The Tribune from Scranton, Pennsylvania • Page 1

THE WEATHER Colder today. Yesterdays max. temp. 56; min. temp.

40. ISEWS COVERAGE By Associated Press, United Press, International News Service, NEA Service. Associated Press Telemats and Features. PRICE THREE CENTS SCRANTON, FEBRUARY 25. 1943 SIXTEEN PAGES EST.

1856. VOL. 342, NO. 48 1 1 UUJ 24 Hours in Mine pt to Nazi tine in 2 in Pass A Chutists Landed in Denmark Residents Reported To Have Aided Men In Plot Against Axis LONDON (Thursday), Feb. 25 JF).

The Danish radio reported early today that a number of parachutists had been dropped in Denmark, but gave no indication of their nationality or whether they had been captured or interned. The statement, broadcast from German-oqpupied Copenh agen and here by the British ministry of information, said that some Danish residents had "sheltered the parachutists, provided facilities ftr erecting radio transmitters, and supplied money and information to the agents. The radio linked Christmas MoeUer, former Danish commerce minister who escaped to Britain last year, with the parachutists. This indicated the parachutists were Danish agents working against the Axjs. (The Federal Communications Commission reported that the Copenhagen radio statement told of the sentencing of 27 persons for helping the parachutists, cooperating with Moeller and publishing a clandestine paper.

This would indicate that the parachutists landed some time ago). 1 The radio statement as recorded by the ministry here said: "It has been ascertained that Christmas Moeller, a former member of the Danish ministry of commerce was linked with the parachutists. Before leaving the country he. persuaded an acquaintance, who now has to house one of the agents A special aptlsabotage corps, Including railway employes and was said to have been created to patrol Danish lines. Allies Ground Reds Drive est on1 Kharkov Front; Reverse Foes Strategy 'LONDON (Thursday), Feb.

25 (U.fi) Russian troops driving directly; westward on the Kharkov front in an attempt to cut the entire German north-south defense line in two, dispatches indicated today. Mobile" forces were believed striking westward from captured Lebedin, 83 miles northwest of while other troops fnoved on the German railroad junction bases of Vorozhba and Poltava, northwest and southwest of Kharkov. A westward thrust would reverse the strategy of the Germans when, in 1941, they struck through to Kharkov from the west, and thus severed the Russian line. Russias Wednesday midnight communique, recorded here from the Moscow radio, marked the first in many days in which no specific towns were mentioned as captured. But the communique reported the capture of a town on the West-Kharkov front, the storming of a town on the Orel front, the repulse of desperate German counterattacks on the Donets basin front and the capture of a number, of small places on the Novorossisk Black Sea front.

FIGHT TO CLEAR RAILROAD Before Orel, where the Germans now reported a Russian offensive from the North as well as the Northeast, East Southeast and South, the Russians were fighting to clear the entire vital 400-mlle stretch of the trunk line railroad on which Orel is the midway point. In the Donets Basin, where United Press. Moscow dispatches said that the Germans were throw- ing, tanks, and airplanes lavishly into counterattacks the midnight-communique -reported the repulse German thrusts on the Northwest and South sides, the areas of Krmatorsk and West-Rostov. The5 Germans had bn their side the advantages of 13 thickly-peo- pled towns, modern and easily defensible, and the thickest railroad network in all Russia. Hitler Talks About Sacred i.

Faith, Victory Indicates All Not Well on Home Front And Occupied Europe LONDON. Feb. 24 -his confidence in victory, Adolph Hitler today promised demobilization of the spiritual and material values of Europe such as never before witnessed- for. war, but hinted that the struggle might continue for years and that there still Were difficulties on the home-front, He asserted that "the gigantic mass of the German people is standing behind the new and the national socialist world of. thought which is inspiring it.

but indicated that all was not well within Nazi Germany and occupied Europe, that the Nazi-party must break terror with 10-fold terror. 1 The fuehrer addressed a proclamation to a Munich meeting of party followers. It was read for him for he was still with the- German soldiers Tribune Photo A. J. Sandone, Into this yawning slope.

