Evening star., 1944-06-06
'Muy God Bless Them

The time for speculation is over
now. The waiting. the anxious
suspense, the taut expectancy of the
armed young men who for SO long
have been poised to strike-all that
is at an end. For though they con-
stitute but the opening phase, the
landings of our British, Canadian
and American forces in France
herald with thunder and flame the
invasion of Western Europe, the
great, the terrible, the awe-inspiring
event which for the past four years
ever since the surrender of Petain-
has been anticipated by the free
world as the indispensable precon-
dition of liberation from one of the
blackest tyrannies in history.
The days ahead-to be marked
perhaps by other landings else
where-will be critical ones. The
task given our Allied forces-men
fighting at sea, men winging through
the air, men parachuting through
the skies, men storming ashore and
reducing fixed fortifications-calls
for far more than the courage it
takes to establish beachheads. 1t calls
for the resolution, the fortitude, the
sacrifice and the skilled leadership
required to beat back the violent
counterattacks of our desperate
enemy. And as we know from
Salerno and Anzio, these may not
come for the next two or three
weeks, and not until they do come,
and are surmounted, will it be safe
to say that success has been
achieved.
Here on the home front, moreover,
we must steel ourselves to the pos
sibility that the casualties will be
heavier than those of any battle
heretofore fought by Americans.
Fer as President Roosevelt declared
last night, victory still lies some
distance ahead" and the winning of
1t will be tough and 1t will be
costly" But as he also made clear,
1t will be surely won. We can be
confident of that. Four years OF
painstaking planning, begun almost
at the time of Dunkirk, are in back
Of this project. Thousands of ships,
scores of thousands of planes, mil
lions of superbly trained men are
in back of it. We outnumber and
excel the enemy in virtually every
human and material category, and
our invading forces enter the battle
fresh, whereas Hitler's legions are
half numb with the battering they
have received in the East and the
South and half mesmerized with the
prospect of what the Red Army is
now likely to do in synchronization
with our tremendous assault in the
West.
Over and above all this, there are
the oppressed millions of Europe.
This is their day as much as it is
ours; and in some respects even
more so, for upon the success of
our Allied troops depends the end
OF the night that has been upon
them for four long years. Now they
can look forward to being freed and
of having their chance, as President
Roosevelt has just said of Italy, to
work with us toward a new happi-
ness and new era in which mo one
city and no one race will be able to
control the whole of the world"
There is not much that any of us
here can say or do now to change
the course of events that have been
set in motion in France under the
supreme command of our own Gen.
eral Eisenhower and his brilliant
British deputy, General Montgomery.
The die has been cast. With con-
fldence in the outcome, it remains
for us at home merely to do our
jobs better than ever before, to
maintain a sense of calm and per-
spective, and to say with President
Roosevelt of those engaged in this
fateful struggle, May God bless
them and watch over them and over
all our gallant fighting men,"