America at war! (1941– ) (Part 1)

204

U.S. War Department (December 26, 1941)

Communiqué No. 29

Philippine Theater.
From his headquarters in the field, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commanding U.S. forces in the Far East, advised that he has reorganized and strengthened the positions held by our troops in the general vicinity of Lingayen Gulf.

Repeated enemy assaults in this sector have been successfully resisted. Indications point to heavy reinforcement of Japanese troops in this area.

Brisk fighting in also reported from other fronts on the island of Luzon.

Heavy enemy air activity in the Philippines continues.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

Communiqué No. 30

Philippine Theater.
Military operations in the Lingayen Gulf area were limited to heavy artillery dueling. U.S. and Philippine soldiers are defending a position along the Agno River.

Southeast of Manila in the Atimonan area, enemy pressure is increasing.

Hostile aircraft was particularly active during the past 24 hours.

The War Department has been officially advised that the Commanding General, USAFFE, had declared Manila an “open city.”

There is nothing to report from other areas.

U.S. Navy Department (December 26, 1941)

Communiqué No. 18

Far East.
Press reports of U.S. submarine activities in the Far East on Christmas Day are confirmed. A dispatch from Adm. Hart states that one enemy transport and one minesweeper have been sunk. An additional transport and one seaplane tender are probably sunk.

Manila has been declared an open city as defined in Hague Convention (IV) of 1907, Annex, Article 25. Our forces have complied with the stipulations of that convention.

Central Pacific.
Enemy reports that 3,000 naval and Marine personnel were engaged in the defense of Wake Island are incorrect. The total strength of the garrison was less than 400 officers and men. There were approximately 1,000 civilians engaged in construction work on the island, which may account for the enemy statement that 1,400 prisoners were captured.

Eastern Pacific.
Naval operations against enemy submarines are being vigorously prosecuted.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

205

The Pittsburgh Press (December 26, 1941)

CHURCHILL: ALLIES GAIN POWER
Offensive in 1943 to ‘beat life out of Nazis’ is seen by Premier

By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill predicted to Congress today that the United States and Britain will launch a worldwide offensive in 1943 to “beat the life out of the savage Nazis” and their allies.

Addressing a joint informal session held in the Senate, the British war leader declared the smashing British successes in Libya are:

…only a sample and a foretaste of what we have got to give him and his accomplices wherever this war should lead us in every quarter of the globe.

Time and again, his sedate audience – members of Congress, high officials and diplomats who jammed the small chamber – burst into applause as he praised the Soviet counteroffensive against Germany or as he reiterated his faith in the ability of the democracies to deal Germany, Italy and Japan a knockout blow when our forces get completely organized.

Mr. Churchill declared that at the end of the war, Britain, the United States and their allies will set up machinery to make sure that “this curse” of war does not come upon us again.

He said:

An adequate organization should be set up to make sure that the pestilence can be controlled at its earliest beginnings, before it spreads and rages throughout the entire earth.

He declared that he was happy to place before Congress:

At this moment when you are entering the war, the proof that with proper weapons and proper organization, we are able to beat the life out of the savage Nazi.

Says Allies gaining

I think it would be reasonable to hope that the end of 1942 will see us quite definitely in a better position than we are now. And that the year 1943 will enable us to assume the initiative upon an ample scale.

He denounced the Japanese attack on the United States and Britain and said it was difficult to “reconcile Japanese action with prudence or even with sanity.”

He asked:

What kind of a people do they think we are? Is it possible that they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

Forces divided

The unpreparedness of northern Malaya to the initial Japanese thrust, he declared, can be attributed to the impossibility of dispersing men and equipment from Libya to meet the Nipponese invaders in the Far East.

Had we diverted and dispersed our gradually-growing resources between Libya and Malaya, we should have been found wanting in both theaters.

If the United States has been found at a disadvantage at various points in the Pacific Ocean, we know well that that is to no small extent because of the aid which you have been giving in munitions for defense of the British Isles and the Libyan campaign.

He said there has been good news from the North Atlantic where joint U.S.-British naval and air operations have kept open the supply lines between the two countries.

Cites test of arms

The test of arms between the British in Libya and the Italo-German forces has given the British their first opportunity to meet the Nazis on equal terms, he said. The result, he added, has been the routing of the Axis forces.

As the lines are now drawn, he declared, the war can end only in the overthrow of the Axis or the overthrow of the anti-Axis powers, but victory will come to the latter.

He said:

In a year or eighteen months hence will produce results in war power beyond anything which has been seen or foreseen in the dictator states.

Mr. Churchill said Japan has been dominated by secret societies of junior officers of the Army and Navy who “forced their will” on the Japanese Cabinet and Parliament by the assassination of any statesmen who opposed their policies.

Blamed for war

He declared:

It may be that these societies, dazzled and dizzy with their own schemes of aggression and the prospect of early victories, have forced their country against its better judgment – into war. They have certainly embarked upon a very considerable undertaking.

After the outrages they have committed upon us at Pearl Harbor, in the Pacific Islands, in the Philippines, in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, they must now know that the stakes for which they have decided to play are mortal.

In characteristic Churchillian style, the Prime Minister promised that:

…from the turmoil and convulsions of the present to the broader spaces of the future. Here we are together, facing a group of mighty foes who seek our ruin.

He said he had found here:

…an Olympian fortitude which, far from being based upon complacency, is only the mask of an inflexible purpose and the proof of a sure, well-grounded confidence in the final outcome. We in Britain had the same feeling in our darkest days.

He continued:

The forces ranged against us are enormous. They are bitter, they are ruthless. The wicked men and their factions, who have launched their peoples on the path of war and conquest, know that they will be called to terrible account if they cannot beat down by force of arms the peoples they have assailed. They will stop at nothing.

Cites condition in 1940

He declared that:

If Germany had tried to invade the British Isles after the French collapse in June 1940, and if Japan had declared war on the British Empire and the United States at about the same date, no one can say what disasters and agonies might not have been our lot.

