Brooklyn Eagle (July 8, 1943)
U.S. clamps vise on Munda with 2 surprise landings
Yanks drive inland on base cut off by 9–1 sea victory
…
Five Nippon warships, set ablaze in few minutes, lit battle scene
By Frank Tremaine
…
19 waves of bombers pulverize Gerbini
Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) –
Allied air fleets, smashing Axis defenses on the island invasion route to Italy, pounded airfields on Sicily and Sardinia for the fifth straight day yesterday and centered a day-long assault on Gerbini, where 19 waves of bombers pulverized enemy fighter defenses.
Flying Fortresses, Mitchells and Marauders blanketed Gerbini and its adjacent airfields with bombs, touching off big fires, without meeting an Axis plane. Raids on Gerbini have torn apart the Sicilian airdrome every day this week.
Eight Axis airbases, five of them on Sicily, felt the destructive weight of Allied bombs in the day and night attacks yesterday. At the same time, the raiders again blasted Italian communications in Palermo, Mazara and the Sciacca Harbor area, all on Sicily.
Order French coast cleared
Meanwhile, the French Ministry of Information in Algiers announced the Germans had ordered a number of areas on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast of France evacuated because they are “urgently threatened.”
The evacuation order was described as mainly a Nazi attempt to “drain France of her young and resistant elements before an Allied landing occurs.”
The areas affected included Sète (west of Marseille) on the Mediterranean coast, and Hendaye, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Bayonne and Biarritz on the Bay of Biscay. Several hundred thousand persons will be affected.
As the day for the assault against Europe appeared to be coming closer, waves of Allied bombers swept over to pulverize the Gerbini Airfield on Sicily and pile wreckage on Milis, Villacidro and Pabillonis Airfields on Sardinia.
Fighter opposition continued on a reduced scale, and of the few score Axis planes seen, Allied gunners shot down ten and dispersed the others. Five Allied planes were lost.
Final checks on Monday’s Flying Fortress raid against the network of Sicilian airdromes revealed that gunners shot down 35 Axis planes, five more than originally reported.
Fortresses concentrate on Sicily
Flying Fortresses, Marauders and Mitchells concentrated on Sicily. The Sardinia raids were carried out by RAF Wellingtons. Fighter-bombers patrolled Sicily and P-40 Warhawks hit at railroads, highways and ammunition dumps through western Sicily.
An Italian communiqué broadcast by Rome radio said the Allied raids caused only “slight damage” and that 19 Allied planes were shot down. The targets were identified at Trapani, Porto Empedocle and Catania. Two Allied steamers (totaling 30,000 tons) were probably sunk by Italian torpedo boats off the Tunisian coast, the communiqué said.
Comiso blasted again
Mitchells hit much-bombed Comiso, in southeast Sicily, dropping nearly 50 tons of bombs.
Two waves of fighter-bombers got direct hits with 500-pound bombs at Porto Empedocle on the Sicilian coast.
Boston night bombers caught many Axis aircraft on the ground in a raid on Borizzo Airfield in northwest Sicily.
Seen massing for showdown
London, England (UP) –
Reliable air observers here believed today that Allied and Axis air forces were being massed for a showdown battle for control of the air over the Mediterranean.
After some weeks of hesitation, the Axis had apparently decided to accept the challenge of the Allied blitz and may be committing substantial forces to the defense of Italy and the Italian islands.
Allied output to quadruple that of Axis
Nelson predicts great arms spurt in 1944 – explains summer lag
…
Conferees send subsidy issue back to Senate
Wagner will urge CCC extension – corn price boost tabled
…
3 envoys confirmed
Washington (UP) –
The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Ray Atherton to be U.S. Minister to Canada, Loy Henderson was confirmed as Minister to Iraq and William C. Burdett as Minister to New Zealand.
2 U.S. generals win Croix de Guerre
Algiers, Algeria (UP) –
Maj. Gen. Terry Allen and Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, American officers who participated in the African campaign, have been decorated with the Croix de Guerre for courage under fire, French authorities announced today.
The citations were signed by Gen. Alphonse Juin, Acting Commander-in-Chief of French forces in North and West Africa during the absence of Gen. Henri Giraud. The decorations were presented by Gen. Louis Koeltz, commander of the French 19th Corps.
Gigantic preparations described for invasion explosion
Allies must pound foe into defeat
By Hugh Baillie
Allied HQ, North Africa (UP) –
The gigantic challenge confronting the Allies in assaulting Hitler’s European fortresses slaps you in the face when you enter this war theater and become aware of the tremendous preparations underway.
Back in Washington they talk of an offensive being “mounted.” Here you see it. You also realize where your young men, gasoline, rubber tires and beef have gone.
As President Roosevelt said, the enemy will be hit until he doesn’t know his bow from his stern. Prime Minister Churchill said it would occur before the leaves of autumn fall. When or where, who can say?
