Die Wirkungen der deutschen Luftangriffe –
In London ist man schweigsam geworden
…
Die Kämpfe auf den Marshallinseln –
Japan verzeichnet gute Abwehrerfolge
dnb. Tokio, 5. Februar –
Nachdem das Kaiserliche Hauptquartier am 31. Jänner nur die Tatsache eines feindlichen Angriffs auf die Marshallinseln im mittleren Pazifik gemeldet hatte, berichtet es am Samstag, daß in erbitterten Kämpfen von der japanischen Seite bereits gute Abwehrerfolge erzielt worden seien. Nach dieser Verlautbarung griffen starke amerikanische See- und Lufteinheiten, die sich in der Hauptsache aus Flugzeugträgern und Schlachtschiffen zusammensetzten und außerdem von Flugzeugen, die von Landbasen aufgestiegen waren, unterstützt wurden, am Morgen des 30. Jänner die Marshallinseln an.
Nach heftigem Luftbombardement und Beschießung der Inseln Lae, Kwadjelin, Wotje, Malölap und Arno durch Schiffsartillerie landeten feindliche Truppen am 1. Februar auf den Inseln Kwadjelin und Lae. Bei den sofortigen Abwehrmaßnahmen der dort stationierten Heeres- und Marinebesatzungen und der Marineluftwaffe wurden bis zum 1. Februar 52 feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen und 24 beschädigt, zwei Zerstörer versenkt und ein Kreuzer und ein Zerstörer in Brand geworfen. Während die Kämpfe bei Kwadjelin und Lae noch andauern, sind die Gebiete, die von den japanischen Kräften auf diesen Inseln verteidigt werden, fest in japanischer Hand.
In den Gebieten der Insel Neubritannien hat die japanische Verteidigung dem Kaiserlichen Hauptquartier zufolge weitere Abwehrerfolge zu verzeichnen. So wurden am Morgen des 29. Jänner von 257 feindlichen Flugzeugen, die Rabaul angriffen, 39 heruntergeholt. Die japanischen Verluste betrugen fünf Flugzeuge, die noch nicht zu ihren Stützpunkten zurückgekehrt sind. Ain Morgen des 30. Jänner wurden von 290 angreifenden Flugzeugen 63 abgeschossen. Aus diesen Kämpfen ist ein japanisches Flugzeug nicht zurückgekehrt. Von 180 Feindmaschinen wurden im Verlauf eines weiteren Angriffs auf denselben Stützpunkt am Morgen des 31. Jänner 14 Maschinen abgeschossen. Zwei japanische Flugzeuge sind von diesen Verteidigungskämpfen nicht zurückgekehrt.
Der Feind sucht die Entscheidung
Keine Überhastung, so erklärte der frühere Botschafter in Washington, Admiral Nomura, in einem Interview mit Jomiuri Hotschi. Die günstigen Gelegenheiten mehren sich, den Feinden im Pazifik den entscheidenden Schlag zu versetzen, jedoch können wir nicht ununterbrochen angreifen. Wir sind vorbereitet, den bestgeeigneten Augenblick abzuwarten.
Die Nordamerikaner seien gezwungen gewesen, wie Nomura weiter erklärte, nach dem Fehlschlagen der „Insel-zu-Insel-Taktik“ einen direkten und kurzen Weg zu suchen. Diese Wendung und die Verlegung des feindlichen Offensivschwerpunktes nach dem Mittelpazifik sei von Japan erwartet worden.
Es sei wohl zu verstehen, daß der Feind in diesem Jahr alle seine Kräfte einsetzen werde, um die Entscheidung zu erzwingen. Die Nordamerikaner würfen augenblicklich anscheinend ihre Hauptstreitkräfte in den Pazifik und führten den Angriff gegen die Marshallinseln mit ungewöhnlicher Hartnäckigkeit durch.
Wenn Japan dem amerikanischen Ansturm standhalten könne und erst dann zur Offensive überginge, wäre dies, wie Admiral Nomura fortfuhr, der Weg zum sicheren Sieg. Die Japaner dürften nicht in Ungeduld und Überhastung verfallen und müßten einstweilen nichts anderes tun, als das Kriegspotential zu stärken.
