In the
~hilippin
s
, M
a
cArthur's ~en hav
_
fought t
h
eir
way
to the north coa
o
t of Leyte. And,
on
the
south coast, &Filipino guerrillas have
taken
the last two villa
~
e
s the Japs controlled there.
Ma
c
Arthur has just announced that the two wings of
General
Ireuger's Sixth Army have
joiaad
forces
to cut
off
the Japanese from every route by
whicb the7 can
escape, except one.
--o--
A welter of conflicting stories
caae
froa
the Tokio radio again today. One of them claimed that
the Japanese had spotted a small task force of 0ncle
Sam's Navy, two hundred
miles
east of the island of
Luzon, the main island. Both Tokio
and
Berlin
broadcast
sensational tales
of the sinking or damage of fourteea
United States warships -- including battleships --
by
a new
special
attack corps of
·
the Japanese air
ar ■•
The enemy
propaganda
claims
that
they are using a
new weapon, a suicide
~l
ne, described as a V-1 with
a
pilot.
These are
sup
p
o
s
ed to
be
flyin
g
bombs
with
just enough
fuel to re·
ch
their targets
and
a suicide pilot
aboard to
make su~e
of
accuracy.
Our own High
Command made
no reply to all this, but interpreted
it as an index of tenseness and fright in Tokio.
The Yikado's Gen ral~taff also announced a
shake-up in several Japanese commands,
ao ■e
General•
fired, and soae civil adainistrators
of
the lav7
removed.
Tok~~t{nged its stor7 about the B-29s that
supposedly attacked Tokio. Today they say the Sup•r-
Fortresses dropped no boabs, but were on a recannaiaance
flight. But, so far as we know, the Ara, doesn't uae
B-29a for reconnaissance.
PEARL HARBOR
--------
President Roosevelt today received
another
request for an
early
trial of
~
Admiral Iimael
.
December
Sev
nth, Nineteen Forty-one.
The aan who sen
the telegram is
Willia ■
Loeb, publisher of the Dail7
lews
of Burli gton, Vermont, and the St. Albans
Dail7
-
•essenger. ~oeb wired the President that
■an7
unpleaaaa
stories are being circ•lated which,
be added, ia
natural in an electi
0
n year. Then he
said that
if
there
are no high political figures to be protected, the
.
Aaerican public cannot see why the faota cannot be told.
•Either Admiral
Iim ■el
and
Adairal
Short are guilt7,•
he continued, •or they are being shamefull7 used to
coyer up for the person who really is guilty.•
The Telegram adds with the words, "Why not give us the
truth?•
.,
The
r
e is furth r
word
from London that Admiral
Lord Louis Mountbatten
may
be dro
ped
as Supreme
Commander in Southeast ARia.
Evident
1y
the British
are about
to re-shuffle their com:nanders in the Far
East. The
s
tory goes that Mountbatten will not be
recalled from Asia but will remain in charge of
amphibious operations, on which he is an expert --
lx
learned in Europe, and the Mediterran
e
an.
By the way, Lord Louis made a statement
today that General Joe Stilwell had earned the
reputation of being a great fighting General. Be and
Stilwell
exchanged
warm
co ■pli ■entary telegra ■s
.
But
London
says
that
nevertheless they bad disagreed
sbar;ly.
The
London Daily Mail published an editorial
today intimating that China should not be included
among the Big Four United Nations, since China is
not
a
United Nation. The charge that Chiang
TIL
E
LL
- 2
---------
Kai-Shek is more interested in
fighting
the Communists
of his own race than in fighting the Japanese has
caused dismay in Britain.
A
United Press correspondent said today that
American •ansport pilots flying supplies to
the mountains have to ~ o
e
paper money
supplies.a.
.
M" . .
~ ,
.. . , .
-l'lriie"'9
because of
"
/\
China
oYer
than war
the terrific
inflation in China.
Be said furtbt r that
so ■e
people
say Chiang does not reinforce some of
his
araies
sufficiently because he is afrai~ their com
m
anders
■a7
turn against him.
