The Pittsburgh Press (August 12, 1944)
Editorial: Yes, and it works each day
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
On the Western Front, France – (by wireless)
What we gave you yesterday in trying to describe hedgerow fighting was the general pattern.
If you were to come over here and pick out some hedge-enclosed field at random, the fighting there probably wouldn’t be following the general pattern at all. For each one is a little separate war, fought under different circumstances.
For instance, you’ll come to a woods instead of an open field. The Germans will be dug in all over the woods, in little groups, and it’s really tough to get them out. Often in cases like that we will just go around the woods and keep going and let later units take care of those surrounded and doomed fellows.
Or we’ll go through the woods and clean it out, and another company, coming through a couple of hours later, will find it full of Germans again. In a war like this one everything is in such confusion I don’t see how either side ever gets anywhere.
Sometimes you don’t know where the enemy is and don’t know where your own troops are. As somebody said the other day, no battalion commander can give you the exact location of his various units five minutes after they’ve jumped off.
We will bypass whole pockets of Germans, and they will be there fighting our following waves when our attacking companies are a couple of miles on beyond. Gradually the front gets all mixed up. There will be Germans behind you and at the side. They’ll be shooting at you from behind and from your flank.
Sometimes a unit will get so far out ahead of those on either side that it has to swing around and fight to its rear. Sometimes we fire on your own troops, thinking we are in German territory. You can’t see anything, and you can’t even tell from the sounds, for each side uses some of the other’s captured weapons.
Foot soldier hates to be near tank
The tanks and the infantry had to work in the closest cooperation in breaking through the German ring, that tried to pin us down in the beachhead area. Neither could have done it alone.
The troops are of two minds about having tanks around them. If you’re a foot soldier, you hate to be near a tank, for it always draws fire. On the other hand, if the going gets tough you pray for a tank to come up and start blasting with its guns.
In our breakthrough each infantry unit had tanks attached to it. It was the tanks and the infantry that broke through that ring and punched a hole for the armored divisions to go through.
The armored divisions practically ran amuck, racing long distances and playing hob, once they got behind the German lines, but it was the infantry and their attached tanks that opened the gate for them.
Tanks shuttled back and forth, from one field to another, throughout our breakthrough battle, receiving their orders by radio. Bulldozers punched holes through the hedgerows for them, and then the tanks would come up and blast out the bad spots of the opposition.
It has been necessary for us to wreck almost every farmhouse and little village in our path. The Germans used them for strongpoints, or put artillery observers in them, and they just had to be blasted out.
Most of the French farmers evacuate ahead of the fighting and filter back after it has passed. It is pitiful to see them come back to their demolished homes and towns. Yet it’s wonderful to see the grand way they take it.
Four hours rest in three days
In a long drive, an infantry company may go for a couple of days without letting up. Ammunition is carried up to it by hand, and occasionally by jeep. The soldiers sometimes eat only one K ration a day. They may run clear out of water. Their strength is gradually whittled down by wounds, exhaustion cases and straggling.
Finally, they will get an order to sit where they are and dig in. Then another company will pass through, or around them, and go on with the fighting. The relieved company may get to rest as much as a day or two. But in a big push such as the one that broke us out of the beachhead, a few hours is about all they can expect.
The company I was with got its orders to rest about 5:00 one afternoon. They dug foxholes along the hedgerows, or commandeered German ones already dug. Regardless of how tired you may be, you always dig in the first thing.
Then they sent some men with cans looking for water. They got more K rations up by jeep, and sat on the ground eating them.
They hoped they would stay there all night, but they weren’t counting on it too much. Shortly after supper a lieutenant came out of a farmhouse and told the sergeants to pass the word to be ready to move in 10 minutes. They bundled on their packs and started just before dark.
Within half an hour, they had run into a new fight that lasted all night: They had had less than four hours’ rest in three solid days of fighting. That’s the way life is in the infantry.
Shapiro: Three shots in a forest and three soldiers fall!
