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The Alamance Gleaner 0 Vol LXIX ' ' GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1943 No. gj WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Allied Forces Meet Bitter Resistance In Final Phase of Battle for Sicily; Japanese Employ New Naval Strategy To Supply South Pacific Strongholds (EDITOR'S NOTE: When eptnleas are expressed la these eelnans, they are these sf Western Newspaper Union's news analysis and net seeessarUy of this aewspaper.) i ?. Released by Western Newspaper Union. Here's the way the Allies work In setting np a base after landing on bestile shore. As the first Allied wave struck Sicily, men waist deep la water pass supplies ashore from a lighter, while men In foreground pre pare roads for tanks and other vehicles. SICILY: Yanks' Test More than three divisions of Adolf Hitler's crack German troops took . up positions around San Stefano in northern Sicily to a^wait the assault of Gen. George S. Patton's charging American Seventh army. The San Stefano region loomed as the Axis' northern anchor for their shrunken lines in the mountainous corner of the island where they found themselves pocketed. Much like the Tunisian terrain, great diffi culties confronted Patton's Yankees, who were faced with a tedious crawl up rocky slopes in the face of stiff machine gun and mortar fire. To the west of the Axis defenses, stood the Canadians, encountering the same obstacles as the Ameri cans. To the south. Gen. Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth army poised for action against strong Ger man forces, which had held them up in the plains after a slashing tank attack. Thus the final phase of the battle of Sicily opened. Five Points for Italy Successful as a diplomat once be fore when he pulled Adm. Jean Dar lan's French North Africa over to the Allied cause. Gen. Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower addressed himself to an other soldier, this time Italian Pre mier Pietro Badoglio, in a bid for Italy's withdrawal from the war. Commending the Italian people and Italy's royal house for remov ing Mussolini, General Eisenhower stressed five points in his address to the newly constituted govern ment. Said General Eisenhower: 1. Only the Germans in Italy are blocking peace; 2. Cessation of hostilities is possible immediately under honor able terms; 3. Discontinuance of assistance by the Italians to German armed forces is a prerequisite of peace; 4. A pledge that Italian war prisoners will be returned if Allied prisoners in Italian hands also are returned; 5. If hostilities cease, the liberties and traditions of Italy will be restored. PACIFIC: Rip Jap Barges Although Japan's merchant ma rine ranked No. 3 among the world's fleets before Pearl Harbor, her mari time position has since slipped in view of her losses and limited ship building facilities. As a consequence, the wily Nips have devised a new system for sup ptyipg their embattled South Pacific island forces: strongholds are now being supplied through small, swift coastal barges, in which the enemy sail at night, and in which they hide by day in the many coves along the shores lines. Well aware of the Japanese sys tem, American airmen have con centrated much of their bombing against these craft. Barges attempt ing to stock enemy troops at be leaguered Munda on New Georgia Island have had rough going at the hands of U. S. aviators, and a con centration of the craft at Rein Bay, New Britain, was the target for a heavy Allied assault. With the Allies threatening their sea-borne supplies and bombarding them from the sky with deadly tor pedo and dive bombers, Jap troops, true to their rtradition of fighting to the death, clung desperately to the last perimeter of their defenses at Munda. SHIPS: 1,496 Delivered In the first six months of 1943, Pa cific coast shipyards turned out 393 vessels of approximately 4,200,000 tons; Atlantic coast Shipyards com pleted 259 of over 3,000,000 tons, and gulf coast yards produced 108 of 1,150,000 tons. Grand total; 760 ships of 8,350,000 tons! Since Pearl Harbor, American shipyards have turned out 1,496 ves sels, more than existed in the entire U. S. merchant marine before the war. This production has given the country a greater commercial fleet than Britain and a larger one than Japan, Germany and Italy com bined. Once looming as the great bottle neck in Allied war plans, America's industrialists overcame the shipping hurdle with a mass production tech nique which also has given the U. S. supremacy in aircraft construction. Not only have war materials been flowing overseas in great numbers, but the improved situation has in creased use of