Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 August 1943 — Page 9
\ ; | i MONDAY, AUG. 2, 1943
The Indianapolis Times
SECOND SECTION
Hoosier Vagabond
& / SOMEWHERE IN SICILY— (By Wireless, Delayed) ( =—After being ashore all the first days of our Sicilian Invasion, I went back to the ship and stayed aboard almost a week before coming ashore.
It was my hope to do a complete picture of the navy’s part in sucly actions as this, and the navy's part didn't end the moment it got the assault troops ashore, Our headquarters vessel patrolled back and forth between the American sectors, kept an eye on the shore in case help was needed, directed the fire of other ships. mothered new convoys by wireless, issued orders and advice throughout the area, and from time to time scurried in swift circles when planes appeared in the sky. For despite the enemy's obvious air weakness, he did manage to sneak over a few planes several times a day. The day after D Day, general quarters was sounded on our ship 15 times. Nobody got any rest, day or night. The sailors worked like Trojans. When I try to picture our soldiers and sailors in mp back home now, I always visualize—and no doubt wrongly—a draftee who is going through his training lik: a man, but still reluctantly and without interest. There isn't a breath of that left over here. Once you are in action that’s all gone, It goes because now you are working. You are working to stay tlive, and not because somebody tells you to work.
Yiarm Brings Wild Rush
YOU SHOULD see our sailors when general quarters sounds. They get to their stations by charging oyer and knocking things down. I have seen them arrive at gun stations with nothing but their drawers en. I've seen officers upset their dinner and be clear
Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum
EARL RUSS, the architect, recalls an old German military saving that, “He who attacks Germany bites on iron.” Earl is intrigued by the fact the leader of oui attack on Germany and her axis partners in crime is Gen. Eisenhower, whose name, in German, means y “hewer of iron.” I't has an ominous sound for Nazidom, doesn't it! , .. Mrs. Elmer Roesener, wife of the Central Transfer Co. secretary, was down at their farm in Brown county Wednesday evening. She and some friends were picking blackberries when the storm came up, so they took refuge in a small shed nearby. But they quickly discovered their error—there was a very active skunk in the shed. So they had to dash right out in the rain again. . . . While the Jap sub was on Monument circle Friday noon, the announcer, speaking over the public address system, informed the crowd that “Ayers Lamarr and his Southern Mansion orchestra are coming out here on the Monument steps der this blazing sun to give you some music. Let's £112 them a big hand.” One of two young women selling war bonds in a roofless ticket bocth right in front of the orchestra, muttered: “Hot sun? What's he think we're doing here!”
Breaks Heel Bowe
DR. CHARLES W. MYERS, city hospital superinn‘endent, is on the casualty list with a fracture of the os calecis, which is medicalese for a broken heel bone. Doc was standing on a ladder at his farm near Clermont a couple of weeks ago trimming a caterpillar= infested limb from a tree when the ladder broke,
in Sicily
SOMEWHERE IN SICILY (By Wireless—Delayed). After landing in Sicily, we left the runway in a jeep, stopping at the headquarters tent. We introduced
ourselves to the major in command, who said to me: &] always used to read you in the New York WorldTelegram, although I didn't always agree with you.” That familiar observation was the first remark to greet me in Sicily. It made me feel right at home. The major invited us to bivouac in his camp overnight. We drove into a grove to organize ourselves. I put my cot under an almond tree, from which I hung a mosquito net, an essential in this malaria locality. Jack Thompson, Chicago Tribune correspondent, who hides his youthful face under a long beard that is well known all over Africa, and who had just jumped with our parachutists during the first landing in Sicily, set his cot up next to me. Richard McMillan of the United Press, a veteran of the 8th army's desert campaign, and Tom Henry of the Washington Star spread their bedrolis on the ground. Artist George Biddle had a pneumatic mattress, the dude.
