1 ^ 25 0 j._T U E S D A Y ^ M A Y_ 12 124 2 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: The heavy German attacks against Red Army forces in the Crimea are important in two ways. Firstly -- with relation to the coming big Nazi offensive in/Russia. And secondly, because of that sinister angle -- poison gas. T^e battle is in the Kerch peninsula, the narrow arm of the Crimea pointing at the Caucasus - that all-important oil area Berlin instead of claiming any striking vuccess, speaks of powerful Soviet iorfifications and desperate resistance. This is taken by London to mean that the onslaught has been hurled back. save perhaps for some advance at one end SOVIETS - 2 I of the line.' The new assault might be the beginning of ' the Nazi Spring offensive, but it is more likely to be a preliminary operation preparing for the much heralded drive. It does n«t seem probable that huge masses of troops are being used. Berlin emphasizes l3C2=iBreF=T[Jiii air attacks against the defenders of Kerch, and speaks with a cryptic accent on what Berlin calls - ”new and improved weapons.” What are these new and improved weapons? Does the phrase include - poison gas? This is of ominous conseou^^^nce - foliov^ing the recent Soviet-British ii declarations on the subject of gas warfare./The official Soviet news agency has charged that the Nazis have resorted to poison gas in their Kerch peninsula attacks and Prime Minister Winston Churchill has proclaimed vfiti dark portent, that, if Hitler uses poison gas in Russia Great Britain will retaliate against Germany in the same SOVIETS . 3 fashion. ileaning - that the R.A.F. will raid Naziland, not only with explosives, but also with gas. And if tha should happen, worldwide chemical warfare would be on. Today in Washington, the opinion was promptly expressed thtt, if Germany, Russia and Britain should resort to gas, we would too. Administration leader Senator Barkley affirmed this belief, and Senator Johnsoi^j i of Colorado summed up congressional opinion in these t I words:- ”If anybody wants to play rough, we can all play f rought - and we will if the Geriaans start using gas." J apaa woul(^ of course, be included, and chemical operations of would be as wide as this war -r- A worldwide. From Stockholm today comes an insistent report about what the Nazis call - XtkgirxHBK their "new and improved weapons." And Stockholm says that one of these is that much talked about psychological terror - nerve SOVIETS * ^ gas. This articular stuff, as has been frequently reported, is supposed to paralyze the nerve centers of enemy soldiers and rob them of their powers of decision and action. Stockholm repeats the old rumor that in the swift conquest of the Low Countries, the Nazis captured the key Belgian fort at Liege ~ by the use ^f nerve gas. The truth is - the swift fall of that supposedly impregnable fortress has never been adequately explained. Our own chemical war experts over here give us the opinion that this nerve gas is just so much talk - no sue! « thing really exists. And it is being noted that the story | from Stockholm today emanates from a^pwedish newspaper correspondent in Berlin. So one supposlJ,ion is that the | nerve gas story is being spread by the Nazis for psychological effect - in a war of nerves - the propaganda^ kind. Officially, Berlin denies any use of poison gas j SOVIETS - 5 in the Kerch :«ninsula. A Hitler spokesman stated today that the Nazi armies do not intend to use lethal vapors ir'‘ 1 :^ 'a battle. Of course, the Hitler people might pretend that nerve gas does not come under the heading of poison gas. ^ liie Swedish reportj^ii.ii-ff' fact# call the supoosed psycblogical stuff - non-poisonous. But that would be drawing a fine line, and they could hardly get away with t it. Chemical warfare^ includes all kinds of chemicals. YU^ 0" the subject of new and improved weapons, A ’ we have some weird stories about a kind of explosive mine the Germans are said to be using In the Kerch peninsula. According to the story, a mine thrower hurls a huge missile loaded with liquid air. The explosion is described! as incredibly violent, and the Nazis tell of Soviet soldiers going mad under ^ bombaVdment, Of course, there is nothing fantastic in the idea of this kind of explosivel Over here in America there hac? ! ^pod deal of experiment with the use of liquified oxylen^-Ji 11 q u i 0 ^ EXECUTIONS The horror of Nazi executions in Holland is accompanied by indications of widespread organization by the patriotic Dutch. Today’s word is that twenty-four more Hollanders have been killed by Hitler’s firing squads - bringing the total number of