Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 December 1940 — Page 2
FOUGHT HOPELESS
~ ODDS—GRA
IANO
Soldiers Fled Superior British Forces in Libya, Crying fa With Last ‘Spark of Life, ‘Long Live Italy, : - Commander Reports to Duce.
ROME, Dec. 23 (U. P.) —Italy published today its i own
-story of the British offensive against its North African “Army—a story, ‘as told by Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, com;mander in chief, of the superior weight of* the British arms
“on land, in the air and at sea, and of brave Italian resist-
-ance in face of hopeless odds.
- Graziani told how the Brit-|
- ish offensive broke with shat“tering force just as he had - completed preparations for an
“offensive of his own, how divi-|
.-8lon. after division of his Army was overwhelmed, how -he ordered a retreat Dec. 10 “and how his men at Bardia - still held out.
Graziani said that “it certainly is premature to make any predictions es to the developments in this ti--tanic battle in which the enemy has - toncentrated the best troops of four
. tontinents. » “If today—I12 days from the be-
ginning of the offensive—British “armored divisions mark time before
_ Bardia, ” he said, reporting as of * Dec. a1, “this is exclusively due to the bravery of the soldiers of Italy -of land and air, who know how bravely to oppose the enemy and die without sparing themselves.
“All Have Done Duty”
“I once again confirm in categoric manner that all down here have done their duty to the limits possible. If the number of those who had the ‘misfortune to fall prisoner is high, this must not make you doubt their valor. They resisted with the will to resist until the very end.” Concluding his report, which he addressed to Premier Benito Mussolini personally as Duce, Premier and War Minister, Graziani said: “Until face to face with the enemy, who inexorably advanced, well. protected, toward a sure prey they (the soldiers) cried with the last spark of life: ‘Long live Italy. “In view of these facts the ignoble claims advanced by enemy propaganda are nothing but a mass of lies, which bring shame upon those who dare write them and thus show they have lost even that sense of dignity and respect toward bravery—even though luckless—which has always been characteristic of the people of a great civilization.”
Built 75-Mile Aqueduct
Graziani told Mussolini how after advancing into Egypt to Sidi Barrani he had built an aquduct 75 miles long to provide water for his advanced forces, how many soldiers had walked scores of miles across the burning desert afoot, “only wishing battles, as is clearly seen from censored mail.” . He told how he had built a road and had stored in advanced depots food stuffs, munitions and food, and how Italian planes bombed the British rear—and the British began bombing the Italian rear positions also. “We lacked only the complement of motor vehicles, which as you
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| know were pouring from the main land,” Graziani commented. He continued to say how patrol |actions showed the British steadily |increasing in aggressiveness; how he gave orders for full artillery protection against an attack on the |southern flank; how airplane pilots reported the British massing forces; how on Dec. 7 a British prisoner said that the British would attack within +10 days. Kept Troops on Alert
“Though this news might have appeared tendencious, it was not, however, ignored,” Graziani said. “I immediately informed the Army, which kept all troops on the alert.
“During the day of Dec. 8 from varicus symptoms-. . . I felt that the enemy attack was imminent and repeated a warning to commanders ordering them to be ready to oppose an attack if launched . . . As you see, there was no surprise. - “Against strongholds occupied by our troops in the flat desert terrain, without any possibility of 1actics, the enemy had the opportunity of employing masses of armored units, armored cars and: medium and heavy tanks suvovnorted bv mo-
operatior of air forces. “The brief preparation (for the attack) was generally intrusted to artillery and aviation.
“As soon as the massacring air bombardment ceased, armored units struck from every direction against our troops. Thus despite fiercest resistance our strongholds within a few hours were one by one taken.
“The first strongholds to be attacked was that held by the Maletti troops, which began an orderly retreat until it was overcome and dragged along with it the Second Libyan Division, which had sent a strong lightning column to its aid.
Armored Units Superior
“Against an armored mass operating concentrically on a large front our anti-tank arms and artillery, which were forced to waste shots on numerous mobile targets that determinedly came forward, had little effect. “The essential eason for the enemy’s initial lightning-like success must be attributed to the crushing superiority of the enemy's armored units. “Our Nalional (Italian) Libyan divisions in this battle also kept the high traditions of bravery and heroism of our Army. Commanders and troops in the western desert regions wrote pages of the greatest heroism-—episodes of epic greatness occurred in the unequal battle between soldiers of Italy and the British Empire’s armored formations. Detachments of our divi-
sions, isolated and encircled on all sides, resisted to the last cartridge.”
