Scoring vs. defense –
Giant-Eagle tussle tops pro clashes
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Railroad’s post-war program emphasizes comfort, economy and plenty of glamor
All types of coaches will be improved
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Dykstra to head California school
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Lousy little old company –
‘There ain’t any going back from this hill except dead’
‘I’ve taken this for 39 days and it stinks,’ the captain says as he bows head and sobs
By W. C. Heinz, North American Newspaper Alliance
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Grew predicts peace offer soon by Japs
Warns Tokyo bid faces rejection
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Bomb hits Yank on head and he is still grinning
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Waldman: Communist menace hides behind claim of numerical weakness
Movement dropped party identification rather than expose itself by registration
By Louis Waldman, written for the Scripps-Howard newspapers
EDITOR’S NOTE: Louis Waldman, for many years a leader in the Socialist movement, was one of the Socialist assemblymen expelled from the New York Legislature after the last war despite the backing of such eminent Americans as former Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. Born in the Ukraine in 1892, he came to America in 1909, received an engineering degree at Cooper Union and later a law degree at New York University. He was New York state chairman of the Socialist Party and twice its candidate for the New York governorship. After leaving the Socialist Party, he helped found the American Labor Party. Attorney for labor unions, Mr. Waldman recently published his autobiography, Labor Lawyer.
New York –
“The Bolshevik bogey is a creation of Dr. Goebbels,” Earl Browder scoffs, assuring us that the American Communist Party has been dissolved and that the Communists no longer advocate revolutionary socialism – that, in fact, their influence is so slight that they cannot be considered a menace. Besides, they now lend their influence to the furtherance of “free enterprise.”
Why this sudden conversion and why the indulgence in self-ridicule? Well, to prove that the Communist issue in this campaign is spurious.
It has become customary, and even fashionable, in some liberal and labor circles, to denounce any criticism of totalitarian personalities and tendencies as “Red-baiting.” Further, ‘the idea that such an anti-democratic organization as the “numerically small” Communist Party can constitute a threat is laughed at. And to expose as Communist-controlled the various fronts through which they extend their influence, is damned as “playing into the hands of the reactionaries.”
Fraud on people
In my opinion, the question of the position and power of the Communists in America today is one of public welfare, not a question of partisan politics.
No greater fraud has ever been perpetrated on the American people than that of selling them the idea that the number of Communists is so small and their influence so slight as to be insignificant.
As evidence supporting their confession of weakness, the Communists and their apologists frequently point to the fact that in the New York State elections in 1942, their candidate for governor, Israel Amter, failed to get the 50,000 votes required by law to keep the name of the party on the ballot.
Feared registration
Is this portrait true end realistic? In 1938, Amter, as Communist candidate for Congressman-at-large, received well over 100,000 votes in the state. In 1941, the Communist, Peter Cacchione, was elected councilman from BrookIyn. His vote in that single borough was large enough to give the party legal standing were that vote recorded for their candidate for governor.
But they did not want to continue as an independent political party because that would have meant that the Communists, or, at least some of them, would have had to register. Registration leaves a record, and they want no record. Their identities were now to be concealed in order to hide their penetration into trade unions, into government, into high bureaucratic positions, into the American Labor Party, into the school system and into the various front organizations, including the CIO-Political Action Committee.
The Communist Political Association prefers to be the holding company of its many political, cultural and fraternal subsidiaries. By interlocking directorates and management arrangements through so-called “research” and other services, the holding company can wield control and shape policy, without tipping its hand.
Public entitled to facts
The American public is entitled, to know the facts about the Communist holding company, and the fronts created to attain power.
And is its influence insignificant when in the largest city in the country, the Communists control nearly one-fifth of the members of the city council?
In spite of Sidney Hillman’s denials, the Communists control the American Labor Party, which polled over 400,000 votes in New York State. Two hundred trade union leaders and liberals who know the makeup of this party because they were formerly in control of it, in a statement on March 29 last, declared:
It appears quite evident that the Browder-Marcantonio-Hillman vote in the primary equals the full Communist strength polled in former elections… The Communists have feverishly sought a new party front. With the aid of Mr. Hillman, they have it now in the captured American Labor Party. It is now the Communist-Labor Party.
Many unions captured
Many labor unions, national in scope, have been captured by the Communists, and they dominate a large number of locals within international unions not under their control.
The actual number of members of the Communist Party is no criterion of their future power. When the civil war began in Spain in 1936, there were far fewer Communists there than in the United States in 1944. But in one year of crisis, the Communists gained dominance over all the other parties in the Loyalist government. The tactic through which they achieved this power was the popular front.
That is not likely to happen in the United States – not yet – because our democratic traditions, our love of freedom, are too deeply rooted. But complacency has its price. The infiltration of Communists into our trade unions and into political and cultural organizations brings in its train an acceptance of a totalitarian way of thinking that is more alarming than their numerical growth.
Dangerous trends defended
We are urged to accept as “inevitable” certain trends and tendencies which, in the view of many honest liberals, are a threat to our American democracy and to our fundamental values:
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The contempt for the parliamentary process of social change; the attack by impatient liberals on our “reactionary” Congress – elected by the people.
