TOM THUMB' NAVY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 229, 26 September 1940, Page 17

TOM THUMB' NAVY

AWAITING GERMANS.

ARMED SPEEDBOATS.

The "Tom Thumb" fleet of the King's | Navy is ready for the signal to action stations to repel Hitler's threatened in- 1 vasion. I saw the vest pocket navy when I went on a tour of the battle j zone (wrote a correspondent of the London "Observer"). It consists of highly - powered and heavily armed speedboats which form part of the defence forces in all the inland waters throughout the United Kingdom. Manned by regular officers of the Navy, R.N.V.R., and local volunteers— the Home Oluard afloat—their job is to spy out Nazi seaplanes seeking to land troops oil remote stretches of lake and river. The Army is on the strength, too. It provides the gunners. A Few Surprises. Speeding at 30 knots through the calm backwater* of rural England, they would pour a hail of lead into the seaplanes, and as the Nazi troops sought to escape land parties would get them "on the hop," as one of the "Tom Thumb" ratings said. "We've got a few surprises for Hitler if he tries to come here," the commander of a flotiha told me. "It may not be magnetic mines, but something just as good. He can send his seaplanes by night or day, but we are prepared for them."

I saw many new phases of Britain's coastwise defence network in the course of this tour. One east coast front line town which was visited looked more like a scene from the French Revolution. Barricades were everywhere—along the harbour, in narrow side streets, at crossroads, and along the promenade. In the place of the holidayipakers of last year were soldiers in battle dress with Home Guajrds in their new uniforms. They were lining the barricades practising street fighting. "These troops will fight to the end," the colcJnel commanding this strip of coast said. "They are local men. They know they will be defending their own homes. The same with the Home Guards. When the show starts they may be regular soldiers. They will be manning the barricades on their own homes' doorsteps." Under the noses of heavy gups, tanks and other mechanised unite were patrolling a golf course on the front of the sea. Bunkers had bocome part of mileslong lines of anti-tank traps. "What's the betting?" an officer was asked. "Odds all on us," he answered. Seriously, he said he was perfectly satisfied with his defences, his man-power and his guns. He felt sure we could beat any invader, which is the spirit of all the officers and men "up the line" in England to-day.