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a no myI upon :essaryng the ilng In ,ct reprof es-Indus-ement, r way, f most td au-perlod II em-in the result, ire out e been United rithout se, has crease, equally st roc-dlencss work-? when ony Is dlffi-prob-vin be chance1 oco-rcased.2 factsThey n self-irposcs, ill use romote at the terests. f these ted by le one I comic Ford vorkers s have •telsey-t dis-ipatlon0 fore-} sepa-Labor ver the n Aug-) rein-iproved re the accept-bosses ■ere rc-e shut clearly shall ar dis-tries of Theyielded s busi-1 tic ally, out ofitSorry.We can use only men who learned something: useful Inthe service.”mr. anahave been a. Knlttle, avenac. JetIn Illinois.Mrs. J. V Parliament dom la vieTh* Washington Merry-Go-RoundUrges Probe of Bulge BattleBy Drew Pearson(Col. xi. 8. AUen, now on. active service)Washington—If Congress is really interesting in Investigating military efficiency rather than In political recrimination, it will probe the disastrous Battle of the Bulge as well as Pearl Harbor.Casualties afc Pearl Harbor were only around 3,000. But casualties in the Battle of the Bulge totalled around 60.000. And just as Pearl Harbor set us back In the Pacific, so the Battle of (the Bulge delayed victory in Europe. General Eisenhower had hoped to finish Germany in the winter, possably by Christmas, but disastrous, overwhelming losses during the first two weeks of the Ardennes offensive helped drag out the war.How many extra American lives were lost as a result of the spurt given to German hopes is not known. But what is known is that U. S. supply officers immediately placed hugs orders for more tanks, more artillery, more of almost everything as a result of the heavy supply losses in the Bulge. That is one reason why acres and acres of sur-* plus supplies are scattered over the country today.-What never leaked out afc the time or the battle is that 20,000 XL S. infantry troops were flown straight from the United States Into the bulge by the Air Transport command. Losses were so heavy and men so tired that sufficient shock troops were not available in Europe. It was the longest air-borne troop carrying feat in history.Also it never leaked out that certain U. S. intelligence officers in Washington warned that the Bulge attack was coming, and that nothing was done to prepare for it.of the 101st Airborne, was in Washington with his family. He has now been promoted to be head of West Point.)Another German opposed to the Belgian Bulge campaign was the man generally credited with master-minding it—Field Marshal Kurt von. Rundstedt.* Last December, American correspondents cabled accounts of how Von Runstedt had planned and led the Ardennes attack. But when interviewers asked him about the Belgian Bulge, he gruffly replied:“Do not connect me with that operation. That was Modei.Von Rundstedt war referring to Field Marshal General Walther von Model, his colleague on the Western front, who had been strong for Hitler’s plan to catch the American army off-base.Despite the opposition of regular German army officers. Hitler guessed shrewdly in picking the time and place for his attack. Tragic Inside fact, however, is that U. S. forces would not have been ccught napping if the advice of two War department colonels in Washington i had been taken; also the advice of the assistant secretary of war, John McCIoy.Mr. McCIoy, looking at the map of the Western front several days before the Germans lauxiched their surprise attack and noting the thinly spread American forces in the Ardennes forest, remarked that he thought this was taking a chance. Members of the general staff, however, reminded him that General Eisenhower knew what he was doing.General Marshall made It ti point never to give orders or suggestions to commanders in the field; so. asKathryReceivMiss K poria, wh has been Walluku ritory ofceived frccommand vision, a set forth “For service w director lt;ganizatioi ritory of associated personnel division every mi; vlding th creation, these M; encouragt ment ma the youn: problems.ing devot:measures high stat Marine lt;Before Kayser, t speech aState colThese are a few of the things Con- at Pearl Harbor, the man on the job;rike cf 'or onegress could investigate with profit to future military efficiency. Here are some more:Congress doesn’t know it. thoughthe Army does, that captured German officers have now thrown slg-f them have many ow the a stop. 1 gcn-icreases unions eccntly iven to kc dc-?nt of-govern-50 per There, rconcile i, and le nat-l. first, second, t speaknifiennt light on the Belgian Bulge operation. They have testified that the Bulge operation was planned as early as November (though It didn't get started until December 16). It was planned by Hitler himself. Generals were taken by a circuitous route to Hitler’s headquarters, then near Frankfurt, where they were searched and placed in chairs four feet apart.Remembering how one colonel brought in a bomb concealed in a brief* case at the last staff meeting Hitler took no chances. His Gestapo men wanted to be able to see both sides of the chair jn which each genernl sat; also, didn’t want the generals to know exactly where Hitler's headquarters were.Hitler then unfolded his plan. The generals debated whether the German army could squeeze enough gasoline and supplies from other operations to start the attack. Most of the generals were opposed. They though the idea was sheer suicide. But Hitler's mad fanatlcisc decreed that this one last attempt must be made to break (he American line and get through to Brussels.It nearly succeeded.SALINALa wren Hamrell, and Bru jured in lision tw« rence on Both wei mobile, injured, severed ae drive course.wages.id vance * living chasing ice the leaverf than Ing is AmerU course.man”:ome a politicalLt. Gen. Kurt von Manteuffel was among those who left the meeting heartsick. Before beginning the offensive he went to see his wife and children to tell them he never expected to see them again. Later he was to surprise himself by getting as far as Bastogne. where he sent the message to Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe to surrender. McAu-liffe’s now famous reply was. '‘nuts,” and Manteuffel has since told U. S. in tervi ewers that he understood quite well what ‘’nuts” meant. (Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, top commanderwas left to run his show without advice from Washington.The warning of the two colonels, however, was much stronger. They were Col. Truman Smith and Col. Percy Blair, who went to Gen. Clayton Bissell a week before the bulge attack and advised him what they feared was coming. They urged that he send a message to General Elsenhower. Bissell, however, fell back on the general staff policy that it was not Washington’s job to instruct field commanders.Col. Truman Smith is probably the most outstanding expert on Germany in the American army. Having spent several years as military attache in Berlin, he knows many German army commanders personally, how they think and how they operate. Just before the war, however, he got in dutch because of his friendship for Charles Lindbergh, and at one time . Supreme Court, Justice Felix Frankfurter urged Roosevelt to have him court-martialed.General Bissell. head of intelligence, is an air officer, who spent a large part of this war in India. When he ignored the oral advice of Colonels Smith and Flair, the two officers wrote a memorandum putting themselves on record that there was grave danger in the Ardennes and that General Eisenhower should be apprised of that fact.However, even this written warning was not passed on to Eisenhower. As at Pearl Harbor, was department routine required that each commander be on his own. On December 15, a new and relatively green division, the 106th. was moved into the Ardennes forest opposite the German lines. It had arrived in France less than a month bcrorc. Never before had it been under fire. Early the next morning, December 16. Hitler launched his long-planned putsch. His intelligence must have been excellent.Last year, this column’s comments on the Belgian Bulge were tele-PLEDGELawren fraterniti pledged 1 list sinceAt the closed th day wit' pledges.PREandHomer J. Ball Post, No. I AMERICAN LEGIONMeet* »»lt;J *ti» Tne4*7*. f. m.AUXILIARYMeets tod and Teesdsys, t:3• p. m.Jr. Auxiliary. 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Emporia Gazette
Emporia, Kansas, US
Mon, Sep 24, 1945
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WI, USA 21 Apr 2018
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