Biddle warns of ‘desperate’ need for unity
Tells bar Americans haven’t yet learned that sacrifice is vital
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Douglas plant to build nursery for children of working mothers
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Jammed gun in Army plane sprays village
30 bullets go whining over Hempstead and hit laborer’s home
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The Pittsburgh Press (August 24, 1942)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
SOMEWHERE IN NORTHERN IRELAND (By Wireless) – Now take First Sgt. Carl Godsey, for example. He’s about as American as they come.
He’s an Iowa farmer, tall,skinny, with a weatherbeaten face. He gripes, cusses, smokes three packs of cigarettes a day – but he isn’t really hard at all. He’s just about like any farmer you know back home.
He wouldn’t have to be over here at all if he hadn’t chosen to be. He’s 43 years old. He has a wife and seven children at home. He’s been in the Army for 18 months. He owns a big farm on the bank of the Missouri River, about 20 miles south of Council Bluffs. It was his father’s before him.
Unlike many farmers, Sgt. Godsey absolutely loves farm life. He’s eager to get home, but he takes that yearning philosophically. He knows he won’t see Iowa’s tail corn again for a long, long time, and so he doesn’t fret about it.
Sgt. Godsey’s wife has a good business head, and she is in charge of the farm while he’s away. Their oldest son, who is 19 years old, does most of the heavy work.
When Godsey saw the war coming he stocked up his farm with the finest machinery money could buy, so his folks are well fixed at home. In addition, he allots them more than $100 a month out of his first sergeant’s pay.
His wants are few. He has spent almost nothing on himself during his Army career, and has only about $6 a month left from his pay.
In all these months in the Army, Godsey has never missed a day writing to his wife, except when he has been on maneuvers or while he was at sea coming over here. She, in turn, hasn’t missed a single day writing to him.
They don’t merely add a few words or sentences each day on the end of yesterday’s letter – each writes a complete letter and mails it daily.
Godsey lives in a Nissen hut with six other sergeants. The hut is also the company office. You could hardly call Sgt. Godsey a commuter. He takes only two short steps to get from his “home” to his “office.”
His desk is a homemade table with a homemade set of pigeon holes perched on top of it. An electric light hangs low over the papers on the desk, for even the days are often dark. There is a colored photograph of his eldest daughter on the desk.
Godsey puts on spectacles and wears house slippers when he’s working inside. Getting up before daylight is no hardship to him for he did that on the farm, anyhow. Still, it isn’t every farmer of 43 who could stand up to the long marches our troops are getting over here. Godsey’s outfit once marched 38 miles on the first day of maneuvers, following up with 25-mile marches every day for a week.
Godsey went through it all, and I’ve heard his company commander say he felt it was a good thing to have a few “old guys” in every outfit. Godsey, for example, wouldn’t quit on that long march, because he was too proud to let the boys think he couldn’t take it, and some of the youngsters have told me frankly that the only reason they kept going was that they were ashamed to fall but as long as “that old guy up front” was still pegging away.
Sgt. Godsey is thoroughly serious about this war. He’s over here to fight, not to have fun. His outfit has been in its present camp for three months, and except for marches and maneuvers he hasn’t been outside the camp gates at all. He wants to get the war over with, so he can get back to his farm.
So far, in this war, I have heard almost no complaints from American soldiers about their officers. The greatest complaint among soldiers in the last war was about Army food and Army lieutenants. Both complaints seem to be out this time.
I have yet to hear soldiers gripe about their food. It is of high quality, and it’s cooked immeasurably better than it was in the last war.
In a lifetime of being a reporter I’ve been short-answered and high-hatted by officers so many times that I’ve sort of got a chip on my shoulder about them. Yet I’ll have to say that my chip is disappearing, for during these weeks in Northern Ireland, and on many visits to camps back home, I’ve met hundreds of officers, from second lieutenants clear up to generals, and I haven’t run into a single, blessed one who wasn’t courteous and human, and who didn’t seem able to keep his balance under all circumstances.
