U.S. completes its evidence in racket case
Defense obtains recess so it can prepare cross-examination
…
La Guardia named as buyer of black-market oranges
…
Japs extended to fight to end to keep Burma
Enemy must hold sector to safeguard her communications
By A. T. Steele
…
Air authorities report –
Stalin finally convinced of value of Allied raids
As result, Anglo-American offensive over Germany will be pushed with increased vigor
By William B. Ziff, author of The Coming Battle of Germany
…
Rail bombings cut off vital Nazi supplies
Old iron horse still has a major role in fighting wars
By Col. Frederick Palmer, North American Newspaper Alliance
…
Italian student joins paratroopers with 5th Army
He wants revenge for Nazi destruction of Naples University
…
Poll: Half in favor of graduated sales tax plan
No clear-cut public stand on issue in Congress is disclosed
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
…
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
In a short series of columns, Ernie Pyle is describing his experiences on the home front, before taking up soon another assignment to the battlefronts.
Albuquerque, New Mexico –
When I get back to the front, nobody less than a brigadier general had better try to high-hat me. Not that anybody ever did, but I’m just issuing a warning.
For I am a colonel myself. Not just a colonel once; not just a colonel twice; but three times a colonel. Yep – a New Mexico colonel. Aide-de-camp on the staff of the Governor.
Governor Clyde Tingley started it, several years ago. Then along came Governor Johnny Miles, and he kept up the tradition by making me a colonel again. And now the newest Governor – Jack Dempsey – seeing no way out, has had to follow suit.
Personally, I like the idea. Maybe I wouldn’t like it if I weren’t a colonel, but since I am a colonel, I like it. You get special license plates saying “Staff Officer,” and the State Police leave you pretty much alone unless you kill somebody, and furthermore, the Governor takes you to lunch.
I was just getting onto the hang of how to use our ration points when my vacation was over, and now I have to leave. Rationing doesn’t seem to me so bad, once you get onto it.
Tea strainers and death
There are lots of little things you can’t buy, but honestly, I don’t see that anybody is in much pain from it, for example, it’s impossible to buy any kind of tea strainer in Albuquerque except a plastic one which soon goes to pieces. But then did you ever hear of anybody dying for lack of a tea strainer?
Our groceryman says that the point system, instead of running him out of business as he feared, has actually doubled his fruit and vegetable business.
The reason is that people buy fresh stuff all month and eat or can it, and then at the last of the coupon period, in order not to let coupons go unused, they come in and buy just as much canned stuff as they used to.
Which would seem to indicate that the theory behind rationing has slipped somewhere along the line.
One of the greatest pleasures of my vacation was to have a real auto again. After a year of jeep and truck riding, it was like a suburb of Heaven to get into our Pontiac convertible. I didn’t know whether it was going half the time or not, because you couldn’t hear the engine. And bumps, why, you’d think the country around Albuquerque was all made of velvet.
The car has to go back into storage, for unfortunately That Girl, being poetic rather than mechanical-minded, has never learned to drive. It’s a shame too, because now she either has to strike out across the mesa on foot, like a prospector, or else spend two-thirds of her not-too-lavish wages on taxicabs.
That Girl doesn’t like it
She doesn’t like this business of keeping the home fires burning while everybody else is away. But who does?
It is the ones who stay, like her, that really take the rap. For those behind life is lonely, routine, sometimes seemingly frustrated. But for us who go, new things always appear to be endured, there is excitement, and change, and misery to challenge you. There is so little time for mooning. I am glad that I can go instead of stay – if anybody has to go.
Our little house is still a gem. Now it has some Algerian rugs on the floor, Moroccan hassocks before the fireplace, Congo ivory on the mantle.
We can still see 80 miles from our front window, and the sunsets are still spellbinding. Quail still peck in our front yard. Roaming neighborhood dogs come and visit us. So do children. The postman always has something peasant to say.
We have two cups of hot tea very early in the morning, and we are sitting here drinking it when the first dawn comes over the Sandias. The sun soon warms the desert, and the day grows lazy for us who are home on furlough. Life seems too good here within these few square feet ever to bear going away.
5-day assault hits Jap bases
Aerial offensive smashes strategic Marshall, Gilbert Islands
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
…
Yanks attack in West China
Planes support Allies on Salween front
…
Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin may map Balkan offensive
Invasion of Bulgaria may be decided upon when Big Three hold conference soon
By Ned Russell, United Press staff writer
…
Millett: Post-war rivalry for jobs must be based on equality
Fair play means men and women will compete if democracy is to grow strong in America
By Ruth Millett
…
What have I to to do to get more then the headlines?
