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March 24, 1945 - Image 1

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The Michigan Daily, 1945-03-24

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WYIEATHEER
Partly Cloudy,
Windy and Warmer

i

VOL. LV, No. 103 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN SATURDAY, MARCH 24 1945

PRICE FIVE CENTS

Third

my Swarms ver Ri e in Great Crossing

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Germans Report Red Ber1in Drive

No Losses as Third
Army Crosses Rhine
Eyewitness Gives His Own Account of
Yank Assault on Inner Nazi Fortress

,v

By EDWARD D. BALL
Associated Press Correspondent
WITH THE U.S. THRD ARMY
EAST OF THE RHINE, March 23.--
The Third Army stormed aoross the
Rhine at 10:25 p.m., last night with-
out loss of a man and without draw-
ing a single shot from the Germane
until a good 20 minutes after the
crossing was made good.
By dawn today a solid bridgehead
was driven into Hit er's inner for-
Red Cross Totals
'U' Women......... ..$3,549
Army Units ........ 2,108
Qounty.... .........140,425
City............... ..78,135
Spain Protests
To Tokyo, War
Is In ninent
MADRID, March 23-(P)-Spain
appeared about to go to war on
Japan tonight as the government
awaited Tokyo's reply to a strong
note of protestagainst the "premedi-
tated murders" of Spanish nationals
prior to the liberation of Manila by
American troops.
The Franco government seemed
willing to carry the issue to the con-
clusiop of war despite a report that
Germany had presented a note to
the Madrid government saying any
Spanish action against Japan would
be consideied an unfriendly act by
the Reich.
Spanish indignation was made pub-
lic in a communique last night which
listed 172 Spanish men, women and
children bayoneted to death by Japa-
nese troops while American troops
were overrunning the Philippine cap-
ital.
The Spanish press-through which
the government normally speaks
anonymously on its most ticklish dip-
lomatic subjects-continued to de-
clare bluntly its disgust and impa-
tience with the Japanese.
Independence
May Be Stayed
McNutt Urges Filipinos
To Wait on Freedom
WASHINGTON, March 23.-(/P)-
Paul V. McNutt, former high com-
missioner to the Philippines, sug-
gested today that independence for
the commonwealth oE deferred at
least until after rehabilitation from
the ravages of war.
"If the Filipinos defer the question
of independence they are more likely
o get a sympathetic reaction from
Congress on rehabilitation meas-
ures," McNutt said in an interview.
His was the first suggestion for
postponement from any high admin-
istration figure.
The Philippines, under the terms
of the Tydings-McDutfie Act as or-
imnally passed, were to obtaincom-
plete independence or July 4, 1916.
An amendment, passed during the
period of occupation in order to off-
set Japanest propaganda, permits the
President to advance the date of
independence if he thinks it proper.
CAMPUS EVENTS
Today All-campus mixer from
2-5 p. m. in the Rainbow
Room at Union.
Today Eric Hercules to speak
on "America's Greatest
Problem, the Negro," at
12:15 p. m. Luncheon in
Lane Hall.
Today Open House from 9 p. m.
to midniht at Lane Hall.

tress against oppositini that still was
spotty and crratic des ite some artil-
lery and mortar fire.
(Jon Biyson of the Blue Ne-
wcrk, bitaCcasting fr l the- field.
said Bail was the only corespondent
who made the croSsing Thursday
night.)
Weapons Silenced
Most of the enemy weapons were
soon silenced.
By dawn many infantry units had
gone across and by that time the first
waves of doughboys had pushed in-
land.
There was a minimum of noise and
confusion at the bridgehead where
droves of assault boats were speeding
back and forth with :nen and sup.
plies.
Within eight hours Lt.-Gen. George
S. Patton's forces had complet iy
e ,iablished a firm bridgehead in the
greatest over-water assault since Noi -
manxiy.
Messerschmitts Knoked Down
At the first crack o day a coup.a
ore Messerschmitt 262 jet propelled
planes poked inquisitive noses over
tc bridgehead and piomptly were
knecked down.
Assault craft and amphibious ducks
v;cre plying the calm Rhine back and
forth across the river.
The operation, which had been
planned and rehearsed for months,
went oi .r smoothes than anyone
cold have hoped.
The Germans simply were caught
by surprise and by the overwhelming
weight of American arms.
Patton's men moved like lightning.
heides the surprise element, the
Germans utterly failed to produ:-e
anvything like the amount of fire the
Americans were throwing at them.
Greatest Thrust
Patton's Rhine-conquering exploit
followed one of the greatest armor
and infantry thrusts i military his-
tory-the tremendous sweep through
the Saarland.
Together these successes appeared
to be decisive blows against the Ger
mans. The elated doughboys, who
three weeks ago were urging the Rus-
sians on to Berlin, now nominated
themselves for the job of taking the
German capital.
I saw the doughboys who went in
on Omaha Beach in Normandy last
Jine o and I went across the Rhine
with them last night.
Willcox Gives
Speech at Hillel
Asserts Ethics Must
Govern Use of Power
"Power need not be divorced from
ethics if we follow the gospel which
says 'do justly, love mercy, and walk
humbly with thy God," stated Prof.
William B. Willcox in a talk de-
livered at the Hillel Foundation last
night.
If we cannot follow these three
principles, our power and our great-
ness will be brief, he asserted.
In declaring that there is a con-
nection between amorality and the
short-livedness of power, Prof. Will-
cox cited the case of Napoleon as an
example of this fact.
Isolationist an Imperialist
The United States, the most pow-
erful nation in the world might abdi-
cate its power following the war, he
said. Such action would be a mani-
festation of the people's fear of
power, and would show a national
cowardice similar to isolationism. "If
you scratch an isolationist hard, you
are very likely to find beneath the
surface an imperialist," he stated.
To Maintain Security
A nation, in an effort to maintain
its own security, is liable to take
what it needs regardless of the con-
sent of the peoples involved, he point-
ed out. Citing the case of the post-

