15 new products will be rationed within next year
Testimony on appropriation measure also reveals Army may be increased to 7 million in 1943; OPA fund cut again
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Parrot curses Nazis after its ship sinks
Albany, NY (UP) –
Seaman Stewart Curtis, of Rensselaer, today revealed the owner of the raucous voice which hoarsely cursed the Nazis long after his ships slid beneath the waves recently after being torpedoed at night in the Caribbean.
It was the ship’s parrot, balanced precariously on a piece of wreckage and pouring forth maledictions in English and Spanish.
Mr. Curtis is recuperating after floating 19 days at sea.
Midway’s toll: 4 Jap carriers
Navy’s newest communiqué tells of U.S. victory
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – (June 28, delayed)
Japan lost four aircraft carriers, including its two largest, in the Midway Island battle, the Navy announced today in a new communiqué on the American victory.
Two and probably three Japanese battleships were damaged, one seriously. And reports of fliers who participated in the battle left little doubt that one of these battleships was sunk.
In addition, the Japs lost two heavy cruisers and three to four destroyers, three or more heavy cruisers damaged, one light cruiser damaged and four transports or cargo ships damaged or sunk by bomb and torpedo hits. At least one and possibly more of these latter ships probably sunk.
U.S. losses very small
The United States lost only one destroyer sunk and one aircraft carrier damaged.
The communiqué, issued at Pacific Headquarters by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, not only confirmed previous reports of the magnitude of the United States victory but added to it.
Moreover, it was evident that the new communiqué’s listing was that of only minimum enemy losses.
The communiqué also reported that with the four enemy carriers sunk went all their planes, totaling about 275, and all plane crews.
The enemy carriers sunk were the 26,900-ton sister ships, Akagi and Kaga, the only two in their class and the largest in the Jap Navy, and the 10,050-ton Soryu and Hiryu, likewise sister ships in a class of only three.
Cruisers known sunk were probably the Mogami and Mikuma (8,500 tons with 15 6.1-inch guns each), sister ships of the four-ship Mogami class.
Four direct hits on battleship
I was with the fleet at Midway.
Reports to the fleet during the battle, after the enemy had been beaten the first day and was being pursued the second (June 5) said that at least four direct bomb hits were scored on one of the Jap battleships.
On the third day, as the fleet closed in on the fleeing enemy remnants, U.S. planes went out and found a single enemy battleship, a cruiser and five destroyers steaming slowly 150 miles away.
Three heavy bomb hits were made on the crippled enemy battleship, one “smack between the stacks” as a reporting pilot put it.
Panic hits Italian Fleet in raid by U.S.
Alexandria (UP) – (June 27, delayed)
American Liberator bombers threw an Italian battle fleet into “wild confusion” during a recent air and naval engagement in the Mediterranean, a British submarine commander said today.
He said his submarine crew took advantage of the enemy’s panic to torpedo and sink an Italian cruiser of the Trento class.
He said:
We found our own submarine in the center of a fantastic circus of wildly careening ships, none of which maintained one course sufficiently long to justify our firing torpedoes for at least an hour. Most of the time, we remained at periscope depth, awaiting an opportunity to fire. There was a tendency on our part to stand and gape in utter amazement at the extent of the Italian Fleet’s panic.
Japs pounded near Australia
Planes batter troops at invasion bases
Melbourne (UP) –
Allied planes have made their third big raid in three days on Salamaua-Lae area on the north New Guinea coast, Gen. Douglas MacArthur said today.
His communiqué said the Allied planes concentrated on troop dispositions, apparently indicating that the Japs now had important ground forces in the area either for offensive work or in anticipation of an Allied attack.
Raiding Lae and Salamaua, the Allied planes, in a harassing attack carried out by light forces, bombed and machine-gunned enemy barracks for hours in an all-night attack, Gen. MacArthur intimated.
Other fliers bombed the Tulagi area in the Solomon Islands, 1,000 miles east of Lae and Salamaua, in another night attack in which the wharf area was the chief target.
In similar raids Saturday night, Allied planes attacked supply dumps, anti-aircraft batteries and troop barracks at Lae and Salamaua and enemy installations on Tulagi Island.
Three assistant chiefs of staff to Gen. MacArthur were promoted today from colonel to brigadier general:
- Charles A. Willoughby, of Bronxville, NY, in charge of intelligence
- Charles P. Stivers, of Downers Grove, Ill., personnel
- Lester J. Whitlock, of Ohio, supply.
Australian Army Minister Francis M. Forde announced at Canberra that an improved machine gun, the Austen, was now being manufactured for the Australian Army after having passed tests satisfactorily. It is an improvement on the efficient Sten machine gun and, like it, uses 9 mm (.35-in) caliber ammunition.
Army and Navy argue but both won Battle of Midway
By B. J. McQuaid
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
The unaccustomed lull in the Battle of the Pacific is generating a debate as unprecedented as it is hopeful. For the first time since the beginning of this war, somebody on our side is arguing the point of how we won the major engagement, rather than why we lost it.
