Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 1

4 RENO A ewspa per For the Home Information and Enjoyment For Every Member of THE FAMILY GA WEATHER Fair tonight and Tuesday; not much change in temperature. Nevada's Greatest ewspaper SIXTY-EIGHTH YEAR No. 140 RENO, NEVADA, MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1944 16 PAGES 5 CENTS fl EVENIN IfQ IS Japs Encircle Changsha, Fall Of City Feared New Offensive May Be Serious To Allied Cause Dents Driven Info German Line in France American Forces Smash 18 Miles Beyond Beachhead Russian Troops Drive On Finland Attempt Launched to Isolate 100,000 Nazis in Battle Region MOSCOW, June 12. Launching a major offensive designed to knock Finland out of the war and isolate approximately 100,000 Nazi troops in the northern part of that country, the Red army rolled forward along the Karelian isihmus above Leningrad today after GERMANS FEAR MORE INVASIONS LONDON, Monday, June 12. LP) The German-controlled Vichy radio early today broadcast "a report from Field Marshal Gen.

Karl von Rundstedt's headquarters" declaring that "another Allied invasion is Imminent." "Sixty Allied divisions are waiting in the British isles to take another leap across the water to land on a different spot in Europe," it said. Earlier the German military commentator, Capt. Ludwig Ser-torius also had forecast "other, possibly stronger Allied landings elsewhere" but he suggested they might be delayed "until the situation in Normandy had been consolidated so that the Allies can withdraw the bulk of their air and naval forces." cracking Finnish defenses on a twenty five mile front. A communique last night announcing the new drive said Soviet troops already had advanced twelve to twenty-five miles, and indicated Viov -prp moving forward everywhere in hieh gear. This offensive OVER THE TOP In this striking scene, reminiscent of the trench warfare of world war American doughboys again go "over the top" somewhere on the invasion coast as other troops wait in shelter of trench wall for their orders to go into action.

(Signal corps radio-telephoto from London). TWO EARTHQUAKES JAR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Dishes Rattled, Sleepers Awakened But no Damages Reported to Police light department, after checking its Owens valley facilities by telephone, said the shocks were not felt at Independence or Lone Pine. Department representatives at Boulder dam likewise said no quake was noticed there. SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, Allied Expeditionary Force, June 12. (JP) American troops have driven eighteen miles inland In the middle of the Normandy beachhead, capturing the whole forest of Cerisy, and the German high command said today the strategic stronghold of Carentan had fallen to US forces.

TROOPS CONVERGE The smashing advance through the Cerisy forest punched the deepest dent yet in the Nazi line. Doughboys were converging on St. Lo, communications hub in the center of Normandy, less than nine miles away, from the north and east. Headquarters did not confirm the fall of Carentan, guarding the narrowest neck of Cherbourg peninsula, but said Americans were within fourteen miles of Cher bourg itself from the northeast, and had punched half-way across the cape, threatening to seal off the tip. German broadcasts said Caen, eastern bastion of the long front, was menaced by encirclement with British troops slashing nine miles east of the city.

A dispatch today said Caen had not yet been captured, although a considerable German force has been brought to battle and hit hard." Another story dated Sun day declared Alied troops pressed within a few mik-s of Caen "after blasting the Germans out of the town" late Friday. This suggested the Nazis had pulled back at least the main part of their armored force from the city. PROGRESS MADE Supreme headquarters said fm ther gains were made around Montebourg on the southeast avenue to Cherbourg, and reported "considerable progress" around Carentan, a vital junction. The doughboys were cracking the Cherbourg peninsula line in the center, and a Berlin broadcast reported seaborne forces had landed at St. Vaa.st la Hogue, fifteen miles east of Cherbourg port.

In the widening hole in the center of the beachhead to the southeast, Berlin said British formations were concentrating in the Balleroy area, twelve miles inland, flanking Cerisy forest to the east, thus in position to aid the American drive on St. Lo. Headquarters said the beach head front now had been lengthened to sixty miles, and said the German command had been forced to throw in reserves piecemeal, sapping potential strength from his anticipated major counterattack. The Germans, however, halted the British drive in the Tilly Sur Seulles area southeast of Bayeux, and there were strong indications the Allies had lost the town of Tilly iself, twelve miles inland, although still occupying high ground around it. Heavy fighting raged in this fector seven miles below Bayeux.

