■ C
: .
RAF Bombers Continue
To Rain Destruction
On Axis Troops And
Supply Lines and Bases;
Experts Believe
Real Test In Egypt Is
Yet To Come
Cairo, July 15.—An Axis attack on
Tel El Eisa with tanks and infantry,
the third successive enemy assault on
the British-held height in Egypt's
corridor battle sone, was launched
at dusk yesterday and lasted into
the night, British headquarters announced
today.
(A British military commentator
said in London that the British
withstood the attack which he described
as on a "small scale." There
was no indication that either* the
Axis or the British were ready to
undertake a large offensive at present,
he said.)
Again the RAP played a major
part in the fighting, destroying some
Axis tanks and sending its medium
bombers back "in force" against Tobruk
last night, the bulletin said.
. While the heavy clash of ground
forces occurred in the north, on the
coastal end of the line, patrols and
columns fought minor actions further
inland in the central and
southern sectors of the front between
the Mediterranean and the
Quattara depression some 70 miles
west of Alexandria.
The communique did not indicate
the outcome of any of these engagements
but said the RAP still
was dealing the Axis heavy blows
to their hard-to-replace mechanized
and armored equipment.
"Our light bombers," fighter-bombers
and fighters made large' scale attacks
on enemy, forces," said the
bulletin jointly issued by the RAF
and army headquarters.
"Direct hits were scored on tanks
and troop-carrying vehicles.
"In one attack on a convoy of 15,
made up of armored cars, transport
vehicles' ahd one tank, all but one
of the vehicles were destroyed.
"Other tanks were destroyed in
further attacks during the day and
at least four enemy aircraft were
shot down by our fighters.
"Last night our medium bombers
attacked Tobruk in force,', starting
a row of red fires which later merged
into one big fire." ' 1
In all these air thrusts, including
defensive patrols over Malta in
which three er.emy raiders were
shot down, the British said their
own losses were three planes, one
of whose pilots landed safely.
BILL EXTENDS LOW
INTEREST RATE ON
LAND BANK LOANS
President Roosevelt has signed a
bill extending for two years the reduced
interest rates on Federal Land
Bank and Land Bank Commissioner
loans, Mr. John T. Thome, President
of the Farmville National Farm Loan
Association, announced. this wade.
Mr. Thome stated that this would
mean a considerable saving in interest
charges to borrowers in Pitt and
Greene Counties.
The Farmville Association is a
member of a group of three associations
maintaining a joint office at
Washington, saving seven counties.
Mr. W. G. Stancill, Secretary-Treasurer,
is in change of the office which
is located at Washington, N. C.
Old Rubber Drive
Goes Over The Top
Greenville, July 14.—Pitt County
has gone over the top in it scrap
rubber drive, exceeding its set goal
of 45<MM0 pounds. 'W, L. Allen,
i^r«bb^ drijf reported thlfl
total of 262,168 pounds of old robber
in tires, ta$M|oki boots, overshoes
and other articles ranging from baby
bottle nippies to mammoth ten-ton
truck tires, had bean collected and
weighed in.
WITH BOOTS ON
Lorain, O., July .15.—The mother
of a marine corps aviator who dived
his plane into the smokestack of a
Japanese aircraft carrier at Midway
said tdtlay, "if and wheat he had to
go he wanted to go aboard his plane,
with his boots on."
She is Mrs. Fred Henderson, wife
of a retired steW worker now helping
to build ship*.
Their son, Maj. Lofton R. Henderson,
89, and his group of scout bombers
launched the first attack on the
main body of the Japanese fleet at
Midway, the Navy reported. His
plane was the first hit andTjurst into
flames, but he dived it into the objective.
Mrs. Henderson said she was proud
he had "distinguished himself ita the
service of America," but declared
were "countless other sons," equally
brilliant.
Maj. Henderson was born in Cleveland
and grew up in Lorain. He was
graudated from Lorain high school in
1922 and'from the Naval Aevademy
at Annapolis four later, entering the
Marine Air Corps.
A brother, Paul, is a Major in the
Marine Corps.
