Maj. Williams: Air policy
By Maj. Al Williams
…
Here are Americans –
Unique Army air traffic system speeds wounded veterans home from overseas without delay
By Frederick Woltman, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Simms: Leopold will be accepted as King of the Belgians
Monarch’s 1940 surrender to Germans called loyal act of immense sacrifice
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor
Washington –
Not all the crowned or uncrowned heads of governments-in-exile can hope to return to their capitals with prestige unimpaired. But the chances are that King Leopold III of Belgium will be among the first to make the grade.
Seldom has a monarch been more widely misunderstood or more maligned. On May 28, 1940, I was in the Café de la Paix, Paris. Over the radio came an announcement by Premier Paul Reynaud of France. He said:
I must announce to the French people a grave piece of news. The event occurred last night. France can no longer count on the Belgian Army. King Leopold, without a word to the French and British, laid down his arms. It is without precedent in all history.
There was a stunned silence. At the table next to me sat an old man with a white mustache. Tears were running down his cheeks. Turning to me – a total stranger – he said:
I am a Belgian industrialist. I have already lost my factories, my home, some of my family, even. That I can stand. But to think that my King should do this…
Merely relaying news
Little by little, however, we have found that the story was not quite as Premier Reynaud pictured it. Not that he deliberately distorted it. On the contrary, it appears that he were merely relaying the news as he had received it.
The U.S. military attaché who witnessed the Battle of Belgium reported that:
Capitulation was the only possible solution for Leopold. Those who say otherwise did not see the battle. I did.
Adm. Sir Roger Keyes, British liaison officer – and the British were among the hardest hit in that battle – immediately exonerated the King. He was with Leopold throughout the night of May 27 when the decision to surrender was reached, yet he stated on his return to England that the young ruler had “proved himself to be a gallant soldier and loyal ally.”
U.S. Ambassador John Cudahy said the same with documentation, and ex-President Herbert Hoover, after an exhaustive investigation, announced that “history will declare that he acted loyally and with immense sacrifice.”
Began in 1936
The truth is that Leopold’s tragedy began when Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936 and his neighbors, France and Britain, failed to stop the Nazis. From that moment on, war was inevitable and the two great European democracies failed to take effective measures to stop it.
The beginning of the end came on May 17, 1940, when Germany’s panzer divisions annihilated the French 9th Army, broke through at Sedan, and got behind the Allied armies then rushing into Belgium. Pocketed, their backs to the sea at Dunkerque, the jig was up. Further split into pockets by thrusts of the panzers, some of the Allies capitulated and some, by miracle, got away to England, without weapons and in tatters.
There was vast bitterness at the time, of course, especially in France. Some military men, with reputations at shake, naturally sought a scapegoat and Leopold seemed a logical one. But today, apparently, most Belgians – even those who at first were most outspoken against him – are demanding unity around the King.
Campaign managers to get special gas
Washington (UP) –
Campaign managers of political candidates for state or federal offices will be given a special gasoline ration equivalent to a “B” book, the Office of Price Administration announced today.
This allowance will amount to 325 miles a month on the East Coast, 400 miles on the West Coast and 475 miles in all other sections of the country and will last only until the general election Nov. 7.
Long war forecast to defeat Japan
Washington (UP) –
Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal warned today that the Jap war will be a “long and hard one.”
He told a news conference:
I think the Japanese are counting on the assumption we’ll be bored with the war when the war in Europe is over. They know as well as we do the problems involved in maintaining a sustained offensive and they know it involves time and takes power.
They still adhere to the belief we are the kind of nation that is not willing to see it through to the limits; that the burden is such we will not be willing to go through with it.
I think they’re wrong in that.
Mr. Forrestal said the Japs now are in a position to concentrate greatly increased and improved airpower against U.S. forces pushing ever closer to the enemy homeland.