There is tension in the air. There is no thought of a quick, easy victory. A tremendously formidable enemy must be pounded to pieces mathematically with airpower, sea power and, above all, manpower. No quick Axis foldup, similar to the last days in Tunisia, is expected.
That Tunisian surrender was the result of a pulverizing drive, the full velocity of which may not be comprehended until history gives it perspective.
Eisenhower a busy man
The head of this colossal organization is dynamic Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who is apparently able to come pretty close to being several places at once. He uses planes as Civil War generals used horses to get around over a war area of 2,000 miles – roughly equivalent to the distance from New York to Salt Lake City. In one day, he visited eight airdromes, flew 1,500 miles, and spent the remainder of his time inspecting, conferring, arranging and making decisions which must be right the first time. There is no second-guessing in this business.
Other campaigns and other wars will be dwarfed by this one. In the last war, the enemy lay in mud trenches and concrete pillboxes behind barbed wire across a narrow space called No Man’s Land, and yet you recall what unrelenting efforts were required to oust him. Here the enemy lies behind the Mediterranean Sea with fortified islands as outer bastions. The enemy has had plenty of time to prepare due to the staggering task of transporting men and equipment to this distant shore in sufficient quantities.
Yet that was only the beginning. No doubt the enemy beyond the Mediterranean has now constructed the most modem mantraps, accumulated the latest killing equipment and concentrated the best firepower devisable by the devilish ingenuity and brains which have a peculiar genius for war and for making war atrocious.
A serious misnomer
Nobody here expects it will be any picnic, any triumphal whirlwind. It will not be another October 1918, when the Germans collapsed. People who have such ideas at home are kidding themselves. The phrase “Europe’s soft underbelly” is believed to be a serious misnomer.
Armadas, compared to which the Spanish Armada was a collection of paper boats sailed by a child in a bathtub, are moving. You know they carry the hopes of the American and British peoples for victory – not in terms of statistics but in terms of young men, tanks, ammunition, hospital apparatus and blood plasma. And of weapons, the very names of which have not yet appeared in news dispatches.
Many harbors and many cities with exotic names and flavors, are scenes of intense activity, yet there is no confusion.
Practically every male is in uniform, but the uniforms are working clothes. A majority of the youngsters resemble football players trained to the finest physical perfection.
The terrific weight which was necessary to slug Pantelleria into submission may be but a small sample of what is ahead. There may be many more Dieppes, magnified manyfold.
Planes have big role
The fact that airpower is expected to play the most important role is manifested not only by the present fierce air battles which show that the Axis still possesses hordes of fighters, but also by the existence of huge Allied airdromes. To a layman’s eyes, it looks like all the airplanes in the world have come to this arena for what may develop into the greatest test of the Luftwaffe’s strength since the Battle of Britain.
Welding all of these elements into a tornado of explosion, fire and bayoneting which will pulverize the enemy when the proper time comes staggers the imagination.
War is in the very air you breathe, grim and sinister. Nevertheless, with all this picturesqueness sometimes it almost seems as if you were just around the corner from Sunset and Vine in Hollywood and you wouldn’t be surprised to see the people troop into soundstage No. 20 after lunch at the cafeteria on the studio lot. It’s real yet unreal, like seeing a man electrocuted.
Editorial: Stimson’s warning is timely on optimism at small losses
Office of War Information reports that casualties of the Armed Forces since the outbreak of the war total 91,644 emphasize anew the less deadly character of the Second World War as compared with the First. Nevertheless, Secretary Stimson is wise in warning the American people against considering the losses up to the present time as an optimistic indication of the price which will eventually be paid for victory.
Up to now, the modern fluid warfare has been sparing of lives. Except on the Russian Front, where losses have been heavy, there has been nothing to compare with the slaughter of 1914-18, where the 16 nations which were active participants suffered total casualties of 37,500,000, including 8,500,000 dead. Fortunately, our own death list up to the present time numbers only 16,696, which is less than the loss in about three weeks of fighting in the Argonne. During the entire campaign of six months in Africa, 2,574 Americans were killed.
This war of armored divisions, of tanks and planes and swift movement, has been designed to produce decisions with a minimum expenditure of lives. There has been no fruitless slaughter, as on the Somme and at Passchendaele, where men died by the thousands without bringing the last war any closer to its end. But, as, Secretary Stimson has indicated, the war has not as yet entered upon its decisive phase and there is no means of knowing the price that will be paid for a successful invasion of Europe, which is essential to victory in the West, and for the destruction of Japanese power at its source – the islands of Japan.
