New Filipino hero at Bataan simply did duty, he declares
By Frank Hewlett
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Prohibition relaxed ‘experimentally’ in Hawaiian Islands
New setup lists limits for public
Strict control and penalties outline under system
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Tax rises suggested
Drastic increases in various levies urged by capital experts
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Lend-Lease aid triples
Pearl Harbor attack spurs shipments to United Nations
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Wife lauds Roosevelt as stamp collector
Washington, Feb. 24 (AP) –
Maybe stamp collecting should be a required study for little boys, to teach them geography – and they might also grow up to be President.
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt told her press conference today that there was hardly a geographical place that the President doesn’t know something about. He attributes this knowledge, she said, to the fact that he has collected stamps since boyhood.
In response to a question whether she collected stamps, Mrs. Roosevelt said she wished she had been encouraged to have done so as geography is not one of her good subjects.
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Wage boost rejected by War Labor Board
Washington (UP) –
The War Labor Board has rejected a $1-a-day wage increase and a union shop request of 700 CIO workers of the Phelps Dodge Corporation’s smelter division at Douglas, Arizona, on the grounds such action would upset existing AFL contracts covering a majority of the concern’s Arizona employees.
The decision indicated the possibility that “an authoritative national policy” on the union shop issue may be enunciated in the future. Both the closed shop and $1-a-day increase issues are involved in a pending dispute between the CIO Steel Workers Organizing Committee and “Little Steel” companies.
Board members said their action today would minimize “unnecessary conflicts between labor organizations.”
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’Serious leaks’ in U.S. war secrets revealed by Biddle
Senate group studies bill on penalties
Attorney General says legislation involves freedom of press
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Destroyer workers quit shipyard in West
San Pedro, California (AP) –
The day shift, 3,500 members of the CIO Shipyard Workers Union of America walked off the job of building $81,000,000 worth of destroyers for the U.S. Navy after eight hours yesterday. They said Bethlehem Steel Company demanded that they work ten-hour shifts.
Whether 1,500 fellow employees quit the night shift after eight hours, or worked ten, was not reported.
A Bethlehem spokesman said “they’re still on the job” at 3:35 a.m., but at 4:10 a.m. (7:10 a.m. EWT), declined to say whether the shift was still at work.
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Nazis claim sinking 8 more Atlantic ships
Berlin, Germany (AP) –
A special German High Command communiqué said today that German submarines operating in the Atlantic and off the American coast had sunk weight more ships, totaling 63,000 tons.
The text of the special announcement:
German U-boats sank from convoys in the Atlantic and off the American coast a further eight ships totaling 63,000 tons.
Five of the ships were tankers.
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4 destroyers lost, Japs say
Same total damaged and equal number of subs sunk or missing
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The Pittsburgh Press (February 24, 1942)
Rambling Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
MENLO PARK, California – If there’s a family in America more thoroughly war-prepared than the Terramorses of Menlo Park, I’d hate to live with them.
The Terramorses are ready for fire, famine, dive bombers or tire thieves. They’ve got everything from water tanks on the roof to a new 30-30 rifle in the bedroom. It’s all wonderful and I admire it, so I’ll have to tell you about it.
Frank and Grace Terramorse live in a many-angled, highly comfortable one-story house they built with their own hands. It sits in one of these big California lots sometimes described as a “ranch,” behind a high hedge. It is a likable place.
Frank Terramorse is a traveling man. He covers all northern California in his car, selling heavy machinery to factories. I suppose the family is in what you would call the “middle income group,” though I’ve never known exactly what that was.
They have two cars, a 12-year-old son named Drew, and every comfort from a real fireplace to antique copper kettles on the shelf, but they are not flossy people. They still like to get up and have breakfast around the cookstove in the kitchen.
Frank Terramorse is “different” from other people. He is full of beans. He’s always thinking up something crazy. He says he’s the only salesman who has nerve enough to go around a mining camp in a derby hat. He gets a few laughs and plenty of orders.
And so we come up to the night after Pearl Harbor, when Salesman Frank Terramorse got to feeling “different” again. He was somewhere in northern California, listening to the radio about the blackouts and the expected Jap bombers, and he got worried about his family.
