Ohio Valley Prepares For Highest Water Since Flood of 1937 By the Associated Press.

CINCINNATI, March 3. —The rain-swollen Ohio River rolled to- ward crests expected to read 10 to 12 feet above flood stages tonight, bringing a sodden valley its highest water since the record flood of 1937.

Hundreds of families were home- less and relief agencies were hard pressed by manpower shortage.

The crest forecast for the Cincin- nati district was 63 to 64.5 feet. Only twice since the 1937 catastrophe —when the stream soared to 79.99 feet—has it touched 60 feet: In 1940 and in January, 1943. Cincinnati’s flood stage is 52 feet.

Revising upward previous predic- tions, Flood Forecaster George R. Marth took into account overnight rains which averaged better than an Inch throughout the 981-mile water- shed, and as much as 2.03 inches at Louisville. A crest of 59-60 feet was forecast for tomorrow at Ports- mouth, where flood stage is 50 feet.

The flood had two crests: One which sent the river up at Pitts- burgh earlier in the week but whose top currently was below Huntington, W. Va., and one formed behind it by more recent rains as far East as the valleys of the Allegheny and Monongahela, in Pennsylvania.

Everywhere along the river it was the same story: More towns iso- lated, war industries halted, in- creased relief loads for the Red Cross and similar agencies, but only moderate damage.

As in the past years, there was an exodus from lowland homes, many of whose occupants annually make the same trek.

At least 650 families had been forced from their homes between Point Pleasant, W. Va„ and Ash- land, Ky., Red Cross authorities at Ashland said. The number at Steu- benville was placed at 60 families, and hundreds faced evacuation in Newport and Covington, Ky., across the Ohio from here.

All three commercial airlines j operating into the city—American, Transcontinental & Western Airline, and Delta—canceled direct service as water seeped onto runways, and announced they would operate in- stead into and from Dayton's air- port at Vandalia. The Army exacu- ated its ships, and the Civil Air Patrol flew private planes to higher- situated airports.

Romania (Continued From First Page.)

believed that similarly none had reached the British or the Russians.

Crisis Forced Quickly. Appearances are that the left

wing in Romania forced the crisis to a head with all possible speed after the Yalta agreement, hoping that concerted action would enable them to seize power before the con-

ference decisions could filter down :

in the form of executive orders to the relatively lower levels repre- j sented by the Soviet authorities or- j dinarily nr charge of Romania. » j It remains to be seen whether an impartial advisory or control board would .hand the Romanian government over to the Communists. I asked the supposed head of the Communist party, Lucretiu Patras- canu, in September how many par- ty members he had, and was sur-

prised by the answer—2.000. 'Pat- rascanu was made minister of jus- tice in November). This would in- dicate that a Communist govern- ment in Romania would mean rule by a small minority and could sur- vive only with outside help, either direct or indirect.

Visit Moscow. According to Information avail-

able here, Gheorgiu Dej, minister of communications in the Radescu goverment, went to Moscow early in January with one of the two real heads of the Romanian Communist party, Anna Pauker, a Romanian- born radical who during the '30s gave up her Romanian citizenship and became a Soviet citizen.

They returned late the same month and Dej and Anna Pauker are said to have spread the word that: 1. Peasant Leader Juliu Maniu must be eliminated; 2. An effort must be made to win the peasants by forcing land reforms; 3. The workers must stay at their benches in factories; and 4. Romania would get United Nations’ standing if a “national Democratic front’’ govern- ment came to power.

The so-called front was formed in October by Romanian left-wringers W'ho grouped themselves into six, different parties—giving them a I claim to six cabinet seats instead of the one of two which the Com-! munist party alone might claim and get.

News Account Suppressed. In a platform published after thej formation of the front, it was an-

nounced immediately that only con-1 trol of the Government by the front j would satisfy the left, and since then agitation against all other ele- ments has been steady.

Shortly after the front’s forma- tion, I witnessed a National Peasant party demonstration in front of the royal palace in Bucharest at which King Mihai and Peasant Leader Maniu wei» cheered. The demon- stration was broken up by Com- munist' intervention with shouts of "Dowm with the king.” ‘‘Down with the army,” and “Let’s get the Red Army to protect us.”

The Soviet censor refused to pass my eyewitness account or any ac-

count at all. On the following day, Communist

papers in Bucharest declared that I the Peasant party demonstrators had shouted slogans in favor of Horia Sima, former leader of the Romanian Fascist Iron Guard. The papers also accused Maniu of being Fascist.

Shortly afterward, Maniu, who Was minister of state, was forced out of the government, and the leftists insisted on Radescu as premier. Now Radescu is attacked as a Fas- cist, And yet Maniu was among the staunchest of all Romanian fighters against both Romanian and German fascism, and Radescu is a general who spent two years in a concentra- tion camp for writing a denunciatory letter to the German minister-dic- tator in Romania, Baron Manfred von Killinger, protesting Romania’s treatment.

Radescu recently made a speech laying the blame for the first of the current disorders squarely upon the left, and in particular on Anna Pauker and her co-head of the Communist Party, the Hungarian Lazio Luca. This was followed by an abrupt end to his career as premier.

