May 5, 1944; TOP JAPANESE TOP OFFICERS KILLED:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MAY 5, 1944:

New York, May 5. ;

The Tokyo radio announced today that Adm. Mineichi Koga commander of the Japanese combined fleet, had been killed on active duty, lees than a year after ,|

his predecessor, Adm. Isorotu Yamamoto, had met a similar death.

London, May -5-

American Liberator bomber pounded the "invasion coast" of France again today in a before breakfast blow, and then medium and fighter bombers and fighters took over the twenty-first consecutive day of the relentless pre-invasion bombing of Europe with attacks on rail lines feeding Hitler' Atlantic wall.

FRIDAY MAY 5, 1 9 4 4

ADMIRAL  KOGA

TOP OFFICER

FOR YEAR

Death Is Reported Same As

Admiral Yamamoto's

TWO GENERALS •>

Also Die On Active Duty,

Tokyo Says; Toyoda

Is New Chief

( Aaaoclated Press )

New York, May 5. ;

The Tokyo radio announced today that Adm. Mineichi Koga commander of the Japanese combined fleet, had been killed on active duty, lees than a year after ,|

his predecessor, Adm. Isorotu Yamamoto, had met a similar death.

A broadcast recorded by United S t a t e s Government monitors quoted an imperial headquarters communique as saying1 Koga had "died at his post in March of this year while directing general operations from an airplane at the front."

The wording of the communique bore a striking similarity to a Tokyo communique of May 21, 1943, a n n o u n c i n g Yamamoto'a death in a warplane the previous

April "while directing general strategy on the front line."

Sound Leader Koga, age 59, generally had been regarded as a sound but not brilliant naval officer noted for tenacity rather, than for his initiative.

He lacked the reputation of his predecessor, who was known as the man who torpedoed the London naval conference in 1934, planned the sneak attack on Pearl'

Harbor and once boasted he would' dictate peace terms in the White house.

AIR OFFENSIVE

MOVES INTO

21^ST DAY

Attack Carried Out Third

Day Without Loss

ROMANIA

Struck By Yanks, Berlin

Announces; Budapest

Raided By Night

(Associated Press)

London, May -5-

American Liberator bomber pounded the "invasion coast" of France again today in a before breakfast blow, and then medium and fighter bombers and fighters took over the twenty-first consecutive day of the relentless pre-invasion bombing of Europe with at tacks on rail lines feeding Hitler' Atlantic wall.

Not a plane was lost today, the third on which American heavy

bombers have battered France and Holland without loss. Of the few

German planes that challenged the invaders, fighters escorting Mitchell bombers shot down four.

The Berlin radio said that allied Mediterranean bombers were over

Romania this afternoon after as ' night's raid on Budapest in Hungary, but the report of the daylight attack had not been confirmed by allied headquarters; The broad cast said the afternoon raiders penetrated the Balkan kingdom under a heavy cloud cover and were atacked by German fighters in sharp battles.

Five In Six Days The Liberator assault was t h e fifth heavy bomber blow on rail anti-invasion installations and air ports in northern France in six days.

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