FBI grabs two offering bribe to Army major
Plot to aid Air Corps private is nipped
…
U.S. described as utopia for foreign spies
American must get tough to discourage activity of enemy agents
By William Philip Simms
…
Six more Allied merchant ships sunk by U-boats
Crew of torpedoed Norwegian vessel is picked up by Yugoslav craft, which is also sunk; sub toll for American waters hits 332
By the United Press
Seamen who survived two torpedoings in one voyage – losses that brought to 332 the total of United Nations ships sunk by enemy submarines off the Atlantic Coast, in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico – have arrived at a Gulf Coast port, it was disclosed today.
They were among survivors of six sinkings disclosed Sunday and Monday by the Navy, attacks believed to have taken 79 lives. A total of 75 were believed lost in the sinking of four American merchantmen. Two of the 33-man crew of a Norwegian ship were believed dead, as were two of 41 sailors aboard a Yugoslav ship which rescued them, only to be torpedoed five hours later.
The double sinking occurred in the Atlantic off the northern coast of South America.
Torpedoed twice in 14 hours
Chief Officer Kjell Markussen of the Norwegian merchantman said a single torpedo hit his vessel about 9:30 p.m. May 14 and survivors took to two lifeboats.
The sub commander told Mr. Markussen in English:
I’ll see you after the war in Oslo.
They drifted nine hours and were picked up by the Yugoslav vessel. Five hours later, they were in lifeboats again while the crew of a submarine, which Mr. Markussen believed may have been the same one that sank his ship, passed out loaves of bread.
Mr. Markussen and 10 companions, picked up after nine days, were taken to a South American port. They heard their shipmates had been landed in the British West Indies. The 39 Yugoslav survivors landed at Bridgetown, Barbados.
Naval craft too late
Thirty-three survivors of 36 crewmen aboard a medium-sized American merchant ship sunk by a torpedo off the Atlantic Coast were landed at an East Coast port. Two sailors were killed in the explosion and one other was believed lost.
The other American sinkings were a small vessel sunk in the Gulf June 22, a small merchantman sunk May 18 in the Atlantic, and a medium-sized ship torpedoed in the Caribbean June 2.
The Navy assumed that the entire crew of 33 went down “in a flaming mass of sea” when its small ship was sunk in the Gulf. A Navy vessel, answering the ship’s distress call, found only a small work boat and oil burning on the water. The ship was believed to have been torpedoed.
Dog among survivors
Seven survivors from the ship torpedoed in the Atlantic said 10 men were killed when their ship was torpedoed and another died later in a hospital. They believed the rest of the crew of 40 had been rescued.
Ten men and a dog survived the latest U.S. sinking in the Caribbean. The men clung to wreckage until they could reach one of the ship’s lifeboats and right it. The dog, a white Spitz, was hoisted in first and the survivors rowed about the wreckage of their ship, seeking more survivors before they started a 365-mile trip to shore.
They were sighted four days later by an airplane only 40 miles offshore.
Twenty-one persons were missing and two are known dead in the sinking of two Mexican tankers, the first submarine victims since Mexico formally entered the war a month ago. 52 survivors of the tankers Tuxpam and Choapas, torpedoed off Tecolutla, State of Veracruz, were landed yesterday. Airplanes reported sighting to lifeboats with more survivors, however, and help was sent.
Authorities, fearing an attack on the heart of the Mexican oil district, cancelled all sailings until further notice. Nightly blackouts were ordered for Tampico and the rich oil zone.
U-boat information reward is rejected
Baltimore (UP) –
Senator Millard E. Tydings (D-MD), ranking member of the Naval Affairs Committee, today revealed that Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox rejected his proposal that a reward of $25,000-$100,000 be offered for information about Axis submarine supply bases in the Western Hemisphere.
He said the Navy told him it did not believe it “feasible” to proceed “in the manner suggested.”
Mr. Tydings said in a radio address:
Since then, the sinkings have not only continued, but increased. So, this week, I have again called this suggestion to the attention of the Navy Department.
It seems to me that Axis submarines must be receiving oil and other supplies from hidden bases in the Western Hemisphere. These submarines seem too effective to be relying on the Axis countries thousands of miles away for supplies.
I pointed out to the Navy that if there are bases here, say in the many islands of the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico or along the coast of Central and South America, the offering of such a reward not only would stimulate searchers for these bases, but, because of the size of the reward, would incline those engaged in aiding the Axis submarines to tell our government about it.
