Oldest Newspaper In Vlaska. fc’Tlie News of the Day In Pictures" Member of I he Associated Press
THE NOME NUGGET
VOL. 44. No. 109. NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, AUG. 7, 1942. Per CoPy 1W
Reds Assert Caucasus Drive Slowed
German, Convicted of Treason, Sentenced to Hang
Russian Reserves Going Into Action
Fighting Stem Threat To Stalingrad
UNDATED, Aug. 6 (/P) — Germany's mechanized
armies, fast closing an octopus-like strangle hold on
the upper Caucasus, reported the fall of Tikhoretsk on
|he Caucasian railwway, 90 miles south of Rostov, and
developed a new pincers threat to the great Volga ri
ver steel center of Stalingrad. Tikhoretsk is on the
Stalingrad-^Novorossisk railway, terminating at the
Black Sea just below Kerch Strait.
Soviet advices said Russia’s carefully saved reserves
are going into action against a terrific Nazi offensive,
fighting bitterly to stem the new threat to Stalingrad.
Dispatches from Moscow said the Red armies, taking
up new positions along a strong line east of the Don
river, are driving back powerful German tank assaults
95 miles southeast of Stalingrad. A second big scale
battle is in progress in the Kletskaya sector, 80 miles
northwest of Stalingrad where the Russians said the
upper claw of a German pincer aimed at Stalingrad
was stopped dead. The danger to the Caucasus increas
ed however, as the Germans drove new wedges into
the Soviet lines at a great sacrifice of lives, front line
dispatches said.
A bulletin from German headquarters said Nazi
spearheads, racing southward from Voroshilovsk,
reached the main trans-Caucasian railway linking the
Black and Caspian seas. This apparently meant that
the invaders seized the rail line below Armavir, key
to the junction route, somewhere in the vicinity of
NevinnomysSftaua which lies due south of Voroshil
ovsk and represents an advance of about 235 miles
into the Caucasus.
Japanese
Barbarity
Shown Up
NEW YORK. Aug. — Thirty
two years before Pearl Harbor,
a Japanese raiding party struck
•without warning at an American
island only 800 miles from Hono
lulu and caused hundreds of
deaths.
The suprise assault, recalled
by Alfred M. Bailey in the cur
rent. issue of Audubon magazine,
was directed at nesting birds and
was accomplished with a degree
of cruelty rarely recorded in this
era.
The island is Laysan, a little
coral reef two miles long, a mile
•wide and then the nesting place
of myriads of seabirds. There, in
1909, just after President Theo
dore Roosevelt had decreed it
and other islands of the Leeward
group to be bird sanctuaries,
went 23 Japanese market hunt
ers. They had already plundered
Midway island, leaving hardly a
bird alive.
At Laysan they found a sea
bird paradise, so crowded that
various species took turn nest
ing at different seasons of the
year. Not only did it have un
counted numbers of albatross,
man-o’-war birds and terns, but
it had five kinds of birds found
in no other place on earth.
For seven months the Japs
clubbed and shot birds without
interruption. The wings of more
than 390,000 were cut off, pack
ed in burlap and made ready
for shipment to Japan to satisfy
the millinery trade. Many were
cut from living birds, which
were then left to die.
But the most revolting practice
said Bailey, was to let the birds
starve to death by the hundreds
in a dry cistern so that the
fatty tissues of their bodies
would be used up, enabling the
Japanese to cure the wings with
little or no cleaning.
These fruitful operations were
Highway Is
To Nuli l y
Suh Peril
Washington, Aug. — To
avoid the German submar
ine menace in the Gulf of
Mexico and the Caribbean
Sea, six Central American
Republics will cooperate
with the United States in
building an emergency
overland route to this coun
i try and to the Panama Can
al.
The State department
announced that Guate
I mala, El Salvador, Hon
duras, Nicaragua, Costa
i Rica, and Panama have ag
I reed with the United Stat
es for the construction of
about 625 miles of pioneer
roads, connecting the seg
ments of the inter-Ameri
can Highway between the
Mexican and Guatemalan
border and Panama City.
The United States will
pay for the emergency con
struction.
interrupted by a U. S. revenue
■cutter which hauled the raiding
party and their bird wings back
to Honolulu.
Ironically enough, it wasn't
this raid which caused the great
est destruction on Laysan. It was
a pair of rabbits released on the
island by a well-meaning work
man for the benefit of shipwreck
ed seamen.
