ONE G.I. KILLED, 26 INJURED IN RIOTS

HUNTING RECORD CLAIM
  CALCUTTA - Pfc. William Maslanka, now at the 142nd General Hospital, puts in a claim for the all-India G.I. hunting record for his outfit, the 726th Railway Operating Battalion, in the country around Pandu.  Their bag: 12 wild boars, 4 tigers, 1 crocodile (or something like it), 6 snakes, 2 deer, 2 leopards. Any challengers?

 IBT Roundup
Vol. IV  No. 12        Delhi, Thursday,   Nov. 29, 1945.        Reg. No. L5015

25,783 Motor Vehicles Delivered Over Road

Blonde Annette Simmons of London, with her hopes obviously up to her knees, is seeking the screen lead in Forever Amber. Sounds like another Gone With The Wind promotion.
 SIX G.I.’S KILLED IN AMMO BLAST
Roundup Staff Article
  One of six G.I.'s killed, along with 52 Indian laborers, in the explosion of eight truckloads of old Chinese smokeless powder Friday at Kanchrapara Ordnance Ammunition Disposal are near Calcutta, has been identified as Pvt. James A. Grimes of the 591st Ordnance Ammunition battalion.
  The announcement was made by Theater Headquarters, which reported the victim died at 4 a.m. Saturday morning in the 371st Station Hospital of third degree burns.
  Five other U.S. soldiers killed in the blast still are unidentified. Another five are in the 371st Hospital. One, Pfc. Clarence Francis, of the 60th Ordnance Ammunition Co. was described as being in serious condition with second and third-degree burns. The other four men were reported out of danger.
  Also hospitalized are 40 Indian workmen who were burned or otherwise injured in the violent explosion, which occurred at 4 p.m. at an unloading point in the disposal area. The blast destroyed all eight trucks. The extent of additional damage in the area was not known.
  Cause of the explosion was not known but American Army officials at Theater Headquarters in Delhi said there was no connection between the blast and the recent Indian demonstration in Calcutta. An investigation is being conducted.
  (Ed. note: - For story on ammo disposal at Kanchrapara see below.)




6,539 Trailers
For China Use
By SGT. JACK DEVLIN     
Roundup Staff Writer     

  The Stilwell Road paid off dividends to the tune of 25,783 motor vehicles and 6,539 trailers delivered to China between the time the "lifeline" opened last Feb. 1 and Oct. 8 when the last official U.S. Army convoy arrived at Kunming.
  This achievement was disclosed today by Transportation Service Theater Headquarters, in the wake of the official closing of the "Lifeline to China" on Nov. 1.
  The vehicles shipped to China, consigned to both Chinese and American military forces there, accumulated a total of 31,736,078 miles on the arduous trip from Ledo. Gross cargo tonnage was listed as 146,948, exclusive of local supplies for the pipeline and communications - which represented additional dividends made possible by The Road.

FIRST CONVOY
  The first convoy to China was dispatched from Ledo last Jan. 14 and arrived in Kunming Feb. 4 after being delayed by fighting in the vicinity of Mong Yu, Burma, where the Ledo and Burma Roads join to form the Stilwell Road. Construction of the Ledo Road started in December, 1942.
  Vehicles destined for China, which urgently needed transport to help halt her losing battle against the Japanese, arrived in the India-Burma Theater in Calcutta and were delivered to Siltgurl by train and then sent on to Ledo.
  In the first month of operations over the newly opened Stilwell Road, named for Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, 22 convoys representing 1,942 motor vehicles were delivered in Kunming. Operations were in charge of Motor Transport Service. In addition to personnel from QM truck companies, many trucks were being driven by Chinese soldiers and, later, by G.I. volunteers. In April, convoy stations were in operation at many points along The Road to help ease the rigors of the trip, which normally required an average of 12 days.

