Monday, October 31, 2011

Current Events October 31, 1943;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY OCTOBER 31, 1943:
Russian troops sweeping across th« Nogaisk steppe reached the edge of the Crimea at its northeastern
entrance Saturday and simultaneously raced to within 22 miles of its northwestern door at Perekop, the last escape route for the large German Crimean forces.

General Mark Clark's combined Fifth army has hurdled the stubborn barrier of the Regia canal and occupied Mondragone, while further inland other allied units have overwhelmed Pietremelara' and swept to Pietravairano, which dominates the vital Vairano road junction three miles west

The Japanese are | withdrawing before allied invaders of Treasury island, the high command announced Sunday, Treasury (Mono) has-only about 300 Japanese on it, and these began fleeing as', soon as the American and New; Zealand ,amphibious troops landed there .Wednesday.

   The Salt Lake City Tribune
                              Salt Lake City, Utah, Sunday Morning, October 31, 1943
          Russ Open Siege of the Crimea

Sweeping Drive
Seals Nazis'
Escape Route

Capture of Geniehesk Carries Reds
To Northern Border Tip;
Race 22 Miles, Seize 150 Towns

•*•-*• Russia (Official)—By Associated Press
LONDON, Oct. 30—
Russian troops sweeping across th« Nogaisk steppe reached the edge of the Crimea at its northeastern
entrance Saturday and simultaneously raced to within 22 miles of its northwestern door at Perekop, the last escape route for the large German Crimean forces.
In one of the most spectacular drives of the war the Russians thus were ready to seal off the great peninsula and within a. matter of hours lay siege to the. hundreds of thousands of Germans estimated to be still quartered there.
The battle of the Crimea was. on. he northaastern entrance to the Crimea was reached with the capture of Gcnichesk, while northwestward a second column striking directly toward Perekop captured
the. town of Askanlya Nova., traly 22 miles away.
The Russians advanced up to 22 miles in their' day's drive and swept up a total of :50 more tovma on the desert steppe as they prepared to choke off the Crimea at its this, vulnerable neck.
Sealing-, off the peninsula, with hundreds of thousands of Germans caught in the trap appeared to be only a matter of hours as German resistance broke.
                                                                    56 Miles in Week
To take Genlchesk th« Russians had advanced 56 miles in exactly a week from, the capture of Melitopol
and reached the shores of the Sivash or "Putrid" sea. formed by a thin bar of land cutting off the eastern shore of the Crimea from the Sea of Azav.
While General

Fifth Army Jumps Barrier
in Drive
on Italy Line

*»-»• Allies (Official)
Exclusive; New York Times-Salt Lake Tribune
By Milton Bracker

 ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, Algiers, Oct. 30 —
General Mark Clark's combined Fifth army has hurdled the stubborn barrier of the Regia canal and occupied Mondragone, while further inland other allied units have overwhelmed Pietremelara' and swept to Pietravairano, which dominates the vital Vairano road junction three miles west.

Vairano is also threatened by British-American troops moving up from the south and are now within two miles of the city, while Ailano and Tano remain just beyond the invaders' grasp. Meanwhile, on the Eighth
army .front, General Bernard Montgomery's British -..Canadian troops took Montremitro ' and probed German defenses with aggressive patrol actions, while rain, which continued to hamper the ground forces, did not prevent a large 'force of United States Flying Fortresses from surging far north in Italy to raid railroad yards at Genoa for the first time from this theater. .

.This most important Italian port has been attacked often by the United States Eighth air force from England, but never before from the Mediterranean.
Tactical bombers were also able to,operate in close support of ground troops to a greater extent than had been' possible for several, days. The. Fifth army's seizure of Mondragone found the little town near the site of ancient Sinuessa, which the Saracens razed in the tenth century, literally a deserted village.
Although Mondragone had been regarded as the coastal anchor of the transpeninsular German front extending toward Via Venafro, it developed that werhmacht units holding Mondragone were  only engaged in the final stage of a rearguard action and the enemy apparently never planned a serious stand in the town itself.

