America at war! (1941--) -- Part 2

Japans Wacht auf den Alëuten

Tokio, 17. Februar –
Ein Bericht in Yomiuri Hotschi beschreibt die dauernden, aber bisher erfolglosen nordamerikanischen Anstrengungen, die von den Japanern besetzten Alëuten zurückzugewinnen. Zu diesem Zwecke bauten sie auf anderen, noch nicht von den Japanern besetzten Alëuteninseln Flughäfen und andere militärische Anlagen. In den etwa 250 Kilometer von der Insel Kiska entfernten nordamerikanischen Stützpunkten lägen heute, so heißt es in dem Bericht der Zeitung, 20.000 Mann Truppen mit 350 Flugzeugen aller Typen. Von hier aus unternähmen die Nordamerikaner Luftangriffe gegen die japanischen Stellungen, bei denen sie aber gewöhnlich nur unbewohnte Landstriche und keine militärischen Ziele träfen.


Die Wunschträume der Dollarimperialisten

Stockholm, 17. Februar –
Die kürzliche Feststellung des nordamerikanischen Marineministers Knox, daß die USA. im Atlantik und im Pazifik alle zu ihrem Schutz nötigen Stützpunkte besitzen müssen, findet – wie ein Vertreter der „ABC“ aus Neuyork meldet – in nordamerikanischen Presse- und politischen Kreisen lebhafte Zustimmung. Eine Reihe führender Senatoren in Washington tritt dafür ein, daß die USA. sich ernsthaft mit der Frage der Übernahme der benötigten Stützpunkte befassen sollen. Eine andere Washingtoner Gruppe vertritt den Standpunkt, daß die von Großbritannien auf 99 Jahre gepachteten atlantischen Basen endgültig von den Vereinigten Staaten übernommen werden müssen.

Der jüdische Neuyorker Publizist Walter Lippman vertritt diese Ansicht ebenfalls und verlangt für den Stillen Ozean gleiche Maßnahmen. Lippman fordert, daß nach dem Kriege den Japanern ihre Mandatsinseln (Karolinen-, Mariannen- und Marshallinseln) abgenommen und den USA. einverleibt werden. Diese Inseln zusammen mit den nordamerikanischen Besitzungen im Pazifik sind nach Ansicht Lippmans die Sprungbretter nach den Philippinen, deren Rückgewinnung für die Niederhaltung Japans nach dem Kriege von überragender Bedeutung ist. Lippman verlangt weiter, daß im Rahmen dieser Sicherheitsmaßnahmen Japan die Insel Formosa an China abtreten soll.

U.S. Navy Department (February 18, 1943)

Communiqué No. 286

South Pacific.
On February 17:

  1. Dauntless dive bombers (Douglas), with Airacobra (Bell P-39) and Wildcat (Grumman F4F) escort, bombed and started fires in the Japanese-held area at Munda on New Georgia Island.

  2. During the night of February 17-18, U.S. aircraft bombed enemy positions on Kolombangara Island.

Soong Mei-ling’s address to the U.S. Senate
February 18, 1943, 12:15 p.m. EWT

Mr. President, Members of the Senate of the United States, ladies and gentlemen.

I am overwhelmed by the warmth and spontaneity of the welcome of the American people, of whom you are the representatives. I did not know that I was to speak to you today at the Senate except to say, “How do you do? I am so very glad to see you,” and to bring the greetings to my people to the people of America. However, just before coming here, the Vice President told me that he would like to have me say a few words to you.

I am not a very good extemporaneous speaker; in fact, I am no speaker at all; but I am not so very much discouraged, because a few days ago I was at Hyde Park, and went to the President’s library. Something I saw there encouraged me, and made me feel that perhaps you will not expect overmuch of me in speaking to you extemporaneously. What do you think I saw there? I saw many things. But the one thing which interested me most of all was that in a glass case there was the first draft of tone of the President’s speeches, a second draft, and on and on up to the sixth draft. Yesterday I happened to mention this fact to the President, and told him that I was extremely glad that he had to write so many drafts when he is such a well-known and acknowledgedly fine speaker. His reply to me was that sometimes he writes 12 drafts of a speech. So, my remarks here today, being extemporaneous, I am sure you will make allowances for me.

The traditional friendship between your country and mine has a history of 160 years. I feel, and I believe that I am now the only one who feels this way, that there are a great many similarities between your people and mine, and that these similarities are the basis of our friendship.

I should like to tell you a little story which will illustrate this belief. When Gen. Doolittle and his men went to bomb Tokyo, on their return some of your boys had to bail out in the interior of China. One of them later told me that he had to mail out of his ship. And that when he landed on Chinese soil and saw the populace running toward him, he just waved his arm and shouted the only Chinese word he knew, “Mei-kuo, Mei-kuo,” which means “America.” Literally translated from the Chinese, it means “Beautiful country.” This boy said that our people laughed and almost hugged him, and greeted him like a long lost brother. He further told me that the thought that he had come home when he saw our people; and that was the first time he had ever been to China.

