Millett: It’s too bad the overalled women couldn’t speak for themselves but… they were still at their machines
Defense workers haven’t the time to do fancy dressing
By Ruth Millett
…
President Roosevelt’s address at Monterrey, Mexico
April 20, 1943, 11:00 p.m. EWT
Broadcast audio:
Senor Presidente de La Republica Mexicana, my friends and good neighbors:
Your Excellency’s friendly and cordial expressions add to the very great pleasure that I feel at being here on Mexican soil.
It is an amazing thing to have to realize that nearly 34 years have passed since Chief Executives of our two countries have met face to face. I hope that in the days to come every Mexican and every American President will feel at liberty to visit each other just as neighbors visit each other – just as neighbors talk things over and get to know each other better.
Our two countries owe their independence to the fact that your ancestors and mine held the same truths to be worth fighting for and dying for. Hidalgo and Juarez were men of the same stamp as Washington and Jefferson. It was, therefore, inevitable that our two countries should find themselves aligned together in the great struggle which is being fought today to determine whether this world shall be free or slave.
The attacks of the Axis powers during the past few years against our common heritage as free men culminated in the unspeakable and unprovoked aggressions of December 7, 1941, and of May 14, 1942, and the shedding of blood on those dates of citizens of the United States and of Mexico alike.
Those attacks did not find the Western Hemisphere unprepared. The 21 free republics of the Americas during the past ten years have devised a system of international cooperation which has become a great bulwark in the defense of our heritage and the defense of our future. That system, whose strength is now evident even to the most skeptical, is based primarily upon a renunciation of the use of force, and is based on the enshrining of international justice and mutual respect as the governing rule of conduct by all nations everywhere.
In the forging of that new international policy the role of Mexico has been outstanding. Mexican Presidents and Foreign Ministers have appreciated the nature of the struggle with which we are now confronted at a time when many other nations much closer to the focus of infection were blind.
The wisdom of the measures which the statesmen of Mexico and the United States and of the other American Republics have adopted at inter-American gatherings during recent years has been amply demonstrated. They have succeeded because they have been placed in effect, not only by Mexico and the United States, but by all except one of the other American Republics.
You and I, Mr. President, as Commanders-in-Chief of our respective armed forces, have been able to concert measures for common defense. The harmony and the mutual confidence which have prevailed between our armies and navies is beyond praise. Brotherhood in arms has been established.
The determination of the Mexican people and of their leaders has led to production on an all-out basis of strategic and vital materials so necessary to the forging of the weapons destined to compass the final overthrow of our common foes. In this great city of Monterrey, I have been most impressed with the single-minded purpose with which all the forces of production are joined together in the war effort.
And too, Mexican farm workers, brought to the United States in accordance with the agreement between our two Governments, the terms of which are fully consonant with the social objectives that we cherish together, are contributing their skill and their toil to the production of vitally needed food.
But not less important than the military cooperation and the production of supplies needed for the maintenance of our respective economies has been the exchange of those ideas and of those moral values which give life and significance to the tremendous effort of the free peoples of the world. We in the United States have listened with admiration and with profit to your statements and addresses, Mr. President, and to those of your distinguished Foreign Minister. We have gained inspiration and strength from your words.
In the shaping of a common victory our peoples are finding that they have common aspirations. They can work together for a common objective. Let us never lose our hold upon that truth. It contains within it the secret of future happiness and prosperity for all of us on both sides of our unfortified borders. Let us make sure that when our victory is won, when the forces of evil surrender – and that surrender shall be unconditional – then we, with the same spirit and with the same united courage, will face the task of the building of a better world.
There is much work still to be done by men of good will on both sides of the border. The great Mexican people have their feet set upon a path of ever greater progress so that each nation may enjoy and each citizen may enjoy the greatest possible measure of security and opportunity. The government of the United States and my countrymen are ready to contribute to that progress.
We recognize a mutual interdependence of our joint resources. We know that Mexico’s resources will be developed for the common good of humanity. We know that the day of the exploitation of the resources and the people of one country for the benefit of any group in another country is definitely over.
It is time that every citizen in every one of the American republics recognizes that the Good Neighbor policy means that harm to one Republic means harm to each and every one of the other republics. We have all of us recognized the principle of independence. It is time that we recognize also the privilege of interdependence – one upon another.
Mr. President, it is my hope that in the expansion of our common effort in this war and in the peace to follow we will again have occasion for friendly consultation, in order further to promote the closest understanding and continued unity of purpose between our two peoples.
