The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 17, 1942, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE VOL. LX., NO. 9217. “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” JUNEAU, ALASKA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1942 4_-$ MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS 12 JAP ZEROS SHOT DOWN IN SOLOMONS Rommel’s Forces Slashed In Two By Allies MAUL NAZIS BOTTLED UP ON DESERT New Action Looming in Tunisia as Rains | Slacken Up ‘ LONDON, Dec. 17. — The Axis’ fleeing columns in Libya have been cut in two, the British announced today. Part of the Axis troops are trapped in between British forces and have suffered heavy casualties in an effort to break out. This stroke in the hot chase across the desert was achieved yes- terday, a Cairo communique dis- closed, when Britain’s Eighth Army reached Wadi Matratin, about 65 miles west of El Agheila, and cut inland to the south across Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's retreat line. Mauling Germans Some Axis armored divisions are | bottled up and “continue to be severely mauled,” the communique added. There was no immediate estimate | of the number of men trapped, but observers said that a large | Nazi rearguard force is being me- thodically mopped up. On the opposite side, the Axis’ last narrowing - foothold = in the southern Mediterranean area is being slashed at as Allied forces in Tunisia are stirred into new action. P Tunisia Fight Opens (Continued on Page Two) The Washington Merry - Go-Round ' BLBHEW PEARSON (Major rt 8. Allen on active duty.) WASHINGTON.—It takes only a pencil, a paper and a little arith- metic to ascertain what no longer can be a military secret, namely that airplane carriers probably have almost vanished from the face of the Pacific Ocean. Our announced losses, subtracted from the total number of carriers we had when war began, leaves us with a slim margin. Also, we know by our announcements of Jap losses that they are in the same boat. The last naval battle north of the Solomons had all the earmarks of being fought without any car- | riers on either side. If this is true, it brings out some | highly important factors regnrdingi future warfare in the Pacific. It| means first, that we have to de- | pend on islands to serve as sta- | tionary airplane carriers. Second, it may mean that we will not| build airplane carriers in the fu-| ture. This latter point is debatable. | But there is no debating the im- portance of Pacific islands as air bases. Today, the chief importance of the Solomon Islands is its airfield. | That also is the chief importance of New Guinea. | But most of the island airplane | carriers of the Pacific are in the| hands of the enemy. Thousands of | islands dot the Pacific between Ha- waii and Japan, all in Jap hands. | Enough airfields have been devel- oped on them to make it almost | impossible for a fleet to approach | the main Japanese islands without suffering terrific damage from swarms of deadly land-based planes. A few years ago, newspapermen | covering the State Department used a gag to enable them to| write a news story on Christmas and Easter. They queried the State Department regarding con- flicting American-British claims to Christmas Island and Easter Is-; land, and always got, the bored | response from the State Depart- ! ment that the United States didn't | consider them worth claiming | Today, however, the United States | would give its eye-teeth for more | (Continued on Page Four) 164%, l21%, 'Cold Wave Coming fo Juneau; Probably Hif Tonight, So Get Ready Military secret be hanged—there is a cold wave approaching Juneau land is very likely to hit here this evening, perhaps by the time this is read—it has struck, and how The Weather Bureau, in a warn- ing at noon today, said Juneau residents should be prepared for low temperatures approaching zero —get that—and probably wind, off the record The thermometer at the Fire Hall said 16 above zero at 2 o'cloc lms morning. At 9 o'clock it reg- listered 12 and juggled around that Axis Had Darlan Right By Throat, He Says, But HENDERSON T0 RESIGN temperature until mid-afternoon vty a0 arap 12 more desrecs| PYiCE Administrator fo Be .‘,‘1),1.{'”re;:;:)e\:'\ predicted as a prob- Su((eeded by Sena'or Prentiss Brown Residents are warned to watch their water pipes, incidentally their fires; put up rugs at the bottom TR of the doors to keep out draughts,| WASHINGTON, Dec also papers around window cracks |POTtS are being circulated that Leon the me purpose, and gener- Henderson will bv. succeeded as ally prepare to keep warm. Even |Price Administrator by Senator Prentiss Brown of Michigan This brought predictions thatone | the temperature at zero is not so cold to Juneauites if the darn old of the immediate results would be | softening of rationing controls that wind didn’t bust in to become a real nuisance. | |will release more supplies to ci- vilians. Reliable sources said that unless some hitch develops, Henderson will resign shortly after Janua 1 |for a rest and Brown, defeated in |the November elections, will be named his successor. 