June 2, 1945; French Confined to Barracks in Lebanon:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JUNE 2, 1945:

THE HERALD-PRESS

COUNTY EDITION ST. JOSEPH, MICH., SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1945.

 

NEW PACIFIC FLEET ACTION NEARS

 

CARRIER BASED

PLANES BATTER

SOUTH JAPAN

Adm. Spruance Turns Over

Command of 5th Fleet

To Halsey

 

BY LEONARD MILLIMAN

(Associated Press War Editor)

Some 200 carrier-based fighter planes raided southern Japan today. Tokyo radio reported, in what; may be the opening strike of new seaborne power blows foreshadowed in the return to action of Adm. William F.(Bull) Halsey and his Third Fleet.

Adm. Raymond A. Spraunce. Fifth  Fleet commander yielding direction of the vast American armada to Halsey, disclosed that the ''greatest.  naval casualties in any of operations" have been suffered in the Okinawa campaign, during which. U. S. ships have been harried almost daily by suicide planes.  But as a result of the Fifth Fleet's work, Halsey confidently announced,  "we can go where we want to—from the North Pole to the South Pole."

 

 

THE RACINE JOURNAL-TIMES

RACINE, WIS., SATURDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 2, 1945

 

British Confine Frence
To Barracks in Levant

 

Warships Steam

Into Harbor

Of Beyrouth

PARIS. — (AP) — Gen. De-Gaulle clearly indicated today that France will not submit the Syrian question to the proposed tripartite conference. He declared a number of British agents created, the uprising' in Lebanon and Syria.

LONDON.—(U.P)— British troops confined French soldiers and possibly civilians to barracks throughout troubled Levant today and British warships steamed into Beyrouth Harbor in a show of strength.

A Damascus dispatch said British troops, ready for action at the lightest provocation, took over all French-held point in Levant and surrounded French barracks to insure the troops would remain in side.

"Frenchmen throught the country will be confined to barracks

until some decision has been taken in London," the dispatch said. It did not make clear whether the "Frenchmen" included civilians as well as troops.

Other developments in the Levant situation included:

I Vice Admiral William G. Tennant, British commander in the Levant and eastern Mediterranean, steamed into Beyrouth Harbor with a number of British warships.

2 Russia backed up British and American demands for immediate and peaceful settlement of the French-Levant dispute.

3 Premier Abdel Hamid Karamen of Lebanon and President Shukri ALKuwatly of .Syria said no arrangement was possible with France and called for them to immediate withdrawal of all Frenchmen.

4 A Beyrouth dispatch said Kuwatly had asked Gen. Sir Bernard C. T. Paget, British and Allied commander in the Middle East, to list Gen. Oliva Roget, French general who ordered the shelling of Damascus, as a war criminal to be tried by an international court.

5 British troops  halted a new outbreak of violence, including looting and arson, in Damascus on their arrival yesterday and no new incidents were reported there or elsewhere in Levant last night.

6 More than 10,000 Lebanese marched through Beyrouth today and received assurances from President Bechara El Khoury that he would never "sign any treaty under duress or give up one millimeter of our rights."

Cheer British in Damascus. Damascus dispatches said the city's inhabitants, crowding into the streets for the first time in two weeks, "deliriously? cheered" the arrival of British tanks, armored cars and ground troops yesterday

 

Jap Resistance

Stiffens Near #

Old Shimbu Line

By FRED HAMPSON

MANILA.  (AP)— Yanks of the 38th Division ran into strong opposition yesterday while attacking Japanese elements forced out of the old Shimbu Line east of Manila.

Enemy resistance also stiffened again on Mindanao Island, but Americans pushed  the Cagayan Valley, prospective last stand for the Japanese on Luzon, and a survey showed Allied Air Forces in this area had sunk or damaged 2,117,482 tons of Japanese shipping since Jan. 1.

Despite the beating administered to the Shimbu Line by the Americans after the Japanese were driven into the sector from Manila in February, the enemy managed to conserve important forces there.

Clear Villa Verde Trail.

From these Nipponese elements the 38th recently wrested Wawa Dam and the Marikina Gorge, a part of the Manila watershed. Capture of the dam and gorge breached the Shimbu Line but did not prevent withdrawal of considerable enemy forces to new positions.