10TH, 14TH AF'S
BROKEN UP
  SHANGHAI - (ANS) - The 10th and 14th Air Forces went out of existence Monday.
  Lt. Gen. George Stratemeyer, commanding general of the Army Air Forces in China, announced that headquarters of both forces were put on a non-operational basis and were processing their men for return to the States.

IBT Roundup Vol. IV  No. 13      Reg. No. L5015      Delhi, Thursday,   Dec. 6, 1945

Probe  May  Follow  Hurley  Blast   WASHINGTON - (ANS-UP) - A sweeping investigation and a restatement of American foreign policy was looming in Washington this week as George C. Marshall, after stepping out of the job of being the United States No. 1 general in World War II, prepared to leave for China as a special envoy in a highly charged atmosphere left by the sudden resignation of Maj. Gen. Patrick J. Hurley as U.S. ambassador.
HEY, SHE'S CINDERELLA!
Above is what Hollywood calls its newest Cinderella girl, Jeanne Crain, just signing a new seven-year contract with yearly options. Hollywood also says this is how she plans to fit into future roles. If you find the time, you probably won't notice any glass slipper. But why take the time?

  The United Press reported that Hurley resigned because "career diplomats" were reportedly undermining his efforts to unify opposing factions in China. According to the United Press, the probe is expected to grow out of his charge, which has stirred up hot pro and con discussions in the Stateside press.
  Meanwhile, in Chungking, Lt. Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer, U.S. commander in China, was reported by Army News Service as telling newsmen that he believed Marshall is being sent to China "to make a survey of the situation and make appropriate recommendations to President Truman concerning future United States assistance or military aid to China."

MAY TESTIFY
  It appeared that before Marshall leaves for China, however, he will be called to testify before the joint Congressional committee investigating the Pearl Harbor disaster.
  Marshall, who went into retirement only a week ago, will act as Hurley's successor only temporarily, the news services reported, and will be known as a special envoy instead of ambassador.
  The selection of Marshall was hailed throughout the country. The observation was made that as chief of staff of the U.S. Army, he was in a position to be well informed on the situation in the Far East, including the position of the British, Dutch and French. There was some conjecture, according to press reports, that he might even visit Indonesia.

FEAR WAR
  Army News Service noted that Marshall is going to China at a time when there is growing concern in the United States over the possibility of Civil War in China as a result of a dispute between the Central and Communist forces.
  By selecting a five-star general to succeed one with two stars, rather than choosing a civilian diplomat, Army News Service said President Truman appeared to be emphasizing again the viewpoint that the present top job in China id the disarming of Japanese troops. Both War and State Departments have reported repeatedly in recent weeks that U.S. troops are in North China only to facilitate the surrender of Jap forces and not as instruments of American foreign policy.
  Hurley's resignation, which was reported to have come as a full surprise to President Truman, was accompanied by the statement that American foreign policy had failed in Asia.
  ANS quoted Hurley as saying in a 1,500-word, formal statement that the U.S. "finished the war in the Far East furnishing lend-lease supplies and using all our reputation to undermine democracy and bolster imperialism and communism."
  He said President Roosevelt sent him to China to prevent the collapse of the Chiang Kai-shek government and to keep the Chinese Army in the war. However, he continued, "our professional diplomats continuously advised the Communists that my efforts in preventing collapse of the National Government did not represent the policy of the United States."


70,333 I-B; CHINA TROOPS HOME
Roundup Staff Article

  More than 70,000 troops from the India-Burma and China Theaters have been returned to the United States, Navy Secretary James V. Forrestal reported Saturday in Washington according to Army News Service.
  Forrestal listed returnees from the India-Burma and China Theaters as totaling 70,333 troops. At the same time he disclosed that 36 ships now being used to ship troops to the United States from the China and I-B Theaters have a total capacity of 96,356 personnel.
  In his Washington statement, Secretary Forrestal disclosed that a transportation crisis is developing on the West Coast where the rate of troops returning is exceeding the capacity of the railroads.
  Forrestal's statement listed a total of 3,469,415 Army and Navy personnel as having been returned to the United States from all overseas theaters. Largest theater represented was the ETO from whence 2,251,338 troops have been sent to the United States.


HISTORY PRINTED

  A history of Merrill's Marauders, famous U.S. outfit that cleared the Japanese out of the North Burma jungles, will be available at the end of January. Anyone desiring a copy may procure one by writing to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. The War Department has already mailed copies to every living member of the Marauders.

THEATER INSTITUTES NEW PRIORITY POLICY ON RETURNEES TO U.S.
Roundup Staff Article    
  The old policy of "First in, first out," at the Karachi and Calcutta Replacement Depots for homeward-bound troops will be replaced by a new priority system under which the highest-point men go on the passenger lists first, Theater Headquarters announced today.
  The new system will go into effect Dec. 13 at Calcutta, when the General Squier sails, and Dec. 29 at Karachi, when the ships, General Stewart and General Callan, leave for the United States.
  The priority system provides that the over-all policy for troops returning to the States begins with patients, who have the first priority. They are followed on the priority list by commissioned medical personnel - which will include medical corps officers, dental officers and nurses only; personnel ordered to the United States for a permanent change of station, to some specific organization; personnel ordered to the United States on enlistment or re-enlistment furloughs, and Category Four units, in accordance with their arrival dates at the respective replacement depots.
  (Virtually all patients, and medical, PCS and re-enlistment personnel presently travel to the United States by air and consequently have only a meager effect on ship waiting lists.)
  For the Port of Karachi, this will include units now at Replacement Depot No. 1.
  For Calcutta, it will include all such units now at Replacement Depot No. 3 (Kanchrapara), or which have been moved from there to Camp Hialeah, preparatory to embarkation, or which have already been authorized to be staged in the Calcutta area instead of at Kan-
chrapara, while awaiting embarkation.
  Movement of additional Category Four units into replacement depots is not planned, Theater Headquarters disclosed.
  The last priority involves personnel ordered to the United States for separation or for further disposition on account of being surplus. Theater Headquarters said, in accordance with the following relative priorities:
(1) Male Enlisted Casuals (Troop Class)
  (a) Personnel eligible for separation by reason of point score who have 60 or more points, with personnel of highest score departing first.
  (b) Personnel eligible for separation for reasons other than point score.
  (c) Personnel eligible for separation by reason of point score who have less than 60 points, with personnel of highest score departing first.
  (d) Surplus personnel of India-China Division of the Air Transport Command, Army Airways Communication System and 10th Weather Region not eligible for separation, in order to point scores.
(2) Officers and Female Enlisted Casuals (First Class)
  (a) Female enlisted personnel.
  (b) Officers eligible for separation by reason of point score, with personnel of highest score departing first.
  (c) Officers eligible for separation because of length of service or under provisions of War Department Circular 250.
  (d) Surplus officers not eligible for separation but ordered to return to the U.S., in order of arrival at the depots.
  Theater Headquarters added: In the application of these priorities for determining passenger lists, all personnel who are in the depot seven days prior to the date the vessel is scheduled to sail from the port will be considered.
  Surplus casual personnel, whether from the India-Burma Theater of the China Theater, not eligible for separation other than as specified in 1-d above, will not be considered for embarkation at present.
  Such personnel will be held pending determination first by the Commanding General, Base Section, and then by this Headquarters, of whether further requirement for such personnel exists in this Theater.
  Embarkation priority for such surplus personnel not eligible for separation, who are determined by this Headquarters to be no longer required in this theater, will be announced by this Headquarters at a later date.

