The Jacksboro Gazette (Jacksboro, Tex.), Vol. 65, No. 29, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 14, 1944 Page: 2 of 8
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WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS
Jap Reinforcements Smashed;
Yanks Weaken Nazi Strength;
Iron Out Huge Highway Program
Relexsed by Western Newspaper Union.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of
Western Newspaper Union’s news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.)
mgmatMgr
Ernie Pyle's Slant on the War:
Air Crew Invited Jerrys
To Make Daily- Mail Stop
j Fighter Pilots Are Forgotten
Men Despite Their Brilliant Work
By Ernie Pyle
(Editor’s Note): This dispatch was'written and first published when Pyle was
with the GIs during the air battles in French North Africa. He is currently taking a
much needed rest in New Mexico.
A FORWARD AIRDROME IN FRENCH NORTH AFRICA.—
While bad weather stymies the ground fighting in Tunisia, the air
war on both sides has been daily increasing in intensity until it has
reached a really violent tempo.
<$>—■ . . * - —.i ■ — .......
Not a day passes without heavy
bombing of Axis ports, vicious straf-
ing of cities and
Supported by tanks in the rear, U. S. infantrymen advance near Geilen.
kirchen inside Germany on western front.
PACIFIC:
Smash Reinforcements
Despite the fact that ground fight-
ing on Leyte island stalled in bad
weather, with November rainfall to-
taling 23% inches, there was no lull
in action in the Philippines.
As Jap General Yamashita tried
to take advantage of the inclement
weather to reinforce his beleaguered
troops on Leyte, U. S. airmen rose
to combat enemy transports plough-
ing through western Philippine wa-
ters to Ormoc. In one long assault
on a convoy, U. S. aviators sank 10
enemy transports, sending 4,000
troops to the bottom, and bringing
total Jap losses in reinforcement at-
tempts to 26 ships with a tonnage of
92,750 and 21,000 men.
Meanwhile, B-29s continued their
raids over the Tokyo industrial area,
encountering moderate opposition.
Infuriated by the bombings, chat-
Gen. MacArthur on Leyte airdrome with
Ace Bong (at left) and Lt. Gen. George
Kenney (right).
ering Japanese news commentators
threatened that “albino apes” para-
chuting onto Japanese soil from dis-
tressed Superfortresses would be
“killed on the spot by angry peo-
ple.”
Japs Gain
Pushed to the wall in the Philip-
pines, the Japs had better luck in
China, where Chiang Kai-shek’s ar-
mies were hard put to it in an at-
tempt to blunt an enemy drive
aimed at cutting the Burma road
to Chungking.
Thrusting westward from their
north-south juncture at Liuchow,
where they joined to seal off the
whole eastern Chinese coast, Jap
columns stood about 100 miles from
the Burma road, key communica-
tions line linking much of the south-
ern part of the country.
As the Japs pressed forward, they
claimed 50,000 Chinese troops were
falling back on the big highway bas-
tion of Kweiyang, where a strong
stand was expected to block any
drive further northward toward
Chungking, Kai-shek’s headquarters.
HIGHWAYS:
Postwar Project
Following separate action by both
houses, senators and representatives
got together in the nation’s capital
to settle on a definite postwar fed-
eral highway program, the first ma-
jor public works project planned
for peacetime.
After the senate had approved of
the expenditure of $450,000,000 an-
nually for three years after the war
for construction of rural, secondary
and urban highways, the house
passed a bill providing for $500,000,-
000 annually for three years.
Under both versions, states would
have to contribute an equal amount
of money for road projects, and
sums would be distributed through-
out the country on the basis of re-
gional importance. Under the house
bill, for instance, $775,000,000 would
be allotted for rural highways, $450,-
000,000 for secondary roads and
$375,000,000 for urban arteries.
WESTERN FRONT:
Battle of Attrition
To the Nazis being pressed back
to the Rhine, the great battles rag-
ing along the western front were
“the most ferocious in all history.”
To doughboys of the U. S. Ninth,
First, Third and Seventh armies,
slogging forward in heavy gush,
they were the hardest of the war,
with desperate resistance encoun-
tered at every step.
With airplane activity limited by
somber skies and rainfalls, the bat-
tle was being fought along the
ground, with heavy U. S. field ar-
tillery and big, rumbling tanks pour-
ing their deadly fire into enemy en-
trenchments to clear the way for
the doughboys of the infantry.
Although General Patton’s
Third army about the Saar, and
General Patch’s Seventh army
east of the Vosges, maintained
heavy pressure on Nazi lines,
the focal point of action cen-
tered on the Ninth and First
army fronts between Julich and
Duren.