TOKYO ENGINE PLANT RAIDED—Smoke billows from buildings of the Tachikawa engine plant, near Tokyo, during an attack by Navy carrier planes February 16. More bombs (arrow) are on the way to the already damaged buildings. » —AP Wirephoto From Navy.

NAVAL AND AERIAL BLOWS IN PACIFIC—Aircraft carrier and warship symbols indicate car- rier strike at the Ryukyu chain and shelling by warships of military installations on Okino Daito, announced yesterday by Admiral Nimitz. Arc shows points 750 miles from Iwo Jima.

—AP Wirephoto.

Jap Massacre of 150 Americans By Gasoline Fire Revealed

: By the Associated Press.

GEN. MacARTHUR’S HEAD- QUARTERS, Luzon, Mar. 3 — The

1 massacre of 150 American war pris-

| oners by the Japanese Constabulary at Puerto Princessa, Palawan Island, was officially announced tonight by Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

In a special press release the gen- eral said “additional evidence’’ had been uncovered by the American 41st Infantry Division at the Puerto Princessa prison camp substantiat- ing stories that the Japanese threw gasoline in on the helpless Ameri- cans, ignited it and then machine gunned or bayonetted any who tried to flee.

At least five of the Americans es-

caped and reached Yank lines. The press release said “human

bones and bits of charred clothing covered by a layer of dirt and rub- ble were found in one of the air raid

, shelters near the barracks, mute j testimony of the wholesale slaughter."

Corpl. Elmo D. Deal of Yuba City, Calif., who was captured on Bataan

| in 1942 and taken to the Palawan prison camp, told this story:

There W'ere about 150 soldiers, sailors and Marines at Palawan. In December the Japs got word that

■ there was a big convoy at sea. They j thought the convoy, which was

going to Mindoro Island, was headed ■ their way and became crazy with fear.

“They herded us into a string of underground shelters in a compound near the barracks. I don't know which Jap officer gave the word, but they threw gasoline in on us and ignited it. We tried to get out the other end of the dugout, but they mowed us down with machine guns.”

Philippines ("Continued Prom First Page.)

que said the raiders caused "some damage and casualties" and that anti-aircraft gunners bagged one

bomber. Two other enemy planes attacked

Tacloban airdrome on American- held Leyte.

The American air force was

active over the enemy-held islands of the archipelago and patrol tor- pedo boats wrecked 13 Japanese Q-boats in hideouts in Batangas Bay, Southern Luzon.

Heavy bombers irom the Philip- pines which have been daily at- tacking war plants on Formosa dropped 170 tons in a new raid. The targets included the Nippon Aluminum Co. Low-flying fighters went after storage tanks and rail- way yards. They also raided the nearby Pescadores Islands, leaving barracks in flames.

Patrol planes sank five small cargo vessels in Formosa Strait and a sixth in the Sakishima Islands.

Others ranging over the China Sea sank a 2,000-ton freighter and left a 1,000-ton ship in a sinking

condition. They encountered four enemy planes, shooting down three and probably bagging the other.

On Dutch Borneo, which is men-

aced with possible invasion by American seizure of Palawan Island. Liberators dropped 197 tons of bombs among three airdromes, leav- ing runways unusable. Other bombers attacked two more air- dromes and the shipyards and dry- docks at Sandakan.

<In Washington 'there was

speculation that the Yank land- ing on Palawan, a westernmost main island of the Philippines, might presage an American in- vasion of Borneo, oil rich Nether- lands Indies Island 500 miles away.

(Repeating the Navy’s boast

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landing wherever it chooses, a naval spokesman said that "if the Allies feel the need of a closer suply for oil for its fleets than is now available, it will be taken care of.”)

Mountain Battles on Luzon. Six American divisions today

pressed their extermination fight against Japanese forces in the mountains of Luzon. Some 70.000 or

more troops of the United States 6th Army still were fighting on

Luzon. The 1st Cavalry and 6th Infantry

Divisions pressed the enemy in the rugged watershed from Antipolo to Wawa, east of Manila, while the 40th Division mopped up in the Zambales Mountains north of Bataan.

North and east of the Central Luzon Plain, down w’hich the Amer- icans swept to Manila, the 33d. 32d and 25th Divisions of the 1st Corps pushed deeper into Jungle-matted heights.

The 33d fought north of Rosario in the Benguet Mountains toward Baguio, where the Japanese were re-

ported to be installed in force; the 32d battled up the Villa Verde trail in the Caraballo Mountains, and the 25th progressed northward in Cagayan Valley toward strategic Baleta Pass.

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2 Pomeranian Centers Taken as Reds Reach Baltic, Berlin Says By the Associated Press.

LONDON. Sunday, Mar. 4 —

Red Army forces toppled the key Pomeranian strongholds of Poll- now and Rummelsburg yesterday in their Baltic breakthrough which Berlin said had reached the sea near Koeslin, thus split- ting the German province and tightening a trap on numerous

enemy divisions in the Stolp- Gdynia Danzig areas to the northeast.

