dashed into Sanananda Point to end Japanese re
jstance on Papua. The threat .0 Australia was
talked off.
The second Allied counter-blow fell in Africa.
Command of the British Eighth Army had passed
)0 General Bernard L. Montgomery, and he had
tarefully massed his reinforced army, a fleet of
(irplanes and powerful tanks, including America’s
Germans, which had come around the Cape of
5ood Hope. An advocate of Spartan principles, he
jad drilled and whipped his forces into shape. De
late the glowing goal that lay ahead for the “Desert
fox” Rommel, the Nazis had short-changed him
*ith supplies and instead sent most to the Russian
front. A tiny but indomitable British fleet slashed
(onstantly at such German supplies as were mov
ing across the Mediterranean.
On October 23 the stillness of the desert night at
jl Alamein was broken by the wail of Scottish
bagpipes.
Suddenly Monty’s big guns exploded' with a
blinding, deafening roar. Gun barrels lined up
almost side by side shoved forward and back,
lighting the night with great splashes of fire and
I thunder the desert had never heard before. A
Ihousand planes roared overhead.
Then there was silence again, and the bagpipes’
ffail. Monty’s infantry and tanks began to move.
In two weeks the line was fully shattered. The
Nazis were in retreat, and Monty started chasing
the Desert Fox past the Qattara Depression, into
Uatruh and Sidi Barrani, . .
THE AXIS STARTS TO RUN
rpHE Allies struck their third big blow at the
1 other side of Africa.
In the black morning hours of November 8, 1942,
I huge armada of assault boats pushed toward
Algiers, Oran and Casablanca in French North
Africa It was the first major Allied invasion in the
lar against Hitler.
Eight hundred and fifty ships—largely American
bttleships, cruisers, destroyers, aircraft carriers,
kansports. trawlers—joined in the assault Some
lad come more than 3.000 miles across the perilous
Atlantic with Yanks fresh from the training fields,
jthers had shoved down past Hitler’s occupied
Basts of France from Britain.
Previous arrangements had been made with the
tench underground and with General Henri
liraud. who had escaped from a Nazi prison camp
liter his capture at Sedan in 1940, to make the
entry as bloodless as possible. As the landings got
lender way, the Americans broadcast appeals to
iVichy French officials to lay down arms and help
feed their own liberation.
At Algiers a few French mounted machine guns
tut within the day the city was firmly held by
links and Tommies.
At Oran, a French destroyer answered by slash
bg at two British, ships moving into the harbor
“ighting raged three days before resistance ended.
At Casablanca, under orders from Vichy Admiral
tan Darlan, the battleship* Jean Bart and other
isrships hurled shells into the Allied ships and
lore batteries raked the landing forces. For three
lys the Jean Bart pounded, away until silenced
y naval dive bombers
Early Wednesday, Admiral Darlan surrendered
iconditionally. Immediately in the name of Mar
ti Petain but with Allied acquiescence he as
Bned control of all French fotces in North Africa.
The invasion was bloodier than it might save
ten But the Allies, under General Dwight D
isenhower, now had 400,090 men ready to blast
le Axis out of Africa. Enraged. Hitler ordered his
Wes into unoccupied France. They raced to the
fediterranean in time to find the French scuttling
Ik remainder of their fleet at Toulon. Mussolini
loved into Corsica and Nice.
Bntish paratroops took Bone, across the border
bn Tunisia, and Etsenho-wer sent the British First
Army on a long-shot attempt to* grasp the key
trts of Tunis and Bizerte. It failed
The German High Command swung into action
luickly Huge transport planes with men, tanks
hd guns roared onto Tunisian, airfields and* by the
Bd of the year, when rainy weather made fighting
dmost impossible; the Na^is were planted firmly
liong a corridor fFom western Tunisia to Libya.
Nevertheless the Allies, had what they wanted:
I chance to meet the Teutonic ‘supermen” on
Hal terms and slash into Hitler’s fighting forces-:
chance to free the Mediterranean lifeline; and a
knee at the soft under-belty of Europe.
An assassin's bullet was pumped into Darlan on
bristmas eve. General Giraud took over
FULL TURNING OF THE TIDE
II FOURTH decisive blow fell at Guadatcanal.
f* In October the Japanese, moving their forces
Vb the “slot” of the islands, landed only 15 miles
|b*t the U. S fines and started moving heavy
Mhery ashore.
America strained to match the stakes. Newly re
paired warships rushed into position. Marine and
Army reinforcements squeezed ashore.
On November 12 aircraft from Henderson Field
discovered an enemy force of two carriers, four
battleships, five heavy cruisers, about 30 destroyers
and a number of transports heading for the Solo
mons. There followed the greatest in a whole series
of Guadalcanal naval battles.
