America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

2836

U.S. Navy Department (February 7, 1944)

Communiqué No. 503

North Pacific.
At 10:00 p.m. February 4 (Tokyo Time) U.S. naval surface units bombarded enemy installations on the south and east coast of Paramushiru. A number of fires were started, and one unidentified enemy ship was hit and beached. Enemy coastal guns returned fire, but U.S. units sustained no damage.

During the same night a flight of our aircraft bombed Paramushiru and Shimushu. All U.S. planes returned.

CINCPAC Press Release No. 255

For Immediate Release
February 7, 1944

The following details regarding casualties in the assault on Kwajalein Atoll have been compiled on the basis of reports received as of the evening of February 6 (West Longitude Date):

In the Southern Attack Force, which captured Kwajalein Island and adjacent objectives, our dead number 157, our wounded 712, our missing 17. In the same area the enemy dead number 4,650, enemy prisoners 173.

In the Northern Attack Force, which captured Roi and Namur Islands and adjacent objectives, our dead number 129, our wounded 436, our missing 65. In the same area the enemy dead number 3,472, enemy prisoners 91.

It is expected final figures will vary only slightly from the above.

2837

U.S. State Department (February 7, 1944)

President Roosevelt to the British Prime Minister

Washington, 7 February 1944
457

For the Former Naval Person.

Combined Chiefs of Staff have reached an impasse on the subject of countries and areas to be occupied by British and United States forces in RANKIN or following OVERLORD. U.S. Chiefs of Staff have pointed out that a changeover from spheres of responsibility connection OVERLORD to spheres of later occupational responsibility desired by U.S. is militarily feasible and no vital objection can be made on that score. Matter now appears necessary for study by you and me in order to have decision before OVERLORD and to proceed with plans. United States proposals are set out in CCS 426/1 paragraph 18 (Report to President and Prime Minister, SEXTANT Conference).

I am absolutely unwilling to police France and possibly Italy and the Balkans as well. After all, France is your baby and will take a lot of nursing in order to bring it to the point of walking alone. It would be very difficult for me to keep in France my military force or management for any length of time.

ROOSEVELT

2838

The Pittsburgh Press (February 7, 1944)

U.S. warships bombard base on Jap home island

Paramushiru shelled and bombed; ship hit; fires started

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2839

In Marshalls –
Battle ended at Kwajalein

Record number of Japs captured by Yanks
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer

Bulletin

Kwajalein, Marshall Islands – (Feb. 4, delayed)
Japan sacrificed 7,000 troops in the brief U.S. campaign against Kwajalein Atoll without exacting even a token toll from the U.S. force, it was estimated today.

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
Victorious U.S. Marines and Army troops, completing the occupation of Kwajalein Atoll in the heart of the Marshalls, were today reported rounding up the largest number of Jap prisoners taken in any campaign since the start of the Pacific War.

Navy Seabees and Army construction engineers were already repairing the atoll’s two airfields and a seaplane base that Maj. Gen. Willis H. Hale, commander of the U.S. 7th Air Force, implied would be a powerful aerial offensive against the Caroline Islands, possibly including Truk, Japan’s “Pearl Harbor.”

Three strongholds taken

Official reports indicated that the 4th Marine and 7th Army Divisions had occupied all major islands and islets in the 66-mile-long atoll and only a few isolated coral formations, none held in any strength, remained to be mopped up.

The fall of the last three strongholds, Gugegwe, Bigej and Ebler Islands, all at the southern end of the atoll, after the quelling of “moderate resistance,” was announced in a communiqué yesterday by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet.

U.S. casualties light

More than 2,000 Japs were believed to have been killed in the capture of the atoll, Japan’s strongest air and naval base east of Truk. U.S. casualties were not announced immediately, but a front dispatch said the Americans killed 40 Japs for every man they lost.

Maj. Gen. Harry Schmidt, commander of the Marines, described the American casualties as light in comparison with 1,200 killed in the capture of Tarawa last November.

Richard W. Johnston, United Press correspondent aboard the joint expeditionary force flagship, estimated the number of Jap prisoners taken as the largest yet seized in the Pacific War, a sign of growing Jap reluctance to fight to the end for the Emperor.

Another United Press correspondent, Charles Arnot, reported from Kwajalein Island that U.S. Army troops there used loudspeakers in the last stages of the campaign to urge the Japs to surrender.

Meet with success

Mr. Arnot said:

The appeals met with considerable success.

The last strong enemy resistance in the atoll ended Friday with the capture of Kwajalein Island, largest in the atoll and administrative center for the whole Marshall group, just 78 hours after the initial landing.

