Bei den Plutokraten und Schiebern –
Der Krieg als Millionengeschäft
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U.S. Navy Department (December 17, 1943)
Communiqué No. 490
Pacific and Far East.
U.S. submarines have reported the sinking of eight enemy vessels in operations against the enemy in waters of these areas, as follows:
SUNK:
- 2 large transports
- 2 large tankers
- 3 medium freighters
- 1 small freighter
These actions have not been announced in any previous Navy Department Communiqué.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 198
For Immediate Release
December 17, 1943
Army Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force raided Wotje at dusk on December 15 (West Longitude Date) scoring numerous hits on airdrome installations.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 17, 1943)
Yanks gain in New Britain
Ground guns, planes beat off heavy Jap raids on beachhead
By Brydon C. Taves, United Press staff writer
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524 bagged thus far –
U.S. subs sink 8 more ships
Two big Jap transports among latest victims
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Yanks begin heavy smash toward highway to Rome
Hand-to-hand fighting rages in village only mile from road; Fortresses blast Padua
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer
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Roosevelt back in capital, postpones a formal report
He’s ‘fine,’ he says to jovial crowd in White House
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Train wreck toll of death mounts to 80
Victims are 47 service personnel, 23 civilians, 10 unidentified
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More WACs reach Africa
Washington –
The War Department announced yesterday that 102 enlisted women and three officers of the Women’s Army Corps have arrived at Allied headquarters in North Africa to supplement the several WAC companies already serving in that theater.
Experts draft tax increases voted by group
Senate is expected to get altered measure next week
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Senate choice of Democrats is kept secret
Slate-makers confer with Guffey, Lawrence on candidate
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
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Cairo program on Japan described as insufficient
Congressional authority on Far East offers 10-point plan to solve Tokyo militarism
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Movie extortion case –
‘Bribes’ paid to foil toughs, defense says
Attorney says U.S. has failed to prove its charges
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First Lady urges women to help in planning peace
By Esther Van Wagoner Tufty, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Congress’ recess to place rail pay mess on President
Holiday vacation almost certain; President expected to veto Truman wage resolution
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Simms: Italian groups breed discord in Allied zones
Definite action needed soon to prevent spread of civil war
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
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In Washington –
Mustering-out pay issue postponed until next year
Experts can’t agree on terms for bonus; Legion denies it helped delay consideration of bill
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How President and other ‘VIP’ travel by air
Great secrecy surrounds trips – VIP means very important people
By S. Burton Heath
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
At the frontlines in Italy – (by wireless)
Artillery batteries are “laid in,” as artillerymen say, in all kinds of positions, but my “Battery E” is probably typical.
Our four guns are set in a grape arbor. On one side a ridge rises steeply 400 or 500 feet. A broad valley spreads out below us. It is very pretty.
The four guns form a rough square about the size of a city block, and they are so close under the brow of a hill that it’s almost impossible for the German artillery to reach us. Each gun is planted in a pit about three feet deep, and the front of the pit is lined, shoulder high, with sandbags.
Over the entire pit is stretched a camouflage net on poles. The net, just head high, gives you the sense of having a roof over you. When the guns are quiet, you can yell from one gun pit to another.
A few feet on one side of the gun pit is a stack of black cases about three feet long, clipped together in triple clusters. These are the powder charges.
On the other side of the pit lies a double row of rust-colored shells. The ammunition carriers keep a supply of 10 or 12 shells inside the pit, but the powder charges are brought in one at a time, just before the shooting, because of the danger of fire.
Sergeant said ‘hush’
The floor of the gun pit is muddy and you have to move carefully to stay on your feet. One day, one of the ammunition carriers, a slight fellow, slipped with his heavy shell and let out an irritated oath. Whereupon the sergeant said sarcastically:
Hush. The devil will get you for talking like that.
Several times a day, an ammunition truck comes plowing through the muddy field, backs up to the gun pit and unloads another truckload of shells. it’s a game with a gun crew to try to get the truckers to carry the shells inside the pit instead of stacking them outside, and sometimes, when in good humor, they’ll do it.
All four guns are connected to the battery’s executive post by telephone, and the chief of each crew wears a headphone all the time he’s in the pit. An executive post may be anything from a telephone lying on the ground under a tree, clear up to the luxury of an abandoned cowshed. But it is always within a few yards of the battery.
An officer in the executive post gives the firing directions to the four guns of his battery. He gets his instructions from the regimental command post half a mile or so to the rear, which in turn receives its firing orders from the division command posts and from its own observers far ahead in the mountains.
The men of a gun crew live in pup tents a few feet from the gun pit. Since an artillery unit usually stays in one place for several days, the men have time to pitch their tents securely and dig little irrigation ditches around them.
Pyramidal poker parlor
They cover the floors of the tents with straw and make themselves dry inside the tents, at least. For each two gun crews, there is also a larger pyramidal tent, empty except for the straw on the ground. Nobody lives in here, but the ground crews use it for a loafing place in the daytime when they aren’t firing, and for playing poker at night by candlelight. They just sit or lie on the ground while they play, since there is no furniture.
There is a kitchen truck for each battery. Our truck is full of battle scars. There are holes in the walls and roof from bomb fragments, and the stove itself has a huge gash in it, yet nobody in the kitchen has ever been hurt.
The battery’s three officers eat standing up at a bench inside the truck while the men eat outside, either sitting on their steel helmets in the mud or standing up with their mess kits resting on a farmer’s stone wall. Three go at a time from each crew, since the guns are never left, day or night, without enough men to fire them.
Our crew claims it can fire faster with three men than the others can with 10, but of course all crews say that. The crews don’t actually stay at the alert inside the gun pit all the time. But they are always close enough to get there in a few seconds when the whistle blows.
Most of the cannoneers have got so they can sleep through anything. Steady firing, even fairly close, doesn’t keep you awake after you’ve used to it. It’s the lone battery that suddenly whams away after hours of complete silence that brings you awake practically jumping out of your skin.