 BENARES SITE OF WIDESPREAD WORSHIP
T/Sgt. Harry Flynn and S/Sgt. John Kapp of the 1311th ATC BU at Gaya are explaining photos bought from the two Tibetan women at Sarnath. These women were part of a large group of Tibetan pilgrims.
T/Sgt. Sidney Cohen of the 1311th ATC BU at Gaya, examines some of the Buddhist sculpture around the Bodh Gaya Temple, built as a monument to the Lord Buddha because it was at this place that he first received his "enlightenment."

LEFT: Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Vice-Chancellor of Benares Hindu University, poses with Sgts. Kapp and Flynn. Sir Radhakrishnan, who teaches Eastern religions and ethics at Oxford University, plans to visit America.  CENTER: Temple of Bodh Gaya - erected on the spot where Lord Buddha received his enlightenment. Built many hundreds of years ago, it is excellently preserved. Until quite recently when the area was excavated, almost the entire temple was underground.  RIGHT: Sgt. Kapp prepares to photograph some of the many stone idols which adorn the banks of the Ganges at Benares. The image on the left is Hanuman, God of Power; center is the emblem of Shiva (lingam and yoni), God of Life; on the right is Ganesh, God of Wealth or Luck.  Pictures were furnished the Roundup by T/Sgt. Edward Wein of Public Relations.


Sgts. Kapp and Flynn pause for a few moments to watch some of the Hindu bathers at one of the many bathing ghats in the river Ganges at Benares. To bathe in the sacred waters of the Ganges in an attempt to wash away their worldly sins, some devout Hindus travel hundreds of miles - sometimes on foot. It is a famous mecca for religious persons from the whole of Asia.
One of the many burning ghats on the banks of the Ganges at Benares. As the bodies are carried to the ghats, the pallbearers chant "Ram nam satya haie," which means "God is a true God." Prior to placing the bodies upon the logs for cremation, they are sprinkled with the holy river water. After the bodies are burnt, the ashes are strewn upon the waters to be carried away by the tide.


Chinese Girl Full Colonel

  CHINWANGTAO, NORTH CHINA - (UP) - She's a "very serious girl" who loves to dance. She speaks five languages, is a senior medical student and is prettier than the liveliest sing-song girl in China. She wants to study at Johns Hopkins and drive 1,000 miles in a jeep. Meet Ariadne Lee, 22 years old and a full colonel in the Nationalist Chinese 13th Army.

CHINESE NAMES
  Most Chinese girls are christened with Chinese names and get American names later. Miss Lee was baptized Ariadne and was seven years old before her grandfather gave her the additional appellation of Lee Chun Chou.
  Most Chinese linguists learn the native tongue first, then add others. Miss Lee learned French, German and Russian in that order before tackling Chinese and English.
  Talking to Miss Lee today was like a visit with a girl from home, even though she has never been in the United States. She talks American - not English. She wears her hair in American-styled waves and her piquant face and dancing eyes attest to the heritage of her French-Russian mother.
  "I was completing a course for my medical degree at Aurore University in Shanghai three weeks ago when I was asked to accompany the 13th Army as Secretary to the General Staff," she said.

MEDICAL COURSE
  "I was happy to come of course, but am having uniform trouble - I've been unable so far to get one cut to fit."
  Miss Lee got the offer because her father Lee Pao Tang, professor of Russian at the University of Kunming, was commissioned a major general and wanted his daughter to accompany him. Lee is a longtime diplomat and his father was Chinese Ambassador to Russia. Lee himself served in Moscow, Helsinki and Germany during the 1920's which accounts for his daughter's linguistic versatility.
  The lovely colonel's medical specialty is pediatrics. She is dead serious about her desire to graduate from Johns Hopkins and return to China ho help her people - preferably by practicing in small villages among the poor.
  Meanwhile, she is counting on her knowledge of Pittman shorthand and typing to help get out the 13th Army's paperwork.
  Although Miss Lee claims she has no special boy friend because "I'm a very serious girl." Her father grinned and said: "She's had lots of them - not just one."

WAC'S FIFTH AVENUE
Standing before a packed house of G.I. co-workers are Air WAC's (left to right) Sgt. Dorjean Ellis, Sgt. Alice Marie Mardian, Cpl. Betty King, Cpl. Elizabeth Stevens, Cpl. Adeline H. Hood, Cpl. Sara Love, S/Sgt. Cordellia Gerow, Cpl. Virginia L. Paye. These WAC's participated in a modeling show of Indian saris (gown or dress) sponsored by the American Red Cross in Calcutta.
WAC Sgt. Dorajean Ellis of Phoenix, Ariz., goes a little out of uniform as she models what the best-dressed Indian lady from Madras wears in saris, bare midriff et al.

USAAF WAC'S MODEL SARIS AT CALCUTTA
By SGT. JOHN R. FORDE   
AAF Staff Correspondent   

  HQ., ARMY AIR FORCES, INDIA-BURMA, CALCUTTA - Nine Air Headquarters WAC's recently shed their khaki and olive drab in favor of rainbow-brilliant saris, going native for a modeling show sponsored by the American Red Cross here.
  A parade of the Detachment's most attractive girls stepped out on a specially-constructed chorus ramp under the spot of colored lighting to display the latest and best in Indian feminine wearing apparel. The gowns varied widely from a little number which appeared to be torn from the pages of Alexandre Dumas' cloaked warriors to the inverted "bell-bottom" pajamas of the American "zoot-suit."
  The runway, encircled by G.I.'s squatting Navajo style, was trimmed in blue and yellow and carpeted in jute. To get this audience of cheesecake starved troopers into the proper mood of reception, the show was musically introduced by the Song of India, which bears none of the flavor of its title, nevertheless apropos.

GET A LOAD
  Each girl was introduced and her gown described by an M.C. as she sauntered by the opened mouths of her co-workers. Toward the rear of the crowd G.I. criterions remarked as usual, "Hey Jack - get a load of Gracie." or "Guess that one will have to return to the States under the immigration quota."
  Although the fellows were humored by seeing the gal that works next door going native, the program was well-conducted and definitely a success. The costumes, procured by Miss Katie Ferry, ARC, from Capt. and Mrs. Minchoa, a Punjab family affiliated with the Bengal-Assam Railroad Co., and Mr. Saha, a local employee, are valued at many a rupee.
  Onlookers found them all very striking, particularly so when glittering under the colored spotlights with a background of soft music. Most of the models wore ear rings of gold and silver set with stones, plus the clanking chain of heavy bracelets borrowed from the WAC's personal "Ayahs" (maids).

