Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 August 1942 — Page 11

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DESERT COMBAT STYLE CHANGES

Tanks Lose Their Punch as ‘Slit’ Trench, Artillery Take Limelight. By RICHARD MOWRER

CAIRO, Aug. 5.—With the “hard-.

“ening” of the desert front on the | Alemein line and the disappearance |

of its old-time fluidity, new ways of figh have come into prominen Until five weeks ago, when the

* enemy advance toward the Nile

delta ceased at Alamein, the desert warfare was generally a war of movement, It involved sweeping flank 'attacks ‘through the deep desert, speedy penetrating thrusts by armored forces and displacement of troops entirely by motorized columns or transport planes, _ Now, on the Alamein line, the 35-mile front has bogged down from the. Mediterranean to the edge of the Qauttara depression.

Infantry Is Vulnerable

As a result, the importance of infantry, artillery, mine fields and trenches has gained in ascendancy whereas the efficacy of tanks and mobile columns has decreased. In the days of the fluid front, tanks cquld operate pretty much on their own. Now they have got to attack dug-in positions without close infantry support. The infantily is needed to clear passages through the mine fields and to deal with dug-in enem troops. : The job of the defending artillery is to divorce the enemy infantry from attacking tanks. A heavy barrage usually compels the infantry to flop down and hug the earth— or to fall back entirely.

Artillery More Important

If the tanks come on alone and tackle dug-in positions, they run serious risk of destruction by handthrown bombs hurled by individual soldiers, who, in their slit trenches, are extremely difficult for tanks to get at. : The enemy artillery, of course, endeavors to support the attacking tanks and infantry by shelling the opposing batteries’ dug-in positions. The present defensive warfare on . the Alamein line has two outstanding features: The slit-trench and the minefield. The slit trench is a narrow and preferably deep cut in the ground large enough for one man, maybe two. Sticky Bombs Big Peril

If tanks overrun the slit trench without the support of their infantry to check up on the inmates of these slits in the ground, the tanks are likely to get into serious trouble owing to “sticky bombs.” The “sticky bomb” tis hand‘thrown object, about the size of a large grapefruit. It sticks to. the target upon impact so that the full effect of its explosion will not be wasted. The ‘sticky bomb” nearly always disrupts ‘the tank’s - machinery enough to immobilize it.

Mine Fields Laid Down

Once the tank's trend has clanked past, the soldier in the trench can stand upright and let fly with his sticky bomb. Both the axis and British forces are busily laying down mine fields up and down the Alamein line. Mine, fields deny areas to tanks and make a surprise tank attack almost impossible, because tanks will not venture into mined areas until a passage has been cleared by sappers and infantry.

NAVY OFFICER OPENS HIS DEFENSE TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 5 (U. P.). —Defense attorneys for Lieut. Comm, Maurice N. Aroff start presentation of their case today before a general court-martial trying him for conduct unbecoming ‘a naval officer, : Judge Advocate: Irving Klein, sprosecutor, rested the navy’s case yesterday and Aroff’s defense made immediate motions for dismissal of charges against him. - The motion was denied. Lieut. C. Ray Robinson and civiljan attorney Don Marlin, Aroff’s counselors, made the motion on the grounds that Aroff was the victim of a “smear campaign” conducted by persons unnamed.

50 Charges against Aroff include ac- »

cepting an automobile from actor Tony Martin for aiding Martin's enlistment, making false statements regarding the car, and with accepting applications for commissions froy. men outside this naval district.

WICKARD LEAVES FATHER’S BEDSIDE

LOGANSPORT, Aug. 5 (U. PJ. —After spen four days at the bedside of his father, Andrew Jack-

son Wickard, 79-year-old farmer,

who remains critically ill in a local|’ hospital, Secretary of Agriculture|

Claude R. Wickard returned to

Washington yesterday. : fr

BIKE RIDER KILLED WARSAW, Aug. 5 (U. P).—

Twenty-year-old James William| . Holderman of North Manchester ¥ was killed last night when a bicycle

he was riding was struck by an automobile a mile south of North Webster. er :

AUTO KILLS WORKER BLOOMINGTON, Ind, Aug, 5 (U,

\§e tt Ailied "Miles Jor |(w) § 200

AUSSIES BLOCK JAPS IN JUNGLE

Enemy Patrols Attacked In Deep New Guinea Mountains.

By FRANK HEWLETT United Press Staff Correspondent AN ADVANCED ALLIED BASE, Aug. 6.—Australian infantrymen are astride the narrow gap that cuts through the Owen Stanley mountain range in New Guinea, barring the way to Japanese patrols working toward Port Moresby from Buna-Gona édrea. Below the pass, on the far side of the range, other Australians are engaging Japanese patrols around Kokoda, and while the enemy is using excellent infiltration tactics they are finding the tough Australians just as adept at jungle warfare. Yesterday a small party of Aus-

trol advancing through the dense jungle. Immediately they attacked with tommy guns and rifles. . They inflicted heavy casualties and the Japanese fled in panic through the bush while the Australians returned to their ‘base without a man lost.

Skirmish Is Typical

That skirmish is typical of every surprise encounter between the Japanhese and the Australians, for the latter have not yet lost one since they struggled over the mountain range to meet the Japanese ground threat after an enemy force was landed at. Buna. Lieut. Allen Champion, head of the Buna station, made a difficult but safe trip over the mountains and he told me that while he did not believe there were any native fifth columnists to aid the invaders, he doubted that the natives would resist’ the Japanese. He said the enemy would be unable. to live off the land and would have to transport all their_food supplies inland.

