... PACIFIC: War Theater Of Magnificent Distances The U. s. is a big country, 3,200 miies from coast to coast. The Ocean is larger than the i.nd mass of the entire world. Lree outline maps of the U. S. n be superimposed over the pacific War Theater and still leave plenty of chinks. It is double the U. S. coast-to-coast rfis'snce between San Francisco and Manila It is more than five times the foast-to-coast distance between Ma 'jia and the Belgian and French re deployment ports. England, base for the cracking of Vo-tress Europe, was only 20 miles [way across the Straits of Dover. The Philippines, apparently destined to be the chief staging area for invasion cf Japan, are 1,750 miles from Tokyo, ] 300 from Kyushu, southernmost of the home islands. Britain Ideal Base England was highly industrialized, ideal for mounting and protecting the intricate tools of amphibious war. The Philippines, with the exception of the port of Manila, are undeveloped. On Guam and Okinawa, two recently acquired advance bases,' Americans parted from coral bedrock. England’s climate wa„ cold, damp, but generally predictable. Twice with in the last six months typhoons bat tered the U. S. Third Fleet. On June 5, a typhoon with 138 mile an hour END OF THE LINE for this Jap anese train in Korea came under guns of U.S. Navy pilot. winds tore off the bow of a heavy cruiser and damaged 20 other war ships, including fast battleships and big Essex carriers. Last December, raging seas capsized three destroyers, drowning most of their crews. These are reasons why some mili tary tacticians tear their hair when armchair generals talk glibly of Ja pan’s fall this year. The coordinated* sea-air strikes and the shelling of Ja pan by the Fleet against only token resistance set off domestic tidal waves of such heartening rumors. Military men admit the possibility of surrender but expect V-J Day to come the hard way—by invasion. It will be much more difficult than Nor mandy. It will mean troop convoys traveling over 1,000 miles across open seas, under attack by naval and aerial suicide units. It will mean fighting fanatic defenders, including women and children, and waging a campaign without mechanized equipment which blitzed the Wehrmacht but is poorly adapted to Japan’s rugged mountains. Sea-Air Strikes Mount The mounting fury of naval and air attacks may suggest preparatory op erations for invasion, but D-Day in Japan probably is pages away on the war calendar. R. Adm. Oscar C. Badger's super battleships of the Third Fleet which attacked Hokkaido with point-blank fire were not necessarily blasting an invasion path. In demolishing iron and steel production at Muroran on Hokkaido, the fleet was pounding the same type of objective the B-29s have been working over for a year. Hokkaido, however, is beyond the practical operating limit of Superforts based on Guam, Saipan and Tinian. It presumably will remain so until big B-29 bases are created on Okina wa or possibly on the Asiatic main land. The Navy took the ball on a lateral pass from the B-29s and blasted a target, out of bounds for the big bombers. Navy carrier pilots and Army fight ers are intensifying the pounding of Japan’s planes, airfields and transpor tation lines in addition to aircraft plants, armament and munitions works, shipyards. Vulnerable Railroads More and more there appears refer ence to attacks on Japanese rail lines. The foe’s railroads are peculiarly vul nerable; they average four bridges a mile—and blasted bridges make good bottlenecks. Japanese rail lines are electrified extensively because of the abundance of hydroelectric power and shortage of coal or diesel oil. Power plants and transmission facilities pro vide added vital targets. There are reasons which might ex plain the recent tactics of Japanese airmen refusing to rise in defense of ' V Aerial 3.000- Plane Raids A Day U. S. land-based air power in the Pacific can hurl 3,000 planes a day at Japan by coordinating the tactical and strategic air forces, now being realigned. The first Eighth Air Force B-29s under Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle will arrive by August 15, according to Gen. Barney M. Giles, new Strategic Air Forces deputy commander under Gen. Carl A. Spaatz. Giles said that in Japan itself “there is nothing left as an individual target” worth even a 1.000- plane raid. Pilots of the Okinawa Tactical Air Force shot down 625 Japanese plaues during conquest of the island and flew 38,192 combat sorties. All Army planes in the Ryukyus have been placed under command of Gen. George C. Kenney’s Far East Air Forces while the joint Army, Navy, Marine Air Force which supported the 10th Army’s campaign has been disbanded. In Short... Ordered: By California Superior Court, Charles Chaplin, worth $3,000, 000 by his own admission, to continue paying $75 a week for support of child born to Joan Berry, once his protege. Decided: By King Leopold, neither to abdicate nor return to Belgium at present. Left: War Manpower Commissioner Paul V. McNutt, to survey, for the President, health and economic needs in the Philippines