Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 30 June 1942 — Page 10

PAGE 10

WELL-HIDDEN RUSS

TRAIN NEAR FRONT

Stowe Visits Peaceful-Looking Woods to Find Husky | Young Men Practicing With Big Guns That Broke Finnish Line.

By LELAND STOWE Coprright, 1942, by The Indianapolis Times and The Chicago Daily News, Ine.

WITH A RED ARMY RESERVE ARTILLERY REGIMENT, June 30.—We left the observation post on the grassy knoll and walked through clovers and bluebells down the slope, then pushed along a tightly bushed gully Jeaven heavy with moisture and the lieutenant general's handsomely modeled black boots were soggy with brown clay

Don’t overlook the game room when you're ferreting out rubber scrap. Rubber-faced ping-pong racquets, quoits, darts, tennis balls, tennis shoes . . . during the next few days make a game of seeing how many of these you can collect for the rubber salvage campaign.

NAZIS ‘REVEAL’

and drops of water clung to hig perfect fitting artilleryman’s trousers and to their double stripes of bright red.

Ricocheting along behind the general's lithe, paradeborn figure you get the idea that he would look immaculate even in the midst of an inferno of shellfire. The gully skirted the foot of a wooden hillside, and we pushed - deeper into the undergrowth for some minutes. Suddenly the lieutenant general stopped and pointed straight! into the seeming- | ly impenetrable “This is the staff

Mr. Stowe

copse, he said: of the battalion.”

Concealed in Weods

We stared blankly. There was nothing but a wall of young spruces, birches and swamp] maples—just a steep hillside mat- | tressed with growing greenery. | No path was visible, nor any opening either. Then the Spruces| and maples were pushed apart dozen feet above us and the head] and shoulders of a Russian cap-| tain emerged. He beckoned us| smilingly to climb up. Now, through undergrowth slight-| ly to the right, we saw a series of | steps carefully covered with fresh| spruce branches and carved into the bank. As we clambered up a soldier's voice calling—“692—T7.A— boomed in steady, businesslike phrases from the leafy recesses above. He was getting the rangefinder's report by telephone from the field we had just left but we had not seen an inch of telephone wire anywhere en route.

Dugouts Plentiful

Twenty feet above we found a soldier crammed into a log-walled telephone booth at the base of a tree trunk and hugging his receiver.

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scooped out of the hillside. Inside two more soldiers were scratching down his dictated logarithms which —to me—sounded all Greek as well as all Russian. We followed the general along the | © the hill and up through taller and | taller spruces we found a narrow path and it twisted finally into al long stretch carved into the forest's) floor. Dugouts were plentiful here | —that is, our eyes became keener. | For all was the woodland’s helter| skelter carpet for roofing. Even the walls of the newly dug trenches] were so blanketed with spruce branches that the fresh brown | earth was entirely concealed.

Camouflage in Hurry

Everywhere the air was rich with] the pungent, clean, odor of torn} wet spruce boughs and all So the way we found soldiers at elbows before we realized reir] presence. “We are using camouflage extensiyely,” the general explained smiling. “We cover up everything we can. These positions were made since last night.” In a little clearing we meet the commander of this artillery regiment. He salutes with great energy, giving his name and his outfit's present “occupaticn in established Red formula: “Comrade general,” he says—al-| most shouts, “Lieut. Col. Alexander Andrevevich Avdeyev. We are verifying the enemy’s positions preparatory to opening fire.” Puffs of Smoke Nearby Severa] other staff officers salute | vigorously and give their names in| the same strong voices, We step out) from the woods upon open, rising | ground. From here, straight across| the rolling fields, a Russian huddles| upon another slight hill with the! rounded domes of an old church | limneq gracefully against the late] atternoon sky. i « The enemy's positions are to.the| right of the village near the dark-| massed forest beyond it. We can| locate the ehemy from occasional | thin darts of flame and drifting| puffs of smcke. No, they are not firing big guns. i These are simply make-belizve| discharges—so that observation post| squads may practice rangefinding under conditions which are the nearest possible to actual battle-| field circumstances, To make things! really approximate—bang, bang. Puffs of smoke on the edge of the woods just a few yards from us. The explosions pop off like giant firecrackers in the grass.

