America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

Roosevelt als Banknotenfälscher

dnb. Berlin, 17. Februar –
Wie Reuters meldet, gab Roosevelt am Dienstag auf seiner Pressekonferenz bekannt, er würde nicht im geringsten überrascht sein, wenn die USA bereits deutsche Banknoten auf dem Kontinent Europa drucken.

Es bedarf keiner besonderen Feststellung, daß das deutsche Volk ebenso wenig überrascht ist, wenn Roosevelt sich nun auch als Banknotenfälscher entlarvt, nachdem er den Mord an Frauen und Kindern und die Zerstörung unersetzlicher europäischer Kulturwerte längst offenkundig predigt.

Niemand sollte daher aber auch überrascht sein, wenn eines Tages US-Piloten und Soldaten mit gefälschten deutschen Banknoten gefangengenommen würden und deshalb an den Galgen kämen. Es wäre das eine umso größere Selbstverständlichkeit, als in Deutschland auf eine solche Art von Banknotenfälschung die Todesstrafe steht.

U.S. Navy Department (February 18, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 35

The capture of Eniwetok Atoll has been undertaken by forces of the Pacific Ocean Areas. Army and Marine assault troops have landed and established beachheads.

The initial landings took place after strong preliminary attacks by carrier‑based aircraft and by heavy ships of the Pacific Fleet.

The troops went ashore under the cover of battleship gunfire and with the close support of low-flying naval aircraft.

All forces participating are under the immediate command of RAdm. R. K. Turner. The amphibious forces are commanded by RAdm. H. W. Hill. The assault troops comprising the 22nd Marines and elements of the 106th Army Infantry are commanded by Brig. Gen. T. E. Watson, USMC.

Presidential Veto of a Bill that Would Increase the Cost of Living
February 18, 1944

Rooseveltsicily

To the House of Representatives:

I received yesterday afternoon, February 17, 1944 – HR 3477 (S. 1458) – a bill which extends the life of the Commodity Credit Corporation until June 30, 1945, but which by its restrictive provisions would compel an increase in the cost of food and the cost of living to the people of the United States.

I promptly return the bill, without my signature, and urgently recommend that the Congress take action as soon as possible to extend without hampering restrictions the life of the Commodity Credit Corporation. Farmers could thereby make plans for the planting of crops and know the support prices on which they can rely.

The reasons for my disapproval of HR 3477 – my most emphatic and vigorous disapproval – must already be known to every Senator and every Representative. The issue of using Government funds to hold down the cost of living is not a new issue and my views on it have been expressed before and at some length, particularly in my message vetoing a similar bill (HR 2869) on July 2, 1943.

This bill, like that bill, is an inflation measure, a high cost of living measure, a food shortage measure.

This bill will raise the cost of food in the Bureau of Labor Statistics index not less than 7 percent and will raise the whole cost of living materially.

If this bill were to become law, the housewife would soon have to pay:

  • 10¢ more a pound for butter
  • Nearly 8¢ more a pound for cheese
  • 1¢ more for a quart of milk
  • 1¢ more for a loaf of bread
  • 7¢ more for a ten-pound bag of flour
  • Hamburger would go up 4¢ a pound
  • Pork chops would go up 4 ½¢ a pound
  • Sliced ham would go up 6½¢ a pound
  • Chuck roast would go up 3½¢ a pound
  • Round steak would go up 5¢ a pound

The cost of many other necessities would be increased materially.

While increasing the cost of living, the prohibition of consumers’ subsidies will not add one dollar to the income of the farmers.

This bill would in effect reverse the policy of the Congress; in effect, it repeals the Stabilization Act of October 2, 1942.

It is clear that we cannot hold the wage line if the Congress deprives us of the means necessary to hold the cost-of-living line.

No major country at war today has been able to stabilize the cost of living without the use of subsidies.

If the wage line breaks – and I do not see how it can be held if this bill becomes law – not only will food costs rise still further but all other costs will rise – including the cost of all munitions and supplies for the Army and Navy by many billions.

