America at war! (1941–) – Part 4

americavotes1944

Stokes: Midwest lift

By Thomas L. Stokes

Chicago, Illinois –
Those out this way working for the reelection of President Roosevelt are feeling better about it.

By “out this way” is meant this big state and two big states to the East covered on this political tour, Ohio and Michigan. They have a total of 72 electoral votes: Illinois 28, Ohio 25, and Michigan 19. It’s a fair bet now, at odds, that President Roosevelt might carry one of the three. An upsurge the Democrats profess to see might topple all three to him.

The winner’s margin in each apparently is going to be narrow. That’s what makes it exciting now, just a week before election.

A few weeks ago, all three were virtually conceded to Governor Dewey, and he still must be given the edge.

West of here in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, there is no question. Republicans are too well entrenched. But this state, Michigan and Ohio have large urban populations to offset the Republican farm and smalltown strongholds.

Whatever is responsible, a noticeable lift is encountered among those active on behalf of the President, and this includes labor groups, notably the CIO and its Political Action Committee, as well as Democratic Party workers. The latter are now somewhat overshadowed, conscious of the weakness in the regular Democratic organizations which, as in Michigan, have been almost superseded by the Political Action Committee.

Three factors boost spirit

This lift may be largely psychological, although it seems to have some basis in fact. Polls here and there seem to indicate a turning toward the President in the last few days, perhaps representing hitherto undecided voters.

It is attributed to these factors:

  • The unexpectedly high registration in cities, breaking all previous records, such as in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and the lesser auto centers in Michigan. Democrats interpret this to their advantage and are highly elated over it. Registration in Wayne County (Detroit) may go as high as 100,000 above four years ago. Chicago’s registration is more than 100,000 above 1940, while downstate Republican Illinois is about 100,000 off the figure of four years ago.

  • President Roosevelt’s 11th-hour entry into the campaign as a dynamic, fighting figure.

  • A feeling that Governor Dewey’s campaign is petering out, that he has shot nearly all his ammunition, just as the President is hitting his stride and gradually bringing his campaign to a peak for “the Roosevelt strong finish.”

Largest political demonstration

Remembering the experience of four years ago, Democrats expect to gain much from the President’s personal tour which took him through the industrial Midwest to this city, Democrats here were excited about the meeting at Soldier Field last Saturday that set a new record for political crowds and demonstrations, thanks to Mayor Ed Kelly and his efficient machine.

The effects of this personal appearance, they hope, will react all through the Midwest, east of the Mississippi.

It was believed here the President was shrewd to choose as his subject Saturday night a continuation of the New Deal as the voters out here know it and have benefited from it. The straight New Deal doctrine is regarded as peculiarly effective here, even among the farmers, some of whom downstate, it is reported, still remember what it did for them. They are skeptical about giving up a known for an unknown quantity, despite Governor Dewey’s promises.

Jap treatment of American prisoners writes back chapter in war history

Efforts to send help repulsed; enemy even hides sites of camps
By Peter Edson

Half-million bypassed Japs pose big problem for Allies

Isolated troops, camp followers may stay as colonists; who will root them out?
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer

Gracie Allen Reporting

By Gracie Allen

Hollywood, California –
Have you seen the bulletin just issued to employers by the Office of Defense Transportation? It warns them that men and women are different. Now there’s a piece of news. Thank goodness they’ve made it official. I’d hate to go through life thinking of George as a sister.

The bulletin concludes by advising women to “wear long underwear when working outdoors in winter, and behave in a businesslike manner.” Well now, make up your mind. Personally, I’m still going to wear an overcoat and galoshes.

Helen Hayes brings Harriet to Nixon week of Nov. 12

Females mob Clark Gable; he escapes with bruises

Film star makes first public appearance since he exchanged uniform for civvies

Great or lucky?
Navy to prove real worth of Notre Dame


Overdue praise –
Horvath called ‘inspiration’ of Buckeyes

2 girl Marines, fliers marooned on desert isle


Captain freed in wife’s death

Plans to send SPARS overseas announced

Beatrice Lillie plans some new radio tricks

Will sing duet with herself
By Si Steinhauser

British alter tax policies for post-war

Plan to make strong bid for trade
By Roger Budrow, Scripps-Howard staff writer


GM production of war goods sets record

Output already tops $3-billion mark

americavotes1944

Address by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey
October 31, 1944, 9:00 p.m. EWT

Broadcast from the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York

dewey2

Tonight, I want to ask you to look ahead into our future as a nation. Join me in looking at what our country will face the day after victory over our enemies.

