I L/r,.z^UN0C0i^FPIDAYx_N0Vi-6JL_12A2 y m GOOD EVENING EVEF.YBODY : The headlines from Egypt get better and better. In fact it*s turning into more of a race than a battle. A three-cornered race; with the Afrika Korps /i tearing helter-skelter for Libya, trying to save itself i r I from bein' cut to pieces by the British. Also a race / between the Italians and the Germans, in which the Italians are getting left in the lurch. Of the eight Italian divisions engaged on the El Alamein Front, s ix have already been cut to pieces, anu ihxxxxxKrK the other tv/o may soon be encircled and captured. The latest is that Montgomery has already taken t iorty thousand orisoners, so far, including the general commanding the Italian Trento Division and his staff. LEAD - 2 Also two hifh ranking German generals. The late word is that Montgomery is on the verge of wiping the Axis out of North Africa. Even the Axis high command concedes today that the Allied offensive is sweeping down on Mersa Matruh. / And that was even further than the British communique claimed. But the battle lines are moving west all the time and there ix no longer is any definite front. The Italians, according to one dispatch, appear to have been abandoned in the desert by the German mechanized formations. Cairo declares that Montgomery's army has already knocked out more than hall of the armored strength of the Nazis. Yesterday, it was announced that Rommel had only two hundred and fifty tan^s left and that they were being knocked out fast. In Washington, President Roosevelt told m 1 newspapermen that all the United Nations are much encouraged by what he described as apparently a victory of major importance in the North African desert. A reporter asked the President about the amount of American materials being used in Africa. He replied that the equipment being used by General Montgomery is overwhelmingly British. One of the highly interesting side stories of this desert battle describes the evening when General Montgomery hai the captured Nazi General von Ghana to ▼as the General in iinner. Von Thors c c zna :i c : ? o zze 1 ’ s tank cores. i. a .- Lx s e Inez a that a general has the tool luck to capture his opponent and talk over the battle. Von Groza ^as a veteran of A the Spanish ' ar, also o: lunkirk. All in all, he has rat a German intellirence report of Montgoaery had used the ~ords: Fie must exnect from this zan a new form of tactics. * So Montgomery said:- ’’lie you get you expected?* Go ■'■rich Von Groza replied:- *Yes, arc it was A i • r'rt 11 r» r - - —• -•tc Mo rtg onery said that Ur*** T* * * r i -*p a. I .a. » W —. — za rai zm been u 11 e ▼ illirr to talk about things tnat * V -S ~ Vv - - appene e r i r g * - V * e LEAD - 5 told Von Thoma lots of things he did not know. The German was taken prisoner because he went on a reconnaissance - he had ventured too close to the British lines. His tank was shot up and he had to jump quickly. I J I The'GermanAexplanation of the Afrika Korps retreat that the troops had to be withdrawn in Egypt in A order to disentangle them from a situation which was Other news from that theatre of war tells of naval engagements. British submarines have sunk six jnor° Axis vessels and. damaged two **£ Lliuitf large supply A ships in the Mediterranean INVASION FOLLOW LLAD ccoriing to reports from London, the Axis high commands are in a dither over prospects of an invasion following the victory in Egyot. The radio stations of Berlin, Home and Vichy have been chattering all day, putting out a fresh report and rumor every hour. A radio Pome broadcast speculated anxiously on the possibility of an Allied invas i o n A Vichy talked feverishly of the chances of Anglo-American attacks on Casablanca in Morocco and Dakar in West Africa. Many Italians apparently believe their country is due for an invasion the minute the Axis lorces are cleared out of Africa. The Nazi-controlled Paris radio talked of hure naval concentrations and aircrai.t reinforcements at Gibraltar. A dispatch from Madrid, reports that ships and planes are arriving frequently INVASION FOLLOW LEAD - 2 to have seen the Gibraltar airfield jammed with fighter planes. They also report that large bombers, including American flying fortresses, are stopping off at Gib all the time, on their way to the eastern Mediterranean. The Madrid story is r-r.i.;n -rse# specific in one respect. It declares that the Allies have one battleship, three aircraft carriers, thirty-four destroyers, six cruisers twenty-two corvettes, a monitor, thirty-five motor torpedo boats, twenty-two mine-sweepers and about twenty-two auxiliary ships at, the naval base under the great Rock^ Stories to somewhat the same