Evening Star Newspaper, May 8, 1942, Page 5

Libyan Position Seen Secured by Malta and Madagascar Success British Observer Says Rommel Lacks Strength For Big Operations By the Associated Press. LONDON, May 8—The British position in Libya is secured for the summer by the occupation of Mada- gascar's Diego Suarez naval base and Malta's successful defense against Axis air attacks, which evi- dently were intended to open the way for invasion, a well-informed military observer said today. Capitulation of French forces in the Diego Suarez Bay area reduced | the Japanese threat to Indian Ocean | supply lines. Dwindling of German- | Italian mass air raids within the | last two weeks has left the rock- | based naval and air forces of Malta still preying on Axis convoys in the Mediterranean. | Gen. Sir William George Sheddon Dobbie, 62-year-old World War vet- eran who had weathered more than 2,000 air attacks on Malta, has been succeeded as governor and com- mander in chief by Viscount Gort, B5-year-old former chief of the im- | perial staff, it was announced last | night. Attacks on Malta Slacken. 1 Lord Gort, 55, is known to the | British as “Tiger Gort.” He led the | British Expeditionary Force in | France at the beginning of the war. Bince April, 1941, he had been in | command at Gibraltar. Succeeding Lord Gort as governor and commander in chief of Gibral- tar, British base at the western en- trance of the Mediterranean, is Maj. Gen. Sir Colin Jardine. Gen. Dobbie is expected to return to England to rest. The military observer said Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was not strong enough to open large-scale | operations against the British | armies in North Africa and that constant submarine attacks on Ger- man-Italian convoys made the Axis supply situation precarious. He said heavy air attacks against Malta had slackened since April 25 | and added: | “There is no doubt in my mind | that these were intended as a pre- liminary to a sea-borne invasion of Malta. - The R. A, F. and anti- aircraft batteries defeated the Luftwaffe just as they did in the summer of 1940 over Britain. The | invasion plans were upset. Malta | is still operating and Axis supplies | are still being sunk.” British anti-aircraft guns shot down 101 Axis planes over bomb- scarred Malta during April, military | quarters announced. Nearly 7,000 | tons of bombs were dropped on the little Mediterranean island naval and air base, these sources declared. Able to Halt Rommel. With a steady flow of supplies, the observer said, the forces of Gen. Sir Claude Auchinleck, Near East com- mander, “are strong enough on the ground and in the air to halt any- thing Rommel can throw at them.” “Their position is very good,” he eaid. “Hot weather has started. | Unless Rommel disregards all rules | and attacks a superior force under bad conditions there will be no cam- paign this summer.” | Confronted by British strength in excess of their expectations, the Germans may try to push through ‘Turkey toward the oil of Iraq and | Iran and a juncture with the Jap- | anese “somewhere out there,” the observer commented. He sald a “slightly unbalanced picture of Rommel's ablility is cur- rent in Britain.” Italian Ability Praised. “Rommel is a hard-working soldier | with lots of common sense and determination,” he said, “But the British licked him last winter and would have done even more had their supply system been able to maintain more troops at the front. “The Italians fought well last winter. Their artillery was very good despite the age of some of their guns. They stuck it out as long as the Germans and they fought hard all the way. “How do the Germans and Italians get on? Like the Giants and the Dodgers.” British Attack Bengasi As Malta Raids Continue THE EvroiNING (nonRFoLk AAVAL TRAINING BASE ) ON THE FIELD—Some mem- bers of the Norfolk Naval Training Station baseball team in a quick sketch. Left to right: Sam Chapman (Ath- letics), Fred Hutchinson (Tigers), Capt. H. A. McClure, commanding officer of the training station, and Bob Feller (Indians). In the back- ground, an apprentice sea- man serves as bat boy. Enrolled at Norfolk By FRANCIS E. STAN, Star Staff Correspondent. NORFOLK, Va, May 8—It is chow time at the Naval Training | Station, and since most sailors wolf their meals, often