Your Daytime Radio Newspaper 1943-11-03 Your Daytime Radio Newspaper

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Your Daytime Radio Newspaper" (1943-11-03)
Host: Harold's Old Time Radio
Release Date: May 1, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of "Your Daytime Radio Newspaper," broadcasted on November 3, 1943, hosts Derward Kirby and Bernardine Flynn bring listeners a blend of significant wartime news and engaging human interest stories. The program meticulously avoids advertisements, intros, and outros, focusing solely on delivering valuable content from the Golden Age of Radio.

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Major News Segment by Derward Kirby

State of the German War Machine

Derward Kirby opens the news segment with a comprehensive update on the deteriorating position of the German forces in Italy and other fronts:

• Italian Front: The German defenses before Rome are collapsing under relentless Allied assaults. Kirby notes, "The German line before Rome is breaking and the Germans have begun an orderly retreat" (00:53).

• Territorial Advances: American troops have advanced three miles, positioning themselves within artillery range of Essernia and Venafro, securing a complete observation on the Gariano river valley.

• British 8th Army Movements: On the Adriatic side, the British 8th Army has established a second bridgehead across the Trino river, indicating significant progress.

• Aerial Warfare: Allied air forces achieved a substantial victory by downing 37 enemy planes, including 30 destroyed by Flying Fortresses and Liberators during a raid on Wiener Ne near Vienna. Kirby highlights, "That raid... is described as one of the most successful ever carried out in the Mediterranean theater" (02:30).

• Naval Actions: American bombers mistakenly targeted an Italian cruiser, resulting in its sinking in Ancona harbor. Additionally, heavy American bomber forces have been dispatched to northwest Germany, though targets remain undisclosed.

• Yugoslavian Front: Partisan sources reveal that Russia is assisting Yugoslav pilots to strengthen the partisan air force with captured enemy aircraft, bolstering resistance efforts.

• Russian Advances: The Russian forces are swiftly dismantling German defenses, particularly in South Russia's Krivoy Rog area, expecting to annihilate 100,000 German troops.

• Allied Diplomacy: In Cairo, diplomats are convening to discuss Turkey's future, with potential implications of Turkey's entry into the war.

• Internal Allied Dynamics: French General de Gaulle has asserted France's desire for an equal role in post-war settlements, hinting at possible tensions within the Allied coalition.

• Pacific Theater: Admiral Halsey lauds the American invasion of Bougainville as a pivotal venture, noting Japanese forces' inability to halt Allied progress. Recent naval engagements suggest Japanese warships are retreating from contested areas like Rabaul, New Britain.

• Japanese Morale: American correspondents aboard the liner Grips Home report unwavering Japanese morale despite hardships, with expectations of continued support for the war effort.

Home Front Developments

Derward Kirby also touches upon significant events on the American home front:

• Political Climate: Republican candidates have secured multiple victories in state and city elections, signaling potential shifts in national political landscapes heading towards the 1944 elections.

• Labor Strikes: The enforcement of President Roosevelt's directive for coal miners to return to work has largely been ignored, with strikes persisting in major producing states, highlighting ongoing labor tensions.

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Human Interest Stories by Bernardine Flynn

Training American Soldiers for Invasion

Bernardine Flynn delves into the rigorous training exercises conducted by thousands of American soldiers in Britain at the American Assault School:

• Realistic Training: Soldiers undergo invasion simulations with live ammunition and explosives. Flynn recounts a correspondent's observation: “The noise shut out everything else in the world and the ground shook... we went on with the smoke of 100 shells around us” (06:02).

• Risk and Reality: The training is perilous, with actual casualties occurring during practice drills. Colonel John Horton emphasizes the risks, stating, “we can't guarantee that you won't be killed” (06:35).

