America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

2572

U.S. Navy Department (October 10, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 146

Carrier‑based aircraft of the Pacific Fleet swept over the Ryukyu Islands in great force on October 9 (West Longitude Date). All naval and merchant ships that could be found were attacked and severe damage was done to shore installations. Preliminary reports indicate that the following damage was Inflicted on the enemy:

SUNK:

  • 1 destroyer
  • 1 minesweeper
  • 1 submarine tender
  • 2 medium cargo ships
  • 2 small cargo ships
  • 5 coastal cargo ships

PROBABLY SUNK:

  • 2 medium cargo ships
  • 4 small cargo ships
  • 1 medium oil tanker
  • 7 coastal cargo ships

DAMAGED:

  • 3 medium cargo ships
  • 6 small cargo ships
  • 1 destroyer
  • 2 small oil tankers

In addition to the foregoing, more than 20 luggers and other small craft were sunk or damaged.

Complete surprise was achieved in the attack. More than 75 enemy aircraft were destroyed on the ground. Fourteen enemy aircraft were shot down. Buildings and defense installations on the islands were severely bombed and strafed, and many were left burning. There was no damage to our surface ships, and our plane losses were light.

The carrier task forces which conducted the attack are part of Adm. Halsey’s Third Fleet, and the carriers are under the immediate command of VAdm. Marc A. Mitscher.

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 147

Garakayo Island in the Southern Palau Group which was occupied by elements of the 81st Division on October 8 (West Longitude Date) was completely secured by October 9. On Peleliu Island, several hillside and ravine caves were cleared of enemy troops and a small hill was occupied as Marines made some progress in reducing the last stubborn pocket of enemy resistance. On Angaur, sniper demolition teams of the 81st Division continued mopping-up operations. Corsair fighters of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing strafed four small boats and nine barges in a sweep over the east and northwest coasts of Babelthuap Island.

A single Navy search plane on the night of October 8‑9 bombed Nauru Island. There was no anti-aircraft fire.

Neutralization raids by our aircraft in the Marshall Islands continued on October 8 and 9.

2573

The Pittsburgh Press (October 10, 1944)

Yanks close ring on Aachen; surrender or die, Nazis told

Gen. Hodges delivers ultimatum to garrison in doomed Reich city
By J. Edward Murray, United Press staff writer

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2574

Key to peace held by Stalin and Churchill

Political issues discussed at Moscow
By Edward P. Morgan

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2575

On road to Philippines –
Americans invade ninth Palau isle

U.S. fleet ‘hides’ after Marcus raid

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2576

70,000 to strike over 75-cent lock

67 Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit plants hit

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2577

44_mlbplayoffs

Browns’ fielding lapse loses Series

Cards cop sixth, 3–1, as keystone combine fails with chips down
By Leo H. Petersen, United Press sports editor

St. Louis, Missouri –
The 1944 World Series went down in the record books as a triumph for Billy Southworth and the Cardinals, but it should credit an assist to the second base combination of the Browns.

For the men of Manager Luke Sewell failed to reach the top in their rags-to-riches baseball climb because one of the major weapons in their last-ditch drive to their first American League pennant failed them when the blue chips were down.

Those weapons, reading from left to right, were the clutch hitting of Vernon Stephens and the fielding of Don Gutteridge, their chatterbox second baseman. In a manner of speaking, they struck out yesterday when they could have come up with the play which would have saved the ball game and the world championship hopes of the Browns.

The setting was the fourth inning with a $1,300 differential riding on every play. And the Browns failed to come through with the play that counted.

Southworth’s speedy Redbirds took advantage of the fielding miscue to beat the Browns out of their chances of making a Cinderella finish to their most successful season.

Browns had lead

The 1944 edition of the American League’s hitless wonders were sailing along under a 1–0 lead in the sixth game of the first all-St. Louis series when Stephens and Gutteridge let them down.

Nelson Potter, the Browns’ leading winner, had a one-run lead on Chet Laabs’ triple and George McQuinn’s single in the second inning. Then came the fourth and he started by getting Stan Musial on a fly ball to center field.

Although it has been around for a long time, he couldn’t find the plate when he pitched to Catcher Walker Cooper. Cooper walked after four pitches.

Ray Sanders, who turned in the most consistent hitting for the National League titleholders, came through with a single that sent Cooper to third. That set the stage for the play that meant the ball game.

The break

Whitey Kurowski, more or less of a series bust, stepped to the plate and sent a grounder down to Stephens. The Brownie shortstop threw the ball to second base in an attempt to force Sanders and start a twin killing. The idea was good – but the execution was faulty.

Stephens fielded the grounder cleanly and threw but the scorers decided his throw was wide and drew Gutteridge off the bag. A lot of others thought that Gutteridge, in his haste to complete the double play, took his foot off the bag.

But Stephens got the error and it led to two unearned Cardinal runs and that proved to be the difference – just like two unearned tallies in the second game kept the Cardinals in the running and enabled them to win out in 11 innings 3–2. So, in the final analysis, it added up to this – the Browns lost the series on their fielding.

