Evening star., 1944-12-31


be sent across the Atlantic.
The deficiency of the British manpow-
er was to be made up, however, by the
enormous surplus of men in Russia. The
Soviet also had suffered great reverses
and had lost millions Of men IN the de-
fensive battles against the Germans.
According to the latest available stats
tics, the population of European and
Asiatic Russia is about 180 900, more
than four times that of Great Britain.
1t was only natural that the American
war planners should rely heavily on the
Russian effort. The men were avail
able. All they needed was modern war
equipment and we and the British were
in position to see that it should be pro-
duced and transported to the Russian
battlefields.
Demand for Invasion.
During the Casablanca conference, tho
Russians were still hard-pressed. They
clamored for an immediate offensive on
the western front. The enthusiastic
friends of Russia in Britain and the
United States were following Moscows
slogan and were vociferous in demand-
ing the opening of operations in West
ern Europe without considering the fact
that we had been at war for only few
months, had just suffered severe defeats
in the Pacific and had just begun to or
ganize our forces.
The North African campaign diverted
large amount of German war material
to the newly created secondary fronts
and also compelled the Germans to send
new troops to Western and Southern
Europe, but this did not satisfy.
Great Britain and the United States
were credited with the somber thought
that they wanted Russia bled white. The
military considerations for such an
enormous operation as the attack on the
Atlantic Wall were given little thought,
Premier Stain himself could not quite
understand the American British re-
luctance to start the cross Channel op-
erations. The result was a definite
cooling of of relations among Moscow,
Washington and London despite the
enormous quantities of lease-lend goods
we were shipping to the Persian Cult
and Murmansk under the most difficult
conditions
This led to the Moscow conference
and eventually the Teheran meeting
where Mr.. Roosevelt met Premier Stain
Tor the first time. Mr.. Roosevelt saw
In Stain man of immutable convic-
tions and realized that unless he gave
him complete satisfaction on all polit-
ical points which he raised. Russia
would get out of the war. He could not
permit this to happen. According to
his own way Of thinking, our participa-
ton in the war was no longer due to
theological consideration such as the
factors which brought about the enun-
citation Of the Atlantic Charter. Neither
did the President think Germany was
sufficiently bled to present no longer q
menace to the security of the United
States.
Feared Separate Peace.
Mr.. Roosevelt believed that if the
Russians were to make peace with Ger
many while the Reich's main industrial
areas had not yet been destroyed by
American and British aviation, q new
Russo-German combination would be
even more threatening to the United
States than previously. The Teheran
conference ended In Russia's being
given carte blanche to establish a new
huge empire extending to the Adriatio
and to the Oder River In Germany,
After overruling all Mr. Chmchills OBJ
jections, we also pledged ourselves to
start an offensive against the Germans
from across the Channel early in the
summer of 1914.
Preparations for that operation were
sped. Hundreds of ships rushed millions
of tons of war material and millions of
men across the Atlantic
The offensive in Normandy exceeded
our most optimistic expectations. It
was more rapid and less costly than
the combined chiefs OF staff in WASH
ington had anticipated.
Russians Change Direction.
Within few weeks after we landed
In Normandy the Russians began to
moye toward the Vistula River. The
Germans were pushed back quickly,
In the west we were advancing, in
f1icting, however, much more serious
losses on the Wehrmacht.
Gen. Marshall and Gen, Eisenhower
saw victory before Christmas within their
reach. So certain were our planners
of victory that Gen. Macarthur was
given the green light to move against
the japanese in the Philippines. After
the Normandy landings we were able
to give him the necessary transports,
important operation.
But remarkable thing occurred,
After reaching the suburbs of Warsaw
on the east bank of the Vistula, the
Russian steamroller stopped dead. In
stead, Russian forces were diverted to
the Balkans, theater which Stain
himself had described at Teheran as
Of no military importance.
The cessation OF the Russian cam.
paign against the heart of Germany
gave new confidence to the German
leaders, who with the help Of the
Gestapo, rallied the population around
Hitlers heutenants. Some Of the reg
ular army officers Of Junkers origin,
such as Won Rundstedt himself, began
to visualize the possibility Of continuing
the battle and bringing about peace
which might save Germany. Germany
became fully modified.
Added to the production of the Reich's
nous output OF the plants in East Ger