Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 July 1943 — Page 15

{ THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1943 A

—

Hoosier Vagabond

; WITH THE U. 8. NAVY IN THE MEDITERIRANEAN (By Wireless, Delayed) —In invasion parlance the day you strike a new country is called D-day and the time you hit the beach is H-hour. In the invasion contingent for which I am a very biased rooter H-hour was set for 2:45 a. m,, July 10. This was when the first mass assault on the beach was to begin. Actually the paratroopers and Rangers were there several hours before. The other two large American forces, which traveled from North Africa in separate units, hit the beaches far down to our right about the same time. You could tell when they landed by the shooting during the first hour or so of the assault. It seemed to me out on our ship that all hell was breaking loose ashore but now that I look back upon it from a firmer foundation, actually knowing what happened, it doesn’t seem so very dramatic. As I've said before, most of our special section was fairly easy to take and our naval guns didn’t send any fireworks ashore until after daylight. The assault troops did all the preliminary work with rifles, grenades and machine guns. Out on ship we gould hear the bop, bop, bop of the machine guns, first short bursts, then long ones. I don’t know whether I heard any Italian ones or not. In Tunisia you could always tell the German machine guns because they fired so much faster than ours, but that night all the shooting seemed to be of one tempo. one quality.

7 » > » "Ws ® : Tracers Avced Through Air NOW AND THEN we could see a red tracer bullet sircing through the darkness and I remember one that must have ricocheted from a rock for suddenly

it turned and went straight up into the sky a long

way. Now and then there was the quick flash of a hand grenade. There was no aerial combat during the night and only a few flares shot up from the beach. To be factual, our portion of the night assault on Sicily

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

ROY W. STEELE of the C. of C. staff arrived home one evening this week and found himself in a “spot.” ‘In the mail that day was a statement from a local department store acknowledging they had received irom him for storage a lady’s fur coat valued at $660. © “What's this?” asked Mrs. Steele inquiringly. Roy didn't know, but he got busy right away and found the statement should have gone to another Mr. Steele. Whew! . . . Somebody over at the city hall has fixed that sinkhole on 1llinois just south of Washington and now folks won't get splashed on rainy days. Thanks. . . . Seen on Monument circle Tuesday afternoon: A man standing in front of the Circle tower, attempting to sail his sailor straw hat across the street and into the monument fountain. The first attempt fell short—in the street, in tact. He dodged traffic and picked it up, and tried again. Made a bull's-eye that time. Must be the heat.

Too Much Buzzin’

HOT WEATHER, heavy loads and crabby passengers make life miserable for bus and trolley operators these days. Most of the operators hold their tempers pretty well, but once in a while one lets go. An example: It was on a Central bus Tuesday evening. A young man who had been carried past his stop a couple of days before gave the buzzer cord a stout yank for 53d st. The operator turned around and coldly said: “Just ring the buzzer, fella; don't lay on it.” Another’ passenger asked: “Whatsa matter, you got nerves that jingle, jangle, jingle?” “No,” snapped the operator, “I just get tired of it all.” . . . Which reminds us that Jim Tretton, vice president "and general manager of the street railway, is in New York this week attending a meeting of the executive committee of the American Transit association. , . .

In Africa

AN ALLIED AIR FORCES COMMAND POST, North Africa (By Wireless).—The resignation of Muss8lini came less than a week after the allied bombing of Rome. Until further information is available in Rome itself, the real inciting factor in his retirement can only be guessed at, but it seems probable that it can be set down as one of the most spectacular achievements of airpower. After the parade of American Flying Fortresses and other bombers, including low-altitude craft, over the capital of Italy in broad daylight with only minor losses, Mussolini must have recognized the portent in the sky. For portent is certainly what it seemed like over Rome a week ago. This mighty force bombing the eternal , city with only trivial resistance could spell nothing

~ ¢ but the uitimate defeat of Italy.

Sictlians Want Peace

THE SPECTACULAR progress of the allied forces in Sicily, especially around Palermo, where it has been largely a parade eastward for the last few days, must also have had its effect on the regime at Rome. "Equally important was the eager welcome extended by the residents of captured towns in Sicily, revealing their relief that the fighting was over. I spent two days in Palermo, and I saw for myself the unmistakable welcome of the population as the Americans came in, I went on from Palermo east as far as our artillery was at that time, and everywhere our group was cheered and fruit was thrown to us. I was hit in the face with a bunch of grapes—thrown as a friendly gesture, not as a missle. There was not an ugly incident of any kind. Obviously the people of Sicily cared about nothing except having the war over.

