Tōjō and army don’t coincide in radio talks
Premier promises victory, military bulletin hints at shortages
By the United Press
…
New U.S. Ventura bombers in action on RAF attack
Twin-tailed Lockheed plane praised after smash at radio factory in Holland
…
Japs ‘waste’ bombs raiding Chinese bases
Freedom, Pennsylvania, flier says foe tries to gain face
By A. T. Steele
…
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
WITH U.S. FORCES IN ALGERIA – The American forces are welcome in North Africa. Oran gave a terrific demonstration for them.
The first thing into the city after the original few days of fighting was a tank. It pulled up and stopped in the city square. A vast throng gathered around, and the people didn’t know whether the tank was French, British, American, or what. They were bewildered by the suddenness of it all.
Finally, an officer stuck his head out of the turret and somebody yelled and asked his nationality. The officer couldn’t understand French, and said something in English. The crowd recognized his American accent, and then the cheering started. Women kissed him, and the crowd almost carried him away. He went around for hours with lipstick all over his face.
Soldiers who came in the first party say the town was almost deliriously happy over the Americans’ arrival. They analyze the feeling about as follows: 40 percent of the demonstration was based on the Frenchman’s love for show, for cheering anything that passes; 20 percent was due to the farseeing knowledge that this eventually meant the liberation of France; and another 40 percent was based on personal and bodily gratitude at the prospect of getting something to eat again.
Germans carry off food
The Germans had stripped North Africa of everything. Foodstuffs went across the Mediterranean to France and on to Germany. The people here actually were in a pitiful condition. They were starving.
Our soldiers say that within a week they could see the effects. Food produced here in this fertile country now stays here. Further, our Army is donating huge food stocks to the city. The people are gradually starting to eat once more.
Americans, notoriously, are often foolishly generous. The troops in the first waves came ashore with only canned field rations carried on their backs, yet our soldiers gave much of this to the pitiful-looking Arab children. The result was that pretty soon the soldiers themselves hadn’t much left to eat, so they lived for days on oranges.
In England, oranges are practically unknown, so here we’ve gorged ourselves on oranges. Some troops have eaten so many they got diarrhea and broke out in a rash.
We have all been equipped with foreign-issue American money. The smallest denomination, a dollar bill, looks just like our regular money except for a yellow stamp. The money is accepted everywhere. But you get your change in francs. The exchange is 75 francs to a dollar.
Prices already have started up, but still are cheap according to our standards. Good wine costs only 44 francs a bottle. However, wine is about the only thing left to buy.
Oran is a big city. It reminds me very much of Lisbon. There are modern official buildings and beautiful apartment buildings of six and eight stories. The Renault auto showrooms downtown were full of brand-new cars when the Army arrived.
Oran is not blacked out
In a few days, the Army had bought every car, and in the few more days the Red Cross has taken over and turned the showroom into a club for troops.
Some of our soldiers speak French, but not many. Every French dictionary in Oran has been sold, but the Americans have no inhibitions, and get along on pidgin French and loud shouting.
As soon as the Americans came, the stores began pasting shatter-tape on the windows, for they knew that German bombing probably would follow. It is interesting to see the difference between French and British temperament displayed in the way windows are taped. In England, the taping is in very conventional patterns. But here, it is a work of art.
Designs often are so intricate that they resemble the fantasies of a snowflake under a microscope. One store worked its name into a design; another made the tape into a framework for a dozen pictures hanging in the window.
There have been German planes over since we came. There was much shooting from the ground, but no damage has been done yet.
Oran is not blacked out. It is dimmed out, but really not very dim. When planes come over, all the lights are turned out. Also, the Army has ringed the city with smoke pots. When these are set off, they create what seems to be a heavy fog, which is very effective for hiding the city.
