Schon am 9. April geht er weiter und verfügt nunmehr eine Sperrung der norwegischen und dänischen Guthaben mit dem verlogenen Vorwand, einen deutschen Zugriff dadurch zu verhindern, obwohl ihm genau bekannt ist, daß zum Beispiel die dänische Regierung in ihrer Vermögensverwaltung von Deutschland überhaupt nicht beachtet, geschweige denn kontrolliert wird.
Zu den verschiedenen Exilregierungen wird nun weiter von ihm auch noch eine norwegische anerkannt. Schon am 15. Mai 1940 kommen zu diesen nun auch noch holländische und belgische Emigrantenregierungen, und ebenso tritt eine Sperrung der holländischen und belgischen Guthaben ein.
Allein die wahre Gesinnung dieses Mannes enthüllt sich erst in einem Telegramm vom 15. Juni an den französischen Ministerpräsidenten Reynaud. Er teilt ihm mit, daß die amerikanische Regierung die Hilfeleistungen an Frankreich verdoppeln wird, vorausgesetzt, daß Frankreich den Krieg gegen Deutschland fortsetzt. Um diesem Wunsch nach Kriegsverlängerung noch besonders Nachdruck zu geben, gibt er die Erklärung ab, daß die amerikanische Regierung die Ergebnisse der Eroberung, das heißt also die Rückgewinnung der einst Deutschland geraubten Gebiete nicht anerkennen werde. Ich brauche Ihnen nicht versichern, daß es jeder deutschen Regierung gleichgültig ist, ob der Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten eine Grenze in Europa anerkennt oder nicht und auch in der Zukunft gleichgültig sein wird!
Ich führe den Fall nur zur Charakterisierung der planmäßigen Hetze dieses Mannes an, der von Frieden heuchelt und ewig nur zum Kriege hetzt. Denn nun überfällt ihn die Angst, daß im Falle des Zustandekommens eines europäischen Friedens die Milliardenvergeudung seiner Aufrüstung in kurzer Zeit als glatter Betrug erkannt wird, da niemand Amerika angreift, wenn dieses nicht selbst den Angriff dazu provoziert!
Am 17. Juni 1940 verfügt der Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten die Sperrung der französischen Guthaben, um, wie er sich ausdrückt, sie dem deutschen Zugriff zu entziehen, in Wirklichkeit aber, um mit Hilfe eines amerikanischen Kreuzers das Gold von Casablanca nach Amerika abzuführen.
Vom Juli 1940 steigern sich die Maßnahmen Roosevelts immer mehr, um, sei es durch den Eintritt amerikanischer Staatsangehöriger in die britische Luftwaffe oder durch die Ausbildung von englischem Flugpersonal in den Vereinigten Staaten den Weg zum Kriege selbst zu finden. Und schon im August 1940 erfolgt die gemeinsame Aufstellung eines militärischen Programms für die Vereinigten Staaten und Kanada. Um aber nun die Bildung eines amerikanisch-kanadischen Verteidigungskomitees wenigstens den größten Dummköpfen plausibel erscheinen zu lassen, erfindet er von Zeit zu Zeit Krisen, in denen er tut, als ob Amerika von einem Überfall bedroht sei, was er seinem – schon wirklich erbarmungswürdigen – Anhang dadurch einsuggeriert, daß er plötzlich Reisen abbricht, in höchster Eile nach Washington zurückfährt, um solcherart die Gefährlichkeit der Situation zu unterstreichen.
Im September 1940 nähert er sich dem Krieg noch mehr. Er tritt an die englische Flotte 50 Zerstörer der amerikanischen Flotte ab, wofür er allerdings militärische Stützpunkte in den britischen Besitzungen von Nord- und Mittelamerika übernimmt. Wie denn überhaupt eines erst die Nachwelt klären wird, nämlich inwieweit bei all diesem Haß gegen das soziale Deutschland auch noch die Absicht mitspielt, das britische Empire in der Stunde des Verfalls möglichst sicher und gefahrlos übernehmen zu können.
Nachdem nun England nicht mehr in der Lage ist, mit barem Gelde amerikanische Lieferungen bezahlen zu können, preßt er dem amerikanischen Volk das Pacht- und Leihgesetz auf. Als Präsident erhält er nun Vollmachten zur pacht- und leihweisen Unterstützung der Länder, deren Verteidigung ihm, Roosevelt, für Amerika als lebenswichtig erscheinen.
Allein im März 1941 geht dieser Mann, nachdem Deutschland unter keinen Umständen zu bewegen ist, auf seine fortgesetzten Anflegelungen zu reagieren, wieder einen Schritt weiter.
Schon am 19. Dezember 1939 haben amerikanische Kreuzer innerhalb der Sicherheitszone den Dampfer Columbus britischen Kriegsschiffen in die Hände gespielt. Er mußte deshalb versenkt werden. Am selben Tage haben USA-Streitkräfte mitgewirkt bei dem Aufbringungsversuch des deutschen Dampfers Arauca. Am 27. Jänner 1940 hat der USA-Kreuzer Trenton wieder völkerrechtswidrig von Bewegungen der deutschen Handelsdampfer Arauca, La Plata und Wangoni die feindlichen Seestreitkräfte unterrichtet.
Am 27. Juni 1940 verfügte er vollständig Völkerrechtswidrig eine Beschränkung der Freizügigkeit ausländischer Handelsschiffe in USA-Häfen.
Im November 1940 ließ er die deutschen Dampfer Phrygia, Idarwald und Rhein durch USA-Kriegsschiffe solange verfolgen, bis sich diese Dampfer selbst versenken mußten, um nicht dem Feinde in die Hand zu fallen.
Am 13. April 1941 erfolgte die Freigabe des Verkehrs durch das Rote Meer für USA-Schiffe zur Versorgung der britischen Armeen im Nahen Osten.
Im Monat März war unterdes bereits die Beschlagnahme aller deutschen Schiffe durch die amerikanischen Behörden erfolgt. Deutsche Reichsangehörige wurden dabei in der entwürdigendsten Weise behandelt, ihnen gänzlich völkerrechtswidrig bestimmte Aufenthaltsorte angewiesen, Reisebeschränkungen auferlegt usw.
Zwei aus kanadischer Gefangenschaft entkommene deutsche Offiziere wurden ebenfalls entgegen allen völkerrechtlichen Bestimmungen gefesselt und wieder an die kanadischen Behörden ausgeliefert. Am 27. März begrüßt derselbe Präsident, der gegen jede Aggression ist, die durch eine Aggression in Belgrad nach dem Sturz der legalen Regierung ans Ruder gekommene Putschistenclique Simowitsch und Genossen.
Der Präsident Roosevelt schickte schon monatelang vorher den Oberst Donovan, ein vollständig minderwertiges Subjekt, in seinem Auftrag auf den Balkan, um dort zu versuchen, in Sofia und in Belgrad einen Aufstand gegen Deutschland und Italien herbeizuführen.
Er verspricht darauf im April Jugoslawien und Griechenland Hilfe auf Grund des Leih- und Pachtgesetzes. Noch Ende April erkennt dieser Mann die jugoslawischen und griechischen Emigranten wieder als Exilregierung an und sperrt im Übrigen erneut völkerrechtswidrig die jugoslawischen und griechischen Guthaben. Von Mitte April ab erfolgt außerdem eine weitere Überwachung des Westatlantiks durch USA-Patrouillen und deren Meldungen an die Engländer.
Am 26. April liefert Roosevelt an England 20 Schnellboote und zugleich finden laufend Reparaturen britischer Kriegsschiffe in USA-Häfen statt. Am 12. Mai erfolgt die völkerrechtswidrige Bewaffnung und Reparatur norwegischer Dampfer, die für England fahren. Am 4. Juni treffen amerikanische Truppentransporte in Grönland zum Flugplatzbau ein und am 9 Juni kommt die erste englische Meldung, daß auf Grund eines Befehls des Präsidenten Roosevelt ein USA-Kriegsschiff ein deutsches U-Boot bei Grönland mit Wasserbomben bekämpft habe.
Am 14. Juni erfolgt wieder völkerrechtswidrig die Sperrung der deutschen Guthaben in den Vereinigten Staaten. Am 17. Juni verlangt Präsident Roosevelt unter verlogenen Vorwänden die Zurückziehung der deutschen Konsuln und Schließung der deutschen Konsulate. Er verlangt weiter die Schließung der deutschen Presseagentur „Transocean,“ der deutschen Informationsbibliothek und der deutschen Reichsbahnzentrale. Am 6. bis 7. Juli erfolgt die Besetzung des in der deutschen Kampfzone gelegenen Island auf Befehl Roosevelts durch amerikanischen Streitkräfte.
Er hofft dadurch nun bestimmt:
- Deutschland endlich zum Kriege zu zwingen,
- ansonsten den deutschen U-Boot-Krieg wertlos zu machen, ähnlich wie im Jahre 1915/1916.
Zur gleichen Zeit schickt er ein amerikanisches Hilfsversprechen an die Sowjetunion ab. Am 10. Juli gibt plötzlich der Marineminister Knox bekannt, daß die USA-Marine einen Schießbefehl gegen die Achsenkriegsschiffe besitze. Am 4. September operiert der USA-Zerstörer Greer entsprechend dem ihm gegebenen Befehl mit englischen Flugzeugen gegen deutsche U-Boote im Atlantik.
Fünf Tage später stellt ein deutsches U-Boot USA-Zerstörer als Geleitfahrzeuge im englischen Konvoi fest. Am 11. September endlich hält Roosevelt jene Rede, in der er selbst den Befehl zum Schießen gegen alle Achsenschiffe bestätigt und neu erteilt. Am 29. September greifen USA-Bewacher ein deutsches U-Boot östlich Grönland mit Wasserbomben an. Am 17. Oktober bekämpft der USA-Zerstörer Kearney, im Geleitschutz für England fahrend, wieder ein deutsches U-Boot mit Wasserbomben und am 6. November endlich kapern USA-Streitkräfte völkerrechtswidrig den deutschen Dampfer Odenwald, schleppen ihn in einen amerikanischen Hafen und setzen die Besatzung gefangen.
Die beleidigenden Angriffe und Anflegelungen dieses sogenannten Präsidenten gegen mich persönlich will ich dabei als belanglos übergehen. Daß er mich einen Gangster nennt, ist umso gleichgültiger, als dieser Begriff wohl mangels an derartigen Subjekte nicht aus Europa, sondern aus den USA stammt!
Aber abgesehen davon, kann ich von Herrn Roosevelt überhaupt nicht beleidigt werden, denn ich halte ihn so wie einst Woodrow Wilson ebenfalls für geisteskrank.
Daß dieser Mann mit seinem jüdischen Anhang seit Jahren mit den gleichen Mitteln gegen Japan kämpft, ist uns bekannt. Ich brauche sie hier nicht zur Sprache bringen. Auch hier sind dieselben Methoden zur Anwendung gekommen. Erst hetzt dieser Mann zum Krieg, dann fälscht er die Ursachen, stellt willkürliche Behauptungen auf, hüllt sich dann in widerwärtiger Weise ein in eine Wolke christlicher Heuchelei und führt so langsam, aber sicher die Menschheit dem Krieg entgegen, nicht ohne dann als alter Freimaurer dabei Gott zum Zeugen anzurufen für die Ehrbarkeit seines Handelns.
Ich glaube. Sie alle werden es als eine Erlösung empfunden haben, daß nunmehr endlich ein Staat als erster gegen diese in der Geschichte einmalige und unverschämte Mißhandlung der Wahrheit und des Rechtes zu jenem Protest schritt, den dieser Mann ja gewünscht hat und über den er sich daher jetzt nicht wundern darf. Daß die japanische Regierung es nach jahrelangem Verhandeln mit diesem Fälscher endlich satt hatte, sich noch weiter in so unwürdiger Weise verhöhnen zu lassen, erfüllt uns alle, das deutsche Volk, und ich glaube, auch die übrigen anständigen Menschen auf der ganzen Welt. mit einer tiefen Genugtuung.
Wir wissen, welche Kraft hinter Roosevelt steht. Es ist jener Ewige Jude, der seine Zeit als gekommen erachtet, um das auch an uns zu vollstrecken, was wir in Sowjetrußland alle schaudernd sehen und erleben mußten. Wir haben das jüdische Paradies auf Erden nunmehr kennengelernt. Millionen deutscher Soldaten haben den persönlichen Einblick gewinnen können in ein Land, in dem dieser internationale Jude Mensch und Gut zerstörte und vernichtete. Der Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten mag das vielleicht selbst nicht begreifen. Dann spricht dies nur für seine geistige Beschränktheit.
Wir aber wissen, daß dies das Ziel seines ganzen Kampfes ist: Auch wenn wir nicht im Bündnis mit Japan stünden, wären wir uns darüber im Klaren, daß es die Absicht der Juden und ihres Franklin Roosevelt ist, einen Staat nach dem anderen allein zu vernichten. Das heutige Deutsche Reich hat aber nun nichts mehr gemein mit dem Deutschland von einst.
Wir werden daher auch von unserer Seite nun das tun, was dieser Provokateur seit Jahren zu erreichen versuchte. Nicht nur, weil wir Verbündete von Japan sind, sondern weil Deutschland und Italien in ihrer derzeitigen Führung genügend Einsicht und Stärke besitzen, um zu begreifen, daß in dieser historischen Zeit das Sein oder Nichtsein der Nationen bestimmt wird, vielleicht für immer.
Was diese andere Welt mit uns vorhat, ist uns klar. Sie haben das demokratische Deutschland von einst zum Verhungern gebracht, sie würde das sozialistische von jetzt ausrotten. Wenn Herr Roosevelt oder Herr Churchill erklären, daß sie dann später eine neue soziale Ordnung aufbauen wollen, dann ist das ungefähr so, als wenn ein Friseur mit kahlem Kopf ein untrügliches Haarwuchsmittel empfehlt.
Die Herren, die in den sozial rückständigsten Staaten leben, hätten, statt für Kriege zu hetzen, sich um ihre Erwerbslosen kümmern sollen! Sie haben in ihren Ländern Not und Elend genug, um sich dort im Sinne einer Verteilung von. Lebensmitteln zu beschäftigen. Was das deutsche Volk betrifft, so braucht es weder von Herrn Churchill noch von einem Herrn Roosevelt oder Eden Almosen, sondern es will nur sein Rechtl.
Und dieses Recht zum Leben wird es sich sicherstellen, auch wenn tausend Churchills oder Roosevelts sich dagegen verschwören wollten. Dieses Volk hier hat nun eine fast 2000jährige Geschichte hinter sich. Es war in dieser langen Zeit noch nie so einig und geschlossen wie heute und wie es, dank der nationalsozialistischen Bewegung, für alle Zukunft nun sein wird. Es war aber auch vielleicht noch nie so hellsehend und selten so ehrbewußt. Ich habe daher heute dem amerikanischen Geschäftsträger die Pässe zustellen und ihm folgendes eröffnen lassen:
Im Verfolg der immer weiteren Ausdehnung einer auf unbegrenzte Weltherrschaftsdiktatur gerichteten Politik des Präsidenten Roosevelt sind die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika im Verein mit England vor keinem Mittel zurückgewichen, um dem deutschen, dem italienischen und auch dem japanischen Volk die Voraussetzungen ihrer natürlichen Lebenserhaltung zu bestreiten. Die Regierungen Englands und der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika haben sich aus diesem Grunde nicht nur für die Gegenwart, sondern auch für alle Zukunft jeder berechtigten Revision zur Herbeiführung einer besseren Neuordnung der Welt entgegengesetzt.
Seit Kriegsbeginn hat sich der amerikanische Präsident Roosevelt in steigendem Maße eine Reihe schwerster völkerrechtswidriger Verbrechen zuschulden kommen lassen. Gesetzlose Übergriffe auf Schiffe und sonstiges Eigentum deutscher und italienischer Staatsbürger verbanden sich mit der Bedrohung, ja der willkürlichen Beraubung der persönlichen Freiheit der Betroffenen durch Internierungen usw., die sich auch sonst weiter verschärfenden Angriffe des Präsidenten der Vereinigten Staaten, Roosevelt, führten am Ende soweit, daß er der amerikanischen Marine den Befehl erteilte, entgegen allen Völkerrechtsbestimmungen. Schiffe deutscher und italienischer Nationalität überall sofort anzugreifen, zu beschießen und sie zu, versenken.
Amerikanische Minister rühmten sich auch, auf diese verbrecherische Weise deutsche U-Boote vernichtet zu haben. Deutsche und italienische Handelsschiffe wurden von amerikanischen Kreuzern überfallen, gekapert und ihre friedliche Besatzung in Gefängnisse abgeführt Ohne jeden Versuch einer amtlichen Widerlegung von seiten der amerikanischen Regierung wurde aber darüber hinaus nunmehr in Amerika der Plan des Präsidenten Roosevelt veröffentlicht spätestens im Jahre 1943 Deutschland und Italien mit militärischen Machtmitteln in Europa selbst angreifen zu wollen.
Dadurch ist das aufrichtige und von beispielloser Langmut zeugende Bestreben Deutschlands und Italiens, trotz der seit Jahren erfolgten unerträglichen Provokationen durch den Präsidenten Roosevelt eine Erweiterung des Krieges zu verhüten und die Beziehungen zu den Vereinigten Staaten aufrechtzuerhalten, zum Scheitern gebracht worden.
Deutschland und Italien haben demgegenüber sich nunmehr endlich gezwungen gesehen, getreu den Bestimmungen des Dreimächtepakts vom 27. September 1940 Seite an Seite mit Japan den Kampf zur Verteidigung und damit Erhaltung der Freiheit und Unabhängigkeit ihrer Völker und Reiche gegen die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und England gemeinsam zu führen.
Die drei Mächte haben deshalb das folgende Abkommen abgeschlossen und am heutigen Tage in Berlin unterzeichnet:
In dem unerschütterlichen Entschluß, die Waffen nicht niederzulegen, bis der gemeinsame Krieg gegen die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und England zum erfolgreichen Ende geführt worden ist, haben sich die deutsche Regierung, die italienische Regierung und die japanische Regierung über folgende Bestimmungen geeinigt:
ARTIKEL 1
Deutschland, Italien und Japan werden den ihnen von den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und England aufgezwungenen Krieg mit allen ihnen zu Gebote stehenden Machtmitteln gemeinsam bis zum siegreichen Ende führen.ARTIKEL 2
Deutschland, Italien und Japan verpflichten sich, ohne volles gegenseitiges Einverständnis weder mit den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika noch mit England Waffenstillstand oder Frieden zu schließen.ARTIKEL 3
Deutschland, Italien und Japan werden auch nach siegreicher Beendigung des Krieges zum Zwecke der Herbeiführung einer gerechten Neuordnung im Sinne des von ihnen am 27. September 1940 abgeschlossenen Dreimächtepaktes auf das engste zusammenarbeiten.ARTIKEL 4
Dieses Abkommen tritt sofort mit seiner Unterzeichnung in Kraft und bleibt ebenso lange wie der Dreimächtepakt vom 27. September 1940 in Geltung. Die hohen vertragschließenden Teile werden sich rechtzeitig vor Ablauf dieser Geltungsdauer über die weitere Gestaltung ihrer im Artikel 3 dieses Abkommens vorgesehenen Zusammenarbeit verständigen.Abgeordnete! Männer des Deutschen Reichstages!
Wir sind uns schon seit der Ablehnung meines letzten Friedensvorschlages vom Juli 1941 im Klaren, daß dieser Kampf bis zur letzten Konsequenz durchgekämpft werden muß. Daß sich die angelsächsisch-jüdisch-kapitalistische Welt mit dem Bolschewismus dabei in einer Front befindet, ist für uns Nationalsozialisten keine Überraschung. Wir haben sie im Innern stets in der gleichen Gemeinschaft gefunden. Allein wir haben diesen Kampf im Innern erfolgreich bestanden und unsere Gegner endlich nach sechzehnjährigem Ringen um die Macht vernichtet.
Als ich mich vor 23 Jahren entschloß, in das politische Leben einzutreten, um die Nation aus ihrem Verfall wieder emporzuführen, war ich ein namenloser unbekannter Soldat. Viele unter Ihnen wissen, wie schwer die ersten Jähre dieses Kampfes gewesen sind. Der Weg der kleinen Bewegung von sieben Mann bis zur Übernahme der verantwortlichen Regierung am 30. Jänner 1933 war ein so wundersamer, daß nur die Vorsehung selbst durch ihren Segen dies ermöglicht haben kann.
Heute stehe ich an der Spitze des stärksten Heeres der Welt, der gewaltigsten Luftwaffe und einer stolzen Marine. Hinter mir und um mich als eine verschworene Gemeinschaft weiß ich die Partei, mit der ich groß geworden bin und die durch mich groß geworden ist.
Die Gegner, die ich vor mir sehe, sind die bekannten Feinde seit über 20 Jahren. Allein der Weg, der vor mir liegt, ist nicht zu vergleichen mit dem Weg, auf den ich zurückblicken kann. Das deutsche Volk steht in der Erkenntnis der entscheidenden Stunde seines Daseins. Millionen von Soldaten erfüllen unter den schwersten Bedingungen gehorsam und treu ihre Pflicht. Millionen deutscher Bauern und Arbeiter, deutscher Frauen und Mädchen stehen in den Fabriken und Kontoren, auf den Feldern und Äckern und schaffen im Schweiße ihres Angesichts der Heimat das Brot und der Front die Waffen. Mit uns im Bunde sind starke Völker, die, von der gleichen Not gequält, die gleichen Feinde vor sich finden.
Der amerikanische Präsident und seine plutokratische Clique haben uns als die Völker der Habenichtse getauft. Das ist richtig!
Die Habenichtse aber wollen leben und sie werden auf alle Fälle erreichen, daß das Wenige, das sie zum Leben haben, ihnen nicht auch noch von den Besitzenden geraubt wird. Sie kennen, meine Parteigenossen. meine unerbittliche Entschlossenheit. einen einmal begonnenen Kampf bis zum erfolgreichen Ende zu führen. Sie kennen meinen Willen. in so einem Kampf vor nichts zurückzuscheuen. alle Widerstände zu brechen, die gebrochen werden müssen.
Ich habe Ihnen in meiner ersten Rede am 1. September 1939 versichert, daß in diesem Krieg weder Waffengewalt noch Zeit Deutschland niederzwingen werden. Ich will meinen Gegnern auch versichern, daß uns nicht nur die Waffengewalt oder die Zeit nicht bezwingen werden, sondern daß uns auch kein innerer Zweifel wankend machen kann in der Erfüllung unserer Pflicht.
Wenn wir an die Opfer unserer Soldaten denken, an ihren Einsatz, dann ist jedes Opfer der Heimat gänzlich belanglos und unbedeutend. Wenn wir aber die Zahl all jener uns überlegen, die in den Generationen schon vor uns für des deutschen Volkes Bestehen und Größe gefallen sind, dann wird uns erst recht die Größe der Pflicht bewußt, die auf uns selbst lastet.
Wer aber dieser Pflicht sich zu entziehen beabsichtigt, der hat keinen Anspruch darauf, in unserer Mitte als Volksgenosse bewertet zu werden.
So wie wir mitleidlos hart gewesen sind im Kampf um die Macht, werden wir genau so mitleidlos und hart sein im Kampf um die Erhaltung unseres Volkes. In einer Zeit, in der tausende unserer besten Männer, Väter und Söhne unseres Volkes fallen, soll keiner mit dem Leben rechnen, der in der Heimat die Opfer der Front entwerten will.