two East Scranton boys walked Tuesday to search for a half dollar that had rolled away as one oL the boys took some marbles from i pocket. (News stories on Fage 3.) Jk i 7, Hundreds of Planes, Heavy Artillery Hand Axis Setback By WES GALLAGHER ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NORTH AFRICA, Feb. 24 W5). Combined British and American forces threw Fjeld Marshal Rommels tank columns Into full retreat from the outskirts of Thala today, handing them their first defeat in Tunisia, and tonight Allied artillery lopped tons of explosive steel into German positions in the narrow Kasserine Pass and on the beaten rear-guard columns withdrawing through it. i The big guns were giving the German tank columns twisting through the pass no chance to rest and reform, and hundreds of Allied planes racing overhead left a trail of smoking Axis transport and dying German soldiers all the way from Thalas approaches to Ferlana far south of the opposite end of Kasserine Pass.

1 (Reuters reported in London that latest Information indicated the bulk of enemy forces were retreating through the pass, With only a rearguard left to hold the mouth of! the gap against furious continuing Allied attacks. (The British news agency also said increasing numbers of fighting units were now reaching the British Eighth Army before the Mareth defenses in southern Tu-nesia, and that supply was the main preoccupation at the moment.) Hundreds of Allied planes and Allied ground forces began hitting Marshal Rommel yesterday morning, inflicting the first major setback on the Axis troops Bince they lashed out on their offensive days ago. Then the Allied artillery hastened the Axis retreat into the mouth of the EXCEEDS STUKA EFFORTS The American British aerial smash far overwhelmed the initial German Stuka efforts In the recent fight at Faid, and was continuing, Rommel'S retreat began yesterday and by today at least 300 Axis prisoners and large quantities of German material had fallen into Allied hands. This, however, was" believed to represent only a small part of the Nazi casualties and losses of equipment inflicted when almost every Allied bomber and fighter on the front splashed tons of high explosives on Rommels retreating Columns twisting through the hills and out of the Kasserine pass southwestward toward Ferlana. American armored forces had hammered back his thrust westward through the Kasserine toward Tebecsa, which lies inside Algeria.

British- and American units together had inflicted heavy casualties in the battle for Thala. Rommel had burst through to within three miles of that tactically Important point before his attack began to collapse, and with it the whole of his offensive to the West. HIT FROM AIR With the coming of daylight yesterday, Marauders, Mitchells, Bostons, Hurribombers and even the great Flying Fortresses began ta strew exoiosives upon the retreating German columns under cover of Spitfires, Airacobras and Lightlnings. Rommel had been badly mauled In an action which might well become one of the turning points of the Tunisian war and as he attempted to fall backytoward Fe-riana there were reports here that the veteran British Eighth Army of Gen. Sir Bernard Montgomery was attacking with increasing power in Southeastern Tunisia.

In Cfn11-1 Tunisia, American and British troops and armored forces had proved themselves more than a match for the Nazis. U. S. TREASURY REPORT WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (P).

Position of treasury: receipts, expenditures, net balance, $5,690,392,146. Family Has 4,500 Excess Cans of Food', Enough for 41 Years PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 24 (P). A declaration of 4,502 excess cans of food by a Main Line family of three persons was the most surprising incident of the second day of registration for Ration Book No. 2 today.

All 72 of the eight-point coupons in the familys books ay CatcliRommel Desert Fox Risked, Lost Much to Cain Little, Writer Says By KIRKE L. SIMPSON AssonUted Press Writer Even before the full scope of contributing causes of an air-harrled Nazi retreat In centra! Tunisia becomes clear, there reason to believe that it a major Axis defeat 1 fraught with mounting potentialities of disaster. Overnight the trends in Tunl sis altered Incalculably In Allied favor Rommel, the Nazi desert fox, bids fair now to be caught in a trap of his own making, assuming he still is in command in South and South-Central Tunisia. He risked and lost much to achieve little. That he must retreat, once his desperate surprise move to deal the thinly held Allied center a crippling Mow had stalled against Anglo-American resistance, was obvious ven before his backward race to Kasserine Gap started His only hope lay in a quick, complete break-through to the Tebessa junction key which threatened to unhinge the whole northern end of the Allied front in Tunisia.

