The Croatian Fraternal Beneficial Society announced today it will convert its full $65,000 assets into defense bonds to bring about defeat of the Axis powers “including the Quisling Government of Croatia.”
A meeting of the society’s 300 members will be held in its hall at 141 44th St., at 8:00 p.m. EST tonight to formally complete the action and adopt resolutions of support to be sent to President Roosevelt.
U.S. Army’s flying strength to be expanded to more than million men and flood of planes
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
High War Department officials predicted today that the Army Air Forces would be expanded to six or eight times the present size or even more.
Brig. Gen. Wade Haislip, Assistant Chief of Staff, told the Senate Military Affairs Committee that eventually the Army Air Forces would probably need one million men.
Previously, the top figures mentioned had been 41,000 officers and 600,000 enlisted men. But an official said today:
All previous goals have got to be regarded as past history. From here on, we’re aiming for complete air supremacy, and we’re going to drive toward it no matter how large a force it takes.
The mechanic-training goal is being expanded from 70,000 to 100,000 a year. The pilot-training goal is 30,000 a year.
New training schools for pilots and mechanics are being opened as fast as they can be built. By June, 41 primary schools, 18 intermediate schools and 21 advanced schools will be turning out Air Force pilots.
This expansion would mean a force larger than the entire present Army of about 1,500,000 men. Two years ago, the Air Corps had only 2,000 officers and 20,000 men.
Top air officers have their eyes on the long-range bombardment planes – Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24s – as the most telling weapon in eventual defeat of the Axis. This belief is keyed directly to OPM Director Knudsen’s announcement of a goal of 1,000 heavy bombers a month.
Factories also need men, Hershey reminds
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Brig. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, national director of Selective Service, advised American young men yesterday to remain at their jobs or in their classrooms until called by the Armed Forces.
Broadcasting from Washington in a University of Chicago roundtable discussion, Gen. Hershey pointed out that to keep one man equipped and in action on the battlefront requires 14-25 men in industry.
Gen. Hershey said:
We may expect to have three million in uniform by the end of 1942, but we must raise this Army without disturbing those vital industrial workers needed to supply each man we take.
Hospital machine-gunned also by Japanese
Washington –
The last message sent by the Guam garrison to the Navy Department was timed at 8:30 p.m. EST, Dec. 9, two days after the Japanese raid on Hawaii, and reported the attackers had machine-gunned civilians and a hospital in Agana, the island capital, it was revealed today.
The Navy said that the last message sent from the Far Pacific outpost (at 3:30 p.m., island time, Dec. 10) reported:
Last attack centered at Agana. Civilians machine-gunned in streets. Two native wards of hospital and hospital compound machine-gunned. Building in which Japanese nationals are confined bomb [ed].
A Navy communiqué Dec. 13 said capture of the island “is probable” because Guam could not be contacted by either cable or radio. This communiqué said that a force of fewer than 400 naval men and 155 Marines was stationed in Guam, which lies in the midst of Japanese-mandated islands.
The mid-Pacific U.S. islands of Wake and Midway are still holding out.
The last message from Guam did not make clear whether the machine-gunning was by ground-strafing planes or from Japanese landing forces, although it was assumed here that planes were involved in the attack.
Agana has a population of approximately 10,000 and is on the southern shore of Agana Bay.
The British Prime Minister has arrived in the United States to discuss with the President all questions relevant to the concerted war effort. Mr. Churchill is accompanied by Lord Beaverbrook and a technical staff. Mr. Churchill is the guest of the President.
There is, of course, one primary objective in the conversations to be held during the next few days between the President and the British Prime Minister and the respective staffs of the two countries. That purpose is the defeat of Hitlerism throughout the world.
It should be remembered that many other nations are engaged today in this common task. Therefore the present conferences in Washington should be regarded as preliminary to further conferences which will officially include Russia, China, the Netherlands, and the [British] dominions. It is expected that there will thus be evolved an overall unity in the conduct of the war. Other nations will be asked to participate to the best of their ability in the overall objective.
It is probable that no further announcements will be made until the end of the present conferences, but it may be assumed that the other interested nations will be kept in close touch with this preliminary planning.
U.S. War Department (December 23, 1941)
Philippine Theater.
Intense fighting continues along the coastal areas of Lingayen Gulf, 150 miles north of Manila on the island of Luzon.
Attempted landings by the enemy near San Fabian and Damortis were frustrated. Japanese infantry landed near Agoo and moved south toward Damortis. U.S. and Philippine troops, using artillery and tanks, have engaged the enemy south of Agoo.
Japanese destroyers moved into Lingayen Gulf to cover a landing at Damortis, but were driven off by our artillery.
Hawaii.
The Commanding General, Hawaiian Department, reports that 273 Japanese aliens are now interned. Out of a total population of 425,000 in the Hawaiian Islands, 160,000 are of Japanese ancestry. Of these, 35,000 are aliens. For the most part, the Japanese population of Hawaii has given no evidence of disloyalty. However, as was reported by Secretary Knox on his return from his recent trip to Hawaii, there is strong evidence to support the belief that some Japanese were engaged in “fifth column” activity and provided the enemy with valuable military information prior to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
These activities were entirely confined to Japanese residents, all other elements of the population, as well as the great majority of the Japanese, remaining loyal to the United States. There were no fifth columnists among the members of the armed services in Hawaii.
The military authorities have imprisoned all known Japanese leaders of subversive activities. Federal and territorial law enforcement agencies are cooperating with the Army in detecting and suppressing enemy “fifth column” activities among the Japanese residents of the islands.
There is nothing to report from other areas.
Philippine Theater.
Combat operations are continuing with increasing intensity along the eastern shore of Lingayen Gulf, north of Damortis.
A major engagement is being fought in the vicinity of Santo Tomas with defending U.S. and Filipino troops having attained some initial successes.
Japanese troops are continuing to land between Agoo and San Fernando. Landing operations are being supported by increasing numbers of bombing and attack planes.
Fighting is continuing in the vicinity of Davao on the island of Mindanao.
