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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1942)
yv7 v- : ('A'l POUNDDD NINZ1T-FISST YEAB Salem. Oregon, Wednesday Morning, April 22. 1S42 Price 5c No. $31 1 S - -ri--' .7: 1 i .Rak A SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC . across fleld at imaginary enemy. (Photo approved by US Army. (Additional pictures oa pare two.) Horses and Machines Team Up to Defend Pacific Northwest (Military aataoritles a few atys ago took newspapermen and ntwi ml cameramen oa another trip to sec what Is betas done to c uard the Pacific aortkweat (rem possible enemy Invaders. The following story, passed by the army authorities, tells what they saw.) By STEPHEN C. MERGLER . SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, April 21 "It's a funny thing, but the people just won't ever seem to rea lize that a troop of cavalry is good for anything but to charge In a line, with sabers advanced." It was, yes, a veteran cavalry commander speaking, but, first, a forward-looking fighting man, and he was giving a clue to warfare, Model 1942 the Victory model, all Americans hope and pray. Defense Troops Seen in Action His rjassing remark took life that day. by its verycontrast with what was transpiring before news see some of the Facilic nortnwesx s iinesx aeienaing troops in actum. Action! The world has speeded its pace vastly since cavalry brigades rrp first set to stirrina rhyme, keeping up, right here in the northwest The news men saw them at it. An enemy imaginary for the moment was coming inland. Streaming out of a headquarters station near an important city a came scouts on popping motorcycles and in jeeps, horses and men in eiant motor-drawn trailers, officers in roaring command-recon naissance cars, gunners in snarling that enemy, to discover his positions, his kinds and disposition of forces. Convoy Moves Into Hills The Drocession wound swiftly ward. Had the enemy been a real one, advancing on northwest soil, similar columns would have been winding over other highways simultaneously. They, like the column the news men followed, might at strategic points have taken to country side roads, spiraling up into the Coast range. This day's convoy bounced and wove its way high into these hills until such road as there was became too tortuous for the por- tees pronounced "portays" the . go farther. Big Carriers Hidden The convoy halted in a clearing. Soldiers and horses poured out of the bis trailers. Almost before the men had saddled their mounts and swung astride, the portees had disappeared into thickets, under-lowering fir trees, following the jorder. 'Conceal portees!" ' Off down the -crooked trail trooped the horsemen, their Xk first to find the enemy, then to send back reports of bis strength, and, finally, to fight a delaying action until the heavier combat organ izations could move into contact That, the veteran cavalry commander emphasised. Is the primary use of mounted troops today, "to search oat the enemy and then fight a delaying action, and that Is what It always has been.9 Today's cavalrymen may most aptly be termed "mounted in fantry," for they ride armed with semi-automatic rifles and all the other equipment of an infantryman, and they normally fight from the ground, relying on their horses merely for swift transportation where motorized equipment can't take them. And if the enemy is pressing forward in overwhelming force, they serve as a buffer again between the foe and their own retreating battle forces, fighting that delaying action. Horses and Machines Teamed Up Here it is appropriate to point out that a modern American cav alry unit has many aces up its sleeve other than fine steeds and hard-hitting, fast-shooting riflemen. Mechanized platoons are a stan dard part of today's cavalry reconnaissance team. The news men saw in the day's theoretical action just where the mechanized platoons fitted into the pattern. While the horse troops were deployed through the woods, motor cycle scouts raced down such roads as there were, searching for signs of enemy concentrations. One such scout roared over the brow of a hill and around a sharp turn into a "road block." Brakes and tires screamed; he whirled his cycle and raced back with a message, which was relayed both by motorcycle and by radio from a Jeep squad to officers toward the rear. Jeeps Take to Brush In a matter of minutes two jeeps burst down the slope, their movement describable only as "hell-bent for election. When they came in sight of the "block," actually a blockade of logs stacked, criss-crossed and bound by heavy cables so that not even a tank could have got by, they simply veered off to the right and left of the road, straight into the brush, with scarcely a change of pace. Those little quarter-ton, four-wheel-drive "nags" of steel, snort ed like mustangs as they dug in, it seemed. Their three-man crews leaped out, quickly concentrated rifle and .30 calibre machine gun fire on the mythical