America at war! (1941– ) (Part 1)

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WAR BULLETINS!

AEF asked in Australia at once

London, England –
The immediate dispatch of U.S. troops and air forces to Australia was urged today by Lord Denman in the House of Lords. He said:

One squadron of American planes at Port Darwin today would be worth 10 times that amount a year from now.

400,000 Japs withdrawn from China

Chungking, China –
The Chinese military spokesman said today that Japan has withdrawn nearly 4000,000 troops from China for service in the South Pacific. Japan had nearly one million soldiers in China, the spokesman asserted, but five to six divisions have been shifted to the south.

Big battle rages in South China

Chungking, China –
A new and severe battle is being fought in South China along the banks of the River Tan, a Chinese war communiqué said today. The battle is one of a score of actions between the Japs and Chinese on a 1,000-mile front.

RAF attacks docks in France

London, England –
British planes attacked docks at Brest and Boulogne on the French invasion coast during the night and all returned, the Air Ministry said today.

Northern Ireland raps de Valera’s move

Belfast, Northern Ireland –
Prime Minister J. M. Andrews of Northern Ireland said today that Prime Minister Éamon de Valera of Éire had no right to protest against the sending of U.S. troops to Northern Ireland. Mr. de Valera yesterday protested the failure of the U.S. and Britain to consult him before sending U.S. troops to Northern Ireland.

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U.S. War Department (January 29, 1942)

Communiqué No. 81

Philippine Theater.
Headlong enemy infantry assaults on the right and left flanks of our troops in the Bataan Peninsula were broken up by our artillery fire. Enemy losses were heavy.

Activity of hostile aircraft was limited to reconnaissance flights.

Dutch East Indies.
A third attack by heavy U.S. bombers on Japanese shipping in Makassar Straits resulted in the destruction of an enemy transport in Balikpapan Harbor. Another transport was set on fire. Two enemy fighting planes were shot down and a third damaged. Five of our bombers participated in the attack and all returned safely to their base.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

U.S. Navy Department (January 29, 1942)

Communiqué No. 35

Central Pacific.
Two enemy submarines appeared off Midway Island with the intention of shelling it. They were driven away by the artillery fire of our garrison. One hit was scored on one of the attacking submarines. No damage was inflicted on the Midway Garrison and there were no injuries to personnel.

Atlantic Area.
Enemy submarines continue to operate off the East Coast of the United States and are reported as far south as Florida. Countermeasures by our forces are increasingly effective.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

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The Pittsburgh Press (January 29, 1942)

Integrity involved –
Senate asked to oust Langer

Many charges hurled at North Dakotan

Washington (UP) –
The Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections today accused Senator William E. Langer (R-ND) of “continuous, contemptuous and shameful disregard” for the concepts of public service and asked the Senate to uphold its integrity by unseating him.

The committee’s report, written in support of its recent 13–3 vote for Langer’s expulsion, accused Langer of:

Gross impropriety, lawlessness, shotgun law enforcement, jailbreaking, violation of oath as an attorney, rabble-rousing, civil disobedience, breach of the peace, obstruction of the administration of justice and tampering with court officials.

The report substantiated in general the charges brought by a group of North Dakota citizens against the man who describes himself in the Congressional directory as:

…the only person ever to be arrested in an English-speaking country for filing an affidavit of prejudice against a judge.

The committee described him as a state official who was “a king that could do no wrong.”

The committee said:

He would defy the highest court of his state with force. Respondent [Langer] throughout his career had little use for law and order, but in attempting to prevent and suspend civil process upon himself he reached the high point in his continuous belief that might is superior to right.

Langer declined comment on the report. Senators Tom Connally (D-TX), Abe Murdock (D-UT) and Ellison D. Smith (D-SC), who voted to support Langer, also declined comment.

Charges against Langer, former Governor of North Dakota who was removed from office by the State Supreme Court, raged from jury tampering and acceptance of bribes during his governorship, to allegations listed by the committee under such heads as:

Respondent breaks down the doors of the country jail.
Respondent charged with stealing a drugstore.
…Respondent arrested for inciting a riot.
Respondent arrested for seizing telephone lines in connection with liquor raid.
Respondent calls out National Guard and declared martial law in open defiance of federal and state courts.

Riot charge made

The committee reported that while Langer was the state’s attorney general, he disguised detectives as laboring men to raid Minot, North Dakota, saloons and houses of ill repute. One of those raids led to Langer’s arrest for inciting a riot after the Governor had ordered out the National Guard and ordered the Guardsmen to “shoot to kill” if Langer came within 20 feet of them day or night.

The Senate committee asked that Langer be ousted by a majority vote, asserting that a constitutional provision makes each house the judge of its member’ qualifications. Langer’s supporters maintain that a Senator cannot be expelled except on a two-thirds vote.

The subcommittee, headed by Carl A. Hatch (D-NM), in explaining its recommendations said:

The Senate has the inherent right of stopping at the door any applicant, however perfect his credentials, who is proven to have degraded himself by the prior commission of crimes.

Langer’s counsel pleaded at the hearings that to unseat Langer would “indict the people of the State of North Dakota.” The committee contended that it was not indicting North Dakotans, asserting that the people did not know the facts.

The committee recommendations are based on three major charges of “continued questionable conduct:”

  1. That Langer, while Governor, received $55,000 from Thomas Sullivan, one-time attorney for the Great Northern Railroad, allegedly for “worthless” Mexican land stock, but in reality, for services rendered in obtaining a $3-million reduction in the assessed tax valuation of the railroad’s property in North Dakota.

