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Departmental Correspondence
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PSF
Navy: Frank Knox 1942-45
Knox Folder
1-42
copy
The Secretary of the Navy
Washington
January 1, 1942
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
Yesterday Steve Early, at your request,
sent me & copy of a letter someone had written you
concerning Lindberg's offer of his services to the Army.
I read the thing over yesterday and again today and I
give you my sober reflection for what it may be worth.
If I were in your place, I would not become
involved in any discussion about Lindberg but would leave
it to the Army to handle. If it were a Navy question
and were put up to me, I would offer Lindberg an opportunity
to enlist as an air cadet, like anybody else would have to
do. He has had no training as an officer and ought to earn
his commission.
s/ FRANK KNOX
Original in Stimson Folder with other correprandence
Knox Folder
1-42
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
January 9, 1942.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
I think it is vital to make
a gesture to Chile before the
Rio Conference meets on the
fifteenth. Could the Mavy send
down even three or four training
type seaplanes which could be
used for shore patrol work at
one or two places on the
Chilean coast. This would help.
F. D. R.
PSF Navy: : Knox Foldo
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
February 17, 1942.
PRIVATE N
MEMORANDUM FOR THE
SECRETARY OF THE NAVY:
Please note enclosed.
F.D.R.
Intyre
Memo to the Pres. from Mac/re Normandie
disaster and several facts which have come
to his attention.
DECLASSIFIED
By Deputy Archivist of the U.S.
By W. J. Stewart Date MAR 1 1972
PSF Navy
-
ADDRESS
Knox REPLY TO Foldy intit/2
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
AND REFER TO INITIALS
AND No.
SECRET
NAVY DEPARTMENT
(SC)L21-3/EG3
Ser. No. 029413
WASHINGTON
files
MAR 30 1942
Memorandum for the President.
Relative to your memorandum of March 26 to the Secretary
of the Navy, the Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. Eastman,
concerning lifting the coastwise shipping restrictions apply-
ing to Canadian boats, operating in Alaskan waters, and American
boats using Canadian ports, so as to permit Canadian boats to
supply Skagway and Haines, and the utilization of Prince Rupert
88 & supply base; the Secretary of the Treasury has issued orders
to accomplish the desired objective. Copies of these orders are
attached.
Frank Knor
The Secretary of the Navy.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
DECLASSIFIED
DOD DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
8-5-66
Date- Signature- Care [ spicer
COPY
March 28, 1942.
CONPIDEHTIAL
TITLE 46 - SHIPPING
Subchapter A - Documentation, Entrance and Clearance
of Vessels, Etc.
AN ORDER
Waiving compliance with the provisions of section 8
of the Act of June 19, 1886, as amended, and section
27 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1920, as amended.
On the recommendation of the Secretary of War and
pursuant to the authority vested in me by the provisions of
Executive Vrder No. 8976, dated December 12, 1941 (6 F.R.6441),
as modified by Executive Order No. 9083, dated February 28,
1942 (7 F.R. 1609), I hereby waive the provisions of section 8
of the Act of June 19, 1886, as amended (46 U.S.C. 289), and
section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1920, as amended (46
U.S.C. 883), to the extent necessary to permit the transporta-
tion on Canadian vessels from points in the continental United
States to points in Alaska of the following:
(a) United States troops and their equipment.
(b) Civilians engaged in the construction of the
Canadian-Alaskan military highway, and their
equipment.
(c) Equipment, materials and supplies which are the
property of contractors engaged in the construction
of the Canadian-Alasken military highway.
(Signed) Herbert E. Gaston
Acting Secretary of the Treasury.
COPY
March 27, 1942
TITLE 46 - SHIPPING
Subchapter A - Documentation, Entrance and Clearance
of Vessels, Etc.
AN ORDER
Waiving compliance with the provisions of
Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act,
1920, ns amended.
By virtue of the authority vested in me by Ex-
ecutive Order No. 8976, dated December 12, 1941 (6 F.R.
6441), as modified by Executive Order No. 9083, dated
February 28, 1942 (7 F.R. 1609), I hereby waive compliance
with the provisions of Section 27 of the Merchant Marine
Act, 1920, as amended (46 U.S.C. 883), to the extent
necessary to permit the transportation of merchandise on
Canadian vessels between points in Alaska, and also to
permit the transportation of merchandise on Canadian
vessels between Prince Rupert, B.C. and points in Alaska,
0.8 a portion of the transportation of that merchandise
between points in the United States and points in Alaska.
(Signed) Herbert E. Gaston,
Acting Secretary of the Treasury.
Knox Folder
1-42
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON
(SC)A4-1/VV
(016200A)/GEM
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
March 30, 1942
DECLASSIFIED
CONFIDENTIAL
DOD DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
CONFIDENTIAL
Date- 5-8-66
Signature- Carl L. Specer
My dear Mr. President:
I am very happy to report that my efforts to procure from the
British an allocation of one hundred two-seated bombers from planes now
being delivered to them,for use on the Atlantic Coast was successful.
They are going to turn these over to us at the rate of eight a day
until a full hundred have been delivered. The necessary steps have been
taken to provide naval crews to man them and Andrews is now working out
the details. This ought to give us a tremendous boost in security along
the coast. I have already written a very cordial expression of our
appreciation to Admiral Dorling, to whom I appealed for this help and
who was successful in putting it through.
The understanding I made was that if they would let us have
the use of these ships for sixty days, at the end of that time, we would
talk the matter over with them and decide whether we would return these
identical ships to them or substitute one hundred additional new craft
from the factories.
This has also been supplemented, according to a message I
received from Secretary Stimson yesterday by six Army B-17's which are
being fitted with ASV detection equipment which will pick up a submarine
either day or night. These big bombers, with this equipment, may improve
our defenses materially because they can work in the night time when the
subs are operating principally.
Admiral Andrews made a very quick but resultful trip along the
southern coast and came back and reported to me that he had worked out
a plan for refuge harbors along the coast protected by mines and torpedo
nets and patrol craft 80 that coastwise shipping could anchor at night
all the way down and travel only in the day time. As soon as this arr-
angement is completed, we ought to reduce sinkings along the coast to a
very marked extent. We are not only going to be able to deliver the
sixty patrol craft, 110 and 173-foot, that I promised you but already
there are indications that the total number before the first of May
will be several in excess of that figure. With mine sweepers and
(SC)A4-1/VV
(016200A)
CONFIDENTIAL
March 30, 1942
CONFIDENTIAL
- 2 -
and converted yachts added, there is good prospect of increasing the
number of patrol craft by one hundred by the first of May.
Yours sincerely,
Frank Knox
The President
The White House
BECLASSIFIED
Franklin D. Library
DOB DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
Date- 8-5-66
Signature- Carl L. spicer
/
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
April 1, 1942.
MEMORANDUM FOR
HON. HARRY L. HOPKINS
FOR YOUR INFORMATION AND
PLEASE RETURN FOR OUR CONFIDENTIAL
FILES.
F. D. R.
m.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
A
April 1, 1942.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
I agree with your letter of
March 22nd in regard to newspaper
correspondents but I would limit
them definitely to Hawaii and
Australia. The other Islands which
we occupy in the north, central,
south and southwest Pacific areas
are definitely combat zones where
the utmost secrecy is called for.
New Guinea, Samoa, Midway, Figi
and the Aleutian Islands fall into
this category. The Japs may not
actually know all the places we
are already in.
Keep people like Joe Patterson
and Roy Howard out and be sure we
avoid in the future episodes like
the secret, personal letter which
John O'Donnell brought home to
the McCormack-Patterson outfit.
F. D. R.
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON
March 27, 1942
MAR MAR 28 28 WHITE RECEIVED 12 on or
HOUSE 3"
My dear Mr. President:
I have given considerable thought to the matter of barring from
Hawaii and outposts of that character all newspaper correspondents
except representatives of the Associated Press, the United Press, and
the International News Service.
The more I think about it, the less I am inclined to think
that is a wise thing to do. The amount of very favorable publicity which
the Navy has received as the result of having trained eye witness acc-
ounts of operations in the Pacific is the reason for my hesitation.
Besides, the British have pretty well established the practice of
permitting correspondents to go with the combatant ships on the
various missions at sea, In fact, I have a man right now who is
with the Mediterranean Fleet and a number of other American papers
have similar representatives with the British Fleet.
I think we could bar out visitors like Patterson and Roy Howard
by putting up the bars against any but working newspaper writers
enjoying these privileges. We are already requiring the most rigid
obligations of all correspondents who go with the Fleet concerning
the maintenance of secrecy concerning military questions and the
requirement that every line of copy sent out shall be subjected to
scrutiny by the Navy people before it is released.
I would suggest we let things ride along as they are for a
while and I will take care of the other matter by some quiet in-
structions to the people who grant credentials.
Sincerely yours,
The President
The White House
PSF. Knox Folder
THE WHITE HOUSE
Navy
WASHINGTON
April 23, 1942.
MEMORANDUM FOR THE
SECRETARY OF WAR
AND THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY:
I share the concern of the Secretary
of the Navy in regard to the security of
Oahu, and to this I would add my concern
for the security of the other islands of
the Hawaiian group. In most of them there
are large numbers of Japanese. We must
remember that the Island of Hawaii, the
foremost of the group, is extremely
vulnerable to a Japanese landing expedition
and that it is so far from Oahu as to make
the short legged pursuit planes almost
useless, for if they flew there from Hawaii
they would have to turn around almost
immediately because of lack of fuel.
I think we should do something
about this because I am not satisfied
that the reports that the Hawaiian Islands
are secure against attack are correct.
F.D.R.
Menorandum for the President from the Secretary of
the Navy, 4/20/12. (Confidential), in re security
in Oahu, and expresses opinion that project of taking
all Japs out of Oahu and putting them in a concentra-
tion camp on some other island in the group ought
to be pressed vigorously, letter from Col. Rm. J.
(over)
Donovan, 4/13/42 to the Secretary of the Navy, with
enclosed excerpts taken from e letter be received from
Commander John Ford at Honolulu, in re situation there,
sent to the Secretary of Tar; copy of memorandum
indicating papers which accompanied meno, sent to the
Secretary of the Navy.
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PSF Navy Knox Folder
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
May 4, 1942.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
I agree with your memorandum
of May first in regard to the
employment of radio operators whose
only offense is being a Communist.
The Soviet people in Moscow are
said to have little liking for the
American Communists and their
methods --- especially because it
seems increasingly true that the
Communism of twenty years ago has
practically ceased to exist in
Russia. At the present time their
system is much more like a form
of the older Socialism, conducted,
however, through a complete
dictatorship combined with an
overwhelming loyalty to the cause
of throwing every German out of
Russia. That being so, the American
Communists are going along with us
almost unanimously in the help we
are giving to Russia in winning
the war.
There are, however, a good
many cases of radio operators tho
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
-2-
have failed in the pre-war period to
give weather information to other
ships or to planes; or who have
sought to foment what amounts to a
form of mutiny on the high seas.
F. D. R.
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON
(SC)A8-5/QS1
May 1, 1942
(022300A) / GEM
CONFIDENTIAL
My dear Mr. President:
I hate to bother you with things like this but this involves
a policy which can only originate with you.
I am attaching a report by Adlai Stevenson on the subject of
disbarring men from service in the Merchant Marine as radio operators
under the present law. My present disposition is to disregard a charge
against the radio operator who, in other respects has done his duty well
and obeyed orders, solely because he is called a Communist, even where the
proof is pretty substantial that he has been a Communist. Of course,
in other respects where there was insubordination or drunkenness or any
other thing, we make short shrift of them.
With Russia as our ally, it seems to me the course I have
outlined above is the only one we can pursue, although I confess to you
a grave doubt as to the ultimate loyalty of these men if later difficulty
of any kind should arise between us and Russia. For some strange reason,
these American Communists seem more loyal to Russia than they do to the
United States but, as I said, this difficulty is not present at the present
time, although it may be later.
I should like to have you confirm to me whether my thought
runs along parallel channels with yours on this subject.
Yours sincerely,
A
PECLAS FIED
The President
The White House
POD
5200.9 (9/27/58)
Attachment
Date- 3-9-59
Signature= Carl L, Spicer
April 30, 1942
THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
Public Act 351 (approved December 17, 1941) makes it unlawful during the
emergency to employ as radio operator on any American merchant vessel any
person whose employment has been disapproved by the Secretary of the Navy.
This Act is administered by a five man Board consisting of Admiral Staton as
Chairman and representatives of the Navy Department, Coast Guard and
Maritime Commission. The Board has considered some 90 cases and discharged
88 men. About 25 have appealed and 8 have been reinstated.
Appeals are heard by local boards convened by the Commandants of the Districts.
The "defendant" is not informed as to the basis for his discharge.
The cases involving cowardice, insubordination, drunkness or pro-Nazi sympathy
present little difficulty. But most of the cases involve operators charged
with Communist Party membership or Communist sympathy. The Board automatically
discharges any operators whose investigation record is sufficiently convincing
on the score of Communist sympathy, irrespective of his competence and record
of conduct in his job.
Many of the members of the American Communications Association (CIO), in-
cluding the President, Vice President and possibly other officers, have been or
may be discharged. The total number of radio operators on the ONI suspect list
is about 600 and about 500 of them are "Communist" suspects.
I understand that the Board rests its practice of automatic discharge of all
alleged Communists on the policy of Congress expressed in various enactments
prior to the Russo-German War, which forbid Federal employment of Communists,
Bundists, etc.
The problem presented by the present method of administration of Public 351
is whether identification with Communism, even if sufficiently proven, is
sufficient grounds to disqualify a man without some other evidence of in-
competence or unreliability in his job as a radio operator on a merchant ship.
In other words, in view of the present military alignments, political con-
siderations and shortage of qualified radio operators, should we discharge
operators because of their political opinions only? Or should we say that
hostile political opinion is only one element of fitness and a man must not be
discharged whose record in his job is in all other respects satisfactory.
ass
Adlai E. Stevenson
PSF,Knot
CONFIDENTIAL
WINOCUR, Jacob
Born Brooklyn, N.Y. October 6, 1913.
214 Broome St.,
Presently a waterfront delegate for
New York, N.Y.
the Marine Division of the American
Communications Association at New York.
Holds F.C.C. Radio Telegraph First
T-2-1150 issued at New York 12/2/41 and
valid for five years. No military ser-
vice indicated. Subject is brother of
MURRAY WINOCUR disapproved for employ-
ment as radio operator on American
vessels by order of SECNAV 2/19/42.
Rating "A"
Reliable source reveals that subject is a "dangerous Communist
radio operator and an official of the Communist controlled
Marine Division of the A.C.A. at New York.
Jacob WINOCUR's C.P. membership has been established beyond
question due to his long and consistent record of Communist
activities in the A.R.T.A.--A.C.A. Subject joined the A.R.T.A.
in 1936 during the general maritime strike of that year and
immediately became closely identified with the Communist Frac-
tion in that union, indicating that he was already a Communist
and therefore trusted and acceptable without having to serve
the usual probationary apprenticeship required of new and un-
known recruits to the Party.
From the very day of his joining the A.R.T.A. to the present
date, subject has acted as a sort of parliamentary whip or
floor leader for the C.P. fraction in A.R.T.A. and later A.C.A.
meetings. Subject was an active defender of one F. W. ROBINSON,
N.Y. Local Secretary of the A.R.T.A. when the latter was on
trial charged with Communistic activity in January, 1937. During
the succeeding years subject introduced various C.P. motions and
resolutions denouncing the Maritime Commission in connection with
the ALGIC mutiny case, protesting a New York State Law which
would bar civil service jobs to Communists, demanding repeal of
the New York State criminal anarchy law, endorsing the "pilgrim-
age" of the American Youth Congress to Washington, (which booed
and hissed the President on the White House steps), denounced
the Department of Justice as a "tool of the bosses,' and a great
many others of no interest or pertinency now but which all
indicated an undeviating adherence to Communist Party line
through a period of many years. As recently as December 30,
1941, subject supported debate in favor of a "demand" that
President Roosevelt free EARL BROWDER before a regular meeting
of Marine Division Local #2 at New York.
E.O. 11632 Soc. 3(2) and 5(D) or (B)
CONFIDENTIAL
OSD letter, May 3, 1972
-1-
By
A
MARS
Date
MAR 27 1975
CONFIDENTIALS
WINOCUR, Jacob (Continued)
Rating "C"
Subject is reliably reported to carry a camera and to be
fond of photographing waterfront activities in New York.
Subject holds a permanent permit issued by the Coast
Guard to board all vessels at New York as a union dele-
gate.
In a letter dated April 5, 1942, to the Director of Naval
Intelligence, Lt. (jg) Alexander Vadas, U.S.N.R., Manager
for the Radiomarine Corporation of America at Miami,
Florida, and a member of the American Radio Telegraphists
Association - - American Communications Association from
1931 to 1941, makes the following charges against Subject:
"I have personally known Murray and Jacob Winocur since
1935 and from that time until 1940 I have personally heard
both these men denounce our American system and everything
connected with the capitalistic system of government.
Both these men were greatly against the Naval Reserve and
anyone connected with it. Jacob Winocur in October, 1940,
aboard the SS AMERICA, where I was employed as Radio Opera-
tor, denounced the Naval Reserve in a most violent manner
calling it "Scabs for the capitalists" and that "anyone
was a fool who would fight for the present American capital-
istic system."
CUSTODIAL DETENTION MEMO ON THIS SUBJECT HAS BEEN SUB-
MITTED.
CONFIDENTIAL
E.O. 11632 See. 3(2) and 5(D) or (E)
OSD letter, May 3, 27 1975 -2-
By
&
MARS Date
PSF Navy: Knox Folder 1-42
file
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON
May 20, 1942
(SC)S82-3
(023500A)/GEM
My dear Mr. President:
Several weeks ago, you asked me to look into the matter
of the projected silent submarine destroyer, the brainchild
of Commander Dam. I turned the matter over to the proper
committee of scientists who handle matters of this sort, headed
by Dr. Bush, and have just received from him a. report on this
subject.
The conclusion reached was that the silent destroyer
does not appear sufficiently promising to justify further
research. I am attaching the findings of the Board in case
you want to read them over.
Yours sincerely,
The President
The White House
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
Enclosure
DECLASSIFIED
DOD DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
Date- 3-9-59
Signature- Carl L. Specer
OFFICE FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
1530 P STREET NW.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
VANNEVAR BUSH
Director
May 15, 1942
Dear Mr. Secretary:
In your letter of March 6, 1942, you stated the
view of the Navy Department regarding the proposal of Lt.
Commander Dam for a "silent" submarine destroyer, and in-
dicated that the Navy Department had no objections to this
Office investigating the matter. The pertinent files from
the Navy Department have been made available to me by Ad-
miral Van Keuren.
I have gone over the data, and, in accordance with
the attached memorandum, I have come to the conclusion that
the proposal does not appear sufficiently promising to jus-
tify any action on the part of this Office in initiating
research and development work in connection with this scheme.
Very sincerely yours,
4. Bush, Director
The Honorable Frank Knox
Secretary of the Navy
Washington, D. C.
cc Admiral A. H. VanKeuren
LIAISON OFFICE MEMORANDUM INDICATING THE MORE IMPORTANT TECHNICAL
ASPECTS OF THE "SILENT" SUBMARINE DESTROYER PROPOSED BY LT.
COMMANDER A. C. DAM (RET.) AND SUMMARIZING LIAISON OFFICE OPINION
ON THE PROPOSAL
May 15, 1942
In reviewing the "silent destroyer" proposal made
by Lt. Commander A. C. Dam, Retired, the available data have
been studied carefully and advice on the more important tech-
nical matters has been obtained from recognized authorities
in the 0SRD and NACA. Lt. Commander Dam called and went over
the proposal rather thoroughly.
Attention has been given to the relative merits of
submarine destroyers with air-screw ("silent") and water-
screw ("non-silent") propulsion. The value of the small anti-
submarine boat as such was not considered to be in doubt.
The proposed air-screw drive for the small anti-
submarine boat presents a number of attractive features:
1. It appears well established that the air-driven
boat would not be detected with standard underwater
listening equipment except at very short range.
2. It appears that if this boat were provided with
a fully sound-proofed housing for its detection
personnel, the range of detecting submerged sub-
marines underway would be greater than for boats
with water-screw propulsion.
3. It appears therefore that under favorable condi-
tions this boat should be able to locate the sub-
marine, approach it, and perhaps attack it before
the submarine learns of its danger and takes
evasive action.
4. The location and approach tactics would not be
handicapped by certain limitations which have been
associated with echo ranging. Thus the presence
of the anti-submarine boat and its direction
from the submarine would not be revealed by the
echo-ranging signal; confusing echoes from ocean
floor, irregularities and submerged wrecks would
not occur; temperature variations, salinity var-
iations, and surface roughness would be of reduced
importance.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
DECLASSIFIED
DOB DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
Date-
MAR 1 1972
Signature-
RATES
CONNVIDEE
MOSTAIN
-2-
5. The attack itself would be less handicapped by
certain limitations which have been associated
with depth charge attacks on evading submarines.
Thus the submarine could be attacked when it was
near the surface and before it took evasive action.
The slow descent of the depth charges, or uncer-
tainties as to the proper depth-setting of the
fuze would be of less importance.
6. There would be the psychological advantage that
sound-free surroundings would be no guarantee of
safety for the submarine.
On the other hand there are the following long-
standing limitations of air-screw-driven anti-submarine boats:
1. Low air-screw efficiency at speeds of 10 to 20 miles
per hour. Speed, maneuverability, and range will
therefore be reduced. Fuel consumption and fuel
storage capacity will be increased. The top speed
of the surfaced submarine is such that it might very
well lose the silent destroyer, especially in rough
water. If the submarine should be fortunate enough
to see the silent destroyer approaching, and if the
latter's top speed and maneuverability were infer-
ior to top speed and maneuverability of & water-
screw driven boat, it would be relatively simpler
for the submarine to sink the boat by gunfire.
2. The air-screw cannot be used satisfactoril; in
very rough seas. An auxiliary water-screw-drive
is therefore, necessary, using & separate engine
and "free-wheeling" propeller. Operation more than
50 miles from shore is not envisioned in the pro-
posal.
3. Any advances by the enemy in designing quieter
submarines will reduce the effedtiveness of the
silent destroyer, which relies entirely on listen-
ing for detection and location.
4. Windage is increased.
5. Conspicuousness is increased, especially if the pro-
peller is surrounded with a guard. If the submarine
periscope is above water, the pursuing boat will be
unable to approach undetected.
6. Deck space is reduced. Arc of AA fire is restricted.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
DECLASSIFIED
DOD DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
Lug Juna 1109L FING BIOM 1968 02 so gescon
ETFP COLLUIN Fire gebep COULD
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-3-
7. Silent listening provides no straightforward range
data. Echo-ranging equipment would probably have
to be carried for occasional use in range determina-
tion or in locating a submerged motionless submarine.
8. The high level of air-borne noise may lower the
efficiency of personnel not located inside the hous-
ing.
9. The air-screw presents 8. danger to personnel, and
its use near docks presents a problem. In any case
a propeller guard would be needed.
At the present time the following additional points
must be considered in evaluating the proposal:
1. Advances in echo-ranging equipment are such that the
submarine -- even when taking evasive action -- will
be located with great er accuracy than was formerly
possible. Thus the advantage of a silent locating
procedure is diminishing.
2. Improvements being made in depth charges and in
methods of projecting depth charges are increasing
the effectiveness of attacks on submarines which
are submerged and practicing evasion. Thus the ad-
vantage of a silent stalking procedure is diminishing.
3. Recent developments in equipment suggest that small
anti-submarine boats would be somewhat heavier
than thought necessary earlier. Radio locators,
depth charge throwers, etc., will probably require
increases in personnel and displacement. Larger
engines and propellers would probably be required.
4. Suitable new or used 1000 to 2000 Hp airplane engines
probably will not be available in the near future.
Also, there may be a scarcity of high-octane fuel
and of personnel and facilities for servicing air-
plane engines.
Time Factor
There are a number of design items which, while not
representing real obstacles, would require the attention of
skilled personnel and would delay any construction program.
The more important items are:
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
DECLASSIFIED
POP
P/O
(9/27/58)
of
the
FTon
so
gafe.
-4-
Special propellers of low pitch, low tip speed,
small diameter, and probably 6 blades.
Engine supports, propeller guard, and perhaps an
air rudder.
Auxiliary water-screw drive.
Aircraft engine cooling system unaffected by spray.
Sound-proof housing for detection personnel.
On the other hand, the construction program on water-
screw-drive anti-submarine boats appears to be in an advanced
stage.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
DECLASSIFIED
PSF Knox Folder
1-42
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
May 22, 1942.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
I wish you and Admiral King
would talk with me about this
proposed new building program, to
be started in 1943 and 1944.
I should like especially to
talk over the desirability of
building 45,000 ton aircraft
carriers; the possibility of
cutting the size of 27,000ton
aircraft carriers by four or
five thousand tons and putting
the saved tonnage into aircraft
carriers of approximately twelve
to fourteen thousand tons.
Also, I should like to
discuss the relative advantages
of 13,600 ton heavy cruisers
vs. the 11,000 ton heavy
cruisers. I am inclined to
go along without further ado
with the program for the small
light cruisers, the destroyers
and the escort vessels.
F. D. R.
PSF Knox
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON
5337
CONFIDENTIAL
May 19, 1942
(SC)A1-3/1943-44
(023300A)
My dear Mr. President:
Please note the attached memorandum from Admiral
King dealing with the Combatant Ship Building Program for
1943 and 1944.
If this suggested outline meets with your approval,
may I have your authority to initiate legislation for this
program.
Sincerely yours,
The President
The White House
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
Enclosure
DECLASSIFIED
DOD DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
Date- 3-5-59
Signature- Carl L. specer
(5c) A1-3(1943.44) COMINCH FILE
UNITED STATES FLEET
HEADQUARTERS OF THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF
NAVT DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.
CONFIDENTIAL
MAY 1 5 1942
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
You have approved the 1943-1944 Combatant Ship Building
Program. Congressional authorization for this program is neces-
sary at an early date in order to occupy shipbuilding ways becom-
ing available in 1943 and 1944. The program consists of the
following:
Type
Unit Tonnage
Number
Total Tonnage
CV Aircraft Carriers
45,000
4
180,000
CV Aircraft Carriers
27,100
10
271,000
CA Heavy Cruisers
13,600
17
231,200
CL Light Cruisers
11,000
16
176,000
CL Light Cruisers
6,000
3
18,000
DD
Destroyers
2,100
100
210,000
DE Escort Vessels
1,400
420
580,000
Total
1,674,200
Authorization for 200,000 tons of Naval construction has
been obtained by Public Law No. 551, signed by the President on
May 13, 1942. This tonnage is intended for submarines and is to
occupy all submarine ways becoming available in 1943 and 1944.
The above ship building program contemplates merely a
continuation of the present ship building program at the peak
rate and not an increase in the peak rate of Naval ship building.
It is considered advisable that Presidential authority be
obtained for initiating legislation for this combatant ship
building program.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
DECLASSIFIED
EJKing
E.
KING
- DGQ DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
Date- 3-9-59
Signature- Carl d. Spicer
ANTIED
146
/
CONFIDENTIAL
May 19, 1943
(50) 41-3/1943-44
(023300A)
My dear Mr. President:
Please note the attached memorandus from Admiral
King dealing with the Combatant Ship Building Program for
1943 and 1944.
If this suggested outline meets with your approval,
may I have your authority to initiate legislation for this
program.
Sincerely yours,
FRANK KNOX
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
The President
DECLASSIFIED
The White House
DOD DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
Enclosure
Date-
3-9-59
Signature-
care L. Spicer
Original This th
This is President: copy
fud. 5/20/42.
J
PSF Navy knox Folder
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
May 30, 1942.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
Will you speak to me
about this?
F. D. R.
Letter to the President from
the Under Secretary of the Navy,
dated May 8, 1942, enclosing memo-
randum prepared by Admiral King
re the President's Directive
regarding Priorities for the War
Effort.
Knox Folder
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON
filed
June 13, 1942
My dear Mr. President:
Following our telephone conversation yesterday concerning
the possibility of two certain newspaper gentlemen being granted
permission to go to Alaska, I to the necessary steps to prevent
any such privilege being granted by the Navy. I have also, as you
directed, called up Bob Patterson and passed along your instructions
for the Army in the same manner. Mr. Patterson assured me that the
matter would be taken care of.
I also had a conference with Admiral Hepburn of our Navy
Office of Public Relations, and explained to him the idea of sending
only one man hereafter with any expedition and that man, no matter
whom he represented, to be required to provide his story to all three
of the services and all of the newspapers desiring it, regardless of
the fact that he was employed by only one newspaper or one press
association. Hepburn naturally replied by asking if this would be
applied to both Army and Navy and I assured him I was certain that was
your intention. He then said that if such were the case, a directive
should issue from your office to this effect, directing both Army and
Navy to follow the same procedure. Such a course is obviously the
proper one to pursue since the Army would naturally want a directive
from the Commander-in-Chief of both services in such an important
matter.
Knox directives has
In case you approve of this, I am enclosing a suggested
letter to go to both Army and Navy on the matter, this for your use
if it suits your convenience and fits your ideas.
