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Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 1

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Star Tribunei
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Minneapolis, Minnesota
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1
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

SHOWERS V. S. Weather Bureau Forecast Cloudy, showers, cooler. TEMPERATURES 2 a.m. 3 a.m.

4 a.m. 5 a.m. a.m. 7 a.m. a.m.

9 a.m. 39 I 10 a.m. 40 Jl a.m. a p.m. 7 p.m.

8 p.m. 9 D.m. S7 50 48 4S 44 38 I Noon 39 I 37 I 34 1 35 I 41 I 1 p.m. 2 p.m. 3 p.m.

4 p.m. 5 p.m. 60 10 p.m. 61 11 p.m. A statewide public opinion urvey, weekly.

In the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune 60 I Midnieht 44 59 1 a.m. 44 Details on Page 5 I 2 a.m. 43 Vol. LXXVlINo. 326.

MINNEAPOLIS, FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1944 Price 3 Cents Cent Elaewhera nn FOUNDED IN 1867 far WE TO How It Feels to Fall 19,000 Feet Carol, Fritz Mandl Are Keys in Hunt for SEVASTOPOL GOAL ONLY 25 MILES AWAY DRAFT RULES DITHER STILL NOT SETTLED Fortress Tail Alone After Gunner Drops Mid-Air Crash Hidden Nazi Wealth By M. JAY Special to Mominit Tribune RACUSIK By SGT. JAMES A. RALEY FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE HEADQUARTERS, ITALY (IXS) When the crash occurred 19,000 feet in the air, there was terrific impact and I was thrown face down on the floor toward the rear of the fort. I had an immediate sensation of falling as the plane spiraled downward, twisting to the right in a tight circle.

My first thought was to grab my parachute and get out of the plane, but the spinning made it impossible for me to move. Whirling around up there, I exerted a tremendous effort to free myself, but couldn't. I was almost exhausted before I resigned One of the great hunts of the day by the economic warfare and intelligence agencies of the United Nations in their search for the cached wealth of the Nazis here and in other corners of the globe revolves about former A vivid first-hand account of how it feels to drop 19,000 feet in the dismembered tail of a crippled Fortress that crashed into a treetop after a mid-air collision in the Italian tear theater is told in this dispatch by the fort's tail gunner who survived the freak accident. The gunner, Sgt. James A.

Raley, S7, of Henderson, has little more than a slight cut on his face to show for his unique experience. King Carol II of Romania and Fritz Mandl, one-time muni tions manufacturer of Austria. Responsible authorities in Washington and London have a suspi cion that Carol, for the last three years a resident of Mexico City knows where hoards of Nazi riches have been hidden away in the western hemisphere and other parts of the world and would like to 9VC A CUT ON THE CHIN of Sgt. James A. Raley was patched by Lt.

Ruth Dalton, army nurse from Minneapolis after Raley fell 19,000 feet in a 12-foot tail section of a Flying Fortress after a mid-air crash. AP-Wirephoto. Boards Confused by Contradictions By RICHARD WILSON Chief of Trlbunn Washlnictun Bureau WASHINGTON Draft boards the country over are in an unprecedented state of confusion because of fre quent contradictions in de cisions by national selective service headquarters. There are evidences, furthermore, that some substantial miscalculations in the need for manpower may have been made. Whatever the cause, there is scarcely a man of military age in the country who can calculate accurately what his draft status is, or will be in the future.

This is particularly true of those who are fathers. Most recent confusion began when the military services sudden ly came to the realization that far too few young men had been drafted. These men were needed as infantry riflemen of which the army discovered it had too few. Orders were sent out to get more young men, at once. Both indus try and agriculture contended they could not meet war goals if young men in key technical positions were drafted.

A scramble began not ended yet. which has A year ago, Manpower Commls sioner Paul V. McNutt was an nouncing publicly and frequently that evarv able-bodied man be tween the ages of 18 and 88, who was not absolutely irreplaceable would be taken into the armed services, atners were required. Men wouldn't be drafted by age groups, or with reference to age within the 18 to 38 category. That was the policy.