We have achieved close understanding and unity of purpose, and I am grateful to you, Mr. President, and to the Mexican people, for this opportunity to meet you on Mexican soil, and – to call you friends.
You and I are breaking another precedent. Let these meetings between Presidents of Mexico and the United States recur again and again and again.
U.S. Navy Department (April 21, 1943)
Communiqué No. 351
South Pacific.
On April 19:
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Flying Fortress (Boeing B‑17) heavy bombers attacked Japanese positions at Kieta, on Bougainville Island.
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Avenger (Grumman TBF) torpedo bombers attacked the Japanese airfield at Kahili, in the Shortland Island area.
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A second formation of Avengers attacked Japanese shipping at Tonolei Harbor, on Bougainville Island. A direct hit was scored on one freighter and several near hits were scored on a second freighter.
On April 20, a force of Avengers and Dauntless (Douglas) light bombers bombed Japanese installations at Munda, in the Central Solomons. Several anti-aircraft positions were silenced and a large fire was started.
North Pacific.
On April 19, Japanese installations at Kiska were attacked fifteen times by formations of Army planes. Liberator (Consolidated B‑24) heavy bombers, Mitchell (North American B‑25) medium bombers, and Lightning (Lockheed P‑38) and Warhawk (Curtiss P‑40) fighters carried out these raids. The bombing and strafing attacks were made at varying altitudes and resulted in numerous hits on the main camp area, the runway and defensive positions. Fires were also started.
President Roosevelt’s statement on Japanese execution of the Tokyo raiders
April 21, 1943
It is with a feeling of deepest horror, which I know will be shared by all civilized peoples, that I have to announce the barbarous execution by the Japanese government of some of the members of this country’s armed forces who fell into Japanese hands as an incident of warfare.
The press has just carried the details of the American bombing of Japan a year ago. The crews of two of the American bombers were captured by the Japanese. On October 19, 1942, this government learned from Japanese radio broadcasts of the capture, trial, and severe punishment of those Americans. Continued endeavor was made to obtain confirmation of those reports from Tokyo. It was not until March 12, 1943, that the American government received the communication given by the Japanese government stating that these Americans had in fact been tried and that the death penalty had been pronounced against them. It was further stated that the death penalty was commuted for some but that the sentence of death had been applied to others.
This government has vigorously condemned this act of barbarity in a formal communication sent to the Japanese government. In that communication this government has informed the Japanese government that the American government will hold personally and officially responsible for these diabolical crimes all of those officers of the Japanese government who have participated therein and will in due course bring those officers to justice.
This recourse by our enemies to frightfulness is barbarous. The effort of the Japanese war lords thus to intimidate us will utterly fail. It will make the American people more determined than ever to blot out the shameless militarism of Japan.
I have instructed the Department of State to make public the text of our communication to the Japanese government.
The Pittsburgh Press (April 21, 1943)
FLIERS WHO BOMBED TOKYO PUT TO DEATH BY JAPANESE
Barbarous executions announced
Tokyo told it will be forced to pay for ‘diabolical crime’
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt announced today “with a feeling of deepest horror,” the barbarous execution by the Japanese government of some of the members of this country’s armed forces who fell into Japanese hands as “an incident of warfare.”
Mr. Roosevelt was issued through the White House.
The President’s statement was accompanied by the text of a protest filed with the Japanese government April 12 through the Swiss Minister in Tokyo.
The President’s statement said:
It is with a feeling of deepest horror, which I know will be shared by all civilized peoples, that I have to announce the barbarous execution by the Japanese government of some of the members of this country’s armed forces who fell into Japanese hands as an incident of warfare.
The men executed were members of the raiding party led by Maj. Gen. James H. Doolittle which bombed Tokyo and other Japanese cities April 18, 1942.
Mr. Roosevelt did not say how many were executed, but the War Department said eight members of the Doolittle expedition were believed to have been taken by the Japanese.
The President’s statement said the death sentence had been commuted for some of the prisoners.
The President’s statement continues:
The press has just carried the details of the American bombing of Japan a year ago. The crews of two of the American bombers were captured by the Japanese. On Oct. 19, 1942, this government learned from Japanese radio broadcasts of the capture, trial, and severe punishment of those Americans. Continued endeavor was made to obtain confirmation of those reports from Tokyo. It was not until March 12, 1943, that the American government received the communication given by the Japanese government stating that these Americans had in fact been tried and that the death penalty had been pronounced against them. It was further stated that the death penalty was commuted for some but that the sentence of death had been applied to others.
This government has vigorously condemned this act of barbarity in a formal communication sent to the Japanese government. In that communication this government has informed the Japanese government that the American government will hold personally and officially responsible for these diabolical crimes all of those officers of the Japanese government who have participated therein and will in due course bring those officers to justice.