Sincerely yours,
Enclosure
The President
The White House
Knox Folder Knox Folder
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
June 17, 1942.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
I think this is important
enough for you to take up with
Harry Stimson, and possibly with
Sumner Welles.
F. D. R.
Letter to Frank Knox, with enclosure,
from Allen Haden, c/o Natl. City Bank of
NY, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, marked confi-
dential re: Brazil and its situation
as concerns the U.S. (need for defense of
same, Panama Canal, etc.)
Knox Flder
1-112
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
June 17, 1942.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
Reports keep coming in with
great insistence and repetition
that the Navy is asking recruits
and even apprentices whether they
were in favor of Loyalist Spain
and also whether they think we
should cooperate with Russia.
The stories all say that if they
answer yes, they are either not
accepted or some excuse is made
to release them from the Navy.
I would not call this to
your attention were it not for
the fact that these allegations
come from so many different
sources. You and I know that
this is a possibility among un-
thinking officers, warrant
officers or chief petty officers.
The "sea lawyer" of a century
ago is not extinct!
F. D. R.
/ money
THE
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
MEMO FOR THE PRESIDENT:
I am told that the Navy 18
asking seamen whether they were in
favor of Loyalist Spain and also
think her should
whether they are 10 sympathy with
Co- - operah' -
the Soviets. If they answr "yes"
they are taken off the ships.
E.R.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
November 2, 1942.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF STATE
What do you think?
F. D. R.
Know freder
1-42
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
WASHINGTON.
October 26, 1942
CONFIDENTIAL
(SC)A16-3(12)
(047700A)
My dear Mr. President:
During my recent visit to Rio de Janeiro and in my talks with
Vargas and Aranha, both of them expressed repeatedly a desire to be
helpful in other directions than merely aiding in the patrol of their
coasts, and coincidental with this conversation, there was quite a little
discussion of the influence they could wield with Portugal and they pro-
fessed very great willingness to undertake anything in that direction.
For your personal and confidential consideration, and in connection
with certain operations now in progress, it will be a manifest advantage
if the allied nations could occupy and use a base on one or more of the
islands in the area involved. Do you think it would be worthwhile to
suggest to Brazil that she could be greatly helpful to the allied nations
if she employed her great influence in Portugal toward that end? If the
political situation in Portugal vas such that she could acquiesce, it is
also possible that such resistance as was encountered would only be a
token resistance, especially if the spearhead of the occupation forces
were Brazilian. I rather believe that they would undertake this if we
asked them.
They are definitely keen to have some part in the wer outside of
their immediate area. I submit this for what it may be worth.
Sincerely yours,
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
The President
DECLASSIFIED
The White House
DOD DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
Date- 8-5-66
Signature-
PSF
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
files
November 10, 1942.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
I have changed my mind about
what I said over the telephone about
the General Board and I am inclined
to agree with your proposal. There
is no reason for keeping any of the
four retired officers who are now
members of the Board. I also see.
no reason for keeping Roweliff. I
think you could go about this,
filling all five vacancies from
officers who have had sea command
since December 7, 1941, picking
those officers who are overdue for
shore duty or who have physically
not been able to stand the strain
of active sea command. In the
latter category, for example, I
would place Ghormley who is, in my
judgment, a very fine officer but
who could not stand only two hours
of sleep out of the twenty-four
in the Southwest Pacif&e.
Also, I like your idea of at
least one Marine officer on the
Board.
By Deputy DECLASSIFIED Archivist of the U.S.
By W. J. Stewart Date MAR 1 1972
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
-2-
I assume also that you will
get at least one member who
thoroughly understand the importance
of aviation.
F. D. R.
the
Navy Knorfolder 1-42
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
WASHINGTON
November 4, 1942
My dear Mr. President:
I have been giving a great deal of thought lately to a complete
reorganization of the General Board of the Navy. Before I undertake to
propose any changes to the Navy people, I should like to submit my thought
to you for your reaction and comment because I know what I am proposing,
and upon which I am asking your advice, will provoke 8. lot of discussion
in the Department and may encounter some opposition.
As I understand it, the General Board was established by a
Navy Department General Order forty-two years ago. The members are appointed
by the Secretary of the Navy from officers with the rank of Captain and
higher. The Board shall have not less than five members. Its duties consist
of advising the Secretary of the Navy solely. It has no administrative
nor executive powers. The Board at the present time is composed of -
Admiral A. J. Hepburn, Chairman 65 years of age
Admiral Thomas C. Hart
65 years of age
Admiral C. C. Bloch
64 years of age
Rear Admiral W. R. Sexton
66 years of age
Rear Admiral G. J. Roweliff
61 years of age
The first four of these officers are all on the retired list.
The one member who has not yet reached retirement age, Rowcliffe, is not
a man in whose judgment I have any confidence. He was sent before the
Physical Examining Board recently, together with all other officers over
fifty-eight, and was found unsatisfactory by that Board for sea duty, but
when his case came before the Retiring Board, that Board voted not to
retire him.
Roosevelt Library,
DECLASSIFIED
000 DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
Date- 3-9-59
Carl L. Spicer
Signature-
The President
- 2 -
November 4, 1942
Want I an thinking of doing, and I an submitting it to you for
your consideration, is to retire the entire Board and find some other
employment for Rowcliffe or furlough him. I would then fill the places
on the Board with younger officers, but officers who have actually seen
service at sea since we entered the war. After this new Board was estab-
lished, a rotation system might be started which would take one man off
the Board every three months and put another on fresh from sea duty, the
idea being to have someone on the Board constantly who can bring to its
consideration the very latest lessons learned in active service. Since
the amphibious operation is going to be constantly employed and the size
of the Marine Corps has been 80 greatly increased, my idea would be to
have at least one Marine officer on the Board and he an officer who has
had experience in actual amphibious operations. Because of the swift
development of the sea air arm, one or two members should be men whose
services have been with the air arm of the fleet.
As the official advisors of a civilian secretary, I believe
that a General Board 80 constituted would be invaluable in the service
it could render. Certainly, I would feel that such a Board would be of
great assistance to me. What do you think of this?
Frankstnon
The President
The White House
371.
hm
Knox folder 2-42
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
December 19, 1942
MEMORANDUM FOR
HON. FRANK KNOX
I an somewhat concerned
in regard to the reorganization
of Procurement Procedures. It
sets up a floc. of different
procedures together with a flock
of separate law offices.
They wanted ne to try this
in the old days and I tested 1t
out in one or two places and
quickly abolished it. It did
not work.
F. D. R.
DECLASSIFIED
By Deputy Archivist of the U.S.
By W. J. Stouart Date
COPY
UNITED STATES FLEET
Headquarters of the Commander in Chief
Cominch File
Navy Department, Washington, D.C.
FF1/L8-3
DEC 15 1942
Serial: 5779
From:
Commander in Chief, United States Fleet
and Chief of Naval Operations.
To :
Secretary of the Navy.
Subject:
Reorganization of Procurement Procedures and
Coordination of Procurement Legal Services.
Reference;
Circular letter, unnumbered, dated December 13, 1942,
with subject as above.
1.
The reference has been brought to my attention.
2.
I request reconsideration of the reference, inasmuch
as its effect is to discard long-established procedure and to
decentralize procedures which would best continue to be unified
through one agency of the Navy Department, namely, Bureau of
Supplies and Accounts.
3.
Paragraph 8 of the reference requires setting up of
additional agencies - with additional personnel - which emphasizes
the point made in the preceding paragraph, namely, that there will
now be six agencies dealing with procurement contracts instead of
the one which has long been established by regulation and adapted
by experience to the needs of the service.
/s/ E. J. KING
Copy for JAG
NAVY DEPARTMENT
WASHINGTON DC
December 13, 1942.
From:
The Secretary of the Navy.
To :
All Bureaus and Offices, Navy Department.
The Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps.
The Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard.
Subject:
Reorganization of Procurement Procedures end
Coordination of Procurement Legal Services.
1.
From and after the date hereof, the Chief of each
Bureau having technical cognizance of the octoriel and services to
be procured shall cotermine, in his discretion, the extont to which
writton contracts embodying the terms of negotisted doals or arrange-
ments for such procurement will be negotluted, prepared and exccuted
in each such Bureau and the extent, if any, to which the services of
the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts will be availed of for the nego-
tintion, proparation and execution of such contracts.
2.
The Chief of each such technical Bureau may exercise
such discretion from time to time in respect of classes of materiel
or services, or specific contracts or types of contracts, provided,
however, that on or before March 1, 1943, the Chief of oach techni-
cal Buronu shell have completed a survey of the purchases und ar-
rangements originating in each such Bureau and shull have determined
which contructs will be nogotisted, prepared and exccuted in each
such Bureau and which contracts will be negotiated, propr red and EXC-
cuted in the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. Such determination
shall be reduced to writing end forwarded to the Vice Chief of Noval
Operations. Modifications and changes therein may, however, be made
from timo to time upon the application of the Chiefs of the respective
technical Bureaus and the approval of the Vice Chief of Naval Opera-
tions.
3.
All provisions in orders and directives requiring the
respective technical Bureaus or any of them to transmit, by requisi-
tion or otherwise, negotinted doals or arrangements for the procure-
mont of ortorial or services to the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts
for the nogotiation, preparation or execution of writton contracts or
orders in respect thereof are horeby canceled and rescinded.
4.
The Chief of each tochnical Buroau is hereby authorized
to negotiate, prepare and exccute all contracts which he shall have
determined are to be negotiated, propared und executed in his Buronu
-1-
Contract
in
1/0
such son beve 9. provel thorcof ps of been to viring Bureeu or form that propered nurst doleg. Counsel the
and he in further authorized to dologato such authority to execute
contracts on buhulf of the United States to such person or persons
as may be solected by such Puresu Chief. Contracts 50 executed
shall be designated by such approprinto symbols 05 are now in USU
in each such Burenu with respect to the contracts executed by the
Chief of such Bureau.
5.
Appropriate arrangements for the transfor of necessary
personnel from the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts to such tochni-
enl Buronus may be modo from time to time under the supervision And
direction of the Vico Chief of Navel Operations.
6.
The Negotiation Section of the Negotistion Branch of
the Purchase Division of the Buronu of Supplics and Accounts, in
cluding till officer and civilien personnel attached thoreto, is
horoby transforred to the Office of Procuroment and Motorial in the
Office of the Under Secretary and shill bu under the immediate di-
rection of the Assistant Chief in Charge of Procurement. The nogo-
tinting personnel of such Section will be mdo avrilable to the
various Burocus to assist in the negotistion of contracts.
7.
In order that c.ll legal advice and services relating
to procurement, including those rolating to patents, my be coordinated
in onch Buron and in the N.vy Department, there shill be n. single
legal division in each Buronu to render cuch advice end porform such
services.
8.
The hord of unch logel division in respect of cach Buronu
shrill be C.S follows:
Name
Counsel for the Buroou of
Edward 0. Chandler
Yords and Docks
Jrmes A. Fowler, Jr.
NEW 1 Personnel
W. Hundrill Compton
Ordnance
Richard S. Kylo
Supplies and Accounts
Stuart N. Scott
Aoronautics
Prtrick H. Hodgson
Ships
The Counsel for ench such Bureau shrill forthwith set up the division,
solecting the lawyers -nd other personnel douned by him to be necus-
stry for the performance of the outior and functions of such division,
subject to the spprovel of the Chief of unch such Burunu. In t.ddi-
tion to reporting directly to the Chief of el: such Buronu, Counsel
for each Buroru shill also report to the Under Secretary of the Navy.
-2-
71
9.
Contracts and emendments thoruto end modifications
thoroof propered in = Burcou under the supervision or with the cp-
provil of Counsel for such Buroou my be signed by the Chief of
such Bureeu or the person or persons to whom such authority shrll
have been delegated without securing the approvel of my other por-
son ps to form or legality. All provisions in orders and directives
requiring that contracts must bo sunt to the Office of the Judge Ad-
vocate General before the execution thereof nro horoby conceled and
rescinded.
10.
The logal corvices to bo rondored by the Counsel for
each Buronu will be coordinated end generally supervised on bohulf
of the Under Secretary of the Nevy through the control office of the
Procurement Logal Division, of which Division H. Struve Honsol shell
be the Chiof, T. John Konney shrill be the Assistant Chief, end
Richard Spencer shall be the Assistant Chief in Charge of Prtents.
The contral office of the Procurement Legrl Division shull Lot 18
counsel to the Office of Procurement and Matorial. The Prtente end
Tex Amortization Soctions of the Procurement Logal Division and the
cognizance thereof shall be continued 65 heretofore ostoblishod.
11.
In viou of the changes in contracting procedure hereby
made, it is decmed advisable that n. comprehensivo rnd detailed study
of the contracting procedure in otch Buronu with Γ. view to simplify-
ing, expediting and stonderdizing such procodure be made by the con-
trul office of the Procurement Legal Division and the Counsel for
each Dureau for and under the supervision of the Chief of each such
Bureau, and recommendations with respect thereto shall be forwarded
by the Chief of each Bureou as promptly as possible to the Under
Secretary and the Vice Chief of Navel Operations.
/s/ Forrestal
Acting
filme
PSFNavy Frank Knox folder 2-43
presnel
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
January 8, 1943.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
I have yours of January fourth
in regard to a group of young
officers in the Navy Department.
Why not order them all to sea?
F. D. R.
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON
January 4, 1943
JAN RECEIVED - YORK 8 62 STATE MM to 3/3 HOUSE
My dear Mr. President:
Recently when I had my last talk with you, you gave
me the names of a group of young officers who are serving
in the Navy, with the request that I discover just what their
duties were and why they were retained in Washington. I have
just received the enclosed comments on all of them and I pass
this report along for your information.
On the whole, I do not think that much criticism can
be appropriately directed at any of these men. They all seem
to be doing A pretty good job and several of them have already
been ordered to sea.
Sincerely yours,
Frankstro
The President
The White House
Enclosure
In reply address not the signer of this
letter, but Bureau of Naval Personnel,
Navy Department, Washington, D. C.
Refer to No.
NAVY DEPARTMENT
BUREAU OF NAVAL PERSONNEL
WASHINGTON, D. c.
January 2, 1943.
Memorandum for the Secretary of the Navy.
There follows hereinafter the details
concerning the young officers listed in your
memorandum dated December 31, 1942, which followed
a conference you had had with the President:
Lieutenant Commander Bernard P. Day, D-V(S), U.S.N.R.
First commissioned November 14, 1938.
Ordered to active duty February 21, 1941,
Third Naval District.
Ordered to Director Shore Establishment, Navy
Department, orders dated February 11, 1942,
following request of the Assistant Secretary
of the Navy (SOSED) in letter dated
January 17, 1942.
Age 43. Married, three minor children.
Lieutenant Clarence Douglas Dillon, A-V(S), U.S.N.R.
Formerly Vice President and Director Dillon,
Read Co., New York.
Appointed Ensign D-V(S) November 12, 1940.
Ordered to active duty May 19, 1941, Third
Naval District. Ordered to Naval Operations
for duty in the Office of the Coordinator
of Information on request of the Under
Secretary, memorandum as follows: "Colonel
Donovan called me to say he would like to have
Ensign Douglas Dillon, now on duty in the
Office of the Commandant, Third Naval District,
assigned to his office. He states that this
has the approval of the President. Signed J.V.F."
Memorandum dated August 15, 1941.
Transferred to class A-V(S) January 22, 1942.
Ordered Naval Air Station, Quonset for temporary
duty under instruction (indoctrination). Orders
dated February 3, 1942.
Ordered to Chief of the Office of Procurement and
Material for duty, orders dated April 8, 1942.
Ordered to Opnav for duty, orders dated July 22, 1942.
Ordered to report Commander Fleet Air, Seattle, for
duty, orders dated October 21, 1942. Now Aide and
Flag Secretary, Staff Rear Admiral Frank D. Wagner, USN,
Commander Fleet Air, Seattle.
Age 33. Married, two minor children.
Lieutenant Ernest Dupont, Jr., D-V(S), U.S.N.R.
Appointed Ensign I-V(S) November 8, 1933.
Ordered to active duty Tenth Naval District,
San Juan, Puerto Rico, under orders dated
April 24, 1941.
Ordered to Opnav for duty in Plant Inspection
Service, orders dated July 24, 1941, on
request of Chief of Naval Operations.
Ordered to duty in the Office of Chief Cable
Censor, Washington, D.C., orders dated April 14,
1942. Transferred to Class D-V(S), May 2, 1942.
Age 39. Married, 1 minor child.
Lieutenant Leonard K. Firestone, D-V(S), U.S.N.R.
Appointed Lieutenant D-V(S) February 2, 1942.
Ordered to Opnav for duty at the request of the
Chief of Naval Operations, orders dated
February 4, 1942.
Ordered to the Office of Procurement and Material,
Navy Department, orders dated February 26, 1942.
Age 35. Married, 3 children.
Lieutenant (jg) Randall H. Hagner JrI-V(S), U.S.N.R.
Application rejected on grounds of failure to
meet educational and physical standards.
Defects waived on urgent representations of
Director of Naval Intelligence, Rear Admiral
Walter S. Anderson.
Appointed Ensign I-V(S) May 15, 1940.
Ordered to active duty Opnav December 8, 1941.
Age 27. Married, no children.
Lieutenant Commander Henry S. Morgan, D-V(S), U.S.N.R.
Appointed Lieutenant D-V(S) November 1, 1940.
Ordered to Opnav for active duty September 22, 1941,
at the request of Opnav.
Appointed Lieutenant Commander January 19, 1942,
following recommendation of Under Secretary of
the Navy.
Ordered to Office of Procurement and Material,
Navy Department, under date February 23, 1942.
Requested sea duty, following a course of indoctrination,
in letter dated May 1, 1942. Chief of OP&M
recommended disapproval. Not ordered to sea duty.
Age 42. Married, no children.
-2-
Lieutenant Frederick S. Moseley, D-V(S), U.S.N.R.
Appointed Lieutenant, U.S.N.R., February 21, 1942.
Ordered to Opnav for duty, -duty with the Army
Navy Munitions Board.
Ordered to Sub Chaser Training Center, Miami,
for duty under instruction. Orders dated
December 9, 1942, following his request for
sea duty in letter dated November 19, 1942.
Age 39. Married.
Ensign Robert W. Sarnoff, D-V(S), U.S.N.R.
Appointed Ensign, February 28, 1942, D-V(S).
Personally known to Colonel Donovan.
Ordered to Opnav for duty March 3, 1942.
Has requested postgraduate instruction in
Communications at U.S. Naval Academy in a
class scheduled to commence in March, 1943.
Age 24. Married.
Lieutenant Oakleigh L. Thorne, A-V(S), U.S.N.R.
Appointed Lieutenant (jg) A-V(S), March 27, 1941.
Ordered to Bureau of Aeronautics for duty on
request of Chief of Bureau of Aeronautics.
Ordered to Staff, Commander Air Force, Pacific
Fleet, under orders dated October 13, 1942.
Age 32. Married, 3 minor children.
Lieutenant Louis E. Walker, A-V(S), U.S.N.R.
Appointed Lieutenant (jg) March 13, 1941.
Ordered to Bureau of Aeronautics.
Appointed Lieutenant June 15, 1942.
Age 33. Bachelor.
Knox folder 2-43
JAN // RECEIVED 8 AM HOUSE '43
.....
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON
January 8, 1943
Jilsius.
memo 12/19/42
My dear Mr. President:
filed know fredve 2-42
Recently you wrote me a little memorandum about the
legal handling of contracts.
When you have time, the attached memorandum which
vas prepared by Jim Forrestal will give you a quick review
of just how this matter has been handled. I think it is going
along in e. way satisfactory to you and I have already suggested
to Forrestal the rotation of these lawyers in the various bureaus,
as you suggested.
Sincerely yours,
Frankdnox
The President
The White House
Enclosure
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY
WASHINGTON
PID/HSH:11
January 4, 1943
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
Subject: PROCUREMENT LEGAL SERVICES
1. The Procurement Legal Division was set up as a part of the
Office of the Under Secretary in accordance with the following three
principles:
(a) Selection and control of personnel centralized
in the Office of the Under Secretary of the Navy;
(b) Availability of legal services on the spot at
the inception, throughout the negotiation, and at the ex-
ecution of, the procurement contracts; and
(c) Civilian personnel in so far as possible to
avoid the restrictions of naval channels and echelons.
2. The Division is controlled through a supervisory legal office
located in the Office of the Under Secretary, with branch offices physi-
cally located in all the contracting Bureaus headed by civilian lawyers
with substantial commercial experience, responsible directly to the
Under Secretary. In addition, a branch patent law office and a tax
amortization (certificates of necessity) office were set up as parts
of the supervisory office. The supervisory office also acts as coun-
sel for the Office of Procurement and Material.
3. Immediately after the outbreak of war, review, before exe-
cution, of all contracts over $200,000 by members of the Procurement
Legal Division was made mandatory. By the directive of December 13,
1942, all procurement legal services were brought under the supervision
of such Division, and the separate and uncoordinated contracts and le-
gal divisions in the various Bureaus were transferred to such Division.
4. Procurement legal services in the Navy Department are now
rendered by men forming a part of the Office of the Under Secretary
and directly responsible to the Under Secretary. The fact that the
men in the branch offices also report directly to the respective
Bureau Chiefs (and not to any subordinate Bureau officers) will not
diminish their responsibility to the Under Secretary but is intended
only to advise the Bureau Chiefs directly of the work being performed
in their respective Bureaus.
5. Prior to the establishment of the Procurement Legal Division,
procurement legal services had been jointly rendered by contracts
divisions responsible only to Chiefs of Bureaus and nen in the Office
of the Judge Advocate General physically located away from the Bureaus
and reviewing contracts in the main only after completion of all nego-
tiations and without intimate knowledge of the progress of the negotiations.
6. The establishment of the Division has enabled the Under Secre-
tary to free himself from the clerical work of signing innumerable con-
tracts (through delegation of such authority to the Bureau Chiefs) with
the assurance that control of policy and details was being maintained
through examination of contracts by direct representatives.
7. The key personnel of this Division were selected by the
Under Secretary from the field of business lawyers and their names
are --
In the supervisory office, H. Struve Hensel (formerly
a partner of Milbank, Tweed & Hope, New York City) is Chief
of the Division and W. John Kenney (formerly practicing alone
in Los Angeles) is Assistant Chief;
In the branch offices, Patrick H. Hodgson (formerly a
partner of Kenefick, Cooke, Mitchell, Bass & Letchworth in
Buffalo) is counsel for the Bureau of Ships; Richard S. Kyle
(formerly a partner of Hawkins, Delafield and Longfellow in
New York) is counsel for the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts;
W. Randall Compton (formerly a partner of Semmes, Bowen &
Semmes in Baltimore) is counsel for the Bureau of Ordnance;
Edward G. Chandler (formerly a partner of Athearn, Farmer &
Chandler in San Francisco) is counsel for the Bureau of Yards
and Docks; Stuart N. Scott (formerly a partner of Root, Clark,
Buckner & Ballantine in New York City) is counsel for the
Bureau of Aeronautics; James A. Fowler, Jr. (formerly a part-
ner of Wright, Gordon, Zachry, Parlin and Cahill in New York
City) is counsel for the Bureau of Naval Personnel; and Lt.
Comdr. Richard Spencer (formerly a partner of Spencer, Marzall,
Johnson & Cook in Chicago) is in charge of the Patents Branch.
A number of the lawyers now in the branch offices were originally employed
in the supervisory office and that practice can continue. W. John Kenney
was at one time counsel for the Bureau of Ordnance and H. Struve Hensel
and Richard S. Kyle were formerly in charge of the Tax Certification
work. Further rotation of personnel is possible but must be tempered
by the necessity of not interfering with the progress of the work or
the familiarity of the lawyers with the personnel and particular prob-
lems of the Bureaus for which they have acted for considerable periods.
James Forrestal
2-26-43
This photocal sent
to Rh by Lewis Darter
Jr. a the administrative
JAN 13 1949
Office 1 the any Dept
(Director office Methods-
Herbert E. angels offer)
Mr. Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
The original document has
an Jan. 4, 1949.
165 West 46th Street
New York 19, N. Y.
been placed with the files
Dear Mr. Morgenthau:
of the sec. 7 the Havy in
the a ational arthines
A friend of mine in the Navy Department in Washington
H.K.
recently happened to see in the files of the Secretary of the Navy
a penciled note written by President Roosevelt to Secretary of the
Navy Frank Knox. Although the note is undated, it was apparently
written by the President in February, 1943.
He has sent me a photostatic copy of the note, and as it
is an item of some interest and concerns you, I have enclosed a
photostatic copy which you may wish to keep. We had no copy of this
note in the Library, and I am retaining another photostatic copy
here. The note reads as follows:
F.K.
The last Lockheed plane we gave to
H M. Jr. was 3 years ago - Since then it
has gone through a tree - So did Henry -
will you please take it back & send him a
new air taxi - one of the new 80 Lockheeds
you are getting this Spring.
FDR
You will recall that the last time you were in this Library
you asked me to look into the possibility of having duplicates made
of the Kodachrome print of President Roosevelt which hangs in my
office. I have consulted with several photographers concerning this
Mr. Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
2.
JAN 13 1042
matter, and they tell me that this print is apparently made from a
hand retouched negative which is presumably still in the possession
of the photographer. They say that it would be impossible to
duplicate the quality of this print without using the original
negative. All that I can suggest, therefore, if you care to pursue
the matter further, is that you have an inquiry sent to Mr. B. Movin-
Hermes, photographer to the King of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden, concerning
the possibility of obtaining additional prints from this negative.
Sincerely yours,
Human Reha
Herman Kahn
Director
Enclosure
HK:nvn
This mins.
by President
probably written
in February
1943
Dlyeager
J.K.
The fast Lackbood plane
"I years apo Passe then it
are your I H m.g was
has Jan. Through A THE - Is
did Henry - Will you phose
take it back a and him
a kin air Taxi - one of
the new 80 Luckheds you
are getting The ofing
70P
2-1-21
HK :
I find from the Morgenthau Diary that HM Jr was in a near-crackup of his
personal plane on Oct. 3, 1938 somewhere in Dutchess County, the plane grazing
several trees, so that the FOR reference in the attached memo is doubtless to
the word "tree." There is no copy of this nemo of 1943 anon? the HM papers for
that period, though there is a letter from Knox advising HM that a new plane
would be placed at his disposal. The Knox letter is dated Feb. 26, 1943.
GWR
PSF
Navy
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
KNOX
March 23, 1943.
MEMORANDUM FOR
WILLIAM D. HASSETT:
will you check un and see if
you can get a line on the type and
kind of story written by John Hersey,
Associate Editor of Time Incorporated?
F.D.R.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
March 22, 1943.
MEMORANDUM FOR:
The President.
I recommend approval.
Mr. Hersey assisted in the care and
removal of wounded under fire on two separate
occasions.
Very respectfully,
W.THIM VILSON BROWN.
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
WASHINGTON
March 19, 1943
MEMORANDUM FOR NAVAL AIDE TO THE PRESIDENT.
There is forwarded herewith a recomendation for the award of
the Silver Star Medal to John Hersey, Associate Editor, Time Incorporated,
a civilian, in recognition of his conduct during combat operations against
the enemy in Guadalcanal Area on October 7 and 8, 1942.
The President has indicated his desire that awards of this kind
to civilians be submitted to him for final approval.
FrankStuox
So Watern 3018 medale) a OFFICE
w
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
MAR 943PM
OF THE SECRETARY
WASHINGTON
March 8, 1943
Room
RECEIVED NAVY DEPARTMENT
SEVENTH ENDORSEMENT
$EC'YS OFFICE RECORD on
50-2-18-70
From:
The Secretary of the Navy.
To:
Senior Member of the Navy Department Board
of Decorations and Medals.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey. Associate
Editor, Time Incorporated.
1.
Returned. I approve the recommendation of
the Commander in Chief, United States Fleet, that John Hersey
be awarded the Silver Star Medal.
Frankstnon
on
KW
COMINCH FILE
UNITED STATES FLEET
HEADQUARTERS OF THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF
FF1/P15(2)
NAVY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Serial: 1420
MAR 7 1943
SIXTH ENDORSEMENT to
4
CO, 7th Marines, 1st MarDiv
FMF, In the Field, ltr. 1740
MAR 94 17DD-jd (3113) of October 22,
Secup
1942.
From:
The Commander in Chief, United States Fleet.
TO
#
The Secretary of the Navy.
A
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate
RECEIVED NAVY DEPARTMENT
Editor, Time Incorporated.
SEC'YS OFFICE . RECORD 1.
Forwarded, concurring in the recommendation
or
of the Commanding General, First Marine Division.
30-2-18-70
R. S. EDWARDS
Chief of Staff.
PRINT
m No
R.S.
s
3 165
COMMANDER IN CHIEF
Pers328-HBY
U.S.FLEET
P15(HA)
RECEIVED
FIFTH ENDORSEMENT to
CO, 7th Marines, 1st MarDiv
MAR 4 1943
1943 MAR 5 9 05
FMP, In the Field, ltr. 1740
ALS-jd (3113) dated Oct. 22, 1942.
From:
The Chief of Naval Personnel.
