America at war! (1941– ) (Part 1)

[NormanStewart]

’Mosquitoes’ sting –
MacArthur’s fliers, boats down planes

Plane carrier believed sunk by U.S. sub in Dutch Indies
By Harrison Salisbury, United Press staff writer

Washington, Jan. 27 –
American sea and air forces – with Dutch aid – today inflicted shattering blows on Jap invasion forces in Makassar Straits, chalking up a “substantial” victory in the opening round of the battle of the Dutch East Indies.

The full score of the running sea fight which still may be in progress was not yet known but reports thus far disclosed that the United Nations’ attack has blasted 30 or more Jap ships.

In the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur’s tiny air force shot down at least two and possibly three enemy planes in a “thrilling encounter” over Bataan Province, the War Department reported.

Boats disable Jap planes

A second challenge to the Jap Air Force was made by a pair of General MacArthur’s daredevil motor torpedo boats (mosquito boats) which attacked a formation of Jap dive bombers and disabled at least three.

In the Dutch Indies, the Americans are credited with the probable sinking of a Jap aircraft carrier by a U.S. submarine, the destruction of 9 to 11 Jap ships and repeated torpedo hits on other Jap cruisers, destroyers and transports.

The American attack was estimated to have cost the Japanese possibly 12,000 men – a considerable expeditionary force and much of its naval escort. Dutch forces have accounted for about an equal number of ships, bringing Jap losses close to the 25,000 mark.

Huge force in Indies

The extent of Japan’s Makassar Straits force has not been disclosed. But the total Jap force operating in the direction of the Dutch islands is estimated at several hundred thousand men.

Due to overlap of communiqués issued in Washington and by General Sir Archibald P. Wavell’s United Nations headquarters in Java, it was impossible to make a specific tally of Jap ships lost in the Makassar battle.

First carrier sunk by U.S.

General Wavell reported ships sunk and damaged at 26 but his…

[NormanStewart]

’Tough-looking blokes,’ British say as AEF lands

Americans eye Spitfire as planes patrol sky during meeting
By William H. Stoneman

A Northern Irish port, Jan. 27 –
For the second time in 24 years, American combat troops made a triumphal entry into the British Isles yesterday, “an impressive vanguard of American military might” and a living toke of the fact that the United States is in this war here, there and everywhere, come hell and high water, until Hitler, Mussolini and the Mikado’s men are finished.

There were not a million of them – only a “few thousands” – and they did not march like the Prussian Guard. But that was not important. They were Americans and they had arrived and the lowliest Irish dockhand knew exactly what that meant. The natives of Ireland have long memories.

More interested in Spitfire

The AEF arrived after a voyage which seemed “darned long” to most of those who made it but was pretty short and snappy as voyages go on the Atlantic nowadays. Relatives may rest assured that there was plenty of naval protection, both British and American, and that anybody who had tried to upset the voyage would have had his eardrums knocked out.

The flights of Spitfires buzzing about the skies during the debarkation and the various anti-aircraft units which went into action during the morning served to nullify the “slight enemy activity over Northern Ireland,” which was reported in the official communiqué.

The Americans came ashore in the mist of a typical North Irish winter noon, cold, tired and hungry, washed out by many days at sea, nostalgic for their home towns, their wives and their sweethearts, dazed about their whereabouts, but definitely on their toes and ready to go.

’Tough-looking blokes’

They looked slightly vague when Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air and one of Britain’s pleasantest greeters, discussed the crusade on which they were bound. They were more interested in the…

[NormanStewart]

Hoarders warned –
Sugar ration to be slashed

Each person to be allowed 12 ounces weekly

Washington (UP) –
Initial sugar sales under the rationing plan to be inaugurated next month will probably be restricted to 12 ounces a week for each individual.

Although sugar consumption this year will average a pound a week for each American, a supply will be held in reserve to provide for persons eating in hotels, restaurants and other institutional eating places as well as to meet home canning demands, Price Administrator Leon Henderson said.

To hold down sales

He said that at the beginning it will probably be necessary to hold down sales so that existing stocks may be stretched to insure adequate supplies.

He said:

This is an opportunity for everyone to make a personal contribution to the war. The Army and Navy need alcohol derivatives from sugar to make smokeless powder. Thus saving on sugar means powder for our soldiers and sailors.