Not only will it cost every American family more to buy the necessities of life, not only will it cost more to run our factories and our farms, but also the costs of conducting the war will rise proportionately day by day.

The weight of the increased burden will fall on all of us, but most of all on the unorganized workers and others who live on small and relatively fixed incomes, among whom are most of the dependents of our fighting men.

The bill presented to me would destroy the stabilization program.

I cannot accept responsibility for its disastrous consequences.

I hope that the Congress will not compel these consequences.

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9424
Establishing in the United States Patent Office a Register of Government Interests in Patents and Applications for Patents

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 18, 1944

WHEREAS there exists among the several executive departments and agencies a need for a more adequate source of information with respect to patent rights and interests owned or controlled by the United States Government; and

WHEREAS the establishment in the United States Patent Office, Department of Commerce, of a separate register for the recording of such patent rights and interests would meet this need and would be in the public interest:

NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows:

  1. The Secretary of Commerce shall cause to be established in the United States Patent Office a separate register for the recording of all rights and interests of the Government in or under patents and applications for patents.

  2. The several departments and other executive agencies of the Government, including Government-owned or Government-controlled corporations, shall forward promptly to the Commissioner of Patents for recording in the separate register provided for in paragraph 1 hereof all licenses, assignments, or other interests of the Government in or under patents or applications for patents, in accordance with such rules and regulations as may be prescribed pursuant to paragraph 4 hereof; but the lack of recordation in such register of any right or interest of the Government in or under any patent oi application therefor shall not prejudice in any way the assertion of such right or interest by the Government.

  3. The register shall be open to inspection except as to such entries or documents which, in the opinion of the department or agency submitting them for recording, should be maintained in secrecy: Provided, however, That the right of inspection may be restricted to authorized representatives of the Government pending the final report to the President by the National Patent Planning Commission under Executive Order No. 8977 of December 12, 1941, and action thereon by the President.

  4. The Commissioner of Patents, with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce, shall prescribe such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary to effectuate the purposes of this order.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 18, 1944

PROCLAMATION 2605
The Flag of the United States

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 18, 1944

The flag of the United States of America is universally representative of the principles of the justice, liberty, and democracy enjoyed by the people of the United States; and

People all over the world recognize the flag of the United States as symbolic of the United States; and

The effective prosecution of the war requires a proper understanding by the people of other countries of the material assistance being given by the Government of the United States:

NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the power vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, particularly by the Joint Resolution approved June 22, 1942, as amended by the Joint Resolution approved December 22, 1942, as President and Commander in Chief, it is hereby proclaimed as follows:

  1. The use of the flag of the United States or any representation thereof, if approved by the Foreign Economic Administration, on labels, packages, cartons, cases, or other containers for articles or products of the United States intended for export as lend-lease aid, as relief and rehabilitation aid, or as emergency supplies for the Territories and possessions of the United States, or similar purposes, shall be considered a proper use of the flag of the United States and consistent with the honor and respect due to the flag.

  2. If any article or product so labelled, packaged or otherwise bearing the flag of the United States or any representation thereof, as provided for in section 1, should, by force of circumstances, be diverted to the ordinary channels of domestic trade, no person shall be considered as violating the rules and customs pertaining to the display of the flag of the United States, as set forth in the Joint Resolution approved June 22, 1942, as amended by the Joint Resolution approved December 22, 1942 (U.S.C., Supp. II, title 36, secs. 171-178) for possessing, transporting, displaying, selling, or otherwise transferring any such article or product solely because the label, package, carton, case, or other container bears the flag of the United States or any representation thereof.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the city of Washington this eighteenth day of February in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-eighth.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

E.R. STETTINIUS JR.
Acting Secretary of State

The Pittsburgh Press (February 18, 1944)

U.S. AIR FLEET RIPS TRUK; TOKYO REPORTS INVASION
Jap warships, defenses blasted

Nimitz’s bombers cut trail of destruction across Pacific base
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer

trukmap
Under attack by U.S. fleet, Truk, the Japanese “Pearl Harbor,” is the focal point for enemy defenses in the Pacific. Loss of the big naval base would leave the Japs in the Southwest Pacific in a precarious position, ripe for attack by Allied forces.