I came to your country as a little girl. I know your people. I have lived with them. I spent the formative years of my life amongst your people. I speak your language, not only the language of your hearts, but also your tongue. So coming here today I feel that I am also coming home.

I believe, however, that it is not only I who am coming home; I feel that if the Chinese people could speak to you in your own tongue, or if you could understand our tongue, they would tell you that basically and fundamentally we are fighting for the same cause; that we have identity of ideals’ that the “four freedoms,” which your President proclaimed to the world, resound throughout our vast land as the gong of freedom, the gong of freedom of the United Nations, and the death knell of the aggressors.

I assure you that our people are willing and eager to cooperate with you in the realization of these ideals, because we want to see to it that they do not echo as empty phrases, but become realities for ourselves, for your children, for our children’s children, and for all mankind.

How are we going to realize these ideals? I think I shall tell you a little story which just came to my mind. As you know, China is a very old nation. We have a history of 5,000 years. When we were obliged to evacuate Hankow and go into the hinterland to carry on and continue our resistance against
aggression, the Generalissimo and I passed one of our fronts, the Changsha front. One day we went in to the Heng-yang Mountains, where there are traces of a famous pavilion called “Rub-the-mirror” pavilion, which perhaps interest you to hear the story of that pavilion.

Two thousand years ago near that spot was an old Buddhist temple. One of the young monks went there , and all day long he sat cross-legged, with his hands clasped before him in and attitude of prayer, and murmured “Amita-Buddha! Amita-Buddha! Amita-Buddha!” He murmured and chanted day after day, because he hoped that he would acquire grace.

The Father Prior of that temple took a piece of brick and rubbed it against a stone hour after hour, day after day, and week after week. The little acolyte, being very young, sometimes cast his eyes around to see what the old Father Prior was doing. The old Father Prior just kept on this work of rubbing the brick against the stone. So one day the young acolyte said to him:

Father Prior, what are you doing day after day rubbing this brick of stone?

The Father Prior replied:

I am trying to make a mirror out of this brick.

The young acolyte said:

But it is impossible to make a mirror out of a brick, Father Prior.

“Yes,” said the Father Prior:

…and it is just as impossible for you to acquire grace by doing nothing except murmur “Amita-Buddha” all day long, day in and day out.

So my friends, I feel that it is necessary for us not only to have ideals and to proclaim that we have them, it is necessary that we act to implement them. And so to you, gentlemen of the Senate, and to you ladies and gentleman in the galleries, I say that without the active help of all of us, our leaders cannot implement these ideals. It’s up to you and to me to take to heart the lesson of “Rub-the-Mirror” pavilion.

I thank you.

Soong Mei-ling’s address to the U.S. House
February 18, 1943, 12:30 p.m. EWT

Broadcast audio:

Mr. Speaker, Members of the Congress of the United States:

At any time, it would be a privilege for me to address Congress, more especially this present august body which will have so much to do in shaping the destiny of the world. In speaking to Congress I am literally speaking to the American people. The 77th Congress, as their representatives, fulfilled the obligations and responsibilities of its trust by declaring war on the aggressors.

That part of the duty of the people’s representatives was discharged in 1941. The task now confronting you is to help win the war and to create and uphold a lasting peace which will justify the sacrifices and sufferings of the victims of aggression.

Before enlarging on this subject, I should like to tell you a little about my long and vividly interesting trip to your country from my own land, which has bled and borne unflinchingly the burden of war for more than five and a half years. I shall not dwell, however, upon the part China has played in our united effort to free mankind from brutality and violence. I shall try to convey to you, however imperfectly, the impressions gained during the trip.

First of all, I want to assure you that the American people have every right to be proud of their fighting men in so many parts of the world. I am particularly thinking of those of your boys in the far-flung, out-of-the-way stations and areas where life is attended by dreary drabness; this because their duty is not one of spectacular performance and they are not buoyed up by the excitement of battle. They are called upon, day after colorless day, to perform routine duties such as safeguarding defenses and preparing for possible enemy action.

It has been said, and I find it true from personal experience, that it is easier to risk one’s life on the battlefield than it is to perform customary humble and humdrum duties which, however, are just as necessary to winning the war.

Some of your troops are stationed in isolated spots, quite out of reach of ordinary communications. Some of your boys have had to fly hundreds of hours over the sea from an improvised airfield in quests, often disappointingly fruitless, of enemy submarines. They, and others, have to stand the monotony of waiting, just waiting. But, as I told them, true patriotism lies in possessing the morale and physical stamina to perform faithfully and conscientiously the daily tasks so that in the sum total the strongest – the weakest link is the strongest. The trivial round, the common task , would furnish all we ought to ask.

