Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 December 1942 — Page 15

“MONDAY, DEC. 7, 1942

In Tunisia

| TEBOURBA, Tunisia, Dec. 7.—This is not the story of any victory because the battle that is being fought “ olf in the valley of Djedeida has thus far been a . bitter purgatory ending in death, suffering and dis»pointment, | Twice during. one day there gallant _ companies of a Midland regiment, supported by American tanks, tried to take the village gnd were turned back. The first setback came shortly after dawn when one British company advancing over two ridges on the left flank, descended into the valley and suddenly ran into a tornado of German fire at 50-yard range. American tanks advancing to their assistance from a second ridge back were stopped by 88mm. guns with losses. Later two pi < toons rushed the gun position and killed and intured all the Germans there but due to poor c0mmunications' and confusion, we failed to take a(iyantage of the opening. During the entire day, the British infantry was bl stered by dive-bombers, which put in five attacks fore midday.

H ardly a Moment’s Peace

HEROISM WAS IN order and there was plenty of it. Men who lay wounded in an open field under nm: chine-gun and mortar fire, plastered time and x iin by dive-bombers and strafing ME-109’s, manned the ir rifles bravely, One 25-pounder battery in another sector, attacked by a squdaron of tanks, fired at them point blank kr gking out 16. One sergeant personally got six Many guns were wrecked in the melee. { During the night they were still trying to reach

I

By Wm. H. Stoneman)

the wounded through constant sprays of machinegun fire. We reached Tebourba at 3 o'clock last Wednesday afternoon-and we have hardly had a moment’s waking peace since. It may be mentioned by way of illus-

‘tration that we have had five strafing attacks since I started this piece; seven Stukas are Wheeling tol

bomb the neighboring road. this instant. British medium guns were belching flame in the direction of Djedeida as we approached the town and within 15 minutes a great series of dive-bombing and strafing attacks had us half crazy trying to decide whether to keep on looking or to take to the earth.

They Made a Clean Getaway

FORTUNATELY, THE HOTEL where we stopped

at the beginning of the attack, had a wine cellar to which I personally retired about every third or. fourth attack. They were highly generous with the beer and cognac and tried to make us feel at home. We repaid them during a lull in the storm by describing the imposing armadas of our aircraft which would soon appear and assuring them, with our fin-

‘gers crossed, that the Germans had no chance to re-

take the town. They seemed only half convinced, which made it unanimous. They told us there were never more than 50 Germans in the town; Tebourba itself actually was not uséd as a strongpoint by the Germans. Both Tebourba and neighboring farms give plentiful evidence of the Germans’ hasty departure. Gas masks, belts, machine-gun ammunition, cans of foie gras and excellent pumpernickel are to be had! for picking them up. As far as we are able to observe, however, the Germans made a pretty clean

getaway from this town; they didnt do as well from|

Medjez-El-Bab where amounts of stores.

we collected fairly large

Ernie Pyle has wirelessed that his column will resume tomorrow.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

| A GRAY HAIRED man walked into the mayor's off ce: the other day and said he wanted to see the mg yor. Told that the mayor would be tied up in colierence for about an hour, he said he'd wait. Af} r he'd been waiting a while, Chris Fisher, the mayor’s messenger, got out of his ¢ chair, yawned and remarked to another office caller: “Well, the mayor’s only got 20-some days days left.” The gray haired visitor swung around and asked Chris what he meant. Chris explained that come Jan. 1, Mayor Reginald H. Sullivan would.retire from office and Gen. Tyndall would take over the office. “Tyndall?” asked the man. “That must be the man I want to see. Wherell I find him?” And off he hurried. . . . The Standard Dry Kiln, Co. out on S. Harding st., gets lots of phone calls from people wanting rooms for service men. The number the callers want is Ri. 5818. That's the number of the Council of Social Agencies’ home registry bureau in the Claypool. The kiln company (MARKET 5818) hopes everybody reads this and dials RILEY in the future. A Jeep Escort EN ROUTE HERE from Summitville the other night, an army-type truck that accompanies one of “ the| Red Cross’ blood bank units, came up behind a ‘ flee: of army jeeps. The truck was being driven by : Leroy Stevens. Just as the fleet neared Ft. Harrison, < he pulled around the jeeps and went on into town to take a nurse; Helen Stone,-home. When she stepped out, of the truck, she gasped and told him to look. There, right behind the truck, was the fleet of army jeeps. The jeep jockeys were pretty sore when they found they were out on Bosart ave. instead of at Ft. Harrison. They had mistaken the blood bank truck for their escort: truck, and followed it right past the fort. Racing their motors and awakening the neighborhood, the weary jeep drivers turned around in the street and headed back to the fort. . . . Pedestrians at Meridian and Washington st. about 5:30 the other evening heard a police siren and then saw seven or

