Guam conquest ended
U.S. forces again control isle seized by Jap forces
By the Associated Press
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Allies driving Japs over Burma frontier
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Post-war pay for workers stirs debate
Senate forces split; all talk of compromises brings flat rejection from spokesmen
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Blue-eyed girl attorney will oppose Clare Luce
Bridgeport, Connecticut (AP) – (Aug. 9)
Dark-haired, blue-eyed, five-foot-five Margaret E. Connors was happy but a bit sleepy today after a night of excitement which saw her chosen unanimously to head the Democratic fight in Connecticut’s 4th Congressional district against its phrase-making, author, playwright, and actress, Republican incumbent Mrs. Clare Boothe Luce.
Shaping up with the nomination by Republicans tonight of Mrs. Luce for a second term was the first all-woman, major party, Congressional contest in the East since 1942 and one of the few in political history.
Miss Connors said:
It’s too early to make plans and I’m too happy to think about them now.
A graduate of Wellesley College and of the Yale Law School, Miss Connors is no stranger to public speaking nor to public office. At 25, she was Deputy Secretary of State, the youngest person ever to hold that job and the first woman.
During her years at Yale, she worked one vacation in the New Haven office of the Department of Justice, earning newspaper mention as “Connecticut’s G-woman.”
In Bridgeport, her law practice is mixed but she takes few criminal cases. Despite a substantial clientele, she finds time to keep up with tennis and golf as well as to interest herself in industrial advisory work at the YWCA.
Idle strikers total 42,000
By the Associated Press
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Motion pictures banned for Army
Washington (AP) – (Aug. 9)
The motion picture Wilson, dramatizing the career of the World War I President, has been banned by the Army for distribution to troops, as has the picture Heavenly Days starring Fibber McGee and Molly.
The War Department said today both pictures had been banned by a board of the Morale Services Division as containing material which might be construed as violating provisions of the Soldier Voting Act.
That act prohibits the distribution by the Armed Forces of books, magazines or other material containing matters calculated to influence the results of national elections.
AFL Machinists support Roosevelt’s reelection
Portland, Oregon – (Aug. 9)
The Pacific Coast Conference of AFL Machinists endorsed President Roosevelt for reelection by a 70 percent vote today.
The endorsement followed a stormy controversy over the advisability of the union’s entering political issues.
Delegates also approved government intervention in jurisdictional labor disputes in cases which cannot be settled by the unions alone.
Fulbright leads Arkansas voting
Little Rock, Arkansas – (Aug. 9)
Rep. J. W. Fulbright’s lead over Governor Homer M. Adkins in their race for the Democratic senatorial nomination to succeed Hattie W. Caraway mounted to more than 31,000 tonight with less than 150 scattered precincts unreported.
The vote in 1,965 of 2,087 precincts gave Fulbright 110,616 and Adkins 79,330.
Additional returns today served to increase majorities of Mrs. Jack Carnes of Camden for Democratic National Committeewoman and of Circuit Judge J. W. Trimble for 3rd district Congressman.
New Jersey Governor endorses Dewey
Albany, New York (AP) – (Aug. 9)
Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey was described today by Governor Walter E. Edge of New Jersey as favoring a strong post-war organization “equipped to deal with any future threat to world peace.”
Edge, a critic of the term “peace forces” in the Republican platform, said he discussed the international situation at length with Dewey and found the nominee “feels that the expression ‘peace forces’ is all inclusive.”
Edge said in a formal statement:
It embraces everything from an editorial to a 16-inch gun and following Senator Austin’s comprehensive elucidation I am sure it cannot be misunderstood.
In short, Governor Dewey is determined that effective means shall be brought into being to assure that any future threat to the peace of the world will be promptly stamped out by international action.
Editorial: Process of elimination
Inevitably in our two-party system of government each party collects some embarrassingly bigoted groups who, though small in number, still command enough votes to make the professional politician think twice before reaching for the ax. This year, the Republicans collected Gerald L. K. Smith and the America Firsters; the Democrats, Earl Browder and the Communists.
The other day, however, Thomas E. Dewey and John W. Bricker lopped off the America Firsters from the fringe of the Republican Party. In strongest terms of denunciation and repudiation, they scorched Smith for his attempt to put Governor Bricker’s name on an America First ticket.
This repudiation is commendable and necessary. It gives notice that we have no existing political haven for racial bigotry, just as the two party platforms make it clear (though they may differ in detail) that there is no room for isolationism in either party’s post-war policy.