MODEL HIGHLIGHT
  Highlight of the evening was the modeling performance by the vivacious Sgt. Dorajean Ellis. Adorned in the bright and strong design of Madras, with bare midriff. Sgt. Ellis set the house in an uproar by a series of "oomph" poses from the runway. With one hand to the back of the head, the other to a hip, a tilted knee, exposed ankle, and a gorgeous smile. Dorajean touched off the fuse that made the very ground shake.
  Although it was inevitable that the WAC's should have a good old fashioned clothing exchange while in India, it is hoped that the men won't take it to heart and begin to sport the Hindu take-off on our three-cornered pants.


LAHORE  RTO  PERSONNEL RUSH TROOPS HOMEWARD

By SGT. JOHN McDOWELL   Roundup Staff Writer

  LAHORE, INDIA - Almost any morning, shortly after 9 o'clock, you can find Sgt. Sam Sernovitz of Milwaukee leaning dejectedly against a steel girder on Platform Five, Lahore Railway Station, gazing sorrowfully at the Karachi Mail.
  And, when approached by a group of travel-stained G.I.'s struggling with bloated duffle bags, ha answers the inevitable question with the inevitable answer: "Yeh, this is the fast train to Karachi. Leaves here at 10 a.m.; gets you into Karachi at noon tomorrow." And then Sernovitz scurries around, arranging first or second class accommodations for the men en route home.
  For the past 20 months, as one of the Rail Transportation Office men stationed in this railway "crossroads" of India, Sernovitz has been answering questions, registering transients, providing travel and hotel accomodations and watching out for the general welfare of American troops traveling to such furlough "paradises" as Khanspur, or Kashmir or to Karachi, the stepping stone to the United States.

ONLY SIX LEFT
  At one time, this capital city of the Punjab housed a number of American Army units, including MP's and the Adjutant General's Publications setup for all of China-Burma-India. But today, the total American personnel in Lahore consists of four R.T.O. men and two medics.
  It hasn't been a bad life, Sernovitz readily admits. Living quarters are in the modern Braganza Hotel, across the street from the station. Excellent meals are served by turbaned bearers, there is an absolute minimum of "chicken" and interesting feminine companionship is not hard to find.
  "But," Sernovitz says with his next breath, "during the last few months I've waved goodbye to so damned many troops going home that it's getting on my nerves. Lahore is a swell city - good food, good-looking babes - but the U.S. is one helluva lot better." And, with 31 months overseas and 60 points, he'll have started on the road back late in November.
  Sernovitz will have been the second of the Lahore Rail Transport men to leave for the States. Two months ago, Sgt. Rudolph Wagner, also of Milwaukee, packed his "B" bag for the last time and headed for home. In December, Sgt. Charles Murray of Gary, Ind., and Sgt. Charles Mitchell of Waverly, Ill., both with 27 months overseas and 57 points will take a ride on the Karachi Mail - the same train they have watched disappear into the flat, dusty reaches of the Sind Desert day after day for so many months.

MEDICS STUCK
  The remainder of the American compliment in Lahore - Lt. Thomas P. Ansbury of Norfolk, N.Y., the RTO officer and Pfc. Bernard Stocks of Kansas City, Mo., and Pfc. Fred Wickemeyer of Indianapolis, Ind., the medics - apparently is stuck with the job of handling troop movements through Lahore until Karachi closes as an American port of embarkation.
  Until October 15, all units being shipped to Karachi by rail for redeployment were funneled through Lahore. Between the first of September and mid-October, the Lahore RTO unit handled as many as 500 men per day. Since the end of the hot season, which allowed the routing of troop trains across the middle of the Sind Desert through Bhatinda and Samsata, by-passing Lahore, that high mark, which was maintained over a 20-day period, has dropped to 40 to 50 troops per day.
  September of this year marked the all-time high for troop movements of American Army personnel through Lahore, with a figure of 8,544. Since May, 1945, the small Lahore unit has handled in excess of 25,000 troops.

U.S.-Bound With Eight Hash Marks
  By SGT. CHARLES KELLOGG   Roundup Staff Writer

  Bill Unger passed through New Delhi the other day on his way to a small house at 1204 Sheriden Drive in the city of Danville, Ill.
  The last time Bill saw that house was a warm day in July, 1941.
  A few days later he stepped aboard a ship on the West Coast bound for the Orient and he hasn't been home since.
  During the four years and three months which have passed, the 30-year-old American soldier served with the historic "Flying Tigers;" put in two years as a commissioned officer in the Indian Army; walked the "point" for the 475th Infantry of the U.S. Mars Brigade during the drive for Allied control of the Burma Road, and served as a member of a security team in China.
  A veteran of five years' service in the regular Army, Unger enlisted in the American Volunteer Group while serving in the Air Corps at Selfridge Field. Arriving at Shanghai on August 16, 1941, he was sent to Tongoo, located halfway between Rangoon and Mandalay, and did duty as an aircraft armorer at the Flying Tiger base there until the Japs bombed the field off the map.
  With such heroes as Bobby Neal, Tex Hill and Dick Lawson pitting their outdated Tomahawks against the might of Nip airpower over Burma and Indo-China, members of the ground crew didn't get much rest, Unger says. "And when we did get a chance to grab a little sleep the Japs came over and bombed the hell out of us," he relates.
  Tongoo became useless to the Tigers and their P40E's in February, 1942, and Unger rode a truck to Lashio and finally to Kunming where new bases were established.
  When the AVG disbanded in April, 1942, Unger returned to Calcutta. He joined the North Stafford regiment of the Indian Army there in October, 1942, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the cavalry and was assigned to the 5th Probyns Horse. During the next two years he served at various Indian posts with his regiment as an instructor and also had a brief tour of duty with an Indian paratroop regiment.
  In June, 1944, Unger resigned his commission and enlisted as a private in the United States Army. His first assignment was with a transportation unit in Bombay.
  "I arrived in Myitkyina in October, 1944," Unger says. "I was assigned to the first battalion of the 475th and left Camp Landis in the role of first scout."
  Unger fought the Japs with Mars forces until the Brigade reached Shwegu and the close of the northern Burma campaign came. He went with the 475th to China and upon arrival there was assigned to the U.S. Joint Intelligence Collection Agency.
  As a member of that organization Sgt. Unger went deep into enemy-held territory along the East China coast. "I was with the first plane load of Americans to land in Canton after the Chinese took that city," he said. He also entered such cities as Luichow, Kweiling, Hong Kong and Kowloon.
  But the war is over now and Unger is going home - back to a land he hasn't seen in more than four years. And, though he is 30 years old, Bill Unger wants to go to college. "If I can, I'm going to enter the University of Illinois and study engineering," he says.
  And when he completes his studies?
  "I'm coming back to the Orient," he says simply.