The Almonds Were Fine
SOME OF US had lugged army cots around for days and now we are drawing dividends by getting a good night's sleep out of them. In half an hour we were set for the night. Henry stretched out to read 8 book. Biddle began sketching. Thompson, McMiltan and I cracked almonds and found them gcod eating. Two hours earlier we had been in Africa. Now we were on Italian soil, with our own airfield around us, covered with allied aircraft. Pilots sitting in their afhters ready to go up—aithough actually nobody had
My Day
HYDE PARK, Sunday, Aug. 1.—Friday’s HeraldTribune carried a little item that the destroyer on which our son, Franklin Jr, is executive officer, had heen bombed off the coast of Sicily. They were not Yrectly hit and they fought off the bombers, but I / ; know the way it feels when someone calls you up and says in what you knew is an intentionally casual tone, “Franklin Jr. is all right.” That happened to me Thursday evening, and then followed what
details were known so far and my"
heartaches - for those whose boys are not “all right” Finally, I asked whether Franklin Jr.s wife had been told, and, learning that she still knew necthing I promised to call her up on the telephone. did so and had just started to speak to her when I rfalized T was talking without any response. In a minute she came back on the wire and said: “Please gals all over again, I did not hear what you said, id the first words gave me heart failure” I realized A that I hadn't been much better as a news-giver my husband a
By Ernie Pyle
out of the wardroom by the time the second “beep!” of the alarm signal sounded. And the boys on the guns—you would hardly recognize them. Shooting at planes isn’t a duty for them it’s an outlet. Bombs fell in our vicinity for several days. The raiders went mostly for the beaches where barges were unloading. The axis radio said our beaches were littered with the wrecked and burned-out hulks of our landing ships. Actually, in our 14-mile area they hit very few. But we had our tense moments. Dozens of our ships had escapes that were uncanny. And late one afternoon a lone Italian—I really believe he must have gone mad, for what he did was desperate and senseless—dove right down into the midst of a hundred ships. He had no bombs, and was only strafing. He went over our fantail so low you could almost have caught him in a net. Everything in the vicinity cut loose on him at once. He was simply smothered with steel,
Finally Fell into Sea
YET SOMEHOW he pulled out and up to about 1000 feet, charged at our barrage balloons like an insane bee, and shot two down afire, And then at last the bullets we had put into him took effect. He burst all aflame and fell in wide circles until he hit the water. Air raids at night were far more nerve-wracking than the daylight ones. For you can't see the enemy, vou only hear him. With us it was always a game of hide and seek. Sometimes we would sit on the water as quiet as a mouse. You could hear the small waves lapping at our sides. At other times we would start so suddenly the ship would aimost jump out from under us. And then all of a sudden after the third day there was never an enemy plane again. They quit us cold. If they still fought, they fought elsewhere than our front.
throwing him to the ground. He was taken to his own hospital for treatment, and may have to have the foot and leg in a cast for as long as six months. It’s reported Mayor Tyndall 'joshed him with the statement that it was “most unfortunate the accident had to happen on your own time—on vacation—instead of on company time.” . . . A reader suggests that we meander down to Block's corner and “take a gander at the brick smokestack on the English theater.” The stack, he says, apparently once bore the name, “English,” lettered vertically. All that's left of the stack is the “ISH” portion, indicating that about foursevenths of it has gone the way of ostrich plumes and the gay Nineties, the era in which it probably was painted.
It's a Long Trip
ELLIE RUSSELL of the American Airlines ticket office in the Merchants Bank building buzzed the Postal Telegraph substation in the building Friday and, in due time, a very youthful looking messenger arrived. Ellie (that's short for Eloise) handed the lad a telegram. The youngster peered at it a moment, wrinkied his brow, then: “Say, this goes clear to New York!” “Yes,” agreed Ellie. “What am I supposed to do with this?” “Why, give it to the teletype operator in your office,” he was told. “Oh!” he said, then added a bit uncertamly: “I had one for Detroit yesterday.” He didn't explain further, and Ellie has wondered ever since what the boy aid with the telegram to Detroit. . . . Lt. John Barnett, the former Butler publicity director. is home on a few days leave. He's in training at the navy’s subchaser school at Miami, expects to complete his training soon. . . Bill Bostain, the fraternal jewelry salesman, goes to Addleboro. Mass, on business this week, and from there to Tempa, Fla, for a little vacation.