82 CONVOYS
  Motor Transport Service officially took over entire operations of The Road's activities in June, when the Army delivered 82 convoys comprising 4,901 motor vehicles and 964 trailers. This represented the largest number of convoys and vehicles to be delivered despite the fact that the monsoon, after arriving late this year, brought record rainfall.
  The impact of the monsoon caused July shipments to drop to 75 convoys comprising 4,745 motor vehicles and 828 trailers. In August worsening conditions caused The Road to be closed a total of 17 days to all vehicles, and 27 days to those vehicles having only two-wheel drive.
  Following V-J Day, September's convoys totaled only 52, comprising 3,060 vehicles and 408 trailers. During the week's operations in October, 916 vehicles and 50 trailers were delivered.
  The last Army convoy, No. 500, was dispatched from Myitkyina, Burma, Sept. 28 and arrived in Kunming 10 days later.
  The last Army convoy dispatched from Ledo, India, was No. 422, which departed Sept. 26 and carried 500 Chinese soldier hospital patients to a rehabilitation camp at Yunnanyi, China. This convoy continued on to Kunming, arriving two hours before the last official convoy. Convoy 422 was furnished drivers by the 3648th QM Truck Co., 68th Group. The convoy commander was Capt. William W. MacDougall of Atlanta, Ga.
  The last actual convoy to go over The Road was sent by the U.S. Navy several days after the Army's last convoy and comprised 350 vehicles.


Calcutta Quiet After Indians Demonstrate  Roundup Staff Article
  One American soldier was killed and about 26 injured, five of them seriously, in demonstrations in Calcutta last week marking Indian National Army Day.
  The dead soldier was identified as T/5 James H. Stewart, Negro ambulance driver of the Headquarters Detachment, 47th QM Battalion. Stewart was missing Friday night. Saturday afternoon searchers probed through the charred wreckage of his ambulance found at the corner of Hazra and Russa Roads and a burned body found therein was identified by dental work as that of Stewart.
  Injuries suffered by the Americans included three possible brain concussions and one skull fracture. The other cases were lacerations and bruises. Condition of the more seriously injured was said to be improving.
  The Americans seriously injured suffered mainly from head wounds. Army News Service said the demonstrators were protesting the trial of Indian National Army personnel now being held at the Red Fort in Delhi. The Indian National Army, reported Army News Service, sided with the Japanese.
  Between 15 and 20 American vehicles were burned and a much larger number damaged by rocks, it was stated by India-Burma Headquarters. The number damaged was estimated at more than 50.
  All Calcutta was placed out of bounds to off-duty American personnel during the riots. However, some American personnel and vehicles were unavoidably in riot areas while going about their regular supply and other duties. Where military duty carried U.S. personnel into the city, jeeps and trucks flew the American flag with M.P.'s armed with sub-machine guns doing convoy duty, according to the Associated Press. The situation is now described as quiet.
  A story cabled to the United States by the Associated Press of America said at least 15 Indians died and 150 were injured during a series of local disturbances in which no Americans were involved.
  Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that a three-day strike of 20,000 municipal employees of Calcutta ended Sunday and workers returned to their jobs to end a paralysis of municipal services. The services included operation of the transportation system, used by American personnel, and the operation of the municipal water system.
  According to the Associated Press, demands made by the union for increased wages and medical aid for all employees were met.



36,000 TO SAIL FOR U.S. UNDER DECEMBER QUOTA
 Roundup Staff Article

  A total of 36,000 troops are scheduled to leave the India-Burma Theater by ship for home during the month of December, according to an announcement by Theater Headquarters.
  Of this total, 16,000 will leave from Calcutta while 20,000 will leave from Karachi.
  As of the end of the year the Theater strength will have been reduced to about 50,000. Inasmuch as Theater strength stood at 154,000 on September 30, the records indicate that two out of every three men in the India-Burma Theater since then will have left for home by Dec. 30.
  Official records show that 8,955 troops left for home by water in September, 47,778 in October and 43,284 in November, for a total of more than 100,000. Several thousand men from the China Theater are included in these figures. The totals do not, however, include those men who returned to the States by air.
  Meanwhile, the backlog of men waiting in ports of embarkation as of Dec. 1 was estimated at about 31,000. Of these, 13,000 are scheduled to be at Calcutta, while 18,000 will be at Karachi.
  According to a circular issued last week by Theater Headquarters, EM with 57, 58 and 59 points, will leave for POE's between Dec. 6 and 12. Men with 55 and 56 points will leave between Dec. 13 and 25.




MORE TURKS FOR XMAS
 Roundup Staff Article
  More than 400,000 pounds of Stateside turkey valued at $188,140 was on hand in the India-Burma Thanksgiving Day to feed G.I.'s and their guests - and enough was left over to take care of an even bigger Christmas dinner.
  Theater Quartermaster also revealed that about 27,266 birds died that I-BT G.I.'s might enjoy the holiday in the traditional way.
  Arrangements for the feed began as far back as June 14. The U.S.S. Phoenix, loaded with the Thanksgiving and Christmas fare, arrived at Calcutta on October 5. It was the first genuine Stateside turkey for the two holidays in the history of the Theater.
  Refrigerated boxcars carried the turkey from Calcutta to Chabua and Ledo and ATC provided special planes on a high priority basis to fly the gobblers from Calcutta to Karachi, Delhi, and isolated East Bengal installations.
  Planes also supplied units left in Burma. Even G.I.'s on the long trans-Indian railroad trip to Karachi during the holiday got Thanksgiving dinner at Lucknow.
  The meal cost Uncle Sugar 75 cents per head - not counting the cost of 17,000 miles of transportation to India.


