DARLAN. All day long a heavy censorship was clamped down on French North Africa, and consequently no new illumination was shed on the assassination of Admiral ita Darlan. We don^t even know the move that inspired the killer - whether he was animated by hositility toward Darlan'as a former Vichy collaborationist or whether his resentment was because Darlan xa had joined the cause of the United^ One report says that the assassin i* is a young / Frenchman, which raises the supposition that he was motivated / by a hatred of the Axis. On the other hand here!s a statement made by General Bergeret, Darlan1s Adjutant. He speaks of Darlan in these words: "fhe gletim victim of an attack inspired by those who did not pardon him for responding to / the voice of the people by taking up again the Light against StBXJUUa Germany at the si<\e of the/illies". & seem to make the killer pro-Axis. Who is to succeed Darlan as French High Cosunissioner in North Africa? That remains ta in doubt. It '.as annou today that General Giraud, the Com wander of the French African DARLAfl 2 Army, has been given the task of maintaining order — this until a new high commissioner in is named. High French officials are conferring at Algiers, General Giraud hlsixi himself -- and General Nogues, Commander a# Morocco. Ksrxa proceeded by plane today to Algiers. And A /\ do did Governor General boisson, of French West Africa, the Commander at bakar. The undertaking is that, following the assassination of Darlan, they will continue firm in the support of the United Nations. What the ultimate effect of the crime will be is probematical. President Roosevelt responded with instant indignation, calling it - f,nurder in the first degree”. Some opinion in ksmulisx London is that the passing o± Darlan may ease the quarrel between the faction that he headed and General DeGaulle's fighting French. On the other hand, tlaXxXsix this London opinion recognizes that Darlan exercised great authority over the French military forces in North Africa, and that therefore he was a powerful influence on the side of the United Nations. DABLAN - 3 The Nazis, of course, are tossing out weird propaganda angles, trying to make as much capital as they can out of the assassination ADD DARLAN v mm Here’s the latest — a North African dispatch just in. Actually it was delayed in transmission and is something that occurred before the assassination of Darlan. The United Press procured an interview with General Giraud who ^\. | *tafce^ the attitude of the French North African government toward the Free French of General DeGaulle. Giraud said that the group A A with which he is affiliated intended most certainly to cooperate with DeGaulle even if it did not consolidate with the Free &KHKfc. French. Such is the statement of the man who temporarily takes the place of Darlan. NOaiti tiF&LQA The fighting in Tunisia has picked up somewhat. after having been static for some while. Mere patrol activity has been the story, day after day. Now, however, there has been an allied advance at one point. Todays War department communique reads:- "Units of our advanced forces after beating off enemy counter-attacks, occupied a position six miles northeast i of Medjez-el-bab". That place faees the Bizerte and Tunis area. rightMn the heart of thi»gs. The Nazis tried some action\of their \ N, \ X'? own, some counter-attacks. 1 one^ou^^wn^\scoring\^n advance\The Army bulletin adds t • "^atrols ar^ operatin^S^.n other sect^s" V iliar^ word: The fighting in the sky decreased and that for a reason so well known in aviation/- "adverse weather conditions”, •states'^he Army-^ommunique,te-ted aiT operfttiene,V. A dispatch from Wiled headquarters *s in North Africa expands the theme of weather. Tunisia is soaking wet. Heavy and prolonged rains have been falling. Today's dispatch reads, -lowlands are soggy, bogging down the tanks and motor vehicles . 1t adds, -both the *ii±sS allies and at* axis of both sides, and it ad , htzh ground from which to launch their attacks", troops seek to gain 0 p ----- ^ High ground meaning the drier sort of ground. NIORTH AFRICA - 2/^ as against the rain-filled valleys and depressions. So for the moment the strategies of wet and soppy, Tunisia are those t5TitO of trying to get w&to the hills. One elevated position Is / that mentioned previously - Medez-el-bab, the place where / / A allied troops beat off Nazi attacks and then scored an advance, 'ef—own* has To the east, in Libya, the British Army « reached a point fcifijtxfcix fifty-five miles west of ^irte, jjuid thspt puts them within two hundred miles of Tripoli as they pursue Rom' el1 retreating army. RUSSIA Soviet Russia announces new military successes. in that all-important sector in the bend of the Don the Red Army is said to be closing in hkk on the important rail junction/ of Millerovo. -^rrs. attacking that.