Boro sailor survives 4 big battles; tells story of USS Astoria’s death
Veteran of 19 aided in rescue of crews of two carriers, says Japs got socked at Midway, describes attacks by bombers
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Pearl Harbor hero, hit by baseball, dies
Central Islip, New York –
Sgt. Robert Storey, 24, who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, was killed by a baseball during a game played at Hickam Field, Hawaii, according to a War Department communication received by his sister, Mrs. Paul McAvoy of Hawthorne Ave.
Storey enlisted in the Signal Corps in September 1940, was sent to Hawaii the following November and was on post during the Dec. 7 attack. His sister said he earned his sergeant’s stripes for bravery under enemy fire.
President bares sharp cut in non-war costs
Expenditures 35.6% below 1939 fiscal year, accounting reveals
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The Pittsburgh Press (October 16, 1942)
Japs date war beginning with Konoe ouster
That’s two months before sneak attack on Pearl Harbor
By the United Press
Japan all but admitted today that it dated the start of the Pacific War from Oct. 16, 1941, when Premier Fumimaro Konoe, a civilian, was dismissed in favor of his War Minister, Gen. Hideki Tōjō.
Long propaganda broadcasts reviewed the year since Konoe’s dismissal and implied strongly that Japan began preparing Oct. 16 for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor which opened the war Dec. 7, 1941.
The broadcasts disclosed the death in action of a vice admiral, two rear admirals and two major generals.
None in big battles
The admirals were among 908 Navy men killed up to Feb. 20. None of these casualties was among those in the real Pacific fighting which includes the battles of the Coral Sea, Midway and the Solomon Islands, in addition to many U.S. submarine and airplane sinkings of Jap warcraft in isolated actions.
Posthumous awards were made to the Navy men, to 3,096 Army men killed in the Pacific War and in China, and to 3,031 Army men killed in China.
The high officers killed were:
- Vice Adm. Yukichi Yashiro,
- Rear Adms. Toshio Otake and Yukio Katō,
- Maj. Gens. Tateo Katō and Shigeki Ushi.
Pearl Harbor ‘heroes’
Among Navy men posthumously honored were 55 naval aviators and nine men of the special attack flotilla killed in Pearl Harbor.
In a revealing review of the year ended today, the official Dōmei News Agency said that when Tōjō took office Oct. 18, two days after Konoe’s fall:
…the uppermost issue was negotiations between Japan and the United States for solution of Pacific questions which had reached a most acute stage because of the failure of the United States to see the Japanese position.
Tōjō took office ready to “act with dispatch and cope with any emergency,” the broadcast said, and in his first statement, said Japan was faced with an unprecedented crisis which he was prepared to meet with unflinching determination.
Kurusu mission noted
It was said that America and Britain through Japan was weakened by the Chinese war and embarked on a program of “undisguised provocation.”
It told how special envoy Saburō Kurusu had gone to Washington in November and said that:
Meanwhile, the Japanese government, while seeking an amicable settlement, made preparations against any emergency.
It was added:
Diplomatic negotiations were conducted with French Indochina and Thailand that Japan might be prepared against hostile America and Britain.
Then, the agency said, negotiations broke down in Washington:
…owing to the United States’ insistence on unreasonable demands.
The dispatch said:
Once Japan rose in self-defense and war broke out, she mobilized her full force and scored brilliant results – Pearl Harbor, Guam, Wake, Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, Corregidor, Malaya, Burma, the Netherlands East Indies – and won decisive advantages… a year ago today, who among Anglo-Americans would have foreseen that the Japanese today would be in control of the Southwest Pacific Area?
No word was mentioned of the naval battles in which the Jap fleet has suffered the greatest defeats in its history.
