Love: Cornered rats
By Gilbert Love
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All skepticism vanishes –
Nazi brutalities numb the imagination
Heart of Reich vast concentration camp – slaughter ends idea only few are guilty
By Victor O. Jones, North American Newspaper Alliance
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The life of Harry Truman –
Wisdom and honesty shown in his first public office
Sponsorship of good roads campaign is cited as one of good deeds
By Frances Burns
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Pyle memorial program on air
KDKA to carry national tribute
NEW YORK (SHS) – A program dedicated to the memory of Ernie Pyle will be broadcast by NBC tonight at 11:30 EWT.
KDKA will transcribe the program and rebroadcast it at 12:15 a.m. tonight and again at 11 a.m. tomorrow.
The program will include a dramatization of Mr. Pyle’s book, Brave Men, and a number of American ballads and marching songs.
A cast of nine players under Gerald Holland, producer, will be heard on stations as far west as the Rocky Mountains and north into Canada. The same program was originally broadcast last February 17 in a series of presentations for the Treasury Department and the sale of War Bonds.
Mrs. Pyle to get $100 a week for life
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (UP) – Ernie Pyle’s widow will receive $100 per week for the rest of her life under terms of the war correspondent’s will which was filed for probate here yesterday.
Ernie, who was killed while covering the invasion of Ie Shima, named Roy F. Johnson of Stillwater, Minnesota, trustee of his estate.
In addition to Mrs. Pyle, who will receive the family home ion Albuquerque and a trust fund paying $100 per week, Ernie left $2,500 to Eugene Uebelhardt of Los Angeles. Upon agreement of Mrs. Pyle and Trustee Johnson, the will provides $5,000 each to be paid to Ernie’s father and his aunt, Mrs. Mary E. Bales, both of Dana, Indiana; Mrs. Pyle’s mother, Mrs. Myrta Siebolds of Afton, Minnesota, and Ernie’s secretary Rosamond Goodman of Washington, D.C.
Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
I think it’s reassuring that President Truman gets up at 6:30, because there probably isn’t anyone in Washington able to get up early enough to put anything over on him.
Mr. Truman is used to early rising, having lived on a farm, where the alarm clocks are running around all over the place – grunting, crowing, cackling and neighing, making the same kind of noises human beings do in nightclubs or in Congress.
I see that when Mr. Truman was walking to work early in the morning he was greeted by a taxi driver. So that’s when taxi drivers are around!
Anyway, I think our new President is setting a splendid example. Benjamin Franklin said, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
I’m glad he didn’t say “a woman.” I can still sleep late.
Major league conference –
Baseball moguls expected to defer naming new leader
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Far corners of world offer Yank soldiers trout fishing
By Johnny Mock
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Ernie Pyle story featured twice on KDKA
Ernie’s book to be dramatized
By Si Steinhauser
So that everyone may hear NBC’s dramatization of Ernie Pyle’s last book, Brave Men, KDKA will carry the broadcast at 12:15 tonight and repeat it via recording at 11 o’clock Wednesday morning.
Dick McDonagh, head of the network script department, has adapted Ernie’s story for a Words at War broadcast, featuring the column Ernie wrote about the death of Capt. Waskow on an Italian mountainside and how his men brought their dead leader’s body from the precipice and bade him goodbye. It was one of Ernie’s greatest stories.
Tonight’s – and tomorrow’s – story is in fact a repeat. It was first heard on NBC’s These Are Our Men in February. The network felt, and Manager Joe Baudino of KDKA agrees, that Ernie and his writings meant so much to America that everyone will want to hear the story again. And those who missed it will appreciate the broadcast all the more.
Tonight, from 10 to 11 o’clock, WJAS will present Memo to the Future, an expression of the common man’s hopes in the San Francisco World Conference. A Wyoming serviceman, Marine Sgt. Harry Jackson, will act as “traffic cop to the world” and direct 40 pickups from six continents. Army, Navy and Marine Corps assisted in selecting Jackson for the job. He is just back from the Pacific.