foemen guarding the blockade. Others rushed in in the same manner and in a matter of seconds were pouring imaginary shells from rubber-tired 37 mm. anti-tank guns into the enemy. Officers Call for Armored Cars " From a short distance back, officers at a command post had their heads together. Steel-clad scout cars, they decided, would be needed. "Dah-dah-dit-dit," the signals went out from the radio jeep to the scout cars, and almost instantly the armored fighters rushed 1 forward, smashed aside through the trees and underbrush to join the fighting jeepmen. , The .30 calibre machine guns and .50 calibre rapid-fire com bination anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons they carried were added to the defenders' fire power. Air-Driven Saw Clears Road Theoretically knocked out, the enemy guards retreated, and the pioneer and demolition squad which makes and destroys such em placements as road blocks was called for. The squad rides a heavy truck mounting, instead of guns, a heavy compressor and chests of heavy construction implements such as air-driven rotary and chain : saws, jackhammers and axes, crowbars and dynamite. The squad made short work of clearing the road. Back of all this fighting equipment, of course, must follow the maintenance echelons. First echelon this day was the field service crew, with its crane truck carrying power-operated grease guns, etc. a mobile service station. Second echelon, a still larger truck, car ried valve grinders, an arc welding outfit and other tools familiar to an automotive shop fitted for any task other than a complete over haul. . Ten-Ton Towcar Comes in Handy ' It was no trick at all for the cavalry unit's ten-ton towcar to pull one of the heavy scout cars out of a deep, muddy gully into which it had slid. v ' --v!" r The horse troops, too, had their ''maintenance' men their field . blacksmith, with his portable forge, their expertly-schooled saddlers and their veterinary officers., - ; r -The thrills of seeing cavalrymen wheeling and chartfhg were ; hot omitted, for particular benefit v ended with mad charges across screens, and with massed field actions by the jeeps and scout cars. ' i & The ghost enemy had now been , taken in hand by the heavier ' combat troops; the cavalry withdrew to protect the flanks and the rear the home forces, . Cavalry Fits Northwest Terrain " Thu sneed and terror cast ahead ofLother wart have been yielded the horse hasn't yet cone into total country as the Japs will encounter in the Pacific northwest if they arc ever ' reckless enougn to essay NORTHWEST Cavalrymen chut and camera men permitted to and the army s "little dogies" are armored scout cars out to find over smooth highways, coast army's cavalry troop carriers, to of the cameramen. The field day fence rows and through, smoke of them by the . cavalry brigades by the horse to the motorcar, but eclipse, especially in such rugged aa invasion cere. Scandia Threat Strom Yanks Nearly Ready to Fly Over Europe By WILLIAM SMITH WHITE Associated Press War Editor The belief in some respon sible quarters that a second active front will be opened in Europe this spring was strengthened Tuesday night and Scandinavia appeared the most likely arena of the ini tial action possibly an allied attack on occupied Norway but more likely a German thrust against Sweden. Such an eventuality was sup ported by reports from the Nor wegian telegraph agency that sev eral additional nazi divisions, one of them armored, had arrived in Norway in a continuing major movement of reinforcement.' and by a variety of other circum stances. These included: A LONDON disclosure that heavy American bombers as signed to fly with the RAF as an aU-American force a force which with the RAF would make of the United Kingdom The world's greatest air base" al ready were being ferried over. Plain and accumulating indica tions that the Finns on Hitler's northern flank against the Rus sians were under sustained soviet attacks of great power, especially on the Aunus isthmus between Lakes Ladoga and Onega The Finns themselves acknowledged that a major Russian offensive was now in its 10th day, although claiming that it had made no prog ress. If, as was reported Independ ently from Stockholm, the Kos sian assault forces were made ap of fresh Siberian troops It was beyond question that the Fin nish lines were In great peril. Fitting into all this picture were reports that the Germans in north ern France, Belgium and the Neth erlands were creating a mobile army of cyclists, who assignment (Turn to Page 2, CoL I) Registration Is Down, County 1817 Cards Removed From Voter List; Linn Group Rises Registration of voters for the May 15 primary election this year dropped by 1817 in Marion coun ty from the total for the 1940 pri maries, Lee Ohmart, acting coun ty clerk, announced Tuesday. Total registration in the county this year is 35,341. of which 21, 201 is republican and 13,767 dem ocratic Other classifications are: Independent, 233; socialist, 35; prohibition, 33; progressive, 8, and miscellaneous, 64. A contributing, factor la the decline ef Marion county regis tration waa the weeding' oat of mny cards representing . cJt isens who had net voted for two years er longer. The republican rartr lost 498 by this year's registration while democratic voters declined - by 1247. The 26 Salem precincts contrib uted 13,977 to the county totaL a drop of 1100 front 1940. 