CBI Roundup - October 19, 1944 - China-Burma-India Theater of World War II

VOL. III NO. 6 REG NO. L5015 DELHI, THURSDAY OCTOBER 19, 1944

B-29'S, NAVY BLAST FORMOSA   Japanese installations ranging from the Philippines to the East Indies to Formosa took a terrific combined U.S. Army and Navy aerial blow this week as China-based B-29's of Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay's 20th Bomber Command joined with Vice-Adm. Mark Mitscher's famed Task Force 58 carrier airmen in a concentrated assault against Formosa off the China coast.
  The fury of the American assault is unparalleled in the Pacific war, with Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announcing that the Jap fleet had finally come out of hiding to give battle. But, they fled when they found the strength of the U.S. force was unimpaired despite Nip aerial assaults for 72 hours, wherein 95 enemy craft were lost, said Nimitz.
  Adm. William Halsey's Third Fleet started the Nip pounding on Monday with strikes against the Ryukyu Islands, 200 miles from Japan. The Nips lost 89 planes and 58 ships, with Halsey sacrificing eight planes and no ships.

THREE-DAY ACTION
  On Wednesday, 1,000 carrier-borne planes from Mitscher's force, which is part of the Third Fleet, hit Formosa. The assault was continued on Thursday and Friday amidst Nip attempts to get at the surface units. The results: 796 enemy planes destroyed, 27 enemy ships sunk, at least 30 probably sunk, 25 damaged, scores of small craft destroyed. The cost: 45 U.S. planes and two ships damaged, according to a communiqué from Nimitz.
  In the meantime, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's bombers had twice raided the big Jap oil refinery at Balik Papan in the East Indies, leaving the target in flames. MacArthur's bombers also hit Davao in the Philippines and Nimitz announced a strong carrier-borne raid against Luzon in the Philippines.

BIGGEST B-29 RAID
  Not allowing the enemy time to catch his breath, the CBI-based B-29's launched what was described as their biggest raid to date with a Saturday assault on Formosa. The important air supply depots at Okayama and Heito were hit. Reconnaissance showed 37 buildings were destroyed and 16 damaged. Four American planes were reported lost on the raid, none to enemy action. But two planes later returned and one crash landed at a forward base, with 10 of the 11 man crew safe.
  On Monday, the sky giants returned to Formosa and deluged the same targets with bombs. Results were described by crew members as good. No planes were lost.
  On Tuesday the 29's hit Formosa for the third time, attacking Einansho, Nip supply base, and other targets within a 10 mile radius. No planes were lost. Air reconnaissance showed only two major buildings remaining in Okayama.
  In Washington, Gen. Henry H. Arnold, acting in his capacity as commander of the 20th Air Force, said lack of Jap air opposition could be traced to the earlier Navy assaults. He said photographs taken on the first B-29 raid showed airstrips were inoperable and that at least 50 Nip planes were shown damaged on the ground. He said that since these places were not in the target area of the earlier B-29 raiders, it was presumably the earlier carrier-borne blows that had given the Super-Forts "freedom of action for the accomplishment of their missions that might not otherwise have been possible."
  At a base in China, LeMay told newsmen that not a single B-29 had been shot down by enemy fighters in any of the 10 missions launched from CBI. He said seven had been lost to enemy action altogether, but that B-29 gunners have downed 37 Jap planes and probably destroyed 36 and damaged 59.
  In the Pacific land warfare, the 81st Army division occupied two more islands in the Palau group and Nimitz announced that Jap opposition on Pelelu had ceased as of Oct. 12, with 12,407 Japs dead.

GEE-EYE ANNIE

Styling herself "Gee Eye Annie," Ann Sheridan told the United Press, "I've no defense to make about anybody who is displeased with me as an actress . . . but I'll fight boy fashion, and no holds barred, with anybody who thinks I or any of the gang I accompanied dogged it in the overseas theater."

Hollywood Stars Flay Roundup Editorial

  The 18th of April in '75 may have been a busy day in the history of the American Army, but, fellow sweat-outs, twarn't a patch on 18 October of '44, when the editors of Roundup scrunched down in their well-tailored New Delhi foxholes and ducked the barrage of abuse received from a few citizens in the moving picture business.
  Brothers, it was rugged. We ain't used to being shot at. All we did was say a couple of weeks ago that we didn't like the way a few moving picture ladies and gents had come to CBI, promised to show, and then suddenly turned around and went home.
  Now, we've had it. We quote, verbatim, from the asbestos copy of the United Press.
  "HOLLYWOOD - Ann Sheridan, in a letter to the editors of CBI Roundup, released by her studio, Warner Bros., said 'I am not angry, hurt, distressed, or even temperamental. I have no defense to make to anybody who is displeased with me as an actress. But I'll fight boy-fashion, and no holds barred, with anyone who thinks I, or any of the gang I accompanied, dogged it in the overseas theaters."
  (Roundup said that the Sheridan troupe promised 60 days in CBI, delivered 35. We still say so.)
  Miss Sheridan added, "We traveled 60,000 miles in a few days less than 60 and we tried to play two shows a day one-half hour long. If you don't like our routine and if our jokes are old, blame the Army censor board, not us. We traveled under Army auspices and that goes for routine jokes, songs, and the way you brush your teeth.
  "Now, about easy money we pick up. Personally, I am one of those fortunate in Hollywood who have a continuing contract. I get paid 46 weeks out of 52 and I work hard to fill my commitments. I insisted upon using my badly-needed vacation time to go out for USO.
  I traveled at the rate of a thousand miles a day, playing even two bad shows, eating "C" or "K" rations more often than not, much of it standing up and then when it's time to go to the little girl's room, I go down to the men's toilet and wait until it's cleared so that girl troupers may use it."

WE'VE NEWS, GENERAL
YOUR CHRISTMAS PRESENT IS ON THE WAY

  CARMEL, CALIF. - (UP) - A Post Office clerk looked down a line of box-laden customers and relaxed for the first time in weeks, exclaiming, "Mrs. Stilwell, I've been watching for this. I was afraid you wouldn't make it."
  The general's wife deposited a regulation Burma-addressed Christmas package on the counter and sighed apologetically, "I know, but it's taken me all this time to decide what to put in it. What are you going to do with a man who never asks for a single, solitary thing?"
  The box contained Stilwell's favorite hard candies, some chocolates, marshmallows and fruit cake baked specially for him.

Villagers Tell Of Breakup In Nip Morale

  The Japs facing the rugged British 36th Division of Maj. Gen. Francis W. Festing along the railway corridor southwest from Mogaung are showing signs of shaken morale, reports the Associated Press of India this week. Villagers have told the fighting men of Festing that there have been quarrels between Nip officers and men and at least one incident where they hurled away their arms before continuing their retreat.
  As the 36th fought on in patrol actions in North Burma and the Chinese troops continued contact with the Nips, the Salween Expeditionary Force, seeking a linkup over the old Burma Road with the forces of Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, continued to hack away at enemy positions in Lungling and Mangshih.

PAGODA HILL FIGHT
  Salween activity at Lungling has centered around Pagoda Hill, just northeast of the five villages which comprise the city proper. The Japs have attempted to dislodge the Chinese from their dominant positions here but failed in two attacks, which they followed by an artillery barrage.
  There were artillery exchanges around Mangshih, with USAAF fighters and bombers twice hitting the Nips there. The planes also attacked Jap positions along the Burma Road between Mangshih and Pingka. Rains during most of the week hindered the fighting along the Salween.
  In the Arakan, fighting flared up again for the first time since May as the Japs attempted to capture Goppe Bazaar, entrance to the vital Goppe Pass across the Mayu Range. The Nips were repulsed. Also in the Arakan, African troops were active east of Mowdok and there were artillery exchanges south of Maungdaw.
  In the Chin Hills the British reported stubborn Jap resistance around the Tiddim area. Tanks from a British cavalry regiment attacked west of Tiddim in the only action of the week beyond increasing artillery exchanges.

