The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 1

stages or ten trvm For the twenty-four houfi enetnj thi morning at 8 o'clock, Red river fell five-tenths of a foot and read on the gov-emment gauge 44.1 feet above mio. Shreveport 23.8, 1.8 fall. temperati Rr Mli.ered at Town Talk Office m. i- LXIII NO. 31 The Associated Press Leased Wire AP Features and N.

E. A. ALEXANDRIA, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1945 TEN PAGES PRICE 5 CENTS PER COPY fo) UVJ UVJ limn o) ltd rmy Briviesg Toward Frag SEIZES Lilienthal to Put President on Hot lis Stubbornly Desist Americans Spot Politically lundiu VMiicnid uapiidi living Ur A cut vptam ot in, rUAM. April 21. (P) Fighting on southern Okin-i The Senate is getting ready to kHvelbtra VIS Canal TTangermuend 'f 20 vats gj -Jrfifc BRANDENBURG TWA ryQTaOMius Seelow rfflH llPrCciy a pcwu-ot uuuun a iuu auc uic uciiu ri cbiutrnt nu- nn4iiin a era net thrrP ArriAriran Hiv.cinne Hriv.

man's political thinking by what he does about the reappointment i of TVA Chairman David Lilien Volia trip island's ranit.al (Mi'aru i in CZECH CITY OF ASCH U. Russian Forces Reported Only 25 Miles Apart Chester W. Nimitz' communique yesterday said Adm: cMns of all Inst during Okm-1 f. operations between; 18 and April 18. The lost 100 vessels, among or'ized 45,000 ton battle-: Added to this total Pyle, Marines Spend Miserable Night on Island thal.

Lilienthal's term expires soon and Mr. Truman then will be on the hottest of personal and political spots. If the president renominates Lilienthal he will please the Senate's so-called left wingers. They will feel that he is safely started on the "little left center" course which Mr. Truman mapped in his campaign for the vice-presidency.

But if he renominates Lilenthal, the president probably will lose the support of Senator McKellar the president pro tempore and acting chairman of the powerful appropriations rUland-air wanaie ARTILLERY SHELLING CENTER OF CITY Russians Swiftly Penetrating Nazi Defenses Below Capital LONDON, April 21. (fP) The Germans said today that massive Russian forces were enveloping Berlin through suburbs on the east, north and southwest, and were shelling the Potsdamer Platz in the center of the doomed city. Soviet forces, by enemy, account, had fought their way into Berlin suburbs at five places Bernau, Strus-berg, Fuerstenwalde, Koen-igs-Wusterhausen and Zos-sen. The Russian drive to Bernau, three miles from the city limits, was announced by the German 1 ajeij-'auw i losses included five PARIS, April 21. (IP): U.

S. Third Army troops, smashing into Czechoslovakia, captured Asch today in a drive toward the munitions minecraii. i waft and two ammunition miter Opposition incite terrific casualties from fnr the south- push Of UIC ui, tfoui diiu TO PACE KIGHT) UF Vilosquitos SEIGE OF BERLIN IS ON Russian forces, cracking though the outer defenses of greater Berlin, have peneU-ated the German capital's suburbs in at least five places, according to enemy reports. Russian and American outriders are but 25 miles apart, Moscow dispatches reveal. Uav in nirjPE riHi 1 1 II fUlUVlt MVi 1 1 ii ALLIES TAKE BOLOGNA, FIRST MAJOR OBJECTIVE IN DRIVE ITimes in meht Says Okinawa Mosquitoes Sound Like Flame Thrower (Editor's note In addition to the story which appears here today, we will prnt several others which wc have just received from Ernie on Okinawa.

We believe he would have wanted us to. As a great reporter, a great newspaperman and a great person, he would have wanted his stories to gn through, despite his tragic death.) BY ERNIE PYLE OKINAWA (By Navy Radio) That was one of the most miserable nights out of the hundreds of miserable nights I have spent in this war. Bird Dog and Gross and I turned into our sacks just after dark. So did everybody else who wasn't on guard. It was too early to go to sleep, so we just lay there in the dark and talked.