Corruption, he added, is frequent
and obYious in the Chinese
armies.
Many coaaantars
are full of personal
a ■bition_and
avarice. So says
a
newspaper
man
who bas just returned on leave
fro■
the
Far East.
From Washington
we
learn that Donald Nelson
will soon return to China and help reorganize the war
effort there" ~ s e t u p a Chinese War Production
I
Board.
From Chungkin
g
comes the admission that the
Japanese have forced their way further into the walled
city of IweiliD_>
.;.;tJ.__
desperate fighting at the
~ w t ~
two principal railway stations..-, ,,.,..~ne enemy -
attacti111
•i•h ne1 ••~•••• from the Borth, from the East and
from the South.
)
The Americans of the First Army surprised the
Germans today and penetrated their lines for
a
distance
-::r~
of two miles. -~(aneral
Hodge ■'
spearhead
Ii ■■
only twenty-seven
miles
•••1
fro ■
Cologne.
-
An
fh•
British have
aade
still
■are
pr•aress
wit
the job of opening the port of Antwerp. Their
sboct
troops
fanned
o•er the flooded areas of
Walcheren lslan,
seized a number of German gun position,, and
widened
their
011l •
beachhead to six miles.
On the 1outh
coast of lalcheren they drove the
laai
garrison of
flushing into the northern outskirts.
On the eastern
aide
of the
i ■ land
the Canadians
saashed
their way onto
croe1ed
the islaal for the second t1ae. The7
bad,e&l■ a ■IIAthe
causeway froa
Beveland once before, and the
Ger ■ ans
threw
them back for
a
short while. But
now,
apparently, they
are there to atay.lf'Another Canadian division captured
twenty-five hundred enemy troops and their commander, and
pocket
thus eliminated the last important
Razi~••k ■ "on
the
south side of the River Schelde.
Allied
men-of-
ar standing off the ialand
~
are
s
t ill
poun
ing at the enem~ batteries
,•8'-e~
helpin
g
the
round forces.
It
looks
as
though it
~ - l k
would not be long before
alcheren
h ccapliCll;
cl
■
I
.S
~::::t..~
the
G e ~ s ~ i . o
the■ ju■tice,
~ ~ / . - - .
A
..,..11
putting up a terrific resistance.
One of the spectacular features of the battle
for alcheren was the accoaplishment of a con•oy of
~
amphibious s•pport vessels,
TIIS, • ~
small,
J;t~
thin hulls, but bristling with guns.
TheAtea■ed
right
-tLe
1L,,J,
within range ofApowerful
shore batteries-•itb areat
,,
A
.
rifles
ranging frea eighty-eights to two-hundred-and-
ninety millimeter cannon.
They attacked
.
them
fro■
in
front and kept their weapon• hot until they we
r
e either
a ■ j
·
sunk
or forced to retire
with
a■ ll•
holes
in their
~~l
sides
and
....
~9
"their decks.
A correspondent reports that British sailors, who
survived
Dieppe ani Normandy admitted they never saw
~·
.
a battle like
th,£A
The-. job
was
to knock out fixed
'
,
'
E
T RN
F RUNT -
___
,___
____
_
_
__
German bltteries
at
pointblank range.
The fight lasted
four
hours. The shells
from those tiny vessels bounced
off the thick German concrete gun casements like
tennia
balls. But they stayed there and
took
it until the
British Commandos reached the shore and captured the
Jerry batteries
with
flame throwers and grenades.
A.-
All that while not one of th . . . small craft eitbr
wavered
or faltered.
Not
even those that were hit.
lht-e11 . .
$e
first
time
on record that saall ships built for
a ■phib
ioua
ope rat ions did the
like
destroyers, cruisers and
- -
'
, I
out pointblank
with
big coast defense guna,
and•••¢•:,
I\.
•
Bow many
of
the ■
survived is a military secret.
