TllYO
_...,_.._
The story of the B-29 attack on Tokyo is almost
twenty-four hours ol
d
, but it r
e
mains the exciting new
of the day.
Brigadier Gener
a
l O'Donnell of the Twenty
first Bomber
Command, who led the fo
m
ation, reports
that this historic attack on the iikado's capital was a
complete s u c c e s s . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~
The B-29s went in without any fighter protection
whatsoever. Each plane, we learn, carried more than
ten tons of bombs. There were more than a hundred
Superforts on the raid, so they dropped altogether, on
Tokyo,
more than a
thou ■and
tons of explosives. The
biggest raid that land-based bombers have ever
made
in
i~t
the Pacific theatre of
war.
Among the targets they hit was the important
Nakajima aircraft factory in the western part of the
city.
And photographs taken by reconnaissance planes
show
th
G
t fires today were still burning in the central
part of Tokyo.
Gene
r
al Arnold, as Commander of the Twentieth
Air Force, reports smoke risin at great heights in all
the industrial
a
reas of
~okyo.
The Japanese radio
claimed
that the fires were small, confined to civilian
bo~es and hospitals. Ho ever, the
airmen
took photographs
as
they bombed. And these
show
no fewer than six
fires
in another aircraft factory, one of the most important
that
make
the
J
ap
plan as.
The Japanese
say
they shot down three of the
Superforts. On
tbat
General Arnold
say~notbing.
A correspondent of the United Press, who rode in
one of the giant planes, reports that there were perfect
bo■bing
conditions. Be safs that General O'Donnell
took Tokyo by surprise. Also, that the big bombers were
flying at a
ai■
height where only a few Jap interceptors
could climb to reach them. And, that their ack-ack
fire
•as
inaccurate
and spotty.
The airmen
got
the~r first great thrill when they
saw the snowcapped peak of Mt. Fujiyama, through the
clou•a;
shortly
~
efore
noon.
By
eight minutes
past
twelve
the
target was
in sight.
ThEf
spotted a stadium
TOlYO
=-l
--
and a r
a
etr ck, then
g
roups of factory
i••
buil
d
ings.
Presently ov
e
r the interphone communication came the
cry -
"two fi
g
hters at ten o'clock.
9
Th
a
t
was the
first
re
p
ort
they
h
~1
d of enemy interceptors. There
were
others
under them
that couldn't climb
high enough, and
some
ten
tho~•and feet
below
the
B-29s.
At twelve minutes past noon the bombardier in
the correspondent's plane called out -
9
boabs
away!"
Or whatever the latest Pacific slang phrase is that the
airmen are now using. They saw the
gray
walls of
E ■peror
Hirohito's moated palace,
jut
after an observer
reported that the bombs were right on the target.
As they turned to go back to base the flak
was more intense, but didn)t touch the planes. *ith
a
one-hundred
and
twenty knot tailwind, they
raced
back
to
Saipan.
The
ten
ton ■
the
B-29s
carry
ie/more thah
twice the
wei
g
ht ihe hu
g
e
Britiah Laniaster hauls on
a miss ion
over Ge
r
many.
==-
-
TOKYO -
If._
--
1h
e B
-
2
9
s
also t
a
k1along one hundrd and sixty
dru
ms
o
f
g
a
soline contai
n
ing fifty gallons apiece,
eight thousand
gallon ■,
as much
••Jta
as the load of a
full
tank
car.
--o
-
-
In a special re
p
ort to the President, General
Arnold as Chief of the
Twentieth
Air Force,
reports
that thill operation was not a mere hit-and run- raid.,
but a calculated extension of our air
power.
And~ he
added
that this
is juat
a
beginning of the systematic
demolition
of
Japan's war production.
He
didn't say
exactly how many of the big planes made this
trip.
but
the inference is that
there were more than a hundred.
--o--
"
T
he att
a
ck was almCBt. as much of a triumph
f'or
1.be
engineers
a
s
f
or the
p
ilots and crew of the
bombers. For it
w
as
the
engineers who built the hu
g
e
base
that made the
raid
p
ossible. For sev
e
ral months
they've been du
mp
in
g
coral,
w
orkin
g
furiously! until
some of the
a
irfiel
d
s
have as much
a
s
seve}l.m1les
of
run
w
ays.
