America at war! (1941– ) (Part 1)

[NormanStewart]

Dutch airmen tell story of smashing Jap invasion fleet

Scouts spot armada and open battle of Makassar; Tokyo futilely gambles aircraft carrier; battleship explodes under bomb; toll set at 32

Batavia, NEI, Feb. 2 (UP) –
A vivid eyewitness story of how Japan desperately rushed an aircraft carrier with crack fighter planes into the Battle of Makassar Straits in a vain attempt to save her invasion fleet from a battering attack by American and Dutch bombers was related today by two Netherlands pilots.

Returning from the Dutch secret air bases in Borneo, the fliers told in detail for the first time how the Allied bombers and warships blasted 32 enemy vessels, including a battleship that exploded as a result of a bomb hit.

The pilots said that four of Japan’s crack “Navy O” fighters out of a flight of 20 were shot down in the first clash.

For three successive days, the pilots said they flew Dutch Army bombers over the Japanese invasion fleet anchored off Balikpapan, rich oil center on the eastern Borneo coast.

One of the officers said:

For two days before the attack, we had been making reconnaissance flights over the Makassar Straits in the lookout for a Jap invasion fleet, but because of heavy, low-hanging cloud banks we saw no ships at all.

Finally on Friday, Jan. 23, through the clouds we sighted the enemy convoy of about 23 ships. The convoy was clinging to the Celebes coast and had reached a point east of Balikpapan when we discovered it.

The convoy consisted of two rows of transport ships protected by cruisers and destroyer. We were sure it was headed for Borneo but it was too far from the island to have made any landings.

Our planes did not hesitate to open the attack, which was hampered by heavy Japanese anti-aircraft fire reaching up to two miles. The Dutch planes, however, were difficult targets for the Japanese gunners and disappeared in the clouds after diving down and releasing their bombs.

One of the first bombs, the officers said, dropped “right on the middle” of a large warship – presumably a battleship. A terrific explosion was heard, and thick smoke…

[NormanStewart]

Henderson price boss

Washington –
President Roosevelt today formally nominated Leon Henderson as Price Control Administrator.

[NormanStewart]

AFL replacing men on strike at shipyards

Independent union spurns war board’s plea to return to jobs

Seattle, Feb. 2 (UP) –
The AFL Boilermakers’ Union recruited 100 welders today for

Seattle shipyards said they were working “full blast” but welders headquarters said the men were still on strike and that only a few “malcontents” had gone back to work.

Thomas Crowe, international representative of the boilermakers, said the 100 recruited welders, including about a dozen who were originally on strike, had gone to work at Tacoma.

Shipyard officials silent

Charles Brinkerhoff, secretary of the Tacoma welders, denounced Mr. Crowe as a “goon squad” organizer and accused him of bringing the “gorillas” in from other cities to take welding jobs.

Mr. Brinkerhoff said:

We have tried for months to get new welders for defense jobs, bit haven’t been able to find any. If Crowe has 100 welders here, he has brought in “strongarm” squads from other cities.

Shipyard officials in the two cities refused to day how many welders were working.

Seattle drydocks, Lake Washington shipyards and Lake Union shipyards in Seattle said they had “full” welders’ crews, but this was disputed by the independent union, which said the strike was still effective and that picket lines were still in force.

Spurn work plea

The Seattle plant of the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp. said “less than 100” welders failed to report for work. Associated Shipbuilders had “a few more than normal” absent.

Welders called another mass meeting for tonight after rejecting a government demand to return to work and in turn calling on the War and Navy Department for government operation of the yards.

Their decision to spurn a War Production Board appeal to end the three-day strike was made at a Seattle mass meeting held while AFL boilermakers were meeting at Tacoma. The strike is the nation’s first major wartime labor dispute.

Battle on platform

The independent union meeting produced resignations from President James O’Brien and Secretary Dave Basor after a fistfight between the two on the speaker’s platform.

Mr. O’Brien has long sought to resign because he said he could…

[NormanStewart]

For interest: $1.5 billion!

Expense mounts with cost of war

Washington, Feb. 2 (UP) –
Interest charges on the war-swollen public debt will amount to about $1,450,000,000 during fiscal 1942 – $200 million more than they are this year – the House Appropriations Committee estimated today.