shipping for civilian supply. GAS: Sees More for East Completion of the "big inch" pipe line to the East which will supple ment the railroads' transport of oil to that section of the country, will result in a reduction of the "A" and possibly the "B" and "C" gas ra tion cards in the central states, Pe troleum Administrator Harold L. Ickes indicated. At present, "A" card holders in the East only receive 1% gallons per coupon, while the same coupon draws 4 gallons in the central states. Ickes indicated that central states' allotments may be cut down as much as two gallons. Gas rationing in the central states has been primarily enforced for the preservation of rubber, Ickes said. Because oil was relatively plentiful in these states as a result of insuffi cient transportation facilities to haul it to the East, rations were more liberal. Now that facilities are avail able for increasing the haul, how ever, Ickes felt that the supply should be "equalized" as much as possible throughout the country. RUSSIA: Peak Offensive Peak of summer fighting in Rus sia centered around Orel. Here, the Reds exerted the greatest pres sure against stubborn German forces ringed from the north, south and east, with their principal railway supply line tunning westward to Bryansk seriously threatened. According to Russian accounts, the Germans used large forces of reserves to counterattack advancing Red units from the south and east. Admitting they were outnumbered, the Germans were said to have fall en back slowly under.the trip-ham mer blows of Russian armored col umns. The Germans told another story. They said their attack at Belgorod in the first stage of the summer fighting broke up Red concentrations at the southern end of the 100-mile front and compelled the Russians to concentrate on Orel. Here, the Nazis said, they were pursuing a policy of defensive fighting to exhaust the Reds' strength. Heavy fighting was reported south of Leningrad by both sides. FDR: Help to Servicemen Declaring that America's service men and women must not be de mobilized into an environment of in flation and unemployment, to a place on a bread line or selling ap ples, President Roosevelt outlined a six-point program for post-war re covery. The program was the highlight ol a speech in which the President de clared Mussolini's ouster was the first crack in the Axis, and the ini tial step in Italy's democratic re constitution. The President's six-point program for demobilization includes: 1. Mus tering out pay large enough to cover the period before employment is ob tained ; .2. Unemployment insurance; 3. Opportunity for education or trade training at U. S. expense; 4. Credit for unemployment compensation, old age pensions and survivors in surance for the period they were in service; 5. Adequate hospitalization, medical care and rehabilitation of disabled servicemen; 6. Sufficient pensions for disabled in armed forces. DOCTORS: Face Draft Out of the nation's 170,000 doctors, 47,000 already are in uniform, and out of the 70,000 dentists, 17,000 are in the services. However, the army has requested a substantial addition to these num bers, and to meet the need, the War Manpower commission has planned to draft doctors and dentists be tween 38 and 45 years of age. TTn/tA*. UTMP1, nlar. th, uie ntuv a yiiui| uiw at uij would waive ita prohibition against the drafting of doctors and dentists over 37. Faced with induction as privates, the men will rather seek commissions which their professions ordinarily are granted when en tering the service. Heretofore, local and state com mittees have recommended induc tion of doctors and dentists. MIDWEST: Looking for Trouble August 16, farmers, small manu facturers and merchants from five midwestern states will meet with 25 senators and con gressmen in the Radisson hotel at Minneapolis, Minn., to present the prob lems besetting them in a wartime Amer ica. In calling the con ference, Representa tive August Andres en of Minnesota de clared: "One of the primary purposes of the congressional recess was to per mit members to secure fifst-hand information from their constituents on the prosecution of the war and the effect of the present federal poli cies upon business and agricultural economy of our country." Regional in character, the confer ence will not be confined to a single district, but will give the legislators an idea of the situation confront ing a variety of interests. Senators Robert La Toilette from Wisconsin and Guy M. Gillette from Iowa have endorsed the parley, which besides being open to their states also will take in Minnesota and North and ( South Dakota. MEAT: More for Civilians Action by the War Food adminis tration assured