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

by The New York Times

  “I have always considered as quasi-staff officers those correspondents who are accredited to my headquarters. These correspondents are a part of the great team striving to conclude this war successfully at the earliest moment.”

  Five hundred and seventy-five delegates, a record number for the opening session of the ANPA, were on hand yesterday for the first meeting, which, in accordance with the custom of the organization, was devoted to a discussion of the problems of dailies of less than 50,000 circulation. It is expected that the number of delegates will pass the 700 mark today, when the first general session is held.

  FINDS PRESS PRESTIGE RISING

  Arthur S. Hodges, editor of The Nassau Daily Review-Star of Rockville Centre, L.I., reported on the results of a questionnaire circulated among editors, publishers, deans of schools of journalism and managers of newspaper associations. He said that it was the consensus among them that newspapers would have the highest prestige at the end of the war they have ever known.

  “We found a widespread disposition to make the press more independent and do a better job for the people,” he said. “We found that there is no serious fear of interference with freedom of the press by the Government and a sober conviction that the newspaper can meet any kind of competition from other media that may develop.”

  Nelson R. Poynter of The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times expressed the hope that not only worldwide freedom of the press, but absolute freedom of information and communications would be established by the peace. He expressed hope that Congress would adopt a joint resolution declaring this to be our national policy.

  HOWARD HANDLEMAN HONORED

  The award of the annual George R. Holmes prize for war correspondence to Howard Handleman, author of “Bridge to Victory,” an account of the Aleutians campaign, was announced by Barry Faris, editor in chief of International News Service, at the twenty-fifth annual Banshees luncheon given by King Features Syndicate for visiting publishers.

  In the absence of Mr. Handleman, Richard Tregaskis, last year’s winner of the award, accepted it in his behalf. Mr. Tregaskis, who has been recuperating from a severe head injury suffered while covering the Italian campaign, urged those at the luncheon not to forget, in their merrymaking, the men at the front who were actually doing the fighting.

  APRIL 28, 1944

  MacArthur and Nimitz Meet And Agree on United Efforts

  By FRANK L. KLUCKHOHN

  By Wireless to the New York Times.

  ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NEW GUINEA, April 28—Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, America’s two theatre commanders in the Pacific, have conferred at General MacArthur’s Australian headquarters and worked out “completely integrated” plans for the campaign against Japan, according to a joint announcement made simultaneously here and at Pearl Harbor.

  The statement issued here said:

  “General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz recently conferred regarding future operations in the Pacific on their two commands. Plans were completely integrated so that a maximum cooperative effort might be exerted against the enemy.”

  It was authoritatively asserted that the geographical division of the two commands had not been changed, and the wording of the announcement made it clear that neither the admiral, who is Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, nor America’s senior general would have authority over the other.

  The fact that the announcement came after the Humboldt Bay campaign, although the meeting was held prior to it, as well as the phrasing of the statement, made it apparent that the two Pacific leaders were prepared to work together in the future and not merely for the one operation. More important, however, was the fact that Admiral Nimitz and General MacArthur got along splendidly together when they met, according to a number of those present. The basis for a personal relationship was established, which, it is felt, will have a greater effect upon the unity of future operations than any formal agreement might have.

  General MacArthur has made no secret of the fact that his primary objective is to return to the Philippines as rapidly as possible, and it is certain that no such agreement as the one announced would have been possible unless the commander of the mighty and fast-growing United States Fleet had concurred.

  Some service-proud officers have in the past taken the stand that one service or another should take the lead in beating Japan. Some extremists have even argued that one service could do it alone. General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz have now in effect expressed their agreement that the sea, land and air forces should work together.

  MAY 4, 1944

  NAZI RAIL LINES IN CHAOS IN 100-MILE COASTAL ZONE

  Every Major Yard From Bay of Biscay To Cologne Blasted, Says British Ministry Aide

  By DAVID ANDERSON

  By Cable to The New York Times.

