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

1562

The Pittsburgh Press (February 23, 1943)

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

The Tunisian front – (Feb. 22)
After a few weeks of frontline living, your whole perspective on the niceties and necessities of life change.

You used to be sore when you couldn’t get a taxi. Now you’ve struck gold when you find a spot where you can lie down out of the wind.

Even my own perspective has changed, and as a correspondent I’ve had only the barest taste of the rough going. For a lifetime I have bathed with becoming regularity, and I thought the world would come to an end unless I changed my socks every day. Now I have just had my first bath in a month, and I go two weeks at a time without even taking off my socks. Oddly enough, it doesn’t seem to make much difference.

The other day, I had to laugh at myself over a little emotion I experienced. We had arrived one evening at a new frontline headquarters. It was centered around a Tunisian farmhouse, as practically all command posts were. Soldiers and officers alike were sleeping just anywhere they could – in trucks, under trees, in the barn and chicken houses. It was cold and damp, as usual.

Nobody tells a correspondent where to sleep or what to do when he is gypsying around the front. He shifts for himself. So I nosed around and found a place to sleep. It was under a big French grain wagon sitting in the barn lot. Some soldiers had found several strips of corrugated tin roofing and set them around three sides of the wagon, making walls. The wagon bed formed a roof overhead. They had brought straw from a nearby stack and put it on the ground under the wagon. There we threw our bedding rolls.

It was the coziest place I’d slept in for a week. It had two magnificent features – the ground was dry, and the wind was cut off. I was so pleased at finding such a wonderful place that I could feel my general spirits go up like an elevator. When the detachment got orders to move the next day, I felt a genuine regret at leaving this little haven. And to think after all it was only some pitiful straw on the hard ground under a wagon.

As we were going to bed that night, Hal Boyle of the Associated Press, who was sleeping next to me, said:

I believe that in wartime your physical discomfort becomes a more dominant thing in life than the danger you’re in.

And I believe that’s true. The danger comes in spurts; discomfort is perpetual. You’re always cold and almost always dirty. Outside of food and cigarettes, you have absolutely none of the little things that made life normal back home. You don’t have chairs, lights, floors, or tables. You don’t have any places to set anything, or any store to buy things from. There are no newspapers, milk, beds, sheets, radiators, beer, ice cream or hot water. You just sort of exist, either standing up working or lying down asleep. There is no pleasant in-between. The velvet is all gone from living.

It doesn’t get much below freezing here in central Tunisia, but you must believe me when I say we all suffer agonies from the cold. Any soldier will back me up.

The days are sunshiny, and often really warm, but the nights are almost inhuman. Everybody wears heavy underwear and all the sweaters he can find, plus overcoat and gloves and knitted cap. And still he’s cold. We have snow on the mountains here.

The soldiers somehow resent the fact that so many of you folks at home just think because we’re in Africa that we’re passing out with the heat. Any number of soldiers have showed me letters from their families full of sympathy because of the heat prostrations they must be suffering.

Soldiers ask me for Heaven’s sake to get over to the folks at home that Africa in winter is frigid. I’ll tell you, in one little incident, just how cold it is. And also how little money means compared to bodily necessities.

When not traveling around the fronts, I’m living in a small igloo tent among fir trees at a certain forward camp. There I hole up for days at a time to write these columns. The tent is fine except that there’s no heat in it and no way to get any heat.

So the other day, along the road, I ran into a soldier in a half-truck who had a kerosene stove – the old-fashioned kind they used to heat the school with, you know, I offered him $50 for it – back home it would be worth about $3.

He didn’t hesitate a second. He just said, “No sir,” and that was the end of that.

It would have been just the same if I’d offered him $500. He couldn’t use the money, and without the stove he’d be miserable.

Now do you see how things are different over here with us?

1563

Völkischer Beobachter (February 24, 1943)

Vernichtung starker sowjetischer Kampfgruppen –
Weitgesteckte Feindziele gescheitert

dnb. Aus dem Führer-Hauptquartier, 23. Februar –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

In der großen Winterschlacht im Süd teil der Ostfront sind die weitgesteckten Ziele des Feindes gescheitert. Da es ihm nicht gelang, die am Ostrand des Donezindustriegebietes festgefügte Front der deutschen Truppen zu durchbrechen, versuchte er, sie nordwestlich ausholend im Rücken zu fassen. Die auf diese Weise hinter unsere Front an den Mius gelangten sowjetischen Divisionen sind inzwischen vernichtet oder zersprengt.

