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Show I A ' ' f V-f ' I wjT'yvSiJ . . .. . , nh or be dralteaj HIIJrK?llM LJ:iP1UU Nazi Submarine Menace Is Allies' Chief Problem Pre-Fabricated U-Boats Said to Boost German Ger-man Output; 'Vanishing Luftwaffe' Puzzles -United Nations' Military Observers. ' By BAUKIIAGE IVnvi Analyst and Commentator, WNU Service, 134J II Street, N.W. Washington, D. C. "It will be a long and bitter war." That was the remark of the Aus tralian minister of defense in a re cent Interview. Two days later, I heard a general, who had visited many fronts, make a similar statement state-ment You have heard the same prediction made from dozens of offi cials. And the strange thing Is, it Is usually preceded with an account of Allied successes. Nothing but a "but" stands between the enumera tion of victories achieved and the prediction of the long, hard road ahead. Since this perplexed me, I tried to get a concrete answer from various vari-ous persons as to just what lies on the long, hard road. Out of the answers, an-swers, two obstacles stand out, the submarine and the story of the "vanishing "van-ishing Luftwaffe." Only recently has it been definitely revealed that the enemy's greatest and most effective weapon is the submarine. For a long time, the British permitted only the most general statements regarding regard-ing the sinking of Allied or even neutral ships by U-boats. Lately, because It was realized that the people peo-ple were in ignorance of the extent of this menace, more detailed statements state-ments have been made, although still no figures are given out We know that America is building ships faster than American ships are being sunk. We know that the margin Between launching and sinkings is very narrow. And we know that launching alone do not really balance sinkings hall for boll becaase the enemy sinks loaded ships valuable cargoes are destroyed de-stroyed trained men not easily or Immediately replaceable are killed or at least taken oat of action for long periods gaps are left In the war effort with each lost cargo. When I was in Berlin covering the outbreak of the European war in ' 1939, I heard a great deal of talk about Germany's counter-blockade, how the Nazis could fill seas with their U-boats. There was much talk of the great numbers which could be produced by the American method meth-od of the assembly line. I had no idea how much truth there was in those statements. Then in the months that followed, not much was said about the U-boats. For a pe riod when they were operating on our coasts, America was conscious of their presence but when they were driven out of sight of our shores, they were driven out of mind as Well. Nazi Boasts Largely Confirmed Now we learn how great their depredations dep-redations are on the shipping lanes where they converge in the eastern Atlantic, confirming to some degree the German boasts which are sounding sound-ing again. It is stated by British naval observers that the Germans are pre-fabrlcating the subs, making mak-ing the parts in factories scattered all over the Reich and assembling them in great underground caverns hewn out of the rock or covered with concrete on the shores of the Bay of Biscay in France. Therein lies a clear and simple explanation of the Allies' greatest problem, the chief obstacle on the "long, hard road." The second obstacle may be a fancied one but it is real in the minds of many. The unknown is usually more terrible than the known and perhaps this one "is at least partly a myth but no hard-headed hard-headed realist can afford to underestimate under-estimate the enemy's potentialities. Those who believe this "obstacle" exists, say it is hidden behind the mystery of "the vanishing Luftwaffe." Luft-waffe." ' According to military men, there are at present very few German planes on the Russian front I heard a recent estimate of one-seventh as many as a year ago. There are not many German planes ever Africa the Allies have at least achieved parity in air power. pow-er. Where is the German Luftwaffe? Its presence darkened the skies of Europe ence has it really vanished? van-ished? Ben used op? Worn ont? The factories which torn oat replacements re-placements all destroyed by Allied bombers? Is its necessary fuel and lubrication exhausted? Some people BRIEFS The Swedish Labor federation reports re-ports that the number of strikes, and workers involved, during 1942, was the lowest ever recorded. Only 34 strikes, with some 1,922 workers involved, in-volved, were reported. The number of lost working days totaled 94.000. Only three times before in the history his-tory of Sweden's labor, have there been a less number of working days lost through strikes. 