America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

2665

U.S. Navy Department (October 12, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 149

A large force of carrier aircraft from a task force of the Pacific Fleet struck enemy air bases and installations on Luzon during the afternoon of October 10 (West Longitude Date). Detailed reports of the damage inflicted are not yet available.

During October 11, elements of the 1st Marine Division continued to root out enemy troops from caves on Bloody Nose Ridge at Peleliu Island.

A commanding height was seized during the day which overlooks the small area held by the beleaguered defenders. On Angaur, enemy troops have been confined to an area 150 yards square by the mopping up of troops of the 81st Infantry Division. A single enemy plane bombed Angaur during the night of October 10‑11 but did no damage and was later shot down by one of our night fighters. Elements of the 81st Infantry Division reconnoitered Arimasuku Island during the day and found it unoccupied.

Three of our planes while on patrol near Iwo Jima on October 10 were attacked by eight enemy fighter planes. Six of the eight enemy planes were shot down. No damage was inflicted on our planes. Seventh Air Force Liberators sank a small enemy cargo ship south of Hahajima in the Bonins on October 11 while other Liberators bombed shipping and installations at Chichijima. Anti-aircraft fire on these attacks were moderate.

Thunderbolts of the 7th Air Force bombed and rocketed Pagan in the Marianas once on October 10 while Liberators and Thunderbolts struck twice on October 11. Liberators of the 7th Air Force attacked Marcus Island on October 11 experiencing meager anti-aircraft fire. Liberators attacked Wake Island on October 10.

On the same day, 7th Air Force Mitchells bombed gun emplacements and the runways at Nauru Island. Moderate anti-aircraft fire was encountered. On the night of October 10, Nauru was attacked by a single Navy search plane of Fleet Air Wing One.

Liberators of the 7th Air Force dropped 55 tons of bombs on the airfield and other installations at Moen Island in the Truk Atoll on October 9. Anti-aircraft fire was meager. Three enemy fighter planes attempted interception without success.

The 4th Marine Aircraft Wing conducted further neutralization raids against enemy‑held islands in the Marshalls on October 10.

2666

The Pittsburgh Press (October 12, 1944)

Two Aachen districts seized

U.S. infantry drives for dominating hill inside German city
By J. Edward Murray, United Press staff writer

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2667

‘No fraternization’ –
‘Yanks in Reich as conquerors’

‘Hard job ahead,’ Eisenhower warns

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2668

1,000 planes hit Formosa in Yank raid, Japs say

Tokyo radio reports vital fleet hideout dealt stunning blow
By the United Press

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2669

Roosevelt urges solid peace basis

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2670

americavotes1944

Soldier vote plans vary in district

Disposition of faulty ballots surveyed

Election authorities in 10 counties in the Pittsburgh district are following varied courses of procedure in deciding on the disposition of technically faulty military ballots, a survey by The Press revealed today.

None of the 10 countries canvassed appeared to be following the procedure adopted by Allegheny County Elections Director David Olbum.

Mr. Olbum has returned all ballots lacking the proper affidavits or signatures with letters asking the military voters to make corrections in accordance with the law and return the ballots at once.

However, one county, Armstrong, has adopted a policy just as effective.

New ballots sent

In that county, only three ballots so far have been returned without the proper affidavits. They were voided, but new ballots were sent to these voters with instructions for proper execution.

Most of the counties are simply laying aside the questionable ballots until the Board of County Commissioners, which will sit as an election board on the military vote canvass, adopts a ruling on whether or not these ballots are valid.

Of 111,324 military ballots mailed out in 11 Western Pennsylvania counties, 20,919, or 19 percent, have been returned to date.

From Fayette County, it was reported that as many as 500 military ballots may be voided on technical grounds.

Wait for decision

Election officials in Beaver and Westmoreland counties reported they are waiting for a decision, either from the State Elections Bureau, or other authorities, before determining what to do with ballots which do not conform strictly to the technical requirements.