Begins work in a hurry
He stood it through Tuesday, and there were blackouts that night, too. On Wednesday morning he said, “To hell with the job. I’m going home.” And so he did.
Within two seconds after he stopped the car at home, the fur began to fly. In less than half a day he had bought plyboard and sawed it to fit every window in the house for blackout.
Next he built two ladders up the side of the house to the slanting shingle roof. From there he built stairsteps up the roof to the ridge, so you can walk right up.
Then he straddled the entire roofpeak – some 115 feet – with a catwalk about a foot and a half wide.
Then he got two 50-gallon oil drams, put one on each end of the roof, and filled them with water. On each one hangs a brand-new galvanized bucket. At three points on the catwalk stand large buckets of sand.
He solves attic problem
At each of two points there is tied a rope. If you follow this rope to the ground, you’ll find it attached to coils of hose, already screwed to faucets. Furthermore, a portable ladder is ready up there, to be hooked to the catwalk and let down over any part of the roof. Also, there’s a straight-bladed hoe for scraping off fire “leaflets,” if the Japs drop any.
But that isn’t all – oh, my, no. Mr. Terramorse’s greatest concern us that an incendiary will go through the roof and stop in the semi-attic, where it’d be harder to fight.
So – from the attic roof-pole hangs a 30-gallon drum of water. A special ladder leads to the attic. And in a few days the entire attic floor will be covered with an inch and a half of sand. And scattered all around will be tubs of sand, for throwing the bomb into.
Also, he has equipped two old chairs with asbestos shields, and put them on wheels. One of them will be up there in the attic, so that you can wheel right up to your incendiary behind this asbestos shield and deal it a death blow. In the shield he has inserted a glass plate out of an arc welder’s helmet, for seeing.
That still isn’t all. Outside the front door are huge sandbags, for throwing on bombs. And by the fireplace stand a new pick and ax. Tape is ready for taping the windows as soon as raiding becomes a probable thing.
Another 50-gallon drum of water stands on the garage roof. There is hose all over the place. There are three pumps in the house, in addition to the city water pressure. On tables lie booklets of bomb instruction, and boy, the folks have had to read them, too.
Mr. Terramorse did all this stuff so he could again set out on the road with some feeling of peace about his family. He has equipped Mrs. Terramorse and Drew with every known vehicle, device, precaution and arrangement the human mind could devise, and trained them to use it. So now if they don’t protect themselves probably disinherit them in disgust.
But did you think this was all? Why, we haven’t even got started yet. It’ll take all day tomorrow to tell the rest. My conclusion about Mr. Terramorse is that we should have had him at Pearl Harbor the last couple of years.
U.S. Navy Department (February 25, 1942)
Communiqué No. 45
Far East.
The Secretary of the Navy issued the following communiqué, summarizing previously published losses inflicted by U.S. naval forces upon the Japanese Navy and Merchant Marine in the period from December 10, 1941 until February 24, 1942, inclusive. The following information is compiled from Navy Department Communiqués beginning with No. 1 and ending with No. 44, and complements similar information summarizing enemy losses and damage published in recent communiqués of the United States Army.
In accordance with its previously announced policy, the Navy does not indulge in the practice of overstating the losses that we inflict upon the enemy, or of understating the losses inflicted on us. The Navy will report only such facts as can be substantiated. Thus the tabulation of vessels damaged does not include many enemy ships thought to have been damaged, lack of conclusive evidence precluding specific announcements in these instances.
Submarines known to be sunk include only those sunk during the heroic defense of Wake Island and during the recent raid on the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. In accordance with the established Navy Department policy, submarine sinkings are never announced until it is reasonably certain that the enemy has become cognizant of their loss. This explains the time lag in connection with various reports. There is evidence, however, of further sinkings of enemy submarines in Pacific waters, but their announcement will not be made public until full reports have been made to the Navy Department and absolute surety is determined.
