ALBANIANS GIVE GREEKS AID
ATHENS, Nov. 25 (UP)—The Greeks today were reported outflanking and outfighting the Italians in all sectors, but the rugged country of the Devol River canyons presents the toughest obstacles they have faced. It is in this sector that Albanian rebels are said to be giving the Greeks great aid.
The Albanians, comprising the famous Melisoros tribe, are said to be harrying constantly the Italian rear. This tribe, which inhabits the mountain range between the Devol and Shkumbi River valleys, is the largest and most warlike in Albania and never was entirely subdued by the Italians. The tribesmen were said to have brought arms out of hiding for attacks on the retreating Italians.
Athens newspapers reported that an Italian general in Albania had committed suicide.
NOVEMBER 27, 1940
NOMURA HOLDS U.S., JAPAN NEED PEACE
HULL WELCOMES CHOICE
TOKYO, Nov. 26 (AP)—Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, who expects to leave for Washington next month as Japan’s new Ambassador to the United States, said today there was no issue between Japan and the United States that could not be solved without recourse to war.
“In many ways,” the six-foot, 200-pound retired Admiral said in an interview, “the fate of the world hangs on American actions just now. If the United States becomes involved in conflict either in Europe or in the Pacific, civilization will go up in flames. … There are few—if any—Japanese who want war with the United States. What is important is how to prevent the situation from reaching its worst stage.”
The Admiral, who speaks English well and with blunt directness, declared he was neither pessimistic nor optimistic about the possibilities of improving relations between his government and Washington, where he served in World War days as Japanese naval attaché. Those relations, he added, “apparently depend largely on Japan’s continental and South Seas policies.”
He said he viewed any possible United States embargo upon Japan as dangerous and asserted that “cutting such a large trade channel might result in abnormal actions here.”
Secretary of State Cordell Hull with Japanese diplomat Saburo Kurusu (right) and Japanese ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura upon their arrival in Washington for diplomatic talks a few days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“If the United States refuses to sell us oil and other supplies,” he said, “we must get them elsewhere.”
A conflict between the United States and Japan probably would touch off a “chain of wars” stretching indefinitely into the future, he declared.
“Nations must live side by side,” he said. “You can’t exterminate a nation. I attended the Versailles conference [at the end of the World War] and saw the Germans apparently crushed to the ground. I never expected another European war—but today there is war.
“Similarly, conflict between the United States and Japan merely would begin a chain of wars. I, personally, know no issue between them impossible of peaceable solution.”
Admiral Nomura said Japanese were more concerned with peace in China than any one else. He explained:
“For military reasons blockade and restrictions of business are necessary and business men of all nations suffer. That applies to Japanese traders along with the others. What we want is peace in China, then free and equal trade between China and all the rest of the world.
“When that comes—and it may come soon—the facts will speak for themselves, and this particular problem between Japan and the United States will disappear automatically.”
He scoffed at the suggestion that Japan’s program of expansion would mean exclusion of American business interests from the Orient.
“In the first place,” he said, “it is impossible; and in the second, it is not being considered. Economic facts can’t be overridden that way. Japan, China, the East Indies and all Oriental nations must continue free, unrestricted intercourse with other countries. Otherwise they would stagnate. Where would Japan be today had its historic policy of tight seclusion continued?”
NOVEMBER 30, 1940
PESSIMISM ON BRITAIN IS DENIED BY KENNEDY
Envoy Brands as ‘Nonsense’ Reports On His Views
Joseph P. Kennedy, United States Ambassador to Great Britain, last night described as “nonsense” reports that “I do not expect Britain to win the war” and reiterated his stand against American entry into the conflict.
“What I am concerned with is keeping America out of the war,” the Ambassador told The United Press in reply to a request for a restatement of his position. “Every one has known from the beginning that I have been against American entry into the war.”
The Ambassador’s statement follows:
“I am told that there is some gossip in London to the effect that I am making anti-British statements in this country and that I am even saying that I do not expect the British to win the war.
