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VOL. LIV No. 42 ANN ARBOR, MICHIG AN, 'TH"iUSDAY, DW. 30, 1943
PRICE FIVE CENTS
Red Army
Nears Pre-War
Allied Planes
Sink German
Destroyers
Four Nazi Ships Lost
In Naval, Air Battle
Off Coast of France
By The Associated Press
LONDON, Dec. 29.-Allied war
planes, including U.S. Navy Libera-
tors, and British Royal Navy cruisers
have sunk three Nazi destroyers and
a speedy 5,000-ton Nazi blockade run-
ner in a two-day sea and air battle
in the Bay of Biscay this week.
An Admiralty communique tonight
gave details of the engagements,
which started Monday when a Sun-
derland fly-boat sighted the block-
ade runner about 500 miles west and
northeast of Cape Finisterre, Spain.
Crew Abandons Ship
Allied planes set her aflame and
left her listing fatally and abandoned
by her crew. About 70 men on rafts
and rubber lifeboats dotted the sea.
At dawn yesterday a U.S. Liberator
operating with the RAF coastal com-
mand sighted a Nazi flotilla of 11 de-
stroyers about 200 miles from the
spot where the blockade runner had
been sunk. The Liberator flashed the
position of the flotilla to the British
light cruisers Glasgow and Enter-
prise, which were steaming between
the destroyers and their Nazi bases
in southern France.
Three Destroyers Sank
Flaming shellfire from the cruisers
sark three of the destroyers and da-
maged several others in: the battle,
in which United States Naval Libera-
tors and RAF coastal planes took
part, it was a uncm4
'The destructiWn pf' the destroyers
capped the 'spectacular day-after-
Christmas- sinlingof the 26,000-ton
German battleship Scharnhorst of
North Cape by other units of the roy-
anavy.
Allies Suffer Little Loss
The Allied forces came out of the
Biscay battle, the Admiralty reported,
with only a few casualties on the,
Glasgow and "minor damage" to the
two cruisers. One coastal command
Halifax and one Beaufighter were re-
ported missing.
RAF Bombers
Pound Berlin
In Night Raid
Eighth Attack in Six
Weeks Reported To Be
One of War's Heaviest
By The Associated Press
LONDON, Thursday, Dec. 30.--
Iarge RAF bombers attacked Berlin
last night for the eighth time in a
six-week period, it was announced
today, and indication from the Nazi
capital and neutral Stockholm, was
that the raid was one of the heaviest
of the war.
London officially announced the
raid on Berlin shortly after the Ger-
man radio had reported in a broad-
cast from the Nazi capital that large
formations of the big black RAF
night bombers had smashed the city
with explosives and incendiaries.
The obliteration campaign opened
Nov. 18, when 2,500 long tons of ex-
plosives and fire bombs were dropped
on Berlin and Ludwigshafen. The
Berlin radio announced the new
thrust.
"The sky was covered with a thick
layer of clouds and British planes
dropped explosives and incendiary
bombs on thickly populated residen-
tial districts," the German station
announced.
Telephonic communications be-
tween neutral Stockholm and Berlin
were severed for almost two hours-
from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30-and this in-
dicated the duration of the alert.
A dispatch from Stockholm said a
Swedish correspondent in the Ger-
man capital told his home office after
telephone service was restored: "We
now live in an immense ruin in whimn
there is nothing more to bomb."
Rome Airfield Boumbed; Last 3 Unions
Plans M
Polish Border
ide Russians Are Now
4ssionG
4am 148 Miles from Goal
Canadians Push North OfficiallyAnni For Exp
Ortona Taken, Troops ? Heavy Attack by 1 t i O rfro
Advance Northward;
Meet Stiff Resistance
By The Associated Press
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, AL-
GIERS, Dec. 29.-The roar of battle
lifted from the ruined streets of Or-
tona today as Canadian troops, who
took the town in a savage eight-day
battle, pushed on up the Adriatic
coast of Italy toward the stubborn
Nazi resistance.
Ortona, once a neat town of 9,000,
resembled a tomb. Every street was
piled high with debris and the dead
still lay in the streets and doorways,
dispatches said. Those civilians who
remained in the town through the
bitter, bloody street fighting were too
dazed to realize the Germans had
gone.
