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

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TUESDAY, JULY 27, 1943

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The Indianapolis Times

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SECOND SECTION

Hoosier Vagabond

i WITH THE U. S NAVY IN THE MEDITER‘RANEAN (By Wireless—Delayed).—Now it can be toa that we had a couple of horrible moments as we went to invade Sicily. Al the time they both looked disastrous for us but in the end they turned out with such happy endings that it seemed as though fate had deliberately waved her wand an plucked us from doom. The weather was the cause of first near-tragedy on the morning of the day on which we were to attack Sicily. That night the weather turned miserable. Dawn came up gray and misty and the sea began to kick up. Even our fairly big ship was rolling and wallowing and the little flat bottomed landing craft were tossing around like Corks. As the day wore on it grew progressively worse. By ncon the sea was rough even to professional sailors. By mid-afternoon it was breaking clear over our decks. By dusk it was absolutely mountainous. The wind howled at 40 miles an hour. You could barely gtand on deck and our far spread convoy was a wallowing, convulsive thing. In the early afternoon the high command aboard our various ships began to wrinkle their brows. They were perplexed, vexed and worried. Damn it, here the Mediterranean had been like a mill pond for a solid month and now on this vifal day this storm had to come up out of nowhere. It could corceivably turn our whole venture into a disaster that would take thousands of lives and prolong the war i.~ months.

the

Consider Postpoiring

HIGH SEAS and winds like this could cause many things suct : SLT

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bulk of our soldiers would hit the beach weak and indifferent from seasickness, two-thirds of their fighting power destroyed. 2. Our slowest barges barely creeping along against the high waves might miss the last rendevous and arrive too late with their precious armored equipment.

By Ernie Pyle

3. High waves would make launching the assault] craft from the big transports next to impossible. | Boats would be smashed, lives lost, and the attack vastly weakened. There was a time when it seemed that to avoid complete failure the invasion would have to be postpvoned 24 hours and we'd have to turn around and cruise for an extra day, increasing the chance of being discovered and heavily attacked by the enemy. I asked our commanders about it. They said, “God knows.” They would like to change the plans but it was impossible now. We'd have to go through! with it, regardless. (Later I learned that the supreme high command did actually consider postponing). In the early afternoon, we sent a destroyer back: through the fleet to find out how all the ships were! getting along. It came back with the appalling news, that 30 per cent of all the soldiers were deathly sea-| sick. i

Then Miracle Happened |

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THE OFFICERS tried to make jokes about it at| suppertime. One said: “Think of hitting the beach] tonight, seasick as hell, and with your stomach up-| side down and the very first thing you come face to} face with an Italian with a big garlic breath!”

At 10 o'clock, I lay down with my clothes on. There wasn't anything I could do and the rolling sea| was beginning to take nibbles at my stomach, too. I} never have been so depressed in my life. The next thing I knew a loud voice over the ship's loudspeaker was saying: “Standby for gunfire. some searchlighis” . I raised up, startled. The engines were stopred. There seemed to be no wind. The entire ship was ouiet as a grave. I grabbed my helmet and ran out onto the deck and stared over the rail. We were anchored and you could see dark shapes in the; Siciilan hills not far away. We had arrived. The | water lapped with- a gentie caressing sound against the sides of the motionless ship. | I looked down and the green surface of the Medi-| terranean was slick and smooth as a table top. The] assault boats already were skimming past us toward] the shore. Not a breath of air stirred. The miracle |

had happened.

We may have to shoot out

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

THAT HOMER CAPEHART is a caution. For a long time he’s had Republican organization leaders on guard because of his political ambitions and his inimitable fair for the spectacular. Now he’s even {got the Democratic state organization indignant, too. The organization has sent out a note to Democratic editors over the state warning them not to fall for — and print — Capehart's campaign material. Said the committee: “Several editors have called our attention to his material which usually begins with announcement of some of his civie or war activities and winds up with several paragraphs of Capehart propaganda. The recent navy day release (Mr. Capehart is state navy day chairman) prompted one editor to write us and suggest to other Democratic editors that they watch Capehart's publicity because printing it boosts the Republican party.” Not to fention Homer!

