America at war! (1941–) – Part 3

31

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.

32

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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33

In Washington –
Foe of subsidies scolds those who charge betrayal

Congressman criticizes Mrs. Roosevelt and League of Women Voters, denies people support program

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Need for increased taxes is denied by House report

Administration expenditure estimates called too high; inflation ‘gap’ minimized

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34

Draft board places Lou Costello in 1-A

Hollywood, California (UP) –
Comedian Lou Costello announced today he had been reclassified 1-A by his draft board in Paterson, New Jersey, and ordered to report for immediate physical examination.

Costello, who will be 38 years old next March, is the father of two daughters, aged 7 and 5. His infant son, Lou Jr., drowned in the swimming pool of the Costello home Nov. 4.

Costello said:

I’ll be the happiest guy in the world if I can pass the physical examination.

Costello recently recovered from rheumatic fever.

Victor McLaglen to wed

Hollywood, California –
Husky Victor McLaglen, 56, portrayer of two-fisted movie parts, announced today he will wed his secretary, Suzanne Rockefeller Brueggeman, 31. It will be the first marriage for Miss Brueggeman. McLaglen’s first wife died two years ago.

35

Army’s barman makes good – but not as a B-A-R man

Peacetime dispenser of beer and whisky overcomes his first ‘big mistake’
By John Lardner, North American Newspaper Alliance

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Peace feelers from Germany again rumored

Conservatives seeking to ward off punishment awaiting nation
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer

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36

Col. Greer: Enemy blunder shown clearly in holding war

Nazis sacrificed men at Stalingrad and in North Africa
By Col. Allen J. Greer, North American Newspaper Alliance

Buffalo, New York –
The phenomenal successes of the Prussians in their wars during the last century gave to the German general staff a reputation for infallibility in military planning that persisted even after German defeat in World War I, its prestige was revived by the decisive victories the Nazis won against Poland, France, Yugoslavia, Greece and against Russia in 1941.

While early in 1942 the Germans won victories in Russia and North Africa, the tide has turned. In North Africa, Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery decisively defeated Marshal Erwin Rommel at El Alamein and forced the Axis forces to begin the long retreat which ended with their destruction in Tunisia.

Show Nazi blunders

The Allies had air supremacy and superiority in ground forces. Common sense demanded that Rommel withdraw toward Tripoli but he remained and the Allied victory which followed showed the blunders and fallibility of the German High Command.

The next German disaster was at Stalingrad where the Germans continued to attack after chances of taking the city has disappeared and withdrawal was postponed until it become impossible. The High command’s blunder cost 340,000 German casualties.

Nazi force sacrificed

While Allied troops landed in North Africa in November 1942, instead of the Germans realizing they could not hold territory beyond a sea controlled by Allied warships and evacuating as many troops as possible, they sent strong reinforcements which, although delaying the Allied conquest, ended in their destruction. This was another blunder by the German High Command.

In 1943, the Germans opened their summer offensive on July 5 against Kursk without the necessary superiority in air or ground forces to assure success and without securing surprise. Disastrous defeat was the logical result of blunders in planning and preparation.

Retreat to Dnieper

The German defeat gave the Russians the opportunity to start their counteroffensive which is still progressing. When the Germans were driven from Orel, Belgorod and Kharkov, they retreated to the Dnieper River.

Even then probably they contemplated an ultimate withdrawal to the Polish-Romanian border but stopped temporarily at the Dnieper, supposing that the Russians did not have the power and means to continue their drive. This may have appeared reasonable but it turned out to be another costly blunder of the German High Command.

Nazis consider prestige

The Russian victories that followed, the hasty German retreat and the highly-dangerous situation of their troops now in the Dnieper bend and the Crimea all resulted from the German persistence in remaining too long in positions they had not the strength to defend.

Today, German forces are dispersed in Italy, the Balkans and Norway, all far less important areas than the Russian front. Reluctance to abandon these countries is understandable but sound judgment should demand that it be done.