Washington

DETROIT, Dec. 7.—A couple of days In this important war production center convince me that, aroiind here at least, war production is a success. You see some of the evidence with your own eyes —the tanks being finished off at the Detroit tank arsenal operated by Chrysler, the Rolls-Royce engines going into crates at "Packard the guns at Pontiac, the belly turrets for flying’ fortresses at Fisher's plant, and the heavy bombers being made at Willow Run. You see further evidence in the volumes of statistics. This area is employing 930,000 men and women in war work, which is one-third more than were employed when I was here last January. In the 10 months since automobile mrodiction ended, the industry has built up war production to an annual rate of more than six and a half billion dollars—which is two-thirds above the| peak production value of automobiles and trucks. 1’arhaps the best evidence that all is going well is the| changed mood of the automobile executives, who a yior ago were worried, They had given up automobile production reluctantly, under pressure. They fel nisunderstood, and were on the defensive against pu is criticism. They faced a war production problem that they weren’t sure they could lick, although the, were ready to try it.

y Complain, About Red Tape

DW I FIND the same executives confident, feelhat their main worries are over, that they have the chief production problems; and that from n it is largely a mafter of obtaining sufficient ower, sufficient materials and necessary ma-

ey are more mellow about labor, and speak of | problems now as growing pains.” They say iy that labor conditions in Detroit have imd gradually during the last year.

My Day

WASHINGTON, Sunday.—I had a delightful luncheon on Friday with the New York Newspaper women's club and then returned to my apartment in time to do two good hours of work. When I am not seeing a succession of people, it does seem easier to concentrate on writing an article, so Friday and Saturday afternoon I really felt I accomplished a good deal. From London, we have just received a complete file of the army newspaper, The Stars and Stripes, which became a daily while I was in Great Britain. Some of their reporters wrote about my trip, and one or two followed me around a good part of the time. Dorsey Fisher of the United States embassy thought I would like to see the editions covering the days I was there and im-, mediatley after I left.

‘ the | ition

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eight immense army gasoline tank trucks going past, escorted by state police. In a minute or two, along came another squadron of the trucks. “I don’t mind gas rationing if the army's getting the gas I don’t get,” remarked one spectator.

*Move Bock, Please

BUS DRIVERS and streetcar operators are having to start: all over again to educate passengers to “move back, please.” Many of the new crop of riders never rode a streetcar or bus before gas rationing, and the operators’ pleas fall on deaf ears. One operator the other evening pleaded: . “Come on, now, folks; pretty please. You might as well learn now.” And then he muttered to people near him: “If they don’t learn pretty soon, we’ll just have to get a military policeman on every bus.” . . . From the Hawaiian islands comes a V-Mail letter from Corp. Abe Mandell,

who says he ran across a copy of Inside Indianapolis] way over there in the land of pineapples and hula]: Corp. Harry] : He! : says he bunked next to Harry at Jefferson Barracks,| : We're] : forwarding the letter to Chanute field. The army): frowns on printing service men’s addresses, for vari-| :

girls, and in it mention of his friend, Morrison Jr., the former Times sports writer.

Mo., last April, and wants Harry's address.

ous reasons.

Slap It Around Neat!

BILL M'GAUGHEY, who started his career as a reporter on The Times a few years ago and now is-in Detroit with the National Automotive association, has written a book, “Roll Out the Tanks.” Written for| boys, it's about the experiences of a young chap in a Detroit war plant. It’s all about saboteurs, 'nevery-| thing. « A young girl phoned girl scout head- |

they have to be, what it costs to join, ete.

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF—President Roosevelt directed supreme war’ strategy in the first year.

CORREGIDOR—Weary and unshaven, the heroes of the epic defense of Corregidor —fortress of Manila bay in the Philippines—are being marched away to captivity after the capitulation, according to this picture which originated in Japan.

congress to declare war on Japan.

