Prime Minister Winston Churchill had "- narrow escape from death today. Just outside# the British embassy in Athens, he was climbing into his car. Suddenly a shot was fired fro the rifle of a sniper of the Elas forces. It missed the British Prime Minister, but hit a girl three hundred 7ards down the street. This happened after the conference of Greek representatives came to ter ■ s and that of itself was a surprise. Earlier stories brought word that the conference had broken up in a complete fiasco. Late this evening they changed their mood co~plete11!The1 voted unanimously to form a regency of Greece under Iing George. A fleet of Uncle Sam's warships for the second time inf d our ays, only seven hundred and fifty miles a ■ ay from Tokyo. That means ou~ Navy now is definitely fighting in enemy home waters. Admiral Nimitz for obvious reasons, does not tell us bow large the fleet was or how big the men-o-war in it, but we may presume they•• cruisers and ~ 9' destroyers. They attack9'tz plaue==e&>ttllll Iwo Jima. A };. ~ - - - - - - - - in the volcano grotJJr~ islands, and engaged in - - ~ a duel with Japanese coast artillery. They blew up ~ . a Japanese gunboat,~ set afire"'-a landing s ~ ~ g e d the Jap costal defenses, air strips and other inatallations. Army bomber planes of the Pacific Strategic Air Force under Lieutenant General Harmon joined ~.,ca.. £: ~ V-a.,~ Ot4 ~ ~ the wa~ips an~~h.;r.,t from the skies. i:lr The Tokyo . radio today claimed that Japanese warships had bombed the airfield our en~i~eers recently made at San Jose on Yindo a Island. According IAVAL BA1TL~ - 2 to the enemy, they sank or damaged four Unit~J States transport: Tuesday night in the Gulf of Mangarin. ~ MacArthur's headquarters confirms•• one part of the Japanese report. That eneaJ warships did shell our positions at Mindoro. But that their aim was poor and they did no damage. MacArthur also says that his observers caught sight of a Japanese task force coming through the Borth China Sea at dusk on Tuesday. Whereupon his aedium bombers, fighters and torpedo boats immediately attacked and sa~k three of the Jap destroyers, and - damaged a battleship and a heavy cruiser. Also shot down three Jap planes. &DP IAYAL BATILI From naval advices we learn the Jap r · orces included one bai.tleabip, one heav . y cruiser and six destroyers. It was the first Jap taak force to take a chance on the high aea since the defeat they sustained in Philippine •atera in October. UfER[OBTQ Superforta of the twenty-first Boaber Coa ■ and todaJ carried out the fifth big raid on auni~ione factories of Tokyo. eral Baneel doea~ aOt tell ua ho• aany there were in the foraation, but the Jape theaaelvee eatiaate thea at anywhere froa fifty to seventy. The i■ Tokyo radio ■ aid the Fort ■ bad dropped their bo ■ba over a wide area includin1 the great port of Yokohaaa. The giant boabera appeared over the Mikado' ■ capital during a 1e11ion · of the iaperial parliaaent, but its ■embers were at lunch. Our boabardiera had 100d, clear weather for their wort. The Mikado'• lar Minister t~day aa•e out an exaggerated clai ■ of A■erlcan caaualtiea in the Pacific war. Field Uarahal Sugi7aaa told the Tokyo house of Peers that the ar■ed forces ot the United States bad lost no fewer than fiYe hundred and three thouaand aen killed, wounded and captured. Thereupon, the lioiater of the laYJ, prophesied that the decisive battle ot the war in the Pacilio would be fought in the Philippine•. IAYX Good newa fro■ tbe lavy! Uncle Sa■ •a _ . the laat few daya haYe aunt twenty-seven more Japanese veaaela aad that include ■ one large aircraft carrier. · Secretary rorreatal eaya this brings the total of ene ■y · abipping sunk b y ~ 1ub■arinea,in the Pacific 1 to ■ore than three-and-a- half ■ illion tons. Besides that aircraft c a r r i e r , ~ in heir last haul 1 aent to the bottom a converted light oruis r, a destroyer, two destroyer tranaporta, two eaoort •••i ~••••l•, two large transports, ten mediu■ cargo 1hipa, and othera. Saif-'rc.;reatal, thia ia hitting the lap■ 1:n one of 4 A t a aoat painful spots. ~IJIIA On the Asiatic mainland, the Japanese have suffered a e.t1aide1nre d f t e ea ..;:tJr tta ••••••a P••~ Honan. It was a Chinese Coaauniat > engagement. The Eighth route Ar ■y is on the march, aiming to drive out the Japs, to wipe out al1 pro-Jap _ anese organizations, to rally all the anti-Japanese forces in China and organize a people's Aray. ~ According to a report•• Chungking, the A coaaander of the Japanese garrison at Shanghai haa threatened to destroy the whole city if he is forced to evacuate. Thia report caae fro■ a spokes ■an tor the araiea of Chiang lai-Shek. Be also said that Chungking had inforaation that the Japanese are strengthening their defenses on the Chinese coaat against the J•••i~i■ possibility of Allied landings. t::) - L..e.:t.;.. ~~ s-~.