1 Of the Salem registrations 9988 are listed s republican, and 5835 as dem- ocratic.; ' .. ' . ' . - -,' women oiiummbotnen, 8260 w 7717, in the Sm-iristration, a possujie reaec "VV entry of many men inTS n& fc serv ices and ethers In f indus tries elsewhere. . FiSthe county iiurn io rage z, COL 8) urope Plane Based Shangri La, FR Laughs WASHINGTON, April ll-Vft With a grin. President Roose velt said Tnesday that Ameri can planes reported to have bombed Japan last Saturday came from a new secret base fat Shangri La. a fictional Utopia la Tibet Seriously speaking, the presi dent would not throw any light on the reported bombing; would not even confirm that It oc curred. "How about the stories of the bombing of Tokyo?" he was asked. The only thing he could think of in reply, he said, was the story about a sweet young thing he said that was a generic term who was a dinner guest at the White House and wanted to know where the bombing planes came from and where they went. He said he told her they came from Shangri La. Torpedo Boats Hit Cruiser Navy Tells of Two Merchantmen Lost In Atlantic - By The Associated Press ' The navy reported tuesday that two US torpedo boats attacking at night off the Philippines dam aged and possibly sank a Jap light cruiser escorted by four enemy destroyers cheering news in the wake of a naval report that a small US ship and a medium-sized Nor wegian ship had been torpedoed off the Atlantic coast. Meanwhile the Argentine gov ernment reported from Baenos Aires that the $l,6t,000 Argen tina tanker Victoria had been damaged by a torpedo or mine and was continuing toward New York under difficult conditions. Indications were that the two US torpedo boats had been under heavy fire from the five enemy ships as the American craft at tacked the cruiser near the Philip pine island of Cebu. Although the American craft did not withdraw until they had com pleted their mission, one of the torpedo boats, the PT-34, finally was forced ashore at Cebu, the navy said, but the other, the PT 41, made good its escape. The navy said that a third boat, the PT-35, had been lost, being destroyed to prevent its falling into enemy hands. From New Orleans, the 8th naval district announced that a medium sixed American cargo vessel was torpedoed and sunk in the Caribbean sea April 4 with a loss of three lives. Nine seamen who reached port at Lewes, Del., exhausted after 10 days at sea, reported that a Ger man submarine crew sank their medium-sized Norwegian tanker off Burma Easter Monday and then tossed them food as they huddled in a lifeboat Klink Wins In Speaking; WU Man 5th SALT LAKE CITY, April 21- (AV Tom Klink of Pacific uni versity, Forest Grove, Ore., was the winner Tuesday night in re gional finals of the national ex tempore discussion contest on Pan-American affairs. He will be eligible to enter the national finals in Washington, DC, May 14, an dalso will be the guest of Nelson Rockefeller; US commissioner of inter-American affairs, on an expenses-paid - trip to South America. ; Finishing in order behind Klink were Henry Lopez, University , of Denver; John Baird, University of. Southern California; Miss Pearl Steiner, College of the Pa cific; Wallace McCalL Willamette university; and George Mooney, Washington State College. - Only 107 Washington Men Comprise Part, Bataah Forces WASHINGTON, April 21 (AP) Out of a total of some 3000 national.guardsmen who took part In the heroic de fense of Bataan peninsula in the Philippines, only 107 were evacuated to Corregidor be fore Bataan fell, the war de partment disclosed Tuesday. The others who are still alive are probably prisoners of the Japanese. The 3000 men composed the 192nd and 194th tank battalions and the 200th coast artillery, anti aircraft Three officers and 104 enlisted men of the 200th coast artillery were evacuated to the Corregidor fortress, a communique said. Each of the tank battalions was believed to have contained between 7M and 8M men. The 192nd waa made up of compan iesJroaa Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio-, and Xentacky,. and ; the 194tk of companies from Min nesota, Missouri, California aad Washington state. Besides national guardsmen, regular army troops and' Filipino contingents took part , in the de fense of the peninsula, the Fili pinos comprising the bulk of the forces. Most of the defenders, re ported to total less than 37,000 when Bataan fell, are believed in the hands of the enemy. Earlier in the day a communi que disclosed that Corregidor and the other island forts in Manila bay had