The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, February 22, 1943, Page 1

VOL. LX., NO. 9273. “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE JUNEAU, ALASKA, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22# 1943 850 Perish In EXTRA StralegicPlaces AMERICANS VICTIMS OF ENEMY SUBS Both Ships Sent to Bottom in Less than Thirty Minutes WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — The Navy reported today that more than 850 persons, mostly service perscnnel, are dead or missing af- ter two American passenger-cargo ships were torpedoed by submar-| — STATUTE MILES {AUSTRALIA & Concentric circles show distances irom Guadaleanal Island, in ihe : y Solomons, to other Allied and Japanese bases (flag symbols), in the ines in the North Atlantic early i g uipyest Pacific. The U. S. commander on Guadaleanal reported F“.?;‘:“:,'jwy,i Sdendiity ki, | officially that the island had been taken completely. “Two medium-sized United States ~— S Y Jassenger-cargo vessels were tor- SINK HUGE y( ] g a r e || e A R | i i Both ships sank within 30 minutes. AMER'( N ! a |° n I ng “The lass of life among the mer- | chant crewmen and passengers, thc! L] latter comprising civilians and per- | ’ o .y om'n sonnel of the Army, Navy and Mar- 1 | | marines within four days of each other early in February in the| North Atlantic. { “Both attacks occurred at night.| P pedoed and sunk by enemy sub-| ine Corps and Coast Guard, was (Continued on Page Six) | The Washington Merry - Go- Round By, DREW PEARSON Sister Sub VS'é-nds Down Rumors Get Setback by Two Large Jap Trans- | Good News from Agency ports in Refaliation | of Federal Government 99 The WASHINGTON, Feb. 22—Cigar- PEARL HARBOR, Feb. ette smokers, who have heard ru- sinking of the United States sub- |southeast coast of - New Guinea more than & month ago was fol- lowed within two hours by the sink- | ing of two large Jap transports by another submarine. The transports were from the same convoy that the Argonaut was| stalking. | | WASHINGTON REPORT lu. S. plANES | WASHINGTON, Feb. 22—A Navy; communique announced Sunday | MAKE RAIDS that she Argonaut failed to return! from patrol operations and is pre-! sumed to be lost. . ! {Naples, Also Crofon Bomb- ed-ltalans Admit Many Killed and Injured One of the Jap transports sunk | (By Associated Press) was 10,000 tons, the other 7,000, tons. The transports apparently | ‘American planes bombed Naples and Croton heavily during a day- were highly prized by the Japs, pos- gonaut, light raid last Saturday, sibly because they carried high rank- ing officers. e \great fires and damaging three iships, according to the British Air I S I N iMinislry. An Ttalian radio broadcast from Six destroyer and aircraft es- Rome said that 119 were killed and the Missouri boy who came to be war production boss of the US.A., is usually as easy-going as the broad Mississippi which flows past his home town of Hannibal. For more than two years, other government _officials have been stabbing him in the back and Don has been pulling out the knife, smiling sweetly and saying: “Here | is the knife back again; I'm sure you won't do that anymore.” That he has been kicked and, cussed and jumped on was partly | his own fault, because he is so easy-going that he procrastinates | and tries to avoid stepping on peo- | ple's toes. But with .all his fault.s,‘ Don Nelson has pushed war pro-' duction, to record propertions, and has shown fairly clear insight into | the ecohomic problems of the coun- try. Today, having worked for his/ country night and day for more than two years, Nelson doesn’t care | very much whether he continues | on or not. His health is not as| good as it was two years ago, and he would almost like to quit. ) | | tribution is necessary at present.” This statement by the Govern- ment is made by the War Products | Board’s Beverages and Tobacco Di- vision. — |corted the convoy. Lieut. Commdr. John Reeves Pierce, native of the Canal Zone, was skipper of the Ar- FIRING EBERSTADT All of this was the background | to Nelson’s final decision last week to fire Ferdinand “Eber” Eber-| 332 were injured in the Naples stadt, who ever since last summer | » raid. had been vice chai;man oi' W;’lf\ The Ninth United BStates Air and one of the main cogs in the; (Force also bombed the Axis in production machine. Shortly after Eberstadt came to WPB he went to Charles E. Wil- son, ex-president of General Elec- tric and WPB production wizard, and is reported t0 have said: “Nel- | son can’t last. You and I can run this show.” | ¢ Naturally, Don Nelson knew all| NEW DELHI, Feb. 22—Mahatma about this. He