But now, at the end of December 1941, our transformation from easy-going peace to total war efficiency has made very great progress.

While the Prime Minister – British son of an American mother – spoke on Capitol Hill, Mr. Roosevelt remained at the White House awaiting the arrival of Canadian Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King to participate in joint talks.

Mr. Roosevelt, meanwhile, canceled his regular Friday press conference, but arranged to hold his weekly Cabinet meeting, later conferring with a special supply group in connection with the British-American conversations.

At supply session

Meeting with the President at the supply conference will be:

  • Lord Beaverbrook, British Minister of Supply;
  • William S. Knudsen, director of the Office of Production Management;
  • Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson;
  • Assistant Secretary of War for Air Robert A. Lovett;
  • William L. Batt, director of the OPM Materials Division;
  • Donald M. Nelson, executive director of the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board;
  • Leon Henderson, director of the Office of Price Administration;
  • James V. Forrestal, Under Secretary of the Navy;
  • Harry Hopkins;
  • Vice President Henry A. Wallace.

The President and the Prime Minister will convene the Anglo-American War Council at the White House later, meeting with Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall, Army Air Chief Lt. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Harold R. Stark, and Adm. Ernest J. King, Commander-in-Chief of the combined U.S. Fleet.

Others at parley

Also participating in the conference will be:

  • Adm. Sir Dudley Pound, First Sea Lord of Great Britain;
  • Sir Charles F. A. Portal, British Air Chief;
  • Sir John Greer Dill, Governor of Bombay and former Chief of the Imperial Staff;

Mr. Early said he did not know when other anti-Axis nations would be brought into the Anglo-American discussions which, he said, are still preliminary to the development of complete “unity of action” among the warring powers.

Kept informed

Mr. Early said the Russian, Chinese and Dutch diplomatic representatives here are being kept constantly abreast of the discussions between Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Churchill and the War Council. But he was unable to say when they would actually be brought into the conference room to participate in the discussions.

The nation’s Christmas guest spoke to members and distinguished guests in the small Senate chamber. His address was broadcast throughout the world.

Brief glimpses of the British leader in two semi-public appearances jolted even this blasé capital which has a few top shelf speakers on its own account and has been accustomed, besides, since March 4, 1933, to the polished and forceful platform appearance and phrase polishing of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

More than a joke

But there is more than a joke behind the wisecrack which passed around Washington’s Christmas Eve dinner tables after the President and the Prime Minister had divided a few minutes of radio time to light a community tree.

Chuckling Washingtonians were telling each other:

That’s the fellow for whom the Republicans have been looking.

Churchill is that good. And after they heard him today, members of Congress will probably be introducing bills summoning him for speaking dates in their constituencies just as they annually attempt to legislate the Army-Navy football game into the hinterland.

Congress has previously honored such distinguished foreigners as:

  • Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish political leader, Feb. 2, 1880;
  • The Marquis de Lafayette, Dec. 6, 1824;
  • Marshal Joseph Joffre, Oct. 2 and 6, 1917;
  • Louis Kossuth, Polish patriot, in 1851;
  • Ramsey MacDonald, British Prime Minister, during the Hoover administration.

Go to church

Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill yesterday carried their great responsibilities to the altar of God where they prayed for strength in the arduous days ahead. Accompanied by their military and naval leaders, they attended interdenominational services at the 125-year-old Foundry Methodist Church. They prayed for “the triumph of good will among men” and heard appeals for divine aid in the battle “for a genuine new order worthy of human civilization.”

Later, the President and the Prime Minister had Christmas dinner at the White House and prepared for many more conferences to begin today. The Canadian Prime Minister, W. L. Mackenzie King, accompanied by high Canadian officials, arrives this afternoon to enter the Churchill-Roosevelt conferences.

Super war council talks intensified

Washington (UP) –
The fall of Hong Kong and renewed Japanese pressure on the Philippines today intensified Anglo-American strategy talks which may shortly culminate in creation of a super war council.

Christmas notwithstanding, President Roosevelt and his house guest, Prime Minister Churchill, presumably worked yesterday in close coordination with the ranking American and British tacticians and supply experts who were striving to cut through a multitude of preliminary technical problems.

Experts move swiftly

The experts had to move swiftly. Both the President and Mr. Churchill are said to regard the Far East as the major war front – one that must be held no matter what it costs in men, arms and ships to preserve the Anglo-American supply line and safeguard the vital Dutch East Indies.

Underscoring the talks was a dispatch from Canberra stating that Australia had been asked to supply immediately vital information on Pacific defense problems. The dispatch said the request came direct from Washington.

If the Philippines should fall – and 200,000 Jap soldiers with strong naval and air support were fighting for that objective – the entire Far East would be exposed.

To resume talks

After addressing the joint session of Congress, the Prime Minister will return to the White House, there to resume his momentous talks with the President. Meeting sectionally with American officials meanwhile will be the 80-odd technical experts who accompanied Churchill and Lord Beaverbrook, the British Supply Minister, on their unheralded trip to the United States.

They face an arduous task. The problems of an overall strategy plan are so complex that weeks may elapse before the public receives concrete evidence the council is functioning.

Two problems predominate:

  • Coordination of land, sea and air forces to wage offensive warfare against the Axis powers.
  • How to keep these forces supplied.

The current talks are preliminary. When they get down to tangibles, the other Allied nations – Russia, China, the Dutch Indies, the British dominions and the Americas – are expected to be brought into the council.

Strategy to follow

Development of grand strategy will follow but, if the plan goes according to schedule, a master inner-command will be superimposed on the council. It would be the liaison between the council and the widely-separated war front, dealing principally with problems of supply.

Russia, China and the other allies are being kept informed. Presumably, they will be prepared to cooperate when the final plan is drafted.

206

Mechanized units inflict heavy losses

Philippine capital suffers six air raids as government evacuates
By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer

Manila, Philippines –
U.S. mechanized units were reported inflicting severe casualties on Japanese invaders in the southeastern Luzon front tonight following all-day air raids on the capital area despite the designation of Manila as an open city.