Mr. Henderson predicted that special measures would be taken so that those who have “piled up” sugar supplies would not benefit from their “supposed forethought.”

Must reduce supplies

Mr. Henderson warned:

Those who have hoards of sugar should stop buying and start using up their stocks since they will not be permitted under the plan to get more sugar until their supplies have been reduced to normal proportions.

Details as to how each individual will get his weekly allotment have not yet been disclosed. They will be released soon.

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Army Air Corps bill advances

Washington (UP) –
The Senate Appropriations Committee today approved the $12,555,872,474 Army Air Corps supply bill, carrying funds for 33,000 airplanes.

The measure includes a $30-million appropriation for Douglas Dam in the Tennessee Valley system.

There were no changes in the bill as approved by the House.

[NormanStewart]

U.S. to bomb Germany soon, Churchill says

Prime Minister asks vote of confidence; sees enlarged AEF
By Sidney J. Williams, United Press staff writer

London, Jan. 27 –
Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the House of Commons today that big American forces would follow the first expeditionary force to the British Isles and that American planes would bomb Germany and defend Britain.

He said the United States and British navies were “in most intimate union” in both the Atlantic and Pacific.

Opening a three-day war debate, one of the most important in his career, Mr. Churchill asked for a vote of confidence.

The Prime Minister told of his visit of Washington, saying:

When I left President Roosevelt, he gripped my hand and said:

We will see this thing through to the bitter end whatever the cost may be.

No scapegoat

Mr. Churchill spoke before a crowded House of Commons which contained many members who are critical, if not of him, of many of his colleagues, and who wanted assurance on the course the government is taking to retrieve the Allied position in the Far East and Libya.

Regarding the scapegoats, he said that he refused to throw Alfred Duff Cooper, recently recalled as Cabinet Minister at Singapore, “to the wolves.”

He announced:

I did not intend to get out of difficulties by offering some wake them for the public displeasure.

Mr. Churchill said:

Since my return to this country, I have come to the conclusion that I must ask to be sustained by a vote of confidence from the House of Commons.

Grim Far East picture

Mr. Churchill spoke grimly of the prospect in the Far East in the immediate future.

He said:

The battle for the Malay Peninsula approaches Singapore. It will be fought to the last inch by the British, Australian and Indian forces which were considerably reinforced last week.

For the time being, naval superiority in the Pacific and the Malayan archipelago has passed from the hands of the two leading naval powers into those of Japan.

Plans war council

How long that naval superiority will remain in Japanese hands, I cannot say.

I cannot tell how long the Pacific War will last but I can tell the House that it will be attended with heavy punishment.

We should not allow ourselves to get rattled because this or that place has been captured.

He announced that he would form an Imperial War Council, as Australia and other dominions had demanded. Of Australia’s pleas for aid, he said:

Everything in the human power we can do or can persuade the United States to do will be done to help Australia.

Sees Pacific victory

In his “blood, sweat and tears” manner, Mr. Churchill warned the House that great blows must be taken by the Allied nations in the Pacific but he added:

I believe we shall presently regain naval command in the Pacific to establish effective superiority in the air.

Later on – in 1943 – we should be able to set about out task in the Pacific in good style.

I have never ventured to predict the future, I stand by my original program of toil, tears, blood and sweat.

It was in a reference to the arrival in Northern Ireland yesterday of the first AEF of World War II, that Mr. Churchill said considerable American forces would follow:

…as opportunity serves.

Tribute to MacArthur

He said:

Numerous American bombers and fighters will take part in the defense of Britain and American bombers will take part in raids on Germany.

Amid ringing cheers, Mr. Churchill paid tribute to:

…the splendid courage of General Douglas MacArthur and his troops in the Philippines and to the Dutch for playing one of the main parts in the Malayan battle.

Mr. Churchill said he had arranged with President Roosevelt for Pacific councils in London and Washington, the London council to be an empire body.

Australia and New Zealand want the entire council to be centered at Washington, he added, and he had asked President Roosevelt for his views. He had hoped to announce the President’s reply but it had not come.

Mr. Churchill spoke in his most blunt and forceful manner. At the outset, he said he would demand a…

[NormanStewart]

I DARE SAY —
Sauce for the gander

By Florence Fisher Parry

Out they go; disgraced; done.