Ebenso erging es denjenigen sowjetischen Verbänden, die noch weiter ausholend aus der Gegend südlich Charkow gegen den Dnjepr vorgetrieben wurden. Das Schicksal, das sie den deutschen Armeen bereiten sollten, ereilte sie selbst. Von ihren Verbindungen abgeschnitten und durch unsere Divisionen von allen Seiten gefaßt, verfielen sie der Auflösung oder der Vernichtung. Reserven, die ihnen nachgeschickt waren, wurden von der Luftwaffe erkannt und in ihren dicht gedrängten Kolonnen durch anhaltende Luftangriffe vernichtend getroffen.

Da die Witterung, die schon jetzt zwischen Schneetreiben und Tauwetter wechselt, große Operationen in absehbarer Zeit ausschließen wird, verlagert der Feind seine Anstrengungen immer mehr in den Raum nördlich Charkow sowie gegen die Mitte und den Nordteil der Ostfront.

Gestern griff der Feind an mehreren Stellen den Kuba n-Brückenkopf mit stärkeren Kräften an. Alle Angriffe wurden in harten Kämpfen verlustreich abgewiesen. Im Donez-Gebiet wiederholten die Sowjets mit mehreren Divisionen den Versuch, durchzubrechen. Sie wurden in schweren und wechselvollen Kämpfen erneut zurückgeschlagen.

Im Raum zwischen Donez und dem Dnjepr griffen Panzer- und Infanterieverbände des Heeres und der Waflen-SS, hervorragend durch Sturzkampf-, Kampf­ und Schlachtflieger unterstützt, den Feind weiterhin konzentrisch an und vernichteten starke sowjetische Kampfgruppen.

Im Raum westlich Charkow und Kursk sowie südlich Orel gehen die erbitterten Kämpfe weiter. Nordöstlich und nördlich Orel griff der Feind auf breiter Front mit starker Panzer-, Artillerie- und Schlachtfliegerunterstützung an. Die Angriffe scheiterten am zähen Widerstand deutscher Infanterie- und motorisierter Divisionen. 55 Sowjetpanzer blieben vernichtet vor unseren Stellungen liegen.

An der Wolchow-Front scheiterte ein feindlicher Angriff gegen eine Brückenkopfstellung. Südlich des Ladogasees lebten die Kämpfe wieder auf. Die Sowjets griffen in einem Abschnitt mit massierten Kräften an, wurden jedoch unter Verlust von 47 Panzern blutig abgewiesen.

In Nordafrika versuchte der Feind die in den Vortagen genommenen beherrschenden Stellungen mit neu herangeführten Verbänden zurückzugewinnen. Er wurde verlustreich abgewiesen. Zahlreiche Panzer wurden zerstört. Beute- und Gefangenenzahlen sind weiterhin beträchtlich gestiegen. Deutsche Fliegerkräfte führten vernichtende Schläge gegen einen feindlichen Nachschubstützpunkt im algerischen Hochland sowie Batteriestellungen westlich Tunis. Militärische Anlagen des Hafens Tripolis wurden bei Nacht wirksam mit Bomben bekämpft.

1564

Auch Roosevelt „genehmigt“ die Bolschewisierung Europas

Stalin will freie Hand im Balkan und Baltikum

vb. Wien, 23. Februar –
Zum Jahrestag der Roten Armee hat sich, wie zu erwarten war, auch der Chef der Komintern, Dimitrow, geäußert. So erklärte er:

Im Bewußtsein unserer Verpflichtung gegenüber der Roten Armee, den Völkern Europas die Freiheit zu bringen, versprechen wir einen noch größeren Einsatz.

Aus dem bolschewistischen Rotwelsch übersetzt, heißt das nichts anderes, als daß hier erneut als Aufgabe der Sowjetarmee bezeichnet wird, als Instrument der Komintern für die Ausbreitung der bolschewistischen Weltrevolution zu kämpfen und die Völker Europas unter das Sowjet joch zu zwingen, wie ja auch der Londoner Observer festgestellt hat, daß Stalin Bulgarien, Ungarn und Kroatien und damit den ganzen Balkan besetzen wolle.

