Current Events classroom weekly — issue of October 23–27, 1944 — reading text

eERET. The Nations! School Newspaver=Larger Ceultin Than Any Other School Paper in the World-Tortr-fourh Yost ‘Volume XLIV ‘Wook of October 23-27, 1944 Our Navy Knocks at Japan’s Door We Have Come a Long Way Since the Jap Attack on Pearl Harbor ] © WHAT was that booming sound? Was It thunder? ‘The people of the Ryukyu {('965'kyoo") Islands looked at each other in amazement. Tt was not thunder. The boom e: ed by hundreds of American possible was happening. The Navy was pounding at wt = Cri" from The Ryukyus (sometimes called Loo- choos) lie about 200 miles from the south= cern tip of Japan. There are 55 islands—all quite small, They stretch nearly to For- mosa over 5170 miles of ocean. Heavily fortified, they wall in the East China Sea, more loudly, This tim threat. Formosa is a big isl: and 100 miles wide. sixth of her rice and most of her sugar, as ‘well as oll, coal, and copper. Ttis the home of five million people. Most of them are Chinese. Japan stole Formosa Formosa guards the n nects the East China China Sea, Formosa was the place for Japan's conquest of the Philip- pines and the Netherlands Indies in the ir. Now it protects her nds bombs rained FLOATING FORTRESS—The deck of a battle- ship Is ike a small town afloat. For months at a stretch, itis the only “main street” hundreds of sailors know. 1osa’s harbors, down on rfields, and railroads. Nearly 1,000 American planes took part in the raid, They flew from the decks of carriers in Admiral William F. Halsey's Third t. (Later, Army B-29's from China raided Formosa again.) Last week, Admiral Hi 's fleet was ll in action, Its planes had struck at Luzon, in the Philippines, . In five days of fighting, from the Ryu~ kyus to the Phillppines, our forces had destroyed or damaged more than 600 Japax 1] een a we ae Lt tn times as many as we had in 1939. The ‘Japanese navy has about 325,000 men. For such a giant bat- tleground, we needed the world’s big- ‘gest Navy. We have built it. ea latest i iSairwe hat out today is than the com- bined fleets of all the nations in the ‘world five years ago. It is twice as big 4s the British fleet, which once “ruled the waves.” Itis three times as big as it was when the war in Europe started. Not counting landing craft) our wvy had 4,167 ships in service at the beginning of 1944. More have been added since then Landing craft, which take our men, tanks, guns, and supplies to invasion coasts, number about 80,000. The multiplied its aircraft 20 times since the war began. More than 34,000 planes were in service last June Men in the arine Corp: Coast Gi 17,000, This is 24 Ei 400 South ‘and Subscription Olicor 100! Street, Columbus 15, Ohio Page $0-CURRENT EVENTS lor October 2227, 1844 Kinds of Ships ‘On December 7, 1941, when Japan Pearl Harbor. One was wrecked, one attacked, we had eight battleships at if Es treses, (See felure pate, “Kaow rotir Navy.") Japan may have 17. NN dae of vast distances dernande ticerel cartons. These carriers are the “islands” we carry with us as bases for planes. In November, 1942, ‘Admiral Halsey had only one aircraft carrier (which was damaged) for the decisive battle of Guadalcanal. Today, we have at least 100 of these floating islands. Japan had 13 at the beginning of the war, We have sunk 8. In addition, the U. S, Navy has 57 cruisers, 700 destroyers and escorts, 206 submarine, andl thousands of supply ships, repair ships, tankers, and other craft (see below). More To Come Last inonth, Secretary of the Navy ‘James V. Forrestal said: "The Navy program is only a little more than half finished.” ‘That is not good news for Japan. It does little to console her for the bombs thundering at her front door, [The Battle of Supply. - “Fleet Train” * and NATS © Admiral Halsey’s fleet is prowling around the waters of Formosa and the Philippines. It has been there for @ month or more. It has attacked again and again. Not once, in that time, has