America at war! (1941– ) (Part 1)

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Hero award shows U.S. role in Balkans

Washington (UP) – (Jan. 17)
Presentation of the Distinguished Service Medal to Col. Louis J. Fortier, former U.S. military attaché at Belgrade, today disclosed for the first time the important role played by the United States in stopping the merciless German bombardment of the Yugoslav capital last April.

The award made by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson yesterday, revealed how Col. Fortier, upon orders from this government pushed for four days through a rain of bombs and machine-gun fire to help bring about a cessation of the attacks on the battered city.

From April 8 to April 12, the citation said, he:

…drove through battle and devastated areas under frequent bombing and aerial machine gun fire, and, in order to enter Hungary traveled on horse, on foot, and on a railroad section handcar through 26 miles of the demolished zone.

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Pearl Harbor heroes helped by new drug

Army report reveals how civilians aided in emergency

Washington, Jan. 17 (UP) –
An Army announcement revealed tonight how “heroic civilian cooperation” combined with emergency application of blood plasma and a newly-developed sulfa drug saved hundreds of lives at Pearl Harbor following the Japanese attack of Dec. 7.

The announcement quoted a report from two civilian physicians who stressed the “incalculable value and startling efficacy” of sulfonamide therapy in the treatment of open wounds.

Their report said:

We believe that it is highly important that physicians – both civilian and military – become familiar with the general and specific considerations which govern the use of oral and local use of the sulfonamides in the treatment of wounds and burns, and that insofar as possible routine for the use of sulfonamides in casualties are devised and adopted.

Wives rush to help

The report was submitted to Maj. Gen. James C. Magee, Army’s surgeon general, by Dr. Perrill Long of Johns Hopkins University and Lt. Col. I. S. Ravdin, Medical Corps Reserve.

The report said that:

Within a few minutes of the first bomb burst, wives of officers and enlisted men were rushing to Hickman Field Hospital to aid the six nurses on duty at the time.

…

475

Subs still lurk off Atlantic Coast

Washington (UP) – (Jan. 17)
The Navy said tonight that enemy submarine action off the Atlantic Coast continues but revealed no further details of U-boat operations.

It reported in a communiqué that:

Enemy submarine activities off the northeast coast of the United States continue.

Navy destroyers and patrol planes, it was assumed, are sweeping coastal waters ready to attack any German submarine.

Two ships have been destroyed by U-boats off the Long Island coast this week.

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Uniontown soldier dies

Uniontown, Pennsylvania – (Jan. 17)
Official word was received today from the War Department that Staff Sgt. Carmen R. Gismondi, son of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Gismondi, of nearby Oliver, was one of nine men killed in the crash of an Army plane near Boise, Idaho. He was one of three brothers in the service.

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Bank employees plan to buy defense bonds

New York (UP) – (Jan. 17)
A campaign to enroll 60,000 bank officers and employees in New York State in voluntary payroll savings plans for the purchase of defense savings bonds will be initiated tomorrow when 700 persons representing banks in the state gather for the 14th annual mid-winter meeting of the New York State Bankers Association.

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Japan’s plans for a quick conquest on the Pacific to bring the United States to its knees within a year, are described in a book which a Korean patriot, Kilsoo Haan, tells Washington he stole from Nipponese officials in the U.S. last year. Map spots successive moves which the book outlines.

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Allies prepared to meet ‘surprise’ attacks by Axis

By Francis McCarthy, United Press staff writer

Honolulu, Hawaii – (Jan. 17)
Allied forces throughout the world were understood tonight to be taking extra precautions against a possible surprise Axis move timed to coincide with the current Pan-American conference at Rio de Janeiro.

Mid-Pacific vigilance was intensified as foreign broadcasts heard at Hawaii reported Japanese troop concentrations in the Marshall Islands, 2,400 miles south of Honolulu.

The possibility of a new move against Hawaii or other mid-Pacific U.S. island possessions was seen in reliable reports that the Japanese were concentrating transports in the eastern Marshall Islands.

From the Marshalls, the Japanese might strike at Free French Tahiti in the Society Islands, which is in the Panama Fanal route to the Far Pacific.

The Marshalls, mandated to Japan after World War I, range from just west of the International Date Line almost to 60 degrees longitude.

Japan has strong bases in the Marshalls and in the Carolines to the west. It is believed that planes based on the Marshalls were used in the attack in the American garrison on Wake.

500 miles south of the Marshalls are the British-mandated Gilbert Islands where the Japanese have also established themselves.

In addition, the Japanese are believed to have seized bases in the Ellice Islands, 250 miles south of the Gilberts.

Competent sources intercepted reports of the Japanese concentration in the Eastern Marshalls as indication of an imminent move against U.S. bases in an effort to hamper the flow of war supplies to the Allies fighting in the Far East.

