Well…
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The Pittsburgh Press (October 28, 1942)
JAP LAND LOSSES ‘VERY HEAVY;’ SOLOMONS SEA BATTLE SPREADS
New attacks repulsed on Guadalcanal
U.S. planes pound enemy fleet units near Fijis and Hebrides
By Sandor S. Klein, United Press staff writer
Battle spreads far to sea in Solomons as U.S. fliers hit a Jap carrier and cruiser in a new action near the Stewart Islands (1) about 400 miles from Guadalcanal. More reports on earlier action near the Stewarts show that Navy fliers have damaged two carriers, one cruiser and hit a Jap battleship. North of the New Hebrides and Fiji Islands (2) U.S. fliers have attacked strong Jap naval forces. The black semi-circle shows how the Jap bases ring the Solomons area.
Washington –
Japanese losses of men and equipment in land actions on Guadalcanal, the Navy announced today:
…have been very heavy as compared to our own.
A communiqué coupled this news with word that our troops have thrown back several more small enemy thrusts against our positions surrounding the vital Guadalcanal airfield.
Beyond that, it said, there was no news of any change in the widening battle of the Solomons.
Silent on exact numbers
The communiqué’s phrasing regarding enemy losses did not give any clue as to the numbers of men the Japanese have lost out of the thousands they have been pouring into this battle for control of the Southwest Pacific islands. It merely said:
Enemy losses in men and equipment in the troop actions on the island [Guadalcanal] have been very heavy as compared to our own.
One naval officer, asked about this wording of the communiqué, said that aside from the comparison with our losses, the Japanese casualties had been “very heavy.”
Breakthrough repulsed
U.S. Army troops as well as Marines are engaged on Guadalcanal. It was the Army men who stopped the Japanese breakthrough on one sector of Guadalcanal and regained their positions in the action announced last night.
In the sea and air war raging all around the Solomons, the still-indecisive fighting has been costly to both sides. The U.S. Navy has announced loss of 15 ships while sinking 12 of the enemy’s and probably sinking three more.
This fighting has spread hundreds of miles to the east of Guadalcanal. American fliers have attacked strong enemy naval forces north of the New Hebrides and the Fiji Islands – United States advance bases.
The penetration of the American lines on Guadalcanal occurred Sunday night (island time) after a day-long attack on the south side of the airfield. But U.S. Army troops defending that sector chased the enemy back and “regained their positions.”
Marines make small gains
Marines defending the western side of the airfield were also engaged in heavy fighting, but the Navy reported that they had scored “small gains.”
The latest report by the Navy in its communiqué last night showed that the Americans have sunk two Jap destroyers and damaged three other ships, including a battleship. Hits were also reported on two cruisers and an aircraft carrier which may have been damaged in a previously-announced action.
No better evidence of the desperate fight being waged in those South Sea islands has come from the Navy than the report last night that non-combatant units of U.S. naval forces are in action.
Two American minesweepers engaged three Jap destroyers near Guadalcanal until Navy and Marine aircraft joined the battle and sank two of the destroyers.
Task force attacked
In another action on the same day (Sunday), a Jap destroyer sank the USS Seminole, a fleet tug, and a small harbor patrol boat near Tulagi. The destroyer was badly damaged by shore batteries which scored three hits and Grumman “Wildcat” fighters from Guadalcanal which strafed the ship as it fled.
Monday morning, American bombers and fighters on Guadalcanal took off for the third time in two days to attack an enemy task force of cruisers and destroyers that had been in the waters north of Florida Island.
Fliers hit Jap cruiser
On their third trip, American airmen scored a direct hit on an enemy cruiser. The day before, they had hit and stopped a cruiser, hit another cruiser and left burning and dead in the water a light cruiser.
The latest sea development seems to be the presence of apparently large enemy surface forces about 40 miles northeast of Guadalcanal – far from the major scene of action.
There was no official explanation but it was pointed out that from the point where those forces were intercepted by American airmen, the Japs could have struck at Espiritu Santo, an American base in the New Hebrides, or at the Fiji Islands. A short sailing distance to the east are the Samoan Islands, another major American base and key point in the supply line between Hawaii and Australia.
Navy airmen score hits
The latest action against that enemy force was Monday night when Navy Consolidated “Catalinas” attacked it. The force was the same one believed attacked the day before by a naval carrier air force east of the Stewart Islands.