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“That is so our men will get used!

to working with plenty of noise in their ears,” Col. Avdeyev smiles. Standing here with a typical Russian battlefield rolling out before us for many miles our host—Lt. Gen. Victor Georgevic- H. Tikhonov,

who looks every inch the prince of

artillerymen which he is—tells us what these heavy howitzers are doing in the war.

Same Guns Used on Finns

They are big guns—in face the same guns whose searing shells I first heard screaming through the spruce-covered heights at Taipalejoki, Finland, the same guns which broke the first holes through the Mannerheim line on Karelian isthmus.

[didn’t stop until the general ad-

{like the sergeant

Two paces away was a tiny dugout! Stripped of its camouflage. Bolts

| strapped over a certain mechanism, |

{wheels of the carriage and slipped

i ready for the front.

FOR PROFIT CHARGED 5

COAST DEFENSE

Tell of Strengthening of Denmark; Hint Given

On Propaganda Aim.

By PAUL GHALI

Copvright, 1942. by The Indianapolis Times and The Chicago Daily News, Inc.

BERN, June 30. — The Nazi strengthening of the ' Norwegian coastal defenses against a possible allied invasion has been followed by similar measures in vasalized little Denmark, according to a Stockholm dispatch to the Basler National Zeitung today. A decree of the Danish minister of justice, the paper says, has ordered the closing of the Jutland coast from Skagen in the north to Esbjerg in the south, leaving open only about a 60-mile stretch of the Danish east coast. The west coast also has been put in a state of the young sergeant in alarm preparedness from Skagen to

He was a fine looking,| | Frederickshaven. | Civilians are forbidden to enter | with a vigorous salute came the!/the zone under severe penalties | words: {which will become even severer if “Comrade general, Gun Sergeant the offensive is committed after the Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov. We are blackout. The poor Danes, it would drilling for battle fire.” The ser-|seem, may neither bathe nor sail geant said his crew had been train-| this summer. [ing for six weeks. They were husky, Propaganda Aims Clear

,| sunbrowned men, all between 20 The Basel paper further records

and 30. They stood proud and up- . : : standing. They were not handsome that land aid air forces in Denmark just hardy, have been considerably reinforced - | lately.

sturdy sons of toil like the Greeks The reason why all these stories

I knew in Albania. ; : The general gave the order to dis-| of German preparedness against a mantle a big gun for immediat ol second front reach neutral countries | change of position from more or less German sources is

crystal clear. Like Well Drilled Grid Team In the first place, German propaNine pairs of legs and hands

ganda aims at counter-acting the leaped into action. In a few seconds hopes created in the occupied counthe glistening howitzer stood naked,

gun is used primarily for fighting enemy batteries, tanks and fortified points. Today we are using them on our southern front. They have destroyed many German tanks . . . yes, we've had absolute superiority over German artillery in numbers and quality since the war began. One reason is that the Germans often use their artillery more for moral effect, trying to scare our troops than to do actual damage, but even so, judged by the results of their shooting, Nazi artillerymen are not well trained. Also the Germans decided par{tially to replace artillery with trench mortars—but the experiment has not justified itself. "Mortars cannot destroy pillboxes or destroy artillery which is placed in depth against them.”

Drill for Battle Fire

We traveled a considerable distance like tigers: Changing the gun elevation, sliding open the breech, slamming big shells into place. They

dressed | charee. | brown-eyed youngster of 21 and

tries by the announcement of a coming allied landing.

slammed, cranks whirled. The gun's Secondly, the Nazi reports are in-

two great straddled legs of steel were lifted, swung together and clamped. As a canvas hood was

imand to test the thoroughness of German preparations for attack at | places where precautions have not been advertised.

