Show weekly news analysis British rus Russ s invade iran in drive to foil alleged nazi coup by edwardl C C wayne EDITORS NOTE when opinions are r expressed in these columns they th ey ar rf those of the news analyst sail and not necessarily ol of this newspaper PRODUCE or else while president roosevelt struck out at critics who said that production was lagging quoting chapter and verse also war department figures to show senator byrd of virginia that he had been misinformed he also put the kearny keamy N J shipyard back into production by ordering the navy to b take over the plant secretary knox sent one of his admirals to take charge and history made when the army took over the north american aviation plant was repeated yet there was said to be a difference in this latest plant seizure in in that the navy would not plan to relinquish it to the private owners after putting it in operation but continue to operate it as a navy yard thus the eventuality oddly enough sought by men and employer as well in this instance was brought into being an eventuality which the state authorities of new jersey sought vainly and bitterly to prevent sixteen thousand workers were affected and the work on two cruisers one almost ready for launching six destroyers three tankers and two freighters was halted contracts adding up to and awarded by the navy and the maritime commission the union was the international union of marine and shipbuilding workers of the CIO IRAN and britain the british demand on iran that she expel all nazi agents from her borders and the iranian refusal to obey turned eyes again to the middle east and near east and showed that britain conquerors of syria with the aid of the free french realized the need of strengthening the position of her forces in that part of the world few doubted the ability of the british with the possible aid of the russians to take over little persia and present to the nazis coming down from the ukraine or wishing to a firmer front it also would extend the common frontier with turkey and allow ankara to have an excuse for maintaining a stronger pro british neutrality arans fears were realized when british troops under the command of gen archibald wavell crossed into southern iran and at the same time soviet russian forces moved into northern iran from the cauca sis there was resistance encountered according to the early reports from the fighting fronts london sources indicated that the movement into iran came to foil a nazi coup the move was seen as a direct action to the refusal of the iran to give a satisfactory reply to the british and russian request that germans be expelled from the country iran was powerless militarily though with an army technically measured at to halt a british invasion in similar force to that which moved in on well defended syria but she was in an important position geographically for britaina Brit ains middle eastern defense believed one of the next tactical moves of the war as the weather in northern russia was about to tighten into winter temperatures and snows TRIPOLI new objective the lengthening range of RAF bombers was bringing the harbor of tripoli chief mediterranean base lor for nazi fascist operations in north r 0 A f aj A V COLOGNE GERMANY this picture gives a dramatic view of a recent sensational daylight air raid by the british royal air force on a huge power station in the vicinity of cologne the bombers flew at a height of less than feet at times much of the smoke was caused by air raid missiles and many direct hits were scored the planes then swept lower still to get photographs like this africa more easily with within in reach and its bombings were intensified ports of the character of tripoli being rare in northern africa the latest of these bombings during which 25 tons of explosive were dropped were said to show that the british are putting into effect a plan they believe utterly necessary the preparation for the switching of a major nazi offensive to africa the harbor was reported badly damaged and it was the british plan to continue the attacks with full power until its use as a landing and supply base would be seriously impaired if not put out of commission altogether using american made maryland bombers the british stated that they were flying low with all 10 machine guns firing and raking the nazi and fascist transport columns when they were landing also that they were taking a heavy toll at sea JAPAN not so wide the statement by ambassador of japan in washington that the bridge between japanese and american policy was not so wide that it could not be spanned was viewed as perhaps a sign of the weakening of nippon it was recognized in both britain and the united states that the far eastern menace of japan was largely a war of nerves and a battle of bluff the indochina indo china move both these nations could laugh off as a good joke provided it did not develop into one of two things an invasion of thailand or a move against the burma road either of these eventualities it was understood could reasonably set fire to the powder magazine in the east yet japan made no such move only issuing statements which were more and more bitter now was saying after a 20 minute conference with secretary hull he outlined the position of your government I 1 outlined the position of mine no conclusions were reached 1 I believe the gap between the two can be bridged it would be folly to do otherwise I 1 have a very strong conviction that it will be done but I 1 dont just know how DEFENSE of leningrad the defense of leningrad which apparently was to be undertaken by the russians despite the belief of most observers that a military involvement vol of the city could only end in its total destruction drew the eyes of the world heralded by the dramatic announcements of soviet leaders preparing everyone for the imminence of battle there was only one way to read this situation and that was to understand that the russian army resistance si on the finnish front and against the pincers attack from latvia and the south was crumbling that the soldiers were fighting rear guard actions and falling back on the soviets second city and that the civilian population was being armed to fight it out such a battle had been fought only once before in recent world history and that was in warsaw and the pages of that battle were filled with stories of the glorious heroism of the defenders and of the ruthless destruction of the city and thousands of its inhabitants in the course of the battle the story was to be even more bitter and terrible in leningrad not only believed most observers because of its greater size and population but