61,126 casualties announced by OWI
…
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
With U.S. forces in Algeria – (by wireless)
Our convoy unloading ports in North Africa are pleasant places to be in – when the Germans are too busy to drop bombs on them, which fortunately is most of the time. Out there on the open docks, the sun beams down warmly, and the air is clear and fresh. Vast quantities of bombs and trucks and guns and food come pouring out of the busy hatches.
Thousands and thousands of American troops unload these ships as they come in. At one port where I recently visited, enough American soldiers to make a good-sized city were working as stevedores. About a fourth of them were colored troops. In addition, there were thousands of Arab stevedores. The Americans are working a three-shift day, right around the clock.
The amount of material pouring out of these ships is impressive. As you stand and look around, you feel that further shipments could be stopped right then, that this is enough. Yet on soberer thought you realize that it is only a drop in the bucket. You realize that the British and Germans in the Middle East have often captured many times this much stuff from each other without stopping the fight. The flood now coming in must continue indefinitely and grow to an absolute cascade before it will be enough.
Convoys arrivals exceed hopes
Convoys are coming through with remarkable safety, even the slow ones. And ships are turned around quickly, though they aren’t approaching any world’s records. With escort ships as scarce as they are, I had supposed that one convoy a fortnight would be a good average. Actually, there are many times that.
There is never a time when there are not ships unloading. There is never a time when new convoys are not about due to take their places. Day by day, the whole of North Africa grows nearer the saturation point with American soldiers, machines of war, and supplies. Before long they will be ready to spill out in a smothering flow over the enemy.
At one port, the commanding officer was given a table of expectancy – he was to have the port ready to unload a certain number of tons per day within a certain time after the occupation. Within a week, he had exactly tripled his goal.
To do that, he had to clear scuttled ships out of the harbor, clear battle debris off the docks, repair damaged utilities, organize thousands of men at the docks.
The whole thing was magnificently planned ahead of time, just as was the whole occupation. For example, they knew just how many ships would be in the harbor. They even assumed that those ships would be sunk or scuttled, and they came prepared to raise them, with soldier-divers trained in England.
Another example of detailed planning: Photographic planes took pictures of the docks. By careful study of the pictures, the Army could tell the exact amount of coal piled on the docks and then figure the total needed to run the utilities and railroads. They brought exactly the amount necessary beyond what was on the docks. It amounted to one whole shipload.
At first, all the thousands of stevedoring troops were quartered in tents right on the docks. Now, they are billeted in empty buildings around the town and in a tent camp out in the country. The men work in brown coveralls and all kinds of headgear.
The Arabs’ working shift is ironically called “the vacation.” Their normal working day consists of two “vacations" of three hours and 20 minutes each, but now they work three hours overtime. They get the going scale here, 50 francs a day, which is about 67¢.
Accidents will happen
In many harbors on the night of the occupation, the French scuttled their ships with a degree of cooperation. That is, on many ships they only opened the seacocks and let the ships ease over on their sides, leaving them in condition to be raised easily.
In other cases, their ships lie on the bottom badly damaged. Even today, you can see masts and funnels sticking above the surface of harbors. Some of the hulks are completely underwater. They impede navigation, but the harbors are usable with careful maneuvering.
Under our arrangements with the local government, French pilots take all ships in and out. They have accidentally run a number of ships over sunken hulks and torn out their bottoms. Diving crews recently worked for two weeks patching a hulk sunk close to the channel, and finally had it ready to start pumping air. They expected it to be afloat the next day. That morning, a ship leaving the harbor with a French pilot somehow happened to hit the submerged hulk, and it tore off all the patches. Now they have to to start all over again. It will take another two weeks to raise the ship.
There are many wars besides the big one up at the front.
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Pegler: French politics
By Westbrook Pegler
New York –
In the frankest story yet sent from North Africa, Ernie Pyle writes that our people have left in office a lot of small-fry officials who were put in by the Nazis and who therefore must be pro-Nazi and are permitting fascist societies to continue to exist.
He says:
So, what to do?
Well, the French are politically demented for the time being, and serve no great consideration from an army and a people whose mission in Africa is, incidentally, to free them both there and at home, from Nazi Germany. Eventually, if this sort of thing goes on, the Americans and British, in self-defense and for military reasons, will have to abandon the pretense that we are indifferent to their politics and the actions and attitudes of their civil authorities, establish a firm military control and tell them, not ask them, what to do.
French politics always corrupt
One of the many reasons why France fell was that the nation was politically incoherent and corrupt. There were pro-Nazis and communists who worked at cross purposes but, paradoxically, for the common purpose of destroying the republic. Their press was unbelievably traitorous and venal, and most of their politicians were vile including some who have been held up to us by Red or otherwise radical left-wing refugees and some of our homegrown but expatriate propagandists as high-principled fighters for freedom and democracy.
