Thursday, December 23, 1909. USS Utah launched

The USS Utah was launched.

She'd be lost at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  Fifty eight of her crew died as a result.  She was not recovered and remains in the harbor near Ford Island.

Last edition:

Monday, December 20, 1909. Open orders.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Marines, Nicaragua, U.S. Navy

Thursday, December 7, 1944. The end of the USS Ward

A U.S. counterattack halted the Japanese offensive on Leyte.

USS Lamson on fire after being hit by a kamikaze at Ormac Bay.

Kamikazes damaged the USS Mahan and USS Ward beyond repair during landings at Ormoc Bay.

The Ward figures prominently in the story of the Battle of Pearl Harbor.

Today in World War II History—December 7, 1939 & 1944: At Ormoc Bay, destroyer USS Ward is damaged by a kamikaze; three years earlier to the day, USS Ward fired the first shots during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The 77th Division landed against Japanese opposition, but it was not heavy.

General Nicolae Radescu took office as Prime Minister of Romania.

The International Civil Aviation Organization was established.

The Arab Women's Congress of 1944 took place in Cairo.

An earthquake at Tokai, Japan, killed 1200 people and halted production at the Mitsubishi plant.

Last edition:

Wednesday, December 6, 1944. Japanese paratroopers on Leyte.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Airborne, Aircraft, Battle of Leyte, boats and ships, Charles de Gaulle, Dekemvriana (Δεκεμβριανά), Greek Civil War, Imperial Japanese Army, Joseph Stalin, Royal Air Force, World War Two

The Aerodrome: AT-6's (SNJ's) from the film Tora! Tora! Tora!, Na...

The Aerodrome: AT-6's (SNJ's) from the film Tora! Tora! Tora!, Na...:

AT-6's (SNJ's) from the film Tora! Tora! Tora!, Natrona County International Airport.

I heard them flying over downtown and looked up and saw them flying, but didn't notice the Japanese markings.  After realizing what they were, I went out the next day and to see if they were still there, and they were.

These are the SNJ's that were altered and remodeled to closely resemble Japanese Navy A6M's (Zeroes) and Nakajima B5N's (Kates) for the 1970s movie Tora! Tora! Tora!.  The resemblance to the Japanese aircraft is truly remarkable.

The Commemorative Air Force maintains and flies this team of aircraft today, preserving the excellent replica work done for the film.

In this instance, these aircraft were on their way to an airshow in Salt Lake City.

AT-6 in original markings.

AT-6 alte4red to resemble B5N.

SNJ rebuilt to resemble A6M.

Sunday, May 21, 1944. The West Loch Disaster.

 

The West Loch Disaster, caused by a mortar round detonating on LST-353 in Pearl Harbor, resulted in 163 men being killed and six LST's sinking.

LST 480 today.  Photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jessica O. Blackwell.

Negative assemblers T/5 William Robertson, 19121160, Sig C, of Los Angeles, Ca., and T/5 Robert Christensen, 17069147, Sig C, of Ogden, Iowa, preparing developed negatives for printing.

The U453 was sunk in the Ionian Sea by the Royal Navy.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, May 20, 1944. Dismantling a V-2

1940s, 1944, Communism, Italy, Operation Diadem, Polish Resistance, World War Two

Thursday, February 10, 1944. Victory at Saidor

Troops entering Quartermaster Replacement Training Center (QMRTC), Ft. F.E. Warren, Wyoming. July 6, 1943. Photo by US Army Signal Corps. Released for publication February 10, 1944.

The landing at Saidor concluded on January 2, Operation Michaelmas, resulted in an Allied victory on this date.  The Australians and the Americans had linked up, and the Huon Peninsula was mostly occupied.

Offloading of Piper Cub used in Operation Michaelmas.

The Minekaze was sunk off of Formosa by the USS Pogy. 

Sarah Sundin notes:

Today in World War II History—February 10, 1944: Japanese surround Indian 7th Division on the Arakan peninsula in Burma; Allies keep the 7th Division supplied through air drops.

The Red Army took Shepetovka, Ukraine.

The U-545 was scuttled after being crippled west of the Hebrides by a Vickers Wellington.  T he U-666 disappeared in the North Atlantic.

On the same day, American Airlines Flight 2 crashed into the Mississippi River. All twenty-four passengers and crew were killed.  The cause of the crash was never determined.

Air travel between Miami and Key West was initiated.

Wednesday, November 3, 1943. Aktion Erntefest

Over 18,000 Jewish prisoners were shot on this day at the Majdanke concentration camp in Poland in Aktion Erntefest, named after the traditional German harvest festival.  Music associated with the festival and dance music was played over loudspeakers to drown out the sounds of the massacre.

An additional 6,000 were murdered at Trawniki concentration camp. 

Over 42,000 Jews would be murdered over a course of several days.

Hitler issued Führer Directive Number 51.  It stated:

Führer Headquarters3 November 1943 Top Secret The Führer  OKW/WFSt/Op.No. 662656/43 g.K. Chefs

For the last two and one-half years the bitter and costly struggleagainst Bolshevism has made the utmost demands upon the bulk of ourmilitary resources and energies. This commitment was in keeping with the seriousness of the danger, and the over-all situation. The situation has since changed. The threat from the East remains, but an even greater danger looms in the West: the Anglo-American landing! In the East, the vastness of the space will, as a last resort, permit a loss of territory even on a major scale, without suffering a mortal blow to Germany’s chance for survival.

Not so in the West! If the enemy here succeeds in penetrating our defenses on a wide front, consequences of staggering proportions will follow within a short time. All signs point to an offensive against theWestern Front of Europe no later than spring, and perhaps earlier.

For that reason, I can no longer justify the further weakening of the West in favor of other theaters of war. I have therefore decided to strengthen the defenses in the West, particularly at places from which we shall launch our long-range war against England. For those are the very points at which the enemy must and will attack; there-unless all indications are misleading-will be fought the decisive invasion battle.

Holding attacks and diversions on other fronts are to be expected. Not even the possibility of a large-scale offensive against Denmark may beexcluded. It would pose greater nautical problems and could be less effectively supported from the air, but would nevertheless produce thegreatest political and strategic impact if it were to succeed.

During the opening phase of the battle, the entire striking power of the enemy will of necessity be directed against our forces manning the coast. Only an all-out effort in the construction of fortifications, an unsurpassed effort that will enlist all available manpower and physical resources of Germany and the occupied areas, will be able to strengthenour defenses along the coasts within the short time that still appears to be left to us.

