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Troop Shift to the Pacific Big Job With Human Side Need to Finish Fight Against Japanese Prevents Wholesale Release of Vets; Move Will Tax U. S. Shipping. By BAUKHAGE \eu?i Analyst and Commentator. WNT7 Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. The American vocabulary has been enriched by a new word which has burdened the notebooks of war department stenographers in Wash ington for a long time. When I was In San Francisco I saw its meaning graphically illustrated. The word is "redeployment." No, I didn't make a typographical er ror. Reemployment we have heard about before. ReDeployment is dif ferent. And in that word, as in Hauptmann's "tear," can sparkle "all the joy and all the sorrow of the world." This new word isn't in any dic tionary. And in all the echoing acres of the Pentagon I could find no of ficial definition of it but in its cur rent application it simply means shifting a lot of American boys out of the European theater of war where the curtain has gone down. That process is causing many a headache in the Pentagon. It will cause many a heartache at home and abroad. It will cause some hap piness, too. For the boys and the families of the soldiers and sailors who are cast for the second act in the tragedy of World War II (and that is most of them) redeployment means heart aches. For the others it means hap piness. But whether they go back to Main street and take up the plow share or the pen, the hammer or the school book, or whether they go on to fresh battlefields. It is a head ache as well as a heartache for the high command. Heartache, Headache For Officera Before writing this article I had a long conversation with one of the highest of the high command and I can tell you redeployment is both headache and heartache for him. He and all his officer comrades who have sons and grandsons of their own fighting at the front want them back as much as any rear rank pri vate's mother, dad, sweetheart or wife, wants him. But few outside those more or less intimately concerned realize the me chanical implications of managing this major migration of history in the moving of more than three mil lion men. 1 Have you any idea how long the mere physical process of simply loading soldiers, one after another, on ships and sending them back to America would take? I do not have official figures al though they should be released shortly, but I hsve an estimate on good authority, of the time which would be required to transfer three million men now in Europe across the Atlantic to east coast ports. As suming that the transport facilities available were devoted exclusively to this mission, perhaps three hun dred thousand men a month could be carried home. That would mean mat 10 month* would b? required to transfer them all. And, of course, that Is a fantastic supposition, since ships as well as men, are needed in the Pacific and so are ships to carry the endless supplies which the army of the Pacific will require to carry on all-out warfare. Redeployment, materially and morally, is a tremendous task and, as a result of personal conversations with the top men upon whom its twin burdens rest, I can assure you that the question of morale is. If anything, the greater of the two In their consideration. There is no question that the suf fering and the repercussions of the lengthy separation of young men from their normal life will become greater, now that T-E Day has come and gone. The army high command knows this and that is why so much time has been spent on taking every possible step to minimize the suffer ing which this slash that cuts across the heartstrings of America's social Ufa, will cauae. I happen to know that busy with the terrific burden of bringing Eu rope's war to a successful termina tion and beginning the final portion of chapter two. General Marshall himself tor many long months haa spent hour after hour of his crowd ed days and Interrupted nights working on this problem. Everybody Matt Play the Came There are some phases of this shift of our main war effort from one side of the world to the other which many do not realize but for which they must be prepared. In the first place, it will be no easy task for those who have fought the good fight in Europe to be trans ferred to the Pacific without a chance of furlough in between. Some will have that privilege but not all. And even for the lucky ones the sec ond parting will be hard unless the families play the game. There is another group who will see America's