"To Get Peace ..."

Winter had brought snow and bitter cold to one end of the war, steaming tropical rains to the other.

In Europe the winter was the sixth of World War II, and the first in which victory was clearly within the Allies' grasp. The great western offensive was still building up momentum and pressure along a 450-mile front, still rising to the climactic point at which either the defenders must crack or the attackers must relax to await another effort. Russian troops were still hacking away at German positions in Hungary, still blotting up the trapped, stubborn Nazi garrisons in the Baltic states. But if there was to be a major Red Army winter offensive along their decisive central front, the time had not yet come to pull the trigger.

On these matters--the weight of the western offensive, the timing of the eastern--hung the decision for an end of war in Europe.

But in the fourth winter for the Pacific Theater, war's end was not even remotely in sight. Embittered Japanese resistance on Leyte had slowed the U.S. Philippine timetable, serving notice of the enemy's determination to string the conflict out. A strike of Superfortress bombers against teeming Tokyo served notice of U.S. determination to shorten it by destroying Japan's weapons while they were still on their forges.

In rain or snow, at either end of the war, the Allied peoples heard no sounder comment during the week than General Eisenhower's:

"To get peace we have to fight like hell."

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