To :
The Secretary of the Navy.
Via :
The Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate Editor,
Time Incorporated.
1.
Forwarded, concurring in the recommendation of the Board of
Decorations and Medals.
dowards L.E. Denield
The Assistant Chief of Naval Personnel
Copy to:
Bd of Dec & Medals
Secy Files
Cominch
ADDRESS REPLY TO
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
AND REFER TO INITIALS
AND No.
QB4-OHA
NAVY DEPARTMENT
WASHINGTON
Fourth
Endorsement
to co, 7th Marines, 1st MarDiv
FMF, In the Field, ltr. 1740
ALS-jd (3113) dated Oct. 22, 1942.
Board of Decorations and
From:
The Senior Member of the Navy Department Ressessio Burth 380
Medale.
To :
The Secretary of the Navy.
Via :
(1) The Chief of Naval Personnel.
(2) The Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet.
Subject: Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate Editor,
Time Incorporated.
Reference: (a) co, 7th Marines, lot MarDiv, FMF, In the Field, ltr. 1740
ALS-Jd (3113) dated Oct. 22, 1942, with forwarding ends.
1.
Considered at the meeting of the Board of Awards held Feb. 25, 1943.
2. Recommendation: That John Hersey, Associate Editor of Time Incor-
porated, be addressed a Letter of Commendation by the Secretary of the Nevy
in recognition of his conduct during combat operations against the enemy in
Guadalcanal Area on October 7 and 8, 1942, as set forth in reference (a).
A. E. WATSON
Senior Member
0.
By direction
Copy to:
Bd of Dec & Medale
Secy Files
Cominch
Third Endorsement
17 December, 1942.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE COMMANDER, SOUTH PACIFIC FORCE
OF THE UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET
From:
The Commander South Pacific Area and
South Pacific Force.
To :
The Secretary of the Navy.
Via :
The Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet.
Bd.of BID 18 Dear 3/3
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate
The
Editor, Time Incorporated.
1.
Forwarded, recommending approval.
S02 18 70
to
W. F. HALSEY.
PAINT
There 8-25-23 s
OF THE AMIZED BLYIES
OL THE
INTLO EUGOLI
1355
066/321
1st Endorsement.
28 October, 1942.
First Marine Division, FMF., c/o Postmaster, San Francisco, Calif.
From:
The Commanding General.
To :
The Secretary of the Navy.
Via :
(1) The Commander, Amphibious Force, South Pacific
Force and Area.
(2) The Commander, South Pacific Force and Area.
(3) The Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate Editor,
Time Incorporated.
1.
Forwarded, recommending award of the Silver Star Medal
for the action set forth in the basic correspondence.
2.
Mr. Hersey was serving in the capacity of a war cor-
respondent with the U.S. Navy at the time of the actions described.
a
A. A. VANDEGRIFT.
6-90
1740-55
7/29-1rl
2nd Endorsement
? December, 1942.
HEADQUARTERS, FIRST MARINE AMPHIBIOUS CORPS.
From:
The Commending General.
To :
The Commander, South Pacific Force and Area.
1.
Forwarded, recommending approval.
B. VOGEL.
S02 18 70
1740
7th Marines, First Marine Division,
ALS-Ja
Fleet Marine Force,
(3113)
In the Field.
22 October, 1942.
From:
The Commanding Officer.
To:
The Commanding General, First Marine Division.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate Editor,
Time Incorporated.
1.
The following facts are forwarded for appropriate
consideration and action.
(a) On 7 October John Hersey, an Associate Editor of
Time Incorporated accompanied the Headquarters and Service Company,
7th Marines to the Regimental Command Post located east of the
Matanikau River, at (71.5-199.2) see Guadaleanal Map 104, to observe
combat operations against the enemy which took place in that vicinity
on 7 and 8 October, 1942.
(b) Late on the afternoon of ? October Mr. Hersey
desiring to secure first hand information on the progress of the
operation, descended a ravine located at (71.2-199)-(71.4-199.1)
to a point where the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines WAS encountering
enemy resistance to their front. The 3rd Battalion then being
under heavy machine gun and mortar fire suffered several casualties.
Mr. Hersey without regard for his own safety, and over and above
his assignment, while under fire helped remove the wounded out of
the ravine to an aid station.
(c) On 8 October Mr. Hersey followed the operation
very closely from the 7th Marines forward Command Post at (70.9-
199.1). Early in the afternoon of that day Mr. Hersey left the
Command Post to go forward and witness the crossing of the Matanikau
River by the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines. In the sector where the
crossing W&B taking place enemy fire was encountered. Just north
of the crossing along the Matanikau River "G" Company, 2nd Battalion,
5th Marines was mopping up a group of enemy mortars and machine guns.
Mr. Hersey went into this area to witness the mopping up. "G"
Company had some casualties including their battalion commander.
Mr. Hersey without regard to his own safety, and disregarding enemy
fire, helped to evacuate the wounded out of the ravine to an aid
station where the casualties were treated.
(d) Mr. Hersey's actions are commendable for his
disregard of enemy fire and the safety of his own life. His conduct
was outstandingly conspicuous by reason of his being an observer and
therefore not required to undergo the dangers which be subjected
himself top.
S02 18 70
SHIS WGT HANY
(2ITS)
BL-BJA
OATI
COMINCH FILE
UNITED STATES FLEET
HEADQUARTERS OF THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF
FF1/P15(2)
NAVY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Serial: 1420
SIXTH ENDORSEMENT to
co, 7th Marines, 1st MarDiv
FMF, In the Field, ltr. 1740
ALS-jd (3113) of October 22,
1942.
From:
The Commander in Chief, United States Fleet.
To :
The Secretary of the Navy.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate
Editor, Time Incorporated.
1.
Forwarded, concurring in the recommendation
of the Commanding General, First Marine Division.
R. 8. EDWARDS
Chief of Staff.
5 EFF
OF AND 9
an INSURANCE
2067931 T#50
(s)ection
COMER LICE
D
Third Endorsement
17 December, 1942.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE COMMANDER, SOUTH PACIFIC FORCE
OF THE UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET
From:
The Commander South Pacific Area and
South Pacific Force.
To :
The Secretary of the Navy.
Via :
The Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate
Editor, Time Incorporated.
1.
Forwarded, recommending approval.
V. F. HALSEY.
S02 18 70
1355
066/321
lot Endorsement.
28 October, 1942.
First Marine Division, FMF., c/o Postmaster, San Francisco, Calif.
From:
The Commanding General.
To :
The Secretary of the Navy.
Via :
(1) The Commander, Amphibious Force, South Pacific
Force and Area.
(2) The Commander, South Pacific Force and Area.
(3) The Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate Editor,
Time Incorporated.
1.
Forwarded, recommending award of the Silver Star Medal
for the action set forth in the basic correspondence.
2.
Mr. Hersey was serving in the capacity of a war cor-
respondent with the U.S. Navy at the time of the actions described.
A. A. VANDEGRIFT.
6-90-
1740-55
7/29-1rl
2nd Endorsement
7 December, 1942.
HEADQUARTERS, FIRST MARINE AMPHIBIOUS CORPS.
From:
The Commanding General.
To :
The Commander, South Pacific Force and Area.
1.
Forwarded, recommending approval.
CLAYTON B. VOGEL.
Cópus for white Hanse Jule
ISE/ADO
1222
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
WASHINGTON
March 16, 1943
MEMORANDUM FOR NAVAL AID TO THE PRESIDENT.
60-2-18-70
There is forwarded herewith a recommendation for the award of
the
the Silver Star Medal to John Hersey, Associate Editor, Time Incorpo-
rated, a civilian, in recognition of his conduct during combat opera-
tions against the enemy in Guadelcanal Area on October 7 and 8, 1942.
The President has indicated his desire to be advised when n-
wards of this kind are made. May we have his approval?
1/2/ PRANT KNOW
Copy for White House file
CENTER
]
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
OFFICE 19 THE SECRETARY
WASHINGTON
March 8, 1943
SEVENTH ENDORSEMENT
80-2-18-70
From:
The Secretary of the Navy.
To:
Senior Member of the Navy Department Board
of Decorations end Medals.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate
Editor, Time Incorporated.
1.
Returned, I approve the recommendation of
the Commander in Chief, United States Fleet, that John Hersey
be owarded the Silver Star Medal
/a/ FRANK KNOX
3
COMINCH FILE
UNITED STATES FLEET
HEADQUARTERS OF THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF
FF1/P15(2(
HAVY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.
Serial: 1420
Mar 7, 1943
SIXTH ENDORSEMENT to
co, 7th Marines, 1st MarDiv
HMP, In the Field, ltr 1740
M.S-jd (3113) of October 22,
1942.
From:
The Commander in Chief, United States Fleet.
To :
The Secretary of the Navy.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate
Editor, Time Incorporated.
1.
Forwarded, concurring in the recommendation
of the Commanding General, First Merine Division.
/a/ R. S. EDWARDS,
Chief of Staff.
was SERVED
american
047127
0515 11:1703
CONTINER WIE
3 165
COMMANDER IN CHIEF
Pers 328-HBY
U.S. FLEET
F15 (AA)
RECEIVED
FIFTH ENDORSEMENT to
1943 MAR 5
Co, 7th Marines, 1st MarDiv
FMF, in the Field, ltr. 1740
ALS-jd (3113) dated Oct. 22, 1942.
From:
The Chief of Naval Personnel.
To :
The Secretary of the Nevy.
Via :
The Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate Editor,
Time Incorporated.
1.
Forwarded, concurring in the recommendation of the Board of
Decorations and Medals.
/8/ L.E. Denfeld
The Assistant Chief of Neval Personnel
Copy to:
Bd of Dec & Medals
Secy Files
Cominch
Address Reply to
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
and refer to initials
and No.
QB4-OHA
NAVY DEPARTMENT
WASHINGTON
Fourth Endorsement
to CO, 7th Marines, 1st MarDiv
FMF, In the Field, ltr. 1740
ALS-jd (3113) dated Oct. 22, 1942.
From:
The Senior Member of the Navy Department Board of Decorations and
Medals.
To :
The Secretary of the Navy
Via :
(1) The Chief of Naval Personnel,
(2) The Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet
Subject: Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate Editor,
Time Incorporated.
Reference: (n) CO, 7th Marines, 1st MarDiv, FMF, In the Field, ltr. 1740
ALS-jd (3113) dated Oct. 22, 1942, with forwarding ends.
1. Considered at the meeting of the Board of Awards held Feb. 25, 1943.
2. Recommendation: That John Hersey, Assocnite Editor of Time Incor-
porated, be addressed FL Letter of Commendation by the Secretary of the Navy
in recognition of his conduct during combat operations against the enemy in
Guadalcanal Area on October 7 and 8, 1942, ns set forth in reference (a).
A. E. WATSON
Senior Member
/s/ H. G. Fatrick
By direction
Copy to:
Bd of Dec & Medals
Secy Files
Cominch
Third Endorsement
17 December, 1942.
headquarters OF THE COMMANDER, SOUTH PACIFIC FORCE
OF THE UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET
From:
The Commander South Pncific Area end
South Incific Force,
To :
The Secretary of the Navy.
Via :
The Commander-in-Chief, Pncific Fleet.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate
Editor, Time Incorporated,
1.
Forwarded, recommending approval.
S02 18 70
LoL W. E- HALSEY,
official
2000 governges. year
US ZHR BATTERS
Ch. ME
brid?
SLOUS
1355
066/321
lot Endorsement.
28 October, 1942.
First Marine Division, FUF., c/o Postmaster, San Francisco, Calif.
From:
The Commanding General.
To :
The Secretary of the Navy,
Via :
(1) The Commander, Amphibious Force, South Pecific
Force and Area.
(2) The Commander, South Incific Force and Area.
(3) The Commendant, U.S. Marine Corps.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate Editor,
Time Incorporated.
1.
Forwarded, recommending award of the Silver Star Medal
for the action set forth in the basic correspondence.
2.
Mr. Hersey was serving in the capacity of a war cor-
respondent with the U.S. Navy at the time of the actions described.
_/a/_^ A. VANDEGRIFT
690
1740-55
7/29-1rl
2nd Endorsement
7 December, 1942,
HEADQUARTERS, FIRST MARINE AMPHIBIOUS CORPS.
From:
The Commanding General.
To :
The Commander, South Pacific Force end Area.
1.
Forwarded, recommending approval.
LBL CLAYTON B. VOGEL.
S02 18 70
1740
7th Marines, First Morine Division,
ALS-14
Fleet Morine Force,
(3113)
In the Field.
22 October, 19/2.
From:
The Commanding Officer.
To:
The Commending General, First Marine Division.
Subject:
Commendatory actions of John Hersey, Associate Editor,
Time Incorporated.
1.
The following fects are forwarded for appropriate
consideration and action.
(c) On 7 October John Hereey, en Annocinte Editor of
Time Incorporated accomunied the Headquarters and Service Company,
7th Marines to the Regisental Connand Post located east of the
Mateniken River, et (71.5-199.2) see Guadelcanal Man 104, to observe
combet operations against the enemy which took place in that vicinity
on 7 and 8 October, 1942.
(b) Late on the afternoon of 7 October Mr. Herney
desiring to secure first hand information on the progress of the
operation, descended A revine loosted at (71.2-199)-(71.4-199.1)
to a point where the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines were encountering
enemy resistance to their front. The 3rd Battelion then being
under heavy machine gun and norter fire suffered several casualties.
Mr. Hersey without regard for his own safety, end over and above
his assignment, while under fire helped remove the wounded out of
the ravine to en aid station.
(c) On a October Mr. Hersey followed the operation
very closely from the 7th Marines forward Commend Post at (70.9-
199.1). Early in the afternoon of that day Nr. Hersey left the
Command Post to go forward and witness the crossing of the Matenikau
River by the 2nd Battelion, 7th Marines. In the sector where the
crossing mes taking place enemy fire were encountered. Just north
of the crossing along the Natanikau River "0" Company, 2nd Battelion,
5th Marines THE mopping up a group of enemy mortars and machine guns.
Mr. Hersey went into this area to witness the mopping up. "G"
Company hnd some casuelties including their battalion commander,
Mr. llersey without regard to his own safety, and disregarding enemy
fire, helped to evacuate the wounded out of the ravine to an aid
station where the cosualties were treated,
(d) Mr. Herney's actions are commendable for his
disregard of enemy fire and the enfety of his own life. His conduct
WIS outstandingly conspieuous by reason of his being en observer and
therefore not required to undergo the dangers which be subjected
hinself to,
502_18_70
60L AMOR Loll SINS
OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION
WASHINGTON
March 24, 1943
Mr. William D. Hascett
The White House
Washington, D. C.
Dear Bill:
Here is a memorandum handed to me by Chester
Kerr, who is the chief of our book division and in
whose judgment I have complete confidence. Of course
he is, as you will note, a friend of John Hersey, but
that doesn't bother me at all as he would not dream
of letting that influence him in drafting a statement
for your use. His opinion of Mr. Hersey checks with
my own but if you want me to go further and get
other opinions I can naturally do SO.
May yours,
Henry Pringle
HFP:ra
FOR VICTORY
BUY
UNITED
STATES
WAR
BONDS
AND
STAMPS
Confidential
March 23, 1943
Memorandum to Henry Pringle
From Chester Kerr
John Hersey was born in China in 1914, where his
father was a missionary. He lived there until he was about
twelve, when the family returned to this country. The father
subsequently developed sleeping sickness and has been an in-
valid ever since. John and his two brothers earned their way
through school.
He attended Hotchkiss on scholarships, was outstanding
there in studies, athletics, and leadership, and easily won
scholarships to Yale, where he supported himself throughout. He
graduated from Yale in 1936, as one of the leading men in his
class. He was Phi Beta Kappa, he was vice-chairman of the News,
chairman of the prom, class secretary, football letterman, and
a member of a fraternity and senior society. Two months before
he graduated, he was awarded, on merit, without application (as
distinct from Rhodes scholarships), a year's scholarship at
Cambridge. He spent the next year in England, relaxing from
Yale competition, writing and destroying a novel, and maturing
considerably.
Upon his return in 1937 he spent four months as
private secretary to Sinclair Lewis. He then took and passed
Time's test for writers, refusing to draw on his Yale pull for a
job there. He began work for Time that fall and has remained wi th
them ever since.
He has written for almost every department of the
magazine, but in the past three years has been writing on foreign
affairs. Time sent him to China in 1940 and into the Pacific with
a Navy task force in the fall of 1942, as pert of their policy of
sending their war writers into the field. Today he is writing
and editing a substantial part of their "World Battlefronts"
section.
In the spring of 1942, his first book, MEN ON BATAAN,
was published by Knopf. It was written out of his firsthand
knowledge of MacArthur and the region and out of Time dispatches
and research. It had a moderate success.
In January 1943 his book INTO THE VALLEY, an account
of a Marine skirmish on Guadalcanal, which he took part in, was
published by Knopf and instantly received wide critical acclaim.
It has just been chosen as the second "Imperative" by the Council
on Books in Wartime.
John was my room-mate at Yale. I think he will inherit
Henry Luce's mantle, and in general I believe that will be a fine
thing for the country and for Time.
PSF Navy
Knexpean 2.13
file.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
March 25, 1943.
MEMORANDUM FOR
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
This matter of a decoration for
John Hersey, Associate Editor of
"TIME", does raise an interesting
point.
From all that I can make out,
Hersey is a pretty decent fellow
and has done good work for TIME
magazine for six years. All that
I hear of him is entirely favor-
able. The point is, however,
whether a correspondent serving
on a fighting front of the Army
or Navy should receive a decoration
for bringing in wounded in the
midst of a fight. I have no doubt
that any man, whether in service
uniform or correspondent's uniform,
who had red blood in his veins,
would do the same thing.
As far as I can make out, lots
of other people among the Marines
By Deputy DECLASSIFIED Archivist or the U.S.
By F. J. Stewart Date MAR 1.1972
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
-2-
at Guadalcanal did the same thing and
have not been decorated for it. And
equally I have no doubt that on the
Tunis front more than one correspondent
has helped to bring wounded men to
the rear. Any fellow -- in or out
of uniform -- would instinctively
help in a time of emergency like
that.
Please think this over and
talk with me about it.
F. D. R.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
March 24, 1943
MEMORATISM FOR THE PRESIDENT:
I nade inquiry of the Office of Var
Information upon receipt of your menornatur of
March twenty-third and find that John Hereey.
Associnte Editor of Time, Le today writing and
editing e substantial part of the Time feature,
"World Battlefronte". Last January be brought
out his recond book "Into the Valley", breed on
his experiences " n correspondent for Time on
Gundelonanl, which I en informed ver favorably
received. I an attaching herewith tear sheets
comprising the section "World Battlefronts"
from five issues of Time for March and February
this year.
Attached also is a confidential neno-
readus on Hereey from the Office of Ver Information.
Please let ne know If you desire to have the In-
quiry carried further.
V.D.H.
Time, mar
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
BATTLE OF AFRICA
future I know that each of us has no other
thought than to do his full duty and more
Here They Come
The Plotters of Souk-el-Spaatz
in clearing Tunisia." Eisenhower's "imme-
There was reason to believe last week
(See Cover)
diate future" started a flurry of newspaper
that a U-boat fleet, bigger and more dan-
In the evening. Tin Pan Alley tunes,
speculation. For reasons best known to the
gerous than ever, was moving westward
thumped and wheezed from a piano and an
Allied staffs, they were clearly telegraph-
from the middle Atlantic.
accordion, split the African darkness. The
ing the punch.
Canada's Air Minister C. G. Power an-
racket came from a rococo Moorish villa
Four months and seven days after U.S.
nounced four recent attacks by R.C.A.F.
which soldiers in the area call "Souk*-el-
and British forces had landed in French
patrol planes on Axis U-boats close to
Spaatz." But the concerts are only occa-
North Africa, the Tunisian theater was in
Canadian shores. Said he: "There seems
sional. Most of the time Souk-el-Spaatz
a state of suspense. Rommel, beaten and
little doubt that enemy submarines will
is a silent hive of conspiring and confer-
hurt (see P. 25), growled at the British
return in force to this side of the Atlantic
ring men. It is the headquarters of the air
Eighth Army with his artillery, snapped
with the coming of warmer weather."
war being waged by the Allies in Tunisia.
at British and French patrols which had
In Berlin, the German High Command
The principal conferees are four:
run around the southern end of the Mareth
pointed up the prospects with an ecstatic
shrewd, jug-eared Sir Arthur Tedder,
Line to get in on his flank.
communiqué: "In the snowstorms of the
dried-up, taciturn Carl ("Tooey") Spaatz,
In the central sector, U.S. and French
North Atlantic, the glaring sun of the
wiry, ebullient Jimmy Doolittle and hand-
patrols cautiously tested the Axis lines
Equator and the autumnal storms at the
some Arthur ("Mary") Coningham. They
from Gafsa to Faid Pass. North, the Brit-
Cape of Good Hope, German submarines
are a quartet of British and U.S. airmen
ish First Army, which had repulsed two
have sunk in the last five days, in fierce,
who have one plan: to let loose a thunder-
weeks of savage German jabs, now showed
tenacious fighting. 23 ships totaling 134,-
bolt on the enemy.
signs of taking a limited offensive. Some-
000 tons. A further six ships were tor-
Correspondents were allowed to cable
thing was imminent. The possibilities were
pedoed."
strong hints that the thunderbolt might
too explosive for any comparative quiet to
Marine underwriters reduced their rates
fall soon. Last week the Allied Com-
last very long. Said Eisenhower:
on 70 major world routes, noticeably did
mander in Chief, U.S. General Dwight
"Possibly he [the enemy] will make
not reduce them for Allied shipping on the
Eisenhower, said: "For the immediate
further and desperate efforts, but I know
North Atlantic runs.
Arabic for market place.
that the troops of our field armies will,
with the continued effective support of
our naval and air forces, inexorably push
AFRICAN
him back to the sea and destruction."
It will be up to the planners and plotters
of Souk-el-Spaatz to defeat the Luftwafe,
AIR
TTACK
support their own troops while they maul
Naples
the Axis and block the enemy's evacuation
from Tunisia. Their thunderbolt is an air
weapon, but they have designed it to strike
when & where it will best aid the men and
SARD
weapons on the ground. This integration
was the great achievement of Spaatz &
Cagliari
Co.: how to achieve it was something they
had learned the hard way.
The Freshmen. One day last Novem-
ber, three weeks after the Allied landing
Palermo
on the coast, a group of sweating U.S.
tankmen halted their 750-mile dash from
Oran, near the crest of a hill overlooking
Catania
Tunis. The prize was twelve miles away.
Bône
Twnit
They had paused for orders from the offi-
Pantelleria
Gela
cer commanding the shoestring force of
British infantry behind them, As they
DOOLITTLE
waited, two German fighter planes swooped
(Base and Supply Bombing)
over the hills and strafed the British in-
fantry, whose commander had belatedly
Malta
decided to wait for air support, The sup-
Sourse
port never came in time. Rushing German
strength stopped the Allied dash.
Lampedura
The first convoys did not bring enough
Sfax
fighter planes. Advanced airdromes were
scarce and ha'penny size. The Luftwafe,
with its shuttle service from Sicily, got
there first. The Allies backed up into the
Gabès
hills of northern Tunisia and the Allied
campaign mired down in the mud of
North Africa's winter, while Axis rein-
TUNISIA
forcements, ferried partly by air, poured
VISORIA
in from Sicily.
When U.S. airmen finally got their
LIBYA
Tripoli
so
100ml
planes, they were not too sure how to use
them. Actual combat held surprises which
Map by
Chapin,
no amount of maneuvers had trained them
20
TIME, March 22, 1943
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
to meet. SOP (standard operating pro-
cedure) did not cover the reality of battle.
There were tragic and vexatious blun-
ders. U.S. pilots in fighters and hedge-
hopping bombers strafed and bombed U.S.
tanks. In self-defense-and sometimes
in panic and ignorance-tankmen turned
their ack-ack fire on their own planes.
The bungles could hardly be blamed on
Jimmy Doolittle, who then commanded
the Twelfth U.S. Air Force, or on anyone
else in particular. All U.S. troops made
errors in those frantic, freshmen days of
combat, when the Allied armies were
struggling across the muddy, mountainous
country between Algeria and the coast
of Tunisia.
The vexatious thing was that U.S. and
British troops outnumbered the Axis. But
the veteran Germans, working with the co-
ordination of a meat grinder, cut them off
and chewed them up, while Rommel, re-
treating from Tripoli, established himself
strongly along the coast, reached out and
joined hands with Colonel General Jürgin
International
von Arnim.
CONINGHAM, SPAATZ, TEDDER
The Heroic. It was not all a tale of
Between them they forged a thunderbolt.
Allied confusion and ineptness. There were
plenty of stories of smart improvisation,
England to act as air adviser to Eisen-
tons, Airacobras, Hurri-bombers, Hurri-
reckless courage. Overnight, during the
hower.
canes carrying tank-busting cannon. In
December days of the drive to the coast,
The Graduates. Allied officers had com-
late January the British Eighth Army
engineers magically rolled out landing
piled a fat, black book of errors which
drew up in the south with its powerful
fields in the muddy hollows of Tunisia's
Spaatz and they hastened to correct. In-
Allied Western Desert air forces.
sharp ridges. Pup-tent bases sprang up
stead of trying to identify each other in
Axis air strength grew too, Estimates,
like fungi. Overworked and weary crews
the heat of action, commanders of the
probably exaggerated, were that one-fifth
serviced their own planes, nightly refueled
various units would have to know in ad-
of Germany's Luftwafe was concentrated
their Fortresses by hand from five-gallon
vance where and how each arm intended
in the area, almost the entire Italian air
tins (fuel capacity of a Fortress: over
to operate at a given, precise time. Spaatz
force. German veterans from France and
2,000 gallons), then crawled under pup
learned the Germans' science of establishing
Russia appeared. P-38 pilots developed a
tents to sleep a few hours.
local air supremacy. He learned that, over-
"Messerschmitt twitch," a nervous glance
One P-40 squadron carried on a single-
night, in an area where experience and
back over the shoulder. Axis anti-aircraft
handed guerrilla warfare in support of U.S.
reconnaissance indicated be would oppose
fire intensified. caught many an unlucky
and French troops. Unofficial leader of the
so enemy fighters, the German strength
medium bomber before the high command
squadron: Major (now Lieut. Colonel)
would become suddenly 100 fighters. He
realized that these planes were better
Philip Cochran, the original "Flip Corkin"
learned that when the Germans intended
suited to sweeps against shipping.
of Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates
to go somewhere on the ground, Nazi dive-
But, except for fewer & fewer occasions
comic strip (see cut), He dashed one early
bombers would abruptly take command.
when the Germans seized local command,
morning to the holy city of Kairouan,
The Allies worked doggedly to overcome
the Allies won ascendancy and held it.
swooped at low level and dropped a bomb
the difficulties of supplying forward bases.
During the first four months the Allies
smack on to a building where the German
Reinforcements arrived. Long-range, multi-
destroyed 790 Axis planes over North-
staff was meeting. There was many another
purpose P-38 Lightnings, flew from Eng-
west Africa, lost 333- During the past six
story of luck and heroism. But U.S. air
land with extra fuel tanks strapped to
weeks U.S. pilots have scored 2-1. They
and ground units, blundering through the
their bellies, fought back Messerschmitt
had come far since the awkward, learning
complexities of coordinated operation, were
1095 and Focke-Wulf 190s, which thus far
days of early winter.
about ready to declare war on each other
had reigned supreme. Tropicalized Spit-
The Doctrine. Pale, birdlike Air Chief
when Tooey Spaatz was ordered from
fires arrived, Marauders, Mitchells, Bos-
Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, who had
CADST LEE, REVEMBER
YES,
NON- 10/25 - THE AR-POINO
STICK AND RUDDER, LEE!
YOUR WINO TMP CAUGHT
THAT THE MOST DEFICILT
MAJOR
100 MPM AT 1000 FEET.. YOU
DON'T DROP YOUR NOSE!
ON A TREE BECAUSE
MANEUVER CAN as
CORKIN
come OUT OF A CLOUD-AND
POWER LEE! one IT SPEED
YOU DIDN LEVEL OFF...
ACCOMPLISHED BY MOVING
THERE'S A HILL DEAR AREAD!
OR YOU'LL SPIN
YOURE DEAD AND
YOU WERE SUCH 4.
THE STICK NO MORE THAN
PROMISING YOUND
AN INCH IN ANY DIRECTION!
FELLER for
© N.Y. News Syndicate Co., Inc.
CANIFF'S CORKIN
The major's friends made worse bungles.
TIME, March 22, 1943
21
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
planned the strategy for cracking Rom-
Spaatz: "The high command merely says
ordinated in the third phase. Coningham's
mel's Luftwafe in Egypt, had become
"The air force will take care of that,' and
bombers pounded rear lines while his fight-
Spaatz's boss by then. The Casablanca
by God we do."
ers strafed the front. All through the long
conference had given Sir Arthur command
Spaatz and Tedder would not argue that
desert chase Coningham and Montgomery
of Allied air from North Africa's west
they are fighting an unconnected war.
worked hand in glove.
coast throughout the Mediterranean area.
