SOLQiQNS Another battle the Soloiuons has been fought, and onc€ again it has been < success for our warhips• f.3. ^ < ^ a. ^ jOiKP \ $> j I^^*1. It occurred three nights ago, the night of November tt Thirtieth and December First. It becomes almost impossible for the imagination of us over here to picture those sea fights at night, but here are the factsT-The Japs were out to get reinforcements and supplies to their troops on Guadalcanal Island. After our naval victory in the Solomons a couple of weeks ago Secretary of the Navy Knox warned us that the Japs would come back again - and have another try. And they did. "A powerful force of warships guarding troopships jz J TT^r 1 # we] steam^S to Guacialcanal.^were just north of the island when they were intercepted by a task lorce of the United States Navy, and then the wild fantasy of ocecnic battle at night began^- flame in the darkness. The Japs vrere beaten off, and their attempt to £OLOMO',° i o - / iarid re inf orcenients on Guadalcanal was frustrated. 1 ria' a 1 one made it a success for us; and^then there is r t.ie list of losses on both sides. The Jans lost two warships - either hip destroyers or cruisers. Four o^ their destroyers were sunk - and two troop transports and one car^-o ship. Nine enemy vessels in all were sent to the bottom. The loss of enemy life must have been heavy - considering the fact that the two troop transports v^ere on their way with XRintHrEgmKRl] nr reinforcements, and were therefore crowded.1 Our own loss consisted of one cruiser sunk and trim other vessels damaged. All this comes in a Navy bulletin given out late this afternoon. refutes the big talk issued /N by Tokyo earlier in the day.* The Jap radio announced that an American battleship, a heavy destroyers were sunk - while only one Jap^t was lost. Our own Navy communique answers this promptly. GUADALCANAL EPISODE A few years ago, one of the headliners of w a s B£rne-V Foss, He was the lightweight champioi, and he ?/as also a welterweight champ Barney fought some four hundred prize ring bouts in a dizzy punching career,\5ut now he says he never knew what a fight really was like. V V _ >> ^x-Prizefight Chamoion Barney Boss, ^ A United States Marine, in a hosoital at Guadalcanal covering from a combination of malaria, ~rr shell shock and shrapnel wounds. is scheduled to tb be oromoted to the rank of corporal recommended > A for a medal. That*s because of what happened two days ~ wv v ~tuyD ago when Bc^ney found himself in a shell hole^ arv# stayed there during fourteen hours of Japanese attack. if4^~eutf - attacking the Japj^ in t-he—j f-i-ve m-i les nerthwe-s-i of Henderson- Fie-14 - when—s-ud4enly , they:sa’i’ a bi^p-foree of Jg-po coae_e_«t of the tree4ee4— 1 GUADALCANAL EPISODE - 2 r tiiiu\There was shooting and hand grenade tossing .irom every side. Barney Ross, itith two other , in a shell hole^ tossed every hand grenade he could f ind. atz-thc then with his rifle he fired eighty rounds of his own ammunition, after which he took the guns and ammunition of his wounded companions and blazed away some more. He ooured three hundred rounds in all into a nest of Jap machine guns. And busy 77^ machine guns they were. "Every time I poked my head up", says the former ring champion,' "bullets were ricocheting off the log and bounced off my helmet. I was told later," he adds, "that there were at least thirty furrows in my tin hat." In old prizefight days, many a blow to the head was aimed at Barney Ross - but they all amounted to nothing beside those Japanese machine gun bullets that smacked him on the helmet. ^ ^ ^ Vy* A-^ryV\j^ f \j N3RTH AFRICAN LOSSES In considering today's list of Allied losses in iamc -.i t;:e North African offensive, we must match the figures gtro* with the number of ships inv^ved in the operation. It was the greatest armada in the history of the worldj divided into t..ree giant sections. One convoy sailed from the united States to seize Casablanca on the west coast oi Africa. The two other sections sailed from Great Britain anu went into the .Mediterranean to take Oran and Algiers. The convoys consisted of American, British, Belgian, Eanist , Dutch, Norwegian, and Polish vessels. There were eight hundred and fifty in all, three hundred and fifty warships and five hundred transports, freighters, tankers and auxiliaries. V»ith that great number of ships involved, the losses announced today consisted of five United States naval transports and ten British ships. The five naval transports were former President. 