The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 1

NET PAID CIRCULATION December Average Doily 88,483 Sundoy 102,191 Complct Lid Wir Service ASSOCIATED PRESS A. P. WIREPHOTOS and UNITED PRESS TAMPA, FLORIDA, SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1944 PRICE FIVE CENTS 50TH YEAR No. 29 KrtterKl Clai Maltw Prxfnflice Tampa. Florida TAMPA MORNING TRIBUNE Weather The Bonds You Buy Will Help Break Theirs World War Situation ALLIES DEAL CRUSHING BLOW TO NAZIS IN WAVE OF ANGER SWEEPS NATION AFTER REPORT OF ATROCITIES 'J Lf MAIN MOSCOW, LENINGRAD RAIL LINE RETAKEN BY RUSSIANS Clear Nazis from Double Track Bee Line Between Cities LONDON, Jan.

28. (JP) The Red army clenred the Germans from all but one beleaguered center of resistance along the great double-tracked Leningrad-Moscow trunkline today and rolled steadily westward from Lake Ilmen to cut the Germans' Important Leningrad-Vitebsk supply line, leaving them but one major rail route out of the north. The virtual clearing of the Leningrad-Moscow line the Russians already were fighting in the streets of the last German-held town of Shu- Forecast ft. Tampa and the Tampa Bay Area for Saturday Partly Cloudy and Continued Warm Today, Tonight and Sunday. For Florida: Partly Cloudy, Continued Warm Saturday.

Sunday Partly Cloudy South, Clear in Extreme North, Continued Warm Becoming Slightly Cooler In Extreme North Sunday Night. Hourly Temperature Yesterday 1 a.m. ,.65 ,.64 .63 ,.62 ,.61 .60 1 p.m 72 2 a.m... 3 a.m.., 4 a.m.. 5 a.m..

6 a.m.. 2 p.m 74 3 p.m 77 4 p.m 80 5 p.m 77 6 p.m 72 7 p.m 70 8 p.m 68 9 p.m 65 9 p.m... 67 10 p.m 35 11 p.m 65 ..62 7 a.m 59 8 a.m 59 9 a.m 58 9 a.m 58 10 a.m 63 11 70 Noon 71 Highest 80. Lowest 57 at 7:15 a. m.

Rainfall Total for 24 hours ending 7:30 p. .00 Total 6lnce Jan. 1 1.84 Deficiency since Jan. 1. 57 Temperature Elsewhere WASHINGTON, Jan.

28. (JP) Weather bureau report of temperature for the 24 hours ending 8 p. m. Friday: High Low Asheville 67 50 Atlanta 68 56 Boston 41 34 Buffalo 40 33 Chicago 39 36 Cincinnati 61 50 Cleveland 55 47 Detroit 50 38 Jacksonville 80 49 Kansas City 48 34 Los Angeles 65 43 Louisville 60 46 Memphis 63 47 Miami 74 70 Paul 35 30 New Orleans 75 66 New York 44 39 Pittsburgh 60 51 Richmond 76 57 St. Louis 54 38 Washington 68 47 Social Security Tax Freeze At a Glance United Press ITALY Allied forces repulse tank- led Nazi- counter-attack south of Rome; capture crossroads and village.

RUSSIA Red army cuts major Nazi escape railroad to Estonia; clears all but small stretch of Moscow-Len ingrad railway. AIR WAR RAF bombers make an nihilation raid on Berlin; drop 1680 tons of explosives. U. S. bombers again hammer French coast.

FAR EAST Chinese troops in north Burma clear Japs from Taro ferry station area. Allied Fourteenth army units gain north of Razabil. EUROPE Yugoslav Partisans cut Zagreb-Eelgrade railway In six places; Nazi troops in central Bosnia being isolated. LONDON Eden tells of Jap atrocities; says Jap army and government will have to answer. WASHINGTON Hull says Jap murderers will be punished when war ends.

DEATH PENALTY COULD BE GIVEN A TORTURERS U. S. Officer Interprets International Law WASHINGTON, Jan. 28. (JP) The Japanese responsible for torture and mistreatment of war prisoners, under an interpretation of international law by Major Willard B.

