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VOL. LIII No. 49 ANN 'ARBOR, MICHIGAN, TUESDAY, DEC. 1, 1942
PRICE FIVE CENTS
U.S.
Sub
Sinks
ig t
Ships Off Jap Coast
V -
4 Enemy
Boats Are
Damaged
By The Associated Press
PEARL HARBOR, T.H., Nov. 30.
-Eight enemy ships totaling 70,000
tons were sunk by an American
submarine, most of them only a
short distance from the Japanese
shore, Leut.-Comm. Thomas Bur-
ton Klakring said today.
Four other ships aggregating 20,-
000 to 25,000 tons were damaged, he
told interviewers.
The sinkings, he related, occurred
for the most part in full view of the
inhabitants of large Japanese cit-
ies. One transport was sunk in a
harbor entrance. The dates were
not specified.
Asked just how close his sub-
marine approached the, Japanese
shoreline, Commander Klakring re-
plied with A smile:
"Well, one Sunday we watched
the pony races for an hour."
Allied Forces
Noqw 12 MlesL
from Tunis
Bombers.Hammer at
Tunrisia Capital as
Troops Move on City
LONDON, Nov. 30.- Allied armored
forces drove clser than 12 miles to
partly isolated Tunjis today while their
bombers asauited the capital, Bi-
zerte and Tripoli in a crescendo of
destruction aimed at driving the Axis
from all Africa.
Lieut. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's
headquarters said the British First
Afmy and its superbly armed United
States supporting columns were fight-
inig east of +ouped Deeida, a rail
Junction 12 miles northwest of Tunis,
which already is within range of field
artillery.
The Allies were astride the main
railway in Northern Tunisia which
had been out, thus severing a. vital
communication line to the French
naval base at Bizerte where the Ger-
mans are entrenched strongly. The
British and Americans appeared to
be driving a wedge straight to the
coast along the railway with the sub-
jugation of Tunis apparently their
first objective. Afterwards, Bizerte,
Sfax and Gabes could be isolated and
picked off one by one.
Tripoli, the last remaining supply
port in Libya for Marshal Erwin Rom-
mel's Africa Corps, dug in at the El
Agheila defile 400 miles to the east,
was assaulted day and night by U.S.
Flying Fortresses and Liberators and
the RAF. Other planes bombed the
big Comiso airdrome in Sicily from
which the enemy replenishes his Af-
rican air forces.
Adamic,'Gives
Plans for Post-
War Europe
Suggesting an American peacetime
army abroad as an answer to the and-
now-what period following the Armis-
tice, Louis Adamic, noted author and
editor, last night outlined his proposal
for the reconstruction of Europe after
the war.
"The whole world will be prostrate
when the war ends," he declared,
emphasizing the fact that America's
role will involve the formation of an
American Reconitruction Mission to
help out in starvation-ridden Europe.
"The world is falling in our lap.
What are we going to do about it-
dump it out as we did in 1919?" he
demanded as he urged the formation
of a government organized commis-
sion to train now these "missionaries
of the democratic way of living."
The project will involve the pro-
,vision of medical supplies, agricul-
tural, social, political and economic
aids, and the furnishing of a diplo-
matic army to "help the next genera-
tion from being dragged into another
,, f
Investigators Probe
Fire; Toll Reaches 484
;">
By The Associated Press
BOSTON, Nov. 30.- Under orders
to establish the facts no matter where
they lead, investigators probed mi-
nutely today into the horrible "flash
fire" that took an officially estimated
toll of 484 lives at the Cocoanut Grove
night club.
While the human cost of the Satur-
day night holocaust rose with the
deaths of some of the more seriously
injured, including the cowboy motion
picture star, Charles (Buck) Jones, a
fire prevention official flatly told an
inquiry board that conditions at the
club were "good" with "a sufficient
number of exits and a sufficient num-
ber of fire extinguishers."
The same inquest heard bandaged,
'SOMETHING NEW':
Band Presents
Varsity Night
Show Today
By MONROE FINK
a combination concert and variety
show, something new in entertain-
ment-that's. Varsity Night, 1942, to
be presented by the University Bands
at 8:30 p.m. today in Hill Auditorium.
With radios Joe "boxes-boxes-
boxes" Gentile to keep the show mov-
ing along, a total of eight different
events in addition to the music of the
Concert Band under the direction of
Prof. William D. Revelli will make
the program one of the biggest ever
presented by the Bands.