shore but will not be allowed even to touch American soil. They are the ones who will pass through the Panama canal on a non stop trip to points in the East. That will be a tough experience?to see Old Glory waving from flagstaffs in the Canal Zone and to watch its colors fade in the distance. It sim ply cannot be helped. But perhaps, temporarily at least, the hardest test of patience and self discipline will fall upon those who know that they are to be dis charged, but who, because war takes the priority and the fighters must go first, can only sit and wait in Europe. Aside from the personal anguish which this delay will mean, it is bound to raise a clamor from mo tives natural enough but nonethe less selfish, of those whose economic situation is suffering from the neces sary delay in reinforcing our civil ian manpower with the soldiers whose services are no longer needed but who cannot be moved back home immediately. Before General Gregory, in charge of the great housekeeping depart ment of the army, the quartermas ter corps, left for France in antici pation of V-E Day. I had a long talk with this gray-haired, fatherly man who is loved by his comrades with a warmth of affection that outglows the well-earned stars on his shoul der-straps. When I talked to him about re deployment, although he is respon sible for the physical rather than the moral welfare of the soldier, it was of the latter of which he spoke first How are the folks at home going { to take it? That was the question 1 on his tongue, just as it had been in 1 the minds of the high officers and officials with whom 1 had talked be fore. I learned a lot from General Greg ory and his aides about the tremen dous industrial effort which it takes to produce what the army wears and eats and with which it is shaved and laved and sheltered. As long as there is a man in uniform he must , be fed and clothed and furnished supplies from helmets and raincoats to socks and shorts to say nothing of a thousand odds and ends including writing paper, soap (they have a kind that will serve to wash clothes as well as bodies, and shave with too. and lather in aalt wateri tnhan co, bug-powder, cigarettes, band ages, shoelaces, razor blades, I matches ... ad infinitum. Thousands of men clad in woolens required by European weather will have to be supplied with cotton for the tropics. Thousands moving from the tropics toward the more north erly latitudes of the Japanese is lands and China must have woolens to replace their cottons. Meanwhile, they will have to con tinue to wear and to wear out what they now have on. Another factor is the length of the Pacific "pipe-lines"?the great dis tances from base to front The "turn-around" time of the voyage of ships is longer than the voyage to Europe and there must be enough supplies at hand for the troops to cover the period between each de livery. All this will require continued manufacture by private industry for military use for a long time which means that much longer to wait tar final conversion to civilian produc tion. This is why this new word "re deployment" is not a happy, one and why it holds within it so many head aches and so many heartaches which will try the coolest heads and strain the Stoutest hearts. \ BARBS . . . by Bautiha** Congre*s is going to look into the questioo of sugar being diverted into the manufacture of bootleg whiskey. Meanwhile tipplers say that a lot of sugar is being diverted into alcohol gjh llftaaA ^ 10 uiiuie good wnisxey. ? ? ? kJThe aunosnatl?a is ? man who Ely Culbertaon, former bridfe ex pert, attended the San Wanclaoo conference and (are suggestiona. (Not bad ones. either.) He also ob jected to lack of leadership bp the Americans, fie didn't like the nte of aggressive action by the aecurity councfl. * * ?* ' 1 * , ? M .????????????* sht ssr **" Backing the Attack on Okinawa Island The problem of unloading vital supplies tor the American invaders who have been fighting their way Inland, yard by yard, on the 7fi-mile-long Okinawa island, has been a bit one. Picture at lower left shows an LST approaching shore with supplies. Center: Supplies are landed. Upper right: Necessities of life and war, row after row, line the dusty beach on this far Pacific isle. Circle: Fleet Commander Chester W. Nimitz. Out of the Ashes of War Arises a New Manila Manila begin* to rebuild. Left, the once-beanUful end modern qneen city of the Orient, devastated by the Japs, starts the task of rebuilding with the help of the U. S. engineers. Upper center: This taxi is not much to look