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
One of the greatest carrier task forces ever assembled in any ocean was believed today to have blasted a trail of sinking ships, wrecked planes and devastated shore installations through Truk, Japan’s “Pearl Harbor,” in a mighty assault only a little more than 2,000 miles south of Tokyo.

The task force resumed radio silence after flashing word that it had begun the assault Wednesday dawn, but Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s announcement that “several hundred” dive bombers, torpedo bombers and fighters were participating was taken as a certain indication that heavy damage was inflicted on Japan’s biggest base outside home waters.

Reconnaissance photographs taken by two Marine Liberator bombers on Feb. 4 in the first Allied flight ever made over Truk showed at least 25 warships, including two aircraft carriers, numerous lighter warships and supply ships, in the huge lagoon.

The Tokyo radio was quoted by the U.S. Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service as saying that powerful U.S. “mechanized units” and air forces were attacking Truk and “fighting with our troops is now going on.”

The Tokyo report of the landing on Truk, unconfirmed in U.S. official quarters, was included in broadcasts which hinted that the Jap fleet was not ready to take up the U.S. challenge in the heart of the Carolines.

Though Adm. Nimitz’s communiqué referred only to the “commencement” of the attack, there was no confirmation that it continued for more than one day at the longest. It was also doubted here that the bombing and strafing raids were supplemented by any naval bombardment, since such action would bring the task force dangerously close to coastal batteries.

The assault touched off speculation as to whether an attempt to seize Truk was contemplated, but there was no information here, official or otherwise, as to whether the raid was a prelude to invasion.

The huge U.S. task force under Adm. Raymond A. Spruance, under whose command Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshalls was wrested from the Japs nearly two weeks ago, penetrated 3,200 miles west of Pearl Harbor into the heart of Japan’s mandated Caroline Islands for the attack.

It carried the war to a base Japan long has considered impregnable, 2,100 miles east of Manila and 940 miles west of the nearest American base at newly-conquered Kwajalein.

Carrier task forces normally approach within 100 miles and often much closer before launching their planes. Their targets at Truk lay on a group of 70 islands protected by a great encircling reef with a radius of 30 miles, inside of which the whole Jap fleet could anchor.

The photographs brought back by the two Marine Liberators that flew 2,000 miles over enemy waters from a South Pacific base showed huge ship concentrations in the lagoon, one island almost literally covered with airfields, heavy coastal guns on all five major islands and palatial living quarters.

Capt. James Q. Yawn of Bogue Chitto, Mississippi, pilot of one of the Liberators, indicated that even more than the 25 ships reported by official sources were anchored at Truk.

He said:

I counted 25 warships through one small gap in the clouds. It looked like a whole Japanese fleet was down there and I saw only a part of one of the anchorages.

The first Liberator, piloted by Maj. James R. Christensen of Salt Lake City, encountered only a few erratic bursts of anti-aircraft fire, but the second ran a gantlet of shells thrown up by Jap guns ashore and on warships. Neither was damaged, however.

News of the attack was received jubilantly in Hawaii, where the hope was expressed that the task force caught a big Jap fleet at anchor so that the score might be evened for the enemy’s sneak blow at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.


Truk invaded, Tokyo reports

U.S. mechanized units in action, Japs say
By the United Press

Roosevelt in dark on landing report

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt said today that he didn’t know anything about Jap reports which indicated that U.S. forces have landed on Truk.

He told his radio and press conference that he had no late information on the powerful U.S. task forces’ attack on the Jap bastion.

Japan reported today that powerful U.S. “mechanized units” as well as air forces had attacked Truk and that “fighting with our troops is now going on,” according to the U.S. Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service.

