Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 April 1943 — Page 11

: Hoosier Vagabond

"NORTHERN TUNISIA (By Wireless).—We moved %. one afternoon to a new position just a few miles behind the invisible line of armor that separates us from she Germans in Northern Tunisia. “We had been at the new camp about an hour and were still setting up our tents when German a planes appeared overhead. We “ stopped work to watch them. It was the ‘usual display of darting planes, with "the conglomerate sounds of ack-ack on the ground and in the sky. Suddenly we realized that one plane was diving straight at us, and we made a mad scramble for foxholes. Two officer friends ef mine had dug a three-foot hole and set their tent over it. We all dived through the narrow opening all at once. ’ . We lay there in’ the hole, face down, as the plane came smack overhead with:a terrible roar. We were all drawn up inside, waiting for the blow. Explosions around us, were shatferingly loud, and yet when it was all over we couldn’ find any bomb holes or anybody hurt. But you could find a lot of nervous people.

Felt the Approach of Doom

DUSK CAME on, and with dusk begin the steady boom of big guns in the mountains ahead of us. They weren’t near enough for the sound ta be crash-

ing. Rather it was like the lonely roll of an approach-

ing thunderstorm—a sound which since childhood has always made me sad with a kind of portent of inevitable doom. We went to bed in our tents. A nearby farmyard | 'yegvas full of dogs and they began a howling that lasted al night. ¢ ‘We lay uneasily in our cots. Sleep wouldn't come. We turned . and turned. “I snapped on a flashlight. k “What, time is it?” asked Chris Cunningham from + the next cot.

“Quarter to*1,” I answered. asleep?” He hadn’t. I remembered that just before dusk a soldier had shot at a snake in our new camp, and they thought it was a cobra. We'd just heard our first stories of scorpions, too. I began to feel creepy and wondered if our tent flaps were tight. Another plane throbbed in the sky, and we lay listening with an awful anticipation. One of the

dogs suddenly broke into a frenzied barking and] .

went tearing through our little camp as though chasing a demon. My mind seemed to lose all sense of. proportion, and I was jumpy and mad at myself.

‘Ghosts’ Wandered Everywhere

CONCUSSION GHOSTS, traveling in waves,|

touched our tent walls and made them quiver. Ghosts

were shaking the ground'ever so lightly. Ghosts}

were stirring the dogs to hysteria. Ghosts were wandering in the sky peering for us in our cringing hideout. Ghosts were everywhere, and their hordes

were multiplying as every hour added its production|

of new battlefield dead. You lie and think of the graveyards and.the dirty men and the shocking blast of the big guns, and you can’t sleep. “What time is it?” comes out of darkness from the next cot. I snap on the flashlight. : “Half past 4, and for God’s sake go fo sleep!” Finally just before dawn you do sleep, in spite of everything. Next morning we spoke around among ourselves and found one by one that all of us had tossed away all night. It was an unexplainable thing. For all of us had been through dangers greater than this. On another night the roll of the guns would have lulled us to sleep. It’s just that on some nights the air becomes sick and there is an unspoken contagion of spiritual dread, and you are little boys again, lost in the dark.

“Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

'. (.THE RED CROSS blood donor center is having 1 trouble, For some mysterious reason, the number of { | donors: has. fallen off sharply in. recent weeks. It's ‘down nearly 50 per cent, we're told. The slump in giving comes Bl a time when the need for life-saving blood plasma is more critical than ever before. Thousands of our boys, including many from right here in Indiangpolis, are being wounded in the battle to drive the Nazis out of Africa, and thousands more will be wounded in the impending invasion of Europe. But back. here, most of us are too busy with our own petty affairs to run down to the Red Cross and give the pint of blood that may save the life of a soldier, : sailor or marine. That included the writer of this ! column, too—up until yesterday. But yesterday we ‘got. busy and donated a pint of blood during our ~~ lunch hour. We're darned proud of it, too. It didn’t i. hurt, and it only took 45 minutes from the time we 1 walked in until we walked out and went back to work. we'd like to do it again tomorrow, Let's go, gang. hone Li. 1441 and make a date.

