May 1, 1945;SOVIETS IN HEART OF BERLIN:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MAY 1, 1945:

ABILENE, TEXAS, ABILENE, TEXAS, TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 1, 1945

Hope Held for Fall

Of City by Tonight

LONDON, Tuesday, May 1—(AP)—Red army troops, storming the blazing administrative heart of Berlin, captured the gutted shell of the German reichstag yesterday, running up the Russian "victory" flag over the Nazi monument in a sweep that threatened to split the last defenders of the Nazi capital.

The fall of all Berlin appeared imminent. The Russians stepped up their overwhelming struggle for the city to unprecedented proportions in a possible bid to win the entire city today while Moscow celebrated May day.

Soviet troops were -within a mile of tearing the capital into two isolated pockets each less than nine square miles. They had won the ministry of interior near the reichstag, were laying siege to Hitler's underground fortress in. the Tiergarten,

were at Berlin's triumphal arch, the Brandenburg gate, and were across the Spree river from Berlin's cathedral.

German broadcasts admitted the 10-day battle for the divested capital was as good as lost.

'London Says Peace Plans Move Swiftly

Himmler In

New Huddle

LONDON, April 30—(AP)—The free Danish press service in Stockholm said that Heinrich Himmler conferred in Den mark this morning with Count Folke Bernadotte, the neutral Swedish emissary by whom he sent his offer to surrender Germany to Britain and the United States last week.

In London British cabinet ministers held a long meeting today, then some of them met with Prime Minister Churchill late tonight, studying the latest reports on the situation.'

 A full cabinet meeting is scheduled for early Tuesday, before the House of Commons meets, at which time likely will be decided whether Churchill might make a statement in the Commons during, the afternoon.

The British press association stated that "there is no longer any doubt that armistice moves are in progress and moving swiftly." The Himmler-Bernadotte meeting, said to have taken place at Aabenraa just north of the German-Dan-

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STOCKHOLM, Tuesday, May

1.—(/AP)—The newspaper Dragens Nyheter said today Count Folke

Barnadotte, Swedish emissary who reportedly has been acting as a go-between for peace between the Allies and Germany, had forwarded the German, answer to capitulation demands to an Allied legation In Stockholm yesterday.

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ish border, was believed to be the second conference of the two men in two days.

Since it had been officially disclosed that lost week's surrender offer by Himmler reached the western Allies through Bernadotte, reports of a new contact gave rise to speculation that a new phase in German surrender attempts had opened.

The first offer was refused because was not addressed to Russia as well as to Britain and the United States.

There was no indication whether Himmler was now ready to yield to all three powers.

Doughboys Take

Machinato Field

Two Miles of Naha

By The Associated Press

Plunging southward in 'the wake of terrific naval gun, artillery and plane bombard-

ments, American doughboys on. bloody Okinawa island  have captured the important Machinato airfield on the west coast, Fleet Adm.-Chester W Nimitz reported late Monday The field is less than two miles from Naha, island capital.

This major Yank victory in one of the bloodiest battles' of the Pacific war was scored Sunday, Okinawa time, while other American forces were fighting their way over hilly ground in the center of the flaming battle line.