CBI Roundup - January 11, 1945 - China-Burma-India Theater of World War II

SUB-SATIONAL
SEATTLE - APL 47, one of the most unusual vessels ever constructed, was launched this week by the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Co. No. 47 is a 260-foot floating barracks, hospital, hotel and recreation center for submarine crews.
In addition to a four-bed isolation ward and 10 sick beds, there's a surgical operating room, dental office, barber shops, cafeteria and a movie theater.

PUZZLE SOLVED
SPRINGFIELD - Light was shed this week on the mystery of Illinois' missing auto plates, made of soy beans to save metal.
They are being eaten by man's best friend. Fido Pooches of all sizes and shapes, guided by keen noses, are munching on the auto tags.
Some dogs gallop alongside slow-moving trucks and cars, waiting for the dinner gong when the vehicles stop.

VOL. III NO. 18 REG NO. L5015 DELHI, THURSDAY JANUARY 11, 1945

AKYAB TAKEN BY SEABORNE THRUST

KALEIDOSCOPIC LOOK AT BURMA CAMPAIGN

This kaleidoscope of Army Signal Corps and ASC photos which recently came out of North Burma gives you a brief, but vivid look at the Allied campaign being waged against the hard-pressed enemy. These are scenes of the Mars Task Force, the grim sight of a dead Jap's skeleton, a battered Buddhist temple. And, center, are three lieutenant generals who are the brains behind the Allied drive, left to right, Dan I. Sultan, personally directing the Allied campaign; Sir Oliver Leese, Chief of Allied Land Forces, Southeast Asia; and Sun Li-jen, commander of the Chinese First Army.

Sultan's Chinese Seize Man Wing
In Offensive Toward Namkham Roundup Staff Article   A seaborne British and Indian force under Gen. Alexander Christison this week seized Akyab Island, thus virtually climaxing the Arakan Campaign, in the most significant development on the Burma battlefront. This force swarmed ashore in what amounted to an "invasion exercise" after it developed that the Japs had evacuated. Only signs of enemy occupation were two rusty and non-usable field guns.
  Climax of the Arakan Campaign followed the drive which was started down the coast on Dec. 14, when the 25th Indian Division drove down the Mayu Peninsula from Maungdaw to Foul Point, separated from Akyab Island only by a four-mile stretch of water.

PATROL ACTION
  On the Central Burma front, it was reported from Headquarters of Lt. Gen. Dan I. Sultan that patrol actions were being carried out by American, Chinese and British forces under his command to feel out the toughness of Jap positions.
  The most noteworthy Allied advance was made by the Chinese 30th Division moving along the Bhamo-Namkham Road. This force occupied Man Wing, located on Mile 64, seven miles west of Namkham and four miles south of Pangkham. From Man Wing, an all-weather road extends north to Pangkham, then to Loi Wing and on northeast to Wanting.
  Working south from Pangkham, other units have cleared three miles of the road, leaving only one mile unclaimed. Still another force, striking southeast from Pangkham, is nearing the Shweli River and is about three miles from Namkham. Finally, a fourth unit, hitting south just west of the Namkham Road near Man Wing, occupied three villages (Man Maw, Man Hwi and Man Mawn) after Jap patrols moved out.

14TH'S BRIDGEHEADS
  Chinese troops in the Loi Wing sector are clearing the area north of the Shweli River down towards Namkham. These troops are now about 25 airline miles from elements along the Salween Front, where units captured Wanting, then were driven out by a Jap counter-attack.
  Along the 14th Army sector in Central Burma, advances were made from the bridgeheads established east of the Mu River. Stern Jap opposition was encountered in the Kabe and Ye-u sectors and at Thayetpyinzu. Hitting from the north, the British advanced slowly towards Shwebo. In the Kaladan Valley, patrols were active.
  Ye-u, which is the terminus of the railroad to Mandalay, was occupied by 14th Army units early in the week to bring them within 70 air miles of Mandalay. This week in Washington, Brig. Stephen F. Irwin, formerly on the General Staff of the 14th Army, said "Mandalay is within our grasp."
  B-29's hit Bangkok during the week in attacks launched from India bases.
  Allied naval carrier-borne aircraft also hit the oil refinery at Pangkalan Brandan in Sumatra. Photographs showed that the whole weight of the bombs fell in the target area. Seven enemy aircraft were shot down by escorting Hellcats and Corsairs, and a number destroyed on the ground.

WANTING TAKEN, LOST BY SALWEEN CHINESE

  CHUNGKING - U.S. Army headquarters said opening of the new Ledo-Burma Road had been delayed by the Japanese recapture of the border town of Wanting, but Brig. Gen. Marvin Gross, Assistant Chief of Staff for Plans, declared Chinese troops are expected to resume the offensive almost immediately and not only retake Wanting but also strike at the Burma village of Namhkam.
  A Chinese spokesman stated that American trucks are waiting west of The Hump to rush supplies to China, and only road repairs are needed for the vehicles to start the breaking of the long Jap land-blockade of China.
  When the Chinese troops took Wanting, some of the bitterest fighting of the entire Salween Campaign, clearing all of Yunnan Province, had seemingly culminated. Before the Chinese could consolidate their positions, however, the Japs swarmed back.
  In the meantime, Dr. T. F. Tsiang, chief of political affairs in the Executive Yuan, expressed the hope that Chiang Kai-shek's New Year's message, which implied introduction of constitutional government this year, would facilitate agreement between the National Government and the Communists.
  China-based B-29's hit the enemy airplane center of Omura during daylight. One Super-Fort is missing; presumed lost. The 29's claim one enemy fighter destroyed five probables and three damaged. Flames were observed in the target area.

JAPYANK BECOMES CHINESE PRISONER
MARSMAN GETS 'TAKEN FOR A WALK'

  MARS TASK FORCE, BURMA - Cpl. Tokyo (Tony) Uemoto, Honolulu-born Nisei, member of the Mars Task Force, spent an exciting night as a prisoner of the Chinese, during one of the early actions of the new American combat unit.
  Uemoto was sleeping in his foxhole when he was awakened by strange voices. He heard an order to charge given in Japanese. That was enough. Bare-foot, he jumped out of the foxhole and ran straight into the arms of a Chinese soldier.
  The soldier took his catch to a Chinese officer, who kept him busy most of the night walking in his bare feet toward the American lines. Each time they neared the front line, there was a new burst of action and the guard headed the prisoner back to the Chinese officer.
  After four hours, the Japanese were beaten back and a foot-sore Uemoto finally reached the American positions and was released.

THEY CALL HER 'THE SHAPE'

Fliers in the Pacific area plan to drop Jap soldiers this picture of Frances (The Shape) Vorne, with the following inscription: "Eat your hearts out, you monkeys — here's what were fighting for." The Shape is wearing a swim suit made from a captured Nazi parachute.

I-B & C THEATERS

  WASHINGTON - In his State of the Union message to Congress, President Roosevelt declared that "British, Dominion and Chinese forces, together with our own, have not only held the line in Burma against determined Japanese attacks, but have gained bases of considerable importance to the supply line into China."
  "The Burma campaigns," he said, "have involved incredible hardship and have demanded exceptional fortitude and determination.
  "The officers and men who have served with so much devotion in these far distant jungles and mountains deserve high honor from their countrymen."
  The President stated that U.S. overall strategy has not neglected the important task of rendering all possible aid to China and underlined the fact that ATC tonnage has mounted, month by month.

FLYING BOMB USED BY JAPS IN CHINA?

KUNMING - Maj. Gen. C. L. Chennault disclosed this week that the Japanese are using some kind of flying bomb for air defense in China.
He said it was not yet determined whether the bombs were launched from planes or the ground, but so far they have had no great success.

