Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that three British columns of the Second Army, utilizing a concerted phalanx of artillery, tanks, and infantry, had entered 'S Hertogenbosch as German defenses were breaking along a 12-mile front south of the town, appearing no longer to have adequate artillery support. Scottish troops to the south of the city cut the road to Eindhoven. The northernmost column captured the village of Rosmalen and made its way into the eastern suburbs.

The offensive combined with that of the Canadian First Army against approximately 40,000 Germans in southwestern Holland in an attempt to open the port of Antwerp to Allied use. The Canadians cut the causeway to the East Schelde Estuary, connecting it to the mainland, advancing to within three to five miles of Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom.

Other Canadian units held Breskens firmly and were along or across the road the distance to Schoondijke, three miles south of Breskens. Demolition units withdrew from positions a half-mile beyond Breskens in Fort Frederik Hendrik and the fortress now was no man's land. Other advances occurred northeast of Hoogerhide and west of Esschen, and to within 1.5 miles of Dorp op Pindorf, 3.5 miles west of Bergen op Zoom.

The winter's first heavy snowstorm hit along the front through France and little progress elsewhere was measured by the measure.

German artillery had fired 16 to 20 eleven-inch 700 lb. shells into Third Army positions causing some casualties and damage. The origin appeared to be about thirty miles distant but was not precisely determinable for the cover of rain and clouds.

Eleven German officer candidates in the school in Metz had surrendered voluntarily to General Patton's forces after dropped leaflets convinced them the action to be the better part of valor.

A large force of Luftwaffe fighters challenged a thousand RAF bombers striking Essen the previous night, hitting the Krupp Works to destroy repaired facilities since the original attack to begin the concerted strategic bombing offensive in Europe on March 5, 1943. That attack, combined with five subsequent blows, had leveled two-thirds of the city. A small force of Mosquitos also attacked Berlin. The force was hampered by the inclement weather which caused darkened skies over Germany even though it was not snowing.

The Third White Russian Army, led by General Ivan Cherniakhovsky, and the First Baltic Army of General Ivan Bagramian had penetrated to a depth of nineteen miles into East Prussia and had captured 400 towns within German territory. The First Army had occupied all of Memel save the port itself, albeit with its defenders entrapped. The Russian forces were approaching Gumbinnen, fifteen miles east of Insterburg and 63 miles from Konigsberg, having driven from Kaunas in Lithuania. The deepest penetration thus far was at Goldap, taken the previous day.

In Italy, the Fifth Army moved to within four miles of Castel San Pietro, 13 miles from Bologna in the Po Valley, along the Rimini to Bologna Highway. Another column had taken a village seven miles from Imola.

In Greece, British patrols had occupied Lamia, 93 miles northwest of Athens.

Spanish Republicans, operating out of Paris, contended that armed clashes between their forces and those of Generalissimo Francisco Franco were spreading throughout Spain.

The Chinese had engaged the Japanese in heavy fighting eight miles southwest of Kweiping and at Pingnam in Kwangsi Province, the Japanese base of operations out of which they had been pushing toward the U.S. base at Linchow, 78 miles north of Kweiping. The Chinese had the previous day made substantial gains in an area 21 miles north of Kweilin.

Associated Press Correspondent Dean Schedler, who had been in the Philippines during the Battle of Bataan and the fall of Corregidor in the winter and spring of 1942, contrasts the very different scenario now transpiring on Leyte. Now, all the planes overhead were American, whereas previously they had been Japanese. Supplies and food were plentiful, also in stark differentiation from the prior experience two and a half years earlier.

Meanwhile, U. S. Troops had moved onto Samar, the fifth island to be captured since the landing October 19, (October 20 across the dateline). A road led longitudinally along Samar to within fifteen miles of Luzon.

The southern column on Leyte captured San Pablo airfield in a seven-mile advance westward from Dulag. General MacArthur's troops had thus far liberated eleven towns on Leyte, ten of which were within seven miles of Tacloban, as detailed on a map on the page. Do you know the way?

A new Hellcat fighter plane, the F6F-3, had been introduced in the Pacific theater. It flew at speeds of 400 mph, faster than Japanese Zeros, and had increased maneuverability over previous versions of the Hellcat.

Undersecretary of State Edward Stettinius, a month away from becoming Secretary, announced that it was likely that a United Nations charter conference would be held early in 1945, ensuing a possible meeting late in 1944 of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin to resolve loose ends lingering after Dumbarton Oaks. A Pan-American conference might also precede the planned January conference. Mr. Stettinius clarified that the unexpected prolongation of Dumbarton Oaks, running from August 21 to October 7, had thrown out of joint the times for the final meetings to establish the U.N. Secretary Hull, early in the summer, had expressed the hope for a charter meeting before the end of 1944.

