Boro film premiere is tribute to Norway
4,000 throng theater at opening here – hear notables praise Norse spirit
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Editorial: Lincoln’s words inspire U.S. today as in every crisis
There in spirit to consecrate
Americans today, with their constantly deepening affection for the personality of Abraham Lincoln, would be heartened by the certain knowledge that their course and their conduct in a time of national crisis met with the approval of this most appealing character in the history of their country.
It does not seem presumptuous, in view of all that is known of Lincoln, as revealed principally by his own words, to conclude that this generation of Americans shares with him his faith “that right makes might,” that it is animated by “fairness in the right, as God gives us to see the right,” and that it still retains that “patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people” that he considered as essential to the preservation of democracy.
It is more than three-quarters of a century now since Lincoln died. Yet today he still speaks eloquently to those who would maintain the democratic way of life, who would place their trust in the collective wisdom and decency of the people and who hold fast to the faith that he had in the indomitable power of a nation under God dedicated to a birth of freedom. As a people, we have had that faith in the past. Happily, there is abundant evidence in the tragic and the glorious record of this last year to prove that we have it now.
No anniversary is more welcome – none comes to the American people with a more inspiring and reviving touch – than the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. This is particularly true when the nation is deep in crisis, as it is today. The reasons for Lincoln’s hold on the friendly interest and the admiration of Americans are readily apparent. He was essentially a kindly man and bitter experiences had made him understanding and tolerant of human frailty.
He knew poverty and hardship. He knew personal disappointment and unhappiness. He knew defeat. The record of lost battles from Bull Run, which was attended by the element of disgrace, to Cold Harbor would in itself have been sufficient to bring despair. He knew incompetence and treachery and venality. But he had unfaltering faith in America and in the justice of its cause and, in the end, this faith was sustained.
In the present crisis, America has not been spared the consequences of mistakes, of lack of vision, of complacency. But there has been no failure of courage, no yielding to the temptation to compromise with principles, to put aside ideals and to follow an easier road than that which has been chosen. This nation, facing the necessity of expending blood and wealth, has been true to its traditions.
Lincoln, if he were on the scene today, would be satisfied that Americans are still willing to fight and to suffer for the translation into reality of the old dream of peace and brotherhood and freedom. He would not ask for perfection, realizing that he had made his own share of mistakes and that there had been blunderers all around him. He would ask that in this dark hour there be faith and courage and determination. And with these he would be satisfied.
Editorial: The warrior code
The Japanese warrior code forbids surrender. The soldier must never give up. He must die. Yet our soldiers at Guadalcanal report that the Jap soldiers are beginning to drift in as prisoners. Pvt. Hasamoto, 23, said his adherence to the warrior code dissolved when his daily ration dwindled to a three-tenths of a pint of rice and a bit of soybean meal; when his 200-man outfit dwindled to 26; when the promised artillery support failed to appear.
It is one thing to throw his life away when the soldier feels that something will be accomplished by the sacrifice. When the sacrifice will clearly avail nothing, it begins to take on another shape. The Germans, too, are taught not to surrender but when all hope was gone at Stalingrad the last survivors gave up. The Japs don’t think the way we do but they are human. There will be more Pvt. Hasamotos.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 12, 1943)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
A forward airdrome in French North Africa – (Feb. 10)
Lt. Jack Ilfrey is the leading American ace in North Africa at the moment. However, that’s not my reason for writing about him.
In the first place, the theory over here is not to become an individual fighter and shoot down a lot of planes, so being an ace doesn’t mean so much. In the second place, somebody else might be ahead of Ilfrey by this evening, with fate pulling the strings the way she does.
So, I’m writing about him largely because he is a fine person and more or less typical of all boys who fly our deadly fighters.
Jack Ilfrey is from Houston. His father is cashier of the First National Bank. His family home is at 3122 Robinhood Street. Jack is only 22. He has two younger sisters. He went to Texas A&M for two years, and then to the University of Houston, working at the same time for the Hughes Tool Company. He will soon have been in the Army two years.
It is hard to conceive of his ever having killed anybody. For he looks even younger than his 22 years. His face is good-humored. His darkish hair is childishly uncontrollable and pops up into a little curlicue at the front of his head. He talks fast, but his voice is soft and he has a very slight hesitation in his speech that somehow seems to make him a gentle and harmless person.