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The easy acceptance of the “leadership principle” in all our institutions.
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The alarming increase of government by executive order, by decree and directive.
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The trend toward trial by administrative tribunals.
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The vesting of wider and wider discretionary powers in administrative agencies and bureaus.
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The gradual but continuing entrenchment of a bureaucratic elite heading an all-powerful state.
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The complacency of liberals toward the use of the “emergency” legislative device, the appeal to panic, to fear, as a means of inducing acceptance of emergency measures.
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The mislabeling of political and intellectual wares in the public marketplace of ideas: concealment. behind “democratic fronts,” of ideas and groups that are in essence totalitarian.
Threaten political setup
These trends, accelerated by the war, create a social “climate” alien to democracy in which totalitarian policies, tactics and organizations get themselves accepted and defended. Unless they are recognized for what they are, and checked or reversed, they will come to dominate the American political scene.
Domestic affairs are inseparable from foreign affairs. American Communists are interested mainly in foreign affairs. Their primary concern is not to fight for the interests of American labor, but for the national interests of Russia. The Communists hope that they can use their influence here for a more pro-Soviet foreign policy.
Roosevelt didn’t do this, but he should have.
What exactly? Free enterprise or destroying small business?
the small business Hitlerite has been the backbone of the American far right for as long as I can remember, also the economy of scale.
I disagree. Small businesses aren’t fronts for extremes. It only appears that way because big business makes it seem so.
1 Like
Address by President Roosevelt
October 28, 1944, 9:00 p.m. EWT
Broadcast from Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois
Broadcast audio:
Mr. Mayor, Senator Lucas, and I think I’m not too privy in saying, Governor Courtney, my friends of Illinois, and Indiana, and Wisconsin:
The American people are now engaged in the greatest war of all history – and we are also engaged in a political campaign.
We are fighting this war and we are holding this election both for the same essential reason: because we have faith in democracy.
And there is no force and there is no combination of forces powerful enough to shake that faith.
As you know, I have had some experience in war – and I have also had a certain amount of previous experience in political campaigning.
But I must confess to you that this is the strangest campaign I have ever seen.
I have listened to the various Republican orators who are urging the people to throw the present Administration out and put them in. And what do they say?
Well, they say in effect, just this:
Those incompetent blunderers and bunglers in Washington have passed a lot of excellent laws about social security and labor and farm relief and soil conservation – and many others – and we promise that if elected we will not change any of them.
And they go on to say, “Those same quarrelsome, tired old men – they have built the greatest military machine the world has ever known, which is fighting its way to victory, and,” they say, “if you elect us, we promise not to change any of that, either.”
“Therefore,” say these Republican orators, “it is time for a change.”
They also say in effect, “Those inefficient and worn-out crackpots have really begun to lay the foundations of a lasting world peace. If you elect us, we will not change any of that, either.” “But,” they whisper, “we’ll do it in such a way that we won’t lose the support even of Gerald Nye or Gerald Smith – and this is very important – we won’t lose the support of any isolationist campaign contributor. Why, we will be able to satisfy even the Chicago Tribune.”
Tonight, I want to talk simply to you about the future of America – about this land of ours, this land of unlimited opportunity. I shall give the Republican campaign orators some more opportunities to say – “me too.”
Today, everything we do is devoted to the most important job before us – winning the war and bringing our men and women home as quickly as possible.
We have astonished the whole world and confounded our enemies with our stupendous war production, with the overwhelming courage and skill of our fighting men – with the bridge of ships carrying our munitions and men through the seven seas – with our gigantic fleet which has pounded the enemy all over the Pacific and has just driven through for another touchdown.
Yes, the American people are prepared to meet the problems of peace in the same bold way that they have met the problems of war.
For the American people are resolved that when our men and women return home from this war, they shall come back to the best possible place on the face of the earth – they shall come back to a place where all persons, regardless of race, and color, or creed or place of birth, can live in peace and honor and human dignity – free to speak, free to pray as they wish, free from want, and free from fear.
Last January, in my message to the Congress on the State of the Union, I outlined an Economic Bill of Rights on which “a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all.”
And I repeat it now:
The right of a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
Now, what do those rights mean? They “spell security. And after this war is won, we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and wellbeing.”
Some people – I need not name them – have sneered at these ideals as well as at the ideals of the Atlantic Charter, the ideals of the Four Freedoms. They have said that they were the dreams of starry-eyed New Dealers – that it is silly to talk of them because we cannot attain these ideals tomorrow or the next day.
The American people have greater faith than that. I know that they agree with these objectives – that they demand them – that they are determined to get them, and that they are going to get them.
The American people have a good habit – the habit of going right ahead and accomplishing the impossible.
We know that, and other people know it. Today, there are those that know it best of all: the Nazis and the Japs.
Now, this Economic Bill of Rights is the recognition of the simple fact that, in America, the future of the worker, the future of the farmer lies in the wellbeing of private enterprise; and that the future of private enterprise lies in the wellbeing of the worker and the farmer. It goes both ways.