Your soldiers have shown conclusively that they are able stoically to endure homesickness, the glaring dryness and scorching heat of the tropics, and keep themselves fit and in excellent fighting trim. They are amongst the unsung heroes of this war, and everything possible to lighten their tedium and buoy up their morale should be done. That sacred duty is yours.

The American Army is better fed than any army in the world. This does not mean, however, that they can live indefinitely on canned food without having the effects tell on them. These admittedly are but minor hardships of war, especially when we pause to consider that in many parts of the world starvation prevails. But peculiarly enough, oftentimes it is not the major problems of existence which irk a man’s soul; it is rather the pin pricks, especially those incidental to a life of deadly sameness, with tempers frayed out and nervous systems torn to shreds.

The second impression of my trip is that America is not only the cauldron of democracy but the incubator of democratic principles. At some of the places I visited, I met the crews of your air bases. There, I found first generation Germans, Italians, Frenchmen, Poles, Czechoslovakians, and other nationals. Some of them had accents so thick, that if such a thing were possible, one could not cut them with a butter knife.

But there they were, all Americans, all devoted to the same ideals, all working for the same cause, and united by the same high purpose. No suspicion or rivalry existed between them. This increased my belief and faith that devotion to common principles eliminates differences in race and that identity of ideals is the strongest possible solvent of racial dissimilarities.

I have reached your country, therefore, with no misgivings, but with my belief that the American people are building and carrying out a true pattern of the nation conceived by your forebears, strengthened and confirmed.

You, as representatives of the American people, have before you the glorious opportunity of carrying on the pioneer work of your ancestors, beyond the frontiers of physical and geographical limitations. Their brawn and thews braved undauntedly almost unbelievable hardships to open up a new continent. The modern world lauds them for their vigor and intensity of purpose, and for their accomplishment.

You have today before you the immeasurably greater opportunity to implement these same ideals and to help bring about the liberation of man’s spirit in every part of the world. In order to accomplish this purpose, we of the United Nations must now so prosecute the war that victory will be ours decisively and with all good speed.

Sun-Tzu, the well-known Chinese strategist, said: In order to win, “know thyself” and “[know] thy enemy.” We have also the saying:

It takes little effort to watch the other fellow carry the load.

In spite of these teachings from a wise old past, which are shared by every nation, there has been a tendency to belittle the strength of our opponents. When Japan thrust total war on China in 1937, military experts of every nation did not give China even a ghost of a chance. But when Japan failed to bring China cringing to her knees as she vaunted, the world took solace in this phenomenon by declaring that they had overestimated Japan’s military might.

Nevertheless, when the greedy flames of war inexorably spread in the Pacific following the perfidious attack on Pearl Harbor, Malaya, and lands in and around the China Sea, and one after another of these places fell, the pendulum swung to the other extreme. Doubts and fears lifted their ugly heads and the world began to think that the Japanese were Nietzschean Supermen – superior in intellect and physical prowess, a belief which the Gobineaus and the Houston Chamberlains and their apt pupils, the Nazi racists, had propounded about the Nordics.

Again, now the prevailing opinion seems to consider the defeat of the Japanese as of relative unimportance and that Hitler is our first concern. This is not borne out by actual facts, nor is it to the interests of the United Nations as a whole to allow Japan to continue, not only as a vital potential threat but as a waiting sword of Damocles, ready – but as a waiting sword of Damocles ready to des[cend] at a moment’s notice.

Let us not forget that Japan in her occupied areas today has greater resources at her command than Germany.

Let us not forget that the longer Japan is left in undisputed possessions of these resources, the stronger she must become. Each passing day takes more toll in lives of both Americans and Chinese.

Let us not forget that the Japanese are an intransigent people.

Let us not forget that during the first four and a half years of total aggression China has borne Japan’s sadistic fury unaided and alone.

The victories won by the United States Navy at Midway and the Coral Sea are doubtless steps in the right direction, they are merely steps in the right direction – for the magnificent fight that was waged at Guadalcanal during the past six months attests to the fact that the defeat of the forces of evil, though long and arduous, will finally come to pass. For have we not on the side of righteousness and justice staunch allies in Great Britain, Russia, and other brave and indomitable peoples?

Meanwhile, the peril of the Japanese juggernaut remains. Japanese military might must be decimated as a fighting force before its threat to civilization is removed. When the 77th Congress declared war against Japan, Germany, and Italy, Congress, for the moment, had done its work. It now remains for you, the present representatives of the American people, to point the way to win the war, to help construct a world in which all peoples may henceforth live in harmony and peace.

May I not hope that it is the resolve of Congress to devote itself to the creation of the post-war world? To dedicate itself to the preparation for the brighter future that a stricken world so eagerly awaits?

We of this generation who are privileged to help make a better world for ourselves and for posterity should remember that, while we must not be visionary, we must have vision so that peace should not be punitive in spirit and should not be provincial or nationalistic or even continental in concept, but universal in scope and – and humanitarian in action, for modern science has so annihilated distance that what affects one people must of necessity affect all other peoples.

