2 * ****short time to train French tank Itroops In the use of the new ma-chines. Some training was start-ed last February with what littlecould be spared from the equip-ment so sorely needed by the Yanksor the British.Some of the equipment we were

able to give the French found itsway to the front. One outfit wasgiven a battery of four anti-aircraftguns. Two days later the outfitleft Algiers. Three days later atthe French headquarters in Tunisiathe battery's first shots broughtdown a German plane.

Quickly Learn Their Guns.Another gun battery at Gafsa

was supplied with American 105millimeter guns. The gunners prac-tlced for one day and then on atest, while the American command-In&, general was there, registeredperfectly on a selected target.The French are fairly familiar

with every type of weapon theywill get under the rehabilitationprogram. The only exception Is thetank destroyers which never wereused by the French army.At Gafsa during the recent E1

Guetar fighting one French unit gota chance to work out with a lot ofour 75 millimeter self-propelledguns. They found it easy to adaptthemselves to it. The French al-ready have our newest anti-tank&,unwhich will replace the 37 milll-meter gun.

Held Lines Thru Winter.So you have this new picture of

the modern French army. All thruthe winter, while such French Ir-regulars as the Tirailleurs, theGoums, and the Spahis, held theFrench lines against modernlyequipped axis regiments, other firstline French troops far in the rearwere learning something about thenew weapons America would sendthem when she could.Plans were made then to convert

the Spa hi s-the colorful blue-cloaked native cavalry-into mech-anized reconnaissance teams suchas the Americans have.How those plans are bearing fruit

for the French, who often said:••We have well trained soldiers

here-an army of them. Why notsend us arms immediately insteadof spending time training Amer-icans? We are an army eager tofight. Just give us arms."

Allies Hammer Axis Air Strength in Mediterranean

BOMBS HIT AXISSUPPLY SHIPS

(Story in adjoinin. column.)

COPIImLEIII(Italy)

MANY OF 96 AXISPlANES SHOT OUTOF CONVOY CRASH

IN THIS AREA100 A//L£f

BOMBED AGAIN BYFLYING FORTRESSES

Captions tell developments reported yesterday from the Tunisian war areas.

In Air AdventurestHOTTEST' YANKSQUADRON LED

BY CHICAGOANR. A. F. BOMBERSRAID GERMANY, B 4111 A . PINORTH FRANCE ags. /3 XIS anes

In 10 Weeks.BY SEYMOUR KORMAN.[Chiea&"oTribune Pres. Service.]

AT AN AMERIc.::AN SPITFIREBASE IN TUNISIA, April 18 [De-layed].-The ••hottest" allied airfighter squadron in Africa right nowis one composed of Americans fly.ing British Spitfires and command-ed by Capt. George V. Williams Jr.,23 years old, 4700 Kenwood avenue,Chicago.Williams and his men in 10 weeks'

operations have amassed a total of41'h enemy planes destroyed-thefraction representing their share inone Nazi craft which was shot downby this squadron and two others.And today the sturdy, dark haired

captain told The Tribune corre-spondent more details. He scoredhis first victory early this monthin a parttcularly dangerous maneu-ver.

Cuts Into Foe's Tall."I was chasing a Junkers 88 over

El Guetar, pouring plenty of fireat him when he began to slow down.I was going much faster and righton his tail I turned hard. In a back-swipe my propeller slashed into histail, cutting most of it off. He wentdown fast-a goner. My cockpit wasfilled with smoke and my motor

LONDON, April 20 [Tuesday]-(JPl.-British light bombers andfighters struck again last night atthe creaking German transport sys-tem over a big stretch of occupiedEurope and Germany.The air ministry news service said

that the R. A. F.'s lighter shipsranged against Nazi rail lines androads from Brittany thru northernFrance and Holland, and intonorthwestern Germany, and whirl-wind bombers attacked shipping inthe channel. [The Berlin radio saidfour enemy planes were shot downand that a fifth crashed in the chan-nel.]Flyin&, across the Alps Sunday

night, R. A. F. bombers raided theItalian fleet units huddled In theSpezia naval base on the northwestcoast of Italy. Reconnaissance re-vealed that the greatest damage wasin the dock area. Many buildingswere damaged and large fires start-ed. [The Rome radio said 8 personswere killed and 50 injured in theraid.]A Reuters' report from Zurich,

Switzerland, said 800 persons werekilled in the R. A. F. raid on theSkoda armament works at Pilsen, inGerman occupied Czechoslovakaia,Friday night.