where he was U. S. commissioner before the war. Permitted: By U. S. Military Gov ernment, German workers to form trade unions. Thawed: 6,000 remainder of 520,000 1942 automobiles by OPA to clear dealers’ stocks before new models start coming in. Ordered: Fingerprinting of 3,000,000 Germans in U. S. occupied zone by Military Government as crime pre caution. Apologized: U. S. government tc Japan, for sinking of a Japanese hos pital ship off Formosa by American sub. Declared: By Italy, war on her for mer Axis partner, Japan. Annulled: By British Court of Ap peals, marriage of a British couple or wife’s plea that husband practiced birth control and refused to allow her to have a family. Improvised: By 13th Air Forc< .fighter pilots covering Borneo inva sion, “belly tank” fire bombs of jellied gasoline to burn up the Japanese the homeland against me steppea-up air attacks. Between July 1 and 15 B-29 pilots reported seeing less than 100 enemy planes, most of which veered away without attack. Gen. George C. Kenney, command er of the Army’s Far Eastern Air Force, says the foe may be hoarding his planes for the fat American troop transport targets on D-Day. More likely, the general thinks, is the pos sibility that vital shortages have grounded the Imperial air force. Long Blockade The long blockade which cut Ja pan off from her southern empire must have depleted aviation gasoline stockpiles. It may have taken Japan a year, Kenney says, to rebuild the Borneo refineries and American sub marines began to blow her tankers out of the water soon after that. “Lack of trained pilots conceivably can be traced to the Kamikaze theory which has in it the seeds of its own destruction,” the general says. “When you send experienced pilots out in suicide planes, your trained person nel is gone. When you send out stu dents or half-trained men, you throw away your future aces.” Gen. Kenney reports some captured pilots were sent into combat in planes they knew very little about—some with only a few hours flying time. •? ; ' V-; f.' i • ’ Pacific midway! Ocean .WAKE MAIBMAU. POT POURRI: Round The World • in nonaon, xne iNanonai council for Unmarried Mother and Child re ported 52,000 illegitimate children were born to British girls last year. Most of the mothers are unfortunate girls, said the council, whose hus bands-to-be were killed in the war. • Near Moscow, Idaho, Forester Clif ford Kleer climbed a tall pine tree to fix a telephone line, stayed there 13 hours until a huge grizzly bear got tired of clawing at the trunk and lower limbs. • At imcateno, taano, anosnone In dians postponed the start of their an nual three-day sun dance until braves could come off warplant night shifts. Then 12 hours late, the ceremonial rites started with eight tribal uancers, far below the usual quota. se their establishments seven days f i month. One proprietor said he ,i.j been unable to serve anything n111 'Moon and eggs for dinner bu! oi. he couldn’t even get bacon. ? ,^n f^cw Haven, Conn, a store win u k°re this sign: “Going out o: ousmess until we MEAT again.” • Speculators have staked out more than 1,000 land claims in the Province of Almeria, Spain, where radium or some other rare mineral is reported to attract fire from the sky. The fires come without warning and have ig nited clothing of more than 30 peas ants. The phenomenon, first observed last month, was confirmed by scien tists; one group reporting a “rain of fire” ignited its instruments. • At Emmett, Idaho, Mrs. Walter Dalton angrily chased a “dog” out of her chickenyard, almost fainted when it turned out to be a five-months-old bear, • In Madrid, Generalissimo Francis co Franco promised Spaniards he would restore the monarchy sometime . in the future. (All Rights Reserved, AP Newsfeatures) Upcoming Monday July 23 Petain trial opens in Paris Tuesday, July 24 Pioneer Day, Utah Wednesday, July 25 Occupation Day, Puerto Rico Thursday, July 26 British election returns „ Saturday, July 28 Austria began World War I in 1914 Nation Greasing The Ways The government moved to ease the housewife’s burden by cutting the ra tion value of butter from 24 to 16 points. OPA said the reason was re duced military shipments and the peak summer season in butter pro duction, coupled with a shortage of storage facilities. At the same time, Agriculture’s Secretary Anderson handed out good news on meat and bad news on sugar. Shipment of meat to shortage areas was begun and non-federally inspect ed slaughterers were permitted to move meat across state lines provided they met sanitary conditions. The sugar situation will be sour during the last three months of this year, Anderson said, with less than 1,000,000 tons available compared with 1,833,000 tons used for civilian use in the same period in 1944. Congress got itself embroiled in a battle of the sexes when the House Judiciary Committee urged adoption of legislation proposing a constitu tional amendment granting equal rights to women in pay scales and right to jobs. Protesting vigorously, minority members charged it would take away many privileges of women, be “mis