Ganz gleich, unter welchen Tarnungen, jemals der Versuch gemacht werden würde, diese deutsche Front zu stören den Widerstandswillen unseres Volkes zu untergraben, die Autorität des Regimes zu schwächen, die Leistungen der Heimat zu sabotieren! Der Schuldige wird fallen. Nur mit einem Unterschied, daß der Soldat an der Front dieses Opfer in höchster Ehre bringt, während der andere, der dieses Ehrenopfer entwertet, in Schande stirbt.
Unsere Gegner sollen sich nicht täuschen! In den 2.000 Jahren der uns bekannten deutschen Geschichte ist unser Volk niemals geschlossener und einiger gewesen als heute. Der Herr der Welten hat so Großes in den letzten Jahren an uns getan, daß wir in Dankbarkeit uns vor einer Vorsehung verneigen, die uns gestattet hat, Angehörige eines so großen Volkes sein zu dürfen. Wir danken ihm, daß wir angesichts der früheren und kommenden Generationen des deutschen Volkes auch uns in Ehren eintragen können in das unvergängliche Buch der deutschen Geschichte!
German declaration of war on the United States
December 11, 1941
The German Chargé d’Affaires, Dr. Hans Thomsen, and the First Secretary of the German Embassy, Mr. von Strempel, called at the State Department at 8:00 a.m. EST. The Secretary, otherwise engaged, directed that they be received by the Chief of the European Division of the State Department, Mr. Ray Atherton. Mr. Atherton received the German representatives at 9:30 a.m.
The German representatives handed to Mr. Atherton a copy of a note that is being delivered this morning to the American Chargé d’Affaires in Berlin. Dr. Thomsen said that Germany considers herself in a state of war with the United States. He asked that the appropriate measures be taken for the departure of himself, the members of the German Embassy, and his staff in this country. He reminded Mr. Atherton that the German government had previously expressed its willingness to grant the same treatment to American press correspondents in Germany as that accorded the American official staff on a reciprocal basis and added that he assumed that the departure of other American citizens from Germany would be permitted on the same basis of German citizens desiring to leave this country. He referred to the exchange of civilians that had been arranged at the time Great Britain and Germany broke off diplomatic relations.
The German Chargé d’Affaires then stated that the Swiss government would take over German interests in this country and that Dr. Bruggmann had already received appropriate instructions from his government.
He then handed Mr. Atherton a note from the German government. Mr. Atherton stated that in accepting this note from the German Chargé d’Affaires, he was merely formalizing the realization that the government and people of this country had faced since the outbreak of the war in 1939 of the threat and purposes of the German government and the Nazi regime toward this hemisphere and our free American civilization.
Mr. Atherton then said that this government would arrange for the delivery of Dr. Thomsen’s passports and that he assumed that we would very shortly be in communication with the Swiss Minister. He added that Dr. Thomsen must realize, however, that the physical difficulties of the situation would demand a certain amount of time in working out this reciprocal arrangement for the departure of the missions of the two countries. The German representatives then took their leave.
The text of the note which the German representatives handed to Mr. Ray Atherton, Chief of the European Division of the State Department, at 9:30 a.m., December 11, the original of which had been delivered the morning of December 11 to the American Chargé d’Affaires in Berlin, follows:
Herr Geschäftsträger!
Nachdem die Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika vom Ausbruch des durch die englische Kriegserklärung an Deutschland vom 3. September 1939 heraufbeschworenen europäischen Krieges an alle Regeln der Neutralität in immer steigendem Maße zugunsten der Gegner Deutschlands auf das flagranteste verletzt, sich fortgesetzt der schwersten Provokationen gegenüber Deutschland schuldig gemacht hat, ist sie schließlich zu offenen militärischen Angriffshandlungen übergegangen.
Am 11. September 1941 hat der Herr Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika öffentlich erklärt, daß er der amerikanischen Flotte und Luftwaffe den Befehl gegeben habe, auf jedes deutsche Kriegsfahrzeug ohne weiteres zu schießen. In seiner Rede vom 27. Oktober 1941 hat er nochmals ausdrücklich bestätigt, daß dieser Befehl in Kraft sei.
Gemäß diesem Befehl haben seit Anfang September 1941 amerikanische Kriegsfahrzeuge deutsche Seestreitkräfte systematisch angegriffen. So haben amerikanische Zerstörer, zum Beispiel die Greer, die Kearney und die Reuben James, planmäßig das Feuer auf deutsche U-Boote eröffnet. Der Staatssekretär der amerikanischen Marine, Herr Knox, hat selbst bestätigt‚ daß amerikanische Zerstörer deutsche U-Boote angegriffen haben.
Ferner haben die Seestreitkräfte der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika auf Befehl ihrer Regierung deutsche Handelsschiffe auf dem offenen Meere völkerrechtswidrig als feindliche Schiffe behandelt und gekapert.
Die Reichsregierung stellt daher fest:
Obwohl sich Deutschland seinerseits gegenüber den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika während des ganzen gegenwärtigen Krieges streng an die Regeln des Völkerrechts gehalten hat, ist die Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika von anfänglichen Neutralitätsbrüchen endlich zu offenen Kriegshandlungen gegen Deutschland übergegangen. Sie hat damit praktisch den Kriegszustand geschaffen.
Die Reichsregierung hebt deshalb die diplomatischen Beziehungen zu den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika auf und erklärt, daß sich unter diesen durch den Präsidenten Roosevelt veranlaßten Umständen auch Deutschland von heute ab als im Kriegszustand mit den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika befindlich betrachtet.
Mr. Chargé d’Affaires:
The Government of the United States having violated in the most flagrant manner and in ever-increasing measure all rules of neutrality in favor of the adversaries of Germany and having continually been guilty of the most severe provocations toward Germany ever since the outbreak of the European war, provoked by the British declaration of war against Germany on September 3, 1939, has finally resorted to open military acts of aggression.
On September 11, 1941, the President of the United States publicly declared that he had ordered the American Navy and Air Force to shoot on sight at any German war vessel. In his speech of October 27, 1941, he once more expressly affirmed that this order was in force. Acting under this order, vessels of the American Navy, since early September 1941, have systematically attacked German naval forces. Thus, American destroyers, as for instance the Greer, the Kearny and the Reuben James, have opened fire on German submarines according to plan. The Secretary of the American Navy, Mr. Knox, himself confirmed that American destroyers attacked German submarines.
Furthermore, the naval forces of the United States, under order of their Government and contrary to international law have treated and seized German merchant vessels on the high seas as enemy ships.
The German Government therefore establishes the following facts:
Although Germany on her part has strictly adhered to the rules of international law in her relations with the United States during every period of the present war, the Government of the United States from initial violations of neutrality has finally proceeded to open acts of war against Germany. The Government of the United States has thereby virtually created a state of war.
The German Government, consequently, discontinues diplomatic relations with the United States of America and declares that, under these circumstances brought about by President Roosevelt, Germany too, as from today, considers herself as being in a state of war with the United States of America.
Accept, Mr. Chargé d’Affaires, the expression of my high consideration.
December 11, 1941
RIBBENTROP
Statement by Italian Premier Mussolini
December 11, 1941
Camerali!
È questo un’altra giornata di decisioni solenni nella storia d’Italia e di memorabili eventi destinati ad imprimere un nuovo corso nella storia dei continenti.
Le Potenze del Patto di acciaio, l’Italia fascista e Germania nazionalsocialista, sempre piu strettamente unite, scendono oggi a lato dell’eroico Giappone contro gli Stati Uniti d’America.
Il Tripartito diventa un’alleanza militare che schiera attorno alle sue bandiere duecentocinquanta milioni di uomini risoluti a tutto pur di vincere.
Né l’Asse né il Giappone volevano l’estensione del conflitto.
Un uomo, un uomo solo, un autentico e democratico despota, attraverso una serie infinita di provocazioni, ingannando con una frode suprema le stesse popolazioni del suo Paese, ha voluto la guerra e l’ha preparata giorno per giorno con diabolica pertinacia.
I formidabili colpi che sulle immense distese del Pacifico sono già stati inferti alle forze americane mostrano di quale tempra siano i soldati del Sol Levante. Io dico, e voi lo sentite, che è un privilegio combatte re con loro.
Oggi il Tripartito, nella pienezza dei suoi mezzi morali e materiali, è uno strumento poderoso per la guerra e il garante sicuro della vittoria. Sara domani l’artefice e l’organizzatore della giusta pace tra i popoli.
Italiani e Italiane!
Ancora una volta in piedi. State degni di questa grande ora.
Vinceremo!
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Count Ciano received the Chargé d’Affaires of the United States of America at the Palazzo Chigi today at 2.30 p.m. EST and made the following statement:
S. M. il Re Imperatore dichiara che l’Italia si considera da oggi in stato di guerra con gli Stati Uniti d’America.
His Majesty the King and Emperor declares that from now on Italy regards itself as at war with the United States of America.
Pact between the Axis powers barring a separate peace with the United States and Britain
December 11, 1941
ARTICLE I
Italy, Germany and Japan will henceforth conduct in common and jointly a war which has been imposed on them by the United States of America and England, by all means at their disposal and until the end of hostilities.ARTICLE II
Italy, Germany and Japan undertake each for himself that none of the parties to the present accord will conclude either armistice or peace, be it with the United States or with England without complete and reciprocal agreement [of the three signatories to this pact].ARTICLE III
Italy, Germany and Japan, even after the victorious conclusion of this war, will collaborate closely in the spirit of the Tripartite Pact, concluded September 27, 1940, in order to realize and establish an equitable new order in the world.ARTICLE IV
The present accord is effective immediately on its signature and remains in force for the duration of the Tripartite Pact, signed September 27, 1940. The high contracting parties of this accord will at an opportune moment agree among themselves the means of implementing Article III above of this accord.
Message to Congress
December 11, 1941
On the morning of December 11, the government of Germany, pursuing its course of world conquest, declared war against the United States.
The long-known and the long-expected has thus taken place. The forces endeavoring to enslave the entire world now are moving toward this hemisphere.
Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty, and civilization.
Delay invites greater danger. Rapid and united effort by all of the peoples of the world who are determined to remain free will ensure a world victory of the forces of justice and of righteousness over the forces of savagery and of barbarism.
Italy also has declared war against the United States.
I therefore request the Congress to recognize a state of war between the United States and Germany, and between the United States and Italy.
JOINT RESOLUTION
Declaring that a state of war exists between the Government of Germany and the Government and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.
Whereas the Government of Germany has formally declared war against the Government and the people of the United States of America:
Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Government of Germany which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Government of Germany; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.
SAM RAYBURN
Speaker of the House of RepresentativesHENRY A. WALLACE
Vice President of the United States and the President of the SenateApproved —
December 11, 1941, 3:05 p.m. EST
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT
JOINT RESOLUTION
Declaring that a state of war exists between the Government of Italy and the Government and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.
Whereas the Government of Italy has formally declared war against the Government and the people of the United States of America:
Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Government of Italy which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Government of Italy; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.
SAM RAYBURN
Speaker of the House of RepresentativesHENRY A. WALLACE
Vice President of the United States and the President of the SenateApproved —
December 11, 1941, 3:06 p.m. EST
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT
U.S. State Department (December 11, 1941)
360M.1121 Devenis, Michael: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union to the Secretary of State
Kuybyshev (via Moscow), December 11, 1941 — 12 a.m.
[Received December 12 — 6:05 a.m.]
2040
With reference to the Department’s telegram No. 1261, December 6, 1 p.m., the Foreign Office has promised to investigate the question of Devenis’ alleged whereabouts and report its findings to the Embassy as soon as possible.
740.0011 Pacific War/1293
The Australian Minister to the Secretary of State
Washington, December 11, 1941
No. 269/41
Sir: I have the honour to convey to you the following message which I have received from the Australian Minister for External Affairs:
I desire to express the Commonwealth Government’s profound appreciation of the initiative[,] courage and patience displayed by the President of the United States and the Secretary of State in their endeavour to prevent war in the Pacific and in their objective of outlawing force as the instrument of national policy.
For the time being the attempt to maintain Pacific peace on the basis of law and justice has been checked by the sudden and treacherous attack of the Japanese forces while diplomatic negotiations were actually proceeding.
The Commonwealth Government is honoured to be associated with the United States in resisting the aggressors until they are finally overthrown and until the principles for which the President has so frequently declared are established not only in the Pacific but everywhere in the world.
I have [etc.]
R. G. CASEY
740.00111 ARNC/217a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Brazil
Washington, December 11, 1941 — 3 p.m.
1340
Please deliver following message from Professor Fenwick to Dr. Mello Franco:
Recommend Committee consider possible ways of extending functions to meet present emergency.
HULL
740.0011 European War 1939/17361: Telegram
The Consul General at Algiers to the Secretary of State
Algiers, December 11, 1941 — 3 p.m.
[Received December 12 — 3 a.m.]
629
From Murphy. Your 474, December 2, 9 p.m., to Casablanca.
Vice Admiral Fenard, who returned to Algiers last night, tells me that during his visit to Vichy Darlan convinced him that there is no reason to fear a German intrusion in this area. Darlan told him that no major concessions in French Africa had been made to the Germans or are contemplated. Darlan and other Vichy officials, he said, now manifest the greatest interest in the continuation of the American economic plan for North Africa. They hope that American vessels will be used in the New York-Casablanca run. Fenard declared that many French officials now only begin to realize the importance of French Africa and the American plan which some were inclined to deprecate. He mentioned the increasing alarm felt by many regarding the local economic situation which is acutely unsatisfactory. He said that there is real apprehension over the problem of keeping millions of discontented Arabs in line. Fenard said that Darlan’s offer to sell us the Normandie is a gesture which proves the French desire to be friendly.
He intimated, as did another Admiral (who asked that his name be not mentioned) just arrived from Vichy, that Darlan is convinced of American naval supremacy and is positive that the United States will defeat Japan. Under present circumstances Darlan cannot publish these sentiments but my contacts seem certain that he will be guided thereby in whatever influence he has on French policy. Fenard and other French officials here have expressed to us their sympathy with the United States in its war with Japan and their wishes for our victory. I believe that sentiment is shared by the bulk of the North African population.
Fenard painted a gloomy picture of North African economy, saying if American supplies are not received industry will drop to 10% of normal, and urged that we take prompt action to resume shipments to this area. He handed me a memorandum regarding the official contracts made for the purchase of goods in the United States, credits opened and licenses delivered for about 200,000 tons of merchandise with a value of approximately $5,500,000. The memorandum inquires whether the orders given, the licenses and navicerts granted stand and whether the ships now in New York may be loaded. The reply will, of course, affect the movements of the ships now in Casablanca which would carry cargoes for New York. Goods sold f.o.b. once on board of course become the risk of consignee. The memorandum urgently requests the Department’s early comment.
Admiral Fenard who was obviously acting under Darlan’s instructions concluded with an urgent appeal that we make our influence felt in this area where he said we are most welcome by sending American goods and American ships “before it is too late.”
Repeated to Vichy. Copies to North African offices by courier. [Murphy.]
COLE
851.33/206: Telegram
The Ambassador in France to the Secretary of State
Vichy, December 11, 1941 — 7 p.m.
[Received 11 p.m.]
1523
Department’s 898, December 6, 4 p.m., 903, December 8 [9], 6 p.m. and 908, December 10, 4 p.m.
At 6 p.m. conferred with the Marshal for a half hour with Admiral Darlan present and discussed the questions contained in cables referred to above, explaining to the Marshal that America’s formal involvement in war with Axis Powers may change the entire picture from the point of view of the United States.
The Marshal indicated a desire that we continue our economic relief in Africa and directed Admiral Darlan to prepare a memorandum reply to the specific questions contained in Department’s 898, December 6, 4 p.m., his first reaction apparently being that satisfaction could be given to our requests.
In regard to naval ships in French colonial ports in the Western Hemisphere, Admiral Darlan said they have no intention of leaving port and that they are disarmed. In reply to a categorical inquiry, he said he will issue instructions to Admiral and will inform me by memorandum in regard thereto.
In reply to a question as to any possible change in the attitude of the French Government toward this Embassy because of the declaration of war against us by Germany and Italy, the Marshal stated that he is most desirous of maintaining the existing understanding friendly relations between our two governments and that no demand has come from the Axis for France to change its attitude. He said, however:
If Germany should make such a demand, they can starve our civilian population and we are helpless.
He stated France intends to “remain neutral” and if Germany brings pressure to bear toward forcing a change, he will endeavor to find means to maintain our recent relations.
It is my personal opinion that no effective effort will be made by the Marshal’s Government in our behalf if Germany should ask that diplomatic relations between France and America be made difficult or interrupted. Such a request by Germany is expected by our friends in the Vichy Government and I believe it is also expected by the Marshal himself.
I told the Marshal that our formal involvement in the war caused by the German-Italian declarations of today changes the situation and makes any French assistance hereafter given to the Axis Powers a direct injury to the United States.
Both the Marshal and Darlan were particularly cordial during this interview and both expressed regret that America has become involved in the “World War.”
Repeated to Algiers.
LEAHY
860P.85/67
The Latvian Minister to the Secretary of State
Washington, December 11, 1941
Sir: I have been deeply affected by the announcement which has been made today that war has been declared upon the United States by Germany, the power which at the present time is illegally and by force occupying my own country. It seems hardly necessary for me to state that every patriotic Latvian must consider that the welfare of his country depends upon the defeat of Nazi Germany and desires to do everything possible to aid in bringing this about.
There are at the present time in the waters of this hemisphere eight vessels flying the Latvian flag. Practically all of these vessels are operating at the present time. They are not, however, functioning with full efficiency since conflicts are continually breaking out among the operators, the masters, and members of crew. These conflicts are extremely difficult to mediate or settle in view of the absence of the owners or lack of clarity of ownership, and because of their inability to call at, or to receive directions from, Latvian ports.
It is my considered opinion that these vessels would be much more useful if they should be taken over by the Government of the United States. I also feel that the interest of the owners would be more carefully safeguarded as a result of their requisitioning by the American Government. In case the American Government should consider that it would be desirable to requisition these vessels, I wish to assure it that I am willing to lend cooperation in this matter in every way that is legal and proper.
Accept [etc.]
Dr. ALFRED BILMANIS
125.0040/79: Telegram
The Minister of Hungary to the Secretary of State
Budapest, December 11, 1941 — 9 p.m.
[Received December 11 — 4:41 p.m.]
703
I saw Prime Minister 8 o’clock this evening. He said because of Central European solidarity which he compared with solidarity of all American Republics, Hungary was obliged to sever relations with United States but not with intention of declaring war.
He presumed Romania would follow suit and that all American officials from Hungary, Germany and Romania would be sent home together.
He said he would have to consult Berlin about our method of departure and route.
PELL
White House statement of thanks to the Republican and Democratic National Chairmen
December 11, 1941
Let me thank you both, personally and on behalf of our country, for the patriotic action you have in contemplation. The national organizations of the two great parties are capable of inestimable service in our present emergency. The nationwide quality of their personnel, the circumstance that their agents are men and women of eminence and respect in their respective communities will, I am sure, demonstrate that in time of war there can be no partisan domestic politics. There can be only a determined intent of a united people to carry on the struggle for human liberty to a victorious conclusion.
So, I am sure we appreciate – and the people will appreciate – that the political truce is for the period of the emergency and that the principles of our respective parties will continue to dominate our courses. When the war is over we will still be adhering to our historic method of settling our domestic problems which has made our country the great nation it is, and has shown the world that democratic freedom is a perfectly workable system of government.
My own thought, with which I hope you will agree, is that the two national party organizations can function to the best advantage in the field of civilian defense, but you will, of course, work out your own procedure and processes in carrying out your patriotic purpose.
Völkischer Beobachter (December 11, 1941)
Auch Churchill erhielt Japans erste Antwort –
Englands Fernost-Flotte entscheidend getroffen
Die zwei schnellsten Schlachtschiffe Prince of Wales und Repulse versenkt; niederschmetternder Eindruck in London
Eigener Bericht des „Völkischen Beobachters“
vb. Wien, 10. Dezember –
Ein furchtbarer Schlag hat Englands Flotte getroffen: ihr neuestes Schlachtschiff Prince of Wales und der Schlachtkreuzer Repulse sind an der Ostküste Malayas von japanischen Marineflugzeugen binnen 21 Minuten auf den Grund des Meeres geschickt worden. Das britische Fernostgeschwader, das erst vor kurzem durch diese kampfkräftigen Einheiten verstärkt worden war, verfügt über kein Schlachtschiff mehr. Die Japaner berichteten über diese einzigartige und bewundernswerte Waffentat, die selbst noch die Vernichtung der US-Schlachtschiffe West Virginia und Oklahoma vor Honolulu übertraf, durch folgende Meldung:
Das Kaiserliche Hauptquartier gibt bekannt, daß die japanische Marineluftwaffe die Schlachtschiffe Prince of Wales und Repulse in der Nähe der Ostküste der Malaienhalbinsel versenkt hat. Wie die Agentur Domei dazu weiter berichtet, wurde die britische Fernostflotte am Mittwoch um 11,30 Uhr japanischer Zeit in der Nähe der Ostküste der Malaienhalbinsel gesichtet. Japanische Flugzeuge traten sofort in Aktion. Die Repulse wurde um 14,29 Uhr durch Bombenvolltreffer augenblicklich versenkt. Das Schlachtschiff Prince of Wales erhielt nach einem Volltreffer Schlagseite auf Steuerbord und versuchte zu entkommen. Um 14,50 Uhr erhielt dieses Schlachtschiff jedoch weitere Treffer und sank.
Fünf US-Offiziere vor ein Kriegsgericht –
Die Katastrophe von Hawai
dnb. Neuyork, 10. Dezember –
Die Erregung über den japanischen Schlag auf Pearl Harbour hat nach Mitteilung einer US-Nachrichtenagentur jetzt den Abgeordneten von Michigan veranlaßt, den Kongreß aufzufordern, fünf hohe Offiziere der US-Armee und -Marine vor ein Kriegsgericht zu stellen. Unter ihnen befinde sich auch der Flottenchef der US-Flotte im Stillen Ozean, Kimmel, der, wie die Agentur sagt, für die Katastrophe in Pearl Harbour verantwortlich sei.
Japans Operationen auf den Philippinen –
Die ersten größeren Kämpfe mit US-Truppen
dnb. Tokio, 10. Dezember –
Wie der japanische Militärsprecher in Schanghai zu der Landung japanischer Truppen auf den Philippinen ergänzend bekanntgab, ist es den Japanern gelungen, trotz feindlicher Gegenwehr auf der Hauptinsel Luzon Fuß zu fassen, und zwar bei Vigan an der Nordwestküste und bei Aparri an der Nordküste der Insel. Vermutlich sind noch weitere Landungen erfolgt, jedoch liegen hierüber noch keine Nachrichten vor.
Die Landungen wurden im Laufe des Dienstag durch Bodentruppen mit Unterstützung von Marine- und Luftstreitkräften durchgeführt. Wie aus Manila verlautet, sind seit Mittwoch die ersten größeren Kämpfe mit US-Streitkräften im Gange, wobei die japanische Kriegsmarine in die Kampfhandlungen eingriff.
Wie das Kaiserliche Hauptquartier meldet, hat die japanische Luftwaffe wieder schwerste Angriffe auf den Flugplatz Nichols bei Manila und Davao durchgeführt. Hallen, Werkstätten und Rollbahnen wurden zerstört.
Wie aus einer aufgefangenen-Rundfunksendung hervorgeht, hat der Oberbefehlshaber der US-Streitkräfte in Manila, MacArthur, in einer Rundfunkerklärung zugegeben, daß den japanischen Truppen im Zusammenwirken mit See- und Luftstreitkräften eine Landung „an einem gewissen Punkt“ im Norden von Manila gelungen sei.