Scrap Yield High At ‘Rubber Mine'

HANOVER, Mass, June 30 (U.

other soldiers rolled up the rear the carriage into nlace. Every man of the nine moved] swiftly, smoothly through his desig- [ nated assignment and the ensemble] {was like a perfectly drilled football | team running through its signals | down the field. P). — This small southeastern Then the last clamp banged into| town of 2700 persons today place and the guncrew sprang | claimed first place on a per capita |clear. The colonel beside me looked, basis for collecting scrap rubber lat his watch: “Four and one-half] in the national drive. minutes,” he said. He didn’t have As result of a rubber “mine” to remind us—these men had only] found on the abandoned property |been training for two weeks. An-| Of the Clapp Rubber Co, the resi(other two weeks and they would be dents have a per capita contribution of about 1110 pounds. Ap- | proximately 4,000,000 pounds of scrap rubber have been found in the cache of which 3,000,000 can be reclaimed.

LOCAL MEN MADE WASHINGTON, June 30 (U. P.).. OFFICERS AT PURDUE

| —Elliot E. Simpson, counsel of the! ‘ : ! Times Special house subcomini cee

; investigating] [AFAYETTE, Ind, July 30.—Five the rubber situation, charges that Indianapolis electrical engineers some scrap waste dealers have made | have been commissioned second lieu-

huge profits from President Roose- | tenants in the army reserves and are in a 12-week course in ultra

: . | now velt's s ; i i i elt’'s scrap collection campaign. | high frequency technique at Purdue

He said those unidentified deal-| university. After completing the ers bought scrap at $20 a ton and course they will be assigned duties then “proceeded to sift it for finer|in the field, many of them working grades of used rubber which they with radar, enemy aircraft detector resell for as high as $150, $250 and | which uses high frequency. { $400 a ton.” | The Indianapolis men are: EdHe charged that those dealers) ward R. Kingsbury, 3239 N. Illinois were hoarding their stocks until{ st., graduate of Purdue in 1932; they can get even higher prices, | Chester M. Olson, 3525 E. New York that “they are holding back huge | st. James L. Thompson, 621 E. 37th quantities of scrap rubber, the st, graduate of Purdue in 1939; amounts of which are not known | Robert L. Tilford, 2278 S. Pennsyleven to the government, since they | vania st, Purdue graduate in 1933, have not been required to report! and John H. Smale, 958 Hervey st. their supply.” | Purdue graduate in 1940.

Plan Army Relief Show

HOARDING OF RUBBER

Col. Walter S. Drysdale, left, explains all about the two-day army relief show at the fairgrounds Saturday and Sunday to Governor

Schricker, who has agreed to officially open the show. The program is designed to raise meney for Indiana soldiers and their dependents. commander

“Hegause 0 1 lone. range, hs

Col. Drysdale, at Ft. Harrison, is state chairman of army relief. is ; :

tended as.bait for the allied com-|

FERRY PILOTS PROUD OF JOB

Men Who Deliver Planes Down Under Fly Over Wild Country.

By HAROLD GUARD United Press Staff Correspondent SOMEWHERE IN AUSTRALIA, June 30.—The United States army air corps pilots largely responsible for allieq fighter plane action against the Japanese in the southwest Pacific call themselves the “Fair Dinkum Flying Circus.” They are test and ferry ‘pilots who try out newly assembled pursuit planes and distribute them to operational bases. Sometimes they

have to fly several thousand miles over territory the Australians themselves haven't flown over. Yet they get the planes there in & maximum of 15 hours. The test pilot's commander {is Capt. Harold S. Paul of St. Paul, Minn. Four Started in January

“Thus far,” he said, “we've been most fortunate, successfully delivering several pursuit planes without a single scratch. That's saying something when you consider the distances, plus the difficult country. “These boys are especially selected. They're doing wizards’ jobs.” The pilots are reluctant .to tell about their own exploits. “The original four”—Lieuts. Paul C. May of Des Moines. Iowa; James J. Hansley of Greenville, Tex.; Carl P. Gies of Salem, Ore, and R. L. Selman of Hagzelhurst, Miss.—have been testing and ferrying since January, averaging 14,000 miles a month. Geis Holds DSC

Lieut. Gies is a veteran of the Philippines at 23 and a holder of the distinguished service cross for attacking a Japanese navy-o formation and shooting down two. He thinks his present occupation is a “mighty useful job. ... I feel like I'm doing something real, delivering planes where they're needed.” The fliers live in a camp of wood huts by the sea, a considerable distance from town. The camp has a clean bill of health, excepting several several cases of trench mouth contracted apparently in some northern operational area. They are presently wrangling over a design for the group's insignia. The dispute is whether a wallaby firing a machinegun from his mother's pouch should be added to a kangaroo sitting astride a fastflying pursuit plane.