“This is nonsense.
“I have never made anti-British statements or said—on or off the record—that I do not expect Britain to win the war. I have never made in this country any statement which I did not make to four or five of the members of the British Cabinet before I left London.
“What I am concerned with is keeping America out of the war—but there has never been any secret about that. Everyone has known from the beginning that I have been against American entry into the war.
“I am constantly asked the question, ‘Do you think England is going to win or lose the war?’ But how can any one know that unless he knows what is the strength of Germany? I don’t know what is the strength of Germany.
“I am personally very sorry that such an impression as appears to have been caused should have cropped up in England. If an interview, which was repudiated by me, and a story in a gossip column are going to be sufficient to wipe out the broadcast I made, coupled with my two years and nine months in London, then I begin to wonder if I ever had very much standing in London.”
DECEMBER 12, 1940
ADMIRAL KING GETS ATLANTIC COMMAND
Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11—Appointment of Rear Admiral Ernest J. King to command the Atlantic Patrol Force of the Fleet was announced today by the Navy Department. Admiral King, who succeeds Rear Admiral Hayne Ellis, is a member of the General Board. He was formerly chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics and in 1938 and 1939 commanded the aircraft units of the Battle Force of the Fleet.
Admiral King is a native of Ohio and is 62 years of age. He was graduated from the Naval Academy in 1901. The command of the Atlantic Patrol Force is now one of the most important in the Navy, involving as it does the patrol of Atlantic and Gulf waters as well as the command of all aircraft units involved in Atlantic operations. With the establishment of naval air bases in the West Indies, Bermuda and Newfoundland, the command is now the main American defense force operating in the Western Atlantic.
Rear Admiral Ernest J. King.
DECEMBER 12, 1940
ADVANCE ON LIBYA
10,000 of Fascist Force Reported Captured in Egyptian Fighting
By The United Press.
CAIRO, Egypt, Dec. 11—The British forces striking in the Western Desert have captured the Italian base of Sidi Barrani, the major advanced point of the Italian invasion of Egypt, and taken great numbers of prisoners, including three generals, it was announced officially tonight.
[It was reported in London that the British forces had captured at least 10,000 Italian and Libyan soldiers since the start of their desert offensive.]
The victory, after three days of heavy desert fighting and virtual encirclement of the town, which is on the Mediterranean coast, broke the spearhead of the Italians’ drive seventy miles across Egyptian soil toward Alexandria and the Suez Canal.
The situation of Italy’s divisions around Sidi Barrani is “perilous,” because the British forces have drawn an arc of entrapment around the town for a distance of forty-five miles, it was stated. It was admitted, however, that some of the 30,000 or more Italian troops
reported to have been in the area might break through the encirclement, “owing to the extensive area of operations.”
Italian soldiers, defenders of the fort at Bir Acheim, Libya, after their capture by the British.
CAPTURE OF 6,000 CLAIMED
Before tonight’s communiqué reporting the capture of Sidi Barrani—an ancient town where Marshal Rodolfo Graziani’s Italian offensive had been stalled for three months—the British Middle East Command had reported the capture of more than 6,000 Italian prisoners.
Sidi Barrani was captured this afternoon, it was announced, and swift British mechanized forces immediately pushed on westward along the coast toward Bagbag, Solum and the Italian Libyan border with “considerable additional captures” of fleeing Italians.
The number of prisoners taken in the capture of Sidi Barrani was not disclosed in tonight’s communiqué, but it had been reported earlier today that two divisions of Italian troops, or about 30,000 men, were holding the town and that a great part of them had been encircled and cut off.
Planes of the Royal Air Force, blasting a path for the taking of the town, were said to have made heavy bombing attacks on Italian troops, camps, supply bases, airdromes and transport columns. Some of the heaviest fighting in the taking of the town was understood to have occurred around the important camp of Maktila, fifteen miles east of Sidi Barrani.