Poor Rifle Shots

Men who met the Japanese in patrol skirmishes told me they were poor. rifle shots’ except at close range. Supplies they have thrown away in fleeing from the Australians show they are admirably equipped for a jungle campaign, however. The Japanese frequently refuse to face the Australian . patrols in a frontal assault, preferring to try flanking tactics even when it is necessary to cut their way around by felling {rees. In many places the jungle track is suspended on tree roots and moss several feet above ground, making it impossible to use pack animals. In some places the ascent is so steep men must climb hand over hand along the face of cliffs, and at others the mountain paths are only 18 inches wide. Distance in this area is measured in days rather than miles and it is not unusual for a day’s march to cover no more than two miles.

M’CORMICK DONATED $100, FISH REPORTS

ALBANY, N. Y., Aug. 5 (U. P.).— Rep. Hamilton Fish Jr. has filed his

contributions with the secretary of state, showing 23 contributions totaling $2164 and expenses of $2480. According to the statement, two of the contributions were Col. Robert, R. McCormick, Chicago publisher, and Edwin ‘S. Webster of New York, former member of the American first committee. McCormick had donated $100 and Webster gave

The publisher was one of 11 aut-of-state contributors. listed. 2

sies surprised a large Japanese pa-|

pre-primary statement of campaign |

Ruthless German Industrial ¢ Concern Is Built Up In 5 Years. By DAVID M. NICHOL

LONDON, Aug. 5—~One of the

|new order's most amazing phe-

nomena is the growth in five years of the Hermann Goering Werke from a small iron ore concern to the biggest industrial enterprise continental Europe has ever seen. It has a capital of 4,000,000,000 reichsmarcks and a payroll approaching 1,000,000 workers. The organization is a tribute to the ruthlessness with which the Goering interests have acquired an unlimited variety of industries both in Germany and in the conquered and allied territories. Presumably, it will be the model for other huge cartels in the process

under Nazi“contvol-. .. _

already been set up to exploit Europe’s oil production and distribution similarly.

Concern Formed in 1937

from 1937 when the German army was seeking methods of increasing Nazi iron ore production. Goering as administrator of the first four-year plan, arbitrarily de-

low-grade ore deposits near Salz-

should be turned over to the newlyformed Hermann Goering Werke,

pits, coal mines and quarries were absorbed, an interest was acquired

Within a year the Goering concern had expanded its original

Germany. ~ Firm Expands Rapidly

By its second birthday, in 1939, the A." G. Reichswerke Hérmann

tral holding company. The concern got into oil and magnesite production. It took over

ing on the Danube, Elbe and Oder rivers and their tributaries. It tried its hand at building, office equipment, even procelain manufacture. The first field of foreign activity was Austria, where the Goering concern obtained nine major holdings including the largest producer of iron ore, the famous Steyr-Daim-ler-Pach automobile corporation, the Simmering rolling plant, and the Danubian Shipping company.

Spreads Over Europe

"Acquisitions in the rest of Europe followed. Kowitz iron works, Skoda and Bruenner armaments works, two of Europe's largest, were absorbed in

and steel interests were taken over. In Poland, the Goering concern is “trustee” for all Silesian heavy industries. In Rumania, the Goering concern now owns the Resitza works, a combine of mines and steel producers that accounts for four-fifths of Rumania’s output. It also controls the oil fields of Ploesti.

In Norway and France

Dunderland iron mines (formerly British), and the ore properties in the Kirkenes district, and is said to control the Koskullskulle iron mines near Gallivare in Swedish Lapland. In Belgium, the Solvay trust, large-scale producers of plate glass, has been acquired. A special Lorraine department established as controlling agent of the extensive Lorraine and Luxembourg steel industry in France, In Russia, a subsidiary called the Goering Werke Im Osten has been formed to take over whatever it can operate in the captured areas, principally in the Ukraine, west of the Dnieper river.

HOOSIER REPORTED KILLED IN AFRICA

FOWLER, Aug. 5 (U. P).—Mr.

Freeland Park have been notified by the war department That their son, Lieut. Robert G. McCormick is reported to have been killed in an airplane crash somewhere in Africa on July 22. Lieut. Fowler, believed to be the first Benton county casualty, en-

received his wings in February.

- : 7 / Son Follows Ace's Footsteps

GOERING FRM |

of bringing all European industry : The Kontinentale Oel A. G. has}:

The Goering concern’s birth dates|:

creed that promotion rights to the):

gitter, in the . Harz mountains, |; Then smelters, lime kilns, gravel:

in the huge munitions and locomo-|: tive’ works of Rheinmetall Boersig. |:

capital 80 times, and was the third} ‘largest industrial enterprise inj:

Goering was established as the cen-|

all the transport business operat-|:

Czechoslovakia. Mining, smelting:

In Norway, Goering controls the|.

and Mrs, Robert McCormick of near|.

listed in the air corps last July and|:

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| furry back, ».,/'P.).—Elmer Cox, 50, Monroe county ‘Leading Aircraftsman A. C. W. A. Bishop in : : “laborep, suffered fatal injuries late plane gets a few tips from his father; Air I 4 yesterday when he was | ‘ by| ranking flying ace of world war L Pho