finishing even | dinner in 15 minutes, post-mess is a good interlude. Chief Petty Offi- cer Johnny Vogt leads the way into a bare, clean barracks, indicates a small group of men in summer khn_}d and says, “Recognize any of “Well. no . .. " But sitting at a table playing bridge is some one familiar. He | resembles Freddy Hutchinson, the | young pitcher for whom the De- | troit Tigers gave $75,000 in cash | plus players. He is Hutchinson. | “Hello,” greets Freddy, “spying on the Tunney Fish? You know Billy Soose, don’t you? And Sam Chap- man . . . Fred Apostoli and— where’s the Ball of Fire? The B of F. is sitting on his cot | reading a couple of letters. The Cleveland Indians would like to have Bob Feller again, and 15 other big | league clubs simply would like to have him. But Feller is a Tunney Fish, too, and after hours he pitches baseball for Uncle Sam at $99 a month. And They Work for It Ever since Comdr. Gene Tunney started his physical fitness program for the Navy the barbed jest and the withering wise crack, too often on the raspy side, have been brought into play. Some scoffers preferrefl to assume that Tunney was handing out commissions to athletes, willy nilly, in return for vague services. Men work for years for a chief boatswain mate's rating . “but Feller, who never saw the sea, picked one up overnight.” ‘Tunney Pish is a term ostensibly invented at the Norfolk Operating Base (tun'ny, a large oceanic fish, especially the Great Tunny—Orci- nus thynmus—of the Atlantic . . . ), and possibly in the beginning some of the tough old petty officers used | it derisively. But all that is changed | now. It isn't a chief boatswain mate’s rating at all but a specially created title—chief specialist—that | Famed Sports Figures Among His Mates | | against big league clubs for the ben- | seas. Bob Feller's a ‘Tunney Fish'’ And, Chum, He Works for $99 Naval Training Base ways make good chiefs,” he says., “They're well above average. They give commands well, and they're not afraid of hearing their own voices. They are swell platoon com- | manders, and some have the Navy | in their blood so much they're going | to make it their careers. Sam Chapman is one—he’'s going to the Radar School, and he's requested | sea duty. “These men aren’t holding down | soft jobs. They may be sent any- where—Alaska, Pearl Harbor, Ice- land, anywhere. A lot of them | probably will be sent to some of the | 27 colleges where we are training men.” Last year 725 ghief special- ists were graduated. There are | 1,290 here'now, and, s}l told, Comdr. | = Tunney has selecetd approximately 3,000. “These from between 10,000 | to 15,000 applicants,” adds MacDon- | ald “They're all good men, and they're on no lark.” Feller ‘Is “House Mother.” ‘They have a baseball team here | that has been mopping up, but| Feller pitches, Fischer golfs, Apos- | toli and Overlin fight, and Rideout | runs after hours only. The ball club has won 22 and lost two, both defeats, strangely, at the hands of the Binghampton team of the East- | ern League. Against AA clubs, like | Montreal and Newark, the Tars have | been eminently successful, and col- | lege opposition so far has been a | huge joke. | Feller is the “house mother,” or | master at arms, for the 75 men in his barracks. Bob and Apostoli are | assistant mail clerks and Rapid Robin says it's like pitching a double-header. “At Easter,” he laughs, “we had 15 full mail bags.| Sorting mail for these lovesick babies is quite a job.” Bob was making something like $40,000 before he joined the Navy last December. Now he gets, from Uncle Sam, approximately $1,188 Already this spring he's pitched more often than the Ruffings, Der- ringers and Newsoms, winning seven of eight starts, but he doesn't mind. | He still is sought eagerly by cereal manufacturers and radio sponsors. BILLFOI | Spring, M STAR, WASniINGION, D. C. Naturally, I'd like to get back w‘ bench because he can't hit. baseball.” | H. A. McClure, commanding officer Would Lick Nats, He Says. | of the training station, turns up Capt. | DOG— | Re- 1L contained ¢ard, eredit cards, etc.: i 218t d_Hillyer place n.w. w Dupont_1854 BILL] No. 453, afternoon Meanwhile the young man who | and rides the bench and the enemy. | had won 76 games in 1939, 1940 and | Apostoli is training to fight Overlin | 1941 and who