Newspapers / The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, … / Feb. 12, 1942, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
The Alamance Gleaner VoL LXVIII ? "/ GRAHAM, N: C., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1942 - No. Z WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne United Nations Rush Reinforcements To Far East Battle Fronts in Effort To Check Spreading of Jap Attacks; Nazis Again Take Offensive in Afica ; ' ' .? *' (EDITOR'S NOTE?When eplnlens are expressed In these eelsauis, they ?re these ef the news analyst and net necessarily ef this newspaper.) ?* by Western Newspaper Union.) -???? ? ? ? . Somewhere in the Pacific ocean, this dramatic picture taken pf a JJ. 8. navy offensive patro] plane carrier being circled by a navy dive bomber as it begins its anti-snbmarine duties. Note in the picture that onk both the side and underpart of the plane there have been deletions of certain parts and Insignia which might give information to the enemy. Also on the top rigging of the carrier you will notice further deletions for the same reason. - ?> ? > LUZON; ? Epic Battle Haileft as an epic of warfare* that would live in all history, the defense of Bataan peninsula and of the fort resses holding the entrance to Ma nil^bay had been diverting large Jap forces needed elsewhere than in the Philippines. The adding to MacArthur's embat tled and smoke-begrimed army of a battalion' Of bluejackets end ma rines was welcome news and showed that perhaps not all of the men of Cavite and Olongapo had been withdrawn, but that, they had bew given a post of honor with the . defenders. Op on the Mariveles mountains they were entrenched, and ho mat ter what strength the Japs hurled against them they were holding firm. On one moonlit night a whole regi ment of small boats moved down the coast, using the same tactics that had hurled the British back on 'Malaya. ? The effort Was to get in on Mac Arthur's flank and confuse the de - fenders, at the same time signalling for an offensive on the central front. But ...the shore defenders and ar tillery opened up on the Jap invad ' ers, left* scores of them struggling in'the water, ahd the few that made shore were quickly mopped up by the > Filipinqs. v - _ There was apparently at least one Japanese warship which managed to run through the eight-mile strip of water between the fortresses at the entrance of Manila bay. One of the United. States' intrepid . torpedo boat skippers, piloting his tiny craft at close to 80 miles an hour, swept down on her in the moonlight, and launched two torpedoes which struck the ship. She is believed to ' haffe been sunk. The attack Was Carried out directly into' the glare of "the Warship's searchlights, and under the full power of her guns, but so skill , fully did its skipper maneuver that she was not struck, and escaped with all hands to tell the tale. WAVELL: And Reinforcements The statement by General WavelJ that "great reinforcements" wdre to arrive, and calling on the Singapore defenders to "defend the city as To bruk was defended" was more than a little significant. Tobruk was the bastion that held out for months despite being sur rounded on three sides by Axis forces anxious to wipe it out, and finally was relieved by the Allied winter drive. ! ? ? * Wavell's statement to the Singa pore army smacked of a situation which might see sufficient reinforce ments sent to Malaya to do the same thing, not only to relieve the garri son, belt send the Japanese on the nm again. ? Whether this reinforcement was going to be sent to Singapore itself, or whether a method was to be found at striking at the Japanese rear, which1 might be lightly held, was not revealed but either method, it was pointed out, might work. - Ne British commentators felt that the war in the South Pacific would, be Jpst utterly if Singapore was to fall,. But the ability to hold the East Indies would immeasurably be weakened if this Was to happen, hence Wavell's strong appeal -to the city's defenders to bold out it all Cbsts GERMANS: Not Out Yet Reading endless stories of Russian successes in battles on the east front, and the continuous h?mmer ? ing back <jf Rommel's forces in north Africa had brought many over-optimistic souls to feel that the war was over, and that all which re1 mained was Some sort of mopping up process. The turning of the.tide in north Africa, and the success of German counterattacks in the Crimea showed that with favorable weather condi tions the Nazis were still very much to be reckoned with." The Crimea was a much warmer battlefield than the 40 below zero northern sectors, .where the Rus sians, undiscouraged by the cold, and more at home in such weath er, were able to hurl the Nazis back constantly on a wide front. But the minute the weather mod erated in the Crimea, they found; themselves more or.less up against' a stone wall. On the British and American forces was' falling the brunt of the Japanese blitz, and its successes on Malaya and in the Philippines showed that this was no minor war, but an effort against powerful an tagonists. Therefore events generally point ed to what Washington had assured the people was coming?a long and bloody war, not to be lightly won. Though, generally speaking, the news was not as unfavorable as it might have been, there was much less to be cheering about