The Pittsburgh Press (December 12, 1941)
U.S. Navy routs Jap fleet
Enemy threats at Luzon from 3 sides, meets fierce resistance
By Joe Alex Morris, United Press war editor
Japan attempted to tighten a steel circle around the island of Luzon today, but met sturdy opposition from American airplanes, land forces and warships which chased an enemy battle fleet from the Philippines coast.
Sinking a battleship, a cruiser and a destroyer and blasting a second 29,000-ton battleship out of control, the defenders of the Philippines and of the little island of Wake appeared to be holding their ground against strong enemy assaults.
A Japanese battle fleet fled to avoid a clash with American warships, Adm. Thomas C. Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet, said at Manila.
The enemy appeared to be putting his main effort into the offensive against Luzon, striking at three main coastal sectors with still undisclosed results and heavily bombing our main naval, air and military bases in an effort to disrupt the defense system.
Losses on both sides were vague, but the Japanese apparently paid heavily for such progress as they have made so far in attempting to carry out concentric attacks designed to find a soft spot in our defenses in the Nazi manner.
Developments on Luzon
The strategical situation, which favors the Japanese and puts a heavy burden on the outnumbered and outgunned defenders, showed these developments on Luzon:
NORTH: Japanese forces landed in the Aparri sector, reportedly using parachute troops, and later were reinforced.
The Aparri attack apparently was designed primarily to get an air base for bombing attacks against the southern areas.
WEST: Japanese forces made their most important attacks at two coastal points – Vigan and the Zambales province – in an attempt to flank and seize the main U.S. defense bases and win control of roads and railroads over which they might drive toward Manila.
These enemy concentrations appeared to be directed against such bases as Iba and Olongapo, both in Zambales Province, and against the Lingayen Gulf sector, where they might hope to reach the coastal highway and the railroad leading south.
SOUTHEAST: Japanese forces landed at Legaspi, on the extreme southeastern tip of the island, presumably attempting to seize a small Marine station and open a road over comparatively flat country toward Manila.
Difficult to defend
The trend of these operations and the success of the defense forces in breaking up attacks remained t be clarified, but it should be emphasized that strategists have regarded the Philippines as difficult to defend and that the American forces there are fighting an unequal battle.
According to Manila dispatches, they appeared to be holding their ground and putting up strong aerial opposition to the swarms of Japanese planes – one estimated said 113 were overhead in one wave - that struck at Cavite, Iba, Batanga, and other targets.
In Northern Luzon, the enemy “is augmenting its forces at Aparri and Vigan,” communique No. 5 issued at Washington, said. German reports said that Japanese parachutists were landing along a 155-mile coastal sector, apparently between Vigan and Aparri.
Dispatches and communiques began to make clear that the Japanese were using large sea, air and land units in a campaign designed to cut off and attack Luzon from all sides, seeking to divide the defense forces at the same time that aerial attacks pounded at our main military bases on the island.
Bases considerably damaged
Official statements at Manila acknowledged considerable damage to such bases as Cavite, adjacent to Manila, as a result of air attacks which continued against stiff American opposition today. But there was no definite indication of the extent of enemy penetration of the coastal areas, most of which present formidable obstacles such as mountain ranges and narrow passes.
Adm. Hart gave no details of the American attempt to engage the Japanese fleet except that the action was off Manila.
Details of the sinking of the Japanese battleship Haruna, however, brought the first American aerial heroes of the war into the picture. They were Capt. Colin Kelly, 26-year-old Army flier from Florida, who dived to his death in blasting at the Haruna; Lt. Boyd D. Wagner, who downed two enemy planes and destroyed a dozen on the ground at Aparri; and Lt. C. A. Keller, who shadowed a battleship of the 29,000-ton Kongo class and led an aerial attack that damaged it.
Marines hold Wake
A Marine garrison that held out against four Japanese air and sea attacks on little Wake Island was believed to be still in action, although it was presumed that new enemy assaults had been made. The Wake defenders already had sunk a Japanese light cruiser and a destroyer by aerial action.
The Japanese, in broadcasts from Tokyo, claimed that they were making progress in landing operations against the Philippines, but gave no details. They claimed to have destroyed 238 of 250 American planes which Tokyo said were known to be in the Philippines when war started.