  2. That Langer, while Governor, received $56,800 allegedly for “sight unseen” sales of North Dakota real estate but according to the committee “a coverup deal” for services rendered in state and county bond transactions from which Gregory Brunk, Des Moines, Iowa, attorney, and V. W. Brewer, Minneapolis bond dealer, grossed $300,000 profits in 1937 and 1938.

  3. That Langer and his associates employed “devious, circuitous and illegal methods” in connection with the Senator’s trial in federal court on a conspiracy charge. Langer, petitioners charged before the committee, attempted to tamper with a federal judge through employment of the judge’s son, and attempted to influence jury members.

All charges were denied by Langer before the committee. He insisted that the land sale and Mexican land stock transactions were bona fide and denied that he had improperly attempted to influence a federal jury.

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U-boats sunk in ‘numbers,’ Knox reveals

Ships, planes widen hunt as enemy craft lurk off Texas ports
By the United Press

Where U-boats lurk and strike

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A 100-mile strip of the Texas coast was blacked out last night after two enemy submarines were sighted off Aransas Port in a vital oil shipping zone.

Shipping experts believed the attack on the Lady Hawkins, Canadian liner on which 250 were feared lost, occurred west of Bermuda, at right. The 71 survivors were landed at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Survivors of the Francis E. Powell, torpedoed American freighter, were landed at Virginia ports after their ships was sunk off the coast.

U.S. warships “are getting a number of enemy submarines” in U.S. coastal waters, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox revealed today.

Patrol planes, surface vessels and blimps scoured the long Atlantic coastline from Canada to Texas in a spreading search after the disclosure that enemy submarines are operating in the Gulf of Mexico.

Secretary Knox’s brief report, the first word of American successes in the Atlantic since a Navy spokesman said a week ago that some of the U-boats in U.S. waters would not return home, was given to members of a Senate Naval subcommittee.

Aim at oil ships

With the spread of undersea warfare to the Gulf of Mexico, experts believed that Axis grand strategy was to disrupt oil shipments to large East Coast refineries.

Seven of the 10 attacks along the East Coast within the last two weeks have been upon tankers, officials recalled, and the Gulf area around Corpus Christi, Texas, nest where two submarines were believed lurking, is a major loading point for tankers carrying oil from the big Texas fields to the east.

Both Navy and Army planes were patrolling the area after a 100-mile coastal strip from Rockport, Texas, to 30 miles south of Corpus Christi was blacked out last night.

Greatest tragedy feared

Surface vessels, blimps and other aircraft continued the death hunt along the Atlantic sea lanes as survivors of the latest Nazi sea victim arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They were from the 7,988-ton Canadian liner Lady Hawkins, torpedoed 12 days ago en route from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Bermuda with at least 320 persons aboard. It sank so quickly that no radio SOS was sent.

At least 250 passengers and members of the crew remain to be accounted for, 71 having already seen landed at San Juan by the SS Coamo. The greatest loss of life in the German-American submarine warfare reported prior to the attack on the Lady Hawkins occurred in the sinking of the steamer City of Atlanta off Cape Hatteras Jan. 19, when 44 of the 47 persons aboard were lost.

The Nazis ran their score of successful attacks on Allied shipping off the Atlantic Coast since Jan. 14 to at least 10 with the sinking of the Lady Hawkins. That figure includes the tanker Malay which reached port after being seriously damaged.

The Navy has announced no further communication with the tanker Pan-Maine, originally said to have been sunk. The Navy said hope had not been lost that the Pan-Maine may have escaped after being attacked by a submarine Monday night.

12 survivors land

Twelve additional survivors of the tanker Francis E. Powell were landed yesterday at Assateague, Virginia, bringing the total survivors of that vessel to 29. Seventeen had been rescued and landed earlier at Lewes, Delaware, leaving three others missing and presumed dead, and a fourth known to be dead.

From the 13th Naval District headquarters at Seattle came the announcement that the small schooner Black Douglas had been attacked by Japanese submarines twice on its voyage from Savannah, Georgia, to Seattle last month. Japanese submarine activity along the Pacific Coast has subsided after the flurry during December. The Black Douglas was not damaged.

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U.S. bombers bag 10th ship in sea battle

Bataan Army repulses as Japs’ Makassar losses mount
By Harrison Salisbury, United Press staff writer

The battlefronts in the Far East

Screenshot 2022-01-29 141145
1. Allied fliers beat off new enemy air raids on Rangoon.
2. Japanese advance to within 30 miles of Singapore Island.
3. Dutch fight Jap troops landing on southwest Borneo coast.
4. U.S., Dutch fliers, naval units continue action against Jap ships.
5. MacArthur’s forces continue to hold out on 54th day of fighting.
6. Australian aviators bomb Japanese invasion ships in Rabaul Harbor.

Washington –
The War Department reported today that Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s men have hurled back “headlong” Japanese attacks and U.S. forces have raised their score to 16 Japanese ships sunk or damaged in the battle of Makassar Strait.

U.S. Army Flying Fortresses, carrying out their third attack on the Japanese invasion fleet in Makassar waters, sank one Japanese transport and set another afire, the War Department reported.

This brought the total of ships sunk by U.S. air and sea forces in the battle to 10. Six more are listed as probably sunk or damaged.

Japs suffer heavily

The total of Japanese ships sunk, damaged or probably lost in the Makassar action was placed yesterday by Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell at 31. If the two ships reported today are in addition to his figures, the total now stands as 33.

The Japanese hurled infantry assaults at both the right and left flanks of Gen. MacArthur’s lines as the Luzon battle raged for the 54th day.

However, U.S. artillery again broke up the Japanese attacks with “heavy” enemy losses.

