Churchill On Invasion Chances

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 217, 12 September 1940, Page 8

Churchill On Invasion Chances

NAZI PREPARATIONS Britain Confidently Awaits Any German Onslaught (British Official Wireless.—Rec. noon.) RUGBY, September 11. Mr. Winston Churchill, Prime Minister, broadcast to the nation this evening, warning the people of the determination with ■ which the enemy is pursuing his plans for an onslaught upon Britain, for which they, therefore, should prepare themselves with special pride and the care to do their duty, rallying their confidence with accounts of Britain's strength in arms and men, and, above all, in the courage of which the citizens of bombed areas of London have given such a shining example. Mr. Churchill said: "When I said in the House of Commons the other day that I thought it improbable the enemy's air attack in September could be more than three times as great as in August, I was not, of course, referring to the barbarous attacks upon the civil population, but to the great air battle which is being fought out between our fighters and the German Air Force. "You will understand that whenever the weather is favourable, waves of German bombers, protected by fighters—often 300 or 400 at a time—surge over this island, especially the promontory of Kent, in the hope of attacking military and other objectives in daylight. They are met by our fighter squadrons and nearly always broken up. Their losses average three to one in machines and six to one in pilots. "This effort of the Germans to secure daylight mastery of the air over England is, of course, the crux of the whole war. So far it has failed conspicuously. It has. cost them very dear, and we have felt stronger, and are actually relatively a good deal stronger than when the hard fighting began in July. "There is no doubt Hitler is using up his fighter force at a very high rate, and that if he goes on for many more weeks he will wear down and ruin -this vital part of his air force. That will give us a very great advantage. Very Hazardous Undertaking;. "On the other hand, for him to try and invade this country without having secured mastery in the air would be a very hazardous undertaking. Nevertheless, all of his preparations for an invasion on a great scale are steadily going forward. "Several hundred self-propelled barges are moving down the coast of Europe from German and Dutch harbours to ports in northern France from Dunkirk to Brest, and beyond Brest to French harbours in the Bay of Biscay. "Besides this, a convoy of merchant ships, in tens and dozens, is being moved through the Straits of Dover into the Channel, dodging along from port to port under the protection of new batteries the Germans have built on the French coast. There are now considerable gatherings of shipping in German, Dutch, Belgian and French harbour*, all the way from Hamburg to Brest. "Finally, there, are some preparations made for ships to carry an invading force from Norwegian harbours. Behind these clusters of ships or barges there stand very large numbers of German troops, awaiting the order to set out on a very dangerous and uncertain voyage across the seas. "We cannot tell when they will try to come, we cannot be sure they will try at all, but no one should blind himself to the (r< t that a heavy, full-scale invasion of this island is being prepared with all the usual German thoroughness and method, and it may be launched at any time now, upon England, upon Scotland, upon Ireland', or upon all three."