Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 December 1942 — Page 11

"MONDAY, DEC. 28, 1942

[oosier Vagabond

“WITH THE AMERICAN FORCES IN ALGERIA (By: Wireless) —My own special bomber crew is here in Africa with us now. You may remember it from ' England. It’s the one known as the House of Jack-

“4 son—the one where everybody in the crew calls every-

‘body else “Jackson We had a reunion out under the wing of their flying fortress. The crew and the plane both looked a little shopworn. Neither had had a bath in a long time. The ground crew hadn't arrived yet, so the boys were doing all -their own mechanical work. They live in their little shelter tents out on the field, under the wing of the bomber. Sometimes they eat “C” rations out of tin cans, and sometimes they go to headquarters to eat in. the mess hall.~ “What do you do about washing your shirts and such?” I asked them, and they all laughed big and loud. “We don’t,” the said. But at that, they haven’t much on me. I've worn the same shirt for two weeks myself. They've already flown on several missions over Tunisia. Some of their comrades have had trouble, but the House of Jackson continues to supply itself with round-trip tickets. “We don't want to be heroes,” they say. want _to get back every time.”

_ “Devils From Hell’ Pretly Tough

THE HOUSE. OF JACKSON'S service stripes make a long line now. There are 10 little bombs in 8 row painted on the nose, signifying 10 missions under fire. And beneath thém there are three. little swatikas, representing three German planes destroyed. ) “Those three were confirmed,” says the skipper. “But we actually got seven more.”

“We just

Inside Indianapolis By Lowel! Nussbaum

WHEN THE CROWD on the 10:12 Broad Ripple bus thinned out the other night, we sat down beside & 19-year-old girl and started to read a final edition of The Times. " The following conversation ensued with us offering a word or two occasionally: “Oh, you're reading The Times. . . . It looks "like you'd read the Star at this ‘time of night. They come ‘out around 9, don't they? . Crazy isn't it? They can’t have much news that early. . . . Me, I don’t read any newspapers. Can't believe a word you read in ’em. Especially the front page. . . . If you'd add together all those casualties they report, that'd be more than there are people in the world. . . . So I don’t read them; except sometimes the comics. . . . Naw, I don’t have any trouble not knewing what's going on. I won't vote for another two years, . . . Once in a while I listen to the radio news, but I don’t believe that either. No, I don’t believe the weather forecast; who does. . Me? I work at * the telephone company—an operator. What do you do? Work at The Times? Oh, is that so (a pause —and then). Oh, you work at The Timess No wonder you're reading The Times. Nice paper.” . . That was where we zot off.

Run? She Knows It

; SIGNS. OF THE TIMES: Twenty or 30 cars each with from one to.four tires flat, on a used car. sales lot at 1002 N. Illinois. Most of the tires looked like they had been flat a long time, too. It seems a needless mistreatment of tires in times like these. . . . One of our feminine readers suggests we drop a hint to our male readers. Says she: “Even if the lady is in a niink or persian lamb coat, she doesn't like to be told she has a run in her stocking. Nine times out of 10, she kpew it when she put it on. You see, now that the government is asking that she donate all old silk and nylon hose to salvage, she has been -sorting

Washington

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.—This old town has seen more feuds than the West Virginia hills but seldom one any more bitter than that between Jesse Jones, secretary of commerce and head of the RFC, on one side, and on the other, Vice President Wallace and Milo Perkins of the board of economic warfare. The bill to grant the RFC a needed additional five billion dollars to finance war activities was lost in the last session of congress because it became entangled in this feud. RFC is. overcommitted now and this measure is one of the first urgent bills waiting for attention by the new congress. ; In view of all that has hap-

pened, probably the best solution .

would be to ‘set up separate funds for the board of economic warfare instead of requiring it to finance its operations in critical materials through the RFC. The two agencies simply can’t work together. It is useless to try to force them to do so. ‘Secretary Jones and Milo Perkins are unable temperamentally to work together. They bristle at the sight of each other. Vice President Wallace, chairman of the board of - economic warfare, is firmly behind Perkins, his executive director.

