Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 December 1944 — Page 13

20, 19

Shop Vasson’s wnstairs Store

utumn floral d tan; green, I, green and

artillery and’ tanks shootin’ direct fire.

uiited sleeves

ately

: ; 2 (Ernie Pyle Is WITH THE U. 8. 9TH ARMY, Germany, Dec. 20i— Little stories of big men: ) 9 ’ Pfc. Mike Riemma of ‘Chicago, is a 20-year-old lathe worker learning about tanks. :

“Been in any battles?” I. asked. Ww “I ain't sure you would call it a battle,” he replied. “Our tank was ordered across a minefield into action. Halfway, all of a sudden it keeled half over. We had hit a big ‘one. “Well, when Jerry saw that he started rollin’ in mortars. Then, two of them Tiger tanks showed up. We was lucky and hit one. The other moved off. Then pretty soon it came back with a yunning mate. The mortars stopped and the artillery took up. the serenade. The Tigers had us zeroed, too. “We had been ordered to leave only if we were zeroed in; so I sez to the commander—I'm a gunner myself—‘if this ain't being zeroed in, what is?” & ‘I gotta idea you're right,” he says. ‘Lels get outa here.’ : “S80 we crawled through a minefield with Jerry We didn't reach the objective so I don't know if it rates being called a real battle.” “It wil] do until a real battle comes along,” I said.

His Idea of a Nice Day

SGT. MACK, Syracuse, N, Y., with 11 notches in his gun to show the number of German tanks he has knocked out, is the wild man of the 702d tank destroyer battalion. Here is his idea of a nice day: He was out on business when a German 88 got his Sherman with one shell, at 4000 yards. ‘The best gunnin’ I've seen,” he admits. Sgt. Mack crawled to an anti-tank three-inch gun and led it to the Tigers’ lair and after a fast slugfest scored a hit. Feeling pretty good they started across a field, firing machine-gun bursts, but a German spotted them and scored a hit. The crew retreated but Mack

‘crawled into another tank. The gunner had been hit

80 he became: gunner, directed a flanking move on Jerry—and got him. .

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

WHEN THE LIQUOR wholesalers start sending out cakes as Christmas gifts, well—it’s a sign of the times. That's exactly what the Capitol Wine & Liquor Co. is doing. Instead of sending bottled goods as gifts to dealers, the firm is sending out Omar cakes. . ., . And then there's Charles of the Ritz—the cosmetiés firm. Instead of the usual gift of cosmetics, Charles (we don’t know his last name) this year is sending the beauty editors a nice bottle of Sherry wine. Confusing, isn’t it? . . . While . wandering around aimlessly in Ayres’ men’s shop yesterday, we unintentionally overheard a little drama that’s being repeated time ‘and again this week. A woman brandishing a lurid tie she had picked from a rack, hailed a clerk with: “This isn’t too bad, is it?” Shuddering involuntarily, the clerk replied: “Er-why don’t you look at some of these over here?” Personally, we feel that clerk ought to be given a medal, or something. . .-. The Salvation Army lassie was ringing ‘her bell vigorously over in front of Block's the other day. A soldier, somewhat likkered up, stopped and stared. “Oh, an all-girl band,” he wisecracked as he dropped a coin in the pot. . . . And then there's the woman who dropped in one of the department stores and told the clerk she wanted to buy something for her ill sister. “But she won't live much longer than Christmas,” the woman said, “and if the worst comes to the worst, could I return the present after Christmas?”

High Jinks on. the ‘Main Stem’

IT WAS SATURDAY night at Illinois and Washington. There appeared on the scene a young woman intent on having a little fun. Armed with a sprig of mistletoe, she began stopping soldiers and sailors and their “dates.” Holding the mistletoe over the dates’ heads, she'd dare ‘the serviceman to kiss his date. Most of them did. Then she'd hold the mistle-

’

World of Science

NO BETTER PROOF of the necessity of maintaining post-war research in the military field at the present wartime tempo can be found than last week's announcement by the U, S. navy of its new rocket ship.

