Posted on 05/22/2012 4:11:30 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Axis Belt Pierced (Parker) – 2-3
A Withholding Tax of 10% is Proposed by the Treasury (MacCormac) – 4-5
War News Summarized – 4
Foe Loses Warship and 2 Freighters – 5
Community Heads Favor Sales Tax (Gallup) – 5
Willow Run Plant a Wonder of War (by Sidney M. Shalett, first-time contributor) – 6-7
The War at Sea-II (Baldwin) – 9
Phone Ban Caused by Goering Speech (Axelsson) – 9
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on Fighting in Various Zones – 10-11
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/may42/f22may42.htm
US expands draft by 3.1 million
Friday, May 22, 1942 www.onwar.com
In Washington... President Roosevelt orders the Selective Service registration of all male Americans residents who reach the age of 18 or 19 before June 30th or has reached the age of 20 since December 31, 1941. This fifth registration will generate 3.1 million new names. The same day he warns against a flood of optimism (in the wake of the Doolittle Raid of April 18th) and says it will be a long war.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
May 22nd, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM:
Submarine depot ship HMS Wolfe commissioned.
Escort carrier HMS Hunter (ex-HMS Trailer ex-USS Block Island) launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY:
U-366 laid down.
U-264 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: Kharkov: A titanic struggle is going on south of Kharkov where the Russians and Germans have launched offensives at the same time. Marshal Timoshenko was quicker off the mark and his men, breaking the German line, have advanced 30 miles in three days.
The Germans have retaliated by striking at Izyum, at the south-eastern base of the bulge created by the Russian advance. Timoshenko’s forces are in danger of being cut off, with the Sixth Army of von Bock’s Army Group South coming down from the north to meet von Kleist’s group (Seventeenth Army and 1st Panzer Army), thus tying to neck of the sack south of Balakleya. There are signs that Timoshenko has realised he is in danger and is trying to reinforce the bulge while pulling his vanguard back to safety. His problem is to persuade the reluctant Stalin to allow him to retreat. The battle grows fiercer every day, with tanks, guns, aircraft and men locked in combat while smoke rises from tanks burning on the Ukrainian steppes.
PORTUGESE TIMOR: With supplies arriving, the moral of the Australian troops of Sparrow Force on this island improves and they go on the offensive against the Japanese occupiers.
The Japanese, fed up with the lack of progress had had brought in an Army Major known as the “Singapore Tiger” a legend among his troops. He was soon in pursuit of a group of Australians who had raided Dilli. The Australians took their time setting up a good ambush next to a noisy waterfall along a narrow track. the Japanese Major almost caused the ambush to fail, but not however due to any of his renowned tactical skill; as Corporal Aitken of the 2/2nd describes the ambush —
“The (Japanese) formation was four forward scouts, a gap of 20 yards, four more, another gap and then the main body led by a nuggety lad with crossed straps and a sword. Naturally enough when fire opened the scouts and the boy with the sword copped most of the attention. Those uninjured in the van flopped to the track, disconcerted by the noise of the waterfall and evidently thinking the fire was coming from up the track rather than from above..... Five or six Japanese soldiers took cover under a flame tree in a rock hole on the uphill side of the track. They would have been perfectly safe had not Norm Thorton been expecting this and was sitting on top of the hole, and he proceeded to kill them with systematic machine gun fire. The main body did the only possible thing, which was to run like hell back down the track. “ (William L. Howard)(188, 189, 190, 191)
U.S.A.: Baseball star Ted Williams enlists in the U.S. Navy. He was initially classified 3-A because his mother was totally dependent on him. After we got into the war, he was reclassified 1-A. He appealed this to his draft board and they agreed that his status should not have been changed and he made a public statement that as soon as he had built up his mother’s trust fund, he would enlist. (Jack McKillop)(234)
Destroyer USS Kimberly laid down.
Escort carrier USS Altamaha launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
Maine’s director of civilian defenses, Col. Francis H. Farnum, announces that foreign agents both male and female have already landed on the coast of Maine and are investigating shipping prospects. Others, he warns, have come into the state from Canada. (Scott Peterson)
MEXICO: MEXICO City: Mexico declares war on the Axis from 1 June.
