Maas attacks split command of U.S. again
Costly military mistakes called result of lack of coordination
…
Single military group parting shot by Collins
Unify for efficiency, economy, retiring House member urges
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
…
Ferguson: The extremists
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Roughly speaking, our people always have been divided into two major groups – the conservatives and the liberals. There is no reason to suppose they will ever merge completely. History proves that such division of basic opinions has always existed. We should accept its verdict and seek a few intelligent compromises for the present.
In days of peace, we could afford to quarrel. But now that we are neck-deep in war, a truce is imperative. No doubt the liberals are tired of hearing themselves called “starry-eyed innocents” and “addle-pated idealists,” but the conservatives are equally weary of being named stupid “isolationists, materialists and Quislings.”
Yet that sort of name-calling goes on day in and day out. The attitudes of hatred we assume toward fellow Americans won’t help us to win a quick victory nor assure us a good peace afterward.
In fact – and I’ve been reading their magazines and newspapers consistently – the liberals have very little right to the name any longer. They are becoming more intolerant than those they call intolerant. They never give the opposition credit for sincerity or good intentions. So strident and unjust are some of their accusations, one is forced to the conclusion that open minds and liberal opinions are no longer known to some of them.
It seems to me home groups should be willing to compromise over certain issues, especially when sacrifices are asked of all. Whether we agree wholly as to methods, the aim of everyone is victory. Neither group is flawless.
Charges of treason against political or idealistic opponents are both unfair and unwise at present. The extremists of liberalism and conservatism both sound screwy, if you ask me. It’s obvious, besides, that both would fail if given their heads – so why can’t we have a negotiated peace on the home front?
Heavy losses inflicted –
Allies mop up doomed enemy units at Buna
Jap losses high, MacArthur calls position of foe ‘hopeless’
By Don Caswell, United Press staff writer
…
Simms: Failure to aid China imperils Allied cause
Too polite to complain, Chiang fears war will be extended
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
…
Millett: Women show rare courage
Have babies with husband often far away
By Ruth Millett
The woman called a cab, went to the hospital and had her baby.
When they asked her if she didn’t want her husband notified, she said in surprise:
No, he works in a defense plant. I don’t want him away from his job. He will be through at six o’clock tonight.
That is the wartime attitude of women toward the job of having babies. No fuss, no demands for sympathy; no self-pity if the husband is clear across the country in an Army camp or overseas.
That is one way women are showing spunk and determination that shouldn’t be overlooked in our great admiration for the courage and the ability of the women who are filling men’s jobs. Because the job of having babies is just as important to the future of the country as the job of producing armaments.
While other countries are worried over the fact that they aren’t producing enough babies, we sometimes act as though young people don’t have a right to have babies in wartime, simply because it is a tougher job than in peacetime.
Even though older people are forever advising young folks to wait for more settled times before starting to enlarge their families, the young folks are going ahead having babies – not just as usual, but are breaking past production records.
And the burden of this defiance is borne by the mothers who often have to accept medical and hospital care that, due to the crowded hospital conditions and the shortage of civilian doctors and nurses, may not be the best; who often face the job of moving their babies from place to place as they follow their men.
But they are not complaining. They are tackling the job of having and caring for babies in wartime with a courage that is almost nonchalance.
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Oran, Algeria – (by wireless)
Men who bring our convoys from America, some of whom have just recently arrived, tell me the people at home don’t have a correct impression of things over here.
Merchant Marine officers, who have been here a couple of days, are astonished by the difference between what they thought the situation was and what it actually is. They say people at home think the North African campaign is a walkaway and will be over quickly; that our losses have been practically nil; that the French here love us to death, and that all German influence has been cleaned out.
If you think that, it is because we newspapermen here have failed at getting the finer points over to you.
Because this campaign at first was as much diplomatic as military, the powers that be didn’t permit our itchy typewriter fingers to delve into things internationally, which were ticklish enough without that. I believe misconceptions at home must have grown out of some missing part of the picture.
