MORE SABOTAGE IN PENNSYLVANIA. A "mysterious" fire and an "unexplained" explosion wrecked two more chemical plants in Pennsylvania on Sunday, according to the Associated Press. There doesn’t appear to be anything ambiguous about the fire in Johnstown which destroyed the Pennsylvania Chemical Company’s small factory -- the firm was working on a government order for incendiary bombs. The plant’s owner flatly declares the fire was "arson" and that he had an order to deliver bombs to the Army on Wednesday. Judging from the A.P.’s account, apparently nobody was hurt. But the plant was a complete loss.
On the same day, and just a few miles away at Bridgeville, a mammoth explosion at the American Cynamid and Chemical Corporation’s local plant injured two men and did a quarter-million dollars in damage. The blast "shattered windows of homes in the district, toppled chimneys and was felt 5 files away," says the A.P. American Cynamid has suffered blasts at three different plants in the last week. On the other hand, the company doesn’t have any government contracts.
So, could these things be coincidence? Unlucky accidents? Anything’s possible, I guess -- but then again it’s possible, maybe even more likely, that Nazi spies aren’t particularly bright about whether or not the companies they target are actively working for the Army. Plus there’s a radio report this morning on a secret meeting of the House Un-American Activities Committee Monday night, in which an alleged Nazi secret agent has spilled what he knows about Hitler’s setup in the U.S. I guess we’ll hear more details today and tomorrow.
HOW STRONG IS RUSSIA? Prior to Premier Molotoff’s trip to Berlin, the debate was in full swing over whether Soviet Russia will throw in with the Axis, or ultimately decide to stand with Britain and Turkey against Germany's continued eastward expansion. I think one other question is equally important -- how much does it matter? G.E.R. Gedye takes an acute look at Stalin’s relative strengths and weaknesses in a Sunday New York Times commentary --
"The State, with its seat in Moscow, is strong in that criticism has been stamped out so ruthlessly that there is no longer the will even to imagine any alternative to the policy dictated by the Kremlin. It is strong in that all contact with ideas beyond its frontiers has been destroyed. It is strong in that it has raised a generation incapable of any ideas of retrogression...It is weak, however, in that this generation is imbued with the doctrine of Marxist socialism and therefore puzzled by the elementary material fruit of the theories that have been so long denied them through the State’s economic weakness. It is strong in its mass quantities of war material, its strength of tanks, its squadrons of war planes. It is weak, on the other hand, in generalship, organization and transport -- the Finnish campaign remains a permanent memorial to that weakness. Personally, I believe it is still strong for defense, despite the military theory that a German Blitzkrieg would cut through the defenses like a knife through butter. But the fact that it is weak for attack is no personal opinion but a military fact which the Finnish campaign of last winter established."
TARANTO IS BRITAIN’S "GREATEST VICTORY." So far in this war, at least. Hedley Donovan writes a detailed recap in Sunday’s Washington Post on just how thoroughly British torpedo planes throttled the Italians and gave the Royal Navy undisputed control of the Mediterranean --
"In Taranto harbor the [British] bombers found the bulk of Italy’s battleships and at least 100 lighter warships. Skimming close to the water, the planes loosed dozens of aerial torpedoes. Dive bombers sent their 500-pound missiles crashing into the harbor. The Italian ships, swinging at anchor, had no chance to maneuver. They were given little time to bring their antiaircraft guns into play. For 24 hours the British battle fleet steamed back and forth between the heel of the Italian boot and the western isles of Greece, waiting for the bold air assault to drive the Italian fleet out to battle. The Italian warships never ventured from their base, and what might have been the greatest naval battle since Jutland was not fought. But the account of the Armistice Night raid on Taranto, when released by the British Admiralty Wednesday, told of a major battle and a major victory for Britain."
Mr. Donovan sums up the scorecard -- "Half of Italy’s six capital ships...were crippled in the raid. One 35,000-ton ship of the Littorio class -- Italy has two -- was left listing heavily to starboard, bow so deep under water that her forecastle was covered. A 23,000-ton battleship of the Cavour class lay beached, her stern submerged and the after turret awash. Another ship of the Cavour type was ‘severely damaged,’ according to London. Two cruisers were listing heavily after the attack, surrounded by fuel oil, while two fleet auxiliary vessels lay on their sterns partly submerged."