The repudiation certainly cost some votes. Smith claims 3,000,000. True or not, he does control a substantial number. If an America First ticket can be put in the field, it might cost the Republicans one or more states. In the Midwest, the America Firsters’ stronghold, the Republicans carried Michigan by less than 5,000, Indiana by only 25,000, and lost Illinois in 1940.
Nevertheless, the great majority of Americans will applaud this denunciation, and the candidates’ refusal to accept organized support from a group whose beliefs are associated with racial bigotry. For certainly such bigotry is repugnant to the spirit and tradition of a nation founded on the principle that all men are created equal.
So too is political bigotry. It may not be so distasteful at the moment, since the American Communists – for whom the war began with the invasion of Russia, and international collaboration with the Tehran Conference – are currently starry-eyed champions of democracy. Only the most naïve, however, can imagine that their conversion is anything more than momentary and expedient, or that it is not subject to change without notice.
The American Communists have embraced, if not the Democratic Party, at least its national ticket. They have merged with the American Labor Party and are making their presence felt in the CIO Political Action Committee. Their organizational ability – smooth, seasoned, zealous and tireless – can win votes.
So wouldn’t it be well if the Democratic candidates followed the Republican example now and repudiated, once and for all. these other elements which are foreign to American principles and policies?
The Pittsburgh Press (August 10, 1944)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In Normandy, France – (by wireless)
With our own personal danger past our historic air bombardment of the German lines holding us in the Normandy beachhead again became a captivating spectacle to watch.
By now, it was definite that the great waves of four-motored planes were dropping their deadly loads exactly in the right place.
And by now two Mustang fighters flying like a pair of doves patrolled back and forth, back and forth, just in front of each oncoming wave of bombers, as if to shout to them by their mere presence that here was not the place to drop – wait a few seconds, wait a few more seconds.
And then we could see a flare come out of the belly of one plane in each flight, just after they had passed over our heads.
The flare shot forward, leaving smoke behind it in a vivid line, and then began a graceful, downward curve that was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.
It was like an invisible crayon drawing a rapid line across the canvas of the sky, saying in a gesture for all to see: “Here! Here is where to drop. Follow me.”
And each succeeding flight of oncoming bombers obeyed, and in turn dropped its own hurtling marker across the illimitable heaven to guide those behind.
Long before now the German ack-ack guns had gone out of existence. We had counted three of our big planes down in spectacular flames, and I believe that was all. The German ack-ack gunners either took to their holes or were annihilated.
How many waves of heavy bombers we put over I have no idea. I had counted well beyond 400 planes when my personal distraction obliterated any capacity or desire to count.
I only know that 400 was just the beginning. There were supposed to be 1,800 planes that day, and I believe it was announced later that there were more than 3,000.
It seemed incredible to me that any German could come out of that bombardment with his sanity. When it was over, even I was grateful in a chastened way I had never experienced before, for just being alive.
I thought an attack by our troops was impossible now, for it was an unnerving thing to be bombed by your own planes.
During the bad part, a colonel I had known a long time was walking up and down behind the farmhouse, snapping his fingers and saying over and over to himself, “–dammit, –dammit!”
As he passed me once he stopped and started and said, “–dammit!”
And I said, “there can’t be any attack now, can there?” And he said “No,” and began walking again, snapping his fingers and tossing his arm as though he was throwing rocks at the ground.
The leading company of our battalion was to spearhead the attack 40 minutes after our heavy bombing ceased. The company had been hit directly by our bombs. Their casualties, including casualties in shock, were heavy. Men went to pieces and had to be sent back. The company was shattered and shaken.
And yet Company B attacked – and on time, to the minute! They attacked, and within an hour they sent word back that they had advanced 800 yards through German territory and were still going. Around our farmyard men with stars on their shoulders almost wept when the word came over the portable radio. The American soldier can be majestic when he needs to be.
There is one more thing I want to say before we follow the ground troops on deeper into France in the great push you’ve been reading about now for days.
I’m sure that back in England that night other men – bomber crews – almost wept, and maybe they did really, in the awful knowledge that they had killed our own American troops. But I want to say this to them. The chaos and the bitterness there in the orchards and between the hedgerows that afternoon have passed. After the bitterness came the sober remembrance that the Air Corps is the strong right arm in front of us. Not only at the beginning, but ceaselessly and everlastingly, every moment of the faintest daylight, the Air Corps is up there banging away ahead of us.
