Tuesday, February 27, 1945

The Charlotte News

Tuesday, February 27, 1945

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Ninth Army had advanced ten miles to the banks of the Erft River, last water barrier to Cologne, capturing Morken and nearby Konigshoven, 15 miles southwest of Duesseldorf, outflanking Muenchen Gladbach, and also capturing Rheindahlen, 2.5 miles from the latter city. The 84th "Rail Splitters" Division had led the advance, beginning in the early morning at Mazerath, moving through Waldnell, northwest of Muenchen Gladbach, and passing Wegburg and Merbeck, before capturing Morken and Konigshoven, encountering virtually no opposition. The Army generally, however, had met stiff opposition, as tanks were sent across the Erft by the Nazis to seek to stop the advance, without success.

The First Army had advanced to within nine miles of Cologne and had nearly reached the Erft, entering Granterath, Roedingen, and Golbheim.

The Third Army stormed into Bitburg, junction of ten military highways within the Moselle Valley, encountering only light enemy opposition.

To the north, Canadian and British troops broke the Hochwald forest defense line in the northwest Ruhr, as Canadian forces were reported to be breaking through German defenses. Resistance was crumbling as Germans were surrendering by the hundreds.

For the first time during the war, German civilian refugees were crowding highways on the Western Front, seeking escape at Erkelenz from the approaching Allied Armies. Military observers stated that all of the fight appeared gone from much of Von Rundstedt's German forces.

Another American raid of 1,100 bombers, accompanied by 700 fighters, attacked Germany, first making a feint on Berlin, then hitting Leipzig and Halle.

Some 750 RAF heavy bombers hit Mainz and Gelsenkirchen in the late afternoon.

The Fifteenth Air Force out of Italy hit Augsburg and rail lines in southern Austria.

During the previous night, for the seventh consecutive night, RAF Mosquitos again attacked Berlin.

It was reported by a Stockholm newspaper that between 25,000 and 30,000 German casualties in Berlin had been inflicted by the previous day's American bombing raid.

On the Eastern Front, the Russians broke through on a 30-mile front in Pomerania, to Bublitz and Rummelsburg, seeking to sever Danzig and Gdynia from German control. The Germans reported that the Russians had established bridgeheads over the Niesse River 50 to 60 miles southeast of Berlin, between Guben and Forst, but contended that the bridgeheads had been pushed back.

On Iwo Jima, the Marines of the Third Division, advancing 400 yards through some of the heaviest fire yet of the Iwo campaign, captured Hill 382, considered as important as the capture of Mount Suribachi on February 23. Hill 382 was east of Motoyama No. 2, still being sought by the Marines but reported virtually in American control by this point, with only its northeast tip still held by the enemy at the previous nightfall.

The Fourth and Fifth Divisions gained ground against heavy opposition, the Fourth taking a hill on the east coast of the eight square-mile island.

Japanese dead now totaled 3,568, 741 more than Sunday's count. Only nine Japanese prisoners had been taken in the eight days of fighting.

Captured Motoyama No. 1, taken a week earlier on the second day of the invasion, was put into service for the first time.

The Navy confirmed the reported second carrier-force strike on Tokyo of Sunday and Monday, stating that 233 planes had been damaged or destroyed and five small enemy vessels sunk, with nineteen others damaged. Also hit on Monday was Hachijo Jima, 175 miles south of Tokyo. Primary targets were the Nakajima aircraft plant at Ota, 50 miles northwest of Tokyo, and nearby Kaizumi, the Nakajima plant already having been 75 percent destroyed by earlier B-29 raids.

The Navy Department announced that the Third and Fifth Fleets in the Pacific had accounted for 1,610 Japanese planes destroyed and 187 vessels sunk since December 1, 1944. Another 1,076 planes were damaged, along with 402 ships. A total of 178 American planes had been lost in the action.

The report also inexplicably states that the Third Fleet, alone, had accounted for 1,796 Japanese planes destroyed in December and January, with another 853 damaged and 168 ships sunk, while damaging another 354, against 120 planes lost.

Apparently, the combined total was 2,610 planes destroyed.

In the first two-day carrier strike on Tokyo, February 16-17, the Third Fleet had bagged 509 enemy planes, damaging another 150, and sunk fourteen ships, damaging another 22, at a loss of 49 American planes. In the second carrier strike of February 25, 58 planes were thus far reported as destroyed and 75 damaged, against a loss of nine fighters.