Haggling i in RFC Over Money

A DIFFERENCE OF OUTLOOK was aggravated when BEW felt that. Jesse Jones failed -in building up pre-Pearl Harbor stockpiles, especially in rubber. BEW moved in more aggressively to obtain critical materials abroad anc to keep them from being bought by the axis, often paying far above the normal price. Secretary Jones was inclined to be cautious and to put out money only on a sound business basis. The board of economic warfare had the. duty not necessarily of making sound business ‘deals, but of 5. obtaining c-itical ‘materials that war production “required regardless of price. It also was charged with

ciated with hi¥old boss, Atty, Gen. George Beamer. “He's to assist George as a“legal ‘adviser to Governor

‘being tactful.

Two members of the crew have been decorated i Their fortress didn't| have a name then, but now the nose bears a painting|,

since we parted in England.

of a vicious-looking devil dancing in a fire and brandishing a pitchfork, and above it the words, “Devils from Hell.” My boys think they're pretty sougl, and I guess they are. They've been hit only once. ‘The other day they dug a piece of flak half as big as your fist out of a wing close to the fuselage, although they weren't even aware of it when it hit them.

Another day they flew 500 miles with only Shree,

motors. They weren't hit that time-—the fourth motor Just went out normally—and later they installed a spare outdoors, right on the field.

Bombers Just Ignore Bombers

THE BOYS SAY IT'S just as cold at high altitudes over Africa as it was over England. -When they go to bomb Bizerte or Tunis, they know there’s fighting going on down there on the ground. but they never have been able to see it.

The other day, as they headed east for Bizerte, they met a large formation of JU-88s coming west to attack an allied convoy. The Americans and the Germans passed about 10 miles apart and just ignored each other. “What a war!” says Capt. Jackson. “We meet each other on the way to bomb each other.” The 10 men of the House of Jackson are enjoying themselves. They have no kicks at all. They're used to being dirty now, and they're glad to be in Africa. There's always a little bunch of Arabs squatting around their plane, selling them oranges and other native things. The boys trade cigarets for eggs, which they cook over their camp fire. They recently changed bases, and the day before moving they ‘“sold” their fortress to an Arab for 20,000 eggs. “Won’t he be surprised when he brings those eggs and finds us gone?” said one of the boys. Probably not half as surprised as they'd have been if he really had brought 20,000 eggs.

out the old cast-offs. and, upon examining them, finds many that have ony one run in them. And now she is wearing these, because one run is a mere nothing in these days of hosiery troubles.” Okay, you guys! See?

t’s a Small World

JAMES W. GOBLE, who works at Eli Lilly & Co., expects to go to the army soon, so Mrs. Goble decided to rent their house, at 2627 Northgate, furnished. The second person to respond to her advertisement was a Maj. Todd, from Stout field. He mentioned that his wife was still out in Oklahoma. Mrs. Goble said she was born in Oklahoma. Where? Why in Checotah. “Why,” said the major, “my wife’s dearest friend lives there. Her name's Virginia Bryce.” “Small world, isn’t it?” remarked Mrs. Goble. “Virginia’s my cousin.” . . Orville C. Warrenfelt sends us a copy of the Franklin Evening Star with a discouraging paragraph marked for our attention: “A gloomy picture was painted by Dr. Sherman Davis at the Red Cross meeting last night. He is of the opinion the war will last from three to 14 years.” We were relieved to note the quote was’in the “25 years ago” column—and it was the other war he was talking about.

Adviser to Governor

JIM NORTHAM, first assistant attorney general, will go out of office Jan. 1, but he’ll still be asso-

sy

Schricker when the Republicans take over the attorney general's office. . . . Sheriff-elect Otto Petit says he doubts if he’ll move his family into the jail residence—at least not until it’s repaired and modernized. He may live there himself, though. . . . Corp. Charles E. Starkey, who used to be a carrier for this paper, sends greetings to The Times clear from Hawaii. He had his ‘dad call us from Clermont. . . Capt. William B. Engler and Lieut. George Gardner were among the officers back home from Harrisburg, Pa., on leave for the holidays. Both look fine.

