Taylor: Synthetic oil
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
…
Peacemaking days of 1919 told by ‘insider’
Col. Stephen Bonsal, confidant of President Wilson during World War I, tells of petty intrigues of many world-famous men
By John D. Paulus
When the firing ceases in World War II, will the heads of state – Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, et al. – sit down in person to dictate the peace and draw blueprints for the “world that is to come”?
Or will that job be delegated the experts in international affairs, the foreign ministers of the various governments, with a consideration for the economic as well as the political welfare of all the nations involved?
Those two questions will concern many thinking persons in the months to come. And they should concern every American, since the fate of the world and the course of history can be decided by the capricious or deliberate actions of one man or one group of men.
Thus, we are deeply indebted to the publishing firm of Doubleday, Doran for bringing out at this time a new book, Unfinished Business, by Stephen Bonsal. Col. Bonsal was President Wilson’s confidential interpreter and a confidant of Col. House, the Harry Hopkins of World War I.
Unfinished Business contains extracts from Col. Bonsal’s diaries covering such historic subjects as the attendance of the President at the Peace Conference, the clash with the Allied powers over the Fourteen Points, the struggle over ratification of the Peace Treaty, the troubles at home with Senator Lodge and his colleagues, and the influence of Col. House on Mr. Wilson.
Results of policies
This is the inside story of the mysterious and troubling period in 1919 during which the events of the next 20 years were actually decided. The rise of National Socialism in Germany, the advent of Hitler, the coming of World War II, the emergence of Japan as a world power, the unskilled manipulation of territorial boundaries of little nations – all these historic events and many more are the results of policies (and politics!) which Col. Bonsal witnessed.
The reader is dismayed at the petty intrigues, the smallness of big men, the vanity and self-interest of a handful of “nationalists” in all countries. Col. Bonsal’s diaries are replete with accounts of personalities and clashes between those personalities – and those passages are easily the most interesting parts of the book.
President Wilson’s insistence on attending the Peace Conference and actually taking part in the formulation not only of the Peace Treaty but of the League of Nations is an interesting part of the book. Col. House and other U.S. Delegation leaders, plus many leaders of Allied countries, urged Wilson to stay in Washington as a kind of great referee over the momentous deliberations.
But Wilson insisted on going to Europe, insisted on becoming a delegate and becoming embroiled in the petty arguments that inevitably were stirred up in the historic sessions.
Would the world have turned out better if Mr. Wilson’s decision had been different? Would the French have been easier to get along with if he had remained in Washington? Would Clemenceau have been more tolerant toward the fallen foe? Would Mr. Wilson have seen clearer the role of the Japanese delegates?
Shows glaring failures
The questions can be answered by each individual for himself as he reads the book. For Col. Bonsal points out the glaring failures, hoping that our leaders will not make similar mistakes when World War II ends.
This book should be “must” reading for the fourth-term candidate, for Messrs. Willkie, Dewey, Bricker, Taft, MacArthur, for every candidate to every public office in the national government in this historic year. Every thinking voter will want to read it.
On nearly every page is a grim contemporary ring, a warning to the men of 1944. We read Mr. Bonsal’s story with a new perspective and with an acute awareness of the terrible parallel between Wilson’s time and ours.
It isn’t often that the common man gets to see what goes on in the councils of the great. Col. Bonsal’s book succeeds not only in giving us a good look, but also in affording an insight into the all-too-human differences in 1919 that made another war inevitable in 1939.
1 Like
Johnson: Who’ll be victors in film poll?
Here’s a forecast on winners of the ‘Oscars’
By Erskine Johnson
Hollywood, California – (Feb. 19)
Hollywood has named its best as candidates for Oscars in this year’s 16th annual voting of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and today we’re going to stick out our neck and tell you who will pick up the blue chips on March 2. Here are the final results as we see them:
The best motion picture of the year: The Song of Bernadette.
The best feminine performance of the year: Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette.
The best male performance of the year: Walter Pidgeon in Madame Curie.