There is nothing to report from other areas.
U.S. Navy Department (December 23, 1941)
Atlantic Theater.
There are no new developments to report.
Eastern Pacific.
Two U.S. merchant ships were attacked by enemy submarines off the Pacific Coast. Both attacks were unsuccessful.
Central Pacific.
Wake Island sustained another strong air attack in the forenoon of the 22nd. Several enemy planes were shot down. An enemy force effected a landing on Wake the morning of the 23rd.
Far East.
Japanese claims of seizure of a large number of American merchant vessels are without foundation. The only U.S. merchant vessel known to have been seized by the Japanese is the SS PRESIDENT HARRISON.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 23, 1941)
President, Premier speed victory program with high-ranking aides
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Roosevelt welcomes Churchill
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt are shown on the south grounds of the White House after Mr. Churchill arrived on his historic and unprecedented visit to discuss the “concerted war effort.”Anglo-American leaders confer
Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s usually grim face turns to smiles as he confers with President Roosevelt at the White House after his secret trip across the Atlantic.
Washington –
President Roosevelt today called a meeting of the “United States-Great Britain War Council” in the White House Cabinet room for late this afternoon.
The meeting will mark the first formal gathering of the joint council – so described by the White House – under the direction of Mr. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who arrived at the Executive Mansion last night.
Others at parley
Others at the conference will be:
For the United States:
For Great Britain:
Groundwork for the initial full-dress meeting was framed by Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill in an informal conference that began after the latter’s arrival here last night and continued until 1:00 a.m. EST today in the President’s study.
Mr. Churchill conferred with British Ambassador Lord Halifax and Ministers of Canada, the Union of South Africa and Australia, for more than an hour in the special White House consultation room which has been set aside for the Prime Minister’s use.
80 come with Churchill
The scope of the grand strategy conversations was indicated by the White House disclosure that Mr. Churchill, who is now a guest at the Executive Mansion, was accompanied to this country by a staff of more than 80 technical experts and by W. Averell Harriman, U.S. Lend-Lease expediter in London.
During the morning, Lord Beaverbrook and Mr. Harriman arrived at the White House together, and later Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox went to the Executive Mansion.
Lord Beaverbrook declined to say with whom he had conferred. Mr. Harriman said the purpose of his visit to the White House was to talk with Mr. Hopkins.
Officers go to White House
A group of high-ranking British Army officers also went to the White House in a U.S. Marine Corps auto. Shortly after they entered, aides followed them in with numerous large dispatch cases.
Mr. Knox left without disclosing the purpose of his visit or whether he had talked personally with Mr. Roosevelt.
On the production front, meanwhile, the White House made public an agreement between the United States and Canada, which has the effect of pooling the gigantic war production machine of this country with the munitions factories of our northern neighbor for the output of ever-increasing numbers of tanks, planes, ships and guns.
Wipes out barriers
The agreement wipes out existing tariff and tax barriers on interchange of vital war materials, making it easier for the two neighboring countries to streamline their production for greater efficiency and output.
Canadian Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King, who is to participate in the inter-Allied talks here, will probably delay his arrival until after Christmas, it was disclosed by officials in Ottawa. Mr. King has been invited to come here by Mr. Roosevelt.
White House Secretary Stephen T. Early said that Sir Gerald Campbell, direction of British press relations in this country, would make public the names of the entire personnel of the Prime Minister’s party, “some 80 in number.”
To go to church
Mr. Churchill will accompany Mr. Roosevelt to church on Christmas Day, but Mr. Early declined to give the name of the church or the hour of his attendance.
The unprecedented White House conferences between Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill were understood literally to be dividing the globe into four major war theaters to organize the Allies for “the defeat of Hitlerism throughout the world.”
They are expected to set up an Inter-Allied War Council.
There was speculation whether that move would be followed, ultimately, by nomination of a supreme commander-in-chief.
See unified command
But there seemed to be good ground to believe that the least to come from the Potomac-side conference of the leaders of the English-speaking peoples would be a unification of command in various theaters of war.
Under any such division of responsibility, U.S. military and naval officers would get the tough and hazardous job of licking the Axis in the Pacific and the Far East. But the first job out there is to hold our own – ours and Great Britain’s – and no one here minimizes the tremendous nature of that assignment.
Mr. Churchill arrived in Washington by air last night out of a mist of speculation and secrecy. He left London Dec. 12. He was met at a service airport by Mr. Roosevelt, the first meeting between the two men since they sealed the eight-point Atlantic Charter at sea in mid-August.
Sea trip indicated
Mr. Churchill’s pea jacket and jaunty Cowes Regatta cap seemed to suggest that he had come most of the distance from Britain by sea. The date of his departure from London suggested that theory.
There was a flurry of gunfire off the Delaware-Maryland coast some hours before Mr. Churchill’s arrival here. The best current explanation was that the U.S. Navy had given the seagoing Briton proper salute.
Never had more secrecy and precaution accompanied the arrival here of a distinguished visitor. It was more like the coming and going of troop transports in World War I. Not even the June 1939 visit of King George and Queen Elizabeth compared in importance with yesterday’s arrival of the heavy-jowled Englishman, who rallies his countrymen with promises of “blood, sweat and tears.”
With Mr. Churchill’s arrival at the White House, a single roof sheltered two of the four men now most directly responsible for the fate of the world for generations to come.
Third becomes warlord
The British Prime Minister and the President met within 48 hours of the announcement that another of the quartet, Adolf Hitler, had assumed direct command of the Nazi legions which smashed all before them until they challenged the Soviet Union.
The fourth man is Joseph Stalin. His Red Armies are evidently to be charged with major responsibility for defeat of Hitler on the continent of Europe.
The White House conferees are dividing the world for battle, actually forming a League of Nations against the Axis league. They began their discussions last night. They will continue them today and the Prime Minister’s visit here as a “guest of the President” will continue for a “few days.” Actually, he may be far at sea or in the air or back in London before it is announced that he has left Washington.
