Flood of mail to U.S. Children’s Bureau asks why hasn’t something been done
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
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Pressure expected to be put on those not holding war jobs ‘to get one or be drafted’
By Blair Moody, North American Newspaper Alliance
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999 captured on Sicilian fields by Allies
By Robert Vermillion, United Press staff writer
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Investigating group’s report, released by Governor Kelly, rules out any subversive activity
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Canadian Premier suffer second reverse on political front
By John A. Reichmann, United Press staff writer
Québec, Canada –
Canadian political observers today appraised the arrival of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as of timely political assistance to his host, Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King.
Mr. Churchill’s arrival by coincidence came just after Mr. Mackenzie King’s second recent political reverse. On Monday, his Liberal Party lost three by-elections to groups to the left and one to the right. A fortnight ago, he lost over 60–90 seats in the Ontario Legislature.
Has supported war
Mr. Mackenzie King, as head of the Liberal Party, has steadfastly supported the war policies of Messrs. Roosevelt and Churchill. He has collaborated closely with Mr. Roosevelt and many observers believe Mr. Churchill strongly supports his policies from a sentimental standpoint despite certain prohibitions which would preclude his taking part in Canadian politics.
There are many currents in Canadian policies which serve as explanations for Mr. Mackenzie King’s reversals, but the fact most emphasized here is that he has suffered them and faces even more serious ones.
In the case of Ontario, his Liberal Party had held more than 60 out of 90 seats in the provincial Legislature. The elections reduced this strength to 14 while the Conservatives and Socialists almost evenly divided the remaining seats with an apparent balance of power in the hands of Mitchell Hepburn, his prime opponent.
Communists gain
On Monday, in the federal by-elections, the Communists for the first time in Canadian history apparently gained one seat. The winner was Fred Rose, only recently released from a concentration camp, and running on a Labor ticket in the Cartier division of Montréal. The Communist Party is outlawed in Canada.
On this picture, Mr. Churchill’s presence can only have a beneficial effect as far as Mr. Mackenzie King’s political future is concerned. The visit of the two leaders and Mr. Churchill’s praise of the Canadian Army’s exploits in Sicily can readily give the impression that Mr. Churchill endorses Mr. Mackenzie King’s conduct of the war.
Only future developments can determine whether this will be sufficient to maintain Mr. Mackenzie King in authority.
Roosevelt and Churchill are also expected to fix timetable for invasions of Europe
By Harrison Salisbury, United Press staff writer
London, England –
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill will probably fix a timetable for Allied invasions of Europe and frame a surrender ultimatum to Italian Premier Marshal Pietro Badoglio, London observers speculated today.
The quickest possible method of defeating Germany will keynote the conference, these quarters said, and it is possible that a supreme commander will be named for the final offensive. Gen. George C. Marshall, U.S. Chief of Staff, and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander in the Mediterranean, have been mentioned most frequently for such a post.
Previous indications have been that the main Allied invasion of Europe would be launched after heavy bombing of German industry, but Germany’s jittery reaction to the present Allied air offensive pointed to a possible revision in the timetable and plans as a whole.
Allied strategy, militarily and politically, in the event of Adolf Hitler’s sudden deposal may also be decided, though it was certain that the Allied terms to Germany – as to Italy – would remain “unconditional surrender.”
Messrs. Roosevelt and Churchill are expected to advise Badoglio that unless he capitulates at once, the Allies will invade the Italian mainland as quickly as possible.
This ultimatum, it was believed, will emphasize that failure of Italy to surrender will mean an Allied refusal to deal with any government under Badoglio in the future.
Though it has never been officially confirmed, best evidence indicated that Italy has forwarded at least two peace proposals to the Allies.
The initial one was understood to have reached Gen. Eisenhower through a neutral source a few days after Badoglio succeeded Benito Mussolini as Premier. It asked that Italy be permitted to revert to neutral status, thus denying the Allies the use of the Italian mainland for an assault on Germany. It was rejected or merely ignored.
A second proposal was reported to have been sent several days ago, also through neutrals. No details of its provisions were known. Lack of response indicated it was equally unacceptable.
Messrs. Roosevelt and Churchill will probably make known their attitude to Italy through a joint statement or through a third party.
Russia to be discussed
The two chiefs of state are also expected to assess the situation on the Russian front, particularly as to whether the German retreat was due solely to Russian pressure or a desire to shorten the defensive front to permit large-scale transfers of troops to Western Europe.
There is a general impression in London that they will take special measure to increase Anglo-American collaboration with Russia, especially in view of the fact that the Soviets have no top diplomatic representatives in either London or Washington at the moment.
Maxim Litvinov, Ambassador to Washington, is still in Moscow, and Ivan Maisky, Ambassador to London, has been made an assistant foreign commissar in Moscow.
Messrs. Roosevelt and Churchill must also carefully assess the temperature of the German satellites, particularly Finland, which is believed ready to jump out of the war at the first moment.