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Sunday, November 17, 1940
BRITAIN SMASHES THE ITALIAN NAVY... For the past three days the British attack on the Italian naval base of Taranto has been front-page news. And it’s no wonder the British are blowing their horn. According to Thursday’s New York Times, British torpedo bombers sunk half of Mussolini’s six battleships during the initial all-night raid and otherwise did extensive damage to other ships of the Italian fleet docked there. While the British fleet’s air arm pounded Taranto, British surface vessels intercepted and destroyed three of four Italian supply ships in a convoy in the Straits of Otranto, located between Italy and Albania. The Royal Navy also heavily bombarded the Italian-occupied port of Sidi Barrani, Egypt, and apparently sank two supply ships headed for Libya. But according to official and press accounts in London, the Taranto bombardment dwarfs every other blow struck against the Italians so far in this war.
I believe this is the first time airplanes have sunk a modern battleship. That’s pretty significant in itself. This surely also has significance for the Greek military, who are no doubt buoyed a great deal by the way in which Prime Minister Churchill has carried out his promise to use Britain’s ships and planes to help the Greeks in every way possible.
...AND THE GERMANS PULVERIZE COVENTRY. Lest anyone imagine the Nazis’ war-fighting power has diminished, Thursday’s shattering all-night air raid on the British midlands city of Coventry created "scenes of ruin never before equaled in England in this ruthless and devastating conflict," writes Tania Long in Saturday’s New York Herald Tribune. The Germans claim they dropped a million pounds of high explosives and 60,000 pounds of incendiary bombs – and for once, they might not be exaggerating. Some 1,000 casualties have been reported. The New York Times account by Raymond Daniell emphasizes the destruction of the lovely fourteenth-century St. Michael’s Cathedral, "one of the finest examples of perpendicular architecture left in these islands." The Times notes that though there was much damage to homes and businesses, the factories of this compact city of 250,000 didn’t seem to be especially targeted. Apparently this wasn’t a military raid at all, but instead a grisly taste of revenge for the R.A.F.’s attack on Munich during Hitler’s speech there a week ago Friday.
Yes, there’s been good news lately, but it has mainly to do with the fight against Mussolini’s hapless Fascists. As long as Hitler’s men have the ability to wreck a British city in this manner, seemingly on a whim, it’s impossible to say the war against Germany is being "won" in any sense.
WHAT NEXT FOR THE AXIS? Last week the Germans feigned disinterest in Italy’s invasion of Greece, claiming remarkably that the Greek war was not a Nazi concern and that there’s been "no change" in Greek-German relations. But now, the war chiefs of Germany and Italy, Keitel and Badoglio, have suddenly convened in Austria for unspecified "military planning," writes Louis P. Lochner of the Associated Press. Meanwhile, Hector Licudi of the International News Service reports that Spanish Foreign Minister Suner "suddenly" left Madrid Thursday night for talks in German-occupied Paris. The I.N.S. cites rumors that "some momentous understanding may be concluded between Spain and the Reich."
This has revived talk that an Axis pincer movement is afoot in the Mediterranean, in which German troops would plunge southward through Spain to seize Gibraltar, while fresh German-Italian forces add punch to the Italian offensives against Greece and Egypt. E.R. Noderer writes in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune that the abrupt twin conferences "gave rise to a belief in Berlin that the military activities of the axis powers will liven up soon." And the Spanish press talks about a new Axis campaign to "clean up" the Mediterranean.
All this is probably true. I can believe that the Germans are secretly enjoying Mussolini’s reverses along the Greek front, where the Greeks have now encircled Koritza, the Italians’ biggest land base in Albania, and have completely driven the invaders from Greek soil. But surely the Fuehrer’s not enjoying it this much. The Fascist debacle on the Greek border now threatens to give Britain important new naval and air bases in the Balkans, and to deal a crippling blow to Nazi designs on the Dardenalles.