This recourse by our enemies to frightfulness is barbarous. The effort of the Japanese war lords thus to intimidate us will utterly fail. It will make the American people more determined than ever to blot out the shameless militarism of Japan.
I have instructed the Department of State to make public the text of our communication to the Japanese government.
New attacks on Tokyo promised as Army tells of Doolittle Raid
Hornet revealed as ‘Shangri-La’ used by bombers
By Sandor S. Klein, United Press staff writer
First off for Tokyo, Maj. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle “bounces” his B-25 bomber off the U.S. aircraft carrier Hornet, as the ship rides in heavy seas, to lead his flight of bombers on the April 1942 raid on Tokyo. The other Billy Mitchell bombers can be seen on the aft flight deck of the Hornet.
Washington –
Japan will be bombed again and again.
This warning was held out to the Japs by the War Department in making public for the first time the official story of the bombing of Tokyo by Maj. Gen. James H. Doolittle’s 80 handpicked raiders.
It was a story of heroism and success; of hardships and hard luck at the beginning and end.
Aside from officially confirming that the “Shangri-La” from which the 16 Army medium bombers were launched was the aircraft carrier Hornet, the most interesting part of the long-awaited account of the raid was what happened to its participants and their planes after they had completed their mission over Japan.
15 of planes wrecked
The story with the happy climax came to a sour ending. The planes were supposed to have landed on airfields in Free China when their job of destruction was done. But this is what happened:
All but one of the 16 planes were wrecked in forced or crash landings in China or off the Chinese coast. The exception was a plane that landed in Russian Siberia.
Of the 80 participants, eight are prisoners or presumed to be prisoners of the Japs. One was killed after a parachute landing in mountainous Chinese terrain. Two others are missing, with no clue to their fate. Five are interned in Russia. The remaining 64 gained the safety of unoccupied China. Seven of these were injured.
And there is an anti-climax to the story. Of the 64 who got away, nine were subsequently killed or are missing in action and one is a prisoner of Germany.
Adm. William F. Halsey Jr., now U.S. commander in the South Pacific, commanded the task force that carried the planes to within 800 miles of Tokyo. Adm. Halsey had planned to carry the fliers to within 400 miles of Japan, but an encounter with an enemy patrol vessel – which was sunk – spoiled that plan.
Accomplish mission
Gen. Doolittle was the first to take off from the Hornet in one of the specially-equipped, twin-engined North American “Mitchell” bombers at 8:20 a.m., on April 18, 1942. Shortly, all 16 were in the air headed toward Tokyo after takeoffs in a heavy sea that sent waves over the carrier’s bow and forced the pilots to time their takeoffs with the upbeat of the flight deck.
The primary objective of the mission – to bomb the Jap mainland – was accomplished “with complete success,” the War Department said. Not a single U.S. plane was lost in Japan proper.
What is more, the War Department assures, Tokyo is due to be hit again. The report said:
If the secrecy [of Shangri-La] could always have been kept from the Japanese – which in the end was impossible – it would naturally have added to the tension with which Japan awaits the attacks that still lie ahead.
Besides its destructive and psychological effects, the War Department emphasized, the raid:
…resulted in freezing, within Japan, enemy airplanes and other forces which might have been used in offensive operations elsewhere.
This was one of the deciding factors in the decision to keep details of the American operations a secret for more than a year. This was why President Roosevelt referred to the raid base as “Shangri-La,” a mythical place.
Months ago, the Japs claimed to know the secret of Shangri-La. They named the Hornet. They had already had their revenge on that gallant ship, sending her to the bottom in the Battle of Santa Cruz on Oct. 26, 1942.
Had fate been more kindly, the aftermath of the raid might have been a happier one. But almost from the start, hard luck intervened. After evading two enemy patrol vessels, the Hornet ran into a third. This was 800 miles off Tokyo. The takeoff had been planned at a point about 400 miles from the enemy capital. It was to have been just before dark, so that the attack could be carried out at night and the planes could continue on to land at specified Chinese airfields in the morning.
Start ahead of time
But fear that the third patrol vessel, which was sunk, might have radioed a warning caused the immediate launching of the planes – 10 hours ahead of schedule.
What happened over Japan has already been told by Gen. Doolittle himself. The planes flew in so low – 15 or 20 feet above sea level – that they were almost skimming the wave tops.
There was anti-aircraft fire, some heavy, but no real damage was done. And there were at least 30 pursuit planes aloft but they could not lay a finger on the hedge-hopping Americans.
