America at war! (1941--) -- Part 2

Patient spurned for lack of nurses

Editorial: After Litvinov?

Edson: Roosevelt visit gesture to help Mackenzie King

By Peter Edson

Editorial: Anglo-American ties

Editorial: The girls can take it

Writing from North Africa weeks ago, Ernie Pyle said:

The WAACs are much prouder over here, I believe, than the men are. I doubt if even a harmful of them would go home if given a chance.

About the same time, it was announced in Washington that the WAACs were to drop their auxiliary status and be incorporated into the Regular Army, under the new name WACs – and that each member would have the option of staying in or getting out.

Now comes word from North Africa that only one WAC in 10 is choosing to get out and go home – and most of that one-tenth are actuated by family problems back in the States.

It looks as if Ernie’s estimate of the girls’ ability to stand homesickness and discomfort in the service of the Flag was pretty close to the mark.

Ferguson: Information, please

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Curran sails, fails to notify draft officers

Maritime Union’s president may be classified as delinquent


First strike despite ‘ban’ is threatened

UMW District 50 group in Illinois protests NLRB ruling

Millett: After-war happiness is certain

Lonely girls have bright future to await
By Ruth Millett

Steel capacity at 90 million tons a year

Daily output sufficient at build 2 battleships, 1,000 bombers


New York bond quota set at $4.5 billion

Dies Group: Army too busy to supervise Jap internees

Probers charge WRA with releasing members of disloyal society

Healing war’s wounds –
Soldiers served on field of battle by men of mercy

Wounded start on road to recovery even while conflict still rages; many rejoin the fight

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

Somewhere in Sicily, Italy – (by wireless)
Gen. Bradley has around him at the front, in addition to his military staff of more than a hundred officers, a little official “family” and it really is like a little family.

It consists of his two young captain aides, his sergeant driver, his corporal orderly, and his brigadier general chief of staff, whom I’m not permitted to name.

The two aides are Capt. Chester Hansen of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Capt. Lewis Bridge of Lodi, California. Both are 25, both graduated from college in 1939, Hansen from Syracuse University and Bridge from California Aggies. Their nicknames are Chet and Lew and that’s what the general calls them.

Both captains went through Officers’ Training School at Fort Benning when Gen. Bradley was commanding there and both came right out of the officers’ school into his family. They’ve been with him for 16 months and consider themselves the two most fortunate young officers in the American Army. They sleep in cots under a tree about 50 yards from the general’s truck, which is also parked under a tree since the general has an aversion to occupying buildings and usually keeps a command post in tents out in the open.

He drives just right

Around headquarters the two aides are on call constantly, but for jeep traveling with the general they take alternate days. Both are bright, understanding, likable fellows who worship at the general’s feet and do a good job representing him, in the same thoughtful manner he uses.

The general’s driver is Sgt. Alex Stout, of Port Barre, Louisiana, below Baton Rouge. Although he is only 23, he has been in the Army six years. He doesn’t, however, intend to make it a career. Recently, his grandmothers died and left him a fertile 275-acre farm and when the war is over, he is going back to farm it himself.

Sgt. Stout was married last Christmas Day. His wife is waiting back in Louisiana. He has a brother Noah who is a captain in the Army in Australia. Sgt. Stout has been driving for Gen. Bradley for two and a half years. He is so good that when the general reached North Africa, he sent back to the States for him.

Sgt. Stout takes meticulous pride in the general’s jeep. He has it fixed up with sponge-rubber cushions, and a built-in ration box under the back seat, and keeps it neat as a pin.

Gen. Bradley says having a good driver is important, for he relaxes while he’s riding and he can’t have a driver who annoys him by going too slow or one who keeps him tense by reckless driving. One night last winter, the general had a blackout driver who was so cautious and creepy he had to take the wheel himself and drive half the night.

An orderly orderly

Sgt. Stout is another devoted fan of the general’s. The sergeant says:

He does everything for you. I go to him with my headaches, go to him for advice, go to him for money. He treats me just like my own father does.