The Japanese reported they were continuing heavy air attacks on Philippine targets and at Manila it was acknowledged that the Navy’s base at Cavite had been hard hit as was Batanga, 50 miles southeast.
On other fronts:
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MALAYA: Patrol fighting continued against the Japanese offensive toward Singapore, which has been held in the extreme northern part of the Malaya States near Kota Bharu and also on the west coast. Japanese attempts to land at Kuantan were repulsed and Japanese air raids seemed to be decreasing.
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HONGKONG: Chinese forces, reported to have wiped out 15,000 enemy troops, were attacking strongly against the Japanese rear lines in an effort to relieve pressure on Hongkong. The British defense lines were withdrawn slightly to improved positions but there was no indication of a heavy assault.
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AUSTRALIA: An air raid alarm was sounded in the Port Darwin area.
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LIBYA: British forces attacked in the Ain El Gazala sector, 40 miles west of Tobruk, in a new attempt to wipe out Axis armored strength in North Africa and prevent a retreat to the Derna defense line.
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RUSSIA: Red Army attacks continued to gain ground in the Yelets sector, southeast of Moscow, where about 100 villages were reported retaken near Kalanin, where heavy casualties were inflicted on the Germans and in the Volokolask region, west of Moscow. On the Northern Front, the Finns claimed to have wiped out three Russian divisions.
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WESTERN EUROPE: The Royal Air Force heavily attacked Western and Northwestern Germany, striking hardest at Cologne, where fires were started. Brest and Le Havre also were bombed.
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ATLANTIC FRONT: The Berlin radio claimed that four British ships totalling 27,000 tons had been sunk.
Russia clarified stand
Of greatest importance in developments outside the fighting fronts was a partial clarification of the positions of the Soviet Union toward the Far Eastern war.
The newspaper Pravda, according to dispatches from Kuibyshev, bitterly attacked Japan, taunted Hitler because of the collapse of the great Axis offensive against Moscow and declared that Russia would never make peace with Germany until Britain and the United States agreed and Hitler had been overthrown.
The pledge not to make a separate peace did not directly involve the Soviet Union in the Far Eastern war but it seemed to leave no doubt as to the solidarity of Russia, America and Britain in the war against all of the Axis powers, including Japan.
The question of direct Russian aid in the war against Japan was left in abeyance for obvious geographical and strategical reasons. The United States eventually may want bases in Siberia for bombing attacks on Japan but at present the Allies are fighting defensively and presumably would not want to invite a Japanese Army thrust from Manchukuo against the Soviet’s Siberia strongholds.
WAR DEPARTMENT OFFERS 18-64 DRAFT BILL
Women ‘deferred’ – Full survey of manpower in U.S. asked
Only those from 19 to 45 face actual call, Rayburn says
WASHINGTON (UP) – The War Department today presented to Congress legislation that would require all men in the United States between the ages of 18 to 64, inclusive, to register with the Selective Service System.
Only those from 19 to 45, Speaker Sam Rayburn said, will be liable for military service.
The broad registration will be for the purpose of getting an accurate survey of American manpower.
Chairman Andrew J. May, D-Kentucky, of the House Military Affairs Committee introduced the War Department’s legislation shortly after the House convened at noon.
Reviewed at conference
The legislation was reviewed in a conference at Mr. Rayburn’s office also attended by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson; Selective Service Director Lewis B. Hershey; House Majority Leader John W. McCormack, D-Massachusetts; Rep. James Wadsworth, R-New York, co-sponsor of the original Selective Service Act; Rep. Walter G. Andrews, R-New York, ranking minority member of the Military Affairs Committee, and War Department and Selective Service aides.
Men who have already registered will not be required to do so again.
The new registration will take in all unregistered men who have reached the age of 18 and have not reached the age of 65.
New registrants may be called up for military service ahead of those who were entered in the past two registrations.
The bill provided that alien residents of the United States holding citizenship in neutral nations may apply for exemption for registration for military service under the American flag but if they do, they are forever barred from becoming citizens of this nation.
Mr. May announced that hearings in the bill will start tomorrow and that Gen. Hershey will be the first witness.
