Evening star., 1944-04-01
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ten the War Department regarding
delayed release of several news
stories recently and pointed out
there was growing uneasiness in
the Nation that the Army was not
always withholding information for
security reasons alone.
Gen. Surles acknowledged being
aware of this feeling, and stated
in his Letter which discussed the
Patton incident, the Bari sinkings
and the shooting down of % friend
ly airplanes of Sicily, that the de-
partment had every desire to give
out all information from battle
fronts, favorable or unfavorable, as
quickly as possible, but at times a
lag was necessary to keep valuable
information from the enemy.
Gen. Surles' letter, made public
by the War Department, follows:
II have just read your letter of
March rs and thank you for the
clear exposition of what I am up
against in trying to retain respect
for my honesty in view of the Pc
culiar conditions must face from
day to day.
Cites Complications.
Il can sense the growing idea that
we are endeavoring to cover up
mistakes under the guise of mill
tary security, and yet it is difficult
to counteract this impression in
view Of the fact that the problem
is complicated by the need for the
theater commander to use informa-
ton as a psychological weapon
against the enemy and because of
the necessity for the theater COM
pander to maintain high morale
among troops who are in physical
contact with the enemy. / must
confess that we, here at home, are
in a poor position to judge the ma
tional interest in terms of these
ramif1cations.
"As an explanation Of some Of
the occasions where I have been
roundly scolded, let's take a few
instances. In the Patton case, that
general was to be used in cover
plan following his operations in
Sicily. In view of that. the thea
ter commander was extremely de-
sirous that his reputation should not
be impaired by a wide discussion
of the soldier slapping incident and
the resultant punishment.
"At the very time that Drew
Pearson broke the story, Patton
was in Corsica with his staff closely
watched by the Germans while he
made certain surveys which he him
self believed were preliminary to
an amphibian operation from that
island.
There were u German divisions
in Italy and it was vitality necessary
that the bulk of them be held from
attack on our projected thin line
in the southern end of the boot. The
story from the United States that
he was in disgrace and was going
to be relieved struck like a bomb
shell in the theater where RESPONSE
bility is terrific and where, by agree
ment with the correspondents in the
theater, the story was to be with
held until Patton's operations were
accomplished.
Tried New Attack.
I'm the Bari incident the Ger
mans tried a new method of attack
to evade radar, struck successfully
and in addition blew up two ships
filled with ammunition, causing
great damage.
The harbor is 60 feet deep and
the ships sank completely, with the
result that German reconnaissance
the next day had no idea of the ex-
tent of the damage. They claimed
with what they thought exaggera-
ton, only one-half of the loss to us
in that harbor There was an i'm
mediate job to be done in harbor
clearance, reorganization of radal
and fighter coverage before ordinary
security would allow them to know
the extent of their operation. In
addition, it was British supply
point and they should have hac
something to say about the matter
LAS to the loss of % planes, the
majority by friendly anti-aircraft
fire in the airborne operation of
Sicily last summer, the loss of the
planes was one of those things thai
will happen in highly complicated
operation due to number of fac.
tors that could only be explained ad.
equately by giving a blueprint of the
plans to include the timing, method
Of Identification, time of issuance OF
orders, etc., which led to the occur
renee.
II can sit at my desk here in
Washington and recognize the fact
that from our standpoint here
things might be handled different
ly to better effect in the theaters
! but I am also sympathetic with a