Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-05-05
LAST NAZ ARMIES FACING YANKS GIVE UP:
NORWAY SURRENDER REPORTED DUE TODAY
Army 10 Release
|2MiIIion After
Fall Of Germany
Six Million Will Go
To Pacific, House
Committee Is Told

Ry the Associated Press.
The Army plans to discharge
100000 men beginning with the
fall of Germany and to send
100000 picked troops against
Japan.
This was disclosed today by House
Military Affairs Committee members
after closed-door session with high
Army officials.
The men to be discharged, they
said, will be those with the most
dependents and the longest and most
active service records. The Army's
point system, they reported, gives
top weighing to dependency, fol-
lowed by actual combat service, over
seas duty and overall length Of
service.
Heretofore the weight to be given
each of the factors in determining
priority for discharges has been
closely guarded secret.
18th Is Occupation Army.
OF the approximately 100000
men now in the Army, from 300, 900
to 100000 comprising the recently
created 18th Army, will be left
abroad to occupy Germany. Some
100000 others will be discharged
within year after We day, the
speed of mastering out to depend
largely on available shipping.
The actual reduction in the Army's
total strength, the committee was
told, will be about 100000 men,
due to an estimated 100000 in new
inductions.
Many of those to be discharged
now are on duty in the Pacific.
The Army's Air Transport Com
mand told the committee it expected
to be ready to move $4,000 men
monthly within two months after
Germany surrenders. This will in
clude men being brought to this
country from Europe and the Pacific
and those being sent from here
against Japan. Converted freighters
will be used to augment the Army's
transport ships to bring back the
others
Plans Tentative.
Army officials emphasized that the
plans are tentative, but are based
on their best knowledge of Japan's
available fighting manpower.
Disclosures to the committee
leaked out despite extreme precau-
tons taken by Chairman May to
keep the meeting with Army leaders
secret.
chairman May told The Star
today that he would ask the
committee member who had CIV
en- out the story to resign from
the House Military Affairs Com
mittee He said he wasn't certain
yet of the identity of the men,
Der but that he was going to find
out.
CI'm going to protect military
secrets" the committee chair
man declared. TITS unfortunate
not to protect the War Depart
ment's military secrets in time Of
| war"
Gle said he had repeatedly adj
monished the committee mem
bers to keep the hearings on de-
mobilization secretD
Army Refuses Comment.
The committee at an all-day ex-
ecutive session yesterday heard tes-
timony from Maj. Gen. Idwal H.
Edwards, assistant chief Of staff in
charge of training, and other high
military officials.
The War Department has pre-
viously announced that releases from
Army service after We day will to-
tai "the maximum number" which
the Army feels can be spared. No
estimate so far has been publicly
given of that number and the War
Department refused comment on
the story given out by members Of
the Military Affairs Committee.
1t was revealed yesterday that
draft calls for the Army May stay
at the current rate of about 100, 900
men a month for some time after
We day.
Hopes for cut at the end of the
German war were dimmed by an
assertion from Gen. George C. Mar
shall that May and June replace
ment needs Of the Army cannot be
met under the present calls.