Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 September 1942 — Page 15

os aeons rio MCR ci ae

A ST SE meh A

- BP Ss ci

by

Hoosier Vagabond

LONDON, Sept. 17 —After three years of war, the gpeakers still speak at the Marble Arch corner of Hyde park, and the hecklers still heckle. But the cold frothy mouthed “down-with-everything” motif

{1s mostly gone, and the speeches now mostly are on

Pw A ie said;

religion. listening to one until I was 15 minutes late for a date. The speaker was a .genuine preacher. He wore cap and gown, as though he. were just graduating from college. He was preaching along

in’ rather meaningless generalities

when ‘a well-dressed man in the surrounding circle said, “What're you - talking ,about anyway?” The = preacher answered in terrhs of “faith,” and the heckler “Nonsense! You're just talking nonsense. You make a good easy living by standing up here preaching nonsense to the people. I'll bet you never did a day’s work in your life.” The preacher said, “I'm 66 years old. I'm too old to do heavy work.”.

The heckler said, “You look pretty healthy to me.

Now in America they make their preachers work. Their preachers work in the coal mines all week, and preach on Sundays.” ‘ ' Obviously the heckler had never been in America. And apparently the preacher hadn’t, either, because “he didn’t challenge the statement. saying; “We will now pray.” So he prayed and the heckler continued to talk, too, both getting louder all the time until they were screaming and you couldn’t understand what either said. That's when I left.

Old Producer Pyle

_. WHEN I LEFT London a year and a half ago, the movie “Gone With the Wind” had been playing

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

TYPICAL %f our county politicos ven stop thinking about votes: in ‘80 intricate a technical matter as the county tax adjustment board, a place for experts if there ever was one. But the politicos decided that a certain minority group ought to be represented (‘because that’s one way of getting some votes!”) and then they picked on a minority member of this minority group. He's really a thoroughly nice chap, but to add to his difficulties he’s a newcomer and he accepted be- ~ ‘cause he didn’t want to duck his - civic responsibility. Well, you'd know, of course, that he wouldn't know beans about what was going on for a while, butithe payoff came when he left City Hall after the first meeting of the board. He turned, bewildeied, to a bystander, asking, “I say, ¢an you tell me which way is downtown from here?” And—no. blame on this fellow, mind you—our

IT'S SORT OF that they can’t

T pbiiticns go around expecting ‘kudos. 00! :

¥

* a ttle riding club.

Self Rationing

JIM STRICKLAND, -the state’s rationing chief, is going ‘to be, also, the state’s No. 1 holder of an

hd A when gas rationing gets under way. The A a

rd, mind you, is the lowest one—the one the ordinary citizens get. With, tires at a premium, Jim and somé of the other boys in: his rationing office, all living<in the vicinity of Broad Ripple, have formed Four of them—Mr, Strickland, William Knowles, William Burnes and Joe Rimstidt --have cars, so they take turns about, each driving his car one week a month. The fifth-member of the oup, William Rightor, pays fare by paying the Tparking fee. That way they cyt their driviig to one- - fourth of what it would be otherwise. probably

W ashingto

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17. — Newspaper week is coming along soon but I see something about an American war correspondent being captured by the axis during a British raid on Tobruk, so this is a gost Yme to talk about a reporter's work. The captured war correspondent is unidentified as I write but circumstances indicate he may be Larry Allen of the Associated Press. In " any case, evidently an American war correspondent was going about his daily work, which. in this case took him out on a British attack at Tobruk. : Larry Allen has been shot up and shot down during this war, as ‘have a number of. other correspondents. A score of them went 3 : across in the Dieppe attack and had men shot down all around them. Never before has individual freedom hung so precariously as it does now. Correspondents are trying to report t. esperate struggle blow by blow because every blow gounts. These the lives that make newspapers something more‘ than a 6 per cent investment, as William Allen White once put it. These are the lives that give ‘their inspiration to a whole army of newspapermen and women who would rather devote themselves to trying to find and report the truth han do' anything

else in the world.

ol

: from New York city to Orange, N. J., to spend a few + hours with my cousin, Mrs. Henry Parish. By this

The Criticisms Broni Within YOU CAN MAKE your criticisms of newspapers.

: Any working newspaperman can make more of them

than anyone outside the business can make. A newspaperman scarcely ever reads over his piece in print without feeling that he could have improved it with a little more work. ‘Most newspapermen feel that the speed at which they must work is sometimes a handicap and prevents them from digging as deeply as they would like to do.