The best performance by an actress in a supporting role: Katina Paxinou as Pilar in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
The best performance by an actor in a supporting role: Akim Tamiroff as Pablo in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
The best direction of the year: Henry King for The Song of Bernadette.
Maybe we’re wrong – but it’s our neck.
Hope vs. bear!
Any time you can get Bob Hope to clown around with a 400-pound bear, something’s bound to happen. Even if the bruin is trained and docile as a kitten. Paramount dreamed up the idea for a scene in The Road to Utopia. Seems Hope mistakes the critter for Dorothy Lamour, who has been wearing a bearskin coat. The scene takes place in a darkened cabin and Hope thinks the bear is Dorothy.
“Why didn’t they just drop my option?” moaned Hope as he started to film the scene. When the bear growled, Hope looked forlornly at director Hal Walker and said, “This is the way they weed out stock players in Paramount.” And when the bear lightly cuffed him on the arm, Hope crackled: “I’m glad we have a direct line to the county morgue.” They finally got the scene – and some of the year’s best adlibbing.
Boy meets girl
RKO’s new find, Kim Hunter, met her husband-to-be, Capt. William Baldwin of the Marine Air Corps, on the set of Tender Comrade. She was posing for still pictures with Ruth Hussey and the captain was properly thrilled when he was introduced to Ruth, but remarked, “I never heard of Kim Hunter.” Kim overhead him, came back with, “But you will.” He did.
Pat O’Brien’s youngsters have instructions not to telephone their mother while she is working at the AWVS, or the treasury office, except in an emergency. Other day, daughter Mavourneen dialed the number and on being told her mother could not be disturbed, insisted: “But it’s a matter of life or death.” The switchboard operator immediately put her through. Little brother Sean was so impressed that a few minutes later he called and said to the operator, “I must speak to my mommy, dead or alive.” Mommy got the call.
For a dining room scene in National Velvet, director Clarence Brown insisted on having real British cooking for the table. An English cook prepared the meal, including Yorkshire pudding. Brown himself sampled the pudding.
He said:
Hmmmmm. I never tasted anything like it.
Mickey Rooney spoke up:
I did. We used to paste kites together with it.
Butler type
Ask almost anyone about Alan Mowbray and they’ll say, “Oh, yes, he plays those funny butlers on the screen.” It’s strange the way one or two roles will type an actor in the minds of moviegoers. Mowbray, a very versatile gent, has played 160 roles in pictures, but only five were butlers.
He’s played George Washington, and Metternich, the Premier of Austria. He’s played the Grand Duke of Russia, the King of England, de Sarnac of France and a Roman senator. A week after playing Vivien Leigh’s husband in a film, he went to another studio and played an American Legionnaire in a two-reel comedy called French Fried Patootie, in which he played two scenes with a monkey and got hit in the face with a custard pie.
Alan isn’t worried about being typed, yet to moviegoers he’s a butler. Sometimes, he admits, it worries him.
Veteran radio chief envies young people starting in industry
Pittsburgh’s Frank Mullen says his score and more of years have just seen trails blazed
By Si Steinhauser
…
Völkischer Beobachter (February 21, 1944)
Logische Folge der Neuorganisation –
Die Kabinettsumbildung in Japan
dnb. Tokio, 20. Februar –
Die Neubesetzung von drei Ministerposten im japanischen Kabinett wird von hiesigen politischen Kreisen als logische Folge der Neuorganisation verschiedener Ministerien bezeichnet. Nach Schaffung dieser neuen Ministerien seien nunmehr auch personelle Veränderungen eingetreten, die den größten Wirkungsgrad des Verwaltungsapparats für die Aufgaben des Krieges garantieren. Es wird betont, daß für Premierminister Tojo bei der Auswahl der neuen Minister in besonders großem Maße ihre frühere Tätigkeit und ihre Erfahrung ausschlaggebend gewesen seien.
