Tunisian drive soon indicated
Eisenhower says foe will be driven to destruction
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
…
Guerrillas get American guns
Large army battles Nazis in eastern France
By John A. Parris, United Press staff writer
…
Stephen V. Benét, poet, dies of heart ailment
New York (UP) –
Stephen Vincent Benét, 44, poet and author, died at his home here today of heart ailment.
Mr. Benét, whose John Brown’s Body won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1928, had stopped writing last year to devote all his time to war work.
One of the most accomplished poets and short storywriters of his time, Mr. Benét during the last year had been doing volunteer and unpaid creative work for the government including many radio programs and the “Prayer for United Nations,” which President Roosevelt delivered at the conclusion of his Flag Day address.
I DARE SAY —
Parryscope
By Florence Fisher Parry
When Anne Lindbergh’s North to the Orient came out, a lot of people wondered “Why NORTH?” Now of course we all know. Aviation has given us new concepts of directions, distances, and when we hear that an attempted air raid by the enemy would not necessarily come from across the Atlantic, but more plausibly down from the North to some place like Detroit, Buffalo or Pittsburgh, we take the news in stride.
I’m scared, though, about our complacent assumption that our enemy could no longer break through and invade, by air, in a last-minute convulsion of desperation. There is a growing uneasiness in high quarters about the whereabouts of the main body of the Luftwaffe. It has been practically inactive for too long a time. It seems to have learned its lesson from the inspired strategy of England during the Battle of London, when the RAF couldn’t be made to spend itself, but kept scattered, and WAITED TO BE BUILT UP INTO RETAILIATORY STRENGTH.
Clear call
Now what has brought all this to mind this morning is that I just heard something I could hardly believe; and that is that our local filter center – the aircraft warning center – is actually in serious need of MORE PERSONS to activate it! Its early night shift (from 6:30 to 11:30) is filled. That means that it is the employed women who, at the end of a tough day, go down and serve another five concentrated hours. But the other shifts are crying out for more volunteers. The 8 to 1 mornings; the 1 to 6:30 p.m., the 11:30 p.m. to 4 a.m., and the 4 a.m. to 8. The very hours when UNEMPLOYED women could definitely contribute their time!
Is this war going to be manned and won only by women ALREADY at work? Or are the still “useless” women going to wake up to the need of THEIR OWN instant active participation?
Are you between 18 and 50 years old? With time to make up the hours lost serving on night shifts or on early morning shifts? Then report for service at the filter center in the City-County Bldg. That is, of course, if you are an ALERT woman, with good eyes, hearing, voice and lively coordination.
It’s challenging work, exciting work; not dull or routine, but a call upon every quick resource of brain and nerve.
Work – or else!
Thousands of our fine young women are hustling into uniforms; and the WAACs, WAVES, SPARS and MARINES are holding a field-day in enlistments. That’s fine, that’s as it should be; but it doesn’t take a uniform to make a woman as USEFUL in this war. There are countless ways to serve – yes, and still be supporting the home front.
The boys in uniform stationed here or even passing through here need pretty young girls as well as motherly matrons to assist at the canteens and other social centers. The filter center is SOS-ing for bring young women for their alert job. While industry, all along the line, is crying out for competent women to fill the places left by their trained men.
WORK FOR THE WAR ON ELSE! And if your only – or even your best – accomplishment is looking lovely and feminine and bringing a brief glow of companionship to boys hungry for a normal time – such as they’d have back home – with girls of their own class who speak their same language – for heaven’s sake, get a move on, girls, and turn on the charm wherever your sweet smiles and healthy words of cheer will be likely to do the most good!
Wishful thinking
At the J. P. Harris Theater this week, there is showing one of the most delightful of Walt Disney’s cartoons: Saludos Amigos. It is a 40-minute “long short” and completely entrancing. Obviously, it is fated to take its place on a double feature program. This week, it has The Great Gildersleeve, which, I offer, is a picture which a true Disney fan would run miles to avoid.
Now how charming it would be if, when a slight little gem like Saludos Amigos is offered, it could be coupled with something on the same level of excellence? I am sure countless movie fans will miss this delectable treat just because nothing else on the program invites their patronage.
I idled with the thought, as I was seeing the Disney masterpiece. How charming if, coupled with this, we could have had a really fine, lengthy, magnificently edited newsreel such as One Day in Moscow or one of those peerless World in Action series; and, instead of the orthodox travelogue, a nostalgic flashback travelogue showing Vienna and Paris and Prague and Stalingrad – as they once were, and as they are today? Or would that be too hard to bear? Too unutterably tragic?
1 Like
Pays $42 million!
New York –
The largest single income tax payment – a check for $42 million – ever made in the rich Manhattan District 2 was given today to Internal Revenue Collector William J. Pedrick. The identity of the payer was not revealed.
U.S. fliers continue raid in Solomons
Washington (UP) –
U.S. fliers carried out two more attacks on Munda and also made minor forays against two other Japanese bases in the Solomons, the Navy announced today.
Guadalcanal was raided Thursday night by two Japanese planes, but the Navy said no casualties or damage were caused.
The second raid on Munda – the 90th aerial attack on that enemy air base – started fires.
U.S. Liberators hit Jap ship at Ambon
Gen. MacArthur’s HQ, Australia (UP) –
U.S. Liberator bombers raided the Japanese key base of Ambon Friday, scoring a direct hit on a 7,000-ton cargo ship and shooting down two of eight enemy fighter planes, an Allied communiqué said today.
All U.S. planes returned.
Dutch B-25s and Australian Beaufighters swept Timor Island earlier in the day, heavily damaging grounded enemy planes at Fuiloro Airdrome.