Bell Arthur Woman
Sues R. R. For $3,000
Greenville, July 16.—Mm. Bruce
Strickland, of Bell Arthur, has instituted
suit for |3,000 against the
Norfolk Southern Railroad Company
for damages alleged to have been
suffered as a result of bong struck
by some i istrument or tool projecting
from trie qab or tender of one of
the company's locomotives on November
7, 1941. Judge Albion Dunn'
and S. O. Worthington represent the
plaintiff, and J. Burt James the railroad
company.
According to the complaint on file
in Superior Court, Mrs. Strickland
and a child were walking along a
path close to the railroad track near;
the depot at Bell Arthur. When the
rain passed she stepped to the edge
of an embankment for safety, the
complaint states, and that the projecting
toll or instrument struck
her on the back, ripped amf tore a
fur coat she was wearing, knocking
her down and broke an arm.
A civil term of Superior Court will
be held here the week of Augustt 23.
FERTILIZER *
*
A new high was reached in 1941 in
the amount of commercial fertiliser
used by American farmers, the 8,400,000
tons bought representing a 7
percent increase over the 1940 totaL
The state that furnishes the most
divorses is the state of matrimony.
Draft Headquarters
Lists Calling Order I
Washington, July 14.—Draft headquarters
specifically directed local
boards today to call up married men
last, taking single war workers before
husbands and fathers.
The local boards wen distracted
by orders sent oat last night to fill
their quotas in this order.
JU Single men with no depend
MM r;_Lt n;
nuuway rigui Dig
American Victory
Official Reporf Shows
Japs Suffered Over 1€
To 1 Loss WW.
- Washington, July 15.—Japan's in
vssiwn armada ran into an America*
ambush in the battte of Midway, official
reports dtesosed today.
A communique last night gave the
first detailed account of the battle
and a supplemental report told how
a naval task force lay in ambush and
struck hard with carrier planes when
Army and Navy shore-baaed attacks
had slowed the enemy fleet.
Hie gnat siae of the armada
Japan sent to assault. Midway in
hopeful prelude to conquest of Hawaii
was disclosed for the first time
—80 ships. Official records gave this
result of the battle:
Japanese losses—20 ships sunk oi
damaged including four aircraft carriers
sunk and three battleships hit,
275 planes destroyed and 4,800 men
killed or drowned.
American losses — the 19,900-ton
aircraft carrier Yorktown put out oi
action, the destroyer Hammann sunk,
an undisclosed number of planes destroyed,
and 92 officers and 215 enlisted
man lost. Loss of the destroyer
and damage to an aircraft carrier
had been reported previously, but
this was the first time their names
were given.
| The immediate result at the battle
was that the safety of the vital Hawaiian
area, and American west
and the Panama Canal were at least
temporarily secured < «
The Navy issued in excultant detail
it first story of the "superb acta at
devotion" mentioned by Prime Minister
Churchill in Pbrliment on July 2,
when he told for the first time that
"from some successful attacks on
Japanese camera only one (American)
aircraft returned out at ten."
One action the Navy cited was
by Navy Torpedo Squadron No. 8—
30 men and 15 planes ied by Lieut.
Cmdr. John Charles Waldron, 41, of
Fort Pierre, S. D. The squadron successfully
attacked the enemy's main
battle force without fighter support
and in spite of blistering anti-aircraft
and fighter opposition. All 15
planes were lost. Only one man at
the squadron, Ensign G. H. Gay of
Houston, Texas, survived
Another deed of valor was attributed
to Major Lofton R. Henderson
of Gray, bid During the Marines'
first attack on the Japanese fleet on
June 4, his scout bomber was hit
and set aflame. Henderson was last
seen diving his blazing craft into the
smokestack of a Japanese carrier.
After the Coral sea victory of May
4-Mfty 8, the Navy said, the high
oommand decided the enemy's next
thrust would be directed against
some other section of America's Pacific
defenses-Hawaii, Alaska, the
Panama Canal or the Pacific coast
Consequently V. S. naval forces
were deployed along the 1,700-mile
front between Midway island and
th^ Aleutians in the north Pacific.
Throughout the danger, bases were
reinforced with long-range, landbased
aircraft. Tins, the Navy
made clear, the fighting forces under
supreme command of Admiral
Chester W. Nimitz, Pacific fleet
chief, were ready when the blow
foil.