Servicemen, farmers, workmen, statesmen, scientists, entertainers will be heard. Names of many are familiar: Bette Davis, Thomas Mann, Carl Van Doren, Paul Robeson, Elmo Roper. Also heard will be a Cuban newspaperman, a housewife, a Russian soldier, a Yank in Germany, airmen, exiles, a Jap-American and spokesmen and women from Allied lands.
Don Prindle told his radio partner, Wen Niles, “I’m writing a ‘joke.’” Wen looked at him and said, “Give her my regards.”
If they can tell them that bad on the air, we can write them.
One of those “once-in-a-lifetime” impromptu programs was given at the Variety Club Sunday night. A group from the Ladies Theatrical Club gave a private dinner party for the Oklahoma cast to thank the actors for entertaining at Deshon Hospital. The group retired to the club rooms after dinner and a singfest began. A “stranger” with a fine baritone “cut in” and everyone was wondering who he was. He was Ross Graham, one of NBC’s finest singers, who was also at Deshon with a USO unit.
Fred Waring signed an unusual contract with NBC today. He will go on the air as a half-hour morning feature, 11 to 11:30 starting June 4. The return of Waring to NBC is a personal idea of President Niles Trammell of the network. He wants Fred back where he started in radio. The contract is one of the biggest any network ever signed with a dance band and most unusual in that it is being used in the morning when soap operas are under fire.
Joan Brooks’ favorite story is about her trip to Camp Croft to sing for the convalescents there. She contracted pneumonia, they put her to bed and the G.I.’s sang for her.
A Kansas City columnist, tired of hearing Harry Von Zell trying to be a comedian, cracked, “Whoever told that guy Von Zell he’s funny? Why don’t he stick to straight commercials at which he’s good?”
That’s perfect comment in our book, but Harry resents it, so this summer he’ll spend his vacation “proving I’m funny by doing comedy roles in movies.”
There are two unfunny things about that: One is a strike in Hollywood which won’t permit Harry or anyone else to make pictures. The other is the possibility that Harry will flop as an actor, and if he does, will radio still want him?
One Man’s Family will celebrate its fourteenth radio birthday with tonight’s broadcast. Author Carleton E. Morse thinks he has written the equivalent of 54 novel-length books for the program.
Tonight’s American Forum will present questions the people are asking as the San Francisco World Conference is about to start. Members of the American delegation will be asked to answer them for the radio audience.
Gabby Hayes, who wears a beard, collects shaving mugs as a hobby.
Andre Kostelanetz and his wife, Lily Pons, can sign anyone of a number of radio contracts and “write their own ticket.” A most deserved situation.
Lawrence Tibbett is writing a popular song.
Fibber and Molly McGee (the Tim Jordans) are trying to build up faith in “staying married” in Hollywood. They have been happily wed for 27 years. They’re spreading the news of other long married couples, among them the Cantors, Bennys, Burns and Allen, Fred Allens, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.
Following the Yank who boasted that he had dropped “everything but the kitchen sink” on Tokyo, then got a sink and dropped it, a radio giveaway program will give away a kitchen sink one of these nights. They’ve given everything else away.
Veterans of Pacific duty emphasize need for plasma
Army engineer says Ernie Pyle Week ‘is a great tribute to a great man’
Tuesday, April 24, 1945
Capt. and Mrs. Robert Newsome know the value of blood plasma.
As an Army nurse for 21 months in New Guinea, Mrs. Isabel Newsome saw plasma used in the treatment of diseases and burns, as well as shock.
And her husband, an engineer who has just returned from 38 months’ service in the Pacific, says: “I saw it save the lives of three of my men when our ship was attacked by a Jap suicide pilot during the invasion of Luzon.”
