The Morning News from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 1

Delaware's Morning Paper First with the Latest News United Press Associated Press International News Service Latest City Edition Warm. Thundershowers. (Weather Condition, Tides, on Page 11.) VOL 126 NO. 41 WILMINGTON. DELAWARE, THURSDAY.

AUGUST 17. 1944 TWENTY-TWO PAGES PRICE THREE CENTS ORE MIERA PORT OF Mratot A ES CM CANNES Big Battle Reported 35 Miles rom jrans Yanks Wade Ashore in Southern France NAZIS HE BEDS TO QUIT SMIL TIN PATTON RACES ALONG FRONT OF 100 MILES New Dash Toward French Capital Thought Designed to Trap Nazis Who Managed To Escape Through Falaise Gap; Allies Maintaining Silence ENEMY RAZES NICE DEFENSE, FLEES INLAND All Initial Objectives in Southern France Are Taken With Exceptionally Light Losses; Reinforcements Pour Ashore; 700 Captured i 1 m. ITT By PHIL AULT Vnited Press Correspondent ALLIED SUPREME HEADQUARTERS. London, Thursday, Aug. 17 The German high command reported Wednesday that George S.

Patton's tanks had smashed within 35 miles of Paris in an explosive new offensive into central France on a 100-mile front, leaving far behind the beaten remnants of the German Seventh Army in the Falaise trap. Patton's Third Army already had accounted for 70,000 men of the Seventh Army killed, captured or encircled in Brittany in his sensational advance from Avranches, front reports said. If the German reports are true, it appeared Patton had launched a bold drive to wind up the battle for Paris, and perhaps for a large part of France itself, in a matter of days. Fierce Battle Reported A DNB broadcast of a high command bulletin, the most reliable channel of news out of Germany, said a fierce battle with strong, bomber-supported American force already had been fought at Dreux, 35 miles airline from the Parisian outskirts. Asserting heavy losses were inflicted on the Yanks, Berlin Indicated the Paris defense garrison may have rushed out to give battle since the Seventh Army was believed the only major force U.

S. soldiers wade throuqh the water from an LCI to the beach at a point east of Toulon, on the Mediterranean coast or France, as the neto invasion began Aug. 15. This it the first picture of the new campaign made from the ground. (AP wirephoto from Signal Corps radiophoto.

4-POW FRENCH PATRIOTS By NOLAND NORGAARD Associated Press Correspondent ROME, Aug. 15 French and American invasion troops, now identified as the Seventh Army, under the veteran U. S. Alexander M. Patch, were fighting as much as eight miles into southern France tonight after smashing German coastal defenses and establishing themselves firmly on a 70-mile stretch of the Mediterranean coast between Toulon and Cannes.

(An ABSIE (American Broadcasting Station in Europe) broadcast reported by the OWI today quoted the Algiers radio as saying that "Cannes on the French Riviera is in Allied hands." (A front dispatch declared the famous resort of St. Tropez also had been captured. (After contending all day that the Allied beachheads in southern France were widely scattered along the Riviera and "isolated from one another," the German radio tonight suddenly announced that the defending forces had destroyed harbor installations at Nice, Cannes and St. Tropea and were withdrawing inland to get out of the range of naval guns. Expect Crisis Inland critical hour is expected not on the coast, but Inland," said the German Transocean agency in seeking to explain the Withdrawals.

It said many coastal points were "under the heaviest fire of Allied naval artillery." (Major landings, according to the German broadcasts, were at the mouth of the Anger River and bn the St. Tropez Peninsula but others were said to be expected. (Allied airborne troops were declared by the Germans to be attacking the defenses from the rear, "especially at St. Raphael," and also in the Nice area.) Disclosing that the land, sea and air forces making this latest breach in Hitler's continental wall were under an all-American command, Allied headquarters announced tonight that "all Initial objectives have been taken" and that casualties of all services had been "exceptionally light." At 10:45 o'clock tonight (4:45 p. m.

