The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 24, 1941, Page 1

VOL. LVIIL, NO. 8914. ALASKA “ALL THE NEW'S ALL THE TIME” jUEAU, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1941 "MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS TEN CENTS PHILIPPINES ATTACKED, 3 DIRECTIONS NAZIS PLAN Jap Raid on School NEW MOVE, REPORT NOW ay May InvadéfiSApain or Tur-| key-Pope Pius Issues- Christmas Broadcast (BY ASSOCIATED PRESS) High British quarters today de- clared that Hitler and his battered armies retreating in Russia and North Africa are instigating new “war nerves” amid floating rumors of an imminent German invasion of Spain or Turkey. These rumors circulate as Pope Pius, in a Christmas Eve broadcast lamented the “harsh violence that rages all over the world like a storm.” The London Foreign Office spokesman said the Germans them- | selves are fostering years of vyet another outburst of violence against the Nazi war machine from con- | | AXIS KEEP RETREATING NO. AFRICA ‘ British Desert Armies fo " Occupy Cirenaica, Also Two Key Points (By Associated Press) In North Africa, the desert armies of Great Britain are “rapidly com- pleting their occupation of Cirena- ica” and it is officially reported they have captured two key Axis points | as pursuit of the broken German | and Italian forces continued. The British official statement says the desert forces have seized the Axis air base at Benina, 12 miles east of Bengasi and also a strong- hold 52 miles northwest of Bengasi. | SECY. OF WAR A’I‘)ealu hand Deslruclion Left by Jap Raid 44 xS WARNS ABOUT quered nations. This is not a view of a European battlefield but a sceng just outside Honolulu's Waikiki section where bembs dropped during the December 7 air assault by Japan. Death and destruction were spread through- out the area by the treacherous aerial attack. Note trees seared by flames which followed in the wake of (Continued on Page Two) Fire-gutted interior of one of the classrooms in the Lunalilo School in Honolulu after it had been the target of a bomb dropped from raid- ing Japanese planes December 7. Because the raid took place on a Sunday morning there were no children in the school. Firemen saved the structure before it was completely consumed by the bomb-borne flames. Copyright by International News Photos and publication authorized by G2, U. S. Army, Honolulu. fapilal Buckles Down Quickly, Gefs 10 Work On W_arlime Schedules | By JACK STINNETT 24 — Just OFFENSIVE | WASHINGTON, Dec. [ | when Washingtonians were con- | vinced that the nation's capital RED ARMY | was becoming the world center of [ | bedlam—war broke loose. It caught thirty-odd thousanrds of Recapture of 94 Populated Places Reported — Nazis | official and unofficial Washington Hard Hit at Leningrad plane production of over 1500 a at their Sunday pastime, watch- ing a “pro” football game. The |news, ten minutes yafter it was flashed over The Associated Press wires, reached a group of F.BL officials. It was called up over two rows of spectators by a messen- ger who had taken a telephone call from headquarters, Like waves from a pebble in a puddle, the news circled the field. month, which is increasing rapidly.' MOSCOW, Dec. 24— Dispatches Within a few minutes the half Further, Japanese output is lim- |received from the front today claim was over and the stands were ited not only by lack of plant cap- the Red Armies are riding out for deserted by thousands as Army, acity but even more importantly miles in a sustained offensive and Navy and other government of- by lack of essential metals, such have recaptured 94 populated places ficials rushed to report for duty. as aluminum. jon_the southern Moscow front. Second major Japanese weakness| The Germans have also been is in pilot strength. They are es- driven back at least 50 miles in the timated to have begun the war Leningrad sector. with 5,000 combat pilots, 3,000 Army The Russian dispatches said the and 2,000 Navy. In this respect tattered winter pinched remnants we also far outclass them. of Col. Gen. Guerian's once proud The Japanese pilot training pro- German Tank army is now retreat- gram, carried on in seven schools, Ing toward Orel, 100 miles southwest turns out fewer than 1,000 figming‘flfi Tula. pilots a year. This is a pygmy rate Lights went on in the early aft- compared to our training schedules.