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Show - weekly news analysis 'j . ', , Terrific Air Offensive Against Nazis j Is Opened With Epic Raid on Cologne; j Violent Fighting in Battle of Kharkov i Drains German Reserves in Ukraine (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they I lire those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) ; Released by Western Newspaper Union i' 20Q miles i Z JSi' If . u- 1 1 T: L3JUa ,. The above map shows why Hitler drove his armies toward Kerch. i Beyond Rostov and the Crimea lies the fabulously rich land called the Caucasus. Larger than the. state of Texas, it is wealthy in oil and metals. met-als. However, Russian warriors at Kharkov may well shatter the Nazi dream to bits. ! HITLER'S EUROPE : Gets a Taste , ' From London came the first word of the new United Nations offensive ;. against Hitler on his home grounds occupied Europe. This first word was described as part propaganda j: and part actual heavy aerial war-F war-F fare. The propaganda effect was i to strike a definite element of fear : into the hearts of the German peo-' peo-' pie by announcing that high U. S. 1 officials had arrived in London to ! plan an all-out attack upon the I Nazis. i : There was loud talk of non-stop bombing attacks on the Reich. Said ,! some reports, these attacks would be the heaviest and most fearful the world had ever seen. For the first time American bombing crews were taking their places in the non-stop bombing raids being dealt to industrial indus-trial centers of the Rhineland. The London radio let the German Ger-man people know that Britain was being visited by U. S. Services of Supply Commander Somervell, Air Borne Command (Ground Forces) Commander Lee, SOS Chief of Operations Op-erations Lutes, and SOS Transportation Transporta-tion Services Chief Gross. Army Air Forces Commander Arnold and 1 Chiefi of Naval Operations (Air) Towers had arrived previously and were already in conference with British military and government leaders, said an official report from Allied headquarters in London. SOS Commander Somervell told a London press conference that U. S. and British officials were conferring on a program to standardize mili- " tary equipment, including tanks and planes. : From Washington came a report c quoting Army Chief of Staff Marshall Marsh-all as saying that American troops , are "landing in England and they will land in France." Cologne But the Nazis had something to listen to that was stronger than propaganda. It was the whir of 1,250 British bombers and the thud ot 6,000,000 pounds of high explosive bombs as the RAF unleashed the "most devastating aerial raid in history" his-tory" to level and burn three-fourths of the industrial city of Cologne in a single night. Called the first of the "four-figure" bombing raids on German industrial centers, this raid on Cologne saw a British bomber swoop over its objective ob-jective once every six seconds. Equipped with both British and American-made planes the raiders "ere reported by London sources to have made the vicious Nazi annihilations annihi-lations on Britain last year look feeble fee-ble by comparison. Even Berlin admitted that terrific damage had been done. The Royal Air force used so many planes in the mass raid that anti-aircraft defenses de-fenses were of little use. This method meth-od was described as "super-saturating" the Nazi target field so that his aim was constantly diverted. One after another the planes dove low to blast their objectives. One Canadian Wer was quoted as saying that when his turn came so much of the city "as in flames that he felt like leaving leav-ing the scene and seeking another ,target It didn't seem possible, he sa'd, to do any additional damage. RUSSIA: Kharkov Claims While local encounters were being reported on the Kharkov front in the Ukraine, the operation was considered con-sidered as having resulted in two vital factors: The Kharkov battle drained German Ger-man reserves and diverted a minimum mini-mum of 36 German diyisions which had been massed for an all-out offensive of-fensive against Rostov. A Russian communique stated that while "attempting to improve their positions, the Germans threw in large reserves for three days in continued counterattacks. All counterattacks coun-terattacks were repulsed with great losses to the enemy." Claiming a brilliant success in the 19-day Kharkov campaign, the Russians Rus-sians admitted the loss of 75,000 troops 5,000 killed and 70,000 missing. miss-ing. However, a Red army communique com-munique claimed the capture or killing kill-ing of 90,000 Germans. The same communique pointed out that Soviet offensive operations in the Kharkov region were started only in order to forestall the anticipated an-ticipated blow of the Nazis. The Russian plans did not include the capture of Kharkov. The communique communi-que concluded: "Now that these battles bat-tles are nearing their end, it can be said that the main task put forward for-ward by the Soviet command to forestall the German blow has been completed. MEXICO: Power for Camacho With Mexico's proclamation of hostilities, 11 of the 21 American republics became aligned in the war against the Axis. In addition to the United States, war has been declared by Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Gua-temala, Panama, Haiti, the Dominican Domin-ican Republic, Nicaragua, El Salvador Sal-vador and Honduras. Eight other Western hemisphere nations have broken off diplomatic relations. In paving the way for war on the Axis, the Mexican senate approved a bill to suspend 14 constitutional guarantees, including freedom of the press and the right of habeas corpus. cor-pus. The vote was 53 to 0. Gen. Salvador Sanchez, chief of Mexican general staff, announced that a supreme national defense council with Camacho at its head was being established to mobilize resources re-sources and manpower. The high command has ordered strong army units into positions on the gulf and Pacific coast. GASOLINE: Rationing After WPB Automotive Division Chief Kanzler had stated that gasoline gaso-line rationing on a nationwide scale would help in relieving potential rubber rub-ber and automotive replacement parts shortages, Board Chairman Nelson said that administrative difficulties dif-ficulties will make it impossible to start a rationing system before July 1. The Office of Price Administration meanwhile was reporting that the June ration quota of new passenger automobiles will be 40,000, plus carryover of unused quotas from March, April and May. AUSTRALIAN FRONT: Exchanges After a lull of over a week, aerial "gating on the Australian front be-jn be-jn again. This time it took the '"ape of a series of exchange blows ,.y &!t the Allied forces and then fe Japanese. Heaviest Allied attacks were by ican and Australian planes triking at enemy invasion bases at aual and Lae. There was also Heavy raid on the Jap seaplane lands " 1,11381 111 ae Solomon is' l,?le.JaP hit back hardest at Port fesby, his main objective for rPast weeks. Damage to mili-y. mili-y. . Sanations here were slight, a General MacArthur's head- Warters. r, army communique an-that an-that the Army Ferrying so . Dd faad evacuated 4,228 per-sevl per-sevl , Buria during the past several weeks. belie' ap midSet submarines were raid destryed in an attempted "tated Sydney- war buUetin comi . ',the enemy's attack was .C(laPletely unsuccessful." MISCELLANY: Wheat: Department of agriculture agricul-ture experts estimated probable winter win-ter wheat production in the nine important producing states at 436 305,000 bushels. Also announced was a deferred payment plan for the new three-year crop insurance contract con-tract offered wheat growers the first time this year will permit payment pay-ment of the premium in annual installments in-stallments (about harvest time). Whiskers: The War Production board announced a Victory safety razor with a plastic handle, a one cap and a zinc or plastic guard. This model will go into production in a few months and will be offered to me public when the present supply of razors is used up. Existing razors will go to the armed forces. Housing: Congress was asked by the President to appropriate an additional ad-ditional $600,000,000 for bousing an estimated 1,600,000 war workers expected ex-pected to move into war production produc-tion centers in the fiscal year beginning begin-ning July 1. |