EWZ) headquarters announced that the landing of reinforcements was continuing with out interruption and that the bulk of the leading infantry divisions was already ashore. Nearly 700 prisoners had been counted up to last midnight, the anouncement said. Nazis Blocked The Allies tonight were pouring ashore by sea and air a steady stream of new fighters and equipment. British and American BATTLE GERMANS between the Allies and the capital. The Germans also reported Third Army spearheads had raced 47 miles southward to the Tours area, and were threatening the historic cities of Orleans and Chartres, respectively 68 and 43 miles below Paris.

A drive to Orleans would represent a gain of 78 miles from the last officially reported American position at Le Mans, although our forces are known to have been probing eastward for some days. The drive to the Tours area would mark a. substantial stride toward junction with the new Riviera front, still some 350 miles beyond. The thrust to Dreux would threaten envelopment of whatever enemy forces had broken through th Falaise gap. Allies Blackout News Allied headquarters imposed an official news blackout on all Allied movements east of the Argentan-Le Mans line and furthermore discouraged speculation on the German reports, although there was no denial of them.

Far to the northwest, meanwhile, the American First Army collapsed the western wall of the Falaise pocket in a five-mile drive on a 10-mile front southeast of Vire, capturing Tinchebray, Yvrandes and St. Pierre d'Etrement and entering the stronghold of Flers, 15 miles southeast of Vire. fl rlirfl fr.Vtl CARVEL BACKED Fierce Counter Blow Near Warsaw Cost Enemy Heavily; Russians Not Alarmed Loss of Ossow is First Setback for Soviets Since Drive Began; Assaults At Other Points are Repulsed By W. W. HERCHER Associated Press Correspondent LONDON.

Thursday. Aug. 17 The Germans threw gigantic tank and infantry forces into an all-out struggle to hold Warsaw yesterday and forced the Russians out of the town of Ossow, seven miles northeast of the old Polish capital's contiguous suburb of Praga. Loss of Ossow. acknowledged in the midnight Soviet communique was the first time the Russians have announced giving ground since the vast victory parade of their summer offensive began June 23, but Moscow dispatches emphasized that this was no cause for Allied alarm.

An early morning supplement to the communique stressed the tremendous losses suffered by the German eounter-attackers, saying 30 enemy tanks, seven self-propelled guns, 11 armored troop carriers and four armored cars were left wrecked on a battlefield strewn with hundreds of Nazi dead before the Russians pulled back. Moscow mUitary observers took the view the ferocious German counter-attacks were but the prelude to a Russian operation to smash the Germans at Warsaw. Other Blows Repulsed Repeated German counter-attacks in Estonia, on the Latvian-Lithuanian front and elsewhere were announced by the Russians as German resistance generally stiffened. All these were declared to have been thrown back, while the Russians themselves broke into the big south Poland town of San-domierz, on the flank of their trans-Vistula bridgehead, and engaged in street fighting. Russian accounts underscored that the Red Army had the situation in hand all along the front and the offensive still lay with the Russians, although the German counter-offensive northeast of Warsaw was admittedly the most serious blow by the Nazis since the beginning of the great summer campaign.

The Russians never had announced capture of Ossow, marking their closest approach to Warsaw since they began the suburban siege See RUSSIA Page 19 U. S. HALTS SHIPMENTS OF GOLD TO ARGENTINA Treasury Declines Comment On New Order WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 (flV-The Treasury's foreign funds control division has halted the withdrawal of Argentine gold from the United States. While the Treasury declined offi cial comment, it was learned today that the division recently refused to permit a shipment of something under $2,000,000 from New Orleans, and that no further shipments would be allowed pending some change in the diplomatic situation.

Argentina had been withdrawing gold from this country for several months. Withdrawals reached a total somewhere between $20,000,000 and $30,000,000. In halting gold shipments to. the Argentine, the Treasury presumably acted with the full concurrence of the State Department, since that department has the final word in international affairs. NAZIS FORESEE ALLIED VICTORY IN BROADCAST Refer to "Vanquished' Germany And Japan; Predict Third War By The Vnited Press The German foreign office agency has made a propaganda broadcast, referring to the possibility of an "Allied victory" and warning a third world war is inevitable unless a compromise peace is reached giving the defeated nations important concessions, the OWI reported Wednesday to the United Press.