You could hear voices faintly all over the hillside. We didn't take off our clothes, of course; nobody does in the field. I did take off my boots but Bird Dog and Gross left theirs on for they had to stand watch on (NOW TURN TO PAGE SIX) merican Bombers 5th, 8th Army Troops Over Germany for 9th Day in Row Enter Italian Fort Countess Says Tortured Women Still Didn't Talk Break in Levee Believed Averted on Atchafalaya Goose-Neck Run-Around Completed Near Melville Red river today registered 44.1 feet here, a fall of five-tenths in 24 hours. The threatened break which occurred on the Gene Richards plantation, north of Melville, on the west side of the Atchafalaya river yesterday, has been completely remedied with no further fear of the levee caving-in at that point, Red Cross officials reported this morning. A goose-neck levee has been completed, re-inforced with sandbags, gravel and pilingr, the Red Cross said.

Some of the equipment which was used there is being moved out today. Livestock owners in that vicinity took precautionary measures and removed all their cattle yesterday and a few families were moved out. According to information received this morning by the Army LONDON, April 21-0Pi-RAF 'cstuitos set a record for bomb--4 Berlin last night, hitting the aged Reich capital six times climax of a ciay-tong min German railways by more than cities of Pilsen and Prague. At the same time Moscow dispatches declared Soviet and American outriders were but 25 miles apart south of Berlin. The latest word at Supreme Headquarters put the two forces within 40 to 45 miles of a linkup.

Three Allied armies the French First and the U. S. Seventh and Third hammered southward toward the Nazis' Bavarian-Austrian redoubt, and fought within 70 miles of Munich and 30 from Lake Constance. Asch, just inside the old Czech border, fell to Third Army units fighting to cut off the redoubt from Czechoslovak war factories. Asch is 60 miles from Pilsen.

George S. Patton's troops farther south in Grafenworh were 58 milei from Pilsen and 125 from Prague. Red Army front dispatches said Russian and U. S. patrols were as close as 25 miles south of Berlin, and a junction on the Elbe 75 miles south of the German capital was believed imminent.

Forces Will Meet Soon The best information at Allied headquarters was that 40 to 45 miles still separated Russians northeast of Dresden from U. S. First and Third Army forces along the Mulde river east of Leipzig. But it was clear that the two forces now could meet almost at will, perhaps within the next 24 to 48 hours. Doughboys were 15 to 20 miles from the Elbe opposite the Russian wedge, and the Soviets were reported only 25 miles from the Elbe.

Two Ninth Army divisions opened a flank attack this morning west of Wittenberge, about midway between Berlin and Hamburg, and thrust halfway through the Gartower forest. The 84th Infantry, in a seven mile gain, cleared Prezelle, 15 miles west of Wittenberge, on the Elbe, and the 5th Armored gained up to three 1 planes. Three times were the most had been raided in one it before. Last night's attacks, ade without loss of a single air- brought to 76 the number of is on Berlin in the last 58 its. high, command.

This action constituted part of the northern en-velopment move against Berlin. In a swift penetration of Nazi defenses below the capital, other Russian forces advanced to positions southwest of the capital, the German Transocean Agency announced. In this sweep the Russians reached the vicinity of Bee-litz and Treuenbrietzen, respectively 12 and 22 miles southwest of Berlin's great southwestern suburb of Potsdam. 35-Mile Breakthrough German high command, communique announced a 35-mile break-through scored by Marshal Ivan S. Konev's First Ukrainian Army had reached Jueterbog, 27 miles south of Berlin.

To the north the First White Russian Army, making a frontal assault on Berlin, was locked in a bitter battle with Nazi defenders of the capital along the Fuerstenberg-Strausberg-Bernau line, the German High Command said. Still farther north other Russian forces were declared to have forced two bridgeheads over the Oder between Schwedt and Stettin, guarding the northern approaches to Berlin. "Great Russian encircling moves are drawing closer towards the capital," the German transocean agency said. "Russian spearheads have reached the northeastern, eastern and southern suburbs Berlin." toe than 600 American Flying When first arrested, she said, "they beat me five times in six months while I was wearing nothing but my night clothes." "Don't ever tell me women talk," she said, relating how she had been in the main women's camp north of Berlin with "80,000 women from all over Europe," Some of whom were held under water until they drowned" during third-degree questioning, "and I don't remember any woman who talked." The slim, Svelt countess, married 17 years ago in Paris to the Count De Mauduit, said the ges-tapo at first fed her on bread and water for 35 days at Rennes prison, she failed to crack. "It is okay with me, boys," she said she told them, "I have been trying for years to get thin but I never had the courage to stick to a diet ress City ROME, April 21.

