"They can't," one of them answered. "Guards have been posted with instructions to shoot anyone trying to surrender. Lots of the men want to surrender but can't get past the guards. "Then how did you two make it?" asked Gero. "It was easy. We were the guards." |
Vol. III No. 34 Delhi, Thursday, May 3, 1945 Reg. No. L5015 |
Then, at 4:02 p.m., the band started to play Lover, Come Back To Me. Some of the delegates, thinking it must be the national anthem of some member country, started to rise, then when the majority remained seated, hastily resumed their chairs with evident embarrassment. |
Dive-Bombed By EAC B-24’s HQ., EASTERN AIR COMMAND - With the monsoon only a fortnight away, pilots over the Burma operational area this week battled dense clouds, hail, driving rain, squally winds, and icing conditions in the aerial phase of the Allied southward drive to Rangoon. Outstanding mission of the period was a record bridge-busting jaunt by B-24's of the Seventh Bomb Group, which destroyed or damaged 37 rail and road spans on the Burma-Siam railroad east of Thanbyuzayat. Using 1,000-pound bombs, the heavies unloaded 143 tons from altitudes ranging from 100 to 12,000 feet. THEY DIVE B-24'S Some pilots smashed their tiny targets, bridges over dried streams and deep gullies between 4,000-foot mountain peaks, with a new technique developed by Col. Harvey T. Alness of Bayport, Minn., group commander, and Lt. Col. William Keys, of Elwell, Mich., operations officer, diving their huge bombers at the objective to release their explosives from low altitude. Six other bridges received direct hits, but were not classed as destroyed because smoke from the bombs prevented damage assessment. Seventh Bomb men started this mission with a total of 98 bridges knocked out since December 27 and were looking forward to their 100th victim, but their extraordinary success boosted the number to 129. Light anti-aircraft and machine gun fire was encountered, scoring some hits on the airplanes, but no ship abandoned its target. RAIL CARS HIT The Japs have been using rail cars with special auxiliary wheels which can leave the bombed-out trackbed and use the highways, and pilots reported seeing several of these, some of them directing machine gun fire at the attackers. Damage to the vital rail supply line from Siam increased in importance as the Allies drove farther south in Burma. P-51 Mustangs of the Combat Cargo Task Force again ranged into Thailand to strike enemy airfields, starting more than a dozen fires at Ban Takli, 100 miles north of Bangkok, and three large fires at Koke Kathiem, 25 miles nearer the Thai capital city. The attack achieved such surprise that machine gun defenses were unmanned. In southern Burma, B-25's of the 12th Bomb Group bombed the important rail junction of Pegu, 45 miles northeast of Rangoon, on three successive days, hitting troops and tanks from 300 feet altitude and also striking at barracks and stores dumps. P-38's set fire to buildings and strafed troop concentrations, tanks and a staff car in the same area. ZEROS BROKEN UP The panicky enemy threw some of his carefully hoarded air strength into the fray as the Allies moved south. Four RAF Spitfires on patrol south of Toungoo tackled a formation of about 12 Zeros and broke it up, claiming one destroyed and one probable. RAF Liberators dumped 295 tons of bombs in two missions against the Victoria Lake supply depot at Rangoon, and hit a dump two miles west of Thanbyuzayat. P-51's and P-47's hammered at targets in the combat area. |
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Colonels In ASC Get Promotion To Single Star HQ., ASC, INDIA - Both West Pointers and thoroughly-schooled in the vital mission of "keeping 'em flying," Cols. Thomas B. McDonald and John C. Gordon have been appointed brigadier generals in the India-Burma Air Service Command under Maj. Gen. T. J. Hanley, Jr. Gen. McDonald, graduate of the United States Military Academy in 1929, is completing his second year of service in this Theater. SERVICE OVER GLOBE McDonald's overseas service has carried him to scattered parts of the globe. Prior to his arrival in India, he served in Africa and accomplished a mission in England in early 1943. He served in Hawaii from 1931 to 1934 and received his Air Corps training at Brooks and Kelly Field. His present duties are as Chief, Maintenance Division of Gen. Hanley's Command, and under his direction, the gigantic overhaul plant for B-29 engines, eliminating this phase of fourth echelon work being accomplished in the United States, was established. GORDON HELPED FORM ASC Gordon, a West Pointer of '31, has twice been decorated in this was with the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star Medal. He was one of the five officers who shortly after Pearl Harbor devoted himself completely to the formation and activation of the Maintenance Command, later designated as the Air Service Command and know known as the Air Technical Service Command. A Command Pilot, Combat Observer, and Technical Observer, Gordon, 39, was schooled at Randolph, Kelly, and Maxwell Fields in flying and tactical strategy. He is serving as Chief, Plans and Operations Division of I-B ASC and is responsible for the effective co-ordination of the many bases which keep A.A.F. planes flying. |
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By SGT. CHARLES W. CLARK Roundup Staff Writer Sgt. John R. McDowell, Roundup's ole reliable in the Ledo area, comes through with another snake story (no column's complete without one). Seems there were four officers playing a friendly game of poker in a dimly-lit tent, At this point, says John R., the officers rose, unsheathed their jungle knives and with shouts of "Death to the invader!" proceeded to carve the pesky python into small chunks. As mascots, dogs, birds, tiger and bear cubs, and monkeys leave Pfc. Oscar Paulson cold. To him "man's best friend is an otter," and so he's acquired same for a pet. Paulson, member of an ATC outfit in Assam, says Otto (the otter) has only one fault. "He won't eat anything but fish," reports Paulson. "If I could only wean him to something more easily procurable . . . something like Spam, for instance." Nurse Lt. Stephanie Louise Kordeck and Capt. Orr Y. Portebnya were married in North Burma recently, culminating a two-year courtship that began in Ramgarh, India. After a short honeymoon in Kashmir, writes our society reporter Sgt. Arthur J. Goldstein, the newlyweds, both 28-month veterans of the I-B Theater, will go to the States on rotation. It's a dangerous thing to do, but the 1328 AAF BU up in Assam has gone out on a limb with a couple of claims to glory. One concerns Capt. Victor (Pop) Henly, who has completed his "tour of duty" and rotated home. At the age of 41, Henly is believed (by the 1328th) to be the "oldest or one of the oldest pilots in the India China Division, ATC." The second assertion is based on the laudable achievement of Lt. Robert DeHart, who, at the tender age of 20, has also completed his "tour of duty" and is now awaiting orders to go home. The 1328th contends DeHart is the "youngest or one of the youngest pilots in the Theater" to finish required missions. Winding up a 45-day home leave, Capt. Alfred T. McHugh, adjutant of ADMAC in New Delhi was spending a delightful afternoon in Miami, strolling about the beach with his wife and getting a sun tan. Deciding that this outing should be put down on film. McHugh offered his camera to a passerby, an elderly, nondescript individual wearing a bathing suit, and asked if he would mind taking their picture. The stranger grunted that he did mind. McHugh insisted in tones polite but firm. The old boy finally agreed, snapped about nine pictures and waddled away. Then a friend of McHugh's rushed up blurting off the information that their "photographer" was none other than Maj. Gen. Bluurp. McHugh caught the next plane. |
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