Stationary weapons (heavy AT guns, immobile tanks to be dug-in, coast artillery, shore-defense guns, mines, etc.) arriving in Denmark and the occupied West within the near future will be heavily concentrated in points of main defensive effort at the most vulnerable coastal sectors.At the same time, we must take the calculated risk that for the present we may be unable to improve our defenses in less threatened sectors.

Should the enemy nevertheless force a landing by concentrating his armed might, he must be hit by the full fury of our counterattack. For this mission ample and speedy reinforcements of men and materiel, as well as intensive training must transform available larger units into first-rate,fully mobile general reserves suitable for offensive operations. The counterattack of these units will prevent the enlargement of the beachhead, and throw the enemy back into the sea.

In addition, well-planned emergency measures, prepared down to the last detail, must enable us instantly to throw against the invader every fit man and machine from coastal sectors not under attack and from the homefront.

The anticipated strong attacks by air and sea must be relentlessly countered by Air Force and Navy with all their available resources. I therefore order the following:

A) Army:

1.) The Chief of the Army General Staff and the Inspector General of Panzer Troops will submit to me as soon as possible a schedule covering arms, tanks, assault guns, motor vehicles, and ammunition to be allocated to the Western Front and Denmark within the next three months. That schedule will conform to the new situation. The following considerationswill be basic:

a) Sufficient mobility for all panzer and panzer grenadier divisions in the West, and equipment of each of those units by December 1943 with 93Mark IV tanks or assault guns, as well as large numbers of antitankweapons.

Accelerated reorganization of the 20 Luftwaffe Field Divisions into an effective mobile reserve force by the end of 1943. This reorganization isto include the issue of assault guns.

Accelerated issue of all authorized weapons to the SS Panzer Grenadier Division Hitler Jugend, the 21st Panzer Division, and the infantry andreserve divisions stationed in Jutland.

b) Additional shipments of Mark IV tanks, assault guns, and heavy AT guns to the reserve panzer divisions stationed in the West and in Denmark, as well as to the Assault Gun Training Battalion in Denmark.

c) In November and December, monthly allotments of 100 heavy AT guns models 40 and 43 (half of these to be mobile) in addition to thoserequired for newly activated units in the West and in Denmark.

d) Allotment of large numbers of weapons (including about 1,000 machineguns) for augmenting the armament of those static divisions that arecommitted for coastal defense in the West and in Denmark, and forstandardizing the equipment of elements that are to be withdrawn fromsectors not under attack.

e) Ample supply of close-combat AT weapons to units in vulnerablesectors.

f) Improvement of artillery and AT defenses in units stationed in Denmark, as well as those committed for coastal protection in theoccupied West. Strengthening of GHQ artillery.

2.) The units and elements stationed in the West or in Denmark, as well as panzer, assault gun, and AT units to be activated in the West, must not be transferred to other fronts without my permission. The Chief ofthe Army General Staff, or the Inspector General of Panzer Troops will submit to me a report through the Armed Forces Operations Staff as soon as the issue of equipment to the panzer and assault gun battalions, as well as to the AT battalions and companies, has been completed.

3.) Beyond similar measures taken in the past, the Commander in Chief West will establish time tables for, and conduct maneuvers and command post exercises on, the procedure for bringing up units from sectors not under attack. These units will be made capable of performing offensive missions, however limited. In that connection I demand that sectors not threatened by the enemy be ruthlessly stripped of all forces except small guard detachments. For sectors from which reserves are withdrawn,security and guard detachments must be set aside from security and alarmunits. Labor forces drawn largely from the native population must likewise be organized in those sectors, in order to keep open whateverroads might be destroyed by the enemy air force.

4.) The Commander of German Troops in Denmark will take measures in thearea under his control in compliance with paragraph 3 above.

5.) Pursuant to separate orders, the Chief of Army Equipment andCommander of the Replacement Army will form Kampfgruppen in regimental strength, security battalions, and engineer construction battalions fromtraining cadres, trainees, schools, and instruction and convalescentunits in the Zone of the Interior. These troops must be ready forshipment on 48 hours’ notice.

Furthermore, other available personnel are to be organized into battalions of replacements and equipped with the available weapons, sothat the anticipated heavy losses can quickly be replaced.

B) Luftwaffe:

The offensive and defensive effectiveness of Luftwaffe units in the Westand in Denmark will be increased to meet the changed situation. To that end, preparations will be made for the release of units suited for commitment in the anti-invasion effort, that is, all flying units and mobile Flak artillery that can be spared from the air defenses of thehome front, and from schools and training units in the Zone of the Interior. All those units are to be earmarked for the West and possibly Denmark.

The Luftwaffe ground organization in southern Norway, Denmark, northwestern Germany, and the West will be expanded and supplied in a waythat will-by the most far-reaching decentralization of own forces-denytargets to the enemy bombers, and split the enemy’s offensive effort incase of large-scale operations. Particularly important in that connection will be our fighter forces. Possibilities for their commitment must be increased by the establishment of numerous advance landing fields. Special emphasis is to be placed on good camouflage. I expect also that the Luftwaffe will unstintingly furnish all available forces, bystripping them from less threatened areas.

C) Navy:

The Navy will prepare the strongest possible forces suitable for attacking the enemy landing fleets. Coastal defense installations in the process of construction will be completed with the utmost speed. The emplacing of additional coastal batteries and the possibility of layingfurther flanking mine fields should be investigated.

All school, training, and other shore-based personnel fit for groundcombat must be prepared for commitment so that, without undue delay, they can at least be employed as security forces within the zone of the enemylanding operations.

While preparing the reinforcement of the defenses in the West, the Navy must keep in mind that it might be called upon to repulse simultaneous enemy landings in Norway and Denmark. In that connection, I attach particular importance to the assembly of numerous U-boats in the northern area. A temporary weakening of U-boat forces in the Atlantic must be risked.

D) SS:

The Reichsfuehrer-SS will determine what Waffen-SS and police forces he can release for combat, security, and guard duty. He is to prepare to organize effective combat and security forces from training, replacement,and convalescent units, as well as schools and other home-front establishments.

E) The commanders in chief of the services, the Reichsfuehrer-ss, the Chief of the Army General Staff, the Commander in Chief West, the Chief of Army Equipment and Commander of the Replacement Army, the Inspector General of Panzer Troops, as well as the Commander of German Troops in Denmark will report to me by 15 November all measures taken or planned.

