afeica . / 4 y / j *L In Africa, the situation at Dakar seems to have 'll been cleared up completely. Y’e heard a couple of weeks a:o that the important French port on the West African coast was corain1 over to our side - according to arrangements negotiated by General Eisenhower. Today we hear from Washington that the French authorities at Dakar have announced that they are now firmly on the side of the United Nations. They have released the British they had interned, and today the Dakar radio stated: "On our frontiers the situation is completely clarified, no disnute separates us any longer from the British. " One key factor all along has been the anger of the Dakar French because of the futile attack that the British aac. Free French made against that port earlier in the ear. Boa all 4 • reclaimed, and today's announcement would resentment is disclaimed, AFBICA - appear to moan that our side will have the use of the French naval forces at Dakarj teese a number of war s hips y In Libya, the British today were chasing Rommel aoain. The 2 Jazi Afrika Korps abandoned its fortified positions at El Agh'eila without a fight. They retreated at the first sign of British thrust. ,1433$. is disclosed today that General wlontgomery1 s Eirhth Army had no chance to launch the major assault that it had been preparing. A few thrusts were made against Rommel’s line, mere reconnaissance affairs. But apparently the Nazis thought that the minor attacks were the beginning of the all-out o::ensive that they were expecting, and they cleared out before the Eighth Army could hit them. I-t’-is uncertain what Rommel will ao now, where he will go. There is some supposition thot he will AFRICA - 3 make a stand at a place called Misourata, two hundred and eighty-five miles to the rear of El Agheila. tt- is \^uch closeri^ai to Tripoli^ where Rommel gets most of his supplies. Tire supply Toute would try %-e rn^rk^-- a Or, he may retire all the way to'the City oi Tripoli r. Some.suppose that the Aurika Korps may try to crash into Tunisia, break through the British anu American lines there, and join the Germans in the defense of the area of Bizerte. That kind of maneuvering would complicate' things in Tunis^^nd turn the campaign into A something of a free-for-all tangle. about . . Not much is reported in the tip of Tunisia. UM. ^ t' , . . .p The only ground act ion^ort^ today consis.s smashing of an Axis motorized column. This was driving forward in the Tebourba area, and was broken up by .•-,1 „ •fiT’p The success accomplished by our Allied artillery fire. AFRICA - L runs vras announced by a w^a bulletin today, which adds, A /v ’’otherwise activity was limited to patrolling. ” The Army communique tells of air action, with our heavy bombers hitting the docks of Bizerte and Tunis. Our medium bombers smashed the enemy at a couple of points, and our fighter planes attacked ground targets - strafing Nazi troops and supply lines. The night beiore last, five enemy bombers were shot down. bT '"if I ! FEINCH The London povernment today turned over to <3 » General DeGaulle’s Fifhting French the administration^ ||| \ of the island of Madagascar. T 4 i«-Bri 4 -i-eh -to-o> a-r—f r run the V-ichy^ French f.a-nd now- havc^ r r c o g n~i ^ t~h'e fie G a u 4-1^ P-ro tti e l^t g i t inift t# » o v o r n-me-ft-t of~~ t he- \ s ]/<^fcr. This is taken to mean a London reaf iirmation Of confidence in DeG?ulle,and it may have some bearing on the ouarrel concerning North Africa. The DeGaulle people are bitterly protesting the supremacy there of the former Vichy chieftain, Admiral Darlan. So, on the one hand^ recognize Darlan in North Africa, while A on , T^arpqcar is turned over to DeGaulle the other hand Madagascar i ------ -—----- 1 RUSSIA On the bitterly cold warfront in Russia, the Germans launched a blow to crack the southern arm of the Soviet pincers movement in the Stalingrad area. This attempt to smash the trap was defeated. So we are told by Moscow, which adds that Red Army troops have penetrated the second enemy line of defense in the southern outskirts of Stalingrad. Today we have a new figure for German casualties in the Russian war. The Soviet Army newspaper, RED STAR, states that the Nazis have lost more than eight million, killed, wounded or captured, since they launched the ir • off£nsive against the Soviets last year. Eight million might seem to constitute most of Germany's manpower, but that is the figure which Moscow gives. il I ->iA LA i /• b One 0^ the most daring of rescues was reported ar from India today ^ the story of how an American Army piio+ saved two Army airmen who were lost in the lo^ ty mountain wilds of the Himalayas. 