Evening star., 1943-09-01
Fifth Year of War

InlS Is the De9lnnlng OF Jne MIN
year of Adolf Hitler's war. and for
him it must be day of black despair.
For most of us, it is hard to be-
lieve that four full years have passed
since Hitler proclaimed himself the
first soldier of the Reich" and sent
his armies marching into Poland. In
a sense that seems to have been but
a short while ago. And yet, when
one thinks back to that unreal Sun
day morning of September 3. 1889,
it is almost as though the whole of
lifetime has passed by since the tired
words of a disillusioned old man
| came over the air: II have to tell
you now that this country is at war
with Germany"
That was Neville Chamberlain
speaking, breaking the news to his
people that he had failed, that the
vision of peace in our time" which
he brought back from Munich was
dead. Instead of peace, it was his
fate to take the people of Britain
into the greatest war of all time.
His only source of consolation was
the knowledge that, in his way, he
had tried desperately to do what was
right.
In Berlin there was little sign of
perturbation. The bombers of the
Luftwaffe were cruising back and
forth across the Polish cities, killing
and manning the helpless thousands
below. The President of the United
States had appealed to the warning
governments to refrain from the
bombing of civilians, and Hitler had
replied that the Nazis would not
bomb cities If the enemies of the
Reich would follow suit. But even
as he spoke the mountain of this
wars innocent dead had begun to
take form. After all, what did prom
Uses mean? This was total war. Why
spare those who had been marked
out for destruction and who could
not defend themselves? This was
the way that Hitler had planned it,
and this was the way it would be
done.
There was one faint discordant
note. A correspondent wrote of the
silent crowds in Berlin, of the ''un-
usual hush" which hung over the
city. But II the common people OF
Germany were instinctively wiser
than their Fuehrer, If their intuition
was better than his, that fact was
not apparent in early September,
four years ago.
The Nazi legions rolled on, un-
checked BY the end of the first
year, Poland, Belgium, Holland,
France, Denmark and Norway had
been beaten or overrun, and MusSo-
lini had jumped on the bandwagon.
Britain had pulled the remnants Of
her army out of Dunkirk and was
enduring the full fury of the blitz.
She learned what was meant by
blood and tears toll and sweat" and
she rose to her finest hour" Berlin
laughed scornfully at the Childish
optimism" in London.
At the end of the second year a
profound but little understood
change had set in. The Royal Air
Force had driven the Stukas from
the air over England. And Britain
no longer stood alone, for Hitler, the
| master strategist, had turned to the
East, and there was heavy fighting
along the Dnieper. During the third
year Hitler gained another ally in
Japan at the price of another enemy
in the United States. For most
of that year our eyes were on the
Pacific, but Hitler saw his armies
stopped in the outskirts of Stain
grad.
Then came the fourth year-a
year of never ending disasters for
the Reich. Mussolini vanished from
the scene as Allied armies took over
all of North Africa and Sicily. The
Red Army that the Berlin propa-
gandists had cut to pieces unleashed
a great summer offensive, an often
sive that the hard-fighting Germans
have not yet been able to check. And
in the homeland. Hitler counted his
ruined cities while his terrified peo-
pie wondered where retribution
would strike next. Yes, this is a
black day for Adolf Hitler. For he
must know by now that he cannot
win the war and that he has but
small chance Of escaping total defeat.
Yet it may be that he would rather
not look into the future. Perhaps he
is thinking of the past, Of that Sun
day four years ago when the broken
old man in London bowed to the in
evitable. And, Goddess though he Is,