Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 1

EVENING GA Nevada Greatest Newspaper A ewspaper For the Home Information and Enjoyment For Every Member of THE FAMILY WEATHER Partly cloudy tonight and Saturday; continued cool tonight; warmer Saturday. SIXTY-EIGHTH YEAR No. 138 RENO, NEVADA, FRIDAY. JUNE 9, 1944 18 PAGES 5 CENTS (TDfLT LirPLnJ 1 1 uyuu RENO 11 A II JJL if A (5) 1 fo) fo) ffil fl fa) lyj lyJ tit fp ML First Division Spearheads Drive Famous Body of American Troops Heads Invasion Alongside British Battered Germans Retreat in Italy Allied Troops Make Deep Advances Along Entire Front North of Rome LONDON, June 9. UP) The German high command today announced the abandonment of Tarquinia in Italy.

Tarquinia is about ten miles north of Civitavecchia. ROME, June 9. UP) German forces guarding the Adriatic sector have started to retreat to avoid encirclement, and for the first time since launching their offensive nearly a month ago Allied troops rolled forward today along the entire Italian front. Striving to maintain 'r'hZ "rfxj; LONDON, June 9 UP) The men of the U. S.

1st Infantry divi sion and the Britith 50th Northumbrian division who spearheaded the Allied invasion from the sea into French Normandy were measuring 't sr 9 A A 4 iiiTin i up today to their great traditions of gallantry. Fighting in the van was no new experience for these troops. It has been their custom to lead the way. Headquarters has officially announced both now have made excellent progress on the fields of France after smashing German counter-attacks. Three times the two divisions have fought side by side.

They did it before in the deserts of North Africa and then in the mountains of Sicily. The 1st infantry division formerly was part of the American 5th army and the Northumbrians part of the British 8th close contact with the fleeing enemy, who has shown no disposition as yet to make a determined stand, the Allied 5th army raced steadily Terrific Tank Battle Rages On French Front Progress Made All Along Line Says Night Report SUPRE3fE HEADQUARTERS, Allied Expeditionary Force, June 9 UP) U. S. troops pressing toward the Btrategio port of Cherbourg have seized Ste. Mere Eglise and cut the road and railroad to Cherbourg, leaving the Germans only a secondary and perhaps already threatened road on the west.

German broadcasts placed the Americans within 18 miles of Cherbourg itself. U. S. parachute troops seized Ste. Mere Eglise, hanging on until seaborne Infantry joined them.

German accounts have already reported Allied parachutists landing on the western coast of the Cherbourg peninsula. In action near Left-say bottleneck of the west coast road to Cherbourg and a spur railline. SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, Allied Expeditionary Force, June 9. UP) A powerful American thrust has plunged within eighteen miles of the prize port of Cherbourg after capturing Ste. Mere Eglise, the Germans conceded today, and supreme headquarters reported armored combat rising in Intensity on the plains of France.

MORE ARMOUR USED Allied headquarters, announcing "satisfactory progress" all along the sixty-mile beachhead front. War Fefugees Coming to U. S. Old Army Camp To House Them U. S.

BATTLESHIP SHELLS THE FRENCH COAST The American battleship Texas opens up with her big guns to shell the coast of northern France, as the Allied invasion of Europe gets under way. The Texas was among more than 600 naval craft that tortured German positions and protected landings. This picture was made by Jack Rice, Associated Tress photographer in the wartime still photo pool. (AP wirephoto via signal corps radio). AMERICAN TROOPERS DISPLAY COURAGE, SKILL Battle for Beachhead Develops Into Race to Get Supplies and Men army.

Originally most of the boys in the 1st came from the east, hundreds of them from Brooklyn, bu it has had so many replacements it now is an all-American outfit. STURDY FIGHTERS The Northumbrian division consists of sturdy fighters from the wind-swept pastures of England's north lake country. (The German controlled Calais radio, in a broadcast recorded by rthe ministry of information, said last night that the German high command had named these Allied formations as participating in the Normandy fighting: Vire estuary and east coast U. S. 1st, 4th and 29th infantry divisions and the 506th parachut regiment; Caen British 6th airborne division; Ar-romanches units of the 2rd Brit ish and 3rd Canadian infantry).

Men of the 1st division are determined to equal the record of their predecessors of the last war, It's a man-sized ambition, for the "Fighting First" of world war I was the first American division to go into action in France. It took every objective assigned to it during 1917 and 1918, and captured one hundred German prisoners for every man the Germans took from the division. NUMEROUS CASUALTIES In this war the 1st division landed in North Africa Nov. 8, 1942 and took Oran. For many weary battles in Tunisia it was the only infantry force on the American front to prevent a Nazi break-through.