Strong enemy forces – including tank units – were heavily engaged in the Atimonan-Mauban sector about 57 miles southeast of the capital, where the defenders as well as the invaders suffered considerable casualties. The Japanese pressure on the southeast was increasing.

Defense forces were reported holding firmly against the Japanese in the Lingayen Gulf area, about 125 miles northwest of Manila.

A Washington communiqué said that the Lingayen lines had been strengthened to oppose reinforced Japanese landing forces.

The final communiqué to be issued in Manila – since the government and military departed in order to declare the capital an undefended city – said that heavy tank battles were in progress in the southeast but gave no details.

Six air raids

Japanese airplanes raided the Manila area six times during the day, striking chiefly at the harbor area. A big fire that seemed to be an oil storage could be seen burning south of the capital, but it was believed that it had been set by the military forces before the evacuation in order to prevent supplies from falling into Japanese hands.

Tokyo broadcasts said that it would be “almost unthinkable” for the Japanese to consider Manila an undefended, open city and added:

If Manila is an open city, Singapore and Chungking could also be considered open cities.

The sixth air-raid alarm came after the city area had been under attack almost all day. Damage did not seem to be great during the earlier raids.

The announcement that Manila was to be considered an open city was accompanied by statements from Gen. Douglas MacArthur, High Commissioner Francis B. Sayre and President Manuel Quezon, all of whom emphasized that the fight would be carried on vigorously on the military fronts.

Fight to go on

Mr. Sayre declared:

We will fight to the last man. There can be no shadow of question as to ultimate victory.

This afternoon’s war communiqué was the last to be issued by the Manila headquarters as Gen. MacArthur had already taken the command in the field.

This was the first disclosure that military evacuation of Manila had been carried out, although it had been announced earlier that it would be.

The Japanese aerial attacks throughout the day centered on the Manila port area following an official declaration that the capital was an open city, issued in order to safeguard civilians from attack by “air or ground.”

High explosives crashed into the port area as the Japanese sought to knock out ships there, but bombs also fell near the Army base at Nichols Field and near Engineer Island, close to the mouth of the Pasig River, during the second raid.

As the first alarm was sounded, a huge fire was seen burning on the southeastern outskirts of the city. By late afternoon, hours after the proclamation of Manila as an open city, there had been six raids on the capital area.

During the fifth raid, a bomb fell near Nichols Field, the Army air base. Though three of the raids were directed largely at ships in Manila Harbor, it was reported that only one ship had suffered damage.

More transports sighted

Half an hour after the first “all-clear,” bombs again crashed on the docks vicinity, only to fall in the water. Then, a second wave of bombers swept over and bombs struck in the vicinity of Engineer Island near the mouth of the Pasig River which flows through the city. Thick smoke rose from the bombed area, a few hundred yards from the United Press offices.

Gen. MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief of U.S. forces in the Far East, in issuing the proclamation declaring the capital an open city, said the Philippine government, the U.S. High Commissioner and all combatant military installations would be withdrawn “as rapidly as possible.”

Gen. MacArthur said:

In order to spare the metropolitan area from possible ravages by attack either from the air or the ground, Manila is hereby declared an open city without characteristics of a military objective.

In order that no excuse may be given for a possible mistake, the American High Commissioner, the Commonwealth [Philippine] government and all combatant military installations will be withdrawn from its environs as rapidly as possible.

The municipal government will continue to function with its police powers, reinforced by Constabulary troops, so that normal protection for life and property may be preserved.

Citizens are requested to maintain obedience to the constituted authorities and to continue the normal process of business.

President Quezon leaves city

President Manuel L. Quezon immediately announced that he and his government were leaving the city to:

…continue the administration of affairs of civil government in cooperation with the commanding general of the military forces from the place where I may be.

U.S. High Commissioner Francis Bowes Sayre followed with a proclamation that he was leaving at Gen. MacArthur’s direction, but that a part of his staff would remain:

…charged with the duty of carrying on the functions of this office and looking after the welfare of all so far as military necessity permits.

Mr. Sayre’s proclamation ended:

We will fight to the last man. We know that our fight is America’s fight. American’s help is sure. There can be no shadow of question as to ultimate victory.

Army authorities emphasized that the declaration of the capital, with its 623,500 people, as an open city was decided upon purely to protect civilian lives, and that U.S. and Philippine defense forces were holding firm against numerically-superior Jap forces.

Japanese invasion forces were driving ferociously in the Atimonan-Mauban sector, 75 miles southeast of Manila, and Jap planes were raiding all over the island.

U.S. and Philippine forces were holding firm and a United Press dispatch from the Atimonan sector reported the wiping out of one Jap tank force by the defenders. Adm. Thomas C. Hart, U.S. Asiatic Fleet commander, had announced the sinking by American submarines of a large Jap transport and a minesweeper, and the probable sinking of a large seaplane tender and a second transport.

Jap pressure increases

An Army communiqué issued at 12:50 p.m. PHT (10:50 p.m. Thursday EST), just after the declaration that Manila is an open city, said:

Action on the northern lines is confined to artillery dueling. On the southeastern front, from Atimonan to Mauban, enemy pressure is increasing. The enemy is most active in the air.

An earlier communiqué had said:

Enemy pressure continued on both the north and south Luzon fronts. No additional landings have been reported and U.S. lines are holding.

After four raid alarm periods Christmas Day, there were four alarms early today.

Refugees pour into Manila

Refugees from the southeastern invasion area flooded into Manila despite the repeated alarms, fleeing the Japanese who had secured footholds in the Atimonan-Mauban area.

Fires, some of which appeared to be in the vicinity of the Cavite Naval Base, could be seen throughout last night outside the capital. Explosions were also heard from the Cavite direction but there was no official news of any destruction of naval forces.

Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets, recently called for service, were disbanded today. The move remained unexplained but it was suggested that it was decided upon because the capital was being declared an open city.

Japanese airplane activity was steadily intensified.