(P) Bologna, first major objective of the all-out Allied offensive in northern Italy, fell today to troops of the Fifth and Eighth Armies. Polish troops of the British Eighth Army under Maj. Gen. Bohuszszyska and the U. S.

91st Division commanded by Maj. Gen. William G. Livesay and the 34th Division under Maj. Gen.

Charles Bolte all entered the historic Italian fortress city on the southern edge of the Po valley at the foot of the Apennines. With Bologna captured the major German defense position south of the Po river was eliminated and the Nazis once again moved northward. Troops Congratulated Field Marshal Sir Hajold Alexander in a message of congratulations to the victorious troops said: "Let us keep driving forward jesses yesterday slammed of bombs on seven LEIPZIG, Germany, April 21. (JP) Attractive, American-born Countess Henry De Mauduit, 45, liberated after 22 months in six jails and camps, said today she once "had to undress completely" while German guards searched her. Bom Roberta Laurie of Stough-ton, the blue-eyed woman said she was seized by the Gestapo for concealing shot down Allied fliers in a secret double floor of her Brittany chateau.

She told how she hid in a typhoid ward to escape being marced off by the Nazis from suburban Schoenfeld barracks with 6,000 other women and political prisoners as the Americans approached Leipzig. All the women worked 12 hours daily at the dangerous task of loading artillery shells in the great Hasag munitions plant. in the city's defense per- IS. Eighth Air Force head- City Recreation Commission To Be Established Here iters announced its planes had Tped 51,385,550 pounds of high 'loaves within Berlin's limits in attacks since March 4, 1944. taerican bombers were back Germany today for the 9th Engineers, there are no further threats of a levee break in that district.

PLANTATION SUFFERS FLOOD DAMAGES The Grand Bend Plantation, 10 wsive day. 1000 rianes Used Probably more than 1000 of the a twin-engined Mosquitos par ked the six Berlin raids. plane carries a Ordinance Adopted by Council at Called Meeting The ordinance establishing the Alexandria recreation commission with authority to plan and carry out municipal recreational facilities here for all ages was adopted this morning at a called meet- 25 Officers, Men Killed in Army -abusttr with virtually as big explosive charge as a German bomb. Kle British raiders were ham-Bow urn to PAGE THREE) Violent Tank Battle Both German and Russian ac counts described the fighting along tile outskirts of Berlin as a violent tank battle with the Russians making use of planes to disperse Ger Churchill Sees Organizations All Nations Can Join Envisages Even Enemy Countries in World Peace Group BRISTOL, England, April 21. ooper's Work Toward miles below Alexandria, suffered severe loss in the levee break which occurred in front of the plantation last Monday.

The plantation is owned by George A. Extent of the damage to the century old home, which was swept off its foundation, the furnishings, outbuildings and crops, is not known. There was no loss of life, and all livestock was safely moved out. The Wise family has taken refuge in the hills. Several families living down the river were also affected by the break.

The 'plantation was formerly owned by Col. James C. Wise, of this parish. man armored formations. Free Press Praised April 21 (VP) The Editorial Association, Renting s.inn nnhiuhorc; of I ing of the city council.

According to the ordinance the commission will consist of seven members selected from a panel of fifteen names to be submitted by the Rapides community council. R. W. Bringhurst, commissioner of streets and parks, and II. M.

Wells, Rapides parish super-i intendent of schools, will serve as until the last enemy soldier has been driven from Italy." Gen. Mark W. Clark, Allied ground commander, said his 15th Army Group now stands "inside the gateway to the Po plain poised to destroy the Germans who continue to enslave and exploit northern Italv." The fall of the city of 270,000, which had blocked Allied troops for months came quickly after Fifth Army troops had severed the important Bologna-Modena highway northwest of the city yesterday. It was disclosed that the U. S.

Tenth and 85th Division were the units who cut the highway after springing from mountain positions in a lightning seven mile advance. There was no indication of any general withdrawal in the face of (NOW TO PACK TWO) dailies and weeklies, met miles. Diesdorf and Abbendorf were recaptured. General Eisenhower quickened his drives to crack open the areas where the German may make their last great stands the northern port belt and the southern redoubt. Armor Reaches Zeven British armor plunged into the outskirts of Zeven, 20 miles northeast of Bremen, in a drive to encircle the river port, and also cut the main road five miles south of Zeven.

