Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 November 1944 — Page 13

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1944

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Editor's Note: This is the 53d vacation. wy

PARIS, Aug. 28, 1944¢—I had thought that for me

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there could never be any elation in war. But "had reckoned without the liberation of Paris—I had reck-

We are in Paris—on the: first

‘time. other correspondents are writing their pieces, under an emotional tension, a pent-up semi-delirium. Our approach to Paris was hectic. We hid waited for three days in a nearby town while hourly our reports on what was going on in Paris changed and contradicted themselves. Of a morning It would look as though Wwe. were about to break through the German ring around ‘Paris and come to the aid of the brave French forces of the interior who were holding parts of the city. BY afternoon it would seem the enemy had reinforced until another Stalingrad was developing. We could not bear to think of the destruction of Paris, and yet at times it seemed des~ perately inevitable. »” That was the situation this morning when we left Rambouillet and decided to feel our way timidly toward the very outskirts of Paris. And then, when

circulate that the French second armored division was

. in the city. We argued for half an hour at a cross- / roads with a French captain who was holding us up,

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lored safeeh opular wrapizes 14 to 20,

and finally he freed us and waved us>on. For 15 minutes we drove through a flat gardenlike country under a magnificent bright sun and amidst greenery, with distant banks of smoke pillarng the horizon ahead and to our left. And then we ne gradually into the suburbs, and into Paris 4 and a pandemonium of surely thé greatest mass "joy that has ever happened,

Like Fourth of July

THE STREETS were lined as by Fourth of July parade crowds at home, only this crowd was almost hysterical. The streets of Paris are very wide, and they were packed on each side. The women were all brightly dressed in white or red blouses and colorful peasant skirts, with flowers in their hair and big flashy ‘ earrings. Everybody was throwing flowers, and even serpentine. : Ag our jeep eased through the crowds, thousands of people crowded up, leaving only a narrow corridor, and frantic men, women and children grabbed us and kissed us and shook our hands and beat on our shoulders and slapped our backs and shouted their Joy as we passed. I was in a jeep with Henry Gorrell of the United

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day—one of the great. days of all This is being written, as.

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* Press, Capt. Carl Pergler of Washington, D. C., and Cpl. Alexander Beion, of Amherst, Mass. We all got kissed until we were literally red in face, and I must say we enjoyed it. ! Once when the jeep was simply swamped®in human traffic and had to stop, we were swarmed over and hugged and kissed and torn at. Everybody, even beautiful girls, insisted on kissing you on both cheeks. Somehow I got started kissing babies that were held up by their parents and for a while it looked like a baby-kissing politician going down the street. The fact that I hadn't shaved for days, and was graybearded as well as baldheaded, made no difference. Once when we came to a stop some Frenchman told us there were still snipers shooting, so we put our steel helmets back on. The people certainly looked well fed and. well dressed. The streets were lined with green t and modern buildings. All the stores were closed in holiday. Bicycles were so thick I have an idea there have been plenty accidents today, with tanks and jeeps overrunning the populace.

Parisians Just Laughed

WE ENTERED Paris via Rue Aristide Briand and Rue d' Orleans. We were slightly apprehensive, but decided it was all right to keep going as long as there were crowds. people in the streetsgand then above the din we heard some not-too-distant explosions—the Germans trying to destroy bridges across the Seine. And then the rattling of machine guns up the street, and that old battlefield whine of high-velocity shells just overhead. Some of us veterans ducked, but the Parisians just laughed and continued to carry on. There came running’ over to our jeep a tall, thin, happy woman in a light brown dress, who spoke perfect American. She was Mrs. Helen Cardon, who lived in Paris for 21 years and has not been home to America since

1935. Her husband is an officer in French army head- |

quarters and home now after two and a half years as a Germdéh prisoner. He was with her, in civilian clothes. Incidentally, her two children, Edgar and Peter, are the only two American children, she says, who have been in Paris throughout the entire war. We entered Paris from due south and the Germans were still battling in the heart of the city along the Seine when we arrived, but they were doomed. There was a full French armored division in the city plus American troops entering constantly. The farthest we got in our first hour in Paris was near the senate building, where some Germans were holed up and firing desperately. So we took a hotel room nearby and decided to write while the others fought. By the time you read this I'm sure Paris will

