Oldest Newspaper In Alaska. “The News of The Dav In Pictures'* Member Of The Associated Press
THE NOME NUGGET
VOL. 44. No. 2. NOME. ALASKA, MONDAY, JAN. 5, 1942 Per Copy is*
52,000 Jap Casualties at Changsha
Gen. Mac Arthur’s Army Inflicts Severe Jap Reverse
Chinese Army
Mav he On Way
Save Singapore
>ATED. Jan. '-'Pi — The
■ n< fexpediticr.ary force has
j,vn a reservoir of manpower
>a fighting a give ar.d lake
the Japanese for four
-if years, and may he on
to the British Malayan
to help save Singapore.
Brj^ish sources in London ex
pressed the belief that veterans
of Chaing Kai Shek’s army are
being transferred to bolster th»
Ma'ayan line until Britain and
the United States can put rein
forcements there. It was note
worthy that British censorship
at Rangoon ard London, yester
day passed a dispatch saying that
the gathering of Allied forces in
Burma suggested that the united
nations’ command has a mount
ing offensive there and that the
Japanese could be struck as eas
ily overland from Burma on
their flank rear, as they could by
reinforment of the front a gains'
them on the Malayan Peninsula.
Unspecified numbers of Chin
ese "troop01 lire Renown to havfe
ben massed in Burma in a pri
mary function, however, then ap
peared to be guard.ng the Burma
Road, Chiang’s lifeline. Now,
some sharp offensive action by
the new supreme commander of
the united nations’ Pacific zone.
General Wavell, seems in pros
pect.
Military observers said the re
f-vats in Malaya were forced not
by more efficient Japanese fight
ing but by the superior numbers
of the invaders. British Imperial
forces perforce were spread too
thin on a front too broad, but
the balance might be restored, i
was said, by Chinese infantry
NEW COMMANDER
Ml 11 HP*
Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
(above) has been ordered to com
mand of the United States Pacific
fleet, replacing Admiral Husband
E. Kimrnel, secretary of the
Navy Knox announced.
supported by British artiln*m
and mechanized forces. A Singa
pore dispatch said confidence is
mounting for the long range pos
sibilities of defending Singapore,
even though about 200 miles of
the Malay Pen'nsula has been
yielded in l.ttle less than a
menth cf fighting.
52.000 Casualties
In Three Days
j
CHUNGKING, Monday. Jan. 4
TP) —The Chinese high command
announced that 30,000 Japanese
were killed and wound;d at
Changsha, Sunday, in s battle in
which the Japanese offensive ag
a’nrf the Hunan Province capital
was turn d into a catastrophic
debacle and makes a total of
52 0 0 invaders declared casual
ties in three days before Chan
sha, a slaughter eclipsing any
thing witnessed in nearly four
a d a half years of bloody fight
ing in China. Several high Japan
esc offieers were reported among
these killed.
15.000 Japs Killed
At f Jiangsha Sat.
CHUNGKING, Jan. 2 UP) —
Saturday —Fifteen thousand Jap
3"ese soldiers were .killed or
v unded Friday in terrific Chin
are counterattacks on the out
kirts of Changsha. A special
Chinese coir.unique said the bat
tle is still raging fiercely for the
capital city of Hunan Province,
the scene of twro of Japan’s mos’
humiliating defeats in the Chin
ese war. The majority of the Jap
anese casualties were due to ar
tillery fire.
Feb. 16 Set As
Registration Day
WASHINGTON, Jsn. 5 (/P) —
The President set February 16
j for the registration of all male
1 citizens in the States and terri
tories between the ages of 20
: and 44 who have not registered
previously. Men of this age
i group wil be subject to military
| service. The proclamation made
no mention of the registration of
I men 45 through 64, who will be
i registered later.
The President noted: This and
other registrations under the Sel
ective Service Act “will be re
quired to insure a victory, final
and complete, over the enemies
I of the Un ted States.”
