Raid wardens named –
San Francisco has new alarm
Jap planes positively over city, general says
SAN FRANCISCO, California (UP) – The 4th Interceptor Command flashed a “red” warning – meaning unidentified planes almost overhead – early today and the Central Coast district from San Francisco to Sacramento was blacked out.
The blackout was lifted after an hour and five minutes.
The blackout in San Francisco was total, except for a few small lights, contrasted with Monday’s careless response to air raid alarms which Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt, commander of the Fourth Army, had denounced as “criminal apathy.”
Rooftop observers reported that they had seen a flash, possibly a flare from a plane, toward San Rafael, 20 miles north of San Francisco.
The Interceptor Command immediately spread its warning, covering “all of California north of Bakersfield,” or two-thirds of the state. In the area are the Mare Island Navy Yard, the McClellan Field Air Depot, important air bases and big defense industries.
Radio stations were silenced.
Spurred by Gen. DeWitt’s tongue-lashing, San Francisco was organizing an effective air raid precautionary system.
Addressing a Civil Defense Council meeting last night, Gen. DeWitt minced no words. He said San Francisco had been guilty of “criminal apathy” in the indifference with which it responded to two air raid alarms Monday night.
Japanese planes were over the city, he asserted, and it might have been a good thing if they had dropped some bombs to “awaken this city.” In San Francisco, he said, there were “more damned fools… than I have ever seen.”
He said:
If I can’t knock these facts into your heads with words, I will have to turn you over to the police and let them knock them into you with clubs.
Monday night’s blackout in Seattle was excellent, he said, and Army authorities were having no trouble in Oregon and Washington. His displeasure was centered on San Francisco’s response.
Raid wardens named
The city took his rebuke to heart. Police Chief Charles Dullea ordered division commanders to name a responsible citizen temporary air-raid warden for each of the city’s 2,500 blocks. These wardens will each choose two assistants. The plan provided for the closing of schools and the dispositions of invalids to places of safety.
Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York, Director of Civilian Defense, and his associate in that agency, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, arrived by plane today to assist local authorities in working out plans.
The business district joined in observing precautions last night. Military and naval bases and many communities were blacked out. Some blackouts were complete, some partial.
Business district dark
In contrast to the vivid neon lighting that blazed through Monday night’s two alarms here, the business district had no lights burning except streetlights which could have been turned out, in case of an alarm, by throwing a central switch.
Rear Adm. John Wills Greenslade, commanding the 12th Naval District, and Maj. Gen. Jacob E. Fickel, commander of the Fourth Air Force, endorsed Gen. DeWitt’s remarks, declaring Monday night’s alarms were fully warranted.
Adm. Greenslade said:
By the grace of God, we were saved from a terrible catastrophe. If bombs had fallen, damage would have been worse than anything I can imagine. When the time comes, be ready.
‘Death, destruction likely’
“Credible reports,” Gen. Fickel said, had placed enemy aircraft not only off San Francisco, but off Monterey and Los Angeles.
Gen. DeWitt said that “death and destruction are likely to come to this city at any moment,” and that the Army could not promise to prevent aerial bombardments until reinforcements, which are en route, arrive. The city, he said, is so filled with military objectives, that “it is all a military objective.”
He continued:
The people of San Francisco do not seem to appreciate that we are at war in every sense. I have come here because we want action, and we want action now.
Unless definite and stern action is taken to correct last night’s deficiencies, a great deal of destruction will come.
‘They were Japanese planes’
Those planes were over our community. They were over our community for a definite period. They were enemy planes. I mean Japanese planes. They were tracked out to sea.
We will never have a practice alert. We will never call an alert unless we believe an attack is imminent.
He said persons had phoned him asking:
“Why weren’t bombs dropped if those planes are Japanese? Why didn’t you shoot?”
Gen. DeWitt said:
I say it’s none of their damn business. San Francisco woke up this morning without a single death from bombs. Isn’t that enough?
British Columbia was ordered by the Canadian Western Air Command to continue nightly blackouts “until this imminent danger passes.” Oregon and Western Washington were blacked out and radio stations were off the air.
