Minneapolis gas station owners join union in move to fix prices
By Daniel M. Kidney, Scripps-Howard staff writer
…
Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
Until I looked it up today, I thought the Secretary of State was the person who typed the letters that California writes to florican, etc. But I found out that he handles our diplomatic relations with foreign countries, and that’s some job.
I always thought actors were temperamental, but, believe me, countries are real hams. They insist on such etiquette and protocol. For example, every Ambassador has a diplomatic pouch which no one can touch. Well, I can understand that, George is sensitive about his, too.
Personally, I hope our new Secretary of State will invite Sumner Welles to rejoin the Department. Now there’s a man who could talk me right out of the Panama Canal – so brilliant and yet so handsome and well groomed. You might almost call him an Einstein in Menjou’s clothing. In fact, I understand they’ve uncovered an international spy ring in Washington that has been trying for 10 years to find out where Mr. Welles has his clothes made.
Millett: When G.I. Joe comes home, he’ll be better man
Changes will be improvements
By Ruth Millett
…
Steelers to ‘remain single’ in 1945
‘Had enough mergers,’ local owners insist; Cards to go it alone
By Carl Hughes
…
Völkischer Beobachter (December 6, 1944)
Ins vierte Jahr des großen Aderlasses –
US-Krieg an zwei Fronten
…
Führer HQ (December 6, 1944)
Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
An der Schlachtfront von Aachen fiel bei örtlich beschränkten Kämpfen eine größere Anzahl Gefangener in unsere Hand. Im Gebiet von Hürtgen und bei Vossenack dauern schwere Waldkämpfe an. Elf feindliche Panzer wurden dabei vernichtet.
Nordamerikanische Stoßtrupps, die in den letzten Tagen bei Merzig über die Saar gesetzt waren, wurden aufgerieben, östlich Saarlautern stehen unsere Bunkerbesatzungen in heftigen Gefechten mit dem stark angreifenden Gegner. Südlich davon und südöstlich Forbach haben sich die feindlichen Verbände näher an unsere Westbefestigungen herangeschoben. Im Kampf mit unseren Nachtruppen verloren sie 18 Panzer.
An der Standhaftigkeit unserer Verbände im Elsass scheiterte gestern erneut eine Reihe von feindlichen Angriffen. Französische Kolonialtruppen verloren in Hartwald wiederum zahlreiche Gefangene.
Deutsche Schlachtflieger griffen mehrfach in die Kämpfe im Westen ein, zersprengten feindliche Tiefflieger oder verhinderten sie am gezielten Abwurf ihrer Bomben. Bei nächtlichen Angriffen unserer Schlachtflieger auf feindliche Stützpunkte im Raum von Aachen entstanden ausgedehnte Brände und Explosionen.
Groß-London lag bei Tag und Nacht unter dem Feuer unserer Vergeltungswaffen.
In Mittelitalien gewann der Feind nach mehrfachen vergeblichen Angriffen mit zusammengefassten Kräften einen Brückenkopf über den Lamone-Abschnitt nördlich Russi. Grenadiere und Jäger warfen ihn in wuchtigen Gegenangriffen wieder zurück, machten erhebliche Beute und zahlreiche Gefangene. Erneute übersetzversuche der dort eingesetzten kanadischen Verbände scheiterten unter schwersten feindlichen Verlusten. Nordwestlich Ravenna fingen unsere Truppen die britischen Angriffe vor neuen Stellungen auf. Die Stadt Ravenna selbst wurde kampflos aufgegeben und dadurch vor der Zerstörung bewahrt.
In Dalmatien haben unsere Truppen feindliche Umfassungsversuche nordwestlich Knin vereitelt. Am Westrand der Fruška Gora in Syrmien und im Raum südöstlich Vukovar gehen die heftigen Kämpfe weiter.
In Ungarn hat die Schlacht an Heftigkeit und Ausdehnung zugenommen. Im Kampfraum zwischen Drau, Plattensee und Donau verhinderten unsere zäh kämpfenden Verbände größeren Geländegewinn des Feindes und fügten ihm bei der Abwehr seiner Angriffe hohe Verluste bei.