In the growing size and scope of the air raids over Europe, however, there is basis for the belief that this price may not be as heavy as was at one time feared. Air strength of the United Nations has now reached such proportions that it is possible to drop 2,000 tons of bombs on a single objective and to repeat this performance on successive nights. This air attack has caused such extensive damage to Germany’s industrial machine that the results are certain to become evident on the battlefield, where supplies and equipment must arrive without interruption if defeat is to be averted.
While there is virtual agreement among military leaders that campaigns cannot be won by air attack alone, that ground must be occupied and held if victory is to be achieved, there is basis for the belief that the terrific air offensives, which obliterate great sections of cities and towns, will reduce the effectiveness of the Nazi military machine to such a degree that the losses in the land fighting will be cut.
Air superiority was a vital factor in Germany’s easy conquests in the early days of her swift triumphs. Its loss may easily be an equally important element in bringing about her defeat.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 8, 1943)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Second of a series.
North Africa –
The fond mothers of WAACs in Africa may have visions of their poor little girls all alone over here in this big bad world fighting off olive-skinned rouges with one hand and lions and snakes with the other.
They needn’t worry. The girls are perfectly safe. The city they are in is as modern, though in a European way, as cities back home. Thousands of French women and girls, dressed just as Americans dress, crowd the streets at all hours. There are American Army nurses, and British nurses, WAAFs, WRENs and ATS girls, and five different kinds of French service girls in uniform.
There is the thrill of being in the midst of vital things here, without the drawbacks of either physical danger or spiritual peril.
Our WAACs do about a dozen kinds of work here. It takes a couple of dozen to run their own two barracks, their three messes and their headquarters. They are proud of being a self-contained unit, requiring no help from anybody. They even repair their own stoves.
Five of the others are car drivers, and the rest work in offices. They serve as secretaries, typists, draughtsmen, phone operators, and mail sorters. They get up and “go to the office” just as though they were on civilian jobs back home.
There are six WAACs in Gen. Eisenhower’s office. There are 30 in the Adjutant General’s office, 11 in the Judge Advocate’s office, 14 in Civil Affairs. The Signal Corps has 50 running switchboards and teletypes and deciphering code messages. And since there are no WAVES over here yet, two WAACs are working for the Navy!
When a WAAC takes over a telephone switchboard from a soldier, efficiency goes up about a thousand percent. If there is one single thing the male species does with complete confusion and incompetence, it’s running a switchboard.
The mail section is another example of women doing a job better than soldiers can. There are 95 WAACs in the delayed-mail section – mail that, for some reason or other, is not immediately deliverable, and the addresses have to be tracked down. This is confining and tedious work. You have to sit all day, and you become practically an international business machine. Each of these girls is now doing the work of four G.I. soldiers whom they replaced, the big bumble-fingers.
There are a number of WAACs in the Planning Section, and these are cognizant of the most vitally secret information. They are good tongue-holders. Their officers tell me that soldiers who have dates with WAACs are always confessing to them where they are going next, but that the girls are as mum as though they were talking to German spies.
Of the five girls who are drivers, two drive trucks. In England, it’s a common sight to see a whole big military convoy driven by women, but we haven’t reached that stage yet. The two WAAC truckdrivers work mostly in the city, but they have made cross-country trips of several hundred miles hauling supplies.
Both of these drivers are former schoolteachers, and one holds a master’s degree. She is Idel Anderson of San Francisco. She taught history in Reno. She loves it over here. In fact, she has definitely decided to come back after the war and stay a while. She wants to learn French perfectly, for one thing, and to have more time to brush up on history at the scene.
The other schoolmarm who wheels a big truck is Dorothy Gould, of Dos Palos, California. Both of these girls wear Army coveralls, but both of them are feminine and there is nothing truck-driverish about them except their ability.
The five officers of the WAAC company live in barracks with the girls but have separate rooms. The company commander is Capt. Frances Marquis, of New York, who is 46 and married and did promotion publicity work back home.
Second in command is Capt. Burke Nicholson, of St. Louis. She is 29, married, and has her own law practice in St. Louis. In fact, she was president of the Women’s Bar Association there, being the youngest one extant.
Lt. Elizabeth Joosten commands that part of the company which lives in a convent. She is a charming woman with a sharp wit, she is married, and she gives the Stratford Hotel in Houston, Texas, as her home. She was born and educated in Holland.
Lt. Sylvia Marsili, who says her name rhymes with parsley, is 36, comes from Pittsburgh, has a BS degree in home economics, and taught junior high school at Pittsburgh.
The fifth officer is a doctor. She is Lt. Margaret M. Janeway, who had her own practice in New York. She’s about to be taken into the Army. Lt. Janeway is 47, and married. She says the WAACs’ health is good and that the average WAAC in Africa, although she has gained about 15 pounds, has actually got slimmer around the waist. Which shows what hard work and regular hours and trying to learn French can do for a woman.