Der Londoner Nachrichtendienst aber Amerikas heraufbeschwor, streut den Briten nach wie vor Sand in die Augen, indem er sie folgendermaßen dreist belog:

Niemals war die Unterwerfung fremder Völker das Ziel der Sowjets und wird es niemals sein.

Unter diesen Umständen ist es nicht erstaunlich, daß auch Stalin in einem Tagesbefehl an die Rote Armee einfach abstritt, daß diese jemals die Freiheit anderer Völker bedroht habe – als ob sie nicht schon zu Zeiten Lenins die Ukraine, Georgien, Aserbeidschan und Armenien vergewaltigt und nach 1939 die baltischen Völker, Bessarabien und Ostpolen niedergetrampelt hätte. Und was Stalin unter der Floskel versteht, diese Länder müßten nun wieder „befreit“ werden, wissen die Finnen ebensogut wie die Esten, Letten und Litauer und die Rumänen Bessarabiens. Im übrigen bestätigte Stalin mit dieser Rede nur, daß ihm die Engländer die Wiederherstellung der Grenze von 1941 zugestanden haben, darüber hinaus die völlige Kontrolle über alle anderen Nachbarstaaten und damit praktisch die Bolschewisierung ganz Europas.

Diese Verbündeten erwähnte Stalin übrigens nur am Rande in einem Satz, der besagte, infolge des Fehlens einer zweiten Front müsse die Sowjetunion allein kämpfen. Zur Entschädigung dafür hat er aus England, aber auch aus Amerika zahlreiche Glückwunschtelegramme erhalten, unter denen sich auch eine Drahtung der unvermeidlichen Eleanor Roosevelt befindet. Die Washington Post aber erfreute den Machthaber im Kreml durch einen Artikel, in dem es heißt:

Die Sowjetunion, so nimmt man in zuständigen Kreisen Washingtons an, will freie Hand in der Behandlung der Nachkriegsprobleme behalten, insbesondere was die künftigen Beziehungen zu Finnland, den baltischen Republiken und den Balkan betrifft.

In dieser lakonischen Feststellung ist die Zusage enthalten, daß Roosevelt sich mit dieser Haltung Stalins abfindet und keinesfalls gesonnen ist, der Bolschewisierung Europas Hindernisse zu bereiten, was er ja schon durch seine jüdischen Leibjournalisten wiederholt in der Form bekanntgegeben hat, daß weder England noch die USA. in der Lage wären, den Sowjets in den Weg zu treten, falls diese den Sieg erringen könnten.

Zum Geburtstag Washingtons hielt Roosevelt eine Rede, in der er diese Probleme allerdings nicht erwähnte, sondern den Schatten des großen Befreiers Amerikas heraufbeschwor, um seinen Landsleuten einzureden, er selbst sei der zweite Washington. Er verschwieg natürlich, daß Washington in seinem bekannten Testament die Union auf das dringendste davor gewarnt hat, aus ihrer günstigen Schutzlage herauszutreten und sich in die Angelegenheiten anderer Kontinente einzumischen. Roosevelt hat das Gegenteil getan: Er hat die USA. in einen Krieg verstrickt, der entgegen seinen eigenen feierlichen Versprechungen amerikanische Soldaten auf die entferntesten Kriegsschauplätze führt und die Kräfte des Landes in einem Abenteuer verzehrt, das er als Präsident entfesselte, um aus innenpolitischen Schwierigkeiten herauszukommen und verbrecherischen Interessen zu frönen.

Er sprach auffallend viel von „Skeptikern und Zynikern,“ die ihn kritisierten, und es fehlten in dieser Rede ausnahmsweise die massiven Prahlereien, von denen seine letzte Rundfunkansprache strotzte. Niemand dürfe glauben, daß der Sieg „an der nächsten Ecke wartet.“ Man könne nicht darauf rechnen:

…daß große Wälle zusammenbrechen, wenn Trompeten erschallen und Völker schreien. Es genügt nicht, daß wir vertrauen und daß wir Hoffnung haben.