Around the Town

ENT clergyman $énds -us the following lhe other day I witnessed two sad sights. I saw a re school boy running for a car. He missed it and had to walk two blocks to school. The other .was seeing young men standing in the aisles of the car while strong middle-aged ‘ladies were sitting and "not offering the young men a seat. Are our ladies losing their chivalry?” . A typical scene Sunday was "observed by one of our friends. During the height of the rain Sunday afternoon, he saw four fellows working in their garden plots on the southwest corner of 43d and College, blithely ignoring the rain. Similar episodes undoubtedly were occurring all over town. . . . An Easter tragedy: Hundreds of folks arose about 4 a. m. and went to Monument circle early - Sunday to be sure to get seats for the sunrise service.

Exploitatio CLEVELAND, April 27.—President Roosevelt said at Monterrey that “the day of the exploitation of the resources and the people of one country for the benefit of any group in another country is definitely over.” Latin Americans can go to town with that pronouncement. Vice President Wallace has been promising his way through South America for weeks, but he has said nothing they could get their teeth into so readily as this. _ Americans have many investments in Latin. America, and if these regions sense an opportunity to attain a fifth freedom through the ending of “exploitation,” there may be nothing to stop them from defining the word to suit them- : selves, “ They might decide to exploit the northern ex‘ploiters. pt If exploitation consists simply of mining and ex- : ‘porting patural resources in metals and oil by foreign J interests, then we have exploited many countries in

{ this’ hemisphere, including Canada, just as we have

"been exploited by British investors in this country. We Still Have Large Interests

FOREIGN investors in the United States have mostly paid the going rates of wages. Some have been accused of paying less than “prevailing” rates, buf the charge has never been’ a general one that foreign capital in this country paid less than the average. I am not saying there have been no true exploitations in such business, of course. The worst of them was. ‘probably Belgium's treatment of the Congo

‘natives.

Making a Path i

Many of these had seats over in the Columbia club segment of the circle. But before the services started

hundreds of folks climbed up on the monument steps}

and completely blocked the view of many of the early risers.

A Portrait of Oscar

OSCAR HAGEMIER, the former chief deputy prosecutor and former assistant city attorney, now is in a class with Indiana’s governors. It's custom for governors to have their portraits painted. Oscar hasn’t been elected governor, but he has had his portrait painted. It’s about 3 by 5 feet, and some of his friends report he paid a New York artist $250 in cold cash for the job, and sat, off :and on, three weeks for it. The aforementioned friends have been having lots of fun ribbing him about the portrait not resembling him, and they report his family won’t let him hang

a closet. Personally, we don’t know. , . . Everybody squawks about the E. Michigan streetcar service, even including some of the operators. One of our agents was on an E. Michigan car the other day when a red light showed up in the distance. “Must be a fire engine,” said the operator. “No,” interjected our agent, “it's an ambulance and it’s stopped for a streetcar.” “Heck,” snorted the operator, “if it’s stopped for an E. Michigan car, it’s not in much of a hurry to get anywhere.”

TRAFFIC WAS jammed’ on Washington =. “about 5 o'clock the other evening. A long line of cars was stopped, blocking the crosswalk at Illinois. ' Three young sailors stood impatiently beside a Chrysler sedan which was stopped directly across the crosswalk. Finally, one of the youths opened the rear door of the car, and all three of the sailors walked through. None of the spectators laughed any harder than the man driving the car. ... Dr. C. A, McPheeters, pastor of the North Methodist church, was to leave Methodist hospital today for home. He's been in the hospital a couple of weeks following an ‘appendectomy. , . . Willard Beck, director of the Broadway Methodist church choir for many years, is in Methodist hospital for observation.

By John W. Love

Mexico recently took over a large part of the foreign equity in her oil wells, to the considerable loss of American investors. Opinions differed in this

country as to the real value of American holdings there, but the charge of exploitation was freely used in Mexico and might. be employed again. Americans still have large interests in the oil of Venezuela and Colombia, the copper of Mexico and Chile, the tin of Bolivia, the fruit and rubber of Central America, the sugar of Cuba.

Remarkable Things Happen!

