Smuts protests parley confusion
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The Pittsburgh Press (May 21, 1945)
Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
Well, lucky us, I understand the WPB says it’s all right to manufacturer jukeboxes and pinball machines again. I’ve been waiting three years for a washing machine but I suppose I can put the clothes in the pinball machine just as well. Maybe if they don’t come out clean the machine will light up and say “tilt.”
And what could be nicer than jukeboxes in all the restaurants again? I’ll tell you what can be nicer – a little food. I love Harry James’ records as much as anyone, but when I order “one meatball,” I’d like it to arrive on a plate.
I’ll bet my husband George will have something to say when he hears about this. I’m going to tell him just as soon as he comes back from the corner where he’s playing the pinball machine.
Kärntner Nachrichten (May 22, 1945)
Häfen und Schiffe für Europa
Bericht eines Marinekorrespondenten des Londoner Rundfunks
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Grazer Volkszeitung (May 22, 1945)
Japans Zusammenbruch ist unvermeidlich
Katastrophenpolitik wie im einstigen Nazi-Deutschland
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Neues Österreich (May 22, 1945)
Zusammenkunft Stalin, Churchill und Truman
London, 21. Mai – Der Moskauer Vertreter der Times schreibt: Es steht noch nicht fest, wann Marschall Stalin im Zuge der laufenden Staatsgeschäfte Zeit für die geplante Zusammenkunft mit Präsident Truman and Premierminister Churchill haben wird. Es besteht Grund zu der Annahme, dass das Zusammentreffen in nicht zu ferner Zukunft vor sich gehen wird.
L’Aube (May 22, 1945)
Ce qu’on pense dans les milieux officiels de Londres –
L’Allemagne sera décentralisée mais non pas démembrée
Berlin cessera d’être capitale administrative
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U.S. Navy Department (May 22, 1945)
CINCPOA Communiqué No. 370
At dusk on May 21 (East Longitude Date) about 12 to 15 enemy aircraft attacked U.S. ships in the Okinawa area. Eight of these planes were destroyed by our forces and the remainder retired from the area without causing damage.
Heavy rains and resulting mud limited the movement of armored vehicles and restricted operations in the central and western sectors of the front in Southern Okinawa on May 22. On the eastern end of the lines the advances made in the previous week by the 96th Infantry Division permitted the 7th Infantry Division to launch a night attack which carried their forward elements into Yonabaru on the left flank and around the city into the high ground overlooking Rioj Town and Itarashiku Town to the south. Reports at this time indicate that the enemy has chosen not to defend Yonabaru which has been thoroughly reduced by our gunfire and bombing. Meanwhile the 96th Infantry Division continued to attack enemy defenses southwest of Conical Hill. During early morning darkness of May 22, the Marine Division in the west repulsed a Japanese counterattack killing about 80 of the enemy. The 6th Marine Division continued to consolidate its position along the Asato River and the 77th Infantry Division conducted mopping up operations.
Carrier-based aircraft of the British Pacific Fleet bombed airfields, barracks, port installations, and buildings in the Sakishima group on May 20 and 21. One enemy plane was shot down.
Search Mariners of Fleet Air Wing One damaged two small cargo ships in the East China Sea on May 22. One the same date a search Privateer of this wing strafed a small cargo ship and left it burning south of Korea.
A small group of enemy bombers made a low-level attack on installations on Iwo Island during the night of May 21, causing a few casualties. Two enemy planes were shot down.
Liberators and Privateers of FlAirWing 18 shot down a glider, probably destroyed an enemy plane and sank two small cargo ships south of Honshu on May 21. On the following day aircraft of this wing destroyed three fishing craft and damaged a small cargo ship in the same area.
Corsair and Hellcat fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing bombed enemy installations in the Palaus and on Yap on May 21 and 22. On May 21 and during the night of May 21‑22, Mustangs of the VII Fighter Command bombed and strafed a radio station on Chichi Jima in the Bonins. Marine bombers continued neutralizing raids on the Marshalls on May 21. In mopping up operations on Iwo Island and the Island of the Marianas from May 13 through May 19, U.S. forces killed 94 of the enemy and captured 134.
Brooklyn Eagle (May 22, 1945)
U.S. halts draft of men 30 or over
Must hold useful jobs – review of disqualified in 18-25 group ordered
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U.S. troops pierce defense of Shuri
Clamp arc around besieged city – threaten to outflank Yonabaru
By William Tyree
GUAM (UP) – Reinforced U.S. troops on Okinawa besieged the fortress city of Shuri today and threatened to outflank Yonabaru in a new drive.
Vice Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner, commander of U.S. amphibious forces for the Ryukyu invasion operation, predicted Okinawa will be captured in the “comparatively near future.” He disclosed Okinawa was already being used as the base for “important attacks” against Japan.
“Every day, at this early stage, we have airplanes from Okinawa over Japan,” said Adm. Turner. “Think what it will be like month from now!”
Marines of the 1st Division and doughboys of the 77th and 96th Infantry Divisions clamped a siege arc roughly 1,000 yards outside rocky Shuri.
Yonabaru entered
In a wide semicircle the Yanks slid around Shuri along a line approximately 800 to 1,100 yards from the center of the town. The Marines fought along the west side, the soldiers along the east. Shuri’s main fortifications were pierced in some of the fiercest fighting of the Pacific war.
Patrols of the 96th Division were disclosed to have penetrated through Yonabaru, east coast port, in the deepest American drive on Okinawa.
United Press war correspondent Edward Thomas, with the 96th Division, said the patrols reconnoitered Yonabaru and later withdrew.
The 96th Division plunged west of Yonabaru in a drive that threatened to isolate Yonabaru from inland Japanese defense positions.
Maj. Gen. Roy S. Geiger, commanding the III Marine Amphibious Corps of Okinawa, said his men were “making good progress.” He acknowledged, however, that the Japanese artillery on Okinawa was “the most effective we have run into in the Pacific.”
Flaming oil sears Japs
The Japanese defenders, believed the bulk of possibly 35,000 enemy troops in the southern tip of the island, were holding their pillboxes and caves until slain by bayonets, grenades or flaming streams of oil released from ridges above.
The enemy counterattacked ceaselessly, often donning the uniforms of dead Marines and using captured American weapons in an effort to confuse U.S. Marines and infantry.
At sea, the Japanese renewed their air attacks on the American fleet off Okinawa. Thirty-five planes attacked at low level Sunday night and damaged five light warships, but 26 of the raiders were shot down.
Doughboys take fort
Infantrymen of the 77th Division north of Shuri toppled one of the citadel’s main fortifications in a surprise attack early Monday.
Plunging forward under cover of darkness, the soldiers overwhelmed and captured the fortified town of Taira-Machi, beat off a counterattack next morning and drove on to the south in the face of almost point-blank machine-gun and small arms fire.
The 96th Infantry Division outflanked Shuri from the east and was poised for a lunge westward to join up with the 1st Marine Division south or Shuri.
A junction of the two divisions would encircle Shuri, the second largest city on Okinawa, and trap its garrison.
Truman urges Lend-Lease on reduced scale
Its continuance needed, he tells Congress, to crush Japan
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Boro G.I.’s in 1st group to head for home aboard luxury planes
By I. Kaufman, Brooklyn Eagle staff correspondent
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