America at war! (1941– ) (Part 1)

[NormanStewart]

Anti-Axis countries sign no separate peace pledge

United States, Britain, China, Russia first to approve agreement, it is believed – Adm. King may command Allied fleets in Pacific

Bulletin

Washington –
Twenty-six nations, including the United States, Great Britain, Russia and China, have signed an agreement pledging a finish fight against the Axis and banning any separate peace, the White House announced today.

Washington (UP) –
The United States, Great Britain, China and Russia have signed a declaration that they will fight the Axis to a finish and that none of them will accept a separate peace, it was learned today.

President Roosevelt was expected to announce the pact later this afternoon. He told his morning press conference an important statement would be forthcoming from the White House in time to be printed in late-afternoon newspapers.

It was understood that several other nations have also agreed, or will soon agree, to the anti-Axis pact. Several envoys visited the State Department during the day, including Panamanian Ambassador Ernesto Jaén Guardia, who told reporters he had signed a declaration of anti-Axis solidarity.

The declaration was said to be brief, and to contain only two points – a pledge to enter into no separate peace, and a pledge to cooperate toward victorious conclusion of the war.

The agreement is apparently the first concrete result of the talks Mr. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill have been holding here with spokesmen for nations opposing the Axis. The conferences have also covered supply and command problems.

No details were available immediately, but it was pointed out the chief executives of the two great English-speaking nations are currently in the White House and presumably signed the agreement for the United States and Great Britain. Also in Washington are T. V. Soong, new Foreign Minister of the Chinese Nationalist government, and Russian Ambassador Maxim Litvinov, who is also the Soviet Vice Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

Envoys from these countries visited the State Department today and were believed to have signed the pact: Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and the Union of South Africa.

They called at the office of Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle, where the signing ceremonies were apparently taking place.

Mr. Roosevelt, at his press conference, scotched earlier reports that he and Mr. Churchill had concluded some special agreement for Allied defenses in the Pacific. The President said he knew of no plan relating only to the Pacific.

A reporter asked whether, as a London dispatch indicated, his talks with Churchill would lead to extension of the Atlantic Charter to the Pacific. The charter, which he and Mr. Churchill drew up in mid-ocean last August, applied not only to the Atlantic but to the entire world, the President replied.

He declined to comment on reports that Adm. Ernest J. King, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Fleet, would be selected as the supreme command of the Allied fleets, and that Gen. Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief of Britain’s Indian forces, would be named supreme commander of Allied land forces in the Pacific war theater.

The pace of the British-American war-planning conversations had quickened during the past 24 hours. The presence of Adm. King yesterday at a Roosevelt-Churchill meeting inspired widespread belief that he might have an important role in operation of Allied fleets.

Mr. Churchill returned from Ottawa yesterday, attended special New Year’s prayer services with Mr. Roosevelt at Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, and then plunged into hours of work in the President’s White House study on the Allied plan for unity of action against Hitler.

Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles were called into the conference yesterday. Mr. Welles leaves shortly to represent this country at a Pan-American conference in Rio de Janeiro.

The War Council meeting also included Secretary of War Stimson, Secretary of the Navy Knox, Harry Hopkins and chiefs of the U.S. Armed Forces. Assisting Mr. Churchill were Adm. Sir Dudley Pound (First Sea Lord of the British Admiralty), Air Chf. Mshl. Sir Charles Portal and Gen. Sir John Greer Dill (recently-commissioned Governor of Bombay).

Meanwhile, the Soviet Embassy and State Department were without information on reports from London that Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin will arrive here soon for war talks with Mr. Roosevelt and Churchill. The same rumor has been heard here for more than a week.

The Churchill-Roosevelt trip to Christ Church in Alexandria yesterday was to attend special services requested by the President in his proclamation declaring New Year’s Day a day of prayer. The two leaders sat in the pew once owned by George Washington to listen to a youthful Episcopal rector criticize America’s “great sin of international irresponsibility” of pre-war days and pray for strength.

Then Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill asked God to stretch forth “thine mighty arm to strengthen and protect” the armed forces of their allied nations.

After the services, the two leaders motored to Mount Vernon, the historic Potomac River home of Washington, where Mr. Churchill laid a wreath on the tomb of the man who led American “rebels” in the Revolutionary War to overthrow the yoke of the British King.

[NormanStewart]

U.S. tightens alien control

Travel of Axis subjects is limited; can’t have guns

Washington (UP) –
The United States today tightened restrictions on the activities of 1,100,000 Axis aliens who, though considered “peaceful and law-abiding,” have among them potential spies, saboteurs and fifth columnists.

In addition to restricting the travel of Japanese, German and Italian nationals domiciled in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Attorney General Francis Biddle yesterday ordered all enemy aliens to surrender firearms in their possession to local police authorities before 11:00 p.m. Monday ET.

Police stations are already storehouses for shortwave radios, radio transmitters and cameras, ranging from the inexpensive box type to the expensive precision equipment. Surrender of these began last weekend on the West Coast and the deadline for the rest of the nation is Monday.

Mr. Biddle cautioned police officials that “most of the persons” affected by the orders were law-abiding and loyal to the United States. For this reason, he asked them to instruct all officers assisting in the work to “use as much care as they reasonably can in helping the affected aliens to comply with the regulations.”

Axis aliens can travel beyond certain limitations only when authorized to do so by the U.S. attorney of the district in which they live. Permission for such travel, he said, would be denied in cases where it was considered “potentially dangerous to public safety.”

