I . I.- . ".. . .. MOMMMM . 0 1 V'd! 4 irW 4A ml;;t.. Weither~ Warmer _________________-____--- VOL. LIII, No. 31-8 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, SUNDAY, AUG. 8, 1943 PRICE FIVE CENTS anks Take Troina; Threaten Nazi Line Red Troops F .s Stronghold' Russians Gain 25 Miles in March on German Kharkov LONDON, Sunday, Aug. 8.-(P)- Russian troops converging swiftly on the German-held railway and in- dustrial center of Kharkov gained nine miles yesterday and captured 70 villages and towns including Grai- voron, 45 miles to the northwest, a 4oviet communique announced early today. Russian units were within 25 miles of the city, smashing along the rail- way from Belgorod on the north, Moscow dispatches said, and the German radio said another threat to the prize base had developed at Chuguev, 25 miles to the southwest, where another Russian Army had gone over to the offensive. The Ger- nans acknowledged Russian gains in this new drive. Rombers Endanger Bryansk Soviet bombers and swarms of fighters participated in the big push which also endangered Bryansk at the northern end of a 300-mile front. The bombers blasted enemy railway trains at both Kharkov and Bryansk ahead of the racing ground troops. Moving down from Belgorod, the Red troops slashed into Dolbina, 37 miles nortp of Kharkov on the main Kharkav-Belgorod railway. Eleven miles to the west of this railway the Russians captured Udi, which is 28 miles north of Kharkov. ' eds Oust Nazi Near Kharkov Already in possession of Zolochev, 25 miles northwest of the Ukrainian industrial center, the Russians wid- ened their grip on the approaches to Kharkov yesterday by ousting the Germans from Graivoron and Syen- noe, 32, miles northwest of Kharkov. These advances cut the important Kharkov-Bryansk line. In capturing Borisovka, 43 miles northwest of Kharkov, the Red Army encircled a considerable number of German troops and then wiped them out, said the midnight communique, recorded by the Soviet monitor. 800 Germans Die In one engagement a tank unitj killed 800 Germans, disabled or de- stroyed 19 German tanks, took 150 war prisoners and captured 60 trucks, and 16 big guns. Above the Ukraine, Bryansk was; menaced by Soviet troops spillingi through the gap at Orel. The com- munique said that in the past few days they have killed at least 4,400 Germans. Gains of seven miles were mader during the day and the Red Army< was believed to be within 30 miles of Bryansk, hinge of the German cen- tral andsouthern fronts. Italian Group Asks for Peace Free Italy Movement Is Against Fascists7 LONDON, Aug. 7.-UP)-The Free Italy movement in London adopted a resolution today asking that a "na- tional front of action" representing anti-fascist elements in Italy, open peace negotiations with the Allies im- mediately. "Only a change sufficiently deep and new, and establishment of a government on a wide and popular basis can resolve the momentous cris- is, give guarantees of stability, in- sure expulsion of the Germans, con- clusion .of a lasting peace and the beginning of reconstruction within the framework of a United Europe," the resolution said. Hayden To Discuss Fiction by Negroes Robert Hayden will discuss fiction iwitten hyNiryrn 1thors in the fifth Sun Sets on Convoy Moving across the Atlantic Ocean, The sun goes down behind a heavy cloud as nig ht settles on this American naval convoy somewhere in the Atlantic. Carrying valuable men and vital car goes the convoys steam through dangerous waters now partially swept clear of the submarine mena ce. Lookouts double their alertness in spite of offi- cial announcements by American and British governments of subs sunk. Rage, Brazilian Steamer, Sunk By Torpedoes 78 Passengers, Crew Are Missing; Ship Was Carrying 231 RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 7.-()- The Brazilian passenger steamer Bage was torpedoed and sunk off the State of Sergipe the night of July 31, it was announced officially here tonight, and 78 9f her passengers and crew are missing. The Bage-the largest Brazilian merchant ship-was carrying 129 passengers, of whom 41 were un- accounted for after the sinking, and a crew of 102. The passenger list included women and children. Loss of the Bage brought to 24 the number of Brazilian ships an- nounced as having been sunk by enemy submarines since the start of the war. The Bage was hit by one torpedo and sank quickly. Some of the persons aboard her reached safety by clinging to wreckage. Twenty-seven of the passengers were enroute to this city. Thus far 69 crew members and 19 passengers have arrived at Aracaju, capital of Sergipe state, which is on the coastal hump 950 miles north- west of Rio de Janeiro. The fact these passengers reached safety indicated that the attack oc- curred near the coast. Among the missing are two women and six children, including a year- old child. The captain of the Bage -who according to reports was in a lifeboat which had a compass and an