Joy and Hate

The news was magnificent, and it flowed in a full tide.

The first flush of elation over U.S. landings in Africa had hardly died when the Navy told of smashing the Jap in the Solomons. Never before had the full realization of global war been hammered home so hard in one week--and out of the bitter fighting America had a new pride in itself.

Global war no longer meant merely scattering troops to the ends of the earth; it now meant fighting bitter, agonizing battles 14,000 miles apart against full enemy forces. This was it: meeting the enemy face to face, ship for ship, tank for tank, plane for plane--and now, for a change, winning, at least sometimes.

The week was comparable to no other for the U.S. in World War II. As the battle of Africa unfolded, as the U.S. people learned the magnitude of the convoys and rubbed their eyes over the spy mission of tall Lieut. General Mark W. Clark, as they saw the first pictures of the American flag on African soil, they knew that at last, after a year of humiliation, they were active and aggressive participants at Armageddon. In the tank and plane factories, in the ammunition plants and the shipyards, there was good reason to work harder than ever.

Fast Pulse. The African campaign would be tough, they knew; but girding for battle with the Nazis had a terrible sweetness to it. And in the Solomons, where individual fighting by U.S. troops has been more desperate than in any other spot, there were happenings to make the national pulse race. For days the Navy had merely hinted at what might be a final showdown. The U.S. people kept their fingers crossed. The three-day battle over, the Navy released its jubilant communique.

But there was a sobering sense of the tasks still to be done--hard and painful and bloody. If anyone did not know this, he was given a jolting reminder by the wiry, keen commander of U.S. Ground Forces. Said Lieut. General Lesley J. McNair in a broadcast to all U.S. troops:

"We must hate with every fiber of our being. We must lust for battle; our object in life must be to kill; we must scheme and plan night and day to kill. There need be no pangs of conscience, for our enemies have lighted the way to faster, surer, crueler killing. They are past masters. We must hurry to catch up with them if we are to survive. .

"Let no one of you be the super-optimist and conclude that [this] is the beginning of the end. It is only another great stride forward in our part of the war. Our great advance guard overseas must be followed by a great main body--or else."

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