America at war! (1941– ) (Part 1)

4229

Third big naval-air battle raging in Pacific off Aleutian Islands

U.S. planes strike heavy blows at Jap fleet – Army reports sinking of cruiser
By Sandor S. Klein, United Press staff writer

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
The third great naval-aerial battle of the Pacific War is brewing in the foggy reaches of the North Pacific where United States forces are striking at Japs who have toeholds on the remote Attu and Kiska Islands, well-informed quarters understood today.

There was no indication yet whether the Japs had attempted to press farther eastward, but it was believed certain that United States planes were striking at them.

Informants here believed the Japs had sent a naval force and a transport-borne troop force to the Aleutian zone, and that at least one aircraft carrier was included, with a cruiser-destroyer escort and several transports.

It was believed that if the Japs provoked a new engagement in the Northern Pacific, they would be likely to make a simultaneous thrust in the Central or Southern Pacific, from bases in the Caroline, Mariana and Marshall Islands, in an attempt to split the United States forces.

If they attempted to push further east in the Aleutian chain toward Alaska, informants said, they would provoke a new major battle which would probably develop into a hide-and-seek engagement due to the prevalent fogs.

May be first blow toward Japan

The Japs are thoroughly familiar with the area, due to their years-long “fishing” operations in which naval officers in disguise took part to obtain information.

It was agreed here that Jap possession of Attu and Kiska would present little threat to the American bases to the east.

But if the United States launched an offensive, Jap naval forces would be supported by airplanes based on the Kuril Islands which stretch down toward Japan.

Well-informed quarters believed it unlikely that the situation would remain static and that if the Japs did not press eastward, the United States would push westward in an attack that might involve an attempt to smash the Kuril bases in preparation for the first real blow against Japan Itself.

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4230

Darwin downs six Jap planes

Raid damage light, General MacArthur says

Melbourne, Australia (UP) –
Allied planes shot down at least six of a force of Japanese planes which attacked Darwin yesterday for the third time in as many days, Gen. Douglas MacArthur announced today.

Two Allied planes were lost.

There was still no indication of the real significance of the new Jap attacks on the great Allied North Australian base.

Gen. MacArthur reported that in yesterday’s raid, which he noted was strong, the 27 enemy heavy bombers, escorted by 15 fighters, bombed residential areas and the harbor, but he said material damage and casualties were light.

Darwin dispatches reported that the attackers flew low for Jap planes, at 15,000-20,000 feet. They went over the areas in groups of three, each in V formation. Dispatches said the enemy bombardiers dropped their bombs more carefully than usual.

In three days, the Japs have lost at least 11 planes in their attacks on Darwin, against an Allied loss of three. The American pilot of one of the three planes parachuted and broke a leg in landing.

Dispatches indicated that there had been little real damage to Darwin or its defense area in the three raids.

There seemed every confidence that the defenses would hold against any aerial attack which might come.

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4231

White House letter on national physical and moral fitness
June 17, 1942

Dear Mr. McNutt:

From every quarter come evidences of our national concern for total physical and moral fitness in this war for survival, fitness for the freedom we cherish. So far as the Federal Government is concerned, I have reports of the recent meeting between the United States Public Health Service and the War Production Board looking to a vigorous emphasis on industrial hygiene and health education in the current war production drive.

Cooperation of the Public Health Service and the Department of Labor in accident prevention has been continuous. The Interdepartmental Committee on Venereal Disease has made splendid progress in eliminating from the vicinity of camps and naval stations that major source of infection – the red-light district. The War Production Board is cooperating in the extension of that effort to industrial areas where, incidentally, a major part of military and naval infection is derived.

The Community Facilities Program is rapidly supplying the necessary sanitation and hospital and clinic facilities in the communities surrounding camps and industrial areas. The Procurement and Assignment Service is spreading our medical manpower to serve these new population centers. Our program for the rehabilitation of rejected selectees is rapidly taking form, as well as health education in our schools and other agencies.

But this job depends ultimately upon the people themselves and their moral fiber. Increasingly State and local officials are giving leadership in public health and law enforcement. From religious leaders and responsible citizens come to me, almost daily, expressions of their concern, which they are translating into active local cooperation for total effectiveness. In fact, only good local community organization can meet many of these needs.

I, therefore, call for the united efforts of Government – Federal, State, and local – of business and industry, of the medical profession, of the schools and of the churches; in short, of all citizens, for the establishment of total physical and moral fitness. No one can doubt the objective, or fail to cooperate in the various programs when he understands them. This is one effort in which every man, woman, and child can play his part and share in ultimate victory.

