The Daily Mail from Hagerstown, Maryland • Page 1

Mail. WEATHER Cloudy and not to cold tonight; colder tomorrow afternoon with snow flurries VOI PYVT Nrt Vx.A.Vl. HO. Published dally (except Sunday) by Mail Pnbtinhlng Co. Entered an matter at Hajferatown Postofflce.

HAGERSTOWN, MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 1944. SINGLE COPIES, 4 CENTS TOKYO ADMITS MARSHALLS ATTACK Yanks Breach German Defenses Near Cassino Infantry, Tank Teams Surprise Enemy With Thrust. ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, Algiers, Jan. 31, infantry and tank teams, surprising the Nazis with a thrust across the Rapido river bottom deliberately flooded by the Germans to form a barrier, have achieved a break Cassino, Allied headquarters announced today. While American fighters and bombers scored a record bag in Italy in knocking down 63 German planes in a series of flattening as- sults yesterday on four enemy air bases in northeastern Italy, British Tommies and American Rangers with tanks tank-destroyer teams fought a string of sharp actions along the perimeter of the Anzio bridgehead and enlarged their grip on the strategic wedge 19 or 20 miles below Rome.

The Germans evidently had gained time to prepare a line of defenses through the Alban mills along the railroad from Rome to Cisterna, 26 miles southwest of the eternal city, and the British and (Continued on Page 12) A Attacked In Arctic LONDON, Jan. 31 German radio said today Nazi U-boats, in an attack still in progress against a Murmansk-bound convoy, had sunk 10 destroyers and escort vessels and five merchant ships in the Arctic, The broadcast, by a Nazi propaganda agency, wap without Allied confirmation. The broadcast said the sinkings raised the number of Allied convoy losses in the past few days to 12 supply ships totaling 83,000 14 destroyers and other convoy 4,646 Here Now In Armed Forces Living Registrants In Selective Service Here Total 12,370. Contributions in manpower to the armed forces by Hagerstown and Washington county compare most favorably with the national totals, as do also the various classifications, the two local Draft Boards reported today. The two boards released totals today for this city and county, as of January 1, 1944, along with the national totals as follows: Total living registrants in gerstown and Washington county 12 370 as compared with a national total of Class I-C (inducted and enlisted) from here 4,646, national total class D-F (with physical or mental defects) 2276 here, and 3,439,000 in the nation; class 1-A, (ready for final induction examinations) 675 as compared to In the 'U.

Unclassified SS here and 96,000 in entire country; class 3-A (in process of classification) 1520 here and 3,540,000 in U. closs 2-A (essential workers in -industries contributing indirectly to the war effort, and 2-B (essential workers in war industries) 19SS, as compared to a national total of 2.780,000: class 2-C and 3-C. (deferred in agri- culture'by act of Congress) SS3 as compared to U. S. total of SS3.

There are only 69 here in 3-D, (deferred as hardship cases) as compared to 97,000 in the nation. A draft board spokesman explained this classification as including widowers with children, or the mother in some institution which places the burden of caring for the children entirely upon the father. The local Draft Boards explained that the above group in the armed forces and in the various classifications are all between ages of 18 and 37 inclusive. Berlin Says Convoy R.A.F. Hammers Berlin Anew In Follow-Up Huge Formations Of Britain's Heavy Bombers Hammer Capital.

LONDON, Jan. 31 Hundreds of big RAF bombers smashed at Berlin again last night with a holocaust of fire and explosives in history's greatest sustained aerial offensive, which left the Nazi capital and three other great industrial cities aflame and heaped with rubble. It was the third terrific blow in four night upon Berlin, and Mos quito bombers darted in after the heavy bombers to add to the spread ing ruin. Nazis Ominously Silent An ominous silence fell over the whole of Germany in the wake of four days of night-and-day bombings, including power American raids Sunday on Brunswick and Hannover and a record U. S.

bomber blow at Frankfurt Saturday. Communications between Sweden and Berlin, broken Sunday, were not restored until midday today, and the first dispatch reaching (Continued on Page 2) Becomes An Ace In 15 Minute Air Fight By EDWARD KENNEDY ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, Algiers, Jan. 31 yester- day's' spectacular air battles over northern Italy, Capt. Herschell H. Green, 23, blue-eyed fighter pilot from Mayfield, became an ace within the space of 15 minutes or so, -by shooting down six enemy planes.

