Ferguson: Freedom of choice
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
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The CIO in politics –
Hillman leads drive to get out big vote in fall election
PAC urges its members to ‘help your fellow workers get registered’
By Blair Moody, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Somewhere in Normandy, France – (by wireless)
We drove slowly across the two pastures in the big M19 retriever truck with which our ordnance evacuation company was to pick up two crippled German tanks. The wrecker truck followed us. It was just after midnight.
We came to a lane at the far side of the pasture. Nobody was there to direct us. The officers had gone on ahead. We asked a sentry if he knew where the German tanks were, he had never heard of them. We shut off the motors and waited.
I think everybody was a little on edge. We certainly had American troops ahead of us, but we didn’t know how far. When things are tense like that, you get impatient of monkeying around. You want to get the job done and get the hell out of there.
We waited about 10 minutes, and finally a sergeant came back and said for us to drive on up the road about half a mile. He climbed on to direct us. Finally, we came to a barnyard and then very slowly backed on up the road toward the enemy lines. I stood on the steel platform behind the driver so I could see.
It was very dark and you could only make out vague shapes. Finally, one huge black shape took form at one side of the road. It was the first of the German tanks.
Anxious to get finished
Being tense and anxious to get finished, I hope our trick would take the first tank. But no. We passed by, of course, and went backing on up the road.
When you’re nervous you feel even 12 inches closer to the front is too much and the noise of your motor sounds like all the clanging of Hell, directing the Germans to you.
I knew it was foolish to be nervous. I knew there was plenty of protection ahead. And yet there are times when you don’t feel good to start with, you’re uncomposed and the framework of your character is off balance, and you are weak inside. That’s the way I was that night. Fortunately, I’m not always that way.
Finally, the dark shape of the second tank loomed up. Our officers and some men were standing in the road beside it.
A laymen would think all you have to do is to hook a chain to the tank and pull it out of the ditch. But we were there half an hour. It seemed like all night to me.
First it had to be gone over for booby traps. I couldn’t help but admire our mechanics. They knew these foreign tanks as well as our own.
One of them climbed down the hatch into the driver’s seat and there in the dark, completely by feel, investigated the intricate gadgets of the cockpit and found just what shape it was in and told us the trouble. It seemed that two levers at the driver’s seat had been left in gear and they were so bent there was not room to shift them out of gear. After some delay a crowbar finally did the trick.
Meanwhile, we stood in a group around the tank, about a dozen of us, just talking. Shells still roamed the dark sky but they weren’t coming as near as before.
Loud noises bother Ernie
There would be lulls of many minutes when there was hardly a sound but our own voices. Most everybody talked in low tones, yet in any group there’s always somebody who can’t bear to speak in anything less than foghorn proportions.
And now and then when they’d have to hammer on the tank it sounded as though a boiler factory had collapsed. I tried to counteract this by not talking at all. Finally, we started.
Slowly we ground back down the road in low gear with our great, black, massive load rolling behind us. We’d planned to pull it a long way back. Actually, we pulled it only about half a mile, then decided to put it in a field for the night.
When we pulled into a likely pasture the sentry at the hedgerow gate wanted to know what we were doing and we told him, “Leaving a German tank for the night.”
And the sentry, in a horrified voice, said, “Good God, don’t leave it here. They might come after it.” But leave it there we did, and damn glad to get rid of it, I assure you.
We drove home in the blackout, watching the tall hedgerows against the lighter sky for guidance. For miles the roads were as empty and silent as the farthest corner of a desert. The crash of the guns grew welcomely dimmer and dimmer until finally everything was nearly silent and it seemed there could be only peace in Normandy.
At last, we came to our own hedgerow gate. As we drove in the sentry said, “Coffee’s waiting at the mess tent.” They feed 24 hours a day in these outfits that work like firemen.
But my sleeping bag lay unrolled and waiting on the ground in a nearby tent. It was 3:00 a.m. With an almost childish gratitude at being there at all, I went right to bed.
Pegler: The wrong man
By Westbrook Pegler
New York –
I have just come away from the mirror and what do you know? The Republicans nominated the wrong man in Chicago.
Height six feet something, weight 180, clean-shaven, except on weekend, with a distinguished tough of gray at the temples, gay, witty, popular, lovable and just the right age, 50 next month, if not any too bright.
So, they had to pick a little guy with an eyebrow mustache with not a gray hair in his head and a serious preoccupation with the problems of national government who doesn’t try to wow them with gags at his press conference and won’t be 43 until after election.
