RAPID MOVEMENT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20040, 12 September 1939, Page 7

RAPID MOVEMENT

BRITISH TROOPS ARRIVAL IX FRANCE COMPARISON WITH HIM While their concentration is not yet complete, the rapidity with which British troops have started to land in France shows a substantial advance upon the first movements of the British Expeditionary Force in 1914. Surprise has been expressed in New Zealand that English soldiers did not begin to arrive in France until Wednesday, only three days after Mr. Chamberlain’s statement that Britain and Germany were at war, but in 1914 British troops did not start to cross the Channel until five days after the declaration. In 1914 a state of war was declared to exist between the two countries at 11 p.m. on August 4. The order for mobilisation had been given that same day at 4 p.m. On tlie following two days the principal Ministers of the British Government met to consider the conduct of the war. They determined that the British Expeditionary Force should go to the Continent, but not before August 9. Preliminary Movements Meantime, preliminary movements had to be achieved in Great Britain. The Bank Holiday on August 3 made mobilisation awkward, and to increase the difficulty Territorial units were in the act of moving to various camps to begin their annual training.

Mobilisation, however, proceeded smoothlv. Units (began to be moved to the East Coast for embarkation. All the first troops went from Southampton, while Avonmouth, Newhaven, Liverpool and Glasgow were used for the shipping of transport and supplies. The ports of disembarkation in France were Havre, Rouen and Boulogne, and success was so complete that the German High Command was not aware that concentration in France had started, nor of the disposition of the Expeditionary Force. Crossing the Channel

From August 12 to 17 the chief bodv of troops passed across the Channel. In France they made a forced march north, and concentration on the chosen positions was virtually complete on August 20. Mons was reached on August 22 and the following day operations began, 19 days after war was declared to exist between the two nations.

It lias to be remembered, too, when considering the few days which elapsed before British soldiers began to land in France on this occasion, that compared with 1914 troop movements from Britain this time will be on a much larger scale than the four divisions which virtually comnrised the Expeditionary Force of 1914 as it went into the first attack.