PLAQUE GIVEN TO SIGNAL BN.
Maj. Gen. Thomas A. Terry, India-Burma Theater commander, is shown presenting the meritorious service unit plaque to personnel of two Signal units recently. Left to right: T/4 Robert S. Bezark of Chicago and T/5 Thomas E. Cosgrove of Des Moines, Ia., members of the 835th Signal Service Battalion; S/Sgt. Robert L. Stark of Rochester, N.Y., 1st Sgt. Franklin D. Fielding of Provo, Utah, members of the 3371st Signal Photographic Service Co.

DELHI  NEWSIE'S  SALES  TECHNIQUE  PAYS  OFF
  By CPL. MICHAEL J. VALENTI   Roundup Staff Writer

  Pandit Ramji Lal Sharma - or just plain old, down-to-earth Ramji to his G.I. customers - would probably have wound up with gold securities sewed in his pants lining and an astounding sum stashed away in the bank if he'd been born in the U.S.
  Ramji sells newspapers to the U.S. Army in New Delhi, from all accounts - if not his own - turns a pretty pice. The 19-year-old Indian lad, who says he "speaks G.I.," has hawked The Statesman, Hindustan Times, and other papers to the officers and men of the Headquarters Battalion and 835th Signal Service Battalion for nigh on three years.
  A shrewd businessman, Ramji has applied tactics to his selling which in New York of Chicago or Frisco might have put him in the upper brackets. You can but a newspaper from him outright, but that's not the way it's generally done. More often, Ramji ends up with a 50 to 100 percent profit.
  It happens like this: Ramji hands you a two-anna newspaper. You may decide to read it and then give it back to him, with a minimum rental price of one anna. Many G.I.'s remit the paper plus the full price. Ramji turns those papers back to the newspaper, getting his purchase price back, thus pocketing the money he gets from sales as so much baksheesh.
  Or, he has another arrangement which nets him a respectable amount of the ever-lovin' baksheesh. A monthly subscription to a 2-anna paper would come to rupees three annas eight. For the privilege of having the rag deposited on your bunk, the Ramji charges five rupees a month - and picks up a lot of the papers for remittance to the paper's circulation department.
  It is bruited about the barracks that, as a result of Ramji's thrifty habits, he now has a couple of bank accounts in the name of two of his G.I. customers, but Ramji denies it.
  "Nay mallum bank, Joe," he avers.
  Ramji insists he takes his money home after a 17-hour day, and returns most of it to his uncle, and what he does with it Ramji professes not to know. The newsie claims he makes Rs. 14 a day, of which he keeps four.
  Three years ago he came off his father's farm in Salempur to visit an uncle in New Delhi. He didn't speak a word of English then. Passing before Company A barracks one day, he noticed a newsboy taking in the annas in traffic with G.I.'s. Right then and there he decided the thing had possibilities.
  Soon he had outstripped the other newsies in sales technique and general personality appeal, and quick aptitude for the G.I. lingo. In no time he had two uncles and a brother working with him. The clincher on the opposition was secured when Ramji was granted a pass to go inside the barracks grounds to sell his wares. Monopoly set in and it would take an invocation of the Sherman anti-trust laws to dislodge Ramji from his firm hold on the newspaper business around Queensway and Canning Road.
  Asked what his post-war plans were, Ramji countered with a query as to how long the G.I.'s were going to stay in Delhi. When all he got was a sad smile, he said:
  "Well, when the G.I.'s are bas ho gaya, then Ramji is bas ho gaya, too. Ramji is strictly American newspaper wallah."
  He was going back, he said, to the wife in Salempur and work on his father's farm.
  Was he going to miss the G.I.'s?
  "Yes, I have liked all the G.I.'s," he replied enthusiastically. Then he qualified that a little regretfully with, "Sometimes one out of 200 is not so good."
  After a little more harping on the merits of the G.I., Ramji impulsively burst out with: "Take the 'one' out. Kharab to say that. All the G.I.'s are good."


1877TH BUILT FIELDS AMID RECORD HEAT
  By SGT. RAY HOWARD   Roundup Field Correspondent

  KARACHI - Want to know how to earn the Meritorious Unit Citation for your outfit? Simple. Just find a kind old Uncle who wants a B-29 base in a hurry, and, working with few tools or modern conveniences, pour 10,000 cubic yards of concrete, move 400,000 cubic yards of dirt, spread 25,000 gallons of asphalt seal (using Indian mops).
  And when you've finished such minor details on the runway, install 400,000 feet of electrical wire and out in a huge water system. In your spare time erect housing facilities for 3,000 men and put up a few battle scarred Italian hangars - and build a few buildings here and there. You must complete these chores ahead of a schedule designed for construction under ideal conditions in heat too great for an ordinary thermometer to record.

WON CITATION
  Perhaps this procedure doesn't sound like the easy way to get a citation, but it is how the 1877th Engineer Aviation Battalion earned one of the first Meritorious Unit Citations given out in the I-B Theater.
  After two months of being shuttled around the world in ships and Africa's 4 & 8 railroads, with a generous amount of police detail in such "romantic" spots as Casablanca, Algiers, and Oran, the 1877th landed in Bombay, India, on St. Valentine's Day of 1944. Three days later they had started construction of the 7,500-foot B-29 strip at Chakulia Air base.
  In February of 1944 there were no Indian laborers available, so the 1877th had to do all of the work. Few machines were available. All concrete forma had to be built from rough-hewn native lumber, concrete cement docks had to be constructed, and concrete mixers were served by hand. Despite all of the disadvantages of working without equipment, one crew kept all forms laid for three companies, and the men worked 20 hours per day to finish their job ahead of schedule.

SIESTA PERIOD
  M/Sgt. Albert Conroy, Pasadena, Calif., sergeant major of the battalion explained the four hour "siesta" period. "To save time, the men had food brought to them on the job," he said, "but from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the heat was so intense that you could hardly stand in it, much less work. They were pouring concrete by hand, and many of them developed concrete sores, but no one was put on light duty. A man either was able to work or went to the hospital. A Meritorious Unit Citation is the very least they should have received."
  After witnessing the first take-off of B-29's on a bombing mission, the 1877th was dispersed around the Kharagpur bases, doing utility work while awaiting further assignment. They didn't have to wait long. Company "A" was flown to Sahmaw, Burma, where a fighter-cargo base was needed in a hurry. The rest of the battalion went by train to Dinjan, where they proceeded to disassemble and cut up their heavy equipment for air shipment to Myitkyina.
  It required 324 sorties by C-46's and C-47's to get H & S, B, and C Companies and their equipment to the newly captured base. This was the first time a heavy engineer aviation battalion ever was flown into a forward area.

