Editorial: Churchill’s blunder
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168,000 casualties admitted by Japs
By the United Press
Tokyo radio admitted today that Jap forces suffered 168,000 casualties during 1944.
The enemy broadcast, recorded by the United Press in San Francisco, quoted an Imperial Jap communiqué claim that Jap forces inflicted 226,000 casualties on Americans and 78,000 casualties on British troops, while the Japs sustained 168,000.
Holiday buying likely to hit $3.5 billion
Shopping rush tops pre-Depression era
By the United Press
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The Very Thought of You defends soldier marriages
Dennis Morgan, Eleanor Parker starred in Penn feature; Dana Clark is comedy find
By Dick Fortune
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Screenwriter found dead
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Mechanical ‘brain’ aims guns on Superfortresses
Army reveals how electronic device quickly, accurately brings turrets to bear on targets
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Griffith, Big Ten Commissioner, dies
Noted sports director found dead soon after reelection to office
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U.S. Navy Department (December 8, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 199
A heavy force of Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force and Fleet Air Wing One, escorted by Lightning‑fighters of the 7th Air Force, struck at Iwo Jima in the Volcanos on December 7 (West Longitude Date).
Surface units of the Pacific Fleet bombarded shore installations on the island in a coordinated attack on the same date.
These operations were carried out in cooperation with a heavy attack by the XXI Bomber Command.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 200
The air attack on Iwo Jima, reported by Communiqué No. 199, was conducted by a large force of aircraft, including a sizeable force of B-29s, 108 Liberators, and 30 Lightnings. The B-29s encountered no anti-aircraft or fighter opposition and none were lost. The Lightnings encountered six Zeros, destroyed five and damaged one.
All the aircraft concerned were under the command of Lt. Gen. Millard F. Harmon, who has recently been assigned to command the Strategic Air Force, Pacific Ocean Areas. His force will include the shore-based aircraft of the Pacific Ocean Areas normally employed in the offensive operations. He is also Deputy Commander of the 20th Air Force.
The naval surface units which bombarded Iwo Jima on December 7, were under the command of RAdm. Allan E. Smith, USN.
Bombers of the 11th Army Air Force scored hits on installations at Suribachi in Paramushiru in the Kuriles on December 6 (West Longitude Date).
Fighters of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing strafed installations on Babelthuap in the Palaus on December 5 and 6.
Marine aircraft on the same dates bombed the airstrip on Pagan in the Marianas.
CINCPAC Press Release No. 663
For Immediate Release
December 8, 1944
Behind the brilliant story of the victory of VAdm. Marc A. Mitscher’s carrier task force over the Japanese fleet in the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea lies another story no less dramatic in its implications – that of the workmanlike job performed by oilers of the Service Force of the Pacific, under the command of VAdm. William L. Calhoun, in feeding the fighting ships and planes their lifeblood: gasoline and fuel oil.
Today, Adm. William F. Halsey, Commander, Third Fleet, announced that during September and October these oilers had supplied the carrier task force considerably more than one hundred million gallons of fuel. This fuel was for the carriers and the planes in Mitscher’s forces. It was enough gasoline, based on present rations, to keep all the “A” card auto owners of a major United States city supplied with gasoline for an entire year; and the fuel oil supplied Adm. Mitscher’s fleet would keep the oil burning furnaces in 76,000 average American homes under normal conditions, going the year ‘round.
Nor was this merely a story of a routine fueling job, performed in a quiet harbor under ideal conditions. After the oiler has made its long trip to an advance base, through waters where the danger of air and submarine attack is always present, its most dangerous job may still lie ahead. Once the battle is joined, much of the fueling of the fighting ships must of necessity be done at sea, and fueling at sea is one of the most difficult and dangerous jobs. In rough weather, it requires the utmost skill in seamanship to accomplish the job at all. Fuel and mooring lines may snap; men may be killed or maimed for life; the two ships may even collide with damage to both.
So difficult, so intricate and important is this task that Adm. Halsey has already commended the oilers for their “magnificent job” in supplying the fleet with gasoline and oil prior to and during the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea.
Not many an oiler will ever be able to paint a Jap flag, for planes downed or ships sunk, upon her bridge – but every man in the task force is aware of, the importance of the contribution of these service ships.