Move Over, Bossy

IL.T KENNETH E. AMICK has written his former ssociates at the State Aute Insurance association gn interesting letter about his experiences over in India. He was particularly amused by the cows Shich, being sacred, are permitted to do as they please. “They are all over the main part of town.” he writes, “looking in store windows and lying in he middle of the street.” The food situation must be well in hand over there, for he notes: “Today for dinner we are having fried chicken with all the trimmings and apple pie ala mode for dessert.” He adds: “In one of the towns here in India I had a chance to sell my fountain pen for 245 rupees. This is 87350 in U. S. money. That was the first yoffer and I khow I could have gotten at least $100

In Sicily

PALERMO. Sicily. 27 ‘By Wireless) —The gllied occupation of Palermo, the capital city of Sicily. wat evidentiv a welcome relief for the population. I drove in here a few hours after the city had surpendered to the Americans and found a most friendly reception along the way Several times people ran up to the automobiles and tossed lemons in. They cheered us, and often called out “hello” or “good morning.” One man, who was proud that he knew a few words of English, waved and shouted ‘good night” although it was early afternoon.” Many times I have read with skepticism accounts of how a conquered population cheered occupying troops. They never seemed to ring true to me. If I had not seen this myself f would not have believed it. Therefore you may have your doubts and may feel that I am laying it on. 2 Perhaps the Italians that I saw were not sincere. All T know is what I saw and heard. The reaction pf the crowd along the road was, I should say, a mild version of a minor political candidate's reception on a campaign tour in the United States. About like some of the Landon campaign parades, for instance; Jbetter than some I saw for Hoover during the de"pression AMavbe the fact that Americans toss out cigarets BS they drive through the villages encourages friendly reception. If so these people learn very fast, indeed, because they were out cheering, even small children ‘holding up their fingers in a victory V bright and early the morning after the Americans came in to occupy the city.

My Day

WASHINGTON, Monday. —Like evervhody else in the United States, we were excited by the news which came through yesterday afternoon announcing the resignation of Mussolini, Ohne cannot help hoping that it means the beginning of the end and shows a weakening of the dictators’ belief in themselves, which is certainly the first step to ultimate victory. At breakfast this morning two people, who have seen Italian prisoners, one in this country and one in Africa, were talking about them. I was amused to learn how friendly their attitude is. There is something in the Italian people which I think appeals to ours. These two men were saying how 4 much the prisoners sang at their tk, how well they worked and how relieved they to be out of the war.

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seen them in this country tive of the country, of their treatment. In Africa, their joys is food. They seem to

their opportunities than they have bad for a long,

parently, one of

They cannot buy fountain pens, razors watches and things like that over here now so we can name our own price. I did not sell my pen, but if I can'get some from home, I think I can; clean up. . . . I have a 25-cent G. I. razor that I think I can get about $25 for.”

Gets Times Cigarets HERE'S A V-MAIL letter from Lt. Jinmy Math- | eny. formerly of the WFBM staff. which is seifexplanatory: “Imagine my surprise to be furnished i with cigarets—miles from home, on the Atlantic—| from a box marked ‘Indianapolis Times cigaret fund.’ | Added surprise—Capt. Bill Engler (Times advertis-| ing solicitor) is on board, also. Saw Lt. Bill Metz] (another Times advertising solicitor) not so long ago. Give my regards to my pals at WFBM. (WFBM please notice.) Thanks for the smokes. . . .” The} Jaycees (Junior C. of C.) are starting their plans) already for sponsoring marine day Nov. 10. Evan Walker will be chairman again for this, the marines’ 168th anniversary.

That Star? It's Venus

for it.

THAT BRIGHT OBJECT in the western sky these, raced ‘round the Horn and spread sail for evenings is the planet, Venus. Its size and brightness) (Cathay and the Indies has

had aroused much curiosity among uninitiated. One| reader phoned us the other evening and wanted to] know what it was—thought it might be a burning balloon in the distance, except that it never seemed to burn up. We called Emsley W. Johnson Sr. the town’s leading amateur astronomer, who explained that it’s Venus, which gets to be the largest planet in the sky. Incidentally, it and Mercury are the two planets that have phases, just like the moon. . . . Our traffic signal agents report that tricky signal at the junction of roads 431 and 31 south of town is haywire again. Last time we mentioned it the signal started working the next day. Mavbe we can shame it into working again.

