Times Herald from Olean, New York • Page 1

Weather Forecast Cloudy and cooler toni Thursday fair with slowly rJ TIME OLEAN.N.Y ERALD Edited for Southwestern New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania Words Of The Wise foe ci VOL. No. 68 dally a. TorlL ScEdzy fos: it or SUrcb S. 1S73.

WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 21, 1945 PRICE THREE CENTS Patton, Patch Score Decisive Victory Jap Fleet Crippled In Attack By FRANK TRKMAINE L'nited Wmr Correspond GUAM Dispatches from famed Task Force 58 today boosted the toll of two days of daring: air attacks on the Japanese fleet in its home bases to at least seventeen warships damaged and 600 or more aircraft wrecked. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz said the raids Sunday and Monday on Kobe. Kure and other bases in Japan's inland sea had crippled the surviving- remnants of the Jap- anese fleet at a time when it was rushing- repairs to meec an anticipated invasion of Japan itself. The carrier-borne fleet of 1.000 to 1,400 S.

planes broke off its atack late Mon" day. A Japanese communique said the task force including its escort from the Fifth Fleet, was "fleeing southward" toward the Marianas with Japanese aircraft In "close pursuit." Radio Tokyo said, however, that Belgian Bulge Failure Ruined Von Rundstedt there were "plenty of possibilities" the task force -might henew its 'attack. Kimitz's communique on the attack listed fifteen to" perhaps- seventeen warships as damaged, but late radio dispatches from Task Force 58 said at least seventeen and possibly more warcraft were left smoking- and bomb twisted. The toll included a minimum of seven aircraft carrier's, probably all that remained in the Japanese fleeti-and 1 two battleships, dispatches said. In addition, six freighters were sunk anH seven daniaged.

Thc number of Japanese planes destroyed or damaged was revised by late dispatches from 575 to at least 600. "Japan's hopes of rebuilding her crippled air force and fleet were smashed," United Press War Correspondent Lloyd Tripling reported from the flagship of Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, commander of Task Force 58. The toil of enemy warships was the greatest since the second battle of the Philippine Sea last October. when twenty-four Japanese warships were sunk, thirteen possibly sunk and twenty-one damaged.

Guns of the fleet and carrier- borne fighters broke up most of the attacks, but dive-bombers slipped through the barrage to put one ship out of action. It was able to head toward port under its own power, however. Other American ships which suffered minor carnage remained fully operational, Nimitz said. Meat Shortage Called "Scare" WASHTNGTOX--Price Admiais- Chester Bowles accused the American Meat Institute today of causing- "newspaper headlines of He told the Senate Banking Committee tijat- "the facts do not justify the scare stories." Bowles said civilian meat "cer- wiil be shorter than at any during the war. But the situa- jon.

he added, arises from "the extraordinary needs of the war ef- CHA3TGE OF ADDRESS. The former Adolf Hitler Strasse in Krefeld, Germany, becomes Roosevelt Boulevard as Ninth Army Signal Sgt George A. Kaufman of Fort Smith, Ark. changes street signs. Filipinos Join Fight On Panay MANILA American linked with strong Filipino guerrilla forces on Panay today in an offensive that burst into the suburbs of Doilo and swept through more than 250 square miles of the island.

The 'lightning strikes of Maj. Gen. Rapp Brush's Fortieth Division, which threw the Japanese into disorder on Panay's south central plains, ripped through three key road towns and tumbled ilan- tturriao airdrome, with its big 4.500-foot runway. The rapidly developing campaign on Panay, sixth largest of the Philippines, was disclosed in Gen. Douglas MacArthur's com- munique which also revealed new important gains on Luzon a continuation of neutralizing air attacks on Formosa and Japan's shipping lanes in.

the China Sea. Brush's seasoned troops overran Japanese machine-gun points and small "arms in a two-pronged offensive that carved out a beachhead eighteen miles deep and fourteen miles wide on Panay's southern coast- One column raced seven miles in one day along the hard-surfacs coastal road, captured the seven- span carpenters bridge across the Eoilo River and stormed into the suburbs of the. capital, alreadv aflame from large fires. iae drive inland enabled the American troops to join with Panay's strong guerrilla forces, said to "be the best organized in the entire Philippines. On Luzon, two columns of -American troops and Filipir.o zuer- rillas opened a big.

pincers drive on Baguio. former Philippines summer capital and headquarters of Lt Geri. Tomoyaki Yamashita's Jananese forces in the archipelago. The guerrillas struck from the north, San Fernando, the principal port on the casters shore By ASS STKIXGEK i'rrsi War BURGBROHL-, GERMANY --Failure of the German armies the battle of the Belgian Bulge marked the downfall of Marshal Karl von Rundstedt. The story was told today by the manager of the hotel where the Ardennes offensive was planned.