Japanese aircraft continued to restrict their activity to reconnaissance.

All U.S. planes return

The latest Makassar sinkings occurred, the War Department revealed in an attack by five heavy U.S. bombers on Japanese transport concentrations at Balikpapan, the Dutch oil port on the Borneo coast which has been seized by the enemy.

One transport was sunk and another was set afire. Two Japanese planes were shot down and a third was damaged. All the U.S. planes returned safely to their base.

British reports called the Makassar Strait battle the “greatest sea action since Jutland” and estimated that Japan had lost nearly one-third of a 100-ship invasion fleet whose objective was an assault on the principal Dutch bastions of Java.

Japs lost 35,000 men

Estimates of Japanese troop losses ranged up to 35,000. It was admitted that possibly 150,000 men and 65 or more Japanese ships have escaped the Allied blows thus far. But the action has not yet ended.

Whatever the final score it was evident that Japan had suffered the sharpest setback of the war – a setback which should give a priceless time advantage to the United Nations forces holding the vital Dutch East Indies-Australasia line.

It affords additional time for the arrival in the war theater of the stream of “material and men” which Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox said is now “moving to the hard-pressed fronts in the South Pacific.”

War conference held

The size of those reinforcements is a military secret. But the activation of planes laid by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill for forceful blows against the Axis around the world, and particularly in the Pacific, was emphasized by a White Hose conference of top American and British strategists.

The conference, attended by the U.S. Army, Air and Navy High Command and top British military representatives, was the first since Mr. Churchill returned to Britain.

Legislative action to provide a vast pool of arms, planes and warships to back up the high strategic decisions was proceeding apace. Moving at quick-time, Congress completed and sent to the White House for the President’s signature the record-breaking $12,500,000,000 appropriation bill to build 33,000 aircraft, and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee was prepared today to take up the $19,977,000,000 Navy appropriations bill.

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Stimson: Army and Navy unify command

‘One boss’ in Hawaii, Panama, Caribbean

Washington (UP) –
Unified command of Army-Navy forces has been instituted at Hawaii, the Panama Canal Zone, and the Caribbean area as well as in the Far East, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson said today.

He disclosed for the first time that Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, new Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, had been placed in complete charge of Hawaiian defenses. Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons, Army commander in Hawaii, is his subordinate.

Disclosure of creation of a unified command at that vital bastion was expected to soften to some extent Congressional criticism of the Army-Navy administration in Hawaii. The Pearl Harbor Inquiry Board report showed that there had been little cooperation between the two services there before the Japanese attack on Dec. 7.

Mr. Stimson said that in addition to the unified command at Hawaii, similar steps had been taken at the Panama Canal. All land, sea and aviation forces in that area are under the supreme command of an Army air officer, Lt. Gen. Frank Andrews. In the Western Caribbean, the U.S. fighting forces are under the command of a naval officer, RAdm. J. H. Hoover.

He cited as a fourth example the creation of the Allied supreme command in the Southwest Pacific under British Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell. The command was created in the conferences between Mr. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill here.

Gen. Wavell has as his principal deputy Lt. Gen. George H. Brett, of the U.S. Air Corps. Allied naval activities in that fighting sector are under the direction of Adm. Thomas C. Hart, commander of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet.

Under long study

Mr. Stimson said that for many months prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the question of unity of command had been under “earnest study by the Army and Navy” for everyone of our task forces that were likely to “confront the enemy.”

He said:

It has been accentuated since the war began. It has been accomplished in some places already.

He emphasized that the four instances cited were only examples, and that there were others.

Short comment on short

Mr. Stimson was asked what the Department is doing about the case of Maj. Gen. Walter C. Short, who was relieved from his Hawaiian Command after the Pearl Harbor disaster and who was criticized in the Roberts Report for failure to take all necessary steps for defense.

The Secretary said:

The only thing is I can say is that the matter is under careful study and consideration.

…explaining that he could not estimate how long it would take before a decision is reached.

Asked about aid to the unified forces in the Southwest Pacific, Mr. Stimson replied that the only thing that could be said is that “reinforcements are going on.”

Original force

He was asked if motor torpedo boats, which recently fought a thrilling action in Subic Bay, Philippines, with Japanese dive bombers, were part of the original American force or represented reinforcements. He replied that they were part of the original force.

Asked how planes and other supplies might reach Gen. MacArthur or if they were being sent in large numbers, Mr. Stimson replied:

Would you like the news to go to the Japanese?

Spaatz named chief of air combat force

genspaatz
Gen. Spaatz

Washington (UP) –
Brig. Gen. Carl Spaatz was today designated chief of the air combat forces of the U.S. Army, in one of four major shifts in the aviation command announced by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson.

He succeeds Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons, who is now chief of the Army command in Hawaii.

Maj. Gen. Millard F. Harmon, commanding the 2nd Air Force at Fort George Wright, will take over Gen. Spaatz’s job as Chief of Air Staff. Gen. Harmon had been Acting Chief of the Air Force Combat Command.

Maj. Gen. Frederick L. Martin, chief of the Army Air Forces in Hawaii at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, was given the important post of succeeding Gen. Harmon as commander of the 2nd Air Force.

The fourth switch made Col. Edgar P. Sorensen, Assistant Chief of Air Staff, director of bombardment aviation on the Air Staff. He has been succeeded by Col. Thomas J. Hanley Jr., until recently executive officer of the 1st Air Force Base Command at Mitchel Field, New York.

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Unofficial report claims –
FBI furnished ‘tip’ 2 days before Pearl Harbor raid

By Fred Mullen, United Press staff writer

Washington –
The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned the Army and Navy on Dec. 5 that Honolulu Japanese were telephoning to Tokyo significantly detailed information regarding U.S. fleet dispositions, informed sources said today.