I feel that over here I’ve made some lifelong friends.
The boys say that regular Army officers are the best of all, but reserves called from civilian life, National Guard officers and even the new “quickies” – though they aren’t numerous over here – all seem of a more human stripe than in the last war.
Why that should be I have no idea, but it’s good. And so, to sum up, I would say that things are all right with our Army in Northern Ireland, that morale is high and that no really serious problems have arisen.
Völkischer Beobachter (August 25, 1942)
Cripps dreht die alte Walze –
Kanzelhetze gegen lndien in USA.
vb. Wien, 24. August –
Der USA.-Senator Reynolds hatte sich unlängst dafür ausgesprochen, Roosevelt solle England ersuchen, Indien sofort freizugeben. Uber diesen weißen Raben fielen denn auch prompt Parlament und Presse her, aber auch die Episkopalkirche, die bedeutendste Kirche’norganisation der USA., die sich immer als Vorkämpferin aller erdenklichen Menschenrechte hinstellte, hält es jetzt aber für nötig, ihre Solidarität mit den Schindern lndiens zu erklären.
Der Bischof der Episkopalkirche in Neuyork, William Manning, bezeichnete in einer Predigt die Anregung des Senators Reynolds als eine gefährliche Propaganda gegen die Briten, als eine besonders verächtliche Form der Sabotage und als Landesverrat.
So ist also die Wohltat der christlichen Nächstenliebe, die den Juden, die ja fast die alleinige Schuld an dem Massenmorden dieses Krieges tragen, in so reichem Maße zuteil wird‚ den Indem versagt.
Um der in falsch verstandener christlicher Mitleidstour gedrillten USA.-Offentlichkeit, auf die die nicht abbrechenden Nachrichten über die Erhebungen des indischen Volkes gegen die britische Gewaltherrschaft anscheinend einen für England nicht sehr günstigen Eindruck gemacht haben, diese Wandlung des „christlichen Dogmas" verständlich zu machen, sah sich Stafford Cripps genötigt, in der New York Times noch einmal eine Art „Rechenschaftsbericht“ über das britische brutale Vorgehen abzulegen und die Maßnahmen der britischen Indienregierung mit den üblichen Heucheleien zu entschuldigen, worin wieder die alte Walze, man wolle nach dem Kriege dem indischen Volk dabei helfen, sich eine neue Verfassung mit einer selbständigen Regierung zu schaffen, aufgelegt wurde.
Die Yankees mag er damit übers Ohr hauen, die Inder aber lassen sich nicht mehr täuschen, denn, wie die letzten Meldungen erkennen lassen, dehnen sich die Unruhen in den ländlichen Gegenden Indiens immer noch weiter aus.
Wie der Londoner Nachrichtendienst meldet, kam es außer in Madras auch in Bombay abermals zu wüsten Schießereien der britischen Polizei auf die Inder, die in friedlichen Kundgebungen ihren Freiheitswillen demonstrierten. Die britische Polizei hat den bekannten Kongreßanhänger und Mitglied des Stadtrates von Bombay Chaikwala verhaftet. Die Universität Kalkutta ist militärisch besetzt und bis auf Weiteres geschlossen worden. Zwei Professoren und etwa 30 Studenten wurden unter der Beschuldigung verhaftet, an den Unruhen der letzten Tage teilgenornmen zu haben. Ein Student wurde erschossen, weil er auf dem Wege zum Gefängnis angeblich zu fliehen versuchte.
U.S. diplomats bare mistreatment by Japs
Shut up in embassy, had to ‘rustle for food,’ says envoy among 1,451 here on Gripsholm
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Boro Yard to launch mightiest dreadnought
45,000-ton Iowa, finished 7 months ahead of schedule, to slide down ways Thursday
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MacArthur fliers raise two-day score to 17–0
Smash down four Zero fighters in fight over New Guinea
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‘Cockeyed’ meat ceilings blamed for shortage
Livestock producers urge OPA to revise its entire schedule
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The Pittsburgh Press (August 25, 1942)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
BELFAST – Soon we will leave North Ireland and the American troops, and go down for a look at a country which is not at war – variously known as Ireland, South Ireland, Eire, or the Irish Free State.
