CBI Theater in March – part one

Editorial staff of the CBI Roundup

These headlines and articles are from the CBI Roundup, newspapers distributed during March 1945.\

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The tanned men in unpressed khaki raised their right hands, were sworn in by Theater Adjutant General, Col. Frank Milani – and the Army of the United States had 10 new second lieutenants.  In such a simple ceremony were enlisted men of the Mars Task Force rewarded at Theater headquarters for combat duty in North Burma that culminated in the opening of the Burma Road from Lashio to Kunming.

They were from eight states of the Union and their ratings ranged from a buck to master sergeants. But after the Adjutant General had signed their commissions, they were eight lieutenants of Infantry and two of Cavalry.  The Infantrymen were with Merrill’s Marauders in the first appearance of American land forces on the continent of Asia, in the campaign that saw their objective taken with the seizure of Myitkyina. Then they joined the 475th Infantry as part of the Mars Force.

Col. Frank Milani giving the oath to 10 new Lt.’s

The Cavalrymen came over here with the 124th Cavalry, which, acting in a dismounted role, made up with the 475th Infantry the component units of the Mars Task Force. They were S/Sgt. Carl R. Hill of Hooker, Tex., and Sgt. Arnold Winkleman of Brenham, Tex.

The Infantrymen were First Sgt. Rupert E. Peters, Arlington, Neb., First Sgt. Kenneth O. LaGrange, Tucson, Ariz., T/Sgt. William McCauley, Phoenix, Ariz., M/Sgt. Hunt Dorn Crawford, Louisville, Ky., T/Sgt. Willie E. Morton, Jacksonville, N.C., First Sgt. William J. Aydt, Merchantsville, N.J., First Sgt. Bernard Block, Long Beach, Calif., and M/Sgt. Valen V. Mellin, Eugene, Ore. Mellin is the man who shot the first Jap at Myitkyina last May.

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FLYING COLUMN

The British sent a flying column out from the 19th Indian Division and these troops smashed right into Mandalay. The last reports are that the British were clearing the city, with the Nips holed up in Fort Dufferin. Combat Cargo planes are airdropping supplies to the British.

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30,000 Japanese Face Trap In Burma

As the Northern Combat Area Command troops of Lt. Gen. Dan I. Sultan drove the Japanese south, British 14th Army units virtually closed the trap on an estimated 30,000 of the enemy if the Myingyan, Meiktila, Mandalay triangle’

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CALCUTTA – Eight members of a crashed B-29 were recently “fished” from the Bay of Bengal in a strange rescue by an American colonel and two enlisted men on an Army fishing cruise in which the rescued airmen were the only “catch.”

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Home Front News

NEW YORK – (UP) – Top numbers this week on nationwide juke-boxes were Rum and Coca Cola, by the Andrews Sisters, Accentuate the Positive, as performed by Bing Crosby and the Andrews gals, and Frankie Carle’s rendition of A Little on the Lonely Side.

The Crosby-Andrews version of Don’t Fence Me In was fourth, ahead of Frank Sinatra singing Saturday Night is Loneliest, Harry James’ trumpet in I’m Beginning to See the Light and Les Brown’s orchestra playing My Dreams Are Getting Better.

I Dream of You, (T. and J. Dorsey), More ‘n’ More, (Tommy Dorsey) and Candy (Dinah Shore), filled out the leading ten.

Click on images to enlarge.

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Military Humor – CBI Style

 

 

“Strictly G.I.” by Ehret

 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Robert Bachman – Wilmington, DE; US Army, WWII, CBI, Signal Corps

Patrick Callagy – San Francisco, CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division

Robert DeMoss – Tulsa, OK; US Army, WWII, CBI

William Graham – Hartford, CT; US Army, WWII, CBI/PTO

Albert Hillmeyer – Elmendorf, TX; USMC, WWII, PTO/CBI, radioman

John Ingersoll – Ann Arbor, MI; US Army Air Corps, WWII, CBI, 14th Air Force

Andrew Kowalski – Lambert, PA, US Army, WWII, PTO, Colonel (Ret.)

Miroslav Liškutin – brn: CZE; C Air Force/French Armée de l’Air/RAF, WWII, ETO, Spitfire pilot, BGen. (Ret.23 y.)

Raymond Sinowitz – Bronx, NY; US Army, WWII, PTO, Pvt., POW, KIA

William Waltrip – Springfield, IL; USMC, WWII, PTO,’Edson’s Raiders’, Purple Heart/ Korea, Bronze Star, (Ret. 22 y.)

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