Military policemen wound 4 civilians
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Sub sinks U.S. ship
Washington –
A medium-sized U.S. merchant vessel was torpedoed and sunk by an enemy submarine in the North Atlantic about the middle of November, the Navy announced t0day. Survivors have been landed at an East Coast port.
$75,000 blast at Kaiser mill
Fontana, California –
The explosion of two butane gas tanks caused an estimated $75,000 damage at the giant Henry J. Kaiser steel mill here yesterday.
De Gaulle visit to U.S. hinted again in London
New York (UP) –
The CBS’s shortwave listening station last night heard the Berne radio broadcast what was described as a London report that Gen. Charles de Gaulle, Fighting French leader:
…will leave soon for the United States.
Roosevelt and wife attend join Christmas services
President hears pastor cite Rickenbacker’s faith during 22 days adrift in Pacific
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U.S. fliers raid Naples and Taranto
Cairo, Egypt (UP) –
Bomber formations of the U.S. Middle East Air Force struck at two of Italy’s most important southern ports Wednesday night – Naples and the big naval base of Taranto – it was announced yesterday.
It was the first American raid on Taranto, on the Italian heel. Italy’s second most important arsenal is located there, the first being at Spezia on the Gulf of Genoa.
Naples has assumed increasing importance for the Axis as a reinforcement port for its forces in Africa since the RAF crippled Genoa.
Jap seized in Newark with airport pictures
Newark, New Jersey (UP) –
Police held today a Jap alien, whom they caught last night riding around Newark Airport in an expensive auto, with a batch of photographs and a “considerable quantity” of new banknotes.
The photographs were of buildings, docks, subways and elevated highways in the New York area, and of Newark Airport.
Police said he had an alien registration card, which had been canceled on Oct. 24, 1942.
A policeman said he watched the Jap cruise about for some time. Finally, he stopped him, and the Jap said he was lost and had bought the photographs and planned to sell them.
Interned Italians have turkey for Christmas
Missoula, Missouri (UP) –
B. F. Fraser, Immigration Service official in charge of the Fort Missoula Alien Detention Camp, revealed today that Italians interned at the camp enjoyed a Christmas celebration far more festive than any they could have seen in their bomb-scarred homeland.
Turkey was plentiful at dinner, with yards of spaghetti and plenty of Italian bread, fruits and other delicacies.
Italians in the camp are held as dangerous enemy aliens.
Indictments expected soon in Boston fire
Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
The first indictments in connection with the investigation of the Cocoanut Grove holocaust which took 488 lives Nov. 28 may be expected early next week, authorities indicated today.
District Attorney William J. Foley said that although the Suffolk County Grand Jury was continuing its hearings today, there would be no judge on the bench to receive indictments before Monday.
Today’s witnesses included Fire Commissioner William A. Reilly, Police Captain Joseph Buccigross (who was in the nightclub when the fire started), City Building Commissioner James H. Mooney, and nine other persons.
Nazi strength is on the wane, diplomats say
Air superiority lost, manpower crisis nears, Washington hears
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Oran, Algeria – (by wireless)
The American soldier is an incurable wishful-thinker. Today the average soldier in North Africa, despite the slow going in Tunisia and the long distances we still have to go, thinks the war will be over by April.
The censors tell me that the soldiers’ letters home are full of such belief, and I know that in the camps they are willing to bet good money on it whenever they can find a taker. If you try to point out that such a quick victory is against all logic, and that even a year from now would be pretty optimistic, they look at you as though you were nuts.
Mail has started coming to the troops again in enormous gobs, after a blank of more than two months. Lt. Herbert Desforges, a friend of mine from Gallup, New Mexico, got 20 letters from his wife the other day. Another friend, Lt. Bill Wilson of Des Moines, got 30 personal letters in one day.
They tell a story about one soldier who hadn’t heard from his wife in three months, and finally was so disgusted he wrote her and told her to go to Hell, saying he was going to get a divorce. Then in one huge batch came 50 letters, covering the whole three months. So, he’s had to cable her and take back the divorce threats.
As for me, I have been the recipient of only two letters – one from a girl in Pittsburgh wanting me to say hello to her soldier sweetie, and one from a reader in Iowa telling me that eggs were plentiful and only 38¢ a dozen. I suppose my 50 family letters are at the bottom of somebody’s ocean.
Our soldiers are all over being seriously homesick now, but they do constantly think about home. Even a general said the other day:
What I wouldn’t give for 24 hours in New York. I’d just like to see how it looks and hear what people are saying.
What are the folks thinking?
And as I travel about the camps, the question I’m most frequently asked is:
What are the folks at home thinking about?
…never “What are the papers saying?”
Unfortunately, I don’t know any more about this than they do. In fact, even less, since the Post Office Department apparently considers me unworthy to receive mail. All I know is what I read in the French newspapers, such as an item about America building 32,000 “chars” in the past year. I assumed that a “char” was a chair or a charwoman, but my French dictionary swears it means chariot. So, all I can tell the boys at the camps is that there’s apparently some mighty funny business going on in America. Thirty-two thousand chariots indeed!
Rumors are almost as numerous here on land as they were aboard ship coming down. Today, for example, it was rumored all over town that Tokyo had been bombed by 400 planes, that a thousand American planes were over Germany, that Deanna Durbin has died in childbirth, that Jack Dempsey and Bing Crosby had both kicked the bucket.
No, we don’t know what you are thinking at home, but I hope you aren’t letting yourselves believe we’ll all be headed for New York by spring.
Few troops in action
My powers of prediction are pretty feeble, but as I see things, this neighborhood may not be very exciting for some little time. After the initial occupation, there necessarily follows a period of getting established and building up immense stocks of men and supplies. We are in the middle of that period over here.
Only a very small portion of our troops in North Africa are in action now. The remainder of the combat troops are just waiting and a huge organization of supply troops is busy day and night back of the lines, as it will always be.
We are, it seems to me, in another period of waiting to strike, as Mr. Churchill says, when it suits us best and Hitler least. I have no idea when or where that will be.
El Agheila looks on the map like an afternoon’s drive from Algeria, but actually it’s as far as from New York to Kansas City. So don’t get impatient if nothing much seems to happen for a while.
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Enemy broadcast –
U.S. air raid on Wake reported by Tokyo
Dispatches from enemy countries are based on broadcasts over controlled radio stations and frequently contain false information for propaganda purposes.
Tokyo, Japan (UP) – (Japanese broadcast recorded in London)
An Imperial Headquarters communiqué said yesterday that more than 10 U.S. bombers of the Flying Fortress type raided Wake Island Wednesday night, flying in from the direction of Midway.
Four raiders were shot down and six more were damaged, the communiqué said. Jap losses were described as one person killed, four wounded, and four small fires caused.
Washington –
The Navy Department remained silent today on Axis radio reports that U.S. planes have attacked Wake Island, the tiny mid-Pacific outpost which fell to Japan after an epic 14-day defense by the small defending garrison of 385 U.S. Marines.
The Axis broadcast was picked up one years and a day from the time that a Navy communiqué told the nation that the gallant Marines had at last been overcome.