San Pedro blackout a success
Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, was blacked out for 50 minutes shortly before midnight on a report that airplanes had been heard overhead. The Interceptor Command in San Francisco said it had not issued any alarm and believed the blackout was directed by local authorities.
Authorities said the blackout of the vital Long Beach-Wilmington-San Pedro area south of Los Angeles, home base of the Battle Fleet and surrounded by oil fields, was “highly successful.”
The Puget Sound Navy Yard announced it would hold anti-aircraft firing practice each morning.
Planes hunt Jap carriers
Interceptor planes and patrol bombers scanned the coastline day and night. They swept an ocean strip 600 miles wide from Canada to Mexico yesterday, seeking enemy aircraft carriers.
Civilian employees and families of officers stationed at McClellan Field were sent last night to Sacramento as a precautionary measure.
Juneau, Alaska, announced it would be blacked out nightly.
Seattle householders were asked to conserve gas for cooking and heating because all-night blackouts had affected the supply.
Tax leaders plan parley
Congressmen meet with Morgenthau Friday
WASHINGTON (UP) – Congressional tax leaders agreed today to confer on war taxes with Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. on Friday.
Chairman Robert L. Doughton, D-North Carolina, of the House Ways and Means Committee and Sen. Walter F. George, D-Georgia, head of the Senate Finance Committee, will lunch with Mr. Morgenthau at the Treasury to consider the administration’s tax program.
Mr. Morgenthau has said that the war made it more imperative that taxes be increased. The House Ways and Means Committee, last month, postponed consideration of Mr. Morgenthau’s request to increase taxes $5 billion.
Mr. Morgenthau now believes that the outbreak of war between the United States and Japan would make it easier to speed Congressional passage of a bill for higher taxes. The administration desires that tax increases become effective by January 1, if possible.
Treasury fiscal experts have not disclosed the amounts or details of the new taxes which they will ask Congress to enact.
Danish training ship offers services to U.S.
WASHINGTON (UP) – The Danish Legation announced today that the captain, the officers, and the cadets of the Danish training ship Danmark have placed themselves and their ship at the disposal of the U.S. government “to serve in any capacity” this government desires.
The ship has been in this country since Germany overran Denmark.
The legation said Capt. Knud L. Hansen of the Danmark has informed Danish Minister Henrik de Kauffmann that he and his colleagues desired to aid “in our joint fight for victory and liberty.”
De Kauffmann is acting, in effect, as a one-man Danish government as far as relations with the United States are concerned. He has disavowed the Copenhagen government on several occasions on the grounds it is under German control.
Thailand’s funds frozen
WASHINGTON – The Treasury announced last night that President Roosevelt has ordered Thai funds in the United States frozen.
Stowe: U.S. knew in advance of coming raid
American shakeup due as result of Hawaiian defeat
By Leland Stowe
CHUNGKING, China – Further details of the toll taken by Japanese bombers in Hawaii have convinced military observers of various nationalities here that such important American losses must, at least partially, be attributable to carelessness or negligence in the American High Command at Oahu.
It is the considered opinion that America must face an uphill battle for some time, that it is likely to require two or three months for a safe line of communications to be restored from Hawaii and that ABCD pressure on Japan may not become truly powerful within six months.
It is believed the American people must be braced for a stiff struggle before its forces will be able to wage war against the Japanese with something like maximum efficiency.
Slow start unavoidable
The slow uphill start is believed to have been unavoidable for the United States because of unpreparedness and lack of materials which seriously handicap the American forces at the outset, because of the failure of Congress to authorize the fortification of Wake and Guam Islands years ago and finally because the best-fitted commanders can only be found through trial and error.
The seemingly unwarranted degree of success of Japan’s blitz attack on Hawaii is regarded by experts as fortunately a sharp warning to the American government and people. It still seems inexplicable here how the Japanese were able to bomb the Army’s big airfields at Oahu, losing but a few planes and apparently without large numbers of American fighters getting into the air promptly.
This is especially true since U.S. representatives in Chungking were warned by Washington of the seriousness of the situation as early as last Friday when a coded message stated that relations with Japan might be ruptured over the weekend. Sunday evening – at least one hour before the Japanese blitz in Hawaii – an officer of the U.S. gunboat Tutuila warned your correspondent, “It’s going to happen tonight.”
