Compiled by Don Hoiness from archived copies of The Bulletin at Deschutes County Historical Society.

100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 7, 1918

Bapaume falls as Germans move on

27 Divisions of British are pitted against 97 of Germans. Fighting is severe throughout the night.

General Haig holds large part of army in reserve — enemy losing 100,000 men daily — expected to wear themselves out — Teutons spreading false reports in towns behind French front lines arrested.

Fighting continues this afternoon from Scarpe to Olse with increasing intensity, although troops on both sides are exhausted. Captured prisoners say the worst blow is yet to come.

At an appalling cost the Germans progressed across the old Somme battlefield, but the British line is intact everywhere. The fighting was severe all night, especially on the Sapignies-Baupaume road. British machine guns raking the country in the moonlight found dense masses of Germans.

The enemy is advancing almost without the support of artillery, hoping to smash the British line by sheer weight of numbers.

Airmen are constantly engaging in sky fighting.

Germans dressed as British soldiers were arrested in a town behind the lines as they were warning people to flee, saying the Germans were in the next village.

General Haig said the first hostile attacks early today developed on both sides of Baupaume, though the battle is now raging with great violence everywhere north of that point.

Powerful enemy attacks to the north of Baupaume were sanguinarily repelled, the enemy reaching the trenches only in one place, which they were unable to retain. Elsewhere rifle and machine gun fire turned back the Germans.

“The empire stands calm and places its confidence in its soldiers,” he said.

The club’s completion is now assured

Assuring the completion of the Bend Amateur Athletic Club building, are the arrangements made yesterday through the Bend Holding corporation. Loans of $10,000 from D.E. Hunter and $6,000 from 24 other business men, the larger on a first mortgage and the others on a second mortgage, have been secured. The board of directors met yesterday afternoon to sign all papers.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 7, 1943

Coast town has clothing rush

Marshfield, Oregon — Local Office of Price Administration officers today blamed false rumors of impending clothes rationing for a one-day panic of clothes buying.

Apparel stores reported record sales, and one man allegedly drove more than 20 miles to buy $200 worth of coats and suits.

Tire inspection warning issued

People who apply for their second quarter gasoline T cards must have their tires inspected before making application to the Bend war price and ration board, it was announced today by Miss Faith Danielson, office secretary.

T cards apply to trucks and pick-ups.

Loss of cards face drivers breaking rules

In the first case of its kind here under new OPA regulations on traffic violations, Duane A. Dawson, charged with violating the basic rule in driving, lost his A gasoline card yesterday in a hearing before Wilson George, justice of the peace.

Dawson, in addition to having his card removed, was fined $5 and $4.50 costs, and given a five-day suspended sentence, George said.

From now on all traffic violators will lose their gasoline cards, and redemption will have to be made through the local war price and ration board.

Lions’ Easter egg hunt listed as war casualty

The Lions club’s annual Easter egg hunt, anticipated eagerly by Bend’s youngsters set about this time each year, became a war casualty today when announcement was made by Charles Corkett, Lions’ president, that the hunt had been canceled.

Reason for the cancellation is obvious — eggs taking the place of many rationed foods, are too precious to use at a hunt. However, with the cancellation also came good news for Johnny and Mary Bend, who for some years have joined in the hunt in Drake Park. The hunts will be resumed more elaborately than ever after the war for the Lions club is investing money in war bonds to spend on bigger and better entertainments later.

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 7, 1968

Coach Allen to take post at Parkrose

Cliff Allen, head football coach at Bend High School for the past three years, today was named the head coach at Parkrose High School.

Allen led the 1966 Bend Lava Bears to the Intermountain conference championship. His team upset favored Jesuit in the first round of the playoffs that year.

He will succeed Will Herrington, who will continue to teach at Parkrose.

Allen was an assistant at Dallas and Roseburg before coming to Bend and is a graduate of the University of Oregon. Allen will also teach U.S. history and assist in wrestling at Parkrose.

“I feel somewhat reluctant in leaving the kids,” Allen said. “We have built a substantial program here during the past three years and I think whoever takes over the job will have a good program to step into. There are a lot of good football players coming up.”

“I have enjoyed working here,” Allen added, “and we have had success, especially in 1966. That was a fine ball club. The community has given us tremendous support and the school, especially principal Don Brown, has helped us plenty.”

Allen was named Oregon Coach of the Year in 1966 and regarding that he said, “I attribute that success to the players themselves. They were a fine group of young men.”

Bonnie and Clyde now on Viet’ duty

With a triumph over bureaucratic red tape behind them, Bonnie and Clyde, Vietnam’s flying elephants, went to work today at saving a little town’s only industry.

The elephants were airlifted to Tra Bong Monday aboard a giant U.S. Marine helicopter. They were the gift of U.S. Special Forces troops fighting in Vietnam who overcame a wall of official resistance to get them to the town.

They were needed to haul timber to the local sawmill, built with U.S. aid but in such rough terrain that trucks could not do the job. Tra Bong, an anti-Communist island in a Viet Cong stronghold, depends on the sawmill for its livelihood.

The elephants were drugged and attached to parachutes in case they woke up struggling and had to be dropped. Fortunately they stayed asleep until they were safely on the ground.

Amazed villagers crowded around the beasts after they landed and children squealed with joy when Clyde trumpeted.

Special Forces Capt. John Scott Gantt of Cross City, Fla., climbed atop Clyde and guided him at the head of a happy procession of villagers.

“Looks like we’ve got it made now,” said Gantt, who had earlier guided the pachyderms past such formidable barriers as the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Marines, five zoos, the State Department, the U.S. Embassy and the British Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 7, 1993

Japanese-Americans initiated draft

The draft of Japanese-Americans was initiated by the lobbying of Japanese-American leaders. After Pearl Harbor, the government changed the status of young Americans of Japanese descent from 1A-to-4c — enemy alien.

The Japanese-Americans Citizens League, desperate to prove the loyalty of Japanese-Americans, proposed to the government that they form “suicide battalions” of young men to serve on the most dangerous missions leaving their families with the government as “hostages” to ensure their fidelity. The government rejected the idea. But in 1943, the selective service redesignated the young men 1A, and tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans served in segregated army units.

Those veterans hold a revered place in the Japanese-American community. The 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442 Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in American military history, are hailed as heroes in many books and films.

Drug suspect quite sorry he was light on his feet

A suspected drug dealer thought he could escape capture by running into a wooded area at night. But sheriff’s deputies had no trouble following him: he was wearing sneakers that lit up.

“Every time he took a step, we knew exactly where he was,” said Anthony Anderson, an investigator for the Sheriff’s Department.

Alfred E. Acree was wearing a pair of L.A. Gear’s new “Light Gear” shoes featuring battery-operated lights that flash when the heel is pressed, Anderson said.

Acree jumped from his van and ran into a nearby wooded area after being stopped Saturday night.

When deputies caught him, they found 12 bags of cocaine worth $800 in his pockets He was charged with possessing and selling cocaine.

“That particular night, he wished he didn’t wear those shoes,” Anderson said.