Their main objective is the same as the
Last week the Tunisian air campaign
Spaatz had been made his chief of
ground troops'. Tedder and Spaatz confer
was in Phase No. t-the strategic bomb-
operations in Tunisia. Under Spaatz the
often with Eisenhower and General Sir
ing of Axis bases and land & water supply
jobs were carefully subdivided. One job
Harold Alexander, General Ike's chief of
routes. Phase No. 2 will come when the
was the bombing of Axis ports and supply
ground operations. They compose the tune.
ground forces are ready, or almost ready.
to start their drive, Then "Mary" Coning-
ham's short-range planes will try to liqui-
date the Luftwafe. The whole execution
is in the hands of Tooey Spaatz. For the
Allies to win on the ground, he must first
win the air. In Phase No. 3 will come the
pay-off.
The Troubadour. The man in whose
hands rests the thunderbolt has had a typi-
cal veteran U.S. air-force man's career. It
varied from the norm only in details. In
1899-at the age of eight-redheaded Carl
Spatz (later changed to Spaatz) was the
youngest linotype operator in Pennsylva-
nia, He operated the machine in the Boyer-
town, Pa. print shop where his Pennsyl-
vania Dutch father and grandfather pub-
lished the Berks County Democrat. Carl
had a happier time playing the guitar,
which Father Spatz taught him in the eve-
ning. Father Spatz, who became a state
senator, got him an appointment to West
Point, so off he went in 1910, lugging his
guitar.
He strummed his way through without
scholarly distinction, but with plenty of
friends and a new nickname, Tooey. He
Acme
caught a glimpse one day of Glenn Curtiss
DOOLITTLE & FRIENDS
making his record-breaking flight from Al-
They corrected 4 fat, black book of errors.
bany to New York. That day Tooey had a
glimpse of his own career. The army, he
lines: the other was the operation of
Spaatz arranges and conducts it. Doolittle
figured, was at least the place where he
fighter planes and attack bombers in co-
and Coningham bang it out in the air.
could learn to fly.
ordination with ground activities. Spaatz's
At Souk-el-Spaatz the entire air com-
In Mexico with Pershing's Punitive Ex-
deputy to run the long-range bombing
mand has become an interlacing of U.S.
pedition, he played his guitar, collaborated
was Jimmy Doolittle, who had been none
warp and British woof. For every staff
on a composition called the Punitive Rag.
too happy with the mass of administrative
office held by a Briton, an American oc-
and when World War I came along sailed
detail which his original command had
cupies an opposite number. Tedder calls
for France. There to his chagrin he was
involved. His deputy to command the
Spaatz "Tooey"; Spaatz calls Tedder
assigned to a pilot-training job at Issoudun.
ground support: Arthur Coningham, the
"Arthur." It is Arthur who occasionally
The legend is that he went AWOL from
tall, genial expert who had run Tedder's
in the evening plays U.S. tunes on the
the school in order to get in a few personal
Egyptian show (see map, P. 20).
piano, Tooey, who is a guitar virtuoso,
licks at the Germans and narrowly es-
Spaatz and Tedder see eye to eye. They
broods because he has no instrument with
caped serious disciplining. The fact is he
have the same airman's view of how air
him. The French are scouring Algeria for
was decorated with a Distinguished Serv-
power should be used. Ground staffs con-
one so Toocy can join in.
ice Cross for his exploits in France.
ceived of it too often merely as "field
The Plot. The tactics which the plot-
During the postwar days of aviation
artillery." This was not the way airmen
ters of Souk-el-Spaatz have worked out
Tooey Spaatz (who added the extra "a"
saw it. Tedder spelled out their doctrine:
are probably based on Tedder's tactics
because frequent mispronunciations of
"Air war is a separate war, though linked
in the Egyptian campaign.
Spatz as "Spats" instead of "Spots" sent
to those on land & sea. Command
After Rommel's attack on the Alamein
him into a fury) became one of the faith-
of the air determines what happens on
line in August had been turned back. Al-
ful around Billy Mitchell. In 1942 he was
land & sea.
The essential lesson
lied planes began a campaign of strategic
serving as Chief of the Air Force Combat
learned in the Middle East is that an air
bombing. They blasted Rommel's trans-
Command, when he was suddenly yanked
force is a separate offensive entity, strik-
port columns, bases, shipping. Then, in a
out and sent to England to command and
ing at the enemy in cooperation with the
second phase, Coningham stepped up his
train the Eighth Army Air Force.
army."
operations until he was conducting an all-
The Veteran. The British approved
The U.S. Air Forces do not have the
out air offensive. He knocked out the
him. Blunt as a hammer, he remarked to
R.A.F.'s complete independence, but they
Luftwafe. The onslaught was independent
Sir Sholto Douglas, then chief of the Fight-
do have operational autonomy. In Africa
of and preceded by two weeks General
er Command: "Sir Sholto, I hear you are
Spaatz's airmen found themselves operat-
Sir Bernard Law Montgomery's ground
a son-of-a-bitch and that I'm not going to
ing with the same freedom enjoyed by the
attack. But when Montgomery's Eighth
get along with you at all. Is that right?"
R.A.F. Said one U.S. officer at Souk-el-
hit, air and ground were immediately co-
They got along like a thumb and a first
22
TIME, March 22. 1943
phase.
his
fight-
Coningham
Jime, Fet harch 22.
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
finger. At a military demonstration he sat
The Germans are using air-burst anti-
BATTLE OF RUSSIA
next to King George for half an hour, ex-
personnel shells.
changed only a how-do-you-do and a good-
11:30-There is a buzzing above our
Little Shaver
by, Spaatz's verdict on the equally re-
heads, Someone shouts: "They're ours,"
Treetop level is the favorite operational
served King of England: "A wonderful
and there are 20 Kittyhawks and Spitfires
height for Russian flyers; their favorite
man." When the Queen paid a visit to the
above us. Eight German planes are seen
plane for hedge-hopping attack is the
U.S. Air Forces and it began to shower,
flying above our left flank.
U.S.-built, cannon-carrying Airacobra.
quiet, grizzled Spaatz wrapped his raincoat
1:20-Guns on our side are so far
Russians call such flying "shaving"; the
around Her Majesty. Another man might
silent. Then the right opens up. The Ger-
Airacobra they have affectionately nick-
have preserved the coat as a relic. Spaatz
mans reply with shells which explode near
named "Little Shaver."
wears it all the time, It is as torn and
the highway, up which ammunition trucks
stained as his old pancake cap with the
are unperturbedly traveling.
Counter-Attack
ripped-out lining.
1:25-A loud roaring noise of planes in
In Russia the spotlight was on the south
His own men learned to venerate the
a dive. Someone shouts: "Those aren't
again, but this time the whole aspect of
old-line, wind-beaten, open-cockpit veter-
ours." Out of the sun across the battlefield
the front was importantly changed.
an of the Air Corps. They told each other
sweep three planes toward Edinburgh
The Germans, not the Russians, were
the story of the night he stood on a Lon-
Castle. A loud series of crumps rends the
on the march, In a fortnight, German
don rooftop observing a German air raid,
air, huge clouds of blackish-grey smoke
forces pressed the Russians back some 8o
The Nazis' aim was wild, the bombs fell
spring up at the foot of Edinburgh. Ma-
miles along a 200-mile front (seemap,p.26).
helter-skelter. Spaatz began to fume and
curse, suddenly roared: "The damn fools
are setting air power back 20 years."
Early last December he was sent to
North Africa. There he learned, last week,
that he had beenmade a lieutenant general.
Spaatz has few relaxations: squash, fish-
ing, poker, which be plays with a some-
times wild abandon, betting, according to
his wife, "on anything." But at Souk-el-
Spaatz, he plays less & less. His habitual
tension has increased. Recently he wrote
to Mrs. Spaatz: "I'm looking forward to
the day when we can reoccupy our shack
own a boat on the Potomac and float
up & down on the tide." The "shack" is
the comfortable, 133-year-old home in
Alexandria which Tooey bought one week
before Dec. 7.
Tooey Spaatz was probably kidding him-
self, He looks forward to action. After
Tunisia is cleared out, Axis bases on Pan-
Savioto
RUINS IN KHARKOV
telleria and Lampedusa must be blasted off
the face of the Mediterranean, the great
The Germans gave the world a startling reminder.
Axis strongholds on Sicily and Sardinia
chine gunners on Sherman tanks let loose
Below Kharkov the line was pushed right
reduced, Italy or the Balkans-whatever
at the planes. Startled birds scatter in all
back to the Donets River. Strong forces
the route-pummeled and softened for the
directions.
moved to attack Kharkov itself.
invading Allied armies. It will be a long
1:30-German shells are growing nearer.
The question was no longer whether
time before Tooey Spaatz floats up & down
One burst has landed just to the left of a
the Germans would be able to hold the
on the tidewater of the Potomac.
battery of ours, another one clatters down
line of the Dnieper, or keep the Ukraine.
near some bushes where we know a bat-
The question now was whether the Ger-
Graveyard
tery is. In a cloud of smoke our gunners
mans would have the strength or the de-
Rommel hoped he might throw his old
seem to have disappeared, but in a few
sire to mount another huge offensive in
enemy off balance. In the fine, slanting
minutes there is a flash of fire from the
Russia this spring and summer.
rain of an early Tunisian morning he sent
bushes and we know our gunners are still
Winter Is a Traitor. Since Novem-
the tanks charging south toward the little
there.
ber and Stalingrad, the Russians had been
town of Médinine, which the Eighth Army
Valley of Death. In a dried-up river
moving forward. Winter had enlisted in
had occupied. From the foothills of the
gulch yellow-haired Sergeant Ivor An-
the Russian services of supply, which
Matmata Mountains, nest of the Mareth
drews watched 17 German tanks file up a
depended, in winter, on three things-rails,
Line fortifications, Rommel's cannon laid
slope, let the first four go by towards an-
wheeled vehicles, and above all, snow ve-
down a barrage to cover the advance.
other gun crew, knocked out the next
hicles; shows had helped sleighs, had fa-
British artillery was in position before
three. When Belden visited the battlefield
vored horseflesh over motors, the wooden
Médinine. Some of their gun emplace-
after it was all over, he counted 52 Ger-
ski over the steel half-track. The Russians
ments were on two hillocks, dubbed Ele-
man tanks left on the arid, rock-strewn
had learned how to move mechanized
phant Hill and Edinburgh Castle, which
plain between the Matmata Mountains
armies through the snow, The Russians'
stuck up like two pimples in the plain.
and the Mediterranean Sea. Some were
hope, they knew, was to keep moving and
Others were on the ridges behind, where
blackened from fire, some were still
to keep the Germans off balance. This
TIME'S Correspondent Jack Belden also
splotched with green camouflage and black
they could do-and did impressively well
stood and watched one phase of one
crosses. Turrets were torn off, fronts were
-until they had to pause to regroup their
day's battle. Belden wrote in his notebook:
blown in. They were casualties of Rom-
forces. and until they ran ahead of supplies.
11 a.m.-Germans land shells atop Ed-
mel's most earnest attempt to hit back at
Then. just as winter betrayed Hitler
inburgh Castle. Dark, black streamers of
the British Eighth Army since the Eighth
in 1941, it deserted the Russians this
smoke suddenly appear in the sky over us.
had chased him out of Egypt.
year. Thaws came early. And they came
TIME, March 22, 1943
25
great
the
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
Limited Attack
Belgored
NAZIS
When the Germans last week abandoned
STRIKE BACK
Vyazma on the Smolensk front (see map),
they said that they were merely shorten-
ing their lines. That had been the explana-
Kharkov
tion for withdrawals in the Donets area,
too, and yet last week the Germans busily
lengthened their lines there (see P. 25).
"Line-shortening" could no longer be
Poltava
taken seriously as an excuse for retreats.
yi
Izyum
The departure from Vyazma was evi-
Krasnograd
Kremenchug
Lisichansk
dently imposed on the Germans, The Rus-
sians claimed to have found in the town
83 tanks, 69 guns, 222 machine guns, 565
Lozonvoya
Stalingrad
trucks and tractors, 57 locomotives, 515
wagons. The Germans admitted leaving
Pavlograd
59 burned-out broad-gauge locomotives,
two motor vehicle "cemeteries" and 200
Dniepropetrove
destroyed freight cars-all said to be Rus-
sian.
300 mi,to
As for the Russians, they had not de-
Festung Europa
Stalino
veloped any vast strategy of offense in
Zaporoshe
the Smolensk area. They advanced front-
ally. Towns fell in order. No big encircle-
ments seemed to be going on.
Rostov
The Russian objective on this front ap-
Deteper
parently was to push the Germans back
Mariupal
Taganrog
from their springboards before Moscow
Melitopol
FINLAND
take
5a
just at the time when the Russians had
had been vanguard became rearguard and
crossed the Donets into the area where
fought as fiercely going backward as it
the Germans had adjusted the gauge of
had going forward, What were to have
FINDLES
rail lines (in white on map). The Rus-
been the arms of a German pincer west
Novgored
sians were suddenly deprived of two of
of the Donets embraced emptiness, con-
Pekev
their three methods of transport and were
verged, and drove frontally on Kharkov.
dependent on wheels and muddy roads.
Kharkov was of supreme importance.
Russa
At the very moment when the Red
Without it, the German salient reaching
Velikie Luki
attackers reached the tensile limit of their
eastward into the Donets basin would be
Byrlyi
Rshev
supply lines, the Germans threw twelve
vulnerable to flank attack from the north,
fresh tank and infantry divisions into the
the German north-south lines would be
Vitabek
Nyazma
Moscow
fight. Moscow said that the arrival of
seriously interrupted. With it, the Ger-
these forces involved a lessening of the
mans would be in the best position for
Smelansk
German forces in France-hence renewed
an advance (if advance the Germans can)
Russian complaints about bearing the
into the soft area between Stalingrad and
whole weight of war.
Moscow. Early this week the Russians
The Germans attacked at an opportune
admitted that they had lost Kharkov.
Orel
time and a crucial place. The Russians
Donets for Defense? If the Germans
Dan
were shifting their attention northward
Kyrsk
do succeed in re-establishing the Donets
(see col. 3). The Russian excuse for
line, the net result of the Russian drive
Voronezh
Kiev
the southern reverses--"unequal engage-
in the south will have been a great vic-
ment," "numerically superior enemy"-
tory; Hitler's advances of a year will
Kharkov
disregarded the fact that it is the business
have been erased-almost, The Germans
of generalshipnever to be out-concentrated.
still hold all of the Crimea and the Novo-
The place of attack made the most of the
fossiisk beachhead in the Caucasus, which
Deisper
COUNTA
Russian transport difficulties, The Rus-
they did not have at the beginning of
Dniepropatrovske
sians, though unable to use Germans' nar-
the 1942 offensive, But the net result
rower rail lines, had advanced just beyond
will be disappointing. if only because hopes
Odessa
three important rail junctions, Krasno-
for the Russians had gone so high.
grad, Lozovaya and Pavlograd, and the
The German drive in southern Russia
Germans recovered them early in the
was essentially defensive: it did not in-
sure another great offensive in 1943. But
Kharkov Is a Hinge. The Germans
it was a none-the-less startling reminder
/
Actsoy
counter-drive,
did not encircle and destroy the Red
that the Germans are still capable of
Armies which had been moving toward
fast, massive, admirably executed offen-
Nevorosstisk
the Dnieper. On the Russian side, what
sive moves,
R.M.C.
26
TIME, March 22, 1943
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
and the great system of rail, highway
which were ruined, together with the mili-
and water communications which radiates
tary objectives. The Nazis played this
from the capital. The eventual importance
theme for what it was worth-and it was
of this drive depended more on German
undoubtedly worth as much to sentimental
plans than on the immediate scale of the
German citizens as it had been to Britons,
Russian attacks. If the Wehrmacht hoped
who had been hardened in bitterness and
to strike again at Moscow and central
vengeance by the Luftwafe's blitzes, But
Russia this year, the Red Army's gain and
bitterness and anger, even if they balanced
the German loss were enormous. If the
fraying nerves, could not undo the destruc-
Germans had already abandoned such
tion. Munich's twin-spired Frauenkirche
hopes, and intended only to hold some
might be wrecked, Hans Sach's Nürnberg
tenable line in central Russia, the succes-
gone forever, Stuttgart's fine baroque pal-
sive losses of Rzhev and Vyazma, and even
aces burned out, but there was another
the looming threat to Smolensk, did not
score, and Germans knew more of it than
matter so much to them.
the British told:
Any vastly ambitious Russian scheme
Thirty key German towns attacked,
on the Smolensk front would probably
2,000 factories or installations of impor-
entail strong flanking rushes-logically in
tance seriously damaged;
the Staraya Russa and Orel areas. Al-
Eighty-six raids by 100 aircraft or more
though there had been local offensives at
during 1942: 37 major attacks in the first
those two points for some weeks, they
months of 1943:
seemed to be spent.
37,000 tons of bombs dropped on Ger-
many in 1942; 10,000 tons dropped in
BATTLE OF EUROPE
Associated Press
DÜRER'S HOUSE IN NÜRNBERG
February 1943 alone; 4,000 tons dropped
in the first ten days of March;
How Much Is Enough?
To the bombs, all things were equal.
More than a million Germans rendered
Berlin, Munich, Nürnberg, Stuttgart,
Munich is Naziism's birthplace and an
homeless.
Essen-everywhere the wings of the R.A.F.
old city of art treasures and Nazi Party
The Fortress Europe was being softened.
shadowed the moon and destruction fol-
shrines, But in its suburbs are Messer-
Perhaps the most pertinent comment on
lowed for the Herrenvolk below.
schmitt plane factories, the Bayerische
bombing, on the scale and in the manner
Essen, city of some 700,000 people
Motorenwerke (aircraft engines and motor
practiced to date, was that after so many
which turned out precise and coldly beau-
vehicles), many other war factories. In
months of softening, Hitler's Fortress was
tiful machinery of war, was gasping with
their fifth raid on the Bavarian capital,
still uncracked.
a thousand wounds. A single lightning
the R.A.F. shattered its muscums and arms
raid, the R.A.F. reported, had razed the
industries alike.
BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC
entire center of the city early last week,
Stuttgart is the old city where, in the
wrecked 75% of the giant Krupp arms
heyday of the Nazi Party's rise to world
Hero into Soldier
factories (TIME, March 15), More than
power, the Auslandsdeutschen-Germans
A hint of waxing Jap air power appeared
450 acres of buildings, plants, machinery
living abroad-met each year to plan their
in the South Pacific last week, For months
and dwellings were in ruins. A week later
fifth-column tactics, Last week a half
only handfuls of Japanese raiders had
the bombers came again, hit even harder
hour's raid left extensive areas of Stutt-
stung Allied bases in New Guinea and the
with more than 1,000 tons of bombs.
gart afire, presumably including the Daim-
Solomons. Suddenly they swarmed out in
Nürnberg, the ancient walled town of
ler-Benz motor plants, the Bosch ignition
force. Twenty-six bombers and eleven
Cobbler-Poet Hans Sachs and Painter Al-
works, the mass-production auto factory
fighters struck at Wau, the airfield closest
brecht Dürer, is ringed with war plants.
of Opel and many other war-important
to Jap-held Salamaua. Forty raiders at-
Historic buildings, including Dürer's home
industries.
tacked Oro Bay south of Buna. Jap air
(see cut), airplane factories, U-boat en-
The Bitter Score. For German propa-
strength, waning at the end of 1942,
gine works, tank factories and railroad
ganda there was one refuge: in the cul-
seemed to be surging back.
centers, crumbled under R.A.F. bombs.
tural monuments and historic buildings
Two Jap convoys moved south through
Associated Press
CHINESE VERSION OF A BULLDOZER
At a south China field of Brigadier General Claire Chen-
at work leveling off a runway. Beyond them a North American
nault's Fourteenth Air Force, these Chinese soldier-coolies are
Mitchell medium bomber taxis for a take-off.
28
TIME, March 22, 1943
PAGE MISSING IN THE ORIGINAL
Time, mush 15.
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
is evolving. Both countries have decided:
were in the water-which did not mean
1) to build as many merchant ships as
that they were fighting yet. He released
In Which We Swerve
possible, without trying to concentrate on
pictures and told newsmen that DEs would
If you want to start a fight in a British
fast ships only; 2) to build more and
be about 300 ft. long, would displace about
pub, just step up to the bar, next to a
better escorts.
1,300 tons (more than the displacement
Scot of the Gordon Highlanders, and ask
Faster Means Fewer. Britain's War
of World War I four-stacker destroyers),
the barmaid for a half pint of broken
Transport Minister Lord Leathers ex-
would cost $3,500,000 (about half the cost
squares.® A similar but more up-to-date
plained last week why the idea of concen-
of a new destroyer), can be built in four
casus belli might be to ask a seaman off
trating exclusively on fast ships had been
months (compared with nine for a destroy.
H.M.S. Churchill about the Battle of Laso-
discarded: "Faster ships mean fewer ships.
er), and will release destroyers for all-
la Island.
To build a 15-knot vessel takes half as
round naval jobs. He said that "several
In August 1941, Prime Minister Church-
long again as an 11-knot vessel of the same
hundred" would be built.
ill visited his namesake vessel, a former
carrying capacity, and the faster ship re-
Until these spirited little chaperones
U.S. four-stack destroyer, and promised to
quires 50% more labor and material." To
begin to go out in effective numbers, there
come aboard again if the Churchill ever
increase speed by one-third, power must
will be trouble for Allied ships. That trou-
sank a U-boat. The destroyer's crew did
be trebled.
ble will probably be concentrated, as it
not forget. One night last June, as the
Destroyer Escorts. The Royal Navy
was last year, in the months of spring and
Churchill patrolled off Venezuela, a dark
apparently now recognizes that its 200 or
summer.
shape loomed abead. The battle signal
so corvettes have proved inadequate as
sounded. Men sprang to action stations,
transatlantie escorts. They are too small
BATTLE OF AFRICA
The Churchill swerved, tried to ram the
(500-600 tons), too slow (under 20 knots).
foe. Luckily, she missed. What looked
Britain is building larger. faster escorts
Behind the Front
like a hulking U-boat turned out to be
which will be called frigates.
While the fighting in rain-swept To-
tiny Lasola Island, ten feet high, 200
Without sacrificing its output of cargo
nisia made news last week, the battle
feet long.
ships, the U.S. also is putting emphasis on
which will decide the issue was being
a new class of escorts which are smaller
fought behind the lines. It was the strug-
From Better to Worse
than modern destroyers, bigger and faster
gle to get in reinforcements and supplies.
For the last three months, the Allied
than corvettes.
The Axis' problem was simple compared
anti-submarine campaign has gone quite
These U.S. "destroyer escorts" have
to the Allies' (see map). Axis ships from
well. For the next three, the worst is feared.
been at least indirectly delayed by super-
Italy ran the Royal Navy's gantlet by
Tonnage Up. Britain's First Lord of
priorities on: 1) carriers; 2) merchant
night and air transports flew back & forth
the Admiralty A. V. Alexander said last
ships: 3) invasion barges. Now they are
from Sicily over a shuttle that took little
week: "In February we believe we have
in the clear, and urgent. Last week Secre-
more than an hour's flying time. German
achieved the best results against the
tary Knox announced that "several score"
and Italian troops have arrived since
U-boat yet experienced.
There
still
is
e As the cruisers of salling-ship days, frigates
Dec. 1 at the estimated rate of 2,400 a
probably a larger output of U-boats than
were also used to convoy merchantmen. They
day, with tiptop equipment and plenty of it.
the total numbers being killed, but the gap
lasted until armor-clad warships were introduced.
At least 90 Axis ships have been sunk in
is being reduced." Thanks to increased pro-
duction and reduced sinkings, there has
been a net gain in Allied shipping since
last August of some 1,250,000 tons.
SUPPLY: The Long & the Short of It
Requirements Up. Sir Author Salter.
chief of the British Shipping Mission in
Washington, said last week that U-boats
cannot be beaten, and the war cannot be
won, simply by building merchant ships a
little faster than they are sunk. The past
few months have been good ones largely
de
Junis
300ml
because U-boats cannot operate efficiently
in midwinter seas, and spring is apt to
make Allied ships and hearts sink fast. The
past few months have also seen vast exten-
sions of Allied military lines, and cam-
paigns of spring and summer are apt to
stretch them farther yet. New construc-
tion is not outstripping new sinkings by a
great enough margin to carry accumulat-
ing stocks of war and meet all the new
demands. Result: much potential U.S.
striking power may be immobilized on
U.S. docks,
United We Float. In this black out-
look there is at least one brightening spot.
Cooperation between Britain and the U.S.
on their most acute mutual problem is now
very nearly complete. Integration on U.S.
and British anti-submarine commands has
improved and an effective joint command
e A slurring reference to the Gordon High-
landers' part in the Battle of Tamai (1884),
where the Mabdi's fanatic tribesmen monen-
TIME
tarily broke the British defensive aquares,
TIME, March 15, 1943
21
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
traffic is much slower, but it moves in
volume and with scarcely any interrup-
tion. But unless they maintain a margin of
superiority and halt the increase of Axis
strength, the campaign will not be won in
time for an invasion of Southern Europe
this year.
The Trap
Last week the Axis armies in Tunisia
showed their strength and weakness. They
beat at the Allied trap in the north. They
thrust heavily at Montgomery's Eighth
Army in the south. But they had to give
way in the middle; their weakness was
that they were unable to strike and stand
on all three fronts at once.
In the central sector Field Marshal Er-
win Rommel's suddenly withered forces
offered no resistance, Their plentiful sow-
ing of land mines and booby traps de-
Wide World
layed but did not halt the advance of U.S.
MALTA
troops, who overran Fériana and the Ro-
The cost of Axis supply increased.
man ruins of Sbeitla, jogged on past Sidi
the central Mediterranean during the last
the stream of supply will become a river.
bou Zid and regained virtually all the
four months: many more have probably
The first sign that this has been accom-
ground which they had lost during Rom-
been sunk. Royal Navy submarines sank
plished will come when the Eighth Army
mel's savage attempt to crack the middle
the majority of them. Allied fighters have
attacks in force.
of the Allied ring three weeks ago. Rom-
harassed the air transport lines. Allied
Supplies for the North. From primary
mel clung to Gafsa, which gave him a
bombers from Malta and the African
bases in the United Kingdom and the U.S.
springboard for another attempt. But his
mainland have incessantly bombed Axis
it is 1,400-3,700 miles to west North
hold was precarious. He was in danger of
ports, transshipment points and railroads
African ports. It is from there that the
being outflanked by French troops moving
in Italy, Sicily and on the receiving end in
central and northern Tunisian fronts are
up from the south.
Tunisia. Since they lost Tripoli, Rommel's
fed. Supplies are landed chiefly at Casa-
Rommel's attack had been successful on
forces in southern Tunisia have been sup-
blanca on the Atlantic and carried 1,100
one important score. He had destroyed
plied by the overworked coastal railroad
miles overland, or at Algiers on the
much Allied matériel and had pulled out
between Bizerte and Gabés, and this too
Mediterranean and hauled 45° miles over-
with few casualties, capturing more tanks
has often been bombed. But Allied attacks
land.
than he lost. This was his strength: handy
have neither closed the ports nor cut the
In the first days of the invasion Allied
bases, his agility and his ability to strike
coastal railways and air and sea lanes; it
engineers struggled with antiquated
hard, gravely weakening the Allies and
has only made Axis supply expensive.
French locomotives which huffed & puffed
disrupting their plans. The Allied trap had
Supplies for the South. To sustain
along the dilapidated, single-track railway
not been broken, but for the moment
themselves the Allies have had to move
which starts at Casablanca, touches Al-
Rommel had effectively blunted its jaws.
supplies under heavy convoy across thou-
giers and runs on to Tunis. With U.S.
sands of miles of ocean, and then over
rolling stock, U.S. railroad men were able
hundreds of miles of muddy mountain
to double the road's capacity.
highways and desert trails.
Supplementary carriers are trucks, thou-
Supplies for the Eighth Army on the
sands of which were landed safely a fort-
southern front have to be shipped from
night ago, and transport planes operating
Britain, the U.S. and Canada around the
from west-coast bases.
tip of South Africa, through the Red
Supplies for All Fronts, Toughest
Sea and Suez to Alexandria (see map). A
problem is fuel, all of which has to be
desert railroad and coastal shipping, now
imported-coal from England, gasoline
almost free of Axis air attack in the east-
from the U.S.
ern Mediterranean, move material from
Britons have learned to husband all
Alexandria to Bengasi. At Bengasi sup-
supplies, which U.S. soldiers are still care-
plies are picked up and transported by a
less about. Inexperienced officers send
fast fleet of more than 100,000 motor lor-
truck convoys close to the front lines in
ries,* which move some 2,400 tons a day
daylight, lose them in strafing attacks by
along a 600-mile ribbon of road across
the Luftwaffe. Doughboys use gasoline to
Libya to Tripoli. To keep the lorries run-
dry-clean their pants. A recent U.S. Head-
ning is in itself a major problem. Every
quarters order clamped down on gasoline
day 2,000 tires must be replaced.
waste, tabooed idling motors, pouring gas
As fast as they can the British are clear-
without funnels, etc. Before that wasteful
ing the wrecks out of Tripoli's harbor,
U.S. troops had been using two or three
and rebuilding docks destroyed by Allied
times as much gas daily as the British.
bombers and Axis sabotage. When Tripoli
The Allied armies have never lacked
is in full operation as a port, the over-
supplies. Huge reserves are piled in west
taxed highway will be relieved by Med-
North Africa. The difficulty has been in
iterranean convoys from Alexandria, and
getting matériel to the right place at the
International
Most of which are Canadian-made, not U.S.
right time. The Allies so far have won the
ARNIM
(TIME, Feb. 1).
battle of supply. Their lines are longer, the
He tried to bend a jaw.