They knew it
He and another officer were both convinced that Japan would discard its mask before I could use my Hong Kong plane reservation on Tuesday. Their attitude was obviously based on advices from Washington received aboard the Tutuila. If the Tutuila staff was so clearly warned, it is difficult to understand how the commanders of the American forces at Hawaii were less posted.
In any case, the opinion of professional observers here can be best summarized as: “Whatever was done in Hawaii, it certainly was not enough.”
Behind this is the conviction of many that the American fighters on Wheeler and Bennett Fields evidently were not prepared for immediate action and that many facts contributing to the Jap blitz’s success remain to be cleared up.
It is true that probable reverses may be expected before American defense forces can be whipped into an efficient machine. The American public, however, must face the fact that peacetime armies always suffer from political promotions.
Actually, some of the best-informed persons say that the U.S. Army at present is overloaded with “political generals.” It is even charged that the percentage among about 1,000 of our generals today may range as high as three out of five who have been promoted more for political than professional reasons.
Shakeup necessary
Under the circumstances, it is to be expected that the upper commands of the U.S. forces must undergo a shaking-down and elimination process in the first months of the war. This is bound to be a costly procedure but those who know the fighting qualities of the great majority of America’s middle-rank officers have complete confidence that the reshuffles must eventually bring the ablest men to the top all along the line.
Meanwhile, America’s lifeline to the Philippines must be reconquered. It will take time because the Japanese must be cleaned out from the whole series of their mandated islands in the Pacific while American naval and air forces must be greatly increased. The fact that Uncle Sam got a stiff uppercut to the jaw in the first round may be the best thing that could have happened.
Three more from district reported killed in Hawaii
Altoona, Monaca, and Uniontown Air Corps members are Jap victims
Lt. Louis G. Moslener
Lt. Robert RicheyAmong the soldiers killed in the Jap bombing raid on Hawaii who have been reported thus far as casualties by the War Department are Lt. Moslener of Monaca, and Lt. Richey of Wellsburg, West Virginia. Both were members of the U.S. Army Air Corps.
MONACA, Pennsylvania – Second Lt. Louis G. Moslener Jr. left California for “the big trip” last Thursday night. Three days later, he was “killed in action.”
A former Carnegie Tech engineering student. Lt. Moslener, 23, of 356 12th Street, Monaca, was a navigation officer for the U.S. Army Air Corps and had been commissioned last April.
His father, Louis G. Moslener Sr., a civil engineer, said here today, “He was home on leave in October and he left for the West Coast on October 29.”
After a brief stay at Sacramento, California, Lt. Moslener wrote his parents last Thursday from San Francisco.
‘Don’t worry about me’
He said:
I came down here from Sacramento last night and I’m leaving here tomorrow for the big trip. Don’t worry about me, I’ll write again when we get there.
Apparently because of Army regulations, the letter did not specify his destination, but indicated that he was anticipating action by concluding, “I don’t think I’ll get to sleep any.”
Last night, the Mosleners received word from the War Department that their son had been “killed in action” on December 7, presumably during the Jap bombing raid on Hawaii. A personal telegram of regret and sympathy also came from Gen. George Marshall, the Chief of Staff.
‘Something to be proud of’
The elder Mr. Moslener said:
His interest was all with the Air Corps. So, if he died facing the enemy, that’s something to be proud of.
Lt. Moslener’s death was the third reported today by the War Department in Western Pennsylvania.
One of the others was Brooks J. Brubaker Jr., 20, of Altoona, a ground mechanic with the Army Air Corps, also killed in Hawaii. This was Blair County’s first casualty of the new war. Pvt. Brubaker is survived by his parents and three brothers.
The third was Staff Sgt. Elwood Gummerson of Uniontown, whose mother, Mrs. Florence Gummerson, was notified of his death.
Stationed at Hickam Field
Sgt. Gummerson was serving his fourth term in the Air Corps and was stationed at Hickam Field, Hawaii. Besides his widowed mother, he is survived by two sisters and a brother.
The deaths brought to six the total number of victims thus far announced in Western Pennsylvania.