15 new products will be rationed within next year
Testimony on appropriation measure also reveals Army may be increased to 7 million in 1943; OPA fund cut again
…
Parrot curses Nazis after its ship sinks
Albany, NY (UP) –
Seaman Stewart Curtis, of Rensselaer, today revealed the owner of the raucous voice which hoarsely cursed the Nazis long after his ships slid beneath the waves recently after being torpedoed at night in the Caribbean.
It was the ship’s parrot, balanced precariously on a piece of wreckage and pouring forth maledictions in English and Spanish.
Mr. Curtis is recuperating after floating 19 days at sea.
Midway’s toll: 4 Jap carriers
Navy’s newest communiqué tells of U.S. victory
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – (June 28, delayed)
Japan lost four aircraft carriers, including its two largest, in the Midway Island battle, the Navy announced today in a new communiqué on the American victory.
Two and probably three Japanese battleships were damaged, one seriously. And reports of fliers who participated in the battle left little doubt that one of these battleships was sunk.
In addition, the Japs lost two heavy cruisers and three to four destroyers, three or more heavy cruisers damaged, one light cruiser damaged and four transports or cargo ships damaged or sunk by bomb and torpedo hits. At least one and possibly more of these latter ships probably sunk.
U.S. losses very small
The United States lost only one destroyer sunk and one aircraft carrier damaged.
The communiqué, issued at Pacific Headquarters by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, not only confirmed previous reports of the magnitude of the United States victory but added to it.
Moreover, it was evident that the new communiqué’s listing was that of only minimum enemy losses.
The communiqué also reported that with the four enemy carriers sunk went all their planes, totaling about 275, and all plane crews.
The enemy carriers sunk were the 26,900-ton sister ships, Akagi and Kaga, the only two in their class and the largest in the Jap Navy, and the 10,050-ton Soryu and Hiryu, likewise sister ships in a class of only three.
Cruisers known sunk were probably the Mogami and Mikuma (8,500 tons with 15 6.1-inch guns each), sister ships of the four-ship Mogami class.
Four direct hits on battleship
I was with the fleet at Midway.
Reports to the fleet during the battle, after the enemy had been beaten the first day and was being pursued the second (June 5) said that at least four direct bomb hits were scored on one of the Jap battleships.
On the third day, as the fleet closed in on the fleeing enemy remnants, U.S. planes went out and found a single enemy battleship, a cruiser and five destroyers steaming slowly 150 miles away.
Three heavy bomb hits were made on the crippled enemy battleship, one “smack between the stacks” as a reporting pilot put it.
Panic hits Italian Fleet in raid by U.S.
Alexandria (UP) – (June 27, delayed)
American Liberator bombers threw an Italian battle fleet into “wild confusion” during a recent air and naval engagement in the Mediterranean, a British submarine commander said today.
He said his submarine crew took advantage of the enemy’s panic to torpedo and sink an Italian cruiser of the Trento class.
He said:
We found our own submarine in the center of a fantastic circus of wildly careening ships, none of which maintained one course sufficiently long to justify our firing torpedoes for at least an hour. Most of the time, we remained at periscope depth, awaiting an opportunity to fire. There was a tendency on our part to stand and gape in utter amazement at the extent of the Italian Fleet’s panic.
Japs pounded near Australia
Planes batter troops at invasion bases
Melbourne (UP) –
Allied planes have made their third big raid in three days on Salamaua-Lae area on the north New Guinea coast, Gen. Douglas MacArthur said today.
His communiqué said the Allied planes concentrated on troop dispositions, apparently indicating that the Japs now had important ground forces in the area either for offensive work or in anticipation of an Allied attack.
Raiding Lae and Salamaua, the Allied planes, in a harassing attack carried out by light forces, bombed and machine-gunned enemy barracks for hours in an all-night attack, Gen. MacArthur intimated.
Other fliers bombed the Tulagi area in the Solomon Islands, 1,000 miles east of Lae and Salamaua, in another night attack in which the wharf area was the chief target.
In similar raids Saturday night, Allied planes attacked supply dumps, anti-aircraft batteries and troop barracks at Lae and Salamaua and enemy installations on Tulagi Island.
Three assistant chiefs of staff to Gen. MacArthur were promoted today from colonel to brigadier general:
- Charles A. Willoughby, of Bronxville, NY, in charge of intelligence
- Charles P. Stivers, of Downers Grove, Ill., personnel
- Lester J. Whitlock, of Ohio, supply.
