America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

Einkesselungskämpfe auf Leyte

Tokio, 23. November –
Zu den Kämpfen auf Leyte melden Frontberichte, daß die amerikanische 32. Division, die zum Entsatz der im Gebiet von. Carigara umzingelten 24. Division angetreten ist, im Laufe schwerer japanischer Angriffe blutige Verluste erleidet. Vor allem ist es den Japanern gelungen, die feindlichen Zufuhrstraßen im Norden der Insel zu durchschneiden, so dass der Gegner auf dem Landweg keinen weiteren Nachschub an Munition erhält und anderseits nicht mehr in der Lage ist, seine Verwundeten in die Etappe zu befördern.

Führer HQ (November 24, 1944)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Im verkleinerten Maas-Brückenkopf südöstlich Helmond haben unsere Grenadiere in den letzten Tagen zahlreiche englische Angriffe abgewiesen. Die schwere Schlacht im Raum von Aachen stand gestern im Zeichen eigener erfolgreicher Gegenangriffe auf dem gesamten rechten Flügel unserer Abwehrfront. Grenadiere, Volksgrenadiere und Panzertruppen eroberten eine Reihe von Ortschaften wieder und säuberten sie vom Feinde. Nordamerikanische Angriffe, die in der Mitte und am linken Flügel dieses Kampfraumes mehrere Male vorgetragen wurden, brachen in unserem Feuer zusammen. Nur bei und südöstlich Eschweiler konnte der Feind geringfügig in unser Kampffeld eindringen.

Im Raum von Metz halten sich die Besatzungen mehrerer Befestigungsanlagen weiterhin gegen heftige feindliche Angriffe.

In Ostlothringen hat sich die Lage bei lebhafter örtlicher Kampftätigkeit nicht wesentlich verändert. Beiderseits der unteren Vogesenfingen unsere Truppen vordringenden Gegner auf und warfen ihn in Gegenangriffen zurück. Von Zabern aus ist es einer feindlichen Panzergruppe gelungen, unsere Sicherungen zu durchstoßen und in die Stadt Straßburg einzudringen.

Gegnerische Angriffe vor der Burgundischen Pforte- wurden zerschlagen, der Sperrriegel unserer Truppen an der Schweizer Grenze durch kräftige Vorstöße verstärkt; Die im Raum Mülhausen abgeschnittenen feindlichen Kräfte versuchten vergeblich, nach Westen und Nordwesten auszubrechen. Eigene Gegenangriffe aus dem Raum südöstlich Mülhausen sind in gutem Fortschreiten.

Groß-London und die Industriebezirke von Lüttich lagen bei Tag und Nacht unter stärkerem Fernbeschuss.

Am Ostrand des Etruskischen Apennin rannte die 8. englische Armee mit der zusammengefassten Masse ihrer Kräfte unter starkem Materialeinsatz gegen eine einzige deutsche Division an und versuchte den entscheidenden Durchbruch in die Ebene der Romagna zu erzwingen. In beispielhafter Standhaftigkeit behauptete die hier unter Führung von Oberst Crasemann eingesetzte 26. Panzerdivision mit unterstellten Verbänden den Zusammenhalt ihrer Front. Die erbitterten Abwehrkämpfe gehen weiter.

Auf dem Balkan zerschlugen unsere Truppen im Raum Skutari und Podgorica zahlreiche feindliche Angriffe.

In Südungarn wiesen unsere Verbände in einer neuen Abwehrfront westlich von Apatin und Batina die mit starken Kräften fortgesetzt angreifenden Bolschewisten ab.

Zwischen Budapest und dem Mátragebirge brachen auch gestern alle von zahlreichen Panzern unterstützten Durchbruchsversuche der Sowjets durch die zähe Abwehr und die Gegenangriffe unserer Truppen bei wirksamer Unterstützung durch die Luftwaffe zusammen. Erneut wurden hier 35 feindliche Panzer vernichtet.

Südlich Miskolc blieben mehrere Angriffe der Bolschewisten im Abwehrfeuer liegen. Im Ostteil der Talsenke gelangen dem Gegner geringe Einbrüche.

Nordwestlich Ungvár traten die Sowjets mit starken Kräften zum Angriff an. Sie wurden in einer Rückhaltsstellung aufgefangen.

