News-Pilot from San Pedro, California • 1

PILOT TIDE SCHEDULE Friday high tides here will be 41 feet at 12 21 a and 49 feet at 1:39 and low tides 10 feet at 6:56 a and 32 feet at 7:34 DIM-OUT REMINDER TTi dim-out Is effective from sunset 9:50 tonight until sunrise 6:08 tomorrow ftan Pedro Dally Established 1901 San Pedro Daily Established 1909 New Series: Vol 16 No 131 BANK DEBITS Today 1928083 year ago $802909 San Pedro California Thursday Evening August 5 1 943 Ten Pages Per Month 85c Single Copy 4c apfcure Lafcama burge on NAPLES RAIDED FOURTH TIME IN FOUR DAYS Docks and Sub Bases 'Well Covered With Bombs' Ship Fired HAROLD LLOYD SAVED FROM FIRE BY WIFE Former Film Star Dragged to Safety 'After Explosion Sicily Line Crumbles Americans and Allies Drive Nazis Toward Last Escape Port of Messina By DANIEL DE LI CE ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NORTH AFRICA CP) British Eighth Army troops early today seized Catania and swept around the base of Mt Etna to the northwest capturing Paterno 10 miles away to crumble the German line on the east coast of Sicily headquarters announced Catania fell to the Eighth Army at 8:30 am (2:30 am EWT) today after a bitter defense since July 15 Germans' lTS ARTILLERY IN POSITION AT SALAMAUA Yank artillerymen ready their advance position in the jungle on the north shore of New Guinea for the shelling given the Jap-held airfield at Salamaua In support of American and Australian infantry attacks US Army Signal Corps radiophoto from the South Pacific Yankees Five Miles From Salamaua RUSS MOP UP IN OREL MAP NEW BLOWS German Rearguard Attempts to Cover Retreating Army By HENRY CASSIDY MOSCOW UP) The battle for the stronghold of Orel reached its blazing climax today with the Red army fighting its way through the streets of the city to complete the reconquest of its first major objective of 1943 and signs of danger to other exposed sections of the German lines in Russia appeared immediately (The German high command announced that Orel was evacuated last night after all stores had been removed and all military factories methodically destroyed It claimed the withdrawal had been planned for some Where the Russians would strike next after the elimination of the Orel salient remained their own military secret but there was no doubt here that- the Red army soon would strike again Russian forces have edged forward on both sides of the Kharkov salient and are improving their positions near Belgorod and southwest of Voroshilovgrad The Germans have begun to show signs of uncertainty where they should cling to their defenses around Smolensk in the central or Moscow sector (The German communique said the Russians yesterday launched a series of violent counterattacks against newly-won German positions north of Kuibyshevo on the Mius river front but said every thrust was thrown back with heavy losses It said the Soviets also were continuing their attacks on the middle Donets and in the Belgorod area) Frontline dispatches said the Germans still were offering bitter resistance northwest and southwest of Orel in an effort to cover tne retreat of the main body of their troops through the bottleneck to the west The Soviet army newspaper Red Star declared the Nazis had stepped up their tearline firepower in those areas virtually doubling the number of guns for each mile of the front and were counter-attacking with groups of 15 to 25 tanks Soviet bombers however were reported blasting at the enemy's support lines and main bases behind the Orel salient concentrating on the communications center of Bryansk Nikitovia Yasinovataya and Ilovaiskaya behind the Kharkov front and Mga on the Lenin- (Continued on Page Eight) By THE ASSOCIATED TRESS WAR EDITOR American troops today broke through a long covered Japanese trench on the southern fringe of Munda air base and threatened to cut off the enemy's last route of escape while on the New Guinea front Allied vanguards were reported battling within five miles of the big Japanese bastion at Salamaua 9 Die 1 Missing in Flash Floods SUTTON Va UP) Nine persons were drowned and at least seven others were missing today in a raging flash flood that swept through central West Virginia trapping many persons in their homes as they slept State Police' Sgt Waugh reported that the bodies of Mrs Lydia Queen 38 and three of her children Martin 12 Robert 10 and Alma one year old had been recovered from turgid O'Brien Fork creek at Heaters 10 miles from Sutton Two other Queen children Phyllis 8 and Peggy 2 had not been accounted for and authorities figured they also had been earned away in the swirling torrents that followed the sudden storm Waugh said he was Informed by telephone that five bodies had been (Continued on Page Eight) Ickes to Appeal OPA Oil Ruling ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NORTH AFRICA UP) American Flying Fortresses yesterday engulfed bomb-tom Naples In another flood of high explosives in the fourth Allied raid against the southern Italian seaport in four days The four-engined bombers slashed at docks and submarine bases and left the target covered with headquarters said One merchant ship was left ablaze The unescorted Fortresses winged through heavy anti-aircraft fire and engaged 25 to 30 Axis fighters destroying three of them (The Italian communique reported that by count so far 159 persons were killed and 228 injured in the attack on the quarters of and that numerous buildings collapsed The Italians said seven of the raiders were shot down) Other Allied planes supporting the great forward surge of armies in