Current Events December 19, 1943;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY DECEMBER 19, 1943:

An American hero just home from the war reported today that the nazi army in southern Europe is filled with disillusioned graduates of Hitler's youth movement, many ol whom are beginning to be fed up with their leaders and the war.

 Three Germans and a Russian quisling have been sentenced to hang for, the mass murder and torture of Kharkov civilians, 30,000 of whom are estimated to have died violently during the nazi occupation of the Ukrainian city.

 The American Sixth army has smashed eastward one mile beyond the neck of captured Cape Merkus peninsula in the Arawe area of southwest New Britain and occupied the village of Umtingalu, seizing considerable Japanese equipment.

 Sweden warned Germany today, according to Reuter's news agency, that "further deterioration" in Swedish-German relations would inevitably follow" if the nazis continue to deport arrested Norwegian students to the reich.

Seabee Reports
Rifts in Hitler's
Youth Movement
NEW YORK, Dec. 18—(INS)
—An American hero just home from the war reported today that the nazi army in southern Europe is filled with disillusioned graduates of Hitler's youth movement, many ol whom are beginning to be fed up with their leaders and the war.
These German boys, some as young as 15 years of age, are not all as arrogant and self confident as Hitler and Goebbels would have the world believe.
Many are tired, discouraged young men with plenty of courage, but with a terrible dread of the retribution that might be dealt -out to them and their countrymen. Some are even glad to desert der fuehrer's vaunted
legions for the safety of allied prison camps.
These are the conclusions of Warrant Officer George Bethune, 30, of Raleiugh. N. C., a Seabee. He is tough and he's smart, and he's seen plenty of action.

Trace Cruelties
To Hitler; Bare
Torture Methods
MOSCOW, Dec. 19. — (Sunday)— (INS) —
Three Germans and a Russian quisling have been sentenced to hang for, the mass murder and torture of Kharkov civilians, 30,000 of whom are estimated to have died violently during the nazi occupation of the Ukrainian city.
Announcement of the verdict in Russia's first trial of war criminals was made officially today at the end of the three days of gruesome testimony before a m i l i t a r y tribunal of the fourth Ukrainian front.
The convicted murderers, all of whom pleaded guilty, included Capt. Wilholm Langheld of the nazi counterespionage division; Cpl. Renihard Retzlaw, a German secret field police agent; Hans Ritz, commander of a special SS company, and Mikhail Bulanov, a Russian who served as a chauffeur for gestapo agents stationed at Kharkov.

YANKS SEIZE TOWN;
GET JAP EQUIPMENT
Smash Ahead in
Arawe Area; Nip
Air Losses Grow
(INS Staff Conospondent)
GEN. MacARTHUR'S HEADQUARTERS, NEW GUINEA, Dec. 19.—(Sunday)
The American Sixth army has smashed eastward one mile beyond the neck of captured Cape Merkus peninsula in the Arawe area of southwest New Britain and occupied the village of Umtingalu, seizing considerable Japanese equipment.
Approaching an enemy airfield and a valley route pointing toward the island's north coast where Japan's
kingpin southwest Pacific base of Rabaul is situated, the invading United States forces advanced under an allied aerial cover--------

Sweden Threatens Break With Germany
Unless Nazis Halt Student Deportation
LONDON, Dec. 18.—(INS) —
Sweden warned Germany today, according to Reuter's news agency, that "further deterioration" in Swedish-German relations would inevitably follow" if the nazis continue to deport arrested Norwegian students to the reich.
The warning, said Reuter's in a dispatch from Stockholm, was imbodied in a formal note dispatch to Berlin in reply to German Foreign Minister Joachim Von Ribbenlrop's note of December 4 In which German advised
neutral Sweden not to "interfere" in the affairs of nazi-occupied Norway.