~ My Day

WASHINGTON, Wednesday. Yesterday I went

time, I thought I had learned all the mistakes I

could Possibly. make in the Hudson tube, “but I took

the wrong ‘local and had to take another one back a station in order to get the right one. I paid my fare twice and thought there was a gleam of * amusement in the man’s eye when he informed me that I did not need to pay a second time. So 10 cents, which might ‘have gone

to buy a war stamp, went into the

‘Hudson tube fare: box.

p It had suddenly become, summer again. 1 was wearing a coat, |

+ years and a half! The other day I stood .

IT understand it soon will. be produced in New York,

- Michigan City, Ind., the old school-mate I ran onto

He escaped by f

-in, themselves where youth may take refuge. I fail

men carry the strain of later years. Many a mother

than a year. : : to take a look,’ and sure enough it is still going—at top prices and still with waiting lines. After two

* And speaking of shows, we went the other night to see the hit-play of London, “Flare Path, ” which has only recently opened. The title, as you may know, comes from the R. A. F. expression referring to the lights along the runways, which they turn on briefly for night takeoffs and landings. : The play was written by an R. A. F. man, and is about the bomber command. It’s funny and it's heart-breaking; it has everything a play should have.

and oh, if I only had a small percentage of it, how rapidly I would go into retirement on my royalties! I don’t see how the thing can fail.

Oh, Say, Mrs. Phillips MY FRIEND Lieut. Comm. John R. Phillips, from

up in Londonberry, you know, has just been down to London on leave. The other night we were walking along the street after blackout. The moon was like a harvest moon back home, and made the streets almost as bright as at early dusk. We met .a bunch of British soldiers and their girls ‘in ‘the semi-light, and just after they passed I heard one of them say, “My God, that was Lord Louis Mountbatten!” Mountbatten, you know, is head of all the British commandos, and quite a handsome fellow. I just thought Mrs. Phillips had better know about this, and take precautionary action, as we military folks say. Any man who is mistaken for Lord Louis Mountbatten—well , , :

have to save miles, though, because they won't give themselves tire priorities.

Jitterbug Department

OUR LOCAL JITTERBUGS have been annoying the folks in some of the stores where phonograph records are sold, we hear. folks go in the store, get a handful of phonograph records to try out, and then go in one of the soundproof booths and have ‘a real jitterbug party— rug cutting and even quite a bit of snuggling up. At one store, we understand, the clerks give them time to: play records over once, and then the clerks annourice the party’s over. .. . One of the favorite downtown spooning spots always is the Soldiers & Sailors’ monument. Most any evening, you can see soldiers and sailors wooing their young ladies on the east and west sides of the monument—those sides because the parapets there throw long shadows. There's much handholding and muttering of sweet nothings, and even a bit of kissing, too. Oh, well, they’re only young once.

Around the Town , ‘ DR. JOHN W, GELLER, the dentist, has received word from the navy to report at Jacksonville, Fla. Oct. 15, as a lieutenant. . . . Col. Arthur W. Herrington, of Marmon-Herrington, is.quite proud of a couple of eC ORFaE cd pices, on his office walls. The subjects are Chiang Kai-shek, the great Chinese generalissimo, and Nehru, leader of the congress party in India. They gave Col. Herrington the photos while he was on his recent trip to India as a mem-

ber of President Roosevelt's economic mission. . . . Jack Hatfield, the new Civic theater director who

formerly was with the Pasadena Playhouse, swears|

that Indianapolis has more than its share of pretty girls. In fact, he says he saw a girl out about 25th and Delaware the other day that “was a dead ringer for Hedy LaMarr.” And you let her get away, Jack?

By Raymond Clapper

We are often puzzled, the more we look into something, to know what the truth is. Try it sometime around Washington. The more people you talk to, the more confused you will become. You get tangled up in a cross-pull of wires as one official pulls against another. Particularly in wartime your working newspaperman struggles always against indecision and conflicting decisions. Some officials think it is healthy to have public discussion. Others think it is better to suppress differences and put up to the public a smooth plaster front that looks solid but which underneath may be as phony as a world’s fair pavilion,

