4, 1942
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1942
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE THREE
U. S. Superiority--airmen will best the enemy.
New Fighting Ace Arises In Pacific Air Battle
Washington, March 4. — (UP) — Almost complete annihilation of a Japanese attacking force of 18 heavy bombers by a strong unit of the American fleet and accompanying fighter planes today supported the claims military experts here have been making for weeks—that American fliers are overwhelming superior to the Japanese.
Given only half a chance, these experts have said, American
In almost every major air engagement in the Southwest Pacific that has been announced the Japanese have come off a poor second with Americans. That was true again in the navy announcement last night of its second successful action in about a month in the Gilbert Islands area—2,500 miles southwest of the Hawaiian Islands.
The navy's communique revealed that a strong American naval force—an aircraft carrier, cruisers and destroyers—was operating west of the Gilbert Islands "recently" when attacked by 18 heavy enemy bombers in two groups of nine each. American airmen took off from the carrier and anti-aircraft guns on the surface ships went into action.
Have New Hero
The results after engaging the enemy "closely and vigorously": sixteen of the 18 Japanese bombers shot down, only two American fighter planes lost, only one American pilot lost, and no damage to American surface ships.
In addition to that box score, the navy has a new hero—Lieut. (junior grade) Edward H. O'Hare, U. S. navy fighter pilot — who single-handed, shot down six of the Japanese planes. It was the largest number of enemy planes credited to one American pilot in any single action during the war. In fact, officials here could not recall any similar feat since the use of the airplane as a war weapon.
The magnitude of O'Hare's feat was emphasized by the fact that he was on his own in a single-seater fighter, whereas the planes he was fighting were huge bombers which probably manned with crews of pilots, gunners and bombardiers.
O'Hare's home is in St. Louis. He will be 28 on March 13.
Qualifies as 'Ace'
There was little doubt here that his remarkable job would be officially recognized soon with a distinguished award. Aviators in World War I who shot down five planes—not necessarily in one engagement—were called "aces."
The navy's communique indicated that the object of the Japanese attack was the aircraft crarier. The two groups of enemy bombers, attacking about one-half hour apart, concentrated on the carrier, the lead enemy bomber of one group even seeking a suicide dive on it.
The location of the action "west" of the Gilbert Islands, in which area are hundreds of Japanese mandated islands, made it an even more daring foray than the one on Jan. 31 when a similar naval task force made a surprise raid on Gilbert and nearby Marshall Islands and sent 16 Japanese warships and auxiliaries to the bottom and destroyed 41 enemy planes.
No more entries have been received for the Inter-Organized House Sing, March 22. Ten women's houses have entered.
Navy Turns Dorothy Dix In Crisis
Washington—(UP)—The war has brought an expansion in the less publicized activities of the navy, such as
Giving advice to the lovelorn.
Enforcing a mother's edict that her sailor-son must drink a daily quota of milk.
Allaying fears of wives about their husbands in the service.
Suggesting a proper gift for a naval aviator.
Here are excerpts from some of the hundreds of letters received by the navy;
Milk For Soldier
"Last week my son who is in the navy sent me his picture. It has been worrying me much, as he does not look well and is so thin. How much milk does the navy allow each man? My son is used to having a lot and I hope he is able to get it now."
"I would appreciate it if you could trace my boy friend. No one seems to have heard from him since Nov. 24."
"My brother is a naval aviator and I want to get him a birthday present. I selected an overnight bag but am wondering whether a suitcase to hold uniforms would be better."
Always a Good Boy
"Our son enlisted a week ago Saturday in the navy. He has been told that the first three weeks they are treated terribly (quarantine period). What do they do to the boys the first three weeks that is so bad, or is this just talk?"
"Since I wrote my first letter I have heard from my husband. I am trying to decide whether I should leave here and try to join him when his ship comes to port. I am in the same quandary, I suppose, that thousands of navy wives are."
