CBI Roundup - February 10, 1944 - China-Burma-India Theater of World War II

VOL. II NO. 22 REG NO. L5015 DELHI, THURSDAY FEBRUARY 10, 1944.

CHINESE TAKE NIP POSITIONS
IN HUKAWNG

  A day following the taking of Taro, Chindwin River village in the Dalu Valley, American-trained Chinese troops brought to successful culmination a seven-day offensive 25 miles to the east along the tortuous Chindwin by wresting Taipha Ga from the Japanese in the Hukawng Valley.
  Both positions were consolidated, and then the Chinese started to inch southward, while protecting their flanks from threat of Japanese infiltration.
  Soon after taking Taipha Ga, the Chinese engaged and eliminated small groups of the enemy to the north and west, some of which had been encircled. Saturday, the Chinese attacked a position one mile east of Taipha Ga and repulsed two enemy patrols west of the area, where one Jap unit still resisted.
  meanwhile, the Chinese made contact with the enemy west of taro along the trail to Ngajatzup, where patrols were repulsed.

14TH STEPS UP TEMPO AGAINST SHIPPING
FOUR VESSELS SENT TO BOTTOM IN ONE MISSION OFF CHINA COAST
    CHINA - An increasing tempo of operations by bombers of the 14th Air Force against Japanese shipping in the China Sea in recent weeks has dealt severe blows to the enemy lines of communication supplying troops in Burma, Thailand, Malaya and Indo-China, and has driven Japanese shipping into deeper waters, where it is subject to attack by Allied submarines and surface craft.
  Latest blow struck by the 14th was the sinking of four ships, totaling 12,000 tons, off the Southeast China coast on Feb. 5 by Liberator and Mitchell bombers. A 1,200-ton vessel and a 5,600-ton freighter were probably sunk in the same action. B-25's sank one junk and damaged several more along the Yangtze River. A number of sampans were also sunk. Two planes are missing.
  Reports released this week show that almost daily sea sweeps, carried out in Jap-controlled waters in the last four months of 1943, accounted for nearly half the total of a quarter-million tons of Japanese shipping sunk by China-based planes since they were activated 18 months ago.
  Operating in comparatively small but highly effective formations, the 14th's bombers have bagged a total of nearly 800 Japanese craft, ranging from sampans and river boats to destroyers, freighters, troopships and sub-chasers since July 4, 1942. Of this total, more than 350 were accounted for in the last quarter of 1943.
  The figures do not include an additional toll of ships damaged. The analysis of the operations reports shows that the 14th has sunk 53 large freighters and cargo ships, two destroyers, eight transports, two sub-chasers and 10 tankers among the larger game.

Goat Cavalry Making History in Burma

    NORTHERN BURMA - The midnight ride of Paul Revere belongs to the past, but the daily rides of the U.S. Goat Cavalry are making history here.
  "Goat Cavalry" is the self-inflicted name of a group of G.I.'s who actually are Airborne Engineers. The fact that they haven't left the ground in six months and are substituting elephants for planes bothers them not at all.
  They appear at unsuspected places at unexpected times to do all sorts of construction jobs. They hack their way into the jungle to blast the top off a mountain for an emergency landing strip, then turn up miles away building a bamboo bridge across a river. They claim they have to be as agile as goats to get to where they're going. Hence the name Goat Cavalry.

ON TOP OF WORLD
  The Goat Cavalry is sitting on top of the world, if Burma can be considered part of this world. They have their own elephants on which they ride to work. They won this transportation when a tribal head-man died recently and willed his walking ivory towers to his Yank friends.
  Isolation must make for inventiveness. Besides using elephants for jeeps and trucks, they have developed their own surveyor's level, made out of a bamboo stalk half-full of water. Writing home is no problem. There is British toilet paper available.

SELF-ENTERTAINMENT
  Entertainment is furnished by an amateur show put on by the natives. No Bing Crosby's have been discovered to date, but it gives the G.I.'s an opportunity for talent scouting as well as passing the lonely nights.
  The calm of the night was broken one eve in an unexpected manner. Two wild elephants strolled into camp and were calmly surveying the landscape, when a nervous Burman let go with a .45 pistol at them. When the elephants departed, the camp was only a memory. Thanks to the omnipresent foxhole, no one was injured.
  But that's all in a day's work for the Goat Cavalry.