China Pipeline G.I.’s
View I-B,  Approve

 By PFC. ED ALEXANDER   Roundup Staff Writer

  PIRADOBA - When a bunch of G.I.'s enthusiastically agree, "Calcutta is Paradise - it looks practically Stateside," you know they've just come out of some pretty rough country. They have - these men of the 779, 780, and 1382 Engineer Petroleum Distribution Companies - who are here at Piradoba, 100 miles from Calcutta, for staging enroute home.
  They are the men who pushed the pipeline right up to the front lines of Burma; then flew the Hump to start the line back toward Burma from Yunnanyi; put in the last section from Yunnanyi to Kunming; and finally stayed on till the very end to operate the line they had built.

LAST PIPELINE CHAPTER
  But the last untold chapter is equally important - the tale of the operations of the China end of the line for eight, dreary, monotonous months. Eight months of sitting in little, isolated four-man pump stations, 8,000 feet up the side of a mountain, sometimes 15 miles in from the old Burma Road. Eight long months of walking the line, alone, day in and day out, looking for leaks.
  For most of these eight months, every ounce of supplies had to be flown in over the Hump. So it wasn't until very recently that these men saw beer, soap, writing paper, and Special Service equipment in any quantities. From November '44 to September of this year, 12 bottles of beer per man were issued - eight for Christmas and four for VE Day!
  There were a few exciting times during operations. In August the re0inforced under-river crossing at Yung Pi was swept away by heavy rains. A repair crew worked 36 hours at a stretch to repair the break, under M/Sgt. Boykin of the 1381 Co.

SUSPENSION REPAIR
  Then there was the time when the 779 Co. had to repair a suspension crossing over the Mekong River that had been washed out. The suspension had been built 35 feet above normal water level, but the river reached it anyhow. During that period, a detachment and two pumping stations were completely cut off from all contact with the world for a week and a half.
  Late last year, a detachment of 12 men from the 779 Co. hiked 80 miles over the mountains to help rescue the crew of a cracked-up Superfort.
  The danger of fire was ever present, from the 100 Octane aviation gas that flowed through the lines. In autumn, it is the custom of the peasants to clear their land by burning it - pipeline or no pipeline. Once nearly a whole Chinese village burnt down from an accidental gas fire.

ANXIOUS MOMENT
  The men at the Kunming tank farm had an anxious moment when a grass fire swept past the fire walls - but miraculously never touched off the tanks.
  But the biggest problem of the pipeline men during the operation of the China line, was to keep from going crazy. "We don't know how we ever did it," they said. "Maybe we didn't."
  After eight hours of watching the gauges, each man's time was his own to enjoy as best he could, always in the company of the same three other G.I.'s 8,000 feet up the side of a mountain, miles from a mud-hut village whose only diversion was a once per week farmer's market. These men cooked for themselves, boiled drinking water from mountain streams, washing in the same ice cold brooks.
  During the last two months, radios at last were available, often only one for every two stations. When sports equipment came, it was still a little rough to play ball on a narrow ledge cut out of the side of a cliff.

JUST UP AND DOWN
  T/5 Bob Torquato remembered how, when a ball was hit a foot too far, it took a coolie a half an hour to retrieve it from the valley below. "There was no place to go in China except up or down," Torquato mused.
  Station 48 on the Salween passed the time nurturing a vegetable garden from Stateside seeds furnished by S/Sgt. George Pollack and T/5 Robert Meweya. This crew once played cards for twelve hours straight. Station 54 built a tennis court.
  But the center of social life along the pipeline was undoubtedly the telephone. T/4 W. H. Schulte of the 1381 Co. told of a quartet that the boys organized via this phone line. He was a t Station60, the tenor lived 10 miles up the line at Station61, and the baritone ten miles further down at Station 58!

