Visibility too poor –
Weather halts new Rome raid
Attack switched to Naples instead by Allies
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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Visibility too poor –
Sabotage and fraud laid to plane parts concern
Detroit company and three individuals named in war conspiracy indictment
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‘Share-misery’ squawk lashed
Ickes tells Midwest to help win war
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Roosevelt’s plan broadcast to Army
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Sabotage? Stalin is gonna shoot someone.
Oh it is the US? Damn Trotskyist wreckers have gotten to the US too
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Simms: Ploești raid shows one-way Soviet-U.S. collaboration
Yank planes could have made heavier assault at less cost if based in Caucasus, Simms says
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
The Ploești oil raid, the first picture of which is shown at top, might have been carried out with much smaller loss to U.S. forces if Russia had permitted out bombers to use their airfields. The map shows how planes based in the Caucasus could have raided Romanian, cutting the distance traveled from Africa almost in half. The radiophoto from the U.S. 9th Air Force shows Liberator bombers flying at treetop height and fires raging in the oil fields.
Washington –
The smashing American air raid on the Ploești oil fields in Romania throws a tragic light on the one-way nature of the collaboration between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Belated reports make it plain that our Liberator bombers simply played havoc throughout the entire oil region. British as well as American sources say it was probably the most telling single bombing job of the war. It may change the whole course of the conflict.
It is equally plain, however, that the raid was costly in lives and planes.
The German news agency reported 67 U.S. bombers were lost in the Ploești raid, but Secretary of War Stimson announced in Washington today that U.S. losses amounted to “20%.” The German figures would have put the losses at 50%.
Had Russia and the United States been on a fully reciprocal basis, competent observers here point out, the raid could have been even more effective and at a fraction of the cost in men and materiel.
Taking off from Egypt, the bombers had to fly 1,200 miles just to reach the target. And the greater part of the distance was over enemy territory. The planes were spotted at least two hours before they reached Ploești. The enemy, therefore, had ample time to prepare a hot reception.
Had the Americans taken off from the Russian Kuban, say from around Krasnodar, the flying distance would have been halved. Not only that, but the flight would have been almost entirely over the Black Sea. The defenders of Ploești would have had at most some 25 minutes warning, because the oil fields are not far from the coast.
Equally important, the same bombers could have carried double the bombload. The 15 bombers said to have been forced down in turkey on the return would have reached home safely had they been based in the Caucasus region instead of near Cairo.
The Allied strategists must have had more than one look at the map of the Balkans and the Middle East. They must have computed the distances from alternative bases to Ploești again and again. If so, they could not have overlooked the advantages of bombing any Romanian objective from the eastern shore of the Black Sea.
Officials here are silent on the subject. But it is an open secret that Russia long ago drew a line across the map and, in effect, said to her Allies:
Now you stay on your side of that line.
For some reason or other, Marshal Stalin appears to be unalterably opposed to British or American troops fighting side by side with the Red Army.
Enemy making a last-ditch stand in Sicily
Axis on own ‘20-yard-line’ where going is toughest, Yank officer says
By Hugh Baillie, United Press staff writer
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Bounced bureaucrat speaks –
Dancer-economist fears ex-boss lends ear to Dies
Hopes Crowley will not change policy and personnel at every suggestion
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U.S. depleting oil reserves much faster than Allies
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
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40,000 Japs killed in Guadalcanal battle
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101 Ploești raiders buried, Italians say
London, England (UP) –
The Italian Stefani Agency reported from Bucharest today that 101 U.S. airmen, killed in the raid on the Ploești oil fields in Romania Sunday, were buried with military honors yesterday at Ploești.
The majority were burned beyond recognition and identification was impossible, the dispatch said. A Protestant clergyman conducted services and German and Romanian Armed Forces rendered military honors.
Istanbul, Turkey – (Aug. 3, delayed)
Four of the U.S. Liberator bombers which raided Ploești Sunday made forced landings at İzmir in western Turkey, three others came down at Chourla and an eighth landed at Fethiye. Some of the airmen who landed at Fethiye were wounded.
Lumber stocks cut critically, yards closing
OPA authorizes price rise for northern hard, soft woods
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Somewhere in Sicily, Italy – (by wireless)
Some more shipboard sketches:
Joe Talbot: He is an aviation ordnanceman first class, and since there is no aviation aboard his ship, he is a round peg in a square hole. Of course, that isn’t his fault.