Bridges May Not
Be Deported
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 UP) —
The Board of Immigration Ap
peals recommended the cancella
tion of deportation proceedings
against Harry Bridges. The de
cision was reached unanimously
by the four board members who
heard the case and reversed the
recommendation of Judge Char
les Sears who heard the testi
mony for three months in San
Francisco early last year. The
final decision rests with Attorney
General Biddle. The Board found
the Bridges, since coming to the
United States, has not been a
member nor affiliated with the
Communist Party.
jap Suffer Severe
Reverse By Mac
\r!lmr’s Armv
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 (,T>) —
The War Department announced
that MacArthur’s Philippine
army repu'sed a Japanese at
tack with heavy losses, estimat
ing that at lea t 700 of the en
emy were killed. American and
Filipno losses were described by
the communique as relatively
smal'. The War Department said
“This is one of the most serious
reverses uffered by the Japan
ese invaders inee the war be
gan.”
The Japanese attack occurred
northwest of Manila. At the same
time, the garrison at Corregidor
fortress shot down four more
Japanese bombers, beating off
he third successive air attack on
the fortress and raised officially,
the reported enemy plane losses
at Corregidor to 15. Fifty-two
bombers took part in the attack.
MscArthur said his forces
mu-hod the attack, presumably
n Pa’^parg'' province, north
ve t of Manda, in escaping many
on attempted enemy trap.
Corregidor Beats
Off 5-Hour Attack
UNDATED, Jan. 3 f/P) — U. S.
inti-aircraft batteries beat off a
violent five-hour attack by Jap
P anes upon Corregidor. the is
land fortress at the entrance to
Manila Bay, the War Department
■=aid, while on nearby Batan Pen
nsula. General MacArthur’s
“last stand” army of Amercan
and Filipino troops still battled
the invasion forces. The com
munique said that at least three
Jap planes were shot down at
Corregidor.
Tokyo reports said that war
ships were also attacking the is
land stronghold.
The War Department said that
at least 60 Jap bombers took part
in the raid which failed to in
flict material damage to the fort
es.-. American casualties in the
attack, which was made yester
day, were 13 killed and 35
wounded. “There is a marked
lessening of enemy ground at
tacks on the Peninsula, and Am
erican and Philippine troops
have consolidated new positions
where organized resistance will
be intensified.”
On the Malayan front, the Brit
i-h reported officially to have
beat off three new Jap attacks by
land and one by sea. Four troop
i laden Jap barges were sunk and
a small steamer set afire by ar
til erymen, frustrating a land
ing attempt at lower Perak. “The
remainder of the enemy craft
withdrew” but it was admitted
that the Japs made some pro
gress at Kunatan, 190 miles north
of Singapore, where they filtered
into the outskirts of the town in
an attempt to seize the airport.
Wavell Predicts Ultimate
Defeat Is Fate of Japan
NEW DELPHI, Jan. 4 (A*) —
With soldierly reserve but quiet
confidence, and a frank recogni
tion of the problems and even re
verses which lie ahead, General
I Sir Archibald P. Wavell, newly
named ABCD commander of the
southwest Pacific predicted that
Japan faces only ultimate de
feat.
I
CHURCHILL IN U. S. TO HELP PLAN AXIS DEFEAT
eating his reefer and cap. Win-fen Churchill ai-.ve^ at the White House with President Roose
velt and the president’s naval aid, Capt. John R Hr u all. alter his daring and secret journey to
ike United States for another h sto y-making (onference with Roosevelt. The President met
hurchill in a car at a “nearby airport.” They we e elo. eted at the White House to talk war
plans to encompass “the defeat of Hitlerism.”
I - _
Hitler Slipping
At Front And In
Occupied Lands
UNDATED, Jan. 5 //Pi — Hit
! 'er is still steadilv los’ng the
Russian footholds for which he
j paid so dearly and is harassed
t at the rear by the stirring of con
quered peoples and confronted
with a hint if fitness and defec*
! tion.