Bis zum glorreichen Sieg
Im japanischen Unterhaus wurde eine Entschließung eingebracht, die die unerschütterlich Entschlossenheit des Hauses zum Ausdruck bringt, den gegenwärtigen Krieg bis zum siegreichen Ende durchzukämpfen. Unter Beifall wurde die Entschließung einstimmig angenommen.
Premierminister Tojo sprach von der festen Entschlossenheit der Regierung, diesen Krieg nicht eher zu beenden, bis der glorreiche Sieg in den Händen der Japaner sei. Nach Abschluß der Debatten und nach Annahme sämtlicher 32 Gesetzesanträge ging das Repräsentantenhaus in die Ferien.
U.S. Navy Department (February 6, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 32
Occupation of the Kwajalein Atoll is nearly complete.
Gugegwe, Bigej, and Ebler Islands have been captured after moderate resistance, and several additional undefended islands occupied.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 254
For Immediate Release
February 6, 1944
Carrier‑based aircraft struck Eniwetok on February 5 (West Longitude Date). No further information is presently available.
On the same day Warhawk fighters of the 7th Army Air Force hit Jaluit, bombing and strafing ground installations.
On February 4, 7th Army Air Force Liberators and Mitchell bombers dropped bombs on Wotje, starting large fires among ground facilities. Mitchells and Liberators hit airdrome installations and gun emplacements at Maloelap, and Liberators and Warhawks struck Mille.
No fighter opposition was encountered in these raids, and all of our planes returned to their bases.
On February 3, Navy search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed radio facilities and ground installations at Wotje, Ujelang and Taroa Island. None of our planes was lost.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 6, 1944)
1,500 U.S. PLANES BLAST FRANCE
Yanks wreck six airfields ringing Paris
Nazis ignore challenge to airpower; invasion coast also hit
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
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British fall back below Rome
Yanks and reinforced Nazis in Cassino battle house-to-house
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer
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Kwajalein Island cleared of Japs, two others taken
U.S. invaders of Marshalls seize first goals; other atolls and Wake blasted by U.S. fliers
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
First Yank objectives in the Marshalls invasion have been won with the wiping out of the last Japs on Kwajalein Island and capture of the seaplane base of Ebeye and Loi Island, which out 18 or 20 islands of the Kwajalein Atoll in American hands. In the Solomons to the southwest, U.S. forces crossed Bougainville’s interior mountain range and drive to within five miles of the east coast. Allied fliers knocked out 80 Jap planes in one day’s raid in the New Guinea area.
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – (Feb. 5)
U.S. 7th Division troops have blasted the Japanese out of their last pillboxes on Kwajalein Islet, the principal island in Kwajalein Atoll, and U.S. planes have again ranged far out on the road to Tokyo to batter the enemy on Wake and Eniwetok Islands, it was announced today.
Maj. Gen. Charles H. Corlett’s troops also captured the seaplane base of Ebeye and the adjoining Loi Island, both near Kwajalein Islet.
An 11-word communiqué from Adm. Chester W. Nimitz revealed that the main objectives had been seized in the opening blow of the offensive against Japan’s pre-Pearl Harbor Empire and a Navy communiqué disclosed the new air blows against the Japanese flanks in the Marshall Islands area,
Wake’s third in week
Two squadrons of Consolidated Coronado seaplanes bombed Wake Island the night of Feb 4-5, handing its third battering since Monday to that outpost where a handful of Marines waged an immortal defense after Pearl Harbor. Wake is approximately 700 miles north and slightly east of Kwajalein.
Carried-based planes, meanwhile, had struck 300 miles northwest of Kwajalein Thursday, bombing Eniwetok which is the westernmost bastion and only 800 miles from the enemy stronghold of Truk. Many tons of bombs were loosed on the airfield and on a nearby concentration of tanks.
Lighter aircraft kept up assaults in the Marshalls area. Warhawk fighters bombed and machine-gunned Mili Atoll Thursday and Army medium bombers sank a small freighter off Imieji Islands in Jaluit Atoll and bombed the island. No planes were lost in these operations.
20 islands captured
Adm. Nimitz’s announcement of the capture of the three islets brought to twenty the number in the Kwajalein Atoll now in U.S. hands.
The terse victory announcement said:
Kwajalein, Ebeye and Loi Islands have been captured by our forces.