They and their progeny ate so
much of the vegetation that the
island became in part a desert
Some of the unique species were
exterminated.
Today the vegetation is coming
back and—barring Japanese and
rabbits — Laysan may regain
much of her bird population.
Blame For
Meat Shortage
Placed on OPA
OMAHA. N'ebr.. Aug — The
! The National Livestock Associa- .
1 tion council blamed the current ,
me:: si ertage in certain cities on :
OPA nr C" ceilings forcing farm
' ers to market their cattle before
! they had fully been fattened.
| The Livestock Council made |
the charge in an information
I brief filed w th the Price Admin
I
j istrat.on office. The brief sum
mart’ d t -stimony was taken
Sror- c; •• -men of 18 states dur
1 :ng a m.< etir. > at Dos Moines, la.
Th • council declared that un
i less the OPA acted soon the
meat <v city might become na
I tion-wide, with meat rationing
possibly by December. One of
reason.-, for the shortage cited by
tire report was the government
threat f codings in livestock
; which fr.ghtencd some farmers'
into tv. irketin-; their cattle 11)0 or
more pounds underweight to i
beat any price-fixing date.
—
Army Airman Say
Tanks Are Needed
As Well As Planes
_
CHICAGO. Aug. — A famous)
' army aviator declared that tanks ,
| and artillery were as vitally nec
I essary to win the war as super
ior airpovver.
The statement was made by
Col. Charles Kervvood. Col. Ker
wood is chief of the army air
! force intelligence division. The
air officer told a Chicago civic
gathering that air power alone
could not establish a second
front in Europe. Colonel Ker
vvood said that this nation had
at least attained the might of a
1 military power. Said he:
"We ha\re tossed our prejudices
out of the window and are united
to win this war. But we must
n member that an even vaster
superiority is not the only an
swer to the problem of gaining
an early victory.”
Shipyard Ordered
l o Slow Work
Says Operator
—
WASHINGTON, Aug. — An
drew J. Higgins, New Orleans
shipbuilder, charged that em
ployees of the Maritime Com
|j mission ordered him to put a
soft pedal on his work in order
I that they could “build up Beth
iichem Shipbuilding.”
He added in testimony given
before the House Committee
undying cancellation of his con
: tract for construction of Liberty
; cargo ships, that his plant’s or
der to “soft pedal” also applied
to production in shipyards op
erated by Henry Kaiser. West
! Coast builder.
; Word instruction, he told the
committee, came from a member
! of the Commission staff, who, he
| said, volunteered to testify be
| fore the committee if subpoenaed
Higgins was asked if anyone in
! dicated to him that the Commis
sion’s order of cancellation was
given “reluctantly” and he re
plied that he was told “Yes, sir,
J they were forced to do it.”
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Old Methods For
Ousting Nippons
In Aleutians
NEW YORK. Aug — Modern
; warfare with its tanks and bomb
ing planes, won’t work in the
Aleutians but the old-fashioned
bayonet will says Harold Mc
| Cracken.
McCracken, nationally known
archeologist who spent several
years on the Aleutians, declar
ed here that the “only way to
oust the Japanese invaders from
the land is a sufficient force to
chase them with bayonets into
the Bering Sea.
"The Japs know,' every inch of
the country and in case of a
bombing, can disappear into
tin r barbaras like gophers into
their holes.
, The barbaras are native huts,
| part underground and covered
j by vi gelation. They are natural
i air raid shelters.’’
Eminent Airmen
Testify for Cargo
I Carrying Planes
j c
■ WASHINGTON. Aug, A j
I neer in the field of aviation, Dr
! W. Christmas was called to testi
fy before a special Senate Mili
tary Affairs sub-committee con
sidering further developments of
cargo carrying planes. Dr. Christ
mas was the first man to fly an
airplane after the Wright bro
thers made their historic flight
at Kitty Hawk.
Other witnesses before the Mili
tary sub-committee were an in
dependent aeronautical design
er, Robert Filmer of New York,
and the assistant chief of the
WPB Aircraft Division, Theodore
Wright
The Senate Truman Committee
continued its investigation of the
same problem-development of
big transport planes which could
move troops and cargo to foreign
battle fronts high above the Nazi
submarine menace.
West Coast Shipbuilder Henry
Kaiser is scheduled to testify be
fore the Truman group. Kaiser
claims his shipyards can make
fleets of big cargo planes by mass
production methods.
