End of Civilian Defense June 30 ordered by Truman
President withdraws $369,000 budget, cites need for state, local units
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Full surrender may be delayed
By Paul Ghali
BERN, Switzerland – The disappearance of Adolf Hitler from the political scene at this juncture – no matter by what means – is taken generally here as indication of the failure of any attempt at general German capitulation, thought it may precipitate local surrenders on the part of German Army generals.
The end of the war is no longer estimated in terms of hours, as did the more optimistically-minded over the weekend, but rather in days.
Some of Switzerland’s less pessimistic souls today voice undisguised joy at the latest report of Hitler’s demise. But the general belief that this most malevolent figure of modern history still lives despite the German radio’s efforts to convince the world otherwise seems at long last to be the boomerang of Nazi propaganda, which for so many years has outdone itself in building the Hitler legend.
Members of the German legation and consulates here now openly admit that the war’s end approaches. All employees of the Nazi foreign service in Switzerland yesterday received three months’ salary in lieu of notice. Many are already job-hunting.
Hitler’s on trip, astrologist says
NEW YORK (UP) – Astrologist Helen Paul read of Adolf Hitler’s reported death, checked over the same horoscope Der Fuehrer used to use, and decided that “it couldn’t be so.”
The charts showed Hitler left Germany last week on a long journey, Mrs. Paul said. The charts didn’t name the destination.
$7 billion cut in war spending requested by Truman
Shipbuilding curtailment, end of OCD, slashing of budgets recommended
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Hitler death news results in skepticism
If true, it may have little effect
WASHINGTON (UP) – This capital calmly awaited the unfolding of events today to show whether the German radio report of Adolf Hitler’s death is true and how the alleged succession of Adm. Karl Doenitz will affect the supposed surrender negotiations.
Though there has been no official comment as yet, the general opinion is that German disintegration is now so nearly complete that even if the Nazis are telling the truth, it will make little difference at this stage of the war.
Consequently, there is little tendency to rejoice over the news of Hitler’s death, just a general feeling of relief that the world is well rid of him – if he is really dead.
Voices skepticism
The general skepticism felt throughout the Allied world was expressed here by Sen. Edwin C. Johnson (D-Colorado), a member of the Senate Military Affairs Committee.
“I’d suspect the report and would like to see the body,” Mr. Johnson said. “I don’t believe those darn hounds at all. They might pull anything.”
Important questions arise if Doenitz really has taken command of the German nation. One is whether he will attempt to make new contacts with the Allies. Another is the question of how serious he can be about continuing the fight in view of the rapid overrunning of the Reich by Allied Armies.
Where is Himmler?
A third question is what has happened to Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler, who was reported to be conducting surrender negotiations with the Allies.
The possibility was not overlooked that Himmler, if he is in control in Germany, might have staged the whole show in keeping with his purported promise to deliver Hitler’s body as a token of good faith. Doenitz could be a figurehead set up to carry out the actual capitulation.
There were divergent views expressed on Doenitz himself. Military observers believed he might have been chosen because he was the strongest possible leader and that he might continue to lead a last-ditch stand in Denmark, Norway and the German ports.
Strong party man
These observers pointed out that Doenitz was recognized as a strong Nazi Party man. At the same time, they said, he was the only German commander who had not been thoroughly whipped. His U-boats were reported increasingly active after the first of this year.
However, it was felt at the State Department that despite Doenitz’s rise to top rank through his espousal of Nazism he still thinks like old-line German High Command military men. This would make him a possible choice to lead a peace move in keeping with the High Command’s suspected desire to save what it can from the ruins.
One theory advanced at the State Department to explain Doenitz’s getting control rather than Himmler is that Doenitz “just happened to be there” at the right time and decided to take over.
May be hoax
This could portend a scrap between Doenitz and the men behind him with Himmler and his Nazi adherents, presumably including what remains of the Gestapo and other Nazi groups.
The possibility is also seen, however, that the whole affair is a hoax designed to cover Hitler’s whereabouts and plans and confuse the Allies on the question of ending hostilities.