It would be very bad for another wave of extreme optimism to sweep over the United States. So, maybe I can explain a little bit about why things over here, though all right for the long run, are not all strawberries and cream right now.
In Tunisia, for instance, we seem to be stalemated for the moment. The reasons are two. Our Army is a green army, and most of our Tunisian troops are in actual battle for the first time against seasoned troops and commanders. It will take us months of fighting to gain the experience our enemies start with.
In the second place, nobody knew exactly how much resistance the French would put up here, so we had to be set for full resistance. That meant, when the French capitulated in three days, we had to move eastward at once, or leave the Germans unhampered to build a big force in Tunisia.
So, we moved several hundred miles and, with the British, began fighting. But we simply didn’t have enough stuff on hand to knock the Germans out instantly. Nobody is to blame for this. I think our Army is doing wonderfully – both in fighting with what we have and in getting more here – but we are fighting an army as tough in spirit as ours, vastly more experienced, and more easily supplied.
So, you must expect to wait a while before Tunisia is cleared and Rommel jumps into the sea.
Our losses in men so far are not appalling, by any means, but we are losing men. The other day, an American ship brought the first newspaper from home I had seen since the occupation, and it said only 12 men were lost in taking Oran. The losses, in fact, were not great, but they were a good many twelve times 12.
Most of our convalescent wounded have been sent to England. Some newly-arrived Americans feel that, if more of the wounded were sent home, it would put new grim vigor into the American people. We aren’t the sort of people from whom wounded men have to be concealed.
The biggest puzzle to us who are on the scene is our policy of dealing with Axis agents and sympathizers in North Africa. We have taken into custody only the most out-and-out Axis agents, such as the German Armistice Missions and a few others. That done, we have turned the authority of arrest back to the French. The procedure is that we investigate, and they arrest. As it winds up, we investigate, period.
Our policy is still appeasement. It stems from what might be called the national hodgepodge of French emotions. Frenchmen today think and feel in lots of different directions. We moved softly at first, in order to capture as many French hearts as French square miles. Now that phase is over. We are here in full swing. We occupy countries and pretend not to. We are tender in order to avoid offending our friends, the French, in line with the policy of interfering as little as possible with French municipal life.
We have left in office most of the small-fry officials put there by the Germans before we came. We are permitting fascist societies to continue to exist. Actual sniping has been stopped, but there is still sabotage. The loyal French see this and wonder what manner of people we are. They are used to force, and expect us to use it against the common enemy, which includes the French Nazis. Our enemies see it, laugh, and call us soft. Both sides are puzzled by a country at war which still lets enemies run loose to work against it.
There are an astonishing number of Axis sympathizers among the French in North Africa. Not a majority, of course, but more than you would imagine. This in itself is a great puzzle to me. I can’t fathom the thought processes of a Frenchman who prefers German victory and perpetual domination rather than a temporary occupation resulting in eventual French freedom.
But there are such people, and they are hindering us, and we over here think you folks at home should know three things: That the going will be tough and probably long before we have cleaned up Africa and are ready to move to bigger fronts. That the French are fundamentally behind us, but that a strange, illogical stratum is against us. And that our fundamental policy still is one of soft-gloving snakes in our midst.
1 Like
White Paper by U.S. makes Berlin squirm
Proofs of Axis war guilt widely accepted, Nazi anger indicates
By the United Press
…
Test upholds U.S. weapons
Equipment, planes prove ‘durable’ in Africa
Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) – (Jan. 2, delayed)
U.S. equipment and aircraft have passed their first tests on the North African battlefield successfully, military observers said today.
U.S. soldiers and officers reported that their machines of war have proven “durable and dependable” in action.
They declared, however, that it would be “foolish” to pretend that they completely outclass the machines of the Germans. They point out that, although our machines and guns are generally excellent, they are often matched in performance by German equipment.
Proper use vital
Experience under fire has proven that the proper use of equipment is as important as the quality of the equipment itself. It has been learned, for example, that the U.S. 37mm anti-tank gun, designed for use against light tanks, can knock out a heavy German Mark IV tank if the shell hits the tank tread from the side.