And the wellbeing of the nation as a whole is synonymous with the wellbeing of each and every one of its citizens.
Now I have the possibly old-fashioned theory that when you have problems to solve, when you have objectives to achieve, you cannot get very far by just talking about them.
We have got to go out and do something!
To assure the full realization of the right to a useful and remunerative employment, an adequate program must, and if I have anything to do about it will, provide America with close to sixty million productive jobs.
I foresee an expansion of our peacetime productive capacity that will require new facilities, new plants, new equipment – capable of hiring millions of men.
I propose that the government do its part in helping private enterprise to finance expansion of our private industrial plant through normal investment channels.
For example, business, large and small, must be encouraged by the government to expand its plants, to replace its obsolete or worn-out equipment with new equipment. And to that end, the rate of depreciation on these new plants and facilities for tax purposes should be accelerated. That means more jobs for the worker, increased profits for the businessman, and a lower cost to the consumer.
In 1933, when my administration took office, vast numbers of our industrial workers were unemployed, our plants and our businesses were idle, our monetary and banking system was in ruins – our economic resources were running to waste.
But by 1940, before Pearl Harbor, we had increased our employment by ten million workers. We had converted a corporate loss of five and one-half billion dollars in 1932, to a corporate profit (after taxes) of nearly five billion dollars in 1940.
Obviously, to increase jobs after this war, we shall have to in- crease demand for our industrial and agricultural production not only here at home, but abroad also.
I am sure that every man and woman in this vast gathering here tonight will agree with me in my conviction that never again must we in the United States attempt to isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity.
I am convinced that, with Congressional approval, the foreign trade of the United States can be trebled after the war – providing millions of more jobs.
Such cooperative measures provide the soundest economic foundation for a lasting peace. And, after this war, we do not intend to settle for anything less than a lasting peace.
When we think of the America of tomorrow, we think of many things.
One of them is the American home – in our cities, in our villages, on our farms. Millions of our people have never had homes worthy of American standards – well built homes, with electricity and plumbing, air and sunlight.
The demand for homes and our capacity to build them call for a program of well over a million homes a year for at least ten years. Private industry can build and finance the vast majority of these homes. Government can and will assist and encourage private industry to do this, as it has for many years. For those very low-income groups that cannot possibly afford decent homes, the federal government should continue to assist local housing authorities in meeting that need.
In the future America that we are talking about, we think of new highways, new parkways. We think of thousands of new airports to service the new commercial and private air travel which is bound to come after the war. We think of new planes, large and small, new cheap automobiles with low maintenance and operation costs. We think of new hospitals and new health clinics. We think of a new merchant marine for our expanded world trade.
My friends, think of these vast possibilities for industrial expansion – and you will foresee opportunities for more millions of jobs.
And with all that, our Economic Bill of Rights – like the sacred Bill of Rights of our Constitution itself – must be applied to all our citizens, irrespective of race, or creed or color.
Three years ago, back in 1941, I appointed a Fair Employment Practice Committee to prevent discrimination in war industry and Government employment. The work of that Committee and the results obtained more than justify its creation.
I believe that the Congress of the United States should by law make the Committee permanent.
America must remain the land of high wages and efficient production. Every full-time job in America must provide enough for a decent living. And that goes for jobs in mines, offices, factories, stores, and canneries – everywhere where men and women are employed.
During the war, we have been compelled to limit wage and salary increases for one great objective – to prevent runaway inflation. You all know how successfully we have held the line by the way your cost of living has been kept down for the necessities of life.
However, at the end of the war there will be more goods available, and it is only common sense to see to it that the working man is paid enough, and that the farmers earn enough, to buy these goods and keep our factories running. It is a simple fact, likewise, that a greatly increased production of food and fiber on the farms can be consumed by the people who work in industry only if those people who work in industry have enough money to buy food and clothing. If industrial wages go down, I can assure you that farm prices will go down too. After the war, we shall of course remove the control of wages and leave their determination to free collective bargaining between trade unions and employers.
And we of the cities, in this war, must remember that the American farmer has been called upon to do far and away the biggest food production job in all our history.
The American farmer has met that challenge triumphantly.
Despite all manner of wartime difficulties – shortage of farm labor and of new farm machinery – the American farmer has achieved a total of food production which is one of the great wonders of the world.
The American farmer is a great producer; and he must have the means also to be a great consumer. For more farm income means more jobs everywhere in the nation.
Let us look back for a moment to 1932, a year of unhappy memories. All of us remember the spreading tide of farm foreclosures; we remember four-cent hogs, 20-cent wheat, five-cent cotton.
I am going to give you, very simply, some figures of recovery – and I am sure you will pardon me if I quote them correctly. For as I remarked at Fort Wayne this afternoon, it is my habit to quote figures correctly, even when I was Governor of the State of New York, many years ago.
In those days of 1932, the American farmers’ net income was only two and a quarter billion dollars.
In 1940 – a year before we were attacked – farm income in the United States was more than doubled. It was up to five and a half billion dollars.