While the victorious Canadians
drove on toward Pescara, Indian
troops of the Eighth Army wiped out
pockets of resistance in Villa Grande,
a hotly-contested village about three
miles inland from Ortona. Farther
inland, other Eighth Army units were
reported within, eight miles of the
provincial capital of Chieti.
On the extreme opposite end of the
Italian fighting line, British troops
of Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark's Fifth
Army fought fiercely to repel a full-
scale German attack on the town of
Ponta Fiume at the mouth of the
Garigliano River. The Nazis struck
suddenly yesterday in clear, cold
weather, evidently attempting to
forestall an Allied assault in that area
as the rain-flooded Garigliano began
to subside. No decisive result yet was
in sight.
Leatherneecks
Treaten Base
AtGloucester
Marines Overcome
Sharp Jap Resistance
To Expand Beachheads
ADVANCED ALLIEID HEAD-
QUARTERS, NEW GUINEA, Thurs-
day, Dec. 30,-(AP)-American Marines
have overcome sharp Japanese re-
sistance to continue their advance to
within a mile of the Cape Gloucester,
New Britain, airdrome, the high com-
mand announced today.
The Leathernecks, aided by tanks,
artillery and bombers pushed forward
a half mile in a day's fighting against
enemy opposition which had stiffened
considerably since the Cape Glouces-
ter invasion last Sunday.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur's com-
munique said that the beachheads,
established to the east and west of
the Cape, had been generally expand-
ed with the aid of artillery and aerial
pounding.
The Marines driving toward the
airdrome are operating on the east
side of the Cape, from the Borgen
Bay area.
The Japanese launched strong at-
tacks against the Marines' Borgen
Bay flank, while at the same time
strengthening their defenses on and
near the airdrome.
The Australians have made good
progress in their offensive northward
on the Huon Peninsula Coast, New
Guinea, reaching Blucher Point, 30
miles north of the Allied base at Fins-
chhafen, after smashing stubborn
enemy resistance. Blucher Point was
occupied Tuesday.
Ground attacks against United
States 6th Army invasion troops at
Arawe, 60 miles southeast of Cape
Gloucester, have slackened, but the
Japanese continue to plague the
Americans with air raids. Recent
aerial assaults were light, however.
The Japanese lost 37 planes in heavy
raids here Sunday night and early
Monday.
ASTP Men To
Get Furloughs
All ASTP men stationed on campus
except the men of Company G, who
L. - a r.. - ......L. .- - !'1L. .- -4 . ... .
Air Force Smashes
Three Nazi Airdromes
By The Associated Press
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, AL-
GIERS, Dec. 29.-American two-en-
gined Mitchell and Marauder Bomb-
ers of the 15th Air Force struck hard
at three Nazi airdromes on the out-
skirts of Rome yesterday, tearing up
hangars and other installations and
destroying at least five parked enemy
planes, it was announced today,
(A German news agency broadcast
said that Rome was bombed at noon
yesterday. The Nazi-controlled Paris
radio asserted heavy bombs fell near
St. Peter's Basilica while the Pope
watched from a Vatican window and
asked to be informed of any damage.
(The German broadcast said that
Allied planes dropped heavy bombs
on an outlying residential quarter,
and that six hits ,ear the Basilica of
San Paolo killed and injured many
persons. It added that about 50 were
wounded by machine-gun fire. There
was no confirmation of these Axis
reports from any Allied source.)
Marauders attackers the Guidonia
and Centocelle airfields east of Rome,
while Mitchells swept over the Ciam-
pino Field, south of the capital, in
two waves, spreading havoc with
high - explosive and fragmentation
bombs. The Marauders reported five
enemy planes destroyed for sure, and
Mitchell crewmen said they saw sev-
eral craft burning. An Allied com-
munique said the three fields were
"accurately bombed."
Great forces of American and me-
dium bombers which dropped hun-
dreds of tons of bombs on rail and
airfield installations at Rome July 19
and Aug. 13, while Italy still was in
the war, were specially trained to
carry out precision attacks and were
instructed to avoid historical and
religious points. They were remark-
ably successful igl this respect.