SITUATION BETTER Despite the battling there and the hard fight around Caen, headquarters described the general sit- (Turn to page 7, column 1.) Vichy Officials Losing Control LONDON, June Advices from Spain said today that Vichy authority in southern France is disintegrating, except where it i3 close to German protection, and that French underground forces are cutting communications between enemy garrisons. Meanwhile, in the harshest of a series of German steps aimed at subduing the increasing resistance behind Nazi lines, Field Marshal Gen. Karl Gerd von Rundstedt proclaimed last night that French men resisting the Germans would be executed when captured. The German commander in France, in a decree broadcast by the Paris radio, based his action on "article 10 of the French-Ger man armistice convention (of 1940) providing that French citizens who, after conclusion of this convention, are fighting against the German reich will be treated by German troops as franc tireurs CHUNGKING, June 12. UP) An indication that the city of Chang sha was encircled was contained tonight in a communique of the Chinese high command which announced the Japanese were assaulting the Hunan province capital incessantly "from all directions." OPEN NEW DRIVE Invaders attacking from the east reached a point only six miles from the beleaguered Canton-Hankow railway city, but attempts to cross the Liuyang river directly to the east were repulsed, the high command said.

Japanese troops apparently striving to establish a "west wall" along the Canton-Hankow railway to protect their home islands, were reported authoritatively today to have opened a drive north ward along the rail line to match their southward offensive in the Changsha area. A dispatch from the U. S. 14th air force headquarters quoted Maj. Gen.

Claire L. Chennault as saying the new enemy push from the Canton area, combined with the battle for beleaguered Changsha, had brought the China war to its greatest pitch since 1938. Chennault added that the Asiatic war could be prolonged for years if the Japanese cleared the rail way and built defensive positions along it. CAPTURE CLAIMED In the drive along the railway the Japanese are hammering at the very gates of Changsha, the major objective in their Hunan province offensive, the Chinese high command announced last night. The Japanese have claimed capture of Changsha, but there was no confirmation of this from the Chinese, who said the invaders were halted at the outer defenses of the city to the northeast.

was announced at 14th air force headquarters that the Japanese, bolstered by puppet troops, have advanced to the north from five to ten miles beyond their previous Kwangtung province positions and now are at Fengtsun, on the railway about thirty miles north of Canton and some 325 miles south of Changsha, and at Fansien and Tsungfa, on highways paralleling the railway. In Yunnan province, meanwhile, Chinese troops have occupied Lungling, scoring "the greatest success to date for our troops in the Salween offensive," the Chi nese high command said. Lungling, second most impor tant Japanese base in Yunnan, fell to troops of an 11th army group led by Maj. Gen. Sung Hsi-Lien.

Field dispatches have indicated its capture would cut off large con centrations of Japanese at the main enemy base of Tengchung, forty miles to the northwest. Chinese troops in the Salween offensive are driving west to clear the Burma, road and hook up with Allied forces in north Burma. Flack Woman Goes on Trial SAN FRANCISCO, June 12. (JP) Three psychiatrists who have examined Mrs. Louise Flack, twenty-seven, were expected to testify today at the opening of her superior court trial on a charge of murder in the starvation death last December of her eight-year-old crippled daughter, Dolores.

The body of the child was found in the Flack flat here March 29 Arrested at the home of her par ents Kansas. Mrs. Flack told officers the bedridden child died while she was away from the apartment. Mrs. Flack has pleaded innocent and innocent by reason of insanity.

AIMEE RETURNS LOS ANGELES, June 12. (JP) With prayers for success of the invasion, Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson returned to her Angelas temple pulpit yesterday after an illness of three months. Problem Girl Friend ton your lip." He received letter saying simply: "I'll be in town for the weekend." What's worrying the corporal now is: (1) What weekend? (2) What town? (3) Who's the a of on evidently was coordinated closely and represented a step in the grand Allied strategy worked out at the Teheran conferences. Troops under Col. Gen.

Leonid Govorov, who lifted the siege of Leningrad, launched the push Friday, just one month after the fall of Sevastopol a month devoid of major activity along the long front. TOWNS CAPTURED The Soviet communique declared Russian forces had captured 82 towns and villages, including the rail junction of Terijoki, 27 miles airline northwest of Leningrad and 160 miles east of the Finnish capital of Helsinki. Also captured, the bulletin said, was Yappilya, described as "an important strongpoint" seven miles northeast of Terijoki. Terijoki, situated on the Leningrad-Helsinki highway, is about six miles west of the 1938 Russian-Finnish border, and 70 miles east of the frontier established by the peace treaty which ended the war between the two countries in the winter of 1939-40. Teriioki also served for a short time as the capital of the Finnish leople's government, headed by Otto Kuusinen, which was estab lished under Russian protection in December, 1939.

