E TERN FRONT
-----------
f . : I . - ~
.
1/r,Uh.Ja;.J-.
11,11#.
~ . r .
\
Let'
continue
the
story of A chen
where
we
l
eft
it off
last
night, when the
question
w
as
-
Wh
r
t re
pl
y
woul
the Germ
a
n
garrison
ive to the
American dem
a
nd for
surrender?
!he
de
ad
line w
a
s today, ten thirty
!•I•
An4 so this
morning,
in the American
l
ineH ringing the
city, thousan
ds
of
A ■ PPMMl
eyes
gazed
at
the buildings
and steeples of historic Aix-la-Chappelle, the city of
Charlemagne, where that great Emperor was laid to hia
fina
l
z ■ astag
rest more than a thousand years
ago.
The watching Americans c
a
u
g
ht the glint
ot
white - white fl
a
s hung
froa civilian houses.
But
tha
t
w
as
all
- just the civilians wanting to surrender.
The hour of the deadline came and
went,
but there ias
it,.
no reply
from the German command.
AndJJmeric ns
watchin
the city
saw
German soldiers t
ak
down the
white
flags
the
civili
a
ns had hun
g
.
.Se
th"e
li-«ri-ihood
wrhef!i
1:-&M
WESTE
RN F
R
ONT -
-
·
-----------
Right
wa
s
he»ae
etit
itghe
:.U,
out
The Americ
a
n res onse to this was overwhelming.
First dive bombers
went
into action,
and
began their
task
of
batt
e
ring the medieval city into rubbish.
Then the
g
uns rin
ing
Aachen opened up,
a
nd a deluge
of shells be
an
exploding in the tnwn.
Within a few
~~o.1A.+I/
minutes, Aachen wa2!,thitdt&~ great clouds of smoke
and dust, clouds that towered high into the air.
lext, American infantry surged forward for the
.
stormin
assault,
fighting
their w
a
y
#-erwHi
against
German de
f
ens
s
At-the approaches to the city.
The guns of the great ring of artillery
were
....
filb,iJ.ng
all
the time, hour after hour.
'l'henJreat
batteries
stopped
shooting
at
the city - swung around
and started firing in the opposite direction.
tilep-..
H,url;their
shells
at masses of enemy troops and
~
EST
E
RN F
R
ONT -
3
___
....
____ _
e
q
ui
pm
ent, that
were driving
f
o
r
wa
r
d
- the
Ge
m&ns
trying t
o
relieve Aach
en
. The
Hitler
command sent two
columns in
an
attempt to smash through the
American
line,
--·
and open
a
way
to the city.
,ha~
1111
what
dPew
the
,c
,.,,,, 1
ls ■
cJina
lae ■ee1
l!I
jeinea ie the
'
'hll!l!t.ing el
,ta•
••lief
eol• ■ a ■,
These WP.re
hit
hard, were stopped -
they
could
make
no progress against the infantry
forces holding the siege line. Whereupon, the gun•
swung
around again and turned their fire on the city
once more.
1k . -~
In the roar o~ cannon
c:R•I,
another sound
rang
out
- bog callin
g
. That's
what
the
G.I'a
call ite:,
~
irreverently - the voices shouting through loud
speakers, voices in German. American propaganda calling
upon the
doomed
garrison to
surrender-~:WJ■id1fl;IJ
worked
in
some
cases, and in one
place
a
whole German
company c
a
me out
•and
JI
surrendered.
E
T
E
R
N FRONT
~
------------
Som
e
f
th
p
ri
s
oner
s
tod
n
y were reeling drunk,
fu
l
l of
l
i
q
uor. They ex
p
l ined th
a
t yesterd
a
y, in the
face
o
f t
h
e American de
m
and for surrender, the @erman
commanders distributed the monthly ration
of
schnapps
amongst their men. The whole ration of liquor for one
month. Apparently this was de
s
i ned to bolster up the
spirit• of the soldiers, as the surrender
ulti ■ atu■
was refused - Dutch courage.
Maybe it worked for the
time being, but Dutch cou~age bas
a way
of
wearing
off,
and the indications are that the German
s
oldiers,.,...
.,.. like the civilians of the city,
want
to surrender~
but the officers are holding out.
tem
u
e
re
LOWELL THO
.
i t ~
80'l'
O
BER l t , 1944-
6T
.
\iHUtRB-
~Qbb0W W E ~ ~ -
Here's the latest -- the
Germane.
--------~-
---------
are trying to evacuate Aachen.
