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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Battle of Egypt Gains New Momentum As British, U. S. Planes Blast Rommel; Jap War Minister Given New Power; Total Farm Crop Reaches Record High (FDITOIt'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I Released by Western Newspaper Union. - I v AlASKA j SOVIET RUS (f cut" " A n CHINA "..: I f I g :Bonn is. (rfHiDWAVli ; i0- " n 6 ""' WiZX A Urn,! 4 pn ,. W65aV , . ,- 0 (JlJllwUJ"tA ftp , PUTciSEA.TOIEMV ' CD . .. em'' (( AUSTRALIA Japan's great pincer movement, which was aimed at Hawaii, appeared ap-peared to be effective until the United States marines took Jap bases in the Solomons, thus breaking the lower prong. This failure has been emphasized em-phasized further by Japanese defeats in Milne bay, on the tip of New Guinea. DESERT WAR: With Tanks, Planes As British and German tanks continued con-tinued their bitter struggle on a 20-mile 20-mile desert front in Egypt, American Amer-ican bombers joined the Royal Air force in carrying out almost continuous continu-ous operations against Nazi concentrations. concen-trations. Reinforced and rested after a two months' halt, Marshal Erwin Rommel's Rom-mel's army started its advance in the rolling, rocky area between the Ruweisat ridge in the center and Himeimat peak, on the southern wing near the Qattara depression. Rommel's major effort was at the southern hinge of the British line, where troops were taking the brunt of the attack. War bulletins issued jointly by the headquarters and the RAF, said U. S. army air force planes participated in extensive operations op-erations over the entire area where the Nazis were trying to smash toward Alexandria, the Nile and the Suez canal. Dispatches from the front noted not-ed that the moon was favorable for night fighting and that the weather was much cooler than the 100 degree de-gree temperature during the early summer. TOGO TOTOJO: Fourth Portfolio When Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo resigned his position for "personal reasons," the Japanese Japa-nese cabinet virtually eliminated the one strong man regarded as being opposed to hostilities against Russia. Rus-sia. Togo negotiated the Moscow-Tokyo Moscow-Tokyo neutrality pact. Togo's post was taken over by Gen. Eiki Tojo, who now holds four portfolios in the cabinet premier, war minister, minister of home affairs af-fairs and foreign minister. The "strong man" of Japan, Tojo was a Premier Tojo Minister Togo staunch advocate of the Axis pact and of Japan's "new order" in the Orient. His present four posts concentrate con-centrate in one man almost absolute abso-lute powers over his people. Anticipating close scrutiny by official of-ficial Russian sources, Tojo declared that his assumption of the foreign ministry "will not result in any way in an alteration of Japan's foreign policy." However, Togo's resignation, resigna-tion, plus Tojo's decision to take over the foreign portfolio, was widely wide-ly interpreted as presaging a sneak attack on Russia. Information reaching Chunking said that 100,000 Japanese troops totaling five divisionshad divi-sionshad been sent north from the China theater of war. Supporting this theory, Lieut. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell. United States commander in chief in India. China and Burma, announced that there is a "good chance" the Japs would attack Siberia. HOT SPOT: In South Pacific Frustrated by hard-hitting United Nations forces at Milne bay, the Jap busied himself by pounding away elsewhere on the island of New Guinea, vital stepping stone to Australia. Aus-tralia. Port Moresby via Kokoda was the Jap objective. Though the tempo of the fighting had increased there were strong indications in-dications that the trap set by General Gen-eral MacArthur's forces at Milne bay had effected huge losses on the enemy's air power. Particularly was the Jap fighter plane force smashed. At least 30 of the Zero fighters had been destroyed in the Milne bay encounter and while the Japs could ferry additional planes through a chain of islands it appeared ap-peared that the United Nations had won the first round in the struggle. Communiques lacked reports of Zero bombing and strafing expeditions expedi-tions but the United Nations were not assuming that Japan's air power had been permanently disabled. NAZIS GAIN: In Caucasus Gloomy news came from the Russian Rus-sian front as the unexpected Red offensive northwest of Moscow failed for the most part in bringing relief to beleaguered Stalingrad. Despite Soviet counterattacks on the Moscow-Rzhev front, the Nazis still were able to pour large scale reserves of troops, tanks and aircraft air-craft into the advance on Stalingrad. Hungarian and Rumanian divisions joined the assault on the vital Volga river city. German troops had reached a zone in the Caucasus northwest of Novo-rossisk, Novo-rossisk, Soviet Black sea naval base, a Russian communique acknowledged. acknowl-edged. The Red army had withstood a constant hammering northwest of Stalingrad and had delivered strong blows against the enemy's flank. South of Krasnodar, in the Caucasus, Cauca-sus, the Russians said their troops were annihilating a trapped enemy. NATION'S CROPS: Reach Record High The greatest supply of food in history his-tory will come from the