Adm. Kimmel and Gen. Short.

Three thousand men dead who might have lived, And the spine of the Navy near broken.

Let no one soften. Let on one falter. The punishment must fit the crime.

Crime? Why, yes, what is negligence but crime?

So into the history books you go, gentlemen, and let no man spare its indictment.

But I say, if this is to be the portion of Adm. Kimmel and Gen. Short, we have declared ourselves impartial dispensers of justice. This is the punishment we mete to those who would play America false.

And declaring this to the world, we must go through with it. It must not end with Adm. Kimmel and Gen. Short.

WHO ELSE has failed?

WHO ELSE in high places?

These two men meant well.

They did not mean to betray their country. They were honorable men, vested with high authority, which they had earned by long years of devoted service. They had been given great positions of trust; their loyalty and patriotism were never doubted. They were SELECTED by men of judgment and experience, for their posts.

Their sins were sins of omission.

It was what they DIDN’T do that convicted them.

Others

All right, what about THESE OTHERS in high places – and not such high places – who have fumbled, who have failed, who are even now confusing the issue of victory just as truly as are these condemned men.

Let us face it. We have other failures to deal with.

Let us deal with them summarily then. Them too. Why shall we complete one distasteful job and shirk another?

Who is to say what crimes against defense were committed – in the name of labor – because we had a Secretary of Labor who meant well?

Yet the appointment – and withdrawal – of members of a cabinet are no more imperative to the country’s safety than the appointment – and withdrawal – of commanders of our armies and our fleets.

And there are lesser ones, and lesser issues, that could well be dealt with summarily, now that The example has been so severely said by our government, at last, it seems, in no mood to trifle.

This mood, now belatedly reflected in Washington, is the mood of America. It is an impatient and angry mood, brooking no nonsense. Once it rises in a people, it sets the temper of all; and none so mighty or so safe as can risk ignoring it.

We are in no mood for cuddling.

We are in no mood for groans of farmers and factory hands over one hour’s daylight saving.

We are in no mood for hoarders. What housewife would dare to confess that she holds so much as 10 pounds of sugar?

We are in no mood for tire thieves, Let their crime be a felony and get the maximum sentence.

We are in no mood for lame excuses from draft-age men, who seek a technical exemption. THIS war can place them somewhere.

We are in no mood for time-clock punchers who still argue wages and hours.

We are in no mood for the chiselers, big and little, who turn the war into a personal advantage.

We are in no mood for the tax-evader, who yesterday could brag of his “deductions.”

We are in no mood for armchair admirals among our idle friends. Let them WORK; there’s plenty of it, 12, 15 hours a day!

We are in no mood for the postmortems, the defeatist IFS and BUTS of the spilt-milkers, the BIDING-TIMERS who would deflect us from our determination to be unified under one purpose.

We are in no mood for soft spots anywhere.

Noblesse oblige

It’s not enough to mean well. It’s not enough to be sorry. It’s not enough to even stand and cheer. What was it Edith Cavell said? Patriotism is not enough.

We’re learning that now. After all these years. Only now.

Adm. Kimmel and Gen. Short, you taught us that lesson; perhaps you have earned from us an oblique kind of salute…

For you are… we, ourselves. As we were before Pearl Harbor. No more guilty, no more negligent, no more mistaken than we. The only difference lay in our rank… You were the rank… we were the file… But together, rank and file, we nearly lost America.

And there is one other difference between us: Although we woke up together, you to punishment and doom, we to sacrifice and danger, we are luckier than you. We are given a second chance.

You, Adm. Kimmel and Gen. Short, would not have muffed that second chance. Had it been given you, you would have turned it to glorious account.

But we were given the chance denied you.

It imposes a good deal upon us. It makes the whole thing pretty scared.

No wonder we’re in no mood for nonsense, of any kind, from anybody.

And when we see, from now on, anyone in a high place who should be REMOVED, we will remember you, Adm. Kimmel and Gen. Short; and we will brook no delay.

[NormanStewart]

21 for 60

Roosevelt to follow family custom for birthday cake

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt will be 60 years old Friday but there will only be 21 candles on his cake – it’s an old Roosevelt family custom.