  LONDON, May 3—Across western France and the Low Countries to Germany in a coastal zone roughly 100 miles wide from the shores of the Bay of Biscay to Cologne, Allied air attacks have blasted every railroad yard worthy of the name, an expert on European communications for the British Ministry of Economic Warfare said today.

  To keep this area in the desired state of chaos has been an objective of the British and American air commands in recent months.

  Today, it can be said, there is not a single place where the Germans could handle even moderately heavy military traffic. Trains still run through the zone, but no longer is it possible for the enemy to mass reserves in the area for speedy disposition elsewhere by rail.

  The result has been that the enemy has been forced to rely on road convoys, which are easier for the Allies to attack from the air, or to keep his troop trains well back of the coast. It seems unlikely that Nazi reserves would be stationed on top of the coastal defenses, since that would give them a minimum of mobility.

  BIG STRIKE IN TRAIN BOMBING

  As an illustration of what happens to Nazis within the belt of destruction the expert told of an incident at Vaires, a suburb of Paris, not long ago.

  Allied bombers attacked two trains standing there. One of them was full of troops, the other carried ammunition.

  So violent was the explosion that the Allied air crews did not know precisely what they had hit. Some time passed before the authorities here learned that more than 1,000 Nazis had been killed and a great mass of material destroyed,

  During the past year sabotage in France has increased 1,000 per cent, incidents growing in volume from a few to dozens daily. The damage is often slight, yet the cumulative effect is great.

  One of the most effective forms of sabotage has been the blowing up of rails, which the Germans have difficulty in replacing now that Russian manganese is lost to them and the supply of French tracks has been so heavily drawn upon—no less than 30,000 miles of steel right of way has been transplanted by the enemy.

  REICH DRAINED OF RAIL WORKERS

  The labor shortage is an even graver problem for Nazi transport officials. The British Ministry estimates that 50,000 German railroad men have been sent into occupied territories in the last twelve months, and nearly that number has been employed in France alone. Today there is one German for every Frenchman on the railroads of France.

  Close observation of western Europe’s rolling stock at the present time has convinced the British experts that Germany simply cannot count on the railroads to stand the strain Allied invasion of the Continent will bring.

  A railway viaduct destroyed by the Allies at Mornesnet, Germany in 1944.

  MAY 7, 1944

  GANDHI’S RELEASE WIDELY APPROVED

  NEW DELHI, India, May 6 (AP)—Widespread satisfaction greeted the release today of Mohandas K. Gandhi, Indian Nationalist leader detained for twenty-one months as a political prisoner in Aga Khan’s summer palace in Poona, but intimates feared it marked a new crisis in the illness of the frail disciple of India’s masses.

  The press of all shades of opinion, Nationalist as well as English-owned, welcomed the freeing of Mr. Gandhi. The G
overnment released the 74-year-old leader unconditionally, citing failing health, after having confined him in August, 1942, for political activity that it regarded as hampering India’s resistance to Japan.

  His intimates here said that Mr. Gandhi would depend for recovery on a spiritual source of strength “beyond the conception of the Western World.” His son, Devadas Gandhi, expressing the opinion that his father was seriously ill and possibly near death, said that Mr. Gandhi would scorn most medical ministrations.

  FOUR OTHERS RELEASED

  Mr. Gandhi’s release came without untoward demonstration by his followers but crowds of them, acting on an earlier announcement that their leader would be freed, gathered at the gates of the palace to greet him. He looked cheerful but tired and was taken immediately to “Parnakuti,” palatial residence of Lady Vitall das Thackersey. She is the widow of a Bombay merchant and an old friend of Mr. Gandhi. It was understood that Mr. Gandhi would be taken to Bombay Monday.

  At Parnakuti,” Dr. Gilder and Dr. Nayad issued a bulletin declaring that Mr. Gandhi had “become very weak and there is physical and mental exhaustion, though he keeps cheerful.”