Officially the Finns never pro
fessed partnership in the Europ
ean “crusade,” Hitler’s term for
the war on Russia, and insisted
that they were fighting ony to
for the recovery of territory
; vital to the protection of their
, national life. Now, according to
Reuters, the influential Helsinki
newspaper Suomen Sosial Idemo
kratti, says, the time “seems suit
i able for an opportunity to break
off military operations.”
Sharing in the importance of
| the possibilty of a Finnish with
j drawal from the war, there is a
I growing strain between Germany
and the Vichy government, and
: between them and the people of
France. These tensions have be
I come more and more apparent
since the United States entered
the war. Some aspect of this eon'
plex polit cal stress appeared in
the death of Yves Perringaux,
chief secretary to Interior Minis
ter Pierre Pucheu, one of the
staunchest Vichy collaboration
ists. The Secretary’s battered
body was found along a railway
track in occupied France.
With the Russian offensive in
full swing against the entire Ger
man front, the Finns may have
concluded that it is better to
strike a bargain with Russia be
fore the full force of the Russian
drive hits them.
The Russians’ power drive is
reported officially to have car
ried through Belev, 100 miles
west of the German high water
mark on the southern flank of
the Moscow arc. The Belev driv
s naralled by a pincer move i
mi nt fa: ter north in' which B ir
vak has fallen, heightening th |
threat of entrapment to Germans
at Mozhaisk, west of Moscow.
Hitler At The Cross
Hoads On New Years
■
UNDATED, Jan. 4 VP) — De
layed — Hitler, standing at the
crossroads on New Year, ucknow
lodged sharp reverses to his Cri
| mean armies, as the once con-!
J quering German legions are re
ported in retreat on all fronts. \
j Just a year ago today, in his!
New Year's message to his troops
H tier boasted that the “Year j
( 1941 will bring completion of the
greatest victory in our history.”
! By contrast to this picture, today
the Nazi invaders were hurled
back much of a hundred miles
before Moscow anud were driven
67 miles in retreat from their
deepest penertation on the Len-1
i ingrad front. A new threat is dev!
'eloping in the fur south as Rus-1
! sia’s arimes, storming back in
' the Crimea to blur Hitler's dream
! of capturing the great Caucasus ;
; oil fiedrs across the Strait of
: Kerch.
The melancholy outlook con- ;
! fronting Hitler and Mussolini on
l ‘he eve cf the New Year was re-!
fleeted in the Rome newspaper !
Iltevere, which cited Napoleon’s i
iisasterous march on Russia, re
claring that Napoleon was beat
en by the Russian gueriltas, not
on the battlefield at Waterloo.
Tim Fascist organ commented
gloomily that guerilla warfare!
could defeat great armies and
lead to the collapse of great
states, “as history, whi^h teach
es by experience, now proves.”
Coupled with this outspoken fore
boding of Axis defeat, Field Mar
shal Massingbird, former chief of
the British imperial general staff
predicted in London that Hitler’s
••etreat from Moscow will be a
na'amitous loss of manpower, pro
portionately as the blow to Nap
oleon’s armies when the Cirsican
narched into Rus :a in 1812 with
a If a million men and brought
ut only 20,030.
A bulletin from Hit’er's fi.-ld
headquarters conceded that the
Russians, “during the last few
days have again landed strong
forces in the Kerch Peninsula
and near Feodosiya” in an at
'rr.pt to life the siege of Sevas
topol naval base. “Necessary
i 0 r measures were started,’*
the communique declared.
On the north African battie
front. the British were reported
riking heavy new blows on Gen
oral Rommel's retreating tank *
"orce ■ :r fierce fighting south of
Adedabia.
General C. L. Tinker (above), of
the Vr corps, is e-nroi!|t>e to
Hawaii to take command of the
air forces. Secretary of War Stim
son announced.