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Weekly News Analysis -
Russians Strike for Berlin as Nazis Plan Their Last-Ditch Defense
EDITOR’S NOTE— When opinions
tn expressed in these columns, they
ere those of Western Newspaper Union
news analysts, and not necessarily of
this newspaper.
EUROPE:
Berlin Goal
Berlin was their goal as the
First White Russian and the First
Ukranian armies plunged to the
winding ice-packed Oder river on a
wide front, with German resistance
growing stronger as columns of re
enforcements rushed to the front
and took up their positions in the
flaming battle line.
With the two Russian armies
drawing up to the Oder on an al
most solid front from above Berlin
clear down to the Czechoslovakian
border, Berlin was imperilled by a
powerful outflanking maneuver by
Marshal Zhukov from the north and
Marshal Konev from the south.
The great thrust on Berlin prom
ised to put the Germans’ vaunted
Oder river defense line, over two
years in the making, to the test,
and further strain Nazi strength,
already outnumbered by about three
to four in the east. In early assaults
on the Oder in the Silesian area,
German regulars, reenforced by
fanatical 16 to 65-year-old home front
troops, stubbornly held their ground
against the powerhouse attacks of
the First Ukranian army, which
had been the first to reach the de
fense line from central Poland.
Finish Fight
Long the hallowed center of Prus
• sianism, Berlin, it appeared, was not
to be spared the fate of other great
European capitals as the Nazis
jrfade strong points of its public
buildings and institutions for a des-
Declaring “there is no evi
dence yet of any rout in the Ger
man retreat,’’ Navy Secretary
Forrestal said: “They are with
drawing to the great line of de
fenses on the Oder river . . .
where . . . they may fight with
the same tenacity and ferocity
they have shown in the west. . . .
All that will beat Germany is
power, sheer, crude power.”
perate stand and prepared to blow
up all factories and installations
in the district.
“Not one stone atop another . . .
will be left . . . when the Russians
enter,” proclaimed Propaganda
Minister Goebbels.
Meanwhile, as thousands of Ger
man refugees streamed into the
Reich from the east and Hitler called
upon all able-bodied men for a last
ditch fight and all others for indus
try, Nazi leaders threatened “. . .
cowardly creatures who try to de
sert the fatherland in its hour of
need.” Said they: “We shall not
permit them to throw a wrench in
the works. . . . Germany will fight
on no matter where or under what
conditions. . . .”
Fear Yank Drive
Attacking in snow and slush in
strength along an expanding front
below Aachen, Yanks put the en
emy’s vaunted Siegfried defenses to
the test again even as Berlin feared
an all-out drive to break the dead
lock in the west.
At the same time, the Germans
x began to slowly break ground in Al
sace to the south, where mixed
U. S. and French forces increased
heavy pressure on their huge pocket
below Strasbourg and threatened
the enemy’s escape roads eastward
to the Rhine.
No less than 100,000 U. S. troops
reportedly burrowed their way into
the outer defenses of the Siegfried
line along the sector from which Von
Rundstedt had burst into Belgium
and Luxembourg in his great De
cember drive. As the Yanks plowed
through heavy snowdrifts, they met
bitter opposition at Nazi strong
points,
B I 125 P
HI Hw
Members of Fifth division of Third army warm themselves about
bonfire in Luxembourg comfortably ensconced in furniture salvaged from
the town’s debris.
CONGRESS:
Busy Session
With publication of President
Roosevelt’s agreement to the sepa
ration of the Reconstruction Finance
corporation with its vast loaning
powers from the U. S. department
of commerce, the senate passed the
George bill authorizing the action
by a 74 to 12 vote and thereby paved
the way for the confirmation of
Henry A. Wallace as the department
secretary.
Although Wallace’s confirmation
was postponed to March 1, it was
considered likely at that time, since
principal objection to his appoint
ment had been based on the fact
that he would have controlled the
vast resources of the RFC in the
postwar period, with fear of their
use on government projects to pro
vide full employment. House ap
proval of the bill to separate the
RFC from the commerce depart
ment was expected to meet speedy
approval.
At the same time, the house
passed, and then sent to a none too
sympathetic senate, a work or fight
bill, under which all men between
18 and 45 would be frozen in essen
tial occupations or asked to take
jobs designated by their local draft
boards under penalty of induction or
fine and imprisonment in case of re
fusal.