East of the small, but strategic,
Roer river, both of these towns are
vital communications centers,, with
elaborate highways running in from
the Rhineland to feed other road-
ways running to the north and south.
As the great battle of attrition-
wearing down—rose in tempo, this
highway network was vital to the
Germans in rushing troops and ma-
terials to the endangered front, and
then transferring them to the north
and south.
Indicative of the great pressure
General Eisenhower was exerting in
this sector was the report that his
opponent, foxy Field Marshal von
Rundstedt, had transferred troops
from the Dutch front to the Julich-
Duren sector to cope with the Allied
powerhouse.
No sooner had the report come
through than it was announced that
Canadian troops had taken the field
on the Dutch front, increasing Al-
lied pressure back in this sector,
and giving the German high com-
mand no rest.
Slowed in their frontal as-
sault on Budapest, Russian
armies crossed the Danube to
the south of the Hungarian cap-
ital to thrust one spearhead
northward toward the embattled
city and another westward to-
ward the Austrian frontier, less
than 100 miles away.
SEDITION TRIAL:
Death Ends It
With the death of 65ryear-old Jus-
tice Edward C. Eicher of Iowa, the
seven-month-long, and at times-far-
cical, sedition trial of 26 defendants
in Washington, D. C., came to an
abrupt end, with small chance of
resumption.
Although government counsel said
the trial could go on if both the U. S.
and defendants agreed to the selec-
tion of another judge, it was recalled
that a federal court previously had
ruled that justice required comple-
tion of a case by the same judge and
jury and no substitutions could be
made, even with consent. Thus, the
government was faced with the al-
ternative of starting new proceed-
ings.
Even though the trial of the 26
defendants, accused of trying to un-
dermine the morale of the U. S.
armed forces and establish a Nazi
form of government in this country,
had already taken up seven months,
government counsel revealed that
at least six more months would be
necessary to complete presentation
of its evidence. With defendants’
attorneys expected to consume an
additional three to six months, the
case promised to last about a year
and a half.
Ernie Pyle
airdromes, losses
on both sides and
constant watchful
patrolling.
Here, at one of
our airdromes,
all of us can as-
sure you that be-
ing bombed is no
fun. Yet these
tired, hard-work-
ing Americans
jokingly decided
to send a telegram to Allied head-
quarters asking them to arrange for
the Jerrys to stop there each eve-
ning and pick up our mail.
I am living at this airdrome for a
while. It can’t be named, although
the Germans obviously know where
it is, since they call on us frequent-
ly. Furthermore, they announced
quite a while ago by radio that they
would destroy the place within three
days.
I hadn’t been here three hours till
the Germans came. They arrived
just at dusk. And they came arro-
gantly, flying low. Some of them
must have regretted their audacity,
for they never got home. The fire-
works that met them were beauti-
ful from the ground, but must have
been hideous up where they were.
They dropped bombs on several
parts of the field, but their aim was
marred at the last minute. There
were no direct hits on anything. Not
a man was scratched, though the
stories of near misses multiplied
into the hundreds by the next day.
One soldier who had found a bot-
tle of wine was lying in a pup tent
drinking. He never got up during
the raid—just lay there cussing at
the Germans.
When the raid was over he was
untouched, but the tent a foot above
him was riddled with shrapnel.
• • /
Another soldier made a practice
of keeping a canteen hanging just
above his head. That night when he
went to take a drink the canteen
was empty. Investigation revealed
a shrapnel hole, through which the
water had run out.
Another soldier had the front sight
of his rifle shot off by a German
machine-gun bullet.
Some of the soldiers were ac-
tually picking tiny bits of shrap-
nel out of their coats all the
next day. Yet, as I said, not a
drop of American blood was
shed.
When this airdrome was first set
up the soldiers dug slit trenches
just deep enough to lie down in dur-
ing a raid, but after each new bomb-
ing the trenches get deeper.
GIs Outdig WPA.
Everybody makes fun of himself
—but keeps on digging. Today some
of these trenches are - more than
eight feet deep. I’ll bet there has
been more whole-hearted digging
here in two weeks than WPA did in
two years.
The officers don’t have to hound
their men. They dig with a will of
their own, and with vengeance. If
we stay here long enough we’ll prob-
ably have to install elevators to get
to the bottom of the trenches.
After supper you see officers
as well as men out digging.
Each little group has its own
trench design. Some are just
square holes. Some form an L.
Some are regulation zigzag.