Mister Roosevelt wird noch häufig Gelegenheit haben, solche Reden zu halten. Während er den Sowjets verspricht, ihnen Europa zur Vernichtung auszuliefern, steht die Ostfront in schwerem Ringen gegen den bolschewistischen Weltfeind, dessen Sturz allein von schicksaltragender Bedeutung ist. Europa wird alle Kräfte mobil machen, um diese Entscheidung herbeizuzwingen, und damit die Pläne zuschanden zu machen, die Stalin im Einvernehmen mit seinen Spießgesellen hegt. Bringt es diese gesammelte Kraft zum Einsatz, so kann der Ausweg dieses erbitterten Kampfes nicht zweifelhaft sein.

1565

Zur Besetzung von Kwangtschau –
Das japanische Operationsziel

dnb. Tokio, 23. Februar –
Zu der vom Kaiserlichen Hauptquartier gemeldeten Besetzung der französischen Konzession Kwangtschau berichtet Asahi Schimbun am Dienstag weitere Einzelheiten. Danach überwanden die japanischen Streitkräfte am 16. Februar auf der Halbinsel Leitschau den heftigen Widerstand der Tschungkingtruppen. Das weitere Vorrücken und der Einzug in die französische Konzession erfolgte auf Grund von Vereinbarungen zwischen der japanischen und französischen Regierung nach Maßgabe der Abmachungen über die gemeinschaftliche Verteidigung Französisch-Indochinas.

Die Halbinsel Leitschau ist von Tschungking als letzte verbliebene Versorgungsbasis immer noch benutzt worden und die chinesischen Kräfte beabsichtigten, die gesamte Halbinsel einschließlich der französischen Konzession in Besitz zu nehmen, wodurch die japanische Verbindung mit den Südgebieten eine Bedrohung erfahren hätte. Die Halbinsel besitzt zwei Flugplätze, von denen die japanische Schiffahrt nach Inbesitznahme durch die Feindkräfte hätte gestört werden können. Derartige Absichten sind nunmehr restlos vereitelt worden, die Rückwirkung auf Tschungking ist in erheblichem Maße zu erwarten.

Das Ziel der gegenwärtigen japanischen Operationen in China ist nach Ansicht der Zeitung Asahi in erster Linie die Vernichtung der Basen für Materiallieferungen nach Tschungking und die Säuberung des Gebietes der Nanking-Regierung von tschungking-chinesischen Truppen. Das Vorgehen in den Provinzen Hunan und Kiangsi ist weiterhin insofern bedeutsam, erklärt die Zeitung weiter, als damit der Tschungking-Regierung weitere für die Nahrungsmittelproduktion wichtige Gebiete entrissen werden.

Die gegen die dritte Division der kommunistischen neuen vierten Armee in Nordkiangsu operierenden japanischen Truppen stießen am Wochenende längs dem alten Flußbett des Gelben Flusses vor, während die in der Nähe der alten Flußmündung gelandeten japanischen Streitkräfte den fliehenden Feinden den Weg verlegen konnten. Die kommunistischen Truppen, um die sich der Ring der japanischen Streitkräfte zu schließen beginnt, unterliegen seit Sonntag den verheerenden Angriffen der japanischen Luftwaffe.

1566

Flugangriff auf die Neuen Hebriden –
Ein Zerstörer versenkt

Das Kaiserliche Hauptquartier gab am Dienstag bekannt:

Die japanische Marineluftwaffe hat am 21. Februar nach einem langen, beschwerlichen Flug militärische Anlagen in Espirito Santo auf den Neuen Hebriden angegriffen. Dabei wurde ein feindlicher Zerstörer versenkt und ein zweiter in Brand geworfen. Außerdem wurden militärische Anlagen zerstört. Alle japanischen Flugzeuge sind unversehrt an ihre Stützpunkte zurückgekehrt.

Die Inselgruppe der Neuen Hebriden liegt südöstlich der Salomonengruppe. Die angegriffene Insel Merena (Espirito Santo) wird vom 15. Breitengrad durchschnitten.

