No April Fool gags –
Jack Benny says he wants a girl singer
Dunninger banned from Army camps
By Si Steinhauser
…
No April Fool gags –
Steel workers plan to keep no-strike rule
Rank-and-file survey would hearten Army
By Fred W. Perkins
…
Völkischer Beobachter (April 1, 1944)
Selbst Reuter muß eingestehen:
Englands schwerste Niederlage im Luftkrieg
Bisher der Abschuß von 132 viermotorigen Bombern festgestellt
…
Eine Ohrfeige der Iswestija –
Moskau ruft die Anglo-Amerikaner zur Ordnung
Von unserem Berner Berichterstatter
…
U.S. State Department (April 1, 1944)
740.0011 European War 1939/33765: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland to the Secretary of State
Bern, April 1, 1944
[Received April 1 — 10:56 a.m.]
1999
It is officially announced that on April 1, 1944 at 10:30 in the morning approximately 30 American planes flew over the Cantons of Thurgau and Schaffhausen. At about 11 a.m. bombs were dropped on the town of Schaffhausen. According to presently available reports several fires are raging in the station district and in the city. Further details will be announced later. All railroad traffic in direction of Schaffhausen has been interrupted.
Military Attaché leaving immediately for Schaffhausen to investigate and report.
I shall immediately endeavor to obtain appointment with Foreign Minister for further exploration matter. Details will be telegraphed as obtained.
HARRISON
740.0011 European War 1939/33770: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland to the Secretary of State
Bern, April 1, 1944 — 8 p.m.
[Received 8:10 p.m.]
2020
My 1999 and 2010.
I called on Mr. Pilet-Golaz at his residence this afternoon to express my regret and sympathy. According his preliminary information some 50 American bombers flying from southeast in direction northwest suddenly appeared over Schaffhausen this morning and dropped bombs and incendiaries. A number of important buildings in the center of the town were hit also railway station and railway yards. Several factories on outskirts were set on fire by incendiaries. Some 100 people were killed and wounded, including a high cantonal official killed. Many persons rendered homeless; fires still burning. Railway communication with Schaffhausen interrupted. Mr. Pilet-Golaz was at a loss for any explanation of what apparently was a deliberate attack. He had sent instructions to Minister Bruggmann. He has also given orders that press and radio announcements should be restrained and factual.
HARRISON
U.S. Navy Department (April 1, 1944)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 332
For Immediate Release
April 1, 1944
Liberator bombers of the 7th Army Air Force bombed Dublon, Moen and Eten Islands in the Truk Atoll at night on March 30 (West Longitude Date). Hits were made on the airstrip at Moen and in barracks areas. Several delayed explosions were observed. Two enemy planes intercepted our bombers, but all returned safely.
Three enemy positions in the Marshall Islands were bombed and strafed by Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force and Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing. A Dauntless bomber was shot down by anti-aircraft fire near one objective and its crew rescued by a destroyer.
The Pittsburgh Press (April 1, 1944)
SWISS CHARGE BOMBING BY YANKS
Planes kill 30 in neutral city, dispatches say
Liberators attack Southwest Germany
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
London, England –
U.S. Liberators attacked Southwest Germany today and Swiss dispatches said U.S. planes dropped bombs on Schaffhausen, in North Switzerland, near the German frontier, killing at least 30 persons.
A Swiss communiqué said about 30 U.S. bombers flew over the cantons of Schaffhausen, of which the city is the capital, and neighboring Thurgau. Bombs dropped on Schaffhausen started several fires, the communiqué said. Supplementary Swiss advices reported seven columns of smoke rising over the city and a number of buildings destroyed or damaged.
Crews to be questioned
U.S. Army Air Force officials said any official statement or unofficial reaction would have to await interrogation of crewmen out today and a detailed study of reports. They indicated any such reports would probably be delayed for some hours.
The U.S. 8th Air Force sent a relatively small formation of Liberators escorted by Mustang and Thunderbolt fighters against Southwest Germany to usher in a new month of the aerial campaign against the Luftwaffe and other enemy war potentials.
Reports from Schaffhausen through Zürich said the bombardment extended over the entire Swiss city.
Station reported destroyed
A station was destroyed and the assistant station master and seven other persons killed, the Swiss advices said. They also reported three factories badly hit, a theater on fire and an asylum for the aged hit.
Schaffhausen is 23 miles north of Zürich and five miles from the German border. It has a population of more than 15,000.
The Swiss communiqué said:
On April 1, American bombers in formations of 30 flew over the cantons of Schaffhausen and [adjacent] Thurgau beginning at 10:30 a.m. [5:30 a.m. EWT].
