Planners map post-war task for business
War control’s relaxation backed, but called ‘ticklish’
By John Beach, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Admiral fired after row with FCC chairman
‘Retirement’ linked with his insistence on loyal radio operators
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In Washington –
Farm bloc belittles women’s subsidy plea
Foes of administration anti-inflation measure confident of pushing through bam
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Allies massing invasion army, Berlin reports
750,000 men concentrated in British Isles, Nazi spokesman says
By Robert Dowson, United Press staff writer
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Roosevelt flies to Malta, gives citation to island
President tells people he and Churchill have ‘struck strong blows for the future’
By Frederick Hudson, United Press staff writer
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Flamethrowers pile up 70 dead Japs on Tarawa
Heroism of Swissvale man praised by Yank telling of battle
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New Jap infantry rifle still far behind Garand
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Allied HQ, Algiers, Algeria – (by wireless)
Ever since leaving America on the long trip back over, I’d had a vague feeling that something bad was going to happen. It wasn’t exactly a premonition, and I didn’t really worry about it. Yet a slight fear was there.
So, when at least we came over Algiers, after 8,000 miles of probably the most perfect long trip I ever had, I thought to myself:
Well, we crack up when we land here. I suppose it’s our last chance for anything to happen.
I was pretty tense when we skimmed down the runway. It seemed the pilot would never get the wheels on the ground. But finally, they did touch, lightly as a feather; we ran smoothly and straight. And nothing happened at all.
We sighed and were at the end of the trail. As we stepped out of the plane, the lieutenant who took the travel orders looked up and said:
How does it feel to be back?
The airport was thronged with British, American and French travelers in uniform, hundreds of them. As we were waiting for a jeep to come for us, a British captain I’d known months ago came up and asked if he could ride into town with us.
‘Welcome home!’
Pretty soon Dick Hottelet from London came past and said a startled hello. Shortly after him came Fred Clayton of the Red Cross, just landed from Italy. Then a young naval lieutenant I’d known in Morocco and an officer I’d never seen before yelled across the crowd. “Welcome home!”
Then I knew that the old fraternity of war had enmeshed me once more.
Algiers has changed some since I left it nearly three months ago. The blackout has been lifted in favor of a dimout. Everybody feels very far from the war. The barrage balloons still fly over the harbor, but they are fewer. The streets are so thick with soldiers of three nationalities you can hardly walk.
There are some American civilian women where before there were none. There are more WACs now, too. Soldiers were always saluting us correspondents, so there must be new troops in town. Great rows of boxed engines line the roads, supply dumps fill the fields, the road in from the airport is rougher from much convoying.
You have a feeling that North Africa from the Atlantic to Cairo has become a war depot of unprecedented proportions.
Everybody is friendly and terribly anxious to know how things are at home.
They ask:
Can you get enough to eat? Can you still have any fun? Have things changed much? Can you go up to a bar and buy a drink? Is there any traffic in the cities? Can you still get a glass of milk? Can you buy eggs? Are prices terribly high?
A dozen soldiers have told me their families had intimated we were probably better off here for food than they were at home. Some even wonder whether they should go home if they got a chance.
Ernie has stock answer
To all of which I answer something like this in composite:
Can you get enough to eat? You certainly can. There are a couple of meatless days a week in many places and steaks are very scarce. Yet I know places in Washington where you can get steak every night. They are not black-market, either. It’s almost impossible to buy liquor by the bottle, but you can still get plenty by the drink. Sure, you can get milk and eggs, too.
Most of your circle of men friends have gone. Gas rationing makes it a little hard to get around, but you manage. The shortage of domestic help is dire. Prices are high, but nothing compared to what the French and Italians charge us over here.
Train travel is sometimes difficult, but certainly not impossible. You can’t get a new telephone installed now, and laundry takes a long time. People are starting to hoard cigarettes. You can still telephone long distance and talk as non-essentially as you like.
The famed Pentagon isn’t so hard to get around in and is actually very handsome. Taxis won’t come to your house on call in some cities, but if you are downtown, you can still pick them up. Everybody has money, and entertainment of all kinds goes full blast. Ninety percent of the people you meet say, “I think we’re too complacent here at home.”
The people are talking a lot of Republican talk, but from what I could see of the tenor of the people, the President will stay in next year.
I found absolutely no criticism of the grand strategy or the conduct of the war, although there is plenty of it about the conduct of the home front.