recent executions to more than a hundred.! These patriots were arrested pQ ^‘\ for connection with an anti-Nazi organization of large i| i?’ i dimensions. They include Dutch Army officers and members of some of Holland’s most prominent families^ group Wri=8 organized for widespread action against the Nazis. It is said to have aided British aviators who -iade forced landings in Holl*and—pJ docoribed ft's"* ^-^H:^rcachiftg anti-Nazi organization was making preparation to support the United Nations invasion of western Europe. They were T getting ready for the expected evei^ preparing to do their share - whenever the British and Americans should , come. J executions - / And in France the horror of the killing of hostages continues - twenty more executed at Rouen. This follows word of new acts of terrorist violence EgxbcHs! against the Nazis. t>ix Paris hotels and restaurants used ‘ by the Germans have been t)orabed, incluc^ some i of the most famous places in Paris - like the Ambassador f I Hotel and the Marguery Restaurant. [, DESTROYERS London Confirms the sinking of three British destroyors yesterday. The London account tells us that the bombing accurred in the afternoon and lastod for hout*s -- Nazi dive bombers delivering repeated assault^^^^ Two destroyers were sunk outright. The third was so badly damaged it had to be sunk by its own crew. All three were new, and one was of a class built since the war began. London states that more than five hundred men were saved -- so the number of lives lost cannot be great. ear The sinkings occurred in the jtastern Mediterran/ they have been in a long time. Optimism in Australia AUSTRALIA From Australia, General MacArthur reports that the enemy air bases northeast of the island continent are believed to have received considerable reinforcements. As a result of this, points along the east Australian coasts are getting ready for air raids - preparing to -Pi ight off heavy bombing attacks. Jap warplanes launched an attack on Horn Island, where American air forces have a base. They did no damage, but the 'raid was taken to be a sign that the reinforced Jap air* forces are likely to a t a -e’ ^ The Australians are still apprehensive of an \ |j enemy invasion attempt, kjl but are more confident than has been soaring since the American victory in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Today Sir Owen Dixon, the new ‘p Australian I^inister assigned to V/ashington, stated that ived in his country in the k nick of , i i I ( I AUSTRALIA - 2 time. Said that in March the door was wide open to the Japs. And he added:- "Why our enemies did not taice advantage of their opportunities during the time of our greatest weakness, is a mystery. But that period is past," said he, "largely because of the numbers of men and planes which came from the United states." 1 ) BURMA Tonight the war in Burma is described as an affair of double encirclement. The Chinese are continuing their attempt to cut off the Jap forces that pushed northward so fast - all, the way into China. These « Chinese units in central Burma are .to the south of the tnrtb^ and are try ing to cut the^’lines of communication and trap them completely. Those Chinese, in turn, are the objects of encircling attempt, the enemy seeTcing to surround them with a tightening net. Today a Chinese spokesman Said.- ”The outcome of the Burma war seems to depend on the development of these two encircling efforts. 7-'zC^’ drove from Burma into China, j into ^ Yunnan Province, are being reinforced, we are f S told. They took a bad mauling from the Chinese, who trapped them and drove them back fifty miles. The Chinese admit, however, that an enemy spearhead is still 5 I 4 BURMA - 2 in Chinese territory. They have not all been driven out. And the latest dispatch tells of a furious battle along the China-Burma border where the reinforced enemy is now attacking. % ST.LAWRENCE The Canadians got a shock today when it was t- i announced that an enemy submarine had sunk a ship in the ISt.Lawrence River. \Yes, in the mighty St.Lawrence, to the Canada's greatest and best known A Dominion what the Mississippi is to the United States, or the Amazon to Brazil. Never before has any such thing occurred. 