War areas listed
The four theaters of war expected to be agreed upon will probably be assigned variously to the control of major members of the anti-Axis League. They are expected to be:
Stalin’s Red Armies have already taken charge of fighting the Axis on the continent of Europe.
The Middle East and North African show is, and will remain, for some time a purely British and Dominion venture.
The North Atlantic may be assigned to Great Britain as well, under the unified command of British naval and air officers, probably the former.
U.S. would lead in Pacific
The Pacific and Far East, under such a division of responsibility, would become the field of operations for a unified command under American officers. Those officers, it is believed, will be Adm. King and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the latter a four-star officer who commands the dangerously-infested defenses of the Philippines.
High on the agenda of the White House conferees is what emergency measures, if any, can be undertaken to extricate vital Singapore from a position admittedly precarious and to prevent Japanese landings in force in the Philippines. Both of those strategic areas must be held by the anti-Axis league unless the war is to be lengthened by many months and perhaps by years. There is no effort here to disguise the seriousness of the situation created in the Pacific by destructive Japanese blows at our defenses in Hawaii and in the vicinity of Manila.
May seek bases
There was speculation in London that the Roosevelt-Churchill conversations might also deal with the possibility of obtaining access to certain strategic areas as bases for anti-Axis efforts. Vladivostok may be such a potential base. Some experts believe it would be useful as a haven for U.S. bombers shuttling from Manila and across Japan. These London reports suggested that there might be discussion of using Lend-Lease in any persuasion undertaken in connection with such strategic areas.
The Roosevelt-Churchill conversations are judged here to be the beginning of a two-phase program. The first would be the determination of immediate strategy and objectives to minimize confusion of military operations. This would be followed by establishment of a permanent Inter-Allied War Council. Some experts believed technical studies would be undertaken immediately that the President and the Prime Minister have agreed on broad objectives of the common effort.
Seek to define authority
But the most immediate problem is said to be a clear definition of authority in the four major war theaters. That means that someone or the officers of some single nation must be assigned to each of those theaters to coordinate battle and supply strategy. It is assumed that high-ranking officers of the Allies would occupy staff positions in all theaters.
Most assuredly, the White House conferees will discuss allocation of war supplies and munitions. Pressing for determination are the equally urgent demands of the Philippines and of the British defenders of Singapore for reinforcement with all arms. Division of available supplies between those two hard-pressed areas is a major problem which the two leaders themselves may have to decide.
Ultimately, a single military commander may make such decisions, although the obstacles to agreement among all the Allies up a single head are tremendous. And it is pointed out here, also, that this is a World War in fact whereas World War I was actually confined substantially to the continent of Europe. The responsibilities of Marshal Foch who became generalissimo of Allied and associated forces on the Western Front would be comparatively insignificant when ranged against those of a man who undertook to direct a war being fought in every continent but one.
London, England –
The Admiralty reported tonight that six more Axis transports and supply ships have been “accounted for” by British submarines in the Mediterranean.
Rangoon, Burma – (Dec. 23, delayed)
Japan is fighting to enslave Asia and Burma prefers a partnership with Great Britain, Burmese Home Minister U Aye declared in a radio speech today.
Ottawa, Canada –
Brig. L. K. Lawson, commander of the Canadian units in Hong Kong, has been killed in action, National Defense Headquarters announced today. Canadian casualties in Hong Kong were described in the statement as “very heavy.” It was also announced that Col. Pat Hennessy of the military administrative staff in Hong Kong had been killed in action.
Chungking, China –
A Chinese military spokesman said today that the Japanese had concentrated 20,000 troops near Yokow, possibly for an attack to divert the Chinese offensive in the Kowloon-Canton area.
Chungking, China –
T. V. Soong, former Finance Minister and brother-in-law of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, was appointed Foreign Minister by the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) today. Soong, credited with having obtained vast financial and Lend-Lease aid for China in the United States in the past few years, succeeds Quo Tai-chi, former Ambassador in London, who received another post.
San Salvador, El Salvador –
The government today ordered the arrest of all German and Italian nationals in the country.
London, England –
With British planes, catapulted from ships, playing a leading part in convoy protection, Atlantic shipping losses have continued at low levels in recent weeks, reliable quarters said today. The U.S. Navy, it was disclosed, is cooperating closely with the British in developing catapult-plane protection for Allied shipping.
Hollywood, California –
Radio Tokyo, as heard by the NBC listening post here, broadcast a report that Chiang Kai-shek is sending a strong Chinese army from Yunnan Province into Burma to strengthen the British defenses in that area.
Stockholm, Sweden –
The Finnish newspaper Suomen Sosiaalidemokraatit said today that “direct starvation is threatening Finnish cities.” Other Finnish newspapers reaching here similarly mentioned “disastrous undernourishment” and said that rations had reached their minimum limit.
Stockholm, Sweden –
Swedish newspapers today continued to publish reports of unrest in territory under German occupation. The Dagens Nyheter reported from Berlin that attempts had been made to dynamite military buildings in Brussels, causing heavy military damage. Three Brussels power plants were also reported damaged by explosions.
Rome, Italy – (German broadcast recorded in New York)
Gen. Giulio Borsarelli di Rifreddo of the Italian Army was reported today to have died from wounds suffered while leading the Trento Division in action in Libya. He was the seventh Italian general killed in combat.
Honolulu, Hawaii –
President Roosevelt’s commission to investigate the Pearl Harbor attack arrived today. Justice Owen J. Roberts, chairman of the commission, said that owing to the nature of the inquiry, no statement will be issued “at this time.”
London, England –
British sources said today that no British aircraft carrier has been attacked by a Nazi submarine, and denied the claim of the German High Command that a British carrier has been torpedoed and sunk.
Berlin, Germany – (official German radio)
Adolf Hitler today decreed the death penalty for any person in Germany or occupied territory profiteering in connection with the collection of winter clothes for the German Army.
London, England –
British bombers last night attacked the German naval and submarine base at Wilhelmshaven. All planes returned.