Die neuen Minister erklärten der Presse gegenüber, daß in keiner Weise grundlegende Änderungen in der inneren Politik Japans beabsichtigt seien. Finanzminister Ichiwata, dessen Fähigkeit und Erfahrungen in finanziellen Fragen durch seine Beratertätigkeit in Nanking hiesige Kreise besonders schätzen, wird, wie die Zeitung Asahi Schimbun berichtet, nach seinen eigenen Worten den früheren Beamtenapparat des Finanzministeriums beibehalten und die Politik seines Vorgängers Kaya insbesondere hinsichtlich der Sparmaßnahmen des japanischen Volkes fortsetzen.
Auch Uchida, der neue Minister für Landwirtschaft und Handel, erklärte dem gleichen Blatt, daß er trotz gewisser Kritik und eigener Ansichten über das gegenwärtige System der Nahrungsmittelerzeugung und -verteilung die bisher durchgeführten Methoden weiterverfolgen und sich bemühen werde, Verbesserungen langsam, aber stetig herbeizuführen. Dabei werde er sich die Ratschläge seines Vorgängers Yamazaki und dessen bisheriger Mitarbeiter im größten Umfange zunutze machen.
Goto, der neben früherer weitreichender Erfahrung im Verkehrswesen auch in der letzten Zeit mit Inspektionsaufgaben betraut war und besonders gute Kenntnisse im Holzschiffbau besitzt, bemerkte der Zeitung Asahi Schimbun gegenüber, daß nach der Schaffung des neuen Transport- und Verkehrsministeriums und der damit zusammenhängenden Vereinigung der Verwaltung des Land- und Seetransportwesens nunmehr die Struktur geschaffen und die Organisation fertiggestellt sei, um die Kriegsaufgaben auch praktisch anzufassen und durchzuführen.
Roosevelts Greuelpropaganda widerlegt –
Das Rote Kreuz an Japan
Das japanische Rote Kreuz hat ein Telegramm des Internationalen Roten Kreuzes, datiert vom 10. Februar, erhalten, in dem der Dank für die Verteilung von Liebesgaben vor den letzten Weihnachtsfeiertagen an die in Japan befindlichen nordamerikanischen Kriegsgefangenen zum Ausdruck gebracht wird. Diese Liebesgaben wurden seinerzeit mit den Austauschschiffen Tjie Maru und Gripsholm nach Japan beföjdert.
Das Danktelegramm wird in Tokio als eine sprechende Zurückweisung der Behauptung der nordamerikanischen Behörden bezeichnet, daß die Liebesgaben nicht ihre Empfänger erreicht hätten.
US-Zeitschrift über die Kriegspolitik des Präsidenten –
Roosevelts Jagd nach dem Kriege
dnb. Genf, 20. Februar –
„Wir wollen aufhören, uns etwas vorzumachen,“ so schreibt die angesehen US-Zeitschrift Saturday Evening Post in einem Leitartikel. Sie befaßt sich mit den Kriegszielen der Vereinigten Staaten und stellt fest:
Das Gerede, das tatsächlich noch immer von Millionen naiver Amerikaner geglaubt wird, daß nämlich die USA zur Erhaltung von Demokratie und Selbstbestimmung aller Völker auf der Seite Englands kämpfen, ist weiter nichts als Propaganda jener Leute gewesen, die Amerika in den Krieg treiben wollten.
Ein kurzer Blick auf die Entwicklung der amerikanischen Verflechtungen in das Kriegsgeschehen strafe diese These Lügen. Man habe das, US-Volk mit diesen Phrasen eingenebelt, um ihm die Wirklichkeit der Weltpolitik zu verbergen. Als der Verfasser des Artikels im Oktober 1941 nach vierjähriger Abwesenheit in die USA zurückkehrte, sei er sich wie „Alice im Wunderland“ vorgekommen, denn in Europa hätte damals schon jeder gewußt, daß die USA bereits tief in den Europa-Krieg verwickelt waren und eine ganze Serie kriegerischer Handlungen gegen Deutschland begangen hatten.