STRICTLY G.I. By Ehret "HERE'S A LITTLE ITEM THAT MIGHT BE OF SOME INTEREST NOW THAT THE WORLD SERIES IS OVER."

AWOL CBI G.I.'s Caught In U.S.

BALTIMORE - (ANS) - Three of four soldiers who went AWOL in India and used forged furlough papers to hitch-hike plane rides back to the States have been picked up and face probable court martial.
All landed in Miami. One went to Erie, Pa., but returned to Miami when his father refused to permit him to stay on learning he was AWOL. MP's picked up two others in New York. Whereabouts of the fourth is unknown.

CHINA TELLS UNRRA OF POST-WAR NEED

WASHINGTON - (ANS) - A Chinese government commission this week reported China will need $3,500,000,000 worth of relief supplies in the first year after liberation, meanwhile asking the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) for a third of that sum.

A LESSON IN G.I. BREVITY

NEW DELHI, INDIA - (UP) - The Army has just gotten out a new form which American G.I.'s are asked to fill out for the sake of records or something or other and which asks, among other things: "Any interesting experiences overseas?"
Enough space for a small essay is provided for the G.I.'s written answer. One answer just turned in was: "Yes."

Secret Jap Weapon Destroyed

M/SGT. LAPIERRE AIMS HIS TRUSTY PIECE AT THE "THING"

  14TH A.F. HQS. - This isn't just somebody's pipe dream of what might happen in a Buck Rogers movie. It's as authentic as the personality of Col. Jackson, Chief of Staff of the CASAC, who discovered the Japanese secret weapon in the first place; as well authenticated as photographic record could make it; as solid as M/Sgt. Joseph - but let's start at the beginning before this damn sentence gets another compound clause tacked on its tail.
  Jackson reported the thing to the 14th A.F. staff in the first place. It sounded like something out of a bad dream or the vision of another world. It was armored; it was jointed; and it had knobs or projections which looked like fixed 20's on either side of the tank-like structure. There was a forwarded turret or something of the sort with another projection that resembled the horn of a rhinoceros.
  Recognition and identification manuals proved fruitless and bootless. But if there was one of these things there might be more of them out in the rice paddies or around the compounds just waiting to take a crack at somebody. So Sgt. John Schaefer, photographer of 14th A.F. Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron put it up to M/Sgt. Joseph Lapierre, who is orderly-extraordinary and whatinelldoyouwant? at large for brig. Gen. Edgar E. Glenn, Chief of Staff of the 14th A.F. Lapierre isn't afraid of anything. He has to be like that because he has to say "no" to full colonels every day.
  When Schaefer put it up to him, Lapierre, for all his courage, hauled back a little and said, "No - the general's bus--" Then he stopped.
  You know how strong habit can be, even for a man who lives in the Bronx, which is where the sergeant lives when he's at home, and where he wishes he was, some days, on account of a Mrs. Sergeant who lives at 2764 Decatur Avenue. If anybody from Manhattan remembers old P.S. No. 77, that's where he did his first reconnaissance, and as you'll see in a minute that was good basic.
  Anyway they went out together in a jeep, with Lapierre toting a carbine and his usual hip artillery, while Schaefer carried his usual C-3 and a pocketful of hand grenades.
  (This is where proper orchestration would drag in the drums and the woodwinds with a combination of Gotterdammerung and Chao Yuan-jen written by the famed Ma-Tsu-Wu which you will find on page six of China's Patriots Sing.
  For there, in the brush, at the foot of a rumbling yellow-brown wall (that perchance shielded the pretties of some ancient warlord from the prurient eyes or marauding banditti of a thousand years ago, but let's not get off the subject) they came face to face with the ghastly, evil thing.
  Schaefer said that when he first heard it he thought Lapierre was snoring in a sleepwalk, and Lapierre who has the rank on Schaefer says he thought it was something else. But when it rounded into the wind with the fecal stench of 1,000 gardens out our way, the rattling grumble of doomsday, the high pitched laughter of a ghoul, and the squeak of Raymond's closing door---.
  Well both of them shot at once. That's all. You can see the answer to the whole thing if you'll just glance to the top of this story, and we hope like hell the makeup man doesn't get it upside down, because it's bad enough anyway.
  The G.I.'s of the 14th A.F. will back this one against anything else in any theater of this war. Only you've got to have photographic proof that is just as good.
  P.S.: The crash intelligence people have taken it over for examination and report. That's all.

NOV. 23 TURKEY DAY - OR IS IT?

  WASHINGTON - Congress decreed officially that Thanksgiving Day would fall on the fourth Thursday in November - Nov. 23 this year - but that settled nothing as far as Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia were concerned. These recalcitrants will celebrate turkey day on Nov. 30, let the cranberry sauce fall where it may.
  Three States, following their Governor's proclamation, may celebrate both dates: Arkansas, Georgia and Texas. Gov. Coke Stevenson, of the Lone Star State, said he would proclaim a holiday for Nov. 30 to conform with the date for the traditional Texas-Texas A&M football game.
  Calendar manufacturers, guided by the Congressional decision, printed Nov. 23 in red on this year's calendars and are said to be taking a very dim view of the confusion.

JAPANESE BRUTALITY HARDLY A SURPRISE

  A report reaching the Roundup recently that the Japanese have been using Chinese civilians as human shields on the Hunan Front hardly evokes a great degree of astonishment in anyone conversant with the brutish, inhuman behaviorism of the disciples of the "Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere."
  Walter Rundle, United Press correspondent, quotes the Chinese writer, Chang Hung-tseng, as reporting: "To the surprise of our men who charged up Yumushan, all the men killed and wounded at the first Jap line were Chinese farmers in Jap uniforms. They were captured only one or two weeks before, and few of them knew how to fire a rifle. The Japs simply marched them to their front line and exchanged clothes with them to make them serve as targets of air and land poundings.
  "A column of Japs on the move is really something to look at. First of all come scores of water buffaloes and Chinese farmers, with a few Japs in the line as guards. After them come the Japs.
  "Looting and raping by the enemy occur wherever he goes. The Jap fights in the day and holds orgies at night."
  This latest indictment of brutality and cold-blooded disregard of the code of human decency is yet another proof of how thin all the time was the veneer of Japanese civilization.
  The very history of the island nation should have cried aloud the warning that danger existed beyond the engaging friendliness, excessive courtesy and disarming docility of the Japanese.
  The rape of Nanking, the barbarous treatment of American prisoners at Bataan, the thousand ugly, wanton atrocities everywhere the tentacles of the Japanese military octopus have probed are all a part of the nation's inheritance.
  Since 1598, the time of Hideyoshi, the national hero of Japan, the Japs have cherished a dream of world domination. Hideyoshi conquered Korea after a war lasting seven years. As a monument, he built a conical mound in the beautiful city of Kyoto known as "Ear Hill." It was composed of thousands of ears and noses of the vanquished foe sent back, pickled in wine.