Then it helped in the battles which broke the German hold on Mateur and Bizerte and ended Hitler's North African hopes. In Sicily less than two months afterward, the division stopped the Hermann Goering division barely one thousand yards from the landing beaches and then captured eighteen towns in the next thirty-seven days. It landed in England Nov. 7. 1943.

Its total battle casualties before the present engagement were listed at 6885. Russian Troops Capture Heights LONDON, June 9. UP) Moscow announced today that Soviet troops, seeking to improve their positions, have captured a height of "great importance" north of Iasi in Gomania, where a German radio commentator declared yesterday that Russian armored forces had launched an offensive on a wide front. The broadcast Soviet communique, however, made no mention of a large scale offensive, but said about 200 Germans were killed and several enemy tanks destroyed as Nazi counter-attacks to restore the captured position were frustrated. Ernst Von Hammer, the Nazi commentator, declared Red army troops advanced several miles in the center and on the left flank in the Iasi sector.

Ship Losses Reported Low WASHINGTON, June 9. UP) Allied shipping losses from U-boat action in the pre-invasion month of May were "by far the lowest for any months of the war," an Anglo-American statement reported, today. At the same time it was noted that a lull in German undersea activity might indicate a possible sign of "preparations for a renewed offensive." Sturdy Defenses Built By Nazis Writer Describes Beach Obstacles By LEWIS HAWKINS ON THE NORMANDY BEACH HEAD, June 8. (Delayed) UP) Much of the Germans' Atlantic wall defenses which I have seen were evidently eleventh-hour preparations made months after the Nazis started boasting about their impregnability. For example, the whiteness of concrete in one thick-walled field gun casemate which I examined indicated it was built only two or three months ago at the most.

Reconnaissance photos showed beaches were not given their real obstacle quota until after April 9. This was partly because this was a low priority area compared with port zones, and partly because the winter was so bad in the English channel that obstacles would not stay in place. These obstacles are first thing to impress you when the tide goes out, baring that fateful belt of nearly a half-mile of flat sand which our men had to cross under merciless fire. They are not elaborate but the sturdy steel contraptions called "element placed just above low water, or steel or wooden stakes with logs propped against them, are devilishly effective, particularly with the surf hiding them and tossing boats about, and from 10 to 20 per cent of them are topped with mines similar to the teller type which tears up tanks. I roused myself from a foxhole about ten yards above highwater last night to watch a string of "ducks" come in close to high hide.

They moved silently In the moonlight until suddenly there was a muffled boom and a tower of water rose fast and fell slowly. Then there was a gap' in the evenly-spaced line of amphibians. As nearly as I could tell in moonlight at a hundred yards, there were no survivors. Glider Pilots Return Safely A BRITISH PORT, June 9. A score of American glider pilots who carried P-day invasion forces to France have arrived back here on an LSI atter sneaking out through German lines.

"We really caught jerry nap ping, said lx. cnanes iLiunaton, High Point, N. C. With the glider men returned two crew members of a tow plane which was forced down in Normandy Lt. Leonard Baer of Nee-nah.

and Sgt. Joseph Kozik of Union City, N. J. Creek Isolates Montana Town LIMA, June 9. UP) This southwestern Montana town of 554 population was virtually iso lated today after Red Rock creek, swollen by steady rains during the past ten days, overflowed and washed out the Union Pacific railroad tracks north and south of town.

US highway 91 also was washed out above and below Lima. 0 l-SK ipriniiraiiiiifiiiniiii an alarming rate. The enemy controlled the exits with accurate fire and the time schedule was being disrupted. But under the urging of a soft-spoken brigadier general, the organized enemy positions were silenced and the great surge inland began. In a matter of a few hours the engineers had roads built from the beach and the heavy stuff was pouring across.

The army's communication system for correspondents accompanying troops ashore broke down completely and for more than twenty-eight hours we were unable to get news out. The public relations officer brought a radio ashore early among the assault waves, but it was put aboard a jeep which he was unable to find until the next day. There was supposed to be a system of couriers to take the correspondents' dispatches from the beach to ships, but there were no couriers. My first story was handed to (Turn to Page 11, Column 3) Jap Columns Near Changsha CHUNGKING, June 9. UP) Japanese columns driving from the north are within seven and a half miles of Changsha, whose defenders Nhave been instructed by Gen.