Batavia, NEI –
Dutch planes operating with U.S. planes near Davao in the southern Philippines have bombed and set ablaze a 10,000-ton Japanese tanker, a Dutch communiqué said today. A direct hit was scored.
London, England –
The official Dutch news agency Aneta reported from Lisbon today that four Dutch citizens had been executed by German troops in the Netherlands for assisting British fliers. The executions were the first in Holland since September when five Dutchmen were ordered shot for having “assisted downed British aviators,” the agency said.
Berlin, Germany – (official broadcast)
German bombers damaged a Russian vessel off the Crimean naval base of Sevastopol, sank a medium-sized merchantman east of Fisherman’s Peninsula off the northern coast of Finland and damaged another merchant vessel in Kola Bay off Northern Finland, the High Command said today.
Hawaii, invisible by night, militarized by day, becomes ‘frontline’ of U.S. defense
By Robert J. Casey
On the heels of his epic coverage of America’s chain of air bases in Alaska, Robert J. Casey is now in Hawaii to report American conduct of the war against Japan from that Pacific outpost.
Honolulu, Hawaii – (Dec. 21, delayed)
Some 2,500 funerals are finished. Temporarily at least, there seems to be an end to murder in paradise. And, visiting skeptics are pleased to report, this frontline outpost of the United States is getting on with the war.
Since the ghastly morning of Dec. 7, one gets to this place only with difficulty. Thereafter one circulates with even greater difficulty about this strangest and most tragically indescribable battleground that the spread of the Nazi idea and the rising ambitions of the Honorable Son of Heaven have produced.
As one might expect in a region where peace has been a habit and of a people who, like their relatives on the mainland, governed their lives on the principle “they can’t do that to us,” the business of civil defenses has been crammed into the public craw with palliatives. When you are prepared in advance for trouble, you may contrive to hold out a few of your individual rights. When you have not bothered to prepare, you find our personal privileges, if any, blacked out by the general need of the community.
Invisible by night
And – you go to bed at 7 o’clock at night in a room as dark as a black cat – it is no solace to think that things might have been different if you had learned anything from what you read in the newspapers about places like Rotterdam and London and Crete.
This, my friends, is the most completely militarized civil community by day and the most nearly invisible by night that you will find anywhere among the warring nations of the world.
It took England more than a year to educate the home folks in the belief that the war was going to be of any importance in their lives. France never got around to it before the Germans came in. Honolulu, on the other hand, was convinced in a matter of hours. And even if you don’t know anything about Hawaii except what you’ve seen in the cinema, that should be startling.
What a change
As recently as two weeks ago, this was still a land of dolce far niente where Hollywood beauties sunned themselves on the terraces of swank hotels and honey-voiced ukulele players serenaded sentimental old ladies on the moonlit beach and ornamental native girls slunk about with gardenias in their hair and wreaths of ginger blossom about their necks. Song drifted over the waters on the languorous breezes far into the perfumed night.
Today this is a place where – because of government requisition – you can’t buy drugs over the prescription counter, or photo film in a camera store, a place where you have to get a permit from the Army to buy a radio set.
Movie houses play only matinee performances. Stores close early afternoon. The lazy life of the decorative beaches is finished unless it can be compressed between daylight and 6 o’clock in the afternoon.
Switches pulled
The sun goes down at 6 o’clock and then, with the abruptness of the tropics, it is night, the main supply switches are pulled in all hotels, clubs and apartment buildings. There are no streetlights – not even crossing markers. Buses, streetcars and taxicabs quit running. And that is not all: in this most complete of all blackouts, no civilian may walk abroad without the risk of being shot. The curfew is just as strict as the blackout and just as effective.
A few hotels have lighted lobbies where male guests, unable to go to sleep at 6 or 7 o’clock, sit about reading old magazines, and women, the diehard remnants of the winter colony, do their endless knitting.
All bars and liquor stores in town are closed as tightly as Yokohama Specie Bank, and this time prohibition really works. You can’t buy a flashlight or a flashlight battery anywhere in town and even if you aren’t allowed to wander about the darkened streets, this shortage is serious. You have to have some sort of torch to find your room in the hotel.
Fifth column responsible
The strict rules governing the circulation of civilians after nightfall have derived, of course, from the activities of the large and healthy fifth column that flourished here under the protective coloration of one of the largest Japanese populations in the world outside Japan.
The problem of dealing with these nationals has been made more difficult by the fact that there are so many American-born citizens of Japanese extraction. Some of these are passionately loyal. Some aren’t. And nobody seems to know which is which.
This has resulted in a definite attempt to treat enemy aliens here with consideration – not to say kindness. An Army order issued yesterday (Saturday) announces, “Such people are not criminals.”
Jap stores still open
Japanese stores are still running in Honolulu and elsewhere on the islands just as they always did with the possible exception that they can no longer do business with Japanese banks. And this, despite the widespread belief hereabouts that many of the raiding airmen who took part in the Pearl Harbor massacre were graduates of local high schools.
It is even more surprising that the extent and quality of the blackout and the effectiveness of the military supervision of what passes for normal civil life is the reaction of a people suddenly and completely subjected to this almost intolerable regime. They have recovered from their first shocked surprise at the discovery that U.S. territory was not protected by some mysterious hocus-pocus against armed invasion and that a so-called civilized power is not necessarily debarred from committing mass murder while suing for peace.
The jitters one might have expected do not show in any of the activities of the people, including Christmas shopping. But they are definitely wary, not to say uneasy.
It can happen again
They are completely convinced that an attack so unscrupulously conceived and so cold-bloodedly executed as that of Dec. 7 may well be attempted again. And this time, they place little credence in the theory that the Japanese will recognize the hopelessness of a major operation on this side of the Pacific.
If the bombers come, the populace now knows that it will be bombed without warning as it was bombed before, for these are no stretches of land – such as the approaches to London – over which the invader must fly before he suddenly bursts out of the clouds over Diamond Head.
Washington –
Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles will represent the United States at the Rio de Janeiro consultation of American foreign ministers next month, the State Department said today.