civilians of increased "meat supplies. Whereas packers formerly were required to set aside 45 per cent of production for the government, WFA cut the figure 5 per cent. More over, a temporary slash was made in the government's purchase of pork products. The action in beef was attributed to the heavy run of grass fed cat tle expected from the southwestern and western ranges, while the cut in pork purchases was made at a time when hog marketing declines. HENRY FORD: 'Would Have to Run' "If I felt any better, I'd have to ran." With those words, sprightly patriarchic Henry Ford recently cel ebrated his Mth birthday. Once again in active command of the great Ford works for the first time in a quarter century as a re sult of the death of his son Edsel, the elder Henry has supervision over his plants' production of motor equipment and bombers for the army. Declaring that the general welfare sf the com inanity should bo the guiding moral principle, Ford said that business and Industry must build the physical basis of the good Society. "There must be more and more industry," Ford asserted. "It Is es sential to political and economic freedom " ? Robert La FoUette War Goods, From Brushes to Bombs, Are Stored In Huge Warehouses of Utah Ordnance Depot Munitions Are Made In Nearby Factory At Salt Lake Gty By John Elbridge Jones Released by Western Newspaper Union. The military axiom that "an army travels on its belly" is true, but a modern army needs many other necessary supplies ?shoes, for instance, and trucks, and tanks, tractors, munitions and guns. To furnish these supplies when and where needed and in the proper amount, the U. S. army has built up separate organiza tions with the army, headed by Lieut. General Brehon B. Som ervell, called "Service Com mands." There is a "Service Command" for each military area not only within the U. S. but wherever the army goes. For the first II months or more of this war all information regard ing army operation and placement was a military secret; now?in driv ing for final victory?the army wants you to know how it operates; how it takes care of your son or your husband?what it feeds him, how it clothes him?what it gives him to fight with and how it cares for him when sick or wounded. With that in mind Maj. Gen. Ken yon A. Joyce, commanding general of the Ninth service command, with headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, recently invited a group of newspaper men to visit all of the army service forces. These news paper men were shown everything - and told everything, but they were restricted not to reveal military in formation helpful to thl enemy. non-tompii uw?8. All of the thousands of articles called "non - combat equipment," meaning, in general, everything the army uses except actual weapons and fighting machines, are procured by purchase or are made to order. Canned vegetables, blankets, safety pins, uniforms of all sorts, road ma chinery, and stoves are samples of these things not used in actual fight ing, but most necessary just the same. The Ninth service command pro cures and stores this non-combat equipment in Utah Army Service Forces depot at Ogden, under the direct command of Brig. Gen. Ralph Talbot Jr. Here are tremendous warehouses and storage spaces much of it in the open, with seem ingly miles of rows of equipment such as trailers?trench diggers? harrows, carry-alls, scrapers, water tanks, plows, portable generators, barb wire and bridge building ma terial. The depot is roughly a mile wide by three miles long. There are 14 permanent type warehouses of con crete and steel and nine temporary warehouses of wooden construction. They house everything the army needs and uses outside of munitions and implements of war. Several are used for food, others for clothing, kitchen equipment, for automobiles, for drainage tiles, for pipe, for everything. On display were box lockers, 12 kinds of hats or caps, shirts and underwear, carrying bags, gloves, coats, mess kits, sleeping bags, uni forms for army and for WACs and for nurses, musical instruments, shoes, sox, tool sets, helmets, plastic foot tub*, flags, tents, tent stoves, and mountain tents. Among thou sands of other articles were pack kits, gasoline lanterns, emergency rations, G. I. thread and needles, compasses, pliers, sunburn cream, chap stick, towels, and rubber pants. Unique here was the tact that a part of the guard for daylight serv ice is made up of women: women trained to do guard duty?to carry a gun and use it. Police dogs aid the guards at night. ?Making Cartridges Guns, cartridges, bombs and sim ilar munitions, as well as war ma chines like tanks and armored trucks, are made at the army's own ordnance factories, or by private manufacturers, undw government contract One of these latter is the Utah Ordnance plant in Salt Lake City. The plant area is about 5,000 acTes with more than 175 buildings?10 miles of heavy track railroad and 17 miles of surfaced road. Inner and outer fences extend a distance of about 21 miles, most of which is under 24 hour surveillance by auxil iary military guard under direction of the army. This plant is the last word in a modern line production system for manufacturing small arms ammuni tion, such as 30 and 50 caliber ar mor-piercing, tracer, incendiary and ball shells.