22
TIME, March 15, 1943
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
The Animal. Rommel, having earned
a breather on the central front, had to
turn south toward the so-called Mareth
Line, where pillbox fortifications, barbed-
wire entanglements, gun emplacements
and land mines are sprinkled thickly
through the Matmata Mountains. Only
ten miles away was the Afrika Korps's
old enemy, General Sir Bernard Law Mont-
gomery, gazing up at the 2,000-ft. heights
of the range, patiently waiting the day
when stores, ammunition, artillery, men
were all accumulated to his taste and he
was ready to make his massive assault.
Already assembled were probably 100,000
fresh reserves and veterans of the desert
march from Egypt.
Rommel made a thrust through the
narrow corridor between the eastern end
of the Matmatas and the Mediterranean.
It was an effort to keep Montgomery off
balance, break up any gathering attack
Sovioto
and wreak more destruction. Rommel's
RED MACHINE GUNNERS IN A SNOWSTORM
tanks and infantry hurtled along the cor-
The center of gravity moved north with the weather.
ridor. But Montgomery was ready for
of the one village (Sedjenane), lost 3,000
BATTLE OF RUSSIA
them. He smashed the first attack. He
men, 30 tanks. The British said that their
smashed wave after wave with his armor
losses were light. They still held Béja and
Axle War
and artillery. Rommel finally retired,
Medjez-el-Bab-and Arnim was frustrated
The Red Army's capture of Rzhev last
bruised, having lost 33 tanks and suffered
until he could take those two key points.
week freed the 160-mile railway between
heavy infantry casualties in the fruitless
If he could capture Béja with its pretty,
Velikie Luki and Moscow. Soviet engineers
engagement.
tile-roofed houses and its oft-bombed rub-
immediately began t. broaden the gauge
North around Tunis and Bizerte was
ble, the whole Allied line would have to
to the Russian size. For the Germans this
the Marshal's colleague, Colonel General
fall back; the final Allied offensive might
"axle war" had involved moving the
Jürgin von Arnim, at whose heavy face
be set back many weeks.
wheels of captured rolling stock slightly
the U.S. got its first look last week (see
The trapped Axis animal was still strong,
toward the center of the axle. The Rus-
cut). Arnim might find a soft spot in the
it had already mauled its enemy and
sians are now having to return the wheels
positions of the entrenched British First
would maul him again. Nevertheless the
to the ends of the axle.
Army, be able to bend back the upper
trap was slowly closing. At the fronts,
jaws of the trap. Like Rommel, Arnim
along the supply lines in the rear (see
Heart to Heart
hoped to hamper Allied concentration,
P. 21), the Allies pressed on, knowing full
Russian blood donors, if they choose,
demolish Allied equipment-anything to
well that victory in Tunisia by summer
may have their names and addresses pasted
delay the showdown, After hot hand-to-
may mean invasion of southern Europe
on the bottles. Blood receivers often send
hand fighting he pushed the British out
by fall.
thanks, From Moscow last week came a
typically Russian tale of one such ex-
change:
Post Office Worker Lydia Gardieva of
Moscow sent a note with her blood: "Dear
Soldier, I do not know you, but if my
blood gives you life and strength to fight
the enemy, I will be happy." After a while
one Lieut. Colonel Vinogradov replied,
with thanks. Then there was a silence so
long that Lydia thought he must be dead.
Lydia gave some more blood, got an-
other note of thanks: "Your name, my
sister, whose blood flows in my veins, was
spoken with that love which one can only
know when one is at the front." Again it
was Lieut. Colonel Vinogradov; twice he
had been saved by Lydia's blood.
Victory in the North
Last week the Red Army greatly im-
proved its chances to win the war against
Germany, greatly lessened the Germans'
chances to come back this spring and sum-
mer. What had happened in south Russia,
after the relief of Stalingrad, was now
happening in the north. The Germans
Acme
were retreating along most of a 700-mile
FIRST AID FOR A U.S. GUNNER
front from Leningrad to Orel.
The Axis claws were still dangerous.
The northern retreat began in the
TIME, March 15, 1943
23
Sovfoto
FRESH AIR CAMP
This was a "camp"-for prisoners. Into this enclosure in
died here of torture, starvation, exposure. Among the corpses
the steppe country before Stalingrad the Germans herded both
left behind when the area was recaptured were 59 headless
civilian and military prisoners. The Russians say that 4,500
bodies. The German sign says: "Camp Headquarters."
Demyansk swamps south of Lake Ilmen,
Berlin had assured the German people
on the offensive along a 155-mile front in
where Marshal Semion Timoshenko cli-
that Adolf Hitler intends to strike again
the middle and upper Donets River re-
maxed an offensive with a great break-
at the Russians this year. His armies in
gions, presumably near Izyum. Troops
through (TIME, March 8). For 18 months
the north last week were acting as though
operating in the "area of Kharkov," Ber-
the Germans had clung doggedly to the
they hoped only to find a line where they
lin said, had encircled the Soviet Third
western part of the swamp area. In the
could stand and hold the Russians beyond
Tank Army. Other forces were said to
warm months these marshlands form one
the borders of the Greater Reich.
have "stormed" Slavyansk, an important
of the best natural barriers in Russia.
railhead north of Stalino, which the Rus-
Last year this barrier served the Germans:
Stalemate in the South
sians had recaptured in mid-February.
this year it will serve the Red Army and
As the center of gravity of Russian
The Germans were evidently bent on hold-
hamper any German counter-offensive in
effort moved north with the weather (see
ing the Donets salient as long as they
the north. Winter's freeze made the
above) the Germans counterattacked in
could, regardless of what happened in
swamps passable, and Timoshenko used
the south. For the time being they and the
north Russia.
the waning weeks of winter to smash
mud stabilized the southern front.
West of Kursk, where the snow was still
through so fast that the Nazis left behind
Berlin claimed that the Germans were
deep, the Russians still pushed ahead. One
enough equipment for a full army corps.
column drove to within 25 miles of the
At week's end Timoshenko's army was
Bryansk-Kiev railway, which links the
threatening Staraya Russa, Nazi-held fort-
German armies in the Ukraine with those
ress just south of Lake Ilmen.
Cadaga
on the northern front. If this drive be-
Two days after Timoshenko's break-
tween the fronts succeeds in cutting that
through, the Russians won an even bigger
line, the Russians will have made it less
victory-the capture of Rzhev. It was
easy for the Germans to shift forces later-
from Rzhev, 140 miles northwest of Mos-
Leningrad
Russa
ally from south to north. That would
cow, that the Germans began the power-
ful drive on Russia's capital in the autumn
Storaya
hamper the Germans in their effort to
counterattack eventually in the north as
of 1941 which almost landed Adolf Hitler
they did last week in the south.
inside the Kremlin. It was the city which,
Demyansk
above all others, Hitler had to hold if he
Thanks Wanted
hoped to try again.
Velikie Luki
The U.S. spoke up last week to Joseph
In the Wehrmacht's scheme of defense
Rzher
Stalin, who had said a fortnight ago
Rzhev was the main forward hedgehog
(TIME, March 1): "The Red Army
protecting the Germans in north or central
Russia. For 14 months Red armies had
Vitebsk
alone is bearing the whole weight of the
Moscow
war."
hammered the city, until last week had
never managed to break its defenses. Ac-
Minsk
At a press conference in Moscow, U.S.
Ambassador Admiral William H. Standley
cording to the Russians, Hitler himself
said: "I have carefully looked for an
once told his generals that Rzhev's fall
R
Bryanske
admission in the Russian press that [the
would be equal to the "loss of half of
Orel
Drieper
Russians] receive material aid from Ameri-
Berlin."
ca, yet I have failed to find any real ac-
Southeast of Rzhev other Russian col-
Kursk
knowledgment of it.
The Russian peo-
umns captured Gzhatsk, the German po-
ple have no opportunity to know they are
sition nearest (125 miles) to Moscow, and
Kiev
being helped by the American people.
converged on the railway-junction town
Several Russian generals had complained
of Vyazma. Its fall would enable all the
that they were getting no U.S. material
Red armies on the Central Front to com-
Kharkov
bine for a drive toward Smolensk. The
whole German position in central Russia
Kremenchug
Z
except trucks at the front. Said Standley:
"They are getting plenty of other kinds
of war material. If it's not at the front,
was crumbling away.
Dniepropetrovsk
I don't know what they are doing with
Strategically, the Russian victories last
week were as big as any that have been
Odessa
Staling
The Ambassador pointedly remarked
that a new Lend-Lease bill was before
won in the entire winter offensive, save
Taganrog.
Congress. "The American Congress," he
that at Stalingrad. But comparatively few
Address
said, "is big-hearted and generous, but
German troops were killed or captured.
if you give it the impression that their
This suggested that the Germans had pre-
/
help means nothing, there might be a
viously withdrawn the bulk of their forces,
different story."
and that they were still "shortening the
line," sacrificing precious geography in
100mi.
Novorossiisk
8 At the end of 1942, the U.S. and Britain
RMC.
had consigned 8,600 tanks and 6,174 planes to
order to save their armies.
Russia-the U.S. had sent 85,000 trucks.
24
TIME, March 15, 1943
Time, march
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
STRATEGY
laboring the German adversary. That great-
new bunkers. Minsker Zeitung, a German
The Race for Initiative
est of propagandists, Stalin, had got up
paper in Occupied Russia, featured stories
from a suppliant position and was now
about mighty new fortifications on the
4 nearm of bees in May
using the second-front issue as something
Aegean islands, including Crete. In Yugo-
Is worth a load of hay.
very like a threat. Last week London
slavia, the ss division Prins Engen was
A suarm of bees in June
turned out so enthusiastically to a recep-
last week winding up a month's campaign
Is worth d silver spoon.
tion in honor of the Red Army at Am-
in which it claimed to have recovered half
A nuarm of bees in July
bassador Ivan Maisky's house that one of
of the Partisan-freed territory, including
Is not worth 4 Av.
the guests said: "We could easily open a
the capital, Bihac. The south of France
This ditty, roared out by gruff Lord
second front right now if we just turned
was being additionally fortified (see ent).
Beaverbrook in Britain's august House of
all these fellows loose." Turning this en-
The Risk of Spain. In order to deny
Lords, was a handy text for the war's
thusiasm to good use, Ambassador Maisky
the Allies free communications through
great new development: a race for the
spoke as a partner, not a beggar: "It is
the Mediterranean, Germany must keep
initiative on Germany's western and south-
natural
that the U.S.S.R. expects an
positions in Africa close to opposite posi-
em fronts.
early realization of the military decisions
tions in Europe. Tunisia and Sicily afford
Catchpenny Clamor. The urgency was
taken at Casablanca."
such positions. Gibraltar and Spanish
obvious. Therefore it was not surprising
What those decisions were, only the
Morocco could also afford them, and
that Lord Beaverbrook, inveterate roarer
campaigns of 1943 can tell. If they are
Spain itself could close the narrow way
for a second front, should roar again to
the peers of the realm: "I believe that
the war is not won. Whatever may be
the plans of the Germans, we should strike
and strike now, before the Germans can
regroup their divisions. We should strike
before the Germans can recover from the
Russian offensive,"
The Beaver's agitation-which his
friend Winston Churchill terms "a process
of emphatic stimulation"-was not as sig-
nificant as its reception. Lord Trenchard
criticized Lord Beaverbrook for arousing
the British people, who could not be told
the true facts just now, The Earl of Lis-
towel accused the Beaver of doing "a
positive disservice to the country" by
bringing the matter up at this juncture.
Viscount Simon said that the discussion
was "absolutely dangerous," called the
term second front a "catchpenny phrase,"
based on ill-informed clamor.
The inference was that the strategy
makers were well aware of the urgency,
that they were in fact doing all they could
about it. The Lords, like everyone else,
were admittedly a little bewildered as to
just what was going to be done; but they
believed that what could be done, would
Associated From
GERMANS BUTLDING FORTIFICATIONS IN SOUTHERN FRANCE
be done.
"The U.S.S.R. Expects." There was a
Europe's soft belly is getting harder.
difference between the British second-
German campaigns, they will not tell.
from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean.
front clamor of last year and this voice
But the urgency on both sides, of the
Last week a sudden spurt of activity
crying in the bewilderedness. The outcry
Allies' earnest determination to fulfill
in and near Spain focused the world's at-
last year was truly popular. It was based
Casablanca and the Germans' to frustrate
tention there. Most of the activity was
on a widespread impression that the U.S.
it, there is no doubt. All around the pro-
political (see p. 27), but 400 German
and British leaders had no plan and were
file of Europe there are signs,
troop trains were reported to have moved
doing nothing. It was in response to pleas
Europe's Stomach Muscles, Church-
recently toward France's Spanish border.
from a Russia which seemed to be in real
ill's favorite strategy is long-standing and
Eleven divisions were said to be massed on
danger of collapse. The argument then was
well-known, Ever since the time of Gal-
the Mediterranean end of the frontier.
actually more moral than military.
lipoli be has favored getting at the beast
Germany closed the border area as a mili-
Now the shoe was on the other foot.
through his "soft underbelly." Actually,
tary zone.
Now there had been a Casablanca. More
that underbelly is not soft now, By last
But these preparations may have been
important, the Red Army® had risen on
week it had become apparent that victory
solely defensive. Occupation of Spain by
the count of nine and was mightily be-
in Tunisia, which probably must precede
Hitler would entail a heavy risk. The ad-
The Red Army rallied few celebrants In the
any invasion of southern Europe, might
venture would probably require 25 divi-
U.S. (for news of one, ser 2. Ja). How far the
be delayed long enough-perhaps into
sions. The Iberian Peninsula would earn
U.S. was from Dritain in outward appreciation of
June-to let the underbelly become much
Hitler some 1,800 miles of vulnerable
Russia was suggrated by what Columnist West-
harder.
coastline. Since most Spanish railways are
brook Pegler wrote three days after Red Army
Day: "Communism is, for a fact, A menace to
A correspondent of the Hungarisn Pest-
broad gauge and already taxed for internal
the United States,
But Hitler happens to be
er Lloyd on a trip through Thrace re-
needs, it would give Hitler a logistical
the military enemy of the moment and first
ported last week that the frontier area
headache. But above all, it would disperse
things come first."
was speckled with innumerable, brand-
his forces to duplicate & job already being
TIME, March 8, 1943
19
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
Russians last week could report no sizable
gains on their southern fronts (see map).
And this week they admitted a serious
German effort to split their front between
the Donets and the Dnieper Rivers-a
front which had to be kept intact if the
Red Army hoped to bear down heavily on
the German salient in the Eastern Ukraine.
If the Russians fail to reach their winter
objectives, they may have another chance
when the ground dries in about two
months. But the longer the Russians are
delayed the more meaningless any even-
tual victory in the Donets-Dnieper salient
would become. As in Tunisia, the Ger-
mans in south Russia-whether they
eventually lose the campaign or not-
have everything to gain by upsetting the
Red Army's timetable. They would be
better able to consolidate new positions,
train much-needed reserves, replace some
Sovioto
RUSSIAN TANK-BORNE INFANTRY
of their lost matériel, The next few weeks
Snow sever better than mud.
may well determine the outcome of the
Russian war.
done at the Tunisia-Sicily bottleneck.
ain, however remote it may seem to others,
Peril in the North. The Soviet High
Audocity or Smoke Screen? A
is always a possibility to Britons.
Command this week announced a full-
report from Le Havre to the Swiss Tribune
Need for Speed. Time is short for the
scale offensive in the north, below Lenin-
de Genève last week said that German
Allies, For good weather from Norway's
grad. Led by Marshal Semion Timoshenko,
reconnaissance over England had led to
North Cape to Cairo, they must strike
the Russians-taking full advantage of
this conclusion: "We are on the eve of an
Europe decisively before October. Just
the remaining weeks of winter-were at-
English attempt of unsuspected audacity."
as Rommel shook the Americans out of
tacking the entire German 16th Army
Considering the source and the channels,
offensive positions in Tunisia, the Germans
near Lake Ilmen. Moscow said that over
this message could mean one of two op-
might daringly attempt to disrupt the
300 towns and settlements had been re-
posites: 1) the British were preparing an
vaster forces of an incipient invasion,
taken, that 11,000 Germans were killed or
invasion force; 2) they or the Germans
either in Africa or Britain, Or they may
captured. Success would mean that the
were setting up a smoke screen. Either
choose to carry out Hitler's published in-
Germans would be outflanked on the ap-
could be true.
tent, solidify the defenses of western and
proaches of Leningrad. Then, especially
Germans fear an Allied blow at Nor-
southern Europe, and prepare yet another
way. A German military writer, retired
summer blow at Russia, where they are
Rear Admiral Richard Gadow-the first
still within 125 miles of Moscow (see
German to disclose, in 1935. that the
below). In any one of these events, time,
Nazis were building submarines-wrote
for a change is on the side of the Germans.
recently in Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung:
Laningrad
"A successful Allied invasion of Norway
BATTLE OF RUSSIA
would be a catastrophe for Germany. Nor-
RUSSIA'S
way in the hands of the enemy would
Victory Must Wait
1,500 MILE
mean great economy in the protection of
Warm winds from the southwest blew
FRONT
Anglo-Saxon convoys
and
would
con-
across the southern Ukraine last week.
stitute a dangerous threat to the Finnish
From Kharkov to the Sea of Azov the
Valikie Luki
Kshav
northern flank"-to say nothing. even-
snow began to melt and the rich black
tually, of the German northern flank.
earth steamed. Red Army men took off
Germans are certainly prepared for, and
their cloth helmets and marched bare-
Mascow
have recently begun talking about, an Al-
headed. Tankers lifted their turrets and
lied attack on the Lowlands or the French
breathed lungfuls of the fresh, clean air.
submarine coast from Brest to the south.
A little ahead of time, the weather of
Bryanska
The Germans themselves might take
spring had come, and it was lovely. Per-
Ord
the great gamble of trying to knock Brit-
haps it had come too soon for the Russians.
ain out. Success would not win the war
In three months the Red Army had per-
Kursk
for Germany (there would still be Rus-
formed near miracles by driving the Wehr-
sia), but the same sort of reasoning which
macht back into the Ukraine and smash-
Klev
impelled Hitler to turn on his Russian
ing the Kursk-Kharkov line-achieve-
Sharkey
rear in 1941 might impel him to turn on
ments which in themselves may prevent
his British rear in 1943.
the Germans from again striking deep
Britain now is not the Britain which
into Russia's southern beart. Nevertheless
Hitler might have crushed in 1040; its
the Russians had still not reached the ob-
defensive air power, which saved Britain
jectives-stated only last week-of their
then, is now the strongest concentration of
present offensive; 1) to complete the
Rester
sky-might anywhere. After Dunkirk, Brit-
Dnieper drive; 2) to prevent the Wehr-
ain literally had no army in 1940; it has
macht from consolidating new lines; 3) to
forces for land & sea defense in 1943.
clear the last Germans from the Caucasus.
/
And Britain keeps great defensive forces
Pause in the South. For the first time
Black
at home precisely because attack on Brit-
since the siege of Stalingrad was lifted, the
Sea
RMC
20
TIME, March 8, 1943
Kharkov
WILL
Poltava
RUSSIA
Krasnograd
Kremenchug
REAP ?
Drieper
Izyum
Donets
propstrovsk
P.
orophilovgrad
Pail
Krivoi Rog
Mud
Zaporozhe
Stalino
55
$5
scape
SET
$5
st
s
$5
s
s 10% of
SS,
ss
$5
$5
s
$5
st
Rostov
Melitopol
Taganrog
&
Sevastopol- 200mL
Berdyanek
Mariupol
Don
Yeisk
HOURS
Sea of A zov
10
25
50 mi.
CRIMEA
TIME Map by R.M.Chapin,dr.
Blows & Counterblows. Like three great scythes, Red
smash south against the main German armies. The Germans
Armies were trying to slash their way through and behind the
halted the drive with heavy counterattacks against the Russian
German positions in south Russia last week. Said Moscow's
right flank northwest of Stalino. This week Berlin claimed that
Red Star: "By strengthening our blows we will be in a position
other forces crossed the Donets River near Izyum. If this re-
to surround new masses and inflict new losses. The harvest
port was true, it meant that the Germans may succeed in break-
will be great if we can reap it in time."
ing up the Red Army's drives through the Donets and toward
But time was favoring the Germans. Bogged in the mud 30
the Dnieper.
miles east of Dniepropetrovsk was the crucial drive of Colonel
West of Rostov, along the Sea of Azov coast, the Russians
General Nikolai Vatutin's armies, striving to reach the Dnieper
were doing better. Tank and infantry forces were pounding
and cut off the Germans in the Donets Basin,
hard against the German defenses covering Taganrog and
The most serious Russian setback came in the Donets Basin
Mariupol. Said Moscow: "All indications are that the battle
itself, where the Red Army has been trying for two weeks to
here is moving toward a climax."
if the Finns managed to make peace (see
sia's heart. The Russians were at once try-
BATTLE OF AFRICA
p. 27), the whole Nazi position in the
ing to forestall this possibility and per-
north would be in peril.
haps pinning down forces which might
The Python
But the most urgent reason for a north-
have been shifted South.
General Dwight Eisenhower and Gen-
erly offensive-and a fact which had been
Both Moscow and Berlin reported vio-
eral Sir Harold Alexander arrived on the
all but forgotten in the glad heat of victory
lent action near Orel, the hinge on which
battlefront-Eisenhower to confer with
in the south-was that the Germans on
the German central and southern lines
his Allied officers, Sir Harold to take per-
the central front were still less than 125
swung. Several Red columns, partly
sonal command of the Allied troops re-
miles from Moscow. At Gzhatsk, on the
equipped with U.S.- and British-made
treating across central Tunisia, The situ-
Moscow-Smolensk railway, the Germans
tanks, converged on the city from three
ation early last week was that critical.
reported one attack, The Russians had
sides. The battles were fought in one of
From Kasserine Pass, Major General
been intermittently assaulting the Ger-
the heaviest snow storms in years. At night,
Lloyd Fredendall's weary young U.S. in-
mans* powerfully defended Smolensk-
if they were not fighting, Red Army men
fantrymen, artillerymen and tankmen had
Rzhev-Vyazma triangle since last summer,
huddled into little roadside houses. They
fled across the valley. They had lost their
they had stepped up the assaults at the
slept on their feet, each edging to the
swagger. They had abandoned their dead
start of the winter drives-yet the Ger-
brick stove to thaw out his boots. They
and their good equipment along the mud-
mans still held a position which could be
had won great victories, but this week
dy, bloody roads. They had been handi-
the starting point of another stab at Rus-
they had yet to win The Victory.
capped by a lack of motor vehicles. Some
TIME, March 8, 1943
21
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
"British [tank] units sustained the first
shock, then counterattacked heavily. All
TUNISIAN TURNABOUT
this time the American guns in the hills
were sounding a somber song of frustra-
tion for the enemy. Supported by infantry
Bizerte
that had been heavily bombed on its way
to the front, the Germans continued their
efforts to break through until night fell.
Broken guns and burned-out tanks
Bône
Mateur
Tunis
were strewn across the sandy plain and
the knobby hills. The ground was dotted
with the bodies of men.
By
this
morning the fighting had died down."
On that morning, as suddenly as they
Sweet
had started their drive ten days "efore
from Faid Pass (TIME, Feb. 22), the Ger-
mans turned tail and withdrew.
Robaa
In the Bottleneck. Rommel had met
more resistance than he had apparently
bargained for. His troops had become ex-
Sousee
hausted, overextended and overtaxed. The
Kairoua
Eighth Army in the south was showing
signs of opening its assault. And perhaps
there was another explanation for the
turnabout: Fredendall's young men had
Tébessa
learned their lessons fast. Said Eisenhower
FREDENDALL
of the U.S. troops: "All complacency has
now been dropped."
Back across the littered valley they
Faid
went. Allied planes, capitalizing on a mo-
ROMMEL
mentary break in Tunisia's rain-swept
Sfax
skies, swarmed into the air. The Luft-
wafe failed to fend them off. Anything in
Major General Carl Spaatz's command
Gafs
that would fly took to its wings to strafe
Axis columns, bomb the bottleneck of
Kasserine Pass through which the Ger-
mans had to make their withdrawal. Flying
Fortresses and fighter bombers were loaded
Gabès
with bombs and sent soaring through the
Mareth
mists of the Pass, sowing their explosives
helter-skelter, certain of hitting something
Dierid
as the Axis troops squeezed through. Artil-
lery pounded the retreating Axis forces.
Chott
Line
Médenine
Rommel left Italians to fight a rear-
guard action, pulled his precious Panzer
AONTOOM
troops out and south along the road to
Mareth
Fériana and Gafsa, east towards Faïd
Pass-the roads over which Fredendall's
10
50 mi
Foum
U.S. troops had beat a hasty retreat north-
TIME Mapby M.Chapin,dr.
Tatahouine
ward only two weeks before.
At week's end the Axis was still in flight.
Rommel was reported to be evacuating
of them fought blindly in small, isolated
This was the crisis when the weary young
Fériana and plowing up the Allied airfield
groups. For all of them it had been a
men braced themselves and Allied rein-
at Sbeitla which he had seized the week
humiliating retreat. On their heels came
forcements rushed up to give them aid.
before.
the triumphant troops of the Axis, driving
Last Ditch. The story of the next few
Eyes South. Rommel had lost his
westward and northward in three columns,
days was the story of a desperate Allied
gamble. In northern Tunisia, Colonel Gen-
Foul weather held most of the Allied air
stand. British artillery and lumbering new
eral Jürgin von Arnim stabbed at Lieut.
forces ground-bound. There appeared to
Churchill tanks rolled up to block the pass
General Kenneth A. N. Anderson's mud-
be no stopping the Germans and their
at Sbiba, In the area of Tebessa-the Al-
stuck front, apparently hoping to divert
Italian allies.
lied base for Central Tunisia-U.S. can-
Allied strength from Rommel's hard-
A great opportunist, like all good sol-
non and armor, supported by strong air
pressed front. Two savage attacks, made
diers, Rommel was ready to exploit any
units operating in dubious flying weather,
in a driving rain, were launched at Allied
gain. And he was a gambler. If he were
pounded and slashed at the German on-
positions facing Mateur. Another attack
lucky and could crack Thala, he would
rush. In the critical Thala sector British
was aimed at the Allied sally port of
have access to the Kremamsa Plateau,
armor, probably drawn from the First
Medjez el Bab. Others, further south,
could pour troops onto that flatland, could
Army's reserves, and fresh U.S. artillery
sprang from Bou Ard. All but the Ma-
drive against the flank of the British First
fought through the afternoon and into the
teur attacks came to grief on muddy roads
Army which sprawled across the top of
night.
which impeded enemy tanks. The Mateur
Tunisia. Then the whole Allied strategy
Watching the Thala battle, Drew Mid-
action continued to blaze at week's end.
in North Africa would have to be recast.
dleton of the New York Times wrote:
It was plain that there was still plenty
22
TIME, March 8, 1943
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
of flexibility and daring in the enemy. To
trap and crush him in Tunisia would be, in
the words of one military strategist, "like
trying to box a python." It was a python
with at least two heads (Rommel and
von Amim), with eyes along its whole
length.
This week some of those eyes must have
been turned south, where the Eighth Army
was edging closer & closer to the Mareth
Line. Rommel might choose to abandon
the Line, make his stand in the narrow
neck between the Chott Djerid (salt lake)
and the coast at Gabès, It was up to the
veteran troops of General Sir Bernard
Law Montgomery to close the trap on the
python at that end.
Eisenhower had more supplies, particu-
larly motor vehicles, than he had when
Rommel broke through at Faid. When he
had clear skies overhead and firm footing
on the ground, the British First Army
in the north, the Americans and British at
the center could be expected to close all
the sides and end the python's convulsive
resistance. But not before.
Associated Press
BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC
FORTRESS OVER Gizo
Bombs dropped when the Japs turned up.
In Blanche Bay
Philp & Co. Now the harbor is a great
to be concentrating his main effort in
A bomber's moon on four successive
Japanese naval and troop-transport cen-
preparation on this front.
nights guided aircraft of General Douglas
ter. From it, short and efficient supply
General MacArthur's raiders, flying
MacArthur's command over the jungle-
lines radiate to forward bases above both
through sulfur fumes and corrosive dust
clothed mountains of New Guinea to
shoulders of Australia-a score of spots
from Rabaul's volcanoes, were bent on
Rabaul. On one raid a Jap cruiser was
such as Kupang on Timor and Gizo in
disorganizing this concentration. Their rec-
hit. On another a warship was driven
the Solomons. From those forward bases,
ord: in Blanche Bay were the hulks of
aground. Two other warships and numer-
which like Rabaul have come in for a
58 ships; 26 others had been bombed out
ous cargo vessels also felt the sting of
dose of heavy bombing (see cut), the
of service.
night raiders striking at the best deep-
Japs would launch any fresh offensive or
water harbor in the New Guinea-New
organize any firm defenses in the South-
Rum for the Crew
Britain area.
west Pacific Area.