The term “hands and feet” is often used in China to signify the relationship between brothers. Since international interdependence is now so universally recognized, can we not also say that all nations should become members of one corporate body?

The one hundred and sixty years of traditional friendship between our two great peoples, China and America, which has never been marred by misunderstandings, is unsurpassed in the annals of the world. I can also assure you that China is eager and ready to cooperate with you and other peoples to lay a true and lasting foundation for a sane and progressive world society which would make it impossible for any arrogant or predatory neighbor to plunge future generations into another orgy of blood.

In the past China has not computed the cost to her manpower in her fight against aggression, although she well realized that manpower is [the] real wealth of a nation; and it takes generations to grow it. She – She has been soberly conscious of her responsibilities and has not concerned herself with privileges and gains which she might have obtained through compromise of principles; nor will she demean herself and all she holds dear to the practice of the market place.

We in China, like you, want a better world, not for ourselves alone, but for all mankind, and we must have it. It is not enough, however, to proclaim our idea[l]s or even to be convinced that we have them. In order to preserve, uphold, and maintain them, there are times when we should throw all we cherish into our effort to fulfill these ideals even at the risk of failure.

The teachings drawn from our late leader, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, have given our people the fortitude to carry on. From five and a half years of experience, we in China are convinced that it is the better part of wisdom not to accept failure ignominiously, but to risk it gloriously.

We shall have faith, that, at the writing of peace, America and our other gallant Allies will not be obtunded by the mirage of contingent reasons of expediency.

Man’s mettle is tested both in adversity and in success. Twice is this true of the soul of a nation.

Brooklyn Eagle (February 18, 1943)

Yank Army defeated

Nazis seize three towns near Algerian border

Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) –
German armored forces, slashing to within 14 miles of the Algerian border, have driven U.S. troops from three more towns and the Berlin radio broadcast an announcement today that the High Command now considers the Tunisian offensive ended.

The first reaction here at Allied headquarters to the Berlin announcement was that Marshal Erwin Rommel was not willing to risk further, advance westward in the face of the threat of the British 8th Army, which is rolling up toward his flank from the south.

Meanwhile, a London dispatch said, the German armored forces which attacked U.S. forces were menaced from the rear by the advancing British 8th Army, which entered Medenine, outpost of the Mareth Line, and prepared to hurdle that town in pursuit of Rommel’s rear guard.

U.S. troops, evacuating the towns of Kasserine, Fériana and Sbeitla, retired to strong defensive positions in the 4,000-foot hills west of the triangle formed by the three communities.

Yank casualties heavy

U.S. casualties were reported to have been heavy and our forces were believed to have abandoned a considerable amount of equipment.

The drive which resulted in the capture of Fériana enabled the Germans almost to cut clear across the waist of Tunisia. Fériana is 14 miles from the Algerian border.

Nazis gain 30 miles

The twin thrusts of the Germans against the American lines has now gained a total of about 50 miles in the southern sector and 30 miles in the northern.

Some U.S. troops have already reached the hills west of Fériana, it was said, and now are busy regrouping their forces for a determined stand on the high ground.

The communiqué said:

Fighting was on a reduced scale yesterday. Our fighters were active throughout the day over southern Tunisia. Our heavy and medium bombers attacked enemy airfields in Sardinia. At one airfield bombs burst close to a number of grounded aircraft. Four enemy fighters and one Italian seaplane were shot down by our bombers and their fighter escorts.

Five of our aircraft are missing from these operations. During last night a few enemy aircraft dropped bombs in the Algiers area. There was a small number of casualties and some damage to buildings.

It was said that the Americans made little, if any, attempt to defend Fériana, Kasserine and Sbeitla. Rather, it was an evacuation designed to get the U.S. troops into a better defensive position.

British enter Mareth ‘Verdun’

London, England (UP) –
German armored forces, menaced from the rear by the advancing British 8th Army, have overrun the American defense triangle hinged on Fériana, Kasserine and Sbeitla in central Tunisia, it was announced today.

African communiqués reported British entry of Medenine, outpost of the Mareth Line, which the 8th Army was preparing to hurdle in pursuit of Rommel’s rear guard.

A broadcast Italian communiqué said U.S. planes smashed at Cagliari, Sardinia, killing 100 persons and injuring 235 in a blow against the Tunisian supply lines.

Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s veterans, after entering Medenine, “Verdun of the Mareth Line,” were aiming at the heart of that Tunisian bulwark.

Medenine, 63 miles from the Tunisian border, is on the edge of the Mareth Line, which runs along the Mahatma Mountains from Fum Tatawin, 24 miles below Medenine, through a strongpoint at Toujane to Mareth, just below the port of Gabes.

Jap strength rising, says Mme. Chiang

Resources top Nazis’, she warns Congress in appeal for China

Washington (UP) –
Mme. Chiang Kai-shek today denounced the “prevailing opinion” that the defeat of Japan is less important than the defeat of Germany and urged Congress to lead the way in formulating one corporate body of all nations after the war.

