E M L- SUNOCO.__ MOriEAY. CECEMBKR 1^. IQ/I. iii GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: Tonight v;e can all breathy more easily, Wc5OT8=©. at last we know the truth about Hawaii./ The / frank xtxtHixtxkx statement by Secr-^tary ^ox tells us much that is grim, tragic, shocking. Jeut it also can’t help but arouse a feeling of relief, |for the truth though bad enough, is not as “b^d as the frantic rumors that were set afloat by do'tibt, or. the exaggerated, /A fe3i=^«srfc:fe claims published by the Imperial Japanese Admiralty. It turns out that our loss in battleships is \ less than two. Though both the OKLAHOMA and the ARIZONA lie at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, the OKLAHOMA, which M capsized, can beand readily salvaged. We also) lost three destroyers, anc^ a mine layer whichitonce had w LEAD - 2 been a passenper steamer on the Fall River Line. vj; > that list, unhappy as it is, is^^b-v-t o less than the rumors and the enemy claims. L /\ The most sorrowful aejQXfii the terrific death roll. The Navy alone T,wo thousand, seven hundred and twenty-nine officers and m ix hundred a: seventy-six wounded. terrific casualty list^ fri MIIJ IBTrrr*^~HrH'^^*T-- IV. to the fact that the ARIZONA was destroyed by a direct bomb hit which felljl^own smokestack, burs'^the boiler, and^ immediately afterwards^ the forward mac^azine. The Army at Hawaii also sustained severe losses in aircraft and the destruction of some hangars. But. the report adds that repla''ements are either on the spot already or on the way. I ( Still another large navy ship was destroyed. LEAD . 3 the former battleship UTAH. Maybe that fact is responsible for the extravagance of the Japanese claims. The UTAH was dismantled by the Treaty of London If *41 ,fter the last war, and has been used only as a target ?? ship or a training vessel. The Secretary adds that other vessels were damaged, but some of them have already been repaired and have either gone to sea or are ready for sea. 7 ^^ -gw—gh"!w-ye says further^ it vrill take a month ^ e V 1 t h.a—to ii OKLAHOMA. Then here*s a reassuring sentence: ”The i I. HII entire balance of the Pacific fleet , with its aircraft carriers, its heavy cruisers, its light cruisers, its destroyers and submarines,* are uninjured and are all at sea seeking contact with the enemy.” The candor of the Secretary’s r LEAD . 4 reDort gives us the assurance that in this war our government does not intend to keep us in the dark, doesn't intend to buoy us up with spurious hopes. Xk I Theparticularly in the following lines, where he says, "VJe are all entitled to know whether (a) there [ was any error of judgment, or (b) any dereliction 1 of duty." He answers those questions with the words, (TK "The United States service's were hk not alert against the surprise air attack on Hawaii." And He^ "This fact calls for a formal investigation which will be initiated immediately by the President." To which he adds, "My investigation made clear that after the 4 attack our defense by both services was conducted TT n M T skillfully and bravely." Then follows a paragraph which ough“to bring a lump to any American. "In the A XKxss Navy's gravest hour of peril, the officers and It men of the fleet exhibited magnificent courage and LEAD - 5 resourcefullness. The real story of Pearl Harbor," he s?ys^ "is not one of individual heroism, although there were many such cases. It lies rather in the splendid manner in which all hands did their jobs as long as they were able, not only under fire M.J but while fighting the flames afterwards and immediatelyn starting salvage work and reorganization." The dying captain of a battleship, says Knox, displayed the outstanding and individual heroism of the ^ day. As he emerged from the conning tower to the bridge,, he was laid completely open by a shrapnel burst. He fell to the debk. Defusing to be carried to safety, he continued to direct the action. V-^hen the bridge became a blazing inferno, two officers attempted to remove him. But he ordered them to abandon him and save themselves. found themselves blocked A by the flames, and only the k^aix efforts of « :ip t i 1 0 LEAD_- 6 a third officer enabled them to escape. He climbed made their way to safety. Elsewhere, the statement by^Knox reports that entire ships' exemplary valor and coord inat ion Drama was crowded into a few seconds aboard an aircraft tender, the target of the enemy's fiercest bombing. She was already afire from high altitude attacks, but her anti-aircraft batteries shot down a plane which crashed in flames on the deck At this moment, the captain observed the shadow of an enemy two-man submarine approaching within a few yards. . 