Bowles of the judge advocate general's division, are liable to whatever punishment an American nilitary commission may una proper, unac couia De tne aeatn penalty. Discussing the trial of war criminals in an address to the Inter-American Bar association today, Cowles stressed the wide discretionary powers military commissions have under the international precedents which have come to be the laws and customs of wars. General Principles His address was prepared before the army and navy released the account of Japanese atrocities against the men captured on Bataan and Corregidor, and made no direct reference to it. However, he laid down general prin ciples clearly covering the case of the Japanese, although he emphasized the opinions were his own. For precendents for trial of war criminals by military tribunals.

Major Cowles cited cases extending back to the revolution, and, in this war, the Washington trials of eight Nazi sabo-teurs and the Kharkov trials. What Applies "National military tribunals," he said, "In the trial of alleged offenses in violation of the law of war, may- apply: "1. General international treaties or conventions declaratory of the law of war, and particular treaties estab lishing rules of the law of war ex pressly recognized by the belligerent states; "2. International customs of war, as evidence of a general practice ac cepted as law; Pertinent general principles of law, including criminal law, recog nized by civilized nations; "4. Judicial decisions a the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations as subsidiary means for the determina tion of rules of the law of war; and "5.

Local laws, and military regu lations and orders, during military oc cupation." On the point of punishment, Cow-les said "there are few limitations on the sentences which may be imposed by military commissions." He noted that the United States basic field manual on the rules of land warfare says: "All war crimes are subject to the death penalty, although a lesser pen alty may be imposed." He said military tribunals have jurisdiction over offenses in violation of the laws of war so long as a tech-inal state of war continues, and may extend beyond the peace by treaty agreement. Approved By Conferees ROME BATTLE Land and Air Forces Deliver Twin Defeat on Enemy (Map on Page 8) ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, ALGIERS, Jan. 28. (JP) Allied land and air forces have dealt the Nazis a crushing twin defeat in the battle for Rome, smashing an enemy assault on the British-American bridgehead at a point 21 miles from the Italian capital and destroying 28 German planes in furious sky fights over the landing beaches, the Allied command announced today. The Nazi debacle in the air and the repulsing of the heaviest enemy attack so far against the week-old bridgehead came as German prisoners declared that Adolf Hitler himself had ordered the German Tenth army to "stand or die" on the Cassino front, some 80 miles from Rome.

The site of yesterday's ground clash, in which British troops routed elements of the German Twenty-ninth armored division, was near the little village of Carroceto, 10 miles due north from the Allied brachheds at Anzio. In addition to inflicting casualties, the British took more than 100 prisoners and drove the enemy back toward the Appian way. Steadily Enlarged Despite this German effort and a previously reported counterattack by units of the Hermann Goering armored division near Littoria, 15 miles east of Anzio, the Allied invasion holding was being slowly but steadily enlarged, latest official word from the area said. Gen. Sir Harold Alexander's Italian headquarters said the bridgehead was at least six miles deep at all points and that Allied spearheads had pushed considerably farther inland.

The stretch of beach In Allied hands was about 24 miles long, extending an equal distance on each side of Anzio. Probably a score of villages were in the fan-shaped area engulfed by the landing forces a flat, almost treeless country. German artillery rained shells into the bridgehead. Including salvoes from big guns mounted on armored trains just outside Rome. Reconnaissance disclosed that the, Nazis were assembling heavy armored forces, including 60-ton "tiger" tanks, in preparation for a determined assault against the confident, superbly equipped landing troops.

Had Field Day American and British fighter pilots had a field day in breaking up the enemy's first really big aerial onslaught against the Allied invasion fleet. The Germans hurled 100 fighters and fighter-bombers into an attempt to halt the flow of reinforcements and supplies onto the beaches, and in the many terrific sky tangles that took place some blazing Nazi planes fell at the very outskirts of Rome. So fierce was the Allied resistance that many German planes jettisoned their bombs and fled. Of the 28 enemy craft shot down, eight fell to the guns of a Negro P-40 Warhawk fighter squadron. Another 22 German planes were shot down by American Flying Fortresses and Liberators and their escorting fighters in big and successful bombings of three Nazi airfields in the Marseille and Montpellier regions of southern France, bringing to 50 the number of enemy craft destroyed during the day.