In addressing Congress, she appealed for more aid for China:

…which has bled and borne unflinchingly the burden of war for more than five and a half years.

Before a crowded House chamber in her first public appearance, she praised America as:

…not only the cauldron of democracy, but the incubator of democratic principles.

She hoped that the Congress of that America would help make a post-war world in which it will be impossible for anyone to plunge future generations “into another orgy of blood.”

Mme. Chiang received prolonged and rousing ovations from Congressional members and packed galleries.

Presented by Wallace

Vice President Wallace presented her first to the Senate, where she spoke briefly and extemporaneously, saying she was overwhelmed at the reception given her.

She said as her listeners smiled:

I am not a very good speaker. As a matter of fact, I am not a speaker at all.

She said:

There is a traditional friendship between your country and mine. I feel that there are a great many similarities between your people and mine. These similarities are the basis of our friendship.

The address of the famous American-educated wife of the Chinese generalissimo was in impeccable English, and woven into it were the sayings of old Chinese philosophers to illustrate important points.

Offers philosophical advice

She concluded with this philosophical advice from a nation long torn by war to one barely initiated in its hardships:

From five and a half years of experience we in China are convinced that it is the better part of wisdom not to accept failure ignominiously but to risk it gloriously.

We shall have faith that, at the writing of peace, America and our other gallant allies will not be obtunded [dulled] by the mirage of contingent reasons of expediency.

Man’s mettle is tested both in adversity and in success. Twice is this true of the soul of a nation.

Madame Chiang left no doubt that her mission here, now that her treatment for an old injury has been pronounced successful, is to convince Americans that the Japanese are no less a dangerous foe than the Germans.

She prefaced her review of Japanese strength with this Chinese saying:

It takes little effort to watch the other fellow carry the load.

The prevailing opinion now, she added, seems to consider the defeat of the Japanese as of relative unimportance and that Hitler is our first concern.

She said:

This is not borne out by actual facts nor is it to the interests of the United Nations as a whole to allow Japan to continue, not only as a vital potential threat but as a waiting sword of Damocles, ready to descend at a moment’s notice…

Japanese military might must be decimated as a fighting force before its threat to civilization is removed.

She praised the American naval victories at Midway and in the Coral Sea, but emphasized that “they are merely steps in the right direction.” The six-month battle at Guadalcanal attests to the fact, she said, that the defeat of evil forces, “though long and arduous, will finally come to pass.”

Cites foe’s resources

But she warned Congress:

Let us not forget that Japan in her occupied areas today has greater resources at her command than Germany.

Let us not forget that the longer Japan is left in undisputed possession of these resources the stronger she must become. Each passing day takes more toll in lives of both Americans and Chinese.

Let us not forget that the Japanese are an intransigent people.

Let us not forget that during the first four and a half years of total aggression China has borne Japan’s sadistic fury unaided and alone.

She told the 78th Congress that as its predecessor had discharged its duty in 1941 by declaring war on the aggressors, the duty of the present Congress ls to help win the war and to create and uphold a lasting peace which will Justify the sacrifices and sufferings of the victims of aggression – to help construct a world in which all people may henceforth live in harmony and peace.

She said:

May I not hope that it is the resolve of Congress to devote itself to the creation of the post-war world? To dedicate itself to the preparation for the brighter future that a stricken world so eagerly awaits?

Pattern for peace

We of this generation who are privileged to help make a better world for ourselves and for posterity should remember that, while we must not be visionary, we must have vision so that peace should not be punitive in spirit and should not be provincial or nationalistic or even continental in concept, but universal in scope and humanitarian in action.

Since international interdependence is now so universally recognized, can we not also say that all nations should become members of one corporate body?

I can assure you that China is eager and ready to cooperate with you and other peoples to lay a true and lasting foundation for a sane and progressive world society which would make it impossible for any arrogant or predatory neighbor to plunge future generations into another orgy of blood.

We in China, like you. want a better world, not for ourselves but for all mankind, and we must have it. It is not enough, however, to proclaim our ideals or even to be convinced that we have them. In order to preserve, uphold and maintain them there are times when we should throw all we cherish into our effort to fulfill these ideals even at the risk of failure.

Fathers put last in draft by House unit

Military committee votes bill nullifying partial deferment

House group firm on salary stand


Senators doubt need for 11,000,000 men

Gas curb eased for motorists driving to work

OPA relaxes rules to permit issuance of ‘C’ books if needed

Yanks in Australia organized into Army

U.S. planes fire Japs’ Munda base


13 Jap planes blasted the Chicago but sinking ship took 12 with her

Tunisia toll heavy, Stimson reveals

Washington (UP) –
Secretary of War Stimson said today that outnumbered U.S. forces had lost considerable ground and suffered substantial losses in recent fighting in Tunisia but that “the Germans apparently have been slowed down.”