(Story in adjoinin. -:ol_,

Captains John R. De Lapp (left)and George V. Williams Jr.

was partly disabled. I made a crashlanding and came away from itokay."Four days later Williams and his

squadron in another sweep over ElGuetar ran Into 20 Junkers 878[Stukas] escorted by 14 fighters.The American flyers gave battleand downed four Stuka dive bomb-ers. One of these Nazi planes fellto Williams' guns In a wild chaseover the enemy lines.••He kept running away, and I

kept after him," Williams said."Then I realized we were over hishome field and some ack-ack [anti·aircraft fire] came up to meet me.I gave him another burst. He triedto land, but when he hit the groundhe was just a flaming wreck."

Another Williams in Outfit.There is another Williams in this

outfit-2d Lt. Warren Williams ofPlymouth, Wis. He added a victory

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MAURICE L ROTHSCHILDState at Jackson

to the squadron'S proud total whenhe destroyed one Messerschmltt 109at Faid a month ago. The opera-tions officer for the group is Maj.Ralph Keyes, of Roodhouse, Ill.At a neighboring field is Capt.

John R. De Lapp, 1712Linden road,Homewood, Ill. Flying what hecalls "a hell of a lot of airplane"on strafing missions against enemyg r 0 u n d concentrations, he hassmashed up half a dozen trucks, twopersonnel carriers, two gun posts,and one light tank.

[Capt. Williams is a graduate ofHyde Park High, 8ch,ool. He livedWlth, h,is aunt, MrlJ. C. E. Howard,and h,is mother, Mrs. Soph,ia Wil-liams, at 4700Kenwood avenue. Hemarried Miss Kitty Touchberry OfFlorence, S. C., Feb. 28, 1942.]

CIVILIAN GOODSFOR AFRICA PUTAT 26 MILLIONS

Washington, D. C., April 19 (JPl.-E. R. Stettlnius Jr., lend-lease ad-ministrator, announced today thatin the first four months of allied oc-cupation of North Africa the UnitedStates shipped 126,184tons of food,clothing, and other civilian necessi-ties, valued at 26~ million dollars,to rehabilitate the local civilian pop-ulation.He said that by June 30 shipments

will total approximately 50 milliondollars, exclusive of aid being sentby the British. Flour, sugar, cloth-ing, seed, and canned milk lead inpresent deliveries.

TOLL OF ROMMELPLANES RISES TO112 IN 48 HOURSAllies Bag 70 Cargo and

Troop Transports.

Report Naval Battle

o

LONDON, April 20 [Tuesday]-(JPl.-Axis reports reachingLondon thru Stockholm saidearly today that there was" vio-lent fighting in the Sicilianstraits" between British de-stroyers and axis warships es-corting a convoy bound for Tu-nisia. The battle began whenthe British pounced on the con-voy, and then made contact withthe escorts, a report from theBerlin correspondent of theN a z i controled Scandinaviantelegram bureau said. The cor-respondent attributed his tn-formation to Rome. A Londonnewspaper asserted the Italianfleet had put to sea, and thatmany warships, Including threebattleships, had fled from Speziain northern Italy after theR. A. F. raid on that base onSunday.

ALLIED FLYERS RAIDFIVE JAP BASES INSOUTHWEST PACIFIC

ALLIED HDQ. IN AUSTRALIA,April 20 [Tuesday] (JP).- Alliedbombers started fires in attacks onKoepang and Finschhafen yesterday,the high command reported today.Koepang is at the southwest tip ofDutch Timor. Finschhafen is onthe Huon peninsula of New Guinea,60 miles from Lae.Five enemy airdromes in New

Britain and New Guinea were Iight-ly raided by the allies, the commu-nique reported. They includedthose at Hollandia, Dutch NewGuinea, Cape Gloucester, and Gas-mata, New Britain.A small enemy coastal vessel was

attacked in the Tanimbar Islands.Medium bombers bombed andstrafed the building area at Waldbay, New Guinea, in a night attack.

squadrons dived into the lumberingJU 52s while Spitfires took on theprotecting Messerschmi tts.

