The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945
Page 88
APRIL 4, 1943
NAZI ‘HEAVY WATER’ LOOMS AS WEAPON
Plant Razed by ‘Saboteurs’ in Norway Viewed as Source of New Atomic Power
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, April 3—“Heavy water,” derived by an electrochemical process from ordinary water, with hidden atomic power that can be used for the deadly purposes of war as well as the happier pursuits of peace, apparently has become a source of anxiety for those Allied leaders who plan attacks against enemy targets.
Reports reaching Norwegian circles in London cite German sources as having announced on Wednesday that as a result of the work of “saboteurs,” a big electrochemical plant at Rjukan, Norway, had been blown up in what is said to have been one of three recent raids against that enemy-occupied country.
The importance of Rjukan as a target for destruction is that it is a huge plant on a wild river, from the waters of which a queer chemical known as “heavy water” the discovery of which won a Nobel Prize in 1934 for Professor Harold Urey of Columbia University, is produced, and it can be used in the manufacture of terrifically high explosives.
USE IN EXPLOSIVES SEEN
Heavy water or, more correctly, heavy hydrogen water, is believed to provide a means of disintegrating the atom that would thereby release a devastating power. While it is not believed here that the Germans, even with all their expert chemical knowledge, have developed some fantastic method of hurling the shattering force of split atoms at Britain, it is known that heavy water, when added to other chemicals, gives a powerfully destructive force, just as it can help in the production of new types of gasoline, new sugars, new textiles and numerous other utilitarian as well as medical developments.
Consequently, Norwegians living in London studied with interest the report emanating from Stockholm Wednesday that Rjukan had been so heavily attacked by “saboteurs” that the Germans had declared a state of emergency. They considered that if the plant had been destroyed the Germans had suffered a severe loss in their output of ammunition.
At Rjukan one quart of heavy water can be produced from 6,000 gallons of ordinary water by an electrochemical process, the formula for which was given to the world by American scientists.
Rjukan is just south of a 3,500-square-mile area in a barren mountain plateau region known as Hardangervidda, which the Germans shut off to all civilians April 1. Recent German reports have said that R.A.F. transport planes towing gliders have dropped parachutists around that area.
APRIL 4, 1943
OUR SOLDIERS IN BATTLE SOON LEARN ART OF WAR
Doughboy Is, In Turn, Cocky, Scared, Dazed, Darn Mad and Effective
By C. L. SULZBERGER
Wireless to The New York Times.
ALGIERS, April 3—The average American infantryman is somewhat cockily overconfident when he approaches his first battle experience, pretty damned scared when he actually gets in the thick of things and slightly bewildered for a time, then sore as hell and anxious to do something effective to an enemy who is causing him all sorts of discomforts such as having to spend a good deal of time dodging in and out of slit trenches.
After the first wind is taken out of his sails by initiation into the arts of dive-bombing and drumfire and he finds he is still alive, he is likely to become a veteran moderately quickly and by and large to develop considerable offensive-mindedness. He also begins to appreciate the skill of his veteran German enemy and the pluckiness of the British Tommy who fights beside him, and the reason for all the discipline of the toughening processes he has been subjected to in months of tedious training.
AS OBSERVERS SEE THEM
In other words, the green Yankee soldier going into action for the first time is certainly not as good as he thinks he is but he has enough horse sense to realize quickly his own deficiencies and to try to do something about it. He is just as likely as not to learn the hard way by burning his fingers, but he does learn.
These in a broad sense are the opinions of qualified observers who have had a chance to observe the development from draftees of doughboys at the front and make comparisons with some of the more experienced soldiers of other armies.
The American is a good scrapper but he has to learn the technique of modern warfare and he is generally doing that by tasting battle first. When the newcomer arrives in the line he is much in the position of the tough street fighter facing a skilled heavyweight and he has got to learn the tricks fast.
The first time a unit enters battle it is likely to get the shakes, and such cases of shellshock as are likely to develop will start then. Frequently green units do not do terribly well in the initiation, partly because those that have come here so far are insufficiently trained in such hard courses as British battle schools for getting used to actual fire.
Sometimes the mere noise gets them down at the start. But once they have been in action, especially the hard ones such as Kasserine, and have discovered that lots of shooting does not mean they will be killed, they begin to gain confidence, and if they lose a pal they get very sore indeed.
THE HARDENING PROCESS
Frequently it takes more than one or two actions to get the doughboys working in cohesion, and even after five or six battles they do not function as smoothly as the Germans: they have not learned to do things automatically and without considered thought.
The way a unit learns can be exemplified by the experience of one unit that was brought up absolutely green for the second battle at Sened Station. They were dive-bombed four or five times the first afternoon and deserted their trucks, but returned when their officers called them back. About the fourth occasion one of the soldiers was heard to say, “They cannot stop American infantry that way.”