1 - - think that this, at least to a large degree, is true. But that explana tion does not seem reasonable. German Advances In Synthetic Gas We know that Germany has md remarkable advances in the manufacture manu-facture of synthetic gasoline and oils. We know that some oil has been retrieved from the Maikop oil fields in Russia, new ones developed In Austria. If Germany is not yet starved of gasoline and lubricants, if the Luftwaffe Luft-waffe has not really disappeared from the earth, its absence from the air may have another meaning. We know that in spite of the heavy German Ger-man losses in men and material in Russia, Germany still has a large and powerful army. Possibly over 300 fully equipped divisions trained men. It is estimated that aside from soldiers engaged in Russia and North Africa, the garrisons in the occupied countries, there must be a striking mobile army of a million men and more. Of course, these are estimates but they are not over estimates. And besides this army there is the "vanished Luftwaffe." The assumption is that this great army like the airforce is resting, conserving and building up its strength for one of two things: ei ther a long, last stand defense of the borders of the Reich or one more powerful offensive. Meanwhile, we know that every day that Japan is allowed to occupy the rich possessions of her stolen empire, she is nearer to the exploitation ex-ploitation of their resources, the development de-velopment of which will make her stronger. And every day she is left undisturbed by a major attack, she is able to increase her fortifications, wear down the Chinese and spread her "silver bullets" among the less loyal war-lord followers on the fringe of Chiang Kai-shek's central army. There are two factors which make the road ahead a hard one the present pres-ent successful operation and the rapid replacement of the German submarine flotilla and the probabili ty that Germany is holding back a powerful army and air force either for another telling blow or to defend de-fend its strongly fortified terrain, . Ideologies-Put Ideologies-Put Them on Ice? As I go wandering round the town taking a look in every quarter with apologies to Wan -Eyed Reilly I have acquired data in the last few days that have convinced me that we will have to expunge the word ideology from the bright lexicon of war, if we are going to win, I have observed three places where the ideologies have gotten in and done more damage than a buffalo buf-falo moth in an overstuffed sofa. Of course in North Africa it may be the climate or the rainy season ideologies have done some of their most devastating work. I have conversed con-versed with an army officer, an official, offi-cial, who knows that terrain and also what it produces, a newspaper philosopher and a radical all of them look at the situation on the shores of the Mediterranean a little lit-tle differently. The official explains that the politics are very importantthe impor-tantthe radical, happy over the success against all Fascists, but infuriated in-furiated over using them even to help defeat themselves, shouts "We should have shot Darlan the day after he served his purpose." "Well," remarks the official, "somebody "some-body did, didn't they?" The army officer calls the whole controversy a backyard row that will be forgotten forgot-ten as ground dries up and the Allies Al-lies get a few victories. But the correspondent philosopher paused to analyze. He said: "You have heard that one thing that greatly Improved the morale in the Russian army was making the officers supreme and removing re-moving the authority ot the commissars com-missars which were originally placed at their elbows. You know the Russian officers could make no move without the okay of the commissar com-missar and yet the officer was responsible re-sponsible if anything went wrong. Now, the officer has the final word-many word-many of the former commissars who had military training have become officers. by Bauhhage Feed grain supplies are 12 per cent larger, hay supplies are 9 per cent larger, and supplies of grain and hay per animal on farms are somewhat larger than they were this time last year. This year, civilians will probably eat more peanut butter than ever before, because peanut butter is high in both protein and fat PointRationingScheduledforMarchl; Solomons Fit Into Jap 'Empire Plan' But U. S. Armed Forces Will Not Agree; Treasury Favors Pay-as-You-GoTax , Released by Weitero RATIONING: New Date Set Office of Price Administration officials of-ficials have established March 1 (or a few days later) as the beginning of nation-wide rationing of canned and frozen foods on a point basis. As announced several weeks ago these goods include canned, bottled, and frozen fruits and vegetables, soups, juices, chili sauce, catsup and dried fruits. Retail sales of these items will be stopped on February 21 and during the eight days following that date a country-wide schoolhouse registration registra-tion will be conducted for the distribution dis-tribution of ration book No. 2. Blue stamps in this book will be used for the canned goods rationing and the red stamps for meat rationing. (Meat rationing is at present scheduled sched-uled to begin about April 1, although this may be changed.) Further details de-tails of the registration for book two and its use are to be announced by local OPA offices. