THE WAR IN REVIEW
THE WAR IN REVIEW AS THE WORLD waited in tense expectancy for a momentous "diplomatic development" in the war —presumably to come out of the as yet unannounced conference of the Allied "Big Three,"...
...In Washington the campaign was given semi-official status when a prominent member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen...
...It was to the German people, whose hopes for victory had been shattered on the Russian plains, African deserts, and in the skies of Western Europe, that the appeal, should it come, would be primarily addressed...
...Mark Clark's extreme right flank, but there was no indication that the main body of his force had joined with the British veterans in their effort to hit the enemy a "colossal crack" as Montgomery had called upon his troops to do...
...THE WAR IN REVIEW AS THE WORLD waited in tense expectancy for a momentous "diplomatic development" in the war —presumably to come out of the as yet unannounced conference of the Allied "Big Three," Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin—Europe's rumor mills this week were operating at the highest production peak since the beginning of the war...
...Thousands were said to have perished in the ensuing holocaust...
...Hub of it all, of course, was the much speculated-about Allied conference...
...Describing the fighting—reported to have cost the initial landing battalions all but a few hundred of the 2,000 to 3,000 men—Lt...
...What part the American Fifth Army was to play in what appeared to be a new offensive was anything but clear...
...Some insisted that it was in session and others maintained that it was "imminent...
...At mid-week, reports told of a developing Eighth Army drive preceded by the usual thundering artillery barrage that has marked the beginning of the other famous offensives of the veteran British general...
...It was one of the first raids from Chinese bases on what is considered a Japanese "home" island...
...Some added Chiang Kai-shek to the "Big Three" to make it the "Big Four...
...Hull Warns Against Rumors Although Secretary of State Hull denounced the rumors as endangering the "vigor" of the Allied war effort by creating overconfidence, rumors continued to grow until at mid-week some commentators, with a greater penchant for drama than fact, were flirting with the idea that the "Big Three" were meeting, or would meet, to discuss peace terms already presented by the Germans...
...British Reported In New Drive While the RAF was blasting the German capital, bombers from the American Eighth Air Force Command struck in force at other German industrial centers...
...Joseph Stilwell, American commander in China, carried out a raid on the Japanese island of Formosa...
...Principal target of the record-smashing raids was the Reich's industrial, cultural, and political nerve center, Berlin...
...Nikolai Vatutin seemed to have checked the smashing counter-attack of the Germans in the Kiev salient which last week threw the Russians out of Zhitomir...
...To assure that it would fall on receptive ears, Allied air might swept over Germany this week in unprecedented missions of devastation and death...
...Neutral diplomats, escaping the city, reported that more than a third of the great metropolis was in utter ruins...
...In China, the troops of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek had stopped the threat to the "rice bowl" of Hunan Province by throwing back Japanese invasion forces...
...Douglas MacArthur's jungle fighters seemed stalled but there were reports of heavy air raids on Japanese installations...
...Victory In The Gilberts Meanwhile, across the world in the Pacific American forces were in command of the Gilbert Islands after three days of the bloodiest and most savage fighting yet seen in that area...
...Peace rumors poured in a never-ending stream from the neutral and warring centers of international intrigue...
...Regular army forces landing on other islands of the group met with very little opposition...
...Meanwhile, American flying units attached to the Chinese army and under the command of Lt...
...The assault on Tarawa, a chain of small islands in the Gilbert group, was particularly costly for the Americans...
...The islands were stormed by the Marines who were said to have paid the highest price in human life per square yard of any action in their 168 year history...
...Two hundred miles to the north, Red Army units had stormed and taken the strategic redoubt, Gomel, and were slashing westward in pursuit of the fleeing Germans who had held the city since late Summer of 1941...
...Night after night the mighty bombers of Britain's RAF thundered over the city to drop their tons of explosives and incendiaries...
...In Italy there were signs that the Allies, now that the rainy season was drawing to a close, were launching a big offensive to clear the roads to Rome...
...Some placed it in North Africa, others in Moscow...
...Evans F. Carlson, whose veteran Raiders were the shock troops on Guadalcanal, said, "Guadalcanal was something, but I never saw anything like this...
...Reports spoke of action on the part of some of the units of Lt...
...Others added Eduard Benes, Czechoslovakian leader, to make it the "Big Five...
...First indication that big action was coming was seen in the announcement of Gen...
...Significantly, it was noted that although large numbers of planes were used in the raids by both the British and Americans the reported losses were comparatively light...
...And there were some who intimated that it would be the "Big Two" again—Churehill and Roosevelt...
...Sir Bernard Montgomery that the time had come to drive the enemy from the Italian capital...
...In addition, to the demoralizing bombing raids the German people were confronted with gloomy news from the battlefronts...
...Sheridan Downey, California Democrat, declared that influential Germans are attempting to open negotiations for their country's surrender and that some Allied leaders expect a German collapse by Christmas...
...In Russia, the troops of Gen...
...In New Guinea, Gen...
...Berlin In Ruins Whatever its time, place, and number of representatives there seemed to be general agreement as to its purpose: The mapping of a grand strategy for a knockout blow at the common foe and the formulation of a political block-buster aimed at blasting the Axis-dominated peoples from their leaders...
...Another veteran of Marine campaigns declared, "Nothing in any previous war or this one compares with it...
...They estimated that more than 1,000,000 people were homeless and described thousands of the benumbed victims wandering through desolated streets, whose asphalt, only a short time before, was boiling in the terrific heat of the flames that gutted and seared large sections of the city...
...To the usual flow of rumors that German spokesmen were seeking terms from Allied representatives in neutral countries there was added this week a persistent but unconfirmed report that Pope Pius XII had undertaken a mission of mediation between the warring powers...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 49