Concert Band First
Getting the program off to a run-
ning start will be the Concert-Band's
rendition of "March of the Steel
Men," by Belsterling, to be followed
by "Mannin Veen," by , ood.
Other numbers on the Band's por-
tion of the program will be "Sounds
from the Hudson," by Clark, a cornet
solo to be played by Sedgewick Fields,
'44$M; "La Sorella," by Gallini; and
"Calfskin Calisthenics," by Bennett,
featuring drummer Bob Rosengarden,
'46M.
Glee Club To Sing
From there on it's anybody's show,
but the band will make its presence
apparent long enough to play a special
cantata, "As America Sang," sung by
eight members of the University
Men's Glee Club and narrated by
Prof. Hardin Van Deursen of the
School of Music.
Swelled to full strength, the Glee
Club will then present a series of
songs representing the different Unit-
ed Nations, to strike a patriotic note
for the evening.
Turn to Page 6, Col. 1
Four French Subs
Escape from Nazis
LONDON, Nov. 30. - (A) - Four
French submarines were reported to-
night to have escaped German cap-
ture at Toulon by a hairbreadth and
two of them were in Allied hands at
Algiers and another was believed to
be on the way there.
The fourth, the little 597-ton Iris,
was forced todput in atrBarcelona
Saturday and today its crew of 21
officers and men were interned by
the Spaniards.
These were believed to have been
the only units of the once-proud fleet
of 62 or more warships to have es-
caped sacrificial self-destruction or
German capture at Toulon.
burned and bruisedl employes of the
night club tell of being swept through
the doors into the street by the panic-
stricken crowd and of being unable to
get back inside.
Meantime, in the city's two major
morgues the gruesome task of identi-
fying the horribly burned bodies of
the dead moved toward a conclusion.
It appeared inevitable, howeverthat
the identities of a few would not be
established. A group of Boston under-
takers offered to bury the unclaimed
dead without cost to the city.
170 in Hospital
More blood plasma was flown from
Washington by the Red Cross in an
effort to help the more than 170 in-
jured who lay in Boston's crowded
hospitals. Additional doctors also were
called to the scene.
At the fire department's official in-
quest, which has seen the presence of
FBI representatives and high Navy
officials, a highlight was reached in
the testimony of Lieut. Frank J. Lin-
ney of the fire prevention bureau.
Club Inspected in November
He inspected the Cocoanut Grove
club on November 20. Asked if he had
found any inflammables, he replied:
"No. I tested the palm trees and
they were all right. I found they had
been properly treated."
"Then the condition there was sat-
isfactory to you?" asked Fire Com-
missioner William Arthur Reilly.
"Yes," Linney replied.
Japs Trying
for New Base
Menace Center of
Solomon Archipelago
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30. - (A') -
Navy reports indicated tonight that
Japan's amphibious forces in the
South Seas, having repeatedly failed
to break America's hold on the south-
eastern Solomons, may be attempting
to develop a powerful base in the
center of the archipelago.
For the third straight day the
Navy's Pacific war communique told
of American air action directed at
destruction of enemy ships or shore
installations in the New Georgia Is-
lands area. While the enemy's activi-
ties appeared to be of a minor nature,
Naval authorities here said they
might be evidence of Japan's main
strategy in the Solomons for the time
being.
Today's report disclosed that Army
Flying Fortresses had attacked an
enemy convoy of two cargo ships and
three destroyers west of the New
Georgia group last Saturday (Solo-
mons time). Five bomb hits were
scored on one of the cargo carriers
and of ten Zero fighters which tried
to intercept the attack three were
shot down. The American planes suf-
fered no serious damage.
Gas Rationing Begins as
Motorists 'Fill Her Up'
Long threatened gasoline rationing
started at midnight last night, and
weary station attendants are resting
up today after three days of rapid-
fire service to motorists filling up
before the deadline.
But some 150 laggard Ann' Arbor
motorists haven't yet applied for ra-
tion books, registration officials re-
port, and a special application cen-
ter in Hutchins Hall has been set up
to handle their calls. The center is
open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and
every night from 7 to 9 p.m.
Red Army Slaughters 7,500 More
Nazis To Bring Total To 27,500;
Gains Made On Stalingrad Front
Firemen Inspect Ruins after Night Club Fire
City firemen inspect the ruins near the bar of the Cocoanut Grove night club in Boston, Mass., after
a fire swept through the establishment killing nearly three hundred persons and injuring several scores;
more. It was estimated 1,000 persons were in the club at the time of the fire.
