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Show I WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS , Allies Drive Onto Vital Ruhr; Return Home Rule to Filipinos; Men 30 to 33 Face Draft Call I Released by Western Newspaper Union. I (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expreHfted In Iheso columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily ot this newspaper.) Constructed by the Germans, tliis dugout in France was put to use by U. S. troops, with doughboys shown cleaning up, writing home and relaxing relax-ing behind the lines. EUROPE: Onto Ruhr Giving ground in a desperate attempt at-tempt to economize their forces for battle on more defensible terrain, the Germans fell back on the Rhine under the crushing weight of U. S. and British armies, which moved quickly to exploit any opening for a decisive breakthrough. Leading the charge across the Rhineland plains, the U. S. 9th army headed for Dusseldorf and the vital Ruhr valley, much bombed heart of German industry, while the U. S. 1st army smashed onto ancient, steepled Cologne, transport hub of the region. At the northern end of the line, British and Canadian troops joined the 9th army in bearing bear-ing down on the Ruhr. While these Allied forces rode through weak, disorganized enemy units, the U. S. 3rd army smashed at the rim of the coal and iron-rich Saar, encountering stiff resistance along the range of the forested Eifel mountains and the defenses guarding guard-ing the broad Moselle valley route to the Rhine. Meanwhile, the overwhelmingly superior Allied air force kept up its heavy bombardment of German railways rail-ways in a supreme attempt to knock out the enemy's communication lines and hamper the movement of his troops. Feel War Bleary-eyed peasants, carrying carry-ing small packs of belongings, with the women bewildered and the men stolid, trudged back from the forward battle areas as the Yanks moved forward in their Rhineland drive. Plodding over roads heavily rutted by the Yanks' heavy military mil-itary vehicles, the refugees streamed back in the gray rainy mist, which added to the bleakness bleak-ness of the barren fields. In the background, black smoke curled from burning villages. Peasants, whose sole possessions posses-sions lay in the ground they cultivated, cul-tivated, these refugees refused to move from the path of the war until the battle moved almost al-most on top of them and artillery artil-lery and aerial bombardment laid a pattern of destruction right in their back yards. They gave mute evidence that Germany was feeling the war just as thousands, thou-sands, of others had felt it in other countries in the path of the wehrmacht earlier in the conflict. Swirling Battle While the Germans still had room to fall back on the Rhine in the west, they enjoyed no such flexibility flexibil-ity in the east, where they were compelled com-pelled to fight for their hold on the approaches to Berlin and industrial Saxony to the south. With Zhukov's First White Russian Rus-sian and Konev's First Ukrainian armies astride the last river bap-riers bap-riers to Berlin and Saxony, the German Ger-man high command flung seasoned armored forces into what Nazi propagandists propa-gandists called a "merry-go-round" of death in an effort to thwart a major Red breakthrough to the heart of the Peich. Meanwhile, the Russians maintained main-tained their heavy pressure against German forces lined along their flanks on the north and south, in an attempt to frustrate any Nazi effort to attack them from their rear during dur-ing the course of their frontal assault on Berlin and Saxony. In bloody fighting on the northern flank, the Russians scored major gains in the forested lake country, driving close up to the Baltic sea and threatening to split the enemy in two. SUNNY ITALY Reports from the Italian front that fighting has been somewhat bogged down by snow come as a surprise because of the prevailing impression impres-sion that sunny Italy was a warm land of orange and olive groves, and life in the open. Northern Italy is in the same latitude lati-tude as Maine, and has a winter climate not unlike much of the continent con-tinent to the north. Central and southern Italy are warmer because of lower latitudes and more direct influence of the Mediterranean. PACIFIC: New Airfields Even as doughty U. S. marines the famed "Devildogs" of the country's coun-try's services cleared airfields on bloody, volcanic Iwo Jima, 750 miles from Tokyo, American carrier and land based aircraft continued to hurl destruction from the sky on the enemy en-emy homeland, seeking to wear down opposing air strength and rake military and industrial facilities. Threat to U. S. Super-Fort bases in the Marianas, 800 miles to the south, Iwo JJma's airfields were to be put to use by the U. S. for attacks at-tacks on Japan's string of homeland islands. Even as American planes lit on the rebuilt runways, marines continued to work their way to the north end of Iwo Jima, rooting out desperate enemy forces, originally estimated at 20,000, from strong entrenchments. en-trenchments. With Manila cleared, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's forces in the Philippines Philip-pines struck out northeast and southeast south-east of the liberated capital, encountering encoun-tering stiffening opposition in their drive to clean up Luzon. Home Rule With men who fought with him at Corregidor and Bataan clustered around in battered Malacanan palace pal-ace in Manila, General MacAr- thur, fulfilling a solemn American pledge, returned home rule to the Philippines in liberated areas. Said the general: "My country has kept the faith. American soldiers came here as an army of free men dedicated with your people to the No swivel chair official, Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal witnessed wit-nessed another major action in the Pacific, in following rPPl'Wi the marines' assault Yyp?sj I on Iwo Jima from ''"tlV a flaSshiP and later I visiting the shell-1H shell-1H pocked beachhead. SKIT f'l One year before, I i vj Forrestal, then un- , jpS-i dcr secretary of the fa ' ' ' s VsJa na vy v ' e w e d the JL marines' invasion of Lc&k.f'Z Kwajalein in the 1 Marshalls. After J. v. Forrestal witnessing the attack at-tack on Iwo Jima, Forrestal conferred with Admiral Nimitz at Guam. cause of human liberty. They came to restore the sanctity and happiness of your homes without fear of intrusion. in-trusion. You are now a liberated people." In accepting home rule, Philippine President