Little steel for civilian use expected
Supplies built up for invasion
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Rules drafted for control of inflation
Prompt action urged on reconversion
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
With 5th Army beachhead forces, Italy – (by wireless)
Once on shore, our supplies for the Anzio beachhead are taken over by the Quartermaster Corps (food and clothing) and the Ordnance Department (ammunition).
The Quartermaster Corps traditionally is seldom in great danger. Up here on the beachhead they are blowing that tradition all to hell.
The Quartermaster Corps has been under fire ever since the beachhead was established, and still is. Its casualties from enemy action have been relatively high.
Around 70% of the Quartermaster troops on the beachhead are colored boys. They help unload ships right at the dock. They drive trucks. They man the supply dumps. Hardly a day goes by without casualties among then. But they take this bombing and shelling bravely. They make an awful lot of funny remarks about it, but they take it.
We drove out to one of the ration dumps where wooden boxes of rations are stacked head-high in piles for hundreds of yards, as in a lumber yard. Trucks from the waterfront add continually to the stock, other trucks from the various outfits continually haul it away.
Our ration dumps are not at all immune from shellfire. This single one has had more than 100 shells in it. Many of the soldier-workmen have been killed or wounded.
Ration dumps seldom burn
Ration dumps seldom burn, because you can’t burn C-rations. But early in the beachhead’s existence, they hit a dump of cigarettes and millions of them went up in smoke.
Our local dumps of ammunition, food, and equipment of a thousand kinds are now so numerous that a German artilleryman could shut his eyes and fire in our general direction and be almost bound to hit something.
Our dumps do get hit; but the fires are put out quickly, the losses are immediately replaced, and the reserve grows bigger and bigger.
The boss of the Quartermaster troops is a former newspaperman – Lt. Col. Cornelius Holcomb of Seattle. He worked on The Seattle Times for 12 years before going into the Army. He is a heavily built, smiling, fast-talking, cigar-smoking man who takes terrific pride in the job his colored boys have done. He said there’s one thing about having colored troops – you always eat like a king. If you need a cook, you just say, “Company, halt! Any cooks in this outfit?” And then pick out whoever looks best.
The colonel himself has had many close squeaks up here. Just before I saw him, a bomb had landed outside his bivouac door. It blew in one wall, and hurt several men.
Another time he was standing in a doorway on the Anzio waterfront talking to a lieutenant. Stone steps led from the doorway down into a basement behind him.
Bomb hits in front of door
As they talked, the colonel heard a bomb whistle. He dropped down on the steps and yelled to the lieutenant, “Hit the deck!”
The bomb hit smack in front of the door and the lieutenant came tumbling down on top of them. “Are you hurt?” Col. Holcomb asked. The lieutenant didn’t answer. Holcomb nosed back to see what was the matter. The lieutenant’s head was lying over in a corner.
Soon a medical man came and asked the blood-covered colonel if he was hurt. Col. Holcomb said no. “Are you sure?” the doctor asked. “I don’t think I am,” the colonel said.
“Well, you better drink this anyway,” the doctor said. And poured him a water glass full of rum which had him in the clouds all day.
In the Quartermaster Corps, they’ve begun a system of sending the key man away after about six weeks on the beachhead and giving them a week’s rest at some nice place like Sorrento.
A man who goes day and night on an urgent job under the constant strain of danger finally begins to feel a little punchy or “slug-butt,” as the saying goes. In other words, he has the beginnings of “Anzio Anxiety,” without even knowing it.
But after a week’s rest, he comes back to the job in high gear, full of good spirits, and big and brave. It’s too bad all forms of war can’t be fought that way.
Biggest air battle in history –
Air combat loses glamor in cold huts of 8th Air Force in England
Sad moment comes when men are lost
By Ira Wolfert, North American Newspaper Alliance
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They’re never too little –
Songwriting Yank stretches, wins his bars
Orphan composer now air officer
By Si Steinhauser
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In Washington –
Merger is proposed of price and wage acts with agencies curbed
Congressmen urge consolidation and limits on OPA, WLB powers
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Völkischer Beobachter (April 25, 1944)
Jeder Wunsch Moskaus wird erfüllt –
US-Kriegsschiffe für die Sowjetunion
Drahtbericht unseres Lissaboner Berichterstatters
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U.S. Navy Department (April 25, 1944)
Press Release
For Immediate Release
April 25, 1944
German submarine is sunk with little trace by U.S. naval airmen in two‑minute concentrated attack
In the face of vigorous anti-aircraft fire, airmen of the U.S. Navy attacked a German U‑boat in the Atlantic and destroyed it in a two-minute concentrated attack last December after it had been spotted sometime earlier and kept under watch by one of the planes which took part in the final attack.
Adm. Royal E. Ingersoll, USN (COMUSLANTFLT), gave decorations to the aviators for sinking the submarine.
The airmen were part of a U.S. Naval Task Force consisting of a “baby flattop,” destroyers and planes of the escort carrier.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 373
For Immediate Release
April 25, 1944
U.S. forces occupied Ujelang Atoll, Marshall Islands, on April 22 and 23 (West Longitude Date). Light opposition was quickly overcome. The atoll was proclaimed to be under the military government of CINCPOA.