It is understood that the FBI intercepted a radio telephone conversation on that day and interpreted it as indicating the possibility of a Japanese attack on U.S. territory.

The Pearl Harbor Board’s report made public Jan. 25 made no mention of successful wiretapping but seemed to suggest that there had been no interception of Japanese messages.

The story current here today is that neither the Army nor Navy was impressed by the FBI warning which was said to have suggested that Pearl Harbor might figure in Japanese plans.

Army and Navy Press Relations Officers said they knew nothing about the reported warning. Neither would the FBI comment.

The warning was based, the United Press was told, upon a 20-minute telephone conversation between Japanese in Honolulu and Tokyo Dec. 5 to which FBI agents were able to listen. They achieved the telephone tap less than 48 hours before the Pacific land, sea and air base in Hawaii was surprised and severely damaged by Japanese airmen.

‘Casual’ conversation

Though most of the conversation between the unnamed Japanese and his superior in Tokyo was “casual and friendly” at first hearing, the strength and disposition of the U.S. Fleet in the Pacific were specifically mentioned by the caller at the Oahu end of the connection.

The “casual” conversation dealt with the weather and with the flowers blooming in the islands and from this was drawn the conclusion that the location of individual ships and air squadrons had been carefully transmitted by pre-arranged code.

The telephone conversation was one of very few which intelligence operatives succeeded in tapping, operational technicalities involved in radio transmission of telephone calls between Oahu and Japan having blocked efforts to intercept such calls.

Roosevelt consults Hoover

President Roosevelt today called in J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, to discuss “ways and means” to broaden the FBI’s powers, particularly in use of wiretapping against spies.

Secretary Stephen T. Early said in commenting on the conference:

The President’s feeling is that the handcuffs ought to be taken off the FBI and put somewhere else.

Japanese spies, it was said, persistently used radio telephone and radio telegraph because of a knowledge of the difficulties that barred tapped, and that originals of messages sent by radio telegraph were not open to inspection by the FBI because of the law forbidding the opening of the files of commercial communications companies.

Calls increased

The Roberts Report told how in the days immediately preceding the attack, the use of such facilities by the Japanese consul general for transmission of messages in his own name and the names of others was greatly increased.

The ability of the FBI to tap the call between the telephone instrument and the radio transmission apparatus was believed to have been due to a laxity on the part of the Japanese in the final hours of preparations for the attack. They usually availed themselves of instruments that could not be tapped because of their location on property not open to the FBI.

What the report says

A section of the Roberts Report, considered by many officials to be critical of the FBI, said:

In Hawaii the local Army Intelligence Service has always devoted itself to matters pertaining to Army personnel and property; and the local Naval Intelligence Service to matters pertaining to Navy personnel and property. In addition, prior to the establishment of an office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Hawaii, Naval Intelligence investigated enemy activities amongst the civil population. When the Bureau’s office was established, it was agreed by the three governmental agencies that the Bureau should take over and become primarily responsible for investigation of matters connected with the civil population, and that the three services should cooperate with each other.

Restrictions imposed

Efforts were made by the Bureau to uncover espionage activities in Hawaii. The United States being at peace with Japan, restrictions imposed prevented resort to certain methods of obtaining the content of messages transmitted by telephone or radio telegraph over the commercial lines operating between Oahu and Japan. The Bureau and the local intelligence staffs were unable prior to Dec. 7, to obtain and make available significant information respecting Japanese plans and fleet movements in the direction of Hawaii.

Committee rejects demand for inquiry

Washington (UP) –
The House Naval Affairs Committee today rejected by a vote of 14–6 the demands of several members for a committee investigation of the Pearl Harbor attack.

Chairman Carl Vinson (D-GA) announced after a secret session that the committee had also tabled a motion to request an official copy of the report of the President’s Pearl Harbor Inquiry Board and the documentary evidence on which it was based.

The committee action was a victory for administration leaders who sought to head off such an inquiry.

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Irish camp like home to Yanks

They’re on same schedule they had in U.S.
By Helen Kirkpatrick

AEF’s first stop

Fullscreen capture 222021 123510 AM.bmp
An unnamed bit of the old sod is the new home for soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force now in Northern Ireland. U.S. technicians and construction men have been building base facilities here since last summer. The map shows principal cities and counties.

With the U.S. Army in Northern Ireland –
Their second day in camp, somewhere in Northern Ireland, found the U.S. troops following the same schedule they had followed back at Claiborne, Louisiana. In fact, except for the presence of some British soldiers, most of the troops could see little difference between their old camp and this new one.

Down a lane in the midst of really wild Irish countryside, came a platoon of boys in the blue denim fatigue clothes of the U.S. Army. At the gates to the camp, an American sentry stood beside a British sentry.

All seasoned men

Inside the camp, life seemed already to be moving along well-ordered lines, with a small detachment of British standing by to give the boys a hand until they had learned all the ropes.

Al the companies of this battalion are seasoned men, most of them being National Guardsmen and selectees who have already served a year. Moving into their Irish camp was just another move for them.

In the cookhouse, hundreds of potatoes had been peeled, ready to go into a stew. And that, the boys thought the best break of all.

Await American food

Today they were waiting for consignments of American food. The boys didn’t seem impatient for that. What they wanted were cigarettes.

British officers and correspondents who made a tour of inspection came away tremendously impressed by the Americans, their discipline, physique and intelligence.

Most of the boys we saw come from Iowa, with a sprinkling of Minnesota men. Dubuque, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids and Fairfield are well-represented. Their only disappointment is that they are not going into action immediately.