Völkischer Beobachter (September 7, 1944)
Verstärkter Widerstand
vb. Berlin, 6. September –
Es ist der Gegner, der selber meldet, daß sich in Belgien der deutsche Widerstand verstärkt hat. Als die britischen Panzer von Brüssel und Antwerpen aus weiter voranstürmen wollten, haben sie einige bittere Erfahrungen gemacht. Sie sind auf deutsche Panzer und deutsche Pakabteilungen gestoßen und haben diese Riegel nicht zu überwinden vermocht.
Zwar sind die deutschen Kräfte, die den Widerstand leisten, naturgemäß noch nicht sehr stark. Es sind im wesentlichen Nachhuten, die hier fechten während das Gros der deutschen Truppen sich weiter in der Richtung auf die von der Führung festgelegte Linie bewegt. Von einer eigentlichen Schlacht kann seit den Kämpfen in der Normandie nicht mehr gesprochen werden. Die deutsche Führung verweigert im gegenwärtigen Augenblick noch diese Schlacht, weil sie Zeit und Ort dafür noch nicht als gekommen betrachtet. Es sind also nur kleinere Abteilungen, die den Feind aufzuhalten trachten. Nun sind die Verbände des Gegners aber gerade infolge der Schnelligkeit des Vormarsches weit auseinandergezogen, seine Panzerspitzen sind naturgemäß auch dünner geworden, und so machen ihm auch die Nachhuten bereits viel zu schaffen. Auch er hat in den letzten 48 Stunden kein weiteres Vorrücken im Gebiet von Brüssel und Antwerpen melden können.
Er hätte vielleicht vermocht, noch stärkere Kräfte nach Belgien hineinzuwerfen, wenn nicht überall der Widerstand der deutschen Stützpunkte starke Kräfte von ihm Bände. Briten und Nordamerikaner haben zuletzt als Gesamtzahl der mit Panzern kämpfenden Verbände fünfzig bis sechzig genannt. Davon ist aber ein nicht unbeträchtlicher Teil vor Saint Nazaire, Brest, Le Havre und Boulogne festgelegt. Die deutschen Besatzungen, die hier liegen, verweigern dem Gegner nicht nur die Benutzung dieser Häfen – auch Antwerpen ist für die Engländer nicht brauchbar, solange die Scheldemündung in deutscher Hand ist – sondern sie zwingen auch immer wieder die gegnerische Führung, einen großen Teil der Regimenter, der Panzer und der schweren Artillerie zur Belagerung dieser Festungen bereitzustellen. Man weiß, daß gerade zu einem Festungsangriff ein besonders hohes Übergewicht an Zahl für den Angreifer gehört. Die Verbände, die er dafür ansetzen muß, fehlen ihm aber an anderer Stelle.
Inzwischen wird es immer wahrscheinlicher, daß dem Gegner eine große operative Hoffnung nicht erfüllt wird. Während sich die deutschen Divisionen, die vorher in der Normandie gekämpft hatten, bereits auf dem Rückzug nach Osten befanden, standen die Armeen der Heeresgruppe des Generalobersten von Blaskowitz noch in Südwestfrankreich und an der Küste des Mittelländischen Meeres. Die Landung bei Toulon sollte auch den Zweck haben, diese deutschen Verbände den Amerikanern, die von Orléans her nach Osten vorstießen, in die Hände zu treiben. Die Amerikaner aber sind über die Linie Troyes westlich Nancy nicht weiter in Richtung auf Belfort vorgestoßen, weil sie sich dafür zu schwach fühlten. Den deutschen Truppen, die sich im Tal der Rhone und Saône nach Norden zurückzogen, ist der Feind zwar scharf nachgedrängt, auch hat er verschiedentlich versucht, ihnen von Osten her aus dem Gebiet der Alpen die Marschstraßen zu verlegen, doch sind alle diese Versuche vergeblich geblieben.