He was topscorer in the fights in which Fortresses and Liberators with their Thunderbolt escorts shot down 63 enemy planes, with many more probables and damaged, on their mission to bomb German air ports in the area. Six Allied aircraft were lost. Green charged headon and upward into a formation of JU-SSs, shooting down four. Then he swooped down on a Macchi one of the few Italian planes seen in the air in recent months. Afterwards he got a Dornier 217.

SEEKS NOMINATION QUEENSTOWN, Jan. 31 Leon A. Andrus, Queen Anne's newspaper publisher and dairy farmer, became' today the fourth aspirant for the Democratic congressional nomination in the First (Eastern Shore) Maryland District. Last Week's Tip Prizes Are Split A tip on a fire which destroyed a building in the West. End ar.d another that coricerned an arrest of a woman whose dog, it was charged, disturbed neighbors by its split last week's first prize in the news tip contest.

Second prize is divided tween tips on an accident on the Chewsville-Funkstown pike and one about the concern of Hancock orchard- ists over plans to establish a war prisoners' camp near there. The third prize is split between a tip on a county boy on a nationwide radio broadcast and one on a. local boy being missing in action Escaped From Japs German Food Pantry Menaced By Russian Thrust Into Poland LISBON, Jan. 31 current Russian drive into Old Poland has confronted the Germans with the specter of an economic disaster that may have far-reaching consequences. In four years of intensive effort, the Germans have developed the central core of Poland, which they organized under the label of "government general," into one of the main sources of sustenance not the home front.

Situated conveniently near Germany proper as well as her eastern armory bases, this area has supplied both with a minimum expen- diture of transportation and at the same time has served as an economic link between Germany and her Balkan satellites. Technical articles in German newspapers published in Krakow and other eastern points reflect this intensive development and the progress achieved. They describe the bulling np of livestock herds, the improvement of quality breeding not only of livestock but in poultry, and the re-stocking of lakes with streams of fish. Many research institutes have been established, numerous new dams have been built, vast drain- Continued on Page 11) Marine Major Jack Hawkins of Rexton, "Texas, is one of the men who fled from a Jap prison camp in the Philippines. He is shown answering one of the.

more than 880 telephone calls he has received from relatives of soldiers believed to be Jap prisoners. German Colonists Flee Baltic States As Red Army Surges On Russians Racing Toward Last Rail Station Short Of Estonian Frontier, While Another Red Army Drives Toward Rail Junction. Vet Learns To Dance Seize Soldier In Six Slayings Police Hunt Shotgun Believed Used In Three Double Murders. TRENTON, N. Jan.

31 Five years after two shotgun blasts echoed across the Delaware river a couple slumped dead on bleak Duck Island, a soldier was being held in custody today at Fort Dix in connection with six nocturnal "Lovers' Lane" slayings. Police were reported searching for a shotgun believed'used in all three double murders, and an army mine detector was expected to be brought into use today to "sweep" an area in which the weapon might have been buried. Authorities at the fort said the man was being detained at the request of New Jersey and Pennsylvania police, and Brig. Gen. Madison Pearson, post commander, added that the Army would release him to the state for disposition upon proper application.

Mercer County Prosecutor Walter D. Cougle and police refused to (Continued on Page 2) LONDON, Jan. 31 (IP) German colonists were reported fleeing from the Baltic states today as the Red Army, which yesterday swept up 50 more towns and hamlets between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Pei- pus, raced toward Kingisepp, last rail station short of the Estonian frontier on the line to Narva. Gen. Leonid A.

Govorov's Leningrad army lunged to within miles of Kingisepp with the capture of the rail junction of Veimarn, only 17 miles from the Estonian border, a Soviet communique announced. The village of Kotly, 16 miles above Veimarn on a spur line to the gulf also was taken. The Moscow radio said German colonists were fleeing along with retreating Nazi troops. In the Lake Ilmen sector 60 miles to the south, another Red army 3 DIE IN CRASH R1VERDALE, Jan. 31 Three persons were killed and three others injured today when an automobile collided with a tractor- trailer on the Washington boulevard at Riverdale.

The dead, all negroes, were pab- sengers in the automobile. Holding Pair After Wrestler Succumbs CHARLOTTE, N. Jan. 31 Pending a hearing set for February 11, police sought today to strengthen their theory that Jim Clintstock, 240-pound Indian wrestler, was strangled to death with a towel in a dental labortory after, in the words of a witness, he went berserk and "acted like Frankenstein." The police theory was advanced yesterday at a 'habeas corpus hearing for Dr. Henry C.

