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GOLDEN VALLEY NEWS
Benito's Contribution to Singapore Defense
These Breda guns, captured from the Italians in Libya, are being
reconditioned in Malaya for use against .lap invaders. During Wavell's
desert blitz a tremendous amount of Italian equipment was taken by
the British. It has since been useful on other fronts, and will serve the
allied cause again in Malaya.
U. S. Battleship Arizona Goes Down
The U. S. S. Arizona on fire and sinking in Pearl Harbor after
sneak raid by .lapanese bombers. The 25-year-old battleship was de-
stroyed by the explosion of the first of its boilers and then its forward
magazine, due to a bomb which was said to have literally passed down
the smokestack.
String of 'Valentines' for Axis
At a U. S. army airport, somewhere in the U. S., a ground crew is
Inaking adjustments to a string of 600-pound bombs before the missiles
are loaded into a bombing plane for delivery at . . . ?
,----.....__
From Wake Island
.l.B. Cooke, Wake island airport
manager, and his wife and two chil-
dren, Bleecker and Philip (front),
shown upon their arrival at San
Francisco on the clipper plane. This
was the third clipper to arrive safe-
ly from the war zone. All passen-
gers commented on the high mo-
rale of the civilians in Honolulu.
Wake island is one of our far Pacific
outposts that has held out so splen-
didly against the .laps.
Fortify Hang Kong
A motor torpedo boat, the British
navy's newest weapon for harbor
defense, makes a test run across
Hang Kong harbor. In the back-
ground are two lumbering Chinese
junks. This "Gibraltar of the East"
has lent its might in repelling .lap
attacks.
War Jobs for Women
Lieut..lames Hoey of New York
shows a group of members of the
American Women's Voluntary Serv-
ices how to slide down a pole in his
firehouse. The women have enrolled
for defense training courses. The
organization announced a shortage
of trained switchboard operators
and auto drivers.
To Direct Chinese
Where U. S. Troops Are Meeting Japs
I
Lieut. Col. C. L. CheP.nault, fa-1
mous U. S. flying officer, who will I
direct a Chinese aerial offensive I
against .lap bases. The 51-yeer-old I
Texan is a veteran of V/arid War I. |
1
'Front' in Africa
Would Bring War
Close to America
(While America eyes events in the Pa.
cific, somewhat /orgotten is the Berlin-
Rome end of the Axis. But, as the special
release below points out, it is only 1,870
miles from Ajrica's western tip to Natal,
Brazil. Perhaps here then is a "front" that
requires study. Copyrighted by the National
Geographic society, this article explains
some o/ the less known features of this
reason that may play an important role in
world aairs should either the Axis or the
Allies try to occupy or develop it in a
military way Jar strategic reasons.)
Nearer to the New world than
any part of Europe is the bulging
shoulder of northwest Africa, a thin-
ly settled region ranging from des-
ert to tropical jungle. From Dakar,
French colonial port on Africa's
western tip, it is only 1,870 miles
across the Atlantic ocean to Natal,
Brazil.
Busy sea lanes have paralleled
this part of the African coast ever
since the early Portuguese explor-
ers rounded the Cape of Good Hope
to trade with India, China and the
East Indies. Ships to and from
South Africa, South America, and
Australia often stop to refuel at the
scattered northwest African ports or
at near-by islands.
Only in comparatively recent
years, however, has the region been
developing from an agricultural and
economic standpoint. With the ex-
ception of the Republic of Liberia,
the territory is divided into British,
French, Spanish, and Portuguese
colonies. Those nations have been
doing much to increase the produc-
tiveness of the land.
There are several geographic rea-
sons for the delay in exploring and
developing not only this section but
the whole continent. Topography,
ctimate, and the primitive charac-
ter of the Negro savages must be
taken into account.
Sahara Is Unexplored.
In the north, the vast, desolate
sand and rock expanse of the Sa-
hara covers an area the size of the
United States. Much of the desert
never has been explored; its oases
are few and far between. The dry
heat of the Sahara is in contrast to
the hot humidity of the jungles and
forests farther south, but neither cli-
mate is very suitable for white men.
ttindering exploration and trans-
portation, too, have been the falls
and rapids of the African rivers.