There is not the least trace of the smart aleck or wise guy about him. He is wholly thoughtful and sincere. Yet he mows ‘em down.
Here in Africa, Ilfrey has been through the mill. He got two Focke-Wulf 190s one day, two Messerschmitt 109s another day. His fifth victory was over a twin-motored Messerschmitt 110, which carries three men. And he has another kill that has not yet been confirmed.
He hasn’t had all smooth sailing by any means. In fact, he’s very lucky to be here at all. He got caught in a trap one day and came home with 268 bullet holes in his plane. His armor plate stopped at least a dozen that would have killed him.
Jack’s closest shave, however, wasn’t from being shot at. It happened one day when he saw a German fighter duck into a cloud. Jack figured the German would emerge at the far end of the cloud, so he scooted along below to where he thought the German would pop out, and pop out he did – right smack into him, almost.
They both kicked rudder violently, and they missed practically by inches. Neither man fired a shot, they were so busy getting out of each other’s way. Jack says he was weak for an hour afterward.
There is nothing “heroic” about Lt. Ilfrey. He isn’t afraid to run when that is the only thing to do.
He was telling about getting caught all alone one day at a low altitude. Two Germans got on his tail.
He says:
I just had two chances. Either stay and fight, and almost surely get shot down, or pour on everything I had and try to get away. I ran a chance of burning up my engine and having to land in enemy territory, but I got away. Luckily the engine stood up.
Ilfrey, like all the others here, has little in the way of entertainment and personal pleasure. I walked into his room late one afternoon, after he had come back from a mission, and found him sitting there at a table, all alone, killing flies with a folded newspaper.
And yet they say being an ace is romantic.
President Roosevelt’s address to the White House Correspondents’ Association
February 12, 1943, 9:30 p.m. EWT
Broadcast audio:
It is nearly two years since I attended the last dinner of our White House Correspondents’ Association. A great deal of water has flowed over the dam since then.
And several people have flown over the water.
Two years ago – many months before Pearl Harbor – I spoke to you of the thought that was then uppermost in our minds – of the determination of America to become the arsenal of democracy. Almost all Americans had by that time determined to play their full part in helping to save civilization from the barbarians. Even then, we were in the midst of the historic job of production – a job which the American people have been performing with zest and skill and, above all, with success.
Tonight, as I speak to you, we are in the war, and another thought is uppermost in our minds. That is our determination to fight this war through to the finish – to the day when United Nations forces march in triumph through the streets of Berlin, and Rome, and Tokyo.
Last September, as some of our publisher friends here tonight knew at the time, I made a tour of inspection through this country. I saw war plants at work. I saw Army and Navy training camps and flying fields. I saw American men and women – management and labor alike – working with the objective of beating production schedules. I saw American soldiers and sailors and fliers doing the job of training for the fighting that lay ahead.
Now I have returned from one of the fronts overseas, where the production from American factories and the training given in American camps are being applied in actual warfare against the enemy. I have seen our troops in the field. I have inspected their superb equipment. I have talked and laughed and eaten with them.
I have seen our men – the nation’s men – in Trinidad, in Belem and Natal in Brazil, in Liberia, in Gambia. We must remember that in these places there is no actual fighting, but there is hard, dangerous, essential work, and there is a tremendous strain on the endurance and the spirit of our troops. They are standing up magnificently under that strain. And I want them to know that we have not forgotten them.
I have seen our men – and some of our American women – in North Africa. Out there it is war. Those men know that before this war is over, many of them will have given their lives to their nation. But they know also that they are fighting to destroy the power of the enemies of this country, that they are fighting for a peace that will be a real and lasting peace and a far better world for the future.
Our men in the field are worthy of the great faith, the high hopes that we have placed in them. That applies as well to the men of our Navy, without whom no American expeditionary force could land safely on foreign shores. And it applies equally to the men of our merchant marine who carry the essential munitions and supplies, without which neither the United States nor our allies could continue the battle.
No American can look at these men, soldiers or sailors, without a very great emotion and great pride – and a deep sense of our responsibility to them.