And I wind up telling my overseas questioners:
The country hasn’t changed as much as you dream it has. Go ahead and go home if you ever get the chance. You’ll have the time of your life. I certainly had.
So they know. Well… I don’t think the invasion is gonna go that well.
1 Like
Mild flu sweeping U.S. may avert death threat
Dr. Fishbein: Immunity built up expected to prevent more serious type from catching on
By the United Press
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‘Cotton Ed’ Smith nominates Byrd for third party
Senate Democrats feed fires of revolt, ignited by Guffey’s charges of ‘unholy alliance’
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Völkischer Beobachter (December 11, 1943)
Auf Befehl des Kremlgewaltigen –
USA müssen Moskaus serbische Banden bezahlen
Pacht- und Leihhilfe im Dienste der Bolschewisierung Europas
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Warum das ‚Vierertreffen‘ nicht zustandekam –
Tschiangkaischek mied Begegnung mit Stalin
Eigener Bericht des „Völkischen Beobachters“
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U.S. Navy Department (December 11, 1943)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 191
For Immediate Release
December 11, 1943
Liberator bombers of the Army 7th Air Force which dropped more than 15 tons of bombs on Mille on December 9 (West Longitude Date) were attacked by approximately 20 Zeros. Four Zeros were shot down, three were probably shot down, and one was damaged. We suffered only slight material damage with a few men wounded. Two Zeros dropped six aerial bombs at our planes without results.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 11, 1943)
YANK PLANES BATTER BULGARIAN CAPITAL
Sofia attack spurs nation to quit Axis
Resignations of premier, aides reported as crisis mounts
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
London, England –
U.S. heavy bombers blasted Sofia yesterday, an Algiers communiqué announced today, as the Bulgarian crisis mounted with the reported resignations of Premier Dobri Bozhilov and two other Bulgarian Cabinet ministers.
In an apparent attempt to hasten Bulgaria’s abandonment of the Axis, a strong force of four-engined Liberators with an escort of Lightings subjected Sofia’s railway yards to an “accurate and effective bombardment,” Allied headquarters in Algiers announced.
Starts before noon
A Budapest dispatch printed in Sweden said the raid, beginning shortly before noon, lasted nearly two hours and caused heavy damage in the vicinity of the central railway station and military barracks. The bombers attacked in several waves and a few persons were killed, the German radio said.
Forty enemy fighters attacked the Liberators over Bulgaria, an Algiers dispatch said, but 11 were shot down. The number of bombers lost on the Sofia raid was not specified, but only two aircraft were lost in all operations of the Northwest African Air Forces yesterday.
Third raid on city
It was the third raid by the Northwest African Air Forces on Sofia and a Budapest broadcast said the city was shaken by three tremendous explosions only 24 hours before the attack when time bombs dropped during the Nov. 24 raid exploded.
The resumption of the air assault on Sofia presumably strengthened the hand of anti-German elements in the capital who were exerting extreme pressure in an attempt to extricate Bulgaria from the Axis orbit.
European reports said tension in the city was already high as a result of the reported closing of the Turkish-Bulgarian border, the Anglo-American-Turkish conference in Cairo and signs that the Allies were planning a Balkan invasion.
Resignation reported
An Istanbul dispatch to the United Press said unconfirmed reports had reached Turkey that Premier Bozhilov, Foreign Minister Shishmanov and Interior Minister Mihailov had resigned as leftist groups gained strength.
Shishmanov’s resignation had previously been reported from Stockholm.
Radio Vichy said the Bulgarian Parliament had been suspended for one week.
Bulgaria, though at war with Britain and the United States, has strong Slavic ties with Russia and still maintains relations with her despite the presence of sizable German forces on her soil.
Drop pamphlets
Yesterday’s raid on Sofia followed the dropping of pamphlets on the city warning that air assaults would be resumed because of the country’s cooperation with Germany and calling upon Bulgarian soldiers to withdraw from occupied Macedonia, the Greek territory given to Bulgaria after the Nazi occupation of Greece, Swedish press dispatches reported.
Bulgarian soldiers were also said to have been warned not to participate in punitive expeditions against the Serbs and Greeks.
Though reports persisted that both German and Turkish reinforcements were drawn up at the Turkish-Bulgarian border, an Ankara dispatch said Allied circles there contended the rumors, at least concerning German troops, were without foundation.