i wg Kr 43 i 4 aii4 Weather CloUdy VOL. LIV No. 155 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1944 7 .._ __A _ _ _ _ _ _ PRICE FIVE CENTS :, f>..'........ Allies Troop Take s Mov Bayeux, Nazi-Fortified e City; Caen Inland, Cut Road to Nazi Lines Above Rome Are Reported Broken Allies Smash Ahead North, West of Tiber Advancing Armies Take 18,000 Nazis By The Associated Press ROME, June 7.-The Fifth Army sihashed ahead north and west o Itome toward Lake Brachiano and the key Tyrrhenian port of Civitavec- chia tonight in a drive so rapid and .owerful that the Germans them- - selves .described it officially as a "major break" through their lines. Fanning out above the city the Allies advanced so far along the vital coastal highway that one official an- pounced this evening that they "con- tinued a rapid advance in the direc- tion of Civitavecchia," the closest port to Rome, 40 miles to the north- west by road. Ten Miles Covered .The advance was along all main hithways west and northwest of the city, including the routes numbered one and two and the Magliana coastal road, the Allied troops covering a distance of ten miles from Rome as they reached northward to within 4 five miles of Lake Bracchiano. The march reached the important peaks Mount Grossara, Mount Aguro and Mount Forno, commanding the Brac- chiano route for two miles. To the west advance patrols reach- ed points three to five miles from the sea and nearly a dozen miles north of the mouth of the Tiber. lAs te tbattered German tenth and fourteenth armies fell back, Gen. Alexander broadcast to Italian patri- ots utrging them to rise and do aU they can'to disrupt the retreat. Liberation Told "In less than a month the strength of the German armies has been brok- en," he said, adding that "the libera- tion of Italy now is well under way." ' The disorganized resistance the Al- ies were encountering was from small battlegroups made up of ele- ments of various beaten units. Al- ready more than 18,000 prisoners had been taken by the Fifth Army alone, and the total was growing. More thousands were captured by the British Eighth Army which still was meeting strong enemy defenses northeast of Rome as the Germans threw heavy demolitions and mine fields into the path of the advance. The Germans played for time to retreat from the mouth of a net clos- ing in the hills above Rome. Miller73 Brolen' To Colnel for Invasion Hint Loose Party Talk Is Cause for Demotion WASHINGTON, June 7.-(A'h-The Army reported today that Major- General Henry J. F. Miller was "bro- ken" to lieutenant-colonel and sent home from England for an indiscreet remark at a cocktail party hinting at the time set for the invasion of Eur- ope. The rank to which he was reduced is his permanent grade, held since 1936. The rank of major-general was temporary. The story came out piecemeal from Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces and from the War Department here. Dispatches from Shaef told of the incident but on orders from the supreme com- mand withheld the officer's name. Here, in response to inquiries, the War Department issued a memoran- dum naming the officer as Miller, 53, a graduate of the command and gen- eral staff school with a 33-year hon-' orable record of Armv service. He is a native of Salem, N.J., and lives in Miami,.Fla. Invaders Drive Back Enemy Co unterbiows Eisenhower TJours invaision Coast Five Miles From Nazi-Held Territory By WES GALLAGH ER SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITION-- ARY FORCE, June 8, Thursday-,-The Allies announced today capture of their first French city, the N azi-fortified town of Bayeux, five miles inshore in the center of the Normandy inva- sion coast, and said they also had cut the highway from Bayeux to Caen as they moved inlid in generally heavy fighting against counterattacking Gerrnan reserves. (The Cherbourg-Caen-Paris railway and a main highway run through Bayeux, so that capture of the town cuts both, con- tributing to isolation of the D-DAY UNDER WAY-LCT's are loaded with half tracks and other armoured vehicles by American troops just before heading D-Day invasion on the French coast June G. (AP Wirephoto via Signal Corps Radio). Cherbourg peninsula.) Caen, 18 miles southeast of Bayeux and nine miles fror the sea, was the scene of a. German armored counterattack which has been hurled back, headquar- ters disclosed, and the Allied forces were said to be doing generally "'better than expec- ted." Aside from these two towns, supreme headquarters gave no place- names, ignoring a continuing stream of German broadcasts which re- ported new Allied attacks all the way from the Pas de Calais area on Dover Strait to Nantes at the base of the big Brittany peninsula jut- ting out into the Atlantic. Beaches Cleared of° Enemy A headquarters communique said the Allied landing beaches had been cleared of the enemy and had been linked up by flank ex'tensions in some cases during the. second day of the invasion while steady reinforce- ments poured in by sea and air. The supreme commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, toured the beach areas in a British vessel far four and one-half hours