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VOL. LIV No. 20-S ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN SUNDAY, JULY 30, 1944
PRICE FIVE CENTS
German D
Americans Smash
"Counterattacks
Tiger Tank Duels
U. S. Offensive Thrusts 11 Miles Below
Captured Coutaneces, 13 Beyond St. Lo
By The Associated Press
SHAEF, Sunday, July 30-The greatest U. S. army offensive since the
World War smashed determined German counterattacks in at least 100
Duels withhuge Tiger tanks and thrust 11 miles below captured Coutances
and 13 beyond St. Lo yesterday in drives which threatened to envelop
the enemy's Normandy defenses in a major defeat.
The American assault had progressed 21 miles since it began Tuesday,
and was continuing against stiffening but unsuccessful Nazi resistance.
Brehal Junction Under Fire
Twin thrustsbelow Coutances toward Brehal threatened to snare
at least some of the Nazis who so narrowly escaped from the Coutances
saster
Imminent
In
Normandy
* .* * * .* *. * * * *
Russian Army Fights in Sight of Warsaw
* *
* *
* *
* *
Eig hth Army.
Is Five Miles
From Florence
Germans Countering
With Stiff Resistance
By The Associated Press
ROME, July 29.-The final phase
of the battle for Florence opened
violently in the rolling hills to the
south today as veteran New Zealand-
ers of the Eighth Army drove to a
point just five miles below the his-
toric city and the Germans quickly
countered every Allied thrust with.
strong forces of tiger tanks.
The German army south of the
Arno river was compressed into a
front only 30 miles long which
-threatened to give way along its en-
tire Western end and pave the way
for the fall of ,Florence.
Eighth Army Near Empoli
Eighth Army units crowding in on
this western segment were able to
maintain only minor contact with
the enemy, who was forced to flee as
the New Zealanders, hammering
northeastward fromsCerbaia to the
point five miles below Florence,
threatened to isolate Nazi troops re-
maining in an eight-mile-wide wedge
between the mouth of the Elsa river
and Montelupo to the east.
Other Eighth Army troops drove
to within two miles of Empoli, 15
miles west of Florence on the south
bank of the Arno, and still other
units closed in on Florence from the
southeast.
Greve River Crossed
South Africans crossed the Greve
river seven miles south of Florence'
below Impruneta and still other
Eighth Army forces won mountain
positions nine miles southeast of the
city.
Crash Victims
Recovering
Condition of John Cummings,
Clyde Brown and Ben Stillwell, in-
jured Friday in the collision of an
Ann Arbor railway train and a truck-
trailer, was reported "good" yester-
day by physicians at St. Joseph's
Mercy Hospital.
The three men, suffering from
burns and shock, were said to be
"resting quietly" by the doctors.
Some 40 to 45 people miraculously
escaped death when two wooden
passenger coaches burst into flame7
after being ignited by gasoline spilled
from the truck.1
The train, traveling southeast ens
route to Toledo, collided with the
gasoline truck-trailer driven by Still-
well at the State Street crossing.,
Cummings, the engineer, and Brown, t
the firemen, were burned when the
locomotive burst into flame. Pass-1
engers rushed to safety before the
blaze, which completely gutted the
wooden coaches, enveloped the cars.c
_pocket Thursday and Friday. The
Brehal road junction already was
under American artillery fire.
One Allied armored column reached
the coast west of Coutances and cap-
tured the town of Pont De La Doque,
thus sealing off all possible land es-
cape routes of any Nazis who might
still be in the Coutances pocket.
The German radio began to talk
of the necessity of a wholesale with-
drawal along the entire 40-mile west-
ern wing of the invasion front even
while the enemy was making desper-
ate counterattacks on the American
east flank near Tessy-Sur-Vire with
tank forces pulled out of the static
front facing the British east of Caen.
Gen. Bradley's Offensive Succeeds
"From all appearances, Lt. Gen.
Omar Bradley's carefully-planned
'precision offensive' has broken clear
through the German Seventh Army,"
said Wes Gallagher, Associated Press
front-line reporter with the Ameri-
can forces.
"It may well be that the Americans
are fighting and winning one of the
great decisive battles of the war," he
wrote. "If Hitler is unable to stop
the American offensive soon, it may
have done irreparable damage to the
morale and strength of the Wehr-
macht in France."