Further south units of Gener
a
l Patton's Third
Army
made
some
slight advances. And the Seventh
aray
in the footnills of the Vosges Mountains have
widened
their front and captured
six
more villages.
•
d r ~ A O I A . r t
I
9u• - . k n • ~
Europe
,ti~
•P • zz a~
record.
k
r
~Aemul•n,a 1-aoi..,.
oreth an t wen ty-f i ve hundred
war
planes teok
off, bombing
munition plant,
in the
Ruhr,lfltl
oil plants in several parts
of Germany.
Headquarters
of the
Eighth
Air Force announc~d that there
were more
than one thousand, one hundred and fift7
fl7ing
forts
and Liberators accompanied by some nine hundred
fl&hter
fleets
This was one
of the greatest escort~f••*~ ever
sent
oat.
The < : : r m ~ a f f e accepted ti. challenge,
en4
AV\
.
a terrific,..•~".•esulted. The NaUI"
-;;,111'1"1••,
propelled
jet~11•ll•~ planes • ._.llie result of it all wa1
that our men shot down one hundred
and
thirt7-one
••••1
planes in one day, an
alJ-ti ■ e
record.
The
R
ed armies invading Run
~
a
r7 are on the
last lap of
the a
vanoe on Budapest. Witn tanks
and tankborne infantry they have now crossed the
•~rsh7 ,•~ plains to within twenty-one miles.
Plowin
ahead
on a
wide
front, capturing thousands of
prisoners,
including the former Chiaf of the Hungarian
General St
r
ff.
It's the lecond
Ar ■y
of
the Ukraine that
11
moving down on Budapest. With the Twent7-fourth
Ger■an
Panz•~ Division tryin
g
to hold the~ up.
All counter-attac11B have been hurled back, an4
the
Reds
have swept forward for twenty-five ailes, lD
two
days,
along the railroad froa Belgrade.
The
latest is that tlle7 have captared
a railway
station
only twenty
miles
south
of
the Hungarian capital.
The Raiia
are rushing relnfcr cements as fast
as they can, alll a battle is now raging in the vine7ard1
south
of
Budapest, where the grapes haven't yet been
harvested.
Northeast of Budapest
the northern wing of
RUS
IA -
2
that
sa
~
e
ovi
~
t a
~
y
is also co~ing close to
the citJ.
It h
a
s
cleRred the Nazis from the eat bank
of the
Tisza Riv r.
A io
·
cow correspondent rep~rts that
the river cro~sings are choked
ith the
bodies of
German
j
ead.
0
B e t t i n ~
""4-
big battles
1
w
l
g
fought
•Jae
in Poland,on a front a hundred and ten
ailes
wide along the •aref River1 north of Warsaw.
Moscow says nothing about the fighting in Polana.
~
But the Red army in the Arctic is on the
Yerge
of joining up with the Finnish divisions in
Lapland,ana
from
all accouds it will not be long before
they have
pushed
'111/_
lazis out of Lapland. Finnish troops a r e ~
)"!c~'6tf:'Geraans down the lorwegian coast,
--'lli•
enemy IS in full retreat.
~
British men-of-war sank twoANazi transports off
the
coast
of Norway, transports
11 k •
a
evacuating
German troops. Allied officers expect
that
the Nazis
will make a stand at Narvik, scene of one of the first
dramatic episodes of the war in Nineteen Fort,.
British General Sir H
a
rold
A
lexander toda7
expl
a
ined the str
a
tegy of the Allied campaign in Ital •
The
Supreme z : n d e r in
~ ~~
~
that
t beatre said
,tsu
It
purpoae.,A.79;.to force the Ge
r
aans to withdraw troopa
from other fronts. Thus the Allied attack along the
Gothic Line. though not proceedin
g
at great speed,
would help the Allie~all the other fronti:.,.by forciDI
the lati Nazis to weaken their defenses in other part
of luw,ope.
Alexander told his press conference ~hat the
lazi
High
Command had issued the order to all
Ger ■an
troops in Italy both around Bologna andto the East
to stand and fight to the last
aan.