Bombs fell in the vicinity of Engineer Island, near the mouth of the Pasig River in the Manila area, during today’s second alarm period which lasted one hour and 59 minutes.

Passenger train bombed

Six persons were killed and 16 wounded yesterday at Tarlac, 65 miles north of Manila, when Jap planes bombed a fully-loaded passenger train.

Twenty wounded civilians arrived here from Los Baños, 35 miles to the south, where Jap planes bombed a railroad station and returned to machine-gun persons who waited to board a train.

Jap planes which attacked Cabanatuan, 45 miles north of Manila, bombed two hospitals, a newspaper dispatch said. One bomb destroyed the empty maternity wing of the provincial hospital. Another struck the emergency hospital but failed to explode. It caused a few casualties, according to reports.

Other towns within a 100-mile radius of Manila were subjected to Christmas bombings in which the Japanese centered their attack on railroad stations and trains.

Berlin: New Luzon landings made

London, England (UP) –
Berlin radio quoted Tokyo as asserting today that new Japanese landings had been made on the east coast of Luzon, that fighting for Manila had begun and that all U.S. naval forces of the Philippine Command had been destroyed.

The Berlin radio gave the Japanese General Headquarters as authority for the statement that all naval units of the Philippine Command had been destroyed by Japanese planes and naval forces.

207

WAR BULLETINS!

Roosevelt receives Litvinov

Washington –
President Roosevelt conferred today with Soviet Ambassador Maxim Litvinov, bringing him up to date on Anglo-American war conferences led by the President and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Earle on way to Turkey

Zürich, Switzerland –
The Italian Stefani Agency reported today from Sofia that U.S. Minister George H. Earle, former Governor of Pennsylvania, and other North American diplomats left Thursday for Istanbul, accompanied by their families.

Monks revealed as Jap spies

Chungking, China –
The Chinese Central News Agency said today it had received reports that Japanese spies disguised as Buddhist monks were captured recently in the vicinity of Kunming, near the Burma Road. The spies were endeavoring to obtain information about the number and location of pilots and planes in the American Volunteer Group, the reports said.

‘Swimming soldiers’ open way to Hong Kong

Berlin, Germany – (official broadcast)
Tokyo dispatches said today that “swimming soldiers” opened the way for the capture of Hong Kong. Troops trained by Japanese Olympic swimming stars swam through the narrow passage between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon mainland and cleared away mines to permit transports to approach the stronghold, it was said.

Nazis bag merchant ship

Berlin, Germany – (official radio)
German airplanes last night sank a British merchant ship of 3,000 tons east of Whitby, England, and seriously damaged four other merchant ships totaling 17,000 tons, the High Command said today.

One-plane raid on London

London, England –
A single German plane flew over the east coast Christmas Day and dropped incendiary bombs, which caused neither casualties nor damage. There was no enemy air activity over Britain last night.

Nazis admit fall of Benghazi

Berlin, Germany – (official radio)
Benghazi, capital of Cyrenaica, has been evacuated by Axis forces “in accordance with plan,” the High Command said today.

19 Jap planes downed in Burma

Chungking, China –
Two Japanese air attacks on Rangoon, Burma, this week cost the Japanese 19 planes in combat with Anglo-American pursuit planes, it was reported reliably today. Defenders in American-made Brewster Buffalos and Curtiss P-40s attacked formations of more than 60 enemy planes Dec. 23 and downed 13, it was said. Four defending planes were reported shot down and four others were damaged.

Rome puts U.S. death toll at 9,100

Rome, Italy – (official Radio Rome broadcast)
Tokyo dispatches reported today that 9,100 Americans had been killed in fighting with Japan since the outbreak of Pacific hostilities.

Tokyo: Nine vessels destroyed

Berlin, Germany – (official broadcast)
A Tokyo dispatch claimed tonight that Japanese troops destroyed nine British war vessels in the capture of Hong Kong and seized 40-50 “ships” in occupying nearby Stonecutters Island. The war vessels destroyed were listed as a submarine, a gunboat, destroyer and six torpedo boats.

Japs: 5,000 taken at Hong Kong

Berlin, Germany – (official German broadcast)
Sir Mark Young, Governor of Hong Kong, has accepted a Japanese demand for unconditional surrender of Hong Kong, the Japanese Dōmei News Agency said today. The disarming of British prisoners in Hong Kong has been completed, the agency said, with 5,000 prisoners counted so far.

Largest RCAF group reaches Britain

An eastern Canadian port, Canada –
The largest group of air trainees ever to sail from Canada has arrived safely in Great Britain, it was disclosed today. Convoyed transports also carried U.S. Army signal officers to take observation courses and a large contingent of American civilian technical corps experts. Also included were hundreds of reinforcements for Canadian Army units, artillery, signal, infantry, ordnance, tank units and the Army service corps.

Tokyo: 21 RAF planes downed

Berlin, Germany – (official German broadcast)
An official news agency dispatch from Tokyo today quoted Japanese Imperial Headquarters as saying that 21 British fighter planes were believed to have been shot down in a second mass attack by Jap bombers on Rangoon, Burma. The dispatch said that 32 British craft opposed the raiders and that nine of the 21 listed as shot down were “probably destroyed.”

‘Lost’ British get through Jap lines

Singapore –
Advices were received today that more than two-thirds of the men of a British regiment, missing since fighting in Malaya moved southward from near the Thai border, had fought their way through the Japanese to the new front 300 miles north of Singapore.

Japs extends peace feeler to Chinese

Tokyo, Japan – (official radio)
Premier Plaek Phibunsongkhram of Japanese-occupied Thailand has broadcast an appeal to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to reach an agreement with Japan. Using the Bangkok radio and speaking in the English language, the Thai Premier said:

This is not a time for Asiatics to be fighting among themselves.