1iners. ^CLEVELAND and PEARCE^ t*16 passenger vessels IOE t -H^MSIC an _ losses - 2 SANTA LUCIA, EXETER, and EXCALIBUR. Three transports were sunk off Casablanca, one off Rabat, the other off Algiers. These losses were the result of submarine attack, enemy undersea craft concentrating against the immense landing operation. In addition three transports were damaged and so were a destroyer and a tanker. The predominant question tonight is this were there troops aboard the American transports when they were sunk? Was there heavy loss of life when the ships were torpedoed and ‘went to the bottom? The answer is jwro'b-atr^* -- no. This afternoon in Wasnington a spokesman for the Navy stated that he understood that the soldiers had disembarked from the ships before the enemy blows 'were struck. He added that the casualties from the sinking of the troopf ships had been in his words -- "very small." That^is a good angle in the news -- thousands of snrj**. NORTH_AFRICAN_LOSSES - 3 (y troops were o.l the transports before they were torpedoed, and the loss of life was small. The British losses in launching the great African 01 tensive were recited in London today by First Lord of the Admiralty Alexander. The vessels sunK were one small aircraft carrier, an anti-aircraft ship, two destroyers, a corvette, two cutters, a sloo^p, a depot ship and a mine sweeper. Ten in all. The Dutch Navy lost one destroyer. Again, we must take a comparative view and relate the number of ships lost with the Humber Mat /Were in the operation -- eight hundred and fifty. So that’s the background for the official sta^ment that the losses were surprisingly light. Now for some enemy losses. London today announces the sinking of four Axis supply ships and two protecting destroyers. This occurred on Tuesday night, when a British squadron assailed an enemy convoy in the Mediterranean. The convoy was taking badly NORTH AFRICAN LQSgK^ - 4 neeaed reinforcements to the enemy in North Africa. So the blow struck by the British was of vital impo rt ance. During the day^on Tuesday^ observat ion planes spotted the convoy, whereupon a British force of light naval vessels went speeding to the attack. They consisted of the cruisers AURORA, SIRIUS, and ARGONAUT with some destroyers. They found the convoy shortly after midnight, and dashed in at top speed. The enemy ships threw out a' smoke screen, and scattered -- trying desperately to get away. But the British vessels of war rushed in to the convoy with blazing guns and smashed the four supply ships and two destroyers -- which sank or were left as burning wrecks on the sea. The British squadron sustained not a bit of damage, but later were attacked by enemey dive bombers and torpedo planes. One destroyer was sunk. AFRICA The battle for the tip of Tunisia full fury today, with Allied attacks and Nazi counter-attacks./The Germans appear in considerable force - some thirty thousand men with mechanized equipment and supported by formidable air power. So our troops and the British have a fight on their hands Tf ? ^ military position looks decidedly favorable. A k/UA the Axis enemy pinned against the coastf fevery thrust of a few miles that we make is a dangerous threat. One^^l^iin^^hing about this battle is that A A . ----/,-* • it ds on such a small scale, geographically speaking. A Our North African offensive began as an operation over great distances - those large spaces of north and west Africa. Now it has narrowed down almost to a h int - the tip of Tunisia. The amount of narrowing po o w n may be taken as a vivid geographical expression AFRICA - ? of the freat s uc cesof