The Pittsburgh Press (December 12, 1943)
Hitler outlasts the Kaiser in waging war on Allies
Second world conflict has now raged as long as first; costs much heavier
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
London, England –
Adolf Hitler has outlasted the Kaiser.
At 6:00 a.m. today ET, World War II was four years and 102 days old. Within that time, the Allies ended World War I, smashed the Second Reich of Wilhelm Hohenzollern and sent the deposed ruler fleeing into exile.
Today, Hitler is at bay but his Third Reich is still far from beaten. Sober military men in Moscow, London and Washington know the cost in blood that must be paid to bring Nazi Germany to her knees.
A survey by the United Press reveals that already the Allies have paid a far greater price to resist German aggression than they did in the same span of World War I.
Military authorities believe that total Allied military deaths on all fronts already total more than 7,500,000, compared with 5,152,115 in the first war. Germany’s military deaths are estimated at 2,500,000, compared with the loss of 1,773,700 in World War I.
Another 10 million civilians are believed to have died in this war.
Only a small fraction of Allied civilian losses are attributed to direct “enemy action” in air raids or land attacks. The overwhelming number died as a result of maltreatment – cold and systematic starvation – and the mass executions in Poland and Russia.
The staggering loss of civilian property, which was resulted from modern war-making methods and the broad scope of the conflict, is beyond estimate but must already be several times the total of the first world conflict.
Figures on the comparative cost in money of the two wars are not available from all Allied countries, but the United States has spent $142,500,000,000, estimated through Dec. 13, compared with $32,830,000,000 in World War I.
The First World War is calculated to have started on Aug. 1, 1914, on the heels of the first hostilities between Austria and Serbia when the Kaiser declared war on Russia, committing the world’s major powers to war. Four years and 102 days later, the German Navy was in mutiny, the army was reeling along the dismal “road back,” the home front had cracked wide open and every ally had deserted the Reich. Germany proper would have become a battleground in a few more days, so the Germans quit.
Fighting with desperation
Hitler plunged the world into the Second World War Sept. 1, 1939, with his attack on Poland, which spread war across the globe until World War I was dwarfed by comparison. Today, Hitler is still fighting, with the desperation of a cornered gangster.
Most military men here believe Hitler cannot last another year, but they also believe that he intends to make the closing months as bloody as possible and to destroy as much of Europe with him as possible.
They appraise Germany’s remaining strength as follows:
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THE ARMY: Suffered probably 2,500,000 fatalities, three-quarters of a million more than in the first war; exhausted the strategic reserve once held to meet any new Allied attack, but still has 300 well-equipped divisions.
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THE LUFTWAFFE: No longer can compare with Allied airpower on offensive, but still strong defensively.
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GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION: So strongly held that Russia, Britain and the United States will have to fight their way over hundreds of miles of slave states before they can strike the Reich.
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ECONOMY: Superbly planned to assure Germany food regardless of whether the rest of Europe starves.
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HOME FRONT: Control so organized that German morale must still be rated as good. The Nazi Party has convinced the people that they are lost once they crack.
German weakness
They appraise German weakness this way:
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ALLIED AIRPOWER: Has turned the key industrial centers of Germany into battlefields as terrible as in any war save possibly Verdun and Stalingrad; has deprived the armies in the east of tanks, trucks and weapons with which to fight the Russians.
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RESERVES: With huge stocks of men and weapons now coming to the Big Three, Germany finds her reserves of both deteriorating.
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U-BOATS: This weapon has failed the Germans and been brought under control.
Sometime next year, Germany faces converging land attacks from at least three directions which in the end may involve five million Allied soldiers.