Nun sind die deutschen Truppen, die ursprünglich am Mittelmeer standen, in voller Ordnung und Kampfkraft in der Gegend von Dijon angekommen und haben sich hier mit den von Bordeaux heranmarschierten vereinigt. Ihre bisherigen Leistungen lassen es als sicher erwarten, daß sie auch alle weiteren Versuche zu Flankenangriffen abschütteln und die burgundische Pforte erreichen werden, von wo aus sie dann auch den Anschluss an die bei Nancy fechtenden Truppen gewinnen können. Damit wäre dann eins der deutschen Ziele, seitdem der amerikanische Durchbruch von Avranches die Zurückziehung der in Frankreich stehenden Kräfte nach Osten hin nahelegte, erreicht, nämlich die Vereinigung der bisher weit verstreut voneinander liegenden einzelnen Armeen.
Niemand in Deutschland glaubt, daß die seit drei Tagen zu beobachtende Stockung der Wucht der feindlichen Angriffe für immer andauern wird. Der Gegner wird über kurz oder lang versuchen, seine wiederaufgefrischten Verbände zu neuen Angriffen anzusetzen. Aber bis es soweit ist, hat er doch, gewiss gegen seinen Willen, den Deutschen Zeit lassen müssen. Diese Zeit kann die Führung für ihre Maßnahmen nutzen. Das ist vor allem das Verdienst der Kampfgruppen, die sich auch auf dem Rückzug immer noch entschlossen wieder gegen den vorrückenden Feind warfen.
Führer HQ (September 7, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
Ein feindlicher Brückenkopf nördlich Antwerpen wurde im Gegenangriff zerschlagen. Der starke feindliche Druck im Raum Löwen–Sedan hält an. Südwestlich Sedan brach eine gepanzerte Angriffstruppe überraschend in die Stellungen des Gegners ein und rollte sie auf. Gefangene wurden eingebracht. Westlich Verdun, bei Pont-à-Mousson und bei Toul scheiterten starke feindliche Angriffe. Bei Baume-les-Dames konnte der Gegner vorübergehend auf dem Nordufer des Doubs Fuß fassen. Er wurde jedoch sofort im Gegenstoß wieder geworfen.
Nach stärkster Feuervorbereitung durch Artillerie und Luftstreitkräfte setzten die Nordamerikaner gestern ihren Großangriff gegen die Festung Brest fort. Erst nach schwerstem Ringen konnte der Feind gegenüber dem erbitterten Widerstand unserer Truppen unter hohen Verlusten in einigen Abschnitten in das Festungsvorfeld eindringen. Die Einbruchsstellen wurden abgeriegelt.
Die Kämpfe um die Passstraßen im französisch-italienischen Grenzgebiet nehmen nach dem Einsatz marokkanischer Truppen an Heftigkeit zu. Wiederholte Versuche des Feindes, sich in den Besitz der Grenzbefestigungen zu setzen, scheiterten.
An der adriatischen Küste erleidet der Feind bei seinem tagelangen vergeblichen Ansturm gegen unsere Abwehrfront schwere Verluste, die ihn zwingen, immer neue Kräfte in die Schlacht zu werfen. Unsere Truppen errangen dort auch gestern wieder nach schwersten Kämpfen einen vollen Abwehrerfolg und schossen 30 feindliche Panzer ab.
Im südlichen Siebenbürgen machten die ungarischen Gegenangriffe gegen verstärkten Widerstand der Rumänen weiterhin Fortschritte. Im Südostteil Siebenbürgens und in den Ostkarpaten wurden Angriffe der Bolschewisten zerschlagen.
An der übrigen Ostfront kam es am unteren Narew zu schweren Kämpfen. Der Ort Ostrolenka ging nach hartem Kampf verloren.
In Warschau wurde auch jetzt das gesamte Weichselviertel von Banden gesäubert.
In der Nacht bekämpften starke Verbände von Kampf- und Schlachtfliegern sowjetische Truppenbereitstellungen lm baltischen Raum.
Luftangriffe des Feindes richteten steh gegen einige Orte in Serbien und Ungarn.
Bei Tage drangen feindliche Jagdverbände in westdeutsches Gebiet vor. Feindliche Bomber führten unter Wolkenschutz einen Terrorangriff gegen Emden. Es entstanden Schäden an Gebäuden und Verluste unter der Bevölkerung.
In der Nacht warfen einige feindliche Flugzeuge Bomben auf Hamburg.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (September 7, 1944)
Communiqué No. 152
GHENT has been captured and COURTRAI is reported clear of enemy.
