February 4, 1945; Berlin Pounded/Yanks close in on Manil:a

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1945:

Kingsport, Tenn., Sunday, February 4, 1945

Far Outdistance Official

Claims That Put Them 15

Miles Plus From PI

Luzon Radio

Says Patrols

At Outskirts

General MacArthur's Headquarters,

Central Luzon, Sunday—(AP)—

Yank columns are fast approaching Manila, far outdistancing the official reports today which put them less than 15 miles on the north at 6 p.m. Friday.

"American big guns are close enough this. (Friday) evening for Manila residents.

to hear them, Reported Associated Press. C6rrespondent. Russell Brines with the Thirty-Seventh Division .which.is in a neck and neck drive with the First Motorized Cavalry Division for the  honor of being the first to .enter the city.

(Broadcast, reports from Luzon today- referred  to "patrols reaching the "outskirts" without specifying places.)

Berlin Gets

Its Hardest

Blow Of War

 London, Sunday—(AP)—

Nearly 4,000 Allied warplanes pounded German installations yesterday, Berlin itself being rocked by the most concentrated assault ever made on the German capital.

In a wild, 45-mmute period, more than 1,000 U. S. Eighth Air Force Flying Fortresses, escorted by more than 900 fighters, blasted Berlin. They were in sight of Marshal Gregory : K. Zhakov's Russian assault against the Oder River line 30 to

40 miles to the east as they poured some 3,000 tons of high explosives and fire bombs on military targets of the refugee-packed city.

This raid, a diversionary stab at the oil center of Magdeburg by 400 U. S. Liberators, cost the Americans 55 bombers and five fighters missing, a communique said. Twenty-one Luftwaffe planes were shot down in combat near Berlin and 14 others were destroyed on the  ground.

Weather Good

Weather was good for bombing,  and for the first time in-the war, there was no German air opposition over the Reich capital. What dogfights there were occurred as Mustangs and Thunderbolt pilots, carried out sweeps' over scattered  areas some distance from the city.

At the same time planes of the U. S. continent-based First Tactical ; Air Force blasted rail targets east the Rhine and north of Alsace.

German military movements between the Siegfried Line and farther north were battered by "461 fighterbombers and 150 medium and light bombers of the Ninth Air Force.