These unfortunately are found near
the mouths of the streams, at points
where the continent's vast plateau
dips toward the coastal lowlands.
Furthermore, the coastline is so
regular that there are few good har-
bors.
Despite these natural disadvan-
tages, some parts of northwest Af-
rica are becoming highly produc-
tive. In the north, the fertile low-
lands of the Atlas mountains in Mo-
rocco and Algeria yield not only the
olives, grapes, and citrus fruits of
the Mediterranean basin but wheat
and other grains.
Farther south, French West Afri-
ca is an important source of peanuts
and palm oil. Peanuts, called
"ground nuts" by the natives and
Europeans, supply a valuable vege-
table oil. They do not require irri-
gation.
In the grasslands of French West
Africa, many experts believe there
can be developed one of the most
important farming areas of the fu-
ture. In portions where there is suf-
ficient rainfall, experiments have in-
dicated that cotton can be grown. In
the drier areas, sheep and cattle
already are being raised in quanti-
ties. If insects and livestock dis-
eases can be brought under con-
trol, the herds may show marked
improvement.
The grasslands merge into heavy
tropical forests along the southern
portion of the northwest African
hump. There, as in French West
Africa, the natives are proving
I adaptable to farm work. In Liberia,
Americans are supervising the de-
velopment of rubber plantations. In
British colonies, production of co-
coa has become a leading business.
The cacao trees, from which cocoa
is obtained, grow well in the hot,
damp regions, where there is no
wind to blow down their heavy pods.
How U. S. Is Building a 'Super' Navy
The above chart shows graphically plans for increasing the U. S.
fleet under present schedules. Because the naval front seems the most
important current phase of the war already demands are being made in
congress and among military leaders to speed up these schedules and
make even more additions to the fleet. Protection of the sea lanes, to
keep critical materials flowing to America from the Far East and to
protect American shipping across the Atlantic to our Allies makes a
strong navy a most vital factor in the war. Figures in "Built" column
show vessels in use after the .lap blow at Pearl Harbor.
'All-Out' Industrial Effort
Bolsters America's Front Lines
By WILLARD HOLMES
WASHINGTON, D. C.- Twenty-
four hours a day, seven days a
week. That's the job for American
industry to play its part winning
the war against the Axis powers.
"Speed now is of the essence just
as much in turning out things in
plants as it is among the fighting
forces," said President Roosevelt to
the recent War Labor conference,
where representatives of both labor
and capital had gathered to work
ways of speeding production.
Considered by many to be the
most momentous meeting between
these two groups in recent history,
the conference was headed by Wil-
liam H. Davis, chairman of the Na-
tional Defense Mediation board as
moderator. Representing labor were
both William Green, A. F. of L.
president, and Philip Murray, head
of C.I.O. Leading industrialists rep-
resented the interests of capital.
These leaders heard the President
issue a "must" assignment. For
truly this is a war of production.
The assembly line then becomes an
important line of the fight.
While these battle lines are
strengthening how does America
stack up on the front lines? What
did we have When the war started
and how fast are we getting what
we need?
How Well Prepared?
Because war came to us so vio-
lently just as we were hitting our
stride in defense materials produc-
tion and because the future sched-
ules look so much higher than what
we actually have produced, the im-
pression was felt m many quarters
that we are not at all prepared.
While there are some gaps in
many things between what we have
and what we would like, the coun-
try is far from defenseless. The
Knox report on the disaster at Pearl
Harbor was bad, but it wasn't as
bad as most people expected. We
lost six warships and a large num-
ber of planes.
Cost of Wars to America
Up to the beginning of the current war betweeu the United States
and the Axis powers, America had engaged in six wars and each time
the result was victory. Here is the cost in money and men:
Men Deaths Disease
War * Cost used in action deaths
Revolution $ 504,288,328 395.858 8,000 (No eeord+
1812 . . . 246,785.373 527,654 5,614 No cod
Mexican . . . 195,087,436 107,631 1,549 10,986
Civil:
Union 11,667,533,483 2,128,948 110,070 224,586
132,554 1.084
1,520,033,632 650,000 52,779 62,375
700 5,423
53,500 62.500
Confederate
Above is a view of the rice fields of Apparl, on the northernmost
tip of the island of Luzon, which is the principal island of the Philip-
liReS • oe Japanese were reported as succeeding in landing troops in
U.S.
rough terrain, but met with stiff resistance from troops. Manila,
.ls island, was the first major .lap objective.
i !i!
