America at war! (1941--) -- Part 2

7379

Roosevelt-Churchill meeting, 4:40 p.m.

Present
United States United Kingdom
President Roosevelt Prime Minister Churchill
Admiral King Lieutenant General Ismay
Rear Admiral McCain Brigadier White
Rear Admiral Badger Mr. Bernal
Rear Admiral Moreell Lieutenant Commander Grant
Rear Admiral Brown Minister of Information Bracken
Rear Admiral Land

Minutes 

Most secret

Admiral King said that three ways of providing Floating Airfields had already been examined, namely:
(a) The Armstrong Seadrome. This would be deep in draft, massive in construction, and take a long time to build. This ruled it out for any operation in the near future.

(b) The use of Naval Pontoons. This would give a very low freeboard, and could not therefore be used in any sea chop.

(c) The use of dry dock sections. An airfield so constructed would have much greater molded depth and could be sunk so as to give stability and yet retain considerable freeboard. The connections between the units would require considerable further experiment.

Admiral King explained that the production of any special form of Floating Airfield would naturally impinge upon the output of other equipment. He mentioned, by way of example, that it had been decided to step up the output of landing craft by 25 to 35 per cent, and that this involved a reduction of 35 to 48 in the libertyship programme.

In conclusion, Admiral King suggested that an Ad Hoc Committee consisting of Admirals McCain, Moreell and Badger should at once study the question from every aspect, and submit a report to the President and Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister explained the great operational advantages which we would derive from the possession of airfields of this character. He said that he wanted at least three of them to be delivered in the Indian Ocean within the next nine months. His idea was that the airfields would be attended by special ships carrying the aeroplanes and the necessary fuel.

It was suggested that escort carriers were now coming out in very large numbers, and that their use would satisfy the operational requirements prescribed by the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister agreed, but was doubtful whether they could be provided in adequate numbers. In any case it would seem advisable to have two or three airfields in addition to any escort carriers that could be provided.

There was some discussion about the number of machines that could operate from a floating field of the size contemplated.

Admiral McCain put the figure at about 40, whereas Professor Bernal said that the British Fleet Air Arm experts in England estimated that, by a slight increase in the width, it would be possible to operate 150.

A general discussion followed on the production aspect and the quantity of steel that would be required.

In conclusion, The President and Prime Minister agreed that a Sub-Committee should be set up on the lines proposed by Admiral King, and instructed to report as soon as possible.

The Prime Minister asked, and Admiral King agreed, that Professor Bernal should be summoned by the Committee whenever his technical advice was desired.

7380

Roosevelt-Churchill meeting, 5:50 p.m.

Present
United States United Kingdom
President Roosevelt Prime Minister Churchill
Mr. Harriman
7381

The Pittsburgh Press (September 3, 1943)

More planes for airmail work sought

Increased volume, fewer aircraft cause delays

…

7382

Meat packer gets 10 years

Detroit man is also fined $14,000 in OPA case

…

OPA promises to pound down cost of living

Prices to be placed at September 1942 level, Bowles says

…

7383

War spending rises sharply during August

Public debt of nation jumps to $148 billion

…

7384

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

Somewhere in Sicily, Italy – (by wireless)
Sicily was known to be short of water in summertime, so our invasion forces brought enough water with them to last five days. In the case of the 45th Division, this amounted to 155,000 gallons.

It was brought in tanks and in individual five-gallon cans. There were three ships with tanks of 10,000 gallons each. On the transports there were 125,000 gallons, all in five-gallon cans. That meant that this one division brought with it from Africa 25,000 cans of water. Just think of it – 25,000 cans! And other divisions did the same.

Actually, we didn’t have as much trouble finding water as we’d expected, and we needn’t have brought so much with us, but you never know. Napoleon said an army marches on its stomach, but I think you could almost say an army marches on its water. Without water you’re sunk.

As an old punster, how in the hell can you sink without water? Well, I said it; you figure it out.