Permission is not required, however, for travel within the limits of the municipality in which the Axis alien resides, or between his home and place of business, churches, schools, state, local and federal agencies. This permits the alien to engage in normal activities.

Written application

Japanese, German and Italian aliens were barred from traveling by air at the outset of the war.

Under terms of the travel regulations, the alien planning such a trip must apply to the U.S. attorney of his district in writing a week in advance of the proposed journey. The application for permission must contain the alien’s name, nationality, alien registration number, purpose of the trip, destination, date of departure and return, the route to be followed and the carrier (railroad, bus, auto) used.

Willful disobedience of any of the regulations will result in arrest of the violator and internment in a concentration camp for the duration of the war.

Nearly 3,000 Japanese, German and Italian aliens considered dangerous to the peace and security of the nation were rounded up within a few hours of the Japanese attack in the Pacific. These aliens, whose activities had been scrutinized by the FBI, naval and military intelligence for more than two years, are now awaiting hearings by review boards named by the Attorney General.

[NormanStewart]

To speed war production –
Auto sales stopped

OPM to convert plants after ‘freezing’ purchases till Jan. 15; tires rationed Monday

Washington (UP) –
Mr. Average Man, who has been thinking about swapping his old car for a new one but has hesitated because of the state of the world, doesn’t have to worry anymore.

He can’t do it now even if he has made up his mind and has the cash.

The Office of Production Management is rushing plans to convey every facility of the auto industry to the production of implements of war. All sales of new autos were halted as of yesterday, and production of autos will be stopped completely 30 days hence.

Representatives of labor, management and government will meet here Monday to plan for immediate utilization of all the industry’s workers and machinery in the war effort, Associate OPM Director-General Sidney Hillman said.

A rationing system will be worked out in the next few days to dispose of those cars that will be manufactured in the next month. Passenger cars and light trucks will probably be rationed in much the same manner as that to be used for distributing tires and tubes.

The tire and tube rationing system goes into effect Monday. Civilians will be able to purchase only used and retreaded tires and tubes unless they are on the government’s list of “essential” users.

The “essential” purchasers of autos will probably conform to that of tires and tubes – doctors, surgeons, visiting nurses and vehicles necessary to the public health and safety.

Alvan Macauley, president of the Automobile Manufacturers Association and chairman of the Automotive Council for War Production, said in Detroit the auto industry is “100 percent” behind the government. But he urged that additional contracts be awarded automobile manufacturers to cushion dislocations.

He said:

The government must give us work on which we can turn loose our mass production facilities. Plants will have to be shut down, but just how many and for how long, we can’t say. It will depend in part on how rapidly we can get into production on new contracts.

The OPM’s order barred the sale, delivery, purchase or lease of new passenger cars and light and heavy trucks. It is estimated that 450,000 cars now in dealer’s hand will be available for those the OPM classes as essential users.

Production of heavy trucks will be allowed to continue after that of automobile and light trucks is halted. Heavy trucks will be sold, however, only to purchasers designated by the OPM.

Vital materials used

These orders, it was said, eliminate a barrier to all-out armament production as the auto industry has been consuming large quantities of steel, aluminum, magnesium, zinc, chromium, copper, lead, tin, tungsten, nickel, rubber and other vitally-needed war materials.

Under terms of the OPM’s Priorities Division order halting sales of new cars, no dealer today can legally sell a new vehicle to a would-be purchaser. The order includes cars in show windows, warehouses or wherever they may be if they are 1942 models or models which have been run less than 1,000 miles. All of the 450,000 cars now built and the 100,000 to be built this month will be available for government rationing.

The freezing of new car and truck sales extends to Jan. 15, the Priorities Division said, “at which time it is expected that a rationing plan will have been developed.”

Experts estimate that the auto industry can convert or use approximately 80% of its present machinery and plant capacity for war work but point out that the conversion job will take a long time.

While all officials agreed that the halt in auto production would aid the war program, OPM Labor Division officials pointed out that transfer of tens of thousands of workers to war production will entail a costly time lag while facilities are in a changeover period. One plan said to be under construction would provide for government payments to displaced workers who were enrolled in training schools.

The employment situation generally, however, was characterized as only temporary as the National Labor Supply Policy Committee is anticipating an increase in present war employment of 5,000,000 to about 12,000,000 next year and to 23,500,000 by 1944.

Representatives of the auto industry will discuss with OPM officials Monday details of the halt in auto and light truck production.

OPM Priorities Director Donald M. Nelson said that an amendment to the ban on sales will be issued immediately to permit completion of conditional sales, chattel mortgages and similar auto purchase contracts when delivery was made prior to Jan. 1. Amendments would also be issued to permit repossession of cars under such contracts in accordance with existing law. Other changes may be made, he added, “to cover particular hardship situations which may develop.”

---

Questions, answers listed to clarify tire rationing

Washington (UP) –
The Office of Price Administration today released this compilation of questions and answers clarifying tire and tube rationing regulations:

Are seconds of new tires and tubes “new” tires or tubes?

Yes.

Are bicycle tires within the scope of rationing regulations?

No.

Can an interstate common carrier, which has delivered to and deposited with various tire service stations along its route a supply of its own tires, bearing its own brand, to be used to service its own trucks under a service contract with the local agency, obtain such tires from the local station?

This depends upon whether the release of tires amounts to a delivery or transfer within the contemplation of the order; opinion reserved for written submission of facts.