But first, let me give you right now two solemn assurances prompted by the speeches of my opponent last Friday and Saturday.

Your next President will never use his office to claim personal or political profit from the achievements of the American people or from the sacrifices of their sons and daughters.

Your next President will never make you a promise that he does not intend with all his heart and soul to keep.

And let me add that except for the pledges I have made publicly to the American people, your next President will take office next January 20 without a promise, expressed or implied, to a living soul.

There is no 1000 Club in my party. I have not offered the government of the United States for sale at $1,000 to any man and I never will to any one at any price.

Your next administration will take office honestly, without secret promises of special privilege to any class, group or section. We shall represent all the American people – we shall restore honesty and good faith to the government of the United States on January 20, 1945.

Now put your minds ahead with me, if you will, into these peacetime years which by the courage of our fighting men and with the help of Almighty God are being brought closer every day.

Eleven million men and women will be conning home from this war eager for more education. for jobs, for a chance to start a business and to get ahead. Twenty million war workers will want peacetime jobs and opportunity.

Last Saturday night, my opponent once again promised jobs for every American when peacetimes come. But his own peacetime record is that at the end of eight years, the New Deal had spent $58 billion; it enjoyed more power than all previous governments; and in March of 1940, there were still 10 million Americans unemployed.

On the record, his promise of jobs is worthless. It will still be worthless, even though it is repeated again and again and again.

Having discovered from my Philadelphia speech, delivered two months ago, the need for a million new homes a year, my opponent now promises that. The fact is that for years we should have been building a million homes a year just to get back up to the standards of 1930. But under Mr. Roosevelt, we got an average of only 380,000 homes a year.

On the record then, that promise, too, is no good, even though it is repeated again and again and again.

My opponent now promises to free the American working man from the strangling bureaucracy he himself has created. When a man promises, in trying to win an election, that he will reverse the course of everything he has done for 12 years – then that promise, too, on the record, is no good, even though it is repeated again and again and again.

My opponent promises the farmers good prices after the war. But the farmer knows that in all the peacetime years of the New Deal he never got decent prices. Under Mr. Roosevelt, it took a war to get prices just as it took a war to get jobs. On the record that promise, too, is bogus, even though it is repeated again and again and again.

My opponent promises to be mindful of the problems of small business. The small businessmen of America will know how much faith they can put in that and I should like to talk briefly about the future of small business. This is the field in which a large part of our white-collar workers earn their living. This is the field of the forgotten men and women under the New Deal.

Now, American businessmen know that the New Deal way of being mindful of their problems has been slowly to drown them with a rising flood of rules and regulations, questionnaires, reports and directives.

It’s been bad enough for large business, but the big corporation at least has its lawyers, its accountants, clerks and statisticians. When it comes to small businessmen, this New Deal burden of government paperwork has too often meant the difference between success or failure.

Take the case of Capt. J. F. Shields of Seattle, who is in the salt codfish business. For 33 years his boats have gone out – until last year, when the War Labor Board failed even to pass on his wage contracts. So last year, he couldn’t go fishing at all.

He reports that this year he finally got clearance, after going through 24 different government agencies in order to carry on his small business. In addition to the Navy Department, Interior Department, Commerce Department, Treasury Department, Immigration Service and the Maritime Commission, a partial list of the agencies he had to deal with includes, WLB, WMC, OPA, WSA, FCC, USES, WPB, ODT, SS, WFA and others.

Here is another sample of what our small businessmen have had to contend with. The world trembles in the greatest war of the ages and bureaucracy puts out the following rule:

Mashed potatoes offered a la carte for weekday lunches would be in the same class of food items as potatoes au gratin offered a la carte for weekday lunches, but would be in a different class than mashed potatoes offered a la carte for weekday dinners or Sunday suppers.

Well, that’s the New Deal way of being mindful of the problems of small business. It’s the same from restaurants to beauty parlors, from electrical shops to the insurance business. And that’s why it’s time for a change – before it’s too late.

Yes, the New Deal pretends at election time to be the friend of small business. But how has small business actually fared under the New Deal?

