Evening star., 1945-01-13

piece OF work on the part of Ger
man station, deliberately intended
to foment trouble between the Brit
ish and Americans.
1t is to be hoped that the ex-
. PLANTATION reaches as many as posi-
bile of the American troops who
heard or heard about the original
broadcast. Seldom, however, does
the truth catch up with a widely
disseminated lie and there doubt
less are many Americans still en-
bittered by the belief that a British
- commentator had been permitted to
4, say the battle of Ardennes car
, now be practically written off
thanks to Montgomery" Ready
themselves to give Montgomery ano
his British divisions full credit fol
the splendid job they did, the Amer
! leans were very naturally upset by
the apparent belittling of their own
p fighting.
The partial success achieved by
the German propaganda station may
offer Salutary lesson to some of
Oui OWA dOlO IOlllillCllbdJOlS. ..
Outspoken i'm Criticism.
Some of our home experts doubt
hess would like it forgotten, but there
were number who, at the safe dis
tance of 5000 miles, offered their
outspoken criticism of Montgomery's
leadership during the days when the
Allied armies were engaged in break
ing out of the Cherbourg Peninsula.
Montgomery excessive caution, we
were told, was holding things up.
And very recently there were some
who felt free to criticize alleged in
activity on the part of Montgomery S
forces at the northern end of the
Allied line.
The chances are at least $3.50
that these American critics had no
sound basis for their views. The
chances are much better than $3.50
that nothing useful was accomplish
ed by expressing them. In the light
of our own resentment following
this weeks bogus broadcast, the
chances are still better that the
ill-timed criticism of Montgomery
from this side of the Atlantic may
have had some of the very results
the German propagandiSts desire.
The war on the western front will
be won only by team play ons the
part of the American, British and
French armies and team play is not
promoted by broadcasting uncom-
plimentary opinions of ones team
mates. Gen. Eisenhower has won
the wholehearted cooperation of
officers and men of all nationalities.
His second in command, Gen. Brad
ley, obviously has much of Eisen-
1lower's genius for working with
others. His act of tossing to Mont
gomery full command of all forces
north of the bulge when the German
wedge cut through Allied communi-
cations may or may not offer added
proof of his size as soldier. But
that it proved his size as a man can
scarcely be denied, and the two
things are probably the same.
a Set Fine Example.
Bradley set an example of selfess-
ness and confidence in q colleague
that could we'll be followed not only
by all commanders at the front, but
by commentators on the distant
fringes.
The trouble with commentators is
that they are human like other
people When something seems to
go wrong they have to find some
body to blame. But whereas most
of us. when we are impelled to point
out the shortcomings of Bradley,
a Montgomery or a MacArthur-or
a Stain, Churchill, Roosevelt
have only our friends or our family
to hear us, commentators have all
the world. You can squawk in front
of your own fireside about the way
r the war is being managed and not
disturb anybody except your wife.
but when you give way to this weak
, ness in front of a microphone there
is no knowing how far the dis
turbance may spread.
The business of being omniscient