FAILED BY CLOSE MARGIN The thrust failed of that by a perillously closs margin. The high-water level of the Axis attack wes reached three miles short of Thaila junction and less than 40 miles from Tebessa itself, It was that close to splitting Allied armies in North and Central Tunisia and probably com pelling a hasty British retirement in the north behind the Algerian Toorder. It is ir- the nature of bold and risky military coups such as the (Continued on Page 16. Col. 7) 6 i 4 A I -v Administration Is Rebuffed on Hit 2 Others fighting in the East because it is there that the fate of and Europe will be decided a decision which must and will end in our TO USE THEIR" FORCES -Hitler asserted that the German people will mobilize and use their forces to an extent exceeding that in any war in history, and that with their Allies the Germans would carry out.

a mobilization of the spiritual and material values of Europe such as our continent has not yet seen in its history of several thousand years. Neither shah we hesitate a single second to call upon the countries which are Responsible for the outbreak of tnis war to do their bit in the fatal struggle, he said in an apparent reference to fallen France. We snail not scruple about foreign lives at a time when such hard sacrifices are exacted from our own lives, lie declared, but did not amplify that statement. As to the home front, Hitler declared that- "in these coming months and perhaps years the party will have to fulfill its second groat historic task, namely to rouse toe nation to the greatness of its danger, to strengthen the sacred faith, to instill strength in weak characters and ruthlessly to destroy saboteurs. R.

A. F. Fliers Sink Japanese Steamer NEW DELHI, Feb. 24 (lf.fi) Royal Air Force fliers have sunk a Japanese steamer off jCht coast of Arakan Province and started large fires in the village of Pauktaw, 12 miles east of Akyab, during widespread operations over Western and Central Burma. The Japanese retaliated with an ineffective attack on an American air base in Assam Province, bordering Burma.

Bobble Richie bruised but safe within his mothers reach. Paul Foytack his smile restored by the comforts of home. ropriations in Oti All Fronts By United AFRICA: Allied forces box narrow, salient before Kasserine Pas6, seeking to exploit powerful counter-surge which swept enemy back 18 miles In "western Axis Suffers heavy losses; Allied bombers hit Bizerte and RUSSIA: Soviet forces drive on German railroad junction base of Vorpzhba, northyest of Kharkov. SOUTH PACIFIC: Japs make light raids on Guadalcanal, New Hebrides and Tulagi; American -planes hit Jap points in-Solo-? monS. FINLAND: Reliable informa- tion reaching London 'said Finland, through Sweden, submitted four-point feeler to Russia.

GERMANY: Hitler says he intends to force occupied countries to. join German war effort which- will: be unprecedented. CHINA: Chinese in Kiangsi kill about 300 Japs; enemy driving toward Changsha, vital base in Hunan. -BURMA: R. A.

F. hits Jap steamer off Burma Coast and bombs Akyab area; Jqps ineffectively raid American airfield in cncy on Spinach, Lettuce WASHINGTON, Feb." 24 The Office of Price Administra-tion tonight imposed emergency price ceilings on fresh lettuce and spinach at the highest prices at which individual sellers did business between Saturday, Feb. 29 through- 24. Simultaneously, OPA moved to assure a fair and equitable distribution to all consuming markets of 1 the five fresh vegetables cabbage, carrots, snap beans, peas and tomatoes which" were placed under temporary ceilings on Tuesday; A Effective tomorrow, all OPA local, offices will, be permitted to increase individual sellers prices for the five fresh vegetables previously placed under temporary ceilings, and for. the two covered in tonights action.

Local OPA offices, it was said, will be permitted to increase individual sellers prices where adequate reason exists. 39 ORPHANS DIE IN FIRE CAVAN, Eire, 24 (INS). At least 39 young orphan girls died today-when a. fire swept an orphanage here. Many others of the 82 girls ift the home still are missing.

