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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 19, 1942)
Lai fOOR Auvti to Bomb be BONDSI Pleating Result tart eomethlnf da It mow lha Want 44 Way. TnoaamBOe at area ara aa lha Want Ad paca rrery ronlng. II tout aa Ullla la mm thne Adi and the? do prod uca very pleating result Medford Tribune Boy DtftBM Band anS taupe tODAI Ceatnkate to in etrrasth of year mi lorn, ralruxlam. oor enf-pro-larttoa. emande that VOU e year part NOW! Full AmdiMd Proas United Pre Thirty -seventh Year. MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 1942. NO. 24. o)fftMo) IF Mk Ml Lo)iyjMo) OS News Behind The News By Paul Mallon Washington, April 18. The nazi drive in Libya which threw considerable terror into the linotype ma chines turned out to be a small thrust. A few local advances were made, but there is some reason to be lieve no more than a regi ment was In raol Halloa volved In any of the skir mishes. No large amount ol tanks took part on either side. OThus the expected great drive to Alexandria turned eut to be a foray. That raises the question what is Hitler waiting for? Sand storms have already started in that area. He has only a few weeks left before the heat will keep his army prone. If he Is able to go at all, he .hni.iri have been on his way long before this. He has been throwing everything he has handy in the way of bombing at Malta, and if he can obliter ate that obstacle, he can push whatever supplies of men and material he has across the straits into General Rommel s Inert right arm. But he and everybody else knows the clock is running out were. a a TIERE is more excuse for his t.iiiiw tn develop the long advertised soring offensive in O Russia. Thaws have started in the north now. No one can move much around mat irom for a few weeks. The weather has not been good in the south either, so he can blame his sluggishness on the weather there also. But if he has anything he had better show It soon, else he will (Continued on Page Nine) japanWTenter ai iule lake to San Francisco, April 18 (JP) Construction will begin tomor row on a l.DUU-acre reception center to accommodate 10,000 Japanese on the Tule lake rec lamation project in northern California, Lieut. Gen. J. L. De Witt, commanding general of the western defense command and fourth army, announced to night. "Army engineers will direct the construction project, the site is in Siskiyou county, lust south cf the Oregon state line. "The project," General De Witt said, "will be rushed to completion and should be ready for occupancy within 30 days. Following completion of ttn re ception center the area will be turned over to and operated by the war relocation authority which will develop some d 500 additional acres for use of north .rrn California and southern F)regon Japanese. IS F RE Chicago, April 18. (IP) Chaisman Joseph W. Martin of the republican national commit tee asserted today his party would "rather win the war, win it quickly, than win an elec tion." and declared candidates in the 1942 campaign would ad vocate the most vigorous prose cution of the war. Martin told reporters the com mittee undoubtedly would issue a statement on its war position at a meeting here Monday and (.added: J "I don't think any great par ty could meet now without of fering some stimulus to vig erous prosecution of the war. Certainly our party wouldn't. Tokyo, 3 Cities Targets in Most Daring Air Tokyo (from Japanese broad casts), April 18. (IP) The great cities of Japan Toyko, Yoko hama, Kobe and Nagoya were bombed for the first time in his tory today, imperial held quarters announced, by planes which bore the bright insignia of the United States air forces. Thus the very heart of the Japanese empire, its capital, two principal ports and the cen ter of its aircraft production, were attacked in what may prove the most daring and spec tacular air exploit of the war thus far when the rest of the story is told. It came less than 24 hours after Secretary of War Stimson in Washington said the Amer ican army was "getting pretty near to the stage of being ready for an offensive." ' Tokyo In Dark Tokyo could not say whence the raiders came. Chungking said they did not come from China. But the official report that Tokyo was attacked first, half an hour after .noon, and Kobe. 376 miles to the west, two hours later, suggests an east-to-west sweep. Such an operation could have been carried out by a naval task- force built around one or more aircraft carriers approach.! ing Japan from the northeast, where the heavy- April fogs might hide their approach. Long-range bombers from the Aleutians, some 2,500 miles from Tokyo, might conceivably have cooperated with carrier borne craft. Flights from hidden bases in the Philippines or China also are possibilities. There were an undisclosed number of casualties, head quarters for the defense of east Japan announcing that "we ex Dress to the next of kin of per sons killed our