Saturday, December 22, 2012

December 22, 1944; WINTER OFFENSIVE SLOWED:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, DECEMBER 22, 1944:




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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