Sicily maintained heavy assaults during the day blasting supply dumps road communications and motor transport destroying and damaging many vehicles the Allied air communique said Wellington bombers struck at Marina Di Catanzaro and at Paolo on both sides of the Italian toe wrecking enemy rail lines In raids Tuesday night Marauders and Mitchells following up by daylight yesterday blew up oil tanks and railway tracks of the Italian defense and supply system The Marauders fighting off 30 enemy Interceptors shot down eight Five enemy planes were destroyed Tuesday night American Boston Mitchells and A-36 Invaders augmented by RAF and South African light bombers flayed enemy strongholds In northeastern Sicily Twenty freight cars and 60 trucks were destroyed and 80 trucks damaged East-bound enemy road transports were knocked out by successive waves of Allied bombers and fighter-bombers which swept the bridgehead from dawn to dark Wellingtons last night pounded the railroad yards and train sheds at Massina and at Battipaglia on the mainland 42 miles south of Naples From all operations over Sicily and the Italian mainland three Allied planes are missing headquarters said and additional reports disclosed six more Allied aircraft were missing from operations on Tuesday besides the two previously reported RAF Beaufighters and ground batteries combined destroyed four Junkers 88's raiding Palermo Tuesday night At dawn a Beaufighter shot down a single Junkers 88 American naval guns drove off an attack by at least 30 German planes Aug 1 downing seven (Axis communiques said that a destroyer and two steamers totaling 13000 tons had been sunk at Palermo and that one cruiser three destroyers and eight merchant ships totaling more than 30000 tons were damaged) CADET AGENT NAMED William Groundwater Los Angeles businessman hag been named new port agent In Los Angeles for the cadet training program of the maritime commission it was announced today He replaces Capt James Irvine resigned His office is at 354 Spring st Los Angeles BEVERLY HILLS Calif Former Film Star Harold Lloyd narrowly escaped death today in an explosion and fire at his Benedict Canyon drive estate Irreplacable original film of his silent era comedies which he valued at $2000000 Were destroyed Lloyd's life ps saved by his wife Mildred Davis Lloyd who caught him as he collapsed in the doorway of his film vault where the explosion occurred She dragged him to Safety outdoors Seven firemen and an employe at the Lloyd estate were overcome by chlorine gas and were taken to the Beverly Hills emergency hospital former secretary Roy Brooks now a navy yeoman was blown from his bed by the force of the explosion thought the Japs had gaid Brooks who was sleeping next to the engine room which is connected with the film vault swimming pool gymnasium and other service buildings on the estate These buildings are located some distance from the Lloyd mansion which was untouched by the flames Lloyd hearing the explosion rushed to the film vault and reeled backward from the flames and acrid smoke His wife was at his tide as he collapsed Wheeler Opposes Fathers Draft BELTON Mont UP) Unless a proposal to induct pre-Pearl Harbor fathers after Oct 1 is withdrawn Senator Wheeler (D-Mont) says he will request that congress be reconvened immediately to consider legislation to override the draft directive The Montanan vacationing at his Lake McDonald home announced he would telegraph today Paul McNutt war manpower commissioner demanding that the proposal be abandoned Should his request go unheeded Wheeler said be would wire Senator Barkley (D-Ky) and Rep McCormack (D-Mass) senate and house majority leaders and ask that summer recess be terminated immediately Wheeler has described the directive as contrary to congressional will and asserted that should not play power politics with American The senate military affairs committee has approved his own bill to exempt fathers from the draft until Jan 1 1944 The house-approved Hilda bill to defer fathers until all single men within a state have been exhausted reflects congressional sentiment on the father draft Wheeler said Nazi Flier Krug Recaptured NORTH BAY Ontario UP) Lt Peter Krug German airman whose previous escape from a Canadian prison camp led to the conviction of treason of Max Stephan Detroit restaurateur has been recaptured after an escape on Monday night It was announced today that he had been recaptured at the Canadian Pacific railway station at North Bay He escaped last Monday night from a prison camp near Gravehurst Baron Grantley Succumbs at 87 LONDON UP) Baron Grantley 87 who recently was assessed $2000 damages as the outcome of a divorce suit in which the wife of Harry Sebastian Newman admitted she had committed adultery with the aged peer died here today after an illness of three weeks Baron Grantley was the oldest member of the house of lords which be entered in 1877 Catania People Beg for Food By NOLAND NORGAARD CATANIA Sicily Catania surrendered to the victorious British Eighth army at 8:20 a today after troops entered the outskirts of the battered second city of Sicily soon after dawn (This was 10 minutes earlier than announced by Allied headquarters) The majority of the defenders who had covered roads to the city from pillboxes fled during the night The surrender which was handed to the colonel who led the first Infantry units into the town in turn was handed to war correspondents at 8:35 a as our caravan entered the streets and frenzied civilians ran alongside the cars cheer-(Continued on Page Eight) Sweden to Halt