The Wilmington morning star. [volume], December 30, 1944, FINAL EDITION, Image 1

About The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990

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*S Milmingiim Hunting Star |s5
!°i- 17' N°‘ 294’ __WILMINGTON, N. C., SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1944___FINAL EDITION
Iiazi Army Punched Back 12 Miles By Yanks;
Patton Roars To Reich Border In Luxembourg;
Camp Davis Wpfftle Reactivated For New Work
Auction Sale1
Of Equipment
To Be Stopped
Air Force Expected To Use
Facilities For
Center
Camp Davis, giant anti-air
craft artillery training center
near here, has been ordered re
activated and instructions to
evacuate and abandon the
camp have been rescinded, it
was learned from authorita
tive sources here last night.
Sale of salvaged equipment at
iwction was ordered stopped and
iailroad cars, loaded with supplies
lo be shipped from the camp wer"
ordered unloaded and the material
restored to the camp's warehouses.
li was iccuncva.
An advertisement which appear
ed in the Star-News Thursday an
nouncing an auction sale of equip
ment was superceded by another
in this morning's edition cancelling
the plan.
Plans for the firing of a final j
sunset gun Sunday afternoon and |
the closing of the camp as former- j
ly ordered by the Army have been I
abandoned.
It also was learned that laundry,
baking and refrigerating facilities
at the camp would be repaired
and put into use. All public utili
ties will be renovated and civilian
employes already granted releases
ior other jobs are expected to re
turn to their original posts.
While no definite announcement
has been made as to a future use
for the camp, it was learned that
the Army Air Forces probably will
utilize its facilities as a rehabili
tation center. These centers are
designed to re-equip the airmen
with the proper mental attitude to
ward future combat or to render
them fit to enter civilian life upon
discharge from the service.
An influx of many thousand
troops is expected soon, it was re
vealed.
Since casualties have been high
following the invasion of Europe
and the Philippines, it was rumor
(Continutd on Page Three; Col. 4)
-V
CHAPLIN TERMED
A SVENGALl WITH
BULLS INSTINCT
HOLLYWOOD. Dec. 29.— <UP>—
Describing Joan Barry as “an at
tractive girl of limited intelli
gence und Charlie Chaplin as “a
runt of a Svengali with the in
suncts of a young bull,'’ Attorney
Joseph Scott today wound up his
puerility suit against the movie's
richest comedian.
The 77-year-old, white-haired,
Scott, reminding the jury that he
had 13 children himself, waved his
arms eloquently and, in ringing
tunes, summed up his case against
Chaplin, nameu by Miss Barry as
the lather of ter baby daughter,
Carol Ann.
"e have before you the ma.,
"hois responsible for this baby s
existence," he said, “and I don’t
"ant to let him jet away.”
"Joan Barry,” he said, “is an
attractive girl, but she is a girl of
limited intelligence, and could not
«vc invented her story."
Dn the other hand, he shouted,
Chap];,: — “the great genius” —
Das a lousy memory for his own
Convenience.”
Neither Chaplin, Miss Barry nor
too curly-haired baby, now 14
toonthij old, were in the dingy
Courtroom as Scott went through
most impassioned oratory of
With a wave of the hand, he dis
®*ss6d the testimony of three doc
®i5 who ruled that a blood test
‘‘"'•'Hi Chaplin's nnocence.
So tar as they were concerned,
~haplij, could not lose, and the
could not win.
Let us consider,” he demanded,
^ physical facts of the case.”
«ott referred to Chaplin's ipsti
f,uny that he put Miss Barry to
the night of December 23, 1942,
*llcl did not see hey again until he
Je"t with his butler to get her gun
"ext morning.
fo hear him talk, you would
“!nl that this stoic Chaplin is an
lcic,( of a man. had never had
lathing to do with girls in his
•he.”