Apparently, considerations of prestige at home and abroad, not strategic judgment, have dominated and are still governing the decisions of the German High Command.

37

Aussies renew drive in Guinea

Push on Jap pocket close to Finschhafen
By Brydon C. Taves, United Press staff writer

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38

Lehman faces fight to rule Allied store

U.S.-British boards to guard controls; Soviet protests

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39

Simms: Russia moving to terminate hermit status

U.S. officials believe she will take place in world affairs
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard staff writer

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40

Editorial: Cold comfort

As we face the prospect of an undeniably chilly winter, there might be some cold comfort in the recollection that America shivered through and survived another coal-short wartime winter. That was the winter of 1917-18, and if you are old enough to remember it, you probably remember that we had not only Meatless and Wheatless Days, but Heatless Days as well.

There was no nationwide coal strike in World War I, and the industrial demand did not approach our present needs. But there was a railroad car shortage and a badly snarled transportation system in our one wartime winter, which, with severe cold in January and February 1918, made that winter for many a time of prolonged discomfort.

All plants and offices, except government offices and the most essential industries, shut down on Monday. Bars were also closed on Monday, even though there was no liquor shortage then. Streetcars loaded and discharged passengers at every second or third stop to save electricity. And though nobody had ever heard of the dimout, unnecessary outdoor lighting was prohibited on certain nights of the week. Some states imposed even more rigid controls.

A cold and angry mob in Philadelphia stormed coal trains as they arrived in the yards. In West Virginia, ministers left their pulpits to mine coal. A group of 200 Kentucky businessmen were volunteer miners in their spare hours; a band escorted them to the mine and women fed coffee and doughnuts to the night shift.

We had no radio, no OWI, and no government-made movies to spread information 26 years ago, but an extensive program of education for coal users was set up. There was a “Tag Your Shovel Day” when schoolchildren tied tags with printed coal-saving instructions on the family shovel. Thirteen million pamphlets on “Coal Saving at Home” were distributed. Many cities had “discussion stations” were householders could learn the care and economical feeding of furnaces. Factories were urged to wash their windows, let in the daylights, and turn off the lights.

Wartime America did what it could in that 1917-18 winter, and yet a lot of people were cold, a lot of people will be cold this winter, too, in spite of forewarning and more complete information on making your coal supply last longer. Distribution is in better order and the railroads, though overtaxed, are functioning admirably. But the demand is tremendous. And four work stoppages in recent months didn’t help a bit.

Everyone will have to take every fuel-saving precaution possible in the cold months ahead if we are to get through in tolerable comfort, for the situation is undeniably serious. After that there isn’t much to do except shiver and bear it, remembering that most people who went through the cold discomfort of 1917-18 have long since forgotten it.

41

Edson: Vinson directive on beef subsidy open to question

By Peter Edson

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Ferguson: Women’s handicap

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Are women more easily propagandized than men? John Roy Carlson, now in the limelight for his reports on American Fascism, says they are.

We will not quarrel with the statement. Honest, self-examining women realize how often their zeal misleads them. We are born with an urge for reform and often destroy the things we wish to keep by the intensity of our enthusiasm for an unworkable scheme. Note how many women wreck their marriages by trying to change their husbands.

We have had reason to develop self-confidence slowly. That reason was male. The most interesting research is a study of American history. You can’t remain calm while you read of the brow-beatings our pious fathers gave their docile women by thundering at them about God’s commands.

The male has always set himself up as a divine interpreter. It was his powerful penetration that sensed what Jehovah wanted women to do, and he was never timid about proclaiming those wishes to her. For generations, she accepted the propaganda concocted by the male.

Besides, God implanted to our natures an undying desire to be liked and admired by men. We adore these bossy creatures and can’t help it. It is our worst handicap.