17, Re- ior Allied Nations Won Oui ASKS UNIONS “Ideal” Girl Fraternity men at Drake univer- sity, Des Moines, Ia., have select- ed Betty Lou Hodgson of Des Plaines, Ill, as their “ideal” girl. | Miss Hodgson is a sophomore, five feet three inches tall and weighs 110 pounds. Last spring Miss Hodgson was selected “Miss America” by the cadets at Ran- dolph field, Texas. STOCK QUOTATIONS NEW YORK, Dec. 17.-— Buyers | returned to the stock market in | force today and pushed leaders up to $1 and $3 a share for the best gains in more than two months and new high for a year or longer were plentiful. The volume of business | today was better than 1,000,000 shares, one of the largest dealing days of the year. Alaska Juneau mine stock closed today at 3, American Can 74'%, An- aconda 25%, Bethlehem Steel 56, Commonwealth and Southern Curtiss Wright 6%, International Harvester 59%, Kennecott 28%, New York Central 10%, Northern Pacific | 7%, United States Steel 49, Pound $4.04. Dow, Jones averages today were: Industrials, 118.68; rails, 27.22; util- ities, 14.56. PRICES WEDNESDAY Alaska Juneau mine stock closed Wednesday at 3, American Can at | 72, Anaconda 24%, Bethlehem Steel Commonwealth and Southern ,7/30, Curtiss Wright 6%, Interna- tional Harvester 57%, Kennecott New York Central 10%, Northern Pacific 7%, United States | Steel 47, Pound $4.04. The following were Wednesday's Dow, Jones averages: industrials 117.06, rails 26.51, utilities 14.20. ALLIED HLADQUARTER& IN NORTH AFRICA, Dec. 17.— Admllal | Jean Darlan declared here in formal statement that "FrenLh Africa, with the Allies, must make a maximum military erron to defeat Germany and Italy. The former Commander of all of | ({ Vichy's armed forces disclaimed any | personal ambition and said his mo- | tive in joining the Allies was to free himself from the Axis yoke. | “The French people themselves will decide freely what form of gov- | W0u|d A|d War ernment and national policy they | | desire,” said Admiral Darlan. CHICAGO, Dec. 17.—As a further “I have stated emphatically and | contribution to the war effort, Wil- repeatedly to Commander-in-Chief | jjam Spencer, Regional Director of | Eisenhower that in leading north- | the War Manpower Commission, be- | west Africa against Germany and | jjeves that organized labor unions Italy into the ranks of the United | ghould relax their closed shop policy Nations, I seek no assistance or | for the duration to permit the support for my personal ambition,” | gheorption of non-skilled workers Admiral Darlan told American and | 34 non-union workers. British correspondents. Spencer says the greatest possible Reuters also quotes him as telling | yse of all workers of all skills would 'TO ABANDON War Manpower Commis- | sion Officials Say ‘panles and their Presidents plead- jed nolo contendere, refusing to answer the charge and were fined $10,000 each | ) BIG AIRBASE OF JAPANESE is as WITH AMERICAN FORCES IN CHINA, Dec. 14— (Delayed) —Gia- lan airdrome at Haoi, the largest Japanesc airport in French Indo- China has been plastered with four and one-half tons of bombs today !as Brig. Gen. Chennult’s China Air | Task Force continued to smash the lenemy strongholds in Burma and Indo-China. Pilots of the planes described “perfect bombing this at a conference with newsmen | he obtained “if the unions would “had me by the throat.” workers where the unions, them- | Darlan, at the press conference, | sejves, don't have additional work- ! said cooperation with the Nazis in!ers on their rolls » the days before the Allied occupa- | f? forced upon him: and “every mme‘ I made, everything I said or wrote, everyone with whom ¥ talked, came | under the closest German scxutmy |that it has filed criminal infor- | mation, charging the nation's three largest soap manufacturers with fixing prices in violation of the 3 | The companies are Proctor Consumption of Beer, cume "Coigate “and peimolive . Py Wines, Spirits, Re- ister Mackenzie King today ordered cuts in the amount of mboxicants (released for consumption in Can- | ada. beer advertising in the Dominion jof Canada for the duration. The cut in intoxicants | follows: 20 percent and spiritous liquors by 30 percent. | s On the basketball schedule for tomorrow, games to be played at Douglas are the Bruins vs. St. Louis Blues and Cheechakos vs. Mala- and also saying that the Germans grant work permits to non-union tion of French Africa had been | Thnc wexe Gelman spies about me | Department of Justice announces Dominion | Anti-Trust Law. | OoTTAWA, Dec. 17.