Then, everything was changed. As of Feb. 1, all deferments in the 18 to 21 age group were banned, but fatherhood came in for con sideration. The orders read that a father aged 22 or older who is making a contribution in war production, or in support of the war effort, will normally be accorded occupational deferment in prefer ence to fathers aged 18 through 21, and in preference to all. non fathers." By Feb.

26, Selective Service Dl rector Lewis B. Hershey was sing-ine a different tune. He made no distinctions for ago when he de manded of the draft boards, "eter nal vigilance at every level of the selective service system so that no deferred man remains deferred one day after he becomes replace able." A few weeks later, the rule that no job deferments would be granted was raised from 21 to 26. For men over 26, fatherhood still was factor, and some boards gave liberal deferments on this basis. Then on April 4, an order came out that for men 26 to 29, inclusive, the requirement that they be necessary men in essential industry must be applied strictly.

Fathers over 26 assumed it meant, as it did, that just being Draft Rules Continued on Page Five as quickly as possible as it occurred to me that the ship might be afire or catch fire. After digging my way out of wreckage and the contents of the ammunition box draped over my shoulders, I looked around. I noticed the side of the ship was bashed in. I made my way to the bulkhead door, opened it and looked out. There was no plane.

Then I realized the tail had come apart from the rest of the plane and came down by itself. I was the only one in the tail compart 3 Key Ports Seized by Russians LONDON tP) The Red army drove within 25 miles of Sevastopol Friday in the seventh day of a thunderbolt reconquest of the Crimea that Thursday brought the fall of the big ports of Feodosiya and Yevpatoriya and the capital city of Simferopol and herded th shattered German and Romanian forces into the southwest quarter of the peninsula. More than 600 other Crimean towns were taken Thursday by three speedy Soviet columns. Great additions were made tt a hag of war prisoners that already totaled 20,000 Wednesday night, a Soviet communique said. No totals were given on the enemy dead, but communiques Jist-ed 5,000 specifically Wednesday and Thursday and told of other high but uncounted casualties out of the German-Romanian forces estimated once to have numbered about 100,000.

A Friday Moscow dispatch said the Russian troops were speeding within 23 miles of Sevastopol, chief prize of the entire campaign. with- out specifying the nearest DOinf. and said the remaining Axis forces were In mad flight to Sevaitonol and Yalta in what seemed to a hopeless effort Soviet vengeance. Premier Stalin himself an- nounced capture of Feodosiya, Yevpatoriya and Simferopol in three successive orders of the day, issued within two hours Thursday night. Moscow's cannon roared in an unprecedented victory salute of 7.436 rounds that echoed through the spring night for three hours.

On the other far-flunz Rusian battle sectors there was a com- parative pause except southwest of Odessa, where the Russians announced capture of Ovldiopol and drove the Germa broad Dnestr estuary. The Russians gave a dramatic official account of the Crimean victories, relatine how tho nr. mans tried in particular to hold Simferopol. "Special German field gendarmerie tried to stop the German soldiers retreating In panic and shot them on the spot," said the communique, "but these drastic mens-ures did not help. The German rommnnd was unable to restor" order and organize any kind of prolonged resistance." Booty listed at Simferopol included 10 trainloads of arms and munitions.

Yevpatoriya, big west-Crimean port, fell similarly with at least 2,000 Axis troops declared slain there, and 70 cannon in the loot. On the east, as the maritime army smashed into Feodosiya, Soviet guerrillas broke into the town of Krim, 11 miles farther west, and cut off the Germans and Romanians who had just fled there from Feodosiya, the Russians said. Stalin described Simferopol, tha capital, as "the main strong point of enemy defenses guarding the pass to the ports of the southern coast of the Crimean suggesting that the way now stood wide open for a historic vengeance at Sevastopol, which fell to the Russians Continued on Page Five JAP SHIP SUNK, NINE SET AFIRE S. W. PACIFIC IIDQ.

