When 90,000 Men Released The record set by the Fort Dix separation center last week - 3,000 soldiers handed their discharge papers in one day - makes the Army's plan to discharge an additional 1,300,000 men by Christmas and possibility of even faster demobilization speedup looks good. With about 700,000 men released since V-E Day, this will mean a reduction of 2,000,000 in the Army since Germany's defeat, according to an Army News Service report. Maj. Gen. S. G. Henry, assistant chief of staff, told the Senate military committee making an inquiry into the Army's demobilization now was running ahead of schedule, with an estimated 400,000 men to be released in September instead of the earlier anticipated 250,000. Score To Be Lowered By January, Gen. Henry estimated, the discharge rate will reach 672,000 monthly or 22,500 daily. Air and service forces are setting up 145 temporary separation centers to speed discharges, and approximately 258,000 men will be out of the Army within 45 days as a result of this increase. Some, like the Fort Dix center, are now working on a 24-hour schedule. As soon as 900,000 men are released, Henry told the committee, the discharge score, now at 80, will go down. He did not specify what the new score would be. Smaller Occupation Force? Maj. Gen. I. H. Edwards, also assistant chief of staff, hazarded the guess that the estimate of occupation troops needed in Japan may be scaled down. He said that the matter is now being discussed with Gen. MacArthur, that the supreme commander's estimates are "very fluid," and that any change probably would be downward. If so, this would permit a reduction below the Army's planned strength of 2,500,000 by next July. Plans for an army of this size, according to ANS, are based on division of troops in this manner - 900,000 in the Pacific, 500,000 in Europe and at Atlantic bases and 1,100,000 in the States. Reducing the Army to fit these needs calls for release of three out of every four men. |
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America and China; Germany, Too - But What About France? Shanghai - Just to show how mixed up things can be in this city where everything seems backwards, take the case of the local broadcasting station, XGRS. Before the war the station was owned and operated by German interests. Upon the surrender of Germany, the Japanese assumed control of the place and continued to broadcast in German. About Aug. 15, when the Japanese first decided to call it quits, the place was taken over by puppet troops from Nanking who guarded the location. Still the announcements were made in German. A few days ago an American commentator was invited to make a few broadcasts over the station. All the news is censored by Chinese departments in Chungking for the station which is owned by the Germans, that was recently controlled by the Japanese who turned it over to the troops of the Nanking puppet army, where an American commentator is broadcasting news that has been passed by the Chinese censor. Somehow or other the French should get mixed up in it. They always seem to be everywhere else. |
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Warn Jap Women Against Flaunting Undies in Public Tokyo (ANS) - Japanese women were warned not to display their red underwear in public or go around with their bare toes showing in front of impressionable American soldiers. The warnings were distributed through Jap newspapers, which took a gloomier view of the fraternization problem than that held by American officers. The newspapers, preaching against wearing of "provocative colors," warned the women to avoid attracting low whistles and the sort of thing that low whistles stand for. |
Shanghai - Huge, cheering and waving throngs milled about each plane as it rolled to a stop on Tachang airdrome outside Shanghai.
Crews of the ships that brought in the occupation forces were swamped by sightseers, many of whom had never before seen an American plane on the ground.
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It's Rags to Riches For Emaciated Girl, Pin-Up of 1339 BU 1339 BU, Chengkung - Ceylon May, eight-year-old Chinese girl whom men here found living in a garbage dump, has become the mascot and miniature pin-up girl of this base. Little Ceylon was found eating a rotten bird near the dump, by one of the men of the camp. Her life in a slit trench plus a diet of garbage had caused acute malnutrition with the result that her stomach was swollen to an enormous size. However, s scrubbing and clean clothing and Army food soon returned her to a healthy condition. The child has been placed in the En Kuang school which is supported by the British Methodist missions. An effort is being made to have the men of the base finance her schooling. |
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17,500 Vehicles Roll Over Stilwell Road Since Its Inception Hq., SOS, Kunming - Recent reports of vehicle receipts to this base revealed that 17,500 motor vehicles were brought in over the Stilwell Road, during its past seven months of operation, to supplement China's motor transport system. Prior to the opening of the road, SOS had brought into China about 3,148 vehicles, mostly small units which were flown over the Hump. Large trucks and other heavy vehicles were sliced for airlift and welded together after their flight to Kunming. Approximately 10,500 of the vehicles carried over the Stilwell Road were 2½-ton cargo trucks. |
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‘Black Fan Society’ New Terror Group Batavia, Java (ANS) - United Press correspondent John B. Bower reports that nationalistic Indonesians and rebel Japanese have organized a terroristic secret "Black Fan" society to conduct guerilla resistance against Allied troops who are expected to begin Java's occupation before the end of September. Bower said a number of Europeans already have been stabbed and high-ranking Japanese army officers have been murdered in cars as they drove through the streets of Batavia at night. The society operates on an espionage system and propaganda campaigns. |
