Background of news –
Spending and inflation
By editorial research reports
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America’s interest eases gloom over Gandhi’s fast
Many Hindus turn to prayer; chance for truce seen if British release leader
By A. T. Steele
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American artillery showers explosives on Axis forces inside Kasserine Pass
Eyewitness says battle in central Tunisia looked like Fourth of July celebration
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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Millett: Glamor girls hindrance in war factory
Trying to look like picture stars has dangerous side
By Ruth Millett
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
The Tunisian front – (Feb. 24, by wireless)
On the morning the big German push started against the American troops in Tunisia, our forward command post in that area was hidden in a patch of cactus about a mile from the town of Sidi Bouzid.
It had been there more than a week and I had visited there myself only three days previously. I had spent a lot of time with our forward troops in the hills, and I knew most of the officers.
A command post is really the headquarters of a unit. In this case a brigadier general was in command. His staff included intelligence and planning officers, unit commanders, a medical detachment, kitchens, and various odds and ends.
A command post of that size has several score vehicles and two or three hundred men. Its work is all done in trucks, half-tracks or tents. It is always prepared to move, when at the front. And it does move every few days, so the enemy won’t spot it. This special command post was about ten miles back from the nearest known enemy position. Our artillery and infantry and some tanks were between it and the enemy.
Almost too late
I am describing all this because I will use the men of this command post as characters in our story as I try to picture the tragedy of that first day’s surprise push.
That Sunday morning hordes of German tanks and troops came swarming out from behind the mountains around Faid Pass. We didn’t know so many tanks were back there, and we didn’t know so many Germans were either, for our patrols had been bringing in mostly Italian prisoners from their raids.
The attack was so sudden nobody could believe it was in full force. Our forward troops were overrun before they knew what was happening. The command post itself didn’t start moving back till after lunch. By then it was too late – or almost too late.
Command cars, half-tracks and jeeps started west across the fields of semi-cultivated desert, for by then the good road to the north was already cut off. The column had moved about eight miles when German tanks came charging in on the helpless vehicles from both sides.
A headquarters command post is not heavily armed. It has little to fight with. All that these men and cars could do was duck and dodge and run like hell. There was no such thing as a fighting line. Everything was mixed up over an area of ten miles or more.
Bad gas stops them
It was a complete melee. Every jeep was on its own. The accompanying tanks fought until knocked out, and their crews then got out and moved along on foot. One tank commander, whose whole crew escaped after the tank caught fire, said that at least die Germans didn’t machine-gun them.
Practically every vehicle reported gasoline trouble that afternoon. Apparently, there was water in the gas, yet nobody felt that it was sabotage. They say there had been similar trouble before, but never so bad.
A friend of mine. Maj. Ronald Elkins, of College Station, Texas, had his half-track hit three times by German shells. They were standing still, cleaning a carburetor filter, when the third shell hit. It set them afire. Some of the crew eventually got back safely, but others are still missing. Maj. Elkins said they could have got clear back with the car “if the damned engine had only kept running."
Back to the cactus patch
The Germans just overran our troops that afternoon. They used tanks, artillery, infantry, and planes dive-bombing our troops continuously. Our artillery was run over in the first rush. We were swamped, scattered, consumed, by the German surprise.
Twilight found our men and machines straggling over an area extending some ten miles back of Sidi Bouzid. Darkness saved those that were saved. During the night the command post assembled what was left of itself in another cactus patch about 15 miles behind its first position. Throughout the night, and for days afterward, tired men came straggling in afoot from the desert.
That night the Germans withdrew from the area they’d taken, and next morning we sent trucks back to bury the dead and tow out what damaged vehicles they could. But by next afternoon the battle was on again.
Ickes lashes UNW head for letters snub
He’s playing with fire, fuels head says of Lewis
By Fred W. Perkins, Press Washington correspondent
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U.S. Navy Department (February 26, 1943)
Communiqué No. 292
North Pacific.
On February 23, U.S. bombers, with fighter escort, attacked Japanese positions at Kiska. Clouds prevented observation of results.
South Pacific.
On February 25:
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Dauntless dive bombers (Douglas), with Lightning (Lockheed P-38) and Wildcat (Grumman F4F) escort, bombed Japanese positions at Vila, on Kolombangara Island. Fires were started in the target area.
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Liberator heavy bombers (Consolidated) attacked enemy positions at Kahili and at Faisi in the Shortland Island area.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 26, 2943)
ROMMEL RACES FOR COAST
American drive to head off Axis gains 10 miles
Main enemy force retreating toward Sfax as Allied planes and guns rule front
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
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U.S. BOMBERS BLAST WILHELMSHAVEN
7 planes lost; big RAF raid rips Nurnberg
Yanks make third raid on Germany, following up British attack
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer
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Plane output menaced by Boeing union
More mass meetings which stop work threatened unless WLB acts
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WAVE gets Navy blessing to marry British airman
Etna ensign’s father will perform wedding ceremony
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