O’Hare downed in night battle
Navy hero helps to repel Jap torpedo attack
By Charles P. Arnot, United Press staff writer
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Maj. de Seversky: 75mm guns equipping U.S. bombers only first of heavy plane armament
By Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky
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Simms: Small nations hit by policy on Yugoslavia
Fear America and Britain may desert them for rebel regimes
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Poll: Dewey leading choice of GOP in New Jersey
Willkie and MacArthur run second and third, survey shows
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
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The home front –
New Selective Service Act does not stop induction of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers
Regular flow into Armed Forces not to be interrupted
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Völkischer Beobachter (December 12, 1943)
Durch Zensurversehen in unsere Hände gelangt –
Was man in USA hinter verschlossenen Türen spricht
Drahtbericht unseres Lissaboner Berichterstatters
v. m. Lissabon, 11. Dezember –
Aus begreiflichen Gründen haben es die amerikanischen Nachrichtenagenturen unterlassen, über eine Arbeitstagung des amerikanischen Kriegsministeriums in Fort Belor ausführlich zu berichten, in der Jimmy Byrnes in seiner Eigenschaft als Koordinator der USA.-Kriegsanstrengungen eine vielsagende Ansprache hielt. Aus einer in Lissabon durch ein Versehen der USA.-Zensur eingetroffenen Nummer der Washington Post entnehmen wir die bezeichnendsten Stellen dieser Rede, welcher insofern besondere Bedeutung zukommt, als Byrnes nach Roosevelt zu den mächtigsten Männern in den USA gezählt wird.
Byrnes erklärte den in verfrühten Siegeshoffnungen schwelgenden Amerikanern:
Wir sind heute dem Siege keineswegs näher als etwa die Deutschen im Sommer 1940 oder die Japaner unmittelbar nach Pearl Harbour. Es gibt keine Entschuldigung für die voreilige Annahme, wir würden eine bedingungslose Kapitulation der Achsenmächte erleben. Der Weg nach Berlin und Tokio ist ebenso lang wie hart und blutig. Wir mögen auch noch so viel nach Zwietracht in Deutschland Ausschau halten. Wenn wir ehrlich mit uns sind, müssen wir eingestehen, daß dafür sehr wenig Wahrscheinlichkeit vorhanden ist. Immer und immer wieder beweist das deutsche Volk, daß es sehr gut einstecken kann. Wir dagegen haben nicht einen Beweis dafür, daß unsere Heimatfront stärker und einiger als diejenige unserer Feinde ist. Im Gegenteil, die Zeichen unserer eigenen Zwietracht stärken den Kampfeswillen unserer Gegner.
Der Unterstaatssekretär im USA-Kriegsministerium Patterson zog auf der gleichen Tagung in einer anderen Ansprache entsprechende Schlüsse und sagte:
Ein gefahrenschwangeres Jahr steht uns bevor. Ein Jahr der Siege, aber auch der Niederlagen, und wir wollen und müßten beten, daß erstere überwiegen, weil es ein Jahr schwerer persönlicher Tragedien für viele Amerikaner sein wird.
Man wird zugeben, daß diese Worte, selbstverständlich hinter verschlossenen Türen gesprochen, sehr merklich von den Siegesfanfaren der Bluffkonferenz in Teheran abstechen, eben weil sie in einem sachlichen und nicht agitatorischen Zusammenhang gesprochen wurden und nicht für die Öffentlichkeit bestimmt waren. Sie ermöglichen uns einen kleinen Einblick in die wirkliche Verfassung unserer Feinde und zeigen uns, wie wenig sie selbst an den Erfolg ihrer agitatorischen Beschwörungen glauben, ja sogar schon so weit gehen müssen, von den „Zeichen ihrer eigenen Zwietracht“ zu sprechen, weil sie fühlen, daß ihre Rechnung niemals aufgehen kann.
Interessant ist in diesem Zusammenhang, daß sich immer mehr derartig vorsichtige Stimmen in Amerika zu Wort melden. Auch der bekannte Rundfunk- und Zeitungskommentator Ernest Lindley hat es für nötig gehalten, seine Landsleute zu warnen und auf die Möglichkeit einer „schlagenden deutschen Vergeltung gegen England“ aufmerksam zu machen: So sagte er:
Es würde eine große Dummheit sein wenn wir die Möglichkeit ausschlössen, daß das deutsche Oberkommando irgend etwas Sensationelles im Hintergrund bereit hält.
Auch Raymond Clapper, sonst einer der optimistischsten USA-Journalisten und glühender Unterstützer der Roosevelt-Politik, schlug in seiner Pearl-Harbour-Gedächtnisrede im Rundfunk erheblich sanftere Töne als sonst an und erinnerte die Amerikaner daran, „wie leicht wieder ein so überraschender und atemberaubender Schlag aus heiterem Himmel niedersausen kann,“ und forderte eine raschere Bereitschaft aller Bürger der Vereinigten Staaten.