More than enough

The failure to complete a double play permitted the tying run to come home. The failure to get even one man out led to the winning and extra tallies, for Emil Verban and Southpaw Max Lanier followed with singles that scored two runs, making it 3–1.

The Browns made their final dying gesture in the sixth when after one man had been retired. Laabs and George McQuinn walked.

Southworth walked out to the mound to confer with Max Lanier and decided to leave him in the game, but when his next pitch was a wild one which permitted Laabs to go to third and McQuinn to second. Billy the Kid decided to take him out.

Ted Wilks, who had been batted out of the box in the third game, came in, retired 11 men in order, and saved the ball game for the Cardinals.

2578

44_mlbplayoffs

Cards were stacked –
Williams: Browns fought but bowed to ‘inevitable’

By Joe Williams

New York –
There is much to say for the St. Louis Browns: They went about as far in the series as they figured to, and they got about as much out of their limited abilities as they could. They may not have been the weakest team ever to represent the American League in the championship but few knowing baseball men would care to argue to the contrary.

Yet facing practically the inevitable against the Cardinals, the only team of pre-war strength in baseball, the Browns, celebrating their first pennant victory in history, managed to make most of the games dramatically close and to impart to the series a competitive evenness which did not actually exist. They were finally beaten 4–2 in games and over a season’s stretch they would be beaten just as decisively.

There was no material department in which the Browns could match the National League champions. Only in nerve and resolution were they able to hold their own. The spiritual qualities which enabled them to overcome a fearful slump, regain the league lead and fight off one challenger after another down the stretch were still present in the series but these were not sufficient to offset obvious inferiorities.

Did have chance

In spite of all this they had a chance to win. Looking back, the turning point probably came in the second game when Potter failed to break fast enough for Morton Cooper’s pop bunt. This led to an unearned run which in turn cost the Browns a game they might well have won, and, succeeding, they would have won the first three games, a handicap which even the gifted Cardinals might not have been able to overcome.

In the net analysis, of course, the Cardinals carried too many guns. No matter how the breaks of the games might go they figured to wear the patched-up AL champions down in the end. Their overall superiority is clearly reflected in the figures; they had the hitting, the pitching and the fielding. And once they shook off the notion, dangerous but understandable, that they could call the score. Once they settled down to serious, determined play, they took full command.

Defense helps

A tight defense is not always the deciding factor in the series but it never hurts. The Yankee teams, when they were winning, were remarkably equipped for defensive play, a fact generally overlooked because of their more stirring and spectacular exploits at the plate.

The Cardinals, as a team, set a new fielding record this year, and they came close to perfection in the series when they committed only one error in the six games. As against this impressive performance the Browns made ten. This inequality helped to illuminate the difference between the two clubs as big-time workers, adroit play makers.

Just couldn’t hit

The Browns’ manager used pinch-hitters freely. This identified him as an optimist, for it had to be assumed his bestmen, even as hitters, were his regulars. In the last two games of the series, he used eight pinch-hitters and every one of them struck out. This further illuminated the mediocrity of his material, at least in contrast with that of the Cardinals. Moreover, it pointed up the shabbishness of the AL as a whole; it was additional proof the Browns, in winning the pennant, were no more than the best of a squalid lot.

2579

44_mlbplayoffs

Cards get $4,063 apiece, Browns $2,708

St. Louis, Missouri (UP) –
Winning the World Series netted the Cardinals a bonus of $4,063 each while the Browns got $2,708 each as their share from the first four games.

The players’ share, which is divided among the four teams finishing in the first division of each league, was $309,590, of which the Cards and Browns received a total of $216,713.

Of that amount, the Cardinals received $129,907 and the Browns $86,609.

2580

Gracie Allen Reporting

By Gracie Allen

Hollywood, California –
Did you read abut the man who left his 12-month-old baby in a lower berth while he got off the train in Kansas City? When he came back, the train and baby were on their way to Chicago. Everyone says: “How could a man do a thing like that?” That’s what I want to know – how did he get that lower berth?

Have you tried taking he train lately? Last week, George and I asked the ticket seller if we could get space to San Francisco. He said., “Yes, if you can shovel coal.”

But we didn’t have to shovel coal. Goerge finally got a seat and I sat on his lap. Well, not directly on his lap… first came George – then a soldier – then a sailor – then me.

2581

americavotes1944

Red tape likely to void many soldier votes

21,000 may be invalidated in state
By Robert Taylor, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania –
Despite the efforts of the State Legislature and state administration to make it possible for every eligible Pennsylvania voter in military service to cast a ballot in this year’s election, a series of “red tape” fights over soldier voted is expected next month.

The administration drafted a liberal soldier vote bill, and the Legislature passed it with the stipulation that the law “shall be liberally construed” to enable absent servicemen to vote.

Preliminary estimates by state election officials, however, are that some 21,000 soldier ballots will be thrown out as defective because of irregularities and failure to comply with the exact terms of the Soldier Vote Act.