Session of War
Council Is Held
—
WASHINGTON, Aug. — Pres -
I dent Roosevelt called a meeting
1 of the War Council at the White
j House for the first time since
I Admiral William D. Leahy was
j named Chief-of-Staff to the Prosi
dent. Among those attending the
! conference with the President
j were Leahy. Army Chief-of-Stuff
. George C. Marshall, and Navy
I Chief of Operations, Admiral
King.
It was presumed that Leahy’s
position in the war picture was
the principal topic of discus
sion. The retired naval officer i
the first man in history to hold
such a position.
FEDERATED CHURCH
Sunday, Aug. 9
11 a.m. — Church School.
7:40 p.m. — Evening Worship.
Chaplain Wilson will speak of
“Keeping Up One’s Courage "
Special music.
Hitler’s Blood-for-Oil Drive In
Caucasus Is Slowed, Say Russians
w
UNDATED, Aug. 7 (/P)—Hitler’s blood-for-oil drive
j in the Caucasus was slowed in two key sectors, Rus
: sian accounts said, as the Red armies beat off repeated
mass tank assaults and mopped up fresh swarms of
Nazi parachutists and plane-transported troops be
hind the Soviet lines. An entirely different version
came from German headquarters, which declared that
Von Bock’s armies captured three strategic towns and
advanced a depth of 160 miles on the road to the Cau
casus oil treasures.
A bulletin from Hitler’s headquarters asserted that
! Nazi troops, swarming across the Kuban river, advanc
I ed to within 30 miles of the Maikop oil fields. The
| Maikop well are important but far less vital than the
i huge Baku fields which lie across the towering Cau
| casus mountains, hundreds of miles to the southeast.
The Nazi communique also asserted that Axis columns
are approaching Krasnodar, 150 miles southwest of
| the Rostov rail line to the Black Sea.
i The arrival of Soviet reinforcements in the critical
i struggle below the Don river, was acknowledged by
; the German command- which said that the Russians
are counter attacking north of the Sal river, appar
ently in the Kotelnikovski sector, 95 miles south of
: Stalingrad.
London heard that delegates of the major United
Nations are gathering in Moscow for ‘‘Save Russia and
Win-the-War” conference and to plan grand P : ntegy
for the second Alii' 1 front. British officials maintain
ed silence but it was reported that representatives of
the United States. Britain, Free French and Norway,
are either in Moscow or enroute. Axis radios for the
past week have been circulating rumors that Church
ill, along with William Bullitt, special envoy from the
President, have gone to Moscow.
German. Who Aided Escape Nazi
Flier From Canadian Concentration
i Camp, Is Convicted -- To Be Hung
—
DETROIT. Aug. 6 (/P) — Max Stephan, the first
person in 159 years to be convicted of treason in the
United States, was sentenced by a Federal Court to be
hanged. Judge Tuttle directed that Stephan, German
•born American citizen, be hanged on November 13,
within the walls of the Federal detention prison at
Milan, Michigan.
Stephan was convicted of aiding the fight of a Nazi
flier who escaped from a Canadian concentration camp.
The judge said since the “lives of millions of our
boys will be taken in the course of this war, the court
shouldn’t hesitate in taking the lift of one traitor, for
the sake of a cause.”
No Sentence Passed On Eight
Nazi Saboteurs Tried by Military
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (/P)—The White House said
"The President has not yet concluded his reading of
testimony” in the case of the eight alleged saboteurs.
The statement was read to reporters by William Has
set, assistant secretary, in response to inquiries about
reports that the President decreed death for six and
clemency for two of the Nazi agents, tried by a mili
tary tribunal, charged that they came to the Unit
ed States to sabotage vital war industries.
Nazis Change Attitude
BERNE, Switzerland, Aug. —
The men who man the Nazi pro
! pagunda machine pounded out a
different tune about the possibil
ity of a second front in Europe.
Berlin for weeks has ridicul
edthe idea of a second front.
A Berlin spokesman and the re
cently appointed Nazi press chief
Suendermann, both admitted a
second front was a strong pos
sibility.
The Berlin mouthpiece said the
Allies might open a second front
because of the 1 mands of Mos
cow. Sue ndermann, writing in
the newspaper "Voelkisher Boe
bachter,” abo discussed the sec
ond front possibility at great
length.
The sudden about face in the
German attitude caused specula
tion on what new devilment had
caused the Nazi leaders to de
cide to give the German people
a few facts about life.