OR IT MIGHT be possible to define exploitation as consisting of the production and export of foreign commodities without paying wages high enough to lift the wage and price levels of the countries where they originate. Our obligation might come to be regarded as not merely one of furnishing the equipment and engineering talent and paying taxes and going wages. There is some reason for thinking our aim is to be that of bringing up the general standard of living there even faster than it has been rising. If so, then we would expect to pay higher prices than we have been paying for our imported commodities. This would certainly tickle the domestic competitors producing the same We have an opportunity at the moment in Bolivia. Tin workers there struck in November, 18,000 of them, for higher pay. Bolivia squelched the strike as Nazi-

inspired. A joint commission investigated, but the]

‘report reposes with the state department. It may be embarrassing from more than one point of view. It would be strange if our talk of greater interdependence of the nations after the war were to lead to more nationalism, but more remarkable things have happened.

By Ernie Pyle]

“Haven't you been

As the smoke of the battle of Gabes gap cleats, allied soldiers march a group of enemy prisoners (left foreground) off and allied tanks and other vehicles of the British 8th army move toward their smashing triumph of Wadi Akarit. Photo was made

from an advanced observation post, immediately after the battle.

Tramping along a dusty Tunisian road, heading for a flanking position in the hills near Bir Marbott pass, this line of American infantrymen of the 1st division stretches far into the distance. A successful thrust at axis troops at Bir Marbotit pass sent the

nazis fleeing northward.

8 =

Montgomery's Coolness

it on the wall; that, instead, the portrait reposes in|

Spurs N. Africa Drive; : Opes Given Up for Dead

By RICHARD D. MacMILLAN United Press Staff Correspondent

"..LONDON, April 27.+-Death relented once and struck once to give Gen. Sir ‘Bernard Law Montgomery to the

united nations."

During the first world war he was wounded twice. ‘On the second occasion military doctors pronounced him dead. I have it on the best authority that his “body” was

in a truck bound for the ‘cemetery when an attendant saw his eyelids flicker. The truck whirled around

and the wounded captain was retuned posthaste to a hospital at: Monteran, ; A quarter of a century later two Messerschmitt 109 fighter planes swooped out of the sun over the Cairo-Alexandria ‘road and shot down a lumbering Bombay transport plane. It crashed in flames. One of those killed in

, it was Lt. Gen. Henry 8S. Gott, one

of the great desert commanders, who was returning from the front

to take over the battered 8th army. .

Prime Minister Winston Church-

ill, who had been on the verge of -

announcing Gott’s appointment to the 8th army, command, knew what to do. “For a long time the British premier had had his eye on Montgomery, then a lieutenant general in charge of the southeast command. Churchill dispatched ‘Montgomery to the desert by air

and on’ Aug. 18, 1942, ‘announced

his appointment as leader of the British 8th army. RR

Admired for Toughness

THE MOMENT MONTGOMERY landed at El Alamein word of his ‘arrival spread like a bush fire through the ranks of. the disheartened soldiers. They warmed

toward him immediately because, -from the start, he showed himself

as one who thought in terms of the . offensive. ‘They liked oy ‘toughness. 3

TOWN HALL TO STUDY

Since then Montgomery has won the world’s vlaudits and the undying loyalty of his men. It is the latter he cherishes. He earned it by proving himself an iron man —as cool under the most intense shellfire as when, on rare acca-

sions, he relaxes in his desert.

caravan behind the lines. The soldiers call him “Monty of El Alamein.” He tours the battle line in a tank with the name “Monty” on its nose. He travels longer distances in the desert in an open American staff car, with two military police as outriders and protected by. armored cars. Hereafter, when he travels by air, Montgomery may use a flying fortress with an American crew. The four-engined bomber was given him recently by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

8 » »

Faces Death Often

. HIS PRESENCE IN the forefront of battle is no new thing to Montgomery. He has faced death many times, both in war and peace,’ During the first world war he was mentioned six times in dispatches. ‘He also won the Croix ‘de Guerre. In the years of

-‘pedce between wars, Montgomery

saw fighting in the trans-Jordan, where he learned much of his desert lore. \ As a temporary lieutenant colonel he went to Germany with the Rhineland army of occupation

and there studied German mili-

tary methods. He returned to ‘England to become an instructor and there worked out a system of

Through clouds of smoke and flame, an American 155 mm. “Long Tom” sends a torrent of hot steel whistling to German and Italian held positions at Bir Marbott pass in Central Tunisia. Nazis fled the pass and rushed northward toward Gabes after

Americans successfully launched their biggest thrust in that sector.

prisoners between March 20 and April 12,

with the British 8th army.