Strategy likewise must be devised to cope with the likelihood that the forthcoming months will see the overturn of pro-Axis governments in the Balkans.
Congressional leaders called to help formulate CCC extension
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Haas Committee to set up race, color, creed code
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Hull, however, is unable to discuss rumors; aide is cryptic
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Stockholders of Western Union, Postal favor consolidation
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No unemployment is seen for 5 years after peace
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By Ernie Pyle
Somewhere in Sicily, Italy – (by wireless)
Since Sicily was a new country for me, I figured I might as well get sick right away and get it over with. So, on my fifth day ashore, they threw me into an ambulance and off we went hunting for a hospital.
We were looking for a certain clearing station, and we couldn’t find it because it was moving forward while we were moving back, and we passed on different roads. The result was that the determined ambulance boys drove nearly halfway across Sicily before they finally gave up and started back.
We drove a total of 75 agonizing miles over dusty gravel roads, and then found the hospital all set up and ready for business within four miles of where we had started from in the first place.
The clearing station was a small tent hospital, a sort of flag stop for wounded on the way back from the lines. The first regular hospital was about 15 miles to the rear.
The average patient stays in the clearing station only a few hours at most. But once the doctors got a squint at me, they beamed, rubbed their rubber gloves, and cried:
Ah! Here is the medical freak we have been waiting for. We’ll just keep this guy and play with him awhile.
Everything but a hot dog!
So, they put me to bed on a cot, gave me paregoric and bismuth, aspirin and codeine, soup and tomato juice, and finally wound up with morphine and a handful of sulfaguanidine. The only thing I can say on behalf of my treatment is that I am well and hearty again.
My family physician in this case was Capt. Joe Doran, of Iowa City, Iowa. Capt. Doran is a young and enthusiastic doctor who is different from most frontline doctors in that his main interest lies in treating sick soldiers rather than wounded ones. Capt. Doran likes to get at the seat of a man’s ills. In furtherance of this, he has a nice little laboratory set up in one of the tents, complete with microscope and glass tubes. He is always taking specimens from his patients and then peering at them like Dr. Arrowsmith.
Capt. Doran’s germ quest upon me was somewhat agitated by the fact that upon the evening of my arrival, he received a letter saying he had become a father for the second time, about six weeks previously. He was so overjoyed he gave me an extra shot of morphine and I was asleep before I could say “Congratulations!”
They kept me in what is known as a semi-comatose condition for about 24 hours, and then began to get puzzled. At first, they thought I had dysentery, but the little laboratory showed no dysentery. Then they thought I had malaria, so they called in a couple of Italian malaria experts from down the highway. They chatted in English, punched my finger, took blood specimens, and reported back later that I had no malaria.
He had ‘battlefield fever’
By that time, I was getting better anyhow, so they decided that what I had was a nonconforming and just now fairly common illness which they call “battlefield fever.” With this you ache all over and have a very high temperature.
The doctors say it is caused by a combination of too much dust, bad eating, not enough sleep, exhaustion, and the unconscious nerve tension that comes to everybody in a frontline area. You don’t die of battlefield fever, but you think you’re going to.
They put me in a corner of a tent, and in this corner at various times there were three officers with similar fevers. Their illnesses were brief, like mine, and they all left before I did, so their families needn’t worry upon reading that they were ill.
One of my classmates was a redheaded and bespectacled lieutenant named Rahe Chamberlin, from Clarksville, Ohio. Since coming into the Army, Chamberlin has bought a half interest in a grocery store back home. Whenever they would bring us fruit juice in cans, he would take a good gander to see if it was a product his partner was selling.
Another fellow sufferer was Lt. Richard Van Syckle, of Sewaren, New Jersey. He used to be in the automobile business at Perth Amboy. He is married to Clare Raftery, a delicious former Powers model, and he carries magazine-cover pictures of her in his map case.
Major’s claim to fame
The third was Maj. Ellzey Brown of Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Maj. Brown used to be president and general sales manager of the Cleveland Tractor Company. He is a tough outdoor man, and he was so thoroughly disgusted at getting sick that it made him even sicker. He celebrated his 44th birthday just before entering the hospital.
Maj. Brown distinguished himself in our midst by paying a flat hundred dollars to the station’s chaplain for a $14 air mattress. His own gear was lost in the original Sicily landings and, as he says, money meant nothing over here anyhow, so why not pay a hundred dollars for something that will help a little?
At least 12 have been killed, three are missing
By Gilbert Love
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Fortress crew member downs seven Nazi aircraft, wins 4 decorations, is slated for 3 more
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Völkischer Beobachter (August 12, 1943)
dnb. Vichy, 11. August –
Nach einer hier vorliegenden Meldung aus Tanger sollen die Amerikaner den Sultan von Marokko darüber befragt haben, welche Haltung er hinsichtlich einer Ausdehnung der Machtbefugnisse der USA. in Marokko einnehmen würde. Ferner sollen die amerikanischen Besatzungsbehörden Maßnahmen ergreifen, um sich endgültig in Marokko niederzulassen.