Women fear men’s dislike and they cannot endure men’s ridicule. This is the true reason for our gullibility and our lack of influence in public affairs.

43

Poll: U.S. voters shy the facts about Canada

Poll finds friendly feeling, but little knowledge of dominion
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion

If Canada is to have a chance to play the role of interpreting the Old World to the New – our northern neighbor still has to spread a few facts about herself south of the border, and Americans must absorb them, judging from the results of a survey by the American Institute of Public Opinion.

Attention has been focused on Canada through the fact that the Canadian Legation in Washington and the U.S. Legation in Ottawa have been elevated to the rank of embassies. This move followed on the heels of a debate in the Senate on the Connally resolution, in which supporters of the resolution advanced the view that Canada and the other Dominions were actually not “free and sovereign nations.”

Americans need facts

In spite of these developments, and the fact that Canada has risen to fourth place among the United Nations on the basis of war production, most Americans still need some elementary facts about the Dominion.

For example, in the course of the survey, the Institute asked:

The population of the United States is about 134 million. What would you guess is the population of Canada?

Only 8% of the U.S. voters interviewed could come within a million of the correct figure – about 11,600,000. Estimates ran all the way from one million to even higher than the population of the United States. About half of those interviewed could not even hazard a guess.

Role in Empire

Canada also faces a fact-reading task in informing Americans as to her actual status within the Commonwealth. Although the Dominion has not paid any taxes to Britain for many years, some 72% of the American voting public think Canada still pays part of her taxes directly to Britain, or don’t know whether she makes any tax payments to Britain. Only 28%, judging from this survey, know that no taxes collected in Canada go to Britain.

What impressions U.S. voters do have about Canada, however, are generally favorable to the Dominion. For example, the largest single group of those with an opinion on the matter believe that Canada has been more successful in keeping the lid on prices than the United States.

Survey percentages

Representative Americans from all walks of life were asked:

Do you think that Canada has been more successful than we have in keeping prices from rising during the war?
More successful 38%
Less successful 7%
About the same 8%
No opinion 47%

A majority of Americans believe Canada’s war effort is “all out.” Field reporters asked:

Do you think Canada is doing all it possibly can to win the war?
Yes 59%
No 8%
No opinion 33%

In both factual knowledge about the friendliness toward Canada, states closest to the northern border rate higher than other sates. For example, 62% of the population interviewed in the border states area thought Canada was doing all she could to help win the war, as against 58% in other states.

44

Millett: Be thankful and sincere

Reasons for gratitude are plentiful
By Ruth Millett

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45

Ernie Pyle V Norman

Roving Reporter

By Ernie Pyle

Ernie Pyle is describing his impressions of the home front in a short series of columns before shoving off again on assignment to the battlefronts.

Albuquerque, New Mexico –
Charlie Binkley is the man who put up our house. He was boss carpenter of the construction crew when we built, here on the edge of the mesa, three years ago.

He is a middle-aged Midwesterner – religious, friendly, deeply conscientious about his work. He still drops in to chat once in a while. He came past one recent Sunday morning.

As he walked across the yard, That Girl said to me:

Oh, I forgot to tell you. Charlie has lost both of his boys since you were here.

We shook hands and I said I was sorry about the boys, Charlie sat down and said yes it was pretty tough, and left an awful void. Your only two children gone within a few months of each other – one from an operation, one in a crash in New Guinea. Charlie said:

The Missus is about to go crazy.

There isn’t any construction anymore, so Charlie works at the air base. He is still kind to people, and drives around dropping in here and there to see the friends who live in the scores of houses he built, checking up on little things they need done, making conversation and trying to keep from being too lonesome and blank.

There’s nothing else to do

Charlie Binkley is able to take his terrible double-blow – just as most of the rest of us would take it – because there’s nothing else you can do but take it.

Out meat-man at Campbell’s grocery for years was “Mr. Mac.” We were good friends and he was always pleasant and helpful. Yet during all those years I never knew what his name actually was.

