Current Events November 30, 1943:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY NOVEMBER 30, 1943:
  U.S. heavy bombers, surpassing their best previous month of operations against Nazi-occupied Europe, struck into northwest Germany for the second time in three days yesterday to set air-raid sirens screaming all the way from the Reich's western borders to Berlin.

 The Eighth Army launched a heavy attack yesterday on a five-mile front, pushed its way forward to the outer edge of the main German winter defense line and gained another bridgehead over the Sangro.
The drive, by British, Indian and New Zealand troops, was made in the face of desperate German attempts to withstand the advance. In heavy fighting, the Germans employed flame throwers and
tanks and planes.

 The United States Marines fought the bloodiest and fiercest battle of their whole long history during the capture of Betio Island in the Tarawa atolls of the Gilberts, according to a statement by one of the Leatherneck commanders on the island. Col. Edson A. Merritt said that of the two battalions of the Second
Marine Division, numbering between 2,000 and 3,000 men, who rushed the  beaches in the first assault wave, only a few hundred men escaped death or injury. And that first assault was far from being the end of the battle, he said

 Following the "miracle" victory on Belio island, big air-sea battles were reported raging round the area, according to Tokyo, which described the action as the second and third "air battles of the Gilberts."
There is as yet no confirmation of the attacks from the Navy Department, but Tokyo's account suggests that instead of drawing the Japanese fleet into battle, the U.S. fleet has "attracted the main weight of Japan's air strength

                             Edwardsville Intelligencer
                 EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1943.


Allied Forces Crack Nazi Winter Line, Open Roads Leading To Rome



People Warned Axis Partner
Facing Certain Defeat in Europe;
Anzacs Open Assault on Bonga
Prepare to Fight
Alone, Radio Says
Propaganda Chief Tells Natives
Of Growing Allied Military Might

            THE STARS AND STRIPES 
      Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed Forces  in the European Theater of Operations
           New York, N.Y.—London, England                      Tuesday, Nov. 30,1943

 U.S. Bombers Again Hit Reich
 Eighth Sets
New Record
For Month
Tenth November Attack
Alerts Germany from
Berlin West
 U.S. heavy bombers, surpassing their best previous month of operations against Nazi-occupied Europe, struck into northwest Germany for the second time in three days yesterday to set air-raid sirens screaming all the way from the Reich's western borders to Berlin.
Their objective was described in Eighth Air Force's preliminary flash as "targets in northwest Germany." The specific targets had not been announced at a late hour last night.
The harried German defense forces, fearful of Allied raids by day as well as night upon their battered and burned capital, quickly alerted the city for a new attack. Reports reaching Stockholm last night said Berlin liad been alerted since 3 PM.
The USAAF attack, rounding out Eighth Air Force's most active month of the war—a month that saw launched from British bases the greatest force of American heavy bombers ever dispatched in
this theater—was delivered shortly after RAF Mosquitoes hammered western Germany again in swift nuisance raids designed to keep Nazi fighter forces, and the population as weir, overworked and sleepless.
                                                    One of Bigges Forces 
Although the size of the American heavy bomber formations which droned into Germany yesterday was not immediately disclosed, it was likely it was one of the biggest so far put into the air by Eighth Air Force.
The November targets prior to yesterday's attack were:
Nov. 3—Wilhelmshaven, Germany's most important naval base on North Sea coast.
Nov. 5—Gelsenkirchen, coal mining town in Ruhr, and Munster, railway and waterways center on which many of Ruhr industries depend.
Nov. 7—Duren, great railway center.
Nov. 11—Munster.
Nov. 13—Bremen, Germany's second largest port, war production and shipbuilding center.
Nov. 16—Knaben, Norway, molybdenum mines, and Rjuken, Norway, large power stations.
Nov. 18—Kjeller, Norway, airdrome and aircraft works.
Nov. 19—Northwest Germany.
Nov. 26—Bremen.
Up to yesterday's mission, a compilation of figures from Eighth Air Force communiques showed that 149 enemy aircraft were destroyed against the loss of 45 Forts, six medium bombers and 23
fighters.
                                                           Retaliation Talk Again
New German boasts of a new weapon "which may make total war even more total" came meanwhile from battered Berlin.
The German correspondent of the German-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau, quoting a statement by Georg Schroeder, chief of Europa Press, who writes with the approval of Propaganda
Minister Goebbels, said the new weapon would be used soon to repay Britain with reprisals.

 8tli Opens Push
OvertlieSangro
Gains Another Bridgehead
Against Nazis Using
Flame-Throwers
 ALLIED HQ, Nov. 29—
The Eighth Army launched a heavy attack yesterday on a five-mile front, pushed its way forward to the outer edge of the main German winter defense line and gained another bridgehead over the Sangro.
The drive, by British, Indian and New Zealand troops, was made in the face of desperate German attempts to withstand the advance. In heavy fighting, the Germans employed flame throwers and
tanks and planes.
Attacking from their bridgehead near Castel Frenrano after a terrific air and artillery assault the Eighth Army repulsed German counter-attacks, enlarged their original gains and occupied high ground to the north of the Sangro.
By winning another bridge over the Sangro near A,rchi the Eighth Army threatened the lateral road running behind the German front. The two bridgeheads are about eight miles apart. In the air, heavy bombers attacked targets at Dogna, north of Trieste, and medium mombers hit shipping in the Dubrovnik, Zara and Sibenik harbors on the Jugoslav coast.

 Gilbert Victory Was Fiercest,
Bloodiest in Marine Annals
 SAN DIEGO, Cal., Nov. 29—
The United States Marines fought the bloodiest and fiercest battle of their whole long history during the capture of Betio Island in the Tarawa atolls of the Gilberts, according to a statement by one of the Leatherneck commanders on the island. Col. Edson A. Merritt said that of the two battalions of the Second
Marine Division, numbering between 2,000 and 3,000 men, who rushed the  beaches in the first assault wave, only a few hundred men escaped death or injury. And that first assault was far from being the end of the battle, he said. 
A full report of the fighting has not yet been released by the Navy Department which handles Marine Corps information. The Second Marine Division took part in the assault on Guadalcanal in 1942.)
It was three days before the Japanese garrison of upwards of 4,000 picked men was completely exterminated and the last effective resistance was overcome. By then dead of both sides lay in heaps. There
was nowhere one could look over the less than a square mile of low-lying coral rock and sand without seeing dead.
Before the landings began, U.S. 16-inch battleships, cruisers, destroyers, heavy bombers and attack bombers literally pulverized the tiny island with 2,800 tons of bombs and shells in a concentrated bombardment almost without parallel in military history.

 Page 4 THE STARS AND STRIPES Tuesday, Nov. 30, 1943
Japanese Claim
Big Navj Action
Off the Gilberts
No Allied Mention of dash;
Aussies Push Forward
In New Guinea
Following the "miracle" victory on Belio island, big air-sea battles were reported raging round the area, according to Tokyo, which described the action as the second and third "air battles of the Gilberts."
There is as yet no confirmation of the attacks from the Navy Department, but Tokyo's account suggests that instead of drawing the Japanese fleet into battle, the U.S. fleet has "attracted the main weight of Japan's air strength.
Meanwhile, the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes is floating in the breeze over Tarawa Island, the main island in the Gilberts and site of the area's only air base. Inspecting the formidable defenses the Japs built on Betio Island, the Marine victorv seems to have been a miracle.
On the southwestern flank of the 1.500- mile long arc which is gradually turning towards Japan, the twin Aussie drive on New Guinea is progressing favorably, and the Japs have another defeat to write home about.