These deficiencies are being exploited rather importantly against Mr. Dewey who doubtless will be called Tom Thumb before long if he hasn’t been so-called already, and some of the objections from the direction of Sidney Hillman’s Communist front are enough to make a person check back to make sure whether our fellow is a candidate for the Presidency or the police department.
They are particularly about such things in the cops. Their minimum height would disqualify Mr. Dewey.
Roosevelt offers contrast
Mr. Roosevelt, by contrast, is a big, limousine job, above six feet even now, and back in the early 1920s when he ran for Vice President there were fight managers in town who would have been glad to take him over, knock five years off his age and throw him in there for a shot at the heavyweight title. True, Dempsey would have taken a bead on his chin and knocked him into the dollar seats.
Another one who outscores Mr. Dewey in height, stance and looks is poor old Paul McNutt, who has found himself behind the eight ball ever since Mr. Big first got elected in 1932. There is a nice guy who, by force of circumstances, was compelled to waste his own chances serving the career of the very man who blocked his own ambition.
Mr. McNutt is a picture politician and one of his old managers admitted back around 1936 that he was practically all looks but was figuring to do a lot with him just the same.
This Hoosier politician was talking over the field one day, along toward convention time, and said that but for Mr. Roosevelt, his gut would be worth a fortune on the hoof.
I yelled:
McNutt! Why the Republicans could beat him with Hoover! All they would have to do would be to drag out his record as a lower-case Huey Long when he was Governor.
A real ‘show horse’
The Hoosier said:
Oh, I know all about that. I don’t figure to really run him for President. The mug couldn’t run a lick but he is a hell of a show horse, just the same. With that white hair and those dark eyes and I could so us a lot of good in the convention if the big guy would get out of the way.
I don’t want to be dirty to the Communists but, if it comes to a matter of height and the way a candidate landscapes his lip in this campaign, I wonder how they figure on squaring themselves with their boss. Because little Joe isn’t any taller standing up than Roosevelt is sitting down, and that tangle of hair-combings that he wears would make a good start toward stuffing a sofa.
He put on long pants for the first time when he went to Tehran and before that he always wore those stovepipe boots which, as any military stylist will tell you, are used more to create an illusion of height than to ward off rattlers.
They certainly must be affectation of vanity in a man with a desk job such as Joe’s because they are hard to get on and off and they murder your feet.
So, if Mr. Dewey had to sit on a dictionary to see over that big desk in Albany, Stalin could keep house in a drawer of the same desk and La Guardia couldn’t get into the chair without a ladder.
Anyway, the Commies should be the last to rib Mr. D. about this size. That Hillman, himself, is no Carnera and moreover they are always hollering up their great love for the little people of the USA. This sounds as though they are against little guys.
Stokes: Governor Dewey isn’t on a barnstorming trip; he’s out to line up those 26 GOP states
He’s out to learn views of voters
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
26 Republican governors control the states in black in this map. These states represent 345 electoral votes, many more than the 226 votes necessary to win. Republican governors control the political machinery in these states and that is what Governor Dewey is going after in his first political tour.
Governor Thomas E. Dewey is on a unique mission in this quest for the Presidency in this tour which takes him to St. Louis for a conference with 25 other Republican governors.
Though he is showing himself to the people here and there, as in Pittsburgh today, this is no barnstorming, speech-making campaign swing. It is strictly a business affair. It comprises, first, political organization, and second, consultation with politicians and spokesmen of various economic groups to learn what issues most concern the voters this year.
Governor Dewey and his managers are trying to profit from the mistakes of the 1940 Republican presidential campaign. Wendell L. Willkie paid but meager attention to politicians and political organizations.
Governor Dewey has proved himself adept at political organization. On this trip, he is seeing the political managers on their home ground. Meanwhile, he is holding his fire on campaign issues pending further survey and study.
Some of the latter he is doing on this trip, beginning in Pittsburgh today in conferences with representatives of labor, farm and business groups, as well as with local political leaders. This he will continue at Springfield, Illinois, tomorrow and at St. Louis.
The climax of this first campaign venture is, of course, his two-day conference with the other Republican governors. Utilization of the Republican governors in this campaign is generally recognized as the smartest political coup so far of this year’s campaign in either party.
It may pay substantial dividends. The 26 states represent 345 electoral votes, many more than the 226 votes necessary to win. Republicans control the political machinery in these states, which is an initial advantage, particularly if there is a light presidential vote this November. Governor Dewey’s endeavor is to steam up the governors to get their machinery in smooth working order.
He also has another objective, aside from purely political organization mechanics.
This is to utilized the governors in pushing what Mr. Dewey seemingly expects to develop into a major issue, that is, recovery for the states of some of the powers yielded up, or appropriated, in recent years to the federal government. This offers an introduction to the issue of federal bureaucracy, for the big federal mechanism has been built up to administer functions formerly reserved to the states.