Gunners escape from Japs

With U.S. Army in North Luzon, Philippines –
Four “lost” machine-gunners of a cavalry unit returned to their base today without any regular clothes but with a fine contempt for Japanese “marksmanship.” The four, who were practically naked, said they had been captured by the enemy and their uniforms and guns were taken from them. Then the Japanese told them to run and started shooting at them. They dropped to their knees and crawled through shrubbery until they escaped.

Japs close river in China

Chungking, China –
Japanese troops in great force have renewed offensive operations in Hunan Province, south of Hankow, the Chinese Central News Agency reported today. Some 10,000 Japanese troops succeeded in closing the Hsinchiang River at six points.

Japs spread terror among civilians

Manila, Philippines –
Refugees from the north province reported today that Japanese invaders are spreading terror among the civilian Philippine population. The refugees reported that in some towns, Japanese troops lined up recalcitrant civilians against walls and shot them in order to intimidate the rest of the populace.

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208

Planes, ships ‘halt’ raids of Jap subs

No reports of attacks since Wednesday; bomber bags one marauder

San Francisco, California (UP) –
U.S. patrol bombers and warships sweeping the Pacific in search of enemy submarines today appeared to have halted, at least temporarily, raids on American coastwise shipping.

There had been no reported attacks on American ships since Wednesday. Nine ships had been attacked along the coast between Dec. 18 and Dec. 24, of which one was sunk and two damaged. Six seamen have been killed and five injured.

The last definite news of Pacific Coast submarine warfare was the War Department’s Christmas communiqué announcing that a U.S. Army bomber had smashed one Japanese submarine off the California coast. It was known that U.S. planes were in action against the submarines in at least three of the attacks.

‘Successful attack’

The communiqué said that a bomber of Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt’s Western Defense Command “successfully attacked an enemy submarine off the California coast.” The communiqué detailed:

Soon after the submarine was sighted, it made an emergency dive. A bomb was dropped and the submarine emerged and then sank. Two more bombs were dropped with apparently direct hits, filling the air with debris.

Location of the action was not divulged by the Army.

The Berlin radio quoted the Japanese Dōmei News Agency as reporting that five ships had been sunk off the California coast. Official U.S. quarters, however, have announced only the sinking of the tanker Montebello off California and the freighter Cynthia Olson, 700 miles offshore, and Lahaina in Hawaiian waters.

The log of enemy action against American ships off the Pacific Coast follows:

December 18: Freighter Samoa, escaped.

December 20:

  • Richfield tanker Agwiworld, escaped.
  • General Petroleum tanker Emidio, damaged, 5 dead.

December 22: Standard Oil tanker H. M. Storey, escaped.

December 23:

  • Richfield tanker Larry Doheny, escaped.
  • Union tanker Montebello, sunk, crew escaped.
  • Texas Corp. tanker Idaho, escaped.
  • Standard tanker Storey (second attack), escaped.

December 24:

  • McCormick freighter Absaroka, damaged, 1 dead.
  • Unidentified lumber schooner believed the Barbara C. of San Francisco, escaped.
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209

Chicago raid alarm keeps area guessing

Navy remains ‘watchful’ after alert interrupts Christmas party

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Circumstances of the Midwest’s first genuine air-raid “alert” mystified the civilian populace today.

Naval authorities said they were following a policy of “watchful waiting” and reported there were “no further developments” after the 70-minute “alert” which interrupted Christmas Day festivities for 9,000 men at four naval stations in the Chicago area.

The alarm was sounded at 1:00 p.m. CST during a Christmas show at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. Hundreds of sailors swarmed into air-raid shelters where they continued singing carols and Navy songs. The school’s theater was preparing to show the motion picture Dive Bomber.

Rehearsal denied

The “all-clear” signal was heard and the holiday show resumed before the Army, civilian defense and other authorities learned of the alarm, which naval officers insisted was not a rehearsal.

Cdr. T. DeWitt Carr, Executive Officer of the Great Lakes School, released an official statement announcing the “alert” was ordered after receipt of:

…a warning from a responsible source that 8 to 12 unidentified planes, coming from the northeast, were heading west across Lake Michigan.

He said:

There was no word of flights at the time, and, in view of the mysterious circumstances surrounding the strange planes, the alarms were given. Navy patrol planes were sent up to carry out defensive assignments, if necessary.

Planes not found

Cdr. Carr indicated that the reported flight of planes had not been discovered by the patrol craft when he said later that their identity remained a mystery.

Cdr. R. A. Brown, Public Relations Director for the 9th Naval District, said there had been no evidence to indicate the warning was not “absolutely authentic” and that the Navy was following a policy of “watchful waiting.”

The “alert” was ordered at the school at Great Lakes, Illinois, the Naval Air Base at Glenview, Illinois, and at the Navy Service School and the Navy Armory at Chicago.

Sources not identified

The Navy officers declined to identify the “responsible source” from whom the warning was received.

Cdr. Carr complimented the sailors on their response to the alarm and said:

The warning found everyone alert and ready for any eventuality.

Sentry patrols were strengthened during the “alert.” Visitors were not permitted to leave and only uniformed sailors and Marines were allowed to enter the training station.

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210

Nation needs ‘crackpots’ to assist in victory effort

War equipment inventors wooed as national council gears for action on weapons and non-military items
By Joseph L. Myler, United Press staff writer

Washington –
What this and every other warring country needs is more crackpots – “crackpots” like the Wright brothers, for example, who invented the airplane.

When the Wright boys were flying their “boxkite” at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the wiseacres tapped their temples significantly, rolled their eyes and guffawed.

But the airplane turned out to be one of the greatest weapons ever devised, and so the U.S. government is looking for 1941-model “crackpots” with ideas which may revolutionize the art of war.

The National Inventors Council of the Justice Department was set up for the precise purpose of receiving and examining such ideas – ideas which, however fantastic they might look to the laity, might conceivably produce new “secret weapons” as formidable as the submarine and airplane.

Out of the thousands of communications being received by the council may come the death ray, atomic cannon, or radio bullet which will change warfare as radically as did the Roman broadsword, gunpowder and the tank.