Japs Flee as Allies
Land on Island
 By Associated Press
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN
THE SOUTHWEST, PACIFIC,
Sunday, Oct. 31—
The Japanese are | withdrawing before allied invaders of Treasury island, the high comrnand announced'Sunday, Treasury (Mono) has-only about 300 Japanese on it, and these beganfleeing as', soon as the American and New; Zealand ,amphibious troops landed there .Wednesday.
Sunday's communique also announcedthe sinking by allied planes of a troop-laden-vessel, off Buka on northern Bougainville. That is on the opposite side of the base from the .allied invasion scenes at Treasury and Choiseul.
The hard hit Japanesp air force put in a belated appearance, sending dive bombers against the Treasury invaders.. .Twelve of the planes were shot down. Eleven small -Japanese boats were strafed off Choiseul, the island southeast of Bougainville where sea-borne paratroops landed Thursday.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Current Events October 30, 1943;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY OCTOBER 30, 1943:
Britlsh troops of the f i f t h army storming across the Regia canal in a three-mile plunge have occupied Ihe seaside town uf Mondragonc to ram so.ua rely against lolly Mount Massico, western anchor of the new German line in Italy, It was announced today\

 Triumphant Russian forces surging westward from Melitopol last night had turned an already great Soviet
victory into a great German rout, had split the retreating Nazi army in two and had reached a point only 40 miles from the last enemy escape railway from the Crimea.

President Roosevelt described the Moscow tripartite conference today as a tremendous success, and said it had resulted in agreements which would make for unanimity in the prosecution of the war and also in the later transition period.
The chief executive told his press conference the documents embracing the agreements would be signed shortly and then would be made public. He said the conference had strengthened a view he had always held, that Russia would cooperate with other nations to maintain peace after the war.

U.S. warships threw their weight into the battle of Italy yesterday as the Fifth Army drove against the
Germans' Massico ridge line and the Eighth Army, by a six-mile thrust through the craggy country .of the
central Appenines, threatened to outflank the Nazi base of Isernia.



      Northwest Arkansas Times
                     FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS, SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 30, 1943

            Allies Pushing Forward in Italy

British Troops
Cross Regia
Canal Today

New Nazi Line In
Italy Threatened
By Heavy Attack

Allied Headquarters, Algiers, Oct. 30-(AP)-
Britlsh troops of the f i f t h army storming across the Regia canal in a three-mile plunge have occupied Ihe seaside town uf Mondragonc to ram so.ua rely against lolly Mount Massico, western anchor of the new German line in Italy, It was announced today.
Farther Inland, American forces developed a flanking threat agninst Mount Massico, capturing PietravaJrano which dominates both the upper VoSturno river valley and the main Capua-Rome highway. Simultaneously, the British eighth army to the east forged ahead lo take Montemltro, on the lower bank ot the Trlgno river
14 miles Inland from their bridgehead In the San Salvo area, where the heaviest fighting on the Italian front still raged. Some 15 towns in oil felt to the allied advance, hindered by heavy rains and mud in all sectors. Mule transport had to be substituted for motor vehicles In some mountainous localities.
The British sprang from trenches and foxholes along the southern banks of the Regia canal to take Mondragone. They had been held to that line, paralleling the lower Volturno river, for more than'a week by heavy enemy sprang 'from the lower slopes of Maassico ridge.
Mondragone was deserted, and an allied otfier said the town, had become valueless to the Germans, who would make their realty' important stands from the ridge itself. Several bridgeheads forced across the canal all along the .line remained under fire of long-range German guns,


                STARS AND STRIPES
         Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed Forces in the European Theater of Operations
                             New York, N.Y.—London, England                 Saturday, Oct. 30,1943

Nazi Melitopol Army Split in Half
As Retreat Becomes Great Rout;
Reds 40 Mi. From Crimean R.R
.

Wehrmacht's Losses
In Huge Collapse
Are Enormous

 Triumphant Russian forces surging westward from Melitopol last night had turned an already great Soviet
victory into a great German rout, had split the retreating Nazi army in two and had reached a point only 40 miles from the last enemy escape railway from the Crimea.
Across the Nogaisk steppe west of Melitopol stretched the debris of a broken army. Fleeing headlong before the Red advance, the Germans were leaving enough behind to set up an entire new army. Loaded with war material, 450 freight cars were deserted intact at the Prishiv and Akimovka railway stations along the Crimean railway.
Capturing over 40 settlements in their swift motorized thrust west, the Russians were driving toward the Perekop-Kherson rail line, and another 40 miles would bring them to it, severing Berlin's last hope of getting thousands of German troops out of the Crimea.
The Russian plan seemed to be to extend the wedge driven into the fleeing Nazi force and then turn the flanks of the spearhead north and south, destroying each half of the enemy army at will. Last night it appeared certain of success.
                                                           Must Fight Way Out
Already the smashing drive through Melitopol had killed any German hopes of extricating their forces retreating from Dniepropetrovsk southward across the lower Dnieper. These must continue to fight their way out of the Dnieper Bend through the ever-narrowing corridor between Krivoi Rog and Nikopol, along
the lower Dnieper, thus throwing an enormous strain on Nazi communications there.


