A new radio program, Boy, Do You Bet Your Life, airs Wednesday at 8 on the Mutual Network. Its shlemiel of a hero soon discovers Army life ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. Yeah, so you didn’t know that already.
And a New Jersey heartthrob crooner is putting out a platter called “Ain’t Gonna Study War No More.” The B side will be “Swing for Peace.” Think maybe he’s out to make a point? Us, too.
February 5, 1942—newsreel narration
What you are about to see has been banned by the Navy Department. The Navy has imposed military censorship about what’s going on at sea on the entire East Coast of the United States. That’s one more thing it doesn’t want you to know. Our cameraman had to smuggle this film out under the noses of Navy authorities to get it to you so you can see the facts.
On the thirty-first of last month, that cameraman and his crew were on the shore by Norfolk, Virginia, when a rescue ship brought thirty survivors from the 6,000-ton tanker Rochester into port. You can see their dreadful condition. Our intrepid interviewer managed to speak to one of them before they were hustled away.
“What happened to you?”
“We got torpedoed. Broad daylight. [Bleep] sub attacked on the surface. We never had a chance. We started going down fast. Next thing I knew, I was in the drink. That’s how I got this [bleep] oil all over me.”
“Did you lose any shipmates?”
“Better believe it, buddy.”
“I’m sorry. I—”
At that point, we had to withdraw, because naval officers were coming up. They would have confiscated this film if they’d been able to get their hands on it. They have confiscated other film, and blocked newspaper reporting, too. The Rochester is the seventeenth ship known to be attacked in Atlantic waters since the war began. How many had you heard about? How many more will there be?
And how many U-boats has the Navy sunk? Any at all?
February 9, 1942—The New Yorker
DOWN THE TUBES
The Mark XIV torpedo is the U.S. Navy’s answer to Jane Russell: an expensive bust. Too often, it doesn’t go where our submariners aim it. When it does, it doesn’t sink what they aim it at. Why not? The answer breaks into three parts—poor design, poor testing, and poor production.
Some Mark XIVs dive down to the bottom of the sea shortly after launch. Some run wild. A few have even reversed course and attacked the subs that turned them loose. Despite this, on the record Navy Department officials continue to insist that there is no problem. Off the record—but only off the record—they are trying to figure out what all is wrong and how to fix it.
The magnetic exploder is an idea whose time may not have come. It was considered and rejected by the German U-boat service, which has more experience with submarine warfare than anyone else on earth. Still, in its infinite wisdom, FDR’s Navy Department chose to use this unproved system.
And, in its infinite wisdom, FDR’s Navy Department conducted no live-firing tests before the war broke out. None. Officials were sure the magnetic exploder would perform as advertised. If you’re sure, why bother to test?
Combat experience has shown why. Our Mark XIVs run silent and run deep. More often than not, they run too deep: under the keels of the ships at which they’re aimed and on their merry way. Or, sometimes, the magnetic exploder—which is a fragile and highly temperamental gadget—will blow up before the torpedo gets to its target. Manufacturing quality is not where it ought to be—not even close.
Despite this, Navy Department brass is making submariners scrimp with their “fish.” They are strongly urged to shoot only one or two torpedoes at each ship, not a large spread. The brass is sure one hit from a torpedo with a magnetic exploder will sink anything afloat. Getting the hit seems to be the sticking point.
Japan builds torpedoes that work even when dropped from airplanes. Why don’t we? The answer looks obvious. We want to save money. Japan wants to win the war. When fighting a foe who shows such fanatical determination, how can we hope to prevail?
February 13, 1942—Washington Post
ADMINISTRATION RIPS NAYSAYERS
“We Can Gain Victory,” FDR Insists
President Roosevelt used the excuse of Lincoln’s Birthday to allege that the United States and its coalition partners might still win the war despite the swelling tide of opposition to his ill-planned adventure.
In a national radio address, Roosevelt said, “Those who point out our weaknesses and emphasize our disagreements only aid the enemy. We were taken by surprise on December 7. We need time to get rolling. But we can do the job.”
The President seemed ill at ease—almost desperate—as he went on, “These leaks that torment us have got to stop. They help no one but the foes of freedom. It is much harder to go forward if Germany and Japan know what we are going to do before we do it.”
In the Congressional response to his speech, a ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee said, “The President’s speech highlights the bankruptcy of his policies. After promising to keep us out of war, he got us into one we are not ready to fight. Our weapons don’t work, and we can’t begin to keep our shipping safe. We don’t have enough men to do half of what the President and the Secretary of War are trying to do. And even if we did, what they want to do doesn’t look like a good idea anyhow.”
Peaceful pickets outside the White House demanded that the President bring our troops back to the United States and keep them out of harm’s way. The presence of photographers and reporters helped ensure that White House police did not rough up the demonstrators.
February 23, 1942—Washington Post
HOUSE REJECTS RATIONING BILL
In an embarrassing defeat for the administration, the House of Representatives voted 241-183 to reject a bill that would have rationed fuel, food, and materials deemed “essential to wartime industries.”
