night, when four Jap planes were shot down.

Other carrier aerial forces extended the offensive against Jap airfields at Amami in the Northern Ryukyus to the fifth consecutive day Sunday.

The last two days on Amami, 16 enemy planes were shot down and 10 others destroyed on the ground. A small cargo ship was also hit east of the Ryukyus and left burning and dead in the water.

Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay’s Marianas-based Superfortresses raided airfields on Kyushu, southernmost of the Jap home islands, yesterday for the second time in 24 hours in an attempt to knock out the sites from which the Japanese have been attacking Okinawa.

Five airfields, including two never hit before, were raided by the big B-29s, all of which returned safely to their bases.

Elements of the Marine III Amphibious Corps occupied Taka Banare Island, east of Okinawa, and seized half of Sesoko Island, west of Motobu Peninsula on Okinawa yesterday.

Bitter fighting continued on Southern Okinawa north of the capital city of Naha for the fourth straight day and Adm. Nimitz said there had been little changes in the American positions.

2147

WLB approves mine contract

Final action due after price study

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2148

Allies in Italy reach Po River

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2149

I DARE SAY —
‘You stepped out of a cloud’

By Florence Fisher Parry

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2150

U.S. moves to halt meat bootlegging

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2151

Ernie’s friends fill blood bank

Pay him tribute he would have liked
Monday, April 23, 1945

Ernie Pyle’s friends are paying him the kind of tribute he would have liked this week.

They are giving a pint of life-saving blood to the Red Cross Blood Bank in the Wabash Building. On Saturday, even before the official Ernie Pyle Week began, they gave the Blood Bank its best Saturday in a month.

This morning at 10 o’clock, all the places were filled with donors, most of whom were giving their blood as a memorial to the well-loved little writer who now lies in an Army cemetery on a Pacific island.

Always read him

Several of the donors were workers at the Pittsburgh Pipe and Coupling Company in Allison Park.

“I always read him,” said Earl J. Hanlon of Gibsonia, who was giving his seventh donation in memory of Ernie Pyle. With him were John Holland and George Hubal of the Same company, who gave their sixth and fifth donations.

Mrs. Lorraine Cole of Wexford came in early to give her fifth pint of blood to honor Ernie. Her son, Sgt. John Cole, was in the Okinawa invasion, his fifth in two years overseas. He met Ernie just a day or two before his death, according to a letter which the Coles received last week.

“He is such a little fellow, and he has a wonderful grin,” wrote Sgt. Cole. “He is rated tops with everyone out here.”

His favorite writer

Mr. and Mrs. Cole have three other sons, Renald, Robert and Richard, all in the Navy, and a foster son, John Cawigan of Brooklyn, who is also on Okinawa. Mr. Cole, general manager of the Kelley-Koett X-Ray Corporation, will come to the bank this week to give his fourth donation.

“He was my favorite writer. If I didn’t read anything else, I read his column,” said James Kelly of Fair Oaks, who gave his second pint of blood as a tribute to Ernie Pyle this morning.

A veteran of 23 months in Iran with an Army motor transport unit, Les Williamson, 151 Straw Ave., Bellevue, gave his first donation to the Red Cross Blood Bank today in honor of the war correspondent who was the common soldier’s friend and interpreter.

Made up his mind

“I saw it in The Press yesterday and that made up my mind,” said Louis Stover, 42 Waldorf St., a worker at Dravo, who visited the Blood Bank this morning for the second time.

Other admirers of Ernie Pyle who wish to help save the life of a wounded soldier as a tribute to the writer’s memory may make an appointment by calling the Blood Bank, GRant 1680, or may come into the Wabash Building any time after 9:45 a.m.

2152

Resistance light on Mindanao

Yanks push rapidly toward Davao

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2153

Supreme Court upsets treason case

Charges insufficient to warrant conviction

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Americans execute German for espionage

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2154

45,000-ton carrier to be launched Sunday

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2155

Stettinius, Eden again confer with Molotov

Foreign ministers discuss Poland

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Simms: Delegates wonder if Stalin is bluffing

May be trying to get Allies to back down
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

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2156

Perkins: Warring AFL, CIO ready to give world peace advice

But, of course, they can’t agree on just what’s the best way to achieve it
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

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2157

‘United nations’ conference held by Jap ambassadors

By the United Press

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2158

Americans and Russians make contact by radio

Yanks find Red soldiers talk just like G.I.’s – voices of Soviet troops becoming louder
By Robert Vermillion, United Press staff writer

WITH U.S. TROOPS, beyond the Elbe (April 22, delayed) – The Americans and Russians made contact deep in Germany today – by radio.

Hour by hour, the Russian voices have become louder and plainer. And the Russians have heard us, but are not yet sure they believed us.

The first contact was made this afternoon after a liberated “liaison” officer named Prissjaschnjun broke in several times and called the Russians.