Moscow Talks
A Tremendous
Success—FDR

Pacts Already Agreed On,
He Says, Will Help Win
Both War and Peace

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29—
President Roosevelt described the Moscow tripartite conference today as a tremendous success, and said it had resulted in agreements which would make for unanimity in the prosecution of the war and also in the later transition period.
The chief executive told his press conference the documents embracing the agreements would be signed shortly and then would be made public. He said the conference had strengthened a view he had always held, that Russia would cooperate with other nations to maintain peace after the war.
Asked whether it would bring closer a meeting between himself, Prime Minister Churchill and Marshal Stalin, the President said he did not know, but reiterated that he and Mr. Churchill were anxious for such a conference.
                                                               Message from Churchill
MOSCOW, Oct. 29—
While final drafts of the agreements between the foreign ministers of Britain, the U.S. and Russia were being drawn up, it became known today that Marshal Stalin has received from Prime Minister /Winston Churchill
a full statement on the British militaryposition.
The information, promised Stalin by Mr. Churchill when they met last year, was handed the marshal last night by Anthony Eden when he saw Stalin for the second time during the conference.
Experts worked night and day to complete final drafts of the agreements. It was reliably reported that only the ends remained to be 'trimmed, and the next few days should see the meeting's close.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull \v;:s reported by a U.S. spokesman to be standing up splendidly to the long strain of the daily discussions, in spite of his 72 years. Hull continued to refuse all social invitations, to conserve his strength.
Navy Shells
Italy as 8th
Pinch Nazis

Six-Mae Thrust in Center
Endangers Isernia and
Enemy's Massico Line

U.S. warships threw their weight into the battle of Italy yesterday as the Fifth Army drove against the
Germans' Massico ridge line and the Eighth Army, by a six-mile thrust through the craggy country .of the
central Appenines, threatened to outflank the Nazi base of Isernia.
The Navy struck behind the German line on the west coast, hurling shells ashore in the Minturnp area in the
Gulf of Gaeta, some 12 miles north of Capua. The bombardment was carriedout Wednesday night but revealed only yesterday. A U.S. cruiser and destroyers made up the attacking force.
The Eighth Army's drive in the central sector, menacing Isernia and threatening to roll up from the east all the carefully prepared enemy positions on the Massico line, carried the British across the hills lying between the headwaters of the Biferno and Trigno rivers.
The thrust carried Montgomery's forces-at least six miles north of Torella, the hill town whose capture was announced Thursday, and captured three small villages.
                                                   Take Massico Ridge Town
Further west, the Fifth Army's Americans advanced three miles in the Sparanise area to capture the railway town of Teano, lying below the forward hill positions of the Massico ridge, while other U.S. troops in the Raviscamna region to the east consolidated gains on important heights dominating northbound roads.
Along the Adriatic sector, one British column captured Montefalcone, two miles south of the Trigno. river and 16 miles from the sea, while another pushed north along the coast road toward Vasto, slugging ahead against massed German artillery two miles north of the Trigno river.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Current Events October 29, 1943

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY OCTOBER 29, 1943:
While German troops fought desperately last night at Krivoi Rog to hold off the northern arm of a vast
developing pincers, others in the south raced pell-mell west to get out of a sack whose neck was being tightened by the great Russian breakthrough in the Melitopol sector.
The Red Army which smashed through Melitopol was advancing west and northwest on the Nogaisk steppe at the rate of sometimes as much as 18 miles a day. Columns striking upward from Melitopol were but 30 miles from the Lower Dnieper. Last night it had developed into a race between Germans within the Dnieper
Bend and Russians on the south side of the river. Soviet forces already were due south of Nikopol, on the Dnieper, and any German escape must be made southwestward down the railway from Aposlovo to Kherson at the Dnieper mouth.
                                              
Allied forces in Italy scored a general advance of three to four miles yesterday as Britain's Eighth Army drove a wedge into the German positions in the central sector, captured the hill town of Torella and increased the threat to the big Nazi base of Isernia 14 miles away.

