Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 January 1943 — Page 17

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"Hoosier Vagabond

3 This is the second of a series of articles on the feat of a flying fortress crawling home from Tripoll.

A FORWARD AIRDROME IN FRENCH NORTH

7 AFRICA (By Wireless).—The 10 men who brought

eir flying fortress home from a raid on Tripoli, after had been given up for lost, undoubtedly will

ot decorations. Nothing quite like it has happened this war, Here is the :

before in story:

ily defended, both by fighter . . planes and anti-aircraft guns. Flying into that hailstorm, as one pilot said, was like a mouse attacking a dozen cats. The Thunderbird—for that was the name of this fortress—was first hit just as it dropped its bomb load. One engine went out. Then a few moments later the other engine on the same side went. When both engines go out on the same side it is usually fatal. » The Thunderbird was forced to drop below the er fortresses. And the moment a fortress drops down or lags behind, German fighters are on it like vultures. The boys don't know how many Germans were in the air, but they think there must have been 30. Our Lightning fighters, escorting the fortresses; fought as ‘long as they could, but finally they had t, leave or they wouldn't have had enough fuel to ~ make .it home. The last fighter left the crippled fortress about 40

3 miles from Tripoli. Fortunately, the swarm of German

fighters started home at the same time, for their gas was low, too. The Thunderbird flew on another 20 miles. Then A single German fighter appeared, and dived at them. Its guns did great damage to the already crippled plane, but simply couldn't knock it out of the. air.

, Crew Decides to Ride Plane In

.. FINALLY THE FIGHTER ran out of ammunition, @nd left. Our boys were alone. Two engines were gone, most of the guns were out of commission, and they were still more than 400 miles from home, The radio was out. They were losing altitude, 500 feet & minute, and now they were down to 2000,

“crawl, this one crippled plane

The pilot jump? They long as it was in ti The ship was at a terrible angle.

so that it stopped losing By now they were

wall of mountains ahead barred the way homeward.]

They flew along parallel to these mountains for a

: % they were now The Tripoli airdrome was heavs i long ume, bus y

some altitude. Finally they got thing to 1500 feet. at 1500. Explain that if you can!

-Maybe it’s as the pilot said: “We didn’t come over.

the mountains, we came through them.” The co-pilot said: shield trying to push her along.” Everything seemed against them. The gas consumption doubled, squandering their precious supply. They had a bad headwind.

‘The Most Beautiful Sight’

AT LAST the navigator said they were only 40 miles from home, but those 40 miles passed as though they were driving a horse and buggy. One oasis looks exactly like another. But the crew knew when they were near home. Then they shot their red flare and waited for the green flare from our control tower. 'A minute later it came—the most beautiful sight that crew has ever seen. When the plane touched the ground they cut the switches and let it roll. For it had no brakes.

“I was blowing on the wind|

At the end of the roll the big fortress spun madly |

around five times and than ran backwards for 50 yards before it stopped. One gas tank dry and the other down to 20 gallons. Deep dusk enveloped the field. Five more minutes and they never would have found it, This weary, crippled fortress had flown for the incredible time of four and one-half hours on ane pair of motors. Any pilot will tell you it's impossible. That night we drank a toast. The crew said “Here’s to a damned good airplane.” And the climax: During that agonizing homeward shot down the fantastic total of six German fighters. These were officially confirmed.

TOMORROW~—The Men Who Did It.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

A PUBLICITY release from the American-Hel-$énic $50,000,000 war bond drive committee announces that Ensign Christ J. Petrow will meet officials of the local Ahepa chapter “in the PLAYPOOL hotel.” oo Wallace Lee sends us a clipping from the magazine Pic with a paragraph broadcasting one of Indianapolis’ dubious distinctions: “In 1936 it was reported that your chances of a happy marriage were very bad if you lived in Indianapolis. There . the divorce rate was 41 for every 100 marriages,” (P. 8. It wasn’t any better last year, Pic.) .. .Seen on Pennsylvania st.: The dog pound wagon being towed in by a police tow-in truck. Maybe the dog catcher was getting impounded. . . . When her husband was army, a resident of W, 44th st. decided to rent her home. Among the applicants was & ‘minister. After g the house, the minister said he liked it fine, all but the wallpaper. “What's Wrong with the wallpaper?” the owner asked indigHantly. “It's almost. néW.” The minister pointed to the breakfast room and said: “I don’t think my par4 ishioners would approve.” The wallpaper there had & cocktail glass design.