New Fuehrer cried ‘Kill! Kill!’ when he bossed U-boat crews
Adm. Doenitz devoted most of his 53 years of life to fanatical slaughter
LONDON, England (UP) – Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz, self-announced successor to Adolf Hitler as Nazi overlord of dying Germany, ended the last war as an inmate of a British insane asylum and emerged in this one with the fanatical credo “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Doenitz scuttled and abandoned the submarine he commanded during a battle in the Mediterranean in October 1918. Then he surrendered to the British.
Taken to England, he was committed to the Manchester Insane Asylum. Some who knew him said he feigned insanity. But he was later repatriated to Germany as insane.
Veteran at killing
In this war, Doenitz sent his U-boat crews into battle with the cry:
Kill! Kill! Kill! That is your duty to the Fatherland and Der Fuehrer. Have no humanity in your labor. Humanity means weakness.
His record shows no signs of humanity and few of weakness. Most of his 53 years have been devoted to the art of killing. It was he who ordered U-boat crews to strafe the survivors of torpedoed ships as they tried to escape in lifeboats.
Doenitz is a navy man who hates ships, and his whole life has been centered on means of sinking them. His ruthlessness brought him quick favor from Hitler, who raised him from commodore to grand admiral in four years.
Hair close-cropped
Doenitz is a small, mean man with a tight jaw and close-set, shrewd eyes. He has close-cropped hair, a severe mouth, long nose and overhanging eyebrows.
Although he never was known particularly as an ardent Nazi, Doenitz has served their cause well. His last known public statement of prominence was on the occasion of the attempt on Hitler’s life last July. Doenitz condemned the plotters as “a small clique of mad generals” who would be destroyed ruthlessly.
Doenitz rated as one of the great German heroes of this war in the eyes of the German people because of the U-boat campaign against Allied shipping. Even when his submarines weren’t doing very well, the Germans never knew that for the Nazi high command communiqué still told of one success after another for them.
Suffered defeat
The new Nazi master ultimately suffered defeat in his attempts to blockade Britain by cutting the lifelines across the Atlantic. But he came perilously close to success sometimes, and the battle against the U-boats was one of the toughest the Allies ever fought.
Doenitz invented the wolfpack method of U-boat warfare, teaching his submarine skippers to travel in pairs or packs in their attacks against Allied convoys. He developed many new devices for submarines, including the long-range radio communication by which he directed their activities from his headquarters in France.
Doenitz was given charge of the German Navy’s submarine service in 1935, when Germany’s rearmament was still under cover. Under his supervision submarines were built in parts and packed in crates, ready to be assembled when the Versailles Treaty finally was flouted openly.
Succeeded Raeder
He became commander-in-chief of the German Navy in 1943, after a battle with the man he replaced, Grand Adm. Erich Raeder. Oddly enough, Doenitz protested against Gestapo and Storm Trooper activities at U-boat bases.
Doenitz also accused Raeder of falsifying the reports of Allied sinkings, a practice that did not noticeably cease when he took over.
Doenitz was born in the Baltic Province of Mecklenburg in 1892, the son of an engineer. He entered the navy as an ensign when he was 18.
It was Raeder, the man whose job he ultimately stole away, who persuaded Doenitz to remain in the navy after the war. He became a U-boat commander at 35, and reached the rank of captain in 1939. After a brief term as commodore, he became a rear admiral the same year. He was made a grand admiral when he became commander-in-chief.
Lost two sons
Doenitz has lost two sons in this war. The elder, Klaus, was killed when a British destroyer attacked a German motor torpedo boat in May 1944. Peter, the younger, was an officer aboard one of his father’s U-boats. He was killed in March of last year in the Atlantic.
Over Doenitz’s desk at his headquarters in Kiel hung the picture of Adm. Tirpitz, German naval commander in the First World War and like himself a past master at sea war without rules. An inscription on the Tirpitz picture says “die tat is alles” – “the acting is everywhere.”
Just before this war began, a German submarine reportedly was detected in the English harbor of Portland. A British destroyer dropped depth charges, and the U-boat surfaced. The commander apologized for being out of bounds. The admiralty later learned Doenitz was also aboard.
He was hiding in the torpedo room.
Brain of Duce ‘very ordinary’
Remains examined by Milan professor
By Aldo Forte, United Press staff writer
MILAN, Italy – Doctors said today that Benito Mussolini, the extraordinary dictator, had a very ordinary brain.
“His brain showed no special traits,” said Prof. Mario Cattabeni, director of the University of Milan Medical Institute.