I believe few people at home have their history well enough in mind to picture clearly just how or why the two Irelands are divided. It is hard to understand from 3,000 miles away; it is almost as hard to understand when you’re on the spot.
So, in these next few columns, I’ll try my hand at a little historical and geographical treatise on Ireland. It might be well for you to jot down a few notes about Eire. For, as a curbstone guesser, I wouldn’t be surprised if events force her into the war one day.
Let’s start at the beginning. Ireland, as we will speak of it in these columns, means the entire island, for the present division into two Irelands came only 20 years ago.
Ireland is roughly oval, and about the size of Indiana. At the closest point it is only 35 miles from the coast of Great Britain. But by boats between good harbors the shortest crossing is around 60 miles.
Legend has Ireland settled clear back in prehistoric times, but factual accounts of Ireland’s career do not take form until about the time of Christ.
The Irish of today were originally Celts, who apparently through thousands of years of migration worked from Egypt up through western Russia and around through Germany and France and finally across to Ireland. The Celts also went into Scotland, Wales and part of Cornwall in England. Even today, they say, a Welshman can understand an Irishman speaking Gaelic.
In the beginning the Irish were pagans, worshiping idols. From all I can gather, they began fighting the minute they set foot on shore, and have been at it ever since. They had kings of their own for many centuries, and a king who died in bed was an odd king indeed.
But even though they were brawlers, the pagan rulers went in for learning, too. In the second century colleges of history, literature and military science were set up. There seems no doubt that the arts and high learning actually flourished in Ireland above almost any other place on earth for several centuries early in the Christian era.
St. Patrick was the first great Christian leader in Ireland, although there were actually Christians here long before his time. Most of us know St. Patrick only as the fellow who drove the snakes out of Ireland. Actually, when you delve into history, you find him one of the noblest and most lovable of historical figures.
St. Patrick was (probably) born in Scotland. His career that was to make him Ireland’s patron saint had an odd beginning. He was captured when a boy of 16 by a party of Irish raiders and brought back to Ireland. He was sold as a slave and spent six years as a sheep-herder. He was very religious, even then.
He escaped after six years and got back to Scotland. But he brooded over that “pagan darkness” in Ireland, and decided to devote his life to converting the Irish. For 20 years he studied and prepared himself for his life mission.
Then he went to Rome, received his authority from the pope, and once more – 29 years after his capture by the Irish raiders – landed again in Ireland. He was about 45 then.
St. Patrick had some reverses, and was often in danger, but apparently on the whole the conversion of the Irish was not difficult. St. Patrick traveled throughout the island, establishing churches. He did his work thoroughly and well. He died in the year 465 A.D., when he was 79. Ironically enough, he is buried in what is now Protestant Northern Ireland.
In the following three or four centuries, Ireland became the most learned country in Europe. Men of learning were greatly esteemed. Foreign princes sent their sons to school in Ireland. The great schools were both church and lay. You could get doctorates in law, medicine, literature, philosophy.
Irish learning reached its peak about the tenth century. The invasion by the Danes put an end of it. The ferocious Danes broke up the schools and disorganized society. They were finally driven out early in the eleventh century, but Ireland’s intellectual supremacy gradually declined, and about the year 1000 she started on a new career of war – inside and out – which has not ended to this day (or maybe it has, finally).
For 150 years after the Dane curse ended, Ireland had no real ruler. Whoever set himself up as king was either swiftly slain or driven out.
The various groups fought constantly among themselves, slaughter was terrific, everything was chaotic, and the Irish depleted themselves until they were in a fine state for the Anglo-Norman invasion, in the middle of the twelfth century.
Völkischer Beobachter (August 26, 1942)
Bei den Salomoninseln –
Japanischer Gegenstoß
hw. Stockholm, 25. August –
Das USA.-Marineministerium gibt auf Grund eines Berichtes der Pazifikseestreitkräfte bekannt, daß ein großer japanischer Gegenstoß im Bereich der Salomoninseln im Gange ist.