Churchill Confers
With Grecian King
On Regency Plans
LONDON, Saturday. Dec. 30. —
(UP)—King George II of Greece
conferred at some length with
Prime Minister Churchill last nigh!
at 10 Downing street, and presum
ably learned directly of the desire
of Greek political quarters for 3
regency in his country.
Churchill talked with the king
after attending 90-minute cabinet
meeting which was summoned
within an hour after the Prime
Minister, Foreign Secretary An
thony Eden and Churchill’s staff
returned from Greece in an RAF
transport plane. Eden also attend
ed the cabinet meeting.
Churchill was believed to have
urged him to accept formation of
a regency speedily as the first, but
not the only step toward a solution
of the civil strife in Greece, and
responsible quarters here believed
the king would accept, although he
may make reservations safeguai
ing his right to see the future < f
his monarchy decided by a free
vote in Greece.
BRITAIN MAY ASK
HELP ON CONTROL
Big Three Policy For Rul
ing Free Lands Is
Sighted
LONDON, Dec. 29.— CP) —Allied
diplomatic difficulties stemming!
from Europe's ideological strug
gles raised the likelihood today
that Britain soon would attempt to
establish a united “Big Three”
policy for preventing violence in
liberated lands.
Amid sharp criticism of Britain’s
intervention in Greece, the report
circulated in London s diplomatic
colony that the joint policy effort
would be based on proposal to
establish a temporary inter-Allied
control over newly-freed govern
ments if trouble threatened.
There were reliable reports that
this "suggestion” had been cir
culated among some of the exiled
governments in London.
The possible attempt to extend
the Allied control commission plan
—originally intended only for ene
my territory — was hinted at in
Churchill’s declaration that some
kind of “international trust” may
have to be set up in Greece if a
compromise among fighting fac
tions cannot be reached.
Significantly, in mentioning this
possibility at an Athens press con
ference, the Prime Minister did not
confine it to Greece. He said that
he, Premier Stalin and President
Roosevelt would review the situa
tion “in not a very long time,”
and added that “we cannot afford
to see whole peoples drifting into
anarchy.”
Yank History Was Made
With One Word-Huts’
By EDWARD D. BALL
BASTOGNE, Dec. 29.— W —The
commander of Bastogne s valor
ous 20,000 who made history with
a single word—"Nuts,” was 46
year-old Brig. Gen. Anthony C.
McAuliffe, one of America’s young
est generals.
He was acting commander of the
101st Airborne Divison and odds
and ends of the U. S. Third Army’s
Ninth and Tenth Armored Divi
sions, which had been thrown in
hurriedly to stem the German rush
toward Sedan.
This soldier from Washington. D.
C., and his troops had been in
tough spots before, for they were
in the Normandy landings and the
airborne penetration of Holland.
And so when the commander of
the German forces drawn up in a
siege ring around Bastogne sent in
an ultimatum to surrender, McAu
liffe sent back this now-famour re
ply which deserves to rank with
John Paul Jones’ “We have just
begun to fight!”
It was simply this one word:
“Nuts!”
Then the young general told his
tough fighters what he had done
and this typical bit of American
repartee became a rallying call for
the garrison of 10,000.
Besides the 101st (“Screaming
Eagle") Airborne and the Ninth
and Tenth Armored Divisions, j
these other Third Army divisions
took relief roles in the Bastogne
drama: the Fourth Armored, the
SOth ("Blue Ridge”) Infantry and!
the 26th ("Yankee”) Infantry.
Two other units, the Fourth
("Ivy”) and Fifth ("Red Dia
mond”) Infantry divisions, were
named today as having aided in
the Third Army’s great offensive
against the south of the German
bulge, operating in northeast Lux
embourg.
The answer of "nuts” went back
to the German lines on December
22.
Four days later, when the 80th
Infantry and Fourth Armored Di
visions broke through to their re
lief, the fields before the American
lines around Bastogne were litter
ed with the debris of 200 German
tanks which had butted in vain
against the Doughboy positions.
They had been attacked by five
German divisions.