The Soviets said the offensive was being supported not only by masses of planes, but also by guns of the Russian Baltic fleet, and that heavy losses in men and ma terial were beins inflicted on the Finns. SPECIAL ORDER Premier Marshal Stalin himself acclaimed the opening of the of fensive in a special order of the day in which he praised Govorov and his men and ordered 20 salvos fired from 220 artillery pieces in Moscow to celebrate initial suc cesses. It was disclosed the first word of the drive was given American and British officials here by For eign Commissar Vyacheslav Molo-tov Saturday at a luncheon in Spiridonovka palace, held to observe the second anniversary of the signing of the Russian-American mutual assistance pact. Gang Slaying Suspect Arrested NEW YORK, June 12. CP) Louis (The Babe) Silvers, charged with homicide in a resurgence of gang warfare, developed an acute case of lineup laryngitis today as police sought to question him about the slaying yesterday of Jake (The Ox) Finkel outside a Brooklyn cabaret.

Capt. John C. McGowan of the Brooklyn homicide squad said Finkel, a huge, powerful man who operated as a small-time Shylock and bookmaker, met death when he tangled with underworld characters seeking to move into control of the lucrative rackets once the domain of the late Louis (Lepke) Buchalter. Silvers, who developed his 'mysterious throat affliction on his way to the police lineup in Manhattan and recovered on the way out responded to questions with unintelligible gutteral noises. Later he was arraigned in Brooklyn felony court on the homicide charge and held without bail for further hearing Thursday, June 15.

Finkel. with a bullet through his head, was found sprawled in front of the Embassy club at 3 a. m. Sunday. Heavy Fighting In Jugoslavia LONDON, June 12.

(JP) Marshal Tito announced today that his Yugoslav Partisans had liquidated enemy strongholds on the Tuzla-Zvornik line about eighty miles southwest of Belgrade and that Partisan batteries were successfully shelling strong points at Koraj and Celici ten miles north of Tuzla. The broadcast communique recorded in London declared further that "in the Majevica mountains northwest of Zvirnik-Tobut an enemy stronghold has been captured with a large quantity of with Allied operations in France, Planes Blast Palau Island Campaign Nears For Philippines ADVANCED ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, New Guinea, June 12 (JP) Opening the aerial prelude to the battle for the Philippines Gen. Douglas MacArthur's land- based Liberators destroyed twenty two grounded Japanese planes in their first daylight raid on Palau southeastern guardian of the for mer American archipelago. Driving from newly acquired bases in the Dutch New Guinea area, headquarters announced to day, the 5th army air force bomb ers also blew up many buildings near the Palau airdrome Friday. Palau, at the western end of the Caroline islands, is only 563 miles southeast of the Philippines It first was raided March 29, 30 and 31, carrier-based planes sink ing twenty-eight Japanese ships and destroying more than 160 air craft.

The painstaking march along New Guinea's back preceded acquisition of bases sufficiently close for land planes to begin assaults on Palau. The first such raid was made Thursday night by a small force. Friday's assault preceded by one day the US navy carrier task force strike at Guam, Saipan and Tinan islands, in the southern Marianas, other Philippine flank bases approximately 800 miles northeast of Palau. This empha sized the aerial coordination be tween southwest and central Pa cific forces in the smash toward the Philippines. Ground warfare was static at Hollandia and Aitape.

on Dutch New Guinea, and on Biak island, in the Schouten islands, where American forces have captured one or three airdromes within fighter range of Palau. Road Blocked By Landslide SANTA MONICA, June 12. (JP) With a roar heard for miles, a landslide toppled an estimated 30,000 square yards of earth down up Roosevelt highway early today. District Engineer W. L.

Fa- hey of the California highway department reported. The slide buried three hundred feet of the highway in Ventura county five miles north of the Los Angeles county line, he said. Traffic was routed along inland routes, but Fahey said one lane of Roosevelt highway would be reopened by tomorrow. Wife 16 Times Fears for Mind DETROIT, June 12. (JP) Mrs.