Work Hold-Ups
Make 5,000
Idle in Detroit
DETROIT, Dec. 29.-(P)-Approx-
imately 5,000 war plant workers were
madeaidle today by work stoppages
on day shifts in two Detroit area
factories but officials of both plants
later reported that production re-
turned to normal after the afternoon
shifts in the two factories involved
had come to work on schedule.
A third strike, in the aircraft en-
gine division of the Highland Park
plant of the Ford Motor Co., was re-
ported tonight.
Chrysler , Corporation announced
the closing of its Dodge Truck plant
in Mound Road, putting 3,000 per-
sons out of work following a work
stoppage by 320 women assembly line
workers and the Ford Motor Co. re-
ported about 2,000 men employed on
B-24 bomber plane wing assemblies
had left their jobs.
The Dodge Plant women workers
said they left the factory because "it
was too cold for work." The company1
asserted the plant temperature was
at the same level that has been
maintained thus far this winter and
in previous winters.
Churchill Recovered '
LONDON, Dec. 30. (Thursday)-
(A')-Prime Minister Churchill, in a
buoyant and jocular "personal note"
issued through No. 10 Downing Street
early today, announced to the Allied
nations that he has recovered from
his bout with pneumonia and that
all along he has been able to dis-
charge fully his. official duties.
i - P"1
'---I
rWage Controversy Is
Still in Progress as
Negotiations Continue
Regents Get $16,750
To Make 'U' Center
In Stud E h n t ane.
i
i
i
Soviet Forces Take 250 Communities
In 24 Hour Drive Toward Bug River
By The Associated Press
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, Dec. 29-Leaders
of the Railroad Firemen, Conductors
and Switchmen, last of the union
holdouts, officially cancelled strike
orders tonight in telegrams to re-
gional chairmen i- the field.
The cancellation order went out
without any mention of the wage con-
troversy, which is still unsettled as
far as those three groups are con-
cerned.
H. M. Fraser of the Order of Rail-
way Conductors, said the message to
his regional chairmen merely said:
"Strike instructions and order can-
celled account federal control of rail-
roads."
Signs Point to Settlement
There wei'e signs that efforts are
underway to wind up the whole wage
dispute and let the roads return to
private management.
Then followed these developments:
1. The heads of these unions con-
ferred at the White House with War
Mobilization Director James F.'
Byrnes. (President Roosevelt, who
has been handling the railroad case
personally and had offered to arbi-
trate all wage disputes, was keeping
to his room because of a head cold.)
Confer with Somervell
2. The 15 non-operating unions,
together with representatives of rail-
road management, conferred at the
War Department with Lt. Gen. Bre-
hon B. Somervell, appointed to oper-
ate the roads when the government1
seized them Monday night because ofi
the strike threat.
3. Leaders of the firemen, conduc-
tors and switchmen went back to the
War Department for a further con-
ference with Somervell.
4. The trainmenarim engineers, whoj
agreed when the President first pro-
posed arbitration, signed a contract
.1
Making the University one of the
centers for future training of Latin
American students, the Board of Re-
gents in their meeting yesterday ap-
proved a State Department program
which will bring all Latin American
professionals coming to this country
to Michigan before they enter other
institutions.
The program provides that- these
students spend the first two months
of their training in this country in
the English Language Institute of the
University.
'Under State Department
The new plan comes under the of-
fice of Inter-American Affairs of the
Science and Education Division of
the State Department.
The English Language Institute
has been in operation for three terms
and aims to give Latin Americans
new to this country a working knowl-
edge of English and train them to
teach the language in their native
countries.
$16,750 Fund Presented
The State Department has deposit-
ed $16,750 with the University to be
used as a revolving fund from which
salaries will be paid.
Students in the Institute reside in
English House on Washtenaw and
the program is under the direction of
Prof. Charles C. Fries and works on
an exchange basis with the Univer-
sity of Mexico.
At the same time, the Regents ap-
proved a plan for cooperation with
the Division of Child Welfare of the
State Welfare Commission to train
15 student child welfare workers
here beginning Monday.-
The program is for students work-
ing for their master's degree in social
See REGENTS, p. 4
Volak ie RUSSIA
'Luki .
