TheWarReviewed


 * The War Reviewed by W. R. Plewman (Monday, May 7th 1945) Transcribed by Nicholas Rooch **
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 * Plewman, W. B. "The War Reviewed." Toronto Daily Star [Canada] 7 May 1945. Print. **


 * “The War Reviewed **
 * This is the Big Day. Official word, has come that the war in Europe has come to an end on the 2,074th day of the war. Nazi Germany has surrendered unconditionally to the victorious Allied powers. **
 * Montgomery had refused to accept a surrender to Britain and the United States without the inclusion of the Soviet Union. Presiunabiy the Nazis were so desperately anxious to gain peace that they took a big gulp and swallowed the necessity of surrendering to Russia .Happy days are here again " Canadians, along with a billion other people, have an unequalled occasion for wholehearted rejoicing. **


 * The German foreign minister, Schwerin Von Krosigk, went on their at Fleneburg, just south of the Danish border, sad said: **
 * "German men and women!" Schwerin Von Krosigk began his dramatic announcement. "The high command of armed forces has today, at the order of Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, declared the unconditional surrender of all fighting German troops. **


 * After a heroic tight of almost six years of incomparable hardness, Germany has succumbed to the overwhelming power of her enemies.To continue the war would only mean senseless bloodshed and futile disintegration. **
 * The government, which has feeling of responsibility for the future of its nation, was compelled to act on the collapse of all physical and material forces and to request of the enemy cessation of hostilities." **


 * Two Enemies Overpowered **
 * For years the United Nations fought Germany, Italy and Japan. Italy was the first of these countries **
 * to be knocked out of the war. Her own military leaders deposed Mussolini and changed sides in the struggle, but Italy has not been accepted as a full-fledged ally and will have to accept peace terms, not yet delivered, which win occasion her much grief. That is the penalty for following the lead of a gangster dictator and engaging in several ways of aggression. Nazi Germany was a much tougher enemy than Italy, but nearly a year ago leading German generals' tried unsuccessfully to wrest control from Hitler because they regarded the war as already lost . They paid with their lives for their bold move to save what they could of Germany from the wreckage of war. **


 * Nazi die-hards insisted on fighting to the bitter end and bringing on Germany such devastation that she cannot recover for 50 years and will not be able to do so much as raise her head without the aid of the conquering forces of free civilization. As long as their power lasted, Nazi leaders carried on their fiendish atrocities, not sparing even the finest of Germany’s own citizens. They massacred and tortured and starved to death uncounted millions of people of many countries and shocked the moral sense of humanity that had difficulty believing that an enlightened age could produce such monsters of iniquity. The Nazis have completed the ruin of Germany and degraded the name of German to the lowest conceivable level. Nowhere are the Nazis snare thoroughly detested today **
 * than in Germany because Germany has suffered more at their hands than any other nation. is that detestation has some of the hope of the future: But decent people will be very slow trusting Germany again . She will have to go through a long period of probation and Allied control . **


 * Japan Remains Strong **


 * Japan, the third of the gangster powers, still is"unbeaten and full of fight . But long since her invading forces were checked and turned back. Now Japan is fighting for her very existence with the enemy almost at her gate.Her main armies are intact and larger than those at present arrayed against them. Indeed, the struggle on land has not **
 * begun in earnest. Most of the fighting has been is the sea and is the air and on scattered islands. But **


 * many of the most strategic islands of the South Pacific have been re-taken by Allied forces, and all of **
 * Japan's southern conquests have been isolated from the homeland. Japan cannot send war supplies from the homeland to her garrisons in the south nor can she obtain for **
 * Japan proper the natural resources of the south that are essential to the full operation of her war industries. **


 * May Beat Japan This Year **


 * This is a world war against gangsters, not two separate wars, and the submission of Germany does not bring the war to an end. The forces of free civilization must be concentrated with terrific power against Japan to hasten the downfall of that barbarous nation. Britain has promised to hurl her strength against that enemy. Canada, Australia and the other dominions have much at stake in the war against Japan. Canadian warships and some Canadian troops have moved into the Far East. Others will follow. **
 * How soon the Allies can bring Japan to the point of unconditional surrender is uncertain. At the moment the Japanese people probably would scornfully reject the terms that the United States and Britain would impose. The Japanese big interests will wish to be wiser than the Nazis and save what they can from utter ruin . They might be ready to yield Manchuria, a rich prize, and all of China, but they **
 * would balk at giving up Formosa, Korea and all the islands of the sea, and refuse to consider the overthrow of the Mikado which China is demanding. Sometime this summer perhaps by -July 1, the Soviet Union may enter the war against Japan in which case we could hope for the struggle to be over by the end of 1945, which is a year or two earlier than many authorities are predicting. Given a reasonable excuse, Japan would quit before the Soviet Union attacked, but Washington is not likely to afford Japan the excuse. **


 * What the Maps Show **


 * The map of Europe that this column uses today shows in black the Allied countries and all the countries controlled by the Allies except Germany herself. NeurataI **
 * countries are shown abraded areas. Denmark of course, declared her **