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McKeesport nurse sent to Ireland with soldiers

Parents worried about her until good news came

Parents of 2nd Lt. Frances Jackson, McKeesport nurse, didn’t know where she was until they learned today that their daughter and 23 other nurses from Fort Knox accompanied the first AEF to Ireland.

Her father explained:

We hadn’t heard from her for so long we didn’t know what happened to her. Ireland – so that’s where she is!

Miss Jackson, 27, graduated from McKeesport High School in 1931 and three years later finished her nurses training course at St. Joseph’s Hospital. She had been nursing at City Hospital, Cleveland, until she enlisted with the armed forces July 1.

Lt. Jackson is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Jackson, 700 Lincoln Way.

Lt. Agnes J. Kane, 8134 Washington St., New Castle, is commander of the unit.

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U.S. War Department (January 30, 1942)

Communiqué No. 83

Philippine Theater.
The following message from His Excellency Manuel Quezon, President of the Philippine Commonwealth, was transmitted by Gen. Douglas MacArthur to the War Department:

The determination of the people of the Philippines to continue fighting side by side with the United States until victory is won has in no way been weakened by the temporary reverses suffered by our arms. We are convinced that our sacrifices will be crowned with victory in the end and in that conviction we shall continue to resist the enemy with all our might.

Japanese military forces are occupying sections of the Philippines comprising only one-third of our territory. In the remaining areas, constitutional government is still in operation under my authority.

I have no direct information concerning the veracity of the news broadcast from Tokyo that a commission composed of some well-known Filipinos has been recently organized in Manila to take charge of certain functions of civil government.

The organization of such a commission, if true, can have no political significance not only because it is charged merely with purely administrative functions but also because the acquiescence of its members to serve in the commission was evidently for the purpose of safeguarding the welfare of the civilian population and can, in no way, reflect the sentiments of the Filipino toward the enemy.

Such sentiments are still those I have repeatedly expressed in the past: Loyalty to America and resolute resistance against the invasion of our territory and liberties.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

Communiqué No. 84

Philippine Theater.
Fighting on the Bataan Peninsula was light during the last 24 hours. There was practically no enemy air activity.

The arrival of fresh Japanese troops at the front and movements behind the line indicate preparations by the enemy for the resumption of a large scale offensive.

Gen. MacArthur today sent the following message to the President:

Today, January 30, the anniversary of your birth, smoke-begrimed men, covered with the marks of battle, rise from the foxholes of Bataan and the batteries of Corregidor to pray reverently that God may bless immeasurably the President of the United States.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

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The Pittsburgh Press (January 30, 1942)

Fighting fifth column –
Enemy aliens to be removed

Fascists, Japs ordered out of Far West
By Fred Mullen, United Press staff writer

Washington, Jan. 30 –
The Justice Department, in a move to prevent espionage and fifth column activity similar to that preceding Pearl Harbor, today set in motion a plan to remove a large part of the 186,000 enemy aliens residing in eight Far Western states.

Attorney General Francis Biddle has ordered Japanese, German and Italian aliens out of two areas in San Francisco and Los Angeles by Feb. 24.

Today he will designate 27 additional areas from which they will be evicted by Feb. 15, and within a few days will apply the restrictions to several more sections of the West.

Dies indorses action

Chairman Martin Dies (D-TX) of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, who in a House speech two days ago predicted a “tragedy on the West Coast that will make Pearl Harbor sink into insignificance,” indorses the Justice Department’s action. He added, however, that some means must be devised for dealing with naturalized Germans and Italians who have been active in Nazi and Fascist activities on the Pacific Coast.

The Dies Committee, it was learned, plans to report to the House shortly that it turned over to the State and Justice Departments and the armed forces last fall “impressive” evidence that Japan was preparing for a lightning attack on Pearl Harbor. The committee was said to have obtained the evidence from a former Japanese consular agent who had been stationed in Hawaii.

The Dies Committee report will warn – unless it is changed in view of the Justice Department’s action – that conditions exist on the West Coast for “another Pearl Harbor” at San Francisco or Los Angeles. The committee had planned to urge that immediate steps be taken to remove enemy aliens from the West Coast.

Senator wants conference

The Dies report was said to contain evidence that Japan has obtained detailed information on the…

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And he still can take it –
A President turns 60

Nation sends its greetings to Roosevelt, a revolutionary figure ton revolutionary times
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Washington, Jan. 30 –
The nation sends its thoughts today to the man in the White House on his 60th birthday.

They are kind thoughts, hopeful thoughts.

They betoken the fact that his popularity is greater now than at any time since that drear March day in 1933 when he took the oath of office in front of the Capitol, which in itself is a mighty tribute.

For he finds himself in as difficult a situation as any ever faced by a President of the United States. Criticism from official quarters just now is not sparing of the administration of affairs, as the nation buckles down to its most severe ordeal.

His day is spent pondering the problems of a whole world in dire trouble.

The President will make a brief speech during an hour-long radio program starting at 11:15 p.m. tonight. The program will be broadcast over the four major broadcasting networks. The exact time of Mr. Roosevelt’s speech was not disclosed.

It s a tribute to the democracy…

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Luzon troops ask blessing on Roosevelt

‘Smoke-begrimed’ men in foxholes and fort await new attack
By Harrison Salisbury, United Press staff writer

Washington, Jan. 30 –
General Douglas MacArthur reported today that in “the foxholes of Bataan and the batteries of Corregidor” his “smoke-begrimed” forces await a large-scale new Jap attack.

The description of General MacArthur’s men and their positions is his own.

The indomitable American commander thus described his forces in a special message to President Roosevelt on the anniversary of his birth.