Seven Allied planes were missing, and the pilots of three were saved. In some respects, this was the outstanding Allied aerial victory of the entire Mediterranean campaign. greater number of enemy planes were destroyed on a single day during the Tunisian fighting, but many of those were unarmed transports, while all 50 shot down yesterday were combat ships. U. S.

Hero; Perhaps as Many as 25,000 Americans Killed by Foe (Photos on Page 8) WASHINGTON, Jan. 28. (U.P.) A fighting-mad nation, outraged by the Japanese torture killing of per haps as many as 25,000 American and Filipino war prisoners, swore stern vengeance tonight as government of ficials all but abandoned hope of get ting relief supplies to thousands of others. From the White House and other sources came hints that the full story of Jap brutalities remains to be told. Part of the Jap horror visited upon the fallen heroes of Bataan and Cor regidor was revealed Thursday night by the army and navy in a documented account of starvation, torture-and wanton murder unequaled in civilized warfare.

Wave of Anger It sent a wave of anger sweepin? across the nation. From the halls of congress to the remotest hamlet came vows that these men, who were subjected to all the man-made agonies of hell before death relieved them of their misery, will be avenged. The first official promise that the victims will be avenged came from Secretary of State Hull who said the government is gathering evidence with a view to punishing the Jap murderers after the war. There were no suggestions that justice be meted out on the basis of an eye for an eye. But there was unanimous determination that in the words of Chairman Bloom, N.

of the house foreign affairs committee "we'll hold the rats, from the emperor down, responsible for a million years if necessary." Chairman May of the house military affairs committee demanded that the U. S. fleet be started on its way to Tokyo right now "to blow it to hades." "Uncivilized Pigs' Senate Democratic Leader Barkley said he was "impatient for the time when retribution will be meted out to these brutes uncivilized pigs in the form of men." "We may have to be patient until that hour arrives and it will arrive as sure as there is a God in heaven," he told an angry senate. "Somewhere in the Bible God says 'vengeance is I am sure that we will be satisfied with nothing less than personal punishment for those in Japan who have been guilty ever since Pearl Harbor of these unspeakable atrocities." Hull said of the Jap savagery that "it would be necessary to assemble together all the demons available from anywhere and combine their fiendish-ness to describe the conduct of those who inflicted those unthinkable tortures on Americans and Filipinos." Sworn Statements His reference was to the army-navy document, based on sworn statements of three American officers who escaped from a Jap prison camp in the Philippines, which told of American and Filipino prisoners being denied food for seven das's at a time; being forced to make an 85-mile "march of death" and being horsewhipped, shot or buried alive for begging for a crumb of food or a drop of water; being herded like cattle into narrow enclosures which reeked with the filth and stench of the dead and dying. That report left no doubt that at least 7700' Americans and many more Filipinos perished from the brutal treatment.

But that figure may be only the beginning for Palmer Hoyt, former domestic branch director of the Office of War Information, revealed in a magazine article that American and (Continced on Page 8 Column 1) men, because nis story could not be released while the official ban on atrocities stood. Death came to Dyess before he could receive the fame that Is his due. Shortly before Christmas he was killed in a plane crash at Burbank, Calif. He died a hero's death, deliberately crashing into a church steeple to avoid hitting an automobile as he was making a forced landing. In congress, a few hours before the army and navy made it possible for the Chicago Tribune to release the Dyess story, a stirring plea for the erection of a national monument to the hero was made by Representative Russell "Will Shock Nation" "His story will shock the nation as nothing has in this war," said Russell, who represents the district in which Dress was born and is buried.