 * neutrality but was occupied by the Nazis and never became a real battle-ground. Some skirmishing **
 * has takes place there in recent days.British and American troops have entered Denmark, **


 * The map of Holland and northwestern **
 * Germany shows where the five Canadian divisions and two armored brigades were located when last reported, They still are pretty much where the map indicates. As I write the jubilating throngs outside my Star building provide sounds that are music to my ears. **


 * The dispatches say that the final German surrender took place as it should, at Eisenhowers headquarters in a schoolhouse. It signed by Colonel-General Jodl, the chief of staff of the German army. Germany has changed, her chief of staff several times this year. Lieut. General Walter Bedell Smith, chief of staff for Eisenhower, signed for the U.S. and General Ivan Susloparof **
 * signed for the Soviet Union. General Severez signed for France. **


 * Will Respect Law in Future **


 * The complete text of Germany's foreign minister showed that he expected the Allied peace terms to be severe and that things would be difficult for the German people. He expressed the hope that the hatred with which Germany was surrounded would give place to a spirit by reconciliation. He said: "We must make right the basis of our nation. In our nation justice shall be the supreme law and guiding principle. We must also recognize law as the basis of all relations between nations. We must recognize and respect it from inner conviction. Respect for concluded treaties will be sacred” **
 * Admiral Doenitz, in ordering the German submarine fleet to cease fighting and return to port to surrender, said that U-boat warfare could not be continued without the submarine bases that had been lost. He told German submarine sailors that they had fought like lions after a heroic fight that never had **
 * been equalled . **


 * Many Notables released **


 * Marry notables are turning up alive and free. General "Bor," who led the underground Polish forces in Warsaw, reached American troops. Young Lascelles, nephew of King George; Lieut . John Winant, son of the U.S. ambassador to Britain, who were prisoners of war, were released. Ex-premiers Reynaud and Daladier and Generals Weygand and Gamelin were freed. So was Borolra, the French tennis star. Ex- Premier Blum's whereabouts are uncertain . Some dispatches suggest that Von Schuschnigg of Austria still is alive after all; if so, he cannotbe located. King Leopold of Belgium and his family have been reunited in Switzerland and are preparing to return to their country . Anton Mussert, the hated leader of the Dutch Nazi party, was caught at Utrecht. Three German airmen **
 * landed near Dublin and were interned. It was rumored that "Lord Haw-Haw;' otherwise William Joyce, was with them, but this was denied. **


 * In the courtyard of the German chancellery in Berlin . the Russians found the bodies of many leading Nazi war criminals. So far their identification has not been revealed . **
 * The writer leans to the opinion that **


 * Hitler and Goebbels committed suicide. Hitler’s doctor says Der Fuehner’s pressure was not high and that it is unlikely that he had a stroke. No word has come about the fate of Himmler. Many Nazi war criminals will try to drop out of sight and escape punishment after arranging for the publication of stories announcing their own deaths. **


 * Saved a Summer of Fighting **


 * Many military observers felt last autumn that if the war did not conclude before winter, it would continue until the autumn of 1945, a view this column never shared. Rundstedt's counter-attack came on Dec. 16 and gave the Allied world an anxious Christmas. The writer then declared his belief that the enemy's attack was made because of desperation and that it would shorten rather than prolong the war. When the Allies reached the Rhine it was rather generally supposed that a long pause would take place in front of that formidable barrier. The War Reviewed fancied that the Allies would smash their way across the Rhine with comparative ease, and, scarcely pausing to consolidate their bridgeheads, move almost at will between the Rhine and Berlin . That seemingly wild optimism appears to have justified itself . **
 * On April 3, when the Rhine had been left well behind, Ross Munro of the Canadian Press said that war correspondents on the western front had been asked to make guesses as to when the war in Europe would be declared over. The guess ranged all the way from April 25 to Aug. 1. Ned Nordness of the Associated Press said June 6. Ralph Allen of the Toronto Globe mentioned June **
 * 17. L. S. B. Shapiro of the North American Newspaper Alliance favored April 25 . Allan Kent of the Toronto Telegram suggested June 1 . Matt. Halton said May 1 . Ross Munro, himself, made a good guess with May 8 . At the time this column intimated that the war might wind up between May 1 and May 12. **


 * Celebrating a Great Deliverance **


 * As we look hater anti contemplate the trials and perils through which we have come, every heart should be grateful for the sacrifices of the men of the three armed services and be filled with reverence for the memories of those who died for the cause. Jubilation is appropriate and well may find noisy and colorful expression . But we should not be unmindful of the feelings of those whose loved ones will not return . Tonight the churches should be filled with a devout multitude praising the Almighty for a great deliverance . The Archbishop of Canterbury's victory message in the words of a paraphrased psalm was: "Walk about London and go round about her And tell the towers thereof. Mark well her bulwarks, set up her houses; That ye may tell them that come after. For this God is our God forever and ever; He shall be our guide unto death and beyond."\ “ **