Hideyoshi's Grandiose Scheme Fails
  Hideyoshi's ambition was to place the Son of Heaven on the throne of the world. he failed even in his less grandiose scheme of establishing his emperor in Peking for, when asked to surrender, the King of Korea declared contemptuously that to attempt the conquest of China was like a bee trying to sting a tortoise through his armor.
  The war in Korea was long and costly, and Japanese history has boasted of its cruelties and barbarities. Hideyoshi's exploits have been glorified in Japanese song and story, although the refusal of Korea to surrender made it possible for the Chinese to pour troops to its borders to thwart the enemy's thrust.
  Later followed self-chosen isolation by the Japanese for 20 years. During that interim, Portugal dispatched four distinguished envoys to the island, but they and 57 attendants were beheaded and 13 members of the group allowed to return to their king to tell the dreadful tale. "Think no more of us, just as if we were no longer in the world," warned the Japanese.
  When, in 1853, the "black ships" of Commodore Perry induced the Japanese to agree to open the country for foreign trade and Townsend Harris negotiated the first treaty, Japanese statesmen recognized the old policy of isolation was ended. The Emperor Meiji was restored in 1867. And the country almost spontaneously opened itself to the West. Death ended Meiji's reign after 45 years. Japan, at that stage, was practically a world power.
  On the surface, Japan seemed to become more and more Westernized. But with Meiji's death, the nation's military heirs began to assert their power. Their demand was not to go forward to the West, but to return to the past.
  Now the Army re-emphasized the old traits of loyalty and subservience, the old virtues of restraint and of simplicity. It inveighed against everything from permanent waves to the music of Beethoven. Thought control blossomed. Shinto was propagandized. Government became no more the affair of the common people than it had been in the past.
  At the same time, the Army began to instruct raw peasants that they were gods and sons of death.
  They were taught loyalty the first year; death rather than surrender.
  Next year they were taught fury; murder before death.
  They were taught "louding" exercises in which the lungs of recruits learned to bellow the sanguine cries of war.
  Behind the Emperor sat the military.

Militarists Murder All Liberals
  Fanatical militarists killed and assassinated every liberal statesman who planned to promote the welfare of his country by liberal means and sought to avoid war.
  Meanwhile, the Army exhorted the people with the moralistic slogans of restraint, frugality, work and piety.
  Then came the time for the frustrated, repressed nation to break out of its restraint and run amok. The Army called for the moment; the nation broke forth.
  Now the Japanese were unmasked. Instead of the friendly, likeable, courteous people we in America popularly imagined them to be, they exhibited a new set of national morals. These same people spat at, slapped, starved and tortured foreign prisoners of war, raped Chinese women and twisted bayonets in their breasts and bowels, roped old men and children together and set them afire, lunged at live civilians at bayonet practice and bedaubed the rooms of captured homes with their own excrement.
  They had appeared docile; they were not docile in nature.
  Japan set out on her long course of aggression with the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and chose the course of armed forces as an instrument of national policy. This land grab was more than an economic concept; it was that they made war in order to acquire weapons with which to make more war.
  Six years later, in 1937, illegal maneuvers at Lukouchiaoim precipitated the clash at the Marco Polo Bridge with the Chinese.
  Prince Konoye, then Premier, told the world, "in sending troops to North China, of course, the Government has no other purpose . . . than to preserve the peace of East Asia."
  When these oily words drooled from Konoye's lips, Chiang Kai-shek was seeking an immediate armistice. The Japanese took no note of Chiang's offer. Peace was not on their blueprint, which was the infamous Tanaka memorial, written 10 years earlier to the day of the incident at Marco Polo Bridge.
  Then we learned in the United States that our State Department had submitted to Jap military authorities maps locating our missions, churches, hospitals, universities and schools and that these were being used to plot brutal, calculated attacks upon the innocent institutions.
  Finally, there was the stab in the back at Pearl Harbor, when negotiation for a peaceful settlement of differences were ostensibly being conducted in Washington. The rest you know.

DREAM PIPE

Bamboo water line is supported across a defile by a trestle also made of bamboo. This improvisation saved 678 pounds of cargo space, enough for 7,500 rounds of .30 caliber ammunition. Six hundred feet of three-fourth inch pipe would have been needed.

Engineers Of Y-Force
Build 'Bamboo Inch'

  CHINA - U.S. Army Engineers of Brig. Gen. Frank Dorn's Y-Forces have had to put many a dot in the "i" in the famous American ingenuity.
  But their recent accomplishment of using bamboo in lieu of metal for a water pipe line best illustrates the problems at the "end of the line" and how they are solved.
  A water line was needed between a G.I. mess and a spring. At a military post in the States, that 600-foot gap would be spanned by 678 pounds of three-fourths inch water pipe. In China, water pipe was needed and so was shipping space for 678 pounds over The Hump. That 678 pounds represents 7,500 rounds of .30 caliber ammunition, which could be better used against the Nips on the Salween Front.

WENT TO WORK
  So the Engineers went to work on another problem to solve. It was true that Chinese coolies could be used to lug the water, but these men were sorely needed as burden carriers in places where even mules cannot go in support of mountain combat units.
  In a matter of hours, 600 feet of large bamboo stems were cut, the joint piths were rammed out with a rod, connections were calked, small holes were filled with wooden pegs and the line was complete. A continuous flow of spring water prevents cracking or further leaks in the wooden pipe line. All requirements were filled.

NAMED THE JOB
  G.I. Joes name all things and this little 600-foot job was called the "Bamboo Inch." It accomplished the following: (1) Did not take the required metal of 678 pounds of pipe; (2) Did not take machinery from more vital work; (3) Did not displace indispensable cargo for a 17,000-mile ride from America to India; (4) Did not displace more urgently-needed materiel on the U.S. Army operated Bengal-Assam Railroad; (5) Did not take space on Hump planes.
  Just another day in the life of a U.S. Engineer outfit in the CBI.

TENTH AIR FORCE WINS STILWELL'S PRAISE

10TH A.F. HQ. - High commendation has been extended to the 10th Air Force, Eastern Air Command, by

Stilwell

Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, Commanding General of the China-Burma-India Theater, for the 10th's part in the Bhamo and Lungling areas.
  Continuous bombing and strafing during the monsoons in these strategic sectors has been an important part of 10th A.F. activities. In his letter to Maj. Gen. Howard C. Davidson, Commanding General of the 10th, Stilwell said:
  "Just to let you know we appreciate what the 10th Air Force is doing at Bhamo and Lungling. From what I hear, you are pouring it on to good advantage and that's a great help in this interval while we are getting ready to go after the Japs again.
  "Gen. Dorn is enthusiastic over the way you lads are supporting the Y-Force. They feel very grateful for the backing you have given them. My regards and best wishes to all you lads."

MITCH NAVY DAY HELD AT AIRSTRIP

MYITKYINA - It looked like Navy Day at Old Mitch airfield recently when Lt. John P. Johnston and W/O John Skelly, of the U.S. Navy, "came aboard" clad in their regulation sou'wester rain jackets.
The two sailors were not off their course, however, inasmuch as it's their job to travel the CBI, investigating and improving Army and Navy technical co-operation. Here at Mitch they talked shop and discussed various technical operations with crew chiefs and engineering officer of the "Burma Peacock" squadron.

RINGER SQUADRON TWO YEARS IN CBI

  CHINA - The Ringer Squadron, a 14th Air Force B-25 outfit, celebrated its second anniversary in the CBI Theater with an organization dinner recently.
  Activated in Karachi in September, 1942, the Ringer Squadron served in India more than a year, bombing targets in Burma and establishing an enviable record for missions flown and for superior maintenance. The Ringer was the first squadron of Mitchells in the CBI to use all 16 of its craft successfully on a single mission and was twice commended for outstanding performances.
  Some of the squadron's air and ground personnel, including the CO, could not take time out from the business of smashing Jap airfields and other enemy installations in occupied China to celebrate the anniversary, but planned another party when they returned to their home base.

CHINESE 'EGG ON' FOURTEENTH AIR FORCE

  CHINA - The 14th Air Force was recently egged on by the Chinese to continue their destruction of Japs in southeast China.
  Rail and road transportation lines were disrupted by the fighting in Hunan Province and, as a result, there was a shortage of eggs. Fewer and fewer eggs appeared on the mess menus every day, and finally it was announced that there were no more eggs.
  Old-timers reeled! In China, telling a soldier that he won't get eggs for breakfast is like telling him the sun won't rise that morning.
  But it couldn't last, the prophets croaked. No eggs for breakfast was just a flash in the (frying) pan.
  And it didn't last. News of the fliers' eggless plight reached the citizens of a nearby Chinese city, who promptly started an "every-family-two-eggs" movement and collected 80,000 eggs before you could say "sunny side up."
  The next day the 14th Air Force went on egg-eating.