f ens ive # ti^s - hadi The map shows a fighting front scarcely more than fifty miles long - on a line from the naval base of Bizerte to the big port of Tunis^ the two key places that the Nazis are defending,. (&nr\ their forces are on a line not far in front - and not far from the sea either. -A-n -*A l-lrired- -d-r 4-v-e—t nr o ugh -4ho Renter of the \line wodld npt have to far to \ \ \ ' \ ^ \ arrive at the Mediterranean shore, and thereby split the \ \ \ \ \ ' Nazis in two, severing the line between Bizerte and \ \ \ ^ Tunis. Tliat would seem to\be obvious strategy for \ \ \ \ V \ A V \ \ \ General Eisenhower. He would then have the enemy in \ \ \ \ \ \ \ . \ two ^pockets, \^wo besieged seaports. In today1s war news from the tip of Tunis^ v.e have mention of three places. One- Mateur. That is only about ten miles south of the area of Bizerte. / Nazi Berlin claims that its forces have scored some AFFICA - 3 RETAKE slight success & ainst our o The second place is Tebourba^ T^'e-^ a key hi?h,,,ay point about midway between Bizerte and Tunis M and the Germans have been counter-attacking. They have launched two counter-attacks - both beaten off. The second one tried to smash ahead today, and it was more powerful than the first - but the enemy was hurled /■ back. The third / -r e is Djedeida, nearer to Tunis. We hear that the fighting has spread that far There is violent air action - the Axis being able to throw into the battle forces of planes from the f1)ing fields of Sicily, just across a narrow stip of f water from Tunisia. ^Our own sky squadrons, commanded by General Doolittle, are bomb in; <11 d?ty ^.onr, bitting at vital points of Axis communications. And our fighter planes are going into dogfight after dogfight. Curing AFRICA - L the past twenty-four hours they have shot down eight enemy olanes, and damaged twenty-six others. No plane losses of our own are reported. LIBERIA For several months American troops have been in Liberia -- covered by such successful secrecy that there has been hardly a rumor about them. Today the fact was disclosed by the State Department in Washington Our eeldiers are in—tk#t small African republi-G—infr* any'^loss^what eve^*. ' Our forces in Liberia consist of negro regiments, and that’s appropriate, considering the historic fact that the Republic of Liberia was founded in 1822 by freed ne :ro slaves from the United States. Today Liberia holds a strategic position on the African side of the Atlantic Ocean, and is one of the few rubber producing areas that has not fallen into enemy hands. In Russia, the Stalingrad area, Red Army forces ma -e a sudden di ive against the Nazis northwest of Stalingrad. They lunged at a key point on the east bank of the River Don, and captured it. Moscow says that the success res of such strategic advantage that the Germans may have to make a withdrawal along their line from the Don to the Volga. / To the north, in the sector facing Moscow, the Soviets report the repulse of strong German counter-attacks. The key to the situation there is the railroad that runs from Rzhev to Vyazma. The Red Army BUSS IA has driven deep wedges into the German 1 ine^ and the Nazis are counter-attacking to cut off th^se wedges. No success for them, says Moscow. One clue of conditions along that battlefront is a statement that the Soviets intend to place all of their troops on skis this winter. Right now ski PUSSIA 2 /troops in increasingly greater numbers are being thrown against the enemy. That gives us an idea of the weather on the front facing Moscow - the blizzard of errible Russian winter. MANUFACTURERS To iiV former President Herbert Hoover recommended t»hat the v/ar e:fort be directed by individual administrators instead of boards, committees and commissions. He said that the coram ittee-way of doing things has proved to be a failure, and that one-man direction in various phases of war’ production was much the He suggested that the top administrators xh should form a group dealing with the President, a a war council sitting directly with the & Pres ident. 