—Prime Min- | The order also bans liquor and | Beer cut to 10 percent, wines by | mutes. American raiding the attacks operations VERY SOON CLOSED SHOP and | | Peet, and Lever Brothers. The com- | GETS BOMBS : as, AMERICA Kiska Japs Face Tough Winter as Our Forces Cut Off Their Supplles CHITS JEW MASSACRE WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 United Nations in condemning Ger- many's “bestial policy of cold- blooded extermination” in pledging that those responsible “shall not escape retribution.” In announcing the move, the State | Department said that reports from Europe indicate German authorities | now are carrying into effect Hitler’s often-repeated intention to exterm- | inate the Jewish people in Europe The announcement described Po- | | lond as the principal “Nazi slaughte! house” where ghettos have been es- | | tablished by the Germans and are | now being systematically emptied of all Jews except a few skilled work- ers. The State Department said “none of those taken away are ever heard from again. The able-bodied are slowly worked to death |camps and the infirm are left to | die from explosure, starvation, or | are deliberately massacred in mass executions. “The number of victims of these | bloody campaigns are reckoned in the many hundreds of thousands of | entirely innocenet men, women and children,” the statement concluded RED ARMY " GAINING, 2 FRONTS Warfare on Frozen Eastern Front Swinging Back to Soviet Favor MOSCOW, Dec. 17. of comparative indecision, course of warfare on the eastern front appeared today be swinging definitely back favor of the Red Army The Soviets announce ture of five more German points in the Rzhev sector on the Central Front and the bloody re- pulse of a heavy Nazi counter drive southwest of Stalingrad - STRIKE ON N.Y.PAPERS CALLED OFF | Describes HBJHifler Mur- ders Those in Euro- pean Lands | NEW YORK, Dec. 17 of newspaper deliverers early this morning was called off, an emer- gency session being held to O. K. the frozen to in the cap: an order to obey the mandate of r Labor Board. Thc callmg off of the strike as- sured the late edition de- llverles of today's morning ;papcrs and editions of newspapers | this afternoon will again be de-| livered. There has been no general cir-' !culation of newspapers in New York York since last Sunday night when the deliverers sought a wage raise 15 percent. The strike, accord- ing to the War Labor Board, was in violation of labor’s no-strike pledge. The publishers had agreed to a $3 increase which the Union iturned down A D N S R MRS. CARMI BERRY TO LEAVE FOR SEATTLE Mrs. Carmen Berry has resigned her position as file clerk’ with the Office of Price Administration and will leave the latter part of the week to join her husband in Se- attle. The United States has joined with other | of Jews and | in labor | After a week strong | -The strike | news- | WILLIAM L. WORDEN (Associated Press War Correspondent) By AN ARY BASE IN THE AN- DREANOF ISLANDS, Dec. 10, (Delayed)—Possible starvation and almost certain serious discomfort due to the lack of various essen- tials now face the Japanese occu- pants of Kiska Island United States Air Force and Navy activities have prevented any sup- pll(m from reaching Kiska in any | quantity since September 1. The /last ship was sighted there on |October 9. No new planes have |reached the occupied island since midsummer, although at leasttwo attempts—one by air and one by surface ships—have been made re- |cently to give aerial reinforcement Both attempts failed, one when Jap ships carrying crated planes were attacked and destroyed by low-level bombers, the other when bombers and fighters jumped on some beached planes toward Attu, ()llly Faint Chance 'Iroops al lonely Oulposls | To Westward fo Have Trees, (elebralions on (hrislmas‘ SINK JAP SHIPNEAR Delayed Ré_;;art Tells of End of Another Rein- forcement Try By WILLIAM L. WORDEN (Associated Press War (orrcspondevm AN ARMY BASE IN DREANOF ISLANDS, Dec. (Delayed)—Belatedly, Army cers revealed today that the Alas- kan Air ‘Force gave a Jap ship near Attu Island a Thanksgiving present to the tune of 13 low- level bombs which destroyed the vessel and ended another attempt to relicve that enemy’s hard- pressed land forces in the Aleu- ‘tians. THE AN- 11— offi- At Holtz Bay Our medium bombers and fast ;hghl,ers went im over Holz Bay |at deck level to attack the collier type vessel, which by its presence indicated that the Nippons are be- ginning to feel a shipping short- age. This type of vessel is neither big cnough or fast enough to domuch of a job in supplying land bases. The fighters went in first, sil- teries and also quieting at least |two guns fore and aft on the ship. |Some of the fighter pilots also attempted to hit the ship’s steam lines. The fighters’ fire was so effec- tive that no fire bothered the fol- lowing bombers. Piloting the fight- | ing planes were Capt. Arthur B Hustead of Los Angeles; Lieut. Harley 8. Tawlks of Everett, Wash.; Lieut. John W. Livesay of Fort Worth, Texas; Lieut. Floyd G. Soule of Freesoil, Mich. Scored Three Hits The medium bombers, which scored at least three hits out of 13 bombs, did the work so effec- tively that they had no need of going over the target more than (Continued on Page Three) ! blown Island where Americans from ATTU ISLE ! when a supply of Christmas’ trees fon snow for decorations. encing the land anti-aircraft bat- | of darkness nightly. FORTRESSES BAG ENTIRE ENEMY UNIT o Navy Dive-Bombers Dam- age Destroyer Near New Georgia WASHINGTON, Dec. 17—United States Navy dive-bombers, striking at Japanese ships and installations at Munda on New Georgia Island in the