When forced to it on some past occasions, American commanders in foreign lands have had the capacity to take over and establish military government for the security of their troops and the success of their missions. This could, and judging from Pyle’s account, should be done again.
The French people on the continent have nothing to lose by such a move, unless one takes seriously the orations of Henry Wallace, and believes it is the purpose of the American people to liberate the French colonies and feed and protect them perpetually even against France.
But, whatever they think, American troops that far from home should not be needlessly exposed to treachery by Frenchmen on the ground of a temporary waiver of idealism. A resort to firmness would be a cheap price to pay for lives that otherwise might be thrown away.
Americans’ safety is main issue
After all, the French people should not be given too much to say in this affair. In saving a drowning man, the rescuer has the right to bust him on the chin to stop his threshing and grappling and if the French insist on playing their complex politics to the detriment of the American soldier, they should be made harmless as long as the necessity requires. Those who are worth saving will submit and those who favor the Axis will deserve whatever it is found necessary to do to them.
The Americans are not there to rescue France primarily but to drive the Germans out and invade the continent at the conclusion of which enterprise, France, as an incidental result, will be free again to mess up her affairs as of old, and doubtless will.
American softness no surprise
It is a mistake to think that the Germans invented, and are the only people who practice, firmness on civilians and local politicians who get obstreperous when they are in military occupation of a conquered land. Insist if we must that this territory is not conquered and that the Americans are merely passing through but if their lives depend on it, the soldiers should and, it is hoped, will act accordingly.
Pyle seems naïve, however, in wondering at our softness in dealing with elements of doubtful interest, for he should know that we have been doing that at home ever since 1933. Officially, at least, although certainly not popularly, we have been kind to communists and party-liners. Within 12 hours after Pyle’s story appeared there was published a photograph of Mrs. Roosevelt in a jolly group which included Joe Curran, the president of the National Maritime Union.
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U.S. War Department (January 7, 1943)
Communiqué No. 289
North Africa.
British units launched attacks yesterday to drive the enemy from the high ground dominating our positions along a road about 15 miles west of Mateur in the northern sector. Successful attacks were made on hills north of the road and we captured Jebel Azzag and other points in the vicinity. Our forces are mopping up isolated machine-gun posts and have repulsed a counterattack against one of our newly-won positions.
During this action, effective support was given by fighter planes and Hurricane bombers which attacked enemy troops and vehicles. Spitfires patrolling in the same area shot down three Fw 190s of a formation of enemy fighters and later intercepted a force of enemy bombers with fighter escorts, destroying one bomber and one fighter.
Flying Fortresses bombed harbor installations and shipping at Sfax. Many hits on the target were seen and large fires were left burning. The airfield at Kairouan was bombed by Martin Marauders (B-26). Both these raids were escorted by Lightnings (Lockheed P-38s). One of our aircraft is missing from the day’s operations.
U.S. Navy Department (January 7, 1943)
Communiqué No. 243
South Pacific.
On January 6:
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“Flying Fortresses” (Boeing B-17), with “Lightning” (Lockheed P-38) and “Warhawk” (Curtiss P-40) escort, attacked a Japanese transport in the Shortland Island area. A possible hit on the stern of the ship was reported.
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U.S. aircraft bombed the airfield at Kahili near Buin on Bougainville Island. Haze prevented observation of results.
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At noon, U.S. aircraft bombed the airfield at Munda on New Georgia Island. Results were not reported.
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Centralisation as in the commie type of centralisation?
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President Roosevelt’s 10th State of the Union Address
January 7, 1943, 12:31 p.m. EST
Broadcast audio:
Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the 78th Congress:
This 78th Congress assembles in one of the great moments in the history of the nation. The past year was perhaps the most crucial for modern civilization; the coming year will be filled with violent conflicts – yet with high promise of better things.
We must appraise the events of 1942 according to their relative importance; we must exercise a sense of proportion.
First in importance in the American scene has been the inspiring proof of the great qualities of our fighting men. They have demonstrated these qualities in adversity as well as in victory. As long as our flag flies over this Capitol, Americans will honor the soldiers, sailors, and Marines who fought our first battles of this war against overwhelming odds the heroes, living and dead, of Wake and Bataan and Guadalcanal, of the Java Sea and Midway and the North Atlantic convoys. Their unconquerable spirit will live forever.
By far the largest and most important developments in the whole worldwide strategic picture of 1942 were the events of the long fronts in Russia: first, the implacable defense of Stalingrad; and, second, the offensives by the Russian armies at various points that started in the latter part of November and which still roll on with great force and effectiveness.
The other major events of the year were: the series of Japanese advances in the Philippines, the East Indies, Malaya, and Burma; the stopping of that Japanese advance in the mid-Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Indian Oceans; the successful defense of the Near East by the British counterattack through Egypt and Libya; the American-British occupation of North Africa. Of continuing importance in the year 1942 were the unending and bitterly contested battles of the convoy routes, and the gradual passing of air superiority from the Axis to the United Nations.
