itP I ait Weather Cooler VOL. LII, No. 37-S ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, WEDNESDAY, AUG. 18, 1943 P.aiCE FIVE...<.CE.NTS apture of Messina Ends Battle for Si oily; Alliees Wewak Base Is Blasted; 1,500 Killed Yanks Drop 10,000 Bombs in Shattering Attack near Salamaua By The Associated Press ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IS THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, Aug 18, Wednesday-The Allies won thei most smashing victory of the Pacific war in the, battle for air supremac over New Guinea Tuesday by sur- prising more than 225 Japanese planes, many wing tip to wing tip on the ground in the Wewak area destroying or damaging 170 and kill- ing 1,500 enemy air personnel. 10,000 Bombs Spread Havoc Ten thousand fragmentation and incendiary bombs spread havoc among reinforcements which Japan obviously was intending to bring intc play in support of ground forces now reeling back in the jungles before at- tacks of Americans and Australians bidding for the air base of Salamaua Wewak is about 350 miles north- West up the coast from Salamaua. One hundred twenty of the Japa- nese planes were destroyed for cer- tain and 50 more severely damaged. Maj.-Gen. Ennis C. Whitehead, commander of the advance echelon Allied airforces in the Southwest Pacific area, who directed the aer- ial sledgehammer blows rained on four Wewak area airdromes, de- scribed this devastating achieve- ment of American and Australian fliers as "the opening battle for air supremacy over central New Guinea." The Papuan peninsula, southeast- ern New Guinea, has long since been in Allied hands and present ground fighting is fordcontrolofenortheast- ern New Guinea, adding significance to General Whitehead's reference to "central New Guinea." 1General MacArthur in a special statement acclaimed the air triumph. A flight of Liberators led the maul- ing attack which commenced shortly after midnight Tuesday and con- tinued well into daylight yesterday morning. 225 Planes On Ground More than 225 planes made up the sight which greeted the first raiders. The last raiders to leave looked back on a scene of havoc. Everywhere there was smoke and fire from burn- ing planes, fuel and ammunition dumps. Liberators, Flying Fortresses, Mit- chells and Bostons struck in wave on wave with clocklike precision. So complete was the surprise element that the air triumph cost the Allies only three planes. Departing from custom, General MacArthur issued a special state- ment: "It was a crippling blow at an opportune moment. "Numerically, the opposing forces were about equal in strength but one was in the air and the other was not. Nothing is so helpless as a plane on the ground. "In war, surprise is decisive." In the Central Solomons, today's communique said succinctly, the ground advance against the Japanese still holding out at Bairoko harbor on New Georgia's north coast con- tinues. The Japanese airforce made weak offensive efforts. Spitfires shot down four enemy bombers in the Darwin area and a single enemy plane harm- lessly bombed Port Hedland in north- western Australia. Occupational forces, meanwhile, continued to consolidate their hold on Vella Lavella island in the Solo- mons which the Americans invaded Sunday. Coal Prices To Rise With 48-Hour Week WASHINGTON, Aug. 17.-- (M)- Coal prices will have to go up when the mines go on a 48-hour week. This was conceded tonight by Sec- retary of Interior Ickes as he pre- pared an order to put in the longer work week wherever local conditions will permit. Many mines now work A' 1,ni rc Timnra a n . h 1l nav i s in Smashing Victory in Pacific l.> After the 'Enemy' Stronghold Fell to Company A -Daily Photo by Corp. Robert L. Lewin, Co. A, 3651st S.U. Relaxing on the 'captured' hill, the men of Comp any A listen to Lt. Kenneth Rewick, Lt. George Spence and Lt. Glen Grosjean (left to right, facing camera) point out the good and bad points of their attack. The critique was held immediately after the men had seized the 'enemy' stronghold behind the hospital Saturday morning. GLOBAL STRATEGY: FDR Arrives in Quebec To Confer with Churchill By The Associated Press QUEBEC, Que., Aug. 17.- President Roosevelt came to historic, cheer- ing Quebec tonight to re-examine Allied strategy for global war with Prime Minister Churchill of Britain and translate it into a master war plan to blast the Axis out of existence. Thus began the final phase of the Quebec war conference, the sixth formal meeting of two statesmen who hold the fate of the Allies, and per- haps of a staggering enemy, in their hands. With them was Prime Minister Mackenzie King of Canada, whose troops have played a vital role in the conquest of Sicily and appear destined 4 to take on an even bigger assignment Russians Blast Through Stiffer Nazi Defenses LONDON, Aug. 18, Wednesday.