also knew that Eber- Gandhi weathered a crisis yester- stadt was working hand in glove |day on the twelfth day of his 21- with the Army-Navy clique, somevd“y fast, according to a Goveérn- of whom hate Nelson and have ment bulletin. The bulletin said he been - trying to undermine him. appeared more comfortable and | However, | | Crete. SINKING REPORTED, ALEUTIANS PEARL HARBOR, Feb. 22. — A Japanese supply ship has been sunk in the western Aleutians by a Unit- ed States naval unit operating in those waters, according to an of ficial announcemént made here. ——— The potato was, introduced to Europe from South America by \I.he Spaniards soon after 1580. Frail Hindu Weathers Sink- | ing Spell on Twelfth Day { of Self-Imposed Fast Nelson would pull the [more cheerful though his heart is | Kknife out and hand it back again, |Weaker. A report signed by six doc- | until findlly, last week he made |10rs said that the frail Hindu asce- up his mind to fire Eberstadt. |tic “entered the crisis at 4 o'clock When word of this got around |Yesterday afternoon. He was seized there ensued the liveliest backstage |With severe nausea and almost tumult Washington has seen in|fainted when his pulse became months. : {nearly imperceptible.” Later he The Army-Navy clique immedi- took some water and lime juice and - |rallied and slept well during the fContinued on Page Four) |night. (Major Robert S. Allen on active duty) | ool Ty oo aut, probably the MOrs of rationing, get good news ek largest in the world with the loss "';‘lflg Pl S gk —Donald Nelson, |of 94 men and eight officers off the g - Govorpmen . say ol PYASHINGTON * - |strictions on manufacture or dis- setting | ~ MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTY —_—= CRUCIALTANK FIGHT RAGESIN NO.AFRICA Two Atlantic Ship Sin Rings L3 stralians Pick RED ARMY (LOSING IN ON DNIEPER Drives Are Extended in All Directions-Many Cities Are Captured MOSCOW, Feb. 22—Mopping" up | operations in the Donets Basin bave | carried the Red Army into numer- ous towns about 50 miles south and southwest of Vorosh and Ov- grad. the Russians reported toda while to the far west Soviet col- umns are reported poised for a 34- f Japs in | nile march to the Dnieper River, | after capturing Pavlograd and Krasnograd i The Russians have also aj- {nounced drives west of Rostov and ! north of Kursk teward Orel, as well | las west of Krasondark toward the | Black Sea coast | While rolling forward, the Reds | state that is all they have to! |announce today #nless further de- | velopments warrant additional re-| leases. e LR { B ENS Australian infantrymen take aim beside a tank as they picked off fleeing Japanese after. the latter's pillbox was destroyed 150 yards away.- Even-short stumps: helped as BYBOMBERS, NIGHT RAID St Royal Air Force Strikes Germany's Second Port First Time Since Oct. 20 | LONDON, Feb. 22—Bremen heavily attacked by Royal Air Force bombers in a night raid from which all bombers returned, the Air Min- istry said. It was the first raid on Bremen since October 20. British mosquito bombers struck the city along the Wilhelmshaven ;and Hanover. The promptness of the Air Min- istry’s announcement of the raid !indicated that the Bremen attack | was unusually successful. was | Germany’s second largest port ‘probably found itself a renewed tar- ;get of the RAF principally because !of its extensive submarine building | yards. NEW POINT - SYSTEM OF RATIONING of New Guinéa. | WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — The |government announced today how Post Office, Army A ost Office, Army Are Imuch processed food would be al- {lowed on the new ration books with B - a drastic scale of pointvalues lim- o' orrle ver al iting consumption to less than half of normal. | Forty-eight ration peints are al- and in A dead Jap lies at the edge of a smashed Japanese pllbox on ¢ |lotted each man, woman and child {for March. The 48 points will com- |mand two cans of sliced pineapple v nts or three cans of pears, 48 cans of convoy poin then the ships have to assemble - |be lgaded at By JACK STINNETT {baby food or ma B 4 e oeidEie by bfemdz‘"‘ 0 ! ASHINGTON, Feb. 22—In spite e convoy. That s & Ledious bus- | Here is what some will cost in ¢f all the plugging in newspapers, !Hess. !the most popular can size: and in postoffice lobbies, misun-| That also explains why boys get | Peas, 16 points; peaches, 21; derstanding over mail service to 20 to 30 Jetters in one batch and grapefruit juice, 23; tomato juice, UUF DOyS overseas continues perhaps nothing for a week or two 32; soup, 6; baby food, one; prunes Both the Postoffice department