Allies feared Axis junction in Far East
That gave European war top priority
WASHINGTON (UP) – The reason America gave the European war top priority after Pearl Harbor was because it was imperative to prevent a German-Japanese junction in India.
Speaking in the Army’s V-E Day film, Two Down and One to Go, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall said the Axis had planned to meet in India and then destroy Britain, Russia and the United States one by one.
Any cost strategy
“Our strategy,” he said, “was to prevent at all costs the junction of Germany and Japan, and then push them back.”
It was imperative to send forces to Europe immediately because Germany had Britain and Russia “on the ropes,” he said. Had the U.S. concentrated first on Japan, he declared, Germany would have become almost impregnable.
Gen. Marshall said another reason for temporarily subordinating the Jap war was that it was a two-year job to build the shipping strength to transport troops and supplies across the Pacific.
Ended at El Alamein
The threat of a German-Japanese junction ended when the Germans were forced back from El Alamein in 1943 and the British smashed the Japs at Ceylon.
The film, shown privately to the press last night, will be distributed theaters for exhibition to the public. It was made last summer for distribution with the end of the European war.