condolences." This account, like other official accounts, said damage was light. Incendiary Bombs Fall Incendiary bombs fell in the Tokyo-Yokohama area, Nagoya and Kobe but fires were report ed auickly controlled. This suggests, however, that the raiders carried to the crowd ed Industrial centers the type of war the Japanese fear most, fire bombs on cities which for the most part are built of wood). The high command an nounced that nine attacking planes were shot down over the Tokvo-Yokohama district, sug gesting the raiding force totaiea several times that numDer. The greater part of the Jap anese homeland was under air raid alarm for varying periods during the afternoon, from the northern tip of HoKKaioo to Shikoku and western Honshu, a sweeD of some 1,000 miles em bracing three of the four main islands. Even the lourtn, ono- koku. in the southwest, was given "precautionary warnings." Nine pianos Lost Military communiques and of ficial broadcasts gave this pic ture: Tokyo the capital, third city of the world, population, 7,uuu 000; military, political, financial heart of the empire: "It has been confirmed thus far that nine enemy planes were shot down when hostile aircraft attacked the Tokyo-Yokohama region this afternoon for the firt time since the war began," read an announcement by east cm defense headquarters. "The enemy planes approach ed from several directions about 12:30 p. m. and were immed iately repulsed by air and ground defenses. It is revealed that damages inflicted by the air attack are slight." Follow Axis Pattora Dnmei elaborated: "The raiders failed to pene trate into the heart of the me tropolitan area, but dropped their bombs in residential dis tricts in the suburbs. Schools and hospitals unfortunately re ceived several hits." (But Tokyo's suburbs contain huge industrial plants as well as residences airplane plants arsena's, munitions factories, huge military depots and can- Great Industrial I "Smacked 'Em" i i """Sam. ' lA I Llaut Co.l. J. H. Davles (above) of Oakland, Calif., who lad U. S. army B25 bombers from Australia against Jap bases in the Philippines, said on his return to Australia: "We smack ed hell out of 'em and gained at least a little revenge for mem bers of our squadron who fought in the front trenches in Bataan , He was awarded the distinguish ed flying cross for the achieve ment. tonments. The reports of schools and hospitals bombed follow the normal pattern of axis prop aganda). Domel continued: "The planes which carried out "blind raids' on the Tokyo-Yokohama region were without doubt United States planes, observers de clared. They said the American air lnsignuai of a blue star against a red circle could be seen clearly from the ground. "A Domei reporter described one enemy plane which was shot down as falling like a 'smok ing comet. Nagoya (Japan's third city, population 1,400,000, site of the big Kawanishi, Mitsubishi and other aircraft plants.) Largest Port Hit "At 2:30 this afternoon two enemy planes raided Nagoya," central defense headquarters an nounced. "A 1 1 h o u g h they dropped bombs, damage was slight." A later communique said in cendiary bombs fell at six places in the vicinity of Nagoya but the fires were soon brought un der control. Kobe (population 1,200,000, Japan's largest port, shipping point for a large proportion of the supplies flowing to the Jap anese forces in the southwestern Pacific war theater, major ship building center.) "A single enemy plane raided Kobe around 2:30 p. m., drop ping incendiary bombs but no serious damage was caused," said a communique. A latei announcement said single bombs fell at three places in Kobe; fires were soon controlled. Yokohama (050,000 popula tion, port for Tokyo, 18 miles away, chief port on the Pacific, site of big shipyards and a wide variety of industries): Any dam age done there was covered by the general communique cover ing the Tokyo-Yokohama dis trict. Osaka defense headquarters reported one other area under attack: The enemy strafed farming villages in Wakayama prefec ture, Shiga prefecture and the Yokkaichl area with machine- War's Attack CAPITAL ELATED, DETAILS OF RAID Washington, April 18 (AP) Word that American planes had finally slashed -at the great cities of Japan exhilirated and excited this capital today and was hailed by members of congress as the harbinger of a vast offensive that ultimately will crumble the Mik ado's empire. It was balm for the wounds of Pearl Harbor and Bataan to learn that the war had been car ried in direct and punishing fash ion to the Japanese people. In combination with this week's air raids on Japanese bases in the Philippines it cheered a country, which, contrary to its traditions, had been fighting a defensive war. . Officials at the war and navy departments were wearing broad smiles but saying nothms. Presumably no announcement will be made until the operatiot) is completed, planes are back at their bases or carriers, and of ficial reports have been