This rocket ship, built around the hull of a British landing craft has 3% times the fire power of a 45,000-ton batileship. No doubt the reader's first reaction to this announcement was one of elation. For it spells an accelerated program for driving the Japs out of the outlying islands of the Pacific and may even lead to direct attack upon the Japanese homeland itself. It is necessary, however, to think of these developments in ; ‘ terms of the post-war world as well. For they illustrate what progress can be made In the development of new weapons when there are unlimited funds and facilities available to back the genius of American scientists, "Until the outbreak of world war II, the rocket was almost forfotten as a weapon of war. No doubt there was a certain amouni of secret military research in various countries but the few civilians working with rockets received little encouragement and were often dismissed as so many cranks who wanted to make trips to the moon or the planet Mars.

Used by Russians

ROCKETS FIRST got into the public prints in the summer of 1942 when there were disclosures of the multiple rocket guns used by the Russians as defenses against Nazi tanks. °

I do not believe that it has ever been disclosed

"when our researches began on the bazooka but the

NEW YORK, Tuesday -y Yesterday Mr, Melcher. ¢hairman of the committee of book publishers which

presents books to the White House at stated intervals, came to see how they were housed at present.

- still correspond with folks at the SMC. The greeting

By Jack Bell

on vacation) .

The Indian

o }

apolis Times

That night he was grumbling: “Don't a guy get nutin’ but cornwillie around this joint?”

No Sissy

A SILVER star is on the fire for Sgt. Bennett Kennedy Jr., Miami. His tank destroyer’s mission was to lead the infantry through a village to an important objective. If it was “knocked out the entire attack would be bogged. The road turned sharply left at the far end of the villages—an ideal enemy position. Bazooka posts in cellars along the street were a serious menace and somebody had to spot them. Kenfiedy selected himself, moving under the cover of machine-gun fire. Kennedy found the enemy strong points because he drew their fire. The tank guns blew them out as he directed, knocking down the walls to expose Jerry machine guns. They found no Jerry gun at the road turn and went on, with the tank destroyer*aiding the grateful riflemen, who looked on the tankmen In a new ie: saying, “We always thought you guys was eeping buttoned up all the time.”

. - -

SGT. JOHNNY AMERSON, Chippey, Fla. is a tank soldier. He spotted a German patrol. “I'll see if I can catch ’em behind yon “hedge,” he mused He took a 30-calibre machine gun, and waited. The Jerry patrol emerged a bit farther down the road than Johnny had expected. In fact, they appeared suddenly almost on top of him, He had time only to grab a machine gun and start shooting from the hip, no mean feat, A few minutes later he marched 10 Germans back to the tank. His bullets had riddled their clothing and equipment but none was scratched, but scared! * * LJ

EVERYBODY in the 702d tank destroyer battalion knows about the letter Pvt. Jerry Major got from his mother in Philadelphia, saving: “I am so happy that you are out of England and in Germany, away from those terrible flving bombs.”

sissies;

toe over her own head and ask for a kiss. * She got quite a few. After 12 or 15 Kisses, she seemed to have reached her quota, and moved on. What was it all about? How should we know? . .. The Servicémen’s Center issued an appeal today for wrapped Christmas gifts to distribute to servicemen Dec. 24. Last year they had about 5000. This year, we're told, they've got less than 100, Help! Help!. .. Elaborate Christmas greetings have been sent by the servicemen's centers to several hundred overseas servicemen who

“cards’—roughly two feet ‘square—show 37 scenes| snapped at the local centers. They were provided by a local businessman. . . . Bill Rowe reports having seen a.sign on a S. Illinois st. restaurant window: “Wanted—Night male waitress.” . , . He also reports seeing a sailor carrying a tin lunch box,

To Settle an Argument

ONE OF OUR readers phoned in the other day and wanted us to help her settle an argument. She was arguing that Russian vodka was “1000 proof.” We assured her that it just seemed that way, but she insisted she had read the same thing in this column a year ago, We skimmed through the columns ‘of that period, but couldn't find it. . Just to settle the matter, we called Kiefer Mayer, at the Kiefer Stewart Co. Kief says Russian vodka usually runs: 106 proof—not 1000. The latter is a physical impossibility. -. . .- The local Red Cross chapter has received a letter from Fred M. Koba, chairman of the Red Cross chapter at the Jap war relocation authority, Topaz, Utah. Mr. Koba asks if some of those celluloid callendars distributed by insurance firms could be sent him, He says enlisted men visiting the chapter ask for them. . , . We were asked yesterday to settle an argument over which is nearer to Germany by air—New York or Indianapolis. Using Walter Gingery, Washington high school principal and inventor of a map designed to show such things, as our authority, we found it’s 4600 miles to Berlin from Indianapolis, and only 4060 from New York. So now that's settled.