Could have used more
“We had enough, but we could have used more I can’t urge too strongly the need for civilians to give their blood to the Red Cross,” he continued.
Capt. Newsome, who went to the Blood Bank yesterday while visiting his wife’s family at 343 Vistaview St., Kennywood, thinks Ernie Pyle Week at the Wash Building Blood Bank is a great tribute to “a great man.”
And if people think plasma isn’t needed because the war is over, I can tell them that most of us out in the Pacific think we’ve just started to fight the Japs.
Anyway, the mopping-up operations are the worst. That’s when Ernie Pyle got killed.
Veteran of 4 campaigns
The South Dakota captain fought in the East Indies, Papua, New Guinea and Philippines campaigns and met his future bride in the summer of 1942, shortly after she had landed on New Guinea with the 171st Station Hospital.
They had their first date at a “New Year’s Eve” party January 2, 1943, and he proposed during a bombing raid.
Both win citations
I’d just spent 10 minutes telling her why she should say no when the planes came over. The ack-ack was pretty heavy and I thought we’d better crawl under the car.
But Isabel didn’t want to – she had on a white blouse, and was afraid she’d get it dirty!
They were married September 8, 1943 and have a son, Robert Jr., seven months old. Both were awarded the Presidential Citation for their work in New Guinea.
Mrs. Newsome, who took her training at Homestead Hospital, also made a plea for more Army nurses.
We had 30 nurses for 700 men, and perhaps two or three would themselves be ill with malaria. We needed more help then, and the girls who have been overseas several years should be relieved.
Words At War: ‘Brave Men’ (NBC), April 24, 11:30 p.m. EWT:
Oberdonau-Zeitung (April 25, 1945)
Schöne Abwehrerfolge im Osten und Westen
oz. Berlin, 24. April – Die gesamtmilitärische Lage ist gekennzeichnet durch erfreuliche Abwehrerfolge unserer Stoßdivisionen gegen die vorgeprellten Panzerkeile der Feinde im Süden der Ostfront und im bayrischen Raum und durch unsere Angriffserfolge am Semmering einerseits, durch eine Verschärfung der Lage um Berlin und den Vorstoß der Gegner im südlichsten Teil der Westfront.
Die Anwesenheit des Führers in der Reichshauptstadt auf dem Höhepunkt des Abwehrkampfes gibt der fanatischen Entschlossenheit der deutschen Truppen und der Berliner Bevölkerung einen unvergleichlichen Schwung. Berichte aus Berlin schildern die Härte der Kampfe, die geführt werden von Verbänden der Wehrmacht, der Waffen-SS, Alarmeinheiten, Panzer-Jagdverbänden der Hitler-Jugend und der Einwohnerschaft. Die Bolschewisten versuchten, Ihren nördlichen Offensivflügel weiter vorzutreiben mit dem Ziel der Umfassung der Reichshauptstadt. Sie drücken am ostwärtigen Havel-Ufer nach Süden und wurden von unseren Truppen abgestoppt. Bolschewistisches Artilleriefeuer liegt auf dem Spandauerforst. Der Feind versuchte weiter, unseren Sperrriegel durch einen Flankenangriff über die Havel zu durchbrechen, wurde aber durch unsere tapfere Verteidigung abgewehrt. Daraufhin stellten sie ihre Angriffsversuche wieder ein. Mit Unterstützung von Schlachtfliegern gingen sie zum Angriff auf das Gebiet von Tegel-Neuendorf und Hakenfelde-Schönewalde über. Diese Angriffe wurden von unserer Artillerie niedergeschlagen, bevor der feindliche Ansturm zum Einsatz kam. Im südlichen Vorfeld gehen die Kämpfe um die Linie Luckenwalde und Ransdorf. Der Schwerpunkt der Kämpfe lag bei Luckenwalde und an der von Zossen nach Norden Verlaufenden Reichsstraße 96. Im Südosten Berlins verteidigte unsere tapfere Abwehr den Raum bei Köpenick und im Spreeabschnitt bei Oberschöneweide.
