Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 29, 1993 TAG: 9312280159
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Greg Edwards
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In recognition of the sacrifice of the region's veterans, Roanoke Times & World-News staff writer Greg Edwards will take a periodic look at the stories that dominated the news 50 years ago - news from the South Pacific, Europe and the home
Following is a selection of news items and headlines published in the Roanoke Times, the Roanoke World-News and other sources in the week of Sunday, Dec. 26, 1943, through Saturday, Jan. 1, 1944.
Soviet troops cut a vital supply highway for Nazi troops, capturing 20 towns, killing 2,000 Germans and taking 600 prisoners in their powerful drive toward Vitebsk in northern White Russia.
The Germans were still assessing damage after massive bombing raids at the end of the previous week on France's Pas de Calais and Berlin when Royal Air Force and American bombers raided Germany for the eighth and ninth times in the past six weeks.
Aimed at silencing one of the loudest squawks from the home front, a program for expanded 1944 production of simple and easy-to-make civilian goods was to be launched by the Office of Civilian Requirements. A study had disclosed that civilians accepted the scarcity of refrigerators, washing machines and other major conveniences but were really griping about shortages of the little things in life like bobbie pins, pots and pans, elastic tape and textile products.
Stan Musial, a reformed southpaw pitcher from the steel mills of Donora, Pa., succeeded Ernie Lombardi as battling king of the Natinal League. The 23-year-old St. Louis Cardinal outfielder swatted the ball at a .357 clip.
The German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk on the Murmansk route through the Barents Sea off North Cape by British home fleet units protecting a Russian convoy.
Units of the American 5th Army attacked two Nazi hilltop strong points on the fringe of a plain leading to Rome, capturing the fortified village of San Vittore.
The Chicago Bears beat the Washington Redskins, 41-21, for the National Football League championship. Branco Nagurski, who had ended a five-year retirement to play the year for the Bears, said the game would be his last.
Yet another labor dispute was threatening another large part of the vital war industry as President Franklin Roosevelt appealed for a return to work. Back-to-work orders by union officials ended a big steel strike after the war labor board directed retroactive pay in a dispute involving contracts at 214 companies covering 350,000 workers.
Meanwhile, the Army took possession of the nation's railroad system on orders from Roosevelt so the transportation of war materials could continue in the face of a threatened strike. Col. W.J. Jenks, Norfolk and Western Railway president, was named regional director of Army controlled railroads.
Battle-wise American Marines made twin landings on the western end of New Britain and pushed into the jungles to establish a second front on a key Japanese island in the South Pacific.
Major Gen. James A. Doolittle was taking over direction of American air forces in Britain as the time for the cross-channel invasion approached.
Roosevelt dismissed as trivial a question of whether his new slogan adds up to aspirations for a fourth term. The President said a new doctor - Dr. Win-the-War - was called after the war started because old Dr. New Deal, a specialist in internal disorders, wasn't equipped for the emergency job.
Allied war planes, including U.S. Navy Liberators and British Royal navy cruisers, sank three Nazi destroyers and a speedy 5,000-ton Nazi blockade runner in a two-day sea and air battle in the Bay of Biscay.
A great fleet of American heavy bombers with a strong fighter escort bombed industrial targets, including a vital ball-bearing plant, in Paris.
by CNB