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“\ino1anaPOLIS RAILWAYS
| Italian Retreat Is T: Crmed Worse Disaster Than Guadalajara.
By HENRY T. United Press Staff
Wo GREEK ARMY NORTHEAST OF PREMETI (Via Athens), Dec. 22— (Delayed) —Italian airplanes have started an offensive against Albanian towns and roads in this sector in an attempt to
impede the Greek advance.
One town has been raided by as many as 40 planes at a time. The
casualties were mostly civilians.
The whole countryside is being bombéd and machine gunned, A
wounded Greek soldier, who set out on mule-back for a base hospital was found dead later by comrades on the road to Premeti. He “had been riddled with machine-gun bullets from a low-flying plane. The Greek positions are a few miles east of Klisura, where three Italian divisions (50,000 men) are holding out after a 50-mile retreat from Liskoviki, on the Greek-Albanian border. ; The retreat lasted 12 days and the Italian divisions now are being battered unmercifully by Greek artillery -encompassing thera on three
sides.
GORRELL Correspondent
behind
feet.
the side of the precipice.
only one hit on the road itself.
Here, three divisions have been thrown back 37 miles as the crow flies, or 50 miles over the worst type of mountain road conceivable, | and they are still in peril. I have just driven over that road, from Liskoviki to Premeti, through mountains ranging from 1800 to 3000 |
One has only to crane his neck to look 3000 feet straight down | It seemed that in any one of these hairpin turns, a determined machine-gun crew could have held off an army for days. Yet near Liskoviki I saw gun emplacements set in rocks | along the road—positions that looked as strong as Gibraltar—which the Italians apparently had abandoned with little fighting. ‘Italian planes still range over the road dropping bombs, and I saw craters not far from the road large enough to hide a truck, but saw |
SAW the Italian retreat from Guadalajara in the Spanish War | and it was small by comparison to what has happened here. At i lear two Italian motorized divisions sent to occupy Madrid | were met outside Brihuega ‘by French and other units of the inter- | national brigade and fled 13 miles, leaving virtually all their equipment | |» diers leave their shelters to watch what they think is a battle between Italian and British or Greek planes.
dive bombing and machine-gunning.
)REMETI has been
bed, as have almost every village in the area,
and the Italians have devised a new trick to increase the casualties, They maneuver high over the towns, where the planes cannot easily be identified, and pretend to be dog-fighting. Civilians and sol-
Then the planes swoop ‘down, 1k
I have met many Greek-Albanians in this area who formerly lived in America. One of them, Angel Papadopolous, native of Erseka, who | formerly worked for the Continental Shoe ‘Co. at St. Louis, Mo., said, “I'm an American. I served in the American Army in the last war,
‘| so please send my regards to the folks back there.”
He cursed the
Italian fliers for “destroying our homes and shops we spent our lives working to get, and for killing our women and children.” Several Greek and Albanian soldiers, fighting together here, told me they used to live in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Massa-
chusetts or New Jersey.
15 ARE GIVEN YULE PAROLES
Two Who Participated in| Bus Terminal Holdup Win Release.
Christmas presents in the form of paroles were presented to 15 men in the state prison and reformatory today by the State Clemency Commission, 3 Two of those paroled were Charles Pike and Dewey Montgomery who were sentenced in the Marion County Criminal Court in 1933 to 15-year terms for assault and battery with intent to rob.. The men were convicted in connection with the robbery of Patrick McMahon, 70, agent at the bus terminal here. As a result of an assault in the course of the robbery, Mr. McMahon later died. The Commission pointed out that, although the men first were charged with first degree murder, the charge was reduced after a post mortem exami-
due to heart disease induced by fright. The Commission also paroled John Faulk, 69, who was convicted in Marion County Criminal Court in 1936 on,a charge of robbery and who was sentenced to serve 10 years. The Commission said he had a good record at the institution. The Commission denied 13 petitions for clemency, remitted one fire and discharged one person from parole.