The general’s orderly is Cpl. Frank Cekada of Calumet, Michigan. Frank is the newest one of the general’s family, having been with him only since last March.

Frank says a colonel in Oran picked him for the job because he always kept himself looking neat and clean. He was driving a truck before he got this assignment. He had never been an orderly before but soon caught on. Frank’s duties are, as he puts it, “to keep the general happy.” He cleans the quarters, looks after the luggage while moving, and whenever he can’t find Sicilian women to do the general’s washing, Frank does it himself.

Frank is 24, and before the war was, of all things, a bartender. He says the general treats him like a personal friend and he hopes nothing happens to this job.

Gen. Bradley lives in an Army truck which has been fixed up like a tourist trailer. In the front end is a nice wide bed running crosswise of the truck, with a blanket bearing the initials of the U.S. Military Academy. Along one side is a desk with drawers under it. On the other side were a closet and washbasin. A field telephone in a leather case hangs on the end of the desk. There is a big calendar on the wall and each day is marked off with an x. There is a bookrack with four or five columns of military textbooks, one called Our Enemy, Japan, and a French grammar which the general never finds time to study.

On the front wall over the bed are painted the dates of the campaigns in North Africa, with the beginning and ending dates, and the Sicily with the invasion date.

He studies his map

We conjectured on what date the Sicilian campaign would end, and oddly enough the general’s date was a little farther off than mine. There are no pictures in the truck, no gadgets on the tables. The general has not sent home any souvenirs, in fact he has acquired only two for himself. One was a German Luger from Tunisia and the other a lovely Sicilian dagger with the Fascist emblem on the handle. On the wall opposite the table is a big map of this area of Sicily. It probably is the most important piece of equipment in the place.

The general sat there alone at night studying the map for hours, thinking and planning moves for the morrow over the frightful country ahead. There alone before his map many of the most important decisions were made.

Clapper: Foreign policy

By Raymond Clapper

Alaska goes to war

A land of great wealth is finally opened up by international highway
By Morley Cassidy, North American Newspaper Alliance

War reporter Stoneman gets wound award

Writer shot by Germans during campaign in Tunisia

U.S. State Department (August 24, 1943)

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to Marshal Stalin

Québec, August 24, 1943.

Secret
Operational priority

Secret and personal to Marshal Stalin from the United States Government and His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom.

In our conference at Québec, just concluded, we have arrived at the following decision as to military operations to be carried out during 1943 and 1944.

The bomber offensive against Germany will be continued on a rapidly-increased scale from bases in the United Kingdom and Italy. The objectives of this air attack will be to destroy the German air combat strength, to dislocate the German military, industrial, and economic system, and to prepare the way for a cross channel invasion.

A large-scale buildup of American forces in the United Kingdom is now under way. It will provide an initial assault force of British and American divisions for cross channel operations. A bridgehead in the continent once secured will be reenforced steadily by additional American troops at the rate of from three to five divisions per month. This operation will be the primary British and American ground and air effort against the Axis.

The war in the Mediterranean is to be pressed vigorously. Our objectives in that area will be the elimination of Italy from the Axis alliance, and the occupation of that country as well as Sardinia and Corsica as bases for operations against Germany.

Our operations in the Balkans will be limited to the supply of Balkan Guerrillas by air and sea transport, to minor raids by Commandos, and to the bombing of strategic objectives.

We shall accelerate our operations against Japan in the Pacific and in Southeast Asia. Our purposes are to exhaust Japanese air, naval, and shipping resources, to cut the Japanese communications and to secure bases from which to bomb Japan proper.

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to Generalissimo Chiang

Québec, August 24, 1943.

Secret
Operational priority

Secret and personal to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek from President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill.

In order to vitalize operations in Burma, a command, separate from India, has been set up under Vice Admiral the Lord Louis Mountbatten to operate directly under the Combined Chiefs of Staff. This, we think, will be an improvement in organization and further the concept of aggressive operations. Thus, we hope to obtain unity in our combined effort in the forthcoming Burma operations. Unity must be achieved if success is to be attained.

