Editorial: ‘The front of decency’
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
The Tunisian front – (Feb. 26, by wireless)
Capt. Jed Dailey of Sharon, Massachusetts, got back safely in his jeep after the German breakthrough out of Faid Pass, but he had a horrible time. He was beating it to the rear across the desert, along with the rest of the command post’s personnel, when suddenly he saw a Mark IV tank staring him in the face not a hundred yards away. The tank was stopped, the crew had the turret door open, and a German was just standing there, looking at Capt. Dailey as cold as ice. It was enough to give you the creeps.
Jed swung the jeep around – and there was another Mark IV staring at him. He kept turning and dodging, but everywhere he could go he was looking smack at the front end of a Mark IV. They just seemed to appear from nowhere, and there they’d be suddenly, until he felt like a mouse trying to get out of a roomful of silent cats.
And they didn’t shoot
Finally, Jed did the only thing left to do. He took his heart in his hand and drove right between two German tanks, with their crews sitting there at the guns and looking at him as he passed 50 yards away. They didn’t shoot, and to this day he doesn’t know why they didn’t.
Then he stepped on that jeep and went soaring across the desert, flying over irrigation ditches you’d normally cross in low gear. German artillery got after him. They dropped an 88 on his right, and then one on his left, and then one in front of him. They had him pocketed. When artillery does that, the next shot always gets you. But they never fired a fourth shell. He had no idea why. It was just kind of like a miracle.
Now he hates Germans
Things like that went on all afternoon. Finally, it got dark, and a sort of safety came. But it wasn’t complete safety, for German patrols were out scouring the desert for stragglers. Jed finally got away by driving the jeep straight up over the top of a mountain and down the other side. He just missed driving over several sheer cliffs. From now on, he hates Germans.
Most of the men who survived the Germans’ surprise breakthrough on that first day of the Sbeitla battle lost everything they had. Maj. ''Satch” Elkins of College Station, Texas, came out with only the clothes on his back. But he resented most losing 300 razor blades to the Germans.
Capt. Dailey swears he will get the German who is now sleeping in his bedroll. One soldier was sore as a hornet because the day before he gathered up his inertia and accomplished the nasty job of writing six long overdue letters home. Now the Germans have them, and he has that writing job to do all over.
Men’s souls are tried
Again, Jed Dailey lost his camera and a dozen rolls of film he had been taking for months. One of them was a foolish picture, such as the soberest of adults sometimes indulges in. He had picked some desert flowers, stuck them behind his ears, and posed for the camera making a silly face.
He says:
The Germans will develop those films for what information they can get. And when they come to the one of an American officer with flowers behind his ears, they’ll probably tell Goebbels to put it out on the radio that Americans are sissies.
One soldier told me his most vivid impression of the afternoon was seeing ten brand-new tires burning up on the wheels of a huge American truck. He said:
With rubber so short at home, and tires rationed, it seemed awful to see those brand-new ones burning.
Another soldier said:
You damn fools, here’s the sky full of planes, and the country full of tanks, and 88s dropping all around you, and you’re worrying about tires!
Saved by a compass
Lt. Col. George Sutherlin of Shreveport, Louisiana, and Lt. Robert Simons Jr. of Columbus, Ohio, walked 29 miles across the desert that night. They had a compass, and it saved them. We had been talking about them while they were missing. One officer said:
George will show up. I’ll bet any amount of money on it. Hell, the Germans will turn him loose after two days, to get rid of him before he talks them to death.
And show up he did. He and Junior Simons say they consider the compass the most valuable piece of equipment the Army issues. They had one horrible experience that night. An Arab they encountered in the desert ran them almost into the hands of a German patrol. They escaped only by lying deathly still, hardly breathing, for an hour, while the Germans hunted within a few yards of them. But another Arab balanced the account by getting out of bed to give them drinking water.