Im Nordabschnitt ist die Abwehrschlacht östlich Libau bis in den Raum von Autz bei stärkstem Materialeinsatz erneut entbrannt. Alle Angriffe der Bolschewisten zerbrachen bis auf unbedeutende Einbrüche an der Standhaftigkeit unserer bewährten Divisionen.

In Kurland wurden gestern 50 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen.

Auf Sworbe hat sich die tapfere Besatzung gegenüber mehrfach überlegenem Feind auf die Südspitze der Halbinsel zurückgekämpft. Schweres Feuer unserer Seestreitkräfte lag trotz fortgesetzter Angriffe sowjetischer Bomben- und Torpedoflugzeuge den ganzen Tag über auf den feindlichen Stellungen.

Schwächere Verbände anglo-amerikanischer Terrorflieger warfen durch eine geschlossene Wolkendecke am Tage Bomben auf Westdeutschland und in der Nacht verstreut auf nordwest- und mitteldeutsches Gebiet.


In den harten Abwehrkämpfen um die Festung Metz hat das Sicherungsregiment 1010 unter Führung von Oberstleutnant Richter besondere Standhaftigkeit bewiesen. Leutnant Werner, Kompanieführer der 3. Kompanie des Regiments, verteidigte bei einem Feindeinbruch in Bataillonsstärke mit dem Kompanietrupp und zwei Mann seinen Gefechtsstand über sieben Stunden lang gegen eine vielfache feindliche Übermacht. Das Widerstandsnest konnte von den Amerikanern erst genommen werden, als die Verteidiger sämtlich durch Tod oder Verwundung ausgefallen waren.

In der Abwehrschlacht südöstlich Libau zeichnete sich das Grenadierregiment 4 unter Führung von Major von Bismarck durch hervorragende Standfestigkeit aus.

Im gleichen Kampfraum hat der Stabsgefreite Eil einer Füsilierschwadron in aufopferndem Heldenmut allein einen feindlichen Stoßtrupp im Nahkampf zurückgeschlagen und hierbei vier ihn umklammernde Bolschewisten durch Abziehen einer Handgranate vernichtet, wobei dem tapferen Füsilier die Hand abgerissen wurde.

Im heldenmütigen Kampf auf Sworbe hat sich die dort eingesetzte Artillerie unter Führung von Oberst Remer bei der Abwehr von mehr als 170 Angriffen des überlegenen Gegners besonders bewährt.

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (November 24, 1944)

FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN

ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section

DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
241100A November

TO FOR ACTION
(1) AGWAR
(2) NAVY DEPARTMENT

TO (W) FOR INFORMATION (INFO)
(3) TAC HQ 12 ARMY GP
(4) MAIN 12 ARMY GP
(5) SHAEF AIR STAFF
(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) UNITED KINGDOM BASE
(15) SACSEA
(16) CMHQ (Pass to RCAF & RCN)
(17) COM ZONE
(18) SHAEF REAR
(19) NEWS DIV. MINIFORM, LONDON
(REF NO.)
NONE

(CLASSIFICATION)
IN THE CLEAR

Communiqué No. 230

Allied forces made further progress in the Venlo sector where our units are within three miles of the town. North of the Helmond–Venlo railway we have advanced about one mile over very difficult country, and have taken Meterik and Horst. South of the railway our forces have gained about 1,000 yards on a 5,000-yard front.

Northeast of Geilenkirchen, there has been bitter fighting in the areas of Höven and Beeck where the enemy is resisting fiercely.

Small enemy counterattacks have been repulsed by our units in the Gereonsweiler area, northwest of Jülich, while very slow progress has been made toward Koslar and Bourheim, in the Jülich area. North of Weisweiler, our forces are fighting in the Neu-Lohn and Pützlohn.

Other elements are west, south, and southeast of Weisweiler and gains have been made towards the town. To the southeast, bitter fighting continues in the Hürtgen Forest where our forces are slowly gaining against very stubborn resistance.

In the area east of Metz, our armored elements have reached Saint-Jean-Rohrbach, and our infantry is in the vicinity of Leyweiler. An enemy counterattack has been repulsed near Frenersdorf. Other armored units farther south have reached Fénétrange.

After the breakthrough in the Saverne Gap our troops reached Strasbourg and freed many towns in the northern Alsace Plain.