AIR RAIDS
  Sahmaw had been the scene of heavy fighting, with American B-25's supporting the British and Chinese in the assault on bloody Hill 60. Thousands of 500-pound bombs had been dropped, many of which were duds. As luck would have it, the exact location of the proposed base contained most of the unexploded bombs and it was up to A Company to detonate them. Lack of experience made this a difficult job, but the work was completed without a single accident, and Sahmaw became one of the best fields in Burma.
  At Myitkyina, they were assigned to build a 7,500-foot airstrip at Namponmo, which later was known as the West strip. While working on the approach roads and the main strip they experienced their first actual contact with the enemy when the Japs started their nuisance air raids. The only casualty from such enemy action occurred when Lt. Col. Alvin B. Auerback, San Antonio, Texas, had his air mattress punctured by a 50 caliber slug.
  Lt. Col. John C. Tracey, Washington, D.C., their commanding officer since July, apprehensive at the delay in shipment, said, "Getting a fine outfit like this home should present no great problem. Just give them the material and they will build their own boat, and it will be the best damn boat that ever left Karachi."

BEFORE - AND AFTER
Miss Elinor Grant, ARC, who plays the aged Aunt Kate in the 40th Special Services production of "Personal Appearance" starts to apply the cream of antiquity.
Here's Elinor fully made up. Anyone with enough curiosity to get an idea of how they will look in the distant future cab get the makeup instructions from Miss Grant.
BROADWAY COMEDY SCORES ON CALCUTTA STAGE

  CALCUTTA - G.I.'s stationed here now have the opportunity to see one of Broadway's most famous stage comedies, It's "Personal Appearance," produced by the Fortieth Special Service Company, which opened here last week and is scheduled to play every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night at Calcutta's gigantic Monsoon Square Garden.
  The three-act laff riot which revolves around the erotic antics of a screen siren stranded in a small town and her attempts to ensure the local inventor in her curvaceous clutches features Jean De Bear, local ARC lassie. Proving her versatility, Miss De Bear is variously slinky, alluring and catty as Carole Arden, the Hollywood glamorette.
  Playing Bud, the local yokel mechanic, who for no reason that we can figure out, tries to stave off Miss Arden's advances, the 40th SS Co. offers a newcomer to the I-B stage, Dennis Allen. Hand-picked by movieman Melvyn Douglas in his recent U.S. talent hunt for G.I. performers to fill out the roster of the 40th. Allen has an extensive background in Army and civilian theatricals.
  A scene-snatcher, Andy Duggan gives out as Tuttle, Miss Arden's press agent and makes with the sharp lines. After last night's performance, Andy is one boy who can literally say, "they loved me in Calcutta!" A standby in EPU's drama section, Andy toured the India-Burma area with another hit, "Who Was That Lady?"
  Vying for Bud's hand is his local girl friend, Joyce Struthers. Played by Jackie Baxter, ARC, who was last seen by Calcutta commandos as Audrey, the frustrated wife in Special Service's "Three Men On A Horse." Miss Baxter again turns in a sterling performance in this, her latest stage vehicle.
  Others in the cast include Barbara Bissel as Gladys, Joyce's bobby socks friend; Elinor Grant as Aunt Kate; Peggy Nevin as Mrs. Struthers, Joyce's mother; Royal Dano as Clyde Pelton, another local garageman; Herbert Mushkhat who appears as Johnson, Miss Arden's chauffeur; and Geraldine Fleming as Jessie, Miss Arden's personal maid. All female parts are played by Red Cross gals.


Equipment Convoys Choke ‘Road’
  By CPL. PHIL RITTER   Roundup Field Correspondent

  LEDO - The Ledo Road is open again! Yes, that "ol' debbil road" has come to life and over its dusty tortuous length once more the weary convoys crawl. From Bhamo, they come and Myitkyina and Shing . . . back up the level reaches of the Hukawng to rise again through the twisted heights of the Patkais.
  War's end had found ton upon ton of equipment in Burma or en route through Burma. What cannot be sold on the spot in Burma must be returned to India for sale or for shipment to the States.
  Back down the dusty length of the Ledo lifeline are coming dozers, almost 200 of them crawling their way home. Behind them they tow 25-ton cranes, rock crushers and shovels. Thirty miles is a good day's run for these crunching, grinding monsters. Two hundred and fifty "six-by's," prime movers and lumbering 60-ton trailers are coming, groaning under capacity loads. Concrete mixers, graders, scrapers, Bailey bridges, pontons, outboard motors, generators . . . the "heavy stuff" is coming out . . . that's why the Ledo Road is open again.
  Charged with the mission of removing the heavy and valuable equipment are three veteran outfits. Aided by specialized personnel from other units, are the 330th Engineer General Service Regiment with its commander, Colonel Warren George, co-ordinating the entire move, the 823rd Engineer Aviation Battalion under Captain R. L. Bethea and the 45th Engineer General Service Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. H. E. Greenlee.
  The movement from Bhamo, at the 370-mile mark, to Ledo, the end of the run is divided into three parts for operation and maintenance. The first leg is from Bhamo to Myitkyina and the responsibility for the movement of equipment over this section goes to the 823rd Engineer Aviation Battalion. In addition, the unit maintains the road in its sector and provides refueling stations throughout. The same job is done between Myitkyina and Shingbwiyang by the officers and men of the 45th Engineer General Service Regiment. The 330th Engineers perform a like function on the last of the three legs, from Shing to Ledo.
  Through the combined efforts of these three Engineer units, there is a refueling stop on an average of every 40 miles. There are way-stations especially equipped to provide hot meals and to permit every man a Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner.
  Goal of the homing caravans is the sprawling Engineer Supply Depot at Lewhapani. Here, on arrival, equipment is checked and inspected for transit damage.


TINY ATC UNIT DOES JOB
  By ERNEST M. DHARMA

  RANGOON - (UP) - In this shattered and shell-pocked city of fabulous golden Shwe Dagon Pagoda - famed and venerated shrine of the Buddhists of Burma - the tiniest detachment of ATC personnel, perhaps, in all of the vast India-Burma Theater functions as a maintenance unit.
  It was in mid-July of this year, that two officers and six enlisted men of this unit arrived here to set up operations. The unit has since engaged in maintaining the flights of the ICD-ATC Wing, which operates now with clockwork regularity on the Calcutta - Rangoon - Bangkok - Singapore run and back.
  Peak strength reached was two officers and 17 EM. Today, there are two officers and 10 EM. The men occupy the bungalows once occupied by the elite of the Japanese Army here, and situated on a stretch of shore overlooking the beautiful Kokine Lake - once the city's Lido.
  It is not as though these men were the first G.I.'s to arrive in the capital. Officers and men of an OSS detachment came ashore with the first British landing parties in May. But, somehow, it seems it was the G.I. with the inevitable jeep bearing the ATC marking who, whizzing thru the bomb-cratered streets of the city, made the citizenry realize that the Americans were "over here."
  The C.O. is Maj. Andrew J. Prokop of St. Joseph, Mo. Maybe that's plain, common-sense! Captain Melvin R. Thacher of Jackson, Mich., is second in command by virtue of the fact that he is the other officer at the post. Be that as it may, the men refer to him as a "regular guy," and you can't want more praise than that as an officer.
  1st Sgt. Greg LaLonde, Detroit, Mich., is the complete antithesis of the tough, barking, mean "First Kick." he used to be a college athlete and a great all-rounder on the playing fields. He spends his spare time rowing on the lake, pitching ball and soothing the men with gripes. His favorite theme: His two-year-old son and the wife who await his homecoming.
  S/Sgt. James McGown of Canonsburg, Pa. - Mac, to you - is the post engineer. There is nothing dour about this American-Scotch specimen.
  Cpl. John Ponish of Altoona, pa., veteran of Myitkyina, is in charge of the cooking.
  And the other G.I.'s who go to make this team are just as fine a bunch as ever. They squawk and they grouse and they cuss - like all G.I.'s do - and, meanwhile, accomplish a routine but nevertheless difficult job with the best zest in the world.
  This might be the tiniest group of representatives of the ICD-ATC in any single Oriental city of the South-East Asia theater of operations, but it is doing a grand job in the best traditions of the United States Army.