'MISS CHEESECAKE OF 1944'

What won't Hollywood press agents do to justify cheesecake. You're looking at shapely Carmen Clifford today because a fertile mind conjured up the thought that she should be named "Miss Cheesecake of 1944," with, naturally, a picture to prove why.

BURMA AIRFIELDS EAC TARGETS
HUKAWNG VALLEY VISITED
    The airfields of Burma were the prime objective of the Eastern Air Command operations this week, while activity in the Hukawng Valley, the Chindwin area and the Mayu Peninsula continued unabated.
  Feb. 2 a large formation of U.S. fighter-bombers of the Tactical Air Force, EAC, accompanied by a medium bomber, attacked the main airdrome and north landing ground at Myitkyina. heavy bombs knocked out the runways at both airdromes. At Radhpur, three miles to the northwest, the planes strafed a Japanese motor transport depot and storage area.

BRIDGES BOPPED
  The next day, another large formation of fighter-bombers struck at two bridges crossing the Irrawaddy at Okshitpin, between Prome and Taungup, in southern Burma. One bridge was made unserviceable and the other was badly damaged by heavy bombs. All the Jap camps on the road between Prome and Taingup were heavily strafed, fires were started and motor transport destroyed.
  On successive nights, Feb. 4-5 and 5-6, British and American bombers pooled their fighting strength in attacks on the enemy airdromes at Heho and Aungban, 90 miles southeast of Mandalay. At both places, the majority of bombs were seen to burst on the runways and dispersal areas. Sandwiched between these raids was a daylight attack on Aungbang on the morning of Feb. 5 by U.S. and RAF mediums. U.S. mediums also hit the Myitha landing field, damaging one end of the runway, and Saigaing, where results were unobserved.
  One Japanese fighter, which attempted interception during the first raid on Heho, crashed into a mountain and exploded.

WIDESPREAD RAIDS
  U.S. fighters and fighter-bombers made widespread raids throughout the Hukawng Valley. On Feb 3, one large formation blanketed a Jap troop concentration with bombs and machine gun fire in the Manywet area. Another formation attacked enemy installations and troops near Kumnyen. In direct support of ground troops, a third formation bombed and strafed a Jap camp near Lalawng Ga, while a fourth formation attacked troops, a motor pool and repair depot in the vicinity of Shingban, south of Maingkwan. On the 7th, a lone medium bomber of the Strategic Air Force skip-bombed and strafed a motor pool near Shingban from tree top level.
  In the Chindwin area and on the Mayu Peninsula, RAF fighters, fighter-bombers and dive-bombers of the Tactical Air Force blasted away at motor transport and river traffic, sinking many small boats carrying troops and supplies. Twin-engined fighters shot up locomotives and rolling stock between Mogaung and Sagaing. Twice the RAF planes were intercepted by enemy fighters. In the first engagement, two Japs were chalked up as probables; in the second, two were confirmed destroyed and five were damaged against the loss of one Allied plane.

WAVE OF FURY SWEEPING AMERICA
OVER JAP TORTURE OF PRISONERS   Reprisal Asked Against Enemy For Treatment

    WASHINGTON - A wave of cold fury unrivaled since Pearl Harbor swept over all America this week, as further revelations of inhuman treatment of American prisoners of war by the Japanese followed in the wake of last week's joint atrocity statement by the U.S. War and Navy Departments.
  Unable to offer direct aid to their imprisoned countrymen, Americans of all ranks and stations jammed war bond booths all during the week, and lined up for blood donations, Red Cross work and voluntary hospital service, as voices from all parts of the nation were raised, calling for full and complete vengeance on Japanese officials, officers and soldiers responsible for the reported outrages.

HOT PROPOSALS
  Seven West Coast Democratic Congressmen proposed to President Roosevelt that the Japanese responsible for the atrocities be handed over to the U.S. for trial and punishment "Before the ratification of any American-Japanese peace treaty," while Alben C. Barkley, Senate Democratic leader, declared: "Retribution will be meted out to these brutes. We will be satisfied with nothing less than personal punishment for those in Japan who have been guilty of these unspeakable atrocities."
  Acting Republican Senate Leader Wallace H. White, Jr., said that he hoped vengeance would be "visited not alone on the Japanese army but also on the authorities and the people of Japan." A War Department officer commented, "From now on, nobody will let himself be captured by the Japanese. He will shoot it out, no matter what the odds are."