Australian Army Minister Francis M. Forde announced at Canberra that an improved machine gun, the Austen, was now being manufactured for the Australian Army after having passed tests satisfactorily. It is an improvement on the efficient Sten machine gun and, like it, uses 9 mm (.35-in) caliber ammunition.
Army and Navy argue but both won Battle of Midway
By B. J. McQuaid
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
The unaccustomed lull in the Battle of the Pacific is generating a debate as unprecedented as it is hopeful. For the first time since the beginning of this war, somebody on our side is arguing the point of how we won the major engagement, rather than why we lost it.
It is strictly a family row which, for once, has nothing to do with the tiresome question of planes versus battleships. The dispute confines itself to airpower and the disputants are proponents, respectively, of land-based and carried-based aircraft.
The question is, who did the job at Midway, the Army or the Navy? The answer usually depends upon the last bloke you talk with and which uniform he wears.
‘Git thar with mostest’
The Battle of Midway is a streamline, seagoing version of the oldest and most fundamental precept of warfare:
Git thar the fustest with the mostest airplanes.
Before joining in the argument, I talked with Army and Navy pilots, who fought in the Battle of Midway, and high-ranking naval and military officers. These officers not only had a share in the planning and direction of the battle but took part in the action.
They include, on the Navy side, such authorities as an executive officer on a big carrier and one of the ablest airmen of this or any nation. Among the airmen I talked with are Maj. Gen. Willis H. Hale, recently promoted to the command of the Hawaiian Air Force, who operated from Midway during the battle.
Coordination did the trick
Men of this type are not interested in discussions that promote jealousy of ill feeling between the services. They emphasize cooperation and coordination. Coordination was present in the Battle of Midway to a greater degree than in any previous engagement of this war.
It was the Navy PBY patrol planes that first spotted the Jap invasion force, but it was the Army Flying Fortresses that swung the first punch at the big transports and warships of the invasion fleet and it was either land-based Army bombers, or land-based Marine dive bombers, or both, which got in the first licks at the carriers, battleships and heavy cruisers of the primary attack force.
In my opinion, many of the Jap ships were hit again and again within relatively short time intervals by both the Army and Navy pilots and by both land-based and carrier-based airpower. This explains all the conflict and controversy.
Get close to Jap bases
Certain sideline brain-trusters, taking out of its context a line in one of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz’s communiqués, drew the conclusion that shore-based aircraft on Jap-held islands west of Midway prevented us from following up the route. Actually, our mopping-up operations were far more complete and extended much nearer Jap bases than is generally realized.
The proximity of Jap land-based airpower was merely one of several factors in the termination of the engagement. Furthermore, after four or five days of hard hammering in one of the biggest battles of history, it is reasonable to suppose that fuel replenishment may have become a consideration.
Refugees, in Hollywood, tell of escapes from Nazis
One is a limpid-eyed French girl, easy to listen to, according to Paul
By Paul Harrison, NEA Service staff writer
…
Good work!
The Federal Bureau of Investigation did a fine job in rounding up eight Nazi saboteurs who had been landed from U-boats on the Atlantic Coast.
Someday, we hope, the story can be told in full. It’s as challenging to the imagination as any secret-service thriller of fiction. How did J. Edgar Hoover’s men pick up the trails of the invaders? How were their buried caches of bombs located on the lonely Long Island and Florida beaches? How were they caught so quickly? How were their confessions obtained? We don’t know the answers.
But apparently, the FBI is very much on the alert. Indeed, there was already much negative evidence of that in the fact that nearly seven months of war have produced few if any instances of what could be considered large-scale, organized sabotage. Certainly, there are many Axis sympathizers here who would do dirty work for Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini if they could, just as it’s now proved that there were some who went to Germany to be specially trained for the desperate invasion from submarines. Their lack of success thus far is a tribute to the vigilance of those charged with protecting American war industries and defense installations against enemy agents and plotters.
If two U-boats could land parties of saboteurs, it’s only natural to wonder whether other groups haven’t landed and hidden themselves successfully. Mr. Hoover seems very sure that “we’ve got the whole crowd” – and we hope he’s right. But even the FBI might slip some time, and everything possible should be done to prevent and discourage such attempts in the future.
For one thing, increased Navy and Coast Guard activity to keep submarines away from our coasts seems to be needed. For another, the German agents now under arrest should be punished with all the promptness and severity that the law permits, as a warning that other stealthy enemies of the United States can expect no mercy.
1 Like