LAWRENCE,
KANSAS, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22,1944
NAZIS SLOW OP AFTER 40-MILE DRIVE
Eisenhower Calls on Troops
to Deliver Crushing
Defeat
MANY
ROVING GROUPS
In a Confused Situation
Further German Moves
Are
Possible Paris, Dec. 22. (AP)—
The
Germans' winter offensive slowed down today after a 40-mile penetration into
Belgium, field dispatches reported, and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called upon
all his armies to administer a crushing defeat.
The German high command said
several spearheads crossed the Ourthe river, which at one point in its
meandering course is seven miles west of Werbomont, the deepest previously
announced point of the enemy's dagger-like wedge. At this point the river is
about 30 miles from the Meuse at Namur and about 16 miles south of Liege, also
on the Meuse.
"Last Great Gamble"
The Ourthe is about 40 miles inside
Belgium.
[The Germans also told of heavy fighting
on both their flanks. They name the localities of Butgenbach and Lagleize, four
miles northwest of Stavelot, as focal points on the north. Consdorf, southwest
of Echternachv and Waldbilling, three miles northwest of Consdorf, were listed
as centers of attack on the
south.] . .
Eisenhower declared Field Marshal
Karl von Rundstedt had made a last great gamble in coming out of his fixed
defenses and called upon every man under his command to turn the opportunity
into the enemy's "worst defeat."
The offensive "will completely
fail," he declared. . .
Supreme headquarters still imposed
a -48-hour delay on announcements of the actual positions.
The next announcement from headquarters,
was not to come until after 5 p. m., Eastern War time, and it was scheduled to
cover developments only up to Wednesday night
American
Planes from New Base
Range
Over Philippine Islands
General
MacArthnr's Headquarters, Philippines, Dee. 22. (UP)—
Tank pincers
have snapped shut on the hapless Japanese on northwest Leyte
and
pocketed Nipponese troops are being destroyed while American
planes
range over the Philippines from a new base on Mindoro, less than
150
miles south of Manila, headquarters reported today.
Climaxing a laborious fight north
and south along the Ormoc corridor road,
the 10th and 24th army corps fought to a juncture near the point where a supplementary
road forks west to the enemy escape port of Palompon.
Scattered Japanese units are
trying frantically to slip thru gaps from the east and get to Palompon.
Today's communique reported that an
additional 2,032 enemy dead have been counted in the closing stages of the
Leyte campaign.
On Mindoro, which has -the advantage of being on the western side
of the Philippines where torrential rains do not fall as they have on Leyte,
the air base completed there in five days already is demonstrating its
importance.
The communique told of Mindoro-
based planes downing 11; of 29 enemy raiders Wednesday at a cost of one plane.
SUPERFORTS
BOMB
INDUSTRIAL
BASES
Targets on Honshu and in
Manchuria Are Sky
Raid Targets
FORCE FROM SAIPAN
Washington, Dec. 22. (AP)
Superfortresses resumed their'
attacks on Japan's home production centers today, attacking industrial targets
on the island of Honshu.
The aerial task force was In sizeable
force, indicating that up to 100 of the big planes participated.
The attack was carried out by B-29's
of Brig. Gen. H. S. Hansell's 21st Bomber command based on Saipan, a war
department communique
said. Additional details were not
released.
Second
in Five Days
Today's strike was 'the second
in five days by Saipan-based Superforts against their principal island
of the Japanese archipelago. General. Hansell's planes bombed an
aircraft factory at Nagoya Monday.
B-29's winging from Asiatic bases
hit still another Nipponese aircraft factory at Omura Tuesday following a
Monday strike at Hankow, China, principal port of supply for imperial forces
operating in South-Central China
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