emerged with colors fly ing from a terrific pounding by Japanese big guns and dive bomb ers. The communique reported that "damage inflicted was not great' Meanwhile, fierce Japanese attacks forced American and Filipino defending forces to abandon two points In Antique province on the island of Panay. These developments were an nounced in an army communique, summarizing the continuing re sistance to Japanese invasion in the Philippines. A heavy artillery fire was con (Turn to Page 2, CoL 2) Felton Named As Associate Aids in County Bond Sales, of Which $3,000,000 Made Joseph B. Felton, Salem justice of the peace, has been appointed by the United States treasury de partment as associate chairman of the Marion county war savings bond staff, Frederick S. Lamport, county chairman, announced Tues day. Lamport said he had requested Felton's appointment because sale of war savings bonds and stamps "are expanding , daily." He re ported that approximately $3,000, 000 worth of bonds of the various series had been sold throughout the country. An intensive drive is under way to increase payroll allotments for war savings, a plan Lamport de clared was meeting with wide fa vor,' because it makes possible regular, systematic savings by American workers. - Saying he felt the payroll sav ings' plan would be readily accept ed Jby Marion county firms, Lam port pointed out that employes of the Oregon Pulp & Paper company alone were buy more than $8000 worth of bonds per month by this method. .f . v.vt;-...; s-.--. Monday's AVealher .7 - Weather -forecasts withheld" and tentperatare data delayed ; by army request 1 River Taes day, -Ji feet Max. tempera tur Monday, 1T KhW 48. Guards Evacuate nn Sweet 16 4 LONDON, April 21-;P)-Looking more than ever a Windsor, Prin cess Elisabeth entered public life Tnesday on her 16th birth day, reviewing as "her royal highness the colonel" the famed grenadier guards on the grounds of Windsor castle. The tall girl who may some day be Britain's sovereign took the salute, smil ing and self-possessed, with her mother and father and her little sister, 11-year-old Margaret Rose, In the background. Then she walked away, holding Mar garet's hand. General Names Pacific Staff Headed by Philippine Comrades; Minister Tells Strength US ARMY HEADQUARTERS IN AUSTRALIA, April 21 -JPf- General Douglas MacArthur se lected Tuesday a staff headed up by his old comrades of the Phil ippine campaign and formally be gan his tour ot duty as supreme allied commander of the South west Pacific by issuing his first military communique for this en tire theatre ,a roundup' of the allied position from Luzon south to the Australian sea frontier. While his vast command was thus put into smooth operation as one integrated unit the political leadership of mis commonwealth issued to the world through the Australian army minister Fran cis M. Forde one of the most heartening declarations since first the enemy's shadow began to fall to the south from the Dutch East Indies. Speaking at Rockham pton, Forde declared: The war has turned In .our favor. "We will not rest until we are at fuU strength and onr forces are fully equipped. "When the allied' offensive against the axis is unfolded it will be a staggering spectacle The day for it to be unleased is not yet here, but it is not too far off.1 These were MacArthur's ap pointments: Chief of staff, Ma. Gen. Rich ard K. Sutherland, 48, a West Virginian. Deputy chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Richard J. Marshall, 46, a Vir ginian. ; Their chief assistants, also all Americans: , Personnel, CoL Charles P. Stivers; military Intelligence, CoL Charles A. WlUonghbr: operations and training. Brig Gen. Stephen J. Chamberlain; apply. CoL Lester J. Whitlock; (Turn to Page 2, CoL 2) Mrs. Leahy Dies, Vichy VICHY, France, April 21-4P) Mrs. William D. Leahy; 66, wife of the United States ambassador, died Tuesday. ' The state department summon ed Admiral. Leahy home for con sultation when pro-naxi Pierre Laval regained power last week. but the admiral had delayed his departure because Mrs. Leahy, re cuperating from an abdominal operatk, was unable to travel. , Her death was a surprise. An embolism or blood clot reaching the heart waf believed to have been fatal. She ; underwent tht operation 12 days ago, and re cently had discussed with the. ad miral the advisability: of her' re 1S ,W-f,'A ! " ' V if hit insMir'-nrrr wilr nMnm' i vn iif" aaw'T ismmu moval to the embassy. ' .. ;v Kadio. ELints At PeaceOffeosive Alert Is Cabinet Hears Report Island Life but Little Affected by Raid; Plane Fights Reported By The Associated Press Central and western Japan were held under new air alarm Tuesday afternoon, the Berlin radio reported, but the Japanese themselves confined their broadcasts to deprecia tory reports on Saturday's raids on four gTeat cities and to hints of a peace offensive in a lengthy account of prayers by Japanese Christians for an early peace. The German report said that alarms sounded