Allied forces have taken ARMENTIÈRES and the area west of LILLE as far as MERVILLE.
Our armor has thrust eastward from SAINT-OMER to the vicinity of CASSEL.
Our troops are on the outskirts of BOULOGNE and forward elements have surrounded CALAIS.
Mopping up continues in the BRUSSELS–ANTWERP area.
To the south, our forces are advancing beyond the MEUSE, southeastward from NAMUR and northeastward from GIVET. They are encountering mortar and small-arms fire.
Troops moving through the Forest of ARDENNES are east of AUCHAMPS.
Enemy strongpoints in LE HAVRE and BREST were attacked by heavy, medium and light bombers yesterday. Targets over a wide area in the Low Countries and western Germany were bombed and strafed by fighters and fighter-bombers which successfully attacked motor transport, locomotives, rail cars and troops.
During the night, a small force of light bombers attacked road and rail movements in HOLLAND and on the DUTCH-GERMAN border.
U.S. Navy Department (September 7, 1944)
CINCPAC Press Release No. 547
For Immediate Release
September 7, 1944
The Palau Islands were swept in force by fighter planes of a Carrier Task Group on September 5 (West Longitude Date). There were no enemy planes in the air. Several aircraft on the ground were set afire by strafing. Defense installations, including antiaircraft emplacements and warehouses, were heavily strafed. An ammunition or fuel dump on Babelthuap Island was destroyed. Seventeen small craft near the islands were left burning as a result of strafing.
Venturas of Fleet Air Wing Four bombed Paramushiru and Onekotan in the Kurils on September 5. Landing barges and patrol craft were strafed.
On September 6, the airfield at Iwo Jima was bombed by Liberators of the 7th AAF, encountering moderate to intense anti-aircraft fire. 7th AAF Liberators bombed Marcus Island on September 6. Moderate anti-aircraft fire damaged one bomber.
Nauru Island was attacked by 7th AAF Mitchells on September 5. Airfields and gun positions were hit. Moderate anti-aircraft fire was encountered.
Anti-aircraft positions on Pagan Island were subjected to rocket fire and strafing on September 6.
The Pittsburgh Press (September 7, 1944)
2 U.S. ARMIES SMASH AHEAD
Yanks drive 30 miles in day; Siegfried outposts stormed
Allies massing forces for final phase of struggle in Europe
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
Converging on Germany, U.S. forces today were battling hard on the approaches to the border. Meanwhile, along the coast (1), Canadian troops drove into Boulogne and Calais, and neared Dunkerque. To the north, British troops (2) were reported close to Rotterdam. The U.S. 1st Army (3) smashed across the Meuse River near the German border, while the U.S. 3rd Army was across the Moselle River in force (4) and attacking the approaches to the Siegfried Line. In southern France (5), U.S. and French troops were driving toward a junction with U.S. forces in the north and were closing on the Belfort Gap gateway into Germany.
SHAEF, London, England –
A dispatch from Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley’s 12th Army Group headquarters said tonight U.S. forces had advanced 30 miles or more in some sectors of the Western Front yesterday, and that the Siegfried Line fortifications likely would be under artillery fire soon.
Powerful U.S. armored forces today were storming through the Ardennes Forest and across the Moselle River toward the Reich frontiers less than 35 miles distant, driving back battered German forces seeking refuge behind the Seigfried Line, United Press writer Joseph W. Grigg reported from 12th Army Group headquarters.
Both the 1st and 3rd Armies were on the move again today, Mr. Grigg said. He reported “substantial progress” throughout yesterday by armored spearheads, with the main forces following closely. For security reasons, the location and direction of the gains were not disclosed.
One of the toughest blocks of Nazi resistance appeared to be around Metz, as well as along the Moselle where the Americans had to fight hard to get across against German troops dug in along the wooded banks.
The intense Nazi opposition along the 30-mile Moselle battlefront between Metz and Nancy – both of which the Germans appeared to hold – seemed designed to act as a breakwater against the American onrush until the main enemy forces reach the Siegfried Line.
