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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS By Edward C. Wayne Jap Successes in Java Sea Battle Credited to Numerical Superiority; Coastwise Shipping Losses Offset By Stepped-Up Shipyard Production EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.! (Released by Western Newspaper Union.! OFFENSIVE: British Bomb Vital Nazi Centers Britain, more or less held back from bombings over Europe during the winter season of bad weather and worse visibility, had started an all-out and continuous bombing ol German towns and industrial centers, cen-ters, also of vital ports in northwest Germany. From various sources close to London came word that this was a definite part of the British "spring offensive," and that the attacks would become more powerful and continuous as the weather improved. Extremely large forces of British bombers were being used, it had been reported, especially the Hali-faxes, Hali-faxes, Stirlings and Lancasters, the latter a new and highly regarded bomber. Not so much mention was being made of the use of American "fortress "fort-ress bombers," and apparently England Eng-land had her own plane production in better shape now, or perhaps since our entry into the war was not getting so many flying fortresses. At all events the British airmen were getting in tremendous licks by day as well as by night, and the Germans, beginning to feel the pinch of heavy bombings with little or no return on their part, had begun to send fighter squadrons over the channel to attempt to break it all up. The first day these had appeared the British said eight Messer-schmitts Messer-schmitts had been shot down. "None of our planes were lost." The Germans broadcast "Eight British fighters were shot down over the channel no German planes lost." It was considered odd, however, that the German radio which turned fighter losses upside down rarely claimed as many bombers shot down as the British were willing to admit having lost. Some believed the Nazis were trying try-ing to minimize the number of bombers Britain was using in the raids by this means. Seagoing home for President Roosevelt was the 10,000-ton cruiser Houston, sunk in the battle of Java. During the last eight years the Chief Executive traveled almost 25,000 miles aboard the Houston, which was commissioned in 1930. The Houston was one of two ships lost by the V. S. in what was termed the "fiercest and bloodiest ever known." The United Nations lost a total of 13 ships. DISASTER: Battle of Java The world had known that there had been a naval battle off Java just before the Japanese moved in with their full might at three points on land, but until the announcement was made that the Allied fleet had been "overwhelmed by ' superior numbers" it had not been known what the losses had been. This, at long last, had been given to the press in a more or less detailed de-tailed summary which showed that the United Nations lost 13 ships, not apparently counting any submarines that might be missing. - The United States lost two, the 10,000-ton sleek cruiser Houston, favorite fa-vorite of President Roosevelt himself, him-self, who had gone to Hawaii in her in 1934, and frequently had been aboard her; and the World war type "four-stacker" destroyer Pope, 1,190 tons, both presumably lost with all hands, though there was some hope that some survivors may have reached shore somewhere. The British were the heaviest losers, having six vessels listed as lost including the famous cruiser Exeter, small but valorous, 3,390 tons, which had taken part in the victorious attack on the German Graf Spee off Uruguay. The other five lost by the British were all destroyers. The Dutch lost their flagship and chief cruiser, the DeRuyter, presumably pre-sumably lost with all hands, for she was hit by a torpedo and sank in a few minutes at night on the first day, at the height of the battle. They also lost a destroyer. The Australians lost two vessels, the cruiser Perth and the Yarda, a sloop, both missing and presumably lost. The Japanese, according to the same report, lost eight vessels, but all details as to any actual sinkings were unobtainable, probably due to the unfavorable outcome of the battle. Included among the eight were two cruisers, one of the 10,000-ton class. AUSSIES: Getting Help The same rigid censorship which had kept an official record of the Java sea battle from getting to the British and American public until two weeks after it occurred and nearly that time after the Japanese had announced the loss, for instance, of the Houston and other vessels, had given the country only the The appointment of Gen. Douglas Doug-las MacArthur as supreme commander com-mander of all United Nations' forces in Australia gave truth to the many rumors which had cropped up in the past month. MacArthur transferred his headquarters head-quarters from the Philippines to Australia upon orders from President Presi-dent Roosevelt. He was given his new post at the request of the Australian government. His promotion pro-motion had long been expected as the result of his courageous stand on the Bataan peninsula. sketchiest picture of what aid we were sending to Australia to help the Aussies get ready for their defense de-fense against the Japs. First hint that troops had arrived there had come from Yates McDan-iel, McDan-iel, who had slipped into a "color" story a report that Perth was literally literal-ly jammed with Americans in uniform. uni-form. ' ' Next had come the story of a London Daily Mail correspondent who added giant figures to the tale by