April 5, 1945:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 5, 1945:

RACINE, WIS., THURSDAY AFTERNOON, APRIL 5, 1945.

Americans Cut

Japs' Lifeline

To East Indies

MANILA—UP)—

Masbate,' sugarrich little central Philippine island, was over-run Tuesday by elements of Maj. Gen. Rapp Brush's 40^th division and its capital quickly

liberated while Philippine-based bombers ravaged Japanese-occupied Hong Kong across the China sea.

Both actions were announced today by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who declared Japan's lifeline to the East Indies was completely severed by a chain of American air bases stretching more than 1,000 miles from Luzon in the north to recently-invaded Tawitawi at the southern tip of the Sulu archipelago only 30 miles from Borneo.

Meet Little Opposition.

After setting Masbate city, doughboys with the help of guerrilla forces moved rapidly to secure the entire island, the communique said. They met negligible

Opposition.

Resigns 4 Days

After Invasion

Of Home Island

LONDON. — (UP) —

Premier Gen. Kuniaki Koiso and the entire Japanese cabinet, powerless to halt the American advance on their homeland, resigned today with a frank admission that Japan's plight had become grave.

Japan's second wartime cabinet fell only four days after American invasion forces stormed ashore on Okinawa island, 330 miles southwest of the enemy's home islands, against almost nonexistent opposition.

More Powerful' Successors.

The Japanese board of information announced that the resignations were decided upon "in view of the gravity of the war situation and in order to bring a more powerful cabinet" into office.

Freeing Holland

Big Job Ahead

By DEWITT MACKENZIE

Associated Press War Analyst. .

Germany's strategic positions on the western front are being liquidated with amazing rapidity, every hour giving fresh proof that organized Hitlerite resistance on a major scale in that great theater is a thing of the past.

However, there still remain big jobs for supreme commander Eisenhower's forces to do, and among the most important of these are the liberation of Holland and the capture of the reich's North sea ports of Emden, Bremen and Hamburg. Indications now are that the boche will try to withdraw from most of Holland but will make a stand in the great commercial ports of Amsterdam and Rot terdam, just as they plan to hang onto their North sea harbors.

Withdraw Troops.

The point of the German resistance at these places is the same old story of depriving the Allies of the use of the parts and thus causing delay. That is to say, the Germans can't strengthen their own grave position materially but may stave off the day of execution a bit.

Germans Reel Back

Toward Elbe River

PARIS — UP) —

The Third army advanced to within 132 miles of Berlin today in the

Schlothebn area after the sixth armored division captured the ancient Thuringian town of Muelhausen (36,000).

PARIS—(AP)—

The Allies drove up to the Weser river today within 23 miles of the Prussian stronghold of Hannover, which the Germans appeared to be evacuating in a retreat to the Elbe river which flows within 50 miles of Berlin.

The Weser was reached on a 48- mile front from 15 miles north of Minden to the Pied Piper town of Hamelin by four divisions of the American Ninth and British Second armies.

First army troops opened fresh attacks to destroy up to 150,000 trapped Germans in the Ruhr, advancing four miles northwest from the eastern end of the encirclement

Ninth army divisions northeast of the Ruhr advanced as much as 28 miles and captured Herford (36,000), Dermoid (16,000), Bad Oeynhausen (8,000) and Neheim (11,000) and cleared completely the difficult Teotuburger passes "near bypassed Bielefeld. Eleven hospitals were taken; one contained a general and the military administrator of Muenster, being treated for "mental fatigiue."

Hanover Threatened.

Allied planes struck through rain at. road-jamming columns of nazis, in flight east to the Elbe, the last river before Berlin.

 Germans Retreat

Toward Elbe

(Continued From Page 1.)

headquarters of the reported Weser river crossing.

Mop Up Bypassed Cities. Large cities toppled; more were on the verge of capture.

Seized late yesterday were Kassl (217,000), Gotha (48,000), Suhl (l6,000), Hengelo (40,000) and Waltrop.

The Ninth army, sending four of its infantry divisions into a side campaign to crush in the northern side of the Ruhr box where up to 150,000 nazis and perhaps Field Marshal Albert Kesselring are trapped, fought into Soest and battled the last defenders of Hamm.

They moved a bare five miles from Dortmund (537,000) on two sides. The last Germans were being beaten out of Wuerzburg (108,-

617) and Heilbronn (60,000) by the Seventh army, which fought less than 34 miles from Nuernberg (431,000). The French fought beyond captured Karlsruhe to within 20 miles of Stuttgart (460,000).

Reds Denounce

Pact With Japs

(Continued From Page 1.)

Japanese relations for 50 years. Russia's natural interest in an outlet on the Pacific via the seas of Okhotsk and Japan lead her czarist rulers to a head-on collision

with Japanese imperialists which resulted in the war of 1904-5.

Defeated, imperial Russia had to cede to Japan her port rights at Dairen and the important northsouth railway in Manchuria. Fighting off revolution at home, the

czarist government never made a comeback, had to watch Japan annex

Korea and begin building an empire in Manchuria.After the soviet revolution, Japanese troops intervened in Siberia along with American and British expeditionary forces. The Japanese did not leave Vladivostok

until 1923.

Border Incidents Numerous.

In 1933 the Japanese took over Manchuria and soon set up the puppet state of Manchoukuo. The powerful Japanese garrison force, the Kwangtung army, laid active plans for the nvasion and conquest of eastern Siberia. But Tokyo hesitated. Hundreds of incidents occurred along the long and ill-defined Manchurian border.

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