Wie weiter aus Manila bekannt wird, haben japanische Flugzeuge am Mittwochmittag erneut die Hauptstadt der Philippinen angegriffen und Bomben auf das Hafengebiet in der Nähe von Fort Santiago sowie auf Schiffe im Hafen abgeworfen. Die letzten Augenzeugenberichte besagen, daß neun japanische Kampfflugzeuge unter starkem Flakfeuer in großer Höhe über der Funkstation gesichtet worden seien. Die Zahl der Opfer in Manila soll bereits auf 7.000 angestiegen sein.
Die Filipinos. so wird von neutraler Seite mitgeteilt, seien durch die hohen Verluste der US-Truppen stark beeindruckt. Die amerikanische Polizei habe durch ein verstärktes Aufgebot Maßnahmen zur Aufrechterhaltung der Ruhe getroffen.
Auf den Philippinen befinden sich, wie Domei berichtet, schätzungsweise 38.000 Mann amerikanischer und philippinischer Truppen unter Befehl Generals MacArthur, davon 18.000 Mann regulärer Truppen. Die Philippinen seien in drei Wehrbezirke eingeteilt, nämlich in die Bezirke Nord- und Südluzon und Mindanao. Da die philippinische Luftwaffe durch die japanischen Bombenangriffe der letzten zwei Tage stärkstens geschwächt worden sei, sei anzunehmen, daß die Widerstandskraft gegenüber den japanischen Truppen, die heute Morgen erfolgreiche Landungen durchführten, gebrochen sei.
Mit der Präzision eines Uhrwerks
Das kaiserliche Hauptquartier bestätigte am Mittwoch mittag die Meldung, daß japanische Armee- und Marinestreitkräfte in engem Zusammenwirken eine erfolgreiche Landung auf der Insel Guam und Wake durchgeführt haben.
Gleichzeitig gaben die Armee- und die Marineabteilung des kaiserlichen Hauptquartiers in einer gemeinsamen Erklärung bekannt, daß die Operationen der japanischen Truppen, die am Morgen des 10. Dezember eine Landung auf den Philippinen durchgeführt haben, in raschem Fortschreiten begriffen sind.
Der Sprecher betonte, daß die Durchführung der Angriffe auf Hawai, Guam, Wake, die Philippinen und Singapur trotz der Streckenausdehnung von 18.000 Kilometer uhrwerkmäßig geklappt habe. Die Angriffe seien genau zur gleichen Zeit erfolgt. Es sei unausbleiblich, daß an einzelnen Stellen ungünstiges Wetter für die Operationen geherrscht habe, doch seien die Ergebnisse auch in diesen Fällen zufriedenstellend gewesen. Die japanischen Überwasserstreitkräfte und die Unterseebootwaffe erlitten am ersten Kampftage keinerlei Verluste, teilte der Sprecher der japanischen Armee in Hongkong mit. Während allen Operationen dieses Tages hatte die Luftwaffe noch nicht einmal zehn Flugzeuge verloren.
Glodschey: Die Stärke der Flotten im Pazifik
Von unserem Marinemitarbeiter Erich Glodschey
Angesichts der weiten Entfernungen von jeweils mehreren tausend Seemeilen, die zwischen den Hauptstützpunkten der kriegführenden Mächte im Stillen Ozean liegen, kommt es bei einem Vergleich der Flottenstärken vor allem auf die Schiffe mit großem Fahrbereich an. Den Kern der Seestreitkräfte, die im Pazifik handelnd auftreten. bilden also die Schlachtschiffe, Flugzeugträger und Kreuzer.
Als Japan während des Weltkrieges 1914 bis 1918 seine Kriegsflotte gerade an schweren Schiffen erheblich verstärkte, erregte es bei den Vereinigten Staaten heftiges Mißfallen. Die Vereinigten Staaten ihrerseits hatten damals bereits den Bestand Englands an Großkampfschiffen überflügelt. Der englischen Diplomatie gelang es, die USA zur Anerkennung des Grundsatzes der Flottengleichheit zu bringen. Dieser Kuhhandel wurde auf Kosten Japans abgeschlossen. England verriet sein Bündnis mit Japan und unterstütze die USA auf der Flottenkonferenz von Washington 1922 in ihrer Politik, die japanische Kriegsmarine zurückzudrängen. So mußte sich Japan mit dem Verhältnis 3:5:5 in der Flottenstärke gegenüber England und den USA begnügen. Eine ganze Reihe von japanischen Schlachtschiffneubauten mußte damals verschrottet werden.
Amerikanischer Bluff…
Auf diese Weise gab es bis zum Ablauf des Washingtoner Abkommens im Jahre 1936 ein festes Verhältnis zwischen der japanischen und amerikanischen Flottenstärke, dass erst in den letzten fünf Jahren durch die Neubauten verändert worden ist. Agitatorische Stärkevergleiche aus Washington bringen jetzt die Zahl der fertigen, im Bau befindlichen oder gar erst geplanten Kriegsschiffe absichtlich durcheinander und kommen beispielsweise zu dem absurden Vergleich, daß 12 japanischen Schlachtschiffen 32 amerikanische gegenüberstehen sollen oder 6 japanischen Flugzeugträgern, 18 amerikanische, bzw. 38 japanischen Kreuzern 85 entsprechende Schiffe der Amerikaner. Dabei werden die Pläne, die Roosevelt durch den Bau der Zwei-Ozean-Flotte in den nächsten fünf oder zehn Jahren verwirklichen will, bereits als vollendete Tatsache gewertet. Die wirkliche Lage sieht anders aus, wie auch einige englische Flottensachverständige offen zugeben.
…und die Wirklichkeit
Beim Aufhören des Washingtoner Flottenvertrages besaß Japan neun Schlachtschiffe, darunter zwei der Nagato-Klasse mit 40,6-Zentimeter-Geschützen. Die Vereinigten Staaten halten 15 Schlachtschiffe, darunter 3 der West-Virginia-Klasse mit 40,6-Zentimeter-Geschützen. Die japanischen Neubauten sind unter strenger Geheimhaltung durchgeführt worden, aber man rechnet allgemein damit, daß das als Schulschiff benutzte Schlachtschiff Hiei zusätzlich wieder aufgerüstet werden ist und daß mindestens zwei neue Schlachtschiffe von 42.500 Tonnen mit 40,6-Zentimeter-Geschützen gebaut worden sind. Weitere Neubauten werden vermutet. In den Vereinigten Staaten sind zwar eine Anzahl Schlachtschiffe im Bau, aber fertiggestellt sind nach eigenen US-Berichten auch erst die beiden 35.000-Tonnen-Schlachtschiffe Washington und North Carolina mit 40,6-Zentirneter-Geschützen. Nach englischen Presseberichten sollen diese Schlachtschiffe aber noch nicht voll dienstbereit sein.
Da drei ältere US-Schlachtschiffe auf der Atlantikstation Dienst zu tun pflegten, rechnet jetzt beispielsweise der Marinemitarbeiter des Londoner Daily Telegraph damit, daß sich bei Kampfbeginn nur 12 US-Schlachtschiffe im Pazifik befanden. wo sie der gleichen Anzahl von japanischen Schlachtschiffen gegenüberstanden. Inzwischen haben aber die ersten japanischen Schläge die Stärke der amerikanischen Schlachtschiffflotte im Pazifik fühlbar vermindert. Nach amtlicher japanischer Mitteilung sind zwei US-Schlachtschiffe im pazifischen Hauptkriegshafen Pearl Harbour (Hawai) versenkt und vier weitere beschädigt werden, ein bedeutsamer Anfangserfolg im Sinne eines Kräfteausgleichs für die weiteren Kampfhandlungen. Die Rückwirkungen auf den Atlantik liegen ebenfalls auf der Hand.
Ein schwerer Verlust
Es handelt sich bei den US-Verlusten einmal tim das Schlachtschiff Oklahoma (29.000 Tonnen. zehn 35,6-Zentimeter-Geschützen), das 1914 vom Stapel lief. aber inzwischen mehrfach modernisiert worden ist. Wenn Roosevelt den Verlust damit bagatellisieren wollte, daß er ganz beiläufig vom „Kentern eines alten Schlachtschiffes“ sprach, so vermag das nichts an der Schwere dieses Verlustes eines vollwertigen Schlachtschiffes zu ändern. Inzwischen ist in einer Reuter-Meldung aus Washington auch der zweite Schlachtschiffverlust der USA zugegeben werden. Bei diesem Schiff handelt es sich nach japanischen Beobachtungen um die West Virginia, das neueste US-Schlachtschiff von den jetzigen Neubauten. Die West Virginia (31.800 Tonnen) war eines der drei US-Schlachtschiffe, die mit acht 40,6-Zentimeter-Geschützen bewaffnet sind. Für die Seekriegführung im Pazifik ist ferner zu berücksichtigen, daß die japanischen Schlachtschiffe schon vor der jetzigen Neubauperiode an Geschwindigkeit die US-Schlachtschiffe sämtlich um zwei bis vier Seemeilen übertrafen. Offensichtlich sollte die Verlegung des neuesten schnellen Schlachtschiffs der englischen Flotte Prince of Wales (35.000 Tonnen, zehn 35,6-Zentimeter-Geschütze) nach Singapore hier einen gewissen Ausgleich schaffen, um auf die japanischen Marinekreise Eindruck zu machen. Aber diese Stimmungsmache, die auf Kosten der englischen militärischen Bedürfnisse im Atlantik und im Mittelmeer erfolgte, hat das Zutrauen der japanischen Seeoffiziere zur Angriffskraft ihrer Flotte gegen die materielle Stärke der USA nicht vermindert.
Bei den Flugzeugträgern war ohnehin für Japan ein günstigeres Stärkeverhältnis gegeben. Sechs fertige japanische Flugzeugträger stehen in den Flottenlisten gegen sechs US-Flugzeugträger, von denen sich nach dem Daily Express vier im Pazifik befanden. Einer ist möglicherweise bereits versenkt worden. Durch Neubauten dürfte Japan in der nächsten Zeit schneller einen Zuwachs an Flugzeugträgern erhalten können als die US-Flotte, deren Bauten später auf Stapel gelegt worden sind. Die US-Hoffnungen auf den Einsatz von einem oder zwei englischen Flugzeugträgern im Fernen Osten dürften durch die Versenkung der Ark Royal ein wenig gedämpft werden sein.
An fertigen schweren Kreuzern verzeichnete Japan vor Beginn der Neubauperiode 12 Schiffe gegen 18 amerikanische, an leichten Kreuzern 26 gegen 19 der USA. Nun haben die USA inzwischen ihren Bau von- leichten Kreuzern beschleunigt, aber auch Japan ist sicherlich nicht untätig geblieben, Japan hat nach den schon erwähnten eigenen Angaben insbesondere auf dem Gebiete der schweren Kreuzer für den Handelskrieg kräftigen Zuwachs erhalten. Ein Londoner Nachrichtendienst äußert die Vermutung, daß die neuen schweren japanischen Kreuzer ein stärkeres Kaliber als das sonst übliche von 20,3 Zentimeter trügen und sich die Erfahrungen der deutschen Panzerschiffe zunutze gemacht hätten, die ja heute ebenfalls als schwere Kreuzer bezeichnet werden.
Unterseeboote ernste US-Sorge
Die gleiche englische Quelle rechnet mit dem Vorhandensein von 100 japanischen Zerstörern, wobei aber 41 kleinere Zerstörer nicht mitgerechnet sind. Ihnen stehen etwa 180 größere und kleinere US-Zerstörer gegenüber, nachdem sich die US-Flotte durch den Verkauf von 50 älteren Zerstörern an England erheblich geschwächt hatte. Nicht ohne Grund legt der US-Marineminister Knox auf schnellere Fertigstellung neuer Zerstörer besonderen Wert, denn der weite Fahrbereich der japanischen Unterseeboote (darunter zahlreiche Unterseekreuzer nach deutschem Vorbild des Weltkrieges) ist bekannt. Londoner Berichte rechnen jetzt mit 74 fertigen japanischen Unterseebooten, die zusammen mit der japanischen Marineluftwaffe fortan eine ernste Sorge der US-Marine sind, die nun im Pazifik sehr lange Seewege zu schützen hat.
U.S. War Department (December 11, 1941)
Communiqué No. 3
The Commanding General, Far East Command, confirms the sinking of a 29,000-ton Japanese battleship by the U.S. Army Air Forces north of Luzon. This battleship is believed to be the 29,000-ton HARUNA or a vessel of the HARUNA class.
Continued attempts by strong Japanese forces to establish themselves along the northern coast of Luzon were reported. Determined resistance has confined this action to the vicinity of Aparri, at the extreme northern tip of Luzon, where the Japanese attempted to establish a beachhead yesterday. Air activity continued in the vicinity of Manila, with intermittent attacks on airfields at Cavite and Nichols Field throughout the day.
U.S. Navy Department (December 11, 1941)
Communiqué No. 2
The Marine garrison on Wake Island has been subject to four separate attacks in the last 48 hours by enemy aircraft and one by light naval units. Despite the loss of part of the defending planes and the damage to material and personnel, the defending garrison succeeded in sinking one light cruiser and one destroyer of the enemy forces by air action. A resumption of the attack and a probable landing attempt is expected. The Marine garrison is continuing to resist. The above report is based on information received up until noon December 11.
Communiqué No. 3
The Navy Department announced that Adm. Thomas C. Hart, USN, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet, has reported that Navy patrol planes scored bomb hits on a Japanese battleship of the KONGO class off the coast of Luzon. The ship was badly damaged. This is the second Japanese battleship to be bombed effectively by U.S. forces.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 11, 1941)
WAR BULLETINS!
U.S. Ambassador and Pétain meet
Vichy, France –
Adm. William D. Leahy, U.S. Ambassador to Vichy, conferred with Chief of State Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain for 30 minutes tonight.
British commander missing
Singapore –
Sir Tom Phillips, Commander-in-Chief of Britain’s Far Eastern Fleet, is missing in the HMS Prince of Wales-Repulse disaster, an official communiqué said tonight. Capt. John Leach of HMS Prince of Wales is also missing, the communiqué said.
Autos on Turnpike searched
Somerset, Pennsylvania –
All autos entering the tunnels on the Pennsylvania Turnpike are being searched by State Motor Police against any possible acts of sabotage.
British hold in northern Malaya
Singapore –
A British communiqué reported today that Japanese air and sea forces still appear to be engaged in raiding operations over wide areas of the Pacific. The communiqué said that British defenses in northern Malaya are holding firmly against Japanese attacks and that “there appears to be no change in the enemy’s plans.”
No further Japanese efforts to land in the Kuantan area, north of Singapore, were reported.
18-64 draft ages suggested
Washington –
Brig. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, Director of Selective Service, said today that it might be desirable eventually to register all men between the ages of 18 and 64, inclusive, for military service, civilian defense and other purposes.
Roosevelt praises ‘political truce’
Washington –
President Roosevelt today expressed his appreciation to leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties for their “political truce” invoked for the duration of the emergency and suggested that the facilities of the party organizations be used in civilian defense.
Casualty list received
Washington –
Chairman David I. Walsh (D-MA) of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee said today that the Hawaiian casualty list was received by the Navy this morning but will not be made public for two or three days so that next of kin can be notified first.
Foreign service approved
Washington –
The Senate and House today swiftly passed legislation permitting President Roosevelt to use U.S. troops anywhere in the world in prosecution of the war against the Axis. The measure also extends the term of service for selectees to six months past the duration of war.
Honolulu evacuation plans ready
Washington –
Plans have been completed to evacuate 60,000 civilians from the city of Honolulu if it is threatened with sea or air attack again. The program provides for the movement of 40,000 civilians to camp sites scattered over the island of Oahu, and another 20,000 to small villages on the lee side of the island.
Attack on Jap base reported
Batavia, NEI –
The official Aneta News Agency today reported that Australian bombers have attacked a Japanese air base on the island of Pobre, between the Celebes and the Japanese island of Palau. Pobre is southeast of the Philippines.
Nazis execute 11 Frenchmen
Vichy, France –
German authorities in Brest have executed 11 Frenchmen for illegal possession of arms. The executions bring to a total of 199 the number of persons executed in occupied France in reprisal for anti-German activities.
Americans seek way home
London, England –
The Exchange Telegraph Agency reported from Lisbon today that many Americans had arrived there from France in hope of getting passage to the United States.
Filipinos to ‘do part to the end’
Manila, Philippines –
President Manuel Quezon, replying to President Roosevelt’s “heartening message,” today asserted that the Philippines “will do their part to the end.” The Malacañan (Philippine White House) announced that Quezon is reorganizing the Civilian Emergency Administration to enable its more efficient operations.
U.S. correspondents restricted
London, England –
The United Press listening post heard the official German news agency report that American press correspondents in Paris have been banned from press conferences there and ordered to remain in their homes.
Trading in Axis dollar bonds suspended
New York –
Trading in Italian and German dollar bonds was suspended by the New York Stock Exchange today following the declarations of war on the United States by both those countries.
Writer hits Axis hard
London, England –
German soldiers “cry like children” and Italians “die like flies” in the severe cold on the Russian front, Radio Moscow said today.
Taft predicts unlimited support
Washington –
Senator Robert A. Taft (R-OH) said today that President Roosevelt will have the unlimited support of every American in the all-out war which he predicted will last at least five years.
Raid closings hamper coast defense work
Four aircraft plants are forced to shut in new blackout
By the United Press
Southern California’s defense industries, including aircraft plants building $1 billion worth of warplanes, sought today to bolster defense precautions to prevent costly shutdowns during air-raid alarms.
Four aircraft plants were closed last night, their production of vital planes and parts halted, because of a three-hour air-raid alarm during which the Army said an enemy plane was overhead.
Consolidated Aircraft, building $750 million worth of heavy bombers, Ryan Aeronautical and Solar Aircraft, building training planes, and Rohr Aircraft, manufacturer of equipment, were told by the Army to order their 17,000 night-shift workers home because their planes could not be completely blacked out.
Shipyards hampered
Shipyards, where most of the activity is outdoors, were also hampered by the blackouts and production was delayed.
The Army said it would cooperate to prevent delays when possible and ordered elimination of all practice blackouts. The alert signals will also be dispensed with and henceforth warnings will be flashed only when aircraft is approaching and immediately full blackouts are necessitated.
The alarm last night was spread throughout Southern California from Bakersfield to the border town of Tijuana, Mexico, and the southern tip of Nevada where Boulder Dam is located, when the Army heard an unidentified plane “over and south of Los Angeles.”
Planes sent up
Planes of the Interceptor Command were sent up, anti-aircraft units were ordered to blast the plane if it were spotted, and the entire area was blacked out. Army searchlights pierced the night.
Capt. Harry S. Fuller, air-raid warning official here, said that “by a process of elimination” the Army concluded the unidentified plane was an enemy craft.
The blackout through the area was “near perfect” with the exception of Los Angeles where it was “spotty,” he said.
The Pacific Northwest, from Roseburg, Oregon, to Alaska and west of the Cascade Mountains, underwent its third night of blackout. Radio stations closed down at 7:30 p.m. PST (10:30 p.m. EST), although lights were not turned off until 1:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. EST) in Washington and Oregon. British Columbia, blanketed by a heavy fog, went on a complete blackout basis at dusk.
Perfect ARP systems
Prodded by New York Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, Director of Civilian Defense, Pacific Coast cities began perfecting their air-raid warden systems. He said San Francisco, and all other exposed cities, needed gas masks, more firefighting equipment, more air-raid wardens, more auxiliary firefighters, more drills.
La Guardia said he was “not satisfied with civilian defense forces anywhere,” but that the United States, after three days of war, was ahead of Great Britain at a corresponding period of the European war.
In Portland, Oregon, the City Council passed an ordinance providing $500 fine and six months’ imprisonment for violation of blackout regulations.
Has third alarm
Metropolitan New York had its third alarm in 24 hours yesterday.
The Eastern alarm was attributed, as were the two before it, to overzealousness on the part of warning signal operators. Planes were spotted, but they turned out to be U.S. naval craft. Tuesday’s two alarms were traced to a “phony tip.”
The latest New York alarm caught the city’s millions during the morning rush hour. Air-raid wardens herded crowds off the streets, stopped children en route to school and sent them home.
Lasts 12 minutes
The alarm lasted 12 minutes in Manhattan, longer in other boroughs and counties on Long Island, where the sirens first began shrieking.
All patients who could be removed were ordered evacuated from the U.S. Veterans Hospital near San Francisco’s Golden Gate.
Canadian and U.S. military planes scoured the fog-shrouded Pacific coastal waters from Vancouver Island to Alaska for Japanese aircraft carriers and other enemy craft.
RCAF authorities refused to comment on the results.
Senator halts vote to allow troops abroad
Johnson says AEF sought; draftee age minimum slash opposed
Washington (UP) –
Immediate Congressional approval of legislation authorizing use of selectees and National Guardsmen outside the Western Hemisphere was blocked today by Senator Hiram W. Johnson (R-CA) because he understood “it’s for an AEF.”
The House was prepared to pass the legislation, but deferred action pending Senate approval.
Mr. Johnson objected after there developed a parliamentary tangle requiring unanimous consent to bring up the proposal in advance of action on the chamber’s “unfinished business” – a tristate river compact.
He told reporters later that his maneuver gave him time to study the measure.
The legislation was called up by Chairman Robert R. Reynolds (D-NC) of the Military Affairs Committee, who believes that an AEF of millions of men will be needed to crush Japan and defeat Germany if formal hostilities with that nation begin.
In the House, Chairman Andrew J. May (D-KY) of the Military Affairs Committee announced he would oppose any proposal to lower the minimum draft age from 21 to 18 years. He said the War Department had sent the committee no request for legislation to broaden the present age limits of 21-28 to 18-44, but that such a proposal would be given “fair and impartial hearings” if offered.
He said:
I am ready to do whatever is necessary to help this country win, but I don’t want to go below the age of 21.
Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY), who returned recently from active duty with the Army, said he would support the bill eliminating hemisphere restrictions on use of troops because:
It is very proper in time of war.
Mexican troops rushed to defend Pacific Coast
Mexico City, Mexico (UP) –
All Mexican troops, airplanes and gunboats “that can be spared” were moving west today and it was revealed that Gen. Lázaro Cárdenas, former Mexican President, had been named commander of Mexico’s entire armed forces on the Pacific from the American border to Guatemala.
President Manuel Ávila Camacho designated Gen. Cárdenas to coordinate the nation’s emergency defense plans in cooperation with the United States against a possible invasion threat by Japan.
In a special presidential decree, President Camacho consolidated 12 western military zones and two naval zones to be commanded by Gen. Cárdenas from headquarters at Ensenada, Baja California.
Meanwhile, six generals and one admiral of the Spanish Republic, now refugees in Mexico from the regime of Gen. Francisco Franco, offered President Ávila Camacho the service of hundreds of other refugees with military and technical training.
The Defense Ministry did not reveal the exact number of troops or planes to be concentrated on the Pacific. The force would admittedly be limited since first-line troops under arms now total less than 60,000 men and the air force can count on less than 100 planes.
Nevertheless, the concentration will be of inestimable value in strengthening vigilance against surprise attacks along the 4,574 miles of Mexican coastline in the Pacific.
ARMY BOMBERS SINK JAP BATTLESHIP
Planes blast Jap vessel in Luzon action
Stimson confirms report of success – invasion continues
Where fighting rages in Philippines
U.S. forces fought off the Japanese from Manila to the top of Luzon Island today. (1) A Japanese battleship was set afire and sunk off the north coast. (2) An invasion thrust was beaten back at San Fernando. (3) Mopping-up operations against Japanese landing parties was in progress at Lingayen, 100 miles north of Manila. (4) Japanese planes continued to raid the great Cavite Naval Base and the Army air base at Nichols Field.