British troops were a mile from the suburbs of Hamburg, second city of Germany, and now dominated 20 miles of the Elbe south-cast of the city. Prime Minister Churchill de-! clared today "a world organiza Transport Crash SWEETWATER, Tex April 21 (P) Twenty-five officers and men were killed when an Army Transport plane, headed from Midland, Army Airfield to Pater-son, N. crashed and burned three miles southeast of Sweetwater today. Eleven officers and 14 enlisted men lost their lives. Midland Army Airfield reported at least eight combat officers returned from overseas were among the victims.

Names were temporarily withheld. Col. Harry Weddington, Commanding Officer of both Avenger Field, Sweetwater, and Abilene Army Airfield, said the watches of the men were stopped at 6:40 a. m. Wreckage was scatteied over an area of a square mile.

Capt. Edwin Schumacher, Avenger Field Medical Officer, one of the first to arrive at the scene said: "Bodies were all over the place. It was terrible." cx-oiiicio memDers. Names will be submitted Monday by the Rapides community 'o act on a freedom of the resolution. Ration members yesterday i "fr streamlined, curtailed Jh Praised the efforts of1 Aooper, executive director of Related Press, in behalf of; rotinril for the selection oi tne i seven commission members by the DORMITORY CONDEMNED tion which wc must build and shall build will be free and open to all the nations of the world." Speaking only a few days before the opening of the world security oi the press the world council, Irving Goldstein said.

BATON ROUGE lPl State Length of Term Fjre Marshal Campbell Palfrey The length of the term the condemned the girls' dormitory at members will serve will be set by ne state school for the deaf and the drawing of lots, officials said. giri students have been moved The ordinance was first intro- ncw quarters in the Red Cross cuniejence ai san rrancisco, diu-tain's wartime leader asserted that "nations must live in peace and justice with one another," thus April 2 meeting of duceci at tne An earlier German broadcasts said that 3,000,000 persons still were in fire-blackened Berlin "awaiting the battle." The announcement of the shelling of the German capital by Russian artillery was made by the German transocean agency. By enemy account these are the five key points of the suburban fighting: Bernau Virtually at the northeastern city boundary just outside the ring Autobahn encircling the capital and 14 miles from the heart of the city. Strausberg Eight miles east northeast of the ring Autobahn. Zossen About 10 miles south on the main railway to Saxony.

Situation Critical Describing the situation in the southeastern suburbs as "most critical," transocean said: "The Russians' have broken through between Cottbus and Bautzen and enemy spearheads have reached Koenigs-Wuster-hausen, where they were halted. Another thrust is being made in the direction of Zossen." Meanwhile, Moscow dispatches said that the Nazi defenders of Berlin had fired the forests outside the city in a desperate attempt to halt the Russian tank armies grind- (NOW TIRS TO AGE THREE) (NOW Tl RN TO PAGE THREE) i envisaging the ultimate inclusion i of even present enemy nations in I a world peace organization. Chinese Fight Japs Gaining on Chihkiang CHUNGKING, April 21 (P.i Chinese troops, battling large Japanese forces driving across western Hunan province, have destroyed enemy spearheads within 65 miles of the U. S. 14th Air Force air base at Chihkiang.

A Chinese high command communique said today that heavy fighting was in progress at several points in Hunan to stem the Japanese advance on the air base 250 miles southeast of Chungking. The Canadian First Army intensified a drive on the naval ports of Emden and Wilhelmshaven against bitter opposition. Germans deepened flood waters (NOW TURN TO PAGE IIVE) BERRY PRODUCTION HAMMOND (JP) Strawberry production in Louisiana so far this season totaled 1042 cars as the result of the movement last night of 23 cars. Shipments at the same time last year totaled only 453 cars. Burden of Victory Upon Us MacLeish LOS ANGELES, April 21 (iP) Assistant Secretary of State Archibald MacLeish says "we have the burden of victory upon us and we cannot escape it." "Wc have our mandate from the dead and the living," he told an audience of 2.600 last night.

"We have the responsibility these dead and these living have put upon us. We have fought a war to choose the world we wish to live in. Now we must choose it and now we must help to build it." MAY BAN CHICKEN RAISING NEW ORLEANS OP) Dr. John M. Whitney, city health superintendent said the city commission council would be asked to ban chicken raising and operation of dairies in metropolitan New Orleans after the war.