PROTESTS UNAVAILING
  In the meantime, Secretary of State Cordell Hull disclosed that the States Department has made 88 separate protest to the Japanese Government concerning its treatment of prisoners, the last of which, presenting 18 specific charges of breaches of the Geneva Convention covering treatment of war prisoners, was dispatched on Jan. 27, the day the atrocity statement of the Army and Navy was released. Hull held forth little hope that the 88th protest would accomplish much, following 87 failures.
  Meanwhile, reasons multiplied for thinking that the official statements, covering only the eye-witness accounts of three American officers who escaped from Japanese hands, fall far short of the actual story. An article written for a forthcoming issue of the American Magazine by Palmer Hoyt, former OWI domestic director, estimates that 25,000 American prisoners have died from Jap torture killings, as compared with the Army-Navy figure of 7,700.
  Furthermore, a Congressional investigating committee has announced that it will summon high Army and Navy Intelligence officers to closed hearings, indicating that the committee believes much more information exists than has been made public.
  In contrast to the reports from the Philippine prison camps, however, the Red Cross reports that neutral investigation of war prisoner camps in Shanghai and Hong Kong have disclosed tolerable conditions, and that at least 1,500 tons of food and "large quantities" of medicines and clothing are at Vladivostok, Siberia, ready for shipment to American prisoners of war in Jap territory as soon as the Red Cross is convinced the shipments will actually be received by the prisoners.

CORPORAL GEE EYE By Nolan

Phooey To Indian Winter
G.I. INGENUITY WINS AGAIN

  By S/SGT. HARRY A. SKVIRSKY
    INDIAN OCEAN PORT - A G.I. can stand only so much. Sooner or later, he's going to take drastic action.
  Just listen to what happened at one of the barracks of an Indian Ocean seaport. The second winter was coming on, and the boys who had spent last winter at this port remembered with chattering teeth, how they hated to take a shower in water as cold as a pawn-broker's heart, with heat completely non-existent.
  So, M/Sgt. Owen L. Atkinson, of Port Arthur, Tex., suggested that the Engineer Section build a heater. The boys collected two salvaged oil drums, some scrapped iron pipes and Cpl. William Taylor, of Detroit, to do the welding. Then, before you could say "no baksheesh," the heater was completed, with water running hot and plentiful. Once more G.I. ingenuity had triumphed!
  The new contraption looks strictly like a Rube Goldberg invention - bit it works. Now a winter shower here is a pleasure.

PVT. 'ERIC THE GREAT' ENTERTAINS G.I.'S BASED IN CHINA

Pvt. Eric O. Braun alias "Eric the Great."

    CHINA - To the Army he is simply Pvt. Eric O. Braun, ASN 32749946, Trenton, N.J.
  But under the "Big Top" when Dad took the kids to the circus, he was "Eric the Great, the Nerveless Man" - and to the G.I.'s with the Y-Force Operations Staff in China he is again "Eric the Great."
  Eric made his debut in China still jaded from his tedious boat trip from Shangri-La, and with the ache of the ride over the Hump still pounding in his head.
  Hundreds of Y-Force personnel from all over South China, together with high-ranking Chinese guests, came to the Carnival.
  Braun, transformed into a G.I. version of "Eric the Great," went up on the improvised taut wire and had the crowd gaping with wonder. Covered from the top of his head to the tip of his toes in a gunny sack, he teetered back and forth over the slim wire from one end to the other.
  Later, he climbed up a pole more than 100 feet off the ground to outdo anything Shipwreck Kelly ever attempted. Nets and safety belts are things which lesser aerialists use; Eric doesn't bother with them.
  This performance wasn't anything like "Eric the Great" riding a motorcycle across the wire 60 feet above the tanbark of the arena, nor was it like "The Nerveless Man" tip-toeing across the wire in the rain 165 or 210 feet from terra firma.
  Of his first performance in China, 38-year-old Eric could only say apologetically, "The wire, it should be much higher."
  Eric was born in Elberfeld, in the Rhineland. His German accent is as thick as an oak, and so many people have inquired about his sentiments on things German that he carries about yellowed news clippings where similar questions were asked after audiences in the United States and Canada sat on the edge of their chairs during his performance. He's as American as the Statue of Liberty - with a German accent. Braun applied for citizenship in 1938 and obtained his final papers while in the Army. He has been in the Service one year.
  Of his basic training at the Field Artillery Training Center at Fort Bragg, N.C., the veteran of almost 25 years of high wire acts and aerial acrobatics said, "It was a little hard."
  He was 14½ years old when he made his first appearance in D�sseldorf with Circus Krone. He toured the continent and in 1934 went with Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey. Eric spent one season with them and decided to become an impresario in his own right. His "Victory Circus" of 90 performers recently played at Huntington, W. Va., and he has three aerial acts on the road.
  He played the Toronto Exposition in 1939, where contracts kept him from performing at the New York World's Fair and spent some time as a stunt man during 1939 and 1940 for Warner Brothers Pictures.