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You can help me transcribe these news stories. DM me if you’re interested in helping me out with this (linked to news from today):
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=djft3U1LymYC&dat=19431119&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
Völkischer Beobachter (November 20, 1943)
Der große Streit um Afrika beginnt –
Vor dem Raub der französischen Kolonien
Als Preis für die anglo-amerikanische ‚Hilfe‘
vb. Wien‚ 19. November –
Wenn der französische Emigrantengeneral de Gaulle ernsthaft geglaubt haben sollte, die Briten betrachteten ihn als einen gleichwertigen Bundesgenossen und Churchill meine es ernst mit seinen häufig wiederholten Phrasen von der Wiederherstellung der Größe Frankreichs, so zeigt die Haltung der britischen Regierung im Libanon-Konflikt nach vielen anderen Maßnahmen, vollends die Feindseligkeit Londons gegen alle kolonialen Aspirationen der Franzosen. Die letzten Zweifel verscheuchte ihm heute die Daily Mail mit der Feststellung, daß selbstverständlich nicht mit einer Wiederherstellung der unbegrenzten französischen Souveränität in Nordafrika gerechnet werden dürfe.
In einem längeren Artikel unter dem Titel „Afrika ist der Schlüssel zu Europa“ erklärt der bekannte Journalist Ward Price, der gegenwärtige Krieg habe jedem Briten zu vollem Bewußtsein gebracht, wie wichtig es sei, daß die Südküste des Mittelmeeres nicht feindseligen Einflüssen offenstehe. Wörtlich heißt es dann weiter:
Die Hälfte dieses umfangreichen Territoriums befindet sich in den Händen unserer französischen Alliierten. Angesichts der großen Anstrengungen, die Großbritannien und die USA darauf verwandt haben, dieses Gebiet von den Bedingungen zu befreien, die ihm durch den deutschen Waffenstillstand auferlegt wurden, muß man erwarten, daß der Regierung dieser Länder die Benützung von Luftstützpunkten in Nordafrika gestattet wird.
Das läßt an Deutlichkeit nichts zu wünschen übrig. Den französischen Emigranten wird klipp und klar angekündigt, daß sie einen entsprechenden Preis für die „Hilfe“ der Anglo-Amerikaner zu zahlen Haben – und dieser Preis besteht in nichts Geringerem als der Souveränität über das französische Kolonialreich. Klassisch britisch geradezu ist die Begründung, die Ward Price diesem Anspruch gibt: Mister Eisenhower selbst mußte zugeben, daß die Yankees nie und nimmer nach Afrika hineingekommen wären, ihnen die verräterischen französischen Generale nicht freiwillig Tür und Tor geöffnet. Imstande hiezu waren sie lediglich, weil Deutschland großzügig darauf verzichtet hatte, das französische Kolonialreich im Waffenstillstand der deutschen Aufsicht zu unterstellen. Heute werden die selbstmörderischen Hilfsdienste, die Darlan, Giraud, de Gaulle und so weiter den Briten und Amerikanern leisteten, von den Engländern plötzlich in ein schweres Opfer umgefälscht, das sie, die Anglo-Amerikaner, der französischen Sache gebracht hätten, und die Rechnung dafür wird präsentiert.
Einer will den anderen betrügen
An dem Artikel der Daily Mail ist schließlich noch interessant, daß die Briten heute bereits für sich ein „Mandat“ über das italienische Libyen fordern. Da sie bereit sind, Europa dem Bolschewismus auszuliefern, suchen sie also für sich bereits, ähnlich wie nach dem ersten Weltkrieg, das große Geschäft in Kolonien zu reservieren. In Moskau freilich wird man darüber ebenso ingrimmig lächeln wie in Washington und Neuyork. Denn Roosevelt so gut wie Stalin haben in Nordafrika ihre eigenen Pläne, die ein wenig anders aussehen als die Londoner Träume.
Erst in diesen Tagen wieder gab der Chef der Pan American Airways, der Clipper-Imperialist Trippe, im Tone stolzen Selbstbewußtseins eine Übersicht über die Fortschritte des amerikanischen Luftfahrtwesens in Afrika. Zwischen den Zeilen seines Berichts, der bezeichnenderweise in einer südafrikanischen Zeitschrift erschien, stand unverblümt die Feststellung, die USA hätten die Briten im afrikanischen Luftfahrtgeschäft schon vollkommen abgedrosselt.
Und was Stalin in Nordafrika will, haben ja seine Sendboten in dem neuaufgezogenen französischen Parlament in Algier ebenfalls mit wünschenswerter Deutlichkeit zu verstehen gegeben: die Demonstrationszüge, die sie in der Stadt organisierten, forderten nicht mehr und nicht weniger als die nordafrikanische Sowjetrepublik.
Einhelligkeit besteht also, was Nordafrika angeht, zwischen den „drei Hauptalliierten,“ um mit Ward Price zu reden, nur in einem Punkt: die Franzosen sollen die Zeche bezahlen. So ist die Saat aufgegangen, die die landesverräterischen Generale vor einem Jahr auswarfen.
U.S. Navy Department (November 20, 1943)
Communiqué No. 485
South Pacific.
The small vessel reported lost in the communiqué dated November 18, 1943, issued from Allied HQ Southwest Pacific, was the USS McKEAN (APD-5). This vessel sank November 17 as a result of attack by enemy aircraft off the southwest coast of Bougainville Island.