And this year – in 1944 – it will be approximately thirteen and one-half billion dollars.
I take it that the American farmer does not want to go back to a government owned by the moguls of 1929 – and let us bear it constantly in mind that those same moguls still control the destinies of the Republican Party.
We must continue this administration’s policy of conserving the enormous gifts with which an abundant Providence has blessed our country – our soil, our forests, and our water.
For example, the work of the Tennessee Valley Authority is closely related to our national farm policy – our farm program, and we look forward toward similar developments which I have recommended in other places – the valley of the Missouri, the valley of the Arkansas, and the Columbia River Basin out on the far coast.
And incidentally – and as an aside – I cannot resist the temptation to point to the gigantic contribution to our war effort made by the power generated at TVA and Bonneville and Grand Coulee.
But, do you remember when the building of these great public works was ridiculed as New Deal “boondoggling”? And we are planning – almost ready to put into effect – developments at Grand Coulee, which will provide irrigation for many tens of thousands of acres, providing fertile land for settlement – I hope – by many of our returning soldiers and sailors.
This administration has put into the law of the land the farmers’ long dream of parity prices.
We propose, too, that the government will cooperate when the weather will not – by a genuine crop insurance program.
This administration has adopted – and will continue – the policy of giving to as many farmers as possible the chance of owning their own farms.
That means something to those veterans who left their farms to fight for their country.
And after this war has ended, then will come the time when the returning servicemen can grow their own apples on their own farms instead of having to sell apples on the street corners.
I believe in free enterprise – and always have.
I believe in the profit system – and always have.
I believe that private enterprise can give full employment to our people.
If anyone feels that my faith in our ability to provide 60 million peacetime jobs is fantastic, let him remember that some people said the same thing about my demand in 1940 for 50,000 airplanes.
I believe in exceptional rewards for innovation, skill, and risk-taking by business.
We shall lift production and price control as soon as they are no longer needed – encouraging private business to produce more of the things to which we are accustomed and also thousands of new things, in ever-increasing volume, under conditions of free and open competition.
This administration has been mindful from its earliest days, and will continue to be mindful, of the problems of small business as well as large.
Small business played a magnificent part in producing thousands of items needed for our Armed Forces. When the war broke out it was mobilized into war production. Money was loaned to them for machinery. Over one million contracts and subcontracts have been distributed among 60,000 of the smaller plants of our nation.
We shall make sure that small business is given every facility to buy government-owned plants, equipment, and inventories. The special credit and capital requirements of small business are going to be met.
And small business will continue to be protected from selfish, cold-blooded monopolies and cartels. Beware of that profound enemy of the free enterprise system who pays lip-service to free competition – but also labels every anti-trust prosecution as a “persecution.” You know, it depends a good deal on whose baby has the measles.
This war has demonstrated that when the American businessman and the American worker and the American farmer work together, they form an unbeatable team.
We know that, you and I, our allies know that – and so do our enemies.
That winning team must keep together after the war, and it will win many more historic victories of peace for our country, for the cause of security, and for decent standards of living here and throughout the world.
We owe it to our fighting men; we owe it to their families we owe it to all of our people who have given so much in this war – we owe it to our children – to keep that winning team together.
The future of America, like its past, must be made by deeds, not words.
America has always been a land of action, a land of adventurous pioneering, a land of growing and building.
America must always be such a land.
The creed of our democracy is that liberty is acquired, liberty is kept by men and women who are strong, self-reliant, and possessed of such wisdom as God gives to mankind – men and women who are just, men and women who are understanding, and generous to others – men and women who are capable of disciplining themselves.
For they are the rulers, and they must rule themselves.
I believe in our democratic faith. I believe in the future of our country which has given eternal strength and vitality to that faith.
Here in Chicago, you know a lot about that vitality.
And as I say good night to you, I say it in a spirit of faith – a spirit of hope – a spirit of confidence.
We are not going to turn the clock back!
We are going forward, my friends – forward with the fighting millions of our fellow countrymen.
We are going forward together.
Völkischer Beobachter (October 29, 1944)
Der Kampf bei Leyte
Neue japanische Erfolge gegen die US-Flotte
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Ein furchtbares Erwachen in Belgien und Finnland –
Anglo-amerikanische Hilfe: 20 Gramm Nahrung pro Kopf
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Die Anglo-Amerikaner stehen den Bolschewisten nicht nach –
Neu aufgedeckte Bestialitäten in Ostpreußen
…
Führer HQ (October 29, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
In Holland Wurde in unserem Brückenkopf westlich Breskens der Feind aus einer Einbruchsstelle geworfen. Auf Südbeveland stehen unsere Truppen weiter in hartem Kampf gegen den von Süden und Osten verstärkt angreifenden Feind. Zwischen Bergen-op-Zoom und Herzogenbusch setzten Kanadier, Engländer und Amerikaner ihre Großangriffe fort. Trotz hartnäckigsten Widerstandes konnten unsere Truppen gegenüber den überlegenen feindlichen Kräften, die in diesen Kämpfen hohe Ausfälle erlitten, Einbrüche nicht verhindern. Gegenangriffe sind angesetzt. In Bergen-op-Zoom und mehreren anderen Orten sind heftige Straßenkämpfe entbrannt. Bei örtlichen Kämpfen südöstlich Helmond wurden mehrere feindliche Angriffe abgewiesen, 18 Panzer und -2 Panzerspähwagen abgeschossen.