Units of the 26th Infantry Divi
sion also had helpted to smash the
encirclement of Bastogne.
Next day. the lOlst’s regular com
mander, Major Gen. Maxwell D.
Taylor, arrived after a trip by
plane and jeep from Washington.
(Continued on Page Three; Col. 1)
-; A- —-*
^ Rioters Wreck Ward Store
————————— , ' 1
-|. ... i ■ —— — i nnmi ii rmiirT nriui" tititiiiti——^ -i
Merchandise clutters the aisles of the Dearborn, Mich., Montgomery Ward store after 75 people led
by two rioters went on a 15-minute rampage. Labor leaders charge that the violence was instigated
by “imported strike breakers,” two of whom were a rested for malicious destruction of property.
Ward’s Head Assails
Roosevelt^ On Seizure
CHICAGO, Dec. 29. — (UP) — Montgomery Ward &
Co.’s, dispute with the Army over Government seizure of
its facilities in seven cities, headed for the courts today as
Sewell Avery, militant chairman of the board of directors,
charged that President Roosevelt was invoking seizure
--————*
SHORTAGE OF FOOD
EXPECTED TO GROW
WORSE DURING ’45
WASHINGTON, Dec. 29—(UP)—
In a forecast emphasizing the Of
fice of Price Administration’s dras
tic ration action, the Department
of Agriculture said tonight that
there will be shorter supplies of
nearly all major foods in the first
three months of 1945.
A survey showed that civilians
must expect reduced supplies of
meat, poultry', butter, potatoes,
canned and fresh vegetables, and
probably lard. There will be in
creases in fruit, milk, cheese, eggs,
fish and special cereal products
but not enough to compensate for
the prospective shortages.
There will be no overall food
shortage and supplies availalle
will keep consumption "at least as
high as the pre-war level, although
different in composition,” the de
partment said. However, a return
to pre-war consumption levels
means a 7 per cent drop from the
record high reached this year ai
der an eased rationing program.
powers woen anu wnere ne pleased.
Federal Judge Philip Sullivan set
January 8 for a hearing on the
Government’s petition for an in
junction restraining the company
from interfering with the Army’s
operation of the plant. Government
and company attorneys apparently
had agreed to make the suit a test
case to determine the validity of
the Smith-Connally Act and to de
cide if the Executive Department
of the Government has any juris
diction in labor disputes.
Company attorneys said that the
firm would not comply with any
mandatory orders for turning over
the books to the Army but added
that they were accessible if Gov
ernment representatives wanted to
look at them.
“If the President, can. as he
please, choose among those who
reject the mere advice of the Gov
ernment and seize the property of
some but not others, the Nation no
longer has a government of law,’
Avery said in a statement handed
out by an assistant.
He referred specifically to the
President's failure to act against
the American Federation of Musi
cians. which defied the War Labor
Board, and against the unions
which recently called a strike
against two Chicago suburban rail
road.
Placards proclaiming that the
Chicago plant and those in six
other cities were under U. S. oper
ation were posted yesterday morn
ing as the Army followed out the
orders of the President. The White
House action was taken after
Wards refused to comply with
WLB directives.
Weather In Wilmington
More Mean Than Normal
Despite The Forecaster
Wilmington's mean and normal
temperature coincided yesterday
for the first time in more than a
month, but the weather in general
was conceded to be much more
mean than normal. Paul Hess, me
teorologist in charge of the U. S.
Weather Bureau, stated that the
precipitation of the last days,
scheduled to continue througn to
morrow, did not amount to much
statistically. However, he admitted
that it was dispersed as nastily as
possible.