because of the tact fact that the german invaders undoubtedly were not so hot as they were before warsaw and the leningrad ers were better prepared it seemed that the army retreating toward leningrad was not like the ill fated polish army a rabble in a rout but an orderly group whose losses might have been heavy but which was moving backward slowly in fact as the northern forces under himself were fali talling back the russian told of encounters in the sk area although they had admitted the loss of the city days before and some thought this might mean that the reds were driving the nazis back in the center on the southern front the germans were consolidating their gains and the battle of odessa sort of a foretaste of the battle to be at leningrad was admitted by the germans to have been a hand to hand encounter of the bitterest sort it was interesting that the nazis were admitting casualties of more than men while the russians were claiming only germans had been lost the german admission was one of those left handed things as the in which it contained said that the russians had lost while the german losses were about one third of that amount UNREST growing in europe the picture of the growing unrest in nazi conquered europe continued to be sketched in with the reports ranging from the outbreaks in vichy and paris to the article written for the american mercury by otto strasser the black front leader who declared there was more than a possibility of revolution within germany during the coming winter dramatic was the broadcast picked up from england in french to the people of france in which the british urged the saboteurs sabot eurs and re to hold back their chief revolt until a signal from britain and then to come out in force against the nazis their cue at present the broadcast stated was to continue to harass the war machine in small secret ways not in open widespread revolt yet the report was that the revolts were continuing that petain had set up courts martial for saboteurs sabot eurs and that appos opposition elements were being arrested by the thousands by nazi soldiers and a corps of french police gen von paris commander having taken thousands of civilians into custody as hostages ordered that the prisoners be shot in in numbers to correspond with the gravity of any offenses against the nazi invaders detains Pet ains courts martial were invested with the right to give the death penalty and the order was that such sentences be carried out immediately and without appeal rights for the prisoner involved observers held that the severity of these measures was the true mark of the seriousness of the revolt the vichy courts were continuing to convict and sentence to death decaul lists although they were still at liberty and fighting on one front or another GASOLINE rations Rati ois most stations in ther the east were beginning to ration their gasoline customers in odd sorts of ways so that the driver who wanted gasoline badly enough could get it it if only at the rate of five gallons here and five more there but new york surveyors of the field reported that even the 7 p m to 7 a m curfew was working pretty well with key stations reporting a per cent reduction in sales the second method was also cutting sales though how much remained a mystery it was believed probable that the better method would be to enlist the operation cooperation co of the bigger users of gasoline such as the delivery truckers bus operators etc and also to force some political jobholders to stop using their state and city owned cars tor for pleasure driving KENT A junket the duke of kent the king of En glands younger brother having flown the atlantic atlantic having flown from coast to coast over canada inspecting spec ting war work and training in the dominion dropped drooped in on president roosevelt at hyde park then made a rapid trip over anao can defense defense centers his schedule brought him to new york hyde park norfolk va washington D C and baltimore md within a few days and he reported himself vastly impressed with what he saw in the latter city assembled and nearly ready for its test was a navy bomber so big that it made flying fortresses look like tugboats tug boats alongside an ocean liner just as a pursuit ship could nestle under the wing of a medium two motored bomber the latter could sail under the wing of this new monster of the air with a wingspread about a block long and an ability to fly when and aher whereat it pie pleased ased perhaps to fight its 4 successfully through a squad ro NY enemy fighters and come through still flying he also saw a jeep car with four wheel drive and four wheel steering which as a buck private told the duke could turn around on a dime and leave you a nickel change there was still talk that he and his older brother the duke of windsor might get together tor for a chat but this was still in the rumor realm while the duke was rushing through his american schedule LOST LEGION british in crete the british left more than men in crete most of them dead wounded or prisoners but reports filtering back from the island told a dramatic tale of a lost legion many of them native maoris laoris from the south seas who were lurking in eaves caves and other hiding places sallying forth by night to hunt germans and to forage for supplies it was a weird story telling how the sturdy cretan women were joining these men in their hideouts as nurses to the wounded and how the bolder spirits among the natives of crete were aiding the guerillas guerrillas gu erillas in their work of harassing the occupying nazis sentries were being killed in deadfall traps like animals and also being shot from ambush in typical ain indian than warfare style according to the report BRIEFS sty fort dix seven soldiers escaped their sentries in a guardhouse break from fort dix one of them was later found shot to death he was shot not by one of the sentries but by a policeman off duty san antonio texas an army recruit asked for his preference for service said hed like to join the parachutists surprised the ser gawat asked any experience A little the recruit allowed he had been a chute jumper with an aerial circus for four years philadelphia materials for defense purposes already hard to get were being lost in fires and disasters the fire in a 1000 lum her ber yard here was one wh which ch destra wale wa total loss the explosion and destra de tion of a nearby new jersey high octane gasoline refinery was another orange texas the navy launched a foot all welded steel boat built from stem to stern in six weeks the sturdy small ship is an experimental hull released by western newspaper union |