Washington (UP) –
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson today confirmed the sinking of the 29,000-ton Japanese battleship Haruna off the northern coast of Luzon yesterday by U.S. Army bombers.
Mr. Stimson told a press conference that the Office of Naval Intelligence had just “confirmed the sinking by Army bombers of the 29,000-ton Japanese battleship Haruna off Luzon.”
He made the announcement just before the War Department issued a 10:30 a.m. EST (11:30 p.m. PHT) communiqué on Philippine operations in which the sinking of the battleship was reported.
The Haruna (a vessel of 29,330 tons) was built in 1913 and carried 980 officers and men. The ship was armed with eight 14-inch guns, 16 6-inch guns and lesser arms. The Haruna carried three aircraft, which were added to her equipment in 1927. The ship was refitted between 1926 and 1930.
Thus the United States has revenged at least in part the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Sunday in which the loss of one old U.S. battleship has been officially announced and other losses reported.
The War Department communiqué said that there were continued attempts by strong Japanese forces to establish themselves along the northern coast of Luzon.
The communiqué said:
Determined resistance has confined this action to the vicinity of Aparri, at the extreme northern tip of Luzon, where the Japanese attempted to establish a beachhead yesterday. Air activity continued in the vicinity of Manila, with intermittent attacks on airfields at Cavite and Nichols Field throughout the day.
Mr. Stimson said that Aparri is just a “small landing place,” which is shut off from the main part of the island by mountains, and that if the Japanese attempt to transport an army through the passes, it will “be a slow job.”
Mr. Stimson said that he had sent a message to Lt. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of U.S. Far Eastern forces, congratulating him on the sinking, his defense against “great odds” and the conduct of the U.S. Army and Philippine troops.
Heavy loss of planes
Mr. Stimson predicted the ultimate triumph of the United States cause over the “autocratic” powers.
He said there was a “heavy loss” of planes in Hawaii as a result of Sunday’s surprise raid, but said that it “can and is being made good at the present moment.”
He also said that full details of the attack are not yet known, but that the principal concern of the War Department is getting defenses strengthened everywhere.
Mr. Stimson said:
We do not believe in recrimination of placing the blame on anybody at this time. We believe that is a sign of immaturity. The investigations can come later. Now we are stressing preparedness.
Praises aviators
He said that one incident had given him great encouragement during the attack on Hawaii. While the bombing was in progress, he revealed, a flight of Flying Fortresses arrived in Hawaii from San Francisco. Mr. Stimson said that the first of these planes was shot down, but the others were able to land safely at other airports. Of these, he said two suffered slight damage which has been repaired.
He said that this showed the ability of U.S. soldiers to keep their heads and take care of themselves.
Mr. Stimson told newsmen that we must expect initial reverses but that it is “the last shots and not the first that count.”
Early reverses seen
He said the American people should be careful never to underestimate the ability of the Japanese seamen, because:
I’ve seen enough of them in the Far East to know.
Mr. Stimson said:
The American people have been put through a very heavy test during the past few days. When we survey the situation cold-bloodedly, we must expect initial reverses.
He said that history shows there are three periods in a war. He said that the first is the so-called “unset” during which governments of free peoples are at a distinct disadvantage. The others are the periods when the drag begins to weigh down on the nations involved, and the finish.
Stimson said:
It has almost been proved a fact that the free people win because of their endurance. Such governments have a momentum from the people that no one man can possibly have.
Army beats off Luzon invaders
By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer
Manila, Philippines –
An Army communiqué announced today that the situation was completely in hand in the fight against a Japanese attempt to invade the Philippines.
Later communiqués, indicating an increasingly favorable United States position, said a Japanese detachment which landed near Lingayen on the west coast of Luzon Island was being disposed of in mopping-up operations and that interceptor planes had driven off a Japanese bombing formation which brought a noon air-raid alarm to Manila.
The Army reported the sinking of the Japanese battleship Haruna off the northern coast of Luzon and said it was set afire by three direct hits from a bombing plane. Beside the direct hits, the plane dropped two bombs close to the ship’s sides.
As regards the fight against the Japanese attempt to invade Luzon, the main island of the Philippines, in a threat to Manila, the great Cavite Naval Base and the Army airfields, the communiqué asserted that a Philippine Army division had beaten back light Japanese troop attacks near Lingayen, in Pangasinan Province, 100 miles north of Manila.
This point is the closest to which the Japanese had come to Manila in their invasion attempts, which previously had been reported as centering farther north on the west coast and on the north coast. Lingayen, an important trade center, is on the Gulf of Lingayen. A direct mainline railroad connects it with Manila.
The Army communiqué:
The situation is completely in hand. There have been no major developments since yesterday with the one exception of light attacks by ground troops in the vicinity of Lingayen which were repulsed by one Filipino Army division.
One of our Army bombers late yesterday attacked a Japanese battleship of the Hiranuma 29,000-ton class, a capital ship, 10 miles northeast of northern Luzon and scored three direct hits and two very close alongside.
When the bomber left, the battleship was blazing fiercely.
The Manila Tribune reported that an American tank ship was sunk during yesterday’s Japanese raids on Manila and that one American and one British freighter were damaged. Several seamen were killed and at least 24 wounded, the Tribune said.
The Tribune said 15 Japanese planes were shot down in yesterday’s raids, the Bulletin nine.
Deaths reported
The Tribune reported 30 civilians killed and 250 wounded in all. The Bulletin reported 37 killed and 46 wounded in the Pasay suburb alone and said at least 140 wounded were brought to Manila from the Cavite Naval Base.
The Bulletin reported that two priests had been arrested in San Fernando, Pampanga Province, for alleged fifth-column activities.
San Fernando, mentioned in the War Department communiqué as a zone of Japanese invasion attempts, is on the west coast of Luzon, north of Lingayen Gulf.
The Bulletin also asserted that in Manila, a signal line between Nichols Field and an air-raid tower was cut, supposedly by fifth columnists, and delayed the alarm when the Japs raided the Manila Bay area yesterday.
Gas instruction given
Air-raid Chief Warden Alfredo G. Eugenio issued detailed instructions to the public for procedure in event of gas attacks.
The Tribune reported that a Filipino air squadron under Capt. Jesús Villamor chased a superior force of 20 enemy planes from Zablan Field, near Manila, yesterday and hit and possibly downed one.
An anti-aircraft gun crew at Zablan Field was credited with downing another bomber.
Both Nichols Field and nearby Nielson Airport were reported damaged slightly.
Reliable informants said Lt. Andrew Krieger of the U.S. Army Air Forces parachuted to safety from his plane during yesterday’s raids after seeing three Japs parachuting from a plane.
One raid alarm
Philippine Army men fought off one low-flying Japanese plane with machine guns, and it was believed that the plane crashed in the hills near Manila.
Radio Mexico, quoting Manila advices, reported that the Japs lost 54 planes yesterday in Philippine operations.
There was a one-hour air-raid alarm in Manila during the night, ending at 1:00 a.m. PHT (12:00 p.m. Wednesday EST).
Japanese reconnaissance planes were reported to have flown over the city, circled the Cavite Naval Base, and to have flown off westward.
Army spokesman Maj. LeGrande A. Diller said a checkup showed that there was no truth in a report that a German pilot had been shot down in a Japanese plane.
May be fighting Japs in Philippines
The picture above and the one immediately below, just received from the Philippines, are among the latest showing U.S. defense forces in the islands. A battery gun section is shown above in action during maneuvers. It was made just before the war started. This unit may be in actual combat with the Jap invaders today.
Men of the Coast Artillery are shown loading a 10-inch gun during Army maneuvers in the Philippines.
This telephoto shows a battleship of the Haruna class of Japanese warships, one of which was sunk by a U.S. Army plane off the Philippines.
Japs: 197 U.S. airplanes lost in Philippine fighting
Prisoners, ships seized in Guam, submarine and service vessel sunk off Hawaiian Islands, Tokyo radio reports – USS Lexington sunk, Berlin says
By the United Press
Japan asserted officially today that its forces had destroyed 197 U.S. planes in two-day operations in the Philippines and had sunk a U.S. destroyer, a submarine and a special service ship in operations off the Hawaiian Islands.
A German broadcast quoted Tokyo as claiming the sinking of the 33,000-ton aircraft carrier USS Lexington off Hawaii.
Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo asserted that Japanese troops, landing on America’s outpost islands of Guam, had taken about 350 prisoners, captured much material and seized key points in the harbor without loss.
A 3,000-ton American oil tanker was captured in the harbor, Tokyo asserted, and its captain and crew of 30 made prisoner.
Plane losses listed
It was asserted further that five of a formation of seven U.S. planes had been shot down in air attacks on Wake Island and that numerous “military objectives” had been destroyed.
Tokyo claimed that 45 U.S. planes were shot down and 71 destroyed on the ground in Japanese attacks on Iba and other airfields in the Philippines Tuesday against the loss of five Japanese planes.
Imperial Headquarters claimed that in big-scale attacks on the Manila zone yesterday, 45 U.S. planes were shot down and that 36 grounded planes were destroyed.
Tell of suicide attacks
A later communiqué asserted that in the Manila attacks, a transport was heavily damaged and that an arsenal was exploded at nearby Cavite Naval Base.
Loss of five Japanese planes was admitted. Two of the planes, it was said, dived headlong into their objectives in suicide attacks.
It was said that two British gunboats were sunk by direct bomb hits in an attack on Hong Kong.
Admit ‘warship’ lost
It was asserted that only three Japanese planes were lost in the attacks by which the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were sunk, and Japanese naval planes, attacking the Kuantan Air Base in Malaya, destroyed 10 British planes. It was asserted that other Navy bombers destroyed a 7,000-ton British freighter off eastern Malaya.
Radio Vichy reported a Japanese naval admission that “a warship” had been sunk yesterday. Germany reported from Tokyo the admission that a submarine chaser had been lost in Philippine landing operations.
Radio Vichy said Tokyo “confirmed” that attacks on U.S. warships had been made by torpedo-carrying planes, none of which was lost.
Fleet supremacy claimed
Radio Vichy quoted the Japanese that considerable numbers of troops had landed on Luzon Island in the Philippines and that the position of the U.S. troops was “gravely endangered.”
A Tokyo Navy spokesman said Japan was determined and prepared to assume control of the air over the Pacific and the Indian Oceans.
The spokesman said:
Contrary to Anglo-American expectations, the qualitative strength of the Japanese fleet increased after the Washington Naval Conference of 1928. The United States and Great Britain forced Japan to have a weaker fleet as compared with theirs, believing thus to prevent the Japanese fleet from maintaining supremacy.
The unexpected naval victory off Hawaii reversed completely the proportion established by the Washington Conference.
The Japanese fleet will now let the facts talk, showing the entire world its supremacy.
Indies surrender seen
Another Japanese broadcast suggested that in view of “tremendous Japanese success,” the Dutch East Indies would soon surrender “to prevent needless sacrifice.”
Tokyo said that it had concluded a defensive and “offensive” pact with Thailand today, “similar to that with French Indochina.”
It was added that the Thai government had proclaimed “a state of war” – possibly martial law – and asked its public to respect order.
The Japanese government information board said that 270 Americans and Britons had been detained in Tokyo “as a precaution for their protection and well-being.” Three to four newspapermen were included.
Where Allies face greatest threat
With the Japanese fighting in northern Malaya, occupying territory around Kota Bharu and establishing air bases in Thailand, the Allies face their greatest danger of the entire war because of the grave threat to Singapore. Loss of the great naval base would cut the British lifeline to India and the Near East and deprive the U.S. Navy and the British of an operating base against Japan.
Casualty list
By the United Press
The War Department today made a new list of three officers and 87 enlisted men killed in the Japanese air raid on Hawaii Sunday.
The list brought to nine officers and 115 enlisted men killed and two wounded, the number thus far announced.
The Department said the next of kin had been notified.
Dead:
| NAME | AGE | UNIT | HOMETOWN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pvt. Garland C. Anderson | 24 | HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing | Omega, Georgia |
| Pvt. Manfred C. Anderson | 23 | HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing | Houghton, Michigan |
| Cpl. Robert L. Avery | 20 | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | Lincoln, Nebraska |
| Pvt. Gordon R. Bennett Jr. | 21 | HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing | Clio, Michigan |
| Pfc. Edward F. Bernick | San Francisco, California | ||
| Pvt. Arthur F. Boyle | 23 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Lowell, Massachusetts |
| Staff Sgt. Billy O. Brandt | 24 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania |
| Cpl. Harold W. Borgelt | 23 | 7th Air Corps Squadron, Weather | Scribner, Nebraska |
| Pvt. Robert S. Brown | 26 | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | Chatham, Massachusetts |
| Pvt. William J. Brownlee | 19 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Corpus Christi, Texas |
| Pvt. Brooks J. Brubaker Jr. | 20 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Pvt. Donal V. Chapman | 27 | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | Wheeler, Illinois |
| Pvt. Jack W. Cox | Culver City, California | ||
| Pfc. William Coyne Jr. | 20 | 42nd Bombardment Squadron | Kansas City, Kansas |
| Pvt. Russel C. Defenbaugh | 20 | 19th Transport Squadron | Peoria, Illinois |
| Cpl. Richard A. Dickerson | 22 | HQ Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group | El Paso, Texas |
| Pvt. Joseph R. Drisner | 23 | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | East Chicago, Indiana |
| Tech. Sgt. Daniel A. Dyer Jr. | 30 | 7th Air Corps Squadron, Weather | Beverly, Kansas |
| Pvt. Lyle O. Edwards | 20 | HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing | Leslie, Michigan |
| Staff Sgt. Harold C. Elyard | 28 | 18th Air Base Squadron | Parsons, West Virginia |
| Pvt. Malcolm W. Fairchild | Hickam Field | Chicago, Illinois | |
| Pvt. Jack H. Feldman | 19 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Tech. Sgt. Homer E. Ferris | 50 | 18th Air Base Squadron | Patoka, Indiana |
| Pvt. Stuart H. Fiander | 27 | 18th Air Base Squadron | North Quincy, Massachusetts |
| Staff Sgt. George K. Gannam | 22 | 17th Air Base Squadron | Savannah, Georgia |
| Cpl. Robert R. Garrett | 26 | 42nd Bombardment Squadron | Galesburg, Illinois |
| 2nd Lt. William Grover | Needles, California | ||
| Staff Sgt. Elwood R. Gummerson | 39 | 26th Bombardment Squadron | Uniontown, Pennsylvania |
| Pvt. Albert Hays | 25 | HQ Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group | Wyaconda, Missouri |
| Pvt. John P. Holloway | 24th Bombardment Squadron | Green Bay, Wisconsin | |
| Pvt. Robert Hull Jr. | 19 | 72nd Pursuit Squadron | Wheeling, West Virginia |
| Pvt. James R. Johnson | 26 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Springfield, Illinois |
| Pvt. Marion E. King Jr. | 29 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Hunter, Kansas |
| Pfc. Conrad Kujawa | 21 | Battery A, 98th Field Artillery, Coast Artillery Corps | Hammond, Indiana |
| Cpl. Theodore J. Lewis | 21 | 63rd Field Artillery Battalion, 24th Infantry Division | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Pvt. Richard E. Livingston | 24 | HQ Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group | Westerville, Ohio |
| Pvt. Howard N. Lusk | 25 | 23rd Bombardment Squadron | Lynwood, California |
| Pvt. Lawrence P. Lyons Jr. | 20 | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | Chelsea, Massachusetts |
| Pfc. Harrell K. Mattox | 21 | 50th Reconnaissance Squadron | Shawnee, Oklahoma |
| Pvt. Herbert E. McLaughlin | 31 | HQ Squadron, 17th Air Base Group | Shawano, Wisconsin |
| Pfc. William W. Merrithew | 28 | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | Onenota, New York |
| Pfc. Horace A. Messam | 22 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Barberton, Ohio |
| Pvt. George A. Moran | 25 | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | Somerville, Massachusetts |
| Pvt. John F. Morris | 23 | Greensburg, Pennsylvania | |
| 2nd Lt. Louis G. Moslener Jr. | 23 | 88th Reconnaissance Squadron (H) | Monaca, Pennsylvania |
| Pvt. Victor L. Myers | Hendley, Nebraska | ||
| Pfc. Charles W. Narehood | 42nd Bombardment Squadron | Pine Glen, Pennsylvania | |
| Sgt. Roth J. Narramore | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | Elmdale, Kansas | |
| Cpl. LaVerne J. Needham | 29 | HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing | Walla Walla, Washington |
| Pvt. William H. Offutt | 21 | 50th Reconnaissance Squadron | Connersville, Indiana |
| Pvt. Hal H. Perry Jr. | 20 | 42nd Bombardment Squadron | Newellton, Louisiana |
| Pfc. Thomas F. Philipsky | 21 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Horicon, Wisconsin |
| Pfc. Charles P. Porterfield | 42nd Bombardment Squadron | North Platte, Nebraska | |
| Pvt. George Price | 23 | 72nd Bombardment Squadron | Lake Arthur, New Mexico |
| Tech. Sgt. Herman C. Reuss | 33 | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | Menominee, Michigan |
| Cpl. Thomas E. Roberts | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | Westminster, California | |
| Pfc. Ruperto B. Rodrigues | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | Del Rio, Texas | |
| 1st Lt. William R. Schick | 31 | 38th Reconnaissance Squadron | Chicago, Illinois |
| Pvt. William F. Shields | 24 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Bisbee, Arizona |
| Pvt. Harry E. Smith | 19 | HQ Squadron, 11th Bombardment Group | Harvey, Illinois |
| Pfc. Ralph S. Smith | 20 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Essington, Pennsylvania |
| Pvt. Elmer W. South | 23 | 18th Air Base Squadron | Indianapolis, Indiana |
| Pfc. J. B. Sparks | 22 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Fort Worth, Texas |
| Pvt. Julian C. Stultz | Zionsville, Indiana | ||
| Pfc. Jerome J. Szematowicz | 21 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania |
| Cpl. Antonio S. Tafoya | 25 | 26th Bombardment Squadron | Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| Pfc. Anderson G. Tennison | 22 | HQ Squadron, 18th Bombardment Wing | Canadian, Texas |
| Pvt. Ernest M. Walker Jr. | 20 | 22nd Materiel Squadron | Shelocta, Pennsylvania |
| Pvt. James I. Wells | Browder, Kentucky | ||
| Pfc. Marlon H. Zaczkiewicz | 26 | HQ Squadrpn, 11th Bombardment Wing | Doylestown, Pennsylvania |
| Pvt. Joseph S. Zappala | 21 | 23rd Materiel Squadron | Mattapan, Massachusetts |
Two more soldiers added to district’s casualty list
Two more Pittsburgh District soldiers were added today to the growing list of known dead in the Japanese air raid on the Hawaiian Islands Sunday.
They were:
- Pvt. John F. “Jack” Morris, son of Mr. and Mrs. Calvin F. Morris, of Greensburg.
- Pvt. Ernest M. Walker Jr., 20, son of Ernest M. Walker, RDL, Shelocta, Indiana County.
Parents of both men have been notified. Both were in the Air Corps, stationed at Hickam Field.
Pvt. Morris was 23 years old, a graduate of Greensburg High School, and enlisted in the Army Air Corps on Nov. 10, 1939. He was a bombardier.
His parents heard from him Friday last week when he wrote that he had passed examinations to become a Flying Cadet. Besides his parents, young Morris leaves four brothers and two sisters, all of Greensburg.
In Wheeling, West Virginia, today, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hull was notified by the War Department that their son, Robert Jr., had been killed in the raid on Hawaii.
Three others from the district were reported among the casualties yesterday. They were 2nd Lt. Louis G. Moslener Jr. of Monaca, Sgt. Elwood R. Gummerson of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and Pvt. Brooks J. Brubaker Jr. of Altoona.
Sgt. Gummerson was serving his fourth enlistment in the Air Corps and was stationed at Hickam Field. He is survived by his mother, a widow, two sisters and a brother.
The death toll for Western Pennsylvania now stands at eight.
Food supplies of nation high; prices to rise
Rationing unlikely next year with record 1941 crop gathered
Washington (UP) –
There will probably be no rationing of food supplies in the United States at least for another year and then only in the event 1942 crops are short.
Food will cost more – prices are already higher. Officials said “proper measures” are being prepared to prevent profiteering and control speculative trading.
President Roosevelt told the nation Tuesday that there is plenty of food for everyone and enough left over for our allies. The 1941 crop as a whole was the largest on record. Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard said reserve food supplies are the largest in history and that shipments to Great Britain would be increased and total about $1 billion next year.
Staple foods stored
Farm officials urged consumers to forego hoarding. They expect some shortages of luxuries such as prices, teas and oils customarily imported from the Far East, but promised substitutes for most of them.
Large quantities of staple foods have been stored under the ever-normal granary program and they will not have to be drawn upon during 1942, officials believe.
Here is the situation with respect to principal food items:
WHEAT: The 1941 crop of 961,194,000 bushels was more than 200 million bushels above the 1930-39 average and was one of the largest on record. Including reserves of 350 million bushels, the total supply of 1,311,000,000 bushels is sufficient for two years of domestic consumption.
CORN: The 1941 corn crop of 2,675,000,000 bushels gave the nation a record total supply of approximately 3,200,000,000 bushels.
DAIRY PRODUCTS: Milk production on Dec. 1 averaged 8% above a year ago and was the highest on record. The production of eggs was at the highest rate on record. Cheese stocks are exceptionally high despite heavy shipments to Britain.
VEGETABLES: Those grown for canning and processing set new high records this year for corn, peas and tomatoes. The total for all principal kinds is more than 20% above previous records.
FRUIT: Production at a near record.
MEAT: Supplies are exceptionally large.
SUGAR: Officials are taking every precaution to prevent a shortage such as set prices to 35¢ a pound during World War I. Supplies on hand are near a record high.
Hawaii attack kills admiral
Isaac Kidd commanded battleship division
Adm. Kidd
Washington (UP) –
The Navy announced last night that RAdm. Isaac Campbell Kidd was killed during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Sunday.
The Navy said he was in command of a battleship division of the Pacific Fleet. It did not disclose the name of his flagship which he was presumably aboard.
Adm. Kidd was born in Cleveland March 26, 1884. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1906. On Feb. 3, 1940, he was assigned as chief of staff and aide to the commander of battleships of the battle force. He held the Cuban Pacification Medal, the Mexican Service Medal and the Victory Medal of the Atlantic Fleet class.
His home was in Washington, DC.
Pershing volunteers; Roosevelt accepts
Washington (UP) –
Despite his 81 years, Gen. John J. Pershing today offered to serve his country again in a letter to President Roosevelt, and the President replied that “your services will be of great value.”
The commander of the 1917 AEF wrote:
All Americans today are united in one ambition – to take whatever share they can in the defense of their country.
As one among millions, I hasten to offer my services, in any way in which my experience and my strength, to the last ounce, will be of help in the fight.
Will supreme confidence that, under your calm and determined leadership, we will retain our balance, despite foul blows, I am faithfully yours.
The President replied:
You are magnificent. You always have been – and always will be. I am deeply grateful to you for your letter of Dec. 10. Under a wise law, you have never been placed on the retired list. You are very much on the active list and your services will be of great value.
Audience reaction brings cancellation of Mikado
Washington (UP) –
The National Theater has cancelled three scheduled performances of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, an operetta about the court of a Japanese emperor.
The theater management said that in Baltimore, where the operetta was staged Monday, the audience received the production coolly, particularly the opening line:
We are gentlemen of Japan.