“Why should the American people have to suffer for Roosevelt’s mistakes?” demanded a Congressman who opposed the bill. “If we rationed these commodities, you could just wait and see. Gas would jump past thirty cents a gallon, and there wouldn’t be enough of it even at that price.”
A War Department official, speaking off the record, called the House’s action “deplorable.” The only public comment from the executive branch was that it was “studying the situation.” Had it done that in 1940 and 1941 . . .
March 17, 1942—San Francisco Chronicle
MACARTHUR BAILS OUT OF PHILIPPINES!
Leaves Besieged Garrison to Fate
General Douglas MacArthur fled the Philippines one jump ahead of the Japanese. PT boats and a B-17 brought him to Darwin, Australia. (Incidentally, Japanese bombers leveled Darwin last month and forced its abandonment.)
“I shall return,” pledged MacArthur. But the promise rings hollow for the men he left behind. Trapped on the Bataan Peninsula in a war they do not understand, they soldier on as best they can. Since Japanese forces surround them, the only question is how long they can hold out.
Roosevelt hopes MacArthur can lead counterattacks later in the war. Given the disasters thus far, this seems only another sample of his blind and foolish optimism. . . .
March 23, 1942—The New Yorker
CAN WE HUNT THE SEA WOLVES?
German U-boats are taking a disastrous toll on military goods bound for England. In the first three months of the war, subs sank ships carrying 400 tanks, 60 8-inch howitzers, 880 25-pounder guns, 400 2-pounder guns, 240 armored cars, 500 machine-gun carriers, 52,100 tons of ammo, 6,000 rifles, 4,280 tons of tank supplies, 20,000 tons of miscellaneous supplies, and 10,000 tanks of gasoline. A secret War Department estimate calls this the equivalent of 30,000 bombing runs.
And the administration cannot stop the bleeding. Blackout orders are routinely ignored. Ships silhouetted at night against illuminated East Coast cities make easy targets. Businessmen say dimming their lights at night would hurt their bottom line.
Although the Navy Department claims to have sunk several U-boats and d
amaged more, there is no hard evidence it has harmed even one German sailor.
Britain urges the United States to begin convoying, as she has done. U.S. Navy big shots continue to believe this is unnecessary. How they can maintain this in the face of losses so staggering is strange and troubling, but they do.
The issue is causing a rift between the United States and one of her two most important allies. Last Wednesday, Roosevelt wrote to Churchill, “My Navy has definitely been slack in preparing for this submarine war off our coast. . . . By May 1 I expect to get a pretty good coastal patrol working.”
Churchill fears May 1 will be much too late.
“Those of us who are directly concerned with combatting the Atlantic submarine menace are not at all sure that the British are applying sufficient effort to bombing German submarine bases,” said U.S. Admiral Ernest J. King.
As the allies bicker, innocent sailors lose their lives for no good purpose.
March 24, 1942—New York Times
NEW YORKER OFFICES RAIDED
Magazine’s Publication Suspended
A raid by FBI and military agents shuttered the offices of The New Yorker yesterday. The raid came on the heels of yet another article critical of the war and of the present administration’s conduct of it.
“We are going to close this treason down,” said FBI spokesman Thomas O’Banion. Mr. O’Banion added, “These individuals are spreading stories nobody’s got a right to know. We have to put a stop to it, and we will.”
He did not dispute the truth of the articles published in The New Yorker.
ACLU attorneys are seeking the release of jailed editors and writers. “These are important freedom-of-speech and freedom-of-the-press issues,” one of them said. “We’re confident we’ll prevail in court.”
March 26, 1942—Philadelphia Inquirer
PEACE SHIPS SAIL
Reaching Out to Germany and Japan
More than fifty American actors, musicians, and authors sailed from Philadelphia today aboard the Gustavus Vasa, a Swedish ship. Sweden is neutral in Roosevelt’s war. Their eventual destination is Germany, where they will confer with their counterparts and seek ways to lower tensions between the two countries.
Another similar party also sailed today from San Francisco aboard the Argentine ship Rio Negro. Like Sweden, Argentina has sensibly stayed out of this destructive fight. After stopping in Honolulu to pick up another antiwar delegation there, the Rio Negro will continue on to Yokohama, Japan.
“We have to build peace one person at a time,” explained Robert Noble of the Friends of Progress. His Los Angeles-based organization, along with the National Legion of Mothers and Women of America, sponsored the peace initiative. Noble added, “The Japanese did the proper thing under the exigencies of the time when they bombed Pearl Harbor. Now it is all over in the Pacific, and we might as well come home.”
Noble has been arrested twice recently, once on a charge of sedition and once on one of malicious libel. The government did not bring either case to trial, perhaps fearing the result.
Some of the travelers bound for Germany and Japan have volunteered as human shields against U.S. and British bombing. There is no response yet from the governments under attack to their brave commitment.
Bureaucrats in the Roosevelt administration have threatened not to allow the peaceful performers and intellectuals to return to the United States. Travel to their destinations is technically illegal, though a challenge to the ban is under way in the courts. This vindictiveness against critics is typical of administration henchmen.
April 3, 1942—transcript of radio broadcast
THIS IS LONDON
People in the States ask me how the morale situation is over here. They ask whether the English have as many doubts about which way their leaders are taking them as we do back home.