Around the Town =~

THE MANAGER of a Broad Ripple supermarket has an amusing story on hoarding. Last spring or summer, the store packaged up a lot of bulk powdered sugar, which sold as fast as it was put on the shelves. Last week, a woman came up to the manager with one of these packages. It was caked ‘as hard as a brick. “I can’t use this—it’s too hard,” she complained. “I can’t use it either—it’s. too old, ” replied the manager. She kept it. . . . Share-the-ride clubs among employees of Continental Optical Co. here are saving rubber tires at the rate of 3464 car miles » week—18,000 miles a year, a survey shows, « «

| Washington

- WASHINGTON, Jan. 22.—I said to .a friend of mine that perhaps the Fighting French were being too exclusive in objecting to the Vichy Prench with whom we were working in North Africa, and why souldn’t they forget their factions and unite against the Germans? Obviously I had touched a charged nerve. My friend made a little speech to me: “Suppose people had gone to Gen. George Washington and urged him to take Benedict Arnold back. Arnold was a good general, one of ‘Washington's ablest. Suppose the proposition had been put up to Gen. Wash“ington that Benedict Arnold had become disappointed over his deal with the British and was rather anxious to become an American patriot again {and would like to come back on Gen. Washington's

Ssuctes into the

“General Washington needed good generals, but do you think he would have found it expedient to fake. Benedict Arnold back? Would General Washington find the American soldiers—desperately as they needed help—have been willing to fight. beside a general who had once betrayed them and gone over to the enemy? There are principles that fight harder than expediency ‘does.”

You'd -hardly- guess it, to look at the first auto windshield you see, but there's still a law on the books prohibiting stickers on * windshields. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam never heard of the law, and orders certain types qf stickers placed there. One motorist. reports seeing a car the other day with the right half of the windshield half-covered with a use tax stamp, both A and B gas rationing stickers, topped off with an OCD insignia about 6 inches square,

Phantom Parties

ONE OF THE methods being used to raise funds for the Indianapolis symphony is that of having women hold card parties—any game they wish—with each player contributing 50 cents to the symphony. But since it's hard to get games arranged, what with so many women taking part in this or that civic or defense activity, phantom parties are becoming popular, Instead of bothering to hold parties, the would-be hostesses just send in their money. Mrs. Easley Blackwood, chairman of the card party committee received from one woman a $2 check and the following explanatory letter: “In order to conserve gas and rubber for my, s, I am not inviting them. And I am playing four of solitaire and charging me 50 cents each. In my chilly, oil-burning house (maximum temperature 68 degrees) in front of-a coal fire I shall serve myself a cup of hot water, thereby conserving coffee and sugar. I expect myself to have a lovely time.”

Request Numbers

PRESIDENT M. O. ROSS of Butler likes a little life ‘in his music. At the Butler Alumni association meeting Wednesday night at the Canary Cottage, a couple ‘of high school acecordionists, Glen Speckman and Charlene Butz, called for request numbers. Dignified President Ross requested—and got: “Tiger Rag.” » « « When Governor Schricker has a chance to call

for a request number, he’s pretty likely to call for|

“Back Home in Indiana.” And he comes in ‘pretty strong on the chorus, too.

{

By Raymond Clapper

Sketches of what he has done do not make reading that goes under the banner of the four freedoms. How much of this is fair to him is difficult to say. But he does not look like one of our side. He has not-.seemed interested in defeating Germany. The intricate policy that rebuffs Frenchmen who want to fight the Germans, and takes up with Frenchmen who have been playing ball with them, is hard to follow at this late date. Secretary Hull became angry when reporters questioned him about it this week. The powers here may be able to turn down questions by telling newspaper reporters it would be better to think about the war instead of raising these matters. But this situation raises a question as to what this war is all about.