The committee made this estimate in reporting to the House a $1,112,926,899 supply bill for fiscal 1943 operations of the Treasury and Post Office Departments. The bill was $4,902,036 below President Roosevelt’s recommendations but $25,604,633 greater than appropriations for the current year.

Treasury fund less

The Treasury, however, would get $32 million less for 1943 than it was given for this year, under the committee’s bill, while the Post Office Department would get $58 million more than it was given for 1942.

The public debt in 1943 now stands at about $60 billion, and the budget estimated it would reach about $110 billion by June 30, 1943.

The debt service charge was included among permanent appropriations amounting to an estimated $4,766,082,300 for the Treasury Department which are made automatically each year without Congressional action. They are not included in the bill’s total.

May need more funds

For the Post Office Department, it recommended an appropriation of $902,969,923. It said it may be necessary to ask for a 1942 deficiency grant of $33 million.

The committee observed that postal revenues have increased more rapidly than costs recently and said that in five years the department has converted a $40-million operating deficit into an operating surplus. For 1943, it put estimated postal revenues at $907 million against an estimated $906 million in expenditures and obligations.

Publication of hearings on the bill revealed that the Post Office Department has taken on such extra duties as combatting propaganda, pushing the sales of defense bonds and establishing new routes for delivery of soldier mail.

[NormanStewart]

Bombs plunge Japs in river

Burma invasion halted on banks of Salween
By Darrell Berrigan, United Press staff writer

Rangoon, Feb. 2 –
British planes sank “a large number” of Japanese barges and blasted hundreds of Japanese troops in a low level attack on Japanese forces attempting to cross the Salween River barrier north of Moulmein, it was reported today.

The attack was directed against Japanese forces attempting to follow up their occupation of Moulmein by driving across the river in the opening phase of a march toward Rangoon.

It was reported that a force of British Blenheim bombers carried out the attack with an escort of RAF fighters. The attack was made Sunday.

Swim for their lives

The attack was described as “a most successful” action.

It was reported:

Hundreds of Japanese dived into the water and swam for their lives.

The Japanese attempted to attack the British planes with machine-gun fire but their guns were silenced by the Blenheims. No British planes were lost in the operation.

Evacuees from Moulmein reported that an Imperial rearguard held off the Japanese attack until the evacuation of the city was completed.

Under fire from Japs

The last we saw if them they were swimming for it under fire…

[NormanStewart]

Henry McLemore’s viewpoint –
Folks back home ask Bing to send message of pride to MacArthur’s fighters

By Henry McLemore

Hollywood, Cal. –
Crosby had a catch in his throat. Not the standard catch that has made Bing the world’s No. 1 singer of songs, not the catch that took him from a rooming house to a ranch, not the catch that made “The Blues of the Night” something more than a corny song, and sent its singer from the Automat to the Ritz.

No, this was a catch that came from the heart, and not from the throat, or wherever it is that Bing gets that extra little something.

He said:

Take a look at these.

He handed me a fistful of letters and telegrams.

He said:

I’ve had a lot of fan mail in my time, but nothing like this. For the first time, and I mean this, I feel that maybe my singing means a little to people.

I looked at the letters and telegrams. They were from every part of the United States.

They were in answer to the announcement that General Douglas MacArthur had called from the hell of the Philippines to ask Crosby to dedicate part of his radio program to the American soldiers who were holding out so magnificently against the Japanese.

Comes from wives, sweethearts

They came from the mothers, wives and sweethearts of men who are writing a brilliant chapter in American history by their stand in the jungles of the Philippines.

Bing and I read a score or so of them aloud. That’s when he got the catch in his throat that I was talking about.

Bing said:

I’ll sing so damn loud that even if the static is terrible, even if the dive bombers are diving, the boys out there’ll hear me. So help me, God, if they want to hear this crooner croon, if hearing something from home will help them along, they’ll hear it.

From Lynn, Mass., came this wire to Crosby:

Please dedicate any number to Capt. Robert Pennell, wounded in action with MacArthur’s forces. From his wife and son – Dot and Puck Pennell.

Here is one that came from Silver City, New Mexico:

This town, home of officers and men of Battery G, 200th Coast Artillery, now engaged in Battle of Bataan, would deem it a great favor if you in your broadcast to General MacArthur’s command, would include the following messages to our boys:

Silver City and Grant County are proud of you. God bless and keep you. Give 'em hell for Uncle Samuel and the old hometown.