Selective Service officials said they had no intention at this time of seeking authority to register women.
Mr. May said his bill will not change the existing system of classifying Selective Service registrants.
Mr. Hershey disclosed that a proposal was now under consideration to establish some sort of government support if married men and other with dependents, who are now deferred, were found to be needed.
Million already available
Mr. Hershey told the conferees that an additional million men can probably be combed out of present registrants between 21 and 27 and that 1,200,000 men reach the age of military service annually.
“We may need a lot of men,” he said, “and we’ve got to find out now where we can get them.”
Gen. Hershey told reporters yesterday that he favored a long-range registration of the 40 million men between 18 and 64 years. He estimated that 10 million could be made available to the Army and Navy for actual service. Registration of women, he said, would be handled by such agencies as the Office for Civilian Defense.
The first phase of the program probably will be to draw upon the 17,500,000 men in the already registered 21-35 age group. Only about 800,000 inductions have been made to this class, but Gen. Hershey believes this could be increased to four million men.
Immediate reclassification of the 10 million registrants in the 21-27 age bracket is possible and legislative action may be sought to make available the 7,500,000 men in the 28-35 age group.
Gen. Hershey suggested that lowering selection standards in the 21-27 group would yield more than a million men to the current million in Class 1-A, and that “fully a million able-bodied men” might be obtained from the 28-35 group, now exempted.
The Army is expected to notify Selective Service headquarters at once of its needs for January and February quotas. They have been averaging about 65,000 per month recently. Gen. Hershey indicated that they would be “doubled or tripled.” That might mean that 500,000 men would be called to the colors during the next two months.
Loopholes sought
Authorities are seeking to close loopholes on occupational deferments. Conferences with defense manufacturers have been held recently, and Gen. Hershey believes 200,000 men may be made available for military service from defense industry workers.
Selective Service headquarters have notified local draft boards to reclassify ex-servicemen who were deferred in Class 4-A. They were told that the provision permitting deferment from service in peacetime no longer applies.
Men who had served three years in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps, National Guardsmen with two years’ service in the militia and one in federal service, National Guards with six years’ service, the reserve officers with six years’ service were in that category.
WAR BULLETINS!
British, Reds to map strategy
LONDON – Important British-Russian negotiations, it was learned tonight, will be held shortly to deal with political collaboration and the grand strategy of the war against the Axis.
Japs gain near Hong Kong
SINGAPORE – British forces held off the Japanese attack on Malaya today but Hong Kong reports admitted some Japanese penetration of the outer mainland defense of that island fortress. British reports said the Japanese strengthened their hold on the Kota Bharu Airdrome close to the Malaya-Thailand border. Japanese artillery was reported to be shelling Stonecutters Island which lies off Hong Kong Island.
Chiang offers all-out aid
WASHINGTON – Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, in a message to President Roosevelt has offered on behalf of China “all we are, and all we have, to stand with you until the Pacific and the world are freed from the curse of brute force and endless perfidy.”
Planes strafe Jap barges
LONDON – The Air Ministry reported today that Royal Air Force and Australian Air Force planes attacked and set afire to between 50 and 60 Japanese power-driven boats and barges in the first stages of the Japanese attack on Kota Bharu, Malaya.
British sub hits cruiser
LONDON – The Admiralty said today that a British submarine torpedoed and probably sank an enemy cruiser in the Central Mediterranean. The date of the attack was not given.
Marines still hold Wake Island
WASHINGTON – The small U.S. Marine garrison is still holding Wake Island against Japanese attacks, President Roosevelt said today. He told his press conference that the Marines at Wake Island – a lonely station in the mid-Pacific – is small and has done a magnificent job in withstanding Japanese assaults. Last night, it was announced that the Marines had sunk a Japanese light cruiser and a destroyer in air action from Wake.
Japs seize 1,000 American workmen
WASHINGTON – The American Federation of Labor said today it has been advised by the Navy that more than 1,000 American workmen were “captured and taken prisoner” at Midway and Guam Islands in the Pacific. The men were all members of the AFL’s Building Trades Union, and were sent to the island to construct military facilities. The Navy did not specifically say whether Midway or Guam had fallen into the hands of the Japanese.