Potton Proud of Speed

story which I know little about. Gen. naturally proud of the speed with which the Amerfcans cut across the island. He says it may be the fastest movement of such a large volume of troops and equipment over a difficult terrain in the air. Patton said it outdoes the Germans’ early blitz. We | followed over the same road part of the way and it, was extremely hilly and winding. ! Aside from that it seems to me that this is a case of a people being sick of war, certainly weary of our attack, which has again proved devastating in Palermo. I have been around the city and some sections are a shambles. It must have been with great relief that the people saw the Americans come in and knew there would be no more bombing.

Revelation About Conquest

THE FIRST one to call on Gen. Patton at Palermo was the bishop representing the cardinal. Incidentally, the general is a Roman Catholic. The bishop asked Patton if there would be any interference with

the church and Patton said not.

ligion.

they would be killed. This trip into Palermo. just 12 hours behind the surrender, has been a revelation to me about con- | quered territory. I drove for miles from the time I left the airborne division without seeing allied sentries. There would often be groups of Italian soldiers disarmed but without guard. I saw them waiting in groups to be called for transfer to camps.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Let us hope that we can make real allies of the Italian people in the cause of future peace. I think they are a nation which really wants peace, which will bring us closer together and keep us working for an ideal in the future, that will preclude the rise of dictators and make impossible the preparation for another war. : The vice president's speech in Detroit yesterday afternoon had many statements in it which we are going to think about in the days to come. I particularly like his statement “we seek a peace that is more than just a breathing space between the death of an old tyranny and the birth of a new one” n “we cannot fight to crush Nazi brutality abroad and condone race riots at home.” More important than anything else for the future is the presentation of three outstanding peace time responsibilities. 1. The responsibility for the enlightenment of the people. 2. The responsibility for mobilizing peacetime production for full employment. 3. The responsibility for planning for world cooperation. How many groups will have to work together to

He told the bishop | that one of our fundamental rules is freedom of re-| He asked the bishop to tell the people their soldiers had fought magnificently but to urge them | to spread the word that further fighting would be | a waste of biood because if they did not stop Rghting

accomplish these ends! It means a full-time job

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SHIPS : 7%

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(BY EE

U.S. Merchantmen Winner in War's Battle of Shipping

(First of a Series)

Again and again this scene (above) is being duplicated as victory ships’ construction is accelerated. Left: Lewis W. Douglas, head of the war shipping administration.

A AISI POD I,

By CHARLES T. LUCEY

Times Special Writer

NEW YORK, July 27.—The proudest

| fleet of merchantmen ever to carry the

Stars and Stripes to the seven seas has bested the full fury of enemy naval might to win the greatest war shipping battle

in history.

Never since America's first clippers

fleet been set so severe a task as today. vet the long supply lines have been kept open to men and nations pleading for the supplies of war, All over the world men have marveled at the miracle that is U. S. shipping. On the icy path to Murmansk and Archangel, through the Indian ocean and Persian gulf to Basra, ovt across the Pacific to a little green island paradise turned into a battle hell. Through good days and bad. gales and black squalis and crashing

| seas, with never a pause since

By Raymond Clapper

Pearl Harbor. Shipping. said men two ears ago—there was the weak link. Armies we could build and mu-

| nitions to arm them, but there THE MILITARY side of this operation is another | Patton is

wouldn't be ships to carry them.