By Raymond Clapper
seen enemy airplanes over this part of the island for davs. We broke camp in an hour or so when we heard of| an opportunity to ride on a weapons carrier to Gela, { one of the main allied invasion points. It was near, here that some of the parachute troops made their landing a few hours before the invasion by sea began. Theirs will be one of the big stories of the conquest of Sicily, because they had hard work to do. I saw some of them two weeks after the landing. They were still slogging along wearing the clothes they landed in.
Airfields Are Filling
AT GELA friendly officers found us quarters for the night in an Italian house which was being cleared out. We put our cots in an empty room and slept well until convoys of army trucks began grinding through the narrow streets under our windows at daybreak. Before going to bed we visited another airfield, from which fighters and bombers were operating. They had just moved over from North Africa, where I saw them a few days ago. We are filling up the airfields in Sicily with several types of planes, from fighters to medium bombers. This brings large advantages in extending our range further into enemy country, because it eliminates the water jump from
University
Lending
Whole Plant to War
Training Programs
By RALPH HESLER Times Staff Writer
SOUTH BEND, Ind., Aug. 2.—The indomitable spirit of the great Knute Rockne is being reborn in the ranks
of the fighting men trained today.
on the Notre Dame campus
That spirit is being perpetuated by American youths who have undergone military training at Notre Dame
since Pearl Harbor, and by
other thousands who were
Notre Dame peacetime students now bearing arms from New Guinea to Iceland, from Sicily to Attu. Notre Dame’s famous golden dome glistens as brilliantly in the sun this summer as it ever did in the past. That golden dome is a symbol that the intellectual and religious life of Notre Dame has survived the impact of war;
that Notre Dame has relegated its every energy to preserve the American way. The Rev. Hugh O'Donnell, C. S. C., president, presents the attitude of friends, faculty, alumni and students toward the university’s role in the war thus: “Notre Dame will do its utmost to co-operate with the government’s war program. We eagerly await to serve in any capacity for which the government sees us fit.” Notre Dame's action has spoken much louder than its president's
words.
Two Naval Programs
NOTRE DAME'S two affiliations with the military are naval, and both affiliations are distinct units, One is the V-T7 program, composed of college graduates taking a four months’ course, the completion of which leads to a commission as an ensign in the USNR. The other plan is the V-12 training school which is made up of undergraduate students who follow a universitynavy course until graduation into V-7, or until being called to active duty. Capt. Henry P. Burnett, USN, is commanding officer of both “V” contingents. Executive officer of the V-7 branch is Lt. Cmdr. Milton D. Fairchild, USN, and executive officer of V-12 is 1.t. Cmdr. William 8. Howell, USN. The V-7 officers’ training school, the only one in Indiana and one of four in the nation, is strictly a naval proposition. All of the instructors are naval, all of the courses pertain to naval warfare and discipline. The trainees are put through a one month indoetrination course as apprentice seamen. This is followed by a three-month period during which they are midshipmen. In this latter course physics, mathematics, deck training and naval tactics
=
| are basic studies.
Donated Physical Plant
NOTRE DAME’'S donation to V-7 is its gigantic physical plant. This includes four residence halls,
two mammoth dining halls and various classrooms and drill fields and its fieldhouse. These facilities, as well as those used by the V-12 detachment, are extended on almost a cost basis to the navy. Naval compensation to the university covers room and board of the trainees, the upkeep of those buildings and sections on the campus which are used. History of V-7 dates back to Feb, 1942, when the navy selected Notre Dame for an indoctrination school. Four classes of more than 1000 each were graduated from this indoctrination school and sent to midshipman's school elsewhere before the navy converted Notre Dame itself into a midshipman’s school in October of 1942
Since then, approximately 2500 ensigns have been commissioned men, a total of 1850. Trainees are and another class of over 1000 prospective ensigns is in the midst of training. This class will be graduated about Oct. 1, and another 1000 coliege graduates from all over the U. S. will begin training immediately. Since the V-7 irainees ere not part of the general university educational system they are not permitted to participate in intercollegiate athletics. There is, however, a rigorous physical educational program and the ensigns produced are as “hard as nails.”
THE V-12 program is under the jurisdiction of both the university and the navy. In addition to using Notre Dame facilities, the trainees are taught by Notre Dame professors. Emphasis is placed on the subjects required ny the navy, but the university's entire curriculum is thrown open and any part of it may be studied by the V-12
Navy Men Get Rockne Spirit
at Notre Dame
Symbol of intellectual and religious life in peace time, the famous golden dome on Notre Dame campus today looks down on a campus busily preparing for a war to preserve the American way.