Overrun quickly

Ebeye Island, site of a seaplane base, Loi, and finally Gugegwe, Bigej, Eller and several additional undefended islets were then overrun in rapid succession. All were at the southeastern corner of the atoll.

Tokyo broadcasts claimed that “intense fighting” was still raging yesterday on Kwajalein Island and said two U.S. destroyers had been sunk, another destroyed and a cruiser set afire.

A Jap communiqué said a Jap submarine sank a large U.S. cruiser near Wotje Atoll in the Marshalls at dawn last Wednesday.

Gen. Hale told Malcolm R. Johnson, United Press correspondent at the 7th Air Force advanced base, that the capture of Kwajalein put every Jap base on the Carolines as far west as Truk, 938 miles away, within American bombing range.

RAdm. John S. Hoover, U.S. air commander in the Central Pacific, said planes from the Kwajalein airfields would prevent all air or sea aid from reaching the remaining enemy-held islands in the Marshalls, dooming their garrison to starvation even if they were never invaded by the Americans.

New raids made

New raids by 7th Air Force Mitchell medium and Liberator heavy bombers and carried-based planes Saturday on the bypassed atolls of the Marshalls, as well as others to the west, were disclosed in announcements at Pacific Fleet headquarters.

The attacks included one by varied-based planes on Ujelang Atoll, less than 250 miles from the nearest Carolines and the deepest penetration yet of Japan’s mandated empire. Ujelang lies 600 mules east of Truk.

All planes returned safely and no fighter opposition was encountered.

2840

Allies halt Nazi thrusts below Rome

5th Army repulses tank attacks, tightens grip on Cassino
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer

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Jeep shot from under Gen. Roosevelt in Italy

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2841

americavotes1944

In soldier-vote fight –
States’-rights backers score

Force consideration of amended House measure

Washington (UP) –
Senate opponents of the administration’s federal ballot plan for soldier-voting succeeded today in forcing consideration of the amended state ballot measure approved by the House.

The vote to take up the state ballot bill was 50–38. It came on a motion by Senator John H. Overton (D-LA) after the Senate had progressed right up to the point of a final vote on the administration-backed Green-Lucas federal ballot bill.

Senator Overton’s previous efforts to take up the state bill had been defeated narrowly.

Earlier, administration forces had defeated, 44–42, an attempt by states’-rights advocates to sidetrack the federal ballot soldier-vote bill in favor of a state ballot measure.

The administration strategy is to delay action on the state ballot bill until it can perfect and offer as an amendment the federal-ballot provisions of the pending Green-Lucas measure. This would send the issue back to the House of Representatives for another test before Congress takes final action.

Senate Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley said he was confident that when Congress finally completes action on the legislation, there would be some form of federal ballot provision.

2842

americavotes1944

Wallace ‘suspects’ fourth-term race

San Francisco, California (UP) –
Vice President Henry A. Wallace today said, “I suspect President Roosevelt will run for a fourth term,” after an address outlining a broad post-war program.

2843

National service or anti-strike law –
Mechanics’ row with WLB to affect labor vitally

Continued defiance of federal agency by independent union will stir Congress into action
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

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2844

Navy opens negotiations for industrial plant site

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Seamen credited in rescuing 1,675

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2845

parry2

I DARE SAY —
World malady

By Florence Fisher Parry

A plague is sweeping the world; its virus is spreading all over the war front, the home front, striking down strong men and brave women, and diseasing the nerves of our combatants.

I am speaking of homesickness. It is the worst sickness on earth.

Have you ever been homesick? I mean in that utter, absolute way? If you do not know its suffering, then I am afraid you do not understand war.

Three times I was homesick, and I would not give up the knowledge that those terrible attacks gave me. Once was when I was a very young girl, ashamed to admit I was homesick, and so had to spend a Christmas away from home. I remember lying with my face to the wall and with fists clenched trying so hard to swallow and to keep the crying, not able to eat, not able to speak.

The next time was when I had to leave my babies and go to France to help find the grave of my brother, killed in the First World War. That awful, frantic desperation that seized me when we couldn’t get passage home, I shall never forget.

Then there was that third time. I was alone in San Jose, Costa Rica. I had lost my money, identification, ship’s passage, everything, and for a while I could not find anyone who spoke English. I knew then the collapse of morale that can overtake a human being with all his known background torn away.

War is homesickness

Yes, homesickness is the most terrible of all sicknesses. And it is a major problem in this war. The U.S. Army and Navy are doing what they can to help this malady. They try to get their men home after a certain term of service. But there is no plan that can be employed that does not seem to be discriminatory and unfair.