'Xhe first time that a hostile submarine has penetrated the St.Lawrence, and sunk a ship there. The communique issued by the Navy Ministry at Ottawa is terse, and much in conformity with military secrecy. it does not identify the ship, merely states it was a freighter. does tell how the sinking A was accomplished - by shell fire or by torpedo. Nor does it state exactly where the attack occurred. The St.Lawrence, one of the world's greatest waterways. is navigable to the biggest of ships as far inland as P ! ST. LAWRENCE - 2 Quebec; and, all the way to Montreal there is a dredged channel thirty feet deep. At its mouth its ! width is ninety miles, and up towards Quebec the St. Lawrence is as wide as twenty-six miles. Ample room for submarine action against shipping. The official announcement states that hereafter any further submarine attacks in the St. Lawrence will not be made public. If Nazi U-boats should sink other ships, no news will be given out -- military secrecy to avoid giving information of possible value to the enemy. V. I' t -U army pay The Lower House of Congress today voted in favor % of an amendment to raise the pay of soldiers and sailors. . The amendment pertained to the ”Army Pay Bill”, which had already proposed a boostArmy and Navy. The bill as placed before the House would have put the basic rate for privates and apprentice seamen at - forty-two dollars a month. According to thoforiginal form of the bill, first class privates and seamen of the second class would get forty-eight dollars a month. '^Hhe amendment adopted today would increase both figures making the basic pay fifty dollars a month and the next wage above it fifty-four dtriSrtm a month. 54«-auiaftd«ent —ft—Ivundred —two—f oi^y ■ Meanwhile, Federal Security Administrator McNutt was urging Congress to do something to provide financial assistance for dependents of men in the armed forces He recommended that the lawmakers set up a sy stem'of federal aid,^ argued that such a program would help national morale. WO.vlLN'S AUXILIAPY The Senate today passed the bill to set up a Y.oraen's Auxiliary Army Corps. The vote was thirty-eight to twenty-seven -- after the Senate had previously killed an amendment that would have limited the service of the Vnomen*s Auxiliary to the United States. The bill has ani already been approved by the Lower House -- so now it goes to the White House for the signature of President, Hooci*veIts A purpose is to create a corps of a hundred and fifty thousand women for non-combatant service in the regular army. MINE A late news dispatch announces a coal mine Osage, B /I thirty men were in the black pit when the blast occurred, ^ t > , explosion at^Mux^xntaxK, Vr'est Virginia. A' hundred and and prompt word told that forty-three had come out safely. The latest indicates other rescues, and states that at the moment forty-six miners are missing. A CRASH Today at Miles City, Montana, the ultimate of horror was averted by the heroism of two Army officers in an airliner. The big transport plane crashed -- it overshot the field, and hit the ground -- a wreck, (Three of the crew were killed, but there were thirteen others aboard, alive. And almost immediately the wrecked plane burst into flames, and was a roaring mass of fire. The two Army officers smashed a window, crawled out, and wrenched open one of the doors. The people trapped inside pured out, as bursts of flame sweijipt the entire wreckage r ri BOYS In Pittsburgh early today, the police spotted tv»o fourteen-year old boys trying to get a bicycle through the basement window of a store^ i3nd that solved, a Pittsburgh crime mystery -- an orgy of burglary and general navoc. Stores broken into, plundered, Idoted and devastated The two boys are runaways from Chicago, who had set out to see the world, or rather to burglarize the world. They robbed and raised cane iV e ^ft'oww^pipm'^t o i in five A taking away what they could. tores -- smashing things up and Their major exploit, in the dead of night, was in a shop that sold firearms among other merchandise The two fourteen-year olds grabbed a couple of rifles to taxe away, but first they had some marksmanship pract ic^ right there. For target^s^ they ^a^med ^t t there. For targets, tney ^mea at ^ articles of merchandise — blazing awOne inviting n ■X E I BOYb - 2 mark was the store cat, at which they fired numerous rounds of ammunition. They ended by shooting out all the electric light bulbs in the store. The to between four and five thousand dollars. The young rapscallions had a hiding place for their loot, a sort of robber’s cave. To this, upon confessing, they led the cops. It turned out to be a shelter at the base of a pier on the shore of the Monongahela River. The way they reached it made the cops draw back -- dizzy. The young rogues had been climbing with their loot down a jagged will I j unhappy manager today estimated that the damage comes j] thirty feet high. They could rob like Jess^ and c1imb like goats, — those two fourteen-year-old perpetrators of a Pittsburi^h crime w^^e. GUI