RAPID PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1942, Page 3

RAPID PROGRESS

AMERICAN MILITARY PREPARATION ARMY OF 4,000,000 MEN BEFORE END OF YEAR. BETTER LED AND TRAINED THAN IN 1917. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, April 6. American newspapers today—the twenty-fifth anniversary of America’s entry into the last war—emphasise great advances which the United States has already made in expanding its forces and increasing war proclue- , t'ion. The “Herald-Tribune” points out that 33 divisions, more complete than the forces of 1918, are now actually ready for service, while the “Christian Science Monitor” estimates that the United States Army before the end of the year will total 4,000,000 men and eventually 8,000,000. Inaugurating a new army hour radio programme, the Secretary of War, Mr Stimson, and high-ranking army chiefs declared that American soldiers eagerly await the day when they will take the offensive that will win the war. Mr Stimson said the keen fighting spirit displayed by the American fighters on every front had already offset many of the inevitable disasters which followed Japan’s assault on Pearl Harbour. “Throughout the world, from the Arctic to the South Seas, from Asia to the Philippines, from Australia to Iceland, in the Indies, in North, South, and Central America, our soldiers are already working, fighting, and dying in a great struggle which will not end till freedom and peace have been made safe throughout the world,” he said. Lieutenant-General McNair, commanding army ground forces, said: “Already the troops going overseas are ■ better led and trained than in 1917, and the new units coming behind will be® still better and better. “We are thinking today of our comrades overseas, pulling with them all the way, and impatient to join them.”