Jeannette man saved as Fortress sinks after pilot glides 48 miles to England
By Joe Alex Morris, United Press staff writer
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Arrival of AEF last June in New Zealand described
Thousands jam streets at several ports as soldiers, Marines land after uneventful voyage
By Francis McCarthy, United Press staff writer
The disclosure by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson that U.S. Army troops have been stationed in New Zealand since June makes it possible to release the following dispatch, written by a United Press staff writer when the troops arrived June 15. The writer is now with American forces in the Solomon Islands.
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Attitude of oil industry toward Ickes is changed
U.S. coordinator, disliked at first, wins new friends by backing demands of petroleum men
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Well well, the McCains flying capability will be proven later…
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US at war with Finland? Complicated situation those days.
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U.S. Navy Department (October 17, 1942)
Communiqué No. 157
North Pacific.
On October 15:
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Army “Marauder” bomber (Martin B-26s) attacked and damaged an enemy cargo ship in Gertrude Cove on the south coast of Kiska Island. At least one direct hit set fire to the ship, which was seen still burning several hours later. One U.S. plane was shot down by antiaircraft fire.
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Army “Marauders” also attacked two Japanese destroyers to the northeastward of Kiska. Both destroyers were damaged, one by three hits and the other by one hit, resulting in probable sinking of the former.
Communiqué No. 158
South Pacific.
Although large numbers of Japanese troops are known to be on Guadalcanal Island, there has been, as yet, no full-scale land fighting.
Our land, sea, and air forces of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps are engaged in meeting a serious enemy assault, the outcome of which is still undecided. Our losses in the current fighting, to date, have been minor, but in a battle of this nature losses must be expected.
The following additional details of the action in recent days have been received:
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During the air attack on Guadalcanal, shortly after noon on October 15 (reported in Navy Department Communiqué No. 154), three enemy bombers and five fighters were shot down.
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During the night of October 15-16, enemy surface vessels bombarded our positions on Guadalcanal for about an hour. Naval aircraft made a night torpedo attack on a group of enemy vessels to the eastward of the Solomons. One torpedo hit on an enemy cruiser was reported.
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During the morning of October 16, our aircraft from Guadalcanal attacked enemy troop positions along the northwest coast of the island. During the late afternoon Navy and Marine Corps dive bombers attacked two enemy transports and accompanying destroyers in the area west of New Georgia Island. Direct hits damaged and set fire to one transport and the second is believed to have been damaged by near misses.
All information on the fighting in the Solomons which is not of value to the enemy is being announced as soon as possible after being received.
River recedes after flooding capital areas
Southern states count 15 dead, put property damage at millions
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U.S. offers plan on pay control to Byrnes today
All salary classes covered – director asks farm wage data
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Carrier Princeton set for launching
Camden, New Jersey (UP) –
The aircraft carrier USS Princeton will be launched tomorrow at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation yard, the second carrier to slide down the ways here in the last two and a half months.
The carrier Independence was launched Aug. 8.
The Princeton, named after the New Jersey college city where a major battle of the Revolutionary War was fought in 1777, will be sponsored by Mrs. Harold Dodds, wife of the president of Princeton University.
It is the fourth naval vessel and first of its type to bear the name Princeton.
U.S. fliers batter Benghazi in storm
Cairo, Egypt (UP) –
A communiqué of the United States Army Air Force said today that heavy Army bombers had penetrated severe storms yesterday to attack shipping in the harbor of Benghazi, most important enemy base in Libya, and Army fighter planes had been active in the Egyptian battle area.
U.S. flier discovers long-lost cousin in Guadalcanal foxhole
HQ, United States Marines, Guadalcanal Island (UP) – (Oct. 4, delayed)
1st Lt. Dan L. Gaede of Columbus, Ohio, navigator of an Army Flying Fortress, heard an air-raid siren tonight and dived into a foxhole.
Bumping into a Navy officer, he offered his hand and said:
Sorry, my name’s Dan Gaede.
The Navy man, a lieutenant of Coronado, California, replied:
My name is Dan C. Gaede.
They were cousins but had never seen each other.
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