THE CAPITAL TIMES
MADISON, WIS., SUNDAY, JULY 19, 1942
Russ Troops
Drive Wedge
At Voronezh
Aided in Offensive By
U. S.-Made Douglas
Bombers
By EDDY GILMORE
MOSCOW—(Sunday) — (AP)
—Russian troops counterattacking
'in the Voronezh
area under p r o t e c t i o n of
A m e r i c a n-m a d e Douglas
bombers were reported today
to have driven a wedge Into
German positions and to have
occupied a number of populated
points.
The midnight communique otherwise
Indicated little change in
the desperate defense of the 'Don
river basin. The Soviets at the other
end of the front still were locked
with the Nazis "south of Millerovo,"
but the exact area was not
named.
U. S. Bombers
In New Raid
On Axis Ports
Tobruk and Bomba Are
Blasted; Brerelon in
Command
By EDWARD KENNEDY
CAIRO. Egypt.—(AP)—Disclosure
of new, hard-hitting raids on the
Axis supply ports of Tobruk and
Bomba by United States army air
forces under command of Maj.
Gen. Lewis H. Brereton marked
the rising power of air warfare
Over the weitern desert Saturday.
On the ground, British imperial
and Axis land forces battled back
and forth in bitter but inconclusive
conflict for possession of the barren
ridges west of El Alamein and
about 75 miles west of Alexandria.
Gen. Brereton, whose assumption
of command over the American
air forces in the Middle East
was made known only Saturday,
said that in 36 days of operations
the American Liberator and flying
fortress bombers had conducted 21
missions and lost only three planes
in combat.
Here's An Eyewitness Story
Of U. S. Fight on Japs
In The Aleutian Islands
Writer Tells of Sinking
Of Jap Transport:
Gives Box Score
(This is the first of a series
of stories by Staff Correspondent
Keith Wheeler of the Chicago
Times on action in the
Aleutian islands. Wheeler, attached
to the U. S. Pacific fleet,
since shortly 'after Pearl Harbor,
arrived' in Alaska with a
fleet unit shortly after the initial
Japanese attack on Dutch
Harbor and .was the first accredited
correspondent to
reach Alaska.— EDITOR'S
NOTE.)
By KEITH WHEELER
(Copyright, 1942, Chicago Times, Inc.
AT SEA WITH THE U S. PACIFIC
FLEET—(Delayed)—
The» Japs are dying in Kiska
harbor today as the war of the
Aleutian mists begins again after
three days of storms and glue-thick
fogs.
United States bombers sank a
Jap transport with a direct hit
and six near misses.
It was the first contact since
June 14, when the fog broke long
enough for eight of this command's
Catalina flying boats to drop
through the clouds over Kiska and
dump six tons of dynamite,on the
Jap ships.
One 500 pound crump fell square
on a light cruiser and started a
gaudy fire. Another dropped alongside
a transport close enough, the
bombardier felt, lo make serious
underwater damage a certainty.
As usual, the Japs had their guns
trained on ,|lie cloud breaks and
five Catalinas came away full of
holes.
Here's Box Score
According to my information,
the day's endeavors brought the"
box score in this odd IS-day-old
campaign to this:
Two Jap submarines and one
transport certainly destroyed; one
heavy cruiser torpedoed and probably
sunk; three cruisers set aflre
of six hit by bombs; one destroyer
set afire; two transports hit; several
four-engine patrol seaplanes
destroyed; one cruiser plane, one
Mitsubishi bomber, and several
Zero fighters shot down.
The contest has developed into
as grim a game of blindman's bluff
as was ever contrived by man for
the destruction of his fellows.
Through the unending fogs it ranges
up and down the bleak Aleutian
rocks, from Dutch Harbor 800
miles past Kiska and Attu, where
the Japs are getting set for what
may become a major push against
continental America.
The Japs are moving into .these
waters with as heavy a concentration
of combat ships, transports
and aircraft as they've assembled
anywhere but Midway. Their
cruisers and destroyers and two
or more aircraft carriers provided
for this show grope about in the
eternal fogs waiting for the time
to shoot the works.
