In Washington –
Army booklet hit as typical Red ‘technique’
House group scores ‘races of mankind’
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
With 5th Army beachhead forces, Italy – (by wireless)
When the time finally came for me to leave the Anzio beachhead, I had a choice of coming out by airplane, by LST ship or by hospital ship. I chose the hospital ship, because I’d never been on one.
At the beachhead, the hospital ships lie two or three miles out while loading. Ambulances bring patients from the tent hospitals to the waterfront. There they are loaded on the small, flat-decked LCTs, which have canvas over the tops to keep off rain.
Usually more than half the men in each load are walking cases. They sit or stand at one end of the deck, while the litter cases lie in rows on the other. I went out to the hospital ship with such a load of wounded.
Once out there, we had to lie off and wait for an hour or so while previous LCTs finished unloading their wounded. As we lay there, the officers in charge decided to transfer the walking wounded off another LCT onto ours. So, it drew alongside, threw over a line, and the two ships came against each other. The slightly wounded and sick men jumped across whenever the ships hit together.
A heavy swell was running and the ships would draw a few feet apart and then come together with a terrific bang. It was punishing to the wounded men. I stood among them, and every time we’d hit, they would shut their eyes and clench their teeth.
Pounding worse than shells
One mature man, all encased in a cast, looked at me pleadingly and said:
Don’t those blankety-blank so-and-sos know there are men here who are badly hurt?
Occasionally shells screamed across the town and exploded in the water in our vicinity. The wounded men didn’t cringe or pay any attention to this near danger, but the pounding of the ships together made them wild.
Once alongside the big white hospital ship, the wounded are hoisted by slings, just as you’d hoist cargo. A sling is a wooden, boxlike affair which holds two litters on the bottom and two on top. Up they go as the winches grind. Litter bearers wait on deck to carry them to their wards. The merchant seamen also pitch in and help carry.
Each badly wounded man carries his own X-ray negative with him in a big brown envelope. As one load was being hoisted, the breeze tore an envelope out of a wounded man’s hand and it went fluttering through the air. Immediately a cry went up, “Grab that X-ray, somebody.” Fortunately, it came down on the deck of the smaller ship below and was rescued.
It took about four hours to load the more than 500 wounded and sick men aboard our ship. As soon as it was finished, we pulled anchor and sailed. Hospital ships, like other ships, prefer to sit in the waters of Anzio just as short a time as possible.
Hospital ships have luxuries
Our hospital ships run up to Anzio frequently, because we want to keep our hospitals there free for any sudden flood of new patients. Also, being in a hospital on the beachhead isn’t any too safe.
The hospital ships are mostly former luxury liners. Right now, most of those here are British, but the one I came on was American.
Its officers and crew are all merchant seamen. Its medical staff is all Army – 10 doctors, 33 nurses and about 80 enlisted men. Maj. Theodore Pauli of Pontiac, Michigan, commands.
These ships ferry back and forth on trips like this for a few months, then make a trip back to America with wounded. My ship has been back to the States three times since it first came over less than a year ago.
In a sense, a hospital ship is the nearest thing to peacetime that I’ve seen in a war zone. The ship runs with lights on all over it, the staff has good beds and good cabins, there is hot water 24 hours a day, the food is wonderful.
I was given a top bunk in a cabin with one of the doctors. After nosing around into all the nice conveniences of the place, I discovered we also had a toilet and a shower.
I asked unbelievingly if the bath worked. They said sure it worked. So, I took a bath for half an hour and felt very weak and civilized and wonderful afterwards.
Casualties of U.S. rise to 192,836
Washington (UP) –
Announced casualties of the U.S. Armed Forces total 192,836, it was disclosed today. The total last Thursday was 189,309.
Comprising 148,425 Army casualties as of April 15 and 44,411 Navy casualties as of today, the total includes 44,497 killed, 72,030 wounded, 41,923 missing and 34,386 prisoners of war.
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson divided Army losses into 25,582 killed, 60,166 wounded, 32,727 missing and 29,950 prisoners. Of the wounded, 33,077 have been returned to duty, Mr. Stimson told a press conference, while 1,679 prisoners have been reported to have died in prison camps, mostly in Jap-occupied territory.
Navy casualties to date embrace 18,915 killed, 11,864 wounded, 9,196 missing and 4,436 prisoners of war.
