DDay, H-Hour

Sirs:

Everybody refers to DDay, H-Hour. Can you please tell me what they stand for or how they originated?

(NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST) Toronto

P: D for Day, H for Hour means the undetermined (or secret) day and hour for the start of a military operation. Their use permits the entire timetable for the operation to be scheduled in detail and its various steps prepared by subordinate commanders long before a definite day and time for the attack have been set. When the day and time are fixed, subordinates are so informed.

So far as the U.S. Army can determine, the first use of D for Day, H for Hour was in Field Order No. 8, of the First Army, A.E.F., issued on Sept. 7, 1918, which read: "The First Army will attack at H-Hour on D-Day with the object of forcing the evacuation of the St. Mihiel salient."--ED.

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

Sirs:

I have nothing against English girls as I've never known any, but Pfc. John M. Stevens' letter (TIME, May 22) was too much for any American girl to stand. . . .

There is nothing jealous about a girl who denounces the English mother of an American soldier's illegitimate quads, and besides we American girls were under the impression that the Army was in England for a purpose, and it isn't that. If we are perturbed about the boys being in England this spring it is because we feel that they are in danger and the danger we fear for them is not an English woman's charms. We were also under the impression that there is a war going on and that it isn't to decide who is the prettier-- English or American girls.

I'm sure that I speak for thousands of American girls when I say that the English women are welcome to Private Stevens and any other Americans who have that same attitude. Let them darn his socks, wash his clothes and share their limited rations with him--we'll put our energy into trying to help those boys over there who feel that our country and the American girls are worth fighting for and coming home to.

JEAN AUTREY Kissimmee, Fla.

Sirs:

. . . Pfc. Stevens should wise up to himself. He isn't looking for a wife; he wants a housekeeper. . . .

DONNA MUHLEMAN

HELENE URBAN

BETTY SZABO

ELEANORE STARK

JACQUELINE MAURATH

LUCILLE KAULLMAN

Lorain, Ohio

Sirs:

. . . Someday when Pfc. John M. Stevens darn near fractures a vertebra hurrying down the gangplank onto Manhattan we'll be there to plant a nice lipstickish American kiss on his pouty lips. Cheerio, Johnnie, we'll be seeing you!

HELEN EVRINGTON Seattle, Wash.

Sirs:

... If he likes England and the English girls so much, why doesn't he stay there after this war? Anyone who has such a low conception of American girls doesn't deserve to live among them.

CECILE BOISCLAIR Manchester, N.H.

TIME and the Lacandons

Sirs:

You may enjoy a paragraph which your story on the Lacandons of Chiapas (TIME, May 22) brought to mind. As you remark, the Lacandons are "an ancient, charming and all but extinct people." They are also one of the few non-Christian people among Mexico's many Indian tribes who have some knowledge of TIME.

Because they have preserved a rather large body of old Maya tradition and rites, the Lacandons are of continuing interest to professional ethnologists, as well as to a continuing stream of travelers. ... In 1940, Corporal Gordon Gibler and I lived awhile with them to investigate some murders perpetrated on the group of half-breeds who seasonally enter their area to collect chicle, from which chewing gum is manufactured.

Before starting out for the Lacandon area, an American friend, Ed Myers, brightened

my life by giving me a recent copy of TIME

I carried this in with me and found it invaluable in establishing what ethnologists like to call rapport. The Lacandons were obviously curious about the land from which we came, and we showed them the pictures and tried to explain them. In return they gave us the information we needed. ... As a parting gift we left several items which they had esteemed highly; namely, a pair of blue jeans, two bars of soap, and the battered copy of TIME.

Shortly after our departure, Ed Myers also traversed their territory, taking movies. After becoming friends with the Lacandons and doing them several favors, they told him they would show him a treasure of great value. When the mystic moment arrived, a cloth made of beaten bark was removed from the treasure, placed to protect it from temporal or spiritual harm. As you may have guessed, the treasure was the copy of TIME. . . . HOWARD F. CLINE Assistant Dean Harvard College Cambridge, Mass.

Third and Last?

Sirs:

I wish to point out that the President informed us in 1940 that he would run for a Fourth Term. He said then that he would accept the nomination for "a third and last term," i.e., third and fourth. . . .

GUSTAV ALBRECHT Pomona College Claremont, Calif.

P: Wrong. What Franklin Roosevelt did say: "When that term [third] is over there will be another President."--ED.

"I Can Hardly Wait"

Sirs: TIME (May 8) inadvertently points up an impressive irony about our country. Slum-raised Technical Sergeant Charles E. ("Commando") Kelly, who owes the country practically nothing, has fought with supreme resource and courage in order that a system of government may survive under which citizens like Sewell Avery, whose general aim is to keep citizens like the Kellys in their place, can defy that government in its own courts. This $64 angle is submitted for Hollywood's $25,000 story about the Kelly family, a movie for which I can hardly wait.

JOHN P. HARDEN 2nd Lieutenant c/o Postmaster New York City

What Is Communism?

Sirs:

In TIME (May 22) you state that Pope Pius XI in a 1937 encyclical said:

"Communism is intrinsically wrong . . ." etc. This is misinformation to many readers, since you forgot to mention that the Pontiff in this encyclical speaks exclusively of atheistic Communism. That adjective atheistic changes radically the meaning of the statement.

(REV.) W. C. HRADECKY Protivin, Iowa

P: Not until some other kind of Communism appears.--ED.

Rosens

Sirs:

In TIME (May 29), you publish an account of the conflict arising out of Sweden's ball-bearing exports to Germany and its repercussions in this country. While this article gives a very fair and impartial account of the matter it contains reference to me, personally, which, besides being grossly inaccurate, by implication casts unpleasant reflection on my name. You state that my "brother is a Swedish quisling." The fact is that I have only one stepbrother who never was even remotely connected with politics or in his personal sympathies in any way pro-Nazi.

I assume, however, that you are referring to Count Eric von Rosen whose name has been mentioned in connection with me elsewhere in the press and even in Congress. Eric von Rosen, it is true, is a relative of mine, but you will have to go back five generations to find a common ancestor. As far as I can remember I met Eric von Rosen only once in my life and that was about 20 years ago. Unfortunately for me, he is a brother-in-law of Hermann Goering, his wife's sister being the first wife of Hermann Goering. I am not in position to state anything regarding Eric von Rosen's political views, but I can state that he is in no way prominent in either Swedish politics or Swedish commerce; nor has he ever been leader, nor even a member of Sweden's very insignificant Nazi Party. In calling him a "quisling" I am sure that you are drawing wholly unwarranted conclusions from whatever information you may have received regarding him.

May I only add that I have, among friends both in Sweden and in this country, always been known for my strong liberal opinions and as violently opposed to Naziism in any form. . . .

HUGO VON ROSEN Philadelphia

P: TIME'S sincere apologies to Reader von Rosen and a thoroughgoing reprimand to the Business editor and researcher; TIME should, of course, have said his cousin--ED.

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