Diese weitreichende Aktion der japanischen Marineluftwaffe gegen ein feindliches Nachschubzentrum zeigt, daß der Ausbau der japanischen Bodenorganisation auf den vorgeschobenen Stützpunkten im Südwestpazifik sich in offensiven Vorstößen auswirkt, die tiefer und tiefer in das feindliche Nachschub- und Aufmarschnetz hineinstößt.

Festung Leitschau genommen

dnb. Tokio, 23. Februar –
Von einem japanischen Stützpunkt in China wird gemeldet: In gemeinsamem Einsatz mit den japanischen Land- und Marinestreitkräften, die die Landung in der Kwangtschaubucht ausführten, flogen Montag starke Einheiten der japanischen Marineluftwaffe tief in das feindliche Gebiet, zersprengten Zusammenziehungen der Tschungking-Truppen und griffen Verbindungswege und Militärboote an. Ferner wurden feindliche Truppen an der Nordküste der Kwangtschaubucht mit Bomben belegt Japanische Flugzeuge bombardierten auch feindliche Truppenzusammenziehungen an der Mündung des Kiuschauflusses an der nordwestlichen Küste der Leitschau-Halbinsel sowie Ziele an der Tonkingbucht. In einem Zeitraum von nur fünf Tagen legten die japanischen Truppen eine Strecke von 150 Kilometer durch dichten Urwald zurück und nahmen unter anderem die feindliche Festung Leitschau.

1567

Allied HQ, North Africa (February 24, 1943)

Following heavy fighting which has continued for the past three days in the area north and northwest of Kasserine, U.S. and British forces, after successfully holding the enemy’s attack, forced a withdrawal in this sector.

Our infantry and armored units were in contact with the enemy throughout the day, inflicting heavy casualties, taking many prisoners and securing some abandoned enemy material.

Continuous attacks throughout the day were made by our fighters and bombers on the withdrawing enemy column. A number of motor vehicles were destroyed in the battle area.

In the Essadour area west of Ousseltia, an enemy attack was successfully repulsed.

In the northern sector, our offensive patrol activity continues.

Our fighter also maintained offensive patrols over the forward areas. Three enemy fighters were shot down.

On the night of February 22-23, our bombers raided Bizerte. Yesterday, among other targets, the enemy airfield at Kairouan was bombed.

In a sea sweep off the Tunisian coast, bombers sank five power barges carrying motor transports. The fighter escort destroyed one enemy aircraft.

From all these operations, eight of our aircraft are missing, but one pilot is safe. Two of our aircraft previously reported missing are safe.

U.S. Navy Department (February 24, 1943)

Communiqué No. 291

South Pacific.
On February 21:

  1. During the morning Japanese planes carried out a light raid on U.S. positions on Espiritu Santo Island in the New Hebrides.

  2. During the afternoon, Avenger torpedo planes (Grumman TBF) and Dauntless dive bombers (Douglas), with fighter escort, attacked Japanese positions at Munda. Several fires were started in the target area.

  3. During the night of February 21-22, Japanese planes raided U.S. positions at Tulagi in the Nggela group of the Solomon Islands.

On February 22:

  1. A U.S. search plane, operating near Choiseul Island, scored bomb hits on an enemy barge loaded with Japanese soldiers.

  2. During the late afternoon, Airacobras (Bell P-39), Corsairs (Vought F4U) and Lightnings (Lockheed P-38) strafed enemy positions at Rekata Bay on the northern shore of Santa Isabel Island.

On February 23, during the early morning, an enemy plane dropped bombs on the airfield at Guadalcanal.

During the night of February 23-24, Liberator heavy bombers (Consolidated PB4Y) bombed enemy positions at Vila and at Munda in the New Georgia group. All U.S. planes returned.

1568

The Pittsburgh Press (February 24, 1943)

Furious attack by Allied forces Rommel retreat

Planes rip Germans in 24-mile withdrawal into Kasserine Pass
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer

Screenshot 2022-02-24 083439
Rommel falls back on Kasserine in central Tunisia under heavy land and air pressure after advancing to within four miles of Thala. Developments on the front today:
1. Heavy bombing raid on Bizerte by U.S. planes revealed.
2. German thrust at Allied positions west of Ousseltia repulsed.
3. Rommel driven back 21 miles from Thala almost to Kasserine.