Exclusive of this fighting, he placed U.S. Army casualties thus far in all theaters at a total of 41,858.

He said at a press conference that the German attacks in Tunisia, which drove U.S. troops back 35 miles, did not appear to be a general offensive although “the fighting is continuing.” The Axis purpose, he added, apparently was to expand their corridor between northern Tunisia and the Mareth Line in the south.

Sees Yanks relieved

The British 8th Army is moving against the Mareth Line in operations which, Stimson said, may tend to relieve the hard-pressed Americans.

Stimson said in reviewing the fighting:

We thus have suffered a serious local setback in Tunisia. The importance should not be minimized and still less should not be exaggerated. It is one of the battle losses which must be expected in a battle as extensive as the occupation of North Africa which has already encountered substantial successes.

He said:

Many of our tanks were destroyed by German dive bombers.

Indications are that the Germans are employing two armored divisions against American forces. This is considerably greater than our strength in this area.

Exclusive of the current Tunisian fighting, Stimson said the Army has had 41,858 casualties thus far in the war. These losses, he said, break down into 3,553 killed, 6,509 wounded, 25,684 missing and 6,123 prisoners of war.

He said large numbers of the missing are from the Philippines and will probably turn up as prisoners of war when the lists come through the International Red Cross. About 12,600 of the missing are Philippine Scouts.

As for Tunisia, he said the present German successes were not an unexpected development.

Stimson said:

A large formation of Rommel’s forces were able to concentrate against the relatively more lightly held and more extended American lines.

Editorial: Report on ‘Negroes and war’ by OWI is most constructive

Few of the publications issued by the government’s Office of War Information as thoroughly justifies the work of that much-debated organization as its recent report on “Negroes and the War,” particularly the introduction written by Chandler Owen, who has gained a place as one of the nation’s most reliable and able Negro publicists. Facts and figures, not mere pious or sentimental theories, are given in a handy, interesting way, to prove what may justly be termed the splendid, bright, and hopeful side of the case for Uncle Sam in regard to this nation’s treatment of one of its largest and in some respects most unfortunately handicapped minorities, the Negroes.

It is a case being at present widely debated with more heat than light; and often on the basis of isolated, but undeniable and tragic instances of harsh treatment, or bigoted racial discrimination, with neglect, or ignorance, of the situation as a whole.

As President Roosevelt said in a press conference after his return from Africa, including his visit to the Negro Republic of Liberia, although European nations have controlled that continent with its teeming millions of colored races, since before Columbus came to America, even today the natives in the vast majority are as illiterate, and live on as primitive a scale, as many centuries ago.

In the United States, on the other hand, the Negroes, in spite of the slavery epoch, and their disabilities and troubles since then, which still persist, have registered a great improvement, on a larger scale, than any people, in any time or place recorded in history – considering the point at which their civilized development began.

Socially, economically, and even politically, though this line, perhaps, is the least successfully traced, Negro progress in the United States has been nothing short of tremendous. In 1890, for example, there were some 12,000 Negro clergymen, but in 1930, 25,000. Teachers, in the same period, rose from 15,000 to 50,000; doctors from 200 to nearly 4,000; lawyers and judges from 400 odd to more than a thousand. Today, hundreds of colleges are exclusively their own, and many large general universities are open to them. In 1916, only 1,700 Negro students were taking college courses. In 1941, 40,000 were enrolled. Now most of these latter youths are in the armed services, or war work.

That the great majority of American Negroes are patriotic, and conscious that the nation’s war against Hitlerism and its racial bigotry is also their own war, cannot seriously be questioned by those who know the truth. Much remains to be done to develop the great work already well started. That necessary work will be aided by the wide diffusion of such constructive facts as are contained in the report of the Office of War Information.

Church group asks U.S. bare its peace aims

Urges Congress act on ‘political weapon’ to undermine the Axis

The Pittsburgh Press (February 18, 1943)

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

At the front in Tunisia – (Feb. 17)
A big military convoy moving at night across the mountains and deserts of Tunisia is something that nobody who has been in one can ever forget.

Recently I have been living with a frontline outfit. Late one afternoon, it received sudden orders to move that night, bag and baggage. It had to pull out of its battle positions, time the departures of its various units to fit into the flow of traffic at the first control point on the highway, and then drive all night and go into action on another front.

All the big convoys in the war area moved at night. German planes would spot a daytime convoy and play havoc with it. It is extremely difficult and dangerous, this moving at night in total blackness over strange and rough roads. But it has to be done.

Our convoy was an immense one. There were hundreds of vehicles and thousands of men. It took seven and a half hours to pass one point. The convoy started moving at 5:30 in the evening, just before dusk. The last vehicle didn’t clear till 1 o’clock the next morning.

