Eaker had other concerns. He feared that the greater losses his enhanced forces would suffer might lead to public and official pressure to dismantle the Eighth, which was consuming an ever-larger slice of American war resources, without showing commensurate results. “One of my principal worries now,” he confided to Arnold, “is that our official supporters in the highest levels, and our supporting public, may not be able to stand our losses in combat.” He then made a dead-on