A trail of phosphorescence bubbled
Since January 1942 the Japanese had
This week Douglas MacArthur's head-
whitely across the black sea off Guadal-
held Rabaul on Blanche Bay, the flooded
quarters issued this communiqué: "Our
canal. A New Zealand patrol boat, spot-
crater of an extinct volcano which gives
air reconnaissance over the past weeks
ting the glow in the night, changed her
deep water almost to the shore. In peace-
report a constant and growing reinforce-
course, ran down the telltale trail and
time Rabaul's tiny wharf was used chief-
ment in all categories of enemy strength
dropped a pattern of depth bombs.
ly by island trading ships of two com-
in the island perimeter enveloping the
Below the surface a Japanese submarine
panies. W. R. Carpenter & Co. and Burns
upper half of Australia. The enemy seems
faltered. The patrol boat circled, dropped
more charges, Hurt this time, the Jap
came up. With its deck guns it blazed
away furiously at its attacker. The patrol
boat fired back, turned on her searchlight.
The little New Zealander was only 150
feet long; nevertheless she pointed her
bow at the sub and charged forward.
Japs began spilling out of the conning
tower. The New Zealand gunners peppered
them. The Jap commander toppled off the
bridge. His men tried to shoot out the pa-
trol boat's light, mortally wounded the sea-
man operating it. The two vessels crashed.
The New Zealander backed away, guns
still blazing. Jap soldiers with full packs
poured out of the conning tower and tried
frantically to unleash life rafts. Again the
patrol boat rammed, sheering off one of
the sub's hydroplanes. And once again-
said the skipper: "This time we climbed
clear over her top and rode her piggy-
Associated Press
back." They got off by giving the engines
BOSTONS OVER TUNISIA
full astern.
Bombs dropped when the Germans turned tail,
Smoke billowed out from the Jap's
TIME, March 8, 1943
23
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
BATTLE OF EUROPE
What Price Bombing?
By day U.S. Fortresses and Liberators
precisely planted bombs in Wilhelmshaven
and Brest. By night R.A.F. Sterlings and
Lancasters pattern-bombed Cologne and
St. Nazaire. German targets, were getting
a round-the-clock pounding such as they
had never had before.
The why of round-the-clock raids, in-
stead of more massive but sporadic at-
tacks, had been best set forth by Major
General Ira C. Eaker, commander of the
U.S. Eighth Air Force in Britain. His rea-
sons: 1) to inflict maximum damage;
2) to keep enemy defenses on a 24-hour
alert; 3) to force maintenance of both
day & night fighters in Western Europe.
Necessity also lay behind such reason-
ing. U.S. heavy bombers, with high speed,
British Combine
great defensive firepower and small bomb
ONE DOWN IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
capacity (two and four tons), are best
The panic-stricken crew of the Italian submarine Emo leaped overboard when
suited to daylight precision bombing. Brit-
the British trawler Lord Nuffield shelled and shattered the raider's conning
ish bombers, slower, with less armament
tower. Down went the Emo to the bottom of the Mediterranean. The Italians
and greater bomb capacity (eight and nine
had better luck than did Japanese similarly trapped when their submarine was
tons), are best suited to night opera-
tions.
rammed in the Pacific (see P. 23); the Lord Nuffield picked up all survivors.
On these facts the U.S. and Britain had
agreed. Each had tried the other's meth-
hatches. Lashed by the New Zealander's
BATTLE OF ASIA
ods. Each had found them unfitted to its
gunfire, the sub limped towards shore. Off
own aircraft. That was settled, but the
Cape Esperance it suddenly went down at
The Dragons
total record of air operations raised a far
the stern, Said the New Zealand skipper:
Life was getting dull for the fighter
more important question: had large-scale
"There she rested on a reef, and she's still
boys in Assam. They had been stationed
bombing really proved its worth?
there with 30 or 40 feet of her bow in the
there since last summer to protect the
Slowdown for Knockout. A substan-
air pointed towards Tokyo. I ordered the
air supply line to China,
tial section of the Luftwaffe has been
rum broken out for each man."
Aside from easy strafing missions
pinned in Western Europe. The catalogue
against locomotives and bridges in Burma,
of German factories, shipyards, railway
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
there was not much to do except play bad-
centers and power plants smashed by the
minton, lounge on big airy porches in the
R.A.F. is impressive. Damage to morale in
Bury Them at Sea
old stilted tea planters' houses, and stare
such often-visited cities as Hamburg, Bre-
The Navy announcement that more
out across the endless sultry tea fields.
men and Cologne must have been severe.
than 850 lives were lost in the sinking of
The enlisted men took to teaching Assam-
Still Germany fights on.
two North Atlantic passenger-cargo ships
ese kids American. They all wished the
To disable a factory permanently,
had driven home the U-boat peril to the
Japs would attack. Their C.O., Colonel
bombs must usually score a direct hit on
U.S. (TIME, March 1). The horror came
Homer Leroy Sanders, had said: "If the
irreplaceable machinery. Otherwise a few
home with Signalman Robert Weikart,
Japs come over, all they will need is a
weeks' reconstruction may bring a vital
whose ship was the first to reach the spot
one-way ticket."
plant back into service. Oft-bombed Düs-
where one of the torpedoed vessels went
One day last week the bungalow where
seldorf, after a one month's work stop-
down. Said Weikart:
Homer Sanders has his headquarters was
page, is again a manufacturing center.
"We got word that a ship had been sunk
quiet except for the routine chatter of
The R.A.F.'s return last week to Cologne,
during the night. I was on the signal tower
typewriters. Suddenly a sergeant rushed
as thoroughly blitzed as any German city,
when we reached the spot, just as dawn
upstairs shouting: "Red alert!" Men clat-
implied acknowledgement either that re-
was lighting the scene.
tered downstairs, Telephones jangled. The
construction had been effective or that
"We saw hundreds of bodies in the
radio in the control room crackled,
worthwhile targets remained intact. Net
water and lifeboats full of men swirled
Well camouflaged, lazy-looking spots be-
conclusion: a general slowdown of Ger-
about us. It took me a while to figure out
came busy, alert shacks, anti-aircraft pits,
many's total war effort was as much as
why we did not stop to pick any of them
airplanes. On the flanks of planes could
could be credited to heavy bombing, and it
up-they were frozen to death at the oars
be seen the pilots' emblem-a droopy-
was probably worth the effort expended.
of their lifeboats.
tailed dragon with the motto: "Our
To expect more, from the number of avail-
"I saw the sea dotted with bobbing
Assam Draggin'."
able planes, was to expect too much.
heads in lifejackets. I started counting,
To each fighter strip by nickname went
Round-the-clock preoccupation with
but realized there were hundreds 50 I gave
orders: "Gin Fizz take off.
Bottoms
Cologne (submarine engines and parts),
up. The attack must have been a complete
Up take off.
What's Cooking take
Wilhelmshaven, St. Nazaire and Brest
surprise for many of the men had not had
off.
(U-boat bases) bore out reports that one
time to dress. They jumped into the boats
In the air the Fighting Dragons met
major Casablanca decision was to inter-
with only life jackets, if they had time to
18 Jap bombers, 25 fighters. They shot
rupt or abandon indiscriminate bombing
grab them.
down nine positives, 20 probables. They
of industrial targets. The chosen alterna-
"We left them there-that's the best
themselves all came home safely, and for
tive: concentrate on submarine building
thing. All sailors want to be buried at sea
a few hours life did not seem quite so
centers and ports, thus easing the U-boat
anyway."
dull to the fighter boys in Assam,
strain from United Nations supply lines.
24
TIME, March 8, 1943
Time,
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
BATTLE OF RUSSIA
first to be another wonderful but local
Sticking to the roads, they pushed through
success. Actually the way Kursk was cap-
to the northwest of Kursk, and moved
How Many Rivers to Cross?
tured and the consequences of its fall shed
into positions to the northeast and south-
(See Cover)
much light on Russian potentialities.
east. Planes dropped pamphlets showing
New victories are imminent after the
A snowstorm had been raging for several
pictures of the captured Field Marshal
fall of Rostov and Voroshilovgrad. The
days. On the day when Colonel General
von Paulus at Stalingrad and describing
Red Army is already far west of the line
Golikov's campaign opened there was such
the slow strangulation there. The three
between these two cities. In its irresistible
a whirling blizzard that a Russian corre-
groups attacked concentrically. Kursk fell
sustained drive it has encircled large parts
spondent's car took three hours to ne-
so fast that even the Russians must have
of Hitler's Army.-Moscow Radio.
gotiate a quarter-mile. The Germans, sure
been surprised.
It was hard to conceive what new vic-
that human beings would not fight on
Success in Bulk. That was the signal
tories would seem epic at the end of last
such a day, crawled into their dugouts and
for a general crumbling of what had been
week. For last week was the greatest, the
turned their backs on war.
for over a year a rigid, unbreakable line.
happiest week of the war for Russia's
The Russians advanced. They staggered
On both Colonel General Golikov's front
armies. The triumphs of the week were
forward, blinded by snow and bending
and that to the south under Nikolai
dizzying. New possibilities were unfolded
over their green-lit compasses. In the
Vatutin, who was last week promoted from
which a month ago would have seemed
forests they felt for tree trunks for guid-
Colonel General to Army General, the
fantastic. The focus of war had suddenly
ance and support. Their frozen greatcoafs
Reds exploited their advantage. Belgorod
moved westward. Men's eyes turned to-
crackled like splitting boards. When the
fell. So did Lozovaya, Voroshilovsk, Voro-
ward the Dnieper, toward the old borders
Russians reached the napping defenders
shilovgrad, Likhaya. The attackers rolled
of Russia-toward Berlin.
far east of Kursk, they charged and
around Kharkov, which like Kursk had
Success in Snow. What a young Rus-
quickly captured batteries that fired not
been one of the main fortresses on Ger-
sian general (Filip Ivanovich Golikov)
a shell.
many's great wall of last winter. Russians
accomplished on a limited Russian sector
Having won the first round by surprise,
crept early this week to within seven miles
(Kursk) as the week opened seemed at
the Russians pressed their advantages.
of Kharkov, and the city's fall seemed
Vilna
Smolensk
Minsk
HOW
Opripet
Marshes
Gomel
Bryansk
FAR
Orel
a
Kursk
Voronezh
Konotop
Kiev
Balgorod
Kharkov
ad
Don
Stalingrad
"great
Sozovaya
Dniepropetrovsk
Stalin,
MIN VINA
DESPRIO
Onioper.
Rostav
Sea Mariupolog of
STATEMENT
Manych
Kerch
a
Kragnodar
Bucharest
Danube
Sevastopol
Novorossiisk
Black
Sea
o
50
100
200 mi.
TIME Map bund Chapin. Jr.
20
TIME, February 22, 1943
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
imminent. It was all surprisingly easy.
The hedgehogs seemed to be walking away
in the snow, shedding only a few barbed
quills.
Success in Fire. As a climax to a week
of climaxes, Rostov, the southern anchor
of the whole German line and a bitterly
defended place, burst into flames and fell
to the attackers. Thus the Germans lost
the one sure foothold for an attack in the
Caucasus in the spring. Rostov's loss was
the clearest indication yet that there
might not be another German offensive in
Russia, since any offensive would have to
start all over again on a program which
had once failed.
Success in Fluidity? All this suggested
that the Germans on the southern front
had been forced to go over (as Rommel
did when he left El Alamein) from rigid
to elastic defense, They had been forced
to do so because of the Russian mastery
of winter tactics and because of their own
Soviota
fear of encirclement.
DNIEPER BEND BY NIGHT AT KIEV
Elastic defense can be masterful, as
Where will the Russians stop?
Rommel's retreat to Tunisia was, or mere-
eject Napoleon from Russia and that be
ly chaotic. The Russians had two chances
Which, if either of the apprehensive
did not see why Russia should waste her
of making it chaotic-they could drive
schools is within a light-year of the truth?
forces on the complete destruction of
south through Stalin to the Sea of Azov,
What kind of victory does Russia want?
Napoleon, since the harvest of such a
pocketing the routed defenders of Rostov,
The only way even to approximate an
victory would be reaped by England, not
and west from Lorovaya to the Dnieper
answer at this stage, besides examining
Russia."
bend at Dniepropetrovsk, cutting the Cau-
the nature of the Red successes and their
The other (Red-menace) school is ex-
casian remnant. and Crimean garrisons off
potentialities, is to estimate what Stalin
emplified by a recent editorial in the
from convenient retreat by rail or good
and his Army want, review the known
New York Daily News: "It is a cinch
roads.
facts as to what Stalin's Government has
If the Germans succeeded in some
bet that the much discussed postwar po-
said it wants.
licing of Germany will be done by the
masterful withdrawals, it was possible that
Front Commander. In trying to gauge
Russians,
Stalin will accomplish what
they might marshal reserves at some line
how far the Russians can go, it is im-
Hitler tried to do-dominate all Europe.
of their choosing-perhaps along the Dnie-
portant to try to see what her military
The effect of all this on us will be to
per-and counterstrike at the then extend-
men want. They all seem to want terrible
leave us in as much danger from Europe
punishment of the Nazis.
ed Russians. Since the Russians had again
as we were before this war."
done their best work in their worst winter
Filip Ivanovich Golikov, a typical front
weather, and since the thaws of southern
Russia produce a mud which is beyond
description, the Germans probably look
forward to a slackening of Russian mo-
mentum in a month or six weeks.
Fears. This uncertainty as to how far
the Russians might be able to go gave
rise to & curious reaction in Britain and
the U.S. Many voices, some nervously,
some skeptically, asked the question: Just
what kind of victory does Russia want?
The question arose from two mutually
contradictory fears. One group seemed to
fear that the Red advance would sweep
to Russia's old borders and stop, leaving
the German fox still dangerously alive,
the Allies holding a still-empty bag. The
other group feared that the Red advance
would sweep to and perhaps beyond the
Rhine, that all Europe would be Bol-
shevized.
The first school thinks Joseph Stalin
may be playing a sly, lone, isolationist
hand. It points out parallels, such as
Kutuzov's reply to the British observer
Wilson when the latter urged the Russian
to destroy Napoleon instead of
pursuing him. "Kutuzov told him
ly," says Eugene Tarle (Napoleon's
DNIEPER DAM BEING REPAIRED BY NAME
varion of Russia), "that his aim was to
Hitlerites will be found, prosecuted and sternly punished.
TIME, February 22, 1943
21
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
official promises. The occupation of the
Baltic States was accomplished by diplo-
matic pressure. The military occupation
of part of Poland, the Russian argument
runs, took place after the Government of
Poland with which Russia had a non-
aggression pact had ceased to exist, Fin-
land was attacked on the somewhat flimsy
grounds that the Finns allegedly fired
first, Nevertheless, Russia's efforts to keep
the peace of Europe were stronger than
most. She tried to give the League vitality.
She led the way in making bilateral pacts.
The Russians themselves point to these
promises as the definition of their war
aims. Last week Pravda quoted Joseph
Stalin's speech of Nov. 6, 1941: "We
have not nor can we have, such war aims
as the seizure of foreign territories or the
conquest of other peoples,
Our first
aim is to free our territories and our peo-
ples from the German Nazi yoke. We
have not, nor can we have such war aims
as the imposition of our will and our
regime on the Slavic and other enslaved
peoples of Europe who are waiting for
our help. Our aim is to help these peoples
in their struggle for liberation from Hit-
ler's tyranny."
Other Russian declarations:
On Russian border demands, Stalin
Associated Fress
KING, HULL, MARSHALL, MOLOTOV, LITVINOFF
said in the May Day order of 1942: "We
"It would be ridiculous to deny the differences."
want to liberate our Soviet land-our
brothers the Ukrainians [including Bes-
commander, seems to want that. He is
diplomats and officers who have talked
sarabians]. Moldavians, White Russians
young: 45- He fought in the revolution.
with Stalin say that be knows more than
[perhaps including those in its Polish sec-
He is a product of Frunze Military Acad-
most Washington and London officials
tions], Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians,
emy. He is one of few Red generals who
about Allied performance, personalities
and Karelians."
have firsthand knowledge of Russia's allies.
and weaknesses. He has on the end of his
Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky said
Just after the war broke out, he was
blunt tongue the exact dates of and reasons
to the Inter-Allied Meeting, London, Sept.
sent to Britain and the U.S. for staff talks
for the fall of Bataan, Corregidor, Singa-
24. 1941: "The Soviet Union defends the
on supply problems. In the U.S. Golikov
pore, Hong Kong, Rangoon. He says:
right of every nation to independence and
was treated (and behaved) more like a
"Timosbenko is my George Washington"
territorial integrity
and its right to
mystery man than a visiting celebrity.
(because Washington retired from Phila-
establish such a social order and to choose
He was observed to be a muscular man
delphia to Valley Forge but still won the
such a form of government as it deems
with a head which seemed to have been
Revolutionary War): and: "Zhukov, he
opportune and necessary.
carved from pink glass, to be so short
is my George B. McClellan-except that
The Anglo-Soviet Treaty of May 26,
that the handkerchief in Sumner Welles's
he has never lost a battle" (McClellan
1942, says: "Britain and Russia wish to
pocket showed above his clean-shaven
always hollered for more men, more weap-
unite with other like-minded States in
crown. Beyond that nothing was known.
ons, more supply, more cavalry-but he
adopting proposals for common action to
He disappeared after a brief visit.
lost the Seven Days' Battles, June 1862).
preserve peace and resist aggression in the
Back in Russia he was given command
Responsible men who have talked with
postwar period."
of one of the seven armies that saved
Stalin all come away with the conviction
On the punishment of Nazis, Foreign
Moscow. There be saw what the Germans
that be has the fixed determination to
Commissar Molotov's Declaration for War
were capable of doing-but also what his
destroy Hitler's Army and to punish,
Crime Trials, Oct. 14. 1942 (urging the
own men could do. Golikov's army de-
man by man, Hitler's henchmen. He has,
immediate trial of Rudolf Hess): "The
fested two divisions of much-touted Heins
they say, a fanatical desire to keep ham-
Soviet Government
expects that all
Guderian's Second Tank Army and took the
mering the Germans, to keep them rolling,
interested States will mutually assist each
towns of Mikhailov and Yepifan. This year
never to let them get set for a counter-
other in searching for extradition, prose-
he was promoted from army commander
offensive. Some say he wants to raze
cution and stern punishment of the Hit-
to commander of the Voroneah front.
Berlin, as so many Russian cities have
lerites and their accomplices guilty of the
What be has done there, culminating last
been razed. They are unanimous in be-
organization, encouragement, or perpe-
week in the cracking of the Germans' rigid
lieving that there is no thought of a ne-
tration of crimes on occupied territory."
southern line, suggests that he personally
gotisted peace in his stubborn mind. They
A decree of the Presidium of the Supreme
burns for total destruction of the enemy.
are satisfied that the reason he did not at-
Soviet setting up a committee to list Axis
Commander in Excelsis. But the key
tend the Casablanca conference was that he
crimes against Russia (Nov. 1942) spe-
to Russia's military determination is the
was busy at his desk directing the crucial
cifically asks for trial of German Army
man who is key to everything in Russia.
stages of his offensive-and last week's
commanders.
If Russia's allies knew as much about
news seemed to bear out that convention.
On the clashing ideologies of the Soviet-
Joseph Stalin as he knows about them,
The Record. Since Stalin has been
Anglo-American coalition (from Stalin's
they would have a much clearer idea of
Russia's dictator, Russia has made much
address on the eve of the 25th anniversary
where he stands. The few U.S. and British
of abiding by signed agreements and
of the October Revolution, Nov. 6, 1942):
22
TIME, February 22, 1943
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
"It would be ridiculous to deny the differ-
the Allied game in Yugoslavia than the
BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC
ences in ideologies and social systems of
Allies can of theirs. The Russians, who
these countries. [This does not] preclude
consider that they have a right to the
They Came, They Saw
the possibility of joint action on the part
Baltic States and Bessarabia, do not like
Reports of a major naval engagement
of the members of this coalition against
to hear Americans question that right.
in the South Pacific, current for the past
the common enemy.
When Columnist Constantine Brown did
three weeks, dissolved into a story of they
Bitter Taste, These declarations are
just that last week, Pravda answered
came, they saw, they changed their minds.
specific-perhaps more specific than the
angrily: "Why should he not make a gen-
Early this month U.S. warships in the
published postwar aims of the U.S. and
erous present of California or Alaska to
Solomons were ordered to prepare for a
Britain, But they leave many a forward-
the United States? Do there not exist
knockdown, drag-out fight.
looking question unanswered. They omit
curious people who are ready to present to
The Japs attacked a U.S. convoy south
any reference to Japan, with which Rus-
the Soviet Union parts of the latter's own
of the Solomons Jan. 29-30, Feb. 4. U.S.
sia has a non-aggression pact. Some of the
territory?"
planes flying north attacked a force of 20
phraseology of these declarations is am-
Mutual uncertainty might develop into
Jap destroyers near New Georgia. Seven-
biguous and, to the Allied way of thinking,
one of the great tragedies of World War
term Zeros, ten U.S. planes were shot down
at least open to debate: life, the inclusion
II: that, having won a victory over an
in the encounter, One Jap destroyer was
of Bessarabia and the Baltic States ("our
enemy who was certainly common, the
sunk. The others raced on toward Guadal-
brothers") in "Soviet lands"; government,
victors might not be able to negotiate a
canal. Their motive was not offensive.
self-chosen or not, which is "opportune
common future. The thing which made
They merely wanted to evacuate officers
and necessary."
this tragedy a real danger was the ten-
and badly needed technicians from that
On their part, the Russians might well
dency of people at large and even some
hot corner. A second aerial assault by U.S.
have some uncertainties about the inten-
statesmen to speak in vague, fearful clichés
planes sank two more destroyers, badly
tions and desires of Britain and the U.S.
without attempt to find out even what
damaged four others.
toward Europe. Their main clue is the At-
the Russians want,
The main part of the big Jap fleet re-
lantic Charter, which is not notable for
The Russians are conscious of this dan-
mained discreetly below the horizon, while
its reinforced-concrete qualities. To this
ger. It was a danger which U.S. citizens,
Tokyo hinted at a great, running sea bat-
Russia has subscribed, If the record of
as wartime partners in a United Nations
tle. The only explanation of why it never
Allied politics in North Africa has caused
not yet efficiently united, would have to
developed: the formidable appearance of
certain British and U.S. citizens qualms,
face and think about, not in vague and
the South Pacific fleet frightened the Jap-
it had certainly not been reassuring to the
fearful clichés nor in sentimental ideal-
anese off. Said an official bulletin to the
Reds. They cannot be any more certain of
istics, but as citisens of the postwar world.
disappointed crew of a U.S. warship last
Official U.S. Army Photo-Associated Press
Bomns ON RABAUL
The laps stayed below the horison,
TIME, February 22, 1943
23
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
week: "After finding out what they were
Blotted Out
as Allied air raids on Germany have at-
up against, they withdrew."
tempted to choke off submarine construc-
At week's end the war became pre-
The Japs on Guadalcanal did not give
tion. German broadcasts announced that
dominantly a war in the air, U.S. bombers
in; they gave out, Said Captain Miles
civilians had been ordered out of Brest
ranged the whole South Pacific area, un-
Browning, chief of staff to Admiral Wil-
and Lorient. From Brest alone the evacua-
loosed one of the greatest mass raids yet
liam F. Halsey: "It was not a definite
tion of 22,000 nonessential civilians al-
on Rabaul, Japan's biggest base in the
surrender. Our flanking forces closed the
ready was under way.
southwest Pacific.
pincers on the enemy and a blot-out took
Other sources reported that a huge sec-
place. There was no more space for the
Clean Sweep
tion of Marseille's Old Port area, also
Japs to occupy."
cleared of civilians (TIME, Feb. 8), was
A well-used broom at the masthead has
The campaign had cost the Japs at
being converted hastily into a new U-boat
been symbolic of naval victory since the
least one battleship, 13 cruisers, 22 de-
lair. Marseille would have the advantage
17th Century, when Dutch Admiral Mar-
stroyers, twelve troop transports, at least
of distance from British airfields and rel-
tin Tromp was supposed to have lashed a
eight cargo vessels, 797 planes destroyed,
ative safety from sea assault. If the Allies
broom to the masthead of his flagship to
hundreds more crippled and possibly de-
invaded Europe's soft underside, Marseille-
signify that he had swept the British from
stroyed, some 8,000 men killed in action;
based submarines would be in a position to
the seas. Last week the U.S.S. Wahoo,
an unknown number dead of disease; 30,-
make the Mediterranean even more peril-
a submarine of the Pacific Fleet, sported
OOO drowned when transports were sunk.
ous than the torpedo-infected Atlantic.
the symbolic broom, and none had a
Announced U.S. losses (not including
better right.
those in naval actions during the last
BATTLE OF AFRICA
Scouting Jap activities at Wewak, where
fortnight-see P. 23): two carriers (Hor-
a new enemy base is being built to com-
net, Wasp), six cruisers, 13 destroyers,
R.S.V.P.
pensate for the loss of Buna and Gona,
five transports, "hundreds" of men, an
"Your prime and main duty will be to
the Wahoo had made a find. Anchored in
undisclosed number of airplanes.
take or destroy at the earliest opportunity
a narrow inlet of Mushu Island was a
the German-Italian army commanded by
Japanese destroyer. The Wahoo's first tor-
BATTLE OF EUROPE
Rommel," Winston Churchill last summer
pedoes, fired at long range, missed. The
informed General Sir Harold Alexander,
destroyer weighed anchor, bore down on
Doenitz Prepares
his Commander in the Middle East.
the submarine. Once more the Wahoo
Twelve feet of reinforced concrete pro-
"Sir: Orders you gave me on Aug. 15,
launched a torpedo. This time the shot
tect Admiral Karl Doenitz' U-boats when
1942 have been fulfilled," recently re-
went home, blasted the destroyer in half.
they put into Lorient and Brest for rest,
plied Sir Harold. "His Majesty's enemies,
Two days later, lurking in the same
repairs and refueling. Some Allied sources
together with their impediments, have been
waters, the Wahoo sighted a fat Jap
say that constant air raids, by smashing
eliminated from Egypt, Cyrenaica, Libya
convoy. First a freighter was sunk, next
more poorly protected surface shops and
and Tripolitania. I now await your further
a troop-jammed transport, then a tanker;
power stations, have lowered the efficiency
instructions."
finally, with the Wahoo's last torpedo,
of Lorient and Brest as much as 75%, but
"Obviously we shall have to think
a second freighter. The sweep was clean.
the U-boats in packs still prowl forth
of some," Mr. Churchill told a laughing
Later the Wahoo, its supply of torpedoes
into the Atlantic.
House of Commons last week. "Indeed.
gone, had to let another convoy pass un-
Last week there were signs that Admiral
this was one of the more detailed matters
harmed. Said Lieut. Commander Dudley
Doenitz, newly upped to command of all
which we discussed at the conference at
W. Morton, skipper of the broom-flaunt-
Hitler's naval forces, may fear a bold at-
Casablanca."
ing Wahoo: "When you have no torpedoes
tempt to seize the coast of Brittany,
* They had not been literally fulfilled. Rom-
you sure feel naked."
smash the submarines at their source, just
mel's army still exists (see p. 25).
International
CARDINAL CONVOY
To the French the battleship Richelieu was once a proud
Naval forces of the United Nations had acquired a formida-
symbol of naval power. In Royal Navy archives it was a foe
ble warship, but one that would need considerable overhaul.
that had been bested but not beaten. In U.S. Navy code last
A 40-foot gash, a bent keel, damaged guns were reminders of
week, she was designated merely as Cardinal Convoy.
the British-De Gaullist failure in September 1940 to capture
Into fog-bound New York Harbor the Richelieu slipped,
Dakar, where the Richelieu was anchored. To make the Riche-
after sailing secretly from Dakar, dodging U-boats in mid-
lieu battleworthy a supply problem must be solved, since its
Atlantic and riding out a winter gale. Not until the great battle-
guns will not take U.S. or British ammunition.
ship had been in port four days and the red topknots of French
Said the Richelieu's captain, Marcel Deramond: "Our
marins had become increasingly noticeable on Manhattan
coming will show the American people that France still has a
streets was the Richelieu's presence made public.
navy
that our sailors are anxious and eager to fight."
24
TIME, February 22, 1943
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
The Rim
The veteran troops defending the last
Axis-held corner of North Africa jabbed
out furiously last week and cracked the
STAGE SET
Allied ring. Panser divisions, probably some
of Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps, surged
Bizerte
against inexperienced artillery and U.S. ar-
From Sicily 200 mi.
mored troops holding the westward end
of Faid Pass (see map). Despite ceaseless
tions, more than 100 Axis tanks with dive-
$75 mi. 10
Algiers
lateur
rains which have impeded Allied opera-
bomber support broke the U.S. line, split
Tab
Tébonrba
into two columns and advanced northwest
Turis
toward Sidi bou Zid and south toward
Gafsa.