The night attack of the “Catalinas” resulted in a torpedo hit on an enemy cruiser. Those were administered in the midst of heavy anti-aircraft fire during which one American plane was damaged.
The Navy revealed further reports on the earlier air battle with presumably the same force earlier in the day. One enemy aircraft carrier was badly damaged, another damaged. One enemy cruiser was badly damaged and one battleship was hit.
Toll of Jap ships is 72
The latest communiqué raises the total Jap warship casualties to 72 – 12 sunk, three probably sunk and 57 damaged – since Aug. 7. In that same period, the Navy has acknowledged the loss of 15 ships – three heavy cruisers, the aircraft carrier Wasp, six destroyers, four transports and a fleet tug. Additionally, an unnamed carrier was “severely damaged,” two destroyers were damaged and “lesser” damage was suffered by other unidentified warships.
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox said yesterday that the battle is “a darn tough, stiff fight” – the outcome of which is not clear.
But there was still no indication that any major U.S. naval surface forces have gone or are going into action in the Solomons.
‘Navy is outnumbered’
Vice Adm. Richard S. Edwards, Chief of Staff to Adm. Ernest J. King, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Fleet, said the Navy is:
…now strongly outnumbered in the South Pacific.
He said in Cleveland that the latest losses in that area were serious but not unexpected. But the Navy is prepared to accept such losses in an operation of such great magnitude, he added.
Any doubts about the magnitude of the battle now joined for the Solomons have been eliminated by the three latest communiqués issued by the Navy. A major portion of them has been devoted to detailing the events that have occurred since Sunday when the Japs launched a “coordinated land, sea and air attack.”
The reports of activity since Sunday are incomplete, but last night’s communiqué seemed to bring up to date the fighting of last Sunday.
Starting early in the morning with an undisclosed number of enemy troops pouring off transports onto the northwest tip of Guadalcanal Island, Sunday’s events on and near Guadalcanal read like this:
MORNING: The Japs launched a determined attack against the southern flank of American positions on Guadalcanal. That attack was apparently sustained throughout the day until the enemy pierced American lines at night and only then was repulsed.
Jap surface forces shelled American Guadalcanal positions from the north.
Twenty-two miles across the water between Guadalcanal and Florida Island, American auxiliary vessels (non-combatant) were taking on enemy warships. Minesweepers, a tugboat and a harbor patrol boat in the vicinity of Tulagi engaged enemy destroyers until American aircraft came to the rescue, but too late to save the tug and patrol boat.
AFTERNOON: Navy and Army bombers attacked an enemy force north of Florida Island – once early in the afternoon and twice late in the afternoon inflicting damage on cruisers.
The Japs sent bombers over the Guadalcanal airfield twice, but the Americans shot down five.
NIGHT: The attack on the southern flank on Guadalcanal, begun in the morning, succeeded in breaking through and only after heavy fighting was the enemy thrown back. The Marines west of the airfield were fighting throughout the day and made small gains.
Pacific War Council discusses Solomons
Washington (UP) –
Members of the Pacific War Council conferred with President Roosevelt today on the tense situation in the Southwest Pacific.
New Zealand Minister Walter Nash said the council had explored the situation thoroughly. He was asked:
Was there any tone of optimism?
He replied:
No. Just realism.
The Chinese Ambassador, Dr. Wei Tao-ming, reported there was a “good deal of discussion” about the Solomon Islands.
Japs ‘destroy’ U.S. fleet; admit battle still rages
By the United Press
Japs break through, then are hurled back as U.S. forces battle to hold a 25-square-mile area near the airfield on Guadalcanal. While arrows show where Army troops regained all ground after the Japs broke into U.S. lines south of the airfield, while on the western flank, U.S. Marines scored “small gains.” The “X” off Tulagi indicates where a U.S. tug and patrol boat were sunk by a Jap destroyer which was hit by shore batteries and U.S. airmen. The “X” off Guadalcanal indicated where two U.S. minesweepers engaged three Jap destroyers. U.S. fliers sank two of the destroyers, routed the other.
Tokyo said today that a naval battle in the South Pacific was still raging, although previous Japanese reports had claimed that the U.S. fleet was “destroyed” in the Solomon Islands area Monday.
The Tokyo newspaper Nichi Nichi, quoted by the official German DNB Agency, said:
We are really curious to know how Washington will try to keep secret from the American people the crushing defeat of the U.S. fleet.