ITALIAN RESISTANCE STRONG
CAIRO, Egypt, Dec. 11 (AP)—The Italian forces put up a stubborn resistance before the British finally took Sidi Barrani today, and late tonight, on a 200-mile-square desert battleground, fighting still was going on between isolated groups, with the Italians holding out desperately.
It was generally believed, however, that with the capture of the base the present phase of operations had been concluded satisfactorily for the British.
South of the town the Fascist camps still holding out were areas of intense struggle. Each is protected by a deep outside trench and by anti-tank defenses behind which, around the whole camp, there is a low but deep wall built of rocks and boulders and mounted with anti-tank, anti-aircraft and machine guns.
These dangerous little nests were being attacked by British infantry under cover of heavy artillery bombardments, with the Royal Air Force supporting British armored columns and violently attacking the Italian rear.
DECEMBER 12, 1940
THE BATTLE OF THE NILE
In any long view of the war the surprise offensive of the British in Egypt surpasses in significance the continuing successes of the Greeks in Albania. The two battles are closely connected, for it was the valor of the Greeks that revealed the weakness of the Italians and supplied the impetus for the British attack, first on the naval base at Taranto and now on Marshal Graziani’s forces, stalled for months at Sidi Barrani on an expedition aimed at the Suez Canal. The British have captured this important advance base and may have cut off two divisions holding a ring of outlying forts. The number of prisoners captured is variously estimated, but it would appear to be large if it includes three generals.
This victory is not in itself momentous. The British in Egypt, though they have been steadily increasing their forces while the Italians marked time, probably because of serious interference with the transport of supplies, are still inferior to the invaders in man power and air power. But in this drive, as in Greece, they are taking the measure of the enemy and discovering that superiority in numbers means little when fighting spirit is lacking and morale is low. All the signs indicate that something is wrong in Italy. Now that the feeble gestures have been countered and turned into defeats, it is clear that the half-hearted war the Italians have been waging reflects not merely the state of public opinion, which has been against the war from the beginning, but deep dissensions within the Government, exacerbated, it seems clear, by strains in the Axis itself.
The British may be expected to take full advantage of this situation. The British people have long been insistent on an “all-out” campaign against the weaker member of the Axis, more irritating to them because Italy is friend turned foe. They have now taken the offensive, and this may turn out to be one of the crucial battles of the war. Italy seems marked out to bear the brunt of the Winter campaign, and reverses abroad and bombing at home may well have effects on the population as unexpected as the prodigious performance of the Greeks.
DECEMBER 13, 1940
Comanches Again Called For Army Code Service
By The Associated Press.
OKLAHOMA CITY, Dec. 12—Oklahoma’s Comanche Indians, whose strange tongue not more than 30 white men in the world can fathom, will be ready again to defy decoders as they did in the World War.
A. C. Monahan, director of the Indian Service, had a War Department request to recommend 30 Indians, fluent in their language and able to understand each other, for enlistment to train in Signal Corps work. He chose Comanches, who have no written language.
Professor W. G. Becker of the English department at Cameron Agricultural College, Lawton, and an authority on the tribe, recalled that several Comanches from Southwestern Oklahoma were used for relaying secret messages in the last war, and added:
“One would be at a telephone at the front in communication with another back at headquarters. They would relay orders in their native language. The Germans had tapped the wires, and it must have driven them crazy.”
The Army plans to send the Indians to Atlanta for training in Signal Corps work, including telephone and radio transmission.
DECEMBER 15, 1940
NEW WARSAW GHETTO DESCRIBED IN BERLIN
Jews May Leave Walled Area Only with Nazi Permit
Wireless to The New York Times.
BERLIN, Dec. 14—The task of confining all Jewish residents of Warsaw within a ghetto, the boundaries of which have been newly walled for this purpose, now is reported to have been wholly completed. Entrance to and exit from the ghetto are controlled and allowed only upon presentation of a special permission card. The tram communication system has been changed to provide for complete separation of Jews from others.