Rommel was improving a position in
which he already held all the advantage.
He and Colonel General Jürgin von Arnim,
commander of the Axis forces in the north,
occupied a rim of commanding heights
from Mateur south to the Mareth Line.
Behind them was the flat coastal plain over
which they could move rapidly against
any vulnerable Allied point. General
Enfidaville
Dwight Eisenhower was forced to operate
across a muddy terrain at the tough end of
supply lines some 400 miles long.
Passes & Pillboxes. Eisenhower's prob-
Sousse
lem, complicated by the Axis attack, was
to break through the Axis rim of defense
Kairouan
on to the faster, smoother track of the
Pichon
plain. There were a number of roads
through: the Ousseltia Valley, Sened, Faid
Pass. Until Rommel's determined Pansers
can be rolled back, Faid Pass was now
effectually closed to the Allies.
The Axis' southern position was guarded
by the pillbox fortifications of the Mareth
Line, built by the French atop high, natu-
rally defensible escarpments. But the south
appeared to be a likelier route for an Al-
U.S.
lied plunge into the coastal flatlands. The
weather was wet, but the footing was bet-
ter over sandy soil. And in the Allies'
Maknassy
Sfax
southern sector were the battle-smart vet-
erans of the seasoned Eighth Army. With
a strong show of artillery and tanks, Rom-
mel tried to delay them. They edged on,
Bases & Battlefields. Air forces, in the
Dafsa
prelude to the final struggle, hammered
THE 058 SIDIS Form Cekking
at each other's bases and communication
lines, The score in the air: 645 Axis planes
downed; 260 Allied. Both sides continued
to pour men and matériel into the con-
stricted, crowded battlefield. Axis forces
already numbered 250,000 men, according
Djerid
Gabès
to Mr. Churchill. Allied forces on the front
Chott
line were undisclosed, although Mr.
Churchill said 500,000 had been landed in
Northwest Africa.
Rommel's thrust may seriously upset
all of Eisenhower's plans. The capture of
Gafsa would mean the loss of the Allies'
Rommel (variously reported wounded and
nearly captured) widens his assault, he will
seriously disrupt Allied communication
o
10
25
so mi.
tryrd papla
Mêdenine
Gardane
most important central Tunisian base. If
lines. The decision might be delayed even
Br.
beyond the first weeks of summer, the
aum
1.500
time now apparently set for victory and a
TIME Map by R.M.Chapin,Jr.
houine
to Cairo
push toward southern Europe.
TIME, February 22, 1943
25
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
STRATEGY
"They may come or may not come." The
lack the essential weapons which play a
harbor of Tripoli must be cleaned up so
decisive part on the battlefield today.
For Good or Ill
that it can be used as a supply base for the
These weapons we and the United States
We have mose a complete plan
and
Eighth Army, of which Mr. Churchill
are now, for the first time, in a position to
this plan un are going to carry out accord-
said: "I have never seen troops march
supply,
We can give them as much as
ing to our policy during the next mine
with the style and air of this desert army.
they are able to take, and we can give
months, before the end of which un teill
Talk about spit & polish! The Highland
them these weapons as fast or faster than
make efforts to meet again.
For good
and New Zealand divisions paraded after
Turkish troops can be trained to use them.
of ill the know our minds.-Winston
their ordeal in the desert as though they
I am sure it would not be profitable
Churchill.
had come out of Wellington Barracks,
to pry more closely into this part of our
Last week Mr. Churchill and his col-
and there was an air on the face of every
affairs. Turkey is our ally. Turkey is our
laborator, Franklin Roosevelt, in separate
private, a look of that just and sober
friend. We wish to see her territories,
but carefully correlated accounts, reported
pride which comes from victory after toil."
rights and interests effectively preserved,
on the war and made some prophecies.
General Montgomery, that "vehement,
and we wish to see in particular warm and
Mr. Churchill dealt mostly with immedi-
formidable, nustere, severe, accomplished
friendly relations established between Tur-
ate problems and gains; Mr. Roosevelt,
Cromwellian figure," is now 1,500 miles
key and our great Russian ally to the
with the grand objectives (see p. 15).
beyond his starting point in Egypt. British
northward to whom we are bound by a
Doubtless the Prime Minister and the
and U.S. forces in central and northern
20-year Anglo-Russian treaty."
President intended some of their words to
Tunisia are many long sea-miles from
Asia and the Pacific, Messrs, Church-
hoodwink the enemy. But they also gave
home. The Germans must operate across
ill and Roosevelt know that the Pacific is
the Allied world some information and
the Mediterranean, and they are losing
primarily I U.S. theater. Mr. Roosevelt
much encouragement.
one-fourth to one-third of everything they
said that the U.S. no longer expects to inch
The first necessity, according to Mr.
try to transport. But they have nearly a
its way from island to island across the
Churchill, is to overcome the U-boats-
quarter of 1 million Axis troops (the
Pacific ("It would take too many years")
the "prelude to all effective aggressive
highest estimate yet) established on strong
and that air action in China will be stepped
operations." The second objective, accord-
lines only 30 to 40 miles from their im-
up.
ing to Mr. Roosevelt, is to drive the enc-
mediate bases.
Military men know that an effectual air
my from Tunisia into the sea-the pre-
Mr. Churchill did not specifically in-
force, much less a large ground army, in
lude to invasion of continental Europe.
dorse Mr. Roosevelt's North African po-
China cannot be supplied by air alone, and
Somber Panorama. In the U-boat war,
litical policy-as a policy. But he ap-
that really "important actions" may have
said Mr. Churchill, "we shall be definitely
proved its results:
to await the reconquest of Burma and the
better off at the end of 1943." U.S.
The Allied armies enjoy a tranquil
development of overland routes of supply.
and Canadian shipbuilding exceeded losses
countryside, Mr. Churchill said. Their
But the Churchill-Roosevelt statements,
by 1,250,000 tonst in the last half of
land communications, though long, are un-
and the presence of General Arnold and
1942 ("It is not much but it is some-
impeded. Their power of reinforcement is
Field Marshal Dill in Chungking, sug-
thing"). In the past two months sinkings
far greater than the enemy's. The Allies
gested that positive action is in prospect.
were the lowest they have been in over a
have landed half a million men. The Axis
Said Mr. Churchill: "The Generalissimo
year. Every U-boat afloat in the first year
is losing nearly two planes to every one of
[Chiang Kai-shek] also concurs in the
of war averaged 19 sinkings; in the sec-
the Allies'. Even if it were the other way
plans for future action in the Far East,
ond, twelve; in the third, only seven and a
around, "it would pay us
to wear
which we have submitted to him as a result
half. Casualties among U-boats, on the
down the German Air Force and draw it
of our deliberations." Nothing less than a
other hand, have steadily increased. But
away from the Russian front."
campaign to reopen the Burma route to
they do not yet equal Germany's pro-
Mr. Churchill once more pointed out
China could satisfy the Generalissimo.
duction of new submarines, and at the
that North Africa was Mr. Roosevelt's
Who Are the Allies? Messrs. Roose-
present rate will not before 1943's end.
enterprise. With fine Churchillian sarcasm,
velt and Churchill paid due tribute to
Nevertheless, said Mr. Churchill, the
he said: "It is indeed remarkable that the
Russia's armies. Mr. Churchill recalled
war at sea constitutes at "repulsive and
Germans should have shown themselves
that Joseph Stalin had said that the North
somber panorama." Shipping losses must
ready to run the risk and pay the price
African campaign was "militarily correct."
be reduced by the production of more es-
required of them by their struggle to hold
Mr. Roosevelt said: "Remember there are
cort vessels, even if production of mer-
the Tunisian tip. While I have always
many roads that lead right to Tokyo and
chantmen has to be decreased. Said the
hesitated to say anything which might
we are not going to neglect any of them"
Prime Minister: "The more sinkings are
afterwards look like overconfidence, I can-
-1 reference which could be read as a bid
reduced, the more vehement our Anglo-
not resist the remark that one seems to
for access to Russia's Vladivostok area,
American war efforts can be.
The
discern in this policy the touch of a master
only 700 air miles from Tokyo. The Mos-
greater the weight we can take off Russia
hand, the same master hand that planned
cow press featured the Roosevelt speech-
and how quickly the war will end all de-
the attack on Stalingrad."
a sure sign of the Kremlin's approval. But
pend upon the margin of new building and
The Southern Door. Of troubled Tur-
in the accounts of the President and the
forging ahead over losses which are, al-
key, teetering on the Allies' southern door-
Prime Minister, there was more warmth
though improving, still lamentable and
step into Axis Europe, Winston Churchill
toward the Russians than certainty about
grievous."
said:
Russia's future as an ally (see p. 20).
Tunisia. "I do not wish to encourage
"It is no part of our policy to get Tur-
Two Allies. Said Mr. Churchill: In the
the House or the country to look for
key
into
trouble.
Disaster to Turkey
event we knock Germany and Italy out
speedy new results," Mr. Churchill warned.
would be disaster to Britain and all the
first, all forces of the British Empire will
United Nations. Hitherto, Turkey has
e Sald Winston Churchill last November: "I hold
be moved to the Far Eastern area, until
it perfectly Justifiable to deceive the enemy, even
maintained a solid barrier against aggres-
unconditional surrender is forced upon Ja-
If at the same time your own people are for
sion from any quarter, and by doing so
pan.
awhile misled."
even in the darkest days, she rendered us
Said Mr. Roosevelt: You can be quite
+ Mr. Churchill's figures were in gross tons. U.S.
invaluable service.
It is of important
sure that if Japan should be the first of the
shipbuilding In that period totaled some 4,000,-
interest to the United Nations and espe-
Axis partners to fall, the total efforts and
000 deadweight tons, or 1,500,000 gross tons.
cially Britain that Turkey should become
resources of all the United Nations would
Net losses, therefore, were half of U.S. produc-
tion. British production in the same period is
well armed in all the apparatus of a mod-
be concentrated on the job of crushing
unrevested.
em army, and her brave infantry shall not
Germany.
26
TIME, February 22, 1943
Time, Feb 15.
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
BATTLE OF RUSSIA
The Losers
Nazi propaganda has taught the world
to think of Hitler's armies as inhumanly
efficient masses. Last week in mourning
Germany (see P. 31), Berlin's propagan-
dists changed key, began trying to human-
ize the common soldier of the Wehrmacht.
In doing so, they allowed one Bert Naegele
to speak for the young men in the winter
snows:
"It's a long time when you're young.
full of plans and burning to 'mold life'
with your own hands. Years are flying past
us; we are getting older. There's a big hole
in our lives,
"War is a reality we have come to know
intimately in three long years. It made us
hard in distress, danger and enemy fire.
But not hard enough. It can't keep that
boiling hot fear from surging over us that
the past is gone and irrevocable, that when
we finally lay down our guns youth shall
be gone, wasted in the flames of battle-
Sovioto
fields, blown away by the breath of death,
CAPTURED GERMANS IN RUSSIA
trod down by the implacable march of
"Fear is in our hearts that we are losing the race with life."
time.
began, and that another 500,000 were in
fought lengthy delaying actions since they
"We measure in our minds the span
immediate peril.
failed to relieve the forces on the Volga.
which will remain to us after the end of
But as of this week not enough was
At the least, if they intended to fight
the war and always find it too small to
known of the nature of the fighting or of
for southern Russia, they might have been
pack into it all we preciously saved of un-
the strategies employed to tell where the
expected to stick doggedly to the Donets
satisfied longings, unfulfilled desires, care-
Wehrmacht's disaster might lead, The
River line running southeast from Khar-
fully imagined plans and deeds not yet
outer world did not see the battles; it saw
kov through Voroshilovgrad (see map,
done.
only the permitted accounts of the battles.
P. 22). But last week Colonel General
"When we talk about these things with
Moscow correspondents could not visit
Nikolai Vatutin's armies crossed the Do-
one another we try to laugh them off and
the fronts. Where the Red Army had to
nets and captured Izyum on the railway
tell how we will live all the more intensely
fight for its gains, and where it had only
between Kharkov and Rostov, The fall of
afterwards. But the casualness is not gen-
to march in after the retreating Germans,
Izyum meant: 1) that the Red Army had
uine, Secretly inside we doubt. Fear is
the dispatches did not clearly say. If the
a springboard for a jump toward Dniepro-
bored deep in our hearts that we are losing
battles were bitter, neither Moscow nor
petrovsk 125 miles southwest; 2) that
the race with life."
Berlin said much about them. What might
Kharkov was threatened by a pincer arm
Retreat to Where?
well be the most significant retreat in
from the south; 3) that Voroshilovgrad
history could be viewed only in half light.
(whose capture was apparently imminent)
Adolf Hitler's armies in southern Rus-
Retreat to the Reich? Moscow said
had in effect been bypassed some 90 miles
sia were in full retreat last week.
that the Germans were rushing up re-
to the northwest.
In all of World War II, no single fact
serves and new equipment to stop the
This week one column of Vatutin's
had held such enormous possibilities. Na-
Russians. Berlin talked of "elastic Ger-
army, rolling south, was within 100 miles
poleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812,
man defenses leading to further with-
of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, thereby
Rommel's retreat from Egypt in 1942 in-
drawals." Perhaps the Germans were with-
threatening to block the Wehrmacht's re-
volved the fate of continents; the Wehr-
drawing under duress, Perhaps the Rus-
treat from Rostov. There is a chance
macht's retreat involves the fate of the
sians were pursuing more than attacking
that before spring the Wehrmacht may
world. When the full extent and meaning
but wanted to make their gains loom as
lose all of the rich Donets basin west to
of the retreat are clear, the world will be
large as possible. Perhaps the Germans'
the Dnieper River-the last natural de-
better able to judge the winner of World
"further withdrawals" may eventually
fense line inside Russia.
War II, better able to gauge its length.
take them out of Russia. If so, these
Kursk Captured. Farther north, Colo-
Battles in the Dusk. Beyond doubt
circumstances explained in part the speed
nel General Filip I. Golikov's forces, com-
the Wehrmacht had suffered far more than
of the Red Army's offensive,
pleting a 125-mile thrust on skis and mo-
a grave defeat. It had met a disaster that
Adolf Hitler's retreat to elastic de-
torized sleds, captured Kursk, one of the
grew hourly. Point after point along the
fenses may have been too late for any-
main pivots of the German line in south
700-mile front from Orel to Novorossiisk
thing less than the complete failure of his
Russia. This brilliant advance not only
fell like tenpins before the Russian ava-
Russian campaign. If so, his only hope is
brought the Russians past the line from
lanche, In ten weeks (less on some fronts)
to withdraw to the Reich and convert it
which the Germans began their 1941 offen-
the Red Armies had advanced from 100 to
(and Western Europe) into an impreg-
sive, but it cut Kharkov off from all its
350 miles, often through deep snows, often
nable fortress (TIME, Feb. 8). But that
northern Nazi supply bases. The fall of
in areas well suited for defense. At no
remained to be proved. What had been
Kursk also enables Colonel General Goli-
point were they slowed down by the ne-
proved was that the Red Army was giving
kov's armies to swing south and close on
cessity of regrouping. The Russians said
his Wehrmacht no rest or resting place.
Kharkov itself.
that they had already killed, wounded or
Over the Donets. Save only at Stal-
Other forces under Golikov, operating
captured nearly a million German and
ingrad, the Germans have not made a
in the rear, surrounded a "death pocket"
satellite troops since the winter offensives
determined stand in south Russia or
of 25,000 Germans-all that remained of
TIME, February 15, 1943
21
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
BATTLE OF AFRICA
o
50
ml
Leningrad
Full Measure of Blood
Backed into their corner of North Af-
WEHRMACHT
rica, Axis troops hacked and jabbed at
Allied armies which were slowly, slowly
closing in. The action was "minor," but it
CRACKED
flared along the whole 500-mile front.
Small opposing forces fought for position,
struggled bitterly for mountain passes,
railroad stations, strategic heights.
Typical was the fighting in central
Tunisia, near Sened, where battle-green
U.S. troops got a fiery baptism. Their ob-
jective was the Sened railroad station, 50
Moscow
miles from the coast. As their half-tracks
and anti-tank guns advanced through a
sandy valley, German 75% and 88-mm.s
Smolensk
in the hills opened up. German planes
Minsk
dive-bombed them, strafed infantrymen
as they rolled up in trucks.
The U.S. force was inexperienced, but
Bryansk
lipat
it quickly became less so. A gunner drew a
Dref
bead on a dive-bomber, said: "Here's
11140
where I get one for my brother." He did.
Captain Sidney Combs, of Lexington, Ky.,
Kursk
Voronezh
took cover behind a tank until a land
mine exploded under it and injured the
Kiev
Brigorad
crew. Combs amputated the tank captain's
El
leg with a knife, crawled into a foxhole
Kharkov
vgrad
and directed the artillery fire. Pounded
by Stukas, the U.S. force pressed on,
reached its objective, destroyed enemy
installations and withdrew.
Dniepropetrovsk
burn
Three Austrian deserters bore witness
to the ferocity of fighting on both sides.
They reported that U.S. planes had re-
Dnisper
Taganrog
duced three of their companies by 65%,
said that it was their worst experience
Yelsk
since the Russian winter.
PHILIPO
But at week's end the Axis troops ap-
peared to have won the preliminary skir-
Kraspodar
mishes, either holding their lines intact or
perching in the strategically important
Sevastopol
spots.
Novorossiisk
Soft Spot? The Allies had a pre-
ponderance of men in North Africa but
Black
Sea
they were not all in Tunisia; many of the
U.S. troops in action were green, most of
TIME Map by R.M.Chapin,Jr.
the French ill equipped. Against them
were upward of 150,000 hardened, battle-
an army which in mid-January numbered
mans last summer. Soviet tanks, artillery
wise troops, including the remnants of
some 150,000.
and infantry breached the defenses on
Erwin Rommel's tough if battered army,
In the Caucasus the story was the
Rostov's south and southeast perimeter.
and at least one crack Panser division-
same. Two swift Russian smashes wedged
Cavalry under Colonel General Andrei
the Tenth, which had fought in Poland,
some 200,000 Germans under Field Mar-
Ivanovich Yeremenko swept into Bataisk,
France, Russia. German equipment was
shal Siegmund Wilhelm Walther List into
only twelve miles south of the city. The
excellent. On to the battlefields last week
a narrow strip along the Black Sea and
Russians then announced that they had
rumbled the new, mighty Mark VI tank,
Sea of Azov north of Novorossiisk, At
advanced to the left bank of the Don, and
protected with a heavy armor belt and
week's end the Russians said that, by
had begun to shell the Germans in the
hard to stop with 758 and 105-mm.s.
taking Yeisk on the Sea of Azov, they
city itself.
Hitler had poured an estimated one-third
had closed the Germans' last channels of
Clear the Road. "I am in despair,"
of his entire air force into the North Af-
escape via Rostov. There were reports
wrote a German soldier in his diary on
rican area. The Allies have been unable to
of the Red Fleet's harrying boatloads of
Hitler's tenth anniversary as the Reich's
stop the flow of Axis reinforcements.
Germans fleeing across the narrow (3 mi.)
Chancellor. "How much longer is it going
There might be one soft spot in the
Kerch Straits to the Axis-held Crimea.
to last?
What have I done? If I could
Axis defense. But no one on the Allied
The most the Nazis could hope for was a
only live in peace." When Soviet Author
side knew for sure how big it was or how
Dunkirk, but it seemed more likely that
Ilya Ehrenburg saw the diary he provided
soft. The London News Chronicle's vet-
they would suffer another Stalingrad.
the answer: "Who asked you to come to
eran war correspondent Philip Jordan
The 250,000 Germans in and around
our country? You could have stayed at
sensed a crack-up in morale. He hazarded
Rostov, the gateway to the Caucasus, up
home with your wife. But you chose Hit-
the guess that the Germans might be pre-
to this week had offered about as little
ler. There is only one thing left for you:
paring to evacuate without a real fight.
resistance as the Russians did to the Ger-
'Die, scoundrel! Clear the road for life!"
"I think that other than armored units,
22
TIME, February 15, 1943
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
which are the basis of defense, the enemy
France, spewed out into the English Chan-
light precision bombing by Flying For-
is removing his best troops from Tunisia
nel through the Seine, into the Mediter-
tresses has undoubtedly affected the mor-
and replacing them by men who are ex-
ranean through the Saône-Rhone Rivers,
ale of workers and returning U-boat crews.
pected to do no more than hold the de-
into the Bay of Biscay through the Loire
This week the Nazis ordered evacuation
fensive positions until the main body of
River.
of Lorient's civilian population.
the Afrika Korps is got away."
In the Air. The Allies are desperately
On the Sea. The Allies also wage their
But the New York Times's careful
fighting submarines with planes. Two out
campaign on the seas. Brightest reports:
Drew Middleton discounted these reports,
of every three R.A.F. bombers have been
In seven months no U-boat has pene-
saw no evidence of deterioration. "There
fighting the Battle of the Atlantic. Practi-
trated the U.S. Eastern Sea Frontier.
is very little cause for optimism." Mid-
cally every German city under major at-
The Caribbean has been cleaned up
dieton wrote. "The end of the Germans
tack in the last twelve months manufac-
sufficiently to justify sending Rear Admiral
in Africa is inevitable but it will be ac-
tures some U-boat part. Last week R.A.F.
James L. ("Sub Buster") Kauffman last
companied by a full measure of bloody,
bombers, in their riath raid on Cologne,
week to a hotter, undisclosed area of
bitter fighting."
made the beaviest attack since May 30,
command.
when 3,000 acres and 250 factories were
Canada has built and put in operation
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
ruined, Last week's raid was timed to flat-
some 500 warships, most of them escort
ten Cologne's burgeoning reconstruction,
craft which are doing nearly half the At-
Desperate Campaign
level factories just resuming the produc-
lantic convoy work.
OWTs report last week that U.S. mer-
tion of diesel engines and U-boat batteries.
According to a Navy spokesman, more
chant-marine casualties in one year of war
The British dropped 100 two-ton bombs.
than 1,000,000 U.S. soldiers have been
had reached 3,100 or 3.8% of the crews®
Giant Lancasters, attacking the north-
convoyed overseas without the loss of a
(see P. 20) underlined the gravity of the
ern industrial heart of Italy, left "colossal"
single soldier as the result of submarine
U-boat campaign-a campaign which may
fires blazing at Turin and made their first
action.
yet stalemate the war and will certainly
swoop over Mussolini's naval base at La
The German High Command claimed
delay final Allied victory.
Spezia. R.A.F. bombers by night, U.S.
the sinking by U-boats in January of only
The greatest submarine fleet the world
Flying Fortresses and Liberators by day,
63 vessels of 408,000 tons-well under the
has known is now operating against the
flew over western Europe. They gave Ham-
rate of 630,000 tons a month which they
lifelines to Russia, Britain, North Africa.
burg its 95th plastering. They roared
claimed for 1942, and less than half the
Well-informed U.S. and British officials
through the valley of the Ruhr. They
1,000,000-a-month loss unofficially esti-
drew a picture of that fleet:
swarmed over the U-boat base at Lorient,
mated for recent months.
Modern German submarines are as far
where ten acres of the naval arsenal have
But January sinkings during the period
advanced over the undersea ships of 1914
now been reported destroyed. Apparently
of tumultuous North Atlantic storms were
as modern planes are over planes of World
unable to pierce the eleven-foot roofs of
no index of what the rate may be during
War L Some of the long-range types can
the concrete sub pens, the Allied bombers
the hunting days of spring. On the extent
travel 14,520 miles on a single load of
have concentrated on softer targets which
of Allied power to stop that drive, First
fuel. Refueled and reprovisioned by under-
are vital to maintenance and repair. Re-
Lord of the Admiralty A. V. Alexander
sea tenders ("milk cows"), they can re-
sult: 75% of Lorient's beadquarters build-
made a sadly illuminating remark: "We
main at sea for months at a time. Mon-
ings have been wrecked; shops, foundries,
want the equipment to do the job proper-
strous metal whales. 220 ft. long with a
warehouses have been knocked down. Day-
ly."
20-ft. beam, they carry in their bellies a
dozen torpedoes, a crew of 45- When sub-
merged they displace 882 tons (about half
the displacement of a typical destroyer).
Their thick skins are double, with oil
compartments between to absorb the shock
of depth charges. which must explode with-
in 20 ft. of them to blast open their
hides. They can crash dive in seconds,
submerge to 100 fathoms (600 ft.), resist
with safety the pressure of more than 19
tons per square foot. On the surface they
can shoulder through the sea at 30 knots,
driven by great 2,800-h.p. diesel engines,
On their bows is a quick-firing gun big
enough to enable them to engage Allied
corvettes in surface action. U-boat pro-
duction is at the rate of 20 to 30 a month.
Hitler should have a fleet of 500-700 or
more by spring. and the rate of losses now
inflicted by Allied planes and ships will
have to be greatly increased before the
growth of the German fleet is halted.
Into this last-chance gamble Hitler has
thrown many of his still vast resources.
From the inland industrial centers of the
Ruhr be can spawn his raiders and send
them across the world. The biggest craft
are launched into the Baltic and the North
Sea. Smaller craft can be floated through
river and canal arteries across the face of
European
e Equal to the total killed In action in the Ma-
U-BOATS IN THE MAKING
rine Corps, Army and Coast Gurd combined,
More than 500 for the hunting days of spring.
TIME, February 15, 1943
23
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC
standards. Japs fight differently.
Japanese side, the man responsible for
But even taking these difficulties into
plans was the man who had Secretary
How Japs Fight
consideration, even without the special
Knox on the edge of his chair-Chief of
(See Cover)
information available to Mr. Knox, it
Staff Osami Nagano, He must orient his
A Japanese named Nagano had an Amer-
was easy last week to see that something
plans, whatever they may be, to the situa-
lican named Knox feeling jittery last week.
big was brewing.
tion in which Japan now finds herself.
Osami Nagano is Chief of Japan's Naval
A U.S. convoy of transports, apparent-
It is an excellent defensive position Care
Staff, and last week his Navy was up to no
ly going to Guadalcanal and covered by
map). To the east there is a stretch of
good in the South Pacific. U.S. Navy
à naval task force, had been attacked
Pacific across which the U.S. would besi-
Secretary Frank Knox, just back from the
twice. The first attack was 60 miles due
tate to send an all-out amphibian invasion,
South Pacific with his cheeks full of op-
south of Guadalcanal, off Rennell Island.
knowing what carrier and land-based forces
timism, grew a little jumpy in a press con-
The Japs claimed two battleships, three
were able to do to such an invasion when
ference when reporters began asking what
cruisers,
the Japs tried to take Midway. To the
Nagano's ships were doing.
According to Tokyo, a scouting task
north there is a temporary security which
Was a great big fight going on?
force of U.S. cruisers and destroyers was
rests on the virtual certainty that Russia
No. said the Secretary.
attacked by the Japs south of Santa
would not be willing to let the U.S. move
But the Japanese had announced sink-
Isabel Island-up the slot from Guadal-
on Japan over her soil-at least until
ing two battleships in an air-sea clash off
canal. The Japs claimed a cruiser and a
after the defeat of Hitler. To the west,
Rennell Island (TIME, Feb. 8). That cer-
destroyer.
the mass of China could well base hostile
tainly sounded like a big battle.
A.P.'s Bill Hipple reported from Guadal-
air and land forces, but China is of limited
Said the Secretary, sharply: "A lot of
canal: "Aerial observers reported tonight
use to Japan's enemies until they own
preliminary dispositions are going on-
that a large force of Japanese warships
Burma, and the stalemated minor cam-
but no pitched battles of any kind as yet.
was headed for Guadalcanal." Nothing
paign there indicates that that is not now
Any assumption that last night's com-
more was announced about this contact.
a danger, To the south there lies a great
muniqué indicated a tremendous battle
At least one Japanese carrier task force
are of air and naval bases, one sector of
in progress is an incorrect assumption."
was apparently in the area. Unusually
which is threatened at the Solomons.
But, said a reporter, the communiqué
strong resistance was met by Fortresses
The logic of this defensive pattern im-
specifically suggested just that.
raiding Japanese vessels in the Buin area
poses on Admiral Nagano an ironclad
"Let me see the communiqué," said the
up the slot (:0 Zeros shot down three
duty: he must, either by defensive or
Secretary. "I don't think it did."
Fortresses and damaged one badly). This
offensive measures, make the southern are
Mr. Knox then read a passage from the
was interpreted in Washington as meaning
secure. Because the U.S. now grows strong
communiqué: "The increased activity on
that a carrier was nearby.
south of his are, be will have to fight to do
the part of the Japanese indicates a major
After the Rennell Island action, the
his duty. The only way to guess how be
effort to regain control of the entire Sol-
Tokyo radio said: "It is plain that the
will fight is to know how all Japs fight.
omons area. He then commented:
U.S. can never regain her sea strength."
By last week, officers returning from the
"indicates a major effort to regain
At week's end Secretary Knox said that
South Pacific had told some of the truth
control." Well, that may be so, But it
U.S. losses had been "minor in everything
about how Japs fight.
would appear to be only an indication,
moderate
nothing significant."