A special class of 1300 commissioned navy specialists, who received six-week indoctrination training, line up on the plaza before the
Rockne Memorial fieidhouse at Notre Dame awaiting the captain's inspection,
elevated to the rank and title of U. S. Naval Midshipmen’s Reserve Training school.
trainees if their schedules permit. The V-12 contingent is composed of 700 marines, 240 of Notre Dame's own reserve officers’ training corps and 910 apprentice seaquartered in five residence halls on the campus and are subject to moderate naval discipline. Priests, quartered in each hall, serve as consultants, This first group of V-12 men began studying July 6 and will complete their course on Oct. 30. The men then will enter V-T, be
Africa. Though this jump is small compared to the range of heavy bombers, it means a great deal ™ lighter aircraft. The speed with which airpower can be transferred and moved up is being demonstrated all over Sicily. At breakfast, I met Lt. Melvin A. Armstrong, a signal officer for the airport, who knows friends of mine in Kansas City, including Lace Haines of the Kansas City Star. Armstrong helped us move on. The campaign in Sicily is going so rapidly that the| chief problem is not enemy resistance but just moving the enormous masses of troops and supplies that are now on the island.
By Eleanor Roosevelt
that we are prepared for whatever may happen. If peace comes without having to face some real tragedy, there are a good many of us, I imagine, who will not only be relieved but hardly able to believe it. Nevertheless, any news, even when it turns out to be good news, makes one catch one's breath just for a minute. Of course, I'm not talking about the usual letter which we all wait for with great anxiety and receive with joy. The news from Italy makes one feel that the people want peace. There has always been an underground movement in Italy and many of its representatives are here in this country. I am sure that they hope from day to day that the people, themselves, will dictate whatever action their government takes. These people, working in the underground movements all over Europe, have had extraordinary courage. Death stares them in the face every minute of the day and night and yet they go about their daily business unconcerned, knowing that the slightest slip might nean detection, sometime: leaving the country tnd then voluntarily going back to danger. They will have the satisfaction of knowing when liberation comes that they are the ones who have kept alive
5 MILLION TO AID
30 WAR LOAN DRIVE
WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (U. P.)—
An army of 5,000,000 volunteers will canvass the United States in September to make the $15,000,000,000 third war loan drive a success.
Every worker will be asked per-
sonally to buy an extra bond during {the campaign—a bond over and | above what he is buying under the payroll deduction plan.
These personal interviews with
some 27,000,000 wage earners will take place in offices, stores and plants and will require the efforts of one-half of the volunteer army. The other 2.500,000 volunteers will sell bonds at
homes. About 600,000 of the volunteers
will work in New York; while in Rhode Island, the smallest state, there will be 38.000.
Chairman of the state drives have
been named in 47 of the 48 states and in the District of Columbia. The remaining chairman js expected to be named today. The list of chairmen would seem to be an abbreviated banking, finance and business in the United States. Bank presidents predominate.
“whos who” in
SHRUB REMOVAL ASKED OF CITIZENS
Indianapolis citizens were asked by the Chamber of Commerce |Safety Council today to help prelvent accidents by clearing away obstructing shrubbery. Wallace O. Lee, council chairman, said J. T. Hallett, city engineer, had sent out 110 letters to property owners as a result of a survey that disclosed obstructing hedges. He also is conducting a drive to have |weeds cut down on corner vacant lots. A city ordinance declares it unlawful to maintain an obstruction of any kind within 25 feet of intersections.
SCHLOTT NEW HEAD OF LEGION POST 13
Jack Schiott, 2104 E. Michigan st., president of Postway Transit, Inc, has been elected commander of the East Indianapolis American Legion post No. 13. Other new officers include Gene Franck, first vice president; Wade Young; second vice president; Dr. D. C. Schwindler, adjutant, and Rex Cunningham, sergeant-at-arms.