The governors are in a position to present this story in a practical fashion that would have more meaning than mere shouts about the bureaucracy arising from so many campaign stumps in recent years.
Most of the Republican governors have recognized that the big social and economic problems of today require federal supervision, coordination, and in many cases financial help, particularly post-war readjustments, but they also hold that local, decentralized administration is most healthful, effective and economical.
G.I. Bill’s loan provisions still tangled in red tape
Only a few of one and a quarter million eligible veterans benefitting now
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
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Mrs. Luce hints she may not run
Connecticut quarrel in GOP is cited
Hartford, Connecticut (UP) –
Rep. Clare Boothe Luce (R-CT), glamor Congresswoman, is unwilling to seek reelection unless a rift between Kenneth Bradley, her political adviser, and Governor Raymond Baldwin is patched up, her friends reported today.
Mr. Bradley resigned over the weekend as chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, saying he did so at the insistence of Governor Baldwin. He was to step down from the chairmanship Aug. 8.
Republicans, perturbed by the warfare in the state party leadership, appealed to Samuel F. Pryor Jr., Connecticut’s ranking Republican, to bring Mr. Bradley and the Governor together in the interest of the Dewey-Bricker ticket.
CIO endorsement of attorney Margaret Connor of Bridgeport, for the Democratic Congressional nomination, was viewed by political observers as giving Mrs. Luce no better than a 50-50 chance of reelection since Bridgeport, an industrial city, has the largest vote in the district.
Appeal for labor support
Mrs. Luce appealed for labor support on the basis of her labor vote in Congress, but was snubbed because of her outspoken criticism of President Roosevelt.
Friends quoted Mrs. Luce that Mr. Bradley’s resignation might be the signal for her retirement from Congress, adding that if she retired, she would make a nationwide speaking tour on behalf of the Dewey-Bricker campaign.
Bradley praised
She said Mr. Bradley, who induced her to run for Congress two years ago, was “a wise and experience campaigner whose leadership has helped put six Congressmen and a governor [Baldwin] into office.”
She said:
Judging from the comment which has reached me, it seems unlikely that the organization will accept his resignation on the eve of the crucial national election. The acceptance of it would be a sign of disunity and factionalism in the Republican organization, and to that extent it would make the task of everyone running for office in this state much more difficult.
America must lead peace efforts, Polish envoy says
Freedom of individuals and states must be guaranteed, speaker tells falcons
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Chinese official urges occupation of Japan
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Millett: Picking up family duties will be slow process
Returned serviceman may not rush into his former responsibilities
By Ruth Millett
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Völkischer Beobachter (August 1, 1944)
Die Lage auf den Kriegsschauplätzen –
Saint-Lô–Warschau–Florenz
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Innsbrucker Nachrichten (August 1, 1944)
Die schweren Kämpfe in der Normandie halten an
Alle Feindangriffe abgewiesen oder abgefangen – Neue Durchbruchsangriffe auf Florenz zusammengebrochen – Starker feindlicher Druck bei Warschau – Kriegsmarine und Luftwaffe versenkten im Juli 149.000 Bruttoregistertonnen
dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 1. August –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
In der Normandie hielten unsere Truppen allen Angriffen des Gegners zwischen Hottot und der Vire in schweren Kämpfen stand. Sie setzten sich dann in einigen Abschnitten wenige Kilometer nach Süden ab. In den neuen Stellungen wurden alle Angriffe des stark nachdrängenden Feindes abgewiesen. Auch im Abschnitt nordöstlich Percy scheiterten mit starken Panzerkräften und von heftigem Artilleriefeuer unterstützte feindliche Angriffe. Der auf dem Westflügel tief in unsere Stellungen eingebrochene Feind wurde hart südlich Avranches im Gegenangriff aufgefangen. Schwere Kämpfe waren auf der ganzen Front in den Abendstunden noch im Gange.
Im Ostteil des Landekopfes steigerte der Feind seine Artillerietätigkeit im Laufe der Nacht zum Trommelfeuer.
In der Nacht führten schwere Kampfflugzeuge wirksame Angriffe gegen feindliche Truppenansammlungen und Bereitstellungen im Raum nordwestlich Avranches.
Torpedoflieger beschädigten in der Seinebucht zwei Handelsschiffe mit 15.000 BRT.
Im französischen Hinterland wurden 60 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.
Das „V1“-Vergeltungsfeuer auf London wurde bei Tag und Nacht fortgesetzt.