M.P.'S DROP HOT CASE

  The M.P.'s around Calcutta pride themselves on being on the ball, but after a recent investigation had been completed they were squarely behind the eight-ball.
  They picked up a G.I. who, they considered, had been spending an over-ample amount of rupees and also had been observed mixing a strange herb in his drink. Putting two and two together, as M.P.'s often do, they decided he might be a narcotic peddler.
  Questioning revealed that the G.I. had about Rs. 1,000 when he hit Calcutta, but he proved he had won it in the old Army tradition of being "hot" in a crap game.
  Asked about the mysterious herb he had mixed in his drink, he replied (and it was later proved to be true by chemical analysis) "That's from my uncle back in Carolina, it keeps my bowels regular. I've been taking it for years."

BURMA PEACOCKS HAVE IRRAWADDY FLEET

  BURMA - The "First Fleet" of the Burma Peacocks, crack Air Service Command group backing up tactical units of the 10th Air Force, has taken to the cool, swift waters of the Irrawaddy.
  Under command of "Vice-Admiral" (Capt.) Donald P. Cutter, former racer of hydroplanes, the flotilla consists of three good ships and true, and their purpose is to effect crash rescues if ever needed, engage in routine patrol, and be johnny-on-the-spot if needed to prevent drowning by bathing military personnel.
  Flagship of the fleet is a 25-foot teak boat formerly used by the Japs and found sunk on a sand bar by ASC aquatic explorers. The craft was repaired and an outboard engine installed. It has fittings for the mounting of machine guns, and in its improved condition a mortar could be fired from its planking.
  The two "Chief Petty Officers" who had most to do with ship-wright work and who now command other craft, are Sgt. Leonard Vandergriffe and Cpl. Claire E. Sitts. The seamen were not daunted to see the bow of the Jap vessel knocked off, but went to work with caulking tar on the seams and battens.
  In the "line" of the First Fleet also are an 18-foot rescue boat of the Pan-wey design, out of Detroit, powered by a Grey marine engine, and a 10-man invasion boat of rubber, equipped with machine gun mounts. As "mother ship" there is an amphibious truck, which reached the Irrawaddy via the Ledo Road on its own wheels.
  The "Pan-wey" cruiser also negotiated the Ledo Road, on a truck and trailer driven by Cpl. William S. Harvin. This job required steel nerves on the hairpin turns, when it was necessary on occasion to get a boost from the rear by another truck.
  The Burma Peacocks Navy also does a little fishing on the side.

Honored
UNIQUE AWARD
FOR MAILMAN

  A new honor has been bestowed upon Cpl. Max (Mickey) Wendroff, mail clerk for the headquarters squadron of the Burma Banshees.
  During a Christmas party at a jungle airstrip from which P-47's of his group operate, Wendroff was presented with a newly dreamed-up award, the "Corn Plaster Poultice." Lt. Col. Albert L. Evans, Jr., the group commander, pinned the toy poultice on his breast.
  The citation, read by Maj. John L. Clarks, Group Executive, stated:
  "For great and meritorious services to the Fighter Group, the CORN PLASTER POULTICE is hereby awarded to

CPL. MAX WENDROFF. Facing the perils of leopards, bulldozers and trucks, aftern deprived of means and locomotion other than his two feet, Cpl. Wendroff braved the whirling propellers and roaring engines of mighty transports to rescue from their bellies the coveted mail of this organization. With persistence, patience and repetitiousness, he answered in the negative all inquiries for letters, and with agility and swift-footedness avoided all attempts at lynching at the hands of the news hungry mob. Guardian of the morale of the group, he has allowed a trickle of mail to pass through his hands, large enough to stave off madness but not large enough to comfort the homesick and depressed. Such delicacy of judgment, combined with such persistent tenacity to life, has endeared him to all his comrades, and this POULTICE is herewith awarded with the hope that it will warm his hard and scheming heart and produce more mail for everyone."
A second honorary "Corn Plaster Poultice" was awarded to Col. George Moy for his "indomitable services swaying from a perilous perch" while operating the motion picture projector three times a week. - By Lt. WARREN BREED.

New War Dance
FOR KACHINS

  AN AMERICAN-KACHIN RANGER CAMP - The Kachin guerilla fighters serving under an American officer at this camp recently learned something new in dancing.
  The Kachins - a mongoloid hill race of North Burma, who specialize in ambushing the Japs behind their own lines - were holding a ceremonial "daw" dance in honor of a group of American officers and enlisted men. The little mountain fighters, who flay the air with their long, machete-like knives during the dance, were cheered and applauded.
  Then Maj. Reuben A. Holden, IV, of Cincinnati, one of the visiting officers, walked to the middle of the jungle clearing and did an American Indian war-dance, complete with war cries and ughs.
  The Kachins liked it so well they've learned the dance as an encore to their own tribal ceremony.

STRICTLY G.I. By Ehret

"HELLO! IS THERE REALLY A MASQUERADE PARTY
AT THE RED CROSS TONIGHT?"

Orderlies Get Books

  ATC BASE, ASSAM - Mail orderlies were sobbing in their coffee during the Christmas mail rush. All because of a Detroit sob sister and one Cpl. Maurice H. Granger.
  Said Granger was sent back to a Special Service School in the States, then returned to his unit. In Detroit, he told columnist Jane Lee of the News the story of the book-loving G.I.'s of Assam, who had plenty of love but no books.
  Jane printed the story in her column, with a request to her faithful readers to send books during the holiday season when no written request was necessary. The books arrived - about 800 of them in separate packages - all addressed to Granger.
  Then Granger opened his own presents from home. He found they were all books.

Sad Sackish G.I. May Have Lost Gem Fortune

  BURMA - Pfc. Olin B. Starkey, a Yank machine-gunner in this area, stumbled and fell on his face in the soft sand of a beach. In the bright moonlight grains of sand and little pebbles glittered on his hands. He brushed them off, saving two small round stones which he tossed into his mouth to suck on and allay his thirst. He went on about his business.
  In the morning, Starkey happened to glance at his pebbles before throwing them away. They were small and bluish-white, and the sunlight struck a bright star in each. Starkey held two star sapphires, uncut, sea-polished, each about the diameter of one of his own machine-gun slugs.
  Morning had found Starkey far from the beach where he found the gems. For all he knows, he may have fallen face-first into a fortune and swept it all away with a brush of his hands. Life holds no ambition now, says Starkey, but to return to that lonely beach one day with a few mail sacks, a couple of barracks bags, assorted trunks, and a sturdy shovel. - By Sgt. EMMETT McCARTHY.

Assam ATC Outfit Cuts Hump Marks

  1328TH ATC BASE UNIT, ASSAM - This ICD-ATC base smashed 21 previous records for trips and tonnage over The Hump with a limited number of ships recently.
  New marks were chalked up for trips by single aircraft, tons per ship, ton miles, average loading time and best loading time by men under command of Maj. Claren U. Pratt.
  The suggestion that the men try for a record was made by Pratt just four hours before "starting time." The personnel pitched in and started shattering old records. Results were radioed to Brig. Gen. William H. Tunner, ICD-ATC commander, who messaged back: "I could not have had a better Christmas present."