From Somerville, Mass., came this request:

On your General MacArthur program Thursday night, could you possibly sing “Anniversary Waltz” for Brig. Gen. William Marquette with Arthur’s staff? Thanks, many thanks.

That was from “Ryans of Somerville.”

Wire after wire. Letter after letter. Each asking a song or a poem that was dear to some fighting man.

Song offered, too

From Sanford, Fla., came this wire:

Dear Bing:
Here is a song out of Colin Kelly’s state, written Dec. 8. Is it not appropriate to General MacArthur’s men? It can be sung to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic:

Oh, now we’ve learned the standards of those snakey Japanese.
We know Satan made them slimy so they’d be pure Hitlerese:
We’ve learned the lust, the trickery of the shameless Japanese.
And we’ll go marching on.

The Williams family in Pittsburgh wrote to ask that Bing say:

Mother and Dad love you, Tommy, and are so, so proud.

The requests that came to Crosby all had the same themes – love and pride.

Broken down to their essentials, the messages all said – you’re our man and we love you for what you are doing.

Okay, I’m sentimental. Okay, I’m writing a piece for the papers that has a touch of the tearjerker in it. Okay, that’s right.

But America spoke pretty well from its heart in those requests to Bing. And it asked only one thing – that its men carry on.

And they will.

To read those messages made you know that there was a rainbow in the sky, somewhere out there in the Pacific, and that it was red, white, and blue.

[NormanStewart]

Jap craft sunk at Singapore

Invaders massing troops at tip of peninsula
By Harold Guard, United Press staff writer

Singapore, Feb. 2 –
Jap siege forces massed along the Johor shore today and enemy planes savagely intensified their attacks on the island while British big guns rained shells across the mile-wide strait and British Imperial planes dived low to bomb and machine-gun troops and siege columns moving southward.

British troops, using machine guns and other small arms, sank one of three small Jap craft sighted off the island, cruising in what was apparently the first enemy attempt to feel out the strength of their new defensive positions.

It was admitted that Jap planes had caused casualties and damage in indiscriminate bombings of civilian areas of the island but a Singapore Command communiqué and military casualties were slight.

British guns of all caliber blasted at the Jap siege forces moving into the tip of the peninsula in the Johor Bahru region.

Reconnaissance planes reported Jap troops pouring down the highways toward the tip to take up positions for the grim fight for the island.

Their main forces were taking positions at the Johor end of the…

[NormanStewart]

WAR BULLETINS!

Subs sunk without a shot

An eastern Canadian port, Feb. 2 –
A British freighter which arrived here with its bow damaged from a collision at sea may have struck and sunk two enemy submarines, members of the vessel’s crew revealed today. Two heavy shocks several minutes apart as the vessel ploughed through the Atlantic led the crew to believe at first that their ship had been torpedoed. When there was no explosion, the crew decided the ship must have run into two submarines lying in wait.

Australia boosts plane production

Melbourne, Feb. 2 –
Prime Minister John Curtin today announced a $15-million aircraft production program and said he was “amazed and shocked” by current allegations of Australia’s disunity with Britain. He said:

Nothing has been said or done since the war’s outbreak which had any other purpose than consolidating the fighting power of Britain and the Commonwealth in the face of a common danger.

Ice-locked ships rescued

Stockholm, Feb. 2 –
The ships Heimdall and Arcturus were in port today, their 616 evacuee-children passengers from Finland safe after an icebreaker rescued the vessels. The normal voyage of 36 hours from Åbo was stretched to 170 hours and food was taken over the ice to the vessels by horse sleighs.

[NormanStewart]

Axis aliens warned of severe penalties

Washington, Feb. 2 (UP) –
Attorney General Francis Biddle last night warned Japanese, German and Italian aliens this government will be firm in its insistence that they comply with war regulations and that severe penalties will be meted out to violators.

Mr. Biddle, in a nationwide broadcast, explained the re-registration program which begins today for the purpose of identifying all enemy aliens over 14 years of age now living in this country.

Emphasizing that the identification program was for the protection of the enemy alien as well as the national security, Mr. Biddle said:

That same government which has seen to it that he [the alien] is not persecuted in this country will be just as firm in its insistence upon strict compliance on his part. Alien enemies who fail to apply for their identification certificates face severe penalties. One penalty will be internment for the duration of the war.