L000Pound Bombs Dropped on Lae; Four Zeros Are Shot Down ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN AUSTRALIA, Thursday, Feb. 25 (IF). A Japanese warship, fleeing frantically from attacks Of American Flying Fortresses, was driven aground off Cape Gazelle in New Britain yesterday, and Allied bombers soared over Ra-baul to damage two small enemy warships and a merchantman. i Allied fliers also pounded the Lae area of New. Guinea, a communique from Allied headquarters announced today, raining down 500 and bombs starting fires visible for 20 miles.

Heavy antiaircraft fire and dense searchlight screens were encountered but there was no interception. All our planes returned, the communique said. Five hundred and 1, 000-poUnd bombs were dropped in particularly heavy raids on and around the Jap-held New Guinea base of Lae. These raids represented continuation of a strafing and bombing Allied assault on a region toward which ground troops have been moving from the vicinity of Wau to the southwest. Over Open Bay, New Britain, a big Allied bombers on a reconnaissance was swarmed upon by 13 Jip planes.

The bomber sent four of the Zeros down in flames and got home safely. Claims U-Boat Pack Sank 17 Ships in Convoy By United Preui A special communique from Adolf Hitler's headquarters yesterday claimed that a German U-boat pack in the Atlantic had sunk 17 ships, totaling 104,000 gross tons, from a heavily escorted Allied convoy. Three other vessels were reported torpedoed but not claimed sunk. The communique was broadcast by the Berlin radio. Resources Planning Board Fund Among Those Turned Down By WILLIAM T.

PEACOCK WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (ff). The House appropriations committee sharply rebuffed the administration today by denying a series of requested appropriations In reporting a $6,298,530,435 de- flciency appropriation "bill, chiefly for- merchant ship construction, the committee refused: $2,454,000 which Paul V. McNutt had proclaimed is essential if the War Manpower Commission is to discharge its duties. $337,000 asked by Secretary of Labor Perkins for work in curbing absenteeism in war factories and improving working conditions, $200,000 requested by the National Resources Planning Board, headed by Frederic A.

Delano, the Presidents uncle. -5 The Planning Board had sought the money for expenditure be-, tween now and next June when the. currpnt fiscal year ends. Re-( porting another measure earlier this month, the committee had 'r refused a request for $1,400,000 to finance the board in the new i fiscal year. At the time of the earlier fund rejection, Mr.

Roosevelt told a press conference the board's planning to meet post-war problems might saye billions and that legislators opposing long-range planning might turn out to be the real spendthrifts. Baering Down On the News By ARTHUR BUGS BAER Diatributed by International New Service I see they are not going to take us old married wrecks until they run out of walking cases. Pay -as- You-Go 1 Tax Plan Gets G. O.P. Support WASHINGTON, Feb.

24 VF). Advocates of the Ruml plan were cheered today as strong Republican support appeared to be gathering behind the proposal to abate all of one years individual income taxes to put taxpayers on a pay-as-you-go basis. An informed Capitol Hill source said that when the House ways find means committee passed on a modified form 'of the plan originated by Beardsley Ruml, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, all 10 Republican Committeemen voted for it. However, the plan was put aside for the time being when the 15 Derrtocrfits on the committee voted against it. The vote was taken last Friday in a secret session but not disclosed until today.

The committee rejected all pending pay-as-you-go proposals, including the modified Ruml plan, and turned over to a subcommittee the job of drafting acompromise. Banquets Face Curb Under New Rationing READING, Feb. 24 and dinners for service clubs and other organizations probably will be curtailed for the duration if hotels are to Continue serving meals in their dining rooms after the 50 per cent slash in rationed foods go into effect. This was the consensus of opinion of approximately 40 hotelmen who attended a session of the Pennsylvania Hotel mens Association today. Details of the rationing program which will start March 1 were dscussed w'ith the men by Edwin L.