LT. RAYMOND G. ARIMOND
He Hoofed It

AIRMAN JOINS THE FOOT-SLOGGERS

    AN ADVANCED CHINA AIR BASE - American airmen rarely join the foot slogging Infantry and watch from the ground the dogged, step-by-step job of fighting that is the lot of the men in the front lines. But Lt. Raymond G. Arimond, Communications Officer of the "Assam Draggin'" squadron on the Salween River Front, recently found himself assigned to just such a job.
  Buckling-on full field equipment, Arimond flew, jeeped and walked down to join the Chinese troops in the Lungling sector. His assignment was to set up an air-to-ground communications system that would give on-the-spot directions to the pilots when they arrived over the battle area in fighter-bombers.
  The lieutenant volunteered when the operations section of Col. John C. Kennedy's Composite Wing called for a man who could set up a radio system that would cut communications corners.
  Air support at the time was a somewhat hit-or-miss operation. Word descriptions and map coordinates were all the pilots had to go by, and picking out camouflaged enemy targets in the tangled China-Burma jungles was a task for a magician. Pilots requested some form of radio liaison with the front.
  Arimond, assigned to this task, shouldered his pack, bucked his way through the jungles to the front, and went to work with Y-Force men and liaison groups sent down by the Wing to coordinate the air-ground campaign to free Lungling.
  He chose a mountainside observation point overlooking the front lines and the enemy-held town. The Japs' fear of the Draggin' sting caused them to move their troops and supplies only at night or during weather in which all planes were grounded. But from his hillside, Arimond soon spotted most of the major storage areas and fortifications.
  Whenever a hole in the monsoon overcast left a target in the open, fighters of the squadron would appear and call Arimond by radio for instructions. He then directed them to bomb innocent-looking clumps of trees and buildings that would suddenly burst into tremendous secondary explosions and large fires. The bombing runs made, fighters called for Jap front line positions and proceeded, at the direction of the ground radio station, to strafe trenches, fortifications and bivouac areas.
  Living conditions on Arimond's hillside were primitive. His quarters were a dug-out covered with a grass roof, which proved to be no protection against heavy monsoon rains. The dugout also served as radio station and protection against enemy rifle and machine gun fire. Jap shells were constantly lobbed overhead, directed at Chinese targets beyond the hill, but occasional shorts made the dugout more than a blessing.
  Food consisted of rice, Army rations dropped by plane during clear weather, occasional vegetables and bananas grown locally. Water was ported up the mountain from a friendly village, Chinese soldiers carrying it in large bamboo tubes slung from shoulder bars.
  After a month in his wet observation post, Arimond had communications between air and ground operating smoothly. He returned to his outfit leaving a liaison team behind to carry on the work with Y-Force at the front.
  A brother, William, is a master sergeant, who fought with the Rangers on the Anzio Beachhead and pushed on to Cisterna where, cut off from their own line, they fought to the last cartridge. The sergeant now is a prisoner of war in Germany.
  Another brother, Vincent, is a seaman first class in the Navy, operating a PT-boat in the South Pacific.

SOMEWHERE IN THE TEAK GROVE A SNIPER PROWLED
AVIATION ENGINEERS MODERNIZE BHAMO AIRSTRIP

Pfc. Virgil Clem, of Middletown, O., slings his rifle over his shoulder while operating a steam roller on the new Bhamo airstrip. At the time this picture was taken by the Signals Corps., the front lines were only 200 yards away and a Jap sniper was active in the nearby teak forest. The sniper was call Junior, but there was nothing puerile about his shooting. At the time of this picture the Jap had already sent some men to the casualty station. The hard-bitten Engineers of Clem's outfit went on with their work as they had done at Myitkyina.

  BHAMO - Somewhere in the teak grove, beyond the seared rice paddy, Junior, the Nip sniper, was prowling. At intervals, the bark of his long rifle punctuated the crash of the 155's and the cough of the mortars. Then we'd duck as Junior's calling card whistled across the clearing.
  "We call him Junior," said S/Sgt. Colin Fry, construction foreman of an Aviation Engineer outfit which was turning the Bhamo dry weather strip into a modern airfield. "We started working on the strip the day after the Chinese took it from the Nips. Junior was at close range then, and damned annoying. Now the Nips have been pushed back into the town and we don't pay much attention to him anymore."
  Perhaps Junior was the sort of fellow you have to get used to. I guess I just hadn't been around long

enough. And, an earlier visit to the front line casualty station at the end of the strip had given me a healthy respect for Junior. There's nothing like the sight of a Chinese soldier, sprawled on a bloody litter with a bullet hole in his forehead, to engender a cautious mood.
  But you can't build an airfield when you're crouching in a foxhole. The hard-bitten, bewhiskered Engineers - veterans of Myitkyina - worked on through the shooting. On the edge of the teak grove, a control tower was taking form. High up on the timbers, Pfcs. Joe Edwards and Edgar V. Sendrikowski and Pvt. Alexander M. Finch were hammering and sawing as casually as if they were practicing the carpentry trade in Kalamazoo instead of 200 yards from the front lines.
  Out on the strip, in the center of the paddy, Pfc. Virgil Clem was operating an antiquated steam roller which had been abandoned by the Japs. "It ain't the snipin' that makes me mad," he said. "It's the damned mortar shells they lob over. I'm gettin' tired of fillin' shell holes."
  In an effort to prevent a recurrence of the surprise glider invasion of the Myitkyina airstrip by Allied forces, the Japs had turned the Bhamo field into a glider death trap. They had lined the field with a network of ditches, five feet deep and three feet wide. And, here and there, they had sunk wood and steel posts into the ground, designed to rip to shreds any plane or glider which attempted to land on the field.
  Thus, before actual work could be started on the airfield, the Engineers had to remove the glider obstacles, fill the ditches and check the area for anti-personnel and land mines. All this work was accomplished when the front lines were less than 100 yards from the field.
  Capt. John W. Davis, the Engineer outfit's surgeon, and I sat on top of a captured Jap pillbox on the edge of the field. The pillbox was typical of Jap defenses. About 15 feet deep, it was covered with a network of heavy logs, bamboo and earth, and was camouflaged artfully with vegetation. One narrow doorway opened onto steep, earthen steps which led into the pillbox.
  Below us, in the shade of a broad teak tree, sat a Chinese soldier with his tommy gun propped against his knees. And Cpl. Dominick Antonetti, Pfc. Donald Joergensen and Pvt. Chester E. Ward were amusing themselves during a "break" by attempting to teach him English through the medium of a tattered copy of Thrilling Adventure.
  Antonetti would spell a word slowly, pointing out each letter, "G. A. T. - gat," he'd read from the lurid literature. Then he'd pat the tommy gun, "Gat, GAT," he'd shout.
  And suddenly the Chinese would grin broadly, pat the tommy gun and nod his head violently. "Ding-how," he'd say, "Ding-how."
  After a few repetitions of this oral English class, the G.I.'s went back to work, leaving the Ding-how boy alone to absorb Western culture from the magazine's cover, which was devoted to a scantily clad, voluptuous female tied to a stake.
  "This is the second field we've taken over in the Bhamo area," Davis said. "When we first arrived here the last part of November the Chinese had just captured the strip at Momauk, about nine miles east of Bhamo."
  Lack of equipment was the biggest headache for the Engineers in those early days, the captain recalled. Under the direction of Capt. Jean W. Pressler, commanding officer of the unit, two bullet-riddled steam rollers - 1900 model - which the Japs had left behind as useless were repaired and put to work. And a patrol of Engineers went behind the Nip lines one night and returned with two D-7 bulldozers which had been brought to Burma before the war by Standard Oil.
  With this handful of equipment, they enlarged the Momauk strip within a few days so C-47 cargo planes could land with vital supplies and machinery.
  Today, the Momauk airfield has become an assembly factory. Unloading crews, under S/Sgt. Robert E. Zook, empty the large cargo planes as quickly as they land. Engineering equipment - Bulldozers, road graders, carry-alls, cranes, trucks - is disassembled at airfields in India and flown to Momauk.
  Most of this equipment is reassembled and put to work within 49 hours on the Bhamo airfield.
  "It was only through the use of these 'flying boxcars' that our men were able to make such rapid progress on the airfield," Davis said, "not that those boys who comprised the survey parties, clearing parties - the equipment operators and construction men don't deserve a lot of credit. They were working on this strip when the Nips were throwing a lot more lead than they are today."
  The captain pointed down to the field where Sgt. Fry, T/Sgt. Harold Popewing and S/Sgt. Charles Wallace were grouped about a half-filled shell crater. "Fry is quite a fellow," he said. "He was one of the leading middle weight boxers in England before the war. When the Luftwaffe started its blitz, he brought his wife and children to America for safe-keeping. And when America got in the war, he volunteered for the Army. Now he is burned up because he's fighting the Japs and not the Nazis."