HOLLYWOOD SCREEN WRITER DIES AT 44
HOLLYWOOD, Dec. 23 (U. P.).— F. Scott Fitzgerald, 44, whose books
Moving Day for Pelley
Moving men are shown carting printing equipment, files and furniture from the building at Ashville, N. C., where Silver Shirt leader William Pelley’'s magazine “Liberation,” was published.
and short stories epitomized the hectic life and post-war disiilusionment of the “turbulent twenties,” died yesterday as the result of a heart attack. Mr. Fitzgerald gained fame as the spokesman of the ‘sad young men” |j of the decade following the World |$ War with his novels, “This Side of Paradise,” “The Beautiful and Damned,” “Flappers and Philosophers,” “The Great Gatsby” and “Tender Is-the Night.” A native of St. Paul, Minn., Mr. Fitzgerald was a direct descendant of Francis Scott Key, composer of “The Star-Spangled” Banner,” and was named after him. He left ‘Princeton University in his senior year to join the Army as a second lieutenant in the 45th Infantry. His first novel, “This Side of Paradise,” was published in 1920 when he was 24. He published several collections of short stories, including one volume under the title, “All the Sad Young Men.” Both volumes concerned the uncertain life of the twenties. He came to Hollywood in 1937 to adapt “The Great Gatsby” for the screen. He also wrote the scenario for Eric Remarque's “Three Comrades.” He suffered a‘ heartsattack three weeks ago, and a second Saturday that proved fatal. The Fitzgeralds had one child, a daughter, Frances Scott Fitzgerald.
HURRICANE WINDS LASH WEST GOAST
‘SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 23 (U. P.) —Winds of hurricane force accompanied by heavy rains battered
cisco to the Canadian border today, inflicting extensive property damage, -darkening cities, disrupting transportation and communications and causing at least two deaths. At Gray's Harbor, Wash. the Coast Guard station reported a wind of 85 miles an hour, strongest on the Olympic peninsula since 1920. Rivers in northern California where it has rained almost continuously for a week, were rising, but there was no immediate flood danger. Portland, Seattle, Aberdeen, Longview, Tacoma and Olympia suffered most severely from the winds. Power and telephone lines were blown down - during particularly heavy blows early Sunday. Small buildings were smashed and highways were littered with debris. For many hours communication between Olympia, Aberdeen, Port Angeles was cut off. Raymond E. Den Hartog, 17, and his brother, Vernon, 13, were electrocuted near Mount, Vernon, Wash., when they attempted to remove a fallen power pole from the road. A tree fell through the roof of a crowded dance hall at Pleasant Hill, near Kelso, seriously injuring two persons.
INJURED HOOSIERS’ CONDITION ‘GOOD’
RIPLEY, W. Va., Dec. 23 (U. P.). —A young Angola, Ind. school teacher and his wife and 18-months-old baby were reported. in “good” condition today after all were injured in an automobile accident Saturday night. Robert Carson, 28; his wife, Jean, 23, and their child were driving to Hinton, W. Va., when their car collided with another carrying Warren Cossin, 18, and Ray Veagle, 20, both of Ripley. Cossin was killed and Veagle suffered a fractured leg.
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3 DIE IN MINE CAVE-IN NANAIMO, British Columbia, Dec.
23 (U. P.).—The bodies of three coal {ors from the Britsh Columbia, Deminers, killed by a cave-in at the partment of Mines. |
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OFFICE SHIFTED
T0 NOBLESVILLE
(Losey Says First Issue of
New Magazine to Appear Next Month.
P.) —Carl Losey, president, said today that re first issue of the Fellowship Press, a magazine for businessmen, will be published next month, The magazine will be printed with: equipment which arrived last night from the headquarters of William Dudley Pelley, leader of the Silver Shirts, American Fascist organiza-: tion, at Asheville, N. C. Mr. Losey strongly denied that his magazine will have any connection with the Silver Shirts or with D. C. Stephenson, former Ku-Klux Klan leader who is expected to seek a parole soon from a life term in State prison for murder.
‘Unfair,’ Says Losey .
“So far as Stephenson is concerned, it is unfair to say that he: will be identified, with the magazine just because I happen to know him personally,” Losey said. Mr, Losey was a close associate! of the Klan leader during the early
1920’s when Stephenson was a power
in Indiana politics. i The printing equipment arrived] on two heavily loaded trucks. It included three job presses, a Lino-. type machine and files, books and other office equipment.