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Thomas Mann given post in Library of Congress

Washington (UP) – (Jan. 17)
Thomas Mann, Nobel Prize winner in literature and self-imposed exile from Nazi Germany, has joined the staff of the Library of Congress as consultant in German literature, Congressional Librarian Archibald MacLeish announced today.

Mr. Mann, Mr. MacLeish said:

…will be available for consultation on questions regarding German culture and literature and the library’s collections on these subjects.

He will also lecture in the library on subjects within the field of his consultantship.

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U.S. bars missionaries from Atlantic voyages

Lancaster, Pennsylvania (UP) – (Jan. 17)
Alice Landis, a survivor of the torpedoed Egyptian steamer Zamzam, and Mary White, who sought to reach missionaries in Africa, have been denied permission to cross the Atlantic, they advised friends here today.

The women, registered nurses, said the State Department had canceled their visas. They left here Thursday for New York, where they expected to embark for Africa.

Miss Landis, of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, was to have served as a missionary in Belgian Congo. Miss White was to go to Kenya Colony.

632 more vessels ordered for U.S.

Washington (UP) – (Jan. 17)
The Maritime Commission, moving to achieve President Roosevelt’s goal of 18 million tons of new merchant ships in the next two years, today awarded contracts for 632 new vessels to cost an estimated $1,178,000,000.

Many of the 632 ships will be put into service this year and all of them are to be completed by the end of 1943.

Maritime Commissioner Howard L. Vickery said they would bring scheduled 1942 ship construction to about 840 vessels of eight million tons. In 1943, about 1,000 ships will be built totaling 10 million tons, he said.

Mr. Vickery said existing yards and facilities will be expanded to facilitate the new construction, two new yards now doing work for the British will be utilized for American construction. Yards will be put on a 24-hour day, seven-day week basis, he added.

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Troops taught Japanese

Brownwood, Texas –
Classes will begin soon at Camp Bowie to teach some 40 officers and men of the U.S. Army’s Eighth Corps Headquarters one of the most difficult modern languages – Japanese. Because of the complex nature of the Japanese alphabet, the course will deal only with spoken Japanese.

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Movie-hostess Army morale theory scored

General says soldiers must lead Spartan lives to be effective

San Jose, California (UP) – (Jan. 17)
The Army Western Defense Command, Northern California sector, today criticized the “movie and hostess” theory of building soldier morale and said armies must lead Spartan lives to be effective.

Maj. Gen. Robert C. Richardson Jr., commanding general of Northern California Headquarters here, said it was obvious:

…that the reasons for good morale or its absence are not always clearly understood by those who have not had experience with troops.

When the Army began its expansion much influence, chiefly from civilian sources, was exerted to make the transition of the selectee from civilian life to Army life as painless as possible with insistence that he be provided with the comforts and entertainment identified with civilian life.

‘Armies must be tough’

The writers were unaware of the fact that armies in order to be effective must lead Spartan lives. Armies must be rough if they are to win battles.

Undue emphasis was therefore placed on radio programs, recreational buildings, hostess houses, hostesses, movie stars, theaters and like diversions, as if these amusements were the panacea for good morale or the antidote for poor morale.

In the military service these external aids are necessary and desirable to occupy some of the leisure moments of the soldiers but as creators of high morale they should be given minor consideration.

‘From within one’s self’

Every great thinker of philosopher who has written about man has made known to us that morale, like happiness comes chiefly from within one’s self. External aids may add to good morale but they cannot of themselves produce it.

Gen. Richardson offered this prescription for good soldier morale:

  1. Command attention.

By that is meant the enthusiasm and sincere interest of the commander in the welfare of his officers and men.

  1. The soldier must feel that what he is doing is of value.

  2. Good food.

  3. Pride.

Both pride in one’s self and pride in one’s organization.

  1. Careful attention to the dispatch and receipt of soldiers’ mail.

  2. Competitive athletics.

Arctic stepping stones form shortest route to Japan

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U.S. island stepping stones on the edge of the Arctic are the shortest bomber route to Japan, but this mileage map of the North Pacific battlefront shows America’s need for bases in Russia. U.S. bombers with 3,500-mile ranges can reach only northernmost Jap Islands from Alaska.

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Peter Caddick-Adams Snow and Steel springs to mind when he mentioned the American way of war with doughnut making trucks behind the front line. No offense meant but the US citizens Army did have a lot more eye for entertainment than anyone else. Bob Hope also springs to mind :-). Anyone is welcome to disprove this point by the way, I am always interested in dissenters.

Snow and Steel: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45 by Peter Caddick-Adams (goodreads.com)

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You could say the same thing for Britain as well, even more so early in the war.