Allied headquarters reported that Lt. Gen. Courtney Hodges had driven a 1st Army spearhead from the Auchamps crossing of the Meuse “well into” the rugged Ardennes Forest to the area of Thilay, nine miles northeast of Charleville near the Franco-Belgian border.
Robert C. Richards, United Press writer with Lt. Gen. Patton’s 3rd Army, said U.S. assault forces were hammering ahead in the Moselle Valley between Nancy and Metz in a crunching assault on the steel and concrete fortifications before the Siegfried Line.
Supreme Headquarters disclosed that Gen. Patton’s army massing in the Moselle Valley includes the U.S. 5th Infantry Division, whose troops were the first of the U.S. Army to go overseas in this war. The division landed in Iceland in September 1941 and has not been home since.
Other units named
The 35th Infantry Division and the 4th and 7th Armored Divisions were also revealed to be taking part in the 3rd Army drive now menacing Germany proper.
Mr. Richards’ dispatch from the Moselle Valley did not make clear the situation at Metz and Nancy. It said the Americans were at the “approaches” of each. Unofficial reports said fighting was going on in Nancy and that the Americans held a part of it.
The U.S. 1st Army and the British 2nd Army were nearing a junction in Belgium. The Yanks captured Jodoigne, about 15 miles southeast of Louvain, which had been captured by the British. Louvain is 15 miles east of Brussels.
The London radio quoted its correspondent with the 2nd Army as saying British columns were about 30 miles from Germany east and northeast of Louvain, and reconnaissance units were ever nearer.
Reported at Yoncq
A U.S. column was reported at Yoncq, 10 miles southeast of Sedan, which was still in German hands, but official reports did not make clear whether it was a First or Third Army formation.
A general feeling was manifest at headquarters that another phase of Allied operations in Western Europe was finished, and that an interim period had set in preparatory to a new and probably final phase of the war, to come as soon as the buildup of communications and consolidation of newly-won territory is completed.
The German Transocean News Agency reported that the Americans had concentrated strong forces between Namur and Sedan. The Nazi agency acknowledged Meuse crossings at several places “behind a creeping barrage.”
Report Yank thrust
Transocean said powerful U.S. forces “thrust against the Moselle” on either side of Pont-aa-Mousson, midway between Nancy and Metz, where “crossing attempts and counterattacks followed each other in rapid succession throughout the day.”
The Allied sweep along the Channel coast closely invested Calais and Boulogne, and troops who bypassed Calais were reported approaching Dunkerque. Latest advices placed them in the area of Gravelines, 13 miles west-southwest of Dunkerque. The Canadian Army was in a period of buildup and preparation while conducting limited operations.
Canadian troops reached the famous World War I town of Ypres, 12 miles north of Armentières, and front reports said the city was captured.
Rain hampers raids
Rain and heavy clouds held down air operations early today. Headquarters disclosed that the German 1st Army, a relatively small force formerly stationed in the Bay of Biscay area, had been mauled after being withdrawn to the Paris area and eastward. This made a total of four German armies defeated in northern France – the 7th, 15th, 1st and 5th Panzer Army.
Today’s early reports at headquarters disclosed that the British had captured Ghent, Courtrai and the French border town of Armentières, immortalized by its Mademoiselle song of World War I.
Mr. Richards’ dispatch from the 3rd Army front in northeastern France disclosed that the stiffening German resistance had turned suddenly into a full-dress stand against Gen. Patton’s forces pushing stubbornly toward the Reich.
Supplants blitz
Mr. Richards said:
It is evident that for the next 48 hours at least the blitz type of warfare has been supplanted by grim, close-range infantry attacks supported by mortars, 105s and Long Tom 155s.
In many sectors of the Metz-Nancy front, Mr. Richards said, the Germans were exploiting to the utmost the advantage of the pillboxes studding the region since the early days of the war.
Fortifications of the old Maginot Line reached to this area, and it appeared that the Nazis had refurbished them in the week that Gen. Patton’s forces had been stalled by the lightning overextension of supply lines to prepare for a stand in the Moselle Valley.