Cpl. James H. Smith, left, accepts a Benares evening purse, the winning prize in a pin-up photo contest of wives and sweethearts of an Aviation Engineer Battalion of the 10th Air Force, EAC. The smiling gentleman handing Smith the award is Cpl. Stanley Green, who supervised the contest.

ENGINEERS SELECT BURMA PIN-UP

  HQ., 10TH AIR FORCE — Taking up the matter of womanly pulchritude after a day's work on a 10th Air Force airstrip recently, troops of a Negro Aviation Engineer battalion in Burma made their choice of "Miss Engineer."
  Voting took place as the troops filed into their post exchange after a hard day's work on the airstrip. It took several days to complete balloting, and when votes were counted, Miss Anne Abraham. 16, 1125 Tinton Ave., Bronx. N.Y., was acclaimed the winner.
  Miss Abraham's picture was entered by Cpl. James H. Smith, also of the Bronx, naturally. To the winner went a stunning Benares evening purse, a handmade product of India. Smith had the prize in the mail for Miss Abraham post-haste.
  Runner-up in the close contest was Miss Josephine Williams of Brooklyn, now a junior student at Virginia State College. Her picture was submitted by Cpl. Henry C. Gretn, naturally from Brooklyn.
  The entire battalion joined in the voting, bulldozers, road graders, and gravel-crushers becoming of secondary interest. Nineteen pictures of sweethearts and wives were pinned up in the PX for the voters' consideration.

THAT G.I. INGENUITY USES PLEXIGLASS

CHINA AIR BASE — Cpl. Robert Rutter, message center clerk in an Air Service Command group here, has found a way to make good use of plexiglass which is no longer salvageable. Rutter, using a file and patience on several burned and shattered fragments of plexiglass from a damaged P-51, has made 31 Watch crystals for G.I. buddies within the past month. Rutter estimates about two square inches of the glass for each crystal. His customers claim his products are superior to commercial products and have filled a crying need, inasmuch as regular crystals have a high casualty rate.

Rice Bowl
GROUND FORCES BEAT SOS

  HQ CT & CC, CHINA THEATER — Capitalizing on two pass interceptions and a safety, the Army Ground Force, touch football champions of China, fought off a strong SOS team to win the New Year's Day Rice Bowl classic, 16-0, before a large G.I. crowd.
  Ground Force grabbed a slight edge, on a safety in the first Period, adding touchdowns on pass interceptions by Wolfe for 40 yards in the third and Bruner for 60 yards in the fourth. Ben Schall booted both extra points.
  SOS often penetrated enemy territory but could not muster a score. Of 20 aerials they tossed in the second half, only four were completed.
  The Lineups:
GROUND KORCE: Uhlen, Meyers, Autry, Petiit, Wolfe, Chapman, Schall, Bruner and Becker.
SOS: Crowe, Demski, Harding, Roland, Snyder, Staley, Hardee, Sleteher and Heckman.

Landhi Grabs Karachi Title

  KARACHI — Hail to the Landhi Lions, winners of Karachi's Dust Bowl football classic on New Year's Day and the new rulers of pigskin prominence at this West India port. The hitherto unconquered Karachi All-Stars tumbled before the flyers, 18-0, in the holiday tilt.
  Scoring for the winners were: Rocheleau and O'Donnell, the latter hitting paydirt twice. The All-Stars could not match the smooth passing attack, nor the clever ground maneuvers of the outfit coached by Captain Simonetti, Lt. R. J. Kruse and Sergeant Young.
  Playing for the winners were: Adams, Bartholic, Bateman, Fletcher, Futris, Jordan, Koesling, Lasher, Leach, Leyer, O'Donnell, Olson, Rocheleau, Roth, Thacker, Williams, Herr, Kerk, Alfen, Bowen, Tartaglia and Hurwitz.

LEDO ALL-STARS STAGE SKIRMISH

  ALONG THE LEDO ROAD - All-star teams from two crack leagues in this sector clashed before a record-breaking throng recently as Luke Sewell, Paul Waner, Dixie Walker and Art Patterson added big time color. The Nationals defeated the Americans, 4-0.
  Walker played right field for the winners, while Waner pinch-hit and twirled one inning for the Americans, striking out two and giving two hits. Sewell, who umpired at third, praised the ability of all players.
  Lineups: AMERICAN — Carter, Decker, Favors, Larsen, Sharkey, Powell, Giambelluca, Thompkins, Costa, Turner, Atlaiby, and Waner.
  NATIONAL - E. T. Smith, Hugh Smith, Kaminskl, Dietrich, Schuster, Martin, Sater, Patlon, Walker, Meyers, Ickes, Kuk, Zelasko, Pratt, Bellecci, Hart, Clark and Bowers.

GENINATTI STARTS TOURNEY, WINS IT

  ASSAM — Pitchers frequently win their own baseball games, but it's news when a racket wielder cops' his own tennis tournament. That, however, is exactly the story of Sgt. John Gcninatti, who as a Special Service athletic technician carved a tennis court out of the jungle, organized the Ledo Road tourney, and then beat all comers to annex the crown.
  Geninatti, who formerly starred on the University of Illinois tennis team, easily won the final round, defeating Capt. B. A. Frank, 6-4, 6-2, 6-0. The runnerup, in his heyday, play on an undefeated University of Miami squad.
  Frank teamed with Capt. Paul Edwards to win the doubles title by downing Lt. E. I. Sterghos and Pvt. Joe Kazakevich in an exciting, see-saw match, 6-3, 9-11, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.
  The tournament, which was the first held along the Ledo Road, attracted 43 entrants from Assam and Burma including, besides G.I.'s and officers, Red Cross personnel, a Chinese colonei and a Chinese civilian.

PATIENCE TOP VIRTUE FOR MULE SKINNER
By HUGH CRUMPLER    United Press Correspondent

    WITH MARS TASK FORCE, BURMA - "Seven" is a big, brown cantankerous mule with heavy artillery for hind legs.
  "Seven," one of the mules of a Quartermaster Pack Troop unit attached to the Mars Task Force, is so ornery that the blacksmiths long ago gave up the idea of putting shoes on the kicking hybrid.
  Cpl. Marvin E, Taylor, the "packer" in charge of the barefooted kicker, tired himself out shouting, "Look out, that's 'Seven,'" every time any of the men came within range. He bobbed "Seven's" tail as a danger sign.
  "Seven** is the only bang-tailed, bare-footed mule in the outfit, but not the only character.
  Pfc. Eugene C, Owens' mule, "Bhamo," just naturally likes to buck. "Bhamo" does five minutes of fancy footwork and aerial reconnaissance every morning after Owens puts on the pack-saddle.
  Owens and his buddy, Pfc. Singleton Summerall, just sit down and watch "Bhamo" buck himself out. Summerall's mule, 'Tat," watches, too, and seems to be disgusted with "Bhamo's" shenanigans.
  The best mule of the outfit, according to Capt. Ralph A. Hatch, Jr., the C.O. is "Buttercup II," a 1,400-pound animal bossed by Sgt. Darwin H. Lee. Lee's first mule, "Buttercup I" went with him through the campaign of Merrill's Marauders.
  Until he joined the Cavalry after graduation from Massachusetts State College, Hatch's experience with animals was limited to boyhood canters on a Shetland pony. The other two officers of the outfit, Lts. W. S. Roche and Raymond E. Vendsel, were farm boys.
  Most of the men in the outfit are Mid-Western and Southwestern farm boys, but there are some big city men who turn out to be excellent muleskinners.
  "The main qualifications for a muleskinner," says Hatch, "are patience and at least as much sense as the mule. Farm boys are the best, of course, but some city boys seem to get along naturally with animals.
  "Some don't. I've one packer who was a mechanic, still is a mechanic and always will be a mechanic as far as handling mules is concerned."
  The pack mule outfit holds the walking record for the Mars Task Force. They started at Ledo, almost 300 miles behind the Infantry, and walked a total of 1500 miles before coming under fire for the first time.

