Oleander fearsome sight, thanks to ingenuity of property man
By Maxine Garrison
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But there’s a joker in the deal – Cast is too weary to enjoy it
By Hazel Hartzog
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HOLLYWOOD – Lucille Ball arrived at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer the other day to start her role in Early to Wed, halting all her friends to show them a huge German flag, bearing the Nazi swastika.
The red-haired star had just received it from her brother-in-law, Lt. Kenneth Morgan, along with cheering word of his safety. In a mortar division with the Seventh Army, he had moved into Strasbourg the night of its capture, and had awakened the next morning to find the flag flying outside his room.
By Ernie Pyle
OFF THE OKINAWA BEACHHEAD (by Navy radio) – This is the last column before the invasion. It is written aboard a troop transport the evening before we storm onto Okinawa.
We are nervous. Anybody with any sense is nervous on the right before D-Day. You feel weak and you try to think of things, but your mind stubbornly drifts back to the awful image of tomorrow. It drags on your soul and you have nightmares.
But those fears do not mean any lack of confidence. We will take Okinawa. Nobody has any doubt about that. But we know we will have to pay for it. some on this ship will not be alive 24 hours from now.
We are in convoy. Many, many big ships are lined up in columns with our warships escort on the outsides. We are an impressive escort on the outsides. We are an impressive sight – yet we are only one of many similar convoys.
We left from different places. We have been on our way many days. We are the biggest, strongest force ever to sail in the Pacific. We are going into what we expect to be the biggest battle so far in the Pacific.
Our ship is an APA, or assault transport. The ship itself is a war veteran. She wears five stars on her service ribbon – Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy and Southern France. She wears the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Legion of Merit Silver Star. She has fared well on the other side. We hope her luck holds out in the Pacific.
We are carrying Marines. Some of them are going into combat for the first time. Others are veterans from as far back as Guadalcanal. They are a rough, unshaven, competent bunch of Americans. I am landing with them. I feel I am in good hands.
Two of a stripe
I’ve shared a cabin with Marine Maj. Reed Taylor of Kensington, Maryland. He is a Guadal vet and he jokingly belittles newcomers who weren’t through “green hell.” The major and I are sort of two of a stripe and we get along fine.
We have the nicest cabin either of us ever had at sea. And we’ve take advantage of it by sleeping away almost the whole trip. We’ve slept day and night. So have many others.
There is a daily argument on ship whether or not you can store up sleep and energy for the ordeal ahead. The doctor says it’s nonsense – that you can’t store up sleep.
Between naps I’ve read two books. They are Bob Hope’s I Never Left Home (how I wish I never had) and Bob Casey’s Such Interesting People only I wish I could hear Bob Casey tell all those stories in person, lying on his cot in France and roaring and shaking with his own laughter. Bob’s laughter would be good for us now. A Marione officer said, “I haven’t laughed for three days.”
Nobody complains
Our trip has been fairly smooth and not many of the troops were seasick. Down in the holds the Marines sleep on racks four tiers high. It isn’t a nice way to travel. But I’ve never heard anybody complain. They come up on the deck on nice days to sun and to rest and to wash clothes, or lie and read or play cards.
We don’t have movies. The ship is darkened at subset and after that there are only dim lights. The food is good. We get news every morning in a mimeographed paper and once or twice a day the ship’s officers broadcast the latest news over the loudspeaker.
They’ve kept us informed daily of the progress of the Okinawa bombardment that preceded our landing. Every little bit of good news cheers us. The ship, of course, is full of rumors, good and bads, but nobody believes any of them.
Daily briefings
Meetings are held daily among the officers to iron out last-minute details of the landing. Day by day, the Marine troop are fully briefed on what they are to do.
Everything we read about Okinawa stresses that the place is lousy with snakes. It’s amazing the number of people who are afraid of snakes. Okinawa “snake-talk” crops into every conversation.
On the last day we changed our money into newly manufactured “Invasion Yen,” drew two days K rations, took a last bath, and packed our kits before supper. We had a huge turkey dinner and, say, we have steak and eggs for breakfast.
“Fattening us up for the kill,” the boys laughingly say.
At 3 o’clock on the last afternoon there was a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. It was the afternoon before Easter Sunday. A lot of us could not help but feel the tragic irony of it, knowing about tomorrow’s battle.
District attorney at Kansas City won’t be reappointed despite success in office
By Daniel M. Kidney, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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By Gracie Allen
My husband George who is an authority on military affairs says that Hitler and his friends will fight to the last man. George says he doesn’t know just who this “last man” will be but he’s pretty sure his first name won’t be Adolf.
My guess is that John Doe will be a little elderly German wearing thick spectacles. If they haven’t taken those away from him. He’d be the last man left to hold the fort anyway. Whether he wanted to or not, because he hasn’t any armored car to shoot away to a hideout in the Alps.