Rundstedt, long ailing from a kidney and stomach trouble, removed from command of the Nazi armies on the western front and immediately replaced by Marshal Walther Model after the offensive collapsed last December, the hotel manager told me. The hotel, which the Germans used as western front headquarters until March 5, was the modernistic and swanky Korfurstenhof Bad Tonnistein near Burgdrohl. "Von Rundstedt and Model set up their front headquarters here on November 5 and began planning what turned out to be the Battle of the Bulge," said the manager who asked that his name be withheld. "They used to work late and at nights took long walks in the woods On. Nov.

8 they worked throughout the night when they were '-believed to have completed the plans." Rundstedt left here soon after completion, of plans, the manager added, but Model stayed- on until Dec: 12, when "tie for Munstereifel to personally direct the breakthrough. He returned here after the offensive was broken and stayed until March 5. During that time Model received an urgent telephone call He was told of the American advance and was advised to move back immediately. The hotel manager said, however, that plans already had been made for the move and that German soldiers had been burning documents for the ten preceding days. But the American First Army advanced quicker than anticipated and Model was forced to move fast.

"He was having lunch when he received the call." the manager said. "He.csnie back to the dining hall, sent orderlies to his quarters in a chateau across the road to pick up his luggage, and resumed his lunch. Within three-quarters of an hour after the call. Model was en i route across the Rhine and the rest of his staff moved out days later." 'vital he said, is that 'the shortage would not be re- ieved in any degree by higher returns" to meat packers. "OPA will r.ot be stampeded into riving price increases," he emphasized, of Lir.ga.ven Gulf, and Bowles appeared answer to Japanese garrison.

rstlmony of American Meat Institute representatives before the committee last week. They lad said OPA was into bar.kruntcv." cestroveri laps Warned It's Victory Or Death GovernmentToStep 1 Into Coal Strife i Lewis' filibuster for a ten-cents a ton royalty may bring the govera- Negro WACs Courtmartialed FORT DEVEXS. Negro Wacs were under court martial sentence of one year at hard labor and dishonorable discharge today because they defied a general. The decision returned last night 03- a nine-member court martial which included two Xegro officers, but it is subject to review by highter Army officials, i The Negroes staged a sit-down strike at Lovell General Hospital i here March 10 and then defied! llaj. Gen.

Sherman Miles' back-! to-work order. Denying that the racial issue had any place in the trial, Major Leon E. McCarthy of Ansonia. the trial judge advocate, argued that "the only question is i whether they disobeyed an order directly given to it has OCPTi TJTOV'di (.713. LaGuardia Unruffled By Army NEW YORK--Mayor F.

H. LaGuardia stuck by his guns today in defiance of a one A. M. curfew and he said that regardless of the wishes of President Roosevelt and the Army, "I'm running the city." Asked for comment on President Roosevelt's statement yesterday favoring a midnight cur- fen- on entertainment. LaGuardia said: "He's running the country.

I'm running the city." Asked for comment on the War Department order that all soldiers evacuate saloons and other night spots at midnight--an order that went into force here, last night and led to the spectacle of civilians continuing with their drinking while soldiers were ordered away from the bars, LaGuai'dia said: "I'm running the city. I tried to run the Army but they wouldn't let me." The Army's order hit New York suddenly last night military police, accompanied by shore patrols as "observers," made the rounds of bars and night clubs at midnight explaining to club owners that they must clear the premises of sen-ice men. The first reaction from the night spot owners was that Mayor La- Guardia's "hour of tolerance" had been hit a body blow. Several saloon keepers, already dubious about taking advantage of -extension, said 1 they would probably return to the midnight closing "to be on the safe side." They were faced with two discouraging factors in catering to civilians only during the extra hour. They were left personally to face the resentment of the ousted servicemen.