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4232

Völkischer Beobachter (June 17, 1942)

Kampfmoral der Tschungking-Truppen gesunken –
Japan erreicht seine Ziele

tc. Nanking, 16. Juni –
Die Ziele der am 15. Mai begonnenen japanischen Offensive an der Ostfront in China sind nach einer Erklärung des Sprechers des japanischen Hauptquartiers in Nanking, Major Shinono, durch die Einnahme von Kwangsi im wesentlichen erreicht worden.

Zweck der japanischen Offensivoperationen sei gewesen, erstens den Guerillakrieg von Tschungking-Streitkräften in der 3. Tschungking-Kriegszone zu unterbinden, zweitens den chinesischen Nachschub von Hangtschau nach Tschungking abzuschneiden und drittens die mit nordamerikanischer Unterstützung in Tschekiang gebauten Flugstützpunkte zu erobern, von denen Angriffe auf Japan unternommen werden sollten.

Trotz größter Geländeschwierigkeiten infolge der Regenperiode sei der japanische Vormarsch in den Operationsgebieten so schnell durchgeführt worden, daß die Tschungking-Truppen überhaupt nicht zu Gegenaktionen gekommen seien. Der Versuch Marschall Tschiangkaischeks, die Lage durch einen Flankenangriff wiederherzustellen, sei dürch die ihm von japanischen Streitkräften südlich von Futschau bereitete vernichtende Niederlage vollständig gescheitert.

Wie der japanische Offizier abschließend berichtet, ist die Kampfmoral der Tschungking-Streitkräfte durch die in Tschekiang und Kiangsi erlittenen fortgesetzten Niederlagen sehr gesunken. Der Kommandeur der dritten Tschungking-Kriegszone, General Kutschutung, sei vor der Eroberung von Kwangsi durch die japanischen Truppen in die Berge geflüchtet.

Um die „dritte Kriegszone”

dnb. Tokio, 16. Juni –
Wie ein Domei-Frontberichter meldet, drohe jetzt nach der Einnahme Schangyaos, des Hauptquartiers der dritten Kriegszone Tschungkings, unmittelbar der Zusammenbruch des Widerstandes in diesem ganzen Raum.

Zu dieser Zone gehört die Ebene von Tschekiang, einer der fruchtbarsten Landstriche Chinas, von dem Tschungking bisher in landwirtschaftlichen Produkten abhängig war. Unter diesen Verhältnissen dürfte der Verlust der dritten Kriegszone für Tschungking eine außerordentliche Lebensmittelverknappung bedeuten, die den Fall des Tschungking-Regimes beschleunigen kann.

Strategisch war die Zone ein bedeutender alliierter Stützpunkt für den Guerilla-Luftkrieg gegen die von den Japanern besetzten Gebiete und für künftige Angriffe auf Japan. Nahezu alle Flugzeuge, die von der Luftwaffe der USA. für die dritte Kriegszone geliefert wurden, sind durch die pausenlosen japanischen Bombenangriffe auf die Flugplätze der Zone zerstört worden.

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4233

The Pittsburgh Press (June 17, 1942)

U.S. fliers score 35 hits on 2 Italian battleships

‘Like shooting fish in a rain barrel,’ American officer declares
By Leon Kay, United Press staff writer

An Allied airdrome in North African desert –
American airmen told today how they dumped heavy bomb loads on two Italian battleships, scoring 35 hits, in their first war action in the Battle of the Mediterranean and “plainly saw smoke pouring out” of the enemy dreadnaughts from amidships to stern.

Maj. Alfred Kalberer, the leader of the American flight, said:

The American planes – all except two were United States Liberators [Consolidated B-24 bombers] – headed off the Italian fleet trying to intercept a British convoy to Malta and three of our planes immediately unloaded, scoring hits.

No American planes were lost, but perhaps two score hits were made on the enemy ships, he added.

Maj. Kalberer said in regard to the attack on the Italian warship:

It was like shooting fish in a rain barrel.

Maj. Kalberer, a native of Lafayette, Ind., said his men performed marvelously.

He said:

Some of those kids have had only 400 hours flying but they performed like veterans.

‘Unaware of our presence’

An RAF communiqué said that, on Monday night, British torpedo planes again attacked the Italian fleet and torpedoed one of the battleships.

In all, the Americans and British planes sank an Italian 10,000-ton cruiser, battered two destroyers and two cruisers, hit both enemy battleships on which fires broke out and shot down more than 14 enemy airplanes on Monday.

Maj. Kalberer said:

We sighted the smoke of the Italian craft about 30 miles away after flying about 508 miles.