As is also an old Roosevelt custom, the President will gallop through his day at a pace which still amazes even veteran members of his staff.

Their amazement may be shared by the Japanese. They probably little suspected that the bombs which fell on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7 released a flood from the President’s wellsprings of energy such as might be expected from few men who have hammered away for nine years at such a hard job as the Presidency.

The only outward signs of those years are as few more wrinkles, a few more white hair – not as many as you might think from the newsreel shots and newspaper pictures.

As usual, the birthday celebration will be for the benefit of infantile paralysis victims. More than 12,000 dances and parties will be held throughout the nation to raise money for the cause closest to the President’s heart.

In the White House, the President will preside at a dinner for his “Cuff Links Gang” – a group of his oldest cronies. The annual dinners started in 1920 when Mr. Roosevelt, after an unsuccessful bid for the Vice Presidency, presented each of his aides with a set of cufflinks.

[NormanStewart]

U.S. plans two-front war

The map above shows how the U.S. dispatches armed forces for a two-front war against Japan and Germany as Allied armies and navies battled throughout the world.
1. U.S. mosquito boats and airmen down planes and transport.
2. Japs lose 250,000 men, more ships in Dutch East Indies.
3. Australian airmen blast Jap invasion fleet.
4. First AEF of World War II lands in British Isles.

[NormanStewart]

The battlefronts of the Far East –

1. Allies hold Japs in Burma as foe aims at Rangoon and Burma Road.
2. RAF blasts convoy as Japs get to within 50 miles of Singapore.
3. U.S. mosquito boats and planes sink transport, down dive bombers.
4. Japs lose 25,000 men, more ships in Makassar Strait; Dutch fight in Borneo, Celebes.
5. Australian airmen blast Jap fleet at Rabaul; land battle rages there.
6. Australia gets promise of aid from Allies.

[NormanStewart]

WAR BULLETINS!

Allies to send wheat to Greece

London, England –
Hugh Dalton, Minister for Economic Warfare, announced in the House of Commons today that the British and American governments were prepared to authorize a single shipments of 8,000 tons of wheat to Greece under Red Cross auspices to relieve the present emergency.

340 Americans arrested by Nazis

Vichy, France –
The United States Embassy had notified the State Department at Washington of the arrest of 340 – not 200 as previously reported – American men who at present are interned by the Germans in Compiegne, it was announced today.

Nazis admit RAF thrust at Berlin

Berlin, Germany – (broadcast recorded in London by the United Press)
The official news agency reported a British air thrust at Berlin during the night, with some bombers reaching the “outskirts.” No bombs were dropped, the agency said. British planes raided “several” places in northern Germany, however.

Aussies to close non-essential industries

Perth, Australia –
The government intends to close immediately all non-essential Australian industries and transfer the labor thus released to vital defense production, Prime Minister John Curtin said today.

[NormanStewart]

U.S. War Department (January 28, 1942)

Communiqué No. 80

Philippine Theater.
There was practically no ground activity on the Bataan Peninsula yesterday. The enemy landed relatively small numbers in the Subic Bay area. Enemy air activity was limited to reconnaissance flights.

Dutch East Indies.
Further reports of the action in Makassar Straits disclosed that eight heavy U.S. Army bombers sank a large Japanese transport in the river at Balikpapan and scored a direct hit on a cruiser outside of the harbor. During this attack, one of the bombers was lost. In a previous attack by our planes in this action, one enemy transport was sunk and another set afire, as reported on January 26.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (January 28, 1942)

Passenger ship sunk by U-boat; 250 feared dead

71 survivors adrift six days; sub victims total six craft
By the United Press

Six more victims of Axis submarines operating in the Atlantic were disclosed last night and today.

Three of them were off the Canadian coast, two off the United States and one in the Atlantic. Indications were that loss of life was heavy in only one of the torpedoings.

At the same time, the Naval Port Director of Port Arthur, Tex., warned gulf shipping interests of the presence of a submarine off Arkansas Pass.

The torpedoing of an Allied steamer in the Atlantic, with 250 of the 321 persons aboard either killed or missing, was disclosed when the SS Coamo arrived at San Juan with 71 survivors.

Three of the sinkings were disclosed with the arrival of survivors in eastern Canadian ports. They were a British tanker, a Norwegian tanker and a Greek freighter. The 33 survivors of the British vessel reported “some” of the tanker’s crew killed.

