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Page Two CLOUDBUSTER Saturday, November 25, 1944 Triumph of Gallantry and Courage By Lt. (jg) William Shanahan, USNR CLOUDBUSTER Vol. 3—No. 11 Saturday, Nov. 25, 1944 Published weekly under tRe supervision of the Public Relations Office at the U. S. Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill, N. C., a unit of the Naval Air Primary Training Command. Contributions are welcome from all hands. The Cloudbuster receives Camp Newspaper Service material. Republication of credited matter prohibited without permission of CNS, War Department, 205 E. 42nd St., N. Y. C. Lieut. Comdr. James P. Raugh, USNR Commanding Officer Lleut. Comdr. Howard L. Hamilton, USNR Executive Officer Lieut, Leonard Eiserer, USNR Public Relations Officer Lieut, (jg) Francis Stann, USNR Editor Orvilub Campbell, Ylc Associate Editor Inside The 20 In one of the early-season football upsets a light, underdog eleven, gaining only one-tenth the yardage of the enemy, won the game. Had the same teams played a second time the bigger, more powerful squad might well have won by 30 points. But on this day the power house team learned a lesson—don’t bog down inside the enemy’s 20-yard line! Yardage gained in midfield doesn’t bring victories. In this respect war is like a football game. The time to drive with redoubled vigor is when deep in enemy territory. On all fronts our fighting men and Allies battle with de termination as they near the goal. In five years of war we’ve never approached a Christ mas so full of hope and promise for the fu ture. Into the eyes of the enslaved a new light gleams. Our fighting men have our enemies inside their 20-yard lines. And they won’t bog down. Don’t Bog Down at Home We here at home cannot bog down. The war isn’t over anywhere. On the contrary the enemy defends bitterly. We haven’t scored—^yet. One way to make certain that score is coming, and to hasten it, is to buy War Bonds. The Navy’s third annual Pearl Harbor Day extra cash War Bond sale will run from 1 to 7 December, inclusive. The goal is to top the $47,843,122 record of last Independence Day in order to keep the salvos of our war ships thundering, the bombs falling and the march unchecked on the road to Tokyo. Don’t bog down now. Honorable Discharge Under a joint agreement between the War and Navy Departments, a new honorable dis charge emblem for wear on the service uni form has been adopted for the services. It is a cloth device designed the same as is the honorable service lapel button and will be worn by all honorably discharged personnel above the right breast pocket of all outer uniform clothing. The basic design of the emblem will be embroidered in gold, the back ground material varying to match the uni form. A woman finally found she could get a di vorce from her husband because of his flat feet. His feet were in the wrong flat. The release last week of the official Navy communique on the Second Battle of the Philippines makes possible a more exact ap praisal of that great action. Of special in terest are those parts of the communique that deal with the preliminary operations and with the uneven fight between Japanese bat tleships and American escort carriers. The full account of the battle also makes evi dent the great resourcefulness of the Ameri can command, as well as the skill and daring of American crews suddenly called upon to fight a vastly superior enemy force. With the occupation of Pelelifu and Moro- tai, southeast of the Philippines, the U. S. Navy began preparations for a show-down battle. To cripple the enemy’s air power and to disguise our real objectives, U. S. task forces made three widely-separated strikes in as many days. On October 9 sur face units attacked Marcus Island; the next day carrier planes hit the Ryukyu Islands 1,500 miles eastward, and on October 11 other carrier-based planes strafed airdromes on Luzon. These blows left the enemy unpre pared for the smashing attack of October 12 on Formosan air fields. For three days the fleet operated around Formosa, sinking 55 enemy ships and working over the air bases and aviation repair depots on the island. In all these operations more than 900 Japanese aircraft were destroyed and enemy ground installations were badly shaken. This very great success enabled General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz to advance the date of the Philippine invasion to October 20. Leyte Excellent Choice Leyte was an excellent choice for the ini tial landings. Its location between the main Japanese troop concentrations on Luzon and Mindanao gave our ground forces the ad vantage of the interior position. Control of Leyte and the adjacent island of Samar was essential if the navy was to dominate the two main passages through the Philippines: San Bernardino Strait to the north and Suri- gao Strait to the south. As our naval com mand anticipated, the Japanese navy made its ?trongest bid by rushing battleships and cruisers through these straits to attack U. S. transports and landing craft in the Gulf oi Leyte. Powerful U. S. task forces had been posted at the eastern entrances to these straits and a few submarines had slipped through for reconnaissance on the western side of the^ islands. Carrier aircraft also ranged far to' the west over the Sulu Sea. Both Japanese' task forces were detected and though thej^ were brought under heavy air attack only^ the northern force seemed to falter. To the^ south the Japanese drove relentlessly on^ Surigao Strait. They were not checked untile they had closed to gun range with units the Seventh Fleet. Rear Admiral Olden-1 dorff’s task force, which included five battle- ^ ships “sunk” at Pearl Harbor, staggered the ^ Japs with broadsides of 16-inch shells. Not ^ one of the Japanese BB and CA survived this j action or the aerial pursuit of the cripples which went on throughout the next day. ‘ Japs Closed For Kill t To the north the Jap units heading for San c Bernardino Strait seemed to have been I stopped, and when a third enemy task force ■was reported north of Luzon, most of the ships in the Third Fleet steamed to meet it- f Only six CVE, seven DD and a few DE were C left to guard the Pacific entrance to the a strait. Unknown to our reconnaissance the a Japanese had reversed their course and by s steaming at full speed all night had passed v through the San Bernardino Strait. At dawn n four Japanese BB, seven CA, and nine DP ’< closed to within 12,000 yards for the kill. Our CVE turned east into the wind and c sent their planes aloft; the DD and DE gal' 3 lantly attacked the heavier Japanese ships- o Losses were minimized only because of poof n Japanese gunnery and excellent America^' • seamanship. Still, one CVE, two DD, and a one DE were sunk by the enemy. Befor® ^ the Japanese admiral could exploit his ad' n vantage, however, reenforcements from tb® 1'* Third Fleet had arrived from the north an<J he was obliged to retreat through the strait- a Courage and gallantry had once more tri' S' umphed over numbers. r( ,,, On The Lighter Side ... After his death. Hitler was being shown around hell by Beelzebub. In an endless room where damned souls were ceaselessly turning round and round in their cofiins, Beelzebub said, “There are the liars. They cannot rest even after death, but for eternity turn around like this.” “Isn’t Goebbels here?” asked Hitler. “Goebbels? Certainly he is here. We use him for our electric fan.” ^ Sandy McPherson had been presented with a flask of rare old Scotch whiskey but as he was walking down the street he failed to sidestep an oncoming car and was side- swiped. He arose and limped along until h® noticed that something warm and wet waS trickling down his leg. “Oh, Lord,” he groaned, making a frantic ^ grab at his trouser leg, “I hope that’s blood.’ j ^ sH ^ ^ ^ Sailor: “How about some old-fashione^ loving?” ■ Cutie: “Okay. Just a minute — I’ll , grandma.” ***** ^ “Will your wife hit the ceiling when ^ come in at this hour?” ' “Probably. She’s a rotten shot.” ^
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