What he actually does is a little bit of everything, when things were normal, and during battle, he is the head of a crew down in a magazine of big shells. He wears headphones, and upon orders he shoots more ammunition up to the gun batteries above.
Joe is a black-haired, straight-shouldered Southerner from Columbus, Georgia. In civil life, he was a photographer on the Columbus Ledger-Inquirer. The last big story he photographed was Eddie Rickenbacker’s crash near Atlanta. Joe has been married four years. His wife works at Woolworth’s store in Columbus.
This is his second time in the Navy. He was in it from 1931 to 1935, and he has been in two years this time. He has no intention of making it a career. He has one great postwar ambition – he says he’s going to do it in the first six months after he gets out. He’s going to buy a cabin cruiser big enough for four, get another couple, and cruise down the Chattahoochee River to the Gulf of Mexico, then up the Suwannee, making photos of the whole thing in color.
Tom Temple: His full name is Thomas Nicholas Temple. His father deliberately put in the middle name so the initials would make TNT. Tom is only 19. He is tall and thin, very grave and analytical. He talks so slowly you think sometimes he’s going to stop altogether. After the war he wants to go to Harvard and then get into the publishing business. Tom’s mother is a high-school teacher at Far Rockaway, Long Island, and writes on the side. She used to write for Story Magazine under the name Jean Temple.
Tom’s father was wounded in the last war. He is now in the big veterans’ hospital at Albuquerque, only a short way from my home.
Tom says when he first came into the Navy, the sailors’ profanity shocked him, but now it rolls off his back like water off a duck. Tom is a seaman second class. He is very sincere and thoughtful and one of my favorites aboard ship.
Joe Ederer: He is a lieutenant commander and chief engineer of the ship, and he was my part-time host while I was aboard, since I did all my writing in his cabin. Furthermore, I ate his candy, smoked his cigarettes, used his paper, and would have read his mail if I could have found it.
Cdr. Ederer has been at sea for more than a quarter of a century. He is out of the Merchant Service, and he indulges in constant pleasant feuds with his Regular Navy friends.
His home is at 2724 Northeast 35th Place, Portland, Oregon. His wife is used to waiting, so his absence is not as hard on her as it is on many wives. They have a 15-year-old boy upon whom the chief engineer dotes. He has two pictures of his family on his shelves.
Cdr. Ederer is one of the few officers who are genuine salts. He is not exactly a Colin Glencannon, but they have many things in common. The commander spent many years on the Orient run and has a personal hatred for the Japs. He has been with his present ship ever since she was commissioned two years ago, and he hopes this part of the war soon gets over so he can get to the Pacific.
Like all sailors he wants someday to get five acres, preferably in the Oregon woods, build a cabin and have a creek running past his door. If he ever did, he’d probably go nuts.
Völkischer Beobachter (August 6, 1943)
123 Sowjetpanzer und 194 Feindflugzeuge abgeschossen –
Harte Abwehrkämpfe auf Sizilien
dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 5. August –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Die Sowjets begannen gestern am Mius mit starken Infanteriekräften und zahlreichen Panzern gegen die neugewonnenen deutschen Stellungen nördlich Kuibyschewo heftige Gegenangriffe, die jedoch unter hohen feindlichen Verlusten restlos scheiterten. Auch am mittleren Donez blieben Angriffe der Sowjets erfolglos. Im Raum von Bjelgorod dauern die schweren und wechselvollen Abwehrkämpfe weiterhin an.
Im Orelbogen wurde im Zuge der Frontverkürzung die seit längerer Zeit vorgesehene Räumung der Stadt Orel in der Nacht vom 4. zum 5. August vom Feinde ungestört durchgeführt. Sämtliche Vorräte wurden planmäßig zurückgeführt, die kriegswichtigen Anlagen restlos zerstört.
Südlich des Ladogasees brachen starke Angriffe der Sowjets vor unseren Linien zusammen.
