America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

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americavotes1944

Heath: Republicans in Missouri hopeful about election

By S. Burton Heath

Mr. Heath’s report from St. Louis replaces the Washington Column usually written by Peter Edson, who is on vacation.

St. Louis, Missouri –
Republicans, who have feared that their party was throwing away Missouri’s 15 electoral votes by internal bickering, are encouraged by the primary defeat of Democratic Senator Bennett Champ Clark.

Governor Purest C. Donnell, who won a rather overwhelming victory in the GOP primary against the Mattingly organization candidate for the U.S. Senate, is considered a colorless campaigner, but is very strong in the rural regions and is expected to make a first-class race.

The simultaneous victory of the Mattingly candidate for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, Jean Paul Bradshaw, may help to heal the wounds between National Committeeman Barak T. Mattingly and Governor Donnell, and result in an all-out Republican effort on behalf of the whole party ticket.

Paradoxical conflict

Senator Clark’s defeat by Attorney General Roy McKittrick emphasized a paradoxical internal conflict In the Democratic Party which is very pleasing to Republicans.

McKittrick was running on a pro-Roosevelt platform calling attention to Senator Clark’s alleged isolationism and his frequent differences with the president. The CIO’s Political Action Committee worked for McKittrick. Seemingly the primary resulted in a victory for the New Deal elements in the state Democracy.

But the President’s personally-selected National Chairman, Robert Hannegan, was for Senator Clark. So was Mr. Roosevelt’s running mate. Senator Truman. And the CIO was forced to back McKittrick very cautiously, so that, If Clark had won, the PAC would not have been on bitter record against a candidate (Mr. Clark) whom it would then have had to rapport in order to help hold down the Dewey-Bricker vote in Missouri.

Intense fight

McKittrick got enough votes out of this cross-current to win the nomination, but many observers feel that he will make a weaker candidate, in November, than Senator Clark would have been, and that the Roosevelt-Truman ticket will be the loser because of the New Deal CIO victory in the primaries.

On the Republican side the fight between Governor Donnell and Committeeman Mattingly’s organization was intense and acrimonious. It was so bad, indeed, that at the state convention last spring, the Republican Governor was given no part – not so much as a courtesy introduction – in his own party’s proceedings.

It did not, however, concern or affect allegiance to Governor Dewey. Both the Governor and the committeeman were staunch protagonists of Mr. Dewey’s nomination, which will make it the easier for them to bury the hatchet – now that each has one of the two top places on the state ticket – and pun together for party victory in November.

May shift to GOP

It was really in part because of this fight, and the strained relations it produced, that the convention of the country’s 26 Republican governors was brought to St. Louis at this time. To avoid embarrassment arising from the fight Governor Dewey, at the last minute, interpolated a visit to Springfield. Illinois, for Missouri primary day, instead of coming directly here from Pittsburgh as he had planned, and stopping in Illinois on the way home.

Missouri is the most populous of the border states, and now, as things appear to be turning out, is considered as probably the most, likely to shift this fall to the GOP electoral column.

It is not, by any means, a walkover. If it can be delivered – against the special efforts that will be made by those two eminent Democratic Missourians, vice-presidential candidate Truman and National Chairman Hannegan – the victory will be a bright feather in the caps of the Republican organization.

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what german submarine did they sink?

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9680

The submarine sunk was U-371 (this happened in May).

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americavotes1944

Background of news –
Midsummer election odds

By Bertram Benedict

A betting commissioner in St. Louis, scene of Governor Dewey’s conference with Republican governors, reports that betting odds on the outcome of the election in November have narrowed, due to “a flood of Dewey money” in recent days, but that the odds still strongly favor the reelection of President Roosevelt. Immediately after the Republican Convention, the odds were 2.5–1 on Mr. Dewey to win; now they are 9–5. Immediately after the Democratic Convention, the odds on President Roosevelt to win were 1–3; now they are 2–5. At the present odds, a $5 bet on Mr. Dewey would win $9; a $5 bet on Mr. Roosevelt would win $2.