Es weiter so hießt:
Durch das Pacht- und Leihgesetz verpflichteten wir uns die Feinde Deutschlands mit Waffen und jeder anderen Art von Hilfe zu unterstützen. Amerikanische Kriegsschiffe geleiteten die Versorgungsschiffe der Engländer durch die von Unterseebooten bedrohten Gewässer. Einige unserer Kriegsschiffe hatten sogar schon gegen deutsche U-Boote und Flugzeuge gekämpft. Immer wieder gab Roosevelt im Namen der USA die verpflichtende Erklärung ab, daß er den „Hitlerismus“ besiegen wolle; dennoch weigerte sich unsere Regierung, zuzugeben, daß wir gegen Deutschland Krieg führten, und bis Pearl Harbour war unser Volk so verwirrt und schlecht unterrichtet, daß es tatsächlich noch darüber debattierte, ob man sich aus dem Kriege heraushalten wolle. Diese Verwirrung wurde durch eine rohe und irreführende Darstellung der Probleme erhöht.
Verlogene Propaganda
Unsere Propagandisten appellierten an unser Gefühl, indem sie den europäischen Konflikt als einen Kampf zwischen Diktatur und Demokratie oder zwischen autoritären und demokratischen Staaten schilderten. Das war eine ganz grobe Entstellung; denn die Gegenseite hatte ebensolche Staatsformen wie die Achse, nämlich die Sowjetunion, Polen, Jugoslawien, Griechenland. Unter den Exilregierungen in London befand sich eine ganze Anzahl von autoritären Gruppen, die aber schon vor Pearl Harbour trotzdem von unserer Regierung als Verbündete im Kampf gegen die Achse anerkannt wurden.
Mit Ausnahme der Gaullisten hatten wir schon Jahre vor unserem Kriegseintritt alle Trabanten der Sowjetunion und Englands anerkannt und ihnen Pacht- und Leihhilfe zugesagt. Diese Regierungen, die wir zu unterstützen versprachen, durchliefen die ganze Skala von reiner Demokratie zu absoluter Diktatur. Niemals hat Roosevelt von ihnen verlangt, daß sie ihre Regierungsform ändern sollten. Die jugoslawische Exilregierung zum Beispiel, die wir auch anerkannten, bestand zum Teil aus Leuten, die Jugoslawien zu der Zeit diktatorisch regierten, als Prinz Paul sein Abkommen mit Deutschland im März 1941 schloß. Selbst mit größter Phantasie kann man sie nicht als Demokraten bezeichnen. Aber da sie die Revolte gegen den Pakt mit Deutschland vollführten, wurden sie von der amerikanischen Regierung ermutigt, ja man versprach ihnen aktive Unterstützung, wenn sie gegen Deutschland kämpften.
Ich war damals im Balkan und erfuhr an Ort und Stelle, daß die US-Regierung offiziell zu dem jugoslawischen Staatsstreich riet, durch den der deutsche Einmarsch in dieses Land provoziert wurde. Diese jugoslawischen Führer der Revolte gingen drei Monate später nach London, und eines Morgens las ich, der ich gleichzeitig mit ihnen dort angekommen war, daß die US-Regierung diese Exilregierung unter König Peter zur allgemeinen Überraschung anerkannt hatte, obwohl die englische Regierung das noch nicht einmal getan hatte. Vergeblich suchte ich nach dieser angeblichen Regierung. Ich fand nur ein paar Flüchtlinge. War diese schnelle Anerkennung eine Belohnung, die man für den Staatsstreich versprochen hatte? Die US-Regierung hatte durch diese jugoslawische Affäre das US-Volk in den europäischen Krieg hineingezogen, mehrere Monate vor Pearl Harbour.