At the conclusion of the conference in Quebec, I hasten to bring to you certain proposals that have been advanced as to operations in your theaters and areas contiguous thereto.

  • First, to accelerate the buildup of the air freight route into China to provide greatly increased support for your air and ground forces.

  • Second, the heavy burden now imposed on the lines of communications from Calcutta to Assam requires immediate increase in their capacity. Instructions have been issued to provide additional river craft and rail transportation facilities which should result in an eventual lift of two hundred thousand tons a month into Assam.

  • Third, to carry out offensive operations in the coming dry season for the capture of upper Burma with a view to increasing the capacity of the air route, and to making possible the reopening of an overland route to China. The security of these land and air routes is considered of vital importance to the buildup of an air offensive based in China. The operations as now proposed take the form of an attack from Assam into Burma via Imphal and Ledo, coordinated with an advance at the same time from Yunnan. These converging attacks are to be facilitated by the employment of long-range penetration groups in front of each column similar to those employed by Brigadier Wingate last spring. These columns are to be organized by Wingate. They will include British, American, and Indian contingents, all to be supported and supplied by air.

  • Fourth, preparations are underway for amphibious operations designed to contribute to the success of the North Burma campaign. At the same time steps are being taken to provide adequate naval forces to assure our naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean Area and to interdict the enemy’s sea communications into Rangoon. The precise objective for the amphibian attacks is still under investigation. The decision will not be made until Lord Mountbatten has had an opportunity to consider the various factors on the ground.

Roosevelt-Churchill dinner meeting, evening, The Citadel

Present
United States United Kingdom
President Roosevelt Prime Minister Churchill
Mr. Hopkins Lieutenant General Ismay
Mr. Harriman Subaltern Mary Churchill
Admiral Leahy
Rear Admiral Brown
Miss Tully

From an informal memorandum by Harriman:

The President came into the room first after some of us already had arrived, saying “We are both mad.” He referred to the Prime Minister’s and his annoyance over the most recent cable from “Uncle Jo.” His anger took the form of making him gayer than usual both before and after dinner. The “PM,” however, arrived with a scowl and never really got out of his ill humor all evening – up to 3 a.m. when I left.

I asked the President if he recalled the sentence in a cable that went to Jo from the “PM” in which he said “I am entirely unmoved by your statement.” I said the Prime Minister had shown me this cable and asked for comments. My only comment had been asking him whether this sentence was entirely accurate. The President roared with laughter and much to my embarrassment proceeded to tell the story to the “PM” when he came in. Needless to say, it not only fell flat but bounced in my direction. With a scowl he said “impudence.”

Roosevelt-Churchill meeting, evening

Present
United States United Kingdom
President Roosevelt Prime Minister Churchill
Mr. Harriman Foreign Secretary Eden
Sir Alexander Cadogan

From an informal memorandum by Harriman:

Eden and Cadogan came in after dinner and got a chance to read the cable. As it was a bit garbled and badly translated and paraphrased I could not find that it was one about which to be irritated. In recent days one has been worried about the Russians playing a lone hand. This cable rather rudely suggested that he should have greater participation in certain directions. The Prime Minister and President were particularly annoyed because they had attempted to keep him fully informed. But one can’t be annoyed with Stalin for being aloof and then be annoyed with him because he rudely joins the party. Pug Ismay and Anthony shared this view. I didn’t have a chance to talk to Harry.

But the Prime Minister would not have any of it. After dinner when we were alone, he said he foresaw “bloody consequences in the future” (using “bloody” in the literal sense).

Stalin is an unnatural man. There will be grave troubles.

He ticked off Anthony when Anthony suggested it was not so bad, saying:

There is no need for you to attempt to smooth it over in the Foreign Office manner (addressing Cadogan as well).

Völkischer Beobachter (August 25, 1943)

Millionen Arbeitslose nach Roosevelts Krieg in USA. –
Wofür kämpft der amerikanische Arbeiter?

Von unserer Stockholmer Schriftleitung