They were steaming along unaware of our presence and on a course that would have eventually intercepted the British convoy about 255 miles distant.

Each had target

Maj. Kalberer said that each American plane had its target.

Flight A, which I was leading, was over a big battleship. Each of my three planes dropped a load of British-made semi-armor piercing bombs on the battleship.

Five of our bombs hit the ship, the foremost one hitting the funnel. Others dropped aft.

About 20 hits were scored on one battleship and 15 on the other, in addition to near misses.

There was no Italian anti-aircraft fire at first, and there were no enemy planes in sight, he continued, but later there was slight anti-aircraft fire.

British torpedo sinks cruiser

Maj. Kalberer said that an Italian cruiser:

…was also hit by one of our planes.

He continued:

I learned that it was sunk by a torpedo from a British plane later.

Black smoke was pouring from the Italian ships when we lost sight of them after they had broken up their formation and headed back [toward their Taranto base] to the northwest.

We then headed back to base, flying almost at sea level. One German Messerschmitt 109 and one Messerschmitt 110 appeared. We got the 110, which we saw falling into the sea on smoke. We suffered no hits on our planes and no casualties.

Maj. Kalberer said that the American planes:

…made a perfect run over the enemy warships with every bombsight on the targets.

Describing the early part of the flight, he added that the formation of American planes left their base early Monday morning.

Fly over British convoy

He said:

We reached our coastal rendezvous and got into formation in three groups.

We flew in slightly hazy weather with a 25-knot headwind until we got beyond Crete, where we went to a much greater altitude. We met no interference.

We overtook and flew over the British convoy, breaking formation there until an exchange of signals established our identity. Then we reformed.

In Flight A, in addition to Maj. Kalberer, were Lt. George A. Ulrich and Lt. Charles O. Brown Jr., as wing commanders.

The United States fliers are commanded by Col. H. A. Halverson, of Boone, Iowa. Col. G. F. McGuire, of Coffeyville, Kan., is operations officer.

Praises navigators

The action in which the Americans took part was limited to interception of the Italian naval units spotted by British pilots.

Maj. Kalberer praised the navigators of the planes and disclosed that all observers on the operation were British well acquainted with Mediterranean flying.

Flight B was led by Maj. Paul Davis, of Atlanta, Ga., a veteran of the air fighting in Java. Flight C was led by Maj. John A. Payne, of Austin, Tex.

4234

Victories spur air arm plans

Dominance boosts interest in unified force
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
The spectacular dominance of airpower in the Coral Sea, Midway and Aleutian Island battles has brought a surge of sentiment in Congress for diversion of an increasingly greater part of America’s war effort to production of airplanes and crews to man them.

There is also a reawakening of interest in proposals for a unified air force with Senator Bennett Clark (D-MO) announcing that if Senate military and naval committees fail to study these proposals, he may demand a special Senate committee to investigate the issue.

It appears that legislation providing 500,000 tons of new aircraft carriers will sail through Congress with little opposition. The authorizing bill came from the House Naval Affairs Committee after a single hearing yesterday, and Senators indicated a belief today that it would be accepted on their side of their Capitol with little question.

If any question is raised, it apparently will not be on the advisability of concentrating on airpower, but on whether aircraft carrier vulnerability does not suggest all possible development of land-based aircraft capable of long-range, overwater operations.

Naval Affairs Committee members like Senator Tydings (D-MD), Brewster (R-ME) and Bone (D-WA) have agreed that out of our experience in the Pacific battle is bound to come a reappraisal of the relative places of aircraft and surface vessels in the nation’s war planning.

Senator Tydings said it would be necessary to place greater stress on aircraft carriers and land-based aircraft which can fight at sea, and added that:

There can be little dispute about that phase of it.

4235

Service pay raise signed

U.S. soldiers, sailors become highest paid fighters

Washington (UP) –
American soldiers and sailors became the highest-paid fighting men in the world today when President Roosevelt signed legislation granting them their first general pay increase in 20 years.

The legislation, originally sponsored by Senator Edwin C. Johnston (D-CO), means a substantial boost in monthly paychecks – retroactive to June 1 – for all grades from buck private and apprentice seaman to second lieutenants and ensign.

The lowest grades – privates and apprentice seamen – will now receive $50 a month, contrasted with their former salary of $30 after four months of service. Second lieutenants and ensigns will receive an additional $300 a year, to bring their total annual compensation to $1,800.

Sponsors of the bill hope it will make military life a more attractive career and aid in eliminating the recruiting competition between the Army and the Navy. It has been charged that the Navy has been in a better position to obtain recruits with the offer of more attractive ratings.