‘once again be free for Frenchmen, and I'll be out all |

over town getting my bald head kissed. Of all the days of national joy I've ever witnessed this is the biggest.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

WHAT'S IN A name? The Women’s Press Club of Indiana, at its meeting yesterday voted favorably on the membership application of Mrs. Bert Beer. Curiously enough, the application of Mrs. Beer, who lives at Sunman, Ind, and works on the Versailles Republican, was signed by Neil McCallum, the state alcoholic beverage commissioner. . . . The cigaret shortage reminds us of Mark Twain’s classic remark about the weather. In this case, everybody talks about the shortage but nobody does anything tangible about it. Some of the hotels here have adopted the practice of requiring cigaret customers to show their room key before getting any ciga- ; rets. And at least two hotels— AR aw the Lincoln and the Severin ~— have declared a moratorium on sales of cigarets between the hours of 11 a. m. and 2 p. m. and also 5 and 8 p. m. That's to discolrage sales. «+. One effect of the shortage may be to convert many long-time cigaret smokers to pipes. ... One person (other than Old Inside) who isn't bothered by the cigaret shortage is Ernie Pyle. Ernie can roil his own with the best. In town yesterday to catch'a plane to Washington, the eminent Dr. Pyle saw Mark Ferree, business manager of The Times, trying with less than indifferent success to roll a cigaret with Duke’s mixture. Mark had more tobacco In his ears than he did in the cigaret paper. But Ernie took over and fashioned a good one for him. Thus far, Ernie hasn't had to resort to rolling his own, He's been able to buy all the “tailor mades” he needs Tobacco counter clerks have a habit of digging around and finding a pack when they see Ernie standing there. No Rest for the Willing _ MISS ARDA KNOX, retired Manual teacher and honorary sponsor of ROINES, senior boys’ honorary,

may have retired from teaching—but she hasn't retired to a life of ease, She has knit one long-sleeved

‘America Flie THE ARMY AIR FORCES’ latest “gun camera” has become one of the most valuable “killer-trainers” in the service, = Similar to the 16-mm. camera with which home movies are made, it now is used in training and in combat, solving the fundamental problem of aerial gunnery—how to tell the gunner when he misses, , why he missed and how far. Added details about the “gun camera” were released from army alr forces training command headquarters at Pt. Worth, Texas. “It teaches men to kill,” said the announcement,

—

| looks through a gunsight just the way a gunner does, Every time Ae A he trips the trigger the camera “shoots” and records results unerringly on’ the film. . In advance single engine training planes the camera is mounted inside -the cowling at the lev of the pilot's eyes. Mounted in Front IN MEDIUM and heavy bombers, especially equipped for flexible gunnery training, it's moun in front and above the spade grip of the hand-held,

swivel-mounted waist guns and between the barrels of the turret-mounted twin caliber fifties,

sweater each week since the war began. In her spare time she is keeper of the cookies, magazines, books and games at the Wabash st. Service Men's Center. The rest of her time is devoted to her duties as block captain of the O. C. D, as a collector for the Red Cross, and a worker in various other civic enterprises. . + « Another retired Manual teacher, Miss Bertha Ebbert, is dietitian’s aid at the U, 8. Veterans’ hospital two or three days a week, is completing an 80hour course in Red Cross nurses’ aid at Methodist, and is looking forward to joining the Gallon club at Christmas, She also assists in keeping the Mafiual service file up to date. And here we thought that when teachers retired, they sat in rocking chairs and read; or just rocked! ., . By the way, the boys at the school board offices have found a name for their new

publication for teachers, custodians and other school

city employees. It's the “School City News.t

Be a Good Fellow"