LADY WAVELL ENTERTAINS IN NEW DELHI
Lady Wavell, Vicereine of India, recently entertained members of U.S. forces at the Viceroy's House in New Delhi. Shown above on the terrace are Kay Jackson, ARC; Lady Wavell, Cpl. Ray Wernimont, Eleanora Anderson, ARC; S/Sgt. Charles Knichman, M/Sgt. George E. William and S/Sgt. Paul M. Pereira.

OSS BAND HELD BURMA LINES
  By CPL. MICHAEL J. VALENTI   Roundup Staff Writer

  The veil of secrecy has been torn off the story of how the boys of the Office of Strategic Services turned in their cloaks and daggers for automatic rifles and bazookas in the battle of Burma.
  In an official, dramatic narrative, there is contained the amazing tale of a force of 3,200 virtually raw recruits pitted against a seasoned force of 10,000 Japanese troops with every advantage of firepower, position and supply.
  The story starts in April of this year. The situation in Burma verged on the brink of the critical. The campaign had been going smoothly, when almost overnight the picture took on an ominous dark hue for the Allies in north Burma.
  Japanese successes in China forced preparations for the return of battle-hardened Chinese troops to fight on their own soil. The Mars Task Force had also been ordered to China. SEAC had been depending on the Northern Combat Area Command to secure the 10,000 square miles of the central Shan States. Intensifying the somber hues of the picture was the rejoining of the British 36th Division, so vital to NCAC operations, with its parent 14th Army. The study in bleakness was completed by the stoppage of the remnants of the CAI (Chinese Army in India) at the Lashio-Haipaw-Kyaukmi line.
  If the enemy was not immediately ousted from the Shan States he would enjoy tremendous advantages which might spell another "licking" in the Burma link between Indian supply bases and China. The Jap would be able to hang onto not merely a line of communications to Thailand but also the only escape route in the Central Shan States in case of emergency. In addition, he could menace the Burma Road from ideally-planted positions.
  At this point the protagonist of the tale enters - Detachment 101 of O.S.S., until then engaged primarily in intelligence and guerilla work. They volunteered to undertake the job of smashing the Japs in the Central Shan States.
  It was a bold request. Here was an organization that knew only the ways of the silent, creeping saboteur and the sudden strike technique of the guerilla band, offering to take on a purely infantry mission against a battle-wise, infantry-trained enemy, superior in every department, except heart. Further the Jap had had ample time to dig in and fortify.
  But Detachment 101 had met the Jap in North Burma before and had proved more than his match. The first phases had concentrated mainly on intelligence. Native village headmen had been enlisted far behind Jap lines and 101 had woven a net of informers on Jap strength and movements.
  At one time, the Detachment had at its command, for guerilla warfare, a force of 9,200 native troops. But at the termination of the Lashio operation in Feb. '45, these were disbanded, and with them was sluiced off all 101's power.
   So with the approximately 300 Americans who were left, Det. 101 was confronted with a total reconversion from intelligence to battle tactics and the necessity of recruiting, training and arming a new crop of native fighters. The job had to be done fast - (1) because of the urgency of the task to be performed and (2) because they were deep behind the Jap lines.
  About 3,200 Burmese were recruited and promptly introduced to automatic weapons, bazookas, light machine guns and mortars. They were instructed in the bare rudiments of the weapons - the great thing wad to learn how to pull the trigger and load the breech.
  Soon the stage was set for the mission, described by Lt. Gen. Daniel I. Sultan as amounting to clearing the enemy from the Shan States between Mongyai, Maymyo, Heho and Kyusawk. The right flank of the Japanese 15th Army was to be bitten into and, if possible, chewed to shreds.
  How the Jap position looked was, due to excellent intelligence, quite clear to the Americans. What they faced was elements of the Jap 18th and 56th Divisions, estimated at 5,000 in the north sector of the States and an equal number in the Kalaw-Taunggyi-Hopong District. It was known these troops had besides standard Jap infantry weapons - artillery, tankettes and motor transportation. They had ample supplies and they knew how to fight.
  On their side of the ledger, Det. 101 could reckon up the 3,200 natives - untried but willing - and nothing heavier in the way of artillery than mortars. Supplies would have to be air-dropped.
  To win their goal against those odds, surprise was a must. The Jap must not be permitted to merge his might. This was to be accomplished in face of Jap-organized intelligence among anti-Allied natives ready to faithfully report the slightest hostile move.
  A four-pronged pincers movement was decided on as the best strike tactic. For this, the meager detachment forces were deployed into four battalions.
  The curtain went up on the campaign of the Central Shan States. From 10 April to 8 May the four outfits pounded the Jap outer security screens slowly forcing them back by a continual series of sledgehammer blows. Tactics were constantly shifted to compensate for Det. 101's numerical inferiority and to combat the stubborn resistance.
  Bhamo headquarters co-ordinated the battalion's blows perfectly, throwing feints, hitting under the guard,
REDS IN CHINA
HOLD U.S. FLIERS

  SHANGHAI - (UP) - No results have been obtained in efforts to negotiate the release of several U.S. Marine airmen held prisoner by Chinese communists, Lt. Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer's headquarters announced this week.
  Attempts had been made to contact Communist headquarters and the Central Chinese government had also made queries, but without results.
and generally contributing to the Jap troops' feeling that an avenging four-armed Burmese god had been unleashed among them.
  Against the ever-mounting threat of 101, the enemy loosed a series of ferocious attacks, starting May 8. Tactics of 101 abruptly changed. Suddenly it resumed its old role of the lightning stroke coming out of nowhere, leaving no trace. Bridges vanished, motor transport met annihilation at every bend of the roads.
  This was the turning point. From there on in, the Jap got it everywhere - front, back, side and top. The mission was ended on June 5 when Rangers took the road from Kyusawk to Namsang. The Central Shan States had been liberated.
  Det. 101 had killed 1,247 Japanese, destroyed many vehicles, demolished or captured four large dumps, and inflicted extensive damage on enemy communications, installations and supplies. The cost to 101 counted 2 Americans and 35 natives killed and 135 Americans and natives wounded.
  The threat to the Burma Road was removed. The land supply line for the battle of China remained intact. For their part in that achievement, Det. 101 received a unit citation on Nov. 16 from Theater Commander Maj. Gen. Thomas A. Terry.


