E.':t .- ~ ,,d,~I ½'25Jl'f4S . - _ (fki . R . <!. ~ ~ ~ -_ @j_ ~r+CJA.t.-J) On Okinawa, the smashing of the powerful Japanese 4efense line seems to have been accomplished / at last. Word is that the American drive at the eastern end of the enemy fortifications is proving to be a decisive blow. Today's~ tells of a two mile advance / south from the captwred town of Yonabaru:-anl advance acored against disorganized opposition. And American troops are now only seven miles from the southern tip of Okinawa. I' The Japs everywhere appearto be falling b~ck, giving up their string of fortresses across narrow Okinawa. They are st'll holding the ke _ points of Shuri and Naha but the defende~s there are considered to be rear guards, putting up a delaying action to cover a general evacuation. In other words, he Jape are pulling back to a new line. Or rather, they re withdrawing for a final death stand at the tip of Okinawa - aoco rd ing t their practice in battles on previous islaDd S. Tokyo reports the landi g of suicide l • ✓ r ~ rborne troops behind the American lines. These, claim the Japs, did a sabotage job - attacking depots of unitions and installations at airfields. There is not American confirmation of this airborne blow - presumably by parachute. In previous battles, the Japs have resorted ,., to sabotage parachute landings, which were promptly wiped out. Tokyo indicates that another Aaerican invasion is imminent - an aaphibious blow at the / . island of A11a ■ i. That bit of land 1s in the nor1h era Ryukyus, IJ•k•J about a hundred and twent1-five ■ ilea northeast -.,,, of Okinawa and a hundred and eighty-five miles fro ■ the southern coast of Japan. Tokyo has been h1·t a a· lD. Today another deluge of fire bombs poured down on the Japanese capital. And new fires were started in the city that has already been largely burned out. It is estimated that nearly thirty-six square miles of Tokyo have been swept by flame - more than one-sixth of the enemy capital. The Twentieth Air Force discloses that in ~ previous bombing of Tokyo, · 6he one of the day before yesterdal,) twelve B-29s were l~~t. The Superfortresses were brought down by. anti-aircraft fire • • Jap fighter opposition was not so severe, but the ack-ack•was intense. WffEX One of the weirdest features of the war / has , been Jap suicide planes. I h h e ave ad only a vague idea V , 1 • e . r:1 ~ j . . , _ ~ ~rM•~••••-lill•Jlllil•V~ •hat hap p ens •hen riftrAJ 11 come / diving into ships. Today we know more - after the disclosure of the story of the Destroyer Laffey, hat I little craft, staunch beyond description, arrived a ~ Seattle today under its own power ,.., _ after having been hit by six suicide planes. Six supposed to be death blows; not counting sundry boabs. C> It happened off Okinawa, during the third .' I aaaa•suicide attack against Aaerloan warships near tbPt island. Twenty Jap planes concentrated on / destroyer - re ular boabers, and then the fanatics. One boaber aissed with its boaba( and got I i away. Four more caae in, and everyone was shot down. A suicide plane Wet · g, but was knocked out by gunfire before it could reach ita target. Another Jap plane was hit. ' Jt crashed into the water so close to the Laffey that the e x p l o s i o n ~ killed an Aaerioan sailor. wrr1Y - 2 • ta_ bomb hit the rudder, and for the reaainder of the battle the destroyer couldn't steer_ ' ;.-t:fwent round and round in a dizzy circle. Then the first suicide la~e . hit• l,Jt de■olish" a gun mount - and fires broke . out in three coapartments. In quick succession two ■ore suicide plaml crashed• onto the deck with Yiolent explosions. The the Laffey were blazing away, / and A■erican I carrier planes were diYiDg at the Jape. Bevertheleas, ; three more suicide Japa go\ through and hit the destroyer \ I J 11 t a boab exploded in tile wardroom. ' The c]ekt::de / seeaed utterly a goner, but / her skipper, commander lillia■ D. Eberhardt, . . . said: " ~ ~ I will never abandon ship as long as a gun '9IIIIJ fire. ~ At one point a sailor knocked the sMipper I d J Sul·c1·de plane crashed onto own - to save him as