CARIBBEAN SEA: German submarine U-558 torpedoes an unarmed US tanker south of Jamaica, but the ship makes port under her own power. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 2010, the unescorted and unarmed Plow City was hit by one torpedo from U-588 about 200 miles off Cape May, New Jersey. The ship had spotted at 1500 hours a lifeboat with a sail from the Peisander, which had been sunk by U-653 on 17 May, but the master suspected an U-boat and fled the area on a zigzag course at eight knots. The U-boat had noticed the smoke, chased the ship for four hours before firing a spread of two torpedoes. The first missed by about five feet ahead and the second struck on the port side aft of the #2 hold at the waterline. The second mate was blown overboard by the explosion and drowned. The watch below secured the engines and the most of the eight officers and 23 crewmen abandoned ship in two lifeboats, while the radio operator stayed behind to send distress messages. At 2022, a coup de grâce hit the engine room on the starboard side and caused the ship to sink by the stern within three minutes. One survivor was taken aboard the U-boat for questioning and returned him along with rations of cigarettes and rum. The Germans also righted one of the boats that capsized during launching before leaving the area. The survivors were picked up after five days by patrol yacht USS Sapphire.
At 0730, U-753 stopped the sailing vessel EP Theriault with gunfire and placed demolition charges on board. The vessel was heavily damaged but did not sink.
The Canadian Upper Lakers and St. Lawrence Transportation bulk laker Frank B Baird (1,748 GRT), CS Tate, Master, was sunk SE of Bermuda in position 28.03N, 58.50W, by gunfire from U-158, Kptlt. Erwin Rostin, Knights Cross, CO. The ship was sailing independently from St. Lucia for Sydney, Cape Breton, with a load of bauxite. The Master, who had abandoned ship by jumping overboard, was unable to reach the two lifeboats and was in danger of drowning when he was sighted by U-158 and rescued. Kptlt. Rostin apologized for “sinking such a small ship so far from shore,” provided both boats with food, cigarettes and matches, and transferred Captain Tate to one of the lifeboats before departing. All 23 crewmen were rescued a few hours later by SS Talisman. They were landed in the Belgian Congo and, after a considerable period in West Africa, managed to return home to Canada and Barbados. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randolph_E._Paul
First as special assistant to the Secretary for the Tax Division, and later as the Department’s General Counsel, Acting Secretary of the Treasury for Foreign Funds Control, and the Roosevelt Administration’s chief spokesperson on tax matters on Capitol Hill, Paul convinced Morgenthau to embrace Keynesian principles and to consider taxation as a vehicle for social progress.
To this end, Paul was instrumental in defeating attempts to enact a regressive national sales tax and in transforming the federal income tax into the broad-based revenue source and tool of fiscal policy that exists today. The Government’s existing income tax system – in which taxpayers need not pay their tax bill for one year until the next, when the value of the dollar had fallen – exacerbated the problem. The confluence of these events required an exceptional solution, which the Paul-written Revenue Act of 1942 addressed. Paul is credited with modernizing the Internal Revenue Code and persuading Congress to enact the payroll withholding tax.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beardsley_Ruml
In the summer of 1942 Ruml proposed that the U.S. Treasury start collecting income taxes through a withholding, pay-as-you-go, system. He proposed an abatement on the previous year’s taxes, making up the revenue by immediately collecting on the current year’s taxes. In 1943 Congress adopted the withholding system.
Perhaps the best essay ever published on withholding and its long-term effects.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj14n3-1.html
EVOLUTION OF FEDERAL INCOME TAX WITHHOLDING: THE MACHINERY OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
by Charlotte Twight
Thanks for mentioning the submarine warfare by the Germans off the U.S. East Coast. Early in the war, using very few submarines (thanks Mr. Hitler for restricting the number of subs), the Germans devastated U.S. shipping. This is one little known aspect of the war. The slow response by the U.S. Navy (particularly Adm. King) led to the loss of many lives and ships.
A good and very interesting source on this is “Operation Drumbeat” by Michael Gannon. One of best books I’ve read in a long time.
The 10% withholding tax seemed like a radical idea at the time!
Withholding is the single most destructive action against citizens that has been taken by the US Government since 07/04/1776. That single action is what has allowed unfettered growth of central government, in my opinion.
Also - U.S.S. Saratoga leaves Bremerton Washington after completing repairs of the torpedo damage sustained in January. She is headed for San Diego where she will take on her aviation component.
CBS New of the World, 5/22/42:
http://ia701200.us.archive.org/0/items/1942RadioNews/1942-05-22-CBS-News-of-the-World-AM-Edition.mp3
If Mexico declares war on the Axis maybe it really will be over this year.
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