between 4 and 5 p. m. Japanese time (12 and Un, Pacific war time), and that "for central Japan the all-clear sounded about 5 p. m while the alarm remained in foree for western Japan, especially for Kyushu." Kyushu is the most southern and westerly of the four main Japanese islands, nearest China. It has many steel mills, the great Sasebo naval base and the im portant port of Nagasaki. , The German broadcast said nothing of planes or bombs, so , the alarms may. have neeay pro eaatleaary of nervous reaction to the raids Satarday oa Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Kobe. The Japanese made several broadcasts About those raids. One said various ministers re ported to the cabinet Tuesday that Japanese life had been affected only in a few instances and to small degree and that the trans portation system was -hardly dis turbed. Another, in French, told of two planes being attacked Saturday by Japanese interceptors. Shortly after 1 p. m. Satur day), they picked up an enemy plane which seemed to be of the North American B-25 type, fly ing at less than 1000. meters," said this broadcast. ' Anti-aircraft Are caused the plane to reduce Its altitude, the report continued, and "the ene my plane then attacked with machine gun fire and, flying close to the ground, fled along a certain fiver. "The enemy plane then climbed but waf attacked again over Oshl- ma island (60 miles southwest of Tokyo) at 1500 meters. It caught fire and lost altitude gradually, finally disappearing in the clouds. But from the circumstances it ap pears the plane must have fallen into the sea. 4H Exhibits Open Today Judging Is Underway; First of Winners Announced Doors open to the public at 1 m. today upon thousands of exhibits of the things boys and girls of Marion county 4H clubs have made, records of work they have done, plans for projects to be carried on this summer. Judg ing in the various fields, well started Tuesday night, will have been completed by that time, Wayne D. Harding, county club leader, believes. The exhibits, arranged in show rooms at . 863 North Liberty street, represent home economicsH art and poster work, hobbies, for estry, f woodworking and related fields of 4H club -endeavor, ' : Fromthe winners selected this, the annual spring show, will be chosen entries for, this fall's state fair. V, - - .-"i V r Illghllxhta of Thnrsday'sr pro gram are to be the contest to select j the healthiest 4H. dab boy and girl In Marion eonnty, " and . demonstrations . la the Cherry City bakery aaditoriam, ; the latter a caatmaaUea ef the competition which opens this ''afternoon. , " ' Exhibits will be shown to-the nuhlie. without charge, from . 1 iTurBvto Page 2, Colvf) 3 Hours Trade Ration Begins, Sugar Dealers to Receive x Blanks Today at High School "Registration of the trade" for sugar rationing will start today, the Salem rationing board an nounced Tuesday.' In general, all firms, individuals and public in stitutions which deal in sugar or purchase it other than for house hold consumption, are advised to call at the registrar' office in the Salem senior high school building today between 1 and 8 p. m. or Thursday or Friday be tween 8 a. m. and 5 p. m. to ob tain these blanks. This applies only to the Sa lem rationing district, boun daries of which were estab lished heretofore In connection with tire rationing. The trade" In the ether Marlon eonnty ra tioning districts will obtain these blanks at the Silverton, Stayton or Woodburn high schools, respectively. Retail and wholesale grocers handling sugar, managers of in stitutions and "industries using sugar, restaurants, bakeries, ho tels, boarding houses, farms or other operations "where a board ing house situation prevails," are the ones required to register in advance of the general rationing date. The blanks may be obtained at the hours indicated and those con cerned are advised to obtain them as soon as possible as the forms are somewhat lengthy and . will take some time io fill out These sugar handlers, or users wUl be able to receive supplies In amounts based upon their oast consumption, and any conserva tion of supplies on the part of (Turnj to Page 2, CoL 7) Allies Battle Hard, Burma By The Associated Press ' NEW DELHI, India, April 21 Heartened by the first allied vie tory of the Burma campaign re capture of the desolated oil center of Tenang-Yaung and rescue of 7000 encircled British troops Chinese and British forces held grimly Tuesday to a line running westward from the 8000-foot heights of Mt Popa to the broad Irrawaddy river, ' A British communique confirm ed that the Chinese under the American Lieut-Gen.. Joseph W. Stilwell had joined British arm ored forces In ani attack swhlch drove the Japanese' back 'south ward from Yenanyaung, where the British had destroyed 6000 on wells last week-to keeprthem from the hands of the invaders. 4 . As a result the communique" said, the British main forces were enabled to move northward across the-Pinchaung river, -,' ' , - .