SPYING BUSINESS PROVES SWELL RACKET
DISCOVERS BURMA TRIBESMAN HIRED BY JAPANESE

  By S/Sgt. ALOYSIOUS F. QUACKENBUSH Roundup Field Correspondent

    BURMA - Buster Barebottom is a good and faithful servant working for Col. Joe Cannon & Co. of the Northern Combat Area Command.
  Buster is a tribesman who weaves baskets. He now has pants, a G.I. cap, a shirt and plenty of V cigarettes. He's happy about the whole thing.
  Some time ago, Buster, accompanied by his father and uncle, walked into headquarters and blandly announced, through an interpreter, that the Japs had hired him as a spy. Being a conscientious worker, he wanted to spy - and spy as hard as he could. The only hitch was that he didn't quite know how to go about it.
  "I'm here to spy," he said. "When do I start?"
  The Americans informed him he could start immediately, and they put the trio to work weaving baskets and building bashas.
  They also put Buster on the payroll, and he thinks that this spying business is a swell racket.

ASC IMPROVISES AMPHIBIOUS WING
Raises B-25 Bomber From Depths of Lake

Lookit, chums, it floats . . .

    WEST INDIAN BASE - The Air Service Command of the CBI Theater has never previously recognized the necessity for an amphibious wing. But that was all changed by an unusual problem in B-25 rehabilitation which presented its ugly head here recently.
  Ordered to go to the aid of a plane which crashed 65 miles from this base, a party of 13 enlisted men, under Lt. Jackson K. Brockley and assisted by Harold J. Zimmer, a technical representative, arrived at the scene of the crash to find that the B-25 in question was not only a dead duck, but a drowned one. It was nestling peacefully in the center of a large lake, in six feet of water.
  Recognizing the impossible when it saw it, the party at once realized that its assignment would take it a little longer than a merely difficult one. Monkey wrenches and screwdrivers are nasty gadgets to handle under several feet of water, and 15 men couldn't very well pick up a medium bomber and tote it ashore.
  So a dash of American ingenuity was ordered up, and deflated life rafts were tied under the wings and in the fuselage of the semi-submerged plane. From there on, it was a simple matter to inflate the rafts, float the ship ashore and give it the works in the usual manner.
  In addition to Brockley and Zimmer, those who participated in the rescue work were: T/Sgt. Willie P. Mahone, Sgt. Charles H. Watson, Cpls. Evan T. Edwards and Clifford W. Fergusson, and Pvts. Forrest L. Fisher, Vern E. Hoffman, Leo C. Kamph, Paul W. Luellen, Douglas McCullough, Claud Raper, Elmer E. Theriault, George O. Trim, and Michael J. Carsell.
  Special honors of the trip went to McCullough, who was detailed as duck hunter to supply almost the entire meat diet for the party during its three weeks' stay, and to Watson and Raper, who delighted their comrades by knocking off a 125-pound deer as a further supplement to the otherwise limited larder.

G.I.'S VISIT BUDDHIST TEMPLES IN CHINA

G.I.'s enter 1,500-year-old Hua Ting Sze, one of the largest Buddhist temples in southwestern China, where about 60 monks live. The front gate is flanked by two guardian gods.

