OCR Text |
Show Soldier Newspapers Are Important Factors In Keeping Up Morale of Our FightingMen I 55 sa ? PRODUCTION i .-g- yrtTwVt lit W "-"TL"JLr By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Released by Western Newspaper Union. THERE'S an old story saying that if two men meet anywhere any-where in the world and one of them is an Englishman, the chances are he'll suggest they start a club. If that's true, then it's equally true that when any units of the American army, larger than a squad, arrives at a new post, be it on home or foreign soil, one of the first things the poser of "The Isle of Capri," saw it, wrote some additional verses and set it to music. Since that time other soldiers have added verses of their own (most of which can NOT be printed) and now it seems likely that "Dirty Gertie From Bizerte" soldiers do is to start their own newspaper! This seems to apply to the fighting fronts as well, for soon after the American Ameri-can forces in Sicily had captured the town of Vittoria, a one-page one-page sheet, called the Doughboy News, made its appearance. will be the World War II counterpart of "Mademoiselle From Armenti-eres" Armenti-eres" of World War I fame. Another soldier newspaper which has won considerable fame for its verse is the Kodiak Bear, published by and for the soldiers, sailors and contractors' workmen stationed at Fort Greely and the naval air station sta-tion on Kodiak island in the Gulf of Alaska. It started the same week that Pearl Harbor was bombed and one of its most famous poems was called "Valentine Verses to a Geisha Girl" which was an invitation invita-tion to Geisha Girl of far Japan Get aboard an old sampan; Paddle to some isle Pacific . . . Kodiak, to be specific. The poem went on to assure the geisha girl of the warmth of the welcome awaiting her, but ended with this abrupt warning: Come straight to us, my Lotus-Flower, Come to our bear-infested bower; Bring your sisters, brothers, too . . . Bring your whole damn fleet of two-girl two-girl subs, But be ready for one heluva battle when you get here I Although army regulations forbid giving out weather data, the Kodiak Bear has its own method of getting around that. For instance, there was this prediction: The Weather: Chungking: Belly cold. Courtesy KODK Weather Burean. It is such things as these bits of humor, typical American "gags," "wisecracks," jokes at the expense of themselves as well as their of- i -fleers, both commissioned and ' As a matter of fact, the News is a "transplanted" soldier sol-dier newspaper. It is published pub-lished by and for the men of the 45th division of the United States Seventh army and it was started while the 45th was in training at Pine camp near Carthage, N. Y., where the paper was printed in the shop of the Carthage Republican-Tribune, Republican-Tribune, a weekly. Its editor is Sgt. Don Robinson, formerly former-ly a reporter on the Oklahoma City (Okla.) Daily Times. The Doughboy News, however, is only one of more than 1,000 such publications pub-lications 820 camp newspapers in this country, 72 navy papers and 110 service papers abroad. The number num-ber of these papers refleo two things: 1. The fact that Americans are the greatest newspaper-reading people peo-ple in the world, so when an American Amer-ican marches away to war a newspaper news-paper seems to be an essential part of his "equipment." 2. Although the home town newspaper news-paper is one of the most welcome pieces of mail that a soldier, sailor or marine receives, even this isn't enough for these news-hungry Americans. Amer-icans. They want to read news of thpir own 'Vlltfl " thai num .;.,! i dad, Australia and Hawaii. Other editions are planned for Panama, Alaska and the Persian Gulf Command, Com-mand, the reason for all these editions edi-tions being to speed up distribution. distribu-tion. On April 18, 1942, a new version of the Stars and Stripes, famous soldier sol-dier newspaper of World War I, made its appearance in London. Unlike Un-like Yank, which began publication later, the Stars and Stripes was not to be for the whole army but for the AEF in the British Isles. It started as a weekly but in November, in response to a. demand from its soldier sol-dier readers who wanted more news from home than they were getting in the English newspapers, it began be-gan publishing daily. Since that time it has given birth to several lusty "offspring" in Africa. Soon after aft-er the great invasion of November, 1942, the Stars and Stripes was hauled up on an editorial masthead in Algiers and began publication as a weekly. Later it began issuing a daily edition as well as a weekly; and daily editions are also issued in Oran, Casablanca and other African cities. The African edition of the Stars and Stripes is typical of the American Amer-ican soldier newspaper breezy and Informal in the style of its writing, reflecting "the humor without which w vuim uiv, .ljijvc must service newspapers it prints much soldier verse and one of its poems promises to become immortal. In one of the early issues appeared an eight-line poem by Private William L. Russell under the title of "Tune From Tunis" which told about "Dirty Gertie From Bizerte." "Tune From Tunis" was reprinted reprint-ed in Yank where Paul Reif, com- ties and have the thrill of seeing their own names in print Hence, the service newspaper. These service newspapers have every imaginable variety of format, size and frequency of issue. There are dailies, semi-weeklies and weeklies. week-lies. Most of them are printed but any of them, issued where printing print-ing facilities are not available, are mimeographed. Dut they all have one thing in common they are primarily pri-marily for the enlisted man and produced pro-duced by enlisted men. Outstanding among these publications publica-tions are two which are international internation-al in their scope Yank and the Stars and Stripes. When Yank was established last year it was intended to be a newspaper for men in the armed forces overseas soldiers, sailors, marines, members of the coast guard and the merchant marine. ma-rine. However, six weeks after it started it was distributed to men in the camps at home as well as those overseas. Now it has eight editions two in New York (one for the United States, the other for general overseas distribution), a British edition edi-tion in London, a Caribbean edition in Puerto Rico, and others in Trini- liuu-tuma (especially the latter!) which help relieve the monotony and drudgery of the military routine and which make the service man's newspaper such an important part of his everyday life. Military officials of-ficials testify to the fact that there is nothing like these newspapers to boost the morale of our men in the armed forces, maintain his interest to the job before him. So whether he s stationed in Alaska, Iceland. Trinidad, Australia or Iran, he looks forward each publication day to the arrival of HIS newspaper. And as the African and Sicilian campaigns have demonstrated he ' sees to it that his newspaper goes right along with him to the firine : Lne The Doughboy News bshed m Vittoria, Sicily, may be the latest example of such a paper pub-Ushed pub-Ushed deep in what was p enemy territory" but if, certain thtt it wwn-t h the last The other day a staff sergeant who is &e managing editor of one of the daUy editions of the Stars and Stripe, in Africa wrote back to M 1 editor.father in the Stales I "I m waiting for the day when , 1 publish either a -Rome Da? t ! 'Berlin Daily.' Some fun. heV " FM:PYWEnGHT;j |