Japs protest sinking of relief vessel
By the United Press
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Goering’s escape reported – Mussolini may be prisoner
By the United Press
Allied armies, herding the remnants of Nazi fighting forces into a dead-end corridor of Germany for the kill, were smoking enemy ringleaders from their hideaways today.
According to various European reports, the following headliners had been captured or were being driven toward capture although Allied confirmation of these reports was lacking:
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Reich Marshal Herman Goering: Radio Moscow said the “eagle of the Luftwaffe” had escaped from Berlin by plane with a $20 million “nest egg.” Earlier, Radio Hamburg said Goering had “resigned” his command of Germany’s beaten air force because of heart trouble.
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Lt. Gen. Kurt Dittmar: The spokesman of the German High Command and widely-quoted military commentator of Radio Berlin was reported in Allied hands. A BBC broadcast today reported his capture by Allied armies in the west.
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Benito Mussolini and Roberto Farinacci: The former Duce of Italy and the former secretary of the Fascist Party were hounds and hares in today’s dispatches. Radio Rome repeatedly broadcast a Swiss agency report that Mussolini was in Allied hands at Palanza on Lake Maggiore. The Italian government did not confirm or deny the report. Another unconfirmed report located Mussolini and Farinacci in a monastery at Como after a flight from Milan. But a Zurich dispatch said Mussolini had not reached Como.
The Milan radio reported that Benito Mussolini had been arrested by customs guards at Lecco on Lake Como.
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Lt. Gen. Emil Remer: According to a British broadcast, this loyal henchman of Hitler committed suicide April 20 after his division broke before Russian pressure on the Eastern Front. Remer was credited with foiling the bomb plot against Hitler last July and was rewarded with command of a division.
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Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler: The London Evening News reported that Himmler was dead. Reports are current in London, the Evening News said, that Himmler met his end in an unknown manner. The newspaper recalled that the British recently shelled a car in which Himmler may have been riding in Northwest Germany.
Meanwhile, Radio Hamburg insisted that Adolf Hitler was leading the defense of Berlin in a “martyr’s” last stand.
And British dispatches said Rudolf Hess, an early fugitive from Nazi circles, reportedly had gone insane in captivity.
Marshal Erwin Rommel’s widow told her U.S. Seventh Army captors that the “Desert Fox” died in bed a “broken man.” Mrs. Rommel, found in her home in Herrlingen, said her late husband “knew the fight was hopeless” after he had witnessed the crushing of his Afrika Korps. She said Rommel disagreed with Hitler’s military strategy. A heart attack finished him, she said, as he apparently was recovering from shrapnel wounds inflicted by an Allied fighter pilot.
Zurich reports said King Leopold of Belgium had been taken into the southern redoubt by the Nazis.
There was growing suspicion in London that other Nazis – possibly including Hitler himself – were using the battle of Berlin to cloak their disappearance into hiding.
The usually-reliable diplomatic correspondent of Exchange Telegraph reported no definite evidence had reached London that Hitler was still in Berlin.
Patton’s men get Reds’ radio call
By Robert Richards, United Press staff writer
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47 Nazi prisons already overrun
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Medal of Honor urged for Pyle
LONDON, England (UP) – Pvt. Karl Detzer Jr. and “50 other Joes” proposed in a letter to the Army newspaper, Stars and Stripes, today that the Congressional Medal of Honor be awarded posthumously to Ernie Pyle, war correspondent recently killed on Ie Island.
Editorial: They are Americans, too
Two American soldiers have asked the U.S. government to protect their parents from terrorist shooting raids on their California home. Vandals ride by in an auto, firing into the house of the invalid father.
How can such a thing happen in this country? Well, the victims are Japanese-Americans. And there are some in this country who don’t think those people have the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and to protection by the law, as the rest of us American citizens.
Because Japan is our enemy and guilty of atrocities, some think we should take it out on these Americans of Japanese ancestry. Fortunately, they don’t try to punish Americans of German ancestry for Nazi barbarism. But they think that Japanese-Americans somehow are different.
The record shows the Japanese-American units fighting in Italy are among our finest soldiers. They have earned fair treatment for themselves and their families here at home.