Arabs are 99% true
Most men who walked to safety through the desert that night and the following night were helped by Arabs. I’ve heard of only two cases where Arabs refused to help Americans. One put “Satch” Elkins into a ditch, and covered him with a long rope from a well, and another Arab walked 25 miles leading some enlisted men to safety.
Many soldiers traded their overcoats for Arab burnooses to disguise themselves. There has been much discussion of the Arabs among our men, and the average soldier seems to have a feeling that an Arab can’t be trusted as far as you could throw him by the tail of his burnoose. But figures don’t lie, and the statistics of those awful nights of fleeing, crawling and hiding from death show that Arabs were 99% with us. Many hundreds of grateful Americans wouldn’t be alive today if the Arabs hadn’t helped them.
Millett: Service
Uniforms for women are fine things
By Ruth Millett
Getting into uniform for the duration would be awfully good for some types of women.
Think what it would do to the personality of the woman who has always depended on clothes to put herself across. The woman who has always expected service, admiration and respect for no other reason than that her coat was mink and her dresses designed by the tops of the fashion world.
And think what it would do to the woman who “never has a thing to wear” and was always so busy being apologetic about her clothes that she didn’t know what was going on.
And how good it would be for the woman who has always sacrificed everything in life to have good clothes, stepping daily out of a rundown, neglected home looking like a fashion ad.
All those women would find themselves face to face with the fact that nothing counts but what they are themselves, how capable they are, how likable, how charming, how good-natured.
They couldn’t get by any longer – or think they were getting by – hidden behind good-looking clothes, pretending they really were whatever character they were dressed to play.
They couldn’t any longer walk into a room and expect everybody to take notice because of their clothes. Dressed in the uniform worn by thousands of other women, they might realize that it was up to them to amount to something or be lost in the crowd.
Uniforms aren’t a bad idea for women at all.
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Völkischer Beobachter (February 28, 1943)
Wieder ein Stück der Empire-Herrschaft –
Mr. Knox okkupiert ein „Sprungbrett“
Eigener Bericht des „Völkischen Beobachters“
rd. Bern, 27. Februar –
Nachdem die USA.-Agitation für eine Ausdehnung des Stützpunktsystems, vor allem auf Kosten des britischen Verbündeten, in den letzten Tagen einen Höhepunkt erreicht hatte, glaubte Marineminister Knox nun zu einem offiziellen Regierungsvorstoß übergehen zu können. Er erklärte vor amerikanischen Journalisten, man schneide zweckmäßigerweise schon jetzt diese Frage offen an und ließ durchblicken, daß bereits gewisse Verhandlungen aufgenommen worden seien. Mit Neuseeland werde bereits die völlige militärische USA.-Kontrolle der Insel Upolu in der Samoainselgruppe besprochen.
Hier wird es allerdings nicht mehr viel zu verhandeln geben, denn die Amerikaner haben, wie Knox hinzufügte, auf dieser Insel schon einen Flugplatz angelegt, „ein Sprungbrett im pazifischen Raum,“ wie er es nannte. Die wenigen Tage zurückliegende Erklärung des neuseeländischen Gesandten in Washington, Nash, Neuseeland sei bereit, „den USA. das Recht für Errichtung von See- und Luftbasen auf Neuseeland nach dem Krieg einzuräumen“ kann damit als teilweise überholt betrachtet werden. Jedoch lassen die Ausführungen von Nash erkennen, daß die USA. von Neuseeland nicht nur die Insel Upolu verlangen, sondern auch auf dem neuseeländischen Festlande noch Stützpunkte „politisch anpeilen.“
Als Verhandlungspartner für ein „gemeinsames Stützpunktsystem“ nach dem Krieg nannte der neuseeländische Gesandte in den USA. auch Australien, Niederländisch-Indien und Indien, ein Hinweis, der nur so auszulegen ist, daß Nash fest mit dem Versuch eines Übergreifens und Festsetzens der USA. in diesen Gebieten auf Kosten ihrer Verbündeten rechnet.