Prior to the vicious attack made on the United Nations by the Japanese Empire on December 7, 1941, the pride of the Japanese Merchant Marine consisted of three 17,000-ton luxury ships of the Yawata class. One of these ships is known to have been converted to serve as an aircraft carrier. U.S. naval forces have sunk one merchantman of the Yawata class, and one aircraft carrier of the same class, leaving only one such vessel known to be in service with the enemy.
Tabulation follows, by type of vessel:
| Battleships | 1 of Kongo class damaged. |
| Aircraft carriers | 1 sunk, 1 believed sunk. |
| Cruisers | 2 sunk. |
| Destroyers | 7 sunk, 1 believed sunk. |
| Submarines | 3 sunk, 1 damaged. |
| Seaplane tenders | 1 believed sunk. |
| Minesweepers | 1 sunk. |
| Gunboats | 1 sunk. |
| Fleet tankers | 3 sunk. |
| Transports | 13 sunk, 2 believed sunk. |
| Supply ships and merchantmen | 16 sunk. |
| Miscellaneous (type unidentified) | 6 sunk, 2 believed sunk, 3 damaged. |
Summary
Total announced losses inflicted upon the Japanese in the period outlined above are as follows:
| Combatant vessels | 5 sunk, 3 believed sunk, 2 damaged. |
| Noncombatant vessels | 38 sunk, 4 believed sunk, 3 damaged. |
| Total combatant and noncombatant | 53 sunk, 7 believed sunk, 5 damaged. |
Atlantic Area.
During January 1942, 22 ships of the United Nations registry had torpedoes fired at them in waters contiguous to the United States. In addition, 38 other ships were attacked in the area west of 30° west longitude. One enemy submarine is believed to have been sunk, 3 are believed to have been damaged and 34 additional attacks were inconclusive in evidence of damage.
In February, up to and including the 23rd instant, 23 ships of the United Nations have been attacked by enemy submarines in U.S. coastal waters and 31 additional ships in the area west of 30° west longitude. Two enemy submarines are believed to have been sunk and 1 damaged in these areas. In addition, 15 attacks have been made on enemy submarines by our forces with inconclusive results.
There is nothing to report from other areas.
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Reading Eagle (February 25, 1942)
LOS ANGELES PEPPERED BY SHRAPNEL AS GUNS BLAST AT STRANGE PLANES
Two injured in blackout along coast
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Patrol planes combing coast of California
Naval authorities widen search for enemy sub which shelled oil refinery; Japanese term raid 'great military success’
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Freighter torpedoed off Atlantic Coast
Washington, Feb. 25 (AP) –
The Navy announced today that the Norwegian freighter Blink had been torpedoed by an enemy submarine off the Atlantic Coast.
No details of the torpedoing were made available. The announcement said merely:
The Blink, a Norwegian freighter, has been torpedoed by an enemy submarine off the Atlantic Coast, the Navy Department today announced.
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Japs pushing forces close to Australia
Island approaches to continent scenes of air, sea battles
Port Moresby hit
Transports reported to be ablaze in harbor of Dili, Timor
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MacArthur’s Army breaks Bataan calm
U.S. patrols clash with Japs in aggressive local encounters
Success reported
Two Nipponese planes bagged by American pilots over Java
Bulletin
Allied Headquarters, Java, Feb. 25 (UP) –
Japanese air forces raked Java with bombs and machine-gun fire in a pre-invasion smash today but Allied warplanes took a new toll of the enemy invasion fleet, sinking three transports near Makassar Strait. The three transports were believed to be bringing up reinforcements for the forces on Bali and Sumatra preparatory to a move on Java itself.
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Newfoundland people thanked by Roosevelt
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Italians, Japs, Germans seized in Florida
Miami, Fla., Feb. 25 (AP) –
The FBI announced today that 29 Germans, Italians and Japanese were taken into custody in a series of 80 raids here.
R. G. Danner, agent in charge, said officers confiscated guns, cameras, shortwave radios, ammunition, exposed film, signaling devices and German propaganda material.
Among those arrested in Florida raids were an Italian prince and a German countess, both identified with high social circles.
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Rubber crisis amazing mess, Senator says
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Envoy warns U.S. people
’Move swiftly or war will be lost,’ asserts Dutch Minister
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