MOVIES ONCE A WEEK
  There were movies once a week at the Detachment camps, if the road wasn't washed out. French and English missionaries, who served as chaplains, often traveled 15 miles into the brush on muleback to conduct services.
  The saving feature of life along the pipe was the chow - fresh meat, vegetables, eggs and fruit bought by the companies from local sources and distributed by courier trucks.
  The farewell from the Chinese at Paoshan, though, almost made the monotony seem worthwhile. Each man received a card, "Mr. K. C. Lee has very much pleasure to request your company at a friendly party in honor of the USA Army friends in Paoshan on Sunday. (signed) R. C. Lee, Commissioner."

"KAN-PEI" PARTY
  At this party, every ten minutes, a fresh set of Chinese dignitaries walked in and offered "Kan-Pei" (bottoms up) in potent rice liquor. Toward the end, the G.I.'s were pretty wobbly, while the Chinese, who had been putting in substitute teams right along, were fresh as daisies. Finally, Pfc. James Cagly vowed, "Boy, I'd like to 'kan-pei' these guys for a while and show them how it's done - if only I didn't have to go on guard at midnight." An Anonymous lieutenant promptly volunteered to substitute. So Pfc. Cagly "kanpei"-ed till the wee small hours, while a lieutenant walked post!
  The last barrel of gas flowed into Kunming on Oct. 31. It took eight months of boredom and monotony, as well as the earlier excitement of construction, to deliver oil to the engines of China. The pipeline could deliver 14,000 tons a month of it.



U.S. VEHICLES CROWD MORAN CENTER
Assam Depot Accommodates About 21,000
 By SGT. RAY HOWARD   Roundup Field Correspondent

  MORAN, ASSAM - Circling this once active cargo and fighter airstrip at an elevation of five hundred feet, one sees below positive proof that American forces are rapidly finishing their job in the I-B Theater, for below are nearly 21,000 vehicles of all types crowding Moran's 4,200,000 square feet of main strip, hard stands, and revetments.
  The Moran Vehicle Control Depot is the gathering point for all ordnance vehicles from the newly expanded Intermediate Section and includes combat vehicles used in the North and Central Burma campaigns, as well as veteran equipment recently retired from hard duty on the Stilwell Road.

DEPOT BASIS
  In neat lanes, as far as the eye can see are marked tanks, half tracks, armored cars, amphibious equipment, ambulances, semi-trailers, trucks, bomb trailers, bomb lifts, fork lifts, cranes, jeeps and numerous vehicles which only an experienced ordnance man might name.
  After we had zoomed the field several times so that Sgt. Vester Dick, Signal Corps cameraman from Dinuba, Calif., could take movie and still pictures of the enormous stockpile, S/Sgt. Robert Mills, Richmond Hill, L.I. and S/Sgt. Henry Sullivan, Cambridge , Mass., started looking for a place to land their tiny L-5 planes, but the regular landing strips were coked with parked vehicles. Finally, Mills landed on a gravel road leading into the parking area.
  We met Lt. Norman D. Wiley, Los Angeles, vehicle property officer for the 351st Ordnance Headquarters Battalion which operates the depot from whom, with the aid of Sgt. William R. Shaffer, Williamsport, Pa., we learned the immensity of the operation of the huge depot.
  When a vehicle arrives, it is first classified by nomenclature, after which it goes for processing and further classification as to condition of repair. Afterward, each vehicle is parked by type, which is divided into those which are new, those with less than 5,000 miles, any which will run, those which are repairable but unserviceable and those fit only for salvage.

TAKE PICTURES
  The depot is set up on an efficient and streamlined basis, which has enabled it to receive and process as many as 1,312 vehicles in a single day. After reception, operative vehicles are maintained in an up to the minute condition, with batteries, fuel, tires and general condition checked regularly to prevent usual deterioration. In addition to vehicles all serviceable tools and major assemblies which are to be evacuated are received.
  Exactly what is to become of all this equipment has not been announced, but some combat vehicles are scheduled for return to the States. Lt. Wiley estimated that there was roughly $30,000,000 worth of equipment on hand, but the price new would probably be more. If it is financially expedient, much of the equipment may be returned to the States, but all particulars as to disposition are being handled by the Foreign Liquidation Commission.