Any scenes would not be conducive to good humor among civilians during the last hour, managers believed. The Army's "request" that curfew sound at midnight for its- men had more teeth than Byrnes' original "reauest" for a general curfew. Night spot owners were fully aware of the Army's power to clare certain establishments, or even entire cities "out of bounds" for its personnel. Jfayor LaGuardia coulrj not be reached for comment His associates reported that he was in his annual 10-day budget "retreat." studying the proposed budget for 1945-46 which must submitted to the Board of Estimate by April 1. The Navy said it had issued no order for its personnel similar to the one by the Army and that Shore Patrol accompanied the MP's only to look over the situation pending a decision.

However, it was recalled that the Third Navaf District headquarters here issued an order on March 6. before the mayor's detentions, instructing all Navy personnel to obey the midnight closing. Ice House Blaze Injures Two BUFFALO--Firemen continued today to battle a stubborn fire which destroyed the City Ice and Fuel Co. plant and storage warehouse and caused injury to two Ludwigshafen Next Goal Of Third; Soviets On Attack East Of Berlin By JtOBUKT Ml'SEt. railed SUff LONDON Nazi broadcasts said today that the Red Army has resumed its attacks thirty-odd miles east of Berlin preparatory to a full- scale assault on the bomb- devastated capital.

An attack by upwards of 1,000 Soviet troops southwest of the Oder River crossing town of Kienitz, thirty-three miles northeast of Berlin, was "warded off," the German Transocean Agency said. The official German DXB Agency said a "certain flare- up" in fighting In the Kuestrin area, ten miles southeast of Kienltz and thirty-eight miles east of Berlin, indicated the Russians soon would attack in strength. German artillery was credited with scattering "major enemy deployments" southwest of Kuestrin, whose capture was announced by Premier Marshal Stalin March 12. Moscow has reported i troops across the Oder well beyond Kuestrin on the Warsaw- Berlin super-highway. The Nazi reports followed by less than twenty-four hours the capture of Altdamm, directly across the Oder Rix er from Stettin, and the consequent elimination of last major German pocket on the east bank of.

the river north of Berlin. The clearing- of the northern flank along the Oder was believed one -of the last items on Stalin's battle schedule before sending his armies into action in frontal arid flanking offensives against Berlin- Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov's First White Russian Army captured Altdamm after slashing up behind the city from the southwest and cutting its three bridge links with Stettin, three and a half miles across the Oder Estuary. For to the northeast, the Third White Russian Army under Marshal Alexander M. Vas- silevsky, Red Army Chief of Staff, trimmed the German southwest of Koenlgs- berg to fifty square miles and captured its principal stronghold.

Southeast of Berlin. Nazi broadcasts said, the Russians advanced another nine miles through Upper Silesia to the area of Ziegenhals. a mile from the Czechoslovak frontier and commanding a pass NAZI HA3nCERED OX BOTH FEONTS. Smashing mighty blows at the retreating Nazis, U. S.

Third and Seventh Army troops have effected a juncture in the Saarbruecken area (1), trapping thousands of German troops. The First Army (2) has pushed forward east of the Rhine to. distance of about twenty miles. At the northern end of the western front, rail lines and bridges in Holland (3) are being attacked by fighter-bombers and heavier craft. On the east front, Nazis trapped southwest of.

Koenigsberg (4) opened coastal dikes in an effort to halt advancing Red forces. At Breslau (5) Russian units made steady progress fighting through the capital as Nazis sought to aid trapped troops by plane. Untried U. S. Division Hy HOBKRT United Press Correnpondeat SAARLAUTERN, GERMANY--Troops of the Sixty- Fifth Infantry Division, which left the United States less than three months ago, won this important Reich city in their first combat action with the Third Army.

Saarlautern had been under siege for three and a half months when the Sixty-fifth Division entered two days ago. Of its normal population of 32,000, the doughboys found only eighty civilians patients in a hospital. Two days of mopping up netted through the Sudeten Mountains only a few more than 100 prison- only 125 miles from Prague. Berlin said the Red Army also was battling west beyond Mor, forty miles west of Budapest. Sub, Barbel Lost In Action WASHINGTON--The Navy announced today that the American submarine Barbel has been lost, presumably in the Pacific or far eastern waters.

Forty American undersea, craft have been lost during this war. Less than a month ago the Navy disclosed that the submarines Es- coiar 'and Shark were overdue from patrol and presumably lost. The Barbel was skippered by Lt. firemen. The three-alarm biaze.

which was discovered shortly after noon vesterdav, caused damage of 5150.000." Cmdr. Conde L. Raguet. of Nor- folk. Va.