Soviets Six
Miles West of
Oder River
Moscow Reports
Split in Defenses
By The Associated Press
LONDON, March 23-The Germans
said tonight that 72,000 Russian
troops and 400 tanks had reopened
the battle for Berlin, crashed six
miles west of the Oder River de-
fense line within 31 miles of the
imperiled Nazi capital.
Simultaneously, Moscow announces
that the defenders of Danzig and
Gdynia had been split in two by a
Soviet surge to Danzig bay that won
the coastal town of Zoppot, mid-way
between the prized Baltic ports.
Launch Mighty Assault
The enemy said that the Red army.
had launched a mighty assault from
the Oder River under a thunderous
air bombardment and barrage by Red
army artillery, mortars and rocket-
guns.
A few hours before a German front
report said Russian infantrymen had
reached Golzow, on the Kuestrin-
Berlin trunk railroad, and a Berlin
dispatch by the German-controlled
Scandinavian telegraph bureau in
Stockholm said:
"The major Russian offensive
against Berlin is immediately at
hand."
Report Unconfirmed
The report was not confirmed by
the Soviet -high command which,
however, in its nightly war bulletin
announced a sharp jump in German
tank and plane losses-frequently an
early indication of powerful new
Soviet thrusts.
Along the Eastern front, the Rus-
sians destroyed or disabled 156 Nazi
tanks and shot down 149 German
planes, and more than 4,200 prison-
ers were taken in East Prussia, near
Danzig, and in Silesia, Moscow an-
nounced.

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Surprise Thrusts
Overwh e Im Nazis
Establish Firm Bridgehead Past Light
Artillery Fire on 265-Mile Berlin Road
By The Associated Press
PARIS, Saturday, March 24-The U. S. Third Army swarmed in
strength across the Rhine Thursday night in the war's greatest river
crossing, overwhelmed the startled enemy and struck inland with lightning
speed from a firm bridgehead on the road to Berlin-265 miles ahead.
By Friday the Americans had seized a sizeable strip of territory east
of the river, for an official announcement referred to the position as a
bridgehead, which in army terminology means the crossings are beyond
enemy light artillery range. (That might mean they were as much as
five miles beyond the Rhine.)
Three other .Allied armies-thed * * *

6sNAtY

-ON

TERRITORY WON IN MONTH ON WESTERN FRONT-Shaded
area indicates territory won by the Allies since the big American offen-
sive pushed off from the Roer River Feb. 23. Boxes locate the Allied
armies. The American Third army- was fighting in Mainz and Lud-
wigshafen and driving toward Sreyer. Seventh Army Yanks pushed
up from the-south. In the north, U. S. First Army troops expanded
their Rhine bridgehead northward. Heavy line is approximate battle
front.