Al~o today we le
ar
a for the first
ti
e of the
existenceof the
21st
Bomber Command under Brigadier
Generd Heywood Haasel ,Junior.
InNew
York
tonight there is a proud young man,
seven-year-old P
a
trick O•Donnell, t~e Brigadier General
Emmett V•Donnell's boy. He said he was glad Daddy had
bo ■bed
the Japs, but hopes they didn't hurt Sumi, a maid
who used to work for the O•Donnels in pre-Pearl Barbor
iJ
days.
ADD
TOKYO
--------
Tokyo
is
the third largest city in the
world.
The systematic raids that General Arnold
proposes
will
be
just. as
important to the war effort
as the
bombing of
Ber in.
For Tokyo is the industrial
and nerve center of the entire Japanese empire.
tr
James
R. Young, author of the Road to Tokyo...,
says
we
have to th ink of it as being »l:lfM;l;II larger than
Philadelphia, Detroit or Chicago.
Downtown are
modern buildings but the outlying districts at the
northeast, south and west are
jammed
with hundreds of
thousands of wooden houses with paper doors and
windows,
In two sections are tens of thousands of
fire trap buildings and small factories.1PThere are
forty-one fire stations in the
ikado's capital,
wagon
but not a book
and
ladderA•••**•" that can reach
more
th
an
three stories.
Superficially it
is
a
modern
city.
But
from
V .
Y7
eo
.e12c
'it-
the
~
-ideal target
or
ADD T
O
KY
O
- 2
---------
••8•f
ma
g
n
e
sium
b
orn
s
, incen
d
aries,and,
d
emoliti
o
n
explosive
s
,
o
f
a
l
l k
in
d
s.
It is an easy place to bomb because on one
side is
a
b
a
y
w
ith
two
large rivers, many canals and
an elevated railroad.
••• You cana\.t mask any
sizeable bodies
of
water so that they can.:.t be seen
even from high up in the a1r.
On
the other hand
if the tide goes out at noon, when the superforts
roared over fro
m
Saipan,the canals would be useless
as a water supply. And
•
if the reservoirs were
cut
.
.
it would shut off the main pumping station so that
the city's fire h
y
drants
•••ii
would go dry.
A conflagration in Tokyo would have a more
severe effect th
a
n any raid on Rotterdam, Cologne,
or Berlin.
And if the bridges •ere blasted m•• whole
communities
~
o
u
ld be trapped.
A
ccordin
g
llj says Jimmy Young, the B-29s
~
chan
g
ed the
s
trategy of our war in the Pacific •
••••
~
~
that not enough of the big B-29s are
"
being turned out.
4JriHn.eLhis
on the authority
there is a definite lag in production. And the
fact to blame for
ta■
it
all
i•
tkaixk
as he puts
it
•disappearing employees•. Too
aany
aircraft plants
~•••4"•
taking days
~
have been resigning •
•
workers in
-.J-
off •~ too many
In the Philippines a Japanese convoy was
on its way bringing reinforcements to the enemy
garrison on Leyte.
A formation of Uncle Sam's
carrier-based bomber fighters c~ught thea northwest
A ..
.J
of Leyte,Asanl two transports, and a destroyer with
•
all bands.
They also set another tranbport on fire
aad
forced it to beach on abore:-tf"MacArtbur reports
Wl~•PRAI
that our plan;a¼ii'1at lea1t f'ou~thousaad-
fi,re-bundred
J a p ~ ~ ~
the
nu■ber
o f ~
~
A
~
soldiers kill,d at sea 1since October twentieth,
up to fifteen thousand.
Our planes
UiYe
boabed
the
f•••
Jap ships at
one
of our planes was
mast-top height and 1•* not
~
0
•• loat.
11
fftey
destroyed
forty-two Nipponese planes.
CBIIJ.
-
In spite
of
the important Japanese victories
in
China
a
s
okes
m
an
of
the
Chinese
aray today said tlllt
be
himself
w
as o
p
timistic. Although the lip
p
onese are
consolidating the
positions
they«•*' captured near
Liuchow, and they've China cut in two, this
sanguine
Chinese spokesman claims that the Jape will be unable
to start another offensive for two or three months,
because their lines are so extended they'll have to take
time out to get ready for further aoves.