Rzhiev
\ V t skOsha SM OLENSK
Rogackov' Gorodets
>ZhlobinKhalch -'
p Konotop%
KI EV Romnyt
\ Smela Keecu
\ 9\ nme
Z'
wan tne rauroaas emoodying nis... -
awards-4 cents an hours general
wage increase and 5 cents in lieu of Prof. Duff endack Resigns
overtime and away-from-home ex- From Physics Department
ysics DeparPmen!
1penses.
U.S. Ships Shell
Jap-Held Kieta
Village Is Important
Enemy Air, Sea Base
SOUTH PACIFIC ALLIED HEAD-
QUARTERS, Dec. 30-()-American
warships, bent on hastening the
withdrawal of the Japanese from
their last big Solomon base at Bou-
gainville, ventured into waters Mon-
day where they had not been before
to shell the important enemy air and
shipping point of kieta for an hour
and a half.
The bombardment, announced to-
day, occurred at a point directly
across the island from the one beach-
head on Bougainville the Americans
possess at Empress Augusta Bay.
Kieta is midway up the island's east
coast along which Japanese have
been reported withdrawing from the
southern half to the north.
The warships, including cruisers,
fired 3,000 rounds into Kieta village,
the Chinatown area, the Arawe barge
depot and Rigu mission sector. The
only opposition consisted of weak
ground fire.
There were even indications the
Japanaese were taking out some'
troops from the north toward Buka
and New Britain. Fred Hampson,
Associated Press war correspondent,
reported from Munda, New Georgia,
that returning Marine Corps pilots
of light bombers, told of attacking
enemy barges off North Bougainville.
Ending a 20 year association with
the University, Prof. Ora S. Duffen-
dack of the physics department ten-
dered his resignation to the Regents
meeting yesterday.
Prof. Duffendack is leaving his aca-
demic work to accept a position in
private industry with an eastern re-
search firm.
While the Regents accepted his re-
signation, the Board granted him
permission to continue his war work
here. ,
For the past two years Prof. Duf-
fendack has been chief of a research
committee of the National Defense
Research Committee. Under his new
association, he will be permitted to
conduct this war work here for the
duration. *
State Control Over
Wayne'U' Proposed
DETROIT, Dec. 29.-(YP)-Council-
men Frank Cody and Charles E. Do-
rais asserted Wednesday that they
thought the State should take over
Wayne University-at least its junior
colleges.
Dorais and Cody expressed their
opinions during a discussion in which
Mayor Edward J. Jeffries urged the
council to join him and the Board
of Education in a plea to Gov. Kelly
to provide past-war state funds for
additional buildings for Wayne.
The State," Cody declared, "should
also finance and supervise the cours-
es of study of public junior colleges
in Highland Park and Dearborn, too,
I believe."
In a spectacular breakthrough
along a 110-mile are west of Kiev,
Russian troops have recaptured in
one week from the Nazis almost the
entire Kiev bulge. They are now
only 48 miles from the pre-war
Polish border, having few natural
obstacles to impede them with the
exception of the Bug River, 200
miles away.
Germans Fear
Big Invasion
In Two Weeks
Channel Islands Said
To Be Attacked by
British Commandos
By The Associated Press
LONDON, Thursday, Dec. 30.-The
Nazis sounded two invasion alarms
last night, and a Wilhelmstrasse offi-
cial was quoted today as saying the
big thrust could be expected in 14
days.
A series of British Commando
stabs on the channel islands within
22 miles of French Normandy in the
north, and a big scale massing of
Allied ships at Gibraltar in the south
were reported by the Germans.
The German official's prediction,
the basis for which was not disclosed,
was reported in a Berlin dispatch to
the Stockholm newspaper Dagens
Nyheter, Reuters said.
The fact that Gen. Dwight D. Eis-
enhower's invasion staff is still in-
complete, with the appointment of a
United States ground commander
unannounced, suggested that the
Nazi spokesman's statement might
have been issued in an attempt to
obtain Allied reaction.
The German account of the Com-
mando raids on Sark followed an
official Nazi announcement Sunday
of a combined British and French
raid Christmas Eve on an undisclosed
point on the German-held French
channel coast.
Official British comment was lack-
ing on the raids, but it can be as-
sumed that lightning hit-and-runt
raids to east German "Atlantic wall"
defenses will increase as the invasion
hour approaches.