1 throuph the fire to a higher level from whidh he passedjOne line to an adjoining battleship, and another j to his trapped shipmates. By this frail means they J The aircraft tender fired on the submarine and exposed I her conning tower. At that instant, a destroyer^stood LEAD - 7 down the channel passed directly over the submarine down a second plane ’^'hich fell on land nearby. In one case, the Secretary says,a single bluejacket manned a five-inch anti-aircraft gun after his ten battery mates hcd been shot down. He served as the entire crew of•that gun, loading. pointing and firing^TTTter three\rounds, a terrific A explosion blew him over the side of the battleship. but he was rescued. There seem to be enough of these rousing bits of drama in the Secretary's report to fill half I and sank it with depth charge^s. The tender th;^n shot iff i 0 tl a dozen broadcasts. But now we have to go on to a most important point brough'f’ out by a reporter's Question I at the Secretary's press conference. Was there any Ij fifth column activity in HaT'aii? Knox replied, || il "It 7 ,as the most effective fifth column work that has ii LFAD « tH come out of this war except in !]or-ay. The Japanese, I! he said, have absolutely oerfect information concerning H the military estab 1 ish;-ents at Hawaii. iXXXtXKX He then took occasion to contradict another bag* rumor. The charge that our shirs took an intolerably long time to get steam up end get out of the way, was not true, he said. The Japanese, he then told us, lost three submarir^es and forty-one aircraft. One of the submarines a two-man affair, side of A /V ------ - --- il thst. eneay used no netr type of weapon. But the \ ^ fact that submarines were on the spot is more than ever proof of the long time over which they were preparing the attack. Obviously, they a t 4.sd-Loa-thsA either as soon as or even before Special Envoy Eurusu left Tokyo for Washington. | The essential fact, says the Secretary, is that the lead . 9 Japanese purpose was to knock out the United States before the war began. In this purpose, they failed. IdincirfxQ^ic xSc^^cMc-x Less than four minutes after the first alarm, guns of the fleet went into action against enemy xixEzxfi It aircraft. AxxeKBxix Seconds later the first Japanese ;i plane was shot down. 1 can*t resist telling »«. one more gallant story that the Secretary relates. Its hero w a blue - j acke^ kkk ^ x recruit. "iilven before jj General (Quarters sounded,” said^Kncx, '‘this youngster single-handed manned a machine gun and blasted away at an attacking torpedo plane as it i*8ix levelled against his ship.” Such is the gist of^^he most aw'e-inspiring report ever made by a Cabinet minister of the United States. GENERALS The air force of Uncle Sam's Army is now commanded by a Lieutenant-General. That doesn't mean ll any reshuffling of the high command. It means that President Roosevelt has nominated Major General Arnold A to be a Lieutenant-General. The dispatch from V/ashingtom adds that this is important, a sign of the increased value noil attached to "^he Air Arm. Another promotion reported today is that of i Colonel Theodore Roosevelt to be a Brigadier-General for the duration of this war. He is nowin command of i the Twenty-Sixth Infantry of the FirstEivis ion, the same j| regiment with which he served in the last war. i WAR From Manila we hear tonight that the armed forces of Uncle Sam have taken the initiative, struck back against Japan in the Philippines# possibly even in the waters around Japan itself. General MacArthur’s armies have cooped up the Japanese invaders of Luzon ■ into three small areas. There,’the Americans are blasting away not only at the Japanese on the island, J' but at the reinforcements that are coming up by sea. In Malaya, the British are having a tough time, but they are holding, their own. Advices from Singapore indicate that the Japanese had started a determined blitz clear down the peninsula, f Butsofartheyve been^^S^back. The worst Japanese attack was concentrated on the British Imperial forces at Kedah, in the northwest, near the Siamese border. The high command at Singapore admits that the Imperial Army retreated from Kedah, but are holding a strong line WAR - ? across the Isthmus and have broken the force of the Jaoanese blitz. There was excitement in the Mediterranean. British submarines dashed into the harbor of Candia, held by the Nazis on the northern shore of Crete. There they sank two ships, making five and six of dessels destroyed in the supply line of the Axis in the Mediterranean. ! HITLER i' One question being asked on all sides is:- What will Hitler do next? There still is nothing