Upon leaving Japan, the scattered planes ran into a storm. The official account said:
Their already-depleted gasoline reserves were drained further as they bucked the winds. Darkness was coming on and the unfamiliar terrain added to the difficulties. There were no light beacons or landing flares. Unable to go farther, there in the darkness, 6,000-10,000 feet above a strange land, the great majority of the men bailed out.
Most of the men landed in unoccupied China and succeeded in reaching Chungking, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s capital. But some less fortunate landed in occupied China. This led to the capture of eight. Others managed to make their way out of enemy territory with the aid of friendly Chinese who had several of them for long periods.
The only known dead was Cpl. Leland D. Faktor, of Plymouth, Iowa, who made a getaway in his parachute but may have been killed by a fall after landing in mountainous territory. His body was found later.
Lands in Siberia
The only plane to make a safe landing was piloted by Capt. (now Maj.) Edward J. York, of San Antonio, Texas. After bombing Tokyo, his plane had so little gas left, he headed for Siberia and landed 40 miles north of Vladivostok. The ship and crew were interned by the Russians.
One of the planes, piloted by Lt. Ted W. Lawson, of Los Angeles, crashed in the China Sea within three miles of Jap forces. Cpl. David J. Thatcher, of Billings, Montana, was cited for his initiative and courage in tending his companions.
The War Department said that the preoccupation in bringing American fliers to safety was a principal reason why no detailed statement was issued after the raid.
The idea of the raid on Tokyo was conceived first in January 1942, when the desire for revenge on the Japs for the Pearl Harbor attack was barely a month old. Whose idea it was, the War Department did not reveal, but Gen. Doolittle, who was then a lieutenant colonel, took charge of the preparations.
Selects crews
He personally selected the men who were to accompany him. They were all volunteers. There followed months of intensive, specialized training. Much of it was at Eglin Field, Florida.
Using white lines on the field to measure, the fliers concentrated on taking off in the shortest possible distance, because the flight deck of the Hornet-type carrier is approximately 800 feet long.
In order to preserve the secret of the Norden bombsight should any of the B-25s be forced down in Japan, the Norden sight was replaced with a simple 20¢ sight devised by Capt. (now Maj.) C. R. Greening, of Hoquiam, Washington.
So… were there envoys to all of Britain colonies or you had to get through them via Britain?
Weird… I have read that Gandhi opposed Nazism and Imperialism. So… is Gandhi just commenting here or does he really believe that there is no difference between the Axis and the Allies?
When was this formed? Was there also an Indian League of USSR/China/France?
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British take Enfidaville; battle rages
Allies batter foe in air as 8th Army lashes Nazis’ best troops
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
The trap tightens on the Axis armies defending Bizerte and Tunis as the British 8th Army captures Enfidaville and the British 1st Army gains north of Medjez el Bab.
Allied HQ, North Africa –
The British 8th Army has smashed through four furious German counterattacks to capture Enfidaville and all initial objectives in the first Axis mountain defense line 50 miles south of Tunis.
A great battle still raged today on the sweltering, rocky Tunisian coastal hills as Allied air forces pressed an unprecedented assault on the enemy and the British 1st Army jabbed the Axis western flank.
Using heavy artillery, Tommy guns, bayonets and knives, the men of Gen. Sir Bernard Montgomery scaled blood-bathed 1,200-foot Jebel Garsi, a dozen miles west of Enfidaville, and then cut suddenly eastward through a whirlwind of German artillery fire to the little Arab village of Takrouna, two miles west by northwest of Enfidaville, which the enemy abandoned. Gen. Montgomery quickly began moving up his heaviest artillery.
Four times the best German troops that Marshal Erwin Rommel could put into the field counterattacked fiercely but were thrown back with heavy losses to both sides. A dispatch from the front said the main battle was on a five-mile front between Takrouna and Jebel Garsi, where sweating, cursing troops are still locked in bitter battle.
The Allied offensive was supported by what U.S. and British headquarters officially described as:
…the heaviest and most destructive blows yet struck against enemy airpower in Tunisia.
The fury of the German counterattacks, all of which were broken up by the rampaging 8th Army, left no doubt that Rommel intended to fight to the bitter end on every rocky hillside and in every ravine guarding the openings to the plains around Tunis.
But the Allied forces, sparked by non-stop aerial attacks that brought down 27 more enemy airplanes on Tuesday for a three-day total of 151 destroyed, were striking from the west as well as through the Enfidaville sector on the south.
