Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 October 1942 — Page 10

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"new planes from factory to airdrome.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

Hoosier Vagabond

* LONDON, Oct. 20.—Therel are .more than a score

of American women fliers over here, ferrying warplanes around England for the R.A.F. One of them is an old friend of mine—Helen Richey, ~ McKeesport, Pa. Helen has been flying for 12 years, and has 2000 hours in the air. Many of you have read about

her. She flew a great deal with

Amelia Earhart,on Amelia's tours. She flew for the government in marking out airways. She is still co-holder, with the late Frances Marsalis, of the women’s endurance record of 10 days. She was the only woman ever to fly as co-pilot on the scheduled airlines. Helen is 33 now, and still as engaging as ever. She wears a dark blue uniform, with the wings of the A.T.A. on her tunic. The uniform has slacks.for flying, and skirt for street wear. Helen looks very snazzy in her outfit. Helen came to England last March by convoy, in the first batch of American women recruited for this service. Helen, like the others, went through three months of training, and then was set to ferrying R.A.F. planes all over England. There are about 20 American women, 60 British women, and hundreds of men, both English and American, doing it.

Constantly On the Go

THE SERVICE is called the Air Transport Auxiliary. Those in it jokingly call it the Association of Tired Airmen. That's because there are many older men in it—heroes of world war I, one-armed .men, and so on. But they perform an invaluable service. These ferry pilots have the job of delivering They take

GENERAL TYNDALL is so proud of the corn he raised on his farm near Zionsville that he tells everyone he meets about it. Just to convince folks, he's showing around a 12-inch ear. Too bad he isn’t sunning for some county job, instead of mayor, so he could garner in the farm vote with his agricultural accomplishments. . . . We like the stéry about the 57-year-old woman who decided she wanted to do her part in this civilian defense business. She attempted to enroll for something or _other—nurses’ aid, we think it was—and was told: “Sorry, but you're too old.” It hurt her a bit, but she went right out and bought a bright red hat, and her moralé was back to normalcy in a jiffy. . . . One of our readers wants to know why the navy recruiting office doesn’t launder the signal flags flying at the southwest corner of the federal building, as theyre pretty dirty. We don’t know, Charley; maybe they're too busy signing up recruits, =

A Penny a Plane

A NOVEL WAY of buying war stamps is getting started here. The idea is to get a group of people to pledge to drop a penny in a box every time a plane flies over. It certainly would strip a fellow of ready cash to try, that if he lived near Stout field. . . . The Wm. H. “Block Co. has dismantled that big steel sign above its warehouse at 11th and Meridian and donated the steel frame and sheeting to the scrap metal drive. . » «. School 38—at 2050 Winter ave.—netted something over $300 from its scrap metal collection. So they bought two $100 war bonds, gave $100 to the United ‘War Fund and tock: $50 to set up a revolving fund to buy war stamps for the pupils to sell. Not 8 bad record. . . . Harry Morrison, former Times sports writer, was back from Chanute field, Ill, over the week-end, sporting brand new corpora} stripes. He's instructing in meteorol Russ Fletcher, the former Times artist, is in , town from the Great

Washington

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20.—A very wise newspaper friend of mine, who has not been one of the professional Roosevelt-haters, writes me that he is disturbed about one aspect of the president’s current

ood

feud with the press. He says he regrets that the,

president apparently fails to realize that no one of us is strong enough to go it alone. Another quote: “He seems to overlook the fact that no one, not even he, has a monopoly of thought on what is the best policy in this crisis.” ‘This is not just newspaper shop talk. The newspaper has been one of the important vehicles of pub-

lic discussion in this country .

throughout its history. Here and in England the newspaper has been regarded as one of the principal public forums where different views as to public policy might be presented and discussed. The views of the Roosevelt administration, conflicting as some of them are, are presented daily to the American public through the newspapers, in the quoted words of administration » officials. During his prewar years in office, Mr. Roosevelt was opposed by many newspapers, and eventually by a majority of them. He certainly had a right to fight back. A good deal of the time I thought he was right. I still think he was right on most of those policies and I think it was a good thing for the country that he fought it through. ,