The Axis powers knew that they must win the war in 1942 – or eventually lose everything. I do not need to tell you that our enemies did not win the war in 1942.
In the Pacific area, our most important victory in 1942 was the air and naval battle off Midway Island. That action is historically important because it secured for our use communication lines stretching thousands of miles in every direction. In placing this emphasis on the Battle of Midway, I am not unmindful of other successful actions in the Pacific, in the air and on land and afloat – especially those on the Coral Sea and New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands. But these actions were essentially defensive. They were part of the delaying strategy that characterized this phase of the war.
During this period, we inflicted steady losses upon the enemy – great losses of Japanese planes and naval vessels, transports and cargo ships. As early as one year ago, we set as a primary task in the war of the Pacific a day-by-day and week-by-week and month-by-month destruction of more Japanese war materials than Japanese industry could replace. Most certainly, that task has been and is being performed by our fighting ships and planes. And a large part of this task has been accomplished by the gallant crews of our American submarines who strike on the other side of the Pacific at Japanese ships – right up at the very mouth of the harbor of Yokohama.
We know that as each day goes by, Japanese strength in ships and planes is going down and down, and American strength in ships and planes is going up and up. And so, I sometimes feel that the eventual outcome can now be put on a mathematical basis. That will become evident to the Japanese people themselves when we strike at their own home islands, and bomb them constantly from the air.
And in the attacks against Japan, we shall be joined with the heroic people of China – that great people whose ideals of peace are so closely akin to our own. Even today we are flying as much Lend-Lease material into China as ever traversed the Burma Road, flying it over mountains 17,000 feet high, flying blind through sleet and snow. We shall overcome all the formidable obstacles, and get the battle equipment into China to shatter the power of our common enemy. From this war, China will realize the security, the prosperity and the dignity, which Japan has sought so ruthlessly to destroy.
The period of our defensive attrition in the Pacific is drawing to a close. Now our aim is to force the Japanese to fight. Last year, we stopped them. This year, we intend to advance.
Turning now to the European theater of war, during this past year it was clear that our first task was to lessen the concentrated pressure on the Russian front by compelling Germany to divert part of her manpower and equipment to another theater of war. After months of secret planning and preparation in the utmost detail, an enormous amphibious expedition was embarked for French North Africa from the United States and the United Kingdom in literally hundreds of ships. It reached its objectives with very small losses, and has already produced an important effect upon the whole situation of the war. It has opened to attack what Mr. Churchill well described as “the underbelly of the Axis,” and it has removed the always dangerous threat of an Axis attack through West Africa against the South Atlantic Ocean and the continent of South America itself.
The well-timed and splendidly executed offensive from Egypt by the British Eighth Army was a part of the same major strategy of the United Nations.
Great rains and appalling mud and very limited communications have delayed the final battles of Tunisia. The Axis is reinforcing its strong positions. But I am confident that though the fighting will be tough, when the final Allied assault is made, the last vestige of Axis power will be driven from the whole of the south shores of the Mediterranean.
Any review of the year 1942 must emphasize the magnitude and the diversity of the military activities in which this nation has become engaged. As I speak to you, approximately one and a half million of our soldiers, sailors, marines, and fliers are in service outside of our continental limits, all through the world. Our merchant seamen, in addition, are carrying supplies to them and to our allies over every sea lane.
Few Americans realize the amazing growth of our air strength, though I am sure our enemy does. Day in and day out our forces are bombing the enemy and meeting him in combat on many different fronts in every part of the world. And for those who question the quality of our aircraft and the ability of our fliers, I point to the fact that, in Africa, we are shooting down two enemy planes to every one we lose, and in the Pacific and the Southwest Pacific we are shooting them down four to one.
We pay great tribute – the tribute of the United States of America – to the fighting men of Russia and China and Britain and the various members of the British Commonwealth – the millions of men who through the years of this war have fought our common enemies, and have denied to them the world conquest which they sought.
We pay tribute to the soldiers and fliers and seamen of others of the United Nations whose countries have been overrun by Axis hordes.
As a result of the Allied occupation of North Africa, powerful units of the French Army and Navy are going into action. They are in action with the United Nations forces. We welcome them as allies and as friends. They join with those Frenchmen who, since the dark days of June 1940, have been fighting valiantly for the liberation of their stricken country.
We pay tribute to the fighting leaders of our allies, to Winston Churchill, to Joseph Stalin, and to the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Yes, there is a very great unanimity between the leaders of the United Nations. This unity is effective in planning and carrying out the major strategy of this war and in building up and in maintaining the lines of supplies.
I cannot prophesy. I cannot tell you when or where the United Nations are going to strike next in Europe. But we are going to strike – and strike hard. I cannot tell you whether we are going to hit them in Norway, or through the Low Countries, or in France, or through Sardinia or Sicily, or through the Balkans, or through Poland – or at several points simultaneously. But I can tell you that no matter where and when we strike by land, we and the British and the Russians will hit them from the air heavily and relentlessly. Day in and day out we shall heap tons upon tons of high explosives on their war factories and utilities and seaports.
