At the Savoy on Monday night, the American correspondents had everybody worked up to slapping backs and singing “O say, can you see . . .” On Thursday night, there was little emotion and no singing. Instead, there was a feeling that the war was going to be tougher from now on, that it would certainly be longer than people had expected, and that this country and America may easily have to take some knocks which will make the loss of a couple of capital ships seem like chicken feed.
—Mollie Panter-Downes, columnist for the New Yorker
(December 20, 1941)