The Charlotte News
Monday, January 15, 1945
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that, through heavy fog and a blinding snowstorm, the Second Armored Division of the First Army had driven from the north to within 1.5 miles of Houffalize. Third Army troops had closed to within three miles of the communications hub from the south. Other American troops and soldiers of the British Second Army were within three miles of the town from the west.
Other First Army troops penetrated to within six miles of St. Vith.
Southeast of La Roche, the First and Third Armies finally linked forces.
The Ourthe River Line which the Germans had hoped to establish to secure the eastern half of the Bulge had been completely decimated.
Although weather hampered air operations this date, 1,300 American bombers and fighters struck railyards in Southern Germany at Augsburg, Freiburg, Ingolstadt, and Reutlingen. British heavy bombers also struck bensol plants at Bochum and Recklinghausen in the Ruhr Valley.
During the weekend, 3,000 American heavy bombers had struck ten German oil centers, including targets at Heide on the Danish Peninsula, Ehmen, Derben, Hallendorf, and other targets near Cologne. The Hohenzollern Bridge, one of the main bridges across the Rhine, was hit. Beginning Saturday night, 6,000 planes were in operation through Sunday. The Eighth Air Force shot down a one-day record of 155 German fighters on Sunday and 235 total aircraft for the day. Sixty-two planes, including 19 American heavy bombers and 15 British heavy bombers, plus 12 American fighters, were lost.
It was reported that Major George Preddy, from Greensboro, leading European flying ace of the war, was killed when his plane was hit by friendly anti-aircraft ground fire over Belgium on Christmas Day. He had bagged 32 ˝ planes, 27 ˝ in air combat. He had shot down two German planes during the mission and was following a third, when he was struck.
Within a little over six minutes on August 6, Major Preddy had accomplished the unlikely feat of shooting down six German planes, for which he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Lt. Col. Harry P. Cain, assistant chief of staff to the 18th Corps of the First Army compared the airborne troops deployed on December 17 to defend Bastogne and St. Vith to the taxicab armies which saved Paris in 1914.
The first casualty reports were released on the Battle of the Bulge. From December 15 through January 7, American casualties were slightly less than 40,000, including 18,000 listed as missing, most of whom were presumed prisoners. All American casualties along the Western Front during that 23-day period totaled 52,594, including 4,083 killed, 27,645 wounded, and 20,866 missing.
During the same period, the Germans had suffered 90,000 casualties, of whom 40,000 were prisoners.
The Russians had launched a major winter offensive all along the 600-mile front from Memel on the Baltic to Hungary, in seven different sectors. In Poland, attacks emanated from the bridgeheads at Pulawy and Varka, south of Warsaw, from the Vistula-Bug Triangle, north of the capital, and from Narew, south of East Prussia. Attacks were also launched between Ebenrode and Schlossberg in eastern East Prussia, toward Krakow in Southern Poland, forming, with the Narew offensives, what the Germans described as nutcracker operations, and in Southern Slovakia north of Budapest. Russian forces had forged a strong bridgehead across the Nida River in Southern Poland and were reported within 32 miles of Krakow and 64 miles of German Silesia.
On Luzon in the Philippines, the Sixth Army crossed the Agno River at Bayambang, 88 miles from Manila, and expanded the established beachhead at Lingayen Gulf to 45 miles, capturing the important rail and highway junction at Damortis, sealing off the Japanese defenders of the northwest coast from the only highway leading into the Benguet Mountains where, at Bagui, it was believed, some of the Japanese military brass were headquartered. Port Sual, on the approach to Alaminos along the expanded beachhead, was also captured after a "short, sharp fight". The westernmost spearhead of the Army captured Mangataren and the eastern flank gained five miles to approach Catablan, 20 miles by road inland.
Military analyst Max Werner compared the strategic significance of the Luzon offensive to that of the Normandy invasion in June. Luzon, for all intents and purposes, constituted the Philippines. The other islands were but stepping stones to Luzon. In Japanese possession, Luzon was the keystone to the entire East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere of Japan, a springboard to the Chinese coast, Indo-China, and Borneo. Occupying Luzon would effectively cut off the southern part of the Empire from Japan. It would also enable attack on the home islands from the Pescadores-Formosa-Ryukyus area.
The primary risk to America of the campaign was its timing, in conjunction with the offensive underway on the Western Front, and whether the enormous supplies necessary to accommodate the Luzon campaign could be accomplished without retarding the war in Europe.
It was reported from the South China Sea Naval offensive that Japan had lost its sea routes through the area as of January 12. Attacks on Indo-China had been largely uncontested by Japanese planes. No new word had surfaced on the action, however, since Friday night.
Isolationist Senator Burton Wheeler of Montana urged the Senate to authorize immediate formation of a United Nations political council to thwart the sphere of influence in Europe being established by Russia.
On the editorial page, "150th Birthday" tells of the sesquicentennial of the opening of the University of North Carolina being celebrated on this date in history. Once opened in 1795, Old East, the only building on campus, stood empty for almost a month awaiting the first student, Hinton James—whose name, since the mid-1960's, has adorned a South Campus residence hall. Mr. James came from Wilmington by pedestrian mode to undertake less than pedestrian study, became noted for his singular achievement, even if it took him a month at a retarded pace in harsh winter weather to trek the distance from the coast.