There was no confirmation in official U.S. sources of the clear enemy implication that U.S. forces had landed on Truk, the Jap “Pearl Harbor” of the Pacific. Neither the Army nor Navy would comment.

Report troops engaged

The United Press recorded an Imperial Headquarters announcement broadcast from Tokyo which said that Jap “Army and Navy units” were engaged in fierce fighting against the Americans in the Truk area.

It said:

Since Tuesday morning (Tokyo Time), a powerful enemy task force was repeatedly carrying out bombing attacks upon Truk Island. Intercepting this enemy force, the Imperial Army and Navy units of the same area were engaged in fierce fighting.

Japs belittle attack

London newspapers simultaneously quoted a Jap communiqué as saying that Americans had landed on Truk under cover of a smashing assault by carrier-based planes.

Dōmei, the official Jap news agency, in a broadcast recorded at 6:30 a.m. ET by the U.S. Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service, also said:

This present attack by the enemy is not the real thing, and it seems that it does not go beyond the scope of a strong reconnaissance.

Nimitz silent

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s Pacific Fleet headquarters had been silent on the Truk attack since 4:30 p.m. yesterday when a short communiqué announced that it was launched at dawn Wednesday.

Dōmei, hinting that the Jap fleet was not ready to take up the challenged carried to the heart of the Carolines, said that:

The main force of our invincible Navy is biding its time until the very end.

In the face of the admission of unwillingness on the part of their navy to act now against the American push toward Tokyo, the Japs said that it “is now looking for the golden opportunity to destroy the enemy at one stroke.”

Report fierce fighting

The London versions of the Jap communiqué said that when the Americans attacked Truk, defending “troops” engaged them at once, and “fierce fighting is now going on between our forces and the enemy.”

The U.S. Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service said that it recorded a Dōmei broadcast of what appeared to be a summary of the same communiqué at 3:40 a.m. ET. The text was as follows:

Tokyo, Japan –
Imperial Headquarters, in a communiqué issued at 4:00 p.m., revealed that a formation of carrier-based planes belonging to an enemy task force raided our position in the Truk Islands since yesterday morning. The announcement added that fierce fighting is now going on between our forces and the enemy.

The conflict in reports over the full nature of the U.S. assault on Truk roughly paralleled that which prevailed at the time of the U.S. landings on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshalls, 940 miles to the east, two weeks ago. At that time, too, enemy reports differed as to whether a landing had been made.

If U.S. troops have swarmed ashore in the Truk Islands, they have tackled Japan’s strongest base outside home waters and the main obstacle in the transpacific invasion route to Tokyo, 2,100 miles to the north.

Japan has been fortifying the Truk Islands in the heart of the mandated Carolines for more than 20 years. Allied planes made their first reconnaissance flight over the stronghold Feb. 4.

The reef-enclosed Truk Lagoon could anchor the whole Jap fleet and the network of airfields on the various islands was believed the most highly developed of any in Jap-controlled waters in the Pacific.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet has been attempting to draw the Jap fleet into battle for a year or more and has massed the largest concentration of warships in history in the Pacific for a showdown battle, but the enemy has shown no taste for battle since the series of engagements in the Solomons in 1942.

The size of the U.S. carrier force was not disclosed, but it may have been part or all of the naval escort – described as the largest ever massed in any ocean – that covered the invasion of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshalls more than two weeks ago. In addition to aircraft carriers, the raiding force at Truk presumably included cruisers, destroyers and possibly battleships.

U.S. government monitors said Jap broadcasts made no mention of the attack until Dōmei carried its version of the Imperial Headquarters communiqué at 3:40 a.m. ET, some 11 hours after Pearl Harbor announced the start of the assault.

At 4:00 a.m., government monitors said, Tokyo domestic broadcasts informed the Japanese people that Truk was under attack.