Orote Peninsula
On Guam Seized
ByAmericans
PEARL HARBOR, July 29. -
UP) - "Orote peninsula is ours,"
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced
tonight, reporting the outstanding
triumph of the invasion of Guam.
Organized resistance ceased Fri-
day, giving the Marine invaders a
4,700 foot airfield, the Sumay naval
base and the shell-shattered barracks
where a tiny garrison of Marines was
overwhelmed by Nipponese invaders
at the outset of the war.
Remnants of an American flag
which the Japanese had used for a
cushion was found in the barracks'
ruins.
The large quantity of booty seized
included 30 tanks, 72 field pieces and;
coastal guns up, to eight-inchers.
fee GUAM, Page 2
Fry Gets Doyle, Adams,
Schwinger on State Ticket
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., July 29.l
-UP)-The Democratic State Con-
vention gave Edward J. Fry, the par-
ty's gubernatorial nominee, his way
tonight in the nomination of a ticket
of candidates for the November Gen-
eral Election.]
Candidates nominated were: Thur-
man B.' Doyle, of Menominee, for at-
torney general. Mrs. Minnie Schwin-l
ger, Saginaw, for state treasurer.1
Rep. Clark J. Adams, Pontiac, fork
auditor general. Arthur A. Koscin-k
ski, Detroit attorney, for secretaryi
of state. 41
B-29's Blast
Yank Planes.. .....
Ht InduS triale gf
City.Anshan i iP~ egv
Heart of Japan's
Arsenal Is Target LTUN
A SUPERFORTRESS BASE IN K NIGS8ERG
WESTERN CHINA, July 29.-A pow-
erful force of B-29 bombers today
blasted Anshan, key industrial city
in the Mukden area of eastern Man- EAST"
churia and the heart of Japan's "ar- PRUSSA p rodo
senal of greater East Asia," in the
first Superfortress assault by day- 6aysta
light and from high altitudes.'-a
(A 20th bomber command com-WPOLAN
munique issued by the war depart-
ment also listed Tangku, the port of siede
Tientsin in occupied China, as a
target, and said losses in the raid Gato w
were "extremely light."
Bombing Results Good
("Observed bombing results were ° tm
good against moderate enemy fighter ; 'k
and anti-aircraft opposition," theR
communique said. "The weather +io w
was clear with good visibility.")P i WM
(Japanese bradcasts said the area *
of Dairen, near Port Arthur, and
Penhsihu, important coal field site,s
also were hit. Tokyo declared thatQ
one of the raiders was shot down.) *
Anshan is the site of the Showar
steel works, whose importance in the K1orn
Japanese empire is second only to HUNGARYc
the great steel plants of Yawata in-
Japan itself, target of the two pre- u ROMANA
ceding B-29 attacks.
Estimate Extensive Damage SCENE OF 10 RUSSIAN VIC
Taking off in perfect weather, the WARD-Black areas indicate t
planes of the world-ranging U. S. during last week, with shading i
20th air force loosed a torrent of ex- 22 in this map locating 10 maj
plosive on the city, also important as the greatest 24-hour gain of the
a producer of many munitions com-
ponents. Hugh columns of smoke S B A A SDP
billowed from the bombed installa- SUBS HARASS JAPS
tions, and it was estimated the dam-
age would require 12 months to re-
pair. Graduates o
.As the great planes roared towardm
their objectives in this first Ameri- -A
can air blow at Manchuria and the H earA dur
third major B-29 assault on Japanese
installations, a diversionary force of
Superfortresses headed for Chengh- Submarines kept the warc
sien, bottleneck junction of the Peip- Japan's doorstep all through t
ing-Hankow railway in northern dark days after Pearl Harbor, A
Honan province, and bombed the miral Thomas C. Hart said yeste
railyards which the Japanese are day speaking in Rackham audito
attempting to rebuild. ium at commencement exercises f
114 graduates of the University m
Y dical school, 27 of whom were me
bers of the Navy.