Then one day while I was at home, the phone rang, and it was “Mr. Mac” on the wire. He said:

I’m in the Navy now, just home on a few days’ furlough. I’d like to come down and swap yarns with you.

Pretty soon he came walking down the street. He is nearly 50. He had on his shipboard working clothes of Navy dungaree and jacket. The little white hat cocked on the back of the head of a middle-aged man made him look odd. His name is Rupert H. McHarney.

He said:

I’m a watertender first class. That seems a funny thing for a butcher to be. But that’s what I was in the last war, and it all came back after a few weeks.

I asked:

How did you come to go in at your age?

He said:

Well, I was in the last war and just figured we started a job that we didn’t get finished. My boy is an ensign in naval aviation, and we were fixed so I could leave. My only worry was how my mother would take it. She’s pretty old and I was afraid she would object. But when I wrote her, she wrote back and said you do whatever you feel you have to do. So, I went in.

“Mr. Mac” has been at sea constantly for a year. He has seen action in the Pacific. He can have a shore job any time, but he likes it at sea, and he takes a certain pride in holding up his end of the work among younger men. He says the only trouble he’s had was a spell of swollen ankles from walking the hard decks.

The young and the old

We’ll be an odd mixture after the war when we come back to Albuquerque: Strange young men who have never been away; strange old men who dashed out and fought at the first alarm.

In Tunisia last winter, I met and wrote about a young lieutenant in the Paratroopers named Jack Pogue. He was adjutant to the famous Col. Edson Raff. He turned out to be a fellow Nex Mexican, from Estancia Valley just over the mountains from Albuquerque.

A few days after I got home, Jack’s mother called up, she said she was teaching school at Moriarty; teaching for the first time in 15 years. She called because she just wanted to talk to somebody who’d seen Jack, even though it had been a long time.

A month went by, and she was in the city and called again, just to tell me she’d had three letters from Jack and that he was fine.

Then that same evening the phone ring again. The person at the other end was sobbing violently. Through the chokes I made out the voice of Mrs. Pogue. I knew what would be coming next, as soon as she could speak. But it was a little different from what I thought.

She sobbed:

I’ve just got the word, and had to call you – Jack’s a German prisoner.

So, I began talking fast. I said:

Well, that’s okay, Mrs. Pogue. That means he’s all right. The Germans are ethical about prisoners. He’s safe, and out of danger now, and that means he’ll come back to you after the war.

The choked answer that came back was startling – and thrilling too.

Yes, but that isn’t what Jack wanted. He wanted to FIGHT!

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Clapper: Reconversion

By Raymond Clapper

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47

Ban on speech by Carol asked

Rep. Celler says broadcast would irk Russia

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48

Maj. de Seversky: Deadline for airpower to crush Axis is folly from military point of view

By Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky

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49

Völkischer Beobachter (November 21, 1943)

Ganz wie bei der Bombardierung der Vatikanstadt –
Die Gangster verstecken sich hinter der deutschen Luftwaffe

Reuter: Die Bomben auf Lund „sollen“ deutsche gewesen sein – Schwedischer Protest in London

vb. Wien, 20. November –
Das amtliche englische Reuter-Büro gab gestern folgende Meldung heraus:

Das Flugzeug, das bei der Notlandung am Donnerstag in der Nähe von Lund auf schwedischem Gebiet Bomben abgeworfen hat, soll ein deutsches Flugzeug gewesen sein. Eine amtliche Bestätigung fehlt jedoch noch. Mehrere Häuser wurden vernichtet, die Eisenbahnstation beschädigt, das Botanische Institut brannte nieder, aber es entstanden keine Menschenverluste.