Parker, socially prominent Charlotte dentist, and lee Sikes, a co-owner of the S. S. Dental Laboratories, from whose offices-the wrestler was removed unconscious late Saturday night. Parker and Sikes were served with warrants charging them with murder. Local Soldier Needs Letters To Make Up For 'Damnedest Town "Don't forget to write, and often," pleads Cpl.

Lafayette Eller of his mother, Mrs. B. Eller, North Mulberry street Considering his description of the area in which he is located, his need for letters from home appears and perhaps many relatives and friends of local service men and women could take a hint from his letter, and write an extra note to their own fighting man now and then. "Dear Mother, 1 writes Leonard, as Cpl. Eller is known to his friends, "The town which is located in the area in which I am stationed is the damnedest places I have ever been in.

The natives are the most bothersome people have ever been in contact with. If it isn't a tip, it Tips are accepted each week day i have you a cigarette, oandy and between a.m. and 1:30 p.m. a variety of other small articles by the Daily Mail. 'such as soap, pens.

The people driving toward the Leningrad- Pskov railway, after seizing Velis- koe Selo, 17 miles southeast of Luga, a junction on. the vital line. Other Soviet units menaced Batets- kaya, from where a spur line runs to Luga, 18 miles to the west. In the Ndvosokolniki area still farther south, Gen. Markian M.

Popov's Second Baltic Army was reported to have driven within less than 60 miles of Latvia, in thrusts niki, which fell Saturday. Moscow- said more than 2,000 Germans were killed in the fighting for Novosokol- niki. The Russian units which cleared the final stretch of the Moscow- Leningrad trunk line Saturday also continued to forge westward, seizing the rail stations of Kastyens- kaya and Yeglino on the Leningrad- Novgorod line. Greatest U. S.

Task Force Attacks Isles Although he lost his leg in overseas action, Lt. Dudley Clark is determined to dance again. Helen Range of Elizabethton, is teaching him the latest steps at the Walter Reed hospital, Washington, D. C. Dudley is leaving soon on a bond selling tour.

801 Bond Buyers At Local Banks Poor Record For County With Over 5000 Service Men. A plea to local people to buy more Series war bonds, the little man's share in the war, was voiced today by John D. Holliday, chairman of the local war finance committee in charge of the Fourth War Loan drive. Only 801 individuals had purchased Series bonds in local banks up to the close of business last Friday. This is scarcely a fair showing, Hollyday said, in a county whose population has been estimated at 70,000 people, with over 5,000 men and women in the service.

The war bond drive total was placed this morning at slightly over $1,400,000, upon the news that the (Continued on Page 2) are very filthy. I wish you could be here to witness the sights; I am sure you would admit it is an education in itself. "I rode in what passes for taxis 'The carriages are from a period where open coaches predominated, Remember the carriage you and I had when I was small- it reminds me of one of those. The poor- horses take a beating from the drivers, as they are made to trot all the time." inserts here a plea for more cigarettes. At his post the boys are limited to eight packs a week, 'which is sufficient, except when they are going cut into the field.

Then a few extra packs come in handy. "The weather here remains warm in the daytime, and we freeze at night. The fields are very nice, with green all over tbe Fourth In Family To Enter Service Mr. And Mrs. Allen H.

Mumma To Have Three Sons, Daughter In Forces. Another star, the fourth, will be added soon to the service flag of Mr. and Mrs. Allen H. Mumma, The Terrace, when their son, Robert G.

Mumma, starts his army training. Examined and sworn in last week, Mr. Mumma will report to the New Cumberland, induction center within the near future. The four stars in the family service flag represent three sons and a daughter, making of children 100 per cent in the armed forces. Miss Margaret A.

Mumma is a sergeant in the WACs and stationed at Fort Meade. Lieut (s. Richard G. Mumma is in the Navy stationed in Washington, while Charles E. Mumma is with the Coast Guard and stationed near Baltimore.