at 22 established him- | and Rideout is readying to meet all | self as one of the greatest pitchers | comers, including MacMitchell on of all time, is anxious to plu:hl‘ the cinders and the Nazis on me‘ But all this happens after | efit of the Navy Relief Society. | hours. The Tunney Fish make | “How about Washington?” he iquue a school—and they aren't get- | asks. “Would Griff play us?” We |ting by on their press clippings. didn't know. ’ Griff is a very patriotic old gen- | z tleman and he’s turning over pro- | ceeds of a game against the Yankees war Held llkely 10 cause to the society. Besides, he's run- . ming s "“business - ana. masne 3t TUberculosis Increase wouldn't do him any good if the Naval Training Station of Norfolk | BY 'he Associated Press. licked the Nats. PHILADELPHIA, May 8.—The | “Shucks,” answered young Robert, | United States “might well expect an | not boastfully but frankly, “we fig- | upward trend soon in the tuber- | ure to win. We've got a good team | culosis mortality rate” because of and, after all, it's no disgrace to be wartime conditions, Dr. Herman E. beaten by me.” | Hilleboe of the United States Public The moral is: Don't knock the Health Service said today. Tunney Fish. The N.T. S. ball mm{ Dr. Hilleboe, in an address at the is mopping up. Ace Parker, good |gag¢ ‘annual meeting of the National enough to play for the A's, rides the | mypereylosis Association, based his ;I.BVSIF e | conclusiort on these two factors: - The danger of spread in the armed 5‘.’#’" vfl" an“x’;filz:;t‘)‘s P(‘:)n‘-xgoflu forces because of the mixing of men ward . Call Ordway 3080. , | from high-rate tuberculosis areas BILLFOLD ' police badge. $10 | with men from low-rate areas, and Dot Tons) o0t 625" ™ | the concentration of workers and families in defense and cantonment eas. 10 re- | “No single agency is rich or power- FOLD. sontamine Met olice badse | TUl enough to control the disease,” o e s Mondes | he said. *“The public must participate in Earle Theater. Rews | * * '+ in order to gain knowledge of LD_Near fire house, in Silver Lhe problem and to insist on provi: containing money and val- | sion of facilities for the eventual o LD | eradication of the disease.” usble Dape CLABS RING v:'n“zExln'HEn: <t = “41. red stone. 5 - . lost men's washroom, Sears & Roebuck, at Wis. ! ave. and Albemarle st. n.w.. about 12 noon, | Thirsday: reward. WO. 7002 e | COCKER SPANTEL—Male, about 4 months old. red. with white spot on chest: in vi- cinity Somerset, Md . Wednesday; answers fo name “Mac” _Cail WI. A57R. Reward ENGLISH SHEPHERD PUPPY—Female, 3 months old; tan, with black ears: vicinity Conn. and R sts. n.w. Re AD. 2090, ENVELOPE WALLET. brown, containing membership _cards, _ identifications athedral ave and Conn rom th esday about 5 rd. _Box 108-B. Star. 8 LABSES, blond rimmed. lost Saturds; Tiehe May 2, D Palace Thester, rewsr Phone WO. 5082, LM KOLINSKY FUR SCARP, ter, “Thuraday. Reward at Capitol Thea- | Fuons Bmerson | METAL BOX containing Dapers yaluable | oniy to owner, on Becond street, between &b st v | Day Rates, 30¢ 15t M engraved “William R. N b ¥ 1320N. Y. AVE. PARKER A Republic 7860_Ext. 911 PIN. yellow gold. bowknot, diamonds. an: smail ones’ ds April Thury pitol Theater. aT ¢ Fis | | ROME (From Italian Broadcasts), | unney Fish gets. And, chum, he | Fred Allen has offered him $1,000 May 8 (#).—British warplanes raided | air | formations continued their attacks | o} on Malta, but adverse weather pre- ] champions. Bengasi last night and Axis vented any important operations on the Libyan front, the Italian high ocommand reported today The raid on Bengasi caused some damage but mo casualties, the daily war bulletin said ‘The Italians acknowledged the | loss of two planes and credited German pilots with shooting down two British fighters and sinking two barges at Malta. Catholic Women Plan Mother’s Day Retreat The Rev. Willlam F. Mullaney, ©. M. 1, professor of history at the Oblate Scholasticate, Catholic Uni- wversity, will conduct a Mother's Day retreat for women of the Immacu- late Conception. Holy Trinity and St. Dominic’s parishes Sunday at the Washington Retreat House, 4000 Harewood road NE. Conferences will start at 10:30 am. and conclude 7:30 p.m ' Long Live Your ‘ works for his 99 bucks. !for an appearance over the air and There