My Dearest Reggie:
Again I find myself breaking the rules of war correspondence, though not with news of fear and danger, but rather of business. Matters financial I leave to the bottom, where your daughter-out-of-law kindly appends a thorough precis of the "Bretton Woods" system. In short, she thinks it solid, for at least this generation. As far as I can make out, this is just female intuition, but it is ostensibly not unsupported by political arithmetic, and I cannot argue my case. The business, then, is concerned with more irregular matters.
First, Wong Lee has been to Los Angeles, and has established that the "Section 60" clause is no boilerplate. It was inserted into our friend's contract two years ago, in response to some marital issues which have apparently been resolved as far as they can be. Unfortunately, before he appealed to us, our friend took the rather desperate step of burning his own house down. This seems to have confirmed his employer in his suspicions at the same time that it apparently removed any evidence. Even more unfortunately, it now appears that his employer has been offered independent confirmation. Although it seems absurd that a morals clause would be triggered by such a barbaric law, our friend has relations who will not wish to see the facts emerge. The point here being not to humiliate someone in public, but leverage contract negotiations. Our friend wants his freedom --but at what cost?
Second, after diffident sniffing about submarine tours and various grandiose and implausible aerial projects, Fat Chow is going homewards the way he came. His pan-Turanian friends may be both mad and pro-German, but the bomb plot has soured them on Berlin, and they are willing to extract him. He has the precious medium, and a device for "reading it," which the Gestapo, for its own reasons, has manufactured entirely of components removed from American aircraft --which should help if his belongings are searched. He will not, of course, proceed to the Panchen Lama and make broadcasts to set Central Asia aflame --he doubts even his Gestapo handler takes this project seriously any more, never mind the Foreign Office girl assisting him. They just want to cultivate us, Fat Chow intimates. Well, we shall return the favour, however ambiguous. The girl and the man's family, anyway. I doubt that anyone will care very much if someone with that much innocent blood on his hands slips into the black waters instead of being delivered to Buenos Aires safe and hale. As for the Pan-Turanians, they get one last chance to bleed us. Fat Chow has been evasive about his route, but if they really do send him through Tashkent, I shall be quite cross. Considering its reputation, the NKVD is surprisingly inept, but I do not trust Russian slackness anywhere near that far.
However, whether via the Pansheer or the Vale of Fergana, Fat Chow will not be returning to California directly. You will have heard of the fall of Nomura. Now comes word from Nagasaki of a willingness to exchange yen-for-Hawaii dollars-for-US at a most favourable return. Or, indeed, for promissory notes on the right conditions. Some money is better than no money, it is thought, an American investment even better under the circumstances. I have word that our Hawaiian counter-parties are pleased by the idea of silent partners of such distinction. Moreover, though I have misgivings about dealing with the old enemy, the exchange will be done at the old house in Alicia, giving us the means to reward old retainers. Fat Chow will need to be conducted thence, and Nagasaki's assistance will greatly ease the trip from Kashgar to Zamboanga. If the matter does not disintegrate into a mutual massacre of Moros and Satsuma men, Fat Chow will then make his way to New Guinea and join me on Sparrow, and we shall see to the freight from there.
Speaking of Sparrow, I am definitely taking a temporary leave of "Cousin H.C.'s" employ to drive to Vancouver to join my ship. I will be accompanied by your youngest, "Miss V.C.," my housekeeper, and one other. I have taken your counsel, and will not chance having someone with "Miss V.C.'s name register at the Provincial Archives. Rather than ask her to use forged papers, it proved a simple matter to arrange the accession of certain papers to the city's holdings. I get the sense that while the money is not unwelcome, ancestral memory weighs heavily on a house trying to forget its past.
Whether the father or the mother more, I do not know. I could tell them that those days could be hard for an orphan girl, that not all who "gave honey for money" had their heart in the old trade. But I expect they would misunderstand, and my disapproval of their lack of filial piety might come through.
I may not approve of the lack of filial piety, but that just causes "Miss V.C.'s" inquiries to warm my heart the more. I do not think her lessons advanced enough yet to read the old papers, so I have asked that Miss Wong accompany us as translator. I imagine that your youngest could read them, but he has so far kept his oath of silence remarkably well.
Young Lieutenant A. will be joining us in Vancouver from Bremerton at what I expect will be all-too frequent occasions. I gather that his admiral has chosen to fly his flag from the New Jersey battleship, notwithstanding its dubious suitability. She will be returning to Pearl to make up its most serious deficiencies with some equipment to be assembled in Seattle under the young man's supervision. That is the admiral for you.
Have I mentioned that I met Lierutenant A.'s grandfather in Palo Alto? A younger sibling is in prospect of being sent to the college, and inasmuch as the father is serving in the Pacific, it is left to the grandfather to see libraries and sororities and be jollied by his old chief. The Engineer is as uncomfortable in the role of college booster as you would expect, and I managed to restrain the temptation to grab the old admiral by the lapels and yell, "Where are my ships?" For I gather that it was really all no-one's fault, or possibly that of the Admiralty, or of Stark, or King, or the President, or perhaps even tourism boosters who would not black out the coast. Heaven forbid that we should trouble the old man in his retirement!
Time,
17 July 1944
Foreign
Ribbentrop was in Finland to promise
that there will be a negotiated peace in the end. Apparently, Germany will
remain the dominant power in Central Europe, and the Anglo-Americans will end
up arming it against Russia. Yes, you read that right, Reggie. We will arm Germany. Remarkably enough, all the picked troops whom the paper’s
correspondent saw in Helsinki were in good spirits and well turned out!
In other news related to God-awfullyboring German operas with fat ladies singing and spears waving at the end oftime, but not soon enough for you and me (at least I had you there, Reggie, joking on a mile
a minute), one Count Knyphausen has shown up in Sweden to spin tales of the
horrible things that will happen in Germany if we do not see the error of our
ways and negotiate a peace. I would provide details of alpine redoubts and mass guerrilla movements, as if you had not heard them elsewhere, if I did not know
a pitch when I see it.
“The Damnable Thing” The paper’s
correspondent apparently got lost in Westminster and made the mistake of following
Flight’s correspondent rather than
the Economoist’s. Let that be a
lesson about trusting the pessimist more than the optimist. Except this time,
he has imbibed the pessimistic view from the fake Prime Minister’s speech. Perhaps I should stop belabouring
this one. I doubt that it was funny the first time I trotted it out. The upshot
is that the paper agrees that the flying bomb, or, as it still calls the thing,
the “robot bomb,” is a new weapon of terrible power. The paper says that the
flying bomb blitz is more terrifying than the Great Blitz. It may have killed
only 2,752, wounded 8000 in the first four weeks of the campaign, but its power
of disruption is terrible. New deep shelters are being opened, and special
trains are evacuating 15,000 children a day. Twenty-four shows have closed in
the West End. Our correspondent seems especially shaken by the death if his
Ministry of Information handler, Kay Garland. Will there be bigger, more
powerful, more accurate flying bombs? Time will tell.
“Don’t Touch” “Doc Salomon, the
studio manager for Warner Brothers in England who scooped the world with a
recording of a sound of a flying bomb, was killed by another one last week
while out in his sound recording van looking to record another.
“The Ladies of Woodbridge” The paper
is trying to tell us something. It begins with a vice patrol of Voluntary
Vigilantes (“busy little Miss Wilby” and “Mrs. Juby, the Methodist minister’s
wife”) patrolling a lover’s lane in the London suburb to prevent things from
“going too far,” and continues with “Voices from the Poorhouse,” specifically
Ernest Bevin and Lord Woolton saying that Britain has liquidated its foreign
investments in this war, and with noble intent. The wallet is empty, the cupboard is bare, economy will be the word.
Well, the investments people were,
er, patriotic enough to declare, anyway.I would choose another word, but I must
salve my conscience with the thought that our black money was invested in
making American guns.
Rumania is surrendering more. Czechs
and Slovaks and Yugoslavs and Argentines are excitable. In the interest of
making ending the war as difficult as possible, a German detachment massacres a
village in Italy.
“Rhapsody in Red” The Soviet
government having tightened up divorce laws and “otherwise encouraged the
production of more babies,” the Moscow press rhapsodises the wonders of
motherhood. Motherhood is “an inexhaustible source of human rapture,” Pravda says, quoting some Russian
novelist. “And that’s why more women should be forced to do it,” the paper did
not go on to add, as that would have muddled the story. Well, more people means
a better choice of tenants, so I support the effort. I just doubt that it will
work.
“The Girls” Speaking of the flight and plight of the masterless woman, American troops in Cherbourg
decline to shelter 23 girls who prostituted themselves with Germans, send them
into the demimonde instead. Of such people,
Koxinga made a kingdom and dreamed of more.
“Common Sense in Normandy” The
Allied policy for running Normandy has shaken out as “Let the French do it.”
Without telling anyone in advance, de Gaulle simply appointed a Regional
Commissioner and a Military Representative on his first visit, then told
Eisenhower that he had done it on his return. “At that moment, one of the great
decisions of the war was made. General Eisenhower smiled and said that it was a
splendid idea.”
“Germany Then and Now” Germans are living
in one-room shacks due to bombing and building shortages, which is not what the
Labor Minister promised in 1941, so let us all mock him, because he is an enemy
politician who promised more than he could deliver, something never seen over
here.