Others previously announced as victims of the surprise bombing raid last Sunday were Pvt. George Leslie of Arnold, Staff Sgt. Joseph E. Good of 1039 Woods Run Avenue, North Side, and Pvt. Eugene L. Chambers of Apollo.
Ohio soldier ‘casualty’ discovered alive and well
WASHINGTON (UP) – The War Department announced today that Pvt. Wilbur S. Carr of Miamisburg, Ohio, who was reported dead yesterday in the casualty list of victims of Japanese bombings in Hawaii, is alive and well.
The Department was also advised that Sgt. James H. Derthick of Ravenna, Ohio, previously reported killed in Hawaii, is alive but wounded.
This brings the total of deaths released by the Department down from 37 to 35.
Senate delays AEF measure
Technicality holds up immediate action
WASHINGTON (UP) – Sen. Hiram W. Johnson, R-California, today blocked immediate consideration of a bill authorizing use of National Guard troops and selectees outside the Western Hemisphere.
The legislation, however, will be eligible for consideration under a motion later today.
Mr. Johnson interposed his objection after a parliamentary tangle developed that under Senate rules, unanimous consent would be required to consider the bill before the Senate’s “unfinished business” – a tristate river compact – was taken care of. The aged Californian had not participated in the debate.
Kinks taken out of bill
The bill was called up by Chairman Robert R. Reynolds, D-North Carolina, of the Senate Military Affairs Committee. Mr. Reynolds presented a substitute which he described as “taking the kinks” out of the bill proposed by the War Department, although its effect on the territorial use of troops was the same.
Noting that the original language, permitting unrestricted use of troops during the present war with Japan “or any future war,” had been changed to provide for lifting of restrictions “in any war in which the United States is engaged,” Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg, R-Michigan, asked Mr. Reynolds if he would object to the inclusion of the word “declared” before “war.”
Mr. Reynolds replied that he would object.
Mr. Reynolds said:
War might momentarily be launched against us before we could formally declare it. The Chief Executive might be hampered in the use of troops.
House ready to act
At this point, Senate Republican leader Charles L. McNary made the point of order that the “morning business” of the Senate was not concluded, and in the parliamentary tangle which followed, Mr. Johnson interposed his objection.
The House, meanwhile, was prepared to pass a similar bill.
The action will come amidst indications by members of the House and Senate Military Affairs Committees that an American expeditionary force of millions of men will be needed to crush Japan and to defeat Germany if formal hostilities with that nation begin.
A reliable source told the United Press that the War Department was drafting legislation that would permit drafting of men from 18 to 44. The present age limits are 21-28.
Chairman Andrew J. May, D-Kentucky, of the House Military Affairs Committee, said he had no knowledge of the report and that the question has not been discussed by his committee. He added, however, that a draft army ranging from 21 to 44 years was “not impossible.”
Tin Pan Alley in action
NEW YORK – Tin Pan Alley got into the war today. Four new songs are: “They Asked for It,” “The Sun Will Soon Be Setting for the Land of the Rising Sun,” “You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap,” and “The Japs Haven’t a Chinaman’s Chance.”
Latin lineup against Japs joined by Cuba
Nine republics to south have now declared war on Nippon
By the United Press
Cuba early today joined the lineup of Latin American nations arrayed alongside the United States in the war against Japan, bringing to nine the number of these republics which have declared themselves at war with the Nipponese Empire.
President Manuel Avila Camacho of Mexico did not ask for a war declaration Tuesday night as had been expected but pledged the assistance of the Mexican Army and Navy to the United States. Mexico has already severed diplomatic relations with Japan, as has Colombia.
Radio Tokyo, in a broadcast heard by the NBC listening post in Los Angeles, said today the Japanese government had received from Mexico a “declaration of war” signed by President Avila Camacho.
The Latin American nations which have declared war against Japan are Cuba, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua.
Other developments:
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The Chilean Foreign Minister announced that, in the interests of hemispheric defense, Chile and Argentina have agreed to fortify the Strait of Magellan at the southern tip of South America in the vicinity of Cape Horn.
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The Uruguayan Senate cabled the U.S. Senate condemning Japanese aggression and it was noteworthy that the motion to send the message was supported by the Herrera bloc which has been active in opposing the granting of Uruguayan bases to the United States.