Kwajalein is the administrative seat of the atoll while Loi lies five miles to the north and Ebeye is in between the two.
Other landings probable
There was a strong probability that Americans had landed on other islands, with the Japs helpless to resist them under Allied air and naval blows. Some of the islands had been swept clean of the enemy in a matter of minutes after the soldiers or Marines, who were working the northern part of the chain, had landed.
The final phase of the capture of Kwajalein Islet was a mop-up job since Maj. Gen. Corlett’s troops quickly won control of the island’s main fortifications and only had to clean out scattered pillboxes with grenades and flamethrowers.
The remainder of Ebeye was captured after Army troops won about half of the island in their first landing assault. Loi fell quickly when the soldiers swept ashore after an air-naval hammering. The island of Gugegwe, four and a half miles north of Loi, was pounded in the same pre-landing attack, but that strand was not mentioned in Adm. Nimitz’s announcement.
Remaining Japs helpless
In six days, the Americans had won complete control of the northern and southern extremities of the 70-mile, elongated atoll and whatever Japs remained on the western islets were in a virtually hopeless position.
The cost had been low as the Americans’ conquests now included the following islands: Kwajalein, Ebeye, Gagen, Edgell, Debuu, Edgigen, Abella, Ennubirr, Ennugarett, Ennumennet, Loi, Roi, Namur, Gehh, Ennuouj, Ninni, Millu, Boggerlap, and two unidentified spits.
This list included seven more small strands of coral and sand seized by Maj. Gen. Harry Schmidt’s 4th Marines at the northern end of the chain after they had consolidated Roi and Namur, the most important military bases in the atoll.
Cover in pillboxes
On Kwajalein Island, the main peril was from Jap snipers who cowered in their pillboxes and waited fatalistically for death.
No Jap counterattacks were made yesterday and U.S. losses were remarkably light. In one interconnected blockhouse system, 250 Japs were found dead.
A Jap Dōmei broadcast virtually admitting that the enemy will not attempt a counteroffensive in the Marshalls said that “as the main force of our Navy remains intact, it will select the most advantageous time and place to sally forth for the defense of Greater East Asia.”
Jap Premier Hideki Tōjō, quoted in a Tokyo broadcast, told the Japanese House of Representatives that the war is “increasing in ferocity day by day and we now are being confronted with a situation where the fate of Greater East Asia will be decided.”
Union chiefs ready to defy WLB subpoena
MESA’s Mr. Smith won’t go to Washington; strike hits 40 plants
…
Pennsylvania politics –
Myers, Davis likely to be November foes
Neither is expected to have opposition in April primary
By Robert Taylor, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – (Feb. 5)
The harmony program ratified here by the Democratic State Committee has forecast a race in the November election for U.S. Senator between Rep. Francis J. Myers, Philadelphia New Dealer, and Senator James J. Davis, seeking election to a third full term, as the Republican nominee.
Mr. Myers is assured the Democratic nomination in the April 25 primary by the withdrawal of all opposition just before the State Committee endorsed his candidacy yesterday, and he will run on a ticket headed, Democrats confidently expect, by President Roosevelt.
May avoid primary contest
Failure of Republican leaders to settle on a candidate to oppose Senator Davis in the primary, with the backing of Joseph R. Grundy and Joseph N. Pew Jr., left political circles believing that they may not give Mr. Davis serious opposition in the primary.
The proposal not to put organized opposition in the field against the veteran Republican Senator, who has been on unfriendly terms with the Grundy-Pew leadership for years was credited to Governor Edward Martin.
If this change in Republican plans materializes, both parties will avoid a contest in the primary election and will keep their ranks intact for the presidential election.
Democrats jubilant
For the Democrats, it will be the first harmonious primary since 1936, due to healing of the political breach between Senator Guffey and State Chairman David L. Lawrence, which has kept party affairs in a turmoil since 1938.
For the Republicans, it would be the first time since 1930 that Mr. Davis has sought a senatorial nomination without encountering a determined attempt by the party organization to defeat him.
Democrats were jubilant today over the outcome of the harmony program by which they named, virtually unopposed, a state slate to serve as a “supporting cast” to the President in the November election.