received. At the capitol, Senator Hill (D-Ala) echoed a popular state ment when he said: 'This is just a beginning; it's hardly a token compared with what we're going to give them." "That's the way we're going to win the war," said Senator Clark (D-Ida.), "bombing them right at home." "There was a possibility of re prisal raids," Clark said, but added, "if we have sufficient air craft on the Pacific coast, enemy bombers can be knocked down as they come in." Senator Holman (R-Ore.) ex pressed gratification at news of the bombing of Japanese cities, remarking that the "best defense is an efficient offense". guns but no damage was caused." Alarm In Osaka These areas do contain manv farming villages but they also are thick with factories produc ing war goods. The great cities of Osako (3. 800,000) and Kyoto (1,200,000) were under air raid alarm dur ing much of the afternoon with all the rest of the highly indus trialized, densely populated dis trict within 100 miles radius of Osaka which, however, appar ently was not bombed.) For the main cities, including Tokyo, the alarm ended at 3:50 p. m., three hours 20 minutes after the first planes appeared over Tokyo. Also under alarm was the en tire island of Hokkaido, north ernmost of the main islands, and Shikoku, just south of Honshu, the principal island; all the northeast coast of Honshu above Tokyo; all the Tokaido coastal district ' between Tokyo and Osaka; western Honshu as far as Ok.yana, 100 mile, west of Osaka. Domei gave this account of Tokyo under air attack for the first time in its history: "In the downtown districts of Ginza and Marunouchi (the Fifth avenue shopping district and Wall street financial center of Tokyo, respectively) business flowed on as usual with buses, trolleys and other vehicles run nine without interruption. "While Japanese air defenses smashed dowr the invaders lunrh hour crowds unhurriedly flnlsVd their meals and returned to their offices satisfied that the defense forces were doing theu work well. "Children peered Into the sky for hostile craft. The people remained calm and unruffled Unp rturbed housewives and civil defense units closed win dows and checked anti-raid equipment with the same cool efficiency shown in practice, CITY PUYGR0UN1 WILL BE SITE OF Bear Creek Area Approved By F.S.A. Will Be Leased From City. Medford's new $93,000 recre ational building, made possible with funds alloted by the Feder a. Works Administration, will be constructed on the Bear Creek playgrounds area Just south of the Main street 'Bear Creek bridge under present plans, it was stated yesterday by Don T. Orput of Portland, field recre ation representative for the Fed eral Security Agency. Mr. Orput said the area had been fully approved by the FSA, and that unless a better site was offered by the city the building, u be used by Camp White sol diers for worship and recreation al activities, would be built there. The area, to be leased from the city at $1 a year for a period not to exceed 10 years, embraces about 300 feet along the east bank of Bear creek running south from the bridge, by 150 reet wide, according to Fred W. Scheffel, city superintendent. The area to be utilized by the recreational building, a standard type A structure with wings, does not include the side of the present uoy Scout and Girl Scout headquarters at the north east corner of the property. Mr, Scheffel explained. These head quarters will not be affected by uie new Duuding, he said. The project will be construc ted by the Federal Works Agency through the office of the Regional Engineer, Region 7, Seattle, Washington, and is to be operated, according to tenta tive plans, by the Y. W. C. A. Fred T. Evans, acting regional engineer of the FWA, is expect ed to announce shortly the dale for the start of construction of the project RAKED BYNAMES New York. Sunday, April 19 (IP) Fire that started in sup plies salvagers were removing raged through a lower hold of the former French liner Nor mandle last night, but did no damage to the vessel's structure, it was said at 9:25 p. m. (PWT) today nearly three hours after the blaza was brought under control. Bern, Swltierland, April 18 (AP) Premier Mussoliai. dis charging fascist party secre taries in several towns and cities today, called the pre fects of all Italian provinces to Rome April 18 for a confer ence on now moans of enforc ing discipline required by war. London. April IS (AP Reports reaching London said tonight that Field Marshal Gen. Wilholm Rittor Von Loob, nasi commander on the Leningrad front, has boon re lieved of his post. His succes sor was said to be CoL Can. Goorg Von Kuechlen, who commanded one wing of the Gorman drive through Bol glum in the spring of 1940. Rome, (from Italian Broad-) easts), April 18 AP) An Italian destroyer has sunk a submarine in the central Med iterranean, the Italian high command announced today. On the Libya front, hoary sandstorms wore reported to have hindered patrol activity in the