Hitler and Mussolini will understand now the enormity of their miscalculations – that the Nazis would always have the advantage of superior airpower as they did when they bombed Warsaw, and Rotterdam, and London and Coventry. That superiority has gone – forever.
Yes, the Nazis and the fascists have asked for it – and they are going to get it.
Our forward progress in this war has depended upon our progress on the production front.
There has been criticism of the management and conduct of our war production. Much of this self-criticism has had a healthy effect. It has spurred us on. It has reflected a normal American impatience to get on with the job. We are the kind of people who are never quite satisfied with anything short of miracles.
But there has been some criticism based on guesswork and even on malicious falsification of fact. Such criticism creates doubts and creates fears, and weakens our total effort.
I do not wish to suggest that we should be completely satisfied with our production progress today, or next month, or ever. But I can report to you with genuine pride on what has been accomplished in 1942.
A year ago, we set certain production goals for 1942 and for 1943. Some people, including some experts, thought that we had pulled some big figures out of a hat just to frighten the Axis. But we had confidence in the ability of our people to establish new records. And that confidence has been justified.
Of course, we realized that some production objectives would have to be changed – some of them adjusted upward, and others downward; some items would be taken out of the program altogether, and others added. This was inevitable as we gained battle experience, and as technological improvements were made.
Our 1942 airplane production and tank production fell short, numerically – stress the word numerically – of the goals set a year ago. Nevertheless, we have plenty of reason to be proud of our record for 1942. We produced 48,000 military planes – more than the airplane production of Germany, Italy, and Japan put together. Last month, in December, we produced 5,500 military planes and the rate is rapidly rising. Furthermore, we must remember that as each month passes by, the averages of our types weigh more, take more man-hours to make, and have more striking power.
In tank production, we revised our schedule – and for good and sufficient reasons. As a result of hard experience in battle, we have diverted a portion of our tank-producing capacity to a stepped-up production of new, deadly field weapons, especially self-propelled artillery.
Here are some other production figures:
In 1942, we produced 56,000 combat vehicles, such as tanks and self-propelled artillery.
In 1942, we produced 670,000 machine guns, six times greater than our production in 1941 and three times greater than our total production during the year and a half of our participation in the First World War.
We produced 21,000 anti-tank guns, six times greater than our 1941 production.
We produced ten and a quarter billion rounds of small-arms ammunition, five times greater than our 1941 production and three times greater than our total production in the First World War.
We produced 181 million rounds of artillery ammunition, twelve times greater than our 1941 production and ten times greater than our total production in the First World War.
I think the arsenal of democracy is making good.
These facts and figures that I have given will give no great aid and comfort to the enemy. On the contrary, I can imagine that they will give him considerable discomfort. I suspect that Hitler and Tōjō will find it difficult to explain to the German and Japanese people just why it is that “decadent, inefficient democracy” can produce such phenomenal quantities of weapons and munitions and fighting men.
We have given the lie to certain misconceptions – which is an extremely polite word – especially the one which holds that the various blocs or groups within a free country cannot forego their political and economic differences in time of crisis and work together toward a common goal.
While we have been achieving this miracle of production, during the past year our armed forces have grown from a little over 2,000,000 to 7,000,000. In other words, we have withdrawn from the labor force and the farms some 5,000,000 of our younger workers. And in spite of this, our farmers have contributed their share to the common effort by producing the greatest quantity of food ever made available during a single year in all our history.
I wonder is there any person among us so simple as to believe that all this could have been done without creating some dislocations in our normal national life, some inconveniences, and even some hardships?
Who can have hoped to have done this without burdensome government regulations which are a nuisance to everyone – including those who have the thankless task of administering them?
We all know that there have been mistakes – mistakes due to the inevitable process of trial and error inherent in doing big things for the first time. We all know that there have been too many complicated forms and questionnaires. I know about that. I have had to fill some of them out myself.
But we are determined to see to it that our supplies of food and other essential civilian goods are distributed on a fair and just basis – to rich and poor, management and labor, farmer and city dweller alike. We are determined to keep the cost of living at a stable level. All this has required much information. These forms and questionnaires represent an honest and sincere attempt by honest and sincere officials to obtain this information.
We have learned by the mistakes that we have made.
Our experience will enable us during the coming year to improve the necessary mechanisms of wartime economic controls, and to simplify administrative procedures. But we do not intend to leave things so lax that loopholes will be left for cheaters, for chiselers, or for the manipulators of the black market.
Of course, there have been disturbances and inconveniences – and even hardships. And there will be many, many more before we finally win. Yes, 1943 will not be an easy year for us on the home front. We shall feel in many ways in our daily lives the sharp pinch of total war.