U.S. Flying Fortresses showered the Lakaunai Airdrome near Rabaul Harbor with 500 demolition and fragmentation bombs, starting many fires and explosions. All planes returned.
‘Superman’ refrigerator seen as post-war addition to home
…
California packers shut off deliveries
…
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
A forward Tunisian airdrome – (March 12)
You may remember my writing last summer about a bunch of American fighter pilots training in Ireland. They were the first fliers to arrive in Ireland, and their comment on the Irish weather was:
When you can see the hills, it’s going to rain; when you can’t see the hills, it’s raining.
Well, I’ve just smacked into this same bunch down here in Africa. They’ve sure been through the mill in the past six months. Already one squadron is veteran enough that some are due to go home soon, and they’ve all been moved back to take a rest.
For five weeks, they lived and fought in a special kind of hell on the Tunisian front. Their field was bombed on an average of every two hours. The pilots took to the air at a moment’s notice, several times a day. They averaged between four and five hors in the air daily, and practically all of it was fighting time.
They started with 21 planes and 22 pilots. They lost six planes and three pilots. But on their scoreboard, they are credited with 11 victories, two probables, and 14 damaged.
Plane is junk; pilot unhurt
They had enough thriller-diller experiences to fill a book. Lt. Ed Boughton of New York had a typical one. His plane was shot all to pieces and the glass canopy that shuts him into the seat was damaged so he couldn’t get it open. Consequently, he couldn’t jump, and simply had to land the plane or die.
Miraculously, he got it back to the field and crash-landed it. The plane was nothing but junk – Lt. Boughton wasn’t hurt. When they finally got him out, they discovered that the jammed canopy had probably saved his life. For his parachutes was shot half away, and if he’d jumped, he would have fallen like a plummet.
The squadron commander is Maj. James S. Coward of Erwin, Tennessee. Lt. Col. Graham West of Portland, Oregon, is the executive officer of the whole group, but spent the entire time at the front with this one squadron. He is still with them, seeing that they rest as hard as they fought.
West’s nickname is “Windy.” He and Jim Coward are typical of the Air forces. They are both young, both extremely pleasant to be around, both high in rank for their age. When I saw “Windy” West last July in Ireland he was a captain. A few moments out to denote the passage of time, and he shows up in Africa as a lieutenant colonel.
West is a black-haired, black-mustached fellow who could easily be called “dashing,” although he’d no doubt resent it. His clothes are always spick-and-span, and so is his mustache. He plays good poker and is always hurrying somewhere. He has been in the Army eight years, and if the Army hadn’t got him, the theater should have.
I went into his room one morning. He was standing in the middle of the floor, drinking a cup of coffee he had brewed on his own little French burner. He was fully dressed on the upper half – shirt, tie, flying jacket and everything.
A Capt. Kidd of the air
But on the lower half he had nothing but shorts and leather boots. Jaunty flying boots that flared at the top. He was a picture of Capt. Kidd – a modern Capt. Kidd of the air.
When they were at the front everybody had to live out in the open. It was wet and cold at the start, wet and cold at the end.
The ground crew of 85 men really went through hell. For they were bombed by day, miserably wet and cold by night, and constantly overworked. When the pilots flew their Spitfires back to a desert airdrome for their much-deserved rest, their main concern was for their ground crews, who had been left up front to care for the replacement squadron.
I heard at least a half a dozen pilots say:
We’re all right. We can use the rest, but we’re not in bad shape. It’s those ground men that really need it and deserve it.
So “Windy” West went to work, and a few days later six big transports flying in formation landed at our field, and out of them climbed the 85 weary ground men. Replacements had arrived for them. They have begun their rest. And all’s well that ends well.
1 Like
Germans fight to gain time, Davis asserts
Nazi offensives seek to prevent Allied drive, OWI head says
…
1 Like
Post-war policy body selected in Senate
Washington (UP) –
The Senate today turned over to a committee of six Democrats and four Republicans the task of drafting a post-war economic policy.
The committee was the Senate’s answer to President Roosevelt’s dictate that Congress plan now for post-war public works which will cushion against disastrous unemployment when industry converts from military to civilian production.
Post-war public works will be one of the multitude of problems the committee will tackle. Committee Chairman Walter F. George (D-GA), who sponsored the proposals, believes the task will extend much further than the cradle-to-grave Social Security and government participation in private enterprise recommendations, perhaps to such international matters as tariff rates, freedom of the world’s airways, and international trade agreements as well as domestic employment measures.
Named on the committee with Mr. George were Alben W. Barkley (D-KY), Carl Hayden (D-AZ), Joseph C. O’Mahoney (D-WY), Claude Pepper (D-FL), Scott W. Lucas (D-IL), Charles L. McNary (R-OR), Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI), Warren R. Austin (R-VT) and Robert A. Taft (R-OH).
1 Like
U.S. Navy Department (March 14, 1943)
Communiqué No. 309
North Pacific.
During the afternoons of March 12 and 13, Warhawk fighters (Curtiss P‑40) bombed and strafed Japanese positions at Kiska.
South Pacific.
During the night of March 12‑13, Liberator heavy bombers carried out minor bombing attacks against Japanese positions at Kahili and Ballale in the Shortland Island area, and at Vila and Munda in the central Solomons. Hits in the enemy area at Ballale started a large fire.
During the morning of March 13, Dauntless dive bombers (Douglas) with Wildcat escort (Grumman F4F) attacked Japanese positions at Vila on Kolombangara Island. Bomb hits caused heavy explosions and smoke in the target area.
No U.S. planes were lost in any of the above actions.