The council is headed by Dr. C. P. Kettering, vice president of the General Motors Corporation, and includes on its membership a distinguished group of industrialists, warriors and scientists, all of whom have seen a “wild idea” develop into something of tremendous importance.

Brig. Gen. Earl McFarland, Army member of the council, put it this way today:

Council engineers will give full consideration to any idea that might be useful to the armed services, regardless of how fantastic it may seem at first glance.

Since the council’s establishment Oct. 7, 1940, it has received more than 40,000 communications from inventors about everything from improved gun mounts to the harnessing of atomic power.

Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, the number of letters, telegrams and long-distance telephone calls to the council have doubled.

The day after the Pearl Harbor attack, telephones started ringing in the council’s offices. Typical was the call from a Pittsburgh industrialist who poured out his idea and wound up with, “To hell with the cost; I’ll pay it myself.”

Not all of the proffered inventions are weapons of death. Some have to do with synthetic materials, for which there is a greater need than ever before. A number of ideas received by the council have already been put to work in the Armed Forces. Many of them have never before been used in warfare. What they are, of course, is a military secret.

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211

Strike of welders fading on coast

San Francisco, California (UP) –
The strike of the United Brotherhood of Welders, which never developed enough support to interfere with defense work in the shipyards, was abandoned today by the San Francisco local but the locals in Richmond, Alameda and Oakland still maintained skeleton picket lines in East Bay yards.

The Office of Emergency Management said only 16 welders failed to appear for work in San Francisco yards yesterday, and the welders in Seattle, while voicing moral support of the Oakland group, said they would continue at work.

The Oakland welders were willing to return to work, spokesmen said, if they could do so under civil service and without paying dues to the American Federation of Labor Boilermakers’ Union.

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212

Kin of Kit Carson joins Marine Corps

La Junta, Colorado (UP) –
Kit Carson, the 26-year-old great grandson of the famed Indian scout, Kit Carson, announced today he had enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Carson resigned his job in a California aircraft plant and came home to La Junta to spend Christmas before entering the service.

Carson enlisted at Pueblo “because it’s my duty.”

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213

“What this and every other warring country needs is more crackpots – “crackpots” like the Wright brothers, for example, who invented the airplane”

The Wright Brothers are an excellent example of how 2 bicycle makers ran circles around the governement sponsoren competition. Basically just by using common sense, daring, the willingness to experiment ane their decision to dicht the published data of the "authority"Lilienthal as it was crap.

Barnes Wallis is another one of those who could put wild ideas into practice.

Thinking of Flash Gordon spacecrafts is easy if these ever are built it will take a lot of persistence.

I

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214

U.S. opens 21st objector camp

Men of Far West placed on duty in Oregon

Washington (UP) –
A new Civilian Public Service Camp for conscientious objectors at Cascade Locks, Oregon, has brought to 21 the number of camps housing some 1,500 men who object to military service on religious grounds.

The new unit, which has been assigned about 100 men from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California, is administered cooperatively by the Brethren Service Committee and the Mennonite Central Committee, with Mark Shrock of Olympia, Washington, as director.

Under an agreement reached last January between religious groups and Dr. Clarence A. Dykstra, the then-director of the Selective Service System, and Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, present director who was Dr. Dykstra’s assistant, the first camp was opened May 15, 1941, in the Patapsco State Forest, near Baltimore, Maryland.

The agreement provides that the camps be financed by the objectors themselves, and the various religious groups to which they belong, including the Quakers, Brethren and Mennonites. Unused CCC camps, cots, blankets and stoves are provided by the federal government, which also directs the work in which the objectors are engaged. Several agencies, usually the Soil Conservation Service, or the National Park Service, supervise the projects.

With men being added to the camps’ population at the rate of about 150 a month, almost 90 sects and denominations are now represented in the total, with the Mennonites most numerous, and the Brethren, Quakers, Methodists and Jehovah’s Witnesses following in that order.

Camps now in operation

American Friends Service Committee:

  • Petersham, Royalston, and Ashburnham, Massachusetts
  • Patapsco, Maryland
  • Cooperstown, New York
  • Buck Creek, North Carolina
  • Merom, Indiana
  • Glendora, California

Brethren:

  • Kane, Pennsylvania
  • Magnolia, Arkansas
  • Stronach, Michigan
  • Largo, Indiana

Mennonites:

  • Colorado Springs, Colorado
  • Sideling Hill, Pennsylvania
  • Henry, Illinois
  • Grottoes, Virginia
  • Bluffton, Indiana
  • Dennison, Iowa

The Association of Catholic Conscientious Objectors has a camp at Stoddard, New Hampshire, and the Mennonites and Brethren maintain a cooperative unit at Marietta, Ohio.

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215

Gangway, Alamo, Custer heroes!
Navy reveals how 400 Marines held Wake for 14 days

Dead, alive, wounded or missing, tiny garrison has earned page in history; beaten only after Japs won air control, smashed artillery
By Sandor S. Klein, United Press staff writer

Washington –
Make way, you heroes of the Alamo and Custer’s last stand, for the gallant defenders of Wake Island.

They, too, must be given their rightful place high on the honor roll of America’s brave men.

Dead or alive, wounded or missing, those magnificent Marines who for 14 days took everything thrown at them and kept coming back for more, have earned a page in history.

It may be recorded now that, like those courageous men of the Alamo and of Custer’s small band, the Marines were vastly inferior in numbers, in fighting material, in everything except the will to win, and the courage to die, if necessary.

Navy tells of battle

The Navy told the story of the battle of the fewer than 400 Marines against overwhelming Japanese air, land and sea forces. The Navy didn’t say, if it knew, how many men were killed, wounded or missing. But this much, the Navy said:

The Marines, to start with, had 12 fighter planes, six 5-inch guns, twelve 3-inch anti-aircraft guns, eighteen .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns, thirty .30 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns, rifles and pistols.

The Marines beat off four separate attacks in 48 hours starting Dec. 9. They lost most of their fighter planes in those first hours. They sank an enemy light cruiser and destroyer, however, and brought down an unspecified number of Japanese aircraft.

