April 29, 1945: RIFT REPORTED IN PEACE ORGANIZATION:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, APRIL 27, 1945:

Salt Lake City, Utah, Friday Morning, April 27, 1945

Soviet Leader

Vows Pole

Rift Solution

Promises Full Russ

Support in World

 Peace Organization

 SAN FRANCISCO. April 20

(AP)— Russian Commissar Molotov catapulted the world security conference into a tight deadlock Thursday by blocking the election of Secy, of State Stettinius to its chairmanship. The stolid Russian also rejected a British compromise.

What was to have been a routine initial business meeting of chiefs of delegations broke off abruptly, its task far from complete, its participants stunned and amazed at prospects of another big three row.

After setting off his explosion, Mololov proceeded calmly into a news conference to give public assurances of an eventual solution to a controversy already flaming

among Russia, Britain and the United States — over a knotty Polish problem.

Pledges Cooperation

And from here, he moved on to the conference's first plenary session to pledge full cooperation, Russia's "inflexible" .support, in erecting a new and powerful

peace-keeping organization.

Red Army Engulfs

Most of Berlin;

British Win Bremen

Patton Tanks Near Austria Line;

Reds Overrun Torgau on Elbe,

Peril Hitler Headquarters in Capital

While Swiss reports — wholly unconfirmed by official sources—told of a juncture of American and Russian troops, the red army fought into the final third of flaming Berlin Thursday night. In another sector soviet troops seized the great Baltic naval base of Stettin.

The British captured Bremen, Germany's second port, to climax two days of furious fighting, and Gen. Patton's Third army forces were reported some eight miles from the Austrian border.

Meanwhile, the rout of two German armies in Italy appeared almost complete as American Fifth army troops hurtled northward and captured Verona at the foothills of the Alps.

PARIS, Friday, April 27 (UP)

— Heavily gunned U. S. Third army tank columns battled

eight miles from Austria Thursday day in a bid for a swift showdown with last stand enemy troops massing at the border, and in the north the British captured

Germany's second greatest port of Bremen.

As these blows fell on the north and south segments of dismembered Germany, allied capitals of Europe buzzed with rumors started by a Swiss radio report that the Americans and Russians had met in the Elbe river area on "a front of many

miles."(insert Map)

LONDON, Friday, April 27 (UP)—

Red army hordes, hastening the fall of Germany with capture of the Baltic port of

Stettin and the Moravian arms' center of Brno, were reported by the German radio Thursday night within one-half mile east of the Bendlerstrasse, where Adolf Hitler reputedly has his Adolf Hitler  underground headquarters in, the heart of Berlin.

Soviet armored columns, 60 miles south of the isolated reich. capital, captured Torgau on the west bank of the Elbe, 16 miles from U. S. positions on the Mulde river. Junction Reported

(The historic junction of the eastern and western allies apparently was an accomplished fact lacking only the formality of an ' official announcement. C B S Correspondent Richard Hottelet reported that on a front, tour it

went as far east of American lines at Torgau, crossed the river and returned without an enemy shot having been fired. This presumably was some hours before the Russians captured Torgau.)

Both German and Moscow reports indicated that Russian flying columns had entered or overrun virtually every section of Berlin, leaving only fanatic resistance in the hulks of buildings and subway tunnels. Moscow dispatches said that the city might fall within 24 hours.

Reds Engulf Berlin

April 25, 1945; Berlin Surrounded:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, APRIL 25, 1945:

FLORENCE, S. C., WEDNESDAY MORNING, APRIL 25, 1945

Patton men Near

Austrian Border

In Stab South

PARIS, APRIL 25, WEDNESDAY

(AP)—Whirling down en Hitler’s. Bavarian Mountain retreat,

three mighty  Allied armies curved 'the tips of a giant pincers within 25 miles of Austria's borders last night.

In the far north, the British opened the final assault on Germany's second port of Bremen, and along the Elbe River valley the Russians drew historic union ever closer to an historic union with the waiting Americans.