[NormanStewart]

CANDIDLY SPEAKING —
War work must be unselfish effort

By Maxine Garrison

It seems that I did not make myself clear. That there may be no mistake, let me restate my position in what I sincerely hope will be crystalline terms.

In a recent column, I decried the misuse of uniforms by women more interested in what currently passes for personal glory than in sincere service of country.

By no means did I disparage the thousands of women, in uniform and out, who are giving unsparingly of their time and energy and devotion in aiding our nation at war.

Nor did I cast slurs at uniforms and their purpose.

On the contrary, I believe that uniforms as we know them are meant to be badges of service. In the beginning they are chosen because they are practical outfits for workers at certain jobs. When any group of workers, by their zeal and selfless efforts, makes its uniforms an emblem of all that is most praiseworthy in human nature, then those uniforms become symbolic.

No credit to cause

That this is not apparent to all women has been shown during our national emergency. Certain women see in a uniform only stage trappings, and my quarrel lies with such women. Although their numbers are small, they make themselves as conspicuous as possible. And they do no credit to any cause they may represent.

My quarrel is with:

Those women who have snatched at the idea of doing war work as a relief from boredom. These are the ones who make such a fuss every time a new fad is broached. They collect social lions, study Yogi philosophy, take up mysticism, anything to escape the boredom of empty minds. They take up each new fad enthusiastically, and they drop it in short order, because they will always be bored. Their contribution to progress is nil.

Those women who see personal gratification alone, and neither have nor wish to have any idea of the rigors of service. These women feel important in uniforms. They like to pose for publicity pictures. They consider that week a poor one which has not seen their names and faces featured at least three times. They are willing to take the credit for all the work done by an organization, but faced with an actual job, they would faint from shock. And they could never believe that women who can’t afford to buy uniforms can contribute more in the way of real service than they themselves can.

Seeking social gains

Those women who hope to gain socially by war work. Whether they have money or not, they are snobs, and their idea is to be seen with the “right” people. Knowing that the right people have their names attached to all such work, the snobs swarm in to profit. They work, if at all, with one eye on the job and one fixed firmly on the chance for social-climbing.

Those women who treat volunteer workers with whom they are not acquainted socially as if the poor things were moronic lepers who must be treated with careful, condescending kindness. People who volunteer to help our nation now are people of every type. They are not asking for charity, they are asking for a chance to serve. Many have turned away embittered because they have been made to feel like charity cases by women who view anyone outside their own charmed circle as a charity case.

These women are no credit to a uniform. They are no credit to the thousands of women who are working unselfishly and at great cost to themselves, many of them unable to afford expensive uniforms, all of them counting their only reward the knowledge of duty well done.

[NormanStewart]

U.S. War Department (February 3, 1942)

Communiqué No. 89

Southwest Pacific.
Several air raids on enemy shipping and airfields were carried out by small formations of heavy U.S. Army bombers of the Flying Fortress type.

Our bombers raided the Japanese airfield at Kuala Lumpur and Kuantan in Malaya. On account of poor visibility, it was impossible to determine the results of these attacks. Our planes returned to their base undamaged.

Enemy fighter planes intercepted four of our bombers which were en route to attack Japanese shipping in the Harbor of Balikpapan on the island of Borneo. In the ensuing fight, nine enemy planes were shot down. One of our bombers was lost.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

Communiqué No. 90

Philippine Theater.
Two Japanese attempts to land troops on the west coast of Bataan were broken up during the night of February 2, 1942.

The first raid by the Tatori group of special shock troops was made early in the evening. This was frustrated by our artillery fire.

A second and more serious attempt was made at midnight. A large number of barges under naval escort approached the coast. The raid was discovered by a few of our night-flying pursuit planes which immediately attacked the convoy with light bombs and machine-gun fire.

As the enemy troops approached the shore, our beach defense force attacked with artillery and machine guns. The Japanese force suffered heavy casualties in men and boats. On the following morning, a number of disabled barges were found along the beaches. Some of these were burning, and others were adrift. None of the invading group reached shore.

Ground operations on our left flank were of a minor character. The frontal pressure of the Japanese 16th (Kimura) Division in this sector relaxed. Some enemy pockets were found where isolated groups of Japanese soldiers are being mopped up.