are a lot of famous sports | Feller plans to turn it over to the figures down here Soose and Apos- | Navy Relief Society. From another are ex-middleweight boxXing | program he thinks he can get $500, Ken Overlin, attached | is willing to split with Na to the air base, is ditto. Johnny ,;{L’{f,'},h' . £ i Flscher is the former amateur golf | “.g i timec » he says, “I've got to king. Ace Parker was the best pro | football back. Blaine Rideout was |B¢t 8round to paying my 1941 in- | one of the top milers and Ray |COMe tax and I can't do (h?t on Brown one of the finest basket- 31200 8 year and keep up my par- ball players in the country. But °®Pis’ home.” fame entitles one to no privileges, | e bought a house at Van Meter, jEss J i Towa, for his folks and his father | Fellor mne the v et ar, Voices. 45 | Das been in i1l health, in and out of oclock in the morning, lead men P°d: for & couple of years through “Tunney calisthenics” for | Like many of the chief specialists, an hour, breakfast at 6:30, clean Feller doesn't intend to make the barracks until 7:45, repeat on calis- | NAVY his career. % thenics and study (loading big guns, |, ‘1M 23 now” he explains. “If )shool.lng rifies, handling seabags, the war doesn't last too long I should semaphore, etc. until '4 o'clock. have plenty of pitching left in me. Athletic officer of the Naval Training Station is Lt. (). g J.| Ellis MacDonald, one-time stroke of the Washington Huskies crew | and a tough old defender of Tunney | Fish. _“Crack_athletes almost al- | ONE WEEK SPECIAL That question demands mature deliber- ation . . . especially when every dollar do its utmost. Washington's oldest and lergest family of evesight specialtsts. associated with ¢ profession for over 40 {a your assurance of guar- anteed satisfaction. substantial savings residential or comm COMPLETE GLASSES INGLE ON. REG. FRAME OR RIMLE: EXAMINATION CASE AND CLEANER We are mortgage Insurance Co. BIFOCALS, ENUINE ENSES. 'TO AND NEAR, s 2 LOCATIONS HILLYARD OPTICAL CO. 711 € N.W.—521 K 5. N, - District_0837 or C Let our loan experts point the way to for The Massachusetts ‘3| init e Libéral rewara. 'GE. Gg7. 0 >PLPlflm UNION BOOK. biue. 23 Ji CHBH'I".. Fla.. between 13th and M a 1. e nd 14th and L sts; reward. 1311 n WIRE-HAIRED TERRIER Female. White legs, black saddle. Reward. HO. 8629 or DU. 7418. 1622 Argonne place n.w. WRIST WATCH. lost in f l ¢ lady's diamond. Lotus Restaurant or in taxi; liberal reward. DI._ 4532 if you eat Planters Peamts WRIST WATCH —Lady's, white gold. Wal- tham, with biack hands and black bend. Reward 'hone Georgia 7144 WRIST WATCH. Iady's gold Waltham vith plastic strap, in front of Barr Blds 8 p.m. Thurs.; reward. DU. 6500. BLACK WOODEN BOX. contaming i and oll; lost on Wash- in . February 7, between 4 and 4:30 p.m Any ‘information regarding this loss should be directed_to amp Shovs. East Po- tomac Park i FOUND. WIRE-HATRED TERRIER—Well irained no<oilag Filton st nw. Ordwes 0338 d_expected IMMED GLASSES, at 11th and | HORN ; K Phone Prankiin 4085 sts. e Everyone needs a good up-to- date dictionary. And we'll send you—almost as a gift—this big, new Webster’'s Dictionary and reference book. Full size (5}4” by8"), contains 378 pages, 22,000 words, 1940 census figures, di- gest of Military and Naval facts, bound in Lexide. For your copy send 10¢ and 4 empty bags from Planters Salted Pea- ry nuts. We'll rush you during these times should be made to in financing your ercial property. loan correspondent Mutual Life SEND COUPON M= PLANTERS PEANUTS, WILKES-SARRE, PA,, Dier. D-10 Gentlemen: I enclose 10¢ and 4 empty bags from Planters Salted Peanuts for my big new Webster Dictionary. L—_J Japs Execute Scores After Wide Guerrilla Attacks in China Puppet Soldiers, Civilians And Youths, Including Girls, Are Victims B> the Associated Press. CHUNGKING, China, May 8 — Scores of Chinese soldiers serving the Japanese puppet regime of Nanking and civilians as well have | been executed by Japanese firing| squads in several eastern provinces for suspected complicity in the widespread Chinese guerrilla activ- ities that began April 20, the Cen- tral News Agency said today. More than 100 Chinese youths, in- cluding many girls, were shot in Canton alone after being paraded through the streets there, the dis- patches said. Railway Blown