Southern France Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 8, 1945, Nice, Provence Alpes Cote d�?TAzur                               Page 4the stars and stripes tuesday May 8, 1945 discharges for some Jap War for others the following Are highlights from the War department press release explaining the redeployment and partial demobilization which Ivill take place in the army after be Day our army is now 8,300,000 Strong. Under an approved plan we Are How engaged in working toward an army strength of 6,968,000 a year from now. That will give us All the strength we believe we can deploy effectively against Japan. A a a our Best judgment is that we can defeat Japan quickly and completely with an army which a year from now should be 6,968,000. The japanese have a military Force of More than 4,000,000 men and Many millions More men who can be utilized for service forces or for combat if need be. A a a but a division it takes 75 trains to move it to a port. That gives you some War ends tor nazi yachts the War ended for these three German yachts when the seventh army got in their Way. They Are sitting on ammunition boxes awaiting transportation to quarters in a captured military Academy. The japanese forces Are divided. Some Are in the Home islands some in China some in Manchuria. They have remnants of garrisons in Many parts of the Pacific and East indies. Overseas duty for All every physically fit Soldier in the to. S. Who has not yet served overseas will be assigned to foreign duty when he completes is training or if he is performing an essential administrative or service function As soon As he can be replaced by a returning Veteran a a a moving our forces from Europe to the Pacific involves the greatest transportation problem that has Ever been undertaken in War distances Are tremendous prom Europe to Manila by Way of Panama is 14,000 Miles from san Francisco to Manila is 6.771 Miles Speed is essential for it is vitally important that we do not give the enemy time either to rest or to reorganize his defences. Consequently Many troops will go straight from Europe to the War against Japan As Many As can be taken through the ., without reducing our pressure on the enemy. Will be brought through this country and be Given furloughs in route a a a the need is particularly great for service troop6 to build communications. Harbours bases and airfields essential to the sharply expanded combat operation Many of the service troops will have to go direct to the Pacific to prepare the Way for full application of our ground and air strength half go through if. 8. More than Naif of the men to go to the Pacific will go by Way of the u the proportion will be substantially lower than that among service units attached to air and ground operations and higher among combat units. The great bulk of the combat units will be staged through the u. S a a a a preliminary Survey indicates that All but two Quot percent of the men to be released will be men who have served overseas and that these two percent will be fathers who have been in the army a Long time. About half of the 1,300,000 men who will be eligible for release from the army due to Long and arduous service Are now in Europe and about one third Are in the Pacific most of the others Are now in this country having been returned under rotation after serving full Tours of duty overseas a a a in the last War. It took a year to bring Back the 3.000.000 men in the sep with no problem to meet in the Pacific save for a Small Force in Siberia. Today we have the problem of moving out of Europe almost double that Force a Large number of whom must be transported Over 14,000 Miles of Ocean to the far reaches of the Pacific a a a Pacific Nat priority we Haw about 70 combat divisions in Europe at the present time As exclusive of hundreds of thousands of combat troops assigned to corps and argues and a huge Force of Supply and service troops. It takes 16 Liberty ships to move the equipment of a single armoured idea of the transportation problem we Are up against. First priority must be Given to troops and equipment going to the Pacific if we Are to win that War in the shortest time and with the smallest Cost in casualties. However demobilization will pro need at the same time As redeployment although it will be necessarily secondary in terms of urgency. Every ship that can be pressed into service from any Quarter will be used a a a there will be 800 transport planes assigned to this task. Fifty thousand men a month will be brought Back to this country by air. To the maximum possible extent these planes will bring men from combat troops in the very heart of Germany men with the longest periods of combat service and most Remote from ports this process will begin promptly after Germany is Defeated. Deaths decline at Buchenwald Buchenwald concent a. Hon Camp May 7�?death rate among the 5.000 political prisoner patients at this Camp has dropped from approximately 100 to about 15 a Day under u. S. Medical super division. According to Brig. Gen. John a Rogers. U. S. First army surgeon. More than 90 civilian doctors of every nationality headed by or. Victor Horn czechoslovakian surgeon. Do most of the medical and surgical work. Some of Europe most noted physicians were imprisoned Here. The staff is directed by col Abner Zehm. Of Minneapolis. Minn. A disinfecting team directed by Philipp Auerbach an imprisoned German chemist is delousing the Camp. Some 60 cases of typhus were discovered and were brought quickly under control about 20.000 inmates still remain in the Camp. Including those who Are ill about half Are russians and poles. Ezra Pound seized Milan May 7 Reuter a Ezra Pound. American poet who has been broadcasting italian fascist propaganda from Home for the past several years has been captured in Genoa it was Learned today. Pound was one of eight americans indicted for treason by Washington. May 7 ians a his heroism during the Battle of the Quot belgian bulge last Christmas Day has won the congressional medal Honor for pvt Paul j. Wiedorfer of Baltimore. The nations highest military award is being presented to the 80th div. Infantryman it was announced today for his feat in wiping out two German machine gun nests which had halted the nazi armament control asked san