- (A)-The Red Army smashed through stiffening German resistance Tues- day to make gains up to four miles toward Bryansk and improved their positions in the drives upon Smo- lensk and Kharkov in fighting that killed 8,300 Germans, Moscow an- nounced today. The Germans were falling back from position after position in the Bryansk area, where the Red troops were last reported 15 miles east of the great German defense center. Over 60 towns and villages were tak- en and the Moscow radio reported that "fierce fighting does not slacken for a moment." Germans in Full Retreat The Germans, dislodged from their main line, were said to be in full re- treat, covering their rear with tank and plane counter offensives. Soviet planes found military trains and concentrations of troops in Bry- ansk and pounded them heavily Monday night and Tuesday morn- ing, a Moscow broadcast recorded by the Soviet monitor said. Bryansk was also menaced by Rus- sian troops driving down from within 24 miles northeast of the city where perhaps the greatest threat to the Germans in this area lay. The Soviet midnight communique, recorded by the Soviet monitor, re- ported heavy fighting southwest of Dmitrovsk-Orlovsky, 60 miles south- east of Bryansk. Reds Forge Ahead Other Soviet troops forged ahead in the Pas Demensk area to capture several hamlets, considerably im- proving their positions. Over 2,000 Germans were killed here and much enemy equipment destroyed. In this .drive the Soviets were about 75 miles southeast of Smolensk. Tha C Prman rnntrnlla m ialv n s_ in tremendous smashes at the Nazi fortress on the European continent. Tonight they were at their ease. They were honor guests at a dinner party given by the Earl of Athlone, Canada's Governor-General, in Que- bec's citadel, a grim fortress which towers over the city, the St. Law- rence and the spots where British arms defeatedAmerican invaders in the Revolutionary War. Will Survey Combat Tactics Tomorrow Mr. Roosevelt and Chur- chill will plunge full tilt into a sur- vey of the combat tactics and opera- tional schemes on which their "pick and shovel men" have been toiling for a week. Their decisions will be backed by the advice of what was officially de- scribed as "one of the greatest gath- erings of military experts ever held." Among those experts were the chiefs of staff of Britain and the United States and experts on every theatre of war and every type of battle enterprise. Winter War To Be Destructive The result of the war talks in this provincial capital is expected to be known only when they produce those "major developments" which the President has predicted, develop- ments which are expected to send powerful amphibious forces into Eur- ope and, through the expanding pow- er of air fleets, to make the winter the most destructive ever known to Germany. Nor is there any reason to believe that Japan may be overlooked when the Allies finish their blueprint for victory. 0 0*0 Hull Will Join FDR Churchill WASHINGTON, Aug. 17.- (A)- Secretary of State Hull made clear today that the Roosevelt-Churchill conversations at Quebec, will deal with political as well as military mat- ters, and said he expected to join in Board Elections Will Be Tomorrow Election for representatives to the Board in Control of Student Publications and the Board in Con- trol of Athletics will be held from 9 a.m. to noon, and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow at the Engine Arch and in University Hall. Candidates for the Board in Con- trol of Student Puplications are Bud Burgess, and J. Fredrick Hoff- man. Those running for the Board in Control of Athletics are Art Up- ton and Clifford Myll, Rickenbacker Says Bombs Will Defeat Germans 'No People on Earth Can Stand Terrific Blasting by Allies' NEW YORK, Aug. 17.-(/)-Cap- tain Edward V. Rickenbacker said to- day that Italy was being bombed out of the war so fast that a "complete blowup" might come any day and that Germany then would be knocked out the same way because "no peo- ple on earth can stand" the terrific blasting being unleased by Allied Air power. But in the next breath, he warned that, even so, he doubted that Ger- many would crack "before the fall of 1944" at the present rate of the war's progress. And after that, he said-barring a miracle-it would take another year of war to dispose of "savage and treacherous Japan, whose soldiers "unlike the Germans and Italians, will never give up." Lean and smiling, but admittedly tired from his 50,000-mile tour of world battlefronts. "Rickenbacker admitted he believed in the possibili- ty of such a miracle, and said "some- thing is coming this winter that will shock the world-maybe sooner." Describing, as a "private citizen," the third trip he made as War Sec- retary Stimson's representative, Rickenbacker, who was in civilian clothes, said he was no air-power fanatic, but the Germany must be broken "from the inside" by bombing because any other way would be "too expensive." After speaking of the 25 days he spent in Russia during his three- month jaunt, Rickenbacker veered from his recount of the warfront scene to say that if Premier Stalin was unable to join President Roose- velt and Prime Minister Churchill in their strategy huddles, it was because "hp hnc nniii- ninwxan hic. h ns ," U.S. Planes Make Dee pest Nazi Invasion Bombing Raid Caps Day of Great Allied Aerial Onslaughts By The Associated Press LONDON, Aug. 18, Wednesday.