And
t:l!attempt
of the relief columns to
I\
this
may tie
in with
break
a
way
into
the city-·- an attempt •hich the Germans proceeded to
renew.
The latest word comes from American war flyers
who report that German trucks are m o v i n g ~ ! t u ~ ~
~eading for what the Nazis app~rentl~ hope may be a
narrow escape corridor.
The situation with reference
to
a
possible escape corridor and the movement of the
relievin~ columns
aza
is obscure.
And all we have is
a
report from the American
'
pilots who.;J.;;.ted
tlacerman
t r u * f Aachen --
saw
l:t
by the
.
A
light
of an enormous fire burning in the center
of
the city.
GREECE
-------
We
he
a
r th t the Germans are evacuating all of
Greece, in full fli
g
ht - fifty thousand of them trying
to get out o~ the trap that is closing in on them.
Their escap routes through the Balkans are threatened,
as Allied forces push aore deeply into Jugoslavia.
0
RUSSIA
__
....,.
__ _
War on the eastern front flares at both ends,
the
north
and the south. At one extreme, the Baltic
area,
the Soviet forces have begun their storming attack
against East Prussia. This is announced by the Germans,
'
who say that the long expected Russian offensive against
the home
province of
the German military caste has now
begun. And, at the same time, Russian guns are blasting
leael,
the encircled Baltic
port where
a hundred thouaan4
Germans are trapped.
'
At the other end of the
line,
south/~ Hungary,
ft-e Russians are continuing their sweep across the flat
Hungarian
plains.
The capital of the province
of
Transylvania has been captured, and so has the second
largest Hungarian city. Red army tanks and cavalry
are
placed
now
at
a
point
only
forty-two
miles from
Budapest, the Hungarian capital.
The latest is a report that the capitulation
of Hungary seems near at hand.
Aea tbe=
1oyae_.l~
tr..at.
Hungary is in a state of collapaeJand
■ ay
surrender
1uile Prime Minister Churchill is in Moscow.
POLAND
------
London flashes word th
a
t the Premier
of
the
exileA Polish
o
vernment is going to Moscow to join
in the conferences of 6hurchill and Stalin.
~
Over
in
this country, the Polish
Question
flashed into the news late this afternoon with the visi
of a group of Polish-American leaders to the bite Bou
They
made
representations to President Roosevelt and
asked
tor assurance that the treatment of Poland by
Soviet
Russia will be in accordance with the principle
•••odt:a
of
the Atlantic Charter.
President Roosevelt
responded by saying that Poland must be reconstituted
aa a
great
nation/ Also1 he ad
1•a
peace loving
·
nation.•
PORT ARTHUR
----------
A book pub
l
ished in Moscow is n t only
er
ati
n
a
l
it r
a
ry
sensation,
but
is
also taken to
have
a
p
olitic
·
l me
a
nin
g
concerning the post-war
peace
,
arr n
-
ement
s
.
It
4s
a
seven hundred pa
g
e novel called -
~~~
..
"Port Arthur•,
and
tells
aboutAthat
strategic,", in
lanchuria - •
"'"Nlf
Russo-Japanese War.
• f
Htrte
e
t&
P•rt-,h-4,hu~
during the
- r > ~ ~
Speaking of
~a
◄ itp
at
lcauk
±-t
the book s
a
ys: •It
w
s
the very· symbol of the fatherland
.
of Russian soil.w
That line of thought is being wildly
applauded in Mosco
w
, and
tb1
aavuwvat is taken to
indicate Soviet intentions of acquiring possession of
Manchuria..
Histo17 recorda how that province of China
was
s
ei
zed by the
Russian
armies of the Czar.
Then the
Russians
were de
f
eated by the Japs,
and
Manchuria was
returned to China
-
only to be grabbed by the Japa
later on - which event marked the b
·
.
e
g1
nn
in
of
the
present war between ~hina
and
Ja
p
an. The
~hinese
want
to get
Manchuria
b
ack
when victory comes, but now Soviet
Russia is applauding a novel which presents
Port
Arthur,
~
the strate
g
ic Uanchrian harbor, as a sacred Russian goal.
~
Travel
news
from
ashington
adds
another
ind i c at i on to the
pre
ump
ti
on that the Phi 1
i
pp in e
Is lands
may be invaded
soon.
Philippine President Osmena,
successor to the
late
~anuel
Quezon,
has
left the
national capital.
And
the word is that he is on his
way
to join
Ceaa»N
MacArthur for the impending drive to
liberate the Philippines.
