Evening star., 1944-09-01
The Five Years

which the Pope had described as
upside down and sick with a grave
Illness" the nihilists Of Berlin let
loose the lightning against the brave
but hapless Poles.
Two days later, in accordance
with their treaty obligations, France
and Britain were at war with Ger
many. And little more than a month
later, ravaged and bleeding, parti-
toned by the Nazis and Russians in
an understanding that was merely
mutually convenient truce. Poland
to all intents and purposes lay dead.
So began the titanic struggle
which in due time was to engulf the
whole world. The might makes
right philosophy was apparently rid
ing the wave Of the future. Not
honest principles, not abstract stand
ards of justice. not the Ten Com
mandments, not any of the accumu-
lated decencies Of the Christian era,
but sheer, naked and obscene force
was to be the basis of a New Order"
for the next 1000 years.
For free men and free nations, the
first years of this monstrous perver-
sion of civilization were nightmare
years. As 1899 gave way to 1910
Russia, still doing what it considered
the expedient thing, struck at the
Films, who surrendered in the fol-
lowing March. And in the next
month and the month after that,
Hitler successfully sent his legions
crashing first into Denmark and
Norway and then into the Low
Countries, slashing from there into
France.
BY May 20 of that year the British
were on the beaches of Dunkerque,
and on June 10, like bird Of prey
sighting carrion, Mussolini plunged
into the war. Now the French were
finished and Britain stood alone.
Now began the U-boat campaign
and the air blitz to starve and pull
verize England into submission. Now
the Germans started to sing their
superman songs about owning
Europe today and tomorrow the
world. In all the blackness of the
time, free men could find little to
cheer them beyond the valor Of the
Greeks against the Italians and the
magnificent stoutness of the Eng
lish heart.
But in 1941 the face of the war
changed spectacularly. Having lost
the air battle over England but still
confident that that island fortress
could be kept relatively impotent to
be conquered later, Hitler turned
from the west to the east, laid low
Yugoslavia, smashed Greece to save
Mussolini from ignominious defeat,
and then, suddenly, at dawn on June
%, struck with such fury against
Russia that Moscow's past policy,
however harsh, began to seem some
what less mystifying from the stand
point of military expediency. The
course Of history from this point on
is too familiar to need detailed
reviewing. Before the year ended,
Pearl Harbor had been attacked and
America was now in the struggle.
In the first half of 1912 the Ger
man U-boats began to take a deadly
toll of Allied shipping. Guam, Wake,
Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philip
pines and the Dutch East Indies had
passed into the enemy's hands. Rus
sia was on desperate defensive,
and the gates of Alexandria and
Suez were threatened by Rommel.
But the fortitude and productive
might Of the Allies-the miracle" OF
Americas production - slowly but
surely stopped the Axis tide. Now
came the Battle of the Coral Sea,
the momentous Battle of Midway,
our invasion of Guadalcanal, Mont
gomery's victory at Ell Alamein, the
reduction of the U-boat menace, the
Anglo-American invasion of French
Northwest Africa and the Red Army's
counterattack at Stalingrad. And
now, too, came the beginning of an
air offensive from Britain that awed
the world and converted much of
Germany into a blackened and
Quivering mass of ruin.
To review the story OF the war
from the end of 1912 to today is
merely to cite a long succession OF
Allied triumphs eliminating at last
in the catastrophe now being in
f1icted upon the NaziS in France.
All Hitlers victories have turned to
ashes In his mouth. His Fortress
Europe" is being shattered piece
meal, with his satellites tumbling
one by one, and the hot breath of
rebellion encircling him, and our
shells and bombs laundering out a
Wagnerian orchestration of his
doom. In word, Nazi Germany is
on the verge of crashing down, and
as soon as it does-which may be
very soon-its Far Eastern partner
in crime will probably be not too
long in following it on the same
road.
On this anniversary, then, free