Nach einem Gerücht in Rabat soll Roosevelt den Sultan von Marokko eingeladen haben.
Die bisherigen Einfilzungsmethoden der Yankees in Marokko verrieten bereits, daß Roosevelt das Land zu einer Art Kolonie der USA. ausersehen hat. Das Besetzungsregime war eine Mischung von Peitsche und wenig Zuckerbrot, und die Franzosen wurden nur noch als Handlanger bewertet. Die Wall Street hat sich an Marokko weitgehend interessiert. Die Anfrage an den Sultan hätte also sehr reale Hintergründe, von denen man übrigens auch in den USA. schon sehr offen gesprochen hat.
dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 11. August –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Vom Kubanbrückenkopf und Miusabschnitt werden nur schwächere sowjetische Vorstöße gemeldet. Eine eigene Angriffsunternehmung erreichte das gesteckte Ziel. Im Raum von Bjelgorod halten die schweren wechselvollen Kämpfe an. Starke feindliche Infanterie- und Panzerdurchbruchsversuche wurden unter Abschuß einer hohen Zahl von Panzern zum Scheitern gebracht.
Im Abschnitt westlich Orel brachen ebenfalls zahlreiche feindliche Angriffe zusammen. Hier wurden allein im Bereich einer Panzerdivision 61 Sowjetpanzer abgeschossen.
Auch im Kampfraum südlich und südwestlich Wjasma setzte der Gegner seine Durchbruchsversuche in unverminderter Stärke fort. Abgesehen von einzelnen rein örtlichen Einbrüchen blieb die Front fest in deutscher Hand.
Südlich des Ladogasees führte der Feind örtliche Vorstöße, die ebenfalls abgewiesen worden sind.
An der Ostfront wurden gestern 348 Panzer abgeschossen.
Die Luftwaffe griff an allen Schwerpunkten mit starken Kampf- und Nahkampffliegerverbänden in die Schlacht ein und entlastete die schwer kämpfenden Truppen.
Im hohen Norden nahmen deutsche Gebirgsjäger im unwegsamen Urwaldgelände eine vom Feinde zäh verteidigte Höhenstellung und hielten sie gegen zahlreiche mit starker Artillerie- und Luftwaffenunterstützung geführte feindliche Gegenangriffe. Die Sowjets erlitten dabei schwere Verluste.
Auf Sizilien wehrten unsere Truppen im nördlichen Abschnitt feindliche Angriffe in beweglicher Kampfführung ab. Vom mittleren und südlichen Frontabschnitt wird nur Aufklärungs- und Stoßtrupptätigkeit des Feindes gemeldet.
Bei Nachtangriffen schwerer deutscher Kampfflugzeuge gegen die feindliche Transportflotte von Augusta und Syrakus wurden vier Frachter mit zusammen 21.000 BRT. vernichtend getroffen und sieben weitere große Schiffe, darunter ein Kriegsschiff, schwer beschädigt. Am Tage bekämpften deutsche Schlachtflugzeuge in überraschendem Vorstoß zur Nord- und Südostküste der Insel Ausladungen des Feindes in seinen Nachschubstützpunkten. Sie beschädigten durch Bombenwurf und Bordwaffenbeschuß einen Zerstörer, vier Transporter und eine größere Anzahl von Landungsbooten.
In der vergangenen Nacht warf der Feind Spreng- und Brandbomben auf das Stadtgebiet von Nürnberg. Es entstanden Brandschäden und Zerstörungen in Wohnblocks, an Kulturstätten und öffentlichen Gebäuden. Die Bevölkerung hatte nur geringe Verluste. Nachtjäger und Flakartillerie schossen nach bisherigen Feststellungen 14 der angreifenden Bomber ab.
Schnelle deutsche Kampfflugzeuge griffen in der Nacht zum 11. August ohne eigene Verluste militärische Ziele in Mittelengland mit sichtbarem Erfolg an.
dnb. Rom, 11. August –
Der italienische Wehrmachtbericht vom Mittwoch lautet:
Im mittleren und nördlichen Frontabschnitt in Sizilien lieferten italienisch-deutsche Truppen schwere Verteidigungskämpfe, um den Vormarsch des Feindes aufzuhalten. Messina wurde wiederholt von feindlichen Luftstreitkräften angegriffen. Italienische Flugzeuge griffen Geleitzüge in den Gewässern Siziliens an und trafen einen leichten Kreuzer und zwei Dampfer mittlerer Tonnage, während Nachtbomber die Häfen Palermo und Syrakus mit Erfolg angriffen.
Deutsche Kampfflugzeuge beschädigten auf der Reede von Augusta und an der Nordküste der Insel vier Transportschiffe von insgesamt 17.000 BRT., einen Torpedobootzerstörer und einige Landungsboote durch Bomben. Ein englisches Flugzeug wurde in der Nähe der Küste Sardiniens von einem unserer U-Boot-Jäger abgeschossen.