| Show Soldier Newspapers Are Important Factors In Keeping Up Morale of Our Fighting Men w rust eU pee CRa R G flew Jn-ateS Jn jr HEAVY TANK PRODUCTION r no 14 wOo R-A R s sW Rw A W WW M b 4 M W D W M MCA MCA- W el w M 4 b I J S yam M wow Nr 1 U Of Dal Dalk k pitmen wale nS Y Y 5 s ARMY f y 1 w COAST RD o om LAHa Ha ono LA SK 1911 No J s By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Released by br Western Newspaper Union THERES THERE'S T HERES HERE'S an old story saying that 11 two men meet any any- anywhere anywhere where ill m the world and one of them IS an EnglIshman the chances are hell 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 soldIers do IS to start theIr own newspaper This seems to apply to the fighting fronts as well for soon after the Amen Ameri- American can forces ill m SIcIly had captured the town of Vittoria a one page page sheet called the Doughboy News made Its As a matter of fact the I News IS a transplanted sol sol- soldIer soldier dIer newspaper It IS pub fished by and for the men of the dIvIsIon of the United States Seventh army and It was started whIle the was wasill ill in at Pine camp near Carthage NY N Y where the paper was m the shop of the Carthage RepublIcan TrIbune a weekly Its edItor IS Don Robinson former lya a reporter on the Oklahoma CIty Okla Dally Daily TImes The Doughboy News however is isI I only one of more than 1 1000 such pub 80 8 O camp newspapers In InthIS inthis thIS country 72 navy papers and servIce papers abroad The num number her ber of these papers reflect two things 1 The fact that AmerIcans are the greatest newspaper reading peo- peo people people in the world so v hen an Amer Amerlean scan lean marches away to war a news newspaper newspaper paper seems to be an essential part of hIs eqUIpment 2 Although the home town news newspaper newspaper paper Is one of the most welcome p eves of mall mail that a soldIer sa for lor or marine receIves even th s Isn t enough for these news nes hungry Amer scans They want to read ne w vs of their own outfits their own active ties and have the thrill of seeing theIr own names In print Hence the servIce newspaper These servIce newspapers have every imag variety of format SIze and frequency of issue There are dailies semi weeklies and week lies weeklies Most of them are printed but many of them Issued where print tag ing es are not available are mimeographed But they all have one th ng In they common are pis manly for the enl end sted man and pro produced by enlisted men ng among these bons are two which are on onal onal al m in theIr Yank Scope and the Stars and Str pes When Yank was establIshed last year It was as Intended to be a newspaper for men in the armed forces overseas soldiers overseas soldiers sailors marines marmes members of the coast gu gl and ard and the merchant ma marme manine nine However SIX sic weeks after it started It was buted to men In the Inthe camps at home as well as those overseas tow how it has eight edItions two in New York one for the United States the other for general overseas on a Brit sh edi tion edition in London a Caribbean ed t on in Puerto RIco and others in Trani dad Australia and Ha Other ed tons t ens are planned for Panama Alaska and the PersIan Gulf GuU Corn Com Command mand the reason for all these edi editions being to speed up d ton On April 18 1942 a new versIOn of the Stars and Stripes famous sol soldier dier newspaper of World War I Imade Imade made its appearance In London Un Unlike Unlike like Yank which began publication later the Stars and StrIpes was not notto notto to be for the whole army but for the in the British Isles It started as a weekly but m in November In response to a demand from its sol deer readers who wanted more news from home than they were gett ng ngin ngin in the Eng Engl sh newspapers It be began began gan publishing dally daily S nce that tune time it has gIven birth to several lusty offspring m in Africa Soon aft after after er the great invasion of November 1942 the Stars and Stripes was hauled up on an ed tonal masthead m in Alg ers and began public at on as asa asa a weekly Later It began issuing a adaily dally daily edit on as wen well as a weekly and da ly Jy edItIons are also issued In Oran Casablanca and other AfrIcan cit es esThe The AfrIcan edItIon of the Stars and Stripes is cal of the Amer scan sold er newspaper breezy and Informal m in the tyle of Its writing reflecting the humor WIthout which democracy would d e Lille most servIce newspapers It prints much soldIer verse and one of its poems promIses to become immortal In one of the early Issues appeared an line eIght poem by Private WIlliam WIlliamL WilliamL L Russell under the title of Tune From Tunis Tums whIch told about Duty Dirty Genie Gertie From Tune from Tunis was reprint ed ad In Yank where Paul Red Relf corn com a 5 Fd FIGHT a r ai Nn r w- w wr wt r t a I Ir r AaiON b ar M M wY- wY poser of The Isle of Capri saw it wrote some add verses and set It to musIc Since that t me other sold ers have added verses of their own most of which can NOT be printed and now It seems likely that D Gertie From B w U Ii be the World War jr II counterpart of MademOIselle From 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 sa lors and contractors workmen stationed at Fort Greely and the naval aIr sta stat t on on KodIak island In the Gulf of o f Alaska It started the same week that Pearl Harbor was bombed and andone andone one of its most famous poems was called Valentine Verses to a Geisha GIrl which was an bon tion to toG G Geisha sha Girl of far Japan Get aboard an old sampan Paddle to some Isle Kodiak to be specific The poem v tent ent on to assure the geIsha gIrl of the warmth of the welcome await rig ng her but ended WIth thIs abrupt warning Come straIght to us my Lotus Flo FIo yen ver Come to our bear infested bower Bring your s brothers too Bring your whole damn fleet of two girl subs But he be ready for one 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 predict on The Weather Belly cold Courtesy Weather Bureau Burean It Is such things as these bits of humor tYPIcal AmerIcan gags wisecracks jokes at the expense of themselves as well ell as theIr of both commIssIoned and non corns especIally the latter 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 We life M 11 of testify to the fact that there Js Is nothing like these newspapers to boost the morale of our men lD in the armed forces maintain hIs interest in the job before hIm So whether he s stationed m In Alaska Iceland Trinidad Australia or Iran he looks forward each publication day to the arrival of HIS newspaper And as the AfrIcan and S cilian I campaigns have demonstrated he sees to It that his newspaper goes rIght along WIth him to the firing line Ime The Doughboy News pub publIshed m in Vittoria SIcily may be the publIshed latest example of such a paper pub lashed deep in what was recently enemy tern territory tory but it s certain it woo won t th h s 's the last The other day a staff sergeant who is the managing editor of one ot of the dally daily editions of the Stars and StrIpeS in Africa wrote back to his edItor father m in the States I m waiting for the day when we publish either a Rome Dally Daily or a Berlin aBerlin Dally Daily Some fun hey I 1 |
