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Show ! 1 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS , Allied Armies Squeeze Nazis As Big Three Aap Knockout Drive; AFL, Industry Buck Labor Draft 1 t ' ' Released by Western Newspaper Union. - , (KUITOIl'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of , Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) V'f': ; " Xy, ' its A I With one member carrying cumbersome anti-tank weapon, Berlin I home-guarders mobilize for action as Russ march on capital. EUROPE: Plan Knockout As Swedish reports played up a big shakeup in the German government govern-ment in an effort to form a more ' respectable regime for approaching the Allies for peace, the Big Three conference continued in the Black Sea area, with Messrs. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin announcing completion of plans for the knock- out of the Nazi military machine. Although Hitler would remain as I the head of the German state under the reported shakeup, actual power would pass into the hands of wily Fritz von Papen, ace diplomat and Reich chancellor before the Fuehrer's Fuehr-er's ascension to dominance. Although Al-though a conservative in tone, Von Papen, reports had it, would have as Finance Minister Hjalmar Schacit, who devised the Reich's WORK OR FIGHT: Bill Bucked Still strongly opposed by labor and industry, the administration's "work or fight" bill forcing men between be-tween 18 and 45 to accept essential jobs or face induction or fine and imprisonment received close senate sen-ate consideration after house passage. pas-sage. As the solons took up the bill, the AFL's executive council meeting in Miami, Fla., declared that no actual manpower shortage existed, but that some plants were hoarding labor to keep up production costs and allow them a greater percentage percent-age of profit, and contracts were being let in tight labor fareas while establishments were forced to lay off help in others. The AFL recommended recom-mended a substitute under which hoarded labor would be drafted. Claiming that only 150,000 workers work-ers were needed, the National Association Asso-ciation of Manufacturers said that voluntary cooperative efforts of industry, in-dustry, labor and government had largely been successful in recruiting recruit-ing needed help, and said that lower employment ceilings in unessential plants could "flush out" surplus workers. Reductions in absenteeism, elimination of wasteful labor practices prac-tices and shifting of skilled help would serve to draw the most from available manpower, the NAM said. PACIFIC: Manila in Flames Overwhelmed by American forces moving from the north, and squeezed by other U. S. units moving mov-ing in from the south, Jap defenders defend-ers of Manila destroyed all bridges over the Pasig river dividing the city in two and put the business district dis-trict to the torch. As the Manila business district's reinforced concrete, streamlined and air conditioned buildings billowed bil-lowed in flame, winds blowing in from the bay spread the fire, forcing forc-ing the removal of freed prisoners and internees by truck to outlying The general, it seems, does all the talking for the MacArthurs! When Mrs. MacArthur was asked to comment on her reaction re-action to the fall of Manila, her aide said she couldn't alter her policy of public silence without permission from general headquarters head-quarters meaning MacArthur himself. suburbs. As U. S. troops worked their way through the barricaded streets, they came under heavy sniper gunfire. In telling his troops that they "... have redeemed a country's pledge to recapture its lost land, . . ." General MacArthur said that the conquest of Manila marked the end of one phase of the war and the opening of another. Declaring that his command was ready to carry car-ry on the campaign against the Japs, in what was interpreted as his bid for continued leadership of Allied forces in the Pacific, Mac-Arthur Mac-Arthur proclaimed: "On to Tokyo." Chieftains Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill In confab. complex prewar barter system, -by which the -Reich attempted to do business without formal exchange. In agreement on military plans, the Big Three also were reportedly in harmony on postwar occupation of Germany, with Britain taking over the northwest, the U. S. the southwest and Russia the east. Tiein Thrusts While the Russians drove in from the east, the U. S. and British undertook a large-scale offensive in the west, with Field Marshal Bernard Ber-nard Montgomery's Tommies attempting at-tempting to outflank the Siegfried line terminal of Kleve on the northern north-ern end of the front and move down the Ruhr valley. Following 11 hours of intensive aerial and artillery bombardment, Montgomery's forces, paced by tanks and flame throwers, fought deep into the Reichwald forest screening ' Kleve, while the Germans Ger-mans rushed up reinforcements in an effort to curb the offensive. Not only would a British break-through imperil the industrial "Ruhr valley, val-ley, but it would place the Tommies at the rear of Nazi troops holding a line against the U. S. First and Third armies farther south. While Montgomery's offensive mounted, the First and Third armies continued to chew deeply into the once formidable Siegfried line, with the battering Yanks encountering en-countering new earthwork defenses ; beyond the west wall's concrete bunkers, pill-boxes and tank-traps. tank-traps. Strongpoint after strongpoint in the Siegfried line fell as the Nazis appeared to be falling back into the earthwork system, stretching as far back as the Rhine in some places. Attack in West Wliile a great battle raged for the battered Prussian stronghold of Berlin, Ber-lin, another great and equally important im-portant fight flared for Silesia's interior in-terior industrial district. In pressing their great offensives along the sprawling eastern front, the Reds threw numerous bridgeheads bridge-heads across the Oder river, whose ice-packs were thawed by warm winds. With artillery laying down heavy barrages, Red armored columns, backed by waves of in- fantry, pressed into the fortified zones before Berlin. Farther to the south, the Russians headed for Silesia's interior industrial in-dustrial district around Schwied-nitz Schwied-nitz and Wuenschelburg, nestled( deep in the shadow of the towering Sudeten mountains rimming Czechoslovakia. Czecho-slovakia. Capture of this region would add to the conquest of the eastern Silesian industrial district and further impair Nazi industry. |