Capital’s cherry trees become war casualties
Washington (UP) –
The capital’s famed Japanese cherry trees, mecca of tourists from all over the world, were today a casualty of the war in the Far East.
Four were chopped down last night. The vandals attached to one stump a note saying:
To hell with those Japanese.
Economists draw outline for long, hard-fought war
Although average American will have to tighten his belt as never before, experts say he will be vastly better off than Axis civilians
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
Here’s a blueprint for the battle on the home front, as it is seen by economists and experts who are drawing the broad outlines for a long, hard war:
The average American will have to tighten his belt as never before.
His taxes will be the highest ever, and the government will appeal for more and more of his income to buy bonds for bombers and bullets.
He will work longer hours, but advancing living costs – despite control attempts – may more than offset his paycheck bulge.
He will have plenty of food and clothing – at much higher prices. Living costs are already up 12%, with some wholesale advances not yet translated into retail increases.
He and his family will get along without most of the frills and some of the modern “necessities.”
Excess food stored
If he lives within bombing distance of a coast, he will probably give part of his spare time to civilian protection programs.
As Washington is planning it, this is to be everyone’s war.
With all the belt-tightening, your average American will be vastly better off than people in the Axis countries. We go to war with enough cotton in warehouses for a normal year’s consumption; excess wheat for nearly a year, and 600 million bushels of corn. But there must be expansion, and the American farmers are already signing up for it.
The government is planning an increasing of eight billion pounds in milk production, 300 million dozens in egg production, eight million more slaughter hogs, three million more slaughtered cattle, 70 million more chickens. Wheat production – much of the wheat export market has been lost with the war, of course – is to be cut 7.5 million bushels.
In fruit production, which cannot be expanded in a single year’s planting, the emphasis will be on better distribution so that millions of tons of edibles do not rot in fields and orchards. The housewife will be asked to eliminate kitchen waste.
But on civilian supplies that come from the factories, the problem to be met by the average American will be almost the reverse. Piling a war program of $150 billion or more on the industrial structure, the economists agree, means drastic curtailment of civilian production.
Hardly any metal household articles will escape curtailment. And substituting plastics may be difficult for two reasons – plastics will be used increasingly in war goods, and they require chemicals which will be needed for munitions.
Items will be scarce
Scores of small items will be scarce or unobtainable. Interruption of imports from the Pacific may mean less soap, for lack of copra and coconut oil; less cold cream, for lack of cocoa butter; less of many products using glycerin; less camphor and other medicines; less spice from the East Indies; less tea from China.
Already cuts of 50% in auto production mean the average citizen will make his car last another year, or maybe three or four; and despite large rubber stockpiles, new tires may be hard to get. The auto owner is likely to have his tires retreaded.
One official said:
It isn’t possible to list everything the average citizen to going to find scarce or is going to have to get along without. But I believe we must be extremely pessimistic about it. We’ve been coasting in both raw materials and manufactured goods.
Government planners are looking to Latin American possibilities for offsetting shortages in both raw materials and manufactured goods.
Fiscal leaders to meet
Congress turned back a recent bid by Secretary Morgenthau for sharply increased taxes. But that was before Pearl Harbor. Mr. Morgenthau and Congressional fiscal leaders take the first step on a conference tomorrow toward deciding what taxes must be levied for next year.
The average citizen, especially in urban areas, will probably go to the volunteer office of the local civilian defense unit to offer his services. He may be an air-raid warden, a firewatcher to guard against incendiary bombs, a member of a rescue, bomb or demolition squad, a guard at a public-utility plant, an auxiliary policeman or fireman.
He may become responsible for perhaps 500 persons in the area in which he lives – the man who instructs in proper conduct during air raids, and who knows where the water-heater pilot lights must be turned off during a bombing. He may have the less dramatic task of improving community health, nutrition or recreation.
The average American, say the men planning war on the home front, must get ready for America’s own blood and sweat and tears. No one here doubts that he will.
Here’s how Roosevelt flashed Jap attack on Hawaii
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
Steve Early was lolling at home, reading the Sunday papers. The telephone rang.
President Roosevelt said:
Steven, I have a bulletin here I want to give you to give the newspapers. Got a pencil?
Steve got one, and slowly took down the message as the calm voice came over the wire:
The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor from the air and all naval and military activities on the island of Oahu, principal American base in the Hawaiian Islands.
It was enough to raise the hair even of an ex-newspaperman who covered the last war here and who for more than eight years has sat in the midst of big events at the President’s right hand; but no time to get excited.
Typical Roosevelt touch
Then the calm voice again, after the message had been checked back carefully.
Have you got any news, Steve?
The typical Roosevelt touch. Steve smiled.
This little incident tells the whole story of the orderly atmosphere which had prevailed at the White House since the war broke out.
Four days later, everybody at the White House, from the President down, is about caught up on the sleep lost those first two nights. You’d never know a war was on, except for the appearance of many new faces in a greatly-increased Secret Service staff about the White House and executive offices, a few more reporters in the Press Room, a new, white sentry box for the enlarged police detail at the only gate which is open now, and the brisk military guards at the entrances of the two streets which flank the White House grounds.
Message in error
Most of the excitement at the White House those first hectic hours was brought in from outside – by the horde of newspapermen who rushed to the center of things. By radio newscasters who, that first night, set up their equipment on spare desks.
For that first flash from Steve Early’s home telephone set them in motion on the double-quick. Before Steve could get dressed and out of the house, the President had called back with another message, about the attack on Manila – which was in error, but only in being premature.
Soon Steve was behind the desk in his office, and there he sat until 1 a.m., only to go home and answer the telephone there all night long, and also the next night. Calls came not only from reporters and officials, but from people far away offering their services.
Reporters come and go
The President, likewise, was on the phone far into that first night, getting reports on developments, after his earlier conferences with State, War and Navy officials, his Cabinet and Congressional conferences. He was up early the next morning, and ready for a long day that included his speech to Congress.
The President has been dividing his time between his office in the executive offices and his study in the White House proper, a cozy and homelike room where some of the conferences of the last few days have taken place.
Crises are nothing new for the White House personnel, not even war crises.
Steve Early was a reporter during World War I, covering the State, War and Navy Departments – whose top personnel was in the present State Department building across from the White House. There started his friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
Steve remarked today:
He’s moved 100 yards in 28 years.
Secretary sees 3 wars
William D. Hassett, Steve’s assistant today, was covering Congress as a newspaperman during the last war. Marvin McIntyre, another of the President’s secretaries, was also a newspaperman here during World War I.
Maj. Gen. Edwin M. Watson, another secretary, was overseas during the last war with the 12th Field Artillery in the second division, and fought in all of that famous outfit’s engagements.
Rudolph Forster, Executive Clerk at the White House since March 1897, has seen three wars from the mansion. He goes about his business these days with perfect equanimity.
Martial law is proclaimed in Honolulu
Military rule for Hawaii is running smoothly, Army reports
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer
The following is the first dispatch received by the United Press from Honolulu since late Sunday.
Honolulu, Hawaii – (Dec. 10, 12:10 p.m.)
Martial law has been proclaimed for the Territory of Hawaii with the full approval of President Roosevelt.
It is reported to be functioning smoothly and the method of operation and results to date have been reported directly to the President.
An Army announcement today said the Military Government of Hawaii is functioning well according to plan. The population of the territory (which includes many thousands of Japanese) is generally cooperating with the military authorities and is well behaved.
No attacks against the islands have been reported since Sunday.
A blackout was enforced throughout the islands last night and was intended to safeguard civilians as well as military installations, according to an official statement.
Results of the blackout were described as “impressive.”
There have been few cases of non-cooperation (on the part of the civilian population) and these have been “severely dealt with,” military authorities said.
A provost court, presided over by Judge James L. Coke, has been established and has disposed of 15 cases. Fifteen more cases are under investigation. Two persons who failed to obey the blackout regulations were fined $10 each. Two other cases, described as more flagrant, were also disposed of and the persons convicted were fined $100 each and sentenced to 100 days at hard labor as enemies of the territory. The sentences to hard labor were suspended but the fines stood.
Roosevelt approves Honolulu evacuation
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt has approved a plan for the emergency evacuation of 60,000 civilians from Honolulu City, Delegate Samuel W. King, Hawaii’s Representative in Congress, disclosed today.
Mr. King emphasized the plan does not contemplate immediate evacuation, but will provide facilities for an exodus if sea or air attack again threaten the island fortress. Although civilian casualties from Sunday’s air blitzkrieg were comparatively small, Mr. King said tremendous carnage was possible if the Japanese should launch an all-out attack against civilian centers.
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, as assistant director of Civilian Defense, sent a message today to the people of Hawaii, praising their courage.
Hitler, Il Duce go to Japs’ aid
They blame whole thing on United States
Berlin, Germany (UP) – (German radio recorded in New York)
Germany and her Axis partner, Italy, today declared war in the United States.
Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop made the formal declaration on behalf of Germany at noon CET (5:00 a.m. EST) in a note handed to the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Berlin.
Adolf Hitler in a speech before the Nazi Reichstag announced that:
I today gave the order that the passports shall be given to the American Ambassador in Berlin.
Germany and Italy, Hitler told the Reichstag, are honoring their obligations under the tri-power military alliance and coming to the aid of Japan “in the struggle forced upon her.”
The association of Germany, Italy and Japan, proclaimed the Führer, will last “at least as long as the war lasts.”
Simultaneously, Premier Benito Mussolini appeared on the balcony of Venice Palace in Rome and announced to the throngs in the square below that the Axis partners have gone to war against the United States.
Germany, Hitler assured his audience, has the power and foresight to take all necessary measures for the world conflict.
He said:
We will always strike first. We will always deal the first blow.
Germany, Italy and Japan, he revealed, have bound themselves in a formal alliance of four articles. They agree:
-
To carry on to final victory the war against Britain and the United States with “every conceivable means.”
-
Not to conclude a separate peace or armistice.
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To continue the closest collaboration and to establish a new and lasting order along the lines of the Tripartite Agreement.
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To effectuate the pact immediately.
Hitler said:
After peace has been won, the three countries will proceed in close collaboration to guarantee a lasting peace.
Assails Roosevelt
President Roosevelt, charged the Führer, has done “everything in his power” to prevent Germany and Italy from securing their right of existence.
He shouted:
Our patience has come to the straining point. We had always tried to prevent a break with the United States.
But now, Italy and Germany, in loyal fulfillment of their obligations under the Axis agreement, associate themselves with Japan in the struggle against America and Britain.
Never before, said Hitler, has Germany been so united.
He declared:
No one will vanquish Germany. No one will destroy German unity. Germany is strong. Let us thank God that we can enter our names in the history of the Reich.
Singing solemn, sad
As Hitler concluded speaking at 4:33 p.m. (9:33 a.m. EST) after making his war declaration four minutes earlier, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring rose and said:
God bless our Führer. God bless our Reich.
The Reichstag, assembled in the Kroll Opera House, rose and sang “Deutschland über alles” and the Nazi Horst Wessel song.
The United Press listening post reported that the singing was solemn and sounded sad. The listening post believed that the German broadcast may not have been made direct from radio microphones but from a recording of Hitler’s speech. They reported that a Nazi announcer interrupted repeatedly to give an English translation – a practice never before employed. Hitler spoke in a low, emotionless voice until he neared the end of his address when his voice rose to the familiar shrillness.
Hitler led up to his declaration against the United States with a lengthy attack upon President Roosevelt and his allegedly anti-German policy. He listed a long series of American attacks against Germany. His listeners cheered and laughed at his occasional bursts of satire. Once, the broadcast was interrupted by a chorus of “pfui” from the Reichstag members.
Admits Libyan defeat
Hitler made these points:
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That Britain and the United States have “flagrantly violated” international law.
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That the United States “plans to take over the British Empire in the hour of its collapse as safely and with as little danger as possible.”
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That the Axis has suffered a temporary defeat in Libya due to British superiority in heavy tanks.
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That only winter has halted the Nazi attack on Russia and that it will be resumed but not before next summer.
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That the United States was preparing plans for an attack upon Germany in 1943.
Hitler said:
A year of historical events is ending. A year of the greatest decisions is coming. If Providence has decided that a struggle shall occur, I am thankful that I have been elected to lead this struggle which will decide our future for 500 or 1,000 years.
Calls nation secure
He claimed Germany now stands secure behind a series of fortresses, air bases and naval bases which have been built from the Kirkenes in far northern Norway to the frontiers of Spain.
He said:
It is my unshakeable determination to make this European front unassailable and impregnable.
Wants to ‘save’ Europe
He charged that America’s threat to Europe stems from “an inheritance of Jewish and Negro spirit.”
He said:
Fighting was unavoidable. Germany is the chief champion of this fight. The Germans are in the struggle to save the interests of the whole of Europe.
Hitler said that “a blind man” could have seen that Russia was preparing to challenge Germany and that Soviet intentions became clear after Joseph Stalin instigated the coup d’état in Yugoslavia which precipitated Germany’s campaign in the Balkans.
He said:
We will always strike first. We will always deal the first blow as we did with Russia.
Charges conspiracy
Hitler again claimed that Britain and Russia secretly conspired to attack Germany. He claimed that Russia planned to attack Germany in the summer of 1941 after which Britain would take the offensive. He said that these intentions were revealed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill at a secret session of the British Parliament.
Hitler said that if Finland had not joined with Germany, “her own existence and that of the other Scandinavian states would rapidly have come to an end.”
Hitler claimed that Germany held 3,806,000 Russian prisoners up to Nov. 28.
He placed German casualties in Russia up to Dec. 1 at 573,415 killed, wounded and missing, He listed them as: 162,314 killed, 377,767 wounded, 33,334 missing.
Every step forward in Russia, he said, had been fought for – against Russian resistance, against Russian heat, Russian mud, Russian cold.
No ill will toward U.S.
Germany, Hitler insisted, never had any ill will toward the United States. Germany had no colonies or claims in North America; had never interfered in American affairs; had aided the United States in winning its war of independence; had never participated in any war against the United States.
He said the United States went to war against the Reich in 1917 for “reasons wholly spurious.”
He said differences of government between the two countries were not sufficient as a cause for bad feeling.
He said:
There are two persons responsible for relations between the United States and Germany. They are Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wilson broke a pledge to Germany.
Mussolini announces war declaration
Rome, Italy (UP) – (via Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Italy declared war on the United States today when Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano summoned U.S. Chargé d’Affaires George Wadsworth to the Foreign Office and handed him his passports.
Ciano said in a communication to Wadsworth:
His Majesty, the King-Emperor of Italy, declares that Italy considers herself in a state of war with the United States of America from today.
Italy’s war declaration was proclaimed by Premier Benito Mussolini in a speech before a vast assemblage of cheering Italians from the balcony of Venice Palace.
Mussolini said that “one man alone” is responsible for “this new war because by his continued provocations he has prepared for war day by day with diabolic persistence.”
The reference was presumably to President Roosevelt.
Promises victory
He added:
Italian men and women will be worthy of this great hour.
He said:
Fascist Italy and Nationalist Socialist Germany, ever closely linked, participate from today on the side of heroic Japan against the United States of America.
We shall win.
Mussolini continued:
This is a great day in the history of the continent of Europe.
Italy and her ally Germany together with Japan enter the war against the United States.
One hundred and fifty million men are resolute to do everything to reach final victory.
We shall wage war in order to conquer.
After an infinite series of provocations, the Japanese have struck in the Pacific and have achieved great victories.
It is a privilege to fight at their sides.
The Tripartite Pact [the German-Italian-Japanese alliance, now brought into active force] is a sure guarantee of victory and a powerful instrument for a just peace for the nations.
The approximately 100,000 persons who crowded the Venice Square and overflowed into nearby streets called Mussolini back to the balcony nine times to acknowledge their cheers.
All U.S. reporters in Berlin arrested
Berlin, Germany – (German broadcast recorded by United Press)
All American newspaper and press association correspondents in Berlin were arrested at midnight, in retaliation for the arrest of German correspondents in the United States.
U.S. ship docks safely after 3 days on Pacific
San Francisco, California (UP) –
The SS Lurline, caught between Honolulu and San Francisco when the Japanese attack began, arrived here yesterday with 500 passengers after a three-day zigzag run to safety.
The Lurline was 1,000 miles from Honolulu when ship’s officers learned of the outbreak of war. Most of the passengers refused to believe the news until the ship was blacked out, portholes were painted blue and all passenger radios were confiscated.
Radio advised to be careful
Avoid ‘horror and undue excitement,’ it is told
Washington (UP) –
President Neville Miller of the National Association of Broadcasters advised radio stations today to use “unusually careful editorial judgment” in selecting war news.
Mr. Miller said it was equally important that announcers and newscasters report war news “calmly, slowly and deliberately, so as to avoid horror, suspense and undue excitement.”
He agreed with the War Department that definite periods should be established for handling of war news “except for news of transcendent importance.”
Chairman James Lawrence Fly of the FCC, meanwhile, assured the radio industry that their facilities generally would remain in private hands. He said censorship was not being undertaken.
An order signed by President Roosevelt yesterday gives the Defense Communications Board authority to designate radio facilities for the “use, control, inspection or closure” by the War or Navy Department or other government agency. It was explained that the order mainly affected stations used for point-to-point broadcasting of messages which could be used to augment the communication facilities of the Army and Navy.
White House statement on a conference on wartime labor policy
December 11, 1941
The President today issued invitations for a conference to be held between industry and labor to consider the problem of labor disputes during the war.
The President invited the Presidents of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations each to designate six representatives from different unions affiliated with their organizations. He also invited the Chairman of the Business Advisory Council of the Department of Commerce to choose, after appropriate consultation, twelve representatives of industrial management. He will later appoint someone to serve as Moderator and Associate Moderator.
The conference will be held at Washington and will commence during the early part of the week of December 15.
The first and essential objective of the conference will be to reach a unanimous agreement to prevent the interruption of production by labor disputes during the period of the war. It is not expected that there will be any hesitation on the part of either labor or industry to accept this basic condition of the nation’s safety.
The conferees doubtless will find it necessary to agree upon machinery by which these disputes may amicably and finally be settled. It is thought this machinery might include appropriate procedures for adjusting disputes, for mediation, and for resort in defense industries to some tribunal whose decisions will be binding by agreement on all parties. But it is for the conferees to decide what form the machinery shall take so long only as an agreement is reached. Since the efficacy of that agreement will depend upon the voluntary cooperation of all concerned, emphasis is placed on the fact that it must represent a unanimous accord.
The agreement, it is pointed out, might include or be followed by an agreement defining appropriate practices for both labor and management to secure maximum production for war needs. In view of the gravity of the emergency now confronting this country, the President urges that the conferees reach a conclusion, at least upon the primary agreement preventing interruptions to production, and report to him within a very few days after convening.
Völkischer Beobachter (December 12, 1941)
Das Reich und Italien an Japans Seite –
Kriegszustand mit USA
Leidenschaftliches Bekenntnis des Führers: „Gemeinsamer Kampf mit allen Mitteln bis zum Endsieg“
In einer Stunde weltgeschichtlicher Entscheidungen sprach der Führer zum deutschen Volk und zur Welt. Während im Pazifik seit vier Tagen die Waffen Japans dem Kriegsbrandstifter Roosevelt die einzig mögliche Antwort geben, versammelten sich am Donnerstag im Reichstag die Abgesandten des deutschen Volkes, um eine Erklärung der Reichsregierung entgegenzunehmen. Sie ist so ausgefallen, wie sie dem Wesen, der Ehrauffassung und der Mission des deutschen Volkes entspricht: Das Reich und Italien treten mit ihren gesamten Machtmitteln an die Seite Japans, um Roosevelts und Churchills Weltbrand zu ersticken. Die Waffen werden erst ruhen, wenn der Endsieg erfochten ist.
Zweiweltenkampf
Die angekündigte und nicht nur vom deutschen Volk, sondern von der ganzen Welt mit größter Spannung erwartete Regierungserklärung im Deutschen Reichstag wurde durch die große Führerrede zu einer geschichtlichen Kundgebung von einmaliger Größe. Nachdem im Pazifik die von der plutokratischen Herrschsucht und Überheblichkeit in die Enge getriebene und gepeinigte tapfere japanische Nation in kühnem Entschluß Roosevelt die einzig mögliche Antwort mit scharfen Waffen erteilt und den Schleier der pazifistischen Heuchelei des Hauptkriegsschuldigen zerrissen hatte, ging offenbar der Kampf zwischen zwei Welten seinem Höhepunkt entgegen.
Der Führer hat ihn in seiner großen Rede vor den Männern des Deutschen Reichstages bis in seine letzten jüdischen Wurzeln hinein allseitig und mit erschütternder Eindringlichkeit aufgezeichnet. Er stellte seinen Lebensweg und sein Werk als das eines schlichten und ehrbaren Arbeiters und Soldaten symbolhaft gegen den Werdegang dieses typischen Plutokratensohnes und Schiebers Roosevelt, der die Welt und die Völkerschicksale nur unter dem Gesichtspunkt des Geldverdienens kennt. Wie noch nie zuvor sprach der Führer im Namen Europas und bekannte sich zu seiner alten stolzen Kultur und zu der Ehrauffassung seiner Völker. Er zeichnete ein leuchtendes Bild von den opfervollen und kühnen Leistungen des deutschen Heeres und seiner Verbündeten im Ostfeldzuge, wo sie die alles zu verschlingen drohende Gefahr des jüdischen Bolschewismus siegreich gebannt haben.
Mit großem Jubel nahmen die Männer des Deutschen Reichstages die Meldung des Führers auf, daß soeben in Berlin zwischen den drei Mächten Deutschland, Japan und Italien ein Abkommen getroffen wurde, in dem ihre verschworene Kampfgemeinschaft gegen den jüdisch-plutokratisch-bolschewistischen Weltfeind zum Ausdruck kommt. Er zeichnete in großen Linien und mit einer glühenden Leidenschaft diesen Zweiweltenkampf, den die nationalsozialistische Revolution in 16jährigem Kampf schon im Innern Deutschlands gegen den gleichen Feind siegreich bestehen konnte. Die Vorsehung habe diesen Kampf bisher in sichtbarer Weise gesegnet, und wir haben allen Grund, zu glauben, daß sie ihn auch jetzt, nachdem er auf dem weltweiten Höhepunkt angekommen ist, weiterhin segnen wird.
Die deutsche Nation ist in dieser geschichtlichen Stunde sich der Größe ihres geschichtlichen Auftrages voll bewußt. Wie ein granitener Block steht sie Schulter an Schulter in Front und Heimat geschlossen in diesem größten und ehrenvollsten Kampf ihrer Geschichte. Noch nie war ihr die Notwendigkeit ihres Kampfes klarer Und noch nie ihre Entschlossenheit, Opferfreude und Gläubigkeit so groß wie heute.
Der Kriegszustand mit Roosevelts plutokratischer Weltdiktatur ist nur die äußere Bestätigung einer schon längst tatsächlich von der Gegenseite systematisch herbeigeführten Lage. Er wirkt auf das deutsche Volk wie eine Befreiung von einer unerträglichen Belastung. Herr Roosevelt hat nun seinen Krieg! Mag er sehen, wie er damit zurechtkommt!