INTRODUCTION TO CHINA'S LORE
WEEKLY EXCURSIONS PROVE POPULAR
    CHINA - After working six and a half days to help speed the end of the war, many American G.I.'s stationed here often spend their free Sunday afternoons profitably by acquainting themselves with the lore of an ancient nation rich in culture. Officers and enlisted men participate enthusiastically in special excursions especially designed to give them a deeper insight into China's history. In fact, such a great number sign up for the trips that two G.I. trucks are necessary to carry the sight-seeing soldiers. Sometimes, as in this set of five pictures, the trucks wind over picturesque roads to centuries-old Buddhist temples. In this part of China, the temples are usually nestled high in the mountains in a setting of scenic beauty. Experts in Chinese life and history conduct the tours and lecture on points of interest. Here, a group of interested Americans far from home is shown visiting two of the most ancient Buddhist temples, named Hua Ting Sze and T'Sun Chu Sze, both 1,500 years old. Their guide and interpreter on this tour was Mrs. Y. Y. Tsu, American-born wife of a Chinese Episcopal bishop in southwestern China.

Pvt. Victor Solow is dwarfed by one of the two guardian gods of the Hua Ting Sze temple. To these statues is given the function of keeping away all evil spirits who wish to enter the sanctuary of prayer and devotion.

In the inner court of T'Sun Chu Sze, Cpl. Robert Clarke converses with three monks. For three years previous to the war. Clarke, a Yale graduate, taught at the famous China-Yale School.

Pvt. Robert Devoe and Cpl. Alger Shipp visit the famous T'Sun Chu Sze temple of the square bamboo. The two statues studied by the G.I.'s represent the legendary disciples of Buddha (Lohans).

An inside view of the 1,500-year-old T'Sun Chu Sze temple. The two American soldiers admire some of the 500 Lohans, which represent various human virtues and symbols of Buddhist philosophy, one of the world's oldest.

ROUNDUP'S 'MAN OF THE YEAR'
  Mysterious Swedish Traveler

    Putting in its five annas' worth, the Roundup names as its choice for "Man of the Year" not America's sagacious George Catlett Marshall, Russia's mail-fisted Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin or the Empire's globe-trotting, oratorical Winston Spencer Churchill. Matter of fact, he is neither American, Russian nor British. And until Nip and Nazi call it quits, his identity will remain clothed in purdah.
  Our hero is known to us only as the "Swedish Traveler."
  You who follow the war news closely should be no stranger to the exploits of the Swedish Traveler. The ink is still damp on newsprint announcing that the R.A.F. has bombed Berlin or the Eighth Air Force has paid a unsocial call on Frankfurt when our ubiquitous friend from Sweden follows hard on the heels of the communiqu� with a detailed eye-witness account of the destruction wrought.

HAGG OR ANDERSON ?
  The speed with which the Swedish Traveler shuttles across the border of the Reich after every bombing has suggested to us that he may be either Gunder Hagg or Arne Anderson, for it seems more than mere coincidence that these two swift Swedes between them hold the world's long-distance foot race records.
  Yet, it belittles his military acuity to judge that the Swedish Traveler is nothing more than a sweat-stained athlete. Only a genius or a clairvoyant could divine where and when the next Allied bombing is scheduled. The Roundup's "Man of the Year" is always Johnny-on-the-spot, like ants at a picnic. Be it Berlin, Frankfurt, Hanover, Brunswick or Bremen, he's inevitably back in Sweden a few hours later with an eye-witness account that must cause photo-reconnaissance units to wonder whyinell they go to all the trouble.
  The Swedish Traveler must pack the granddaddy of all horseshoes around in his pocket. But, then, it's axiomatic that success must lean partly upon luck. Imagine the thousands of tons of destruction from the skies that have struck with devastating fury about him, without causing his sudden demise. We can visualize him now, crawling out of the rubble of a blitzed building, dusting himself off, mentally jotting down the holocaustic scene and, ever mindful of his duty to the newspaper-reading public, starting with homing-pigeon faithfulness toward the Swedish border.

SUCCESSFUL BORDER CROSSER
  And, of course, the Invisible Man couldn't cross that border with more consistent success than our hero. Neither snow nor sleet nor Gestapo can stay this fleet courier from the swift completion of his self-appointed task.
  His loyalty can't be bought, for he relates the facts to the United Press, Associated Press, Army News Service, Reuters and other news-gathering agencies. He is as impartial as a flea at a dog show.
  The raid when the Swedish Traveler fails to report on schedule will be darker than a full eclipse to the Roundup.
  But we feel that, like Dick Tracy, our "Man of the Year" is indestructible.