Hasamoto's Choice. Probably the great-
only a speculative proposition. We don't
Apparently no battleship was lost, and
est misconception about Japanese fighters
know exactly what they are planning."
probably not much in the way of cruisers
is the belief that they will never surrender.
Knox's Point. The difficulty of know-
or destroyers. Even the Tokyo radio
It is true that when trapped they fight
ing what Admiral Osami Nagano has
changed its tune: it said that the U.S. had
with a burrowing, rodent tenacity, but it
planned is far more than the usual difficul-
ten battleships, ten aircraft carriers and
is a mistake, say these officers, to credit
ty of guessing an enemy's moves. That is
20 heavy cruisers in the Solomons area,
their stubbornness to fanatic religious be-
partly because Nagano, in a race of inscru-
that the Japanese fleet was "numerically
liefs. It is just animal fight. Both on sea
table men, is notoriously tight of tongue,
inferior."
and on land, they are capable of giving up.
partly because the Japanese have a mania
Nagano's Arc. The pattern of these
In the naval Battle of Guadalcanal
for secrecy. It is perhaps mostly because
skirmishes, both naval and verbal, indi-
(Nov. 13-15), Jap surface ships high-
probabilities about the Japanese in war
cated that both sides have some pretty
tailed it out of range of U.S. ships and
cannot be based on the ordinary human
heavy plans for the South Pacific, On the
planes, leaving the Jap transports and
Wide World, Pictures Inc.
NAGANO BENDING
NAGANO UNBENDING
He made no apologies for Pearl Harbor.
24
TIME, February 15, 1943
H HIROHITO'S GARDEN
S.
S.
R.
Political
Barrier
Kamchaika
Kiska
Paramoshiri
pacific
CHINA
Kure
Yokohama
Sasebo
Pearl
Barrier of B urma
Haiphong Shonghai Hang Kong
Bonin Is.
Barrier
Harbor
Marcuse
Formosa
Hainan
Wake
Manila
/ li.
Mars
Singapore
Trick
Caroline
Rabaul
Amboina
Guadalcanat
Barrier
Bases
AUSTRALIA
TIME Map by R.M.Chapin.dr
their thousands of soldiers to be slaugh-
surrendering. My actions were prompted
detection equipment and gunnery. Almost
tered. U.S. aviators later confessed they
primarily by thoughts of hot food, tobac-
invariably the Japanese launch their land
were sickened at having to bomb that
co and relief from the unending shelling."
attacks at night. They hold their fire when
helpless mass,
Private Hasamoto said he would never be
the enemy is not firing, so as not to give
Last week reports told how on Guadal-
able to go back to Japan-but the fact is
away their positions. They dig deep, stand-
canal a group of Japs of the 224th In-
that he and others gave themselves up
up foxholes, which are safe except under
fantry Regiment, veterans of China, Bor-
voluntarily.
direct artillery fire (and which are better
neo and the Philippines, were trapped in
Talent for Hiding. Marine and Army
than U.S. slit trenches). On the defensive,
a heavily wooded ravine. They could hear
men returning from the South Pacific al-
they dig themselves dugouts protected by
a U.S. loud-speaker across the way urging
most unanimously hold that, man for man,
palm trunks, and then they crawl in and
them in Japanese to surrender. At night
the Jap soldier is inferior in fighting quali-
resist until some explosive or a human ter-
they talked their situation over. They
ties to the American. But in all the things
rier kills them. Parachutist Major Harry
voted to fight on. But next morning Pri-
to do with hiding, stealth and trickery,
Torgeson, who had the job of blasting Japs
vate Akiyoshi Hasamoto and some of his
they give the Japs plenty of angry credit.
out of the caves on Gavutu (TIME, Sept.
friends marched, hands up, to the U.S.
The Japanese love night work. At sea
7), reported finding Japs firing machine
lines and surrendered. To an interpreter
their infiltrations to Guadalcanal were
guns over the horribly stinking corpses of
Private Hasamoto said:
"
Finally my
nearly all by night, and the fact that Japan
comrades dead three days.
feelings as a true Japanese soldier dis-
has been beaten in most of the great night
No Talent for Thinking. The average
appeared.
I had nothing to lose by
battles is probably due to superior U.S.
height of Japanese soldiers and sailors is
TIME, February 15, 1943
25
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
5 ft. 32 in. Physically they are no match
served six months in 1934-35 as an ob-
voice that the enemy would hear me, and
for U.S. troops, and whenever the two
server with the 7th Infantry Regiment at
then press the trigger. But the feel of the
meet hand to hand, which is seldom, the
Kanazawa, found the life exhausting and
cold steel made me shudder, and I hastily
Japanese are worsted.
looked forward to the regiment's first
replaced the weapon in my holster. I
The myth of the Japanese sniper is ex-
holiday. When it came, he found that the
wanted to live on as long as I could.
ploded by returning officers. They say
regiment did not let the holiday interfere
Thoughts of home brought tears to my
that Japanese snipers are an annoyance,
with the regular day's work. Reveille was
eyes, and I shut them and prayed.
little more. They hide excellently but
at 3 a.m., and before the usual breakfast
The 5-5-3 Mentality. Unquestionably
their aim is poor. Sniping serves, however,
time the men had worshipped dead Japa-
Japanese officers do fight against British
to frighten men who will not deliberately
nese in three separate ceremonies, dueled
Empire and U.S. troops furiously. This
ignore it. Japanese machine-gunners often
with bayonets, eaten some dried flounder,
fury is born of resentment at having been
set up their guns in a fixed position, and
shouted "Bansai!" and marched up &
treated as inferiors. Symbolic of that treat-
do not traverse and search. The result is
down a mountain. Then they trained as
ment was the famous 5-5-3 ratio for capi-
that men in the line of Japs' fire can move
usual.
tal ships imposed by Britain and the U.S.
aside and advance safely.
Despair in Defeat. Consequence of
on Japan. This ratio, says Japanese Expert
But the greatest handicap of the Japa-
this kind of training is that privates rely
Wilfred Fleischer, "has, in fact, played a
nese is their lack of imagination. They
inordinately on their officers. They are
much more important role in Japanese pol-
icy in recent years than is generally sup-
posed abroad, and was a contributory fac-
tor in Japan's reversion to an ultra-nation-
alist, militaristic policy."
Admiral Osami Nagano knew the 5-
5-3 ratio well. He was instrumental in
Japan's defying it.
The 5-5-3 ratio was 'nvented at the
Washington Naval Conference of 1921-22.
At the Geneva conference in 1932, Japan's
delegate Osami Nagano proposed the abo-
lition of aircraft carriers, long-range sub-
marines, limitation of large offensive cap-
ital ships. If his proposals had been ac-
cepted, Japan would have been safe from
transpacific attack, and could have pursued
her ambitions in the China seas without
fear.
Admiral Nagano also represented Japan
at the London Conference, 1935-36, and
it was there that he finally blasted the
5-5-3- A Navy man primarily, narrow,
naive politically, he kept drumming at the
theme of parity, although he knew the
idea could never be accepted. Toward the
end he said to a British delegate: "If I do
what you like, when Nagano goes back,
Official U.S. Novy Photo-International
wzzt!"-and he raked his fingers across his
JAP PRISONERS
throat. The same throat a few days later
Private Hasamoto has his human weaknesses.
intoned the death notice of the conference.
carry out orders to the letter and, if neces-
taught to believe in success, and they do.
"We cannot," he said, "accept the views
sary, to death. But when things go
Consequently, when they encounter fail-
that a power is entitled to possess naval
wrong, they cannot adapt their tactics. If
ure they break down. Diaries taken from
forces generally superior to those of others
Jap attackers meet resistance, they ad-
Jap soldiers in New Guinea have had their
on account of the vastness of its overseas
vance anyhow-which accounts for the
share of despair: "Where is the Imperial
possessions and the extensiveness of the
terrible slaughter to which Japanese troops
Fleet?
The end is approaching.
lines of communication it has to protect.
submit themselves,
We cannot endure another day of this sick-
If such a view were correct, how could
Energy in Training. The Japs have
ness and shelling. We see nothing but
one explain why there should be parity
learned war by rote. They train endlessly,
American planes."
between Britain and the United States?"
until they have memorized all they should
Even before they encounter failure, Jap
Nagano went home, Japan completed its
know. Officers are unsparing in training
soldiers are anything but supermen. They
present fleet-on a ratio limited not by
their men, to a point which U.S. trainers
are notoriously hypochondriac. They carry
treaty but by Japan's ability to compete
would probably think insane. In 1930
little oily green cakes which they rub on
industrially.
naval maneuvers near Saishuto (accord-
the skin to keep mosquitoes away. Many
The Officer Mentality. Osami Nagano
ing to a Japanese officer's article in the
carry white gloves which they wear when
represents the most aggressive, hearty,
Spanish Revista de Aeronautica), Japan's
they sleep. They carry toilet waters and
popular officer type Japan possesses: he is
present Commander of Combined Fleets
perfumed powders.
a kind of Greater East Asian Halsey. He
Admiral Yamamoto, then captain of the
They do not like death any more than
is big for a Japanese-about 5 ft. 9 in.,
carrier Akagi, launched 30 torpedo planes
U.S. troops. In War and Soldier, a Japa-
and built like a barrel. He is famous for
in a gale to give the men practice in
nese best-seller about the war in China,
being able to roll liquor past his tongue
heavy-weather launchings. They all
Ashihei Hino says in describing a defeat:
without loosening it. He is, as all Japanese
launched, but not one got back to the ship.
"I actually put my revolver to my head.
warriors should be, a good family man: at
Jap training methods are both humor-
I thought I would cry out: 'May Great
the age of 62 he is presently engaged in
less and tireless. Major Harold Doud, who
Imperial Japan live forever!' in so loud a
raising a family with his third wife. He
26
TIME, February 15, 1943
Watchdog of the Convoys
T
ODAY, as in 1917-18, convoys are
again being shepherded by far-rang-
ing naval airships - big brothers of the
Goodyear blimps familiar to most Amer-
icans. No patrol is more feared by the
undersea wolves, for the airship can see
beneath the sea. It flies low enough and
slow enough to spot the tell-taleshadow
of a submarine skulking many fathoms
deep. And once it sights the quarry, it
can hover motionless above to drop
depth charges with devastating effect.
The blimp fleet now joining our Navy
is larger, both in number and size, than
the pioneer Goodyear-built squadron of
twenty-five years ago, and it is growing
every day. The new ships are several
times larger. They have far longer cruis-
ing range and carry a heavier bomb and
fuel load - enough to remain aloft for
days if necessary.
Swift production of these super-blimps
is the fruit of Goodyear's quarter-cen-
tury of airship development. Through-
out the long years of peace we continued
to build and operate a fleet of non-rigid
airships, looking toward the airship's
coming-of-age as a commercial transport.
Thus when war came, Goodyear was
ready with an airship squadron that could
be transferred to the Navy for imme-
diate duty - and we were ready with
the manufacturing capacity and experi-
ence to produce new giants.
THE GREATEST NAME IN RUBBER
Sorry, the Postman says "No!"
W
E WISH we could mail you a
piece that you and Four Roses have
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let you know what a downright mar-
Recipe for
velous cold-weather drink it is.
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FOUR
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generous jigger of that matchless whis-
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Then settle back in your favorite
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Frankfort Distilleries, Inc., Louis-
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sip the warm and fragrant master-
ville & Baltimore.
WORLD BATTLEFRONTS
laughs with his belly and his guts are
tough.
As little is known in the U.S. about his
specific naval skills as about any Japanese
officer's. It is one of the U.S. Navy's
laments that they know so little about the
strengths and weaknesses of top-ranking
Jap officers. But in both the U.S. and Brit-
ish Navies, Nagano has the reputation of
being with the best.
Nagano, on the other hand, knows the
U.S. as well as any Japanese naval officer.
He was a language officer in the U.S. in
1913 and studied law at Harvard for seven
months, He even took courses at the War
College. In 1928 he commanded a Japanese
training squadron which visited Annapolis,
was received by President Hoover. As
naval attaché in Washington (1920-23), he
assisted at the Washington Conference
and was all tact. He always remembered
Americans' birthdays, and always remem-
bered to tell the story of the little ceme-
tery in Japan where some shipwrecked
U.S. sailors were buried, whose graves
were perpetually and tenderly cared for. In
1937, with tears literally blurring his eyes,
Associated Press
he apologized for the sinking of the Panay.
NEW GUINEA BATTLEFIELD
"I am merely an ignorant sailor," he said,
The Japs found a new sinkhole.
"but I want you to know that I am speak-
ing from the depths of my heart. I am
was glad to be alive, but he had never
uable than the gold it was built to carry
positive it was an accident."
flown a plane.
out. The Jap patrols were pushed back.
Osami Nagano, the bluff, hearty sailor,
"George," the automatic pilot, had been
Last week the Japs began trying to
became Chief of Naval General Staff in
set by the human pilot before he died.
bomb Wau, and were stung for their
charge of operations on April 9. 1941. He
The Catalina, her body riddled but her
pains. In the second largest single day's
still held the job on Dec. 7, 1941. What
engines intact, drummed along through
battle in the whole Australian theater, 37
happened that day was not an accident.
the sky. Keene had time to muse, stand
U.S. Lightnings, Airacobras and Kitty-
The essence of the Japanese officer's
around for "quite a while," open an after-
hawks went up to meet 70 Japanese
code is attack, The essence of the Japanese
hatch and gaze down 6,000 feet at the ex-
Zeros and twin-engined bombers. Not a
fighting man's strength is stealth. What
panse of empty sea.
single U.S. plane was shot down. The Japs
will transpire in the South Pacific is by
It was lucky for Keene that he did take
lost 21 Zeros, three bombers and twelve
no means certain, because the U.S. has
his time. The pilotless Catalina began to
more fighters; three more bombers were
just begun to fight there, and the U.S. may
drone over land. Keene did not know what
so seriously damaged as to be considered
seize the initiative. But Osami Nagano,
land, but he did not care. He buckled on
"probables." Score: 41-to-o.
too, has just begun to fight. The only
his parachute and bailed out over British
certain prognostication about the South
New Guinea. Bush natives showed him the
Peace on Guadalcanal
Pacific is that Admiral Nagano will attack
way to Port Moresby. The last he saw of
The Battle of Guadalcanal is over. After
with all the craft of which he is capable.
the Catalina and her oblivious crew, she
six months of fighting the last Japanese
If he is once defeated, he will attack
was flying steadily on.
on the island is either dead or evacuated.
again, craftily again.
Tokyo announced the end this Tuesday.
Experience of the South Pacific war
War Over Wau
Secretary Knox confirmed it. Whatever
shows that the Jap is no superman and
The Japs began pouring their planes
new struggle may be brewing in the Pacific,
can be beaten. Osami Nagano can be beat-
into a new sinkhole last week. Its name
it can hardly be another Jap attempt to re-
en, but not without one hell of a scrap.
was Wau.
conquer Guadalcanal. That fight is over.
In 1926 gold was discovered in a hu-
At the end the last 3,000 Japanese sur-
Ordeal of Corporal Keene
mid, feverish valley on the northeast
vivors were trapped on Cape Esperance on
High in the sky over the coast of Aus-
coast of New Guinea, about half way be-
the northwest tip. For months the Amer-
tralia, the 13}-ton Catalina flying boat
tween Salamaua and Buna. Men rushed
icans had been fighting slowly up along
suddenly twisted and dived. Zeros protect-
into the valley, an opposite in every way
the northern coast from Henderson Field
ing a Jap cruiser were blazing away. The
to the Yukon. To get their gold out, they
25 miles away. Last week a strong body
Catalina shook them off and straightened
built an airfield at Wau, on a plateau
of U.S. troops suddenly showed itself in
out.
3,000 feet high.
"a strong position" near the little Mela-
Corporal Keene, flight engineer, picked
When the Japanese first took Lae and
nesian Mission station of Marovovo on
up the interphone to speak to the pilot.
Salamaua early in 1942, an Australian
the opposite shore, How they got there
When he got no reply, Keene climbed
garrison fell back to the Wau area, and
was not explained. If by land, they would
down from his high-hung, isolated engine
held it all through the year, even after the
have had to march overland more than
compartment to see what the trouble was.
Japs moved to Buna. Fortnight ago, when
40 miles, through the harshest kind of
First he saw the remains of the chief
Jap patrols infiltrated to Wau, as they
mountains and jungle. It was possible they
gunner. The others in the eight-man Aus-
have infiltrated many areas even on the
had come by sea, in the transports the
tralian crew slumped at their posts. Every
south coast of New Guinea, the Allies
Japs attacked off Rennell Island (see P.
one had been killed, struck by machine-
flew reinforcements to the little Wau field
24). However they got there, their arrival
gun bullets or cannon fire. Corporal Keene
-which had suddenly become more val-
put the Japs in a box.
TIME, February 15, 1943
29
FOREIGN NEWS
INTERNATIONAL
if Germany did not remain as a bulwark
anything for which the Fascists stand."
Or Else
against Communism, adding slyly: "Per-
Blood for Blood. These were brave
haps even in London there are a few clear-
words, but they did not solve the problem
The peace-loving nations of the world,
thinking men who could imagine what
of burgeoning Russian influence in Europe
which had tragically demonstrated their
that would mean for Britain."
and in the Far East. Nor did they obviate
inability to prevent World Wars I & II,
Some U.S. newspapers whose sense of
the fact that many aspects of U.S. policy,
again showed signs of an inability to head
responsibility is confined to their comic
including overtures to the Austrian Habs-
off World War III. They had before them
strips echoed the Goebbels line. A section
burgs, the Darlans, the Hungarian Horthys
the bloody example of their past failure to
of U.S. public opinion was prepared to re-
of Europe, are bound to drive Joseph
unite on a common program. Now, facing
vive the Red menace.
Stalin even farther from any real collabora-
the vital necessity for a common program,
Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, British Am-
tion with his nominal all'es. Walter Dur-
they were still unable or unwilling to unite.
bassador to Russia, gave an official version
anty, the almost forgotten expert on Rus-
The central problem was Russia. The
of Anglo-Russian relations. He empha-
sia, last week gave his version of Russia's
appalling lack of political and military
sized in a speech broadcast to Europe that
position in Europe:
liaison 50 far established by the U.S. and
Germany was again "flaunting the Red
"Joseph Stalin is fighting his own war,
Britain with the U.S.S.R. became more
peril." He said that there was a "deep-
Russia's war, the war which he foresaw
pronounced and embarrassing with every
seated wish, or more, a determination to
perhaps before anyone else and for which
victory the Russian armies rolled up. It
work with the Russians in peace and in
he prepared to defend his country.
handicapped U.S.-British strategists in
the war" that German propagandists could
"Bolshevism, it has been said, is a new
their plans for a continental invasion. It
not shake. "Let them reflect for a mo-
religion, fanatical and iconoclastic, Such a
created worries which stemmed as much
ment," he said, "upon the common man in
view would present Mr. Stalin as Khaled
from the sins and lacks of Anglo-American
Britain and Russia and China, on his way
the successor to Mohammed. Personally I
relations with Russia as from the mys-
of life
a spontaneous revolt against
doubt this. I see Mr. Stalin as the clear-
teries of Russian policy. The chief worries
were that: 1) Stalin might withdraw from
WE'LL MAKE
AND we'll.
AND
the war when the invaders were driven
IT INTO A STEW
INVITE EVERYBODY
NO
ONB
so EVERYONE
TO DINNER
will
from Russian territory, thus leaving Hitler
EVER GO
CAN HAVE
HUNGRY
free to face the U.S. and Britain; 2) Stalin
ALL THEY
WALLAFE
FDR
AÇAIN
might let the momentum of his armies
WANT
spread over the entire Continent.
Germany Loses. Germany had to be
defeated first, But this defeat could be
best accomplished, and quite possibly could
only be accomplished, by coordinated Al-
lied action. For that reason it was neces-
PEACE
COOM
sary for the U.S., Britain, Russia and
RECIPE
BOOK
China to get together on their war plans.
Britain and the U.S., through the "uncon-
ditional-surrender" conference at Casa-
blanca and through last week's North
African High Command agreement (see
P. 36), were in close liaison. The Russians
still remained aloof. The Chinese, looking
in the Anglo-American window, may well
have moved closer to the Russians (see
p. 34).
LIKE
Russia was as uncommunicative about
her plans for postwar Europe as she was
MINE
about military details. Common sense in-
FRIED
dicated that Russia, for her future security,
will demand European concessions-possi-
bly Petsamo in Finland, warm-water ports
in the Baltic, a sphere of influence in the
Balkans, access to the Black Sea straits.
Common sense also indicated that, unless
a general and open agreement is reached
soon on joint postwar policies, the Allies'
present comradeship-in-arms may turn
into a barracks brawl. The first chairs were
already being thrown by pro-Soviets and
anti-Soviets in the Balkans.
Clear Thinking. It was unfortunate
but true that this growing state of appre-
TORNANY
hension played directly into Germany's
hands, and would continue to do so unless
Washington and London grappled intelli-
gently with the problem. In his weekly
magazine, Das Reich, Propaganda Minister
Goebbels picked up the ragged theme of
recent speeches by Hitler and Göring. He
predicted the end of Western civilization
Copyright, 1943, New York Tribune, Inc.
30
TIME, February 15, 1943
THE SECRETARY OF THE fre NAVY
Knot folder 2-43
WASHINGTON
CONFIDENTIAL
July 12, 1943
(SC)P19-2/OA
Serial 022600A
July 14 Jan + SmV
MEMORANDUM FOR:
THE PRESIDENT
My dear Mr. President:
The
Some time ago General Holcomb discussed with me his retirement
on reaching the age of 64, and expressed at that time a strong desire
to retire at that time. One of the reasons he assigned for this was
that he, himself, had not employed, on active duty, retired officers of
the Marine Corps above that age. I agreed with him at that time as to
the wisdom of his proposed course, and we discussed a possible successor
agreeing that General Vandegrift, both on his war record and on his
ability, seemed to be a natural selection.
My recollection is that I told you of this discussion shortly
after it occurred. I now have received a letter from General Holcomb
reminding me of his voluntary request for retirement and suggesting
the appointment of a younger officer who has rendered distinguished
service in the present war. He points out that inasmuch as he holds
the rank of Lieutenant General he is not subject to automatic retire-
ment at the age of 64, and that his term of office does not expire until
30 November 1944. Therefore, the appropriate action is for him to re-
sign to take effect as of August 31 when he reaches his age of retirement.
I agree with this suggestion of General Holcomb's and I should
like to suggest to you, for your consideration, ordering General
Vandegrift to Washington in anticipation of becoming Commandant of the
Marine Corps so that he may employ the time intervening from now until
the end of August in thoroughly familiarizing himself with all the
various activities of the Corps.
If you approve this program I will set the wheels in motion.
Yours sincerely,
Frank
loosevelt Library
DECLARD
FIED
DOD Dirl. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
FrankStnor
Bate- 3-16-59
Signature- Carl L. spicer
€
0
P
PSF Nary Kan
Y
PERSONAL AND PRIVATE
January 17, 1944
Dear Harry:
I hear from Winant that permission has
been given by General Ulio to allow American news-
papers who can find printing fucilities in England
to distribute their newspapers to the troops, subject
to the ruling of the General in commend of the theatre.
AS e result of this ruling the Chicago
Tribune is planning to send paper to England and
print an edition there for the American soldiers.
The Chicago Sun has recently asked for similar
annroval and T have no doubt other newspapers will
be doing the same thing.
I certainly strenuously object to the
Chicago Tribune being delivered to our troops any-
where in the world in view of their attitude on the
war.
I think the best way out would be to pro-
hibit all American newspapers from being reprinted
in the theatres of war.
Sincerely yours,
The Honorable Henry L. Stimson
The Secretary of War
- 37880 Pentagon Bg
(Longhand) Aside from the close to seditious
Washington, D.C.
attitude of the Chicago Tribune and their
inability to tell the truth, I don't see
CC - The Hon. Frank Knox
why our shins should carry their newsprint
The Secretary of the Navy
at the expense of munitions.
Navy Bg.
F.D.R.
DECLASSIFIED
By Deputy Archivist of the U.S.
By T. J. Stewart DardMAR 1 1972
(Orig corses filed- Stimson folder 2.44)
o
P
Y
January 17, 1944
PERSONAL AND
FOR WINANT FROM HOPKINS
The President has advised Stimson that
he is opposed to any American newspapers being
reprinted for distribution to our troops in
theatres of war.
Harry Hopkins
By Deputy DECLASSIFIED Archivist of the U.S.
By 7. J. Stewart Date MAR 1 1972
DECLASSIFIED State Dupt. letter, 1-11-72
MAR 1 1972
By
Date
12 January 1944
From: London
For : The President of the United States
No number
Filed 1737/12
Personal and secret for Harry Hopkins from Winant.
Since the Daily Mail has established an edition in the
United States, the Chicago Sun has asked for recilities in England
to publish a paper here, limited to a circulation of 5,000.
I have also found that General Ulio, Adjutant General, made
e ruling on December 18th that all American commercial papers,
who were willing to provide their own paper from their PWB quota,
and who could find printing facilities in England, will receive
Army aid in shipping their paper to this country. The Army,
according to General Ulio's ruling, will distribute their newspapers
or magazines to the troops, subject to the ruling of the general
in command of the theater.
As & result of this ruling, the Chicago Tribune 18 now planning
to send paper to England and to print nn edition here for the
American troops. T am told that they have been successful in find-
ing printing facilities in the British Isles.
I an told that General Barr, Chief of Staff in FTO, has protested
to Washington, saying that he does not think the general in command
C
o
P
Y
From: London
For : The President of the United States
Page 2
No number
Filed 1737/12
in a theater of operations should be asked to decide what American
newspapers may or may not be printed in his area.
T am not at all certain that these suggested publications do
not lend themselves to a propaganda campaign that would be
detrimental rather than helpful to establishing unity of purpose
to forward our primary objective of making war on n. common enemy.
I would appreciate your advice and counsel and also support
in such action as you feel necessary.
No sig.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
January 13, 1944
MEMORANDUM FOR MISS GRACE TULLY
Mr. Honkins asked me to send
the attached cable to Winant to
the President for his approval,
together with B. draft of a letter
to Secy. Stimson, with copy for
Secy. Knox, for the President's
signature.
I am also attaching the cable
from Winant for the President's
information.
D.E. Krauss
Secy. to H.L.H.
encls.
(2590)
Carbon of this memorandum returned 2/28/44 to the Seey PSL Many,
hmo
hms
Knox folder
2-44
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON
February 24, 1944
The WHITE
Feb 25 8 53 AM 44
RESTRICTED
My dear Mr. President:
The question of the disposal of the
U.S.S. BEAR is up for decision. The recommendations
of the Bureau of Ships and of Admiral Horne are that
she be disposed of as & hulk. It will cost about
$ 225,000 to recondition her for Arctic service and
it will require at least six months in drydock to
do this. The only hesitation I have in doing this (gunking has
grows out of the fact that Admiral Byrd would like
to have the ship retained as a relic. Personally,
this does not have much appeal for me. The
approximate value of the ship is about $60,000.
Unless you object, I propose to dispose of her as
a vessel unfit for further naval service.
Will you let me have your judgment in this
matter?
Yours sincerely,
Frankston
7K
on
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
B CLASSIFIED
The President
The White House
Washington
FM
DOD DIR. 5200.9 (9/27/58)
Date- 3-18-59
Signature- Carl L. Specer
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON
April 5, 1944
My dear Mr. President:
Admiral Wilson Brown has communicated to me your
desire for an explanation as to how Roy Howard and several
other newspaper men were granted permission to travel on
one of our new aircraft carriers through the Panama Canal.
I have made an investigation in the matter and
find that this trip was arranged by the Bureau of Aeronautics.
The purpose of the arrangement, I an told, was to gain some
favorable publicity for the Navy air arm. This was done in
spite of the fact that your directive was communicated to the
officers of the Navy, stating that no civilians are permitted
to go into any active war theatre without the express
approval of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before departure.
Either those who arranged for this trip had forgotten their
orders or, for some reason, were ignorant of them. I am
satisfied that there was no deliberate intention of breaking
the rules in this matter.
I have taken the necessary steps to insure that
such a mistake will not occur again. I regret very much
that the Navy Department in this matter failed to follow your
instructions.
Yours sincerely,
Frankstmox
The President
The White House
Washington
folder
April 20, 1944.
FOR MRS. FRANK KNOX FROM THE PRESIDENT. I? SEEMS so FUTILE FOR NE
TO SAY ANYTHING AT THIS MOMENT EXCEPT THAT I AM SURE YOU KNOW THAT
I AM THINKING OF YOU AND THAT YOU HEALIZE THAT IN THESE FOUR YEARS
I HAD COME TO have with A HIGH
&
APPRECIATION (If HIS OUTSPOKEN HONESTY AND UNDIVIATING DEVOTION TO
DUTY. X HAS VERY LITERALLY GIVEN HIS LIFE IN THE CAUSE OF HIS
COUNTRY. POR ALL TIME ME CAN BE VERY PROUD OF HIM. FRANKLIN D.
ROOSEVELT.
not only a deep respect
Released:
William H. Rigdon,
Lieut(jg). USN.
for Franki ability but
also a great affection
for him personally,
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