than there was to be worrying about, and the seri ousness of the situation was appar ently keenly appreciated by all those in power, including the. Presi dent, his cabinet and the congress. RUBBER: IT ? ? iveeps coming Although tire rationing was appar ently here to stay, the rubber situa tion was relieved Somewhat Whfen it was announced that 'shipments from the East Indies were continuing at almost a normal pace. - A glance at the map showed that considerable areas of the Dutch East Indies were .still technically out of the active war zone, and the defeat of the Japanese armada in the Ma cassar straits halted a Jap threat which might have halted much of the rubber shipping summarily. Jesse Jones, secretary of commerce and Federal Loan administrator, was author of the statement that rubber shipments continued to be received. He said enough had come in ma terially to increase the United States' reserve supply. For in stance, since the war started, on De cember 7, he asserted that 114,000 tons of raw rubber had bepn re ceived, truly'a considerably amount. He said: "We are unloading spme every day, and rubber is being shipped every day from the Dutch East In dies. We will continue' to get it as long as we can keep the lanes open, and as long as they ppn load it. "Some rubber is still coming out df Singapore." This was even after the city had gone under siege. - The Japs had launched an air attack on Soura baya, which was the only major Javanese port to undergo, such a war blow, but it'was recalled that it would take more than an air blitz to put a huge port-Hke this Outuf nor mal action. i - * - I V ' General Wounded General Clinton A. Pierce, who luu been reported wounded In ac tion, in the Philippines. He is the first C. S. general wounded in ac tion in World war No. t. This pic ture was taken before the out break of the war in the Pacific. SINKINGS: Continue Heavy The U-boat raids on the North Atlantic continued heavy, with a to tal of 16 ships attacked Of which two escaped and 14 went to the bot tom, with about an average loss of life. < Since our entrance into the war, two navy tankers had been tor pedoed, the first managing to reach Iceland under her own power, but the second-one, the Neches, going down ? with a reported. estimated loss of 56 jnen, .with 126 men escap ing to. fight again. The location of the Neches' tor pedoing was not immediately an nounced by the navy, but ship losses had been small in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor, more than equalled two to one by Allied sinkings of Jap shipe.' There were growing reports of Allied naval strength in the Pacific, showing that increasing numbers of ships were active in those waters, and in one case having carried the attack to the Japanese-held Marsh all and Gilbert islands, generally in the Australia defense zone, with ter rific results..; In this action, though no strictly war vessels of Nippon were sunk, the navy reported several auxiliaries were sunk and damaged, which might include tankers, transports, supply ships used for naval pur poses. That our forces lost 11 planes but no ships showed that probably one of our aircraft carriers was in the neighborhood, and that a vessel of this size Was being used in a task force offensive action demonstrated that Admiral Nimitz was keen on getting yeven with Japan for Pearl Harbor, RUSSIA: Buying Insurance rne nussians, naving lougnt tne Germans back considerably past their announced "winter line" on the northern sectors, might be said to be buying insurance against the Nazis' spring drive. Some observers, including Senator Tydings, in addresses had warned ?that the Germans had some 100 'divi sions of soldiers that they had been holding out of action, just for the spring offensive against Russia. The Red armies were not, how- . ever, belieyed to be losing anywhere nearly as heavily on the whole front as were the Germans, so this taste of victory, even though temporary, was expected to stand them in good stead when the time comes to hang on after May 1. Experience of 1940 and 1941 was that the Russian winter would not break until about that time, to any appreciable degree, and at that point the Germans might be expected to launch another all-out attack. The Red armies were well into Smolensk province, reporting that the Germans, instead of fighting holding actions, were now hastily moving back to better fortified lines, and trying at all costs to save as much material and as many men as possible. It was considered probable that the Russians would be able, before the coming of spring, to shove the Ger mans at least back to Smolensk, thus giving the Nazis 230 miles to cover in reaching Moscow again, a distance that the Russians had al ready fought over twice, once going and once coming, and which they would defend even more stubbornly than the first time. And they would, it was pointed out, be able this time to get an ever increasing amount of Allied aid, and not be subject to the same quality of surprise which gave the Germans so much advantage the last time. The battle-lines now being so well drawto; -it would be' impossible for the Nasis.to gain much momentum. Holding Dutch East Indies Is Vital to United Nations ^ t Slim Crescent of Islands Blocks Jap Aggression By Forming a Barrier Between Continents Of Asia and Australia. By BAUKHAGE National Farm and