Bible Praises
Supply Troops
Roundup Staff Article

  The unsung, un-medalled G.I.'s of India-Burma's SOS should find comfort, hope and amusement in the recent findings of Capt. James K. Matthews, historian with a flair for the Biblical.
  Matthews, of the Intermediate General Depot, APO 629, writes the Roundup "According to a communiqué dated about 1,000 B.C., from Headquarters, Southwest Palestine Command, self-conscious SOS troops have nothing to worry about. They have every right to the privileges and prerogatives of the combat soldier. This is based on no less an authority than the Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of Israel - King David, soldier, shepherd, statesman, musician, poet.
  "It seems that in one of David's campaigns, while some of the soldiers were engaged in battle, others stayed back to take care of the supplies. After the fighting was over, some folks wanted to deprive the supply troops of their share of the spoils. After all, the combat men had risked their necks and wanted the glory, the gravy, the decorations, the baksheesh, in fact, it looked about as grim then for the boys of the QMC, et al, as it does in India, 1945.
  "But this fellow David was strictly on the beam; he knew that wars weren't won merely on the battle-line, but on the supply-line as well. So he issued a general order that makes good reading for the G.I. of SOS even after 3,000 years. It goes like this:
  "For as his share is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his share be that tarrieth by the baggage. They shall share alike."
  And, brother, that order hasn't been rescinded - it still stands in David's AR's. You can read it for yourself in I Samuel 30:24."

Shooting Not Over Yet For Men Who Dispose Of Surplus Ammo
By PFC. ED ALEXANDER     
Roundup Staff Writer     
  KANCHRAPARA - Only a small part of the ammunition is disposed of by blowing it up, but this job makes the most spectacular show at Kanchrapara. I saw 240 charges of smokeless powder go up in one of the pits, set off by a parachute flare. The heat was so intense at several hundred yards I had to duck behind a jeep windshield. When the powder is burned, iron and steel containers are completely oxidized. If there is any clay in the pit, it
The above is not a picture of the legendary Jawn Henry of the South. The "strong man" is Sgt. James Beale, who - with the assistance of photographer S/Sgt. Milton M. Knoght - easily carries a 4,000-pound blockbuster at the Kanchrapara ammunition area.
is baked into a brick lining.
  I was in on the preparations for a really big show. Fifty holes full of small arms ammunition were going to be popped. The big "pop" lasts for two or three hours, but some cartridges still "pop" 10 hours later. I saw one pit, set off on a Tuesday, still smoldering at 8 p.m. Thursday.
  The "popping pits" are constructed by blowing up 50 land mines, containing 250 pounds of TNT, in each small hole. Then the crane crew finishes off the crater, ready for the trucks to dump the small arms ammunition. After screwing up the detail twice, I finally set off one hole full of land mines. Even at a safe distance the explosion is not funny when a pillar of smoke rises hundreds of feet in the air and the earth shakes.
  Lt. Jerry Kruschke, a one-man Fourth of July celebration, sets up and detonates every explosion himself except when a Roundup reporter wants to play, too.

NIGHT SHIFT
  One of the hardest working crews in the area are the men who operate the heavy lift equipment under S/Sgt. Samuel Arington, chief crane operator. They were still digging holes one night at 10 o'clock in the glare of a floodlight which drew every bug in Kanchrapara to the crane cab. And they were the kinds of bugs that stink to high Heaven when you crush them. That night T/4 Thomas Barksdale was putting in a 24-hour shift.
  Arington's crew put in plenty of hours handling the bombs that the 20th Air Force Superforts used in their first raid on Tokyo.

THE SECOND
  KANCHRAPARA - A top secret during the war, the Kanchrapara Ordnance Ammunition Area, largest American munitions dump in the world, can be described now. Last week, the first of two Roundup articles told of the accomplishments of the 49th Ordnance Ammunition Battalion, all-Negro outfit that operates the area. The men of the 49th still have a tough and dangerous job ahead - getting rid of the stuff. This second article introduces the men themselves.

  T/5 Robert Ragland, T/5 Clarence Glenn and Barksdale had their most anxious moment last summer when the pilot of an RAF plane had to bail out over the area. The crew was handling 2,000-pound blockbusters at the time - about 500 of them stored in revetments. The plane crashed 30 feet from the revetments and burned - without setting off the blockbusters!
  Ragland, Glenn and Barksdale agree, "Just get some more ships to haul the stuff away and we'll have it out of here faster than the boys down at the docks can handle it."