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Watch the columns of this, your hometown paper, for complete details. These will be published as soon as they are released.) One member of each family may register for the entire household for ration book two. Book No. 1 must OTHER RATION DATES Feb. 20 Expiration date for Period Pe-riod 3 fuel-oil coupons which became valid Dec. 23. Feb. 28 Final date for first Inspection In-spection of tires for "B" or "C" passenger car card holders and for commercial vehicles. March 13 Period S fuel-oil coupons, cou-pons, good to Sept. 30, become valid. March IS Last valid date for No. 11 sugar coupons, good for three pounds. March 31 Final date for first Inspection In-spection of passenger car tires for "A" card holders and motorcycles. mo-torcycles. April 12 Expiration date for Period Pe-riod 4 fuel-oil coupons. be presented at the time of. regiss-tration regiss-tration and "excess" canned goods on ha d as of February 21 must1 be declaj ed. OPA has previously ruled that ach member of the household ma have five cans of eight ounces or larger on hand at the time of registration regis-tration and still escape having coupons cou-pons removed from the new book. STRANGE QUESTION: From the Nazis , "Where is the place you surrender?" surren-der?" This was a strange question indeed in-deed for the once-proud Nazi soldiers sol-diers before Stalingrad to be asking the Russians, but it was what the Reds reported their enemies were asking as they continued to flock in victims of the relentless Soviet drive to free the once-besieged Volga Vol-ga city. Dispatches described the condition condi-tion of the Nazis as "cold, unshaven, unshav-en, and distraught." But the citizens citi-zens of Stalingrad wasted little pity on their captives. Too well they remembered the long days and nights that the Nazis pounded and ruined their city with bombs and shells. In a single day 16 generals and a field marshal (Frederich Paulus, chief Nazi army official in the area) were surrendered along with hundreds hun-dreds of other smaller fry. Even the German radio admitted that these losses at Stalingrad were among the most serious of the entire en-tire war. Elsewhere the Russians continued to gain ground or at least hold their recent gains. In the Leningrad sector sec-tor the "escape corridor" before the city was widened and in the Caucasus Cauca-sus the drive for Rostov strengthened strength-ened as new thrusts on the middle sector headed fresh for Kursk and Kharkov. WAR NEAR CLIMAX: Says Finn President In a statement slanted for the United Nations, President Risto Ryti told his Finnish parliament that "the war is approaching a culmination point," and expressed hope that "the Allies will understand Finland's position," posi-tion," dispatches from Helsinki reported. re-ported. The dispatches said that Ryti did not mention Germany, Finland's ally in the war against Russia. PACIFIC TOUR: And Jap Bombs Returning from a 20,000-mile trip to the Pacific front during which time he was twice under Japanese air attack. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox told United States newsmen news-men that "I think there are darn good prospects of an air attack on Tokyo." Knox was accompanied by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander command-er in chief of the Pacific fleet, and Adm. William F. Halsey Jr., com- mander in the South Pacific. I THE LEHI SUN, LEIH. UTAH Newspaper Union. SOLOMONS: Japs Try Again The importance of the Solomon Islands in Japan's scheme for an expanded empire was forcibly demonstrated dem-onstrated again when the navy announced an-nounced another major Jap effort to retake the islands. Even the earliest communiques announced that American forces engaged en-gaged the enemy in what may be ill 3 A U. S. marine looks over a hand ful of bones ail that is left of a Japanese warrior to whom fate bad given a one-way ticket to Guadal canal. The new Jap drive on that area indicates Its importance to the enemy's grand strategy. the greatest air-sea battle of the Pacific Pa-cific to date. Exaggerated Japanese claims of United States losses were spiked early by a navy spokesman, Who added that "increased activity on the part of the Japanese indicates a major ma-jor effort to regain control of the entire Solomons area." One communique, making no reference ref-erence to the Jap assault said an American destroyer had shelled a number of barges at enemy-held Cape Esperance, on the northern tip of Guadalcanal Those barges might have been used in new landings or in coastal troop movements by a desperate enemy. -"A week before the outbreak of the battle Navy Secretary Frank Knox described the American hold on Guadalcanal : as secure, predicting that the remnants of organized Jap resistance would be wiped out in 30 days. The United Nations were hopeful but not all were convinced. PAY-AS-YOU-GO: Treasury Style Flatly opposing the Ruml plan to skip payment of last year's income tax, the U. S. treasury department has nevertheless come out in favor of the enactment of a pay-as-you-go withholding tax set-up. As present ed to the house ways and means committee by Randolph E. PauL treasury general counsel, this plan would provide for the withholding of 19 per cent of pay checks (after deductions). This would be in addi- Tentative Exemption Schedule If the treasury 19 per cent withholding with-holding tax plan Is carried ont some schedule of deductions to allow al-low for dependency, etc., would have to be set op to simplify computation com-putation of the tax. Here is a tentative ten-tative weekly exemption schedule which has been suggested: Single Person .............$11.00 Married Person .......... 26.00 Additional Dependent .. 