IF YOU HAVE a spare bedroom in your home, how about being a good fellow and boosting the morale of a wounded service man. How? By listing your room With the Red Cross so wives of battle casualties in Billings General hospital, at Ft. Harrison, can have a place to sleep while here visiting and cheering their husbands. Miss Rebecca Myers, the Red Cross field director at the hospital, tells us the shortage of rooms available is so drastic that many wives who do come here can find absolutely no place to stay, and because of the situation many other wives have to be told not to come here. Suppose it were your own husband, or son! Want to help? Okay, call Miss Myers. You can get her at CH, 0500. , . . While we're on the subJect of the Red Oross, there's also a drastic need for 500 Red Cross field directors to boost morale of the troops in the field. With our troops constantly oc-’ cupying new territory, the need for directors is growing. The requisites: An ability to get along with groups of men, good physical condition, and between the ages of 30 and 50. If you know anyone who would like foreign service with the Red Cross, tell ‘them to get in touch with Max Sappenfield, the re cruitment chairman, at LI. 1441.

By Max B. Cook

1 In all U- 8. fighter planes the camera is mounted in the nose or on the leading edges of the wings near the armament. :

Harmonized with the gunsight to focus on the|™ point of aim, the camera pictures exact results of air| =

fighting. The wildest scenes of aerial combat have

filtered through its lenses. Back at home bases the| 7

pilots and gunners see proof of successes and faults, They learn why they missed and how to correct it.

"Misses Are Clearly Shown

ADOPTION of the gun camera” brought a paradoxical addition to the American war training scene. Through using the camera as a “gun” fighter pilots actually attack and make “murderous” passes at U. 8. pbombers—at all altitudes, But no one gets hurt, Following aerial “combat” the gunner-pilot sits in with his instructor and watches the action on a movie screen, His misses are clearly shown and analyzed by the Batraglos. He gets a real thrill when the film When he returns to the air for further training knows of his past mistakes—and corrects them. actual warfare the camera pictures what hapevery enemy plane as the gunner or pilot the trigger and sends live ammunition pouring from cannon and machine guns. The movie camera developed to picture the baby's first toddling steps and his activities through early

life, is" helping to win the war on all fronts to make |

the world a safe place for the baby to live, .

By Eleanor Roosevelt

nd By Ernie Pyle|

of the Ernie Pyle war dispatches that are being reprinted during Ernie's

But finally we were stymied by the|

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SECOND SECTION

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1944

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HOW NAZIS SLAUGHTERED WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN MARTYRED VILLAGE—

By GEORGE WELLER

Times Foreign Correspondent J)IsToMo, Greece. — To reach the martyred village of Distomo, perched among the gray-cliffed lower shoulders of Parnassus, you must climb the mountain highway from Leavdia.

And where the road forks, in<

stead of going right toward Del phi, you must go left among the treeless, cold hills below Parnassus. Icy winds play among the ravines and bearded shepherds with crooks follow the tinkling bells of the sheep and goats among the boulder-strewn slopes, ® EJ »

THE GERMANS and Italians took the right fork to Arachova. There in two years, they burned 173 homes in the upper and lower towns and shot 36 Greeks, including five women. And they went to high - hung Delphi where the 11th (Italian) Ferrara regiment burned 15 houses, the Germans 40. The Germans, last June 10, took the left road at the fork southward toward Distomo and the village of Stiri a few miles beyond. Fifteen trucks full of Germans came from Levadia, 30 from Amphissa. Before leaving the fork they tried their marksmanship and warmed their gun barrels on six persons working in fields nearby. Their bag. was a peasant girl, two shepherds and three farmers. They found it amusing to use a mortar as well as a machine gun on this small game. > . 8 ABOUT 1:45 P. M,, 45 truckloads of Germans arrived in Distomo. They parked in the lower of its two hillside squares near the white-plastered schoolhouse. Sensing that some such “retaliation” as had laid waste scores of villages between Levadia and Salonika, impended, and eager to propitiate the dreaded Schutzstaffel, Distomo’s people came running with cheese, eggs, wine and bread from their meager stores. The German commander was a Greek - speaking gestapo officer named Teod, believed to be of

captain's rank. ’ » » » APPARENTLY, the Germans

did not intend generalsmurder. Their mission in the village was’ to search for anti-Fascist guerrillas and to plunder. The six killings at, the crossroads had been merely Teutonic pleasantry. Teod ordered the Distomites indoors, as S. 8. men went through the houses, taking in addition to the proffered food and wine, blankets and sheep rugs. Meantime, Gestapoman Teod questioned the bearded Orthodox priest, Father Sotiris Zisis as to whether any Andartes (guerrillas) were around. Zisis replied that a small band had departed earlier. /

A Greek mother and child huddled in fear, . . . This was a com-

mon scene during the cruel occupation of Greece by the German

“supermen.”