Such practices now are permitted anywhere in the city. Dr. Whitney said the measures would be adopted as soon as they ceased to interfere with the meat shortage or the war effort. production room of the vocational building. The State Board of Education recently ordered an architectural survey of the building to determine whether it was fit for continued occupancy.

Supt. John E. Coxe of the department of education, said a committee had been appointed to study the situation. LADiTmAY ETHEL BARTON LONDON, April 21 (Pi Lady Mav Ethel Barton. 61, wife of Sir Sidney Barton, former British Minister to Abyssinia, died Friday.

She remained in Abyssinia throughout the Italian war, directing relief organizations. Showers Tonight Forecast Here Alexandria: Mostly cloudy with showers tonight and Sunday, not much change in temperatures; lowest tonight 66. Louisiana: Mostly cloudy with showers tonight and Sunday and in west and south portions this afternoon, not much change in temperatures. Fresh winds on the coast becoming strong at times. He added significantly; "There must be always the necessary force to restrain aggression." Churchill said that as far as Europe is concerned "we are coming to the end of the long journey," but added that the defeat of Japan will require new leap forward a new lifting of soul and body." His views were expressed under a new roof in the great firc-blackened hall of the University of Bristol, to which he came to present honors to two members of his war cabinet.

Churchill was made, a Freeman' 'of Bristol. Churchill told the university audience that inside the vast structure of the new world organization "from which a long and peaceful period, (there) will be open, avowed and inseparable friendship and affection of the great English-speaking nations of the world." He said the Allies werr ap- (NOW Tl RN TO PAGE FIVE) Gen. LowryAzcarded Virtual Conclusion of Central Philippines Campaign Announced MANILA. April 21. (T) With the death of 5,000 Japanese on Ccbu island.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur announced today the "virual conclusion" of the central Phil Seville Citizens Begin waning Up as Red Falls DSMat Camp Livingston ippines campaign. Liberated in this 33,000 square it, a frr mile Visayan island area are more man Brig. Gen. Sumter L.

Lowry, of Jacksonville, former chairman of the Jacksonville Canal Association, and one-time commander of the Florida American Legion, was awarded the distinguished service medal, the nation's highest honor for meritorious service, yesterday at Camp Livingston. The decoration, awarded by direction of the president for ex- 35 homes are still flooded in the Riverfront street sector. The ever present question. "Will the levee hold0" was fast disappearing from minds, now at rest after the long vigil of sandbagging and reinforcing the embankment there. 'Good Night s' Sleep "nmilrirrrd 1Pr dlJst Vfr fn' he bus-Z TR, UP" as Red riv-V''1' banks" CrPep back iivv lWn an air 'Jit ihro tho first time in b'PP? Wecks since flod to th a formidable Filipinos.

This leaves the ''only remaining enemy organized resistance in Mindanao on the south and upper them against the Japanese in the New Guinea campaign, was presented by Major Gen. Henry Terrell, commanding general IRTC, Camp Livingston, at an impressive retreat ceremony. The general, now is now serving as assistant to the commanding general at this center, was cited for "exceptional meritorious and distinguished service to the government in a position of great responsibility" from November. 194n. to September.

1944, when he was lOW IlaUV TO 1AG hint) LOCAL UfcAlHtK Recorded by the Army Air Force weather station, Army Air Field, for the 24 hours ending at 7:30 a. Central War Time: attack and to understand our local tactics of combat," MacAithur declared." He has seemed bewildered and confused and although one of the most tenacious of fighters, has permitted himself to be constantly surprised, divided and destroyed in detail without being able to inflict more (NOW TtB.N TO PAGE EIGHT) AMUSEMENTS Saturday PON Hnuf.e of Frankenstein. JOY meswppper. HACBER Prarl nf Death. HAl'BER ANNFX Hi.

Goodlook: Sunday PON Moonlight and JOY Tornado HAl'BFR Peirl of Pea-h HAl'BLR ANKEX-Duny. satetv. Luzon on the north," the commu-i nique said. I "Our losses in this campaign i were extraordinarily light, due i largely to the enemy's continued inability to diagnose our point of "es fk, 1 USJ" scouring reptional leadership in training i artillery units in preparation for combat and successfully directing Even Mayor R. C.

Lawrence, who could be found 24 hours a clay at the levee front, said this morn-! ing he had gotten a good night's (NOW TIHN TO PAGE EIGHT) I 1H-I en evacu- n-it Maximum tcmperaiuic .01.. Minimum temperature Precipitation 01 as families set "ck home. About.