Crrent Events March 7, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY MARCH 7, 1944:

 A "large-scale" offensive against  Japanese in north Burma has been launched by the first American ground troops to fight as a unit on 5 continent of Asia, it was disclosed yesterday.

 American heavy bombers attacked Berlin in force yesterday.

 ALLIED HQ, North Africa, Mar. 6—

Marshal Kesselring's three desperate attempts to crush the Fifth Army bridgehead south of Rome have cost him at least 14,000 casualties, it was estimated today, as U.S. artillery and mortar crushed a small German attack near Cisterna.

 New York, N.Y.—London, England Tuesday, March 7, 1944

Nazi Casualties

24,000 at Anzio /

Three Big Attacks Costly

For Germans; Allied Guns

Continue to Pound Foe

Fierce Battles Rage

As Huge U.S. Force

Dumps Tons on City

One Fort Division Fights Way In and Out;

Other Forts, Libs Meet Few Fighters;

Flak Heavy; Weather Better

By Bud Hutton

: Stars and Stripes Staff Writer

American heavy bombers attacked Berlin in force yesterday.

With Saturday's attack by a single formation, it was the second U.S. blow in three days on the German capital, and the city's first major daylight assault. Flanked and covered by relays of Eighth and Ninth Air Force long-range fighters, the Liberators and Fortresses heaped high explosives and incendiaries on their Berlin targets with both visual and "cloud"' technique bombing to smash the Nazis' last lingering hopes that any defense could stop the

daylight bombers from destroying any objective in the whole Reich.

One division of Fortresses had to slug its way with heavy losses almost every bit of (he 600-mile route in to the city, while other divisions reported moderate to almost negligible fighter opposition. Virtually every bomber crew, however, told of intense walls of flak ringing the capital.

. There was no official announcement up to last midnight of American losses or claims, but it was expected that the number of bombers reported missing from the day's operations might be among the highest in Eighth Air Force history. ; .

A new record of enemy aircraft destroyed by the escorting fighters also was expected as intelligence officers checked claims and camera gun films. Mustangs, Thunderbolts and Lightnings, on preliminary reports, probably had-outscored the Nazis in the ratio of eight to

one and had gone well over the previous single day's score of 61, established on Feb. 22.

While the heavies and their escorts were completing their seventh attack in eight days, a record force of nearly 300 Marauder mediums of the Ninth Air Force carried out heavy attacks on the

Nazi airdrome at Beauvais-Tille and military objectives in the Pas de Calais area, all without loss. Sunday night, RAF Mosquitoes had kept the Nazi defenses strained by attacks on western

Germany. With weather conditions obviously much improved over Saturday's when Fortresses dropped the first U.S. bombs on Berlin through almost solid six-mile cloud, Eighth Bomber Command ordered a major, although not record, force to go right back to the same target.

Americans Fighting in Burma

1,000 Japs

Cut Off by

Yank Drive

Guadalcanal, New Guinea

Veterans Open Prelude to

Possible Big Campaign

A "large-scale" offensive against  Japanese in north Burma has been launched by the first American ground troops to fight as a unit on 5 continent of Asia, it was disclosed yesterday.

Nazi Casualties

24,000 at Anzio /

Three Big Attacks Costly

For Germans; Allied Guns

Continue to Pound Foe

ALLIED HQ, North Africa, Mar. 6—

Marshal Kesselring's three desperate attempts to crush the Fifth Army bridgehead south of Rome have cost him at least 14,000 casualties, it was estimated today, as U.S. artillery and mortar crushed a small German attack near Cisterna.

Allied artillery was given credit for a large percentage of the Nazi casualties— the equivalent of two divisions.

An American who escaped from his German captors reported he saw "German bodies being piled up like cordwood while they dug a common grave for them."

As bad weather gripped the bridgehead and the Nazis regrouped after their latest abortive assault, only patrol clashes and small-scale engagements broke the relative quiet.

On the main Fifth Army front the

French repelled patrol attacks northwest of Cassino and south of Monte Crocc as German sources warned that Lt. Gen. Mark VV. Clark was reinforcing his troops for major attack.

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