/ , -..SUNOCO^__MONDAY. DEC. 22. 19Z1 GOOD EVENING EVEPYBODY: I L ourw) The Battle of Lingayen Gulf,\a hundred and \a hundred jr\AJ~\. fifty miles north of Manila, !■ g)diarm^:ri3:t;±s=a trnkTe-i.first gr^at land battle r our war with Japan. \Early today, v;e learned that a 114 A ---- -----* mighty Japanese transport fleet of eighty ships had hove-to in Lingayen Gull. It wasn’t unexpected because,| as we learn in the reports from Manila, an ideal ^ /V —^VVV, lanaine, place for an i„va«Inf force ^ett^a n.t.opk of good highways leed%-«¥ to theVcspUal. ^ Array Communique Number Tv/o reports it in j these words:- ”In the Philippine theatre, heavy fighting Ig nrogress on the Lingayen Gulf where the Japanese are attempting a landing in force." The communique continues:- "Under a strong naval and air escort, the 7 LEAD - 2 fleet appeared on the west coast of the Island of Luzon, and soon after a large number of barges, each carrying a hundred and fifty men, entered Lingayen Gulf, sttssL^tid| t: ii attempting landings in the vicinity of Agoo. Some of j them,” adds the commua.qti^/, " succeeded in getting ashore.” The Japanese force is estimated at eighty thousand to a hundred thousand men, from six to eight divisions. But the army does not tell us how many of those eighty or a hundred thousand landed. The attempted | me invasion, adds the communique, is b'eing^Kxd* fierce resistance by-American and Filipino troops. Fighting continues near Davao on the Island of Mindanao. gulf, the invaders have From that Qqy a* wfdrela.tively fla■ 1 tiTd~^b~p. 1.»vi h-a g 'to Manila. There are some streams; but this is « cA M111II n II 1111 * L b© serious obst-acles. the dry season, LEAD - ? A later report from General MacAt'thur tells us that at one point Japanese destroyers and transports were driven off by our heavy guns and a landing was prevented. Nevertheless, Japanese troops were put ashore, even tanks. TO were met by tanks of our own, thus making our first tank engagement, though American tanks have been fighting in Africa.^l'fe have no further A details, but the army communique, bald as it is, makes no attempt to disguise the scope and seriousness of the battle. |^General ivIacArthur ad^ts that the ^sa=*ss****"' enemy is pushing his attack in great force.iThe Jap transports were protected by a flotilla of destroyers with the support of numerous Japanese bombers in the air. 1 » T|T « -n T> C n » > r n A stout, burly youn froiji Ohio (y£L^r»<^ A in front of his General at Manila today and was dRSHiat j decorated with a gleaming new medal. Twenty-five year old Lieutenant Jack Dale of Uncle Sam’s Army Air Corps j stood before General Mac'Arthur and staff become the first man in this war to the distinguished service cross. General MacArthur bestowed the same medal on a man who was not there toit Captain Colin Kelly, the TTTT who destroyed the first Jaoanese batt-eship and lost his life in -th-e ■ ^i'Ouu®fi% A Second-Lieutenant Jack Dale, is the^^^^3fi^^raO:=i«is^^up the Japanese attempt at a landing near Vigan on December Tenth, when he led his flight in wave after wave of attacks on twenty enemy warships. icer receiv^ Still another officer A t h^tL distinguished service cross from General MacArthur was Captain^es^^ Villamor of the PhilippiHe ■B 1 SUBMA BINES In more than one part of the Pacific, cur enchant ships are running the guantlet of Jap A submarines. The latest to be heard of so far was oil tanker that ran into aa undersea boat tv/o miles and. off Point Arguello, CalifornTa^ a hundred to event}'-f ive miles north of Los Angles. The sub fired at her with a deck gun, but the tanker escaped. The Navy also announced today that a steamship had been sunk by an enemy submarine near the Island of Maui in the Hawaiian group, on December Eleventh. And on the night of December Twentieth another steamship was attacked with gunfire, followed by a torpedo, but the enemy missed' the SAMOA. And^tonight we have later details on the sinking of the tanker EMIDIO, twenty miles off the California coast near Eureka. The captain of the EMIDIO reports that five of his men are still missing SUBMARINES and unaccounted for. Several of the survivors of the EMIDIO •i the Japanese shelled the lifebots after they were launched. That’s how some of the men came by their injuries, one of them seriously wounded. V/hen the EMIDIO v/as attacked, the radio operator contrived to get in a call for help just before the tanker sank. The report says that it couldn’t have been ten minutes after the call when two American bombing planes came roaring off the "TCa. coast. crew were in the 1 ifeboats. then. The /[A 1 ^ submarine saw or heard them coming, for it submerged rapidly. The planes flew in circles where the sub had been, and one dropped a depth charge. Subsequently, another dept charged was dropped. A huge column of water arose from the sea, but the survivors couldn’t tell whether the submarine^^^^.