Well over 200 American bombers and fighters hit Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, Wednesday with 322 tons of bombs and 89,000 rounds of machine gun and cannon fire, sinking a freighter and setting fire to nine smaller ves sels. Lightnings, which covered a for midable force of Liberators, Mitchells and Bostons, shot down eight enemy planes, Fridays commu nique said. Capt. Richard I. Bong of Poplar, accounted for two of the American kills, giving him a new American record of 27 enemy planes down in air combat.

(Se stories on Page Presence ot enemy planes and ships at Hollandia indicated the Japanese had rushed in replacements after the 400-ton obliteration bombing of April 2 which complete destruction of an air fleet there. myself to my fate. 1 realized death was staring me in the face, that I was shooting toward the ground. I was acutely aware of what was transpiring. My mind worked in double-quick time, and it seemed to take a tremendously long time going down.

I must have been spiraling downward for 10 to 15 minutes. I recited prayers I had learned as a youngster. Incidents of past experiences crowded my mind. I found myself thinking that my postwar plans would be altered. Like most soldiers, I have often thought of the time when I could get back home.

Now I was thinking that I would never return to Kentucky after all. It took so long to descend that I became a little impatient. I thought that, if I were going to die, I wanted to get it over with. I really thought I was lost. Then it came.

There was a swishing, rasping sound as the ship brushed against, the tops of some trees along a mountain side. The plane came to an abrupt, jerky halt. I became aware the ship was on the ground. I was amazed to find myself alive. Coming down, I don't know whether I passed out or not, but I don't believe I did.

When the mid-air crash occurred, I was in my position in the tail, watching the planes to our right and left. I was In a kneeling position, looking out over my guns. The impact threw me flat on my face. The ammunition trough broke loose, pinning down my right leg. It took 4five minutes to free myself after the ship hit the ground.

Realizing I wasn't dead, my first thought was to get out ALLIES PROTEST SWEDE-NAZI PACT Demand Showdown on Reich Trade LONDON UP) The United States and Britain acting in con' cert before the opening of the western front to choke off neutral trade with Germany called Thursday night for a showdown with Sweden on that nation's ex port of war materials to the Reich This further demonstration of a new get tougn poacy swiitiy ioi- lowed protests against increased chrome shipments from Turkey to Germany and against seizure by Spain of Allied oil stocks at Tetuan, Spanish Morocco, and tightening of economic isolation of Eire. Delivery of the British-American note concerning Swedish trade with Germany by United States Minister Herschel V. Johnson at Stockholm thus put the fourth blade in Secretary of State Cor- dell Hull's new program. It was expected widely to be followed by a similar representation to Lisbon on Portuguese wolfram exports to the Reich. The Swedes' recently-renewed trade pact with the Germans provided a reduction in iron, steel and ball bearing deliveries.

The Allied note demanded that Sweden halt export to the Nazis of the bearings and raw materials and machines used in making them. Neutral reports to London indicated the Germans were not taking the Allied moves lying down and were sending delegations to Turkey and Portugal to preserve or boost purchases. A report from Lisbon said Portuguese trade papers contained advertisements of German, offers to barter steel and modern machine tools, indicating the Nazis still felt they could spare these items in their strained economy in exchange for vital raw materials such as wolfram and currency for foreign trade. ARGENTINA'S QUINTUPLETS who will be nine months old Sat urday are more than an armload for Regius. Monsalvo of the staff of Aqui Esta, Buenos Aires magazine which obtained this picture exclusively.

The babies of Senor and Senora Franco Diligent! whose birth was not revealed until several iv later have been accepted as authentic quintuplets by Or. Jose Alejandro Beruti, head of the obstetrical department of the University of Buenos Aires school of medicine. AP-Wire-photo. Kuriles Bombed 9th Time in Week By Associated Press American bombers, flying with in 450 miles of Japan proper, at tacked four Kurile islands Wed nesday in their most extensive raids along the northern road to Tokyo. All planes returned to their Aleutian Island bases, Adm.

