Allies still need more war weapons
OWI says production is speeding up
WASHINGTON (AP) – Acknowledging that America’s allies have failed to receive as much Lend-Lease transfers of weapons “as they need to do the job,” the Office of War Information asserts, however, the program “has been accelerating fast.”
Announcing that transfers of all kinds of weapons to the United Nations to date are “somewhat less” than 12 per cent of the country’s total munitions output, the agency reported yesterday that the proportion is “much higher” in games and tanks.
Need tanks, planes
Some military items, OWI added, are not needed as sorely by the Allies as the United States Armed Forces, but “it can be said that in the things our allies need most, namely tanks and planes, the proportion of our production which is being shipped to them is much higher than the overall average.”
OWI asserted $818,000,000 worth of machinery, metals, oils and other industrial materials and $841,000,000 worth of agricultural products were sent abroad up to June 30. In addition, the agency said, such services as repairing Allied warships and cargo drafts, ferrying of planes and supplying of shipping space since the start of Lend-Lease are valued at $596,000,000.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 30, 1942)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland (By Wireless) – A fellow traveling around the way I do never knows an hour ahead of time how things are going to work out.
For example, this trip to Londonderry was decided on all of a sudden, so I quickly packed my bags and took the train. At Derry I found an unofficious, quick-thinking friendly people.
Maj. Dugan of the Marine Corps happened to be standing at the door of the officers’ house when my taxi drove up. He grabbed my typewriter and took me back to a small extra room with a cot, and said that was my room.
Then he asked me up to his room for a chat before dinner. Pretty soon Cmdr. Edward R. Sperry and Lt. Col. Lucian Burnham drifted in and sat on the bed.
Commander Sperry is executive officer of the naval base. Col. Burnham is in command of the Marines.
I got out my war correspondent’s credentials and showed them, just to keep the record straight. After a while dinner was ready, and we all went downstairs to the dining room. We chatted a few minutes before dinner.
Several other Navy and Marine officers were there, and I was introduced all around. Finally I came to one pleasant-looking officer with glasses and a mustache, who was introduced as Lt. Cmdr. Phillips.
Then Maj. Dugan said, “We’ve been waiting to see what would happen when you two got together.”
Yes, of course, we were schoolmates at Indiana University 20 years ago. I might have known it.
John Reed Phillips is from Michigan City, Ind. He was a doctor in France in the last war, and has been in the naval reserve several years. He was called up for active duty a few months before we got into the war.
You’ve never seen a guy in your life like this Dr. Phillips. My little room was perfectly all right, but he insisted that I take over his own room instead. When I said no, he just picked up my bags and carried them upstairs.
Since then he has been sleeping in a bare room while I have the luxury of his very homey, gas-heated room upstairs. I wear his sweaters, smoke his cigarettes and even read his mail.
He has toted me around in his car, introduced me to everybody, taken me to parties and on sightseeing tours, and finally loaded me down with luxuries ranging from cartons of American cigarettes to a jar of sandwich spread and a souvenir shillelagh. Praise be for Dr. Phillips!
There are nine officers in this house, and they’re all grand people.
Maj. Dugan drops in frequently for a before-dinner chat or midnight coffee. His name is James but we call him Red. He’s tall and slim and carrot-topped, and looks more like the Marines’ famous bulldog than it does itself. He is from Quincy, Mass. He owns a button factory, and has a wife and children.
Red Dugan used to play professional baseball, and he does leather tooling as a hobby. He has his tools with him now, and makes belts, wristbands and other beautiful things. He’s always laughing, yet he loves to fight. He’ll fight anybody, at the drop of a hat.
Another officer with whom I have found a lot in common is Cmdr. Jesse Suisser, from Denver. He has been with radio station KOA for years, as a technical expert.
That’s how things turn out when they’re perfect. If I didn’t have work to do, I think I’d just stay here for the duration and let Dr. Phillips and the Navy support me in the manner to which I am becoming accustomed.