The timing, however, of the conferences would hinge on the wherewithal of the President to attend such a meeting with the other of the Big Three leaders within a short time after the election, given a heavy schedule set for him during the ensuing couple of weeks.

The Malta and Yalta conferences of the Big Four would not take place until late January and early February, respectively. And the United Nations Charter Conference in San Francisco would not get underway until April 25, thirteen days after the death of the President.

Governor Dewey, speaking in Minneapolis, clarified a statement by Governor Bricker which had implied that a Dewey-Bricker administration would consider abolition of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, created by the New Deal to regulate farm prices and surplus to insure a steady market for farmers at a reasonable price. Governor Dewey stated that he intended to maintain the existence of AAA.

On the editorial page, "Nazi Valor" finds a telling characteristic of the Nazi mind having been revealed in the surrender of the last defenders at Aachen the previous week. The colonel who finally surrendered the last remnants of the German Army at first had balked at signing terms which specified unconditional surrender on the ground that his and his men's families were still in Germany and would be thus subject to reprisal, they believed, should they sign such a document.

"Recruits" points out that the 1940 presidential campaign had established a record for spending, fifteen million by the Republicans and six million by the Democrats. Yet, no hue and cry had been set up in the country against this sort of profligate spending on politics.

"Nimble Joe" comments on the high principle which had motivated Senator Joseph Ball of Minnesota, a Republican, to endorse FDR. He had done so on the basis of the President's clear stand on foreign relations versus the murky and waffling rhetoric of Governor Dewey, enabling him to find support among such renowned isolationists as Robert McCormick and his Chicago Tribune.

"War Chest" discusses the Community Chest appeal in time of war, seeking $385,820 for various foreign relief out of Mecklenburg County. There was more money in circulation and a greater tax deduction available for charitable contributions than in 1943, giving prospect to a larger Community Chest fund for what would be the most critical year of the war for foreign relief.

Drew Pearson tells of the efficient team brought together as advisers for Thomas Dewey, having been slowly organized since his days as District Attorney in New York City in 1937. The brain trust of the campaign included John Burton as the chief researcher, Elliot Bell, primary ghost-writer, Paul Lockwood, personal secretary, and others, plus, of course, John Foster Dulles as chief foreign policy adviser and future Eisenhower Attorney General, Herbert Brownell, as campaign manager. They regularly huddled at the Governor's mansion in Albany, then got to work on execution of plans and writing speeches.

Marquis Childs points out that the mountain states of the West, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, and Montana, were as strong for FDR in the coming election as the Midwest was for Governor Dewey. Electrification, protection of silver and copper, and irrigation, brought to these states by the New Deal, were benefits not to be forgotten by the voters.

Montana, he asserts, was paradigmatic. Though isolationist in its tendencies in election of Senators and its Representatives, one of the latter two in the previous Congress, Jeannette Rankin, having been the only dissenting vote against the Declaration of War on Japan in the wake of Pearl Harbor, the state nevertheless had voted for FDR in the past and appeared ready to do so again, based primarily on domestic issues. The Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River and the President's advocacy for Missouri Valley and Columbia River authorities, similar to TVA, had galvanized opinion in his favor. Likewise, the protection of the Butte copper interests, providing in the meantime higher wages and better working conditions for the miners, was inescapably borne in mind by Montanans.

In Arizona, the Republican Party barely existed.

Only Idaho and Colorado appeared likely to favor Governor Dewey, leaving the President with 22 electoral votes from the mountain states, conceivably determinative in a close election—which it would turn out not to be.

Samuel Grafton comments on the speech of Thomas Dewey given before the Herald-Tribune Forum. The Governor had urged that it was irregular and problematic for the armistice treaty with Rumania, signed September 12, to have been executed on behalf of the United States by Soviet representative "Melinosky", actually Rodion Malinovsky. Mr. Dewey had stated further that Secretary Hull, when asked for the reason for the foreign signatory, had declined comment.

Dorothy Thompson writes of some of the statements of Toronto Globe and Mail publisher-editor C. George McCullagh, speaking also at the Herald-Tribune Forum. Mr. McCullagh had trumpeted the smooth working relationship between Canada and the United States, had reminded of some of the history of simpatico relations between the two nations.

Hal Boyle, reporting from Germany on October 15, tells of Staff Sergeant William Kolosky, chief clerk in a headquarters outfit, who had won the first Distinguished Service Cross in the European theater, but shrugged his shoulders when asked how he had done it, contending that he had simply reacted out of fear.