Today may be warmer, following
a likely low temperature last night
of 40 degrees, which may spare
Wilming'tonians the snow which has
been falling as near as Raleigh
and the freezing which has com
plicated the drizzle in the northern
and western parts of the State,
Caustic comment was wide
spread yesterday on a recent New
York Timer feature article which
described Wilmington as the only
year-around “sunshine spot’’ north
of Florida
UNGAYEN GULF
HIT BY PLANES
7,000 Ton Jap Freighter
Damaged By Yank
Bombers
GEN. MACARTHUR’S HEAD
QUARTERS, PHILIPPINES, Sat
urday, Dec. 30.— WPI —Mitchell
bombers hit Japanese shipping in
Ling'ayen gulf, off the western
coast of Luzon Island in the Phil
ippines and heavily damaged a
7,000-ton freighter, Gen. Douglas
MacArthur today.
Nipponese planes again attack
ed American positions on Mindoro
the night of December 27.' Eight
of the 23 attacking aircraft were
brought down.
Another 268 dead Japanese were
couted December 27 in the mop
ping up of isolated enemy units
on Leyte island.
American heavy bombers drop
ped 72 tons of explosives on San
Jose airdrome on Panay Island,
between Leyte and Mindoro, and
knocked out, six grounded planes.
They also cratered an enemy run
way.
General MacArthur acknowled
ed that the December 27 raid on
the Yank airfields and shipping
at Mindoro caused “some dam
age.’’ Ack-Ack got some of the
attacking aircraft and night fight
ers brought down the remainder.
This raid came about 2,4 hours
after a Japanese naval force had
shelled the area and fled after los
ing three destroyers.
Navy Liberators helped in the
Lingayen area raid, shooting down
two Japaese planes and damaging
a small surface craft.
An enemy airfield at Davao,
en Mindanao, major island of the
southern Philippines, also was hit
by heavy U. S. bombers. Fires
and explosions were observed
there afterward.
Six small enemy freighters were
bombed, strafed and left sinking
by U. S. patrol planes off Borneo.
Iwo Jima Pounded
By Liberators For
21st Straight Day
PACIFIC FLEET HEADQUAR
TERS, Pearl Harbor, Dec. 29. —
(UP) — Liberators of the Pacific
Strategic Air Force have bombed
Iwo Jima for the 21st consecutive
day of a sustained campaign to
knock out Japan’s sole airblock on
the route from Saipan to Tokyo, a
Pacific Fleet Headquarters an
nouncement reported today.
The B-24s under Lt. Gen. Millard
F. Harmon lashed out at Iwo
Jima’s airstrip December 27, en
countering intense anti-aircraft
fire over the bleak, rocky island
750 miles southeast of Tokyo.
Today’s brief communique re
ported further Marine fighter at
tacks on Babelthuap in the Palaus
and the bombing and strafing of
long-isolated Marshal Islands ene
my bases.
ft S. Protests Nazi
Murder^ Of Soldiers
Strongest Possible Complaint On Malmedy
Massacre Is Filed Through Swiss Author
ities By State Department
WASHINGTON, Dec. 29. —(UP)
—The United States, in its strong
est protest oi the war to Ger
many, tonight called the Reich
to book for the mass murder by
Nazi forces in Belgium “of all
but 15 of a group of about 130
Aj’erican soldiers and officers”
captured in the recent enemy
counter-off ensiv s.
The action was announced by
the State Department which said
“the strongest possible protest”
was being lispatched through neu
tral Swiss authorities.
It said:
“The Department of State is
forwarding the strongest possible
protest to the German government
through the Swiss authorities with
regard to the killing by German
forces near Malmedy, Belgium, of
all but 15 of a group of about 130
American soldiers and officers
who have been taken prisoners
by a German tank corps and strip
ped of their equipment.”
As reported in press dispatchos
by American war correspondents
who interviewed the handful of
survivors, the Americans were lin
(Continued on Page Three; Col. 3)
REDS SLAUGHTER
FOE IN BUDAPEST
Berlin Admits Russians
Already In Heart
Of City
LONDON, Saturday, Dec. 30.—
(JP) — Russian shock battalions
smashed into new sections of en
circled Budapest from the west
yesterday and began slaughtering
a trapped Axis garrison in hand
to-hand fighting raging through
streets clogged with enemy dead
and wrecked guns and tanks, the
Soviet high command announced
at midnight.
