Daily Post - 22.06.1943, Blaðsíða 2

2
DAILY POST

China’s Offensive
The backbone of China’s resistance to Japan is the chiupa
(pronounced jooba), the ordinary Chinese soldier. He is usually
a peasant lad, honest, intelligent and cheerful. Inured to hard-
ships from birth, he possesses an astonishing stamina.
DAILY POST
is published by
Blaðahringurinn.
Edltors: S. Benediktsson.
A. L. Merson.
Office: 12, Austursiræti. Tel.
3715. Reykjavík. Printed by
Alþýðuprentsmiðjan Ltd.
Tuesday, June 22, 1943
■ .......- 1 ' !
America
Says ....
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt,
to an audience of Waves, Spars
and Marine Corps auxiliaries:
“Some of you—I rather think
before long it will be all of you
—may have the opportunity to
go overseas.”
Wendell L. Willkie, on being
told that h meeting at which
he was the speaker was being
picketed by America First par-
ty workers: “I doubt if any
one ever was so fortunate in
the nature of his opposition.”
Under-Secretary of State
Sumner Welles, in a talk to
graduates of North Carolina
College for Negroes: “To equ-
ality of human rights and to
equality of opportunity, every
human being is by divine right
entitled. That is the essence of
our democratic faith.”
Appeal from Vichy, in the
farmers of France: “For sever-
al days to come, for several
weeks perhaps, the existence
of the country depends on the
contents of your barns. Deliver
your wheat.”
Edward H. Holland, when
asked to tell the outstanding
incident in his sixty years with
a perfume concern: “I suppose
the most exciting thing was
the morning I carried hand lo-
tion and perfume to Adelina
Patti, the opera singer. Yes, I
guess that’s the one.”
Jack January, chief boats-
wain’s mate on the Coast Gu-
ard cutter Spencer, and form-
er St. Louis newspaper cam-
era man, describing the chee
ring by the crew in the midst
of battle: “I closed my eyes
once and thought I was back
at St. Louis, covering a Cardi-
nal-Dodgers baseball game.”
He fights on a diet of rice,
i noodles and vegetables and is
paid six Chinese dollars a
month, about 30 cents Ameri-
can. He is a very different per-
son from the old-time Chinese
mercenary who was recruited
from the dregs of the popula-
tion and whose main interest
was loot. The chiupa’s strength
lies in his courage and resour-
cefulness, backed by a morale
built upon a new national con-
sciousness.
It is estimated that there are
some four or five millions of
his kind in the active armies of
China. Most of this force con-
sist of provincial troops and
guerilla fighters. Front line
troops are said to number no
more than 300,000 or 400,000
mainly the well-trained divisi-
ons of the army known as the
“Generalissimo’s Own” and
their former opponents of the
Communist Eighth Route Ar-
my. Even these elite troops—
less numerous than the Japan-
ese invaders—have lacked
much equipment needed to wa-
ge modern offensive war.
Early in June the Chinese
chiupa again turned the tables
on his enemy. A Japanese ar-
my of 75,000 men which early
in May had launched a drive
up the Yangtze Valley was be-
ing rolled back with heavy
losses. For a time the thrust
had appeared to be a threat to
Chungking, 300 miles west of
the battlefields.
Chinese leaders had showed
alarm, though in the light of
later events their attitude
could have been part of fam-
. iliar tactic of “magnetic war-
fare” which has often been
employed to draw Japanese in-
to traps. Chungking claimed
30,000 enemy casualties, re-
ported the capture of several
key towns in the vicinity of the
Japanese spearhead at Ichang,
just below the Yangtze gorges.
Chinese press dispatches said
that the attackers had filtered
into the city itself. The result
appeared to be the greatest
Chinese victory of the war.
Air power had played as im-
portant • part. Communiqués
told of forays by American
bombers, guarded by Chinese
fighter pilots, which had
wrought destruction on enemy
ground installatioos and in
two days downed at least 28
Nipponese planes. The new air
Somewhere in England:—For
several days I’ve been visiting
the American forces in Eng-
land.
Talking with airmen of the
American Eighth Air forces,
one gathers a slightly different
picture of the air war from
what one reads at home in
bokks about air power. I came
over here with the idea that
air attacks on the continent
were a simple matter of dump-
ing such a great weight of
bombs on war factories that
eventually Germany would be
unable to produce enough war
goods. Then in time her ability
to fight would dry up as a re-
sult of this creeping paralysis.
Actually, I find that smash-
ing targets on the ground is
only one part of the American
heavy bombers mission. The
other part is to draw ground
fighters into the air and knock
them down. That is where
many whom I have talked to
think the emphasis should be
put.
As the battle of Britain de-
monstrated, a nation is not de-
feated in modern war so long
as its air force is not broken.
The first requirment for the
defeat of Germany is smashing
her airforce, especially her fig-
ther force. With her air cover
removed, she will then be ex-
posed to everything. Germany
is aware of this as is indicated
by the shifting of production
into fighter planes rather than
bombers.
activity was obviously of great
er scope than any previously
employed on the Chinese batt-
lefronts.
To some observers this sug-
gested that Allied aid to China
will be consentrated for months
to come on stepping up air po-
wer for cooperation with Chin
ese troops. Japanese possession
of Burma has limited the qu-
antity of heavy equipment that
can go through to China, but
airplanes and gasoline can and
are being flown from India ov-
er the Himalayas.
On The War
Major General Ira Eaker
says our Eighth Army Airforce
destroyed 359 enemy fighters
last month, plus 93 more prob-
ably destroyed and 176 damag-
ed. Even allowing for some
shrinkage, damage to the
fighters force is obviously'
large.
Air Marshal Sir Arthur T..
Harris says as soon as the Ger-
man fighters are knocked out
of the way, the British will
switch to day time bombing Con
sidering that the British bomb-
weight is far heavier than ours,.
that change would immensely
hasten the destruction of Ger-
many.
It is becoming clear that we
must use bombers against Ger-
man fighters. We send over-
fighters sweeps, but the Ger-
mans stay on the ground. At
one American fighter station I
listened by radio to the talk a-
mong some of our fighter mak-
ing sweeps over Belgium. One
pilot said, ‘No customers again.r
The leader, Colonel Eran Pet-
erson, replied, “They are all
eating down there and won’t
come up.”
The Germans know that we
are only waiting for them to
come up and fight. The Nazis
are trying to avoid attrition of
their fighter force which is e-
qpivalent to breaking the
lock on the fortress of Europe.
s. . O. .. . S.
Save Our Secrets
Raymond Clapper
i