Home Hour Commentator wwu service, 343 ti street, n-w, Washington, D. C. By the time these words are print ed Singapore may have fallen. Jap anese bombers may be raiding Australia and Japanese ships may be in Australian waters. Even so, according to the sober prediction of those in diplomatic and official cir cles who are .able to look at the war map without wishful thinking, the tide may still be turned against the Japanese if one condition remains the same. That condition is that the United Nations continue to hold key territory in that slim crescent of is lands, the Netherlands Indies which form a barrier between the conti nents of Asia and Australia. There are two reasons why these experts believe this Malaysian bar rier may be held in spite of Jap anese gains north and south of it. First, as one military man put it, "by rule of thumb Japan has already stretched her supply lines so far from her home bases that they may be expected to snap in vital spots." Second, because of successful delay ing actions now going on, time is fighting on the side of the United Nations, time for sufficient re enforcements to arrive, especially from the United States, which will snatch air superiority away from the Japanese and thus affect the tide of battle. ? Japan has so far extended her self, experts agree, that a powerful blow might topple her over back wards. General MacArthur has held a Japanese army of 200,000 men in the Philippines. Huge land, air and sea forces have been drawn into the siege of Singapore. Japanese troops are fighting in Burma, 3,000 miles from the Manchukuoan border. They are spread fan-wise from Sumatra in the west 4,000 miles along the equator to the Solomon islands be yond New Guinea. United Nationa* Barrier ? It is the barrier the United Na tions have established from Sumatra to the Solomon islands, with Java as the key point, upon which Japan may break her curved scimitar of offense. japan nas aireauy peneiraieu scattered islands in some places? in Borneo, New Guinea, in die Cele bes and in the Australian mandated islands in the Bismarck archipelago. But there are many dents in her sword already?more than 31 ships lost in the first few days of the bat tle in the Macassar straits, which lie between Borneo and the Celebes. Many more such losses will be ir reparable. Successful, although scattered at tacks by American and Dutch planes and submarines and surface ships are taking their toll. And even though Japanese units may secure some island ba^fs near enough to bomb the Australian coast, and some ships are able to slip through to raid coastal towns, the sword hand will be badly strained. The tough, well-fortiiled, well-supplied island of Java can deaden her blows. And if enough other bases for allied bombers and subs remain from which the far-flung Nipponese invad ers can be harassed, her course westward and southward can be checked. For the United Nations fighting at the Malaysian barrier it is simply a problem of hanging on. For the United States it is a problem of pro ducing and delivering the goods. Against us is first our late start in war production; second, the great distance to the front?about six weeks frorft loading to unloading; and third, lack of ships. Into High Gear We cannot make up lost time but it is agreed that Donald (Battling) Nelson and his war production board will keep us in high gear from now oh. As for the ships, by June we will be producing them at the rate of two a day?cargo ships. As for the precious cargoes, fighting planes? which have to be shipped?they are being turned out in rapidly increas ing numbers. The figures are secret. I have it on good authority that it would take only 2,000 more planes to give us superiority in the whole Pa cific. But far less than that are needed to establish superiority in the present fighting area since Japan must keep a large air force at home for defense of her own cities. As for the tanks and men, these t * needs are not so pressing, but tanks will soon be rolling to the tune of a thousand a month, and Gar and rifles for next year's army of seven million men are being turned out a thousand a day at the Springfield arsenal 'alone. Meanwhile, the men on the fight ing front say this to America and England: "Hurry. Cut red tape. Take risks. Don't wait until you have had what you think is enough. Send what you have, risk it. We'll risk our lives to use it." If we are willing and able to an swer this message, Japan may be toppled over on her heels. With Singa- 1 pore in Japanese hands some Japa nese elements would be able to filter through the island barricade toward Australia. The fall of MacArthur will release thousands of Japanese soldiers, the fall of Singapore, thousands more. If the key defense of Java goes, the Japs can then flood south to Austra lia and perhaps isolate. that conti nent of hardy fighters. The invad ers can also swarm westward through the Straits of Malacca, take Rangoon, gateway of the Burma road. They can move submarines into the Persian gulf and the Red sea and threaten the life line to Brit ain's middle east armies and Rus sia. Once China is cut off, Japan will offer her a very favorable peace. Chiang Kai-shek would not accept, but his followers might accept. That would mean thousands more of Japan's effectives could be released, and if Russia's supplies are cut off Hitler could