“Enough for My Family” Nicaragua
dictator Anastasio Somoza speaks English well. married even better (the Debayle
family), “liquidated” his main rival, Augusto Sandino, and secured office in a
rigged election, and is now corrupt. Perhaps he will be troubled by unrest
soon. Central American countries are like that, you know.
“The Face of Disaster” The Germans
face disaster in the East. Is it because their eastern army is “sicker” than
the western in some way, or is it because the Russians have a better grip on
their enemy, and so take more chances than some other generals the paper might
name but chooses not, who happen to command the Allied armies In the west?
(I’ve the cat! Now where are the pigeons?)
“Fifth Column” It turns out that the
French “Fifth Column” actually exists.
“Nazi Shakeup” The paper notices
Marshal von Rundstedt’s relief. It is thought that his replacement by Marshal v. Kluge, an officer of much less prestige, will give Rommel a freer hand.
“Pursuit’s End” The Germans have
almost finished falling back into the Gothic Line, after which they will
probably hold in place through the Italian winter, especially after the Allies
launch their amphibious invasion of the southern coast of some unknown country
whose name starts with “France.”
“Target: Oil” The Combined Bombing
Offensive is back to attacking oil targets. Storage tanks near the front were
attacked by fighters and medium bombers, while the 15th Air Force
attacked synthetic oil plants in Germany and Poland. The paper continues to be
impressed by “shuttle bombing” from Russian bases.
“Gone to Earth” Robert Sherrod’s
report on mopping up operations on Saipan make war sound ugly and cruel. And
here I thought the entrails of a poor sailor wrapping around the terrified
ears of a twelve year-old boy was romantic and glorious. You bore up so well
that day, though, Reggie, never crying until we had to face our return in
defeat. I have never understood how you do it.
“To the Victor: The Bases” A massive
construction effort is underway on Saipan to prepare it for B-29 operations
against the Japanese mainland. Too bad that bombs cannot give the kind of
personal attention paid to Nanking. Meanwhile, MacArthur’s forces took Noemfoor
Island off northwestern new Guinea, and are now 800 miles by air from Mindanao.
Now if only Mindanao were not the Moor-infested back end of creation. Ahem.
That’s rather ungracious to the memory of Subadar Haji Ali, especially under the circumstances. The point is that we shall certainly be bypassing Mindanao on our way
north.
“The Unpredictables” The defence of Henyang by Tenth Army under Marshal Fang is going unexpectedly well.
“High Guns” Colonel Francis Gabreski
gained a kill last week, raising his total to 28, first among American aces,
while Wing Commander “Johnny” Johnston raised his to 35 and Alexander
Pokryshkin’s bag increased to 53.
“Pick’s Pike” Once Stilwell’s troops
clear the Japanese out of at least one route through northern Burma to Yunnan
Province, “straight-backed, six-footer . . . .
dambuilder” Brigadier General Lewis A. Pick can get on with building the
Ledo Road. With 9000 American engineer troops, a regiment of Chinese engineers,
and 10,000 native labourers, he has already finished 167 miles of “twisting”
road and six airfields over the rain-sodden, hills. Already, the rain has
washed out some of the 700 bridges. Pike, former District Engineer of the
Missouri River Basin, came to the effort from “Pick’s Plan,” a system of dams
and reservoirs to tame the Missouri.
“The Cost Goes Up” After 31 months,
the U.S. has suffered more casualties than in the 19 months of World War I:
262,179 killed, wounded and prisoners. Notably, the Philippine theatre still
leads all others in casualties, at 31,285 to Europe’s 30,095. Rather brings
home the scale of the Philippine fiasco, does it not?
“King of the Cans” Captain Arleigh Burke has been made chief of staff to Vice-Admiral Marc Mitscher, who will
command “superpowerful” Task Force 58. Which is to say, all of Halsey’s
carriers. I know what you are thinking, Reggie. A destroyer man? But it turns
out that Burke was gunnery at the Academy. His destroyer background consists of
having only held command of a destroyer on sea time back in 1931, then of a
division in the Solomons, where he actually won sea fights against the
Japanese, uncommon enough for living American admirals that I am surprised that he was not beached for embarrassing the side. I
suppose being two aviators’ brains will have to be punishment enough.
“I Did What I Could” ‘Atabrine-yellowed’
Lieutenant Mitch Paige, USMC, a field-commissioned peacetime volunteer and
Guadalcanal war hero, is back home in Versailles, Pennsylvania to show off his
Medal of Honor. The paper is pleased to see that he is, quiet, private and
self-effacing. Sounds like a good man, even if he has stolen our favourite
excuse. Or perhaps making it “atrabrine” instead of “hereditary jaundice” makes all the
difference.
Domestic
“Midsummer Mood”
Ed Massey, a barber on Main Street
in Kansas City, says that a number of his customers think that the war will end
any day now. Perhaps by Labor Day, or Christmas. Meanwhile, war production is
winding down and everyone has money to spend, while the shelves are full. Most
books on the best seller list have nothing to do with the war, and the top song
hits, “Swingin’ on a Star,” “I’ll be Seeing You,” and “I’ll Get By,” while the
weather is good, and “the American woman, the slim prototype of world fashion,
appeared in fewer clothes than ever before, with fashion, even in the office,
running to bare backs, bare legs, bare knees, bare idriffs, to the lowcut,
short-skirted, off-the-shoulder dinner dress.” The first hint of autumn
includes advanced notice that Town &
Country’s July number will have more
fur advertising than any American magazine has ever had before. Politics is
“normal,” but terrible accidents include the fire in the Ringling Bros. circustent at Hartford, Conn., several train derailments, the loss of 64 coal miners,
and an explosion at a dynamite plant, fortunately evacuated in time. Detroit
weathered the first anniversary of its race riot, while the South and border cities
were “pricked by the thorn of ‘nigger trouble.’” The hundredth Medal of Honor
of World War II was awarded to the mother of an Eighth Air Force navigator,
Walter Treumper. In conclusion, it is hard to fill out the paper in July.
“The President and the General”
General de Gaulle was in Washington last week. He met with the President, saw
various people. His longest and most revealing conversation (before the press)
was with General Pershing, at the Walter J. Reed Hospital.
De Gaulle: “Mahomet once said that
without war the world would be in a condition of stagnation.”
Pershing: “We have never had peace
long enough to know.”
I wonder what de Gaulle’s France
will look like?
“Six Minutes” The paper’s coverage
of the disaster in Connecticut is heart-wrenching.
“If the People Command Me” President
Roosevelt intimated his willingness to serve a fourth term.
“Half-Free, Half Open” The
Democratic Convention will be free to nominate a Vice-Presidential candidate
other than Henry Wallace. This is the greatest change in the way that party
conventions has been done ever.
“The Well-Tailored Farmer” Governor
Dewey dresses well. And he has a farm hear Albany! And he is running for
President! All good Republicans everywhere agree with everything the Governor
says about everything.
“White Primary” In order to avoid
“violence” only a select few Coloureds turned out for the ostensibly open
Georgia Democratic primaries, so as to create court cases. The paper notes that
its contemporaries see signs of progress in said lack of violence, and notices
that the Atlanta Constitution ran an
editorial calling for Coloureds to be allowed to vote. If this is progress,
than compared with the repeal of the Exclusion Act, it is pretty slow progress.
“The McSheehy” Mayor McSheehy is
dead. We have become old, Reggie, without noticing.
“Van Doos at the Vatican” The 22ndRegiment of Canada, which traces its regimental lineage from the Papal Zouaves,
paraded for His Holiness this week in Rome.
“First Foot Forward” The CCF cabinet
in Saskatchewan was unveiled. I cannot tell if the paper actually cares about a
socialist provincial government in Canada, or if this is part of its obligation
to provide a quota of Canadian coverage.
Science,
etc.
“Fungus Fighter” Professor Elvin C.Stakman, famed University of Minnesota palnt pathologist, warns that wheat rust
is rising to epidemic proportions, and intimates that further funding for his
$300,000 laboratory is money well spent. The paper agrees.
“End of Infantile Paralysis?”
Chicago researchers have found a way to make immunizing vaccines by exposing
live germs to ultraviolet light. This has led to a promising polio vaccine, and
promise for a number of other diseases as well, including salmonella, the
staphs, one type of pneumonia, a strep, St. Louis encephalitis and rabies.
“Females in Factories” There are now
16 million U.S. women with jobs, 3,500,000 of them in factories. Women can be
quite productive in jobs where strength is not required, but they are difficult
to keep content. “So prone are they to complain, get sick, ache, stay home,
quite. That many a factory supervisor will be glad when his women are paid off
for good.” But Lockheed Aircraft has the answer, of course. Doctor Marion Janet
Dakin, who spent four months incognito at their Burbank plant and concludes
that riveting really is not that wearing on women. They are just mentally
maladjusted to industry, and need a Woman’s Clinic, run by Dr. Dakin, of
course, to look after their special needs.As a “Lockheed has a solution”
article, I give this a solid second. The presence of a self-aggrandising doctor
saves it from the Gentleman’s C, but the absence of punch cards in the solution
keeps it from being first class work.