Strike of welders ‘fizzles’ following rebukes
San Francisco, California (UP) –
The Army withdrew soldiers from outside four shipyards today, indicating that it believed a strike, which could have threatened the construction of merchant ships vital to the war effort, had fizzled.
Meanwhile, thousands of AFL shipyard and defense plant workers marched through picket lines without incident. Plant management spokesmen said there was no interruption of work on building naval and commercial ships and producing other armament and defense supplies.
The troops had been called out to see that workmen, particularly welders, who wished to work despite the strike of the unaffiliated Brotherhood of Welders, Cutters and Burners were not intimidated by the brotherhood’s pickets.
The Army statement, announcing the withdrawal of troops, said:
They are available for further duty at the plants if the need for them arises.
The strike is strictly jurisdictional. The welders seek to compel the AFL to grant them a charter for an autonomous union. The boilermakers and other AFL unions now have jurisdiction over them.
Sidney Hillman, associate director of the Office of Production Management, who settled a similar jurisdictional strike of welders four months ago, accused the strikers of betraying their country. He said:
When American ships are being sunk and enemy ships lurk off our shores, the strike of some welders in West Coast shipyards is a shocking act of disloyalty to the nation.
The Office of Emergency Management said that of the 8,000 welders employed in the four yards, only 495 responded to the strike call and the plants were operating about normally. Welding is a vital process in shipbuilding and an effective strike of welders could eventually close the yards. The yards are building $1 billion worth of merchant ships for the United States and Great Britain.
Anthony Ballarini, president of the California State Metal Trades Council (AFL), ordered AFL members to go through the picket lines. Ralph Sheafe, spokesman for the welders’ union, professed to regret the withdrawal of troops, saying the picket lines, not the non-striking workers, needed protection. He was afraid “some heads would be broken” when the AFL men went through the lines.
MacArthur: Japs fail to gain in 48 hours
By Frank Hewlett, United Press staff writer
The Philippines battlefront
The main battle in the Philippines raged today near Lingayen on Luzon Island. The squared area on the map above is shown in detail in the inset map. Other battles were fought at Vigan and Aparri north of the squared area.Three Jap troopships were reported sunk in Lingayen Gulf. Two landings were frustrated near San Fabian, but the Japs landed near Agoo and moved south. The principal fighting area is on the coast near Santo Tomas and near San Fernando.
Manila, Philippines –
Jungle-toughened U.S. and Filipino troops fought on even terms or better today against a massive Japanese attack on Luzon Island and unofficial reports said at least three Japanese transports, crammed with thousands of invaders, have been sunk in Lingayen Gulf.
The Japanese attackers used airpower in an attempt to ease terrific American pressure on their beachheads along the Lingayen coast 135-150 miles north of Manila.
But Gen. Douglas MacArthur, U.S. generalissimo, reported tersely that the Japanese have failed to better their position nearly 48 hours of the fiercest land combat the Philippines have yet seen.
American tanks and American artillery battered the Japanese divisions – an estimated six to eight are involved in the attack – and newspaper reports said at least three of the 80-odd transports which appeared in the Lingayen Gulf have been sent to the bottom.
Three Japanese transports might carry 3,000-5,000 troops. The 80 transports were estimated to have aboard 80,000-100,000 troops.
A communiqué of Far Eastern Army headquarters indicated that invasion fronts were blazing throughout northern Luzon Island as the Japanese, developing their landing on the gulf coast 110 miles north of the capital, also attacked in the Vigan and Aparri areas.
All remaining infantry, artillery and engineer corps officers were called to colors for immediate active duty today as the combined U.S.-Philippine armies girded for the most savage Japanese attack of the Pacific War. The Far Eastern headquarters communiqué said:
Very heavy fighting is going on in the northern front.
It reported intensified Jap bombing activity and said that eight Japanese planes had been shot down in recent days by three pilots, one a Filipino, the others American.
Lt. Jose Kare, on reconnaissance, shot down a Japanese fighter. Maj. Emmett O’Donnell Jr. of New York City shot down four and Lt. Jack Adams and his crew shot down three.
Many places bombed
An earlier communiqué had said that principal fighting had taken place yesterday near Santo Tomas, in La Union Province on the Lingayen Gulf coast and that latest reports indicated the U.S.-Philippine forces were holding positions north of Damortis at the north end of the bend on the coast.
An Army spokesman, developing this communiqué, said Jap planes had been most active throughout Monday and many places had been bombed. Jap planes also supported ground troops in invasion areas.
The spokesman, commenting on the general situation, said it was too early to determine the exact status of fighting.
War Department Communiqué No. 24 issued in Washington today said that U.S. and Filipino troops have scored “some initial successes” in the great battle of the Philippines 150 miles north of Manila, but Japanese landing operations are continuing, “supported by increasing numbers of bombing and attack planes.”
Scene of the major engagement is Santo Tomas, which lies between Agoo and San Fernando on the east coast of Lingayen Gulf, where the Japanese have sought to land an estimated 80,000-100,000 troops from 80 troopships.
The communiqué also reported continuation of fierce fighting in Davao, in Mindanao, southern island of the Philippine Archipelago, where a large number of Jap immigrants gained a foothold years ago.
Three Jap transports destroyed
Manila had a 25-minute air-raid alarm and a 33-minute alarm, but no Jap planes appeared over the city.
A dispatch to the newspaper Taliba said three Japanese transports were destroyed by coastal defense guns while trying to approach San Fabian.
Other dispatches reported that artillery was effectively shelling Japanese transports off Agoo, to the north.
These dispatches said that ten or more transports were seen off Agoo yesterday but that no landings were reported.
These reports fitted the War Department communiqué last night reporting the repulse of two landing attempts near San Fabian.
U.S. and Philippine defense reinforcements were moving into the Lingayen lines to support the troops under Maj. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright, commanding the central Luzon forces.
It was indicated that fighting was steadily intensifying in fury and broadening in scope. Dispatches reported heavy Jap air raids on San Fabian, Lingayen and Dagupan.