Just Look at the Files

BUT IT IS a different story now. It .has been throughout the war. opposed him on domestic policy supported his foreign policy long before Pearl Harbor. They have served repeatedly as icebreakers, helping to open the way through public discussion for the war measures that had to be taken. Often the suewspapers have been pressing him to take=action which he subsequently took to strengthen

/ My Day

‘NEW YORK CITY, Monday.—Yesterday we took

the children, who are guests at the White House, to

the top of the Washington monument and to the zoo. We had guésts at lunch and at supper and then I took the night train to New York City, for I had a number of things to do today, which I had meant to do last Friday. I have just had a letter from a British woman, who telly me she thinks in some ways they ‘managed their employment of women rather badly at first. They did not make it clear that women with young children should stay in their homes as long as possible, since. they were more important there until all other manpower ‘general services was exhausted.’ ‘woman warned me that it had meant a

damaged planes back to shops for. repair. They

from

‘the instruction book before taking off, and then

‘day's dimout, we've got a couple for you.

- eran lawyers.

Many of the newspapers who

By Ernie Pyle|

planes to have their guns tested. - They fly partly

transfer planes as transfers are ordered. When the weather is fit they are on the go constantly. Helen herself has delivered as many as four planes in one day. One of the men ferry pilots ¥ know, Jim O'Halloran of Nebraska, has flown seven different planes the same day, including two round trips between England and North Ireland. Flying a new-type plane without previous instruc-

tion is nothing to these ferry pilots. They have a|

joke—actually more literal than funny—that they fly with one eye while reading the instructions with the ol

It's a Dangerous Job IT'S REALLY TRUE that often they have to read

while in the air they read the book to find ‘out how to land the damn thing. Their job is a dangerous one. They say the fatality rate in the ferry service is higher, proportionately, than in the R...F. That's because they often get trapped by England's lightning-change weather. There is a saying that you can't fly anyplace over England for 10 minutes without seeing an airport, although Helen says she got lost once and couldn’t find an airdrome for 20 minutes. But even with airports that close together, a pilot frequently gets caught and simply can’t get down without cracking up. The ferry pilots are defenseless if they happen to run across a German plane. Other ferry pilots have been shot at by Germans, but Helen never has. At a farewell. party before she left home, a friend told Helen that if she ever did come -across a German she should jerk off her helmet, pull down her hair, and yell at the German pilot, “Look, long hair! Don’t shoot.” She says she’s thought of that a hundred times in the sky and laughed to herself as she flew along.

Lakes naval training station, en route to Vincennes for naval recruiting duty. He's a first class petty officer.

Dimout Doings

IF YOU DON'T MIND harking back to last FriWe can vouch for them because they happened to Times staffers. No. 1: Fremont Power went up in a plane piloted by Col. Roscoe Turner to see how the dimout was being observed. He didn’t report it in his story, Saturday, but if he flew over his own home out in Broad Ripple, he must have seen his own porch light burning. Nobody was at home to turn it out. No. 2: Dramatic Critic Dick Lewis is an auxiliary fireman but was pressed into service Friday night as an extra air raid warden out on Roosevelt ave. Several cars came by with their lights out, and it was Dick’s job to flag them down and have them turn their lights on. One of the cars was of ancient vintage. It rattled to a stop when he signaled with his flashlight. “Turn on your light,” ordered Dick. “Can’t, it's a dimout,” replied the driver. Dick explained cars weren't affected. The man hesitated a moment, and then: “Confidentially, buddy, this junker hasn't any lights. I thought during the dimout would be a good time to drive over to see my sister.”

Bowl Never Filled

BUTLER BOWL'S record of never having been filled to capacity (35,000) remains unbroken. Not even the War. Show, great spectacle that it is, has broken the record—yet. Nearest ever to capacity was the Grotto’s July Fourth displays—around 30,000. The largest football crowd was 17,000 at the dedication game between Butler and Illinois in the late ‘twenties. The War Show is doing pretty good, though—25,000 estimated Sunday night. They'd do better if parking facilities were more adequate. . . . Birthday congratulations to Murat W. Hopkins, one of the town’s vetHe's celebrating today, and he won't say which birthday this is. : . . Congressman Ludlow is sending his constituents some mighty fine~looking campaign pictures of himself—autographed, too.