Tokyo, however, reported today that the Mikado's
armi•
on the mainland have pushed aore than a hundred
miles west of ~i• Liuchow, captur'1an important railway
,._
station,
end
will soon be
in a
position to isolate
_
JliliJll_f.BQII
From the Western Front tonig~t
~
the
dramatic
news
that American infantry have -•gun the
•watch
on the Rhine•. They joined up today
with
the
Seoond French Armored Division, under General
Jacques
LeClerc at Strasbourg.
They have
wiped
out practically
in ten per cent of the city.
onight the tri-color
-1£j-
flies
·
from~ spire of the great cathedral of
,
Straab ourg.
/
-
---
---
------
One of the surprises in the capture of this
hiatoric place is that the
Nazis
have
••••x■aiJxaal■xl■
not been able to destroy eit~er t\\~\~\\ge or the two
railway
bridges leading
eaat
across the Rhine,
But the
•till hold the west end of all those bridges, ana the
French and Americans are attacking ferociously.
The enemy
■till
boids a circle of old forts
around
the city. So their mortars and machine guns are
able
to
interfere considerabl'
with
the movement in the
streets.
Nazi
guns
froM
the Siegfried Line across ta
river are shellin
g
the center of Strasbourg •
•
The credit of capturing the city belongs to
·
the
Sixth Army under General Jacob L. Dever.
Just one
hundr
e
d days have past since DeYer•a divisions left
their boats in the Mediteranean and fought their
way
north through France along the
aaae
route that
Bapolean traveled after his escape from Elba.
One
aonth ago, the
lazi
High Coa•and announced boasttull7
tbi'Dever
and kai his Sixth Army was through for the
winter.
Be
was through to the extent that in the last
ten days
be
bas
advanced sixty ailes,
alich
of the
tiae
through a blinding snow stora.
0
In the Saar District, Patton's men have advanced
still further, capturing towns and villages as they go/
and approaching closer to Saarbrucken.
/
~-_z-:-:-:o -
fierc~t
fighti
along
·
he
/'
/
is
the
no
t:b
where
hine.
be left ing
capture fou1/
the J"'r
PLANE
--
/
British and Americans
alike are baffled by the
m1stery created
by
one of our flying fortresses.
on
Tuesday afternoon it came down from the skies out of
the West and made a perfect landing in a plo114td field
near gun positions of the British
Second
Army. A
coapany of Tommies
promptly
rushed
to
the
plane
and
••i*
·
waited for
the crew to
ctt ■ e
out.
They waited, and
no
crew
came
out.
Then
they
went
closer,
investigated
and found not
a
soul
in that
big
airship. Neither
were
there any muddy tracks leading from the flying fortress
to
show
that anybody h~d left.
The
gre
a
t bomber was badly battered by flak.
The 11yatery
is bow it
couldhave aade
such a
perfect
landing with no one at
the
controls.
ROSSI,!
--
Estoni
a
now
is co
~
ple
t
ely freed of the German
.s
7oke.
Marshal Stalin announcet th
a
t the Baltic armies
have driven the last remaining Nazis from
the
island
of
. •
l
Saare, someti
~es
called Osel,in the Gulf
T be \re
II
nan ts of the garrison~ driven
J\
One advantage
it
releases seventy-Yi
for
use
elsewhere.
.
...::.:,...:::.:.11.:.a------
is that
forces
The battle is now on for Latvia.
n the western
the
part
of the country
the Baltic
armies
have*•• remains
·
of
A
I
thirty
German di vis
ions
trapped
on
the Courland Peninsula.
,
The Red
air force has
sunk
one German destroyer and three
other
vessels in
the
Baltic.
·
In
addition, they have
damaged a heavy cruiser
ana
several other warships.
~oscow
also
reports that the armies of
.
the
Ukraine hav
e
captured several places in Hungary
·
and also
in
Czechoslovakia.
P
resident
Roosevelt
today put an end to the
reports th
a
t he
proposed
to continue lend lease to
our Allies after the
war.
In a message to Congress
be
told
the
lawmakers that not only lendlease but
reverse lend lease should stop as soon as the
war
is
over.But he added that the
partner■ bip
of the United
lations should not only continue but should even
grow
stronger to make sure·that the peace endures.