The broadcast quoted an article from the periodical, "Berlin-Rome-Tokyo," which made reference to a "vanquished Germany and a vanquished Japan," as appealing for a peace based on a "genuine compromise of interests." ER COMBINE TO ENFORCE PEACE SCOREBBYDEWEY Alliance to Dominate World Branded Immoral by Candidate Wants All Nations to Have 'Full State Department Keeps Silence By The Associated Press ALBANY, N. Aug. Gov. Thomas E. Dewey declared tonight that if the Washington post-war security conference resulted in a permanent four-power alliance "to dominate the world," the United Nations will have descended to power politics and "we will have lost the war before we have won it." In a statement frankly interpreted by aides as critical of- proposals made by President Roosevelt and Russian representatives for an enduring partnership between the United States, Great Britain, Russia and China, the Republican Presidential nominee insisted as soon as the world was brought to order by the big four, the small nations must have a voice in deciding their future destinies.

Telling reporters he believed he spoke the views of the Republican Party, Dewey said "in the kind of permanent world organization we seek, all nations, great and small, must be assured of their full rights." He had received "disturbing reports," Dewey said, that the conversations which were to begin between diplomatic representatives of the four big Allied countries at the old Georgetown mansion of Dumbarton Oaks in Washington next week might be aimedj, toward a permanent four-power military alliance. "It would be a tragedy if the coming conference among the British, Russian, Chinese and ourselves should be distracted from the task of planning for a genuine world organization for peace by proposals See DEWEY Page 3 S20 JOBLESS PAY BY SUSSEX GROUP GETS NEW BACKING Paratroops Drop, Into Wrong Town, But They Take It By HERBERT L. MATTHEWS Sew York Times Correspondent Representing The Combined American Press ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA, Aug. 16 UP) Mistakes will happen in amphibious landings, so American paratroopers took the famous resort of St Tropez when they should have been somewhere inland. I found a group of tough, happy youngsters here this morning, and since they were satisfied, and so was the high command, there were no kicks coming.

It was cloudy night before last and navigators went by their so-called precision instruments. At a given time they were supposed to be over the See PARATROOPS Page 4 MERCURY HITS 93; Rainfall is Not Expected Before Tomorrow at Least; Ice Shortage Threatens An unrelenting sun drove the mercury up to 93 degrees yesterday to mark the seventh consecutive day of 90-degree temperatures for the Wilmington area and another scorcher is promised for today. The weatherman told perspiring citizens that they can't hope for any relief before tomorrow. There won't be any general rains for another 24 hours at least, he predicted. Wilmington was threatened with rationing of ice as the demand zoomed because of the heat.

Ice companies say that reserves are dwindling and that unless the demand slacks off within a week, some system of rationing will have to be started. Newark, N. topped the nation's larger cities for high temperature with 99 degrees. Because of the heat See WEATHER Page 4 Washington, D. C.

They all received the Bronze Star through an order of the day issued by Gen. Raymond O. Barton. Lieutenant Rooks, asked by headquarters of the famed Fourth Division to find out what the Germans had in front of the Americans that was blocking the advance near St. Germain sur Seves late last month, chose Connell and the two other enlisted men to aid him.

Beginning at 2:30 o'clock one dark See HERO-Page 5 HEATTOCON I CAPTURE TOWNS Swiss See Huge Fires Raging Over Border As Conflict Spreads Allied Planes Drop Weapons To Partisans; Nazi Troops, SS Men Fight Each Other By THOMAS F. HAWKINS Associated Press Correspondent ON THE FRENCH-SWISS FRONTIER. Thursday, Aug. 17 Frenchmen throughout Haute Savoie, sup plied with guns and ammunition dropped by Allied planes during the past week, fought on bitterly this morning in a major revolt against the Nazis. Just after midnight big fires could be seen on Mount Saleve just outside Geneva.

Germans were smoked out of the school buildings at Ville la Grande where they had held out all day Wednesday. The region was completely under partisan control. Just before mid night Allied planes dropped new supplies to feed the battle. It was reported reliably that a series of supply gliders landed in the French Juras just after dusk Wednesday. There was no doubt that a gen eral uprising, a real revolt, was in progress.