It carried a normal complement of men. of its crew are listed as in action and their next of kin have been notified. ers. The Americans lost no time, however, in pushing ahead to clear the entire area in the heart of the Siegfried Line. The city itself had been a bastion in the line.

Innocent looking apartment houses actually were pillboxes built fay the Germans as part of the fortifications. In one place where the division set up a command post, walla and floors wire six feet thick. The Germans had mined and booby-trapped Saariautern to the hilt before pulling out. Signs were plastered through the city warning the GI's it was help dangerous to pick up "souvenirs." Between Saariautern and Saar- wellingcn. a distance of three miles, the Americans found 4.000 land mines along the road.

Rail Centers Bombing Target LONDON --British Lancasters, carrying 11-ton bombs, continued the aerial pounding of Germany's transportation centers today, hitting the railway bridge across the Weser River near Bremen and railway yards at Munster. The attack by the British heavies followed those of about 2,000 American planes today which hit nine air fields in northwest Germany and a tank plant at Plauen in Central Germany. One force of Lancasters struck the railway bridge at Weser this morning. A second force, escorted by Spitfires, made a heavy attack on the Munster railway yards on the main line from Osnab'ruck to the Ruhr. SAX FRANCISCO Premier ft en.

Kuniaki Koiso told the Jap-' aa Actansr broadcast, reported monitors, occasion of of; he PS of Two Ji 'atari's home empire. The grave message to the Jap- jiesc by their Premier carne hortly after War Minister ilar- hall Gen Sugiyama admitted to 'arliament that Japan expects to iccome the scene of "decisive bat- les." Other Tokyo broadcasts the Japanese that the life their Empire was at stake. was made on, dent and the operators are reaSv uiicsaiiy r.OLir.g to enter the or a ima. a part, of r.otir-e. "We wiil move in to prevent a work stoppage," Colvin! said.

I The present contract expires in ten days and UMW tradition has been "no contract no work." The government has warned, however, that the nation cannot afford even the briefest interruption of coa! production. Compromise On Merit System Bill ALBANY--Governor Dewey arid Republican leaders agreed today on a compromise bin setting up a merit rating system under the law. The proposal, drafted at a lengthy executive mansion meat- ing, incorporates various features of the conflicting Young-Demo measures. "This meets the two important points urged upon the legislature by Governor Dewev his annual message." Assembly Speaker Oswai D. Heck said.

''It gives New Slate a rate variation plan which will enable its business to compete successfully with that of other states, safeguarding the competitive position of business and employment in New York State. It further liberalizes unemployment insurance The compromise bill appeared to be a victory for organized labor. End Of War Bubble Bursts On Iwo Jima GT, FRANK Coin hat Corr IWO JDIA--For an hour tonight, Jima was the happiest spot on the earth. The war in Europe was over: Germany had surrendered I Machine anti-aircraft guns, rifles and even pistoi.s--the only celebratory equipment handy-roared the local jubilation. Then came the dismal truth.

It went like this: A walkie-taikie Army radio operator, bored in a solitary fox- "Pjr I t'rrnk I'VP hole, decided to radio wrong." 7 no'jncer with a byicy a cf holes Ciose by, inside a truck, another operator was typing military messages from San Francisco. Somehow, the frequencies became tangled ar.d from the n'- ficia; operator'? official -t came a voice with the electrifying rnes- "Germany has surrendered yn- The operator grt the new? to his headquarters znoi ir, ten rr.in- ute.s ai; and tne off shore had the word. The foxhole radio announcer, hearing all the shooting and the shouting, became worried and went to his commanding officer with a statement that deserves to be added to the archives of uncler- statement. Said he: done some- all along vt march were, crowding-, into- streets and' shouts welcome to the Americans. Front reports Mid the great probably the and moat complete of the western campaign had been ao complished I th "amazingly light" American casualties.

Saarbruecken, Zweibruecken, Kalserslautern, Wlsaemboorp, Mainz and Worms, the keystones of the German defensive system, were in American hands or on the verge this mom- A sixth and even greater prize," the sprawling Rhine chemical center of Ludwigshafen was menaced by tow armored columns of the Third Army that raced -to within six miles west and northwest of the city. The last major German port across the Rhine at Woerth, opposite the east bank city, of- Karlsruhe, also was imperiled by Seventh through the Siegfried defenses beyond Wissembourg, fifteen miles to the southwest. Not a single Rhine bridge was standing as the Americans struck for the river this morning. The panic-strickcY Germans faced -the prospect of mass surrender or suicidal crossing in boats and barges under the fire of American warplanes. Far to the north, the American First Army exploded a new.

offensive northward from Its Kcraagcn bridgehead and swept' out into open tank country less than a dozen miles from the southern flank of the Ruhr Basin. On the heels of the First Army breakthrough. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower broadcast a grim, warning to the German civilian population and tie tousands of foreign slave workers inside the Nazi lines to get oat of the Ruiir immediately.