“Eureka” Doctor Samuel George Barker
has become obsessed with the high standard of diet and oral hygiene of his
dental assistant, Miss Lois Price, and has shown her to the clinic at the Iowa
State Dental Meeting. Does Miss Price not have a responsible guardian?
“The Pursuit of Knowledge” The
University of Chicago has dropped its requirement of high school graduation in
favour of ostensibly rigorous entrance exams, and now enjoys the presence
of 20-year-old “Sunny Ainsworth, thrice-married
seventh wife of Playboy Thomas (“Tommy”) Franklyn Manville, Jr. The paper finds
Mrs. Manville(?) amusing. I suspect that the alumni of the University find her
less so.
Press,
etc.
“Ernie Pyle’s War” A movie is being
made of Pyle’s reportage. Like all coverage of Mr. Pyle, this ends by pointing
out his increasing exhaustion and persistent premonitions of death. Someone has
to get this man out of the war, but I fear that the problems run deeper than
combat fatigue.
“Thought Control” The paper deems
the U.S. Army too diligent in its suppression of political news. Pity the poor
soldier, deprived of coverage of last month’s “Anyone but Dewey” landslide at
the GOP convention, or the nail biting suspense over whether the President will
run for a fourth term, without or without Wallace as his running mate!
The paper was amused by a hoax on Australian literary periodical Angry Penguins by two Australian army subalterns who made up poems from random phrases taken from a dictionary and created a properly modernistic-sounding poem out of them, thereby proving that modern art is bunk. I am sure I have heard this story before, Reggie. A Pekinese doing paintings? Composers who cannot tell the difference between a symphony and a bag of cans going down the stairs? It also quite liked Since You Went Away, with, among others, the intriguing ingenue Jennifer Jones.
Religion
The paper runs four articles under
this heading this week. When there is no real news, notes on the pulpit will
apparently serve. We are falling short of Heaven's expectations, Reggie. Well, I don't know about you, but I am.
Business
“Washington War” War Production
Board Boss Donald Nelson (“WPBoss,”) is fighting the colleagues over his
reconversion order. In the paper’s formulation, the order is all to the good.
Idle manufacturers would be allowed to “utilize the great masses of surplus
aluminum and magnesium.” Also two-and-a-half million tons of steel in odd lots,
shapes and sizes that has no use. Square in opposition to this are the army and
navy, plus the majority of WPB members, who argue that the “U.S. soldiers had
much better have too much and too soon than too little and too late.” The paper
replies that at the moment we have a logistics, not oversupply problem. Yet it
can be argued that the more peacetime manufacture builds up, the more likely
that manpower will desert the war program for the long-time security of
peace-plant jobs. Realistic American workers are skeptical of the idea that the
war will continue much longer, and do not want to be the last to jump. There
are critical labor shortages in steel, on the rails, on the farm in canneries
and in lumbering, and steel production has slumped to 94.3% of capacity.
I know that I covered the numbers on
the production side in my last, from The
Economist, but I am struck by the paper’s lapidary explanation:
“Individual Americans, in short, are cannily doing their own reconverting right
now.”
“1,300 Men with a Mission” “When the
Great Chief of the White House called the tribes of men together for a
conference on wampum in the forest of New Hampshire, came the prophets of the
nations, foremost in their craft and wisdom . . . .Keynes urged, “Be not slave
to wampum, throw away the truss of wampum, start a fund for prudent lending,
that all tribes of men may borrow, each get credit from the other, using
anything for wampum, Sterling, beads or even fishbones.” Morgenthau, the Chief
of Wall street, tighter strapped the belt of wampum. “My world bank for
reconstruction must be ona wampum
basis.” So they reasons as they wrestled, whilte they both exclaimed together,
“Let us order world finances, let us keep away inflation, let us stabilize
exchanges, for the profit of the people. . . .”
This is rather too clever for the
paper, and turns out to be the work of “Sagittarius,” of the New Statesman & Nation. The paper thinks
that funny doggerel is more likely to sustain the reader’s attention than the
vital details of the proposals that might make up a whole postwar Bretton Woods
System. I am not sure that I agree, but feel a little helpless in the face of
the complexities of the proposals. Some more lucid summary seems needed.
Fortunately, your daughter-out-of-law has acquired one of those queer feminine
obsessions with the details, and promises you a lucid and short account with
examples when it is finalised.
“Top Prices” Having sustained egg
prices in face of what turned out to be an egg boom instead of an egg deficit,
the War Food Administration has stepped in on the bumper billion bushel wheat
crop to buy at the top of the market. Commodities brokers are disgusted at the
fact that they will be unable to make proper returns on futures trading, and
bread prices will be too high, but at least farmers will make the expected
return. Meanwhile, all of the alarmists who predicted famine in the winter are
lining up at a press conference in Chicago to admit their errors and recant. Kidding, Reggie!
“From Shadow to Substance” Detroit’s
dream of the biggest peacetime boom in all autmotive industry history came closer to
realization last week with … see Fortune for
the details.
“Rock Bottom” Although another way
of saying it is that the U.S. is almost out of new automobiles.
Flight,
20 July 1944
Leaders
“From the Horse’s Mouth” German
officer Freiherr v. Imhorn suggests that the problems the Germans are having in
Normandy stem from the fact that aircraft are involved. Which is more than good
enough for the paper to run with as first leading article.
“Air and Sea in the Baltic” Also
Russia!
Night and Day” Bomber Command has
operated by day over Normandy, while the medium bombers of IXth Air Force have
attacked by night. That will confuse those dastardly Germans!
“War in the Air” We are bombing Axis
communications! American day bombers have been attacking Munich and Berlin.
What is less clear is whether British night bombers have been doing the same,
or whether the German night air defences are still the master. Our attempt to
shoot down “air torpedoes” is meeting with mixed success, and bombing of
French communications is said to be causing a food shortage in Paris. One can
reportedly tell from the fact that Parisian women are all so thin.
Here
and There
Canadian made Douglas DC-4s will get
Merlin engines. Blackpool wants a Trans-Atlantic airport after the war. An
American source wants to remind us that they were the ones who actually
invented the flying bomb, back in the 1920s. A patent has been produced in a
Kentucky courtroom, and word has it that rather than litigate in America, Verflugen Gebomben GmbH of Germany will concede American priority of art and take out a
licence, paying the American rights-holders a fixed fee for every crater blown
out of New York and points adjacent. The paper commemorates the anniversary of
Britain retiring the Schneider Cup by virtue of no-one else wanting to compete in the delightful sport of diving under-engineered aircraft within five hundred feet of the ground at speeds in excess of 300mph. Prestwick wants a trans-Atlantic air port. De Havilland is
launching a contest to name its next plane. I suggest settling for “Typical DeHavilland junk,” so as to get Australian sales through a claim to
“truth-in-advertising.” (It is amazing how much higher the firm’s reputation
stands in Canada than in Australia. Perhaps it is the lack of opportunity for
floatplanes in Australia?)
“Invasion Closeup” The weather was
terrible last week, so the paper’s correspondent visited an air-sea rescue
station to see how men are saved from the drink. Their crates are old Power
Boats machines powered by three Napier Sea Lions, which is pretty remarkable longevity,
considering how long the monsters have been out of production. He also visited
a press conference given by Group Captain P. G. Wykeham-Barnes, at which was
described the “communications-interrupting” work done by his Mosquito wing, and
the existence of new jet fighters other than the much-publicised American crate is intimated.
“Indicator” discusses “Making Our
Own Futures” Indicator thinks that overblown claims about present and future
aircraft are a mistake, that we need to make a virtue of the necessity of
honesty. Twenty medium-sized types might be wanted for every Brabazon, and,
indeed, existing types are nipping on the heels of the predicted performance of
monsters like the Super-Constellation, Brabazon and Mars.
The U.S.T.A.A.F. headquarters
reports staggering figures of bombs dropped and sorties flown on an
ever-increasing curve over the last six months. Soon we shall drop infinite
bombs in just slightly-less-than-infinite numbers of sorties.
“Studies in Recognition” Helps us
tell the Curtis Caravan C-76 from –the Whitley? And the Ju 52/3M? As if this
parade of antiques is not enough, and the evidence of the complete inanity of
this series suggests that it is not, we end with a new plane, the Go 244, which
given that it flies with French engines, is not likely to be around very long
unless the war goes very badly for us. But while we are not likely to need to
“recognise” it, it is at least quite novel in appearance, and it has a better chance of being seen than the C-76, which was cancelled before series production began a year ago!
S. W. G. Foster, “Fire Risk in
Aircraft” The Henderson Safety Tank Company has made the risk of in-flight
fires and in crashes much less by its “Hencorite” technology. Various
innovations in piping and valving reduce the risk of ruptures at these points.
Electrical equipment can be carried adjacent to fuel systems if sufficient care
against fires caused by shorts is taken. Fireproof fabrics are practicable,
which would be a boon far beyond flying, I would think.
Behind
the Lines
The German News Agency releases a
public claim that the V-1 is not just a “political” weapon, aimed more-or-less
at London and left to work its will by a vague reduction of civilian morale or
whatever the euphemism is, but is rather capable of taking much more accurate
targeting, so that the places attacked bear some relevance to a policy of
retaliation in kind for Allied attacks.
Word of the He 219 heavy fighter reaches us. Again, if I recall
correctly. Ah, well, I suppose that if I want to check this I need only ask
your boy.