"Perhaps you might help us to get in touch with our nephew. We have written to him regularly and sent him the home town papers, and they must have reached him or they would have been returned to us. He has always been a good boy and we do not wish to write to his commanding officer."
Student Switches From Pills to Bombs
Columbus, O.—(UP)—Five years ago pretty Roberta Burger came to Ohio State University to master pharmacy and cure humanity's ills with pills.
The war changed that.
In a few weeks Roberta, a comely dark-eyed brunette, will start to work in the laboratory of the Elwood Ordnance plant at Joliet, Ill., to help make explosives.
Miss Burger, the first girl graduate of the special OSU course in the chemical composition of high explosives, attended night school and paid her expenses with a day-time job.
Allies Blast Back at New Jap Drive in Java
By UNITED PRESS
With The Allied Forces In Java, March 4—United States, British, and Australian artillery units blasted Japanese lines in the Java invasion zones today as the Netherlands Indies command rushed reinforcements to aid its fiercely fighting forces to halt a new Japanese advance.
Enemy troops, smashing forward under new fleets of bombing, dive bombing, and fighter planes which gave them aerial superiority over the little Allied force, had made gains in some sectors, it was admitted.
For 48 hours, the Allied forces, Netherlands, and Netherlands Indies troops, supported by Britons, Americans, and Australians had held the enemy hordes and driven them back in some areas.
But in the new attacks, it was admitted, the Japanese under their airplane umbrella had forced their way forward in some sectors of the three invasion areas.
New Push Succeeds
Fighting was bitter and every yard of ground was contested.
It was hoped that the strong reinforcements rushed to vital areas throughout the night might again aid the hard pressed Allies to stop the enemy advances.
It was apparent, however, that the Japanese were again making headway in the three invasion zones, mostly by infiltration across plantations and along wild, tortuous jungle trails.
25 Planes In Raid
Following up their heavy attack of yesterday, the Japanese attacked Bandoe savgely today in three raids. Twenty-five bombing planes, escorted by six fighters, engaged in one raid.
Fires were started at the airdrome and there was some damage in the city.
It was reported that bombs dropped near a hospital.
Reports said that there were few details of fighting in Bantam province at the western end of the island.
Recounting individual exploits by the Dutch soldiers "somewhere in Java" the dispatches said that one Dutch soldier let a number of Japanese tanks drive on to a bridge and then blew up bridge, tanks and himself.
A civilian motorist drove straight into the first of a column of Japanese tanks which appeared suddenly in a road, the dispatchers said, and succeeded in stopping the tank at the cost of his own life.
Bomb Private Estate
Japanese planes killed 17 persons and wounded 12 seriously yesterday when, in pursuit of this policy, they bombed and machine gunned a private estate near Tangerang, 30 miles west of Batavia.
Dispatches emphasized that both the Dutch and the Japanese were now waging total war.
Chemistry Club Meets Thursday
The Chemistry Club will meet tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 in room 201 of Bailey Chemical Laboratories. Dr. Robert Taft, professor of chemistry, will speak on "Properties of Heavy Water" and Mr. Arthur H. Auernheimer, graduate student in the chemistry department, will talk on "Some Problems of Chemotherapy."
British Bomb Targets In Paris Factory Area
London, March 4.—(UP)—British planes, opening an offensive on French factories producing war materials for Germany, bombed industrial targets in the Paris suburbs during the night while other British planes continued attacks on Germany itself.
The great Renault motor works at Billancourt, in the western suburbs of the German-controlled French capital, were the
Lost Colony In Wyoming Is Mystery
When they came, who they were and where they went are all matters for speculation. And the greatest mystery of all is where they came from in those days when Americans scarcely ventured past the Allegheny Mountains and wagon trains were a thing of the future.
Shoshone, Wyo. (UP)—The lost colony of Owl Creek—a group of white settlers who lived on the Wyoming plains around 1770, before the American Declaration of Independence, and then disappeared—today is still one of Wyoming's greatest mysteries.