New Britain—the Hamburg of the South Pacific—received another heavy pasting yesterday from Fifth Air Force bombers and fighters which destroyed 58 more Jap aircraft and boosted their three-day toll of enemy planes destroyed to 181.



              THE STARS AND STRIPES
            THE Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed Forcesin the European Theater of Operations
      Vol. 3 No. 308                                   New York, N.Y.—London, England Friday, Oct. 29,1943


   Nazis Race West to Escape Soviet Trap

Neck of Sack
Is Tightened
By Russians

Germans Battle Fiercely
At Krivoi Rog to Slow
Arm of Pincers

While German troops fought desperately last night at Krivoi Rog to hold off the northern arm of a vast
developing pincers, others in the south raced pell-mell west to get out of a sack whose neck was being tightened by the great Russian breakthrough in the Melitopol sector.
The Red Army which smashed through Melitopol was advancing west and northwest on the Nogaisk steppe at the rate of sometimes as much as 18 miles a day. Columns striking upward from Melitopol were but 30 miles from the Lower Dnieper. Last night it had developed into a race between Germans within the Dnieper
Bend and Russians on the south side of the river. Soviet forces already were due south of Nikopol, on the Dnieper, and any German escape must be made southwestward down the railway from Aposlovo to Kherson at the Dnieper mouth.
                                                                    Key Rail Point is Goal
Kherson itself was a prime goal for both. Through it lies the last remaining escape rail line from the Crimea, whose peril grows hourly with the Russian breakthrough. Meanwhile the Germans were taking a terrible beating in the center of the Dnieper Bend as they fell back fromDniepropetrovsk. In addition to heavy
losses in men and material, they were forced to give up two key rail centers and 30 populated points.
Violent fighting raged at Krivoi Rog.
The Germans threw in everything in a fanatical attempt to stop the Russian wedge from smashing down and behind Nazi forces retreating westward in the Bend. Great aerial battles continued,with the Germans using fleets of transport planes to drop supplies to the besieged defenders.
Russian bombers were pounding ground forces and hammering rail junctions and other key points in the area.

 Allied Advances
Menace Isernia

Troopships Reported Off
Italy's West Coast
For New Landings

Allied forces in Italy scored a general advance of three to four miles yesterday as Britain's Eighth Army drove a wedge into the German positions in the central sector, captured the hill town of Torella and increased the threat to the big Nazi base of Isernia 14 miles away.
While Fifth Army patrols felt out enemy strength along the Massico line 40 miles westward, Eighth Army troops along the extreme right flank pushed further north up the Adriatic coast road, took over high ground overlooking theTrigno and enlarged their bridgehead over the river.
Although the Allied columns were meeting increasingly tough German resistance from artillery and mortars, a Berne dispatch to the Stockholm Svenska Dagbladet said, nevertheless, that the Nazis were preparing to evacuate southern Italy under Rommel's new supreme command.
Buttressing earlier neutral reports that the Germans feared a new Allied landing, Swiss dispatches said a large concentration of Allied transports, supply ships and warships was forming off Italy's west coast and troops were massing in Corsica for a new attack. Gaeta and Leghorn were mentioned as possible attack zones.

Japs at Rabaul
Get It Again

58 Planes Bagged as Libs
Return to -Base For
3rd Straight Day

ALLIED HQ., Southwest Pacific, Oct.
28—Rabaul,
New Britain—the Hamburg of the South Pacific—received another heavy pasting yesterday from Fifth Air Force bombers and fighters which destroyed 58 more Jap aircraft and boosted their three-day toll of enemy planes destroyed to 181.
The attack, directed chiefly at an airdrome north of Rabaul, left many fires burning and shattered planes and equipment everywhere. The Libs flew through one of the heaviest anti-aircraft barrages yet offered over the great New Britain base to drop 150 tons of bombs.
The B24s accounted for the wrecking of 21 parked planes and the damaging of 23 more. Of the 70 fighters that tried to intercept, P38s shot down 37 and damaged 20.