Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the 95th Infantry Division of the Third Army, continuing to battle through snow and sleet, had captured two more of the forts surrounding Metz, Forts Hubert and Jussy to the west, and bypassed Fort Driant and Fort Jeanne D'Arc, while another force took Fort Illange to the south of Thionville, driving toward Magny, less than a mile from Metz. The latter force also captured Pouilly and Peltre, repelling a German counter-attack. The Sixth Armored Division pushed back another enemy attack in the area of Arriance. The advances took the forces to within two miles of Metz from the south and west.

Fort Thionville to the north of the city and Fort Koenigsmacher, across the Moselle to the northeast, had already been captured.

To the north in southeastern Holland, the British Second Army launched an offensive the previous night from the junction of the Noord and Wessem Canals and advanced nearly three miles, to within 37 miles of Duisburg in the Ruhr Valley. They reported pushing forward with celerity, there being nothing much at present to impede their progress.

To the south of Metz, the Seventh Army pushed through deepening snowfields of the northern Vosges foothills.

Because of the poor weather and consequent lack of visibility, there was no air support available for any of the drives.

In Italy, the Eighth Army had crossed the Montone River, more than two miles northwest of captured Forli along the highway to Bologna, moving toward Faenza.

The Russians had taken Jaszbereny, 35 miles east of Budapest, as well as towns to the north and south of Jaszbereny. Other Russian forces moved north and northwest from Monor to capture Uri and Peteri, gaining three to five miles to the south of Budapest. Also captured were Soli and Duna Egyhaza, to the south 45 and 42 miles, respectively, eliminating in the process a German bridgehead on the east bank of the Danube.

There was no news from the northern front in Poland and East Prussia, both areas in stalemate.

On Leyte, the Americans were still approaching Ormoc from three directions. The 24th Infantry Division swung wide to the west of the Japanese front line at Limon, while other units maintained pressure from the north. First Cavalry units captured Hill 1525 and Mt. Catabaran to the east of Ormoc. Long-range artillery guns were causing difficulty in the Japanese attempt to re-supply their line at Limon. To the west of Ormoc, the 96th Infantry Division took a crest in the vicinity of Alto Peak. The Seventh Division at Damulaan on the west coast, near the mouth of Ormoc Bay, repulsed a small enemy landing force.

Associated Press correspondent Spencer Davis provides an account from Leyte of PT-boat crews forced ashore on Leyte after a fight with enemy destroyers escorting the delivery of the 30,000 to 40,000 Japanese reinforcements to Ormoc. For several days, Filipinos sheltered the American crews in nipa huts within a Japanese-held section of the island. The Filipino guerillas, despite the Japanese presence, appeared in control of the area. The guerillas included Filipino girls who dubbed themselves Wacs after the American fashion. Trade between the soldiers and Filipinos was active. The crews eventually made their way back to the American lines.

A carrier plane raid on Manila Bay Sunday had sunk fourteen ships, including three warships, destroyed a floating dock, and at least 28 planes. One American ship of the carrier task force was damaged. Cavite, Legaspi, and Clark Field were attacked during the raids.

Land-based American planes had struck Japanese positions on the Salween River in Burma. The dispatch indicated that it was likely that the Ledo-Burma Road from India to China would be re-opened within a few weeks. The road had been closed since early 1942 when the Japanese occupied Burma.

The Chinese High Command acknowledged a Japanese push into Kweichon Province.

A map on the inside page provides a summary of the recent Japanese action in China and provides a report on the Japanese taking of Kweilin, capital of Kwangsi Province, and site of a former American airbase.

Senator Carl Hatch of New Mexico, author of the Hatch Act, limiting campaign financing, stated that the three million dollar limit on national political committee spending had proved ineffective and should be raised while retaining the $5,000 cap on individual contributions, removing loopholes from the latter limit. The reason for the change was to obviate the need for creation of independent committees for the purpose of circumventing the law, as had become routine.

After prodding from the War Production Board, a strike was called off at five New Jersey plants of the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, plants producing the engines for the B-29 Super-fortress. The strikes involved 2,900 union members and had left 32,000 workers idle.