it had to return to its base in Honolulu, nearly 5,000 miles away, for fuel, ammuni- tion, food, or other supplies. Our Navy has solved the problem of taking supplies to our ships, instead ‘of bringing ships to supply bases, Otherwise, in the Pacific war of vast distances, many of our ships would be ‘out of use much of the time. They Also Serve ‘A huge fleet of service ships has been built up—tankers, cargo ships, repair ships, tenders, sea-going tugs, floating dry docks, and floating cranes, This “fleet train” operates on a timetable as strict as that used by our railroads. Every big move of our Navy requires millions of tons of sup- plies, delivered at special points at the minute they are needed, ‘The Fleet Train deliv A single crui nth at sea, needs the following supplies 15,000 barrels of oll 9,900 pairs of colton socks 40,000 pounds of refrigerated moat 11,000 pounds of bute, eggs, and 25,000 pounds of fresh fruits 74.000 pounds of fresh vegetabl In addition, there must be thou- A tanker ties up to a cruiser for refueling operations at sea. sands of pounds of dry provisions and general supplies—to say nothing of ammunition, Multiply these supplies by the ships. in our Nayy, and you will begin to see the problem, New Timesavers, ‘Timesaving methods are being used to speed up the flow of supplies. For one thing, warships can now’ be re- fueled at sea, A tanker pulls upalong- side, and the fuel ave into the ship be swung aboard a ship from its supply craft without stopping or dropping anchor. A line {s strung from ship to ship, and the a) Piphawueticgosststcts ates ‘set up in quiet atolls in the ‘Marianas and Marshalls, Here ships ‘only slightly damaged can come for repairs—instead of returning thou- sands of miles to Pearl Harbor or the west coast. % When speed means a matter of hours, NATS comes to the rescue. is the Naval Air Transport Serv- [he Weeks News in a Nutshell | End of the Fox. Germany has an nounced the death of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, He was the famous ‘Nazi general who led his forces nearly to Alexandria, Egypt, before Britain's Montgomery drove him back. He was known as the “Desert Fox.” Marshal ‘Montgomery had great respect for Rommel’s talent as a general. He kept ‘a picture of Rommel in his trailer to remind him of the foe he had to beat. He even named one of his pet dogs after Rommel (page 43). Batile of Aachen. Three American soldiers walked down the streets of ‘Aachen (8'kén), famous German city, noar the border of Belgium. They of- [WHO'S WHO IN THE NEWS. - King of the Fleet © The job of running the world's biggest Navy seems too big for one man, ‘Admiral Ernest J. King, Com- mander in Chief of the United States Fleet, agrees. He thinks the job needs many men, He picks the best he can find. He tells them what must be done. He lets them do it in their own way. He ‘asks only one thing—results. ‘One of his officers may make a mis- Purpose— ‘running the Navy in the best way 0 the war may be won in ible time. King was born 65 years ago in Teast pos- ADMIRAL KING studies a map of the world’s oceans in which the U. S. Fleet Is active. Lean, brown, and cloar- eyed, be bas stripped Ihis lite of all “frills” which might inter- fere with the job he has fo do. Lorain, Ohio, At the age of seven, he decided to run away to sea. The near- fest ocean was 400 miles away. He never reached it, The smell of freshly baked cookies delayed him, ‘He did not get to the ocean until he was 18 Then he entered the Naval ‘Academy at Annapolis, In the years after graduation, he ‘become a submarine expert. At 49, he won his wings as a flyer. He did a great deal to build up the air arm of the Navy. For a time, he served as head of the U, S. Bureau of Aero- nautics, Jn 1941, King was made Commander in Chief of tho Atlantic Fleet. He to ‘wipe out the Nazi submarines threatening our lendlease supply routes to Britain. Shorlly alter the atlack on Pearl Harbor, King was placed in command of tho