Haiti joins U.S. against Axis
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti today declared war on Germany and Italy. A declaration of war against Japan was made last Monday.
Slovakia declares war on U.S.
LONDON – The official German news agency broadcast a Bratislava dispatch today saying that Slovakia had declared war on the United States and Great Britain.
Indian leader arrested
NEW DELHI, India (Dec. 11, delayed) – Sarat Chandra Bose, brother of Subhas Chandra Bose, former mayor of Calcutta and former president of the All-India Nationalist Congress, has been arrested at Calcutta because of his “recent contacts with the Japanese,” it was announced today. Subhas Chandra Bose fled last January and is reported in Germany.
Nazis claim four sinkings
BERLIN (by Berlin radio) – German submarines in the Atlantic have sunk four British ships totaling 27,700 tons, the High Command said today.
The ships included a tanker. In addition, two patrol vessels and a tanker were damaged by torpedo hits.
Vichy declares neutrality
LONDON – Radio Tokyo said this morning that the Vichy government has informed the Japanese ambassador that France will maintain strict neutrality in the war between the United States and Japan.
San Diego blacked out
SAN DIEGO, California – San Diego was blacked out for an hour early today and Los Angeles was placed on “alert” when the Fourth Interceptor Command reported unidentified aircraft offshore.
Here the command said the planes were heard off Point Loma at the entrance to San Diego Bay. At Los Angeles, the command said merely that they were “probably offshore.”
Australia has air raid alarm
NEW YORK – The British radio reported today that Port Darwin on the north coast of Australia had an air raid alarm during the night, the first in the commonwealth. No details were given.
Japan, Indochina sign pact
LONDON – The official German news agency reported from Tokyo today that Japan and French Indochina concluded a military alliance Monday.
The Berlin broadcast attributed the report to Japanese Imperial Headquarters.
Brussels University closed
STOCKHOLM, Sweden – The newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported from Berlin today that German military authorities had closed the University of Brussels to its 3,000 students and arrested 10 of its officials. The university board refused to accept five German appointments to the faculty.
Uncle Sam hits back –
U.S. aircraft begin to even Pacific score
Second Jap battleship hit; Axis satellites may declare war
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
WASHINGTON (UP) – Further war declarations or ruptures of diplomatic relations with the United States by Axis satellites were likely today as American airmen began to even the naval score with Japan in the Pacific.
The successful bombing of a second Japanese capital ship cheered the capital.
The nation is at war on two points – Atlantic and Pacific. But the Western Hemisphere is becoming more solidly aligned by the minute against the Axis and the period of disunity at home seems to have ended with the first bomb explosion in Hawaii.
Good news starts
Against Germany, Italy and Japan is being thrown the force of the world’s most perfectly machined and industrialized nation. And the good news is beginning to come in.
First word is awaited from the Atlantic front, where war began yesterday with declarations of hostilities by Rome and Berlin which were immediately acknowledged by the United States. Whether the Axis will attempt a “morale” air raid on Washington, New York or some other seaboard city is not known. The fighting forces hope to stop it offshore if it comes.
Bombs of Army, Navy or Marine fliers have already sunk one Japanese battleship, one cruiser, one destroyer and badly damaged a second battleship.
Seek to restore balance
At that rate, it appears the American flying men shortly will be able to restore the balance of naval power in the Pacific as it existed before Japan sank the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales, the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and inflicted unrevealed damage on our own fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was announced by the Hawaiian governor that 20 Japanese planes were lost in Sunday’s attack on Hawaii.
The last “good news” came in the Navy Department’s communique No. 3, which said:
“Adm. Thomas C. Hart, commander-in-chief of the Asiatic Fleet, reported that Navy patrol planes scored bomb hits on a Japanese battleship of the Kongo class off the coast of Luzon. The ship was badly damaged.
“This is the second Japanese battleship to be bombed effectively by U.S. forces.”
Haruna sunk
The first battleship attacked by U.S. forces was the 29,000-ton Haruna. It was sunk. The second, Adm. Hart reported, was believed to be the 29,300-ton Kongo.
