Evening star., 1944-10-28

campaign address.
Republican candidate spoke scorn-
fully of such proposal, calling it
a publicity stunt" and saying it
would take four years to reach such
goal.
! Nevertheless, we have since then
produced more than 24O000 war;
planes. We have attained produc-
ton rate of more than 5000 per
month-more than 100000 per year
We have trained more than 850,-
900 pilots, navigators, bombardiers
aerial gunners and other aerial
crew members.
I admit these figures seem fam
tastic-but such results were not
impossible for those who had real
faith in America.
In 1910 we had a Regular Army
of approximately 250,00o, and re-
serve, including the National Guard
of 350,00O.
Today, we have 100000 in our
Army, including 10000 women.
More than half of our Army is
overseas.
Our Navy in 1910 had 1863 combat
ships and 1000 men.
Today, we have more than 1900
combat vessels. supported by an
armada of $4,000 other ships, in
cluding landing craft. We have
more than 3,500.00o men in our
Navy and over 100000 women.
Trained and Equipped.
Never before in history have the
soldiers and sailors of any nation
gone into battle so thoroughly
trained, so thoroughly equipped, so
well fed, and so thoroughly sup
ported as the American soldiers
and sailors fighting today in Europe.
Asia and the Pacific.
In his report to the Secretary of
War, in 1943, Gen. Marshall wrote
In matters of personnel, military
intelligence, training, supply and
preparation of war plans, sound
principles and policies had been
established in the preparation for
just such an emergency as arose. y
After we were attacked by the
Japanese, and Hitler and Mussolinj
declared war on us. some people
urged that we go on the defensive
that we pull in our fleet to guard
this continent-that we send no
forces overseas.
That policy was rejected. In nv
f1rst war message to the Congress, a
month after Pearl Harbor, I said:
We cannot wage this war in a
defensive spirit. AS our power and
our resources are fully mobilized
we shall carry the attack against
the enemy-we shall hit him and
hit him again wherever and when
ever we can reach him. We must
keep him far from our shores, for
we intend to bring this battle to him
on his own home grounds"
And that is the policy we have
successfully followed.
Overall Strategy.
In our overall strategy, we plan
ned our war effort in three phases:
The first phase could be called
plugging the line"-which meant
stopping the Germans and Japs
from expanding their conquests to
such key points as Australia and
the British Isles-for England then
was still very vulnerable to invasion.
Within month after Pearl Har-
Dor, American Expeditionary Forces
were moving across the Pacific to
Australia and across the Atlantic
to Northern Ireland. Our air forces
went to the Southwest Pacific, to
India, China, the Middle East and
Great Britain.
In this first phase we furnished
arms to the British which helped
them to stop the Germans in Egypt
and arms to the Russians which
helped them to stop the Germans
at Stalingrad.
And our own growing forces STOP
ped the Japanese in the Coral Sea
and at Midway.
The second phase was the shat
tering Of the enemy's outer defenses
Establishing bases from which to
launch our major attacks. This
phase began with the operations in
New Guinea, the Solomons and
North Africa. 1t continued through
all of the operations in the Mar
shalls, Gilberts, Aleutians, Marianas,
Carolines and now the Philippines
and in Europe with the landings in
Sicily and Italy and finally in
France.
The war in Europe has reached
the final, decisive phase-the attack
on Germany itself.
But we have much longer and
much farther to 60 In the war
against Japan.
Planned Far in Advance.
All Of these operations had to be
planned far in advance-and that
does not mean merely drawing ar
rows on maps. It has meant plan
ming IN terms Of precisely how
many men will be needed and how
many ships-warships, cargo ships,
landing craft-how many bombers
and how many fighter planes-and
how much equipment and what
types of equipment down to the
last cartridge. And it has meant
getting all of them to the right
place at the right moment.
1t has meant establishing for our
Army and Navy supply lines ex-
tending over $4,000 miles-more
than twice the circumference of
this earth. 1t has meant establish
ing the lines Of the Air Transport
Command-150,0 900 miles OF air sup
ply systems running regularly.
II haa sana~& ->xI.