Allied HQ, North Africa –
Marshal Erwin Rommel’s armored units are being driven in retreat today back to the Kasserine Pass, harassed by Allied planes and by U.S. and British troops which stopped the enemy dead in his tracks in a three-day battle.

The crack German 21st Armored Division, which rolled out of the Kasserine gap three days ago and fought its way into a right pocket before the gap and was apparently falling back into the vital pass itself.

Thala is 28 miles northwest of Kasserine. Since the Germans penetrated to within four miles of Thala and were then driven back to Kasserine Pass, their retreat was approximately 24 miles.

The Germans, overreaching themselves in the dash for Thala, found their position there untenable and began to retire early yesterday. As they fell back, the Allied air force – apparently dominant in the skies over the battle area – gave the retreating Germans the worst pasting they have yet experienced in Tunisia.

It was similar in intensity and volume to the air attack launched by the Allies at El Alamein when Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s British 8th Army started the offensive that has now carried it to the Mareth Line.

Thus the tide of battle in Tunisia swung sharply in favor of the Allies with the German push exhausted and with the 8th Army, about 100 miles away from other Allied forces in Tunisia, threatening Rommel’s flank from the south.

Large numbers of prisoners were taken by the Americans and the British. On the plain in front of Djebel el Hamra alone, the Americans captured 300 Italians and enough small arms and other weapons to equip a battalion.

The Germans made a desperate attempt to disengage their armor and infantry from the British in the Thala area. But the British tracked them every step of the way in the retreat while U.S. artillery blasted away at the German columns that were winding back along roads over which they advanced three days ago.

Then the Americans, timing their action with the British, struck out from the Djebel el Hamra area and forced the Axis troops back to within three miles of the Kasserine gap. The full extent of the German losses are still unknown, but it can be definitely said they are considerable.

One factor in the German defeat was that the bad weather broke after 10 days, allowing the Allied air force to get into action on a big scale.

The retreating Germans caught a fury of cannon fire, machine-gun bullets and bombs from Flying Fortresses, Mitchells, Marauders, Bostons and British and U.S. fighters.

The Kasserine Pass was a roaring hell of exploding bombs. Marauder Bombers, escorted by Lockheed Lightnings, swung back and forth over the pass, scoring direct hits on gun emplacements.

Flying Fortresses ranged over to the eastern side of the pass and bombed a road choked with Axis vehicles. The Fortresses also struck at the town of Kasserine itself and inflicted severe damage on a column of German motor transport which got itself bottlenecked in a narrow street.

As the British and U.S. forces converged on the Kasserine Pass, some German forces tried to escape down the Fériana Road. Allied planes went after them, sweeping back and forth in low-level machine-gunning attacks as the Germans tumbled out of trucks and sought refuge in ditches along the road.

The Allied aerial offensive extended all the way northward to Bizerte, where bombers attacked on the night of Feb. 22-23. Yesterday, an Axis airfield at Kairouan was bombed.

Allied bombers made a sweep off the Tunisian coast and sank five power barges carrying motor transport, fighter escorts destroyed one Axis plane.

Eight Allied planes are missing from all operations, but one pilot is safe. Two Allied aircraft, previously reported missing, are safe.

An Allied communiqué said:

Following heavy fighting which has continued for the past three days in the area north and northwest of Kasserine, U.S. and British forces, after successfully holding the enemy’s attack, forced a withdrawal in this sector.

Our infantry and armored units were in contact with the enemy throughout the day, inflicting heavy casualties, taking many prisoners and securing some abandoned enemy material.

Continuous attacks throughout the day were made by our fighters and bombers on the withdrawing enemy column. A number of motor vehicles were destroyed in the battle area.

In the Essadour area west of Ousseltia, an enemy attack was successfully repulsed.

In the northern sector, our offensive patrol activity continues.

Our fighter also maintained offensive patrols over the forward areas. Three enemy fighters were shot down.

On the night of February 22-23, our bombers raided Bizerte. Yesterday, among other targets, the enemy airfield at Kairouan was bombed.

In a sea sweep off the Tunisian coast, bombers sank five power barges carrying motor transports. The fighter escort destroyed one enemy aircraft.