The ghetto is administered by a Jew, who is a deputy of the district German chief and at whose disposal a Jewish “force for maintaining order” has been placed. The Jewish leader is responsible to the German chief for the maintenance of order in the ghetto. Public services, the Germans declare, such as hospitals and baths, are at the disposal of Jews within the ghetto.
The feeding of Jews, it is said here, also has been arranged for. Foodstuffs are delivered to the ghetto, where they are distributed to the inhabitants by Jewish retailers. Payment for these foodstuffs, the Germans declare, is made by the Jews through work—by which is probably meant manual labor on building or road projects—and by the manufacture of goods from raw materials delivered to them by the authorities.
Jews in Warsaw were forced to wear identifying Star of David patches.
Chapter 6
“A CALL TO NATION”
January–May 1941
The New Year opened with the news that Winston Churchill had been selected as the “Man of the Year” by Time magazine in 1941. But it was President Roosevelt who dominated Times reporting in the early spring of 1941. On January 6 he told Congress that four freedoms had to be upheld in the world—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. What Roosevelt sought was popular support for the introduction of Lend-Lease into Congress. There were powerful debates between isolationists and internationalists about how far the United States should go in helping any country at war, but in the end, on March 12, 1941, the House approved the legislation by 317 votes to 71. The Times ran long reports on the sweeping new powers that the president now enjoyed as a result of Lend-Lease, but rather than following the line from the 1930s against increased executive authority, Arthur Sulzberger, The Times publisher, continued to support American internationalism and the drive to rearm.
The course of the war abroad became even more confused as German bombers continued to pound
British cities while the British Bomber Command dropped bombs whenever it could on German towns. But unlike coverage of the early Blitz bombing, news of the heavy raids between January and March 1941 faded away, to be replaced by keener interest in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The British invasion of the Italian Empire in East Africa met scant resistance, while the Italian Army in Libya was pushed back across more than half the country. The crisis for the Italian troops in Greece and North Africa forced Mussolini to ask Hitler for help. On February 12 General Erwin Rommel was sent with the first units of a new German Afrika Korps to Libya and in March he began to push back the overstretched British Commonwealth forces. The German Army also prepared to invade Greece to keep the Italians from being defeated. Efforts were made to get Yugoslavia to join the Tri-Partite Pact as an ally, but no sooner had The Times reported “Belgrade in Axis” than a coup by the Yugoslav Air Force and Army overthrew the government and canceled Yugoslav agreement. Times reporter Ray Brock was in Belgrade and scooped the world in reporting the coup, which he watched from the street. He was at the forefront of the subsequent German invasion too, and by April 11 The Times headline was “Nazis at Belgrade.”
The Yugoslav defeat opened the way for a series of disasters for Britain. In March Churchill dispatched an expeditionary force to Greece to help shore up Greek defenses, but by April 28 Greece was overrun by a combined German-Italian force and the British had to evacuate to Crete. On May 20, 1941, German paratroopers commanded by General Kurt Student dropped out of the sky onto British air bases on Crete. Despite heavy losses, the German troops consolidated their position and the British Commonwealth forces once again had to evacuate, leaving 10,000 in German hands. For the Allies at this point, the only bright spots in the war news were the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck on May 28, after the British HMS Hood had been blown up by a lucky hit from the Bismarck’s guns, and the successful suppression of an anti-British rebellion in Iraq. As more of the world succumbed to violence it was clear in the United States that a major crisis was approaching and 85 percent in a Gallup Poll expected to find America in the war at some point, though far fewer wanted it to happen. On May 28 Roosevelt proclaimed “an unlimited national emergency” so he could better assist the British in the Atlantic. “Germany must be defeated,” he announced, “whatever effort, including war, might be involved.” The Times headlined it “A Call to Nation.”
The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945 Page 41