‘My Day

. HYDE PARK, WEDNESDAY —I have just read the August copy of New Threshold. I must confess to feeling extremely humble, for not until I read my own article did I realize that I had not caught a typographical error in the proof in the very first sentence. : The incident which I used in the opening paragraph was, of course, one that appeared in the paper, when a sailor stood up in the gallery of congress, after listening to a lengthy debate, and demanded to know: “Are we fighting the Civil war all over again?” I would not be guilty of pinning this remark on any senator, and I have asked the editor of New Threshod to make this correction in the next issue. The fault was entirely mine, The error my copy and I did not notice it in proof-read-

was suppose when things are firmly fixed in one’s

in ing. I

By Ernie Pyle

was far less spectacular than the practice landings I'd seen our troops do back in Algeria. A more spectacular show was in the sector to] our right, some 12 or 15 miles down the beach. There | the 1st infantry division was having stiff opposition! and their naval escort stood off miles from shore | and threw steel at the enemy artillery in the hills. It was the first time I'd ever seen tracer shells used at night in big guns and it was fascinating. From where we sat it was like watching a tennis game played with red balls except all the balls went in one direction, You would see a golden flash way off in the darkness. Out of the flash would go shooting a tiny red dot. That was the big shell. It covered the first quarter of the total distance almost instantly. Then it would uncannily begin a much

slower speed as though it had put on a brake.

Our Portion Was Best

OUR PORTION of the American assault went best of all. The 1st division on our right had some bitter opposition and the 45th on beyond them had some rough seas and bad beaches. But with us everything was just about perfect. Our navy can't be given too much credit for putting the troops ashore the way they did. You can’t realize what a nearly impossible task it is to arrive in the dead of night at exactly the right spot with your convoy, feel your way in through the darkness, pick out the very pinpoint of an utterly strange shoreline which you've been told long beforehand to hit, then put your boat safely ashore right there. In our sector every boat hit every beach just right. They tell me it is the first time in history that it has ever been accomplished. The finest tribute to the navy’'s marksmanship came from one soldier who later told this to Maj. Gen. Truscott, his division commander: ‘Sir, I took my little black dog with me in my arms and I sure was scared standing in that assault boat. Finally we hit the beach and as we piled out into the water we were worse scared than ever. Then we waded ashore and looked around and there right ahead of me was a white house just where you said it would be and after that I wasn't scared.”

Capt. Fritz Souder, formerly of the City Securities Corp., has been home on leave. He's stationed near Washington.

Around the Town

A RESTAURANT on the west side of the 100 block, S. Illinois st, has confiicting signs in its win-| dows. One, a permanent sign, reads: “We never close.” The other, a cardboard sign: “Closed till Aug. 19.” . « « Cpl. John L. Butler, former Times photographer, is home on furlough from Wheeler field, Hawaii. He's been helping to put out the field's newspaper. . , . Also home, on seven-day leave, is Lt. Davis Harrison, the lawyer. He has been stationed at a naval air base in the east. , , . First Lt. Charles V. (Chick) Bailey, who used to work at The Times, saw action at Bizerte, according to a letter received here, and by now probably is in Sicily. . . . One of our readers reports a floral oddity—a sunflower with red blooms. It's on the west side of the garage at the home of John Craig, on the northeast corner of Linden and Calhoun sts.

Not the Lone Eagle

WHEN A TALL army officer walked in and left his watch to be repaired, Thomas Prather, jeweler at 1107 S. Meridian, thought the officer looked familiar. The officer wrote his name on a card which

Mr. Prather attached to the watch. Later, he looked at the card and noted it said: Col. Lindeburg. Mr.| Prather thought it must be the “Lone Eagle,” and showed the card to a friend, who told us about it. Re- | calling that Col. Charles A. Lindbergh had resigned his commission about a year ago, we investigated and found that the officer who left the watch was Col. Alfred Lindeburg, head of the army training division at the army air depot at the fairgrounds. . . » One of the most interesting display windows in town is in Wasson's Monument circle store. It has a tempting assortment of home canned foods. Makes us hungry just to look at it,

By Raymond Clapper

They probably feel that the Americans want nothing from Sicily. On the contrary, they all had their palms out asking for cigarets and bread—they have| had a shortage of food, and no meat for five months. | Furthermore, when I saw the complete destruction of the waterfront and harbor works, with several; ships blasted out of the water and lying on the docks, | it was clear why the people were so glad to have the | war over. A third of the population had fled away from the bombing. On top of everything else, since the allies’ first! successful landings in Sicily we have brought ashore! an enormous army, fully motorized and armored, both British and American, revealing a tremendous strength plus the ability to land in on hostile shores, That] must have had its effect on Rome,