“Fighting an Implacable Foe: Engine
Life Prolonged by Filtration: A Vokes Exhibition” Buy Vokes!
“Rotol Cabin Supercharger” Buy
Rotol! In the absence of turbosupercharger, British experiments in cabin
pressurisation have taken the form of this supercharger. As it is driven
directly off the motor, extraordinary measures must be taken to keep the oil in
the drive train and not get it into the air being compressed. All of this
sealing turns out to have a little more relevance to the previous article than
I thought it might have, but only a little. My basic position is still that
American firms are likely to dominate the “stratospheric” air transport field
because they have more practical experience, but perhaps Rotol is keeping up
via whatever top secret strospheric experiments the RAF might be doing. (I need
to seek your eldest out and see if I can raise an eyebrow. Unfortunately, he is
off to Honolulu for the weekend to dowse some flames raised over torpedoes and
check the pipes of a cruiser just returned from the Marianas for signs of the
dreaded graphitisation.)
“Budd Conestoga” That one reader not
tired of hearing of a plane that will not be built is in for a treat here! See how stainless steel can be used to make an aircraft, only provided that it does not have to fly!
Correspondence
Apart from more people correcting
other people about jet engines, letters on the impracticality of the wider use
of exhaust-driven turbines and the redundancy of great new ground engineering
schools suggest that the brigades of the old and worldly, pessimistic and
resigned, have recovered from whatever was distracting them earlier in the
summer, giving them time to dash cold water on all and sundry.
Time, 24 July 1944
“Report from Mme. Chideu” Madame
Chideu runs a little grocery store near the Cherbourg waterfront, where the
housewives come to buy necessities and gossip. Last week, the paper’s
correspondent, William Walton, dropped in to talk to her about money. She
reports that at first she kept and deposited invasion money separately from the
old Bank of France notes. People suspected it, and unexpected reserves of old
banknotes appeared on the market. (Walton reports that they were dug up from
the vaults of a ruined bank, but I am inherently suspicious.) Prices might have
ballooned out of sight at the shop had the Allies dumped all of their invasion
money at once, but they did not, supposedly because the GIs were out in the
country and only parted with their money for cognac and “amour,” because all
their needs were met by the quartermaster. (Who does not provide amour or cognac in the American administrative system.) Thus, prices have not risen, and the
Liberation Committee is recognised, and all is well, except perhaps for Mrs.
Walton, whose husband does not seem to understand how speculating on money
works.
In all seriousness, I take this as a
good omen for China, even if I am perhaps clutching at straws. The French see a
government with the mandate of history, and so are enthusiastic about getting
their country back up and running. This means that they are willing to treat
the new money with respect. The Italians are not, and so do not. A proper
Chinese government will have the same good fortune.
“Exit Asmahan” Sultry Arabic torch
singer Amal el Atrash has died in a motor vehicle accident. In Sudan, the heir
of the Mahdi has stepped in to break the marriage market among his followers,
because the bride price has risen to $400. When a good will not clear the
market, the state, there is a coordination failure, and the state (or, in this
case God’s Anointed) must step in, Sir Sayed Abdel Rahman el Mahdi Pasha seems
to believe. As you can see, Reggie, I have benefitted a bit from trying to make
heads or tails of the Bretton Woods system. At least I can talk like an economist. (Shoot me the day that I talk like the Economist.)
“The New Morality” Not only is
Russia becoming more serious about marriage and family, but Eisenstein is making a movie about Ivan the Terrible, portraying him as a national hero.
Which is highly moral, I gather. Perhaps related, the Russians are disappointed
by the damage done to the Pushkin shrine at
Sviatoger Monastery by the retreating Germans.
“Miracle in the East” Four U.S.
correspondents, including the paper’s Richard Lauterbach, were allowed to
accompany Eric Johnston on his junket to Siberia where he saw that all the
factories that made all the Russian war materiel actually exist, surprisingly
enough. The works director at Magnitogorsk promises that it will grow up to be
a real city at some point. We learn that Omsk is a very nice place, albeit afflicted
with a an awful housing shortage because the brick works cannot keep up. (Because of course houses should be made of brick in a town carved out of a forest.) Novosibirsk “is becoming one of the world’s great cities, the Chicago of Russia.” Samarkand is “like southern California,” and Alma Ata is, oh, say, the
Boise of Russia. Tashkent is promised in the title of the article, but does not appear in the body. I imagine that it is the Sacramento of Russia.
“Resurrection” Gandhi appears to
accept partition.
“What Now?” Italy’s government holds
its first cabinet meeting in Rome, spends it pointing out that the
administrative situation in Italy is hopeless. Meanwhile, the leader of the
Italian Communist Party attends mass in Naples and confers with the Papal
Secretary of State. The Vatican signals
not-complete-disapproval-of-all-Marxists-everywhere. Surely a grand compromise
is in the wind!
“Sit-Down!” In the paper’s version
of the town planning bill, it is a devious scheme to wrong-foot Labour.
“How Dare You!” Colonel Diogenes Gil
launches an attempted coup against Liberal President Pumarejo of Colombia. The
paper finds the incident to be full of anecdote-worthy Latin American moments.
Moral: Latins are excitable.
“Gloom in the Reich” Newsflash from
the paper: Germany is losing. This must have some impact in Germany, the paper
supposes, and, oh, look, here are some tealeaves. The paper reads them. “Ace
German military commentator” Lieutenant General Kurt Diettmar points out on the
radio that the enemy was at the gates. Ace war commentators are those who have shot down at least five enemy prognostications. Christof
von Imhorn, war correspondent in Normandy, notices that the Allies have air
superiority. An anonymous correspondent notes that German army truck drivers
behind the front are living on nerves. A
joke supposedly going the rounds in Germany and leaking out through
Switzerland: “What is the only secret weapon that can save Germany? A long pole
with a white flag on top.”
“The Germans Squealed” Reports
suggest that the Germans are discomfited by the fact that Russian attacks are
making gains in many directions that require endless hours of pouring over maps
to make out. Takeaway points include that there is a sea in there somewhere
(the “Baltic;” that the Russians have thoughtfully named towns “Minsk,” and
“Pinsk;” that you have to go through a marsh to capture the latter; and
that Germany has a province that is so far east that they named it “East”
Prussia, and it might well soon be invaded by Russian troops who have been
issued German phrasebooks: “Please point us to the loose women and alcohol, and
give us your watches or we shall shoot you even more.”
“To the Line” The Allies are closing
up on the Germans’ selected defensive position in Italy.
“War and Weather” The Germans are
cheating in Normandy by enjoying bad weather. The result is something of a stalemate, which
cannot be allowed to go on. Since the Germans have 20 to 25 divisions in
Normandy in good defensive terrain, a breakthrough may well be impossible.
Marshal Kluge claims that the Allies planned on being in Paris on D+40, or D+60
against heavy resistance. They have, therefore, in his view, been stalled. In
which case, the Allies must almost certainly launch another major invasion.
Given Mr. Janeway’s prediction of a long war in Europe, I confidently predict
that the invasion of the south of France will break the situation open before summer's end.
“Last Charge”
The heavy casualties of the Battle
of Saipan ended with “the strange little men . . .[sweeping]. . . forward in alast, hopeless, noisy assault.” It was pointless and futile. You can tell that it was futile and had no chance of success from
the way that the artillery had to defend themselves at the muzzle of their guns
with captured rifles and the death of several battalion commanders in last ditch close combat.
“Death at Home”
The paper waxes blue about the state
of London, spared for the last few nights of any nocturnal flying bomb attack,
although plenty came over by day. The Germans promise more, and heavier
bombardment.
“Jap in a Trap” Futile fighting continues in New Guinea.
“Saipan’s Conquerors” The names of
the ground commanders on Saipan have been released. Careful examination
indicates that the commander of the Army’s 27th Infantry Division
was relieved during the fighting, and the paper reports a rumour that he was
removed by the Marine commander. Congratulations, General. A U.S. Marine thinks
you’re incompetent. Words fail me,
Reggie. The Marine commander, by the way, is nicknamed “Howling Mad.”
“Murder at Oradour” Disappointed
that their colleagues in Italy and the East were getting to commit all the
pointless massacres, some SS men of the Das Reich Division massacred the
citizens of Oradour-sur-Glane last week. A Swiss newspaper reports that even
the German occupation authorities were appalled, as the massacre was planned
for the neighbouring village of Oradour-sur-Vayres.
“Combat Report” The Marines have
been taking Coloured recruits since June 1942, breaking with a 167-year
tradition of not giving the time of the day to persons of pigmented hue unless
they had a good line about atabrine. The corps has no “public race troubles,”
the paper reports. It has no Coloured officers, either, but it does have
“16,000 strapping Negro enlisted men.” Some have reached as high as sergeant
major, but the real responsibility enjoyed by a newly commissioned Second Lieutenant is right
out. Most of these are in service companies, but, in Saipan, Coloured Marines
finally saw action in the line. Lieutenant Joe Grimes, a white Texan, thinks
that they did well in combat, but really excel in their normal duties, being
the hardest working men on Saipan. They were also surprisingly gentle with the
White wounded, continued the Lieutenant, letting not a hint of irony escape.