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The Foreign Relations Committee of the Chamber of Deputies has under consideration a proposal introduced at the request of the government whereby Uruguay would break off diplomatic relations with the Axis powers. A report on it is expected today or tomorrow.
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In Lima, the Peruvian Chamber of Deputies approved a motion expressing complete solidarity with the United States.
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President Medina of Venezuela, in a broadcast yesterday on the anniversary of the Battle of Ayacucho, reaffirmed his country’s determination to fulfill all obligations fully and condemned the Japanese attack on the United States. He said:
In Venezuela and from Venezuela, neither the United States nor any other American nation will be attacked in any form.
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An Argentine Foreign Office source predicted that a break in relations with Japan by all American nations would result from an impending conference of Latin American foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro.
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Panamanian police rounded up German and Italian nationals while members of the German Legation burned documents in the legation yard.
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The Army command at San Juan ordered a test blackout for all of Puerto Rico from 9 p.m. AST yesterday until dawn today.
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The Argentine Cabinet declared the United States a non-belligerent in the war against Japan, thus making Argentine ports and airfields available to U.S. craft without a limit on their stay. Former President Agustin P. Justo urged full Argentine support of the U.S., including war.
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Chile called for 1,200 naval volunteers with men to be conscripted if the quota is not soon filled.
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The Peruvian government froze Japanese funds and securities.
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The Bolivian Minister of the Interior said that Axis agents and saboteurs were already active in the country, which is a source of many vital minerals for the United States.
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President Getulio Vargas of Brazil placed all non-American business transactions under government control.
New York City has third raid alert in 24 hours
Looking for invaders
This morning, air-raid sirens started blowing in this city. Office workers, having just arrived at their place of employment in midtown, scampered to the window and peered skyward, looking for enemy planes. The alarm was short-lived, however, the all-clear being announced within a few moments. Directly in the background can be seen the world’s tallest building, the Empire State Building. (OWI/ACME)
NEW YORK (UP) – The third air raid alert in less than 24 hours was sounded today in the New York metropolitan area.
The third alarm, starting on the tip of Long Island, spread to communities living in the direction of the city. The sirens shrieked in New York City at 8:49 a.m. EST as millions of persons were en route to work. At 9:01 a.m., the “all-clear” was sounded.
The alarms apparently started from “phony” tips that caused two alarms yesterday. Capt. Lynn Farnol, Public Relations Officer at Mitchel Field, said no reports of approaching “unidentified aircraft” had been received there and no alert signals were sounded.
Capt. Farnol later explained that aircraft had been spotted – subsequently identified as Navy patrol planes – and that a private “blue” signal to air-raid wardens had mistakenly been made public.
Two air-raid alarms were sounded at Riverhead, near the tip of Long Island. The first lasted from 5:53 a.m. until 6:27 a.m. The second lasted 16 minutes, starting at 7:06 a.m.
As the sirens sounded in Riverhead and Suffolk County, the alarm spread to adjoining Nassau County, thence to Brooklyn and Queens County and finally Manhattan.
The alarms were apparently spread by civilian air raid wardens and the police teletype system.
As the alarm spread from county to county, it caught thousands of children en route to school and more thousands of men and women on high-speed highways and commuter trains heading for New York. In some areas, children en route to school were met by air raid wardens and told to return to their homes.
In Manhattan, the alarm started at 8:23 a.m. when the police radio broadcast “Signal 50” warning of the approach of enemy aircraft. At 8:42 a.m., another broadcast indicated the danger had increased, while at 8:49 a.m., the signal sounded putting the actual alarm into effect.
The sirens failed to stir the apathy of thousands of persons pouring out of subway exits en route to their jobs. In Times Square, men and women looked at the sky, but kept walking unhurriedly.
Military and civilian officials said that yesterday’s two alerts along the East Coast were valuable tests of nerves and defense but were not pleased by the public apathy and the fact that thousands of shipbuilders left their job.
The day shift of 14,000 men at the Bethlehem Steel Company’s Quincy, Massachusetts, plant were told to go home. Work was halted briefly at Bethlehem’s Hoboken, New Jersey, yard, and was reported to have been stopped at two other Bethlehem yards in New York, but company officials denied it.