Story of WSA

But ships poured out of U. S. shipyards and an organization called the war shipping administration came into being to direct this biggest of transport assignments. And this is the story of WSA, a boldly alert government unit which has turned the knowhow and fine technical skill of the U. S. shipping industry into maintenance of a new bridge of ships across the world. It was one thing before, the war, to run a single fleet in the bauxite trade to the Guianas or the rubber trade to the Dutch Indies. Routes were long-estab-lished, harbors ample. It is something else, today, to run the combined U. S. fleets, and with them ships flying the flags of a half-dozen other nations, plus a spanking new fleet from the shipyards. Not over set routes into well-tailored harbors but in devious, submarine-skirting paths into medieval barge - and - scow ports which never saw big ships before. In the last war the U. S. shipping problem was limited largely to a 6500-mile round voyage to and from France. Today WSA is moving military supplies over a 17.000-mile round trip to and from Australia and—though the Mediterranean’s opening will alter this—a 28.000-mile out-and-back voyage to the Persian gulf with Russian war supplies.

Cargoes Double

Yet twice the volume of direct military cargo has moved to U. S. troops abroad in this war than in a comparable 1917-18 period. The WSA has these chief functions—to carry military supplies and related cargoes to battle areas, to bring back strategic materials, to carry lend-lease materials not carried by our allies and to transport civilian exports determined by the state department and other agencies to be essential to our national wartime interests. Lewis W. Douglas, as deputy WSA administrator to Admiral Emory S. Land, is the man to whom direction of this fleet has

been Intrusted. A forger U. 8.

the nation’s

budget director, he came into the war effort intending to go to London to aid in distribution of lendlease supplies there. But he found shipping, key to supply transport to Britain, a greater problem than distribution after they got there, and he stayed in Washington to run this vital job. Ship lines, their activities now programmed by WSA, continue to carry the flag around the world. Most of them United States Lines, American Export, United Fruit, Grace, Moore-McCormack, Atlantic Gulf & West Indies, Matson, American President, American South African, Alcoa, Isthmian, Calmar and the rest— carry on as agents of WSA,

Perhaps more fully than any other industry shipping has gone to war. When the war came the WSA was moved vigorously to convert the merchant flee, stripping the peacetime services for a new battle of the seas.

Experts Do Job

Shipping, as Mr, Douglas has pointed out, is a technical business, and the greater part of the operating personnel of WSA has come from U. S. shipping companies. Executives of some of these companies have been called on to handle extremely important war shipping missions. WSA, working with army, navy and lend - lease, decides what cargo is to be taken where, and the agents, operating their own ships which have been taken cover on a charter basis by the government, do the actual operating to get it there. Around the nucleus of the American merchant marine, a live, going, growing concern, around the trained personnel of the shipping lines, their masters

FUNNY BUSINESS

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“George always makes circular garden beds so he can work in Lida ‘the Shade!” - re :

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And here's a view of action to which the merchantmen are getting accustomed: an escort vessel of an Atlantic convoy has dropped a depth bomb.

engineers and able WSA has collected fieet, growing by

and mates, seamen, the this vast war the dav. When America went to war and even before, when billicns in lend-lease supplies were being sent to the allies, the government went into the maritime graveyards to resurrect ships long abandoned and unworthy, on any ordinary commercial basis, of rehabilitation. It went into harbors all over the world, often with the aid of friendly governments and discreet use of “influence,” to pick ships right out from under the noses of the Germans and Italians. Friendly South American countries aided by requisitioning for the U. S. seme ships under their flags but operating in foreign waters. German, Italian and Danish ships were seized in U. S. ports, ” ” a

Use Intricate System

Smart operation of this vast fleet is pegged on a control system whose fingers reach out to Calcutta or Cape Town or Sydney, to tell just where every one of the ships in this vast fleet is at al! times—whether in convoy or racing along a protected foreign shore, loading or unloading, or hung up for repairs. Convoys dominate U. 8S wartime shipping operations. In the gray dawn of tomorrow or the next day or the next, in some one of America’s great ocean ports, dozens of ships will weigh anchor and steam slowly out for a naval escort rendezvous and the long, grueling haul to the war fronts. A few days earlier these ships were steaming up from the Caribbean with oil or bauxite, from Africa with manganese, from the Gulf with sulphur, from Austrelia

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with wool. The navy had set a convoy date after the army had defined the shipping space it would need. The war shipping auministration, because it maintains precise “position” reports on its entire fleet, was able to go into its records and find just the ships that would make up this newest convoy. It might mean figuring right down to the hour the time needed for increasing a ship's armament, for closing seams or repairing engines, for unloading and loading, synchronizing a whole merchant armada so as not to clog pier and harbor facilities.