Im Brennpunkt der Abwehrschlacht zwischen Donau und Thaya haben die deutschen Verbände den Sowjets in den letzten Tagen hohe Verluste zugefügt und den Durchbruch des Feindes in Richtung auf Znaim und das Protektorat verhindert. Innerhalb weniger Tage büßten die Sowjets 150 Panzer ein. Während die Sowjets südlich des Wienerwaldes von Nordosten und Süden Vordringen, kam der deutsche Gegenangriff südlich des Semmering weiter voran. Der Kampf ging dort in den letzten Tagen um die Ortschaften Waldbach, Mönichwald und das durch den Sitz einer nationalpolitischen Erziehungsanstalt bekannte Vorau.
Die deutschen Soldaten an der Westfront leisten nicht nur auf einer Frontlänge von 1.000 Kilometer, sondern auch in einer Fronttiefe von 1.000 Kilometer einen fanatischen und erbitterten Widerstand. Eine besondere Charakteristik unserer Kampfführung bildet der Widerstand weit hinter den feindlichen Linien. Die Ruinen-Verteidigung kostet dem Gegner viel Blut. Unsere Kampfgruppen fügen dem Feind einen Schaden zu, dessen Verhältnis zu unseren Verlusten als sehr groß zu bezeichnen ist. In Nürnberg z.B. vernichteten unsere Soldaten in den letzten Tagen noch 24 schwere nordamerikanische Panzerwagen. In Fürth, Erlangen und Magdeburg war es ebenso. Aber auch in anderen Gebieten, wie z.B. dem Harz, bewähren und bewährten sie sich als Wellenbrecher gegen die feindlichen Angriffsspitzen. Als hervorragendes Merkmal der deutschen Abwehrtaktik an der Westfront ist die Kühnheit und Schnelligkeit, mit der die deutschen Jagdkommandos ihre Angriffe gegen die Flanken des Gegners führen, hervorzuheben. Die deutschen Panzerjagdverbände tragen Ihren Namen zu Recht, denn sie, sind es, die die feindlichen Panzerrudel, die in das deutsche Hinterland vorzustoßen versuchen, regelrecht jagen und zur Strecke bringen. Die Panzerfaust, das kleine Wunderwerk der Panzervernichtung, ist die Waffe, mit der sie hart und unerbittlich zuschlagen. Immer wieder erlebt man in den verschiedenen Abschnitten der Front, dass auch die jüngsten Freiwilligen, 16- und 17-jährige, sich zu den Panzerjagdkommandos gemeldet haben, deren Taten erst später gewürdigt werden, können. In der augenblicklichen Stunde der Gefahr kennen sie nur eine Aufgabe, die Spitzen der feindlichen Panzerkeile zu zerschlagen und ihre Flanken schwer zu verwunden. Diese Aufgabe aber bildet für die Führung einen Faktor von operativer Bedeutung.
Der Großschwindel von San Franzisko beginnt
Als Auftakt Ministerbesprechungen am laufenden Band – Polenfrage ungeklärt
…
In Frontmeldungen aus Ostasien muss die amerikanische Presse eingestehen, dass die amerikanischen Angriffe bei Okinawa keine Fortschritte machen. Es gelang den Japanern, einige Ortschaften und eine Stadt zurückzuerobern. Die Berichte sprechen davon, dass der Vormarsch im Süden Okinawas auf große Schwierigkeiten stößt.
Führer HQ (April 25, 1945)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
Beiderseits der unteren Weser und im Frontbogen zwischen Elbekanal und Delmenhorst behaupteten sich unsere Divisionen bei geringen Geländeverlusten. An der Elbe rannten die Engländer und Kanadier vom Süden südlich Bremen und bis Delmenhorst an. Bei Horneburg hielten die schweren Abwehrkämpfe mit gleicher Stärke an. Die Stadt Horneburg wurde wiedergewonnen.