K. N.
81 US-Flugzeuge über Manila vernichtet –
Flugzeugträger Lexington versenkt
dnb. Tokio, 11. Dezember –
Die Marineabteilung des Kaiserlichen Hauptquartiers gibt bekannt, daß die japanische Luftwaffe am 10. Dezember auf nordamerikanische Armeestreitkräfte auf den Philippinen einen großen Angriff durchgeführt hat. Bei einem Luftkampf über Manila wurden 45 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen. 36 feindliche Flugzeuge wurden am Boden zerstört. Bei Hawai wurden ein US-Zerstörer, ein U-Boot und ein weiteres Spezialschiff durch direkte Treffer vernichtet. Der japanische Generalstab gab außerdem bekannt, daß der 33.000 Tonnen große nordamerikanische Flugzeugträger Lexington, über den wir bereits in unserer gestrigen Ausgabe berichteten, in den Kämpfen um Hawai versenkt worden ist.
Die Lexington ist ein Schwesterschiff der Saratoga. Beide Flugzeugträger sind die größten, die die Vereinigten Staaten besitzen. Sie können 90 Flugzeuge befördern. Sie sind bewaffnet mit acht 20,3-Zentimeter-Geschützen, zwölf 12,7-Zentimeter-Flakgeschützen, vier 5,7- und acht 4-Zentimeter Flakgeschützen. Beide Flugzeugträger sind im Jahre 1925 vom Stapel gelaufen und 1926 in Dienst gestellt. Die Besatzung beträgt 1.400 Mann.
Luftabwehr erfolglos
Aus Manila hier eingetroffene Berichte bestätigen im Übrigen die Wirksamkeit der japanischen Bombenangriffe und die Erfolglosigkeit der philippinischen Luftabwehr, wobei die Tatsache ausdrücklich betont wird, daß lediglich militärische Anlagen das Ziel der japanischen Luftangriffe waren. Das Hauptziel der japanischen Luftangriffe sei Cavite, der Flugplatz Nicholsfield, der Nilson-Flugplatz, das Fort McKinley und das Fort William gewesen. Auf die Stadt Manila seien keine Bomben abgeworfen worden.
Die japanischen Flugzeuge flogen, wie weiter berichtet wird, in geordneter Formation teilweise in großer Höhe unbekümmert um die Flugabwehr zurück, deren Geschosse zwar den Himmel mit kleinen Wolken punktierten, jedoch viel zu kurz lagen. Die Fliegerabwehr wurde stark behindert einerseits durch das grelle Sonnenlicht, andererseits durch die riesigen Rauchwolken, die die Ziele der japanischen Bomben umlagerten. Jeder der vier Angriffe wurde in mehreren Wellen durchgeführt. Die Angriffe galten vor allen Dingen dem USA-Stützpunkt Cavite, wo Augenzeugen die gewaltige Wirkung von mehreren hundert Bomben beobachtet haben. Die dortigen Öllager wurden offensichtlich in Brand geworfen. Auch die in der Bucht von Manila liegenden Schiffe wurden mehrmals mit gutem Erfolg angegriffen. Die nordamerikanischen Flugzeuge waren außerstande, die japanischen Flugzeuge vor Ende des Bombenangriffs zu erreichen, nur einmal wurde ein Luftkampf beobachtet.
Die japanische Landoffensive auf der größten philippinischen Insel Luzon ist amerikanischen Rundfunkberichten zufolge in vollem Gange. Die Japaner, die ursprünglich am Nordende von Luzon, bei Aparri, zur Landung ansetzten, konnten weitere Truppen landen und beherrschen zurzeit fast das gesamte Nordende der Insel sowie das zwischen San Fernando und Vigan gelegene Gebiet an der Westküste Luzons. Die japanischen Landungen erfolgten in einer Küstenausdehnung von etwa 250 Kilometer.
U.S. State Department (December 12, 1941)
859B.01/388
The Danish Ministry for Foreign Affairs to the American Legation in Denmark
PJIA Journal Nr. 84 B.2.a.
Copenhagen, December 12, 1941
Note Verbale
The American Chargé d’Affaires in Copenhagen has been good enough to leave with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs a copy of the note which the State Department in Washington recently transmitted to the former Danish Minister there, M. Kauffmann, concerning his status and authority particularly with regard to Greenland.
The Royal Danish Government has taken notice of this document with the greatest anxiety as it appears to indicate that M. Kauffmann has now obtained recognition in relation to the United States of America as an organ competing with the lawful Danish Government having been invested with all the Danish Government’s authority with regard to Greenland and Danish property in the United States of America and in Greenland.
This is the regrettable result of a development in which M. Kauffmann himself appears to have been the impelling force; for according to the information available here, there is nothing to indicate that the Government of the United States of America would itself have taken the initiative to bring about the status which M. Kauffmann has gradually succeeded in obtaining, if he himself on April 9, 1940, had loyally followed the lawful Danish Government like Denmark’s other Ministers in foreign countries.
M. Kauffmann has achieved this status after an usurpation in explanation of which he merely states that the Danish Government is acting under duress as a result of the occupation and that it is therefore incompetent. In this respect, however, he has evidently acted as early as on April 9, 1940, in the expectation of developments in Denmark under the occupation of an entirely different nature to those which actually ensued. His attitude is based on illogical reasoning; Denmark is certainly under the occupation of German troops, but this does not prevent the lawful Danish Government, which is composed of representatives of all the great political parties from directing all affairs in the country. In all essential respects, Danish social life is continued normally, the powers of State – legislative, judiciary and executive – carrying on their functions independently and without interference from the occupying power.
M. Kauffmann was Denmark’s Minister in Washington and had no function beyond that. A diplomatic agent cannot be or become anything different or more than what his Government has entrusted him to be, and neither under international law nor under Danish constitutional law can he acquire any independent political authority without a special mandate. The Danish people is represented by its King, Government and Parliament, and how can the authority of these lawful instances with any justification be transferred to a chance diplomatic agent by a mere act of usurpation?
To the extent to which M. Kauffmann is in a position to act on the basis of his being recognized by the Government of the United States of America the anomalous situation is now in fact established that there are so to speak two Danish “Governments,” one being the lawful Government appointed by the King, recognized by the people, and domiciled in Denmark, at which foreign powers (including the United States of America) maintain legations, the other being the “Kauffmann usurper Government” which on the basis of certain ideas of duress and negotiorum gestio has obtained the authority which the lawful Government in Copenhagen would normally be able to exercise through its (law-abiding) Minister in Washington.
It should be remembered that the position of Denmark is quite different to that of States whose Governments after the failure of their resistance against German military power have left their country and established themselves abroad. In Denmark, the King and Government remained in the country on April 9, 1940, and resolved by constitutional means “to direct the affairs of the country in view of the occupation which has taken place”. From the outset, the King and Government have thus had and still have the direction of all the affairs of the country, and the conditions, as far as Denmark is concerned, for establishing anything analogous with the exile Governments of the aforesaid countries are therefore entirely missing.
M. Kauffmann has undoubtedly himself felt the weakness of having no mandate from the people whose interests he claims to defend. He has therefore endeavoured to obtain the adherence of Danes living abroad, but even if this adherence may be felt as a moral support by M. Kauffmann personally, it is evident that it is of no significance from the point of view of constitutional law; for how can the attribution to M. Kauffmann of Government authority, the exercise of which presupposes all the elements which according to universally-recognized opinion enters into the conception of a State, be based on the mere presence of a strictly limited number of partisans or adherents? These adherents are, moreover, largely persons who have acquired another nationality and who are not only under a formal obligation to their new country, but may also be presumed to share the sympathies prevalent there.
The fact that M. Kauffmann has felt the weakness of acting without any mandate from the King of Denmark appears clearly from the surreptitious inclusion, on his initiative, in the preamble of the so-called Greenland Agreement of April 9, 1941, of a passage to the effect that he acted “on behalf of His Majesty the King of Denmark in His quality of Sovereign over Greenland.” This passage was inserted by M. Kauffmann not only without the existence of any trace of authorization, but even directly against his better knowledge of being guilty of an abuse of the King’s name. By this action it became clear that M. Kauffmann from the occupation of Denmark on April 9, 1940, had adopted an attitude directly contrary to the policy laid down by the King and Government.
M. Kauffmann having no other authority than that which he had received from the State Department, it was a fiction to speak of “negotiations” in connection with the conclusion of the Greenland Agreement. Article 10 in particular of the Agreement concerning its duration has evidently been drafted in such a way that the Government of the United States of America will be in a position unilaterally to decide, and therefore indefinitely postpone, the date of an eventual conference for the amendment or termination of the Agreement.
The Agreement having thus been concluded without the participation of the Danish Government it has been a reassurance to this Government to receive – directly irrespective of the Agreement – the promise of the American Government that Greenland will be restored, but the fact that Denmark has to see its policy and its interests, insofar as the United States of America and Greenland are concerned, placed in the hands of a man whose only title is based on his own act of usurpation, fills the Danish Government with profound anxiety as to future developments.
The Danish Government fails to understand that the American Government, in spite of all that has taken place, not only does not refuse its recognition of M. Kauffmann but even considerably extends that recognition.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs requests the American Chargé d’Affaires in Copenhagen to communicate the above to the State Department in Washington.
851.33/206: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France
Washington, December 12, 1941 — 2 p.m.
914
Your 1523, December 11, 7 p.m.
We have noted the statement made by Admiral Darlan to you to the effect that with regard to naval ships in French colonial ports in the Western Hemisphere the Admiral stated that they have no intention of leaving port and that they are disarmed.
You should see Marshal Pétain or Admiral Darlan immediately and say that your Government has taken note of this statement and that in view of the fact that the United States is at war, all necessary measures must accordingly be taken by this Government, particularly in the defense areas off our shores and in the Caribbean region. This Government will undertake to safeguard the French colonial possessions in this area as part of our general defense operations. Because of the necessity of carrying out our defense plans, we cannot permit the movement of other than American or associated naval or air units operating in these areas. We must, therefore, request, as an evidence of the friendly attitude of France toward this country, that the measures of disarmament of naval or air units, which are now being undertaken by the French Government with respect to any ships or aircraft now stationed in the Caribbean or French colonial territories, be carried out to an extent satisfactory to the United States. In order to insure this degree of demobilization of naval or air units, we request that American naval survey parties be permitted to inspect the state of disarmament and immobilization which has been or is to be carried out with respect to the naval units and aviation units in these areas. Inspection parties have already been organized and are ready to proceed and we request that the French authorities in the Antilles and French Guiana be duly informed and authorized to grant the necessary facilities to the American inspection parties.
HULL
740.0011 Pacific War/1075a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom
Washington, December 12, 1941 — 5 p.m.
5842
The Thai Minister here received this morning a telegram from the Thai Foreign Minister at Bangkok, stating that Thailand and Japan had entered into an offensive and defensive alliance. It is understood that the Thai Minister here is today making public a repudiation on his own responsibility of the above-mentioned alliance. Yesterday, the Minister stated to the press that he intended to work for the re-establishment of an independent Thailand.
You may wish to communicate the above to the British Foreign Office and, in your discretion, to your Thai colleague.
Further developments will be telegraphed to you.
HULL
851.85/384a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France
Washington, December 12, 1941 — 11 p.m.
920
The following press release is being issued today:
As a measure of necessary protection to the crews and vessels, arrangements have been made to remove the French crews of all French vessels now in United States ports. This action does not preclude return of the crews to any vessel the resumption of service of which may be determined.
It has been explained to the French Embassy that this measure was determined as necessary for the safety not only of the ships but of the crews themselves and that it does not apply to any of the vessels which may be engaged in supply service to the French West Indies. It was further pointed out that should the North African service be resumed, the crews of the Leopold L. D. and the Île de Ré could promptly be returned to that vessel.
You may wish to convey the foregoing promptly to the French Foreign Office.
HULL
851.33/211: Telegram
The Ambassador in France to the Secretary of State
Vichy, December 12, 1941 — 11 p.m.
[Received December 13 — 11:30 a.m.]
1531
My 1523, December 11, 7 p.m.
We called on Rochat this evening who officially delivered to us three memoranda containing the replies to the question[s] I delivered yesterday [to] Marshal Pétain in the form of three memoranda. He said that:
The Marshal has been happy to give you complete satisfaction and assurances on all the questions which you raised.
The following is a translation of the first memorandum dealing with the points raised in Department’s 898, December 6, 4 p.m.:
Referring to the note handed by Admiral Leahy to Marshal Pétain and Admiral Darlan on December 11, the French Government renews the assurances that the French Fleet will not be utilized against Great Britain except in the case of hostile action on her part and that French territory will not be used as a base for operations by German Armed Forces.
It also renews the assurance that the departure of General Weygand did not entail any change in the political position of France in North Africa or any modification of the status governing these territories.
On the other hand, it confirms the agreement concluded on March 10 between the Embassy of the United States at Vichy and the French Government on the basis of the memorandum drawn up following the conversation of February 26, 1941, between General Weygand and Mr. Murphy.
It hopes that the renewal of these assurances will cause the American Government to resume the program of supply for North Africa. It would be happy to receive confirmation thereof.
After handing us these notes, Rochat said that he was particularly glad that we had brought up the possibility of continuing our economic assistance to North Africa at this time. While he understands that as a result of our entry into war the possibility of our giving economic assistance to North Africa, as originally envisaged, may have to undergo drastic change, he said that the continuation of our economic assistance to North Africa will strengthen at the present time France’s hand in resisting German demands there. He went on to say that if we resume sending supplies to North Africa, the French will be in a position to argue with the Germans that any additional material concessions to them insofar as North Africa is concerned will lead to the discontinuation of our program and will create “a serious situation very disadvantageous to the Germans insofar as North Africa is concerned.”
We asked him whether he really believed the French Government could resist a German demand or ultimatum for the withdrawal of code privileges and the departure of our consulates from North Africa. He replied with embarrassment that he could not answer this question. He went on to say that France would resist German demands in this regard with every possible argument but only the future can tell what the final decision will be. He stated that up to the present time no demands have been received from the Germans insofar as this mission or any of our consulates are concerned.
Repeated to Algiers for Murphy.
LEAHY
851.33/211: Telegram
The Ambassador in France to the Secretary of State
Vichy, December 12, 1941 — 11 p.m.
[Received December 13 — 11:30 a.m.]
1531
My 1523, December 11, 7 p.m.
We called on Rochat this evening who officially delivered to us three memoranda containing the replies to the question[s] I delivered yesterday [to] Marshal Pétain in the form of three memoranda. He said that:
The Marshal has been happy to give you complete satisfaction and assurances on all the questions which you raised.
The second memorandum dealing with the question of the carrier Béarn and other naval vessels reads as follows:
The President of the United States has asked the Marshal to issue orders to Admiral Robert not to allow the departure of any French naval ship from Martinique or from any other port in the Western Hemisphere.
The French Government has the honor to inform the Government of the United States that it is sending the said order. These instructions, moreover, are but a confirmation of those which were sent last year to Admiral Robert following the agreement reached between the two Governments in order to maintain the status quo of French possessions in the Western Hemisphere. The French Government does not doubt that the American Government continues to give, under present circumstances, its full value to this agreement. It would be happy to receive confirmation thereof.
The third memorandum states that:
As a result of the declaration of war by Germany and Italy against the United States, the French Government intends to maintain an attitude of neutrality during this conflict.
LEAHY
Press Release
December 12, 1941
An exchange of telegrams between the President of the United States and the President of the Philippine Commonwealth follows:
December 9, 1941I have just arrived from Baguio the summer capital of the Philippines where I was when the war between the United States and Japan was declared. I have covered the country by automobile and I am happy to report that everywhere the people are loyal to America and determined to stand by her in testimony of their gratitude to you, to the Government of the United States and to the American people and because of their devotion to the cause of Democracy and freedom. I am proud therefore that the reiterated assurance I have given to you: to the effect that you can count upon us was no empty word.
MANUEL L. QUEZON
December 11, 1941Your renewed assurances of the devotion and loyalty of the Philippine people to the United States and to democracy are particularly appreciated in this grave hour. The hearts of all Americans are deeply touched by the fortitude and gallantry being shown by your people in this present ordeal. We are at one with you in our faith in the ultimate triumph of our common ideals.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
U.S. Navy Department (December 12, 1941)
Communiqué No. 4
Naval forces continue to coordinate their efforts with the Army on land, sea and in the air against heavy Japanese attacks on the island of Luzon. There is no confirmation of the alleged occupation of Guam by the Japanese. The resistance of Wake and Midway continues. No further air activity over Hawaii has been reported. The situation in the Atlantic remains unchanged.
The above is based on reports up to noon today.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 12, 1941)
WAR DEPARTMENT OFFERS 18-64 DRAFT BILL
Women ‘deferred;’ full survey of manpower in U.S. asked
Only those from 19 to 45 face actual call, Rayburn says
Washington (UP) –
The War Department today presented to Congress legislation that would require all men in the United States between the ages of 18 to 64, inclusive, to register with the Selective Service System.
Only those from 19 to 45, Speaker Sam Rayburn said, will be liable for military service.
The broad registration will be for the purpose of getting an accurate survey of American manpower.
Chairman Andrew J. May (D-KY) of the House Military Affairs Committee introduced the War Department’s legislation shortly after the House convened at noon.
Reviewed at conference
The legislation was reviewed in a conference at Mr. Rayburn’s office also attended by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson; Selective Service Director Lewis B. Hershey; House Majority Leader John W. McCormack (D-MA); Rep. James Wadsworth (R-NY), co-sponsor of the original Selective Service Act; Rep. Walter G. Andrews (R-NY), ranking minority member of the Military Affairs Committee, and War Department and Selective Service aides.
Men who have already registered will not be required to do so again.
The new registration will take in all unregistered men who have reached the age of 18 and have not reached the age of 65.
New registrants may be called up for military service ahead of those who were entered in the past two registrations.
The bill provided that alien residents of the United States holding citizenship in neutral nations may apply for exemption for registration for military service under the American flag but if they do, they are forever barred from becoming citizens of this nation.
Mr. May announced that hearings in the bill will start tomorrow and that Gen. Hershey will be the first witness.
Selective Service officials said they had no intention at this time of seeking authority to register women.
Mr. May said his bill will not change the existing system of classifying Selective Service registrants.
Mr. Hershey disclosed that a proposal was now under consideration to establish some sort of government support if married men and other with dependents, who are now deferred, were found to be needed.
Million already available
Mr. Hershey told the conferees that an additional million men can probably be combed out of present registrants between 21 and 27 and that 1,200,000 men reach the age of military service annually.
He said:
We may need a lot of men and we’ve got to find out now where we can get them.
Gen. Hershey told reporters yesterday that he favored a long-range registration of the 40 million men between 18 and 64 years. He estimated that 10 million could be made available to the Army and Navy for actual service. Registration of women, he said, would be handled by such agencies as the Office for Civilian Defense.
The first phase of the program probably will be to draw upon the 17,500,000 men in the already registered 21-35 age group. Only about 800,000 inductions have been made to this class, but Gen. Hershey believes this could be increased to four million men.
Immediate reclassification of the 10 million registrants in the 21-27 age bracket is possible and legislative action may be sought to make available the 7,500,000 men in the 28-35 age group.
Gen. Hershey suggested that lowering selection standards in the 21-27 group would yield more than a million men to the current million in Class 1-A, and that “fully a million able-bodied men” might be obtained from the 28-35 group, now exempted.
The Army is expected to notify Selective Service headquarters at once of its needs for January and February quotas. They have been averaging about 65,000 per month recently. Gen. Hershey indicated that they would be “doubled or tripled.”
That might mean that 500,000 men would be called to the colors during the next two months.
Loopholes sought
Authorities are seeking to close loopholes on occupational deferments. Conferences with defense manufacturers have been held recently, and Gen. Hershey believes 200,000 men may be made available for military service from defense industry workers.
Selective Service headquarters have notified local draft boards to reclassify ex-servicemen who were deferred in Class 4-A. They were told that the provision permitting deferment from service in peacetime no longer applies.
Men who had served three years in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps, National Guardsmen with two years service in the militia and one in federal service, National Guards with six years service, the reserve officers with six years service were in that category.
Connally shies from phrase in war resolution
‘World conquest’ allusion deleted from draft of State Department
By Marshall McNeil, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
If the State Department suggestion had been followed, Congress would have acknowledged formally that Germany and Italy are working together on a plan for world conquest.
But at the insistence of Senator Connally (D-TX), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the declarations of war against the Axis powers contained no such preambles as the Department suggested.
Confusion over whether to accept the State Department version accounted for the interruption in Senate proceedings between the reading of the President’s war message and the Senate’s unanimous vote to declare war.
Confer on floor
During this interruption, Senator Connally conferred on the Senate floor with Rep. Bloom (D-NY), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and House Majority Leader McCormack (D-MA).
One Senator said in a stage whisper:
Sol and Tom are having a joint session of Congress right here on the floor.
Before calling the Foreign Relations Committee to meet at 11:30 a.m. EST yesterday, Senator Connally had conferred with Secretary Hull. He went back to the Capitol, and said the State Department was drafting a proposed war resolution. At the same time, his office put the legislative drafting service to work on a similar resolution.
Preamble opposed
The Department’s proposal made known both to Senator Connally and House leaders, started this way:
Whereas Germany is pursuit of a plan of world conquest has committed repeated acts of war against the government and the people of the United States, and has now declared war on the United States…
Senator Connally wouldn’t accept this. He said it was true the Nazis have a plan of world conquest, and that they have committed repeated acts of war against us. But we have known these things for months, he said, without declaring war. Moreover, he wanted the full support of his committee on both resolutions of war.
So, he and the Committee deleted this preamble.
House leaders agree
Rep. Bloom and McCormack, who were prepared to accept the State Department preamble, heard that the Senate was not, and hurried over to find out the facts. The Senate, without formality, suspended its business; Messrs. Connally and Bloom held their “joint session” in the center aisle; the House leaders were informed the Senate was not accepting the State Department preamble; they agreed and the war declarations were speedily approved.
Following the signing of the declarations by the President later in the afternoon, Senator Glass (D-VA) related how Mr. Roosevelt commented to legislators at the signing ceremony that some members of the Connally Committee had wanted to phrase the declarations in a manner to spare the feelings of Axis civilians.
Mr. Glass told the President:
Hell, we not only want to hurt their feeling, we want to kill them!
Plane-vs.-ship case reopened by sea losses
Reappraisal of value of aircraft and vessels due in Congress
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
The destruction of naval vessels by airplanes in the Pacific appeared likely today to bring a reappraisal by Congress of the relative importance of aircraft and warships.
Senator Walsh (D-MA), Chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, commented that this week’s events seemed to indicate a new shift of strength from surface vessels to aircraft.
He pointed out that he had stressed repeatedly the importance of aircraft in naval warfare, and expressed a belief that his committee would reexamine the old controversy of plane-vs.-battleship in the light of the new developments.
Sinkings provide test
Senator Wiley (R-WI), a member of the Walsh Committee, went further. He said:
Recent events show that the navies of the air are more significant than the naves of the sea.
Mr. Wiley said the record of Norway and Crete, as well as this week’s news from the Pacific, had demonstrated the growing supremacy of aircraft.
Senator Lucas (D-IL), also a Committee member, said:
I certainly would think that some more emphasis should now be given to the bombing plane.
He said the sinking of British capital ships by the Japanese, and of Japanese ships by U.S. fliers, presented a much fairer test than the Honolulu engagement Sunday, where planes attacked ships which were apparently tied up in harbor.
Too early for answers
There was less inclination among members of the House Naval Affairs Committee to accept the plane-battleship tests on the Pacific as indicating a need for greater emphasis on aircraft.
Rep. Mass (R-MN), the Committee’s ranking minority member warned against jumping at conclusions. He said a navy must be strong both in the air and on the surface, and pointed out that German aviation had not been able to bring defeat of England.
But Rep. Cole (R-NY), also a Naval Affairs Committee member, said that:
Developments have caused all of us to question the military usefulness of the battleship.
But it is still too early to get a final answer, he said.