Schnelle Kampf- und Nachtschlachtflugzeuge griffen in der vergangenen Nacht einen feindlichen Nachschubstützpunkt bei Aachen mit guter Wirkung an. In den Westvogesen führten die Nordamerikaner in den Wäldern zwischen Mortagne und Meurthe westlich Saint-Dié starke Angriffe nach Norden und Südosten. Durch unsere Gegenangriffe wurden sie in der Flanke gefasst, bevor sie freies Gelände gewinnen konnten.
London wurde erneut durch unsere „V1“ beschossen.
In Mittelitalien fanden auch gestern keine größeren Kampfhandlungen statt. Bei zahlreichen Stoßtruppunternehmen wurden dem Feind hohe Verluste beigebracht. Überraschende Säuberungsunternehmen unserer Sicherungsverbände fügten den Bänden in Oberitalien schwere Schläge zu. Sie verloren über 3.660 Tote und 8.200 Gefangene und die Masse ihrer schweren Waffen. Ihre Waldlager und Schlupfwinkel wurden zerstört.
Auf dem Balkan wurde der Raum von Larissa befehlsgemäß nach Norden geräumt. Der Druck der Bulgaren auf unsere Stellungen zwischen dem Strumicatal und dem Gebiet westlich Nisch dauert an. Zahlreiche feindliche Angriffe im westlichen Moravatal wurden zerschlagen.
Zwischen Donau und Theiß verbesserten ungarische Truppen im Angriff ihre Stellungen. An den Theißbrückenköpfen nordöstlich SzoInok kam es zu örtlichen Kämpfen. Nördlich und nordwestlich Debrecen schlugen unsere Divisionen starke Angriffe der Bolschewisten ab und fügten den Angreifern hohe Verluste zu. Bei Ungvár versuchte der Feind weiter nach Westen vorzudringen. Durch Gegenangriffe deutscher und ungarischer Truppen wurde er geworfen.
Im ostpreußischen Grenzgebiet hat der Feind auf Grund seiner in den bisherigen Kämpfen erlittenen schweren Verluste den Großangriff zunächst eingestellt. Lediglich südöstlich Gumbinnen griffen die Bolschewisten mit stärkeren Kräften vergeblich an. Im Nordabschnitt geht der Großkampf südöstlich Libau und bei Autz mit verstärkter Wucht weiter. Unsere hervorragend kämpfenden Truppen vereitelten alle Durchbruchsversuche des Feindes. In den ersten beiden Tagen der Schlacht in Kurland wurden 141 Flugzeuge abgeschossen. Damit verloren die Sowjets in den letzten 48 Stunden an der gesamten Ostfront 183 Flugzeuge.
Anglo-amerikanische Terrorflieger griffen Köln, Münster und Hamm an. In der vergangenen Nacht warfen einzelne feindliche Flugzeuge Bomben auf Köln und München. Feindliche Tiefflieger setzten ihre Angriffe gegen die Zivilbevölkerung in West- und Südwestdeutschland fort. 16 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 10 viermotorige Bomber, wurden abgeschossen.
In den heftigen Kämpfen im südlichen Ungarn haben sich das Feldersatzbataillon 94 unter Führung von Major Kresse, das III. Bataillon des Gebirgsjägerregiments 91 unter Führung von Hauptmann Überschaar und die III. Abteilung der Sturmgeschützbrigade 239 unter Führung von Oberleutnant Kettel besonders ausgezeichnet.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (October 29, 1944)
FROM
(A) SHAEF FORWARD
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
291100A October
TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR (Pass to WND)
TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(2) FIRST US ARMY GP
(3) ADV HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) FWD ECH (MAIN) 12 ARMY GP
(5) AEAF
(6) ANCXF
(7) EXFOR MAIN
(8) EXFOR REAR
(9) DEFENSOR, OTTAWA
(10) CANADIAN C/S, OTTAWA
(11) WAR OFFICE
(12) ADMIRALTY
(13) AIR MINISTRY
(14) ETOUSA
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM Z APO 871
(18) SHAEF MAIN
(REF NO.)
NONE
(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR
Communiqué No. 204
In Zuid Beveland, the Allied bridgehead over the Beveland Canal has been extended. Fighters and fighter-bombers bombed and strafed gun positions and troops near Kapelle and supported our ground operations on the peninsula. South of the Scheldt, we have reached the outskirts of Zuidzande. Near Cadzand, our fighter-bombers hit gun positions and fortified buildings housing enemy troops. Escorted heavy bombers attacked gun emplacements on the island of Walcheren. Two bombers are missing. Fighter-bombers and rocket-firing fighters went for similar targets on the island.
