Delphos Daily Herald from Delphos, Ohio • Page 1

1 The Lntect TdcgrapUe BY United Press DELPHOS OS HERALD and colder tonight with temperatures near frefezing. Wednesday rain and continued cold. PRICE THREE CENTS DELPHOS, OHIO. TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 1945. VOL.

51. NO. 245. MUENSTER TAKEN BY ALLIED TROOPS Okinawa Sliced In Two by Troops GAMS BEING FRONTS IN CAPITAL Widen Hold on Vital Nakagusuku Bay Naval Anchorage Invasion of Island Over Three Days Ahead of Original Schedule. GUAM, April 3 (UP) Army invasion troops who sliced Okinawa in two with a six-mile dash to the east coast widened their hold on the vital Nakagusuku Bay naval anchorage to at least three miles today and still were advancing.

Other units of Maj. Gen. John R. Hodges' 24th army corps advanced south along the west coast to within a little more than six miles of Naha, capital of Okinawa, in the first hard fighting of the three-day old invasion. Indications grew that the Japanese were preparing to defend a line across the narrow isthmus just above Naha.

Marines at the northern end of the 10th ary's front broadened the west coast bcachheacd to at least 10 miles with an advance of more than a mile. -The 24th corps' push to the cast coast gave the Americans a wide corridor from which to attack either north or south and also secured a foothold on all vital north-south communications, including roads, railroads and telephone lines. They had achieved in 36 hours what the original invasion schedule said might take more than five days. Awasida-Tomari harbor lies at the northern end of Nakagusuku Bay and today the troops were probing forward out of the Awasida peninsula. Maj.

Gen. Ray S. Gciger's Third Marino amphibious corps, extended the west coast beachhead another 3,000 yards to the north hy pushing acroas the base of Zampa Cape to the approaches to 770-foot Yontan 2an peak. The invasion fleet continued to pour reinforcements of men, tanks, guns and supplies across, the invasion beaches unmolested while 1,500 carrier planes shuttled protectively overhead. Japanese planes made a feeble attnck on the invasion armada Sunday night, and five were shot down.

A Japanese communique, however, claimed that 13 more American warships had been sunk and 17 damaged. (A CBS correspondent broadcasting from the fleet said Tokyo claims that 150 ships had been sunk since the start of the invasion operations were "just about per cent The communique said Japanese planes "continue to apply fierce attacks on enemy warships" around Okinawa while garrison forces "continue to carry out fierce interceptive battles" with the invading ground troops. Though the communique obviously was exaggerated, there was no inclination at Admiral Chester W. Nimitz's Pacific fleet headquarters here to write off Okinawa as already won. On the contrary, hard-fighting was anticipated in the corning weeks as the invaders come to gripe with the enemy garrison totalling 60,000 to 80,000 troops.

Bewey Urges Peace Makes Charge Against Iceland A Moscow broadcast, recorded by the FCC today, attacked Iceland for what it charged was Iceland's refusal to declare war, on Germany. The Moscow commentator noted that Iceland had been saved from the Nazis by the United Nations and that it had achieved independence "with the direct support of the Three Great Powers." YANKS LOOP RUHR FROM SOUTH; REDS IN AUSTRIA HIRER FUR DEATH Captured German General Gives Flans Especially Picked Elite Guard Troops Being Picked for Honor of Dying with Fuehrer Says Gocring is Dead. LONDON, April 3 (UP) A captured German general told front correspondents today that Adolf Hitler plans to die in battle at the head of SS elite guard troops especially picked for the honor of dying with the Fuehrer. SS units already were being designated for the sacrifice, German Major Gen. Hans Bochlsen said in an interview with a London News- Chronicle correspondent on the Third army front.

-Another captured German, Prince Engolbcrt Charles Arenberg, first German prince to fall into Allied hands, said he had received private word that Reichmarshal Hermann Gocring was dead. Other high Nazi chiefs still were alive and making their escape to some hideout, presumably in the Bavarian Alps, he told a London Daily Telegraph correspondent on the American Ninth army front. The prince, along with his princess, Valerie Marie, who claimed to be a great granddaughter of Queen Victoria and a distant cousin of King George VI, were found in their 300-room palace at Norkirchen near Laudenhausen in Westphalia. A dispatch from the Swiss border said Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler spent caster at the Bavarian town of Bregenz with other members of the Nazi inner gang planning a last stand in the Bavarian mountains. The identity of three men, identified by the German radio as a chauffeur and two passengers, who were slain in a big blue limousine on the Avus speedway between Berlin and Potsdam yesterday remained a mystery.