And to the War Department, he reported that his men are awaiting a “large-scale” Jap offensive, backed by fresh troops and new armed dispositions of enemy forces which have been observed in front of the American defense lines.

Troops pray for Roosevelt

General MacArthur’s message to President Roosevelt said:

Today, Jan. 30, the anniversary of your birth, smoke-begrimed men, covered with the marks of battle, rise from the foxholes of Bataan and the batteries of Corregidor to pray reverently that God may bless immeasurably the President of the United States.

The War Department communiqué which revealed that message reported that a lull continued on the fighting front as the Japs wheeled new forces into position for attacks.

The communiqué said:

Fighting on the Bataan Peninsula was light during the last 24 hours. There was practically no enemy air activity.

The arrival of fresh Japanese troops at the front and movements behind the line indicate preparations by the enemy for the resumption of a large scale offensive.

May be guerilla base

The firmness of General MacArthur’s stand increased the possibility that the Philippines may be turned into a base for long-range harassment and guerilla action against Japan.

This prospect was brought to the fore by the declaration of President Manuel Quezon that Japan holds only one-third of the sprawling island group. Two-thirds of Philippine territory scattered among 7,083 islands stand unconquered, controlled by American and Filipino authorities and little touched by the war.

President Quezon coupled his statement with a declaration of the…

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‘Mac’ fighting Axis, forgets about taxes

Waukegan, Illinois (UP) – (Jan. 29)
Harry Hall, state’s attorney for Lake County, heard that Gen. Douglas MacArthur hasn’t paid his 1941 income tax.

Forthwith, Mr. Hall informed the Treasury that he would guarantee the account and “wire the money if necessary.”

The general, commanding U.S.-Filipino forces in the Philippines, is a little too busy to worry about his tax just now, Mr. Hall suggested.

632

Farm features hit –
Price control bill is signed

Roosevelt sharply critical of 110% parity

Washington, Jan. 30 (UP) –
President Roosevelt today signed the emergency price control bill, bit he warned that this law does not mean that the battle against inflation has been won and he criticized provisions of the measure which permit agricultural prices to rise to 110% of parity.

The President said:

I have doubts as to the wisdom and adequacy of certain sections of the act.

…referring to the section covering agricultural prices.

Issues statement

The President issued a formal statement on signing the bill after having discussed it earlier at a press conference attended by Price Control Administrator Leon Henderson.

Because of his “doubts as to the wisdom and adequacy” of parts of the bill, the President foresaw the possibility that:

…amendments to it may become necessary as we move ahead.

He described the bill, however, as:

…an important weapon in our armory against the onslaught of the Axis powers.

Warning that “nothing could better serve the purposes of our enemies” than inflation, the President said that “effective price control” would insure the equitable distribution of sacrifices necessitated by the war.

Sees real threat

He expressed the belief that the level of the agricultural price controls on the bill constituted a real threat to the American cost of living. And in his formal statement, he said he felt that:

…most farmers realize that when farm prices go much above parity, danger is ahead.

The President said he thought the bill had a good framework because it vested authority in a single administrator and set forth workable procedures for price control.

In its present form, the act directs the Price Administrator to attempt to keep non-agricultural…

633

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D-NY)

President Roosevelt’s address on his 60th birthday
January 30, 1942

To all of you who are making tonight’s celebrations such a success, I want to say – very simply – thank you.

In the midst of world tragedy – in the midst of sorrow, suffering, destruction and death – it is natural for most of us to say even on a birthday or a feast day:

Isn’t the word “happy” a bit out of place just now?

That was perhaps my own predominant thought this morning. Yet the day itself and the evening have brought with them a great reassurance which comes from the deep knowledge that most of this world is still ruled by the spirit of faith, and hope, and charity.

Even in time of war those nations, which still hold to the old ideals of Christianity and democracy, are carrying on services to humanity which have little or no relationship to torpedoes or guns or bombs. That means very definitely that we have art abiding faith in the future – a definite expectancy that we are going to win through to a peace which will bring with it continuing progress and substantial success in our efforts for the security and not for the destruction of humanity.

Our enemies must at this moment be wondering – if they are permitted to know what goes on – how we are finding the time during the grim business of war to work for the cause of little children. For, under the enemies’ kind of government, there is no time for or interest in such things – no time for ideals; no time for decency; no interest in the weak and the afflicted to whom we in this country have dedicated this day.

It would not be strictly true to say that our enemies pay no attention to health or the relief of need. But the difference is this: with them it all comes from the top. It is done only on order from the ruler. It is carried out by uniformed servants of the ruler. It is based, in great part, on direction, compulsion and fear. And the rulers are concerned not with human beings as human beings but as mere slaves of the state – or as cannon fodder.

The United Nations of the world continue, however, to put these things on a very different basis. We support our tasks of humanity in time of war, as in time – of peace, through the same old system of telling the public of the great need, and asking for the voluntary help of men, women and children to fill it.

The fight against the disease of infantile paralysis has proven beyond doubt that the way democracy works – the voluntary way – is efficient and successful. It is only ten years ago that this country undertook, through wholly private contributions, to organize every locality to carry on this great effort, not for a year or two, but for all the future years – so long as the fight can help humanity.

Today, as in these many years past, we continue this great crusade – made possible not by a few large gifts but by the dimes and the dollars of the people themselves.

This year there is only one difference proposed for the use of these gifts. The Trustees of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis have told me that I can make the special announcement that the authorized County Chapters throughout the Union may use such portion of their share of this year’s funds as is necessary to give special assistance to the children of any of our soldiers and sailors and marines who fall victim to infantile paralysis. That will be good news and a well-deserved boon to the fathers who are serving their flag on land and on sea in many parts of the world, and to the mothers who have been left at home to do their brave part – to carry on.