$10-billion war bill placed before Senate
Congress moves to gear U.S. Armed Forces for long, hard struggle
Washington (UP) –
The Senate votes today on a $10-billion supplemental national defense appropriation – the first step since the declaration of war against the Axis to gear the Armed Forces for a “long, hard war.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee will send the bill to the floor at noon after adding nearly $2 billion in cash and contract authorizations, including $500 million for naval warplanes, to the House-approved version.
The bill, boosting the war program to more than $69 billion, was approved by the committee yesterday only a few hours after the declaration of war against Germany and Italy.
Called first in series
Acting Committee Chairman Kenneth McKellar (D-TN) said the bill was the first of what may be an extensive series “necessary to supply the implements and arms for a long and hard war against three foes.”
RAdm. John H. Towers, Chief of the Bureau of Naval Aeronautics, asked the committee to increase funds for naval fighting planes from a House-approved total permitting construction of an additional 2,020 airplanes. McKellar did not reveal the type or number of fighting craft to be constructed from the $500-million fund.
Votes power program
In an effort to provide power necessary “to make aluminum needed for the defense of the country,” the committee added a power facility program embracing four additional dams in Tennessee. Initial construction costs provided in the bill total $25 million for the dams located on the Watauga River, near Elizabethtown; the Holston Rover near Bristol; at Dole Hollow on the Obed River, and at Center Hill on the Caney Fork River.
Other items added by the committee include: Another $7 billion for Army and Civil Aeronautics Administration land fields raising the total for this purpose to $57 million; $100 million for the President’s emergency blank check fund, and increased appropriations for government buildings in the District of Columbia.
Transfers funds
The committee transferred $1,500,000,000 of funds set aside by the House for Lend-Lease purposes to the general War Department account. McKellar declared that this move indicated no innovation in Lend-Lease administration, adding that it was considered advisable by War Department officials to lump the Lend-Lease monies with general War Department appropriations “to free the department’s hands in spending.”
Other expenditures include $742 million for feeding and clothing Army personnel; $269 million for vessel construction and machinery; and $33 million for the Interior Department for defense construction purposes.
WAR BULLETINS!
British, Reds to map strategy
London, England –
Important British-Russian negotiations, it was learned tonight, will be held shortly to deal with political collaboration and the grand strategy of the war against the Axis.
Japs gain near Hong Kong
Singapore –
British forces held off the Japanese attack on Malaya today but Hong Kong reports admitted some Japanese penetration of the outer mainland defense of that island fortress. British reports said the Japanese strengthened their hold on the Kota Bharu Airdrome close to the Malay-Thai border. Japanese artillery was reported to be shelling Stonecutters Island which lies off Hong Kong Island.
Chiang offers all-out aid
Washington –
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, in a message to President Roosevelt has offered on behalf of China:
…all we are, and all we have, to stand with you until the Pacific and the world are freed from the curse of brute force and endless perfidy.
Planes strafe Jap barges
London, England –
The Air Ministry reported today that Royal Air Force and Australian Air Force planes attacked and set afire to between 50 and 60 Japanese power-driven boats and barges in the first stages of the Japanese attack on Kota Bharu, Malaya.
British sub hits cruiser
London, England –
The Admiralty said today that a British submarine torpedoed and probably sank an enemy cruiser in the Central Mediterranean. The date of the attack was not given.
Marines still hold Wake Island
Washington –
The small U.S. Marine garrison is still holding Wake Island against Japanese attacks, President Roosevelt said today. He told his press conference that the Marines at Wake Island – a lonely station in the mid-Pacific – is small and has done a magnificent job in withstanding Japanese assaults. Last night, it was announced that the Marines had sunk a Japanese light cruiser and a destroyer in air action from Wake.
Japs seize 1,000 American workmen
Washington –
The American Federation of Labor said today it has been advised by the Navy that more than 1,000 American workmen were “captured and taken prisoner” at Midway and Guam Islands in the Pacific. The men were all members of the AFL’s Building Trades Union, and were sent to the island to construct military facilities. The Navy did not specifically say whether Midway or Guam had fallen into the hands of the Japanese.
Haiti joins U.S. against Axis
Port-au-Prince, Haiti –
Haiti today declared war on Germany and Italy. A declaration of war against Japan was made last Monday.
Slovakia declares war on U.S.
London, England –
The official German news agency broadcast a Bratislava dispatch today saying that Slovakia had declared war on the United States and Great Britain.
Indian leader arrested
New Delhi, India – (Dec. 11, delayed)
Sarat Chandra Bose, brother of Subhas Chandra Bose, former Mayor of Calcutta and former president of the All-India Nationalist Congress, has been arrested at Calcutta because of his “recent contacts with the Japanese,” it was announced today. Subhas Chandra Bose fled last January and is reported in Germany.
Nazis claim four sinkings
Berlin, Germany – (by Berlin radio)
German submarines in the Atlantic have sunk four British ships totaling 27,700 tons, the High Command said today.
The ships included a tanker. In addition, two patrol vessels and a tanker were damaged by torpedo hits.
Vichy declares neutrality
London, England –
Radio Tokyo said this morning that the Vichy government has informed the Japanese ambassador that France will maintain strict neutrality in the war between the United States and Japan.
San Diego blacked out
San Diego, California –
San Diego was blacked out for an hour early today and Los Angeles was placed on “alert” when the Fourth Interceptor Command reported unidentified aircraft offshore.
Here the Command said the planes were heard off Point Loma at the entrance to San Diego Bay. At Los Angeles, the Command said merely that they were “probably offshore.”
Australia has air-raid alarm
New York –
The British radio reported today that Port Darwin on the north coast of Australia had an air-raid alarm during the night, the first in the Commonwealth. No details were given.
Japan, Indochina sign pact
London, England –
The official German news agency reported from Tokyo today that Japan and French Indochina concluded a military alliance Monday.
The Berlin broadcast attributed the report to Japanese Imperial Headquarters.
Brussels University closed
Stockholm, Sweden –
The newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported from Berlin today that German military authorities had closed the University of Brussels to its 3,000 students and arrested 10 of its officials. The University board refused to accept five German appointments to the faculty.
Companies reject air-raid insurance
New York (UP) –
Insurance companies refused today to insure property in the United States and its territories against air-raid damage although demands were heavy and increasing.
The companies could not agree on a standard rate.
To determine what course to take, the Executive Committee of the General Brokers’ Association of the Metropolitan District, Inc., appointed a committee to confer with federal and state authorities.
Another group of insurance men was reported to be already in Washington, trying to find out whether the government is willing to take complete assumption of war risks as the government of Britain did when the Germans were air-raiding the British Isles.
Practice blackouts urged
Chicago, Illinois –
Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York, director of the Office of Civilian Defense, said today he believed Chicago and all major cities of the United States should have practice blackouts soon.
U.S. bans casualty lists as giving aid to enemies
Washington (UP) –
No more casualty lists will be issued by the War and Navy Departments.
President Roosevelt explained to his press conference today that the Army and Navy felt that publication of lists of men killed or wounded in action would provide information of aid to the enemy, enabling the enemy to determine where and when large numbers of American soldiers and sailors suffered losses.
He said the Army and Navy would notify next of kin of the casualties immediately by telegram. The government will release for newspaper publication only total figures on casualties.
The President asked that press associations, newspapers and radio stations refrain from compiling their own casualty lists from the notices sent to next of kin.
Newspapers, he said, should confine themselves to brief stories that the next of kin – wife, mother, or whatever the case may be – of a given man in the paper’s individual areas has been notified by Washington. This information from next of kin, the President felt, should not be made into the form of lists covering even a given community.
All belligerents in the war, prior to the outbreak of hostilities between Japan and the United States, followed the policy of not making casualty lists public, the President said. They have notified next of kin, and from time to time made public figures on total casualties.
The War Department has issued three casualty lists – one each Wednesday, yesterday and today. The Navy had not released any casualty list up to the time of today’s decision. The Navy is now preparing figures on the dead and seriously wounded to date.
A Navy announcement said:
The Navy Department today announced that for military reasons no list of names of casualties will be released to the public. The next of kin and dependents of naval casualties are being notified and are being asked not to divulge the names of the ship or station to which the relative was attached.
To requests for additional information on the Japanese attack against Hawaii, the President replied that further statements must await the return or report of the Secretary Frank Knox, now in Honolulu.
The President said strongly that no one should publish anything about the Hawaiian attack or present conditions there until the government has heard from Mr. Knox. He added, in response to a question, if such stories are published the government will remember well the people who did it.
He was asked about the propriety of reporting statements made in Congress, giving purporting details of the situation in Hawaii. Correspondents referred particularly to statements made in the Senate yesterday and told the President they had no choice but to print them.
The President agreed that such reports from Congress could not be ignored, but said they should be characterized as not entirely factual.
The President said one Senator yesterday made certain statements about Hawaii with knowing a thing about the situation.
This Senator, the President said, reported somebody’s gossip and made his report as a statement of fact which he had no right to do.
Senator Charles W. Tobey (R-NH) told the Senate yesterday that there had been a “debacle” at Pearl Harbor and charged that the defenses of Pearl Harbor were unprepared.
Mowrer: Keep a close eye on Hitler for surprise
Nazis still main show, and Atlantic may be next background
By Edgar Ansel Mowrer
Washington –
Repel the Japanese but keep your eye on Hitler – this is the policy being followed today by the American administration, the Army and the Navy.
The sinking of a Japanese battleship, a cruiser and a destroyer makes it just that much easier. People here are convinced that in preparing for Japan the magnificently audacious plan that the Nipponese carried out so effectively (and treacherously) last Sunday, the Germans wanted to create a diversion serious enough to force the American authorities to strip the Atlantic and rush to repair the damage in the Pacific and avenge it.
Since the work of avenging has begun without any reinforcements from the Atlantic, for the main route to the Philippines is now largely in the hands of the Japanese, there will be less temptation to forget that, outside of the main area of Singapore, Hitler and his Nazis are still the main show.
In order to induce the Japs to go all out and risk their precious material, Hitler, it is believed here, must have promised them powerful support. What people here intend to find it – and expect Hitler to reveal soon – is what form this support is going to take.
Several things are open to the Nazis, now that they have admitted they cannot take Moscow this winter and must wait until spring. A Russian announcement claiming that they now have control of the air over the front suggests strongly that the Germans have withdrawn a portion of their air force from that region. This might take the form of a new air onslaught against Great Britain, and/or an intensified airplane, plus submarine, plus surface, campaign in the Atlantic.
Defeated in his frantic effort to reach the oil of the Caspian, Hitler’s marshals, by shortening their lines and withdrawing divisions from Russia, may amass a powerful mass for a campaign all along, or in special parts of, the Mediterranean.
This might mean a smash at Turkey, with the idea of reaching the Caucasus along the southern shore of the Black Sea, or turning down toward Iraq and eventually Iran, or driving straight south on Syria, Palestine and the Suez Canal. It may mean an intensified effort to cross the Mediterranean and get into North Africa in time to reinforce Gen. Erwin Rommel’s battered divisions before they have to give more ground. For this purpose, Hitler desperately needs the French fleet.
Pessimists in Washington believe that Japan’s success at Pearl Harbor may have been the final argument in convincing the men of Vichy that Americans are blunderers anyway. Without this fleet, and a fine French base like Bizerte or Oran to land at, the Germans and Italians will have some difficulty sending reinforcements across the British-controlled Mediterranean.
Spain a pushover
They can, however, take over Spain and Portugal anytime they choose. A somewhat sinister statement from Madrid that Spain will soon announce its position toward the war with the United States leads people here to believe that the Franco Spaniards, despite more than generous handling from the United States, have decided to proclaim non-belligerence favorable to the Axis and allow German troops to pass freely.
This would mean a siege of Gibraltar and the unquestioned crossing of the Straits there by at least some German troops. It would mean the taking over of French Morocco, probably of Algeria as well. It might mean an attempt to take over Dakar, though Dakar is a long walk from the Straits.
In any case, many possibilities are open to Hitler, and those who have given most attention to studying the man and his works are convinced that he will not wait long to act.
Latin America rallies to U.S. support in war
War declarations and assurances of solidarity are issued
Buenos Aires, Argentina (UP) –
Latin America rallied strongly to the support of the United States today with four nations having already declared war against Germany and Italy and others expected to follow soon.
Nine Latin American countries declared war on Japan after Sunday’s attack on Hawaii and four followed yesterday with declarations against Germany and Italy.
Cuba went to war with the three major powers at midnight EST, when President Fulgencio Batista signed a declaration that had been passed by the Senate, 50–0, and by the House of Representatives, 222–0. Cuba declared war on Japan Tuesday.
Mexico breaks relations
Costa Rica, the first Latin American nation to enter World War II with a declaration against Japan, declared war on Germany and Italy yesterday. Guatemala and Nicaragua, both already at war with Japan, also declared war against Germany and Italy.
Mexico broke diplomatic relations with Germany and Italy, severing all ties with the Axis powers and becoming an ally of the United States in everything short of an actual war declaration.
Mexico ordered the freezing of German and Italian funds, as it had frozen Japanese funds, and continued movement of troops to its west coast to protect Baja California.
Solidarity reaffirmed
Argentina reaffirmed its solidarity with the United States and sent a message to the American Congress condemning the “treasonable” Axis action. It was expected to proclaim the United States “non-belligerent” as regards Germany and Italy today, paralleling a similar declaration as regards Japan. The action permits U.S. warships to enter Argentine ports without risking internment under neutrality regulations.
Sources at the Foreign Office said German and Italian funds would probably be frozen today.
San Salvador, already at war with Japan, and Bolivia have already blocked Axis funds. The Bolivian order was regarded as a major blow to Axis operations in Latin America, because most Bolivian business is controlled by German, Italian or Japanese interests. The Bolivian decree also applies to non-belligerent Axis allies, the Finance Ministry said.
Will buy arms from U.S.
In Uruguay, which had also declared the United States non-belligerent in its war with Japan, the Senate passed a bill authorizing a $17-million purchase of arms in the United States.
President Getúlio Vargas of Brazil reaffirmed his nation’s solidarity with the United States in view of the spread of the war. He ordered six infantry companies to guard strategic air bases.
Peru, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic also assured the United States of their support.
President Manuel Prado of Peru cabled President Roosevelt a few moments after the German and Italian declarations:
I reaffirm the principle of solidarity which emanated from the inter-American pacts. Peru reiterates at this opportunity, its firm decision to omit no effort in favor of common defense of the continent.
Oil lines protected
In Venezuela, the world’s third largest petroleum producer, President Isaías Medina said:
The aggression against the United States places a tragic threat at the very doors of America and makes it imperative that each country of the New World fully assume its responsibilities.
He said the government was “cooperating fully” with petroleum companies for the protection of oil fields, pipelines, refineries and other facilities.
In Washington, Generalissimo Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, strongman of the Dominican Republic, said his country, already at war with Japan, would declare war against Germany and Italy. He said:
The land, sea and air of the Dominican Republic are available to the land, naval or air forces of the United States at any time they may desire to use them.
Mikado to be given despite Pacific War
Washington (UP) –
Performances of the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, The Mikado, will be presented here next week as scheduled, it was announced today, but the printed program will carry an explanatory note, saying, in part:
Almost three-score years have passed since William Gilbert wrote this, depicting the Japanese in the light that history now records – sly, wily and deceitful, unconscionably corrupt and treacherous.
The operetta satirizes British characters who are given Japanese names.
An employee of the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company yesterday announced that three local performances at the National Theater had been cancelled because Baltimore audiences Monday received the production coolly, particularly its opening song “We Are Gentlemen of Japan.”
U.S. and Axis reporters expected to return home on ‘truce’ ships
By the United Press
American newspapermen in Axis countries were under arrest or police supervision today and were unable to communicate with the United States.
It was understood that the U.S. State Department was arranging for the exchange of the newspapermen for Axis reporters under arrest in this country. The correspondents would leave Axis countries with U.S. diplomatic personnel and would return to America on a “truce ship” guaranteed safe passage of the Atlantic. Axis diplomats and reporters would return home by the same method.
German and Italian journalists detained in America were being kept in hotels rather then locked up, and were being well-treated. Information from abroad indicated that American correspondents were receiving the same treatment. They were barred from filing news dispatches since early Wednesday.
When American correspondents in Berlin appeared at the Foreign Office press conference Wednesday, they were asked to leave the room and go to their apartments because Axis correspondents in the United States had been arrested. Wednesday midnight CET (5:00 p.m. Tuesday EST), they were rounded up and placed under arrest. They were first taken to Alexanderplatz Police Station and then confined in a private villa.
The offices of American press associations and newspapers were closed Thursday afternoon, according to a Berlin dispatch of the Swedish newspaper Tidningens of Stockholm, after the heads of the bureaus had been allowed to cable the U.S. State Department protesting against the arrest of German correspondents in Washington and New York.
It was understood, Tidningens said, that this cable was approved by the Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy.
A broadcast of DNB, the official German news agency, said the American correspondents in Paris were barred from official press conferences yesterday and asked to go to their homes. Later, they were also placed under arrest.
DNB said that, in Rome, working American newspapermen were put under police surveillance or arrested. The agency said that four American correspondents were arrested and two others ordered to remain in their apartments.
It was not revealed whether any action was taken against employees of American press associations or newspapers who are citizens of Axis countries.
The names of American correspondents arrested were not announced by the authorities, but the only exception reported was Guido Enderis, Berlin correspondent of The New York Times. Tidningens said that he had been exempted and allowed to remain at the hotel. In New York, the Times said it knew of no reason why an exception was made in the case of Mr. Enderis, but that he was not being allowed to work.
Tokyo reported that three or four unidentified British and American newspapermen were detained “as a precaution and for their protection and well-being.”
Today’s developments in the war in the Pacific
U.S. pilot dives into Jap ship’s guns, vanishes
Battleship goes down in blast; ex-Pitt student wrecks 14 planes
Capt. Colin Kelly Jr., vanished in explosion.
Manila, Philippines (UP) –
Three daredevil American aviators flew to fame – and one to death – today against the Japanese.
Terse statements from military and naval sources in Manila told the story of how U.S. and Filipino aviators struck back against powerful enemy assaults. The name of 26-year-old Capt. Colin Kelly Jr. of Florida, who was killed in action, heads the roll of the heroes.
His diving airplane vanished in a roaring explosion that sank the 29,000-ton Japanese battleship Haruna off the coast of Luzon Island as the pilot plunged his craft straight down at the enemy and released a stick of high explosives almost into the mouths of flaming Japanese guns.
Capt. Kelly was only one of the defense fliers and who made American skill and daring in the air felt against the invaders.
Around the air bases, they told of blows struck by Lt. Boyd D. Wagner of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who like Kelly flew an Army Air Corps plane. Lt. Wagner raced northward to the tip of Luzon Island as the Japanese sought to land reinforcements under aerial protection in the Aparri sector.
Half a dozen enemy craft tackled him and two of them went down after a fierce dogfight. Lt. Wagner then streaked on toward the enemy landing field and dropped down until his plane was skimming treetops, his machine guns spattering bullets against Japanese craft on the ground. A dozen planes were wrecked when – his fuel running low – he turned back toward his home base.
Lt. Wagner is a former University of Pittsburgh student.
They were talking, too, of Lt. C. A. Keller of the U.S. Navy Air Force, and how he “shadowed” a Japanese battleship of the Kongo class northwest of Luzon despite steady and fierce enemy anti-aircraft fire. Lt. Keller kept his plane within sight of the 29,000-ton enemy craft until naval bombers led by Lt. Cdr. J. V. Peterson arrived and pressed home an attack that put the vessel out of action.
But the American fliers were not the only ones who stood out in the battle against invasion forces.
Adm. Thomas C. Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet, told how Filipino fliers in the defense forces had shot down two Japanese planes out of 11 bagged since early this morning. Hart also said that Lt. H. Tutter of the U.S. Navy Air Force, had been attacked by three Japanese fighter planes at sea. He shot down one and then made a forced landing on the water, taxiing his plane to the shore where he repaired minor damages. The next morning, he returned to base.
Capt. Kelly was 26. He graduated from the University of Florida, and then went to West Point, from which he graduated four years ago. He was married and had one son.
In 1938, he finished the Primary Flying School of the Army, and the Advanced Flying School bombardment course in 1939.
He was accepted as a combat pilot in September 1940 and served in Hawaii until he was assigned to the Philippines.
Hero always wanted to be a soldier
Madison, Florida (UP) –
Capt. Colin Kelly Jr., who died in successfully dive-bombing the 29,300-ton Japanese battleship Haruna off Luzon, his father said today, “always wanted to be a soldier – ever since he was about 12 years old.”
The father said:
He always had talked about aviation. Sometimes, I thought he was almost too crazy about it.
But I’m proud that he did his part for our country. He was a fine specimen of manhood and I guess fairly bright. That’s how he got an appointment to West Point.
Capt. Kelly visited his home here last February. His father said he was stationed at March Field, California, before being transferred to Honolulu. He was a graduate of Madison High School and attended the Marion Military Institute in Alabama for one year.
Hero’s mother has busy day
Johnstown, Pennsylvania –
As it had been every day since the war began, the Wagner home was quiet and unmoving this morning.
Boyd D. Wagner Sr., the father, had gone to work. Mrs. Wagner, herself a clerk in a store here, sat at the breakfast table, her thoughts wandering to the far-off Philippines.
If only there would be some word of their son…
To be sure, they had received a radiogram Tuesday from Lt. Boyd D. Wagner Jr., saying he had received the Christmas gifts, thanks, and everything is alright.
Radiogram sent Friday
But the radiogram had been sent out Friday – and since then the Japanese had attacked the Philippines and the very air base at which their son was stationed as a commander of the 17th Pursuit Squadron. If only…
Then suddenly the radio boomed. It was Manila coming in.
It said:
Among the first heroes of the war announced by the Navy today was Lt. Boyd D. Wagner, who accounted for 14 enemy planes single-handedly.
Mrs. Wagner said:
I just can’t explain the feeling I got then. I was happy enough just to hear he was alive. But to be a hero – my!
Breakfast was forgotten.
Mrs. Wagner grasped a phone to call her husband, an electrician, and tell him of the good news. But the line was busy. She said:
And it’s been busy all day.
All of Johnstown – and more – has been calling me. I haven’t been able to get a bit of work done. I guess it’s the same with Mr. Wagner.
And so it’s been here all day long – ever since the Navy first announced that Lt. Wagner had earned a hero’s rating by downing two Japanese planes in dogfights above the Philippines and destroying 12 others on the ground at Aparri, in northern Luzon, where the Japs are fighting to gain a foothold.
Studied at Pitt
Only 25, Lt. Wagner is a native of Emeigh, near here, and a graduate of Nanty Glo High School. He studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh for three years, joining the Flying Cadets in 1937.
He was commissioned a second lieutenant July 17, 1938, after completing his course at Randolph and Kelly Fields, in Texas, then ordered to active duty at Selfridge Field, Michigan.
Promoted to a first lieutenant Sept. 9, 1940, he was shifted to Manila three months later. He was made commander of the 17th Pursuit Squadron four months ago.
Uncle Sam hits back –
U.S. aircraft begin to even Pacific score
Second Jap battleship hit; Axis satellites may declare war
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
Further war declarations or ruptures of diplomatic relations with the United States by Axis satellites were likely today as U.S. airmen began to even the naval score with Japan in the Pacific.
The successful bombing of a second Japanese capital ship cheered the capital.
The nation is at war on two points – Atlantic and Pacific. But the Western Hemisphere is becoming more solidly aligned by the minute against the Axis and the period of disunity at home seems to have ended with the first bomb explosion in Hawaii.