The Francis E. Powell, tanker owned by the Atlantic Refining Co., and the Pan-Maine were the victims off the U.S. coast. Fate of the Pan-Maine was not certain. Two were known to have been killed and at least one crewmember was missing from the Francis E. Powell.

250 go overboard as torpedo hits

San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jan,. 28 (UP) –
The SS Coamo arrived today with 71 survivors of an Allied steamer, torpedoed ion the Atlantic with 321 persons aboard, about 250 of whom were dead or missing.

Some of the survivors were picked up Friday night by the Coamo, of the Puerto Rico Line, from lifeboats which had set out from the torpedoed vessel with 76 persons aboard. Five died during the lifeboats’ six days at sea. 22 of the survivors were crew members.

200 swept overboard

200 of those aboard the Allied steamer were swept overboard when the first of two torpedoes struck the ship, an officer of the steamer said. One torpedo struck the engine room and the steamer sank in 25 minutes. The torpedoing occurred at 1:50 a.m., Jan. 19.

The steamer’s chief officer said two lifeboats were smashed by the torpedo explosions.

He said:

I think two other lifeboats managed to get away. The night was perfect and moonless and the sea was smooth when the attack came. The rescue took 20 minutes. The ship sank in 25 minutes.

The captain of the steamer was among the missing.

Little girl among survivors

The first torpedo struck near the bridge and toppled the vessel’s mainmast, the officer related. The ship heeled over, sweeping many into the sea.

Survivors included, in addition to the crew members, construction…

[NormanStewart]

Conspiracy charged –
Three Americans indicted in Jap propaganda scheme

Washington, Jan. 28 (UP) –
Three American citizens and three prominent Japanese nationals were indicted by a federal grand jury today in connection with the distribution of pro-Japanese propaganda in alleged violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Americans indicted on charges of conspiring to violate the act were Ralph Townsend of Lake Geneva, Wis., and David Warren Ryder and Frederick Vincent Williams of San Francisco.

The Japanese named were Tsutomu Obana, secretary of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco; K. Takahashi and S. Takeuchi, San Francisco managers of the NYK Steamship Co. and the Mitsubishi Co., respectively.

The jury also returned indictments against Mr. Townsend and My Ryder on charges of failing to register as agents of a foreign principal. Mr. Williams was charged on nine counts of willful failure to state material facts in registration statements he subsequently filed under the act as an agent of the Japanese Times and Mail (now the Japan Times and Advertiser), an English-language newspaper published in Tokyo.

Obana was charged on four additional counts with willfully omitting material facts in his registration statements filed on behalf of the Japanese committee on trade and information.

Named “co-conspirators,” but not as defendants, were Kanzo Shiosaki and Toshito Sato, both former Japanese…

[NormanStewart]

U.S. naval and air units also in Britain

London, England (UP) –
American land, sea and air forces have already taken up stations in the British Isles in “the first step on the highway towards ultimate victory,” U.S. Ambassador John G. Winant said today.

Mr. Winant’s speech, before the national defense public interest committee, which met for luncheon, was the first mention of U.S. naval and air units in Britain. Landing of U.S. infantry in Northern Ireland was announced Monday.

Mr. Winant said the United States entered this war better prepared than when it entered the last World War. Now, he said, it is planning to recruit seven million soldiers.

[NormanStewart]

‘We dare not turn our backs’ –
All one war, Knox warns; says Navy will turn tide

Chicago, Jan. 28 (UP) –
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox warned Japan today that she faced “some mighty battles” on her way to the East Indies and announced that the United States would not turn its back on either the Pacific or Atlantic fronts.

He said “material and men are moving to the hard-presses fronts in the South Pacific” under naval protection.

Addressing the Chicago Association of Commerce, Secretary Knox acknowledged that he had been criticized for recent remarks suggesting that Adolf Hitler was the nation’s greatest foe. He said he had been “misunderstood” by those who thought he implied the Pacific War was secondary to that in Europe.

He said:

The war in the Pacific, the war in the Atlantic, the war in China, in Malaya, in Russia, in Libya – they are all one war, one world revolution, one bid for world mastery.