The best remedy is V nail. Oun or raisins 20 points a pound; fro- and the Army are worried. It 15 thousand V-mall letters, transterred zen foods mostly 13 a pound. difficult for them to comprehend to minature film, weigh only a few Point values for dried beans, len- Why the widely advertised V-mail ounces. A thousand one-ounce let |tils bought under point values will isn't more widely used. ters would weigh more than 60 |be announced later. The first 48 Relatives and friends of soldiers pounds. V-mail flies. Straight mail !points provided in the new ration 1 foreign ports complain that it,must go by koat. Letters in both books are designed to cover pur- takes their letters wesks to reach categories are subjected to the sume | chases | March. ‘he boys, while they receive letters from them in a third to a fourth of time. censorship and V-mail is in no way less private than regular mail. V mail forms are obtainable at - S postoffice That answer is easy. Ships car- Another cause of complaint (but rying mail from the United States - - ‘mna-l in convoys. The mail has to (Continued on Page Four) for the entire month of ev i | Southern Asia is believed to Ehave been the place of origin of the banana. Buna Drive e on Buna. This is an official Australian photo. " Jap Soldier Meets Dealh in New Guinea inspects the wreckage. By hard fighting the Allies cleared the Japs from the Papau section oi the island | NAZI FORCE 7% NOW PUSHING ON TEBESSA 114 German"f.*;;ks Knocked Out in Fighting Last | Night ' i\ | ALLIED i3 + | S '! HEADQUARTERS IN ' | NORTH AFRICA, Feb. 22. A frong German armored force {thrust 12 miles northwestward throush Kasserine Gap in the di- ¢, |rection of Thala early today, en- Y |gaging a British tank unit in a % ¢ |violent battle. , | At the same time, American com- bat troops turned back two lesser thrusts. | To the westward, toward Tebes- sa, American and British forces ; |knocked out 14 Nazi tanks during | heavy fighting yesterday and last 4! |night under a bright moon, but .3 |one German column of more than |70 tanks thrust within eight miles {of Thala, junction in the Allied [tines % | Rommel is gambling desperately tin an effort to score a knockout | blow against the British Pirst Army | before the British Eighth Army can the Anstralians advanced . from push into theater. On the edye of the last plateau, Ignt iniles from Thala, British and ‘merican forces are engaged in a viclent tank battle which continued through last night, and the issue |is still in bt. A late communique reported an- the central Tunisian after those mentioned in tha fisst (teport, in which British armored crews challenged a German tank column, SHARP DEFEAT German veteran troops crashed |through the strategic Kasserine 4 |Pass, 16 miles short of the Alge- | rian border in Tunisia on Sunday, | thus Inflicting another sharp de- | feat on defending United States | troops, it was announced Sunday. | At the same time to the south the British Eighth Army advanced eight | e | (Continued on Page Four) REMOVAL OF ' DON NELSON - UPIN AIR Military Quarters Would . Like fo Have Baruch | atHead of WPB GOES ON AIR 99--Presi- be made Nelson's successor, Opposition to Nelson is centered nt, New Guinea, as an Australizn WASHINGTON, Feb. 22—The re- moval of Donald Nelson from the post of chairman of the War Pro- duction Board is reported to have gained favor in some major head- juarters. Towever even anti-Nelson cuarters said the indications were that Roosevelt would stand by Nel- son regardless of the opposition, Military quarters have reported that some Army and Navy officials WASHINGTON, Feb. dent Roc elt will make a short broadeast 7:30 o'clock tonight, ©? his sweeping program of “pro- PWT. over all major networks. | duction scheduling” to be inaugur- The talk. will -be Hedrd. by Dem- | ed Which sould requize the-jrian vfacturers of some 30 key muni- i tions plants to get Board. approval fore making any deliveries of any kind. BACK FROM ALASKA . . . s attending the annual George Washington Day dinner - D e ® e o 0 0 0 0 0 ey DIMOUT TIMES ° KANSAS CITY-—Mrs. Margaret o —— . N. Trapp mailed her pay check to #¢ Dimout begins tonight e her bank, to deposit ® at sunset at 6:10 o'clock . Eventually she got it back—from ® Dimout ends tomorrow e Private Enos L. Trusdell, in Alaska. ® at sunrise at 8:12 am . “It must have worked into a ® Dimout begins Tuesday at e large envelope, addressed to me, ® 6:13 pm. . that had an open flap,” he wrote. ® © © © ¢ 8 ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ o ~— |neutralize his march line and to- .. - other action, apparently developing .«