Because of the necessary secrecy of my trip, the men of our Armed Forces in every place I visited were completely surprised. And the expression on their faces certainly proved that.
I wish that I could pay similar surprise visits to our men in the other fields of operations. And don’t let anybody assume, because I have said that, that next month I am flying to Guadalcanal. But I wish I could see our men, and our naval bases, and the islands of the Pacific, and Australia, on the mainland and the islands of Alaska, the islands of the Atlantic, the two Guianas, the Canal Zone, Iceland, Britain, Central Africa, the Middle East, India, Burma, and China. I wish I could tell them face to face that their government and their people are very proud of the great job that they are doing, in helping to strengthen the vise that is slowly but surely squeezing the breath out of our enemies.
In every battalion, and in every ship’s crew, you will find every kind of American citizen representing every occupation, every section, every origin, every religion, and every political viewpoint.
Ask them what they are fighting for, and every one of them will say, “I am fighting for my country.” Ask them what they really mean by that, and you will get what on the surface may seem to be a wide variety of answers.
One will say that he is fighting for the right to say what he pleases, and to read and listen to what he likes.
Another will say he is fighting because he never wants to see the Nazi swastika flying over the old First Baptist Church on Elm Street.
Another soldier will say that he is fighting for the right to work, and to earn three square meals a day for himself and his folks.
And another one will say that he is fighting in this world war so that his children and his grandchildren will not have to go back to Europe, or Africa, or Asia, or the Solomon Islands, to do this ugly job all over again.
But all these answers really add up to the same thing; every American is fighting for freedom. And today the personal freedom of every American and his family depends, and in the future will increasingly depend, upon the freedom of his neighbors in other lands.
For today the more you travel, the more you realize that the whole world is one neighborhood. That is why this war that had its beginnings in seemingly remote areas – China – Poland – has spread to every continent, and most of the islands of the sea, involving the lives and the liberties of the entire human race. And unless the peace that follows recognizes that the whole world is one neighborhood and does justice to the whole human race, the germs of another world war will remain as a constant threat to mankind.
Yes, I talked with many people in our Armed Forces, along the coast and through the islands of the Western Hemisphere, and up the coast of West Africa. Many of our soldiers and sailors were concerned about the state of the home front. They receive all kinds of exaggerated reports and rumors that there is too much complaining back here at home, and too little recognition of the realities of war; that selfish labor leaders are threatening to call strikes that would greatly curtail the output of our war industries; that some farm groups are trying to profiteer on prices, and are letting us down on food production; that many people are bitter over the hardships of rationing and priorities; and especially that there is serious partisan quarrel over the petty things of life here in our capital city of Washington, DC.
I told them that most of these reports are just gross exaggerations; that the people as a whole in the United States are in this war to see it through with heart and body and soul; and that our population is willing and glad to give up some of their shoes, and their sugar, and coffee, and automobile riding – and privileges and profits – for the sake of the common cause.
I could not truthfully deny to our troops that a few chiselers, a few politicians, and a few – to use a polite term – publicists – fortunately a very few – have placed their personal ambition or greed above the nation’s interests.
Our troops know that the Nazis and the fascists and the Japanese are trying hard to sell the untruths of propaganda to certain types of Americans. But our troops also know that even if you pile up a lot of molehills of deception one on top of the other, you still cannot make a mountain big enough, or high enough, or solid enough to fool many people, or to block the road to victory and to an effective peace.
I think a fundamental of an effective peace is the assurance to those men who are fighting our battles, that when they come home they will find a country with an economy firm enough and fair enough to provide jobs for all those who are willing to work.
I am certain that private enterprise will be able to provide the vast majority of those jobs, and in those cases where this cannot be accomplished that the Congress of the United States will pass the legislation that will make good the assurance of earning a living.
There are still a few men who say we cannot achieve this and other honorable, reasonable aims for the postwar period. And in speaking of those professional skeptics – those men of little faith -there comes to my mind an old word in our language – the word “petriloggers.”
The formal dictionary definition and derivation of the word are neither here nor there. To most of us “pettifogger” brings to mind a man who is small, mean and tricky, and picayune. In a word – petty. It is the type of man who is always seeking to create a smoke screen and fog, for the purpose of obscuring the plain truth. And you and I know some pettifoggers.
