Editorial: Final passing of WPA recalls many real accomplishments
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The Pittsburgh Press (July 7, 1943)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
First of five articles on the WAACs.
North Africa – (July 6)
This is a short series about the WAACs in Africa. There aren’t so very many of them over here so far. The ones who are here are a sort of test tube, but they are working out so well that many others undoubtedly will be coming along to reinforce them.
There is a distressing shortage of WAACs. There are only 60,000 of them altogether, and I’m told the Air Forces alone would like to have 300,000. If you happen to have 240,000 potential WAACs around the house, would you please let us know?
There are fewer than 300 WAACs in North Africa. All of them live in a big headquarters city. They are not dodging bullets, not living in foxholes, not blood-and-gutsing around at any front, as some of the more romantic pieces written about them seem to intimate. They are, in fact, living not very differently from what they would in service at home.
The first WAACs over here were five chaplains, on very special confidential work, who arrived last December after being torpedoed on the way. These five, by the nature of their work, are separate from the regular WAAC unit and live together in a villa. Since then, four other WAAC officers have come for similar duty.
An example is Lt. Sarah Bagby, who is confidential secretary to Lt. Gen. “Tooey” Spaatz. Lt. Bagby, incidentally, is the 11th member of her family to go into uniform.
Now to the bulk of the WAACs. There is one full company here – 274 women, including five officers. They arrived January 26. They aren’t scattered around Africa; they are all concentrated in one city.
Half of them live in a requisitioned five-story office building. Streetcars, buses and Army vehicles flow past their door constantly. From their rooftop you look right down upon the city and its harbor – it’s one of the most striking views I ever saw.
The other half live in a convent just on the edge of the city. They have taken over about half of the convent, and the girls live in huge rooms little different from college dormitories. Their quarters surround a crushed-stone patio with an ancient well in the middle. It all looks like a picture out of the Middle Ages. It’s one of the most peaceful places I have ever seen.
There are five women officers to run the company – two captains and three lieutenants. One of the five is a doctor. The officers call the girls either by their rank or by their last name only. First names are never used. Despite these formalities, there seems to be a gentler exchange of personalities between WAAC officers and girls than between officers and men in the Army.
Some WAAC officers are grim and severe. One of these might dismiss an auxiliary from her presence with a stiff and chilling “That’s all, Holmes,” while another officer would perform the same mission by saying, “Get the hell out of here, Holmes, you rat,” in a manner that would send the girl off singing to herself for an hour.
One very fine officer I know indulges in morale-building horseplay that would probably shock the Articles of War right out of their covers – such as returning an extremely snappy salute with a snappier one that resembles a baseball pitcher’s windup.
The WAACs have conducted themselves beautifully over here. Naturally one has a sip too much of wine now and then, or stays out past hours in the moonlight, but on the whole, their conduct would more than meet the approval of any fair-minded person.
The WAACs, like everybody else, are subject to many rumors. This might be as good a place as any to dispel one of the vicious ones. It has been whispered about town that 25% of the WAACs have been sent home. This is a genuine libel. Only four WAACs have been sent back, and they were older women who simply couldn’t make the psychological adjustment to being so far from home.
Actually, the WAACs are neither prissies nor toughies, but just nice natural girls the same as they would be back home.
U.S. Navy Department (July 7, 1943)
Communiqué No. 436
South Pacific.
On July 4, a formation of Army Flying Fortresses (Boeing B‑17) heavy bombers bombed the Bairoko Harbor Area, west coast of New Georgia Island.
On the early afternoon of July 5, 16 Army Warhawk (Curtiss P‑40) fighters intercepted about 40 enemy Zero fighters over Rendova Island. Two Zeros were destroyed. One Warhawk was lost but the pilot was rescued.
During the early morning surface engagement of July 6, when six Japanese ships were probably sunk and several damaged, the light cruiser USS HELENA (CL-50) was sunk. The next of kin of the casualties aboard the HELENA will be notified as soon as possible.
During the evening of July 6:
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A formation of Army Liberator (Consolidated B‑24) heavy bombers attacked Kahili and started several fires.
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During the same evening, a formation of Army Liberators bombed Buka Island. A number of fires as a result of the bombing were observed.
North Pacific.
On the evening of July 6, a U.S. surface task force bombarded Kiska. Enemy shore batteries did not return the fire.
Memorandum to the Press:
The following information has been announced in the Southwest Pacific:
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On the morning of July 6, a Navy Liberator (Consolidated PB4Y) heavy bomber was attacked by five Zero fighters northeast of Kolombangara Island, New Georgia. Group. Two Zeros were shot down and another was probably destroyed.