On the east of the Dutch salient, our forces repulsed counterattacks north and west of Meijel. The enemy’s communication system in Holland and the Rhineland was under air attack throughout the day. Medium and light bombers hit the rail bridge over the Ijssel River at Deventer, a bridge carrying the road and railway over the Meuse River at Venlo, and destroyed the central span of a road bridge over the river at Roermond.
From Aachen to the Forêt de Parroy, there were no important changes. Our patrols were active in the Aachen and Monschau areas. Fighter-bombers in strength attacked railways and bridges in the Rhineland from Wesel in the north to Karlsruhe in the south. Over 40 locomotives and a large number of rail trucks were destroyed or damaged and rail tracks west of the Rhine were cut in some 60 places. Medium and light bombers struck at railway bridges at Ahrweiler and Sinzig. One light bomber is missing. During the day, fighter-bombers shot down 13 enemy aircraft.
Köln was attacked in daylight by a strong force of heavy bombers escorted by fighters. Heavy-caliber German artillery shelled the city of Luxembourg early yesterday. Sporadic artillery and small arms fire were encountered by our units in the Moselle River Valley. In the Épinal sector, we made limited gains east of Bruyères. The village of Jussarupt was taken against strong opposition. Enemy artillery fire was strong at several points in this area and also in the Vosges Mountains.
COORDINATED WITH: G-2, G-3 to C/S
THIS MESSAGE MAY BE SENT IN CLEAR BY ANY MEANS
/s/
Precedence
“OP” - AGWAR
“P” - Others
ORIGINATING DIVISION
PRD, Communique Section
NAME AND RANK TYPED. TEL. NO.
D. R. JORDAN, Lt Col FA Ext. 9
AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/U.S. Navy Department (October 29, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 168
Amplifying reports on the second battle of the Philippine Sea, although still subject to revision as more information is received, indicate an overwhelming victory for the Third and Seventh United States Fleets. The Japanese fleet has been decisively defeated and routed. The Second Battle of the Philippine Sea ranks as one of the major sea battles of World War II in the Pacific – together with the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 4‑8, 1942), the Battle of Midway (June 3‑6, 1942), the Battle of Guadalcanal (November 12‑15, 1942) and the First Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19, 1944).
Movements of major Japanese fleet units northward from the Singapore area were detected on October 21 and 22 (West Longitude Date). Submarine scouts sighted the enemy force, sank two ATAGO-class heavy cruisers and severely damaged a third. Ships of the Third Fleet were moved into position to the eastward of the Philippines off Surigao Strait, San Bernardino Strait, and the Polillo Islands. On October 23, carrier searches discovered two strong enemy naval forces moving eastward, one through the Sibuyan Sea and the other through the Sulu Sea.
Photographs by carrier aircraft showed that the force moving eastward through the Sibuyan Sea included five battleships, thought to be the YAMATO, MUSASHI, NAGATO, KONGO and HARUNA; eight cruisers, two MOGAMI, two TONE, two NACHI, one ATAGO, one NOSHIRO; and 13 destroyers. The force moving eastward through the Sulu Sea consisted of two battleships of the YAMASHIRO class, two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and seven or eight destroyers.
As soon as the presence of the two enemy fleet forces in the Philippine Islands was discovered on October 23, Hellcat fighters, Avenger torpedo planes and Helldiver dive bombers from the Third Fleet carriers were launched to attack both forces. In the Sibuyan Sea, one battleship and one cruiser were severely damaged and set afire and may have sunk. Three other battleships received bombs and torpedoes; three other heavy cruisers received bombs and torpedoes; and one light cruiser was torpedoed, capsized and sank. In the Sulu Sea, bomb hits were made on both battleships. Cruisers and destroyers were strafed with rockets and machine guns.
Meanwhile, to the eastward of the Philippines, enemy shore‑based aircraft were attacking our carriers. In the aerial battle that ensued, more than 150 enemy aircraft were shot down. Our losses, on which exact figures are not yet available, were light. In this attack, the carrier PRINCETON was hit by a bomb which caused a bad fire. Later the PRINCETON’s magazine blew up and the ship was so badly damaged that she had to be sunk by our own forces.
Also on the afternoon of October 23, a land‑based Navy search plane discovered the presence of an enemy carrier force approximately 200 miles off Cape Engaño of Northern Luzon, heading south. This force consisted of 17 warships including a large carrier, believed to be of the ZUIKAKU class; three light carriers of the CHITOSE and ZUIHŌ classes; two battleships of the ISE class with fight decks aft; a heavy cruiser of the MOGAMI class; a light cruiser of the NOSHIRO class; three cruisers of the KISO class; and six destroyers.
To meet this serious threat, the C3F concentrated several of his carrier task groups and started northward at high speed for a dawn attack.