1 Like
Strike delayed in arms plant by District 50
Company and union officials to confer with WLB representative
…
Millett: Wives with no children in quandary
Is first duty to notion or to husband? – That’s real problem
By Ruth Millett
…
Majors admit night baseball no longer sure-fire draw
Good teams prove attraction as novelty wears
By Tommy Devine, United Press staff writer
…
Smashing the Axis –
Tanks rolling off line faster than Axis guns can fire
Hit-and-run galloping forts being turned out at better than 1,000 every 2.5 moinths by one company – ACF has been in ‘it’ from start
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
…
U.S. War Department (December 9, 1942)
Communiqué No. 262
North Africa.
The enemy attack in the Tebourba area on Dec. 6 penetrated one of our positions. Yesterday, our armored units delivered a strong counterattack. During the night, the enemy withdrew.
Our light bombers and fighters gave good support to our troops in the forward areas.
U.S. Army P-38 fighters in sweeps over southern Tunisia destroyed two enemy aircraft. One of our planes is missing.
Further reports of air fighting on Dec. 6 show that three more enemy aircraft were destroyed and that five more of ours were lost. One of our fighter pilots is safe.
Communiqué No. 263
North Africa.
Activity in forward areas yesterday was limited to patrolling.
Additional reports disclose that 20 enemy tanks were destroyed during operations Dec. 6.
Further details on our air operations during recent days show that three more enemy aircraft were destroyed, one of them at night. Two more of our planes were lost, but one fighter pilot is safe.
U.S. Navy Department (December 9, 1942)
Communiqué No. 215
South Pacific.
The following report of action amplifies the report of the air attack on enemy surface forces which was announced in Navy Department Communiqué No. 213.
On December 3, an air striking group of dive bombers, torpedo planes and fighters from Guadalcanal attacked an enemy force of about 10 cruisers and destroyers approximately 150 miles northwest of and headed for Guadalcanal.
The enemy suffered the following damage during the attack:
- Two 1,000-lb. hits on one cruiser.
- One 1,000-lb. hit on a second cruiser.
- Two torpedo hits on a destroyer (or cruiser).
- Two possible torpedo hits on a second destroyer (or cruiser).
- Ten float-type planes shot down by U.S. fighters.
One of the above vessels was seen to sink on December 4 and three other enemy vessels were sighted in flames in the vicinity of the previous day’s action.
One U.S. dive bomber one torpedo plane and one fighter were lost during the engagement.
On December 8, U.S. patrols on Guadalcanal, supported by heavy artillery fire, maintained contact with the enemy to the westward of our positions.
The Pittsburgh Press (December 9, 1942)
U.S. FLIERS BLAST JAP WARSHIPS
Planes sink one vessel; set 3 afire
Navy reveals damage in repelling new thrust in Solomons
…
Allied planes and artillery hammer Axis
20 Nazi tanks knocked out – U.S. and British airpower grows
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
…
Rail unions demand $3-a-day pay boost
Big five brotherhoods serve notice on Class I roads for 30% increase, coinciding with program presented by non-operating groups
…
Kate Hepburn warns women face new day
Actress says her sex suffers in comparison with Russians
New York (UP) –
Actress Katharine Hepburn, in an address here yesterday, said the pre-Pearl Harbor American woman was one whose:
…ideal was to be pale-faced, shadowy-eyed, scarlet of lip, bloody of nail, skinny of body and emanating of bosom.
Speaking at a luncheon of the Business and Professional Women’s Committee of the Russian War Relief, Miss Hepburn compared the American woman of a year ago with the pioneer American woman and with the 1941 Russian woman, who took up arms in defense of her country.
She said:
What was the matter with us? We were not in love. We didn’t know where we were going. In Russia, the women have a great social idea, something they feel strongly about. They are truly emancipated, but first sand foremost they are passionately in love with the system that gave them freedom. They are more like our pioneer women than we are.
Miss Hepburn said American women were now facing a new day, adding:
It’s morning, it’s early morning, and we have bedfellows – our allies, the Russians and the Chinese.
U.S. merchantman sinks enemy surface raider
Washington (UP) –
A medium-sized U.S. merchantman slugged it out with two enemy surface raiders in the South Atlantic last September, and although outgunned and raked from stem to stern, probably sank one of them before she herself plunged beneath the surface, the Navy revealed today.