Sergio Osmena asked for all opposing , political elements to unite for the reconstruction task. DRAFT: 30 to 33 Next Emphasizing the heavy demand for combat replacements, the near exhaustion of the pool of 18 to 25 year olds and the extremely limited supply jf men 26 through 29, Selective Selec-tive Service called for the induction of registrants from 30 to 33 not necessary nec-essary to the war effort. With Director Hershey revealing that men over 30 would make up about 30 per cent of inductees by the end of the year,' Selective Service ruled that only registrants over that age deemed necessary to war activity would receive consideration consid-eration for deferment, whereas formerly for-merly they were just required to be engaged in essential industry. Meanwhile, Representative Flan-nagan Flan-nagan (W. Va.) and Senator Tyd-ings Tyd-ings (Md.) sought passage of legislation legis-lation under which essential farm workers would not be considered for iriduction by comparing their importance impor-tance to others in different fields. Texans Tote Shootin' Irons There are still enough open spaces in Texas for pesky varmints var-mints to multiply and grow bold. Because of the increasing shortages short-ages of manpower and powder' and shot, coyotes and bobcats have increased in number during dur-ing the war years causing serious seri-ous cattle losses. Farmers, ranchmen, oil field workers, and houndmen joined to kill the critters j PAN-AMERICA: Economic Charter Stressing the necessity of prosperity prosper-ity for political stability, U. S. representatives repre-sentatives to the Pan-American conference con-ference In Mexico City proposed a program for orderly development of the hemisphere based upon the principle prin-ciple of private enterprise. After speaking out against the organization or-ganization of monopolies and state enterprise to conduct trade, the U. S. proposed such positive action as the lowering of trade barriers; equal access of all nations on even terms to raw materials; use of the proposed pro-posed international monetary fund to stabilize currencies and of the world bank to promote reconstruction. Fair treatment for enterprise, skill and capital brought from one country coun-try to another was also asked for in line with warnings that investors could not be expected to risk their money in states where changing political po-litical complexions upset the economy. Air Superiority Below appears the box score of the wartime record of the mighty IT, S. air force in paring enemy air strength, crippling war production and supporting advancing ground forces: AAF LOSSES Lost In aerial rombrvt vs. Germany fl.ORl) Lout In aerial combat vs. Japan... 1,200 Lost by anti-aircraft v4. Germany.. 6 IM3 lost by anti-aircraft vs. Japan.... 410 Destroyed on rronnd vs. Germany.. 02 Destroyed on ground Vs. Japan.... 3M Lost by accidents, etc., vs. Germany 2,rl:J Lost by accidents, etc, vs. Japan.. 001 17.830 AXIS LOSSES Destroyed In nerinl combat 24.301 Probably destroyed in combat fl.20t Damaged In aerial combat.... R.fiflO Destroyed on tlie ground 7.1.SH Probably destroyed on the ground.. 7:iO Damaged or destroyed. 3,510 W.C58 COAL MINERS: Open Parleys Even as the United Mine Workers opened negotiations with operators for a new contract, burly John L. Lewis notified Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins that provisions of the Smith-Connally act compelled him to file a 30-day notice with the department that the membership might walk out in the event of a sag in the dickcrings. Although complying with the law, which states that a 30-day notice of intention to strike was necessary, Lewis bitterly assailed the legislation, legisla-tion, quoting President Roosevelt to the effect that the act would enable dissident elements to force a strike vote in a union while leaders sought to iron out difficulties through continued con-tinued negotiation. In opening negotiations, Lewis was expected to ask for a boost in basic pay from $1 to $1.25 an hour; full hourly rate for travel time from the gate to the mine face instead of the two-thirds now paid, and differentials differ-entials of 5 and 10 cents an hour for second and third shifts. ' CANADA: Draft Riot Devoted to self-rule, French-Canadian blood continued to run hot over the dominion's overseas conscription conscrip-tion policy, with a mob of 1,000 people peo-ple rioting against police checking individuals' military status in Drum-mondville, Drum-mondville, Quebec. With feelings running at their highest since the bloody anti-conscription anti-conscription riots of 1917, officers combed drinking establishments, bowling alleys, pool rooms, restaurants restau-rants and theaters for deserters and delinquents, as fist fights broke out, people overturned police cars and tried to free 12 prisoners. Though the dominion's compromise compro-mise policy calls for the drafting of only 16,000 of the home army's 63,000 members, for overseas service, the French-Canadians still consider the regulation as an invasion of their self-rule for the interest of the British Brit-ish empire. DIPLOMACY: New Allies Faced with -the Big Three's ultimatum ulti-matum that a declaration of war against the Axis was necessary to any country's participation in the United Nations' postwar political and economic conference in San Francisco, April 25, both Turkey and Egypt finally jumped on the Allied bandwagon. As a result of its declaration, Turkey Tur-key was expected to open the vital straits linking the Mediterranean and Black seas for shipment of supplies sup-plies to Russia, and commit its army of 23 divisions, equipped with both Axis and Allied equipment, to the mop-up of Nazi held islands in the Aegean sea, threatening vital near eastern water routes. Egypt's declaration was marred by the assassination of Prime Minister Min-ister Ahmed Maher, who was shot to death by a 22-year-old extremist party member as he stepped down from the speaker's dais arid was leaving the chamber of deputies. However, the shooting was laid to other reasons than the declaration. RECLAIM CLOTHING Reclamation of clothing and equipage equip-age representing 85 million yards of textile fabrics each year is being be-ing effected under the quartermaster quartermas-ter corps reclamation program In the U. S. alone. Total yardage saved is made up of more than 57,000,000 yards of cotton goods, some 25.000,000 yards of woolens and worsteds, and more than 2,000.000 yards of cotton duck, much of it damaged tentage, which is restored to usefulness. |