The Nazis,
Alexander explained, are afraid that
if
the7 withdraw
to a shorter front they ma7 lose both military and
political control in the Reich.
They are, therefore,
prepared to sacrifice, if necessary, twent7-eight full
divisions, twenty-eight divisions badly
needed
elsewhere.
That, howev r, be said, is t•e secondar7
ai~ of Allied strategy in Italy. The first is to set
the Italians free of t~e Nazis. Be went on to say that
the Germans have increased their divisions in Ital7
sevenfold since the campaign opened, an4 that the7
are
fighting savagel7; and thus are undoubtedly prolon1tn1
the war.
So says the Supreae Allied
Co ■mander
in Italy.
DEIEY
-----
Governor.._ Dewey is back again in Pennsylvania
tonight, campaigning in the die~ricte
where
the Onite4
lline Work.era are nuaerous.
4• y-;;;
- - ----
•
• ••
•
►
Lewis, President of the Union is bitter
l
y
oppoae4
to
President Roosevelt, although be has not
expreaaed
bi ■-
'
eelf violently in favor of
Dewey.
B~fore
be entered
~·
Pennsylvania,~ewey was in the usually
~e■ ocratic
stronghold of Maryland}
w-_nl.,y
a speech in
Balti■ore
in which be repeated stateaenta be bad
■ ade
in otber
part• of the country..
Maryland,& one of the border
atate~
pa4,r,,n1a
4:fq
trwr-tt
baa been on tile
winning aide of every presidential election
~
"""'·
-ninety-two.
Dewey
told the Marylander, that
-
-
,.
if the
Republican Party
were
to
leae
this election, the
Deaocrata would lose their party becauae it would fall
under the control of the
Bill■ an-Browder
axia.
Taiigbt, President Roosevelt will be on the air
for fifteen
■ inutes,
speaking from the White Bouse.
~LU
E
B
EAR
D
Every no
\
an
d
then
ne
w b
luebeard come
s
to
light in Fr
a
nce.
.,,,
II
,
a
AW ■'bii
1
Ji
It•
Q
couple of
years ago, while
the
Nazis were s t i l l ~ ,
the
French poli
c
e found evidence of wholesale
■urdera
(Petteeo)
committed in a villa belonging to a Doctor
Petiot.
Parisian
When the~•zi•••Jt cops raided the villa the black-
7r
bearded doctor bad fled. To
d
ay they
- 0 - ' ~ 1
I
tbu•
they've arrested him. And now there seems to be
aoae
~-
doubtAwhetber he is the most
110•
trous bluebeard
ot
them
all, or whether he is a much misunderstood
French
- -
-
patriot~1f'lhen the gendarmes arrested him, he was
wearing not only a black beard, but also a unifora
et
a Captain of the French Forces of the Interior.
They
say he
a
d ■ itted
b
having killed a number of people,
but be clai~s they were all Geraans. He said further tha
the Nazis use~ his villa in Paris to deposit the dead
bodies of their own v ict
1A9.
and
th
en tried to pin the
murders on• him. He says he has belonged to the
..
.I..
••
resistancerovement ev
e
ry since Nineteen Forty, and
BLOEBEARD - 2
-
------
has no cause to reproach
himself.
Be
posed
gladly for
.
photographers and announced that he had killed those
many
scores
of persons in the••
·
service of bia
countrymen.
The French police have a different version.
(Petteeo)
They
say that Dr. Petiot
poaed as
a
ae ■ber
of the
Underground, luring people to bis house, under
proaiae
of smuggling them out of France amt across the sea
to America.
Then he robbed and
murdered
the ■ •
The
Parisian
officers told American newspaperaen
that
they have identified no fewer than fifty-four of the
bluebeard's victiMs, and that tbe total
number
11
certainly not less than one hundred.
e:,
~ ° " t H ' ; ~ A .
.,.,,Qi:b
~IAl-o
~ I ~ . . . . _ _ ~ ,