WHAT NOW FOR WILLKIE? Ernest K. Lindley writes in Friday’s Washington Post that the liberal positions Wendell Willkie staked out during his presidential campaign could now make him a big help to the Roosevelt Administration if he continues to be a major player in Republican politics --
"If Willkie stands by his foreign policy, there may be occasions during the next few months when he will have to line up with the President against many members of his own party. In the domestic field, also, while he worked both sides of the street in the campaign, after the manner of the most experienced professional vote-getters, he is definitely committed to support of various New Deal reforms, including the farm program, against which many Republicans have voted. If the Republicans in Congress feel themselves bound by Willkie’s campaign pledges, many of the controversies of the last seven years will be a closed book. But if they don’t, will Willkie, through such means as he has, bring pressure on them? If Willkie remains an active force, as he evidently hopes to do, he may find it necessary to choose between his principles and an attempt to represent the opposition. He may find it necessary openly to clash with prominent leaders and powerful groups who worked for his election."
I believe this is the first time airplanes have sunk a modern battleship. That’s pretty significant in itself. This surely also has significance for the Greek military, who are no doubt buoyed a great deal by the way in which Prime Minister Churchill has carried out his promise to use Britain’s ships and planes to help the Greeks in every way possible.
...AND THE GERMANS PULVERIZE COVENTRY. Lest anyone imagine the Nazis’ war-fighting power has diminished, Thursday’s shattering all-night air raid on the British midlands city of Coventry created "scenes of ruin never before equaled in England in this ruthless and devastating conflict," writes Tania Long in Saturday’s New York Herald Tribune. The Germans claim they dropped a million pounds of high explosives and 60,000 pounds of incendiary bombs – and for once, they might not be exaggerating. Some 1,000 casualties have been reported. The New York Times account by Raymond Daniell emphasizes the destruction of the lovely fourteenth-century St. Michael’s Cathedral, "one of the finest examples of perpendicular architecture left in these islands." The Times notes that though there was much damage to homes and businesses, the factories of this compact city of 250,000 didn’t seem to be especially targeted. Apparently this wasn’t a military raid at all, but instead a grisly taste of revenge for the R.A.F.’s attack on Munich during Hitler’s speech there a week ago Friday.
Yes, there’s been good news lately, but it has mainly to do with the fight against Mussolini’s hapless Fascists. As long as Hitler’s men have the ability to wreck a British city in this manner, seemingly on a whim, it’s impossible to say the war against Germany is being "won" in any sense.
WHAT NEXT FOR THE AXIS? Last week the Germans feigned disinterest in Italy’s invasion of Greece, claiming remarkably that the Greek war was not a Nazi concern and that there’s been "no change" in Greek-German relations. But now, the war chiefs of Germany and Italy, Keitel and Badoglio, have suddenly convened in Austria for unspecified "military planning," writes Louis P. Lochner of the Associated Press. Meanwhile, Hector Licudi of the International News Service reports that Spanish Foreign Minister Suner "suddenly" left Madrid Thursday night for talks in German-occupied Paris. The I.N.S. cites rumors that "some momentous understanding may be concluded between Spain and the Reich."
This has revived talk that an Axis pincer movement is afoot in the Mediterranean, in which German troops would plunge southward through Spain to seize Gibraltar, while fresh German-Italian forces add punch to the Italian offensives against Greece and Egypt. E.R. Noderer writes in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune that the abrupt twin conferences "gave rise to a belief in Berlin that the military activities of the axis powers will liven up soon." And the Spanish press talks about a new Axis campaign to "clean up" the Mediterranean.
All this is probably true. I can believe that the Germans are secretly enjoying Mussolini’s reverses along the Greek front, where the Greeks have now encircled Koritza, the Italians’ biggest land base in Albania, and have completely driven the invaders from Greek soil. But surely the Fuehrer’s not enjoying it this much. The Fascist debacle on the Greek border now threatens to give Britain important new naval and air bases in the Balkans, and to deal a crippling blow to Nazi designs on the Dardenalles.