These units of the Third Fleet steamed north at full speed through the night and caught the enemy so completely by surprise on the morning of October 24 that there was no effective air opposition. Later in the forenoon enemy carrier aircraft which had been refueled ashore in the Philippines flew out to join their ships which had already met disaster. The enemy planes arrived too late to get into the fight and 21 were shot down by our combat patrols. In this action, the following destruction was inflicted upon the enemy:
SUNK:
One carrier of the ZUIKAKU class, sunk by carrier aircraft. One light carrier of the ZUIHŌ class, crippled by carrier aircraft and later sunk by the gunfire of cruisers and destroyers. Two light carriers of the CHITOSE class, sunk by carrier aircraft. One light cruiser or large destroyer sunk by gunfire. One destroyer sunk by carrier aircraft. One cruiser was severely damaged by carrier aircraft and was sunk during the night by a submarine.
DAMAGED:
One battleship hit by 2‑4 torpedoes and many bombs. One battleship hit by bombs. Three cruisers damaged by bombs and gunfire. Four destroyers bombed, strafed or hit by gunfire.
None of the Third Fleet ships engaged with the enemy carrier force were damaged. The Third Fleet in this phase of the action lost 10 planes, eight pilots and 10 aircrewmen, all shot down by anti-aircraft fire. Before all the damaged enemy ships could be tracked down and destroyed the engagement was broken off to proceed to the assistance of Seventh Fleet carrier escort groups then under attack off Samar Island.
The enemy force of battleships, cruisers and destroyers which had been attacked in the Sibuyan Sea had sortied through the San Bernardino Strait in spite of damage inflicted by our carrier aircraft, and had attacked units of the Seventh Fleet off Samar Island during the morning of October 24. In the ensuing battle, most of the enemy’s heavy ships were badly damaged by Seventh Fleet units assisted by carrier aircraft from the Third Fleet. One cruiser of the MOGAMI class was seen to sink and one destroyer was left dead in the water. The enemy force ran northwest from the scene of the action and during the early hours of darkness passed westward through the San Bernardino Strait. About 2:00 a.m., a straggling cruiser was sunk by gunfire of the Third Fleet.
Meanwhile the southern enemy force had crossed the Sulu Sea, the Mindanao Sea, had attempted to pass through the Surigao Strait, and met the Seventh Fleet in a night action October 24‑25. As announced by CINCSWPA, all units of this enemy force were sunk or decisively defeated.
On October 25, carrier aircraft of the Third Fleet were launched against the crippled and damaged enemy fleeing westward through the Sibuyan Sea. Damage done to the enemy during the retirement of the enemy forces from San Bernardino Strait by the combined efforts of the Third and Seventh Fleets and shore‑based aircraft of the Southwest Pacific Area included one MOGAMI-class cruiser sunk off Mindoro Island, one NOSHIRO-class cruiser sunk south of Mindoro Island, one battleship possibly sunk, and three other battleships and three other cruisers further damaged.
The total damage inflicted on the Japanese fleet during the period October 22‑27, 1844, included:
SUNK:
- Two battleships
- Four carriers
- Six heavy cruisers
- Three light cruisers
- Three small cruisers or large destroyers
- Six destroyers
SEVERELY DAMAGED AND MAY HAVE SUNK:
- One battleship
- Three heavy cruisers
- Two light cruisers
- Seven destroyers
ESCAPED IN A DAMAGED CONDITION:
- Six battleships
- Four heavy cruisers
- One light cruiser
- Ten destroyers
During the same actions, the losses sustained by U.S. naval forces were one light carrier (PRINCETON), two escort carriers, two destroyers, one destroyer escort and a few lesser craft.
The following battleships seriously damaged at Pearl Harbor took part in these actions: WEST VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, TENNESSEE, CALIFORNIA, and PENNSYLVANIA. The new carriers LEXINGTON, WASP and HORNET also participated.
In all these actions, U.S. submarines played a highly important part and are credited with sinking and damaging several enemy warships – both before and after the air and sea battles on October 23, 24 and 25.
Much of the credit for the destruction inflicted on the Japanese fleet goes to the naval airmen who gallantly and relentlessly pressed their attacks home with telling effect.
Remarks by President Roosevelt
October 29, 1944
Delivered at Clarksburg, West Virginia
My friends:
This being Sunday, the Governor, cooperating with me in keeping politics out of it, says that he is not even going to introduce me.
I have been here before, and it is a great comfort to come on a Sunday in a campaign year, because on Sundays my life is made much more comfortable by not having to think about politics. Unfortunately, I do have to think about the war, because every day, including Sundays, dispatches come to me, on the train even, to tell me of the progress of our boys in Europe and in the Pacific and in the Philippines. I cannot get rid of that.
Coming up through the state today, I have been looking out of the window, and I think there is a subject that is a good subject for Sunday, because I remember the line in the poem, “Only God can make a tree.” And one of the things that people have to realize all over the United States, and I think especially in West Virginia – I don’t see the trees I ought to see. That is something that we in this country have fallen down on. We have been using up natural resources that we ought to have replaced. I know we can’t replace coal – it will be a long time before all the coal is gone – but trees constitute something that we can replace.
We have to think not just of an annual crop, not just something that we can eat the next year. We have to think of a longer crop, something that takes years to grow, but which in the long run is going to do more good for our children and for our grandchildren than if we leave the hills bare.