"Dyess was one of the outstanding heroes of the war. He was of such stuff as legends are made of." Presiding during this tribute was Speaker Rayburn, a distant relative of (Continued on Page 8 Column 6) EEs? RUSSIA dovo was announced by Premier Marshal Stalin in a special order of the day. Stalin told of the capture of the large station of Lyuban and four others along the line, and then declared: "Thus the main railway line connecting Moscow with Leningrad the October railway line has been freed from the. German invaders along Its entire stretch, excluding the station of Chudovo where the enemy Is encircled and being annihilated." Orders Victory Salute The premier-marshal ordered a victory alute of 12 salvos from 124 Moscow guns to mark the achievement which, when the line Is repaired, will once again permit Russia's two largest cities to exchange supplies and men. The line was lost to the Russians In the early days of the German Invasion two and a half years ago, and its return should prove to be of great strategic value to the Red army along the entire northern front.

Stalin's reference to it as "the October railway line" a patriotic reminder of the Soviet revolution Indicates its importance to Russia. It was laid along the bee-line route connecting the former czarlst and the present Soviet capitals, planned in 1851 when Czar Nicholas ruled a line on a map between the two cities and said: "Build it here." His engineers did. Cut In Two Places The Leningrad-Vitebsk railway was cut in at least two places between the Junctions of Batetskaya and Dno, said the dally Moscow communique, recorded by the Soviet monitor. This left the Germans the Leningrad-Pskov-Warsaw railway as their only rail retreat route from the north. The Russians captured 84 towns on the three sectors of their northern offensive today, the Soviet bulletin said.

Announcement of the virtual clearing of the Moscow-Leningrad railway indicated the Germans had held even a smaller stretch of the line than had appeared from recent communiques. In addition to Lyuban, which is 20 miles southeast of Tosno, taken Thursday, the Russians captured Pomeranye, Trubnlkovo, Babino and Torfianoe. respectively, four, eight, 12 and 18 miles along the line from Lyuban. Chudovo, the final holdout, is only two miles below Torfianoe. Leningrad Celebrates Leningrad soldiers and civilian following an all-night celebration of their city's deliverance from the German menace waited for more news of their armies' advances.

One wing of General Govorov's Leningrad front was moving from captured, Volosovo toward the Es tonian border 39 miles away. Other groups were moving south from Kras-nogvardeisk along the railway to Warsaw and to the east along the railway to Vitebsk. FDR May Merge Censor and OWI WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (U.R) Re ports circulated here tonight that President Roosevelt may settle the current Elmer Davis-Robert Sherwood dispute by reorganizing the government information set-up under a new management, possibly merging the Office of War Information with Eyron Price's Office of Censorship. Davis Is known to have submitted to Mr.

Roosevelt a long memorandum on his dispute with Sherwood, chief of the OWI's overseas branch, and to have asked the chief executive to decide "who is director of OWI." He reportedly threatened to resign unless the issue is decided in nisiavor. News Summary War TJ. S. vows vengeance on Japs for atrocities. Page 1.

Nazis given crushing blows in Rome battle. Page 1. Russians recapture main Moscow- Leningrad rail line. Page 1. Berlin again afire after raid.

Page 1. Death penalty could be given Jap torturers. Page 1. Britons also tortured by Japs, Eden reveals. Page 8.

Tampa Woman attacked on train; former Tampa soldier held. Page 1. Baby is born to train passenger. Page 2. War bond sales pass $4,000,000.

Page 3. Officers seize 60 stills, in month. Page 3. Paralysis fund goes over $4000. Page 5.

Wholesale liquor men promise to help on price control. Page 5. March 15 set as deadline for payment of land taxes. Page 5. Port security force schedules review tonight.

Page 5. Waiter gets "tip" consisting of shower for baby. Page 6. Florida Pinellas official reports 2500 houses sold. Page 3.

AFL sees unity with Latin American unions after war. Page 7. General Conferees vote social security tax freeze. Page 1. House members praise U.

air progress. Page 2. Argentina suspends trade with Axis. Page 2. U.

S. reconsiders relations with Spain. Page 2. Republican would force Roosevelt's hand on fourth term. Page 12.

White collar spokesmen for food subsidies. Page 12. Heavy Snow Covers Midwest States CHICAGO, Jan. 28. (JP) Heavy snow covered the northern tier of midwest states and the Rocky mountain region today, while temper atures turned lower gradually but still remained well above winter normal.