The Only Free Forum Left

FOR INSTANCE, some officials here see no harm in public discussion of India. We are sending troops and lend-lease aid there. If it is that important, then aren’t we within bounds when he take exception to London's bull-necked course which is the same one that brought such disaster in Burma and Malaya? “But some British correspondents here, attempting to inform their papers in London of American sentiment, find their dispatches heavily censored on this side before being sent across. This while London censors permit British criticisms of the Churchill policy to be sent to American newspapers. Everywhere in the world, newspapermen trying to tell the truth must. filter’ through censorship. No newspaperman questions the necessity for tight militarye censorship, though he may argue over incidental details. But political censorship is spreading .also among the free rations under the guise of not giving the axis anything that it might make use of. The press of the democratic world is the only free forum left. I believe that on the whole the free press

has exercised a sense of responsibility and restraint

called for by the times, Therefore it is not comforting to see some nameless employee sitting at the cable head deciding with a whack of his peficil the kind of political news about the United States.that British correspondents can send back to their papers in London. ‘

By Eleanor Roosevelt

back fo sanity and a realization that every-day life

must go on, no matter what 4s happening in the world. |

I think, perhaps, the function of older people in| times of stress like these, is to keep islands. of quiet]

in this very badly at times, Mrs. Parish gave me a very good lesson yesterday, when we talked about the hap of years ago and what various people, now carrying eavy loads, had done as children. ; - 1 sometimes wonder whether the effect of a carefree and happy. childhood shows itself in the way

today, who gives her child a sense of security in a very insecure world, and who still manages to proJide sfuple. pleasures, May. be predating fui, hil

A By Ernie Pyle

at the same Aoater on Leicester Square for more 3 When I came back this time I went|

It seems that the young],

JUST AS THE SINGLE was to have so profound an

—will bear upon and perhaps come. :

across the E

than courage and the will to

it watched the islanders rise opponent to possession of a

It is the phenomenon w tastic situation which we can it also applies to us.: When, early in May, 1940, the Germans came thundering into Northern France, indescribable con-

fusion gripped the: democratic allies. Desperately, the "hopelessly cornered B. E. F. fought its way toward the channel coast. They essayed the bold maneuver of evacuation from Dunkerque, although its successful completion seemed impossible. The story of the many small boats of all types which raced -to rescue the English army is well known, but what is not thoroughly realized is the fact that the British threw into this operation the whole of what remained of their _admirgble air force. The success of this entire operation was due to the British fight.er .planes which, against enormous odds kept command of the air. » 2.»

Nazis Lose 377 Craft

THE GERMAN bombexs came in escorted by the usual Messerschmitt fighters. They were met by a cloud of British’ Spitfires, Hurricanes, and Defiants. The Nazi planes found themselves powerless to break through this wall of interception. During a single 36-hour period 121 German planes were brought down by the completely outnumbered British fighters. During the nine days of the evacuation, the British shot down 377 Nazi: craft and lost only 87. Had the German .general staff read correctly the meaning of this local struggle, they .could have taken warning. It would have been clear that, flushed with success as it was and despite its quantitative superiority, the Luftwaffe was totally .unegal to the task of reducing Britain: itself. In speed, firepower, maneuverability, and in the individual train-

Installment [IV—The Battle of Britain

element of Soviet landscape effect on the course of this

war, so another physical factor—-that of simple geography

determine completely its out-

The astonishing situation which arose directly from this factor and which could be studied with $rofit by those who think in terms of mass armies and great physical invasion, is the continued existence of England as a potent resisting force after three years of war. No one may claim that England has . an army worthy of consideration in the same breath with the vast German establishment which faces it only 22 miles away

nglish channel; and no one

William B. Ziff wil] assert that the English had any army at all after the fall. of France -and for many ensuing months. The tattered remnants of the once proud B. E. F. who had managed to return home after the memorable evacuation of Dunkerque, were armed with little more

resist.

Since that time the vast churning Wehrmacht, the greatest, most efficient and formidable military establishment in history, has been forced to remain impotent while

from a despised and broken sizable army and the most

magnificent air force in existence.

hich accounted for this fanstudy to our advantage, since

ing of fighter pilots, the English were infinitely superior to anything the Germans had in the air. "At this point, Hitler made that mistake tragie to his hopes, which cost him the world. Instead of swinging all his resources for an immediate crossing of the channel at whatever cost, he reverted to classic strategy. He proceeded to pursue and destroy the French army, leaving the breathless British virtually to themselves. Had he thrown his divisions over in boats and barges under a canopy of planes and preceded by an advance guard of bombers, in an all-out effort, he would have paid a fearful price but his success would seem to have been assured. His ultimate victory over the French was inevitable in'any case. German newsreels show der

fuehrer receiving. word of the

French request for-the armistice. His actions were most extraordinary—he snapped his fingers, kicked his heels, chortled and goosestepped out to his office. The Nazi leader evidently considered the war over and the world all

but won.

