Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504110016
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
German Staff Sgt. Wilhelm Zachman's picture made the front page of the Roanoke Times. He was the 300,000th German prisoner to be taken by the American First Army.
More than 3,500 American and British war planes blasted the last big synthetic oil plant still active in Germany and battered industrial and rail targets between Allied armies and Berlin. The 8th Air Force had dropped 73,000 tons of bombs during March and the 15th Air Force another 32,000 tons.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe, issued surrender instructions to the German Army, declaring that the German high command had lost effective control of many units. The instructions were aimed at avoiding unnecessary bloodshed. Half of the German soldiers defending the western front at the beginning of March had been captured, wounded or killed.
War Mobilization Director James F. Byrnes promised to lift the midnight curfew, the brownout and the racing ban as soon as Germany was whipped. He also indicated that V-E Day would mean more automobiles and refrigerators for civilians.
United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis, bowing to the need for coal to continue the war, recommended to his membership that they keep working for 30 days despite the expiration of their contract with soft-coal operators.
The U.S. First and Ninth armies linked up east of the Ruhr, cutting off Germany's last major war production area and trapping 40,000 Nazi troops.
The United Nations War Crimes Commission placed Adolf Hitler's name at the top of its list of German criminals and declared that heads of states would have no immunity from prosecution for Axis atrocities.
Battle-hardened infantrymen and Marines of a newly formed 10th Army invaded Okinawa Island, 362 miles south of Japan, Easter Sunday with the support of 1,400 ships and 1,500 planes. The landing force initially met with little resistance, cutting the defense in two.
A number of rules changes were made in college football, including allowing forward passes from any point behind the line of scrimmage rather than the previous five yards back.
Patton's U.S. Third Army tank columns smashed into the outskirts of Gotha, 140 miles from Berlin, and Canadian troops were only 20 miles from closing a trap on 90,000 Nazi troops in western Holland.
Russian troops took Bratislava by storm, hurled the last German troops from Hungary and slashed into the suburbs of Vienna.
Russia denounced her neutrality pact with Tokyo, bluntly accusing Japan of helping Germany and possibly clearing the way for eventual Soviet entry into the Pacific war.
The War Labor Board warned the UMW's Lewis to get wildcat strikers back to work at 200 coal mines or the government would seize the mines and operate them.
Germany was reportedly splitting its army into groups under control of the SS to make a last-ditch stand and continue a guerilla war.
by CNB