All seasoned campaigners
Each of the slated candidates is a seasoned campaigner. Rep. Myers, a 42-year-old Philadelphia attorney, is a third-term Congressman. U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Alvin Jones of Pittsburgh, designated candidate for the State Supreme Court, was the party’s 1938 nominee for Governor.
Superior Court Judge Chester H. Rhodes, originally elected in 1934, was designated a candidate for one of two Superior Court posts and his running mate, F. Clair Ross, has been elected State Treasurer and Auditor General and was the Democratic nominee for Governor in 1942.
Call on Roosevelt
Third Assistant Postmaster General Ramsey S. Black, slated for the nomination for State Treasurer, has been active in politics in Central Pennsylvania for years and G. Harold Wagner of Luzerne County, slated for Auditor General, was elected State Treasurer four years ago.
Speakers at the Democratic State Committee meeting set the keynote of the campaign as “victory and a just and lasting peace,” and the committee adopted a resolution demanding that President Roosevelt “carry the burdens of his great tasks until the war is won and a secure peace assured.”
Home front issues
Mr. Lawrence told the assembled committee:
He must continue his masterly direction of the war, because the plans that are shaped are his, the men that direct are his, the team that is winning is his, and no other man could take over in the middle of the game and call the plays correctly and without a hitch.
The Democratic leaders didn’t forget home front issues in marking out the terms on which they will fight the campaign. The committee adopted a resolution denouncing Pennsylvania’s Republican Congressmen for opposing a “stand up and be counted” roll call on the federal soldier ballot bill and urged approval by Congress of a soldier ballot.
Mr. Lawrence charged Republican Congressmen with fighting price control and boosting inflation on behalf of pressure groups and against the interests of labor.
He said:
The fight against food subsidies has been a Republican fight to raise the cost of living of the city dweller to curry favor with the organized farm bloc. Then, when labor felt the pinch of rising living costs, Republican politicians would point to the wage control agencies of government and tell working people that the Roosevelt administration has turned against them.
Labor represented
As in previous presidential years, labor will be represented on the Pennsylvania slate of delegates at large to the national convention, to serve with the state’s leading Democrats.
Philip Murray, CIO and United Steel Workers president, and James L. McDevitt, president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor (AFL), were designated as delegates at large, and John A. Philips, president of the Pennsylvania Industrial Union Council (CIO), as an alternate. Mr. Black, designated for the state treasurer nomination, is a former railroad worker with widespread support among rail unions.
In Washington –
House disinters war bond supply plan for papers
Bill, pigeonholed last fall after passing Senate, makes surprise appearance; bloc plans vigorous fight
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Senate delays showdown on soldier vote
Washington (UP) – (Feb. 5)
Senate showdown on the bitterly-contested soldier vote issue was postponed today until next week when an epidemic of “hooky” playing forced adjournment of a special Saturday session shortly after it opened.
The chamber met today on motion of Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley (D-KY), who hoped for passage of administration-supported legislation to provide federal ballots for voting by service personnel this November.
But Mr. Barkley’s hope was in vain. When the gavel fell at 11:00 a.m. ET, seven Senators were present. Twenty minutes and two roll calls later when only 44 members – four less than a quorum – had answered present, Mr. Barkley gave up and moved an adjournment until Monday.
Foes cheered
Spokesmen for the anti-administration coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats who are opposing provision of federal ballots hailed today’s fiasco as a victory. They contended that if a vote had been possible, they would have had a 24–20 victory.
They based that claim on the fact that, of 44 Senators present, 24 voted against the administration in a test yesterday on an amendment which would have sharply restricted use of federal ballots. The amendment, opposed by the administration, lost by a 46–42 tally.
James O. Eastland (D-MS), a leader of the Republican-Southern Democrat coalition, viewed the adjournment as a good omen for the “states’ rights” legislation favored by his group, which would simply call on states to provide adequate absentee balloting procedure.
Another effort planned
Meanwhile, there was some talk that the anti-administration bloc might make another attempt Monday to settle the entire issue by a parliamentary maneuver which they tried but failed to bring off on Friday.
The maneuver involved a motion to lay aside the pending Lucas-Green federal ballot bill and take up the so-called “states’ rights” measure passed by the Senate last December and by the House Thursday night.
If those two steps were successful, the bloc would then move to accept the minor revisions made by the House and, if that motion carried, the bill would then be on the way to the White House – without any provision for federal ballots.