In 1945, it comments, one campus of the consolidated University, that in Chapel Hill, accommodated more than 4,000 students, military and civilian. It was expected to expand to 10,000 students after the end of the war.
The University, the first state-supported university in the fledgling country, embodied the concepts of freedom of education and availability of it to all, not just the privileged classes. The University, opines the piece, had lived up to those high standards.
It still does. We note that the University, for the eleventh straight year, based on cost and quality combined, has just been named by Kiplinger as the best bargain in the country in public education.
Not all of the University's graduates, continues the piece, had upheld the liberal tradition instilled by the University education, as many had been tempered—or fallen victim of predation, as the case may be—by the native streak of conservatism in North Carolina. But many of its graduates had gone on to forge progress for the State, to make it a progressive State, even liberal by Southern standards, radical, even Communist, by Helms standards.
If it might seem to the reader who follows along here with us on a daily basis that a mere fifteen months ago, there was another celebration of a sesquicentennial of the University, you are not imagining things. That was the 150th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, October 12, 1793—as we recently pointed out, precisely four days before Marie Antoinette, once the proud possessor of the Hope Diamond, stolen during the French Revolution, and also possessor of the pendant of the Order of the Golden Fleece, lost her most prized possession to M. Guillotine, including her Golden Fleece.
As we also pointed out, since early in the last century, the Order of the Golden Fleece is the top honorary society at the University in Chapel Hill, and the Hope Diamond, possessed in 1945 by Evalyn Walsh McLean, mother to Evalyn Walsh McLean, who had changed her name, the latter being the fifth wife to Robert Rice Reynolds, is and was referred to, alternatively, as the French Blue, for its blue hue in certain light—by any other name, Carolina Blue.
Now you know. Bet you didn't before.
You owe us.
That's why the sky is French Blue.
Let them at Duke eat cake.
"Home-Made Enigma" contemplates the American perception of the British international trade policy, finds that the departure from free world trade was not a policy to which birth had been given in Britain only recently, but had been steadily in determination since 1932, two years following the departure by Britain from the gold standard. At the Ottawa Conference of that year, a tariff system was adopted to "mutualize" trade.
In 1945, Britain wanted to control half the world's trade in cocoa, setting up state monopolies in the Empire's African colonial possessions. The United States was the chief importer of cocoa, using half the world's production. Britain wanted to dominate the industry to keep prices high.
Likewise, the country wanted to have restricted international cartels on civil aviation following the war, not, as the U.S. favored, a free market in aviation. Britain feared that under such a concept, it would be unable to compete with America and its greater production capability of airplanes.
In Middle Eastern oil producing countries, Britain wanted no quotas on consumption, out of fear of American competition from its domestic oil fields.
Britain, in so following this cartel principle, merely sought to protect its own interests. It was not acting out of selfishness or unbridled greed. Yet, it promised no good for world economy. After World War I, for instance, a British cartel controlling crude rubber raised the price from 8 cents per pound to $1.22 per pound.
Yet, it was inevitable, and American had at least to understand the wherefores of it.
"Hickory's Great Work" congratulates the town of Hickory for its effort during the summer polio outbreak which centered in Hickory. The citizens had raised $65,000 to enable a proper medical facility for the treatment of the patients. The 150 who remained hospitalized were about to be transferred to a newly built wing for the purpose at Charlotte's Memorial Hospital. It was being done at the behest of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis so that the patients could receive care in facilities specifically equipped to treat the disease. But, the piece urges, Hickory had done its share of the work while the Charlotte addition was being constructed and deserved great credit.
"Thrift in a Hurry" reports of the General Assembly of North Carolina having taken but 26 minutes to dedicate to debt retirement the entire sum of 52 million dollars constituting the State's budget surplus. It was a wise move which would save the State five million dollars per year in interest.
In setting aside the surplus, the State would need to raise new revenue to afford increased services. So tax reduction would be out of the question, even if some of the allocation of tax burden could be adjusted.
So, matters stood as the News had predicted during the fall they would with respect to the state budget and taxes.
"How Many of Who?" Showed that among present members of the U.S. armed forces, the most common names were Smith, Johnson, Brown, Miller, and Jones. Among all of the veterans of the country's wars, the most common names were Smith, Johnson, Brown, Williams, and Jones. But in the current list, Williams had dropped below twelfth. The Williamses of the country appeared therefore to be on the wane.
You learn something new everyday.
Drew Pearson discusses the politics behind the decision of General Eisenhower to turn over command of the First and Ninth American Armies to Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, taking them away from the command of General Omar Bradley. General Eisenhower answered directly to both Roosevelt and Churchill. He could not be removed as Supreme Allied Commander without the concurrence of both.