I rode in a jeep with Capt. Pat Riddleberger, of Woodstock, Virginia, and Pvt. John Coughlin, Manchester, New Hampshire. Ahead of us was a small covered truck which belonged to Riddleberger’s tank-destroyer section. We were a little two-vehicle convoy within ourselves. We were to fall in near the tail end, so we had half the night to kill before starting. We stood around the truck, parked in a barn lot, for an hour or two, just talking in the dark. Then we went into the kitchen of the farmhouse which had been used as a command post and which was empty now. There was an electric light, and we built a fire in the kitchen fireplace out of boxes. But the chimney wouldn’t draw, and we almost choked from the smoke.

Some officers had left a stack of copies of the New York Times for October and November lying on the floor, so we read those for an hour or so. We looked at the book sections and the movie ads. None of us had ever heard of the new books or the current movies. It made us feel keenly how long we had been away and how cut off we were from home. One of the boys said:

They could make money just showing all the movies over again for a year after we get back.

We finished the papers and there were still three hours to kill, so we got blankets out of the truck and lay down on the concrete floor. We were sleeping soundly when Capt. Riddleberger awakened us at 1:00 a.m. and said we were off.

The moon was just coming out. The sky was crystal-clear, the night bitter cold. The jeep’s top was down. We all put on all the clothes we had. In addition to my usual polar-bear wardrobe, which includes heavy underwear and two sweaters, that night I wore a pair of coveralls, a heavy combat suit that a tank man lent me, a pair of overshoes, two caps – one on top of the other – and over them a pair of goggles. The three of us in the jeep wrapped up in blankets. In spite of all that, we almost froze before the night was over.

We moved out of the barn lot, and half a mile away we swung onto the main road, at the direction of motorcyclists who stood there guiding the traffic. Gradually our eyes grew accustomed to the half-darkness, and it wasn’t hard to follow the road. We had orders to drive in very close formation, so we kept within 50 feet of each other.

After a few miles we had to cross a mountain range. There were steep grades and switchback turns, and some of the trucks had to back and fill to make the sharper turns. There was considerable delay on the mountain. French trucks and buses would pass and tie up traffic, swinging in and out. And right in the center of these tortuous mountains we met a huge American hospital unit, in dozens of trucks, moving up to the front. They were on the outside of the road, and at times their wheels seemed about to slide off into the chasm.

We had long waits while traffic jams ahead were cleared. We shut off our motors and the night would be deathly silent except for a subdued undertone of grinding motors far ahead. At times we could hear great trucks groaning in low gear on steep grades far below, or the angry clanking of tanks as they took sharp turns behind us.

Finally, the road straightened out on a high plateau. There we met a big contingent of French troops moving silently toward the front we had just vacated. The marching soldiers seemed like dark ghosts in the night. Hundreds of horses were canning their artillery, ammunition and supplies.

I couldn’t help feeling the immensity of the catastrophe that had put men all over the world, millions of us, to moving in machine-like precision throughout long foreign nights – men who should have been comfortably asleep in their warm beds at home. War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.

La Stampa (February 19, 1943)

Altre posizioni nemiche in Tunisia occupate dale truppe dell’Asse

Un contrattacco avversario, appoggiato da mezzi corazzati, respinto; Un piroscafo affondato e uno danneggiato nelle acque di Algeri; Quattro aerei abbattuti durante incursion in Sardegna e in Sicilia

Il Quartier Generale delle Forze Armate ha diramato nel pomeriggio di Ieri il seguente bollettino numero 999:

In Tunisia, ie truppe dell’Asse hanno occupato alter posizioni nemiche, respingendo poi un contrattacco avversario appoggiato da mezzi corazzati. Nel cielo tunisino, quattro aerei nemici venivano abbattuti; tre dal tiro di reparti terrestri, uno dalla saceia.

A nord di Algeri, velivoli germanici attaccavano un convoglio scortato, affondando un piroscafo di 9000 tonnellate e danneggiandone um alter di agues stazza.

Bombardieri americani hanno lanciato bombe dirompenti ed incendiaries su Cagliari, Quarto Sant’Elena e Gonnosfanadiga, causando gravi danni ad abitazioni civili e vittime tra la popolazione. Sono stati linora segnalati 100 morti e 235 feriti.

Attaccati dal nostril cacciatori, tre del velivoli incursori precipitavano presso Samassi, nel dintorni di Nuraminis ed a ponente dell’Isola di San Pietro. Dodici degli aviator lanciatisi sci paracaduto, venivano catturati.

Nel pressi di Catania, uno «Spitfire» centrato dal fuoco di un nostro bombardiere, cadeva in mare.


Avventati piani americani contro il Giappone

Un panorama strategico dalle Aleutine all’Insulindia

Tokio, 18 febbraio –
Il colonnello Yahagi, portavoce dell’esercito, ha oggi illustrato in un discorso pronunciato a Fukuoka le attuali condizioni.della guerra nell’Asia orientale. Egli ha precisato anzitutto che la strategia americana decisa in un primo tempo ad adottare la difensiva profittando della resistenza di Ciung King ad est e di quella sovietica in Europa, si è mutata in strategia offensiva all’Inizio del corrente anno.