Culinary Tips with Crisco

Flynn transitions to domestic life, highlighting creative lunchbox ideas featuring Crisco:

• Appetizing and Digestible Meals: Emphasizing the importance of tasty and easy-to-digest lunchbox items, Flynn shares recipes like pastry turnovers and fried frankfurters using Crisco. She remarks, “When Crisco handles the crust, you can be sure of a turnover that melts in your mouth” (08:55).

• Versatile Cooking: From spreading mustard inside snooped frankfurters to baking light and fluffy cakes, Crisco proves to be an indispensable ingredient for wartime households seeking nutritious and appealing meals.

Electric Power Restoration in Naples

A poignant story covers the restoration of electricity in Naples, symbolizing Allied progress:

• Liberation and Reconstruction: After being a "dead city" for four hours, Naples resumes normalcy with lights illuminating once more. Flynn narrates the relief and cautious optimism of the Neapolitan population: “They walked up into the hills... there was no explosion” (10:18).

Rationing and Economic Measures

The segment also touches on economic measures and rationing affecting daily life:

• Non-Leather Shoes for Children: The Office of Price Administration (OPA) introduces new affordable, durable shoes for children, alleviating shortages and reducing strain on families (11:36).

• Rationing Compliance: Over 12 million Americans have pledged to adhere to rationing rules, a significant step towards eliminating black market activities (12:20).

• Price Adjustments: The OPA announces slight price increases for pickles and outlines new rationing dates for various goods, ensuring equitable distribution and management of resources (13:01).

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Notable Quotes

• Derward Kirby on German Retreat:
  “The German line before Rome is breaking and the Germans have begun an orderly retreat” (00:53).

• Bernardine Flynn on Soldier Training:
  “Frankly, I wanted to scream” after witnessing intense training exercises (06:02).

• Derward Kirby on Air Force Morale:
  “The Japanese know they cannot halt us” regarding the American invasion of Bougainville (04:45).

• Bernardine Flynn on Crisco’s Versatility:
  “A whole lot. You're really never on the spot with Crisco to give you food that's wonderfully appetizing and really digestible” (13:23).

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Conclusion

This episode of "Your Daytime Radio Newspaper" masterfully balances the gravity of wartime developments with heartwarming stories from the home front. Derward Kirby provides listeners with a clear-eyed analysis of military operations and political shifts, while Bernardine Flynn offers relatable narratives that highlight resilience and ingenuity in everyday life. Together, they paint a comprehensive picture of life during a pivotal moment in history.

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Timestamps Reference

• 00:53: Derward Kirby discusses the German retreat in Italy.
• 02:30: Details on Allied aerial victories.
• 06:02: Bernardine Flynn introduces the training exercises.
• 06:35: Colonel Horton’s statement on the dangers of training.
• 08:55: Crisco cooking tips segment begins.
• 10:18: Restoration of electricity in Naples.
• 11:36: OPA's announcement on children's footwear.
• 12:20: OPA's report on rationing compliance.
• 13:01: OPA's price adjustments for pickles.
• 13:23: Flynn discusses the benefits of using Crisco.

Note: Timestamps correspond to the provided transcript's minute and second markers.

Transcript

[Styles MacKenzie]

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[Bernardine Flynn]

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[Derward Kirby]

Your daytime radio newspaper with Bernardine Flynn.

[Bernardine Flynn]

Hello, friends. This is Bernardine Flynn bringing you another of our news programs, your daytime radio newspaper. Derward Kirby is going to tell you about the big, important news. I will tell you about the little human things that are happening to people everywhere. And now, Durward, what's the big news today?