Before the days of systematic polls of voters, the betting odds on presidential elections attracted wide public attention and were credited with something of the same “bandwagon” influence that is at present attributed to the polls.

August polls not practical

During the last 60 years, there have been only two really close presidential elections – those of 1888 and 1916 – but the campaign of 1896 promised a close race down to its last six weeks. In each of these years, the midsummer (August) odds favored the loser – Cleveland in 1888, Bryan in 1896, Hughes in 1916. Greater reliance was placed on the September and October odds than on the August odds.

In 1916, shortly after the nominating conventions, the odds quoted by New York betting commissioners favored the election of Hughes by about 2–1. In the final betting in Wall Street, they were 20–17 (Hughes carried New York by 869,115 to 759,426 for Wilson); in other cities, most bets were made at even money.

Similarly, in 1888, the betting was about even just before the voters went to the polls. Cleveland’s chances were supposed to have been injured by the Sackville-West incident, in which the British Ambassador was enticed into saying he thought the Democratic Party was more favorably disposed towards England than the Republicans. In the election, Cleveland won the popular vote (5,540,050 to 5,444,337) but Harrison had a large majority in the Electoral College (233 to 168).

Laws ban election betting

The laws of two states – New York and Florida – provide that persons who place wagers on the outcome of elections shall be barred from voting on Election Day. In New York, betters on elections are classed with vote-buyers and convicted felons; in Florida with duelists. These laws are seldom enforced; officials at polling places seldom have any way of knowing the identity of betters.

When James W. Gerard, former Ambassador to Germany, placed a bet of $20,000 on the reelection of President Roosevelt early in 1936 at odds of 2–1, that fact was widely published in the newspapers. Mr. Gerard attempted to withdraw from the wager when his attention was drawn to Section 152 of the New York election law which bars betters from the polls. Mr. Gerard’s betting commissioner was unable (in August) to obtain odds longer than 6–5 to replace his 2–1 bet, and Gerard paid $3,400 to be released from his commitment. Father Coughlin offered to bet $25,000 to $16,666.66 (odds 3–2) that the votes in Rhode Island of the independent candidate Lemke would exceed the vote of Alf Landon, the Republican candidate, but the wager fell through. The Rhode Island results in November were:
Roosevelt 165,238
Landon 125,031
Lemke 19,569
Thomas 929
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Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

In Normandy, France – (by wireless)
A few days after D-Day, you may remember we spoke in this column of five early phases of the continental invasion that would have to take place.

Phase No. 5 was to be the break out from our beachhead after we’d held it secure long enough to build up vast quantities of troops and supplies behind us. And once we’d broken out of the ring of Germans trying to hold us in and completed Phase 5, the real war in Western Europe would begin.

Well, we’re in Phase 5 now. At least we are while I’m writing this. Things are moving swiftly. You realize that several days elapse between the writing and the publication of this column. By the time you read this we may be out in the open and pushing into France.

Surely history will give a name to the battle that sent us boiling out of Normandy – some name comparable to Saint-Mihiel, or Meuse-Argonne of the last war. But to us here on the spot at the time it was known simply as “the breakthrough.”

We correspondents could sense that a big drive was coming. There are many little ways you can tell without actually being told, if you are experienced in war.

And then one evening Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley, commanding all American troops in France, came to our camp and briefed us on the coming operation. It would start, he said, on the first day we had three hours good living weather in the forenoon.

Glad of news

We were all glad to hear the news. There isn’t a correspondent over here, or soldier, or officer I ever heard of who hasn’t complete and utter faith in Gen. Bradley. If he felt we were ready for the push, that was good enough for us.

The general told us the attack would cover a segment of the German line west of Saint-Lô, about five miles wide In that narrow segment we would have three infantry divisions, side by side. Right behind them would be another infantry and two armored divisions.

Once a hole was broken, the armored divisions would slam through several miles beyond, then turn right toward the sea behind the Germans in that sector in the hope of cutting them off and trapping them.