Big Yank victory at Truk indicated by Adm. McCain

Naval air officer says day will be ‘memorable’ in U.S. history when facts are made known
By Sandor S. Klein, United Press staff writer

Washington –
Powerful elements of the Jap fleet, probably including battleships, were believed today to have been caught in the smashing U.S. Navy air assault on Truk, the enemy’s “Pearl Harbor.”

The full results of the attack were still unknown, but a high-ranking naval official, who may have had a part in planning it, hinted that the U.S. Pacific Fleet had scored a great triumph at Truk, the enemy’s big base in the Caroline Islands.

VAdm. John S. McCain, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air who just returned from a visit to newly-won U.S. positions in the Marshalls, expressed confidence that when the results are made known, the day of the raid will be “memorable in our country’s history.”

Adm. McCain, Allied air commander during the early and crucial phases of the Solomons Islands campaign and first air officer on the Navy’s High Command, said in a radio address last night that the attack was no surprise to those who knew of the tremendous increase in American manpower and materiel.

He said:

It means that for a change we are carrying on warfare with enough instead of too little, too late. It means that we now have suitable bases from which to mount these strikes ever closer to the heart of the enemy.

Naval experts here were confident that important units of the Jap fleet were blasted by U.S. fliers at Truk. They said it was doubtful that the Truk operation would have been undertaken unless enough of the enemy fleet was present to warrant the risk.

Have big home fleet

However, they warned that destruction of the great Jap base, and even of the fleet stationed there, would not mean the end of the enemy’s sea power. The Japs also have a powerful fleet operating from bases in the homeland.

The attack on Truk, it was said, does not necessarily mean that the United States will launch a land invasion against the Carolines, as was done in the Marshalls and Gilberts. Instead, it may seek to neutralize Truk with steady bombings and then bypass it with a thrust farther west in the direction of the Philippines and ultimately, to the south coast of China.

May lose South Pacific

At any rate, these analysts said, if Truk is neutralized, Japan may be forced to pull its fleet out of the South Pacific for lack of a major naval base. This, of course, would mean evacuation of New Britain, New Ireland and other Southwest Pacific islands the Japs now occupy. These garrisons could not survive without seaborne transportation and supply.

More important in strategic considerations, however, was that Truk’s loss as a naval base to the Japs would give the U.S. Fleet a freer hand in the Central Pacific.

Seek to delay showdown

Adm. McCain told a press conference that the Jap fleet intended to delay a showdown as long as it could, but implied that the U.S. Navy was determined to force the decision.

He said:

They don’t want to fight us. They’ll delay it just as long as they can, but, of course, in the end they’ll have to do it. They’ve been licked in every department. Why should they fight us? They’ve been licked at night; they’ve been licked by lesser vessels; they’ve been licked all over the ocean – I don’t see why they should want to fight us.

Beachhead troops hold firm –
5th Army offensive hinted to relieve force at Anzio

Yanks at Cassino believed opening big drive; Nazis seek to split battered units
By Robert V. Vermillion, United Press staff writer

1,000 Yanks die in Nazi sinking of troopship

Disaster is worst of kind in military history of the U.S.
By Joseph L. Myler, United Press staff writer

Washington –
The good fortune which faithfully accompanied American soldiers to France in the last war, and to dozens of far-flung embarkation ports in this one, deserted a shipload of U.S. troops for a fateful moment “on an undisclosed date” in European waters.

The result was 1,000 men lost in the worst disaster of its kind in U.S. military history.

The War Department announced the tragedy in a 90-word statement late yesterday.

‘Due to enemy action’

It happened at night in a heavy sea and was “due to enemy action.” The ship, carrying American soldiers “in substantial numbers,” sank rapidly, the announcement said. Rescue efforts resulted in the saving of about as many men as were lost.

Because there is reason to believe the enemy does not know the magnitude of his success on this occasion, “the date is withheld.”

The fact the enemy did not know indicated that the attacking vessel itself had been sunk by other Allied ships. The announcement gave no other details, not even the name of the ship.