2 gallons per man

Throughout the Sicilian campaign, the 45th Division used about 50,000 gallons of water a day, or two gallons per man. Just as a comparison, the daily water consumption in Las Vegas, New Mexico, a city of 12,000, is a million gallons a day, or almost 100 gallons a person.

Although the difference seems fantastic, still our troops used more than absolutely necessary, for an army can exist and fight on one gallon a day per man.

It falls to the engineers to provide water for the Army. Engineer officers scout the country right behind the retiring enemy, looking for watering places.

They always keep three water points set up constantly for each division – one for each of the three regiments, and usually a couple of extra ones. When a water point is found, the engineers wheel in their portable purifying unit. This consists of a motorized pump, a sand filter, a chlorinating machine, and a collapsible 3,000-gallon canvas tank which stands about shoulder-high when put up.

Purified water is pumped into this canvas tank. Then all day and all night, vehicles of the regiment from miles around line up and fill their cans, tanks, and radiators.

Painted signs saying “Water Point,” with an arrow pointing the direction, are staked along the roads for miles around.

The sources of our water in Sicily were mainly wells, mountain springs, little streams, shell craters, and irrigation ditches. The engineers of the 45th Division found one shell crater that contained a broken water main, and the seepage into this crater provided water for days. They also discovered that some of Sicily’s dry river beds had underground streams flowing beneath, and by drilling down a few feet, they could pump up all they needed.

Sicilian supplies untapped

Another time, they put pumps into a tiny little irrigation ditch only four inches deep and a foot wide. You wouldn’t think it would furnish enough water for a mule, yet it kept flowing and carried them safely through.

In their municipal water systems, the Sicilians use everything from modern 20-inch cast-iron pipe down to primitive earthen aqueducts still surviving from Roman days.

Our engineers made it a practice not to tap the local water supplies. We made a good many friends that way, for the Sicilians said the Germans used no such delicacy. In fact, we leaned over the other way, and furnished water to scores of thousands of Sicilians whose supply had been shattered by bombing.

It doesn’t make much difference what shape the water is in when you find it, for it is pumped through the filter machine which takes out the sediment. Then purifying substances are shot in as it passes through the pumps. The chlorine we inject comes in powder form in one-gallon cans. We usually use one part of chlorine to a million parts of water.

The 45th’s engineers brought with them enough chlorine to last six months. In addition to chlorine, alum and soda ash is injected into the water. After you’ve drunk this water for as long as we have, you don’t notice the odd taste.

The 45th brought six complete water-purifying units with it and also brought a unit for distilling drinking water out of sea water, but this never had to be used.

Maybe a little ‘vino’

When he marches or goes into battle, an infantryman usually carries two canteens instead of one, but here in the hot summer it isn’t unusual at all to see a soldier carrying six canteens tied to the end of a leather strap like a bunch of grapes – half his canteens being captured Italian ones covered with gray felt for keeping the water cool.

And, I might add out of the side of my mouth, if you got real nosey, you might discover that a couple of those canteens, instead of holding our beautiful pure water, were bearing a strange red fluid known colloquially as “vino,” to be used, no doubt, for rubbing on fleabites.

7385

Italian armistice signed at Fairfield Camp, Sicily
September 3, 1943, 2:00 p.m. CET

The following conditions of an Armistice are presented by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, acting by authority of the Governments of the United States and Great Britain and in the interest of the United Nations, and are accepted by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, Head of the Italian Government:

  1. Immediate cessation of all hostile activity by the Italian armed forces.

  2. Italy will use its best endeavors to deny, to the Germans, facilities that might be used against the United Nations.

  3. All prisoners or internees of the United Nations to be immediately turned over to the Allied Commander-in-Chief, and none of these may now or at any time be evacuated to Germany.

  4. Immediate transfer of the Italian Fleet and Italian aircraft to such points as may be designated by the Allied Commander-in-Chief, with details of disarmament to be prescribed by him.