By David Dietz

existence of the weapon was not made public until 1943. Returning from North Africa in the summer of 1943, Maj. Gen, G. M. Barnes of the ordnance department revealed for the first time the details of the success of this rocket weapon. At the same time he made a significant statement, If this war lasts long enough, he said, it will be fought with weapons bearing only a faint resemblance to those now in use. ’

Mounted On Planes .

THE DEVELOPMENT of the rocket has tended to bear out this prediction. Within the last year and a half, rocket guns have been mounted on the wings of fighter, planes and on landing craft of all sorts, How far this development has gone was not known, however, until the present navy statement whith included * mention of a rocket-firing plane whose rocket hits with the impact of the entire broadside Arom the five-inch guns of a destroyer. Such weapons not only foretell new striking power ‘for the American navy but they also make it plain that the rocket is destined to bring about as big a change in the strategy and tactics of war as did the airplane, : In this war a civilian has sat, for the first time fn the nation’s history, in the meetings of the joint chiefs of staff. He is Dr. Vannevar Bush, director of the office of scientific research and development and chairman of the army and navy joint committee on new weapons. * * Under Dr. Bush, the scientists of the nation were mobilized for this war. It should now be obvious that neither a big navy nor a big army will guarantee the safety of this nation In the future unless it is accompanied by an equally well-financed program for the constant development of new weapons.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

In the evening, 45 government students came with Mr, Davenport for an hour and a half of discussion. They are college graduates who are taking a year of post-graduate work in some government work. ° Many of them hope eventually to find themselves "in administrative or executive offices in government permanently. The object, of «course, is to develop better public servants for executive positions. Dr. Davenport seemed pleased with the record

. gagement y is the board meeting of Miltwyck school late

in the last few days a

me rights.” signed by ‘many of

THERE IS A SANTA—

SECOND SECTION

Boy's Note Finds Him in Heart of

Church Official

By JOAN YOUNGER United Press Staff Correspondent NEWARK, N. J., Dec. 20.—Randolph Mosher found Santa Claus today in the kindly heart of a church deaconess. The boy, a resident of the Christmas tree country of Nova Scotia, wrote to Santa on a bit of ruled copy paper. He wrapped it in cellophane and attached it to an evergreen being shipped south. The tree was one" of three chosen by Rebecca Robertson, of the Centenary Methodist church. As she cut away the strings, she came upon the note. ” y » . “DEAR SANTA,” it read. ‘If you get my note will you please send me a little gift. Mother and daddy are not so well so I won't get anything for Christmas so please, dear Santa, don't forget me." It was signed “From your friend, Randolph Mosher, Western Shore, Lunenburg county, Nova Scotia, Canada.” “The poor baby,” Miss Robertson said. She took the boy's note to her pastor, the Rev. Chester: Hodgson.” He read it aloud at Sunday services. Over $25 was collected. Today, Miss Robertson took $5 of it and went shopping. » ” 2 SHE BOUGHT a wooden train, some books and some candy. She wasn't too sure of what 0 buy. She believed Randolph to be about 8, he hadn’t-said. She and the reverend both agreed that they would save the rest of the donations for help to the family, if they could discover what they needed. “It just happened that his note came to me, of course,” Miss Robertson said. ‘Perhaps we can be a Santa Claus to him throughout the year. For 25 years I have been making up little Christmas packages. This seems like it was just meant for me.”