RETREAT NIPS 'DUCKNAPPER'

  While the Roundup doesn't vouch for this story, we are first to concede that anything can happen in the Air Corps.   G.I.'s at HQ, AAF. I-B Theater, had a flock of ducks for New Year's dinner, so this story goes, and one enterprising laddie "ducknapped" two of them, presumably for his own private repast.
  Discovering this, the Mess Officer dispatched one of his sergeants to recover the birds.
  The sergeant returned with the ducks in admirable time. His explanation to the surprised and gratified officer:
  "It was simple. The bugler was sounding retreat. The G.I. was standing at attention. So I simply relieved him of the ducks."

C-47 Bombs Japs Lines

  BHAMO - Capt John W. Davis and Lt. Hertal A. Missimer of the Aviation Engineers at the airstrip here believe in rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.
  They found an unexploded 250-pound Jap bomb near their bivouac area. They loaded the bomb into a jeep, took it to the nearest airfield and persuaded a C-47 pilot to fly them over the Jap lines.
  Ten minutes later they returned to report a bulls-eye. The bomb had landed squarely on a Jap emplacement It had been kicked out the open door of the plane by the duo. A goal for the Engineers.

Cobra Rears Ugly Head

ASSAM - Sgt. Leonard J. Straus and T/5 William L. Lynch were trouble-shooting on an open wire circuit at night in the Assam Valley recently. They searched for a "short" and finally saw something dangling over the wires.
It looked like a routine job, and Straus climbed a pole. He leaned over to pull off the object and saw it was a snake, a cobra to be exact. The snake was finally cleared with a pole. But all troubleshooting crews are now equipped with anti-snake venom kits. The boys are awaiting weekly lectures on snake nomenclature, and fuselage recognition.

ASC MOTHER EAGLE TO AIR FORCES' FIERCE BROOD

The P-51, left, is ready for the first test flight, after her birth at an ASC base from the assembly line. Lts. John Gardner and Knut D. Holmgren, both with more than 700 hours, take over. Right, Lt. Col. Lloyd E. Arnold, CO of the Repair Airdrome, and Capt. Drayton E. Morris, Engineer Officer.

  Like birds of the air that first must be coddled in their nest before they are able to take off in solitary flight, Uncle Sam's metal eagles go through a similar period of careful prepping and handling before they are ready to cleave the skies of Burma in pursuits of the Japanese vultures with the flaming red balls painted on their wings.
  Between the end of the airplane assembly line in Uncle Sugar and the combat air of Asia is an intricate program of shipment, erection, and testing that is entrusted to Air Service Command, mother-eagle of the United States Army Air Forces' fierce brood.
  In Bengal, the program begins. Here at the headquarters of a vast Indian river system, the fighter planes arrive on the deck of ships that have ploughed the salt furrow for 14,000 miles. The squat, dark silhouettes are partially assembled planes, covered with tape and cosmoline and resembling huge wood-carved toys.
  From the ship's deck, these inert shapes are craned off onto barges. Up the muddy river, the barges proceed through a regatta of country-boats of the Bengali, of silvery native fishing boats, skiffs, and towering junks with broad single sails and heavy wooden rudders and aft decks reminiscent of Spanish galleons.
  Off the jungle-fringed shore, the barges are bunted in and there a 10-ton crane sweeps its big sky hook into an American fighter plane-to-be, lifts it over to the bank for its first "landing" on Asiatic soil.
  From this point on the erection and testing experts of the ASC apply a simplification of production line assembly methods. As the bare hulk of the airplane almost touches ground, Chinese mechanics detach the shaping stands and slip on the landing wheels and tail wheel. The crane cable is released and a tractor-tug hitches onto the embryo plane and up the sandy road goes a P-51 or a P-38 to the parking lot of the Assembly Plant, as it is dutifully called by Lt. Col. Lloyd E. Arnold, who heads the base.
  The colonel and his crew of experienced ASC technicians, including a group of master sergeants the commander would not trade for the entire faculty of M.I.T., like to think of their operation as somewhat on the order of an "Eagle's Eyrie" for such is the character of the basic work in the clean-as-a-pin area of concrete in the natural bowl of green jungle growth.
  Indian and Chinese workers predominate in the parking lot. Their steady, absorbed work on the wings and fuselages of the big, dark toys removes the greasy coating of cosmoline and the layers of cloth strips which have protected seams and openings during the long salt-water voyage. In little time, the lot becomes a glitter of aluminum and magnesium sheet, with the contrasting pine packing cases at one side, in which are stored the parts and assemblies that will go to complete these fighter airplanes. In the cases are propellers, machine guns, cannon, and a hundred and one items that in composite make the American warplane a trim, lethal weapon.
  Adjacent to the parking lot is the Assembly Line, a strip under outdoor-type hangars, on which airplanes are moving in eight stages of erection around to the Flight Line. It is on this line, with its glistening P-40's and P-47'st as well as Mustangs and Lightnings, that men of the caliber of M/Sgts. Mark Stublarec and Rodney P. Marionneaux boss the installation of parts and assemblies. Stublarec is here, there, and everywhere, with advice and assistance to the Chinese, the Indians, and his own staff of American experts. Stublarec once, assembled L-l liaison planes for Col. Philip Cochran's Air Commandos.
  The drawl of the Old South is also heard among the international clusters of workmen. Its owner is Marionneaux from Plaquemine, La., a bayou town near Baton Rouge. The southerner was formerly a sheet metal worker in Baton Rouge. Here in India, he shows others the right way and makes certain our fighters are safe and sound.
  A competent Texan from Austin constantly checks his team and keeps it to the daily line schedule He is Capt. Drayton E. Morris, Engineering Officer of the "repair squadron," which is responsible for feeding the Japkillers their mounts. Everything appears to be "automatic," but this is not so, because each and every item must be fitted or adjusted individually and with precision. For instance, the 11 operations of Stage No. 1 of the Assembly Line must be done in the rotation of effort that has proved the most efficient, and each job of work is duly checked off by signatures of the superintendent, then spot-checked by the inspectors.
  By the time Stage No. 8 is reached, the armament is in place and the airplane is ready for gasoline and oil and the most vital test any airplane ever gets, its first take-off.
  The Flight Line now trundles the airplanes into its work pool and here you'll see M/Sgt. Jesse W. Shilling and T/Sgt. Olin Stough gassing up ships, making numerous ground tests, and getting ready to declare that "she's okay for Test Pilot." A delicate decision of responsibility, that one.
  However, Lts. John L. Gardner, Knut D. Holmgren and Grady C. Spry do not seem to worry about the quality of work that has gone before this moment. They are young, keen-eyed, slim flying men who have been with ASC ever since joining the outfit in Texas. They have "flown them all," and their hours of test flights in India now average more than 700.

Maj. Robert K. Envell, Jr., samples the first bar of candy produced by the newly-developed candy factory under the management or SOS, China Theater.