  5. Italian merchant shipping may be requisitioned by the Allied Commander-in-Chief to meet the needs of his military-naval program.

  6. Immediate surrender of Corsica and of all Italian territory, both islands and mainland, to the Allies, for such use as operational bases and other purposes as the Allies may see fit.

  7. Immediate guarantee of the free use by the Allies of all airfields and naval ports in Italian territory, regardless of the rate of evacuation of the Italian territory by the German forces. These ports and fields to be protected by Italian armed forces until this function is taken over by the Allies.

  8. Immediate withdrawal to Italy of Italian armed forces from all participation in the current war from whatever areas in which they may be now engaged.

  9. Guarantee by the Italian Government that if necessary it will employ all its available armed forces to insure prompt and exact compliance with all the provisions of this armistice.

  10. The Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces reserves to himself the right to take any measure which in his opinion may be necessary for the protection of the interests of the Allied Forces for the prosecution of the war, and the Italian Government binds itself to take such administrative or other action as the Commander-in-Chief may require, and in particular the Commander-in-Chief will establish Allied Military Government over such parts of Italian territory as he may deem necessary in the military interests of the Allied Nations.

  11. The Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces will have a full right to impose measures of disarmament, demobilization, and demilitarization.

  12. Other conditions of a political, economic and financial nature with which Italy will be bound to comply will be transmitted at a later date.

The conditions of the present Armistice will not be made public without prior approval of the Allied Commander-in-Chief. The English will be considered the official text.

MARSHAL PIETRO BADOGLIO
Head of Italian Government

By: GUISEPPE CASTEI.LANO
Brigadier General, attached to The Italian High Command

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
General, U.S. Army,
Commander in Chief, Allied Forces

By: WALTER B. SMITH
Major General, U.S. Army,
Chief of Staff

PRESENT:
Rt. Hon. Harold Macmillan
British Resident Minister
AFHQ

Robert Murphy
Personal Representative of the President of the United States

Royer Dick
Commodore, RN
Chief of Staff to the C-in-C Med.

Lowell W. Rooks
Major General, U.S. Army
Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3
AFHQ

Franco Montanari
Official Italian Interpreter

Brigadier Kenneth Strong
Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3
AFHQ

Le seguenti condizioni di Armistizio sono presentate dal Generale Dwight D. Eisenhower, Comandante-in-capo delle Forze Alleate, agendo per autorità dei Governi degli Stati Uniti e Gran Bretagna e nell’interesse delle Nazioni Unite e sono accettate dal Maresciallo Pietro Badoglio, Capo del Governo italiano:

  1. Cessazione immediata di tutte le ostilità da parte delle forze armate italiane.

  2. L’Italia si sforzerà di negare ai tedeschi installazioni che sarebbero usate contro le Nazioni Unite.

  3. Tutti i prigionieri o internati delle Nazioni Unite saranno immediatamente riconsegnati al Comandante-in-capo Alleato e nessuno di questi può, ora o in qualsiasi tempo, essere evacuato in Germania.

  4. Trasferimento immediato della Flotta italiana e degli aerei italiani nei punti che potrebbero essere designati dal Comandante-in-capo Alleato, con dettagli di disarmo da lui prescritti.

  5. Le spedizioni mercantili italiane possono essere requisite dal Comandante-in-capo Alleato per affrontare le necessità del suo programma militare-navale.

  6. Resa immediata della Corsica e di tutto il territorio italiano, isole e continente, agli Alleati per uso come basi operative e per altri scopi come determinati dagli Alleati.

  7. Garanzia immediata dell’uso gratuito per gli Alleati di tutti i campi d’aviazione e porti navali in territorio italiano, senza riguardo al tasso di evacuazione del territorio italiano da parte delle forze tedesche. Questi porti e campi saranno protetti da forze armate italiane fino a che questa funzione sarà assunta dagli Alleati.

