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Show AJ Pearson Washington, D C. FEAE OF CASUALTIES The inside story can now be toll regarding one of ;the greatest wor ries of the Allied High Command ii connection with the Normandy in vasion namely, casualties. It n feared they would be terrificall; high. In fact, Prime Minister Churchill who had hung back from a cross channel front for two years, fearec the Allies might suffer losses com parable to the early days of the las-war, las-war, when the cream of British manhood, then relatively untrained was mowed down in Flanders fields. He frequently told FDR that he wai worried about losing the "seed' of Britain. This worry gives an insight intc the sudden change between the type of slow fighting during the first few weeks in Normandy and the headlong head-long onrush of today. Allied orders during the earl weeks in Normandy were to advance ad-vance under a "curtain of steel." As a result, the greatest artillery barrage bar-rage ever laid down in history was thrown at the Germans in advance of Allied infantry. It was an artillery artil-lery barrage so heavy that it wiped out almost everything In its path. However, It was slow. It took time to unload big guns on shallow beaches. It also took time to bat-' bat-' ter down German positions. But once these positions were battered down, and the rim of German defense de-fense was broken, the Allies found what General Eisenhower knew was the case a complete military vac-urn vac-urn inside. In other words, the Nazis had staked everything on holding the rim, had no defenses in the interior. in-terior. That is the explanation explana-tion for the headlong rush of Allied Al-lied forces in recent weeks. The Nazis were gambling on their Atlantic wall, a wall which could not stand up under Bradley's Brad-ley's "curtain of steel." NOTE General Montgomery's cautious advances in Normandy probably reflected in part Churchill's Church-ill's worry over casualties. However, How-ever, he has been cautious in other areas also. Before the Battle of El Alamein, when the British army had been pushed back and back across the desert toward Cairo, Montgomery queried his chief, General Gen-eral Alexander: "What casualties can" I take?" Alexander, with the fate of the Suez canal at stake, replied: re-plied: "One hundred per cent." Caution, of course, is no reflection on courage. SAILOR'S OUTMODED UNIFORM Now that Adm. Ernie ("Clothes Horse") King has finally relented and will let naval officers shed their jackets under certain conditions in hot weather, a lot of sailors wish he would also examine the uniform of the enlisted man. Most enlisted men would whoop with joy if their present, long-outmoded uniform was discarded. What most people don't realize is that the sailor's uniform was designed by the British about 200 years ago and is now just as outmoded as the sailing ship. Take, for instance, the broad collar col-lar worn over the shoulders. It was designed for vermin-infested ships of the 1700s, when sailors had to be deloused and a broad collar was practicable to catch the tar oils used in a sailor's hair. Again, the bell-shaped trousers, which flap around the ankles and nearly trip the wearer when he runs, were designed for days when sailors, foiled their trousers up over their legs to scrub decks. Today, dungarees dunga-rees are provided for this sort ol work. Again the drop front, 13-button trousers were designed for a day two centuries ago when tidiness was nothing like what it is today. One thing which particularly gripes the enlisted man is the tight fitting waist of his blouse, which has to be slipped on and off over his head. If a sailor is dumped into the water and has to swim for any length of time, it is almost impossible impossi-ble to get this blouse off. It is tight, sticks to the body, and you can't very well swim and at the same time hold two arms above your head while you wriggle out of your middy. Some of the boys wish that Admiral Ad-miral King would take off his new grey-green uniform, designed for him by His Majesty's tailor in London, Lon-don, long enough to experiment with a middy-blouse in the water. They think that, despite a century's delay, de-lay, he would then design for them a new uniform overnight. CAPITAL CHAFF ft Before every White House press conference, scores of newsmen crowd against the velvet rope out, side the President's office, awaiting the signal to enter. When secret service men let the barriers down, the rush is terrific. Cracked one perspiring secret service man, "It's worse than a New York subway." ft First new international magazine to be published in liberated France is a French edition of "Free World." edited by members of the French jnderground. |