* city on three sides. s A / Millerbvo is a hundred and twenty-five miles north of Rostov, the ultimate goal of the Russian counteroffensive^A late Moscow dispatch announces the capture of several dozen localitie in the big bend of the Don. In the Caucasus, where the Nazis are also under vigorous assault. Red Army forces have seized several more towns And immediately in front of Stalingrad Soviet troops have gone on the offensive and have broken through to capture three towns♦ Here, says tonight's Moscow communique, the Russians scored advances of from twelve to fifteen miles. NEY/JiUlNkA The war news from N ew Guinea tells of two different kinds of military operation-- one on a small scale, the other on an immense scale. Contrasting xaikRH magnitudes -- the tiny and the great. The small scale of battle is to be found on the northern shore of New Guinea, where American and Australian forces are attacking the Japs that remain in the Buna area. All that the enemy now holds is a stretch of shore about a mile long - - running eastward from the Buna Mission. strip of beaches, Jaxxitx between five and six hundred yards wide. On this the Americans and Australians have converged, and are hitting the mile-long sector from two sides. We are told however, that it won't be so easy to take that small bit of land from the Japs. A spokesman at General MacArthur's headquarters J gives "explanation^ /call*the Japanese beach pkxi positions "a prepared and fortified citadel of resistance". He states that the enemy has set up a barrier of steel and concrete emplacements, barricades and earthworks reinforced by the trunks ^ ' '' ^al-^ropicai-pai®*^ Behlnd‘4;lie .^thoso tyo of palm trees the ip Japs are making a 1st last-ditch stand. flT?fW G uinea - 2 magnitude The large ihanitud^of war is to be discovered in New Guinea air operations. Allied planes are fanning out fran their bases and assailing the enemy along a front many hundreds of miles away long. This an arc of islands extending from the Aru group to the northern tip of New’lreland. From their central point in New Guinea United Nations air power sweeps the immense X xk arc of those islands -- striking at Jap supply centers and communications. The latest dispatch tells of the sfcxawRxi An anemy destroyer sunk, also a five thousand ton transport. SOLOMfi^L The news from the Solomon Islands it) ua . ^ monotonous^- must be painfully monotonous for the Japs at Munda. Because thatf s all we have been hearing day after day from the Solomons — American planes attacked Liunda#- TodayTs Navy bulletin is divided into two sections — A and B. Under the heading of "An we are told that United Stat?s aircraft flew from Guadalcanal for one hundred and fifty miles to Munda. And there they bombed and strafed xs the air field the Japs had built tecently. The communique tells how the tactics of ground strafing were employed. Low-flying, machine-gunning planes silenced the Jap anti-aircraft batteries at Munda, and that left the bombers to operate without the peril of fire from tne ground. Enemy planes on the ground were msashed -- ten destioyed. T e United State air raiders were opposed by Jap fighter p lanes. Fourteen of these were shot down — the enemy losing fimx twenty four aircraft in all. Section "B" of the Navy bulletin reads as follows "Later in the day U.S. aircraft bombed a group of landing barges engaged in reinforcing twain and supplying enemy troops in tne I** SOLOMON - 2 Munda area". The communique adds that of the whole flotilla of enemy barges, only four reached shore. And agaiji that much bombea 'airfield was blasted. The / \ bombers flew low and took careful aim. This^ime the^opposition was nil. The havy states:- "The air field was bombed from low V titude in s' the absence of any resistance". «AK1i ISU-Nr N&vj Den?, t-wu^nt rcfrAlus t rf>m Atiy comrr.onl on an enemy story about an American air raid a^ainat Wake Island. Wake, of course, is that bit of Pacific land so bravely and sternly fa defended by an American garrison early in the Pacific War. And no? tr.e Japs tell how a flight of United States war planes went wincing to Wake Island, and bombed the enemy tnere. The Tokyo story is that there were a dozen American bonbers, anc they appeared from the direction of Midway Island. The Japs don't say whether the planes were carrier-based or whetner they nay have jdt> flown all the way from Micwa> • And Washington isn’t telling them — the Kavy making no comment on the enemy story of the bombing of Wake Island. /inn BURMA .