One provision of the measure is designed to give Congress a check over the appointment of so-called “swivel-chair” officers. It would require periodic reports to Congress on all military and naval commissions granted to men directly from civil life.

The new pay scales – contrasted with the former – are:

Rank Former pay New pay
Master Sergeant, Chief Petty Officer $126 $138
Acting Chief Petty Officer $99 $126
First or Technical Sergeant, Petty Officer First Class $84 $114
Staff Sergeant, Petty Officer Second Class $72 $96
Sergeant, Petty Officer Third Class $60 $78
Corporal, Seaman First Class $54 $66
Private First Class, Seaman Second Class $36 $54
Private, Apprentice Seaman $30 $50
4236

Indicted for treason

Detroit –
A federal grand jury returned the government’s first treason indictment of the war today against Max Stephan, 49, a naturalized American citizen who fought in the German Army during World War I.

4237

Japs must hit U.S. outposts soon or lose

New attacks on Alaska, Hawaii, Panama Canal, Midway likely
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington –
Unless the Japanese are driven out of the Aleutians and their task force destroyed, an Allied intelligence officer told me, further attacks on Dutch Harbor, Midway, Hawaii and even the Panama Canal are to be expected in the near future.

Japan, said my informant, has little choice in the matter of grand strategy. If she hopes to win her war, she must knock out China, occupy the potential bombing bases of the United Nations in eastern Siberia and make herself mistress of the Western Pacific. Furthermore, she can’t wait. She must do these things this summer.

If the Japanese can hold on to Attu and Kiska, therefore, they will not stop there. They will press on toward Dutch Harbor and destroy, if they can, American supply bases in Alaska.

Hawaiian attack possible

Midway would probably be their next objective and then some of the outlying, less strongly defended islands of the Hawaiian group from which to work toward Honolulu and Pearl Harbor.

Any attack either on our West Coast or the Panama Canal, it is felt, would be a hit-and-run affair. Nevertheless, Pearl Harbor is proof enough of what hit-and-runners can do, especially to key positions. An American pilot with 20 years’ flying experience south of Panama recently told me that Germans, Japanese and Italians have all made intensive studies of the Central and South American countries contiguous to Panama and know the terrain as they know the palms of their hands.

Raid on canal seen

Enemy planes, he said, would not need to approach the canal directly from over water, but could and probably would hedgehop over the hills and jungles. And they would be difficult to spot.

In this connection, the most conservative observers here are cautioning against taking it for granted that Japan now has lost most of her aircraft carriers and hence will be fatally handicapped in the Battle of the Pacific.

Some of the reports go so far as to claim that, of a total of 11 aircraft carriers which she had at the outset, she now has lost all but two or three, including all six of her regular carriers. What she has left, therefore, would be only small makeshift craft or converted merchant vessels.

Jap strength unknown

This, of course, may be true. Everybody hopes it may be an understatement. Yet nobody seems to know exactly how many carriers Japan had on Dec. 7, since when she may have converted two or three times as many merchantmen as anyone suspects. Before the war, it was common gossip both in this country and abroad that all of Japan’s more modern liners and some of her freighters had been designed with that in view.

The Japanese fear death just as any other people do. Stories about how they just love to die are absolute bunk. But they are well-disciplined, and when ordered to accomplish this or that task or not to come back, they usually obey.

Foe must move fast

Thus, it is entirely in the picture that within the next 120 days, the United States and its allies will have to meet every desperate ounce of might that Japan can hurl against us – in the air, on sea and on land.

Such being the case, makeshift carriers, converted tramps carrying 15, 20 or 30 planes each, may show up off the Aleutians, Midway, Hawaii or the Panama Canal on missions to do or die.

The United States alone is outbuilding her so fast that, by 1943, she will be smothered. Her one hope is to strike now and strike with everything she’s got. Otherwise, she may as well throw in her chips.

Which is why my intelligence officer thinks it is premature to believe that the worst is over, so far as the Jap menace is concerned.

4238

Rubber ‘czar’ legislation will be offered Senate

Legislators irked as Roosevelt snubs proposal; collection of auto floor mats suggested

Washington (UP) –
Members of a Senate Agriculture Subcommittee announced today that they would introduce legislation tomorrow to establish a rubber “czar” and bring the government’s scattered rubber-control program under one central agency.

The Senators, who have long advocated the step, said they were “irked” by President Roosevelt’s failure to respond to their queries on the advisability of establishing a central rubber authority.

