THE WAR IN REVIEW
THE WAR IN REVIEW THE war in Europe was drawing to a whirlwind conclusion this week as far as organized resistance on the part of the German state was concerned. The armies of Soviet Russia were...
...Further to the south Mac-Arthur's forces landed on the Philippine island of Mindanao...
...Omar Bradley's order for an American slow-up was deliberate and in response to a Russian protest...
...Pearson declared that the Kremlin had insisted on strict adherence to the Yalta agreement which had placed Berlin in the zone to be occupied by the Soviet forces...
...At mid-week a security blackout had been imposed on the news from that theater, but it was definitely established that the Germans were in flight and were being pursued across the Po River Valley...
...The Red Army entry into Berlin was announced on the same weekend that Drew Pearson, Washington gossip columnist and a man who has frequently scooped newsmen on sensational news developments, made the extraordinary charge that American troops had entered Berlin a week before but had withdrawn at the demand of Stalin...
...to be used as slave labor...
...told the German people in a broadcast marking Hitler's 56th birthday that "We are witnessing the last acts of a tremendous tragedy...
...A 35 mile beach-head was established against light resistance...
...The Nazis had also issued orders to the German people to east aside all rides of warfare and to throw themselves into a fanatical last stand for the fatherland...
...Political news revolved around the San Francisco security conference with its number one problem of Soviet-Polish relations...
...Pope Pius XII issued a special encyclical warning that both victors and vanquished will face a new war unless a fair and just peace organization is established...
...The decision is very near...
...Many armed units of the once mighty Wehrmacht roamed throughout Germany, and though they lacked central direction, they showed every sign of continuing resistance in scattered sections of the Reich...
...At mid-week the doughboys were closing in on Davao, the capital city...
...The front on the main section of the island has changed little in the past fortnight as the Yanks have sought desperately to break the strongly entrenched positions of the enemy...
...France made known its intention of demanding 3,000.000 German laborers...
...Eisenhower declared that no arrangements had been made with Russia as to what armies will occupy the various parts of Germany...
...Supreme Allied Headquarters in Paris officially denied the Pearson report...
...As delegates to the San Francisco conference prepared to sit down at the conference table...
...termed the crumbling of the enemy lines "the beginning of the final victory in Italy...
...The armies of Soviet Russia were storming into the heart of Berlin and...
...B-29s were busy over the home islands, blasting air ports and industrial centers...
...An order of the day captured by the British 2nd Army quoted the German dictator's instructions to his troops to carry on guerrilla warfare behind the Allied lines...
...In the Pacific the Japanese were still offering stubborn resistance on the island of Okinawa...
...Wes Gallagher, reporting for the Associated Press, declared that the American 9th had been sitting on the Elbe River west of the German capital since April 11 despite the fact that it had "and still has the power to have marched to Berlin within 10 days of its reaching the Elbe...
...The Old Power Game Meanwhile, in Italy the American 5th and British 8th Armies had broken the long stalemate and had sent the German defenders reeling back in retreat...
...Prime Minister Churchill told a British audience that he did not think that the official proclamation of the end of the war "need be long delayed...
...Indeed, there was reason to believe that this was the pattern of Hitler's last, desperate measure of defiance...
...This view was substantiated by statements of some of the highest spokesmen in Allied official circles...
...He asked for cooperation to the end that all prisoners of war and internees may soon return to their homes...
...We must never waver or throw in the sponge...
...Let us stake our hopes on our lucky stars...
...Some correspondents in Paris reported that the slow-up was ordered to permit building up the strength of the American armies for a smash into southern Germany, an objective far more vital to ultimate victory than the occupation of the shell-gutted ruins of Berlin, they declared...
...Dwight Eisenhower issued a statement that "the ragged remnants of Hitler's armies of the west now are tottering on the threshhold of defeat...
...Sitting Since April 11 Goebbels, who was reported to have fled Berlin as the Russians drew near...
...See Page 3.) Disturbing news of the old power game of Europe continued to come over the wires, meanwhile...
...There were other reports that hinted that Gen...
...Admiral Nimitz announced that 11,738 Japanese troops have been killed and 27 captured thus far...
...although they met with fanatical resistance, the announcement of the fall of Nazidom's capital was expected momentarily, as was the juncture of Soviet and American armies...
...Russia, according to some reports, was already moving large numbers of German and Balkan people into the U.S.S.R...
...Despite this heartening news there seemed little doubt but that grim fighting under some very difficult conditions lav ahead of the victorious Allied armies...
...Mark Clark, commander on the Italian front...
Vol. 9 • April 1945 • No. 18