By Raymond Clapper

preventing the enemy, regardless of cost, from obtaining critical materials that he needed. ‘Secretary Jones himself conceded that military considerations, the shortening of the war and saving of lives, placed the BEW transactions in critical materials beyond the normal coramercial limits of a good business deal. Yet in the RFC there was haggling over putting out the money that BEW required. Finally last April President Roosevelt gave BEW power to issue directives requiring RFC to close and finance deals as worked out by BEW. Thal embittered Secretary Jones. Some of his friends) in congress tried in the last session to wipe out that power of BEW over him. It almost went through.

Differences in Pre-Pearl Harbor Views

MR. WALLACE told the senators that instead of BEW being too hard-boiled in its dealing with other agencies, meaning the RFC and the state department, it had not, if anything, hit hard enough. He said Milo Perkins had to spend too much of his time

In part the situation grows out of the differences in outlook toward the war especially before Pearl Harbor. Some thought we wouldn't be in the war and didn’t expect Japan to attack us, and were rather easy going about forcing stockpiles of rubber, mica, tungsten, industrial diamonds and other critical materials. Others thought the danger was great and that heavy preparations should be made. Jones and the RFC played a hunch that didn’t work out. Wallace, Perkins and BEW played a hunch that turned out to be right. Nothing can eradicate the feud that has grown, out of that difference in outlook. The two agencies ought to be cut: completely apart. For until they are, the friction between them will slow down the activities of both agencies. Both are essential now as we go intg the year of our heaviest production.

By Ernie Pyle|

{

China sea.

pieces of wood, anything that will float. Standing at the edge of the ship, I see

one man (Midshipman Peter Gillis, an 18-year-old Australian from Sydney) dive from the air defense control tower at the top of the main mast. He dives 170 feet and starts to swim away. Men are jumping into the sea from the four or five defense control towers that segment the main mast like a series of ledges. One man misses his’... distance, dives, hits. the side of the Repulse, breaks every bone in his body and crump les into the sea like : a sack of wet cement. Another misses his direction and dives from one cof of the towers Cecil.Brown straight down the smokestack. Men are running all along the deck to get farther astern. The ship is lower in the water at the stern ‘and their jump therefore will be shorter. Twelve royal marines run back too far, jump into the water ‘and are sucked into the propeller. The screws of the Repulse are still turning. There are five or six hundred heads bobbing in the water. The men are being swept astern because the Repulse is still “making way and there’s a strong tide here, too. »

Men Jump Over Sides

ON ALL sides of me men are flinging themselves over the side. I sit down on the edge of the Repulse and take off my shoes. Iam very fond of those shoes. nese made thein forme just a few * days ago in Singapore.’ They are soft, with a buckle, and they fit ‘well. I carefully place them together and put them down as you do at the foot of your bed before going to sleep. I have no vision of what is ahead, no concrete thoughts of how to save myself. It is necessarily every man for himself. As I sit there, it suddenly comes to me, the overwhelming, dogmatic conviction. I actually speak the words: “Cecil, you are never going to get out of this.” I see one man jump and land

OFFER CHOIGES

® ”

| Certificate Holders Allowed Wider Range, Rationing Office Says.

Motorists who nave certificates entitling them to buy grade three tires may choose between any of the three kinds of easings in that grade, Kenneth M. Kunkel, state OPA Taiioning officer, pointed out today. Some dealers apparently are of the belief that they are not permitted to sell used tires under any circumstances, he said, but the fact is they may sell them to any holder of a grade three certificate under the mileage rationing plan. The casings in grade three from which the motorist may choose are used tires, recapped tires and tires made of reclaimed rubber.