emergency radio--is among the missing. In the first two lifeboats which arrived on the Sergipe coast Aug. 2 were 56 crewmen. Eight passengers clinging to wreckage later were washed ashore. On the morning of Aug. 6, another lifeboat appeared with 16 persons, of whom seven were passengers and the rest members of the crew. The passengers in this boat included two women, one child and four men. Later eight other shipwrecked per- sons from the Bage were found. Badger To Talk To Engineers Former professor of chemical en- gineering, W. L. Badger, will speak at the A. I. Ch. E. meeting, 7:30 p.m., Tuesday in the Union. His address will be an account of the chemical engineering processes during the Middle Ages and will be supplemented by books dating as early as the year 1600 and by slides illustrating these processes. Mr. Badger is now manager of the Consulting Engineering Division of the Dow Chemical Company and is the author of several standard texts on chemical engineering. He is also Director of Research and Consulting Engineers for the Swenson Eapora- IL DUCE OF BUFFOONS: Italians Call for Mussolini's Death, Businessman Reports. LONDON, Aug. 7.-UP)-A Rome dispatch broadcast today by the Swiss radio and recorded by the Associated Press said the Rome "Street of October 28th" would be renamed "The Street of July 25th." The first date marked the rmarch on Rome and the beginning of Fas- cist rule in Italy; the second the end of Fascism. BARCELONA, Aug. 7.- ()- An Italian businessman who arrived here this week from Rome said today that signs calling for "death to Il Duce of buffoons" were painted on walls in Rome after Benito Musso- lini's fall and celebrations followed a false rumor that Adolf Hitler had committed suicide. This businessman, whose name is withheld, said the end of Fascism brought a holiday atmosphere to the Italian capital with a streetcar con- ductor treating his passengers to drinks and the passengers themselves Poll Favors Negro Course In a poll conducted Friday to determine whether a course in Negro contributions to American literature should be offered here, 224 students, 89.6 per cent of the total votes cast, expressed their favor for the course Sixteen students, 6.4 per cent of the total voting, registered no opin- ion and 10 students, 4 per cent of the total vote, indicated disapprov- al for the proposed course. Salamatia Gets Air Pounding 150 Thouisand-Pounld Bombs Batter AirBase By VERN HAUGLAND Associated Press Correspondent SOMEWHERE IN NEW GUINEA, Aug. 7.- (Delayed)- Liberators of the Fifth Airforce gave Japan's air base of Salamaua one of the heaviest poundings it has taken in the war today, spraying over 150 one thousand-pound bombs on and around it. Gen. Douglas MacArthur's com- munique of Aug.' 8 reported that 92 tons were dropped on Salamaua in 23 minutes and other attacks were delivered at nearby villages. A large force of the B-24 Libera- tors took part in the raid, favored by what the pilots described as ex- cellent weather. The bombs were dropped in pat- tern formation. Forty tons were dropped at McDonald junction, where gun positions were destroyed. Thirty tons were dropped in the Kela valley, destroying more guns cheering, singing and hooting as they rode. "I was among the unfortunates who slept through the news. Sunday night, and I knew nothing of Musso- lini's resignation when I left my house in the suburbs of Rome on Monday, July 26," he said. Soldiers Were Enthusiastic "The soldiers who guarded the barracks near my home were the first to tell me the news, with joy and enthusiasm. Down the street a group of youths were engaged in tearing down fasces . from lamp posts." The traveler said no one worked in Rome that Monday. "It was one long, wild celebration and for some, a day of vengeance," he said. Word 'Peace' Was Universal The word "peace" was everywhere, he said. "Rumors that day were tremen- dous, for before the Duce quit re- ports of a German invasion of Italy were frequent. After the bombing of Rome, which killed many more than the Rome government ever admitted, the city was particularly chaotic. "Before the Vatican demonstrators cried, 'Viva Papa! Viva Rey! Viva Badoglio!' and even more frequently, 'Death to tyrant Mussolini.' Ciano Led Opposition "There was much bitter talk pre- viously about the fact that Mussolini was talking with Hitler when Rome was bombed. I learned that during the Fascist grand council meeting Saturday, Carlo Scorza was in favor of putting down the attempt to over- throw the Duce by arms and had ordered the concentration of the Fascist militia. Roberto Farinacci, on the other hand, advocated the annexation of Italy to Germany, but the opposition, led by Count Galeaz- zo Ciano (Mussolini's son-in-law), won out and the Duce fell. German Radio Reports Big Nazi Meeting London Suggests That Hitler May Be Replaced By Military Veteran LONDON, Aug. 7. -(A)- Amid widespread speculation that some- thing big was about to happen in