
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 26, 1994                   TAG: 9410270055
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THERE WERE VICTORIES AT SEA BUT TRAGEDY AT HOME

IN RECOGNITION of the sacrifices of the region's veterans 50 years ago during World War II, we take the following look at a selection of headlines from the Pacific, Europe and the home front for the week of Sunday, Oct. 22, through Saturday, Oct. 29, 1944:

Tacloban, capital of Leyte, and the 8,100-foot Tacloban airfield were in American hands as U.S. infantrymen smashed ahead four miles on a 20-mile front, Gen. Douglas MacArthur announced.

A gas storage tank exploded like a flame-thrower at a Cleveland, Ohio, gas plant, igniting a holocaust that claimed 165 buildings and more than 100 lives.

The whole water-logged western front from Holland to the Belfort gap burst back to life in a thunder of Allied attacks as the british and Canadians launched a clean-up squeeze on the western Dutch flatlands and the American 3rd Army made a new thrust eastward toward the Saar.

The Green Bay Packers handed the Cleveland Rams their first defeat of the pro football season, 30-21. Also in sports, Notre Dame was first and Army a close second in the Associated Press college football poll.

Red Army troops, invading Germany on an 87-mile front, captured 400 East Prussian towns and villages.

Republican Sen. Joseph H. Ball of Minnesota jumped the party fence to campaign for President Franklin Roosevelt, basing his decision on foreign policy commitments. Meanwhile, a full-page advertisement in the Roanoke Times, urged Southern Democrats to vote for Republican presidential candidate Thomas Dewey.

Dr. C.B. Bowyer of Stonega, president of the Medical Society of Virginia, told members of the society in Richmond ``we must take an active part in helping to develop a sound prepaid medical care plan which creates purchasing power through a satifactory insurance or pre-payment program.'' The alternative, he said, was federal medicine.

The Imperial Japanese fleet, which came out of hiding to challenge the American invasion of Leyte, was defeated and put to flight by the U.S. 7th and 3rd fleets led by Vice Admiral Thomas Kincaid and Admiral William Halsey. Ten Japanese battleships and three aircraft carriers were reported hit.

A 21-year-old German prisoner of war who was picking apples near Troutville escaped and was the subject of a widespread search.

by CNB