Keep pressure on

The remainder of our line on both sides of the attack would keep the pressure on to hold the Germans in front of them so they couldn’t send reinforcements against our big attack.

The attack was to open with a gigantic two-hour air bombardment by 1,800 planes – the biggest. I’m sure, ever attempted by air in direct support of ground troops.

It would start with dive bombers, then great four-motored heavies would come, and then mediums, then dive bombers again, and then the ground troops would kick off, with air fighters continuing to work ahead of them.

It was a thrilling plan to listen to. Gen. Bradley didn’t tell us the big thing – that this was Phase 5. But other officers gave us the word. They said, “This is no limited objective drive. This is it. This is the big breakthrough.”

In war, everybody contributes something, no matter how small or how far removed he may be. But on the frontline, this breakthrough was accomplished by four fighting branches of the services and I don’t see truly how one could be given credit above another.

None of the four could have done the job without the other three. The way they worked together was beautiful and precision-like, showering credit upon themselves and Gen. Bradley’s planning.

Goes with infantry

I went with the infantry because it is my love, and because I suspected the tanks, being spectacular, might smother the credit, due the infantry. I teamed up with the 4th Infantry Division since it was in the middle of the forward three and spearheading the attack.

The first night behind the frontlines I slept comfortably on a cot in a tent at the division command post, and met for the first time the Fourth’s commander – Maj. Gen. Raymond O. Barton, a fatherly kindly, thoughtful, good soldier.

The second night I spent on the dirty floor of a rickety French farmhouse, far up in the lines, with the nauseating odor of dead cows keeping me awake half the night.

The third night I slept on the ground in an orchard even farther up. snugly dug in behind a hedgerow so the 88s couldn’t get at me so easily. And on the next day the weather cleared, and the attack was on. It was July 25.

If you don’t have July 25 pasted in your hat, I would advise you to do so immediately. At least paste it in your mind. For I have a hunch that July 25 of the year 1944 will be one of the great historic pinnacles of this war.

It was the day we began a mighty surge out of our confined Normandy spaces, the day we stopped calling our area the beachhead, and knew we were fighting a war across the whole expanse of Europe.

On final victory move

From that day onward all dread possibilities and fears for disaster to our invasion were behind us. No longer was there any possibility of our getting kicked off. No longer could it be possible for fate, or weather, or enemy to wound us fatally; from that day onward, the future could hold nothing for us but growing strength and eventual victory.

For five days and nights during that historic period I stayed at the front with our troops. And now, though it’s slightly delayed, I want to tell you about it in detail from day to day, if you will be that patient.

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americavotes1944

pegler

Pegler: Poignant embarrassment

By Westbrook Pegler

St. Louis, Missouri –
Although the 26 Republican governors tactfully set the date for opening their unique political conference in St. Louis one day after the Missouri primary, the results have been such that their three days of deliberation have been a period of poignant embarrassment to statesmen of President Roosevelt’s party of humanity and of restrained exultation for the guests.

Tom Dewey spent Tuesday, Primary Day, in Springfield, Illinois, while others of the 26 either held themselves quietly incognito in St. Louis or put in the day traveling. Meanwhile, the citizens of Missouri were going to the polls and the governors’ congress opened Wednesday amid a scene of some confusion and sounds of recrimination.

For, on the Democratic side, Bennett Champ Clark, Missouri’s senior Senator and the colleague, personal friend and political choice of Senator Harry Truman, the nominee for Vice President, was beaten badly for renomination by Roy McKittrick, the State Attorney General, who had the export of Sidney Hillman’s Political Action Committee of the CIO-Communist front in New York. Senator Clark was, so to speak, the regular Democratic candidate, for he had the friendship and endorsement of Robert C. Hannegan, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Yet Clark’s defeat was made certain in St. Louis, where he ran more than 17,000 behind McKittrick. St. Louis is Hannegan’s own hometown.