IN CHINA WITH U.S.O. TROUPE 99

Now on tour in China, Basil Fomeen, member of USO Unit 99, adds the name of Cpl. Sam C. Azzar to the "longest short snorter in the world." Interested onlookers are Capt. J. T. Trutter, upper left; USO'er Joe Tershay, between Fomeen and Azzar; and Pfc. Harold S. Nyquist, right. The gent strumming the guitar is Gene Emerald of the USO troupe. The Chinese tot seated on the jeep hood doesn't appear interested in the proceedings, but the G.I.'s enjoyed every minute of Emerald's impromptu, nostalgic performance. USO Unit 99, a four-man organization, has traveled the length and breadth of CBI and is heralded as the most appreciated troupe which ever landed in this neck of the war. Fourth member: Jack Cavanaugh.

DIRTY WEATHER FAILS TO STOP 14TH AF

  CHINA - Despite week-long hammering by 14th Air Force planes, the southern arm of the Japanese armies in Kwangsi this week captured the town of Kweiping, 128 miles south of Kweilin, overcoming the outnumbered Chinese garrison.
  Advances attempted by the Japs farther north from Pingnam in this area were thrown back however, said the Chinese. On the northern sector of the front, meanwhile, Chinese troops were still holding at the Tayung River, 28 miles northeast of Kweilin.

FOOCHOW LOST
  Other Chinese communiqués admitted the loss, two weeks ago, of Foochow in Fukien province, which had been the last support held by the Chinese. Jap troops landed on China's east coast and overwhelmed the Chinese holding the city.
  Bombers of the 14th scored a spectacular success in weekend raids, B-24's sinking a Jap cruiser and probably sinking a destroyer in the South China Sea. A large force of bombers and fighters, in a concentrated attack on the Kowloon docks at Hong Kong, trapped a fat Jap convoy which had evidently fled from the threat of the American naval task force operating off Formosa. At least two tankers, three freighters and one barge were sunk, beside heavy damage from fire and secondary explosions to the dry-docks, shipyards and other facilities. Six to eight Jap interceptors were driven off, and one destroyed.
  Bad weather in midweek only slightly slowed down the 14th's sweeps over the West River, south of Kweilin, and its tributary, the Liu Kiang, where they destroyed six river steamers and damaged 15, besides over 200 sampans, junks, barges and other smaller craft. Fifteen fuel-carrying barges were sunk by one mission.

JAP PLANES DESTROYED
  Escorted B-24's met interception over White Cloud airdrome near Canton, but laid their loads squarely on the target, while our fighters shot down four of eight Jap Zeros which sought in vain to get at the bombers. Six to eight Jap planes were destroyed around Anking, on the Yangtze River. Amoy, to the southeast, and Kiungshan on Hainan Island, were other widely-separated Jap airfields hit during the week, with 12 enemy aircraft destroyed on the fields and two damaged.
  Liberators also bombed the Kowloon docks, while P-51's sank a 490-foot Jap tanker in Repulse Bay.
  On the Salween River front, the 14th's planes struck repeatedly at enemy positions and supply points near Mangshih, and also hit Chefang and the Kunming ferry area.

  You will be interested to know that if you are from Cook County, Ill., and you die or are killed, your absentee ballot will not be counted in the coming election. Ballots of men reported as Missing In Action will be counted. So far this is the only publicized ruling by an election board on the status of Army casualty lists.

  CBI G.I.'s who fear that malaria, once acquired, lasts a lifetime, can listen to the following statement from Maj. O. R. McCoy, chief of the Army Tropical Disease Control Division, "Fear that malaria, once acquired, lasts for life, is unfounded." He also says returning soldiers suffering from malaria may cause epidemics in the States.

  G.I.'s stationed in the sectors where dengue and sand fly fever are prevalent will be glad to know that "results beyond expectations" have been achieved by Army doctors in experiments. Dr. John Paul, professor of medicine at Yale, is authority for this statement. Whether the results of these experiments are now in use or will be soon, was not clarified.

  The soldier has been assured by Congress that he will have first priority on purchasing jeeps no longer necessary for military use after the war. But this week Willys-Overland has announced it will manufacture a farm version of the jeep in post-war.

  There is no longer a limited service classification. Selective Service has announced that due to the fact the Army and Navy now only want men of combat caliber this quota has been discontinued. Local boards have been directed to place all men of 38 or older in Class 4-A, while all honorably discharged servicemen will be retained in Class 1-C. This means that examples in the past, where some Joe honorably discharged on medical grounds, was drafted right back in after a second physical examination, cannot happen again.

  The House Military Committee, according to Army News Service, is expected to make public a report that wounded G.I.'s in the States are receiving the best possible hospital care. Investigations were ordered after Rep. Fenton (R-Pa.) made an inspection of station hospitals at nearby Boiling Field and had complained vigorously about accommodations except for isolated cases, most of which have now been corrected. The investigators also reported there were no "flagrant cases" of "coddling" of war prisoners.

New Boss
LEIGH-MALLORY FOR SEAC

From SHAEF in London this week came the announcement that Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Air C-in-C under Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, has been appointed Allied Air C-in-C of the Southeast Asia Command. This, observers stated, indicates the possibility of stepped-up air activity in the Far East during the coming months. It brings to the

Stratemeyer

Far East the second of two topflight British war chiefs, Adm. Sir Bruce Fraser having previously arrived from the Atlantic to take command of the British Far Eastern Fleet.
  Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer's Eastern Air Command aircraft this week directed their attention to key rail and road bridges on the principal Jap lines of communications in Burma. While effective support was furnished to ground troops in the Tiddim area and in the railway corridor near Mohnyin.

BRIDGES BOPPED
  Mitchells of the Third Tactical Air Force knocked out the north end of a bridge at Pyinmana, important rail junction south of Mandalay, destroyed another bridge at Kyaukse, on the same line, and probably knocked out the railroad bridge at Rawgio, 100 miles northeast of Mandalay.
  B-25's of the Skull and Wings Squadron, 10th Air Force, flew three highly-successful missions during the week. On the first they knocked out the south span and damaged the north span of the rail bridge at Wuntho, tilted another at Kawlin and further damaged a new road bridge at Namkhai. On their second effort they demolished a suspension bridge at Nalang and another at Nampaung. The third accounted for a new road span near Lashio, which had been erected to replace one which was knocked off a few days ago. On their return from this mission, they destroyed a railroad bypass bridge at Kawlin and damaged another at Bongyaung. In the first 13 days of the month, the Skull and Wings has destroyed 13 bridges. According to their C.O. Maj. Robert Erdin, "the Japs are paying the toll."

ZEROS DOWNED
  Early in the week, a flight of Mitchell's attached to the Third Tactical Air Force was intercepted by eight Jap fighters in the Mandalay area. Three Japs were shot down and four damaged with the loss of two of our aircraft.
  The improving weather permitted Hurricanes and Thunderbolts of the Third Tactical Air Force to furnish close and effective ground support to British 14th Army troops in their attempt to drive the Japs out of Tiddim. These aircraft were also active along the Chindwin.
  Beaufighters were out every day against locomotives, shelters, rolling stock, river craft and motor transport on rail and river routes in Central and Southern Burma. These aircraft ranged as far as Martaban Gulf, south of Rangoon, where they shot up a number of schooners.

