 the pace of the advance increases. Griggans are running into battle, riding into battle, sailing into battle, flying into battle. In numbers and at speeds no war has ever known, no enemy has ever felt. The banner of the Spangled Stars is flying in 100 islands in 1,000 cities, which yesterday knew the banner of the rising sun and the swastika. The war is moving faster. Our armies are rushing forward. And the talk of victory is sweet on the tongues of Americans everywhere. And Americans deserve this word victory. We have reason to be proud. We are winning the war. The enemy knows it. Our soldiers overseas know it. And we at home know it. War is speeding up. Less than two years ago, Admiral Halsey was defending Guadalcanal with one damaged aircraft Over 100 American carriers prowl the Pacific, formed and taken Saipan and Guam. Islands only 1,500 miles from the Jap capital. And forces are moving forward. The war is speeding up. Two years ago, General Eisenhower had not set foot on occupied land. Today, his troops have swept through two continents. We have liberated Roman Paris. Our invasion armies are tying the Germans in a death knot. Everywhere to the east, American forces are moving forward. To keep them moving forward and moving faster, we are using machines and weapons in ways and quantities which confound our enemies. The sheer weight of our weapons is being used to save the lives of our men. Weapons like the Big Four, four American giants, four American time savers, and lifesavers. The first of these is the Big Gun, the 105, the 155, the 240, which has paved the way for every advance. The Big Gun is being used in this war as the little gun the rifle was before. Instead of engaging in long-distance artillery duels, the way the Germans like to fight, the Big Gun now is aimed at the enemy's front lines, fired at short range with devastating effect. This new artillery tactic eliminates much costly hand-to-hand fighting by individual doughboys. On the modern day of war, more shells are fired from the Big Guns than bullets were fired from rifles and machine guns in the entire first World War battle of the Argonne. Another American lifesaver is the Big Bomb. The great aircraft factories of Germany were destroyed by it, so that the Luftwaffe is now primarily conspicuous by its absence. Since most of the German Air Force has been shattered, our planes, which used to make one sortie a day, now make three and four, multiplying the bomb load many times. These bombs slashed at the enemy's rear, destroy his lines of communication, wreck roads and railways, prevent any orderly retreat. Bulldozers have cleared the way. Our men must move up through the same territory we have smashed, move up in another American lifesaver, the Big Truck. Or it is the truck which ferries our men forward, gets our supplies up to the front lines, keeps us pressing relentlessly after the enemy. The truck which rolls along the highways of home is also the weapon of war which will drive us right into Berlin and Tokyo. All three of these American lifesavers, the gun, the bomb, and the truck, make use of a fourth, the big tire, the guns and the trucks roll on it, and the bombs fly on it. Yes, we are winning the war with weapons like the Big Four. Everywhere we are ahead of schedule, because of this very speed, we have faced and overcome shifting production problems. Where we needed submarines one day, we found we needed planes the next. Where we needed planes for one campaign, we found we needed tanks for the following one. We have brought a miracle, a country whose production lines have been in perpetual motion, whose industrial power has known no limits. In all this, there is just one thing wrong. And even though this report gives comfort to the enemy, it is important that each of us, every man and woman, be told. The war is speeding up. But on the very weapons we need the most for the final blows, America is slowing down. The faster we move, the more guns, shells, bombs, trucks, tires we use up, the more we must have. And of these indispensable weapons, we have not enough. Because of our great speed on the battlefields, some of our military needs have been jacked up. And we are not meeting them. And if we do not meet them, it will mean but one thing. The date of victory will be delayed. The lives of many of our men will be needlessly lost. Here are some tough, cold, hard facts. Big guns. During the last half of this year, we must produce 45% more than we did the first half. Heavy artillery shells. We must produce 113% more the last six months of 1944. Heavy trucks. We must produce 65% more. Heavy truck tires. We must turn out 100% more. Tractors. We must have 41% more during the last six months of the year. Cranes and derricks. We must produce 108% more. Portable flamethrowers. We must turn out 600% more. Cotton duck for tents and other quartermaster equipage. We must produce 151% more. These are not random figures set by armchair strategists. These are the requirements