Cattabeni said only one third of the brain was left after the Milan mob had finished kicking in Mussolini’s head.
Cattabeni said:
What remains in our hands, namely the top section, shows no particular anatomic or pathologic difference which might classify him as either genius or maniac. However, the brain will be preserved for possible future examination.
Cattabeni, who made the first autopsy on Mussolini’s body, said the dictator was an exceptionally healthy man for his age. He showed no symptoms of either cancer or ulcers, despite frequent rumors that he suffered one or the other. Nor were there any signs of paresis, another affliction often attributed to him.
Cattabeni said:
For a man of his age and considering the amount of work he did his health was perfect. His lungs, heart, and liver all were in excellent shape. If he hadn’t met the fate he did, he would have lived to 100 years.
Jubilant but dubious – that’s reaction of British
U.S. soldiers in London howl with joy until they realize war’s not over yet
LONDON, England (UP) – Morning newspapers today generally “greeted” the reported death of Adolf Hitler and bannered the news in the largest type used since President Roosevelt’s death.
The Daily Express, however, went a step further with a three-column box headed “Obituary.” It said:
The Daily Express rejoices to announce the report of Adolf Hitler’s death. It prints today every line of information regarding the manner of his death.
Deeds well known
It wastes no inch of space on his career. The evil of his deeds are all too well known. It gives no picture of the world’s most hated face. It records that Hitler was born Schickelgruber at Braunau, Austria, April 20, 1889. and his days upon the earth he sought to conquer were too long.
The British people were jubilant over the report, although a number still were skeptical that Hitler had died. When a group of Cockney youths as asked what they thought, one replied: “I don’t believe it.” Another insisted that “He’s halfway to Stockholm by now;” while a third said “It’s a pity a British housewife couldn’t have given it to him – that would have been a real show.”
Howl with joy
American soldiers howled with joy when the report was announced at the Rainbow Corner Red Cross Club. Cpl. Charles Cummings of Omaha, Nebraska, was the first to hear the news.
He said:
I grabbed the mike and shouted: “Hitler’s kicked the bucket. Adm. Donuts has taken over.”
I don’t think they heard that last part. They really howled. In about 15 minutes they subsided – I guess they realized the war wasn’t over yet and they wouldn’t be catching no boats tomorrow.
Hitler’s death not worth an extra in Rome
ROME, Italy (UP) – The German announcement of Adolf Hitler’s death caused remarkably little excitement in Italy, once a co-partner in the Axis.
Newspapers were not printing because of the May Day holiday and publishers told the United Press that “Hitler’s death is not worth an extra or publication on an off-day.”
“We are waiting for the German surrender, nothing else,” one publisher said.
U.S. diplomatic quarters were skeptical of the report.
U.S. forces only 1½ miles north of Naha
Strong Jap defenses pierced on Okinawa
GUAM (UP) – U.S. armored forces punched through strong Jap defenders on Southern Okinawa today to within a mile and a half of Naha, capital of the island.
The drive southward along the west coast by the 27th Infantry Division paced a general advance of American troops on a five-mile front across the island.
On the east coast, troops of the 7th Infantry Division pushed to the northern end of strategic Yonabaru Airfield and other elements of the same division stormed into Kuhazu village on a hill overlooking the coastal side of the airfield.
Near Shuri
At the same time, tank units of the 96th Infantry Division, moving down the center of the island, approached Shuri, Okinawa’s second largest city three miles northeast of Naha.
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s aerial forces raided enemy installations in the Sakishima Islands, southwest of Okinawa, and in the Northern Ryukyus.
The Sakishimas were hit both Sunday and Monday by carrier planes which exploded ammunition dumps, wrecked radio facilities and destroyed several Jap aircraft on the ground.
Blast four ships
Four Jap cargo vessels were sunk or damaged in shipping attacks through the East China Sea, along the Ryukyus to Miyake Island south of Tokyo.
Adm. Nimitz also disclosed that Army Mustang fighters had escorted Superfortresses in a previously announced attack on Tokyo Monday. The Mustangs probably shot down one Jap plane and set fire to three picket boats off the coast.
A Tokyo broadcast claimed that a Jap “submarine unit” sank two unidentified Allied warships yesterday south of Oki-no-Daito, about 125 miles southeast of Okinawa.