Völkischer Beobachter (July 9, 1943)
Der USA.-Hungerblockade erlegen –
Martinique gab Widerstand auf
dnb. Paris, 8. Juli –
Nachdem die Bevölkerung der Insel Martinique infolge der us.-amerikanischen Blockade seit mehreren Wochen von jeder Lebensmittelzufuhr ausgeschlossen war, hat sich nunmehr die französische Verwaltung entschlossen, den Widerstand gegen die Übergabeforderung der Washingtoner Regierung einzustellen.
Über die Verhältnisse auf der französischen Insel während der letzten Tage berichtet jetzt United Press, daß auf dem Gebiete des Lebensmittelmarktes vollkommenes Chaos geherrscht habe. Sämtliche Vorräte seien aufgebraucht worden, während gleichzeitig Krankheiten und Epidemien unter der Bevölkerung zu wüten begonnen hätten.
Südamerika soll Roosevelt-Kolonie weiden –
Neuer Plan des USA.-Imperialismus
tc. Lissabon, 8. Juli –
Die USA.-Regierung plant die Errichtung eines Südamerikaministeriums, wie aus gutunterrichteten Kreisen Washingtons mitgeteilt wird. Wer mit der Übernahme des neuen Ministerpostens betraut werden soll, ist noch nicht bekannt.
Nachdem Roosevelt bereits seit Jahren versucht hat, die südamerikanischen Staaten durch Bestechung, Erpressung und wirtschaftlichen Druck in Abhängigkeit zu den USA. zu bringen, war schon lange vorauszusehen, daß der ganze südamerikanische Kontinent eines Tages zu einer Kolonie der Vereinigten Staaten werden soll. Erstaunlich ist nur, daß Roosevelt schon jetzt die Maske fallen läßt und zur Ausbeutung Südamerikas ein Ministerium nach dem Muster des englischen Indienministeriums errichten will.
Preise und Löhne in ständiger Bewegung –
Roosevelts gefährliche Schwierigkeiten
Vor unserer Stockholmer Schriftleitung
…
Stampa Sera (July 9, 1943)
Gli aerosiluranti non danno tregua –
Tre piroscafi nemici per 40 mila tonnellate colati a picco nelle acque africane
26 velivoli avversari abbattuti
Il Quartiere Generalo delle Forze Armate comunica:
Sulle coste dell’Africa Settentrionale rinnovati attacchi di nostri reparti aerosiluranti contro piroscafi nemici in navigazione e alla fonda sono stati coronati da brillante successo: risultano affondati tre grossi mercantili per complessive 40 mila tonnellate e un altro da 3 mila è stato gravemente danneggiato.
Formazioni aeree avversarie hanno ieri e questa notte bombardato ripetutamente Catania e i suoi dintorni: sono segnalati crolli e incendi nei quartieri centrali della città.
Nei combattimenti della giornata due velivoli venivano abbattuti da cacciatori italiani, dodici – tra cui parecchi bombardieri – da quelli tedeschi. Le artiglierie della difesa distruggevano due apparecchi a Catania, quattro a Sciacca, tre a Castelvetrano, due a Marsala, uno a Gela (Caltanissetta).
Nelle azioni di aerosiluramento di cui al Bollettino odierno, si sono distinti i seguenti piloti: sottotenente Alessandro Girardi da Selva Volpago (Treviso), sottotenente Luigi Mortelli da Villa Toma (Mantova), maresciallo allievo ufficiale Domenico Daniele da Giulianova (Teramo), maresciallo Giuseppe Gasparre da Noicattaro (Bari), sergente maggiore Antonio Canis da Godo (Ravenna), sergente maggiore Giuseppe Rumpianesi da Anzola Emilia (Bologna), sergente Aldo Corti dà Lecce, sergente Bruno Zgur da Trieste.
Le vittime finora accertate tra la popolazione di Catania, a seguito dell’incursione, citata nell’odierno Bollettino, ascendono a 81 morti e 209 feriti.
U.S. Navy Department (July 9, 1943)
Joint Statement
The following statement of anti-submarine operations for the month of June is issued jointly by the British and United States governments:
In June, the losses of Allied and neutral merchant ships from submarine attacks were the lowest since the USA entered the war. The losses from all forms of enemy action were the second lowest recorded since the war between Britain and Germany began.
The number of targets offered to the anti-submarine vessels an aircraft of the United Nations was not as great in June as previously, but the sinkings of Axis submarines were substantial and satisfactory.
The heavy toll taken of the U-boats in May showed its effect June in that the main transatlantic convoys were practically unmolested and the U-boat attacks on our shipping were in widely separated area. However, every opportunity was taken of attacking U-boats leaving and returning to their bases on the west coast of France.
The merchant shipping tonnage of the United Nations has shown a large net increase every month this year. Anti-submarine vessels and aircraft are coming into service in considerable numbers.