I expect that all agencies will make a supreme effort toward utilizing every moment of the remaining time in preparing for the decisive battlein the West.

All authorities will guard against wasting time and energy in useless jurisdictional squabbles, and will direct all their efforts towardstrengthening our defensive and offensive power.

Adolf Hitler

The emphasis on Denmark, which would have made for a difficult invasion, is interesting. 

The diversionary Raid on Choiseul (Operation Blissful) came to an end.

Today in World War II History—November 3, 1943: Battleship USS Oklahoma, sunk at Pearl Harbor, is refloated, but it will be scrapped due to damage. US Eighth Air Force sends 566 bombers to Wilhelmshaven.

Sarah Sundin.

She also notes that Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes signed an interim agreement with coal miners allowing for the resumption of coal mining.

Sunday, December 6, 1942. Murders in Poland, the Navy reports on Pearl Harbor, and riots at Manzanar.

The Germans murdered thirty-one Poles, including two Jewish refugees, in the Polish villages of Stary Ciepielów and Rekówka in retaliation for the Poles there aiding Jews.  The victims included children.

The United States released the casualty information for the Japanese attack on Peal Harbor.  It read:

THE JAPANESE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR, DECEMBER 7, 1941

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft temporarily disabled every battleship and most of the aircraft in the Hawaiian area.  Other naval vessels, both combatant and auxiliary, were put out of action, and certain shore facilities, especially at the naval air stations, Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay, were damaged.  Most of these ships are now back with the fleet.  The aircraft were all replaced within a few days, and interference with facilities was generally limited to a matter of hours.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, 2 surface ship task forces of the Pacific Fleet were carrying out assigned missions at sea, and 2 such task forces were at their main base following extensive operations at sea. Discounting small craft, 86 ships of the Pacific Fleet were moored at Pearl Harbor.  Included in this force were 8 battleships, 7 cruisers, 28 destroyers and 5 submarines.  No U. S. aircraft carriers were present.

As result of the Japanese attack five battleships, the Arizona, Oklahoma, California, Nevada, and West Virginia; three destroyers, the Shaw and Downes; the mine layer Oglala; the target ship Utah, and a large floating drydock were either sunk or damaged so severely that they would serve no military purposes for some time.  In addition, three battles, the Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Tennessee, three cruisers, the Helena, Honolulu, and Raleigh, the seaplane tender Curtiss and the repair Vestal were damaged.

Of the 19 naval vessels listed above as sunk or damaged, the 26-year-old battleship Arizona will be the only one permanently and totally lost.  Preparations for the righting of the Oklahoma are now in process, although final decision as to the wisdom of accomplishing this work at this time has not been made.  The main and auxiliary machinery, approximately 50 percent of the value, of the Cassin and Downes were saved.  The other 15 vessels either have been or will be salvaged and repaired.

The eight vessels described in the second sentence of paragraph three returned to the fleet months ago.  A number of the vessels described in the first sentence of paragraph three are now in full service, but certain others, which required extensive machinery and intricate electrical overhauling as well as refloating and hull repairing, are not yet ready for battle action.  Naval repair yards are taking advantage of these inherent delays to install numerous modernization features and improvements.  To designate these vessels by name now would give the enemy information vital to his war plans; similar information regarding enemy ships which our forces have subsequently damaged but not destroyed is denied to us.

On December 15, 1941, only 8 days after the Japanese attack and at a time when there was an immediate possibility of the enemy's coming back, the Secretary of the Navy announced that the Arizona, Shaw, Cassin, Downes, Utah, and Oglala had been lost, that the Oklahoma had capsized and that other vessels had been damaged.  Fortunately, the salvage and repair accomplishments at Pearl Harbor have exceeded the most hopeful expectations.

Eighty naval aircraft of all types were destroyed by the enemy.  In addition, the Army lost 97 planes on Hickam and Wheeler Fields.  Of these 23 were bombers, 66 were fighters, and 8 were other types.

The most serious American losses were in personnel.  As result of the raid on December 7, 1941, 2,117 officers and enlisted men of the Navy and Marine Corps were killed, 960 are still reported as missing and 876 were wounded but survived.  The Army casualties were as follows: 226 officers and enlisted men were killed or later died of wounds; 396 were wounded, most of whom have now recovered and have returned to duty.

At 7:55 a. m. on December 7, 1941, Japanese dive bombers swarmed over the Army Air Base, Hickam Field, and the naval air station on Ford Island.  A few minutes earlier the Japanese had struck the naval air station at Kaneohe Bay.  Bare seconds later enemy torpedo planes and dive bombers swung in from various sectors to concentrate their attack on theheavy ships at Pearl Harbor.  The enemy attack, aided by the element of surprise and based on exact information, was very successful.

Torpedo planes, assisted effectively by dive bombers, constituted the major threat of the first phase of the Japanese attack, lasting approximately a half-hour.  Twenty-one torpedo planes made 4 attacks, and 30 dive bombers came in in 8 waves during this period.  Fifteen horizontal bombers also participated in this phase of the raid.

Although the Japanese launched their initial attack as a surprise, battleship ready machine guns opened fire at once and were progressively augmented by the remaining antiaircraft batteries as all hands promptly were called to general quarters.  Machine guns brought down two and damaged others of the first wave of torpedo planes.  Practically all battleship antiaircraft batteries were firing within 5 minutes; cruisers, within an average time of 4 minutes, and destroyers, opening up machine guns almost immediately, average 7 minutes in bringing all antiaircraft guns into action.

From 8:25 to 8:40 a. m. there was a comparative lull in the raid, although air activity continued with sporadic attack by dive and horizontal bombers.  This respite was terminated by the appearance of horizontal bombers which crossed and recrossed their targets from various directions and caused serious damage.  While the horizontal bombers were continuing their raids, Japanese dive bombers reappeared, probably being the same ones that had participated in earlier attacks; this phase, lasting about a half-hour, was devoted largely to strafing.  All enemy aircraft retired by 9:45 a. m.

Prior to the Japanese attack 202 U.S. naval aircraft of all types on the Island of Oahu were in flying condition, but 150 of these were permanently or temporarily disabled by the enemy's concentrated assault, most of them in the first few minutes of the raid.  Of the 52 remaining naval aircraft, 38 took to the air on December 7, 1941, the other 14 being ready too late in the day or being blocked from take-off positions.  Of necessity therefore, the Navy was compelled to depend on antiaircraft fire for its primary defensive weapon, and this condition exposed the fleet to continuous air attack.  By coincidence, 18 scout bombing planes from a U. S. aircraft carrier en route arrived at Pearl Harbor during the raid. These are included in the foregoing figures.  Four of these scout bombers were shot down, 13 of the remaining 14 taking off again in search of the enemy. Seven patrol planes were in the air when the attack started.

