■W Rii L.T.-SUNOCO. WEDNESDAY. FEBBUAIY , 1942 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: The British defenders of S^^gy)ore^Jhft^^ th^eir backs to the wall tonight/ it ion Tfe ^ the original British expeditionary force ^n Nineteen Fifteen when the Old Contemptibles, as they called themselves, fought the first Battle of Ypres, which stopped the Germans and saved the Allies in France and Flanders by winning time for reinforcements. Our authority for the drawing of this parallel between the Battle ocf Ypres and the Battle of Singapore is none other than Sir Archibald ?/avell, Comraander-in-Chief of the Allied forces in the East. The most important thing coming out of Singapore tonight is the special order of the day that he issued to the ) LEAD - 2 army. The original British expeditionary force, he said, saved Ypres and stopped the Germans, And he adds: ^Y/e must be worthy successors of them and save Asia by fighting these Japanese. General Wavell continued:- "The Japanese are straining every nerve to keep the advantage gained by their initial surprise, but once their impetus is thwarted, they will soon be discouraged. Our part," he said, "is to gain time for great reinforcements which we and our American allies are sending to the eastern theatre. The Japanese," he added, "have now reached an area where the British cannot be constantly outflankedwhere the e-fiec-)^p Then he used these ringing words:- "You must * yield no strip of ground without fighting hard, and you must leave nothing behind undestroyed thit would be LEAD - 3 of the least service to the enemy. Our friends and allies, the Dutch," h« said "are carrying out A this policy in every part of the Netherlands East Indies Hi with sacrifice and resolutioa." It ■ y General Wavell's special order wound up with | this appeal:- "I look to you all to fight this battle without further thought of retreat and to make the defense of Singapore as memorable and successful as the defense of Tobruk, which British and Australian troops hjjd so^io^p^ and so ga , _ ____ hold‘on,.16uivJd4 help is ^n^the way| All day long, the heavy pil'Sffeso f th e Mikado's army were bombing Singapore And all day long | the British at Singapore were pounding the enemy across t4i» Johore Straits. Not only the business district but the residential parts of Singapore resounded with heavy explosions. In one raid alone, eighteen Japanese J LEAD - 4 I plbnes dumped heavy loads of incendiaries and other bombs. In spite of the Japanese efforts to cross the Straits and of the fire of the British artillery, Australian soldiers, the rear guard of the aiaajr. were A A i making their waySome of them swimming in broad daylight. Th^ were Aussies, who had been cut off when the main body of the British retreated south, i V i N i trickl#d^ in by twos and threes, fighting their | A I lone way through jungles, some of them coming down the ^ coast in small boats. ardships indescribeable, almost unbelieveable. INDIES As for the Dutch, they are still fighting despite the wild claims of the Japanese who say they have achieved a complete victory in the Netherlands possess ions. I A high official of the Dutch military establishment tells us that the Japanese report of Borneo being entirely in Nipponese hands is absurd That the Japanese may control Tarakan and Balik Papan, and perhaps even Pontianak, but that they still have a it long way to go before they can make good their 1 ridiculous \cl a.^^s. In Borneo alone there are some fifty airports] of the Netherlands air force, hidden in the jungles. And from those fields a spirited guerrilla warfare has been kept up. The Dutch military ^ spokesman admitted today | ¥ that if the Japanese are successful in consolidating | at Balik Papan, then they’ll be ready for a strong attack on the city of Banjcrmasin, on the south HEDIES . 2 Borneo coast, a key seaport v.hick would put the iiicado in control of the Java Sea. rO ARIiY COMMON I : UE There no communique from the \ 7 ar Department about the fighting in the Philippines tonight. This morning’s report brought word that the Japanese made another vigorous attack on General MacArthur's left flank with their Sixteenth Division. This the H American and Filipinos sharply repulsed, ^the words of the communique. It also reports that our troops continue to mop up Kxxiii ta ^ 1 1'^ remnants of Japanese who have landed on the west coast or filtered behind our lines. | These were soldiers of the Tatori group, the picked men specially trained for that work. They were found in isolated pockets. The enemy had tried to supply them | with food and ammuniticm dropped by parachute, but most of those supplies fell into 0=^72 hands. A /{ ti(U The War Department communique also rir p a§ A that seven