An officials German reward of 100,000 marks ($40,000) for information leading to the discovery or arrest of the assassins raised speculations that the victims may have been prominent Nazis. London sources believed the German "Freedom Station" identifying itself as the voice of the underground in Allied-occupied Germany actually is a transmitter manned by the Germany propaganda ministry in Central Germany. Portugal To Declare War ALBANY, N. April 3 UP) Cov. Thomas E.

Dovvey, 3944 Republican presidential nominee, to- called upon delegates to the San Francisco World Security conference the work out a "people's peace." In his first statement on foreign policy in several months, Dewey sii'd that "without the whole- 1'Gprted support of the people no covenant can survive. LONDON, April 3 (UP) Portugal is preparing to declare war on Japan and take an active part in the Pacific campaign, according to reports reaching diplomatic quarters here. Portugal is reported to be assembling troops and material in Mo-ambuquc to use in ah offensive to regain Portuguese Timor which was occupied by the Japanese early in the war. Informed sources beieve that Premier Ralazar hopes to align Portugal with the United Nations and at the same time strengthen his position on the ome front. There have been persistent reports Jthat underground anti-Salazar organizations have become increasingly active.

i BRATISLAVA UKBAINIANSJ ON ALL OFFENSE AMERICAN FIRST ARMY troops are cutting Into the enemy's rear areas 180-odd miles from Berlin vir- tually enveloping the Ruhr Basin and the Nazis' last major fighting force in western Germany as move toMterd a decisive Juncture with Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's British and American forces hi the north. At the same time Lt. Gen. George S.

Patton's U. S. Third Army tanks are streaking across Germany in a spectacular armored drive headed for Leipzig and a possible jwnc- I ture with the Red Army. The Russians were chalking up advances over the border into Austria. they were preparing a siege on the capital city of Vienna, Also big news on the eastern front the fall of Danzig and Gdynia, important Baltic ports.

a (International) SQUEEZE JAPS LUZON TRAP Amphibious Landing Overruns Port of Legaspi and Its Fighting Back Fiercely in Northern Part of Island. MANILA, April 3 (UP) U. S. assault troops squeezed the Japanese into a hopeless trap on Southeastern Luzon today after an amphibious landing that overran the port of Legaspi and its airfield. Seasoned veterans of Brig.

Gen. Hanford McNider's 158th regimental combat team completed the encirclement of the Japanese in Southern Luzon Sunday with a surprise landing near Legaspi, 200 miles southeast om Manila. Fire from heavy coastal batteries met the invasion craft, but opposition faded when the troops hit the beaches under cover of a naval and air bombardment. Within three and a half hours, the Americans had secured Legaspi, largest port in Southeastern Luzon, its nearby airfield and started a drive to the north. Gen.

Douglas MacArthur said the landing and capture of Legaspi, which had a pre-war population of 158,780, was effected with "little loss." In pushing northwest from Legaspi, southern terminus of the Manila railroad, M.acNider's troops advanced through a pass onto Bicol Plain and were moving rapidly over open rice fields. MacNider's drive was aimed at effecting a junction with First Cavalry and llth airborne division troops fanning east and southeast through the island below Laguna Bay. The lacerated Japanese units which fled to Southern Luzon when the Sixth and Eighth armies cleared most of the central section of the island, including Manila, were trapped in a steel vise between the converging American forces. In Northern Luzon, the Japanese still were fighting fie'rcely and attempted two strong counter-attacks near Balete Pass. Both were repulsed with heavy losses to the Japanese.