About 11:00 a.m., bombs were dropped on the city of Schaffhausen. According to reports so far received, several fires were started in the station district and the city. Further details later.
Identified as Yanks
While the communiqué said only that the bombs fell on Schaffhausen after U.S. planes began flying over, other Swiss dispatches identified the bombers as of U.S. nationality.
Soon after the Swiss communiqué was issued, the German DNB News Agency broadcast it, saying the bombers were American and that all Schaffhausen rail traffic was discontinued temporarily.
Planes circle city
Accounts from Schaffhausen by way of Zürich said the bombers circled over the city for some time, dropped a number of red flares and then opened the bombardment which shook houses like an earthquake.
A spectator said a number of houses in his area, including a cloth factory, was still afire when the report was sent. He said he saw a number of dead and wounded persons carried into a house.
Nearly 200 Liberators rode out difficult weather and heavy anti-aircraft fire, including Nazi rocket parachute bombs, to blast the Reich.
Bomb through clouds
Some Liberator groups bombed visually through holes in the clouds and saw their targets covered by big fires and black smoke. Others used special navigational devices and bombed through the obscuring clouds.
The German Air Force made only a halfhearted attempt to intercept, and the bulk of the attacks was concentrated in brief passes at a single group of Liberators.
Mosquito attack
A mid-morning Berlin broadcast said bomber formations were over and approaching Southwest Germany. Only a half-hour earlier, the same station said strong formations were approaching southern Germany. Some may have come from Italian bases.
A number of enemy raiders were also over North and Northwest Germany, Berlin said.
British Mosquito bombers rounded out the Allies’ March offensive last night with small-scale attacks on western Germany without loss. Though the month thus ended on a comparatively minor note, U.S. and British heavy bombers during March probably dropped nearly 50,000 tons of explosives – a new record – on Germany and occupied Europe.
ALLIES GAIN ABOVE CASSINO
Peak captured in new thrust to flank Nazis
Months-long lull ends in mountains
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
…
U.S. bombers launch offensive to smash Truk
Planes attack Jap stronghold in Carolines from Central, Southwest Pacific bases
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
…
Jungle war chief killed in crash
Gen. Wingate dies on tour in Burma
By George Palmer, United Press staff writer
…
Japs threaten Indian stronghold
…
Jury spares life of RCAF cadet
Lonergan to get 20 years to life
…
Miss Kellems challenges critic to shed immunity
…
In Washington –
Soldier vote bill becomes law, unsigned
Federal ballot backers say fight isn’t over
Washington (UP) –
A new soldier voting act, greatly abridged from the original measure introduced by Senators Theodore F. Green (D-RI) and Scott W. Lucas (D-IL), tagged by President Roosevelt as “inadequate” and hailed by Southern Democrats and Republicans as a victory for states’ rights, became the law of the land at 12:01 a.m. ET today.
Its enactment, automatic under the Constitution when the President failed either to sign or veto the Congress-approved measure within 10 days after its passage, followed one of the bitterest political battles in current history.
Even before it became law, Senator Green declared “the fight is not over,” and announced he and Senator Lucas would introduce amendments suggested by the President to ease some of the measure’s restrictions on federal ballot use.
Failed to be counted
The President won grudging praise from federal ballot opponents for his refusal to veto the measure and for his language in explaining his attitude.
One critic, however – Rep. Robert A. Grant (R-IN) – objected to the President’s action. By not signing the bill, he said, the President failed “to stand up and be counted.”
The President, who stirred the ire of many Congressmen by his charges of “fraud” against an earlier “states’ rights” version of the bill, characterized it as “inadequate and confusing,” and said all it really did was to provide a “standing invitation” to the states to permit their servicemen to vote. Its effect, he said, would be measured entirely by the extent to which the states implement its acceptance.
Two major restrictions
The new law provides that servicemen and certain civilians overseas may use the short-form federal ballot – containing black write-in spaces for naming choices for President, Vice President, Senator and Representatives, and in some states interim Senator and Representative-at-large, with two major restrictions.
Servicemen may not use the federal ballot unless they request state absentee ballots by Sept. 1 and fail to receive them by Oct. 1.
Federal ballots must be accepted by the several states for counting before their use is valid for servicemen from those states.
President appeals
The President hit these two restrictions in particular, stating:
This bill provides a federal ballot, but because of these conditions, it does not provide the right to vote.
Consequently, he appealed to Congress to amend the measure:
…so as to authorize all servicemen and women, who have not received their state ballots by am appropriate date, wither or not they have formally applied for them, to use the federal ballot without prior express authorization by the states.