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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS , Allies Move Ahead in Normandy; DeGaulle Visit to White House Poses New Diplomatic Problem -Released by Western Newspaper Union. (F.DITOR b NOIL. Unen opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of ; Western .Newp.iper Lnion s news analysts and not necessarily ol this newspaper ) PACIFIC: Subs Take Toll With the Allies pressing closer to Japan's inner supply lines feeding her booming war industry, U. S. subs and air forces can be expected to take an increasing toll of enemy shipping, navy secretary James Forrestal declared. In reporting that XJ. S. subs recently re-cently had sent 15 Jap cargo vessels ves-sels and two warships to the bottom, bot-tom, Forrestal said such losses crimped the enemy's whole war program, pro-gram, since he must move about 75 million tons of water-borne freight into the home islands yearly, including in-cluding 75 per cent of his oil and gas supply from the East Indies. Despite heavy marine losses, Forrestal For-restal said, the Japs have lightened the effects through use of huge stockpiles of materials built up before be-fore the war, lessening of transport trans-port to encircled South Pacific areas, and the utilization of surplus prewar shipping tonnage. LEND-LEASE: Steady Shipments Lend-lease shipments of food to the Allies continued at a steady pace during the first five months of 1944, with some commodities being sent in larger volume and others in smaller amounts, with little net effect ef-fect on domestic supplies. During the period, 9.3 per cent of the total U. S. meat supply was shipped under lend-lease, with the major portion consisting of pork. About 15.6 per cent of the nation's pork was sent abroad. The United Kingdom and Russia continued to receive most of the lend-lease food, with the U. S. supplying sup-plying 10 per cent of British needs. 'Black Widow' f s . , . 1 I I ' ', ?; , ' - M :-- -; I I V . " I - , 1 , . 4 " fc ? t - . ; . , - ? 4 ! v P Saipan Wives and children of Japanese soldiers on Saipan island are pictured after being rounded up by Doughboys from caves and jungles back of their lines. EUROPE: Yanks Gain Developing their offensive on the western end of the French battle-Iront, battle-Iront, U. S. troops drove through marshy land to envelop the communications com-munications hubs of La Haye and St. Lo against the bitter opposition of an enemy taking every advantage advan-tage of the soggy ground and hedge-rowed hedge-rowed landscape. On the eastern end of the front, British and Canadian troops battled large concentrations of German forces on the approaches of the defensive de-fensive pivot of Caen, from which Field Marshal Rommel was sending out strong detachments in counterattacks counter-attacks to impede the Allies' thrust Inland toward the important Paris region. As the Allies nudged forward in Normandy, Berlin announced the replacement re-placement of Anti-Invasion Chief von Rundstedt by Field Marshal von Kluge, who led the Nazi sweep through France in 1940, and was at the helm during the drive, on Moscow Mos-cow during the first year of the Rus-lian Rus-lian war. Other Fronts Calling massed artillery into play from dominating heights, the Germans Ger-mans poured fire on Allied troop movements in Italy to slow their Iteady Tirive up the long peninsula to the rich agricultural and industri-1 industri-1 regions of the north. In Russia, German forces continued contin-ued to give ground before strong Red armies massed along a 350-mile 350-mile front in the north to escape Encirclement and destruction. Near Wilno, the Reds milled on the threshold thresh-old of the Baltic states, while farther to the south their pressure forced evacuation of Kowel, bending the enemy line farther back toward Warsaw. Focal point of German resistance In Italy was below the famed port of Livorno (Leghorn), whose capture cap-ture promised to give the Allies another an-other good Mediterranean harbor for the easier transport of troops and supplies for the crucial fighting in the north. DIPLOMACY: French Problem U. S. support of the De Gaulle administration ad-ministration of liberated French ter- TRAGEDIES: Circus Fire Overhead the famed Wallandas prepared for their celebrated tight-wire tight-wire act on bicycles as 6,000 happy spectators awaited the performance under the big canvas tent of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus in Hartford, Conn. Near a sidewall of the tent, a small flame was noticed. Suddenly, it flared and leaped upward, with great patches of burning canvas falling when fire had seared them off. The cry of "Fire! Fire! Fire!" spread through the panic-stricken spectators, and their frantic shouts mingled with the din of roaring animals ani-mals in the corral outside. As the great sheets of burning canvas can-vas fell on top of the milling crowd below, adults and children struggled to make their way to safety, but scores were trapped, with some running, run-ning, into the steel ramps through which animals were led into the arena. As rescue workers dug into the debris, de-bris, they extricated the bodies of 135 victims, mostly children, and more seriously injured. Miners Trapped As scores of relatives of 64 miners trapped in the Powhatan pit near BeDaire, Ohio, waited hopefully at the mine entrance, officials grimly announced that the