So erlag Brasilien dem Drucke Roosevelts –
Dauernder Vasall der USA.
dnb. Berlin. 25. August –
Zu der Kriegserklärung Brasiliens an Deutschland und Italien erklärt die Deutsche Diplomatisch-Politische Information:
Die brasilianische Regierung hat die angebliche Versenkung brasilianischer Schiffe, ohne eine Klärung des Tatbestandes abzuwarten, zum Vorwand genommen, den Kriegszustand mit den Achsenmächten zu erklären. Die Umstände, unter denen die Versenkungen stattgefunden haben sollen, sind nach Äußerungen aus brasilanischer und anglo-amerikanischer Quelle derart kompromittierend, daß Brasilien auf Klärung keinen Wert legte.
Das Verhalten der brasilianischen Handelsschiffe ist seit Monaten nicht mehr mit der Neutralität vereinbar. Sie haben die üblichen Vorsichtsmaßnahmen. die es den U-Boot-Kommandanten ermöglichten, sie als neutrale Schiffe zu erkennen, absichtlich nicht eingehalten. Nach eigenem brasilianischen Eingeständnis tragen sie einen Tarnanstrich, wurden bewaffnet, fuhren im Geleit amerikanischer Kriegsschiffe und beteiligten sich an Angriffen gegen deutsche U-Boote. Das gilt vor allem für diejenigen, deren angebliche Versenkung den Vorwand zur Kriegserklärung gab.
Zwischen Deutschland und Brasilien hat es keinerlei Interessengegensätze, sondern im Gegenteil nur herzliche und freundschaftliche Beziehungen, vor allem auf wirtschaftlichem Gebiete. gegeben. Deutschland hat auch während dieses Krieges bis zur Grenze des Möglichen Rücksicht auf brasilianische Interessen genommen und die heraufziehenden Feindseligkeiten ignoriert. Die Verschlechterung der Beziehungen wurde ausschließlich von brasilianischer Seite herbeigeführt, und zwar unter dem brutalen ruck der Vereinigten Staaten. Deutschland hat von den Erpressungsmanövern Nordamerikas gegen Brasilien Kenntnis gehabt und alles vermieden, was die Lage der brasilianischen Regierung erschweren könnte. Dieses Verständnis hat aber die brasii‚ianische Regierung nicht davon abgehalten, sich immer tiefer in die nordamerikanische Verstrikkung zu begeben. Schon vor dem Kriegseintritt der Vereinigten Staaten wurden, zunächst getarnt, brasilianische Flugplätze und Häfen unseren Gegnern zur Verfügung gestellt. Nachdem Kriegseintritt ist diese Preisgabe der Neutralität zum Nachteil der Achsenmächte offen betrieben worden. Von brasilianischen Stützpunkten aus haben die Vereinigten Staaten in wachsendem Maße Kriegsflugzeuge nach Westafrika, Ägypten und der Sowjetunion gesandt. Die brasilianischen Häfen standen nordamerikanischen und englischen Streitkräften uneingeschränkt zur Verfügung. Auf der Konferenz von Rio war der brasilianische Außenminister die treibende Kraft, um die ibero-amerikanischen Staaten zum Abbruch der Beziehungen zu veranlassen. Nebenher gingen schwere Verletzungen der Interessen deutscher und italienischer Staatsbürger an Gut und Leben. Die Achsenschiffe wurden beschlagnahmt‚ Deutsche und Italiener wurden zu Hunderten eingekerkert und auf unwürdigste Weise behandeit.
Brooklyn Eagle (August 26, 1942)
6 MORE JAP SHIPS HIT; ONE FORCE WITHDRAWS
Allied fliers raise foes’ losses to 13
Shoot down 12 more planes – report Tokyo naval supremacy lost
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FDR drafts message in cost of living
Will send it to Congress, then talk to people on subject by radio, probably on Labor Day
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