'HOME MADE' CANDY
FOR CHINA G.I.'S

  SOUTHWEST CHINA - The G.I. sweet-tooth in China will be filled with candy made on the spot.
  To save tonnage over The Hump and at the same time take care of that yearning for sweets, Maj. Gen. Gilbert X. Cheves, Commanding General of Services of Supply, USF, China Theater, has developed a candy factory using Chinese labor, locally-produced sugar, home-grown peanuts and other items that go into bars, nougat filled rolls and what-do-you-want.
  So Maj. Robert E. Envell, Jr., has taken the cue from Cheves and gone into business. He has two bakeries making a daily supply of cookies — lemon, vanilla and oatmeal — just like Ma used to turn out.
  The candy factory is now working on peanut brittle bars, nougat bars, and is planning to develop fudge. Later, he hopes to import a little chocolate and stretch it by making coated bars and old-fashioned chocolate drops.
  One of the interesting angles of the new PX business in China is the price list. Local products are sold for local money. It is called CN for Chinese National currency. A peanut bar costs $115, potato chips $25 for a one-ounce bag, blanched peanuts $60 for two ounces, and cookies at $60 for a two-ounce package.
  Envell has a big territory to cover so he hopes to work up more trade and get lower prices as time goes on. And he will save tonnage over The Hump by local manufacture.
  Behind the counter in the PX at SOS are two pretty Chinese girls — Miss Emily Hwang and Miss Anna Wong — who help in handling sales. For the Christmas season, the store was appropriately decorated with a tree and red paper bells. There was music from records.
  The candy factory is at the Yee Tai Russian Bakery and (Censored) Pastry & confectionery Store in a city near the base. Both are closely inspected. They produce bread and pastries for the Station Hospital.
  For holiday trade. Special Service sent over Lt. F. J. Vasset, and Pvt. Forrest G. Scott to assist the regular PX staff. The G.I.'s who serve their fellows all the year round there are Sgt. Stanley Leach and Cpl. Ben L. Rohleder. Envell's helper. Sgt, Claude S. Merrill, also helped with the holiday rush.

Final Decision: Team Work Won Battle Of Bhamo

By CPL. C. M. BUCHANAN Roundup Field Correspondent

  BURMA - The siege of Bhamo has ended and the battle has begun "the battle of who done it." Wherever jungle jollies gather, the conversation has turned from Myitkyina to Bhamo.
  Until the Chinese took Bhamo, the conversation always centered | around Myitkyina. '"My outfit was the first to hit the Nips," one G.I. would proclaim, only to be shouted down by another who would go into a harrowing tale of how his unit slept in water neck deep while they strung wires or pieced together pipe or cleared the air strip.

ALL OVER NOW
  But that's all over now. The locale has moved farther south. Now, members of the 7th Mess-kit Repair Unit, Improvised, will tell you how they laid the trap for the Japs that enabled the Chinese to walk in and disarm them, practically without a shot being fired. New tales of heroism and prowess are springing up that sound strangely similar to the ones when Myitkyina was taken, but Bhamo is a lot easier to pronounce and greater tales are expected in the forthcoming weeks.
  There's some rare esprit de corps shown by the jungle wallah. "Take my outfit", Poncho proudly relates, "what good would your trucks and planes be, if you didn't have the pipe line to deliver the gas?"

'YOU LIKE TO EAT'
  "Well, what about the Engineers?" queries Beachhead, "Who builds the bridges and makes the road?" In chimes I Brooklyn, stout defender of the Quartermasters. "You guys like to eat, don't you? Well, that's the QM's job."
  And so it goes from the Aviation Engineers to the Signal Corps, from Ordnance to the Air Corps. Each and every one has a story and a good one. After the shouting and babel died down, somebody said, "It's like a football team, fellows. You need a good line to help the guys carrying the ball." Anyway, the« boys talk a good war.

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE

  CHINA — One of the little stories of the war is how "Our Assam Draggin" Fighter Squadron of the "Flying Horse" Fighter Group went out to bomb Japanese and returned from each mission with canned food and beer to fill their empty larder.
  On one of the bombing missions against the Japanese in Burma, pilots of the "Assam Draggtn" Squadron in Maj. Gen. C. L. Chennault's 14th Air Force, landed on an advanced 10th Air Forte Fighter strip. In comparing complaints, the pilots soon discovered that one had what the other wanted.
  The pilots from China wanted beer, spam, corn willie and all the other canned items available in India. The boys in India would have given their right arm and half of next month's pay for a fresh egg. Also, the advance fighter strip in Burma had plenty of gas and bombs.
  It wasn't long before a shuttle bomb run, the first of its kind, was set up for the China pilots. Loading bombs at their home field, they would include a small box with 50 or 100 fresh eggs packed in rice straw in the baggage compartment.
  After completing the mission the pilots landed in Burma. There they again gassed up, had bombs put on, substituted a case of beer or spam or corn willie for the case of eggs, and bombed the Japs on their return trip to the home base.
  The missions were successful. The Japs were hit twice while the gas supply in China was diminished only by the amount necessary t« run one mission. Visitors to the advanced China base are still wondering why the enlisted men and officers of the fighter outfit looked so well fed when the chow was so meager.

DOUBLE TROUBLE IN BURMA UNIT

  MYITKYINA - There's a chubby, clear-eyed G.I. here who is always getting in the hair of a buddy in the same outfit by the name of Hillard Hall. The other G.I. claims the same thing about the other guy - who's name is Hillard Hall. In case you're mixed up, that's because there are two by the exact same name. That's where the trouble comes in.
  Both Halls met in Trinidad more than two years ago. The sergeant would call the roll "Hall," he'd shout. They'd holler back, "Which Hall?" The topkick would reply, "Hillard Hall." They'd say, "Which Hillard?" and in disgust old zebra-arm would laboriously read their serial numbers.

SIGH OF RELIEF
  Then Hall No. 1 went back to the States. Hall No. 2 breathed a sigh of relief, but not for long because his mail stopped. The APO just sent all Hillard Hall mail to No. 1.
  There's a woman in the plot, too. Hall No. 2 was writing to a sweet young femme of short acquaintance. The sugar reports from her came to an abrupt end. He was puzzled and shaken. He demanded an explanation. Hall No. 1 said he wondered how she got on his mailing list and the longer the correspondence kept up the more snafued it got. Finally, it was straightened out after a fashion by both writing, but the gal is still perplexed by all the Hillard Halls.

SERGEANT EXPLODES
  There came a day at Fort Meade. Md., Hillard Hall waltzed up to the supply room sergeant and drew a rifle, signing in his best G.I. fashion. Soon another dogface ambled up, picked up a piece and scribbled nicely . . . "Hillard Hall." The sergeant exploded, "What's this, a gag? You just drew one rifle." But Hillard Hall No. 1 and 2 weren't dismayed. Each knew the other had shown up again and quickly pacified the irate sarge.
  From there on the two have been together. Both in a combat outfit, they've settled in the little niche Fate has carved for them. Two Hillard Halls in a sea of Burmese jungle. - By Cpl. C. M. BUCHANAN, Roundup Field Correspondent.

Edward Eugene

Twins Meet
IN BURMA JUNGLE

  TENTH AIR FORCE HQ, BURMA - Probably the first instance of twin brothers meeting in the I-B Theater after a long separation occurred recently when Eugene and Edward Crivaro, 19, of Carnegie, Pa., met each other at a base in Burma. In most cases, twins in the Army remain in the same outfit throughout their service.
  Pvt. Eugene, bomb maintenance man for a service group in China, requested and was granted permission to fly over The Hump. Arriving in Burma, he immediately began a quest for his twin whom he had not seen for 20 months. Using an APO number as a guide, Eugene was soon directed to a 10th Air Force fighter control squadron of which Pfc. Edward was a member. Reunion... at long last.
  Eugene spent seven hours in the cold Atlantic waters a year ago when the ship taking him overseas was sunk by German torpedo bombs.

