The Charlotte News

Tuesday, August 24, 1943

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: Costing the British their largest loss of aircraft in a single raid, 58 bombers were sacrificed in a 2,000-ton drop the previous night on Berlin. According to the front page, seven of the missing planes were manned by Canadians.

Estimates were that 5,000 airmen participated in the attack, suggesting around 700 planes. It may have been the largest single wave of four-engine aircraft of the war.

The raid was said to have been at least as effective as the multiple raids on Hamburg during the last week of July and the first week of August. Anti-aircraft fire and fighter resistance by the Germans was said to be relatively weak, however, compared to that of Hamburg.

In an effort to stave off further bombing of the capital, Rome was declared an open city by the Badoglio Government, with assurances that it had been demilitarized. Anti-aircraft batteries were ordered not to fire and all other military installations were ordered not to defend the city. Furthermore, all military transport of men and materiel through the city had ceased.

A communique from the American and British governments had reportedly been received by the Vatican agreeing in principle to the declaration.

Meanwhile, American Liberators and Mitchell bombers struck targets at Battipaglia on the west coast of Italy below Naples, and at Bari, directly opposite on the east coast. The RAF struck in a night raid at Bagnoll.

In Denmark, people were rioting in six cities, necessitating the call-up of Nazi reinforcements to try to restore order. Fully 40,000 soldiers were dispatched to Copenhagen to still disturbances aborning.

In Quebec, the conference ended between FDR, Churchill, the Canadian Prime Minister, MacKenzie King, and Chinese Foreign Minister, T. V. Soong. It was indicated that another conference would likely occur before the end of the year, in addition to one which would include a Soviet representative. Churchill implied to the press that the reason for Russia's exclusion from the Quebec Conference was that the war with Japan was a prime topic of discussion and Russia was not at war with Japan.

Four persons had been arrested by the FBI for espionage, the first charged under the tough new wartime espionage act which carried the death penalty.

In Germany, Heinrich Himmler's powers as chief of the Gestapo were substantially broadened as he was appointed Chief of the Reich Administration.

On New Guinea, infantry troops crossed the Francisco River to bring them within two miles of the Japanese airdrome at Salamaua. For the first time, Navy ships bombarded Japanese positions in the area.

In Russia, the Red Army pursued retreating German divisions after the fall to the Russians of Kharkov, torched and demolished to its bare walls by the Germans during their evacuation of the city. Poltava, southwest of Kharkov, an historic battlefield where Charles XII of Sweden met defeat at the hands of Peter I in 1709, was the next apparent objective for the Soviets.

And the map on the page, while nine months premature, accurately predicts the move across the Channel to the Normandy coast by the Allies as being the most expedient route to Germany.

On the editorial page, "On Two Fronts" presents an editorial from the Washington Star setting forth a supposed dream in which all of the generals for the Allies were at odds as to what was going on in the war and likewise, on the domestic front, everyone was equally confused about how much gasoline would be available. The President was reported to be upset by the editorial.

“The Retreaters” celebrates and contrasts the latest two victories by the Allies, at Kiska in the Aleutians, which fell without a fight, and at Kharkov, which fell only after heavy Russian losses. In both cases, the enemy had retreated and in that, had proclaimed no defeat, that they merely had backed up to previously fortified positions. The editorial indicates the ready acceptance of this enemy tactic.

"Casualties" indicates that Time had reported that since Pearl Harbor, there had been 16,913 Americans killed in the war while, during the same period, 22,500 war workers had been killed in traffic accidents stateside. This was so despite dramatically reduced traffic because of gas and tire rationing. The piece recommends stronger enforcement measures on the roads and highways of the country.

The editorial recalls to mind the Herblock cartoon of August 18, 1941, eerily dovetailing the number of increased deaths on the highway during the first six months of 1941 with the precise official statement of the number of deaths resulting from the attack on Pearl Harbor, three and a half months after the appearance of the cartoon.

Dorothy Thompson examines the recent warning of James Byrnes that, even with Italy out of the war, Germany would remain as strong in a defensive war as in an offensive war. While she reckons the statement as being appropriately diminishing of American over-optimism for quick victory, she disagrees with it on further analysis.

The Germans were now forced to disburse their forces over a vast area of Europe whereas in an offensive campaign, they could concentrate their forces in specific pockets, choosing the point at which the fight would be made. Now, the Allies chose the ground.

She asks in conclusion whether the new German mantra "strength through fear--as opposed to the old one, "strength through joy"--really could work for long. It was the only thing the Germans had left to try to maintain German fighting spirit, to try to instill fear that the Allies would destroy Germany as a nation if they won the war.

Samuel Grafton finds Hitler and the war to be the best recipe for final destruction of Germany, that nothing the Allies could muster after the war could possibly equal that which was being done to it daily with the continuance of the war.

He cites an opinion of a Russian general that Hitler had destroyed the German Wehrmacht, that the German fathers who fought in World War I were superior fighters to their sons of World War II. He finds therefore that demilitarization of Germany, by simple attrition, also was best accomplished by Hitler and the war.

Raymond Clapper writes of British Minister of Information Brendan Bracken, his power by way of the implicit support of Churchill and his personal infectiousness among the press and Parliament alike. His appreciation for poetry and collecting of old furniture was more important to him than his duties as a propagandist, thus taking the edge off his role as a bureaucrat. Unlike most such agency heads, he favored the immediate dissolution of all propaganda agencies and censorship offices at the close of the war.

Drew Pearson looks again at the greed of International Paper and its willing friends inside the Office of Price Administration in looking after its large corporate salaries and benefit payments in time of war.

He then turns to the luxurious suite at Washington's Statler Hotel, originally made up as a permanent apartment for Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones, but usually lying empty as Mr. Jones was barred from its use by a change in rules which made it mandatory that all guests be transient. Included in the $85 per night fare was a private lawn high above Washington and its own promenade walk.

Next, he reports that of the four primary theaters of operation for Allied fliers, China, the Pacific, North Africa, and Europe, the latter was by the far the most deadly. The strain of each mission was so high that when a mission was canceled, the men fell into a mood of depression and despair.

Finally, he examines the role of the paratroops in Sicily, that they were able successfully to divert German attention from the ground forces long enough to permit the infantry to land in strength by the next morning, while the Germans prepared to fight the paratroops.

“A Threat?” highlights two brief portions of the previous day’s letter to the editor from a local N.A.A.C.P. leader displeased with lack of sufficient black representation on the Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Planning Commission. The letter had predicted "growing conflicts, dissatisfaction, and uncontrollable unrest" and that the majority was faced with "imminent danger of losing their intrusted powers" should race relations persist on the track characterized by the composition of the Planning Commission.

The editorial indicates its general agreement with the position enunciated but fails to understand the import of the quoted language.

Within less than twenty years, the editorial would come to appreciate fully the prophetic nature of those predictive portions of the letter--not dissimilar to the closing lines of The Mind of the South.