More than 3,000 prisoners, including two generals, and much enemy material have been taken in the rapid advance.

Unfavorable weather slowed progress in the southern Vosges and the Belfort Gap area, but limited gains were made.

Weather severely curtailed air operations yesterday, but heavy bombers, with fighter escort, attacked the Nordstern synthetic oil plant near Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr.

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 FA2409

AUTHENTICATING SIGNATURE
/s/

that’s the best the press can do against FDR now?

The initial assumption was that he said a more profane word than “damn.”

The Pittsburgh Press (November 24, 1944)

B-29s SET FIRES IN TOKYO
100 Superfortresses rip Jap plants

Saipan-based planes open drive to soften Japan for invasion
By Fred Scherff, United Press staff writer

map.tokyobmb
B-29s from Saipan in the Marianas staged the big raid today on Tokyo.

Washington –
One hundred or more B-29 Superfortresses, officially opening a two-pronged air offensive to soften Japan for invasion, bombed Tokyo by daylight today, and the enemy admitted factories and other important installations had been damaged.

Roaring out from new bases on Saipan in the Marianas, 1,550 miles to the southeast, the giant four-engined bombers swept over Tokyo at noon (11:00 p.m. Thursday ET) to give the jittery Japanese capital its first taste of American bombs since the historic April 18, 1942, raid by Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle’s fliers.

**Four hours later, Tokyo belatedly admitted the raid and backed into admissions of what it sought to imply was slight damage to factories and other major installations. “Small fires” were caused, Tokyo broadcasts added, but only among “civilian homes and hospitals” and all were controlled “immediately.”

Tokyo said the bombers, attacking in 10 or more groups, were over the city for two hours.

The attack, the first on Tokyo by land-based aircraft, was announced here by Gen. H. H. Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces and chief of the global 20th Air Force. He said another communiqué on damage done to the industrial targets would be issued “when further details are available.”

Gen. Arnold said in a special report to President Roosevelt:

The Battle for Japan has been joined. This operation is in no sense a hit-and-run raid. It is a calculated extension of our airpower… no part of the Japanese Empire is now out of our range, no war factory too remote to feel our bombs…

The Saipan-based B-29s, working under the newly-formed XXI Bomber Command, Gen. Arnold said, will coordinate their operations with those of the China-based XX Bomber Command, whose B-29s have already carried out 17 missions against Jap Empire targets.

Gen. Arnold told Mr. Roosevelt:

The systematic demolition of Japan’s war production, begun six months ago from China bases, henceforth will be carried out with decisive vigor, softening up the Japanese heart for the ultimate invasion by combined United Nations land, sea and air forces.

Gen. Arnold did not disclose the exact number of B-29s in the attacking force, saying only that it was “sizeable” – a term that in the past has meant 100 or more.

Neither did he identify the exact targets, although Tokyo is the site of some of the most vital Jap war industries. These include the giant Mitsubishi and Ishikawajima shipyards, the Mitsubishi heavy industries and numerous airplane and ammunition factories, oil refineries and machine tool, electrical, radio and precious instrument works.

The Tokyo radio, which gave the world the first albeit hysterical account of the Doolittle raid, was silent for several hours after today’s attack and then blossomed forth with its usual report – that the B-29s had “failed to attain any tangible results” due to “effective interceptions.”

The attack on Tokyo came just 24 hours after Japan had observed its Thanksgiving Day – the Minamati Festival – in which Emperor Hirohito had offered newly harvested grain to his gods. Even as the festival was in progress, the Japs witnessed a harbinger of things to come when a single B-29, according to Tokyo reports, flew over the Nagoya area some 275 miles west-southwest of Tokyo.

Other reconnaissance flights by B-29s over the island of Honshu, on which Tokyo is located, had steadily increased Jap fears of a coming raid on their capital and thousands of children, women and older residents had been ordered out in preparation.

Virginian is in command

Gen. Arnold said the XXI Bomber Command was commanded in its first operation by Brig. Gen. H. S. Hansell Jr., a 41-year-old native of Fort Monroe, Virginia, who first gained fame 10 years ago as a member of the aviation acrobatic team, “Three Men on a Flying Trapeze.”