Hamper air support
Clouds scudded low over the battleground, Mr. Richards reported, impeding Allied air support in the heaviest fighting the 3rd Army has done since it sped into eastern France.
The latest reports indicated that Gen. Hodges’ 1st Army was finding the going easier in the push across the Meuse in great strength – a drive which if entirely successful would roll up the flank of the German forces facing Gen. Patton’s army.
First Army troops were reported pushing beyond Namur, Dinant, Givet and Auchamps. The four spearheads were pointed at Luxembourg and the Rhineland.
Attack Channel ports
Far to the west, Allied ground and air forces attacked diehard enemy garrisons in Brest and the French Channel ports with a fury that presaged the early conquest of those bypassed German strongholds.
While hundreds of Allied planes shuttled overhead unlading blockbusters and fragmentation bombs on the cornered Germans, U.S. troops pushed in their siege lines on Brest.
Cross last barriers
But the decisive battle of Western Europe was shaping up swiftly on the borders of the Reich where the U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies were pouring tanks, troops and guns across the last water barriers before the Rhineland.
Berlin said heavy fighting was raging along a front of more than 200 miles from the Belgian North Sea coast to the Lorraine Gap, and the Allied march had admittedly slowed at a number of points, particularly in the U.S. 1st and 3rd Army sectors.
Headquarters spokesmen were confident the battered Nazis had neither the men nor the will to make a successful stand on the Siegfried Line or any other barrier on the road to Berlin.
They revealed that German casualties in the battle of the west already exceed 500,000, excluding thousands killed by French Maquis.
Captured 230,000
The U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies were alone disclosed to have bagged more than 230,000 prisoners in their triumphal sweep across France and the Low Countries, including 25,000 taken by the 1st Army in the now-destroyed pocket southwest of Mons, Belgium.
Gen. Patton’s hard-driving troops were estimated to have taken 76,000 prisoners since Aug. 1, wounded 65,000 and killed 20,000 – a five-week total of 162,000 casualties inflicted on Nazi divisions now attempting to hold the borders of the Reich.
U.S. casualties total 365,759 –
Stimson: Prolonged defense of Reich improbable
U.S. losses for first 25 days in France reach 42,000, half of anticipated cost
Washington (UP) –
The bulk of the German armies in Western Europe have been destroyed or crippled to an extent that they “seem insufficient to maintain prolonged defenses of Germany,” Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson declared today.
In contrast, Mr. Stimson disclosed that U.S. Army casualties during the first 25 days of the invasion of northern France were about one-half of the losses which had been expected.
Mr. Stimson said that from D-Day on June 6 through June 30, the Army suffered approximately 42,000 casualties of all types in France. Pre-invasion estimates had set the figure at about 81,000, he revealed. Of the 42,000, the Secretary said, 33,933 were battle casualties.
Mr. Stimson also announced that U.S. Army casualties in all theaters of war through Aug. 21 totaled 305,795. This brought total U.S. casualties announced here through Aug. 21 to 365,759, including:
| Army | Navy | |
|---|---|---|
| Killed | 57,677 | 23,926 |
| Wounded | 156,933 | 21,894 |
| Missing | 45,967 | 9,678 |
| Prisoners | 45,218 | 4,466 |
| — | — | — |
| TOTAL | 305,795 | 59,964 |
Of the Army wounded, Mr. Stimson said, 63,986 have been returned to duty.
Mr. Stimson also disclosed that in the later fighting in northern France – through July, when the breakthrough at Avranches was achieved, and August, when the breakthrough was being exploited – U.S. casualties “were slightly less than the estimates.”
While German forces are shrinking, Allied forces are growing and their advance is speeding up, Mr. Stimson said.
He told his press conference, however, that supplies must catch up with the advancing armies before they can administer a death blow to the Nazis.
“The war won’t be won until Allied troops are in Berlin,” he said.