PAC and FSA

Hillman’s local agency was diligent here, especially among the workers in the war industries, many of whom, of course, are relative strangers in town, but active in the rural regions as well. Hillman’s assistant in the New York headquarters of the PAC is C. B. Baldwin, who left the chairmanship of the Farm Security Administration in Washington to help the CIO in the national subordinates in that powerful agency. The Dies Committee, recently through seizure of long-distance telephone slips in New York, was enabled to report that Baldwin’s New York political center had made a number of calls to FSA regional offices where the CIO was fighting to defeat for renomination Senators and Congressmen whom it condemned for excessive Americanism. Among them was a call to the FSA in Springfield, Missouri.

Clark’s defeat has created real bitterness among the Democrats of Missouri and, in view of his endorsement by Truman and Hannegan, plainly is a defeat for the two regular Democrats of the party who rank next to President Roosevelt. It was noted at the Chicago convention that Hillman, by his use of the taxing power over labor, conferred on him by the President, had become Hannegan’s equal, if not his superior in the party, although he holds no party position. Now by remote control he has humiliated Truman and Hannegan, who recently blocked his attempt to dictate the renomination of Henry Wallace.

The CIO modestly disowns credit for Clark’s frustration but, in reality, is mildly alarmed by its own success and trying to escape blame for a turn which may arouse regret among some who voted against Clark and anger among those who voted for him. For, while McKittrick, too, is a Missourian, he is not popular in the picturesque and sentimental sense, and the successful intervention in Missouri of an outside pressure group on his behalf will not endear him.

Clark frankly denounced the CIO as a group controlled by communists in a bitter statement accepting defeat but put his faith in the future.

Other matters may have contributed to his fall but the CIO undoubtedly made the decision.

The Republicans are thus greatly heartened and expect to win Missouri in the fall, defeating Truman in his home state. Their candidate for Senator is Forrest C. Donnell, the present Governor. Hannegan and McKittrick tried to keep him out of office when he was elected and did prevent his inauguration for two months. Now they are divided and Donnell meets the CIO’s candidate head-on in an election in which their own Bennett Clark warns the state that a vote for McKittrick will be a vote for Hillman and Communism.

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Völkischer Beobachter (August 6, 1944)

Neuer Einsatz von Kampfmitteln gegen die Landungsflotte –
Feuerschein – Stichflamme – Rollende Explosionen

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In der Bretagne zäher Widerstand unserer Stützpunkte –
Starke Panzerangriffe in der Normandie abgewiesen

Zurücknahme unserer Truppen nördlich Florenz – Östlich Warschau erfolgreiche Fortsetzung unserer Angriffe

dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 5. August –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

In der Normandie führte der Feind gestern nördlich Vire sowie nordöstlich und östlich Avranches starke, von Panzern unterstützte Angriffe, die nach hartem Kampf abgewiesen wurden. Mehrere hinter unseren Linien eingeschlossene feindliche Kampfgruppen wurden vernichtet. In der Bretagne leisteten auch gestern die Besatzungen unserer Stützpunkte den weiter nach Westen und Südwesten vorstoßenden feindlichen motorisierten Kräften heftigen Widerstand.

Schlachtflieger griffen mit guter Wirkung in die Erdkämpfe ein und zersprengten feindliche Kolonnen, In der Nacht waren vom Feinde belegte Orte und Flakbatterien das Angriffsziel unserer Kampf- und Nachtschlachtflieger.

Im französischen Hinterland wurden 59 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.

Schweres „V1“-Vergeltungsfeuer liegt auf London.

In Italien wurden unsere Truppen in den Raum nördlich Florenz zurückgenommen, um die historische Stadt, die der Feind gestern den ganzen Tag über mit schwerer Artillerie beschoss, mit ihren unersetzbaren Kunstwerten zu schonen. Nördlich Arezzo sind heftige Kämpfe mit dem am Monte Altuccio in unsere Stellungen eingebrochenen Gegner im Gange.

Bei einem Säuberungsunternehmen im ligurischen Küstenabschnitt wurden über hundert Terroristen vernichtet.