Today, those pettifoggers are attempting to obscure the essential truths of this war. They are seeking to befog the present and the future, and the clear purposes and the high principles for which the free world now maintains the promise of undimmed victory.
To use one example, in a small sector of the world’s surface in North Africa – we are now massing armies – British, French, and American – for one of the major battles of this war.
The enemy’s purpose in the battle of Tunisia is to hold at all costs their last bridgehead in Africa, to prevent us from gaining access to the Straits that lead to Nazi-dominated Europe.
Our prime purpose in this battle of Tunisia is to drive our enemies into the sea.
The British First Army in this battle, commanded by Gen. Anderson, contains many veterans of Flanders and Dunkirk. Those men have a score to settle with the Nazis, and they are going to even that score.
The British Eighth Army, commanded by Gen. Montgomery, has to its eternal credit the smashing defeat of Marshal Rommel’s Army, and the now historic 1,500-mile pursuit of those once-triumphant Nazi-fascist forces.
The enemy in Tunisia will be attacked from the south by this great Eighth Army, and by the French forces who have made a remarkable march all the way across the Sahara Desert under Gen. Le Clerc, one of Gen. de Gaulle’s officers. From the west the enemy will be attacked by the combined forces of British and Americans, together with French troops under the command of Gen. Giraud.
And I think that we take a certain satisfaction tonight that all of these forces are commanded by Gen. Eisenhower. I spent many hours in Casablanca with this young general – a descendant of Kansas pioneers. I know what a fine, tough job he has done, and how carefully and skillfully he is directing the soldiers under him. I want to say to you tonight – and to him – that we have every confidence in his leadership. High tribute was paid to his qualities as a man when the British government, through Mr. Churchill, took the lead at Casablanca in proposing him for the supreme command of all the great Allied operations which are imminent in North Africa.
The deputy to Gen. Eisenhower is Gen. Alexander, one of Britain’s greatest fighting men. He commanded all the British forces in the Middle East, including the Eighth Army that won the decisive battle at El Alamein. He and Gen. Montgomery planned that engagement and the stupendous advance that followed. At this moment – as I speak to you tonight – Gen. Alexander is standing at the right hand of Gen. Eisenhower planning new military operations.
These important facts reveal not merely cooperation but active collaboration between the United Nations. Let these facts be duly noted by our enemies.
Our soldiers in Tunisia are well trained and equipped, but they are facing for the first time actual combat with formidable opponents. We can be absolutely certain that they will conduct themselves as bravely and as effectively as did those young Americans under Gen. Pershing who drove Germany’s best troops through the Argonne forest and across the River Meuse.
I think we should be prepared for the fact that Tunisia will cost us heavily in casualties. Yes, we must face that fact now, with the same calm courage as our men are facing it on the battlefield itself.
The enemy has strong forces, and strong positions. His supply lines are maintained at great cost, but Hitler has been willing to pay that cost because he knows the consequences of Allied victory in Tunisia.
The consequences are simple. They are the actual invasions of the continent of Europe. And we do not disguise our intention to make these invasions. The pressure on Germany and Italy will be constant and unrelenting. The amazing Russian armies in eastern Europe have been delivering overpowering blows; we must do likewise in the west. The enemy must be hit and hit hard from so many directions that he will never know which is his bow and which is his stern.
And it was made clear also at Casablanca that all Frenchmen outside of France, for we know little of what is happening in France, but all Frenchmen who can, are uniting in one great paramount objective – the complete liberation of France and of the French people who now suffer the torture of the Nazi yoke. As each day passes, a spirit of unselfishness is more greatly uniting all Frenchmen who have the opportunity to strike that blow for liberation.
In the years of the American Revolution, and the French Revolution, the fundamental principle that guided our democracies was established. Indeed the whole cornerstone of our democratic edifice was the principle that from the people and the people alone flows the authority of government.
It is one of our war aims, as expressed in the Atlantic Charter, that the conquered populations of today – shall again become the masters of their destiny. There must be no doubt anywhere that it is the unalterable purpose of the United Nations to restore to conquered peoples their sacred rights.
French sovereignty rests with the people of France. Its expression has been temporarily suspended by German occupation. Once the triumphant armies of the United Nations have expelled the common foe, Frenchmen will be represented by a government of their own popular choice.