‘Seconds’ Available

Similarly, the holder of a certificate authorizing purchase of a grade two tire may buy any in that category, which includes casings with a retail ceiling price less than 85 per cent of the price for a standard first line tire; all new fires manufactured before Jan. 1, 1938, «factory seconds” so marked by the

A Chi-

XIX—On The Sinking Repulse

‘The Repulse is going down. The torpedo-smashed Prince of Wales, still a half to three-quarters of a mile ahead, is low in the water, halt shrouded in smoke, a destroyer by her side. Japanese bombers are still winging around like vultures, still attacking the Wales. A few of those shot down are bright splotches of burning orange on the blue South

Men are tossing overboard rafts, lifebelts, benches,

hn

directly on another man. I say to myself: “When I jump I don’t want to hurt anyone.” :

Down below is a mess of oil -

and debris, and I don’t want to jump into that either. I feel my mind getting numb. I look across to the Wales. Its guns are flashing and the flames are belching through the grayishblack smoke. My mind cannot absorb what my eyes see. It is impossible to believe that these two beautiful, powerful, invulnerable ships are going down. But fhey are. Men are sliding down the hull of the Repulse. Extending around the edge of the ship is a three-inch bulge of steel. The men hit that bulge, shoot off ‘into space and into the water. I say to myself: “I don’t want to go down that way. THat must hurt their backsides - something ferrible.” ”

Padre Comforts Gunner

ABOUT EIGHT feet to my left there is a gaping hole in the side of the Repulse. It is about 30 feet across, with the plates twisted and torn. The hull of the Repulse has been ripped open as though a giant had torn apart a tin can. I see an officer dive over the side, dive into the hole underneath the line, dive back inside the ship. I half turn to look back on the crazy-angled deck of the ship. The padre is beside one of the pom-poms, administering the final rites to a gunner dying beside his gun. The padre seems totally unconcerned ‘by the fact - that the Repulse is going down at any moment. *About 42 men have made their way through the tangled, de~stroyed, burhing interior of the ship, crept, stumbled and scrambled and have clambered through the inside of the dummy smokestack to the top. They find the

2 ”

wire screen. across the top of the -

stack is fastened on the outside. Someone hears their cries, but by then it is too late. The men are trapped. Midshipman Christopher Bros, from St. Andrews, is in’the 15inch transmitting station, at the very bottom of the ship. There are 25 men with him in the small room, and .the sharp list of the ship is making it difficult to get out. The water ‘is pouring in.

Army Medical

By Science Service

WASHINGTON, Dec, 28. — Help the alcoholic to stop drinking, is the appeal addressed: to company officers and non-commissioned officers by editors of the Military Surgeon, official journal of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States: To make reliable soldiers of the chronic alcoholic or periodical. drunkard, the editors say, officers” cooperation is vitally. necessary. recommend the following simple rules formulated by Lieut. Col. 8. Alan Challman and Maj. Merrill Moore of the army medical corps.

1. Remember that the heavy drinker lacks self-confidence, no matter how “cleverly he hides his feelings of inferiority. He needs encouragement, with criticism presented in’ as friendly a way as possible. Show. confidence.in him and make him feel part of a team. «2. Explain to him that alcohol is poison ‘to him, as strawberries or lobster may be poison to somebody else. The ‘alcoholic should never take ‘even one drink. Substitutes should be encouraged and there is no reason for his friends riding him if he orders milk. 3. Gain the co-operation of noncommissioned officers. A junior officer should get these ideas across to the sergeant. Even one heavy drinker in a company can cause a

How one gallant British wa ‘ship went ‘down . . .

the Repulse, Capt. Tennant, o: officer and femarked: “It loo) :

“Fall in, everyone! March! 1 you ‘go,” Bros orders. The men start streaming ot. starting a climb up six decks. O:. by one they pass out of the roo: : The water is coming higher. T!: water comes in faster than men can: get out. - The 26th me! is trapped.

from Scotland gets all his me: out.. He is the 26th man. (*Denotes scenes and remark which I did not acially witne. ; or hear.)

s = ‘.

