The Wilmington morning star., 1943-12-16
BY CARY C. CRANMER

NEW 1Ohh, Dec. l0-.Ihe Unit
ed States emerged from its second
year of war On December 7 after
hairbreadtn escape from defeat,
still facing the possibility of the
greatest blood sacrifice in its his
tory but with the road to victory
for the first time becoming fairly
clear.
There is growing confidence that
before another Pearl Harbor ami
versary passes tho United Nations
will bring Germany down, an d
make sweeping inroads into the
vast empire of land and sea dom
mated ry Japan.
The clinactic assault or t h e
western ramparts Of Adolf Hitler's
Europe, test which may exact
from the United States m d
forces the greatest losses they ever
have suffered, is yet to come.
Japan's vast donna n still
stretches almost a quarter of the
distance around the earth at it's
girth and 5000 mics north and
south from the Kurile islands to
below the Equator
But out of tire fogs Of the North
sea and the Aleutians. the jungles
of the Soloinons New Guinea and
Burma, the morass Of China, the
deserts of North Africa, the mud
of the Italian mountains, the feuds
of the Balkans, the vast Doggy
steppes of Russia ard the great
reaches of the Pacif;c-out of all
the confusion ara battling expanse
of world girdilng war is begin
ming to come the flrs' definite per-
ception of now the Allies may go
about winning the War.
A clear-cut strategy which does
not depend over-much on an in
ternal German collapse or an over
night scurcn-to-the-earth bombing
OF Japan'S cites from some Shan
gri-La is becoming apparent.
The bombing Of Berlin, the slow
creep up the Italian peninsula,
fade-aWay guerrilla warfare in the
Balkans, the rutted trail known as
the Burma road, the fog bound
Aleutians. as yet hypothetical US.
air bases in the Russian maritime
provinces. may all be parts, but
not diversified pieces, in this STRAIT
egg.
The solid foundation of United
Nations strategy. it is apparent, is
laid on three cornerstones - con-
tlnued cooperation in Europe with
the Russian giant certain to stay
In the war 10 its enc, a massive
British American smash at Hit
ler's defenses in western Europe,
and in the Pacific the dominant
fact Of overwhelming United States
naval and air strength, later to
be enhanced by tn. British.
All these salient features of the
war have been established in the
past year
A year ago it was not possible
to say with certainty that the Rus
sian winter offensive would n O
wash out; that Hitler would not
be able to come back in the sum
mer of l94S with a third great anc
possibly successful summer often
sive; that RuSsle would not be
content with victory for herself
that would leave Britain and the
United States to solve the problem
of attacking Germany from the
west alone.
The Moscow conference made il
abundantly clear that Russia is ir
the war to stay until Germany
surrenders Internationally. The
successes OF the REQ army have
removed all fears that R ussis
might crack UP as she did in 1917
The ability Of the Raj to go tt
the heart of the Reich in it's cam
paign to destroy Berlin, the in
roads into Germany by the grow
ing armadas Of Flying Fortresse:
and Liberators, are the measure
J of the strength being massed b,
the Allies to attack the Hitler for
tress from the west. A year ags
it was apparent that the Allie!
,. were committed to { large-scal'
campaign :r the Mediterranean
! The economy Of force being em
b ployed in Italy indicates that tn,
main British and American effor
. is not to be MADE in that theater
1t was just a year ago that tn
country learned for the first TIM
that every ono Of the eight battle
ships at Hawaii We're lost or dam
aged in the Japanese attack OF
Sunday morning, December z, 1874
at Pearl Harbor. The backbone o
the Pacific fleet lay. shattered.
il AS the nation neared the end o