The subcommittee has been investigating the production of synthetic rubber for several months. Chairman Guy M. Gillette (D-IA) said he talked over the central authority plan with Mr. Roosevelt during a recent visit and the President promised to consider the subject.

Answer possible

Other members said the administration had led them to believe that a report on their proposal might be expected within a few days.

At present, the War Production Board, the Reconstruction Finance Corp. and its subsidiary, the Rubber Reserve Corp., exercise divided authority over rubber policies. Most committee members thought Mr. Roosevelt already had power to name a new agency, but one member said:

He doesn’t seem disposed to do so.

Mr. Roosevelt yesterday gave his approval to stripping cars of their floor mats to build up the scrap rubber pile. The American Automobile Association estimated they would yield 100,000 tons of rubber.

Actress donates garter

At Atlanta, Ga., Homer Edenfield turned in 200 pounds of crude rubber that he found floating near Cumberland Island off the Georgia coast.

Auto tires, some of them brand new, made up the bulk of the collection. Hollywood naturally set the pace in showmanship. Actress Barbara Britton posed for pictures in front of a large pile of tires, removing her garter.

R. Van Hoosear, Napa, Cal., milling operator, contributed 16 truckloads (62,860 pounds) of discarded tires.

Rep. John Z. Anderson (D-CA) said Congressmen ought to be straight-shooting enough not to need cuspidor mats and proposed that hundreds of mats in the Capitol be turned in.

4239

Chinese lose key town on railroad line

Chungking (UP) –
A Chinese communiqué tonight acknowledged the loss of Shangjao, eastern anchor of an 80-mile stretch of the important Hangchow-Nanchang railroad still in Chinese hands. After a heavy battle that cost the Japs more than 8,000 casualties.

The town was abandoned Monday after savage fighting in the suburbs as an army of about 150,000 Jap troops closed in from east and west in a huge pinchers designed to bite off the 80-mile-long middle section of the railroad.

The retreating Chinese garrison fell back to new positions south of the Xin River where fighting continues, it was said.

The Jap was striving to gain full control of the vital railroad line and recently improved “superhighway” network of Eastern China to provide themselves with an overland route from Shanghai to Singapore in event of an Allied naval offensive against the line of supply through the China Sea.

Chinese and foreign intelligence reports said the Japs were shifting their main military strength from the south to the north, foreshadowing an attack on Russian Siberia from Manchuria.

Informed sources said the Japs were sending a constant stream of warplanes from Burma, the Netherlands East Indies and the Philippines to Manchuria.

Supplementing the 33 Jap divisions reportedly already in Manchuria, large numbers of troops are being transferred from Formosa and Northern China, they said.

4240

Trap predicted for Jap fleet

Aleutians to be cleared when weather improves
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
Well-informed quarters expressed confidence today that the Jap threat to the Aleutian Islands in the Alaskan area would be dissipated as soon as the weather improved and that the crippled Jap fleet would soon make another major mistake.

There is increasing optimism here since the Battle of Midway Island.

Belief is general in well-informed quarters that the Japs will be blasted out of their Aleutian toehold and that the Jap fleet will be caught in another trap.

A reliable informant said:

The Japs never learn a lesson. Every mistake they make, and Midway was their prize boner, brings the time nearer when the United States will start a ferry service to Tokyo.

Thick fog in North Pacific

There had been no word from the fog-bound Aleutians since Monday on the hide-and-seek operations which started June 3 with the enemy landings at Attu and Kiska.

On Monday, the Navy revealed that at least six Jap warships had been hit by American plane bombs and Lt. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Army Air Corps Chief, said one Jap cruiser had been sunk and an aircraft carrier hit.

The North Pacific at this season is customarily blanketed in thick fog which prevents any extensive operations, although U.S. forces have been able to maintain contact with the Japs and to carry on harassing activities to prevent them from consolidating their positions.

U.S. to strike harder soon

But it is felt that as soon as the weather clears, American planes operating from land bases can make any Jap positions in the islands untenable.

It was suggested here that the Japs sought to land men in the Aleutians to show a success after the Coral Sea battle, to hold a flank position in case they decided to attack Russia and because of their fear of attack by long-range U.S. bombing planes.

4241

$3,000 war bond bought by private

Greensville, Miss. (UP) –
Pvt. Leon Roby of Contoocook, NH, an ex-farm hand now attached to the flying school here, bought a war bond today.

After a parade at Greensville in which several hundred soldiers took part to aid the war bond drive, Pvt. Roby went to his captain and announced that since he “had a little extra cash,” he thought he’d buy a bond himself.

The captain asked:

What price bond would you like to buy?