Kleinlaut für den Hausgebrauch
Die große Sensation der Woche war für Amerika aber die Forderung des früheren republikanischen Präsidentschaftskandidaten Alfred Landon nach einer außenpolitischen Festlegung der Republikaner auf der Linie „keine verstrickenden Allianzen, keine Völkerbundideologie, keine Festlegung auf die Moskau-Charta.“ Der Londoner Daily Express hält dieses Bekenntnis für sehr witzig und bemerkt dazu:
Wenn die Republikanische Partei diese Linie ihres Chefs gutheißt, wird Wendell Willkie in der kommenden Wahl kaum als Kandidat gegen Roosevelt auftreten können.
Andere Beobachter unterstreichen, daß Landon seine Erklärungen ausgerechnet während der Konferenz zwischen Roosevelt, Stalin und Churchill abgab, und sehen in der Wahl dieses Zeitpunktes gröbste Kritik an der amerikanischen Außenpolitik.
Unterschätzt den Gegner nicht! Glaubt nicht an einen billigen Sieg und an einen inneren Zusammenbruch Deutschlands! Achtet auf den deutschen Generalstab. Rechnet mit Niederlagen und betet für Siege, Seid vorsichtig in der Außenpolitik und in den allzu weitgehenden Verpflichtungen gegenüber den Sowjets und den Engländern!
Wie passen alle diese Warnungen, die gewitterartig auf die Yankees niederrauschen, zu jenen todbitteren Nachkriegsplänen, die in Amerika schon zu einem Gesellschaftsspiel geworden sind, weil man so tut, als ob der Sieg schon geborgen sei? Sollte Mister Byrnes recht haben und diese Reden und Warnungen ein Anzeichen der inneren Unsicherheit und Schwäche des USA.-Kolosses sein?
U.S. Navy Department (December 12, 1943)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 192
Our battleships and carriers which bombarded Nauru Island on December 8 (West Longitude Date) started large fires throughout the target area and destroyed nine planes on the ground and one in the air. We lost two aircraft. One of our destroyers received one hit from enemy shore batteries suffering minor damage. A Navy search Liberator of Fleet Air Wing Two strafed a medium cargo transport and its escorting patrol vessel near Jaluit on December 10.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 193
Two Navy dive bombers collided on December 7 while engaged in training exercises near Keilii Point, Maui. Pilots of both planes parachuted safely, but their radiomen were killed.
A bomb from one of the two planes in collision fell and detonated among a force of Marines participating in field maneuvers nearby. Twenty Marines were killed and 29 were injured. A court of inquiry is investigating circumstances of the casualty.
U.S. State Department (December 12, 1943)
868.01/416: Telegram
The Ambassador to the Greek Government-in-Exile in Egypt to the Secretary of State
Cairo, December 12, 1943 — 10 a.m.
Greek Series 128
I am reliably informed that during a long session on December 8 with Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden the King of Greece steadfastly refused to make a declaration proposed by them to the effect that he will not return to Greece unless and until called for by the Constituent Assembly to the formation of which he agreed in his declaration of July 4.
I saw the President on December 3 and advised him regarding this proposal and after he had seen the King he desired me not to associate myself with any effort to force him to a course of action against his will. This I have been careful not to do both before and since. I understand that the President told the King that there was no necessity for him to make any declaration whatever unless he so desired.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In this connection the British appear to have been influenced in taking the attitude they did chiefly by a change in military plans regarding operations in Greece and by the anti-British and anti-King propaganda being spread there to the benefit of the Communist leadership. They hoped to kill this propaganda and deprive this leadership of many recruits by making clear now that no possibility exists of the King’s being forced on the country. Because of the present and probable future Republican makeup of the Greek Government the solution arrived at may be regarded as amounting to much the same thing in effect as the original proposal.
MacVEAGH
The Pittsburgh Press (December 12, 1943)
U.S. fliers down 138 Nazi planes, lose 20 in heavy raid on Emden
Germans suffer crushing defeat in savage sky battle
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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Allied troops clear out key pass in Italy
Gateway to important Liri Valley believed held by 5th Army
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer
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18–22 group, father or not, eyed by draft
Selective Service office corrects interview on family status
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At last!
UMW, mine men agree on pact
Contract modeled on Ickes-Lewis agreement
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Ohioan defies U.S. on bonus
$3 million shared by 1,300 employees
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Hitler outlasts the Kaiser in waging war on Allies
Second world conflict has now raged as long as first; costs much heavier
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
London, England –
Adolf Hitler has outlasted the Kaiser.
At 6:00 a.m. today ET, World War II was four years and 102 days old. Within that time, the Allies ended World War I, smashed the Second Reich of Wilhelm Hohenzollern and sent the deposed ruler fleeing into exile.
Today, Hitler is at bay but his Third Reich is still far from beaten. Sober military men in Moscow, London and Washington know the cost in blood that must be paid to bring Nazi Germany to her knees.