In Italien nahm der Feind seine Durchbruchsangriffe auf Florenz wieder auf. Sie brachen abermals am unerschütterlichen Widerstand unserer Panzergrenadiere und Fallschirmjäger unter schweren blutigen Verlusten zusammen. Geringe örtliche Einbrüche wurden abgeriegelt. Die von beiden Seiten mit größter Erbitterung geführten Kämpfe dauern weiter an.
Am Nordhang der Karpaten dringen feindliche Kräfte auf die Beskiden-Passstraße vor. Gegenangriffe sind im Gange. Zwischen dem Quellgebiet des Dnjestr und dem großen Weichselbogen warfen unsere Panzerdivisionen die Sowjets in mehreren Abschnitten unter Abschuß einer großen Anzahl von Panzern zurück. Am großen Weichselbogen wurden alle übersetzversuche der Bolschewisten, bis auf einen Einbruch, um den noch gekämpft wird, vereitelt.
Bei Warschau hält der starke feindliche Druck an. Zwischen dem mittleren Bug und Augustow wurden örtliche Absetzbewegungen trotz scharfen Nachdrängens das Feindes und unter Abwehr zahlreicher Angriffe der Sowjets planmäßig durchgeführt. Westlich Kauen griff der Feind beiderseits der Memel erfolglos an. In Mariampol toben erbitterte Straßenkämpfe.
Auch in der Stadt Mitau wird heftig gekämpft. Im Raum von Birsen warfen Gegenangriffe den eingebrochenen Feind zurück, östlich der Düna wurden alle Angriffe der Bolschewisten in Gegenstößen zerschlagen. In der Landenge von Narwa setzte der Feind seinen Großangriff infolge seiner hohen Verluste gestern nicht fort. Schwächere Angriffe scheiterten.
An der erfolgreichen Abwehr der sowjetischen Großangriffe der letzten Tage hat das III. (Germanische) SS-Panzerkorps unter Führung des SS-Obergruppenführers und Generals der Waffen-SS Steiner mit den germanischen Freiwilligendivisionen SS Nordland und SS Niederland, der 20. estnischen Freiwilligendivision, der 11. ostpreußischen Infanteriedivision sowie an der Landfront eingesetzten Einheiten der Kriegsmarine, Heeresartillerie und Werfern hervorragenden Anteil.
Im Finnischen Meerbusen wurden zwei sowjetische Räumboote und ein Bewacher durch Minentreffer vernichtet.
Im gleichen Seegebiet schossen Wachfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine und Jagdflieger zehn sowjetische Bomber ab.
Schlachtfliegergeschwader griffen mit guter Wirkung an den Schwerpunkten in die Erdkämpfe ein und vernichteten über 300 feindliche Fahrzeuge.
Nordamerikanische Bomber griffen gestern Bukarest und das Gebiet von Ploesti an. Durch deutsche und rumänische Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden elf feindliche Flugzeuge vernichtet.
Im Schutze dichter Bewölkung führten nordamerikanische Bomber Terrorangriffe gegen die Städte München, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen und Frankenthal. Trotz schwieriger Abwehrbedingungen wurden fünfzehn feindliche Flugzeuge abgeschossen.
Kriegsmarine und Luftwaffe versenkten im Monat Juli 25 Fracht- und Transportschiffe mit 149.000 BRT. 20 weitere Transportschiffe mit 110.000 BRT wurden beschädigt. An feindlichen Kriegsschiffen wurden 2 Kreuzer, 10 Zerstörer, 1 Fregatte, 1 Minenräumboot, 2 Bewacher und 11 Schnellboote versenkt. 1 Schlachtschiff, 4 Kreuzer, 11 Zerstörer, 1 Torpedoboot, 2 Landungsspezialschiffe, und mehrere Schnellboote erlitten durch Bomben, Torpedos und Artillerietreffer zum Teil schwere Beschädigungen.
Seestreitkräfte, Bordflak von Handelsschiffen und Marineflakartillerie schossen in der Zeit vom 1. bis 31. Juli 196 feindliche Flugzeuge ab.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (August 1, 1944)
Communiqué No. 113
In the western sector, Allied forces which entered GRANVILLE have now cleared the town. An advance on a broad front towards the main PERCY–AVRANCHES road, has brought our troops close to VILLEDIEU. There is heavy fighting near PERCY.
Strong enemy resistance continues northwest of TESSY. We have made substantial gains in the TORIGNI–SAINT-MARTIN area. Isolated pockets of resistance throughout the sector are being steadily eliminated.
Escorted heavy bombers attacked naval vessels at LE HAVRE and the railway center of LA ROCHE last night, as our air forces kept up their pounding of enemy supply and communication.