Theater Cagers Primed For Calcutta Tourney

  CALCUTTA - Representation from all parts of India and Burma is anticipated when the theater basketball tourney gets underway next Monday eve at Monsoon Square Garden.
  The schedule provides for three games Monday night and three more Tuesday. A bye has been declared for Wednesday, since the cement floor is a bit rough on the tootsies. Play will resume Thursday night, again Friday and the championship finale is carded for Saturday evening.
  Included among the official entries is the Salua Army Air Base, which features a former St. John's player in T/5 Leonard Lobreski. Others entered are the 305th Air Service Group, Indal; A.A.C.S. Detachment, Karachi;
HEIGHT IS MIGHT . . Typical of the action which will mark the I.B.T. basket tourney which starts Dec. 10 in Calcutta, is this scene from the Calcutta area finals. Craddock (left) of the Panagarh Ramblers and Charlie Snow of the Tollygunge Staters lunge for the pelota. Panagarh won, 36-33.
Delta Air Depot, Ranikhei; 500th Air Service Squadron, Tezgaon, and a permanent party team from Camp Kanchrapara.
  A team from New Delhi also is due to compete and is composed of all-star selections from the recent tourney staged by the 835th Signal Service Bn. Other possibles are the 181st General Hospital, Malir and a permanent party outfit from Repple Depple No. 1.
  Rosters of some of the entrants, the hometown of the players and their college backgrounds are as follows:



Memphis Fighter Wins At Chabua

  CHABUA - Billie Cox, 129-pounder from Memphis, gave Sam Anthony, 126 of Madras, a boxing lesson to highlight the second Punch Bowl fight card at Replacement Depot No. 5.
  Anthony bounced off the canvas from Cox very first punch, but did come back to make a go of it.
  Displaying a strong right-hand, Johnny Naylor of Chicago, 173, put away Chang Hye of Singapore, 175, in the first round. Another knockout was registered by Henry Hayes, 149-pounder from Birmingham who finished Milton Hyman, St. Louis, welter, in two rounds on a technical kayo.
  Norman Gnalekof of Chicago, 150, took the verdict from George Pearson, 154, of Philadelphia. And William Parker, 143, of Cumberland, Ky., likewise found success at the expense of Bill Herman, 139, of Baltimore.
  In an all-India affair, Mather Kristhmer took the nod from John Berdargo.
  The six-man free-for-all, again, put on by local Indians, brought out a shower of coins from the packed throng. Capt. Haley M Jamerson, depot CO, was host to the boxers at a steak dinner afterwards and the Red Cross again came through with coffee and doughnuts during the program.


I-B OFFICERS FAVOR EM TERMINAL LEAVE PAY
  By CPL. ED ALEXANDER   Roundup Staff Writer

  Should G.I.'s receive terminal leave pay on the same basis as officers? "Yes," was the consensus of opinion among high ranking officers at I-B Theater Headquarters available for interview by the Roundup. Of the top men in the theater poled, none dissented from this view, and only one declined to comment.
  Officers now receive terminal leave pay on discharge equal to the accumulated leave-time they have been unable to take while in service. Demands that enlisted men should receive the same benefits were heard on the floor of Congress last week, according to Army News Service, in speeches by Rep. Erret P. Seriver (R.-Kan.) and Sen. Henrik Shipstead (R.-Minn.).
  Col. S. F. Griswold, I-B Theater Inspector General felt that as long as officers now receive terminal leave pay on discharge, as a matter of non-discrimination, enlisted men are certainly entitle to it as well.
  Chief of Theater Leadership and Morale, Col. Donald A. Young, agreed that the G.I. is entitled to terminal leave payment as a dividend for the sacrifices he has made during the war. Looking at the proposition from the point of view of the post-war Regular Army, Col. Young felt that any move which would raise the soldier's income would help attract a finer type of man to the service.
  Some officers interviewed pointed out that a distinction between officer's leave and enlisted man's furlough exists. They claimed that officers are paid for unused leave time because leaves to officers are considered an allowance somewhat similar to allowances for clothing, rations and quarters. However, they claimed, legally, enlisted men's furloughs are considered to be a privilege granted them by commanding officers.
  To pay enlisted men furlough time would assume that furloughs are a right, rather than a privilege, some averred. However, those queried on this point agreed that the desirability of achieving more equal treatment for G.I.'s and officers, and of increasing incomes should override this legal consideration.
  Lt. Col. Benjamin S. beach, chief Theater chaplain, stated that as a matter of personal opinion he saw no reason under the sun why if such pay is granted to officers it should not be granted to enlisted men as well. He recalled days when he put in a three year hitch as an enlisted man in the Regular Army in Hawaii.
  On discharge, he said that he certainly could have used the money. Col. Beach felt that if there was any legal distinction between enlisted men's furloughs and officer's leaves, it should be swept away.


ROUNDUP SALAAMS

  Compliments for CBI Roundup were received this week from OWI in San Francisco. They disclosed a unique form of news lend-lease whereby the Roundup supplied OWI with vital news of the CBI Theater.
  The story was revealed this week upon the arrival in New Delhi of Jorges Orgibet, former newscaster and news commentary writer for OWI in San Francisco. Orgibet is en route to Bangkok, Siam, where he will assume his new post as Mass Media Officer of the United States Information Service, attached to the American Legation. He arrived in Delhi November 28th.
  According to Orgibat, Roundup reciprocated with OWI in its news output - although the Delhi staff knew nothing about it. Here's how it worked: Copies of Roundup were received in San Francisco, withal a trifle late. But they furnished OWI with vital information concerning the Burma campaign news which had not been made available from any other source. For instance, the movements of several divisions previously unreported by American news sources were picked up from Roundup. In turn they were re-written for translation and broadcast overseas in several languages to the vast international radio audience of "The Voice of America" from San Francisco OWI stations.
  Particular use of the Roundup was made by the Burmese and Siamese language sections of OWI. These divisions were in charge of the broadcasts both in English and in Burmese and Siamese to those countries. About 15 writers were employed on a three-shift basis to furnish the translators with sufficient copy for the many programs broadcast from San Francisco to those two target areas.
  "When I left San Francisco," said Orgibet, "The staff urged me to convey the good wishes and compliments to the Roundup staff upon arrival."


CHUNGKING TROOPS AT TAHUSHAN

  CHUNGKING - (ANS) - Nationalist troops advancing along the Peiping-Mukden railroad this week had reached Tahushan, only 65 miles west of Mukden, Chinese dispatches said Sunday. The Associated Press reported that Chinese Communist troops have dug in at Tahushan for a firm stand against the Central Government forces.
  Earlier in the week the Central Government announced the fall of the important Hopei province highway center of Feisang to the Communists after a three-month siege.
  Meanwhile, a Chinese government spokesman disclosed that Russia has agreed to delay the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Manchuria until Jan. 3. The agreement will enable Chinese Government personnel to take over the administration of Manchuria and will permit Nationalist troops to move in before the Soviet withdrawal is completed, the spokesman said.
  A dispatch from the U.S. fleet off Manchuria Monday disclosed that American naval personnel will begin training Chinese crews this week in the operation and maintenance of amphibious vessels. U.S. Seventh Fleet commander Vice Admiral Daniel E. Barbey said that the school, which will be held at Taingtao, will be for the purpose of providing Chinese crews for ships employed in effecting the terms of the Japanese surrender.