An Unconditional Surrender

BACK IN the states I recall it was often said there would be no military advantage in knocking Italy out of the war because the allies could not get) over the Alps. Airmen here laugh at that. They say,! “Give us airfields in Italy and we'll bomb Germany | to her knees.” They point to the Ruhr as an example of what can be done all over Germany once they get within range. The allied air force has just made its longest raid! from North Africa—to Bologna, which is a round trip of 1500 miles, or 300 miles more than the Rome | trip. The trouble is that the Ruhr is only one part of industrial Germany. But once we get deeply in— and that will be possible from England as the nights grow longer—new areas of Germany will be devastated! from the air. |

ha

A heavy gun goes aboard a merchantman,

False Deck Idea

Of WSA

Gets

Planes Across

(Third of a Series)

By CHARLES T. LUCEY Times Special Writer NEW YORK, July 29.—The lights at 45 Broadway, burned late the night of Feb. 10, 1942. That afternoon, from the war shipping administration at Washington, had come word of hundreds of that must be carred to the Per-

sian gulf for the Russians. The ships to do it just weren't in sight. Capt. Granville Conway, Atlantic ceast director for WSA, had gathered two or three assistants and set to work. No one had done what they were proposing here this night—large scale deck-load-ing of tankers—but never was there a better time to jettison an old idea or two, The difficulty. of course, would be lack of freeboard, or clearance, be:ween sea and deck. Tankers ride low in the sea with decks often awash and one sweep of salt water would ruin the finest planes built. No, said some shipping men, it couldn't be done. = = =

Conway Persists

BUT WHY, Capt. Conway and his men persisted, cquldn’t false decks be built, and bombers needed across the seas placed on a webbing cf high stools, or stilts, to keep them iree of water? Ana so, this night, against a blueprint of ships’ decks, they worked with tiny paper plane models cut to scale, turning them now this way. now that, to see how the greatest loads could be carried, Next day a shipboard meeting was called and scale plans checked against the real thing. Ten planes

| could be fitted on this tanker, 13

on another, and so on. When stevedore hosses reported diagrams called for more planes aboard than would go, war shipping administration men clambered over the ships to show how wings and tails must be fitted. For Capt. Conway and his staff it was like walking a tightrope. Stalin was demanding our fullest help and a way had to be found to deliver, Political as well as military dynamite rode on the answer.

Tankers were fitted one after another and, bombers high aboard, off they sailed for the Persian gulf, As they will with even the friendliest of allies, differences arose between British and U., S. war shipping people. London, as soon as the planes-aboard-tank-ers experiment was heard of, cabled that mature opinion was that if the bombers ever reached the other side, they'd be in no condition to fly. But already a couple of hundred planes, aboard tankers, were strung out across the oceans. ew

Anxious Days

THOSE WERE anxious days, and this a trying test, for the war shipping administraticn. But then, from South Africa, came the cable: “Californian first Capetown April 12, good order.” Another came the next day— “Master reports deck cargo in good order.” And again a few days later, “No damage to deck cargo.” Hundreds of planes have been carried that way since-—carried even through winter seas on the North Atlantic, and with only minor or infrequent damage. If it hadn't been so, transport delays inevitably would have been a drag on air squadrons sailing out across the Dover cliffs to blast Germany and out from Tunisia to blast axis supply columns, Often those planes would have been waiting on American docks. But the high stools, Capt. Conway's war shipping administration men found, were too inflexible. They worked well as long as you shipped the same type of planes, needing supports in .the same places, every time. But shifting from a fighter plane

ship arrived deck cargo

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The Indianapolis Times QM Ae 15, SHIPS: 7%

SARE AY

to an attack bomber meant ripping our welding whic held stool supports to decks, and steaming and cleaning steel before new stools could be welded into position. Out of these difficulties came what Capt. Conway has called the Meccano deck—elevated, like the stools, about seven feet above the regular deck cof the tanker, but with cross-supports for planes or other vehicles adjustable so they can be changed readily, a

Carry Tank Cars TODAY A large number of allied tankers—including British— have these false decks which have carried millions of cubic feet of fighting cargo into the war zones, And not alone are planes carried on them, but railroad tank cars being taken overscas to carry fuel supplies, gliders, PT boats and motor trucks, Deck cargo on freighters is an old story, but it's new, in such volume as war has brought, on decks of low-rolling tankers. It isn’t merely that valuable cubic space is saved below decks of cargo ships, though this is vital in a war which began with “We haven't got the ships to do the job” an accepted catch-phrase. Importantly, it is the time taken to tear down large pieces of material, such as planes, get them through deck hatches and into holds without damage, lift them out again and assemble them in a faraway port where assembly facilities may be negligible. * Ideas on deck-loading of cargo . vessels have been largely overhauled by the WSA since war began. In earlier days two or three planes to a deck was the accepted practice. Noses always had to point forward, the wings must be placed just so. WSA said enough planes never could be sent to Africa that way, worked out new ways of fitting them into areas between hatches, booms and deckhouses, and often carried more

than a dozen. Tankers have carried as many as 20, ? 8 3

‘Full-and-Down’