And it will be a free choice in every way. No nation in all the world that is free to make a choice is going to set itself up under a fascist form of government, or a Nazi form of government, or a Japanese war-lord form of government. For such forms are the offspring of seizure of power followed by the abridgment of freedom. Therefore – and this is plain logic – the United Nations can properly say of these forms of government – Nazism, fascism, Japanism – if I might coin a new word – the United Nations can properly say to that form of government two simple words, “Never again.”
For the right of self-determination included in the Atlantic Charter does not carry with it the right of any government anywhere in the world to commit wholesale murder, or the right to make slaves of its own people, or of any other peoples in the world.
And the world can rest assured that this total war, this sacrifice of lives all over the globe, is not being carried on for the purpose, or even with the remotest idea of keeping Quislings or Lavals in power anywhere on this earth.
The decisions that were reached, and the actual plans that were made at Casablanca were not confined to any one theater of war, or to any one continent, or ocean, or sea. Before this year is out I think it will be made known to the world, in actions rather than in words, that the Casablanca Conference produced plenty of news; and it will be bad news for the Germans and Italians – and the Japanese.
We have lately concluded a long, hard battle in the Southwest Pacific, and we have made notable gains. That battle started in the Solomons and New Guinea last summer. It has demonstrated without question our superior power in planes, and most importantly in the fighting qualities of our individual soldiers and sailors.
American Armed Forces in the Southwest Pacific are receiving powerful aid from Australia and New Zealand, and also directly from the British themselves.
We do not expect to spend the time that it would take to bring Japan to final defeat merely by inching our way forward from island to island across the vast expanse of the Pacific. It would take too many years.
Great and decisive actions against the Japanese will be taken to drive the invader from the soil of China. Yes, important actions are going to be taken in the skies over China – and in the skies over Japan itself.
The discussions at Casablanca have been continued in Chungking with the Generalissimo by Gen. Arnold, and have resulted in definite plans for offensive operations.
Remember that there are many roads that lead right to Tokyo. And we are not going to neglect any of them.
In an attempt to ward off the inevitable disaster that lies ahead of them, the Axis propagandists are trying all their old tricks, in order to divide the United Nations. They seek to create the idea that if we win this war, Russia, and England, and China, and the United States are going to get into a cat-and-dog fight.
This is their final effort to turn one nation against another, in the vain hope that they may settle with one or two at a time – that any of us may be so gullible and so forgetful as to be duped into making “deals” at the expense of our allies.
To these panicky attempts- and that is the best word to use: “panicky” – to escape the consequences of their crimes, we say – all the United Nations say – that the only terms on which we shall deal with any Axis government, or any Axis factions, are the terms proclaimed at Casablanca: “unconditional surrender.” We know, and the plain people of our enemies will eventually know, that in our uncompromising policy we mean no harm to the common people of the Axis nations. But we do mean to impose punishment and retribution in full upon their guilty, barbaric leaders.
The Nazis must be frantic – not just panicky, but frantic if they believe that they can devise any propaganda that would turn the British and the American and the Chinese governments and peoples against Russia – or Russia against the rest of us.
The overwhelming courage and endurance of the Russian people in withstanding and hurling back the invaders- the genius with which their great armies have been directed and led by Mr. Stalin and their military commanders – all speak for themselves.
The tragedy of the war has sharpened the vision and leadership of the peoples of all the United Nations, and I can say to you from my own full knowledge that they see the utter necessity of our standing together after the war to secure a peace based on principles of permanence.
You can be quite sure that if Japan should be the first of the Axis partners to fall, the total efforts and resources of all the United Nations would be concentrated on the job of crushing Germany.
And, on the other hand, lest there be any question in Nazi or Japanese minds that we are wholly one in the prosecution of the war to a complete victory over our enemies, the Prime Minister wished, at Casablanca, to make a formal agreement that if Germany should be conquered before Japan, all British Empire resources and manpower would, of course, join with China and us in an out-and-out final attack on Japan. And I told Mr. Churchill that no formal statement of agreement along those lines was in the least bit necessary, that the American people accept the word of a great English gentleman and that it is obvious and clear that all of us are completely in accord in our determination to destroy the forces of barbarism in Asia, as well as in Europe and in Africa. In other words, our policy toward our Japanese enemies is precisely the same as our policy toward our Nazi enemies: it is a policy of fighting hard on all fronts, and ending the war as quickly as we can, on the uncompromising terms of unconditional surrender.
