America at war! (1941–) – Part 5

Menace or myth?
Texas ‘union-buster’ is just an old promoter thriving on sucker lists

‘Christian American Association’ denounced by labor leaders cuts no ice in its home state
By Frederick Woltman, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

OKINAWA (via Navy radio) – During our first afternoon on Okinawa my group of Marines went about a mile and a half inland. Our vehicles were not ashore yet, so we had to pack on our backs everything we had.

Personally, I was overladen as usual. I had two canteens, a musette bag, a blanket rolled up in a Poncho, three rubber life preservers, a shovel, and assorted knives, first aid kits, etc. Furthermore, I had on two pairs of pants, was carrying two jackets, and it was hotter than hell.

The result of all this was that for the first time in my life I couldn’t keep up. I hated to do it, but I had to sit down now and then to rest and let the others go ahead. (Moral: A lifetime of sin and crime finally catches up with you.)

Anyhow, we finally got where we were going. We stopped on a hillside, threw down our gear, connected our phones to wires on the ground, and were ready for business. That is, the others were. Me, I lay down on the grass and rested for an hour.

After that we began getting ready for the night. We figured the Japs would bomb us all night, that their artillery soon would start up from the hills, and that when it got dark, some slinky infiltrators would start infiltration.

So, we dug foxholes. The slope was so steep I chose a nice depression at the foot of a small embankment that didn’t require much digging.

The why of the life preservers

Now we come to the life preservers. You may have wondered why I was carrying three lifebelts on dry land. Well, I knew what I was doing all right.

I just blew up my three life preservers, spread them in the foxhole and I had the nicest improvised Simmons you ever saw. We finally got onto that trick after a few invasions in Europe and I slept all last summer in France comfortably on three blown-up preservers.

And it was worth the struggle of carrying them just to see the reaction of the Marines. They would come up to look at this stranger device and stand there, staring, and then say: “Well, I’ll be damned. Why in the hell couldn’t I have thought of that?”

Then we got out our K rations and my friend, Maj. Reed Taylor, came and squatted Indian-fashion while I made hot coffee for us with some new heat tablets the Marines had issued. By the time we finished, it was almost dark.

Everybody who wasn’t on guard at the edge of our little camp, or who wasn’t standing duty at the field telephones went to bed, for in Jap country you don’t move around at night unless you have to.

Only one with a blanket, too

Going to bed was merely a figure of speech for everybody except me. I seemed to be the only one who had brought a blanket and I definitely was the only one who had nice soft life preservers to sleep on.

The others slept on the ground in their foxholes with their ponchos wrapped around them. A poncho is wind and waterproof, but it has no warmth. In fact, it seems to draw all the warmth out of your body and transmit it into the air.

The day had been hot, but the night got mighty cold. And a very heavy dew came gradually, soaking everything. All the others practically froze and got very little sleep. But for once in my life, I was warm as a bug.

But I didn’t sleep too much. There’s always a flaw somewhere. My flaw was the mosquitoes. I’ve never been so tortured by mosquitoes as that first night on Okinawa.

They were persistent. They were tenacious. And they were the noisiest mosquitoes I’ve ever associated with. They were so noisy that when I pulled the blanket over the side of my face and covered my ears tight, I could still hear them. That’s really true.

Puts blanket over head

I doused my face twice with the mosquito repellant which the Marines had issued, but it did no good whatever. It was 11 o’clock before I finally got asleep. At 2 a.m. I awakened and knew something was wrong. What was wrong was my face.

My upper lip was swollen so that I thought I had a pigeon egg under it. My nose was so swollen the skin was stretched tight over it. And my left eye was nearly shut.

After that I just went under the blanket and decided to suffocate. That way I did sleep, but the next morning I was groggy and dopey from sleeping so long without air.

Those mosquitoes really put a scare into me. For they say Okinawa is malarial and I certainly got enough mosquito venom that night to malarize half of California. So bright and early, I started taking atabrine for the first time in my life.

Stokes: Italy’s folly

By Thomas L. Stokes

Othman: Why, senators!

By Fred Othman

Maj. Williams: A step forward

By Maj. Al Williams

Report from unoccupied Germany –
Nazis losing grip on German populace as war nears stage of final collapse

People split up, forsake Nazism – Catholic vs. Nazi breach widens
By Curt Riess

Gracie Allen Reporting

By Gracie Allen

HOLLYWOOD – Every day that our boys push farther into Germany they find more buried treasure. Discovering that salt mine full of gold really took everybody by surprise. Why, even Warner Bros. was caught napping and didn’t have a motion picture about it in advance.

Well, it just shows how everything in Germany has gone underground. It may be true that Hitler will turn up in Japan. He’s probably burrowing through the earth now to get there.

But if our boys think they’ve found any gold so far just wait until they find the place where Goering cached his medals! There’s just one thing I can’t understand about that salt mine. The papers say it was full of gold bricks. My goodness, I though Hitler had sold all those to the German people.

Finish the spring cleanup with a family fire drill

400,000 dwellings burn, 7,000 persons die yearly as result in U.S.
By Adele Gilruth, North American Newspaper Alliance

Millett: Clean out clothes

Give old clothes to collectors
By Ruth Millett

Pirates clash with Dayton air force

Contest is prelude to four-game series test with Cleveland


Wouldn’t resign –
Allison fired from grid post by California

Navy warns to tie packages securely

Radio building boom post-war promise here

KDKA and KQV to have own homes
By Si Steinhauser

World court site selection to stir fight

The Hague is made tentative capital


Catholic Church told it’s ‘on spot’

The U.S. delegates –
Ex-isolationist now courted by Roosevelt

By Ruth Finney, Scripps-Howard staff writer

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9537
Amending Executive Order 8396 of April 18, 1940, Prescribing Chapter I of the Foreign Service Regulations of the United States

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 11, 1945

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 169 of the Revised Statutes as amended by the act of June 26, 1930, c. 618, 46 Stat. 817 (5 U.S.C. 43), and by Section 5 of the act of February 23, 1931, 46 Stat. 1207 (22 U.S.C. 23 (e)), it is ordered that Section 1-3 (e) of Executive Order 8396 of April 18, 1940 (3 CFR Cum. Supp. page 648), prescribing Chapter I of the Foreign Service Regulations of the United States be, and it is hereby, amended to read as follows:

(e) Employees. Clerks and other employees of the Foreign Service shall be appointed by the Secretary of State, or by subordinates of the Secretary of State authorized by him, under such regulations as he may prescribe, to make such appointments.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
The White House,
April 11, 1945

What is this report specifically about?

Why is the word slave in quotation marks?

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An attempt at showing humanity on the news’ part.

Alright that makes sense.

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Oberdonau-Zeitung (April 12, 1945)

Deutsche Gegenangriffe wirken sich aus!