Editorial: Can you look them in the eye?
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Italy – (by wireless)
The little towns of Italy that have been in the path of this war from Salerno northward are nothing more than great rubble heaps. There is hardly enough left of most of them to form a framework for rebuilding.
When the Germans occupied the towns, we rained artillery on them for days and weeks at a time. Then after we captured a town, the Germans would shell it heavily. They got it from both sides.
Along the road for 20 or 30 miles behind the fighting front, you pass through one demolished town after another. Most of the inhabitants take to the hills after the first shelling. Some got to live in caves, some go to relatives in the country. A few in every town refuse to leave no matter what happens, and many of them have been killed.
A countryside is harder to disfigure than a town. You have to look closely and study in detail, to find the carnage wrought upon the green fields and the rocky hillside. It is there, but it is temporary – like a skinned finger – and time and the rains will heal it. Another year and the countryside will cover its own scars.
Land in the wake of war
If you wander on foot and look closely, you will see the signs – the limb of an olive tree broken off, six swollen dead horses in the corner of a field, a straw stack burned down, a chestnut tree blown clear out with its roots by a German bomb, little gray patches of powder burns on the hillside, snatches of broken and abandoned rifles and grenades on the bushes, grain fields patterned with a million crisscrossing ruts from the great trucks crawling frame-deep through the mud, empty gun pits, and countless foxholes and rubbish-heap stacks of empty C-ration cans and now and then a lone grave.
The apple season is on now, and in the cities and those towns that still exist, there are hundreds of little curbside stands selling apples, oranges, and hazelnuts. The apples are to us here what the tangerines were in North Africa a year ago, and the tomatoes and grapes in Sicily last summer.
I haven’t been in Italy long enough really to know much about the people, but I do know that the average soldier likes Italy a great deal better than he did Africa. As one soldier said:
They seem more civilized.
Our soldiers are a little contemptuous of the Italians and don’t fully trust them, and yet with the typical American tenderheartedness they feel sorry for them, and little by little they are becoming sort of fond of them. They seem to us a pathetic people, not very strong in character, but fundamentally kindhearted and friendly.
Some opinions on Italians
A lot of our Italian-American soldiers are taking to the land of their fathers like ducks to water, but not all of them. The other night I was riding in a jeep with an officer and an enlisted man of Italian extraction, both from New York. The officer was talking about the plentitude of girls in Naples, and he said most of the soldiers there had girls.
The driver said:
Not me. I won’t have anything to do with them. The minute they find out I speak Italian, they start giving me a sob story about how poor and starved they are and why don’t the Americans feed them faster.
I look at it this way – they’ve been poor for a long time and it wasn’t us that made them poor. They started this war and they’ve killed plenty of our soldiers. And now that they’re whipped, they expect us to take care of them. That kind of talk gives me a pain. I tell them to go to hell. I don’t like them.
But our average soldier can’t seem to hold an animosity very long. And you can’t help liking a lot of the Italians. For instance, when I pull back to write for a few days, I stay in a bare, cold room of a huge empty house out in the country. My roommates are Reynolds Packard of the United Press and Clark Lee of the International News Service.
We have an Italian boy 24 years old who takes care of the room. I don’t know whether the Army hired him or whether he just walked in and went to work. At any rate, he’s there all day and he can’t do enough for us. He sweeps the room six times and mops it twice every day.
He boards up blown-out windows, does our washing, and even picks up the scraps of wood and builds a little fire to take the chill off. When he runs out of anything to do, he just sits around, always in sight awaiting our pleasure.
His name is Angelo. He smiles every time you look at him. We talk to each other all the time without knowing what we’re saying. He admires my two-fingered speed on the typewriter. He comes and looks over my shoulder while I’m writing, which drives me crazy, but he’s so eager and kind I can’t tell him to go away. It’s hard to hate a guy like that.
Air Transport Command
U.S. cargo ship lands in hidden jungle airports
By Max B. Cook, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Maj. de Seversky: Talk of war output peak is misleading as demand for new weapons increases
By Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky
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Völkischer Beobachter (December 29, 1943)
Schimada über den Seekrieg im Pazifik –
Eine stolze Bilanz der japanischen Marine
Schwere Verluste einer amerikanischen Landungsflotte an der Westspitze von Neupommern
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Viel Getue um die angebliche Invasion –
Neue Generale und neue Reden
Von unserem Berner Berichterstatter
b—r. Bern, 28. Dezember –
In London wurde bekanntgegeben, daß Luftmarschall Sir Artur Tedder zum Stellvertreter des Generals Eisenhower im Kommando über die für die Invasion in Europa bestimmten amerikanischen und britischen Truppen ernannt Worden ist.
