Pacific News-Review

Notes And Comment On

The Progress Of The War

From Feb. 13 To Mar. 13

Feb. 13: Marshal Stalin, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill have concluded an eight days’ conference at Yalta, in the Crimea. They discussed means of crushing German resistance, establishing lasting peace, restoring war scarred Europe, solving the problem of uihfying Poland and of repatriating liber ated prisoners. It was decided that when Germany is forced into unconditional sur render, Britain, Russia, America and France (if she wishes) will occupy the Reich in separate zones, under a joint military commission in Berlin.

Feb. 15: The most modem area of Manila is still held by the Japs and by the time they are driven out little of this section will remain intact.

Feb. 15: Russians under Koniev are only 53 miles from Dresden, but the Ger man High Command is in the position that if it removes troops from the north ern area Zhukov will be more able to launch frontal attack on Berlin, 40 miles away. Koniev’s forces have ad vanced 68 miles in the last four days.

Koniev has been assisted by waves of heavy American bombers.

Feb. 16: For nine hours, to-day, more than 1,200 US aircraft based on carriers attacked aerodromes and military targets in Tokio and Yokohama.

Feb. 16: Russians, under Koniev and Zhukov, have linked and are attacking the stubbornly-held line sheltering the German capital. Civilians of Berlin have been told that further evacuation is impossible; they have been issued with Army rations and told that they must help defend the city.

Feb. 18: US paratroops and seaborne forces landed on Corregidor, island fort ress in Manila Bay on February 16 —24 hours after other US forces had captured Bataan Peninsula on the western side of the bay. This opens Manila Bay to Allied shipping. Tokio announced that the US air and sea forces which blasted Tokio and Yokohama on February 16 and 17, have moved southwards.

Feb. 19: US Marines this morning stormed ashore on Iwo Jima, in the Vol cano Islands, 750 miles south of Tokio.

They secured a -miles bridgehead and are pushing inland.

Feb. 20: Heavy fighting on Iwo Jima.

The Americans captured one of the island’s two airfields, but with mounting casualties. This is regarded by some cor respondents as the Marines’ toughest assignment. The Japs have tunnelled into extinct volcanoes in some sections — it is described as the world’s most forti fied island.

Feb. 20: On the Western Front three Allied armies are now thrusting into Ger many. British, Canadian and American forces are now on the move, on a front of 200 miles, from the Dutch border to the Saar.

Feb. 23: Although there are about 40,000 US Marines on Iwo Jima, in comparison with 20,000 Japanese, .the going is still hard, against fanatical resistance from prepared pill-boxes and defence positions.

The Marines now hold half of the island.

Feb. 25: The US Ninth and First Armies have burst into the Cologne Plain and are now within 13 miles of Cologne. They have smashed the Roer River defences— last enemy strongpoint of defence before the Rhine—and captured Duren. North of the Americans, British and Canadian troops have resumed their attack between the Maas and the Rhine; and in the south the US Third Army, on the Saar, now holds a front of 65 miles well inside Germany.

Feb. 25: Two hundred Super-Fortresses,

based on the Marianas, plus carrier-based planes, attacked Tokio to-day.

Feb. 28: Correspondents at Montgom ery’s headquarters state that a great German collapse is possible and that the Rhine defences are disintegrating.

Mar. 2: American troops have landed on Palawan Island, most westerly of the Philippines. It is south-west from Luzon and stretches to within 100 miles of Bri tish North Borneo.

Mar. 4: The Canadians from the Maas section of the Western Front have linked with the US Ninth Army. The US Rhine front now extends from 40 miles from Cologne to Hamburg, and American col umns are now fighting in the streets of Cologne.

Mar. 5: On the Eastern Front, Russian armies are attacking vigorously to elimi nate the German forces in Pomerania and the Danzig areas. Some are now at Kolberg (on the Baltic) and others are 22 miles from Stettin.

Mar. 6: Australian patrols in the Aitape sector of New Guinea have penetrated as far inland as the village of Balif, where an aerodrome for the evacuation by air of wounded has been constructed. This saves seven days’ march over the rugged Torricelli Mountains, Mar. 7: General Patton’s Third Army made a sensational tank break-through on the Western Front at the confluence of the Moselle and the Rhine. Further north, Cologne has fallen, and, on the Ruhr sector, Allied troops are approach ing the Rhine; their first attempt at bridging the river is awaited.

Mar. 8: Patton, in a spectacular dash, reached the Rhine north of Coblenz. This threatens to trap about five German divi sions west of the Rhine. Allied armies, except in this and the smaller pocket around Wesel, are on the west bank of the Rhine, from Arnhem to Coblenz.

Mar. 8: In Burma, British troops have entered Mandalay, after fierce fighting in the city area. At the same time, Chinese troops captured Lashio, important com munications centre on the Burma Road.

Mar. 8: Australian forces to-day landed on the small island of Saposa, off north west Bougainville.

Mar. 9: On March 7 American forces crossed the Rhine by the Remagen Bridge, which the Germans failed to destroy, and have established a bridge head on the east bank of the river.

Mar. 11: Twenty-three thousand Ger mans are caught in the pocket between the American First and Third Armies.

Men and equipment are streaming across the Remagen Bridge, and the American bridgehead on the opposite bank is being enlarged. The Germans have tried un successfully to shell and bomb the bridge.

Both German and Allied observers still think that the great offensive across the Rhine will come from the British and Canadian forces lower down, on the bor der of Holland.

Mar. 11: Japanese have disarmed all French troops and police in Indo-China, and the French Settlement in Shanghai, and have taken over the administration of the two territories. Tokio accuses the French of assisting the Allies, and of

“non-co-operation with Japan.”

Mar. 11: Three hundred Super-Fort resses raided Tokio on March 9, and 15 square miles of the city were destroyed by fires.

Mar. 12: Russian troops on the Eastern Front are now storming !nto Danzig, German stronghold on the Baltic coast.

The whole of Pomerania has thus become cleared or a mopping-up area. North of Berlin, advancing Red troops can see the

spires of Stettin, port for the capital.

While the Russians are advancing every where on the north and central fronts, however, the Germans are counter attacking heavily in Hungary. One view is that the Nazi leaders are preparing for a final stand in the central European mountains.

Mar. 13: Kustrin, German fortress town, has fallen to Marshal Zhukov.

Kustrin is 35 miles from Berlin in a direct line.

Sir Charles Marr, who has had many personal associations with Papua and New Guinea, in both an official and business capacity, is again seriously ill at his home in Sydney, He suffered a severe illness a couple of years ago, but made a good recovery, and recently appeared to be in very good health.

Dr. H. W. Jack, Director of Agricul ture in Fiji before he retired last year, is now at home’ in Dublin. He complains about the cold winds but states that there is plenty of clothing and food in Ireland.

He has volunteered for war work in Eng land. as there is no war work to do in Ireland.