There is nothing on earth as unfair as war by its very abnormal nature. It is bound to operate unjustly, and there is no way, no way at all, for an equitable plan to he worked out for all.

War is hell; but more than that, war is homesickness, and there is no cure for that. But there are, I think, a few palliatives. There are, I think, a few measures that could be taken that would make the malady more bearable, keep it from impairing and often destroying the nerves of its sufferers; some plan provided that would save men from the awful collapse that follows a withdrawn leave.

If a man doesn’t expect to go home, if a furlough or leave is not held up to him, if he is not encouraged to build it up, then he is spared the shock of sudden withdrawal. A furlough denied, a leave cancelled, is a very part and parcel of the fortunes of war. Yet there is no way to reconcile a soldier to being cheated of his leave if it has been held out to him as a definite reward for service rendered.

The letdown

Let us take the Air Force. In England when a flier has completed 25 missions, he is considered to have spent both his luck and nervous endurance. In North Africa (where the casualty percentages are half as high) 50 missions. In the Southwest Pacific, 100 missions. That is the number of sorties decreed as being all that a flier may be expected to make; and at the expiration of that term, he is given a leave of 20 days, an added two weeks at a reclassification center, six months in a non-combat area, before he is considered physically and nervously restored.

Ernie Pyle has told you to what a pitch a nervous suspense these fliers are geared, and the almost unendurable tension of their last few combat missions.

Their suspense, their tension, is not due to combat fear. It is simply that they have worked themselves up to such a point of expectancy that toward the last their nerves become so taut that when the missions are finally over, their letdown is devastating.

There is only one thing then in their minds. It’s time to go home. They can at last see their wives, their folks. What they’ve been dreaming about all these months, yes, years of training, has at last come true. They’re going home! And when suddenly that prize is jerked away from them, never mind why, then is when the virus of homesickness gets in its deadly work, playing havoc with the masterly nervous control their training has given them.

Homesickness that has been promised assuagement only to be cheated, is the worst possible disease that can afflict our men in combat. And I say it is far better to promise them nothing, to hold out no reward, then to let them build up to this complete collapse.

2846

americavotes1944

Varga Girl wins servicemen’s vote

Washington (UP) –
Postmaster General Frank C. Walker may attempt to ban the Varga Girl’s curvaceous likeness from the mails, but he can’t keep servicemen from using the mails to petition Congress on her behalf.

Rep. Ranulf Compton (R-CT), one of the many Varga Girl defenders, reported today that he has found her appeal rates 7–1 over the soldier vote and 14–1 over the national service issue among the servicemen who write him.

Some letter writers, of course, disagreed. Some even called her a hussy capable of the degrading in fluence attributed to her by Mr. Walker.

2847

U.S. board charges false advertising

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2848

americavotes1944

Gen. MacArthur placed on spot in Illinois test

Word from him awaited on his view as presidential candidate

Washington (UP) –
Enthusiastic supporters in Illinois have put somewhat directly to Gen. Douglas MacArthur the question whether he envisages himself as a possible Republican presidential nominee this year.

The names of Gen. MacArthur and Col. Robert R. McCormick, publisher of The Chicago Tribune, have been entered in the April 11 Republican presidential preference primary. The entry was by petition and did not require the consent of the candidate.

Reaction awaited

But if Gen. MacArthur permits his name to go before the Illinois electorate without dissent, it may be assumed here – as dispatches from his headquarters have suggested – that he is not adverse to making a presidential campaign this year.

Wendell L. Willkie had threatened to enter his name in Illinois if Mr. McCormick became a contestant, but he told weekend questioners that he would do so only “if the colonel would travel up and down the state debating the issues with me.”

Col. McCormick has intimated, however, that he is not a candidate, and it was assumed that her will withdraw his name.

Willkie in Wisconsin race

But Mr. Willkie is going after delegate support in Wisconsin where voters are likely to have the first chance to express an official preference between him and New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey. Dewey and Willkie slates of delegates have been filed for Wisconsin’s April 4 primary.

There are reports that Gen. MacArthur ad Lt. Cdr. Harold E. Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota, may also be represented. Consent of the candidate is not required in Wisconsin.

Newspaper urges bipartisan ticket

Buffalo, New York (UP) –
The independent Courier Express suggested a bipartisan agreement calling for the nomination of Franklin D. Roosevelt for President and an outstanding Republican for Vice President on both major party tickets and a complete holiday from national party politics in 1944.

