The Wilmington morning star., 1945-01-01
Interpreting
The War
BY ELTON C. FAY
Associated Press War Analyst

The AllleS may ll1u tlidl LIE 4dSt
disturbing chapter of the other
wise favorable war history of 1900
has it's bright pages.
In coping with the Nazis year
end offensive in the Ardennes,
the Allies may have done more
damage to German military pow
Grand at less cost to themselves
than could have been done in
frontal assault on the Seigfried
Line.
This seems to be the thought of
some thoroughly conservative mil
itary men.
The Is to 20 divisions that Mar
shall Won Runstedt showed through
his West Wall fortified and
out into Luxembourg and Belgium
have given a target for the Amer
lean First and Third Armies and
the Allied Air Forces to shoot at.
They have destroyed perhaps a
thousand or more tanks (enough
to equip more than two amored
divisions), more than three times
that number of vehicles and taken
tens of thousands of prisoners.
The toll of German dead and
wounded will exceed the prisoners
many fold.
The cost of the Allies has not
been cheap. Casualties to the Am
erican armies will be heavy. An
immense amount Of ammunition
has been expended. Tanks, guns
and vehicles have been destroyed
in quantity. CA German-controll-
led radio broadcast claims about
1000 Allied tanks nave been de-
stroyed, ten American divisions
"smashed'', and 10000 prisoners
taken.)
Some military thinkers in high
places, perhaps with tinge Of
hindsight, are beginning to believe
that destruction of the same
amount of German armor and
men during and after a penetra-
ton of the Siegfried Line would
have tapped Allied resources far
more heavily. The Allies would
have had to deal with the same
fresh, crack divisions they now
are battling in the breaktnrough
salient and that after an extensive
push through the deadly maze OF
Notifications along the German
border.
This brings up the question of
how much was known about the
existence and intentions of the
powerful Nazi force behind the
Siegfried Line. That question has
been debated publicly, outside Of
official quarters, on both sides
of the Atlantic. The London press,
remembering Field Marshal Sir
Bernard L. Montgomery's vic
tories in North Africa and France,
suggests that General EisenhoW-
er's duties are too heavy and that
he should share them. 1t hints
of impending regrouping of Allied
commands.
These reports lacked confirma-
ton in London. In Washington,
the official attitude was express
ed recently bv Secretary of War
Stimson who said it is too early
to pass judgment either on indi-
viduals or commanders.
Since then, there has been
disposition in high quarters to
write the whole thing off as a for
tune of war and spread any blame
throughout the whole upper level
of the Allied Command-in the
field, in London and in Washing
ton This would seem to discount
the likelihood of major shakeup.
And in this now well-earned les
son, military men see a text for
the war in the Pacific in 1915.
The japanese, by and large, are
an unknown factor. The United
States and Britain have yet to
come to grips with the main forces
of Japan's land army. The Asiatic
enemy has been punished heavily
In the air, but within recent weeks
ne has started putting up fighter
planes re. orted to show perfor-
nance at least equal to any Amer
lean planes in that theatre. Jap
ms losses at sea have been huge,
but there has been no word that
her modern battleships and her
latest aircraft carriers have been
put into battle.