The answer is, of course they do. If anything, they have more. They’ve been hit hard, and it shows. Nearly two years ago, Germany offered a fair and generous peace. A sensible government would have accepted in a flash.
But Churchill had seized power a few months earlier in what almost amounted to a right-wing coup. He refused a hand extended in friendship, and his country has taken a right to the chin. London and other industrial cities have been bombed flat. Tens of thousands are dead, more wounded and often crippled for life.
“Look at France,” a cabdriver said to me the other day. “They went out early, and they have it easy now. We just keep getting pounded on. I’m tired of it, I am.”
Calls for British withdrawal from Malta and North Africa grow stronger by the day. Sooner or later—my guess is sooner—even Churchill will have to face the plain fact that he has led his country into a losing war. . . .
April 5, 1942—AP story
THE PHILIPPINE FRONT
Sergeant Leland Calvert is a regular guy. He was born in Hondo, Texas, and grew up in San Antonio. He is 29 years old, with blond hair, blue eyes, and an aw-shucks grin. He is a skilled metalworker, and plays a mean trumpet. He’s a big fellow—six feet two, maybe six feet three. Right now, Leland Calvert weighs 127 pounds.
That is how it is for the Americans stuck on the Bataan Peninsula. That is also how it is for the Philippine troops and civilians crammed in with them. There are far more people than there are supplies, which is at the heart of the problem.
“I don’t know who planned this,” Calvert said in an engaging drawl. “I don’t reckon anybody did. Sure doesn’t seem much point to it. Hell, we’re licked. Anybody with eyes in his head can see that.”
Way back in January, rations for 5,600 men in the 91st Division were 19 sacks of rice, 12 cases of salmon, 3½ sacks of sugar, and four carabao quarters. A carabao is a small, scrawny ox. Well, everybody and everything on the peninsula is scrawny now. Feeding 5,600 people with those supplies makes the miracle of the loaves and fishes look easy as pie.
And that was January. Things are much worse now. Sergeant Calvert has eaten snake and frog—not frog’s legs, but frog. “Snake’s not half bad,” he said. “I drew the line at monkey, though. I saw a little hand cooking in a pot, and I didn’t think I could keep it down.” I asked him about the monkey’s paw story, but he has never heard of it.
Disease? That’s another story. Leland has dysentery. He has had dengue fever, but he is mostly over it now. He is starting to get beriberi, which comes from lack of vitamins. Beriberi takes the gas right out of your motor. I ought to know—I have it, too. Leland does not think he has got scurvy, but he knows men who do.
He has got malaria. Most people here have got it. Again, I am one of them. The doctors are out of quinine. They are also out of atabrine, which is a fancy new synthetic drug. And they are plumb out of mosquito nets. Something like 1,000 people are going into the hospital with malaria every day now. Without the medicines, there is not much anyone can do for them.
“If I knew why we were here, I would feel better about things,” Leland said. “This all seems like such a waste, though. We’re fighting for a little stretch of jungle nobody in his right mind would want. What’s the point?”
Seems like a good question to me, too. It doesn’t look like anyone here has a good answer. I don’t know when I’ll see that girl again. I don’t know if she’ll ever see me again. I wish I could say the effort here is worth the candle. But I’m afraid I’m with Leland Calvert. This all seems like such a waste.
April 14, 1942—Honolulu Star-Bulletin
ADMINISTRATION PURSUES VENGEANCE POLICY
According to a Navy Department source, two aircraft carriers and several other warships sailed from Midway yesterday, bound for the Japanese home islands. Aboard one of the carriers, the Hornet, are U.S. Army B-25s. Pilots have secretly trained in Florida, learning to take off from a runway as short as a flight deck.
The theory is that the B-25s will be able to strike Japan from farther out to sea than normal carrier-based aircraft could. Most of Roosevelt’s theories about the war up till now have been wrong, though. Maybe
the planes will go into the drink. Maybe the Japanese will be waiting for them. Maybe some other foul-up will torment us. But who will believe this force can succeed until it actually does?
Given the administration’s record to date, in fact, many people will have their doubts even then. As a wise man once said, “Trust everybody—but cut the cards.”
April 21, 1942—Washington Post editorial
BLAMING THE TOOLS
Everyone knows what sort of workman blames his tools. Franklin Roosevelt claims that, if a Hawaiian newspaper had not publicized the plan of attack against the Japanese islands, it might have succeeded. He also claims we would not have lost a carrier and a cruiser and had another carrier damaged had secrecy not been compromised.
This is nonsense of the purest ray serene. The Navy tried a crackbrained scheme, it didn’t work, and now the men with lots of gold braid on their sleeves are using the press as a whipping boy. This effort, if we may dignify it with such a name, was doomed to fail from the beginning.
Reliable sources inform us that the Army pilots involved were not even told they would attempt to fly off a carrier deck till they boarded the Hornet. The Japanese have twice our carrier force in the Pacific. Why were we wasting so much of our strength on what was at best a propaganda stunt? Are we so desperate that we need to throw men’s lives away for the sake of looking good on the home front?
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