[Derward Kirby]

The German war machine is rocking under heavy blows from many directions today in Italy, an Allied spokesman says the German line before Rome is breaking and the Germans have begun an orderly retreat. American spearheads on that battlefront have stabbed forward another three miles to bring the key towns of Essernia and Venafro within artillery range. These new gains give our forces complete observation on the broad Gariano river valley. The present German defenses are sagging under the heavy Allied pressure. But as the enemy gives up, his delaying actions are still an obstacle to our forward push. The German opposition is described as still very stiff. On the Adriatic side of the Italian peninsula. The British 8th army has pushed across the Trino river to establish a second bridgehead on that stream. In the air, Allied flyers Yesterday knocked down 37 enemy planes, their biggest bag in weeks. 30 of these were destroyed by the flying Fortresses and Liberators which raided Wiener Ne just below Vienna. That raid, incidentally, is described as one of the most successful ever carried out in the Mediterranean theater. Meantime, we learned that on Monday, American medium bombers knocked out an Italian cruiser which had been seized by the Germans. Reconnaissance pictures showed the cruiser lying on its starboard side in a big patch of oil in Ancona harbor in Italy's. On Italy's Adriatic coast. At the time of the attack, the Yankee flyers thought they had hit a large merchant ship. American Marauder bombers based in Britain roared out over the English Channel this morning to blast German airfields in northern France. And today, the largest force of American heavy bombers yet dispatched from Britain raided northwest Germany. First reports give no indication of their targets. A new note on air war comes from Yugoslavia. Partisan sources say Russia is preparing to send planes to aid the partisan air force, which is being organized by Yugoslav pilots. Using captured enemy planes. As for the fighting in Russia, that continues to go well. Cossack cavalry men are pounding across Nogayask steppes to round up more remnants of beaten German armies. The complete annihilation of the enemy is expected within the next several days. The Russians are cutting through the disorganized enemy columns with almost bewildering speed. Informed military observers in London say Germany stands to lose at least 100,000 men in in this present fighting. In South Russia, the Germans are still putting up their bitterest resistance in the Krivoy Rogue area, where they are holding open a narrow corridor of escape for German troops in the Nupper Bulge. Even in that area, the Russians are advancing relentlessly. In Cairo, diplomats from Turkey and the Allied nations are gathering for a conference which may determine very definitely Turkey's future status. Some observers expect the United nations to hand Turkey a virtual invitation to war. Meanwhile, a note of discord in the Allied camp has been sounded. In Algiers, French General de Gaulle has demanded that France be given an equal role with the other major Allied powers in the settlement of world issues arising out of the war around the world. Admiral Halsey describes the American invasion of Bougainville as our greatest venture yet in that South Pacific area. And he adds, the Japanese know they cannot halt us. There are few new details on the Bougainville fighting today. It is revealed, however, the Japanese cruisers and destroyers attempted to attack our positions Monday night. They were intercepted by an American naval task force and after an apparently heavy engagement, fled northward. Results of this naval action aren't known in full, but the fact that the Japanese warships high tailed it out of the area indicates that they probably suffered another beating. The Tokyo radio, by the way, speaks of naval and air battles to come in the showdown battle for Rabaul, New Britain. That's just what American leaders are hoping for. They would love to get the Japanese fleet in a free for all scrap. An insight on Japan's war effort is available today from American reporters who are among those nationals being brought back to this country on the liner Grips Home. After almost two years of Japanese internment, the Grips Home reached Port Elizabeth, South Africa, this morning. The American correspondents say the Japs show no sign of cracking morale. They report wartime fanaticism, tight army control, mounting shortages of food and doubled living costs. But they also report that the Japanese people are accepting these hardships as part of the game and are prepared to back the war effort for at least five more years. Here in this country, scattered state and city elections have given Republican candidates a number of victories over their Democratic opponents. And the GOP is eyeing the results as indicative of a trend which they hope will lead them back to the White House in 1944. This morning, the deadline passed for coal miners to return to the mines under President Roosevelt's directive. Generally, that directive has been ignored in the major producing states as the miners continue on strike. Well, that's the top of the day's big news. And now let's turn to the colorful human interest side of the news with Bernardine Flynn.