American Ninth, Canadian First and
British Second-were poised at the
northern end of the front for Rhine
crossings which the Germans said
were imminent.
Carrying out to perfection a coup
rehearsed for months, Lt. Gen. George
S. Patton, Jr., put the first American
assault waves across at an undisclos-
ed point on the east bank without the
Germans firing a shot and. without
the loss of a man in the actual cross-
ing.
May Be Mortal Blow
Patton was pressing home what
might well prove a mortal blow with-
out giving the enemy time to recup-
erate from the Nazi catastrophe west
of the Rhine. The charging dough-
boys were talking in high spirits of
beating the Russians to Berlin.
The enemy was so startled by this
swift assault that some troops, rest-
ing from their defeat west of the
River, were caught eating and not a
single heavy shell was fired until two
hours after the first troops touched
the east bank in the moonlight of
10:25 p. m. Thursday.
The first hint of this dazzliAg coup,
comparable to the U. S. First Army
victory in seizing a bridgehead at Re-
magen, came from enemy broadcasts
whichIocated the landings near Op-
penheim, 10 miles south of the fallen
city of Mainz.
Greatest Singe Normandy
Wave on wave of hard-hitting vet-
erans crossed in what Asso'ciated
Press correspondent Edward D. Ball
declared from the front was "the
greatest over-water assault since the
Normandy beaches."
The Germans then began pouring
in some mortar and anti-tank fire a'nd
they were answered and silenced by
thunderous salvos from American
artillery drawn up along the river.
By dawn the first wave had pushed
on inland and more and more men
and supplies were landing on the
bridgehead in assault boats. Ball
said the beachhead by then had be-
come "as quiet as a Sunday picnic."
There was no question of Patton's
ability to exploit his surprise, for the
stuff that he had landed far out-
weighed that which the Germans
were able to muster before the deba-
cle west of the river.
A Berlin military spokesman said
American units also had attempted
crossings near Duesseldorf and six
miles south of Cologne.

Mightie stAerial,
Smashes Ruhr
By The Associated Press
LONDON, March 24, Saturday-
History's mightiest aerial onslaught
roared to a thunderous climax yes-
terday as more than 8,000 Allied war-
planes battered communications in
and around the devastated German
Ruhr.
With the successful bridging of
the formidable river barrier by Lt.-
Gen. George S. Pattoals swashbucg-
ling U.S. Third Army troops, there
appeared to be no respite for the
Germans from the aerial attack.
The German radio indicated that
Mosquito bombers were over the
LONDON, March 23.-Berlin has
been virtually rwined along with
the devastation heaped on other
German cities in unprecedented
raids during the last three weeks
by American and British bombers,
the Air Ministry announced to-
night.
It is estimated unofficially that
more than 50,000 persons died in
the flaming ruins of the Nazi capi-
tal and that 400,000 were made
homeless. The center of the city is
believed to be completely wrecked.
Reich in strength again tonight,
blasting varied targets in bright
moonlight.
The 19th Tactical Air Force planes
formed a protective umbrella over
the Third Army front and Associated
Press Correspondent Edward D. Ball
reported that 23 German planes were
shot down in the biggest air battles
in the Third Army sector in months.
It was the second successive day
that more than 8,000 planes ham-
miered the Reich and by nightfall
more than 6,000 sorties had been
flown by continent-based tactical air
fo ces,
Nazi troops and armor in a 1,000-
square mile area facing Field Mar-
shal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's
armies were cut off from rear bases
after 1,600 American heavy bombers
and fighters ripped up 11 rail centers
and three fleets of RAF Lancasters
blasted ether supply links with 11-
ton obliteration bombs and made
direct attacks on enemy troop con-
centrations.

POST-WAR EUROPE:

Gross Advocates International
Cooperation, Minority Rights

v--

State To Refund'
Lfocal Expenses
On Vet Measure
LANSING, March 23.--(/P)- The
House of Representatives today ap-
proved a bill which the Senate al-
ready has adopted providing for re-
imbursement of local governmental
units for revenues lost through the
veterans homestead property tax ex-
emnption law.
It is the first definite step by the
house this year toward meeting de-
mands of the local units for greater
state financial aid in a tax law revi-
sion.
As amended in the House, the
scatute declares the first $2,000 of
assessed valuation of a veteran's
homestead property exempt from lo-
cal real estate taxes, unless the val-
uation exceeds $7,500. The ceiling
now is $5,000. The bill would reim-
burse the local unit for the amount
of tax lost through this exemption.
The bill returns to the Senate for
concurrence in amendments.
Another bill, of House origin, was
passed and sent to the Senate in
form requiring tax allocation boards
to state the sum to be raised in real
pi operty taxation as well as the ta-
rate.