Clronalca war sectors. Chungking, April 18 (AF) The main Chinese forces on the Sittang front In central Burma have withdrawn to a new Una after many days of powerful offonslve by over whelming Jspanese forces, the Chinos command announced tonight. N01ANDIE AGAIN War Bulletins AMERICAN FORCE SEE Gen. Marshall Says Air Bases Will Be Established All Over Britain. With the U. S. Army In North ern Ireland. April 18 JP) Gen. George C. Marshall, chief of staff of the United States army, declaring "the time for action is near" said today that Amer ican troops "inevitably will join the commandos," the British shock force which has been raiding the German-held con tinent. Further forecasting offensive action, he told a press confer ence that United States air forces will be established In bases "all over the British isle." Here for a flying inspection of the United States contingents already in Ulster, Generai Mar shal said he had conferred at length In London with Lord Louis Mountbatten, chief of the British commandos, as well as with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other British serv ice chiefs. He pointed out that the U. S army has long trained an entire army corps in land cooperation such as the recent British dash to St. Nazaire, Nazi submarine base' on the occupied Br-ttany coast, and against other impor tant Nazi coastal Installations in both France and Norway ., General Marshall flew here Friday with two of President Roosevelt's closets advisers Har ry Hopkins and W. Averell Har- riman, after 10 days of "the most intimate and satisfactory" discussions with the British leaders. He made a speedy Inspection tour and review of the bulk of the United States troops here and then told officers that these men are but the first of a 'steady flow." The first U. S. troops of this war arrived in Ulster in mid January; a second contingent followed In about a month. Gen. Marshall told the unit commanders that he was "very much impressed with the ap parent state of discipline and the evidence of strenuous train ing" of the American forces. LAVAL WILL TAKE Vichy. Unoccupied France -(.IP) Pierre Laval April 18. Frances No. 1 campaigner for ail-out collaboration with Ger many, reorganized the French government on a pro-axis basis today, but agreed to submit to the final authority of Marshal retain, still chief of state. Laval won the marshal's ap proval, necessary under the con stitution, of a 21-man govern ment, 13 of whom have been active supporters of his pro-Ger man policy for France. He split the civil and military divi sions of government, abolished the national defense ministry and kept three important posts for himself foreign affairs, in terior and Information. The aged marshal, by special decree, delegated to Laval the power to control France's domes tic and foreign policies but sim ultaneously placed hi heir ap parent and former vice premier, Admiral Jean Darlan, In com plete command of all land, sea and air forces, responsible only to the chief of state. CENTRAL PI PAIR E Reno, April 18. (JP) Marri age licenses Issued here in cluded: Arden Plnkham, 24, and Eliza beth Hamilton, 19, both Central Point; Adrian Wigley, 23, Cen tral Point, and NelU Moon, 23, Port Orfor Interpreting The War News By Klrke L. Simpson (Wide World War Analyst) American bombing of Tokyo. Yokohama and other Japanese cities raises a question as to whether the planes Involved were carrier-based or struck from land bases on the northern tip of Luzon. Until that question Is answer ed in official statements from Washington the full meaning cannot be clear. If four-engined bombers made up the attacking groups, that would indicate that they came from land bases, presumably of the Philippines. That is possible but not probable. It is certain, however, that if bombers of such size were involved, they came from land bases, not from airplane carriers. Assuming that the planes were carrier-based. It would mean that a powerful naval task force had penetrated to within 600 miles or less of the Jap anese coastline. Supporting ships such as cruisers and de stroyers to protect the carrier or carriers would be essential in that case. It would put a strong Amer ican naval and air unit peril ously close to Japanese China sea communication lines, the most vulnerable sector of the whole Japanese war front If that be the case, Tokyo's war lords may have cause to reappraise their strategy In sending powerful Japanese fleet units from home waters to the Indian ocean. By the recent account of Prime Minister Winston Church ill to parliament, the Japanese have at least three battleships, five plane carriers and many light craft in the Bay of Bengal. That represents virtually half of her known carriers and perhaps third of her battleship strength. Aside from Its boost to morale in the united nations, the bomb ing attack might serve the stra tegic purpose of leading Tokyo to recall a part of that force nearer home, thus easing the threat to