On our right where Gen. Nara’s 65th Division had previously attempted, by a frontal attack, to drive a wedge between our forces, we made a successful counterattack. Our troops overran three lines of enemy trenches, capturing considerable equipment.

During the past 24 hours, there has been moderate enemy air activity in support of ground action.

In the recent fighting in the Philippines, Brig. Gen. Clinton A. Pierce, USA, was slightly wounded in action.

There is nothing to report from other areas.

---

U.S. Navy Department (February 3, 1942)

Communiqué No. 37

A motor torpedo boat of Adm. Hart’s Far Eastern Command is believed to have torpedoed an enemy warship in night action inside Manila Bay. Although under heavy fire of the warship’s guns and in the full glare of her searchlights, the motor torpedo boat managed to fire two torpedoes and to survive the action without being hit.

A naval battalion composed of bluejackets and marines has been organized and is fighting on Bataan Peninsula with Gen. MacArthur’s command.

The USS NECHES (AO-5) has been torpedoed and sunk by an enemy submarine. 126 members of the crew have reached port safely. 56 men are as yet unaccounted for.

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (February 3, 1942)

Destroyer commissioned

Boston, Feb. 3 –
The destroyer Fitch was commissioned at Boston Navy Yard today. It was launched June 14.

[NormanStewart]

Mainly for women!

But men may be interested to know that corsets will be limited to seven basic types

Chicago, Feb. 3 (UP) –
American women will go just so far in their war sacrifices, so there will always be a corset industry, regardless of any rubber shortage, the nation’s corset buyers were told today.

“Short-waisted, long-waisted, high-bust, pendulous, full-hip, swayback and large-below-the-waist,” is the way the corset men classify American women, but they are all American women and they demand to look their best.

Foundation garment makers are just as determined not to allow the feminine form to go about in public under its true colors. But women can’t be too choosey. War production will be limited to the “bestsellers” which means corset styles will be reduced 20% to get rid of the odd assortment kept on shelves to satisfy some matron who decides that her figure demands something out of the ordinary.

Manufacturers said they would limit production to corsets for seven basic types. Before a woman can be sure of a comfortable fit that puts her curves in the right places, she will have to decide whether she has an “average figure,” “junior figure,” “misses figure,” which is a mire fully developed variation of the junior type, an “average short,” “average full,” “average tall” or “short full figure.”

“Fit” is the important thing in the new styles. Since corsets with a small amount of rubber cannot be depended upon to stretch to the wearer’s proportions, they must be fitted at the time of purchase.

However, milady won’t have to worry about fitted styles for their spring purchases. Not until present supplies which are now en route to retailers have been exhausted will the de-rubbered corset make its appearance.

[NormanStewart]

’Do-or-die’ fight opens in Far East

February month of crisis for Allies on Pacific front
By Leland Stowe

Rangoon, Feb. 3 –
On three different Oriental fronts, days of the greatest urgency have now come, assuring the fact that in the Philippines, at Singapore and in Burma, February will be a crucial month in the Far Eastern conflict.

With General MacArthur’s midget forces’ backs to the wall on Bataan Peninsula, with Singapore within range of Jap guns, and with the Nipponese now holding Moulmein and the eastern shores of the Salween River, the Allied troops in all these theaters must hereafter fight desperately to ward off the enemy at all costs.

The period of strategic withdrawal is now run out and every yard held by our forces must be clung to grimly to avoid possible disastrous consequences.

Bitterest fighting ahead

Since this is clearly realized by General Sir Archibald P. Wavell, supreme commander of the United Nations, and the other Allied commanders in each of the war zones, the bitterest fighting yet seen in the Far East seems unquestionably to lie directly ahead. It will require all that resolution, which Prime Minister Churchill so justly has repeatedly warned must be tested to the utmost, before the tide can be definitely turned in the Allies’ favor.

As a result of the latest Jap advances, the battle for Burma – which could also be called the battle for the Burma Road, or for Rangoon – is now beginning in earnest.

The Japanese are already bringing exploratory pressure along the lower Salween River line, particularly from Kado Island, which might be used as a stepping stone between Moulmein and Martaban, at the Salween’s mouth, along the river’s banks for 50 miles, north to the neighborhood of Shwegun. Since a ferry is located at Shwegun, the Japs may be expected to concentrate heavily thereabouts.