In der Schlacht um Berlin wird um jeden Fußbreit Boden gerungen. Im Süden drangen die Sowjets bis zur Linie Babelsberg-Zehlendorf-Neukölln vor. Im östlichen und nördlichen Stadtgebiet dauern die heftigen Straßenkämpfe an. Westlich der Stadt erreichten sowjetische Panzerspitzen den Raum Nauen. Nordwestlich Oranienburg wurde das Nordufer des Stettiner Kanals gegen starke Angriffe gehalten. Wiederholte Angriffe des Feindes auf Eberswalde führten zu Einbrüchen in südlichen Stadtteilen.
Während die Amerikaner an der Mulde und im sächsischen Raum weiter verhalten, erreichten sowjetische Angriffsspitzen die Linie zwischen Riesa und Torgau.
Im Nordteil des Bayrischen Waldes durchgebrochene amerikanische Panzerkampfgruppen erreichten Kamen und fühlten weiter nach Süden vor.
In Italien hat sich der Schwerpunkt der Schlacht durch vorgeschobene feindliche Infanterie- und Panzerverbände zwischen Miglia und Ferrara in die Po-Ebene verlagert. Angriffe der 5. amerikanischen Armee im ligurischen Küstenabschnitt und im westetruskischen Apennin blieben in der Masse vor unseren Stellungen liegen.
Starke kommunistische Bandenkräfte haben sich im kroatischen Berggelände bis Fiume vorgeschoben und stehen am Stadtrand im Kampf mit unseren Truppen.
Im Südabschnitt der Ostfront hat sich die Lage weiter gefestigt Der Schwerpunkt lag gestern bei Brünn, wo die Bolschewisten einen tiefen Einbruch erzielten. Nordwestlich Mährisch-Ostrau wurden erneute Durchbruchsversuche des Feindes zerschlagen.
Die tapfere Besatzung, von Breslau hielt wieder allen Angriffen in vorbildlicher Kampfgemeinschaft von Wehrmacht, Volkssturm und Zivilverwaltung stand. Die Festung steht seit 17. Februar gegen einen ungeheuerlichen Ansturm weit überlegener sowjetischer Kräfte.
Unsere Angriffe im Raum Görlitz-Bautzen machen weiter gute Fortschritte. Weißenberge wurde wieder vom Feind befreit. Die Bolschewisten hatten in diesen Kämpfen sehr hohe blutige Verluste. Umfangreiche Beute wurde eingebracht.
An der westnorwegischen Küste brachten Sicherungsfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine neun britische Jagdbomber zum Absturz. Bei Tage warfen schwere Kampfverbände Bomben im süddeutschen Raum. Anglo-amerikanische Tiefflieger setzten ihren Terror gegen die Bevölkerung mit Bomben und Bordwaffen fort. Nachts war Kiel das Ziel britischer Kampfflugzeuge.
Ein von Korvettenkapitän Kremer geführter Panzervernichtungstrupp der Kriegsmarine eines U-Boot-Stützpunktes vernichtete in wenigen Tagen 24 Panzer.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (April 25, 1945)
FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
251100B 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) WCIA OR 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. 382
UNCLASSIFIED: Allied forces in north Holland occupied Appingedam and cleared the whole of the coastline as far east as the mouth of the Ems Estuary.
Southeast of Bremen we captured Arbergen and Tyten. We entered Zeven, between Bremen and Hamburg, and fighting continues in the town.
Enemy strongpoints in the Bremen area were attacked by medium bombers. Gun positions and troop concentrations in the area of the Ems Estuary and around Oldenburg were hit by fighter-bombers.
Targets in the communications center of Bad Oldesloe, northeast of Hamburg, were attacked by escorted heavy bombers.
Southwest of Weiden our infantry units reached the vicinity of Vohenstrauss. In the area north of Regensburg we captured Schwandorf and Burglengenfeld.