a ap the deok. engagement The Laffey was a aass of flames when the ended. H e ~ u a l s the epic of the wrru - 3 aircraft carrier Franklin - the heroisa of which was the story of the hour last weekend. The fires aboard the Laffey were eventually put Dut, and today the I destroyer steaaed into Seattle - on her own. The davy has just announced the loaa of a destroyer in the Jap air attacks off Okinawa-~ ~ . u.s.s. Little. The destroyer was sunk with casualties I that are described as - aoderate. UIISU lord from London is that the situation at the Adriatic port of Trieste is not as optiaistic as has been represented. We've been hearing ✓ that the ,,,l dispute between the western Allies . and Marshall Tito will soon be settled. But this is characterized in / - London as "rather more hopeful than the facts see ■ to warrant.• ____ _, From Trieste itself •e)lear of exciting J/ I-' events last night. The Jugoslava occup~ing part of the city 'did some wild shooting, "' fireworks all over the ~ - le• Zealand troops holding• section of tile / harbor, dug into positions ready for a ~ifht - not knowing what was going o~ri'hinking that the Jug~slavs I aight be attacking. It was explained later that tbe gunfire was in celebration of the Bi~thday of Marshal Tito. g.101Ts A strange story about 0-boats co ■es / / through today - a report that the German sub■arinea / are still operating in the Baltic - pirate 0-boats. Thia e ■anates fro ■ the island ot Bornhola, which the Russians have taken over - and states that the Red Air Force is hunting down the pirate aubaarinea. llNILEii The end of the Gestapo Chief ; Hiamler, about / which we heard in the news yesterday, is followed today bJ a vivid eyewitness account of what occurred. This is related by British Sergeant-Major , Edward Austin [ · . . -.J,,,1,4 was one of the guards in the rooa at the Lu.neburg ~ / Prison Camp into which Hiamler w a s taken ' - after bein1 recognized as th ~ notorious chief of the lazi Gestapo. •se caae into the rooa dressed in an A ray / shirt and with a blanket wrapped around hi ■• I iaaediately recognized hi ■ as Bi ■aler. Speaking to hi ■ / . I / in Ger■an, I pointed to an eapty couch and said, •that•• your bed, get onto it! / •Be looked at ae and then at an interpreter f and said. 'Be doesn't know who I a■ '! •I said, yes, I do, you're Bia■ler. "He started to _ go to bed. Then a doctor and a Colonel caae into the rooa. They began a routine / inspection_ looking for poison, which we suspected that ~ B le Searched his clothes, all over iaaler had on him. his body, under his ar■s : in his ears, and in his hair. UPUR- 2 At last Himmler was told to open his mouth". This was followed by quick action. •The doctor put two fingers in his aouth. Hiaaler claaped down bis jaws on the doctor's fingers ✓ - and crushed a i which he had held in his aouth for hours". Thus spoke the British soldier. / I It was, as the news told yesterday, a of potassium cyanide - that aost deadly of all poisons. And I've been wondering!- Suppose that, in shutting hi• teeth on the British doctor's fingers//Hiaaler had cut the flesh and cyanide had got into the wound. Mi1ht he not have taken the life of the surgeon while killin1 hiaaelf? / But no such thing happened. The doctor, I realizing the situation, threw Biaaler onto a sofa. / lith the aid of the Colonel, he tried to ■ate hia spit / out the poison. But the lazi, long known aa •Hitler's hangman" died - as they held hia. I A sensational spy case broke in lew York today when the FBI arrested a foraer officer of tbe / French air force as a secret agent, who had worked for CAN-~-~ lazi Germany. Be is Paul Jean Marie Cavailll~ ~......:-~ The charge is that Cavail\~z; after the tall of France, entered the eaploy ot the lazia, and••• sent to the United States. Be operated in le• York / and ~ I .,. £;,. / lashington, and with a powerful radio set tried to send aessages to Geraany. ~e was caught through the aid of a~ill I" another French aviator -- the famous ocean flyer, Coatt•• Coat•s himself posed as a lazi agent. In France he up with Geraan espionage:'l'hen went to Spain 1 •here he told his story to Aaerican authorities, who thereupon . , ••ployed hia for counter-espionage. The Geraans, thinkin~ that Cost,s was their spy, / ordered hi• to go to the c~-.