Can tires in possession of seller on which full payment has been made be delivered to the purchaser?

No.

Can tires on which a down payment has been made but which are still in the possession of the seller be delivered to the purchaser?

No.

Can tires now owned and in the possession of a fleet operator be transferred from one of his fleet garages to another? From truck to truck?

Yes.

Can tire dealers exchange white-walled tires owned by them for black-walled tires owned by automobile dealers?

No.

Have the local boards any discretion in extending the list of classes eligible to purchase or transfer tires or tubes?

No.

To whom must one apply for modification in the list?

Leon Henderson,
Office of Price Administration,
Washington, DC

Is a hearse an eligible vehicle?

No. In emergencies, ambulances, which are on the eligible list, may be used as hearses.

Is a truck used to deliver coal to both the manufacturers and private consumers entitled to tires?

Yes.

Does the exception in the section relating to deliveries to ultimate consumer prohibit the delivery of coal to an ultimate consumer?

No.

Are trucks used to repair telegraph lines eligible vehicles?

Yes.

Are passenger cars used to repair telegraph lines eligible vehicles?

No.

Are cars used to render commercial service to telegraph offices eligible vehicles?

No.

Are cars used to deliver telegrams in rural areas eligible vehicles?

No.

Are passenger cars used by traveling purchasers of scrap iron entitled to tires?

No.

Are wholesale grocers’ trucks used to make deliveries to retailers eligible?

Yes.

Are passenger cars used by wholesale grocers to make deliveries or to solicit sales eligible vehicles?

No.

Are wholesale grocers’ trucks used for sales and for solicitation of sales eligible vehicles?

Only when the deliveries and solicitations coincide. Trucks cannot be used as salesmen’s vehicles.

Are trucks used by newspapers to make delivery of newspapers in wholesale lots to newsdealers eligible vehicles?

Yes.

Are trucks used for the delivery of single papers to homes in rural areas eligible vehicles?

No.

Are trucks used for retail delivery of heavy goods like furniture eligible vehicles?

No.

[NormanStewart]

Price ceiling placed on stoves, carpets

Washington (UP) –
Maximum manufacturers’ prices for household cooking and heating stoves were set today at about 2% above mid-October by Price Administrator Leon Henderson.

A 60-day emergency schedule was also issued which places ceiling prices on rugs and carpets for sale by wholesalers, jobbers, agents, brokers and importers. Both price schedules are effective Jan. 5.

Top prices charged for stoves may not exceed 112% of the lowest price quoted or charged by manufacturers between Jan. 15 and June 1, 1941.

Under terms of the rug-carpet schedule, rugs may not be sold at prices higher than those charged between Oct. 1 and Oct. 13, 1941. A permanent price schedule will be formulated after conferences with distributors.

[NormanStewart]

Roosevelt promotes aide

Washington –
President Roosevelt today nominated his naval aide, Capt. John R. Beardall, to be a temporary rear admiral.

[NormanStewart]

Russians criticized –
Simms: Red charge resented

Fact that ‘cowardice’-in-Manila taunt was printed by Kremlin mouthpiece aggravates incident
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

Washington –
The Russian charge of “cowardice” against Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his defense force at Manila is deeply resented here as uncalled for and untrue.

The fact that the criticism was featured prominently in Pravda, one of the two principal mouthpieces of the Kremlin and of Premier Stalin, is regarded as seriously aggravating the incident.

Pravda alleged that the United States used “Pétain” tactics in its efforts to spare Manila from Japanese bombs. American leaders there, it went on, acted like “ladybugs,” which, lacking the courage to fight, roll over on their backs and stick their legs toward the sky when an enemy appears. People who act like that, it said, “are cowards.”

In the United States, where the press is free, editorials represent merely the opinions of individual editors or owners. In Russia, newspapers are owned by the government and rigidly controlled by it.

The newspapers Pravda and Izvestia are the principal organs of the Communist Party and of the Soviet government. At one time, Stalin was an editor of Pravda.

Secretary of War Stimson said he would rather not engage in a controversy on the subject, but made it quite evident that he regards the defense of the Philippines and of Manila as being in the hands of “our most skillful fighter.”

Other high officials take a similar view. The exchange of insulting remarks between Allies – even if well-founded and not, as in this case, based on snap judgment and incomplete information – simply isn’t done.

Privately, opinions are being freely expressed here. For one thing, it is said, Pravda appears to be afflicted with a short memory. It seems to have forgotten that in the first rush of the Nazis last summer, Russian-held areas, several times the size of the whole Philippine Archipelago, were quickly seized. The Russian-held half of Poland, all of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, part of Finland, and cities like Kiev, Odessa, Nikolaev, Bryansk and dozens of others were soon lost. Some 50 million Russians were driven from their homes and the major part of industrial Russia was occupied before the German hordes were stopped.

Outnumbered Nazis

This is not said in criticism of the Russians, though in manpower they outnumbered the Nazis by more than two to one and their mechanical equipment was at least equal to that of the enemy. They were taken by surprise – as was the United States on Dec. 7 – and it takes time to organize an adequate defense against a thoroughly-prepared aggressor. This, it is pointed out, Pravda seems to have forgotten.

Moreover, it is added, such criticism comes with exceptionally bad grace from a country which has been, and continues to be, the recipient of aid from the United States. But for the material sent across the Atlantic, it is remarked, the United States might have had more tanks, planes, guns and other munitions on hand in the Philippines.

