THE INVASION OF ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2247, 5 September 1914, Page 6

THE INVASION OF ENGLAND

It will be recalled by many that Boulogne, the spot at which Britain "appears to have lauded the ijiain body of her Expeditionary Force sent to the assistance of France, was the port from which Napoleon for so long threatened the invasion of England. Boulogne was not then the gateway to a friendly State, but the immediate base appointed by Napoleon for the execution of a project which-aimed at nothing less than the invasion of England. Every schoolboy knows how the conqueror of Europe, yearning to add yet another province to his military Empire, gathered a mighty army and a great fleet of boats, at Boulogne, and saw no other obstacle to the realisation, of his dream than the supremacy of the British Fleet. That the dream never came within measurable distance of being realised is due above all to the masterly sea-strategy of Nelson and his admirals and captains, upon whom fell the brunt of the long campaign which culminated at Trafalgar. Tho immense preparations made in England to resist invasion were, as the event was to show, unnecessary. No call was made upon the great army which was assembled nor upon the floating batteries and gunboats with which the coast was lined at all vulnerable points. Napoleon was not permitted to put these preparations to the test because the British Fleet so definitely established its superiority over that of France that not a single French transport dared put to sea oven for the snort passage from Boulogne to England. Now we are told on the authority of the London Times that German plans in France and Belgium provide for the capturing of the sea ports along the English Channel in order to attempt the invasion of England. History is repeating itself, only on this occasion instead of France threatening the English Coast Germany is doing so - . 'In the thoughts of those who look back to the supreme achievement of the British Na.vy 100 years ago the victory of Trafalgar is often allowed to overshadow tho long-con-tinued operations which led up to it, but in actual fact there were even sterner tests of British seamanship i and valour than the ordeal of a. great battle. Before the allied French and Spanish fleets were destroyed at Trafalgar, French sea-power had been reduced to a nullity by the .grim determination • with which British sailors blockaded the French ports in the years from the outbreak of war in 1803 to 1805, the year of Trafalgar. Constant watch and ward was kept by British ships off tbo enemy's coasts in fair weather and foul while tho ships of that enemy lay supine under tho guns of forts or escaped on occasion only to be harried and destroyed or chased back into shelter again. Fighting - ships, since Nelson's time, have undcrgono as great a transformation as international relationships, but the task of the British Navy to-day is not unlike that which was carried out by the men who manned the wooden three-deck-ers in years gone by. Once again an enemy is blockaded in his ports, thera is an equal deniand upon British Beamauship. and upon that steady

valour which knows how to play a waiting game, and although the conditions of the contest are very different there is no reason to doubt that the sea-power which brought disaster to our former enemy and present ally will prove equally potent against the naval strength of the German Empire.