effect come 1<L out of Stockholm, *=**» fertile source of news from /*■" /V German sources. I1ALY Just what are the chances of an invasion of Italy? In their book, "Balcony Empire," two returning correspondents, Reynolds and Eleanor Packard, the man-and-wife team that covered Rome for the United Press, give us their opinion. The Packards, who were interned five months at Siena after the declaration of war, know their Italy well. And they say the best place for an attack on Italy would be the region between Genoa and Viareggio. They point out that the mountains are narrower there, and that once over the mountains, Anglo-American troops would be able to swarm down the valley of the Po River to the Adriatic. By the same route that Napoleon invaded Italy. The Packards report that even right now, among the bulk of Italians, America is far more popular than Germany. As for the Italian anti-Fascists, they loath the Germans above all the people' ~ ^ ITALY ^ 2 on earth. But, say the Packards, what the Italians do not know is whether they can depend upon the mercy of the Americans and British. And they most certainly would be fearful of having their fate decided by Russians, Czechs, Poles, Jugoslavs, and others. If the Italians think there is the slightest chance of Russia dec iding,then they will not abandon the Duce or the Germans. But they say that without the Germans to prod them on, Italian soldiers would not be inclined to fight hard against the British or Americans. "Balcony Empire" is packed full of interesting material. And not the least amusing part is the description of the adventures of the American correspondents, many of whom disliked each other, but who kxs had to put up with each others company for five long months, while interned at Siena. STALIN In his anniversary-of—the-Russian—Revolution speech today Stalin broadcast to the world the news that there is to be a second front. His speech included much that was of vast interest. For instance, when he said that in spite .conquests, of Nazi EisRB^KBxi^ to date, the situation regarding Soviet manufactures has been improved. And that factories transferred to the east have been able to supply the Red Army with guns, aircraft and tanks. In fact, said he: "There has been radical improvement in our industry. Stalin’s Twenty-fifth-Anniversary-o£- the Russian-Revolution speech, as expected, included much of vast interest. Take this: The Nazis have one- hundred— and -s e venty German divisions massed against the Soviet armies, plus seventy divisions from vassal states — Rumanians and others* A total of 8tgSi»S*xfckSxbtBXX8*XXX*X8X \ two—*hundred-and-forty divisions* Other German divisions he declared, were scattered about occupied Europe STALIN - 2 By this he was pointing out of what vast help a second front would be. And he took great pains to tell us just which Axis divisions are in Africa. "Some," he said in a low voice, "are fighting in Egypt against Britain." And then he added: "Four, I repeat the number, four German and eleven Italian divisions," said the strong man of Russia. And that, he maintained, is the extent of Rommel’s Afrika Korps. Last winter, Stalin went on, the Red Army had pushed the Germans with all their hundred and some divisions, back as far as two hundred-'and*" f if ty miles in some places. But during the summer, taking advantage of the absence of a second’front, the Germans had massed their reserves in the east because they ran no risk in the west. And because of that, he admitted, the Nazis had broken the Russian lines in the southwest. Even so, he claimed, the Red army had done pretty well in smashing the Nazi time table. STALIN - 3 Documents found on the body of a German staff officer shaai showed that they had expected to have Stalingrad by July twenty-fifth and Saratov by August tenth. * « Saratov is another factory city on the Volga, of which we haven* t heard much. It’s two/'hundred miles north of Stalingrad,on the border of what used to be the German Volga Republic. The capture of both Stalingrad and Saratov would have given the Germans just about complete control of the lower Volga. The Germans, he continued, had expected to reach Kuibyshev August Fifteenth, and Baku, the great oil port on the Caspian by September Twenty-eighth. The main objective, said Stalin, was Moscow -- and not primarily the seizure of Russia’s oilfields. The ; kvvxkx of the advance to the south was to weaken K the Moscow front and thus try to end the war by forcing the Red amy to capitulate. And then he discussed what might have happened if a second front had existed. It would have caused STALIN - 4 the withdrawal of sixty German and twenty allied divisions from the eastern