Then it added:
Although the naval battle in the Southern Pacific is still in progress and the final result, therefore, cannot be foreseen, it can, however, be said, according to local naval quarters, that this is one of the greatest naval battles since the outbreak of the war.
Nichi Nichi, like the rest of the Japanese press and despite its statement that the battle was still in progress, then claimed that “the main enemy forces were annihilated” Monday.
Meanwhile, the Berlin radio reported from Tokyo that an order providing for reorganization of the Air Department of the Japanese Navy will become effective Nov. 1. No details were given, except a statement that it would involve a considerable increase in Japanese aircraft production.
Tokyo also said that the number of Japanese planes lost in the current battle of the Solomons has risen from 40 to 49.
The Dōmei Agency claimed the U.S. Navy lost “25 naval craft, including some of America’s latest and allegedly invincible fighting ships,” in the Solomons area, but did not clearly indicate over what period.
Dōmei said in a broadcast recorded in New York by the United Press:
It is now clearly seen by all observers that the United States Navy massed all available fighting craft on sea and in the air near Guadalcanal Island to have it out with the Imperial Japanese Navy.
It was now or never for the United States Navy, which has been suffering heavily under a verbal broadside from the American public for its failure to bring home a single piece of good news.
American naval commanders hoped to “flash home news of a great victory on Navy Day,” Dōmei said, but the Japanese Navy spoiled this in the battle off Santa Cruz.
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Horrified witness covers eyes –
16 are killed, many hurt in Detroit train-bus crash
Half a dozen women and ‘some schoolchildren’ numbered among victims; bodies badly mangled
…
Gains in Egypt continue –
British smash tank assault
American bombers, fighters step up action
By Leon Kay, United Press staff writer
Bulletin
Cairo, Egypt –
The Eighth Army tonight was reported driving deeper wedges in the Alamein Line, attempting to bring Marshal Erwin Rommel’s main tank forces into decisive battle. Armored fighting was reported on an expanding scale but it had not reached the point of an all-out effort.
…
Jap general killed
Tokyo, Japan – (Japanese broadcast recorded in New York)
The death of Lt. Gen. Toshinari Maeda, Jap Commander-in-Chief in Borneo, in an air crash was revealed today. He was killed Sept. 5.
Nazi spy testifies –
Sabotage plot wrecked early
Seen by Coast Guard; they are arrested next day
Burger
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Ernst Peter Burger, convicted Nazi saboteur, testified today that the German sabotage invasion of the United States, carefully planned by the Gestapo, was thrown off schedule within a few minutes after he and three companions landed by submarine off Long Island, New York.
Burger, resuming the hitherto secret story of the eight-man sabotage mission, told a federal court jury the first slip of the blueprint for wrecking the U.S. aluminum and transportation industries was caused by a U.S. Coast Guardsman (John J. Cullen).
Burger said he and three companion saboteurs were rowed to shore off Long Island from a German submarine between midnight and 1 a.m. last June 13. They were wearing uniforms of the German naval infantry to ensure treatment as war prisoners, should they have been captured while still aboard the U-boat.
This sabotage group, one of two which landed on the East Coast last June, was under strict instructions to change into civilian clothes, once ashore, and to return their uniforms to the submarine. But before they could send their uniforms back to the sub, the group was surprised by the Coast Guardsman, Burger said:
When I saw the Coast Guard, I took my seabag and carried it back to my waiting friends and we buried them with the small spades we had brought with us. We buried our explosives and uniforms together.
Burger said he and the leader of his group, John Dasch, both talked to the Coast Guardsman, but he couldn’t recall the conversation.
Arrested next day
Burger related:
Then we went to a railroad station at Amagansett and took a train for Jamaica, where we bought clothes and changed again because ours were soaking wet. In Jamaica, we split up and Dasch and I went to a hotel in New York where we stayed until the FBI arrested us the next day.
Earlier, Burger had given a detailed account of the activities of the eight spies during their sabotage instruction at a Brandenburg, Germany, school, their vacation trip to Berlin and Paris, and their journey to Lorient, France, for embarkation to the United States.
He said the two groups of four made a pact before the second group boarded its submarine for Jacksonville, Florida, vowing that they would “find an opportunity to see each other again” in the United States. The eight did meet, after their arrest by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Burger said that before embarkation from Lorient, the saboteurs were instructed to arrange their general meeting in the United States at Cincinnati, on the Fourth of July.