By Raymond Clapper

the war effort. If it was criticism it was constructive. The files will’ provide ample documentation for those statements. But in recent weeks, for no reason that I can figure, Mr. Roosevelt has repeatedly indicated an irritated, if not hostile, attitude toward the press. He has seized some opportunities to do what he could to discredit newspapers publicly. One incident occurred Labor day. Newspapers had forecast that the president would set up an economic administration to control wages, salaries and prices. Some dispatches named Justice James F. Byrnes among those considered for the post of economic administrator. The dispatches had forecast that an executive order providing for this arrangement would be issued Labor day.

It’s Difficult to Answer

HEN PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT instead told Congress either to pass legislation giving him authority by Oct. 1 or, he would use his war powers without legislation, he made no reference to the economic administrator. Newspapers printed the greetings he? sent| to the press in the phrase “Hello, Suckers”! The inference was that the dispatches were all wrong. ut today we have an economic administrator and his name is James F. Byrnes. The dispatches were wrong on the time but not on the essential fact.

president take the action which ‘he 5 said they were| suckers for forecasting. hatever their past differences with the president on prewar domestic affairs, the newspapers have been loyal) supporters of the president’s efforts to win the war. | To use Mr. Roosevelt’s own favorite arithmetical formula, 94 or 95 per cent of American newspapers have| criticized only when they felt it would help the prosecution of the war. It| is difficult for me to understand why Mr. Roosevelt does not regard the newspapers as his in this war, and why as such they are not to his respect and consideration.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

rather indiscriminate rushing into different war services, when communities were inadequately organized to e care of home needs. . - Of| course, the alternative is to employ older women first, . ed women without children, and people who handicapped in various ways ‘but who are useable for special activities. Really to do a good job of placing people, not only in the places where they should be, but in the order in which they should enter new services, it seems. to me that we shall find it necessary to register all: women. They will have to fill ‘out rather complete questionnaires, so that it will be possible to recognize their skills and capacities. ; I was told some time ago it would be quite unwise to register women, because, if that were dome, they would | immediately expect to obtain jobs when they were not available. I think if could be made quite. clear that this was being done entirely for eScincy

P-417 oe oo oo “a greater than the P-38 at high altitudes.”

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20. (U. P.).—The text of the office of war information's reports on specific types of American made planes:

Fighters

CURTIS P-40 — Single-engine, liquid-cooled. Most discussed of all United States combat aircraft, this fighter has gone through six major type changes (from P-40A to P-40F). Types now in wide use are the “E” (Kittyhawk) and «Fp? (Warhawk). = Substantially improved through each change, it has the virtues of heavy hitting power, excellent armor, high diving speed, and leakproof tanks common to all United States combat aircraft. Against the zero it has proved on average to be superior. ‘The zero's advantages of fast climb, great maneuverability, and better ceiling are offset by its vulnerability and the fact that when a zero goes down its pilot almost always goes down with it. He is riding a lightly built aircraft, highly inflammable—since it has no leakproofing ‘and is without armor protection. It is not this poorly protected zero

most P-40 pilots frankly say that they would like more altitude, if they could still maintain their advantages of superior firepower and protection.

BELL P-39 (AIRACOBRA)— Single-engine, liquid-cooled. A part sharer in the criticism heaped on the P-40, the P-39 has roughly the same limitations and the same positive virtues, Developments now being made in this design give the promise of much improved performance while retaining all its virtues, including splendid visibility for the pilot in missions co-operating with ground troops. Armed with a cannon as well as machine guns, it is also a powerful ground-strafing craft.