Secretary Knox said Hitler wanted the United States to throw its “growing strength” into the Pacific but that:

…we will not fall into Hitler’s trap.

He said:

Attacked in the Pacific and the Atlantic, we have to fight and win in the Pacific and Atlantic. We dare not turn out backs to either front. These criminals are too good with daggers.

We must not confuse history with strategy. The main enemy historically may not be the first enemy strategically. We cannot concentrate on defeating him alone. We cannot take them on one at a…

[NormanStewart]

The Malaya battlefront –

Four Jap columns are advancing on Singapore as indicated by the black arrows on the map. The Japs are 43 miles from the city on the west, about 60 miles from the city on the east. Allied troops massed somewhere north of Singapore for the climactic battle as the British ordered the evacuation of the north coast of Singapore Island – indicated by white Xs – by midnight tomorrow (Pittsburgh Time).

Jap pressure grows –
Malayan lines falling back

British mass on tip of peninsula for battle
By Harold Guard, United Press staff writer

Singapore, Jan. 28 –
The Military Command, faced with increasing Japanese pressure in Malaya, today ordered the evacuation of the north coast of Singapore Island by noon Friday (midnight tomorrow EST).

The order indicated that the battle of Singapore is imminent.

Coincident with British orders to evacuate that portion of Singapore Island facing the Malayan mainland, Japanese quarters in Tokyo asserted that their forces operating in central Malaya had advanced 28 miles to within 25 miles of the strait separating Malaya from Singapore Island.

Latest advices said Japanese forces were conveying along the four main highways of Malaya, pressing down behind tank spearheads toward the British, Australian and Indian troops who were massing near the tip of the peninsula for the climactic battle of Singapore. The Japanese were last reported 43 miles from Singapore at the nearest point.

Up to early this afternoon, the regular daily communiqué had not been issued in Singapore. It was evident that the evacuation order there applied only to civilians and civilian enterprises in order to make way for increased preparations to defend…

[NormanStewart]

In Makassar Strait –
‘Fortresses’ sink another troop vessel

Cruiser bombed as attacks stave off landings in Java, Sumatra
By John R. Morris, United Press staff writer

General Headquarters, United Nations Southwest Pacific Command, Java, Jan. 28 –
American Flying Fortresses, leading an Allied drive to annihilate a Jap invasion armada in the Straits of Makassar, blasted three more Jap ships and boosted the toll to 31 sunk or damaged enemy vessels, official communiqués said today.

The arrival of American reinforcements was said by the Netherlands news agency, Aneta, to have “increased optimism” in the Dutch East Indies.

An Aneta dispatch from London yesterday said American reinforcements had arrived in the East Indies.

In a continuing action which disrupted the Jap time-table for an invasion of the Dutch East Indies and which may have postponed landings attempts on Java and Sumatra indefinitely, the Flying Fortresses sank a large transport, set another afire and straddled a cruiser with several sticks of bombs, according to communiqués from United Nations Headquarters and the Dutch High Command.

In Washington, the War Department confirmed that Americans in eight Flying Fortresses sank a Jap transport and scored a direct hit on a cruiser off a southeast Borneo oil port in the Dutch Indies. One Fortress was lost.

At least 15 planes downed

Victims of United Nations air and sea attacks include at least one battleship, an aircraft carrier, five cruisers and more than a dozen large troop transports, as well as lesser transports and destroyers.

The toll of downed Jap aircraft attempting to protect the convoy is now at least 15.

A United Nations Headquarters communiqué said the Jap aircraft were “roughly handled” by the Americans. Two Jap planes were shot down today and one was damaged.

Japs occupy Borneo oil port

Despite the attacks, the Japs, it was believed, succeeded in occupying “ruined and burned-out establishments” of the east Borneo oil port of Balikpapan. The Dutch have received no communication from Balikpapan since the Japs were believed to have made their way ashore.

Dutch pilots, using American-built aircraft, made another series of raids on the Jap base at Kuching in Sarawak. An airdrome and storage yards were attacked at Kuching, which the Japs occupied early in the war.

The Dutch at Kendari on the southeast coast of Celebes were still putting up strong resistance against Jap landing parties. The fighting has been on there since Sunday, when the Japs made their first landing at Sampara, in southeast Celebes.

