OPA aids veterans in opening business
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC (delayed) – The pilot on our carrier who shot down the first Jap plane of our trip was Ens. Frank Troup of Decatur, Alabama. It was a reconnaissance plane, and he got it the day before we got to Tokyo waters.
It was his fifth, and made him an ace. Troup said the only reason he got it was that he happened to be closer than his wing-mates when they spotted it.
The boys who fly the patrols say that when they spot a single Jap plane, everybody in the patrol opens wide open, and it’s just like a horse race to see who gets within shooting distance first. This time it was Troup.
Next in line to Troup was Ens. Bob Hickle of Long Beach, California. That was the third time they’d been together when Troup got a plane. It had almost got to be a joke. Hickle had gradually worked into the same category as “always a bridesmaid, but never a bride.”
Hickle joked, “Now that Troup has got five, he’ll have to start helping me get some.”
And the very next morning Hickle came back glowing. He had got his first plane. Yes, Troup was with him, but Hickle got it all by himself, without any help.
I asked Hickle how it felt, and he said he was so anxious to get him that he almost ran into the pieces when the Jap turned over in the air and exploded.
‘Sure, he’s my father’
Some other of my friends among the pilots:
Lt. Pleas Greenlee of Shelbyville, Indiana. He’s the executive officer of the fighter squadron. He’s rather short, pleasant-faced, sucks at a pipe and always wears house-slippers around the ship. He has one Jap plane to his credit.
Before I knew his first name or where he was from, I asked him if he was any relation to Pleas Greenlee, a prominent Hoosier whom I’d met several times in Indiana.
“Yes,” said the fighter pilot, “he’s my father!”
Young Greenlee is an Annapolis graduate. His wife and baby girl are in Shelbyville. He has color photos of them all over his cabin. He is spending his spare time right now making a “pig-bank” out of a cocoanut for his little daughter.
Pittsburgher’s sport is skiing
Ens. Herbert Gidney Jr. of 623 Devonshire Street, Pittsburgh, is a torpedo-bomber pilot who was making his first combat strike when he flew over Tokyo. He said he was so engrossed with doing everything just right that he wasn’t scared at all.
Gidney is a big fellow. He went to Lehigh University, and you’d sweat he’d have to be a football player. But no, his great love is skiing. He used to take trips way up into New England just to ski. He even walks as though he were on skis!
Gidney has a system of letter-writing I’ve never seen before. He figures the only way to get letters is to write letters., so he writes 16 letters a week. Exactly 16.
He has a list of 16 people, made out on a big sheet of paper like a scoreboard, and checks each one off as he finished the letter.
Ens. Gidney, 23, is a son of Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Gidney of 623 Devonshire Street, who are vacationing at Pinehurst, North Carolina, at present. Mr. Gidney, a Gulf Oil executive, is a retired Army colonel.
Shakes Ernie’s confidence
Lt. Howard Skidmore, another torpedo bomber pilot, is from Villa Grove, Illinois.
When he told me that I said, “Why, that’s where my mother was born.” And then I got to thinking no, she was born at Camargo, a few miles south. And now I’m not sure.
At any rate Lt. Skidmore has lots of relatives around my hometown of Dana, Indiana, and has been over there lots of times to see them.
Lt. Skidmore had a unique experience on this ship. Last fall, he was sitting in his plane with the engine running, just ready to start his takeoff.
And at that moment a Jap bomb hit the deck less than a dozen feet in front of Skidmore’s plane. It killed several men and tore a big hole in the deck.
Yet Skidmore wasn’t scratched, and the close explosion didn’t even deafen him or give him a headache. Maybe that’s the result of coming from a good hometown.
Völkischer Beobachter (March 31, 1945)
Härteste Abwehr im Osten und Westen
Die Sowjets an der Südostgrenze zum Stehen gebracht
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Führer HQ (March 31, 1945)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
In Ungarn fingen unsere Truppen den aus dem Raum beiderseits Nagybajom vorgedrungenen Feind in vorbereiteten Stellungen zwischen der Drau und der Westspitze des Plattensees auf. Südwestlich Könnend und im Gebiet nördlich Güns konnten die Bolschewisten nach harten Kämpfen weiter Vordringen. Nördlich der Donau behaupteten unsere Verbände ihre Stellungen an der Neutra und Waag gegen zahlreiche Angriffe. An den westlichen Ausläufern der Hohen Tatra wurden durch Gegenstöße feindliche Einbrüche beseitigt.