Und wofür kämpfen wir nun? Um den Engländern, den Franzosen, den Belgiern, den Holländern ihre Kolonialreiche zu erhalten? Wer also glaubt, daß wir gegen den Imperialismus in der Welt kämpfen, ignoriert alle Beweise des Gegenteils. Das amerikanische Volk wird für diese Politik Roosevelts keinen Dank ernten.
Jeder kehre vor seiner Tür
Was bleibt also übrig? Wir kämpfen nicht, wie man uns vorgeredet hat, um in Europa autoritäre Systeme und den Imperialismus auszurotten; wir bildeten uns ein, daß die Sowjetunion bei Kriegsende nach unserer Pfeife werde tanzen müssen. Wir sprachen vom „amerikanischen Jahrhundert.“ Stattdessen wird, wenn der Krieg mit unserem Sieg enden sollte, die Diktatur der Sowjets noch eine große Rolle spielen, und die alten imperialistischen Staaten mit ihren Kolonialreichen werden weiter gedeihen. Und das nennt man „den Kampf der Demokratie gegen die Diktatoren.“
Wir wollen den Frieden und Sicherheit. Und wenn wir bei uns zu Hause umherschauen, so sehen wir, daß wir uns nicht einmal ein Ideal in der Heimat geschaffen haben und daher kaum in der Lage sein dürften, eine ideale Welt im Ausland zu schaffen.
Die Pleite der Amgot in Süditalien –
Seths Monate jüdische ‚Verwaltungskünste‘
Eigener Bericht des „Völkischen Beobachters“
…
U.S. Navy Department (February 21, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 38
Our forces have landed on Eniwetok Island. Have possession of the western half of the island. The attack is being carried out by elements of the 106th Infantry supplemented by a unit of the 22nd Marines.
Except for Parry Island, the remainder of the Atoll is in our hands.
Our casualties continue to be light.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 39
Our forces have captured Eniwetok Island. Enemy resistance has been stubborn, and small pockets of troops are yet to be overcome. Parry Island is being heavily attacked by our air and surface forces.
Preliminary reports indicate that our overall casualties in the capture of the Eniwetok Atoll as of last night are approximately 150 dead and 350 wounded.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 275
For Immediate Release
February 21, 1944
Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Four attacked Paramushiru and Shumushu Islands in the Kurils during the night of February 19 and 20 (West Longitude Date). More than five tons of bombs were dropped. Antiaircraft fire was encountered at all targets, but all of our planes returned safely to base.
Army Warhawk fighters and Mitchell bombers and Navy Ventura search planes, on February 19, dropped 24 tons of bombs on three Marshall Atolls, damaging airfields, strafing shipping and hitting ground installations.
Ships of the Pacific Fleet bombarded enemy‑held positions in the Marshall Islands on February 19.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 21, 1944)
Jap Army and Navy heads fired for losses at Truk
Americans sink 19 ships destroy 201 planes in sea victory
New American victories were scored against the Japs in three places, at Eniwetok Atoll (1) in the Marshalls, where U.S. invasion forces were battling across the next-to-the-last Jap-held island; at Truk (2), where U.S. forces sank 19 Jap ships and shot down 201 planes, and at Rabaul (3), bombed against by U.S. fliers, who destroyed 15 more Jap planes.
Japan reeled today under the impact of American blows which had had main outer defenses crumbling from Eniwetok in the Marshalls, through Truk in the Carolines to Rabaul and Kavieng, on the flank of Australia and the Dutch East Indies.
The spreading U.S. offensive in the Pacific produced these results:
Tokyo revealed the effect of the defeats on land, sea and in the air by removing the chiefs of staff of both the Imperial Army and Navy, Field Marshal Gen. Sugiyama and Fleet Adm. Osami Nagano.
In the attack on Truk by a mighty American task force, the Japs lost at least 19 ships and more than 200 airplanes. Seven other ships were listed as “probably sunk.”
The conquest of Eniwetok Atoll was rapidly nearing completion. U.S. forces held all the islands except Parry and the eastern part of Eniwetok.