On the Medjez el Bab sector, less than 30 miles west of Tunis, the British 1st Army under Lt. Gen. K. A. N. Anderson, pushed forward again in local fighting and seized another town – Smidia – a few miles north of Medjez el Bab.
Axis broadcasts reported fighting “with a ferocity never before attained in the North African campaign” was raging in the Enfidaville sector, but acknowledged British gains which Radio Algiers estimated at three miles.
The four Axis counterattacks were made almost as soon as Montgomery launched his first moonlight advance Monday night, but Enfidaville and the important heights to the west, including Jebel Garsi, were occupied early Tuesday.
Despite the initial 8th Army successes, Rommel still holds a formidable string of ridges north of Enfidaville and Jebel Garsi which presumably make up his main defenses for Tunis.
The terrain around Enfidaville was the most difficult yet encountered by the 8th Army in its 2,000-mile pursuit of Rommel’s Afrika Korps from El Alamein, Egypt, and Allied observers here warned that any advance would be a slow and tedious business.
Rommel is known to have fortified the hills along the Enfidaville line with hundreds of guns, including nests of the deadly 88mm cannon that have served him so well in the past as well as mortars.
Montgomery chose a moonlit night to launch his Enfidaville offensive, even as he did to open his attacks on the Alamein and Mareth Lines. By coincidence, it was also the eve of Adolf Hitler’s birthday.
U.S. and British Air Forces continued heavy attacks on the enemy, especially along the road to Tunis in support of the 8th Army drive. Many vehicles were destroyed or damaged and communication centers blasted.
Reconnaissance photographs also showed excellent results from bombardment of Axis supply bases, especially in Sicily, where recent raids by Flying Fortresses sank or damaged at least 28 enemy supply ships.
U.S. and British Air Forces announced that:
The full weight of the Northwest African Air Force was turned against enemy airfields in the northeastern tip of Tunisia on Tuesday.
Flying Fortresses heavily bombed Sidi Ahmed on the outskirts of Bizerte, straddling the target with many sticks of bombs and starting large fires. Other Fortresses plastered La Marsa Airfield, 10 miles east of Tunis and shot down one Me 109. The Germans, however, had more fighters in the air than in recent days.
Mitchell bombers teamed up with Lightning escorts to hammer a landing ground halfway between Tunis and Bizerte. They also attacked 16 Fw 190s, which fled, as did three Me 109s. Other Mitchells bombed La Sebala, eight miles northwest of Tunis, hitting runways and starting fires.
Two other Mitchell bomber formations attacked two landing grounds between Tunis and Bizerte with “good results.”
The Tactical Air Force also had a big night. Wellington bombers of the RAF smashed at Creteville, 12 miles southeast of Tunis, and Soliman, while RAF Bisleys struck Sidi Ahmed.
Warhawks and Spitfires made many sweeps over the Gulf of Tunis and in a fierce dogfight near Cap Bon, they destroyed 19 enemy fighters without loss. The bag included four Ju 88s, six Me 109s and nine Macchi C.202s.
Beaufighters of the Coastal Air Force made intruder patrols over Sardinia on Monday night and shot up rail lines. One Beaufighter raked a freight train and others attacked a second train south of Sassari. Spitfires flown by Americans on escort duty destroyed six enemy fighters. At one time, a formation of 50 German Focke-Wulf fighters fled from a formation of American-flown Spitfires numbering only 25 planes.
Hurricane night fighters again swept the Tunisian beaches, shooting up enemy air transports and firing a barge near Zembra Island.
Highly recommend you check this out:
In certain aspects, it seems to be the latter. Gandhi did write this to Hitler in 1940:
We resist British Imperialism no less than Nazism. If there is a difference, it is in degree.
It was formed in 1938. Members included Americans and citizens of India living in the U.S.
Unlikely, as the ILA was anti-communist.
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Why though?
What does he by degree here?
What interest do the americans have?
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I really have no idea, there’s not as much documentation on the group as I hoped for.
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2 Presidents leave Mexico, confer in U.S.
Roosevelt and Camacho visit Navy air cadets at Texas base
By Merriman Smith, United Press staff writer
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Simms: Roosevelt’s Mexican trip carries out Hoover’s hope for accord
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
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Coal wage parley becomes $1 million-a-day argument
Public eventually to hold the bag as Lewis allows vast backlog to accumulate
By Fred W. Perkins, Press Washington correspondent
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Fredendall succeeds Lear
Washington –
Maj. Gen. Lloyd H. Fredendall, recently returned to this country from North Africa, will succeed Lt. Gen. Ben Lear, as Commanding General of the 2nd Army, the War Department officially confirmed today.