Italienische Torpedoflieger versenkten nordöstlich Bengasi einen Frachter von 7.000 BRT und beschädigten zwei weitere mit 14.000 BRT schwer.

Im Karpatenvorland und im großen Weichselbogen wurden zahlreiche Angriffe des Feindes in sofortigen Gegenstößen zerschlagen. Nur im Raum von Milec und südöstlich Warka konnten die Sowjets Boden gewinnen. Gegenangriffe sind hier im Gange.

Östlich Warschau setzten Panzertruppen des Heeres und der Waffen-SS sowie die Fallschirm-Panzerdivision Hermann Göring ihre Angriffe unter Führung des Generalfeldmarschalls Model gegen die eingeschlossenen, sich aber verbissen wehrenden Bolschewisten erfolgreich fort. Feindliche Entlastungsangriffe scheiterten.

Zwischen dem mittleren Bug und der Memel griff der Feind vor allem beiderseits Bialystok und im Abschnitt Sudauen–Schalken weiter an. Seine Durchbruchsversuche wurden nach schweren Kämpfen im Wesentlichen vereitelt. In einigen Einbruchsstellen wird noch erbittert gekämpft. Hierbei wurden gestern allein im Bereich einer Panzerarmee 119 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen.

Bei Mitau und Bauske wurden Einbrüche aus den Vortagen beseitigt, östlich der Düna, nordöstlich Schwanenburg und an der Landenge von Narwa wurden starke feindliche Angriffe in wechselvollen Kämpfen unter Abschuß einer großen Anzahl von Panzern abgewiesen oder aufgefangen.

41 feindliche Flugzeuge wurden in Luftkämpfen und durch Flakartillerie abgeschossen.

Beim Vorstoß feindlicher Fernjäger in rumänisches Gebiet schossen deutsche und rumänische Luftverteidigungskräfte zehn feindliche Flugzeuge ab.

Feindliche Bomberverbände griffen gestern mehrere Orte in Norddeutschland, vor allem Bremen, Hamburg, Anklam und Schwerin an. Durch Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 46 feindliche Flugzeuge vernichtet.

In der Nacht warfen einzelne feindliche Flugzeuge Bomben im Raum Insterburg und Gumbinnen.

Ergänzend zum OKW.-Bericht wird mitgeteilt:

Im Südabschnitt der Ostfront haben sich zwei Kampfgruppen der 23. Panzerdivision unter Hauptmann Rebentisch und Leutnant Mohmstede besonders tapfer geschlagen.

Im Kampfraum südwestlich Kauen zeichnete sich die schlesisch-sudetendeutsche 5. Panzerdivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Decker durch hervorragenden Angriffsgeist aus.

In den Kämpfen der letzten Tage bei Narwa hat sich der flämische SS-Sturmmann Remi Schrynen in der SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadierbrigade „Nederland“ durch Abschuß von sieben Panzern besonders hervorgetan.

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Im Abwehrkampf gegen Anglo-Amerikaner –
General François bedroht Nordafrika

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9687

Berechtigte japanische Entrüstung –
US-Kannibalismus am Pranger

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The Afro-American (August 5, 1944)

TRANSIT MEN STRIKE
Whites quit when colored trolley operations are hired; war work crippled

Philly hate strike ties up all traffic

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EISENHOWER COMMENDS BALLOON UNIT
QM truck company also praised

Majority of heroes are Easterners
By Ollie Stewart, AFRO war correspondent

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FLIERS GET 8 OVER HUNGARY
Lts. Gleed and Dorham bring down four Fw 190s

60 in two weeks; first victories for 3; Lt. Jackson’s third
By Art Carter, AFRO war correspondent

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Colored infantry units out

93rd Division and 24th Regiment withdrawn
By Vincent Tubbs

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GIs sore about Wall Street rumors of war’s end

By Ollie Stewart, AFRO war correspondent

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U.S. Army bans Jim Crow in PXs, buses and theaters

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Victim of Nazis becomes spy and ‘escapes’ to jail

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WAC band busted

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9694

Editorial: Who fights this war?