Eisenhower declared that the entire Ruhr was about to become a battle zone. But even the new sweep on the Ruhr was overshadowed by the spectacular triumph of Lt. Gen. George 'S. Patton's IT.

S. Third Army and Lt. Gen. Alexander SI. Patch's Seventh Army in ths south.

it the iuo armies linked up at two points twelve and twenty-seven miles west of pinching off the entire Saar Basin to the west. The jasctnre stripped Gennssy at a stroke of vast coal And steel producing facilities in the industrial basin and left only the imperiled Ruhr as a Nazi arsenal. Saarbruecken. capital of the Saar, was captures by the Seventh Army in a fast-breaking attack enerr.y strong points r.orth cf i important assign- across the Saar River to the south- hazi. fifty miles farther south.

rr ni west that swiftly engulfed the At the same time, other Allied rumor connected his defenders. Zweibruecke" fanr.in;: out from th" f' recall with reports that he i and IVissembourg, fifteen Drop In Food Production Seen WASHINGTON--In the face of perhaps the most critical food shortage in the nation's history, the Agriculture Department indicated todaj' that 1945 production might fall below that of last year because of the shortage of British Push Out From Mandalay CALCUTTA British and Indian troops pushed out from captured Mandalay today behind Allied bombers and fighters which equipment. The will to increase production is there, but the means are lacking: the Agriculture Department reported as both President Roosevelt an-d Congress turned their attention to the food situation. The Agriculture Department's spring survey of farmers' plans showed that 1945 plantings of major crops may equal last year's wartime record of 354.000.000 acres. Br.t ever, of production from that acreage reaches last year's high level, the total food output--crops and livestocks-- I woui'l fall below 1944 because of ,500.000,000 pound By HKL'CE W.

XCXX United Frttt War Carreipoirfeat PARIS--Four columns of American Third Army troops closed in on Ludwigshafen today to finish off a few thousand Nazi survivors of the decisive Saar-Palatinate battle trapped against the bridgeless Rhine. Two tank and two infantry columns of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Army were less than, six miles from Ludwigshafen at last reports.

Opposition was sporadic and it appeared the great chemical center would be under attack by nightfall. Other Third Army forces raced for the Rhine to clean the remaining twenty-nine miles of the river bank southward from Ludwigshafen to the Karlsruhe crossing. Field dispatches said the had entered the mopping-up stage after seven days of American offensive that killed, wounded or captured all but a handful of 80,000 or more Nasi troops caugtit in the Saar-Moselle-Rhine triangle. Except for a. covering force battling to hold open.

Karlsruhe crossing and a short- belt of the Siegfried Line to" the west, there was little or no fight Jeft in the surviving Germans west of the Rhine. They surrendered "by'the Patton's and the mop-up 'infantry, following. PTnntr' BBC broadcast quoted Aiiied ground operations bad ex- south of llandalay and reaching- the mopping-up stage. I A southeast Asia communique oisciosed that medium and fighter bombers attacked. i were Rumor Kesselring To Be Relieved ZURICH Persistent rumors 1 floated in Italian circles today! that Fieid Marshal Gen.

Albert Kesselrir.sr soon will be relieved teen south of zr.l i as German Commander in Italy XTandalay. after killing more 300 Japanese in the past three days. 'Front dispatches meantime re- the conquest of Mandalay. Burma's second citv. liberated 300 internees, who sreetr-d the victorious Allied troops with "glad to see you." ith the Allies.

It was said that his egotiations were undertaken with the knowledge of the German High Command, but that his attempts had failed. The reports said, however, that Kesselring would be given command of a crucial sector west of the eastern front. I were taken in the overwhelming rash of the Seventh Army. The entire forty-five mile stretch of the Siegfried fortifications from Saarbruecken to Wissembourg caved in under the American onslaught, and at last reports the Yanks were wheeling northeastward in giant strides, flank to flank with the Third Armjr..