FARM MACHINERY:
Pinch to Persist
Stating that “. . . as long as the
war continues, farmers will not be
able to buy as much new farm ma
chinery as they need,” the Office of
War Information said that the pro
duction of equipment for the year
ending July 1 will fall short of heavy
demand despite the fact that it
should approximate peak prewar
output.
Although expecting quotas to be
generally met despite a slow start
in production, OWI warned “. . . no
more new tractors, side delivery
rakes, combines or other haying and
harvesting machinery will be avail
able during . . . 1945 . . . than were
available during . . . 1944.”
Indicating that farmers will have
to fall back on the same methods
this year to meet food goals, OWI
said that 1944’s high production re
sulted from intensive use of existing
machinery, increased use of fertiliz
er, greater acreage and harder work
and longer hours, with output per
hand 28 per cent above 1940. Re
processing of some 365,000 young
farmers between 18 and 25 for the
draft, however, may further com
plicate the already pressing man
power problem, OWI said.
THE BULLETIN, IRWINTON, GA
MEAT: ,
U. S. to Take More
With smaller slaughter in federal
ly inspected plants reducing alloca
tions of meat for military and lend
lease purposes, the government
moved to channel more stock into
these packing houses from non-fed- '
erally inspected establishments.
To trim slaughter at the 27,000
non-federally inspected plants, whose '
entire output goes to civilians, the ,
government reported that they will
receive cattle subsidies ranging from
50 cents to $2 per hundredweight
only for the same amount of stock
that they butchered a year ago,
while payments of $1.50 per hundred
weight on hogs will be made on only
70 per cent of the volume of 1944.
Effect of the regulation will be to
make less meat available for civil- :
ians in centers served by non-fed
erally inspected plants, but only
slightly more for consumers supplied
by federally inspected houses. Pres
ent government acquisition of half
of the beef and 45 per cent of the
pork output of federally inspected
plants will be increased, it was said.
Luckiest Man
In rear base hospital in Pacific re-
covering from frost
bite, Sgt. James B.
Krantz of Hickory
Point, Tenn., might
well consider himself
the luckiest man in
the world.
Blown from gunnery
in waist of B-29 dur
ing raid over Japan,
one of Krantz’s legs
was miraculously held
by a safety strap while
the rest of his body
dangled in the air at
29,000 feet before buddies pulled him
back in.
SAFETY COLOR:
Yellow Challenges Red
The long accepted belief that red
is the leading safety color is chal
lenged by modem scientific investi
gators who now assign the prime
safety role to yellow. According to
researchists, yellow is the most
conspicuous and visible of hues.
Brilliant yellow-green ranks second,
orange ranks third, and red comes
fourth on the list.
Yellow and yellow-green are the
regions of highest visibility in the
spectrum, it is said, and that in the
dim light encountered in many in
dustrial environments, they are the
two colors that hold their brightness
best, with red fading out and re
sembling black—a phenomenon long
recognized by science.
GRAIN MARKETS:
Get Boost
With brokers interpreting the sen
ate banking committee’s approval of
a bill increasing the Commodity
Credit corporation’s borrowing pow
er from 3 to 4% billion dollhrs as a
means of maintaining major farm
prices at 90 per cent of parity for
two years after the war, grain prices
firmed.
Also adding to the market’s
strength was the expectation of an
increase in the government subsidy
to wheat millers, and reports of CCC
purchases in Minneapolis, Minn.,
with CCC acknowledgments it had
given large quantities of high pro
tein wheat to millers in exchange
for inferior grades.
In approving the increase in the
CCC’s borrowing power, the senate
banking committee limited food sub
sidy expenditures to $845,000,000 for
the year beginning next July 1, and
also permitted sale of more than
1,500,000 bales of cotton a year from
CCC stocks.
ACCIDENTS:
High Toll
Ninety-four thousand people killed,
9,750,000 injured and material losses
of s4,Bso,ooo,ooo—that was the na
tion’s accident toll in 1944, the Na
tional'Safety council revealed.
As a result of mishaps, lost time
equalled one year’s production of
1,000,000 workers, it was pointed out,
or the manufacture of 29,000 heavy
bombers.
Although the death toll showed a
drop of 5,000 over the previous year,
with the greatest reduction shown in
home accidents, authorities were
alarmed by the increasing fatalities
among children. More than 1,000
toddlers under five were killed, more
than in 1941, the Safety council said,
while accidental deaths of young
sters from 5 to 14 in the home were
high.