[Bernardine Flynn]

Somewhere in Britain, thousands of American soldiers are going through invasion exercises at the American Assault School, which prepares men for the time when they will have to storm the shores of Europe. The practice sessions are very realistic with real bullets and live bombs. The other day, United Press correspondent Dudley Ann Harmon paid a visit to this school. She is one of two women allowed to witness recent exercises, and I'd like to tell you her reaction to this specialized training, Ms. Harmon says. @ a quiet English town, a group of correspondents found the nearest thing in existence to the European invasion coast, a model of the enemy's defenses with concrete pillboxes, booby traps and barbed wire entanglements. Waves of boys from every section of the United States tried out these defenses under real bullets and explosives, landing from the same boats they will use to invade Europe. Casualties occur even in this practice. Before Ms. Harmon was allowed to watch American infantry slam into German defenses, she and the other correspondents were warned of the danger. Colonel John Horton, who was in charge of the operation, told them, all possible precautions have been taken for your safety, but we can't guarantee that you won't be killed. Yesterday we had a general with us and a bomb landed 40ft behind him. Then the infantry exercise got underway. This is how Ms. Herman describes it. First the barrage started. The noise shut out everything else in the world and the ground shook. A pall of smoke from mortars hid the ridge ahead. We started forward. The barrage increased and I hid in a sand dune. Appeal box ahead blew up with a terrific roar. Then we went on again. A Spitfire above whined and dive to send machine gun fire into the ground. We went on with the smoke of 100 shells around us. For 95 minutes we watched this dose of death while the soldiers went calmly about their business with concern only for the battle. Frankly, says Ms. Harmon, I wanted to scream. In the Air force units overseas, P47 Thunderbolt squadrons are taking something of a ribbing from the pilots of P38 lightnings. It seems that the Lightning pilots have looked up the Dictionary definition of a Thunderbolt. It says a large crash of noise causing no damage, immediately followed by a bolt of lightning. However, don't be surprised if the Thunderbolt flyers finally dig up something with which to come back at the lightning pilots. Our American boys are like that. They fight and in between times make the most of their native sense of humor.

[Derward Kirby]

Say, Bernardine, you're pretty observing. Maybe you've noticed how more and more people are taking lunch boxes to work these days.

[Bernardine Flynn]

Goodness, yes. And that's something I want to talk about in connection with Crisco. You know, it's so important now that lunchboxes not only be appetizing, but digestible too. And with Crisco, lunch boxes like that are as easy as 1, 2, 3. There are pastry turnovers with all kinds of tasty fillings. One of chopped ham always hits the spot, doesn't it? And when Crisco handles the crust, you can be sure of a turnover that melts in your mouth. Even when it's cold, it's still flaky and digestible.

[Derward Kirby]

Oh, that's the way to tell a Crisco crust.

[Bernardine Flynn]

And here's another Crisco trick for a lunchbox. Cook frankfurters and snoop them just enough to spread mustard inside. Then dip them in a fritter batter and Crisco fry. They can't come out crisp and golden brown and like everything you fry in Crisco, so digestible.

[Derward Kirby]

And what's a lunchbox without a big hunk of layer cake to make it swell?

[Bernardine Flynn]

Eating the kind of cake Crisco makes, Honestly, you can save your butter for the table because Crisco cakes turn out so wonderfully light and fluffy.

[Derward Kirby]

Well, golly, no matter what you cook with Crisco, you can be sure it will be swell tasting, really digestible. Crisco is the finest quality shortening you can use. It's pure and all vegetable, and as nine out of ten doctors say, digestible itself. So for really good eating, truly digestible food, try Crisco.

[Bernardine Flynn]

You will be delighted at how good your meals will taste tonight. Naples will again be bathed in the soft flow of light. Light that symbolizes an Allied victory, light that represents civilization and humanity, light that ends the darkness imposed by the cruel hand of the German invader. Yesterday, the electric power was tested for the first time. For four hours before the switch was thrown, Naples was a dead city. 500,000 Neapolitans, under orders from our army, moved out of their beloved homes and in long lines stretched almost as far as the eye could see. They walked up into the hills. And from there they looked down on the bomb torn, wrecked and pillaged city. They looked down on their homes and stores, half fearing, half believing that some great hidden German mine would explode. When the allied engineers turned on the master switches, we're all happy to know that there was no explosion. And those switches once again are pouring light into section after section of Naples. From the fashionable residential districts to the humble tenant areas, from the waterfront to the Via Roma.