I remember a story, and it is taken out of Germany. There was a town there – I don’t know what has happened in the last twenty years – but this is back when I used to be in grade school in Germany – and I used to bicycle. And we came to a town, and outside of it there was a great forest. And the interesting thing to me, as a boy even, was that the people in that town didn’t have to pay taxes. They were supported by their own forest.
Way back in the time of Louis something of France – the French king was approaching this town with a large army. And the prince of the time asked the townspeople to come out to defend their principality, and he promised them that if they would keep the invader out of the town, out of the principality, he would give them the forest.
The burghers turned out. They repulsed the French king. And very soon the prince made good. He gave the forest to the town. And for over two hundred years that town in Germany had to pay no taxes. Everybody made money, because they had no taxes. In other words, it was a forest on an annual-yield basis. They cut down perhaps seventy percent of what they could get out of that year’s mature crop. And every year they planted new trees. And every year the proceeds from that forest paid the equivalent of taxes.
Now that is true more and more in this country. There are more and more municipalities that are reforesting their watersheds, putting trees on the top of their hills, preventing the erosion of soil. They are not on a self-sustaining basis because it has only been started within the last ten or fifteen years. And yet while only God can make a tree, we have to do a little bit to help ourselves.
I think that all of us sort of look at our lives in terms of ourselves, and yet your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren, your great-great-grandchildren – some of them will be living right around here, right around where the population is today. Perhaps the old house – perhaps a better, new house. And more and more we are going to think about those grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It doesn’t amount to very much, this cost of planting trees, and yet the hillsides of West Virginia of our grandparents’ day were much more wonderful than they are now. It’s largely a deforested state. And I believe that from the point of view of the beauties of nature, from the point of view of all that trees can be, and from the point of view of your own grandchildren’s pocketbooks, the small number of cents, the small number of dollars that go into reforestation are going to come back a thousandfold.
Up where I live, in the country on the Hudson River, my family had – when I was a boy – five or six hundred acres. It wasn’t valuable land. And my own father, in the old days, would go in every year and cut the family needs in the way of timber.
When I was a small boy, I realized that there was waste going on; and when I went to the State Senate as a young man, somebody appointed me to the Conservation Committee. Some parts of Upstate New York were being eroded, a lot of topsoil was running away, we were getting more floods than we had ever had in the old days.
And just as an experiment, I started planting a few acres each year on rundown land. I tried to pasture some skinny cows on it. And at the same time, I went into the old woods and cleaned out no-account trees, trees that were under grown or would never amount to anything, crooked trees, rotten trees.
Well, the answer was this. When the last war came on, the old woods had some perfectly splendid trees, because I had cleaned them out, cleaned out the poor stuff.
And during that war, I made $4,000, just by cutting out the mature trees. And I kept on every year. And in the winter time, when the men weren’t doing much, they cleaned them out. And the trees grew.
And a quarter of a century later, there came this war. I think I cooperated with the Almighty, because I think trees were made to grow. Oh yes, they are useful as mine timbers. I know that. But there are a lot of places in this state where there isn’t any mine timber being cut out.
And in this war, back home, I cut last year – and this is not very Christian – over $4,000 worth net of oak trees, to make into submarine chasers and landing craft and other implements of war. And I am doing it again this year.
And I hope that this use of wood is growing, for all kinds of modern inventions, plastics, and so forth. I hope that when I am able to cut some more trees, twenty or twenty-five years from now – it may not be I, it may be one of the boys – we will be able to use them at a profit, not for building mine chasers or landing craft, but for turning them into some humane use.
And I believe that in this country – not in this state only, but in a great many more – we in the next few years, when peace comes, will be able to devote more thought to making our country more useful – every acre of it.
I remember eight years ago, out in the West, we knew that there were great floods and a dry belt in there. We knew, also, that trees bring water and avoid floods. And so, we started one of those “crackpot” things, for which I have been criticized, a thing called the shelter belt, to keep the high winds away, to hold the moisture in the soil. And the result is that a great success has been made of that shelter belt. Not much ran downhill and the farmers are getting more crops and better crops out there on the prairies in the lea of these rows of trees.
Forestry pays from the practical point of view. I have proved that. And so, I hope to live long enough to see West Virginia with more trees in it. I hope to live to see the day when this generation will be thinking not just of themselves but also of the children and the grandchildren.
I had a happy day this morning in looking out at this wonderful scenery, but I couldn’t take my eyes off those bare hilltops. I couldn’t take my thoughts off the fact that this generation, and especially the previous generation, have been thinking of themselves and not of the future.
Someday I hope to come back, and I hope to see a great forestry program for the whole of the state. Nearly all of it needs it. I hope to come back and be able to say:
I stopped, once upon a time, in Clarksburg, on a Sunday morning, and just avoided politics and talked to the people in Clarksburg, and they must have heard me all over the state, because they started planting trees.
And so, I think my Sunday sermon is just about over. It has been good to see you, and I really do hope that I will come back here, one of these days soon.
Thanks.