A Senator said:

Uncle Sam is like the man in the parable. He stripped himself to clothe one more naked than himself, only to be ridiculed by the recipient for being caught without his pants.

But what has attracted attention here is not so much Pravda’s uncomplimentary accusation as what might lie behind it. As official organs, it is pointed out, Pravda and Izvestia seldom publish an article of such consequence without some specific reason, and never without official approval. The question is now, what is Russia’s reason?

Officially, the United States and Russia are not allies. They just happen to be fighting a common foe – Hitler. Russia is not fighting Japan, one explanation being that she and Nippon have signed a non-aggression pact. It is recalled, however, that Russia and Poland had a similar pact in 1939 when Russia, along with Germany, invaded that country.

Some are wondering, therefore, if Pravda’s outburst does not mean more than appears on the surface.

[NormanStewart]

Flying Fortress output stepped up by Boeing

Seattle, Washington (UP) –
The Boeing Aircraft Company announced today it had surpassed its own accelerated delivery schedule of Flying Fortress Army bombers by 70% during December.

Brig. Gen. George C. Kenney, Assistant Chief of the Air Corps Materiel Division, congratulated Boeing employees in a telegram which said the company “has responded to the emergency in an unparalleled manner.”

Boeing plants operated full shifts yesterday, maintaining a seven-day-a-week schedule.

[Chewbacca]

Hi,
Reading this excellent thread how the Allies were pushed back in the Pacific brought the old game Silent Service 2 from Microprose to mind. Where you control a sub s-boat /Gato etc. If you start in an S-boat and chose realistic (duds) Mark 14 and see the bases were you can refit and refuel suddenly go it had that crappy feeling of trying to fight a war were nothing works.

Yes it was just a game but suddenly the age-old colonies starting falling to a seemingly unstoppable force. All the Kudos to those submariners in their cramped boats.

PS I put it back on my laptop last months and still remember a lot of the keys.

[NormanStewart]

U.S. War Department (January 3, 1942)

Communiqué No. 43

Corregidor Island in Manila Bay sustained a five-hour aerial bombardment yesterday. The enemy air force attacking the island was composed of at least 60 bombers. There was no material damage to installations on the island. Casualties resulting from this attack were 13 killed and 35 wounded. At least three enemy planes were shot down by anti-aircraft fire.

There was a marked lessening of enemy ground attacks. U.S. and Philippine troops were consolidated in new positions, where organized resistance to Japanese attacks will be intensified.

Enemy airplanes were active in the region occupied by our ground forces.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (January 3, 1942)

WAR BULLETINS!

German officer wounded in France

Berlin, Germany (UP) – (broadcast recorded in U.S.)
The press spokesman today said that a German officer had been wounded in an attack at Dijon, France.

Noted Jap flier dies in Malaya

Berlin, Germany (UP) – (broadcast recorded in U.S.)
German dispatches from Tokyo reported today that Air Officer Masaaki Iinuma, who established a Tokyo-London flight record in 1937, had died of wounds suffered in an air battle over northern Malaya Dec. 11. In 1937, Iinuma flew to London from Tokyo in 94 hours and 17 minutes under the auspices of the Tokyo newspaper Asahi.

Jap force retires from Burma

London, England –
A small Japanese force recently infiltrated into Bokpyin Mergui, north of Point Victoria in Burma, but retired after an attack by British patrols, a spokesman said today.

Duce demands peoples’ cooperation

Rome, Italy (UP) – (broadcast recorded in London)
Premier Benito Mussolini today demanded that Italians cooperate more closely with “our comrades of the Axis” because the future of Italy is at stake.

RAF hits Nazi bases, lays mines

London, England –
British planes attacked the German-held naval bases of Brest and Saint-Nazaire on the French coast during the night and laid mines in enemy waters, the Air Ministry said today. All planes returned.

Australians again raid Jap island

Melbourne, Australia –
The Royal Australian Air Force has struck for the second time against a Japanese base in the Jap Caroline Islands. Bombs damaged stores, installations and equipment. An enemy seaplane was set on fire and destroyed. All Australian planes returned safely.

Germans admit fall of Bardia

Berlin, Germany (UP) – (broadcast recorded in U.S.)
The German High Command admitted the fall of Bardia, Libya, in a communiqué today which said there was only “local fighting” on the southern and northern sectors of the Russian front. The High Command claimed that the German Air Force, raiding Moscow, scored hits on a railroad station.

Bardia falls, Sollum pounded, Rome admits

Rome, Italy (UP) – (broadcast recorded in London)
An Italian communiqué said today that British planes had raided Naples during the night and admitted the loss of Bardia, Axis stronghold on the Libyan coast. The communiqué said the British had bombarded Sollum, the isolated Axis fort on the Libyan-Egyptian frontier, with concentrated artillery fire.

Chinese claim 15,000 Jap casualties

Chungking, China –
Chinese troops, counterattacking in the suburbs of Changsha, embattled capital of Hunan Province, have inflicted 15,000 casualties on the Japanese, a Chinese communiqué said today. Axis reports that Changsha had fallen were denied.

Allied tanker reported sunk by Japs

Berlin, Germany (UP) – (broadcast recorded in London)
Japanese submarines were reported today to have sunk a former Dutch tanker being used by British and U.S. naval forces 80 miles off the California coast.