Bei einer Besprechung der Frage der Überlassung neuseeländischer Stützpunkte an die USA im USA.-Kongreß wurde bekannt, daß Neuseeland auf „reziproke Leihpachtrechnung“ nicht weniger als 106 Flugfelder für die USA. gebaut habe.
U.S. Navy Department (February 28, 1943)
Communiqué No. 294
South Pacific.
On February 27:
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During the afternoon, Dauntless dive bombers (Douglas), with Wildcat escort (Grumman F4F), bombed Japanese positions at Munda, on New Georgia Island. One large and two small fires were started. All U.S. planes returned.
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During the afternoon, Dauntless dive bombers, with Corsair (Vought F4U), Lightning (Lockheed P-38), and Warhawk (Curtiss P-40) escort, attacked a Japanese transport, with an escort of two Corvettes, off Vella Lavella Island, the westernmost island of the New Georgia group. Several bomb hits were scored on the transport which was left burning. One of the Corvettes was hit and left burning and one float-type Zero was shot down. Two U.S. fighters failed to return.
Lol… so germany gets oil via another route. Amazing!
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The Pittsburgh Press (February 28, 1943)
U.S. planes batter French coast
Harbors at Brest, Dunkirk bombed as non-stop offensive mounts
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer
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Rommel tank thrusts fail
Allies roll back Nazis in Kasserine area
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
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They can still wear “Victory rolls” like a female friend of mine did to honour my training flight in a Spitfire were we did a Victory roll just before landing in Biggin Hill 
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Willkie will run in 1944, paper says
New York (UP) – (Feb. 27)
The New York Herald Tribune said tonight that Wendell Willkie has decided to campaign actively for the Republican presidential nomination in 1944 and will enter his name in key primaries to capture “sufficient delegates to control the party’s national convention.”
The newspaper said Mr. Willkie’s:
…open and aggressive campaign for the nomination is expected to force other potential candidates to come out as openly and to compete against him for first hold on some of the state delegations or to try to grab off, through the medium of stalking horses consisting of favorite sons, some of the other state delegations.
Wooing with bacon causes Army ‘mess’
Newark, New Jersey (UP) – (Feb. 27)
Two mess sergeants who took canned food and slabs of bacon instead of candy and flowers when they called on their girlfriends were held tonight in Camp Kilmer’s stockade for disciplinary action, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported.
The FBI recovered 18 cans of pineapple, a can of fruit cocktail, a jar of mayonnaise, nine pounds of bacon, 100 pounds of sugar and 32 cans of processed milk from the home of a tavern keeper whose two daughters had been keeping company with the mess sergeants.
U.S. distributes new steel penny
Washington (UP) – (Feb. 27)
The Treasury began distribution today of a new zinc-coated steel penny that looks at first glance like an outside dime or an emaciated nickel.
The Treasury put the new coin on sale to collectors and others, but limited purchases to 50 a person. The penny – designed like the old copper Lincoln penny – will go into general circulation as current penny stocks decline.
Criticism that the new coin, which will save 4,600 tons of copper, looks too much like a dime or nickel was easily answered by mint experts.
Give it a little circulation, they said, and the shiny new penny will turn almost black.
Minesweeper launched
Greenport, New York – (Feb. 27)
A minesweeper was launched today by the Greenport Basin and Construction Company.
Curb planned on banqueting
But OPA says nationwide ban is unlikely
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Meat black markets face new federal crackdown
Governors will aid in drive to mete out stern justice to illegal operators; two other control moves planned by OPA
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OPA price policy termed ‘menace to war effort’
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AAA attacked by farm bloc
Some want its employees put to work
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Modern U.S. weapons given to French troops
Washington (UP) – (Feb. 27)
The first of the promised modern American weapons were delivered to French troops in North Africa on Washington’s birthday, it was announced here today by the French military mission.
It was emphasized that the weapons were only a small part of the supplies and materials that would go to the French in due course.