It is difficult to determine the total number of enemy aircraft participating in the raid, but careful analysis of all reports makes it possible to estimate the number as 21 torpedo planes, 48 dive bombers, and 36 horizontal bombers, totaling 105 of all types.  Undoubtedly certain fighter planes also were present, but these are not distinguished by types and are included in the above figures.

The enemy lost 28 aircraft due to Navy action.  In addition, three submarines, of 45 tons each, were accounted for.

The damage suffered by the U. S. Pacific Fleet as result of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, was most serious, but the repair job now is nearly completed, and thanks to the inspired and unceasing efforts of the naval and civilian personnel attached to the various repair yards, especially at Pearl Harbor itself, this initial handicap soon will be erased forever.

***

ADDITIONS TO NAVY DEPARTMENT PEARL HARBOR RELEASE

Insert in 2d sentence, 1st paragraph, page 1:

. . . facilities, especially at the Army Bases, Hickam and Wheeler Fields, and the naval air stations . . .

Insert after paragraph 3, page 3:

There were a total of 273 Army planes on the Island of Oahu on December 7, 1941.  Very few of these were able to take off because of the damage to the runways at Hickam and Wheeler Fields.

Insert in 1st sentence, last paragraph, page 3:

. . . Navy action, and the few Army pursuit planes that were able to take off shot down more than 2O Japanese planes.

A riot broke out at the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp.

Manzanar.

The event is complicated, but it involved divisions with in the interned population and difficulties with the camp staff. It ultimately resulted in the authorities deploying armed force, resulting in two of the camp's internees being killed.

Wednesday, May 27, 1942. Dorie Miller receives the Navy Cross. Reinhard Heydrich attacked.

Dores "Dorie" Miller became the first African American to receive the Navy Cross, which he received for manning 

For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. While at the side of his Captain on the bridge, Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his Captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge.

Miller grew up on his parent's farm in Texas and had joined the Navy at age 20 in 1939. He would not survive the war, being killed when a ship he was later assigned to was hit by a torpedo in 1943, setting off the ship's munition's stores.

His curious legal name was the result of a midwife being convinced he'd be born a girl, although even at that the family decision to stick with the name is odd.  It didn't fit him at all, as Miller grew to be a giant of a man.  His nickname is a matter of dispute, and may not have actually come about at all until press reports misstated his name, although there are other explanations for the name.

Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of the "Final Solution", was badly wounded in an assassination exercise by Czech operatives in an SOE planned operation.  He'd die on June 4.  Heydrich was drenched in evil, but the assassination did not in any way stop the Holocaust, and it resulted in massive German reprisals.

Heydrich vehicle following the attack.

Jews in Belgium were ordered to wear the yellow Star of David.

As with almost any day in this period, the Battle of the Atlantic raged, with submarines taking their toll.

Thursday, February 23, 1922. Booze sniffing hounds, Naval San Diego, Communist Theft, Japanese Suffrage.

Dog trained to sniff alcohol, February 23, 1922.

Lenin issued a decree authorizing confiscation of valuables from the Russian Orthodox Church as a relief measure for the famine caused by his failed economic policies.

The degree to which Communism was and is criminal can hardly be exaggerated.  The moronic economic policies forced upon Russia depressed its economy for decades, with it taking decades for certain sectors of it to return to pre Communist output, particularly agriculture.  It also resulted in massive famine. Theft from the Church was not going to relieve that, and more than anything else expressed the degree to which the criminal enterprise could now freely act against it.

The Church appealed the decision, but unsuccessfully.

The U.S. Navy established San Diego as a U.S. Destroyer Base, San Diego, forever altering the character of the city.

Worth noting, if San Diego had been fully retained as the headquarters for the Pacific Fleet between the wars, the attack at Pearl Harbor would have really had much less impact than it did, assuming that it would have occured at all.

The Japanese parliament rejected universal suffrage, which resulted in a riot that evening.

Saturday, February 21, 1942 Bernard Julius Otto Kuehn convicted.

Another interesting installment of Sarah Sundin's blog starts with this item:

February 21, 1942: House of Representatives begins hearings about removal of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast.

I was completely unaware that hearings had occurred.

Interestingly enough, a spy in Hawaii who was detected and convicted for his efforts, was convicted on this day, which she also reports.  The spy, in the pay of the Japanese, wasn't a Japanese American or immigrant, but rather Dr. Bernard Julius Otto Kuehn, a physician, whose entire family was in the pay of Imperial Japan.

The arrangements had actually been made by the German Abwehr through Goebbels, who had used Kuehn's 17-year-old daughter as a paramour.  Indeed, her role as his mistress may have played a part in the selection of her father and mother, and ultimately her and her 11-year-old brother, for this task, as at the point they were chosen, he may have tired of her and this provided a convenient way to send her packing.  Her father, a veteran of the German Navy during World War One, had become a post-war physician whose practice failed, leading him to become an ardent and somewhat influential Nazi.

They set up a system of sending coded messages by flashlight from their attic, something that wasn't detected until the Pearl Harbor attack.  Various adult members of the family were then arrested, tried and convicted.  Kuehn was sentenced to death, but he cooperated with American intelligence at that point and provided valuable information to the US on spy networks in the country.  His sentence was commuted to 50 years, but following the war he was deported to Germany.  His detained and convicted family joined him there.

On the same day, U-boats were very active in the Caribbean, sinking several ships.  The German Navy also sent the Scheer and Prinz Eugen from Germany to Bergen Navy. The RAF is unable to interdict them.

The Saturday news magazines were out, it being that day. The Saturday Evening Post went to press with a color photograph of an anti-aircraft gun crewman sighting through the gun's sight.  Liberty featured a woman looking through a Valentine style heart, in what must have been its belated Valentine's Day issue.  It featured an article on Lourdes.  Colliers featured a cartoon of a woman in the Army (or maybe the Marines) and a Sailor, sitting on something, back to back, with a heart behind them, in their Valentine's Day issue, apparently.  The sailor is oversize and athletic, and the female soldier/marine, extraordinarily buxom with her slip very much showing.  This demonstrates a real trend that was going on in society at the time that we recently discussed, and probably ought to a bit more when we have the chance.