Under cross-examination, Burger said the second group of saboteurs, headed by Edward Kerling, and including Herbert Haupt, both of whom were executed, was instructed to set up headquarters in New York City. Kerling was to establish a “front” near New York City by setting up a small farm.
Defense Attorney Paul Warnholtz said he would spend “hours” in cross-examination in an effort to “completely dissociate" Burger and his confederates from the six defendants on trial for “treasonable” aid to young Haupt.
Government’s first witness
Burger, whose testimony before a military court in Washington helped bring death sentences to six of his companions, was the first witness in the trial of the parents, the uncle and aunt and two friends of Herbert Hans Haupt. 22, one of the executed saboteurs.
Burger told in thick German accents how he, Haupt and the others took an 18-day course in sabotage in Germany, before departing from Berlin May 22 with eight boxes of explosives and incendiary devices with which they plotted to damage plants of the Aluminum Company of America.
He testified:
Our assignment was to damage and harm the Aluminum Company of America. We all received the assignment. Part of our assignment was to damage railroad plants connecting the aluminum plants with the manufacturing plants of the refined product.
To use explosives
District Attorney J. Albert Woll asked:
How were you to destroy them?
By placing certain explosives for which we received the formula, close to the tracks, attaching a battery or timing device, and slowing it up.
Burger revealed that Haupt had disobeyed instructions given by Lt. Walter Kappe, former editor of a Chicago German-language newspaper, who was in charge of the eight men, not to visit his parents in Chicago after his arrival over here, to get employment in the optical industry, and third, to register as soon as possible for the Army.
Haupt enlisted aid
The government contends Haupt got in touch with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Hans Max Haupt, June 19, after first contacting his aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Otto Fröhling, shortly after landing by submarine on the Florida coast.
Subsequently, the government charges, Haupt explained his mission to his parents, the Fröhlings and their neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Wergin, and enlisted their aid. He made an effort to become reemployed at the Simpson Optical Co., where he had worked before and which was engaged last summer in manufacturing parts for the Norden bombsight, one of the nation’s most closely-guarded military secrets.
To divide U.S.
Following their instruction at the school, Burger said the eight men visited plants in Germany, including an aluminum plant and railroad yards. He said they studied all vulnerable spots and how to approach them. Then came final instructions by Kappe. He told them they were to divide the United States in two parts.
Burger testified:
We had considered Chicago as the dividing line, at the northern part. Chicago, and the imaginary line going straight south.
Haupt was assigned to the eastern division with three others. Burger said he and the other three had the western part.
Given false draft cards
Burger continued:
We were given false draft registration and Social Security cards without names on them.
…and explained the cards were to be used as false identifications after landing in America.
Mr. Woll explained that Burger’s testimony, admitted over the objections of defense attorneys, was for the purpose of showing that Haupt was an enemy of the United States and that any aid given him by the six defendants was treasonable.
Indictment holds girlfriend of spy
New York (UP) –
Hedwig Engemann, 34-year-old grocery clerk, was indicted yesterday for having knowledge of the treasonable activities of Edward John Kerling, one of the six Nazi saboteurs executed in Washington.
Miss Engemann, described by the government as Kerling’s girlfriend, was accused of having been told by Kerling of his arrival in a U-boat and of his plan to commit sabotage in the United States. If convicted, she could be sentenced to seven years in prison.
She was arrested with Kerling’s wife, Marie, when they tried to meet Kerling at a midtown center.
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‘Swing shift’ strike at Ford plant ends
Detroit, Michigan (UP) –
Work resumed in four departments of the Ford Motor Company’s vast River Rouge plant today after a shutdown caused by a dispute over inauguration of “swing shifts.”
A company spokesman said work was resumed with 2 p.m. shifts today and that conferences on the swing shifts were continuing between representatives of the company and the United Auto Workers (CIO), which has a union shop contract.
The company spokesman said the dispute affected about 2,100 men and arose from the fact that the War Labor Board had authorized swing shifts to avoid double time pay for Sundays.
U.S. Treasury’s new nickel just doesn’t have any
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (UP) –
Thousands of new nickel-less nickels – renamed “five-cent coins” by the Treasury Department – made their appearance in Philadelphia today.
The first batch of wartime nickels, with silver replacing the war-vital nickel content, were issued at the Philadelphia mint yesterday.
Why does the name ring a bell? have we seen him on some battle?
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We’ve seen him in action way back in April in the East Indies Theater of Operations – hence him being in Borneo.