[NormanStewart]

It will cost money to defeat Germany, Japan and Italy. Our government calls on you to help now.

Buy defense bonds or stamps today. Buy them every day if you can. But buy them on a regular basis.

Bonds cost as little as $18.75, stamps come as low as 10¢. Defense bonds and stamps can be bought at all banks and post offices, and stamps can also be purchased at retail stores and your Pittsburgh Press carrier boy.

Allied cooperation begins –
Joint action prepared

Declaration of unity by 26 nations is preliminary to concrete measures against Axis

Washington (UP) –
The agreement signed by 26 nations for a finish fight against the Axis will be supplemented in the next few days by further concrete evidence of united action, it was indicated today.

The “Declaration by United Nations,” which had as its chief signatories the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and China, was only a preliminary to the broad program of unified anti-Axis war moves to be completed and transmitted to the military and naval staffs of the nations involved.

Foreshadowing the completed program was the announced fact that U.S., British and Dutch warships are operating in the Pacific. This type of coordinated opposition to the Axis is expected to undergo worldwide expansion soon, perhaps even before President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill have concluded their talks here.

The conferences among Mr. Churchill, Mr. Roosevelt and the respective high commands continued, and important developments are expected to come from the meetings between now and the time Mr. Roosevelt delivers his State of the Union message to Congress next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Mr. Roosevelt’s message is also expected to contain important information on the unified war effort.

These were the two salient points of the anti-Axis agreement announced yesterday:

• Each government pledges itself to employ its full resources, military or economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its adherents with which such government is at war.

• Each government pledges itself to cooperate with the government signatory hereto and not to make a separate armistice or peace with the enemies.

The way was left clear for other nations, particularly Latin-American nations which have not entered the conflict, to come into the fight on the side of the signatories. The declaration included provisions for later adherence of other nations “which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism.”

Nine sign pact

Nine Latin-American countries were among those signing the pact.

The first purpose of the pact, which was originally conceived by Mr. Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull, was to assure in a binding agreement that the nations of the world now arrayed against the Axis would continue to oppose the common foe until victory has been won.

The pact gives the major fighting powers – Great Britain, the United States, Russia and China – a foundation on which to build their unified plan of action.

The pact does not commit the Soviet Union to declare war on Japan, but it does commit the Soviet government to oppose the Axis to a finish and not to conclude a separate armistice or peace with Germany or Italy.

Freedom pledged

The agreement linked the Soviet Union to the principles of religious freedom since the signatory nations “subscribed to a joint program of purposes and principles” as embodied in the Atlantic Charter drafted by the President and Mr. Churchill last August. The Atlantic Charter did not mention religious freedom specifically but advocated freedom for all peoples, and Mr. Roosevelt later construed the charter as incorporating the principles of freedom of worship.

The declaration was regarded here as just as binding as a formal treaty which requires legislative ratification of the signatory nations. So far as the United States is concerned, the pact requires no ratification because it was in the form of a declaration and not a formal treaty.

[NormanStewart]

LUZON BATTLE RAGES IN HILLS
60 Japanese planes raid U.S. island in Manila Bay

But Army reports ‘no material damage after 5-hour attack;’ MacArthur continues land resistance
By Mack Johnson, United Press staff writer

Washington –
A Japanese force of at least 60 bombers struck for five hours at Corregidor Island, U.S. stronghold commanding the entrance to Manila Bay, but inflicted “no material damage” to the island’s fortifications, the War Department reported today.

The Department’s communiqué, covering advices received up to 9:30 a.m. EST, indicated that the invading forces – already in possession of Manila and the naval base at Cavite – are now unleashing the full power of their attack on Corregidor.

Corregidor is the anchor point of the consolidated U.S. and Filipino forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, which have withdrawn into a comparatively small area northwest of Manila.

Defenders killed

The attack by Japanese planes occurred yesterday and cost the defenders 13 killed ad 35 wounded.

At least three Japanese planes were shot down, added to four destroyed in a previous attack on Corregidor.

The communiqué said that with consolidation of our forces in new positions:

Organized resistance to Japanese attacks will be intensified.

It reported “a marked lessening of enemy ground attacks.”

Location not announced

There was no mention of exactly where the consolidated forces are now located, but a Tokyo broadcast said the bulk of the defenders are on the 30-mile-long Bataan Peninsula, on the northwest shore of Manila Bay. Corregidor is just off the southern tip of the peninsula.

The communiqué, coupled with the Tokyo broadcast, indicated that Gen. MacArthur, commandant of the defending forces, is making his stand in the Bataan area – a mountainous region not well-suited to land attacks by modern mechanized armies.

The communiqué noted that despite the lessening of ground attacks:

Enemy airplanes were active in the region occupied by our ground forces.

This would indicate the Japanese realize that if MacArthur’s forces are to be blasted off Bataan, much of the job must be done from the air.

Second in week

Yesterday’s raid on Corregidor was the second large-scale bombing of the island bastion reported by the War Department this week. Earlier, a formation of enemy bombers killed 27 soldiers and wounded 80 others in an extensive raid which cost the enemy at least four bombers, shot down by anti-aircraft fire.

MacArthur’s comparatively small band of heroic defenders were expected to wage a last-ditch stand on Bataan, rather than retire to inland mountains for guerilla warfare. Last night, the War Department reported that the Japanese were pressing forward with “increasing intensity” despite the fact that MacArthur’s strategy had put his men in a position to make the Japanese pay dearly in men and equipment for every mile they advanced.