Francisco. May 7 up a France and Czechoslovakia advocate establishment of International control Over All great armament industries and total elimination of Krupp and other German arms plants. We must maintain a steady control or we will have another world War Jan Masaryk czechoslovak foreign minister and chairman of his country a delegation at the United nations conference told a reporter. Rene pleven. French minister of finance demanded that the United nations order destruction of All German arms factories and forbid reconstruction of the Krupp plants. The International control proposal also would apply to plants in Czechoslovakia and Moravia and the Schneider Plant at be Crusot. France. In Paris the foreign affairs committee disclosed that it has recommended to the Parent French consultative Assembly that an International mandate be created for the Ruhr. The committee also called on the French provisional government to negotiate with the allies for French control of the Saar Coal mines and miners to operate them Burma troops supplied by air Rangoon May 7 up a the 14th army a 70o-mile drive through Central Burma which resulted in liberation of Rangoon was the first time in history that an entire army received All of its supplies by air while on the March. Saaf. Raf and Craf Crews of Eastern air commands combat cargo task Force daily dropped 2,500 tons of supplies. Advance of his platoon near Chau Mont Belgium. Wiedorfer a 24-year-old former Baltimore Utility company employee set out alone across a Snow covered open Field and despite heavy enemy machine gun and Rifle fire completed his Mission. He eliminated the nazi position by tossing a grenade from 10 Yards out and then finishing off the Crew with his Rifle. British second Kos a 79 German divisions a London May 7 Reuter a Twenty seven British and american divisions which fought under command of the British second army liberated 11,000 Square Miles of Europe conquered 70,000 Square Miles of Germany and destroyed 79 German divisions. Gen. Sir Miles Dempsey a men opened 11,000 Miles of Road constructed 76 airfields and built 677 Bridges. Cemetery fails to yield Hitler Moscow May 7 apr the courtyard of hitlers chancellery in Berlin gave up bodies of Many general staff members leading stormtroopers and other nazis but not the Corpse of Hitler. Red Star said there is Quot a terrific Corpse Hunt on for Hitler and Goebbels who the German commanders in Berlin continue to insist killed themselves in the last moments of  the Fate of Hitler will not be hidden Long the u. P. Quoted pravda As saying. Quot soon the veil will be lifted and the myth about the heroic death of Hitler will be shattered. To the Imperial chancellery Annex where Hitler had built his rooms a red Star said a the Halls Are full of Brick barricades boxes books spilled cases of decorations nazi medals and unfurled swastikas. Iron crosses by the handful Are scattered about like leaves Elbe r. Divides ninth and reds with ninth army May 7 apr withdrawal of american troops toward the previously selected line of demarcation Between them and the russians has begun. The first step consists of evacuation of americans from their Elbe River Bridgehead making the River the temporary line Between the two armies. Previously army of Cir is had said the division line would be farther West. Reich defeat blamed on 3 by Edward w. Beattiejr. United press staff writer the ardennes offensive started the final decline of nazi prestige. Germans and prisoners of War became very expert at Reading Between the lines of communiques and by Christmas it already was apparent that something was pretty Rotten about the Mammoth drive into Belgium. By new years the germans suspected another army had gone West for the Sake of hitlers prestige which already had Cost them Stalingrad Leningrad Al Alamein Tunisia and a dozen other last stands. The Feld Webel top sergeant of my Camp went around proclaiming that the Reich had been be fouled since 1933�?and nobody did anything to Stop him sixty year old men in the Berlin suburban Volks Strum sent East beginning Jan. 24 armed with Knapsack. Spade a bottle of ersatz Coffee and a few shreds of Hope came Home again a few Days later in Many cases openly. When the allies swarmed across the Rhine at will and ate up whole provinces each Day Germany first reaction was one of Complete despondency. Then suddenly came an apathetic Hope that maybe the americans and British would arrive before the russians. One forlorn Hope nobody has been talking secret weapons or anything similar for weeks now. Nobody has cared where Hitler was. The Lucke Walde Camp guards assured me a week before their sudden Panicky flight that they would Only fire a Token Volley then run if it Ever came to a question of defense. The Only thing which remained was the forlorn Hope in the Western allies. It is no longer a Hope that they May suddenly emerge As Saviours of Europe from communism an idea which scores of prison Camp commanders had tried to Spring on British and american prisoners nowadays it is just the last desperate Hope for physical salvation by a nation which is now just a mob of terror stricken Defeated individuals. 4 million Pwns pose pr0dlem Washington May 7 Ansi lacking a precedent in Law or Modem history. Allied officials today sought an answer to the question of what to do about 4,000,000 germans captured by Anglo american armies. Geneva convention regulations require that nations feed shelter and clothe prisoners until they Are returned to the care of their own government. But . Authorities Point out Germany is being crushed  completely that it probably will not have a competent government for a Long time. There apparently is Little doubt that most of the 4,000.000 captive germans will be eating american food and need american care for some time. Allied military quarters Are considering two choices first disarming the German prisoners and a a turning them out to pasture in chaotic Germany second retaining them in Allied Camps until some order is restored in the Reich. Either Way it appears that the 400,000 German troops in prison Camps in. The us. Will remain there indefinitely. They Are needed to eat he manpower shortage. The u. 8. Government in july 1943. Decorate Joe who two Machino cans alone