Today is the anniversary of the birth of a great, plain American. The living memory of Abraham Lincoln is now honored and cherished by all of our people, wherever they may be, and by men and women and children throughout the British Commonwealth, and the Soviet Union, and the Republic of China, and all of our sister American Republics, and indeed in every land on earth where people love freedom and will give their lives for freedom.
President Lincoln said in 1862:
Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us… in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.
Today, eighty years after Lincoln delivered that message, the fires of war are blazing across the whole horizon of mankind from Kharkov to Kunming – from the Mediterranean to the Coral Sea – from Berlin to Tokyo.
Again – we cannot escape history. We have supreme confidence that, with the help of God, honor will prevail. We have faith that future generations will know that here, in the middle of the 20th century, there came a time when men of good will found a way to unite, and produce, and fight to destroy the forces of ignorance, and intolerance, and slavery, and war.
Völkischer Beobachter (February 13, 1943)
Europas Antwort an Moskaus Trabanten –
Vernichtung der Menschheitsgeißel
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Eisenhower mustert seine britischen Gehilfen –
Stimson bereitet auf schwere Kämpfe vor
Von unserer Stockholmer Schriftleitung
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U.S. Navy Department (February 13, 1943)
Communiqué No. 279
South Pacific.
On February 12:
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During the early morning, a U.S. plane dropped bombs in the Japanese-occupied area at Munda on New Georgia Island.
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Later in the morning, a force of Dauntless dive bombers (Douglas), with Wildcat (Grumman F4F) and Lightning (Lockheed P-38) escort, again attacked enemy installations at Munda. A gun position was destroyed and fires were started.
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During the afternoon, U.S. planes carried out a third attack against enemy positions in the Munda area. Marauder medium bombers (Martin B-26), with Airacobra (Bell P -39) escort, dropped bombs in the target area.
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During the early morning, U.S. planes attacked an enemy positions on Kolombangara Island. Results were not reported.
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All U.S. planes returned from the above attack missions.
Brooklyn Eagle (February 13, 1943)
Roosevelt pledge of invasions heard by Axis
Shortwaves carry vow smash through into Europe and Asia
Washington (UP) –
Friends and enemies throughout the world today received President Roosevelt’s promise to bomb Japan this year, to wage great offensives against the Axis in both Asia and Europe and eventually to send Allied armies marching triumphantly through the streets of Berlin, Rome and Tokyo.
All shortwave stations began broadcasting his radio address shortly after he delivered it to the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association last night. The rebroadcasts in more than 20 languages will continue throughout the weekend as a message of cheer to subjugated countries and as a harbinger of doom to the Axis.
The President’s address was vibrant with confidence and pitched on the theme of absolute victory after unconditional surrender of the Axis. It bristled with fighting phrases:
Important actions will be taken in the skies over China and over Japan itself…
Our prime purpose in the battle of Tunisia is to drive our enemies into the sea…
The pressure on Germany and Italy will be constant and unrelenting…
The enemy must be hit and hit hard from so many directions that he never knows which is his bow and which is his stern.
Reports to nation
The speech was the President’s report to the nation on his Casablanca Conference with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, since expanded to global significance by subsequent discussions among United Nations leaders.
The Casablanca meeting, Mr. Roosevelt said, produced plenty of news:
…and it will be bad news for the Germans and Italians and the Japanese.
The President’s revelation of powerful offensives being mounted against Japan brought cheer to China, whose armies and peoples have been resisting the Japanese for nearly six years.
Mr. Roosevelt said:
Great and decisive actions against the Japanese will be taken to drive the invader from the soil of China. Important actions will be taken in the skies over China and over Japan itself.
There are many roads which lead right to Tokyo. We shall neglect none of them.
Pay for own dinners
The President and other guests, high government officials and members of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, paid for their own dinners because proceeds of the function went to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, a cause close to Mr. Roosevelt’s heart.