Beiderseits Budapests sind die Bolschewisten mit starken Kräften zum Großangriff angetreten. Südlich der Stadt wurden die auf das Westufer der Donau übergesetzten feindlichen Verbände durch Gegenangriffe abgeriegelt. Auch östlich Budapest sind im Raum von Hatvan schwere Kämpfe entbrannt.
Am Südrand des Mátragebirges und im Abschnitt von Miskolc wurden erneute Durchbruchsversuche der Bolschewisten vereitelt.
In Südwestungarn vernichteten deutsche Schlachtfliegerverbände zahlreiche Fahrzeuge und Fährboote der Sowjets, zerstörten eine wichtige Brücke und fügten dem Feind mit Bomben und Bordwaffen hohe blutige Verluste zu. Begleitende deutsche und ungarische Jäger schossen in Luftkämpfen 18 sowjetische Flugzeuge ab.
An der übrigen Ostfront zwischen der Ostslowakei und Kurland kam es nur zu unbedeutenden örtlichen Gefechten.
Ein nordamerikanischer Bomberverband griff am gestrigen Tage die Reichshauptstadt an. Weitere Angriffe anglo-amerikanischer Verbände richteten sich gegen das westliche Reichsgebiet, wobei besonders Gebäudeschäden in Hamm entstanden. Feindliche Tiefflieger setzten in noch gesteigertem Umfang den Terror gegen die Zivilbevölkerung vor allem in den Gebieten beiderseits des Rheins fort. Soest war in der vergangenen Nacht das Ziel eines Terrorangriffes der Briten, die auch Störangriffe auf West- und Südwestdeutschland durchführten. Luftverteidigungskräfte schossen 42 feindliche Flugzeuge ab.
In den Abwehrkämpfen im Unterelsass hat sich die Panzerbrigade 106 „Feldherrnhalle“ unter Führung des mit dem Eichenlaub mit Schwertern zum Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes ausgezeichneten Obersten Bäke durch hervorragenden Angriffsgeist und besondere Standfestigkeit ausgezeichnet. Sie schoss in drei Tagen 40 feindliche Panzer ab.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (December 6, 1944)
FROM
(A) SHAEF MAIN
ORIGINATOR
PRD, Communique Section
DATE-TIME OF ORIGIN
061100A December
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. 242
There have been no substantial changes along the Roer River in the Jülich-Linnich areas where Allied forces have been under moderate enemy artillery fire. Stubborn resistance continues at the outskirts of Jülich. A German counterattack with infantry and tanks against Lucherberg, east of the Inde River, was broken up by our artillery. Farther south, we made gains against strong opposition and captured Bergstein, southeast of Hürtgen.
In the Saar Valley, our forces east of the river repulsed an enemy counterattack northwest of Saarlouis. We have crossed the Saar River at a second point in this area. Our armored elements have freed Rouhling and reached Hundling, west of Sarreguemines. Other forces have occupied Wustweiler. Northeast of Sarre-Union, we are advancing in the vicinity of Oermingen and Dehlingen.
Northwest of Haguenau, our forces entered Mertzweiler against strong resistance.
The garrison of an enemy fort which held out for more than a week at Mutzig, west of Strasbourg, surrendered after the walls had been breached.
In the high Vosges, gains of several miles were made. The Hohneck height and the Col de la Schlucht were cleared of the enemy.
Heavy, medium and fighter-bombers made attacks yesterday on the enemy’s railway system in western Germany over a wide area from Ströhen and points between Osnabrück and Detmold north of the Ruhr to the region of Darmstadt and Mannheim in the southern Rhineland. In the afternoon, escorted heavy bombers, one of which is missing, attacked the railway marshalling yards at Hamm.
Medium bombers attacked the railway yards at Kempen and fighter-bombers went for railway yards at Liblar, southwest of Köln and railway station at Mayen-Kottenheim. Railway lines were cut in some 80 places during the day. Last night, a strong force of heavy bombers struck at the railway marshalling yards at Soest.
Fighter-bombers and rocket-firing fighters went for targets in northern and eastern Holland. Fighter-bombers destroyed a bridge near Gouda and bombed and strafed an enemy troop train near Hilversum and another between Apeldoorn and Amersfoort.
