'Elizabethan News' Saturday 9 January 1943

PThompsonKG15010056.jpg

Title

'Elizabethan News' Saturday 9 January 1943

Description

Front page of a newsheet covering world wide military activity, Series 10 No 3, Two cents. Lead articles about Papuan campaign in the Pacific and Russian successes. Other reports cover North African campaign, German attacks on the south coast and operations at sea. There is also an Odds and Ends column.

Date

1943-01-09

Temporal Coverage

Language

Type

Format

One page printed military newsheet

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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Contributor

Identifier

PThompsonKG15010056

Transcription

ELIZABETHAN NEWS
Series 10. No. 3 SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1943 Two Cents
In the South-West Pacific
PAPUAN CAMPAIGN IN FINAL STAGES
Last Japs. Face Destruction
Messages from General MacArthur’s headquarters yesterday announced that the campaign in Papua is now in its final stages, with the remnants of the Japanese forces at Sananada facing almost certain destruction, and that Allied bombers are striking at an enemy convoy approaching Lae, the Japanese New Guinea base.
[map depicting the Allied Base in New Guinea/Papua and the proximity to the tip of Australia]
One of the main objects of the campaign in Papua was the elimination of 15,000 Japanese troops under General Horii. With the complete enveloping of Sananada this is practically accomplished and with their destruction Papua will be entirely cleared of the enemy.
In addition, several thousand enemy reinforcements have been drowned or killed in attempts to land.
(Sananada is as well fortified as Gona and Buna and more difficult to approach. At Gona and Buna the Japanese, although outnumbered and cut off from sea aid by Allied predominance in the air, and weakened by disease, defended these positions almost to the last man. That such tenacious troops holding such defensively strong positions should be worn down and overwhelmed, speaks highly not only of the courage and skill of the United States and Australian troops but also of the care and thoroughness with which General MacArthur’s lieutenants prepared and organised the counter-attack.
Bombers Pounding Convoy
Allied aircraft are reported to be repeatedly attacking Japanese transports and escorting warships, totalling ten vessels, attempting to reinforce Lae.
Two large transports laden with troops were sunk with all on board during a night attack, and a 500-pound bomb scored a direct hit on another troopship, which was left in a severely damaged condition. Another was disabled and later sank.
A large number of enemy planes are protecting the convoy, and so far 18 have been shot down and five badly damaged.
The attack is continuing.
[underlined] TUNISIA [/underlined]
ITALIANS ROUTED IN ATTACK
Bad weather has stopped operations on the main fronts.
A French camel corps attacked a position held by 500 Italians and killed or captured 250 of them. The rest fled.
Tunis and Sfax Raided
Tunis was raided by medium and heavy bombers and the electric power station and shipping in the harbour were hit. Three direct hits completely destroyed the power house in a raid on Sfax.
Bomber Command aircraft raided targets in the Ruhr during Thursday night. All planes returned safely.
[underlined] TRIPOLITANA [/underlined]
OUTPOST CAPTURED AFTER THREE DAYS’ BATTLE
Fighting French forces have captured an outpost 65 miles east of Mazouk after three days of land and air battles.
Large supplies and numbers of troops are moving into forward positions for the coming attack against the Axis forces.
AIR ATTACKS ON TRANSPORTS
R.A.F. fighters and bombers made heavy attacks on transports 40 miles from Tripoli. Fighter-bombers made low level attacks on enemy transports on the coastal road and machine-gunned lorries loaded with troops and stores. At least one Me.109 was destroyed and others damaged in air battles.
Palermo Raided
A force of United States bombers attacked Palermo harbour and scored hits on dock installations. In raids on Tunis and Sousse hits were scored on railways and large fires were started at Sousse, where a ship was hit.
DAY RAIDERS OVER BRITAIN
Seven German planes attacked towns on the south-west British coast yesterday afternoon. Bombs were dropped causing some damage and casualties.
The raiders were finally chased out to sea by four Spitfires.
Berlin claims that a new bomb-proof submarine base has been built near Brest.
TWIN DON THRUST CONTINUES
GERMANS IN RETREAT AT ALL POINTS
The Russians are continuing their two-pronged thrust down the lower Don with the Russian armies converging from 80 to 40 miles apart in one day.
Soviet forces are closely pursuing the Germans on the north bank, while on the north bank the Red Army has smashed all attempts to hold up their advance, with Russian tanks over-running German infantry positions and inflicting very heavy losses.
