America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

Bible Society gets extra paper

WPB stipulates use of extra tonnage

Poll: Australians back post-war base leasing

But majority less than a year ago
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion

Navy flies dying Seabee to never-seen grandson

Monahan: Lake and Tone in Stanley spy film – Chester’s band on stage

By Kaspar Monahan

Egad! Yankee losing streak four straight

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

A B-26 base, somewhere in England – (by wireless)
The men in the B-26 squadron I have been visiting live exceedingly well for wartime. It realizes it, too, and it full of appreciation. You almost never hear an airman griping about things around here.

This is an old station, and well established. Our men are comfortably housed and wonderfully fed. The officers have a club of their own, with a bar and a big lounge room, and the Red Cross provides a big club right on the station for the enlisted men.

There are all kinds of outdoor games, such as baseball, badminton, volleyball, tennis, and even golf at a nearby town. One of the pilots came back from golfing and said, “I don’t know what they charged me a greens fee for I was never anywhere near the greens.”

At first, I lived with the younger officers of the squadron, then I moved over with the enlisted gunners, radiomen and flight engineers. They live only a little differently. And the line between officers and enlisted men among the combat crews is so fine that you are barely aware of any difference after a few days’ acquaintance with them.

Two little holes in roof

First, I’ll try to tell you how the officers live. I stayed in the hut of my friends Lts. Lindsey, Greene and Jack Arnolds. There is usually a spare cot in any hut for there is almost always one man away on leave.

This barracks is a curved steel Nissen hut, with doors and windows at each end but none along the sides. The floor is bare concrete. Eight men live in a hut. Three are pilots, the others bombardiers and navigators. One is a captain, the others are lieutenants.

The boys sleep on black steel cots with cheap mattresses. They have rough white sheets and Army blankets. They are all wearing summer underwear now, and they sleep on it. When the last one goes to bed, he turns out the light and opens one door for ventilation. Of course, until the lights are out, the hut has to be blacked out.

Each cot has a bed lamp rigged over it, with a shade made from an empty fruit-juice can.

The boys have a few bureaus and tables they bought or dug up from somewhere.

On the tables are pictures of their girls and parents, and on the corrugated steel walls they have pasted pinup girls from Yank and other magazines.

In the center of the hut is a rectangular stove made of two steel boxes wielded together. They burn wood or coal in it, and it throws out terrific heat.

In the top of the hut, when the lights go out, you can see two holes with moonlight streaming through. One of these is where one of the boys shot his .45 one night, just out of exuberance. One of the other boys then bet he could put a bullet right through that hole. He lost his bet, which accounts for the other hole.

‘Poker Seats by Reservation Only’

The latrines and wash basins are in a separate building about 50 yards from the hut. The boys and their mechanics have built a small shower room out of packing boxes and rigged up a tank for heating water. They are proud of it, and they take plenty of baths.

All around my hut are similar ones, connected by concrete or cinder paths. The one next door is about the fanciest. Its name is Piccadilly Palace.

In here is where the biggest poker game is usually going. A sign on the front of the hut says, “Poker Seats by Reservation Only.” On the other side of the door is another sign saying, “Robin Hood Slept Here.” They put that up when they first came because somebody told them this station was in Sherwood Forest. They found out later they were a long way from Sherwood Forest but they left the sign up anyhow.

That in general is how the boys live. They are warm, they are dry, they are clean, they are well fed. Their life is dangerous and not very romantic to them, and between missions they get homesick and sometimes bored. But even so they have a pretty good time with their live young spirits and they are grateful that they can live as well and have as much pleasure as they do have. For they know that anything good you get in wartime is just that much velvet.

Maj. de Seversky: Future warfare

By Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky

Government reconversion held No. 1 post-war problem

Birmingham civic leader attempts to dispel five illusions which average man nourishes
By Dale McFeatters, Press business editor

Army enters ‘mail order’ hiring business

Women may apply for jobs by letter

Stock prices close steady on exchange

Some rail issues rise 2 points

Völkischer Beobachter (May 21, 1944)

Roosevelt will den jüdischen Weltwährungsplan erzwingen

Morgenthau möchte den Wall-Street-Spekulanten die absolute Kontrolle über die Weltwirtschaft Zuspielen

Die Folgen der Unterwerfung unter die USA und die Sowjets
Engländer warnen vor einer nationalen Katastrophe

Entschlossene deutsche Gegenangriffe –
Die große Abwehrschlacht in Süditalien

Tarnungsmanöver auf Befehl Moskaus –
Auflösung der US-Kommunisten

dnb. Genf, 20. Mai –
Wie Reuters meldet, soll die seit 25 Jahren bestehende Partei der US-Kommunisten den einstimmigen Beschluß gefaßt haben, sich als politische Partei aufzulösen. Daß diese angebliche Auflösung nur aus Tarnungsgründen erfolgt, geht aus dem weiteren Inhalt der Meldung hervor, wonach dafür eine neue, nicht politisch aufgezogene Organisation gebildet werden soll.

Genau wie seinerzeit bei der Auflösung der Komintern wird also auch nur das Firmenschild geändert, um unter einem neuen Namen umso ungestörter die Befehle Moskaus ausführen zu können.

Da weite Kreise der USA den Kommunismus ablehnen, wird auch Herr Roosevelt erfreut sein, daß die Kommunisten, die unter Verzicht eines eigenen Kandidaten für die Wiederwahl des Kriegshetzers und politischen Freundes im Weißen Hause stimmen werden, sich ein neues Mäntelchen anziehen wollen, das Roosevelt ermöglicht, sich noch mehr als bisher für die Jünger Stalins einzusetzen, nachdem seine Frau schon vor längerer Zeit als erste Kommunistin bezeichnet wird.

U.S. Navy Department (May 21, 1944)

CINCPAC Press Release No. 410

For Immediate Release
May 21, 1944

A single Liberator of the 11th Army Air Force bombed Shimushiru and Ketoi Islands in the Kurils on the night of May 18‑19 (West Longitude Date). No opposition was encountered.

Shimushu Island was bombed by Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Four before dawn on May 19. Large fires were started at an airfield. Anti-aircraft fire was meager.

Nauru Island was attacked by Mitchell medium bombers of the 7th Army Air Force during daylight on May 19 (West Longitude Date). The phosphate workings and defense installations were hit. Explosions and fires were observed. Anti-aircraft fire was intense.

Ponape Island was bombed by 7th Army Air Force Mitchells on May 19. An airfield was the principal target. Meager anti-aircraft fire was encountered.

Remaining enemy positions in the Marshall Islands were bombed on the night of May 18‑19 and during daylight on May 19 by Catalina and Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, and Navy Hellcat fighters.

The Brooklyn Eagle (May 21, 1944)

REELING NAZIS FIRE ITALY COASTAL ANCHOR
Report foe puts torch to Terracina

Believed falling back to join Germans at Anzio beachhead
By Reynolds Packard

6,000 ALLIED PLANES SMASH INVASION TARGETS
Supply lines hammered in record blitz

Foe’s French, Belgian defense areas hard hit by 4,250 sorties

Eisenhower alerts Europe’s underground

His first orders broadcast over ABSIE tell patriots to gather data on enemy movements

Marauders rip Myitkyina Line; city’s fall near

Junction with Chinese infantry in pincer maneuver imminent

Yanks mop up Wakde defenders