NORTH AMERICAN P-51 (MUSTANG) — Single- engine, li-quid-cooled. Newest of the Alli-son-powered United States pursuits, the P-51 has been quietly developed. It did not come prominently into. public notice until the British had used it in the raid on Dieppe. One of the fastest fighters in the world, it has roughly the same limitations on altitude performance of other sin-gle-engined Allison craft. Improvement in the power plant (treated above) and other technical changes promise a sensational improvement in the altitude performance of this airplane.

LOCKHEED P-38 (LIGHTNING — A two-engine, liquidcooled pursuit plane, the P-38 has so far had only limited tests in action, notably in the Aleutians. Its performance has been brilliant. Turbo-supercharged, it has excellent high altitude performance. Its long range (exceeding the range of the Spitfire, Messerschmitt 109 and Focke-Wulf 190) and its great firepower give it real promise as an escort to our highaltitude bombers. At its best altitude it is one of the world’s fastest fighting aircraft, Nevertheless,

high

that American pilots prefer. But -

P-39 o °

. “developments give promise of much improved performance.”

~ Fighter Planes

P-38 eo eo

“at its best altitude one of the world’s fastest.”

Bombers

B-17 . . . “an unequaled combat record——precision destruction of restricted targets at great ranges.”

(A-20 eo 0

constant improvements are being made. »

REPUBLIC P-47 (THUNDERBOLT)—Powered by one of the largest United States air-cooled engines, the P-47 has been thoroughly tested, is in service and in production. It is turbo-super-charged, heavily armed, and has a greater high speed than the P-38 at extreme altitudes. Its trial by battle is not far off.

GRUMMAN F-4-F (WILDCAT) —The navy’s standard fighter, as of today, the F-4-F is unquestionably the best carrier fighter now in battle service. Powered by an air-cooled engine, with two-speed super-charger, it has shown altitude performance that comes close to the zero. Its lower rate of climb and maneuverability are offset by its characteristically~heavy armor and armament. Designed primarily for carrier work, it has folding wings for compact stowage. Like most such specialized installations, this feature steps up the weight of the F-4-F by 5 per cent

and thus cuts down slightly on its -

performance. The sacrifice is heavily overbalanced by the fact that it increases a given carrier's complement of fighters by 50 per cent. In the Solomons, F-4-F's operating against Japanese fighters have been destructive and in many encounters decisive. Yet superior replacements for the F-4-F are already in production.

Heavy Bombers

BOEING B-17 (FLYING FORTRESS)—A tried and thoroughly tested model with an unequaled combat regord (four engines, aircooled turbo-supercharger), the B-17 is essentially a high-altitude long-range bomber designed for

“one of the best.”

B-26 . . . “battle-tested.”

B-25 ... . “no airplane of the same ¢

air forces is known to equal it.” .

Navy Dive Bomber

SBD . .

targets at great ranges. Often compared, sometimes unfavorably, with the British Lancaster, it is not in the same category. While

‘it is. primarily designed for day

bombing, itis easily convertible in the field for night bombing at lower altitudes and shorter ranges, with greater loads. This dual function is not possible with the specially designed, slower night bombers. The Lancaster is designed for night bombing, hence has much less altitude and speed performance, but ‘is capable of carrying a heavier bomb load on short and middle distance missions. In its armament equipment, the B-17 has been most inaccurately characterized as deficient. The fact is that it is one of the most heavily armed bombers in the world. It has indicated

by its work in phe Pacific and over .

Europe as well, that it can carry out high altitude day-bombing missions under -the protection of its own guns and ‘without fighter

“the best in the world in its category.”

escort. Gunners in flying fortresses have shown that its destructive, high-rate 50-caliber machine guns have greatly ex-

tended the effective range of the

bomber’s defensive fire. ¢

CONSOLIDATED B-24 °(LIBERATOR) — Another .four - motored, air-cooled bomber, turbosupercharged like the B-17 and capable of operation at high altitudes and over great ranges for high-accuracy bombing missions. In the Pacific, in Northern Africa, Eupore and the Aleutians the B-24 has shown itself a topflight performer, capable cf duplication of the B-17’s record.