FOUND - HORSE PLAYER ALONG LEDO ROAD

  A quiet guy, he lives along the Ledo Road. But there's a light in his eye that says: here's a man content, a man with a world of his own. Does he (Allah forefend!) scribble poems? Or is he a secret drinker?
  Groping across slit-trenches one night, we found him, waving a beer bottle filled with Fighter Brand.
  "Any fella who'd do that," he shouted at a nearby water buffalo, "would run rabbits 'fore breakfast, lap pond water, an' bark at the cross-eyed moon!"
  "Who'd do what?" we asked cautiously.
  "Fix a horse race," he drawled in unmistakable Kentucky-ese.
  By the time the Fighter vanished, we found out that ever since arriving in CBI. Kentucky has been betting the bang-tails. How? Merely by sending money and his selections of a Louisville buddy who makes the bets for him.
  Don't believe it? Well, any evening at 1915 hours you can find Kentucky hanging over the radio for the latest race results. And periodically he's flush with fresh rupees which come via money order from Louisville.
  Asked for further details, Kentucky puts on an excellent imitation of a clam in repose. How does he get his dope? What does he substitute for a form? The answers to these questions must be fascinating and wonderful. Shell out, Kentucky. We'd like to play the ponies, too. - recapture for one bankrupt moment the lost glories of those elegant days at Santa Anita.

WORLD SERIES IN INDIA

Here's two G.I.'s who brought the World Series through the G.I. radio station to G.I.'s in Delhi area. These VU-2-ZY boys are T-5 Bill Stulla, at left, who handled the mixer and record that gave the crowd atmosphere and at right T-5 Chuck Whittier, who gave the inning by inning account. Some G.I.'s who listened to the broadcast were convinced they were getting a broadcast direct from the ball park in St. Louis as Whittier told of crowd and diamond incidents taking place, while Stulla dubbed in the crowd noise. Both boys are professional radio men in civilian life.

HEAVIES TOP 14TH AF CARD

  CHINA - A large hangar at one of the 14th Air Force bases became China's Madison Square Garden recently when 16 "Flying Tiger" boxers slugged it out before 3,000 G.I.'s with two knockouts featuring the card.
  Sgt. Andy Polen kayoed Sgt. Tommy Nelson in the final seconds of the third and closing round with a right uppercut to feature the heavyweight competition. Sylvester Hendricks won a TKO over Bob Healy in the final bout of the night.
  There were three draws in bouts featuring Cpl. Lenny Valentini and S/Sgt. Joe Ruscigno; Sgt. James Wilson and Pfc. Johnny Pellagrino and Sgts. Willard Smith and Danny Saas. In other battles Sgt. William Hanes won over Sgt. Andy LaCassa; Sgt. Mike Haverne defeated Cpl. Irvine Woods.
  Capt. Mark Conn, former Golden Gloves lightweight champ in 1936, put on an exhibition match with Cpl. Malvian Shields.

Pin-Stripe Perfection
NOT FOR 14TH AF NON-COM

As any old advertising man knows, those mailing lists will get out of date. Witness the receipt by Sgt.

Anthony J. Coffaro of a China heavy bomb group of the following heart rending multilithed letter from Gravins, a Rochester, N.Y. clothing firm.
  "Dear Friend: We've missed you here at Gravins. Unless our records are in error, you haven't been in the store for quite some time. If anything is wrong, won't you tell us about it? We're trying hard to be the best men's store in this city, but stores, like human beings, are not always perfect," etc.
  The letter proceeded to exuberate over the latest Fall lines in mean's wear, "Exquisite tailoring and superb woolens."
  Regretfully, Coffaro brought his tailors up on the war situation: "Unfortunately, for the past two years Uncle Sam has been my tailor, so I'm afraid I won't be available for any pin-stripe suits this season, much as I regret it. It seems that the most fashionable suit of the moment is khaki-colored and drapeless. Everybody's wearing them nowadays."

REPAIRING MYITKYINA
  By JACK GUINN United Press Correspondent

  MYITKYINA - Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell's American and Chinese troops, who blasted the last Japanese defender out of this city more than two months ago - and incidentally blew away most of the city along with the Japs - are hard at work today, rebuilding and repairing some of the buildings they shelled, bombed and riddled with machine gun fire.
  The Americans and Chinese have moved into the Myitkyina area and taken over every construction with the exception of a few buildings to which war-weary Myitkyina citizens have returned, filling everything that could possibly be used as a shelter. The sound of hammering and sawing goes on into the night these days as troops patch walls ripped open by shellfire, lay floors which had been removed by digging-in Japanese and repair roofs which were riddled and blasted by shellfire and strafing planes.
  But so many totally-destroyed homes and buildings remain that the sight of Myitkyina is not so much different from what it was on Aug. 4, the day after the last defending enemy had been chased from the city and into the bushes and trees beyond.
  I returned to Myitkyina recently and made a tour of the city with Capt. Joseph K. Saunders to look at whatever changes had been made since I was last through the town, on Aug. 4. The charred wreckage of buildings which had been blasted and burned still stood as they had stood before - because the burned timbers were of no use to anybody. Also remaining unchanged were slabs of concrete foundations, still leaning grotesquely, the way American bombs had left them, looking like gravestones in a cemetery for the unmourned.
  Nobody had any use for the concrete, either. But every other stick, stone and piece of brick that could be used and could be moved had been carted away. Some of the timbers had been moved by Americans, to repair their buildings in and around the city. But most of the useable material - in some instances even entire houses - had been moved by the Chinese to their area of the town.
  Saunders and I went down to look at the little barber shop which had stood before a shell kicked in the back door and deposited all the furnishings in the street in front, in the city's business districts. The barber shop was one of the landmarks I remembered. But when we arrived at the place, there was no barber shop building. besides that, the wreckage of three or four other buildings in the same block had disappeared. Nothing remained except foundations and a few scraps of torn sheet metal roofing. Shoulder-high weeds had sprung up around what had been the building fronts, where only a little more than two months ago even grass had been kept down by hurrying Japanese feet. Burma's fertile soil and Burma's rain and steaming heat did that.
  I asked Maj. Fred Huffhine with whom I toured the city on Aug. 4, what had happened to the buildings.
  "The Chinese took them," he said. "They've moved Myitkyina lock stock and barrel to their part of the city. They took down whole houses and rebuilt them in the forest just like they stood at Myitkyina. I saw houses down there that we went through up here. I recognized them."
  One of the houses which the Chinese took over but left standing on its original site was one of the most vile-smelling houses in the whole city of Myitkyina, a two-story brick and wood building which had been used by the Japanese as an aid station. As the noose of defeat tightened about the necks of the defenders of Myitkyina, nobody bothered to carry away the wounded who died in the aid station. The eight bodies found in the house - including one which was found hanging on a clothes rack -had been there some time.
  Broken medicine bottles were scattered all over the building. Their contents had spilled across the floor, medicinal smells mingling with the odor of old bandages and the stench of rotting flesh. You could smell this house 100 yards away.
  Today the only smell is of disinfectants. The house has been scrubbed and cleaned and sprayed repeatedly and mosquito netting has been placed over the windows.
  This building, which on one day housed such a pleasant sight for the Chinese, will continue to be a source of delight to them. It's now their post office.
  Not so pleasant for the Chinese are the reminders of the battle they fought in their part of the campaign for Myitkyina: the cemeteries with their almost pathetic little paper decorations and the huge monument of stone and brick.

'OFFICIAL INTERPRETER'
ASC GROUP ADOPTS 12-YEAR-OLD

Frederick Allen Anthony Baylis, 12-year-old Burmese refugee, receives his official visa as "camp interpreter" from Col. William S. Pocock, Jr.