Seize Half

Of Burning

Nazi Capital

Total.Isolation of Berlin Near As American Forces Approach to Berlin Historic Junction

On Broad Front

By ROMNEY WHEELER

London, (Wed.), April 25--(AP)—

Two powerful Russian armies joined forces inside Berlin yesterday and seized fully half the are of the burning city which the Germans said now as "practically

surrounded" and entirely cut off from outside aid.

A Moscow communique announced the junction of the First Ukrainian

and First white Russian armies in a single phase of coordinated drives which captured the Sclilcsischer (Sileslan) railway station and all the districts north'

and east of it, within a mile of the center of the city at Untcr Den Linden.

The First White Russian forces of Marshal G. K. Zhuikov simultaneously

executed a great wheeling movement, north and northwest which severed one ' of two railways Icsaing- from Berlin. Co the northwest German jxrchet –and came within two and one-half miles of the other, Moscow disclosed.

April 24, 1945; 1/3 of Berlin in Soviet Hands:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, APRIL 25, 1945:

RACINE, WIS., TUESDAY AFTERNOON, APRIL 24, 1945.

More Than Third

Of Berlin Now

In Soviet Hands

LONDON—AP-Russian troops have tightened their encirclement of Berlin—already more than one-third - in soviet hands—and 'in a swift dash halfway across central Austria have swept to within 89 miles of Berchtesgaden, Hitler's mountain retreat, the German high command declared today.

The surge through Austria carried to Eisenerz, 57 miles from Linz and 85 from Salzburg, the broadcast bulletin said: Americans of the Third army are 93 miles from those two cities, and 110 from Berchtesgaden in their southward slice toward the nazis' Alpine redoubt.

By German account, Russians in Austria were but 155 airline miles from a linkup with t h e U. S. Third army.

Two powerful soviet armies were cutting into t h e h e a r t of Berlin in savage street battles. The German high command said the Russian encircling drive around the capital on t h e southwest had reached "areas southeast of Brandenberg, and east of Potsdam,"

Berlin's great western suburb. Brandenburg is 25 miles west of Berlin.

Await Epochal Merging.

South of t h e crumbling citadel of nazidom, other soviet forces drew near American troops waiting for an epochal merging of the eastern and western fronts.

The German communique , broadcast by t h e Hamburg radio, declared Germans still were resisting on t h e n o r t h e r n and eastern edges of Berlin.

More than a third of Berlin was in Russian hands. German reports indicated that fighting was swirling through nearly one-half of the wrecked city last night. Red a r my troops and tanks advanced from point to point over t h e bodies of

Germans who h a d been refused permission to retreat.)

3 Allied Armies

Surge Toward

Hitler Hideout

PARIS. —(AP)— The three army assault on the outer ramparts of the German Alpine redoubt burst across the Danube at a third place today,

overran the traffic center of Ulm and carried to within 105 miles of Hitler's hideout at Berchtesgaden.

An American-Russian junction was expected momentarily in the center, splitting Germany.

(The French press agency, quoting "Moscow reports reaching London," said American and Russian troops had joined at Eilenburg, nine miles northeast of

Leipzig.

(Although there were indications early today that the formal announcement of the linkup—to be made from Washington, London and Moscow—was imminent, 11 a. m. war time, passed without indication as -to. when it would

come.)

Rommel Died at Ulm.

Troops of the American 3^rd army pressed to within 93 miles of the Austrian strongholds of Linz and Salzburg, eastern gateways to the southern redoubt.

The 7th army closed down the last 50 miles toward Munich and the French 1st army advanced close to the Austrian frontier and reduced three large pockets behind the lines.

Captured German documents said that Field Marshal Irwin Rommel died at Ulm last Oct. 14 of wounds received in a strafing

attack in Normandy."- —

It was at Ulm in ;1805 that the Austrian army surrendered to Napoleon near the I4th century Gothic cathedral, higher than the Cologne edifice and second only to it, in size. The Danube is navigable from Ulm to the Black sea.

