July 30, 1945; BATTLESHIPS BLAST INDUSTRIAL AREAS:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JULY 31, 1945:

Pittsfield., Massachusetts. Monday July 30, 1945.

Mighty Allied Battleships

Blast Industrial Centers
Carriers Send Their Flocks
Of Planes Over 300-Mile
Area in Pre-Invasion Strike
GUAM (UP)—More than 1000 earner planes blasted and burned a 300-mile stretch of Central Japan from Tokyo to the great Osaka-Kobe industrial area today—the 21st day of an offensive softening the enemy homeland for invasion.

Radio'Tokyo said the raids began at 5:30 AM and still were going on at 3 PM, almost 10 hours later.

Close to Shore

Before dawn, American and British battleships and other Third Fleet units set fire to the Japanese industrial center of Hamamatsu, roughly midway between Tokyo and Kobe, with a bold pre-dawn, bombardment from only six miles offshore.

Tokyo broadcasts said surface units also shelled the southeast part o£ Kii Peninsula, below Hanvimalsu, after the main bombardment.

British Ships

Raid Malaya
Coastline
Australians
Chase Japs
Through Borneo

CALCUTTA (UP)--The Southeast Asia Command announced today that a British naval task force steamed near the west coast of Malaya,  northwest of Singapore last week and spread havoc among Japanese .shipping, coastal installations, air fields, transport and  troop concentration.

 

Yamashita

Carries on
Personal War
Jap General Core
Of Final Philippine
Resistance

WITH U. S. 14TH ARMY CORPS

Northern Luzon (AP)—A personal war between Japanese Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita and American and Filipino forces, fought in an area so high that clouds often interrupt combat, dominates the final three-pronged campaign to eliminate 24,000 Japanese on Luzon.

A total of 12,226 counted enemy dead in the first 27 days of July testifies to bitterness of this conflict.

It is characterized by the terrain, which Lt. Gen. Oscar W Griswold, commander of the 14^th Corps, termed the most rugted he  ever encountered. Stubborn enemy resistance is colored by the fact an unusually high total of 1,543-----

Adolf Hitler's

Death Not Yet
Fully Proved

BERLIN (UP)—Col. Gen. Alexander V. Gorbatov said today there is still is no definite proof that Adolf Hitler is dead, and an investigation is continuing to determine wheter he still is alive Gorbatov is the Russian representative on the interallied command o£ Berlin, also called the komman'dantur.

"We do not exclude the possibility that Hitler is still alive and in hiding," Gorbatov said at a press conference.

The Berkshire Evening

EagleMonday July 30, 1945.          Page 5
New B-32's Join Air Arm In Pacific
Will Be Biggest Bomber in Kenney's Force

 WASHINGTON (AP)—The new B-32 heavy bomber is in the growing air fleet which Gen. George C. Kenney's Far East Air Force is sending against Japan. Although smaller than the B-29's used by the 20th Air .Force, the B-32's are the biggest bombers in Kenney's force which includes Flying Fortresses and Liberators.

Built by Consolidated Vultee, the bomber is described officially as capable of high altitude and very long range. The B-32 can lift the equivalent of-' its own weight—empty It weighs 60,272 pounds, its overload weight Is 120,000 pounds, Its four engines develop 2200 horsepower each, giving a speed in excess of 300 miles an hour. Armament details are secret. Its 135-foot wingspan is about six feet less than that of the B-29, but 23 longer than the B-24 Liberator. Former B-24 crewmen who took transition training compose the flrst B-32 crews to see combat, the Army reports.

 

Chinese Mop

Up in Former
American Base

CHUNGKING (UP) — Chinese troops have mopped up Japanese remnants in Kweilin's suburbs and other units have overtaken the retreating enemy at Linghewaii, 15 miles to the; northeast, a headquarters communique announced today.

One Chinese column moving northeust of Kweilin is preparing to attack simultaneously with a second column pushing from the west, the communique said. Linghcwan, on the Hunan-Kwangsi railroad is believed due to fall within a matter of hours.

 

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