Be reported that reverse lend lease
from
Britain and the British Dominions bad contributed much
to hastening the victory over Germany and Japan. Without
it
we should have bad to toatpon~ _the
1
in;asion of
fort
# t ~ u N ~
Franc~many months.
~
have
needed to build a
thousand~
.
*~••••••
ships to send across th~Atlant1c the supplies
#alldta--t
~
that the British
provided.
/'Great Britain and the
British Dominio
n
s
provid~d more
than
three
billion,
three hundred and twenty-eight million dollars
worth
of
reverse
lend
lease.
'!hat is about one-third of the
I
p(.-/-tt:w,~
lend lease fro'.11 us
to
the
A
British Empi
r
e.
Th
e
re was an uproarious scene at Ottawa
in the Canadian house of Commons today.
A member
of
Prime Minister Mactenzie ting's own party bolted
to the opposition with angry words.
He is Wilfred
LaCroix, member for a Quebec constituency.
Be
joined the two other Que~ec Liberals who bolted last
night.
Lacroix declared that the Prime Minister
had been treacherous to the people of Quebec.
Shortly
· after he bolted, the Priae linister announced that
his Air
■ inister,
C. G. Power had resigned on that
aame
issue, the issue
of
conscripting Canadians for
0Yerseas service.
BONDS
--
From the Pacific comes an
appeal
to ua •• ~••
i.e ■e
k~ft'lt. to buy mor
e
bonds and
make
the Six th-War-
Loan--dri
ve a
complete
suoces..13. Ad11i
al
Spruance,
Command
er of
the Fifth Fleet,
.,.ye
iha+.
if
we ape,
t.,
liaiab
tbis
•1r
within
a P
c;
aaoaaele time
we 11u1t
con\ ia,ue
~o receive
t~e ge•al
euppe1t
ef
the
AmePiean
peoplt.
Vioe
Admiral
Lockwood,
Comman!er
of
the Pacific Fleet
Submarine
force,
-aaid t.be
euoceaa
of
t.be
ari••~a
-
N11a+..1a:.::;a11rant. .. e a ap1147 retu»a of oar l:a&a
_
4,._
t.heir
IMiaN_.
Vice Admiral Calhoun, Commander of
the
,.._
IJR~
~
-et[. •
~ -
-
◄-
Pacific Fllet
Service
force,
,r,••••
ha•e •
r-e-t.
.
.
: ; ( ~ ~ p • e ~ b t l - J
help
eu,-
t.Jie
weapoa■
••
.fay
'tie~u,,
t
bey pre•eat» iafl at
ton,
!:Dd---
~he7 pile up :to~
N
a " " "
.
o.i
8
a~•inge which wili
ena:lie- •• to bu7
t.9'
.. ailahle-.r
The
C
.I.O. convention
at
Chicago
today registered
~
resolution
a
protest
a
a
inst the
free~ of wages. The
~••tl
,
also said several t ings about the T/ar Labor Board.~
The
delegates
a--1.&e
a
dopted
a
resolution calling for the
absolute
ma••*••*
destruction of Bitlerite Germany
and
the Japanese Militarists, no negoiated or soft
A
peace.
Today it became clear that the strike of
taxi drivers in Seattle is a revolt against David
Beck, Vice President of the Teamsters Uaion.
le have
beard a lot about Beck in the last couple of years,
of the charges that he is in some respects the
Tirtual ruler of the Pacific Northwest, how he has
\brewers,/
~~•r
prevente~•z••••z)\ from~Pacific States from
~~~
bringing thei~c•~ nto the state of Washington.
rThe striking hackmen are independent drivers, •ostl7,
and have kept the employees of the chain taxi companies
off the street. Their grievance~ is that the union
baa favored the drivers for the big taxi companies.
David Beck who is in Bew Orleans at the Convention
of the American Federation of Labor sent them
a
telegram,
■zai■I
ordering them to go bacr,o work.
The
strikers retaliated•by asking the Se~ttle police
ABIIY_
-
A••
There are now eleven million, eight hundred
and flft7-nine thousand men in the armed forces of the
0nited States.
So we hear toda1 from Major General
Ber1ae1,
Director of Selec~ive Service. Of those,
aore than
eight
million are in the army alene.
Besid
.
e ■
the
■en
there are one hundred and eightJ-nine thousand
women
in the services.