I am made additionally happy by the fact that in many of our sister republics of the Americas, parties and celebrations are being held today to provide needed help to the children in those lands.

For all these reasons I am very sure that this day has not been wasted-that it has been a useful day. For all that you have done, I am very grateful.

For we have all been helpful in lifting some of the clouds of unhappiness and anxiety which have settled down on many of our citizens. In that realization I am sure we shall have added strength to face the days of trial which lie ahead until peace with victory is assured.

The lives of all of us are now dedicated to working and fighting, and, if need be, dying for the cause of a better future – the future that belongs to our little children.

634

U.S. War Department (January 31, 1942)

Communiqué No. 85

Philippine Theater.
On January 10, 1942, Japanese airplanes dropped leaflets over our lines in the Philippines bearing the following message:

To Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army forces in the Far East

Sir:
You are well aware that you are doomed. The end is near. The question is how long you will be able to resist. You have already cut rations by half. I appreciate the fighting spirit of yourself and your troops who have been fighting with courage. Your prestige and honor have been upheld.

However, in order to avoid needless bloodshed and to save your 1st, 31st Divisions, and remnants of other divisions, together with your auxiliary troops, you are advised to surrender. In the meantime, we shall continue our offensive as I do not wish to give you time for defense.

If you decide to comply with our advice, send a mission as soon as possible to our front line. We shall then cease firing and negotiate an armistice. Failing that, our offensive will be continued with inexorable force which will being upon you only disaster.

Hoping your wise counsel will so prevail that you will save the life of your troops, I remain,

Yours very truly,
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
Japanese forces

Gen. MacArthur and his troops paid no attention to the message.

Enemy airplanes are now redistributing this leaflet, on the back of which has been added the following message, directed especially to the Filipino troops:

To the Filipino soldiers

The outcome of the present combat has been already decided and you are cornered to the doom. At this time, ever-generous Commander-in-Chief of Japanese Expeditionary Forces in order to avoid further annihilation of your dear lives has presented to your Commander-in-Chief, Gen. MacArthur, a letter as shown on the back page of this leaflet. But, however, being unable to realize the present situation, blinded Gen. MacArthur has stupidly refused our proposal and continues futile struggle at the cost of your precious lives.

Dear Filipino soldiers, there is still one way left for you. That is to give up all your weapons at once and surrender to the Japanese forces before it is too late, then we shall fully protect you. We repeat the last. Surrender at once and build your new Philippines for and by Filipinos.

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
Japanese Expeditionary Forces

This message has occasioned much mirth among the Filipino soldiers, who are continuing their resistance with loyalty, courage and resolution.

Hawaii.
The Commanding General, Hawaiian Department, reports that more than half of those wounded in the Japanese attack of December 7, 1941, have fully recovered and have returned to duty. The total number wounded was 428. Of those, 230 are now back on duty.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

Communiqué No. 86

Philippine Theater.
There was sporadic fighting on the Bataan Peninsula during the past 24 hours. Determined enemy attempts at infiltration through our lines was frustrated. Some Japanese prisoners were taken. Practically no hostile air activity was noted.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

The Pittsburgh Press (January 31, 1942)

Strike called by welders in shipyard

Jurisdictional fight with AFL hits war work on Puget Sound

Seattle, Washington (UP) –
Independent welders, locked in jurisdictional fight with the American Federation of Labor, called a strike at Puget Sound shipyards today in the first serious labor dispute since the United States entered the war.

The walkout order was already effective in the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp. plant at Tacoma, where the United Welders, Cutters and Helpers Union (I) claims 1,180 members.

Dave Basor, executive secretary of the union, said 1,600 members would strike at noon today in five Seattle shipyards – those of the Seattle-Tacoma Company, Associated Shipyards, Todd-Seattle Drydock Co., Lake Union Drydock and Machine Cop. and the Lake Washington Shipyard.

25 quit at plane plant

The union announced only two of 430 members of the 4 p.m. shift reported at the Tacoma plant and that none of 291 on the midnight shift reported. The company declined to comment or to describe the effects of the walkout. It was believed the yards could “work around” welders unless the strike is prolonged.

Tacoma members voted to strike last night because the firm refused to rehire nine members discharged for non-payment of dues to the AFL Boilerworkers Union.

25 other welders quit work at the Boeing aircraft plant yesterday, protesting discharge of seven welders. A spokesman for the AFL Aeronautical Mechanics’ Union said he expected no serious disruption of work.

Wholesale strike doubted

Paul R. Porter, chairman of the Shipbuilding Stabilization Committee of the War Production Board, said he doubted there would be a wholesale walkout of welders.

He said:

I am confident an overwhelming majority of welders will put loyalty to the nation and to our besieged soldiers in the Philippines above all else.

The WPB, when it functioned as the Office of Production Management, supported an agreement reached between shipbuilders and metal trades unions requiring that welders belong to and pay dues to one AFL union.

Dispute 15 years old

John P. Frey, head of the AFL Metal Trades Council, in a message to the local union, repudiated the walkout and predicted the welders would return to worm as soon as the issues were made clear.

The dispute has been before the AFL for nearly 15 years. Welders complained they were forced to pay multiple dues to AFL unions in order to work. When the national convention of the AFL refused them autonomy last fall, they formed their own organization.

A nationwide coalition of welders’ groups won an agreement that welders need pay dues to only one union. Since the AFL metal trades held a closed shop agreement in Pacific Coast shipyards, welders were forced to belong to the AFL.