Berlin said the Russians already
were in the “heart” of the burn
ing Hungarian capital, locked in a
struggle unrivalled in ferocity
since Stalingrad where another
German army met disaster in the
snow.
As the great churning struggle
raged on the western side of the
Danube, in the Buda section of the
tottering capital, other Soviet units
tightened their death trap on Ger
man-Hungarian units caught in the
Pilis hills north of the city, kill
ing 2,500 of them during the day
and capturing 2,200 the previous
day.
Still other Russian units forced
the Hron river, one of the last big
water barriers to the Bratislava
plain leading to Vienna, Austrian
capital, and sped two miles be
yond, capturing Nana and Parkany
near the Hron's confluence with
the Danube.
This last stroke put the Rus
sians within 76 miles southeast of
Bratislava and 105 miles from Vi
enna. Other sections of the same
army arrayed on a 35-mile front
along' the east bank of the Hron
to the north were only 64 miles
from Bratislava, and they killed
or captured 11,000 Germans in two
days, the bulletin said.
South of the Danube, meanwhile,
other mobile Russian units were
attacking on the approaches to
Komarom, only 5, miles southeast
of Bratislava and 81 miles from
Vienna. The phalanx of the two
armies moving westward, even
without awaiting the fall of Buda
pest. was 100 miles wide. 1
1,500 WARPLANES
RAKE NAZI RAILS
Germans Are Lashed With
14,750 Tons Of Bombs
In Week
LONDON, Dec. 29.— UP) —More
than 1,500 U. S. bombers and fight
ers from Britain raked the German
transportation web from the Vest
srn Front back to the Rhine today
with thousands of tons of explo
sives for the seventh straight day.
A great fleet of RAF heavy
bombers and a limited number of
continent-based dive-bombers also
participated in attacks which in a
week have lashed the Germans
with 14,750 tons of explosive..
Despite poor flying weather,
heavy bombers of the U. S. 15th Air
Force in Italy hit rail targets at
Innsbruch and Salzburg in old Aus
tria and unannounced objectives
in Germany. The Brenner Pass
into northern Italy also Was at
tacked for the. fourth day.
Eight hundred U. S. Fighter Air
Force Fortresses and Liberators
from Britain, escorted by 700
Mustangs and Lightnings, blasted
five rail and road junctions in a
15-mile arc behind the German of
fensive bulge in Belgium. The
main weight of the attack struck
glutted freight yards at Bingen,
Aschaffenburg and Frankfurt,
which are on the southern rail
route, now over-burdened since the
northern lines have been all but
immobilized by previous bomb
ings. The Trier-Euskirchen area
also was hit.
Solid cloud layers obscured the
results near the battle area, but
the main loads were spread visual
ly over the three main rail centers,
and returning crewmen were elat
ed with the effectiveness. One
pilot said a 10-square-mile area
was set afire with incendiaries at
Bingen.
The German air force again was
grounded and anti-aircraft fire was
reported intense only over Frank
furt, which was hit by the Ameri
cans for the time. Escorting
Mustangs and Thunderbolts strafed
targets.
4Pappy ’ Really Worried
About The ‘Kraut’Supply
By ANN HICKS
WASHINGTON, Dec. 29.—(UP) —
When Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Tay
lor left Washington Christmas Eve
to join his 101st Airborne Division
trapped at bloody Bastogne, he
'"as more worried about the
‘Kraut” supply than the safety of
his boys, a future General Taylor
reported today.
“Pappy had no doubts about
their winning,” the future General
Taylor, named Jack and aged 14,
explained. “But he wanted to be
there.
“Just before he left I said: ‘Pap
py, are you worried about the
101st?’ and he said, ‘I am not. I
just hope there’ll be some Krauts
left when I get over.’