WHAT TEOD wanted -to make sure of was whether he could lead another smaller party of S. 8. men along the road to Stiri without fear of being attacked. Reassured, he ordered that two trucks be loaded with about 50 soldiers in plainclothes. The disguise was intended to keep the Andartes, watching behind their rifles from boulder-strewn rampparts, in doubt as to whether they were Greek civilians, thus forcing the ambushers to hold their fire, About noon the party set forth. It never reached Stiri. About three miles outside Distomo it was ambushed by the anti-Fascist, anti-royalist BE. L. A. 8S. guerrillas, No weapons had been supplied to these guerrillas forces since Cairo’s April ban went into effect, but like minutemen, they attacked, anyway. . . n

THE 8. 8. MEN pulled out arms hidden under the seat of the trucks, and replied with fire. After the fusillade, in which approximately five Germans were killed, the party, at Teod's order, turned back. Teod himself had a bad wound in the belly. It was not until Teod sank into death just before sunset that day, that the horror began, The 8. 8. men went straight to Father Zisis’ house with-tommy-guns.. They had already con-" sulted him twice, and Zisis had expegted a third overture, Instead, he was mowed down. Father Zisis' one-year-old son was shot, his wife left wounded. ” ” »

THE FACT that any of Distomo's 2060 population survived

was due to an interval which ensued while 12 bound men, caught at the crossroads, were executed. _. You can see the holes in: the plaster to the right of the school‘house door where they were thrown and shot singly against the foundation. : While some Distomites fled into the hills in the dead of night, others, feeling that the Nazis had slaked their wrath by killing the priest's family and the hostages, hid in their homes. They wrote® their own death sentences thereby.

» » . MAYOR JOHN LATHAS, standing in the village square in his Crete mountain-style blue Mackinaw under the X-crossed flags of

Britain, Russia, and the United

States, described to me what happened to his family: : “I was working in the hayfield when I heard shooting. I ‘ran home. Inside the doorsill of my house I found my wife, Pamo, and my 15-year-old son, Charalambos, both lying dead.” The murdered Father Zisis’ successor: has compiled a” carefully written, alphabetized list of Nasi victims. Mayor Lathas has his own list. The priest's list has 223 names. The mayor's seyen additional, who have died of wounds in the ime provised hospital up the lower

valley. Thus, Distomo’s death toll, in the interest of historical accuracy, must be corrected downward, from the several hundred first an~ nounced, to precisely 230 dead. Nobody has tried to count the wounded because some .may not survive the winter,

Full Story of the Distomo ‘Massacre

LIKE 98 PER CENT of Greece's obliterated villages, Distomo hag received neither food, shelter, nor medicine as yet. Sixty-year-old, wizened Yannoula Limouni, lies on a bedless floor beside a tiny charcoal fire.

A German bullet went through her right cheek and cleanly emerged from her left, leaving a large hole, She is holding a dirty bandage against the latter, and when she tries. to talk, her unmanageable Jaw makes her unintelligible. I have a leather coat which resembles a German officers’ garment, Yannoula's two-year-old grands son, shaven-headed, ragged, barelegged, Angelo Nikalaou, recoiled with a wild scream when he saw me and ran to his thick-bearded father, George Nikalaou. Fearfully the child rejected candy offered by the dreaded stranger, but after being told repeatedly: “American, not German,” he accepted the sweet. LJ » n bh

ANGELO is motherless. His mother, Theoxoula Nivalaou, Yannoula’s daughter, was tommygunned to death in that house, with 10 others, mostly women and children, while little Angelo huddled in the shadows, One Greek-American, who died fighting, was 53-year-old Athanassio Panourias, who came back to Distomo in 1928 after 15 years in the United States. His aged father, in. old-style shepherd’s dress, with a black cap, long, white leggings, and shortskirted jacket, tells how Panourias, trapped in. his house, drew his knife and got a tommy-gun from one German. But two others wrested the knife from him, plunged it in his back and slit his throat. . ” »

THE MAYOR shows you where two farmer cousins, 65-year-old Herakles Mikas and 55-year-old George Mikas, were found lying, their torsos slit lengthwise, their hands, stiff in death, attempting to hold in their vitals.