^ Here the principal op erations are making the shell, the bullet, aqd the primer?bringing them all together, and then filling them with powder. The finished ammunition Is put into belts?or clips and then packed in metal-lined cases for shipment. Outstanding in the plant is the continuous rigid testing and check ing?for on the efficient operation of these munitions may depend the life of your son or husband. Finally a certain percentage of each batch is sent to the ballistics department, where shells are actually fired in guns used by the army and are checked for accuracy, fire power and penetration. Tooele ordUDct Depot. During war the various ordnance manufacturing plants may ship di rect to the field of action, but a large part of the material must of necessity be held in reserve in stor age. For this purpose the govern ment has built huge storage depots in strategic locations. These basic supply depots are removed from the seacoast for protection, yet so locat ed that war goods may be transport ed swiftly by rail, highway or plane to the points of embarkation. The army has built the Tooele Ordnance depot at Tooele, Utah, about 40 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The depot, comprising an area of borne 16,000 acres, is served by two transcontinental rail roads, giving quick access to the Northwest, the San Francisco Bay area and the Southwest?all impor tant ports for the Pacific theater of war. Within the depot arc ISO miles of hard surfaced highway and 77 miles of railway track. Five Diesel switch engines handle freight cars. The ordnance depot performs three main functions?first it is the reserve storage for all munitions including rifle and machine gun am munition, shells and bombs of all sizes and weights. It stores re serves of ordnance equipment such as pistols, rifles, machine guns, can non, trench mortars, and mobile fighting equipment such as tanks, jeeps, trucks and tractors. Repair and Satvags. Second, the ordnance depot is a service organisation. It puts equip ment together, gets it ready for shipment and ships It It takes cars ol the repair and rebuilding of dam aged and badly worn equipment. In the depot area are huge buildings, one of them 525 feet wide by 540 feet long, used wholly for making repairs that cannot be taken care of at the front Duplicate parts at all equipment are kept on hand?either for use in the depot or for ship ment The third function of the Tooele Ordnance depot is one of salvage. Back to this depot are sent train loads of used shells, large and small. The undamaged are shipped to the munitions factories for re Ailing, and the unusable are sent to the smelters. The army expects to get back approximately 90 per cent of the shells, packing cases, ammu nition belts, clips, etc., issued. Women by far outnumber the men in the warehouses. Girls trained for the job operate motor driven fork lift trucks?which pick up huge cases and stack them?8, 10 and 12 feet high. The depot is manned mostly by civilians. Most interesting of all the fea tures of the depot is the storage of the actual munitions. Small caliber ammunition is stored in above-the ground warehouses. Heavy ammu nition and bombs are stored in "ig loos." There are about 1,000 of these ig loos ranging in size from 40 feet to 80 feet long. In the shape of half of a barrel, the walla and ceil ing are made of reinforced cement nine inches thick, covered with two to three feet of gravel and soil. One of the lglooe visited was about half full, containing several hundred 1,000 - pound semi ? block buster bombs?all ready for shipment to Hifohito. For protection the depot is watched over by a corps of auxiliary military guard under the direction of the army, who patrol in can. Not far distant from the Tooele Ordnance plant but entirely sepa rate is another depot Here the army stores and experiments with gas for the kind of warfare toe Unit ed Nations hope to avoid. But, as proof of what President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill say about being ready far it, to is there. It may never be used?but It's