In the Southwest Pacific, U.S. airmen hit Rabaul with 123 tons of bombs in the 16th consecutive day of aerial assaults on the base, making a total of 1,352 tons since Feb. 3, with the destruction or probable destruction of 252 Jap planes.
Atoll invaders crush enemy
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
U.S. invasion forces battled their way across the next-to-the-last enemy-held island in Eniwetok Atoll today as front dispatches indicated a battleship bombardment may have aided carrier-based planes in sinking 19 ships in last week’s smashing raid on Truk.
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet, announced in a communiqué late yesterday that Marines and Army troops had captured the western half of Eniwetok Island and occupied all other islands in the atoll except Parry, which was isolated by the landing on Eniwetok.
Casualties light
Adm. Nimitz said:
Although the Americans are meeting opposition, casualties continued to be light.
The invaders were expected to complete the conquest of the atoll, 750 miles northeast of Truk, within a matter of days, bettering even their eight-day victory on Kwajalein earlier this month.
Speculation that the 16-inch guns of the U.S. battleships may have contributed to the destruction at Truk last week stemmed from official reports that all aerial opposition had been wiped out in the first day of the assault, leaving the way clear for warships to approach within gun range.
7 probably sunk
Altogether, the powerful U.S. task force sank 19 Jap ships, probably sank seven others, destroyed at least 201 enemy planes and wrecked shore installations last Wednesday and Thursday on the greatest naval victory numerically since the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in March 1943, when U.S. planes sank an entire convoy of 22 enemy ships.
The successful attack cost the U.S. armada only 17 planes lost and “moderate damage” to one warship.
Adm. Nimitz said in his triumphant communiqué yesterday noon:
The Pacific Fleet has returned at Truk the visit made by the Japanese Fleet to Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and effected partial settlement of the debt.
Jap losses listed
He listed Jap losses specifically as follows:
SUNK: Two light cruisers, three destroyers, one ammunition ship, one seaplane tender, two oilers, two gunboats and eight cargo ships.
PROBABLY SUNK: One cruiser or large destroyer, two oilers and four cargo ships.
SHOT DOWN IN COMBAT: 120 planes.
DESTROYED ON THE GROUND: 74 planes; shore installations.
DAMAGED ON THE GROUND: More than 50 planes; airdromes.
George Jones, United Press correspondent who accompanied the task forces in the Truk attack, said in a dispatch sent before the raid that the warships included a number of battleships and added, perhaps significantly:
We might see our surface strength make a bold thrust into the outer edges of Truk’s intricate shorelines for an audacious bombardment… Aircraft will make the initial assault and they will carry the responsibility of inflicting the initial damage on which other surface craft can capitalize.
The attack, carried out under the overall command of Adm. R. A. Spruance with RAdm. M. A. Mitscher, former commander of the USS Hornet, in charge of the carrier raid, temporarily neutralized Japan’s biggest naval base outside home waters and prevented the Japs from sending reinforcements to Eniwetok.
Combat teams from the 22nd Marine Regiment swarming ashore after a three-day air and naval bombardment had literally leveled enemy defenses, captured their initial major objective in Eniwetok Atoll, Engebi Island at the northern end, in six hours and five minutes Friday.
Bombardment kills many
Hundreds of the defenders were killed in the preliminary bombardment, which included 1,000 tons of aerial bombs. Richard W. Johnston, United Press correspondent with the invasion forces, said not a single building was left standing and even the “skeletons of the defenders were hammered down.”
Mr. Johnston wrote:
The island looked as though it had been run over by a giant lawnmower that sheared off palm tops a few feet from the ground.
The occupation of Engebi and 10 small flanking islands, the latter without the loss of a single American life, wiped out enemy opposition at the northern end of the atoll and paved the way for the assault on the southern end, where Eniwetok Island was the key objective.
Seize half of island
Elements of the Army 106th Infantry Regiment, supplemented by Marines, smashed ashore on Eniwetok against opposition and in a quick thrust wrested possession of the western half of the island from the Japs.