Rocket-firing fighters hit gun positions near ‘s-Gravendeel and an enemy strongpoint and an observation post east of Nijmegen.
Medium, light and fighter-bombers made attacks against targets in western Germany. Fighter-bombers bombed and strafed gun positions, hangars, barracks, and factories in the Rheine-Münster area, and medium bombers attacked a fuel storage dump and a road junction near Dülmen.
Medium and light bombers hit enemy troops quarters and a bomb dump at Dremmen, north of Geilenkirchen, the village of Huchem-Stammeln north of Düren, and Kall, a fortified industrial town, southwest of Euskirchen.
Fighter-bombers strafed and bombed gun positions southeast of Geldern. they also attacked troop concentrations at Ahrweiler and Mayen, a factory at Wickrathberg, south of München, a fuel dump at Düsseldorf and storage tanks at Monheim.
In the area of Düppenweiler, north of Saarlouis, medium bombers attacked enemy positions. Fighter-bombers struck at targets in Saarbrücken and other defended areas in this sector, and further south hit an ammunition dump near Senheim, northwest of Mulhouse.
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/U.S. Navy Department (December 6, 1944)
Press Release
For Immediate Release
December 6, 1944
Discussion of Japanese aviation
In the battle for the Philippines, U.S. carrier planes and carriers engaged major forces of land‑based planes for the first time in history. We have suffered some damage and encountered the stiffest air opposition we have run into in some time. The Japanese network of airfields throughout the islands enabled them to throw larger numbers of planes into the air over a given spot at one time than was possible in the limited areas we have overcome during our attacks on the island fringes of the Empire.
This action set a precedent for actions still to come as we approach closer to the heart of the Japanese Empire. We can expect still more opposition as we go along. The nearer we get, the more the Jap can constrict his air defense, as well as his ground and sea defenses. Our choices of strategy will be reduced. He will not have to guess so much as to what we will do next. As Knute Rockne once said: “It is harder to score a touch‑down from the 5-yard line than from the 40-yard line, because the defense is packed more tightly.”
VAdm. Marc A. Mitscher, USN, recently pointed out that we have dealt Japanese naval aviation a body blow. Fighting Jap carriers and their Navy planes was one thing. Taking on the enemy land air force is another. Although we will continue to encounter strong naval air opposition, we will run into the Jap army planes in increasing numbers from now on. Consequently, as we approach closer to the heart of the Japanese Empire, the job of Naval Aviation will become more difficult for these reasons:
-
We will meet Jap planes, particularly army planes, in larger numbers than heretofore. The network of airfields they have constructed during recent years will greatly assist their flexibility of action and permit large combat forces to be assembled very quickly. This certainly was true in the Philippines. This greatly complicates our problem and means that a long bitter battle must ensue before the effectiveness and striking power of the Jap air force can be neutralized.
-
The Japs have been bending every effort to increase aircraft production. Although very recently we have been destroying their planes faster than they can build them, this has not been true since the beginning of the war. Like ours, the Jap air force is now larger than it ever has been. Their production is increasing.
-
Japanese airplanes are getting better. Whereas a year ago we had a big technical advantage, now it is very slender. The Japs now have vastly improved types, particularly in their army air force, as compared with the planes we have been meeting in the approaches to the Empire. We have met very few of these new ones in combat. There is good reason to believe that they are holding a large stock of these new army planes in reserve on the Jap mainland.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 197
Fighters of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing destroyed a building on Babelthuap in the Palaus on December 4 (West Longitude Date).
Gun positions on Rota in the Marianas were bombed by Marine fighters on December 3. On the following day, Marine fighters and bombers struck at defense installations and at the airstrip on Rota.
Supply areas on Pagan in the Marianas were attacked by 7th Army Air Force fighters and the airstrip was bombed by Marine fighters on December 4.
An enemy bomber was shot down by fighters over Saipan on December 4. No bombs were dropped.
On December 3, a single Army Liberator bombed one of the airstrips on Iwo Jima in the Volcanos.
Seventh Army Air Force bombers attacked installations on Marcus Island airstrip on the same date.
Bombers and fighters of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing bombed defenses on Ponape Island in the Carolines on December 3. One of our fighters was lost but the pilot was rescued.