The latest, son to go is married and the father of one child and is manager of the Consumers Credit Service, in the Professional Arts Building. He registered for the draft while in business in Harrisburg was examined and inducted through the Harrisburg draft board. He will report on February 14. Soldier Vote An War Days Here Today, with the Administration's fight to get Congressional approval of the soldier's right to vote in the federal election against the opposition of a Republican bloc and a group of southern poll tax Democrats raging as one of the top controversies in the nation, William's History of Washington County reveals that the dispute had its parallel in county history during the Civil War the soldier vote group victorious both in their demands and the county election. At the beginning of the Civil War there were two major political parties in the Union party and the Peace party, the former sympathetic with the aims of the North in the abolition of slavery, the latter sympathetic 'with the aims of the South on the slavery question and, 'also, desirious of bringing about an early peace, according to Williams.

Washington county was a "border" county, (Continued on Page 12) Get Quick Action On Road After Article The Mt. Lena-Bagtown road, where a school bus became mired in the mud last week, necessitating school children to wade through the mud to their homes, is being repaired. Residents of the area, who had been appealing to the County Road Department for some time to repair the road, called the Daily Mail to thank it for bringing the matter to the attention of the county road superintendent. They reported that less than 24 hours after the article appeared, the county road department rushed truckloads of stone to repair the road. Japs Surrender As Sensible Way Out Of Their Dilemma KANSAS CITY, Jan.

31 Corp. George Horst of the Marines reports that at least one Japanese unit on Bougainville Island surrendered as the way out of their dilemma. Writing to his Bay Horst, the Marine said that a spokesman for several Japanese prisoners whimpered: "You Marines are trying to push us off this island, and your navy won't let us off!" A Japanese aviator, floating ashore on a rubbc i raft one morning after an air raid in which one Japanese plane was shot down, got his plea in quickly, Horst wrote. Spoken in English, it was: "That wasn't me doing the bombing last night. I just happened to be flying by." Latest Allied Tank Buster Can Pierce 4-Inch Steel Plate Briggs Pleads Innocent To Charge He Faked Hopkins' Letter.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 George N. Briggs pleaded innoceni today to charges that he forged the celebrated" "Hopkins letter." Appearing to answer Federal in dictments which alleged forgery false pretense and use of the mails to defraud, Briggs, former confiden tial aide to Interior Secretary Ickes entered a disclaimer to all these charges. His attorneys then asked for and were granted three weeks in or der to file such motions or demur- ers as they might decide to offer preliminary to trial. The 55-year-old Briggs, extremelj serious and subdued, answered to the charges in a voice that was almost inaudible.

His $3,000 bond was continued. The indictments against the suspended Interior department em- ploye alleged that he faked the so-called "Hopkins letter" which created a furore when it was made public by C. Nelson Sparks, Akron, Ohio, Republican leader and author of the Anti-Willkie book "One Man Wiltkie." The letter, on White House stationery, bore the name of Harry i s. President Roosevelt's close friend and adviser, and was so worded as to give an impression that some sort of understanding existed between Hopkins and Willkie. Hopkins branded the letter a forgery, Willkie called it absurd.

Sparks said he had accepted the letter from Briggs in good faith and had paid Briggs money in connection the delivery. NEW YORK, Jan. 31, from the shoulder, an infantryman can shoot a two and three- quarter pound bomb through four inches of the finest armor plate with the "Piat," newest Allied tank buster. The "Piat" (projector infantry anti-tank) has been doing just that as well as knocking out machine gun nests in Italy for some time the British information services dis closed last night. The weapon weighs 33 pounds two less than the old anti-tank rifle, and can be carried easily by one man.

Atolls Being Pounded By Thousands NEW YORK, Jan. 31 The Tokyo radio asserted today that "Japanese army and aavy units have intercepted powerful enemy units which lave been attacking the Marshall group since the morning of January 30 and fighting is now going on." The English anguage transmission beam-, ed to North America, was recorded by the U. S. Foreign Intelligence Service. The reference to "Japanese army and navy units" apparently meant the air arm of both services.

Another Tokyo broadcast, beamed to Italy was recorded by U. S. overnment monitors at 6:30 a.m. today. It said: "Strong enemy forces at dawn on January 30 began an offensive against the Marshalls.

The Japanese armed forces in this sector are now engaged in hard fighting against these forces." PEARL HARBOR, Jan. 31 What may be the greatest naval task force in history hurled hundreds upon hundreds of tons of explosives for the second consecutive day yesterday on the cringing Japanese defenders of the invasion- threatened Marshall Islands. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz' com- munique on progress of the attack said last night that surface battleships, destroyers and moved (Continued on Page 2) Aluminum May Soon Appear In Civilian Market, Says WPB WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 Aluminum emerged today as a potential all-purpose metal as the War Production Board (WPB) closed down three more production lines, all at Massena, N.