Experience with the new American General Sherman tank has proven the wisdom of designers in mounting a 75mm cannon that can be swung completely around.
The earlier General Grants had the gun mounted on the side, thus limiting the field of traverse.
Lightning stands up
Comparison of American and German aircraft is difficult. One of the most controversial craft is the Lockheed Lightning P-38. This plane, which received much early publicity, is designed as a defensive interceptive plane to be used mainly against bombers. But now it is employed as a fighter craft with considerable success.
It has great speed, climbing and firepower, but, being a two-engined plane, is more difficult to turn in a limited space than a single-engined fighter. This imposes a considerable handicap on a pilot when he is up against a late model Focke-Wulf 190 or a Messerschmitt 109.
Although the P-38 was designed for high altitude interception, it is doing its best work on the North African front as a low-level road-strafer.
FW respected
Allied pilots have great respect for the German Fw 190s and the Me 109s, especially the former, which can climb and maneuver as well as anything in the African sky.
The comparative equality of Axis and Allied planes is demonstrated by the rarity of one-sided dogfights.
American pilots flying British Spitfires praise their performance highly. There has as yet not been enough contact between the new German fighters and Curtiss Warhawks to justify a comparison. But all American bombers have been living up to advance expectations.
Observers are practically unanimous in the belief that 88mm dual purpose gun is the best Axis field weapon on this front. The gun is especially deadly against tanks and has caused more loss among American tanks than have German tanks.
Ruhr battered in night attack
Fortresses raid U-boat base in France
By Sidney J. Williams, United Press staff writer
London, England –
The Royal Air Force attacked the industrial Ruhr in western Germany during the night in the first big raid on the Reich in 1943.
The Air Ministry announced that three planes were lost, indicating that a moderately small force, possibly not more than 60 or 70 planes participated.
The Berlin radio asserted that British bombers caused damage to a residential section of a Ruhr town with explosives and incendiaries. Civilian casualties were reported and several planes were said to have been shot down.
The attack followed a devastating raid by U.S. heavy bombers on the German submarine base at Saint-Nazaire on the French west coast, and Allied air sweeps along a 400-mile channel stretch, in daylight yesterday.
Fifth U.S. raid
It was the fifth time that U.S. four-engine bombers had blasted Saint-Nazaire. Seven bombers were missing, a record loss for the big U.S. planes. In a raid on Romilly-sur-Seine on Dec. 20, six bombers were shot down.
The planes were without fighter protection as they neared Saint-Nazaire at the mouth of the Loire River. Fighter planes accompanied them as they crossed the English Channel both ways but the entire distance was beyond their range. Saint-Nazaire is 310 miles southwest of London.
The bombers were favored by good weather and dropped explosives squarely in the docks, starting several fires. They were attacked by many enemy fighter planes, according to a communiqué, and engaged in a long running fight.
Others meet no fighters
The communiqué said:
A number of enemy aircraft were destroyed.
While this action was taking place, almost 300 Allied fighters swept over northern France from near Brest northward to Belgium and Holland without encountering a single enemy plane. The fighter operations lasted six hours yesterday.
Planes of the British, Canadian, New Zealand, Norwegian, Polish and Czech Air Forces participated and all returned.
Mosquito bombers attacked railway targets in northern France and fighters bombed the docks at Bruges, Belgium. Aircraft of the Army Cooperation command attacked airfields in Holland.
The Berlin radio said the British had suffered “serious defeats” in the raids over France. It said that at least 15 “multi-motor” planes were shot down by German Focke-Wulf.
A German bomber destroyed over the northeast coast of England last night was the first enemy bomber destroyed over Great Britain since Dec. 20.
It was revealed that 12 persons were killed and other injured in a daylight attack yesterday by four German fighter-bombers on an Isle of Wight town. The raiders came in at low altitude, barely skimming the rooftops, and bombed the machine-gunned the streets for three minutes.