Replies

3 Armies Smashed – 2-3
Duesseldorf and Rhine in Sight of Our Forces (page 1 photo) – 3
German Soldiers Decline Battles (Hill) – 4
Carrying the War into Germany from Air and Land – 4-5
War News Summarized – 5
‘Nuts!’ Reply Held No Shock to Nazis – 6
Eastern Pomerania Cut Off By Soviet Drive, Berlin Says – 7-8
Russia Held Irked by Finns’ Stalling (Axelsson) – 8
Fliers Hit Ryukyus (Moscow) – 8-9
Marines Advance 400 Yards on Iwo (by Bruce Rae, first-time contributor) – 9
Aid Arrives for Our Marines on Iwo from the Sea and the Air (photos) – 10-11
Americans Strike South Luzon Foe (Jones) – 11-12
Fliers Give Score of ‘Fighting Lady’ – 12
The Veteran (Hurd) – 13
Rhine Bridges Vital (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 14
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on Fighting in Various Zones – 15-17
Favor Fund Plan of Bretton Woods (by John H. Crider) – 17
Finland Joins War Against Germany – 17

The News of the Week in Review
Allied Break-Through in the West: First Phase of the Battle of the Rhine (map) – 18
Fifteen News Questions – 19
“Grim Determination” (cartoon) – 20
Germany is Bled White by War on Two Fronts (Baldwin) – 21-22
“Not Much Left” (cartoon) – 22
Air Power to Hit Japan Harder than Germany (by Sidney Shalett) – 22-24
‘Classic’ Operations Bring Allies to Rhine (by Clifton Daniel) – 24-25
“Seems that They Are About Over” (cartoon) – 25
Answers to Fifteen News Questions – 25

The New York Times Magazine
The Road to Tokyo: Red Epic of Iwo (by Robert Trumbull) – 26-27
Close-Up Report on the Japanese (by Ford Wilkins) – 28-32

The New York Times Book Review
International Tribunals: Past and Future, by Manley O. Hudson (reviewed by Robert N. Wilkin, first-time contributor) – 33
The Best Selling Books, Here and Elsewhere – 34

http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/2/04.htm

March 4th, 1945 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: U-1014 (Type IXC/41) is sunk in the Minch Channel (Hebrides), in position 55.17N, 06.44W, by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Loch Scavaig, Nyasaland, Papua and Loch Shin. 48 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)

GERMANY:
U-3508 sunk at Wilhelmshaven by bombs.

U-3038 commissioned.

NORWAY:

U-530 sailed from Kristiansand on her final patrol.

U-1202 sailed from Bergen on her second and final patrol.

FINLAND: Helsinki: Finland formally declares war on Germany.

BURMA: Meiktila: The town falls to the Indian 17th Division. The Japanese 15th and 33rd Armies are trapped at Manadaly. The first assault on 1 March, watched by the 14th Army commander, Lt-Gen William Slim, brought the 255th Indian Tank Brigade onto the heights above the town. Later Slim watched his own Gurkhas push into the suburbs from the north. But the ferocious defence of Major-General Kasuya’s scratch garrison, his deep tunnels, and the natural defences of the towns lakes, ensured that it was three days before the last sniper was killed. Today more than 2,000 Japanese bodies lie in the streets.

VOLCANO ISLANDS: Iwo Jima: The first B-29 makes an emergency landing on the island. Fighting is still going-on between US Marines and the Japanese. (Gordon Rottman)

CANADA: Frigate HMCS Grou commenced tropicalisation refit Dartmouth , Nova Scotia.

U.S.A.: Director Mark Sandrich, 44, dies of heart disease at his home in Hollywood, California. Sandrich’s directing career began in 1927 and included (1) five films with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; (2) Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in the motion picture “Holiday Inn” in which the song “White Christmas” was introduced; (3) the film “So Proudly We Hail” starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake about Army nurses in the Philippines in 1941-42; and (4) “Here Come the Waves” with Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton and Sonny Tufts. Sandrich won the Venice Film Award in 1937 for the Fred and Ginger film “Shall We Dance.”

1949: USS Cowell (DD-167), commissioned as HMS Brighton (I-08) on 23 Sept. 1940, part of the destroyers-for-bases deal. Brighton was transferred to Russia as Zharki in 1944; today returns to the Royal Navy. (Ron Babuka)

More German maps, but there won't be too many more in the West. By the way, as a comparison for how the war is going on the two fronts, you can tell where the Germans are fighting and where they are not. In the American press releases, we are talking about how many Germans we have taken prisoner. In the Soviet press releases, they talk about how many Germans they have killed.

Speaking of the western situation, the Allied armies have closed up to the Rhine around the Ruhr, and are eliminating the last German positions on the west bank. From the news articles, the disintegration of the German formations shown on the map is apparent. In the bunker, I'm sure Hitler sees these as units capable of full resistance. Instead, they are really just blue numbers on his map.

Farther south, Patton is clearing his sector of the west bank of the Rhine. The German units here are not as bad off as the ones in the north, but that's only because Patton hasn't attacked all of them yet. The Germans are pretty much finished.

In the East, Zhukov's forces are clearing the east bank of the Oder in front of Stettin (the ancestral henkster family home, by the way).

To the east, the wings of Zhukov's 1st Belorussian and Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Fronts have trapped the German forces in central Pomerania. The southern units seen in the pocket are pretty much finished. Von Tettau isn't. Not yet. However, it was only two weeks ago the Germans tried their abortive Stargard operation. In that time, Zhukov shifted his forces north and have pretty much cleared the area. That's what two tank armies will do.

Farther east, the left wing of Rokossovsky's Front continues to clear it's sector west of Danzig and is getting close to the Baltic. The German flank to the right of 4th SS Polizei Division appears to be wide open, and the Soviet 19th Army is exploiting it.

To the south of Danzig, Rokossovsky's forces continue their slow broad front advance. Why is Rokossovsky so slow in his advance while Zhukov's forces go where they please? The answer is tanks. Zhukov has two full veteran Guards Tank Armies in his Order of Battle, as well as a few independent Guards Tank Corps. Rokossovsky, by comparison, is relatively poor in armor. His units are mostly foot infantry, and so it's a slow slogging advance. In addition, because he doesn't have the armor to tear into the German defenses, the Germans are able to maintain something of a cohesive front. However, the Germans are still being ground down.