Current Events October 8, 1942; GERMANS FAIL IN STALINGRAD/ JAPANESE OUSTED IN ALEUTIONS/ MERCHAN SAILOR RECEIVES AWARD OF VALOR:

                   Oakland Tribune


                OAKLAND. CALIFORNIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8. 1942

Germans Hint Failure
To Take Stalingrad
Storming of
City to End,
Says Berlin
Artillery to Finish
Job, German Radio
Broadcast States
Germans indicated today that after
45 days of costly and thus far unsuccessful
siege they may abandon
attempts to capture all of Stalin-
grad by storm-and instead may content
themselves with destruction of
the Russians' Volga River Arsenal
city with dive bombers and siege
guns.
A D.N.B. dispatch quoting military
quarters, broadcast by the
Berlin radio, said:
"The fight for Stalingrad has
changed.
"After the arrival at the strategic
objective—that is, after capturing
the heart of the city and after penetrating
up to the Volga—the remainder
of the city need not be
stormed by infantry and sappers but
can be laid in ruins systematically
by heavy and heaviest artillery," the
broadcast said, q u o t i n g military
quarters.
Reuters, in London, heard the
German radio say that "the Strategic
objective at Stalingrad already
has been achieved. It is no longer
necessary to send German infantry
and assault engineers into the battle.
. . . The finishing touches will now be
entrusted to heavy artillery Units
and Stukas."

Japs Ousted
In Aleutians
Foe Holds Only Kiska,
Which Is Bombarded
Heavily Every Day
WASHINGTON. Oct. 8. — (AP) —
Blasted by American sea and air
power, the Japanese today appeared
to have fled from two of the
three Western Aleutian Islands they
occupied four months ago and are
undergoing heavy bombardment on
their remaining foothold.

F. R. Pins Medal
On Hero of Sea
First Citation for
Valor Awarded to
Merchant Sailor
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8.—UP)—The
first medal awarded for heroism!
n the Merchant Marine during the
war was pinned by President Roosevclt
today on the coat lapel of Edwin
F Cheney a slender 25 year
old seaman from Yeadon, Pa.
"This is really an historical occasion,"
Roosevelt remarked. "There are
going to be more of them. It
recognizes a form of valor that is
just as essential as-valor on a fighting
ship."
Cheney was quartermaster, at the
wheel of the Atlantic Refining
Company tanker John D. Gill when
it was torpedoed March 12. He
released a life raft from the sinking,
burning vessel and maneuvered
it through burning oil to clear water
by swimming under water
and coming up only to breathe.
His citation for the medal said: