It is hard
to see things with perspective when you are up close. Take for example the
world’s opinion of Hitler in 1939. It was good. He was a genius who had taken
Germany from economic disaster to model success. People were saying that we
need to learn from what Hitler is doing in Germany. Even with the invasion of
Czechoslovakia in March of 1939, and Poland in September, surprisingly many
people still supported Nazism. After killing more than 100,000 Polish soldiers,
and 35,000 civilians Hitler told journalists to “…take a good look around
Warsaw and see I can deal with any European city.”[1]
Then, in
April, Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway and in May, Holland and Belgium. By
June, France capitulated to Germany, surrendering one of the world’s largest
armies. By July, Hitler was bombing Britain with the hope of killing hundreds
of thousands of British.
Then on June
22, 1941, Hitler invaded Russia with an army of 3 million soldiers and
thousands of planes, tanks and artillery pieces. The invasion force was so
large it could have been seen from outer space. Within a few months it looked
as if the Nazis would conquer Russia. They were knocking on the door of
Leningrad and Moscow, and Russia’s oil fields were now in imminent danger.
Then on
December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the United States
entered World War II. However, though we had entered the war, we were nowhere
near prepared to fight. Our equipment and weaponry were in pathetic condition.
Soldiers trained with drain-pipes for antitank guns, stovepipes for mortar
tubes, and brooms for rifles. Only six medium tanks had been built in 1939, and
if you can believe it, the army still believed there was a place for the horse
Calvary. The Army’s cavalry chief assured Congress in 1941 that four
well-spaced horsemen could charge half a mile across an open field to destroy
an enemy machine-gun nest without sustaining a scratch.[2]
Our first
encounter with the German army came in North Africa. A strange place, but in
retrospect, it was a blessing because it is where we learned to make an
amphibious landing against a hostile enemy. Just about everything that could go
wrong in North Africa went wrong. However, as North Africa claimed some 70,000
allied, wounded or missing, our army learned to fight.
With time,
subtle changes could be sensed in the Americans. They were gradually learning fieldcraft:
how to keep off ridgelines, how to camouflage slit trenches, how to flush
German crews from their tanks and how to win battles. The soldiers shied away
from officers who were glory seekers and appreciated those who remained calm
and tactically alert.
The price of
freedom is expensive. Our soldiers paid with their lives to contain the threat
from Germany and Japan in this four year war. We are grateful to God for his
blessings on our country that came so close to peril in those dark years. Today
I am extremely grateful to all those who paid the ultimate price for our
freedom.
Rick
Atkinson writes:
TWENTY-SEVEN acres of headstones fill the American
military cemetery at Carthage, Tunisia. There are no obelisks, no tombs, no
ostentatious monuments, just 2,841 bone-white marble markers, two feet high and
arrayed in ranks as straight as gunshots. Only the chiseled names and dates of
death suggest singularity. Four sets of brothers lie side by side. Some 240
stones are inscribed with thirteen of the saddest words in our language: “Here
rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God.” A long limestone
wall contains the names of another 3,724 men still missing, and a benediction:
“Into Thy hands, O Lord.”[3]
[1] Manchester, William; Reid, Paul
(2012-11-06). The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm,
1940-1965, Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.
[2] Atkinson, Rick (2002-02-22). An
Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation
Trilogy (p. 9). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.
[3] Atkinson, Rick (2002-02-22). An Army at
Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy
(p. 1). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.
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