Japs must bridge river

The enemy’s strategy inevitably must be an attempt to force a passage across the Salween well below the Shan mountains where he could strike to cut the Burma Road and isolate Rangoon. How soon this drive will be launched may depend on Singapore’s resistance, or perhaps the enemy will not need troops released from that area before thrusting for Burma’s central artery which Kipling immortalized as the Road to Mandalay.

The day is now near when the dawn will come up with Jap thunder from Thailand, across Martaban Bay, and February is likely to provide the answer to what the outcome on the Burma front will be.

[NormanStewart]

Press meeting canceled

Washington, Feb. 3 –
President Roosevelt’s regular Tuesday afternoon press conference has been canceled.

[NormanStewart]

Labor survey of all men from 20 to 45 scheduled

Questionnaires for those not in armed forces due this month; women to register later

Washington, Feb. 3 (UP) –
The United States Employment Service announced today that the government will send work experience questionnaires to all men within the draft ages of 20 to 45 not yet inducted into the armed forces as the first step in a mass regimentation of potential labor.

The men will be classified according to work abilities and a reservoir of prospective workers for war industries built up. The questionnaires will be sent through Selective Service channels this month.

To rush registration

A voluntary registration of women will probably be held later, officials said, to eventually recruit 2.5 million women employees for war industries, and registration of all men is expected in the future.

Employment and Selective Service officials said every effort is being made to complete the registration rapidly – by the end of this month, if possible.

The projected registration of women is in line with War Production Board Director Sidney Hillman’s call for “more than a million American women” to work on production of war materials.

More to be needed

One out of 10 war industry workers are now women, about 500,000 in all, spokesmen said, but as soon as conversion of civilian industry is completed and available manpower is absorbed, additional women will be needed.

Mr. Hillman’s policy demands that women be paid the same wage scale as men so that employment of women will not be used to break down wage standards.

By the end of 1943, about 2.5 million women employees will be needed in war industries, according to estimates of labor officials.

Worker distribution listed

Donald H. Davenport of the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated there would be 4,200,000 men in the armed forces, 15 million in war industries and 21,800,000 in non-defense industries by the end of this year.

Mr. Davenport told the House Migratory Labor Committee that employment in non-defense industries has now dropped back to the point where it was before the defense production effort – a drop of about one million men.

From June 1940 to December 1941, employment in non-agricultural industries increased by 5 million, “nearly all” directly attributable to the defense program, he said.

While this activity at first stimulated non-defense work, recent curtailment in such branches of industry have “largely wiped out these gains,” he said.

To employ 57.5 million

He estimated that by the end of this year, employment – including the armed services – will total 57.5 million as compared with about 55 million at the end of 1940.

His 1942 estimates also include 8.5…

[NormanStewart]

Next Jap target in Pacific

The Dutch braced to fight an expected Jap invasion attempt on Java today, after Jap planes heavily raided the main Allied naval base at Soerabaja and air bases on the island. In the inset map is shown Makassar Strait where U.S. planes sank two more Jap transports and downed nine more Jap planes.

Dutch bases raided –
Java invasion thrust looms

Jap planes pound at main Netherlands isle
By John R. Morris, United Press staff writer

Batavia, Feb. 3 –
American Army planes sank two and probably three more Jap transports in the Makassar Strait, communiqués said today, but heavy enemy air attacks battered the big Dutch naval base of Soerabaja and the main air bases on Java.

The attacks indicated preparations for an invasion attempt.

Half a dozen planes were shot down, including a bomber and several fighters at Soerabaja.

The United States aerial attacks on a Jap convoy off the east Borneo port of Balikpapan boosted to 34 or 35 the number of enemy vessels sunk or damaged in the Battle of Makassar Strait and the destruction of more enemy airplanes brought the total to approximately 30, including nine shot down by U.S. Flying Fortresses.

Invasion threat grows

The threat of a big-scale Jap invasion thrust against the main Dutch islands of Sumatra and Java, headquarters for the United Nations Supreme Command, increased as the enemy tightened his grip on Borneo and sought to establish new stepping stone bases in the encirclement of Singapore.

The presence of the Jap convoy, which American planes attacked, off Balikpapan indicated that large reinforcements were pouring into Borneo to extend the enemy wedge driven into the East Indies defense line.