Observers here believed that the continued pressure by the Japanese, after they had entered undefended Manila and had taken control of the previously-evacuated Cavite Navy Yard, meant that they would attempt to break the backbone of organized resistance in Luzon, if not in the entire Philippine area.

Unofficial quarters earlier had expressed belief that the Japanese might ease the pressure when they had backed the U.S. and Filipino defenders into a comparatively small area and shift some of their forces to the Singapore theater.

It is believed that the Japanese, heavily reinforced by cavalry, tanks and other equipment, now have more than a dozen divisions – an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 men – on Luzon Island.

The Navy revealed that U.S. warships were not inactive in the Pacific. A spokesman said that while he had no information on Japanese claims of attacks on U.S. warships, he could confirm that U.S. naval vessels were cooperating with the Dutch and British in the Far East.

Renders Cavite useless to foe

Dutch Minister Alexander Loudon said, incidentally, after a conference with President Roosevelt last night that the Dutch needed “planes, planes and more planes” to continue their offensive tactics against the Japanese.

The definite area in which the Luzon fighting is taking place has not been revealed. The broad front, however, extends north from the shore of Manila Bay, and includes the peninsular province of Bataan and probably some of the province of Zambales to the north, and portions of Pampanga Province to the east.

[NormanStewart]

Marines reach new high

Washington –
The Marine Corps’ strength reached an all-time high on Dec. 31, with a total of 77,729 officers and men, it was announced today.

[NormanStewart]

Henry McLemore’s viewpoint –
Those New Year’s headaches Americans missed will belong to Axis powers eventually

By Henry McLemore

New Orleans –
This year, for the first time since Jan. 1, 1919, the average American greeted the New Year with a head that fits him.

For the first time in 23 years, his neat, well-rounded size 7½ noggin didn’t feel like a size 16 that was occupied by industrious little riveters and tiny Swiss bell ringers, who liked their work so much they didn’t even take time off for lunch.

For the first time since the last war ended, he greeted the arrival of the New Year in a sane, solemn way. He rang a bell or two, and lifted a drink or two, just for old times’ sake, but he didn’t care much about it. His thoughts were not on having a good time for himself, but on the thought that in 1942 his country will have perhaps the gravest days in its history, and that he, the average American, wanted to be ready to help, even if the call came early on New Year’s Day, a time normally reserved for trying the 10,001 hangover nostrums suggested by loving friends.

My statement that Americans observed the passing of the Old Year and the coming of the New in comparative quiet is based on what happened here in New Orleans. New Orleans is a good yardstick with which to measure New Year’s Eve celebrations throughout the country. This is a town where fun and frivolity maintain a permanent residence.

Boisterous put aside

If folk are quiet and earnest in New Orleans on a holiday, you may rest assured that folk in Wilkes-Barre, Butte, Phoenix, and waypoints are, too. And the New Orleans folk were. Nothing depressing, mind you. No mourning was worn. No one went around sowing wet blankets, so to speak, but there was a feeling in the air, a feeling that for the time being, going through the motions of making merry was quite enough.

The German mind, the Italian mind, and the Japanese mind, perhaps will overlook the significance of Americans taking New Year’s Eve in stride. The chances are the Axis powers will place no importance whatsoever on the fact that the citizens of this country deliberately and willingly put aside boisterous merriment as 1941 dropped into the mists and handed the baton of time to 1942.

But it’s awfully important. This country hates to give up its fun. No nation on earth ever liked to raise hell as much as this one does.

Pinnacle in headaches

The New Year’s Eve headache, hangover and jitters were brought to full flower by the citizens of this country. Other nations did their best to create a national migraine, but their best was a poor second to the American aching head.

We took a pride in feeling the worst on New Year’s Day. From Key West to the Far West, and up and down the seaboard and through the plains of the Midwest, this country gave midnight of New Year’s Eve the full and complete treatment.

We made more noise, stayed up later, and had more fun, than the citizens of any other country.

But not this New Year’s Eve.

Wake, Guam, Pearl Harbor, Singapore, Hong Kong. They were in our minds.

So were the thoughts of what lay ahead in 1942. There must be revenge for the Marines who held out to the last, the ships that went to the bottom, the planes that had to fight against impossible odds. There must be production – production that will make it possible to avenge Manila. There must be bonds bought and taxes paid to pay for the production.

There was but one real New Year’s resolution made by Americans. The old ones about smoking, drinking and saving money were forgotten. This New Year’s Eve found us pledging that to the best of our abilities we would act and think as Americans before us did when the country was in peril.

A Happy New Year to you all, and isn’t it nice to know that the headaches we missed Thursday eventually will belong to the Axis?

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (January 4, 1942)

Japs pay big price for first-month victories

Initial Japanese successes outweighed those of the Allies in the first month of war in the Pacific, but heroic U.S. soldiers, seamen and fliers in the Philippines took a big toll of enemy troops and ships while Dutch bombers and submarines hit hard at Nipponese warships and transports. The map spots major actions.

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WAR BULLETINS!

Unidentified planes off West Coast

San Francisco, California – (Jan. 3)
The Army detected several unidentified airplanes flying about 80 miles off the coast of California tonight and ordered blackouts in San Francisco and other cities within a 60-mile radius. San Francisco and other cities were blacked out from 6:52 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. PT (9:52 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. ET), when the sound of the unidentified airplanes died away and the Army ordered the “all clear” signal.