Neutralization of enemy‑held bases in the Marshalls was continued by aircraft of Fleet Air Wing Two and the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing on December 3 and 4.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 6, 1944)
3rd Army battles ahead on 50-mile Saar front
3rd Army crosses river at four more places in Germany
By J. Edward Murray, United Press staff writer
…
Gen. Somervell: Victory in balance and lives at stake in arms production
Krug, Stimson and forestall also stress need for more guns, tanks, planes, bullets
…
Jap counterattack repulsed on Leyte
U.S. fliers, warships sink 8 more vessels
…
China-based fliers blast 16 ships
…
I DARE SAY —
All the things she is!
By Florence Fisher Parry
As I watched Ruth Gordon purr her way through Over 21 Monday night, her silky voice pouring nectar one moment and splitting epithets the next, it was fun to remember what she had told me that very morning as she ate her man-sized breakfast.
“All I’ll do until performance is just be here in this room resting and readying for it. I’m not” – she told me firmly – “going to be able to act AND play-write, I’m going to write. I can’t do both, so this is my last role.”
Which of course appalled me – or would have if I had believed it, which I don’t for a moment. Ruth Gordon not acting is as preposterous as the flowers not blooming in the spring, tra la.
But it’s not to be wondered at that she’s a little lightheaded with dreams about playwriting, “seeing as” she has not only written one of the biggest comedy hits of the day but (for goodness sake!) another called “Journey to a Star” all ready, mind you, to deliver to the public, while all the time she is appearing in a role which keeps her on the stage steadily all through the action of Over 21.
Just a war wife
Maybe the best thing is to let her proceed with this column the very way she told it:
She said:
How did the play happen? Well, for one thing, I’m a New Englander, so of course I don’t know how NOT to keep working all the time. Garson (Garson Kanin is her husband you know, a brilliant actor-producer-everything) – Garson was caught up in the war as was everyone I knew, and I was down in Washington with him trying to find butter, lodging, second-hand refrigerators, and make connections with a neighborhood meat market.
Well, one day when tragedy seemed to be dogging me – I hadn’t been able to buy a steak for ages – I happened to go into a butcher shop and didn’t the mealman RECOGNIZE me! WELL! You can imagine what that did to my morale! I had established myself with a butcher! Now ANYTHING was possible! I never experienced such a sense of power!
Just about that time, Thornton Wilder wrote me a letter from an Officers’ Training Camp telling me how worried he was for fear he wouldn’t make the course. It was ABC to the youngsters down there, but he was just sick because he couldn’t seem to RETAIN. No high school kid before exams ever was so nervous. And it struck me as being so… funny… and pitiful… and nice… that all over our country in camp after camp were these gifted, successful men scorning the safe important jobs they were fitted for, and trying to be soldiers.
And besides, I’d JUST been married to Garson and you know how bridegrooms rate their brides. So I sat down one day and began to set down some of this… you know… war, and people in love and this new wartime obsession over points and rations and places to stay, and wonderful fellas way over 21 trying to pass kid-stuff exams at training camp and flunking out.
Blame Garson
When I’d finished writing it, I found it had taken the shape of a story – a novel, you know. And who do you suppose was the heroine? ME! Not really me, of course, but this scintillating gorgeous creature Garson still thought I was! I’d been creating HIS IDEA OF ME! Well! Imagine my embarrassment!
But Garson read it and never even suspected the fraud. Of course, the minute we went over the story we saw that it REALLY had the shape of a play – dialog situations just naturally fell into play form. So, I changed it into a play and that was all there was about it.
That opening night! You say you were there? Well, you know then WHAT a night that was! How I reveled in that part!
So, what happened? When the reviews came out, it was assumed that the character I played was Dorothy Parker! Now I dote on Dot, she’s really wonderful. But can you imagine how crestfallen I was? There I’d been cherishing the delusion that I was acting ME – Garson’s me, I mean – and nobody recognized me at all, not even my closest friends!
Well anyway, after years and years of acting, I’m suddenly a successful playwright ready to retire from the stage! And all because Thornton Wilder was worried sick over his OCS exams and I found a butcher who RECOGNIZED me and gave me a sense of power!