  MYITKYINA - Ragged but dapper, and speaking faultless English, 12-year-old Frederick Baylis, onetime Rangoon resident, is now "Official interpreter" for Col. William S. Pocock's "Burma Peacocks," ASC group which came to Burma as a repair and supply task force just prior to the fall of Myitkyina.
  Men of the group, searching for bamboo with which to build their camp, found the Baylis family living in a parachute refugee tent in the tall grass by the Irrawaddy, and have practically adopted them since then. In addition to Frederick, who helps the group sergeant major and serves as a runner, brother Stanley, aged 10, has been placed as "assistant office boy" to various units in the ASC outfit.
  The soldiers come by to help Frederick collect firewood for the open tent cooking fire, and give him odds and ends of clothing for his brother and sister.
  After her husband was killed in Rangoon, Mrs. Baylis took her daughter, 11-year-old Anne, and four youngest sons and fled north with droves of other Burma refugees. The eldest son, Robert, 16, remained behind, and no word has been received from him.
  The trip was a nightmare of Japanese bombing and strafing attacks. At Mandalay, Frederick's uncle met them and took them to Lashio, then to Bhamo, where they lived in peace briefly in a mill by the river. The grim look in the brown eyes of eight-year-old Walter reflects their experiences: "baby" William, 5, was hit by a spent strafing bullet and as a result "won't eat anything or do anything."
  Worst hit of the family was sister Anne, whose arms are thin as broom handles - she spends her days in the tent, beneath a blanket, exhausted, shivering with malaria. Maj. R. J. Bell, head of the local Burmese refugee hospital and senior medical officer of the Army of Burma, has been able to do little for the girl. "Resistance to disease has been so lowered among our people," he says.
  But Mrs. Baylis smiles confidently, "She will be fine soon - Frederick is taking care of her."

PET MONKEY FEASTS ON RUPEES

  By PFC. BOB REES

  CEYLON - The expensive appetites of "Chiko," a pet monkey belonging to T/4 Charles Kaisch, have just about put him on his mater's "purge list." And none too soon, for PX-wallah T/4 Ray Mericle is looking for the animal himself, with blood in his eye and a sharpened Ghurka knife in hand.
  Things were tough enough when "Chiko" persisted in sneaking through the trellis gate of the PX by night and chewing up various candy bars and sticks of chewing gum, but owner Kaisch grumbled and footed the bill and Mericle grumbled and swept up the resulting mess of paper wrappers.
  This week the midget ape strong-armed his way into the cash box, disdainfully passed up the one and five rupee notes, and chewed up two 50 rupee notes. And Chiko doesn't look like a villain either - looks like one of the "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" trio, in fact.

GETTING WOUNDED READY FOR TRANSFER BACK TO HOSPITAL

Jap prisoner casualty, in the "upper berth," is ready for the air journey to a hospital behind the lines. Speedy evacuation of wounded prisoners gives Intelligence Officers useful information they possess.

Lt. Dorothy Cameron supervises, while ambulance drivers carry a wounded Chinese soldier up a specially-built ramp to the ambulance plane. Since September, 1943, more than 26,000 casualties have been evacuated from the Burma fighting front and Assam.

T/Sgt. Robert E. Corbin and Lt. Pauline Curry, of the Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron, check medical records before taking off with their patients for a hospital behind the lines.

ATC AIR EVACUATION UNITS FLY OUT 26,000 IN YEAR

  ATC BASE, INDIA - For a year now many of the ATC's best pilots have been engaged in the perilous job of flying ambulance planes, bucking monsoon rains, icing conditions, enemy ground fire and Jap Zeros to carry a total of more than 26,000 sick and wounded men out of the fighting lines to the safety of rear area base and station hospitals.
  The big C-46's which carry 32 litter patients and the C-47's which accommodate 18 are like "magic carpets" to American and Chinese soldiers in North Burma, who were constantly buoyed up during the Myitkyina fighting by the knowledge that, if wounded, they could be undergoing treatment, safe in an Assam hospital, within two hours.

COMBAT TIME
  Pilots are credited with combat time for these missions, as are the flight surgeons, nurses and enlisted technicians of Maj. Morris Kaplan's Medical Air Evacuation unit, who handle the actual evacuation of patients and give them in-flight treatment, including administering blood plasma.
  In their operations, not one patient's life has been lost due to accident, but close calls have been frequent. One plane recently ground-looped in taking off from a runway dotted with bomb craters and soft spots, but none of the 35 casualties aboard was injured. On a recent flight from Myitkyina a pilot, flying on instruments, thought he glimpsed Heaven when his ship grazed the treetops.

ROUND TRIP
  Besides the runs from Assam into Burma, when the planes fly in medical supplies and troops to make the trip a paying proposition both ways, the ambulance ships regularly shuttle from China to Assam, and from Assam east to Calcutta and Karachi with patients requiring special treatment. Several thousand of the total number evacuated have even been flown to the States, says Lt. Col. Edward A. Abbey, who is air evacuation control officer and India-China Division surgeon for ATC.
  Tenth Air Force Troop Carrier planes have frequently helped ATC in the evacuation work. In case of a sudden call for a mass flight, all ATC planes are so constructed that they can be quickly converted for ambulance use by the installation of litters.
  The ATC also maintains an emergency surgical team, for those whose wounds are so serious as to require an immediate operation. Alerted at all times, this crew of medical personnel can be airborne within 20 minutes for the flight to Burma, where they set up an operating room at dispensaries, using special equipment.

Brooklyn's Marco Polo Learns About Dugouts

  By PVT. JOHN McDOWELL

  MYITKYINA - Pfc. Raymond Phillips of Brooklyn is an authority on boats. If you don't believe me, ask Phillips.
  But the expert from the East River met his nemesis in a crude Indian dugout on the Brahmaputra River.
  Phillips' Ponton outfit was stationed on the Brahmaputra near Khulna at the time of the dugout incident. It all happened when Pfc. Howard Markland and Phillips pulled into shore in an assault boat and knocked the dugout from its moorings. They pursued the drifting boat downstream and, as they pulled alongside the dugout, Phillips jumped into the runaway craft.
  There were no paddles in the boat, so Phillips shouted, "Throw me a line and we'll tow her in." And he took a good grip on the rope which Markland tossed him. "Let her go," he said.
  Markland gunned the assault boat and before the startled Phillips knew what had happened the dugout was spinning a mad dervish in the center of the Brahmaputra like a cork in a drain. By the time he was able to let loose of the rope, the dugout was half-filled with water.
  "What'll I do now?" he asked as he frantically bailed out the water with cupped hands.
  "Don't ask me. You're the boat expert," came the reply.
  And, after the deliberation, the redoubtable Mr. Phillips tore up a seat in the dugout and paddled slowly into shore.
  P.S.: Phillips now classifies himself as an Indian dugout expert, exceeded only by his ability as gondola pilot in the Coney Island lagoon.

108 Platters
FOR FREE

APO 429 (Tezpur, India) - The Gremlin, ASC group newspaper at this base, is trying to boost attendance at the G.I. movies, and came up recently with the following goodie:
"FREE. LOVELY 108-PIECE DINNER SET. Each G.I. attending Loew's Theater with his wife will receive a different dish out of a 108-piece dinner set. COME SUNDAY NIGHT FOR 108 WEEKS AND RECEIVE A COMPLETE SET."

WHAT TO DO WHEN LOST
THROW THE NAVIGATOR OVERBOARD

  CHINA - A Chinese B-25 pilot here has neatly solved one of the Air Force's toughest problems - what to do when your plane is lost.
  Returning from a recent mission, the navigator of the all-Chinese crew became snafued over the Yangtze River and the bomber burned precious gas circling while he vainly sought to get a "fix."
  Finally the pilot ordered the navigator to bail out. The culprit did so, landed near a friendly village and asked directions. Straightened out, he proceeded to draw an arrow in the sand to guide his mates, who waved acknowledgement and took off for home. The navigator walked back.