Two Canadians and a Jerry knock each other out – they’re sorry Jerry dies
By L. S. B. Shapiro, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Background of news –
Campaign strategy unfolds
By George Van Slyke
New York –
By his quick shift of emphasis on the war from the German front to the Pacific, President Roosevelt is credited by strategists in both the major political camps with having moved swiftly and adroitly to force the international situation as the basic issue of his fourth-term campaign, thereby stressing his role as Commander-in-Chief rather than partisan nominee, while at the same time seeking to black out tangled domestic problems which the Republicans are pressing to the fore.
The President’s trip to Pearl Harbor following closely to the heels of his fourth-term draft; his studied effort to make the Honolulu conferences “purely an American huddle” with the chiefs of our Allied nations conspicuously absent, presents a comprehensive pattern for the presidential campaign as the party leaders view the setup. They are wondering how their plans may have to be revised.
Though not stressed in the press dispatches describing the President’s activities in detail the sum total is viewed as the most authentic evidence so far presented that the administration regards the struggle with Germany as nearing an end, possibly ending before election – and therefore the situation calls for renewed emphasis on the half-won Japanese war.
Slick choice of spot
Mr. Roosevelt displayed characteristic political skill in picking Pearl Harbor for his opener of the new campaign – the one key spot in the war setup to which he could have gone to evoke the greatest emotional response and risk the least criticism of mixing politics and prosecution of the war.
While maintaining strict silence on the effect of the President’s trip, an intimation has come from high Republican sources that Mr. Roosevelt may have invited and brought into the open a free-for-all discussion of the pre-Pearl Harbor record of the administration, as yet a half-told story of diplomatic intrigue leading to the break with Japan.
True to his promise that he would not be able to campaign for reelection in the ordinary sense, as he told his personally conducted national convention in Chicago, Mr. Roosevelt is upholding his record for smashing precedent in this latest move which even his ardent admirers concede will have a marked bearing upon the political campaign.
Just as in 1940, he campaigned by visiting war plants to prove to the nation that our economic status was sound; that industry was doing a marvelous job and soothing the industrialists who had long been under attack, he now tries to hurdle the domestic troubles by keeping the Japanese war to the fore as the all-out national concern.
Double political purpose
His Pearl Harbor trip served the President a double purpose, politically. It removed him from the political scene during the convention – at least theoretically – thereby making his fourth term draft seem the more real.
Robert E. Hannegan, Democratic National Chairman, lifted a corner of the campaign curtain Wednesday, revealing a day ahead of the President’s announcement of where he had been, when, in opening the new campaign headquarters here, he said:
There is still the war in the Pacific to be won and the winning of the peace is just as important or more important than winning the war.
That was in answer to a query if the cessation of hostilities with Germany would have a direct effect on the campaign in this country and eliminate the indispensable man claim. In his talks to soldiers and sailor in Hawaii, Mr. Roosevelt maintained his role as Commander-in-Chief – the role in which he is running for his fourth term:
Your Commander-in-Chief brings you greetings from your own families, your own homes, to you here at this spot which, thank God, is still a part of the United States.
The Afro-American (August 12, 1944)
2 pilots killed, 4 reported missing; Pioneer 99th members dead
Capts. Mac Ross and Leon Roberts crash; 31 Air Medals, 1 Oak Leaf Cluster awarded
By Art Carter and Max Johnson
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ARMY CAN’T WAIT
Gen. Hayes settles Philadelphia hate strike by cracking down on strikers
Trolleys roll once more in Quaker city; armed troops ride every car; strike leaders fired, jailed
By John Jasper
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Disemboweled stock sign of fierce fight
AFRO’s Stewart has hard time keeping up with Army in France
By Ollie Stewart
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Gen. Davis visits troops in France
By Ollie Stewart
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DEWEY POINTS TO HIS RECORD
St. Louis Republicans told color is ignored
Hits Democrats; compares Democratic, GOP racial planks
By B. M. Phillips
St. Louis, Missouri –
If he is elected in November, GOP presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey will continue his past practice of including qualified people regardless of color on his list of appointments.