8.00 The Victory tax of 5 per cent would also still have to be paid. Deductions for this are a non-dependency non-dependency basis, allowing a flat ?12 per week exemption. tion to the 5 per cent victory tax, already in effect Stressing the need of prompt action ac-tion by congress, Paul said that the 19 per cent withholding tax would be equivalent to the 1942 6 per cent normal tax and 13 per cent surtax on the first bracket, and would simplify sim-plify collection and unnecessary refunds. re-funds. By the "first bracket" he meant the first $2,000 of taxable income in-come after deductions. It was indicated that while the treasury did not believe last year's income taxes should be "forgiven" if the new plan is put into effect, the government would admit that these taxM should be deferred and paid up gradually rather than doubling dou-bling up this year. WAR BOND SALES: Hit New High Last month, the treasury has announced, an-nounced, war bond sales totaled $1,240,444,000 to set an all-time monthly record. Previous high month was January. 1942, when sales touched $1,060,546,000 in the first full month of bond sales after the beginning of the war. Total sales since the mtmrfi in May. 1941, amount to $12,934,611,-000. $12,934,611,-000. Of this amount, 98 per cent are still held by their purchasers. WW IP I WAR JOB OR DRAFT: Fathers Told Get a war job or be drafted! With that notice the selective serv-, Ice bureau lifted the ban on drafting deferments on Miners u) ow ----- . April 1 "regardless of dependents ... ! - .owtAH list of occupa-' lor weir in .....- tions and trades. The order, announced by war Manpower Commission Chairman. Paul V. McNutt. was the first movei to draft married men with children into the armed services. In Washington, McNutt told the house military affairs committee that "by the end of this year 10 out of every 14 of the able-bodied men between 18 and 38 will be In the armed services. Only the physically handicapped and those over 37 years of age in the jobs listed .in the order to local, draft boards will be deferrable after April 1. The jobs listed were for men engaged in 29 occupations or employed in 19 industries, eight wholesale and retail trades and nine service activities. Thousands of men affected will be given until May 1 to shift to an occupation occu-pation essential to the war effort-occupations effort-occupations previously listed by the WMC. The edict amounts to a " work-in-the-right-industry-or-fight " order, although McNutt declined to call it that The 30-day period of grace (between April 1 and May 1) given to those seeking transfers will apply only to those who have registered regis-tered with the U. S. Employment Service for war jobs. TURKEY: Renewed Pact The British-Turkish military alliance alli-ance of 1939 once again became a document of major importance as England's Winston Churchill and President Ismet Inonu of Turkey met near Adana to agree on "positive implementation" of the pact. The alliance called for active military mili-tary co-operation if the war moved to the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Mediter-ranean. Close observers, using more ordinary language, indicated that the success of the parley means Turkey's entrance into the war on the side of the United Nations. The fact that Turkey made public the details of the two-day meeting added significance signifi-cance to the occasion. As a neutral she could have insisted upon secrecy. y The Turkish communique referred to the fact that 'Churchill came to Turkey from his meeting with Mr. Roosevelt at Casablanca and "could speak freely" on the President's views. At the conclusion of the meeting, Churchill said: "It is clear that the ancient friendship friend-ship between Great Britain and Turkey Tur-key . . . has been revived." MISCELLANY: MILKING: As part of the program pro-gram to supply American farms with badly needed labor to assure record food production, federal authorities au-thorities and the University of Wisconsin Wis-consin are co-operating in training young men of 16 and 17 years of age for work on dairy farms. The youths are recruited from low producing farms by the federal employment service and the Farm Security administration ad-ministration and given a five-week education in modern dairy methods. COMPOSER: America took claim to a great artist recently when Sergei Rachmaninoff, famous musical composer com-poser and pianist, and his wife, Natalie, were naturalized citizens. The Rachmaninoffs have made their home in the United States since 1918, after departing from their native Russia. MINERS: Backed by 450,000 members, mem-bers, John L. Lewis will seek "substantial" "sub-stantial" pay raises for the United Mine Workers in the bituminous fields when negotiations get under way with operators in March. Although Al-though the government's policy in these matters has been established by the War Labor Board's formula for increasing wages at a rate equal to the rise in cost of livng since 1941, it is reported Lewis and the miners will seek a "$2 a day boost," This amount is in excess of the 15 per cent the board figures represents the per cent of increase in cost of living since 1941. SACRIFICE: Speaking before a throng of aircraft workers in California, Cali-fornia, Eddie Rickenbacker declared that no effort being made at home could begin to compare with the heroic sacrifices of American troops throughout the world. Rickenbacker has also stated that the American soldier returning from the front lines will be the most rugged of individuals individu-als and will not tolerate regimentation. regimenta-tion. STOPPAGES: Work stoppages in-creased in-creased by 301 in England last year to a total of 1,281, the labor ministry reported. LAST HOUR: "Victory wffl go to the side able to hold Kt UULLt longer than the enemy," Premier iuuisuum