at, but it indicates Manila's reconversion. Upper right: A road repair gang is at work on Manila's Taft avenue, erasing some ef the sears. Lower right: Bailey bridge. Marooned Airmen Rescued by Helicopter _ . Eleven mirmrt ECAF airmen who were rescued by a U. 8. coast psri helicopter In the tret rescue ai tta kind, set np this SOS si(i In the anew (npper left), made of pea ifnee booths. Lower left: Care In the anew In which the airmen lived for two weeks In the Labrador wilds. dnew Is M feet deep. Bight: Air view ef the aetaal resene. New Air Hero Marine pilot, 2nd Lt. William W. Eldridge Jr. of Hixoo, Tenn., grins aa he returns to hia Oki nawa airfield after bleating four Jap planea in aa many minutes, when Jap aaieide bombers attacked a C. 8. ship. Army and Navy Chiefs in V-E Broadcast unirtli Tktor^kmdcut rwinkrihac V-EDij were, left l<^t: Gea. Guifi C. Ibnkd, ekW to aUI X the C. S. in;; Ate. Wiffimai G. l rxhr, ,M** mUM to to* PnXtet. IX Ate. Knot J. Ktof. etoto to Proudest Mom ei"?*"*Dw!D.tf Ebnko w eV, ?hn u ahc Mud wMh pride mi af Genua ?flttaijr ~*f*"1 I Washington, D. C. STRATEGY AGAINST JAPAN Back in 1937-38, Adm. William Leahy, now chief of staff to the White House, devised a strategy against Japan, which, if put into ef fect, might have prevented Pearl Harbor and even World War II. Today, the old Leahy strategy is being dusted off, especially on Capi tol Hill, as the best means of finish ing the war with Japan. It would save thousands of American lives, its proponents claim, and would serve as an example of how wars can be won?or prevented?by naval blockade. The proposals made by Ad miral Leahy constitute one of the most Important and unwrit ten chapters in the history of what happened shortly before the war began. Leahy, then chief of naval operations and one of the best strategists the navy has seen in years, saw all too clearly what was coming both in Enrope and Asia. At that time, 1937, Japan had just begun her foil-scale Invasion of China, and it was Leahy's idea to jnake an example of Nippon which would show Hitler and Mussolini ? then feeling their oats ? that the United States meant business and would stand luux-squarc u nilliu U1C peace machinery of the world. Therefore, he proposed to Roose velt a naval blockade of Japan in cooperation with' the British fleet, using the peace machinery of the League of Nations and the nine power pact which guarantees the sovereignty of China. Leahy argued that by keeping the U. S. Navy in the Philippines and the British fleet at Singapore, we could cut off all oil, scrap iron, copper, cotton and other war ma terials from Japan. Without these, he argued, the Japanese war ma chine would be powerless and would fold up in six months. Leahy fig ured that the United States would lose its gunboats on the Yangtze river, but that aside from this the main U. S. fleet would not have to fire a single shot. British Start Blockade. President Roosevelt agreed. So did the British. And in the late sum mer of 1937, the British actually de tailed 6 battleships, 12 cruisers and 20 destroyers to leave British home waters for Singapore. Just at that moment, however, the axis capi tals apparently got wind of what was happening, and Mussolini started his unofficial submarine campaign off the coast of Spain which detained the British fleet at Gibraltar. The Pansy Incident. At any rate, the plan to blockade Japan, following the failure of the Brussels conference in October, 1937, was dropped. But Admiral Leahy revived it again a year later, when, in December, 1938, the Japs sank the U. S. Gunboat Panay and the British Gunboat Ladybird. Leahy recognized this for what it was, a deliberate attempt by the Jap war lords to test out how much insult the United States would take, and to make Britain and the USA lose face with the Chinese. Ac cordingly he rushed to the state department and all one Sunday afternoon, December 13, 1938, one day after the sinking of the Panay, he urged Cordell Hull to seize this psychological moment to put the blockade of Japan into effect. The British were also willing to cooperate. And, Leahy pointed out, in another year, war, inevitably breaking out in Europe, would tie up the British fleet and they could not possibly help us in the Pacific. o....;. k. -i ?i-J-J ?