Wednesday, conferring with Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery and other operational chieftains less than five miles from German-held territory. Heaviest fighting apparently cen- tered around Caen and Bayeux, the latter a cathedral town, once of 9,000 (correct) population. Reports from the front mentioned many casualties, although there was no solid evidence of the actual num- ber or proportion. Both the U. S. and British navies reported their casualties in personnel and ships were so 'ar very small. Resistance of the German navy and air force continued relatively light, with E-boats driven off in two attacks and 51 German planes down- ed Wednesday by the overwhelming Allied air cover, which lost 23 of its own planes. Lightning fighter- bombers demolished a German head- quarters Wednesday afternoon. Germans Flood Area One returning flier said the Ger- mans had flooded three large low- land areas near the beaches in ef- forts to hold up the Allied advance. The German land forces put up increasing resistance that was ex- pected to become still stronger as the N azi command struggled to dis- cern and meet the Allied strategy. Allied. airborne operations, a feat- ure of the initial landings, were re- sumed Wednesday on a "very large scale," the Allied communique stated, while supplies and men moved con- stantly to the beaches despite strong northwest winds, which moderated somewhat tonight. Clearing thepbeaches of the enemy freed the supply and reinforcement convoys and men from small arms attack, while naval forces silenced remaining German coastal guns which had escaped the first furious air and sea assault Tuesday. Headquarters conservatively stat- ed: "It is not yet known whether alt have been finally reduced." Yank Forces Japs Move NaIr Railway enter By RAY CRONIN Associated Press War Editor The Japanese have lost strategic Mokmer airdrome, within bombing distance of the Philippines, to hard- hitting Yank forces. Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Thurs- day's communique said American troops stormed Momker from the rear and routed the enemy. Changsha Threatened In China the Japanese invaders, driving to cut the nation in two, ap- proached close to thei main object- ive as a renewed offensive carried Nippon forces to within nine and a half miles north and 12 miles east of Changsha, railway center and capital of Hunan Province. The MacArthur communique said a flanking column of American troops took Mokmer, on Biak island in the Schoutens group off north Dutch New Guinea. It is 880 miles from the Philippines. American los- ses were light. Battle Lasted 12 Days The battle for Mokmer raged for 12 days. One American column was driven back by murderous Japanese fire from hill positions. Yank cliff- climbers finally rubbed out the Nip- pon machine gunners and snipers_ and drove along the ridge to the rear of the objective for the final assault. The Changsha drive was the sole Japanese military success on today's records. The Nipponese suffered set- backs or aerial hammerings in China's Yunnan province, Burma, India and the Central Pacific. Chungking reports told of the Jap- anese Changsha advance. In that region the Japanese seek to gain complete cohtrol of the north-south Hankow-Canton railroad and thus seal off the China coast from interior China. Railway Almost Destroyed "The voice of China" radio broad- cast from Chungking Wednesday de- clared control of the railway in its present condition would mean little. The broadcast said the rail line, bad- 1- rinned un by the Chinese. could WAR BUL LE TINS By The Associatedl Press ROME, June 7-Pope Pius XI urged correspondents today "to write of a peace that can meet the approval of all well-meaning peoples" in his first press conference since becoming pope. "You are most welcome. You have a mission of tremendous import- ance," His Holiness said in greeting the newsmen as he entered the throne room of the Vatican. w * * * * * SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, June 7-French communications workers were supplied by Allied airmen on D-Day with instructions for sabotage, it was disclosed tonight. Maps showing rail and other communication lines, the instructions and an "urgent message" from supreme headquarters Allied expeditionary force were dropped. * * * * * # NEW YORK, June 7-Allied parachute troops in hitherto unknown strength have landed 30 miles south of Caen in the region between Argentan and Falaise, the German radio said tonight in a broadcast recorded by the CBS. LONDON, June 7-A report to tl said today that a large Allied fleet w Allied landing on the Ligurian coast+ was expected hourly," he London press through Switzerland ias cruising off Genoa and that "an (Italy), or even on southern France, Nazi Troops Arrive by Air Allied Paratroopers Are Behind Front Lines fay Tihe.Associated Press SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, AL- LIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, June 7-Savage fighting for key points behind the Normandy beachheads was developing tonight as the Germans began moving troops' by air in efforts to cope with the con- stantly-reinforced Allied