The ground here is drj, and the
trenches don’t fill up with water as
they do in the coastal and mountain
camps. The earth is as hard as
concrete. You have to use an ax
as well as a pick and shovel.
• • •
You’d love our air-raid alarm sys-
tem. It consists of a dinner bell
hanging from a date palm tree out-
side headquarters. When the radio
watchers give the order the dinner
bell is rung. Then the warning is
carried to the far ends of the vast
airdrome by sentries shooting re-
volvers and rifles into the air. At
night it sounds like a .small battle.
When the alarm goes the soldiers
get excited and mad, too. When the
Germans come over the anti-aircraft
guns throw up a fantastic Fourth of
July torrent of red tracer bullets.
But to the soldiers on the ground
that isn’t enough, so they let loose
with everything from Colt .45s up
to Tommy guns.
It happens that my best flying
friends in this war have been bomb-
er men, but I wish somebody would
sing a song, and a glorious one, for
our fighter pilots. They are the for-
gotten men of our aerial war.
Not until I came up close to the
African front did I realize what
our fighter pilots have been through
and what they are doing. Somehow
or other you don’t hear much about
them, but they are the sponge that
is absorbing the fury of the Luft-
waffe over here. They are taking
it and taking it and taking it. An
everlasting credit should be theirs.
In England, the fighters of the
RAF got the glory because of
the great Battle of Britain in
1940. But in America our atten-
tion has been centered on the
bombers. The spectacular suc-
cess of the Flying Fortresses
when they went into action made
the public more bomber-con-
scious.
* * *
There is still rivalry between the
fighters and the bombers, as there
always has been. That in itself is
probably a good thing. But of late
it has sort of slipped out of the
category of rivalry—it has devel-
oped into a feeling on the part of
the fighter pilots that they are neg-
lected and unappreciated and tak-
ing a little more than their share
on the nose. Their ratio of losses
is higher than that of the bombers,
and their ratio of credit is lower.
Bombers Need Fighters.
There have been exaggeration? in
the claims that the Fortresses can
take care of themselves without
fighter escort. Almost any bomber
pilot will tell you that he is deeply
grateful for the fighter cover he has
in Africa, and that if he had to go
without it he would feel like a very
naked man on his way to work.
Our heavy bombers now are al-
ways escorted by Lockheed Light-
nings (P-38s). It is their job to
keep off German fighters and to ab-
sorb whatever deadliness the Nazis
deal out.
It means longer trips than fighters
ever made before. Sometimes they
have to carry extra gas tanks, which
they drop when the fight starts.
They mix it with the enemy when
they are already tired from long
flying at high altitudes. And then
if they get crippled they have to
navigate alone all the way home.
The P-38 is a marvelous airplane,
and every pilot who flies it loves it.
But the very thing that makes the
Lightning capable of these long trips
—its size—unfits it for the type of
combat it faces when it gets there.
If two Lightnings and two Messer-
schmitt 109s get in a fight the Amer-
icans are almost bound to come out
the little end of the horn; because
the Lightnings are heavier and less
maneuverable.
The ideal work of the P-38 is as
an interceptor, ground strafer, or
light hit-and-run bomber. It would
be a perfect weapon in the hands
of the Germans to knock down our
daylight bombers. Thank goodness
they haven’t got it.
• »
Convoying bombers is monoto-
nous work for the fighter pilot
who lives on dash and vim.
These boys sometimes have to
sit cramped in their little seat
for six hours. In a bomber you
can move around, but not in a
fighter.
The bomber has a big crew to do
different things, but the fighter pilot
is everything in one. He is his
own navigator, his own radio opera-
tor, his own gunner. When you
hear the pilots tell all the things
they have to do during a flight it is
amazing that they ever have time
to keep a danger eye out for Ger-
mans.
Although our fighters in North Af-
rica have1 accounted for many more
German planes than we have lost,
still our fighter losses are high. I
have been chumming with a room-
ful of five fighter pilots for the past
week. Tonight two of those five are
gone.
HIGHLIGHTS
in the week’s news
Aerial Combat Tactics Change
Meat: Thp largest production of
beef and veal on record for any
November was made at federally
inspected meat packing plants last
month, according to a review of the
livestock and meat situation today
by the American Meat institute.
Total production of all meat last
month'was 1,539,000,000 pounds. This
was 6 per cent more than that pro-
duced in October,
Fat Calf: Seven hundred and sev-
enty-five thousand dollars in war
bonds was the sale value of a pure
bred Holstein bull calf at Omaha re-
cently. A life insurance company in
Omaha “bought” the calf for $380,000
in bonds and then they offered it for
sale again with the Douglas County
Dairy Breeders association paying
$375,000 for the animal, which they
will put in service.