A Swiss newspaper reported that Heinrich Himmler had been appointed commander in chief of the defensive forces of Germany for the duration of Hitler's illness. It was unclear, however, how that position differed from his previous appointment as chief of the People's Home Guard, the Volkssturm.

A decree issued by Hitler was read over German radio urging Nazi field commanders to educate their men "in the Nazi sense" against retreat or surrender. Presumably, the "education" entailed death unless the soldiers were willing to commit suicide by continuing to fight.

On the editorial page, "Great Event" tells of the unofficial Charlotte planning commission recommending that an official version be formed. The commission also recommended extension of the city limits to afford planning for areas surrounding the city. The piece commends it as a wise plan.

"The Veterans" celebrates the resigning three public members of the War Labor Board, including University of North Carolina president Frank Porter Graham, William H. Davis, and George Taylor, says that their contributions to the war effort had been as significant as the victories achieved in battle. For it was through their efforts that coordination of industry had taken place during the war, averting strikes by settling disputes between labor and management, hearing half a million cases in the process.

"An Example" tells of the park system in Charlotte being woefully inadequate to the needs of the population, that half the city's residents did not have ready access to parks or recreation facilities. The News had so editorialized on a day when it so happened that Governor Broughton was in town speaking of recreation as a fundamental human need and making plans for creation of a permanent Recreation Commission.

"Epilogue" states that the reason the Nazis had resorted to the crude, indiscriminate robot bombs, the V-1, and the rocket bombs or "flying telephone poles", the V-2, was the complete defeat of the Luftwaffe during the previous two years of the war. The new Nazi weapons, while frightful, were not nearly so effective or efficient as a group of heavy bombers dropping bombs on strategic targets. The editorial aptly compares the V-1 and V-2 to blunderbusses in the hands of desperate men. It suggests that, without greater aim being accomplished, these new weapons of war would have little impact on the outcome.

Samuel Grafton, still in Akron, tells of the smells of rubber, varying between bad dried fish and bad baked potatoes, inside a Firestone plant he had visited. One did not, he says, get a sense of an assembly line operation but rather individual effort required to make each tire. One man built each tire from strips of rubber.

Marquis Childs suggests that it would be wise for the President to change some of the personnel in his Administration early, to insure accomplishment of the objectives of his fourth term, especially the primary one of establishing a lasting international peace.

Drew Pearson examines the same issue. He adds to the list Jesse Jones, Secretary of Commerce, as a probable departure. He speculates that the replacement might be Fed chairman Marriner Eccles, former OPA head Leon Henderson, present OPA head Chester Bowles, or Beardsley Ruml, author of the Ruml tax plan to defer taxes during the war. None of his guesses would prove correct. Mr. Jones would be replaced by outgoing Vice-President Henry Wallace.

Robert Hannegan had arranged the visit at the White House. The President did not speak of politics or solicit support in the campaign from Ambassador Kennedy. Rather, he spoke to him of Joe, Jr., who had been killed August 12, shortly after takeoff from England on the special mission to be flown over France, piloting a semi-drone B-24. (Mr. Pearson does not mention the then presumably unknown fact that the President's own son, Elliott, was in a trailing Mosquito photographing the mission and could have easily been killed himself in the explosion of Kennedy's B-24.)

FDR also had discussed with the Ambassador old times which the two had enjoyed together, and of Henry Kaiser's plans to use U. S. merchant ships after the war, asking Mr. Kennedy to study that plan. When Mr. Kennedy departed the White House, he did not discuss the conference, but canceled his allotted radio time. He informed Mr. Hannegan the previous week that he had not voted for Thomas Dewey.

Hal Boyle, writing still from Germany on November 4, tells of the bitterness between soldiers and noncoms and officers and the ways they handled it. A sergeant who was a jeep courier managed always to avoid driving toward the front lines by either not being available or feigning illness. One night, he had volunteered for a trip which no one else wanted because of the lateness of the hour. He was happy to oblige because the route was far beyond enemy artillery range.

A man writes a letter to the editor urging the populace to do something about two of the five amendments to the State Constitution which had been approved by voters the previous week. The two amendments, he thought, would allow corruption and the possibility that a husband could mortgage the family homestead without the consent of his wife. He hopes the voters would act before it was too late to avert the coming disaster.