TIME AND again these were experiments that put WSA on the spot. This kind of deck loading hadn't been tried before, and if planes arrived in the Red ses or Persian gulf in such condition that they couldn't be flown the reaction would be extremely critical. But WSA, with vast backlogs of cargo to be moved, took the chance and wou. There's a phrase in the shipping business, “full-and-down,” which has hecome cne of the most meaningful of the war. It applies to ship loading—full as to cubic content, down as to the Plimsoll line which establishes how deeply into the water a ship may be loaded safely. You can load a ship full end it will be far from being “on its mark.” You can put it on its mark with heavy, high-concen-tration weight cargo and it will be far from full, and there may be tens of thousands of cubic space going to waste at a time when movement of war cargo overscas demands that every possible inch of hold and ’tweendeck area be utilized. The trick is to balance the two, hence a constant attempt to load ships “full and down.” Transport of sulphur and phosphate from Gulf ports to Britain —a vital war movement—has involved a studied application of full and down. An 8400-ton sulphur cargo will put a freighter right on its mark, but it leaves 240,000 feet of cubic capacity unused. » an. ¥®

Combining the Cargoes

STUDYING THIS loading, the WSA went to the British to effect a combination of much more bulky cotton cargo, which Britain also needed, with the phosphate. It meant substituting 3800 tons of bale cotton for 3800 tons of

BOOST PLANNED |'House of Tomorrow’ Is Still Long Way Off, Says Expert

FOR SCHRICKER

6th District Democrats At Aug. 8 Meeting.

The fourth of a series of formal |

push-button gadgets, likely still will the house of tomorrow when the

‘war is over, according to Carl F.

Boester, senior research member of

Purdue university, Prefabricated houses, Mr. Boester

I don’t know what our high policy Will be, but resolutions indorsing GOVernor gus are now inthe same stage as I hope we stick to the unconditional swrrender of Henry F. Schricker as a candidate {yo automobile of 1900.

Italy. I hope we accept no conditions at all, so that| we can go in and use Italy the same as we have; used Tunisia, as a base for pushing the war still further towdrd Germany, That is essential.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

of the other incident in the papers must have realized my mistake, but I cannot let it go without this public apology. Some people have written me to ask me if I was advocating mixed marriages and I would like to make it clear that I would never advocate this. Ii seems to me that in the mixing of racial strains, the difficulties which always exist in any marriage are greatly enhanced. Races will mix, however. Even in this country we see the evidences of this mixture. In the meantime, many generations and countless individuals are involved in the difficulties and suffering occasioned by mixed marriage. The knowledge of this will keep anyone from advocating such mairiages if they love the people and want them to be happy. This is an individual decision none of us will be able to do anything about. Nothing should ever keep us from advocating, however, for all races that come

for “higher public office” is expected to be adopted by sixth district Democrats at a meeting Sunday,

Aug. 8, at Turkey Run state park.

Democratic leaders of three other districts, the seventh, ninth and tenth, adopted resolutions at recent meetings, indorsing the governor's candidacy for any office he might wish to seek in 1944. The governor's friends are not committing him to any specific office, leaving him open to run for U. S. senator, the vice presidency or perhaps even the presidency. The indorsemetnts are being made irrespective of whether Senator Frederick VanNuys decides to run for re-election, meaning that the state organization leadership intends to back the governor regardless of what Senator VanNuys decides to do. , State Democratic Chairman Fred Bays called the sixth district meeting.

CONQUERING MALARIA Atabrine is producing results in

together as citizens in our land, or that we meet the Amazon rubber country; in one throughout the world, equal respect and equal op- area malaria, which recently af-

FE

: ity. Only in this way can we Live side by side

fected 15 per cent of the population,

oS

He predicts that while a few peo-

{ple will try revolutionized houses

and equipment immediately after the war that more than 70 per cent of the houses will be the same as before.