Earlier in the day, the Navy has revealed that a small garrison of Marines were making a valiant stand to defend Wake Island, the tiny outpost between Hawaii and Guam. That garrison sunk one cruiser and one destroyer which had tried to attack.
Sufficiently accurate information on what was lost in Pearl Harbor is now common knowledge here – although unpublishable – and the rate at which American fliers are reducing the Japanese fleet is encouraging.
Remains less favorable
But the balance of naval power remains considerably less favorable to the United States than it was before Sunday’s attack. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox arrived in Honolulu last night for a personal survey of the damage which the public will scarcely minimize after White House emphasis upon its seriousness.
Hungary is almost in step with the Axis today with the formal announcement in Washington that diplomatic relations with the United States have been broken. Hungary explained here that she was not declaring war.
Radio Berlin broadcast that Hungary has declared war against the United States.
Rumania may follow
Rumania is another subordinate European state which may follow that course.
The course of the neutrals – Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and Portugal – remains to be seen, nor is it known here what Germany may demand of that part of France governed from Vichy.
Finland, already at war with the Soviet Union and with Great Britain, is seeking to avoid involvement in the general war flaming throughout the world. The situation is further complicated by Great Britain’s recent declaration of war against Hungary and Rumania.
Greece, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway are captive countries, seized forcibly by Nazi arms, and Albania fell early to Italy.
Meets in January
The Western Hemisphere was rapidly falling in line with the anti-Axis powers in a worldwide choose-up-sides for battle and there will be a conference in Rio de Janeiro in January among the 21 American republics.
Here next week, Mr. Roosevelt has called a conference of management and labor to agree on a changeover from war to peace production efforts which must adopt a seven-day production week, and without strike or lockout interruptions, too. The accomplishments of the conference are expected to take the place of drastic anti-strike legislation which was roaring through Congress when Japan struck.
The congressional isolation bloc has vanished as though bombed and it is the present intention of Congress to vote all the funds and authority the administration and its military advisers ask to prosecute the war. Restrictions against sending National Guardsmen and selectees outside the Western Hemisphere were voted away unanimously yesterday and the Senate turned immediately to consideration of a $10 billion supplemental national defense appropriation. The sum of the bill was increased by about two billion dollars by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Taxes will rise
Taxes are going up soon and far. Congressional leaders agreed that the burden will increase tremendously and other officials are arranging simultaneously to reduce the number of variety of things the public may buy with what is left over from the paycheck after taxes are paid.
National Selective Service headquarters are pondering plans for registration of practically everyone for such essential service as may be necessary and draft deferment lists are already being revised to make more men immediately available for the armed services.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Maxim Litvinov, the Soviet ambassador, conferred and predicted increased collaboration against the common enemy. But there is no word here about bases for our planes in Siberia so that they may shuttle back and forth between the Philippines and the Asiatic mainland, dropping their bombs on Japan as they cross each way. The Soviet Union and Japan are not at war. Instead, they have a mutual non-aggression pact.
Mowrer: Keep a close eye on Hitler for surprise
Nazis still main show, and Atlantic may be next background
By Edgar Ansel Mowrer
WASHINGTON – Repel the Japanese but keep your eye on Hitler – this is the policy being followed today by the American administration, the Army and the Navy.
The sinking of a Japanese battleship, a cruiser and a destroyer makes it just that much easier. People here are convinced that in preparing for Japan the magnificently audacious plan that the Nipponese carried out so effectively (and treacherously) last Sunday, the Germans wanted to create a diversion serious enough to force the American authorities to strip the Atlantic and rush to repair the damage in the Pacific and avenge it.
Since the work of avenging has begun without any reinforcements from the Atlantic, for the main route to the Philippines is now largely in the hands of the Japanese, there will be less temptation to forget that, outside of the main area of Singapore, Hitler and his Nazis are still the main show.
In order to induce the Japs to go all out and risk their precious material, Hitler, it is believed here, must have promised them powerful support. What people here intend to find it – and expect Hitler to reveal soon – is what form this support is going to take.
Several things are open to the Nazis, now that they have admitted they cannot take Moscow this winter and must wait until spring. A Russian announcement claiming that they now have control of the air over the front suggests strongly that the Germans have withdrawn a portion of their air force from that region. This might take the form of a new air onslaught against Great Britain, and/or an intensified airplane, plus submarine, plus surface, campaign in the Atlantic.