demanded by the men who have led us this far. Here are the exact words of a few of them. A cable to the War Department from General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Allied Expeditionary Force. I must have 350,000 more artillery shells immediately. A cable to the War Department from Lieutenant General Carl A. Spots, commanding General United States Strategic Air Force, England. I don't have enough of the right type and right sizes of bombs. It is unthinkable that our air offensive should be hampered at this time. A cable to the War Department from Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, commanding General Fifth Army, Italy. We must scrap 3,500 trucks immediately. We don't have enough spare parts to keep them rolling. A cable to the War Department from General Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief of the Southwest Pacific. I need thousands of tents. I must have more trucks, more big guns, more artillery ammunition. The speed of the offensive is stepping up our requirements beyond all estimates. These are the men who have seen the war eat up acres and oceans of equipment. These are men who know our enemies and how and why they fight. We face a German army purged of those who might revolt. We face a German army which sings the praises of fanaticism, which defends the holy soil of the superior race. In the front lines and behind the lines, we face the Nazi Party, the Gestapo, and the SS. For these scoundrels, each new day they prolong the war means another day on which they will not be called to justice. To defeat the German army and the Nazis, we will have to destroy them. But that defeat will not be the signal for a breathing spell. The defeat of Germany will be the signal for redoubling our drive in the Pacific. The Japanese soldiers, too, must be sought out and killed one by one. We know that no matter how hopeless their cause, they will fight on to the last. The war is speeding up. But for those who think it's over, let them ponder this. Robot bombs damaged or destroyed 800,000 English buildings in six weeks. Over one million people have been evacuated from the city of London. And let them ponder this. From July 6 to July 13, there were over 11,000 reported casualties in the American army, more than twice the weekly average for the whole war to date. There will be horror aplenty left before the war we are winning is over. Enough for us to ponder many times. War is over only for the men who were mingled with a mud in a forgotten island called Rendover. The war has ended only for the men whose blood and bones lie forever united with the soil of France. The war is over only for American youth that grew up in Chicago and died in Casino. The war is over only for American dreams that were born in Texas and shattered in Saipan. The war is over but only for the dead. They fought for many things. And one of them was so that their comrades might live. And the men who live fight for many things. And one of them is the right to go on living, to have again what we in America have every day. A good solid look at the golden cities and green grass of our native land. For the men who live and fight on, the war is not over. For them, the war has just begun. It begins every time they hear the distant pound of a German 88 or the nearby crack of a Jap Snipers bullet. For them, the war begins every day. Here are the beaches and battlefields over which these men have fought. Here is the wreckage which this speeding war has passed. Every mile of it and every mile of it to come reflects the strategy of our field commanders. They are gambling equipment for a speedy victory. Spending and spending again steel and iron and rubber and wood and explosives. Material of every description. Only tons upon tons of replacements for this fallen armor can maintain the pace we have set. Can shorten the days of the war for American doughboys. As our troops fought their way into Normandy, one battalion was cut off outside a city called San Lowe. He was led by a major who was a gentle man and a fierce fighter. He was loved by his soldiers because he had led them bravely and safely to the outskirts of the town. For 36 hours, this battalion was without contact with our lines. But the major talked only of pushing on, of entering San Lowe, and then of moving forward again. He rallied his men to the offense time after time to move into the city of San Lowe. And the major was dead. The battalion wrapped his body in an American flag and carried him at the head of their column so that the first man to enter the city of San Lowe was the man who had to keep moving forward. They laid the body of the major on a shrine of rubble next to a ruined church. Here they prayed and said goodbye to him because they had been infused with his spirit and they knew they could not remain long where they were. They had to move forward. They had to give the enemy no rest. In America too, we have to move forward. In America too, the war begins every day.