Chiang Kai-Shek to remain at their posts and do their utmost to achieve victory, a Chinese army spokesman announced today. Strength of the various columns advancing toward the Hunan province capital, astride the Hankow-Canton railway, was estimated at between 70,000 and Japanese Cruiser Battered By Bombs ADVANCED ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, New Guinea, June 9. UP) American air power again has stung the Japanese navy in its highly vulnerable cruiser-destroyer department, southwest Pacific headquarters reported today. Liberator bombers, gunning their way through an enemy fighter screen, dropped two 500-pound bombs with damaging effect near the bow of a Japanese heavy cruiser in Warparin bay, Waigeo island, northwest of Dutch New Guinea, on Strike Situation Called Better 1 WASHINGTON, June 9. UP) The war labor board said today the European invasion has resulted in a general clearing up of strikes in thjs country.

For the first time since the board was created in January, 1942, not a single strike was before it today. The slates of re gional boards over the nation also were reported clean with a few possible exceptions. The conciliation service has only seven cases under consideration, affecting only about four thousand workers. Normally, the service handles twenty cases daily. 1 north and northwest from Rome Lt.

Gen. Mark W. Clark's column's, driving north from the capital, occupied the entire Lake Bracciano area and moved on to capture Caprarola, thirty-four miles north of Rome on the east side of Lake Di Vico, and about ten miles southeast of the highway junction town of Viterbo. To the northwest Allied units racing on from Civitavecchia were reported by front line dispatches to be shelling Tarquinia, fifty-five airlines miles from Rome and about three miles inland from the Tyrrhenian cosat. MANY PRISONERS An Allied spokesman said that among prisoners taken in the Lake Bracciano area were Nazis from the 20th German luftwaffe field division.

"This division came to Italy from Denmark, which according to the prisoners, it left only a week ago," said the spokesman. "The 20th luftwaffe field division differs from the normal infantry division only in the fact that its personnel is drawn from the luftwaffe ground staff, as in the case of the Hermann Goering panzer division." The five-month standstill on the lines in the Adriatic sector ended with the Germans starting a withdrawal between the coast and Crecchio, five miles inland. Eighth army forces moved up two miles and occupied Tollo, which is only seven and a half miles from the provincial capital of Chieti. The Nazis promptly began shelling the advance. In the 5th army surge north of Rome, the troops moved seven miles north to win the Bracciano area.

Another element seized the town of Sutri, six miles north of Lake Bracciano. SLOWER FROGRESS The 8th army conformed with this drive by a continued thrust northward along the east side of the Tiber, but progress there was slower due to demolitions and mines. Just east of the Tiber twenty enemy anti-tank and self-propelled guns were knocked out in the vicinity of Monterotondo, whose capture was announced yesterday. Lt. Gen.

Sir Oliver Leese's forces have gone several miles beyond Monterotondo. The towns of Agosta and Dalom-b'ara-Sabina were occupied during a ten-mile thrust north of Ti-voli. Farther east, 8th army units approached the village of Civitella Roveto, only seven and a half miles south of Avezanno on highway 82. Civitavecchia, Italy's seventh port in tonnage handled, was found to have escaped serious damage. Heavy Boombers Raid Munich Area SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, June 9.

(JP U. S. heavy bombers, striking from the south 500 to 750 strong, battered prime targets in the Munich area of southern Germany today, in a new pincers attack on the Nazi war machine coordinated with disruptive blows on German positions in France from the west. The bombers, flying into the Munich area for the first time from Italy, and their escorting Lightnings, Mustangs and Thunderbolts, fought through clouds of German fighters to reach their targets. Swiss dispatches reported explosions in the Munich and Augsburg areas.

(A BBC broadcast said the allied whiplash from Britain had destroyed all railway bridges on the Seine river between Paris and the sea.) TRAFFIC BAN LONDON, June 9. UP) The Vichy radio announced a ban on motor traffic beginning at 3 p. m. today in the departments of Haute-Loire, Cantal, Allier and Puy-de-Dome and said anyone caught in a motor vehicle in that area of southern France would be shot on sight. WASHINGTON, June 9 (JP- President Roosevelt said today 1000 European war refugees will be brought to this country and housed in an unused military establishment at Fort Ontario, near Oswego, New York.

