VITAL ROLE IN WAR

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 33, 3 November 1942, Page 5

VITAL ROLE IN WAR

British Achievements At Sea UNCEASING STRUGGLE (British Official Wireless’.) RUGBY, November 1. “Britain has not yet reached her peak,” declared the Home Secretary, Mr. .Morrison, in giving a stirring picture of tlie achievements and possibilities of Britain through the immense development of the Navy aud the Air Force, Britain, lie said, was near the limit of her innnpower resources, lint there was still room tor improvement in the organization and allocation of resources and these improvements were being made. September was a record month for the production of two of the greatest classes of war product. After the holiday month, August, when the output was not quits up to expectations, the dutput ot warlike stores—practically everything but .mips •■ml aircraft—rose by 14 per cent, in September, and the weight of the airerait output rose by 18 per cent. That meant almost six tons of aircraft iu September for every five tons in August. Both figures were higher than tn any month since the war started. Britain hud the unique task of shipping overseas 80 per cent, of her. war production and also every fighting, man for whom shipping space could be found. .In addition, Britain was receiving huge imports of materials. American war equipment, and foodstuffs. , . To achieve this, the Navys ships went buck and forth across the seas in

a battle which, if it did not have to he fought in secrecy,, would grip our imagiiiutions and raise our hearts ami spirits not: less than the treiueudous exploits of the Red Army, In the Athintic alone 250,000 num in escort ships Were engaged in incessant warfare. Britain today wap. the centre of a found-llie-world, trilfiic in arffis infinitely more dramatic than peacetime commerce, It was liard, indeed, sui<| Mr. Morrison, for any'lijtid power to realize fully the tremendous part sea power still played in the conduct of the war or the high price of Admiralty we had pt|id in (flood, metal, anj treasure in the past three years. Nuvy Patrol of Trade Routes.

For instance, tanks mid aircraft shipped by Britain to the Middle blast had lieeii shipped round the Cupe, more than five times the length of the vast Russian front. The Navy regularly patrolled SI),000 miles of trade routes, and constantly kept guard over betwceo 2(X)0 and 3000 British and Allied merchantmen which were always at sea. The Navy, with air support, had ecorted 120.000 voyages in convoy npil had brought safely to port 101) in every 200 ships of these convoys. It had constant Iv at sea 600 warships and auxiliaries, and hud swept tile enemy from tlie high seas mid had destroyed, captured, or damaged at least 1—•» ol his wilrship-s and more (hmi (1,000,000 tons ol his ship-. Ip stiite ol the advance m air power, our Navy, with tlie air power which it was continually adding unto ilsell, was every whit as powerful as our »eiipower had ever been in the past, Though much had beep heard of the speed and power of the modern ullid blitzkrieg, said Mr. Morrison, wits not tlie greatest example of the blitzkrieg yet seen, .Japan's blitzkrieg in tlie Ptieiiie, based on sea mid air power combined.' That breath hiking series of conquests was the writing on the wall for our enemies, because it was (tic precursor and a portent of what British and American sea and !,| r power would achieve when fully equipped. Only looking m world maps could we fully understand the meaning of tlie triniendous struggle in Libya. For tlie Axis it was part of an attempt to seize Suez, one of the great world key points of land, sea and air tiinyci. Through it the Imped !•> iim hands with the .Inpmiese Issues in Egypt.

Our hope was to throw Rommel mt -d Africa, Such were tlie issues at stal;i, in Egypt, limited though the trout i."W' was on which they were being decided. Sea mid air powei wbi'e both tlie prizes and tlie condition of the United Nations' victory in Egypt. Tlie safeguarding of Suez mid the reopening of the Mediterranean would be the first great step toward that wider exercise of the full speed, fluidity hml initiative of sea power on which victory depended. Some of ns. in our rightful aumtra tion of Russia and our wish to be associated more directly witli her tremendous achievement, had come to thlult and talk ns though Britain, in the present phase, was playing only a marginal nnrt. This was a superficial and misguided view.

When we looked .it the pattern of the war as a whole mid remembered c.'ie real nieaiiing of the never-eeaeing i-ea struggle, we might realize that the 'ode of Britain on the singe of world eonllie' was as near the heart of aclileyement and the centre of action as ever in the days when we stood alone.