Simms: Russo-Polish border dispute is major issue
One of world’s biggest single questions confronts Allies
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
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Lt. Kennedy saves his men as Japs cut PT boat in half
All but two return after destroyer rams them
By Inga Arvad, North American Newspaper Alliance
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U.S. to free soldiers for overseas duty
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Muslim’s test of law slated
Koran’s holy days conflict with schooling
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Roosevelt’s doctor: ‘Take it easy’
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt’s doctor has asked him to “take it easy for a while,” the White House disclosed today.
White House Press Secretary Stephen T. Early said RAdm. Ross T. McIntire, the President’s physician, asked Mr. Roosevelt to maintain a relatively light routine for the time being.
The President has just gone through an attack on influenza and the labor incident to the State of the Union and budget messages.
Federal jury busies itself with bum’s rush for Barry
Whether Chaplin violated Joan’s civil rights presents puzzle for Hollywood panel
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Freddie Bartholomew discharged from Army
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Lardner: Italy, like Russia, has snow and ice
Yanks, with air superiority, have field day strafing Nazi convoy trapped by blizzard
By John Lardner, North American Newspaper Alliance
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President asks Congress for four programs
Includes worker, veteran benefits, new taxes and higher debt limit
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Demobilization to begin with fall of Nazis
Plans for large-scale action now in making, President asserts
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Green contends national service won’t end strikes
Workable war economy and WLB with absolute power would stop labor strife, AFL head says
By William Green, AFL president
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Fabrics, suits and glitter headline 1944 fashions
Silks from China feature show in East
By Lenore Brundige, Press staff writer
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Italy – (by wireless)
During my time with various parts of the 36th Division, I fell in with one of the regimental surgeons – Capt. Emmett L. Allamon of Port Arthur, Texas.
Capt. Allamon is an unusual man. He is slight in build, he talks with a direct look and a flattering smile, and his mind is very acute and analytical. He has the idiosyncrasy of hesitating a couple of seconds between phrases, and then when he speaks, he rattles the phrases off so fast you feel you’ve been left behind.
Capt. Allamon has distinguished himself a couple of times in Italy. His regimental commander commended him the other day for running his jeep right down to the edge of a battlefield and pulling out the wounded. And before that he had the interesting experience of being a German prisoner for six days.
Taken prisoners by Germans
He and his first sergeant, Frank T. Holland of West, Texas, were captured shortly after we struck Italy. They weren’t really treated as prisoners but as fellow medics. About 20 American wounded were captured at the same time, and the Germans let Capt. Allamon do all the operating and the dressing of their wounds.
Then after two days, the Germans had to retreat. Apparently, the German medical officers didn’t want to turn in the captain and sergeant as regular prisoners, so they held a conference, finally took the question to their colonel, and came back with the verdict that the two Americans should retreat with them.
None of the Germans spoke English, but Capt. Allamon spoke just enough French to get along. They retreated for four days, and then early one morning they found the sentry asleep and just walked away.
An Italian farm family hid them for several days. The Italian grapevine carried the word of their presence to the nearest town in Allied hands. It was thus that one morning an Italian arrived and said they could come with him. The two Americans walked with him for nine miles, found a British scout car waiting for them, and eventually landed back with their own outfit.
Enclosed aid station comforts wounded
Capt. Allamon says he learned from the Germans that it’s best to put your medical-aid station in a building, even if it’s only an old goat shed, rather than in tents. There is something psychologically comforting about having rigid walls around you in the combat zone. Also, Capt. Allamon has a theory that the greatest medicine you can give a wounded man is some warmth and comfort.
So, he always gets his aid stations into a building, if possible, has a fire going in the fireplace day and night, and has hot coffee always ready. The minute a man is carried in, or walks in, he is given coffee and a cigarette, he warms himself before the fire, he feels a sense of security again, and his spirits rise. I know it works, for I have sat in one of Capt. Allamon’s aid stations night after night and seen it work.
Ex-newsboys make best soldiers
Capt. Allamon, like all frontline medical officers, is touched by what he calls the “mental wreckage” of war – the men whose spirits break under the unnatural strain and incessant danger of the battlefield.
Capt. Allamon feels that American children in recent generations have had too much parental protection and too little opportunity for self-efficiency, and that the resulting weakness makes a man crumble when faced with something he feels he cannot bear.
The captain says that if he could pick a company of men best suited for warfare, he’d choose all ex-newsboys. He thinks they would have shifted for themselves so early in life that they would have built up an inner strength that would carry them through battle.
Personally, I am sort of on the fence. I hate to think of an America of 130 million people so hard inside that nothing could touch them.
And, on the other hand, it is only a comparative few who do crack up. The mystery to me is that there is anybody at all, no matter how strong, who can keep his spirits from breaking in the midst of battle.