Reporter at front phones in story amid roar of bombs as Jap barges scrape onto Philippine beaches
By Franz Weisblatt, United Press staff writer
On the Lingayen front, Philippines – (by telephone to Manila)
American planes and tanks are blasting at the Japanese invaders only a quarter of a mile from the spot from which I am telephoning this first dispatch from the Philippine fighting front back to Manila.
Overhead I can hear the drone of Japanese planes trying to attack the strong forces which Gen. Douglas MacArthur has assembled on the first big land front of the Philippines.
The Americans are defending a line in the vicinity of Santo Tomas against the attack of Japanese forces landing between Agoo and San Fernando slightly to the north.
As I am telephoning this dispatch, I can hear the roar of battle from the nearby fields where the fighting is underway.
We have tanks here and tough, seasoned Army forces – both American and Filipino. Their morale is high and they are meeting the enemy eagerly.
The Japanese, after getting ashore in 150-man barges from their transports off Lingayen Gulf, infiltrated this area, I learned, evidently guided by someone who knows this territory well.
The battle along this line started yesterday and our forces gave a good account of themselves.
Only two hours ago, Japanese planes attacked a village near this point. Their bombs killed some civilians and wounded others.
As I made my way up to the front from Manila, I watched one Japanese bombing attack less than half a mile away. The planes were blasting at a nearby American fort from an altitude of 25,000 feet.
Second wave
One wave of Jap bombers, the Rising Sun emblem gleaning on their wings, came over to attack. A second wave of six bombers appeared 15 minutes later.
The Jap attack was useless, however. Their bomb salvoes landed in the vicinity of an airfield, but I could see that none of them hit the landing field itself.
American ground defenses at the airdromes defending the Philippines are increasingly effective. One Air Corps officer told me that in the first seven days of the war, the batteries at one field alone accounted for at least 14 Jap attackers.
Farmers stay in fields
As I made my way northward, I saw Filipino farmers in their fields. They were working calmly, harvesting their crops and carrying out their planting as though there was no war within 1,000 miles of them.
In the fighting, Col. Salvador Reyes, a divisional chief of staff, was wounded slightly. However, he is remaining at his post.
The American tank forces on this front have been training in this very sector for months. They are a rugged lot of men who know their business and know the terrain of Lingayen as well as their own backyards. They have high confidence in their machines.
Tank downs bomber
I was told that during a Japanese attack on one Philippine airfield, four tanks moved out onto the landing ground, and opened fire at a low-flying Japanese bomber, downing it.
Japanese planes then strafed the tanks for half an hour, peppering them with machine-gun fire without injuring the tanks. The Japanese bullets, apparently .50 caliber, bounced off the steel hide of the tanks like hail.
Washington –
The Senate today passed by unanimous voice vote a bill to authorize creation of militia forces in Alaska. Chairman Robert R. Reynolds (D-NC) of the Military Affairs Committee said the measure was needed to provide forces for guarding important defense facilities and plants in the territories.
Washington –
The Navy Hydrographic Office warned today that the approaches to Boston Harbor have been mined.
Chungking, China (UP) – (Dec. 21, delayed)
A high government spokesman at Kunming, Yunnan Province, terminus of China’s supply road from Burma, today described U.S. volunteer airmen who shot down four Japanese bombers as “the most efficient combat group in the world today.”
The American volunteers, he said, fought off Japanese planes making their first attempt to bomb the Burma Road since the start of the Pacific War. He said:
They downed four fast, heavy bombers without scratching a single defender and prevented hundreds of deaths in Kunming. Their greatest desire, it seems, is to have more Japanese call on us.
Tokyo, Japan (UP) – (official broadcasts)
Imperial Headquarters said today that Japanese troops have been in complete occupation of Davao on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines since Saturday.
Headquarters said the Japanese occupied Davao the same day they landed. Naval units were reported cooperating closely in southern Philippine operations where enemy casualties up to Sunday included 200 killed and 600 prisoners.
The Japanese admitted that the British garrison in Hong Kong was still withstanding terrific aerial and artillery onslaughts, but said slashing attacks were crushing its resistance.
Advance in western Malaya
Japanese news agency reports from Indochina said the Japanese had advanced in western Malaya to within 15 miles of Ipoh, an important mining and communications center.
A German broadcast said that in Northwest Malaya, the British were retreating from positions at Perak and that Japanese reinforcements were moving by bus down the Perak Valley.
German reports also quoted the Japanese newspaper Nichi Nichi as saying that in fighting at Hong Kong yesterday, the Japanese took 714 prisoners, most of them Canadians and Indians.
Japanese forces were said to be attacking “the last British strongholds in Hong Kong.” At Mt. Cameron, located near the center of the island, the capture of a semi-permanent fort was claimed in a fierce attack which began last midnight.
The sea and air surrounding the island were said to be in complete Japanese control.
Premier Hideki Tōjō, in his capacity as War Minister, and Navy Minister Shigetarō Shimada gave detailed reports on the first two weeks of the war at today’s regular cabinet meeting.
Radio Berlin, recounting the fortnight’s hostilities, said some 50 enemy warships and 425 merchant vessels and other ships of all tonnages have been either seized, sunk or severely damaged by the Japanese. It said 776 enemy aircraft had been shot down and destroyed on the ground.
Japan’s losses, the German radio said, quoting Dōmei News Agency, were: one destroyer and a minesweeper sunk, one light cruiser and minesweeper heavily damaged, 75 aircraft lost and five submarines unreported.
Japanese propaganda claimed that “the American and British plan to blockade Japan has been knocked into a cocked hat,” and said the Navy was now in position to counter-blockade all those countries. Early successes have cut off rubber supplies from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies to Britain and the United States.
Radio Berlin said the Japanese had taken over oil wells intact in Borneo. Natives, who hindered British efforts to destroy the wells, “offered their services at once to Japan,” it said.
Dōmei announced that Japanese troops advancing down the Malay Peninsula were now 15 miles northwest of Ipoh, on the east coast, nearly 300 miles north of Singapore. It pointed out that the fall of Ipoh would open a modern road leading to the British stronghold.