11 , srarid A These ar recommendations were made before the War Congress of American Industry in New York, while in Washington the National Association of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States denounced what they called needless questionnaires." 'T-hris- applies-t-o—t-h^- iiLcU&y forms th&t^bus ine-ss -jfien are rev, Urixed. oo f isirl out-. Business men irave been- eomplaint7tg~Ttb-out the time and MANUFACTURERS 2 ei’iort they h-ave to ^ wer corapl ice t^i ani, ocrpl^inp -ouo~stioxmaijzA^. It was stated £ ji Wsrs-h-mR^ofr- that in eighty-nine industries alone, the reports required by the Government take up a total of four hundred and ninety-five thousand, four hundred and thirty man hours a year. During a mere three months, the 2 k Eastman Kodak Company filed two hundred and sixty-two regular reports and a hundred and forty-seven special forms.AThe man-hours involved were sufficient to build three flying f ortresses. /v In a year, teh* Pump and Machinery Corporation VO -- had to fill out one thousand and twenty-three ouestionnaires. That took the full time services of twenty employees, at a cost of ninety thousand dollars a year. These facts were laid today before the joint MANUFACTURERS^- 3 Congressional Committee toTnnrrite^ on Economy, v/hich v/ar told that during the past summer the War Production Board had eliminated seventy forms and simplified IT A v a hundred and thirty others. Keep up the good work, and relieve business men of the burden of all that questionnaire answering. That was the plea made to the committee. butadiene (ft 6 It s canounced ^onay that the Defense Plant Corporation hc'S alloted three million dollars for the building of a plant somewhere in Ohio to make butadiene. That is the chief constituent of synthetic rubber. This factory will extract the butadiene from gasoline by the Houdry process. The fcsrC&l fact**1 about butadiene is that there A is an enormous demand for it today, whereas once upon a time it was a nuisance, the engineers of the Sun Oil Company have known all about it for years. Eugene Houdry, the French chemist, says he first ran across it trying to perfect a better way bf cracking down gasoline out of oetroleura. Engineers for years were oer'Dlexed with the problem of getting rid of L i. b ut adiene. But today there is nothing more greatly wanted, [jbra s—b u^fid-'isne •" One o-l^tri on - %s.—t bat Q/ POSTEE RETAKE The Treasur at a mistake was made. There was an error when they got up a poster to be displayed on December Seventh, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. On that day in motion picture theatre lobbies all over the country, a placard will anoear. (3n it will be displayed the picture of a A baby, a cute kid. One line accompanying the picture reads like this: "Give us little guys a chance." Another line says: "Make sure he grows up a free man." Now whatfs wrong about that? Where is the mistake? Aren!t we goin: to make sure that the little guy erows up to be a free man? No - that!s the trouble. We can’t, it’s impossible. Because he is a girl. The Treasury Department reveals that the "little guy"is Linda Petersen of New York. The error was made because when the picture was taken, Linda who was than ten months old, had a bald head and the POSTER it renewal:}' inieierminate look which you often see in babies. The poster experts did^not bother to investigate any further. - \ aj —t^Vsh- VN—^^ -j- r' S i ^ , IIP. =S9ld?=49Vv==SSW —f o-o 1 ed r G4rh-e r—p^e op 1 e i i~^e w~i s~e~ is-i e-t-ook—tj in'd a —es V vwm X& s - b^-irhen sire xas tenIt/ ' i s d R^y— t-^re - -.—- brl-nd a- ir^—n-o—e r b ^-14— head ed-rShe-^ n^rsirgrJJCT f cariy^ kr^rs^ ha ir, and- -y-o^— ?f~G~& :d n e v e p m i f-o-r eny t-h in-g- b-Urt -^k—y-eu^np- ^Laxiy. The a i-s t a-k e - i s -^e-fe l-ly -e u-i t e -t ri v i ad ^-b-e oe-u&s whe n y-ertj s ee ■ tir e ^ i~i tt l e ~t*try ^ you r-e a 1 i z-e- -tha-t rre- I&aS t- - sk me-ke- sure thst -gi-rls grow u-o ■ ae- f-re« woa-eu~,—jue4 a s -boy s s h-el 1—f re-w -up -.— Q-f cour^e-T- oa-ae the^r—can otrly b • e-w-o• tUenis c I'vsc .