KNIT ONE, PURL TWO:
Students Spend Quiet Evening
Knitting, 'Drinking Milk at Bell
By MARK LIPPER
For the first time in eight years the
clatter of steins was missing amidst
the usual murmur of student voices at
the Pretzel Bell last night as a few
faithful patrons settled down to a
quiet evening of knitting and sipping
cold milk pending suspension of the
tavern's liquor license by the state
liquor control commission.
Mixed Company
Male students as well as coeds
wielded knitting needles and chatted
over pitchers of milk. Empty steins
were used to hold the balls of yarn.
One student was knitting himself a
sweater and at the same time reading
a little Shakespeare.
"Knitting while I study makes my
homework more interesting," he
claimed. He said he learned to knit
when confined to a sick bed with
pneumonia a few years ago.
Poster in Window
Members of the knitting bee hung
a large poster in the tavern window
showing their proposed program for
the duration of the imposed prohibi-
tion. Tonight it will be ping-pong
and tomorrow it will be tiddlewinks
at the Bell.,
The Pretzel Bell's liquor license
suspension went into effect yesterday
along with that of the College
Inn because the liquor commission
charges both student hangouts have
been selling beer to minors. Philip
Stapp, proprietor of the Bell, claims
this is the first time the tavern has
stopped selling beverages to the stu-
dents since it started after the pro-
hibition era in 1934.
Attorneys for Stapp and for Clin-
ton L. Starbuck, owner of the College
Inn, were successful yesterday in ob-
taining a rehearing on the suspension
of the taverns' licenses scheduled for
Wednesday at the commission's head-
quarters in Lansing.
Both owners expressed hope that
they will have their suspensions lifted
in a few days. They claim they will
present plans to the commission for
identifying minors in the future.
FRENCH ADMIRAL HELD
BARCELONA, Spain, Nov. 30.--W)
-Admiral Jean de la Borde, com-
mander of the French home fleet
who gave the orders for the mass
scuttling at Toulon last Friday, is in
the hands of the Germans, French
Naval sources said tonight.
Volunteers Fill
Essential Jobs
Manpower Corps Helps
to Staff Dormitories
Manpower volunteers began their
campaign to fill essential jobs in Ann
Arbor yesterday, as 14=students signed
up to work as paid waiters in the ser-
iously under - staffed West Quad-
rangle.
Manpower Director Mary Borman;
was emphatic in pointing out the im-
portance of such work, and the direct
relation of these jobs to the war ef-
fort.
"If the dormitories cannot find
men to act as waiters and to fill
other jobs in the kitchen and around
the buildings," he said, "they will have
to close down."
Three students, Robert Dondero,
Chuck Diehl, and Robert Barnes have
set up an information center in Al-
len-Rumsey House next to the resi-
dent adviser's office. All students who
are interested in helping out in the
dorms should report to that office
personally from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. any
Sunday, Wednesday or Thursday.
The West Quadrangle still needs
six more men to work every Wednes-
day night, eight volunteers to work
at breakfast time every day, three
men to work in the kitchen at every
meal, and many men for other jobs.
Meanwhile, Dick Dick, Manpower
executive in charge of the scrap drive,
reported that the Corps is supplying
men to the Building and Grounds
Department today to add to the 120
tons of scrap collected on campus.
Theta Xi fraternity, making good
on its promise to supply men for
scrap work every Tuesday as long as
they are needed, will send out eight
men today to help clean up 'the scrap
around the campus.
Campus Cooperates
Well in Blackout
Students cooperated very well in
the Sunday night blackout. Walter
75 Tanks Knocked Out
West of Moscow as
Germans Fall Back;
Fighting Very Severe
By The Associated Press
MOSCOW,Dec. 1. (Tuesday)- The
Red Army killed 7,500 more Germans
and knocked out 75 tanks on the bliz-
ard-swept central front west of
Aoscow to bring the Nazi dead count
to 27,500, and gained as much as six
niles near Stalingrad yesterday in
twin offensives that still were rolling
dnwa'd deslite desperate Nazi count-
er-attacks, the lssians announced
early today.