Chester W. Nimitz announced Thursday, in reporting the new sorties. Nine attacks have been made this week on the island chain. Shashikotan, the fifth Kurile island to be bombed, was raided for the first time by army Liberators. Matsuwa, a third of the way down the island chain and the closest target to Tokyo, was hit by Liberators for the third time in three days.

Navy Venturas, attacking oft-bombed Para-mushiro and Shumushu at the northern tip of Kuriles, encountered the only opposition in effective anti-aircraft fire. WHERE TO FIND IT Editorial 4 Theaters 9 Women's ....10 Sports 14 Comics 6 Radio 6 Radio Report of European Invasion Heard in Canada TORONTO (iP) A purported German short-wave broadcast heard by at least three Canadian stations Thursday night said "an invasion force headed by Canadians" was making a landing on the Nazi-occupied French coast south of Calais. get their hands on them They know that Mandl got away with his $60,000,000 fortune prac tically intact be fore the arrival of the German forces in Vienna. There have been persistent re ports that Mandl, since taking up residence in Ar gentina six years ago and becoming a citizen of the country, has Ex-King Carol been negotiating with the regimes there to help them arm and to supply them with badly needed munitions. This is contrary to the wishes of the United States and the other Allied nations because of the pro- Axis leanings of the Argentine gov.

ernments. The Allies, therefore, would like to find Mandl's wealth for any substantial movement of these funds would indicate fairly well how Mandl was doing with his armament plans and where the munitions were coming from. Substantial accounts credited to Carol and Mandl have been located In New York banks. They were frozen and blocked bv foreien funds control of the treasury department. While these are sizable accounts, the authorities' are looking for bigger game, perhaps under cloak and camouflage.

The Carol account is In Chase National bank. It was opened Jan. 15, 1940, in the name of His Majesty King Carol II of Romania, almost six months, before his abdication on Sept 6 of that year. It was $600,000. a little more than When the freezing of the funds of the Romanian nationals in the United States was ordered in Octo ber of 1940, the account had gone down to around $550,000.

Deposit of this money so early in the year of his flight indicated' that Carol, foreseeing the Nazi tidal wave, 4 contemplated a visit to this country as a possible haven of refuge. The state de- Fritz Mandl partment, however, has announced repeatedly that the former monarch is not welcome. There are hints now in certain quarters in Washington that what transpired in Spain during his six months' sojourn there under polite arrest, as it has been called, following his hazardous flight from Bucharest, has a little to do with the refusal to permit him to enter the United States. Carol and his entourage arrived at Barcelona on Sept. 12, 1940.

On Oct. 15, the pro-Nazi Franco regime put him up at Seville on a more permanent basis than Carol had counted on. lie wa held there until March, 1911, when he wan reported to have made a fantastic escape into Portugal on his way out of Europe. It is asserted now in responsible quarters that during Carol six months' detention in Spain'he was Carol, Mandl Continued on Page Five RAINS, WINDS TO WASH CITY Showers, whipped by strong winds, will give Minneapolis a soaking Friday, the weather bureau predicted Thursday night as rain came in the wake of another mild, clear day. Thunderstorms will add a bit of violence to parts of southern Minnesota Friday, according to fore cast.

Rain will be general over the area. In the city, showers are expected to be attended by winds of 20 to 25 miles an hour, with temperature dropping somewhat. The mercury got up to 62 Thursday. if I yii Receivers of the Toronto weather bureau, an airfield near To- the buffeting it had received. I made my way down the mountain side and eventually got into the right hands.

I guess I am an extremely fortunate man to be alive today. The doctors found little wrong with me except a scratch on the chin and minor hurts. I'm all right now, and anxious to get back to my tail guns In a heavy bombardment group of the Fifteenth air force. This was my 13th mission. I guess 13 must be my lucky number.

36 U.S. BOMBERS LOST OVER REICH RAF Heavies Carry On by Night LONDON CP) Great American air armadas totaling nearly 3,000 bombers and fighters from bases in both Britain and Italy smashed at the Axis by daylight Thursday and they scarcely had quit the skies before the RAF sent out another powerful force of heavy bombers to carry on the non-stop bombing of Europe. Big British Lancaster and Ilalifaxes crossed the east roast during the night in a steady procession. These heavyweights were pre ceded by smaller RAF groups which headed toward the reich New Nazi Fighter U. S.