0 Three weeks aro, a United States transport olane vas flying on run between India and China. A /\ That route is across the eastern end of the Himalayas, 11 ! the world's greatest mountain range. ^ piloted by Caotain William Owens of Atlanta, Georgia, \ l| aboard it were Lieutenant Cecil Williams of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and Corporal d. stthewr Campabelxa New Jersey. Deep in the mountains, trouble developed - ice. The weather was atrocious and the bir transnort collected such a weight of ice, that it was 1 osin< altitude, was being forced down. The pilot thought the plane was doomed, and he ordered the other two men to jump, take to their parachutes. They did, HIMALAYAS, - ? floating do”'n in as friphtful a mountain v/ilderness as you wiVl find on this earth. The pilot stuck to his olane, and accomplished what seemed to be a miracle. He managed to pet to an airport. Thereafter, Lieutenant Williams and Corporal Campabella were missing. Planes went out over the scouting for them. No luck. Then three wee^.s later, a Tibetan runner arrived at the United States Array Transport Headquarters. And he gave the location of the t-o men. They were marooned deep in ^section of the Himalayas, A ~tP&jes <4 almost unknown•- zu& couldn't get cut. -gjt Army transport plane went out and found the olace. giant canyon surrounded by cliffs ' •* A , r. i uioh The rocky walls rose from a three thousand feet high, me roc y meadow three hundred yards long. Tne small xEdisx - about three nun A A transport plane couldn't possibly land there. It seemed KIM A u A Y A ~ as if no airplane ever could. However, when the word was brought back to headquarters, Major Paul Groze __ of ^alt Lake City he would try. He was tire A A g^stfk-b -n a—f 4 -^h-t^p—i antb^rok-—e-f-f—in- a ^-e small speedy planed.——iflew to the/-cany on, /\ A- ^ A at the bottom of which the tw.o bo^ airmen were hacking away the limbs of'trees to provide a little landing space. Major Groze swooped down into the canyon, and managed to land. £* took aboard the Corporal, and tried to take off. He made five attempts before he was able to get ‘his plane into the air.and Aaixxxxi* gain enough altitude to clear tne three housand foot cliffs. It «»s , prodigy of Skillful Pilot-inf. ^"d th'n he Major did it ,11 over'.gain- Having fl«h the orporai to transport headgn.rters , he IL, Lnf brought out the Lieutenant, w*. cahyon and brournu _ A Out in the New Guinea jungles, a man without a country has been decorated for heroism and recommended for an officer^ commission. He is Sergeant Herman Bottchner, who played a great part in the wiping out of the Japs at Buna. Thfc^man without a country led a detachment of^troops in a fighting advance to a position that split theforce in two. This enabled the Australians and Americans to eliminate one-half, and then the other - and Capture Buna. Sergeant Bottchner is a German by birth. He came from a town near Berlin, immigrated to the United States, and became an lost his c American citizen. Then he itizenship - because during theASpanish Civil „ he to sp.ln and enlisted as , private in the • , Rricade. The la. »as that an, A.eric.n nternational Brig oininp a foreign army in war was automatically KM GUI ME A deprived of his citizenshin. So thet left Bottchner 1T a man without a country. In Spain he became a captain, and when the Civil War ended, returned to the United States. Right after Pearl Harbor-, he enlisted in the Army, which did not change his technical status of having no citizenship, no country. j'|f In the New Guinea exploit, he had twelve men left in his party when they seize- and fortified the strategic position that cut the Japs in two. Bottchner was wounded several times, but m&. l e his way back through the jungle and fetched water and banaages lor his companions. They repelled a Jap attac.., but '-"ore bothered badly by an enemy machine gun post, that was raking their position. Bottchnc with hand grenades, crawled out, machine gun post, s i --e n loaded his pockets and blasted the He was wounded again. Another attack repelled, and the japs built a barricade UEW__GIJINEA - 3 to stop the Americans. Bottchner scored a direct hit with a bomb fired ^rom a mortar and blew the barricade to bits. All of which would seem to show that> man A without a country has given heroic service to the country that technically is not his. FEEIGHTER T:ie Jans h'-ve been sayinr that they intend to supply Nazi Germany v/ith some of the products of the* great trooical empire that our Far Eastern enemy has seized - things like oil and rubber from ht the lutch East Indies. The question was - How could A the Japs ever get such materials