Disbelievers of German ferocity. should talk to the family of Marietta Philppou, 25, who offered the Germans wine and was tipped open with a knife. Or 34-year-old, shock - headed Anastasious Stathas, in his sandThe Nazis shot four-month-old infant while his wife, Euphrosyne, was in the next room.

OF DISTOMO’S 450 houses, 62 in all have been fired, 38 in the village itself. The Italians, who burned 20 hostages and took seven, on June 25, 1043, share honors with the schutzstaffeln for this. The 8. 8. returned on June 2% of this year to these houses, including the home of the doctor who was treating victims of the 18-day-old massacre,

A.Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Noel Coward's Out on a Limb

NEW YORK, Nov. 15 (U. P)~ Brooklyn, where that tree grows, had Noel Coward out on the limb today. An angry uproar gathered mounting strength ‘as parents, wives, sweethearts, buddies and borough officials swore vengeance upon “that Englishman” for his description of their wounded men overseas as “mournful little Brooklyn boys.’ A proposal’ presented to congress by New York's Samuel ; Dickstein late ¥ yesterday to Mr. Coward 0 ceforth deny . the author entry to this country brought widespread approval here. So did a resolution introduced in city council to boycott his book “Middle East Diary,” but there were many who also favered more vigorous action. ¢

FIVE BROTHERS of a wound~ ed veteran of the battle of Naples valunteered to meet Coward “just once—that'’s all we'd need.” The sister-in-law of a dead hero said: “Bring him here--we'll show him.” A mother sald “that English- . man—he makes me boiling.” Italian father of three servicemen overseas said: “I think I kill him.”

the Brooklyn Dally Eagle, under a five-column banner head on the front page, printed a quotation from the Coward book. ' The quotation referred to Coward’s glimpses of “the mournful

An .

The outcries began Sunday after

little Brooklyn boys lying there (in military hospitals) in tears amidst the alien corn with nothing more than a bullet wound in the leg or a fractured arm.” With it were: Statements from army officers at Halloran General hospital (army), New York, that the Brooklyn boys were “men of fortitude.” A remark from a wounded Brooklyn private that he'd like to see Coward with a toothache. A concluding line addressed: “Coward: As further proof read the casualty lists.” ” » » TWENTY-FOUR hours later, the paper announced it had been besieged with phone calls from friends of men overseas who

more comments were made describing the attack as “scurrilous,” “a lie,” “just like a coward,” and “ridiculous.” Yesterday the paper came up with a letter from Cpl. Joe Lee, former Eagle sports writer now in France, reporting a commenda~ tion for his battalion from Gen. Mark W. Clark. “Lots of the Joes in our battalfon are from Brooklyn,” Lee wrote. “They are a great bunch of guys and sure proved they had plenty of stuff when those hot raids came over Anzio” » » »

LEADING the enraged Brook- } lynites was Borough President Howard Cashmore, who demanded an apology for that “cheap business.”

voiced “incensed indignation” and

Deputy County Clerk James A.

~V-3 to Hit Soon, Germans Boast

ZURICH, Nov. 15 (U, P.).~Re= ports attributed to reliable German sources said today that the, appearance of the V-3, Germany's

third secret weapon, should be expected within a few weeks.