Daß die anglo-amerikanischen Luftgangster ihre Terrorkriegführung nicht nur gegen das deutsche Volk und gegen die Bewohner der von der deutschen Wehrmacht besetzten Gebiete richten, ist heute kein Geheimnis mehr. Ja, es war sogar eine neutrale Stadt, das dänische Esbjerg, das in diesem Kriege die britische Auffassung vom Zweck des Luftkrieges als erste zu spüren bekam, ihr sind seitdem viele neutrale Plätze gefolgt. Daß es sich bei diesen Verbrechen gegen das Völkerrecht kaum jemals um ein wirkliches „Versehen“ gehandelt haben kann, wird dadurch bewiesen, daß die bombardierten neutralen Städte – im Gegensatz zu den völlig verdunkelten Ortschaften der kriegführenden Länder – immer hell erleuchtet gewesen sind. So auch Lund. Selbst wenn analphabetische Neger die Besatzung dieses Terrorbombers gebildet haben sollten, könnten sie sich niemals darauf ausreden, Lund für eine deutsche Stadt gehalten zu haben. Ganz abgesehen davon, daß ja angeblich auch deutsche Städte „niemals wahllos“ bombardiert werden.

Hemmungslos und schamlos

Aber nicht genug damit, daß die skrupellose Kriegführung der Westmächte auf dem Felde des Luftterrors auch die letzten menschlichen Hemmungen über Bord geworfen hat, mit genau der gleichen Schamlosigkeit schiebt sie auch regelmäßig die Schandtaten, die sie angesichts Tausender von neutralen Augenzeugen nicht leugnen kann, der deutschen Luftwaffe in die Schuhe. So war es vor wenigen Wochen bei den Bombenabwürfen auf Schweizer Ortschaften, so war es bei der ruchlosen Bombardierung der Vatikanstadt. Gerade der letzte Fall ist besonders typisch gewesen: Im ersten Augenblick, als die Welt über den Anschlag gegen den Vatikan den Atem anhielt, erklärten die anglo-amerikanischen Gangstergenerale in Süditalien frech und verlogen, daß in der betreffenden Zeit „überhaupt kein englisches oder amerikanisches Flugzeug in der Luft gewesen“ sei. Hinterher mußte man zwar – da gleichzeitig ganz in der Nähe von Rom Bomben gefallen waren – die erste Lüge halb zurücknehmen, aber bis auf den heutigen Tag halten die Regierungen von London und Washington die Lüge aufrecht, daß deutsche Flugzeuge den Vatikan bombardiert hätten.

Auch im Falle von Lund ist das Manöver völlig durchsichtig: da der Terrorbomber, wie die obige Reuter-Meldung verrät, nicht nach England zurückgekehrt ist, konnte man in London am Freitagabend theoretisch überhaupt noch nicht wissen, wer die Bomben geworfen hatte. Es sei denn, daß die Bombardierung Lunds befohlen war. Das hinderte das Reuter-Büro aber nicht im mindesten, einfach in die Welt hinauszuposaunen, daß das betreffende Flugzeug „ein deutsches gewesen sein soll.“

Ob die Feiglinge in London und Washington im Falle von Lund bei ihrer ersten unverschämten Lüge bleiben, wie sie es im Falle der Vatikanstadt getan haben, oder ob sie eine ihrer üblichen papierenen Entschuldigungen Vorbringen werden, ist praktisch gleichgültig. Sie werden fortfahren, schwedische und schweizerische Städte zu bombardieren, die ihnen gerade bequem am Wege liegen, genau so wie sie mit der größten Kaltblütigkeit trotz Hunderter von neutralen Protesten und eigenen „Entschuldigungen“ fortfahren, über neutrale Länder an- und abzufliegen – einfach weil das ungefährlich ist! Das gleiche schmutzige Gesindel aber ist es, dass in diesem Weltkriege angeblich die Fahne des „Anstands und der Menschlichkeit“ entrollt hat. Arm in Arm mit den Bolschewisten!