Ha rilevato quindi come gli Stati Uniti, dopo le loro cocenti perdite si siano completamente dedicati al rafforzamento dell’arma aerea ed al rafforzamento delle loro basi continentali, più che a quelle insulari. E’ chiaro, ha dichiarato Yahagi che gli Stati Uniti intendono attaccare il Giappone da nord, rinforzando le Aleutine ed apprestando migliori comunicazioni con l’Alaska.

Esaminate poi le difficoltà esistenti per il nemico di condurre attacchi dalle Hawai, Yahagi si è soffermato sull’attività che vanno svolgendo i nordamericani per la creazione di basi aeree nel Pacifico australe usando l’Australia quale base principale. Egli ha rilevato a questo punto che le analoghe attività dei giapponesi sono state più lente e perciò occorre riguadagnare terreno per stabilire saldamente la linea che va da Sumatra a Giava, a Timor, alla Nuova Guinea ed alle isole del Pacifico del Sud, inviando forze adeguate, il cui compito principale sia l’attacco anziché la difesa.

Ha ricordato quindi come allineando nuove basi il Giappone si assicuri una posizione strategica incrollabile che consentirà nuove operazioni. Il portavoce dell’esercito ha proseguito precisando che nonostante regni attualmente la calma sulla frontiera russo-mancese, l’armata nipponica del Kuantung, in previsione di cambiamenti nella situazione internazionale si prepara perfettamente a qualunque eventualità. Dopo aver aggiunto che l’attività dei sottomarini nemici nelle acque del Giappone incomincia a farsi sentire, Yahagi ha dichiarato che la guerra è entrata in una fase sostanziale, ma che la convinzione del popolo nipponico sulla vittoria fide è più che mai incrollabile.

Brooklyn Eagle (February 19, 1943)

Report Pope urged to leave Vatican

Writer sees removal to Brazil as motive of Spellman mission
By Michael Williams

Rommel blasted by Allied fliers

British fan out along Mareth Line – U.S. forces regroup in Tunisia

Tunisian battle map

tuni
The direction of the German Afrika Korps Divisions, when they were causing U.S. troops to fall back in central Tunisia, is shown on this map. Solid arrows indicate gains made by the British 8th Army, which is threatening the Axis rear with an advance up to the Mareth Line, and also shows gains made by Rommel’s forces. Dotted arrows indicate probably objective of these two drives.

London, England (UP) –
Britain’s 8th Army is fanning out before the Mareth Line after capturing its southern outpost of Fum Tatawin and Allied planes are bombing German positions taken from the Americans around Fériana, Tunisian reports said today.

Marshal Erwin Rommel’s offensive in central Tunisia apparently had run its course, and his U.S. adversaries were regrouping in the rugger terrain west of the lost Fériana-Sbeitla line.

Signs mounted that Rommel was dissuaded from further undertakings on that front by the gathering threat to his rear in southern Tunisia. There the British veterans, after occupying Fum Tatawin yesterday, swung northward some miles to a point after halfway to Medenine, near the center of the Mareth forts.

Planes blast Fériana

Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) –
Allied planes blasted enemy positions around Fériana, a headquarters communiqué announced today, while battered U.S. forces regrouped themselves in the hills west of the Germans Fériana-Sbeitla line.

Ground fighting came to a standstill. The Germans were busy consolidating their position in the Fériana-Kasserine-Sbeitla triangle, and they were also concerned about the growing threat from the British 8th Army.

American and Allied planes, in addition to bombing the Fériana sector of Tunisia and made sweeps against roads over which the Axis was bringing up supplies.

Too few U.S. troops

It can be revealed now that the Americans’ difficulties in the battle of the last five days was caused by too few troops holding too long a line. Fragmentary reports from the front say the Americans fought well and inflicted considerable losses on the enemy. But they also suffered heavily themselves.

The German Transocean News Agency said today that the Axis forces captured 2,800 prisoners in the occupation of Gafsa and Sbeitla. In addition, they seized 169 tanks, 95 armored scout cars, 96 guns and many other armored vehicles, the broadcast said.

It is clear now that the German VI tank is going to be a big factor in the impending battle for Tunisia. There are no armored vehicles on the Allied side in this theater of operations that are capable of matching it, and even the heavier anti-tank guns are finding the Mark VI to be a tough customer.

What the Germans have done in their offensive against the Americans is gain elbow room north of the Gabes bottleneck. It appears now that their next order of business will be to find out where and when they are going to have to fight Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s tough British 8th Army, which chased them 1,400 miles across Libya.

Roosevelt vows U.S. will strike Jap mainland

He publicly promises Mme. Chiang that bases in China will be used

7,500,000 Army goal to stand, says Roosevelt

1943 figure decided last August, he asserts – was never changed