THREE CBI LEADERS GET MERIT LEGION

    Maj. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, Commanding General, AAF, IBS, CBI, pinned the Legion of Merit on three officers this week - Brig. Gen. Stuart C. Godfrey, Air Engineer for the Theater, and Cols. Alvin R. Luedecke and Henry L. Barrett, both of his own staff.
  Godfrey, with 35 years service, has been with the Corps of Engineers for 32 of them. Before coming here last December, he had earned his decoration by his work as Engineer, Air Force GHQ, Air Force Combat Command, in which capacity he directed the growth of the aviation engineer component of the AAF. He was largely responsible for the development of steel landing mats.
  Luedecke's activities as Intelligence officer and military attach� in the Canal Zone and South America were of great military value and resulted "in great benefit to the War Department in furthering the friendly relations between these countries and the United States."
  Barrett was decorated for his work at A-1 of the First Air Force for a year and a half before arriving here last December.

How'dya Like Squeeze
From This Baby?

DEAR ED:
  We read in almost every edition of the Roundup of some Per Diem Hiller getting snake-bitten on his luck and being Shanghaied out into the wild jungles and sticks of Upper Assam.
  From the way they talk, this is rough. But to us boys this has been home for almost two years now and it is not so bad.
  The only thing, as you can see, the Japs are not the only snakes you have to be on the watch for. This (left) is a python, 20 feet long and weighing 300 pounds.
  The G.I.'s are Sgt. Erskine B. Kelly, Jr., and Cpl. Lloyd W. Miles.

      - SGT. ERSKINE B. KELLY, JR.

Bishop Gregg converses with S/Sgt. William Griffens, of Parksley, Va., at a SOS hospital in CBI-land. Others in the picture are, left to right, Chaplain (Maj.) John A. DeVeaux, Chaplain (Capt.) Harold G. Elsam and Chaplain (Capt.) Melvin A. Rankin. Griffens was appreciative.

RELIGIOUS LEADERS
NEGRO EMISSARIES MAKE CBI TOUR
UNDER DIRECTION OF PRESIDENT

  By S/SGTS. EVELIO GRILLO and HARRY A. SKIRVSKY

    SOMEWHERE IN INDIA - One of the greatest experiences American Negro troops have had since arriving in India recently came to an end with the departure from this Theater of Bishop John A. Gregg and Chaplain (Maj.) John A. DeVeaux, personal emissaries of President Roosevelt to the fighting members of the Negro race on America's far-flung battle fronts.
  Fresh from trips to the British Isles, Italy, North Africa, Palestine, Iraq and Iran, the two spiritual leaders made an extended tour of CBI Indian bases, carrying far up the Ledo Road a message of inspiration and cheer to the G.I.'s of all denominations who are joined with their white comrades in the worldwide battle for the freedom of all races.
  Bishop Gregg and Chaplain DeVeaux are the Negro members of a commission of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish religious leaders which is sending representatives to all theaters of war to greet American troops and bring them messages from home. The Bishop, whose home is in Kansas City, Kans., represents the Fraternal Council of Negro Churches which includes 40,000 churches and 6,000,000 churchgoers in its membership. DeVeaux, on the trip, represents the Chief of Chaplain's Office, Washington. His permanent home is Jacksonville, Fla.
  In addition to the inspirational side of their messages, delivered anyplace and everyplace where even a handful of listeners could be gathered, the Bishop and DeVeaux won the hearts of all listeners with their easy informality, their genuine friendliness and their obvious willingness to go to any inconvenience to make their visit a helpful and memorable one. One G.I. remarked, following the visit of the two, "That's the finest thing that has happened to us yet. The could not have sent more inspiring people."
  Pride in themselves and the job they are doing, the promise of a bright future in the post-war world and the unceasing support of the folks back home were the principal themes stressed by the two speakers, who were accompanied and introduced by Theater Chaplain (Col.) Edward L. Trett. The party also brought a message of greeting from Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell.
  "You cannot begin to realize how dearly you are missed back home," said DeVeaux in one part of his message. "You cannot know how proud we are of you. The folks are counting on you; they are waiting for you eagerly . . Be prepared for any eventuality, and assure yourselves that you shall be able to hold your head high, whatever comes in after years."
  The highlight of the Bishop's message for all who heard him was the amusing and rapid commentary he kept up in bringing greetings from each denomination and city represented in the audience, as he amazed his hearers with intimate knowledge of almost every home town represented. Of great interest, too, was his revelation of the fact that, in a discussion in New Guinea with Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the Southwest Pacific Commander had told him that America's great victory in the Bismarck Sea could be directly attributed to the speed and skill with which American Negro soldiers built airbases in New Guinea.
  "I saw some fine engineering in the Southwest Pacific," the Bishop said, "but I have seen as great work over here, and, in some cases, under even more difficult conditions."
  Following their tour of India, the Bishop and Chaplain DeVeaux will return to America via Liberia, Brazil and Trinidad. back in Washington they will report the impressions and suggestions growing out of their trip, directly to the President.