shaft would have to be sealed off to prevent the flow of oxygen feeding the raging flames underground. In one last desperate effort to free the men entombed in a dead-end tunnel when a rock fall broke a high-voltage trolley wire along the main passageway and sizzling sparks ignited coal, skilled crews prepared to drill down 350 feet to open a shaft for lowering food and water. In a previous effort to free the entombed men, rescue workers were cutting a new 500 foot tunnel through coal and rock to bypass the flames and reach the victims, when new fires halted their work. Train Wreck Climaxing the string of major tragedies was the derailment of a Louisville and Nashville train in Clear Fork River gorge near Jellico, Tenn., with early reports listing 25 dead and many injured. Casualties on the troop-carrying train resulted when the locomotive and two coaches left the track and plunged 50 feet into the gorge, and two other cars overturned on the edge of the decline and caught fire. Although hindered by darkness, rescue workers used acetylene torches to probe the wreckage and remove victims, while mountaineers hoisted the stricken up from the gorge with block and tackle. CHINA: 1 Bloody Fighting Fighting with their backs to the wall, Chinese troops stiffly resisted strong Japanese efforts to seal off the embattled country's whole eastern east-ern seacoast and strengthen their grip on the Asiatic mainland. Chinese forces far to the southwest south-west sought to join up with Allied troops driving through Burma to open up a new supply route to China from India. Only 26 miles of mountainous moun-tainous terrain stood between the two armies. t The 14th American air force joined in the savage battle in China, bombing bomb-ing and strafing the enemy and dropping drop-ping tons of ammunition to the valiant val-iant defenders. ritory without formal for-mal recognition of it as a legal government govern-ment was the latest diplomatic problem up for settlement in Washington, D.C. with De Gaulle's arrival ar-rival in the nation's capital for discussions discus-sions with President Presi-dent Roosevelt. Although military officials have concealed details, a full and rear view of the new twin-fuselage "Black Widow" fighter plane with a central cockpit, was released. Said to be the largest and most powerful pursuit pur-suit plane built, the "Black Widow" is especially equipped for night fighting. fight-ing. Blank spots indicate censor's deletions. BUGS: Man's Allies Acting in conjunction with the U. S. department of agriculture, the nation's farmers are turning predatory preda-tory bugs upon destructive insects to assure crop growth. In Illinois alone, more than 40,000 wasps and flies were released to combat corn borers threatening the state's rich grain fields. No sure-fire remedy in themselves, however, the work of the predatory insects can only complement clean farming and deep plowing, agronomists say. When turned loose, the predatory insects crawl through the corn borer's tunnel in the stalks, with the wasps penetrating its body to lay eggs in it, and the flies depositing eggs on the outside. As the eggs feast on the borer even in the pupa stage, they eventually destroy it, while emerging themselves. ROBOTS: Inflict Casualties With all Britain stirred by the robot menace which continued to exact its toll of casualties and damage, dam-age, Prime Minister Churchill told the parliament that over 10,000 people peo-ple had been killed or wounded by the flying bombs and he could give no guarantee about the future of this form of attack. Although declaring that the Allies would not be goaded into diverting attention from the Normandy bat-tlefront bat-tlefront by the robots, Churchill said that 'considerable numbers of U. S. and British planes have been hammering ham-mering the French coast from which the flying bombs are believed to be launched. Powered by fuel and compressed air and automatically piloted by gyroscopes, gy-roscopes, the robots have been buzzing buzz-ing over southern England at speeds of 300 m.p.h. or more and altitudes of about 3,000 feet, to suddenly break off into a 30-degree glide and crash to earth with an explosive force of 1,000 pounds. ENDS DUST The dust that lays thick on Texas flying fields is being conquered with Grama grass at Biggs fiield, Texas, where the army spent more than a quarter million dollars in efforts to keep it down. Prairie hay is spread over the field after it has been carefully leveled. lev-eled. Then a combination cultivator and roller chops it up and rolls it into the sand. Grama grass seed is then sown, and when the hay rots the grass grows, effectively holding down the soil. De Gaulle winged General his way over from De Gaue North Africa to seek approval of his negotiations with Britain, under which his administration ad-ministration would take control of liberated territory, arrange for supply sup-ply and equipment of underground forces through lend-lease, and settle disputed property rights caused by transfers of ownership under Nazi occupation and Alhed requisitioning for military purposes. Although long complimentary to De Gaulle's Free French movement, move-ment, the U. S. has been cautious in recognizing it as the legal representative repre-sentative of the people, declaring that only an election could determine deter-mine their choice when circumstances circum-stances permitted. |
