SUNDAY, MAY 21, 1944

THE MICHIGAN DAILY-WAR NEWS PAGE

PAGE THREE

~tJNDAY, MAY Zi, 1944 PAGE THREE

to

Militarists Believe German Army Can Be

Destroyed Now

Herr Hitler's
Strategy Aids'
Allied Armies
British Heads Praise
New Nazi Orders To
'Fight-and-Die' in Italy
By The Associated Press
LONDON, May 20.-For the first
time in a year the western Allies are
believed by military men in Britain
to have a good chance to destroy a
German army, thanks to Hitler's re-
ported "fight-and-die" orders in It-
aly.
Hitler is understood to have issued
orders last winter for the German
armies in Italy to hold their posi-
tions and fight to the last man, a
strategy which in the recent past
has resulted in two great defeats for
the Germans.
Debacle at Stalingrad
First, there was the debacle at Sta-
lingrad, which resulted in the de-j
struction of the German Sixth Army
by the Russians, and the second, the
big defeat just a year ago this month
when Hitler left his Africa Corps to
its fate in Tunisia and Gen. Dwight
D. Eisenhower's forces wiped it out.
At that time the German Army
still had plenty of reverses and could
afford heavy losses. Now thm situa-
tion is reversed, but Hitler's strategy
to all appearances has not.
All-Out Offensive
Now Gen. Sir Harold Alexander,
the Allied commander in Italy, is go-
ing all-out. On the narrow Italian
boot laced by mountains the Ger-
mans could fight a -long series of
stubborn rear guard actions with
slow, planned withdrawals and have
small losses.
Instead of that Hitler has ordered
his troops to stand on fixed lines, with
the result that the. powerful Allied
onsalught has broken through their
positions, with the French crashing
through the center and the Americans
apparently turning the flank of the
Hitler Line on the coast, capturing
Gaeta. and advancing beyond.
In the words of a conservative high
officer in Italy, the Germans arenot
withdrawing, but retreating in "dis-
order." The big toll of German pris-
oners is an indication of the Germanf
position.I

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Monticell EA
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.IA Gaeta
STATUTE MILES
ALLIES HAMMER FLEEING NAZIS-Arrows indicate Allied drives
on the Italian front (black line) where the Germans are reported flee-
ing in disorder. British Eighth Army troops pushed up the Liri Valley j
while the French drove a wedge into German defenses in the central
sector. Americans moved nearer the port of Gaeta. Map shows part of
Hitler Line not yet reached by Allied forces.,
Japs Routed from Burma Post;
Yank Bombers Plaster Ja IAIsland
WASHINGTON, May 20.- (1P)-~ SOUTHEAST ASIA HEADQUAR-

Churchill May
Reveal World
Security Plans
Statement to House
Of Commons To Open
Foreign Policy Debate
By The Associated Press
LONDON, May 20-Prime Minis-
ter Churchill may lay before Com-
mons next week his plans and hopes
for world security and a policed
peace, in a prelude to a liberation1
message which will be a psychologi-
cal shaft aimed particularly at the
enemy in occupied countries.
It is likely that he will weave in-1
to the Foreign Policy address an out-
line of the empire's structure newly
strengthened by the conference oft
its Prime Ministers, and review the
economic warfare accomplishments
in cutting down aid the Nazis had
been receiving from neutrals.
His statement, opening a Foreign I
Policy debate, will be offered as an
answer to criticism from some quar-
ters-similar to that frequently di-
rected at the State Department in
Washington-that the British lack
a long-range pattern for dealing
with other nations. The task ap-
parently leaves him a choice of
describing formulae or of defending
the lack of an announced program by
discussing difficulties of operating
under any fixed pattern during war-
time.
Interest in diplomatic quarters,
however, was pin-pointed upon the1
possibility that Churchill will chart1
the course of political and economic
collabcration after victory, and givei
a hint of terms for Germany upon{
which the European Advisory Com-
mission has been working.
They are subjects which have been
getting increased attention, particu-
larly among the governments of ex-
iled countries, since indications are
mounting that a conference will be
held in the near future between
Russia, Britain and the United
States on world organization.
RAF Fighters
Hit Destroyer
LONDON, May 20.- ()- RAF
Beaufighters, attacking a group of
German warships in the Bay of Bis-
cay last night, severely damaged a
destroyer, left a minesweeper blazing
and damaged another, the Air Minis-
try announced today.
Light British coastal forces manned
by French crews torpedoed and sank
an enemy trawler off the Channel
Islands early today, an Admiralty
announcement said.

IN A CONCEnNTRATION CAMP:
Alln ries to Interview Rommel

Editor's Note: Larry Allen, Associat-
ed Press War Correspondent, tells in
the following dispatch of his unsuc-
cessful effort to interview Field Mar-
shal Erwin Rommel, after he had been
made a prisoner of war. The German
radio first publicized the incident,
which occurred after Allen's capture
off Tobruk in September, 1942. Allen
was exchanged at Barcelona Wednes-
day.