| ernoon winter dusk in the White House, the State Department, sar FLANES 'Mrs. Noble fo Give Plane for plane, some of the Jap-| . . Christmas Dinner OPM, the Army and Navy buildings, and many of the embassies—to be dimmed only by daylight. anese models compared favorably with the best we now have in the| : air, though not with the latest| Mrs. Ruth T. Noble will entertain planes we have under construction. | for Jier son, ‘_!o]\n Noble, at a For the excellence of their planes | dinner on Christmas day at her we can thank the appeasement po].iflpartment in the Baranof Hotel. icy which enabled them to buy des- Guests will include E§11e11 Jones, igns and patent licenses from Am-|Katherine Mitchell, Edith Young, erican and British firms, though the Katherine Kennedy, Hugh Norton, Japs also secured certain models Allison Swanson, Ralph Vogel, Bob from Germany and Ttaly. Boes, George McMahone, and Har- The Jap Mitsubishi Mc-20 twin-|©ld Dodge motored bomber is a dead ringer R for our crack Douglas DC-2. The| MARRIAGE LIC Jap four-motor naval seaplane, the' ArYo Melvin Wahto, teacher of Kawanishi 4M, looks very much Pelican City, and Gladys Eleanor like the famous Consolidated PBY Mackay, of Aberdeen, Washington, patrol bomber, one of which spotted made application for a marriage license today at the office of U. 8. Commissioner Felix Gray. Y | Orew Pearscs ‘:AIOI fobert 60 WASHINGTON — Despite the current impression, U. S. military experts never have be'ittled Japan- ese air power. Claims thot the Japs are poor flyers because of weak eyes were discounted bv the War Department as silly. But despite the conceded potency of the present Japanese air forces and their initial successes thanks to treacherous surprise, the Japan- ese are up against certain serious handicaps which in the long run should give the United States a big. margin of air superiority Chief Japanese handicap is plane production, in which we have the Japs licked a mile. Plane for plane, Japanese air strength now is about equal to ours. At the outset of the war they were credited with having 4500 battle planes of various types, civided about evenly between their | Army and Navy. | However, monthly Japanese war plane output is estimated at not | over 500, compared to U. S. war- Light went on around the Jap- anese embassy too, but a different kind of light. It was the flicker of a bonfire that rose from the backyard of the embassy on Mass- achusetts Avenue as officials heap- ed bex after box of records and papers into the flames. The avenue became a glut of traffic, as the curicus piled in to see what was geing on. And on the roof, as long as. the light lasted, a son of Nippon took pictures of the crowd. Overnight, the eapital, which heretoicre has seen uniforms on enly the nen-commissioned of- ficers and men of the armed ferces, tock cn the appearance of an armed camp as the thou- sands of Army and Navy offi- cers on desk duty here went into uniform. Only those who were here mere than 20 years ago when the hordes working in Washington were ordered ‘“out D g R (Continued on Page Four) lCOn!hqudr 70;17 i’aée.on» of uniferm” have any basis for | XMAS WATCH Gov. Gruel;inAg Gets Wire from Washington Urg- ing Holiday Vigilance Alaskans were warned to be on the watch for subversive and enemy activities during the holiday sea- son in a wire received by Gov Ernest Gruening here today from Secretary of War Stimson. The telegram read: “The approdching holiday season is a period of increased danger from fifth column and sabote activities, particularly on Chri mas eve, Christmas day and New Year's eve. I request your coopera- tion in impressing on your law enforcement officers the importance of special vigilance during the hol- iday season. Surprises. and treach- ery are Axis weapons. We must an- ticipate and guard against their employment whenever the enemy might have cause to believe there is likelihood of relaxed vigilance.” In Juneau, the civic defense board beat Secretary Simpson (0o the gun by warning citizens yester- day tp be watchful of any enemy threat during the holidays. e Appeal From ~ License Due The U. S. Attorney General's of- fice has authorized J. W. Kehoc, U. S. Attorney at Anchorage, to take an appeal into the courts im- mediately in the case brought re- cently by Major-General Simon Bolivar Buckner, asking for a r dent hunting license, it was an- nounced today by George Folta, attorney-at-large for the Depart- ment of the Interior in Alaska. Six counts will be cited in the defense of the appeal from the de- cision of Judge Simon Hellenthal A‘in Anchorage recently, when he ruled against Wildlife Agent Jack O’Connor and Frank Dufresne, ex- ecutive officer of the Alaska Game Commission, and ordered the clerk of the court to issue a resident hunting license to General Buck- ner, | The action