WHAT NOW FOR WILLKIE? Ernest K. Lindley writes in Friday’s Washington Post that the liberal positions Wendell Willkie staked out during his presidential campaign could now make him a big help to the Roosevelt Administration if he continues to be a major player in Republican politics --
"If Willkie stands by his foreign policy, there may be occasions during the next few months when he will have to line up with the President against many members of his own party. In the domestic field, also, while he worked both sides of the street in the campaign, after the manner of the most experienced professional vote-getters, he is definitely committed to support of various New Deal reforms, including the farm program, against which many Republicans have voted. If the Republicans in Congress feel themselves bound by Willkie’s campaign pledges, many of the controversies of the last seven years will be a closed book. But if they don’t, will Willkie, through such means as he has, bring pressure on them? If Willkie remains an active force, as he evidently hopes to do, he may find it necessary to choose between his principles and an attempt to represent the opposition. He may find it necessary openly to clash with prominent leaders and powerful groups who worked for his election."
Monday, November 14, 2016
Thursday, November 14, 1940
BLASTS AT THREE U.S. FACTORIES. All within the same half-hour. Judging from the New York Herald Tribune’s account, none of the three plants had any obvious relationship to America’s preparedness program – neither the United Railway Signal Company in Woodbridge, N.J., nor the American Cyanamid and Chemical Corporation plant in Edinburgh, Pa., had any government contracts, and the Trojan Powder Company in Allentown, Pa., only had one. But explosions took place at all three plants Tuesday, thirty-three minutes apart. Sixteen people were killed. Plant owners deny sabotage caused the explosions -- but as the New York Times points out, signal torpedoes produced at United Railway Signal didn’t have enough explosive power to cause a blast on that scale. And finally, reports John G. Norris in the Washington Post, this development comes shortly after a suspicious fire in Atlanta’s Municipal Auditorium, which destroyed a million dollars worth of Army equipment.
I haven’t paid much attention to these types of reports in the past, but this is pretty startling stuff. The Post says Army and Navy officials are taking this pretty seriously and are "considering plans for redoubling the protective measures taken at defense installations." G-men are investigating, too. That’s probably more seriously than the Chicago Tribune takes this news -- while other papers front-paged it, the Tribune’s account was tucked away on page 14. I guess the isolationist editors considered the front-page cartoon denouncing "intervention talk" by "war propaganda machines" to be more important than what may prove to be an actual attack on U.S. soil by a foreign enemy.
NAZIS AT WORK -- IN OUR DEFENSE PLANTS. It just happens there’s an article in the new Current History and Forum detailing the extent to which Nazi agents have infiltrated America’s most critical industries, hiding behind the century-old tradition of "diplomatic immunity." Read it -- it’ll curl your hair. Writers Albert Grzesinski and Charles E. Hewitt, Jr. contend that German consulates in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and elsewhere have been reduced by Hitler’s diplomats to hideouts for "Nazi propagandists, spies and troublemakers." The State Department, the pair say, has been seriously derelict in keeping up with these abuses of diplomacy, and doesn’t possess a list of Germans, their families, and their servants who are protected by immunity. So our own diplomats haven’t been able to keep up with the coordination of Germany’s diplomatic corps with the German-American Bund. Nor is State suitably aware of the connection of this unholy alliance to sabotage --
"The Bund in America is part of a better mass machine of spies, saboteurs and cash contributors than the Nazis have had in any country in Europe. The Bund’s membership list has never been surrendered despite government subpoenas and energetic F.B.I. investigation. The Bund claims it has no roster and financial records. This is literally true; both are kept at [German] consulates. Every one of the Bund’s 40,000 members is, by regulation, an American citizen who nevertheless renews an oath of loyalty to Hitler and the greater German Reich each year on April 20, the Fuehrer’s birthday."
That established, Grzesinski and Hewitt pass along this shocker -- "License plates were checked at the Bund camp in Andover, New Jersey, this summer. When their Nazi drills were over, five members were found to be returning to jobs at Picatinny Arsenal -- largest in the nation; twelve to positions in the National Guard; three to the Hercules Powder plant in Kenvil; and three to jobs as engineers in New Jersey’s biggest power plant. Two months later New Jersey rocked beneath one of the greatest explosions in America’s industrial history when the Kenvil plant went up. Fifty-two died there. Within the same week a blast at the Picatinny Arsenal killed two more. The F.B.I. is still investigating."
