Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Red Army had moved to within a mere 125 miles of Berlin, the point of the penetration not being provided by Moscow reports, most likely either in the area of Poznan or across the Oder near Steinau. It was confirmed that the Russians had crossed the Oder at two points 77 miles apart, the First Ukrainian Army moving to the west of the Oder in the area of Breslau. The fall of Breslau, capital of Lower Silesia, appeared imminent. Oels, fourteen miles northeast of Breslau, had been captured.

Both Gliewitz in Silesia and Bombrowa, 17 miles west of Krakow, had been taken. Gliewitz was the largest German city thus far captured by the Russians.

Russian forces in the north were reported to have entered Elbing on the Gulf of Danzig in Poland.

Chrzanow, 17 miles west of Krakow, had been taken.

A state of siege had been declared by the Germans for Prague.

An attempt on the life of Heinrich Himmler had unfortunately failed of its mission as he toured the Eastern Front. Mass arrests by the Gestapo of Volkssturm members resulted, suggesting that the attempt was home-grown.

Germans, five or six divisions strong, had attacked on a twenty-mile front from Haguenau northwest into the Vosges Mountains, crossing the Moder River, opening a new offensive in Northern Alsace against the Seventh Army. The Americans continued to hold Haguenau, but it was being attacked from the forest on its eastern and western flanks. Inclement weather prevented air support for the Army.

Other German units attacked French positions on the northern and southern flanks of the Colmar-Mulhouse pocket in Southern Alsace below Strasbourg. The Germans were eleven miles north and ten miles south of the Alsatian capital.

Sorties continued to be flown in the north against the continuing retreat of the Germans from the flattened Belgian Bulge sector, raising the total vehicles and tanks destroyed to 7,000 during the previous three days. The Luftwaffe was not to be seen, apparently having been shifted entirely now to the Eastern Front.

Secretary of War Henry Stimson announced the end of the Battle of the Bulge, that the elimination of the Belgium incursion begun December 16 had effectively frustrated the probable goal of the Germans, to reach the Meuse, take Liege, and force an Allied withdrawal from Aachen after splitting communication lines between north and south.

The Secretary also announced the addition of 38,091 American casualties since the previous week, bringing the total now to 701,950 dead, wounded, captured, or missing since Pearl Harbor. The Army had suffered about 5,800 killed since the prior report, about 13,500 wounded, and 17,000 newly listed as missing. Fewer prisoners were listed. Of the 356,813 wounded, 180,320 had returned to duty.

Presumably, the sudden increase in figures resulted from the addition of the casualties of the Ardennes offensive.

An unnamed American transport ship sunk recently in European waters had resulted in the deaths of 248 soldiers with another 517 missing. More than 1,400 aboard were rescued.

In Italy, despite sleet and snow, Fifth and Eighth Army patrols were active, albeit on a small scale. The Fifth Army met encounters below Bologna at Monte Cuccoli and at San Martino; the Eighth Army discovered booby traps on the banks of the Senio River southeast of Cotignalo.

Through Wednesday morning, the Fourteenth Army Corps motorized division had swiftly moved against the thirteen airstrips of Clark Field on Luzon, with Manila now but 50 miles away. The Corps had already crossed the Bamban River and seized the town of Bamban, to reach the borders of Clark and Fort Stotsenburg.

The Americans thus far had lost 657 men killed, the Japanese having suffered ten times that number during the first fortnight of the campaign begun January 9. The Sixth Army had driven 65 miles from Lingayen Gulf in that time.

The Vatican newspaper stated that Pravda had misinterpreted Pope Pius's Christmas message in suggesting that the Pope wanted post-war victors and vanquished treated alike. The Vatican publication clarified that the Pope believed war criminals must be punished and was only referring to civilian populations.

Former Vice-President Wallace appeared before the Commerce Committee of the Senate in confirmation hearings on his appointment as Secretary of Commerce, suggested that Congress investigate the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to determine whether past lending practices by former Secretary Jesse Jones had been utilized in such a way as Mr. Wallace proposed, to benefit both small and large business in the readjustment to a peacetime economy to achieve the goal set forth by the President of creating 60 million new jobs for returning servicemen and the war workers who would be displaced at the end of the war.