“Pappy is always saying his
boys are the best outfit in the
Army. When they jumped into Nor
mandy on D-Day they’d never been
in combat before—and they won a
Presidential Unit citation.”
Overseas dispatches told today
how the boys of the 101st already
had knocked out 150 German tanks
and were holding off as many as
four Nazi divisions when their gen
eral arrived to take over.
The general’s family knew he
would be leaving soon but they had
hoped he would be at their nearby
Arlington, Va. home for Christmas.
Only two weeks before he had
come home, for the first time in
a year and a half, for special busi
ness at the War Department.
The day before Christmas, Jack,
his brother, Tom, and Mrs. Taylor
came to Washington, where the
general had his picture taken. In
the afternoon Jack trimmed the
tree while “Pappy just sat in an
armchair and watched.’
(Continued on Page Three; Col. 3)
Foe May Plan
Defense Stand
Inside Bulge
Withdrawal In Ardennes
Salient Reported To
Be In Rout
PARIS, Saturday, Dec. 30.
—(/P)—Powerful blows by the
U. S. First and Third armies
have knocked back the Ger
mans 12 miles at the western
end of their thrust into Bel
gium and compressed the ene
my’s corridor from the Reich
to 13 miles.
There were indications that the
Germans, their initiative lost,
were preparing for a defensive
stand as long as possible on the
lines of their bulge. Observers re
ported intensive movements in
side the enemy salient and at ma
ny places along the perimeter
Nazi soldiers were feverishly
throwing up fortifications and
planting mines.
The First Army, punching for
ward a mile and a half, reached
the edge of Rochefort—12 miles
from the point where the German
advance once was within three
miles of the Meuse river.
At the same time Lt. Gen. George
S. Patton’s Third Army pounded
to the Reich border at three points
in northeast Luxembourg, broke
the enemy’s Sure river line and
cemented positions four miles
north of Bastogne—only 13 miles
from the point where the first is
fighting down from the north.
In a disptach covering develop
ments up to yesterday morning,
Associated Press Correspondent
Lewis Hawkins said the corridor
into Bastogne was strengthened
against stout resistance from the
west, but lesser opposition from
the east.
In this period, at least 15 more
towns had been overrun by the
two American armies and Field
Marshal von Rundstedt’s steel
spearheads had been shattered
with fearful slaughter.
Some of the best news was that
clear weather returned today to
the Third Army front. The sky
was laced wiin condensation trails
as everythnig from heavy bom
bers to fighterbumbers blasted the
Germans who for two days had
moved under the cover of fog
(Reuters Correspondent William
Steen with J. S. forces in Belgium
said the German withdrawal from
(Continued on Page Three; Col. 2)
-V
SEVERAL GENERALS
ARE RECALLED FROM
FRONT AND DEMOTED
WASHINGTON, Dec. 29.—fjP)—
The War Department has recall
ed several general officers from
overseas commands within recent
months, demoting some of them,
it was learned tonight.
The recalls have been individual
cases, not involving any single
situation, but are manifestation*
of a firm policy adopted by the
Department.
The most recent case is that of
a major general ordered back
from France and reduced to the
rank of colonel. This case pre
dates the present German offen
sive.
Explaining that it prefers to
avoid publi" discussion out of re
gard for the individual officers
and because of possible morale
effect, the Army declined com
ment. No names were given.
Those familier with the situa
t:on say the department’s policy
is predicated upon its insistence
that there be efficiency in com
mand and that recall of comman
ders is not necessarily a puni
tive measure.
It is pointed out that frequently
a general officer is given an as
signment for which he prove*
unsuited, but later gives an ex
cellent account of himself in an
other battle command.
In '-ecalling earlier instance*,
the case of Major General Terry
Allen was cicted. Allen went ov
erseas in 1942 for the North Afri
can campaign, commanding the
First Division there and in Sicily.
He was returned to the United
States in the midst of the Sicilian
campaign, but retained his rank
and recently reappeared as com
mander of the 104th infantry
division in France.