~CJ.J ~ - t i . r , ~ ~~~~ ~~. 11ST IRlLJ.fil!ll_ From the Western Front, the best news is that the Aaerican troops pocketed at Baatogne have been surrounded a For a while, the1·r prospects were gri ■, •ere for seven days, with the town in flames. The of Bastognes caae today. lord of this comes fro ■ th e different sources. Firat, the iaportant highway jun tion. That atill left the issue in doubt. Then the Lu abourg radio oaae in with a aiailar story. That lo ked better. But finally a sergeant, who reported that in and around the Baatogne, in a troop carrier, la'nly see Aaerioan tanks aoving The news from Belgiua on the whole is ■ore · Ei'senhower's columns have checked encouraging. IISTERN FRONT - 2 aimed ti ■ es. RI=:& ~ - Ul ie ■ore-, j,he d ~ have etaken llanhay which the Razis captured only yeater ay. aaa kil l ed ■ a - n7 of ~h••• it beoaae n eatablil bed fact by noon yesterday that the Y nka had broken up or arrested all the worst of the Geraan attacks in the Belgian bulge. These four cl ar days, which enabled our air force to join in the , fight, have resulted in so■e of the eneay a c vanced u its being entirely without gasoline. United Pr 11 correspondent, John llcDer■ott, in a report from t~e front, said the entire picture appeared brighter to ay than at any ti■e since fi•l• Ma•ehal Von Bundated big offensive on -ta ~ ~ - 18 too earlYJ!4' as ts December Sixte ~-= ~ u.-~Gfficial report, twenty-eight hours old, brings us word that the Geraana have now attacked - 3 IJZ atrongly on the northwest aide of their salient and are throwing all they have into it in an effort t w -....~r .... aove on Liege) ia believed to have been 'NIII Hitler's original plan, a br~atthrough at Liege, on t h e ~ to ~twerp • ._.._ r■ott, in bia report fro ■ the Front, adda that there ia every indication Von Rundatedt ia about to throw everything into 1:lla.. ~ , , ~ petr:::trAthe ~econl phaae of hi• drive, the big lazi effort to avoid the Allied ter■s •• of unconditiaal surrender. Berlin reports that the Britiah Second Ar■J ia taking over the poeitiona hitherto held by the Aaerican Hinth AraJ northeaet of !ix-La-Chapelle. expect the lintb to g~into action on the l3elgian Front. - 0 - The relief colu■ns of General Patton'• Third ~ Aray are also fighting north toward Baatogne, JtJ•J have •a,s recaptured three iaportant places on the highray in that region. ~ - - · c:, thl·rteen hundred Allied warplanes, More than ~ including · aix · hundred _ _ aelped ~ ae-de-f8'Ba 8 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ll§TIRR FROMt - 4 Aaerican heavy bombers were in there hitting hard toda. And, the Geraan Luftwaffe was out in force. One pilot said he never before saw ao many Jerrie& at one time; that he shot down three, andJ~ got sandwiched in aaong fifty lazi fighters, whereupon he -4 shot down another 1~ in front of hia. Bu~he waa ~ , 4 ~ - - ~ in a ~ • o • • ~ ~ lwelve Aaerican planes fro■ another group Juaped the Geraana behind hi ■, and ~~,~ ■and bia. "6.'i, ha got a fifth plane_ and shared a aixth, after which he went hoae 1 ei:i out of aaaunition. ADD WESTEft!.J:RONT A late report froa the Western Front indicates that, at least one point of the Ger■ an spearhead, the Nazis are getting read7 to withdraw. 5...JJR. That is in the area around Celles. Pilots and other observers in American planes report that the7 aa• the Germans burning ~ wrecking their equipaent to prevent the Allied araiea froa mating use of it. lli~ On the west coast of It 1 a Y, the Nazi army, which had been retreating slowly, suddenly stopped in its tr a cks and let loose a mas 8 counter attack at the Allied Fifth Army. It began with heavy artillery fire and centered near Gal11·cano, a town fifteen m iles inland. In the center, the Germans also in~reased their artillery fire, while their planes became more active. On the eastern flank of the Allied line, the Eighth Army continued the wiping out of rear guard units of the enemy, north of Faenza. The Berlin radio broadcast a boast today that the Nazis have almost completed a wall of defenses across Italy, a wall which will protect the whole of Hitler's Reich from attacks in the South. Twelve tbousand Germans have been busy on those fortifications for months. A Nazi official described it a a syste■ off« defense in - depth consisting largely of pill boxes and anti-tank ditches. ~ BUSSIA The battle for Budapest . 