HUMP FERRY CANCELED

  WASHINGTON - (ANS) - Ferrying of American airplanes from India to the Shanghai area of China has ended because of bad weather which caused the loss of several planes and their crews, the War Department disclosed this week.
  In reply to questions about reports of 700 USAAF planes being delivered to the Nationalist Government, the War Department spokesman referred questioners to a news conference in China by Lt. Gen. Albert Wedemeyer, commander of U.S. forces in the China Theater.
  Wedemeyer said at Chungking that 11 P-51 fighter planes have been lost enroute to Shanghai. He said two pilots were killed and one is missing. Eight reportedly parachuted to safety.
  Wedemeyer's explanation for the flight was that some American planes were being collected in the Shanghai area where, said the general, the Chinese could buy them if they so desired.


War Crimes Trial Slated In SEAC Soon
  Roundup Staff Article

  The machinery of justice to exact retribution from the Japanese perpetrators of war crimes against American POW's in Southeast Asia has been greatly accelerated, Brig. Gen. C. C. Fenn, Theater Judge Advocate and chief of I-B War Crimes Branch, disclosed this week.
  It is believed the U.S. will avail itself of British tribunals to be appointed by the Commanding General, SACSEA. The British plan to establish 12 military courts with a permanent prosecutor for each court. These courts will function at various places throughout the SEAC area including Rangoon, Bangkok, Saigon, Singapore and Batavia, with trial of the major war crimes cases at Singapore.
  Invitations have been extended to all Allied Commands, to place representatives on the courts in all cases involving Allied POW's as well as to furnish a prosecutor in all cases.
  A War Crimes Registry and Legal Section under the command of ALFSEA (Allied Land Forces, Southeast Asia Command) has been set up at Singapore. Function of the Registry Section primarily will be to obtain evidence on war crimes and prepare cases for trial. The Legal Section will then pass upon the legal sufficiency of the evidence and forward the case to the prosecutor for trial.
  A USF-IBT War Crimes Branch representative will be stationed at Singapore in order to make available all evidence on file necessary for prosecution of American POW cases.
  Lt. Col. John E. Murray is acting as field representative for War Crimes Branch in the SEAC area and will supervise the investigation of cases against war crimes suspects and interrogation and identification of Japanese and Korean personnel now in custody.
  Assistant War Crimes Branch representatives will be stationed at various key places throughout SEAC and will work with SSU detachments in the prosecution of war crimes work.
  War Crimes Branch, IBT, has announced it has approximately 40 cases involving the deaths of many American POW's and approximately 200 additional cases involving less serious offences such as beating not resulting in death or serious bodily injury, compelling work on military projects, pilfering of Red Cross supplies, etc.
  A target date for the first American war crimes trial has been set for the first week in January, with all major cases completed by May 1, 1946.


Lost In Malir Desert, Clark Waits For Rescue
  By SGT. CHARLES W. CLARK   Ex-Roundup Staff Writer

  SOMEWHERE IN MALIR, I THINK - Once upon a time there was a Roundup staffer who described the general layout of Replacement Depot No. 1 as "more confusing than a mystery mirror house." That is an understatement. The same writer went on to say that, armed with an issue map of the camp, a guy just couldn't possibly get lost. That is a damn lie.
  Couple of days ago loaded with two barracks bags and 60 points, I jumped off a truck into the two-feet-thick dust that is Camp Malir. Three hours later I was processed, assigned to a barracks, and told to wait. Since that day, I've been utterly and completely lost.
  I'm not alone, however. There are nearly 15,000 guys here sweating out a boat home ("comin' in Saturday," they always say), and approximately half that number are wandering up and down these dusty desert roads, completely befuddled, consulting maps, asking questions (of other lost comrades), mumbling to themselves, all looking vainly for "home." It has been estimated that nearly 2,000 wanderers never find their barracks before dark and consequently sleep beside the road.
  There is a map of this squirrel cage. A good map it is, too - under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, however, someone forgot to put up enough street signs. And the ones that were put up have since been destroyed or playfully switched by G.I. pranksters. What profit a man to know his barracks is on Alabama Street if there is no street labeled such?
  My own nomadic existence began when a guy named Mac (he didn't give his last name) talked me into walking from Area L (home) to visit a friend of his in Area P, a distance apparently, of nearly 79 miles. "I know this place like the back of my hand," he boasted. That was four days ago. I should have stood in my sack.
  We carefully plotted our course and started walking. We walked and walked (There are a good many automobiles zooming about, but these are not for you.)
  Finally, after two hours of walking, Mac, damn him, admitted what I had feared all along. We were lost. Naturally. So we approached a British soldier walking our way.
  "Which way to Area P?" we asked, in unison.
  The Tommy spat into the dust disgustedly and replied, "You speak to me of Area P, Ha! I'm looking for El Alamein!"
  And so he was. He was a member of the British Eighth Army which once trained here. He trudged away mumbling, "It bloody well must be around here somewhere."
  They tell the story around here - and I, for one, believe it - of the G.I. with 98 points who has been on three shipping lists and still can't get home. Each time he's told to pack his bag and go to the loading area, he gets lost. And instead of winding up in the happy throng loading onto the trucks, he ends up in the processing line, is re-processed and sent back to the barracks. Lt. Col. Franklin Pruyn, Depot bossman here, has promised to lead him by the hand all the way to the boat next time.
  Mac and I have now given up idea of ever getting back to our home in Area L. We never did find Area P either. What we did find was the Information and Education Office, where Lt. Norman T. Walker and Cpl. Chet Holcombe, two kindly fellows, have taken us to their hearts and given us refuge.



The Roundup is a weekly newspaper of the United States Forces, published by and for the men in Burma and India, from news and pictures supplied by staff members, soldier correspondents, Army News Service and United Press. The Roundup is published Thursday of each week and is printed by The Statesman in New Delhi and Calcutta, India. Editorial matter should be sent directly to T/Sgt. Arthur Heenan, Hq., U.S.F., I.B.T., APO 885, New York, N.Y., and should arrive not later than Saturday in order to be included in that week's issue. Pictures must arrive by Friday and must be negatives or enlargements. Stories should contain full name and organization of sender. Complaints about circulation should be sent directly to Capt. Drexel Nixon, Base Section APO 465, New York, N.Y. Units on the mailing list should make notification of any major change in personnel strength or any change of APO.









DECEMBER 6, 1945  

Original issue of India-Burma Theater Roundup shared by CBI Veteran Douglas MacLeod


Copyright © 2009 Carl Warren Weidenburner






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