“Who are you? Identify yourself and your commanding officer,” came back the answer.

Contact fades

Prissjaschnjun was trying to figure out the answers when the radio contact faded.

That was the first time the advance U.S. and Russian forces talked with each other, although the Yanks have been listening to the exchange of messages among Soviet troops.

And the astonishing thing to every Doughboy who can understand 10 words of Russian is that the Soviet G.I.’s sound just like American G.I.’s.

A dozen or more men can be found clustered around every vehicle which can muster a translator.

‘Talking just like us’

“Whadda they say now, Joe?”, the G.I.’s demand when they hear the Russian voices.

The translator bends over his set, combs out the static and relays the play-by-play:

“They’re talking just like us. One of the guys is telling Ivan ‘Hey, wake up,’ and Ivan’s telling him ‘All right, all right, I’m awake.’”

Then the translator waits awhile until the Russians start talking again.

Gives translation

That’s a couple of code names talking to each other – you know like “Blackjack Red from Blackjack: Power six wants to know how close you are to objective Haddock.”

The G.I.’s smile in amazement.

“Well, whaddya know – just like us.”

No longer do they feel they are about to meet men from Mars.

Reconnaissance elements, with Russian-speaking G.I.’s, are already poised to follow up that radio contact and the 329th Infantry Regiment is getting a task force ready to follow the reconnaissance.

Junction imminent

Although the closest approach of the Russians to the Ninth Army is still uncertain, everything indicates the junction should be imminent.

The 329th Infantry’s reconnaissance and intelligence platoon, which is standing by to slash from the bridgehead toward the Russians, is headed by Lt. Sam Magill of Ashtabula, Ohio.

It is the same outfit which brought in 20,000 Germans from south of the Loire River last autumn.

2159

Pearson story denied

PARIS, France – Allied Supreme Headquarters has officially denied a report that U.S. troops reached the outskirts of Potsdam and then withdrew because of an agreement to permit Russian troops to enter Berlin first. Washington columnist Drew Pearson made the assertion Saturday night.

2160

Japs practice cannibalism on war dead

Eat bodies of Yanks, Aussies in Guinea
By Frank H. Bartholomew

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Japs get lessons in cannibalism

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2161

Allies push north from Bologna

U.S., British tanks near Po River

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2162

Editorial: Germany destroys herself

The great day of Allied entry into Berlin has come. To the south, a meeting of the armies of Russia and the Western Allies is imminent, if it has not already occurred. But the time for rejoicing is not yet. V-E Day is postponed. Gen. Eisenhower warns that it may not come until summer.

This may be an overly-cautious prediction. But even to us civilians at home, it is obvious that there is a big military job yet to be done.

Not that it is an orthodox military job remaining. By all the rules of warfare the German armies are beaten beyond any hope of recovery. In most places, particularly in the west, there is no organized front. No amount of Nazi skill, courage or fanaticism can reorganize those armies for they have been decimated by death and surrender until only remnants are left, and those lack the supplies and communications essential to major warfare.

Instead of stopping the war under these hopeless conditions, however, the Nazi authorities choose destruction. Hitler, or whoever speaks for him, has ordered isolated pockets, ports and cities to hold out until death. He has called upon the “faithful” behind Allied lines to carry on guerrilla warfare.

Neither Hitler nor Marshal Stalin nor Gen. Eisenhower can know how long it will take the Allies to clean up such a sticky situation, though all know that the final result is inevitable. Hitler’s written order for guerilla warfare, captured by the British, says: “We have to adopt the same method taught us by the Russians in the years 1942-44.” But the German soldier has neither the “partisan” training of the Russian, nor the morale.

While the Nazi tactics of desperation postpone Allied victory, they also hasten and complete the destruction of a large part of Germany. And, in the long view, the latter is more significant.

What is happening is that the Nazi suicide stand is imposing a form of suicide on the German people. Those who have followed Hitler all these years even at this late date lack the will. or power, to defy him in order to save themselves and their cities.

Whether it is called mass paralysis or insanity, or simply muss stupefaction, the defeated German people are imposing upon themselves and their land a retribution more terrible than ever contemplated by their enemies. Berlin is now added to the long list of German cities virtually wiped out.

They will be a heritage of suffering for Germans yet unborn. For when V-E Day comes there will be no surcease for Germans. Even if the entire Allied effort after European victory were devoted to German relief, many years would be required to establish a minimum basis for civilized existence. Actually, the European allies will be busy rebuilding their own lands, and the United States at least will be concentrating on winning the Pacific war.

Altogether apart from reparations – and these will be heavy – the German people have created conditions in their country which condemn them to a bondage of misery. Every day they continue the war, they project that self-imposed suffering further into the future. They think they are hurting us, though they are destroying themselves.

2163

Editorial: Lest we forget

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2164

Edson: Truman appraisal by those who worked with him

By Peter Edson

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2165

Ferguson: Ties to the Old World

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

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