Truckers Reticent
It was taken immediately to the building which is being remodeled for occupancy by the Fellowship Publishing Co. Employees at the building said the truck drivers told them more equipment was on the way. The drivers refused to discuss reports that other equipment had been held up in Asheville because
of writs of attachment for unpaid bills,
”
At Ease!
Service Men Ordered To Think of Peace On Christmas. WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (U. P.)
‘{ —The order of the day for Christ- | mas in the Army and Navy will
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. Dec. 23 (U.|
be: : Enjoy yourself and give a
‘thought to peace and goodwill.
Permit every man to go home who can be spared; bring the ships to port and ground the warplanes. From Brooklyn to Cavite, from the Canal Zone to Alaska, Army and Navy were determined to make the merriest kind of Christmas for its officers and men who for months have been under the pressure of the greatest rearmament program in peacetime. - There was only one word of caution to Army post and ship commanders: Be prepared to take up without a lost beat after .the holidays and to meet any emergency that might arise in the meantime. Quattermaster division officials estimated that more than 1,000,000 pounds of turkey, ham, and guinea hen would be stowed away by soldiers and sailors who re-
- main at their posts.
The Navy said there would be no curtailment of holiday leaves. The War Department authorized liberalization of its 15 per cent furlough maximum to whatever extent conditions in cantonments will permit.
Quits Paradise And Joins Army
PARADISE, Kas., Dec. 13 (U. P.).—The Maypr of Paradise has enlisted in the Navy. Swede Loreg, who was elected Mayor shortly after his 21st birthday last year, has signed up and is stationed at the Great Lakes Training Station.
the.
WOMAN POLID SUFFERER DIES -
Complications Are Blamed For Death of Young Hoosier Mother.
Complications following an attack of infantile paralysis probably caused the death yesterday of Mrs, Ruby Cook, 19-year-old Hoosier mother. She died in Long Hospital after an emergency ambulance trip from
the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Surface of Ladoga.
Mrs. Cook was stricken with infantile paralysis four months ago and was placed in a respirator in Riley Hospital. She bore a cnild while suffering from the disease and the child died the next day. The child’s death was due to infantile paralysis. Mrs. Cook apparently was recovering from the disease and was dis= missed from the hospital Nov. 1 and taken to the home of ner parents. Last week she suffered an attack of indigestion and following | that she was unable to breathe regular ly.
While two firemen edministered oxygen, she was brought to Long Hospital in an ambulance. She was placed in a respirator again, but etforts to save her life failed. Physicians said that similar symptoms have developed in other infantile paralysis victims and that the death probably was due to its Rolnpiiens
tions.
SPECIAL DELIVERY URGED FOR MAIL
Postmaster Adolph Seidensticker said today that Christmas mail for Indianapolis addresses rhould he sent special delivery. l= Out-of-town mailings, he said, should be sent now by air Hil-50e-cial delivery. :
In a little beat waiting somewhere, is an implicit faith
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that Santa Claus will come . . . that he will arrive right on time . . . as he has for these many centuries. In that little mind it is inconceivable that Santa might be late . . . or not arrive at alll
On this last day and night before Christmas, while this little girl plays, or wanders happily through slumberland, the wheels of a gigantic department store move smoothly and silently. Hundreds of employees move in clock-like precision - to prevent the possibility of any disappointment to that
- Little Girl . . . on Christmas morning.
We, of Ayres Downstairs Store, cherish this great responsibility . . . and make a pledge to all Little Girls of Indianapolis (and to the big girls and boys as well), that Santa Claus will come on time . . . we wouldn't disappoint them for the world!
N ote: It’s too late to shop early, but you still have 814 precious hours—510 golden minutes—in which to choose those important last-minute gifts. You can still choose from BIG SELECTIONS for men,
women, girls, boys and for homes . . . in this complete .
store-on-one-floor.
There are plenty of Ayres salespeople ready to serve you .. . ready with Ayres famous Christmas Eve service . . . ready with a smile. And remember: Any gift purchased before 6:00 P. M. will be delivered in time for Christmas Eve festivities.
Open Until 6:00 P. M. TOMORROW!
AYRES