MIXED AIR NET SPELLS DOOM OF G.I. STATION

  By S/Sgt. KARL L. PETERSON

    APO 487 (Dinjan, India) - A brief and hectic existence came to an end last week when Radio Station AAF went off the air after two weeks of operation in the great north woods of Assam. The station, set up and operated by a Special Service unit to entertain troops in the area, played recordings two hours nightly on an unassigned frequency, and not "by authority of the Federal Radio Commission."
  Consequently, the boys in charge of the fledgling received almost daily complaints from local military nets whose frequency they were blocking. Each time they obligingly changed frequency, but only to encounter new troubles. The last time it was some major from China, in apoplectic rage, screaming over the phone, "Will you guys get the hell off the air? I've got messages to send to Station XYZ and all my operators can pick up is Bing Crosby singing White Christmas."
  Capt. Huly Bray, C.O. of the unit, even made a special trip to "Little Washington" to get official sanction for the station, but the air waves were too crowded, it seems, and the project had to be dropped. Reluctantly winked out the little red light outside the basha beside the sign which proudly proclaimed. "On The Air, Do Not Enter When Light is On."
  The Overseas blues: Sgt. Walter Horn, "Y'know, there must be something wrong with the mail delivery; I haven't got a letter from my girl for three weeks now." And that embittered cynic, S/Sgt. (Broken Heart) Russell, replies, "Yeah, that's what I thought was wrong, at first. Ha! Sucker!"

Chuckles XMAS PRESENTS TO CBI-LAND

INDIA ASC BASE - The local merchant who pinch-hit go G.I.'s here in the role of Santa at Christmas time has long since gone back to peddling his homemade CBI patches and matches, but now that the boys have finished comparing notes, the belated Christmas mail certainly produced an odd collection of items.
For instance, S/Sgt. Stephen Charnisky, of Ohio, received a pair of ice skates, size seven, although Charnisky wears nine - if and where there's any ice; Cpl. Lotus E. Goble, of Elletsville, Ind., received a white mosquito net (he's still singing White Christmas); Sgt. William L. Brown, of Marchfield, Ore., found in one package three mouse traps, a flay swatter and a Christmas card mailed Nov. 20, 1942; T/Sgt. Calvin Graham, of Binghamton, N.Y., got a box of tangerines (bringing coals to Newcastle); and the real pay-off was the hysterical laugh of 1st/Sgt. Kenneth Chapman of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., when he found a can of Spam in a box.

Cheerful MORNING EARFUL

APO 429 (Tezpur, India)- Pfc. Charles Belmont opens his G.I. awakening C.Q. duties here mornings by a commercial that is preceded by a blast on a whistle, followed by a chorus of a popular song, then a plug for a certain brand of liver pills. The breakfast menu follows.
By that time the boys are out of the arms of Morpheus, being in a cheery mood from the dawn serenader. If they aren't of out Morpheus' arms by then, they, of course, remain in bed; that is, until Belmont forgets about his Sinatra appeal and starts to imitate a traffic cop.