FRANKLIN ONE STEP AHEAD OF HISTORY
FRANKLIN, Ind, Aug. 2 (UP). —When the chimes at the First Presbyterian church here started playing doxology at midnight Saturday, the citizens of Franklin Whotght that Italy had surrendered. The false alarm Was attributed
called to active duty or enter some form of specialized training. It is conceivable that a freshman might enter Notre Dame under the V-12 plan and acquire a college degree before he received a new assigns
ment.
n ” ”
Leahy on War Athletics
Frank Leahy, athletic director and football coach, has this to say ' V=1, be regarding Wartime athletics at
Notre Dame: “The primary objective of athletics here is the assisting of the marine and naval authorities as they prepare trainees for the more important struggles which lie ahead. We are pursuing a full program with stress laid on quick-thinking individuals who can act singly or as a vital part of powerful war machine.” In its home-front efforts, Notre Dame is utilizing its engineering and scientific resources to train men for key industrial positions.
UFWA BACKS PRIGE ROLLBACK DEMAND
NEW CASTLE, Ind, Aug 2 (U. |P.).—The sixth district council of the United Furniture Workers of America (C. I. 0.) today joined la-| bor’'s demand for a roll-back of prices to levels of Sept. 15, 1942, The UFWA closed its convention
| yesterday by adopting a resolution on the roll-back, condemning the
supporting a program against racial discrimination. Officers re-elected were Pronk] Douthitt, Bloomington, president; Fred Fulford, South Bend, vice pres | ident, and Joe Archer, Bloomington, treasurer. Harold Jerger, Jasper, was named secretary. New trustees included Edward Stoffieth, Evansville; Clem Williams, South Bend, and Tony Burroughs, Peru. District six includes Indiana and part of Kentucky.
YANKS SINK 8 JAP SUPPLY SAMPANS
NEW DELHI. Aug. 2 (U. P).— Hurricane fighter planes on offensive patrol in the Kaladan Delta |area of Burma sank eight supply | sampans and damaged several | others jesteraay, a communique | said today. | In the Shwebo district, bombing planes smashed at Yeu, a railhead on the line from Monywa, ne on a bullding and dropping down to
NEEDED AT FORT ‘BEN’,
Electric irons and fly swatters are two immediate needs of soldiers at
and hospital committee of the In-| |dianapolis Red Cross. Persons - wishing to irons may call the Red Cross, L 1441, or bring them to 220 Chamber | of Commerce buil Meridian st.
contribut
Station hospital.
‘SENATORS INSPECT ' FIGHTERS IN BRITAIN
LONDON, Aug. 2 (U. P).—Five ,U. 8. senators, who arrived yesterday in England for an inspection tour of American fighting men and installations, yesterday were greeted in London by high military and naval chiefs and then began a tour of U. S. 8th air force bases, The senators, representing the combined senate military affairs and Truman committees, were welcomed by Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers, commander of all U, 8S. forces in the European theater; Maj. Gen, Ira C. Baker, commander of the U. S. 8th air force; Adm. Harold R. Stark, chief of U. S. naval forces in European waters, and John G. Winant, American ambassador to Britain. The visiting senators are Richard B. Russell of Georgia, Ralph O. Brewster of Maine, Albert B, (Chandler of Kentucky, Hen
The naval training school at Noire Dame
Ft. Harrison, according to the camp |
|
| | |
Cabot | 13
was recently
Classes in aeronautical, eivil, electrical, chemical and mechanical engineering are filled with civilian students who will later go into government service, Under a special -war management program hundreds ‘of war workers have received free instruction in engineering, mechanical drawing, time-motion and other war-related subjects. ‘his program is designed to train work ers for jobs, and advancements, in war plants,
rh —————_————
IRONS, FLY SWATTERS FARLEY SEES END OF
“WAR BY CHRISTMAS
PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 2 (U. P.). ~The war probably will be over | before Christmas, James A. Farley,
el ex-Democratic national committee I. chairman, said here last night.
“The people may go to bed some
ding or 1126 N. | night and awaken to find victory
in their laps next morning, so rap-
The Red Cross said a big supply idly are things happening now,” Smith<Connally anti-strike bill and of fly swatters were needed at the Farley declared.
He said he believed the tremen- | dous increase in united nations striking power, combined with a decline in axis air reserves, meant the end of the war was in sight.
HOLD EVERYTHING