The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1943-10-25
interpreting
The War
By ELTON c. Fsv

tiH1IoIlS OF 1tonIe
the old men, womeu ana rl H.
VINO bore no arms-wh9 aIee,sn
have failed to survive II 80 e'oy
Precisely how many fs oo+t
now nor will it be lnov- ,@n
exactness in the years a.ts- VIA
war but tally of estina,a, ne
the word battle zones rro5ra not
the shocking total Of ''es
More than $4,000 600 c-.s!..
dead '-''1an
Postwar checks invariably s.,r
down wartime estimates of na~
combatant casualties sI,,a ,''l,'
they never determine anvv,5 '7l
near precise number. II tob
presumed that this viii he tr,,
OF current estimates. '0s
| Those who have made es,ir,.4.
for the various war zones-d,r'+
mats, governments in exile, fo
eign publications = conced. 1
they can be no more than +sa
roughest totals based in NAVY
instances on reports from unJar
ground channels and refugees
Military men say the estin.to.
are too high. They cite their on'
troubles in finally arriving Al ' ~.
act casualty figures even 4bor.L
they have the advantage Of kooS
ing the precise number NJ ,,an
involved in battle, the nurobe. -,
those missing. 1t is the latter rate
gory that conplicates casually fg
ures, usually because Of dunucs
ton in reports. And this sav Nso
army men, certainly is even roors
true in attempts to Compute rivI
ian casualties.
The military, however. ssross
that the civilian death toll IN M,
conflict is tremendous, for at Ies,t
three reasons:
1t is war of movement as die.
tinguished from the preceding
great war of position. In Wo-G
War I, populations were moved yt
when the battle area began form.
ling. Now the war sweeps over
them on wheels and wings.
This war has reached tar be.
hind the battle lines. The target
for tonight is the great city with
the munitions factories-and its
workers and their homes.
Most of all, it is the total war
which the Axis conceived and for
which the watchword is 'extermi-
nation"
The Russians, the Chinese, the
Poles, the peoples of the low coun.
tries and the little Balkan coun-
tries have reasons to know le
watchword.
| Polish sources estimate that g.
100000 Poles and Polish Jews have
died under the LuftWaffe's air
bombardments and the WEIR
machts guns in the brief battles
in Poland and in the subsequent
bloody years of execution, mass
starvation and slow-death prison
camps.
The Russian government has at
tempted no official computation
of the total loss in civilian Life,
explaining that it is a long and
difficult task even to COMPUTE the
toll in individual areas re-occupied
by the advancing Red army. Rus
sian source, however. have sug-
Igested various figures, with The
one most often mentioned being
Is, 900, 900.
Chinese estimate that since their
: conflict with Japan began in large
scale in 1887 about 100000 ciH'
, ians have died directly as a resA,
of battle action or execution anu
not including a growing bot OIL
those who succumbed to Starvation
and disease because the enemy
seized their food producing lanoo
and turned an estimate oVOoV'VO'
from their homes.
The low countries have Solle.-
ed heavily. Dutch sources es'l'lISYe
the civilian toll in their coo5Ui
as high as $4,000. with 30'oOO OIL
that total slaughtered when 0e
|Nazis bombed Rotterdam.
i French sources in this couh.!
think it possible that enemy ac'':.
preceding the fall of France oo IA
1910 resulted in toll of 50.o0o'
They point out, however, tha' VIVA" l.
ever the toll it has risen SInrs
that time both because OF Ger
man executions and Allied aes-'t
|bombardment of munitions cen'e''
and Nazi military installations
Yugoslav diplomatic circles a.
Washington estimate the deaa !.
their country 100000, the gfeaF'
part of them Serbs. H.
Starvation, especially IN us
winter of 1912, has taken heS..
toll in Greece. Greek officials II
this country believe that HUI
than half million of the co'-
trymen have died since AXIS d.
mics marched in. For time 40
ing the winter, 1000 persons d-s'
each day from privation in a co''
try plundered of its food ..
Of all the belligerents, Otso'
Britain is the only one in P0s
ton to offer an exact figure o'
its civilian-49, 800 dead up to h.-o
summer. They died in the 2fe'
hlitz of London in Cove"trY a5
in the many small cities ana
towns blasted by the IuftWahe ~
the days when air war was s0''l'