B-25 CREW GETS BIRD - BUT GOOD

HQS., 10th A.F., INDIA - The happy group pictured here are the survivors of a head-on tangle between a B-25 type aircraft and one Burmese vulture.
The bird got knocked colder than a haddock, but the aircrew didn't get out unscathed. Capt. Harford P. Jenks, left, the pilot, and Lt. Howard J. Thiery, Jr., the co-pilot, are receiving first aid from Capt. Pete Commings, a flight surgeon. Lt. Edward P. Schug, the navigator, holding the bird with Jenks, escaped injury.

M/SGT. GETS BARS ON REPAIR RECORD

  HQS., 10th A.F., INDIA - Direct commission as a second lieutenant plus the Bronze Star, were awarded to M/Sgt. James A. O'Brien this week for his remarkable maintenance record of Mustang fighter planes of the Yellow Scorpion squadron, 10th Air Force.
  The new lieutenant has managed to keep 93 percent of the squadron's planes in the air during the past year, despite the shortage of necessary ground personnel. His achievement is believed to be the highest in the CBI Theater.
  O'Brien, who began his Army career 15 years ago, has now assumed the duties of Assistant Engineering Officer.

HEREWITH THE WEEKLY TEXAS YARN
G.I. Mess Installed In Temple

  MYITKYINA - Texas is a big State, and its citizens are noted for doing the ordinary in a "big" way.
  Thus, when Wilson (Tex) Gresham, veteran mess sergeant along the Ledo Road for nearly two years, was sent into this forward base to take charge of SOS Headquarters mess he did the unexpected.
  Instead of setting up the conventional frame and canvas kitchen, Tex discovered a bombed-out temple in the headquarters area. "This is going to be my kitchen," he announced.
  Coolies were put to work clearing out debris and throwing a canvas roof over the structure. Stoves and storage shelves were installed. And today the temple floor which once knew the dainty footsteps of slender, dark-eyed temple girls resounds to the lazy shuffle of Burmese KP's, and the smell of incense has succumbed to the odor of frying Spam and dehydrated potatoes.
  All of which only goes to prove that war is hell!

FAMED 'BANSHEE' GANG FINALLY IN BURMA

  SOMEWHERE IN BURMA - The Burma Banshees, a P-47 fighter outfit under the command of Lt. Col. Albert L. Evans, has finally got to Burma - on the ground.
  Long based in Assam, the Banshees were not unknown to the Japs in Burma, where the Thunderbolts spent most of their working time blasting Jap communications, troop and supply concentrations, and giving close support to the front line troops. Perhaps the new paintless Thunderbolts will be strange to the ground fighters but the accuracy and skill of the Banshee pilots in dive bombing and strafing are still the same welcome sight.
  Wrenched away from the long friendships with the nurses and Red Cross girls in Assam, leaving behind the old Carew's and Lily brand, changing bungalows for porous tents, the entire group now operates from forward strips in Burma.
  A far cry from bearers and bashas, the new set-up permits characters long used to a paper war to whittle through trees with dull axes, build duck walks, pitch tents, pull almost forgotten KP and latrine details. And (they say) they like it.
  Embryo woodmen had their troubles, chopping a tree to fall in one direction, then ducking when it started to flop the wrong way. Strong men shivered in their sacks whenever the cry of "Timber!" rang out.
  No pretense is made that they are undergoing the hardships of the real front-line troops, but it does give them a chance to gripe at those in the rear areas in Assam. As one of the squadron historians says, "All, all is relative."

Pvt. Wah Louie & The Crane
A STORY FROM ASSAM

  By CPL. WILLIAM HOY

  SOMEWHERE IN ASSAM - This is the tale of a persistent Chinese-American G.I., an unwary king crane from the hills of Assam, and a package of plasma-building herbs from China way.
  The hero was 21-year-old Pvt. Wah Louie, of San Francisco, Calif., member of a service squadron composed

entirely of Americans of Chinese descent.
  For villain, we have a king crane. He was the size of a giant eagle and had been disturbing the slumber of the squadron's personnel every dawning before the hour of reveille. Now, the crane has been a bird glorified in China's ancient poetry and in the annals of her literature. Had not the bibulous Li Po sang in praise of its beauty and flying grace? Had not another poet dedicated a hill-top sanctuary called the pavilion of the Yellow Crane? The allusions to the crane's mournful cries suffuse the entire range of China's treasure house of scholarship.
  But to Wah Louie and his comrades, living in proximity to a forest of elephant grass and tall timber, this long-necked kin to the heron, the stork, and the adjutant was a nuisance. And a nuisance, as the ancient Chinese sages said about effete monarchs, should be eradicated. definitely this crane had to be knocked from his tree-top perch and consigned to the nether world.
  Therefore, for three days, while the moon waxed in silvery splendor and China's millions celebrated the "Moon Festival" with lotus nuts and religious rites, and the Indian sun baked the Assam earth, Wah Louie stalked his prey with a well-oiled carbine.
  Perhaps it was the fact that a full year had passed since Wah won his marksmanship medal. But withal his aim was faulty the first day. After three shots, he merely ruffled the crane's feelings. It screeched in displeasure. Then he quit his perch for a little constitutional among the low flying clouds until the disturbance had ceased. That night Wah was the object of sarcastic jokes from his brethren-in-arms.
  The second day Wah brought reinforcement in the form of four buddies. The crane rested in his usual tree-top bailiwick, perchance contemplating the end of the monsoon. The five Mongolian-faced G.I.'s raised their carbines in unison. They rent the air with a salvo.
  The shots peppered the surrounding trees, but the crane was miraculously untouched. He might have sniffed the acrid odor of the bullets as they whizzed by, but that was all. Wah bowed in shame, and was the recipient of further ungentlemanly remarks.
  Came the third day, and Wah, undaunted fared forth again into the forest. Alone. if the crane saw him beating about the bush below, he merely sniffed in derision, for here nature and the elements took little notice of man, particularly a five-foot-two G.I. from the Louie clan.
  But this was the crane's fateful hour, for Wah had now perfected his marksmanship. His first shot winged the bird. His second hit on its side. The late Mr. Crane tumbled heavily to earth. Diligence, Confucius once said, can overcome slow understanding. Wah had been diligent in perfecting his aim. He reflected on the incomparable wisdom of Confucius as he administered the coup de grace.
  The bird, when held up, was almost as tall as Wah, and weighed 40 pounds. It had a wing spread of 10 feet. It also had some beautiful soft white feathers at its sacroiliac. Wah the hunter posed for a few snapshots with his resplendent catch, flanked by his now admiring buddies. Even his topkick, 1st/Sgt. Edward W. Chan, stood by in awe.
  Now the China herbs play their role. For the question of the Crane's disposal came up for deliberation. It was then that Cpl. So Tak, who in his day had savored much exotic Chinese cuisine, voiced his sentiment. The crane, he averred is a bird whose meat is favored by many celestial epicureans. But in order to make its flesh palatable to the gourmand, he added, one must have certain Chinese herbal mixtures to brew it in. Also, rice wine or a potent beverage of superior distillation. So Tak was appointed to procure the necessary ingredients, while Wah conferred with the mess sergeant about culinary facilities.
  So Take thumbed his way that evening to a nearby hamlet. It was a place that boasted a "Chinatown" of half a dozen Cantonese-manned shops which purveyed such celestial victuals as dried fungi and mushroom, salt fish and dried

PRETTIEST

The prettiest soldier in the entire Army. That's the title recently won by Pvt. Kathleen McCann, shown above. She was chosen from thousands who participated in the New Jersey State Fair.

