Yanks down 69 Jap planes since June 1
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Yank bombers down Nazi fighters 5–1
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Millett: People are busy but they can at least be courteous
War is often used as excuse but it’s the lack of courtesy, not the lack of service, that is irritating
By Ruth Millett
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Ford’s industrial empire observes 40th anniversary
History of company prepared by Edsel Ford before his death, published on anniversary
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Coffee stocks near normal; rations may be increased
Officials studying prospects of upping individual quotas in July 1 announcement
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Somewhere in Africa – (by wireless)
I have taken quite a shine to the natives of Africa’s Gold Coast, Slave Coast and Ivory Coast. They seem so happy. It makes you forget how grim people at war are, and it sort of makes you happy, too.
These are the people our own American Negroes came from. They are as black as our blackest Negroes. You seldom see a light-colored one. They are supposed to be full of tropical diseases, yet you can look at any fisherman along the coast and if you can find a more magnificently powerful physical specimen anywhere in the world, I’d like to see him.
They have many qualities that surprise me. They have, first of all, a lively sense of humor. They’re always laughing, and their wit isn’t just primer wit, either. It’s often very subtle.
They work slowly, as all people do in the tropics, but they are not shiftless. You see fewer sitting around doing nothing than you do in our own South.
And they are honest. In some countries, you hardly dare take off your clothes for fear they will disappear, but along these hot coasts, honesty seems to be inbred. Hundreds of these blacks work as houseboys and personal servants for the Americans and British, and the thought of anything being stolen never enters anybody’s head.
Furthermore, they are meticulously clean. The little sandy yards of their homes are swept constantly with big coarse brooms. There’s never a speck of trash in them. And the people are always taking baths. The men bathe every afternoon when they finish work. They bathe on the scene of their job, right out in the open in a bucket of water. I think that if you gave one of those Negroes 20 buckets of water a day, he’d take 20 baths.
They are in every respect a contrast to the Arabs of North Africa.
Natives deck out in colors
As soon as a coast Negro gets home from work, he changes from the ordinary shorts and undershirts in which he usually works into native dress. That consists of nothing but yards and yards of wildly bright cotton print, thrown over one shoulder and draped around the body.
The wildness of color and fantasy of design of these cotton prints is the most striking thing about the Central African natives to me. To see a village street full of Negroes late in the afternoon is to see something so beautifully colored you can’t believe it’s true.
From babies to old men, everybody is garbed in some vivid hue – they aren’t in stripes, or in checks, or even solid colors; they give the appearance of being a million colors thrown onto a piece of cloth willy-nilly, in which the overall effect turns out to be as beautiful and natural as a garden of flowers.
They buy the cloth at native markets. Some of it is manufactured locally, but most of it comes from England, America and India. You hardly ever see two pieces alike.
The riotous colors sort of get in your blood, so I decided to go native a little myself. My flannel pajamas were slightly heavy for this climate, so I went to a bazaar to buy some tropical pajamas. But everything on the counters looked as if it had been made for Kansas City. I was disappointed. So, the Indian trader who ran the bazaar said he’d made me some. By buying the cloth myself, I could go as wild as I wished.
Ernie goes wild, over pajamas
So I went to a native outdoor market, and into a little stall inhabited by two black women, a naked, crawling baby, and scores of bolts of weirdly bright cloth. I bought four different pieces of material, so that in making two pairs of pajamas, nothing would match.
One of the black women joined in my whimsy and helped me find wilder and wilder stuff. She got so pleased with the whole business she didn’t even ask me for some “dash” – a little extra – when I paid her.
When I took the cloth back to the tailor, he had no doubts whatever that I was crazy, too, for he laughed and laughed and went about his measuring with a vim. Three days later, my monstrosities were ready. They were really wonderful.
Back at camp, I put them on and gave a style show for a gang of American officers with whom I was staying. At first, they all yelled and hooted in derision, as I had expected they would, but within two days they were all downtown buying wild cloth and having pajamas made for themselves. Everybody from colonels on down now has some psychopathic pajamas in the making.
Personally, I haven’t slept too well since I got mine, they are louder than a London air-raid siren, and have everything in them except the Battle of Gettysburg. They are a screaming explosion of birds, flowers, castles, snakes, palm trees, the great earthquake of 1934, elephants, boats, pointing fingers and evil eyes. I hope they last till I get back home again. Then I can say I’m shell-shocked – and prove it.
U.S. Navy Department (June 17, 1943)
Communiqué No. 414
South Pacific.
On June 15, during the morning, Navy Dauntless (Douglas SBD) dive bombers and Avenger (Grumman TBF) torpedo bombers, escorted by Wildcat (Grumman F4F) fighters, attacked Japanese positions in western New Georgia Island. Fires were started and heavy explosions were observed.
On June 16, during the morning, Navy Avenger and Dauntless dive bombers, escorted by Corsair (Vought F4U) fighters, attacked Japanese positions on Choiseul Island. Fires were started.
North Pacific.
On June 15, during the afternoon, Navy Ventura (Vega PV) medium bombers attacked Kiska. Hits were scored in the main camp area, along the runway and among antiaircraft batteries.
Communiqué No. 415
South Pacific.
A brief report received from the South Pacific reveals that in an air battle over Guadalcanal Island on June 16, U.S. planes shot down 32 Japanese bombers and 45 Zero fighters. Six U.S. planes are missing.
No further details have been received.
The Pittsburgh Press (June 17, 1943)
77 Jap planes downed in Solomons
Yanks blast 45 Zeros and 32 bombers over Guadalcanal
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
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Troops barges leave Africa, Italians say
Move to Pantelleria, Rome reports; lull in air attacks on Sicily
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Court action is UMW card in coal game
WLB ruling, due soon, hinges on union’s acquiescence
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McNutt’s $3,000 raise voted down by House
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Drilling rights involved –
Standard Oil’s Navy deal void
Ruling on contract submitted to Roosevelt
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