The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945

by The New York Times

  The Rev. Noel Hutchcroft, head of the Methodist Mission in Birmingham, expressed the feelings of his fellow-citizens when he said:

  “His loyalty to his beliefs defied the material danger to which his ideals exposed him. Men of later generations will speak of him not as a man whose policy failed, but as one of invincible spiritual reality.”

  Mr. Chamberlain’s illness began last August when he was Lord Privy Seal. At that time he underwent what his doctors described in a bulletin as “a successful operation for relief of intestinal symptoms of an obstructive nature.” Whether the operation was “successful” or not, Mr. Chamberlain, who was 71, never really recovered and on Oct. 3 resigned as Lord Privy Seal. Last Friday his wife disclosed his illness had taken a grave turn.

  When Parliament meets again tributes will be paid to the memory of Britain’s leader in the early days of the war by men who served under him, including Winston Churchill, his successor as Prime Minister. It has not been decided whether Parliament will adjourn afterward until the following day, but it would not be surprising if the House of Commons decided the best way to respect Mr. Chamberlain’s determination to win the war he entered so reluctantly would be to carry on business as usual.

  The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain leaves No. 10 Downing Street in 1939.

  NOVEMBER 14, 1940

  BRITAIN’S FLEET STRIKES

  By HANSON W. BALDWIN

  In the past few days the Italians have commenced to comprehend the meaning of war.

  Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s statement to the House of Commons yesterday that planes of the Fleet Air Arm—the Royal Navy’s own air service—striking at the Italian naval base of Taranto, and light surface units of the Mediterranean fleet operating in the narrow waters of the Strait of Otranto, had dealt the Italian Navy severe blows, filled the Italian cup of woe to overflowing.

  Coupled with the announcement that six more ships of the British convoy that was raided in mid-ocean last week by a German man-of-war had safely come to port and that now only eight were missing, yesterday’s news was the best for many weeks for Britain, and the worst of the war for Italy.

  Italy’s part in the war to date, particularly her naval participation, has indeed been an inglorious one. She had lost, up until the most recent British attacks, one light cruiser—the Bartolomeo Colleoni—six or seven destroyers and torpedo boats and from five to twenty-two submarines.

  When Italy entered the war she had six battleships completed or almost completed, two of them powerful new vessels of the Littorio class (35,000 tons, nine 15-inch guns, twelve 6-inch; thirty-two knots speed), and four modernized ships of the 23,622-ton Conte di Cavour class. According to Mr. Churchill’s announcement yesterday, one of the two new Littorios, and one of the Cavour class were apparently severely damaged. His announcement stated that it appeared probable a second ship of the Cavour class had been damaged, and two cruisers and two fleet auxiliaries were reported as listing or partially sunk.

  The harbor of Taranto, like many European harbors, has a fairly restricted anchorage, which broadens out from a somewhat bottleneck entrance. The Italian fleet apparently was moored in the inner harbor; and torpedoes dropped in the entrance from British torpedo planes, perhaps of the Fairey Swordfish type, would almost certainly hit a ship.

  It seems certain that the attack from the skies was aided by surprise and that the raiders put their main faith on torpedoes, rather than upon bombs, and struck at the most vulnerable part of a man-of-war, its underwater hull. Torpedo plane attacks can best be beaten off by defending planes. Anti-aircraft fire is sometimes effective, but ordinarily the torpedo planes come in too low, shielded by a smoke screen, fog, clouds, or in this case by the darkness of night, to permit accurate gunnery. The attacking torpedo planes skim over the water, perhaps twenty-five to fifty feet above the surface. Ships under way at sea can best protect themselves by manoeuvring to avoid the torpedoes dropped from the planes and by deliberately depressing their guns so that their shells will strike the ocean between the attacking planes and their target, thus creating shell splashes many feet high or a “water fence” that may bring down the attacking planes or cause them to veer off. But if the Italian ships were in port, moored bow and stern, as ships usually are in many Mediterranean harbors, they would not have been able to cast off in time to avoid the torpedoes and probably many of their guns could not be brought to bear.

  If the measure of the British success is as great as the British claim, they have, indeed achieved a signal victory. The menace of the raider, the submarine, the plane and the mine has not yet been met. But in the Mediterranean the Italian reverses at sea and on land have lightened the load of British trouble. The Italians have not yet shot their bolt, but the British Empire’s hour of darkness has been at least temporarily brightened.

  NOVEMBER 16, 1940

  ‘REVENGE’ BY NAZIS

  Industrial City Bombed All Night in ‘Reply’ to R.A.F. Raid On Munich

  By RAYMOND DANIELL

  Special Cable to The New York Times.

  LONDON, Nov. 15—Daybreak today unveiled scenes of devastation wrought in another night of widespread air raids, but there was nothing to match the bruised and battered face of Coventry, a little Midlands city that was the victim of one of the worst bombardments from the air since the Wright brothers presented wings to mankind.