Up. The biggest co-ordinated Chinese guerrilla swoop of the war appar- ently still was going on, and addi- tional details filtered in here last night. The score recorded to date: Chekiang Province—Japanese headquarters fired, 13 bridges and airdrome attacked, & section of rail- way blown up and many puppet troops killed at Ningpo near the China Sea coast; Japanese bar- racks and two bridges blown up at Shaohsing: Chinese puppet admin- istration set afire at Hsiaoshan; Japanese defense works destroyed at Tikang and Chengtseh, and an en- tire Chinese puppet division was arrested by the Japanese who pro- claimed martial law. Scores of of- ficers and men were executed, in- cluding the divisional commander named Shih Chang-kang. Barracks Dynamited. Anhwei—A power plant fired at Wuhu on the Yangtze. a Japanese headquarters and railway station destroyed, miles of railroad track torn up and scores of telegraph poles torn down; many Japanese soldiers including an officer captured at Tungliu, where barracks were dy- namited. Shansi—A Japanese freight train blown up at Tungpu and the towns of Kanting and Hsiehchiachuang recaptured by the guerrillas after a bitter engagement. Kiangsi—Chinese Commandos set afire many warehouses at Hukow and inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese; Nanchang, the provincial capital, also was attacked and a section of the Nanchang-Kiukiang | railway destroyed. Previous dispatches also said the Chinese wreckers touched off nu- merous explosions in the big cities of Shanghai, Nanking, Hangchow and Amoy. So you want Tokio bombed again? Well, bombs cost money, so help buy | some with War bonds and stamps. BETTER ’Surplus Grains for ‘Synthetic Rubber | Sees 240,000-Ton Out‘pul;' Excess Wheat a Possible Loss Unless So Employed | By the Associated Press. | Secretary of Agriculture Wickard urged today a big extension in the Government's program of making synthetic rubber from grain alcohol | produced from surplus wheat and corn. Suggesting the use of at least 80,000,000 bushels of grain, he said! this quantity would make about 200,000,000 gallons of alcohol, which |in turn would produce sufficient butadiene to make about 240,000 | tons of synthetic rubber, or about CATHOLIC one-third the normal need of the country. Secretary Wickard's recommenda- tion was made before a Senate Agriculture Subcommittee investi- ’gnmnx uses of farm crops in the production of alcohol and synthetic | rubber. | Telling of research activities, the | Secretary said: | “After full discussions with mem- | bers of my technfcal staff, I am | convinced that immediate attention | should be given to expanding the present program for butadiene pro- | duction from grain alcohol so as to make possible greater production of synthetic rubber during the calen- dar year 1943 Secretary Wickard said stocks of grain were available “In fact, it is likely that thou- sands of bushels of wheat will be lost through lack of suitable storage large MOTHER A Prayer Bosk Resars. Miraculous Metai Pieturs Statue or wmy other srticle of personal devetion will be hese 3t the ideal gift G 718 11 N Catholic Store for Catholie mifts. APPEARANCE space unless they can be put to use | | quickly.” WINDOW SHADES complete price range of all qualities including the famous UL TONTINE S5-year guarantee THE SHADE SHOP 830 13th St. N\W. RE. 6262 W. Stokes Sammons This Summer Suit Needs No Introduction for the 9th successive season we present [CHARD PRINCE TROPICALS Tailored from specially woven porous woolens expressly to your ca~ tions ... here is hot weather cl of distinction—moderately A We have never before offered such a complete selection of patterns, eolors and sizes. A MODE EXCLUSIVE 9075 Available in single or double breasted two-piece suits . . . our renowned drape or the more restrained models . . . solid tones, sharkskin weaves or pencl atripes. Whitehall Shoes styled for summer For casual, dress and business wear, these new models reflect the good taste of the wearer . . . and his good Judgment in buying Quality. $6.95 to MPORTANT MEN Manhattan Shirts in Warm-Weather Models We present an exceptional selection on new porous-woven summer Manhattans. See the new “VERI- COOL” in distinctive patterns. $2.25 to $5.50 Now Poulard Nockwoar—4$150 HE MODE F STREET «# ELEVENTH S CORNER