A strike was called in San Francisco Bay shipyards early in December, when members were fired for refusal to pay AFL dues, but it lost effectiveness when war was declared.

635

MacArthur’s men capture enemy scouts

Attempts to infiltrate Bataan lines repeatedly frustrated
By Harrison Salisbury, United Press staff writer

Washington, Jan. 31 –
General Douglas MacArthur reported today that his forces captured some Japanese prisoners and “frustrated” repeated enemy attempts to infiltrate his Bataan Province lines.

Action was only on a “sporadic” scale, General MacArthur reported. The Japanese were apparently continuing to shift their forces in preparation for a new heavy assault on the virtual siege lines held by American and Filipino troops on the narrow peninsula.

The War Department communiqué reported:

There was sporadic fighting on the Bataan Peninsula during the past 24 hours. Determined enemy attempts at infiltration through our lines was frustrated. Some Japanese prisoners were taken. Practically no hostile air activity was noted.

Planes missing

The continued absence of Japanese planes seemed to indicate that Japan is throwing virtually all the aircraft at her disposal into the siege of Singapore and the developing attack on the Dutch East Indies and the approaches to Australia.

At any moment, it appeared, a major Jap attack – the fourth since the fall of Manila Jan. 2 – may burst along the jungle and mountain lines. The Philippines forces have held out for 56 days.

General MacArthur’s forces were unmoved – either by frontal Jap attacks or a Jap propaganda campaign, crudely designed to separate the Filipino and American troops.

It gets a laugh

The burden of the propaganda – disseminated by leaflets dropped by Jap planes – was that if the Filipinos gave up their fight, they could erect:

…your new Philippines for and by the Filipinos.

The appeal, General MacArthur advised the War Department:

…has occasioned much mirth among the Filipino soldiers.

The Jap appeal appeared to be vitiated by the actual treatment accorded the Filipino population by the conquering forces. Reliable advices from the islands said that actually the Japs have introduced a type of rule comparable to the worst meted out by the Germans in occupied Europe.

Homes looted

Americans in Manila, it was said, are being allowed clean and fairly comfortable quarters but have been provided with little food because the Jap occupation army of 200,000 troops or more is living off the land. Both civilian stores and homes were said to have been looted.

Most of the Americans in Manila, it was reported, have been gathered in ancient Santo Tomas University. They have been given fairly decent living quarters but only a few handfuls of rice per person per day.

Norman H. Davis, chairman of the American Red Cross, said that…

636

He works, others dance –
President thanks U.S.

Nation’s willingness to give ‘during grim business’ praised; he’s ‘nice man,’ young guest says
By Joseph L. Myler, United Press staff writer

Washington, Jan. 31 –
Possibly the happiest persons in the United States today were Franklin D. Roosevelt, just turned 60, and Gerry King, 4.

The President was happy, as he told the nation in a broadcast last night, because his countrymen were willing to take time:

…during the grim business of war to work for the cause of little children.

Gerry, an infantile paralysis victim from New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, was happy because he had lunch with the President – a “nice man” – and the opportunity to show him how he had learned, for a few halting steps, to walk without his crutches.

Although the President spent most of his anniversary hard at work, million of other Americans danced until early today at 12,000 “Diamond Jubilee” balls for the benefit of just such unlucky youngsters as Gerry.

In the capital, 24 Hollywood stars helped put the President’s birthday celebrations over the top while he, except for a few brief timeout periods, labored long into the night.

Mr. Roosevelt said in his message to the nation:

Our enemies must at this moment be wondering – if they are permitted to know what goes on – how we are finding the time during the grim business of war to work for the cause of little children. For, under the enemies’ kind of government, there is no time for or interest in such things – no time for ideals; no time for decency; no interest in the weak and the afflicted to whom we in this country have dedicated this day.

The United Nations of the world continue, however, to put these things on a very different basis. We support our tasks of humanity in time of war, as in time – of peace, through the same old system of telling the public of the great need, and asking for the voluntary help of men, women and children to fill it.

…

637

U-boats strike new blow at oil tanker lifeline

Rochester latest victim in undersea warfare; Pan-Maine, prematurely reported lost, reaches port
By Sandor S. Klein, United Press staff writer

Washington, Jan. 31 –
German submarines prowling the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to Florida struck new blows today at the tanker fleet – those oil-laden ships so essential to the American war effort.

The 6,836-ton Socony-Vacuum tanker Rochester was the latest submarine victim. 31 survivors of the tanker were landed in Norfolk, Va., today and told how three of their shipmates in the engine room were apparently lost when a German submarine torpedoed, and then shelled the ship until it sank.

Attacked at noon yesterday

The tanker was attacked about noon yesterday, while en route – empty – from New York to Corpus Christi, Tex. The survivors escaped in two lifeboats which they launched when the submersible, after firing a torpedo from underwater, rose to the surface and began firing shells.

They were brought to shore by a naval vessel after more than four hours afloat in their open lifeboats.

Addition of the Rochester’s name to the casualty list in American territorial waters of the Atlantic did not, however, affect the total of ships sunk or attacked – 11. One of the ships previously listed as sunk, the 7,326-ton tanker Pan-Maine, sailed into an Atlantic port last night unscathed, and members of its crew reported that a submarine periscope had been sighted but that hazy weather had apparently saved the ship from attack.

Two passenger liners sunk

So far, authorities have confirmed the actual sinking of five tankers and four other vessels, including the passenger liners Lady Hawkins and the City of Atlanta. The Rochester, if sunk, would raise the total of tankers to six. One other ship, the tanker Malay, was torpedoed and shelled but reached safety.

At least 351 persons are dead or…