take Moscow while the Japanese troops move on Siberia. And so we can understand why the United Nations, fighting to hold their island defenses in the southern Pa cific, are praying that in the next few weeks that we will risk what we have to bastion them. Even though it be little it need not be too late. ? ? ? The Hermit Of Sharktooth Shoalm The Hermit of Sharktooth Shoals came to town the other day with the surprising news that instead of being an enemy of man, the man eating shark is now to be regarded j as one of man's best friends, and an especial friend of the farmer's. The Hermit is a former newspa per assbciate of mine who has re nounced the noise and tumult of cities and now helps conduct a shark fishing establishment at Fort Pierce off the east coast of Florida. Along with most people, I had thought that the commercial use, if any, for sharks was limited to the hides, for belts and shoes. But now I learn from the hermit that shark liver oil is teeming with vitamins and is in great demand by pharmaceutical houses for those yellow pep pills that Americans are consuming in great numbers these days. But that, it seems, in no way lim its the usefulness of the lowly shark. After the hide has been stripped off and the liver extracted, the carcass can be ground up and made into a high potency fertilizer, rich in urea and nitrates. And that's where the shark's value to the farmer comes in. Last year the Hermit and his sharking colleagues tossed over board two million pounds of perfect ly good carcasses, simply because they didn't have the machinery nec essary to convert the defunct fish into fertilizer. This year, what with the announced shortage of nitrates and fertilizer, the Hermit feels that it is high time the government took an interest in the matter, and he is now in Washington for that purpose. The more I hear about the shark profession the more colorful it sounds. The Hermit, for instance, tells me that the sharkery's presi dent and founder Is a prominent sci entist, Dr. Alexander van Beyer, who has pioneered in the develop ment of vitamin products from shark livers. The doctor has Chi nese connections and is a member of the Hip Sing tong which is an aid in the marketing of another by product, shark fins. The Chinese regard shark fins as a great deli cacy. More than this, I understand that shark meat?by any other name is an excellent food. Instead of let ting the sharks eat us we may turn the tables and eat the sharks! Who knows? War to Solve Farm Problem ? Substitutes From Crops to Be Forced by Shortages In Raw Materials. WASHINGTON.?American genius and inventiveness finds an oppor tunity in the war to apply some of the proposed remedies for curing one of the- nation's severest head aches?surplus farm products. During the last decade, agricul ture has been plagued by ware houses, elevators and bins overflow ing with supplies of cotton, wheat, corn, tobacco, and other farm prod ucts?marketable only at ruinously low prices. This situation was re flected in economic instability in many rural areas, necessitating huge expenditures by the govern ment on relief- and price-insuring crop programs. Scientists and technicians suggest ed that this problem of surplus would be solved, at least partially, if new industrial uses could be developed for farm products. Much labora tory work already had been done along this line, both by governmen tal experiment stations and by pri vate industry. Seek Sources at Home. Raw materials normally secured from abroad may become difficult or impossible to secure. Industry is turning to possible sources at home. It is beginning to adopt many of the suggestions of scientists for use of farm products. The most notable is the use of com in making industrial alcohol. It is quite possible that by the time the war is over, American grain, rather than imported molasses, will be the major source of the country's alco hol supply, and possibly an impor tant source of supply for motor fuel, as well. The war has started scientists ex ploring the field of solid fuel also. Here starch offers an interesting possibility. It is produced on every farm in this country in the form of corn, wheat, other grains, potatoes and other crops. Threatened shortage of paper is developing new interest in making paper from such raw materials as corn stalks, wheat straw and cotton plants. The quantity of stalks and straws produced in this country each year is several times the amount needed to make all the pa per that is needed. .Heretofore, it has been more economical to use wood. ? ^ Seek Substitute Starch. Agriculture department authori ties estimate that American (arms produce annually about 260,000,000 tons of by-products that provide a potential source of supply (or manu factured products. This includes straw, stalks, husks, cobs, cotton seed hulls, sugar-cane bagasse, and peanut hulls. Agricultural leaders hope that the war will expedite the manufacture of starch from potatoes so that a large part of the 215,000,000 pounds of imported root starch may be re placed by domestic production. Agriculture department production goals for 1942 call for increases of 1,100,000 acres of soybeans and 1,600,000 acres of peanuts. With av erage yields, these increases would provide an additional 500,000,000 pounds of oil. By shutting off Japanese silk, the conflict is increasing the use of cot ton in clothing. One notable exam ple is full-fashioned cotton hose. The result may be a larger permanent market for the cotton farmer. 