Evening star., 1944-09-03
Names in the News

INUII1SS III tUS I\SWS
It has been said that there is no
precedent for the kind of war that
was fought in France last week.
The blitzkrieg Of 1910, when the
Germans overwhelmed the Maginot
Line and swept on to the Channel
ports, was a stunning performance.
But not even the Germans could
match the dizzy pace set during the
past few days by the American First
and Third Armies in Northeastern
France and their Canadian and
British compatriots In the west.
Nothing could stop or even check
the Allied tide. The rivers, the for
ests and the old fortress towns,
which have seen so many armies
come and go-all of them were taken
in stride The remnants of proud
German hosts-the men who were
going to subdue the world for the
master race-were in full flight, try
ing only to get away, to escape
somehow into Germany, where for
a little while they might be safe
from the fury of Allied planes and
tanks and the roaring guns that
came on in hot pursuit.
For the layman, thousands of
miles away, 1t is difficult, If not i'm
possible, to comprehend the full sig
niflcance of what has been happen
ing on the old battlefields OF France.
1t is too big and the whole thing
moves too fast. But we can grasp
bit Of 1t just from the names that
flash through the news-names of
places that men have fought and
died over for generations past.
We read of Sedan and Verdun,
st. Mihiel and Arras, Dieppe and
Amiens-the Gettysburgs and the
Yorktowns Of Europe-and 1t is
hard to believe that they have fallen
in the span of only a few hours to
the hard-driving young Americans,
Britons and Canadians, many of
whom had never seen a tank or a
gun when the Nazis were sweeping
across France.
One correspondent going into
Verdun with General Patton's ad-
vance units reported that he did not
see a single casualty, either Amer
ican or German. The great forts
were still there, but their eastward
pointing guns, for the most part,
were quiet. In the spring of 1915
the French and the Germans re-
ported 100000 casualties in the fruit
less four-month siege Of Verdun.
In the summer Of 1914 the demoral-
lied and beaten Nazis cannot even
make fight for it.
Much the same thing was true at
Sedan, where an entire French army
succumbed to the invading Prus-
slams in 1870 and through which
Hitler's legions burst into France a
little more than four years ago. In
the west Allied losses have been
heavier and the progress somewhat
slower. But even so the British
paid small price for Arras, where
they lost $4,000 men in 1917, and
the Canadians had little trouble at
Dieppe, where 50 many of their
countrymen died in the ill-fated
assault of two years ago.
We may expect that the battle
soon will shift to less familiar
ground. When the German border
has been preached and the Allied
forces move through, there will be
strange names In the news-the
names Of towns and cities which
have been the we'll springs of in
vasion and which have not them
selves felt the blast of war in mod
ern times. But it is not likely that
strange places will alter the pattern
of the fighting. The Allied COM
manders will do everything in their
power to keep it war of swift
movement, and there is no evidence
in the Battle of France that the
Germans can prevent them from
doing so.