‘Don’t Want to Jump’

~~ 1 SLIDE down the hull' of tf: Repulse ‘about five feet. There brace myself in a porthole, tak off my tin hat and white clot anti-flash hood and place them = my feéet in the porthole. I lie ¢ the side of the Repulse watci ing this incredible scene—me bobbing in the water, black © spreading over the debris-fillec blue sea, the Wales obvious! sinking, the sky still filled wit!

Officers Give

IN TIRE GRADES,” ips on Helping Heavy Drinke:

whether it is doing the manual « arms, playing checkers, or pitchir horseshoes. Remember that he h: probably always been poor at gam: and a poor mixer, with men o women, due to his basic sense o inferiority. If all measures fail and th soldier drinks anyway—well, you ce al least give him some advice.” Ea before drinking, sip long drink instead of gulping concentrate cocktails, never drink straight ‘o from a bottle.

NYA FUNDS REFUSED BY WABASH COLLEGE

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Dec. 28 (U Pp) ~—President Prank Sparks o' Wabash’ college said today thay the college has refused a $2160 nations youth administration grant “because such aid for college student:

no longer is needed.” Jobs are available to all Wabash students wh desire to work, Sparks declared ir a letter to Aubrey Williams, na tional NYA director. -

REPORT 43 PER CENT EMPLOYMENT RISE

The . South. Bend : Association .of

Midshipman . Ki « . Bros, tall, slim, Rugby gradua

Po

rrr ate er SR

aircraft and black puffs of antiaircraft fire. - I don't want to jump, to leave the relative security 6f this steel for that mess down below. I have no panic in me, no particular fear, just this numbness. I know I'll

have to jump sooner or later. I °

know I cannot lie here and let the water come over me without fighting back somehow. There's no hurry. To jump into the water will hasten the inevitable. Capt. Tennant. on the bridge turns to the navigating officer. “It looks a bit different from this angle, doesn’t it, pilot?” The navigating officer nods, but says nothing. The group of officers on the bridge look at each other and at the skipper.

“Well, gentlemen,” Capt. Ten- *

nant says quietly, “you -had cetter get out of it now.” “Aren’t ‘you coming with us, sir?” two or three eagerly demancled simultaneously. The captain smiles, shakes his head negatively, then says impa-

tiently: “Off you go now. There's

NEW PROBLEMS IRRITATE T0JO

describes Solomons as An

‘Unhealthy Region’ in Parliament Talk.

‘By UNITED PRESS

Gen. Hideki’ Tojo, Japanese pre-. (ier and war lord, complained: to} “he ‘Japanese parliament. yesterday.

f the difficulties under which his roops are ‘operating: and the enor-

her anti-aircraft guns still pointed skyward. tae bridge of the tilted, sinking battleship, turned to the mavigating . bit different from this angle, doesn’t it pilot?”

distr uted by United Feature Syndicate

Un

not much time.” They are all hanging on to something, one leg braced to keep an even keel as the ship Heels over .more and more, “But, captain,” - the lieutenant commander says, ‘you must come with us. You've done all you could for this ship. More than

most men could.” Capt. Temas €Se ot budge The men are Betting restive. - most by prearrangement, they all . ‘move toward their skipper.. They push him forcibly . through the narrow ‘doorway and onto - the deck.” The Repulse is almost on her. beam ends. Capt. Tennant will go no farther. The officers and men of the bridge seize Capt. Tennant and push him over ‘the side. Then they jump. into the sea. ;

TOMORROW-—The plunge into the oil-coated waves of the China sea as the Repulse goes down. (Co yright, 1942, by Random House, Ings

HOLD EVERYTHING

10us numbers of allied forces op- ie

osing them. He told the parliament, in a reort on the first year of Pacific

war, that the first phase of surprise . sacks and lightning successes had |. civen way to the ‘second phase

vhich : would : be ‘one of decisive rattles. : Tojo said British forces in India otaled 1,600,000 men and were con:nually increasing. He said that on Guadalcanal znd in the Solomons the Japaase’ were ‘undergoing great hardhips’in. an unhealthy region, and|N. . the “Aléutians off Alaska Japfase troops were enduring “almost 1imaginable” privations and: dif:ulties.