Prime Minister Churchill spoke to Commons with regard to the Yalta Conference, urging that the agreement reached should be completely endorsed by Parliament as one which would forestall future warfare and by its design would make it impossible for Germany to wage offensive war for generations to come. He also assured that the proposed alteration of Polish territory would not sow the seeds for future war.

Members of a small bloc of Commons had indicated intention to oppose the proposed Polish territorial division.

Senator David Walsh of Massachusetts joined Senator Robert Taft of Ohio in criticizing the War Department for sending 18-year olds into service with less than the mandated eight months of prior military training. Some were being sent into combat with seven months of service behind them and only the basic training of thirteen weeks.

Governor Gregg Cherry of North Carolina told the General Assembly that, while he advocated the general principles of the proposed changes to the State hospital system, he recommended that many of the proposals would have to be deferred until after the war, in exercise of due caution with regard to revenue available when the peace would come.

On the editorial page, "In the Hope Chest" tells of the Southern Railway being desirous more of adding to its passenger totals than constructing new stations. The hope, however, was that, when the railroad had sufficiently improved its equipment, it would consider a new station in Charlotte.

Both freight and passengers had significantly increased between 1939 and 1944, more than tripling in passengers carried and more than doubling in freight. It was not known what would happen after the war, but odds were that passenger and freight traffic would not fall back to 1939 levels. If so, then the revenue stream should be adequate after the war to build the new station to replace the drab and dilapidated affair of which the column had several times complained.

"The New Lobbyist" suggests that correspondent Lynn Nisbet, of The News Raleigh bureau, had discovered that North Carolina's lobbyists were not of the common, crass stripe of which most were. He was an agent instead of the people, not of finance and industry, at least on this occasion, as school teachers sought a pay raise, as physicians sought improvement in the State hospitals, as nurses sought restriction on entrance to their trade, as physicians voiced the need of a new hospital and medical school at the University in Chapel Hill.

Not one emissary of the liquor industry had come to Raleigh, it appeared, to protest the referendum being proposed for the ballot on local choice. The editorial concluded that, while public-minded, the new breed of North Carolina lobbyist was "powerfully dry".

"Last-Minute Rush" finds the neutral nations of the world rushing to get on board the United Nations train leaving the station March 1. Turkey had met the deadline by a few days for declaring war on the Axis to assure a seat at the peace table when the San Francisco United Nations charter conference would convene April 25.

Other nations in the category included Egypt, Iceland, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

Nations to which the invitation to join was not extended on condition of declaration of war by March 1 were the collaborationist nations, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, and Argentina.

"Links-Wise" comments on the second annual Charlotte Open, a $10,000-prize golf tournament being held in the city. The piece suggests that, with promotion, the affair could turn into one of the big sporting events within the South. The Jaycees undertook the job of organizing and promoting the tournament and had done so manfully. The event promised positive publicity for the city and, opines the editorial, should be given favor.

The excerpt from the Congressional Record finds Representative Alvin O'Konski of Wisconsin taking umbrage at Pravda for attacking him for his criticism of the Yalta agreement, having stated it to have been one the most dastardly crimes of the ages. He scoffed at the criticism, renewed his attack on Yalta as the Munich of 1945, showing up the Soviets, as Munich had the Nazis.

He assailed Pravda for allegedly contending that Poland had fought on the side of the Nazis and that the fact was justification for the cession to Russia from Poland of the territory to the Curzon Line.

Mr. O'Konski thought this might be one of the arguments which had been convincing to James Byrnes. "Reinforced by vodka and red pepper it was perhaps even stronger."

Representative George Outland of California took the floor to argue that the House should be a voice of unity for the Allies, not one to foment dissension, reminding that the enemy consisted of Germany and Japan, not Russia, who had fought bravely and hard against the Nazis during the war.

Drew Pearson comments on the activity of the Congress on George Washington's Birthday. In the Senate, while Senator Ernest McFarland of Arizona gave a speech on freedom of the press, only two Senators of the 96 were present in their seats, others wandering in and out of the chamber.

Following the speech, Senator Lister Hill of Alabama provided a salute to President Washington. But still, few listened.