  There the Nazi bombers accomplished what they tried to do to this capital in the early days of the Battle of London, by using as big a force of sky marauders against that compact city of 250,000 as they used against London with its 8,000,000 inhabitants. The tons of bombs they dropped caused at least 1,000 casualties, wrecked countless homes and destroyed the lovely fourteenth-century St. Michael’s Cathedral, one of the finest examples of perpendicular architecture left in these islands.

  To accomplish the full purpose of the assault, which the Germans said was intended as revenge for the Royal Air Force bombing of Munich while Reichsfuehrer Hitler was speaking there last Friday, Nazi raiders made repeated feints against London to keep the defenders busy while the main body of attackers roared over Midlands industrial centers and concentrated the fury of their bombings on Coventry.

  DEBRIS MARKS CATHEDRAL SITE

  Visitors to Coventry today found a scene of devastation where the cathedral once stood. The blackened arches and window faces of fretted stone, for all their disfigurement, still retained traces of their stately grace. But blocks of masonry, heavy pieces of church furniture and plaques commemorating the lives of famous men merged in the common dust heaped up between the teetering walls.

  Elsewhere in the city other buildings had been severely damaged. Throughout the day business men and shopkeepers salvaged what remained of their possessions by grubbing among shattered timber and piled-up bricks. Some shopkeepers were doing business on the sidewalks. On roads leading away from the city could be seen a pitiful parade of refugees who were trying to reach billets in the countryside before black-out time.

  Coventry lies in the very heart of England, almost equidistant, about ninety miles, from four great ports—Liverpool, Bristol, London and Hull. An industrial center specializing in the manufacture of motor cars and cycles, Coventry is an important cog in Britain’s war machine.

  But it was not Coventry’s factories that took the worst punishment from the raiders, but human life, little homes, churches and hospitals—as it has been everywhere in Britain since the Nazis, forced to fly high above barrage balloons and anti-aircraft guns, began their concentrated bombings.

  SCENES OF DAMAGE EVERYWHERE

  It was impossible today to stroll through many of the streets of the ancient city, where Lady Godiva is said to have made her famous ride, without seeing tragic evidence of the hell loosed from the skies through the night, when bombs crashed at intervals of one or two minutes.

  Coventry is now like a city that has been wrecked by an earthquake and swept by fire. Its people looked dazed today as they poked about the r
uins of their homes and surveyed the wreckage of the downtown business section, and they laughed bitterly at the chalked mottoes of defiance to Hitler scrawled on pavements and buildings.

  Tonight this city was still at grips with the disaster, but the peak of horror had passed. At one place a pitiful group of small children with a small hand pump were squirting water on the flaming gable of their home.

  A great corps of physicians and nurses worked throughout the night and day. Many were from near-by towns. At the changing of shifts in the local factories men from the work benches turned rescue workers, relieving the crews that had been on duty through last night and today. Many of the men dropped from exhaustion where their colleagues had fallen under explosions last night.

  Firemen reeling with weariness played streams upon the smouldering fires consuming the last bits of timber in the rubble that remained of some of Britain’s finest examples of Tudor architecture.

  Men and women shuffled along the littered streets, their faces white and pinched, always looking for someone or, with dumb stares, looking for nothing at all.

  Four persons, already set down officially as “missing,” were found in an air-raid shelter. So shocked were they by the night of pounding concussion from bombs that they refused to come above ground.

  They listened mutely to assurances that all was well, but they refused to budge.

  St. Michael’s Cathedral in Coventry was reduced to rubble by attacking German bombers in 1940.

  NOVEMBER 18, 1940

  FIRST DRAFTED MEN ENTER ARMY TODAY

  Trainees, Mostly Volunteers, Will Be Received in New England And West

  WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (AP)—The Army will get its first drafted men tomorrow, two months and two days after President Roosevelt signed the Selective Service and Training Bill.

  War Department officials said that the first group, a small fraction of the 800,000 men to be called by June 30 for a year’s military training, would be inducted in New England, at Chicago and at scattered points on the Pacific Coast. Some other corps areas will begin receiving men Tuesday, while in others the draftees will not be called until later.

  Draftees will report to induction centers in all six of the New England States. Because of the time difference, they probably will be the first in the nation to enter the Army.

  At Chicago, the Army said, its Sixth Corps Area would swear in an even 100 men, the only ones to be called in Illinois this year. On the West Coast the Ninth Corps Area will begin induction of 1,630 men, a task which officials said would take until Friday.

  The men in the Ninth Corps Area will be sworn in at Army stations in Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fort Missoula, Mont.; Portland, Ore.; Tacoma and Spokane, Wash.; Boise, Idaho, and either Cheyenne, Wyo., or Salt Lake City.

  The Army originally expected to call about 30,000 men by Dec. 1, but officials said that this number had been reduced, largely because of the number of volunteers who had been accepted in the interim.

  Draft officials said that almost the entire number of men taken on the first call would be registrants who had volunteered.

  71,000 VOLUNTEERS ARE LISTED

  A poll of State selective service officials showed, they said, that some 71,000 of the men already classified and found eligible for immediate service had volunteered.

  The men called tomorrow will get their first contact with the Army at the induction stations. There they will undergo a second physical examination, in which the Army doctors will check the findings of the examining physicians of the local draft boards.