A survey by the United Press reveals that already the Allies have paid a far greater price to resist German aggression than they did in the same span of World War I.
Military authorities believe that total Allied military deaths on all fronts already total more than 7,500,000, compared with 5,152,115 in the first war. Germany’s military deaths are estimated at 2,500,000, compared with the loss of 1,773,700 in World War I.
Another 10 million civilians are believed to have died in this war.
Only a small fraction of Allied civilian losses are attributed to direct “enemy action” in air raids or land attacks. The overwhelming number died as a result of maltreatment – cold and systematic starvation – and the mass executions in Poland and Russia.
The staggering loss of civilian property, which was resulted from modern war-making methods and the broad scope of the conflict, is beyond estimate but must already be several times the total of the first world conflict.
Figures on the comparative cost in money of the two wars are not available from all Allied countries, but the United States has spent $142,500,000,000, estimated through Dec. 13, compared with $32,830,000,000 in World War I.
The First World War is calculated to have started on Aug. 1, 1914, on the heels of the first hostilities between Austria and Serbia when the Kaiser declared war on Russia, committing the world’s major powers to war. Four years and 102 days later, the German Navy was in mutiny, the army was reeling along the dismal “road back,” the home front had cracked wide open and every ally had deserted the Reich. Germany proper would have become a battleground in a few more days, so the Germans quit.
Fighting with desperation
Hitler plunged the world into the Second World War Sept. 1, 1939, with his attack on Poland, which spread war across the globe until World War I was dwarfed by comparison. Today, Hitler is still fighting, with the desperation of a cornered gangster.
Most military men here believe Hitler cannot last another year, but they also believe that he intends to make the closing months as bloody as possible and to destroy as much of Europe with him as possible.
They appraise Germany’s remaining strength as follows:
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THE ARMY: Suffered probably 2,500,000 fatalities, three-quarters of a million more than in the first war; exhausted the strategic reserve once held to meet any new Allied attack, but still has 300 well-equipped divisions.
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THE LUFTWAFFE: No longer can compare with Allied airpower on offensive, but still strong defensively.
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GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION: So strongly held that Russia, Britain and the United States will have to fight their way over hundreds of miles of slave states before they can strike the Reich.
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ECONOMY: Superbly planned to assure Germany food regardless of whether the rest of Europe starves.
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HOME FRONT: Control so organized that German morale must still be rated as good. The Nazi Party has convinced the people that they are lost once they crack.
German weakness
They appraise German weakness this way:
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ALLIED AIRPOWER: Has turned the key industrial centers of Germany into battlefields as terrible as in any war save possibly Verdun and Stalingrad; has deprived the armies in the east of tanks, trucks and weapons with which to fight the Russians.
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RESERVES: With huge stocks of men and weapons now coming to the Big Three, Germany finds her reserves of both deteriorating.
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U-BOATS: This weapon has failed the Germans and been brought under control.
Sometime next year, Germany faces converging land attacks from at least three directions which in the end may involve five million Allied soldiers.
Legend of silver Jap Zero claims ace can ‘evaporate’
Pilot is said to have survived direct-hit bursts, but story always told of someone else
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In Washington –
New tax may make Christmas gifts dearer next year
Luxury items will be hardest hit; OPA freezes New Year’s Ever prices for nightspot frolics
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Aussies drive against Japs
Fighting flares in Ramu Valley area and on Huon Peninsula
By Don Caswell, United Press staff writer
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Canadian plan asked to ease whisky pinch
Senator Van Nuys asserts national rationing may be needed
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Poll: Union support for Democrats is falling off
Republicans now favored by 34% as compared to 20% in 1936
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
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Glass throws his support to soldier vote
Guffey repeats criticism of Senate opponents of measure
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Mrs. Luce suggests 4-Fs precede women in draft
‘Let’s get the men into service first,’ author of national service bill urges
Washington (UP) – (Dec. 11)
A WAC is nothing but a “feminine 4-F,” according to Rep. Clare Boothe Luce (R-CT), but wait a minute – she doesn’t mean it disparagingly.
Asked today if she would favor drafting of single women into the Armed Forces to reinforce the shortage of WACs, Mrs. Luce replied:
I’m not opposed to drafting women, but let’s get these men into the service first.
You know what a WAC is. She’s nothing but a feminine 4-F. There’s not a thing my 19- or 20-year-old daughter can do that the boy across the street with bad eyes can’t do. I’m for making use of the 4-Fs first, and then if we need more women in the Armed Forces, we can draft them later.
Mrs. Luce is the author of a national service bill now before the House Military Affairs Committee which would draft 4-Fs and other men in non-essential activities into war work as needed.
New WAC recruits to report after Jan. 1
Washington (UP) – (Dec. 11)
The Women’s Army Corps will grant temporary “pre-induction furloughs” to recruits enlisting between now and Jan. 1 so they may celebrate the Christmas holidays at home, the War Department announced tonight.
These recruits will be placed in the ranks of the enlisted reserve and called to active duty after Jan. 1.