Nazi Army Traffic STOCKHOLM UP) Transportation of German troops across Sweden to and from Norway will be halted Aug 20 and the movement of Nazi war materials will be discontinued Aug 15 a Swedish communique announced today The action had been expected here for weeks while Sweden carefully brought her military preparedness to its highest state of efficiency since the war began It was estimated that Sweden now has close to 400000 men under arms The importance of the military traffic across Norway was revealed tecently by the Swedish press which said 250000 German soldiers had moved annually between Germany and Norway via Sweden American Sicily Casualties 6741 WASHINGTON (JP) American casualties In Sicily through July 22 totaled 6741 501 killed 3870 wounded and 2370 missing Secretary of War Stimson reported this today observing: the number of troops involved these losses are considered moderate particularly in view of the terrain in The secretary said he did not have the figures on British casualties for the same period but they were a great deal Casualties since July 22 were believed to be The secretary told his press conference substantial gains had been made by Allied forces in all theatres i in the last week a lapse of several months the draft board Tuesday examined 75 men with the aid of Dr Dean Gilman city health doctor and Drs Robert Heterick John Blanchard and Homer Baran of the Public Health Service Nurses Mary Conte and Dorothy Melanson assisted and Draft Clerks Olson Hirzell Lucille Fowler and Ruth Ceruello handled the records The mid-August San Pedro draft call will be light It was previously announced and the British pounded ahead In a lightning advance clockwise around the base of Mt Etna The heart of the German army corps appeared to be broken Paterno is 10 miles northwest of Catania and It was assumed that Misterbianco three miles northwest of Catania also had been engulfed German withdrawal of non-essential personnel from Sicily has been in progress for the last five or six days it was learned authoritatively The German defense road around Mt Etna today was blasted apart by the British successes and the next German line was expected to run from Taormina across the northeastern tip of the island to the seacoast behind San Fratello which already Is menaced by seventh army troops This would mean abandonment of the whole Mt Etna area by the axis WHOLE FLANK PERILED The whole German left flank based on the heights of Mt Etna was in grave danger from the British success achieved after terrific and Incessant combat since the giant Allied offensive on the entire Sicilian front began on Sunday Pressed back from the western edge of the Catania plain and smothered under a furious massed artillery barrage that continued day and night the German line around bomb and fire-scarred Catania broke early today Catania was taken despite strong enemy resistance a special communique said The Allied advance continued all along the front headquarters said as American Canadian and British troops drove the Germans back toward their last escape port of Messina 55 miles north of Catania and tremendous aerial and sea blows were hammered home in support of the great drive British warships rained shells upon the Taormina road and the railway midway between Catania and Messina yesterday giving that expased communication center what was believed to be its heaviest bombardment yet American cruisers and destroyers ranging the northeast coast continued their day and night shelling of German positions ahead of the American seventh army troops swinging rapidly along the coast beyond San Stefano FLIERS IN ACTION From the air Allied bombers and fighters swept over enemy communication centers and supply lines to disrupt' the German defense Flying Fortresses again smashed at docks and submarine bases at Naples in the fourth raid in four days and the was well covered by an air communique reported The battle of Catania ended and the battle for Messina began for all along the mountainous bridgehead British and American forces plunged forward for new gains The British by their continued bombardments of Taormina acted to paralyze if not cut the east coast supply and retreat-route The line of retreat from Catania is a three-mile-wide corridor between the mountains and the sea and In that harsh rugged strip there are a number of points where he might attempt a stand Catania's capture in effect turned the German flank on the east coast and the British surged ahead on the slopes of Mt Etna facing the sea The enemy frantically' planted mines and blew up bridges in attempting to stem the inexorable Allied advance To wipe out the grip on Catania the British first had to break enemy control of heights northwest of this second most important port in Sicily Gen Sir Bernard Montgomery' (Continued on Page Eight) 1 CHICAGO UP) Petroleum Administrator Harold Ickes announced today he planned an immediate appeal of the OPA's refusal to Increase the price of crude oil 35 cents a barrel to provide an in- bases at Mawlaik and Kalemyo and in sharp fighting w'ith the enemy five miles south of Salamaua In Burma RAF warplanes fighting their way through heavy monsoon rains blasted the Japanese Dispatches from Gen Douglas MacArthur's headquarters said US infantrymen were fighting at close quarters with the Japanese in the climactic assault on Munda The battle was described as slow-moving and violent with the Japanese powerfully entrenched in jungle underbrush and chalk caves A spokesman at Adm William headquarters said the capture of Bibolo and Kokengolo