Daily Post - 07.05.1943, Side 4

4
DAILY POST
Soviets Pierce
Knban Defenses
London, May 6. — Breaching
the Nazi defenpe lines, the Red
Army has advanced to within
eight miles of the Black Sea
port and naval base of Novo-
rossiisk, with the Soviet Air
Force continuing its operations
on a large scale.
Moscow announced that the
Soviet Army had yesterday
broken through the enemy’s
Kuban defences on a 17 mile
wide front, being now only a
few miles north-east of Novo-
rossiisk, and the forces moving
on after the capture of Krim-
skaya — officially announced
last night by the Russians —
having captured a village, tur-
ned into a stronghold by the
enemy, only 8 miles from the
Black Sea base.
Moscow dispatches also re-
ported fierce fighting going on
last night, with the result that
the Red forces broke through
new fortified enemy strong-
points, killing 400 men, and
taking prisoners and consider-
able war materiel.
Preach Ádvance
Io Tonisia
London. — On the Eighth
Army’s front, General Montgo-
mery’s men have made local
advances, and patrols have
penetrated deeply behind the
enemy positions.
On the Eighth Army’s left
flank, General Leclerc’s men
are doing very good work, es-
pecially with their artillery.
The Frenchmen have pushed on
several miles along the slopes
of the highest mountain in
Tunisia, the 7,000 foot Jebel
Zaghouna. /
German Raid
London. — More details of
the R.A.F. raid on Dortmund,
one of the very heaviest ever
made on Germany, reveal that
for 25 minutes our heavy four-
engined bombers, Lancasters,
Stirlings and Halifaxes, of
which a record number was
out, sent down four two-ton
bombs every minute, besides
some four-ton bombs and tens
of thousands of incendiaries.
Crasb Due To Severe
Weather; Poor Vision
Plane Hit Peninsula
A mass interview with the
tragedy’s sole survivor, Ser-
geant George Eisel, of Colum-
bus, Ohio, was arranged yester-
day afternoon at the hospital
where the fortunate flier is re-
covering from the comparative-
ly minor injuries he sustained.
“It was about mid-afternoon
Monday when we reached Ice-
land,” the sergeant said from
his hospital bed. “None of us in
the plane had ever been here
before. The weather was bad
—and that’s the sole reason for
our crash. The plane was work-
ing in perfect order. But due to
severe weather conditions at
the time we lost our radio con-
tact shortly after 3 o’clock. We
tried landing at the airport. We
cóuld see only a distance of 40
feet. It wasn’t possible to make
it, so we climbed and covered a
considerable distance. We were
trying once more to land. We
passed over several peninsulas,
jutting out some distance into
the ocean, and one of those
peninsulas was simply too high
—that’s all there is to it.”
CRASHED MONDAY
“We crashed about 4.15 Mon-
day aftemoon,” Sergeant Eisel
said. “Our B—24 bomber hit
the side of a mountain, and
■«
broke all to pieces. I was pinned
under the tail turret, wasn’t
able to get out, but never lost
consciousness.”
“How long were you pinned
there?” the sergeant was asked.
“It was 26 hours in all, and
when help finally came it took
them an hour to get me out
from under the wreckage.”
FEARED FIRE
To the question of what he
was thinking about during all
that time, Sergeant Eisel re-
plied: “My first thoughts were
of the fire which broke out in
the wreckage at once. It was
raining, though, and the rain
put out the flames. The bodies
were thrown clear of the wreck-
age. I couldn’t even see them. I
began to think that I would
surely die before help came.”
Besides bruises about the
face and the left arm Sergeant
Eisel’s principal injury is t his
right leg and foot.
“General Andrews, a veteran
flier himself, started piloting
when we first left on our trip,”
said the sergeant. “A captain
took over later on, and it was
he who was at the controls
when the crash came. I was
interested irí hearing General
Andrews talk over the phone
system in the plane. He cer-
tainly was a fine gentleman,
and we have lost a lot in his
death and that of the others.”
This week’s fateful crash was
the second time Sergeant Eisel
has courted fortune and sur-
vived what seemed certain
death. He was shot down over
North Africa once, he told re-
porters yesterday, and came
through almost without injury
then, though three others in the
plane with him died.
SURVIVOR A HERO
The Ohio sergeant is a real
war hero himself. He has been
decorated with the Purple
Heart, the air medal with three
oak leaf clusters, and the Dis-
tinguished Flying Cross. Draf-
ted into the forces, from his
civilian job as machine opera-
tor at the Leighton-Heel Co.
plant in Columbus, Ohio, he
entered the air corps immedia-
tely, going to Kiesler Field in
Missisippi for training. He is
married, but he and his young
wife, Iva, have no children.
Even the briefest talk with
the sergeant was a glimpse of
the full-scale war effort itself.
He left North Africa after his
distinguished service as gunner
on bombing planes there. Most
of his activity was over the
Libyan desert, but he has bomb-
ed Tunis and Bizerta, in addi-
tion to his part in raids over
France, Germany and Italy. He
isn’t sure—he may have ac-
counted for more than ten ene-
my planes himself.—He’s fairly
sure about seven of them, he
admitted, and he thinkslie may
have had a hand in damaging
10 or 12 more. By “damaging”
the air corps means actually
putting out of commission.
Stalin Auswers
Polish Queries
London. — The news, re-
vealed today, that Marshal
Stalin wants to see a strong
and independent Poland after
the war, has not only stirred
the imagination of the British
people, but lias — it is safe to
say — created a world wide in-
terest.
Premier Stalin has given
written answears to two ques-
tions put to him by the Moscow
correspondents of the two great
Anglo-Saxon newspapers, the
London Times and the New
York Times. The questions
were: (1) Does the Government
of the U.S.S.R. desire to see a
strong and independent Poland
emerge from the war? and (2)
On what foundation should the
relations between Russia and
Poland be based after the war?
To the first question M.
Stalin answered: “Unquestion-
ably it does.” As to the second
question, he said that the fu-
ture relations of the two states
should be based on solid good
neighbourship and mutual re-
spect, and even, should the
Polish people so desire, on an
alliance providing for mutual
assistance against Germany as
the chief enemy of Poland and
Russia.
Allies Raid
Jap Bases
London. — Allied bombers in
the South-West Pacific have
raided the great Japanese base
at Wiwack, which the Japs
have lately succeeded in build-
ing up as a focal point for their
shipping in this area, secondly
to Rabaul in New Britain.
In this raid a 5,000 ton enemy
merchantman was hit and left
burning. Nine enemy fighters,
which tried to intercept, were
driven off, and all the Allied
planes returned safely.
Among other targets yester-
day were enemy barracks in
the Kev Islands, and some of
our bombers even flew to Dutcb
New Guinea to drop bombs on
the Temika district.
Careless Talk
Costs Lives
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