+!
Spanish . 1,015,554,728 280,564
First World . 41,65,000,000 4,380,000
Eseluslve of east of army and navy between wars.
chiding the REA estimate of un-
electrified farms required to be
made each year under the terms of
the R. E. act of 1936.
The actual number of farms re-
ceiving central station electric serv-
ice, from private power companies,
REA systems and all other sources
is 2,126,150, according to the REA
estimate, as against 743.954 on Jan-
uary 1, 1935, the year in which REA
was established. Today, 34.9 per
cent of the nation's farms are elec-
trified. In 1935, only 10.9 per cerA
had such service.
Electricity Now Lights
One of Three U. S. Farms
Nearly 1,400,000 of the nation's
/arms have substituted electric
lights for the traditional oil lamp in
the past 6$ years, according to a
report by the department of agri-
ulture. This brings the total to
note than 2,000,000 electrified farms
)ut of a total of over 6,000,000 farms
in the nation.
This report, prepared by the Rur-
al Electrification administration, is
compiled from various sources, in-
As far as the planes are con-
cerned, the aviation industry is" so
geared that much of this loss has
already been replaced by new pro-
duction. With respect to the war-
ships, the fact is that in every cate-
gory except cruisers on hand the
navy shows a superiority over Ja-
pan. Being the industrial nation that
we are, this margin can be expected
to increase over the period of a long
war. For we have the materials
and means for production.
Stepped-Up Production.
While the ratio of expansion in
American sea and air power is a
military secret we can safely as-
sume that it is much larger than
anticipated over a year o. even six
months ago. Coupled with the drastic
controls that come with war and
with war's resultant national unity
this expansion should really boom.
While it is too easy to forget that
we are at war also with Germany
and Italy in addition to Japan, sea
power at present does seem to be
the most important phase of he
fighting.
Before the Pearl Harbor attack
the United States had 17 battleships
with 17 building and due for launch-
ing in the next three years. Twelve
air-craft carriers were being built
and six were in use. Thirty-sev-
en cruisers were in service and 48
were on the way. In lighter vessels
the line-up was this: 171 destroyers
being used, 197 being built; subma-
rines, 103 in fighting trim and 82 un-
der construction. Subtract from this
the battleship Arizona, the target
ship Utah, three destroyers and a
mine layer, lost at Pear] Harbor and
you have the front line of defense.
This force was buttressed by
about 5,000 navy planes, with about
10,000 more on the way. Though the
army air corps has not released fig-
urea on the number of planes it has
m use, the numbers are being in-
creased each week--especially in
heavy bombers, medium bombers
and dive bombers--possibly the do,
ciding factors in this war.
Army's Strength.
What of the army in addition to
its flying force? As 1942 dawns there
is a personnel of about 1,600,000
officers and men. Roughly half of
these are selectees, 400,000 are Na-
tional Guardsmen and the rest reg-
ulars. But this is just the begin.
ning. Already selective service has
a pool of about 1,000,000 Class A
men available for immediate call.
Enlistments boomed at a terrific
pace following the declarations of
war.
With the extension of the age lim-
its for draftees another three or
four million men will be immediate-
ly available without lowering physi-
cal or dependency standards. Plans
for tapping this huge supply of man-
power are already worked out.
Just as important as a good re-
serve of manpower in modern war-
fare is the organization of strong
striking units. The army is known
to have five divisions comprising its
armored force. This unit is com-
posed of tanks and men who know
how to handle them. .Fifty bat-
talions of tank destroyers, para-
chute troops and other specialized
units to meet Panzer and blitzkrieg
tactics have been and are being
tr. in great numbers. Even
this will be speeded up under the
impetus of war. Doubling and even
:ripling of schedule is anticipated.