Admiral Halsey, who in October had replaced
Admiral Robert Lee Ghormley as commander of
the south Pacific force, realized all the Guadal
canal chips were riding on the success or failure
of the Japanese invasion force. Ordering “Attack,
attack, attack,’’ he sent Admiral D. J. Callaghan
up to Lunga Point with eight destroyers and five
cruisers to intercept the enemy.
It was a wild battle in the dark and moonless
night. The Americans moved between the enemy
columns and had them shooting at each other.
Ships blew up. Others burst into flames. Torpedoes
streaked wildly. The U. S. destroyer O’Bannon
closed to fight it out with a battleship. Ships out
of control careened madly. A salvo smashed the
bridge of Callaghan’s ship, the San Francisco, kill
ing Callaghan and many other Officers; but the
cruiser kept pounding until she also smashed a
destroyer.
Admiral W. A. Lee, Jr., with two battleships,
the carrier Enterprise and escorting destroyers,
got into the scrap November 15 north of Savo
Island against six to ten enemy ships. Another
battle raged.
When the full score was tallied, the Japanese
had lost an estimated 16 warships and 12 troop
packed transports The threat to Guadalcanal was
virtually over. The Yanks on the island slashed
out of the airfield and pushed into the underbrush.
On December 9 command passed to the Army under
General Alexander M. Patch and the Battle of
Guadalcanal approached the mop-up stage.
The fifth great Allied blow was struck at Stalin
grad. N'afcis continued to pour bombs and shells
into the rubble and their foot soldiers battled for
hours to gain a stairway. But the Soviets would
not yield. Children armed themselves with impro
vised explosives—“Molotov cocktails”—to throw at
the invaders” tanks Women snipers crept up from
behind to rip the Nazis in the back. Old men worked
through the night, ferrying supplies across the
Volga on bridges strung below the water to pre
vent Nazi air detection.
On November 19 the Reds were ready to extermi
nate the foe. They massed their guns 300 and 400
to the mile and fired 689.000 shells on that one day
alone. They sent rockets swishing into the enemy
lines. North and south of Stalingrad, reserves
sliced through Nazi lines in a great env°Ooing
movement to cut the Stalingrad-Rostov railroad
In the first week of the counteroffensive 50.000
Germans were killed or captured and soon, blocked
off from supplies in the growing cold, they faced
capture or annihilation.
The critical autumn of 1942 had opened with the
Axis roosting across three continents. After Stalin
grad, North Africa and Guadalcanal,, the winter of
1942 ended with the Axis on the run.
"UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER"
THE pen and microphone may or may not be
mightier than the sword But the war's opposing
forces, however much they put their main reliance
on bombs and bullets were not scoffing at the
written or spoken word
William Joyce, who claimed to be Brooklyn-born
but who went to Berlin via Britain, broadcast
nightly on the Nazi radio to try to convince John
Bull his cause was hopeless. Early in the war the
English dubbed him “Lord Haw Haw” and his Ox
ford-accented broadcasts won a large but scoffing
following. But the wily propagandist Goebbels
had- as ms biggest weapon a steady stream of words
that tried to split the Allies He played up a bogey
of Bolshevists running over Europe, of doltar-grab
bing Americans, and of Britons “spilling the blood”
of other nations.
A Japanese entry in the war of words was “Tokyo
Rose,” one name given glib Misses with a line of
jivey chatter directed at America’s fighters in the
Pacific. Between recorded jazz they tried to con
vince the Yanks that their women were unfaithful
and their home front was a mess. In Asia the Japa
nese sought to convince the natives the “co-prosper
ity sphere” would end white men's “exploitation."
The staid British Broadcasting Company beamed
programs into Europe to give unvarnished news
and bold out a hope of liberation to those who
braved a death penalty to listen. The United States
set up an Office of War Information to carry Amer
ica's story to the world.
This was psychological warfare. It was fought on
all levels—to disrupt civilian morale, to spread
defeatism, to encourage surrenders.
In Jeauary, 1943, the “Big Two”—Roosevelt and
Churchill—met at Casablanca.
At the conclusion of their talks they boldly an
nounced they would accept nothing less than un
... Who Smashed The
General Curtis E. Le
May directed the Super
fort bombing raids.
General George C. Mar
shall, chief of staff, was
top soldier in U. S
Admiral Marc A. Mit
scher, commander of
U. S. task force 58.
General George S. Pat
ton set pace for the
race across Germany.
Admiral Raymond A
Spruance headed the
American Fifth Fleet
General Douglas Mac*
Arthur, supreme Army
commander in Pacific.
Admiral John S. Mc
Cain was chief of U. S.
task force 38.
Admiral Chester W
Nimitz commanded alt
• naval forces in Pacific.
General Carl Spaatz
headed the U. S. Stra
tegic Air Forces.
General Alexander A.
Vandergrift became the'
top Marine cornmandet J