entire U.S. Fleet. ‘Now Japan and Germany are learn- ing to fear this tall, thin, quiet, deter- mined man, They realize why his ‘lassmates at Annapolis used to say of him, “Don't fool with nitroglycerin!” fered terms to the German defenders. “there is only one choice—honorable and immediate surrender or complete destruction.” The Germans refused to surrender, Allied dive bombers ‘and guns poured death on the ancient city, until 85 per cent of it was in ruins, Then the troops went in. Last week, they were still fighting the Germans from street to street, from house to house. Will Germans all along the Siegfried Line fight as des- perately against hopeless odds? Tf 50, HITLER: Go ahead. What have I got to Toso? the war in Europe may last longer than the Allies believed. Hungary Wants Out. Hungary, Hit- Jer's last partner in Europe, wants out of the war. The government of Ad- miral Nicholas Horthy broadcast an appeal for peace. Shortly afterward, Nazi officials seized the radio station in Budapest, Hungary's capital. Then they took over the government, Ad- miral Horthy is said to be a prisoner in Germany. ‘War of Supplies. Lieutenant Gen= eral Brehon B. Somervell, Com- mander of the Army Service Forces, told recently of the flood of supplies which was needed to make the Allied invasion of Europe a success. In the first 109 days of the invasion, a bridge of boats took across the Channel nearly 2,500,000 troops, 500,000 ve- hicles, and 17 million ship tons of munitions, food, drugs, and other supplies Py ‘rom New York Times CURRENT EVENTS foc Ociober 2327, 144 —Page SE Sime sur oso of the fleet—the largest fete et 2 : See oe DESTROYER—The destroyer (above) is built ke a battleship, but is litle more than 300 feet in length: Its swift and dan- gerous. Fitted with forpedo tubes and Tight guns, ican dash ahead of the ships to deliver stinging attacks on the may and soften them up for the final ‘Named for former secretaries ol the Navy and Marine Corps heroes, SUBMARINE—The “pig boat,” as sailors call i, leads a lonely lie. It roams the 3 in search of victims. When it spots one, it drops below the surface and discharges ls torpedoes. Named aller fish or 20a SEA-GOING TUG—The tug (above) is named for Indlan tribes. CARGO SHIP—Theso are the ships (be. low) which get us there “fustest with the mostest.” Named after stars MINE SWEEPER—These trouble hunters (above) sweep tho sea lanes free of mines. They tow a heavy cable which cuts the moorings of the mines, The guns explode them, Named after birds. MOTOR TORPEDO BOAT (Above) Named for sting ing insects, Poge 62~CURRENT EVENTS lor October 29-27, 1944 ¢ rophed iy plncbuins con beelensed huten can be irom any. tliede, The rattle led th Mesaving material and equipped with sail tod fe motor Proviatons ora 1500 lle voyage ar fn the vessel. Cea areanaaea ca Fru ieasen enter rue eeaen ie pene te te oa pil Going up. The gentle. | ‘man In midair (right) Is belng hoisted by special new navy res- | cue gear. The Coast | Guard helicopter is hovering about 30 fect | ‘above the water. These flying elephants represent the oe Navy's big ‘Dumbos"—Calalina flying boats, As sky-zea rescue cralt, the fear Tess big Cats are making ‘history In the Pacific. Left—These three downed flyers are depending on a “girl” to rescue them: @ Gibson Girl radio, The man on the right is cranking the SOS distress sig- nual on the radio, while the man on the left holds the antenna kite. The man In the middle is rowing the boat. Below—Radio and equipment. Find, lolt to right: collapsed kiter Gibson Girl radio; two small cans of antenna wire. The two larger cans and the tubes are used in making gas to inflate balloons (right). These replace kite ino wind is blowing. Basket in rear held everything. It is waterproofed and colored bright yellow so It may be found while floating. Se enereatah a, anes RLae fiw fi ee and supply ships must cover amazing distances, These distances are so great that we need a special measuring stick