FIREFIGHTER'S TALES
  Fire Chief T/4 Walter R. Smith's crew also remember many times when they figured they'd never see home again. Most of the firefighters troubles come from white phosphorous. At 111 degrees it automatically turns liquid. In liquid form WP will ignite instantly on contact with air. So G.I.'s can imagine the problems of dealing with WP during summertime in India!
  There was the time when a 100 pound WP bomb fell on a shed storing tons of bulk TNT and 81mm mortar shells. Cpl. John Ellis, Capt. George Hoagland and Lt. Joe Denoia went in and dragged out the flaming WP bomb.
  Then there was the day when one box of WP grenades in a shed full of the stuff caught fire spontaneously. Smith went in, dragged out the burning grenades and soaked them in water.

GRASS FIRE DANGERS
  Another close call came in '44 when a grass fire reached within 15 feet of a bamboo shed loaded with 100 pound fragmentation bombs. Pfc. W. E. Johnson braved the flames to tear away the dry bamboo wall before it could catch fire, while the rest of the crew brought the blaze under control.
  T/Sgt. George T. Holloway, T/Sgt Marshall Fleming and Capt. Hoagland once had the pleasant job of pulling unexploded 150mm shells out of the smoldering ashes of an ammunition train wreck near the Calcutta docks.
  Typical of the spirit even in the more hum-drum jobs down here, is T/4 Charles Harrison, who has driven the courier run 40 miles into Calcutta without an accident for two straight years without missing a single day.
  I asked the boys in the PX one night how it felt to live and work sitting on a 13½ square-mile powder keg, loaded with 150,000 tons of high explosive. They said, "Well, it's pretty dull. Nothing ever happens around here. We've been lucky, mighty lucky. In 25 months of operation we haven't had a single life lost due to an explosion, or a single major blowup for that matter. But it is funny stuff. According to the manual, it's all perfectly safe. The only trouble is, once in a while you run across some ammo that hasn't read the manual and doesn't know how it's supposed to behave. You've got to respect ammunition. If you ever lose your respect for the stuff, that's when you stand a good chance of not going home. As long as you keep your respect for it, everything's teek hai."

SOLDIER'S MEDAL
  The men are proud, too, of T/5 Earl Myers, Cpl. Julius L. Lockley and Capt. Fred bass who were awarded the Soldier's Medal for rescuing an American colonel and captain from a plane that had crashed in the deep marshes.
  Maybe after reading the story of the 49th Battalion you'll know why it's old CO, Lt. Col. Raymond Constabile, stated in a report to Brig. Gen. Robert Neyland, "The Negro soldier has proved to be very efficient in the execution of his duties. If the officers concerned accept and deal with the problems of the Negro soldier, there are no problems. Therefore he becomes the same as any soldier in time of war; willing to complete his work to the best of his ability, and then return home."


FIRST THE FACE THEN THE LEGS THEN THE PORTRAIT
1. Artist Russell Patterson is here busy doing a little preliminary work on his composite mahikin, which will eventually embody the best features of the loveliest models.  June Kirby is the "face."  Sketching precedes the molding of the manikin.  2. Artist Patterson gets down to business even further.  Eileen Davey has been selected as the "legs" of the perfect manikin, so we are supposed to ignore the rest.  Nice work, if you can get it.  Anyone looking for a post-war career that a man would like to hold onto for a long while?



LAST CHINESE TANKS ROAR OVER LEDO ROAD
 By CPL. C. W. KELLOGG   Roundup Staff Writer

  LEDO, ASSAM - The rumbling roar of Chinese tank columns reverberated along the lower reaches of the Stilwell Road the other day for the last time in this man's war.
  Manned by the final remnants of China's far-flung armies in the India-Burma Theater, 116 light tanks of U.S. make and design were moved from a bivouac area near the Road's 12-mile mark to the upper end of the Bengal and Assam railroad at Lekipani in preparation for rail and sea transportation to an East China port.
  These tanks, and the 150 Chinese "pings" who have maintained them since the balance of the Chinese First Provisional Tank Group were returned to China early in October are all the moving and the living that remain in this Theater of the once-impressive Chinese Army combat force in India.
  Thus, perhaps, it is symbolic that, along the short route this column traveled, China's last active unit in India passed a small clearing in the jungle by the side of the Road - a small and dusty chunk of hallowed ground where lie the bodies of hundreds of Chinese soldiers who fell in the fight to free Burma from the Japanese.
  For the most part the men and officers of the First Tank battalion who participated in this last move were graduated from the American-staffed Chinese training center at Ramgarh, India, and most of them were veterans of Chinese tank operations in northern and central Burma.
  meanwhile, farther along the Stilwell Road near Bhamo, American liaison personnel attached to the tank unit were engaged in stripping 77 more tanks belonging to the Chinese Army in India of all usable and salvage parts. These tanks, victims of the rough terrain and monsoon weather, will be junked after a thorough combing by the crew now at Bhamo.
  The task of making ready this unit for their move to China is in the hands of Lt. Col. McPherson Lemoyne, who served as liaison officer with Chinese tank units during the Burma campaigns. A resident of Woodsfield, O., Lt. Col. Lemoyne also is commanding officer of the staging area at Margherita.
  American liaison personnel now with the unit are long-time veterans of the Burma campaigns. They include WOJG Frank R. Scopeletti, Meominster, Mass.; T/3 Elmo F. DelGrande, Verdi, Nev.; T/4 Charles E. Brown, Grider, Ky.; T/4 John J. Griff, Elmira, N.Y.; T/4 Vito Losurdo, Brooklyn, N.Y.; T/4 Bernard E. Nelson, Pueblo, Colo.; T/4 Wesley R. Nordseth, Inwood, Iowa, and T/5 Clement C. O'Neill, Hardville, O. Recently assigned to the headquarters staff are Lt. Bert W. Roscoe of Corpus Christi, Tex.; Sgt. William F. Burns, Butler, Pa., and Cpl. Sanford Schwartz of Brooklyn.