Lt. Gen. Millard F. Harmon, commanding general of Army Air Forces in the Pacific and Gen. Arnold’s deputy commander of the 20th Air Force, issued his own statement promising that the two-pronged air offensive against Japan was destined to grow in other directions.

He said:

The time is not far now when Japan will be subjected to the combined efforts of units based from Alaska through the Philippines and over into China – a ring of air effort focused on the Imperial Empire.

In addition to the mounting American threat from the air, Japan is faced with ever-bolder operations by units of the mighty Pacific Fleet.

The Navy revealed last night that a task force had struck Tuesday at the Kurils at the northern tip of the Jap islands, bombarding Matsuwa and starting large fires and explosions. Jap guns did not reply and no American ship was damaged.

For the United States, the Tokyo raid brought additional retribution for Japan’s execution of an unknown number of Gen. Doolittle’s first Tokyo raiders forced down on occupied areas of the Asiatic mainland. The execution of those fliers, who staged their attack from the decks of the now-sunk carrier USS Hornet, brought from President Roosevelt a pledge that they would be avenged.

Heart of Japan rocked

Gen. Arnold accompanied his announcement with a dramatic statement, beginning with these words:

The Air Force today rocked the heart of Japan with bombs from a mighty new task force of B-29 aircraft based in Saipan.

He continued:

The mission was accomplished by Brig. Gen. Haywood Hansell’s XXI Bomber Command. Its vigor should be convincing proof that these far Pacific islands, captured by our Army and Navy at great cost in men and material, have been put to the greatest possible use. Tokyo’s war industries have been badly hurt by a blow made possible by the Americans who fought and died for the Marianas.

Now, as our American factories feed the voracious appetite of our B-29s with replacements and bombs, we will pound Japan’s war machine out of existence…

Japan has sowed the wind, now let it reap the whirlwind.

‘No part of Japan safe’

Gen. Harmon said in his statement that with the basing of B-29s in the Marianas, “no part of the homeland of Japan is now safe from land-based air attacks.”

Although warning that air attacks alone cannot win victory, he said the Tokyo raid marked the start of a “new phase of the air war against Japan which, in its various aspects, will steadily unfold.”

The War Department disclosed in an accompanying statement that the XXI Bomber Command was activated last March 8. It was set up at first at Smoky Hill Army Air Base, Salina, Kansas, but headquarters were moved in June to Peterson Field, Colorado Springs, Colorado, with Brig. Gen. Roger M. Ramey as acting commander. Gen. Ramey is now chief of staff to Gen. Hansell, who took command of the XXI Command last Aug. 29.

Wide raids made

The B-29s were first sent into action against Japan’s warmaking potential early in June in a “shakedown” raid on Bangkok, Thailand. In all, counting the Tokyo raid, they have carried out 18 missions against industrial targets in the Jap homeland and in occupied regions in China, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies.

In October, while the Navy was striking at Formosa and Northern Luzon in preparation for the Philippines invasion, the B-29s joined in with three heavy raids on targets on Formosa.

Japs admit damage

The Japanese conceded that the Superfortresses raided Tokyo for two hours, damaging factories and other important installations and causing some fires.

A brief Jap communiqué claimed three Superfortresses had been shot down. The communiqué said:

Today, Nov. 24, approximately 70 enemy planes from the Marianas area penetrated into the capital area in wave formation, divided into several units, at about 12:20 p.m. and raided for about two hours.

Our damages have been slight and the war result confirmed up to now is three enemy planes shot down.


Tokyo raid is a success, leader radios his base

B-29 base, Saipan, Mariana Islands (UP) – (via Navy radio)
Brig. Gen. Emmett “Rosey” O’Donnell Jr., leader of the Superfortress mission over Tokyo, flashed back word today that his sizeable task force of sky giants had successfully bombed important military objectives at the Jap capital.

Boring in without benefit of fighter protection, the world’s mightiest planes packed large enough loads from their Saipan bases to pay dividends in this big American attack on Honshu Island.

It was the biggest raid by land-based bombers, in terms of both the bombload and number of planes involved, in the history of the Central Pacific war.

Maj. Robert Morgan of Asheville, North Carolina, pilot of the famed B-17 Memphis Belle of the 8th Air Force in Europe, was at the controls of the first bomber over Tokyo. Gen. O’Donnell was in the plane as command pilot and leader of the mission.