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U.S. War Department (January 19, 1942)

Communiqué No. 65

Philippine Theater.
Ground operations during the past 24 hours were of a desultory nature. Enemy patrols were active and some incidental skirmishes took place with indecisive results.

Enemy air activities were confined to frequent reconnaissance flights.

Gen. MacArthur has been advised that Filipinos in the occupied area have been summarily dispossessed of their means of transportation and other equipment. Native farmers have been evicted from their homes and formed into labor groups. Harvested crops and food stores have been seized by the invaders.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

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The Pittsburgh Press (January 19, 1942)

Tell bad news, Price requests

Knowledge of danger vital, censor chief says

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Byron Price, U.S. Director of Censorship, yesterday asked newspapers and radios to report the bad news as well as the good, and said his office would attempt to keep “all the facts possible” before the public.

Mr. Price spoke from Washington on the University of Chicago’s round table broadcast.

Mr. Price said:

One of the greatest dangers is that overzealous public officials may make unreasonable requests for the suppression of information. We have instructed newspapers and radio stations to refer requests of this nature to us for consideration.

As to enforcement, I assume that the Department of Justice, which is entrusted with law enforcement, will enforce the Espionage Act, if necessary.

We are not dealing in propaganda. We are not telling newspapers what to print nor radio stations what to broadcast. We originate no news. No one has suggested that we suppress criticism.

It is generally acknowledged that good news sells better than bad news on the news stands. I think that it becomes the responsibility of newspapers and radio broadcasters to report fully on events lest by failing to point out the dangers of a situation they may be guilty of selling the public out.

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WAR BULLETINS!

Germany masses forces in Italy

Ankara, Turkey –
Neutral diplomatic sources reported today that Germany was concentrating forces in southern Italy and Sicily, presumably to attempt to send reinforcements to North Africa, and that Air Force Field Marshal Gen. Albert Kesselring had set up a headquarters in Rome. These sources said the British were sinking 50% of Axis Africa-bound convoys.

U.S. prisoners in broadcast

Tokyo, Japan (UP) – (official broadcast recorded in San Francisco)
The Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) announced today it would inaugurate a special broadcast by American prisoners tomorrow for the benefit of their families in the United States.

This was a propaganda move to get Americans to listen to Japanese broadcasts.

Bremen bombed again

London, England –
British bombers attacked Bremen, Emden and other places last night in continued raids over northwest Germany, the Air Ministry announced today. Three planes were missing.

Australians bomb Caroline Islands

Melbourne, Australia –
A communiqué of the Royal Australian Air Force said today that Australian planes had made successful attacks on the Japanese Caroline Islands Saturday and Sunday, destroying a seaplane and several launches.

Sicilian towns raided

Rome, Italy (UP) – (broadcast recorded in U.S.)
British planes have raided the Sicilian towns of Augusta and Syracuse, a High Command communiqué said today. The raids caused “some fires which were promptly put out,” it said, and there were no casualties.

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Vacation traveling supported by Ickes

Washington (UP) –
Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes urged today that Americans profit by the experience of other warring nations and continue vacation traveling “as an aid in the promotion of national health and morale.”

Mr. Ickes said that other nations – Britain, Canada and Germany in particular – had:

…learned early in the war that too long hours at high pressure work resulted in decreased production.

Priorities to rule seats on airliners

Washington (UP) –
Brig. Gen. Donald R. Connolly, military director of civil aviation, today established priorities governing use of seats and cargo space on regularly-established commercial airlines.

The War Department said reservations will be made through irregularly-established agencies but that seats will be assigned:

…only after those that may be required for official use have been billed.

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Communications seizure bill passed by Congress

Washington (UP) –
The Senate today passed a House bill granting the President seizure and control powers over the nation’s telephone, telegraph and cable facilities, after defeating a limiting amendment sponsored by Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH).

The measure now goes to the White House for Mr. Roosevelt’s signature.

Action came on a voice vote after Chairman Burton K. Wheeler (D-MT) of the Interstate Commerce Committee assured the Senate no permanent governmental communications control was contemplated.

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$28.5 billion more asked by Roosevelt

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt has asked Congress for additional appropriations and contract authorizations of $28,500,767,496 for the use of the Army and Navy.

The requests boosted projected total defense appropriations for the 1941-42-43 fiscal years to $100,438,000,000.

Mr. Roosevelt made his requests in four letters to Speaker Sam Rayburn. He asked:

  1. $12,525,873,474 for the Army.
  2. $15,961,945,021 for the Navy.
  3. $7,000,000 for start of work on a highway linking the American republics.
  4. $5,950,000 for the FBI to enlarge its war counterespionage activities.