Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 1940. HITLER’S NEXT MOVE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 158, 5 June 1940, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 1940. HITLER’S NEXT MOVE.

By a superb effort tvliicli has thrilled the -world which still retains freedom to express its thoughts, the Allied Armies in Flanders have fought their way to the coast and, for the greatest part, evacuation. The story of this remarkably brilliant and co.urageous achievement will forever adorn British and French history. “Four ago,” said the Minister for War in his glowing account of this epic, “not one of us would have dared to hope that the isolated Allied armies would have fought their way - through the bottle-neck to the coast.” But the almost incredible has been achieved and, as Mr Eden said, it is the spirit of the B.E.F. that has won through. While Germany boasted that these armies were surrounded and faced with annihilation, this spirit, which ~ also- animated France’s soldiers, took them from the jaws of-disaster to the accomplishment of something superhuman. Every account, and especially Mr Churchill’s which we publish to-day, gives a vivid picture of men undaunted by the Nazis’ might, of troops surpassing their adversaries in equal combat, and withstanding the horror of bombing and mechanised attacks with the spirit to which Mr Eden pays full tribute. Such is the valour which makes a nation great and which the free world acknowledges with humility. Equally heroic has been the co-operation of the Air Force and the Navy and Merchant Marine, as well as the hundreds of owners of small craft who lent assistance to succour the worn troops. Even mere boys helpet in this perilous work, now at an end with the evacuation of the destroyed town and port. The Allied Tosses in men and equipment have been particularly severe. The B.E.F. has suffered sadly in this respect, but' it remains intact, a compelling answer to all German boasts. f With the end of this ’battle closes an other phase of the war, and there is speculation as to the enemy’s next move. In spite of Hitler’s strategic gains and the Allies’ severe setback, the enemy has lost tremendously in men and equipment. Large numbers of his tanks and aeroplanes are now destroyed or rendered unfit for service, and his specially trained troops have been decimated. Such is the appalling price paid for these gains. But there is the other side. The British forces still exist, the French have, extricated a large number of their own troops, and the moral effect of this rearguard action and evacuation inspires the Allies to greater efforts to defeat the tyrant of Europe. This is to be seen in the great drive for victory in Britain and France, where men and women are working long hours to speed up produption. Furthermore, the Battle 'of Flanders has " enabled the French to establish a defensive line from the. northern end of the

Maginot defences to the Channel coast and to reorganise their armies. This line may soon have to bear the brunt of a German attack, which Hitler intends to proceed with more frightfulness-—in which Britain may also share—as the air raids on Paris would seem to indicate. The Battle of Flanders has given valuable breathing, space to General Weygand who, it is apparent, has used it wisely and, Hitler is still far from achieving his blitzkrieg.