August 23, 1944; French Patriots Liberate Paris:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, AUGUST 23, 1944:

 

PARIS, TEXAS, WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. AUGUST 23, 1944

Triumphant Strains

Marseillaise Sound

Again to Victory

LONDON ..(AP)—

Paris-shook loose the shackles of four , years of enemy bondage Wednesday and stood free once more, liberated by armed and unarmed tens of "thousands

of Frenchmen who swept the Nazis from the city's 'streets, while American armed might drew up around the Capital.

A special communique from Gen. Charles de Gaulle's Headquarters in London, announced the liberation after four days of street fighting, that recalled scenes of Bastille "Day when the mobs of Paris once before struck an historic blow for liberty. When they arrive they will find her head high, for she has been set free by her own people.

This time, the communique said, the fight was- led, by 50,000 organized French forces of the Interior, bolstered by hundreds of thousands more who joined in with whatever weapons they could find.

                                "La Marseillaise" For Victory

Allies Drive Into

Grenoble 140 Miles

Of Mediterranean

Bitter Battle Said

Still Raging in

Encircled Toulon

ROME (AP)—

American troops, of the Seventh Army, in a spectacular surprise thrust deep into

Southern France through German defenses, .have entered the large industrial

city, of Grenoble, 140 airline miles north, of the; Mediterranean Coast, it was, announced Wednesday.

A swift American armored and motorized Infantry column :plunged into the city, long a hotbed of the French patriot movement, with "French forces of the Interior,

playing an effective-support role," Allied Headquarters said.

Record 135 -Ton

Halmahera Bombing

Marks New Climax

By J. B. KRUEGER

Associated Press War Editor

The unceasing Pacific air offensive against Japan has achieved a new climax with a record 135-ton bombing of strategic Halmahera Island 300 miles south of the Philippines, General MacArthur announced Wednesday.

This strike was the latest and biggest of air blows steadily reducing 6,700-square-mile Halmahera as a barrier between MacArthur's New Guinea forces and the

'Philippines, which he aims to recapture. Liberators and cannon packing Mitchells went in unopposed to plaster its airfields, supply dumps and defenses, and to destroy eight parked planes and sink a freighter. .

The blow followed a 110-tonstrike announced Tuesday.

Elsewhere the Allied air offensive— currently bridging a lull between invasions — ranged from the Flores Sea 1,000 miles south of the Philippines to tiny Marcus Island 1,000 miles sutheast of Tokyo. MacArthur's planes hit Ceram, Davao, Vogelkop on Dutch New Guinea, Biak Island, Wewak, Paula, New Ireland, New Britain and Bougainville.