Japs raid Sumatra

The Jap Air Force bombed Emma Haven on the west coast of Sumatra where two merchant ships were fired and a third was damaged. There were no casualties. Ambon, Dutch naval base, on Amboina Island was…

[NormanStewart]

South Pacific gets U.S. help, President says

6 to 10 AEFs go to fronts throughout the world, Roosevelt reveals
By Harrison Salisbury, United Press staff writer

Washington –
America today poured aid toward the Southwest Pacific, where Gen. MacArthur’s men and the forces of Britain, the Netherlands and Australia fought off an expanding Jap offensive backed by possibly one million men.

President Roosevelt revealed that help is being rushed with all possible speed to the Pacific war theater. He declined to specify the type of aid or whether it included one of the six, eight or 10 American Expeditionary Forces which he said have been dispatched around the world. However, he said very good progress is being made in movement of supplies to what he called the ABDA area (American-British-Dutch-Australian).

The battle reports from the Southwest Pacific left little doubt that the need for American aid in unlimited quantities is pressing.

MacArthur gets respite

Gen. MacArthur’s men of Bataan enjoyed a momentary respite, but new and even more fierce Jap attacks were expected.

Gen. MacArthur’s small force of U.S. regulars and Filipinos is faced by the entire Japanese 14th Army plus sizable reinforcements and special units – possibly 200,000-300,000 men on the island of Luzon.

The proportion of this force actually deployed against Gen. MacArthur’s battle lines has not been revealed. It is presumably limited only by the difficult terrain of the small peninsula, Bataan.

U.S. holds small area

The portion of the peninsula held by Gen. MacArthur is only 20-25 miles long and 13-15 miles wide. There was no confirmation here of a Jap propaganda claim that they have captured Balanga, the anchor of Gen. MacArthur’s line on the eastern Bataan coast.

Gen. MacArthur’s tiny airplane and motor torpedo boat force was still harassing the Japs, shooting down two and blasting three other Jap planes in daring actions. But the precious band of Curtis P-40 fighters was too small for more than sporadic forays against the enemy.

The running Battle of Makassar Straits is still in progress. U.S. and Dutch air and sea forces have sunk or damaged 31 Jap ships there so far.

‘Fortresses’ sink transport

The War Department reported that eight heavy U.S. bombers sank a large Jap transport at the Dutch Borneo oil port of Balikpapan on Makassar Strait and scored a direct hit on a Jap cruiser outside the harbor. One Flying Fortress was lost in this action, the War Department said.

In Java, the United Nations headquarters credited the Flying Fortresses with damaging an additional Jap transport.

British quarters understood that the Jap invasion fleet in the Straits originally totaled about 100 ships.

If that report is correct, the Japs may have lost nearly 25% of their strength on the Makassar operations thus far reported. The cost in manpower may be in the neighborhood of 25,000 men.

Allies attack in Burma

However, the total Jap strength now being deployed in the opening phase of the far-flung attack against the Dutch Indies and the approaches to Australia is estimated in some quarters at 500,000 men.

On the Malaya and Burma fronts, the Japanese may have another 300,000 men or more deployed.

There was fresh word of U.S. air operations on the Burma front where U.S. fighters again escorted Royal Air Force bombers in a devastating attack on Jap forces striking toward Moulmein.

[NormanStewart]

AEF finds lots to get used to in British Isles

Coffee bad, whisky ‘kicks,’ troops say as they make selves at home
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer

With AEF in British Isles –
Troops of the American Expeditionary Force reported today that the coffee on this side of the ocean was bad, the beer indifferent and the whisky expensive and very strong.

They have found the people friendly and the girls pretty and easy to get acquainted with.

The complaint about the coffee, the favorite beverage, is that although its quality is good, the British and Irish cooks do not know how to make it, and as to the beer, they find it flatter and less palatable than American lager.

Know Yanks by helmets

Canteen managers, barkeepers and shopkeepers report that the Yanks are a sober lot and believed they will earn to like the beer.

There was some difficulty at first when the soldiers offered American money for their purchases, but that has been worked out in most cases.

The rate of exchange is half a crown (2.5 shillings) for half a dollar, which is the same as the official rate of one pound sterling for $4.

Irish people learned quickly to distinguish the Yankees because of their steel helmets.