From all these operations, eight of our aircraft are missing, but one pilot is safe. Two of our aircraft previously reported missing are safe.

It had not yet become apparent whether Allied forces were strong enough to drive the Germans back to Kasserine Pass, or out of it.

Battle tests line

Actually, the battle for Thala was fought with comparatively small forces, and all actions will probably be so tough, until the main battle of Tunisia begins.

Neither side was in position to risk big masses of men and weapons at this stage, unless a big reward was probable.

But the battle around Kasserine is important in that the result will determine whether the new Allied defense line can be held, while the High Command methodically completes preparations for the climatic drive.

Reports of the 8th Army’s progress in southeastern Tunisia were still scanty. One report said its guns were shelling German positions around Mareth, northern bastion of the Mareth Line. The Germans said last night that the 8th Army was marking time, while it brought up all its artillery to pulverize Mareth Line fortifications.

The German official news agency said “absolute quiet” obtained over the central Tunisian front yesterday.

BBC quoted a British correspondent, “on authority of the Allied staff,” that the Germans threw 220 tanks, practically all Axis armor in Africa, into the recent offensive.

He said the offensive was a big gamble, and partly succeeded as such, German forces farther north, he said, had now begun as series of minor pushes to test British lines, and make the British think twice before sending reinforcements south.

1569

Reporter in Tunisia sees 25 Axis tanks in flames

Field littered with smashed German equipment as U.S. artillery and planes batter enemy – many prisoners taken
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer

With U.S. armored forces in Tunisia – (Feb. 23, delayed)
American Jeeps and half-tracks are feeling their way cautiously across a large plain dappled with sunlight and surrounded by sawtooth mountains.

We are waiting for word that Rommel’s armor has gone back into the Kasserine Pass and that it will be safe to make a general advance.

Here it comes – by radio from an officer in the mist advanced observation post:

There are no enemy forces remaining on the plain. It is safe for our troops to advance within a mile of the pass.

I got into a jeep and started riding across the plain where yesterday the Americans broke the back of an Axis thrust.

The ground is churned up from the treads of tanks. Scattered all around are abandoned German and Italian motorcycles, anti-tank guns and carbines. The Germans and Italians even threw away their canteens.

You see lots of Italian prisoners wearing sun helmets and digging graves for their comrades who fell in the fighting.

The battered hulks of Italian tanks are still on the plain. Lots of Axis vehicles were knocked out yesterday and at one time I counted 25 of them ablaze at the same time. The Americans’ 105 guns and A-20 attack planes dished it out plenty to the Axis yesterday.

The jeeps and half-tracks that moved across the plain are following up our tanks which led the way. As we ride on, bumping across the uneven soil, we pass some American armored units which have been

We see the men, weary and unshaven, standing beside their Grant and Sherman tanks along a road that leads to the enemy positions. From dawn to darkness yesterday, many of these men did not get out of their tanks.

A few hundred yards to our right, three Airacobras are “hugging the deck” – pilots’ slang for low flying. They zip past us on their way to machine-gun the Kasserine Pass.

Through scattered cloud formations, we can see formations of A-20s and B-25s, escorted by Spitfires, dipping their wings to identify themselves to the American gunners.

A few seconds after the planes go over the pass, we can see columns of black smoke spiral up. Spitfires dart back and forth, protecting bombers and spotting enemy positions to be bombed.

Threading forward to our left and right are lines of jeeps and half-tracks. The latter carrying artillery. Except for the planes and the clatter of the jeeps and half-tracks, there is silence over the valley during the American advance.

Shortly before dusk, our heavy artillery begins to plump shells into the pass. We hear loud explosions and then see clusters of smoke pouring out of the German and Italian positions.

1570

Restaurant food quotas cut sharply

Supply of scarce goods halved; skimpier menus likely

…

1571

Plane flies 2,000 miles without a soul aboard

Eight men bail out of Liberator cargo ship off Florida coast and it finally crashes on mountain in Mexico

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1572

Play shoe limit asked

Washington –
Price Administrator Prentiss M. Brown today appealed to consumers to limit their purchases of “play” shoes to one pair per person when they are released from rationing tomorrow.