Korine Stankowich, charged with violating the servicemen's allotment act through a plurality of marriages set at sixteen by the federal bureau of investigation petitioned in court today for the appointment of a sanity commission. "I feel there is something wrong," she told Judge Frank A. Picard after her attorney had made the formal motion. Judge Picard appointed two physicians to conduct the examination. Corporal Faces In Letter From CAMP PICKETT, June 12.

(JP) Cpl. Lewis H. Applegarth of Cadiz, Ohio, thinks his feminine correspondent is taking too seriously the army's admonition, "But Allies Drive For Above Rome Enemy Cleared From Wide Area By EDWARD KENNEDY ROME, June 12. (JP) Fifth army troops have occupied Monte-fiascone, an important road junction near the shores of Lake Bol-sena, and other columns pushing along the Italian west coast are approaching Orbetello, seventy- one miles northwest of Rome, Al lied headquarters announced today. GAIN 15 MILES Eighth army columns advancing up both sides of the Tiber neared Baeno Reggio west of the river and Rieti east of it.

In the mountainous central sector, Avezzano and its neighboring villages have been occupied while in the Adriatic sector all Germans have been cleared from the area south of the Pescara river and Allied troops have pushed ahead to maintain contact with the withdrawing Germans. A gain of fifteen miles was announced for 5th army units along the west coast. Near Nunziatello the Germans counter-attacked writh two companies, but the Americans beat them back and continued the drive. Among the areas to fall into Allied hands was Lake Fucino near Avezzano, which some years ago was drained and now is a tract of rich farmland. DRIVE NORTHWARD Headquarters disclosed that the 6th South African armored division was among the 8th army units which advanced through the Liri and Sacco valleys.

After distinguishing itself in engagements there, this division made a "ghost move" by entering 5th army territory, passing swiftly through Rome despite the congestion of the city and then shooting northward more than fifty miles up the west bank of the Tiber. Road Blockades Trap Motorists LOS ANGELES, June 12. (JP) They checked just about everything except whether there was olive oil or motor oil in the crank case. Squads of highway patrolmen. peace officers and military police set up traffic-traps red-lantern blockades on California streets and highways Saturday night and more than 20,000 cars were halted.

Some 7000 motorists were cited for various traffic violations. "Biggest thing of its kind ever held in the United States," was the way Officer Stephen W. Sodel, California highway patrol spokesman here, described the unheralded campaign. The greatest number of citations was for having no tail light; next was having one or two burned out headlights. HULL AT WORK WASHINGTON, June 12.

UP) Secretary of State Hull returned to work today after a ten-day rest at Hershey, Pa. A talk with the visiting Polish premier, Stanislaw award compensation to a 19-year-old girl war plant worker who quit her job because a man working near her habitually used "profane and indecent language." Moylan said the girl had "good cause indeed to quit." FDR Reports On Refugees Congress Hears Of New Program WASHINGTON, June 12. (IPs President Roosevelt told congress today that as a final Nazi defeat approaches "the fury of their insane desire to wipe out the Jewish race in Europe continues undi minished." "This is but one example," Mr. nooseveit saia in transmitting a report on arrangements for caring for war refugees. "Many Chris nan groups also are being mur dered.

"Knowing that they have lost the war, the Nazis are determined to complete their program of mass extermmination. This program is but one manifestation of Hitler's aim to salvage from military de feat victory for Nazi principles the very principles which this war must destroy unless we shall have fought in vain." The president outlined recently- completed arrangements to bring about one thousand refugees to this country for temporary hous ing in a military camp near Os wego, N. Y. After the war, he said, these refugees, mostly women and children, will be returned to their homeland. Mr.

Roosevelt said the work of the war refugee board, composed of the secretarys of state, treasury and war, has "broueht new hope to the oppressed peoples of Europe." War Workers Told To Conserve Cars WASHINGTON. June 12. (JP) ODT Director J. Monroe Johnson said today that if war workers as a group have the idea as charged by the American Automobile Asso ciationthat they can wilfully waste cars and tires, "they should be disabused of it. Johnson's comment was prompted bv a report in which the association Dresident.

Thomas P. Henry, said that war workers gen erally are reckless, fast drivers with a supreme indifference to car conservation. "Hundreds of thousands of these war workers are driving cars for the first time," said Henry. "They are accorded top priority in cars, tires and easoline and apparently proceed on the assumption that thev have a divine right to re- placement if a car is demolished or tire destroyed." Search Made For Lost Child SCITUATE, June 12. (JP) Police, coast guardsmen and boy scouts today continued searching for ten-year-old Frances McGrath, Dorchester, daughter of former City Councilor John J.