In Oberschlesien griffen di« Bolschewisten erneut südwestlich Schwarzwasser und südlich Löbschütz vergeblich an, konnten jedoch unter Einsatz starker Kräfte und hohen Verlusten in Ratibor und Katscher eindringen. In den erbitterten Abwehrkämpfen wurden 77 Panzer vernichtet. Die standhaften Verteidiger von Glogau behaupten sich weiterhin in der Altstadt und im Schloss.
Die Festung Küstrin ist nach schwerem Ringen der feindlichen Übermacht erlegen.
Im westlichen Küstengebiet der Danziger Bucht sind nordwestlich Gotenhafen heftige Kämpfe um die Oxthöfter Kempe entbrannt. Am Westrand der Weichselniederung wurden starke Angriffe abgewehrt.
Bei zunehmender Verschlammung des Geländes in Kurland setzte der Gegner seine Angriffe nur nordwestlich Doblen ohne nennenswerte Erfolge fort.
Am Niederrhein traf der Feind, der mit starken Kräften aus der Linie Stadtlohn-Cösfeld-Dülmen und südlich davon nach Nordosten und Osten stieß, auf Gegenangriffe unserer Verbände. Am Nordrand des Industriegebietes drangen die Amerikaner gegen unseren zähen Widerstand in Bottrop ein. Der Gegner verlor gestern in diesem Kampfabschnitt 25 Panzer.
Südlich Siegen und an den Ostausläufern des Rothaargebirges stehen unsere Truppen in erbitterten Abwehrkämpfen mit den nach Norden angreifenden amerikanischen Verbänden. Schnelle Kräfte des Feindes drangen aus dem Raum Brilon-Korbach in das Gebiet südlich Paderborn, und aus dem Lahntal nach Osten bis in die Linie Bad Wildungen-Treysa westlich Fulda vor. Gegenmaßnahmen sind getroffen. So warfen herangeführte eigene Kampfgruppen die feindlichen Panzerspitzen nordwestlich Hersfeld-Fulda zurück und brachten auch die nachfolgenden amerikanischen Kräfte zum Stehen. Auch im Kinzigtal westlich Gelnhausens und bei Alzenau behaupteten sich unsere Truppen und vernichteten erneut zahlreiche Panzer.
Während der Feind am Main südlich Aschaffenburg seine Gegenangriffe einstellte, wird flussaufwärts bei Miltenberg und im Odenwald bei Amorbach und Buchen gekämpft. In Heidelberg und Schwetzingen sind die Amerikaner eingedrungen, wurden jedoch am Rhein südwestlich davon im Gegenangriff wieder geworfen.
In Mittelitalien lebten das Artilleriefeuer und die Aufklärungstätigkeit von der ligurischen Küste bis zu den Bergen von Montese auf.
Terrorangriffe amerikanischer Bomberverbände verursachten schwere Schäden, besonders in den Wohnvierteln vom Hamburg, Bremen und Wilhelmshaven. Andere Flugzeuge warfen Bomben im Großraum Wien und auf weitere Orte in Südostdeutschland. In der Nacht flogen schwächere Verbände die Reichshauptstadt und Erfurt an. Luftverteidigungskräfte brachten vorwiegend durch Jäger. 33 Flugzeuge zum Absturz.
Kleinstunterseeboote versenkten aus dem Themse-Schelde-Verkehr einen vollbeladenen Nachschubfrachter von 1.500 BRT.
In Fortsetzung ihres zähen Kampfes gegen den feindlichen Nachschub versenkten Unterseeboote aus stark gesicherten angelsächsischen Geleitzügen einen Hilfsflugzeugträger, vier Schiffe mit 20.000 BRT und drei Zerstörer.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (March 31, 1945)
FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
311100A March
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
(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) PRO, ROME
(21) HQ SIXTH ARMY GP
(REF NO.)
NONE
(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR
Communiqué No. 357
UNCLASSIFIED: North of the Ruhr, Allied forces continue to make rapid progress in all sectors. In the area east of Emmerich the towns of Netterden, Anholt and Dinxperlo have been cleared.
Farther to the east, Bocholt, Borken and Dülmen are in our hands and substantial advances have been made beyond these points. In the area south of the Lippe Canal, Dorsten, Gladbeck, Bottrop and Hamborn have been captured. Gun positions north of Emmerich were attacked by medium and light bombers. Enemy troops and gun positions in the Münster-Düsseldorf-Paderborn area; an airfield east of Düsseldorf, and another at Gütersloh, were hit by fighter bombers. East of the Ruhr our units have entered Paderborn, and Husen. In the area southwest of Kassel we reached a point just west of Frankenau.