Medium and Light

Bombars ‘NORTH AMERICAN B-25 (MITCHELL) — A battle-tested, two-engine, air-cooled aircraft of speed, lopg range and good load carrying characteristics, ~ chiefly

P-40 excellent armor, high diving speed.”

B-24

‘How American Planes Meet 1 Tests of Battle

“heavy hitting power,

lass in friendly ‘or ememy

$

«+ + “a topflight performer.”

dramatized for the United 'States public by the raid on Tokjo. No airplane of the same clgss in friendly or enemy air fonces is known to equal it. {

MARTIN B-26 °(MARTEAN)=— Two engines, air-cooled. This is also a battle-tested plane in general comparable with the charac-

teristics and performance of the"

B-25. No nation but the United States, so far as is known, has so efficient a plane in its class.

DOUGLAS A-20 (BOSTON OR HAVOC)—A light air cooled) bomber widely’ used by the British in the ‘European and Egyptian theaters. Flexible in its performance, it has also been employed with modifications ‘as a heavy. fighter. It is unguestionably one of the best in its class.

DOUGLAS SBD (DAUNTLESS) (army counterpart A-24) —. The navy’s carrier-based standard dive bomber (single-engine, air cooled), this craft is the best in the world in its category. As a land-based craft it may tihd its equal or even its superior in the German’s lat-

est Dornier or Junkers multi-mo-

tored craft. It will shortly be supplemented by a newer design now in production. DOUGLAS TBD (DEVASTATOR)—The navy’s standard torpedo bomber when we entered the war, this single-engine, air cooled aircraft was as good as the best in service in any navy. Yet development already under way soon caught up with it and it is being replaced by the: GRUMMAN TBF (AVENGER) —Single-engine, air-cooled.- This plane made its battle debut at Midway. A bigger, more powerful and in all respects more advanced airplane, the TBF is the best carrier-based torpedo plane so far seen in action in the war.

(two-engine, -

one into

nent mud. There had not

days. All night long whenever

like being tied on the back of a mad billygoat and if- we hadn’t had two cars at this stage we would never have kept inching along. Sometimes Maj. Araphov’s car pulled out ours. Sometimes

Ivan the Terrible managed to keep -our car on the road long enough to pull the major’s out. ' It seemed like this road was made of an endless series of holes, bog and ditches with pine logs thrown in or buried haphazardly and the whole thing was an obstacle course designed to ruin the springs, axles, fires and human dispositions with a maximum of certitude and minimum of time consumed. Sometimes we would make 40 yards. Sometimes we would make 60 yards. Then everybody would be out again slogging around in six, eight or 10 inches

of mud. 2 8 =

“Some Memories

USUALLY IT SEEMED we were moving up and down and sideways quite as much as we were moving ahead and my innards

in the future. * . { « . #

felt and behaved oy ke

Tay

been any rain for several .

we were in motion at all it was -

precision destruction of restricted

buttermilk in a churn. Every now and then, in fact, my outraged stomach would take a head-

‘long leap at my tonsils—and there

were times when I concluded’ it had got tangled. up there and would never return to its normal

habitat. Then what little cushion

destiny had provided me with would suddenly come down on the axle like a ton of bricks and I found myself ruefully composing a ditty about “if you're going to ride over corduroy roads - you ought to have been born with corduroy backsides.” This is a perfectly literal report and perhaps by this time you'll pardon me for saying that these roads near the central Russian front are positively the worst roads I have ever encountered anywhere in the world war. The roads in the Greek and Albanian mountains and the Burma road’s 1500 miles into Kunming, China, were certainly ghastly at times and certainly the most dangerous motoring I have ever experienced. Even so you could call them ToRds most of the time.

” o 2

Rea) Test of Patience

THAT SECOND NIGHT we averaged less than. 10 miles an

hour for 12 interminable hours.

