| Show soldier newspapers are important factors in keeping up morale of our fighting men mei G ulm pon IN ct N HEAVY TANK too vo VA x I 1 N arft i ft ut U t I 1 pol 1 vieve VV C r ARAA r Q A ceasr juard Q A 3 r LA sla AIA r by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released by western newspaper union an old saying that if two men meet anywhere in the world and one of them is an englishman the chances are hell suggest they start a club if true then its equally true that when any unit 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 american forces in sicily had captured the town of vittoria a one page sheet called the doughboy news made its appearance As a matter of fact the news is a transplanted soldier newspaper it is published by and for the men of the division of the united states seventh army and it was started while the was in training at pine camp near carthage N Y where the paper was printed in the shop of the carthage republican tribune a weekly its editor is mgt don robinson formerly a reporter on the oklahoma city okla daily times the doughboy news however is only one of more than 1000 such publications licati ons camp newspapers in this country 72 navy papers and service papers abroad the number of these papers reflect two things 1 the fact that americans are the greatest newspaper reading people in the world so when an amert lean marches away to war a newspaper seems to be an essential part of his equipment 2 although the home town newspaper is one of the most welcome pieces of mail that a soldier sailor or marine receives even this enough for these news hungry americans they want to read news of their own outfits their own activities 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 most of them are printed but many of them issued where printing facilities are not available are mimeographed but they all have one thing in common they are primarily for the enlisted man and produced by enlisted men outstanding among these public publications a are two which are international 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 How however evir 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 in london a caribbean edition in puerto rico and others in trini trin dad australia and hawaii other editions are planned for panama alaska and the persian gulf command man d the reason for all these editions being to speed up distribution on april 18 1942 a new version of the stars and stripes famous soldier newspaper of world war 1 I made its appearance in london unlike nu yank which began publication later the stars and stripes was not to be for the whole army but for the in the british isles it started as a weekly but in november in in response to a demand from its s soldier 01 readers who wanted more news from home than they were getting in the english newspapers it began publishing daily since that time it has given birth to several lusty offspring in africa soon after the great invasion of november 1942 the stars and stripes was hauled up on an editorial masthead in 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 soldier newspaper breezy and informal in the style of its writing reflecting the humor without which democracy would die like most service 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 Bizer bizette te tune from tunis was reprinted in yank where paul reif composer 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 N NOT OT be printed and now it seems likely that dirty gertie from Bizer te will be the world war II 11 counterpart of mademoiselle from armenti eres of world war I 1 fame 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 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 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 ol of two girl subs but be ready for one beauva battle when you get herel 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 belly cold courtesy weather bureau it is such things as these bits of humor typical american ga gags gs wisecracks wise cracks jokes at the expense of themselves as well as their officers both commissioned and non come coms especially the datterl lat terl which help relieve the monotony and drudgery of the military routine and which make the service mans newspaper such an important part of his everyday life military officials 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 in the job before him so whether hes 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 firing line the doughboy news published in vittoria sicily may be the latest example of such a paper published deep in what was recently 11 enemy territory but its certain that it wont be the last the other day a staff sergeant who is the managing editor of one of the daily editions of the stars and stripes in africa wrote back to his editor father in the states wel im waiting for the day when we publish either a rome daily or a berlin daily some tun fun heyl |