hills guarding the northwest approach to Munda was expected momentarily and that a drive beyond these positions would crush the enemy's last hope of retreat to another part of the island The Japanese air force which in July last 345 planes trying to stem the Solomons offensive yesterday lost 13 more aircraft when 18 Zeros were sent against American-held Rendova Island five miles from Munda On the New Guinea front Allied headquarters announced that ground were locked machine-gunned enemy troops Farm Price Boom Alarms Wallace DES MOINES la UP Vice President Wallace declared in a radio interview today he wes greatly disturbed by the present farm and price boom and that he hoped legislation would be passed to prevent the difficulties a similar boom caused following the last war land prices have advanced about $30 an acre in the last two he said that Is more than the advance between 1916 and 1918 worst thing that could happen to the farmer would be to get sucked In on the farm price boom It will be bad too if the farmers let the city people who are piling up savings come out and take their farms away from The vice president also made another of his attacks on big corporations he asserted big corporations have made Washington a way station for Wall street We mast find a way to give a soul to the big AIR CRASH KILLS FOUR MARYSVILLE UP) Four men were killed today In the crash of an army plane Just south of Camp Beale when the ship fell from a formation mission The plane burned Sales Ban Looms SACRAMENTO UP) The state board of equalization today adopted a resolution that an Investigation of state liquor conditions be made with a view to prohibiting the sale on Sundays of all alcoholic beverages It was presented by William Bonelli board member from Los Angeles and concurred In by James Quinn Oakland member and Harry Riley state controller and ex-officio member Neither George Reilly San Francisco member nor Richard Collins board member from Red Bluff were present The resolution directed State Liquor Administrator George Stout to consult with a legislative interim committee on morals with the army and navy command of the western defense area and with war manpower authorities on the need for Sunday closing and report back to the board Store to be Made Into Apartments Permits have been issued here for a second conversion of former commercial quarters into apartments for war workers Financed by the National Housing Agency a $3000 conversion at 420 Ban-dini st will turn a store Into three apartments according to the permit issued to the government agency A Pacific ave building second floor is being converted from offices to apartments under a previous permit The Torrance Housing Corp developer of a tract at 215th st and Western ave in the Shoestring strip took out permits for six more houses at a total permit value of $186000 to add to permits for 92 dwellings already Issued The firm announced lt plans to build up to 205 homes Two Battleships Join Italian Fleet LONDON A Spanish radio broadcast recorded by the ministry of information said today that Italy's two most recently launched battleships the 35000-ton Impero and Roma are now in active duty with the fleet centive for greater oil production The administrator made the announcement at a meeting in which he declared "the oil transportation problem has been about a development which he said would enable diversion of petroleum products from the middle west and southwest to the east so as to place rationing on a fair and equitable basis Mussolini Aide Made Staff Chief LONDON The German-controlled Paris radio quoted advices from Rome today as saying the Badoglio government had issued a decree appointing Gen Vittorio Ambrasio chief of the Italian general staff a position he had occupied under the Mussolini regime since January 1942 Hired Since Be Deferred ing exemption from selective service He added that all employment service offices were instructed to deny Job availability certificates to workers seeking transfer to the aircraft Industry to obtain deferment Elliott announced the ruling as executives of shipyards and other major war Industries sought Inclusion for their workers in the draft moratorium New Speed Limit Being Enforced Traffic officers in the harbor district have started writing speed tickets for motorists going over 30 miles per hour in daylight hours and over 25 at night the traffic bureau learned today Capt Pat Slavens head of the motorcycle speed unit in the Iw Angeles police force today gave 20 harbor district traffic men the signal for a drive to enforce the new speed limit which went into effect Sunday Nine motorcycle officers are assigned the harbor division and the rest of the group works in traffic cars Plane Workers Monday Won't LOS ANGELES UP) Workers who obtained employment after last Monday in Southern California aircraft plants will be excluded from the recently-granted draft deferment the area war manpower commission office announced today Ralph Elliott assistant WMC director here said the ruling was made to check a rush to aircraft plants by workers In other defense Industries with the aim of obtain Harbor Draft Board Steps Up Preliminary Examinations Anticipating heavier draft calls next month the local board Is stepping up its preliminary physical examinations of prospective 1-Amen Chief Clerk Dolores Olson announced today Mrs Olson and Clerk Elizabeth Hlrzell Monday night will attend a meeting at Hollywood high school to be addressed by Brig Gen Lewis Hershey national director of selective service Reviving mass physical teste after.