Other units in the area north of Regensburg reached the vicinity of Roding and entered Nittenau. Several bridges were captured intact across the Regen River in the course of these operations.
To the west our forces entered Lauterbach and Beratzhausen and reached the vicinity of Thumhausen, four miles west of Regensburg and three miles from the Donau River.
In a rapid advance to the southeast our armored elements reached the vicinity of Arnetsried, three miles northwest of Regen and 35 miles from the Austrian border.
South of Nuremberg, our armor and infantry advanced up to ten miles on a broad front to within seven miles of the Donau. Forces in this area were within 13 miles of units pushing downstream from the Dillingen bridgehead. Our hold south of the river at Dillingen was expanded to a width of ten miles and a depth of six miles.
The 500-square-mile pocket south of Stuttgart is being steadily reduced.
Ulm was captured by units making simultaneous thrusts from the northwest and from the southwest. Units advancing from the north reached the city in a drive of 15 miles.
Twenty miles to the south, our forces advanced 25 miles eastward to reach the Iller Canal.
Additional penetrations were made into the Schwartzwald Forest Pocket. another crossing of the Rhine River, at Kems, put our forces within eight miles of Basel, Switzerland.
Allied forces in the west captured 39,089 prisoners 23 April.
An airfield at Flensburg; road and rail traffic in the Berlin area and from Eggenfelden, southeast of Landau, to Praha; strongpoints in Dillingen; airfields at Augsberg, Landsberg and München; railyards at Ingolstadt, Landau, Plattling and in Czechoslovakia and the Donau River Valley were attacked by fighter-bombers. Many enemy aircraft were destroyed or damaged on the ground.
An oil depot near Sschrobenhausen, northeast of Landsberg, was attacked by medium and light bombers.
Eight enemy aircraft were shot down during the day. According to incomplete reports, two of our medium bombers and ten of our fighters are missing.
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 25, 1945)
CINCPOA Communiqué No. 343
A general advance was made by troops of the XXIV Army Corps on Okinawa on April 24 (East Longitude Date) resulting in the capture of Kakazu Town in the center and an important strongpoint at Hill 178 on the left flank. Our ground forces were supported by heavy naval gunfire and low-level attacks by aircraft of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. Enemy defenses at Tanabaru were in process of being reduced as Army troops continued to advance on April 25.
Marines of the III Amphibious Corps continued to patrol northern areas of the island on April 24 and 25.
As of 0600 on April 25, United States soldiers and Marines on Okinawa and surrounding islands had killed 21,269 of the enemy and had taken 399 prisoners of war. A total of 115,279 civilians have come under jurisdiction of U.S. Military Government authorities.
At the end of April 22, 889 soldiers of the XXIV Army Corps and 257 Marines of the III Amphibious Corps had been killed in action on Okinawa. A total of 4,879 officers and men of the XXIV Army Corps were wounded and 289 were missing. The III Amphibious Corps suffered 1,103 wounded and had 7 missing.
Carrier aircraft of the U.S. Pacific Fleet attacked airfield installations on islands of the Sakishima group on April 24.
Search planes of Fleet Air Wing One destroyed a small cargo ship, sank six fishing craft, sank a whaling vessel and damaged a small cargo ship in the water east of Kyushu on April 24.
On April 24 and 25, Corsair and Hellcat fighters of the 4th MarAirWing attacked targets in the Palau and Marine bombers and fighters struck runways and other installations on Yap in the Western Carolines.
The following are enemy killed and taken prisoner during mopping up operations on Iwo Island and islands of the Marianas and Palaus during the week of April 15 to April 21 (inclusive):
| Killed | Prisoners of war | |
|---|---|---|
| Iwo | 360 | 246 |
| Saipan | 4 | 7 |
| Tinian | 38 | |
| Guam | 38 | 21 |
| Peleliu | 6 |