Left-wingers seek pact with Democrats
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Men overseas love Pyle, foxhole companion says
Capt. Russell Wight who met Ernie in Africa thinks it amazing that ‘he weathers the war’
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Broadcaster charges OWI persecution
Testifies at FCC hearing he was told to dismiss two announcers
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Final attack on Salamaua set to start
Outer defenses of Japs’ new Guinea base smashed
By Brydon Taves, United Press staff writer
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‘Wolf Scouts’ qualify under rigorous tests
Tough three-day course tries skill, common sense of soldiers
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Total casualties in Navy now 28,731
Washington (UP) –
The Navy today announced additional casualties bringing to 28,731 the total casualties of the naval forces.
This includes 9,874 dead (7,758 Navy, 1,934 Marines and 192 Coast Guardsmen), 5,036 wounded (2,512 Navy, 2,501 Marines and 22 Coast Guardsmen), 9,670 missing (8,788 Navy, 724 Marines and 158 Coast Guardsmen) and 4,151 prisoners of war (2,225 Navy, 1,925 Marines and one Coast Guardsman).
Tough troops of 3rd Division march 32 miles, fight 18 hours
Gen. Truscott says ‘magnificent’ physical condition of men was largely responsible for Sicily victory
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer
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Millett: Education is needed to save big earnings
War workers making more money than ever in their lives should realize that such large sums will not always be available
By Ruth Millett
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Airman saves four lives on crippled ship
Bomber brought home by sergeant’s faith in first-aid book
By Harold Guard, United Press staff writer
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Japanese strip Philippines of all food they can find
Filipino escapes to tell how people have been forced into slave labor at starvation pay
By Charles Arnot, United Press staff writer
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Prize-winning cartoonists in Army draws artist job
‘Herblock’s’ talented pen now turning out posters for the Army Air Forces
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Allied attacks whittling down Japs’ strength
Little chance seen for foe to renew offensives in Far East
By A. T. Steele
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Somewhere in Sicily, Italy – (by wireless)
About the only superstition Omar N. Bradley has ever shown was when he was promoted to lieutenant general in June, just after the fall of Tunisia.
He knew his promotion had gone to Congress. He saw it published in the papers, and even received letters of congratulation from Washington – yet he wouldn’t pin on his third star until the official orders were actually in his hand, some weeks later.
Gen. Bradley seldom gets nervous, and he is never excited. Once, here in Sicily, a sniper took a potshot at him as he was riding in a command car, whereupon the general and two enlisted men, armed only with carbines, got out of the car and started looking for the sniper. The sniper beat it, and they couldn’t find him.
On the day we launched our final victorious attack west of Mateur last spring, the general suddenly had nothing to do. He had planned and worked strenuously for weeks to prepare for it; but once it was underway, he could only wait in personal inaction. That day did make him a little nervous, so he called two young captains who were his aides and they started on a long walk. Back in the hills, far away from everything, they stopped and the captains threw rocks into the air while the general cracked them with his rifle. That was what he did while the battle was on.
Gen. Bradley is notoriously good with a rifle. He has a sergeant driver who has been with him for years, and one reason he likes him so much is that the sergeant is a crack shot too.
Baseball, golf, hunting hobbies
In his younger days, Gen. Bradley was very athletic. He was a second-string football man at West Point and a regular on the baseball team. Baseball is his greatest love. He played left field for three years at the Point and back in the States, he never misses a chance to see a big-league game. He still holds the record for the longest baseball throw ever made at West Point. He has forgotten now how far it was, but he says it “gets longer” by legend every year.
He is a good golfer, and in peacetime usually played a couple of times a week. But when war was declared, he gave up golf for the duration.
He and Mrs. Bradley play bridge, and the general is a good poker player. He plays for moderate stakes and keeps a “poker fund” so that any losses can be paid out of that and not affect the family budget.
Hunting stands alongside baseball among his great loves. Back home, he had two bird dogs – Molly and Pete. When he came overseas, he gave Pete to an Army friend and Mrs. Bradley kept Molly. A third dog, named Tip, was 14 years old and died just before he left.
Back in Georgia, when he was commandant at Fort Benning, the general’s usual hunting partners were some of his enlisted men.
Hometown honors him
Gen. Bradley was born in Moberly, Missouri, on Lincoln’s birthday of 1893.
His hometown has recently named its airport after him, and while I was with him, he received a letter from Moberly in an envelope all decorated with printed slogans about the “Dedication of Bradley Field – Home of Lt. Gen. Bradley.” And there was a picture of him on the envelope. Gen. Bradley looked at it and said:
It looks funny to get a letter with your own picture on it, doesn’t it?
Bradley graduated from West Point in 1915. He rose to the temporary rank of major in the last war, but all his service was in the United States. Today he says:
I’ve spent 25 years trying to explain why I wasn’t overseas in the last war, so thank goodness I’ll be spared that this time.
They say that when he got orders to come overseas last winter, he was as happy as a bug. During his long Army career, Bradley served twice on the faculty at West Point, did one three-year hitch in Hawaii, spent many years at command schools preparing for just such a wartime job as he has now, and wound up in 1941 as a brigadier general in command of Fort Benning. There he expanded the Officer Candidate School, which last year turned out 40,000 new Army officers.
In February 1942, he was made a major general and assigned to the command of the 82nd Infantry Division. Later, he commanded the 28th Infantry Division, and he was on that command when ordered to Africa.
His permanent Army rank is that of colonel, and because of the fact that in achieving the wartime rank of lieutenant general, he was passed over many men his senior, he leans over backward not to say or do anything that would make it seem he felt in any way above them.