airborne di- visions whose successes highlighted the invasion, The Allied airborne operation, largest ever undertaken anywhere, was a complete success, at least as far as its shock phases were con- cerned, and parachutists and air- borne infantry were ranging swiftly behind the German frontlines, it was said at supreme headquarters. Authorities Tight-lipped Authorities were tight-lipped about the progress of troops that landed from the sea but stated the airborne soldiers had carried out every as- signment given thenm, and in some cases had seized bridges which the command had been almost certain the Germans would have time to demolish. It was confirmed tonight, for ex- ample, that the British sixth air- borne division had captured a series of bridges north of Caen. Front dispatches said airborne troops had joined those from the sea in some places after capturing towns, roads and various bridges, and that reinforcements poured in today aboard a 50-mile-long train of ninth air force gliders. The German radio yesterday listed four to six Allied airborne divisions as having landed behind the Atlantic wall defenses, and said tonight that another Britislh division had landed during today. Allied Planes Hammer Nvazi Troops9, Supplies i Court Martia1s WASHINGTON, June 7- ( )- Compromising Senate and House differences, Congress settled today on a six months' extension f'rom mid-I night tonight of the time in which court martials may be held on any charges arising from the Pearl Har- bor disaster. A bill approved by both legislative branches and sent to the White House directs that, meantime, the secretaries of war and Navy are to make investigations and take such action as appears justified. The measure extends anew the statute of limitations which already had been extended for six months past Dec. 7, 1943, because the War and Navy Departments opposed Pearl Harbor trials during wartime. CIO ToFight By The Associated Press Chairman Sidney Hillman ut the CIO Political Action Committee defi- nitely on the line against Gov. Thom- as E. Dewey in the presidential race yesterday. Contending that Dewey "is in com- plete ignorance of the major prob- lems that face the nation," Iillman at a Washington news conference called on the New York Governor to make known his views regarding postwar employment. Democratic eyes were turned, meanwhile, on the results of a meet- ing of Mississippi members of that party to pick delegates with 20 national convention votes. SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, AL- LIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, June 7.-Allied warplanes, which have flown a total of 31,000 sorties against Europe since June 1, threw down blazing curtains of bombs and bullets intended to cut off both help and escape for German troops on the perimeters of the expanding beach- heads in France, Road Junctions Attacked. South of Caen 250 to 500 Flying Fortresses and Liberators heavily attacked road junctions to block off German reinforcements. In this un- usual front line use of heavy bomb- ers, neither antiaircraft fire nor German. fighter opposition was en=. countered, Clouds prevented assessment of the damage done, Allied fighter planes were holding an aerial cordon around the beach- CIO Strikr Ey The Associated Press Representatives of the Army, man- agement and unions urged strikers yesterday to resume production of airplane engines at the huge Wright Aeronautical Corporation plant in Lockland, Ohio. Between 12.000 and 1 ,000i m- heads that spelled a virtual death warrant for enemy aircraft trying to attack, while swarms of other planes of nearly every sor"t scourged the German reinforcement routes. Flying weather continued bad and enemy resistance slowly increased, but the Allied airmen flew lower than customary to pour explosives and airborne reinforcements down on the Germans, Fed Bridges Undamaged The effects of the tremendous Al- lied pre-invasion attacks on Nazi communications was reflected in the disclosure than on D-Day only one railroad bridge and five highway bridges were undamaged over the Seine between Paris and the sea. Every railroad'bridge and all except two highway bridges between Paris and Rouen had been destroyed. Some bridges still intact were captured by Allied airborne forces before the Ger- mans could damage them. The German air force, absent from the skies through most of D-Day, began to rise slowly to Reichsmar- shal Hermann Goering's order to fight or perish and its losses mounted to at least 70 planes since invasion began. Losses Increased Allied losses in a like period reached 73 as air units threw caution to the winds and defied weather and ground defenses alike to bomb and Get . Bradley To Head Yankls ill Fratne SUPREME , HEADQUARTERS, ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, June 7-(AP)-Lanky Omar N. Bradley-The "Doughboys' general" who has killed more Germans than In the initial stages of the land- ings in France, Gen. Bradley was tied by the need for communications to the deck of the flagship U. S. S. head of the infantry officers' school at Fort Benning, Ga. He also has trained more "shave tails" than any other U. S. general