OPA bans gift wrapping, other merchandising frills
Deliveries will be cut drastically; many services ruled out; 1942 Christmas unaffected
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American ship sunk
Lourenço Marques, Mozambique, East Africa –
A U.S. vessel identified here as the Alcoa Pathfinder has been torpedoed and sunk, it was revealed today. Fifty survivors reached the coast south of Lourenço Marques yesterday.
Air general decorated
U.S. Army HQ, Hawaiian Department –
Maj. Gen. Willis H. Hale of Pittsburg, Kansas, Commander of the 7th Air Force, was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal today for his brilliant and skillful handling of Army bombers against the Jap fleet in the Battle of Midway.
Editorial: We give thanks
On last Thanksgiving Day, we were grateful that America was still at peace. If we had known then what was to occur a few days later at Pearl Harbor, our sentiments would have been, to say the least, different.
As another Thanksgiving comes around, there is much to mourn, and much future grief and travail to expect. But there is much indeed for which to feel gratitude.
The war is very, very far from being won. But all of us owe thanks for the great victories in the Pacific by our fleets and aircraft, for the dexterous acquisition of Morocco and Algeria and now, prospectively, of Dakar, for the formidable expansion of our armed services, for the almost magical conversion and enlargement of American industry. Also, and eminently, for the stonewall resistance of the Russians, for the RAF’s devastating assaults on Germany and Italy, for the staunch endurance of the Chinese, and the growing solidarity of the Americas.
But there is another thing that will be foremost in many minds as the events of a turbulent year are reviewed on Thanksgiving Day. We mean the cool bravery, the grudgeless shouldering of hardship, the splendid discipline and audacious leadership with which our young men – and many not so young – have repudiated in action those now almost forgotten lamentations that this country had gone soft, flabby, decadent.
For men like Adm. Halsey and Mark Clark, Eisenhower and Rickenbacker, Stilwell and Chennault, Bulkeley and his “expendables” MacArthur and Wainwright, Doolittle and Buzz Wagner, Callaghan and Colin Kelly, for unnumbered nameless heroes both living and dead at Wake Island and off Midway, in the Coral Sea and the Aleutians, on and around the Solomons and New Guinea, in bombers plaguing Europe and submarines plaguing Japan, in the impatient garrisons of Iceland and Panama and Britain, aboard close-hunted convoys and on the eerie beaches of the dark continent – for such men, in all admiration and humility, we give thanks.
British blast Japs in Burma
U.S. fliers also step up aerial assaults
By Darrell Berrigan, United Press staff writer
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Offensive dee-lights President Roosevelt
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt is dee-lighted by the Russian offensive in the Stalingrad area.
He told a press conference he had received an intimation a few days ago about the Red drive and was delighted about it.
Beyond saying the first syllable of “delighted” might be accented, he declined further comment.
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PROCLAMATION 2571
Thanksgiving Day
“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.” Across the uncertain ways of space and time our hearts echo those words, for the days are with us again when, at the gathering of the harvest, we solemnly express our dependence upon Almighty God.
The final months of this year, now almost spent, find our republic and the nations joined with it waging a battle on many fronts for the preservation of liberty.
In giving thanks for the greatest harvest in the history of our nation, we who plant and reap can well resolve that in the year to come we will do all in our power to pass that milestone; for by our labors in the fields we can share some part of the sacrifice with our brothers and sons who wear the uniform of the United States.
It is fitting that we recall now the reverent words of George Washington, “Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy Protection,” and that every American in his own way lift his voice to heaven.
I recommend that all of us bear in mind this great Psalm:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Inspired with faith and courage by these words, let us turn again to the work that confronts us in this time of national emergency: in the armed services and the merchant marine; in factories and offices; on farms and in the mines; on highways, railways, and airways; in other places of public service to the Nation; and in our homes.
Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby invite the attention of the people to the joint resolution of Congress approved December 26, 1941, which designates the fourth Thursday in November of each year as Thanksgiving Day; and I request that both Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1942, and New Year’s Day, January 1, 1943, be observed in prayer, publicly and privately.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
The White House
November 26, 1942
U.S. Navy Department (November 26, 1942)
Communiqué No. 202
South Pacific.
On November 25:
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At 3 a.m., one enemy plane dropped bombs to the south of the airfield on Guadalcanal Island. Some personnel casualties were suffered.
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There was no ground activity of importance on Guadalcanal.
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Army “Airacobra” fighters harassed enemy ground positions.
And how could the government know that would be dragged into the world war despite their best efforts to stay out of it?
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