Most of the counties, however, are seeking new addressed for ballots which have been returned undelivered. The new addresses, in most cases, are being solicited from the families. In two counties, Fayette and Somerset, the Civilian Defense organizations, which originally solicited the names and addresses, have been asked to dig up corrected addresses.

2671

Bobby-soxers swoon again; ‘Voice’ returns to Broadway

10,000 form line outside theater; ‘Frankie! Give us Frankie!’ they plead

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2672

Overseas holiday gifts to be accepted Monday

Washington (UP) –
Postmaster General Frank Walker today ordered the time limit for mailing Christmas packages to members of the Armed Forces overseas extended one day to the close of normal post office business hours on Monday, Oct. 16.

The previous deadline was midnight, Sunday, Oct. 15. Mr. Walker said the extension was made because in many small communities, post offices will be closed all day Sunday.

Step taken to speed casualty lists

Washington (UP) –
Secretary of War Stimson omitted from his press conference today the usual report of Army casualties because, he said, the system of compiling casualty totals is “being improved so as to give us more up-to-date figures and consequently a better picture of the situation.”

Mr. Stimson said the next of kin of the casualties would continue to be notified as soon as the names reach the War Department.

2673

I DARE SAY —
Pure and simple

By Florence Fisher Parry

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2674

Polish issue sidestepped by Roosevelt

Boundary question submitted to him

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2675

President to speak briefly tonight

Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt will make a brief radio talk tonight in acceptance a four-freedoms award to be presented to him by the Italian-American Labor Council.

The award will be presented at a dinner in New York by Luigi Antonini, president of the council, and Mr. Roosevelt will accept by radio from Washington.

Mr. Roosevelt’s remarks, part of a program beginning at 8:15 p.m. ET, will go on the air at 8:25. Mr. Roosevelt will speak for only about four or five minutes, according to the White House.

WCAE will broadcast the program.

2676

americavotes1944

Paper drops ‘battle page’

Daily News cites libel suit fear

New York (UP) –
The New York Daily News announced today it had stopped publication of its “battle page” in which Republicans and Democratic organizations were given equal space and which was delivered free to 35 newspapers because of the possibility of “libel troubles” in “this hottest and bitterest campaign since 1928.”

The newspaper said it made its decision after receiving a letter from “a prominent Republican” that falsehoods were printed in a recent issue of the Democratic side of the battle page and a letter from a “prominent member of the CIO-PAC” saying he was libeled by the Republicans.

Low blows registered

With almost a month of the campaign left and “tempers rising on both sides,” the newspaper said, “some below-the-belt blows have already been registered and the probability is that more and more will be.”

The News said:

If the battle page should involve us in libel troubles, we don’t see how other papers carrying the battle page could escape being involved too.

“We are sorry to call it off, but it seems the wisest thing to do,” the newspaper concluded.

Fear called ‘horse laugh’

The Democratic National Committee issued a 1,000-word statement saying “Joseph Medill Patterson [publisher of The News] can dish it out but he can’t take it,” and describing his “professed fear of libel” as a “horse laugh” because “the trade knows the aggressive manner in which The News fights all libel threats.”

The committee’s statement said:

We sniffed a strong connection between the Patterson decision and the cartoon we ran the morning of the funeral of the page.

The cartoon showed Candidate Dewey standing firmly in the door concealing the Republican cellar gang from the electorate and one of that gang was Mr. Patterson’s cousin, Col. Robert R. McCormick of the arch-isolationist Chicago Tribune.

Half page printed

A statement from the Republicans was unavailable due to the absence of RNC Chairman Herbert Brownell.

The newspaper PM carried the Democratic half of the battle page in today’s edition, and centered the blank Republican column with a statement from the Republicans declaring their proposed column dealt with Columbus Day, which “we scrapped unfinished when we heard from The News.”