Some CHanges, However

However, there will be changes after the war, Mr. Boester explained. There'll be different designs in stoves, new methods of waste disposal and improvements in heating. More modern transportation facilities, such as an increased use of the airplane and the helicopter, will cause a more decentralized home, he said. The war has taught research men much about housing, in Mr. Boester’'s opinion, especially in the combination and substitution of materials. They also have learned that as living habits change, shelter must change to meet those requirements. The primary interest of the research foundation at Purdue, Mr. Boester explained, has been to devise inexpensive houses for the lowincome groups. Instead of the $8000 : which last for

ciative investment,” he stated. the housing research division at accelerate production, create a demand for houses by con{suming them.”

The house of tomorrow with its|or 100 years, he said, there will be | collapsible walls and all the latest]

Formal Resolution Seen by

more of the three, five and sevenyear houses. “We must look at housing as a commodity instead of as an appre“To

we must

Mr. Boester was guest speaker at the Indianapolis Kiwanis club luncheon meeting yesterday at the Columbia club.

ROBOTS SPEED WORK ON GASOLINE, RUBBER

Times Special Robots, quicker on the job than the most skilled technician, are playing a key role in the production of aviation gasoline for our fighting planes, butadiene for synthetic rubber and toluene for TNT and other high explosives. The robots open and close valves with split-second timing, thus keeping the production of vital war materials on a schedule of maximum speed. In the manufacture of products like the ones mentioned, production depends upon the intermittent flow of steam, air and hot gasses through an intricate system of piping and tanks. The necessary chemical reactions require that the gases follow each other at in-

KEEP DETOURS

AT A MINIMUM

State Keeps Roads Clear For Traffic in Wartime.

While road construction progress on several of the state's major highways, detours are being kept at a mihimum because of war-

time transportation, S. C. Hadden, highway commission chairman, said today. Dual lane construction is in progress on road 20 in Porter county, road 40 between Greenfield and Knightstown and road 41 north of Evansville, but there are no detours on 40 or 41 and only west bound traffic on 20 is affected. A change in route of road 31 at Edinburg is under construction without a detour. In addition to the detour for west bound traffic on 20 in Porter county, a detour for trueks with a gross weight of over 10 tons is in effect on road 24 east from Monticello, detours on road 31 between Argos and Plymouth and at the south edge of South Bend, and a detour on road 150 north of West Terre Haute are the only major substitute roads. The highway commission is confronted with an added problem because of sudden changes in temperature, They have caused contrac-

is in

tions and expansions which have | added about $3000 to normal main

5 In seven :

Looking down (top) on part of the deck of a ship that will take these planes to some distant battlefront; below, close-up of a plane aboard ship, destined for the front,

phosphate to provide a full-ande down ship, and it also lifted a Gulf-to-the-Atlantic cotton care rying load from the backs of ale ready overburdened railroads.

The Liberty ship, which has saved America’s life, in a shipping sense, works out a full-and-down loading with an average of 57 cubic feet to a ton of cargo. Load one full-and-down in the Gulf, shipping men know, and she'll lighten 38 tons a day, by virtue of fuel and water used, on a trip out to the Atlantic and up the coast. On 15 days sailing into an east coast port, that would mean 570 tons of new lifting capacity made available before beginning a trip overseas. Shipping men know, too, that they can put 10 tankers, 10 gliders or eight attack bombers on the deck of a Liberty ship. They may put aboard 10 gliders, weigh= ing 100 tons. That still leaves 470 tons of lifting capacity. So

the war shipping administration

sees to it that fuel bunkers are “topped off"—oil loaded in to capacity. ” ” n

Every Load Counts

NOW, A LIBERTY SHIP will burn roughly 1200 tons of oil to a round trip to the United Kingdom, as against its 2200 tons of bunker capacity. Arrangements are made to pump out this surplus in England. Every 12 ships so loaded can leave in Britain a full tanker load of oil without displac= ing or shutting out ‘other vital cargoes. That's making U. S, shipping count to the fullest at a time when every vessel on the seas faces the constant threat of sube marine attack. It’s much the same with utiliza« tion of sugar vessels coming out of the Caribbean headed first for an Atlantic coast port, and then, in convoy, for Great Britain, Here WSA men attempt to get by cable a description of just what space may he available for light bulk cargo when the vessel docks in the United States. It isn’t enouzh to know that there may be 100,000 cubic feet available—it must be known, for example, that the space is in No. -1 and No. 4 hatches, whether the clearance to deck ceiling is six feet or seven, Only by such detail can shipment of extra jeeps or trucks or food stuffs be planned. If a ship is just one inch above her deep loading line in the water when she lifts anchor to go out and meet her convoy, that means 50 tons of weight capacity lost, Sometimes, in the speed of convoy preparations, perfect loading isn'é always possible. But full-ande down is a “war shipping adminise tration goal always kept right in sight.

TOMORROW — Every bit of cargo space is used.

HOLD EVERYTHING