1000 COMING The one thousand, Mr. Roose velt said, represented the total number of refugees now destined for this country. In a cablegram to Ambassador Robert Murphy in Algiers, the president disclosed that refugees from southern Italy are being moved to temporary havens in the Mediterranean area. "At the same time," the cable gram continued, "I feel that it is important that the United States indicate that it is ready to share the burden of caring for refugees during tne war. Accordingly, I have decided that approximately 1000 refugees should be immediately brought from Italy to this country, to be placed in an emergency refugee shelter to be established at Fort Ontario, near Oswego, where, under appropriate security restrictions, they will remain for the duration of the war.

"These refugees will be brought into this country outside of the regular immigration procedure just as civilian internes from Latin-American countries and prisoners of war have been brought here. LEGISLATION OFFERED "The emergency refugee shelter will be well-equipped to take good care of these people. It is contemplated that at the end of the war they will be returned to their homelands." Mr. Roosevelt said he knew nothing of legislation introduced in congress yesterday to establish free ports of entry for refugees in this country. He indicated most of those to be placed in the New York camp will be from the Mediterranean area.

Paris Is Calm Reports Berlin BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A Berlin broadcast today described Paris as so calm over the invasion that the city's curfew, long fixed at midnight, had been relaxed to 1 a. m. In a hint that the food situation was serious, Berlin went to the trouble of relating that the French capital was supplied on Thursday with 642 tons of vegetables, 415,000 quarts of milk, 203 tons of fruits. It said "bread for all consumers" was assured the population. Captured Towns Are Identified SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, June 9.

UP) Four towns of the many captured in France so far have been identified by headquarters and field dispatches: Ste. Mere Eglise, a scant 20 miles southeast of Cherbourg. Formigny, 20 miles farther east on the Carentan-Caen road. Bayeux, 10 miles southeast of Formigny, and five miles inland. Berniers-Sur-Mer, 11 miles north of Caen and 10 west of the Orne river mouth.

FDR to Confer With De Gaulle French Leader Coming to U. S. WASHINGTON, June 9 UP) President Roosevelt said today he is expecting a visit from Gen. Charles de Gaulle of the French national committee of liberation. Mr.

Roosevelt told a news con-fsrence he has sent word to De Gaulle, who is now in London on the invitation of Prime Minister Churchill, that he would be glad to see him this summer and suggested two dates between June 22 and 30, or between July 6 and 14. Early this week, the president said, Vice Adm. Raymond Fenard of the French navy visited him to ask if the chief executive would be willing to receive De Gaulle. The admiral is now en route to deliver the president's message to De Gaulle. Mr.

Roosevelt said he has heard nothing further. A reporter asked the president why he chose the two particular periodst receive the French gen-periods to receive the French gen-were the only times available. There is a convention coming along in there, the reporter said, obviously referring to the Republican and Democratic conventions in Chicago this summer. The Republican starts June 26; the Democratic July 19. Oh yes, the president replied with a wave of his hand.

And there will be an election in the fall and Christmas is coming too, he added, bringing a roar of laughter. The president said he knew nothing of De Gaulle's request to be received other than the information brought to him by the French admiral. He said there is no indication that representatives of other countries will be here for the meeting and said he had no idea what would be discussed. Kay Kyser Weds Featured Singer LAS VEGAS, June 9. UP) Kay Kyser, the jumping-jack dance-band leader, has married his featured vocalist, Georgia Ann Carroll, with an assist from a couple of peace officers who stopped them for speeding.

The drawling musician-actor- quizmaster and the blue-eyed, blonde movie starlet and magazine cover girl "Gawgeous Gawgia," he introduces her on the radio were given a speed ticket fifty miles from here while driving from the Victorville, army air base, where" the band performed a few hours earlier. Kyser apologized for hurryine. and disclosed the couple's plans. Then the officers, Undersheriff C. D.

Stewart and Deputy Sheriff George Henderson, gallantly escorted them here, made wedding arrangements and served at wit nesses while Justice of the Peace Paul O'Malley performed the cere mony yesterday at 1:30 a. m. "Don't bother to wrap it. I'll just put it on." This poor fellow doesn't really want a shirt, the merchants explain. He just can't wait any longer for bis laundry.

By DON WHITEHEAD WITH AMERICAN FORCES IN FRANCE, June 8. (Delayed) UP) Fighting as American troops did in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy, doughboys have smashed through the outer crust of Hitler's fortress in a gallant display of courage and skill. JOB BEING DONE The battle of the beachhead has developed now into a race to get enough doughboys, guns and supplies ashore to beat back the enemy attack and it looks as if we are winning. Never before has an army attempted to land such vast numbers of men and materials in such a short time, but the job is being done after a shaky start. When we landed behind the assault troops the enemy still was pouring a heavy machinegun, mortar and artillery fire into the boats as they drove ashore and had our troops pinned behind a gravel bank just above the water's edge.