DISCUSS INCREASE

WASHINGTON, June 30 (U, P). —Some of the 120,000 tanks included in President Roosevelt's 1942-43 production goals probably will be converted into tractor-drawn artillery or armored cars, recent testimony of War Production Chief Dnoald M. Nelson before the house appropriations subcommittee disclosed today. Mr. Nelson reported that the nation could easily meet its tank assignment, but that the army is considering whether it would not be better to divert some tanks into armored cars or tractor-drawn guns. “They are learning, in the battle of Libya, that they need tractordrawn artillery that can help to blast tanks just as much as they need tanks themselves,” Mr. Nelson's testimony read. He predicted that the country’s shipyards would meet the goal of 8,000,000 tons of new shipping this year and could beat it “if we can get the steel plate.” He said the WPB was setting up all the facilities to make the requested 125,000 planes next year.

STOCKYARDS GROUP TO FETE SERVICE MEN

A patriotic meeting will be held at the Union stockyards at noon Thursday and a plaque listing the more than 45 men from there who are now in the armed services will be unveiled. Governor Schricker and Charles S. Rauh, president of the Belt Railroad and Stock Yard Co., will speak and Governor Schricker will raise the flag following the unveiling. Music will be by the Warren Central high school band under the direction of Paul Hamilton. The program is sponsored by the joint marketing improvement committee. C. L. Farrington is general chairman.

RITES TODAY FOR MATTIE M. BYFIELD

Funeral services for Mrs. Mattie Milhouse Byfield, who died Sunday at a nursing home, 1828 N. Illinois st, will be conducted today in Franklin. Burial will also be in Franklin. Mrs, Byfield was 89. Born in Ohio, Mrs. Byfield lived in Franklin and was a member of the Franklin Presbyterian church before coming here 25 years ago. She is survived by a son, Charles A, San Antonio; a daughter, Mrs. H. W. Bush; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, all of this city.

900 BOYS REGISTER AT CULVER SCHOOL

Times Special CULVER, Ind, June 30. — More than 900 boys have registered for the Culver Military academy’s eightweek summer school. Enrollment figures show that Ohio with 199 boys leads the states in the number of boys represented

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Soldiers Play Games While

IN ARMORED CARS|

in the school and Indiana is second] | with 141, oils ua

in Hospital

American nurses help patients in a hospital “Somewhere in Australia,” while away the hours with games. Left to right, are Lieut. Arnold R. Johnson, from New Jersey; Lieut. Jack Adams, from Oklahoma, (standing); Nurse G. Fuksa, from Wisconsin; Nurse C. Balmer, (seated), of Rockford, Ill, and Chaplin A. Tagger of Abilene, Tex. Note mosquito bars, which are used to cover each bed.

TUESDAY, JUNE 20,

CHANGE STREET CLEANING TIME

Dirt in Downtown Area Will Be Removed Early

Sunday Mornings.

Downtown streets will be cleaned from 4 to 9 a. m, Sundays instead

of Saturday nights, President Louis oo

Brandt of the works board hag in= formed the mayor's civic pride com mittee. The committee, made up of rep resentatives of a dozen large Ore ganizations, had received n US complaints on the dirty of the downtown streets, es on Sundays. Street Commissioner Wilbur. Wine ship said that additional men would be added to the uniformed street cleaners now on regular day duty, The committee will meet Thurse day morning in the works board office to discuss plans for the sume mer.

help make this fort a success. You

CA A RAR SASS