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

by The New York Times

  As the hours wore on, more Coastal Command planes, including Flying Fortresses, Catalinas and Sunderlands, arrived to protect convoys. Further fights with submarines followed in quick succession. In one of these actions, the destroyer Pathfinder hurled depth charges at a U-boat that surfaced for a brief moment and then disappeared beneath the waves. Its fate was not determined. Later, a Sunderland plane guided the Lagan and the Canadian corvette Drumheller, which has been on active service in the Battle of the Atlantic for three years, to a U-boat that received similar treatment. The spot where that submarine had been seen going down was covered by wreckage and a steadily widening oil slick that covered an area of almost four square miles the next day.

  While these scraps were going on, another convoy found itself threatened by a U-boat pack ahead of it. The destroyer Hesperus sighted one enemy submarine on the surface, steering straight for the convoy. The Hesperus commenced an attack with gunfire, scoring repeated hits and blowing the U-boat’s gun-crew into the sea.

  Closing in for the kill, the Hesperus let go depth charges. The U-boat either dived or sank out of control. The destroyer threshed across the spot where the enemy had last been seen, dropping a final “pattern” for good measure. The submarine’s fate was uncertain.

  Soon afterward the Hesperus spotted another U-boat on the surface. She attacked the enemy with gunfire, then rammed him and probably destroyed him. While the submarine was being gunned, several members of its crew were seen jumping overboard. Whether they were rescued was not reported. The next day the Hesperus attacked still another U-boat, which disappeared amid an oil slick and floating wreckage. Meanwhile, aircraft maintained unceasing patrol over and in the vicinity of the convoys, compelling the undersea raiders to remain submerged well out of harm’s way and to lose track of the prospective victims.

  JUNE 26, 1943

  CONGRESS REBELS

  President Is Defeated by 56 to 25 In Senate, 244–108 in House

  SWIFT VOTE TAKEN

  Criminal Penalties Are Made Law, But 30-Day Strike Vote Is Set

  By W. H. LAWRENCE

  Special to The New York Times.

  WASHINGTON, June 25—A rebellious Congress, angered by three coal strikes and other sporadic interruptions of war production, quickly overrode President Roosevelt’s veto today and enacted into law the Smith-Connally anti-strike bill requiring thirty days’ notice in advance of strike votes and providing criminal penalties for those who instigate, direct or aid strikes in government-operated plants or mines.

  The Senate voted 56 to 25 to make the bill law despite the Chief Executive’s disapproval. The House voted 244 to 108 immediately afterward. Both votes were well over the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority to override a veto.

  Both Houses acted not only quickly, but with a minimum of discussion to reject the President’s warning that the measure would stimulate labor unrest, give governmental sanction to strike agitation, and foment slowdowns and strikes.

  HOW THE PARTIES DIVIDED

  In the Senate, twenty-nine Democrats, including the acting Majority Leader, Senator Lister Hill of Alabama, and twenty-seven Republicans voted to override the President’s veto, and nineteen Democrats, five Republicans and one Progressive voted to sustain it.

  Of the Senators who voted after the veto message had been read and who had been recorded on the conference committee report, not one changed his vote as a result of Presidential disapproval of the measure. Senator Joseph Ball, Republican, of Minnesota, who had been paired for the bill but did not vote at the time the conference committee report was taken up, voted to sustain the veto.

  In the House 130 Republicans and 114 Democrats voted against the President. Of those who voted to sustain the veto, sixty-seven were Democrats, thirty-seven were Republicans, two Progressives, one Farmer-Laborite and one member of the American Labor party. Advocates of the bill gained twenty-five votes between approval of the conference committee report and the veto action, while opponents of the measure lost twenty-one supporters.

  LAW GOES INTO EFFECT AT ONCE

  The measure, which had been bitterly opposed by all organized labor, is effective immediately and until six months after the conclusion of the war, and contains these provisions:

  The President receives authority to take immediate possession of plants, mines or other production facilities affected by a strike or other labor disturbance.

  Wages and other working conditions in effect at the time a plant is taken over by the Government shall be maintained by the Government unless changed by the National War Labor Board at the request of the Government agency or a majority of the employees in the plant.

  Persons who coerce, instigate, induce, conspire with or encourage any person to interfere by lockout, strike, slowdown or other interruption with the operation of plants in possession of the Government, or who direct such interruptions or provide funds for continuing them shall be subject to a fine of not more than $5,000, or to imprisonment for not more than one year, or both. The penalty clause does not apply to those who merely cease work or refuse employment.

  SUBPOENA POWER FOR NWLB

  The NWLB receives subpoena power to require attendance of parties to labor disputes, but NWLB members are forbidden to participate in any decision in which the member has a direct interest as an officer, employee or representative of either party to the dispute.

  Employees of war contractors must give to the Secretary of Labor, the NWLB and the National Labor Relations Board notice of any labor dispute which threatens seriously to interrupt war production and the NLRB is required on the thirtieth day after notice is given to take a secret ballot of the employees on the question of whether they will strike.