Washington (UP) –
Japanese forces have effected a landing at Wake Island in the mid-Pacific, official advices said today.
The Navy disclosed the Wake landing in Communiqué No. 16, which said that several enemy planes were shot down when the garrison beat off a strong air attack Sunday afternoon – Dec. 22. The landing was effected Monday Wake Time (Tuesday morning ET).
The communiqué contained no reference to the fate of the heroic Marine defenders of the tiny island stepping-stone or whether they were successful in preventing the invaders from overrunning the island.
The Marine garrison’s defense of Wake against repeated bombing attacks has been the object of widespread praise. Observers predict that the defense of the island – hundreds of miles from any other U.S. base and apparently beyond the reach of succor – will go down in history.
The garrison was credited with having destroyed a Japanese light cruiser and destroyer during the first four attacks.
Today’s communiqué said of Wake:
Wake Island sustained another strong air attack in the forenoon of the 22nd. Several enemy planes were shot down. An enemy force effected a landing on Wake the morning of the 23rd.
A good way to describe what happend. 
Unidentified sub attacks oil tanker, which is able to make dock 50 miles away
San Francisco, California (UP) –
12th Naval District headquarters announced today an unidentified submarine shelled the Richfield tanker Larry Doheny off Estero Bay today.
The submarine, presumably Japanese, did not sink the Doheny – which was able to dock at Estero Bay.
50 miles off coast
The attack on the Doheny was 50 miles north of Point Arguello where a submarine shelled the Standard Oil tanker H. M. Storey yesterday morning.
Army and Navy bombers may have sunk two of the Japanese submarines preying on coastwise shipping within sight of the California shore, witnesses indicated today.
Seamen who survived the attacks on four unarmed, unprotected ships and a resident who watched one of the attacks from her coastal home, revealed that in two instances, the bombers who answered pleas for help arrived while the submarines were still in the vicinity and that, in both cases, their depth bombs produced terrific explosions, indicating that perhaps they had found their mark.
Army, Navy silent
The Navy and Army, however, kept mum on their activities and gave out no information regarding possible success of their night-and-day hunt for the submarines which approached within two miles of shore to attack American vessels.
They failed to sink any but severely damaged the tanker Emidio, killed five of its seamen and injured five.
The survivors said two Army bombing planes were overheard 10 minutes after the ship issued its first SOS as it was 20 miles off Cape Mendocino, California, Saturday.
Depth charge dropped
They said:
The submarine must have heard or seen them for it ceased firing and submerged. One of the planes flew over the spot and dropped a depth charge. The planes wheeled and came back and one of them dropped another depth charge. That produced another explosion but we couldn’t tell whether the charge hit the submarine.
Besides the 6,912-ton General Petroleum tanker Emidio and the 9,838-ton Storey, the attacked ships were the 6,771-ton Richfield Oil tanker SS Agwiworld and the 1,172-ton lumber carrier SS Samoa.
All the attacks were similar. The submarines were first sighted operating on the surface. From point-blank range, they shelled the vessels but missed in all cases except that of the Emidio. Then they submerged and fired torpedoes, which also missed all vessels except the Emidio.
Three lost in shelling
Three seamen were lost when the Japanese submarine shelled the Emidio’s lifeboats as they were launched over the side, spilling the crew members into the sea. Two were killed in the engine room by the enemy torpedo.
A Navy communiqué from Washington set the number of men missing from the Emidio at 22.
The survivors reported that the Emidio was running south Saturday afternoon en route from Seattle to San Francisco when crew members sighted a submarine on the surface about a quarter of a mile away. They reported:
As we watched, it began approaching us swiftly. Then it opened fire. One of the first shots struck the radio antenna and carried it away. Other shots struck lifeboats which were in their slings on deck.
Other sinkings announced
The captain ordered us to take to the lifeboats. Three of the crew were attempting to launch one boat when a shell struck it, spilling them into the water. Other lifeboats were put over the side to search for the three missing men.
Before the antenna had been snapped, Sparks [the radio operator] managed to get out an SOS.
The Navy also announced the sinking by a Japanese submarine of the freighter Lahaina Dec. 11 near Hawaii with the loss of two lives.
Bases for British nearly completed by Navy
By Helen Kirkpatrick
Londonderry, Northern Ireland – (Dec. 22, delayed)
Northern Ireland bases being constructed for Britain by American technicians under the supervision of the U.S. Navy are nearly completed. The work is proceeding seven days a week.
The presence of many hundreds of Americans in and around Londonderry would be hard to miss. Getting off the train, the first sign seen is “American tenders” pointing to the docks. Chevrolet and Ford station wagons with left-hand drives whirl through the streets of this small northern port. Men in unmistakably American clothes can be seen in stores and restaurants and even the newspapers advertise “American-type lumber jackets.”
And that is about all you will see. If the Russians are right, and secrecy is one of the war’s most important weapons, the United States possesses that weapon in its naval personnel.
They won’t even talk to correspondents with the best credentials from Navy officers in the U.S. Embassy in London. And the Navy has inspired the American workmen with the same respect for silence.
As work on some bases nears completion, workmen are being moved to other bases where work is not so far advanced. Others, their work finished, have left for the United States. Some asked to be allowed to go home to enlist but the majority are skilled engineers and over enlistment age.
On Saturday, 8,000 Londonderry children were given a Christmas party by the American technicians. A U.S. welfare organization arranged a movie party at which Santa Claus gave each child a bag of American candy. The children at one movie house sang the Star-Spangled Banner and gave three cheers for their American hosts.
By Ruth Millett
Before she decides to become a war bride, there are two questions every girl ought to ask herself.
The first is:
Am I old enough to undertake a marriage that has less than an average chance of working out?
Actual age is important, but not as important as how mature a girl is in her thinking. If she is so young, she will quickly resent the status of being a married woman without a husband and wish that she were free to have a good time, then she’s much too young to be marrying in wartime.
