LATEST WAR NEWS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 175, 19 June 1940, Page 5

LATEST WAR NEWS

MR CHURCHILL'S SPEECH POSSIBILITIES OF INVASION THE SITUATION IN FRANCE Broadcasting at 7.3ff this morning (New Zealand time), the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Mr Winston Churchill, said he was not surprised by the events in France. He had made it clear a fortnight ago that developments- would make no difference to Britain's determination to continue the struggle. Over seven-eii'ghths of the British Expeditionary Force to France had been withdrawn, said Mr Churchill,, and 350,000 men were back in England. The remainder were still fighting' with the French. England now had an effective military strength of I*4 million trained men, apart from' De-< fence units and it was' the* in~ tention of the British Government to call up more immediately. The Dominion armies were in: England, Mr Churchill continued, and the Canadians had returned after landing in. France. The troops withdrawn had* brought back with them vast quantities of arms and nition which had accumulated in France during the nine months of the war. Possibilities of Invasion Mr Churchill then dealt with the possibilities of an invasion of Britain, by sea and air. He! said that such an attempt would entail the transportation of large masses of men and would necessitate a continuous supply of munitions on a large scale to enable the enemy to continue the fight. And the fight would be continued. The Prime Minister pointed out that in 1914, when the Ger man naval strength was greater than it is at present, Britain was practically denuded of fight ing men, but no attempt had) then been made at an invasion. Apart from the protection afforded by the Royal Navy; ex-< tensive mine fields had been sown around the coast and the enemy did not know *the channels for a safe passage It would be the duty of the Navy to destroy enemy mine sweepers and all escort vessels.

"The enemy is crafty, cunning and full of novel treacheries," continued the Prime Min ister, who said further that lightning raids by the enemy, using forces of five: or ten? thousand men, were possible and could be made on a dark night or a foggy morning. "There will be no invasion on a scale beyond the power of our land forces to deal with until the enemy has secured an absolute superiority in the air," 1 said Mr Churchill. In France the Royal Air Force had inflicted losses of from 2 to 2Yz to 1 and in the fighting over Dunkirk had inflicted losses of 3 or 4 to 1. In the defence of Britain the advantage would be with the defenders »nd he looked ' forward with confidence to the fighter pilots in the defence of their island home. Referring to the turn of events in France, Mr Churchill said that the battle was lost by the unfortunate strategical opening, by the unforeseen strik ing power of the armoured col J umns and by the enemy's prew ponderance in numbers. "The French,said Mr Churchill, "will be casting away great opportunities if they don't continue the struggle.^ Mr Churchill said that the British Government does not under-rate the severity of the ordeal ahead but believes that the people of Britain will stand up to it. There were good andl reasonable hopes for a final victory. « » » » The fighting in France continues and is most violent ita the region of Orleans. The Ger mans are pushing forward but the French troops are still fight ing with the same bravery at all points of contact.

The French Ministry states that the powerful French fleet is still intact and the Air Force is at strength, the losses having been made up by operations in the aircraft factories. « * * * Hitler and Mussolini, who was accompanied by Count Ciano, met at Munich yesterday. They were in conference for two hours. No decision has been reached but a German spokesman declared that their peace terms are more favourable than the proposition put forward by Britain for a united front in all spheres. The British proposal included provision for one War Cabinet, a single Parliament and a common citizenship. So far no reply has been received from the French Government* * m- m m Concluding his speech this morning the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill said: "The Battle of France is over; the Battle off Britain is about to begin. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in these islands to win." * 9 * * The R.A.F. continue operations against Germany, last night raiding the and the Ruhr and attacking military objectives. An enemy destroyer was hit amidships off the German Friesari Isladns and is thought to have beendestroyed.