Flynn, Harrisburg, association secretary, who returned from a meeting of the national organization in Chicago. Yugoslavs Wipe Out Hundreds of Germans LONDON, Feb. 25 (Thursday) (INS). Hundreds or German troops were wiped out when Yugoslav patriots captured the town of Konjitza, Reuter's news acency reported today in an Istanbul LOST AND FOUND were removed, but it was estimated that, at the current rate of 108 coupons a year, it would take the family more than 41 years to return the total coupons due. In Washington, a spokesman for the Office of Price Administration said OPA did not have the Dower to seize excess cans in cases of this kind, but he added: I think the patriotic thing for such families would be to negotiate with their local ration boards for immediate restoration of the coupons upon the basis of the family selling their huge stock of excess cans to grocers.

WILL the oerson who found black 1c, address book In phone booth at Is-, Line Station. Scranton, please notny return to owner. Reward. BLACK Cocker Spaniel, two years Answers to name of "Grip. Rew Peter Blrtel.

1218 Birch St. Ph. 3-V NURSE'S WHITE OXFORD StP! rOR LEFT FOOT. FINDER PLEA PHONE 4-3276. Lost RATION BOOK ADS appear in first column on the Classified under the heading Ration Book- Dionnes Put Extra Oomph in Songs as They Plan First Trip to S.

to Help Launch Ships Classified Section Continued on Page Fourteen Im 4-F on my registration blank but on my building blocks Im about with a dash of WANT AD RATES Consecutive Insertions 3 Lines 3 Days $1.00 3 Lines 7 Days $2.00 3- Lines 30 Days $7.65 (Consecutive Insertions Inch; The Scrantonian) SAVE GAS AND TIRE1! PHONE OR MAIL YOI WANT AD CHARGE It! i 1 1 i By DOROTHY WHITE CALLANDER, Feb. 24 (U.fi) The Dionne quintuplets are putting a little extra "oomph their singing lessons as they prepare for their first trip to the United States. The trip will take them to Superior, where on May 9 they will participate in the launching of five merchant ships, each of which will be named for one of the sisters and assigned to the British navy. Theyre pretty excited about it. As part of the ceremonies, they will "Sing the Star Spangled Banner in English, a rather difficult ssignment for them, and the cuints are practicing hard and with their brothers and sisters.

They are in the third grade, doing well in their school work and with vocal and piano lessons. Despite temperatures" as low as 54 below zero, the quints get out every, day for exercise and may be seen bundled up in heavy clothes, mittens and scarves, skating on the ice or coasting with their sleds. Last eek they joined the Junior Red Cross and they have a considerable stock of stamps and war savings certificates which they purchase regularly. The girls, the only living quintuplets, will be well guarded, ss always, on their trip. Nurses and 1 police, in addition to their family.

ill accrmpany fern. They were invited to break the champaign bottles by U. S. Secretary Of State Cordell- and Premier Gordon Conant Ontario announced last -week that they would so. The- trip to Superior will be the longest yet taken by the blackhaired, red-cheeked quints.

They will go to Sault Ste. Marie by train and then take a lake boat, although there iS a possibility they will fly. The girls have never seen a ship, much less sailed on one, and the prospects of launching five ships and going to the United States has them thrilled. Here in Callander their days, while not exactly hum-drum not too exciting. They at le tw o-room school in the r.u.

are a If they really wanted some able-bodied soldiers down in i- Washington I think they should start whirling swivel chairs anti- clockwise and get em by centri- I fugal force. When they salute the uniform i i and not the man down there they 1 mean the coat and not the pants. This Is Opportunity Day Variety and Attractive Prices Every woman with shopping sense takes advantage of "Opportunity Day in Scranton, Today is that day of unusual values. Central City merchants have prepared a great variety of high quality merchandise, which they are offering to the shoppers of Lackawanna Valley at unprecedented prices. All are cooperating to make it one of the outstanding shopping days of the entire year.

Cljr rnintoit Cr want orr 339 North Warhingtoa FIIOX 7732 Its about time somebody opened a window on those, indoor command's And slarrmed a few C--S..