Without blinking an eye, the private produced a certified check for $3,000.

4242

Agreements to keep Martinique neutral

Washington (UP) –
Substantial agreement has been reached on the neutralization of Martinique and Guadeloupe, principal French island possessions in the Western Hemisphere, reliable sources said today.

It was just two years ago today that Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain asked Germany for an armistice. Since then, the United States has pursued a policy designed to keep the Vichy government from falling completely into Axis hands. Some criticized this as appeasement. But prominent United States officials, including Admiral William D. Leahy, Ambassador of France, have supported the policy.

The Martinique agreement, made with Admiral Georges Robert, French High Commissioner for all French possessions in the Western Atlantic, immobilizes the French aircraft carrier Béarn and other units of the French Fleet in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

Other sections of the agreement make sure that the islands cannot be utilized as bases for Axis submarines and that radio stations on the islands do not send information to Axis vessels.

4243

The Japs won’t wait

American airmen are fighting in four mighty battles, with the final results unknown. The battle for the Aleutians has been running two weeks. The China battle has no clear beginning or end. The two great air-sea battles in the Mediterranean have lasted four days, and may be continuing.

The China battle is admittedly going against the Allies, but both sides claimed the advantage in the others. Enemy losses in the Aleutians and the Mediterranean are said to be heavy. In the Mediterranean, two Allied convoys are reported to have fought through to Malta and Tobruk, which were in grave need of relief. In the Aleutians, the Jap landing parties still retain their toeholds, so far as known.

In addition to these four great battles, American tanks and planes are in the hot battle of Libya, American fliers are bombing Romanian and German positions on the Russian front and are active in India and in the English raids over Western Europe, American ships and planes are in the battles of the convoy routes on all the seas, and General MacArthur’s sea and air forces are in daily combat with the Japs in the South Pacific.

So the global war is raging, with American fighters in the thick of it almost everywhere. That is an achievement in speed which probably our enemies can appreciate more than we do, since they boasted that America could not fight on distant fronts before two years or a year at least.

But we should not let our just pride give us the notion that the United states is strong enough to fight victoriously on all the world fronts at once. We are not. As part of global strategy, we must begin to concentrate, as our Allies are properly concentrating.

As England and Russia, with our help, are centering on Hitler while ignoring the Japs, it is all the more important that we protect Britain, Russia, China and ourselves by licking the Japs. Reinforce the Hawaii-Midway-Alaskan barrier for defense and offense!

4244

Big-scale air battles flare off Australia

MacArthur, Aussie leaders confer on changers in strategy
By Brydon C. Taves, United Press staff writer

Melbourne, Australia –
Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Australian Army and government leaders completed today a series of conferences on Pacific strategy in the light of Japan’s defeats in the Coral Sea, Midway Island and Aleutian engagements and the sudden flaring of big-scale aerial fighting in this war theater.

The outstanding feature, after the fourth big raid in four days on Port Darwin, was that the Japs seemed determined to wipe that great and important north coast off the map if they could.

Gen. MacArthur revealed that the Japs had raided Darwin with 27 heavy bombers and 25 Zero fighters yesterday, that Allied fighter planes had driven off an attacking fleet of 18 enemy fighters from Port Moresby, in the northeastern zone, and that the Allied bombing fleet had attacked Japan’s two biggest invasion areas, Timor Island to the northwest and the Huon Gulf of New Guinea to the northeast.

In the exchanges, the Japs lost 10 planes and the Allies seven.

There seemed no remaining doubt that the Japs had received heavy aerial reinforcements of improved quality and that the little Allied plane force, which always fights against odds, faced a long and intense fight.

Meanwhile, Army Minister Francis M. Forde announced that the rapid expansion of the Allied fighting forces made it necessary to take over hotels, clubs and golf houses in some areas to house troops.

It was revealed officially that the government would have to shift nearly 20,00 workers from civil, employment within the next few weeks to meet demands for military and munitions work.

Strike hard at Darwin

Yesterday’s air battles extended over a range of 1,750 miles.

In the Darwin attack, the Japs struck at the town and the harbor area, but did only negligible damage.

Allied fighters destroyed one fighter, but two Allied planes were lost with their pilots.

Fighters now aid Allied bombers

Allied planes made a heavy attack on the Jap bases of Salamaua and Lae, on the north coast of New Guinea 200 miles north of Port Moresby, the Allied base on the south coast.

Striking in two phases, one by day and one by night, the Allied planes attacked airdrome installations, scored direct hits throughout their target area, and started fires.