The Army announced:

The Fourth Interceptor Command picked up two definite sound tracks of two groups of unidentified airplanes flying about 80 miles off the coast. We do not know how many planes there were, there could have been 10 in each instance. After a reasonable time, the sounds died away and the blackout was ended.

Nearby Vallejo observers reported they heard a “terrific boom” which followed “orange and red streaks,” but there was no official indication any guns were fired during the alarm.

Families to leave Canal Zone

Balboa, Panama Canal Zone – (Jan. 3)
Plans for the gradual return to the United States of families of Army, Navy and civilian personnel in the Canal Zone were announced today by Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, commander of the Caribbean Defense Command.

Disorders reported in Portugal

Berlin, Germany (UP) – (Jan. 3, broadcast recorded in London)
German dispatches from Lisbon reported today that disorders occurred in a mining district in northern Portugal yesterday. Gendarmes were reported to have repulsed large crowds attempting to storm Wolfram mines. The guards were said to have killed one and wounded several persons.

Jap planes raid Singapore in force

Singapore – (Jan. 3)
Japanese raiders flew over Singapore in force tonight but met a tremendous barrage of anti-aircraft fire. A few bombs were dropped on the outskirts. First reports said the attackers were unable to penetrate to vital spots in the island’s defenses.

Chinese renew guerrilla warfare

Chungking, China – (Jan. 3)
Guerrilla warfare has broken out again throughout China and attacks on Japanese communications lines at scattered points were reported in military quarters today. Guerrilla fighters destroyed bridges, tore up rails and wrecked several Japanese military trains, causing heavy Japanese casualties, reports said.

Graves of Nazi generals found

Cairo, Egypt – (Jan. 3)
The graves of two German major generals, Neumann-Silkow of the 15th Armored Division, and Suemmermand, general officer in command of headquarters troops, were found by the British at Derna, dispatches disclosed tonight.

[NormanStewart]

Just keep ‘em flying –
Stowe: ‘We’ downed the Japs

Chatter of young Americans over Burma stresses their teamwork in first big air victory
By Leland Stowe

Rangoon, Burma – (Jan. 3)
We reached their barracks just at chow time and were greeted by the lustiest American chatter that ever warmed the ears of an American war correspondent.

Come on, pile into the beans… Say, we’ve got two aces in our squadron in two days… You oughta see what we did to the Japs.

It was all “we” did this and “we” did that. It was all “we” in capital letters and this was the ground crew’s, not the pilot’s mess.

Decidedly, these boys had gone far since I first saw them three months ago. They were grouching about food and other things then. Now they never uttered a complaint about anything.

One bronzed little mechanic from New York beamed:

We pasted hell out of those Japs.

It was like that all through the beans and bully beef. These youngsters had been bombed and machine-gunned but their tails were up. Man and boy, how their tails were up!

O’Dowd, Gallagher and I beat it over to the officers’ mess and there we got the real story of Rangoon’s Christmas raid – the raid which cost the Nipponese at least 92 air crewmen against four for America and Britain – for the pilots who had won the honor of giving the Japanese Air Force the first terrific trouncing of its experience since it was founded.

Both gain laurels

Both the Royal Air Force and U.S. airmen gained full laurels in that Christmas reception party to the Japanese but of them all, the Yankee Tomahawk squadron set a truly unusual record. Its youngsters, in their second aerial engagement, downed 13 Nipponese bombers and three fighters with the loss of only two planes and no pilots.

The squadron is composed of fliers from all three U.S. services – Army, Navy and Marine Corps – probably the first time in U.S. history that the members of the all three of these services have fought as a single unit under a single command. As a result of the merciless scalping which these boys, flying Tomahawks, dealt to the Japanese, their squadrons have been dubbed “the Scalpers.”

Captured Jap sword

The squadron leader of the Scalpers in their Christmas air battle was a tall, dark-mustached, smiling Floridian, who was barely able to make a forced crash landing ashore. With his left hand wounded, a shrapnel in his left arm and chest, he rode a horse for miles across paddy fields to rejoin his mates that night, but brought a samurai sword captured from a wrecked Japanese bomber with him as a souvenir.

The Floridian said:

The Jap bombers flew in wonderful formation. We tore into them as soon as we caught them. They had dropped their bombs and were beating it for Thailand, but we were too fast for them. I got one Jap bomber for Gilbert and then a second one for Martin. You know, they’re the boys we lost in that first raid. Then I got one for myself, but he poured everything he had into me at the same time I let go.

One .50-caliber bullet smashed the windshield just in front of me. I felt the shrapnel get me and swung away. I though my plane was gone, but I saw the Japs blow up at that moment. My engine was gone. I was lucky, I just managed to make the coast.

Three hours of stories

For three hours, we heard stories like that. A Los Angeles pilot, who resigned from the Marine Air Force to fight in China, shot down three bombers, then also had a crash landing and had to ride a borrowed bicycle for 10 miles before he could find a motor transport to get back.

He said:

You know, I tried to pay the Burmans, but they wouldn’t take a rupee. They were marvelous.

We learned how two of the Scalpers had refused to take their fixed leave on Christmas Day “because we thought those Jap so-and-sos would come over again today.”

Both were elated that they had not missed the show, and, like all the others were wishing “they would come over again today.”

Meanwhile, the pilots spoke with the warmest praise of the work their ground crews had done. Yes, everybody’s tail was up around here all right.