But in the succeeding days and

vod

‘The Worst Roads in the World —We'll

By LELAND STOWE Copyright, 1942, by The Indianapolis Times and The Chicago Daily News, Inc. WITH THE RED ARMY ON THE RZHEV FRONT.— The second night we rode from sunset to sunrise. But we really didn’t ride. We just battled all night to get our two cars from one quagmire into another and then out of that third, a 15th and a 39th. And this was not the front. It was just edging up toward the front sector. And all the mud we wallowed through was merely perma-

nights we drove from one sector to another and along lateral country roads and lanes. All had been chewed and mastieated and slashed by the ruthless machines of war. Sometimes the ruts were so deep and the ridges of caked clay so high that it was impossible to drive through a peasant village. A new detour had to be made through open fields and we only struck the main route again far beyond the village. Only drivers of the greatest patience and skill can get supplies up to the front over morasses, quagmires and shellholes such as’ these. Yet the Russians, with their apparently inexhaustible reserves of patience, somehow keep their trucks and ambulances moving most of the time. In fact, it was amazing how few vehicles, during nine days and over something like 500 miles of front-zone roads, we saw bogged down or broken down for good. I cannot even remember one truck that had been permanently abandoned.

2 4 ” Nothing to Bomb IT WAS EXTRAORDINARY, too, that there never seemed to be a rush df traffic to the front or along lateral roads either by day or night. Ilya Ehrenburg explained that one reason for this was because there were so many secondary and crisscrossing arferies. This, he said, enabled the Red army to disperse its supply instruments and for this reason the Germans always had difficulty to find any main supply routes to

~ bomb.

In any case, the terrible condition of these country roads clearly does not dismay or discourage the Russians. } To a foreigner like myself the nightmare of these roads behind and to the front has become “or-

Take Stowe’s Word for i

ever memqrable—even as for days I have been remembering it through extremely sensitive spots whenever I have had occasion to sit down. ® a =

Sorry for Napoleon AS FOR ME I shall also remain baffled as to how in the world the Red army’s supply lines operate, for you can travel for days and see so little as to be completely mystifled. Buf the answer is that supplies do keep coming up. Guns are barking steadily most of the day and night. The German soldier is Fritz to the Russians. Fritz knows. Yet 1t is perfectly obvious that

such diabolical roads «s these could not.be kept in a state of funttioning, however difficult and painful that functioning has to be, without. remarkable .persistence and great willpower and a very high degree of organization on the part of the Red army of both its officers and. its men. . Russia's

snows, rains and mud broke Na- -

poleoir’s grand army and broke Napoleon’s heart. When you spend a few days- here riding ovet the worst roads in the ewhole war,

. you almost begin to ‘feel alittle

bit sorry for Napoleon. . = J ” 2%

Our Greatest Contribution

IT WOULD SEEM something beyond the reach of human conquest to keep these roads open:

_Yet the Russians found ways last

winter and they will find them again this winter One day we were bucking,

snorting and crawling along a

particularly abominable, mud-in-

Tested stretch of creation when an

American jeep came bouncing merrily toward us. It was going four times as fast as we could manage and the four Red army men in it looked very contented with life. They could afford to look that way. Their jeep merely plunged down into a two-foot ditch, ran up a four-foot clay embankment, hurdled several pine "logs and dashed nonchalantly on its way. Ivan the Terrible emitted an envious growl, “That machine passes everywhere,” he said. Actually, beside calling the jeep a “goat” the Russians also have dubbed it “the passes-everywhere” and of all the places in the world that the jeep was obviously made for, it was made to perfection to conquer the unspeakable, unforgeist, routs in Russia's war zones. by all odds the most popular American war-aid product that the United States has yet sent to the Soviet union. But. throughout our nine days along the Rzhev front and in all the various sectors we visited and again well back behind the lines, I do not believe I saw more than 12 or 15 American jeeps. That is the pity of it. Ships—transportation—and all the rest. Over the worst roads of the war the Red army could use tens of thousands of American jeeps and they would provide an inestimable speeding up of ccuntless military matters. Now and then they might even spell the difference between a

holding action and a Russian ad--

vance.

Tomorrow, in the 8th of h dispatches direct from the Russ! fighting zone, Leland Stowe will word-picture life in “a log cabin smgsey hospital,” i

er