Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408030050
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Greg Edwards
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Russian troops fought within sight of Warsaw, and on the north Soviet armies surged across the southern Latvian border almost encircling the German armies of the Baltic.
Fire of an undetermined origin leveled a half-dozen buildings in the heart of Clifton Forge, causing an estimated $250,000 in damage. The fire, which leveled the city hall, started in the plant of the City Ice and Fuel Co. and raged for three hours before being brought under control.
American Superfortresses in their first daylight raid loosed tons of bombs on Japanese industrial targets at Anshan, Manchuria, and Tangku, China.
U.S. Marines and warships cut off the last escape route for 2,000 Japanese trapped on Guam's Orote peninsula. Meanwhile to the north, Marines were in possession of two-thirds of Tinian Island, compressing Japanese forces into an ever-narrowing corner.
Lt. Col. Francis S. Gabreski of Oil City, Pa., America's top scoring fighter ace was reported missing in action over Germany. Gabreski had been credited with shooting down 28 enemy planes.
The House Un-American Activities Committee scheduled hearings to investigate the CIO's political action committee. Rep. Martin Dies Jr., chairman of the House committee, described the CIO group as the political arm of the New Deal.
Three more cases of polio were reported to the state health department, bringing the total for the year to 122. A 14-year-old Altavista boy was reported dead from the disease.
American tanks drove nearly 15 miles to the bottom of the Norman peninsula and closed in on Avranches, gateway to Brittany. More than 10,000 German troops had been captured, and others left their equipment behind as they fled an encirclement by U.S. and British forces.
The towers of Florence were in sight of the Allied forces fighting their way through the mountains toward the Tuscan art center.
U.S. distillers were given their first permission in 22 months to make alcohol for the domestic and non-war market. The month's holiday from war production should provide the public with about a year's supply of whiskey and gin, the distillers said.
The German Luftwaffe had sent rocket-propelled planes against U.S. planes over Germany in what promised to be a revolution in air warfare. The U.S. and Britain had announced months earlier that they had been testing a jet-propelled plane.
St. Louis Cardinal Stan Musial's .359 average led all hitters in the National League. The American League leader was Boston's Bobby Doerr with a .332 average.
Things were not going well in Europe for Adolf Hitler. German troops began evacuating Finland and Estonia. Turkey announced the break of diplomatic and economic relations with Germany. Soviet armies moved to within eight miles of East Prussia's pre-1939 borders. And U.S. tank columns were bearing down on Rennes and moving toward the port of Brest.
An American bomb that fell short was reported to have caused the death of Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair, who was observing ground action in Normandy.
The U.S. Army took over the Philadelphia Transportation Co. in order to end a paralyzing three-day strike. The strike had been caused by a decision to employ Negroes as trolley operators.
Most of the nation was under a sweltering heat wave with Texas suffering its 12th straight day over 100 degrees.
by CNB