nation's farms this year. Department of agriculture ag-riculture reports indicate that crops are the greatest on record for this time of year. America is producing the biggest corn crop in 10 years, the largest wheat crop since 1915 and the greatest great-est oat crop since 1925. Corn crop estimates place the total at 2,753,-696,000 2,753,-696,000 bushels as compared with 2,673,000,000 bushels in 1941. Oats are expected to reach 1,332,000,000 bushels as compared with 1,176,-000,000 1,176,-000,000 last year. The department estimates wheat production at 955,-000,000 955,-000,000 bushels as compared with 946,000,000 bushels in 1941. Sugar cane production is estimated estimat-ed at 7,379,000 tons; sugar beet production, pro-duction, 12.967,000 tons; cottonseed, 5,800,000 tons; flaxseed, 42,000,000 bushels; soy beans. 186,000.000 bushels; bush-els; peanuts, 2.800.000,000 pounds; barley, 417,000,000 bushels; rye, 60,-000,000 60,-000,000 bushels; rice, 74,000,000 bushels. WHERE'S OUR NAVY?: Secretary Knox Reports In his first press conference in almost al-most five months Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox came up with some information on activities in the U. S. navy. He pointed out that all officers over 57 years of age were being subjected sub-jected to a rigid physical examination examina-tion as part of the navy's effort to weed out all officers except those in perfect condition. While he doesn't believe the submarine sub-marine menace off the Atlantic coast to be solved he did say that he believed the decline in sinkings could partly be credited to the fact that "we've made it tough for them." U-boats, he said, have shifted shift-ed their activity to other sectors. Other naval developments of interest in-terest revealed at the conference were (1) the ship-building program is ahead of schedule in all categories; catego-ries; (2) naval air officers will be promoted faster than others to "completely answer" criticism that the air arm of the navy has not been getting a good break in important im-portant high command decisions; (3) the attack on the Solomons was the "largest amphibious operation we ever undertook" and was successful suc-cessful in obtaining all immediate objectives; (4) in the Aleutian islands, is-lands, the record "speaks for itself." (Here Secretary Knox was no doubt referring to the record of 19 enemy ships sunk or damaged since the Japs seized the westernmost tip of the island chain.) MEXICAN WAR CHIEF: Cardenas Gets Job Mexico's increased participation in the war effort was emphasized when President Manuel Avila Ca-macho Ca-macho appointed his predecessor in the presidency. Gen. Lazaro Cardenas, Car-denas, as minister of national defense. de-fense. The appointment of Cardenas, who succeeds Gen. Pablo Valenzue-la, Valenzue-la, was looked upon as the initial move toward expansion of the army, navy and air force. Early reports predicted that the navy as well as the army and air force, would be , - j"f" ' i I : 1 I" t ' , , v ft k i V ft k yl I $ igf i " s ! M I f- v, , 'sjp GEN. LAZARO CARDENAS Minister 0 National Defense. put under the defense ministry, thus making him second in command. In his annual message to congress, con-gress, President Camacho declared that Mexico is in the war until "a peace worthy of our living it" has been achieved. He added that Mexico Mex-ico will not make a separate armistice armis-tice or peace. DRAFT: 4 Puzzle Selective Service Director Bri6. Gen. Lewis Hershey had informed state draft officials to regulate quotas to individual boards so that married men would not be drafted in one locality before those in another. an-other. Then came the next problem: prob-lem: When would married men be called? When would it be necessary to take youths of 18 and 19 years of age into the army? Efforts were being made to force a congressional vote on the latter issue before the November elections elec-tions but most observers thought this unlikely. That such a vote would come soon after these elections elec-tions appeared certain however. Chariman Andrew Jackson May (Dem., Ky.) of the house military affairs committee declared that when and if married men with children chil-dren are called the war would be about 18 months older, or they might not be taken at all. He released figures which he said were furnished by the national selective service headquarters indicating a nine million mil-lion man pool available in advance of drafting registrants with dependent depend-ent wives and children. FUEL OIL: To Be Rationed Fears of midwest petroleum distributors dis-tributors were realized when Donald Don-ald M. Nelson, chairman of the War Production board, confirmed reports that fuel oil will be rationed and that rationing may be imposed upon some midwestern states as well as the East. Rationing would be extended to the Midwest in order to make additional addi-tional railroad tank cars available to supply the eastern market. At his press conference President Roosevelt mentioned 25 per cent as the likely amount of curtailment in some areas. Those areas were not specified. Initial reports indicated that a basic ba-sic ration would permit heating to an average temperature of approximately approxi-mately 63 degrees, with additional rations to be issued on the basis of need. Full details of the plan will be ironed out by V.'PB offici |
