Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1943-02-25

THESE ARE serious times
= in the history of the United
States. We are absorbing the
shocking news of reverses for
our troops in North Africa.
We are absorbing news of the
tremendous loss of life and
material on the seas. We are
shocked at the news emanating
from Washington detailing in
formation of bat
Shocking ties within our
News. OF official circles. We
ReverseS are cheering for
Russia and doing
our best to render her as much
help as possible only to learn
that Premier Stain is scrip
ing" about the lack of Sec
ond front In EUROPE. And
we cannot help feel that his
words carry greater weight as
a result of the great victories
his Red Armies have won this
winter.
To take up these serious mat
tiers in order. Our reverses in
North Africa result from lack
Of equipment. There is and
can be no question of the fit
ness, mental, physical and
spiritually of our soldiers.
There is no question of their
courage. There seems to be
some question of leadership
leadership of small units as
well as large. But the greatest
drawback is the lack of the
right kind and enough heavy
equipment. Our medium tanks
could not cope with the great
sixty-ton German juggernauts.
AS a result many families in
America are saddened by the
loss of loved ones. We have
lost our first encounter with
the Germans in this war. A
victory for the American forces
would have lent great moral
courage to our allies. Expert
opinion, however, seems to re-
gard the temporary Nazi gains
as of little importance in the
general strategy.
Our losses on the seas of
men and materials continue at
an appalling rate. For military
reasons many losses are not
immediately reported but it is
likely that the answer to in
sufficient equipment in Africa
lies at the bottom of the At
lantic. The submarine menace
is Of first importance to our
war effort.
From Washington comes
much of the worlds news
today. We can well hope that
our billion-dollar propagandists
and censors viii do a good job
in keeping some of our family
squabbles to ourselves. The
knowledge of the battles for
power among our officials; the
bitter struggle between the
Army Navy men and War
Production Board for produc-
ton control; the many partisan
issues developing between Pres
ident and Congress; and the
pressure groups vieing for
"front-row seats" in the scram-
BILE for higher pay and higher
prices cause gen.
Vieing For eral feeling Of
Front row apprehension and
Seats resentment. There
seems to be an
unwillingness ON the part Of
men high in the country's af-
fairs to recognize that the
immediate concern Of all of US
is the battle being fought in
Africa, Australia, Gaudalcanal,
on the seas OR IN EUROPE.
All other considerations must
be secondary. OF what inter
est is it to us whether Mr..
Nelson, Mr.. Wilson or the Ad-
mirals and Generals of the
armed forces supervise the dis
tribution of raw materials?
What we are interested in is
that the raw materials are
properly placed and that the
manufacture Of needed equip
ment is carried on without de-
lay. Nor are we interested in
the political fortunes of those
who would use the emergency
to parade the high administra-
tive qualities and strong lead