Overcoming the weather and tough navigational problems the big raiders hammered the Nakajima aircraft factory in the western outskirts of Tokyo after parading into the air from bases won on bloody Saipan by the Marines and Army troops.

Tokyo Rose paves the way for big Superfortress raid

Plane cruises over Jap capital 35 minutes to make pictures to guide attackers
By Lisle Shoemaker, United Press staff writer

Saipan, Mariana Islands –
A giant, silvery Superfortress names Tokyo Rose, piloted by Capt. Ralph D. Steakley of Jefferson, Ohio, cruised over Tokyo for 35 minutes making crystal-clear photographs of strategic targets to pave the way for the second raid of the war on the Japanese capital.

Droning in over the city after a grueling fight from new bases on Saipan, the daring crew, the first American airmen to fly over Tokyo since Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle’s fliers raided the city in April 1942 peered down on vital war industries and strategic targets which Japan has guarded jealously for the last 10 years.

Japs fail to attack

Jap radio announcers screamed frantically that U.S. planes were over the city, then added as a face-saving afterthought that “an American plane fled before our attack.”

Not content with the first valuable photo-fight, the same crew flew over the famed target twice more, noting that ack-ack became more accurate with each trip.

Capt. Steakley and his 10-man crew saw from 19 to 21 enemy intercepting planes on their first trip but Jap pilots were apparently leery to attack the Superfortress with its bristling guns and made no attempts to get within shooting range.

Pictures are taken

Despite the breathless altitude, the crew and cameras clearly saw and recorded Jap airfields studded with fighter planes and saw Hirohito’s palace and factories.

Capt. Steakley said:

We did not know what to expect and we were excited. We settled down soon because we had work to do.

The crew said that Capt. Steakley coolly piloted the giant plane over target after target. He was as elated as the crew after the flight. Their emotions hardly compared to those of intelligence officers, who termed the photos the best pictures of enemy targets ever taken.

Second Lt. Charles G. Hart of Kansas City, Missouri, the photo navigator, said the Jap ack-ack on the first strip was sporadic, but two subsequent trips found the barrage intensifying.

Important facts learned

Although the daring flight of Tokyo Rose undoubtedly robbed today’s mass attack of a surprise element, the knowledge gained by the picture-taking spree overshadowed all else.

The entire crew was decorated at the Saipan base, Capt. Steakley receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross. The navigator, Lt. Claude K. Stambaugh of San Antonio, Texas, received the Oak Leaf Cluster to the Air Medal and the rest of the crew got Air Medals.

The rest of the crew included:

  • Co-pilot Lt. John R. Burke of Newark, New Jersey
  • Flight Engineer Lt. Harold L. McCommon of Athens, Georgia
  • Photographer Sgt. Walter C. Marvin of St. Louis
  • Gunner Sgt. William O. Starks of Dunbar, West Virginia
  • Sgt. Fred H. Hutchins of Italy, Texas
  • Bombardier Observer Maj. Hugh V. Gilmour of Paris, Texas.

Yanks smash to Rhine in south

Americans and French seize nine-tenths of city of Strasbourg
By J. Edward Murray, United Press staff writer

Americans seize Leyte stronghold

Crack enemy division virtually wiped out

Union suddenly ends phone strike

Long-distance lines restored to service

Prison guard slain; 4 convicts shot

parry3

I DARE SAY —
I remember, too

By Florence Fisher Parry

There’s a play which you and I must see when we go to New York. It’s called I Remember Mama, and from what I gather from those who have seen it, it has in it something of the nostalgic tenderness of Our Town.

A young woman sits offstage near the wings and tells us about her Mama, and the different things she remembers about her. And as she reminisces, the past comes into life there on the stage, and we see Mama and Papa and the children reliving the life that once was theirs and is now gone forevermore.

Sometimes I think the greatest gift which God provided us is the gift of memory. Who of us, who had a happy childhood, does not retreat into the past as Thanksgiving approaches, and in our minds relive that beautiful day when we all gathered around the long dining room table, Papa at one end and Mama at the other, and Savor again the viands and goodies piled high on the roomy table! It is on this day more than any other that the past comes back most clearly; the image of us, all, young and brisk, and, oh, so busy blessed with a security we shall never know!

