WAR ITEMS

Grey River Argus, 21 March 1945, Page 6

WAR ITEMS

LONDON, March 18. The Germans executed fourteen Norwegians in Oslo as a reprisal for last Wednesday’s wave of sabotage as cabled on March 16. Dr. Benes has arrived in Moscow from London and will remain there from ten to fourteen days before fly; ing to Kosice with the remainder of the party. The Swiss radio says: Following the bombs dropped on Basle and Zurich cities, which killed 5 persons and damaged railway installations, Gen. Spaatz with members of his staff personally visited and apologised to the Swiss Minister of Military Affairs, who was accompanied by the Foreign Minister and the Swiss Commander-in-Chicf General Spaatz stated the guilty airmen had been punished. He expressed sympathy with the relatives of the victims. He discussed measures to prevent further violation of Switzerland’s air space. ' A British United Press correspondent stated:—A German terror attack on Antwerp, with V-bomb.s, was designed to wipe out the port but failed completely. The first V-bombs fell in the Antwerp area early in October. Thereafter, underfed and without tires, Antwerpers underwent the full weight of the V-bomb offensive. Several hundred bombs fell on the city by the end of January, but the port carried on. There have been a number of grim incidents. One bomb fell on a packed cinema, causing heavy casualties, after which all Antwerp citizens were forbidden to attend cinemas. Hundreds of the houses were destroyed. Thousands cf bouses were rendered uninhabitable. British civil defence workers were sent to Antwerp to help the local authorities. They said that the Antwerpers showed the same fortitude as Londoners.

The Supreme Commander of the German Navy (Admiral Doenitz) has admitted that it was superior scientific research which gave Britain superiority in the U-boat war. In a lecture given by the admiral to German flag officers early in 1944, lie said: “At the beginning of last year and the beginning of this, one development became very obvious which, long ago, even in peace time, had been feared, that the enemy might deprive the . U-boat of its essential feature —the element of surprise—by means of radio location. With these methods lie had conquered the U-boat menace. The scientists who created radio location have been called the saviours of their country. It was not superiority in strategy or tactics that give him success in the U-boat war, but superiority in scientific research.” It is stated in London that British scientists were immediately; marshalled on priority research within and without the armed services. The Admiralty, for example, employing over 3000 scientists in various laboratories and departments, had gone a step further than any other country and it has embodied them into the newly-formed Royal Naval Scientific. Service. WASHINGTON, March 17. White House announced Mr William Phillips has resigned as Mr. -Roosevelt’s personal ambassador to India. The United Press Association recalls that Mr. Phillips returned from India several months ago, amid reports that he encountered the disfavour of British officials, because of his views on the Indian political situation. Tokio radio quotes a Japanese Information Board spokesman as saying that many thousand townsmen were bombed but, and thousands severely injured, and thousands were burned’ to deat h in the Tokio, Nagoya and Osaka raids. Colonel Whitesides, a chemical warfare expert, revealed that a new M. 69 firebomb, used against Tokio, Nagoya and Osaka is a six pounder, which burns eight, to ten minutes at a temperature above three thousand degrees Fahrenheit, and clings tenaciously to any object. Tokio radio says that Japanese school children of the fifth and sixth grades are being trained in bayonet charge. “The,, school children are enthusiastic and declare that they are polishing their fighting spirit for the destruction of Britain and America.”