Medium bombers hit rail bridges crossing the SEINE at MANTES-GASSICOURT and LE MANOIR and over the LOIRE River at NAMTES, TOURS and LES PONTS-DE-CÉ. Fuel dumps in the FORÊT DE LA GUERCHE and at TOURS and ammunition stores southeast of CAEN were bombed effectively.
Fighter-bombers, on armed reconnaissance, attacked railways, rolling stock, airfields and motor transport over a wide area.
Communiqué No. 114
Allied progress in the western sectors continues. Armored forces pushing on from AVRANCHES have captured the dams southeast of DUCEY and near VEZINS, while others have taken BRECEY and reached the river SEE in this area. Fighting is going on south of VILLEDIEU though the town itself has not yet been taken.
Our forces have driven further forward in the TESSY area and are now within a mile of the town. There has also been some major progress south of TORIGNI-SUR-VIRE.
In the area south of CAUMONT, Allied troops, after clearing the FORÊT L’EVEQUE, have crossed the river SOULEUVRE and taken LE BENY-BOCAGE.
Poor visibility limited air activity from midnight until noon. During the morning, NORMANDY-based aircraft attacked targets in advance of our troops.
Periodical Communiqué No. 3
011700B August
The activities of the Marquis, which have provided a constant threat to the enemy’s rear, are forcing the Germans to employ considerable strength in repressive measures.
In the VERCORS in southeast FRANCE, the Germans, employing artillery, aircraft, and considerable detachments of parachute troops launched an attack on June 22. French Forces of the Interior, who had already repelled numerous attacks, held the enemy for 56 hours before disengaging and dispersing in the face of overwhelming superiority.
In the DORDOGNE and HAUTE-VIENNE, the French Forces of the Interior have thrown back several attacks since July 19.
German columns suffered serious losses in engagements in the INDRE and the LOIR-ET-CHER on July 17, and in the LOT and the AIN on July 20.
Attacks on railways continue to disorganize traffic. Trains are held up and thus made targets for more effective air attack. This action assisted Allied aircraft in destroying several trains carrying troops, petrol, and ammunition after the PARIS–NANCY line had been cut by FFI.
On 19 July, CHERISY Viaduct was blown up.
In the LOIREZT, the destruction of a railway bridge stopped all traffic on a strategically important line for at least a week.
Movement of the enemy troops and materials to the NORMANDY battlefront through AIN, the RHÔNE and LOIRE valleys and the NORD has been constantly interrupted. Locomotives have been put out of action and water points wrecked.
New cuts in telecommunications and electric power lines have made normal working of these systems impossible. The PARIS–BRUSSELS cable has again been cut in several places. Telephone exchanges and lines have been put out of action in the HERAULT, AIN, and NORD and in the PARIS area.
Attacks on waterways continue. An eight-mile stretch of the River SAONE has been drained dry. Several locks on the MARNE between MEAUX and ESBLY were blocked and a convoy of munitions barges held up. The canal DE BOURGOGNE, and several canals in the NORD and the ARDENNES, have been put out of action for several weeks.
U.S. Navy Department (August 1, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 99
During July 31 (West Longitude Date), troops of the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions moved ahead against moderate enemy resistance and through difficult terrain and occupied the cliffs overlooking the beaches at the extreme southern tip of Tinian Island. During the night of July 30‑31, the Japanese attempted several small-scale counterattacks which were beaten back at a cost to the enemy of 300 dead. Our attack was launched in the morning of July 31 and carried to the southern beaches by late afternoon. The enemy on Tinian now has little means of resistance and no means of escape.
During the night of July 29‑30, 7th Army Air Force Liberators bombed Truk Atoll, and neutralization raids against enemy positions in the Marshall and Caroline Islands were carried out by aircraft of the Central Pacific shore‑based air force before dawn and during the day on July 30.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 100
U.S. forces continued to advance rapidly in Guam Island during July 31 (West Longitude Date), driving northward from two and one half to three miles in the center and on the right flank, and advancing about a half mile on the left flank. In the advance the towns of Utana, Pado, Pulan, and Matte were occupied. On the west coast, our line is anchored about a mile and a half south of Saupon Point, and on the east coast, we are less than a mile from Fadian Point. On Orote Peninsula, mopping-up operations have been completed and in the southern half of Guam these operations are continuing. Carrier aircraft of a fast carrier task group directed bombs and rocket fire against enemy troop concentrations in northern Guam during July 31.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 101
Organized Japanese resistance on Tinian Island ceased during the night of July 31 (West Longitude Date). The 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions are continuing mopping-up operations.