BRITISH YULE FOOD RATION SEEN SMALL

LONDON, Nov. 16 (U, P.)~Ool. John J. Lewellin, British food minister, said today that the amount of food set aside for Britain's extra Christmas ration was far less than that earmarked for liberated areas. “People in.this country can take up their Christmas honus which they will deserve without fearing that they are doing so at the expiss 01 the, people of Barope," Be

Production of the V-3 was delayed considerably by allied air attacks on the Peenemunde experimental station in the Baltic area, the reports said. , According to the advices, the V-3 needs no starting installa tions. It was described as radiopiloted and weighing about 15 tons. The explosive load varies with the distance lo the $arget and amounts to half the total weight of the device for middle distances. The range was described as about 600 miles, but the Nazis -were reported Hopeful of extending it for bombardment of the United States with three or four

periments were said to*have produced “satisfactory” results.

tons of explosives. The latest ex

Kelly said Coward's attack hit a “despicable low.” The Society for the Prevention of Disparaging Remarks about Brooklyn chimed in. “Even a Coward dare not say that the Unknown Soldier ‘whose memory typifies the spirit and bravery of American fighting men

-| was not.a Brooklyn boy,” the so-

clety said in awarding the author a “certificate of honor.” _ Only one lone voice offered any sort of a reply. Beatrice Lillie, childhood friend of the writer, said she hoped it was a misprint; that some of Coward's best friends were Brooklynites.

LONDON, Nov, 15 (U. P)~— Noel Coward, who opens a performance for British troops in Paris today, does not recall ever having made any reference to troops from Brooklyn, especially the phrase “Mournful little Brooklyn troops” according to dispatches from the French capital, Informed at Paris of the criticism of his remarks by the Brooklyn Eagle, Coward said: “Did I mention Brooklyn troops at all? I have no copy of the diary here and I do not recall any group which could be deséribed as Brooklyn. “Maybe on one of my visits to hospitals I met some boys from Brooklyn and I said they were homesick, but in a hospital most boys of all armies long to be in their own home.”

"Up Front With Mauldin" has been delayed in transit overseas. Mauldin's cartoons will be resumed as soon as they are received.

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BARNABY : By Crockett Johnson Sm -_ i — CROCKETT . ; There aren't any turkeys || Barnaby, this case is different. But how can it be the FIRST Jonnsow | | Yes, m’boy. For years. . . But in these woods. . . Myles needs a Turkey fo set 0 Thanksgiving. We had one lost| your quest is just about over, | the says we || precedent. He's got to toke it year. And the yeor before— Myles. . . You'll get a turkey. oll have 10 eat something to Plymouth. For the FIRST ” ‘ olse this Thank - Thanksgiving. I's important : Myles has been hunting | Let me hove thot musket. : r———ri] o Hurkey for sometime— | EE Ye For 2 - "1 yeors? , / 4 :

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Tomorrow's -Job— : .| Hotels Plan E x | 3 | Work Program | 9

By EDWARD A. EVANS WASHINGTON, Nov. 15.—~Hotel men, who say that theirs is

the country’s seventh largest in-

dustry, are getting set to start a huge refurbishing and remodeling program as soon as the war ends, and sooner if materials and labor become available. Glenwood J, 8 h errard, president o f the American Hotel Assn, and manager of Boston's Parker House,

Mr, Evans

would create hundreds of thousands of jobs during the period in which heavy industries are being reconverted. Hotel equipment, like railroad equipment, has taken a beating in the last four years while accommodating a record-breaking number of travelers, and wartime restrictions have compelled postponement of repairs and replacements. » » » : DESPITE high operating costs and taxes, many hotels have improved their financial positions, and will have money to finance the post-war program.

| write a

We, the Women— Daily Letter Is Part of Wife's Routine

By RUTH MILLETT

says some wife is forever explain. ing to her husband: “By the time night comes and I've done the ji housework and finally put the °° baby to bed I'm often just 4 too tired to sit = down and write.’’ The soldier thinks that is utter nonsense, Any woman could probably understand a mother’s being too tired at the day's end to sit down and write a gay, happy-sounding letter, But that's beside the point. » » » THE point is that men may not understand, and so expect daily letters from their wives no matter how busy or tired they may: be, or how little time they may have for writing letters.

And if thay is true, the women who fail to write as many letters as their husbands expect are making a sad mistake.

Somehow they ought to manage to save an hour of each day or night for letter writing. A” x % THEY would if they were convinced that a dally letter was as much their duty as giving the baby his cpd liver oil every day or making beds and washing

"dishes. :

No matter how strongly a woman feels that hasn't time to letter eo enough to say fo warrant a daily

letter-if Sidi she should manage fo get one off, somehow,

day or hasn't

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