Sunday, December 14, 1941. Duration plus six months.

The US Armed Forces extended enlistments to the classic "duration plus six months".  See:

Today in World War II History—December 14, 1941

A Coast Guard vessel made a depth charge run near Pearl Harbor, reporting an attack on a Japanese submarine that almost certainly was not there. 

0940, 14 December, 1941. Dropped five charges on an excellent contact with range closing fast from dead ahead. This was the best contact made, solid and definite and all hands were convinced that results would be obtained, but no visible evidence of damage to submarine was found. A careful search of vicinity failed to re-establish contact

B17s were used to bomb Japanese landing sites in the Philippines.  Lt. Wheless, a B17 pilot, would win the Distinguished Flying Cross for completing his mission in a heavily shot up and heavily attacked B17 that day.  Wheless would survive the war and go on to retire from the Air Force in 1968.

B17s would be withdrawn from the Philippines the following day.

The Independent State of Croatia, an Axis puppet state, declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom.

The Bears beat the Green Bay Packers for the Western Division title.

Dr. Alfred Bitini Xuma, President of the African National Congress, issued an address to South Africa.  It stated:

14 December 1941 

Fellow Countrymen,

If you may ever need comfort, courage and inspiration for the difficult yet manly task I am going to urge you to assume, I advise you to pin on the walls of your hearts the wise words of our Prime Minister, the Right Hon­ourable Field-Marshal J.C. Smuts who said recently, "Do not mind being called agitators. Let them call you any names they like but get on with the job and see that matters that vitally require attention. Native Health, Native Food, the treatment of Native Children and all those cognate questions that are basic to the Welfare of South Africa are attended to."

In the founding of the African National Congress in 1912, African leaders of that day displayed a great vision and laid a broad and deep foundation upon which to build the superstructure for African freedom and liberty in the land of their forefathers. They proclaimed through the organization they set up and the efforts they made, that, only through unity and concerted action of all leaders from our various races and classes may we hope to achieve our freedom and obtain justice and a fair play in South Africa. They made sacrifices and suffered privations in the cause of African freedom. Some went to gaol and became unpopular with power and influence but remained loyal and true to the cause of their people. Thus they were the architects of our salvation. Thus they pointed the way for us. They showed that freedom is precious and a heavy price must be paid to obtain it.

With our State Native Policy and the racial attitude in general, to serve your people honestly and sincerely; to take an uncompromising stand on their behalf, is to become unpopular in certain high and influential quarters.

You and I are inheritors of these great traditions. We are debtors to their fine examples. We are called upon to copy their fine example of sacrifice. We are urged not only to build upon the foundation they laid but also to improve and modernise the plan of their structure. To do this it requires the best African brains, and I believe we have them at this Conference. It calls for the greatest effort and sacrifice from every man and woman of our race. It means for all of us wherever we are and whoever we are to do our duty. Congress claims us. Congress demands our best service for our people.

Since Congress was founded and made its initial spectacular success it has experienced periods of inactivity because you and I thought and believed that organizations led by non-Africans were more dignified than African organizations and thus we abandoned our organizations and surrendered our leadership to others. We, especially the intellectuals, so-called, have been more loyal to this new leadership. We are better trained than the founders of Congress but we do not seem willing to think and act for ourselves as did these old stalwarts.

To-day you and I, the better trained we are, seem more disposed to work under orders and direction of others against and away from African organizations. Someone said to me one day, with some degree of truth, "We uneducated Africans feel that the educated African is lost to us. He is afraid to identify himself with his own people. When crisis .arises, he is either silent or joins the forces against his own people. We do not know whether the education you get puts fear in you." I was dumbfounded; but was somewhat ashamed because you and I, outside our jobs for which we are paid, have not done the best we can to assist our people. Fellow Countrymen, this is a challenge. Shall we not pick up the gauntlet? South Africa, white and black, needs us. We must pull our full weight; we must make our real contribution to the building and the progress of South Africa to the full benefit, mutual helpfulness and happiness of all sections, white and black.

Let us stand for, and with, our people as long, as we are in the right.

Our position and place is what it is in South Africa and will remain what it is until you and I realise that no race can save another. Each people must rise through the efforts and leadership of its own members. Others can and must help. In spite of this I am very much encouraged to find that during the past year Congress has received the support and co-operation of all African groups and organizations. The representations that Congress made before Government Commissions have been supported and adopted by most responsible groups. We are, therefore, proud and happy at the evidence of this unity which means strength and hope for our people.

It will not be amiss here to remind you of the aims and objects of the Congress as enunciated by its founders.... Thus the African National Congress is the mouthpiece of the African people of the Union of South Africa. All its efforts are and must be concentrated upon raising the status of the African people from their semi-serfdom to citizenship. To work for this end and to achieve it, the leaders of Congress cannot hope to be popular with any of those who would exclude the African from citizenship rights.

We cannot go on blindly and hope to achieve our goal. We must have a plan; we must have a programme of action.

REPRESENTATION

In a democratic country all members of the State must be part of the policy moulding machinery. They must have a voice and a vote in the affairs of the State. However, in South Africa the African has no vote and, therefore, no voice in South African affairs. He has ingeniously been disfranchised and put in differentiated pseudo-franchise which disfranchise the most qualified people under any fair, just, and equitable system of franchise. Under the Representation of Natives` Act, the individual educated person is victimised. In rural areas only the chiefs under the influence of the Native Commissioners are voters. In urban areas, the Advisory Boards, some under the influence of the Superintendents are voters. The professional man, the teacher, the minister, the property owner outside locations, have no vote, and, therefore, cannot choose a representative either to the Native Representative Council, to the House of Assembly, or to the Senate except in the Cape Province.

In a country in which two-million Europeans are represented in Municipal Councils, Provincial Councils besides 150 members in the House of Assembly and 40 in the Senate, there are only three members in the House of Assembly and 4 Senators to represent six to eight million Africans. There are no members in the House of Assembly to represent Africans in the Free State, Transvaal and Natal. The Transvaal and the Free State on the one hand and Natal on the other are represented by one Senator respectively. In the Native Representative Council there are 12 members elected by Chiefs in Rural Areas and by Advisory Boards in Urban Areas, and 4 members nominated by the Government-with 5 Chief Native Commissioners and the Chairman representing the Government. The Council has only advisory functions and no legislative power. The Representation of Natives` Act not only gives inadequate representation but also excludes the best qualified Africans from being voters. It may justly be called the Mis-Representation of Natives` Act.