  Those accepted will be fingerprinted, start their service records, get an Army serial number and then swear this oath:

  “That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America; that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all enemies whomsoever; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the rules and articles of war.”

  Then the draftees will be sent to an Army reception center, where they will receive uniforms, be vaccinated and get a short course of basic military training before being assigned to regular units.

  NOVEMBER 23, 1940

  HITLER WILL DECREE LAW OF ‘NEW EUROPE’

  Wireless to The New York Times.

  MUNICH, Germany, Nov. 22—Opening the Congress of the Academy for German Law in Munich today, the Justice Commissioner, Dr. Hans Frank, the head of this institution, dropped some significant hints as to the future legal structure of the “New Europe” that is being drafted under German leadership by the Axis powers.

  He stated that while “the total authority of the Reich’s leadership over all parts of the Reich” would be the basis for the “constitutional life of Germany,” there would also be a “number” of “neighbor territories such as colonies, commissariats besides the protectorate [Bohemia and Moravia] and the Gouvernement General [Poland] which would belong to the Reich.”

  The legal relations of these territories to the Reich, he said, would be “clarified” in each case “by decree of the Fuehrer.”

  He said the war had not interrupted work on the civil code, which would recognize the replacement of individual rights by the rights of all, of class strife by comradeship of the national community, of exploitation of the poor by provision for their needs, of “capitalistic profit and greed by healthy personal development, guided systematically” by the State.

  NOVEMBER 26, 1940

  GREEKS CLOSING IN

  Fall of Second Vital Fascist Center in Albania Near

  By A. C. SEDGWICK

  By Telephone to The New York Times.

  ATHENS, Nov. 25—Greek forces tonight are reported to have captured all important heights in the vicinity of Argyrokastron and to be within sight of the town itself. The fall of Argyrokastron—which is of strategic significance equal to that of Koritza—is expected from hour to hour. One of the few roads from Southern Albania into Greece passes through the city.

  Another Greek success in this area will mean that this road may be blocked. All other roads leading into Greece from Albania already have been cut. The Greeks have only to destroy these thoroughfares to hamper seriously any repetition of invasion that the Italians may contemplate.

  The Greeks appear to have advanced upon Argyrokastron not only from the west but over the Nemertska Mountains.

  Italian troops, already having fled north from Argyrokastron, are reported to have reached Tepeleni. It was thought once—but only for a short while—that the Italians might try to make a stand on a line passing through Tepeleni, Klisura and Frasheri. The Greeks, advancing from another quarter, seem tonight to be already in this vicinity and to have dispersed all possible opposition. British and Greek Air Forces are known to have bombed Tepeleni and troop concentrations near by.

  GREEKS REACH TOMOR MOUNTAINS

  From Moskopolis, which was taken yesterday, the Italians are in full retreat. They are reliably reported to have reached Protopapa, another town on the left bank of the Devol River, which is about half way between Koritza and Berat.

  It was learned tonight that Greek advance guards had reached the foothills of the Tomor Mountain chain.

  In the vicinity of Koritza, where mopping up operations continue, it is reliably stated that several thousand gallons of gasoline have been taken. Also, in addition to the enormous booty that fell into Greek hands yesterday, fourteen army trucks will henceforth be at the disposal of the Greek Army.

  The Italians, apparently realizing the extent to which the Greeks would profit by the acquisition of war supplies, sent a detachment of soldiers back either to regain these stores or destroy them. But the Greeks shot them out and sent them fleeing.

  Northeast of Koritza Greek soldiers, apparently with a minimum of effort, rounded up a large number of prisoners, horses and mules, machine guns and a considerable number of trucks. This is only a part of the booty captured from the Italians during the last twenty-four hours. It happ
ens to be only in this vicinity that the figures were published.

  British Air Force Headquarters in Greece announced tonight that “a very heavy daylight raid was made by R.A.F. bombers yesterday on Durazzo, the only important port on the Albanian coast and which has been continuously damaged by bombardment since the opening of the war against Greece.”

  DIRECT HITS REPORTED

  Direct hits are reported to have been made on shipping in the harbor. Two large bombs hit a 10,000-ton vessel and a smaller ship was set on fire. A large number of bombs, it was said officially, also fell on the quays. The Italians put up a vigorous anti-aircraft defense and also sent up fighter planes. Even so, all British aircraft were said to have returned safely to their bases.

  At the same time, according to the R.A.F. announcement, British planes attacked military stores and motor transport columns in the region of Tepeleni, while north of Koritza three separate motor transport and mule columns were thrown into confusion by low flying aircraft.

  The Italian columns were on their way to the rescue of the hard-pressed forces north of Koritza. Great havoc was caused, according to the communiqué, which adds that from these operations, carried out in unfavorable weather, all British planes returned without damage.

  At the same time Greek aviation wrought considerable damage on Elbasan and the airdrome at Argyrokastron.

  In the Pogradec area Italians appear to be fleeing along the west shore of Lake Ochrida, while some detachments have chosen the mountains in this area as a safer means of retreat. These mountains were described to the writer today by a man familiar with them as being perhaps the wildest and roughest in Albania.