Current Events April 8, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY APRIL 8, 1944:

 Special German units, under orders to "halt the Red Army at any cost," were rushed forward to defend Odessa yesterday as three columns of Soviet cavalry and light tanks advanced within nine miles of the Black Sea port.

 Anglo-American bombers, striking two more heavy blows at strategic Balkans targets in their campaign to hamstring German forces battling to stem the  Russian onslaught, have showered bombs onto the great Ploesti oilfields in Rumania for the second time.

Fifth Air Force airmen completed Thursday the crippling of Japan's air and supply base at Hollandia, on the north coast of Dutch New Guinea, when 320 tons of bombs were dropped and 250,000 rounds of ammunition loosed on the town and waterfront, still burning from Wednesday's 250-plane raid by Liberators,

 

New York, N.Y.—London, England Saturday, April 8, 1944

Ploesti Oil Fields Hit

As Allies Step Up Air

Attacks to Aid Soviets

Big Battle for Port

On Black Sea

Is Expected

Special German units, under orders to "halt the Red Army at any cost," were rushed forward to defend Odessa yesterday as three columns of Soviet cavalry and light tanks advanced within nine miles of the Black Sea port.

The eleventh-hour decision to battle to hold Odessa coincided with a new Nazi effort to releive the encircled garrison at Tarnopol, 65 miles southeast of the German base at Lwow, in Poland.

Big forces of Germans were reported tied up in "violent fighting" in the Odessa area, where the Russians held a belt of land east, northeast and northwest of the city. A correspondent of the Russian Army newspaper Red Star said the enemy reinforcements launched counter-attacks from "favorable positions" but that Cossack cavalry beat them off with heavy losses to the Germans.

Planes of the Russians' Black Sea fleet air arm kept constant day and night patrol over the entire coastal area to prevent evacuation of the Odessa garrison by sea.

German counter-action in the air was difficult, with the Nazis' nearest major base 200 miles away at Constanza in Rumania.

Bitter Fighting at Tarnopol

Even heavier fighting was in progress outside Tarnopol. where strong enemy tank and infantry forces were thrown into the attack in an effort to break through to the surrounded garrison, now holding less than half the town.

Zagreb Fighter Field

Guarding Balkans o

Also Blasted

Anglo-American bombers, striking two more heavy blows at strategic Balkans targets in their campaign to hamstring German forces battling to stem the  Russian onslaught, have showered bombs onto the great Ploesti oilfields in Rumania for the second time.

Within the last 48 hours, fires which sent smoke curling 16.0CM) feet into the air were kindled by American bombers roaring in for the first time over Ploesti since their historic low-level attack last August, and a strategic Luftwaffe airfield at Zagreb, Jugoslavia, was blasted.

More than 56 German planes were shot down in these latest aerial thrusts designed to batter enemy supply and communications in support of the Red Army's advance into the Balkans.

Direct Hits On Refineries

In the Ploesti raid Wednesday, direct hits were scored on oil-storage areas, a munitions dump, oil refineries and rail yards. Long-range Lightnings and Thunderbolts escorted the Liberators to within a few miles of the area from which Hitler is said to be obtaining a third of the oil necessary to run the Wehrmacht.

Fleets of German fighters and a heavy barrage of anti-aircraft fire met the attackers. Violent aerial battles were fought out less than 30 minutes' flying time from Soviet spearheads approaching Jassy. in northern Rumania.

Jap Air Power

In Guinea KOd

Holiandia Left a Burning

Shambles by New Raid;

Truk Is Hit Again

Fifth Air Force airmen completed Thursday the crippling of Japan's air and supply base at Holiandia, on the north coast of Dutch New Guinea, when 320 tons of bombs were dropped and 250,000 rounds of ammunition loosed on the town and waterfront, still burning from Wednesday's 250-plane raid by Liberators,

Anglo-American bombers, striking two more heavy blows at strategic Balkans targets in their campaign to hamstring German forces battling to stem the  Russian onslaught, have showered bombs onto the great Ploesti oilfields in Rumania for the second time.

Thus the Japanese air force has been bombed oil' New Guinea for all practical purposes. Holiandia is a shambles, graveyard of 300 enemy planes, including all that were withdrawn from Wewak while that base was absorbing 4,000 tons of bombs in recent weeks, according to dispatches from the Southwest Pacific.

Meanwhile, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz and Gen. Douglas MacArthur continued to hammer away at Truk with another two-way attack on that Jap fortress in the Carolines. Following the 13th

assault—by Nimitz's Liberators last Monday night—MacArthur's Solomons-based air fleet -bombed Dublon, the badly battered isle which guards an anchorage

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