The next day in their first real action they broke under combined infantry and tank attack. However, they managed to re-form and counter-attack. They eventually took their objectives.
Another example of quick learning was demonstrated in the case of another outfit which, although it broke at Kasserine Pass, only a few weeks later at the last battle of El Guettar, stayed in its fox holes calmly, let the German tanks pass through to he taken care of by the artillery, then smashed the enemy infantry like old hands.
Our troops are learning that mobile warfare is entirely different from trench fighting and it is hard for them to master the cohesion between arms and units. For this instruction under battle conditions is absolutely essential. It has also been discovered in this great and bloody African war school that we definitely lack sufficient training in small units, although this has been stressed in all the Army’s recent peace-time manoeuvres.
A sample of how this is mastered the hard way by American soldiers may be instanced. One combat team of the First Armored Division realized through bitter experience that you cannot advance against established enemy positions directly because the artillery will knock you to pieces. Although that lesson was stressed to two other combat teams, they each made the same mistake and had time to learn the hard way—but they did learn.
Instinctively that average soldier is beginning to realize how to appreciate automatically when to stand, when to fall back, and when to wait for the artillery to take care of things.
While the biggest thing acquired in this literal school of battle is realization by the doughboy that he must learn how to win, he also had psychological experience in the realization of the true value of previously accepted luxuries. He is beginning to wonder if people back home actually appreciate what he is up against and are taking the war seriously enough.
APRIL 7, 1943
U-BOAT TOLL RISES; ‘TOUGH,’ SAYS KNOX
Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, April 6—With an increased number of U-boats now operating against Allied shipping and apparently employing new tactics, the Battle of the Atlantic swung in favor of the Germans last month and the submarine sinking toll was “considerably worse” than in February, Secretary of the Navy Knox declared today at his press conference.<
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Declaring that the situation was both “tough” and “serious,” Mr. Knox asserted that “nobody is a bit complacent about it or should be.”
He hinted that the U-boats, reported to be operating in “wolf packs,” with various packs apparently cooperating with one another, had adopted different tactics lately. He did not elaborate on this point.
The present danger zone is sweeping in its scope, the Secretary declared. The U-boat packs are operating in mid-Atlantic, he said, with emphasis on the North Atlantic route to England. Activity also has occurred on the Mediterranean route.
The brightest ray of hope held out by Mr. Knox, who repeatedly has warned that the submarine menace would be heightened this Spring, was “a very marked improvement” in the production pace of the Navy’s destroyer escort program. The Navy is banking heavily on the effectiveness of this new type of submarine-chaser, which is relatively quick and economical to make and is highly manoeuvrable.
The program is still being retarded by a scarcity of motors for the vessels, Mr. Knox said, but even that aspect is “getting better in every respect.” On April 17, he announced, he plans to make a speech at a General Electric plant in Syracuse which less than a year ago was “nothing but a hay field.” Now it is turning out fifty turbogenerators a month for Navy escort vessels.
Mr. Knox said it was difficult to assess the results of the Royal Air Forces’ heavy raids on submarine pens at St. Nazaire and Lorient in France and elsewhere. Navy men recognize the difficulty of penetrating with bombs the thick slabs of concrete with which these pens are protected, but Mr. Knox said it might be “assumed” that the raids were “embarrassing” the Germans, even if the damage was confined to the plants and towns around the pens.
APRIL 7, 1943
Text of the Treasury’s Proposal for International Fund to Stabilize Currencies
By The Associated Press.
WASHINGTON, April 6—Following is the “preliminary draft outline of proposal for a United and Associated Nations Stabilization Fund” announced by the Treasury:
I. PURPOSES OF THE FUND
To stabilize the foreign exchange rates of the currencies of the United Nations and nations associated with them.
To shorten the periods and lessen the degree of disequilibrium in the international balance of payments of member countries.
To help create conditions under which the smooth flow of foreign trade and of productive capital among the member countries will be fostered.
To facilitate the effective utilization of the abnormal foreign balances accumulating in some countries as a consequence of the war situation.
To reduce the use of foreign exchange controls that interfere with world trade and the international flow of productive capital.
To help eliminate bilateral exchange clearing arrangements, multiple currency devices, and discriminatory foreign exchange practices.
II. COMPOSITION OF THE FUND
The fund shall consist of gold, currencies of member countries and securities of member governments.
Each of the member countries shall subscribe a specified amount which will be called its quota. The aggregate of quotas of the member countries shall be the equivalent of at least $5 billion. The quota for each member country shall be determined by an agreed-upon formula. The formula should give due weight to the important factors relevant to the determination of quotas, e.g., a country’s holdings of gold and foreign exchange, the magnitude of the fluctuations in its balance of international payments, and its national income.
Each member country shall provide the fund with 50 per cent of its quota on or before the date set by the board of directors of the fund on which the fund’s operations are to begin.