This was further borne out in a
supplementary account which said
that "the full fury of the U. S. naval
task force lying in ambush off Midway
was poised to strike—once the
quarry was overtaken." -
Veterans of World War
Division to Stage TwoDay
Celebration
to ■. ■ —
The 26th anniversary of the historic
81st (Wildcat) Division will be
celebrated by the division veterans at
• two-day meeting in Goldsboro on
July 25 and 2«„ it. ww announced by
the WOdcat Veterans Awociation.
The celebration will begin with a
"Victory Parade," to to followed bj
a patriotic mass raerting. AD pav^teran
tLST^TTnvi^
tact winter—and which seemed toe
vast at the time—will be readilj
realized . . . Our productive capacitj
is apparently limited only by the
raw materials available. *
"The Engineering Genius of American
Production, when turned from
peaee to war, has proved a reservoii
no one could gauge," Mr. Nelson said
"When American men and machines
"stopped competing with each other
and turned all their competitive
energy and abilities against Hitler
and Hirohito, it knocked all previous
calculations of our productive powers
into a cocked hat . . . The real
problem now is not one of production.
It is the problem of a better distribution
of the materials from which
war production springs."
Chairman Nelson said "at all costs
—we must not get into the frame
of mine that this is either an easy
or a short Jeh. If people build on
false hopes of an easy victory or a
short war, then they are certain to
feet let down when the bad days
come, as come they will..."
Production and Subcontracting.
WPB Chairman Nelson announced
a "Realignment" of the Board to
permit him to devote his time to
essential allocation policies between
the needs of the armed forces and
the civilian economy.
He said essential civilian needs,
such as those for the communications
and transportation systems, must be
met. The civilian economy, though
"Thin," must be kept healthy, he
said. William L. Batt and James S.
Knowlson were named vice chairmen
of the board.
Lou E. Holland, formerly president
.of the Double Botary Sprinkler
Corp., at Kansas City, Mo., was appointed
WPB Deputy Chairman .in
charge of the smaller war plants
corporation. Chairman Nelson said
the corporation should attempt to
confine the manufacture of relatively
simple war items to smaller factories,
increase the farming out of manufacture
of bits and pieces of large corporations
which hold prime contracts,
and encourage) Canversion of additional
small plants to essential civilian
production. The WPB estimated,
however, that 24,000 small manufacturers
whose annual sales three
years ago amounted to $4,000,000,000,
will be forced to close before
October 1 because of inability to convert
to war or essential civilian production.
The WPB said expenditures for
war purposes by U. S. Government
agencies in June were at the average,
daily rate of (158,000,000, 6 percent
higher than in May. Congressional
war appropriations to date total more
than |226,<)00,000,000, the Board said,
but the U. S. actually has spent less
than $40,000,000,000. The WPB Bureau
of Finance obtained $62,000,000
in the form of loans or advances on
payments for war materials for . al-.
most ^1*0 manufacturers in June.
JDurin? the past six weeks, th army
'Signal Corps has given final acceptance
each day to more than &000,000
worth of radio and communications
equipment, and awarded contracts
for $1,000,000,000 worth of additional
apparatus.
Labor supply.
Persons who desire jobs, in plants
working on secret or confidential
government contracts will no 1 anger
be required to tun in birth certificates
to prove American citizenship,
the War Manpower Commission announced.
The WPB labor division
said the aircraft industry will require
more .than 1,500,000 workers
by the end of 1943.
A total oif almost 20 million persons
will be drawn into war production
and service in the armed
forced during this year and next,
the WMC reported. Consequently,
employers can no longer afford to
set arbitrary age limits or discriminate
against workers because' of sex,
race. or nationality, the commission
stated, the WMC said the United
Electrical Radio and Machine worken
of America (CIO) is conducting
a drive In forty war production plants
to encourage hiring and upgrading
of negroes and workers in other mi
m
|Nelson-D e c r e e s Nc
Tires Except For Essential
Uafe
Washington, July 15.—War Production
Chairman Donald M. Nelson
reiterated to Senators today that
automobile tires will be available
only for military requirements and
absolutely essential civilian use, with
pleasure riding out for the war's
duration, despite speeded efforts to
produce synthetic rubber.
