Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 28, 1995 TAG: 9506280016
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
American forces on Okinawa captured three dominating heights on Yaeju-Dake plateau and whittled the last enemy position to an area of less than 9 square miles as the beaten Japanese committed suicide and surrendered in ever-increasing numbers.
Violence increased within the Chicago trucking industry, which had been taken over by the government with the help of 1,500 military policemen following a strike.
A French mob, armed with iron rods and bottles, attacked a train filled with Spanish civilians, believing them to be part of a Spanish division that had fought alongside the Germans on the Russian front. The death toll stood at 29 with 361 injured.
Lt. Gen. Simon Buckner, commander of the 10th U.S. Army, was killed by a Japanese shell as he watched action on the front lines in Okinawa. Elsewhere, fighting continued on Borneo and the Philippines.
Fourteen Polish underground leaders, on trial for the lives before a Soviet court, pleaded guilty to charges that included they had plotted a war with Great Britain and Germany against the Soviet Union. The trial was an offshoot of the bad blood between the Soviets and the Polish government-in-exile in London.
American troops had uncovered a Nazi treasure hoard valued at $5 billion, including the government wealth of Austria and Bavaria and loot stolen from death camp victims.
Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, his bride of two days, committed suicide on April 30, and their bodies were carried to a garden outside the Berlin chancellery shelter, doused with gasoline and burned, Hitler's chauffeur said.
Admiral Chester Nimitz announced on June 22 that Okinawa had been won at the cost of 6,990 soldiers and Marines killed or missing and 29,528 wounded. The same day, Gen. Douglas MacArthur named Gen. Joseph Stilwell to take over command of the 10th Army.
Japanese officers ordered and enforced the execution or suicide of a large percentage of the 82,012 Japanese who were wounded in the Philippines, the U.S. military disclosed. Some Japanese officers shot or sabered their wounded.
The Allied military government in Germany was reported to be keeping ex-Nazis in administrative jobs because of their ability to obtain results.
The United Nations conference meeting in San Francisco gave final approval to a charter for a global organization by which the members hoped to work together for world peace.
A $38.5 billion war department appropriation by Congress brought total military spending to $245 billion since July 1, 1940.
German scientists, who were now working for the Allies, predicted that within the next five to 10 years rockets would be used to speed a ton of mail across the Atlantic in 40 minutes and be making regular passenger runs in 15 years.
Three German civilians were hanged for their role in the murder of an American flier who had parachuted from his plane near Coblenz. It marked the conclusion of the first civilian war crimes case tried since the Nazi surrender.
by CNB