Germany; perhaps a military coup to replace Adolf Hitler with some army veteran-German broadcasts report- ed today than an important military and political meeting had been in progress at the Fuehrer's headquar- ters. Both the German International Information bureau, a propaganda agency, and DNB, official news agency, broadcast that is was "un- derstood in Berlin that a number of important discussions of a military and political nature have taken place in the Fuehrer's headquarters the last few days." Attending the meetings, the broad- casts reported, were all the top men in the Nazi party as well as the com- manders in chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the Japanese Am. bassador, Hiroshi:Oshima. There was no mention of an Italian representa- tive. Thisindication, that a major deci- sion of some kind had been or would be made soon by the Germans came on a day when a traveler just re- turned to Switzerland from Germany was reported to have told of "persist- ent" rumors that a military dictator- ship might be set up in Germany in September. The Swiss newspaper Neue Zeur- cher Nachrichten quoted the uni- dentified traveler as saying that a cleft had developed among thinking German' people, one. group eager to see the war end and the other wishing to. hold out to avoid "unpre- dictable catastrophe." The traveler was quoted as saying he was bombarded with the question "when will the war end?" Piling up the signs of unrest with- in Axis Europe, the French commit- tee of National Liberation announced in Algiers that hand-to-hand fight- ing had broken out in Paris. Rumors Hint New Regime MADRID, Aug .7.-()-Rumors, diplomatic and newspaper reports flooding this capital hinted strongly tonight that behind the facade of Germany's swastika, military lead- ers gradually were taking over the country from the Nazis. (In London the diplomatic corre- spondent of the Sunday dispatch said German generals were planning to set up a military dictatorship but the change of regime would be engi- neered with the full consent of Nazi party leaders who would "just go un- derground and re-emerge later.") The Army leaders were moving in on the Nazi party so thoroughly that it inspired Spanish newspapermen in Berlin in the last two weeks to refer frequently to "strict military orders" governing their work. Bombs Drop On Lombardy LUGANO, Switzerland, Sunday, Aug. 8.-(,T)-A heavy bombing in Italian Lombardy in the direction of Milan began shortly after mid- night. The explosion of the bombs was heard at this Swiss frontier city. The flashes in the skies 4iso were clearly visible here. Milan is approximately 40 miles from Lugano. (The dispatch indicated that the Allies were carrying their relent- less air raids to northern Italy following Gen. Dwight D. Eisen- hower's warning that the Italians either must get out of the war or suffer the consequences of heavy bomber attacks.) - BULLETIN - LONDON, Sunday, Aug. 8.-(P) -RAF bombers were over Italy last night, it was announced au- thoritatively early today. The specific target of the night raiders was not immediately dis- closed, nor was any indication given of the size of the force. (An. earlier dispatch from Lu- gano, Switzerland, said a heavy bombing in Italian Lombardy in the direction of Milan began short- ly after midnight. Milan is approx- imately 40 miles from Lugano.) Jap Cruiser, Two Destroyers Sunk by U.S. ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, Sun- day, Aug. 8.-(P)-American naval forces in a brilliant hour-long night battle sank a Japanese cruiser, and two 'destroyers and probably sank a third destroyer after intercepting the four' warships carrying supplies to the =enemy, garrison at Vila, Kolom- bangara Island, General MacArthur announced today. The Americans suffered no losses. The action in the Vella Gulf be- tween Vella Lavella and Kolomban- gara Island was fought about mid- night Aug. 6. Torpedoes and gunfire sent the enemy ships to the bottom to raise the toll of enemy warships lost in the current Solomons offensive to at least' 23 and possibly 26 warships. Adn. King Foretells Victory in China WASHINGTON, Aug. 7.-(LP)-In an extraordinary interview on Allied global strategy, Admiral Ernest J. King today forecast powerful and crippling stabs at strategic Japanese positions in the Pacific but indicated the key to final victory over Japan lies in China. The sprawling, populous but al- most isolated Asiatic ally must be kept in the war, the Admiral said, for it occupies in respect to Japan a vital place analagous to that held by Russia in respect to Germany. Of Russia, he said that "boiled down t its simplest terms, the grand strategy of war in Europe is that Russia has the geographical position and the manpower that is paramount in regard to Germany." British Take Biancavilla From Italians Two Victories Narrow Front to 45 Miles; 125,000 Are Captured By The Associated Press ALLIED HEADQUARTERS .IN NORTH AFRICA, Aug. 7-U.S. troops