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Shanghai GIs Aid in Relief, Mercy Duties
Pick Up, Guard ’Chutes Used in Dropping of Food Shanghai - The China wing advanced cadre at this base took time off from routine work of expediting the turn-around of Chinese troop-hauling C-54s to do a little relief work for the American mission. A few days ago the mercy planes, B-29s, were dropping rations into the internment camps in the Shanghai area. It was difficult work because of the high winds that were prevailing and also because of the crowded sites in which the camps are located. Many of the ration chutes fell wide of their mark and were grabbed by the local civilians before the internees could reach the places where they had landed. To prevent a recurrence of this, the B-29s decided to drop their rations on the part of the field that ATC was using for its operations. Here Chinese and American military men could guard the parcels until they could be carted off to the camps. On the first pass the 29 came over too low and many of the boxes of ten-in-one rations hit the ground before the chutes opened. Despite the fact that some of them were broken open, most of the contents were salvageable. The second run was perfect, every chute opened and the packages fell to earth suspended from the multi-colored chutes. In a few minutes the rations were loaded on cadre trucks and were on the way to camp. The cadre personnel went back to work, as C-54s kept coming in on the long concrete runways. Vinegar Joe’s Son Ignores Tradition, Enlists in U.S. Navy San Diego, Calif. - Gen. Joe Stilwell received a jolt directly under his battered old campaign hat this week when his 18-year-old son, Ben, shattered family traditions. Ben, according to Army News Service, joined the Navy. "I'm the first member of the family to wear a sailor suit," Ben said, "and I don't know how the Stilwells are going to like it." He admitted that neither his father nor his mother knew he planned to enter the Navy. "I've a pretty fair idea of Army life and I guess I just wanted to see how the other half lives," he explained. Ben added that since his Dad was "either in Okinawa or Japan, he would not hear about it for some time." He also said, "Mother no doubt knows about it already but when I left home for the induction center I didn't tell her I'd try to get into the Navy." Joseph Stilwell, Jr., Ben's brother, is a colonel in the infantry. Landslide Cuts Off Stilwell Road Sector Hq., SOS, Kunming - More than 30,000 tons of dirt broke loose from West Mountain recently to obliterate half a kilometer of the Stilwell Road near Kilo 15, where convoy traffic was held up for three days before a bypass could be opened. An engineer platoon, composed of a group of Ledo Road Negro veterans, newly-arrived in China, and 1,000 coolies were assigned to cut a new road into the mountainside. A horse trail was first expanded into a bypass for trucks stopped by the landslide. Undercurrents of water were reported in the earth, and the avalanche was believed to have been caused by heavy monsoon rains. |
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The 19th Hole: After rounding the links golfers drop into the clubhouse to discuss the game.
Because of the shortage of golf balls, there is a small deposit for golf sets.
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Sport of Kings: GIs are inclined to snicker when the little ponies are led out but soon take up the betting and get into the spirit of the things.
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A Charge: Cavalry horses are furnished for riding. Not always docile, these horses are a challenge to a tenderfoot.
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No Strain Here: Miniature golf courses are just the thing that a not over-active GI might have thought of.
They are even next door to the billets for convenience.
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GI Robin Hoods: Archery is always popular. The range is set up by special service and everything is free.
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Warm-Up Circle: Jockeys exhibit their mounts before moving out to the starting pens.
Soldiers usually bet on anything that isn't lame.
Races are held every Saturday.
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Contentment: Here a very ambitious one sits in the shade and surveys the rest of the camp.
For the over-active, Shillong isn't the place.
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Social Side: There is always somebody who clamors for night life.
There isn't much at Shillong but there are dances downtown twice a week.
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1306 BU, Karachi - For three nights last week the "house was jammed" to see the hit play, "The Man Who Came to Dinner." The comedy was put on
by GIs and WACs who spent over two months in rehearsing, digging up the props and putting out publicity for their play. Left to right, in the above scene
from the play, are: Cpl. Jane Thayer, Detroit, Mich.; Sgt. Frederick George, San Francisco, Calif.; Cpl. Jeanne Reade, Philadelphia, Pa.; S.Sgt. Walt
Gieselman, Los Angeles, Calif.; Sgt. Sammie Rogers, Collinsville, Ill., and S/Sgt. Cora Jerrow, Bellaire, Ohio.
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"The funny thing is how we happened to meet!"
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| Military transport schedules over India for cargo, personnel and mail ... maximum tonnage of essential war materials over the Hump ... movement of troops and supplies in support of tactical operations in China ... evacuation of the sick and wounded - these are the missions of ICD-ATC. |