Lodge to Install

Vaser as Master

INSTALLATION of William M. Vaser as worshipful master of Center Masonic lodge No. 23 will take place at 8 o'clock tonight at the Masonic temple, North and Illinois sts. Frank G. Sink also will install Louis M. Hope, senior warden; Herbert E. Rennard, junior warden; Mr. sink, treasurer; George Fried- 5 richs, secretary; John Julian, Mr. Vaser senior deacon; Fred E. Zuhlke, Junior deacon; Oscar H. Hagedon, chaplain; William H. Rector, senior steward; Carl W. Bisselberg, junior steward, and Fred M. Bauer, tyler. A Christmas party will follow the installation and Ralph Lillard’s orchestra will furnish mu-

* WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1944

All She Wants ls a New Home Christmas Morn

A bow on her neck but an ache in her heart, this terrier looks to the Christmas holidays with lonely But she is only one of the many lonely hearts at the Municipal Dog Pound that could be made happy. All she and the others want is to be in some child's stocking on Christmas morn.

eyes.

Are Germans Re-Enacting

Their July,

By UNITED PRESS LAST SATURDAY morning, the German army launched an offensive in still-undisclosed strength against.a 70-mile front along the Belgian and Luxembourg borders. Fggnt dispatches said the assault might prove Germany’s last major bid to halt the allies west of the Rhine and win a compromise peace. Twenty-six - years ago, the last great German offensive of world war I was opened. At dawn on July 15, 1818, 46 divisions were hurled against the American and French lines on a 50-mile front north of the Marne from Chateau-

Thierry to Massiges. :

» » » THAT DRIVE collapsed within three days. It was followed by the allied victory offensive that

‘| ended four months later in the

German capitulation.

Field Marshal Erich von Luden- |

dorff ordered the July, 1918, offensive at a moment when German home and military morale was dangerously low.. The objective of the attack, coupled with a still-more powerful blow planned but never executed in Flanders, apparently was to bolster German morale. At the same time, it was aimed to stir up political agitation in the allied countries for a negotiated peace. » » »

LUDENDORFFplannedts throw one of his three armies

sic for dancing.

across the Marne west of Chateau-

i [RS

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS—

Front With Mauldin

12140 Conv, 1964 by United Feature Syndicate. Ine.

“Run it up th’ mountain ag'in, Joe. It ain’t hot enough.”

1918, Failure?

Thierry in a strike for Epernay. The remaining two armies would deliver the main blow southeast of Reims against Chalons-Sur-Marne, ; Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, then French commander-in-chief,

defense in depth that permitted the Germans some initia] Success, The Germans broke across the Marne west of Chateau-Thierry, They advanced some miles toward Epernay., For a time they threatened to break the American an French flank.

BY THE following day, however, the German | is Was

18 the allies opened their own great counter-offensive. Prom that day until the armistice on Nov: 11, the allied armies held the initiative continuously. The Germans were unable to mount another major drive.

G.l's MASSACRED— Nazi Captors

Spray Death On 100 Yanks

FIRST AMERICAN ARMY HEADQQUARTERS, Dec. 19 (Delayed) (U.P.).—The 1st American army today forwarded to Wash« ington an official report on the massacre of more than 100 unarmed American prisoners by Nazi schutzstaffel and panzer men of a tank column south of Malmedy Sunday afternoon. The report was sent forward

. after the interrogation of .15 men

who escaped from a group of 120 to 150 American prisoners. The G. I's reported that the Germans lined them up in a fleld and sprayed their ranks with the machine guns of their tanks. "= = =» THE MEN were part of an American field artillery unit which was moving along the highway in convoy when it was attacked by German tanks. The outfit scattered and most of the men were captured, The Germans took their cigarets and

valuable and then lined them up |

in a field, making each put his | | known as

hands behind his head, One of the Nazi guards fired a shot into the crowd and then the tankers opened up with their machine guns, The men who were not killed fell to the ground with the dying but the Nazis continued to spray all with machine-gun fire. » n ”

A FEW Americans stood up and made a run for it; 15 of them escaped, Nazis atop the tanks took pot shots with their rifles at any man who showed signs of life. News of the massacre has spread up and down 1st army lines and has increased the urgency with

which the Yanks desire to finish off the attacking Nazis,

forward progress J halted everywhere. At dawn July

blocked the drive with an elastic |

EEF EGS el

WHIZ BANG'S WOES— Tyndall Rules Out Aid to Kiss-Buster Who Was ‘Busted’

MAYOR TYNDALL today revealed that he would not intervene in the case of Forest W, Allison, whose action in stopping a lovemaking incident on a city bus brought his demotion. The mayor said the demotion of Patrolman Allison from sergeant, effective last Priday, was agreeable to him. Besides, he feels the city government is pretty much like the army—non-coms and their problems should be the responsibility of some officer below the general.