sea-weed, China teas and dried abalones. Tak conferred with a merchant with whom he had patronized often, and outlined his gastronomic problem. The rare bird caught the merchant's fancy. So from his own family stock he brought forth certain time-seasoned, fragrant herbs from China.
  Tak returned with the precious package. From some bibulous soul had come a quart of brandy. This was poured reverently into the cauldron wherein the chopped up crane now reposed. Several whole chickens were thrown in for extra sweetness. And then the herbs. There was a goodly portion of "Tang-kwei," the root that helps red blood corpuscles to multiply. There were ounces of tung-chung-tso, the fragrant grass-that-looks-like-winter-worms, a plant that gives warmth to the body. There was some gay-tse, a small red seed which is an aid to better vision. There were some dried dragon-eye fruit. Lastly, there was a bit of musk deer tail, which, as everyone knows, is a medicine that gives one vitality.
  The exotic ingredients were thoroughly mixed, the lid was closed tightly, and the concoction was left to brew in a slow fire. The brewing took three hours, so that the medicinal properties of the herbs and the potency of the brandy would be absorbed into the crane meat. Wah Louie kept vigil.
  The moon was high over the Assam valley when Sgt. Sew H. Chan, the chef, lifted the lid. The smell of the concoction was delicious, pervasive and heady. The bouquet of the brandy rose with the steam.
  So crane stew was served to a dozen gourmets that night. Lips smacked loudly in appreciation, for this was a dish that all the rupees in India could not purchase. As Wah Louie sank his teeth on a portion of crane leg he felt rewarded for his labor. it was a memorable day and night and those who partook of the exotic brew walked a trifle unsteadily back to their tepees.

LOOK OUT FOR CURVES

Miffed by the San Francisco Chronicle's weird article that Ledo Road Engineers erected interesting road signs in Italy, of all places, the hairy ears sent along the above photograph to prove that their handiwork was fashioned along "Pick's Pike." (The sign reads: Speeder's Beware! Mark my words, Wait and see, You'll get caught, Just like me! 25 MPH.)

AACS Edisons Burn Up Bugs

  ASSAM - T/Sgts. Jack Hanley and Joe Caltagirone, two of the AACS's crack radio men in northern Assam, have what is probably the world's only High Voltage Bug Killer (HVBK). They built it a while ago when they decided that they were spending too much of their time batting away insects. "The situation was beyond the fly swish and mosquito repellent stage," Hanley says. "It was holding up the war effort."
  "That is putting it mildly," Caltagirone will tell you. "We were spending so much time picking things off us that we began to buy bonds as our contribution to the war effort like civilians."
  The HVBK, which any G.I. with four pieces of wood, several yards of wire and a high voltage current is free to copy, consists simply of a wooden frame across which wire is strung at quarter inch intervals. Each time a marauding bug touches two of the wires simultaneously, which happens frequently, it closes an electric circuit and burns to the fine crispness of a new bride's toast.
  The superiority of the HVBK over liquid repellent and the fly swish is that it involves no odors and no effort. You don't have to coat your body over with ointment till you resemble a Channel swimmer, or to swing yourself into a state of nervous exhaustion. You merely flick a switch. "Very simple," says Hanley, "and it works beautifully."

Life Saved
BY JUNGLE KNIFE

  S/Sgt. James E. Flynn, 33-year-old photographer with the Black Angel squadron of the "Earthquakers" medium bomb group under EAC, will testify that no aircrewman should be without his parachute jungle pack - his own pack saved his life, and without even being opened.
  Manning a beam gun on his Mitchell during an air battle with Jap fighters over Burma, Flynn caught a 20mm shell right in the back, but the missile struck his jungle knife and he escaped with only slight wounds from fragments.
  Soon after, the bomber dropped earthward, one engine gone, gas tanks afire and rudder shot away, but Flynn's luck was in again and the pilot managed a crash landing in a convenient swamp, which doused the blazing gasoline. Flynn and other crew members trekked only a mile before being picked up by a patrol and returned to their base.

RIDE WITH 'OLD BETSY' On First Mogaung-Myitkyina Run

CAPT. JAMES BANNON AT THE THROTTLE

  MYITKYINA - It could only happen in Burma.
  Where else would you take a train ride on a locomotive that goes forward 40 miles and then backs up 40 miles?
  "Old Betsy's" odyssey had its beginning in the announcement by Capt. John J. Waterman of the Railway Operating battalion that the spavined, wheezy old locomotive was scheduled to make the first run on the Myitkyina-Mogaung rail line. Personnel of the Railway Battalion and several Engineer outfits had spent two months repairing damaged engines and rolling stock and replacing bombed-out trackage and bridges on the line. Old Betsy's trial run was to test the line and see whether it was in condition to allow replacing jeep trains with standard locomotives and strings of freight cars.
  Members of the press were on hand early. Jack Guinn, of the United Press, surveyed Old Betsy's shrapnel-scarred epidermis with doubtful eyes as Burmese helpers stacked fuel wood in the tender for the 80-mile round trip to Mogaung. G.I.'s armed with oil cans scurried about lubricating the 45-year-old locomotive's arthritic joints and cogs for the coming ordeal.
  As the "zero hour" for the maiden run approached, Capt. James M. Bannon, railroader on the Rock Island for 20 years took over the throttle, assisted by T/4 Wayne K. Bannister, T/4 Sidney W. Elder and two native firemen. He hooked the locomotive onto a string of 19 empty freight cars and members of the Fourth Estate retired to their "Press car."
  The party sweated out the first sizable bridge - a span of 300 feet. Bannon stopped Old Betsy at the approach to the bridge, then walked the train across at a snail's pace. The bridge didn't even tremble, and as the Fourth Estate was wiping perspiration from its respective brows and mentally marking one hurdle off the list of hazards the train backed up and we were gazing across the flood-swollen stream once more.
  This time, Old Betsy snorted and pawed at the approach to the bridge. Bannon gave her the gun and she leaped forward like a ticklish freshman just victimized by a skilled finger. The bridge was crossed in a matter of seconds and the first big question mark of the trial run had been erased. The bridge had proved it could "take" heavy traffic.
  Then came the bridge over the broad Mogaung River. American airmen had given this crossing a terrific pounding during the campaign against the Japs in the Mogaung sector and Engineers had spent seven weeks repairing the bombed-out spans on the 500-foot bridge. It was the last test for Old Betsy.
  Once more, Bannon wheeled the train slowly over the bridge. The long steel structure stood steady. Once more, the captain backed the train off the bridge he had already crossed.
  Bannon gunned the train across the bridge and before you could say "Nyanugbintha," we were over the river and pulling into the Mogaung Union Station.
  At Mogaung, the empty boxcars were loaded, for Old Betsy was scheduled to return with a "pay load." The load, it developed, was horses - eight to a car. We happily relinquished our "Press car" to its original estate as an equine hostelry and established our new Pullman accommodations on top the wood pile in the tender.
  A gang of G.I. veterinarians loaded the horses and, in the process, exhibited power and drive which would have made any big-time football coach's eyes sparkle.
  By the time the cars were loaded, the press was informed of a "situation" which had befallen the maiden run. Installations were not yet completed on a turn-table in the Mogaung yards and Old Betsy could not be turned around. This necessitated backing the train all the way to Myitkyina.
  And, as the train chugged up the line to Myitkyina, G.I.'s along the road whistled and cheered at the "wrong way" locomotive which had just written a new page in the record of the Army Transportation Corps, and up in the old "Press car" an exuberant nag punctuated the occasion by kicking out the side of the car.
  Good thing, too. It needed more ventilation!

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, OWI, 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.

OCTOBER 19, 1944

Original issue of C.B.I. Roundup shared by CBI veteran Robert L. Shaw

Identical, better quality image of Ann Sheridan substituted for original.

Copyright © 2006 Carl Warren Weidenburner. All rights reserved.

TOP OF PAGE     PRINT THIS PAGE     ABOUT THIS PAGE

SEND COMMENTS     ROUNDUP HOME PAGE