EE NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. XLVII. No. 84. NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JULY 1 3, 1945 PER COPY
Aussies Advance
In Steaming Rain !
On Borneo
MANILA, July 13—(^—Aus
tralian Seventh Division troops,
paced by flamethrowers and tanks
knived deep into Jap defenses and
smashed the stone ridge north of
captured Balikpapan in southeast
Borneo after heavy fighting head
quarters reported.
Dutch units joined the Austra
lians’ left flank in the march up
Kariango peninsula to execute a
brilliant encircling maneuver
against the entrenched Japs who
are pocketed some six miles north
of Balikpapan.
The Borneo campaign is being
fought in steaming, rain-drenched
forests, deceptive bogs overgrown
with mangrove under a blazing
tropical sun. In the main assault
northeast of Balikpapan in the
Sepunggang Ketjil river sector the
Australians are advancing over
scrubby rolling terrain which per
mits the use of their famed medi
um “Matilda” tanks.
Japan Does Not
Choose To Fight
U. S. Planes
GUAM, July 13—(JP)—Virtually
unopposed were the air blows of
around seven hundred Superfort
resses and heavy and medium
bombers, fighters and long range
search planes across a seven hun
dred seventy mile arc of Japan,
extending north and south of
Tokyo, announced U. S. General
Hutchinson of the Far East Air
Farce on Okinawa.
He declared “The Japs, in my
opinion don’t intend to engage the
United States air force.” Rear Ad
miral D. C. Ramsey, new chief
staff of the Fifth Fleet estimated
that Japan might have nine thou
•
sand planes available and possi
bly could throw four thousand in
to battle over Japan.
Only weak fighter opposition
was enocuntered over Tokyo Bay
as Superfortresses dumpd three
thousand tons of fire and demoli
tion bombs on five homeland cen
ters before dawn today.
Pan American Opens Direct Route Ketchikan To Seattle
1
Adding Ketchikan to the list of northern cities served by Pan American, a Douglas D-C Clipper
circled into the airfield at Annette Island on July 1. A group of Ketchikan and Metlakatla officials
headed by Governor Ernest Gruening greeted incoming passengers on the inaugural landplane
flight. Among the first passengers, left to right, were J. V. Roscoe, in charge of Pan American's Sec
tor; Ross Cunningham, Associate Editor of the Seattle Times; Howard McGowan, northwest regional
manager of Smaller War Plants Corporation; Harry E. Jones, regional loan agent; William H. Bies
man, deputy regional director; both of SWPC; and extreme right Jesse Robinson, executive sec
retary of SWPC, Washington, D. C. On the welcoming committee, were Mayor and Mrs. R. C. Peder
sen of Ketchikan; Governor Gruening and Mrs. John Smith and Mayor Smith of Metlakatla.
(Pan American World Airways Photo)
Two Planes
Collide In Air
COLUMBIA, S. C., July 13—{JP)
—A two year old boy is one of the
seventeen passnegers on a Boston -
Miami Eastern Airliner, and two
flyers in an Army plane were
killed in an air collision of the
two planes.
The child’s mother, Mrs. A. E.
Williams of Miami, is in a serious
condition. Three others were hurt.
One army flyer escaped by para
%
chute. The airliner pilot had to
land his plane in a cornfield witn
both motors torn away and one
wing damaged.
FUNERAL SERVICES HELD FOR
CHARLES GOETZENBERGER
Funeral services were held for
Charles Goetzenberger, aged
Noisette, yesterday afternoon at
the Catholic Church. Members of
Army Discloses
New “Kickless”
Cannon
WASHINGTON, July 13——
The Army disclosed the perform
ance of a new kickless cannon
which fires artillery shells with
no more recoil than a twenty-two.
Two guns, a fifty-seven and a
seventy-five millimeter, were bat
tle tested in Europe. They were
fired from the shoulder. The fifty
seven weighs forty-five pounds
and shoots a three pound shell
two miles, the sevnety-five weighs
one hundred ten pounds and
shoots a fourteen pound shell four
miles.
the Pioneers of Alaska, Igloo No.
1, were in attendance.
The body was interred at the
Belmont Point Cemetery after the
funeral.
Mrs. Alice Nugent, mother of
Mrs. Ken Rank, who has been vis
iting in Nome for several months
returned to he rhome in Seattle
via P.A.A. last Wednesday night. I
__ _M_
Typhoon Does
More Ship Damage
Than Japs
GUAM, July 13, f/P>—A typhoon
lashed Admiral Halsey’s Third
Fleet with a one hundred thirty
eight mile an hour wind on June
fifth and tore the bow off the
Cruiser Pittsburgh. It damaged
at least twenty other warships.
Admiral Nimitz said, after vir
tually every damaged ship was
back in action.
At least four of the damaged
ships were battleships: the Massa
chusetts, Indiana, Carrier San Ja
cinto and Destroyer John Rodgers,
which participated in Tuesday’s
thousand plane carrier strike on
Tokyo.
The typhoon damaged more
ships than the Jap navy was able
to do in action in any single battle
but Admiral Nimitz made no men
tion of anyone being killed or seri
ously injured, and said no ships
were sunk. He listed twenty dam
aged ships repaired and back in
action, including three fast new
battleships, two Essex class carri
ers, the cruiser Pittsburgh, which
miraculously stayed afloat.
Presumably some additional
ships not identified were damaged
and not returned to the sea. Many
ships were badly hurt in the tow
ering hundred foot high seas. None
were more heavily hit than the
Pittsburgh which was caught near
the center of the storm off the
(Continued On Page Four)
TWO SEAMEN SAVE COMRADE
IN ICY WATERS OF BERING SEA
- .
By OLEN CLEMENTS
The skilled seamanship of a
Navy Patrol craft skipper and the
heroism of two comrades are cred
ited with saving a fellow crewman
in the frigid waters of Bering
Sea a few minutes before he would
hav perished.
Fireman William E. Johnson
of Pendleton, Oregon was swept
into the icy water while the
ship was battling rough
weather. The propellor wake
kicked him under but the lookout
in the crows nest spotted him.
Lt. F. L. Matheson, Miami,
skipper of the boat brought it
around sharply and eased the
craft alongside of Johnson, Ensign
R. W. Kohanki, Loveland, Ohio,
tossed him a life preserver, but
Johnson’s arms were so numbed
from freezing water he couldn’t
hold it. Crewmen tried to lower a
small boat but the high seas de
feated the effort.
Seaman John Connolly, Roches
ter N. Y., donning a life vest,
leaped over the side into the cold
water where he was numbed
quickly but managed to reach the
(Continued on Page Eight)