will be filed immedi- ately, Folta stated. - There are about 100 United States post offices and six substations in Puerto Rico. 3 | the blasts, Internati ARMY PLANES ABLAZE FROM JA¥ B Blazing from the Japan 1al News Photos and publication authorized by G2, U. 8. Army, Honolulu, B — seen behind two motors of one of the bombers whica escaped damage. ' Buckner Hunt WKKflilAND 6 BELIEVED TO BE CAPTURED WASHINGTON, Dec. 24. — The Navy Department today made pub- lic what may be the final chapter in the heroic defense of Wake Is- land, ‘announcing radio communi- cation has been severed and “cap- ture of the island is probable.” However, the communique added the Marine Corps defenders of the tiny Pacific isle accounted for two enemy destroyers in the final Jap- anese landing operations. The Navy .announced both Pal- myra Island and Johnston Island in the mid-Pacific were shelled by enemy subs but no casualties re- sulted. Damage to Palmyra was negligible and the Navy said no damage was done to Johnston. - - g The Australian bird, kookaburra, is popularly called “the laughing jackass.” | ROWDEN BETTER, HOSPITAL SAYS SEATTLE, Dec. 24—Mayor Wil- liam C. Growden of Fairbanks, who was accidentally shot Monday when a pistol in his luggage was dis- charged, was feeling better this morning, Providence Hospital au- thorities said. Growden was hit in the chest and was in a critical condition for one day. e INTERNAL REVENUE MEN ARE IN CITY Mindful of the fact that it won't be many months now before in- come taxes are due, two officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue were in Juneau today. They were Wesley Overby, deputy collector stationed at Juneau, who has returned from a trip to the States, and O. 8. Sullivan, collector for Alaska, who is here enroute to \nchorage. > BUY DEFENSE STAMPS as well as pieces of household articles strewn about where the homes once stood. Copyright by ese bomhing attack on the Army’s Hickam Field pear Honolulu, are B-17 bombers SUB VICTIM'S CREW REACHES SHORE SAFELY | T SAN FRANCISCO, Cal, Dec. 24. —Captain Olaf Eckstrom of the oil tanker Montebello, sent to the | bottom by a prowling enemy sub, today expressed the hope the Unit- ed States Navy will “get that Jap sub before she gets another Amer- ican ship.” Eckstrom praised his crew of 140, affer they all reached shore suffering only from shock and ex- posure. The Canadian freighter Rose- bank, en toure to a California port, was reported overdue more than 24 hours. The Navy said it had no information regarding the 2,400-to: vessel. The Rosebank's home por is Vancouver, B. C. e : Vera &Zorina, movie actress, has |2 hobby of sketching in charcoal. THREAT IS MADE UPON CHIEF CITY Forty Japar@ Troopships Creep Up During Night -landings Made BIG REINFORCEMENTS ARE GOING ASHORE ‘American and Filipino De- | fenders Are "Resisting \ Stubbornly” Is Report | | MANILA, Dec. 24 —The defenders of Manila are battling a Japanese invasion army 125 miles north ef this capital city and the defenders are facing a three-way direction attack as the enemy succeeded in | landing heavy forces 75 miles south- | east, of this city. Forty Japanese transports crept up during the night and new landings were effected, one at Atimonan, a small fishing port on the east coast of Luzon Island. The United States Army head- quarters issued a communique at 4 o'clock this afternoon and stated American' and Filipino troops are “resisting stubbornly” on all fronts but added ominously that the “en- emy continues to land reinforce- official bulletin describes in all sectors as “very V" but failed to say whether invaders were making any sward Manila, ANOTIER ENEMY, THRUST HINGTON, Dec. 24. — The Department announces the ap- of enemy troop ships off on the southern tip of “land and about 60 miles ing ated there is a possi- her thrust in that re- which has landed L torce in the vieinity of Atimonan. The new thrust gives the indication the Japanese are appar- ng to decoy General Mac- splitting his defending nen - > GEQ. FOLTA, JR. KOV/ STATICNED ATPEARL HARBOR George Folta, Jr., son of George Folta, attorney-at-large for the | Department of the Interior in Al- |aska, was graduated from the naval !academy at Annapolis on Decem- ber 18, it was announced here to- day by his father. Bank Doors Left - Open, No Robbery | FOSS, Okla., Dec. 24—The staff of the Foss bank went to lunch the other day and left the bank door wide open. Postmaster Ralph Peach discovered the situation and hunt- ed up one cof, the bankers to ask if he didn't want the doors closed. He did. AT S/u;p’./nutg Day 77/ hniddmad