G.I.’s Disdain Schlitz For Tannhauser; It Says Here
 By SGT. JACK DEVLIN   Roundup Staff Writer

  The class will now come to order while we scuttle the G.I.'s conception of his fellow G.I. as being a beer-guzzling trooper who spends all his time giving wolf calls, except when he's trying to get even with the first sergeant in a crap game.
  Through the courtesy of "The G.I.'s host from mountain to coast," which is just a complicated way of saying Special Service, the G.I. actually is disclosed today as being a sort of sophisticate who's almost as willing to listen to "Clair de Lune" or "Tannhauser" as he is to "Sentimental Journey" or "Don't cry, Baby."

NO FREE DISHES
  This unmasking of the G.I. came after Special Service sponsored a long-hair concert down in Calcutta. About 400 men attended the show, which would indicate just about what you would think: That interest in the classics wasn't exactly at a level where Benny Goodman would soon have to start planning to make a living selling vacuum cleaners.
  Then came the next concert in Monsoon Square garden, and in swarmed 3,000 fans. And nobody was giving away a free set of dishes, either.
  And, although the ballet is something like good strong whiskey, but only because you've go to cultivate a taste for it, the fans also gave this a pleasant nod when a dance was presented by Kira Lissanezitch, a Russian civilian, and Zachary Solov, a corporal in the 40th Special Service Co.
  Our G.I. reading tastes are pretty good, too, despite the fact most people wouldn't think so from the overwhelming numbers of comic books and western magazines on sale at the Stateside PX's when most of us were coming over.

DON'T BE ALARMED
  But, don't be alarmed. Even though there may be some considerable demand for "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," and despite the fact that one G.I. actually was caught trying to swipe a big, heavy edition of Plutarch's "Lives," that's not at all conclusive. And here's why:
  The No. 1 book on Calcutta's hit parade of literature is, as a lot of Joes may have guessed, "Forever Amber." In fact, this naughty little eye-opener that was written by one of our gentler sex, Kathleen Winsor, is so popular that G.I.'s have swiped every one of Special Service's 19 copies.
  For athletic recreation G.I.'s are as red blooded as ever. Eleven thousand fans turned out recently to see a boxing card at The Gardens, and nine basketball double-headers drew a cozy little 18,000 people.



NISEI EXPLAINS AMERICANISM
At the Nisei community, Bridgetown, N.J., Lily Fujita is explaining to a group of Nisei children about Americanism, and for what the name stands.  Uprooted from California, these Nisei have established their own home here among 15,000 sprawling South Jersey acres.  They have named one of the village's main streets "MacArthur Road" in honor of the Supreme Commander.

3,162 TROOPS OF CBI
LAND IN NEW YORK


  NEW YORK - (UP) - The slim, black U.S.S. General Callan pushed its way up New York Harbor this week amid tooting cutters dashing crazily before her while 3,162 overjoyed CBI troops cheered their way along the Hudson River.
  The ship hit Stateside after a 22-day trip from Karachi. As she drew into the outer approaches of lower New York Bay, a small ferry especially bedecked for the occasion circled her while the band above deck beat out a hot licks welcome.
  On both sides of the Hudson as the transport eased along, huge banners flew from the shores with the slogans "Welcome Home," "Well Done." On the Callan's starboard side a square black and white banner, lettered 31st Signal Battalion, notified New Yorkers peering from skyscrapers and along the river that another fighting outfit from the CBI had hit Stateside.

