It is March 1, 1945.
V-E Day is in 68 days.
And in 42 days, FDR will be dead.
Here’s what the day’s newspaper reported.
Reports say German forces, under pressure from rapidly advancing Allied troops, are pulling back from positions along the western banks of the Rhine River in an effort to form a consolidated line of defense on its eastern side in the industrial Ruhr Valley.
This withdrawal leaves the Rhine as a formidable obstacle to the continuing Allied advance.
Allied military officials remind the public that ‘destroying the German Army is more important than territorial gains, for it is the true measure of any military success.’
They report the Allies have captured 56,000 German soldiers in the month of February alone while untold numbers of others have been bypassed, have become entrapped or have become casualties.
Yesterday, 6,000 Allied aircraft bombed Germany in attacks focused on logistical hubs.
Berlin was also targeted for the ninth consecutive day.
Reports have surfaced of a mutiny among several hundred German troops formerly stationed in Norway who were en route to the Eastern Front to fight against Soviet forces.
Elite Nazi units are said to have responded to the uprising, executing at least two hundred of their countrymen by firing squad.
Meanwhile, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels appealed to the German people in a radio address, urging them to fight to the death rather than surrender to advancing Allied forces.
As their bread and cooking fat rations were cut in half, and cheese and sugar rations halted, Goebbels promised the German people that Hitler would send more V-bombs and U-boats against the enemy.
In the Pacific, US Marines fighting in Iwo Jima two weeks after their amphibious assault on the island were reported to have made decisive gains.
Returning soldiers say that the biggest obstacle the Marines face there is the volcanic ash which covers the island, impeding travel and clogging the firing mechanism of guns both large and small.
The first cargo ship carrying supplies for General MacArthur’s forces fighting to reclaim the Philippines have reached Manila Harbor.
MacArthur has described the Japanese defenders there as ‘well-equipped and fanatical.’
Fighting has raged from cave to cave.
FDR has returned from his five-week trip to Yalta, on the Crimean Peninsula, where he met with Churchill and Stalin.
It was his second wartime meeting with the two other major Allied leaders.
The President is said to be looking well, though he suffers from a slight cold.
He will address Congress later today in a speech which will be broadcast to the nation.
Among the topics he is expected to mention is his belief that defense spending can be reduced after the war and his hope that ‘in fifty or sixty years, a spirit of peace will embrace Germany and Japan and they will become respectable nations.’
By a voice vote yesterday, the Massachusetts Senate refused to reverse the 1637 decision of the Massachusetts General Court to banish Anne Marbury Hutchinson from the colony for her religious views.
Hutchinson had claimed that a person’s behavior didn’t necessarily affect the state of one's soul, an idea which attracted a large following among Massachusetts women but which conflicted with the dominant Puritan theology of the time.
Fearing Hutchinson’s preaching would “confuse the faithful,” her banishment became necessary.
Her threat to the state religion was deemed to constitute a threat to the state, itself.
And finally…
The Georgia Senate passed a bill yesterday which would bar dogs, cats and other pets from the state’s hotels and tourist camps.
There was heated debate on the Senate floor.
One bill opponent, himself a hotel owner, said, “Lots of times, women think more of their dogs than their husbands. They would be willing to leave their husbands outside for the night, but not their dogs.”
Sadly, his argument swayed only a handful of votes and the pet prohibition passed.
But you know this guy was right!
I’ll see you on Monday.
— Brenda
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