The Kenvil explosion was two months ago, and is described to this day in the press as "mysterious." How long can we afford to wait for the mystery to be cleared up? Shouldn’t we at least bar Bund members from working in defense-related industries?The survival of our country will depend on the state of our military preparedness for the foreseeable future. Nothing, but nothing, must come before that.
NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, R.I.P. Prime Minister Churchill gave perhaps his finest speech yet when he paid tribute Tuesday to the late Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain’s death last week from cancer, coming only a few weeks after his resignation from the cabinet, prompted this poignant saalute from his former political opponent, artfully summing up the nobility of Chamberlain’s failure in office --
"It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart – the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamor. Whatever else history may or may not say about these terrible, tremendous years, we can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted with perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority, which were powerful, to save the world from the awful, devastating struggle in which we are now engaged. This alone will stand him in good stead as far as what is called the verdict of history is concerned."
I haven’t paid much attention to these types of reports in the past, but this is pretty startling stuff. The Post says Army and Navy officials are taking this pretty seriously and are "considering plans for redoubling the protective measures taken at defense installations." G-men are investigating, too. That’s probably more seriously than the Chicago Tribune takes this news -- while other papers front-paged it, the Tribune’s account was tucked away on page 14. I guess the isolationist editors considered the front-page cartoon denouncing "intervention talk" by "war propaganda machines" to be more important than what may prove to be an actual attack on U.S. soil by a foreign enemy.
NAZIS AT WORK -- IN OUR DEFENSE PLANTS. It just happens there’s an article in the new Current History and Forum detailing the extent to which Nazi agents have infiltrated America’s most critical industries, hiding behind the century-old tradition of "diplomatic immunity." Read it -- it’ll curl your hair. Writers Albert Grzesinski and Charles E. Hewitt, Jr. contend that German consulates in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and elsewhere have been reduced by Hitler’s diplomats to hideouts for "Nazi propagandists, spies and troublemakers." The State Department, the pair say, has been seriously derelict in keeping up with these abuses of diplomacy, and doesn’t possess a list of Germans, their families, and their servants who are protected by immunity. So our own diplomats haven’t been able to keep up with the coordination of Germany’s diplomatic corps with the German-American Bund. Nor is State suitably aware of the connection of this unholy alliance to sabotage --
"The Bund in America is part of a better mass machine of spies, saboteurs and cash contributors than the Nazis have had in any country in Europe. The Bund’s membership list has never been surrendered despite government subpoenas and energetic F.B.I. investigation. The Bund claims it has no roster and financial records. This is literally true; both are kept at [German] consulates. Every one of the Bund’s 40,000 members is, by regulation, an American citizen who nevertheless renews an oath of loyalty to Hitler and the greater German Reich each year on April 20, the Fuehrer’s birthday."
That established, Grzesinski and Hewitt pass along this shocker -- "License plates were checked at the Bund camp in Andover, New Jersey, this summer. When their Nazi drills were over, five members were found to be returning to jobs at Picatinny Arsenal -- largest in the nation; twelve to positions in the National Guard; three to the Hercules Powder plant in Kenvil; and three to jobs as engineers in New Jersey’s biggest power plant. Two months later New Jersey rocked beneath one of the greatest explosions in America’s industrial history when the Kenvil plant went up. Fifty-two died there. Within the same week a blast at the Picatinny Arsenal killed two more. The F.B.I. is still investigating."
The Kenvil explosion was two months ago, and is described to this day in the press as "mysterious." How long can we afford to wait for the mystery to be cleared up? Shouldn’t we at least bar Bund members from working in defense-related industries?The survival of our country will depend on the state of our military preparedness for the foreseeable future. Nothing, but nothing, must come before that.
NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, R.I.P. Prime Minister Churchill gave perhaps his finest speech yet when he paid tribute Tuesday to the late Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain’s death last week from cancer, coming only a few weeks after his resignation from the cabinet, prompted this poignant saalute from his former political opponent, artfully summing up the nobility of Chamberlain’s failure in office --
"It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart – the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamor. Whatever else history may or may not say about these terrible, tremendous years, we can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted with perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority, which were powerful, to save the world from the awful, devastating struggle in which we are now engaged. This alone will stand him in good stead as far as what is called the verdict of history is concerned."
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