Discouraging to Underground

OUR OFFICIALS have told us we were fighting to exterminate the Nazi-Fascist aggressors. They tell] us, as President Roosevelt did in his radio broadcast last October, that the individual Nazis and Fascists responsible for the war and for the outrages against helpless people would bz tried and punished after the war. Yet we ancept their kindred spirits, their French collaborators in North Africa, and im-

It’s buildings shattered (like the opera house shown) by innumerable axis air raids, the island of Malta

has been designated as “the most bombed place on earth.”

George VW. Norris. Nebraska senator four decades, walked down " the capitol steps for the last time on Saturday. accompanied by his daughter, Mrs. John Robertson.

Says WPB Snags Rubber Program

WASHINGTON, Jan. —A senate agriculture subcommi investigating the synthetic rubber program was told today that the

government had sidetracked a test-

ed polish process for producing butadiene from grain alcohol although a WFB investigator found it simpler and cheaper than other methods. The process was described by Charles L. Gabriel, vice president of the Publicker Commercial Alcohol Co. of Philadelphia, which now controls it. The company, he said, desires to build a small test plant which would turn out 20,000 tons of butadiene a year, but has failed to obtain necessary priorities.

DREADNAUGHT RE-DESIGNED

Famed Swedish AA Guns Cnt Vulnerability of Battleships.

22 (U. P).| tee

Little wonder they ‘“hate” Hitler.

Pinwheeling over a four-foot wall on the University of amore commando-like obstacle course, these coeds show they are as agile ‘as the male students. The girls march, scale walls, broad jump, drill at double time, and take group calisthenics Ty the wartime fitness

program.

OLD TAX BILL

Assessment Measure Barely

Failed of Enactment

Two Years Ago. .

A uniform reassessment bill, the same measure that almost got through both houses two years ago, was the house of representatives yesterday. The bill, “authored by Reps. Earl Teckemeyer and Charles Ehlers, empowers the state tax board to prescribe the manner in which county assessors shall make reassessments, when they are ordered, and gives the tax board the power to enforce their rules and regulations. Among other bills introduced is one to give an estimated five to six million dollars of gross income tax revenues back to counties and towns. The bill, introduced by Rep. Elmer Weller (R. Dale), provides that administration costs shall be paid first out of gross income tax revenues and then that all state aid assistance for schools shall be paid out of the funds. Fifty per cent of the

port one of them to the high post of governor of| DETROIT, Jan. 22 (U. P.)—The remaining balance shall be paid i:

Algiers. The effect of all this on the underground movements in other occupied, territory is liable to be dis-

United States navy has answered air-minded critics of the battleship by revealing those dreaded sluggers

the state general fund, 30 per cent given to counties and towns and 20 per cent to cities. : Mrs. Nelle B. Downey (R. Indian-

a

Malta maintains its “homes” despite bombings, although some are hewn out of an old fort (above). ;

by

British royal engin

!

repair a river ford at Medjes el Bab,

Tunisia, after fleeing axis forces blew craters in the ford as they re tired from the city amid heavy allied attack. During the repairs, the Britons were subjected to heavy German artillery ani, dive bomber

fire. There was one casualty.

Georgia Congressman Shows PROTECTION FOR

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (U, P.). —The once-lowly peanut was pictured today as a sort of vegetable commando, playing unsalted hob with the machination of A. Hitler & Co.

ples of explosives, medicinal products, synthetic cork, cloth and other war-time needs, all made from peanuts. He displayed vitamin charts, showing the importance of the pea nut in the diet of a war-weary n

From a special peanut “bar” set| tion.

