TIME (December 22, 1941)
Radio: Radio war reporting
For 48 hours after war struck, the U.S. heard the fascinated, friendly voices of radio reporters in the Far East (“We think exactly the same thing about that speech [FDR’s to Congress] as all you folks back home.”). Then for 48 hours more, the U.S. heard nothing from them. Then finally, from the war typhoon’s intense center, they spoke again guardedly, inured, under censorship; but not before at least two of them had done extremely valuable pieces of action reporting.
Singapore. Cecil Brown’s cabled, newsreel-clear account of the sinking of the Repulse and the Prince of Wales came into the CBS newsroom in Manhattan hours after his friends there had decided he was dead.
A long-nosed, persistent man of 33, Brown had already proved himself one of CBS’s most military war reporters. He spoke from Rome during the Phony War and the first Mediterranean fighting. Last April, kicked out by the Fascists, he crossed to Yugoslavia, just in time to meet the Germans coming in, narrowly missed a grenading by an advance Nazi motorcycle squad, and with a U.S. military attaché drove upstream through the Panzer army to Belgrade. His further progress eastward included a stop in Ankara, a hitch in Syria on the British push into that hellish terrain, and the job of covering the Cretan campaign from Cairo.
Four months ago, CBS sent him to Singapore thinking the British there would soon set up a powerful new shortwave transmitter. Brown found that the transmitter would not get going until February, that broadcasts relayed through Batavia were muddy by the time they reached the U.S. Cooling his heels in a new handmade pair of shoes, making friends as usual with fighting men, he jumped at the chance to go into action with the fleet. On Friday night last week, CBS jumped at the chance to bring Cecil Brown’s living voice from Singapore, censored, muddy or not.
Manila communicates with California directly by RCA and AT&T radiotelephone (a point-to-point system employing shortwaves outside the broadcast band). On deck in Manila for CBS were Tom Worthin and Ford Wilkins, for NBC local radioman Bert Silen, for Mutual Royal Arch Gunnison of North American Newspaper Alliance. Burly Bert Silen had assured NBC in Manhattan that he could “broadcast any time, even during actual bombing…” He did.
Silen’s description of the first Japanese bombing of Manila gave listeners in the U.S. plenty to think about. Nothing like it is likely to happen again. Next day RCA relaying of broadcasts from Manila ceased, not to be resumed for two days and then only under a censorship that required broadcasters to submit their script well in advance of airtime. Excerpts of what Bert Silen and his relief announcer Don Bell put on the radio telephone in the shiny moonlight during the first raid:
We are trying to locate the exact place of the tremendous fire that is raging and turning the sky absolutely crimson… In the vicinity of Nichols Field, there is a terrific fire that looks very much as though a gasoline dump or something like that is burning over there… Ladies and gentlemen, there is one thing we definitely found out at the present time: the Japanese came over with the idea of hitting a definite target and they have hit that target…
This was obviously useful news to the Japanese. But NBC, in broadcasting it did something useful for the U.S.: dispelled at once and forever the prevalent and dangerous notion that Jap pilots are cross-eyed, their bombing crazy.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 22, 1941)
WAR BULLETINS!
Roosevelt signs new draft bill
Washington –
President Roosevelt today signed the amended draft bill making men between the ages of 20 and 44 (inclusive) subject to service in the Armed Forces on a selective basis. The measure – an amendment to the Selective Service Act – provides for registration of all men between the ages of 18 and 64 (inclusive). Officials estimated it will add seven million men to the manpower reservoir from which the armed services may draw.
Aircraft carrier sunk, Nazis say
Berlin, Germany – (official German radio)
A special communiqué of the German High Command asserted today that a Nazi submarine has sunk a British aircraft carrier in the Atlantic.
Japs and Russians confer
Tokyo, Japan (UP) – (official Japanese broadcast recorded in New York)
Tomokazu Hori, official spokesman, said today that Japan was conducting friendly negotiations with Russia. He refused to amplify his statement.
Gen. von Bock reported ‘off duty’
Stockholm, Sweden –
The newspaper Allehanda said today in a Berlin dispatch that Field Marshal Gen. Fedor von Bock is reportedly seriously ill and unable to keep his command on the central sector of the Russian front. No successor has been mentioned.
New Guinea invasion denied
Canberra, Australia –
An official statement said today that there was no information that Japanese forces were attacking New Guinea and it was added that the government was in constant touch with the territory. Rome reported yesterday that Japanese troops had landed in New Guinea, only 100 miles at the nearest point from northeastern Australia across the Torres Strait.
Jap Army strength 2 million
Chungking, China –
An official Chinese spokesman today placed Japan’s army strength at 100 divisions – slightly more than two million men – and said that “short of a miracle, Japan cannot raise enough divisions to meet her commitments.”
500,000-man Navy approved
Washington –
The Senate today passed and sent to the House a bill expanding the authorized strength of the Navy from 300,000 enlisted men to 500,000 and the Marine Corps from 60,000 to 104,000.
British harbors bombed, Nazis say
Berlin, Germany – (official German broadcast)
German planes last night bombed harbor installations on the British coast, the High Command said today, adding there was “no major military activities” on the North African front. It claimed concentrated gunfire repulsed another Soviet attempt to break out of Leningrad.
Dutch at war with Italy
London, England –
The Netherlands declared war against Italy today.
Nazis claim Jap landings
Berlin, Germany – (German official broadcast)
Radio Berlin reported from Tokyo today that Jap troops had made successful landings 160 miles north of Manila. This would apparently fix the “new landings” which Tokyo claimed off the west coast of Luzon Island between Vigan and the Gulf of Lingayen.
Hull gets Martinique report
Washington –
RAdm. Frederick Horne conferred today with Secretary of State Cordell Hull and other State Department officials about the accord, which he signed last week, “neutralizing” Martinique.
German to seek Vichy-U.S. break
New York –
Private advices to the United Press reported today that Germany will make a determined effort after the holidays to force a diplomatic break between Vichy France and the United States.
Japs deny sinking Red ship
Rome, Italy – (official broadcast)
Reports from Tokyo said today that Japanese authorities had categorically denied that the Japanese had sunk the Russian freighter Perekop.
Reports that the Perekop had been sunk by Japanese bombers had been circulated by Dutch East Indies authorities.
