Current Events April 10, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY APRIL 10, 1944:

 Flying Fortresses and Liberators roared over the length and breadth of Germany and even into Poland and

East Prussia over the weekend in the unannounced campaign to break the back of the German air force before invasion. in some of the longest missions of war, powerful formations smashed their way across German territory yesterday to bombard four important aircraft factories in clear weather that permitted visual bombing.

 Red Army soldiers stood on the border of pre-war Czechoslovakia last night, probing the eastern defenses of Adolf Hitler's fortress in readiness to carry the war for the first time into the enemy's own territory in central Europe.

PEARL HARBOR, Apr. 9

Twenty-eight Japanese vessels, of which three were smaller warships, were sunk and 132 enemy planes destroyed by the U.S. naval task force which raided the western Carolines Mar. 29-31, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, Pacific fleet commander, announced yesterday.

 Japan has been warned by a spokesman for the Jap High Command to expect before the end of the summer a big Allied Pacific offensive in which Japan proper will be bombed.

 

New York, N.Y.—London, England Monday, April 10, 1944

Great Blows

At Germans'

Air Defenses

Multiple Assaults Follow

Heavy Attack Saturday

On Battered Brunswick

Flying Fortresses and Liberators roared over the length and breadth of Germany and even into Poland and

East Prussia over the weekend in the unannounced campaign to break the back of the German air force before invasion. in some of the longest missions of war, powerful formations smashed their way across German territory yesterday to bombard four important aircraft factories in clear weather that permitted visual bombing. Twenty-four hours earlier other formations had pounded the aircraft plants at Brunswick and five important airfields and depots in northern Germany.

All of the targets yesterday were Fockwulf plants. While one task force made  a round trip of at least 1,750 miles to leave the factories at Marienburg, East Prussia. their second heavy blow of the war, three others struck at Posen, in Poland; Warnemunde, on Germany's Baltic coast, and Tutow, also near the Northern extremity of Germany.

In addition to some of the biggest fighhter factories in eastern Europe, Poscn is great freight yards serving troops on the Russian front.

Poised for 1st Blow

At Germany's Grip

On Central Europe

Koniev, Deep Into Rumania, Turns South

For Ploesti; Russians 5 Miles From

Virtually-Encircled Odessa

Red Army soldiers stood on the border of pre-war Czechoslovakia last night, probing the eastern defenses of Adolf Hitler's fortress in readiness to carry the war for the first time into the enemy's own territory in central Europe.

From the blizzard-swept frontier along the crests of the Carpathian passes, reached by the Russians over the weekend, came reports of savage fighting as Soviet mortars, artillery and planes raked the enemy in the opening phase of the battle to liberate the nation Hitler devoured in 1939. Marshal Gregory Zhukov's breakthrough to the Czechoslovakian border, on a line stretching 60 miles along the frontier of Ruthenia, the easternmost Czech province annexed by Hungary more than five years ago, was hailed in Moscow with 24 salvoes from 324 guns a salute heretofore reserved for the victories of Leningrad, Kiev and crossing of the Pruth into Rumania.

More than 150 miles to the south, forces of Red tanks and artillery—now better than 26 miles inside Rumania after a broad thrust to the Sereth River on a 53-mile front—wheeled south along the Sereth valley toward the Danube port of Galatz and, Bucharest.

28 Jap Vessels

Sunk by Navy

In Palau Foray

Three Are Warships; 132

Planes Are Destroyed,

Battleship Damaged

PEARL HARBOR, Apr. 9

Twenty-eight Japanese vessels, of which three were smaller warships, were sunk and 132 enemy planes destroyed by the U.S. naval task force which raided the western Carolines Mar. 29-31, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, Pacific fleet commander, announced yesterday.

Eighteen other Jap ships were damaged, including a battleship hit by a submarine, 49 aircraft probably were destroyed, and heavy damage was inflicted on important airfields, dock installations, factories and warehouses, the report said.

U.S. losses were 25 aircraft and 18 men. No U.S. ship was damaged.

(page 2)

Military Warns

Japan of Raids

Big Allied Pacific Drive

Near. People Told, With

Homeland Threatened

Japan has been warned by a spokesman for the Jap High Command to expect before the end of the summer a big Allied Pacific offensive in which Japan proper will be bombed.

In an article in the periodical FUJI, which was quoted yesterday by German Radio, a Capt. Takase declared that American forces must be expected "to penetrate into our waters with strong

naval squadrons and to make sea-based raids on Japan proper."

The Marshalls Island operation. Takase said, showed that the Allies had abandoned island-hopping strategy in the Pacific. "The Japanese command, he said, "has done everything possible to reinforce extensively our own air force. Japanese war potential is growing, but as time goes on we must anticipate the so-called general enemy offensive before the first half of the year is over."

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