.A TALE OF TWO WARS
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^ DEATH RU>ES
ON WHEELS
IN FRANCE
By PRESTON GROVER
(Former chief of The AP Staff
in the China-Burma-India war
theater, now on the London AP
staff).
LONDON — The difference
between war in France and war
of the kind American soldiers
are waging in India, Burma and
China is so great that only an ac
tual sight of it makes it clear.
^ About the only thing uniform
about these wars in two differ
ent worlds is that each soldier
thinks his is the worst and that
if he has to fight he would rather
be over- in the other guy’s war.
And even that isn’t wholly uni
form. The soldiers in the war on
this front are far less anxious to
switch to the war in the other
world than the boys over there
^ are to get out of theirs and into
this one. The sories of rain,
mosquitoes, dysentery, jungle
fighting and dirty Japanese
tricks have really given the war
on the other side a very bad
name.
I have had two years in the
India-Burma-China operation and
have just finished a quick trip
into France that covered several
hundred miles.
Miles From Nowhere
In north Burma where Gen.
Joseph E. Stillwell is fighting,
the soldiers are in the midst of
jungle “a thousand miles from
nowhere.” In France they are in
one of the richest countrysides
in the world with busy cities and
picturesque clean little towns on
all sides.
In France, tanks and motor
columns roar along at 25 to 40
miles an hour over hard surfaced
roads. In north Burma there are
Jt no roads.
In Burma food and ammuni
tion are so scarce because of dif
ficult supply lines that only by
the Air Force dropping supply
parcels is operation possible at
all.
In France, from any rise in the
ground, you can see columns of
motor transpor t rolling to the
front and empties bumping back
for more. Motor pools number
their trucks in thousands and
ammunition in thousands of tons.
Off the shoreline in one spot
stood more than a hundred ships
spilling supplies onto the beach.
Burma Life Is Simple
At the front in Burma, you
live in mat and bamboo shelters,
sleep in a hammock swung be
tween two trees—or sleep on the
ground among the snakes, bugs
and leeches.
In France most of the Army
sleeps in tents—except at the far
rear where some sleep in French
houses or at the immediate front
where they don’t sleep much at
all.
In France the operation is so
big that the average Joe almost
never sees his top general. In
Burma, Gen. Stillwell is likely to
show up at any time. Although
now a four-star general, Stilwell
numbers his army in thousands
instead of millions. At the front
he carries his own tommy gun
and often walks from place to
place because that is the only
way to get about.
In Burma, the GI is more like
ly to get sick than shot. Dysen
tery, malaria and jungle sores
constantly stalks him. In France,
the gunfire excels anything ever
dreamed of in Asia. Whole
towns in France have been
smashed in a single battle. Bat
talions and even larger units
have been wiped out almost to
a man.
Extremes of Weather
Perhaps most different of all
is the weather. In Normandy
soldiers have four blankets and
wear wool uniforms. Even then
there is a wet chill in the night
air that defies covers. In India,
Burma and parts of China, this
is the heat and rainy season. The
temperature will climb well
above 100 degrees and remain
there all night. In places the rain
tumbles down an inch an hour
and mud goes down to bedrock.
One thing all fronts seem to
have in common. American field
engineering is the marvel of the
war. American engineers lay out
airstrips in hours instead of days
or weeks and double the capacity
of sluggish harbor almost over
night.
Lines for assembling trucks be
gin to take shape in France so
close to the front that the snip
ers are scarcely out of the trees.
Mechanics giving a truck motor
its first tuning up keep their
rifles close at hand.
Unwilling GI Suckers
Wherever he goes, America’s
GI is bled and gouged by the
local population and it makes
him furious. In India unscrupu
lous jewel merchants sell him
junk that his wife or sweetie at
home soon learns is worth one
fifth to a tenth what he paid. He
I pays $25 a bottle for whiskey in
India and $100 in China. In Nor
mandy X-days after D-day, wine
prices had doubled. At Mont St.
Michele, two days after he freed
it from German rule, GI Joe was
paying $4 a bottle for 80-cent
wine.
He’ll be awfully glad to get
home, from whichever war he
fights.
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BATTLING THE FOE—In
France, the American soldier,
equipped with the greatest mil
itary might the world has ever
known, fights a tough blitz war
against the Germans. Casual
ties are heavier but there's
many civilized comforts avail
able.
BATTLING NATURE — In
Burma, the jungle is a tougher
foe than the Japanese. Sparse
ly equipped because of the ter
rific supply problem, the GI
fights with what he has; is
more likely to get sick than shot
and has few old comforts in
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