Thus, the transfer of command appeared as a political gesture to the British, following their criticism of General Eisenhower providing of the command of all American forces to General Bradley, following the successful campaign of general Bradley on the Cherbourg Peninsula during the summer, while General Montgomery had plodded along before Caen, utilizing conservative tactics to General Bradley's new hit-and-run tactics, not waiting for supplies to come up or snipers to be cleared from advance positions. Added to Montgomery's debits was the British offensive in September which had failed to take Arnhem.
The British press had heavily criticized Eisenhower's decision and felt that General Montgomery had been severely slighted. Prior to the new command shifts, he only had under his command the British Second and Canadian First Armies.
Thus, the change in command was more one to placate British public opinion than to honor the fighting prowess of General Montgomery over General Bradley.
Mr. Pearson next turns to his "Capital Chaff" items, among which is the report that dozens of bobby soxers had descended on the Capitol to visit the office of newly installed Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas.
He follows that item—ironically, since Mr. Nixon would label Ms. Douglas in 1950 in their Senate race, the "Pink Lady"—with a report that a reporter for the New York World-Telegram was publishing a series of articles revealing that the highest Army posts had been infiltrated and commandeered by Communists.
He also reports that three war correspondents were less than impressed with the claims of the British of the derring-do of their paratroops in seizing Magara Field in Greece during the fall. The three correspondents had arrived at the field and waited alone for four hours before the British paratroops had arrived to commandeer the field.
There was, he reports in conclusion, a standing joke among Army officers returning from China: a Chinese Communist was anyone who wanted to reduce the interest rate to 20 percent.
Did you hear, Mrs. Luce?
No plan, no plan, no plan.
Oh, we see. Those Army officers had already fallen victim to the vicious and irresistible routine of indoctrination undertaken by brainwashing technique of Manchurian candidacy and were thus hopelessly now bitten by the Communist bug, would any moment break out in jazz rhythms and other Negro music.
Samuel Grafton comments of the progress of former isolationist Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan. He proposed an immediate treaty whereby the Allies would be authorized to use force to prevent Germany and Japan from again arming themselves.
While a simple enough idea, it took maturity, says Mr. Grafton, to reach such a point when much of the nation was busy criticizing the Allies rather than the enemy nations. Many appeared to want to punish Britain and Russia before Japan and Germany. It had been an unresolved major question at Dumbarton Oaks, concluding in early October: How could the United Nations stop the Allies, populating the proposed Security Council, from committing aggression?
The better question was how to stop Germany and Japan.
Marquis Childs likewise examines the position of Senator Vandenberg, also finds him wise and true and in complete renunciation of his isolationist past.
The Senator stood in stark contrast to Senator Wheeler who continued to insist on isolationist doctrine. Senator Wheeler had provided hope to the Goebbels propaganda mill, while Senator Vandenberg had made the case for presenting to the enemy a clear argument that the quicker they acceded to terms of unconditional surrender, the easier the price of peace would be.
Senator Vandenberg, says Mr. Childs, understood that in ten years the robot bomb would be able to fly distances of three or four thousand miles and carry "fantastic new explosives", including poison gases capable of killing or crippling thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people within a few hours.
Of course, the enormity of the potential for holocaust on a global scale set at risk by the nuclear era, set to begin in less than seven months, would dwarf the most fertile imagination regarding the potential destructive capability of weaponry extant in January, 1945.
Hal Boyle reports on January 6 from the Second Infantry Division in Belgium that eighty percent of the Germans captured that day by the Division suffered from frozen feet. They had crawled from their pillboxes at night to pull the shoes from dead American soldiers. Many of them had come from assignments on outdoor guard duty while others had run into the frozen woods when they had seen that their pillboxes were about to be overrun.
He imparts of one American corporal who had fought for 36 hours straight without sleep, losing his own tank, picking up a rifle and firing with an infantry company, then joining another tank crew missing its gunner, to do some more damage.
A sergeant who was a tank commander used his Sherman to knock out a Tiger, then was directed around a corner by an infantryman, to find another Tiger, its vulnerable rear end exposed. The sergeant let loose six quick rounds, causing the German tank crew to flee. The American crew then wiped them out with a single shell.
Another sergeant crawled to within 50 yards of German tank and artillery fire, hidden from American positions defending Krinkfelt in Belgium. The sergeant called in an artillery strike on the Germans: four tanks were destroyed and numerous Nazis killed. Reported the sergeant, the rest were headed the other way.
Newly installed Representative Joe Ervin, brother to Sam Ervin, writes a letter to the editor thanking The News for its editorial support of Congressman Ervin's proposal for a Foreign Service Academy, on a par with Annapolis and West Point, to train diplomats for foreign service in the State Department.
Another letter writer chastises store owners for only being willing to duck under the counter and pull out cartons of cigarettes for customers who bought groceries. She relates of her brother who had returned from overseas, had no family and thus bought no groceries, got no cigarettes. She didn't smoke, thought cigarettes ought be rationed; but she went to the store, bought groceries, got cigarettes for her brother.
"Now, about the cigarette-smoking, I think cigarettes should be rationed. Cigarettes may be a luxury—and so is Government whisky, but it is rationed so that everyone can have his share. The stores have their cigarettes under the counter..."
Oh, cigarette-smoking. We thought she was referring to bigger yet choking. Never mind.
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