Defeated in his frantic effort to reach the oil of the Caspian, Hitler’s marshals, by shortening their lines and withdrawing divisions from Russia, may amass a powerful mass for a campaign all along, or in special parts of, the Mediterranean.
This might mean a smash at Turkey, with the idea of reaching the Caucasus along the southern shore of the Black Sea, or turning down toward Iraq and eventually Iran, or driving straight south on Syria, Palestine and the Suez Canal. It may mean an intensified effort to cross the Mediterranean and get into North Africa in time to reinforce Gen. Erwin Rommel’s battered divisions before they have to give more ground. For this purpose, Hitler desperately needs the French fleet.
Pessimists in Washington believe that Japan’s success at Pearl Harbor may have been the final argument in convincing the men of Vichy that Americans are blunderers anyway. Without this fleet, and a fine French base like Bizerte or Oran to land at, the Germans and Italians will have some difficulty sending reinforcements across the British-controlled Mediterranean.
Spain a pushover
They can, however, take over Spain and Portugal anytime they choose. A somewhat sinister statement from Madrid that Spain will soon announce its position toward the war with the United States leads people here to believe that the Franco Spaniards, despite more than generous handling from the United States, have decided to proclaim non-belligerence favorable to the Axis and allow German troops to pass freely.
This would mean a siege of Gibraltar and the unquestioned crossing of the straits there by at least some German troops. It would mean the taking over of French Morocco, probably of Algeria as well. It might mean an attempt to take over Dakar, though Dakar is a long walk from the straits.
In any case, many possibilities are open to Hitler, and those who have given most attention to studying the man and his works are convinced that he will not wait long to act.
U.S. bans casualty lists as giving aid to enemies
WASHINGTON (UP) – No more casualty lists will be issued by the War and Navy Departments.
President Roosevelt explained to his press conference today that the Army and Navy felt that publication of lists of men killed or wounded in action would provide information of aid to the enemy, enabling the enemy to determine where and when large numbers of American soldiers and sailors suffered losses.
He said the Army and Navy would notify next of kin of the casualties immediately by telegram. The government will release for newspaper publication only total figures on casualties.
The president asked that press associations, newspapers and radio stations refrain from compiling their own casualty lists from the notices sent to next of kin.
Newspapers, he said, should confine themselves to brief stories that the next of kin – wife, mother, or whatever the case may be – of a given man in the paper’s individual areas has been notified by Washington. This information from next of kin, the president felt, should not be made into the form of lists covering even a given community.
All belligerents in the war, prior to the outbreak of hostilities between Japan and the United States, followed the policy of not making casualty lists public, the president said. They have notified next of kin, and from time to time made public figures on total casualties.
The War Department has issued three casualty lists – one each Wednesday, yesterday and today. The Navy had not released any casualty list up to the time of today’s decision. The Navy is now preparing figures on the dead and seriously wounded to date.
A Navy announcement said:
“The Navy Department today announced that for military reasons no list of names of casualties will be released to the public. The next of kin and dependents of naval casualties are being notified and are being asked not to divulge the names of the ship or station to which the relative was attached.”
To requests for additional information on the Japanese attack against Hawaii, the president replied that further statements must await the return or report of the Secretary Frank Knox, now in Honolulu.
The president said strongly that no one should publish anything about the Hawaiian attack or present conditions there until the government has heard from Mr. Knox. He added, in response to a question, if such stories are published the government will remember well the people who did it.
He was asked about the propriety of reporting statements made in Congress, giving purporting details of the situation in Hawaii. Correspondents referred particularly to statements made in the Senate yesterday and told the president they had no choice but to print them.
The president agreed that such reports from Congress could not be ignored, but said they should be characterized as not entirely factual.
The president said one senator yesterday made certain statements about Hawaii with knowing a thing about the situation.
This senator, the president said, reported somebody’s gossip and made his report as a statement of fact which he had no right to do.
Sen. Charles W. Tobey, R-New Hampshire, told the Senate yesterday that there had been a “debacle” at Pearl Harbor and charged that the defenses of Pearl Harbor were unprepared.