Full of confidence

A lanky, lean-faced Nebraskan was saying:

It’s funny. I used to think that to get three planes would be a whale of a lot. Now I won’t be satisfied until I’m working on my second dozen. All we need is plenty of planes, brothers. We can like the tar out of those fellows.

A blond-headed, clean-cut chap from St. Paul, Minnesota, chimed in:

Just wait till we can meet the Japs, plane for plane. They’ll never get a plane home, let me tell you.

Someone explained what a Christmas celebration the Scalpers’ squadron held the night that they walloped the Japanese along with the RAF boys who fought with them all the way through. The squadron leader from Florida put it all in a nutshell. He remarked:

I’d rather fight them than eat, any day.

The lanky Nebraskan voted for everyone present. He said:

You can quote me on that too.

[NormanStewart]

The Red Cross needs you!

When disaster strikes – the Red Cross is there first. Now the Red Cross is appealing for $50 million to help the boys in the Army, Navy, and anybody else who suffers from this war.

Time is short. Send your contribution in today.

Mail your contribution to 332 Oliver Building, the Red Cross War Fund.

[NormanStewart]

Allies discuss attack plans

Britain to be 1943 invasion base, official says

Washington (UP) – (Jan. 3)
The heavily-defended British Isles, which have stood since September 1939 as the democratic frontline of defense, are being prepared as the spearhead for an Allied counteroffensive and invasion of the European continent, British officials said today.

Sir Gerald Campbell, director of British Information in the United States, said that the British Isles will undoubtedly become a vital springboard for the Allied offensive “around the globe,” which Prime Minister Winston Churchill has predicted for 1943.

Hitler main enemy

The Allies have agreed, it was said, that Hitler remains the main enemy to be crushed before victory can be won and that the war must be carried back to the European continent with an invasion of the Nazi-held coast from Norway to the Bay of Biscay.

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, in consultation here with their High Command on an overall plan of grand strategy, are reported to be working out a plan for holding vital positions on three ocean fronts and one land front during 1942 after which the Allies – by a pooling of their overwhelming resources – would be in position to launch a grand offensive.

Sir Gerald’s statement indicated that the Anglo-American military, naval and air strategists might be discussing in detail the preparations for bolstering Britain’s defenses in anticipation of an ultimate offensive against Western Europe.

Peace feelers predicted

Mr. Campbell said that, as a result of Friday’s no-separate-peace pledge by 26 anti-Axis nations, he believed it “fairly certain” that Axis peace offers would be forthcoming.

He said:

These offers and feelers will come; there have been three or four already. But the declaration… gives fair warning to all concerned – especially Hitler – what will be the answer of these nations to anyone attempting to separate them.

[NormanStewart]

Freezing of funds adds $200 million in materials

Washington (UP) – (Jan. 3)
The freezing of foreign funds has already added $200 million of materials to stocks of this nation’s war industry, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau reported tonight.

The Treasury’s Foreign Fund Control Division discovered the materials, which were consigned to foreign firms, when frozen assets of aliens were checked.

The materials – which included aluminum, brass, tire fabric, auto parts, tools, leather, steel and other metals – were turned over to the Supply Priorities and Allocation Board for use by war plants in this nation.

[NormanStewart]

Van de Water: Hitler maps new attack to make everyone gasp

By Marjorie Van de Water, Science Service writer

Washington – (Jan. 3)
Whatever military secrets President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill may be discussing behind the heavily curtained windows of the White House here, one question is practically certain to be in the minds of both.

That is the question you were probably pondering at your own dinner table tonight – where will Hitler’s next surprise attack be staged?

Hitler’s fondness for the surprise attack is probably dictated more by the diseased condition of his own mind than by the undeniable military advantage it may command. He has an abnormal craving for the sensational, the dramatic, the crisis that will put him in the center of the stage and cause the world to gasp.

Reports cited

Several reports have come out of Germany in the past few days that, pieced together, point to the likelihood of an impending new psychic outburst originating at Berchtesgaden but hitting with tragic loss of life perhaps in places as remote as South America or Washington. These retorts are:

• That Hitler suffered some sort of psychic disturbance which required a “rest cure.”

• A Goebbels radio talk pleading for winter clothing for soldiers in Russia. From what we know of the truth of German propaganda, this means that the Army will not be in Russia this winter.

• The precipitate retreat of the German forces in Russia – almost too good to be true.

• Absence of reports of the German Air Force.

• Sudden dismissal of Field Marshal von Brauchitsch following an “intuition” of Hitler’s. To many, this means that Hitler’s present plan is too crazy for any in the German Army command to be willing to undertake.

Outlandish plan seen

What sort of fireworks is Hitler preparing to set off? You guess. But don’t try to think of anything reasonable. Try to imagine the most outlandish, unlikely, unreasonable, and very probably suicidal plan. Remember Hitler has a fertile imagination and neither scruples nor any sense of values puts leash to it.

Persons of his known psychological makeup must rely only on the blitz. They have neither the self-control, the perseverance, nor the quiet determination necessary in order to stomach a long, undramatic campaign.

Hitler is what psychiatrists call a hysteric. During World War I, he was hospitalized for hysterical blindness. Hysteria, in this sense, does not mean the sort of laughing-crying fit which you and I might call hysterics. It is a type of neuroses in which the imagination runs away with the mind and illnesses conjured up in the mind of the victim actually become real to him. He believes his own fictions.