  The bulletin revealed that Mr. Gandhi has had recurring malaria fever since April 14, and as a result his blood pressure was persistently low. He is delirious whenever his temperature goes up, the bulletin said.

  His medical advisers urged friends and followers to “spare him all strain for some time to come.”

  Mr. Gandhi’s son said he was not disposed to adopt an attitude of complete optimism because of the lack of definite information about his father’s condition, but expressed the belief that he would survive. Through long years, by rigorous discipline, Mr. Gandhi has been able to control bodily functions almost completely through the mind and prayer, his son said.

  He added that Mr. Gandhi would certainly oppose blood transfusions or administration of any drugs with animal derivatives. He said his father was opposed to medicine generally, relying mainly on a water and a vegetable diet and massage.

  He said Mr. Gandhi especially frowned on blood transfusions on the grounds that the essential life stream of one human being should not be used to extend the life of another. The son added, however, that this belief would not extend to the case of a wounded soldier because “a man injured in such a way has a right to employ every legitimate means in saving his life to continue its work.”

  MAY 8, 1944

  ‘GUSVILLE’ THRIVES IN ANZIO FRONT LINE

  By MELTON BRACKER

  By Wireless to The New York Times

  ON THE FIFTH ARMY ANZIO BEACHHEAD, May 7—The road signs say “Roma—58 kilometers” but it is not nearly that far to “Gusville.” All you have to do is to give your jeep its head and sooner or later some one will say:

  “Gusville is down that way. But from here on you gotta walk.”

  And it is most appropriate to amble into Gusville on foot, for it is the most rural community imaginable. The incredible thing about it is that besides having its own cow, Daisy, its own chickens and its own G.I. mayor, Gusville is an infantry outpost in one of the most sensitive sectors of the beachhead front.

  As one uniformed citizen put it, “Brother, this is the front.”

  If you have any doubt, walk down Gusville’s main street, which goes by one of the loveliest little churches in the world and takes you right up to a line of tank mines protruding from the roadway like push buttons.

  “They’ll stand your weight, all right,” a soldier will say, “but they ain’t so chummy with Mark lV’s.”

  Gusville actually is a pleasant little town where farmers used to come to do their shopping. It is something like a county seat waiting for Saturday night—except that these days Saturday night never comes.

  GUNS EXCHANGE DEATH

  Every day and every night are the same; shells lob in and shells lob out, and during lulls Gusville’s American and Canadian population drinks Daisy’s milk and keeps one eye on “Jerryland.”

  From Jerryland jagged death has hurtled into bodies of boys in Gusville and Gusville is studded with guns that keep paying back in kind.

  Gusville got its name from First Lieut. Gus Heilman, who every University of Virginia man will know as the former proprietor of the Cavalier, student hangout at Charlottesville.

  Actually Lieutenant Heilman is company commander, but as civic pride in the incredible little community began to grow, one Canadian insisted it had to have a Mayor.

  “Gus being the C.O., they made him Mayor,” it was explained.

  So a deserted farm house became the city hall and Tech. Sgt. John Walkmeister became, in effect, city clerk. He has the biggest mustache in the Fifth Army.

  The reason Gusville soon acquired livestock and poultry was simple: no civilians were left in the town and cow and chickens were left to themselves. Mess Sergeant Roland Uecker of Grand Rapids Mich., found Daisy, a black and white Holstein (he thinks) lolling innocently through minefields that hem in the town.

  MINES PROVIDE MEAT

  Uecker pleaded and cajoled until Daisy swishtailed into a corral; members of Daisy’s family have not been so lucky. Mines go off with a great whoosh of soil and Gusville has a new stock of fresh meat.

  Sergeant Granville Harper of Gallup, N.M., old rodeo man, swears Daisy would be worth $200 at home. But over here $200 wouldn’t buy the tip of her tail.

  “Do you know how long it is since most soldiers have seen fresh milk?” one might ask.