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On the afternoon of July 6, Army Mitchell (North American B‑25) medium bombers bombed a beached Japanese destroyer in Bambari Harbor (Southeast coast of Kolombangara Island). Three hits were scored and a number of fires accompanied by violent explosions were observed.
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During the evening of July 6, Army Flying Fortress heavy bombers attacked Ballale Island, New Georgia Group, and started large fires.
U.S. State Department (July 7, 1943)
860C.002/328
Memorandum by the Polish Ambassador
Washington, July 7, 1943.
The Polish Ambassador informed the Secretary of State that he had received today the following urgent telegram from Count Raczyński, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland:
Information is being received by the Polish Government in London directly from Poland that news of the death of Prime Minister General Sikorski is causing depression bordering on despair among the Polish people. There appears to be urgent need of raising the spirit in Poland. In view of the enormous personal authority and popularity of President Roosevelt in Poland, Count Raczyński asks, on behalf of the Polish Government, whether the President would very kindly agree to make a suitable declaration referring to the death of General Sikorski and stressing his faith that the Polish people will follow General Sikorski’s leadership by continuing their united and unbroken resistance in their struggle to regain Poland’s independence and for the triumph of the principles for which the United Nations are fighting and suffering.
The Polish Ambassador added that General Sikorski had succeeded in fully organizing Poland’s underground army which, together with the entire nation, regarded him as their military and political leader in their organized struggle against the enemy.
Brooklyn Eagle (July 7, 1943)
NAVY BOMBARDS KISKA
Beaten Jap fleet trapped in Solomons
U.S. loses cruiser Helena – enemy’s toll put at 10 ships
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Allied fliers sweep skies over Sicily
Powerful fleets hit 8 targets – leave trail of fire and ruin
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Jack Dempsey wins divorce from Hannah
Her separate maintenance suit dismissed – custody of children to be decided
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House bars crop insurance funds
Washington (UP) –
The House today for the fourth time refused to provide funds for continuation of the federal crop insurance program.
The House defeated, 123–52, a motion to concur in a Senate amendment to the second deficiency bill to appropriate $7,818,748 for crop insurance in fiscal 1944.
The bill goes back to the Senate, which earlier this week receded from a demand that the crop insurance program be provided for in the agriculture appropriation bill.
In an 11th hour effort to save crop insurance, however, the Senate had amended the second deficiency bill to provide funds for it. The House served notice today that the Senate must give in or kill the second deficiency bill.
Navigational mistake caused bombing of town
Boise City, Oklahoma (UP) –
Army Air Forces authorities said today that the bombing of this little Oklahoma panhandle town early yesterday resulted from “a mistake In navigation.”
Maj. C. E. Lancaster, commanding officer of the Dalhart (Texas) Army Airfield, said the bombs were dropped by student fliers who mistook the town for a practice bombing range.
Lancaster said the damage would have been more severe had not the planes been using practice bombs.
See Roosevelt action in Jones, Wallace dispute
Speedy intervention expected – Byrnes said to be urging move
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Editorial: Our bright naval record augury of Japanese doom
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox does not submit a documented record in support of his statement that action in the Southwest Pacific in recent months constitutes the “greatest naval campaign ever waged by man” but laymen, considering the last nineteen months of sea warfare in retrospect, will accept it with confidence in its accuracy.
In addition, the American people will find in the consistently brilliant performances of U.S. ships and men a basis for the conviction that the victory over Japan will be swift and crushing once there is a concentration upon the war in the Pacific.
By reason of the vast sea spaces to be covered in the Pacific, with a front stretching down from the Aleutians to New Guinea, naval superiority is indispensable to success and the United Nations have demonstrated in successive operations that they possess a substantial margin of strength.
Even in the earlier days of the war, when Japan held the advantage of the initiative, a combination of British and U.S. naval resources saved Australia, the greatest objective of the Japanese and the last base remaining, with the exception of Hawaii, for a continuance of the fight in the Pacific.
Since then, the onrush of the Japanese has not only been halted but the processes of rolling back the tide have been started and, in the last few days, have been stimulated to such a degree that Rabaul and even Truk, the great bastion which is a vital source of enemy naval power in the Pacific, have become objectives of future operations. Without minimizing the importance of the part played by land campaigns and brilliant victories in the air, it may be stated that the naval campaign has been fundamental to success, also that it will have an increasingly significant place in the scheme of things as time goes on.
