Army & Navy – OPERATIONS: Curtain Raisers

Which is the tougher war—in Europe or in the Pacific? To this inevitable argument among veterans, two authorities made curtain-raising contributions.

The New York Herald Tribune’s Correspondent Homer Bigart, who covered the Italian campaign, described his reactions last week to fighting in the Philippines.

“[I was] impressed by the weakness of the Japanese artillery and the failure of the enemy to employ mines with anything like the diabolical thoroughness of Kesselring’s Army in Italy. The 1st Imperials have perhaps four .75s on the Ormoc road. Their fire has been woefully ineffective except against an easy point-blank target. . . . You can drive right up to the front without drawing a storm of artillery or getting blown skyhigh by mines.”

But—”the newcomer gets a false sense of security. Hearing none of the usual din of battle, he comes jeeping along, admiring the scenery, when—ping—a sniper’s bullet shatters his daydreams. . . . Japanese bullets and knee mortars can kill just as surely as von Mackensen’s railway guns at Anzio.”

Jap fanaticism is also disturbing. A Brooklyn private, describing the banzai shout, told Bigart: “It had kind of a weird sound, like Ladies’ Day at Ebbets Field.” Wrote Bigart: “The German . . . rarely tries suicide tactics. When a mission becomes hopeless the German gives up. But the Japanese never does.”

Hot and Filthy. From the European theater another two-front observer gave his opinion. Major General J. Lawton (“Joe Lightning”) Collins fought in Guadalcanal and New Georgia, now commands the VII Corps on the Western Front. In a recent interview in Yank:

“From the purely physical standpoint the Pacific campaigns have been infinitely worse for the private soldier. There he’s had to live in the heat and filth of the jungle, worrying about malaria and the fact that a scratch may develop into a tropical ulcer. . . .

“In the Pacific we’re fighting the toughest kind of warfare—amphibious warfare.

“The Jap is a helluva sight tougher. . . . On Guadalcanal we counted 2,300 Japs lying out in front of the division; we captured 22. But we’ve captured Germans by the thousands . . . probably captured ten to every one we’ve killed.

“But the Japs are dumb. The Germans are much more skillful tactically . . . much better equipped.”