  8. Ritiro immediato in Italia di tutte le forze armate italiane da tutte la partecipazioni nella guerra corrente e da qualunque area siano impegnate.

  9. Garanzia del Governo italiano che se necessario impiegherà tutte le sue forze armate disponibili per pronta e esatta esecuzione di tutti i provvedimenti di questo armistizio.

  10. Il Comandante-in-capo delle riserve delle Forze Alleate si riserva di prendere qualsiasi misura che, per sua opinione, può essere necessaria per la protezione degli interessi delle Forze Alleate nella prosecuzione della guerra e il Governo Italiano si impegna a compiere ogni azione amministrativa o altra che il Comandante-in-capo potrebbe richiedere e, in particolare, il Comandante-in-capo stabilirà il Governo Militare Alleato sulle parti di territorio italiano che può ritenere necessarie per gli interessi militari delle Nazioni Alleate.

  11. Il Comandante-in-capo delle Forze Alleate avrà un pieno diritto d’imporre misure di disarmo, smobilitazione e demilitarizzazione.

  12. Le altre condizioni di natura politica, economica e finanziaria alle quali l’Italia sarà tenuta ad assentire, saranno emesse in data successiva.

Le condizioni dell’Armistizio presente non saranno rese pubbliche senza approvazione preventiva del Comandante-in-capo Alleato. L’inglese sarà considerato il testo ufficiale.

Maresciallo Pietro BADOGLIO
Capo del Governo Italiano

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Generale, U.S. Army
Comandante in Capo, Forze Alleate

Da: GIUSEPPE CASTELLANO,
Capo di Stato Maggiore Italiano

WALTER B. SMITH
Brigadiere Generale, U.S. Army

PRESENTE:
Rt. Hon. Harold Macmillan
Ministro Residente Britannico
AFHQ

Robert Murphy
Rappresentante personale del Presidente degli Stati Uniti

Royer Dick
Commodoro, RN
Capo del Personale al C-in-C Med.

Lowell W. Rooks
Maggiore Generale, U.S. Army
Assistente Capo di Stato Maggiore, G-3
AFHQ

Franco Montanari
Interprete ufficiale italiano

Brigadiere Kenneth Strong
Assistente Capo di Stato Maggiore, G-2
AFHQ

1 Like
7386

The Pittsburgh Press (September 4, 1943)

3 KEY ITALIAN PORTS SEIZED
Invaders driving inland; coastal resistance light

Berlin reports more landings; battleships soften defenses; British win 10–15-mile bridgehead
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer

…

7387

BOMBERS POUND BATTERED BERLIN
RAF hits capital with 50 tons of bombs a minute

British night raiders also rip airfields in Rhineland and France at cost of 22 aircraft
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer

…

7388

Women parade in Rome –
Invasion revives clamor in Italy for quick peace

Underground calls on troops to surrender, urges strikes, sabotage to overthrow Badoglio
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer

…

7389

Public to get real picture of war zones

OWI chief wins fight to reveal sacrifices and suffering

…

7390

Planes wreck 3 Jap vessels

Yanks and Aussies trap enemy near Salamaua
By Brydon Taves, United Press staff writer

…

7391

Card game in a shipyard –
Legless soldiers attend trial of loafing workers

Some men fight and die for America; others play on company time, and at $99 a week

…

1 Like
7392

I DARE SAY —
The curtain rises

By Florence Fisher Parry

…

7393

Bellboy released in slaying of WAC

…

7394

First Lady breaks another precedent

…

Traveler Willkie barred from Republicans’ hotel

He’s not qualified under rules: G for guests; O for officials, P for press
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer

…

7395

100 Axis planes unable to stop Liberator raid

Yank gunners destroy 27 fighters in attack on rail center

…

7396

Washington nears –
Trial of Duce being mapped by Roosevelt

President, Prime Minister reported discussing post-war action

…

7397

Editorial: Vegetarians all?

…

7398

Editorial: Goodbye and hello

…