April 23, 1945; Nazi Defenses Crumble

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, APRIL 23, 1945:

HUNTINGDON, PA MONDAY, APRIL 23, INS.

NAZI DEFENSES OF

BAVARIA CRUMBLE

IN PATH OF ALLIES

By BOYD D. LEWIS

United Press Correspondent

Paris, April 23. —• American and French armies exploded a grand-scale offensive into Nazidom's last retreat in the Bavarian Alps today amid persistent reports that

other Yank and Russian columns had i'used the eastern and western fronts with a juncture below Berlin.

The boasted Nazi defenses of Bavaria fell apart like a house of cards early today when Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's rampaging Third Army turned up suddenly in the

Danube Valley 125 miles from Butchersgaden. After an elaborate feint towards Chemnitz that caught the Nazis flatfooted.

REPORT YANKEES,

REDS HAVE LINKED

UP ON ELBE RIVER

By ROBERT MUSEI,

United Press Correspondent

London, April 23.—Russian armored spearheads reported probing into the heart of Berlin from threedirections today, clanking along Unter Ben Linden and other famous streets within one to four miles of Potsdamer Plats.

The German radio said Adolf Hitler was in personal command of the defense of Berlin. The Red Army had driven 10 miles deep into the enemy capital and held

possession of a fourth of it.

A dispatch from Germany through Switzerland said "the battle of Berlin is practically over" and

United Press report from Moscow said the plight of Berlin was becoming- graver by the hour.

The German radio said Hitler had thrown into the capital's defense "all the military poweravailable to Germany."Even women were fighting in the front line, the broadcast said.

Should Berlin and Prague be lost, it added, all Europe was doomed.

The Soviet breakthrough to the heart of Berlin was reported by the neutral Swiss radio and Swedish correspondents filing their first uncensored dispatches of the war from the Nazi capital.

They said Russian tanks

________________________________

BULLETIN

London. April 23.—The Moscow radio reported late today that Marshal Stalin had announced an advance d to 57 to 62 miles in the Red Army offensive which broke into Berlin and captured the great Oder bastion

of Frankfurt.

______________________________

smashed 10 miles into Berlin from the eastern and northeastern limits and were rolling with blazing guns along Unter Den Linden, the treelined boulevard where Hitler once held victory parades.

U.S. SOLDIERS MAKE

GERMANS DISINTER

BODIES OF VICTIMS

By ROBERT VlEKMILHOX

United Press Correspondent

Gardelegen, Germany, April 23---

American soldiers stood guard today while healthy, prosperous Nazi members dug- up with their bare hands the hastily-buried bodies of 500 of their former prisoners.

There were the bodies of anti-Nazi Frenchmen, Belgians, Russians, poles and Dutchmen who were burned to death and shot a few hours before the Americans took this town. Then they were dumped hurriedly into make-shift graves.

A great majority . of--the townspeople are Nazi party member.

Most are prosperous merchants. The town looks like any other German town — clean streets, clean homes, clean people with rosy, plump cheeks. But they could not have failed to note when SS troops  aided by

(Continued on Page Four)

U.S. AIRMEN BLAST

126 JAP PLANES, 6

SHIPS IN TWO DAYS

By FRANK TREMAINE

United Press Correspondent

Guam, April 23.—American aeral forces wrecked 126 Japanese planes and six ships in two-days of battles along an 850-mile front from Japan to the southern

Ryukyus.

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz announced the heavy toll of Japanese aircraft today. He also revealed that U. S. Marines had landed on two more inlands off Okinawa and disclosed that Army troops had killed 11,738 Japanese and captured 27 on southern Okinawa.

The Japanese planes, of which 105 were destroyed, were accounted for by Mustang- fighters from Iwo and carrier planes from the U. S. task force in the Ryukyus. In addition a large force o B-29 Superfortresses from the Marianas may have destroyed many others in a raid on Kyushu airfields.