NEW FASHION MOTIF IN RATION PACKS

ASSAM — Burlap-wrapped ration packs are the latest fashion motif for the Mars Task Force. The foot soldiers are still somewhat mystified by the packs as they float down from the skies after being dropped by Air Supply Service men. For not only is the burlap binding new but also the contents, which are sufficient to last one soldier three or four days and include fruit juice, milk, peanuts, coffee, sugar, cigarettes, matches and other articles.
Northern Area Combat Command asked Brig. Gen. Lewis A. Pick, commanding general of Advance Section Three, to supply just such rations. The assignment was turned over to Lt. Col. James E. Darby and his Air Supply men.

CLAIM HUNTING HONORS HERE

After bagging three full-grown Indian leopards and two over-grown Indian bears in 12 hours near the Ramgarh Training Center, this trio of Americans is claiming some sort of honors for their marksmanship. That's their claim, not the Roundup's. Left to right, the hunters are: S/Sgt. Calvin J. Danke, of Memphis; Capt. Alexander R. Cox, of Corpus Christi, Tex., and Lt. Edward A. Yockel, of Rochester, N.Y.

  Containers were obtained from medical supply by the simple process of being folded over and stapled by an ordinary stapling machine. By order of Theater Headquarters, the limited number of cups available were frozen for exclusive use of Air Supply Service. Additional stapling machines- were taken over from the base.
  Convalescent patients in two hospitals in Advance Section Three volunteered to pack the soup, salt, vitamin and halazone tablets.
  In addition, the labor office supplied 25 coolies, who qualified as food handlers after a physical inspection.

NEW CLAIM
MYITKYINA RACE

  MYITKYINA - Lt. Robert E. Lee has a historical name and a poetical soul.
  He especially likes the lines, "I believe that I shall never see, A poem as lovely as a tree", and says this one line aptly sums up the making of history by his Chemical Maintenance Team.
  The Roundup recently published a story about a Truck Company that was the first to take a convoy along the entire length of the Ledo Road as far as Myitkyina.
  Lee says they should have been the first. But a tree fell across the path of the convoy. Lee and his four-vehicle convoy swung around the obstacle and became the first to reach Myitkyina, ahead of the Truck Company. That, at any rate, is Lee's story.

Money Discussion By PM's Office

  The I-B Theater Provost Marshal's office brings to the attention of U.S. Military personnel that torn or mutilated Indian currency should not be accepted, because the Reserve Bank of India will not accept such notes if more than half is missing or if any portion of the serial number is deleted.
  There have also been some isolated cases of counterfeiting. Here is the way to recognize a 10 rupee note, probably the most commonly handled by G.I.'s, the plutocrats:
  It should measure 3½ inches by 5¾ inches; the margins must be regular; the picture of King George in the right-front panel of the note should be purplish-blue and not gray; there should be two tiny stapling holes midway up the left hand outer side of the bill.

WARMING UP FOR TOUR

Lily Pons and her hubby, Conductor Andre Kostelanetz, discovered at Ramgarh Training Center that central heating is unknown in most of India. So they quickly adopted the local method of squatting around a charcoal brazier. Left to right, Frank Versad. flutist; Theodore Paxson, pianist; Miss Pons; mad Mr. Kostelanetz. At Ramgarh, the troupe, accompanied by a specially-organized G.I. orchestra, made the first appearance of their projected India-Burma tour outside the port at which they landed.

14th Destroys
80 Nip Planes
In Six Days

  CHINA - More than 80 Japanese planes were destroyed by the 14th Air Force in raids this weeks on Hankow and Wuchang airdromes, locomotive repair shops at Sinsiang and the Samah Bay airdrome on Hainan Island. Fighters and bombers of Maj. Gen. C. L. Chennault's command were hampered considerably throughout the week by inclement weather, but succeeded in throwing several devastating punches at enemy installations in South and Central China, shipping along the Yangtze River, railroad yards, bridges and troop concentrations.
  In repeated attacks on rail yards at Kioshan and Lohoehai, P-40's and other fighters destroyed an estimated 25 locomotives, plus several damaged. Dive-bombers and B-25's accounted for seven gas-filled vessels on the Yangtze and inflicted severe damage to docks southeast of Hankow. B-24's sank an enemy freighter off Swatow. Thirteen Jap planes were destroyed, in the air and on the ground, at Tsinan airdrome.
  Heavy and medium bombers swept over northern Thailand, knocking out two bridges and damaging several others.
  B-25's roared into Burma and destroyed the bridge at Kengtung and seriously damaged others. East of Wanting, P-40's carried out numerous strafing attacks on enemy troops in support of Chinese ground forces.
  From all these missions ten 14th Air Force planes were reported missing.

80th Fighter Group 'Burma Banshees'

  TENTH AIR FORCE HQ, BURMA - For many months they were the "Burma Banshees," scourge of the Jap air force in Assam and Northern Burma.
  Today, the veil was lifted from that 10th Air Force fighter group and, by permission of Theater Commander Lt. Gen. Dan I. Sultan, the "Burma Banshees" proclaim to the world their legitimate name — the 80th Fighter Group.
  The outfit came to the India-Burma Theater in mid-1943 and within a few weeks was out on its primary mission - to clear the skies in this part of the world from the Japanese menace.
  There's no way of determining how many Sons of Nips joined their ancestors because of the accurate bombings and strafing by the pilots, first in their P-40's and now the P-47's. However, an accurate count has been kept on the number of enemy planes destroyed. Fifty-eight were shot down in the air, as of the middle of December. Three more are probables. Six more were definitely destroyed and another six "probably" destroyed, on the ground. They themselves lost only three planes and one pilot.
  For almost a year, the 80th Fighter Group flew P-40 Warhawks and did a stellar job of protecting transports over The Hump. About mid-summer 1944, the "Burma Banshees" were given the P-47 Thunderbolts, but the transition didn't stop them for a minute.
  Among the 539 decorations won by the group's personnel are one Distinguished Service Cross; one Legion of Merit; 10 Silver Stars; four Soldier's Medals and the remainder Distinguished Flying Crosses and Air Medals with Oak Leaf Clusters.
  The oldest fighter group in Maj. Gen. Howard C. Davidson's 10th Air Force, EAC, they proudly boast of the fact that not a single transport was lost to enemy action while they patrolled The Hump air lanes and they also protected the Allied bases in Northern Burma and Assam to a point where damage from enemy raids was almost negligible.
  In one 36-day period in October and November of 1944, they bombed out 39 bridges in Burma.
  In some instances of close support to ground troops, they had to bomb as close as 25 yards in front of friendly troops in order to blast the Nips out of well-dug positions. One of the "Burma Banshees" squadrons was tremendous in the fall of Myitkyina, operating from the strip only about one air-mile from the town. Lt. Robert N. Gale holds what is believed to be the record short mission of the war - six minutes from take-off to landing.
  The 80th pilots have flown more than 50,000 hours; dropped approximately 20,000 bombs of all weights up to 1,000 pounds; shot up more than 5,000,000 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition.
  A number of the original pilots have gone home by now, but the newer airmen have maintained the high standard set.
  The "Burma Banshees" - or the 80th Fighter Group, if you will - are under the command of Lt. Col. Albert L. Evans, Jr., of Little Rock, Ark.

E A C
BURMA-SIAM
TAKES BEATING

  EAC HEADQUARTERS — The Burma-Siam Railroad, main supply route of the Jap forces in Burma, was the main target of Eastern Air Command aircraft this week, with destruction of the Nakorn Chaisri Bridge in Siam severing all rail communications to the west from Bangkok.
  Trains have been brought to a standstill by this concentration on the rail system. Five bridges have been wrecked. They are the Winpanon River bridge (29 miles south of Moulmein), Kwanhla River bridge (30 miles farther south), Pasak River bridge (41 miles south of Moulmein), Ran It River bridge (117 miles south of Moulmein). The Ran It bridge was hit by USAAF B-24's and the other bridges, including the Hakorn Chaisri span, by RAF planes of the Strategic Air Force.