“Mr. Smith Goes to Town” Have you
heard that Jimmy Stewart is in the Air Force? He is! Fortunately, all involved
eschew all publicity, which is why you are not reading this.
“After Four Years” After four years
as head of Army Ground Forces, Lieutenant General Lesley James McNair is going
overseas. Although his new appointment has not been announced, it is suspected
that he will have the command of an American army group somewhere in
Europe.
Domestic
The Struggle” There is to be a
struggle at the Democratic National Convention over the renomination of
Vice-President Henry Wallace. It will pit Mr. Wallace against everyone else. I
wonder who will win? Probably the one who gets the most votes. Let me see: one person versus more than one person. Hmm. I think I might be able to venture a prediction here, Reggie. In fact, I might go so far as to suggest that this is not much of struggle! This goes to show that I am no political journalist. Also, the
President informs the Convention that he will accept the nomination if offered.
“Wheat Dunes in Texas” Due to shortage
of elevator space and labor, the Texas wheat harvest is piled in heaps on the
ground, and farmers are worried that rain will spoil the crop. Worse, 4800
loaded cars are stalled in Kansas City, preventing clearing. Or being prevented
from clearing by the “wheat dunes?” This bit is confusing.
“The Score” The score is being set
for the next few months. War production will be cut back 50% as soon as Germany
is beaten per Nelson’s plan, 35% per the Army/Navy plan. Even this will provide
almost as much manpower, material and facilities for civilian production as
before the war. Colour me skeptical on this one. Are we not predicting that
many reluctant workers will leave the workforce? One thing that has not
happened in the last six years is a significant increase in the American
population. Ratiioning will continue until after the first peacetime harvest in
Europe, probably until the fall of 1945. Meat will soon be rationed again, but
canned goods will be more available. Sugar rationing will not be relaxed, as the
supply has fallen 25% below 1941. Used cars will be rationed by year’s end,
clothes not. “Shoemen” fear an end to shoe rationing.” Coal production is
better than originally forecast (how extraordinary, after all those concessions
to the coal miners!), but the Eastern Seaboard will still get only 87 1/2% of
its normal supply. “No talk is heard of rationing wood, the nation’s No. 2 fuel
supply, although the U.S. will be eleven million cords short of its needs.”
Demobilization is likely to be only 250,000/month, and the Army expects to keep
2 million troops in Europe. Civilian good production will begin with simple
necessities such as cocktail shakers, teakettles, washtubs, tableware, pots and
pans, hairpins, safety pins, etc. After that will come things made in quantity
but currently absorbed by the army, such as radios. The radio industry has
expanded about twelve times; even an 8% cutback would take care of prewar
civilian demands, but Army and navy demands for radio-radar (not secret this
week) equipment is going up. (I have a suggestion: build more electrical engineering factories!) Third in line are goods with many or rotating
parts, such as wife-savers like washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum
cleaners, irons, cooking equipment. Last in line will be articles using
materials in which there will still be shortages even after Germany’s defeat,
such as lumber, paper, textiles. The wage freeze will not be lifted before
war’s end. No real tax cuts are expected until 1946.
“Ozark Rescue” The end of a ten-day
saga that gripped the nation came this week, as the national press documented
the greeting of a freed Drive the Coon Dog, liberated from a cave in Sugar Camp
Hollow by 25 Ozark farmers blasting
through a 30ft limestone wall.
“66% on Roosevelt” I have mixed
feelings about the man myself, but this headline is well worth taking up to the
club just to see some peoples’ reaction. Or Palo Alto, if I dare. (the joy of
twitting that man curdles in the chest in the face of his fish-eyed stare. Your
daughter-out-of-law has taken to warning me not to do it, as he must have
something in the works, but she is just taking the counsel of feminine fears.)
“The New Force” Sidney Hillman of
the CIO was at the Democratic Convention this week, throwing his weight around,
even though the old axiom is that no one can deliver the U.S. labor vote.
“Hot Blueblood” Most Massachusetts
politicians toe the party line, but not Robert Fiske Bradford, a well-born
Harvard graduate who is stirring things up. The paper is excited about his
future. Teddy Roosevelt’s son, a brigadier-general recently promoted to
divisional command, died at 56 of a heart attack near Cherbourg. See? This is why armies need a retirement
policy. Imagine if, say, Halsey had a heart attack in the middle of a battle!
Actually, never mind.
“Scrap” The American troops seconded
to build the Alaska Highway are allegedly burning and scrapping the supplies
sent north with them as they pull out of their grand construction job.
The short-sighted see this as a grand boondoggle, but in reality we now have a delightful 1700 mile highway
to show for it. Now the American taxpayer can drive to Fairbanks, and all of the interesting places between, whenever they want!
* |
So, really, there is no cause for complaint if we happen to burn a few tens of thousands of winter coats rather than go to the trouble of removing them from northern Canada.
“Beef for Beefeaters” Britain has
made a deal to take all the Canadian beef that can be shipped in 1944-45. I
hope this works out better than the egg shortage. Will cows eat beef? In other Canadian news,
all Canadian debt to Britain is now liquidated. All declared debt. I know that I should not be so smugly
self-satisfied, but it would do our interests well if you could remind the Earl
about how right I was about that, and how much we have profited from my decision of August of 1939. In
southern Alberta, the paper is amused to report that the Duke of Windsor has joined the oil-drilling craze on his ranch. The dispute over sending Canadian
conscripts overseas heats up. How much good are a prospective 35,000 casualty
replacements really doing in Jamaica and Prince Rupert?
Science,
etc.
Genius at Home” Albert Einstein is a
genius, and like all geniuses, an amiable eccentric. Also, I notice that he has top-level security,
suggesting that atomic physics has military implications. I mention this to
your eldest, and he just rolls his eyes at me, as if to ask whether I could
possibly be so naïve. I am not, of course, but I was hoping he would spill some
“gen” without prodding. He did not, which at least suggests to me that the
details of any atomic explosive are not technically interesting to him.
“No Shrink, No Shine, No Runs”
Monsanto held a presser last week to announce chemicals that produce silk and
nylon stockings that do not run, wool that does not shrink, blue serge suits
that do not get shiny, wool pants that keep a sharp crease, even in the rain.
Donald Howard Powers, the 43-year-old Princeton graduate who achieved these homely
miracles, shrugged them off as only a beginning. “He is also working on a
method of water proofing and flame-proofing circus tents.” Which seems like a
tastelessly indiscreet way of framing that research this week. We can draw the
conclusion if you only say “flameproofing canvas.” Anyway, Monsanto promises
that eventually the bottled chemicals will be available for home application.
“Cures for Childlessness” Two books
on sale by Lippincot this week offer useful checklists of factors inhibiting
fertility in men and women. The former, with a blue bookjacket, is by
Lieutenant Commander Robert Sherman Hotchkiss of Manhattan, while the latter
has a pink bookjacket, and is by Dr. Samuel Lewis Siegler of Brooklyn.
Infertility is far more common than is believed. From 1910 to 1930, for all
reasons, 17% of native white U.S. marriages were childless, while 5 to 8%
resulted in only one child. About half of all cases of infertility can be
treated by diet, rest, abstinence from alcohol, relief of “nervousness” and general
good health. And all that some “sterile” couples need is sex instruction. “This
is true of many highly educated people who seek medical advice.” I know: I
heard that joke at the club too, the other day.
You say that it is not meant to be a
joke? I was pretty sure that the blue and pink furniture gave it away, but I
could be wrong.
“In the Shadows” Back in London
after a trip to Normandy, the paper’s female correspondent, Mary Welsh, reports
on the field hospitals, which are achieving miraculous rates of survival
amongst the wounded, in particular thanks to blood and plasma infusions.
Press,
etc.
“Snafu” Senator Taft’s provision to
the Soldier Vote Act, which was to prevent political propaganda from reaching
the soldiers, has proved unworkable, because it turns out that all American
journalism contains politics! Vote Warren in 48.
“Cissie Fuss” Eleanor Medill (“Cissie”) Patterson’s Washington Times-Herald
published a bitterly anti-Roosevelt editorial that is generally deemed to
have gone too far. I would not mention this were it not headlined by a note
identifying the publisher of the New York Daily
News as her brother, and Colonel McCormick as her cousin. This is the kind
of thing that makes mad ranters mad. At least in our family we have the good
grace to keep our conspiracies secret!
“17,000 Book Reviews” Lisle Bell has
done 17,000 “brief, unsigned booknotes” in the last 26 years, as a sideline
while working as a newspaperman, advertising copywriter and script writer. He
is a master of the art form. Not bad for the son of a “real-estate developer
who did not believe in education.” Given that he attended Ohio State, I wonder.
There are some very large estates in Ohio, and I should think that an education
that distracted the next generation of developer only so far as Ohio State and
on to a career in freelance writing in New York so idle that he had time to
read 17,000 books was a bit of a
waste. I further note that the point of the story is that Bell has just broken
his leg, which will, as happened last time, apparently curtail his output for
some time. To break a leg once may seem an accident. To do it twice begins to
sound like drunkenness.
“The Only One of Its Kind” The paper
likes Passage to India so much that
it reviews it, again, I assume, for the current second edition. It could be worse. The paper could
spend more time reviewing Time For
Decision and Candlelight in Algeria,
although at least the latter has pretty people and exciting car-chase scenes. Which is why, I suspect, that I was dragged to see it.