front, said he. And the Red army would now be in the areas of Pskov, Minsk, Zhitomir and Odessa. In other words, the Russians could have regained most of the fertile Ukraine and Little Russia. And then Stalin said positively that there will be a second front sooner or later. Not because the Russians want it, but because the Allies understand it is v ital to them. Outside of the implication in his analysis that there wx should already be a Second Front, he threw no reproaches at his Allies. In fact, he spoke these j ringin' words: "The writing on our banner is -- Long \ Life to the Anglo -Soviet Coalition!" ____—* * SOLOMONS In the Solomons, the battle is going on without rest or let-up. I^ Japanese have made several strong counter-attacks on our ground forces,west of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. But our men threw them back and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. Indeed, Secretary Knox declared that the Japs were losing four men to every one of ours. The Navy also reports that our air forces kept up a continuous punishment of ‘enemy troops. As for the situation east of Henderson Field, it is unchanged. The enemy are still there, so our men are continued to be threatened from three sides. MANPOWER Production Chief Donald Nelson told Senators today that sooner or later they would have to pass a law giving the Government complete authority over manpower. He also said positively that we have to lengthen the working week. This he told to the Committee on Military Affairs. It is generally believed in Washington that President Roosevelt does not want to ask for manpower legislation just now, does not believe it necessary. And it is no secret that he is against any lengthening of the working week. He sticks to his opinion that any increase of working hours does not increase 'roauction because it tires the workers too much. The President feels he can meet this manpower situation with an executive orde^. But Nelson told the Senators that "you are better off with an Apt of Congress! defining what the standards are, tnen to leave it to executive fire. We have not done everything yet that could be done to conserve manpower,” said Nelson, and he added: "We have got to increase productivity through better management.” At the same time, Henry J. Kaiser, the West Coast shipbuilder, was proposing different ideas to another group of Senators. Kaiser suggests a federal agency of nine men to have complete authority over all manoo^er, which would include the drafting of men for MANPOWER^- 2 the armed forces. A VI ATION__PPODiJCT ION The vast General Motors Corporation, deciding that the war is going to be largely in the air, is swinging its plants to the manufacture of aviation products, everything from the smallest instrument parts to air-cooled engines, and planes ready to fly. General Motors present rate of production is at the rate of seven million dollars a day, with a total of three hundred and twenty- eieht thousand employees. And, they are even sending their own employees to the battlefronts to see exactly how their products perform on the joo, under lire. ROOSEVELT Reporters asked President Roosevelt today whether the Republican gains would lead him to change his attitude toward Congress. In return the President asked, "Why should it?" Congress, he assumes, wants to win the war just as much as he does, - I A reporter asked him ho?/ he accounted for Tuesday’s election. Mr. Roosevelt replied laughingly that he had an exceedingly pleasant surprise Tuesday morning w'hen he w’ent to vote at the Town Hall at Hyde Park. He was delighted, he explained, to find that the doors of the polling place were open. The reporter asked, "Did you expect them to be closed?" The President’s reply was tha evidently ^nis questioner had not read certain newspapers. rose bowl College football fans will be interested in this one. The Rose Bowl game at Pasadena will be played after all. The military authorities on the west coast have decided that barring drastic changes in the situation, they would permit it. However, the southern Californians will not be allowed the Tournament of Roses, with the parade and pageant that go£s with it. However, the game is on. But the country will not be flocking there. The Office of Defense Transportation has already admonished us not to do any unnecessary traveling. telegrams Here is an order that will jar a lot of people. That is,those who dispose of their friends at Christmas and New Tear’s by sending them telegrams. This year there are *to be no congratulatory messages, no holiday greetings, by wire. Presumably, this will also mean, for next year, no telegrams on Mother’s Day. y L/vtS