2677

Heavy blows batter Jap oil resources

10th island in Palaus also occupied

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2678

In new League –
Congress to define U.S. authority

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Woman resigns from club over My Day skit

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2679

Yanks and British both bomb Reich

Plane, synthetic oil plants blasted

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Slugging film actress gets suspended term

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2680

‘Record’ raid rips Bologna in Italian drive

Reinforced Nazis slow push by land

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2681

‘Snood slaying’ recalled –
Girls kissing ‘casual males’ begs trouble, woman says

Washington physician-counselor says mothers should warn their daughters

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2682

americavotes1944

G.I.’s vote in England

London, England –
American soldiers today began casting votes for the next President of the United States and overseas voting will continue until Nov. 7, Election Day at home. The G.I.’s flocked to offices, barracks and mess halls throughout the United Kingdom to cast their votes.

2683

americavotes1944

CIO-PAC called subversive by Governor Bricker

Activities violate law, he believes

Portland, Oregon (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker today charged the CIO Political Action Committee was “subversive” and said that, in his belief, an “honest opinion by the Attorney General would rule PAC’s campaign activities a violation of the law.”

The Republican vice-presidential candidate, on a Western campaign swing, told a news conference:

The Political Action Committee is a real subversive organization. It marks the first time we’ve had a political force based on a subversive philosophy from other countries in our campaign.

Attorney General Biddle hit

Mr. Bricker did not elaborate his charges against PAC, but he added that “if we had an honest opinion from the Attorney General… it would rule the PAC a violation of the law.”

Governor Bricker today for the first time listed eight states as in the Republican “sure” column: Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota and Iowa.

Governor Bricker climaxed his Washington drive in Tacoma last night when he told the biggest indoor audience he has faced on this tour that the New Deal candidates should be judged by the company they keep – Sidney Hillman and Earl Browder.

Support not repudiated

His speech was described by his staff as an answer to President Roosevelt’s address of last Thursday. He said that Mr. Roosevelt, “in weak words,” denied he sought or welcomed Communistic or Fascistic support.

Governor Bricker charged:

But he did not repudiate their support. That is a significant fact. Is he now resigned to their support?

The Ohioan recalled a statement the President made in 1938 that political candidates should be judged by their companions. Mr. Roosevelt’s “companions” in this campaign, he said, are Hillman and Browder, “the convict he pardoned.” These two, he added, are the “promoters and financiers” of the New Deal.

Dragged to the bottom

He denied Mr. Roosevelt’s statement of last Thursday that “we have fought our way out of an economic crisis.”

Governor Bricker said:

The fact is that after years of unprecedented spending, pump-priming and economic tinkering, after multiplying the public debt, after exercising power never dreamed of by a preceding administration, and after killing livestock, destroying crops and hamstringing business, the New Deal dragged this country to the bottom of the list of nations in terms of industrial recovery.

With Governor Thomas E. Dewey as President and a “supporting Congress,” he promised there would be jobs for returning soldiers and the people at home, more of “the things we want and need,” and an America “once more on the high road to a noble and better future.”

2684

americavotes1944

TVA on Missouri urged by Truman

Second flood control speech is planned

New Orleans, Louisiana (UP) –
Senator Harry S. Truman said today that projects patterned after the Tennessee Valley Authority on other large tributaries of the Mississippi River would be a major step toward a permanent solution of flood control problems.

The Democratic nominee for the Vice Presidency spoke over a special hookup of Mississippi Valley radio stations in the first of two “nonpolitical” address on flood control. The second was scheduled for a luncheon session of the Mississippi Valley Association.

He joined President Roosevelt in recommending a Missouri Valley Authority, similar to TVA, to provide an integrated program of flood control, irrigation and power development along the Missouri River.

Senator Truman said the administration had done more in 12 years to combat floods than had ever been done before. A flood control program, he said, must be an integral part of a more comprehensive plan “to control our rivers and to make them our servants instead of our masters.” He said water could be impounded in reservoirs to restrain floodwaters, provide a source of power, promote soil conversion, assist navigation and provide irrigation water when needed in dry periods.

Senator Truman leaves tonight for Los Angeles, where he will deliver the first “political” address of his 7,500-mile campaign tour Monday night.