up in the cloakroom of the house, Rep. Stephen Pace (D. Ga.) conducted a one-man campaign to make his colleagues conscious of

among 16 bills introduced inthe goober’s part in the war ef-

fort. The ocecasion—national peanut week. Pace provided a buffet of peanut delicacies, which congressmen visited delicate aroma of peanut butter floated over the house chamber. But that was merely a come-on. To his munching colleagues, Pace showed the peanut at war—sam-

To emphasize his point, he exhibited pictures of two rats—one a poor, weak, scrawny rat brought up on a white flour diet, and the other a fine, big, strong rat whose sole diet had been peanut fiour. Pace said altogether some 139 separate products were made from

peanuts, ranging from insulating at’ frequent intervals. A board to

adrenalin. He said the government was so eager to get more peanuts that farmers will

plant more than 5,500,000 acres of

them this year. Last year’s crop

totaled 1,200,000 tons.

Army Men Like Potatoes, Avoid Liver and Spinac

‘WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (U. P.) — The army-—jus* like ma at home— is having troulle getting the boys to eat spinach and liver. Army tastes run strongly to meat, gravies and potatoes. But for the sake of fighting efficiency the army is trying to educate

“The relationship ‘between food value and taste is very clase,” she | gee said. “Food tastes best when it is prepared in a manner to preserve the maximum vitamin values. proper care is given prepara taste will encourage the ‘eat the best foods.” The quartermaster corps

BACK IN HOUSE| How Peanuts Help Win War FARMS PUSHED

State Senate As Asis Action to Insure Labor and Machinery.

The Indiana senat® today asked administrative officials of both the state and national governn ents to make sure that farm! peopl? “have necessary manpower, ms chinery and fertilizer fo procuce the food and fiber needs of our armec forces, | allies and civilian population.” The lution, introduced by Senators Howard Johnson «(R. Mooresville) and Marker §under= land (D, Muncie) wa: sent to the house for coneurrence. “Dependent upon all these things,” the resolution said, “is the stength, courage and enduring stamira of a people gallantly fighting and without reservation that de:nocracy shall | continue to be the cnchorige of security in America and fieedom

shall be savailable to svery: Ration in the world.”.

|of the’ sea have been re-designed to master menus monthly bo guide mess

rations— | sergeants. ‘One such menu showed | ert Lee Brokenburr (E. of green and| servings of liver twice and spinach | gis), j seven times in 93 meals.

Intricate Policy Hard to Follow

- SIMILARLY, this French business in North Africa i changed with intense emotions growing out of the fact that some Frenchmen like General de Gaulle refused to Surrender-in 1040, whereas other Frenchmen like Marcel Peyrouton gave up to the Germans. Indeed, Peyrouton, who has just been made govamor of Algiers by us, has been considered a Fascist.

| My Day Say

GTON, Thursday.—~I am back in Wash-

General Eisenhower must be fully occupied with preparations for it. There surely is sufficient ability among gispiay in blasting surface oppo-|medical indigents | Which ‘includes plenty the united nations to handle the political situation|pents | shall be paid by the township bras Yellow vegetables a at his rear for him. e of battle-| tees directly to doctors and ‘The army hopes The Germans don't expect their military officers Pe f the the air|pitals rather than to the indigents| on food, is ] jo The ors to act as Political fixers. nd sea was made known by the themselves. campaigr reais (R. Michi-|and the serving of food well pre-

SCHOOLS NEAR CLOSE [ro Brnrmme hin nt sr poliioa hada. Svys tnseniive division {ss veprt| DE aaa a bill which |pared, will persuade the soldiers to % | til

. > |g the famed Swedish Bofors 40 | would make it a foros) clean up their plates—even spinach. OF 1ST SEMESTER ti-aircraft gun. superiutenden “Soldiers t milk drinkers,” Ay Eleanor Roosevelt "Tos repr, signed ry 1. Bev, ex, gr iar

e-front - h Iaciny to the secretary of war, Wednesday, with second semester

rae, teh tribution sor ie: sete’ ol isbutiky. Shot. all that the nation’s bat- sna approvingly dey when sed

disclosed do has been done to make every|tleships of NEY desigh® also 870 1s 2 as floating anti-aircraft