McGrath, who disappeared Saturday night. The little blue-eyed girl last was seen in a drug store shortly after attending confession at St. Mary church. PLANES RAID FRANCE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, Allied Expeditionary Force, June 12. UP) More than 1400 Flying Fortresses and Liberators the greatest number ever dispatched a single mission struck at sixteen German airfields and six bridges in France today.

The seismological laboratory of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena reported that several smaller tremors followed the main jolts and that all apparently emanated from the same source, probably more than fifty miles to the east. Sheriff's deputies at the Malibu sub-station said they believed a landslide which a few hours earlier blocked the coast highway some thirty-seven miles north may have been caused by an earthquake. Veterans Bill Passes Senate WASHINGTON, June 12. (JP) The senate passed today and sent to the house a compromise version of the I. bill of rights" embodying a comprehensive program of benefits for veterans of the present war.

The cost of the program, including hospitalization, education, unemployment compensation and loans for purchase of homes, farms and businesses, has been estimated at from $3,000,000,000 to Hail Barrage Hits Cheyenne CHEYENNE. June 12. (JP) Cheyenne went to work today on a carpet of leaves in residential sections and crunched over glass in the business district as the result of a bombardment yesterday of hail ranging from pea size to baseball dimensions. A twenty-minute barrage of hail caused thousands of dollars worth of damage, breaking house and building windows, store and thea ter signs, ripping up fabric automobile tops and shredding foliage. CIO Spending Causes Debate WASHINGTON, June 12.

(JP) Rep. Rankin (D-Miss.) objected in the house today to a pamphlet distributed by the CIO political action committee which, Rankin said, "boasts" an outlay of "in a campaign to control the primary elections." Rep. Sabath (D-Ill) promptly replied that "every dollar is properly accouhted for and not a dollar has been spent for corruption." Sabath said that the National As sociation of Manufacturers spent LOS ANGELES, June 12. (JP) Two earthquakes jarred southern California early today, rattling dishes and waking light sleepers in some areas, but causing no re ported damage. The first shock, at 3:45 a.

m. (PUT), was felt distinctly in near by Pasadena and Laguna Beach. police there said. The second rocked Los Angeles at 4:17 a. and was reported also in Pasadena, Long Beach and other Los Angeles county communities.

The tremblors apparently were confined to the Los Angeles metro politan area and adjoining coastal areas. Police said no shocks were reported in Santa Barbara or even in Montrose, just north of Los Angeles. The municipal power and General Weygand Reported Killed LONDON, June 12. (JP) French officers imprisoned at Koenigsberg were told by the Germans that Gen. Maxime Weygand, former commander in chief of the French army, was "shot while attempting to escape," a Reuters dispatch from Zurich reported today.

Weygand was made commander of Allied armies just before the fall of France, succeeding Gen. Maurice Gustave Gamelin after the disastrous German breakthrough in May, 1940. Weygand. 77, disappeared soon after the Germans overran all of France after the Allied landings in North Africa in November. 1942.

Some reports said he was arrested by the Germans as a hostage for Gen. Henri Giraud, who escaped the Nazis and went to North Africa. Boy's Execution Brings Protest SUMTER, S. June 12. (JP) A protest to Governor Olin D.

Johnston against the scheduled execution of a fourteen-year-old Negro boy for the slaying of a white girl has been filed by the South Carolina chapter of the Na tional Association for Advance- ment of colored people, The boy, George Junius Stinney of Alcolu, is sentenced to die Fri- day. He was convicted of the slaying of one of two girls, eleven and eight years old, who were beaten to death with a railroad spike, Flooded River Menaces Area OMAHA, June 12. UP) North east Nebraska flood waters which already have taken one life and caused heavy damage to highways, rail lines, livestock and crops swept into Douglas (Omaha) county today. The flood was said to be the most seere in the county since 1912. The flood crest of the Elkhorn river, swollen by rams reaching 7.20 inches at West Point, completely isolated Waterloo, and army engineers, who main tained aerial surveys, said the town of 831 population was "the danger spot," Omaha itself was not in danger, "ten times as much but they don't Mikolajczyk, was among his first call that corruption." activities.

"Women Are Still Women" Job Commissioner Reports HARTFORD, June 12. UP) Observing that "women are still women," Cornelius A. Moylan, un employment compensation commis sioner, has reversed the decision of an examiner who refused to (partisans).".