to the Nazis? Today we have an indication of how they are trying. A dispatch from Sidney, Australia, tells of a German freighter in the Indian Ocean - an eight thousand tonner that was intercepted by Allied warshios. The German crew aboard scuttled their ship. They were made orisoners - seventy-eight o^ them. Today it was revealed that the Nazi ireighter was loaded with Japanese goods^ it-w^s- trying to make a sneak voyage from Japan to Europe i out the Japanese promise to send badly needed carry supolies to the Nazis. NF-SPAPilPS The War Labor Board intervened today to sto‘ the newspaper strike in New York. This morning, New Yorkers went to their news stands, but found no papersbecause of a strike by newspaper delivery workers. Later on, only one afternoon paper aooeared - not connected with‘the strike. The War Labor Board states that the walkout is a violation of union oledges that there would be no strikes in wartime. And the Board calls upon the newspaper ces t etti ann Ip/Albany .^Governor Bo ard ed iati ork State the New t ion take ispute, MRS. ROOklVELT There’s one particular news conference in this country to which no newsman ever goes. Mr. Reporter stays strictly away irom that news event. He’s not allowed in -- and he will continue to be excluded. This was decided today by a lady -- the First Lady, in fact. Mrs. Roosevelt’s news conferences in Washington have always been limited to women reporters, ‘no man A has ever challenged that all feminine fact. That is not until recently. Last week Washington Correspondent Gordon Cole announced that he wanted to attend the First Lady’s news conferences. He placed his demand before the organization of newspaper women known as Mrs. Roosevelt’s Press Conference Association. -Stage: di. dr-turn = Th ey place a tne question —j— before Mrs. Roosevelt herself. today she^/rmro- her verdict. Nothing doing. The First Lady explained that she, in her owrn words! ^consiers this a v> o m a n s conference dealing with questions ol interest to women MRS^RQOSEVLLT - 2 with a woman’s point of view." So if any mere male-news-gatherer wants to ~et in, he'll have to put on a silk, swishy skirt, an off^the-f ace-konnet, .and a pair of high-heeleu shoes. -■ BLONDES I he ceremonies that attend the laundhing of a ship were the subject of testimony before a Congress io o a 1 Cornmittee today. The Co^imittee was considering charges of irregular practices connected with the buil ing of ships, and one witness was George B. Howell, President of a Florida concern that turns out tonnage. There has been talk about the money spent on ceremonies of launching. It has been said that large sums of government cash have been used to buy presents for the sponsors. You .know - the ladies who it' christen the shios 7iith bottles oi champagne. Poday, Shipbuii d Howell entered a denial. He admitted A that the sponsors get valuable gifts, oresents the.t cometimes cost as much as three hundred dollars "I saw an admiral's wife who launched a battleship get a silver bowl so big she couldn't lift it, said he. BL 0 HDES He coniended, however, that the gifts were purchased by contributions - and not by the government. The Navy, t j! said ^t={r allows only twenty-five dollars for this A ^ ^ oart of the ceremony. L | The testimony went on to the cuestion of the looks of the sponsors. With all those innumerable vessels slidinp down the ways, the ladies who do the christenin" are sometimes wives of hifh officials And more often they are simply decorative, youn< omen with food looks. Shipbuilder Howell stated that these charming sponsors are selected by the davy, and the question arose, "Has the Navy any particular preference regarding types of pulchritude?" "Do they pick bondes or brunettes," asked rulki- of New York.-^^A^' Congressman Culki, •- > the witness replied; "They do not to suit me. nick enough blondes BLOiiDES . 3 This is a point that I want to emphasize - this ardent homage paid to blondes. I hope it will help me square myself with the young lady who wrote me a sharp letter of criticism the other day. She did not like bit of news I told a» about blonaes and /( brunettes - with the brunettes represented as being more stable and steady. My fair critic wrote as follows: "Dear Sir - I do not think much of what you sain about the blondes. Brunettes ar-e .as flighty, flirty and deceitful as the blondes, and some are more so. I write this/to let you know that for once you have made a treat mistake, andAhope you can say something n better for us blondes another time." —^ ^ Well, this is the time - as I echo the words • • v,,"They do not rick enough of the romantic shipbuilder. iney blondes to s ui* - .•