» - ” WHILE Police Chief Beeker’s action in demoting Allison was not confirmed yesterday by the safety board, it was not expected that the board would reverse the chief: Meanwhile, Allison, sometimes “Whiz Bang,” still wears his sergeant’s badge, although drawing patrolman’s pay. It has been the policy of the safety board not to accept a police~ man’s badge until the personnel action has been confirmed. ! a. =» ”

ALLISON WAS said to have interfered with a man kissing his wife on a nporth-bound bus. He didn’t know the couple was married, he said. The husband was sald to have become irate. Patrolman Allison has collected a number of letters from passen-

| havior and belief that he was | right.

gers attesting to his courteous be-

By Laurene Rose Diehl

IST W! DECORA S

- Montana,

"PAGE 13°.

Tomorrow's Job Bill Provides Guarantee of ‘Right to Job - |

By E. A. EVANS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20.— Three senators’ invite discussion of a post-war full employment

. bill which they expect to go beforé »

the next congress. It needs discussion plenty, It proposes that the government guarantee the “right” of every American able and willing to work to a useful and r em unerative job. The guarantee would be made good A by “whatever volume of federal investment and other expenditure may be needed,” in addition to private activity, “to assure continuing full employment.” Should this bill become law, the President would send congress each year a “national production and employment budget” and a plan for balancing it. He would estimate the number of jobs needed and the total amount of investment and spending neces sary to support that many jobs. va " LJ THE THREE senators, members of a subcommittee on war contracts, are James E. Murray of Chapman Revercomb of West Virginia and Harry 8. Truman of Missouri, vice presi-dent-elect. The bill they offer for discussion is said to have “liberal” and labor support as a means by which President Roosevelt can keep his campaign promise of 60 million post-war jobs. It is = revolutionary pmoposal “which would be likely to have consequences not foreseen and certainly not desired by many people who may be attracted to it by its offer of a “guaranteed” job for every American who wants to work. : It would take this country far down the road toward a govern-ment-planned, government-man-aged national economy, under which government would have to exercise in peacetime stricter control over the affairs of the peo-

types of employment, their wages time.

i - 8

» . IT WOULD substitute the judgment of bureaucrats in Washington for the judgments of the in 48 states.” The bureau-

ing and ever-growing debt as a permanent government policy. For the other side of federal “investment” is federal borrowing. That policy would fatally

This bill would defeat.its own proclaimed purpose by throttling private production of new wealth and destroying the only sound basis for genuinely. “remunerative” jobs,

We, the Woah Girls Might Have Fooled Their Father

By RUTH MILLET HEADLINES OVER the divorce story read: “He Wanted Boys, Girls Were Born; Sues -for Divorce.” Some “day “he may "discover he made a big mistake. If he wanted boys for companionship he I might have | gone ahead to train’ his girls to be ideal companions. They could ~-have been brought up to enjoy such pursuits as hunting and fishing. They never would have entered into real competition with their old man. J ” ”

never make a man feel old. Sons do, yes. They even seem to take a delight in pushing pop into retirement. But daughters, with

admiration, make a man feel young, If he wanted sons to carry on in his business or profession, the man who was disappointed in having daughters could have turned the disappointment into satisfaction by encouraging his daughters to become career women. He would have stood just as good a chance of getting a daughter to follow in his footsteps as a

dads,: whose sons have decided against being a lawyer or a docs tor like dad. § ” » _AND IT’S daugh

FURTHERMORE, daughters

their calculated compliments and

son. Look at all the disappointed

» J ters—not sons— .

gol wh a 3 h

ple—their business activities, their

—than it now exercises in war- 8

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