Evening star., 1944-01-30

The Allied ground, air and naval
forces are almost ready for the most
important battle yet fought in Europe
the attack on the western wall of what
Hitler describes as the impregnable
'Festung Europa"
When and how the assault will develop
is known to only handful of men in
Washington and London. Whether it
will be preceded or accompanied by
strong diversions in other theaters of
operation extending from Narvik to the
Dardanelles also is military secret
which we will learn in the next few
months when the carefully studied plans
of the American and British general
STATS are revealed, not by gossip, but by
action.
In working out the complicated stra-
tegic plans, the military men are not
interested at all in whatever political
activities the diplomatic branches of
their governments may develop. These
various tugs of war in Europe are of
little consequence to the American STRAIT
egists who regard war as dirty busi-
ness which must be ended as quickly as
possible. They have set date for
general assault on Europe and as far as
they are concerned the date will be kept
One factor, however, which is as i'm
portant as military equipment-the
training Of the fighting men and the
ability of the generals to make adequate
plans for victory-is the morale Of our
own and our enemy's forces.
Many VIII Be Green.
Many Of our invasion divisions will be
composed Of men who never before have
seen real action. We had such troops
in the Pacific. They showed their mettle
at Guadalcanal and on New Guinea
against less able but far more ferocious
enemy than the Nazis. The idea of a
man preferring to be killed rather than
being taken prisoner Is not very palat-
able to the green soldier Yet our ma
rines and infantry in the South Pacific
did not falter for single instant.
Consequently, there is no reason why
there will be any misgivings among our
military leaders in regard to the be-
havior of the forces which are called on
to break through the Notifications of
Hitler's Europe.
The morale of the enemy is the sub
ject Of greater concern to our military
leaders because the price we will have
to pay for the defeat of Hitler will de-
pend exclusively on the morale of the
Germans on the battlefield and the Ger
mans at home.
Morale is psychological factor.
Neither hardship nor discomfort can
disrupt 1t when a nation is conscious
that 1t Is fighting for its life. There is
no need to go back in history to DEM
onstrate this fact The heroic resistance
of the people of Russia in the desperate
days of 194l and 1912 amply proves that
a nation can do much with little If il
realizes that to give up would mean
obliteration. When the history of Rus
sia's tight is written after the war we
will know how amazingly near victory
the Nazis were in the first IL months of
the war, when supplies from the United
States and Britain were q mere drop in
the bucket.
Feared National Serfdom.
Men, women and children were united
in the effort to resist the enemy and
they managed to weather the storm.
The Russian people were hungry and
cold; their armies, in many instances,
were without boots and adequate uni
forms. Frequently they lacked enough
ammunition to fight the enemy and
had to give up important strategic
positions.
The reason was that the Russian peo-
pie, even the masses of illiterate peas
ants in the steppes, felt instinctively
that If the Germans succeeded, Russia
would be a nation Of serfs for many
generations.
There was the same feeling among
British fighting men and civilians in the
tragic months after the collapse OF