In Washington, a communiqué revealed that four U.S. Flying Fortresses had downed nine Jap planes and lost one U.S. plane in Makassar Strait and that Flying Fortresses had also bombed Jap bases in Malaya.

The Japs now hold Pontianak, on the west Borneo coast, from where they are expected to attempt to push over water toward the important tin islands of Bangka and Belitung as bases for further operations…

[NormanStewart]

Fliers aid MacArthur –
Foe attacked in Philippines

Night fighter planes help blast Jap barges
By Everett R. Holles, United Press staff writer

Washington, Feb. 3 –
General Douglas MacArthur’s forces on lower Bataan Peninsula in a savage battle have smashed two more Jap attempts to land shock troops from a large fleet of invasion barges for a knockout assault on Corregidor Fortress, an Army communiqué said today.

Under the pounding of General MacArthur’s artillery, machine guns and the bombs of low-swooping U.S. pursuit planes, the attempted landings on the west coast of the peninsula were completely crushed, with heavy enemy losses, the communiqué said.

At dawn, a number of shattered Jap barges, some ablaze and other bullet-riddled and adrift, were seen along the beach.

Japs use 'commandos’

The objective of the Jap invasion attempts is to wipe out American-Filipino resistance on the lower half of Bataan Peninsula – the last obstacle to a final direct assault on Corregidor Fortress.

American forces also struck the Japs on two other fronts in the Far East. Four Flying Fortresses downed nine Jap planes in Makassar Strait and other Flying Fortresses bombed Jap bases in Malaya.

In the Philippines, it was evident that the Japs, using their best troops including the Tatori, which correspond to the famous British Commandos, were making a desperate and costly attempt to drive General MacArthur’s American and Filipino forces from their last foothold on the Luzon mainland.

Cross three lines of trenches

A War Department communiqué Monday told of the shattering of a “desperate” double-barreled Jap offensive, unleased on both the east and west coast of mountainous Bataan about 17 miles north of…

[NormanStewart]

Navy’s official Pearl Harbor pictures

[Catalina photo incoming…]

The above pictures, just released by the U.S. Navy, show some of the damage done by the Japanese in the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7. The burning and battered hulk of the battleship Arizona is shown, at top, lying in the harbor mud after it had been put out of action. The spectacular center picture was taken the moment the magazine of the destroyer Shaw exploded after a bomb hit. In the lower picture are wrecked naval patrol planes of the Catalina type (PBY) on Ford Island.

[NormanStewart]

Entire Pacific Navy in action, chief declares

Raid on Jap islands tells in part where ‘busy’ fleet is, he says
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer

Adm. Nimitz.

Honolulu, Feb. 3 –
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, said today in a message to America that every ship, every plane and every man in the fleet was in action over the vast Pacific war zone to safeguard the country and take the war to Japan’s front door.

Admiral Nimitz, a submarine expert whose naval career has extended over 40 of his 56 years, was called Dec. 17, from his post as chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Navigation, to take charge in the Pacific, 10 days after the Jap sneak attack.

Follows report on raid

Following up the communiqué in which he announced that the fleet had done extensive damage in a bold raid on the Marshall and Gilbert Islands with little loss to itself, Admiral Nimitz said:

A month ago, when I assumed command of the Pacific Fleet, I said that I had undertaken a great responsibility and obligation to my country which I should do my utmost to discharge.

Since then, events have emphasized the importance of our Pacific forces in the broad strategy of the Allied war effort.

I know that a question uppermost in the minds of American people has been:

Where’ the fleet?

This question was answered in part yesterday by the splendid achievements of our ships and planes in attacks on enemy concentrations in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands.

70 million square miles

Thus your fleet is busy, every moment of every day and night, across the vast reaches of the Pacific; specifically in those areas where we can most effectively harass the enemy and contribute to our own security.

Let me remind you, however, that the Pacific Ocean encompasses almost 70 million square miles.

To wage war across this trackless background – stretching across 160 degrees of longitude and from one polar region to the other – is a gigantic task for any fleet or combination of fleets.

But I can attest that every shop, every plane, every officer and man of the Pacific Fleet afloat, aloft and ashore, is being utilized to the fullest extent both to safeguard America and bring the war to the enemy’s front door.