Fortunately, there are only a few Americans who place appetite above patriotism. The overwhelming majority realize that the food we send abroad is for essential military purposes, for our own and Allied fighting forces, and for necessary help in areas that we occupy.
We Americans intend to do this great job together. In our common labors we must build and fortify the very foundation of national unity – confidence in one another.
It is often amusing, and it is sometimes politically profitable, to picture the City of Washington as a madhouse, with the Congress and the administration disrupted with confusion and indecision and general incompetence.
However—what matters most in war is results. And the one pertinent fact is that after only a few years of preparation and only one year of warfare, we are able to engage, spiritually as well as physically, in the total waging of a total war.
Washington may be a madhouse – but only in the sense that it is the capital city of a nation which is fighting mad. And I think that Berlin and Rome and Tokyo, which had such contempt for the obsolete methods of democracy, would now gladly use all they could get of that same brand of madness.
And we must not forget that our achievements in production have been relatively no greater than those of the Russians and the British and the Chinese who have developed their own war industries under the incredible difficulties of battle conditions. They have had to continue work through bombings and blackouts. And they have never quit.
We Americans are in good, brave company in this war, and we are playing our own, honorable part in the vast common effort.
As spokesmen for the United States government, you and I take off our hats to those responsible for our American production – to the owners, managers, and supervisors, to the draftsmen and the engineers, and to the workers – men and women – in factories and arsenals and shipyards and mines and mills and forests – and railroads and on highways.
We take off our hats to the farmers who have faced an unprecedented task of feeding not only a great nation but a great part of the world.
We take off our hats to all the loyal, anonymous, untiring men and women who have worked in private employment and in government and who have endured rationing and other stringencies with good humor and goodwill.
Yes, we take off our hats to all Americans who have contributed so magnificently to our common cause.
I have sought to emphasize a sense of proportion in this review of the events of the war and the needs of the war.
We should never forget the things we are fighting for. But, at this critical period of the war, we should confine ourselves to the larger objectives and not get bogged down in argument over methods and details.
We, and all the United Nations, want a decent peace and a durable peace. In the years between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War, we were not living under a decent or a durable peace.
I have reason to know that our boys at the front are concerned with two broad aims beyond the winning of the war; and their thinking and their opinion coincide with what most Americans here back home are mulling over. They know, and we know, that it would be inconceivable – it would, indeed, be sacrilegious – if this nation and the world did not attain some real, lasting good out of all these efforts and sufferings and bloodshed and death.
The men in our Armed Forces want a lasting peace, and, equally, they want permanent employment for themselves, their families, and their neighbors when they are mustered out at the end of the war.
Two years ago, I spoke in my Annual Message of four freedoms. The blessings of two of them – freedom of speech and freedom of religion – are an essential part of the very life of this nation; and we hope that these blessings will be granted to all men everywhere.
The people at home, and the people at the front, are wondering a little about the third freedom – freedom from want. To them it means that when they are mustered out, when war production is converted to the economy of peace, they will have the right to expect full employment – full employment for themselves and for all able-bodied men and women in America who want to work.
They expect the opportunity to work, to run their farms, their stores, to earn decent wages. They are eager to face the risks inherent in our system of free enterprise.
They do not want a postwar America which suffers from undernourishment or slums – or the dole. They want no get-rich-quick era of bogus “prosperity” which will end for them in selling apples on a street corner, as happened after the bursting of the boom in 1929.
When you talk with our young men and our young women, you will find they want to work for themselves and for their families; they consider that they have the right to work; and they know that after the last war their fathers did not gain that right.
When you talk with our young men and women, you will find that with the opportunity for employment they want assurance against the evils of all major economic hazards – assurance that will extend from the cradle to the grave. And this great government can and must provide this assurance.
I have been told that this is no time to speak of a better America after the war. I am told it is a grave error on my part.
I dissent.
And if the security of the individual citizen, or the family, should become a subject of national debate, the country knows where I stand.
I say this now to this 78th Congress, because it is wholly possible that freedom from want – the right of employment, the right of assurance against life’s hazards – will loom very large as a task of America during the coming two years.
I trust it will not be regarded as an issue – but rather as a task for all of us to study sympathetically, to work out with a constant regard for the attainment of the objective, with fairness to all and with injustice to none.
In this war of survival, we must keep before our minds not only the evil things we fight against but the good things we are fighting for. We fight to retain a great past and we fight to gain a greater future.
Let us remember, too, that economic safety for the America of the future is threatened unless a greater economic stability comes to the rest of the world. We cannot make America an island in either a military or an economic sense. Hitlerism, like any other form of crime or disease, can grow from the evil seeds of economic as well as military feudalism.
Victory in this war is the first and greatest goal before us. Victory in the peace is the next. That means striving toward the enlargement of the security of man here and throughout the world – and, finally, striving for the fourth freedom – freedom from fear.