George says that the only difference between Hitler and his last man and a prizefight manager and his fighter is that sometimes the man in the ring is allowed a cut of the purse.
ABOARD ADM. TURNER’S FLAGSHIP OFF OKINAWA (UP) – Tenth Army soldiers on the Okinawa beachhead reported today that they wiped out one night enemy infiltration group composed in part of three or four women.
A Tenth Army intelligence officer aboard this flagship said the presence of women in the group was revealed following the attack when the bodies were checked.
The women were wearing regulation Jap Army uniforms and were carrying firearms, the officer said.
The entire group was killed at night. Our soldiers knew only that enemy forces wee trying to penetrate our lines.
Inasmuch as the women were wearing men’s army uniforms, they probably could not have been identified as women even in daylight, the officer explained. He pointed out furthermore that since they were carrying arms, they could expect no other treatment than death.
Only war wife can understand
By Ruth Millett
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Labor bureau warns women
By Robert Barkdoll, United Press staff writer
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4 companies told to reduce charges
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Führer HQ (April 4, 1945)
Im Südabschnitt der Ostfront hält der feindliche Druck zwischen der Drau und der oberen Raab an. Südlich Wien fingen unsere Truppen die über Baden vorgedrungenen Sowjets in erbitterten Kämpfen auf und schossen zahlreiche Panzer ab. Zwischen dem Neusiedler See und der Donau sowie am Verteidigungsring von Preßburg wurden stärkere Angriffe des Gegners nach anfänglichem Geländegewinn zum Stehen gebracht. In den Kleinen Karpaten und beiderseits der Waag konnten die Bolschewisten unsere Linien an einzelnen Stellen zurückdrücken, wurden im Übrigen aber abgewiesen.
In Oberschlesien vereitelten unsere Divisionen zwischen Loslau und Jägerndorf erneute Durchbruchsversuche des Feindes. Gegen die Festung Breslau setzte der Gegner seine Angriffe mit starken Kräften fort. An der Westfront eingebrochene Sowjets wurden nach schweren Kämpfen abgeriegelt. An der Westküste der Danziger Bucht stehen unsere Truppen in der Oxhöfter Kämpe und in der westlichen Weichselniederung weiterhin in schwerem Kampf gegen fortgesetzte starke Angriffe. Nordwestlich Doblen scheiterten wiederholte Angriffe der Bolschewisten.
Im Westen drückten die Engländer unsere Gefechtsvorposten am Waal beiderseits Arnheim nach schweren Kämpfen auf das nördliche Stromufer zurück. An der Issel wie im Raum zwischen Henglo und den nordwestlichen Ausläufern des Teutoburger Waldes sind heftige Angriffe des Feindes und eigene Gegenangriffe im Gange. Panzergrenadiere stießen nordwestlich Burgsteinfurt in die tiefe Flanke des Gegners und vernichteten eine Panzergruppe. In den Straßen von Rheine und Osnabrück wird gekämpft. Über Herford stoßen Panzerspitzen gegen das Gebiet von Bad Oeynhausen vor, während die Besatzung von Münster dem Feind weiter verbissen Widerstand leistet. Im Nordabschnitt der Westfront wurden gestern 54 Panzer abgeschossen.
An der Sieg wiesen unsere Verbände zahlreiche Angriffe zurück und riegelten einzelne örtliche Einbrüche ab. Auch die am Rothaar-Gebirge angreifenden Amerikaner gewannen nur geringfügig Boden.
In Thüringen verteidigen unsere Besatzungen Eisenach und Meiningen. An ihnen vorbeistoßend, gelangten feindliche Kräfte bis in den Raum von Gotha und Suhl. Die Amerikaner verloren in diesen Kämpfen 23 Panzer.
Auch im östlichen Spessart und am Main beiderseits Würzburg wurde die Verteidigung gefestigt. Südlich Ochsenfurt wurde eine schwächere feindliche Panzergruppe zurückgeworfen. Westlich Wimpfen am Neckar musste der Gegner vor den Angriffen unserer Gebirgsjäger zurückweichen. In der Rheinebene südwestlich Bruchsal blieben seine Angriffe in unserem Abwehrfeuer liegen.
Auf der Landbrücke zwischen der Adria und dem Comacchio-See wurden nach starken feindlichen Angriffen unsere Stellungen um wenige Kilometer an den Kanal bei Porto Garibaldi zurückgenommen.
Anglo-amerikanische Bomberverbände griffen gestern Orte in Nord- und Mitteldeutschland an und verursachten besonders schwere Schäden in der Stadt Kiel. In der Nacht war der Großraum Berlin das Ziel britischer Bombenangriffe.