heavy bombers of the American army air corf ah :.: y cc?yi!r:NicuE - 2 sunk two 'Japanese transports at Balik Papan, and also hit a third, which was badly damaged and probably sunk buf . ua lh /Perhaps the fiercest and most important fighting the Salween River in Burma. The British report L they are still holding that line, though it isn’t cleari ! whether the enemy has been able to force a passage yet t^AJl S and establish a bridgehead on the Vest bank^^ 7^ J n r n P ^ ff » claim they have,* and that they are preparing for an attack in force on Martaban, the next big fortified point of resistance on the road to Rangoon. But the British announce that although the enemy made a number of attacks on the west bank of the Salween, they were repulsed. They admit the Japanese have established themselves on a number of islands at the point where the Salween empties into the Gulf of Martaban. ted British and American aviators made punishing attacks on'pe Japanese eaa those islands. The enemy also tried to land troops BURMA - ? on the west shore of the Gulf of Martaban, but were repulsed. ^ American and British aviators are operating' with -hythe Japanese all along that Salween front ? CHINA Chinese Leader Chian^: ]^ai-shek is about to let loose a major offensive against the Japanese. The high command in Chungking made this announcement today. It naturally said nothing about where *t will begin. A P But, say. theChinese, it will start soon, the moment the army receives the military supplies from the United f^tates. They were actually landed in Asia before war broke out, and it has taken all this time to move them up the Burma Road, through the mountains of western China to the eastern Chinese front i lines. This campaign has been in preparation for some ^2^ time, so says the report from Chungking. Chiang began months ago to build strong bases, many of them TI- I close to the Japanese lines, others to the rear. His | best troops have been sent to those places to wait I for the signal. They include air bases for the launching! I CHI^IA - 2 of bombing raids on territory occupied by the Japanese. tLc victory at Changsha has given the Chinese commanders a good deal of hope. They believe it proves what they can do when they have modern equipment. Changsha, = -rCt 6 the scene of ^ battle ^ reme»be in 7/hich a Japanese army estimated at a hundr^j^^tjbousand men was defeated, with thousand /^asualt ies . I [»» A I This news comes on the day when the House of Pepresentat ives passed its part of a joint resolution authorizing the President to lend the Chinese half a « billion dollars. The Eepresentatives made no difficulties siAjTTTit th. in fact it was a voice vote, and one of those who spoke up for it was Congressman Ss* Fish of Hew York, the former isolationis-^ ! — f ]_i__i2^ A HI. H i . iiiifiirr rrrn r-ri1r"np f ■■ X I "If China is driven from the war or collapses, or is j forced to make peace, I don't believe we can win." CHINA - 2 And he added that the same applies to Russia. He didn*t go so far as to say that the defeat of China or Russia would mean our defeat also, but that if either of them has to withdraw, the war will end in a stalemate -W LIBYA h r The British army in Africa has now had to get out of Derna. It was only three or four weeks ago that we were cheered by the news that the Imperial forces had captured that place on the Libyan coast. But now Nazi General Rommel’s drive has advanced three hundred and twenty-four miles in an amazingly short time, and his line Kwi now stretches from a point southeast of Benghazi to within a hundred miles of Tobruk. The t <1 British have had to retire fifty miles in two days^ / | . 4 ^ That *s why they had to give up Derna. One reason for the Nazi sweep is reinforcements.! There has been rough weather in the Mediterranean, which has helped the Axis'to cross from Italy into Africa. What’s more, the British here have heard that the Nazis have been sending their best and most experienced submarine cr*ews into those waters to protect transport convoys. m I RUSSIA i a-- I; Yfe are still waiting for the big news from Russia that the Soviet generals have been promising us for several days, ^^here isn’t anything definite except vague reports of the most violent kind of fighting in r the region around Smolensk. There are three main ^ battle centers, one west of Moscow, another northwest, n and still another in the south. The report is that | A the Nazi generals have issued ‘the 'order to their I troops to stand or die. This order, the Russians claim, was found among the papers of^^erman soldiers According 'to the newspaper REE STAR, one such order issued by a Nazi infantry general, said: I ”I categorically forbid the surrender of any positions j i and I will