World War II Chronicle: August 16, 1942
Click here for TODAY’S NEWSPAPER
Today’s front page reports that a Douglas C-53 has crashed near Peru, Mass. The plane was part of an 11-ship formation of transports carrying members of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment from Pope Field, N.C. to Hyannis, Mass. when it flew into a peak in the Berkshire Mountains. All but three of the crew and passengers were killed, but Sgt. Robert Lee (or Robert Meed, depending on sources) was able to carry four soldiers from the blazing wreckage. Two of those men survived. Sgt. Lee’s clothes had been completely burned off and was given a 50-50 chance of surviving. He managed to draw police officers to the remote crash site by firing his weapon…
Also on the front page, Pvt. Clark Gable tried to evade three female reporters in New Orleans as he ran to catch his train on the way to Miami Beach. He missed the train, so the most persistent journalist of the bunch got her story… Another notable actor, Lew Ayres, is pictured on page two. Ayres will serve stateside as a first-aid instructor before requesting to be dropped in rank so he can serve as a medic in the Pacific Theater. He donates all of his paychecks to the Red Cross…
Two West Point dropouts have just been given new commands: Maj. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges now heads X Corps and Maj. Gen. Lloyd R. Fredendall has XI Corps. Hodges’ geometry scores knocked him out of the Military Academy and he enlisted as an infantryman. He served with George Marshall in the Philippines and George Patton in Mexico. He quickly rose through the ranks and after taking a qualification test to become an officer, and was commissioned a second lieutenant about the same time he would have graduated from West Point.
Hodges earned the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star during World War I. He later served as an instructor at West Point, then became Commandant of the Army Infantry School, where he befriended Omar Bradley.
Fredendall dropped out due to mathematics, was re-appointed then dropped out again, then passed the Army’s officer qualification exam. He too served in the Philippines and was an instructor for the American Expeditionary Force in France during World War I… Col. Caleb V. Haynes, whom we have discussed several times previously, is among several officers decorated for evacuating thousands of troops from Burma (page 21). Haynes served as Commander of the Assam-Burma-China Ferry Command before establishing and leading China Air Task Force’s Bomber Command…
This week in the war summarized on page 32… Sports section begins on page 38… Francis Warren Pershing, son of Gen. John J. Pershing, has graduated officer training school (see page 76)… Gen. Jimmy Doolittle’s son John, a plebe at the West Point, is pictured on page 80 during field exercises.
Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 16 August 1942. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1942-08-16/ed-1/