One principal reason

These ballots, it is predicted, will be invalidated in Congressional and Legislative districts where the civilian vote is so close as to be affected by the soldier poll, through challenges by candidates and rulings by County Election Boards.

One of the principal reasons for invalidation of ballots is already known – signing of the jurists, or oath to the soldier-voter, by a noncommissioned officer instead of a commissioned officer, as required by the Soldier Vote Act.

Governor Edward Martin, who advocated the liberal soldier vote law, told newspapermen his administration originally proposed a bill under which corporals and sergeants, as well as commissioned officers, could administer the oath.

Democrats blamed

He said the draft of the bill was changed when Rep. James Lovett (D-Trafford), one of the Democrats called in to confer on terms of the bill, insisted that the bill specify that only commissioned officers could certify the vote.

A number of county officials have already challenged the informal ruling of the State Election Bureau that soldier-voters must comply with the State Elections Law by marking their ballots with an “X” and that ballots marked with a checkmark should be thrown out. The soldier vote law doesn’t require a specific kind of mark.

They based their objections on the legal point that the intention of the voter was clear and that votes should not be thrown out because of minor technicalities, in the absence of fraud – a point repeatedly upheld in court decisions.

An example of what can happen when the soldier vote threatens to overturn the result of a civilian vote is shown in a World War I case that was decided by the Carbon County Court in favor of soldier votes, despite irregularities.

In 1918, civilian voters of Lansford elected Thomas J. Gallagher Chief Burgess over Benjamin M. Arthur, by a 655–640 vote. Camp Meade soldiers voted 12–1 and Camp Hancock soldiers voted 19–0 for Mr. Arthur.

State law, at that time, made no provision giving soldiers the right to vote for local officials, there was no return of the names of voters to show that the Camp Meade votes were cast by electors of the borough, and some solder-voters wrote on the face and back of the ballot.

Soldier vote admitted

The court admitted the soldier vote and declared Mr. Arthur elected, adopting as part of its opinion this legal dictum, which previously figured in other election case decisions:

It is the duty of the court to sustain an election authorized by law, if it has been so conducted as to give a free and fair expression of the popular will and the actual result thereof is clearly ascertained, for elections should never be held void unless they are clearly illegal.

2582

Roosevelt’s request refused –
Petrillo’s union refuses to lift ban on recordings

AFL musicians vote against ending strike against three large companies

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2583

I DARE SAY —
Home front, battlefront

By Florence Fisher Parry

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2584

Eight-state search on for kidnapped boy

Taken for haircut by newly-hired nurse

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Bomb-laden trolleys ‘visit’ Nazi lines

With U.S. 1st Army in Germany (UP) –
American engineers sent “secret weapons” into the German lines before Aachen yesterday. They were streetcars loaded with shells and dynamite.

2585

Big U.S. guns hammer vital Italian road

Rain and mud slow ground activity
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer

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2586

Adm. Nimitz: ‘U.S. Fleet ready to go anywhere’

Landing in China ‘when ready’ forecast

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2587

Jap fleet hit major blow, but it happened in 1592

Radio listeners get big surprise; Adm. Nimitz reads old communiqué

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Allies batter Mindanao bases

Fires, blasts set off near Philippines

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2588

Never dig a foxhole beneath a tree –
Yanks capture forest of the dead where Nazis forgot a rule of war

By Robert Richards, United Press staff writer

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2589

Thousands pay tribute to Willkie

Funeral services in New York today

New York (UP) –
Representatives, great and small, of the “one world” that Wendell L. Willkie envisaged pay their last tribute to him today at impressive funeral services in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

The body of the one-time homespun Indiana lawyer who became the Republican presidential candidate in 1940 lay in state in the big brownstone church where Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell will reach the funeral sermon this afternoon.

Some 60,000 persons filed through the church yesterday to pay their final respects. They were, in the main, office workers and laborers.

Mrs. Roosevelt to attend

Today’s services, by invitation, will be attended by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, representing the President, by Governor Thomas E. Dewey and many other dignitaries of this and other nations. The public will be admitted to those seats remaining of the church’s 2,400.

Mr. Willkie died Sunday of coronary thrombosis in Lenox Hill Hospital after he had previously shown improvement in a compilation of diseases, colitis and lung congestion.

At 6:00 p.m. ET, a Pennsylvania train will carry Mr. Willkie’s body toward Rushville, Indiana, 40 miles from Elwood where he was born and where he made a speech accepting the Republican nomination for President.

Son’s return awaited

Burial in Rushville will be postponed until Lt. (jg.) Philip Willkie, the only child of the Willkies, arrives home from convoy duty somewhere in the Atlantic.

Mrs. Willkie, ill from a throat infection similar to that which contributed to her husband’s death, will travel to Rushville with her brother-in-law, Edward Willkie.

2590

Powers yield to Russia on air force issue

Aviation unit is kept separate

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Russians insist on veto power

By the United Press

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2591

Churchill, Stalin open session

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