Current Events November 12, 1942: AIR STRIKE AT TUNISIA / WARSHIPS STILL IN THE HANDS OF FRENCH / 18-19 DRAFT DEBATED:

     The Portsmouth Times

        PORTSMOUTH, OHIO, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1942

ALLIES STRIKE BY AIR AT TUNISIA:

WARSHIPS STILL IN HANDS OF FRENCH

TROOPS RACE TO

HEAD OFF NAZIS

By The Associated Press

LONDON, Nov. 12 — The air battle, for Tunisia was under way today, with:

Allied fighters getting in the first, blows, while German and Italian forces rushed

to battle positions in southern France and Corsica in desperate f'ear of American

invasion of Europe from the south.

.Thus were the battle lines drawn in the western Mediterranean:

1.—French naval chiefs pledged their Toulon battleship squadron to "resist all aggression"

and their move kept the Toulon naval base out of Hitler's hands — for the time being at least.

2.—Long-range two-engined HAF fighters, s t r i k i n g ; presumably from Malta, attacked the airdrome of El Aquina at Tunis yesterday, destroying l9 planes and damaging that many more—'all identified definitely as German Junkers,

Foeke-Wulf and Fiesler Storek models despite axis denials that German or Italian air forces were in Tunisia,

3.—United States troops under major General Charles Ryder and the British First army under General K. A. N. Anderson were reported sweeping close to Tunisia from the west for a test with the axis, and they were expected at t h e Tunisian border today. It was disclosed in London that General Anderson commands this thrust, with General liyder acting under his orders.

4.—The Italians announced the occupation of Corsica. French Mediterranean island which Rome long has coveted, and said their troops had passed Nice and reached the Rhone in their part of the occupation of southern France.

The Germans announced that, three panzer divisions had reached the French Mediterranean coast — but it became apparent quickly that something had gone wrong with the Nazi fuhrer's scheme to take over the Toulon fleet — three battleships and a powerful flotilla of cruisers, three battleships and a powerful fleet of destroyers and light craft.

Broadcasts from the French radio at Vichy and dispatches

transmitted by Havas, official French news agency, announced

"Inasmuch as French naval chiefs at .Toulon have pledged,

themselves to resist all aggression, German authorities have decided

that Toulon shall be a separate region. Toulon will not

be occupied, and French warships will be safeguarded."

Might Steam Away To Allies

18-19 DRAFT UP;

HOUR DEBATE ON

                                     Special To The Times

Congress worked away today on its job of synchronizing the home front with

the fighting front, calling up the proposed draft of youths 18 and 19 and taking

0ff the lid, perhaps for a finish fight, on the length of the work week.

The 18-19 draft is in response to requests of the military high command for younger men in the armed forces to give the fighting services the stamina which goes with youth.

The work week issue was brought to the front by the senate's defense investigating committee which flatly recommended enlarging the basic work week from 40 hours to 48,and paying for overtime in the future with government bonds.

This report was sharply critical of the government's failure to find an answer to the, man-power problem and set forth a series of recommendations evolved as the result of a lengthy investigation which the committee has carried out in recent weeks. No formal legislation was laid(??) before congress in the committee's report, members confining themselves to making recommendations.