Something of the personality which makes Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery an inspiration to the soldiers who fight under him is described in the accompanying dispatch, the second of three by a United Press staff correspondent who knows the general intimately and has spent many months in the desert

command which is typical—one in which the commander is able to know exactly what is happening all along the line. It was a system which proved itself against

.. Field ‘Marshal. Erwin Rommel

years later. The commands he held in England gave Montgomery a reputation for slogans. The walls of his quarters were kept covered with such mottoes as: “Are you 100 per cent fit?” - “Are you 100 per cent up to your job?” “Are you 100 per cent full of binge?” “Binge” is. Montgomery's favorite word, and quite personal. It probably means “fighting fitness” or, for an American equivalent, “zip.” It certainly doesn’t mean “bender.” Montgomery is a teetotaler, both as to tobacco and liquor, Neither does he swear. His passion: for fitness has put many of his staff officers in hospitals. He prefers to test their ability to take it before battle on the theory that it might be costly

to discover weakness in the midst

of fighting. - So Montgomery's officers undergo the most rigorous physical training. It was new to officers of the 8th army but old stuff to those who served under him in England, » ” 2 WHEN MONTGOMERY WAS commanding the invasion coast in the south of England reporters visiting ‘his headquarters were likely to see a line of middle-aged headquarters officers struggling at a dog trot across the hills. Montgomery ' had ‘ordered his men to do 10 miles a week, although some had mot. exercised since they left Sandhurst. Sometimes Monty led them. Reporters who asked whether he was afraid some of the ‘softer officers might not drop dead on such a stiff jaunt received a characteristic reply: . “If the Germans invade they'll have far more strenuous duties. I'd rather they dropped dead on me now than in the midst of an invasion.”

African Airfield Much Like

It’s the same way in the desert. In the early morning I often saw a lithe figure in battle dress or flannels and open shirt running along the sandy shores of the Mediterranean, It was Montgomery, practicing what he preaches. He proved to his officers and men quickly that he was no swivel-chair general, He dresses for action. In the field with his troops Monty wears shorts and shirt, with a revolver strapped to his waist. His favorite headgear is not the general's cap, with gold braid and crimson band, but an Australian slouch hat, covered with the insignia of units he has commanded.

» # »

Bath His Only’ Luxury

THE ONLY TOUCH of luxury Montgomery .permits himself in the desert, where it is not unusual to go for months without a bath, is frequent bathing when circumstances and the water supply permit. One of the most common sights for soldiers on their way to and from the battlefront is the vision of a sandy-haired, slightly bald head sticking out of an old tin bathtub. The tub is one of Montgomery’s prize trophies. It was captured from an Italian staff officer. Bathing is the closest Montgomery comes to playing the

are ‘utterly abstemious. He is proud of his men and believes thoroughly in the importance of their morale. Aside from physical fitness, he demands of his officers that they be the best from other military standpoints.

His frankness and brusquely di-

rect’ manner of speech can be, cutting. © An officer detailed to join his staff went directly to headquarters where Montgomery" received him with the sharp greeting: “You are a good officer but you are not good enough for ‘me.” The officer returned immediately to his previous post. His officers may ‘drink moderately, but only if it does not interfere with their duties. Sometimes,

Raising their hands high above their heads and rushing from the battlefield, these Italians might be shouting “praise the Lord” as they gladly surrender to men of the British 8th army after recent fighting in Northern Tunsia. The 8th army took 20,000

after staff talks, he serves highe balls, contenting himself with water or fruit juices, but no one may smoke during the confers ences. He warns sharply against coughing while he speaks and his talks are interrupted by recesses during. which coughing is pers mitted. » ” ”

Shuns Social Life

HIS ENTIRE MANNER and way of life are those of the proe fessional soldier and Spartan, His only club is he army and navy.