Although obviously doomed, the Japs continued to fight stubbornly as the invaders hammered them back toward the eastern corner of the island with tanks, flamethrowers, grenades and bayonets, backed up by the big guns of covering warships.
Parry cut off
The only other island left in enemy hands, Parry, was cut off from all hope of supply and reinforcement by the landing on Eniwetok and presumably will be mopped up at leisure.
With Engebi, the Americans gained an airfield with a 5,000-foot runway only 350 miles from the intermediate base of Ponape in the Eastern Carolines, as well as 750 miles northeast of Truk.
The occupation of Eniwetok Atoll as a whole will give the Navy a good anchorage for future operations and cut off Wake Island, 600 miles to the northeast, from all supplies except those carried by ships or submarines under constant threat of attack by U.S. air and naval forces.
Raid Kusaie
Four-engined Liberators of the 7th Air Force penetrated the Eastern Carolines Friday for a raid on Kusaie Island, 450 miles south of Eniwetok. Docks were bombed and a small enemy vessel sunk.
Other Liberators, along with Army Warhawks and Navy Venturas, scored hits on ground installations, an airfield and a radio station in attacks on four atolls in the Eastern Marshalls.
Premier Tōjō takes over
By the United Press
Japan removed her chiefs of staff of the Imperial Army and Navy today on the heels of the U.S. raid on Truk and the successful invasion of Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Though the announcements of the shifts in command made no mention of either Truk or the Marshalls, Japanese Imperial Headquarters almost simultaneously issued a communiqué acknowledging that U.S. task forces had sunk 18 ships, only one fewer than claimed by U.S. Pacific Fleet headquarters, and destroyed 120 planes in the raid on Truk, the Jap “Pearl Harbor.”
The official Dōmei Agency said that Premier Gen. Hideki Tōjō had taken over the additional post of Chief of the Army General Staff and Navy Minister Shigetarō Shimada the additional post of Chief of the Naval General Staff.
Both Field Marshal Gen. Sugiyama, former Army Chief of Staff, and Fleet Adm. Osami Nagano, former Naval Chief of Staff, were “relieved” of their posts, Dōmei quoted War and Navy Ministry announcements as saying.
Hirohito names Tōjō
No new appointments were reported for either officer.
Emperor Hirohito “personally” installed Tōjō in his new post and “personally” appointed Shimada to the naval command, Dōmei said.
In addition to being Premier, Tōjō is War Minister, head of the Munitions Ministry and governor of the Imperial Rule Association, Japan’s mass totalitarian party.
Follows warnings
The radio announcements of the shifts in command, recorded by the United Press, followed recent propaganda warnings from Jap radio spokesmen that the war situation had “increased with unprecedented, grave seriousness.”
One broadcaster said:
Various conditions indicate the symptoms that the desperate enemy counteroffensive will increase in furiousness from the coming of spring toward the summer, and further from summer towards autumn.
First ‘real’ admission
The Imperial Headquarters communiqué reporting the attack on Truk marked the first time that Japan had admitted anywhere near her real losses in a major engagement.
The text of the communiqué was as follows:
Imperial Army and Navy units successfully repulsed an enemy task force which attacked the Truk Islands. In these operations, Imperial Army and Navy units sank two enemy cruisers, of which one might have been a battleship, and heavily damaged one aircraft carrier and one warship of unidentified category, as well as shooting down more than 54 planes.
Our losses consisted of two cruisers, three destroyers, 13 transports and 120 planes in addition to sustaining some damage to our ground installations.
2,000 Yank raiders again rip Germany
Attack follows RAF night blow, downing of 126 Axis planes Sunday
By Walter Cronkite, United Press staff writer
…
Allies regain half of loss of beachhead
Second big battle below Rome appears ended in Nazi defeat
By Robert Vermillion, United Press staff writer
…
125 bomb tons pound Rabaul
Yanks destroy 15 planes in raid on Jap base
By Don Caswell, United Press staff writer
…