Schwedens Presse als Zeuge

Die beiden alles andere als deutschfreundlichen schwedischen Blätter Aftontidningen und Nya Dagligt Allehanda nageln die angelsächsische Urheberschaft an dem Bombenangriff fest. Das erstere bringt in großer Aufmachung auf der ersten Seite eine Meldung, in der es zunächst heißt, daß Sachverständige die Nationalität des Flugzeuges, das die Bomben auf Lund abgeworfen hatte, feststellen sollen. Praktisch genommen, so unterstreicht das Blatt, sei man sich im Klaren, daß es sich bei dem Bombenüberfall auf Lund um ein britisches Flugzeug gehandelt habe.

Schadenersatzansprüche gefordert

dnb. Stockholm, 20. November –
Das Außenministerium gibt bekannt: Auf Grund der Untersuchung der schwedischen Militärbehörden wurde festgestellt, daß die Bomben, die auf Lund abgeworfen wurden, englischen Ursprungs waren.

In diesem Zusammenhang hat das schwedische Außenministerium die schwedische Gesandtschaft in London beauftragt, einen nachdrücklichen Protest bei der britischen Regierung einzulegen. Gleichzeitig soll die schwedische Gesandtschaft mitteilen, daß ins einzelne gehende Schadenersatzansprüche zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt der englischen Regierung zugeleitet werden.

50

The Pittsburgh Press (November 21, 1943)

8th Army cuts important railroad

British advance five miles in heavy fighting near Adriatic coast
By Harrison Salisbury, United Press staff writer

Allied HQ, Algiers, Algeria – (Nov. 20)
Smashing ahead five miles against fierce resistance, the British 8th Army has cut the Germans’ last lateral railroad below Rome and sent patrols swarming in force across the turbid Sangro River to last enemy defense outposts, dispatches reported today.

Fifth Army troops in western Italy improved their positions somewhat despite heavy enemy artillery fire and continued nasty weather conditions which also limited aerial operations.

In heavy fighting for nearly every yard, the British and Canadian troops of Gen. Sir B. L. Montgomery captured Perano, on the east bank of the Sangro five miles northwest of Atessa to cut the rail line running from Ortona on the Adriatic to Alfedena halfway across the Italian leg.

Under artillery fire

From Alfedena, the Ortona railroad cuts north to Sulmona and joins the Pescara-Rome trunk line. Its course through the Sangro Valley had come under British artillery fire, making it untenable for the Germans and leaving the enemy dependent on secondary highways.

The capture of Perano also brought the 8th Army to within a mile or less of the Sangro east bank for a distance of 12 miles inland from the Adriatic.

Patrols were dispatched across the river along this entire front and on their return, they brought back reports of dealing heavy casualties to German troops manning the barbed wire and pillboxes on the far bank.

Clash with rear guards

Patrol fighting was reported particularly heavy near the mouth of the Sangro while at the other end of the 8th Army’s front, above Rionero, Montgomery’s vanguard fought sharp clashes with German rearguards.

Berlin dispatches to the Stockholm press said that Gen. Montgomery was soon expected to launch a large-scale offensive against the Germans’ Adriatic flank with the idea of rolling up their entire line. The assault may already be underway with the advance beyond Atessa, a dispatch said.

Matthew Halton, CBC reporter with the 8th Army, said that:

The attack will come, snow or no snow, rain or no rain, and when it comes it will be Gen. Sir H. R. L. G. Alexander’s own way.

Spitfires in air battle

Fighter planes of both sides braved the lowering clouds to operate over the battle area Friday and RAF Spitfires shot down two Messerschmitts in a battle with 12 enemy planes without loss to themselves.

American A-36 Invaders attacked a bridge near Cassino while Warhawks and Kittyhawks’ strafed Barrea northeast of Isernia, aerial reports said. Other fighters attacked road and rail movements near Rieti, 15 miles northeast of Rome.

P-40 Warhawks smashed traffic near Spalato, Yugoslavia, destroying four vehicles, and destroyed a gasoline train near Metković.