On April 23 (West Longitude Date), a small vessel at Murilo in the Hall Islands was bombed by a search plane of Fleet Air Wing Two.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 374
For Immediate Release
April 25, 1944
Taongi Atoll and other remaining enemy positions in the Marshall Islands were bombed by Mitchell bombers of the 7th Army Air Force, Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two, and Dauntless dive bombers and Corsair fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing on April 23 (West Longitude Date). Gun emplacements, fuel storage facilities, buildings and runways were hit. At one objective, a small craft was strafed and beached.
Ponape Island was bombed by 7th Army Air Force Mitchells on the same day. Both airfields were hit. Moderate anti-aircraft fire was encountered.
The Pittsburgh Press (April 25, 1944)
Yanks rip airfields; RAF rains fire bombs
500,000 incendiaries soar Nazi rail hubs; coast also pounded
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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New Guinea hit by land and air
Fliers use new fields to support infantry
By William B. Dickinson, United Press staff writer
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Americans seize another atoll
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Americans gain on beachhead
Recapture 3 points in local attacks
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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Even one board is absent –
County’s voters shun polls for presidential primary
By Kermit McFarland
Allegheny County voters stayed away from the polls in record numbers today as Pennsylvania went through the motions of a presidential primary.
Veteran political leaders said they could not recall a quieter election, or a lighter vote. Apparently the indifference in Allegheny County was typical of the state.
Distracted by war news and unmoved by the relatively few real contests in the primary, voters failed to respond to efforts to turn them out today.
The polls opened at 7:00 a.m. ET and were scheduled to close at 8:00 p.m.
In one district, only four voters had appeared an hour and a half after the polls opened, in another seven at 9:30 a.m., in another two at 9:00 a.m. And so it went around the county.
Political headquarters reported none of the customary complaints or requests for information from poll workers.
The high spot of the morning voting was a telephone call from the 19th district of the 4th Ward which reported there was no election board, no chairs or tables, no light and no heat. Only one board member showed up, somebody stole the chairs and table and somebody forgot to turn on the electricity.
In McKeesport, the municipal offices were at work on orders of Mayor Buchanan for the first time in years.
Despite the small turnout of voters, elections boards did not expect an early end to their counting job. Although many of the nominations at stake in today’s primary are uncontested, the election of delegates to the national conventions and members of party committees make a long ballot and slow up the tabulation.
Political organizations, in the main, were content with the light vote, since it enhanced the prospects for slated candidates. Independent candidates, seeking to break these slates, worked industriously, but apparently with small success, in an effort to turn out the independent vote.
All of the Allegheny County contests of any note are in the Republican primary. Candidates endorsed by the Democratic county organization either are unopposed or face only minor competition.
Pledge for Dewey
The principal action of the day came in a statement by Paul F. Hanzel, candidate in the 32nd district for delegate to the Republican National Convention. He announced he will support Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York for President on the first and all ballots.
This created a relative “sensation” in the drab primary because no other Republican delegate candidates have announced themselves.
Candidate for delegate quits
The only other development of the day in political ranks was the withdrawal of a candidate for delegate to the Republican National Convention – Robert R. Work of 818 Heberton Avenue, whose name is on the ballot in the 29th district. He withdrew in favor of William P. Witherow, president of Blaw-Knox Company, who, with County Commissioner John S. Herron, has been endorsed by the Republican organization. There are no other candidates.
Assured of renomination by the Republicans is U.S. Senator James J. Davis. Also without opposition in the Republican primary are Supreme Court Justice Howard W. Hughes of Washington, Edgar W. Bair of Philadelphia (for State Treasurer) and Senator G. Harold Watkins of Schuylkill County (for Auditor General).
For Superior Court
Superior Court Judge Arthur H. James and his running mate, Judge J. Frank Graff of Kittanning, were expected to win nominations for the Superior Court, although Judge Chester H. Rhodes, a Democrat, is also entered on the Republican ballot.
Judge James is also running on the Democratic ballot, but Judge Rhodes and Auditor General F. Clair Ross are expected to win the Democratic nomination easily.
Congressman Francis J. Myers of Philadelphia, slated candidate for the U.S. Senate nomination, and federal judge Charles Alvin Jones, endorsed for the Supreme Court, are unopposed in the Democratic primary. Also unopposed is Ramsey S. Black, third assistant postmaster general, seeking the Democratic nomination for State Treasurer.
GOP battles here
John F. Breslin, a deputy in the Auditor General’s office, is running against State Treasurer G. Harold Wagner for the auditor general nomination.
Allegheny County lists Republican Congressional contests in four of the five districts, but no Democratic Congressman is opposed for renomination.
Voting light in Massachusetts
Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
Partial tests of President Roosevelt’s possible fourth term strength and Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s popularity in this state featured Massachusetts presidential primary today.
An extremely light vote was forecast, with perhaps not more than 100,000 ballots to be cast among the 2,450,000 which were distributed in the 351 cities and towns.