Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 21, 1994 TAG: 9412220027
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In what would become known as the Battle of the Bulge, the German Army hurled an all-out counter-attack against a 75-mile front. The attack involved parachutists, armored columns and the Luftwaffe's greatest efforts since D-Day. The U.S. First Army line was knocked back five miles by the thrust into Belgium while two other enemy spearheads invaded Luxembourg.
The War Production Board threw its weight into the drive to keep workers on the munition lines by freezing its programs for civilian goods production.
American invasion troops, advancing inland seven to nine miles on a broad front, captured the town of San Jose and its airfield in the southwest coastal region of Mindoro in the Philippines against negligible Japanese opposition.
Three Louisiana State University student groups had asked the Civil Liberties Union and others to investigate a kissing ban on campus and the expulsion of a Cuban student for criticizing the university's attitude toward sex.
Sen. Ted Dalton's effort to abolish the Virginia poll tax was snuffed out by a special session of the General Assembly. Dalton of Radford, one of two Republican state senators, vowed to continue his fight.
The J-Class No. 610 steam engine, built by the Norfolk and Western Railway in Roanoke, was pulling the Liberty Limited, the Broadway Limited and other world-famous trains on runs on the Pennsylvania Railroad between Chicago and Crestline, Ohio.
The Green Bay Packers defeated the New York Giants, 14-7, for the professional football league championship.
Superfortresses of the twin 21st and 20th bomber commands struck heavily at the Mitsubishi aircraft works in Nagoya, Japan.
There was no such thing as a formal document called the Atlantic Charter, President Franklin D. Roosevelt revealed. At their meeting in August 1941, he and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had scribbled some things on many pieces of paper, which became embodied in the United Nation's declaration the following January, he explained.
The German army had thrown 15 divisions and up to 225,000 men and 600 tanks into its counter-offensive into Belgium. The Germans claimed to have taken 10,000 U.S. prisoners.
German armor had swept 30 miles into Belgium and had cut the Liege-Bastogne supply route in what was described as the most critical phase of the war. German troops were reported using stolen or captured Allied uniforms to infiltrate behind Allied lines.
A German military spokesman acknowledged that a fierce southern attack by Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army had succeeded in slowing the German offensive. Meanwhile, bad weather was keeping Allied planes from attacking the German forces.
President Roosevelt asked the American people to keep working during the holidays to turn out the supplies that American fighting forces needed.
by CNB