Allied HQ, Australia (UP) –
A Presidential Unit Citation has been awarded the destroyer USS Smith for action in a fight off the Santa Cruz Islands on Oct. 28, 1942, Southwest Pacific headquarters announced today.
The citation said the USS Smith held a screening position before an aircraft carrier, even after a Japanese torpedo plane crashed on her forecastle and exploded at the height of a battle.
LtCdr. H. H. Wood Jr. was the commanding officer.
Says ‘War Department makes mistakes’ – two other local men listed as killed
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Hollywood, California (UP) –
Actress Veronica Lake was resting comfortably at Good Samaritan Hospital today as doctors sought to prevent premature birth of her second child.
The actress was taken to the hospital after a fall. Her child is expected in late August or early September.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 3, 1943)
By Ernie Pyle
North Africa – (by wireless)
Bill Stevenson, the head of the American Red Cross in Africa, has been married 17 years and has two daughters, 15 and 14. Mrs. Stevenson is just as handsome as her husband, and the two stand out in a crowd because of their smart good looks.
Mrs. Stevenson’s name is Eleanor, but it is a name so long unused that she probably wouldn’t respond if you called her by it. Her name before her marriage was Eleanor Bumstead, and ever since she can remember, she has been known as Bumpy.
The two met while Bill was at Oxford in the mid-20s. Bumpy’s father had gone to England on business, and Bumpy went along. She and Bill knew of each other but had never met.
Bill says Bumpy followed him to England and asked him to marry her. Bumpy says, well, what the hell if she did?
There is a sort of unspoken rule in the Red Cross against husbands and wives being together, but in this case, it is unthinkable that Bumpy should not be along. The two operate as a mechanism. Bumpy wears a Red Cross uniform, and in addition to a terrific amount of headquarters work she is a sort of roving delegate, cheerer-upper, smoother-over and finder-outer for the whole Red Cross of Africa, and half the Army too. She travels a lot, and everywhere she goes, she lands her pretty ear to tales of woe, turns her pretty smile on generals and privates without distinction, and gives her strong shoulder to be wept upon by all and sundry.
Bill calls her “the G.I. girlfriend.”
Bill says with a laugh:
I have to be super-nice to everybody because I never know whom I’m talking to. Soldiers come barging into my office and sit and talk by the hour. I’ve got work to do but I don’t dare hurry them off, for it’s probably Bumpy’s latest boyfriend. It’s always either generals or privates with Bump. Nobody in between stands a chance.
Bumpy and Bill have a way with them of making everybody crazy about them. Bumpy especially is a sponge that attracts the spilling of private griefs. The soldiers think she is wonderful. She is always getting herself in a mess by going to bat for somebody she thinks is being mistreated. Like Bill, she is in work up to her ears and has no axes to grind.
To everybody who knows them, Stevenson is Bill and Mrs. Stevenson is Bumpy, but to each other, they exchange the latter for the slightly more intimate Bump and Billy.
The Stevensons have an Oldsmobile sedan for their own use over here. They live in a small but nice apartment on a hilly street. They have no servants, and seldom sat at home. It’s easier and cheaper to eat at the Red Cross mess downtown.
Both are blessed with indifference to social-climbing. They have entrée, as a matter of course, to high circles, but they are the kind who don’t need to be seen with the right people. They dine with Lt. Gen. Spaatz, for instance, not because he’s a general but because they like him and have business to talk over with him. They have no purely social life whatever. They can skip that for the duration.
The Stevensons have been overseas more than a year now. They were in England together, and Bumpy followed Bill down here. Bill had a few bad days when he heard Bumpy’s boat had been sunk, but it turned out she was on a different boat.
Bumpy has not been back to the States at all, but Bill took a flying trip home this spring to thresh out some details at Washington headquarters. He did his business, saw their two children, stayed a total of three weeks, and was glad to get back over here.
Bumpy’s presence in a theater of war with her husband is a strange repetition of history. The whole thing parallels the experience of her own parents. In the last war, her father was on the faculty at Yale and frequently went to England to give special lectures at Cambridge. He was there when we entered the war in 1917 and was immediately appointed scientific attaché of the American Embassy in London. So, Mrs. Bumstead left her children with their grandmother and went to England to be with him.
Today, Bumpy’s daughter are left in the hands of their grandmother while Mama works overseas. Bumpy says she remembers when her mother went away to war and how lonely and horrible she felt, yet what a thrill it was to show off before the other kids in a sort of stuck-up way about having your mother overseas. And when Bumpy left for England in the spring of 1942, one of her little girls said as she kissed her goodbye:
Mummy, we’ll be awfully lonesome, but we’re awfully proud too.
Meaning, mainly, as Bumpy says, that they can go around bragging about it.