Anybody makes mistakes. The enemy makes them just the same as we do. The smoke and confusion of battle bewilder us all on the ground as well as in the air. And in this case the percentage of error was really very small compared with the colossal storm of bombs that fell upon the enemy. The Air Corps has been wonderful throughout this invasion, and the men on the ground appreciate it.
Der Heldenkampf von Saint-Malo
Bern, 10. August –
Als ein besonders fanatischer Kämpfer wird der deutsche Kommandant von Saint-Malo in einem Bericht geschildert, den Daily Express veröffentlicht. Dieser deutsche Kommandant habe seinen Truppen den Befehl gegeben, bis zum letzten Mann zu kämpfen. Fanatischer Haß gegenüber den Alliierten erfülle ihn, seitdem seine Verwandten bei einem Terrorangriff auf Berlin ums Leben kamen. Die Garnison sei zweifellos entschlossen, ihrem Führer bis zum Ende zu dienen und bis zum letzten Mann zu kämpfen.
Gegen die Invasionsflotte –
Neuer Schlag der Kampfmittel
vb. Berlin, 10. August –
Nachdem die Kampfmittel der deutschen Kriegsmarine in der Nacht zum 3. August bereits einen harten Schlag gegen die englisch-amerikanische Nachschubflotte vor der Invasionsküste geführt haben, ist ihnen nunmehr ein weiterer bedeutsamer Erfolg gelungen.
Sechs feindliche Transporter und Landungsschiffe mit 25.500 BRT, ein Zerstörer und ein Sicherungsfahrzeug wurden versenkt. Eine Reihe weiterer Detonationen wurde von Land her beobachtet, so daß bestimmt mit weiteren Opfern unter den feindlichen Schiffen zu rechnen ist.
Die Einzelkämpfer der Kriegsmarine stießen bei diesem neuen Angriff auf eine harte feindliche Gegenwehr. Die britische Admiralität und das nordamerikanische Marineministerium haben zwar in der Öffentlichkeit bisher noch kein Wort über die Erfolge der Torpedoreiter der deutschen Kriegsmarine im Kanal verlauten lassen, ja, nicht einmal das Vorhandensein dieser Kampfmittel der deutschen Kriegsmarine in ihren eigenen Ländern eingestanden. Aber die starke Abwehr zeigt wie nachhaltig die Wirkungen der bisherigen Angriffe der Kampfmittel der Kriegsmarine gewesen sind. Leuchtgranaten erhellten stundenlang das Seegebiet in der Seinebucht vor der Mündung der Orne. Mit Schiffsgeschützen und Maschinenwaffen schossen die feindlichen Sicherungsfahrzeuge in die Richtung, aus der sie Angriffe der deutschen Kampfmittel befürchteten. Trotzdem haben es die zähen Einzelkämpfer der Kriegsmarine wieder fertiggebracht, vor die gewünschten Ziele zu kommen und ihre Waffen zum Tragen zu bringen.
Unter den versenkten Transportern befinden sich vier vollbeladene Frachter von je 5.000 BRT, ein weiterer von 2.500 BRT, die vollbeladen der Küste zustrebten. Dazu kommt ein Panzerlandungsschiff von 3.000 BRT, dass 20 Panzer aufnehmen konnte. Mit den versenkten Schiffen ist also eine große Menge von feindlichem Kriegsmaterial versunken, bevor es an der Landfront in Erscheinung treten konnte. Dies übt in dem Augenblick, wo die Engländer im Raume von Caen ihren neuen Angriff begonnen haben, besonders erfreuliche Wirkungen aus.
Weiter wurden ein feindliches Sicherungsfahrzeug und ein Zerstörer versenkt. Bei dem Zerstörer handelt es sich um einen Typ mit einem Schornstein, der sowohl in der englischen wie in der nordamerikanischen Marine vertreten ist. Es handelt sich um wertvolle Fahrzeuge von 1.500 bis 1.800 Tonnen Wasserverdrängung. Außer den Schiffen, deren Versenkung von den Kampfmittelfahrern, die nach der Heimkehr Meldung erstatten konnten, genau beobachtet worden sind, wurde von Land auch eine Reihe weiterer Detonationen festgestellt.
Helleuchtende Brände und hohe Stichflammen zeugten davon, daß auch weitere Kampfmittelfahrer der Kriegsmarine ans Ziel gekommen sind und der feindlichen Invasionsflotte weiteren beträchtlichen Schaden zugefügt haben.
e. g.