- American Flying Fortresses, making the first daylight shuttle-bombing run from England to North Africa, capped a day of one of the greatest aerial onslaughts of the war yester- day by making their deepest invasion of the continent to blast tie south- eastern corner of Germany. The big planes bombed an airplane plant at Regensburg, northeast of Munich near the Austrian-Czecho- slovakian border, and kept on going over the Alps for a flight of around 1,500 miles, it was announced. Allies Blast Plane Factory Other bombers, tearing through the stiffest fighter opposition the Nazis have mustered for weeks, blast- ed the Germans' second largest Mes- serschmitt fighter plane factory at Schweifurt near Frankfurt. Seventy-two closely-packed acres of ball bearing factory buildings- one of Germany's most vital links in the chain of war productions-were attacked in the Schweinfurt raid. Returning crewmen jubilantly re- ported that smoke billowed up to 20,000 feet over the Schweinfurt tar- get and drifted for 10 miles. Yanks Imitate RAF The shuttle heavy bombing raid was the first daylight emulation by the Americans of the technique in- augurated by the RAF less than two months ago when it hit Friedrichs- haven June 20 by night and flew on to North Africa, bombing the Italian naval base of Spezia on the way back, June 23. The RAF repeated the feat a month later. Regensburg is more than 400 miles inland and requires a 500-mile flight from English bases. The Fortress attack fitted into the pattern of the vastly stepped-up Al- lied aerial assault. Accompanying it, American medium bombers team- ed with the RAF for a third day to bang up Axis airfields in a semi- circle on the fringe of Hitler's "Eur- opean Fortress." These assualts extended from the Lowlands around the channel coast of France to near Marseille in the Mediterranean. Attacks on the air- dromes of Istres le Tube and Salon northwest of Marseille were the first from new Mediterranean bases. The German radio went off the air tonight, a usual indication that night bombers of the RAF are pay- ing Germany a visit. An alert was sounded tonight in northern Italy which apparently was being raided for the fifth time in six nights. Quiiet Wallace, Senator Says Vandenberg Agrees With Byrnes' Speech WASHINGTON, Aug. 1. -(P)- Senator Vandengurg (Rep.-Mich.) said today that soft-pedaling of po- litical debate until the fall of 1944 as suggested by James F. Byrnes, War Mobilization Director, is all right with him if the'Democrats will get Vice-President Wallace to "pipe down in his program of disunity speeches." Byrnes in a radio address last night struck at those in all parties who he said are diverting the minds of the people from the war effort by politi- cal statements. He said until the fall presidential campaign of 1944 the less said about politics the better. Commenting on this part of the address, Vandenburg said he agreed with the home front chief, but edded it was "a poor rue that doesnt' work both ways." "Instead of lecturing the rest of us," he asserted, "I suggest that he (Byrnes) start his crusade by getting Henry Wallace on the 'phone and tllmnj . him toniner lanm in hic nrn_ Yanks Storm City; Invas ion StageSet lA _ I By The Assocated Press ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NORTH AFRICA, Aug. 17.-The 38- day battle for Sicily ended today with the fall of Messina to American doughboys who stormed through the hillside streets of the ancient city and then established contact with the British Eighth Army coming up from the south, Allied Headquarters announced tonight. Stage Set for Invasion The stirring finish, however, only appeared to have set the stage for the next operations against Europe. Almost simultaneously with the announcement of the end of the Sic- ilian campaign, a large formation of Flying Fortresses reached across the Mediterranean from recently es- tablished bases and gave southern France its first bombing. Istres le Tube and Salon, the lat- ter northwest of' Marseille, were blasted in a round trip which in- volved at least 1,000 miles. Nazis Fire at Messina The Germans, nervously blowing up installations on the exposed toe of Italy in apparent fear of an ex- tension of Allied amphibious opera- tions, began pouring fire into Mes- sina from 15-inch and other batteries stationed on the mainland across the two-mile wide straits not long after Messina fell to the Americans this morning.. The Americans rushed up their heaviest artillery in their field bat- teries and dueled with the Germans. Among doughboys and tommies and Allied airmen and seamen who were smashing deep into Italy's de- fenses, the question was "where do we go from here?" Have Choice of Objectives From the Sicilian springboard Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had a choice of numerous objectives, ranging from Germans Take Severe Steps Against Norway Red Army Makes Gains Toward Bryansk; Kill 8,300 Germans in Day STOCKHOLM, Aug. 17.