November 14, 1944; TIRPITZ, Last German Bllleship Sunk:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1944:

BRADFORD, PA., TUESDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 14, 1944.

Vessel Capsizes,

Goes to Bottom of

Norwegian Fjord

Last Large Warship; Only One Plane Is Lost

In Attacks; Craft Had Been Laid Up Some

Time for Repairs From Other Battle Scars

London, Nov. 13.— (AP) —

The 41,000-ton German battleship Tirpitz, last "unsinkable" giant in Adolf Hitler's fugitive navy, capsized and sank yesterday morning in the

icy Norwegian waters of Tromso Fjord when hit squarely by three six-ton earthquake bombs dropped by RAF Lancasters the British announced tonight.

Five Years in Building

Attacking out of the Arctic mists it took the British only a few minutes  to finish off this great potential killer which never had engaged to a single surface battle, a n d which t h e Germans, were five years to build at a cost of $50,000,000. The cost to the British was one bomber, out of an attacking force of 29, the air ministry communique said.

Three bombs landed on the deck of the Tirpitz  Which blew up-Inside, keeled over, and sank slowly, ending a three-year chase by the British and Russians.

Troops Brave

Snow, Cold on

40-Mile Front

Indication Nazis May

Not Try to Hold Metz;

Tanks Drive Into Many,

Thicourt, Near Saar

London, Tuesday, Nov. 14.

—(AP)

Three of Metz's 22 forts—one of them a keystone in the southern defenses of the citadel—fell with astonishing speed yesterday to U. S. Third army

troops who stormed through snow and bitter cold all along a 40-mile front.

Fall Back Into City

The Germans ceded without struggle the subterranean Fort L'Aisne, one of nine main forts guardhig the city five miles to the smith, and two nearby smaller fortifications, indicating they were falling, back into the city's inner defenses

Meanwhile, the wheeling movement southeast of Metz pressed on up to four miles to within 15 miles of the Saar border, heightening the peril of encirclement to the city.

Americans Fail Jap

Counter Attack Plans

Cavalrymen Extend Mountturi Around

Ormoc Corridor; 96th Drives Nips Into Hills

Major U. S. Air Base in China Is Abandoned

By KAT CBONIN ''.

Associated Press. War Editor

The American offensive on Leyte island's main battlefront today punched through increasingly strong Japanese resistance, penetrated the enemy's potential central assembly areas and upset Nippon preparations for counterattacks.

Stiff Resistance Met

Gen. Douglas MacArthur said to his Tuesday communique that the Yanks, batteling through jungles and swamps and across mountain ridges, compelled the Japanese "to premature and piecemeal commitments of his forces for the defense of the main bastion of the Yamashita line."

In the Ormoc corridor First division cavalrymen consolidated and extended their mountain positions while the 24th division, meeting stiff resistance, advanced slowly along the Ormoc road. On the western Leyte valley forward elements of the 96th division broke organized resistance and were driveing the

Japanese westward into the hills.

Japs Occupy

Small Island

Near Peleliu

U. S. Marine Patrol on

Isle Evacuated; Ships,

Planes Strafe Nips

U. S. Pacific Fleet Headquarters,

Pearl Harbor, Nov. 13—(Ap)—

Two hundred Japanese troops occupied tiny Ngeregong ,island, eight miles northeast of American-held Peleliu to the Palau group, last Tuesday night, Adm.'Chester W. Nimitz announced today. A small U. S. Marine patrol, which had been on the island for reconnaissance, quickly evacuated, and the enemy- was subjected to ships' fire and aerial bombmg and strafing.

Nimitz said his to his communique the Marines were removed aboard LCI's (landcraft, infantry) without casualties.

The Japanese were equipped with  knee mortars and machine guns

Probably they came to small boats across the reef-infested denges passage, from Eil Malk Island two miles north of Ngeregong.