Village fter village was liberated during the afternoon. Fighting French appeared at custom posts. Fighting between soldiers and SS units helpVd to spread chaos in the Nazi garrisons. Nazis Battle Nazis German army troops at Thonon-les-Bains fought a bitter, day-long battle with machine-guns, rifles and hand to hand against their own Ges tapo and SS units, while outside the town between Avian and Thonon partisans carried out a heavy offen sive against occupation troops." Big fires- were started in the village of Amphion and Nazi troops there fled in disorder. Four officers surrendered to parti-See PATRIOTS Page 4 4 NAZI CAPTIVES FLEE IN SUSSEX, SOON TAKEN Jump From Truck on Work Detail; Are Returned to Camp Four German prisoners of war escaped from a truck near Millsboro yesterday afternoon, only to be returned to their camp a few hours later.

The four men, part of a work detail employed at the Millsboro Poultry Company plant, jumped from the back of a truck as it slowed down for a curve. The truck was on the Laurel-Whiteville road, on its way to a farm where the detail was to pick up a load of chickens for the firm. The men are: Heinze Hoffman, 23; Ernst Blagentz, 31; Karl Lemnitzer, 23, and EThard Pappik. 30. All had served in Rommel's Afrika Korps.

Military authorities at Fort Du-Pont said the men were back in camp late in the afternoon. The circumstances of their return were not explained. -airborne troops, landed on a big scale behind the lines, were effectively blocking German attempts to rush reinforcements to the invasion scene. The Americans used flamethrowers to burn Germans out of stone emplacements'. The highly-trained and expert airborne forces were landed from towed gliders which formed a train fully 50 miles long and several miles wide, and by parachute from transports which kept more than 1.000 men swinging in the air at a time.

Although serious opposition was encountered at one undisclosed point, preventing the Allies from debarking, most of the opening assault "overran intricate beach obstacles strongly protected by German coastal guns," headquarters disclosed tonight. Opposition Still Weak No powerful or general German opposition had yet developed, persons arriving from the beachhead reported. The headquarters of Gen. Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, Briton who is commander-in-chief of the Allied Mediterranean forces, disclosed tonight that the invasion was under American command on land and sea and in the air The attacking ground force is th American Seventh Army, paced by the veteran Sixth Corps of Anzio fame and commanded by General Patch, veteran of Guadalcanal and successor last spring to George S. Patton, as chief of the Seventh Army.

The invading French forces art See SOUTH FRANCE Page 4 Index of the News smoking, reeking ruins of Falaise, cutting the Germans" lifeline through the town, and as American Third Army forces from the south narrowed the gap to five miles, enemy prisoners began streaming in by the thousands. (Associated Press said the immense disorder of the enemy's organization was demonstrated In the capture of scattered elements of a dozen different divisions in small groups ail over the battleefieid.) Almost 10,000 had been counted in 48 hours and at least 50.000 more Germans were believed still in the pocket with only a few of them having a chance to get through the gap bv means of hedge-screened sunken roads Just south of Falaise. All enemy heavy equipment remaining west of Palais was as good as in the (According: to Associated Press, a British staff officer admitted the Germans had extricated most of their armor from the trap. Infantry was still gee NORTH FRANCE Page 4 GUAM SURVIVOR WINS DIVORCE IN SPEEDY SUIT Tweed Chanted Mate Insulted Wives Of Other Navy Men SAN DIEGO, Aug. 16 iPi Chief Radioman George Ray Tweed.

42. who was rescued from Guam after 31 months of eluding the Japanese, has been granted an interlocutor? degree of divorce from his wife. Marv Frances Tweed, 27. records in Superior Judge Jacob Weinberger's court revealed today. The surprising development was disclosed as Tweed prepared to return to active duty after a 30-day furlough.

Tweed filed the divorce complaint July 26. nine days after arriving here for a reunion with his family Mrs. Tweed arid her children Ro-nal Cross, 9. a son by a first mar riage and Robert, 3 were evacu ated from Guam in October, 1941. She filed a waiver of contest to the complaint.