~PACifIC
----- --------
ord fro
m
Pearl Harbor is that Halsey's bold
assualt against the Ryukyu Islands is only beginning,
and
will
be followed
by
a rapid
series
of
blo
A
ws
designed to crush the Japanese inner defense fines
If
which
the Ryukyu Islands are so important
a
part.
1fThe
Japanese
themselves disclose the specific
targets
that Halsey's
task
force~• hit -- four
key island
Qw ..
~
bases with names like~&•~ and Okiaawa.
Tokio says
that the Islands were assualted by four bandred carriei,.
based-planes which flew in four waves.
MacArthur, meanwhile
keeps
ha■ mering
away
at the
Japanese oil supply
in
the Dutch East Indies.
Bia
latest
bulletin telling of seventy-four tons
of
high
explosives
dropped on an important harbor of
Cera■
Island
---
a.~••
oil harbor.
A
D
N
E
ACE
--------
e have a
n,ew
top ranking air ace
·
-· and he's
the•••• same one all over again, Bong.
Major Richard
Bong who with twenty seven i~x Japanese planes shot do
returned to this country to be haiied as America's top
scorer in the
war.
Now he's ·back in action in the
Southwestern Pacific and a bulletin tonight announces
that he has run his score up to thirty --
making
bi ■
our number one ace, as he •:a~s-b~e~f~o~r~e~-:_----------~--~
SMUTS
----
Sombre
ords were spoken
today by
that
eminent
statesman
of the British Empire,
Prime
Minister Smuts
of South Africa.
One
o
f the great
spokesmen
of the
British cause in the present
war,
the South African
Premier tod
a
y stated that the final death struggle of
Nazi Ger
ma
ny may turn into horror greater than any
that has come to pass thus far. And Smut~ declared:
•The best contribution we can
make
toward peace is
to
.....I
t.he
•er as soon as possible.
The world is
bleeding and suffering to death.
In the sixth year of
the
war,•
said he, •the wholf
mechanism
of civilized
society is in dan
ge
r.
The very
foundation ■
of the
future are cracking in universal destruction.•
~~.
Lhe
British Empire's
;A._
Gro.nd
Old Yan
speaks
out
now
in auch sombre tones - like~
modern Jeremiah.
To
d
ay in New Orleans SenatorTruman, running
for the Vice Presidency, was in what might have seemed
to be a candidate's paradise.
Or maybe
a candidate'
inferno.
Be was
visited by a dele
g
ation of service
men's
wives,
three hundred of them -- each
with
a
baby.
Row, as we
all
know,
baby
kissing• vividly
featured
in the
Aaerican
tradition of
electioneering.
A candidate, arriving at Podunk
'
or Oshkosh on a
campaign tour, is supposed to oscE.late an infant.
-
And there in lew Orleans were three hundred for
~ -
Truan t o ~ -- if he wanted to campaign in a reall7
•
bi1 way.
1-aere
■ as:;
501
en ■•,
a
pei» ef
t.wiir•
for•
rhUe-eein«
phet»og•aphtti r::alha.1
ea
What
did Candidate
Truan
do?
Be said
he had a cold, aal didn't want to give it to the
babies. ~o he didn't kiss even one.
Which may ha~•
been
a
tragic loss of a great opportanity, or
maybe
just
a
good out.
WORDS
-----
I
suppose it must be the American influence over
in England - but anyway, we learn today
of a move to
simplify the language of official documents - cut out th
ponderous expressions and big words.
Ieep the lingo
simple and brief. This occurs in a citadel of Briti1h
dignity and conservatisa, the lar Office. the central
bureau of Bia Majesty's araed forcea.
~oday, the lar
Office directed its staff
.
not to uae
a
big word when a
little one will do.
Don't say - •terminate•.
Say
•end.
And don't •facilitate• when you
,
can •help.•
To impress this instruction, Bis Majesty•• War
Office issues the following pronunciaaento:
•Nothing
ia
more conductive to long winded tnd stilted writing,•
it proclaims, •than the use of a foraal pedantic or
.
.
polysyllab~ substitute for the natural word
.
or
■ xpz ■ aai
expression.• ~ear! bear~ as they say in England.
the
And so, bec~use of American influence no doubt,
~~
writers of
Britis~pvOJA ■ •~
documents will no
longer use a big word when a little word
will
do.
And
all that remains is for them to come ovPr here, spread
that same good influence in Washington, and persuade
the boys who get up American government forms not to
use - •a formal, pedant
.
ic or polyayllabia substitute
for the natural word or
_
expression.•
D