The record shows that in 1942 and 1943, the most prosperous years we have had under the New Deal – because of war – there was a net decline of 500,000 in the number of American small business concerns, a net figure of half a million small businesses closed their doors.

And yet my opponent has the temerity to go on the radio and say:

This administration has been mindful from its earliest days, and will continue to be mindful, of the problems of small business…

In the light of the record, that promise, too, is worthless and it will remain so, even though it is repeated again and again and again. My opponent has read our platform and is now saying, “Me, too.”

Even the New Deal knows it’s time for a change.

No, we cannot live on promises. We must have performance this time – before it’s too late. As we keep our minds on these peacetime years ahead, let us remember one thing: My opponent has offered no program for the peacetime years ahead except the same one which failed for eight straight years of peace from 1933 to 1940.

And let me add that the figures showing that failure have been correctly quoted by me from the beginning to the end of this campaign.

My opponent has insinuated that they were not correct but he has never dared to point to one he disagreed with. Instead, he says with a sneer that when he was Governor of New York he quoted figures correctly.

I do not recollect his quoting figures at all when he was Governor of New York and very rarely since then – for one very good reason. In every administration Mr. Roosevelt has headed, he ended up in the red. No country can long survive under any leader who only piles up a higher debt each year, not just in war, but in peace.

Let us, as a nation, relearn one, simple thing. Our peacetime economic system is like a high-powered motor. Every part of it must work or the engine will run badly. If one spark plug goes bad, the engine loses power. If the distributor is out of order or the fuel line gets stopped up or the carburetor goes bad, the whole tremendous power of the machine fails.

That’s what the New Deal doesn’t know and never could learn. It had to tinker first with one thing and then with another. It has changed the tax law 15 times in 12 years so no man could plan ahead. It fought first one part of our job-making machinery, then another. It was never willing in all its years to let all the parts of this machine function smoothly.

It is a shocking thing that my opponent, after 12 years as President, felt compelled to announce, as news last Saturday night, that he believes in the enterprise system.

Yet, in all his campaign speeches, my opponent has not indicated how he will achieve in post-war years what he so tragically failed to achieve in pre-war years.

Let me summarize, in brief, some essential parts of the program of action I have proposed these last two months for the peacetime years ahead.

Virtually every element of our program is something the New Deal has fought against or neglected, and cannot now, for election purposes, claim to favor.

Here is the program for these peacetime years ahead.

PROPOSAL NO. 1: Direct all government policies toward the goal of full employment through full production at a high level of wages for the worker with an incentive for the businessman to succeed. Your next administration will work out the problems affecting labor, agriculture and business in full consultation with all three and without discrimination against any class or section of our country or any race, creed or color.

PROPOSAL NO. 2: Adopt an entirely new tax structure which will do these things:

  • Change the personal exemption so that a man who makes as little as $11 a week no longer has an income tax taken out of his standard living.

  • Reduce personal income tax rates so that the tax law, after credit for dependents, will no longer take at least 23¢ out of every taxable dollar in the pay envelope.

  • Change and lower the income tax on business so that it can be encouraged to expand and help create the millions of jobs we need.

  • Overhaul the whole tax structure so that it is simple, so that everyone can understand it and then stick to it over a period of years so everybody knows he can go ahead and build, and create jobs.

PROPOSAL NO. 3: Make our Social Security System available to every American and not to a selected part of our people. For nine long years, the New Deal has kept 20 million Americans out of our old-age pension system. The right to old-age benefits has become a fundamental of our society. We can and must extend the system of old age benefits and social security to all our people and build a society strong enough to support it.

PROPOSAL NO. 4: Establish a definite and secure floor, under farm prices by the means outlined in my speech last Saturday, together with the other elements of that program and free the American farmer from dictation by Washington.

PROPOSAL NO. 5: Restore freer collective bargaining in America. Sprawling government agencies have now established an iron rule over the wages, hours and chance to get a job of every American worker. We shall establish the Fair Employment Practices Committee as a permanent agency with full legal authority. We will merge the balance of these agencies in a strong and competent Department of Labor under the leadership of a man from the ranks of labor.

PROPOSAL NO. 6: Survey forthwith the millions of reports required of big and little business every year by government and immediately abolish the greater part of them. We have done it in New York and we can do it in the nation.