The late Ed Cusack, who died several years ago in Greybull, settled on Owl Creek nearly 60 years ago and served as deputy sheriff. During that time he wrote a series of local historical narratives.
Discovery Accidental
In one of the articles he described his findings about the "lost colony."
talks about the 'lost colony'.
"Across Owl Creek where I built my house, I found the remains of a log cabin that had rotted so completely that it was by the rarest accident I stumbled onto it," Cusack wrote. "There were a few pieces of kitchen utensils scattered around and of the pattern of a hundred years ago." (He was writing before 1880.)
"Still further down on what was later the Dan Dee ranch, I found the site of a large camp ground," he wrote. "Numerous pieces of old style kitchen ware were scattered around there, showing that white people had been in the vicinity.
"Under the cedar ridge, between Thermopolis and Owl creek. I found where juniper trees had been piled together to form a barricade and the trees that had been cut showed evidence of white men's work.
"I also believe the stone breastworks on the top of Roundtop Butte were the work of white men who were besieged there by some much stronger party. But their fate will perhaps never be known."
Since Cusack's time, several searching parties have discovered further evidence of the settlement but none of the clues answered the questions of origin, identity or the fate of Wyoming's "lost colony."
Hill Bundles for America Select University Officers
In a recent meeting of the Hill sponsors of Bundles for America, the following girls were selected as officers of the University women's division: chairman, Maxine Pringle, secretary, Maxine Walker. Representatives from each of the organized houses may be chosen soon.
New wool is available again at the W.S.G.A. teas. A community room in the armory will be open each Saturday afternoon for those who wish to go there and knit.
*principal objectives of the raid.
It was intimated here that the raids marked the opening of a new phase of British bombing attacks in which the Royal Air Force was determined to strike at French industry now aiding the Germans to kill the soldiers of Britain and her allies.
It was noted that the raid came a few hours after the arrival in Paris of Vice-Admiral Jean Francois Darlan, Vichy vice-premier, who is regarded as a leader of the French collaborationists.
Vichy, France, March 4 - (UP)— Reports passed by authorized Vichy sources said today that at least 400 persons had been killed and 1,000 wounded in a British bombing raid during the night on the Paris area.
It was the first announced bombing of the Paris area since the prearmistice German raids on June 3, 1940, which caused at least 1,000 casualties.
(Since German occupation of Paris, however, the British have made occasional attacks on military airfields in the area. All industrial plants in the Paris area were turned over to the Nazis almost intact after the armistice.)
Texas Girl Travels 174 Miles to College
Zoie Odom Newsome of Texas is co-ed, commuter and housewife. She married a lawyer who has two degrees, so she decided, "I ought to have at least one degree."
To get it, a bachelor of arts degree with a major in English, she is commuting 174 miles by train and automobile daily to study at Texas Technological college, Lubbock.
At 4:50 a.m. Monday through Saturday, Mrs. Newsome arrives at her home in Snyder, Texas. At 9 a.m. she enters her first classroom.
Mrs. Newsome figures that when she gets that degree she will have traveled 50,120 miles.
The train back to Snyder leaves at 4:10 p.m. and arrives at 6:10. She rushes right home to fix dinner.
The nearly four hours a day spent on the train solves her study problem.
Fine Arts Teachers Go To Kanas City
The Western Arts association will hold its annual meeting in Kansas City's municipal auditorium April 8 to 11. The association, formed in 1893, is composed of art teachers from 26 western and mid-western states.
Thursday, April 9, the artists will be in Lawrence to view the Haskell Institute art department.
Members of the School of Fine Arts taking part in the four day program will be Miss Maude Ellsworth, instructor in the Schools of Fine Arts and Education; Mrs Betty Schwartz Carroll, instructor in design; Arvid Jacobson, instructor in design; T. D. Jones, assistant professor of design; and Bernard Frazier, instructor in architecture and design.