Moonlight raid fails

The Japanese kept coming. On Dec. 14, they tried a moonlight raid, with little effect. The next morning, 41 Japanese bombers came over and unloaded their cargo of bombs. The Marines lost one of their precious pursuit planes. The Japanese lost two bombers in that raid.

Maj. James Patrick Sinnott Devereux reported, in words now famous:

Resistance is continuing.

Japanese bombers kept coming. Day after day, night after night, they pounded the small Marine garrison.

Power plant damaged

By Dec. 21, the Marines were in serious trouble. A new wave of 17 Japanese bombers had hit the three-inch batteries, had damaged the power plant, and had destroyed the diesel oil building and its equipment.

The message from the commander, however, closed with the usual notation:

Resistance is continuing.

On Dec. 22, the Japanese continued their heavy bombing, and started moving ships and a transport in. They attempted a landing. The Marines sank two destroyers.

Japs gain air control

Finally, the Japanese, with full control of the air now and with their heavy guns blasting the Marines from every angle, effected a landing.

The Navy Department said:

For many hours, the issue was in doubt.

On Dec. 23, Tokyo claimed that Wake Island was completely occupied by Japanese forces, and the Navy Department was forced to admit that all communications with Wake had ceased.

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216

Major wrote wife: ‘Ready for anything’

New York (UP) –
Maj. James Patrick Sinnott Devereux, in command of the U.S. Marines at Wake Island, wrote his wife on Dec. 5:

We are ready for anything.

Mrs. Devereux came here from Honolulu in October when her husband was transferred to Wake Island. She and their eight-year-old son live with her father, Col. John Welch, at Governor’s Island.

Mrs. Devereux sent a Christmas box to her husband about the first of this month. It contained the latest picture of their son.

Mrs. Devereux met the major in 1932 in Peking where he was with the Legation Guard and where she was visiting with her father.

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217

First U.S. war casualties reach ‘home’ from Hawaii

Arrive in convoy, cheerful despite wounds and anxious for another crack at the Japanese

San Francisco, California (UP) –
The first casualties in America’s new war were back home in the continental United States today, cheerful despite their wounds and anxious for another crack at the Japanese.

They landed on Christmas Day from ships of a convoy which brought them through submarine-infested waters from Hawaii where they were struck down by bombs and machine-gun bullets in the first vicious Japanese attack.

Some may win their wish to return for revenge against the enemy; others will be incapable of fighting again.

Civilians included

The ships which returned them also brought a large number of civilian evacuees, including women who had been widowed and children who had been orphaned by the Japanese bombs. Some of them were wounded.

Details of the protection the ships had en route were not revealed by military authorities but as they steamed through the Golden Gate, a fleet of planes patrolled overhead. The ships were painted a dull gray in wartime camouflage.

Crowds which rushed to the wharves were kept three blocks away by police as ambulances shuttled from the docks to hospitals with the wounded.

Servicemen were taken to military hospitals; the civilians to city hospitals.

The comment of one sailor summed up the mass reaction. He said:

We’re sore as hell that we were knocked out at the very beginning, but we’re going back in there to clean up.

All told stories of heroism of Hawaii’s defenders under fire – stories of rescue and grim determination to stick by their guns despite intensive bombardment and strafing.

Tells of skipper

A sailor related:

Men from the Oklahoma [which capsized during the bombardment] swam through blazing oil-covered seas to other ships and helped man the guns.

Another one of the wounded told of a doughty, fighting skipper from his warship:

Our skipper was a little fellow – you could look right over his head. But he certainly was full of fight.

We only had a three-inch gun but he wouldn’t let anybody else fire it – and he peppered away at the Japs as they came over.

All of a sudden, a bomb hit nearby and blew the skipper into the water. Our executive officer gave the order to abandon ship. We were just going down the gangway when our skipper bobbed up out of the water and hollered:

Hey, where you fellows going?

We told him we were abandoning ship.

He shouted:

The hell you are. Get back to your stations!

So we went back and he climbed aboard and went back to his gun.

Like pleasure cruise

Crews of the evacuation ships said that the combined efforts of every healthy passenger aboard to cheer and care for the wounded made the crossing more like a pleasure cruiser than a grim wartime passage.

Passengers showered down more clothes, books, magazines, cigarettes and refreshments than the wounded could use. Barbers in the group gave the wounded constant attention. There were movies every other night, bingo, and other games, and every other night the passengers danced.

A sailor whose right leg had been amputated, saw another casualty with a missing left leg. To him, he sent a note:

How about a dance?

Pandas on ship

Chief source of amusement were two pandas en route from China to New York. They performed daily on the decks for the wounded, the passengers and their children.

Only reminder of the dangers of the trip were the blackouts and the lifebelts which were ordered worn constantly during the last three days of the voyage.

The ships held their own Christmas parties Wednesday night. There was community singing of Christmas carols and gifts, placed aboard by the Honolulu Red Cross and augmented by passengers’ contributions, were distributed to the wounded and children.

Mrs. Leslie Levesque, 49, whose husband died in Hawaii shortly before the war began, said:

I’m afraid, though, that the Christmas party was pretty sad. There were a number of widows and orphans aboard.

Another celebration

The wounded had another celebration yesterday in the hospitals to which they were taken. The children were treated to a big Christmas tree party sponsored by the Red Cross.

Among the passengers were members of the Willamette and San Jose State football teams which had gone to Hawaii for post-season games; Royal Leonard of the China Aviation Corporation, formerly personal pilot to Chiang Kai-shek; V. M. Zubilin, en route to Washington to become third secretary of the Soviet Embassy; J. Thyne Henderson, formerly first secretary of the British Embassy in Tokyo, en route to Chile.

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218

Adolf wishes U.S. ‘Merry Christmas’

New York (UP) –
The United Press listening post heard Radio Berlin broadcast yesterday as follows:

Dear listeners in America: Even if you are enemies, we wish you a Merry Christmas.