Another special communique-they
have been. issued' almost daily for
nore than a week-telling of the op.
erations in the Rzhev-Vyazma-Velikie
tAi triangle of the central front
sid:
Naz Counter-Attack
"Our troops, overcoming enemy re-
sistance and. repulsing counter-at-
tacks of his infantry and tanks, sue-
cessfully continued their offensive and
occupied several places. During one
day's battle 17 tanks, 37 guns, 40
lnachine guns and 12 stores (of sup-
,lies), 'were captured and 58 tanks
'ere destroyed. The enemy left on
Se battilefield 7,500 dead officers and
men."
On the Stalingrad front where Rus-
san' armies :were trying to throttle
the remnants of the Nazi siege army
which originally numbered about
300,000, there appeared to be no Ger-
man disposition to try to break out
of a slowly-closing Russian trap. The
special communique did not deal with
the.:greater arms of this movement,
but merely with the situation in the
immediate Stalingrad area.
The communique said,20,000 Ger-
mians. had been slain in four days
"near Stalingrad." On the basis of
previous special bulletins, the toll of
Nazis for the Stalingrad area alone
now stands at 67,000 dead, and 66,000
captured, or a total of 133,000.
22,300 Killed on Central Front
On the same basis the toll of Nazis
on the central front is 22,300 dead
and 400 captured, so the grand total
for both fronts is 155,700 dead and
captured.
Of the situation of Stalingrad, the
special bulletin said:
"The offensive of our troops con-
tinues in the Stalingrad. area. Our
troops near Stalingrad, overcoming
enemy resistance, advanced from six
to ten kilometers (from 3.7 to 6.2
miles) and occupied several fortified
places.
French Refuse
to Fight Allies
Copyright, 1942, by The Associated Press
NEW YORK, Nov. 30.- When
Anglo -American forces landed in
North Africa, Germany demanded
that France declare war on the Allies
and unite with the Axis, but the
French Cabinet by the close vote of
8 to 6 refused, it was learned today.
A French diplomat who was in the
active service of the Vichy regime
until the French Fleet scuttled itself
at Toulon, gave the Associated Press,
somewhere in Europe, a first-hand
account of events in France follow-
ing the American move into French
North Africa.
The Allied landing caught both Vi-
chy and Berlin by complete surprise,
and in all the Vichy negotiations with
Berlin up to the occupation of Toulon,
German authorities gave the French
the definite impression they did not
know what to do in France, this in-
formant said.
The Laval regime likewise was at a
loss for a plan of action.
This French diplomat described a
turbulent, bewildering, 48-hour Vichy
cabinet meeting where the German
demand for war was rejected despite
the urgings of government chief Pi-
OIL TANKERS PAY OFF IN BUTTONS A ND THRILLS:
w,.
Story of Convoy Life Told by U. of M. Student
(Editor's Note: Hoe Seltzer, formerly
a sports night editor of The Daily, has
written an interesting yarn of his con-
voy trip this', summer. We've been
promising it to you . . . and here it is.
This is the first in a series.)
By HOE SELTZER
ONE THING I made very clear to
myself at the outset. Under no
circumstances would I ship out on a
tanker. Tankers carry oil, you know,
and oil is extremely burny stuff and
.1 -- . . fn 1
of the globe as Murmansk or Aus-
tralia or South Africa, where a
hundred-buck port bonus can be
stuffed in the sock for each port of
call. So it was settled then. I would
ship on a freighter bound for
Russia or Australia.
I signed on the S. S.- June 14
in New York and signed off Aug.
31. The -- is not a freighter. She is
a tanker. I did not go to Russia.
Nor did I go to Australia. I went to
Texas and back. Twice.
rT'ha nri hncrwith l+p cvohp n..qe
say why I will probably be smack in
the middle of a very sizeable con-
voy anyway and I sign on the tank-
er.
The first question I ask my ship-
mates is what is our cargo and they
tell me black oil and I resume
breathing again. Now you may not
know but black oil is the crude
stuff complete with branches of
trees and lumps of mud and other
foreign material and the soothing
factor about it is the relatively
high flach noint of the sIchr T-Tigh
Early on the morning of Sunday,
June 14 then I report to the ship,
which has just dropped the hook
off Staten Island. Most tankers
have about a 100,000 barrel capacity
but this ship is a fairly sizeable
wagon as tankers go and when I
step on her deck she is loaded to
the scuppers with 135,000 barrels
of oil. She is a nice even 500 feet
long and, as I discover later, when
riding empty and sticking 25 feet
up out of the water she represents a
target which makes the proverbial