there wait isf and reedy to assded. ' t ' me** ~ Vt?r- /\' r TVs 7MO| WW worker, Mtel Loo tee Aodertoa, to exhibiting belt* of maehioo . pa oartotlfe* for air pteaes. >ha operate* a maehia* that an* tfc* belt*, which are made j of wobbtaf. I Inspectors tt the Tooele Ordnance depot examine a batch of empty cartridge eases, returned to be melted into brass scrap. They most see that no lire ammunition has got mixed with the shells, since it would explode in the furnace and possibly cause an accident. Women end machines have dis placed bosky men la the Tooele Ordnance depot warehouses. Miss Catherine BosweU runs a fork-lift shop track, that can mora and pile ten eases a trip. The work done by one track weald coot Hi an boar if done by hand. Who's News This Week Bj Deioa Wheeler Lovelace Consolidated Features,?WMU Reieaae. VT EW YORK. - Vice-Adm Fred. erick Joseph Home take* ? good look ahead through his binocu lars and reports that the end of the Adm. Horn* Sight* ^"th^haS No Early Peace on ion. It may Pacific', Horizon ??*" 1949 in the Pacific, he says, and he knows plen ty about the Far East, and Tokyo in particular. He was in Japan all the time the United States was ke the last war. He went out there as naval attache to the American em bassy in January, 1919, and stayed four years. His government handed him the Navy Cross tor what be ac complished, and Japan, being one ct the Allies in those days, passed hint a decoration, too, the Third Order of the Sacred Treasure. TUs Is the third war to which this native New Yorker, now B, has had a hand. He had ca tered the Naval academy la IMS at the rtpe yoaag age of IS, aad while still a middle he served he the North fitliaHe a heard the U8S Texas la the scrap wMh Spain. Whea the war was ever. mating is MM. Since letmsiag tram Tsfcya, ha sttiaded As Ka ra] War college. What's aasce he went to the Army War col lege, too. Back in die mid-Twenties soma of his flying officers got his sea dog dander up when they tried to teH him that the orders he gave coukhi't be carried out He promptly had himself assigned for trainmg with the air arm at Pensacola. and to 1928 he was qualified as a naval aviation observer. Later he com manded the aircraft carrier Sara toga. Since March, 1942. be has been one of Admiral King's right bowers in planning sea operations. Planes are his specialty. f IF Katharine F. Lenroot were fet tling upon a prayer for children, and who would be more likely to pray (or them, she might easily Statistic* Are Her ^*e" a'^ Grenades in Battle va - veda. For Child Welfare ty phrased hymns from India's old, old scrip ture: "Old Age! This child shall grow to meet thee only; None of the hundred other deaths shall harm him." Children have been Miss Lenroofs concern for 30 years and on, and though progress must seem slow she probably would agree that in her time some of those hundred other deaths have been scotched. Jast back from Sooth America she notes that there also at least a few hare been; nader pld a a -S.?t J _ - -i_, a _ iegreo cujareo recuii wp priced, erea tree feed; medical care spreads. It is 13 years siaee she was last to Sooth America aad she faaad a chaago so great "I could hardly btlisra my eyes." Ever since the went into the chil dren's bureau of the departmedt et labor. Miss Lenroot has had a strung interest in South America. She ia well known there, and speaks Span ish fluently enough to make an easy way from the plateau cities of New Granada to low-lying and windy ; Punta Arenas, though she might be more comfortable if she stopped at Buenos Aires. Children everywhere hare bean Miss Leareot's strongest inter est ever since sbe came sal ad the University at Wisconsin. Even earlier she eras badgering that state's legtslatare la their behalf. After graduation, ? novice lawyer, she hired out as a deputy industrial commissioner, but after a couple at years found her life work wjth the federal bureau at Washington. She has been its chief for ten years, and is an authority on its multitude at problems. She is a systematic chief and calm, but if the objective is big enough she can make a final drive ; as headlong as this fellow Patton. Sha Expo?J tha l^'^tba Expandability at tics once led Nation', Mathart h?r <*?" clare in dis tress that mothers were this corn try's cheapest commodity, so many of them die in childbirth. If she ware saying that now she might pot it ironically that they are as ex pendable as P-T beat erews at Cor regidor. Her arasbal of facts and figures is inexhaustible. It would stretch from here te there and back again.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Aug. 19, 1943, edition 1
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