The Sark assaults, DNB said,
"failed like all similar attempts of
this kind."
Berlindsaid the Commandos struck
the tiny rockbound island in the
eaily hours on Dec. 28. A German
communique declared, "The enemy
left dead men during the hasty re-
treat." The date of the other attack
was not disclosed.
1 Man of the Year
LONDON, Thursday, Dec. 30.-The
Red Army has surged to within 48
miles of the pre-war Polish border
west of Kiev in a spectacular break-
through along a 110-mile arc, con-
tinuing today its offensive across flat
steppeland that offered the Germans
few natural defenses short of the Bug
River, 200 miles away.
The Soviet power drive took 260
communities in 24 hours, including
the major rail hub and fortress town
of Korosten as powerful German de-
fenses were suddenly shattered, Mos-
cow announced.
Vygov Is Vital Point
Capture of the town of Vygov, 12
miles beyond Korosten, and Ushomir,
in between, on the railway line south-
westward to Novograd Volinsk placed
the Russians well beyond the Zhito-
mir-Korosten highwater mark of
their earlier offensive toward Poland.
Additional details of the Moscow
communique, recorded by the Soviet
'Monitor, also put the swift-moving
Red Army 13 miles, from the impr-
tant rail junction of Berdichev as
they captured Byelopole to the south
east in a significant 10-mile push
from Nekhvorosch, taken . Tuesday.
Byelopole is on the Berdichev-1ev
highway.
35-Mile Sector Taken
Advances in the past 24 hours gave
the Russians complete control o' a
35-mile sector of the trunk railway
line from Leningrad to Odessa s
they captured Chernykhov, 1 -
north of Zhitomir, Turchinka 'sd
Fassovo, rail stations between Koro
sten and threatened Zhitomir.
* In another important thrust at tie
southern end of the advancing Rus-
sian are the Second Ukrainian Ariy
captured Skvira, 50 miles southw t
of Kiev, terminus of a short feed r
railway into the Kiev-Zhmerlka
line.
Germans Abandon Equipment
The Soviet midnight bulletin told
of Germans running away, abandon..
ing equipment and "suffering excep-
tionally heavy losses and equip-
ment" in engagements still taking
place.
Korosten fell to rapid Soviet frn-
tal and flanking attacks as the town
was hemmed in after an artillery
barrage. Here again the Germans
were routed and the Russians con-
tinued on southwestward to take
Vygov.
Commission
Debates School
Election Vote
At its second day of sessions here
yesterday, the Michigan Public Mu_~
cation Study Commission, appointed
by Gov. Kelly to consider post-war
school planning, endorsed a proposal
which would allow all persons Who
vote in the general state elections to
be eligible to participate in the gen-
eral school elections.
Also considered at yesterday's
meeting was the suggestion to syfl,-
chronize school and normal spring
elections, since, as Sen. Milliken of
Traverse City, a member of the om-
mission, pointed out, special school
elections alone attract few voters.
The entire afternoon was spent in
debating a proposal to reorganie
into 250 units the state's present
6,274 school districts.
The first proposal which would
permit all voters in general state
elections to vote on non-financial
school issues will be considered next
month at the special session of the
state legislature. Final approval must
still be given to the consolidation
scheme.
In favor of the voting proposal it
was asserted that since a large part
of the state's revenues for education
come from the sales tax, non-proper-
tied voters should be allowed to 'par-
ticipate in school elections.
Bomber Navigator
TO SALUTE OR NOT TO SALUTE:
Son Meets WAC Lieutenant Mother
By DORIS PETERSON
Pfc. Harry Hilton, a member of Co.
A, was faced with a difficult problem
yesterday: should he salute his mo-
ther when he met her as a good Arny
man or should he kiss her as a duti-
port to the Ninth Service Command
headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Pfc. Hilton enlisted on June 14, his
younger brother who was 17 at the
time he enlisted in the Seabees on
July 15 and Lt. Hilton enlisted on
the WACS, because it's such a won-
derful experience." Lt. Hilton said.
Both of her sons have won medals
for marksmanship.
Before entering the service Lt. Hil-
ton did personnel work for 16 years.
Cha anlzfa n Aia Ahit:,, - nnt