10-Year Saving* of Pair Go for Defense Bonds CHICAGO. ? Some people save pennies, or dimes, or quarters. But with Mrs. Celia Brodsky, who runs a grocery with her husband, Abe, at 2461 West Madison street, it was silver dollars. Every time a customer came in with a silver dollar Mrs. Brodsky put it away in her cedar chest at her home, 3615 Flournoy street. She saved silver dollars for 10 years, never bothering to count them. She always said that when she got enough she was going to take a trip to see her two brothers in Califor nia, one of whom she hadn't seen in IS years. But when the Japs attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor on December 7 she started thinking. Sunday night when she saw a news reel showing the wreckage caused by the Japs at Pearl Harbor she made up her mind. "There's only one thing to do in a case like this," said Mrs. Brodsky. Yesterday morning she put all her silver dollars?250 of them?in a shoe box and went down to the First Na tional bank. She clanked them down before the cashier and said proudly: "I want to put all these in de fense bonds." ^?? Amateur Weather Seers Now Have Day Even Grandpa's 'Rheumatuf May Be Valuable! WASHINGTON. ? With the daily maps and forecasts by the U. S. weather bureau suspended "for du ration," except in a very limited way that will give no aid or com fort to the enemy, local weather prophets may be expected to come into their own. For it may be taken as assured that people aren't going to stop talking about the weather. There is, of course, good reason for the "blackout" of the daily weather maps and reports. Back of the old jingle, "red in the night, sailors' delight; red in the morning, sailors take warning," is the truth that' bright sunsets usu ally come during periods of settlejl weather, while a reddened sun (at any time of day) indicated the pres ence of moisture-laden particles in the air that may later precipitate rain or snow. Even at sunset, a bleary reddened sun (as distin guished from red-tinted clouds) may warn of storm to come. A ring around the moon, or to be academically precise, a halo, is an other fairly dependable weather "sign." So is a fuzzy or blurry ap pearance of moon or stars. These appearances are due to the inter ception of light by thin clouds run ning ahead of an approaching gen eral storm area. There is, however, no truth in the belief that the crescent moon "holds" rain if its horns are pointed upward, "pours" rain if they point down ward. Those phenomena are pure ly astronomical, and have nothing to do with conditions on earth. The same holds true for the position of the "bowl" of the Great Dipper as seen early in the evening. ?> Weather Helped Japanese Attack, Says Scientist DALLAS.?The Japs struck in the Philippines at the favorable season for naval and air operations, Dr. H. Lands berg of the University of Chi cago, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science. All the rest of this winter will be good, for attacks, until the typhoon season starts next summer, he said. Other points he made were: There is also a weather paradox in the present fighting zones. In northern Luzon, where heavy fight ing goes on, the present is a bad season for air operation on account of hpaw rains These rains are expected to ham per takeoffs from northern Luzon airfields. They will clear up next summer. But in Mindanao, where the Japa nese have landed in force, the rain situation is exactly reversed. That area now is mostly rain free and can be used immediately. Next sum mer it won't be so good. t. Papa Is Out $10, but Son Regains His Speech RICHMOND, VA.?"Papa!" blurt ed out 14-year-old R. W. ("Ranny") Nuckols Jr., as he drove toward home with his mogier and dad. "Say that again, son," his father cried tensely, "and I'll give you ?10." The boy repeated himself slowly almost painfully, and for good measure added a few more words. The conversation was costly to Nuckols Sr., but he was overjoyed. Those were the first words Ranny, Nuckols had spoken since a bus knocked him from his bike last May. Canadian Girl Commutes To Washington School DEMING, WASH. ? Thomasina Earl, 14, commutes to school inter nationally, by special permission at the United States immigration au thorities. She walks a few hundred yards from her home on the Cana dian side to the border, where she catches a Deming school bus. She had to get a passport and is not allowed to travel farther south than the school. She adopted the plan be cause the nearest Canadian school is much too far to attend regularly,' and because the Deming school is convenient. Four Wallflowers Picket Soldiers and Get Results CHANUTE FIELD, ILL. ? Four Cinderellas from nearby Champaign1 were the unhappiest girls at a mili tary dance. They stood, sadly neglected, while a platoon of troop' ers sat on the sidelines and paid them no heed. So the young ladies took lipstick in hand, scrawled "Wallflower" on cardboard squares, held the signs high and proceeded to picket the sedentary soldiers, lbs response was immediate and over whelming. The pick e tee rs became the belles of the ball.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 12, 1942, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75