Mr. Pearson then conveys the story of Mr. Hook and Mr. Rankin engaging in fisticuffs on the House side the same day, regarding Mr. Rankin having suggested Mr. Hook to be in league with Communists, whereupon Mr. Hook called Mr. Rankin a "dirty liar", at which point Mr. Rankin charged Mr. Hook physically and sought to strangle him before being restrained.

The entire Hook-Rankin colloquy is set forth on the page this date.

Mr. Pearson reports that Mr. Hook had taken up the offer of a circus wrestler at one point, offering $50 to any three men who could stay in the ring with him. Mr. Hook was able to stay in with two others. He then accepted the bet of $100 for two men, won that as well. Then, the waging wrestler offered a $1,000 for one man to stay in the ring; Mr. Hook again accepted, again won the bet, and with the money, paid for his college education at Valparaiso University in Indiana.

An update from the downstream is now available in moompicters of the Congressional wrestling incident.

He next tells of Senator Happy Chandler of Kentucky fighting the practice of the D.C. Bar which had taken a secret vote on a Jewish nominee of President Roosevelt to the U.S. District Court bench. The vote was eighty percent against the judge. Senator Chandler felt strongly that if the country determined judicial nominees by the opinions of lawyers, the practice would lead to disaster and undermining of the American system of jurisprudence, as judges would find themselves waging campaigns among lawyers to attract advancement on the bench.

Finally, Mr. Pearson relates of King Ibn Saud's wives, that White House press secretary Steve Early had stepped out of line when he told the press that the King had 250 wives. Actually, he had only four, at least four at any given time, that being the limit under Muslim law, and only so allowed if the husband could "do equal justice to them all."

Divorce under Muslim law was simple, merely requiring a formal recitation and the divorcement was official. The King had gone through many divorces through the years, had in excess of thirty sons and untold daughters to prove it. The daughters were maintained in seclusion and so their number was unknown. On the side of continuity, the King had maintained for a number of years one wife of his allotted four at a time.

Dorothy Thompson meets Soviet press criticism of her stated view, and that of other American columnists, asserting that the Free German Committee and the Union of German Officers formed in Moscow from German prisoners and defectors had been slated to form a post-war government to replace the Nazi regime.

She proceeds to recite several facts in support of the contention, quoting from Stalin and from the Free German Committee manifesto, condemning the Nazi regime but excepting from denunciation Germany itself, and urging that a new government had to be put in place to replace the Nazis.

She asks whether she should recant her statements with apology, contrary to the facts as they had occurred. She reminds that Soviet society was so arranged as to purge regularly its history whenever there was a change of policy. The cooperation between the Soviets and the Reichswehr during the 1920's and Soviet criticism of the Versailles Treaty, she opined, were instances likely not to be found in Russian history books.

But, in America, such was not done. It was not a crime to change one's mind.

Marquis Childs, now in Germany, observes a line of G.I.'s going over the brow of a hill from a forward position back into the line along the Roer River. It was a routine maneuver but one of which he, as a newcomer, took note as a dramatic sight, with the soldiers silhouetted against the clear, sunny sky until they disappeared into the valley.

The soldiers, themselves, young, took the movement in stride.

Seeing a woman correspondent in the jeep in which Mr. Childs was riding, the soldiers suddenly let loose with whistles.

The objective of the men had been the little town of Schmidt, now taken, lying in virtual ruin.

Mr. Childs explains that the view from the ground was quite different from the abstraction obtained from the headlines and newspaper stories. Those anxious to see action occurring faster on the front could not be aware of the complexity required to coordinate the forces necessary to breach the heavy defense lines between the Roer and Rhine. Thousands of G.I.'s, he says, would lose their lives in this area laced with mines and pillboxes and dragon's teeth of the Siegfried Line, before the Rhine could be forged.

Crossing the Roer, with its high banks, affording high ground for enemy fire, was a complex task in itself, complicated by the dams originally held by the Nazis which could surge a wall of water onto the Cologne plain.

The men talked with hesitation, a kind of indifference born of a feeling of being shut off from everything familiar, compressed and locked in that world of strange battle. The G.I. often spoke of it being "out of this world".

But, adds Mr. Childs, there were degrees of "out of this world". The men at headquarters felt apart from those at Supreme Allied Headquarters in Paris, and those at SHEAF felt apart from America, cut off from it for two years.

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