Nelson presented a Senate agricultural
subcommittee new estimates
showing the expected synthetic rubber
production in 1948 to to1*! 83V
U00 tons with 1944 production "v«;
large," or about double 1948's.
A shortage of critical materials for
construction necessarily limits the
magnitude of the program, be declared,
saying there seemed to be
a "public misconception" that announcements
of new processes for
making synthetics meant abundant
rubber for alL
Synthetic rubber production this
year will total only about 32,300
tons of all types, Nelson said, bat
added he expected the rate to be
stepped up to 78,300 tons in the first
half at 1948, and to 264,700 in the
latter half of that year.
"We hope in 1944 to have enough
rubber for necessary uses,"- Nelson
commented.
The No. 1 necessity, he added, was
rubber for the military needs of the
United States and its allies. In addition,
he said, tires must be made
available for such essential civilian
services as moving people to and
from their jobs, performing necessary
commercial and farm trucking,
and meeting such community needs
as police and tire protection.
In response to a question by Senator
McNary (R-Ore.), Nelson said
it was true that The United States
n w was exporting some rubber,
both to the United Nations actively
engaged in the war, and to South
American countries where tries were
needed in order to move out raw materials
urgently needed in this country.
Nelson said he was strongly opposed
to creation of another agency
to spar production of synthetic robber
for civilian use. The power to
allocate raw materials should not
be decentriized, he declared.
At the outset, Chairman Gillette
(D-Iowa) of the' subcommittee expressed
the hope tjhmt Nekai's appearance
would "help dispel some of
the confusion" about the rubber
program.
2,100 Take First Aid
Course In Pitt County
• '
"Pitt county people have rallied to
the cause of Red Cross first aid," C.
W. Will&rd, chairman of the Pitt
County Red Cross First' Aid committee,
said. "There are more than
70 instructors in first aid and they
are doing fine work. More than 2,100
persons have taken the courses in
the county. Classes will be continued
tqr the duration of the war," the
chairman stated.
■ ■ ' • v ]
May Be
Jones Says Oil firms To
Be Subsidized; Senators
Attack MFC Action
Washington, July 16.—Nulification
of the recent 2% cents per gallon
gasoline price increase in the Eastern
rationing area appeared certain
tonight after Secretary of Commerce
Jesse Jones disclosed .that the government
will subsidize transportation
of gas, fuel oil and kindred products
into the shortage ana.
He made his announcement after
Senator Rxhard B. Russell, (D-Ga.),
had revealed the plan to the Senate
and Senator Harry P. Byrd, (D-Va.),
charged that Jones had taken the
first step "in a gigantic subsidy pro
Gas Price Boost
WAR IN B#EF
Russians abandon two more towns
M German offensive toward Caucasus
oil fields continues. Bad Army, however,
stiffens resistance in fierce
TT - -1.
xigntmg- ror v oraneMk^.-, v-v.
Nasi Marshal Rommel fails in
greatest effort to break ring of British
steel around Axis forces in Egypt.
Demand for second front to aid
Russians grows in Britain as progmas
in ,w*r igalnat U-Boats is reportetd
at London. . * ::
' Clever American Coast Guardsman
found four would-be Nasi saboteurs
on Long Island beach and gave
dam that terminated in their arrests.
House Naval Chairman Vinson assails
feea charged service engineers
on government contracts.
British Spitfire sqc-dron makes
extensive sweep of French invasion
coaifc ' 1":
SPITFIRES
\ I
London, July 15. — Two hundred
Spitfire fighters flying only a few
feet above the ground shot up 200
miles of the French ooast in a lowlevel
attack today, blasting camps,
gun posts and scattering German
troops "all over the couiitryside.M
. A squadron at Fighting French
airmen played a leading role in the
attack, the Air Ministry News Service
said tonight, sweeping over the
cliffs at Fecamp to attack tight antiaircraft
field artillery batteries, wireless
stations, freight cars and troops.
I The fighters sped ti the attack
when fine weather returned today
and strong formations of planes roared
over the channel.
Four offensive operations were reported,
centering on the Staples area,
across the channel from England, and
over Fecamp, St Valerie-en-Caux,
and Dieppe.
•The news service said gas works
at St Valerie-en-' aux were "set
afire."
