The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-09-27
No Time for C0mplacency

| Things are not going so well in the Anthem
the plains to Berlin is. or was when this was
written held up by German counter-a attack
Yesterday our forces had lost their grip on
one end of the Anthem highway bridge after
holding on by their teeth, as it were for
three days. Obviously Hitler, realizing what
will happen once break-througb is accom-
plished, is putting his full available military
might into the effort to prevent it.
There is something here for the American
public to note carefully and ponder deeply.
There is salutary lesson for us at home to
learn-that the march on Berlin is not to be
any push-over dress parade. 1t is for US
to learn that the complacency we have felt
ever since the Normandy invasion is out of
order.
The penetration OF Germany's defenses will
be achieved The endrun around the Siegfried
line will come off. Hitler's strength is waning
while the Allies are growing stronger in the
Westwan combat area. But the fact that the
ultimate victory will lodge with our united
armies does not justify the complacent atti
tude we have reveled in since D-day.
The proposition is discussed in the Topics
of the Tines column OF the New York Times.
We quote.
To-day everybody speaks of the defeat of
Germany as a certainty without adding the
caution that victory depends en- our not going
complacent and throwing down our tools or.
if we are soldiers, throwing down our rifles
where we stand, on the assumption that the
war is over. Perhaps by this time the admon-
ishers against complacency have learned that
there is no Hanger of very many American
fighters and workers quitting the job until the
President of the United States has told them
the war is over.
But then again it may be that complacency
has dropped out of view because the vocabu-
larry styles have changed and new words are
bidding for public favor. The more violently
a style RACES, in words or in hats, the sooner
is it apt to pail. So one might argue that very
few people will now be heard saying 'compla-
cency because everybody today is saying ia
naticaF. Thus the German soldiers on their
western frontier regularly do one OF two things
They retire at top speed or they resist IA
fiercely or desperately, as once upon time,
but always fanatically.
And yet, when you look little more deeply
into the matter, the fanaticism vogue is only
our old friend complacency. Americans ever
since Dday in Normandy have seen one splen-
did Allied victory following close upon another
We have come to take it as matter of
course that the Allied line shall go smashing
forward at top speed and t, at the Nazi enemy
shall flee just as fast. When the Germans
here and there do make stand for a little
while and try to hit back, we find it hard
to explain such extraordinary behavior except
on the ground of Nazi fanaticism.
Now we are quite justified in thinking of
our Allied might as finally irresistible and the
German position as hopeless; but everybody
in this country who would have said that
couple of months ago would have been called
complacent."
German resistance along the Holland from
tier clearly indicates there is no room for
complacency in our thinking or performance.