The editorial suggests:

The nomination by both parties of Franklin D. Roosevelt for a fourth term in the Presidency, with a hard and fast agreement that when the European armistice is signed, he shall resign to heads the American delegation to the peace conference, leaving to his successor the task of carrying through to victory the Asiatic phase of the war – and of handling the domestic problems attending the return to peace.

California delegates back fourth term

San Francisco, California (UP) –
California’s 56-member delegation to the 1944 Democratic National Convention today pledged itself to support President Roosevelt for a fourth term.

Stassen enters Wisconsin primary

Madison, Wisconsin (UP) –
The name of Lt. Cdr. Harold E. Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota on duty with the Navy, was entered today in the Wisconsin presidential preferential primary election April 4.

Slates of delegates for Wendell Willkie and Governor Thomas E. Dewey have already been filed for the primary.

Governor Dewey leads in Senate poll

Washington (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York is the leading choice for Republican presidential candidate in 1944 among Republican Senators who are willing to express a choice now, a United Press poll revealed today. Twenty of the Senate’s 37 Republicans registered their choices.

Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio was second, Gen. Douglas MacArthur third, and Wendell L. Willkie fourth.

Governor Earl Warren of California was mentioned most frequently as a choice for the vice-presidential spot on the 1944 ticket.

Committee to shun state disputes

Washington (UP) –
Robert E. Hannegan, new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said today that his organization will keep hands off the forthcoming primary elections, stay out of state party fights and work tirelessly for the election of Democratic nominees for the Presidency and Congress.

Willkie to enter Nebraska primary

Ogden, Utah (UP) –
Wendell L. Willkie, the 1940 Republican presidential nominee, said today on his arrival here for the opening of a western tour that he would enter the Nebraska presidential preference primary April 11.

2849

Ex-Bellevue Marine mentioned by Clapper

Lt. George Stamets, torpedo bomber pilot, believed one of last to see columnist alive

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2850

americavotes1944

Martin group may yield to Senator Davis

Move seen as serious attempt to avoid GOP primary squabble
By Kermit McFarland

Influential figures within the Martin administration at Harrisburg are making a serious attempt to avoid a party squabble in the April primary.

They are willing to hand the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate to Senator James J. Davis “on a silver platter.”

While there is no love lost between Governor Edward Martin’s camp and the 70-year-old senior Senator from Pennsylvania, these administration officials profess to believe the Republicans have a real chance to carry this state in November and that a primary battle would dangerously menace that prospect.

Grundy not sold yet

To date, the move to let Senator Davis win with a fourth senatorial nomination by forfeit is restricted to the Governor’s circle. Joseph R. Grundy, 80-year-old Bristol manufacturer and the most effective single influence in the state administration, has not been sold on the idea.

Mr. Grundy has opposed Senator Davis every time the Senator has become a candidate.

In 1930, when Mr. Grundy was holding a temporary appointment to the U.S. Senate, Mr. Davis beat him for a two-year nomination. Senator Davis was renominated for six years in 1932, this time over the opposition of the late Gen. Smedley Butler, put up by former Governor Gifford Pinchot, with whom Mr. Grundy had a working arrangement.

Livengood a possibility

In 1938, Mr. Davis defeated one of Mr. Grundy’s fair-haired boys, former State Senator G. Mason Owlett, now president of Mr. Grundy’s Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association. And two years ago, Mr. Grundy was the prime factor behind the defeat of Senator Davis’ ambition to become Governor.

Whether the Governor can prevail on Mr. Grundy to suppress his bitter feeling toward Senator Davis remains doubtful. If he can’t the Senator will have opposition in the primary, Secretary of Internal Affairs Williams S. Livengood of Somerset is the leading possibility at the moment.

Lieutenant Governor John C. Bell, favorite of Joseph N. Pew, Philadelphia oil millionaire, for the senatorial nomination, has been edged from the picture in the backroom manipulations going on the last few weeks. Mr. Livengood, however, is acceptable to Mr. Pew.

The only catch in the Livengood plan is that the Secretary of Internal Affairs, only 43, now serving a second term, is a reluctant candidate. He has his cap set for the governorship race two years from now.

2851

Franklin Roosevelt Jr. in sub-chaser school

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2852

Steel union feels layoff, officer says

Post-war unemployment problem here now, McDonald warns

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Supreme Court refuses to review draft case

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2853

Persia pipeline embarks U.S. on new oil policy

By Marshall McNeil, Scripps-Howard staff writer

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2854

In Washington –
House leaders certain of tax bill approval

Only Senate action would be needed to complete final passage

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2855

‘No Japs today’ is discipline used on Fijis

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