The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-05-06
Interpreting
The War
nv KIRKE L. SIMPSON

Military historians long will pour
over the events leading up to this
climactic week of Nazl debacle
in Germany seeking the key to the
riddle of Just what participated the
final total collapse OF the Wehr-
maeht.
At some point Nazi resistance
became a planless, disintegrated
thing. The superb staff work of
the Germany army that had seen
it through the desperate dangers OF
the retreat from the Volga to the
Vistula and then the Oder in the
east. from the Normandy beaches
to the Rhine in the west at some
point broke down utterly. The why
and wherefore of that will interest
military students for years after
the last shot in Europe has been
fired. It can be cleaned only from
captured German military docu-
ments of that period and the stor-
les captured German officers of
the highest rank have to tell.
Already there are limitations in
what such key figures of the Ger
man high command have had to
say since their capture. They con-
tend that to the end Hitler "intui-
ton, substituted for the season.
ed Judgment of professional mill
tary opinion, doomed the nation
to the terrible fate that has fallen
upon it. In retrospect failure of
the generals plot to eliminate Hit
Ter many months ago must go
down as a tragic disaster for all
Germany.
If it had succeeded the war could
have been over in Europe long
ago. Many German city that now
lies in utter ruin could have es.
caped that doom. Millions of men
who have since died or beer
mangled in battle on both sides
would have been spared, millions
of others, men, women and chill
dren behind the lines, would have
escaped untold horrors that Hit
Ter fanaticism forced upon them
For the essence of that futile
revolt against him in his own ranks
was realization that the war was
lost even then, that to prolone
it could lead nowhere but the chaos
and ruin that is Germany today
It was a sad day for the world
and for Germany above all, wher
that bor,oh Mot failed.
At that time the myth of Ger
man super-race, competent to rule
the world by force of arms, hae
been battle punctured. 1t had dice
a-borning at Ell Alamein in Egypt
at Stalingrad, most of all perhaps
in the dangerous waters Of the At
lantic, and finally on the Vistuls
and the beaches of Normandy.
Turning to the remaining war be-
yond the Pacific, however, what
may Mapped to end hostilities who'll
|1y in Europe affords no dependable
guide to expectation as to Japan
japanese defeat, utter and com
plete. is certain but how or where
it will come and the will of the
Japanese armies and people to con
tinue the fight is beyond calcula
ton.
From the Gilberts to Two Jima,
from Solomons to OkinaWa, no sig
nificant sign has come of weak
ening of japanese determination
to fight to the death. The Nippon
csc enemy has fought losing wal
to his own home doorstep, his losses
in battle have been shocking but
surrenders few and far between
There is no fanatical central fig
ure in Japan as there was for Ger
many in Hitler. 1t is the military
hierarchy in Japan that has driven
her to her fate. 1t has long aped
German professional militarists in
manner but lacks the sheer realism
of its German model that could
recognize impending defeat and ac'
cept it if not dominated by some
other influence as Hitler and his
NaZi crew.