~-..-, United States. They inforaed hia that Caville~'•ould follow hia - the two to work together. Cost1• reported the •hole thing tothe FBI, · and C a v i - was under surveillance all the tiae as he tried to carry out his aission s ■ of espiionage. Here's a storv that L 1 ~ owe 1 Thomas would like ! to tell - a tale of heroism that comes close to home, • close to this program. It bas to do with one of the ~LY l7 gua~ded secrets of th ~ European war / - the catastrophe at the Italia port of Bari. There have been !, but I don't think the story baa ever been told fully - of how Razi planes made a surprise attack, and blew up ammunition ships, turning the harbor into an inferno of explosions. ,. The cataclysm began when a German bomb blew r up an ammunition ship which erupted and hurled a volcanic / / aass of flame, exploding ammunition, chunks of steel. / and debris. Three other ships were set on fire, and on the docks 1 heaps of bombs ~ nd gasoline tanks flamed with new explosions. # ' I At one of the docks was a Sun Oil tanker ,.,, loaded with on e b ndred thousand barrels of hundred , octane aviation gaso l ine. The ship lurched as a huge ~-- tidal wave, ~ aused by the explosions, swept the harbor. Steel and fire were raining down, and on the ne a rby pier \ Wl - 2 barrels of gasoline burst into a tempest of flame. The Captain of the tanker tried to get his ship away, but it was moored to the blazing dock, and there was nobody at the other end to rel se the cables. / So there as the tanker caught in the ■ idst of fir and ~ explosions - with one hundred thousand barrels of high octane gasoline ready to blow up. ,, ,I The ship was s ved by a sailor, Seaman / Val Stanley Zdun of Chester, Pennsylvania. Without / orders from anyone, he dived into the water, swam to / the burning dock, and cast off the heavy lines of I Manila heap. Jumping back into the water, he hung onto one of the lines, hoping to be hauled aboard with it. ,- But the line sank. I The sailor swam back to the dock and found a rowboat. In this he rowed to the ship, which now was getting under way - the first vessel to escape from the erupting harbor of Bari. Abe tanker had to. navigate through dangerous channels, / blocked by the hulls of twenty exploded ships. ,. ----- Today at Philadelphia, the Sun Oil Company paid formal honor to its bravest employee - Sailor Val Stanley Zdun. Company President / hi• with a medal and with other J. Howard Pew presented gifts to ooa e ■ orate his I , , / and bravery iq saving the ship and his coarades. gjORC!ilLL In London, Pri e Minister · inston Churchill I ~ named h ~ s ne cabinet today - the caretaker cabinet. It is straight out Consavative, ~ the retiring Labor ainister replaced by members of Chu~chill's own party. lith this new group Churchill •ill adainister Great , ~ Britain taking care of things - until the election of a ne• Parliament in July. The hot political campaign will be opened ~ by the Priae inister . tomorrow - in his own constituency, loodford. That's a suburban section of greater tondon, I and Churchill •ill mate eight stre t corner appearances in five hours - what we Aaericans would call, •taking the stump". IIDICAL DR FT In Washington today, legislation was proposed for the drafting of doctors and nurses - to take care of wounded veterans. bill / A••••••• to that effect was introduced by Congressaan Rankin of isaiaaippi, Chairman of the House Veterans Coaaittee. The idea is to draft medical help, to be sure that injured veterans ,::, , attention. Doctors and nurses would be · - conscripted to serve under the veterans AdainiatratJot ~ ~~ this agency A• acquire a aedical staff along the lin~• of the Army and the lavy. / Congressaan Bantin introduced lia bill after a visit to the lhite Bouse, wher~ he discussed it with President Truaan / and Veteran~ Adainiatrator General Bines. Be says the President agrees with the ■edica~ draft bill in principle.