President Roosevelt nominated Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe to become major general for his having stubbornly held Bastogne as deputy commander of the 101st Airborne Division against encirclement by the Germans, issuing his defiant "Nuts!" as response to the German invitation to surrender on December 22. General Patton had decorated General McAuliffe with the Distinguished Service Cross for the action on December 30, three days after the Third Army had opened the narrow corridor to provide supplies and reinforcements to the beleaguered men of Bastogne.

The President nominated his son, Colonel Elliott Roosevelt, to become brigadier general in the Army Air Forces. The nomination went to the Senate Military Affairs Committee amid a controversy which had arisen and been assigned to the committee for investigation regarding an allegation that a dog owned by Colonel Roosevelt had priority over three servicemen in transportation.

Colonel Roosevelt denied that he gave his dog, an English bull mastiff named Blaze, such priority. Nevertheless, three servicemen flying west on furlough on January 11 had been bumped from a plane in Memphis while Blaze continued in the saddle. Blaze was one of two dogs Colonel Roosevelt had sent from England to his new bride, actress Faye Emerson, to start a breed of English bull mastiffs in the United States.

The White House also denied that Colonel Roosevelt authorized priority to Blaze.

Ye Fala?

On the editorial page, "Jump, Mates!" reports of the editors in the Ivory Tower starting to worry of the time when there would be too many cars going to too many places, even if the current problem was how to get from one place to another without gas or tires or new cars since February, 1942.

"The Gauntlet" observes that Henry Wallace was in for a confirmation fight before the Senate. He might make it should the Congress remove the lending powers associated with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation from the Department of Commerce.

"Plugging a Gap" finds that the move by the Office of Price Administration to place controls finally on the price of clothing would be greeted with approbation by housewives. Clothing had before this time been allowed to rise in price without restraint during the war, hiked by eleven percent, more than the hem of skirts for want of cloth, even if kept to a one percent rise during the prior thirteen months according to OPA.

"The Stretchout" tells of looking for signs among the flora for the coming of spring, only to find itself scooped by the women who had already cleared out the spring shoes from the stores and were looking for summer shoes to wear, at least according to a female acquaintance of the editors.

A piece from The New York Times at the bottom of the column explores the "something about a train whistle", as "one of the links that binds a great sprawling nation together".

It seems to provide the keystone of the world of yesterday of which Marquis Childs writes as having vanished forever.

Dorothy Thompson contrasts the Eastern and Western Front offensives, suggesting that the ensuing few days on the Eastern Front could be determinative of the European war, whether it would last weeks or months longer.

Drew Pearson indicates that the report by General Marshall to the President and Congress anent progress on the Western Front had disclosed that thousands of American soldiers had been hospitalized because the Belgian winter had caused pneumonia, trench foot, and flu. These conditions had perhaps caused more men to have to leave the front than battle wounds. Complaints had arisen that the Army had not provided proper winter clothing.

He next mentions the Battle of the Statler—seems we were just there yesterday, woo-woo—that is the brawl which had taken place at the Statler Hotel in Washington following the President's "Fala Speech" to the Teamsters September 23. Two naval officers had fought with guests because they wore Roosevelt campaign buttons. He brings it up in relation to another dinner held at the Statler recently for the President, this one hosted by Jack Benny on behalf of the radio broadcasters. Present were General Marshall, Admiral Ernest King, and General Hap Arnold. The President stated at one point that everyone leaving the hall could feel secure on this occasion because the hosts had chosen carefully their military guests.

Finally, Mr. Pearson discusses the inevitability of the departure of Jesse Jones as Secretary of Commerce ever since the Texas Democratic convention of the previous spring had plotted, through George Butler, Mr. Jones's nephew, to throw the Texas electoral votes to someone other than FDR regardless of popular vote outcome as a protest against New Deal policies and the April Allwright decision by the Supreme Court which had required that blacks be allowed to vote as a matter of right in any state-sponsored primary. Henry Wallace had known the job would be open since the summer and his assistant had received the Department of Commerce annual reports several weeks prior to his appointment as Secretary.

Mr. Pearson does not mention that he had accurately predicted the departure of Mr. Jones, if not yet the appointment of his successor, in his column of November 15, a week after the election. Three days later, however, he had read the tea leaves correctly and predicted Mr. Wallace to be the nominee.

The editors compile some statistics on wages, ranking the states of the nation, showing North Carolina among the lowest, and the lowest in terms of unemployment compensation. California was first with a 24-week maximum benefit of $444. North Carolina paid $160 for a 16-week maximum period of unemployment compensation, a dollar less than Mississippi paid in 14 weeks.