Not only in justice to these fellow Americans who have proved their patriotism the hard way, but also for our own self-respect and the preservation of American ideals, our law officers must protect the equal rights of all citizens regardless of ancestry. We can’t win a war against barbarism by becoming barbarians ourselves.
Permanent peace plan must be developed, Big Four leaders warn
Foreign ministers pay tribute to Roosevelt – Europe saved by Russia, Molotov asserts
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Simms: Mutual aid pacts set off fireworks
French fear league can’t act fast enough
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
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Mexico leads fight to make Stettinius chief
Molotov’s objection delays showdown
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Truman ‘fills in’ Stalin on rejection of Poland
Question is subject of diplomatic exchanges – U.S. studies Dumbarton amendments
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Maverick gets ‘middle man’ surplus role
His agency to buy, sell, lease millions
By Roger W. Stuart, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Poll: Public wants Nazi small fry also punished
61% urge death or imprisonment
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Before he was killed on Ie Shima, Ernie Pyle, as was his habit, had written a number of columns ahead. He did this so there would be no interruptions in the column while he was getting material for more. His last column will appear tomorrow.
OKINAWA (by Navy radio) – There is one very small Marine who is as nice as he can be, always smiling and making some crack. But the boys say that in battle he doesn’t give a damn for anything.
The first afternoon I joined his company he didn’t know who I was and as we passed, he said very respectfully, “Good evening, Colonel.” I had to chuckle to myself. Later he mentioned it and we laughed about it and then he started calling me Ernie.
He was Cpl. Charles Bradshaw of Indianapolis. He is only 19, but on his third campaign in the Pacific. He’s had three pieces of shrapnel in him at various times and months later they would work out through the skin. Another one is just about to come out his finger now.
in the Marines, Cpl. Bradshaw is called “Brady” for short. Before joining the Marines, he worked on a section gang for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He usually wears one of those wide-brimmed green cloth hats instead of the regulation Marine cap.
He always carries a .45 and it has a slightly curved 25-cent piece imbedded in the handle. As he says, “To make it worth something.”
Brady found two huge photograph albums in a cave. The albums are full of snapshots of Japanese girls and Chinese girls and young Japs in uniform and of family poses. He treasured it as though it were full of people he knew. He studied it for hours and hopes to take it home with him. “Anything for a Souvenir” could be the motto of the Marines.
Prefers Okinawa to Panama
Another Indianapolis Marine I met on Okinawa was Pfc. Dallas Rhude who used to be a newspaperman himself.
In fact, he worked on our paper there, The Indianapolis Times. He started carrying The Times when he was eight, then got into the editorial room as a copy boy and kept that job till he joined the Marines.
He is a replacement; in other words, he is in the pool that fills up the gaps made by casualties. But since there have been very few casualties, he hasn’t replaced anybody yet.
Dallas spent 22 months in Panama, was home for a little while and now has been over here for four months. He says this Okinawa climate sure beats Panama.
Sentimental as anyone
Marines may be killers, but they’re also just as sentimental as anybody else.
There is one pleasant boy in our company that I had talked with but didn’t have any little incident to write about him, so didn’t put his name down. The morning I left the company and was saying goodbye all around, I could sense that he wanted to tell me something, so I hung around until he came out. It was about his daughter.
This Marine was Cpl. Robert Kingan of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He has been a Marine 13 months and over here 11 months. His daughter was born about six weeks ago. Naturally he has never seen her, but he’s had a letter from her!
It was a V letter written in a childish scrawl and said: “Hello, Daddy, I am Karen Louise. I was born Feb. 25 at four minutes after nine. I weigh five pounds and eight ounces. Your daughter, Karen.”
And then there was a P.S. on the bottom which said: “Postmaster – Please rush, My Daddy doesn’t know I am here.”
Bob didn’t know whether it was actually his wife or his mother-in-law who wrote the letter. He thinks maybe it was his mother-in-law – Mrs. A. H. Morgan – since it had her return address on it.
So, I put that down and then asked Bob what his mother-in-law’s first name was. He looked off into space for a moment, and then started laughing.
“I don’t know what her first name is,” he said. “I always just called her Mrs. Morgan!"