Pennsylvania soldiers get data on absentee voting
But they must qualify under state law and have opportunity to get ballots
Washington (UP) – (Feb. 5)
The War Department has informed soldiers from Pennsylvania, Illinois, Nebraska and Louisiana that they have some voting to do this April – if they’re qualified under state laws and if they have the time, patience and opportunity to do what it takes to get and cast ballots.
In a preview of what will happen on a tremendously larger scale in advance of the November presidential election if no new soldier vote legislation is enacted, the department set in motion machinery to “facilitate” voting in Illinois, Nebraska and Pennsylvania primaries and in Louisiana’s general election.
Inform serviceman
Commanding officers at all military installations have been instructed to call the elections to the attention of men from the four states and to provide those who wish to vote with postage-free postcard applications for ballots. With the postcards go special instructions for each state.
Under Public Law 712 enacted in 1942, the armed services must do what they can to help service personnel obtain absentee ballots. Voting qualifications and the validity of ballots are determined by the states.
The War Department reminded prospective voters of “certain important factors,” including:
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A soldier must be at least 21 to vote.
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In certain states just filing application for an absentee ballot is not enough; there are other steps.
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If a soldier doesn’t know whether he is qualified to vote, “he should immediately inquire by letter to the Secretary of State of the state of his voting residence as to whether it is necessary to register, pay taxes or meet other requirements.”
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Upon receiving his absentee ballot, the soldier should execute it and return it immediately.
Instructions given
The War Department issued the following special information:
Pennsylvania primary, April 25: Soldiers may apply for “official war ballots” covering only federal offices, or for state absentee ballots covering all offices. The former may be obtained from the Secretary of State, Harrisburg, by use of Army postcard forms.
Ford: Straight thinking to guide future of U.S.
Full prosperity and employment will follow war ‘if we use men wisely’ and teach children properly, he asserts
By Anthony G. de Lorenzo
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Willkie will stump Wisconsin 2 weeks
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (UP) – (Feb. 5)
Wendell L. Willkie announced today that he will spend two weeks in March campaigning for the election of delegates in Wisconsin pledged to support him for the Republican presidential nomination.
He said:
I look upon the Wisconsin primary as one of the most important tests in the whole pre-nomination struggle.
The primary will be held April 4 and is the first in which leading candidates for the GOP nomination will be directly opposed. Delegate slates so far are entered for Mr. Willkie, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific.
Mr. Willkie made his announcement to newspapermen after conferring with 22 of the 24 delegates entered in the primary as pledged to him.
The Wisconsin primary is particularly important, he said, because of leadership in the state of the Progressive Party and of widespread circulation of The Chicago Tribune.
He also welcomed the entrance of the name of Col. Robert McCormick, publisher of the Tribune, in the Illinois primaries. This, he said, would bring the real issues of the campaign before the public.
School strike to be delayed another week
Negotiations continued over demands of custodians
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Wallace rouses unions
Los Angeles, California (UP) – (Feb. 5)
Organized labor must raise its voice in post-warn planning to equal that of industry, Vice President Henry A. Wallace today urged a meeting of American Federation of Labor members.
Mr. Wallace said:
It is so easy in government to put the dollar and the plant before the man.
This is a fascistic idea. Yet unless labor makes itself heard among Congressional and government committees which will have so much to do with problems of reconversion of industry and post-war activity, we shall see a tendency for property rights to be placed ahead of human rights.
Earlier, during a short speech to some 3,500 assembled workers at the Wilmington yard of California Shipbuilding Corporation, Mr. Wallace emphasized that government would have to take an active part in reconversion of war industries back to peacetime production.
Miss Sumner to run again, she says, changing mind
Washington (UP) – (Feb. 5)
Rep. Jessie Sumner (R-IL), who announced during the Christmas holidays that she would not seek reelection, said tonight that she has changed her mind, because messages from friends “made me feel like a rat leaving the sinking ship of state.”
Her intention to retire had “discouraged a substantial number of Americans whose patriotic efforts I should do what I can to encourage,” Miss Sumner said in a statement.
An outspoken opponent of U.S. participation in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Miss Sumner said she was afraid:
…to leave now when steps are being taken that will surely cause another war in Europe and lock our country into a world union from which we cannot secede without causing a world civil war.