At Nikolyskaya, on the north bank, Soviet forces battered back the Germans with tanks and heavy artillery, and at another point south of the Don, said to be only 70 miles from Rostov, the enemy were completely routed. South-west of Velikie-Luki, the Germans made several fruitless attacks against the Russians.
40 Places Recaptured
Moscow later claimed that in the northern Caucasus the German are now in full retreat and that over 40 more places have been recaptured. The Germans are setting fire to villages and blowing up bridges as they retire.
One tank unit alone killed more than 500 officers and men, and a party of “tommy” gunners killed another 100.
Berlin Admits Reverses
Berlin admitted yesterday that the German armies in Russia were on the defensive on all fronts, and a German radio broadcast explained to the people that their troops were being slowly withdrawn from their present positions in order to shorten their line.
(London military observers note that the Russian offensive may soon, by effectively threatening Rostov, place the Germans in the Caucasus in a critical position.)
ROOSEVELT’S SPEECH PRAISED
President Roosevet’s [sic] address to Congress received endorsement from the entire national press yesterday, states a London message.
The Times describes the speech as one which “breathed a high sense of purpose without once losing the characteristic sense of realities.”
All the morning papers praised the President for a full and frank statement of the war on all fronts.
FAMOUS SUBMARINE RETURNS
A famous British submarine, the Thresher, has returned to a home port after completing thirteen patrols in 18 months. The vessel has two V.C.s and a D.S.O. among the crew.
During the long spell at sea the submarine journeyed near 40,000 miles and sank eleven Axis merchant ships and four supply ships.
RUSSIA-BOUND CONVOY ATTACK BEATEN OFF
The British Admiralty announced yesterday that on December 31 naval vessels escorting a large convoy to Russia were attacked by an enemy force off northern Norway. The British force, comprised a number of destroyers while the German units included one pocket battleship, a large cruiser and several destroyers.
Two Hours Fight
The fight lasted for more than two hours in semi-darkness and falling snow. The destroyers had frustrated four enemy attacks on the convoy when a large force of heavier British ships arrived and the enemy fled.
Two German vessels were sunk or badly damaged and two British ships suffered damage and casualties. The convoy arrived safely at a Russian port without loss or damage carrying large supplies of war material.
The German radio admitted that the U-boats are facing grave difficulties against Allied shipping and that the date was distant when ships sunk by U-boats could not be replaced.
ODDS AND ENDS
CLEARING THE AIR
Recently Stalin gave a banquet for the Red Army general staff and Communist party leaders.
When he arrived, he took his seat on the dais and, raising a glass of vodka, said, “Comrades, I now give a toast to the great Stalin . . . to the wonderful Stalin . . . to Stalin the leader of Russia’s warriors. And I sincerely hope that this is the last I will hear about him at this affair.”
[symbol] Suggested sign for Hitler’s Russia front: “Opened by Mistake.”
SHOCK
A patriotic lady who sent out the following invitation to an officer at a nearby army post: “Mr. and Mrs. Browne request the pleasure of Captain Green’s company at dinner,” was dismayed at the reply she received.
“With the exception of five men on leave and three on sick list,” the reply read, “Captain Green’s company accept with pleasure your invitation to dinner.”
[symbol] “Too bad. He was a window cleaner and stepped back to admire his work.”
TRUTHFUL
The Colonel had insisted to his Negro cook that the turkey be a domestic, corn-fed bird, no wild fowl. He cut into a beautiful done-to-perfection bird, frowned, cut again, then sent for Sam.
“Didn’t I tell you I wanted a domestic turkey?” he thundered. “Yah, suh, dat’s a domestic, corn-fed fowl.”
“What about this shot I’m finding?”
Sam shuffled from one foot to the other. “Dat shot, Colonel suh, were meant fo’ me.”
[symbol] “He was so lit up the air-raid warden had to take him home under an umbrella.”
PREPAREDNESS
“The Fall of a Woman” will be the subject for Sunday evening at the First Baptist Church. Real facts and truths will be revealed. The eleven fans have been reconditioned and will be used to cool the building. – From the COMMERCE (Texas) JOURNAL.

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“'Elizabethan News' Saturday 9 January 1943,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/17617.

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