British Spurn Terms

TWICE HE OFFERED the British terms. Disdainfully they were refused. His patience worn to a shred, Hitler finally decided to attack. Now began one of the strangest battles, and one of the most conclusive in its effect, in military annals—the Battle of Britain,

‘To the German high command, this final mopping-up operation was hardly more than a piece of well-calculated routine. Nevertheless, in their methodical way these men realized that the invasion could not come off properly until the little English air force was blasted out of existence. On Aug. 8, the Germans began

their assault, commencing with a

series of air attacks on. coasi-

wise shipping, ports and air- °

dant

How England Is Warned of Air Raids

dromes. Seizure in their knowledge of tremendous numerical and, they . believed, tactical superiority, Goering and Milch sent over great mass formations of bombers. These were escorted by echelons of fighters. Their object was to destroy British fighter craft on the ground, render air bases useless, and clean all hostile shipping out of the channel, largely a duplication of the measures so successful on the continent. Ports’ and communications could then be destroyed without opposition, the military forces of the British paralyzed, and the German armored divisions placed in a position to operate undisturbed. Facing this invading host was. a group of perhaps 1000 British fighters, mostly single-seater Spitfires and the somewhat slower Hawker-Hurricanes. Both types’ were faster and more maneuverable than any of the German models. * Both Spitfire and Hurricane

possessed eight free-firing ma-.

chine guns installed in the wings, with vulnerable spots well

armored.

” # »

A Fatal Flaw

THE GERMAN fighter planes on the. other hand, for all their boasted ‘superiority,. were the products of mass output, a fatal flaw in a fluid situation where swiftly-evolving technical improvements could give qualitative supremacy almost. overnight. The same relative differences of superiority applied to the bomb-

ers possessed by the two con-

testants. The German bombers did not carry heavy defensive armament and relied principally on fighter escorts plus speed. In most instances their combat power was so poor that, to quote De Seversky, “they could meet an eight-gun assault from a British pursuit with only one gun, making a hopeless ratio of eight to one.” As a task force, the Luftwaffe proved itself utterly incapable of its mission. This weakness was the direct product of its earlier success on the continent. Though it was a separate arm co-equal

with the German army and navy, it possessed none of the quali of separation—of independently conceived strategy and consequent organization, It was primarily a co-operative force designed to facilitate the operations of ground units. The leaders of the Luftwaffe, omnipotent on land, floundered from one failure to another when faced with a ‘campaign entirely on their own resources in the air. ! The royal air force on the other hand, though without any of “the peculiar strength of an air force built to co-operate in a Stuka-panzer-artillery-infantry team, had none of its limitations either. Neither in its training, structure, nor equipment was it fettered by the minds of men - who saw it useful only as an adjunct to a ground army. Its crews were trained in every aspect of individual guerrilla warfare, as well as being organized to the last detail for aerial team combat. fs»

British Co-ordinated

ALSO, THE British possessed a magnificent air-ground co-opera< tion system of another sort, whose purpose was to service aerial op-

erations exclusively. Information concerning the approach of an enemy was obtained by a superb radio-location and warning system, so that he could be intercepted before reaching his target. The orders to fighters were issued by radio-telephone, utilizing latest information to put them in ‘ the best position for attack. Without this complex and truly amazing system it would have been impossible to match the cunning and resources of a de- - termined opponent capable of striking from almost any direction. The British never risked their entire air armada in pitched bat-

tle anywhere, attacking the in- -

vader piecemeal, Every artifice to entice the limited British force into an all-out encounter failed no matter what beating their cities took. They could not be mangled on the ground since they had been at pains to scatter their planesin

widely separated places—in fields, under hedges, and beneath hay- : stacks. After a week of intensive strig-14 a gle the Nazis found that they had lost almost 500 aircraft. In an additional two days some 245 aircraft more were added to. thé . mounting toll. The ‘British losses for this period were 153. : Rocked back by this unexpected resistance, the Luftwaffe halted . to regroup itself and to take stock of its losses. After five days ; the Germans came into the at-' tack once more, with the number ! of escorting fighters increased : and the size of bomber formations reduced. London became the chief objective in an effort at terrorizing it into submission. .The German . planes: came hurtling Anto the assault in waves of between 40 to 80. British Spitfires and Hurricanes were thrown into the fray to intercept them before, they could reach the city. »