Through the same waters, but
as shut off as though we occupied
another ocean, the ship on which
1 am an observer proceeds about
its mysterious affairs.
Fog Always There
It is a slow and painful business,
for though daylight runs 20 hours
a day and the nights are never
really dark, the fog is always there.
There has been no contact be
tween surface ships since June 1,
when at sunset this ship raised the
elusive sticks of three military
masts against the last westerning
light. We lost them in the dark.
The battle is not over yet. This
is no final summary. The climax
may come before these wandering
dispatches wend their painfully
uncertain way to Chicago—or It
may take all summer.
The battle began June 3, when
"honorable enemy" sent 15 fighters
and 13 Mitsubishi bombers across
misnamed Cape Cheerful to bomb
Dutch harbor in two waves several
hours apart. Before the day was
cut, navy Catalinas located an enemy
carrier and its attendant ships
off the south coast of Unalaska.
They put a shadow on the invader
and in the next 48 hours established
a record of endurance and
courage unlikely to be equalled in
this war.
On the second day, the Catalinas
led army bombers through the fog
to two carriers hanging out
fails to Explode
That day a torpedo-carrying B-
26 bomber established contact long
enough to attack. He bored in at
the carrier's looming hulk, one of
Japan's largest, and cut loose his
tin fish. Instead of going into the
water, the torpedo dropped on the
carrier's flight deck, and worked as
much destruction as a 2,000-pound
weight can work anywhere it happens
to fall. It did not explode.
Meanwhile Jap ships, submarines,
and airplanes popped up
with bewildering frequency al!
along the chain, as far eastward a!
Vnimak pass and Shumagin is
lands. The Shumagins lie under the
Alaskan peninsula, 200 miles toward
the mainland from the tip.
Numerous one-sided dogfight:
developed between the lumbering
Catalinas and nimble Zero fighter:
off the carriers. One Catalina was
shot down in flames and many suf
fered damage. The Cats accounted
for at least one attacking Zero.
The Japs attacked Dutch Har-
bor again, inflicting 'some damage
and a few casualties, but making
no real progress toward blasting
that base.
Our first sizable lick at the
enemy was the accomplishment o
two B-26 bombers that suddenly
found themselves out of the mist
and sitting over a 10-gun heavy
cruiser, one' of Japan's best. They
attacked and hit her bow and stern
with two torpedoes. It appeared
they reported laconically, a
though "destruction seemed cer-
tain."
No Quick Cleanup
If a quick cleanup of the in-
vading force had been planned by
us. that first day was enough to
establish the error of our plan.
Some bomber flights were never
able to get off, others hunted for
hours through mists — probably
passing within spitting distance
of the Jap ships without seeing
them.
The next day was no different
The big Catalinas still ranged the
mists, and by this time they were
carrying torpedoes.
A Jap submarine committed a
error of judgment that day, as I
get it, and surfaced 15 miles
southeast of Egg island, almost
under the bow of one cf our ships
The ship promptly tossed over
four ashcans and the undersea
boat joined the growing list of
vanishing Japanese shipping. Until
June 11 the weather continue
"progressively worse" and what
contacts developed were few and
brief—and destructive mainly to
the bone-weary Catalina crews. 1
began to look as though their she-
lacking at Midway had persuaded
the Japs to go home and think it
over.
A "Baby Typhoon"
The night of June 9 we strug-
gled through what the skipper
chose to call "a baby -typhoon,"
wind out of the south so. harsh an
violent that when you stepped
from the lee of the bridge it
crushed your flesh and sucked the
breath from-your lungs.
All that falsely twilight night
the big gray seas marched up to
port three decks high and rolled
away to starboard In a blast of
wind that tore tons of water from
the crests and sent it lashing
downward in white blizards of
spray.
On June 10 we discovered our
visitors were still with us, for the
weather-broke long enough for the
Catalinas to take a look at Kiska
harbor and there they were. The
next-day the Cats found Japs on
Attu, the last barren bit of American
soil this side of, Russia.
Since then our planes have been
running a shuttle service of bombers
with everything that will fly to
Kiska and have gas enough to get
home.