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Essential Cargo Only

Right down to the last couple of days they were switching ships

—repairs take longer than antici-

pated on one scheduled to sail, or another runs into trouble at sea and doesn't reach port in time, or it's found that a 10<knot ship can take the place of a 14-knotter whose speed would be wasted in convoy, anyway. Wartime shipping frequently is cut to quite a different pattern from that of peacetime ocean commerce, because the pay-off is ship time rather than ship reve enue. There's the vast tonnage that goes out to the Persian gulf for the Russians, for example. What we can bring back from that area by way of vitally needed war supplies is limited, and so ships often may run in ballast— without cargo—back around the tip of South Africa and across to South America to pick up bauxite (for aluminum) or other needed cargo, and then sail back to this country. That may have meant thousands of miles traveling light— something a commercial ship operator would not want to do. But with a nation at war the argument is against bringing in nonessential cargo, even if it means long passage to pick up some that is essential. And in this case it means sending one

DISCUSS POSSIBLE KEMPER SUCCESSOR

Speculation has started in political circles as to who will get the

nod from Senator VanNuys for ap-|.

pointment as U. 8. collector of customs for southern Indiana to suc-

ceed Charles Kemper who died July | |

15. Several are known to have made application, but action may be delayed because congress is in recess. Appointment is by the same procedure as in the case of postmasters. Since the death of Mr. Kemper, who held the post for more than four years, Ralph E. Compton, his assistant, is acting collector. Mr. Compton, a civil service employee as is everyone in the office but the collector, has been in the

office for 41 years and has served)

under nine collectors.

The base pay for the post is $4600 | annually, plus a $300 war boutls for added duties. ’

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This Is a view, looking from bow to stern, showing how decks of Liberty ships rise between bulk heads.

—— i a ——— —

less ship out from the U. 8. to pick up the bauxite that must be brought back to keep planes rolling out of U. S, plants. Nonessential loading means ship delay-—the time it takes to load vessels in a foreign port and unload again in this country. Operating in isolated little poris unheard of until war came means a constant check against harbor facilities, It does little good to get 30-ton tanks safely across an ocean and into a port whose antiquated booms or derricks — if there are any at all—can pick only 10 tons off the deck of a ship. Always you must know that your ship can't get over the bar in harbor No. 1 until it has unload=ed part of its cargo at harbor No. 2. . ” » ”

Critical Spots at Home

The war shipping operation hasn't been letter periect. It's a fact that to satisfy insistent Russian demands we sent more ships into the Persian gulf than could possibly be unloaded. The result was congestion. That's being eased today by tighter WSA ship control and transport of port facilities from this country across two oceans. Here at home there have been some critical spots—repairs are one. It’s difficult to write a ship repair contract containing an incentive to complete work rapidly, and cost - plus - percentage contracts are out. WSA people are critical of what they say has been an excess of unproductive labor in ship repair—too many men doing nothing but standing fire watch (partly the result of the Normandie fire): union jurisdictional niceties which have kept two or three crews on the job when there should have been only one. This unproductive labor, it is charged, has cost millions of dollars. Mr. Douglas concedes that mis takes have been made. It's inconceivable that so vast an unders taking would be without them. Ship operators have been critical over charter and hire arrangements: unions have charged inefficient handling. But the job is being done. No military campaign has bogged down for lack of shipping. The house appropriations committee, atter reviewing this country’s war shipping performance, had this to say last month: ‘The Ainerican merchant marine is rendering a heroic service and writing an illustrious chapter in this war. When the full history of werld war II is writ« ten the programs, the administra=tion and the functioning of the maritime commission and the war shipping administration, both througn construction and operation, from the top admiral down to the commissioned line to ships’ officers and seamen and from the civilian directory to the supplementary civilian personnel, will be found to be a magnificent contribution to victory.”

TOMORROW: Ship's positions are Washington's most closely guarded secrets,

HOLD EVERYTHING ALPMABET soup /s5¢

1 ~£0s DINER nN LL Newry,

“This must be some of that ivose talk we were warned about!”