Y. Satisfactory war production has been reached and mucl aluminum may be put back on the civilian market to bat for steel and other metals. The closures bring the total to 15 and mean a 14 per cent decrease in aluminum production but a surplus still remains In addition, a contract with the Shipshaw plant of the Aluminum Company of Canada, under which more than half a bil- jlion tons is being contributed annually, has until mid-1945 to run. PROWLER ACTIVE Mrs. Lizzie Funkhouser, 400 block of Jefferson street, complained to police today of a prowler in the vicinity of her home.

Police will investigate. 14 Jap Ships Sunk WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 The Navy reported today the sinking of 14 Japanese ships, some of which may have been endeavoring to reinforce enemy positions in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, now being battered by American air and surface forces. He Finds A Way To Get In Waste Paper CHICAGO, Jan. spur the paper drive.

Otto Schnering, president of the Curtiss Candy offered a free candy bar in exchange for 10 pounds of wastepaper to the first children to appear at his office. Hundreds of children, among them toddlers as young as 3, called on him lugging groat bundles of wastepaper, newspapers and that averaged 15 pounds. Schncring decided to repeat his treat February 12. Extra Agents To Help With Rush Two Added To Internal Revenue Office Here Today. To help meet the rush already under way, two extra agents were added this morning to the staff of the local internal revenue office.

They will remain here until the deadline for filing federal income tax returns on March 15. The rush of taxpayers actually started early last week and all dur- the week the stairs and corridor outside the revenue office on the second floor of the post office were crowded. Today again the crowd has a line that extends to the bottom of the stairs. The appeal is made that if assistance is needed to fill out the tax forms that the public call as early ao concenient. Due to the fact that certain of the forms are a little more complicated this year, more time is required to fill them out.

The appeal is also made that the taxpayer have all of his or her figures on paper to avoid as much delay as possible. National Park Would Perpetuate Hardy Town Where Rivers Meet Final Day To Save Discount On City Taxes Today is the last to save all discount on city taxes and an extra one per cent on county taxes. The four per cent discount allowed on city taxes ends today while the five per cent allowed on county taxes drops to four per cent after today. The offices of the city and county collectors are necessarily rushed today by taxpayers eager to save all the discount they can. Reminded of the town between the rivers by a recent news article announcing the progress in Congress of a bill providing for a national park at Harpers Ferry, W.

the writer made the junction of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers the focal point of a Sunday outdoors, to find the storied town badly in need of preservation. The last big flood, in 1936, has left the lower half of the town shabby and almost uninhabited, perhaps permanently. On Shenandoah street, where the triumphant tread of Lee and Jackson and the determined stride of "mad'' John Brown have fallen, only a handful of houses are occupied. Ornate homes once the abode of the town's elite, now house the families of laborers. Throughout the town scores of empty, decaying houses loom cadaverously over "ghost streets." We talked to a typical denizen of Harpers Ferry, a quarry worker who -with his wife and several children lives in a few rooms of one of the big houses on the street along the river.

He estimated that as compared with the nearly 2000 inhabitants who made the town a gay tov.rist center during the decades following the Civil War, only a bare few hundred arc left. The town has no industries, few stores, and most (Cor untied on Page 7) Dry Chief Says War Prolonged Because Liquor Being Sold BALTIMORE, Jan. 31 I W. Crabbe, superintendent of the National and Maryland Anti-Saloon i Leagues. says the war is being prolonged and that, fathers arc being drafted because of the use of liquor in the United States.

Speaking at the r.Sth annual session of the State Anti-Saloon League, Crr.hbc declared the war is being made longer by the "waste of manpower operating the, liquor traffic and the absenteeism in industry caused by use of alcohol addinc: "Fathers are being drafted into the services because so many single men have been rendered unfit by the use of liquor. We would not have had to take the and 19- I year-olds if it. had not IT the liquor traffic." Crabbe also criticized the Army for providing men with cold beer becar.se "water roaohes them warm and unfit to drink." Jeep Hunters ATLANTA, Jar. 31 jeep, writes Staff Sgt Sherman Brawrty of Tift. county, heats hunting doom's Jo The.

sergeant an'i bud used in Italy, flushed of coveys, IM.