The inevitability of Japanese doom is found in a number of factors in the war, not the least of which is the demonstrated superiority of United Nations naval power up to date and the certainty that the margin of strength will become greater as time goes on.
Secretary Knox cites the fact that in one Guadalcanal action alone, the Allies sank more of the Japanese fleet than the Germans lost in the Battle of Jutland. When these high losses are considered in connection with Japan’s limited capacity for naval replacement and our own phenomenal ship construction record, the future, insofar as naval operations in the Pacific are concerned, becomes bright.
Ultimately, as Prime Minister Churchill said only a few days ago, there will be a concentration of the full naval and air strength of Great Britain in the Pacific, with the result that Japan will be compelled to hold island possessions and thousands of miles of sea lanes with infinitely inferior forces. The prospect is one to cause the warlords of Tokyo many anxious moments.
yes…yes… yes!! The day is coming closer when they will maybe invade Sicily.
Also did the americans did not know the battle for kursk had kicked off?
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Yes. The headline was “Reds Batter Nazis, Trap Tank Forces.”
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Völkischer Beobachter (July 8, 1943)
Antiinflationsprogramm und Rekordproduktionspläne –
Roosevelt Gefangener seiner Wirtschaftspolitik
Von unserer Stockholmer Schriftleitung
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Ein neues Ablenkungsmanöver Roosevelts –
Die Bedeutung des Pazifikunternehmens
Sonderdienst des „Völkischer Beobachters“
Lissabon, 7. Juli –
Die vor wenigen Tagen eröffnete Pazifikunternehmung, deren Verlauf natürlich noch völlig offenliegt, ist sowohl für die öffentliche Meinung der USA. als auch für die anglo-amerikanische Strategie bedeutungsvoll. Die Nachricht wurde in den USA. zum Unabhängigkeitstag verbreitet und brachte eine starke Entspannung der durch das fortgesetzte Warten auf eine immer wieder als unmittelbar bevorstehend angekündigte Europainvasion allmählich überreizten Nerven.
Gleichzeitig verwies das amerikanische Kriegsministerium bezeichnenderweise zum soundsovielten Male auf die japanischen Truppenkonzentrationen in den sibirischen Grenzen, die wohl nichts anderes als den Wunsch darstellten, Japan möchte gegen die Sowjets vorstoßen und damit einen sowjetrussisch-japanischen Krieg auslösen, in dessen Verlauf den Amerikanern Flugfelder in Bomberreichweite der japanischen Kerninseln eingeräumt würden.
Der unbequeme Stalin
Gegenüber dem Drängen Stalins um Errichtung der „zweiten Front“ versichert Washington immer wieder, die Anglo-Amerikaner könnten sich eine Europainvasion nur dann leisten, wenn erhebliche deutsche Truppenteile an der Ostfront gebunden seien. Stalin wiederum behauptet, er würde eine Ostoffensive nur wagen, wenn die Deutschen dort zu einer Invasion zu erheblichen Truppenabziehungen von der Ostfront gezwungen werden. Die interalliierte Strategie bietet also das Bild des Tauziehens; jeder Partner möchte ganz sicher gehen.
Militärische Kreise Washingtons stellen nun zwei Punkte in den Vordergrund, die für die Sowjetrussen nicht gerade schmeichelhaft klingen. Erstens sei man nicht sicher, ob sie eine erfolgreiche Offensive durchführen könnten. Ihre Taktik sei immer noch sehr ungeschickt und habe sich bisher nur in den Winterfeldzügen bewährt. So sei es ihnen nicht einmal möglich, den kleinen deutschen Brückenkopf Noworossijsk zu beseitigen. Falls es den Sowjets aber nicht gelänge, den größten Teil der deutschen Osttruppen zu vernichten, ergebe sich für Deutschland die Möglichkeit, seine gesamte Wucht gegen eine Invasionsarmee zu wenden und sie zu zerschlagen. Wenn eine anglo-amerikanische Invasion jedoch fehlschlage, wären damit ungezählte Verluste an Truppen und Material verbunden und es würde sehr lange dauern, bis ein erneuter Invasionsversuch erfolgen könnte.