Rapid City, S. reported 21 inches of snow in the last 24 hours and the weather bureau said there was an average of four inches over all North and South Dakota. The fall extended south to the northern part of Nebraska, Valentine reporting seven inches, and there was some in northern Minnesota. Duluth reported three inches. North Florida Will Get Cooler Weather LAKELAND, Jan.

28. (JP) Con tinued warm weather will prevail in peninsular Florida tonight and Satur day morning, but slightly lower temperature is in prospect for extreme northern Florida Sunday 'morning, the federal-state frost warning service said, Temperature Is expected to be above the danger point for citrus and truck Sunday and Monday mornings. In the Rockies the snow blanket was extremely deep. Mullan Pass, reported 39 indies. There was 17 inches in southwest Utah.

Salt Lake City had nine inches and Denver, seven inches. Act Despite Strong Opposition By the President WASHINGTON, Jan. 28. (JP) A freeze of social security tax rates, strongly opposed by President Roosevelt, was aDproved today by a joint committee adjusting senate and house versions of the new revenue bill. Employers and employes covered by the act will continue to pay 1 percent pay roll taxes throughout this year under the freeze.

The rate had been scheduled to double automatically Jan. 1, but a stop-gap resolution held the projected rise off 60 days. As on two previous occasions, the move to block the increase developed in the senate. Senator Vandenberg Mich.) led the fight, contending the social security reserve fund is from five to 11 times larger than the estimated drain upon it In any of the next five years. In his budget message a few.

weeks ago, Roosevelt "earnestly urged" congress to let the increase' take effect. He said reserves should be built up now against future benefit demands. 'Conferees Go Along The house conferees decided, however, to go along with the senate on the matter. Final, formal approval will come when congress adopts the conference committee's recommendations on disputed Items in the tax bill. The committeemen now are near the end of their labors.

Only projected changes in the war contracts renegotiation law remain to be threshed in addition to five miscellaneous amendments, including a proposed tax on pari-mutual betting. Chairman George Ga.) of the senate group said he hoped to complete the bill As it now stands, experts from the joint taxation committee staff estimated the measure will bring in additional money, for a total government income of more than a year. The bill carried $2,139,300,000 when (Continued on Page 3 Column 1) 22 Jap Planes Shot Down in Raid on Rabaul ADVANCED ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, New Guinea, Jan. 29. (Saturday.) (JP) Twenty-two Japanese planes have been shot down on the twenty-fourth day of raids this month to hit the stronghold of Rabaul, headquarters announced today.

More than 100 planes from Solomons bases delivered the attack Wednesday and four were lost. Allied planes have missed only two days this month in smashing at the northeastern New Britain fortress. The enemy losses announced today raised the total accounted for so far this month to more than 380. Harassing attacks were continued at Rabaul against Lakunal airdrome and the town of Rabaul by torpedo bombers and dive bombers. Headquarters also announced today a continuation of the heavy air attacks recently directed a the Admiralty islands in the Bismarck sea.

BERLIN SWEPT BY NEW FIRES AFTER RAF RAID U. S. Heavy Bombers Blast French Coast LONDON. Jan. 28.

(U.R) Fire-blackened Berlin, with thousands of its buildings empty shells and its streets piled high with rubble, was swept by new conflagrations today, set last night by the RAF in its 12th annihilation attack on the capital this winter. Following up in daylight today, U. S. heavy bombers carried into fit, too Hon UCKLIN GERMANY, the sixth straight day the Allied aerial offensive against the French invasion coast. Sheets of flames roared through the Nazln nerve center as the new 1680-ton assault brought Germany's metropolis perilously near the end of its existence in this, its "winter of death." Nearly 20,000 tons of high explosives and incendiaries since Nov.

18 have almost two-thirds completed the task of knocking the capital from the war. Blast North France While Berlmers struggled to halt the fires, caused, Stockholm dispatches said, by a major weight of Incendiary bombs, the great Allied blasting of northern France intensified. A light force of B-24 Liberators, escorted by fighters, roared across the English channel to join Allied medium and RAF and dominion light (Continued on Page 2 Column 4) Jap Internees Much Disturbed MANZANAR, Jan. 28. (JP) Japanese-American evacuees in the Manzanar relocation center are "very much disturbed" over Japanese atrocities committed on American prisoners in the Philippines, Ralph P.