Business
Sumner M. Slichter warns of a
postwar shortage of consumer goods due to a boom that will overtax productive
capacity. Senator Taft has foolish and uninformed opinions about the new
international monetary fund, the paper says. Harold Laski predicts a postwar
American depression as a result of the inability of the American free
enterprise system to achieve full employment. The paper imples that Geoffrey Crowther, editor of The Economist,
agrees. While I do not put anything I hear about The Economist’s down-at-the-mouth styles past that paper, what he
said was that he is more frightened of an American depression than a British,
and this is not saying that he thinks it more likely. This paper clearly falls in with Slichter’s boom, but
Laski’s worry about a failure to achieve full employment causing a decline in
demand leading to lower employment, etc, is not really address by Slichter, as
far as I can tell. Also of the opinion that the transition to peace can be
managed is Abraham David Hannath Kaplan, an economist from the University of
Denver, who has a book out on the subject form McGraw-Hill.
“Houses to Live In” The paper
notices the boom in suburban real estate. Few experts see the ‘boom’ going
‘bust’ any time soon, either. An exception, however, is Federal Home Loan Bank
Administration Commissioner John H. Faley, who believes that too many reckless
loans have been made, and that the “unsound wartime realty boom” must lead to a
postwar wave of foreclosures worse than the last depression. Against this, it
is pointed out that loans made so far are being amortised very quickly, that
second mortgages have virtually disappeared, that modern mortgages, instead of
running 3 to 5 years, are now going to easy 25-year terms comparable to rent.
Nor is the buying really profligate speculation. ON the contrary, people are
buying homes to live in, or as a hedge against inflation, or both. Prices are
up: a Los Angeles home that sold in 1942 for $7,850 brought in $15,500 last
winter. A home in Pittsburgh is up from $10,000 to $11.900 over six months.
The big boom, however, has not yet
even started.
Washington planners are counting on new residential building to
support postwar employment. Estimates of building in the first full postwar
year range from 560,000 to 1 million, and for 2 billion dollars expected to be spent on new building in the first
postwar year, $3 billion will be spent on renovations and repairs. I, for one,
am hoping to get a roof on the old house before the rain goes through the
foundations. It is a race against time, and I dread what we might have to do
with the phoenix floor and the Whale Man.
“Victory Over the Phone” Don Nelson
has won the backing of Jimmy Byrnes in a phone call. Workers will not be forced
to relocate to work industries, will be allowed to be released to make
consumption goods of surplus aluminum. Also, Bob Hinckley, fresh from Sperry,
is to be Director of Contract Settlement.
“Paper and Steel” The automobile
industry is declining to avail itself of the War Production Board’s Blue Order,
intended to allow phased resumption of production. The order’s future
allocations of raw materials are too contingent, and the idea that the
companies can start work on experimental models is mistaken, for they are
shorter of engineer and designer labor than anything else. What the industry
really needs is machine tools, and reconversion cannot really get started until
the Government releases those.
People
I am not sure that you care for me
wasting your time with this section of the paper, Reggie, but my eye is caught
by the death of Betty Compton (Mrs. Theodore Knappen), 38, of an illness
following the birth of her first child. It seems as though one does not read as
many of these melancholy notices any more. More normal is the news of Nancy Coleman (26), giving birth to twins. Or, regrettably, of John Rippey Morris’s
(43) suicide and the death by heart attack of 48-year-old Captain Frederic John Walker. The worst, though, seem to
be enduring the stress. Mussolini wants us to know that he lost 50lbs and got
ulcers in his last months in Rome, while Madam Chiang has arrived in Washington
for an extended rest to relieve nervous exhaustion. On the other hand, the sad
news of the death of Archbishop Hanna, in the same month in which we have lost
Mayor McSheehy, at least tells us that good people who keep an even keel may
hope to live long and prosperous lives. Their loss leaves me feeling sad and
old.
The paper may be having the same kind of
reflections, because it sub-heads “Knighthood’s Flower” to cover Margherita
Clement’s damage suit against “former soldier socialite Sidney B. Dunn,
Junior,” who attacked her with a paring knife and liquor bottle when she
refused his suit, and the assault on Jeannette MacDonald, who got a black eye and facial cuts
struggling with a 14-year-old bellboy who trespassed in her Santa Barbara hotel
cottage, supposedly looking for souvenirs.
Flight,
27 July 1944
Leaders
“The Tactics of Fusing” The paper is
impressed by the way that the RAF has learned to adjust bomb fusing to give the
maximum amount of useful support to the Army in the great bombardments now
being used to advance our troops.
“Superfluity in the Air” We have
enough aircrew now, and the RAF is transferring men to the Army, in particular.
Who could have imagined, six years ago?
“The Stars in Their Courses” Those
who complain that the weather is on the enemy’s side should remember that it
was perfect for us in the Dunkeque evacuation. Bad weather assists the weak.
“War in the Air”
The air attack on Caen preparatory
to the last operation, in which 1000 RAF heavies were followed by 600
Americans, was too remarkable to describe in words. However, the paper notes an
additional important fact, which is that the explosives dropped by planes did
not have to be shipped to Normadny, and so did not count against the
administrative backlog there. The paper is impressed by the “break-through into
new country across the river Orne,” the fall of Ancona and Leghorn, and Russian
victories. Forgetting to end on more than a nominal note of aircraft being
involved (bombs, factories, oil shortage), the paper here breathes the hope
that this war cannot go on much longer. Ultimately, the thought is inspired by
the Hitler bomb plot, in which it cannot be concealed that aircraft were not
involved. Not even a Luftwaffe general, it seems! Although the paper is pleased
that the direction of Germany’s war effort did not fall into more competent
professional hands. The same cautionary does not, of course, apply to the fall
of Tojo, who might be good or bad, as who knows with Japanese statesmen.
Here
and There
Captain C. Eric Smith has been
elected chairman of Rolls-Royce in place of the late Lt. Col. Lord HerbertScott. The R.Ae.C. will close for nine days to give the staff a short holiday.
Members sleeping at the club will have to fend for themselves for lunch and
dinner. The daughter of Roy Chadwick has married Radio Officer John Dove. Manyprominent Cheshire people, sensing the way the future was going, attended. People are still talking about talking about civil aviation. Talk out of
Stockholm is of a new type of flying bomb that weighes 10 tons, flies at 750
mph, can fly at 20,000ft, and can reach New York. The explosive is said to be
30 times more powerful than the ordinary. If
the Germans have an atomic explosive, I am told, it is unlikely that they
have so many that they can waste it in “flying bomb” attacks. Though, to be
fair, “30 times more powerful” is such an underestimate that this might not be
a sly intimation of same.
“Invasion Close-up” Our
correspondent visits a reconnaissance squadron, which flies Mustangs equipped
with Williamson F24 cameras, Spitfire XIs with F52 and F8 cameras. The F52 has
a 36 inch lens! (Would this be the place to ask if you can obtain a supply of
pancake makeup from a store of my acquaintance in London? Thick as lard, that
stuff, and it might make even me
presentable under such nightmarish conditions. But, of course, you will be long
since familiar with such things.) The
first Australian-built Mosquitoes have been delivered to the RAAF. Australian
woods were used “to a great extent” in its production. DeHavilland is to have an apprentice shool.
Maurice F. Allward, “Engine
Mountings” Mounting engines is quite difficult due to all the stresses the
mounting must absorb. Obviously the traditional engineering solution of adding
more weight and hoping for more strength is out of the question in aircraft.
Allward notices the possibility of improvements in radial engines in
particular, given that, in spite of the success found with forged mountings in
inline engines, it is strange that there are none for radials. This might be in
part, I suspect, because American makers, who cover the majority of radial
makers, are a bit behind hand in metal work in their shops. However, Bristol is
an eminently British firm. But, however again, Bristol is leading the world
with its interchangeable “power eggs,” and this kind of thing would be much
easier on a machined-down casting than forged down to exacting dimensions.
“Indicator” supposes that we are
“Asking Too Much of Adaptability” It has been a long time since Indicator has
talked about flying. Has he been grounded? Father Time does catch up. The point
of the column is to ask for more standardisation in utility aircraft.
Studies
in Recognition
This week we feature the Blohm and
Voss Bv 222, the colossal German six-engined flying boat, The not-so colossal Grumman Gosling, the
Dornier Do 24, and the Boeing B 314-A. No new jokes on the subject of flying
antiquities occur to your humble correspondent, Reggie. I could swear that this is not even the first time some of these have appeared in this feature!
Behind
the Lines
A German ace, Eugen Zweigert, has
been lost on the Western Front. The Germans are short on planes in Norway, a
breathless report from Norway confirms. The Germans have not enough new aircrew
coming up, and so rely on their old ones. Japan is mobilising its scientific
community to do science for the war effort. This might turn out to have been a
bit late in the doing. It is reported (again) that the Germans are using the
Fokker G.1 “operationally.”
F. E. Burger, “Aircraft Suspension
Systems” In our March 30th, number, we published an article by Mr.
R. H. Bound, who argued in favour of the levered suspension. Mr. Burger,
assistant chief engineer of Sir George Godfrey and Partners, responds by
putting the case for telescopic cantilever undercarriages and makes the case
for a new bearing that will address “sticking” trouble.