In other operations, a 600-ton
coaster towing a target for German
anti-aircraft batteries was sunk by
Spitfires off the Dutch Coast,, the
ministry added.
SUGAR
I,*-"'
"A SOrvey made by a national farm
magazine revealed that 500 typical
farm women used an average of 125
pounds of sugar each for canning and
preserving last year.
The United States is much stronger
ia the prasebt emergency because
of the large use made of farm machinery,
say experts of the U. S. Department
of Agriculture.
—=
Gandhi Declares Negotiations
At An End
Wardha, Iindia, July 14.—Mohandas
"K. Gandhi supplemented the new
all-India congress party resolution
demanding Britain's withdrawal from
rule of India with the emphatic
declaration todjjay that there can be
no further negotiation.
: To reporters sitting cross-legged
before him at his little school colony
five miles from his cotton and fanning
town, Gandhi conceded that violence
might-result from the resolution.
. •> 'ijj& • •
"I dent want rioting or anything
of that sort as a direct result at
theafr measures," declared the wisened
little Indian leader. If rioting
talrnq place I feel helpless."
The nsohCion must be ratified by
the ail-India Congress committee,
whWWhas been called to meet at
Bombay August 8, but never ia the
Abandons Town of Bogtichar
and JVIiHerovo f
As German Offensive
Continues; Red Army
Stalls Nazis At Voronezh,
But CitgStill Is
In Danger; Germans
Using Reserves
Mascow, July If.—Two German
column* driving in separate sectors
toward the steel city ot Stalingrad
have forced Russian troop* to evacuate
the towns of Boguchar, oa the
Don river in the math, and Miilerovo
on the Moscow-Boater railway supply
line and only 175 milea frotr
Stalingrad, the" Russian high command
reported early today.
On the northern limita of the battlef
ront, Soviet troops fought off a
renewed series of German attacks
against Voronezh, the midnight communique
said. There were ao material
changes in other sectors of
the long fighting Una.
The official Russian press meanwhile
warned that the "menace is
great" on the approaches of the
Caucasus.
Fighting in the Voronezh area is < ,
"developing with increased ferocity,"
the Russians said. "A number of fortified
positions have changed hands
several times."
Soviet troops, counter-attacking
after German thrusts in several sectors,
have forced Nasi tank and infantry
units to withdraw with heavy
losses.
German Reserves.
Several German reserve divisions
have been rushed eastward from
France and Belgium, the communique
said, to fill the gap in the
Russian trotit caused by tremendous
Nazi casualties.
At Voronezh, where the Germans
made their first great plunge southeastward
nearly two weeks ago,
eleventh-hour counterattacks on
the "south side of the city pushed the
Germans back to the point wher*
they crossed the Don, and on the
north approaches the Russians stopped
the upper arm of an encircling
movement, then threw the attackers ,
into retreat.
The Germans had atthempted the
encirclement after, their breakthrough
west of the city, accomplished
by large numbers' of fresh troops
and hundreds of tanks followed byautomatic
riflemen, had run into
stubborn Red Army resistance.
One important position west of
Voronezh, together with a forest,
was reported reoaptured in the Russian
counter-attacks. Russian dispatches
said also that the third German
motorized infantry division,
which appeared on the battlefield
only yesterday, had been forced to
withdraw, and was replaced by the
new 168th motorized division.
A small railway creating also
was retaken, and in another sector
the Russians applied such pressure
that the German* retired, Mowing
up a bridge. Jllllllll
There wu, however, no *oom for
quick optimism as to the city's fate,
for the Germans were sending fresh
troops and new machine* with every
hour into the battle area on the
eastern bank of the Don.
Thousands of soldiers ware fighting
from behind every natural barrier
and tanks were charging over
the battlefield, where walls of fire
were twisting into huge columns
of smoke.
German dive-bombers in small
groups were hammering repeatedly
at the Red Army formations, but
the Red' air force again was showing
considerably strength both over
the Don battlefield and the Don
River crossings forced by the Germans.
\ '%•
Northwest of Voronezh, a number
of German tanks were reported destroyed
on the west bank of the
Don by strong Russian armored
forces.
Southeastward, on the rim of the
north Caucasian area sooth of
Boguchar, the Russians were reported
holding today after a ocyutid