Daß ein Engländer für diesen Posten gewählt werden würde, war sicher, dagegen kommt die Ernennung eines Offiziers der Luftwaffe ziemlich unerwartet. Sie wird als Hinweis darauf empfunden, wie wichtig der Anteil der Luftwaffe bei den angeblich geplanten Operationen genommen wird. Tedder hat bisher unter Eisenhower die anglo-amerikanischen Luftstreitkräfte im Mittelmeer befehligt. Er gilt als Erfinder der berüchtigten Methode des sogenannten „Bombenteppichs,“ bei dem eine große Anzahl von Kampfflugzeugen über einem bestimmten, abgegrenzten Gebiet gleichzeitig ihre Bomben abwerfen, ohne im Einzelnen auf Ziele zu achten.
Der Mann für den Balkan
In London wurde ferner bekanntgegeben, daß an Stelle des Generals Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, der zum Oberbefehlshaber im ganzen Mittelmeergebiet ernannt worden ist, General Sir Bernard Paget das Kommando im Nahen Osten übernimmt. Er wird Wilson unmittelbar unterstellt sein. Paget war in den letzten zwei Jahren Oberbefehlshaber der in Großbritannien stehenden britischen Streitkräfte und hatte als solcher auch deren Ausbildung für die Zwecke der Invasion zu leiten. Seine einzige praktische Erfahrung im gegenwärtigen Kriege war das Kommando über die britischen und französischen Truppen, die 1940 bei Andalsnes in Norwegen gelandet wurden, sich aber nach sehr kurzer Zeit wieder zurückziehen mußten. Man weist in England darauf hin, daß Paget in seiner neuen Stellung gegebenenfalls die Invasion auf dem Balkan zu leiten hätte.
General Eisenhower hat der Presse vor seiner Abreise nach England in Algier Erklärungen abgegeben, in denen Großsprecherei und falsche Bescheidenheit sich seltsam mischten. Interessant war seine Bemerkung, daß das Heer der französischen Emigranten in möglichster Stärke bei den geplanten verlustreichen Operationen eingesetzt werden soll. Die Frage, ob dieses Kanonenfutter aus Nordafrika unter dem Kommando Girauds stehen werde, wollte Eisenhower lieber nicht beantworten, da die Verhältnisse in der französischen Dissidenz zu unklar seien. Auch General Montgomery, der die britischen Truppen befehligen soll, gab ein Interview, in dem er die Notwendigkeit engster Zusammenarbeit zwischen Heer und Luftwaffe betonte.
Der republikanische USA-Senator für den nordamerikanischen Staat Montana Burton K. Wheeler erklärte, daß Roosevelt anscheinend die westeuropäische Invasion gegen den Willen Englands durchsetzen wolle und damit ein gewagtes Spiel beginne.
Zur Feststellung des USA-Senators Johnson, wonach 73 Prozent der Invasionsarmee aus nordamerikanischen Truppen bestehen sollen, betonte Wheeler, daß er glaube, für das nordamerikanische Volk zu sprechen, wenn er den Verantwortlichen rate, sich genau zu überlegen, ob die nordamerikanische Jugend dieses gewaltige Blutopfer bringen solle oder könne. Seiner Auffassung nach sei der vorgesehene Prozentsatz nordamerikanischer Truppen an den Invasionsoperationen viel zu groß.
Der brasilianische Botschafter in Uruguay teilte mit, daß zwei brasilianische Divisionen bereits im Jänner an die europäische Front abgeschickt werden sollen. Offiziere aus Uruguay sollen sich dieser Expedition anschließen. Über den Kampfwert dieser Streitmacht gibt man sich aber wohl selbst im Lager der Anglo-Amerikaner keinen Illusionen hin.
Englische Kritik am englischen Volk
dnb. Genf, 28. Dezember –
Selbstzufriedenheit, das sei das Charakteristikum der britischen Öffentlichkeit von heute, bemerkt New Statesman and Nation.
Bei den furchtbaren Begleiterscheinungen einer Westoffensive, bemerkt das Blatt hiezu, „ist eine derart triviale Einstellung wirklich abscheulich.“ „Besonders abstoßend wirkt dieses Bild vom England der Gegenwart auf die Soldaten, die aus Italien kommen,“ denn sie erzählen über katastrophale Zustände in Süditalien. Man vermöge sie kaum zu schildern, ein völliger Zusammenbruch, keine Spur von Kultur mehr sei in Süditalien vorhanden, keine Führung, keine Hoffnung auf die Zukunft.
Das britische Volk weise sehr viele fundamentale Schwächen auf, meint die englische Wochenschrift The Leader. Die „Massenstupidität“ gehöre zu den Hauptschwächen dieser Art. Hand in Hand mit der Stupidität gehe die Gleichgültigkeit. Sie unterstütze den Wunsch weiter englischer Bevölkerungsschichten, den Krieg zu vergessen, sich keine Sorgen mehr um ihn zu machen. Wenn man das alles in Rechnung stelle, könne einem Um die Zukunft des englischen Volkes angst und bange werden. Es bestehe die ernste Gefahr, daß Großbritannien zur Bedeutungslosigkeit absinke. Viele Rivalen warten schon auf dieses Ergebnis.