Gen. MacArthur said that the fighter escort of the bombers downed four enemy planes on the way back, and one Allied fighter was lost.

The protection of Allied bombers by fighter planes is unusual, due to the lack of long-range fighters and the relatively small size of the Allied force.

The Japs lost four planes, and four Allied planes were downed, in the enemy attack by 18 fighters on Port Moresby. The Allied fought against A greatly superior force numerically but they kept the Japs away from Port Moresby and thwarted their attempt to bomb ground installations.

4245

U.S. regiment is reported still in action in Java hills

Jap radio fails to claim capture of 131st Artillery, Texas Guard outfit led by Rhode Islander

Melbourne (UP) –
A broadcast by the Tokyo-controlled Batavia radio indicated today that some members of the United States 131st Field Artillery, formed from the Texas National Guard, may still be operating against the Japs in interior Java under their leader, Col. Albert C. Searle, of Pawtucket, RI.

As heard by the Netherlands Indies Government Information Service here, it reported the capture by the Japs of Maj. Gen. J. Pesman, leader of Dutch guerilla troops in West Java. He was said to have been taken prisoner after more than three months of resistance.

The fact that no mention of Col. Searle and his men has been made in the Japs’ broadcasts strengthened belief that they are still operating, since the Japs would be certain to boast if they were taken.

Other general resists

Gen. Pesman’s capture, Dutch officials pointed out, does not mean that resistance in West Java has ended. They said Dutch generals still eluding capture included Gen. W. Schilling, Commander of the 1st Corps Area of the Batavia District and now leader of active guerilla forces in Java.

Gen. Pesman, head of a Dutch Army unit in West Java during the invasion, commanded the plateau around Bandoeng, Dutch Army Headquarters, before that city fell. Netherlands Colonial Minister Hubertus J. van Mook has commended both Generals Schilling and Pesman, it was announced.

The Tokyo radio recently claimed the capture of several Americans who served with Col. Searle’s artillery regiment, but other reports have indicated that the 131st may be among the Allied regiments still at large in the wild country on the island’s interior.

Escapes to hills

With remnants of British, American and Australian troops, Col. Searle escaped to the hills after the occupation of Bandoeng. It was believed likely that he and his regiment later joined forces with Gen. Schilling’s guerillas in the wild terrain of West Java.

Col. Searle, 50 years old, bald and chunky, has a reputation for resourcefulness. He was awarded the Purple Heart and Silver Star in the last war and received the Distinguished Service Cross before Java’s collapse.

Col. Searle’s friends describe him as:

…a two-fisted guy who doesn’t go around picking fights.

Served as instructor

Before he was attached to Lt. Gen. George H. Brett’s staff in Java, Col. Searle served as an instructor in the 131st Field Artillery. When Java’s collapse was imminent, he was ordered to Australia but refused a seat in an evacuation plane because he believed he should remain with his troops.

One of his former companions said:

There is nothing dramatic or heroic about him. He told me before I left Java that he was the senior artilleryman and thought he ought to stay with his troops. I think he felt that, as the only Regular Army artillery officer, his position demanded that he stay.

Fellow officers have described Col. Searle as:

…very popular with his troops.

They said he was determined to resist capture as long as possible.

4246

Völkischer Beobachter (June 18, 1942)

Angriffsflüge von USA.-Bombern über-türkisches Gebiet –
Neutralitätsmißachtung der Amerikaner

dnb. Ankara, 17. Juni –
Der erste Versuch amerikanischer Bombenflugzeuge, den bedrängten Sowjets zu Hilfe zu kommen, hat in der türkischen Offentlichkeit große Unruhe hervorgerufen, denn er führte, wie sich jetzt herausstellte, zu einer massiven Verletzung der türkischen Neutralität.

Am 12. Juni vormittags landeten, wie bereits gemeldet, offenbar aus Benzinmangel drei viermotorige amerikanische Bomber auf dem Flugplatz von Ankara. Ein weiterer ging in der Nähe von Adapazar nieder. Ein fünftes versuchte, auf dem Flugplatz von Adana zu landen, erreichte aber noch syrisches Gebiet. Sie kamen von einem Angriffsflug zurück, den sie von Nordsyrien aus gegen die Nordküste des Schwarzen Meeres unternommen hatten.

Der amerikanische Nachrichtendienst versuchte zunächst die Sache so hinzustellen, als hätten die Amerikaner der Türkei damit noch einen Dienst erwiesen, weil diese auf solche Art in den Besitz moderner amerikanischer Bomber gekommen sei. Andere amerikanische Me1dungen gaben dann zu, daß sich die Bomber‚ von deutschen Jägern bis an die Grenze der türkischen Hoheitsgewässer verfolgt, auf türkisches Gebiet gerettet hätten.

