Evening star., 1943-10-12
Allies Inventions
Superior to Enemies
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

we near good deal from time to
time about secret weapons
Every now and then, in particular, the
enemy lets loose veiled threat of some
awful terror in store for us.
But remember that the enemy knows
he is beaten, and that his one hope is to
wiring from us. somehow, negotiated
peace that will leave him better off than
the unconditional surrender we demand.
Naturally, these terror tactics appeal to
the enemy propagandists as useful ar
rows in their quiver. The more they can
frighten us with such threats, the more
likely they will be to build up popular
support in this country and in the other
United Nations for acceptance of their
peace offer. when it comes.
1t may be useful, therefore, to state
the facts.
Every war correspondent and every
accredited news writer on military sub
jects knows something about what our
side is doing in the matter of developing
new weapons and improving old ones,
as we'll as about what the enemy is
doing SO far as results have appeared on
the battlefield.
Most of this information cannot, Of
course, be made public. But this much
can be said. and you will have to take
my word for it that it is true: What
the enemy is doing in the way of new
and secret weapons isn't to be mentioned
in the same breath with what we of
the United Nations are doing and plan
ming 10 do.
For every new weapon, device and
method that the enemy has brought into
play against us during the past year,
We have produced and developed two
Or three; and our new inventions are
proving considerably more effective than
the foes.
1t is perfectly natural that it should
be SO. The German has never been
noted as an original thinker. Patient
research is his strong point. The Jap
anese IS a mere imitator and has never
originated anything. American original
ity, on the other hand, is proverbial
and justly so: nor are the British to be
despised when it comes to the record of
new devices
Take that record and look at it: The
steam engine. the locomotive, the steam
ship, the airplane, the machine gun, the
torpedo, the submarine, the tank, all
were invented by Americans or British
ers and largely developed by them. In
these basic fields, the Germans have
made many minor improvements of de-
sign, but they have originated very little.
Perhaps the internal combustion engine
Is their most notable achievement, and
they were not wholly responsible even
for that
They are good in the fields of optics
and chemistry, but their bomb sight is
not as good as ours, nor, at the close
of the last war, did they have as effec-
tive gas as our LeWisite.
Indeed, during the four years, 1914
| 1918, the introduction of poison gas as
weapon was about the only surprise
which the Germans sprang on their op-
| ponents, and it was quickly turned
against them and used more effectively
than they used it. In tank design, they
| never caught UP; in airplane design
there was a constant see-sawing of little
gains, first by one side and then by the
other. but by 1918 Allied superiority was
well Established.
When the story of this war comes to
be written. it will contain many thrill
ing chapter on the subject of the new
weapons which have come into use. and
new methods of using old weapons Most
of the credit items will be on the United
Nations side; many of them will be
labeled Made in the U. S. A."
We have heard a little, in public
statements, about some of these weapons:
we shall hear little more as the wal
goes on, but the full story cannot be
told until it is over This much. however
can be said: That if the Germans and
the japanese could now be offered a
moratorium on new weapons. for the
remainder Of the war they would be
| only too delighted to accept it. and they
| would derive great advantages from Sc
doing.
So don't let yourself be frightened by
dark hints about what the enemy is
gong to do to our brave boys with some
| new and terrible invention. The enemy
may produce something new. here and
there; but what our new and terrible
Inventions are doing to him will more
than take care of any innovations he
may spring on us.
And remember, We are only beginning
to use the new things. and we have
many more in the experimental stage
which are yet to be tried out. Some
OF them will not be effective, of course
under active service conditions; but
others will be. To the enemy's bitter
cost, he will learn just how effective
American inventive genius can become
when, reluctantly but grimly, it turns its
attention from the arts of peace to the
arts of war.
tCopyright, 1943. New York Tribune, Incl
Overdoino q PoIicv