dent at Sandhurst, the British equivalent of West Point, Ale though he comes frdbm an Ulster family Montgomery is really a cockney, born in St, Mark's Vicarage hard by the oval cricket pitch ih London in 1888. He went to St. Paul's school, where John Milton was educated, and then studied at Sandhurst. Those who 'were at military school with Montgomery remems ber him as a hard worker who shunned social life. He preferred tough body contact games like rugby and hockey. He was not, interested in women until after § his career had been shaped, Friends were somewhat surprised when, in 1927, at the age of 40, he married. His wife was Mrs, Betty Carver, widow of Capt. O, A. Carver. They had one son be= fore she died in 1937. For a year after her death Montgomery hid his grief by shunning his friends,

Some of Montgomery's persons

ality-—his devotion to the bible and his abstinence from liquor— presumably derives from the fact that he was a minister's son. His father was the Rt. Rev. H. H, Montgomery, bishop of Tasmania. It is not the sort of personality which: would be expected to ene dear an officer to soldiers, but Montgomery is a man who breaks precedent. He is even a hero to his valet. ; His batman, whose name ap« propriately is Billy English, lance corporal, always speaks of Mont« gomery as “the OM,” a clipped version of “the old man.” English summed up the desert victory this

it. It'sall his doing.”

TOMORROW: : Battle Technique.

APRIL BAND TO HOLD

NOON CARD. PARTY

HOLD EVERYTHING

Tt was so In‘Bisdiys 8s a Shue.

4TH TERM AFTER ALL!

PITTSBURGH, April 27 (U.P). By DONALD COE. — Despite the furore aroused by| United. Press Staff Correspondent selection of the presidential fourth| ,. on HEADQUARTERS, term question as a subject of debate, radio’s Town Hall of the Air will be|fie broadcast from Syria Mosque asf scheduled Thursday night. When the fourth term question | every was selected, George A. Blackmore,

Those at Home, Writer Finds

stand uit the only item. on sale is the Daily Stars and Stripes at 1 franc. There is also a drinking fountain and a telephone booth made from some scrap lumber with an ordinary leather covered signal corps field telephone which con-

The April band members of the|f Altar society of St. Catherine's Catholic church will hold their regular luncheon and card party at} 12:15 p. m. tomorrow in the school hall, Shelby and Tebor sts. Chairmen are Mrs. Mary Staub, Mrs. C. R. Sheper, Mrs. Lawrence Wilson and Mes. Edward Staub. ;

Your Blood

By Elearior Roosevelt

‘My Day

10S ANGELES, Cal, Monday.—To go on with my report on the’ Japanese relocation center, which I saw last Friday, and which I told you was fairly typical of all the others. I think the outstanding impression One receives is the feeling of respect for the staff and the problems which they must ‘have faced at first. . .'When the barracks were unfinished, when water was not yet provided in sufficient quantity for the Sosy and the people were: “moved in, the place must

full time job for $19 a month and his" board and lodging. You can divide the people into three groups. 1. Those who came here many years ago and cannot be citizéns, but who. still do not wish to go back to Japan. 2. Those who are American citizens by virtue of birth and have had all their education in. this country. 3. Those who ‘weré born in this country, but: returned to Japan for their education and only came back here in 1939 and 1940. Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas have felt |*

day. Right now “the only oe 1s Tacs 1 = Gaaler and 20 one is worried about that. ‘ The field is a far cry from the {landing ground it was during the first few months of the North Af-{

tributed to the new canteen here.

have been hn only uncomfortable but very chaotic. The people, themselves, must have shown qualities of endurffnce and willingness fo co-operate, or they would have

despaired ‘of ever making life

livable, and have become useless x burdens on the government. Great ingenuity has ‘been used in pianning schools. They have organized rursery, elementary, grade and ‘high schools. They have school buildings, so they use the barracks scattered all over the place. The hospital is under the direction of an American

staffed almost entirely by Japanese = _bad a very large

the war deeply because the regiments that fought and died in the Philippines, and some of whom are now imprisoned there cathe largely from this part of the country. Their story is one of heroic bravery which will always live in the annals of the nation. It is ‘natural that here the bitterness against the enemy Japanese should run high. ] In spite of this, the people in this community, at

least, have evidently won for themselves respect wher (

ever they have had ‘to go on business in the neighborhood. It speaks well for the enforcement of law

and order, which is largely done by the evacuees|. Siegel vee. and the’ peoples own law-abiding chars] crime. :

r of any kind

Undaunted, the committee went

fs ‘Is Needed

lon uot tox Rea orm