Though slow, results of safety pro
grams in industry, the services and
the homes were sure, it was said,
with management and labor making
among the most concerted efforts to
prevent mishaps in plants.
FARM FORECLOSURES:
Greatly Decreased
With more and more farmers re
covering from the drouth years,
and with present high incomes mak
ing it possible to reduce debts, farm
foreclosures totalled 5,800 in 1943
compared with 11,000 in 1942 and
65,000 during 1934, the Farm Credit
administration reported. These fig
ures are equivalent to 2.7 fore
closures for every 1,000 farms mort
gaged in 1943, 5.3 in 1942 and 30.3
in 1934, when farm activity still was
at a low ebb, the FCA said.
On Nation’s Honor Roll
To Pvt. John Hartman of Exeter,
Calif., went the Silver Star for gal
lantry in action. During a fierce ene
my counterattack in Italy, seeing that
two machine guns 200 yards to the
front and right front were causing
considerable trouble, he moved for
ward into the face of these firing ma
chine guns on his own initiative.
Edging his way forward with enemy
bullets landing within inches of him,
and in spite of the fact that he had
received a serious wound in his arm,
he fired till he had silenceb oth ma
chine guns.
Also honored was Lieut. Russell
C. Pearson of South Minneapolis,
Minn. In the Solomons islands, he
rescued a wounded soldier from an
exposed position during an action
against the enemy. When his patrol
was ambushed by a numerically su
perior hostile force, he displayed ex
emplary leadership and a superlative
fighting spirit in tactically deploying
his forces in such superior manner as
to turn a potentially tragic ambush
into a triumph for the American pa
trol. During the fight, he unhesi
tatingly went to the aid of a wounded
soldier and, through a hail of enemy
bullets, dragged him to a covered
position where he could get first aid.
Is
SGT. KRANTZ
PACIFIC:
Strategic Moves
Strategist and tactician, Gen.
Douglas MacArthur scored two
more landings in Luzon, directly
aiding his triumphant march on
Manila, while far to the north, U. S.
forces continued to drive to the east
ward in bitter hand-to-hand fighting,
which threatened to cut the island
in two.
In one of the landings, U. S. troops
overran the Subic Bay area, which
opened up a big harbor for naval
use and supply of American forces
above Manila, while the other land
ing Yanks stepped ashore below
the Philippine capital itself, threat
ening any enemy effort to bring
up reenforcements from the south.
As long as MacArthur still appeared
to be holding back some of his
strength, Jap commanders were re
luctant to commit sizeable forces
into the battle in the Manila region.
In one of the most dramatic epi
sodes of the Philippine invasion,
picked men of the 6th Ranger bat-
' General MacArthur (right) studies
maps with aides on Luzon.
talion and Filipino guerrillas made
a surprise attack on a Japanese pris
on compound behind enemy lines on
Luzon, freeing 486 Americans, 23
British, three Dutchmen and a Nor
wegian. Although over 100 were so
weak from malnutrition, disease and
old battlewounds that they had to
be carried off on husky Ranger
backs or in carabao carts, only two
failed to survive the 25-mile jour«
ney to safety.
RELIGION:
Russian Congress
As hundreds of spectators jammed
Moscow’s ornamented Church of the
Resurrection, gowned and bearded
patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox
faith solemnly entered the structure
to the measure of psalms and bells
for the denomination’s first congress
since the Bolshevik revolution in
1917.
Gathered from all over the world,
the ecclesiastics met to select a
grand patriarch to succeed the late
Sergei, with Acting Patriarch Alexei
of Leningrad in line for the appoint
ment.
Present at the opening ceremony
was Russia’s chairman of church af
fairs, Georgi Karjov, who said: “All
through the period of war, the Or
thodox church has continuously tak
en part in the defense of the coun
try. The church has made many
sacrifices for the motherland. . . .”
Answered Patriarch Sergei: “. .. We
are praying for the government and
Stalin, who is leading our country to
victory and happiness. ...”
As another wartime concession to
the Orthodox church, Russian per
mission of the assemblage was
looked upon as a further improve
ment in the cloudy religious situa
tion in the country.
ARMY PURCHASES:
From Smaller Business
The army quartermaster corps in
1944 placed more than 65 per cent of
its prime contracts, representing
46 per cent of the dollar value of all
QMC depot contracts, with smaller
business organizations, the war de
partment said.
Total purchases of subsistence and
other supplies for the army and
military services by the quarter
master corps amounted to $6,037,-
872,909.
Released by Western Newspaper Union.