Aus der Lage der Flugplätze, die von Adapazar über Ankara nach Adana auf einer Linie liegen, die mitten durch die Türkei geht‚ und aus der weiteren Tatsache, daß es mehreren anderen amerikanischen Bombern gelang, über türkisches Gebiet nach Nordsyrien zu entkommen, ergibt sich, daß die Amerikaner rücksichtslos ihren Weg über die Türkei genommen und damit deren Neutralität absichtlich verletzt haben. Aus der Lage der Abflughäfen in Nordsyrien und den Angriffszielen an der Nordküste des Schwarzen Meeres ergibt slch ferner, daß die Amerikaner auch bei ihrem Hinflug mlt höchster Wahrscheinlichkeit die Türkei überflogen haben.

In türkischen Kreisen mißt man diesem Vorfall insofern besondere Bedeütung zu‚ als man darin einen Versuch der Amerikaner erblickt, durch vollendete Tatsachen einen Präzedenzfall zu schaffen und auch künftig ihre Flüge über die Türkei fortzusetzen. Es ist bezeichnend, daß eine amerikanische Nachrichtenagentur von dieser Demonstration amerikanischer Machtmittel sich verspricht, daß sie „ihre moralische und psychologische Wirkung" auf die neutrale Türkei nicht verfehlen werde.

Die Besatzungen der Flugzeuge verweigern bezeichnenderweise gegenüber den türkischen Behörden jede Aussage. Ob die Beschädigungen des einen Bombers durch die deutsche oder türkische Abwehr verursacht wurden, ist noch nicht bekannt.

4247

Der japanische Vormarsch in Tschungking –
15.000 Mann eingeschlossen

dnb. Hankau‚ 17. Juni –
Eine vernichtende Niederlage steht, wie Domei meldet‚ einem Verband von 15.000 Tschungking-Truppen bevor, die in dem Gebiet östlich von Schansi in der mittleren Hopeiprovinz durch japanische Streitkräfte am Dienstag eingeschlossen wurden. Ein Versuch von zwei chinesischen Divisionen‚ die japanischen rückwärtigen Linien anzugreifen, um den bevorstehenden Zusammenbruch der eingeschlossenen Tschungking-Truppen zu verhindern, wurde von den japanischen Streitkräften restlos vereitelt.

Nach einem Domei-Bericht hat sich General Lin Yuch Ting, der Befehlshaber der neuaufgestellten 3. Tschungking-Division, am Dienstagnachmittag mit mehr als 100 Offizieren und den dazugehörigen Soldaten den in den Provinzen Hopei, Schansi und Honan operierenden japanischen Streitkräften ergeben. Bei der Ubergabe erklärte sich General Lin bereit, in Zukunft für die von der chinesischen Nationalregierung in Nanking eingeleitete Befriedungsaktion einzutreten. General Lin entsandte mehrere seiner Offiziere und Soldaten an die Front, um die übrigen Tschungking-Streitkräfte zur Ubergabe und zum Anschluß an die allgemeine Befriedungsbewegung zu überreden.

Kweiki beseizt

An der Kiangsifront haben die von Süden kommenden japanischen Streitkräfte nach einer amtlichen japanischen Verlautbarung den Fluß Tschin überschritten und am Dienstagnachmittag die Stadt Kweiki, 80 Kilometer westlich von Schangjao (Kwangsin) besetzt.

4248

Massenangriffe auf Port Darwin

Das japanische Nachrichtenbüro meldet zu den Angriffen auf Port Darwin: Japanische Bomber und Jagdflugzeuge, die am 13. und 14. Juni den 16. und 17. Massenangriff auf Port Darwin durchführten, schossen 20 feindliche Flugzeuge ab, wodurch sich die Zahl der bei Angriffen auf Port Darwin abgeschossenen oder am Boden zerstörten Flugzeuge seit dem 10. Februar auf 111 erhöhte.

Zwölf Jäger wurden brennend nach heftigem Luftkampf abgeschossen, als japanische Flugzeuge am 13. Juni Port Darwin überflogen und den östlichen Flugplatz sowie dessen Flugzeughallen und sonstige militärische Einrichtungen mit einem vernichtenden Bombenhagel belegten. Am folgenden Tage Warfen japanische Kriegsflugzeuge Bomben auf die Hafenanlagen und die Flugfelder ab, wobei acht weitere zur Verteidigung aufgestiegene Jäger abgeschossen wurden.