German forces are now evacuating all of southern France from the Rhône to the Atlantic, according to Mr. Stimson, who said the gap between the U.S. 3rd Army of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. (now on the Moselle River) and Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch’s 7th Army (along the Rhône) is gradually being eliminated. It is only through this gap that the German forces in southern France can escape.
Speaking of the action in the north, Mr. Stimson said that:
As far as we can judge, a great part of the German soldiers on this front are bewildered and without hope.
He said:
The speed of our action and the overwhelming strength of our air forces are large factors contributing to this state of mind. Over 300,000 prisoners have been taken in northern and southern France. Yet the German Army discipline is holding up and we must still test the product of the last desperate mobilization efforts of the Nazi government. We have yet to strike the final blow.
Mr. Stimson stressed importance of aerial support for the advance of the ground forces. The 19th Tactical Air Force was in practical effect a right flank for the U.S. 3rd Army’s tank columns, he said.
On air at 10:00 p.m. –
Dewey makes first campaign speech tonight
Domestic economy to be stressed
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey said today he will open his campaign as Republican presidential nominee tonight with a speech covering the “fundamental issues of the campaign” – which he termed a healthy domestic economy in peacetime.
Governor Dewey, in Philadelphia on the first leg of a 6,700-mile cross-country campaign trip, said the question before the voters in November is whether they want “to go back to their [the New Deal] 10 million to 12 million unemployed or go ahead.”
Governor Dewey’s address will be broadcast locally at 10:00 p.m. ET over Stations KDKA and WJAS.
Governor Dewey said this afternoon:
The question before the people is whether they want to elect an administration which will be largely, if not wholly, a peacetime government which believes in this country, or one which proved for eight straight years it couldn’t solve its problems and didn’t believe in it.
The New Deal tried for eight straight years, from 1933 to 1940, to solve the depression with more power and more money than any administration in 150 years, yet it failed.
Confidence in victory
Governor Dewey told reporters, in effect, that he was confident of victory in November.
Asked whether he thought that the way the war is now going would be favorable to the present administration, he replied: “I believe the people will change their administration next January.”
What of Pennsylvania
In response to a question on whether he had any recent reassurances regarding the large Pennsylvania vote in November, Governor Dewey said that he had “in the last half hour.”
He referred to his ride from a railroad station to the hotel with Governor Edward Martin of Pennsylvania.
In response to other questions, Governor Dewey said that a visit to this country by British Prime Minister Churchill for a conference with President Roosevelt, his opponent, reportedly scheduled in the near future, “would be an amazing coincidence.”
He did not elaborate, however, on the question which was prompted by the fact that the fourth-term campaign has been pitched largely on a “commander-in-chief” theme.
Wants no new CCC
When asked for his attitude on post-war military training, as suggested recently by President Roosevelt with little emphasis on the military phase of youth training, Governor Dewey said:
I am not for another CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] as a substitute for jobs. I would not put anybody in the Army unless they are needed for the defense of the United States.
Governor Dewey was greeted at the Pennsylvania Railroad Station here by a crowd estimated at between four and five thousand persons.
Rides with Martin
From the station, he rode in an open car with Governor Martin, to the Bellevue Stratford Hotel.
Along the route, Governor Dewey was greeted by scattered applause and showers of paper confetti.
Governor Dewey, leaving New York this morning, embarked on a 6,700-mile, coast-to-coast campaign trip with stops in 10 states where 134 Electoral College votes, almost one-fourth of the total, are at stake in the November election.
Other speeches scheduled
Before he returns to his gubernatorial office in Albany, New York, Sept. 28, he is scheduled to make six other major campaign addresses as well as confer with party leaders along the route.
In addition to Mrs. Dewey, the campaign party included Elliott V. Bell (New York State Superintendent of Banks and his closest political adviser), Lt. Gen. Hugh A. Drum (U.S. Army (retired), commanding officer of the New York Guard), Paul E. Lockwood (Governor Dewey’s executive secretary), Jack Flanagan (assistant secretary to vice-presidential nominee Governor John W. Bricker), half a dozen National Committee Research Staff members, and more than 50 newspaper, radio, newsreel and magazine reporters and photographers.