We must work for:-

·         Adequate representations and right of franchise for Africans.

·         Participation of Africans, as voters and citizens, in the building of a Union Policy acceptable to all sections including the African.

·         Representation of Africans in all Government chambers and Government departments.

LAND

The fundamental basis of all wealth and power is the ownership and acquisition of freehold title to land. From land, we derive our existence. We derive our wealth in minerals, food, and other essentials. On land we build our homes. Without land we cannot exist. To all men of whatever race or colour land, therefore, is essential for their wealth, prosperity, and health. Without land-rights any race will be doomed to poverty, destitution, ill-health and lack of all life`s essentials. In South Africa all our legislation aims at depriving the African of all right and title to land, in both rural and urban areas. He is made a perpetual and eternal tenant of the State and Municipalities so that he may forever be dependent for existence and wages upon Europeans who are, alone, entitled to get as much land as they can use and even more than what they can use but may hold it for future speculation while Africans are landless, homeless, destitute, and starving.

The over-crowding of the reserves is no accident. Generations of young men come of age in many of these areas but no land is available for their occupation so that tens of thousands of-them are squatting on their fathers` limited areas. As many as 2 to 4 families squat on such little plots in surveyed areas.

Much of this over-crowding of stock we hear so much about is a mis­representation of the position. Few people have as many as 5 head of cattle or more. The problem is over-population due to limited land space. The solution is not limitation of stock as it is often officially urged even though no one would object to the improvement of the quality of stock. The solution will be the opening up of more land for occupation by Africans through all forms of tenure possible for them, that is, freehold, lease-hold, and rental, as the case may be.

The provisions of the Natives` Land Act (1913) and the Natives` Land Trust Act Amendment (1936) do not tend to solve the land problem in the rural areas. They tend to aggravate and confuse the situation. The land is available to be held communally under restricted conditions and rent must be paid in perpetuity. The land, under the conditions of the Land and Trust Act is bought at highly inflated prices and thereby increases the rentals. These poor people must carry a heavy financial burden in rents.

Under this Act no land is available for sale to individuals or groups of Africans who wish to buy. Further, no facilities are available to them, such as the Land Bank to assist them to acquire or improve their land. The whole land policy has been of benefit to European farmers who have made unheard of profits for the sale of farms in their names without any real improvements having been effected by them.

In fact, the over-crowding of the reserves, the lack of facilities to encourage the acquisition of freehold title by Africans are not an accident or an insoluble problem. They are part of a studied land policy which aims at providing an uninterrupted flow of cheaply paid labour and an absence of independent self-sufficient African farmers who would be under no European control.

In urban areas, under the Urban Areas Act, 1923, provisions are only made for accommodation of those Africans who are potential labourers for Europeans. These Africans must be accommodated in locations or hostels. Even though the idea of Native villages is provided for under the Act, it has not been encouraged in practice. No provision is made for the acquisition of freehold titles by Africans generally except in townships that were allowed before the Act came into force. Here, also, over-crowding exists because areas available to Africans and Non-Europeans in general are very limited and, therefore, become slums.

In all this land policy the worst and most dangerous clause is the restriction that provides that no Native may buy land from a non-Native except with the Governor-General`s approval to the transaction. The provision is universally acceptable in government and European quarters because the native generally speaking has no land to sell. This ensures that there is little chance for Africans securing more land and therefore, independence.

Congress must, therefore, work and negotiate for:-

·         Adequate land for Africans and for Africans to acquire freehold title to land in rural and urban areas.

·         The right of Africans to secure freehold titles to land individually or collectively or as syndicates inside or outside released areas.

·         Right of Africans to purchase land from any seller anywhere in rural and urban areas.

·         Land Bank facilities to assist African farmers to purchase land to improve it.

Every effort must be made, now, during the war, to get adequate land for Africans as over-crowding and starvation are undermining the health and physique of our people for generations to come. The present conditions of land occupation and available land for Africans unfit them physically, mentally and even morally for survival.

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL WELFARE

The African is the worker of South Africa. However, because of his lack of political power and because of the existence of many statutory restrictions against him such as the Pass Laws, the Natives Service Contract Act, the Masters and Servants Act, the Natives` Labour Regulations, the African finds himself debarred from benefits of certain labour awards. For instance, the Pass Laws restrict his freedom of movement, limit his bargaining power, expose him to exploitation by a certain type of employer and exclude him from enjoying benefits to be derived from the Industrial Conciliation Act. The African is paid wages far below the cost of living.

He is debarred from skilled trades. He is a pawn between the white worker and the employer. He is forced to live below the bread line. Besides African wages are further depressed by the uneconomic system of recruiting and importation of African labour which exempts the mines from the operation of economic and industrial laws, supply and demand so far as Africans are concerned. He is allowed to trade on sufferance and under great restrictions. The African is a great producer and consumer of goods. He should, therefore, be allowed to trade freely according to his means and ability to help raise his economic status.

To achieve our ends in this direction, Congress must work for:

·         Removal of industrial and commercial restrictions against the African.

·         Living wage and better working conditions.

·         Right of all classes of African workers to organise into Trade Unions.

·         Recognition and Registration of African Trade Unions under African leadership by the Union Labour Department with all the rights, privileges and immunities appertaining to such organizations under the Industrial Conciliation Act.

·         Right of Africans to learn skilled trades and engage in them.

·         Trading rights for Africans anywhere.

·         Abolition of Pass Laws, Natives` Service Contract Act, The Masters` and Servants` Act, and other Special Disabilities.

·         Abolition of Recruiting and Importation of African labour from outside the Union.

All of us, whatever our status or calling, must join hands with all other classes in this fight for existence.

POLICE, CIVIC GUARDS AND THE AFRICAN

Recently the African has suffered severely at the hands of the police. During police raids not only assaults on Africans have taken place but, in the course of such raids, Africans have been actually shot dead. The situation in cities like Johannesburg has been aggravated by the appearance, as special constables, of the Civic Guards. They are more worry and a greater horror in the already harassed life of the African. Some of them do not seem to use much judgment in carrying out their duties. They seem to have no regard either to time, circumstances or persons.