' ON THE FIFTEENTH of September, the final large-scale effort was made by the Nazi command with 500 aircraft attempting to run the blockade of Hurricanes and Spitfires. left 185 of their number in wreckage. The cost to the British had been only 25 planes. This triumph established beyond question the absolute British dominance. of the skies over Britain, ' There *were .a number of other great daylight raids and a stream of night-time incursions, but the final result was already marked. The triumphant Luftwaffe, the pride of the German war machine, had been turned back. The great grinding juggernaut on wheels, the German Wehrmacht, which had smashed irresistibly through Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and France in nine weeks, was completely and effectually halted by a narrow body of water it could not bridge. : Co yright, 1942, by William B. Ziff; pubis d by Duell, Sloan and Pearce: distributed by United Feature Syndls cate, Inc.) TOMORROW—Air Power Ver sus Sea Fower.

CAPTURED SUB REACHES U. §,

Jap 2-Man Craft Will Be Taken on Tour to Spur

Bond Sales.

VALLEJO, Cal, Sept. 17 (U, P.). ~—A captured Japanese ' two-man submarine has arrived at Mare island navy yard aboard an American freighter and will be taken on a conducted tour of the United States to help spur sale of war bonds. The tiny submersible was capthe island on Oahu dur-

b

he’ was displeased with the progress of the battle of Stalingrad. Observers here believed that the

Garbage Scow

Oiler Poses

As Hero of French Navy

SEATTLE, Sept. 17T—(U. P).— “Lieut. Comm. Goeffrey Maginot of the Free French navy” gained admission to Seattle social circles as “a veteran of high adventure on the battlefield of France.” Before his arrival here, he had received recognition in several other cities as a hero of the second world war and the winner of a French croix de guerre. He exhibited a bulging scrap book containing many clippings. One described him as “a veteran of high adventure on the battle fields of France. and on the tracke less wastes of the Atlantic.” It said he had “recounted in matter of fact

accounted for=—*15 by bren gun fire and two by bayonet.’ ” A University of Washington fraternity welcomed him as a guest and found him dates with women students. He was introduced from the pulpit of a Seattle church. But some suspicious Seattle residents reported him to police. Under

questioning, he confessed his name

was Unij Gerszon, 22, and that his seagoing experience was obtained as an oiler on a San Francisco garbage scow. “lI didn't wish to do anyone any harm,” he said. “As a garbage scow oiler I was a ‘nobody,’ but the uniform and medals made me a hero.”

fashion. of 17 .parachutists he had

MAYBE STALINGRAD GUARDS LENINGRAD

STOCKHOLM, Sept. 17 (U. P)mmt. “| Unconfirmed reports reaching Sto

holm from Berlin said todsy fnat Adolf Hitler had replaced . Field

‘Marshal Fedor von. Bock, because]

heroism of Stalingrad’s defendersd had - ‘saved Leningrad Jrom a su-

Navy Recruiter Enlists Himself

MIAMI, Fla., Sept. 17—(U.P.).— Phil Weinberg, self-styled “navy recruiting ambassador,” was presented the navy award of merit after he brought 125 men to.the recruiting office for induction within the past six weeks. Yesterday he raised it to 126— enlisting himself.

SEABEE PROSPECTS TO BE INTERVIEWED

Applicants for the “Seabees,” ne

DRUNKEN DRIVER GAIN REPORTED

Increased Tempo of Living Due to War Blamed

By Stiver.

The increased tempo of living incident to war-time conditions was blamed today by Don F. Stiver, state safety director, for a big increase in drunken driving this year. The state safety department’s report showed that 1298 drivers were arrested for drunkenness during the first seven months of this year compared to 833 the same period a year ago. 1215 Convicted

police, 1215 convictions were recorded in the courts.

and feeling the strain of long working hours, fail to exercise proper

Stiver said.

file proof of Suancial vespansibiliy;”

Of the 1298 arrests made by state| “War workers, making high wages|

caution in seeking relaxation,” Mr.| He expldined that the rigid pro-| |

Er stl drunk at the wheel of a car must|

"This proot, under the law, must| | r special Nability

FBI Doubles Its

Work in a Year

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (U, P.).—Federal Bureau of Investis -gation has received the 50,000, 000th fingerprint card in its identification division.

sald the Wivision has more: tan

.more than 1100,000 a day.

SEARS REUNION SUNDAY The annual Sears’ reunion will held Sunday in the City park Odon, Ind, it was announced day by Mrs. L. W. Gadberry, 8 retary.

HOLD EVERYTHING