U.S. Navy Department (July 4, 1943)
South Pacific.
On June 28, at dawn, Liberator (Consolidated) heavy bombers, attacked Japanese installations at Nauru Island. Fourteen defending Zero fighters were in the air but only four Zeros appeared willing to press home an attack. Two Zeros were damaged. Results of the attack were unobserved. All U.S. planes returned.
Mitchell (North American) medium bombers, escorted by Lightning (Lockheed P‑38) fighters, attacked Japanese antiaircraft positions at Munda, New Georgia Island.
Later, in the afternoon, Avenger (Grumman TBF) torpedo bombers and Dauntless (Douglas) dive bombers attacked the Japanese camp sector at Munda, New Georgia Island.
North Pacific.
On July 2, Ventura (Vega) and Mitchell medium bombers and Liberator heavy bombers carried out eight attacks on Japanese installations at Kiska. Hits were observed on anti-aircraft positions in Gertrude Cove, the camp area and North Head sections. One direct hit as made on a house.
On July 3, Liberator heavy bombers attacked the central bivouac area in Kiska. Weather conditions prevented observation of the results.
The following information has been announced in the South and Southwest Pacific:
On July 2, in the early evening, just east of Rendova Island, New Georgia Group, seven U.S. Corsair fighters intercepted and engaged one formation of 30 Zeros and immediately following attacked another formation of 20 Zeros. Six Zeros were destroyed. Three Corsairs were lost, but one pilot was rescued.
On July 3, shortly before 3 p.m., Lightning fighters attacked a formation of about 50 Japanese Zeros over Rendova Island, New Georgia Group. Five Zeros were destroyed. Three U.S. planes were lost.
Völkischer Beobachter (July 4, 1943)
Auch die Rolle seiner jüdischen Hintermänner eindeutig enthüllt
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Von unserer Stockholmer Schriftleitung
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Brooklyn Eagle (July 4, 1943)
America has a war to win and it is up to us, as individuals firmly united in a common cause, to see it through to Victory.
Every American is involved in this titanic struggle – each has a task to perform – and Uncle Sam expects everyone to do a full share.
This is our opportunity to show future generations of Americans that the Spirit of ’76 also prevailed in 1943 and that we, too, did our part in helping to preserve their treasured heritage of liberty.
If we first fully appreciate just what it means to be free, we will then tackle the job ahead of us on the home front with renewed enthusiasm. Inspired by the faith and idealism of our forefathers, we must back up our boys on the fighting front to the limit of our abilities.
SPEED VICTORY
They GIVE Their LivesOur fighting men are doing their bit to speed the day of Victory and we’re proud of their achievement, but it takes more than just fighting men to win this war.
They must have the necessary tools – the finest fighting materials that money can buy – and it is our responsibility to provide them.
One way in which we can do this is by putting every cent possible into War Loan securities. There is no safer investment in the world – no stronger safeguard for our security.
Let’s show our men in the Armed Services, who are willing to make the supreme sacrifice for us, that we are willing to endure minor privations and cheerfully forego some of our accustomed luxuries so that they may have their necessities.
Let’s make our dollars fight!
BUY WAR BONDS
You LEND Your Money
Sharp fight rages nearby – 11 planes bagged at Rendova
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Liberators destroy 12 of foe in dropping 200 tons of explosives
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Washington (UP) – (July 3)
World War II has brought announced casualties totaling 91,644 to U.S. Armed Forces, the Office of War Information reported today.
This total, based on War and Navy Department reports, includes 16,696 dead, 21,828 wounded, 31,579 missing, and 21,541 prisoners.
The War Department report as of July 3 shows Army casualties totaling 64,621. Of this number, 8,533 were killed, 17,094 wounded, 21,046 missing, and 17,948 prisoners of war. Of the wounded, 6,268 have returned to active duty or have been released from hospitals, OWI said.
The Navy Department, as of July 3, reported casualties totaling 27,023, including 8,163 dead, 4,734 wounded, 10,533 missing, and 3,593 prisoners of war.
The last previous casualty report, as of April 23, listed 12,123 dead, 15,049 wounded, 40,435 missing and 10,638 prisoners of war for a total of 78,235.
Banking committee rejects New Deal plea for unlimited power
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Legislators, eager for summer recess, adopt conference report on compromise funds
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London, England (UP) – (July 3)
President Władysław Raczkiewicz of Poland, in a telegram to President Roosevelt, sent his greetings and good wishes on the occasion of Independence Day and expressed the conviction that:
The hour of deliverance is approaching for the nations of Europe who are struggling against the brutal invader.
He said that:
The recent successes of Allied arms have greatly swung the balance in favor of the United Nations.