The diners wore business suits and partook of a plain meal of bean soup, boiled flounder, roast chicken with potatoes and peas, a green salad and fig pudding. There was no coffee, sugar or butter.
The President’s speech was a companion to Churchill’s report to the House of Commons earlier in the week and it breathed the same spirit of aggressive optimism. It was not without its somber note, however.
The President advised the American people to prepare themselves for heavy casualties in the battle of Tunisia. He said:
We must face that fact now with the same calm courage as our men are facing it on the battlefield itself.
More aid to China seen
Observers saw the promise of more aid to China in the President’s declaration that:
Our policy toward our Japanese enemies is precisely the same as our policy toward our Nazi enemies; it is a policy of fighting hard on all fronts and ending the war as quickly as we can on the uncompromising terms of unconditional surrender."
The President’s remarks about Quislings or Lavals apparently was intended to silence critics who have been asserting that the North African government still harbors men who were associated in the Vichy regime with the pro-German Pierre Laval.
Aerial armada of Allies rips Nazis in France
Huge force of planes passes for hours over channel to blast foe
London, England (UP) –
Allied planes roared toward the continent in an almost continuous procession for hours over the southeast English coast today, and it was indicated that major raids were being made on enemy territory.
The planes were in unusual force and flying at tremendous height, observers reported from the southeast coast, as they made toward Calais on the French occupied coast.
It was believed that American as well as British planes might have been among the many formations.
Though there was brilliant sunshine along the coast, the planes flew too high to be seen, United Press watchers reported.
The first planes returned after 45 minutes, coming from the Boulogne direction, bombers escorted by heavy forces of fighters.
Railroad junctions and industrial areas were believed to have been among the targets.
Enemy planes made a hit-and-run raid on a southwest coast town shortly before noon. Bombs caused considerable damage to shops and homes. Some planes machine-gunned the streets, and it was feared there had been numerous casualties.
Rescue squads worked to extricate persons buried under debris.
Lady Marines to start enrolling on Monday
2 female Leathernecks of 25 years ago recall Sam Browne belts, laced shoes
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BULLETINS!
Sailor’s body found on tracks delays thousands at Clark St.
Thousands of passengers bound for Brooklyn on the 7th Ave. line of the IRT were delayed for almost half an hour today after trackwalkers at 7:10 a.m. discovered the body of a sailor killed by a train about 200 feet front the Clark St. station.
The men carried the body to the Borough Hall station and summoned police, who removed It to Cumber land Hospital, where it is awaiting identification by naval authorities. Police said the sailor carried no articles that would establish his identity. They were unable to learn how or why he descended to the tracks, or just when he was killed.
Normal subway schedules were restored at 7:35.
Light snow due to last all day
The way it has been snowing today is “lightly,” according to the Weather Bureau in reiterating a previous forecast this morning that the fall would probably continue for the rest of the day.
Asked whether some other term than “lightly” might not better describe the snowfall which had already blanketed the streets, one of the weather experts replied:
There is some wind blowing the snow around, and we may have some accumulation, but it is still a light fall.
The snow began to fall at 6 a.m. The temperature, which rose from 28 degrees at 8 a.m. to 29 at 9, is expected to continue “moderately cold.”
Oil shortage threatens to close Boro court
Brownsville residents had better settle minor difficulties among themselves – otherwise they will not find justice as handy as usual. The 7th District Municipal Court, which is housed in the Pennsylvania Avenue Courthouse, is to be moved shortly.
Pelham St. George Bissell, President Justice of the Municipal Court, disclosed that he is seeking new quarters for the court, because he expects that current fuel oil difficulties will cause the building to close.
The Pennsylvania Courthouse, whose other tenant is the Magistrate’s Court, is one of 50 municipal buildings which must either close for varying periods or find ways of stretching until March 31 their nearly depleted fuel oil rations.
Col. Strong lauds U.S. spirit
Montauk, New York –
Col. F. S. Strong, chief of construction of the U.S. Army Engineers, addressing a crowd gathered here at presentation of the Army-Navy “E” award to the Andrew Weston Company, Inc., of Woodmere, declared yesterday that:
In spite of the mistakes of the past, we all believe in the things America stands for that is why America, in hating war, is working and fighting with a spirit which the Axis powers cannot understand.