PROPOSAL NO. 7: Bring a competent staff of prosecutors into the Department of Justice so that we can bring an end to business monopoly in this country instead of just talking about it.

PROPOSAL NO. 8: Establish an entirely new basis between the President and the Congress so that once again each shall have respect for the other and be willing to work together again.

My opponent has continually criticized and attempted to purge the members of the House of Congress elected by the people. He has so abused and insulted the Congress that his own Senate leader rebelled just this year and denounced the words of a veto message by my opponent as “more clever than honest” and as “a calculated and deliberate assault on the legislative integrity of every member of Congress.”

That declaration was cheered to the rafters by the Senators and the members of the House swarmed into the Senate to congratulate the speaker.

That is what three terms of unlimited power does to a man. That is why four terms, or 16 years, is the most dangerous threat to our freedom ever proposed. That is one reason why I believe that two terms must be established as the limit by constitutional amendment.

We have seen that a New Deal Congress no longer trusts or accepts leadership from my opponent. It is generally agreed that the House and probably the Senate will be Republican next year. So, already Mr. Roosevelt has undertaken to insult the new leadership.

In his speech of last Friday night, he accused the men who will be the new leaders of placing political advantage above devotion to country, just because they publicly pledged themselves to a program for lasting peace. We must not have – we cannot have four years more of stalemate and hostility between the President and the Congress.

We must restore to the White House a willingness to work out problems with the Congress as equals, in the American fashion, over the conference table. We must bring an end to government by abuse and smear.

Lastly, I propose that, with an end to name calling and with unselfish devotion, we unite as a people behind the cause of a just and a lasting peace through an international organization, with the strength to prevent future wars.

By these specific means and with a government made up of the ablest men and women in this country, we can restore honesty to our government and we can once again unite to secure the future which is our birthright.

Let us again make “getting ahead” a vital part of our American speech and thought. For years the New Dealers have sneered at the old American idea of “getting ahead.” Let us make sure that our children can again believe that there is room for everyone to get ahead. Let us nail that principle to our masthead as we set out on a sure course for the future.

Let us determine that the end of this war will bring our young men and women home to the kind of America they have earned. With high purpose, with integrity and relying upon the guidance of the God of all of us, we can save freedom in America and go forward once again.

Völkischer Beobachter (November 1, 1944)

Ein zweitrangiger Alliierter –
Washington tadelt Tschungking

China als anglo-amerikanisches Aufmarschgebiet und Kolonisationsobjekt

Erfolgreiche Abwehr überall

Nein!

nein.dnb

Unter der höchst anspruchsvollen Überschrift „Die Yankees kommen“ haben die judäo-amerikanischen Schreibtischstrategen und Heimkrieger in der Zeitschrift Time obige Zeichnung veröffentlicht. Schon damals, im Monat September, wiesen ihre Angriffspfeile weit über Münster, Frankfurt und Stuttgart hinaus, mitten ins Herz der deutschen Lande.

Mehr als ein Monat ist seitdem verflossen, aber immer noch steht die deutsche Frontlinie im Westen im Wesentlichen dort, wo sie damals aufgezeichnet wurde. An dem erbitterten Widerstand unserer Divisionen sind die Wunschträume der Länderräuber aus dem Westen und Osten bisher gescheitert.

Daß sie auch künftig scheitern werden, daß jeder Fußbreit gewonnenen deutschen Bodens von dem fremden Raubgesindel mit Bergen von Leichen bezahlt werden muß, das ist der eiserne Entschluss aller Männer Deutschlands, die in den Frontformationen stehen und sich in den Volkssturmbataillonen zum Einsatz rüsten.

Führer HQ (November 1, 1944)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Unsere Brückenkopfbesatzung nordöstlich Brügge verteidigte sich mit äußerster Zähigkeit gegen die mit Panzern angreifenden Kanadier. In den heutigen Vormittagsstunden landete der Feind, von Seestreitkräften unterstützt, im Raum von Vlissingen. Um Stadt und Hafen wird heftig gekämpft. In Nordbrabant setzte der Feind auf der gesamten Front zwischen der Insel Tholen und dem Raum östlich Oosterhout seine starken Panzerangriffe fort. Sie scheiterten am erbitterten Widerstand unserer Truppen. Nur im Raum Gertruidenberg konnte der Feind einige Kilometer nach Norden Vordringen.