She’s too young, also, if she is going to be a burden to the young man she marries. She’ll be a burden to him if he has to worry about her ability to take care of herself, or if she tries to make him miserable over having to put his country ahead of her temporary happiness.
The other question is:
Would I marry this man right now if there were no war?
That question will take some thinking. But if a girl has to admit to herself that she might not jump at the chance to marry her young man if she knew he would be sticking around until she was good and ready to settle down, then she shouldn’t let war rush her into marriage.
Because in war or peacetime, a girl is taking too big a chance if she marries a man for any reason except that she thinks that life without him won’t be worth living. It takes that much sureness to make even a comparatively safe foundation for a marriage.
If a girl is convinced she is mature enough to take on marriage under the least ideal of circumstances, and if she knows she would marry her young man tomorrow – war or no war – then she might as well become a war bride. She won’t be happy otherwise. And if anything should happen to her young man, she would never forgive herself for not having married him when she had a chance and snatching what little happiness she could.
Joint War Production Committees of Canada and the United States have unanimously adopted a declaration of policy calling for a combined all-out war production effort and the removal of any barriers standing in the way of such a combined effort. This declaration has met the approval of the Canadian War Cabinet. It has my full approval. To further its implementation, I have asked the affected departments and agencies in our government to abide by its letter and spirit, so far as lies within their power. I have further requested Mr. Milo Perkins, the Chairman of the American Committee, to investigate, with the aid of the Tariff Commission and other interested agencies, the extent to which legislative changes will be necessary to give full effect to the declaration.
Through brute force and enslavement, Hitler has secured a measure of integration and coordination of the productive resources of a large part of the continent of Europe. We must demonstrate that integration and coordination of the productive resources of the continent of America is possible through democratic processes and free consent.
Having regard to the fact that Canada and the United States are engaged in a war with common enemies, the Joint War Production Committee of Canada and the United States recommends to the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada the following statement of policy for the war production of the two countries.
Victory will require the maximum war production in both countries in the shortest possible time; speed and volume of war output, rather than monetary cost, are the primary objectives.
An all-out war production effort in both countries requires the maximum use of the labor, raw materials, and facilities in each country.
Achievement of maximum volume and speed of war output requires that the production and resources of both countries should be effectively integrated, and directed toward a common program of requirements for the total war effort.
Each country should produce those articles in an integrated program of requirements which will result in maximum joint output of war goods in the minimum time.
Scarce raw materials and goods which one country requires from the other in order to carry out the joint program of war production should be so allocated between the two countries that such materials and goods will make the maximum contribution toward the output of the most necessary articles in the shortest period of time.
Legislative and administrative barriers, including tariffs, import duties, customs and other regulations or restrictions of any character which prohibit, prevent, delay, or otherwise impede the free flow of necessary munitions and war supplies between the two countries should be suspended or otherwise eliminated for the duration of the war.
The two governments should take all measures necessary for the fullest implementation of the foregoing principles.
Members for Canada:
- G. K. Sheils, Chairman
- R. P. Bell
- H. J. Carmichael
- J. R. Donald
- W. L. Gordon
- H. R. MacMillan
Members for the U.S.:
- Milo Perkins, Chairman
- J. B. Forrestal
- W. H. Harrison
- R. P. Patterson
- E. R. Stettinius
- H. L. Vickery
U.S. War Department (December 24, 1941)
Philippine Theater.
The Commanding General, USAFFE, reports that fighting on the eastern shore of Lingayen Gulf is increasing in intensity. Japanese invaders are using light tanks in vigorous attacks south of Agoo.
Enemy airplanes have been particularly active in supporting landings and shore operations.
U.S. bombing planes attacked several enemy troopships off Davao with undetermined results.
There is nothing to report from other areas.
Philippine Theater.
During the night, the enemy landed in heavy force in the vicinity of Atimonan, 75 miles southeast of Manila, on the island of Luzon. The Japanese troops in this region are debarking from approximately 40 transports.
Several enemy troopships have appeared off Batangas, south of Manila, indicating the probability of an attempted landing in that region.
Heavy fighting continues in the area of Lingayen Gulf where the enemy is exerting great pressure. U.S. and Filipino troops, though greatly outnumbered, are stubbornly resisting attacks.
Enemy air activity has been intense during the past 24 hours, with several raids over Manila and the port area.
There is nothing to report from other areas.
Philippine Theater.
The Commanding General, USAFFE, reports that Japanese troops today landed in two additional areas on the island of Luzon.
One landing was accomplished near Mauban, about 30 miles north of Atimonan, where troops landed last night.
The other landing was effected near Nasugbu in Batangas Province, on the west side of Luzon, 50 miles southwest of Manila.
The size of these forces has not yet been determined.
Beachheads previously seized by the invaders are being rapidly enlarged as landing forces are augmented.
Heavy fighting continues near the Lingayen Gulf where the main invasion effort is being made.
Although the Philippine troops are greatly outnumbered, they are offering stiff resistance to the Japanese forces in a series of delaying actions.
It is estimated that at least 100 enemy transports, in several convoys, are now in waters around the Philippine Islands. Each of these fleets of troopships is accompanied by strong naval and air escort.
Intense enemy air activity continues in the Manila area. Consideration is being given to the withdrawal of the commonwealth government and military forces from Manila. This would make it possible to declare Manila an open city and spare the civilian residents unnecessary casualties from aerial bombardment.
There is nothing to report from other areas.
U.S. Navy Department (December 24, 1941)
Atlantic Theater.
There are no new developments to report.
Eastern Pacific.
The SS LARRY DOHENY was shelled by an enemy submarine, but reached port safely. Press reports of the sinking of the SS MONTEBELLO are confirmed.
Central Pacific.
Radio communication with Wake has been severed and the capture of the island is probable. Two enemy destroyers were lost in the final landing operations.
Palmyra Island was shelled by an enemy submarine. Damage was negligible. There were no casualties. Johnston Island was also shelled by an enemy submarine with no damage to material and no casualties resulting.
The Hawaiian area was quiet.
Far East.
There are no new developments to report.