“higher up,” Gen. MacArthur left Corregidor before it fell.

quarters the other day and asked Dorothy Dean all| Tl about the organization—what the scouts do, how old | a

Then she) §

had one more question, “Well, where do I enlist?” . , . a A youngster phoned our society department to get a as

story in the paper about the Corpse. club, a high! school group. “Slap it around real neat, will you?” he askéd. “We need the publicity.” . . . Note to Jim Carroll: Thanks for sending us the dime we lost in the bus station phone. Mighty fast service we got.

They complain about the amount of red tape " dealing with Washington. They struggle to find the man in Washington who has the authority, and when they do find him he is gone by the time they go back | to Washington a second time. osophical. Along with several other Washington correspond- | ents, we questioned them for several hours—executives' such as C. E. Wilson, president of General Motors, Charles Sorenson of Ford, George Christopher of Packard, Harold Vance of Studebaker, Weckler of Chrysler and E. A. Clark, president of | Budd Wheel.

By Raymond Clubber

Knocking the Worry Out

THE STRUGGLE to get machine tools continues. General Motors has orders in for 16,000 but is getting only about 2500 a month. Chrysler expects to wait several months more for 18,000 machines on or-| der. Those figures suggest one reason why defensive, weapons are being cut back. The limited supply of machines must go into expansion of engines and | .power plants for planes and boats. One hears many rumors about Ford’s Willow Run bomber plant. But several hours spent in walking: over 80 per cent of the plant shows that the place is full of planes in various stages of production. The plant is working but it is far from peak production, which is not expected until toward the last quarter of next year. : | The principal task at Willow Run now is to obtain| and train help. Thousands of men and women who never have worked around machines must be taught. Materials and machines appear to be on hand in adequate supply. Sections are built up along the assembly lines, but although there is much mechanization, a vast amount of hand work is inescapable when 700,000 rivets must be put into each B-24. Problems encountered in setting up. new industries, shortages and manpower difficulties exist for many plants, yet the production being achieved in the Detroit area is thoroughly reassuring. A look at it rather completely knocks the worry out of you.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

1 think this paper carries on well the traditions

begun in the last war by the paper which Alexander Woollcott edited, and on which Stephen Early and

many other friends of ours worked. Last night I returned to Washington, but there

are a number of things which I did during the time

I was on New York City, which I did not mention. before. I was able to see Maxwell Anderson’s play,

“The Eve of St. Mark,” and found it most absorbing.

Herman|

But they are phil- ou

WASP STUNG—America’s naval might suffered severe reverses

in its war on Japan. and submarines. Wasp, shown billowing smoke after three Jap torpedoes had

Four aircraft carriers have been sunk by planes One of the most recently reported was the U. S. S.

ripped into

her vitals Sept. 15, while escorting supply ships to Guadalcanal.

It is curious- how people are always impressed by

the particular point in which they are interested.

A friend of mine told me that this play taught the

lesson of what unpreparedness cost us, and that never again must we-allow ourselves to be unprepared in a military way. He is one of the people who hopes we shall always have universal military service for every boy during some period of his early life. I felt that it brought out the value and importance of personal relationships in life. It showed that, in moments of crisis, the life one had lived at home, and the people one loved, not only helped one to the right decisions, but saw one through to the end.

GUADALCANAL—On the island of Guadalcanal, in the Solomons, the U. S. marines, remain firmly entrenched On this island some of the bloodiest fighting of the war has taken place. Recently, in attempting to land reinforce-

ments, the Jap navy suffered its greatest defeat to date.

INVASION

On orders from

DECLARATION OF WAR—The Japs bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec, 7. on Dec. 8 President Roosevelt asked Almost immediately representatives of the American people voted to go to war against the Japanese empire for its unprovoked and dastardly attack. This is the solemn scene which took place when the chief executive spoke to the joint session + of congress in the house chamber. »

a

MIDWAY—The newest wrinkle in naval battles took place over

Midway. Warships never saw sight of each other. Yet much damage

was suffered by both sides due to the punishing blows inflicted by their air arms. Here a Jap heavy cruiser lists heavily to port after being bombed.

OF AFRICA—The world’s largest Convey splashed through the bl

waters of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean to seize France's North Africa pg

sions and change the complete picture of the war in Europe.

Here American troe

some smiling, some doffing their helmets, march down the quay after disembarking

a tragport at Megs:

s-El-Kebir, .

’

MacARTHUR—The uproarious welcome of the crowd brought a smile to the face of MacArthur when he arrived at Melbourne, Australia, after he was named commander-in-chief of united nations’ forces in the Southwest Pacific,