to indicate whether he will attack in the Middle East, in the Mediterranean, or, the British Isles. According to all the Soviet information channels, the Nazi Fuehrer still has his hands full in pr W I ' Russia. The Reds are pouring forth accounts of what they call the annihilation of the Nazis./ A whole generation of Germans killed in theyrout, says the Soviets. How true these glov/ing/Buss ian reports are we J just don't know. It would he^p a lot if Stalin v;ould / / allow us to have some obsevers over there. / / The Germans, /or their part, haven’t much to / say except that thevt^ heavy guns are still battering / away at Leningra^'^ in the north and Sevastopol, the / great Crimean i^tress, in the south. TheSoviet spokesmen vow that they’re not propaganda Here’s a new wrinkle that the British have devised for propaganda aimed at the enemy. Broadcasts beamed on Germany begin with seven large measured ticks of a clock. Then a voice is heard saying in German, "Every seven seconds a German dies in Russia." Then the voice asks: "Is it your husband? Is it your son or your brother?" lil'l i IV I NORV^AY The Nazis have been trying to raise a Norwegian legion for service on the Eastern front. The job of recruiting it was given to Major Quisling of i unsavory fame, and evidently he didn’t get to first base. At any rate, the job was taken away from him. a Stockholm story. 4 report was overheard from the British radio, that the Nazis are | in such need of troops that they’ve had to askpumania for IT.ore divisions. London, the German A Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal von Brauchitsch, haj A gone to Bucharest to ask for five more Rumanian divisions. HULL We are not going to break v^ith France Secretary of State Hull, said today that he knows of no plans for recalling Ambassador Admiral Leahy. Reporters asked him to throve a little Idght on the somewhat cloudy situation of the Pet^in / Government, and the pressure that has be^n brought to bear on it by the Axis countries. The Secretary replied in characteristically diploipatic verbiage. / "Our Government," he suggested, "continues to hope that the free ins itututions a^d liberties and the independence the people of France have enjoyed in the past may be preserved for the full enjoyment of French peoples everywhere in the future." And then he added that he firmly believed that they will know now, as tK&Ky they have in the past, how to meet theix present situation. i Vichy, by the way, has instructed its Ambassador at V/ashington to protest the removal of French crews from the KOPrfAKDIE and other French vessels in our harbors. HULL - 2 Attacks on Germans in France are reported again. For one, a dynamite artichoke was thrown into a restaurant packed with dining Nazi officers A French answer to the stern Nazi reprisals. SABOTAGE Death for sabotage -- according to a bill passed by the Reuse today. Not all kinds of sabotage. But death for any sabotage that puts anybody in danger of serious injury. The death sentence not to be mandatory: but up to the federal jury trying the case, if the offense has resulted in the death or serious injury of anybody or placedanybody in grave danger. And the bill was passed in short order, with only Miss Jeannette Rankin of Montana trying to block it. The bill is now up to the Senate. isia ' ISOLATIONISTS Here*s an interesting appeal for the solidarity of all the Republics in the Vi’estern Hemisphere. And who makes that appeal? Senator Burton K. Y/heeler of Montana, the Number One isolationist, and Senator George Norris of Nebraska. Wheeler points out that if we should lose the fight here in North America, South America would be dominated by the Japanese and bj? Hitler. To this Senator Norris adds that the world has never been confronted with such a catastrophe as atpresent and the thinks there will be a united front of all the Viestern nations -- north and south. CONDOR The Condor Airlines in South America, controlled and operated by the Nazis, have fone out of business. Condor was quite a system, air lines shuttling back and forth for over eight thousand, eight hundred miles, over Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. Nor has it been put out of commission by any political or gove-^nment acts. A subsidiary of an American Oil Company simply refused to supply Condor with gasoline - whereupon Condor was forced to close down. FOOTBALL Football news which is also war news There’ll be no Rose Bowl Game at Pasadena. By request of the Army. So, the annuel event which was to have been played at Pasadena between Oregon State and Duke University will be transferred to Durham, North Carolina - home ot the doughty Dukes.