-()-The worst political crisis of the war gripped all Scandinavia tonight as the German controlled government of Premier Vikun Quisling took stern, repressive measures against Norwe- gians, apparently through fear of Allied landings. Bitter reaction to German moves in neighboring Norway swept through Sweden and reached a head in Stockholm where the windows of the German tourist agency in the Kungsgatan were smashed. (A Stockholm radio broadcast, re- corded by CBS, said Swedish news- papers editorialized that the German terror wave against the Norwegians was a result of the Nazi feelings of "insecurity," and that the Germans were trying to collect hostages against the day of a popular revolu- tion.) In Norway itself meanwhile, Nor- wegian policemen, who yesterday were forced to sign a pledge of loy- alty under pain of death, were being inducted into the armed forces in line with a decree' signed by Premier Vidkun Quisling. The decree also put Norway under virtual material law which private reports from Oslo called "a desperate attempt" to keep an iron grip on the underground movements in the fact of a possible Allied invasion. These reports added that the Ger- mans had tightened their border guards to prevent the escape of Nor- wegian army officers whom Hitler had ordered deported to German prison camps. Dean Stason Talks At Chicago Meeting CHICAGO, Aug. 17.- (P)- E. the shores of southern France to the shores of Greece, with vulnerable Italy squarely in the middle. The entire Sicilian campaign had hardly cost more Allied lives than the final three weeks of the opera- tions in North Africa, and each of the outfits engaged had emerged ready for new and harder tests. There was no announcement of the number of prisoners taken in the final breath-taking finale in Sicily, The Germans conceded that the battle for Sicily was over and de- clared in their broadcast communi- que that all their forces had been evacuated even while Allied Head- quarters waited for word that the last disorganized and dejected enemy bands had been mopped up. Troops Evacuated The latest reports said doughboys of Maj.-Gen. Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., American Third Division were crushing the last flickering resistance in hand-td-hand battle with trapped enemy nests in the city of 192,000 while the Germans in the fading hours of dawn were desperately striv- ing to evacuate remaining troops. London Guesses About Future Allied Strategy LONDON. Aug. 17.-(P)-The at- mosphere in this oldest and great of Allied forward bases in the European theater was heavy tonight with spec-. ulation that another and more fate- ful lunge against the Axis was com- ing now that the conquest of Sicily had made the first breach in the enemy's continental walls. Only the Allied high command had knowledge of where the next blow or blows would be struck, but a feeling persisted that denouement in the war was approaching. This was emphasized by Britain's emptying beaches as the govern- ment began clearing all non-residents from barricaded coastal areas and fury of the Allied round-the-clock air assaults. There was a renewal, too, of cries for a second front in both Britain and Soviet Russia. It was quite possible, however, that future operation, regardless of whether they fall on southern Italy, the Balkans, northern France, the Low Countries, northern Germany, Denmark or Norway, would be de- layed for a few weeks. This might be done, not only to permit the fullest preparations, but also to give the fullest opportunity for heavy bombings and psychologi- cal attacks to crystalize the Italian will for peace without further fight- ing. * * * Open City Proposal Made Through Pope LONDON, Aug. 17.-OP)-The Ger- man radio in a broadcast heard by the Associated Press said tonight that through the Vatican, Premier- Marshal Pietro Badoglio had made a "second proposal" concerning mak- ing Rome an open city. Badoglio and the cabinet held a long meeting last night, the broad- cast said. Nne Injured In Milk Strike 800 CIO Workers Rout AFL Picket Line DETROIT, Aug. 17.- (.?)- Four plain-clothes detectives and five oth- er persons were injured in a short- lived fight outside a Johnson Milk Company plant in suburban Ham- tramck today when some 800 CIO dairy workers routed a picket line of 50 AFL teamsters union members. The four policemen were clubbed when they attempted to break up the