Good news starts
Against Germany, Italy and Japan is being thrown the force of the world’s most perfectly machined and industrialized nation. And the good news is beginning to come in.
First word is awaited from the Atlantic front, where war began yesterday with declarations of hostilities by Rome and Berlin which were immediately acknowledged by the United States. Whether the Axis will attempt a “morale” air raid on Washington, New York or some other seaboard city is unknown. The fighting forces hope to stop it offshore if it comes.
Bombs of Army, Navy or Marine fliers have already sunk one Japanese battleship, one cruiser, one destroyer and badly damaged a second battleship.
Seek to restore balance
At that rate, it appears the U.S. flying men shortly will be able to restore the balance of naval power in the Pacific as it existed before Japan sank the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales, the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and inflicted unrevealed damage on our own fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was announced by the Governor of Hawaii that 20 Japanese planes were lost in Sunday’s attack on Hawaii.
The last “good news” came in the Navy Department’s Communiqué No. 3, which said:
Adm. Thomas C. Hart, Commander-in-Chief of the Asiatic Fleet, reported that Navy patrol planes scored bomb hits on a Japanese battleship of the Kongo class off the coast of Luzon. The ship was badly damaged. This is the second Japanese battleship to be bombed effectively by U.S. forces.
Haruna sunk
The first battleship attacked by U.S. forces was the 29,000-ton Haruna. It was sunk. The second, Adm. Hart reported, was believed to be the 29,300-ton Kongo.
Earlier in the day, the Navy has revealed that a small garrison of Marines were making a valiant stand to defend Wake Island, the tiny outpost between Hawaii and Guam. That garrison sunk one cruiser and one destroyer which had tried to attack.
Sufficiently accurate information on what was lost in Pearl Harbor is now common knowledge here – although unpublishable – and the rate at which U.S. fliers are reducing the Japanese fleet is encouraging.
Remains less favorable
But the balance of naval power remains considerably less favorable to the United States than it was before Sunday’s attack. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox arrived in Honolulu last night for a personal survey of the damage which the public will scarcely minimize after White House emphasis upon its seriousness.
Hungary is almost in step with the Axis today with the formal announcement in Washington that diplomatic relations with the United States have been broken. Hungary explained here that she was not declaring war.
Radio Berlin broadcast that Hungary has declared war against the United States.
Romania may follow
Romania is another subordinate European state which may follow that course.
The course of the neutrals – Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and Portugal – remains to be seen, nor is it known here what Germany may demand of that part of France governed from Vichy.
Finland, already at war with the Soviet Union and with Great Britain, is seeking to avoid involvement in the general war flaming throughout the world. The situation is further complicated by Great Britain’s recent declaration of war against Hungary and Romania.
Greece, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway are captive countries, seized forcibly by Nazi arms, and Albania fell early to Italy.
Meets in January
The Western Hemisphere was rapidly falling in line with the anti-Axis powers in a worldwide choose-up-sides for battle and there will be a conference in Rio de Janeiro in January among the 21 American republics.
Here next week, Mr. Roosevelt has called a conference of management and labor to agree on a changeover from war to peace production efforts which must adopt a seven-day production week, and without strike or lockout interruptions, too. The accomplishments of the conference are expected to take the place of drastic anti-strike legislation which was roaring through Congress when Japan struck.
The Congressional isolation bloc has vanished as though bombed and it is the present intention of Congress to vote all the funds and authority the administration and its military advisers ask to prosecute the war. Restrictions against sending National Guardsmen and selectees outside the Western Hemisphere were voted away unanimously yesterday and the Senate turned immediately to consideration of a $10-billion supplemental national defense appropriation. The sum of the bill was increased by about $2 billion by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Taxes will rise
Taxes are going up soon and far. Congressional leaders agreed that the burden will increase tremendously and other officials are arranging simultaneously to reduce the number of variety of things the public may buy with what is left over from the paycheck after taxes are paid.
National Selective Service Headquarters are pondering plans for registration of practically everyone for such essential service as may be necessary and draft deferment lists are already being revised to make more men immediately available for the armed services.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Maxim Litvinov, the Soviet Ambassador, conferred and predicted increased collaboration against the common enemy. But there is no word here about bases for our planes in Siberia so that they may shuttle back and forth between the Philippines and the Asiatic mainland, dropping their bombs on Japan as they cross each way. The Soviet Union and Japan are not at war. Instead, they have a mutual non-aggression pact.
Soviet Union, U.S. pledge rising war collaboration
Russia leaves no hint on possible aid in fight against Japan; Litvinov announces ‘full understanding’ reached in talk with Hull
Washington (UP) –
The Soviet Union and the United States are informally pledged to increased collaboration against their common enemy, the Axis, but there has been no hint as of today whether the Soviet plans to offer this country the use of Siberian air bases for its war against Japan.
The Soviet Union and Japan are not at war. They have a mutual non-aggression pact.
Diplomats here have felt that the Soviet Union would probably continue its present status with Japan unless attacked, because of the necessity of concentrating all efforts on the front threatened by Germany.
However, air and naval bases along the eastern Siberian coast would be strategic points for U.S. bombers to start raids over the Japanese mainland.
Nothing was mentioned about such aid yesterday after a conference between Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Soviet Ambassador Maxim Litvinov.
Litvinov said after the conference that the Soviet Union and the United States had reached a “full understanding” on their common struggle.
Soviet ‘to do share’
Mr. Hull said in a statement earlier that the Soviets “will do their full share” in the all-out fight against the Axis. He also pointed out that when Litvinov arrived here Monday – the day the United States declared war on Japan – President Roosevelt assured him of his “firm determination” to continue aid to the Soviets.
The Hull and Litvinov remarks came amidst reports from Europe that the Soviets had rejected Nazi proposals for peace. Some reports speculated that the halting of the German drive on Moscow might be a preliminary to a Russo-German peace. But Litvinov said:
I have no doubt whatever that we will continue resistance against the Germans to a final complete victory.
Mr. Hull’s statement – given out before he met Litvinov – appeared to be designed to refute reports that Russia was reluctant to move in the Far East lest she becomes involved in war with Japan.
Litvinov sidestepped all inquiries as to what assistance the Soviet Union might give this country.
His only answer to specific questions about bases was:
We shall see.
Naturally we have a common cause and a common enemy. We are fighting Hitler more than anyone else. We fully understand each other.
Litvinov’s conference with Mr. Hull was one of a series which included a talk with Harry L. Hopkins, Lend-Lease supervisor, and Lord Halifax, British Ambassador.
Nazi peace feeler spurned by Russia; Japan denounced
‘We shall see,’ Litvinov says about Soviet plans for bombing Tokyo after he confers with Roosevelt; Reds rap Nipponese treachery
By the United Press
Russia’s official Radio Kuybyshev broadcast today that the Soviet Union would never sign a peace treaty with Germany except in agreement with the United States and Britain and added:
By that time, there will no longer be a Hitler in Germany.
There was as yet no official announcement from Russia as to what action it will take in the Pacific War.
But in Washington, Maxim Litvinov, the new Russian Ambassador, the one man among great European statesmen who for years had said that joint defense by the democracies against aggressors was the sole hope of civilization, said to questioning newspaper correspondents:
Naturally we have a common cause and a common enemy. We are fighting Hitler more than anyone else. We fully understand each other.
Litvinov sees Roosevelt
Mr. Litvinov conferred yesterday with President Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Lord Halifax, the British Ambassador.
Asked as to the extent of assistance Russia might give in the Pacific, such as bombing Tokyo from its Siberian bases, he said, “We shall see.”
“Fine!” he exclaimed when informed that a Japanese cruiser and a destroyer had been sunk off Wake Island.
Henry Shapiro, United Press correspondent in Kuybyshev (temporary Russian diplomatic headquarters), reported that Pravda, the official Communist Party organ, bitterly denounced Japan today, saying it had attacked the United States and Great Britain treacherously and obviously after long preparation.
See defeat for Japs
Pravda said:
The Japanese aggressor has plunged into a very hazardous adventure which bodes him nothing but defeat.
And if he counted on the possibility of a “lightning victory,” he is in for a disappointment no less than that suffered by the bloodthirsty Hitler as the result of his bandit attack on the Soviet Union.
In Washington, denying reports of a possible Russo-German peace, Mr. Litvinov said:
I have no doubt whatever that we will continue resistance against the Germans to a final complete victory.
Reds cite ‘powerful front’
Asked regarding the possibility of a firm American-British-Chinese-Dutch-Russian alliance, he said:
We shall see. Naturally we have a common cause and a common battle. I cannot make any statement about Japan.
Radio Moscow quoted an editorial in Pravda, which, in discussing the Pacific situation, mentioned the United States, Britain and China as constituting a “powerful front.”
The editorial said:
The first partial successes by Japan in the Pacific are not decisive. The fact that Germany and Italy have declared war on the United States does not alter the position materially.
The Japanese wanted a quick victory, but they will be disappointed. They are confronted by a powerful front of the United States, Britain and China.
Expect long war
The opening of a new front in the Pacific will mean increased activity on the Chinese front.
The United States, which was already against the Hitler front, has used the interval before the war declarations to increase its production of war materials. Its production is not on full-scale so far, but that will soon be made up.
The war in the Pacific will be long and difficult. The colossal superiority of manpower and the possession of raw materials by the United States will prove decisive.
A CBS correspondent in Kuybyshev said that the Russian government was advised officially of Japan’s declaration of war on the United States only yesterday when a State Department message reached the U.S. Embassy.
‘Dreams buried in snow’
He quoted Pravda as saying in substance:
Hitler hoped to capture Russia up to the Ural Mountains in one or two months. Now his dreams are buried in snow.
Hitler is ready to talk peace with Russia tomorrow if Russian leaders are willing to talk peace with him. Hitler is now dangling peace proposals before the Soviet Union, hoping that they will nibble. But the Soviet Union will sign a peace treaty with Germany only in common with Britain and the United States.
It was added that the article was written before the German declaration of war on the United States yesterday.
Newspapers assure Roosevelt of support
New York (UP) –
The American Newspaper Publishers Association said today that the nation’s newspapers had assured President Roosevelt of their support and “await your call for any service we can render.”
Press Secretary Stephen Early said in reply that Mr. Roosevelt:
…is most appreciative of the pledge of active support for the defense of the American way of life which you give on behalf of the newspapers of the United States.
ABCD means JIG is up for Axis bloc
Mexico, Missouri (UP) –
Said Col. C. R. Stribling of Missouri Military Academy when informed of America’s declaration of war:
It’s as plain as ABCD [America-Britain-China-Dutch East Indies] that the JIG [Japan-Italy-Germany] is up.
Roosevelt says ore supply is adequate
Washington (PWB) –
President Roosevelt, in a press conference announcement today, showed optimism over the winter supply of iron ore for defense manufacturing.
Noting that the Great Lakes ore traffic has now been closed down by ice, the President said that during the past season, ore deliveries had been boosted to 86 million long tons, in contrast to 60 million last year and the 66-million record in World War I.
Mr. Roosevelt said the result is that ore stockpiles contain two million more tons than at this time last year.
Additional ore boats will go into service next season, he added.
‘Dangerous’ aliens will be interned
Washington (UP) –
Enemy aliens will be interned for the duration of the war only in cases where there is “strong reason to fear for the internal security” of the United States, the Justice Department announced today.
This announcement, however, was not expected to save from detention camps the bulk of the 2,303 Germans, Japanese and Italians already seized as “dangerous” aliens. They will be given hearings by review boards in each judicial district. Altogether there are more than 1.1 million German, Italian, Japanese nationals in the country.
Attorney General Francis Biddle informed U.S. attorneys and the Immigration and Naturalization Service that aliens seized were to be permitted to see attorneys and their families. They may also send and receive censored letters and use telephones under supervision.
Walsh raps Tobey’s plea for inquiry
If Navy was derelict, Roosevelt will act, Senator says
Washington (UP) –
Senator David I. Walsh (D-MA), in a stirring rebuttal to renewed demands for a Congressional inquiry into Sunday’s Hawaiian setback, said yesterday that if the Navy High Command in Hawaii was derelict in its duty, President Roosevelt will act “in such a manner as to retain the confidence of the American people.”
The Senate Naval Affairs Committee chairman pledged he would make every effort to:
…strike a blow against inefficiency, against anyone derelict in his duty, against anyone slackening in the defense of our country.
He pleaded:
But at least in these early days of war and said disaster, let us have confidence in our President and trust he will lead us to victory.
His impassioned oration was in reply to Senator Charles W. Tobey (R-NH) who demanded to know whether Mr. Walsh’s committee contemplated an investigation of the initial “disaster.”
Former isolationists
Mr. Tobey’s question pitted against each other two men who only a week ago had been eye-to-eye as members of the isolationist bloc.
The “time is past” for criticism that is not constructive, Mr. Walsh told Mr. Tobey, who only a few minutes before had voted for the declaration of war against Germany and Italy.
We must have confidence in our war President – not a Democratic President, not a New Deal President, but a war President serving in a new role which will mark his place in history; and I hope and pray it will be a high place.
He told Mr. Tobey:
It is not always possible to obtain accurate information of a naval encounter immediately after it has happened.
Two questions
Every man there in the service had to ask himself the question:
Are they [the Japanese] coming back and what can we do to meet them?
…rather than:
Gather all the details, find out what has happened and report to Washington.
Mr. Walsh said:
Every man out there in the service must know the facts – they cannot be kept silent.
He pointed out that a war President must check “his natural impulse” to reveal all the facts; he must remember that “we cannot disclose too much that will comfort the enemy.”
Senator Walsh concluded:
I think we should wait until the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thinks it is his solemn duty – to retain the confidence of the American people – to speak for our information.
Tobey insistent
Mr. Tobey had insisted earlier that “the people in this crisis want the truth” and said he had “listened in vain” to Mr. Roosevelt for information on the Hawaiian attack.
His remarks came after Mr. Walsh had told the Senate the Navy had just received the Hawaiian casualty list, but that it would not be made public for two or three days so the next of kin could be notified first.
They were countered by Senator Millard E. Tydings (D-MD), World War I veteran, who told Mr. Tobey the President “would be wrong” to disclose the facts of the naval engagement to the Japanese.
Mr. Tobey then read from a Christian Science Monitor article of Dec. 9 and, emphasizing such phrases as one asserting that the Navy had been “caught napping,” said he had been told by two Senators that “the mechanical listening devices [at Hawaii] were not in working order.”
Senator Scott W. Lucas (D-IL) accused Mr. Tobey of being willing to “indict all those men in Pearl Harbor on information of a newspaper article and two Senators.”
Mr. Tobey shouts
Mr. Tobey shouted:
Why wasn’t the steam up? I could ask a thousand questions. I wouldn’t want to tell all I heard.
Mr. Lucas labelled Mr. Tobey’s remarks as “billingsgate and harangue,” based on admittance of a lack of facts.
Mr. Lucas said angrily:
You may think you can run the war from the floor of the Senate, but you can’t. When you come to the Senate and give to the world such information, you do an injustice to your country and your people.
Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI) said:
The one consolation in this affair to me is that the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts is chairman of our Naval Affairs Committee. I have confidence that he is on guard and that he will move with courage and effectiveness whenever it is necessary.
Italians urged loyalty
New York –
The supreme duty of six million Americans of Italian origin is loyalty to the United States, Generoso Pope said today in a signed editorial in his daily newspapers, Il Progresso Italo-Americano and Corriere d’America.
U.S. subs hunt near Manila; Japanese lose 27 planes
By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer
The Philippines battlefront
U.S. forces reported heavy fighting against the Jap invaders in the Philippines today at points indicated on the map above.
1) U.S. admits Japs land in large numbers in north. Aparri area reported recaptured by U.S.
2) U.S. Navy admits heavy damage at Cavite; Manila has two alarms, no bombs. Jap battleship knocked out of control by Navy planes.
3) Americans fight Jap landing parties in Legazpi region.
Manila, Philippines –
Adm. Thomas C. Hart, Commander of the Asiatic Fleet, revealed today that a Japanese battle fleet fled to avoid battle when U.S. warships approached.
Official communiqués reported that U.S. warplanes have taken a heavy toll of Japanese planes and ships.
Adm. Hart said a 29,300-ton Japanese battleship of the Kongo class had suffered one heavy hit and two lighter hits when bombed by a naval plane. The bombs put the warship out of control. This success was in addition to the sinking of 29,300-ton Haruna, Adm. Hart added to information released in Washington last night.
Adm. Hart said the U.S. fleet “contacted” the Japanese war fleet a considerable distance off Manila. The enemy ships sheered off to avoid battle.
Developments today:
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U.S. submarines are ranging the narrow seas of the war zone and are expected to report major success when they communicate with their home bases.
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U.S. and Philippine planes have struck hard at the Japanese Air Force; Filipino pilots were credited with shooting down two Japanese planes in action and the Americans bagged 25.
One U.S. Army aviator single-handedly accounted for 14 of the Japanese planes, shooting down two in the air and knocking out 12 on the ground at Aparri on the northern tip of Luzon this morning.
Jap’s attack heavy
The Japanese Air Force continued its heavy attacks, raiding Batangas Province, 50 miles southeast of Manila, twice and causing two more air-raid alarms in Manila.
An NBC reporter in Manila said it had been officially confirmed that the Kongo-class battleship hit by U.S. bombs was the Kongo itself. He reported that the Japanese sent at least 113 bombers over the Philippines today, attacking various objectives including an airfield at Batangas.
To decide on Spaniards
In Manila, all Axis aliens were placed in protective custody and a decision was being pondered concerning action against Spanish nationals and members of the Falange Fascist Party.
U.S. pilot killed
The Army announced that Capt. Colin Kelly Jr., 26, who scored the three direct hits which sank the first battleship, had been killed in action.
Lt. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commanding U.S. forces in the Far East, replied today to a message from President Roosevelt, congratulating U.S. forces on their defense:
The Far Eastern Command appreciates deeply your message. We shall do our best.
Heavy damage at Cavite
U.S. and Philippine forces were reported to be fighting Japanese landing parties in the Legazpi area, at the southeast tip of Luzon Island, 210 miles from Manila, and it was admitted that Japanese troops were now in greater force in northern Luzon.
Adm. Hart said the Navy’s Cavite base, eight miles southwest of Manila, had been hit by a powerful Japanese airplane attack. There were extensive fires and great damage was done, he said. Small ships lying at the yard were also damaged.
One bomb directly hit a dispensary, Adm. Hart said, and everyone in it was killed, including nurses and doctors. He emphasized that the dispensary was in the center of a fortified area.
Await subs’ reports
He said that loss of life figures had not been completed but that it was known most of the dead were civilians.
Adm. Hart said that submarines of the Asiatic Fleet had not yet reported.
He added:
But we expect big results. When a torpedo hits a ship, it stays hit.
The submarines were the big game hunters of the fleet and they used only elephant guns, not shotguns, Adm. Hart said.
He announced the Lt. H. A. Utter had been attacked by three Japanese fighters. He shot down one, Hart said, and then made a forced landing, taxied his seaplane to the coast, repaired minor damage and took off next morning, returning to his base.
Filipinos win air victory
Describing the attack on the second Japanese battleship, Adm. Hart and Lt. C. A. Keller sighted it off northwestern Luzon and held contact with it for a long time despite anti-aircraft fire, guiding the attack of bombers led by Lt. Cdr. J. V. Peterson.
The Navy fliers then pressed their attack despite heavy gunfire, he said.
Adm. Hart said that the Navy had lost two large planes in the Gulf of Davao Monday, approximately one hour after the Pearl Harbor attack. One pilot was lost and some members of the crews were wounded, he said.
Since Monday, he added, one large Navy plane had been shot down at Laguna de Bay, 30 miles from Manila, and all members of the crew were killed.
He said Navy pilots had been most active and that several planes had suffered minor damage. Some fuel tanks had been punctured, he said. One pilot landed successfully with one of his two motors burning, he commented.
Philippine town raided
Discussing naval operations, Adm. Hart said that no Japanese battleship had yet approached within sight of the Philippine coast, and he deprecated reports which “always call every craft a battleship.”
An Army communiqué said a small Japanese force was reported to have pushed ashore in Legazpi, at Albay Bay.
Despite the improved position of the Japanese at the northern end of Luzon, the Army communiqué said the situation there had not changed materially.
BBC, heard by CBS, quoted a Manila dispatch as saying that U.S. forces in northern Luzon had recaptured the Aparri region on the north coast. BBC said:
United States troops are reported to have smashed every Japanese effort yesterday to set invading forces firmly ashore and it is reported that the enemy is even being driven back at Aparri, where they had established a temporary foothold. The region around Aparri is said now to be back in American hands.
Seven thousand civilians held to be non-essential were evacuated from the walled area of Manila, which contains the general headquarters of U.S. forces in the Far East, Fort Santiago and other military establishments.
The Philippine National Assembly, at a special session, approved an emergency powers bill which authorized President Manuel L. Quezon to spend all available unexpended public funds for national defense and civilian protection.
British estimate Jap fleet strength
London, England (UP) –
The Press Association, a British news agency, giving “reliable approximations” of the strength of the Japanese fleet, said today that the most recent information credited Japan with 15 aircraft carriers “not taking into account ships sunk by the U.S. Navy.”
The Japanese craft were said to include six seaplane carriers and nine other aircraft carriers.
Japan’s naval strength, which has been one of the world’s most closely guarded secrets, was believed to include 10 battleships, 12 8-inch gun cruisers, six 6-inch gun cruisers, 14 cruisers armed with 5.9-inch guns, about 126 destroyers and 86 submarines, the Press Association said.
The Japanese were also said to have a force of destroyers and small craft used in northern waters for the protection of the fishing industry and in the mandated islands.
The strength of the Japanese Fleet Air Arm was estimated at about 1,550 planes, about 500 of which were embarked on carriers and other ships. The rest were reported shore-based in Japan, Formosa, Indochina and the mandated islands.
There is no separate Japanese Air Force. The Army and the Navy each has its own. The Press Association gave no estimates of Japanese Army air strength.
Hitler nervous, Swiss paper says
Zurich, Switzerland (UP) –
The newspaper Die Tats reported today from Berlin that although Adolf Hitler spoke calmly in yesterday’s war speech to the Reichstag, definite nervousness could occasionally be detected in his voice.
Die Tats said that once while slowly approaching one theme, Hitler broke a match or pencil and at another time tore a scrap of paper to bits.
War Department gives communiqués
Washington –
A War Department communiqué indicated today that Japanese forces are making persistent attempts to land on Luzon, the main island of the Philippines group, from several directions.
The communiqué – the Army’s fifth of the U.S.-Japanese War – reported the Japanese to be making “a series of concentric thrusts” to Luzon.
It told of “enemy concentrations” off the coast of Zambales, a province just north of Manila, and at Legazpi, a port on the tip of Luzon about 200 miles south of Manila. It was the first mention of activity off Zambales, which is immediately north of the chain of forts protecting Manila.
The communiqué also reported that:
The enemy is augmenting its forces at Aparri and Vigan.
Communiqué No. 4, issued last night, said there was “reason to believe” that defenses in the north and northwest of Luzon – Aparri is in the north, Vigan in the northwest – were “continuing successfully.”
Today’s communiqué said nothing about progress of fighting.
It noted “no operations reported” in Hawaii, and “no change in the situation” on the West Coast.
The text of Communiqué No. 5, issued by the War Department as of 9:30 a.m. EST today:
Philippine Theater.
The Commanding General of the Far Eastern Command reports the Japanese are making a series of concentric thrusts on the island of Luzon. Enemy concentrations are reported at Legazpi and off the west coast of Zambales. The enemy is augmenting its forces at Aparri and Vigan.Hawaii.
No operations reported.West Coast.
No change in the situation.