The Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 154, No. 85, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 20, 2007 Page: 4 of 14
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Page 4a ★ lOc Bastrop Hdocrtiscr
Thursday, December 20, 2007 W
Re lections on the war and how we won
In a recent series, I
trired to draw a verbal
picture, year by year, of
conditions in Bastrop dur-
ing the war years and how
they were related to events
in the war zones. I hope I
succeeded.
When I speak of "The
War" I naturally mean
World War II since that
was my war.
I'm sure my parents
thought of WWI and my
grandparents thought of
the war between the states.
More recent genera-
tions think of Korea, Viet
Nam or the present ill-con-
ceived conflict.
Since the end of my
war, there have been hun-
dreds of excellent books
written by dozens of
experts dealing with every
aspect of that great conf-
flict. I make no claim to
expertise on any war.
I was just a GI and non-
com. A small town kid,
one of millions just like
me.
But I do have opinions,
for what they are worth.
In my opinion in the
ealry days of the war we
were overconfident and at
times we were lucky. We
were convinced our armies
were better, our plans were
bettter and our weapons
were better.
It just wasn't so. In the
Pacific the Japanese Zero
fighter planes could fly
circles around anything
we had. Their troops were
seasoned jungle fighters
who had kicked the Brits
out of much of Asia and us
out of the Phillipines.
Their torpedoes went
where they were supposed
to while ours sometimes
went under the target or
failed to explode.
In Europe the German
Tiger tank was excellent,
while their .88 artillery
piece was the best ever
invented and the one most
feared by our troops.
Our armies were good
and got better, but the con-
sensus is that the German
army was superior to any-
thing else up to that time.
We were also very
lucky in the early years. If
the Japanese had won the
air-naval battle of Midway,
and they had the means to
do so, our fleet—already
heavily damaged at Pearl
Harbor—might have been
almost destroyed and our
Pacific coast would have
been subject to invasion.
The Japanese were cer-
tainly capable of tranport-
ing invasion troops long
distances, as they had done
in the Aleutians.
In Europe, if the
Germans had defeated
Russia—and they might
have if Hitler had not
interfered with his gener-
als—hundreds of thousands
of crack German troops
would have been available
to help repel landings on
D-Day.
So with all this, why
did we win?
I think a lot of it was
because America was unit-
ed as never before and has
never been since. Our very
overconfidence stood us in
good stead.
Our spirits were high
and our support for the
war was almost universal
because most people knew
it was a just war, one nec-
essary for our survival as
an independent nation.
Politics were mostly
forgotten alhough a few
peoplep thought we should
have helped Germany
defeat Russia.
A lot of it was because
of American industrial
might, the greatest in the
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world.
The public hated a
war and the loss of sons,
daughters and other loves
ones but supported indus-
trial production and will-
ingly gave up things previ-
ously considered essential.
It paid off.
At the start of the war
the German Luftwaffe was
the terror of the skies and
the British RAF, one of the
most gallant groups in the
world, was stretched to the
limits.
But by D-Day, the
Luftwaffe was in dire
straits and the Allies held a
19-1 advantage in the air,
thanks largely to American
industrial might.
Our weapon production
kept pace.
We had good allies. The
British, the Russians, the
Canadians and the Aussies
and dozens of others held
out for months and were
fully involved in the vic-
tory.
And finally, there were
our home grown warriors.
I have heard it said that at
the start of the war some
officers were "garrison
soliders" unskilled in
combat.
If so they were quilckly
replaced.
Many people thought a
military of draftees could not
compete with professionals.
Those people were
wrong.
The draftees, all 16
million, learned fast and
became seasoned veterans.
Those kids from little
towns, cities and the coun-
try, those so-called soft-
ies, learned to be tough
and tenacious and had
one general outlook—"We
didn't start this dang war.
We didn't bomb or invade
anybody, but we are in it
now. Let's win the dang
thing and get the hell
home."
Almost 500,000 didn't
come home and they will
be long remembered.
The ones who did
return became the greatest
generation. I am proud to
have been one of them.
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McAuley, Davis. The Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 154, No. 85, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 20, 2007, newspaper, December 20, 2007; Bastrop, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth252448/m1/4/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Bastrop Public Library.