•- ii The latest news in tells of heavy American bombers V blasting the Japs^a^Ia Rangoon. Their aim was so accurate Av that every bomb was seen to smash in the target area - which area consisted of the docks and warehouses of the Burmese o metropolis. KINA GEOhGE The Christmas message that King George the Sixth broadcast today to the British empire gives us a telling expression of British resolution and will to fight, "Today" said the Monarchy to the Dominions, "we stand together — no longer alone and no longer ill-armed, but just as resolute as in the darkest hour". Which would seem to be an apt British formula of victory — when things were xh darkest they had the determination that enabled them to hold out alone. Now, when things are bright, they have that same determination - and they are not alone. King George ?iad his tribute to Britain1 s allies -- A Soviet Russia, China, and America. Britain is, in-Ms -words ^ hxxxtmiHuheartened and greatly fortified by the timely massive expeditionary armies of the United States^" SWEATEES Here is a Christmas story /V itatrfcr ^ sweaters, - ttar ^e^t" i ^ e-J^e —f-4 n^^—Y-trl o t itre—cons — t h-e> j4^e——«-r<?—r^t tinr^^rhettK When the hip tanker fleet of the Sun Oil Company was taken over by the government for the desoerately perilous job of delivering oil to the forces of the United Natior 4rh-e—s-n 14. o rfr fti A- —..-wap- t-h-e ir- ti ?^d i zrr*? insisted on staying on the job*f-^ » gauntlet of submarine and bombing attack on the seven seas. As winter came on, some of these tanker sailors were heard to say -"If anybody wants to give + t v/i^h they’d make it a good me a Christmas present, 1 W1S ^ ^ rT±2$ — 771* 1 of ic in that - warm sweater." There was A ■p +Vio tanker fleet i ace considering how the r.ien oi SWEATEES__- 2 not only submrrines and bombers, but also the icy ga les of winter at sea. c Sun Oil families wanted to do something about this^ Wives and daughters of employees spoke up^«d—they'd do the knitting. Just let them st those balls of woolen yarn and those * knitting needles. A mountain of wool was needed - and this was provided by anonymous doner, who procured A •! the miles and miles of yarn through the Bundles for America Organization. And several hundred women of to families +„„e+her with volunteers from Sun Oil iKmiiy got busy, together A A Red Cross units in 8 nd around Philadelphia. , -nc their soare time, I i - vq The ladies, using tneir *>, . ....... week a-fpr’ -4 /A- limy 1 11 <Hmi I hi wut)b lr‘"; ” t who brave the penis ^ Oil tanher u the men of the Run ?r a t p v\ H +i0 ‘iev d1 -O'- ^ Here’s a message of Christmas cheer from the new food FOOT) administration, which announces the agricultural facts of Nineteen Forty -two. The nation had a bumper crop, with the farmers turning out a record-breaking food supply. The Nineteen forty-two production was fourteen percent above xa that of the previous vear, Nineteen Forty-One. And it was twelve percent above the previous record-breaking crop - that of Nineteen Thirty-Seven. For yfiich wa^c an thank^the ^American farmer. T1 ax _ gave/,hiA a luoky break, with nineteen fpr'ty-two <///// / showing the most faVoraole ero:> weatner the American farmer ^ has ever known. He took advantage of this, and redoubled / / / ,ors to provide'the inereased plies of food/that Amexi'ca / / / in war must have. , The American farmer worked hi s head,off to / fulfill President Ro^seve.-.fs pledge to make Amer ca larder of democracy”. / As a re; suit the record-breaking Nineteen ^Foi^ty / . Q ^Mves us enough of most kinds rop^plus reserve supplies orihan y food to la st for from twelve to eighteea months v Secretary ot Agriculture Maul. Mctard «. hnus-1 FOOD. - 2 following promise for the coming year of N ineteen-Forty-Three:- "America will continue to be the best fed nation in the world," says he. There are warnings, however* a bit of caution. The record-breaking crops do not mean that there will be enough of all foods for all of us to eat all we want of all kinds. ^ The nation’s war needs are so huge that there will be some shortage. / m At lariipct^ 1 loi V’ iy a. Christmas wedding was solemnized % v \ 1 % In/ at a hospital. The toiidsis bridegroom was in a wheelchair. He was staff sergeant Charles liifiiiiarfc, who was the sole survivor of an air crash in the Gulf of Mexico back in September. The ergeant was badly cracked up, so badly that they had to amputate one leg. It took somewhat of a medical miracle to save his life, On the operating table his heart stopped beating four minutes before the doctors could start it going again. Staff Sergeant Stewart was engaged to be married — u the wedding date set for October bha^first. The bride-to-be was twenty-two year old Lois Floto of Jackson, Mississippi He wrote a letter to Lois - to break the engagement, calling off the wedding. In his maimed condition, with one leg off, he wrote the following to her:- "I am not the same man you promised to marry. Our life together could never be as we pail planned”. With sentiments like those, Christmas was ^ bridegroom time for the wedding, and it was celebra e ^ in a wheel chair. A