Beachhead attackers face powerful Allied defenses
Reporter finds troops digging in, alert to German push, determined to inflict high losses
By Kenneth L. Dixon, representing combined U.S. press
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Dec. 7 victim of Jap sneak afloat again
Salvaging of battleship Oklahoma nearly completed
By William Tyree, United Press staff writer
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Poll: People favor food gifts to war children
Public willing to risk Nazi seizure to help morale
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
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Remarks by President Roosevelt on transfer of destroyer escort Senegalais to French
February 12, 1944
Broadcast audio:
Adm. Fenard:
On behalf of the American people, I transfer to the Navy of France this warship – built by American hands in an American Navy yard. This is one of a long line of events symbolizing the ancient friendship between France and the United States. It emphasizes the determination of this nation, and of all of the United Nations, to drive from the soil of France the Nazi invaders who today swagger down the Champs-Élysées in Paris. This one transfer under the Lend-Lease Law is typical of the thousands of transfers of American-made weapons of war which have been made to our fighting allies. They are bringing closer the day of inevitable victory – victory over our enemies on all the fronts all over the world.
No day could be more appropriate for this ceremony than the anniversary we now celebrate of the birth of that illustrious American who, in his time, struck such mighty blows for the liberty and dignity of the human race – Abraham Lincoln.
In 1940, the Nazi invaders overran France. Although we were still on the sidelines, we in the United States realized the horror of that catastrophe and the grave menace it carried to all the civilized world.
The land of France fell to the enemy, but not so the ships of France. Today her fleet still proudly flies the tricolor in battle against our common enemy. At Nettuno and Anzio in Italy, French ships were among those which bombarded the German coastal installations. In a strategic sector of the Allied line now pushing toward Rome are French troops. Yes, the Nazis on the Italian front know only too well that France is not out of this war.
And the time will soon come when the Nazis in France will learn from millions of brave Frenchmen now underground that the people of France, also, are not at all out of this war.
In a sense, this transaction today can be regarded not only as Lend-Lease, it might even be regarded as reverse Lend-Lease. For in the early days of our national history this situation was reversed. At that time, instead of France receiving an American-made ship, the young nation of the United States was happy to receive a ship made in France by Frenchmen – the Bonhomme Richard – a ship made illustrious under the command of John Paul Jones, in the days of our Navy’s infancy. And it is well to remember that that ship was named in honor of our Minister to France, Benjamin Franklin – that wise old philosopher who was the father of close friendship between France and the United States.
This vessel, which today we are turning over to the people of France, will somewhere, sometime, engage the enemy. She is a part of the growing strength of the French Navy. She is a new class – a destroyer escort – speedy and dangerous. I want to tell you something else about her – that there are more where she came from. Under our Lend-Lease agreement, she is not the only ship that you will receive from us – we are building others for your sailors to man.
I hope that the Nazis and the Japs are listening to us today as this transfer is made. For it will help them better to understand the spirit and determination which bind together all of the fighting fleets and armies of the United Nations on the road to ultimate victory.
VAdm. Fenard, you are the senior officer of the French Navy, and you are the chief of the French Naval Mission here. It has been your duty to work with us in outfitting your fleet. My years of friendship with officers of the French Navy make this a particularly memorable occasion to me, personally. To you, we turn over this ship – the Senegalais. We recall with pleasure that it was a French ship which fired the first salute ever rendered to the Stars and Stripes flying from a United States Man-of-War. We remember that salute today – and symbolically we return it.
Good luck, Senegalais and good hunting.
Völkischer Beobachter (February 13, 1944)
Erfolgreiche Schlacht um Aprilia
Trotz Einsatzes von Reserven der Cassino-Front weitere Einengung des Landekopfes von Nettuno
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The Pittsburgh Press (February 13, 1944)
ALL-OUT NAZI ATTACK SMASHED
Rome battle will be won, generals say
Allied leaders express optimism about outcome on beachhead
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In honor of Lincoln –
New Deal foes told to rally to GOP cause
Governor Martin makes plea for ‘American way’ for veterans
GOP Lincoln Day orators called on dissident Democrats last night to help Republicans unseat the Roosevelt administration, win the war, abolish bureaucratic restrictions, and “restore” constitutional government.
They accused President Roosevelt of bungling foreign and domestic affairs, destroying American liberties, and creating a set of conditions which only Republicans can correct.
Not a few hurled the word “fascist” at him, all said he was seeking a fourth term, and all predicted a Republican victory in November.
Governor Martin speaks
Only once did the soldier vote issue rate a prominent place in the Republican discussions.
Speaking from the same platform with Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, Pennsylvania Governor Edward Martin said that:
This is no time to play politics with the Armed Forces who are fighting on nearly 100 fronts and have fought a thousand battles in the air and on the land and sea.
Governor Martin said:
They are not thinking of political alignments. They want and we want a free government of men. There will be times when peace can be maintained only by force. It may be necessary for America to supply that force to save ourselves from another day of blood, terror and tears.
Insolvency to be avoided
A government to win the war and also win a lasting power must be financially strong with budgets balanced and debts under control, the Pennsylvania executive said.
Governor Martin continued:
Our federal debt is alarming. On June 30, 1933, it announced to $22,500,000. It promises, by the end of the war, to reach the astronomical total of $300 billion, an amount greater than the combined debt of all our Allies and all our enemies.
Great sums for making war are imperative, but prudence and patriotism demand elimination of all waste and unnecessary governmental activity. This war must be won without national insolvency.