  MAY 11, 1944

  FREED SEVASTOPOL QUICKENS WAR PACE

  Red Army Victory Won Over Strong German Resistance in Mountain Forts

  By W. H. LAWRENCE

  By Cable to The New York Times.

  MOSCOW, May 10—All Russia celebrated today the liberation of Sevastopol, mighty fortress and former main base of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, whose recapture took three days’ fierce battles compared with 250 days required by German and Rumanian troops to overcome the resistance of the Russians when the city was under siege in 1941 and 1942.

  The doomed German and Rumanian garrison, which had little hope of escape once the Russians had started breaking through the strong concrete fortifications on the steep cliffs and hills surrounding the port, fought back with intensity, launching more than twenty counter-attacks in a desperate effort to halt the mighty Soviet force of infantry, artillery and aviation commanded by Gen. Fedor I. Tolbukhin.

  No estimate is available here of the size of the opposing armies in the final battles for Sevastopol, but front-line dispatches in Moscow newspapers leave no doubt that the battles were on a large scale, with aviation playing a particularly outstanding role in reducing the German fortifications.

  USE OF BLACK SEA WIDENED

  Clearing the enemy from Sevastopol and the whole Crimea is of military, historic and sentimental significance.

  On the military side it means that Russia’s Black Sea ports now are cleared of the enemy as far as the Dniester estuary, opening up greater possibilities for the use of the Black Sea Fleet in raiding Rumanian ports and attacking enemy communications in the Black Sea, which in the future will probably be on a highly restricted basis.

  From historic and sentimental viewpoints a Red Star editorial struck the keynote evident in the comments of all Russians:

  “Millions of hearts thumped with joy when they heard the news about the exquisite victory of the Red Army and Sevastopol again is on the tip of every body’s tongue. Sevastopol has lifted its proud head. Sevastopol is sacred to Russia. It was the cradle of Russian might and heroism in past centuries, a school for the valorous Black Sea Fleet. It created the giant image of the Russian sailor during the Crimean wars.

  “Together with the crushing of the German defenses on the northern flank of the Soviet-German front—at Leningrad—the Perekop operation was one of the outstanding events of the war. The importance of the event is enormous. The entire Black Sea shore, from Novorossiisk to the Dniester Estuary, is liberated and cleared and now in our hands. The Bla
ck Sea main base has returned to our hands. The Sevastopol victory opens new, wide horizons for the operations of our troops. Glory to immortal Sevastopol!”

  Russian soldiers entering Sevastopol after ousting the German forces in May, 1944.

  MAY 15, 1944

  TITO, IN INTERVIEW, CITES NAZI TACTICS

  Allied Newsmen Have Dinner with Yugoslav Leader in Mountain Fastness

  By JOHN TALBOT

  Reuter Correspondent For the Combined Allied Press.

  MARSHAL TITO’S HEADQUARTERS in the Yugoslav Mountains, May 10 (Delayed)—High up in the Yugoslav mountains, less than twenty miles from where the Partisans are putting up a magnificent fight against the Germans, Marshal Tito has the most impregnable headquarters of any commanding general in the world. The Germans have tried to get it.

  Some time ago fifteen German dive-bombers tried to blast the Yugoslav marshal from his eyrie. They failed completely.

  The headquarters are a series of natural caves running in a gallery straight into the sides of a deep ravine.

  Last night my American colleague, two Allied cameramen and I had dinner with Tito in his incredible lair. Also present were Gen. Arsu Yvanovitch, his chief of staff; M. Chokaloviteh, secretary of the Anti-Fascist Council, and M. Kardelz, Vice President of the Yugoslav National Committee.

  To reach Tito’s headquarters our guards, who were changed three times during the journey from our billets, led us along a rough path cut out of the rock and up the side of a ravine. Besides us, for part of our journey, a great waterfall plumed down in a thundering white cascade into the dim, moonlit valley far below. At times we clung to rocks as the path twisted and turned round jutting spurs and ledges.