He didn’t say so in so many words, but he told a group of 40-odd colored Republican leaders who met with him for 30 minutes at the Hotel Statler, Friday morning, that a man should be judged on his actions not on promises and pointed out that during his 14 years as a public official in New York, colored people had been named to important posts.
The presidential candidate emphasized that he had appointed people because they were good and merited it and not because of their race, color or creed. The important thing, he said, is what a person is, not who his parents are.
He cited the appointment of C. B. Powell to the Boxing Commission; Mrs. Eunice H. Carter to the District Attorney’s staff, and Mrs. Bertha Diggs to the secretaryship of the Industrial and Labor Department, as examples.
The presidential candidate declared:
There’s no difference between people, but you can’t convince people that their prejudices are wrong by knocking them on the head and saying you’ve got to like Catholics, Jews or colored people. You’ve got to live with them and convince them there are no differences.
He referred to the election of Judge Francis E. Rivers in a district where 88 percent of the voters were white and only 12 percent colored, as an example that you can elect men to office without considering their race, color or creed.
Democratic plank ‘shocking’
The Democratic Party’s racial plank was described by Mr. Dewey as “shocking” in its failure to say anything. He praised his own party’s racial plank and pointed out that it was not necessary to fight for its inclusion in the platform.
The conference with colored leaders was one of several held with Missouri groups while the presidential candidate was here conferring with 25 GOP governors. All were closed to the press but periodic press conferences were held.
Before talking to the group, Dewey was introduced to each member by William Morant, local constable and leader of the group.
Frequent applause
He shook hands with each one as he made the rounds of the room and joked when he came to an unusual name. During his talk, there was frequent applause.
Mr. Morant said he was impressed with the meeting and expressed the belief that Dewey would carry Missouri.
Ben Thomas, chairman of publicity for the GOP state committee, described Dewey’s talk as forthright.
Mrs. William O. McMahon, superintendent of the State Industrial Home for Girls, said she was pleased with Dewey’s simple presentation.
Dewey 100 percent
The Rev. Jasper C. Caston, pastor of the Memorial Baptist Church and alderman of St. Louis, said:
I am 100 percent behind Dewey. I like the man, know his record and am acquainted with the men associated with him.
They are all 100 percent. There is no veneer about Dewey. He is the same, year in year out. Dewey is not afraid of colored people. He has got to win.
Asked whether he implied that Roosevelt is afraid of colored people, Caston said: “Ask Roosevelt to have his picture taken with them.”
Crossland impressed
Dr. J. R. A. Crossland of St. Joseph, who came to St. Louis for the conference with Dewey, said that he has followed Dewey’s record for 12 years and that he is impressed with his appointment of colored persons on their merit. Dr. Crossland, former U.S. Minister to Liberia, said:
Colored people of Missouri will support Dewey with patriotic fervor, faith infallible and purpose undivided. The 1944 election will see colored people rallying under his leadership.
Attorney Sidney R. Redmond said: “Everyone was favorable impressed with the forthright position of Governor Dewey.”
Harvey Tucker, attorney and president of the 23rd Ward Republican Club, said:
Dewey is all right. His attitude on the appointment of colored persons to office in New York is sane and sound. He considers all citizens alike and makes appointments on a basis of merit. I agree with his policy, as colored people want no special consideration.
His record speaks
Charles E. Robinson of Jefferson City, director of the colored division of the state board of health and leading state Republican, said that the colored people of Missouri are completely satisfied with Dewey and that it will be best for America if Dewey is elected President. “His record speaks for itself.”
There were only two questions put to him during the meeting. While he was citing the progress made in New York, someone said, “Maybe we should all move to New York.” Dewey smiled and said there is no cure-all to any deep basic problems of progress.
The GOP’s answer
Later in the meeting, attorney Silas Garner asked Dewey what he thought was the greatest point the Democrats had, and what is the GOP’s answer, Dewey replied: “The Democrats’ point is that the President is the only one qualified to prosecute the war.”