STATUE OF LIBERTY
  Observers noted that when the ship churned into view of the Statue of Liberty se tilted 45 degrees as virtually everyone aboard dashed to port "to view the gal we fought for." The ship remained deathly quiet until the Callan's stern slipped by "the gal." Then the transport rocked to joyous laughter of the troops.
  The sky was overcast, the weather brisk and cold, causing most of the boys to wrap up tightly. From the pier bedecked in bunting representing every branch of service - the pier where the old General Callan finally rested rows of white teeth shone from portholes, decks, cabins and masts. As the troops came down the gangplank, hot coffee and sugary doughnuts greeted them.
  When the boys passed members of the press, they yelled "From Karachi to Kunming - that's us, brother." And "You heard of China's civil war, that's us, too."

TYPICAL MAN
  Typical of the men aboard was Sgt. Seymour S. Einstein, Bronx, who said, "Boy what a trip. The engine broke down three times - but please don't tell the Navy I said so. What weather we ran into. Most of us spent the major part of our time, aside from gambling, leaning over the rails and we weren't looking at the whitecaps."
  New York officials were fearful the ship might be delayed by gales raging off New York. But the Callan made it right on the nose. Most of the boys seemed overtired after the long journey. They seemed nervous about placing their feet back onto Uncle Sam's soil.



WAC’s Stories About I-B, Ahem-er-Ahem, Say G.I.’s
 Roundup Staff Article

  The snows of "sacrifice" tell thick, albeit not silently, upon the Stateside press and public alike when three former I-B WAC's returned to Shangri-La recently in the opinion of two I-B G.I.'s who have written the Roundup.
  After reading an Army News Service dispatch from Camp Shanks, N.Y., in which three WAC's from Hastings Mill complained of hardship beside the Hooghly, T/4 Daniel J. Brentlinger and S/Sgt. Jim Ashcraft, stationed in Bengal, implore the girls not to "exaggerate" matters.
  The three WAC's, Sgt. Kathryn E. Pearson, Morton, Pa.; Sgt. Alicia Simpson, Bryan, Tex. and Cpl. Hazel McKinney, Baltimore, complained to reporters as published in Roundup November 8 that they lived "in an abandoned jute mill, ate water buffalo, suffered through a prolonged milk drought, subsisted on dehydrated vegetable and went the 18 miles into Calcutta only once."

NO SNOW, PLEASE
  "Please girls, let's not snow the public," writes Brentlinger. "let's give credit where it is due to the nurses and other women who actually did suffer hardships along the Stilwell Road - not to the 'commandos.' You've really never been overseas."
  That personnel in the rear echelon underwent some minor inconvenience during our war in the Far East, Ashcraft agrees, "but why distort and exaggerate our life out here?"
  "I was at Hastings Mill before any WAC's arrived there," Brentlinger goes on. "I know for a fact, as do others, that they were given every consideration and that they suffered no undue hardships.

SMALL ROOMS
  "As soon as it was known that WAC's were arriving the 'abandoned jute mill' was divided into small rooms, the partitions being woven bamboo. They had private toilets installed and real bath tubs, which is something no male G.I. ever enjoyed."
  Brentlinger declared in his letter that the food at Hastings Mill was "as good as I've eaten in the Army." Ashcraft said in his letter that "I can remember a trip we made past Hastings Mill a few weeks ago for the excuse of stopping in there and getting a good meal."
  Touching on recreation, Brentlinger declared, "I'm sure they did not lack entertainment."



The Roundup is a weekly newspaper of the United States Forces, published by and for the men in Burma and India, from news and pictures supplied by staff members, soldier correspondents, Army News Service and United Press.  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 Major Floyd Walter, Hq., U.S.F., I.B.T., APO 885, New York, N.Y. and should arrive not later than Saturday in order to be included in that week's issue.  Pictures must arrive by Friday and must be negatives or enlargements.  Stories should contain full name and organization of sender.  Complaints about circulation should be sent directly to Capt. Drexel Nixon, Base Section, APO 465, New York, N.Y.  Units on the mailing list should make notification of any major change in personnel strength or any change of APO.










NOVEMBER  29,  1945  

Adapted from the original issue of India-Burma Theater Roundup

Copyright © 2009 Carl Warren Weidenburner






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