Write-ins for Dewey to make him choice of state on first ballot
Governor’s proven popularity leaves delegates no choice except to back him
By Kermit McFarland
Pennsylvania support for Governor Thomas E. Dewey on the first ballot at the Republican presidential convention in June is practically guaranteed by the write-in votes cast in Tuesday’s Republican primary.
Nearly complete returns from the state’s 8,195 voting precincts today showed that the New York Governor, in an impressive showing of strength, had drawn approximately 140,000 write-in votes in an election which set a record by its small turnout.
Have no alternative
Mr. Dewey’s thus proven popularity among Republican voters in Pennsylvania left the 70 delegates elected to the national convention no choice except to back him on the first ballot, despite the failure of nearly all the delegates to pledge support to the popular choice.
As a result, both Pennsylvania delegations will go to the national conventions prepared to vote as a unit for the two leading candidates for President – Mr. Dewey and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
All of the Democratic delegates were already pledged to the President and he became the voters’ choice by rolling up more than 300,000 votes in the preferential primary Tuesday. He also garnered more than 6,000 write-in votes – 2,000 of them in Allegheny County – on the Republican ballot.
No basis for comparison
Politicians today were busy trying to interpret the results of the presidential poll, but without great success.
While Mr. Dewey’s showing was remarkable, considering that he is not an announced candidate and that his name did not appear on the ballot, a comparison of probable strength between him and the President is not easy on the basis of the Tuesday returns.
Mr. Roosevelt was the only presidential candidate on the Democratic ballot. Thousands of Democratic voters apparently did not indicate a presidential preference, but whether it was because they disapprove of Mr. Roosevelt or because they saw no need of voting in the absence of a contest was a matter for speculation.
Organized movement in east
Governor Dewey’s write-in was sparked in the eastern part of the state by an organized movement and by editorial support of this plan from The Philadelphia Inquirer, Republican daily. However, his vote in western counties, where there was no activity on his behalf, appeared equally impressive.
Only one Congressman fell by the wayside in the primary voting. He was Grant Furlong of Donora, elected two years ago to represent Washington and part of Allegheny Counties. This time, however, because the Congressional districts were reapportioned, he ran in Washington and Greene Counties.
He was beaten in the Democratic primary by Fredericktown physician Dr. Thomas E. Morgan.
Supported by CIO
Dr. Morgan had the backing of the Democratic organizations in Washington and Greene County, but Dr. Furlong was supported by active CIO political groups. Dr. Furlong carried his home county of Washington, but lost Greene by a wide margin.
The principal surprise of the Congressional races was the victory of Eddie McCloskey, turbulent Johnstown politician, in the Democratic primary in Cambria, Armstrong and Indiana Counties.
Mr. McCloskey, beaten for reelection as County Commissioner last year by the leaders of his own party, turned the score on the same faction Tuesday by trouncing their candidate, Westmont insurance agent Robert S. Clark. Mr. McCloskey had previously been Mayor of Johnstown and a state boxing commissioner.
Falls in comeback
In November, Mr. McCloskey will run against Congressman Harve Tibbott (R-Ebensburg), who had no primary competition.
One former Congressman made a successful primary comeback and another failed.
Clinton County manufacturer Robert F. Rich, who in six terms in Congress attracted national attention by his repeated question on the floor, “Where is the money coming from?” was nominated by the Republicans in the new 15th district – Clinton, Lycoming, Potter, Tioga, McKean and Cameron Counties.
He won in a field of four candidates.
Former Congressman Guy L. Moser of Berks County failed in his attempt to defeat Congressman Daniel K. Hoch for the Democratic nomination. Mr. Hoch ousted Mr. Moser two years ago.
Casualty among Senators
Charles A. P. Bartlett, former State Senator, was nominated by Republicans in Northampton, Carbon and Monroe Counties to run in November against Congressman Francis E. Walter of Easton.
Among State Senators, the only casualty of the primary was Senator George A. Deitrick of Sunbury, who was defeated in the Republican primary by William I. Troutman of Shamokin, present Congressman-at-large from Pennsylvania. Mr. Troutman had the backing of Northumberland County Republican leaders.
Only eight of the 190 members of the State House of Representatives who were candidates failed to win renomination. Each party nominated 208 at the primary.
Japs hanging on the ropes in Marshalls
U.S. planes blast isolated positions
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
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9 Axis vessels sunk off Italy; two damaged
Allied planes, ships intercept enemy
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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