18 now in its last phase. Fierce tank battles are raging in the streets of that city on both sides of the Danube. of the Hungarian capital is burning, and the dvance guard of the Red armies is slowly but surely fighting its way in. The Germans are apparently prepared to turn the place into another Stalingrad, a mere ■ ass of rubble. Berlin bo-.s that the garrison is composed of he cream of the Nazi Army, led by a veteran S.S. officer. The Russians are cleaning them out, not only street by street, but house by house. ho SoY-i:e~ o; be Army of -the k-ra-i-ne-a·- ~-n-b o-trh &-idea. The- blowing up munition dumps, the railway yards and public buildings ,' ,,:olumns of --Jr. smoke and flame• can be seen over Budapest. ■ oscow reports that the Third Army of the Ukraine bas now captured almost ten of the eighty square miles BYS§IA - 2 comprising Budapest in two. have T:ht,J gaxa split the garrison A C eanwhile, other Soviet armies are marching along both banks of the Danube toward Vienna)I\Their spearheads ninety-seven miles away from the one-time capital of the Hapsburgs. Berlin meanwhile reports heavy fighting in Latvia, East of the Baltic port of Libau. That battle also becomes hotter every day. The National Red Cross has begun a strenuous campaign to recruit more nurses. The Surgeon General of the Army has appealed to the Red C~oas to help •• procure at least ten thousand mo~e of the ■ at once. Eleven Ar ■ y hospital units are about to go overseas without any nurses. lothing of the sort has happened before in this war. If new women do not enroll for that service, many A ■erican wounded soldiers will be without essential care. The Par l iament and I people of Britain are about to lose the service s of the Right Honorable David Lloyd George. A year ago the octogenarian Welsh statesman bad a resurgence of youth and married for a second ti m e. Now his physicians have urged him to rHtire fro m Parliament. And this he will do on January Seventeenth, at the age of eight-two. For the last thirty years, Lloyd George has been one of the most spectacular figures in Britia h public life, and since Nineteen Twenty-Rine he has been called the Father of the Bouse of Commons, meaning that he has been a meaber longer than anybody else. In fact, in the long history of the Britiah Parliaaent, no man ever served so long without a break. / / The history of -1: loyd George is / inextricably / interwoven with the history of his country throughout the last four decades. The story of bis life might come out of the pages of Horatio Alger. Be began . b tt y And was elected to as a struggling Wela a orne • /' Par iament when be was only twenty-••••• seven. cam~ a cabinet minister sixteen years later. He - -- - ~ IARD The C.I.O. Dep a rtment store union went to work on M ontgomery Ward's in three places toda1 • At one Detroit store, a crowd of people charged in, smashing right and left. The manager of the store said it was a crowd of union gooms. They overturned counters threw merchandise on the floor, trampled on it, and left behind a shambles of broken ilass, all this the7 did in only fifteen minutes. In Kansas City, the union restricted its warfare to picket lines. At Chicago, the union leaders distributed leaflets and established a mobile loud speaker outside the plant, through which union agents shouted criticisms of Sewell Aver7, Chairman of the Board of Montgomery lard. _....... !SCAPE / ' In the dese ·ts of Arizona, Sheriffs and Unclv Sam's agents are making probably the aost intere ting manhunt that ever was pursued in those lands of the sage brush and e cactus. hunt for nineteen officers of the German Havy who escaped on Christmas Day from the prisoner camp at Papago Park. Twenty five escaped and six have been captured, but nineteen are still loose. It took them months to dig a tunnel two hundred and fifty feet long. The leader of the group was the executive officer of the Nazi Pocket Battleship, the Graf Spee, which Hitler scuttled off the coast of Uruguay early ~ in the war. So · e have nineteen dangerous fugitives at large in the southwest, and all of them willing to commit murder at the drop of a hat. In sev e ral states, the highw ya tonight are covered with ice. All the w · y from nort · 1 ern Texas through Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, rain f 11 which froze. A for the aidd-l~•eat, t-he---» Ghicago Weather Bureau propheei,.ed tha~ the low~fH,- taaperatUI! in those regions will be some twent~ degrees above zero. Sne i l l also c-ont'in tu As for the states further East, the teaperature registered sixteen degr~es below zero at Tayloretown, Pennsylvania, five bel.o• a · t Cleveland, twelve below at Boston