Großangriff auf Osaka
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L’Aube (June 16, 1945)
Les dernières défenses d’Okinawa croulent
Dans le sud d’Okinawa, les alliés ont déclenché l’attaque générale contre les derniers Japonais retranchés dans la presqu’ile d’Oruku. On peut s’attendre à la chute de l’ile dans un proche avenir.
Après la perte d’Okinawa, la Japon trouvera soumis aux attaques alliées aéronavales partant d’une base assez rapprochée des grandes iles métropolitaines.
Brunei, port de Bornéo tombe aux mains des Australiens
Les forces australiennes se sont emparées de la ville et du port de Brunei. Elles ont progressé dans l’ile de Labuan.
On annonce des avances substantielles des forces alliées, à Luçon et à Mindanao.
Eisenhower a quitté Paris
« Si les Alliés savent rester unis, déclare-t-il nous aurons gagné la paix »
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Von Ribbentrop est arrêté à Hambourg
Von Ribbentrop a été arrêté dans la zone britannique, à Hambourg, par un lieutenant anglais.
Lors de son arrestation, Ribbentrop avait sur lui trois lettres, dont une adressée à M. Churchill, la seconde à M. Anthony Eden et la troisième au maréchal Montgomery. Une boite de poison a été également trouvée en sa possession.
Von Ribbentrop a été transféré à Francfort-sur-le-Main où il a été soumis à un long interrogatoire.
Les Trois Grands se réuniront à Berlin
Londres, 15 juin – C’est a Berlin que les « Trois Grands » tiendront leur prochaine conférence, annonce ce soir l’agence Reuter.
C’est une lettre adressée par M. Attlee à M. Churchill qui a révélé le lieu où se tiendrait la conférence des « Trois Grands ».
San Francisco –
Le président Truman prononcerait le discours de clôture
Washington, 15 juin – Dans les milieux diplomatiques de Washington, on pense que le président Truman pourra se rendre, vers la fin de la semaine prochaine, à San Francisco pour prononcer le discours de clôture de la conférence des Nations Unies. De là, le président rapportera le texte de la Charte des Nations Unies, à Washington, où il tâchera de la faire ratifier, le plus tôt possible, par le Sénat.
On déclare dans les milieux bien informés qu’il n’est pas impossible que le Sénat américain soit la première assemblée à ratifier la Charte des Nations Unies.
The Pittsburgh Press (June 16, 1945)
FIRE RAINS ON DIEHARD JAPS
Tank treads run down foe on Okinawa
Landing nearer Japan in offing, Tokyo says
GUAM (UP) – American artillery and flame-throwing tanks annihilated hundreds of Japs in a 10-square mile dead end pocket of Southern Okinawa today. Tokyo reported U.S. forces appeared to be preparing for possible new landings in the Ryukyus.
Enemy troops acknowledged defeat with sporadic, suicidal charges into withering fire from U.S. Tenth Army troops.
“There are so many targets that we cannot kill all the enemy we find exposed,” a 7th Infantry Division staff officer told United Press writer E. G. Valens.
Extend patrols
Radio Tokyo said American naval units have extended patrols 110 miles northeast of Okinawa to Amami Island, only 185 miles south of Japan, in preparation for possible fresh operations against the “Japanese homeland.”
U.S. artillery guns raked the entire Jap death fortress, now approximately three miles wide and three miles long.
Officers estimated there are probably thousands of enemy soldiers dead or dying in their own territory – victims of artillery bombardment, aerial rocket firing and incendiaries, oil bombs, naval shelling, mortars and rifle fire.
May end this weekend
Final victory on Okinawa may come this weekend, certainly within a week, U.S. officers said. The Tenth Army has captured nearly half the southern plateau. Flamethrowing tanks advanced ahead of the infantrymen. crushing Japs beneath their treads.
Enemy broadcasts reported what were described as “significant developments” in the Okinawa area.
The Japs regard Amami, like Okinawa and the remainder of the Ryukyu Island chain, as part of their homeland.
Tokyo said it was also “especially noteworthy” that the number of fully-laden American cargo ships and landing craft in the American-held Kerama Islands Just west of Okinawa had increased suddenly.
Use two harbors
Light American surface craft have been using Naha Harbor on the southwest coast of Okinawa and Unten Harbor, farther north, even longer, Tokyo said. It estimated rapidly-growing American air strength in the Okinawa area at 1,000 planes, including 400 on new land bases and the remainder on carriers.
Everything seems to indicate, Tokyo said, that American bases on Okinawa were being “steadily perfected for full-dress operations.”
Another Tokyo broadcast said defenses were growing with “amazing speed” on Southern Kyushu closest part of Japan proper to Okinawa. “Two and three-way defenses” have been built at all possible places, Tokyo said.
Voices optimism
Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, commander of the Tenth Army, told newsmen on Okinawa that the conquest of the island was complete except for the final destruction of the last “few thousand” Japs on the southern tip.
“I can’t see how this can last a week longer as things look now,” he said. “We are now down to a cut and dried job of killing them off.”
One of his divisional commanders said final victory may come within the next 24 hours.
Gen. Buckner disclosed that the original American estimate of 60,000 to 80,000 Japs on Okinawa had been raised to 85,000 and indicated that his men had already killed nearly 80,000 of them. Twelve Japs were killed for every American lost, he said.
Start Banzai charges
He said the Japs may make suicide Banzai charges as they fall back, might surrender, or possibly leap off the 100-foot southern cliffs into the sea in a final orgy of mass suicide.
Field reports said disorganized Banzai charges had already begun.
The number of prisoners was increasing steadily, but most of the enemy were being killed at a rate of nearly 1,000 a day.
American artillery dug in on the Yaeju-Dake plateau for the last time. The guns now cover the entire remaining Jap-held area at the southern tip of the island.
Drive from north
The 96th Infantry Division swarmed down on the plateau from the north in a drive threatening to split the enemy pocket in half. The 96th Division was using its heavy tanks and flamethrowers on the plateau for the first time.
On the east, the 7th Infantry Division widened its hold on the plateau to nearly a mile and reached Hill 115, probably the last enemy-held height. Men of the 32nd Infantry Regiment snaked 500-foot hoses from flamethrowing tanks around the crags and caves of the hill to burn the Japs from their holes.
The 32nd Regiment also seized almost all of Nakaza town, four miles from the southern tip of the island.
Sweep around ridge
Marines of the 1st Division on the west coast sent tanks around the nose of Kunishi Ridge and blasted enemy positions on the reverse slopes.
The 6th Marine Division and 77th Infantry Division were still mopping up enemy remnants on the mudflats of Naha Harbor. The Marines took 165 prisoners.
The Jap Domei Agency claimed Jap planes resumed their attacks on American bases on Okinawa and shipping offshore today. No specific damage was mentioned.
Truman ready for month of continent-hopping
President to leave next week for ‘Frisco and will be in Berlin before July 17
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Eisenhower leaves Paris on hop to U.S.
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