India. There can be no doubt. In any event, that Japan Is des tined to feel the force of Amer ican air power Increasingly from now on. E E SHORE BATTERIES Washington, April 18. Corregidor's sharp shooting gun ners encouraged hopes of a pro longed defense of the Philippine stronghold today by blasting into silence additional batteries of enemy siege guns. As a result of the effective counter-blows, the war depart ment said, Japanese bombing and shelling of the Island fort ress at the entrance to Manila bay showed "somewhat de creased intensity." Reporting on the situation elsewhere in the Islands, Lieu tenant General Jonathan Wain- wright advised that Cebu, the Philippines second city, was in enemy hands and was burning. Fierce fighting continued in the vicinity of the city which mors than 300 miles south of Corregldor in the central portion of the Philippine arch! pelago. On the island of Panay, where an Invasion force landed Thursday from a fleet of eight transports supported by war ships, the Japanese likewise were still meeting determined resistance from the defenders. The war department's an nouncement that the Corregldor gunners had silenced several en emy batteries, all on Bataan, followed an official report on Friday that three enemy bat teries had been put out of ac tion in the past 24 hours. These batteries were on Bataan and In Cavlte, on the south shore of Manila bay. In addition, the guns of Cor- regidor and the three outlying Manila bay forts blasted roads and bridges In Bataan, disrupt ing enemy communications. Sacramento, April 18. (ZD Churning cream butterfat; First grade 42 Vi; second grade 40 Vt AXIS FEELS AIR Destruction Rained On Ger many And Rangoon" Washington Silent On Attack Disasters Hinted By Richard McMurrsy Associated Press War Editor Tokyo and three other great Japanese cities shuddered yester day (Sat.) from the destructive) crash of United States bombs In what may well have been the start of an offensive to destroy the very heart of the spraddled Nipponese war machine. Other huge and lethal Ameri can planes rained destruction on Rangoon In Burma and Rabaul at Australia's outer fringe where Japan's ambitious vanguards ara based. 1 In Europe, the RAF continued Its ceaseless attacks against vital German war plants in the over run continent. The British blows In effect had opened a second front against Germany, already locked In death struggle with Russia, whose armies were reported crushing the last spark from pup petized Finland, and nearlng the major German Ukraine base of Dnleperopetrovsk. Lone Bright Boot The lone bright spot in the picture for Japan was the con tinued success of. her army la . Burma, which applied relentless pressure to the swaying British lines, pushed now Into the flam ing ruins of the Yenangyuang oil fields. But all these developments were far overshadowed by tha daring assaults on Tokyo, tha plane-producing center of Na goya and the major industrial portst of Yokohama and Kobe. All the accounts came from Tokyo and her Berlin ally, and the frequency and varrlanco of the stories suggested that great damage had been done and that people of the tightly packed isl ands were hysterical. , The very fact that the Japan ese radios shouted officially that "the imperial family is safe" suggested a major disaster, be cause only at times of great emergency are such assurances given. The lack of flamboyant claims expected from an axis govern' ment about destruction of any great percentage of the raiders suggested a vital weakness in the Japanese home defenses, and that the island air forces had been spread exceedingly thin to support Japan's far-flung con. -quests of Burma, China, tha Philippines, Netherlands ' East Indies and Malaya. It was reasonable to expect that Japan would call on her German partner for face-saving reprisal attack on United States cities. German bombers in France are within striking dis tance of the eastern U. S. sea board, and soma of the nazi long range planea could make nuis ance raids. Freedom Spurred The blow against Japan was a great fillip to the freedom. loving world. It also brought home in grim reality the horrors of total war which Japan for nearly five years has carried mercilessly to China and other peoples of the Pacific. It was par tial payment for the treachery of Pearl Harbor and a promise of more to come. The real story may be with held for days until the planes or carriers are safely back at their bases. The ascendency of Laval, of course, was a blow to the United Nations but old Marshal Petain retained final authority over the acta of the white-tied nazi col laborater. The Vichy govern ment, from which the United States ordered its ambassador home to "consult", was formed on pro-axis basis, with Laval holding the portfolios of foreign affairs, Interior and information. LAST RITES Corvallis, April 18. Funeral services for Solon T. White, who died suddenly at Spokane last night, will be held here Tuesday afternoon, w