* ? * nuaaia, uc aiau JAJlilieu OUl, naa 60 submarines at Vladivostok, ready to help us cut off all scrap iron, all oil, all cotton and copper bom Japan. Without these, he argued, the Japanese war machine would be paralyzed. Pacing the floor of Hull's office with Leahy was Hugh Wilson, ex ambassador to Germany and one of the state department's foremost ap- - peasers. He opposed Leahy at ev ery turn, finally convinced cautious Cordell Hull that Leahy was too vig orous, that it was best to appease Japan. Less than one year later. Hitler had invaded Poland, the British fleet was desperately needed to defend British home waters, and the fat I was In the fire. From that point on there was no possible way the United States could blockade Japan ?though many people have never understood why we went to the op posite extreme and increased our shipments of oil and scrap iron to Japan so that she laid in tremendous reserves before Pearl Harbor. Japaa Can Be Starved. But beginning with V-E Day, the possibility of blockading Japan for the first time since 1939 was com pletely reversed. Since V-E Day, the British fleet is entirely bee to oper ate in the Pacific. So are Russian submarines. So is the whole might of the U. S. Navy, now no longer needed to watch for submarines In the Caribbean or the Atlantic. Today it is possible to throw up * such a naval blockade around the main Jap islands, augmented by air patrols, that hardly a ton of raw materials could reach Jap factories. It's Easy to Paint Or Stencil Roses IF YOU would like to add real * charm to any room try your hand at painting roses. With a guide lor either stenciling or trac ing, they are as easy to do as any other flower?just fill in the pet als with lovely rose tones and the RECLAIMED v WINDOW ?i WW 21 PAiNTtD 4j I AND il STENCILED jj l roms l mingled pSSfin T mm mmo t shade \ leaves with soft greens, add any flourishes or shading that may ap peal to you, and there you are. The room shown here should give you ? start toward your own rosy future. Graceful rose patterns are painted around the window frame and on the window shade, on the'old rocker, the foot stool, the chest of drawers, the lamp base and shade and a tin tray. With this one flower theme an assortment of odds and ends may be brought into harmony. * ? ? NOTE?Pattern 260 gives seven different rose designs?large and small, borders, sprays and slng'e flowers for every pur pose. For stencils or tracing. May be used over and over. Complete directions and color guide included. To get Pattern 230. send 15 cents with name and address direct to: MRS. RUTH WYETH SPEAFT Bedford Hills . New York Drawer 10 Enclose 15 cents for Pattern No. SCR Nam?? Address Crude Rope Bridges Bridges consisting of a single rope are still in use at points along the rivers of western China where only men and horses travel. To get over them, a man hooks his horse to the rope in an underslung harness and, clutching the rope with hands and feet, pulls himself and animal across, a few inches at a time. SooftM end proven bobr"! [Ij'i' tri >MN<*r kTilat'd **?? Mm, l^'VIri *,p" n*h'p?*"- *? giMEXSANA SOOTHtWC Ml PIQUED POWPC1 lowe* wmdow shades nearly to the su. race tanglefoot r-t papfr where early mortflng ught will attract fues to rr. works like ^ a charm \ TanglefooT 1 FLYPAPER I it's tks old rstisbls th?f m*w feds. tconomicel. rationed. Fw Mb ?? hardware. fl'OCtry itOTM iwOMEN'38nS2'| I *?>? i?*ir unlit Lhot pushes? \ 4^RkIf Mm suffer from bet BaMia* * fMft v?k, nervoua, higbstrung. * bit bltM ?l Utom?due to the func tional "middle-age" period peculiar to women?try tfcla greet medicine?Lydla B. Plnkham'e Vegetable Compound to relieve eucb symptoms. Plnkham'a ? Compound Han matvkk. It's one of the beet known medicine* far tfUe purpose. Follow Label direction*. WNU?4 ~~ 21?45 For Yoa To Feci Well *4 boon every day. 7 day* every week, sever stopping. tUe 1 dt.rya filter waste setter from tbe Mood. If more people were smart- of bow tbe kidneys mast constantly remove sar plos fiu.d. excess acids end other wnsio matter tkat cannot star in tbe bUsd witboot injnry to health. thee* vooLd be better ondenlandinf of ri * the whole system is upset when kioteye fnl to fonctkm properly. Born inc. ecsnty or too freqeer.t arins tfta* oometimso warns tkat ?.?? -*h*?g b wrong. Yon say suffer nacfint toeb *eto. beadaekee. dtcirs, rhrtmsds pains, fettinf ep st sifbta. sweli'tg. Wky not try Dmaa's Pifif' Yes wfl to name a medicine reeommvnc ed tto country over. Dean's etimelste the fane tkm of tto kidneys and toip tHem te Mood Ttoy?contain sotn.nc ha sfoL Got Doom's today. Doe with cmCcsem At ell drag stores.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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May 31, 1945, edition 1
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