Bread-slicing rule may be rescinded

Washington –
Housewives who have been having a hard time slicing bread so that it will not turn to cinders in a toaster were given some hope for a return to bakery slicing today.

Roy F. Hendrickson, head of the food distribution division under Food Administrator Claude Wickard, wrote to Rep. Harness (R-IN) that the whole matter of bread-slicing was being reconsidered and that new rulings might be made after March 18.

The letter pointed out that the War Production Board had ordered the slicing stopped to save waxed paper, and said this might no longer be necessary. Mr. Harness has been seeking to have the no-slicing order repealed as “sheer nonsense.”

1573

parry2

I DARE SAY —
Writing on the wall

By Florence Fisher Parry

Vice President Wallace calls it the new brotherhood.

Clare Boothe Luce calls it globaloney.

Between must lie the blueprint for the future that is to be.

Most of us are growing more and more importunate in our demand that we know whether we are going.

Is it to be peace without victory, or peace with victory? An armistice between World War II and World War III, or abiding freedom?

Are we to be a Republic after this war, or is the New Democracy to be fashioned out of a fourth term for our President, and a fifth?

Whatever is to come, it is now on the way. This is 1943. In another year, there will be a nomination for presidential candidates. Then an election. This is moving up furiously.

And sone of us are scared. Not just about the war.

Three times is enough

I saw in a motion picture theater in St. Louis, for a third time in one month, a government-sponsored, people-paid-for film: what is technically known as a “short.” It lasted about 15 minutes, a long short. It was a carefully, expensively produced picture will all the trimmings and fanfare of a feature picture: a handsome background of atmospheric “montage” shots, a lavish musical score, some very expert photography. It had been rehearsed AND rehearsed – but there was just one actor in it, the star. It was one of the most ambitious and “important” shorts I can remember ever having seen.

It was of Vice President Wallace, in a recitation of his now famous free world speech. It was a monologue deluxe.

It was the most effective piece of presidential grooming of a favorite candidate ever fashioned out of the tax money of the American people.

Now I may see more movies than the average moviegoer, although I doubt it. My consumption is about one movie a week. Yet I have seen this same picture of vice President Wallace three times within a month.

And the question assails me: At what point, in wartime, does acceptance let off, and challenge begin?

When President Roosevelt crammed his own candidate for Vice President down our throats at the last Democratic Convention, his staunchest supporters gagged. Mr. Wallace is the same man today.

Is this disunity?

I rise to testify: I’m afraid of the Wallace campaign. The President may be President so long as he lives.

But I believe that Vice President Wallace is being deliberately groomed by the President to be his heir.

Is this prediction out of order? Is it evidence of the “disunity” we are forbidden? Surely not. It is supported by every action of the President himself, who has never relaxed an assiduous eye upon the machinations of his party.

Now the President has been a great war President, the combined population of all the Allied countries testify. he has accomplished miracles in international neighborliness. but even in his most magnificent moments of statesmanship, he has not been able to dissolve the doubts of those who sense the politician’s genius directing a collateral but nonetheless important show.

We want to make up our own minds who’s to be President and who, if anyone, is to take Mr. Roosevelt’s place in the White House. We don’t want any movies made with our taxes, boosting the stock of any President’s favorite, I don’t care who he is.

1574

Use war bonds in wage raises, union suggests

But payment would be in cash if living costs keep rising

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1575

In the Solomons –
Jap bombers raid U.S. base

U.S. fliers carry out five new attacks

…

3 hits scored on Jap cruiser

Cargo vessel damaged in raid on Rabaul
By Don Caswell, United Press staff writer

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1576

Bill to curb absenteeism approved by House group

‘Work-or-fight’ plan urged to halt ‘very ugly’ situation that threatens war effort

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1577

Stay vigilant, protect public, papers advised

Byrnes defends bureaucrats and brass-hats before editors

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1578

Crash blamed on air pocket

Death toll Lisbon wreck of Clipper put at 24

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1579

China expects arms, Mme. Chiang declares

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House group favors Lend-Lease extension

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1580

Men in AEF boost religious attendance

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1581

2,587 aircraft downed in year by U.S. fliers

Only 609 U.S. planes destroyed in fighting on all fronts
By Sandor S. Klein, United Press staff writer

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