MacArthur's communique also Doubt Nazis Can Make Stand WASHINGTON, April 3 (UP) Military observers doubted today that the Germans would be able to make any strong or prolonged defensive stand along the Weser river. The Weser now appears to be the only practical place, before Berlin for the Germans to attempt a stand against the Allied tide, and there are indications that such an attempt will be made. The Elbe river, which runs about midway between the Weser and Berlin, also is a good natural barrier. But the Elbe runs almost as close to Berlin as does the Oder on the Russian front and a stand there would be too constricted between the Western Allies and Red armies. Army Show Comes To Close ZERO HOUR FOR DRIVE IJ.p.(l Army Hits Into Outskirts of Bratislava, Capital of German Poppet State of Russian Units Within Gun Range of Greater Vienna Area.

WASHINGTON, April 3 (UP) "Winged Victory," the army air force show written by Moss Hart, will close April 21 and the 255 members of the cast will get operational assignments, many of them overseas. The" stage play, which has been seen by nearly 900,000 persons since it opened in Boston Nov. 2, 1943, will make its last stand at Richmond, on April 21. Gen. Henry H.

Arnold, army air force chief, said the seven officers and 248 enlisted men who took part in both the stage play and the movie version would get immediate operational assignments. Those physically fit will be sent overseas as replacements. Major General Shot By Nazis WITH FIRST U. S. ARMY IN GERMANY, April 3 (UP) Maj.

Gen. Maurice Rose, Denver, commander of the Third armored division, was shot to death by Nazi Tankmen while taking off his pistol to hand over to his German captors, it -was announced today. LONDON, April 3 (UP) Moscow dispatches said today that the Red army has driven into the outskirts of Bratislava, capital of the German puppet state of Slovakia and eastern gateway to Vienna. Southeast of Vienna, other Russian units were within gun range of the greater Vienna area delineated by Adolf Hitler in 1938 and less than 20 miles from the city itself. To the north, Moscow reported, evidence increased that the zero hour for the Red army's frontal smash from the Oder river against Berlin was approaching.

Moscow said armored vanguards of Marshal Rodion Y. Malinovsky's Second Ukranian army group penetrated the outskirts of Bratislava after capturing Biskupice, two and a half miles to the southeast. The Russians plunged into the city limits under a canopy of shells laid down by massed Soviet artillery. Moscow said the fall of Bratislava would pull the plug from Vienna's frontal defenses for Soviet advances at sides of the Danube. Vanjary, four miles northeast of Bratislava and 29 miles east of Vienna, also fell as the Second army group drove up to the foothills of tiie fimnll Carpathian mountains on a 25-rnilc front.

Advances of up to 14 miles were reported. The Russian Third Ukranian army group was meeting increasing resistance in its drive on Vienna from the southeast, but Berlin admitted the city had been deeply flanked from the south. German broadcasts said the Soviets were battling in the Scmmcr- ing Pass in the Pischbachcr Alps, 42 miles southwest of Vienna and 132 miles east of. Adolf Hitler's hideaway at Berchtesgaden. American and British Troops in Twin Drive to Envelop Holland and Weser River Line on Main Superhighway to Ninth Army Fights Way into Hamm, Biggest Railway Center in Western Germany.

Good Reason For Failure can troops on Negros and Cebu and new aerial attacks on Formosa and enemy shipping through the China disclosed continued gains by Amori- Seas. PA1NESVILLE A 400-pound iron sal'e stolen from the Lake County Auto Club office here was recovered today in nearby Euclid. The thieves had taken $175 from it but left office records. PARIS, April 3 (UP) and British troops captured the Wcstphalian capital of Muenster today while tank columns raced 50 miles and more beyond the city in twin drives to envelop Holland and the Weser river lines on the main superhighway to Berlin. Muenster, 227 miles due west of Berlin, fell to the Allies after more than three days of savage street fighting and a raking artillery bombardment that reduced the city to a blackened rubble.

Twenty miles to the southeast, soldiers of the American Ninth army fought their way into Hamm, the biggest railway center in Western Germany, and began a house-to- house mop-up of its by-passed Nazi garrison. Censored fiield dispatches from the blacked-out Ninth army front said American tank columns enveloped the German stronghold of Bielefeld, 189 miles west of Berlin, and were closing fast on the Pied Piper town of Hameln on the Weser. At Hameln the Americans would be only 24 miles southeast of Han- novcr and fcwe than 95 miles due west of the Elbe river line at Magdeburg, the last big water barrier before Berlin. Muenster, Osnabrueck, Bielefeld and Hamm, anchors of the German defenses covering the North Sea ports and the short road to Berlin, were in Allied hands or about to fall, and Canadian troops were halfway across the center of Holland near Zutphcn, 25 miles east of the Zuider Zee. Front reports said the Germans were trying desperately to extricate their 25th army, numbering perhaps 50,000 men, from the threatened Dutch coast, fleeing eastward under heavy fire from Allied warplanes.