Testimony showed the Tweeds vera married in Yuma. December. 1938. Tweed told the court although the date of separ ation wa July 25, 1944, they had greed to separate in 1941, while they were en Guam. He alleged she insulted wives of other service men on Guam, virtually leading to his social ostracism.

Laurel Business Man Slated For Lieutenant Governor On Democratic Ticket Elbert N. Carvel of Laurel Is the Sussex County choice as Democratic candidate for lieutenant-governor, Isaac L. Smith, Sussex County chairman, revealed last night. The Sussex County Democratic Committee nas agreed to support Mr. Carvel, a Laurel business man.

who is secretary and treasurer of the Valliant Fertilizer Company. It was understood that the Sussex County Democrats would name the lieutenant-governor to be nominated at the party's convention in Dover on Tuesday since Kent County will have the nominee for Governor and New Castle the choice of the member of Congress. They are Dr. Isaac J. MacCollum of Dover, slated to be nominated for governor, and former U.

S. Rep. Philip A. Traynor. who is expected to be the candidate for reelection.

Sussex County Democrats have also completed their county slate for the primary election, at which there will be no contests, Mr. Smith reported. New Castle County leaders last See DEMOCRATS Pae 4 NEW LANDING IN FRANCE WATCHED BY CHURCHILL Prime Minister With Patterson And General Somervell en Warship ROME, Aug. 16 JP) Prime Minister Churchill visited Corsica and then went by destroyer to watch landing operations on the French coast. Allied headquarters announced tonight.

With the Prime Minister as guests on the warship were U. S. Under-Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson and Lieut-Gen. Brehon B.

Somervell, commander of the American Army Services of Supply. "Prime Minister Churchill was greatly impressed by the clockwork precision of the operation, tne headquarters announcement said. Byrnes Reported Supporting Proposal While House Studies George Measure WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 (fP) A move for unemployment benefits up to 20 a week gathered headway at the Capitol today with the reported backing of war mobilization director James F. Byrnes.

House backers of the Senate-defeated Kilgore bill, which would have set federal standards up to $35 a week, gave indications for a time that they might settle for the lower figures, but later Rep. Celler (D-KyJ announced he will make a floor fight for the Kilgore bill with the maximum pay cut to $25. Byrnes, in an executive session of the House ways and means committee endorsed the principle of the George "State's Rights" bill passed by the Senate last week, with the suggestion that the federal government set up minimum standards ranging up to $20. Celler, immediately after Byrnes' appearance in the committee room, said he would accept a compromise that would guarantee "twenty or twenty-five dollars a week" with See CONGRESS Page $129,622,063 WAR "BONDS REDEEMED THIS MONTH $147,292,008 Sold During First 14 Days, U. S.

Reports WASHINGTON. Aug. 16 (JPy War bond redemptions in the first 14 days of August totaled $129,622,063, compared witn sales of $147,292,098. This was disclosed in the Treasury's daily statement today. The only apparent explanation for the heavy redemptions was that the cashing of war bonds usually is heavy foUowing the conclusion of a bond drive.

For the current fiscal year, beginning July 1, war bond sales totaled $2,272,347,694 and redemptions $356,653,536. CITY SOLDIER GETS STAR FOR SLAYING 'CHUTISTS Pfc. Joseph A. Connell One of Party Of Four Decorated for Exploits Leading to Nazi Unit Destruction Pages Amusements 16-17 Births 5 Classified 20-21 Comics 18 Deaths 4 Editorials 6 Ernie Pyle 6 Financial 19 Marquis Childs 6 Obituaries 5 Radio 19 Society News Sports 14-15 State News nd 18 Travel and Resort News 11 Westbroek Pegler With the Service Men IS Woman's Page 19 A reconnaissance expedition in France that resulted in the death of six Nazis, and led subsequently to the destruction of a complete German parachute company, has earned for Pfc. Joseph A.

Connell of Wilmington the Bronze Star. Connell, whose family lives at 105 Marsh Lane, Woodland Homes, was in a party of four that completed the dangerous task with distinction. Others were: First Lieut. David L. Rooks of Zion, leader of the party; T'5 Harvel Kahl of Detroit: and Private Ralph W.

Malone of.