Site Ed. Note: Reports the front page, the Fifth Army had already moved some thirty miles northeast of Naples on the road to Rome, threatening the town of Benevento. The Eighth Army in the east of the Italian peninsula had moved eighteen miles north of Foggia to capture San Severo. General Montgomery's forces had also occupied all of the Monte Gargano Peninsula, the spur of the Italian boot, in a thirty-mile advance.

Naples had welcomed the Fifth Army with open arms, teary eyes, flower-strewn streets, and bottles of flowing wine. Napolitanoes reported of open machine-gunning of civilians during the last two days of German occupation, prompting shouts of "death to the Germans", accompanied by gesticulations to the throat. The city was found to be without widespread destruction other than in the harbor facilities and central and eastern portions, as the fast-retreating Germans apparently had too little time to fulfill a scorched-earth plan as exacted repeatedly in abandoned Russian cities. German reports told of the port and railway facilities being left in ruins by the retreating Nazi forces.

It was indicated from Sweden that Hitler had ordered Field Marshals Erwin Rommel and Albert Kesselring, his commanders in central and northern Italy, to maintain the north of Italy to the last drop of blood, a "blood wall". German radio had predicted that the blood wall would suffice to protect Germany from the Allies for many years until the enemy deemed the battle for Italy futile.

An American raid of the Northwest African Air Force made its first sorties into Germany and Austria, striking Munich and an aircraft factory near Vienna in an 1,800-mile roundtrip. Fourteen Fortresses or Liberators were lost.

In the Pacific, the Allies were reported to be pushing the Japanese from their position at Vella Lavella. The Japanese were sending supplies to the airbase at Vila on Kolombangara to support a holding force while simultaneously evacuating it by piecemeal.

On the northern Russian front, Russian bombers hit for the second straight day Mogilev, Orsha, and Vitebsk in White Russia, three key German positions which guarded the Baltic States and Poland from Russian incursion. Red Army troops were moving fast behind the bombers toward Mogilev, after the capture of Cherikov.

On the editorial page, "Milk Squeeze" seeks to appeal to dairy farmers not to seek higher milk prices despite the pressure on their pocketbooks from higher feed and labor costs. It reminds that the white collar worker could not charge more for services in time of war and the rise in cost of living had already bitten into that worker's budget severely. To raise milk prices on such an essential commodity as milk would create further havoc for those stuck in between the war and war industries without the remuneration commensurate with the average war industry worker.

In different words, the piece was suggesting that the dairymen have sufficient respect for the udders.

Raymond Clapper suggests that the five returning Senators, Brewster of Maine, Russell of Georgia, Mead of New York, Lodge of Massachusetts, and Chandler of Kentucky, who had been on an inspection tour of the various fronts abroad, from England, to the Mediterranean, to the Middle East, to the Pacific, were now better off for the experience and could inform the people better of the war effort while being informed likewise better of the most salient needs for efficient prosecution of the war. Mr. Clapper wished that all of the Senators and Congressmen could make such a trip.

Mr. Clapper, who, himself, had toured England, Sweden, North Africa, and Sicily during May and June, knew whereof he spoke. He would die aboard a U.S. bomber in March while touring the Pacific.

Dorothy Thompson asks rhetorically of the British and American governments, “Quo Vadis?” by way of explaining the completely paradoxical demands which the Allies were making on King Emmanuelle and the Badoglio Government as part of the terms of surrender. On the one hand, the Italians were supposed to surrender unconditionally to the Allies, including giving up all empire interests, while on the other the new government was to rally the people to fight with the Allies; Badoglio and the King were to gather the anti-Fascist forces of Italy behind them in a united effort with the Allies while they, themselves, were saddled with the notorious reputation among their people of having aided and abetted the rise of Mussolini and the Fascist Party in Italy. The assigned chore couldn't be accomplished by any government on earth, opines Ms. Thompson.

Drew Pearson tells of U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Laurence A. Steinhardt, good at public relations, good at mollifying Turkish officials and insuring that their Nazi-sensitive toes were not inadvertently stepped on by American anti-Nazi gestures, but not so good at swaying Turkey to the Allied cause.

"The Retreat", branding Congressman Goober Cox of Georgia a demagogue, tells of his taking his leave from the House committee investigating the Federal Communications Commission. The resignation was the result of allegations leveled against him that he had received lobbying fees to obtain favorable treatment by the FCC for Representative Cox's constituents, as well as alleged improprieties for having on the government payroll relatives who did little or nothing. Goober was a goner.

Which prompts us to remind that it was fifty years ago today, October 3, 1960, that "The Andy Griffith Show" had its debut. Happy Birthday.

"That's Eleanor" asserts it par for the course that the First Lady had upset Australians over a quip she had made urging American soldiers to seek out the Aussie females, implying that the Aussie men couldn’t hold a candle to the prowess of the average American.

She had caused unwitting insult to Americans on past occasions, says the piece. But, nevertheless, the benefits she ordinarily conveyed in the way of fostering and maintaining the morale of troops abroad made her an indispensable asset, outweighing the negative effects of any casual faux pas she might leave in her wake along the way. So, she was not to be muzzled.

Perhaps she waxed too close to the bone for some Australians, but, after all, she was only joking. Lighten up, mates.

Good 'ay.