Merrit, director of the camp, said today. The evacuees listened last night to radio reports of the official disclosure of the cruelties, the director said in an interview. Merritt said occupants of the camp "are practically all citizens and practically all loyal people," and sympathize with the attitude of other Americans in their condemnation of such practices. He said no unusual restrictions have been imposed upon movement of the evacuees. I HONDO.

3 MOUANDj) PRANCE SOLDIER HELD IN ATTACK OF WOMAN ON TRAIN Former Tampan Arrested for Investigation A woman passenger on the southbound Seaboard No. 1 train was attacked on the morning of Jan. 27, and military, police arrested a soldier and brought him to Tampa for investigation. The incident took place between Jacksonville and Wild wood, and Sauls, superintendent of the South Florida division of the Seaboard in Tampa, said the woman was under treatment in a hospital at Wildwood. The public relations office of the Third air force gave the name of the soldier as Pvt.

Sidney L. Gibson, '23, of Atlanta, formerly of Tampa. Ball Man's Statement Sauls issued the following statement: "At 3:40 o'clock on the morning of 27, a -woman passenger on the Seaboard Air Line No. 1 train, between Jacksonville and Wildwood and enroute to St. Petersburg, was attacked.

A soldier entered the ladies' room of the coach, where she was at that time resting, and attacked her. Military police assigned to the train heard her screams, entered the room and placed the soldier under arrest. They later turned him over to military police in Tampa. The woman was placed under the care of a physician in a hospital at Wildwood." Army's Statement The public relations office of the Third air force gave out the following statement: "Pvt. Sidney L.

Gibson, 23, of Atlanta, was taken in custody by military police on the southbound Seaboard Air Line No. 1 train on the morning of Jan. 27.. He is confined here pending Investigation of the case by proper military authorities. "Gibson, a former aviation cadet at Amarillo, was in Florida on a delay enroute before reporting to his new station In California.

He is not a Third air force soldier. "Prior to his induction in Atlanta, he lived for three years In Tampa." Sauls said the incident took place in the North Florida division of the Seaboard. 10,000 Battleship Builders Each Give Pint of Their Blood NEW YORK, Jan. 28. (JP) The 10,000 Brooklyn navy yard workerswho gave of their skill and strength to build the huge new battleship Missouri are going to give their blood also a pint each to the Red Cross.

The Red Cross has described it as the largest single contribution of blood in the history of the country, navy public relations reported tonight in making the announcement. The Missouri will be launched tomorrow. Now Dead, Brought Jap Torture Story From Bataan WASHINGTON. D. Jan.

28 (Chicago Tribune Press Service) The war and navy department at midnight last night lifted the ban against atrocities stories so that the American people may know how the Japanese have wantonly tortured, starved, and murdered American and Filipino prisoners of war? This official action enables the Chicago Tribune and 100 associated newspapers to release, beginning Sunday, what the army has hailed as the greatest story of the war. It is the personal story of the late Lieut. Col. William E. Dyess, air corps, of Albany, Tex.

He named his own story "Death March on Bataan," after its central episode. Grim Recital of Brutality It is a grim recital of calculated Japanese brutality against the battle-spent American and Filipino troops during a forced march on which thousands were inhumanly starved or tortured to death. The joint army and navy release gave a summary of the Dyess story along with that of fellow members of a party or American oiiicers ana enlisted men he led to freedom after a year of captivity. Dyess, then a captain, spent 361 days as a prisoner, of war. After his Dyess1 Story In Sunday Tribune Beginning- tomorrow The Tampa Tribune will publish, in daily installments, the personal story of the late Lieut.

Col. William E. Dyess, In which he tells how the Japs wantonly tortured, starved and murdered American and Filipino prisoners of war from Bataan and Corregidor. return to this country he was decorated and promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. An Unknown Hero Although he is acknowledged as one of the greatest heroes of the war, he is unknown -to his fellow country.