aeciarea in an address to Italian militia. QUALIFY: In -:.t. for French North Africa, High Commissioner Com-missioner Henri Honore Giraud will be guided by their administrative ability as well as their nnHtinoi . w yask Many competent men served in w-ujr, uiraua said, without representing repre-senting its ideas in th accepted sense. U 1 1 fSsl I TOUR OF DUTY: Aboard a navy patrol plane over the South Atlantio (delayed); Soma men are more fortunate than others. Some men are richer than many. Some men stay In love longer than most and most men never experience experi-ence the wallop that goes with being at the bow-gun of a Navy patrol plane (a PBY) a few feet over the submarine-infested South Atlantic. now even a veteran bombardier can keep his eyes open or focused on a target out there in the open bow with the fierce wind blinding and bayonneting him is something I do not savvy . . . The powerful gun kicks the way Joe Louis punches and shakes you violently the way Lew Fields shook Joe Weber . . , At any rate, there you are out there under the huge propellers several feet ahead of the pilot alone . . , Except for the hurricane-tempo'd wind and perhaps a Nazi sub hiding below. I was reminded of the time Senator Sena-tor Holman of Oregon and Senator Chandler of Kentucky flew to the Aleutians through heavy fog and storm most of the way. And picked up a soldier at some Alaskan base, who immediately took his battle station sta-tion and trained his gun on the skies. "Son," said Senator Holman, "whatcha fussin' with that there weapon fer that-a-way?" ... "I'm being ready," replied the gunner, "in case we meet some Jap planes" . . . The white-as-a-sheet Holman turned to the whiter-than-that Chandler and intoned: "Ain't it silly what some of us Senators will do to get into trouble when we don't have to?" My good break came from missing connections with the plane that was to take me to the next port on the tour . . . Had I made that plane I would have missed one of the biggest thrills of them all . . . That thrill was not my first flight in a PBY a huge and comfortable Catalina (one of which helped sink the Bismarck) ; or firing the bow-gun or circling low over oil specks that stained the beautiful beau-tiful aquamarine below . . . The big wallop came several hours later when we reached the base. I am not permitted to divulge the excitement I witnessed at this place. . , . The four paragraphs para-graphs about it were blue-penciled even before I had the chance to correct the spelling ... It was my first experience with an official gremlin, too . . , For the first time in 22 years of newspapering I realized how tame the toughest editors are. All I was trying to jot down was that some fellows were luckierv than other fellows . . . That some pilots had reasons for being happier than others and that the U. S. now has fewer enemies than it had. And so I cannot reveal at this time what all that excitement was about ... I cannot even elaborate that the excitement was enjoyed by a lot of very happy men, and that the reason they were so excited and happy was that certain other men, with dialects, were unhappy or dead. The PBY on which I hitch-hiked was manned by the most youthful fellows I encountered down there . . . Most were only 21. Some were 23 or 25, and some were a little more seasoned . . . But all featured beards that must have been months in blooming ... All the other fliers I met at various places were cleanshaven clean-shaven ... "Why the whiskers?" I asked. "They haven't been as lucky as other chaps," explained an officer, "and so they agreed not to shave until they got a sub." I kept wishing that on this routine flight I would not prove a jinx to them and that they could get a shave. At the Admiral's morning conference confer-ence I was shown a dispatch that told of a merchant ship sunk the night before, and that a- PBY patrolling patrol-ling the area had radio'd seeing two lifeboats with survivors . . . But when he returned to the scene later he saw only one . . . We were instructed in-structed to keep our eyes open for those survivors ... That saving them would be even better than sinking an enemy sub . . . But there was no trace of them ... I never learned whether they had been rescued or not ... I kept thinking of them throughout the flight knowing know-ing that brave men somewhere were suffering not only from the suffocating suffo-cating humidity and heat but from the blinding sun. The Atlantio seemed as tame as any Florida lake ... I was instructed instruct-ed to occupy one of the co-pilot' pews handed a helmet containing earphones and some dark specs . . . I just sat there wishing hard that they'd get lucky . . . Now and then the Captain brought the plane down to a few feet over the water to circle over oil specks . . . They are really huge gobs of scum from tankers tank-ers and ships, they said ... Sometimes Some-times it might be from an ill-fated merchantman, but I heard this U not always the case. ? t I I mm ' h take "lack hardurj n 'c sta n. bersTs;.Mtii' stains repeat i" ' A too..... 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Immortal Youth There is a feeling of Etercitj' youth which makes amends as one of the Immortals.- iraosSTUFnrWS When a cold its J-j Mentholatua Election.. 1T1 thick mucus; 2) Soothe m LmbranesiSjHelp len passages; 1) 8a "J quiet, vtieam w Warn of ..LU-knrfT tion thoiJ tS.ib 1 9 lxralr tab ?5irti2 |