Solomons, hit and damaged one destroyer or cruiser whiie Fly- ing Fortresses of the United States Army Air Force engaged and shot down 12 enemy Zero fighters, the Navy announced today. The sharp-eyed gun crews of |the huge American bombers turned !their 50-calibers on the 12 Jap |planes—the entire squadron—and in a day, would see such signs and |sent every one down in flames in report it. Officers recognize the & short engagement. This action probability that the Japs will be|8lso occurred near New Georgia able to clink to the island in the Island fact of dwindling supplies longer ©One of the Flying Fortresses was than most white troops because of [108t, but the crew was saved, the their known ability to live on a Navy reported. little rice and a few fish, Fish| One Navy dive-bomber falled to 1% — [return from the raid on Munda where the Japs are seeking to es- Mablish a new bne M ARTHUR INCREASES PRESSURE Japs Told to Fight fo Last- Trapped on New Guinea ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN AUSTRALIA, Dec. 17-—~Gen. Doug- las MacArthur announced today that “our pressure om the enemy is slowly increasing” in the shell churned Buna area where it Iis understood the Japanese troops have been ordered by their Emper- or to fight to the last man. are that officers here to say positively whatever have reached last two months, but out that the only system would have been submarines or surface ships which may have slipped into the harbor at night and got out again before dawn Both of these Army willing supplies Kiska in the they do point possible supply no systems are mere- theoretical, however, and it is that they have been fol- lowed out. Officers believe that it would be almost impossible for the enemy to unload any quantity of cargo, get it off the beach, and eradicate the signs of a cargo movement all in a single night. Our patrol planes, which are over the area, sometimes several times ly unlikely (Cnnnnum on Pdgc Thrrer By WILLIAM L. \‘VUHI)FN Associated Press War Correspondent AN ARMY BASE IN THE AN- DREANOF ISLANDS, Dec. 12.— (Delayed) —Christmas cheer is now assured for this snow covered, wind Georgia, Alabama, California, even Brooklyn and other homelike places, will be spending the holidays this year. Assurance of the cheer came today was distributed to various army units as a supplement to the turkeys which Mess Sergeants are carefully | saving for Christmas Day, Decem- ber 25, | A captured Japanese Lance Cor- The supply of trees is not what poral said Emperor Hirohito's or- you would call ample, in fact just | ders to fight to the last man came 20 for all the thousands of troops| on November 28 after the Emperor which moved here within the 185t|paq learned of the critical plight few months, ut the Post Chaplain, (of the Japanese in New Guinea. Capt. _John L. Dodge,*formerly of Today’s communique did not Nashville, Tenn. said: “Even one again mention the Mambare River tree would have been the difference Brea . to” the: horthwest werk bk between a holiday and just another |Japanese landings were affectad day in this treeless country.” | Bl Capt. Dodge said he hopes to re_\tmee days ago despite the appal- [ceive a few tree decorations but if 'N& losses inflicted by Allied bomb- ers and fighters. A total of nine Japanese planes |are reported to have been shot down by the Allied forces else- where, eight off New Britain Is- land and another off Huon Gulf, SHORTAGE OF MEATS NEARS END WASHINGTON, Dec. 17.—Nation- wide meat shortages will be re- lieved by an OPA order, expected soon, allowing packers to begin slaughtering on 1943 quotas of De- cember 19 instead of waiting until January 1 Representative Ward Johnson, Republican of California, is au=- thority for the statement. will use colored paper upplies and will depend he doesn't, from Army Real Party At least one large Army unit will have some kind of a Christmas par- ty through the efforts of two chap- lains, Capt. Charles W. Hughes, formerly Canon of St. Paul's Cathe- dral in Detroit, and Lieut. Paul F. Haren, formerly of Cleveland, Ohio. Capt. Hughes made room in his personal baggage, on the move to the front, for a Santa Claus suit. He and Haren also plan a unit-wide party at which each man will take some gift even if only an old jack- knife and each man will get some- thing from under the unit tree. Old Stuff to Many Christmas in an Army camp is no novelty for some troopers stationed here although others, who are re- cruits, have never spent a holiday away from home before. However, a veteran in the language of the Alaska Defense Forces means a vet- eran of at least two years in for- eign service. Several units on the islands here have been in the Ter- ritory since 1940, antedating all other foreign service except Ha- . wail Holiday celebations on this front line of islands will be limited to small gatherings, both because of the possibility of attack and because of the lack of facilities for large celebrations. Of course lighted trees 1! be out of the question in a territory where trucks move with- out lights through thirteen hours $huppmg Days full @hristmas