Vorpostenboote versenkten vor der niederländischen Küste ein britisches Schnellboot und beschädigten ein weiteres.

Seit fast zwei Monaten versuchen die Amerikaner und ihre französischen Hilfstruppen unsere Front in den Westvogesen zu durchstoßen. Auch gestern griffen sie nördlich Baccarat und östlich Rambervillers konzentrisch an, um einen vorspringenden Stellungsbogen aus unserer Front herauszubrechen. Unter starkem Einsatz von Panzern gelang es französischen Truppen in Baccarat einzudringen. Sie verloren dabei aber durch unsere entschlossene Abwehr nach vorläufigen Meldungen 24 Panzer und Panzerspähwagen. In den Wäldern östlich Rambervillers blieben die feindlichen Angriffe liegen. Auch die im Einbruchsraum westlich Saint-Dié angreifenden Nordamerikaner wurden abgewiesen.

Die Besatzung der Festung Lorient zerschlug feindliche Vorstöße und erweiterte durch Gegenangriffe ihr Vorfeld bis über die Stadt Saint-Helène hinaus nach Norden und Osten. Sie machte dabei Gefangene und erhebliche Beute.

Italienische Alpini beseitigten in Mittelitalien einen Einbruch im Raum von Castelnuove und brachten bei einem erfolgreichen Stoßtruppunternehmen zahlreiche Brasilianer als Gefangene ein. Westlich Imola wurde der Feind von einem wichtigen Höhengelände geworfen. Britische Vorstöße nordöstlich Forli scheiterten bereits im Feuer unserer Vorposten.

Im Zuge unserer Absetzbewegungen auf dem Balkan wurde Saloniki unbehindert vom Feinde geräumt. In den beiden Hauptkampfräumen Pristina und Kraljevo scheiterten zahlreiche bulgarische und bolschewistische Angriffe. Vor unseren Gegenangriffen verließen bulgarische Verbände fluchtartig das Gefechtsfeld und ließen eine Gebirgsbatterie in unserer Hand.

In Kroatien wurde der Raum zwischen der mittleren Drau und der Save durch kroatische Verbände von Banden gesäubert.

Im Raum von Kecskemét sind harte Kämpfe mit dem zwischen Donau und Theiß vordringenden Feind im Gange. Schlachtflieger unterstützten die Truppen des Heeres und fügten den Sowjets hohe Ausfälle an Panzern und Fahrzeugen zu.

An der slowakischen Ostgrenze und in den Ostbeskiden wehrten deutsche und ungarische Truppen zahlreiche sowjetische Einzelangriffe ab.

Nördlich Warschau zerschlugen unsere Truppen mehrere feindliche Angriffe und Bereitstellungen. Die Kämpfe des Vortages beiderseits Ostenburg waren für die Bolschewisten besonders verlustreich. Der Ansturm von sechs Schützendivisionen und zahlreichen Panzerverbänden scheiterte. 81 sowjetische Panzer und 96 Geschütze wurden vernichtet. Daraufhin ließ die feindliche Angriffstätigkeit gestern nach.

Die Kämpfe in Kurland nahmen noch an Härte zu. Unsere Truppen setzten dem anhaltenden Ansturm der Bolschewisten südöstlich Libau und im Raum von Autz zähen Widerstand entgegen und verhinderten in erbitterter Abwehr auch gestern alle Durchbruchsversuche. In den letzten Tagen wurden in diesem Raum in Luftkämpfen und durch Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe 142 sowjetische Flugzeuge abgeschossen.

In Finnland verliefen unsere Marsch- und Absetzbewegungen planmäßig. Ein bolschewistisches Bataillon, das an der Eismeerstraße nordöstlich Ivalo angriff, wurde zersprengt.

Britische Terrorflieger warfen am Tage Bomben auf rheinisches Gebiet und griffen in der Nacht Köln und Hamburg an.


Die Sturmgeschützbrigade 277 unter Führung von Hauptmann Breke hat im ostpreußischen Grenzgebiet in zehntägigen Kämpfen durch schneidige Angriffe bei nur einem eigenen Verlust 60 Panzer und 82 Geschütze sowie zahlreiche Granatwerfer und sonstige Waffen des Gegners vernichtet und sich als Rückgrat der Verteidigung gegen feindliche Panzerangriffe besonders bewährt.

Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (November 1, 1944)

FROM
(A) SHAEF FORWARD

ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section

DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
011100A November

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. 207

Heavy fighting went on all day yesterday on the causeway linking Zuid Beveland and the Island of Walcheren. Between Oudenbosch and Breda, we have reached the line of the Mark River. Crossing have been made due north of Oudenbosch and on the main road to Dordrecht, northwest of Breda. Northeast of Ousterhout, our forces have continued to make good progress. We have reached the Meuse River north of Capelle. Raamsdonk, Sprang and Waalwijk have been taken and we are in the outskirts of Waspik. In southeastern Holland, there has been heavy fighting in the vicinity of Liesel. The enemy has been driven from the town. Although weather curtailed their activities over the greater part of the battle areas, fighter-bombers attacked a supply dump to the northwest of Saarburg. One fighter is missing. In the afternoon, heavy bombers escorted by fighters, attacked the synthetic oil plant at Bottrop in the Ruhr. One bomber is missing.

Last night, heavy bombers in strength attacked Köln; this bombing was preceded by an attack on the city by light bombers. Heavy artillery exchanges took place north of Baccarat. Our troops have entered Saint-Benoît, east of Rambervillers, against stubborn resistance. East of Bruyères, the village of Les Poulières was freed.

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 (November 1, 1944)

CINCPAC Communiqué No. 171

In the second Battle of the Philippine Sea, October 22‑27 (West Longi­tude Date), several U.S. ships of the Third and Seventh Fleets (the latter operating under the command of Gen. MacArthur) were damaged. The names of these ships will not be made public, nor will the extent and amount of damage be announced at the present time. Such information would be of value to the enemy in estimating accurately the size of our naval forces operating in Philippine waters and what ships are available for immediate action.

Mitchell bombers of the 11th Air Force bombed Paramushiru in the Northern Kurils on October 30, setting buildings afire and damaging several small craft. Anti-aircraft fire was inaccurate and all planes returned.

A single Navy search plane bombed the airfield at Iwo Jima on October 29. Anti-aircraft fire was not encountered.

Corsairs of the Second Marine Aircraft Wing strafed personnel areas on Rota Island on October 30. Anti-aircraft fire was meager.

Seventh Air Force Liberators on October 29 dropped bombs on the airfield at Yap Island, causing fires and explosions. Corsairs of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing also bombed the airstrip and set a fuel dump ablaze.

Corsairs of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing on October 29 strafed targets on Babelthuap Island in the Northern Palau Islands and sank two barges.

Seventh Air Force Mitchells bombed the airstrip and gun installations on Nauru Island on October 30.

Enemy‑held positions in the Marshall Islands were bombed in neutralization raids on October 29 and 30.

PROCLAMATION 2629
Thanksgiving Day, 1944

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 1, 1944

In this year of liberation, which has seen so many millions freed from tyrannical rule, it is fitting that we give thanks with special fervor to our Heavenly Father for the mercies we have received individually and as a nation and for the blessings He has restored, through the victories of our arms and those of our allies, to His children in other lands.

For the preservation of our way of life from the threat of destruction; for the unity of spirit which has kept our Nation strong; for our abiding faith in freedom; and for the promise of an enduring peace, we should lift up our hearts in thanksgiving.

For the harvest that has sustained us and, in its fullness, brought succor to other peoples; for the bounty of our soil, which has produced the sinews of war for the protection of our liberties; and for a multitude of private blessings, known only in our hearts, we should give united thanks to God.

To the end that we may bear more earnest witness to our gratitude to Almighty God, I suggest a nationwide reading of the Holy Scriptures during the period from Thanksgiving Day to Christmas. Let every man of every creed go to his own version of the Scriptures for a renewed and strengthening contact with those eternal truths and majestic principles which have inspired such measure of true greatness as this nation has achieved.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, President of the United States of America, in consonance with the joint resolution of the Congress approved December 26, 1941, do hereby proclaim Thursday the twenty-third day of November 1944 a day of national thanksgiving; and I call upon the people of the United States to observe it by bending every effort to hasten the day of final victory and by offering to God our devout gratitude for His goodness to us and to our fellow men.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this first day of November in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-four and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-ninth.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

The Pittsburgh Press (November 1, 1944)

Tokyo and Yokohama hit by Superfortresses, Japs say

Enemy believes B-29s now flying from bases in Mariana Islands
By the United Press