Damage 30 Other Planes.In a matter of minutes the trans-

ports were falling wreathed inflames. Most of them crashed onland near Cape Bon, 50 miles north-east of Tunis, sending up greatcolumns of black smoke and strew-ing the countryside with wreckage.Others of the transports, each ofwhich can carry from 16 to 20 sol-diers, fell into the sea.Pilots of some of the transports

which escaped the first assault fromthe Warhawks were reported tohave made crash landings on theTunisian beaches, only to have alliedfighters hunt them down and blastthem into wreckage. In addition tothe planes destroyed, another 30were damaged.[Military spokesmen in Cairo, said

the transports were loaded withtroops and added that the battlewas almost entirely an Americanvictory, altho British planes providedtop cover. London military sourcessuggested that Marshal Rommelmight be using air transport to bringfresh troops from Sicily and on thereturn trip carry his wounded andpartially incapacitated men.]

Forts Bomb Palermo,American Flying Fortresses gave

Palermo, Sicily, its third bombard-ment in three days, concentratingon the railroad yards or the portchoked with military supplies. Ware-houses were set afire. AnotherFortress formation attacked nearbyBoca de Falco air field. .Mitchell medium bombers raided

the Alghero-Fertitla air field on Sar-dinia, hitting a gasoline dump anddropping bombs among 40 to 50 dis-persed bombers and transports.Limited ground fighting in Tu-

nisia saw French forces capture theRag el Hedij, a mountain position40 miles west of Enfidaville, coastalanchor of Marshal Rommel's 140mile defense line.

ADMIT GREAT DAMAGE.Great damage was caused in an

aerial bombardment of the Sicilianport of Palermo by American bomb-ers, the Italian high command reoported in a broadcast.Nine raiding planes were reported

destroyed over Palermo, Catania,Ragusa, and Marsala.The Italian communique said that

in Tuntsia there was more intensefighting activity.

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FINDS RATIONINGIS WEAKENED BYREGIONAL TASTEInstituteSaysBritishPlanIs Not Suitable to U. S.

Inflexibility in food rationing,which does not take into considera-tion variances in American foodconsumption, may work unnecessaryconsumer hardships, the AmericanInstitute of Food Distribution. Inc.,New York, said yesterday.The institute asserts it is illogi.

cal to adopt a food ration programwhich has succeeded in Great Brtt-ain and expect it to succeed herebecause of the differences in sizeand population of the two coun-tries.Within the United States great

land distances and varying climaticconditions, inherited national tastesand the economic factor creategreat variances in food consump-tion, it states.

Sections' Food Habits.Estimates of per capita consump-

tion of different kinds and amountsof food, based on population figures,do not show the true food situation,the institute says, because differenttypes of foods are preferred in dif-ferent sections of the country.For example, midwesterners are

more likely to prefer steaks thanNew Yorkers, who lean toward the" gourmet" foods, and Californiansconsume an "amazing" quantity offresh fruits and vegetables.••Despite great regional food con-

sumption variations, when food ra-tioning was started all Americanswent to market with the same num-ber of ration points to buy foodswhich bore the same ration pointvalues in all parts of the country."Inflexible and cumbersome, that

program has brought evasions byconsumers and the trade."

Fears Breakdown.Unless the worst trouble spots

are ironed out, the food organiza-tion continues, lack of confidencewill develop which may break down"with disastrous results to thepopulation and the food trades inparticular.""An absolutely even distribution

of supplies over the country willforce heavy consuming areas to sur-fer from undersupply while lightconsumption areas will find sup-plies piling up," the institute says."Under terms of either oversupplyor undersupply, in terms of pointbuying power, black market condi-tions are bound to flourish."

BURGLARS GET 26 WATCHES.David Martin, 2929 Greenleaf avenue.

reported a burglary of 26 watches valuedat 5674, from his jewelry store at 238South State street yesterday.

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