[Derward Kirby]

On the home front, the OPA has taken steps to end the shortage of shoes for small children.

[Bernardine Flynn]

That's good news, Derwent. Tell us about it, please.

[Derward Kirby]

The OPA says that sometime around the first of the year you may start buying a new supply of non leather shoes for children and you won't need any rations points for them. The new shoes will have canvas uppers.

[Bernardine Flynn]

Oh, I see. Something like gym or tennis shoes.

[Derward Kirby]

Well, no, apparently not. The OPA explains that the soles of the new shoes will be made out of heavy woven fabric and in addition, they'll be reinforced with vulcanized rubber. The new shoes are mainly for children up to 8 years of age and should give them a lot of extra mileage.

[Bernardine Flynn]

Well, I know that'll be welcome news to parents who have growing youngsters.

[Derward Kirby]

And this is another encouraging development. The OPA General Manager Bulls, reports that more than 12 million Americans have signed pledges to observe rationing rules and price regulations.

[Bernardine Flynn]

Well, that looks like a good start in the drive to stamp out the black market. And the opa, by the way, also has given us some new rationing dates for meats, fats and so forth. Four brown stamps in Warration Book 3 will soon be good. You may use stamp L starting November 21, stamp M, November 28, stamp N, December 5, and stamp P, December 12. They all expire January 1.

[Derward Kirby]

And from now on, all pickles, that is all except fresh cucumber pickles, will cost more. The OPA has announced new price ceilings which will increase the cost of pickles about 1 cent for each quart jar. Say, Bernardine, didn't I hear you say that when a meal is shy on points, a little Crisco could work a lot of magic?

[Bernardine Flynn]

A whole lot. You're really never on the spot with Crisco to give you food that's wonderfully appetizing and really digestible. And you can count on Crisco for both, whether it's stretching a handful of leftovers with a smooth, velvety cream sauce or giving a party air to a little bit of meat with flaky pastry turnovers.

[Derward Kirby]

And don't forget Crisco cakes put appetizing, indigestible on a skimpy meal.

[Bernardine Flynn]

They certainly do. Have you ever tasted anything as delicious as a Crisco cake? They're so wonderfully light, lighter even than cakes you can make with High Point Shortening.

[Derward Kirby]

I'll say. Tasting good, being digestible is just naturally true of everything you cook with Crisco. Crisco is pure and all vegetable, you know, digestible itself. Why, Crisco is the finest quality shortening you can use. So for meals that tastes well, digest easy, you better try Crisco. And here is a Thanksgiving note from the opa the younger your turkey is, the more you're going to have to pay for it. The birds have been put into two classes, old and young, and an OPA official describes them this way. An old turkey is one that has really been around. A young tom, on the other hand, doesn't even know his way around the barnyard. Out in Oklahoma City, Woody Hunt, who as president of the State League of Young Democrats, always hoped he'd get a letter from the president of the United States. Last he did, it was an order for Hunt's induction. Well, friends, that's all for now. Join us tomorrow for another edition of your daytime radio newspaper.

[Bernardine Flynn]

Derwit Kirby will bring you the big news.

[Derward Kirby]

Bernardine Flynn will give you the colorful human interest side of the news.

[Bernardine Flynn]

And we're both saying goodbye for Procter and Gamble, the makers of Crisco.

[Derward Kirby]

We return you now to New York.

[Doc Long]

I Love a Mystery. Who's the ruthless vampire stalking in dark alleys, murdering innocent victims? Hear that terrifying 10 tale of terror? Follow Doc Long and Jack Packard through dark, eerie passages. Discover the mystery of the secret trap door. Tonight on I Love a Mystery.

[Nicole Byer]

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[Bernardine Flynn]

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[Unknown]

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