Current Events February 15, 1944

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY FEBRUARY 15, 1944:

Waves of Flying Fortresses dropped bombs on the centuries-old Benedictine monastery at Mt. Cassino today to help clear the road to Rome, routing almost 300 Germans from the lofty observation post where they had directed murderous fire against American doughboys. As the smoke of the aerial ombardment died down, Allied big guns started shelling the abbey.

The Red army has halted a heavy tank attack launched by the Germans northwest of Zvenigorodka in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue large Nazi forces hopelessly trapped in the Cherkasy pocket, the army newspaper Red Star said today, while at the northern end of the front two Soviet armies are moving closer

to the German-held stronghold of Pskov.

Pearl Harbor, Feb. 15.—

The Americans and Japanese have traded aerial punches In the Marshall islands, with the Americans getting in the hardest licks by a three day pounding of Eniwetok Atoll and its important airfield.

The Navy said that United States carrier planes, in six separate strikes, caused severe damage to the air base which the enemy used to feed planes into the Marshalls from the Carolines.

 

                          BURLINGTON, N. C., TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1944

Great Allied

Guns Follow

Up Air Raids

Aged Benedictine

Is Knocked From

Path To Rome

BY LYNN HEINZERLING and

GEORGE TUCKER

Naples, Feb. 15—(AP) —

Waves of Flying Fortresses dropped bombs on the centuries-old Benedictine monastery at Mt. Cassino today to help clear the road to Rome, routing almost 300 Germans from the lofty observation post where they had directed murderous fire against American doughboys. As the smoke of the aerial ombardment died down, Allied big guns started shelling the abbey."

The first aerial attack came about 9:30 a. m. (4:30 a. m., Eastern War Time) and sent from 50 to a hundred uniformed German soldiers running from the monastery, ground observers reported to Allied headquarters.

Artillery Opens Up

Once they appeared in the open, Allied artillerymen opened up with a barrage of shells that covered the Terrain over which the Nazis were fleeing. A second wave of bombers followed, sending an estimated 200 more Germans out of the' monastery. They likewise were engaged by artillery.

The monastery, founded 14 centuries ago, is perched on Mt. Cassino overlooking the town of Cassino and dominating the road which the Germans hold as a

Corridor for their desperately resisting troops in Cassino.

Because of Its strategic position the Germans bad converted the monastery into a fortress and an important key for their network of fortifications, 70 miles southeast of Koine.

Direct Hits Scored

Direct hits were scored by the Fortresses, but there was no immediate estimate as to the extent of the damage inflicted.

Doughboy Troops

Now Occupying

Third Cassino

BY EDWARD KENNEDY

Allied Headquarters, Algiers,

Feb. 15—(AP)—U. S.

Flying Fortresses today bombed Mt. Cassino and its historic monastery, transformed by the Nazis into a fortress, beginning an all-out offensive to crack the German line while ground troops maintained pressure both in the Cassino and Anzio invasion bridgehead areas.  The bombs. some shelling the Benedictine Abbey founded in 521 A. D., rained down in support of American infantry crawling up the hill against machine-gun and artillery fire, and followed a warning to monks and citizen refugees to vacate the Abbey.

Doughboy troops battling in Cassino below were said unofficially to have occupied one-third of that bastion town in bitter house-to house fighting.

Nazis Thrown Back

On the invasion bridgehead the west. Allied troops threw back a small German attack in the Carroceto (Aprllia) area, and repulsed a Nazi palrol in the Clsterna area northeast of Anzio ( Arpirllia) area broke up a German attempt to bridge a stream 10 miles above Anzio at Vellemaldeta, Allied' headquarters announced.

Soviet Army

Halts Heavy

Tank Attack

Attempt Of Nazis

To Rescue Army

Proves Failure

BY EDDY GILMORE

Moscow, Feb. 15—(AP) —

The Red army has halted a heavy tank attack launched by the Germans northwest of Zvenigorodka in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue large Nazi forces hopelessly trapped in the Cherkasy pocket, the army newspaper Red Star said today, while at the northern end of the front two Soviet armies are moving closer

to the German-held stronghold of Pskov.

Red Star declared that the German tank attack in the northwest corner of the upper Dnieper band was exceedingly fierce and that Field Marshal Fritz von Mannstein apparently was unmindful of the amount of men and machines he was losing. It was hurled against a narrow sector and was stopped after a slight, wedge-like penetration, the paper added.

Violent Fighting;

Fighting was most violent northwest of Zvenigoradka and west of captured Korsun, core of Nazi resistance in the Cherkasy death ring. Red Star pointed oul that the ranks of the enemy within the trap have been markedly reduced and that even if a few tanks crashed the Bed army lines the Germans' great losses would

In no way compensate them for what they would find

. Russia Tells Finns Clamp

Will Not Be Cost Of Peace

London, Feb. 15.—(AP)

Soviet  Russia was reported today to have advised Finland that she has no drastic designs upon Finnish territory but that If the Finns want peace they must surrender unconditionally and grant Russian forces use of all their air and sea bases as well as internal communications facilities.

The London News-Chronicle in dispatch from Stockholm said that these terms had been " intimated unofficially" to Finnish leaders who arrived recently in

the Swedish capital, presumably for the purpose of sounding out the Russians on the subject of peace.

At the same time Walter Farr, Stockholm correspondent of the London Daily Mail, said in a somewhat similar dispatch:

"The impression I get is that Finland will be out of the war in a matter, of weeks and possibly days.

There was no immediate confirmation of these reports from any source, and neither Helsinki now Moscow gave any intimation that contact had been established

as a basis for peace negotiations.

Americans And Japs Trade

Aerial Blows With Yanks

Getting In Hardest Licks

U. S. Pacific Fleet Headquarters,

Pearl Harbor, Feb. 15.—

The Americans and Japanese have traded aerial punches In the Marshall islands, with the Americans getting in the hardest licks by a three day pounding of Eniwetok Atoll and its important airfield.

The Navy said that United States carrier planes, in six separate strikes, caused severe damage to the air base which the enemy used to feed planes into the Marshalls from the Carolines. There was no ground fire or fighter opposition. Eniwctok previously was attacked heavily, by carrier planes on Jan. 30 and Feb. 5.