Troops, supplies and vehicles began to pile up on the beach at Progress Made In Burma Drive SOUTHEAST ASIA COMMAND HEADQUARTERS, Kandy, Ceylon, June 9. UP) Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell's troops have captured the northern end of the North Myitkyina airfield in Burma, and British troops, trying to chase the Japanese out of India, have driven 14 miles southward down the Ko hima road toward Imphal, allied headquarters announced today.

Maj. Gen. W. D. A.

Lentaigne's air-borne Chindits also captured the village of Hola, two miles northeast of Myitkyina, while Chinese troops captured new positions inside the town itself and drove off a Japanese night attack. To the west, in the Mogaung valley, Chinese closed a gap between a road block they had established west of Lachi Ga, six miles northwest of Kamaing, and Sakan. In the Kohima fighting, the communique said, the British captured positions five and seven miles southeast of Kohima, as well as 14 miles south of the allied communications hub. Soldier Kills Wife's Escort SEATTLE, June 9. UP) John Bangert, 45, Kenmore district tavern operator, was shot and killed early today by a soldier as he accompanied the soldier's wife to her home.

Sheriff's deputies Elmo Hudgens and Ira Wilber reported Cpl. Ross M. Evenstad, 27, shot Bangert through the heart as he and Eyen-stad's wife, Florence, 26, walked up the driveway about 2:30 a. m. Evanstad said Bangert was a close friend, the deputies related.

He did not recognize who was with his wife, he said, and believing her being pursued -shot in the darkness. She was a barmaid in Bangert's tavern, said tonight that both sides were throwing more and more armor into the battle. Canadians and British had joined forces for a coordinated assault on Caen, pivot city at the eastern end of the combat zone. Ground has been gained and the main German counterattack hurled back in that, sector, supreme head quarters said. Field dispatches told of Canad ian tanks firing at pointblank 200-yard range Into massed German formations.

These dispatches described the tank battle as the biggest yet, and the Germans said hand-to-hand fighting was taking place in Caen. Central spearheads captured Fir- miogny. between Bayeux and Ste. Mere Eglise and astride the main communications linking Cherbourg with the rest of France. BRADLEY LEADS MEN" With the "doughboy general," Lt.

Gen. Omar N. Bradley ashore and personally leading hi American forces, headquarters disclosed that the Allied beachhead strength included the Canadian 3rd division. This was the fourth Allied division officially disclosed as on the beachhead. The others are the 6th British airborne, the 1st American and the 50th (Northumbrian) British divisions.

Brie. Gen. Paul L. Williams of Detroit was disclosed as the commander of the 9th airforce troop-carrier command who helped plan and direct D-day air-borne operations to the beachhead, which German reports pictured as more than ten miles deep at places. While guns roared along the front.

Allied warships roamed up and down the coast as roving artillery spotting German pockets and stronpoints. WEATHER BAD Deterioriating weather ggaln fell upon the channel, but head- (Turn to Page 1, Column 1) President Silent At Farley Action WASHINGTON. June 9. UP) President Roosevelt declined today at his news conference to comment on the resignation of James A. Farley as Democratic state chairman of New York.

The president said he had just gotten news of Farley's resignation from the newspapers. He gave the same answer to a question for rommpnt. on a threatened anti- fourth term split among Mississippi Democrats. The former postmaster-general and ex-national Democratic chairman explained yesterday he was resigning because his business duties he's a Coca Cola company executive would not allow him to give enough time to committee affairs. A successor is to be chosen July 11.

In 1940 Farley staved in as state chairman despite his opposition to a irura lerm. Clothing Stores Report New Type of Customers Trained Monkey and Dog Get Place at Family Table CHICAGO, June 9. UP) Mrs. and dog sit at the table to eat with Florence C. Meyers, 43, complained them as he considered them mem- bers of the family since they made to Superior Judge John A.

Sbar- hjs Jiving fcy performances. Mrs. baro that her husband Wilbur, 49, Meyers was granted a divorce on insisted that his trained monkey her charges of cruelty. KANSAS CITY, June 9. UP) Men's clothing merchants have a new type of customer.

He comes in, buys shirt and then says..