^^ II MALAYA ) 4 news from Singapore, there’s one hopeful note ton ightT^Brit ish reinforcements have been landed C’^/otyC' in Mai ay a A Nevertheless, tiTe well informed people An > ' ^ \ c t\ To-i^t^Yy-SjaT look upon the situation on the northern y\s2jay^ front gd;4— h 4Ffe critical. The British Imperial A ^ forces have fallen back again to hold a line across the isthmus about three hundred miles north of Singapore ^ ^ It is rumored in Singapore that the first real^ pitched battle of that Malayan campaign will soon be fought. Sir Robert Brook-Popham, the Imperial Commander-in-Chi^f| admits that the British Imperial army has lost a larg( part of northern Malaya, but that^ he adds^ is only ;i temporary. iiu nrrriQ'ji Japanese are^advanc ing steadily, irf—trh:#y-^=:tegp onr- a s th ey—a r o ■ g€4-ng ,—they ^ MALAYA - 2 “il"!—e-o-on — hi —oemaand o#—pood oommunioatiiena—tn tha, i !r The British CoanandeP”in-Chief announced today that the success of the Japanese in northern Malaya I was due to another piece of treachery. Numerous Jap soldiers had filtered into Malaya, disguised as harmless natives. They were lightly equipped and wore clothes quite unlike uniforms, with the result that British soldiers came in- contact with them but did not identify them. Being able to live in the country with a minimum of supplies, they infiltered successfully and took the British by surprise. BUSSIA Word comes today that the general staff of the Red Armies is now concerned principally v/ith the German retreat. Don't let them get away, is the order cf the day,^ ^ continued retreat by the Nazi Army must be oreveated at all costs, German troops | ^ A \ - ^ I U'voe-'vj } r\y idj ’’Surround and destroy," is the latest Soviet slo^i^ PRAVDA, the official newspaper, says magniloquent "The tremendous battle of Moscow has been won."/ The Reds announce^he destruction of several German forces. one tank division, anu tv/o infantry divisions, in the A Volokolamsk area; two infantry divisions and two reiriments of another division on the Finnish front. with numerous tanks, ^uns, and assorted other 1f. ma+.erial. A^tutire Nazis are still holding territory around the Sea of , 'TC jh ^ Azov^ ^ _ r SU?SLA_- 2 A later broadcast from Leningrad the Red Army in the north hr^ cleaned the German^tec-trc:* ^ n.) the railroad^leading east from Leningrad. TheA%/ German retreat, they say, has become a disorde^^rout. HITLER Adolf Hitler once more has the world guessing A Where will he strike, now that he has fired his (/ i/ )rggTXgi¥Kl^/Commander-in-Chief and taken over the - leadership of the Army himself? iVe have to remember that for all the German casualties reported by the Soviets, even if they are accurate, those Nazi hordes are still like the sands of the'desert - almost beyond number. They still constitute the most formidable military machine of all time. Through a story from London, we learn that there should be no wishful thinking about Hitler*s II latest piece of drama. The story reports that in London nobody has been fooled into believing that the Nazi Fuehrer*s decision means^a. S^rman collapse or anything r like it. of a slackening of German effort, it portends a lashing London that so far from being an omei A out of Nazi power in a fresh direction. T HITLER - 2 The British experts concede that the dismissd of von Brauchitsch may be interpreted as blaming the Field Marshall because the campaign in Russia fell s^^^ j of Hitler’s promise -- Christmas in Moscow.] That Hitler’s |9 xb assumption of the supreme command is intended as a coup to offset all the Gerinan disappoint­ ment and the grim and dismal feelings wtyich must have i been provoked by Goebbels’s proclamat ioii of the day A before, the proclamation which called tor the German civilians to give up every last bit of wfirclen - winter clothing for the use of the Army. * The object of Hitler’s move therefore would be to inculcate a spiriti | that might be expressed as follows: "that the Fuehrer now has command himself, therfore everything will be different." I wonder if the German people will believe that? At any rate, London expects a strong attack in Africa. In the British capital it is admitted that the Germans and Italians have been able to land war maim HITLER - 3 materials and reinforcements in North Africa even including tanks. But the London theory is that Libya won’t be the main point of attack. The British revert to their previous expectation, of an onslaught through Spain, which, the Germans hope, would be promptly followed by the collaboration of the French in North Africa, now that Nazi intrigues have succeeded in procuring the downfall of General Weygand. And here’s a significant later dispatch from the Spanish capital. The German Ambassador to Spain has just left Madrid for Berlin. And a Spanish newspaper carries a dispatch from Hitler’s capital announcing that important military surprises may be expected soon. All of which may point a finger at Nazi thrust through Spain. t / ^ D LIBYA An adventure book