FIGHTER BASE IN ENGLAND W) New Mess-erschmitt fighters appeared In the sky Thursday, but American Mustang pilots found that, like the old ones', they could be shot down. Two kills were claimed against the latest ME fighter. Pilots described the plane as faster, better streamlined and better turning than previous models. even wniie some American units still were returning. The United States daylight operations, in which a record num.

ber of 1,100 Britain-based fighters engaged, in addition to Fortresses and Liberators of the Eighth air force in Britain and the Fifteenth air force in Italy, were directed at aircraft and industrial centers deep in southwestern Germany and in Hungary. Beti-een 500 and 730 heavy bombers from Britain plastered aircraft plants at Augsburg and Oberpfoffenhofen, air force instal lations at Lechfeld and the big ball bearing works at Schweinfurt Air Raids Continued on Page Five ment. What happened to the eight others who had been aboard, I did not know. I took off my oxygen mask, headset and parachute, left my heavy boots on, took another pair of shoes along and climbed out of the tail onto the ground. I believe if the plane had come down upside down I would have been killed Immediately, with all that stuff flying around when the plane hit the' ground.

I was in a rather dazed condition. My chest suffered from ronto and a station in London, reported picking up the broadcast. Such a transmission had not been heard on regular German stations, raising a question as to its authenticity. The Germans in the past have issued fake warnings of invasion to trick patriots among the captive peoples into exposing themselves prematurely. The Allies have warned the continental underground, however, against such tactics and are using the radio steadily as a weapon in the pre-invasion war of The report of a Canadian-led invasion below Calais might have been transmitted from an Allied station in an effort to see what Nazi defensive maneuvers would be carried out.

Frlme Minister Churchill warned the Allies in a speech March 26 that "in order to deceive and baffle the enemy, as well as to exercise the (Allied) forces, there will be many false alarms, many feints and many dress rehearsals." (In Washington there were no signs of special activity in the war department and OWI monitors lis tening to German newscasts on the usual channels reported hearing nothing concerning an Invasion). The fact that the report was heard only in a few places In Canada led to some belief that the broadcast might have been some kind of a hoax. A message sent to the dominion meteorological bureau at Toronto from a northern weather station reporting receipt of the invasion announcement said the broadcast was received on a wave length of 27.64 megacycles. (The wave length of 27.64 megacycles is not a Berlin frequency, but there is a German station near that frequency)'. fT I 111 JL -V v.

IMMKMj I Atff Report Erroneous, BBC Monitors Say LONDON (UR) BBC Monitors said early Friday that an erroneous report published in the United States and Canada that Canadian troops were landing on the French coast was a distorted version an English-language broadcast by the German radio regarding improvement in French coastal defenses since the Allied commando landing at Dieppe in August, 1942. London Lights Up for Nazi Bombers LONDON JT An unprcccdent cd display of searchlights stabbed the sky early Friday as the cap! tal's big anti-aircraft batteries barked out at a small group of Nazi raiders that penetrated the London area for the second successive night. Apparently the extraordinary use of searchlights was part of a defense surprise prepared in a series of night exercises earlier this week. Several high explosives fell on the rim of the city, causing minor damage, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Airplane Stamp 2 to Be Shoe Coupon WASHINGTON CP) Airplane stamp 2 in war ration book 3 will become valid May 1 and remain good indefinitely for buying a pair of shoes.

Airplane stamp 1 in the same book, valid since last November is also good indefinitely. But stamp 18 in book 1 will be good only through April 30. HAPPY CHILD BRIDE; JOYOUS GROOM Ernest Whitehead, 25-year-old Detroit war worker from Tennessee, and his 13-year-old bride, Imogene, were questioned by Detroit police after they had been about to catch a bus for their honeymoon. They were married in Alcorn county, Tennessee, with parental consent, they said. Legal age for marriage with consent in that state ii 12.

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