The Wilmington morning star., 1944-04-28

AS lOI guessing Wllell Tie llVd-
sion will start and when the war
will end, we had better ask our
selves whether we are sitting in
the grandstands laying our bets
and waiting for the whistle to
blow. General Eisenhower and his
staff will decide when to invade.
But the American civilian popula-
ton have very big part to play
in deciding when the war will end.
In it's fundamentals the question
is whether Congress and the peo-
pie take the view that Eisenhow-
er's men must win, lose, or draw
with the forces they now have. I'm
doubtedly they are great forces.
But if they are a fixed quantity,
then the enemy has everything to
gain by taking every risk, fighting
to the death at every pillbox and
every street corner from the coast
of Europe to Berlin. For if he
knows that Eisenhower's force is
just so big and no bigger and that
there is not much else behind it,
the enemy has every reason to
fight on and to make us pay with
the blood of our men for every
foot of the soil of Europe.
The Germans are encircled and
are cornered, but they still have
hope. A fixed force, however for
midable, is worth resisting on the
great chance that if some part of
the plan goes wrong, we shall lack
the final punch to deliver the
knockout blow. Many man has
gotten out of hopeless fight by
just managing to hang on and not
to get knocked out because the
other fellow did not have that last
punch.
This is the tremendous danger
which the invasion forces face, that
they will come ashore, that they
will move in, as in Italy, and then
lack the reserves to push through
to victory. If that happened this
summer, we might well face a
bloody stalemate and the need to
try it all over again next season
and with every plan we have made
in Europe and in the Pacific
thrown off schedule.
1t is imperative, therefore, that,
once the invasion is launched, it
| should hoxyo hohipd II e,,cb rocor1,or
that the longer the enemy resists
the greater will be the forces that
come piling up against him. That
will break him. He may withstand
the first blow. But if the second
is harder, not softer than the first,
and the third harder than the Sec
ond. he will have nothing left to
fight for. The fury of the attack
must mount, and when it is indis--
putable to the German Army, who
will know all the essential facts,
that the attacks are on an ascend
ing scale of violence and power,
they will know that resistance is
mere suicide. Whole armies and
nations do not commit suicide.
This is the reason why our re-
sponsible military leaders are ask
ing the American civilian popula-
ton to back them up with ma
tlonal war service act. There is no
other way to tell our troops and
to make it clear to the enemy that
when the invasion begins it can
never be stopped. We are simply
not doing our duty if we leave
matters where they now are, say
ing to our men and to our enemy
that we shall fight it out with lin
tied forces.
1t is as clear as daylight that
the way to shorten the war de-
clslvely and conclusively is to mo-
bilize the civilian population. men
and women, so that there can be
no question in any ones mind that
the attack has behind it waves of
men and equipment We are peo-
pie more used to business than to
war. An example from business
will illustrate the point: there is a
run on a bank, the depositors are
drawing down the reserves How
do you stop the run? Bv feeding
into the bank new $500 for everv
$500 the depositors d raw olt9 Nj
at all You put all the resources of
all the banks behind the threaten.
ed bank. The moment that is done
the deposltors quit drawing on the
reserves, the run stops, the manic