The next of kin of the casualties will be notified as soon as possible.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 17
Marine Corps and Army forces covered by powerful units of all types of the Pacific Fleet have established beachheads on Makin and Tarawa Atolls, Gilbert Islands, meeting moderate resistance at Makin and strong resistance at Tarawa. Fighting continues during these operations. Army Liberators made diversionary attacks in the Marshalls.
The Pittsburgh Press (November 20, 1943)
8TH ARMY SMASHES AHEAD 5 MILES IN ITALY
Fighting lull ended; Yanks also advance
Germans lose heavily as they try to half push near Adriatic
By Harrison Salisbury, United Press staff writer
Allied HQ, Algiers, Algeria –
Allied troops have advanced on both ends of the Italian front to break a week’s lull, it was announced today, with British 8th Army troops driving forward five miles through stiff German opposition to capture Perano, northwest of Atessa.
Battling in miserable weather, the British forces inflicted considerable casualties on German troops who tried vainly to halt their push toward the flooded Sangro River. The advance was scored as U.S. forces of the 5th Army gained new ground above Venafro, across the peninsula on the western end of the line.
Raid rail lines
Weather hampered aerial activity but fighters raided road and rail lines near Rieti, only 15 miles northeast of Rome, destroying or damaging several locomotives and freight cars.
The 8th Army’s successful attack, breaking a long weather-enforced lull on the wintry front, took place 12 miles inland from the Adriatic while at other points on the 8th Army’s line patrols made thrusts across the Sangro River into the strong Nazi defenses northward.
The capture of Perano gave Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s forces control of the 12-mile stretch inland only a mile from the Sangro from which they can harass enemy positions.
Vigorous patrol fights took place between 8th Army forces and enemy units north of Rionero, further inland, and the Nazis were bested several times in skirmishes which cost them casualties.
In the sudden renewal of fighting, Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark’s American wing of the 5th Army north of Venafro also scored a slight gain in the face of heavy artillery fire.
Improve positions
A communiqué described the action on the 5th Army front as an improvement of position. The Americans were battling through deep enemy defenses laid in the mountains to protect the best roads northward toward Rome.
The communiqué said in reporting that mud, snow, rain and cold still impeded the Allied armies:
Bad weather conditions continue.
Night bombing planes on armed reconnaissance hit at the town of Lanciano, 13 miles southeast of Chieti and near the Adriatic coast.
Air action was limited by the weather, the communiqué said, but planes struck above the battlefront area and ranged over Metković, Yugoslavia, to attack railway targets and enemy motor transport. Two enemy aircraft were destroyed. Three Allied planes were missing.
Naval planes rip Jap bases
Fleet joins in assault on Gilberts, Marshalls
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
A U.S. carrier task force pierced the Jap shield of mid-Pacific bases Thursday to send out planes that bombed Nauru Island and joined Army bombers in a non-stop offensive against the Marshalls and Gilberts, Pacific Fleet headquarters disclosed today.
Tokyo radio said the attacks on the Gilberts continued into their seventh day yesterday when “several score” planes raided the islands. Twenty of them were said to have been shot down. A retaliatory Jap raid on American-held Funafuti Island on the Ellice group was also claimed.
In actions possibly presaging increasing blows to crumple the long, island-held enemy defenses across the Pacific, the fleet units hit Nauru with 90 tons of bombs and attacked Betio Island, in Tarawa Atoll of the Gilberts.
Big fires were started and several enemy aircraft were destroyed on the ground at Nauru, tiny 6.5-square-mile phosphate island which lies 500 miles west of the Gilberts and just south of the equator inside the Jap fringe of islands guarding her Pacific conquests.
One small ship was set afire and two of seven enemy Zero fighters appearing belatedly during the attack were shot down. Not one U.S. plane was lost and only one pilot was wounded by ground fire.
Nauru, which produced 4% of the world’s phosphate before the war, had never before been hit by carrier planes. Liberators had raided it several times. It is only 1,200 miles southeast of the big Jap naval base at Truk, in the Carolines.
Other raids listed
Shortly before announcement of the Nauru raid was made by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s headquarters, a communiqué disclosed the attack on Betio, where large oil fires were started.
The day before, land-based Liberators hit Mili and Maloelap, in the Marshalls, shooting down one and probably two enemy planes, damaging several others and battering airfields, barracks and oil dumps. At noon Thursday, Mili and Tarawa were hit. Five Zeroes were seen but none attacked.
It was the first time the enemy had been able to mount opposition to the attacks which began last Saturday – only two days after Adm. Nimitz’s Armistice Day address in which he said, “The time has come to attack.”
Japs left wondering
The raids, which left the Japs wondering where they will be hit next, also lent weight to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox’s statement that a U.S. naval force was prowling the Pacific, looking for the enemy with scant success in drawing him out for a fight. He said the Navy has not encountered any units of the Jap fleet since Nov. 2.
The raids so far on the Marshalls and Gilberts – brought under continuous bombardment for the first time in the war – had been carried out without loss of an Army bomber. Their strength and bases were not revealed. The Ellice Islands lie to the south of the Gilberts and Marshalls.
The difference of the advertising parts of a US Newspaper and a German newspaper is stunning. History is sometimes more visible in what is normal life to people than what is in the headlines.
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