HIT LOCOMOTIVES
  Inside Burma, the battered rail system has been continually attacked by USAAF B-25's and P-47's, with RAF Mosquitos, Beaufighters and Thunderbolts joining in the air offensive. Locomotives have been the special target of the Allied planes.
  The Japanese who fled east from British-occupied Akyab have been under continuous strafing attack by aircraft. Hundreds of sampans, dugouts and other river craft in the network of waterways east and northeast of Akyab were hit.

GROUND SUPPORT
  In North and Central Burma, the Air Forces were also active in their support of ground troops. Altogether, 14 road and railroad bridges were knocked out, four others were rendered unserviceable and six were damaged.
  Three waves of 10th Air Force P-38's hit Thabeikkyin, ferry point on the Irrawaddy, and burned out the center of the town. Kyatpyin Village was battered by USAAF B-25's, while P-47's sought out the wooded areas where enemy troops and supplies were concealed.

UNIT PLAQUE TO 10th A. F.

HQS., 10TH A. F., BURMA — An airdrome squadron servicing a Combat Cargo unit has been awarded the War Department's Meritorious Service Unit plaque, the first in the I-B Theater.
Over a period of about four consecutive months, this airdrome squadron has set 10th Air Force records for maintenance of aircraft, having an average of 92.2 percent in commission for October and 95.4 for November.

MEET EDGAR LAYTHA OF THE ROUNDUP

S/Sgt. EDGAR LAYTHA
A Fascinating Character

Our Field Scribe Is A Fascinating Character

  The time is ripe, we think, for the Roundup to introduce you faithful subscribers to S/Sgt. Edgar Laytha, who, as our family fishwrapper's one and only T/O field correspondent, is currently ferreting out feature stories in Burma.
  Laytha has been almost everywhere and has seen almost everything, and we, too, thought we had seen everything until we saw Edgar. To call a spade a spade, our man is what we'd loosely describe as a fascinating character.
  However, none can dispute the obvious fact that Edgar is an extremely able correspondent.
  He has had three books published, including March of Japan, which was translated into 13 languages. From 1938 until he changed into G.I. wardrobe, he was a regular contributor to the Saturday Evening Post, under whose aegis he shipped to Australia to cover the jump off of the Southwest Pacific campaign and to the Arctic with a radium expedition. He wrote a world scoop by discovering Japan's secret food laboratories on the outskirts of Tokyo during a seven-months visit there. The article, Japan's Diet Dictator was republished in the Reader's Digest.
  All this, Edgar the Laytha has done, all this and more.
  We like to describe our man Laytha as a prototype of a hungry artist passionately threading his way through Greenwich Village to his garret to put the finishing touches on a great painting. He is slightly-built, highly-emotional, owlish-looking behind horn-rimmed glasses and delightfully Bohemian.
  His linguistic efforts to express himself are an entrancing amalgam of Hungarian, German, French and American. This is because he was born in Budapest, now under siege by the Russians, and attended elementary school there; went to high school in Germany; to college in Lausanne, in French-speaking Switzerland.
  Journalistic ink was first injected into his veins at the tender age of 19, when he was at various times a foreign correspondent for Continental papers, a contributor to the London News-Chronicle and a traveling picture editor for the New York Times Berlin office.
  In Germany, Laytha once stood so near to Hitler that he could have spit in Der Fueher's eye. He didn't, he relates, "because life was too sweet." He went skiing with Rudolph Hess in the Bavarian Alps. Later, in Japan, he was received at a garden party by the Emperor.
  In 1935, he came to the United States, for which we are eternally grateful.
  Two years ago, the implacable arm of the draft board reached out for Laytha. He was drafted as a Field Artillery cannoneer at Fort Bragg. Later, he was transferred to the Japanese language school at Camp Savage, Minn. When he arrived in CBI, the Roundup moved in upon him in a lightning pincers' movement.
  Edgar the Laytha is the delight of both the military and the war correspondents in Burma. He is ever in the grip of a soul-searing emotional crisis. Every assignment absorbs him completely. With his heart figuratively on his field jacket, he proclaims with burning passion, "This is the most magnificent story I've ever covered." And it is, too, until the next one. This sincerity is a coat he wears perpetually. There is never a dull moment as Laytha flits from place to place, his brown eyes bright with zeal, darting in every direction and taking mental notes. He can no more relax than a Mexican jumping bean on a hot griddle.
  The little fellow hungers for appreciation. Once he went totally unnoticed among a roomful of G.I.'s. So he calmly lit a match to his hair. "I was a sensation," he related enthusiastically later.
  His letters to the office from the brambles should be published in book form. So packed are they with fervor, charm and unconscious humor that the staff instantly quits work when they arrive and fights for priority to read them. Written hurriedly in scrambled English, they are the baring of his soul. His problems, his triumphs, his wounds from an article not handled exactly to the satisfaction of his delicate artist's sensibilities — all this and more we eagerly devour. In his last letter, he was ecstatic as a puppy dog. "The by-line," he wrote, "was printed with lovely fat letters. I love The Letter Fat."
  His Bhamo story, he confessed, was lousy. "I was so disgusted that I could not do a good story. Imagine, my sensitive nose drove me down to Bhamo the day before the Japs broke out. We were already over the airfield. Came Jap Zeros and we had to get away as quickly as we could. Less the Zeros, I would have been the only correspondent to witness the town's downfall. This is The Luck Bad."
  Edgar is fascinated by souvenirs. The correspondents swear he is going to open up a curio shop. In the midst of gathering material for an article, he invariably disappears and when his party has just about given him up for lost he returns, grimy, grinning, triumphantly exhibiting some knick-knack or other that has caught his odd fancy. While he was visiting the British 36th Division in the Railroad Corridor he spent his last anna buying a gem-encrusted ceremonial Jap Samurai sword from a Tommy. During the haggling, the war just had to go to hell.
  Our man belongs to the all-out-for-MacArthur Club. He says, in his picturesque phrasing: "Mac-Arthur shines and glitters even in fatigues like a life-giving sun." (gosh) Laytha visited the Melbourne Zoo with Mrs. MacArthur, young Arthur MacArthur and Ah Chue, the Chinese ahma of the MacArthurs. In his free time, he is writing a book, The Heritage, describing the impact of the Yanks upon the Pacific and the Orient. With MacArthur's written permission, the book is being dedicated to him.
  Edgar deplores that the war has brought only one writer to the surface, John Hersey (Bell for Adann.) Candidly, he thinks war books steenk. Those books, he's curt to say, can be written by any young student of the Columbia School of Journalism placed into the dynamic surroundings of Guadalcanal, Tarawa or the Stilwell Retreat.
  Ah, that Laytha, we could go on for columns.
  But we have already, haven't we?

The C.B.I. Roundup is a weekly newspaper of the United States Forces, published by and for the men in China, Burma, and India, from news and pictures supplied by staff members, soldier correspondents, United Press, OWl and Army News Service. The Roundup is published Thursday of each week and is printed by The Statesman in New Delhi and Calcutta, India. Editorial matter should be sent directly to Capt. Floyd Walter, Hq. U.S.F., I.B.T., New Delhi, India and should arrive not later than Sunday in order to be included in that week's issue. Pictures must arrive by Saturday and must be negatives or enlargements. Stories should contain full name and organization of sender. Complaints about circulation should be sent directly to Lt. Boyd Sinclair, Hq., U.S.F., I.B.T., New Delhi, India. Units on the mailing list should make notification of any major change in personnel strength or any change of APO.

  JANUARY 11, 1945

Adapted from the original issue of CBI Roundup

Copyright © 2010 Carl Warren Weidenburner

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