picturing a convoy almost without with-out end, on the way to Australia and already attacked by Japanese naval "spearheads." ,".,. Finally, a Chicago Sun correspondent correspond-ent sent in a copyrighted story which said that "thousands pf American Amer-ican troops" had arrived safely in Australia, but that he could not say where they were being debarked, de-barked, i ATLANTIC: BYRD: A 'Field Day' Senator Byrd of Virginia was having hav-ing a "field day" at the expense of the Office of Civilian Defense, or the OCD in the Washington alphabet. Almost daily the senator was uncovering un-covering things which he waspass-ing waspass-ing on to the public through news releases.' re-leases.' Among the latest had been his expose of unpaid physical fitness activities ac-tivities of OCD, with particular emphasis em-phasis on the "bowl your way to physical condition" campaign started start-ed by Bowling Co-ordinator Willem. This leader, said Senator Byrd, turned out to be an executive of an advertising firm handling the ac- l" f ' v : ' I A study ol the British and American Amer-ican naval communiques seemed to show that the most telling blows were struck, not so much by the gunnery of the Japs, as by their submarines and speedy destroyers. The Exeter had one of her boilers blown up by a shell, which cut her speed 50 per cent, but she still escaped es-caped from the battle and was apparently ap-parently sunk seeking to escape from Java to Australia. The same was the fate of the Houston and the Pope. SLOWDOWN: On Car Speed In a country stressing speed, speed, speed in war production, President Roosevelt had gone to the governors of the 48 states with a request for a slowdown in one thing, the speed limits of the nation's highways. He had recommended 40 miles per hour as a top, as a means of conservation con-servation of the present supply of tires for the motoring public. The President had said: "I would greatly appreciate your co-operation in an effort to achieve this objective throughout the country." coun-try." Most governors rushed to comply, and many issued immediate orders to their state police officers to see that speed limits were cut down. Toll Groiving Though our navy, co-operating with the British, was keeping supply 1 lines between Britain and the United ; States open, coastwise shipping had continued to yield a terrific toll The loss ot American flag ships alone had passed the half-hundred mark, and the lives taken were assuming as-suming important figures. Shipping insurance rates were hiked again. There was no disposition to admit Hitler's claims that 151 ships of a total of 1,029,000 tons had been sunk in the first two months of the war in the Atlantic alone, but the total was large and was constantly mounting. mount-ing. The loss of 50 American ships in two months was an average of about tia ship a day, and with one shipyard in the East launching two large vessels ves-sels weekly, this was not necessarily a fatal loss, but other countries' losses were not being reproduced as successfully as our own. Despite the losses of U. S. ships, it was pointed out that if the present rate was not increased, or even lessened, it would not be long before be-fore our merchant marine was tremendously tre-mendously greater. But if Hitler's figure of half a million tons a month were true, then the picture was less rosy, at least until we reach our goal of 8,000,000 tons a year. SENATOR HARRY F. BYRD Focused attention on co-ordinalors. count of a nationally known concern which, the senator added, "has a virtual monopoly on the making of bowling alleys and equipment therefor." there-for." Of a piece with this, he said, was the naming of Bernarr Macfadden, the publisher of Physical Culture magazine, as "walking and hiking co-ordinator." Jack B. Kelly, physical fitness director di-rector of the OCD, termed Byrd's attack at-tack on the coordinators, who serve without pay, a "classic example of boondoggling in congress instead of focusing attention on what's happening happen-ing in the South Pacific and in Europe." Eu-rope." ROUND-UP: Official weather springtime starts in late March, but wartime spring was to start, according to a roundup of AP correspondents in leading war centers "when the ground dries up in Russia" or in mid-April or early May. What that time would bring was a puzzle to most military-minded correspondents, but they agreed it would be "offensive time" and would bring battles on such a scale as to make the present wartime reports re-ports seem like child's play. Most unanimity centered about one probability, that the Japs and Germans would try a concentrated offensive in harmnnv n"th ul cai.il UL11- er. Some were inclined to think that the Japs, after gaining control of northeastern Australia and establishing estab-lishing a "front" there would turn their main attack through lightly defended de-fended India and attempt to join the Germans at the Persian gulf Others thought this plan too ami bitious and saw the Japs stopping with Bengal and China cut off from Allied aid, and then turning into Siberia. In this way the Japs would pre-vent pre-vent Americans from taking over bases which would permit bomber flights over Japan; Vladivostok be-ing be-ing only two hours from Tokyo. Others believed that oil being the Japs' sole objective, and being now in their grasp, they would simply attempt to immobilize Australia and spend their time . redeveloping the "scorched" oilfields of the East In dies. Again there was a theory that oil being Germany's primary need the Nazis spring offensive would be aimed at Rostov and the Caucasus |