  Labor organizations, as well as national banks and corporations organized by authority of Federal law, are forbidden to make political contributions in any election involving officials of the National Government, with the organization subject to a fine of not more than $5,000 for violating the act and the officers subject to a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.

  The President waited the full ten days of the constitutional period before vetoing the measure which was sent to him by a 219-to-129 House vote and 55-to-22 Senate vote. At 3:13 P.M. his veto message was read to the Senate, and by 5:28 P.M. the measure was law.

  SENATE IS FIRST TO ACT

  The Senate acted first, with Senator Connally of Texas taking the floor to say:

  “I am sorely disappointed. The Senate is sorely disappointed. The House, I am sure, is disappointed. The people of the United States by an overwhelming majority are disappointed. The soldiers and sailors wherever they may be, on land, on the sea, in the air, all over this globe are disappointed.

  “The section of the bill to which the President objected was in the House provisions.

  “The President has a right to veto legislation. The Senate has a right to pass a bill over the veto.

  “I hope that the Senate now will exercise its constitutional privilege.”

  Senator Carl Hatch, Democrat of New Mexico, seconded the motion, and the roll-call began.

  When the vote was announced as 56 to 25 to override, there was applause from the galleries, led by men in uniform.

  The large House majority in favor of overriding was apparent as soon as word of the Senate action reached it. A Commodity Credit Corporation extension and modification bill was up for consideration and members immediately began to move that this either be laid aside or that debate close and immediate action be taken on it, thus to clear the way for consideration of the veto.

  APPEAL FOR ACTION CHEERED

  Representative Clifton Woodrum, Democrat, of Virginia, received repeated applause and cheers for his plea for “action, not tomorrow, not Monday, but today, so that we can send the message to our boys in the foxholes that the American people are behind them.”

  Chairman Andrew J. May of the House Military Affairs Committee, which brought out the ori
ginal draft of changes in the Senate bill to which the President objected so vigorously, repeated the same thought, bringing objections that he was out of order and “trying to create a lynching spirit in the House.” The latter assertion came from Representative Vito Marcantonio, American Labor, of New York.

  Apparently sensing the House insistence on action today, Representative John W. McCormack of Massachusetts, the majority leader, quickly promised that the veto message would be taken up as soon as the pending bill was disposed of. Delaying tactics by other Administration supporters in seeking record votes on amendments to the CCC bill failed to find sufficient House support to be effective and a motion made at 4:50 that the House adjourn was overwhelmingly shouted down. The veto message was then read, and the vote taken immediately.

  SAYS STRIKES WON’T BE TOLERATED

  The President’s veto message firmly declared that the Executive would not countenance strikes in wartime and was conciliatory in its approach to Congress.

  Declaring it was the will of the people that for the duration of the war all labor disputes shall be settled by orderly, legally established procedures, and that no war work shall be interrupted by strike or lockout, the President said that the no-strike, no-lockout pledge given by labor and industry after Pear1 Harbor “has been well kept except in the case of the leaders of the United Mine Workers.” During 1942, he said, the time lost by strikes averaged only 5/100ths of 1 per cent of the total man-hours worked, a record which he declared had never before been equalled in this country and which was as good or better than the record of any of our allies in the war.

  He conceded that laws often are necessary “to make a very small minority of people live up to the standards that the great majority of the people follow” and in this connection he cited the recent coal strike.

  FAVORS FIRST SEVEN SECTIONS

  Analyzing the bill, section by section, he said that the first seven sections, “broadly speaking,” incorporate into statute the existing machinery for settling labor disputes and provide criminal penalties for those who instigate, direct or aid a strike in a government-operated plant or mine. Had the bill been limited to this subject matter, he said that he would have signed it.

  His principal objection was to the eighth section, which, he said, would foment slowdowns and strikes. That section provides a thirty-day notice before a vote to strike can be taken under supervision of the National Labor Relations Board, and, while Congressional sponsors called this a “cooling off” period, Mr. Roosevelt contended that it “might well become a boiling period” during which workers would devote their thoughts and energies to getting pro-strike votes instead of turning out war material. “In wartime we cannot sanction strikes with or without notice,” he declared. “Section 8 ignores completely labor’s ‘no-strike’ pledge and provides, in effect, for strike notices and strike ballots. Far from discouraging strikes, these provisions would stimulate labor unrest and give government sanction to strike agitations.”

  DRAFT CHANGE RECOMMENDED

  The President was highly critical also of Section 9, which prohibits, during the war, political contributions by labor organizations. This section, he remarked, “obviously has no relevancy” to an anti-strike bill. If the prohibition on trade union political contributions has merit, he expressed the belief that it should not be confined to the war. Congress, he added, might also give careful consideration to extending the ban to other nonprofit organizations.

  The President reiterated his recommendation that the Selective Service Act be amended to provide noncombat military service for persons up to the age of 65, declaring that “this will enable us to induct into military service all persons who engage in strikes or stoppages or other interruptions of work in plants in the possession of the United States.”