Some of them search all and sundry. Any questions or reluctance on the part of the African often leads to man-handling of the victim. These high-handed methods of both the police and the "civic guards" do not tend to arouse a spirit of good race relations. One feels that there are many people under these circumstances who are given authority over the African without the necessary discipline and training for the task. The Pass Laws and Police Raids in general must be abolished in justice to the African and as a measure of relief to him.

Those who want to fight should go to the various battlefronts instead of attacking defenceless and unarmed Africans.

SOCIAL WELFARE

Africans in South Africa are the worst paid and consequently the poorest section of the community. Generally speaking they have no margin from their earnings to set aside for a rainy day; consequently, during old age, disablement and non-employment they find themselves with nothing with which to support themselves. As a group Africans are more in need of benefits from the Social Welfare Departments than any other section in South Africa. The Africans, therefore, should be eligible to receive all benefits from Social Welfare Departments.

It should be the task of the African National Congress to work for:-

·         Old age pensions for Africans.

·         Disability and Disablement pensions.

·         Extensions of provisions of the Children`s Act to meet social re­quirements of destitute African children-adequate maintenance grants.

HEALTH REQUIREMENTS

Africans in South Africa have the highest Infant Mortality rate, highest mortality and morbidity rates, than any section. The causes are not racial but economic. The people are poverty stricken with low wages, lack of adequate food, semi-starvation, bad housing and therefore, low resistance to disease and consequent ill-health and premature death. Adequate hospital accommodation is desirable but hospital accommodation required can be reduced if the people are paid good wages to relieve them from poverty in order to buy their health through sufficient food, good housing and other amenities.

We must work for:-

·         Adequate well-equipped and adequately staffed hospitals-General and Special.

·         Full extension of public health and preventative health measures to Africans.

·         The training of Africans in medicine, surgery and public health and cognate subjects, training of health visitors, health inspectors and nurses, and their eligibility for public employment on basis of ability and training and recognised professional rates and conditions.

EDUCATION OF THE AFRICAN

Man is not born with well-developed instincts like most animals. Unlike other animals he requires a long period of care and education. He must be taught.

Under the present conditions Native Education is not State-Controlled. It is only State-Aided. The missionaries establish the schools and provide the buildings. The Government through the Provincial Education Departments, pays the teachers` salaries. Native Education is at present financed from a block grant made up of £340,000 from the general revenue and the rest a sum voted from revenue accruing from Native Taxation under the Native Taxation and Development Act, 1925.

Only about one-third of the African children of school-going age are accom­modated in these schools which are always overcrowded and under-staffed.

The African teachers are the most overworked and paid the deplorable salary of £4.10.0dto £ 5.19.Od a month.

So far there has never been enough funds to meet the requirements of even the one-third of school population now accommodated in schools. As a consequence many of our children are growing wild without an opportunity of school education and discipline.

They get their education on the streets and back-alleys from where they graduate into reformatories and finally gaols and many people wonder why there is a high and increasing rate of African Juvenile Delinquency. The Government must be asked for adequate funds but it is difficult to expect the Government to distribute lavishly public funds over a system of education over which they have no control. How can we expect them to satisfy the numerous competing mission groups?

We thank the missionaries for pioneering in, and laying the foundation of African Education. However, time and circumstances have changed.

Congress, therefore, urges for:-

·         Free Public School system of education controlled by the Government through the various Provincial Education Departments.

·         Provision of School Buildings and equipment by the State.

·         Financing of Native Education on a per caput basis from the General Revenue based on the number of children of school-going age.

·         Higher salaries for the African Teacher with Civil Service Status and pension rights compatible with the requirements of their profession under modem conditions.

·         Unlimited opportunities for scholastic education and technical training for employment in Civil Service and skilled trades without colour or racial restrictions.

·         Formation of school boards with direct representations of Africans on such boards.

·         Appointment of qualified Africans into any post in African educational institutions.

ADMINISTRATION

Almost all Departments of State deal with African Affairs. In all these departments the candidates for the graded positions have to undergo some training and apprenticeship. Africans contribute directly and indirectly for the upkeep of these departments. We welcome the recent move by the Native Affairs Department for the appointment of Africans to certain senior posts. We urge the training of Africans and the employment of them generally in all Civil Service and Public Service other than Native Affairs. Africans must be employed in the administration of the country like others in increasing numbers and with adequate pay and pensions.

DISABILITIES UNDER THE NATIVE ADMINISTRATION ACT

I now come to a question that affects our people vitally especially in rural areas. It affects Chiefs and people alike. I refer to the operation of the Native Administration Act. Under this Act the Governor General who in this case, is the Native Affairs, has absolute dictatorial powers over our people. He may remove tribes, appoint and depose chiefs at will if it is thought of course by some Native Commissioner that such action is in the interest of good government whatever that may mean. He may deport a member or members of the tribe. Such member or members of the tribe may not be tried before a Court of Law. It is suggested that such powers are derived from African law and custom and the Governor-General exercises them as "Supreme Chief of the Africans in the Orange Free State, Transvaal and Natal."

In his high office as the Viceroy we bow to the Governor-General; but on the basis of African law and custom he cannot be recognized as Supreme Chief of the African. There can be no Supreme Chief in Native law and custom who acts without the advice of other chiefs; who does not express the wish and will of the people. The most controlled person in African society is the chief. He is controlled by his family, his councillors, headmen and sub-chiefs and finally by the people. The people express their will first and the Chief speaks it out for them. He is their mouthpiece.

This distortion of Native Law and Custom was copied by Europeans from the rule of Great Chaka. He was a dictator and a despot. He was not deposed because there is no deposition in African custom. He went the way such un­controlled Chiefs go in African society. He had his head cut off.

There is no deportation of members of the tribe. If a man is unruly, the Chief "eats him up", that is, fines him until he runs across the border by night. This deportation clause does not even recognise the rule of law in English law, namely, that an accused person cannot suffer penalty without trial. The Native Administration Act is tyranny invoked in the name of customary law. We must fight for the revision of this abuse and misrepresentation of African customs.

NOMINATIONS UNDER REPRESENTATION OF NATIVES` ACT

I take up now a question that interests all of us but which is, nevertheless, not essential. I refer to the nomination of candidates under the Representation of Natives` Act. Sometime ago the Provinces received a letter from the Secretary-General asking for nominations under this Act. I have since, however, studied the question and its implications in relation to our organisation and have come to the conclusion that for the present, Congress must not sponsor any candidates either nationally or provincially. Any nominations, therefore, made in any Pro­vince will be made by qualified voters in that Province and not by the Provincial Congresses. This, however, does not preclude any voters, as such, exercising their choice; but such nominee or nominees are not endorsed by Congress either nationally or provincially. To Congress we must be loyal and true. For Congress, we must forget any personal or sectional interests or gain. We must put the cause and the interests of the people before any expediency.