MORE STOPS THAN SUBWAY
AND NOW HE'S WITH MEDICAL CORPS

    APO 631 (Chakulia, India) - Sgt. max Huberman, an X-Ray technician stationed here, has made more stops in the Army than he ever made on the Subway in his native city of New York.
  Huberman has held the following jobs in 16 assorted Army posts during his G.I. career: cannoneer, company clerk, squad leader, mail orderly, mortar section chief, officers' mess waiter, payroll sergeant, mortar section sergeant, producer for Special Services, drill sergeant, ward attendant, OCS hopeful for nine weeks and first sergeant for a casual company.
  The Army had tried everything else, so they put him in the medics and there he lingers now, for better or worse, but for how long?

The Good Fight
BEING WAGED NOW BY CHINESE IN BURMA

    In the ranks of politicians and military strategists of any nation, there are those with preconceived notions that cannot be disturbed without physical evidence.
  Some of these now live the good life in India and some of these have long believed the Chinese incapable of fighting an offensive war. Such a conclusion is not altogether illogical to anyone who knows anything about the military history of China.
  Elements of the Chinese Army, under the command of an American, Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, are now fighting a campaign in Northern Burma which has already done much to disprove such theories.
  It would be correct to state that this campaign is in existence and doing quite nicely, because Uncle Joe has insisted that it could be done and has bulled it through, mostly on his own.
  In discussing the Chinese, fighting in the mud and rain and fetid jungles of the Hukawng Valley, we wish to announce at the outset that they are not coming through with any blitzkrieg and they are not knocking off 6,000 to 7,000 Japs per day. They are fighting just as the lads scrap in the Southwest Pacific. They are moving ahead along jungle trails in small groups and slowly and painfully taking small position after small position.
  The individual positions don't amount to much, but when you add up what has been acquired in the past five weeks, you have Chinese troops in control of a 75-mile front, the Japanese on the defensive and the first uninterrupted string of victories launched from India since the fall of Burma in 1942. These Chinese have already earned their pay and rice. It is said that BBC reported the Chinese were shelling the "metropolitan" area of Taipha Ga. Taipha Ga consists of a couple of bashas on the edge of a river, but the Chinese literally had to fight from basha to basha to get the Japs out and capture very strategic positions.
  The Chinese solider is a funny little guy who rolls down an embankment along the Ledo Road and climbs out of the crushed cab of his truck, laughing delightedly and yelling "Boo How" at the top of his lungs. He always has a smile, is always friendly, and will cooperate with you. He'll ask you to breakfast if he like you.
  He'll swipe your rations that are air-dropped just the same as good American dog robbers along the Ledo Road are swiping rations from each other's messes to have midnight snacks. He'll walk, eat and sleep in the mud with no complaint other than an occasional rueful, "Boo How," and will walk in fearlessly to wipe out a Jap machine gun nest.
  He likes the American, but he likes the Chinese best of all. He likes American equipment and has learned to use it. He is an excellent artillery man, mortar man and machine-gunner. Chinese Engineers make sturdy bridges will little except axes. he will hike through the mud carrying loads hooked to bamboo poles that an American twice his size couldn't carry half so far.
  Chinese officers, like American officers, are good, bad and indifferent. Coming from a nation that has fought nothing but defensive warfare for thousands of years, they have learned much about surprise and maneuver. More than one position has been taken from the Jap with little or no shooting simply because the Chinese out-maneuvered them.
  In short, the Chinese have already proven what Stilwell has always preached: "Give the Chinese Army equipment, supplies and leadership and it will become a valuable offensive ally in the campaign to eliminate those no longer so happy little fanatics who carry the banner of Tojo."

The C.B.I. Roundup is a weekly newspaper published by and for the men of the United States Army Forces in China, Burma, and India, from news and pictures supplied by staff members, soldier correspondents, the United Press, and the War Department. The Roundup is published Thursday of each week and is printed by The Statesman in New Delhi, India. Editorial matter should be sent directly to Lt. Floyd Walter, Rear Echelon Hq., U.S.A.F., C.B.I., New Delhi, and should arrive not later than Monday in order to make that week's issue. Pictures must arrive by Sunday and must be negatives or enlargements. Stories should contain full name and organization of sender.

FEBRUARY 10, 1944

Original issue of C.B.I. Roundup shared by Ruth Canney, widow of CBI veteran John Canney.

Copyright © 2007 Carl Warren Weidenburner

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