chief breeding” and that it posed the question whether a wife might not be held equally liable with the husband for family support or alimony. Big Three Confer On Japanese War - - * f'i *« ' v. i r-■ I_ M05Cot?J WITH a minimum of formality, the son of a (Georgian cob bler, a British aristocrat and an ex-haberdasher from Missouri conferred this week on Europe’s fate for years to come. The heads of the three biggest world powers dis cussed over a big circular table in the palace of Kaiser Wilhelm the prob lems of victory achieved in Europe and victory to come in Asia. Premier Stalin arrived a day late and Prime Minister Churchill and President Truman utilized the time by touring Hitler’s bomb-razed capi tal and conferring on last minute de tails with their technical aides and chiefs of staff. President Truman presided at the first session Tuesday, by invitation. Preliminary exchanges of view took place on a coordinated occupation policy for Germany, the economic and political destiny of Germans, treat ment of displaced persons and liber ated countries. President Truman’s main objective is to expedite' winning the war with Japan and he has potent arguments in Lease-Bend and postwar economic commitments for reconstruction. Bronzed and refreshed after an eight-day Atlantic crossing on the cruiser Augusta, the President flew to Potsdam from Antwerp. Prime Min ister Churchill flew in from Hendaye, France, where he had been vacation ing after a strenuous election cam paign. Stalin arrived by train from Moscow over wide gauge Russian tracks laid tt> Berlin. U. S. DESIGNS A NEW LIGHT WEIGHT WEAPON FOR THE PACIFIC .•___.... _I RECOILLESS 57 MM RIFLE has the power of a field artillery piece. It weighs 1UU pounds, throws a three-pound shell two miles. A two-man weapon, it can be operated by one in a pinch. At right, seven combat soldiers strain to move a 57 mm gun during Cen. Patton's campaign in the Saar basin. . - - - -.- ■ —. ■■■■■ — ■ ■ . | * i_uttua_i The little yellow men of Nippon who like to act tough against defense less populations have a brutal crime to answer for in the little east Luzon coastal town of Infanta. The village is 30 miles east of Manila, across the Sierra Madre Mountains and is reach able only by plane or water. Two months ago Japanese discov WiVi I' ff'l -r ■■ Zee, London Mirror ered American canned goods in one of the native huts, tracked down some guerrilla activity. Retribution was swift. That night more than 300 Japanese troops- slipped into Filipino homes and massacred 2,000 men, women and children in their beds. A few natives escape into the jungle. Quotes Robert P. Patterson, Undersec retary of War: “We must be pre pared to win the war the hard way by killing Japanese soldiers right through the ruins of Tokyo and throughout the home is lands.” Owen J. Robert*, retiring U. S. Supreme Court justice: “The only law between nations is the law of tooth and claw.” Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt: World peace is the job of the people. “They have to care enough about peace to make whatever sacri fices peace entails.” Statistics Staff Of Life During 1944 and the first five months of 1945, the Army shipped 2,045,829 long tons of food to civilians in liberated Europe. Wheat and flour made up more than 70 per cent of the total; canned meats, sugar and fats accounted for only 11 per cent. The War Department announced all Army shipments of food to civilians in liberated countries would cease September 1. ' Charter A Pocketbook Test A Senate drive to have the United Nations charter signed, sealed and ready for delivery to President Tru man when he returns from the Big Three conference appeared almost certain with the virtual collapse ot isolationist opposition. Meanwhile the pocketbook tPst of America’s widened role in world af fairs—approval of U. S. participation in the Bretton Woods monetary agreements drew fire in the Senate. Under Bretton Woods, the U. S. with 53 other nations would try to stabilize world currencies and provide credits for reconstruction and devel opment as* an international responsi bility. The U. S. would contribute $3,17.5,000,000 to the World Bank and $2,175,000,000 to a credit fund. Sen. Taft (R-Ohio) charged tha1 the U. S. had the only good currency in the world and that to attempt to stabilize foreign currencies at this time of world chaos would mean “pouring $6,000,000,000 down a rat hole.” Other Republicans attacked Taft’s implication that the Allies would nol live up to their obligations. One quoted an Australian as saying thal while the U. S. would entrust the fund and bank with its . dollars “we entrust them with our very existence." ...; -- |MR9HflHg i WAR’S TWO-EDGED SWORD CUTS BOTH WAYS. An unidentified British carrier is stung by a Japanese suicide pilot off the Sakishima Islands. Off the Ryukyus on June 5, a typhoon damaged more U.b. s ips (21) than the Japanese ever were able to put out of action in one engagement since Pearl Harbor. Right, the heavy cruiser Pittsburgh lost its bow and the carrier Bennington’s flight deck was badly battered. 1 ' „ > i ■