Advocating freedom for small na-
tions and an international confeder-
ation of mutual cooperation, Dr. Fe-
liks Gross, editor of "New Europe"
spoke on "Small Nations in Post-
War Europe" yesterday in the Rack-
ham Amphitheater under the auspi-
ces of the political science depart-
ment.
Dr. Gross, who bassd his argument
on the premise that mi]orities which
Union Election
Won by Ruck
Fewer than 50 votes were cast in
the election yesterday which made
Frank Ruck, Naval student in the
School of Business Administration, a
vice-president of the Board of Di-
rectors of the Union for the spring
term.
Winning over candidates Morton
Scholnick and Don Lund, Ruck will
represent the combined schools of
Business Administration, Public
Health, Music, Education and Fores-
try on the Board. John Timms was
unopposed as a candidate to repre-
sent the Law school.
Ballot returns showed that Ruck
received 37, Scholnick 5, and Lund 3
votes. Ballot will be filed with the
Men's Judiciary Council for at least
30 days.

disagi-ee have a right to freedom, de-
clared that small nati ns must be
protected against any abuse of power
by the great nations.
Small Nations Need Cooperation
"The small nations of Central and
Eastern Europe," Dr. Gross asserted,
"are in need of some kind of cooper-
ation among themselves." He ex-
plaited that the ethnological fron-
tier; of these nations do not corre-
spond with their individual economic
needs.
'After the ordeal of the war," Dr.
Gross continued, "the small nations
long for any kind of cooperation.
There is no ,one in Poland, for exam-
ple " he said, "that does not want a
friend in Russia. The friendly neigh-
bor system is the only wise attitude."
Must Destroy Nazi War Machine
Dr. Gross contended that we must
destroy the Nazi war machine and
formulate a string of strong nations
around Germany to preserve peace.
"The Germans will give up when
they see that they are too weak," he
said.
Dr. Gross quoted Wafter Lippman
as writing that there is a trend to-
ward spheres of influence in Europe
after the war and that the large
nations will expect the small nations
to make sacrifices. "We have no
right to overlook," Gross declared,
"the psychology, mental habits and
traditi.ns of the small nations."

Frontline Fighters Say They'll
Come Baek Human Beings

JAG OFFICERS ON TOUR:
Latin Americans To Visit School

By SID FEDER
Associated Press Correspondent
WITH THE FIFTH ARMY IN
ITALY-The boys up front-those'
who practically have taken a lease
on the foxholes in these parts-
would like the folks to know they are
not going to be so tough to get along
with when they come home, in spite
of what some of the "experts" would
have you believe.
For weeks they have been reading
and hearing from here and there
about how changed they are going
to be from the shooting, and how
loaded with war psychoses, and how
the women folk will have to make
adjustments, and they are wonder-
ing how everyone knows so much
about it-that is, everyone but
themselves.
As Pfc. Lorin Schipper of Kansas
City asked, "just what do they expect
us to be when we get back?"
"I figure I'll be just as normal as I
ever was," he insists. Schipper has
been a heavy weapons man overseas
for 35 months with the 34th Division
-the outfit that has seen more com-

When all the returns were counted,
Diamond found out few, if any, were
figuring on hitting the high and hot
spots when they get back.
"In order of their popularity"
Diamond reports on postwar plans,
"these were the exact intentions:
"To return to school.
"To get back to work (particu-
larly the married men).
"To travel (in the U. S.)
"To marry and settle down."
Pfc. Jack Mance, a Browning auto-
matic rifle operator, from Evansville,
Ind., wants the home folks to know
"I'm still human."
"I haven't changed a bit" he de-
clares, "and tell my wife she'd bet-
ter not change either-or I'll really
be browned off."
As for any possibility that they'll
be coming home "trigger happy"
T/4 Harold W. Kunde, who came
over from Princeton, Ia., 36 months
ago, wants it understood he won't
even shoot a rabbit when he gets
back.

<9',

Military legal officers, represent-
ing thirteen South and Central Amer-
ican nations, will visit the JAG
School Wednesday through Friday as
part of a nationwide inspection tour
of schools, disciplinary barracks and
other military installations.
Plans for their three-day soiourn.

will formally welcome the 22 visiting
officers, who will be feted at a formal
dinner with members of the JAG
School Staff and their wives and at
a reception in the International Cen-
ter. The group will be quartered in
the Lawyers Club.
Since March 15, the visiting

{benefit." Participating in the con-
ference are Lt.-Col. Jose M. Villa-
nueva and Capt. Luis Ramos Arce,
Bolivia; Maj.-Gen. Washington Vax
dl Mello, Minister of Supreme Mili-
tary Tribunal and Member of Mili-
tary Justice of the BrasiAisn Expe-
ditior ary Force, and Brig.-Gen. Am-

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