Generals, admirals praised
Governor Martin found no fault with the conduct of the war in the field. He said:
Our war strategy has been magnificent. This has been in the hands of our high-ranking military and naval men. The President deserves full credit for selecting them. But our home front strategy has not been magnificent. Chaos and confusion have marked our policies.
The Pennsylvania executive pointed out that the government has been taking over the lands of the people and that “federal tax-eaters and drones are overwhelming us.”
He said:
In June 1930, we had 500,000 federal employees. Today we have more than three million, or three times the peak number in the First World War.
The federal government is doing more labor “feather-bedding” and is hoarding and wasting more manpower than any industry or group of industries. Administration labor policies have broken down. Buying off strikes is un-American.
We all want to win the war quickly and decisively, but we intend at the same time to keep our American way of life.
Speaking at Wheeling, West Virginia, House Republican Leader Joseph W. Martin Jr. (R-MA) said Republicans had to assume the burdens of reconstruction after the war last and, having done it before, “We can do it again.”
Calling for stripping the war effort of “political maneuvering,” Mr. Martin pledged Republicans to winning the war, defending the Constitution, abolishing waste, tax simplification, employment and care for veterans, preservation of free enterprise, reduction of bureaucracy and regimentation, better care of the aged and elimination of “class prejudices and class preferences.”
Called failure
Speaking at Columbus, Ohio, Senator Chapman Revercomb (R-WV) accused the President of “dismal and tragic failure” in the field of foreign relations and of failing “in any step that should have been taken to avert war.”
Mr. Revercomb denounced “government by group” and accused the administration of playing politics with organized labor. Once the war is over, he added:
OPA must end and the bureaucrats at Washington must fold their tents and seek employment elsewhere.
Senator E. H. Moore (R-OK), speaking at Charleston, West Virginia, accused President Roosevelt of being “a fascist at heart.” Senator Moore, a Democrat until he ran for the Senate, called for a coalition campaign against the administration.
Federal vote assailed
Like Mr. Martin and Mr. Revercomb, Mr. Moore denounced the administration’s efforts to set up a federal soldier vote ballot. Such a ballot would be an unconstitutional invasion of states’ rights, he said, and the administration is proposing it in “an effort to steal this election.”
Senator Kenneth S. Wherry (R-NE), speaking at Huntington, West Virginia, said, “We must break this reign of Franklin D. Roosevelt” and called for lifting of “regimentation” and business restrictions the moment the war is over.
Novelist Clarence Budington Kelland, speaking as Republican National Committeeman for Arizona, declared at Dallas, Texas, that the administration has debauched American self-respect.
God and the New Deal
If Abraham Lincoln were alive today, Mr. Kelland told Lincoln Day dinner guests:
The thing that would arouse him to rage and denunciation would be the deliberate undermining of the American people by the New Deal administration. It would be the vicious teachings of this administration whose purpose it to destroy the self-reliance of our people and substitute for it a helpless, hapless, despicable belief that God, in the guise of the New Deal administration, will provide.
In New York City, Governor Thomas E. Dewey declared that the American people are rallying to the Republican Party to rescue the constitutional system of government from a menace as grave as that which faced it during Lincoln’s administration.
Governor Dewey said:
The menace Lincoln faced was violent; ours was subtle. He faced secession by the states. in our time, we have seen abdication by the states.
The New York executive declared the people were turning to the Republican Party before the war, and have been turning to it “at an accelerated pace since” because they are “desperately anxious” that “we built well and strongly in international cooperation after this war.”
Governor Dewey concluded:
The people realize that the only hope for America for world peace is that it be won by an administration which they know is not seeking power for the sake of power.
One speaker, however – Connecticut Governor Raymond E. Baldwin – warned his party against “wishful thinking” and told it bluntly that it has not thus far offered the nation an election-winning program.
Speaking at Boston, Governor Baldwin urged Republicans to explore the home front for constructive policies that would win votes. He suggested, for example, that the party “can offer a better and sounder method” for preventing inflation than the Democrats have been able to produce.
Palmer Hoyt, publisher of the Portland Oregonian, who has just returned from a six-month stay in Washington as head of the Domestic Branch of the Office of War Production, shared the platform with Wendell Willkie, at a Portland dinner.
Mr. Hoyt declared:
The Republican Party must know what its leaders are thinking and it can follow no leaders who lack the courage to face the problems of the day.
Too many Republican candidates today lack faith, both in themselves and in America. I refer to no candidate in particular, but it is obvious that too many candidates today with “rather be President than right.”
Mr. Willkie announced that he would file as a Republican nominee in the Oregon preferential primary May 19, and told northwest party leaders that “now is the time to change horses in the middle of the stream.”
Mr. Willkie declared:
Now is the time and not in the post-war era. Right now, the war is being waged under expert guidance of the Army and Navy. It would be easy to change horses now but it would be difficult after the war when conditions are bound to become uncertain.
Hopkins’ son dies in action in the Pacific
White House announces loss of 18-year-old Marine private
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Tokyo ignores proposals –
Red Cross efforts to aid prisoners blocked by Japs
Futile attempt to send supplies to American captives in Orient revealed
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American killed trying to rescue dog in minefield
By Pvt. David H. Whittier, written for combined U.S. press
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Prisoner-dunning called way to protect union jobs
‘The question of money is not important,’ butchers’ spokesman says of 25¢ dues
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Situation is critical –
Binder: Italian campaign may not be worth price we must pay
Tremendous obstacles accentuated by Allied refusal to damage religious objects used as Nazi strong posts
By Carroll Binder
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