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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS . Jap Reinforcements Smashed; Yanks Weaken Nazi Strength; Iron Out Huge Highway Program Released by Western Newspaper Union. , . I (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those ol Western Newsoaner Union's news analvsts and not necessarily of this newsoaDer.) '? ' ' v. " f 1 : Supported by tanks in the rear, TJ. S. infantrymen advance near Geilen-kirchen Geilen-kirchen inside Germany on western front. PACIFIC : Smash Reinforcements Despite the fact that ground fighting fight-ing on Leyte island stalled in bad weather, with November rainfall totaling to-taling 23Vi inches, there was no lull tn action in the Philippines. As Jap General Yamashita tried to take advantage of the inclement weather to reinforce his beleaguered1 troops on Leyte, U. S. airmen rose to combat enemy transports plough-tag plough-tag through western Philippine waters wa-ters to Ormoc. In one long assault on a convoy, U. S. aviators sank 10 enemy transports, lending 4,000 troops to the bottom, and bringing total Jap losses in reinforcement attempts at-tempts to 26 ships with a tonnage of 92,750 and 21,000 men. Meanwhile, B-29s continued their raids over the Tokyo industrial area, encountering moderate opposition. Infuriated by the bombings, chat- WESTERN FRONT: J Battle of Attrition To the Nazis being pressed back to the Rhine, the great battles raging rag-ing along the western front were "the most ferocious in all history." To doughboys of the U. S. Ninth First, Third and Seventh armies, slogging forward in heavy gush, they were the hardest Of the war, with desperate resistance encountered encoun-tered at every step. With airplane activity limited by somber skies and rainfalls, the battle bat-tle was being fought along the-ground, the-ground, with heavy U. S. field artillery ar-tillery and big, rumbling tanks pouring pour-ing their deadly fire into enemy entrenchments en-trenchments to clear the way for the doughboys of the infantry. Although General Fatton's Third army about the Saar, and General Patch's Seventh army east of the Vosges, maintained heavy pressure on Nazi lines, the focal point of action centered cen-tered on the Ninth and First army fronts between Julich and Duren. East of the small, but strategic, Roer river, both of these towns are vital communications centers, with elaborate highways running in from the Rhineland to feed other roadways road-ways running to the north and south. As the great battle of attrition wearing down rose in tempo, this highway network was vital to the Germans in rushing troops and materials ma-terials to the endangered front, and then transferring them to the north and south. Indicative of the great pressure General Eisenhower was exerting in this sector was the report that his opponent, foxy Field Marshal von Rundstedt, had transferred troops from the Dutch front to the Julich-Duren Julich-Duren sector to cope with the Allied powerhouse. No sooner had the report come through than it was announced that Canadian troops had taken the field on the Dutch front, increasing Allied Al-lied pressure back in this sector, and giving the German high command com-mand no rest. Slowed In their frontal assault as-sault on Budapest, Russian armies crossed the Danube to the south of the Hungarian capital cap-ital to thrust one spearhead northward toward the embattled city and another westward toward to-ward the Austrian frontier, less than 100 miles away. SEDITION TRIAL: Death Ends It With the death of 65-year-old Justice Jus-tice Edward C. Eicher of Iowa, the seven-month-long, and at times farcical, far-cical, sedition trial of 26 defendants in Washington, D. C, came to an abrupt end, with small chance of resumption. Although government counsel said the trial could go on if both the U. S. and defendants agreed to the selection selec-tion of another judge, it was recalled that a federal court previously had ruled that justice required completion comple-tion of a case by the same judge and jury and no substitutions could be made, even with consent. Thus, the government was faced with the alternative al-ternative of starting new proceedings. proceed-ings. Even though the trial of the 26 defendants, accused of trying to undermine un-dermine the morale of the U. S. armed forces and establish a Nazi form of government in this country, had already taken up seven months, government counsel revealed that at least six more months would be necessary to complete presentation of its evidence. With defendants' attorneys expected to consume an additional three to six months, the case promised to last about a year and a half. Gen. MacArthur on Lyte airdrome with Ace Bong (at left) and Lt. Gen. George Kenney (right). tering Japanese news commentators threatened that "albino apes" parachuting para-chuting onto Japanese soil from distressed dis-tressed Superfortresses would be "killed on the spot by angry people." peo-ple." Japs Gain Pushed to the wall in the Philippines, Philip-pines, the Japs had better luck in China, where Chiang Kai-shek's armies ar-mies were hard put to it in an attempt at-tempt to blunt an enemy drive aimed at cutting the Burma road to Chungking. Thrusting westward from their north-south juncture at Liuchow, where they joined to seal off the whole eastern Chinese coast, Jap columns stood about 100 miles from the Burma road, key communications communica-tions line linking much of the southern south-ern part of the country. As the Japs pressed forward, they claimed 50,000 Chinese troops were falling back on the big highway bastion bas-tion of Kweiyang, where a strong stand was expected to block any drive further northward toward Chungking, Kai-shek's headquaretrs. HIGHWAYS: Postwar Project Following separate action by both houses, senators and representatives got together in the nation's capital to settle on a definite postwar federal fed-eral highway program, the first major ma-jor public works project planned for peacetime. After the senate had approved of the expenditure of $450,000,000 annually an-nually for three years after the war for construction of rural, secondary and urban highways, the house passed a bill providing for $500,000,-000 $500,000,-000 annually for three years. Under both versions, states would have to contribute an equal amount of money for road projects, and sums would be distributed throughout through-out the country on the basis of regional re-gional importance. Under the house bill, for instance, $775,000,000 would be allotted for rural highways, $450,-000,000 $450,-000,000 for secondary roads and $375,000,000 for urban arteries. |