He said:
Our answer to that is that the German war is cracking up and the Jap war is going along fine. The next President, therefore, will be a peacetime Executive. The people must decide whether they want four more years of Roosevelt’s peacetime depression or whether it is time for a change.
Frisby: No women found in Aleutians
AFRO correspondent reassures homefolks from far-off islands
By Herbert M. Frisby
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Editorial: See Wilson
See Darryl Zanuck’s $5-million motion picture Wilson, but don’t take it seriously.
It’s designed to prove that the 28th President was one of the world’s greatest men and that we are at war today because we welshed on his proposal to join a League of Nations.
None of us believe that Germany should come out of this war with all her territories. We think today that the best guarantee of future peace is a weak Germany.
The fact that Wilson couldn’t sell us a league, therefore, is not the sole cause of the present war. He has to bear the blame for leaving Germany strong enough to stage a new effort at world conquest in our generation.
The film compares Wilson with Lincoln, but the Emancipator’s theories of freedom and dignity for all included the humblest of citizens. It included colored people.
Wilson was eloquent and persuasive when he said we fought the first war to “make the world safe for democracy.” When he cried aloud for self-determination for minorities, we took him at his word. But he double-crossed colored people just as he welshed on the political bosses who made him President.
Before he was elected, he promised colored leaders a square deal. After he became President, he told them he could not appoint them to office because it would cause troubled with the South.
Senator Nye shocked the Senate in 1936 by declaring that Wilson lied about his trip to Europe and his connection with the secret treaties. Senator Glass hopped up to defend Wilson, but Nye proved his point by the diary of Wilson’s Secretary of State hauled out of its hiding place in the Library of Congress.
Colored people distrusted Wilson as strongly as the Senate. They knew the great(?) Woodrow as a Southern politician to whom it was “second nature to pay lip service to laws he has not the slightest intention of obeying, and to principles he does not an instant propose to follow.”
The Turkish Ambassador was handed his passports by President Wilson for calling attention to America’s professions of democracy and its mistreatment of colored people.
In the midst of World War I, civilization was outraged by race riots in Springfield, Waco, Memphis, and East St. Louis. A colored delegation from Maryland sought an interview with the President, who was too busy to see them.
On that occasion, the late Kelly Miller wrote his famous open letter to Mr. Wilson, titled the “Disgrace of Democracy.” He said the President was preoccupied with his fight to abolish all war abroad and was unable to prevent lynchings and race riots at home.
Dr. Miller wrote:
A doctrine that breaks down at home is not fit to be propagated abroad. You have given the rallying cry for the present world crisis… but [your] democracy for white people only is no democracy at all.
Dr. Miller described Wilson’s attitude on the race problem as one of “passive solicitude.” He said:
It seems you regard it as a regrettable social malady to be treated with cautious and calculated neglect… During your entire career you have never done anything constructive for colored people…
All the segregation in the Armed Forces we suffer in this war, all the exclusion from promotion, and from service in the Navy, and Nurse Corps, we endured in a double portion under President Wilson.
We were Jim Crowed in Southern Army camps and publicly humiliated before our allied abroad. Of course, none of that is in the film, whose only colored character is an obsequious flunkey.
Be sure to see the 20th Century-Fox film Wilson. AFRO readers will glimpse $5 million worth of propaganda, a lavish spectacle and a tragic figure – how tragic colored people know better than most Americans.
The Red Cross regrets–
In response to a soldier’s complaint that the word “nigger” was used in a puppet and minstrel show in the station hospital, Camp Campbell, Kentucky, after which colored soldiers walked out, Clarence E. Vrooman of the Results Analysis Unit, Red Cross, told the AFRO this week:
The part of the program complained about was the prologue to the minstrel show. The particular reading was given by a 16-year-old high school girl who was a member of the dramatic club at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and was presented with no thought of possible resentment that took place, as it had been given in many parts of Tennessee recently.
This alleged objectionable term will never be used again at Red Cross entertainments in that hospital, as the field director advises us that he intends to preview all programs before presentation. We regret that this program was not previewed.