Qantas’ D.H. 86 have now flown 1.5
million miles, most of it by Aussie pilots who wish they were DC-3s.
“In Northern Waters” Our carriers
attacked a coastal convoy off Norway with more Corsairs than I would expect the
convoy was worth. (Two 6000 GRT, one 3000 GRT “supply ship,” four(!) AA ships.)
The convoy was “virtually” annihilated.
“Airfield Roads and Runways” Are
being made with Somerfeld Flexboard tracking. We are shown a picture of the
wonder material being used to “debogg” a Stirling, so presumably Stirlings are
being used as transports into and out of Normandy. It is good that they have
finally found a use to which that low aspect-ratio, deep wing is actually
adapted! The flexboard sounds as though it might be useful in rough country,
unless it is too expensive, in which case old-fashioned corduroy will do as
well.
Correspondence
More sour notes on the hapless
optimism of the young, from back in the days of late June, when they ruled the
correspondence columns. One visionary, Major J. R. Gould, does make the case
for diesel-powered flight, but only in the context of poo-pooing the idea that
the current generation of petrol engines will ever be commercially practicable,
given the exorbitant inspection and fuel costs. I am more struck by the gentle
ridicule of the bad thermodynamics of an earlier correspondent writing in
favour of gunpowder-burning aeroengines. It is a little late to get “in” on the
joke, which envisions flying bombs, once launched, gliding gently backwards
into the launching crew on the basis of the correspondent’s efficiency
calculation, but I do notice that he
is late in replying because of “some minor disturbance to my personal property
caused by the Hun’s jet-propelled aerial torpedo.” Somewhere in England, one A.
R. Ogston has capitalised a good understanding of thermodynamics into a
sufficiently comfortable living that we should seek him out and repair his
domicile for him on Government-guaranteed profits!
Time,
31 July 1944
Foreign
“New Front” The paper suggests that
the new front is the domestic one in Germany, as a result of the bomb plot against
Hitler, a statement given to the press by Lieutenant General Edumund
Hofmeister, captured with 41st Armoured Corps in White Russia two
weeks ago, and rumours of divisions mutinying in East Prussia, and the arrest
and sometimes execution of 5500 Army officers, including 34 generals.
“Five Miles More” The paper is
discouraged by the week’s end communique from Normandy that opened with “There
is nothing new to report.” The late drive on Caen is the subject of this
disappointment. Given the great air and artillery barrage, and the massive
drive, with Montgomery putting his tanks ahead of his infantry for the first
time since Alamein, greater things were hoped. Then, five miles in, they
stalled against a “murderous screen of German 88-mm guns, mortars, cleverly
emplaced tanks firing like mobile pillboxes.” Isn’t the point of a pillbox that
it is not mobile? The paper suggests
that Montgomery might have been “over-economical” of loss.
Reggie, I might have spent my world
war trying to cure condensoritis (it does not sound very courageous in
retrospect, but I think that it beat being bombarded by Japanese Quick-Firers,
or sniped at by Boer commandoes, as much as I recall you differing at the
time), but I remember the war news quite well enough to appreciate how much the
men at the Flanders or Somme front would have treasured a man who gained five
miles while “over-economising” on their lives! Well, the Germans are predicting
an offensive on the American front to follow the one against Caen. Let us hope
it meets the paper's expectations.
“Fragments” The paper dismisses the
German forces in the East as such and hopes for the fall of Koenigsburg, while
admitting that its natural and human-built defences are strong, also for the
fall of Riga. The loss of Brest-Litvosk may be expected, and that of Pskov is
imminent. “Joseph Stalin and company
would no doubt find a saturnine pleasure in dictating peace terms in
Brest-Litovsk.” Let us hope that the Red Army does not have to fight its
way into Paris before peace returns!
“Close to Earth” The Red Army is
victorious, and aircraft were involved! No, I am not reading the wrong paper.
“Novikov, Chief of the Red Air Force” is on the cover of this number. That is,
Marshal Alexandr Alexandrovich Novikov. The Russians like “tactical” planes, by
which is meant small fighters and single-engined and twin-engined bombers
lacking high altitude performance. As for some reason the “Hun in the Sun” does
not exist in the East. Russian pilots do not get combat fatigue, for reasons
that we shall omit for long enough after the end of the war against the Nazis
as to make it permissible again to imply things about the basic humanity or
lack therefore of Tatar stock. I like the explanation that the Germans do not have enough planes rather better.
“Next to the Gothic Line” We are
advancing in Italy. To the Gothic Line. Ancona and Leghorn have fallen.
“The Worst, and Worse to Come” The
worst week of “robot bombing” has ended in London, but, you guessed it, worse
is to come. “The explosions sometimes thundered seconds apart as the bombs
arrived in groups, like artillery salvos. Some of the things sputtered in power
drives, but many drove silently for whatever was in their paths. Londoners did
not know what to expect. They were warned to expect worse.” Specifically, the
larger, longer-ranged V-2. One bomb fell near a US headquarters, slightly wonded
four WACs. Another flew by the paper’s office window.
“All We Had to Tell” Theodore White
accompanies a failed attempt by 151st Division to relieve Henyang.
The division had no artillery. Under Ch’ien-lung Ti, a Chinese army would never lack artillery.
“Under New Management” Saipan, that
is. (Guam and Tinian as well, the latter being better suited for airfields.)
The paper broadly implies other changes. Perhaps General MacArthur will command
the land forces in the invasion of the Philippines, and not some lunatic
Marine? Professional lunatics beat amateurs!
“First at St. Lo,” American troops
have penetrated as far as St. Lo. Good news, except that the story frames the
incident as another Pickett’s charge. I do not think we are there to stay.
“Crack of Doom” The paper covers the
German press coverage of the bomb plot against Hitler. Various rumours involve
flung grenades, Teller mines, the death of Hitler’s double, the shooting of a
thousand German officers at a Bavarian concentration camp, the arrest of
Field-Marshal Kesselring, the execution of General Fromm, the suicide of four
hundred German officers, a naval revolt at Kiel, SS fighting pitched battles
with the Army in France, 10,000 people in hiding from Gestapo retaliation.
That’s a lot of hiding.
“Gauntlet of Hate” 57,000 German
prisoners were marched through Moscow on their way to internment while Russians
did their best to be correct, the crowd hushing hecklers and Pravda warning, “No heckling.” The
Germans, on the other hand, marched 2000 Allied prisoners through Paris and
into a picked crowd of hecklers. Or so, at least, the paper tells us.
“Back to the Desert” The Grand Senussi has returned to Libya after twenty years of exile. The dawning of a
bright new day for Libya is well indicated by the fact that Idris visited
Tobruk and el Mrassas.
“The Bear’s Paw” The paper is upset
that the Russian press characterised Chiang’s government in negative terms.
Poles and Japanese are excitable.
“No Problem” Segregated
Japanese-American combat units have excellent records.
“Last of the Line” The 5,396th
and last Dauntless rolled off the line in the El Segundo Aircraft plant this
week, was promptly trundled over to a time machine and sent back to 1940, where
it would find some use against time-travelling Japanese attackers. The paper
notes that it has set a new record. Of the 95 U.S. planes lost in the battle of
the Philippine Sea (of which we will say no more, lest it be noticed that we
sacked the victor), “there was not one Dauntless.” I do not believe the paper intended this the way it sounded, as it goes on to suggest that the Dauntless has had a very good loss ratio since it was withdrawn from active combat and relegated to antisubmarine patrols and training.
“The Spearhead Sharpened” General
Holland Smith is given command of Fleet Marine Forces in the Pacific. Which is
to say, a command has been found for a Marine of lieutenant general’s rank that does
not involve an Army tasked with taking the Philippines (or, to give the
possibility of misdirection its moment, Formosa.)
General William Signius Knudsen is
made chief of Army Air Force Service and Materiel Command, with the shepherd of
the B-29 programme, Brigadier General Kenneth B. Wolfe, as deputy. Either this means that he is not going to go back to GM, or that we should watch out for a GM-built jet turbine. If I am not too cynical.
“New Margins” The Army is 150,000
beyond its planned 7.7 million strength, although this will not affect
Selective Service callups. In fact, the Navy is asking for 194,000 men to speed
up the Pacific War.
Domestic
“The Man Who Wasn’t There” Is
Roosevelt, who did not attend the Democratic Convention, for fear that Little
Orphan Annie would shoot him, or perhaps because he wanted to disassociate
himself with the addition of Senator Truman to the ticket in place of Henry
Wallace. The Convention did at least establish that it will be running against
Herbert Hoover in the upcoming election. I suspect that the Engineer would have
been pleased to have received the nomination, but, in an as astonishing a
turn of events as the removal of Wallace from the Democratic ticket, Dewey
carried the day instead. Perhaps someone should let the Democrats know this? At
the convention, keynote speaker Bob Kerr rejected the idea that nominating a
man who is obviously at death’s door was a mistake, because “Shall we discard
as a ‘tired old man’ 59-year-old Admiral Nimitz . . . 62-year-old Admiral Halsey.
. .64 year-old General MacArthur . . . 66-year-old Admiral King . . . 64
year-old General Marshall?” So there you have it, Reggie. America has given
birth to no competent soldiers or politicians since 1885.