Furious fighting was reported swirling through the streets of Os- nabrueck, Muenster. and a dozen other towns and villages along the Allied line of March as the Germans battled to hold open the coastal'es- cape roads for their retreating 25th army in Holland. Hundreds of barges were reported massing in Amsterdam harbor and other ports on the Zuyder Zee for a desperate "Dunkerque" evacuation of the Nazi V-bomb bases in Western Holland. The American Ninth army on the British right flank hurled powerful armored columns past the German strongpoint of Bielefeld, 189 miles west of Berlin, flanking the city from the north and south. Other Ninth army tank teams broke loose on the main Ruhr-Berlin superhighway east of Bielefeld and at last reports were approaching the Pied Piper town of Hameln on the Weser river, 162 miles from the Nazi capital.

Doughboys of the U. S. Ninth and First armies were advancing steadily into the encircled Ruhr Basin from the east, west, north and south to mop up an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 Germans caught in that 4,500 square-mile trap. Far to the south, Lt. Gen.

George S. Patton's American Third army troops fought through the wrecked factory city of Kassel, keystone of the enemy line in Central Germany. Patton's men 40 miles to the southeast also were ripping through stiffened but still ineffective German resistance on both sides of Eisenach, a Nazi pivot on the Frankfurt- Leipzig superhighway 152 miles southwest of Berlin. At the southern end of the Allied front, the American Seventh army sent its armored spearheads lumbering eastward within 36 miles of Nuernberg and French First army forces advanjfcd (more than 20 KANSAS CITY, April 3 (UP) Wyandotte county officials were mollified today when they received Alex A. Daughtry's explanation of why he failed to appear for jury duty Feb.

13. Daughtry said he had not forgotten the fact he remembered it "too well," and would have been more than happy to have been in court Perhaps, he suggested hopefully, if the county officials "would care to speak to General Marshall or write General Eisenhower" he might be present at the next session. The letter was signed "Alex A. Daughtry, 1st Tank Battalion, somewhere in Germany." Ask Duke To Make Picture HOLLYWOOD, April 3 (UP) The Duke of Windsor today had an opportunity to become a movie star. The offer was made by the newly- formed Independent Producing Group headed by Actor Chester Morris.

"We would like you to appear in a story of your life or a story of your own choosing," the Group informed the Duke, who recently resigned as governor general of the Bahamas. Morris said the films would deal with education for permanent peace. The producer said they were "shocked" at Time Magazine's recent description of the Duke as "technologically unemployed, an obsolete man." Senators Keep Fingers Crossed WASHINGTON, April 3 (UP) Senators kept their fingers crossed today in speculating on President Roosevelt's choice of a successor for Fred M. Vinson as Federal Loan administrator. They hoped it would bring no of the bitter fight that arose when the senate and A.

Wallace as the custodian of the multi-billion dollar RFC and its subsidiaries. The loan job was left vacant yesterday when Vinson, who had held it less than a month, was named to succeed James F. Byrnes as War Mobilization Director. Prompt approval of Vinson's nomination was assured. Time Ripe For Annihilation PARIS, April 3 (UP) Gen.

Dwight D. Eisenhower said in a special order of the day to his armies today that German troops encircled in the Ruhr were "ripe for annihilation." One whole Germany army group and part of another were caught in the Ruhr trap, he said, and their "fate is scaled." "A most vital war industrial area is denied to the German war potential," he continued. "This magnificent feat of arms will bring the war more rapidly to a close. "It will long be remembered in history as an outstanding battle the battle of the Ruhr." miles east of the Rhine in a march on Stuttgart. Field Marshal Sir Bernard L.

Montgomery's Anglo-American armies in the north had the battered Germans badly off balance and were pressing their "break" to the limit in a full-scale drive to the Nazis from Holland and end the murderous rain of robot bombs and rcckets which had been showering down on Southern England since last summer..