It is of little account for any of us to talk of essential human needs, of attaining security, if we run the risk of another World War in ten or twenty or fifty years. That is just plain common sense. Wars grow in size, in death and destruction, and in the inevitability of engulfing all nations, in inverse ratio to the shrinking size of the world as a result of the conquest of the air. I shudder to think of what will happen to humanity, including ourselves, if this war ends in an inconclusive peace, and another war breaks out when the babies of today have grown to fighting age.
Every normal American prays that neither he nor his sons nor his grandsons will be compelled to go through this horror again.
Undoubtedly a few Americans, even now, think that this nation can end this war comfortably and then climb back into an American hole and pull the hole in after them.
But we have learned that we can never dig a hole so deep that it would be safe against predatory animals. We have also learned that if we do not pull the fangs of the predatory animals of this world, they will multiply and grow in strength – and they will be at our throats again once more in a short generation.
Most Americans realize more clearly than ever before that modern war equipment in the hands of aggressor nations can bring danger overnight to our own national existence or to that of any other nation – or island – or continent.
It is clear to us that if Germany and Italy and Japan – or any one of them – remain armed at the end of this war, or are permitted to rearm, they will again, and inevitably, embark upon an ambitious career of world conquest. They must be disarmed and kept disarmed, and they must abandon the philosophy, and the teaching of that philosophy, which has brought so much suffering to the world.
After the First World War we tried to achieve a formula for permanent peace, based on a magnificent idealism. We failed. But, by our failure, we have learned that we cannot maintain peace at this stage of human development by good intentions alone.
Today the United Nations are the mightiest military coalition in all history. They represent an overwhelming majority of the population of the world. Bound together in solemn agreement that they themselves will not commit acts of aggression or conquest against any of their neighbors, the United Nations can and must remain united for the maintenance of peace by preventing any attempt to rearm in Germany, in Japan, in Italy, or in any other nation which seeks to violate the Tenth Commandment:
Thou shalt not covet.
There are cynics, there are skeptics who say it cannot be done. The American people and all the freedom-loving peoples of this earth are now demanding that it must be done. And the will of these people shall prevail.
The very philosophy of the Axis powers is based on a profound contempt for the human race. If, in the formation of our future policy, we were guided by the same cynical contempt, then we should be surrendering to the philosophy of our enemies, and our victory would turn to defeat.
The issue of this war is the basic issue between those who believe in mankind and those who do not – the ancient issue between those who put their faith in the people and those who put their faith in dictators and tyrants. There have always been those who did not believe in the people, who attempted to block their forward movement across history, to force them back to servility and suffering and silence.
The people have now gathered their strength. They are moving forward in their might and power – and no force, no combination of forces, no trickery, deceit, or violence, can stop them now. They see before them the hope of the world – a decent, secure, peaceful life for men everywhere.
I do not prophesy when this war will end.
But I do believe that this year of 1943 will give to the United Nations a very substantial advance along the roads that lead to Berlin and Rome and Tokyo.
I tell you it is within the realm of possibility that this 78th Congress may have the historic privilege of helping greatly to save the world from future fear.
Therefore, let us all have confidence, let us redouble our efforts.
A tremendous, costly, long-enduring task in peace as well as in war is still ahead of us.
But, as we face that continuing task, we may know that the state of this nation is good – the heart of this nation is sound – the spirit of this nation is strong – the faith of this nation is eternal.
The Pittsburgh Press (January 7, 1943)
Roosevelt warns Axis –
More hard blows coming; ‘better America’ pledged
Victory in 1944 visioned as President urges security measures
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
President Roosevelt today delivered before a joint session of Congress a mailed-fist annual message promising victory – perhaps in 1944 – and calling for post-war unity of our Allies to disarm Germany, Italy and Japan and to keep them disarmed.
He said:
Yes, the Nazis and the fascists have asked for it – and they are going to get it.
He revealed that a million and a half American fighting men are serving outside the continental United States. The overall armed force now numbers 7 million – and it is going up.
He revealed enormous 1942 munitions production, although tanks and airplanes fell short of numerical goals.
And to Germany, Japan and Italy, to their peoples and their leaders he uttered the solemn warning – the Yanks are coming and they are full of fight.
Against the urgent advice of some of his own legislative leaders, the President bluntly insisted that this new Congress proceed to bring about the third of the four freedoms – freedom from want. He did not, however, present a detailed program.
He said he had reason to know that “our boys at the front” are interested in two broad aims beyond winning the war and he named them:
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A lasting peace.
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Permanent employment for themselves, their families and their neighbors when they are mustered out at the end of the war.
He said:
…they want assurance against the evils of all major economic hazards – assurance that will extend from the cradle to the grave. And this great government can and must provide this assurance.
I have been told that this is no time to speak of a better America after the war. I am told it is a grave error on my part.
I dissent.
And if the security of the individual citizen, or the family, should become a subject of national debate, the country knows where I stand.