Telling the part the underse
z craft played in the Pacific theat
Nazi Refinery Hart said American submarines i
~ exorably cut down Jap sea pow
LONDON, July 29.-(JP)-In a new Today, he asserted, Jap mercha:
assault on Germany's dwindling oil shipping is half what it was at t]
resources, more than 1,100 American outbreak of the war.
heavies smashed at the Leuna syn- Jap Navy Was 'Hot'
thetic refinery at Merseburg today When the Japs seized the initi
for the second consecutive day in a tive with their attack on Pearl Ha
follow-up to .a 1,000-plane RAF raid bor, Hart said, the Nipponese na
on Stuttgart and Hamburg last night was '"hot", and made few mistake
in which the British lost 62 planes to The battle of Midway, howeve
heavy Nazi opposition. turned the tide in favor of the Unit
German oil targets have been a top States, according to the admiral.
priority in daylight strategic bomb- "We shall obliterate Jap power c
ing the past three months and in a or under the sea," Adm. Ha
grinding, methodical attack the Am- stressed, but we can only in the w
erican heavies based in Britain and if the "life and soul of the milita
Italy have plastered more than 64 cult that rules Japan" iseexti
different Nazi oil plants. guish " ue Japan" is exti
British Mosquitos last night blasted guished."We must end the war
Frankfurt with 4,000 - pounders, going to Tokyo," he said.
Meanwhile the Russians heavily 85 Men Receive Commissions
bombed suburbs of Warsaw, Inster- Of the 114 medical school grad
burg in East Prussia and Krustpils ates addressed by the admiral, 27 a
in Latvia in advance of storming Red I members of V-12 unit on campus an
armies. were commissioned lieutenants, jur
Legislature
To Discuss,
Peace A ims
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, July 29. - The
challenge of an approaching peace-
carrying with it the possibility of
widespread unemployment and stag-
nated' industry-confronts congress-
men returning to Washington for the.
opening Tuesday of another potenti-
ally historic session.
With legislation governing the
termination of war contracts already
on the statute books, the lawmakers
hear plans on all sides for quick de-
cisions on other major pieces of the
legislative framework for orderly
transition from war to peace.
Jobs To Be Problem
Jobs for upwards of 10,000,000 men
in the armed forces and 20,000,000
others in war industry, together with
legislative machinery for the dis-
posal of $75,000,000,000 worth of
government plants, equipment and
supplies pose problems of unprece-
dented magnitude.
While optimism over the chance
of an early collapse of Germany is
tempered by caution, agreement is
general that the government can't
afford to take chances.
Rayburn Announces Plans
Speaker Sam Rayburn announced'
in Bonham, Tex., that all members'
of the House post-war planning and
legislative committees were being
called back to Washington immedi-
ately.
Rayburn planned to leave for
Washington tomorrow.
In the Senate, differences of opin-
ion over the extent of the authority
Congress should grant a projected
over-all demobilization agency, the
amount and procedure for paying
unempldyment compensation and
other details are slowing efforts of
its military committee to agree on
the final form of a bill.
Reds Surge
over Border
Into Latvia,
Soviet Offensive
Approaches Berlin
By The Associated Press
LONpON, July 30, Sunday-Rus-
sian troops yesterday fought within
sight of Warsaw, bombarded half-
way mark in the offensive rolling
along the road to Berlin, while in the
north other Soviet units surged across
the southern Latvian border in their
swift drive against the almost-en-
circled Nazi armies of the Baltic.
Warsaw's east bank suburbs were
under Soviet artillery attack.
Berlin said the Russians in the
north were only 20 miles from the
Gulf of Riga, fighting fiercely in. the
Jelgava area in their effort to com-
plete a trap on 200,000 to '300,000
Germans under Col.-Gel. Georg Lin
demann.
Jelgav4i, Riga B1ombed
Jelgava, a strategic' rail junction,
and Riga, Latvian capital-port on the
Baltic, both were hammered heavily
by Soviet bombers Friday night
"Several . enemy troop trains were
smashed or burned out," the comi-
munique said, indicating that the
Germans already were trying to flee
Estonia and Latvia.
The Latvian town of Eleja, 15 miles
south of Jelgava, was captured, the
Moscow bulletin said, and a mid-
night supplement said more than
3,500 Germans were killed and 2,500
captured in Saturday's operations.
200 Villages Captured
Gev. Ivan Bagramian's first Baltic
armies captured more than 200 vil-
lages in this push toward the Baltic
doast, including Zagare, on the Lith-
uanian-Latvian border 42 miles south
of the Gulf, Moscow said. Farther
south other units closing in on Kau-
nas, former Lithuanian capital, cap-
tured Karmelava, less than six miles
northeast of Kaunas, which is a Ger-
man bastion protecting the road to
German East Prussia. The ,all of
Kaunas was regarded as near.