None in World War I

The only comparable disaster of this war was announced a year ago Feb. 20. The Navy then disclosed that “more than” 850 civilians and Army, Navy and Marine Corps personnel were lost when two medium-sized passenger-cargo ships were torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic four days apart.

Thus far in this war, the United States has lost 12 transports – not counting the latest victim – but in all previous instances, the loss of life was relatively light.

World War I produced no great transport tragedies. So successful was the job of transferring men to France that Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy in that conflict, was able to report in this book, Our Navy at War, that:

Not one American troopship was sunk on the way to France, and not one soldier aboard a troop transport manned by the U.S. Navy lost his life through enemy action.

The transports President Lincoln and Covington were sunk in World War I while returning from Europe, as was the Antilles, an Army-chartered transport not manned by the Navy. The British ships Tuscania and Moldavia were sunk while carrying U.S. troops to Europe, and the British-chartered Dwinsk was sunk while returning.

But losses in those sinkings were comparatively light as indicated by these figures from the World Almanac: Antilles, 70 lives lost; Tuscania, 213; Moldavia, 53, and President Lincoln, 26.

One of the larger transports thus far lost in this war was the President Coolidge, which struck a mine in the South Pacific on Oct. 26, 1942, and sank in a matter of minutes.

Of more than 4,500 officers, men and crew members aboard, only four were lost.

Roosevelt’s anti-subsidy veto upheld

House kills bill which President describes as ‘inflationary’

americavotes1944

Poll: Dewey shades whole field in Pennsylvania GOP favor

New York Governor increases lead with 51% of votes; Willkie runs second; MacArthur third
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion

The popularity of Governor Thomas E. Dewey as a presidential candidate has increased sharply since early December among Republican voters polled by the Institute through Pennsylvania.

The New York Governor is not only the top choice of Pennsylvania Republicans interviewed in the survey, but receives more votes than all other candidates combined. Pennsylvania’s delegation to the GOP convention will have a voting strength of 70 – second only to Governor Dewey’s home state, New York.

A cross-section of voters in Pennsylvania shown a list of men most frequently mentioned as possible presidential candidates and asked to name their present choice. Based on those who named a Republican, the results in the present survey and in a comparative study last December are given below:

Today December 1943
Dewey 51% 36%
Willkie 22% 29%
MacArthur 18% 19%
Stassen 4% 5%
Bricker 3% 5%

In the latest survey, California Governor Earl Warren and Eric Johnston, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, each received 1%. In the December poll, Senator Robert Taft of Ohio received 6% of the vote.

I DARE SAY —
Grassroots

By Florence Fisher Parry

Shipping Administration plea –
Defer-musician plea mad; sound 1-A, reviewers say


Diplomat omitted in slain wife’s will

Army to terminate school at W&J

CIO battles independents at gates of Weirton plant

Disturbance is attributed to renewed campaign to break independent union’s hold


WLB finds plan to punish ‘authorized’ strikes

Withdrawal of membership maintenance may become standard practice, regional chairman hints
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

OPA moves to cut citrus fruit prices

Labor, church papers barred from subsidy

Committee’s bond ad bill bans journals started since Jan. 1
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent

War production record brings business from doghouse

In Washington –
Compulsory war training after war sought in House

May declares year’s service for all youths is needed to prevent future conflicts


americavotes1944

Soldier vote plans

Washington (UP) –
A meeting of Senate-House conferees today produced three proposals for a compromise path out of the complicated tangle over the soldier-vote bill.

Senator Tom Connally (D-TX) suggested that candidates for state office be printed on the federal war ballot form. Rep. Harris Ellsworth (R-OR) suggested authorizing a supplemental federal ballot in cases where the soldier voter could not get the state ballot. Chairman Theodore F. Green (D-RI), of the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee, offered an entirely new bill, which gives the same priority to both state and federal ballots.

Crisis at Anzio ‘a real thing,’ writer insists

War correspondent cites that high officials ‘admitted’ it
By William H. Stoneman