It is hard for a layman to under-
stand the fine points of aerial com-
bat as practiced at the moment in
North Africa. It is hard even for
the pilots themselves to keep up,
for thera»are changes in tactics from
week to week.
We will have some new idea and
surprise Germans with it. Then
they’ll come across with a surprise
maneuver, and we will have to
change everything to counteract it.
But basically, at the moment, you
can say that everything depends on
teamwork. The lone dashing hero in
this war is certain to be a dead hero
within a week. Sticking with the
team and playing it all together is
the only guarantee of safety for ev-
erybody.
American sports has instilled team-
work into the fliers collectively.
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SEWING CIRCLE PAT1
ML \-v:.
______ Hi
Grace and Dignity in This Dress
Jumper Frock a Figure-Flatterer
8712
u-r»
693
35-52
'T'HIS graceful and dignified
afternoon frock for the matron
will be perfect for all those occa-
sions when you want to look nicer
than ever. The softly gored skirt
and scalloped finish on collar and
sleeves are pleasing details.
* • •
Pattern No. 8693 comes in sizes 36, 38,
40. 42, 44, 46, 48, 50 and 52. Size 38, short
sleeves, requires 4ii yards of 39 inch
material.
Jumper Frock
'T'HE jumper dress is a figure-
-*■ flatterer for every age. This
attractive piodel has broad shoul-
ders and trim waist to give you
that popular new T-square look.
Use novelty buttons for the clever
shoulder treatment and side-but-
ton closing. A smartly tailored
blouse is included in the pattern.
Pattern No. 8712 comes In sizes 11, 12,
13, 14, 16 and 18. Size 12, jumper, requires:
We yards of 54 inch mrtl.-ial; blouse,
short sleeves, 1% yards of 35 or 39 lncto
material.
Due to an unusually large demand and
current war conditions, slightly more timer
is required in filling orders for a few of
the most popular pattern numbers.
SEWING CIRCLE PATTERN DEPT.
530 South Wells St. Chicago
Enclose 25 cents In coins for each
pattern desired.
..........Size......
Pattern No..
Name.......
Address.....
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Skiing,While Long Known,
Practically New as Sport
Although skis have been used as
a means of travel, especially by
armies, for at least 4,000 years,
as evidenced by a runner of that
age now in the Nordiska museum
in Stockholm, skiing did not be-
come a sport, even in the Scandi-
navian countries, until 1860.
The sport did not become
popular in the United States until
after 1920.
For Joyful Cough
Relief, Try This
Home Mixture
Saves Big Dollars. No Cooking,
This splendid recipe is used by mil-
lions every year, because lt makes
such a dependable, effective medicin»
for coughs due to colds. It la so easy
to mix—a child could do it.
From any druggist, get 2% ounces,
of Pinex, a special compound of prov-
en Ingredients, in concentrated form,
well-known for its soothing effect oi*
throat and bronchial membranes.
Then make a syrup by stirring two
cups of granulated sugar and one cup-
of water a few moments, until dis-
solved. No cooking needed. Or you can
use corn syrup or liquid honey/in-
stead of sugar syrup.
Put the Pinex into a pint bottle amt
add your syrup. This gives you a’full
pint of cough medicine, very effective
and quick-acting, and you get about
four times as much for your money.
It never spoils, and Is very pleasant
—children love It.
You'll be amazed by the way lt takes
hold of coughs, giving quick relief. It
loosens the phlegm, soothes the irri-
tated membranes, and helps clear th*
air passages. Money refunded if it
doesn't please in every way.
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Mighty Good Eating/
CORN FLAKES j
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“The Grains are Great Food*’’- ,
• Kellogg’s Com Flakes bring you
nearly all the protective food elements
of the whole grain declared essential
to human nutrition.
pORNi
toKts
y«ast Raised
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FLEISCHKANN'S FAMOUS RECIPE BOOK NEWLY REVISED FOB WAS TIME! |
Kp and pasta on a penny
post card for your free
copy of Flelcchmann’a
newly revised “Tha Bread
Basket.” Dozens of easy
for breads, rolls,
I. Address Stand-
ard Brands Incorporated,
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The Jacksboro Gazette (Jacksboro, Tex.), Vol. 65, No. 29, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 14, 1944, newspaper, December 14, 1944; Jacksboro, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth730001/m1/2/: accessed May 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Gladys Johnson Ritchie Library.