Ein ‚titanisches Vabanquespiel‘
Washingtons Verstimmung gegenüber dem immer heftigeren Drängen des sowjetrussischen Verbündeten läßt sich kaum noch verbergen. „Man kann es den Russen Überhaupt nicht klarmachen, daß wir nicht die endlosen Reserven an ausgebildeten und erfahrenen Truppen haben,“ schrieb Major Fletcher Pratt unlängst in der Newyork Post. „Eine Invasion über dem Kanal, weil sie die Russen verlangen, wäre im Augenblick ein titanisches Vabanquespiel.“ In diesem erhitzten Streit der Geister wirkt die begonnene Südpazifikunternehmung abkühlend. Sie zeigt Moskau den guten Willen, überhaupt etwas zu tun. Außerdem soll sie den ungeduldig werdenden Tschungking-Chinesen und den verschnupften Australiern und Neuseeländern zeigen, daß man sie nicht vergessen hat. In den USA ist man angesichts der fortgesetzt heftigen Zusammenstöße zwischen dem Präsidenten und dem Kongreß schon erfreut, wenn an irgend einer Front überhaupt etwas geschieht, was die Blicke von den immer unerquicklicher werdenden Zuständen im Weißen Hause ablenkt. Wenn dabei noch Roosevelts politischer Gegner General MacArthur in den Blickpunkt der Ereignisse rückt, so steigert das nur das Wohlbehagen der Opposition.
Wegen seiner USA.-feindlichen Politik –
De Gaulle von London abgehalftert
Stockholm, 7. Juli –
De Gaulle hat sich nun anscheinend auch noch die letzten Reste britischer Sympathien verscherzt. Denn sonst würde man sich in London wohl kaum so beeilen, ihm die Beweise ehemaliger englischer Gunst endgültig zu nehmen.
Das englische Informationsministerium hat, wie offiziell mitgeteilt wurde, der De-Gaulle-Zeitung La Marseillaise das Erscheinen verboten. De Gaulle hat damit die letzte Möglichkeit verloren, sich vor der seiner ewigen Klagen und Krakeelereien müden englischen Öffentlichkeit Gehör zu verschaffen.
Bezeichnenderweise begründete das Informationsministerium seine Maßnahme damit, daß die Zeitung eine Politik verfolgt habe, „die feindlich gegen die USA. eingestellt war,“ so daß es zu zahlreichen Eingaben im Unterhaus gekommen sei. Die andere Begründung, daß die „kämpfenden Franzosen“ jetzt in dem französischen Befreiungsausschuß in Algier aufgegangen seien, weswegen sie keine eigene Zeitung mehr in London zu haben brauchten, wurde von den Engländern der äußeren Form halber beigefügt. Das täuscht nicht darüber hinweg, daß sich London auch in diesem Punkt den amerikanischen Wünschen fügen und von de Gaulle endgültig abrücken mußte.
Stampa Sera (July 8, 1943)
Siluri contro il traffico nemico –
Due piroscafi per 13 mila tonn. affondati da nostri aerei sulle coste tunisine
Diciannove apparecchi avversari abbattuti
Il Quartiere General delle Forze Armate comunica:
Nostri aerosiluranti hanno effettuato riuscite puntate offensive lungo le coste tunisine colpendo due piroscafi di complessive 13 mila tonnellate cosi gravemente da far ritenere sicuro il loro affondamento.
Incursioni avversarie su Trapani, Porto Empedocle e Catania causavano lievi danni e poche perdite fra le popolazioni. Quattordici apparecchi venivano distrutti dal tiro delle batterie della difesa: 3 a Trapani, 4 a Porto Empedocle e 7 a Catania.
Cacciatori dell’Asse abbattevano in combattimento 5 velivoli nel cielo della Sicilia.
Ecco i nomi dei piloti che si sono segnalati nelle azioni di aerosiluramento citate dal Bollettino odierna: tenente Bernardo Braghieri da Piacenza, tenente Francesco Pandolfo da Acireale (Catania), maresciallo Silvio Florentu da Roma, sergente maggiorie Lorenzo Sciarra da Roma.
U.S. Navy Department (July 8, 1943)
Communiqué No. 437
Pacific and Far East.
U.S. submarines have reported the following results of operations against the enemy in the waters of these areas:
- 1 large transport sunk.
- 1 medium‑sized transport sunk.
- 2 medium‑sized cargo vessels sunk.
- 1 large tanker sunk.
- 1 medium‑sized tanker sunk.
- 1 large cargo vessel sunk.
- 1 medium‑sized passenger‑cargo vessel sunk.
- 1 small cargo vessel sunk.
- 1 small schooner sunk.
- 4 medium‑sized cargo vessels damaged.
These actions have not been announced in any previous Navy Department Communiqués.