Nye predicts food riots in U.S. next winter
Washington (UP) –
Senator Gerald P. Nye (R-ND) today predicted food riots in the United States next Winter as a new Senate investigating committee prepared to “blow the lid off” administration farm policies. Nye said:
We’ve already got a food shortage only a few months after harvesting the record crop of 1942. Without adequate help and machinery, the farmers are going to have to reduce their planted acreage. Unless the position of the farmer changes immediately, it is only fair to anticipate food riots in the streets in another winter.
Mayor reveals he’s a ‘short snorter’
Mayor LaGuardia is a “Short Snorter.”
The Mayor, asked for his autograph at LaGuardia Field yesterday, pulled out his fountain pen and along with it his wallet. Seeing inside a folded dollar bill covered with signatures, a reporter asked:
Are you a member of the Short Snorters?
The reference was to a custom on transatlantic flights of initiating a passenger making his first such hop by presenting him with a dollar bill bearing the signatures of all the other passengers.
“I certainly am,” said the Mayor, displaying the bill. He said he got it at Newfoundland.
12,500 classed as conscientious objectors
Abraham Kaufman, executive secretary of the War Registers League, today reported that more than 12,500 men throughout the country have been officially classified as conscientious objectors by their local draft boards. Kaufman said that 6,000 objectors are now in civilian public service camps. Last August, more than 6,500 had accepted non-combatant duty in the army. He said that of the 2,325 men convicted of Selective Service violations up until Dec. 1, 1,400 were conscientious objectors. Several hundred were members of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religious sect.
Webb is recaptured after fleeing air base
Playboy nabbed by police in Reno hotel – found in red bathrobe, Army pajamas
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Stassen says he won’t run again in 1944
Los Angeles, California (UP) –
Governor Harold E. Stassen of Minnesota said last night that he would not be a candidate in 1944, and whether the Republicans elect a President next year depends upon what they do with their recent political gains.
Stassen, in a Lincoln Day address, said he would not participate in the 1944 political campaign because he still expects to be lieutenant commander in the Navy. He said:
I think it will be a long war.
New naval losses admitted by Tokyo
By the United Press
A Tokyo radio broadcast heard in London today gave a summary of losses not previously reported in the Solomons campaign, including seven small Japanese warships and five cargo ships sunk and eight small Allied warships and eight cargo ships sunk.
A little later, a Berlin broadcast, purporting to cover the same communiqué, said three Japanese battleships had also been sunk.
The Tokyo version quoted an Imperial Headquarters communiqué, covering losses not previously reported during the entire campaign from Aug. 7 to Feb. 7, including 215 Japanese planes destroyed.
Three destroyers, five cargo ships, three submarines and one patrol vessel were reported sunk and one cruiser, four submarines, five cargo ships and one patrol vessel damaged.
Plane plant’s row with ‘sweater girls’ faces capital airing
Stratford, Connecticut (UP) –
The “sweater girl” controversy at the Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation appeared headed for Washington today, as another war industry headache of the U.S. Conciliation Service.
The dispute, which started when the company sent home 53 girls for disobeying a rule against sweaters, and 22 others quit in protest, was in process of settlement by a labor-management committee when it struck a snag.
The committee had decided to appoint a “style committee” to take up the whole question of working uniforms, when the company insisted that the girls refrain from wearing sweaters while the committee was working on a solution to the problem. This was objected to by the union committee, which had promised that the girls would wear sweaters “that conformed with the standards of decency.”
Finally, it was decided that conference would be held Monday between an international representative of the CIO United Automobile Workers and the personnel director of the United Aircraft Corporation and that if no final decision is reached, the dispute would be certified to the U.S. Conciliation Service.
Meanwhile, the 75 girls were back at work, wearing the regulation slacks and jackets.
Norris says Americans have not suffered enough
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Former Senator George W. Norris (D-NE) believes Americans “have not suffered sufficiently” to realize the necessity for a permanent peace for the preservation of civilization.
He said at a Lincoln Day banquet in his honor last night:
Perhaps it will be necessary for each of us to compromise some of our cherished ideals.
England, Russia and China, he said, have suffered infinitely more than the United States and:
These countries have come to the place where absolute equality exists between men regardless of chasms in society.