I say this now to this 78th Congress, because it is wholly possible that freedom from want – the right of employment, the right of assurance against life’s hazards – will loom very large as a task of America during the coming two years.
Mr. Roosevelt’s assurance of victory was absolute and unqualified. His judgment on the time was more cautious.
He said:
I do not prophesy when this war will end.
But I do believe that this year of 1943 will give to the United Nations a very substantial advance along the roads that lead to Berlin and Rome and Tokyo.
I tell you it is within the realm of possibility that this 78th Congress may have the historic privilege of helping greatly to save the world from future fear.
By freedom from fear, Mr. Roosevelt meant assurance to the world that it would not again be subject to further aggression by the Axis or by any other; that before this Congress ends sometime in December 1944, the business of disarming the Axis and keeping it disarmed may well be underway.
Mr. Roosevelt’s message, one of the most forceful state papers of his career, was divided into three parts: Progress of the war, production, and problems of the peace.
The Axis powers knew they must win the war in 1942 and having failed, he said, they must eventually lose everything.
In the Pacific, our objective has been to wear down the Japanese by destroying more war material than their hard-pressed industry could replace and, Mr. Roosevelt said, a large part of that task had been accomplished.
He continued:
That will become evident to the Japanese people themselves when we strike at their own home islands, and bomb them constantly from the air.
The period of our defensive attrition in the Pacific is drawing to a close. Now our aim is to force the Japanese to fight. Last year, we stopped them. This year, we intend to advance.
Even today we are flying as much Lend-Lease material into China as ever traversed the Burma Road, flying it over mountains 17,000 feet high, flying blind through sleet and snow.
Turning now to the European theater of war, during this past year it was clear that our first task was to lessen the concentrated pressure on the Russian front by compelling Germany to divert part of her manpower and equipment to another theater of war.
The President said the invasion of North Africa and the British drive from Egypt into Libya had accomplished that but that:
Great rains and appalling mud and very limited communications have delayed the final battles of Tunisia.
Although the Axis is reinforcing its strong positions there, Mr. Roosevelt had no doubts.
He said:
I am confident that though the fighting will be tough, when the final Allied assault is made, the last vestige of Axis power will be driven from the whole of the south shores of the Mediterranean.
But that was not the half of it. Mr. Roosevelt promised the Axis a direct land attack on Europe – and he said the Axis could try to guess where.
He said:
But I can tell you that no matter where and when we strike by land, we and the British and the Russians will hit them from the air heavily and relentlessly. Day in and day out we shall heap tons upon tons of high explosives on their war factories and utilities and seaports.
Hitler and Mussolini will understand now the enormity of their miscalculations – that the Nazis would always have the advantage of superior airpower as they did when they bombed Warsaw, and Rotterdam, and London and Coventry. That superiority has gone – forever.
Turning to the American productive effort in 1942, the President said the results justified the confidence in the ability of the American people to establish new records.
Explaining the goals he originally set for 1942 were altered – some upward, others downward – he cited these 1942 figures:
About 48,000 military planes during the year – more than the airplane production of Germany, Italy, and Japan put together.
56,000 combat vehicles, including tanks and self-propelled artillery.
670,000 machine guns and 21,000 anti-tank guns.
10,250,000,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition and 181 million rounds of artillery ammunition.
The President said:
The arsenal of democracy is making good.
He cited the production record as disproving certain misconceptions:
…especially the one which holds that the various blocs or groups within a free country cannot forego their political and economic differences in time of crisis and work together toward a common goal.
Emphasizing the need for a proper “sense of proportion” in viewing the war and its needs, Mr. Roosevelt said:
We should never forget the things we are fighting for.
He added:
But, at this critical period of the war, we should confine ourselves to the larger objectives and not get bogged down in argument over methods and details.
From the days of World War I and the beginning of the present war, he said:
…we were not living under a decent or a durable peace.
Things must be different this time, he said. The men of the Armed Forces, he added:
…want a lasting peace, and, equally, they want permanent employment for themselves, their families, and their neighbors when they are mustered out at the end of the war.
They expect the opportunity to work, to run their farms, their stores, to earn decent wages. They are eager to face the risks inherent in our system of free enterprise.
Mr. Roosevelt said he hoped the problem of granting “the right of employment and the right of assurance against life’s hazards” would not be regarded “as an issue but rather as a task” for all to approach “sympathetically” and achieve “with fairness to all and with injustice to none.”
The President said that “this great government can and must provide” assurance desired by our young men and women:
…against the evils of all major economic hazards – assurance that will extend from the cradle to the grave.
Without going into any details, the President said “this great government can and must provide this assurance” in addition to making certain that the people of the country are given a stable opportunity fore employment and not bogus prosperity or a dole.
Mr. Roosevelt did not, however, present the detailed and expanded Social Security program which some observers had expected. Congressional leaders had urged him to forego presentation at this time of the cradle-to-grave insurance protection program covering health and old age which he was understood to have prepared.