As to the new Vice-President, he is
one of the President’s favorites. Not as favorite as James Byrne, but the
latter’s record of filibustering anti-lynching bills was fatal, especially with
Wallace making an idiot of himself by fighting for the nomination on the
grounds of being the last hope for liberalism within the Democratic Party,
instead of retiring gracefully. That is, Sidney Hillman of the CIO was the
Convention (vice-) kingmaker, at least in the world of the Chicago Tribune, which may lie not unadjacent to
our own.
“Light Him Up” “Block gangs” of
“adolescent negroes,” armed with “’switchblade’ knives and crude, home-made
pistols” are terrorising the law-abiding folk of Harlem, who can no longer
“walk home from a dish of ‘rice & ribs’ at the restaurant.” “Gangs with
names like Ebony Dukes, Imperial Huns, Pals of Satan, Slicksters, the
Mysterious Five” engage in battle. A recent affray led to a boy being shot to
death –by the police, which seems ridiculously tame compared to the old Tong wars,
and look at how those boys turned out. (At least the ones who refrained from
jumping into the bottle.) Not that anyone ever follows the average young
“gangster” into middle-aged domesticity. Where’s the newscopy in that?
“Strange Cargo” The shocking explosion
at the munitions-handling wharf at Port Chicago, which killed 321 and left
“scores of buildings” damaged, and which could very definitely be heard from
here, although not by me, as I was in Portland, gets a single page of coverage.
I am sure that it will all turn out to be due to feckless Coloured
stevedores.
“Dewey Week” The Governor sees Eric
Johnston, back from Russia, and is noncommittal about seeing John L. Lewis at
some point. Given that the United Mineworkers have endorsed him, this might seem
churlish. The problem is that the Tribune
has, as well. Governor Bricker suggests that no-one has heard of Senator
Truman.
Science,
etc.
“Glimpses of the Moon” The word for
your youngest is apparently ‘astronaut,” which describes people who dream of traveling
through interstellar space. I rushed to tell him this, and he corrected me
crossly. In no way is the Moon in ‘interstellar’ space, he tells me. Rockets, such as the ones described in the following article, can get us to the Moon, he
says, but not to another star, which is thousands, if not millions of years
away at the crucial number of twelve miles per second, which is the "solar
escape velocity." We apparently only need 7 to get to the Moon, as the paper
notes, and your youngest assures me that this is in sight, notwithstanding the fact that
American pioneer Professor Goddard has not reached 700mph. Your son points out
that nothing has been heard of Goddard since the war began, and happily
predicts the imminent appearance of a proper “rocket ship.” Though your eldest
throws cold water with abandon, pointing out that the ‘bazooka’ is more than
enough explanation for Goddard’s silence. The boy takes ill of being corrected
by his half-brother, vanishes to pitch futile woo at “Miss V.C.” I cannot decide which moon he is more likely to see.
I'm sorry, Reggie. But your son, in despite of superficial appearances, does not follow after you in these matters, and I count that a good thing. He will be the happier for not being the Lothario he imagines himself to be, and will find happiness far younger than you did.
“DDT news” The wonder insecticide,
which I neglected to wonder at by reason of neglecting the 12 June number of Time entirely, is credited with clearing
out the gypsy-moth plague in a 20 acre woodlot in the eastern U.S. when applied
at five pound per acre. It also, the entomologists report, got rid of all the
other insect pests.
“More Casual Confinements” Dr.
Morris L. Rotstein, taking a bit of a leaf from the “hardy jungle mother who stops
by the path a few moments to have her child, then catches up with the rest of
the child,” now lets healthy new mothers get up on the third or fourth day
after delivery and sends them home on the sixth to eighth day, thus relieving
ward crowding compared with the old stay of ten to twelve. “Many other doctors,
convinced that civilized women, like many highly bred animals, is usually
physiologically knocked out by the birth process,” disagree.”
For future reference, Reggie, do not discuss this article, or any like
it, with your daughter-out-of-law, be your tone ever so reasonable and
detached.
Speaking of unaccountably awkward
conversations, William James Sidis died this month.
Press
Senator Taft demands that more
magazines be allowed to circulate at the front under the terms of his own
legislation. Senator Taft is looking like a complete fool here, although
admittedly this is the paper’s take on
things, and Taft is no favourite of the Luces, I understand. Also, the Neosho
Mo., Miner and Mechanic will from now
on charge 10 cents/line for all poetry published in its pages. “We trust that
readers sending in poetry will keep this in mind.” I hope that the charge for
aimless political prognostication is set commensurately. The story of the papers’ correspondent Stoyan
Pribichevich’s adventures in Jugoslavia are continued in this number.
Business
“The Hot Jobs” The war-production
slump continues unabated, and the War Department is thoroughly alarmed.
Artillery, heavy ammunition, electronics, heavy tires, steel plates, tanks,
tank destroyers, dry cell batteries, cotton textiles, TNT and other explosives are
all short. Manpower in US foundries and forges are below minimum need, “there
is not a single bomber tire in the Army’s inventory,” whatever that means.
There is a need for 300% more heavy shells than anticipated, there is shortage
of tents in the southwest Pacific and hospital tents in Normandy. Nelson has
changed tack slightly, and wants to enlist 200,000 war-industry workers, and
the War Department makes it clear that “workers’ failure to sweat it out in the
toughest, most thankless war-production jobs may ultimately be measured in lost
American lives.” Good thing that it is not the War Department’s fault for
underestimating the requirement for heavy shells! (And, really, who ever heardof such a thing before?)
“Harvest Brigade” U.S. farmers only
agreed to plant an additional 13.8 million acres in wheat when they were
guaranteed that machinery would be made to harvest it. This ws done, and now a
“brigade” of self-propelled combines is far ahead of schedule. As to how the
brigade works in practice, we are given the example of A. C. Ruthenbeck, “a
tall, ruddy farmer from Tracy, Minnesota,” who took delivery of his combine in
Enid, Oklahoma last month, began cutting 200 acre of wheat for “Farmer Fred
Ash.” Cutting 5 acres an hour at 30 bushels an acre, Ruthenbeck figured that he
would cut 5000 acres in a summer-long northward trek to Minnesota, ending by
harvesting his own fields, I think, though the paper does not say so. In any
case, given that he charges $2 to $3/ acre he stands to earn $10—15,0000 on his
trek, never mind his own fields. The combine cost only $2700. It is not all
profit, but let me again laugh derisively at the thought of $5000 homes.
“Tire Trouble” It turns out that the
tire shortage is not the result of lack of rubber, but of workers and equipment
to produce heavy-duty tires. One by one, the nation’s essential trucks and
busses are limping into garages to find no tires to reshoe them. The civilian
sector will get only 25% of the second quarter allocation in the fourth, at
best.
Art,
etc.
“Hudnut versus Moses” Given that
talk of city planning just might end up being important to real estate
developers (imagine tones of heavy sarcasm, Reggie), I am pleased to report
that the fight between New York City Park Commissioner Robert Moses and assorted
city planning theorists continues in an elevated sprit of alternating,
polysyllabic temper tantrums.
G.I.s, it turns out, like musical
comedies, not “tinhorn war and home-front heroics.” They prefer Betty Grable
over all other women, but also strongly favour Rita Hayworth, Ginver Rogers,
Lena Horne, Alice Faye, Ginny Sinims, Betty Hutton, Ingrid Bergman, Greer
Garson, Bette Davis. In Britain, where they can actually see women, Hope,
Crosby, tracy, Cagney, Gable, Bobart, Abbott & Costello, Rooney, Grant and
Kaye also rate mention in popularity contests. “In Iceland, oddly enough, five
males vie with Miss Grable.” Apparently, Washington has discovered an effective
means of reducing fraternisation with our Icelandic allies. For troops in the Indian theatre, recent favourites include all-Negro musicals, while Casablanca is preferred in the Southwest Pacific, Cover Girl in Normandy. Documentaries
are not appreciated, newsreels are.
It is reported that radio now beats the papers
for news scoops, and that a collection of the famed Alexander Woollcott’s letters has been published, as well as a book by John Dos Passos, which is
described as a picture of a wartime America too tired by its own exertions of
production and learning to appreciate the miracle that it had accomplished, but
also ugly, unfinished, and in some respects fearful of the future. That is, Dos Passos tells a story about a man who
once kept a hundred Coloured on his plantation but who had sold it, so that
while his former tenants were currently making $4/day on construction jobs,
when the boom ended, there would be no-one to take care of them. Thank you, anonymous Alabamian, but the lesson here ought to be that when a good tenant is ready to be buy, you should be ready to sell.
Speaking of the inadvertently patronising, the movie
version of Pearl S. Buck’s Dragon Seed is
out, and should be showing in Britain soon. I suppose that I cannot criticise Sai Wai Yuan for providing for her future, but“by one of Hollywood’s curious
conventions, the Japanese in this film are, as usual, played by Chinese, while
the Chinese are played by the Caucasians with their eyes painfully plastered
into an Oriental oblique. The result suggests Dr. Fu Manchu and an epidemic of
pinkeye.” Grandfather, were he still able to read this and insist on his status
as the inspiration for the “Devil Doctor” would demand that dacoits be sent to
avenge the implication that he is Japanese.
Okay, well, a bit Japanese, but that was long ago, and we (almost) all share that blood.
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