Farther east, our units advanced up to 30 miles to reach Altwildungen and Fritzlar. Other elements reached Borken on the Kassel-Frankfurt railroad line. All these advances were made by armored elements followed by infantry which continued mopping up operations. In the Sieg River sector, our infantry units reached a point two miles south of the town of Siegen. Armored units striking north and northeast from the vicinity of Bad Nauheim advanced up to 42 miles to reach the vicinity of Treysa and Alsfeld, some 30 miles northeast of Giessen. Enemy planes strafed our units making these advances. Armored elements pushed northeast from Lauterbach to the vicinity of Grebenau and south of Lauterbach we entered Herbstein.
An armored unit moving northeast from Hanau reached the vicinity of Büdingen against resistance which decreased from severe to scattered during the advance. Infantry elements are mopping up northeast of Hanau behind our armored spearheads. Other infantry elements pushed to points five miles east and southeast of Hanau, repulsing two enemy counterattacks in the sector. Mopping up operations continue in the pocket west of Wiesbaden; and in the area between Frankfurt and Giessen. Strong resistance was encountered by our units in the Wiesbaden pocket.
South of Aschaffenburg, we have a twelve-mile bridgehead across the Main River as deep as three miles. In this area the enemy is fighting stubbornly from prepared positions. Farther south armored elements drove eastward beyond Amorbach in an advance hindered by rugged terrain and blown bridges. Eight miles still farther south Mudau was reached. The ancient university city of Heidelberg was taken after surrender negotiations failed. Our units crossed the Neckar River east and west of the city. Advances of some six miles also were made south of Mannheim along the east bank of the Rhine.
The day’s prisoners included the German 719th Infantry Division commander who was taken on the west bank of the Rhine.
Allied forces in the west captured 18,542 prisoners 29 March.
Five submarine yards and other targets in the port areas of Wilhelmshaven, Bremen, Farge, northwest of Bremen and Hamburg were heavily attacked yesterday by escorted heavy bombers in very great strength. Road and rail transport and other communications targets in Holland and north and east of the Ruhr were struck at by fighter-bombers and rocket-firing fighters. A tank assembly plant at Bad Oeynhausen; an ordnance depot at Hannoversch Münden; and an oil storage factory at Ebenshausen north of Eisenach were attacked by medium and light bombers.
In the day’s operations, seven enemy aircraft were shot down and 42 others were destroyed on the ground. Nine of our heavy bombers, one light bomber and 12 fighters are missing.
Light bombers attacked targets in Berlin and enemy communications over a wide area of Holland and northern Germany last night.
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 (March 31, 1945)
CINCPOA Communiqué No. 316
During the night of March 27‑28 (East Longitude Dates), barracks, warehouses, radio station, ammunition dump, buildings, and the airdrome on Minami Daito Island were attacked by gunfire of heavy surface forces of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Fast carrier task forces of the U.S. Pacific Fleet inflicted the following damage on the enemy in and around Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands on March 28 and 29:
Shipping
SUNK:
- Two destroyer escorts
- One medium cargo ship
- Ten small cargo ships
- Four luggers
- One motor torpedo boat
PROBABLY SUNK:
- Nine medium cargo ships
- Five small cargo ships
DAMAGED:
- One destroyer escort
- Thirteen small cargo ships
- One medium cargo ship
AIRCRAFT:
- 29 shot out of the air
- One glider shot out of the air
- 16 destroyed on the ground
- 42 damaged or destroyed on the ground
GROUND INSTALLATIONS:
- Installations on Tokuno and Yaku bombed heavily
- Hangars and shops at Kanoya, Kagoshima, Kushira, Chiran, Tojimbara, and Ibusuki bombed and burned.
Our forces lost twelve planes and six pilots in combat during these actions.
On March 30, battleships and light units of the U.S. Pacific Fleet shelled shore installations on Okinawa heavily at close range. Seawalls were breached by gunfire and defenses, gun positions, airfields, and bridges were heavily hit. U.S. carrier aircraft attacked numerous targets on Okinawa destroying four submarine pens and two torpedo boats in the submarine base at Unten Bay on the west coast of the island. Carrier aircraft and heavy units of the Fleet continued their attacks on Okinawa on March 31.
On the same date, a carrier task force of the British Pacific Fleet struck targets in the Sakishima group.
Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force bombed installations on Marcus Island on March 29.
Eleventh AAF Liberators bombed the naval base at Kataoka on Shumushu in the Northern Kurils on March 30.
Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing bombed targets in the Marshalls on March 30.
The Pittsburgh Press (March 31, 1945)
3,000 tanks cut up Reich
Nazi defenses riddled as Yanks push within 170 miles of Berlin
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Entirely unconfirmed –
Hitler agreement to ask for armistice reported
But Stockholm hears action delayed when Nazis refused to give up government
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66 starving Manila children take a long, hungry look at America
By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer
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