The initial payment of each member country (consisting of 50 per cent of its quota) shall be 12.5 per cent of its quota in gold, 12.5 per cent in local currency and 25 per cent in its own (i.e., government) securities. However, any country having less than $300,000,000 in gold need provide initially only 7.5 per cent of its quota in gold, and any country having less than $100,000,000 in gold need provide initially only 5 per cent of its quota in gold, the contributions of local currency being increased correspondingly. A country may, at its option, substitute gold for its local currency or securities in meeting its quota requirement.
The member countries of the fund may be called upon to make further provision toward meeting their quotas pro rata at such times, in such amounts and in such form as the board of directors of the fund may determine, provided that the proportion of gold called for shall not exceed the proportion indicated in II-4 above, and provided that a four-fifths vote of the board shall be required for subsequent calls to meet quotas.
Any changes in the quotas of member countries shall be made only with the approval of a four-fifths vote of the board.
APRIL 11, 1943
OUR PRIZED RELICS SAFE FROM BOMBS
Declaration of Independence, On Display Tuesday, Comes Out of Secret Refuge
Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, April 10—An indication of the extraordinary steps taken to safeguard the nation’s treasure of historic documents, valuable paintings and other important mementos was given this week in an announcement that the Declaration of Independence would be taken from a secret place of safekeeping for display Tuesday when the Jefferson Memorial will be dedicated at the celebration of the bicentennial of Thomas Jefferson’s birth.
Among other articles taken from Washington to secret depositories since Pearl Harbor are the Constitution, the Lincoln Cathedral Copy of England’s Magna Charta, entrusted to the United States for safekeeping by the British Government, the Articles of Confederation and the Gutenberg Bible.
SPECIAL FUNDS PROVIDED
All of these are in custody of the Library of Congress, which obtained Congressional appropriations of $130,000 to make its valuables secure. The library has shipped out 4,723 boxes of rare and irreplaceable materials.
The National Archives, recently adjudged the most nearly bombproof building in Washington, has felt it necessary to evacuate nothing except highly inflammable nitrate-based films.
The Smithsonian Institution, under twenty-four-hour guard like the other depositories, has evacuated what a spokesman called “absolutely Grade A material” which would serve as a nucleus for rebuilding its collection if everything else was destroyed. The material includes a few highly important paintings from the National Gallery of Art and “a vast number” of scientific specimens such as the first example of each species made known to science.
APRIL 12, 1943
NEGROES ASK END OF DISCRIMINATION
A national campaign against all types of discrimination against Negroes in the armed forces and in industry was approved yesterday at the closing session of the two-day meeting of the Eastern Seaboard Conference of the National Negro Congress at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, 132 West 138th Street.
Urging the establishment of a mixed military unit containing both white men and Negroes, a resolution adopted by the conference said such a grouping would enhance the Negroes’ morale, “which is fast waning due to undemocratic conditions in this democratic country.” Such a mixed unit would let Negroes and whites partake together of that democracy for which both are fighting, the resolution declared.
The same resolution pointed to the shortage of manpower in war industries and on the farms and asserted that “in spite of this acute problem there remains virtually an untapped source of manpower, the Negro, who is trained and stands ready to answer the call.”
“We further believe,” the resolution continued, “that the ultimate victory can be won only through the working in unity of all the people in America with full integration of the Negro in our nation’s production forces.”
The delegates urged the establishment of a second land front in Europe and the prosecution of the war until the “unconditional surrender” of the Axis. “We urge that the right of self-determination for all colonial peoples be the st
ated policy of the United Nations” the resolution continued, “and that the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms be immediately applied to India, Africa, the Carribean and other colonial peoples. “The plight of the Jewish people in foreign countries is the concern of all the United Nations and we therefore advocate that Government of the United States initiate and undertake immediately all possible rescue measures.
“We are unalterably opposed to any force which attempts to disrupt the unity and sympathetic cooperation of this nation with the Soviet Union, China and other members of the United Nations.”
James B. Carey, national secretary and treasurer of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, told a mass meeting that ended the conference that when peace came 35,000,000 men and women might be without work unless a full employment and social security program was enacted.
MAY 1, 1943
KNOX NOTES SLASH IN APRIL SINKINGS
Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, April 30—Qualifying his statement with a warning “not to attach too much significance to it,” Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox announced at his press conference today that losses from enemy submarine sinkings had been “much lower” in April than during the previous month.
Mr. Knox said he made the statement with his “fingers crossed” and that he did not want anyone to draw overly important conclusions from it “because figures in that type of warfare can—and do—go up and down.”
Nevertheless, April did show an improvement in the Battle of the Atlantic, and the Secretary of the Navy said he shared the hope of Admiral Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief of the United States Fleet, that the submarine menace would be brought under control within four to six months.