In China, Tojo said, the Japanese

cad 300,000 Chinese and 600,000 communist”: troops and an allied

x heard he was hoarding §asg- . lin€!”

CARE OF WOUNDED

IS DEFENSE THEME

Distrit 39 civilian ‘defense first

aiders will meet tomorrow at 7:30 m. in district headquarters, 3120

- Meridian st.

". Willam H. " Schlamp, post officer for Advent ‘casualty station, will discuss 7 Srabsportation of the Wounded.” » ;

BURNS FATAL TO CHILD

SOUTH BEND, Dec. 28 ,

KOKOMO, - Dec. 28° (U.P.

r force of 300 planes. - Winifreg Lorence, 5-year-old daugh-

He said -incidentally that the .panese army on the Siberian rontier - had. been reinforced “in iew of ‘the continually changing orld ‘situation, so that undisturbed ther clothes became ignited. :2rrying - through of the eastern parents said the gi:) Tad been: siatic- war was guaranteed” Ciing with matches,

Commerce reported today that St Joseph county’s ‘employment rise has been greater than that of most other Indiana industrial areas, Orlo H. Deahl, association president, told the war manpower commission that employment in the county had risen 43 per cent since April, 194g,

manufacturer, damaged new tires|lot of damage. ; and tires that have gone less than| 4. Encourage other personal satis1000 miles but enough to wear off] factions. The alcoholic has never the mold marks. learned how to relax without liquor. Motorists granted grade one cer-| Encourage some sport or hobby at tificates, Kunkel said, may buy any| which he can at least hold his own, new tire whose ceiling price is 85/or let him feel there is one thing per ‘cent or more of the maximum he can do better than somehiody else; for a standard first line casing. If ;

My Day

WASHINGTON, Sunday —First of all, today, I want to thank literally thousands of people who have been thoughtful and kind enough to send Christmas ent ama to me It has been a very F Bears warming hung 0 ha ue On

By Eleanor Roosevelt

died Sunday night at a ‘South

Yesterday morning I visited the new naval medical ] hospital from ‘burns suffered when

center, just outside of Washington. It is a striking building with a very high tower, but as yet the planting around it does not seem to be sufficiently grown to make the building look as though it has

people all over the country, and it is particularly nice to know how many people hope. that the new year will bring greater happiness and peace to the world. With so many people working toward the same and giving their best. to the hope that peace will be hastened. One of my nicest Christmas presents came in the fi of an ~ abridged version of the ridge report, but it is a fuller one than I have yet seen. I am looking g it with great care, knowing quite n which might fit Great Britain ; States.

has been there for several weeks and who apparently ort, I think we can .

belonged in its surroundings for any length of time. That I am sure will come and, on the whole, it seems to me, both inside and out, extremely well fitted for the purpose for which it is intended. In the afternoon, Maj. Hooker and I went to the Walter Reed hospital to call on an officer friend who

will be there for some time longer. -We returned to the White House just in time to gather up the rest of the family and go out to Fairfax, Va., for Belle Roosevelt's wedding to. Mr. John G. Palfrey Jr. Bishop Atwood joined us at a very small family dinner and I spent. the evening irying to make a beginning on my Christmas letters of thanks to the particularly

they wish, however, they may buy grade two tires. In any event, a’ grade one or grade two certificate holder is not

But if either wishes to buy one. of ihe Jowest grate, hie nisy go fo his war price and rationing board and exchange the certificate he holds for ome entitling him to buy a grade three casing. -

AVALANCHE DERAILS TRAIN

permitted te buy a grade three tire.

SUPERMAN

‘OAKRIDGE, Ore., Dec. 28 (U.P.).| |

reBy. Jorty Siege and Jee