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Air general ‘may go broke’ over U.S. aces’ victories
Their chief buys beer when ‘Fighting Cocks’ bag more planes over desert and rake Axis columns
By Henry T. Gorrell, United Press staff writer
With American fighter squadrons, in Western Desert – (Oct.27, delayed)
Brig. Gen. Aubrey Strickland, U.S. fighter chief in the Middle East, is buying beer again today. This time it’s for the Fighting Cocks – crack American fighter squadron.
Gen. Strickland told me with a wink:
If this keeps up, I’ll go broke.
The general “buys” when his squadrons have a good day.
Got four Italian planes
The Fighting Cocks got four more Italian Macchi-202s yesterday and today they had another successful foray over the enemy lines – their fourth straight day of action.
Maj. Art Salisbury, of Sedalia, Missouri, leader of the squadron, led the Fighting Cocks off an hour before sunrise.
He said:
We were over our target when orange was breaking in the eastern horizon. Our 12 planes dumped bombs on Fuka Airdrome and the dispersal area.
He said the squadron located a group of Axis trucks and:
…ruddered through them, slinging lead.
Mascot given third wife
The squadron mascot, Uncle Bud, a red fighting cock brought from the United States, was given his third wife today in token of the squadron’s success. I saw him strutting proudly near the mess with all three hens.
The American planes are really giving the enemy a pasting. American bombers are flying in formation alongside South Africans in U.S.-made Bostons and British airmen in American Baltimores.
I could hardly hear myself think this morning as wave after wave of Allied light bombers and fighter-bombers thundered overhead.
Scorpion squadron helps
Yesterday’s Fighting Cock victory was scored by eight planes which came back with only one bullet hole.
The Black Scorpion Squadron joined the Fighting Cocks today in their pre-dawn strafing attacks on Axis airdromes.
They left several big fires raging, including one where five or six enemy planes were seen parked.
‘Tanks look like ants’
American-manned B-25 bombers had another field day, attacking a concentration of hundreds of Axis tanks repeatedly. Many tanks burned furiously.
Capt. Marshal Sneed, of Pigott, Arkansas, who participated in the bombing of the tanks, said:
We could see hundreds of flashes as the guns on both sides blazed away and we watched the tanks below us crawling about like ants.
Program called imperative –
Order to freeze vital farm labor drawn by McNutt
From 20,000 to 50,000 persons engaged in livestock, dairy and poultry production will be affected; loopholes threaten success of plan
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Billy Mitchell’s son dies in Army hospital
Pine Camp, New York (UP) –
Lt. John E. Mitchell, son of the late Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell, pioneer exponent of airpower, died last night at the station hospital, it was announced today.
Cause of death was not revealed by the Army but it was reported that Lt. Mitchell, who was 22 years old and enlisted in the field artillery a year ago, had been suffering from leukemia, a blood disease in which white corpuscles multiply excessively.
His mother was with him for several days before his death, which occurred at 11:45 p.m. EWT, the announcement said.
Salaries frozen; $25,000 top set by federal ruling
WLB, Treasury assume control of virtually all pay: cuts, raises for those paid under $5,000 end; Roosevelt orders own income slashed
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Clark Gable wins lieutenant’s bars
Miami Beach, Florida (UP) –
Movie star Clark Gable, who gave up a fabulous Hollywood salary and his moustache to become a lowly private in the United States Army, was today commissioned a second lieutenant along with about 200 other soldiers who survived the rigid course of Officer Candidate School.
Mr. Gable wasn’t as poised as when he did heavy hero parts before movie cameras when he accepted his commission and made a speech on behalf of his fellow graduates. He was obviously a little uncomfortable as his audience of 2,000, including Lt. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Air Force Chief, and a preponderance of women, surged toward him.
He recouped neatly with his famous smile and told the crowd that his superiors had “done fine by me,” adding:
Gentlemen, I’m not going to say to you, “Get on the beam.” You’re on it. The job is to stay on the beam until – in victory – we get the command:
Fall out.
Enemy broadcast –
Hong Kong air-raided again, Nazis report
Berlin, Germany (UP) – (broadcast recorded in U.S.)
A German Transocean News Agency dispatch from Tokyo said that Hong Kong was raided again by 11 planes today.
American planes raided Hong Kong twice within a few hours Sunday night and Monday.
The dispatch said a few bombs were dropped before the raiders were driven off by Jap fighter planes and anti-aircraft fire. One enemy plane was shot down.