It is strictly a family row which, for once, has nothing to do with the tiresome question of planes versus battleships. The dispute confines itself to airpower and the disputants are proponents, respectively, of land-based and carried-based aircraft.
The question is, who did the job at Midway, the Army or the Navy? The answer usually depends upon the last bloke you talk with and which uniform he wears.
‘Git thar with mostest’
The Battle of Midway is a streamline, seagoing version of the oldest and most fundamental precept of warfare:
Git thar the fustest with the mostest airplanes.
Before joining in the argument, I talked with Army and Navy pilots, who fought in the Battle of Midway, and high-ranking naval and military officers. These officers not only had a share in the planning and direction of the battle but took part in the action.
They include, on the Navy side, such authorities as an executive officer on a big carrier and one of the ablest airmen of this or any nation. Among the airmen I talked with are Maj. Gen. Willis H. Hale, recently promoted to the command of the Hawaiian Air Force, who operated from Midway during the battle.
Coordination did the trick
Men of this type are not interested in discussions that promote jealousy of ill feeling between the services. They emphasize cooperation and coordination. Coordination was present in the Battle of Midway to a greater degree than in any previous engagement of this war.
It was the Navy PBY patrol planes that first spotted the Jap invasion force, but it was the Army Flying Fortresses that swung the first punch at the big transports and warships of the invasion fleet and it was either land-based Army bombers, or land-based Marine dive bombers, or both, which got in the first licks at the carriers, battleships and heavy cruisers of the primary attack force.
In my opinion, many of the Jap ships were hit again and again within relatively short time intervals by both the Army and Navy pilots and by both land-based and carrier-based airpower. This explains all the conflict and controversy.
Get close to Jap bases
Certain sideline brain-trusters, taking out of its context a line in one of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz’s communiqués, drew the conclusion that shore-based aircraft on Jap-held islands west of Midway prevented us from following up the route. Actually, our mopping-up operations were far more complete and extended much nearer Jap bases than is generally realized.
The proximity of Jap land-based airpower was merely one of several factors in the termination of the engagement. Furthermore, after four or five days of hard hammering in one of the biggest battles of history, it is reasonable to suppose that fuel replenishment may have become a consideration.
Refugees, in Hollywood, tell of escapes from Nazis
One is a limpid-eyed French girl, easy to listen to, according to Paul
By Paul Harrison, NEA Service staff writer
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Good work!
The Federal Bureau of Investigation did a fine job in rounding up eight Nazi saboteurs who had been landed from U-boats on the Atlantic Coast.
Someday, we hope, the story can be told in full. It’s as challenging to the imagination as any secret-service thriller of fiction. How did J. Edgar Hoover’s men pick up the trails of the invaders? How were their buried caches of bombs located on the lonely Long Island and Florida beaches? How were they caught so quickly? How were their confessions obtained? We don’t know the answers.
But apparently, the FBI is very much on the alert. Indeed, there was already much negative evidence of that in the fact that nearly seven months of war have produced few if any instances of what could be considered large-scale, organized sabotage. Certainly, there are many Axis sympathizers here who would do dirty work for Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini if they could, just as it’s now proved that there were some who went to Germany to be specially trained for the desperate invasion from submarines. Their lack of success thus far is a tribute to the vigilance of those charged with protecting American war industries and defense installations against enemy agents and plotters.
If two U-boats could land parties of saboteurs, it’s only natural to wonder whether other groups haven’t landed and hidden themselves successfully. Mr. Hoover seems very sure that “we’ve got the whole crowd” – and we hope he’s right. But even the FBI might slip some time, and everything possible should be done to prevent and discourage such attempts in the future.
For one thing, increased Navy and Coast Guard activity to keep submarines away from our coasts seems to be needed. For another, the German agents now under arrest should be punished with all the promptness and severity that the law permits, as a warning that other stealthy enemies of the United States can expect no mercy.
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Servicemen – here’s how to keep ‘her’ loving you
Rules advanced for method soldier may follow to hold on to the girl ‘way back home’
By Ruth Millett
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State is third in bond quota
Pennsylvania must raise $81,050,000 in July
Washington (UP) –
Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. today announced the state-by-state breakdown of the $1-billion July quota for war bond and stamp sales.
New York, with $171,596,000, has the highest quota, while Nevada, with $1,038,000, has the lowest. July’s quotas were based on sales in May, when the national quota was $600 million. June’s quota is $800 million and it probably won’t be reached.
Mr. Morgenthau pointed out that in areas where the war is closest, bond sales soared above prescribed quotas in May. Hawaiians, he reported, bought 503% more binds than their quota while Alaskans bought 148% of their quota.
Pennsylvania, which is the second ranking state in population, received a quota of $81,050,000 for July, third highest, while Illinois, third ranking in population, was second with $84,925,000.
Two ships launched
Kearny, NJ –
Two cargo ships were launched yesterday at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock ways, the second double launching in eight days.