They feared such a proposal would precipitate a knockdown Congressional fight which would be undesirable in the midst of the war effort.
Mr. Roosevelt, while the tone of his speech was definitely optimistic as far as war progress in 1943 was concerned, declined to prophesy when the war would end but he did express the belief that the year would:
… give to the United Nations a very substantial advance along the roads that lead to Berlin and Rome and Tokyo.
He said:
I tell you it is within the realm of possibility that this 78th Congress may have the historic privilege of helping greatly to save the world from future fear.
A tremendous, costly, long-enduring task in peace as well as in war is still ahead of us.
“No force, no combination of forces, no trickery, deceit, or violence,” the President said, could stop the people in their forward movement toward “a decent, secure, peaceful life for all men everywhere.”
Explaining the “dislocations… inconveniences and… hardships” in this country necessitated by the war, the President said that putting the nation on a war footing could not have been done without “burdensome government regulations which are a nuisance to everyone.”
Admitting that there had been “inevitable mistakes,” Mr. Roosevelt reaffirmed his determination:
… to see to it that our supplies of food and other essential civilian goods are distributed on a fair and just basis…
He said:
Our experience will enable us during the coming year to improve the necessary mechanisms of wartime economic controls, and to simplify administrative procedures. But we do not intend to leave things so lax that loopholes will be left for cheaters, for chiselers, or for the manipulators of the black market.
Declaring his thankfulness that there are only a few Americans who place appetite above patriotism.” Mr. Roosevelt said there would be many more hardships before this war is won and that in our common labors:
…we must build and fortify the very foundation of national unity – confidence in one another.
The President described 1942 production as a “miracle,” particularly in view of the fact that during the year, some five million workers were withdrawn from the labor force and from the farms to go into the armed services which now total about 7,000,000 men and women.
He paid particular tribute to farmers for:
…producing the greatest quantity of food ever made available during a single year in all our history.
He vigorously defended Congress and the administration from charges of “general incompetence.”
Although distracted by opening ceremonies and glamorous additions to the feminine contingent in the House, the Congress got its legislative machinery in motion yesterday with introduction of a few new bills.
Rep. George Bender (R-OH) submitted a measure to outlaw the poll tax now operating as a vote restriction in eight Southern states. A similar measure was blocked in the last Congress by filibuster.
Fly is attacked
A proposal to lower the minimum enlistment age for WAACs from 21 to 18 and for WAVES from 20 to 18 was introduced by Rep. Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL). He said the action was logical in view of the lowering of the male draft age to 18.
Charging “shocking” operations by the Federal Communications Commission under chairmanship of James L. Fly, Rep. Eugene E. Cox (D-GA) introduced a resolution to investigate the commission.
Mr. Cox charged the commission:
…maintains a Gestapo the equal of which has never been seen in free government, and has developed the smear business into a fine art.
‘Just plain modern’
Others were unable to take the first day of the session so seriously. In fact, the House’s new glamor girls, Reps. Clare Boothe Luce (R-CT) and Winifred Stanley (R-NY), took things so lightly they didn’t even answer their first roll call. In justice to them, however, they were being besieged by admiring colleagues.
Mrs. Luce also gained admirers from within the ranks of the eight-member feminine bloc. Rep. Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), who served as her husband’s secretary when he was a representative and then replaced him in 1940, said:
She’s modern, just modern. And she looks like a woman with a mind of her own. I like her looks. I like her style.
The lineup
The 1942 general elections aligned the new Congress as follows:
| House | Senate | |
|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 222 | 57 |
| Republicans | 208 | 38 |
| American Labor | 1 | 0 |
| Progressive | 3 | 1 |
| Vacant | 1 | 0 |
The Democrats’ slim edge of only 10 votes more than a bare majority in the House is not considered an adequate working margin.
It’s ‘just plain criminal’–
Changes in Wagner Act are advocated by Kaiser
Tracing jurisdictional disputes to the act itself, West Coast shipbuilding genius urges Congress to protect unions from own disputes
By Frederick Woltman
…
DRIVING RULES DRAFTED BY OPA
Those riding for pleasure risk penalty
Oil industry group urges further reduction in ration coupons
…
24 hours later –
Nazi retake Tunisian hills
British withdraw; Hitler changes commanders
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
…
Overseas load too heavy –
Army revises mailing rules
Only requested, approved items acceptable
Washington (UP) –
The large volume of mail and packages sent to troops overseas will make new Army post restrictions necessary, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson announced today.
Effective Jan. 15, no package may be sent to a soldier overseas unless it contains an article requested by the soldier, and the request has been approved by his commander. The package will not be accepted by the post office unless the written request bearing the commander’s approval is presented.
The only exception will be in the case of soldiers sent abroad whole packages addressed to them were in transit. Magazines and newspapers may be mailed only by the publishers.
V-mail will continue to be welcomed, but ordinary letters bearing airmail stamps will be handled like regular mail.