South Yorkshire Times January 2nd 1943
What of 1943 ?
Standing on the threshold of 1943 the thought that is naturally uppermost in the minds of everyone is: Will the New Year bring the end of a struggle which has now convulsed the world for over three years? It is, of course, a question which cannot be answered, though there is available evidence which permits certain qualified conclusions to be drawn about the duration of the conflict. As for the ultimate result there is an inevitability about that which becomes clearer with each passing month. It would be idle to maintain that the Axis never had any chance of pulling off their great gamble. One by one significant details are allowed to emerge as the early part of the war subsides into its place as history. These skeletons, only now revealed in the national cupboard when concealment is rendered unnecessary by the growing strength of our arms, were real enough before British toil and sweat and tears out-dated them. The knowledge of their existence came to Hitler too late. Now Britain, grown mightier yet, and with mighty allies at her side, strides purposefully into another year of war with the task of seeking out the fell adversary in his lair and utterly destroying him.
The North African move, swiftly and unerringly initiated will be – rounded off as methodically and decisively as it was begun by the scattering of the stubbornly entrenched Axis forces at EI Alamein. The days of German and Italian armies in the dwindling sector of coastline which remains to them are numbered. They must be, they will be smashed and finally cleared out. After that Hitler will be left to await (and not for long, we hope) the launching of the last great thrust which may be driven in anywhere along the vast and vulnerable arc which stretches from Norway to Greece. But to write of these things is one thing; to mount and dispatch the necessary expedition or expeditions quite another. We shall be wise to place no great reliance on a sudden cracking of the Axis.
Mr. Churchill has never held out to us any hope of such a convenient consummation. Indeed, all the evidence points to the fact that the will and the power to react wickedly and dangerously to any threat to the Fatherland are still malevolently active in the Nazi machine. The same cannot be said of Fascism, but wilted as the satellite regime is, its destiny is inextricably entangled with Germany’s and despair is not without virtue in inspiring courage of a sort. And so it is likely that 1943 will bring the flercest and bloodiest fighting of the war, but not the finish of it. The crown of victory will not be won without suffering and loss and in looking forward into a year when decisive battles must be fought we must steel ourselves to meet the immutable cost. The only way to minimise these grim charges is to ensure our men not of sufficient equipment and supplies but of an overwhelming superiority of both, in quantity and in quality. Lives can be saved in the mines, the steelworks, the factories. There must be more than enough of everything to meet every contingency. Bright as present prospects seem they provide no grounds for complacency; the crucial clashes of 1943 will drive home this truth to the hilt before the year |ls very old. Those who sought to subjugate the world under an avalanche of steel must be beaten at their own game. They must be mastered and outmatched by an irresistible weight of mechanised metal wielded with relentless determination.