story comes out of Libya today. For weeks a mechanized British column had been roving a round in the swirling sand of the desert and was reported lost. Today it turns out that this lost column found itself w'ith a vengeance. Instead of being lost, it advanced far beyond the front lines of the British Imperial Army and made its way a hundred and fifty miles over the border into Tripolitania. On the way it cartured a couple of oases held by the Axis, and then disappeared from the ken of men. The first to become aware that it wasn't lost was a of Italians and Germans hustling in a headlong A A retreat down the coast of Cyrenaica toward Tripoli. The lost British column swooned down out of a dust storm and blocked the way of the retreating Axis forces, poing west from Benghazi. And the officers of that lost, column reported that from what they could see. LIBYA - ? the eneniy appears to be trying to get its equipment away from Benghazi. The latest reports from Cairo are that the British outposts are only tv/enty-five miles away from | Benghazi, the modern capital of Cyrenaica. The til of that battle is now .b-edrnr:— /v. /\ A along shores that have considerable historical meaning to us. In the first few years of the last century. United States marines were landed on that coast, lighting the corsairs of Tripoli, under Commodore Pre*'f^le, and the unforgettable Stephen Decatur. In that] LJ‘£ juc £, war lasted from Fighteeh One to Eighteen Five, the principal landing of the marines v/as at Derna, which the British were supposed to have captured last v.'eek, and that*s what the marines mean when they sing the ir song: ’’From the hr 11s of Montezuma, to the shore^ of Tripoli.” / _ // < * NAVAL STRENGTH Congress is gradually preparing for the day ? tx/nje when we have 0 tv;o-ocean Navy. It*s quite a while li A ^ off yet - Nineteen Forty-Seven is the date nov/ set for the completion of that super-of fleets. ^ more sailors, i‘ A y| more sailors, more marines. At present ^ I O the Navy is not supposed to have more than three hundred thousand enlisted meli, and the MarineCorps sixty thousand. The Senate today passed a bill which will raise the enlisted strength to five hundred thousand •h A gobs, and a hundred and four leathernecks. The bill ^ A 111 passed unanimously, with no debate, and is now up to the; House, which has already passed a similar measure. PPKSS AGFNT Another annonncernent made by the Navy today v/as the appointment of a nev^ press relations officer. That job in future will be done by Lieutenant-Commander Paul C. Smith of the United States Naval Reserve. To take that oiiice. Commander Smith obtained leave of A absence from his job in civil life, which is being Rdit editor and general manager of the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE. In other words, a highly qualified and capable newspaperman is to have the duty of keeping contact with the newspapers on behalf of the }}avyj I _ _._/L FIRING I Heavy explosions v/ere heard off the shore of Delaware this afternoon. ji^eard by officers and sentries at a fort somev;here along the shore. The commanding officer of the fort reported that the sounds were very clear though there were no visible indications of gunfire. i ! '■ ■ / _ r. christ :;: as There will be no Roosevelt grandchildren at the Yiihite House for Christmas, and consequently no Christmas party for children. Also, for the first time, there will be no stockings hanging from the President's mantelpiece. For this is a wartime Christmas. The only youngster present will be little Diana Hopkins, the ten year old daughter of Harry Hopkins, the Dedn-Lease Administrator. Her stocking will be hung from the mantelpiece in the room occupired by her father., and she will celebrate with him. On the night before Christmas, there was the time hallowed custom of Mr. Roosevelt reading Dickens* Christmas Carol to the entire familj?! assembled. The First Lady said today that even that will probably be omitted this year But one custom will be followed as usual: on Christmas mornirig the Presioent, Mrs. Roosevelt, and all the guests, will go to church. And there wil^ be the usual family dinner on Thursday evening. The n r 4 . *i / - r. CKRIST\1AS - 2 family Christmas tree will be in the upstairs corridor A tree presented by Senator Brewster of iiaine on behalf of his state. Now HughJ. CHURCHILL Hdre ’ s a real surprise. A bare few minutes ago, the wires from Washington brought us the news th a British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is in this country, conferring with President Roosevelt.\ The news took even themost alert civilian observers by surprise. though presumably it was not unexpected by the President and other high officials of the government. The Prime Minister naturally is a guest at the White House tonight, and for as long as he will remain in the United States. The dispatch from Washington reads as follows - 1*11 give it to you word for word: (Dispatch read)