I went without food or drink for 36 and toes. The only food was a small
hours, finally receiving a bowl of plate of yellowish liquid called pump-
putrid macaroni which tasted like kin soup and little rolls of hardtack
mucilage. bread that fitted into the palm of my
Then began four difficult months. hand.
Behind barbed wire at a transients' I constantly protested and fought
camp commanded by Col. Stefano for my release. I consistently re-
Orofalo, where there were hundreds fused to salute or show respect for
of lice-infested, cold, hungry In- any Italian officer.
dian soldiers whose legs were filthy Finally, after vigorous protests by
and whose emaciated bodies were me, Captain Micklethwait and -other
hideously distorted by swellings and naval officers, the Commandant or-
malnutrition. dered all American prisoners of war
For four months I never saw soap, sent to Concentration Camp No. 21 at

By LARRY ALLEN
Associated Press Correspondent
ABOARD THE EXCHANGE
E.R G"RITPfHOLM? Barelona_

LIN-
May

ic~c ttianl~ai scc;ct aaaz, vizyhad a towel or a pair of shoes and
20.-Twenty long months of Italian wore only a torn, thin khaki naval
and German prison camps, my third uniform. Cold swelled my fingers
sinking and fifth torpedoing have -
been added to my experiences as war
correspondent, which already had in-
cluded two years aboard warships of
the, British Mediterranean fleet.
On the morning of Sept. 14, 1942,
I was aboard the flagship destroyer
Sikh, leading a squadron into the
Axis-occupied harbor of Tobruk to
land troops and "beat up" that enemy
base, when Germans torpedoed the
ship.
Suddenly came the captain's order
to abandon ship.

Chieti and I was separated from Brit-
ish naval officers for the first time
in this war and I never rejoined them.

3

i

American bombers, apparently taking
advantage of a break in foggy weath-
er, sped across the north Pacific
Thursday night to plaster Paramu-
shiro and leave large fires raging in
air field installations there.
Two bombers, a Pacific fleet press
announcement disclosed today, at-
tacked and probably sank a Japanese
patrol vessel earlier Thursday off the
shore of the enemy's biggest base in
the north Pacific.
A single Navy search plane on that!
same day also attacked an enemy
auxiliary vessel off Paramushiro, nor-
thernmost of the Kurile Island chain
which reaches from the Japanesej
homeland north to Russia's Kam-
chatka Peninsula.
Moderate anti-aircraft fire was
encountered by the Ventura planes
raiding the enemy base and one plane
was damaged but flew safely back to
its base.

TERS, Kandy, Ceylon, May 20.-(iP)-
The Allied Comand announced of-
ficially today that the Japanese gar-
rison was being driven from the north;
Burma stronghold of Myitkyina and1
that Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill's in-
fantry, backed by a continuous influx
of airborne reinforcements, had
swept across the Irrawaddy Riverl
four miles north of the city.
Chinese and American forces closed
in steadily from three sides, one col-
umn from Gharpate, four miles to the'
north, another occupying the right
bank of the Irrawaddy and seizing
the island village of Zigyun where
the stream bends sharply to the west,
and still another driving down the
Mogaung Valley against trapped rem-
nants of the Warong garrison.
The three-pronged attack was re-
ported virtually to have closed the
net around enemy troops in the area,
and the Japanese were suffering
heavy casualties in escape attempts.
The Myitkyina garrison itself was
putting up fierce resistance, but none-
theless steady progress was made
against it.
"It seems we have Myitkyina," Lt.
Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell said simply
when pressed by correspondents for
a statement. The impression given
by reports from the front was that
the Japanese could not hold out much
longer.

Italian landing craft put out
from shore. I signalled with my
handkerchief and shouted in Ital-
ian to be picked up. We were pull-
ed aboard an Italian boat. For the
next hour this boat hioved about
the scene, picking up a hunred
or more British sailors, most of
them badly wounded.
Stepping ashore at Tobruk I shook
hands with the German and Italian
commanders, told them I was a news-
paperman and I asked for an inter-
view with Field Marshal Erwin Rom-
mel, then commanding the Africa
Corps at El Alamein.
After three hours of dickering the
German commander said Rommel
was too busy to see me.
The commander told me, "We'd
rather have you as a prisoner than
a whole division, but if you will tell
us the disposition of the British fleet
at this time we will release you and
put you back across the lines."
I replied, "Don't be silly."
Both commanders then stormed
volubly, and said, "Then you're a
prisoner of war."
I shrugged and said, "Okay, then
I'm a prisoner of war."
They then tookeme to Derna where

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