My ruling is in the interests of the Congress and all genuine supporters and well-wishers of this organization will abide by it. To be true leaders, we must put the interests and welfare of our people above our own.

THE AFRICAN AND MILITARY SERVICE

The last point I would like to discuss with you is the problem of military service and the African in the Union of South Africa.

We are thrilled at the exploits of African forces from other parts of Africa. West Africans and the King`s African Rifles from Central Africa have distinguished themselves in the campaign against Fascist Italy. We are proud of their record in the fight to destroy the Italian African Empire. We learn that 90,000 of them took part in this campaign that is now history. West Africans are flying in Great Britain. Some have been commissioned in the Royal Air Force. South Africa and South Africans, black and white are safer to-day because these black African soldiers with their white comrades at-arms have barred the way.

Our own people have volunteered to serve King and country anywhere and in anyway; but our Government has restricted their service to manual labour. Their pay has been deplorably low. In fact, that one shilling and sixpence a day for unmarried African soldiers is just six-pence more than the allowance which, I understand, was given to internees, enemies of the State, whose dependents were receiving £2.10.0 to £ 5.0.0 allowance in addition, and that, for working against the Government. Our African soldiers in the Union unlike Coloureds and Indians cannot rise higher than the position of Sergeant and it seems that there have been attempts to differentiate and humiliate them further in certain directions. They are not receiving the extra shilling a day allowed for doing extra work such as clerical work, training transport drivers, and so on. There is also the problem of the disabled soldier and the discharged soldier. All these matters tend to discourage the enthusiasm of our people to join and put African leaders in a most embarrassing position.

While it is our desire to see our people armed and fighting like other soldiers, Lord Gort`s memoirs, recently published, seem to indicate that if the training of Africans for active service was begun now it may not be until 1943 before they are fit to take their part safely and efficiently in a campaign under modern war conditions.

It would be a sign of irresponsibility on my part to discuss publicly all the causes of reluctance of the African to join. I feel, therefore, without disclosing some of the more delicate questions, that Congress must take steps for representations to be made to the Right Honourable the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence-Field Marshal J. C. Smuts and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Native Affairs-Colonel Deneys Reitz, on these questions of ARMY SERVICE, REPRESENTATION, LAND, EDUCATION, WAGES AND RECOGNITION AND REGISTRATION OF TRADE UNIONS, THE NA­TIVE ADMINISTRATION ACT AND THE PASS LAWS.

Our actions of loyalty do not mean contentment and happiness on our part. We are very much dissatisfied with the lot and status of our people. We want these improved immediately. But we realise that if our present State is taken over by a foreign nation, there will be new problems. Our condition may or may not be worse. We would rather fight for, and correct, the evils of our present State and incorporate in her legislation and administration all that is best for the advancement and happiness of our common humanity.

A question may arise in the minds of some of us whether these problems of LAND, REPRESENTATION, EDUCATION, WAGES AND PASS LAWS ETC. should not wait until after the war. I reply NO! Emphatically NO! These are urgent matters clammering for immediate solution. They are essential, now for the health, well-being, and happiness of the African people as for other sections. South Africa is fighting for freedom, for democracy, for Christianity, and for human decency, and these must be enjoyed by all who will, irrespective of race, creed or colour. At home, Africans have given from their meagre earnings, from their dire poverty, more than their proportionate share towards the various war funds. As in the past when king and country were at war, the Africans` loyalty now is not and never has been excelled by any section in South Africa, white or black, notwithstanding their hope-destroying disabilities under our State policy and practice. Africans are no fairweather loyalists or democrats.

They have not anywhere committed acts of sabotage against the State. They have volunteered to serve anywhere and in anyway, so that, to-day, European boys and African boys, from South Africa, are falling together on the same battleground. In Sidi Rezek, Lybia, enemy bullets made no distinction on basis of colour or duties being performed. White men and black men suffered the same death, sustained the same wounds and others were taken prisoners. African men, even as stretcher bearers, died attempt­ing to save lives of wounded European compatriots at the battle line. These Africans, whatever service they are assigned to do, are doing a man`s job. They are protecting white and black women in South Africa, and all those men who either are unfit for service, those who are exempted from service, or those who expect freedom to be a gift from somewhere not worth fighting for or dying for.

African boys are dying in defence of freedom, democracy, Christianity and human decency in South Africa. They are making this supreme sacrifice so that we, their Kith and Kin, may enjoy these privileges as well. They hope that we, at the home front, will defend their inherent rights and see that full justice is done to their wives and dependents so that they will not have died in vain. South Africa must play the game with the Africans now. If she gives them their legitimate right of citizenship thus more to fight for, she will get the Africans` quota for service without recruiting.

As long as these grave disabilities and glaring inconsistencies exist and are not adjusted or settled, they will continue to kill, disable, and handicap more Africans and bring more unhappiness to as many more African families than the deaths and disablement that this war will bring to South Africa. This is the battle of the home front. It must be fought and won now before the war is over as a basis for real peace.

In the past South Africa has legislated and governed for the benefits of the Europeans, the privileged group and upper cast of South Africa. Because she claims to be fighting for the ideals we have just mentioned, and also in memory of, and as a monument to, the lives of black boys who are falling and will fall in various battle fronts in her defence. South Africa must begin now to legislate for the welfare and benefit of all South Africans irrespective of race, creed or colour but must be based on human worth. Thus and thus only may South Africa win peace.

This is Congress Policy. This is the African`s charter in South Africa. This is the New Order for which he is dying up North, for which he must live and work. It can only be achieved through hard work on our part, through serious thinking, careful planning, great personal sacrifices and self-denial on the part of all people, particularly Africans who would like to see the African given an opportunity to develop and use without let or hindrance, his God-given gifts and talents.

In conclusion, in the words quoted recently by our Prime Minister, Field Marshall J. C. Smuts, "I challenge you and all men of vision and goodwill of whatever race or colour to abandon the policies of the past for faith, for hope, for trust in each other. Take each others` hand and move forward to the destiny which is yours."

Thus South Africa may well adopt our Congress motto- "RIGHT NOT MIGHT. FREEDOM NOT SERFDOM."

The doctor was the president of the ANC at the time and was the first black physician in South Africa.