execute any commander on the spot who surrenders any village without my permission. Die, but do not retreat." London papers are referring to the present .j RUS^A_- 2 stage of that campaign on the eastern front, as the Battle of Smolensk, indicating that the announcement we are waiting for will be the capture of Smolensk. BuL sc^ evidently is not yet an accomplished fact. /v SAN GIL Thirty-nine people owe their lives to the quick and nimble skill of a marine radio operator. I The steamer SAN GIL of the United Fruit Company was s 0 iJ H going along the Atlantic coast la't-e last night, when A she was hit by a torpedo. It struck amidshipsy right in the engine room, kill^ two of the black gang A instantly, and injur## two others. It also knocked down A the antenna of the radio.' Sparks, whose real name is Robert S. Thorp, of Fast Orange, New Jersey, climbed aloft and with lightning speed rigged up an emergency antenna. Then he started sending out calls for help. t Three lifeboats were then lowered by the crew with the i 0 help of one passenger. The minute 'they hit the water, | 1 I they were dodging shells, for the submarine started firing on the ship. Thanks to the quick work of Sparks, i a Coast Guard cutter appear*ed on the scene and saved all hands except the two men killed in the engine room. | SAN GIL And, said the master of the SAN GIL - the rescue is due to the work of that Sxcastsv rVCX--«,^— o A /V V I i ‘1 SUGAR We will not have ration cards for sugar in this country. But each person will probably receive a book of sugar stamps to last him for three months. ^Mgnx Leon Henderson hasn't yet decided the exact amount each person will have, but it will most likely be about twelve ounces a week. Twelve ounces per week for every individual, no matter how old or how young. Father, Mother and two children would thus get three pounds every seven days. Which to most people in Europe would represent the height of luxury Mil PEARL HARBOR Here's some news from the world of film -- the newsreel. The Pearl Harbor pictures are being released -- we are working oh them tonight. It has been known in the motion picture world that there was I a motion picture camera at Pearl Harbor, and film was made of the destruction there. It happened that Movietone Cameraman A1 Brick had been assigned to cover the fleet in Hawaiian waters, A when the enemy planes came over for that startling and treacherous surprise on December Seventh. A1 Brick got^pictures, hundreds and hundreds of feet A A of film. This, obviously, was motion picture material that amounted to a military ’secret. The film was turned over to the Navy, was scrutinized and found to be of a sensational sort that might give useful information to the enemy -- if made public. So it was held until such time when the^ information could no longer do the Japanese any good -- then to be released time now has come, and the pictures A f/ PEARL HARBOR - made by A1 Brick of Movietone are to be shown. This in accordance with our American policy of freedom and public enlightenment in all cases when such does not benefit our antagonists in the war. I saw the Pearl Harbor film this afternoon, it*s going to to work on it tbnight -- telling the story to accompany dramatic scenes^ E: I MacARTHUR The latest anecdote about General Douglas MacArthur comes from Denver, Colorado. It*s told by Colonel Thomas Gimberling in commend of the recruiting ^ office in the Colorado district. On a warm Spring night in Nineteen Three, there was a hop at 'A’est Point. Some of the caydets, who either C l ^ c/iT didn't have a drag ^ preferred poker, left the dance floor and went to the locker room. There they brought out a deck of cards and the chips and applied themselves to the science of filling inside straights. In the middle of the game, they heard the loud clank of a spurred heel in the corridor and the heard lite rather obvious rattling of a sabre^ time to grab a bath mat and cover the cards and the chips. In came the officer of the day, whose name was WacArthur, and who spoke as follows "Gentlemen, one look at this gathering convinces me j MacAETHUR - 2 1 that you have in hand matters more serious than the promenade. However," he added, "if I were you, I would refrain from studying military tactics after E class and enjoy the xsa romantic recration prepared A ri for you." So saying, he saluted and left the room. r‘ The point of the story is that Office^of the Day MacArthur was enough of a sportsman to make a noise I with spurs and sabre before he entered the locker room. ^j ---- - gyamong the students •^tu of thosefmilit ary tactics a ? t a y o i n o a e # were Colonel Gimberling himself, and the 3 A /■' to fame as General Hugh S; Johnson^ subsequently known r (5-^v^ VWV\)^