The Moscow communique an-
nounced the capture of a total of
1,320 towns and villages during the
day, and said the Russians attacking
below Warsaw had completely cleared
the enemy from a 60-mile section of
the east bank of the Vistula River-
last Axis defense line before Germany
itself.
Frankel CBS
Editor To Talk
Top Artists Included y
In Speech Program
Manc hurian
own
TORIES AS REDS SURGE WEST-
territory captured by Russian armies
ndicating other areas taken since June
or -cities captured by the Russians in
campaign.
f Medical School
ess by Admiral
on
she
Ld-
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ar-
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m-
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,re,
tn-
er.
ant
he
[a-
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er,
,ed
on
rt
gar
pry
n-
by
u-
Lre
nd
n-
ior grade, in the medical corps by
Capt. Richard E. Cassidy, command-
ant of the Naval units. Of the re-
maining graduates, 58 under the
Army training, program were com-
missioned first lieutenants by Lt.
Col. Reginald Miller of the Judge
Advocate General's school.
Members of the naval and marine
units on campus were reviewed by
the admiral after the graduating ex-
ercises.
Union Seeks
Blood Donors
The Union will hold registration
for the forthcoming Red Cross Blood
Bank from 9 a. m. to noon and be-
tween 1 and 2:30 p. m. tomorrow on
the Diagonal, according to Sandy
Perlis, Union head of the project.
The quota for University men is
200, and to fill this all men whose
health permits them to become blood
donors are asked to register tomor-
row. The Blood Bank will be held
from 1:30 to 3:30 p. m. Thursday
and Friday, August 10 and 11, in
the Women's Athletic Building. Uni-
versity women have not yet filled
their quota of 75 blood donors.
World News
at a Glance
Dies To Probe PAC...
WASHINGTON, July 29. - (P) -
Chairman Dies (D-Tex.) announced
tcnightthat his House committee, on
un-American affairs will investigate
the CIO Political Action Committee,
which the Dies group has declared
as "the political arm" of the New
Deal.
Dies said that if the majority of
the committee wants an immediate
meeting,. it should summon 75 gov-
ernment officials to "find out how
they can evade theHatchactrwith
impunity." Dies said the record
shows these officials "to have worked
closely with the CIO Political Ac-
tion Committee."
Top Ace Missing*.. *
OIL CITY, Pa., July 29.--(iP)-
While his home town was plan-
ning a joyous homecoming celebra-
tion for him and his finance, Lt.-
Col. Francis S. Gabreski, America's
top-scoring war pilot credited with
shooting down 28 enemy planes,
was reported missing in action over
Germany today.
Willkie Offers Aid . .
NEW YORK, July 29-(AP)-
Wendell L. Willkie offered today to
represent Maxwell Anderson, the
playwright, if U. S. Rep. Hamilton
Fish s(R-NY) brought any libel ac-
tion against him growing out of the
representative's battle for renomina-
tion in New York State's 29th con-
Mortimer 'Frankel, Associate Script
Editor of the Columbia Broadcasting
Company, will answer questions con-
cerning radio, particularly comedy
broadcasts, in a conference at 4 p. m.,
Tuesday, in Rackham West Confer-
ence Room.
Mr. Frankel is being sent here by
CBS as part of a general program in
cooperation with the Department of
Speech, through which CBS is send-
ing some of its top ranking artists
in various fields of radio to give prac-
tical instruction in the classroom.
Classes in writing, production and
acting will receive instruction from
lVjr. Frankel, who will also visit other-
classes.
Mr. Frankel has had varied experi-
ence in almost all forms of magazine,
radio, and film publicity and has ed-
ited comedy broadcasts, morale pro-
grams, and a quiz program. He was
wi1,th ,,44-,.A A4...-ie.. Al..... ~ n f
PANELS, LECTURES, DINNER PLANNED FOR MEETING:
China Conference Set To Acquaint Campus with Eastern Ally
Designed to awaken an interest in
China nn the nart of the teachers
Saturday will be on sale at the reg-
Designed to awaken an interest in
International Center, will be master
of ceremonies at the Chinese dinner
A program of entertainment will
be given by the Chinese Student
Summer Session; Mischa Titiev, as-
sociate professor of anthropology and