Simultaneously, Berlin said, ele- ments of four other Soviet armies to_ the southwest opened an all-out; assault toward the Pomeranian i capital of Stettin at the mouth of the Oder River, driving one spear- head into Pyritz, 22 miles southeast of Berlin’s main port city, and out- flanking Stettin 45 miles on the northeast by cutting the trunk rail- way to Danzig at a new point near

Labes. The reported Soviet advance to

Labes, 42 miles southwest of im- perilled Koeslin, represented a 26- mile advance from previous Russian positions and appeared aimed at

Kolberg, site of an American prison camp on the Baltic 33 miles to the north.

Reds Silent on Gains. Another probable target of the

Red Army sweep across Pomerania 1

was Swinemuende, guardian city of the sea gate connecting the Baltic with Stettiner Haff, the big bay leading to Stettin's docks. Swi- nemuende is 58 miles northwest of Labes.

None of the German-reported Russian advances were yet con-

firmed by the Soviet high command, which had clamped a security black- out on the movements of Us troops. Moscow dispatches said German communications were snarled hope- lessly in many areas by the swift- ness of the Soviet drives.

Premier Stalin announced the fall of Pollnow and Rummelsburg in an order of the day. These two seven-

way road hubs are at the base of the Baltic wedge which the Ger- mans said had *?ut the Stettin- Danzig trunk railway yesterday northeast of Koeslin and reached the sea.

The Soviet communique announced the capture of 80 localities on a 36-mile arc on both sides of Pollnow and Rummelsburg, but named only five.

Many Nazis Trapped. Although no official estimate was

yet available it was believed that elements of 20 Nazi divisions were sealed off in the great encirclement! operation in Middle Pomerania, in addition to the remnants of 20 German divisions already pocketed in East Prussia and 30 more in Western Latvia.

The Soviet communique did not mention the East Prussian sector where the Germans, with then- backs to the sea southwest of Koenigsberg, are being lashed from three sides by powerful Russian formations which the Nazi high command said totaled five armies.

Once this Nazi pocket is crushed the 3d White Russian Army can hurl its weight against Danzig's eastern approaches.

The only sector mentioned aside from Pomerania In Moscow’s un-

ALLIED OFFENSIVES ON TWO FRONTS—Shaded arrows indicate main Allied drives on the western and eastern fronts (heavy lines) in Europe. Small black arrows indicate other drives. In the west, Americans fought along the Rhine in the Duesseldorf area. In the east. Russians drove through Pomerania toward the Baltic coast of Germany. —AP Wirephoto.

Night Raiders Attack Berlin After Massive Day Assault on Reich By the Associated Pre.'i.

LONDON, March 3.—RAF Mos- quitoes smashed Berlin tonight in the 12th successive night attack on the Nazi capital. This raid followed massive day attacks on Germany in which American 8th Air Force heavy bombers in a 200-mile column struck at scattered oil refineries and bomb- ed industrial and rail targets.

Joining the 8th's heavies in the assault today were hundreds of the United States 9th Air Force s fight- ers and medium bombers which raked the Nazis along the Rhine.

More than 2,600 American bomb- ers and fighters kept the war s most sustained aerial offensive going full blast through its 19th day. The 8th dispatched 1,100 Flying Fortresses and Liberators with an escort of more than 700 Mustangs and Thunderbolts, while the conti- nent-based 9th flew more than 850 sorties before noon.

The heavy bombers split over the Reich and attacked a dozen or more different targets, including refiner- ies and synthetic oil plants at Mag- deburg, Ruhland and Misbourg.

The RAF Fighter Command joined the day’s operations with in- tensive attacks on V-bomb sites in the Netherlands.

In support of the Red Army on

the Silesian front, the 8th’s heavies hit the railyards at Chemnitz for the second successive day, as well

usually brief bulletin was Central Slovakia, where Col. Gen. Ivan Petrov’s 4th Ukraine Army captured eight localities in slow 3-mile gains through the mountains on a 40-mile front.

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as factories turning out tanks, trucks and oil-refinery equipment.

Air force officials estimated that German oil plants before attacks yesterday and today were producing less than 25 per cent of the oil and 15 per cent of the gasoline they had delivered before the Allied strategic offensive began last spring.

MEDITERRANEAN AIR FORCE HEADQUARTERS. Mar. 3 (/P).—Bad weather grounded the 15th Air Force today after 18 consecutive days of operations—one day short of the record set last August—but tactical force fighter-bombers struck at the Vienna-Zagreb railroad which sup- plies Nazi forces in Yugoslavia.

At the same time, tactical air force medium bombers slashed at key bridges in the Brenner Pass.

’Tis not for us to question why, 'tis but for us to buy and buy more War Bonds.

U. S. Rewards Benefactor of Doolittle Flyers

Ej the Associated Press. A Chinese doctor who risked his

life and refused all compensation to

care for wounded American flyers who crashed in China after the Doolittle raid on Tokyo in April, 1942, will see his great ambition come true.

The young doctor, Shen-yen Chen, who treated Capt. Ted Lawson and four companions, is coming to this

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