in Sicily have seized Troina, threat- ening to split Nazi forces in half, and~British units squeezing up froh the southeast have taken fiancavilla from Italians, headquarters and field reports announced today. Sicilian Front Narrowed These two important strategic vic- tories on the central sector narrowed the Sicilian front to only 45 miles in width, and the Allied bag of pris- oners soared to 125,000. (The Morocco radio said an entire Italian coast, guard battalion sur- rendered to the Allies Saturday.) Routed from their mile-high fast- nesses in Troina by American guns, bayonets and bombs, remnants' of the German 29th Motorized Division fled toward the Messina straits to- night in the closing phase of the Sicilian campaign. German Line Disjointed Maj.-Gen. Terry Allen's First Di- vision veterans, who scaled the last rocky heights to Troina and crushed surviving Germans with rifle butt and bayonet, "disjointed" the 'Ger- man line and American troops "are threatening to prevent the 'junction of the German 15th Armored "and Hermann Goering divisions retret- ing to the east coast," headquaiters announced. British armored columns " ye, forward over mined .roads and post bloWn-up "bridges .in pincer swees in two directions around the .dusity foot of Mt. Etna, taking in the bomb- dazed Italian garrison at Bl nca- villa 15 miles northwest of CatGgii, Goering Division Near Trap Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's. Canadian and British advance guards were throwing back the 15th and Goering divisions into a possible trip if the American succeeded in reach- ing Bronte or Randazzo on the cir- cular Mt. Etna road before the en- emy's withdrawal to the Messina area is completed. Under a blazing night and day attack, both sides of the straits of Messina were littered with wreked boats, craft which might have been used for a Nazi Dunkerque. Yanks Meet Stiff Resistance The Americans were meeting "stiff- ening resistance," the communique said, adding that "in the coastal se- for to the north, naval units co- tinue to cooperate." Troina fell early Friday morning. The mountain fortress town fell before a withering artillery barrage and infantry charges, poising the First Division for a thrust to Ran- dazzo 20 miles east. War-sick Italian troops in Bianca- villa, 16 miles below Troina and' 15 miles northwest of Catania, hoisted white flags to surrender to British 'Eighth Army troops yesterday after a heavy air attack, Associated Press correspondent Joseph Morton report- ed from the field. a FAIRY TALE FOR GROWNU PS: Hansel and Gretel' Will Open Wednesday "Humperdinck's delightful opera 'Hansel and Gretel' is the sort of a fairy tale that grown-ups love because it reminds them of their lost childhood, and that children enjoy because-well, it's just a fairy tale," Cornelius D. Gall, mus- ical director of the opera, said yesterday. Presented by the Department of Speech Repertory Players and the School of Music, "Hansel and Gre- tel" will appear for five perfor- mances instead of the usual four at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. The opera, which opens at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, will run four days with a special matinee at 2:30, Saturday. "The music in the opera is so charming and enchanting that we feel we've heard it all our "'Hansel and Gretel' is a per- fectly delightful story. The plot is concerned with two little chil- dren 'who are lost in the woods while they were looking for straw- berries. Unfortunately they fall into the clutches of a wicked witch who delights in turning little boys and girls into gingerbread for din- ner. But naturally they come out of the difficulty all right and Ev- erything ends happily," Gall re- lated. "Music plays a very important role in the opera, of course," he pointed out. "For instance, some of the characters have their own little tune, and every time the audience hears the song they know who is coming. It gives one a certain pleasure to be able to keep just a little ahead of the and a percussion. We are very fortunate in having several mem- bers of the Detroit Symphony Or- chestra to play with us for the five performances," the conductor said. "We are using the original interpretation of 'Hansel and Gretel,' and we give a great deal of credit to Prof. Arthur Hackett and Prof. Eric DeLamarter who once conducted the show under, Humiperdinck. You can see that we'll have quite the real thing," Gall declared. The opera itself, which will 'cela- brate its fiftieth anniversary this year, was originally written by Engelbert Humperdinck to enter- tain his grandchildren at Christ- mas time. Its first performance, given in 1893, was conducted by Richard Strauss. Gall, who was born in Rumania, was director of Gilbert and Sulli- van's "H.M.S. Pinafore" presented here last summer. He has played with the Utica Symphony Orches- tra for 12 years and with the Buf falo Symphony three years. A student, of the eminent