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americavotes1944

Editorial: Republicans and Army segregation

The Republican Party enters the campaign with a decided advantage because of its pledge to investigate and take whatever legislative action is necessary to correct race discrimination in the Armed Forces.

Strong executive action, as well as legislation, is needed and is overdue since the widespread dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war is the mistreatment of colored troops.

This mistreatment includes:

  • Compulsory training in the Jim Crow South where the Army has been unable to protect its men in uniform from civilian abuse and humiliating segregation;

  • Exclusion of colored men and women from voluntary enlistment from service on the Navy’s fighting ships and with WAVES, SPARS, nurses and special services (only token enlistments have been accepted as Navy chaplains and surgeons);

  • Promotions so restricted that with nearly a million colored men in the service, commissioned officers number only a few thousand;

  • Separation of white and colored troops without legal sanction, in fact in violation of the Constitution. Even those who wish to fraternize are forbidden to do so under pain of punishment.

In the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, colored and white served together in regiments and on fighting ships. Rigid segregation appeared first in the Civil War, but even then, there was no Navy funny business and colored men fought as Marines, gunners and seamen on Union ships.

Colored servicemen today have no objection to fighting in colored units, but they do object to the prohibition which bars them from other units and bans whites from their outfits.

Some white soldiers do not wish to serve with colored. Some colored prefer not to serve with white. But why should any government prevent them from doing so if they want to and why should promotions be denied competent officers merely because they are colored?

The situation is so bad at present that white enlisted men are welcomed in mess halls and clubs from which colored commissioned officers are excluded.

Governor Dewey, the GOP candidate for President, we hope, will have a word to say about this during the campaign. Long suffering G.I.’s and their folks back home will be all ears.

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americavotes1944

Matthews: Straws in the wind

By Ralph Matthews

Although the defeat of Vice President Wallace, a known liberal, is regretted by many, there are other rays of hope which prove that the reactionaries are not having things all their own way.

That even the Deep South is trying hard to lift itself from the depths is seen in the long-overdue defeat of Senator Ellison “Cotton Ed” Smith in South Carolina.

We are not certain whether his successor, Governor Olin D. Johnston, is a rip-roaring liberal, but we are certain that anybody would be an improvement on Cotton Ed. The mere fact that South Carolina has had sufficient change of heart to keep him home is a healthy sign.

Ex-Senator Smith has little to his credit in the Senate beyond his championship of white supremacy, his protection of the big cotton planters, who wax fat off of the South’s miserable sharecrop slave trade, and his dramatic gesture in walking out of the Democratic National Convention because a colored minister, the Rev. Marshall Shepard of Philadelphia, was invited to pray.

We cannot help but speculate that Cotton Ed would have welcomed even the prayers of Parson Shepard as the votes were counted Tuesday night returning him to private life.

One bright spot on the Democratic Party front was the fact that Governor Ellis Arnall of Georgia stood before the Democratic Convention in Chicago and praised Henry Wallace after he had made his speech predicting the destruction of all the things the South holds dear.

Another was the speech of Senator Claude Pepper of Florida, who declared he would be ashamed if the Democrats told the world by their actions that Wallace “was too democratic for a Democratic convention.”

Another healthy sign is the rumpus raised in Texas and other Southern states over the seating of delegations at the Democratic Convention. This is not a “revolt” in the sense that some try to pretend, but a sign that the South is stewing in its own juice of the one-party system which is too cramped for the incompatible elements to operate.

If the Roosevelt administration stays in long enough, and the anti-Roosevelt Southerners stay out long enough, they might eventually awake to the realization that two strong parties are as necessary to the South as to the rest of the country. Minorities always stand to profit when they can play one party against another. The South may yet give stillbirth to democracy.

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Signal Corps unit ignores Nazi snipers in Normandy

By Rudolph Dunbar, ANP war correspondent

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