U.S. Navy Department (December 29, 1943)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 214
For Immediate Release
December 29, 1943
Navy medium bombers of Fleet Air Wing Two which raided Nauru on the morning of December 29 (West Longitude Date) destroyed an ammunition dump and started several fires. Several of our planes suffered minor damage. One Navy Liberator while on a search mission in the Marshalls on December 27 damaged a tanker.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 29, 1943)
UNIONS CANCEL RAIL STRIKE
Leaders promise not to endanger U.S. war effort
Action taken only 18 hours before deadline for walkout and follows conference with Army’s rail boss
By Raymond Lahr, United Press staff writer
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Yanks batter Rome airfields
Berlin reports big death toll in suburbs of Italian capital
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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Italian fighting flares –
Ortona falls to Canadians
8th Army takes keystones of German line
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer
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Marines repel Jap assaults
Push close to airfields on New Britain
By Don Caswell, United Press staff writer
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Fourth term hint is given by President
His disavowal of ‘New Deal’ regarded as start of campaign
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Roosevelt ordered to rest by doctor
Washington (UP) –
The White House announced today that President Roosevelt is suffering from a head cold and will remain in his presidential quarters today.His physician, RAdm. Ross T. McIntire, said the President has no fever, but he thought it best for him to stay away from his offices.
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt’s disavowal of the term “New Deal” as the administration’s reform trademark was widely regarded here today as the first important move toward a win-the-war fourth term campaign.
But others regarded his triumphant accounting of administration policies since 1933 as a reply to those critics who have accused Mr. Roosevelt of having lost interest in the reform era now that a war was underway.
The President tossed the term “New Deal” overboard in a casual conversation last week. He made it official at yesterday’s news conference during which he read a partially prepared statement to nearly 200 reporters who somehow felt they were participating in an historic occasion.
Fourth term drive?
He said the patient – the United States – is not wholly well yet and won’t be until the war is won.
He was asked:
Does all this add up to a fourth term?
The President replied:
Oh now – we are not talking about things like that now. You’re getting picayune. I know you won’t mind my saying that, but I have to say something like that.
His rejoinder recalled a similar set of circumstances three years ago when he was asked whether he would seek a third term. On that occasion he advised the inquiring reporter to go in a corner and put on a dunce cap.
Raises questions
Whatever the motive, the abandonment of the term “New Deal” after ten years of what has come to be called the New Deal-Democratic coalition raises some political questions. The coalition began to sag in the 1942 general elections and buckled badly in scattered contests this year.
Some of Mr. Roosevelt’s left-wing supporters have been intimating that he was running out on New Deal philosophers as well as terms. Some of his conservative party partners have been warning of political disaster unless Democrats dissociate themselves from the New Deal at once.
Senator Edwin C. Johnson (D-CO) said on Dec. 6:
The New Deal is through. If the Democratic Party persists in hanging on to its dead corpse, it will lose the Senate, the House and the governors of every Northern and Western state in the next election.
Guffey’s dispute
Southern politicians have been muttering for months. Their displeasure burst like shrapnel in the Senate this month against Senator Joseph F. Guffey (D-PA) who had offended them in his role of New Deal spokesman. It is significant that the Southern bitterness is against the “New Dealers” rather than against the administration as a whole or against the President himself.
New Dealer No. 1 in this town is Harry L. Hopkins, Mr. Roosevelt’s personal aide and confidante. There was speculation here today whether the President might be preparing to get him out of the country in the presidential campaign year. There would be precedent for that.
When Herbert C. Hoover was nearing the test of his second presidential campaign, he summarily removed from his Cabinet and sent to London as ambassador an old man who had been the prophet of prosperity until the Depression came and then had come to be regarded as a crippling political liability.
The old man was Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Mellon did not want to go. But he went.
Left-wing supporters of the administration began to be apprehensive after Mr. Roosevelt, refereeing a bout between Vice President Henry A. Wallace and Secretary of Commerce Jesse H. Jones, declared Mr. Jones the winner and stripped Mr. Wallace of all participation in the war effort. It was a rebuke rarely equaled.
The New Republic’s Washington columnist on Aug. 23 wrote:
The New Dealers who are not trying to apologize for the President are asking themselves whether Mr. Roosevelt again will become the champion of progressive government once the war is won.
New leadership
The Nation, liberal weekly, said on July 24 after the Jones-Wallace row:
The man who created the New Deal seems intent on destroying it before he leaves office in his flaccid retreat before the Bourbons of his own party. Isn’t it about time for labor and the left to look around for new leadership?
Similarly suspicious, the eighth annual convention of the CIO United Auto Workers on Oct. 7 voted to support a Roosevelt fourth term only on the condition that he took “an aggressive position against the foes of the New Deal.”
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