How innocent and unknowing, Papa and Mama then! How mercifully spared the awful portent of our times. And thinking of them thus, so young, so confident, we feel ourselves immeasurably older; older than they, older even than they ever became. For who can be said to be wholly happy and confident today, compared with those who lived in that safer yesterday?

Safe day

It was a meager day compared with ours, hard work and ceaseless vigil was the portion of parents. It was a struggle then “to get along,” one had to earn one’s own security by long, uncounted hours of hard work. What we have now, ours for the asking, they would have counted princely possessions!

Yet, when I think how infinitely richer were their lives than ours today, I am filled with such loving envy that my heart could break, just in remembering! For favored indeed, blessed indeed, is he today who would have his dead Papa or Mama know what has befallen him!

Indeed, I have no image of the hereafter, or what the incorporeal world of heaven offers. But this, I hope: That those now dead, now waiting there for us, need never know what has befallen this unhappy world below.

This Thanksgiving there were many pilgrimages to the graveyards where lie these dead; and is it not a terrible commentary upon the botch we have made, that none of us, standing there, would dare wish to have them back?

What’s wrong, I say, what’s wrong, that we have come to such a point of desperation, shame and bewilderment, that we must needs stand at the graves of our dead and acknowledge ourselves glad they have been spared all this?

Bright certainty

Tormented, the world – so all the greatest need of Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving not only for what we still have, but abundant thanks for what we have had, and the great boon of being able to remember it! Thanksgiving for our memories! Thanksgiving for our own dear past! Thanksgiving, over all, for our parents!

I remember Mama; I remember Papa. This day brings back the image of them when they were young, so young – younger than I, far younger – ardent, busy, full of plans, working and planning together as one, raising their little family. Each year adding an extra leaf to the Thanksgiving table, each year being able to add another item to the menu, an item worked for, saved for, planned for ahead, with that certainty that was their right then, the certainty that if they worked hard enough and saved enough, they would be able to raise their family right, give them the things they had not had.

What a day! Able to dream long, long, safe dreams, make long, safe plans ahead.

Yes, that was Papa and Mama; yours, mine.

These things we had, and even though now lost, they are forever ours!

For the past, the present and tomorrow are one, if we but think them so. Is yesterday less actual than today, just because it is gone? Today more real than tomorrow just because we cannot see around its corner?

Why, they are one! There is no time, and life itself is an unending dream.

Roosevelt: Lend-Lease ‘should end with the war’

President also urges ‘better United Nations’

U.S. casualties mount to 578,795

Washington (UP) –
Announced U.S. war casualties were listed by the War and Navy Departments today at 528,795, including 117,453 killed, 285,857 wounded, 65,789 missing and 59,696 prisoners of war.

Secretary of War Stimson announced Army casualties through Nov. 7 and the Navy Department gave its total through Nov. 22 as follows:

Army Navy
Killed 88,245 29,208
Wounded 254,283 31,574
Missing 56,442 9,347
Prisoners 55,210 4,486
TOTAL 454,180 74,615

The Navy casualties include those of the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps.

Mr. Stimson also told his news conference that:

  • The advance of U.S. troops on the Western Front depends upon the flow of supplies from this country.

  • The apparent Jap intention to hold the Philippines with everything in their power is “just as well for us [because] our Army and Navy forces can knock them off as well in the Philippines as anywhere else.” He evidenced concern over Jap gains in China.

  • The shortage of cigarettes overseas “will be corrected as soon as possible.” It was caused “mainly by the enormous supply problem” posed by the mounting U.S. offensives which required that critically needed materials be given the highest priorities. Frontline troops are less affected than those in rear areas because troops subsisting on C or K rations get cigarettes as part of their rations.

Father finds G.I. who saved son

Battle-maimed patients eat turkey with gusto

By Kermit McFarland, Pittsburgh Press staff writer

Eighth Army gains in Italy near Faenza

Fighting described as ‘very bitter’

In Thanksgiving message –
U.S. ‘mightiest nation,’ Churchill tells Yanks

Prime Minister makes surprise appearance at celebration of U.S. troops

Air raids pound Japs in China

Threat to Chungking temporarily removed

Simms: Rhine Valley nearing grasp of Gen. Patton

Rich Saar basin provides the ‘key’
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor