Editorial: The losses and the gains
News of the worst military disaster at sea in our history, and news of the most daring naval action of the war, come on the same day. After this, no American in his senses can talk glibly of a soft war and easy victory.
To the thousand families who have received official notice of the loss of their loved ones on a troopship sunk by the enemy in European waters, the nation extends its deepest sympathy.
The same American Navy which has held such transport losses to a minimum now has sent a fleet in another ocean into the very jaws of the dragon. Truk is the main Jap base outside home waters. Repeatedly the enemy’s Pacific fleet has refused to come out and fight, even to defend its Marshalls bastion. Now Adm. Nimitz has thrown in a mighty task force of surface and airpower. If the enemy fleet is there, a decisive naval battle is in progress; if that fleet has fled, our forces will destroy its bases.
Regardless of hazard, the U.S. Navy will continue to press its offensive in the Pacific and continue to convoy more and more troopships across the oceans until this war is won.