Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Americans had captured Le Mans, providing an important rail center between the Seine and Loire Valleys, enabling the encircling of Paris. The Americans and Canadians were on the opposite wings of a 130-mile front which had moved to within a hundred miles of Paris.

German troops had virtually abandoned the entire Atlantic Wall in Southwestern France, for a hundred miles from the Spanish frontier to Bordeaux, and moved inland.

Six hundred American bombers struck German lines below Caen and in the vicinity of Avranches with 1,800 tons of bombs, following a night in which the RAF had likewise bombed the area with a thousand heavy bombers, dropping 6,700 tons of bombs in the first night operation in support of ground forces. Another 400 American bombers struck targets northwest of Paris.

Other American bombers, flying return shuttle missions from Russia to England, bombed targets northeast of Ploesti in Rumania and synthetic oil refineries near Krakow in Poland.

The Russians captured more than 60 populated places beyond the Vistula River between Krakow and Warsaw, the First Ukrainian Army of Marshal Ivan Konev having reached points 30 miles west of the river. The Red Army was, at last report, 37 miles from Krakow. They had captured over 2,000 Galician oil wells in the western Ukraine, leaving only the Ploesti oil fields in Rumania to supply oil to the Reich, beyond its production of synthetic oil.

Berlin announced the hangings of seven more officers in the July 20 plot against Hitler, bringing the total executions to 16. The executions took place two hours after the "trial" and included Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben.

It was disclosed during the course of the trial that the plot had been in preparation since the summer of 1943, that Col. Von Stauffenberg had on two prior occasions taken explosives into the presence of Hitler but did not detonate them for the fact that Heinrich Himmler, a second primary target of the plot, was not present at either time. Witzleben testified that he and Col. General Ludwig Beck, who had committed suicide after being arrested on July 20, were to lead the military after the coup.

Maj. General Helmut Stieff had informed of another plot to kill Hitler, whereby time bombs were to be placed in the packs of three soldiers without their knowledge and then detonated when they came into the presence of the Fuehrer to demonstrate new military equipment.

One of the principal witnesses at the trial was Count York von Wartenburg, a cousin of Count Claus von Stauffenberg, the principal plotter. He had testified that the conspirators planned, after the assassination, to sue for peace with both Russia and the Western Allies, even though realizing that the Allies would insist on unconditional surrender "and annihilation of the German Reich and the German people."

After his testimony, Count von Wartenburg was found guilty and hanged also. Additionally executed were Maj. General Erich Hoeppner, Maj. General Stieff, Lt. General Paul von Hass, Lt. Albrecht von Hegen, Lt. Col. Robert Bernardiz, and Captain Friedrich Earl Klausing.

A report also surfaced from France, via a captured German intelligence officer, as confirmed by nine other prisoners, that Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler had been assassinated and Hermann Goering, wounded in the same attack.

The rumor, however, was untrue. Himmler would commit suicide 15 days after the surrender of Germany while in the custody of the Allies, having initially disguised himself as a sergeant major of the SS. Goering also beat the hangman by suicide, albeit only after his trial at Nuremberg had adjudicated him guilty of war crimes and imposed the death sentence.

On the editorial page, "The Blind" discusses the apparency that Hitler's having convinced the German people that they would suffer extinction and terrible cruelties by surrender to the Allies, combined with his promises of miracle weapons to come and last ditch stands to be made, had fused the Germans into an unreal state of blind faith in the Fuehrer.

"______", another editorial largely in the dark, tells of the disparate treatment of Labor and Americanism in the country, that it was perceived by the Dies Committee of Congress and those who followed in the same train to be perfectly acceptable to have bankrolled groups, capable of political maneuvering, plumping for anti-Communist causes and isolationist causes, but when it came to organized labor, such efforts as the CIO Political Action Committee and its fund of $700,000 to be used in the coming campaign to promote pro-union causes, were the subject of grave suspicion.

"Up-Down" finds General Brehon Somervell, in charge of military war production, too cautious in his continued warnings that, despite the news from all fronts of winning the war, now decisively, there could be no reduction in production.

"Division" discusses the separate opinions issued by the State Board of Health and the State Board of Education regarding the start of the school year in light of the polio epidemic in the country, with the highest rate of the disease having hit North Carolina, with most of the cases centered within a twenty-five mile radius of Hickory. The Board of Education had determined to leave the matter of the date for opening schools to the discretion of each local school board. But the State Board of Health had implored that the districts delay the opening of the school year until after September 15. Yippee.

Drew Pearson relates of the just concluding conference between Great Britain and the United States anent oil possessions of the powers and international access to them after the war. Oil was the chief commodity necessary for making war and so, along with steel, its availability was of crucial importance to prevent nations from going to war to try to obtain scarce oil.

An informal agreement had been reached between the U.S. and Britain on April 20 governing oil access in the post-war world. Now, Lord Beaverbrook was in Washington meeting with Secretary Hull and Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes to make the agreement formal and binding.

The agreement provided that oil would be available to all peace-loving nations on the international market, at fair prices and in adequate volume for their needs.

Mr. Pearson saw the agreement as being a hopeful sign of establishing a permanent peace in the world such that nations in the future would not go to war because of lack of access to oil.

Marquis Childs comments on the detached air of Thomas Dewey and his consequent failure thus far in the campaign to capture the public imagination, as manifested in the non-existent crowd which greeted him at the train station in St. Louis when he arrived there for the Republican Governors' Conference. He had ridden in a motorcade to the hotel through mainly empty streets. Mr. Childs predicts that, in all likelihood, this style of Govenor Dewey would persist through the campaign.

Hal Boyle tells of a private from South Carolina fighting in Normandy having requisitioned for himself a steel plate from a German armored vehicle to place over his foxhole. His comrades laughed at the extent to which he had gone for the sake of personal security. Yet, during the night, an 88-mm. German shell had exploded on top of the plate, cracking it, but sparing any injury to the private. Now, steel plates were suddenly in demand by all the soldiers.

Harry Golden showers praise, in a letter to the editor, on "The Burdens" from Saturday, counseling careful consideration by voters before voting for a Republican House, as the consequence would be three isolationists, Ham Fish, as chairman of the Rules Committee, Harold Knutson, as chair of Ways & Means, and Joe Martin, as Speaker, in key positions in such a constituted lower chamber. Mr. Golden adds, as further warning, the dire prospect of a Republican Senate, replete with old line isolationist Senator Hiram Johnson of California becoming, by virtue of seniority rules, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The rain, it raineth every day.

Another letter writer provides that which he views as the varying advantages of both Governor Dewey and President Roosevelt for the November election. Among the advantages for Dewey was the fact that 26 of the 48 states had Republican governors who could structure the state election machinery. Those 26 states, he points out, possessed 339 electoral votes, more than the majority of the total of 531 votes necessary for election.

Yet another letter writer gives praise to the article on which was based "The Fallen", also from Saturday, concerning the case of the found pink panties on the courthouse steps. The man had, he said, received a good chuckle from the piece, but was chary of having his girlfriend clap her eyes on it, at least in his presence. He issues the delicate caveat that The News had reached the limit of decorum, though an enjoyable limit it had been.