Four of family in AEF

The Yanks, however, still have difficulty in recognizing the rank of British soldiers. In some cases, they have made the horrible – to the private – mistake of saluting British enlisted men and some of them have solved the difficulty by saluting nobody by looking intently the other way.

The biggest compliment paid the potent Irish whisky was that by an officer who bought a bottle – noting that, because of taxes, it costs twice here what it does at home – downed a drink of it and gasped:

Boy, that must have been keeping two Spitfires grounded.

Least likely to get homesick among men of the AEF are the Shepherds of Minneapolis – Capt. R. Shepherd, his sons Sgt. Max and Cpl. Robert, and his brother, who is a private.

The tallest man in the AEF is Sgt. F. R. Bradshaw, of Minneapolis – 6’6".

[NormanStewart]

‘Hello, Squirt’ –
First AEF man ashore speaks

Doughboy in Ireland talks to girl back home

Minneapolis, Minnesota (UP) –
Radio offered a helping hand to true love last night for some transatlantic billing and cooing.

From some place in Northern Ireland, Pvt. Milburn Henke, the first American doughboy ashore with the expeditionary force Monday, talked to the girl he left behind, Miss Iola Christensen, of Hutchinson, Minnesota.

Pvt. Henke began over the shortwave hookup arranged by the Blue Network of NBC:

Hello, Squirt.

Miss Christensen, nervously adjusting earphones clamped to her brown hair, replied:

Hello, Dinkie.

First they talked of the difference in time and Pvt. Henke reported it was 10 minutes to five in Ireland.

Iola asked if he had “met any good-looking girls yet,” and he answered:

No, I haven’t had time.

Then she asked if he found Irish girls attractive. Pvt. Henke said:

Sure, but I’ll take Minnesota girls.

Miss Christensen turned the airwaves over tor Pvt. Henke’s mother, Mrs. Karl Henke, wife of a German-born restaurant proprietor.

Then the youth’s father, who had ordered his son “to give the Germans hell,” began talking, He was so choked with emotion he could hardly speak.

The father said:

It won’t be long now that you boys are over there. When it’s over, we’ll be waiting here.

Iola chimed in to assure the soldier that she would be waiting, too.

Now he can concentrate on the Germans.

[NormanStewart]

U.S. Marines dish it out and Midway repels Japs

Two enemy warships blasted, routed; wounded officer’s heroism brings his death

Washington, Jan. 28 (UP) –
The American flag still flies over Midway Island today because that tiny outpost’s Marine garrison dished it out – hot and heavy.

The combination of American courage and marksmanship was too much for the Japanese and also their first assault on Midway, on the night of the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor, failed. They turned tail and ran after the Marine shore batteries scored damaging hits on a Japanese cruiser and destroyer.

Details on the initial and apparently the strongest attack on Midway were made public by Marine headquarters here. It was the first word about Midway since Dec. 30 when a Navy communiqué reported:

The situation remains unchanged.

Two Marines killed

The Marine Corps revealed for the first time that two Japanese warships participated in the attack.

Two Marines were killed, one of them Lt. George H. Cannon, who was cited for:

…courage, coolness and high sense of duty.

More than seven weeks have elapsed since then. And, said a naval spokesman today:

Midway is still holding out, and that’s that.

The story of Midway matched on a smaller scale the heroic defense of Wake Island.

It was at 9:30 p.m., on a moonlit night, that the Japanese first struck Midway. Before the ships could be identified by the garrison, the Japanese opened fire. But they were out of range of the shore batteries.

Jap ships close in

20 minutes later, the Japanese ships closed in within range of the Marine guns. But the Marines held their fire until the leading ship approached to within 4,500 yards. Suddenly, the American searchlights flashed on and caught the first ship in its powerful beams. The Marine guns blazed immediately.

The searchlight was in action only three or four minutes. Yet, during that brief period, at least three hits were observed on the leading ship, two on the superstructure, putting forward guns out of action, and one near the waterline, forward. Two hits were observed on the trailing ship, close to the waterline, also forward.

Surprised foe retreats

The Japanese then:

…broke off action, by a sharp change of course which took them out pf range. Black smoke was seen to emit from the hole in the side of the trailing ship, when it was hit by five-inch shells.

The attacking Japs were surprised to find themselves illuminated by the shore defenses, and…