Background of news –
New Deal agencies vanish
By editorial research reports
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Gushing visitor at studio runs into some odd things
For instance – that though Ann and Nancy were in same film they never met
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Oldest stuntman in films still doing his acrobatics
At 54, Johnny Kascier is somersaulting and performing dives and flipflops for the moving pictures
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Nurse dubs bomber action on flight with sick troops
First woman to win Army Air Medal tells of flight from India with soldiers
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Northern Tunisia –
At least there’s one thing we can’t complain about as the Tunisian campaign draws toward its close, and that’s the weather.
In these past few weeks, the heavens have seemed bent on bounteous amends for all the misery they scourged us with during the winter. This is one time when nobody wants to do anything about the weather. It’s perfect as it is. The rains are over. The cold is gone. Everything is green, and flowers sparkle over the countryside. The sun is up early and bright, and it is a blessing after all those dreary months of wet and wind. It’s now like June in Virginia.
I don’t know how it affects the fighting troops, but in my own case I’ve got spring fever so badly my conscience hurts. All I want to do was lie in the sun.
For a while we were camped in an apricot grove, on ankle-high bluegrass. The sun beamed down between the trees, and occasional bees buzzed around with that Midwestern summer drone that to me is synonymous with lazy days.
Shirks work and loves it
That apricot grove was one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever known, and I’d find myself lying for hours outside my tent, flat on my back in the grass, reveling in the evil knowledge that I was shirking my work, the war, and everything else.
Then we moved to a gumtree grove and set up our tents again. One Sunday morning, most of the other correspondents left to visit an airfield, leaving our little camp deserted and a perfect place to accomplish a lot of writing.
But instead of doing my job as I should have, I fell into one of my carpentering spells and worked from breakfast to mid-afternoon building a washstand onto a tree, cutting up a five-gallon gasoline can for a washbasin, cleaning my mess kit, and wiring up a broken chair I had found on a dump heap, so we could boast that we actually had a home with a chair in it. I didn’t write a line all day, bur I sure had a wonderful time.
Chris Cunningham of the United Press and I are sharing a tent and he says if I don’t quit being so housewifey he’s going insane. I guess Chis is doomed, for the spring puttering days are upon me and I can’t help it.
We’ve not yet been issued summer khaki, but there’s a rumor it’ll be done soon. Actually, it isn’t too hot yet for our heavies. They say the cruelly hot weather doesn’t come till June.
Mosquitoes begin to show up
Mosquitoes are beginning to show up. We watched for the first mosquito as we used to watch at home for the first robin, but not with the same spirit of welcome. I’m the mosquito barometer for our group, since a mosquito will travel days and says to find me. I got my first bad bites down in central Tunisia and am now anxiously sweating out the malaria incubation period.
The Army hasn’t yet issued mosquito head or bed nets, but there’s a rumor along that line. They’ve started giving us semiweekly atabrine tablets. I’m being very bad and not taking anything, since atabrine throws me and quinine makes my head feel constantly as though I were shouting in a barrel. So, I suppose the next torture on your list will be having to read about me having malaria.
We correspondents are winding up the Tunisian campaign in comparative luxury. The old rough-and-tumble days of last winter are gone. The Army’s Public Relations Branch is now all set up like a traveling circus, and we are well looked after.
We are so close to the frontlines we can base permanently in our own camp and still get to the firing line in half an hour. German raiders come over daily, but our air superiority is so great now that oftentimes we don’t even look up.
All night the artillery rumbles, and the ground quivers. When I first came to this spot, I couldn’t sleep because of it, but I’ve got used to it.
Arabs dig out slit trenches
We are living in two-man tents, and there are several bigger tents for the kitchen, mess and stockroom. We have stolen tables from a bombed-out saloon in a nearby village. We have electric lights in our tents. And instead of digging our own slit trenches, here the Arabs do it – they pay being a pack of cigarettes for a day’s work.
We take off our clothes at night now. We sleep in folding cots, have our own mess, and even wash our faces of a morning. It is all so different from our miserable winter.
I’m telling you all this so you’ll understand why these columns have been so bad lately. Warm weather and a taste of half-civilized living have undermined my character. I’ve just been too comfortable to think.
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‘Refrigeration’ helps in amputation of soldier’s leg
By Robert T. Letts, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Autoists given more gasoline
Rulings do not affect Eastern area
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McNutt hints a labor thaw
Labor-management group to be heeded
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Book written by wife of envoy is withdrawn
Washington (UP) –
State Department and Chinese Embassy officials said today they did not know why publication of Mme. Wellington Koo’s autobiography, Hui-Kan Koo, was cancelled.
The cancellation was announced without explanation after review copies had been distributed and after some copies had reached bookdealers. Dealers were asked to return their copies and reviewers were asked not to comment on the book.
There were published reports that the State Department, at the request of Chinese authorities, had intervened to prevent distribution of the book by the wife of the Chinese Ambassador to Great Britain.
The officials concerned, however, did not verify these reports.
Washington regrets Russian action
Washington (UP) –
A State Department spokesman, in response to questions, said today that the department had learned “with regret” that the Soviet Union has severed diplomatic relations with the Polish government-in-exile.
The State Department did not make clear whether it had been informed in advance of the pending move, but in answer to questions, it said:
Without reference to the merits in the matter of the difference between these two governments and without knowing as yet the full facts, it is with regret that we learn of this situation.
The Soviet action came as a surprise to observers here, since only this morning the Soviet Information Bureau bulletin had published as article about the Polish charges concerning slayings of Polish troops which described them as Hitlerite propaganda. It was notable for its absence of reference to the Polish government.
Völkischer Beobachter (April 27, 1943)
Yahagi über die amerikanische Kriegführung –
Japan und der Tonnagemangel der USA.
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U.S. Navy Department (April 27, 1943)
Communiqué No. 357
South Pacific.
On April 26, during the early morning, a group of Liberator (Consolidated B-24) heavy bombers attacked Japanese positions at Kahili in the Shortland Island area.
North Pacific.
On April 25:
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During the day, Japanese installations at Kiska were attacked thirteen times by formations of Army planes. Liberator heavy bombers, Mitchell (North American B‑25) medium bombers and Warhawk (Curtiss P‑40) and Lightning (Lockheed P‑38) fighters participated in these raida. Although bomb hits were made on enemy positions, poor visibility prevented complete observation of results.
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On the same day, a group of Liberators attacked Attu Island and scored hits on the runway and other installations.
The Pittsburgh Press (April 27, 1943)
YANKS BATTER NAZI LINES
Foe repulses attack on one Tunisian hill
All Allied forces advance; Americans bomb two Italian bases
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
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