  “This direct approach is necessary to insure the continuity of war work,” he said. “The only alternative would be to extend the principle of selective service and make it universal in character.”

  Whether enactment of the bill would cause the withdrawal of labor representatives from NWLB was an open question. Many persons in Washington thought that it would, but no responsible leader of labor would commit himself on this question tonight.

  A NEW BILL AIMED AT EMPLOYERS

  After Congress, by overriding the veto, had enacted into law the section banning contributions by labor organizations to which the President had objected, Senator Hatch introduced a measure forbidding similar political contributions by associations of employers.

  It was the eighth time that Congress had overriden President Roosevelt by a veto during the more than ten years he has been in office, and it was the most important measure on which the Congress acted independent of the Executive since payment of the soldiers’ bonus was authorized, January 27, 1937.

  Observers on Capitol Hill believed that the continued absence from work of a large number of coal miners, despite the back-to-work order of the UMW policy committee, and the lukewarm reception by Congress to the President’s draft proposal, played a major role in the decisive votes. There was a roar of protest on the floor of the House when the President reiterated his proposal to increase the draft age to 65 to deal with strikers.

  Many members of Congress expressed dissatisfaction, saying that coal mine owners were being punished by being deprived of their property, although it was the union, and not the employers, which had defied the NWLB and called strikes.

  Another cause of restiveness among members was the fact that John L. Lewis, in ordering the miners back to work, set another deadline for Oct 31, and said his decision to work on the Government’s terms was predicated on continued Governmental operation of the mines.

  JULY 1, 1943

  M’ARTHUR STARTS ALLIED OFFENSIVE IN PACIFIC; NEW GUINEA ISLES WON, LANDINGS IN SOLOMONS; CHURCHILL PROMISES BLOWS IN EUROPE BY FALL

  UNITED NATIONS FORCES MOVE FORWARD IN THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC

  By SIDNEY SHALETT

  Special to The new York Times.

  WASHINGTON, July 1—Combined Army and Navy forces under General Douglas MacArthur have opened the long expected offensive against the Japanese in the south and southwest Pacific.

  Fighting was in progress on Rendova and New Georgia islands, which were hit by ground, naval and air forces in “closest synchronization,” a communiqué from General MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia reported today. Nassau Bay, ten miles south of the big Japanese base of Salamaua in New Guinea, fell to the Allies after a slight skirmish, and the Tobriand and Wood-lark island groups, 300 to 400 miles west of the New Georgia group, were occupied without opposition.

  The Allied push—aimed, observers here believe, at the major Japanese base of Rabaul, on New Britain Island—got under way yesterday, Solomons time, which was Tuesday here.

  NUTCRACKER MOVE SEEN

  It was believed here, on the basis of early reports, that the fighting and occupations reported so far were preliminary to major actions to come. If bases in the New Georgias are consolidated, a two-way push against Rabaul might be developing, with one arm advancing north-westward from the Central Solomons and the other swinging across eastward from new bases in New Guinea.

  United States heavy bombers carried out an attack on Rabaul during the night, dropping nearly twenty-three tons of high-explosive, fragmentation and incendiary bombs throughout the dispersal areas at the Vunakanau and Lakunai airdromes, the communiqué from Australian headquarters reported. “Several explosions” and “numerous fires” were observed, one of which was visible for 100 miles, the announcement said.

  The big bombers, which have punished Rabaul extensively in recent weeks, ran into heavy Japanese anti-aircraft fire and interference from some enemy night fighters. One American bomber was missing after the raid.

  The Tobriand and Woodlark islands will be valuable as stepping-stones in a chain of fighter-plane bases from the Allied stronghold of Milne Bay, on the tip of New Guinea. Japanese-held Gasmata and Rabaul may be raided with comparative
ease with the aid of these bays.

  NAVY GIVES FIRST NEWS

  The first report of landing actions came early yesterday when the Navy announced here in a communiqué that combined United States forces had landed June 30 (Solomons time) on Rendova Island, in the New Georgia group, which is only five miles from the important Japanese air base of Munda, on New Georgia Island, but that communiqué said, “No details have been received.”

  A hint that the fighting had extended came later from Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox in Los Angeles, where he is inspecting Pacific Coast installations. The Secretary declared that the Rendov attack was the beginning of “an offensive against the Japanese base at Munda and surrounding bases.” Navy officials in Washington yesterday declined, however, to confirm that the attack had been extended to New Georgia.

  General MacArthur’s announcement of more sweeping actions in the Pacific seemed to confirm impressions that the American forces were running into opposition on Rendova and were not making a bloodless conquest as had been the case in the occupations of Funafuti, in the Ellice group, and in the Russell Islands, northwest of Guadalcanal, which were the last two places in the South Pacific revealed by the Navy as occupied by our forces.

  On March 27 American planes bombed and strafed Japanese positions at Ugali, which is on the northeast coast of Rendova, a previous Navy communiqué disclosed. This indicated that there were enemy forces on the island, which, if they still were there, undoubtedly were resisting.