Am gestrigen Tage wurden an der Ostfront 123 Panzer abgeschossen. Kampf-, Sturzkampf- und Schlachtgeschwader der Luftwaffe führten an den Brennpunkten der Abwehrschlacht, vor allem im Raum Bjelgorod und Orel, schwere Schläge gegen den Feind. In Luftkämpfen wurden gestern 161 Sowjetflugzeuge abgeschossen, sieben eigene Flugzeuge kehrten nicht zurück.
Bei den in den letzten Wochen im rückwärtigen Gebiet der Ostfront durchgeführten Kämpfen gegen sowjetische Banden bewährten sich besonders ungarische Truppen, die in selbständigen Unternehmungen oder zusammen mit Verbänden des Heeres und der Waffen-SS eingesetzt worden sind.
In Sizilien versuchten nordamerikanische Truppen auch gestern, den mittleren Frontabschnitt zu durchbrechen. Nach harten, mit großer Erbitterung geführten Kämpfen brachen alle Angriffe unter empfindlichen Verlusten für den Feind zusammen.
Ein starker Verband schwerer deutscher Kampfflugzeuge griff den stark belegten Hafen Palermo an. Neben zahlreichen schweren Bombentreffern in den Hafenanlagen wurden zwei Handelsschiffe mit zusammen 13.000 BRT. und ein Zerstörer versenkt, ein leichter Kreuzer, drei Zerstörer und acht Frachtschiffe beschädigt. 23 feindliche Flugzeuge wurden über Sizilien und dem italienischen Küstengebiet abgeschossen.
In der vergangenen Nacht drangen einige feindliche Störflugzeuge in das westliche Reichsgebiet ein. Bei vereinzelten Bombenabwürfen entstand unbedeutender Schaden.
Sicherungsstreitkräfte der Kriegsmarine und Marineflak schossen über dem westeuropäischen Küstengebiet zehn feindliche Flugzeuge ab.
Deutsche Schnellboote versenkten vor der englischen Ostküste in der vergangenen Nacht ein britisches Minensuchboot.
60 Yankeepolizisten verletzt –
Negerrevolten in Harlem
tc. Lissabon, 5. August –
Wie erst jetzt bekannt wird, ist es in der Sonntagnacht im Neuyorker Negerviertel Harlem zu großen Negerunruhen gekommen, bei denen 5 Neger getötet, 543 verletzt und 504 verhaftet wurden. Der bei den Zusammenstößen angerichtete Sachschaden wird auf fünf Millionen Dollar geschätzt.
Die Unruhen brachen aus, als ein weißer Polizist eine Negerin wegen eines Eigentumsvergehens verhaften wollte. Negersoldaten mischten sich ein und bemächtigten sich des Polizeiknüppels, worauf der Polizist schoß und einen Soldaten verwundete. Schnell sammelte sich eine Menge an und begann Läden zu stürmen und die Polizisten mit Steinen zu bewerfen. 60 Polizisten wurden verletzt. 6.000 Polizisten umstellten Harlem. Erst volle 24 Stunden später war die Ordnung unter Einsatz starker Polizeikräfte einigermaßen wiederhergestellt.
Verärgerter Wallace als Ankläger –
Hungerkapitalismus in ‚Gottes eigenem Lande‘
Eigener Bericht des „Völkischen Beobachters“
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Erfolge unserer Kampfflieger –
Hafen von Palermo bombardiert
dnb. Rom, 5. August –
Der italienische Wehrmachtbericht vom Donnerstag lautet:
Auf Sizilien haben die tapfer kämpfenden Verbündeten heftige Angriffe der feindlichen Streitkräfte abgewehrt.
Deutsche Kampfflugzeuge griffen den Hafen von Palermo an und versenkten einen Zerstörer und zwei Dampfer mit zusammen 13.000 BRT. Sie beschädigten einen Kreuzer, drei Zerstörer und acht Handelsschiffe von zusammen 30.000 BRT.
Das Stadtinnere in Neapel wurde von einem Verband mehrmotoriger Flugzeuge heftig bombardiert. Zahlreiche Gebäude erhielten Schäden. Unter der Zivilbevölkerung gab es zahlreiche Opfer. Vier feindliche Flugzeuge wurden von der Flak und drei von deutschen und italienischen Jägern abgeschossen.
In den letzten Tagen wurden von unseren zur Sicherung von Geleitzügen eingesetzten Streitkräften sechs feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.