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219

U.S. Navy Department (December 27, 1941)

Communiqué No. 19

Far East.
During enemy bombing attacks, two of our destroyers sustained minor damage. There were no casualties to personnel.

Eastern Pacific.
Enemy submarines are still operating in the West Coast shipping lanes. Due to the effective countermeasures adopted by our forces, they are experiencing great difficulty in prosecuting their attacks.

Central Pacific.
Countermeasures against enemy submarines patrolling in the Hawaiian area are being vigorously prosecuted.

Atlantic Theater.
There are no new developments to report.

White House statement on conferences with Prime Minister Churchill
December 27, 1941

Much has been accomplished this week through the medium of the many conferences held, in the meetings of the supply and production officials, in the sessions held by members of the military and naval groups, and in the discussions with the chiefs of missions of all nations at war with the common enemy. Included were conferences with the Russian and Chinese Ambassadors, the Canadian Prime Minister, and the Netherlands Minister.

As a result of all of these meetings, I know tonight that the position of the United States and of all nations aligned with us has been strengthened immeasurably. We have advanced far along the road toward achievement of the ultimate objective – the crushing defeat of those forces that have attacked and made war upon us.

The conferences will continue for an indefinite period of time. It is impossible to say just now when they will terminate.

It is my purpose, as soon as it is possible, to give insofar as safety will permit – without giving information of military value to the enemy – a more detailed accounting of all that has taken place in Washington this week and of all that will take place during the remainder of the meetings.

The present overall objective is the marshaling of all resources military and economic, of the worldwide front opposing the Axis. Excellent progress along these lines is being made.

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220

Detroit Times (December 27, 1941)

U.S. unable to assist embattled Philippines

By John Henry, International News Service staff correspondent

Washington –
A decisive turn in the battle for the Philippines was believed by military observers in Washington to be imminent today as the lower jaw of Japan’s pincer movement clamped upon Luzon’s outnumbered defenders.

Experts intimated that it will be impossible to reinforce Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s troops in time to affect the outcome of the present phase of conflict.

Combined U.S. and Filipino forces again stemmed the spearhead of Nippon’s drive in the north, but according to the War Department, “pressure is increasing” southeast of Manila in the Atimonan region.

Japan, meanwhile, continued to pour additional manpower into the fierce onslaught. The concentric drive toward Manila raged like a monsoon from at least seven invasion points, with the Japs creeping into blazing barrages of shot and shell at each point of contact.

Pay heavy price

Military analysts were convinced that the mikado’s men have paid a heavy price in life and limb for every inch of advancement.

Disclosure that the Japs were foiled anew in the north came when the Army announced that:

U.S. and Philippine soldiers are defending a position along the Agno River.

The Agno flows at the foothills of the mountains in the Lingayen Gulf area.

While encouraging, this advice, military men believed, failed to lift the grave implications of the general situation.

Authorities in Washington pointed out that MacArthur’s forces are vastly outnumbered, both on the ground and in the air. These factors, plus Japan’s vise-like grip on the islands west of the Philippines, including Guam and Wake, will probably bar the arrival of assistance for the gallant defenders.

Midway still holds

While the small garrison at Midway Island, the last of three important stepping stones for airplane traffic to the Far East, remaining in American hands, continued to resist attack, the Navy further described the dramatic fight of tiny Wake Island before it fell.

The Navy flatly denied Japanese reports that 3,000 naval and Marine personnel was stationed at Wake.

Total strength of the small fortress was less than 400 men, the Navy communiqué stated, adding that other residents of the island were approximately 1,000 construction workers.

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221

Mystery planes cause blackout

Sacramento, California (INS) –
The first blackout on the Pacific Coast in two weeks doused all lights in Sacramento for an hour and 17 minutes early today after the 4th Interceptor Command reported “unidentified planes overhead.”

The blackout came at 1:43 a.m. PST and ended at 3:00 a.m. after the planes were apparently accounted for satisfactorily. Trained now for such emergencies, the state capital went into complete darkness with the order, and officials declared that the blackout was “highly satisfactory.”

Mather Field, big Army air base near the city, was also blacked out.

San Francisco and other points nearer the coast had only an alert lasting from 1:17 a.m. to 2:38 a.m. PST. Lights remained on and radio stations continued to operate.

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222

Race riot

Filipino slays Jap; incites mob in Stockton, California

Stockton, California (INS) –
Death of a middle-aged Japanese at the hands of an unidentified Filipino and reports of roving bands of Filipinos ranging through Stockton’s Little Tokyo, smashing windows of Japanese business houses resulted in extra precautions by authorities today against race riots.

Smoldering passions aroused by the Japanese invasion of the Philippines broke into open violence when Jungo Kino, 65, Japanese garage attendant, was killed as he stood talking to a friend. The witness said a Filipino peered through the door, fired one shot and disappeared.

Earlier, the gangs of Filipinos appeared breaking numerous shop windows.

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223

U.S. fliers hunt subs off coast

San Francisco, California (INS) –
U.S. Army and Navy planes went aloft again today seeking possible lurking Japanese submarines in the waters along the Pacific Coast, in spite of a lull in the attacks upon American shipping.

Naval Headquarters reported merely “no activity” after finding no signs of the undersea raiders.

The cessation of attacks after six days, during which nine ships were attacked in coastal shipping lanes, was unexplained.

Whether the submarines had been frightened away by the heavily-increased Army and Navy patrols and the destruction of at least one of the raiders or merely were returning to their bases for replenishment of fuel and supplies was not known.

In the latter case, it was said it was not improbable they were being relieved by another group of submarines and that attacks upon shipping off the roast might be resumed shortly. Military authorities were not overlooking the possibility either, that the submarines might still be in nearby waters “lying low” and waiting for another good opportunity to strike.

Still another possibility was that the inactivity stems from the fact that the Jap subs have been robbed of their chosen quarry tankers.

The Navy confirmed announcement by the California Oil Producers Association that coastwise tankers have been ordered into port pending completion of arrangement for their protection.

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