INVADER AWAITED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24406, 18 September 1940, Page 8

INVADER AWAITED

BRITAIN'S SEA-FRONT VISIT TO DEFENCES I have often wondered how the French and Belgians felt when they manned their frontier positions waiting for a German attack on their country, writes Paul Brewsher, London Daily Mail war correspondent with the British Army defending Great Britain. Now I know. I have just been, as a war correspondent in uniform, to a front line in Britain, where our forces were waiting, prepared to receive as fierce an attack as ever France or Belgium knew. This experience—one which I never thought to have—was a strange one. It was very queer to collect with other war corresDondents and military officers at a headquarters in London and set off for the frontas I so often have done in France. Still more queer was it to find this front at a very familiar seaside town, where I went through the accustomed formalities of being held up at carefully guarded inspection points, and calling at local military headquarters for instructions An Uncanny Silence As I entered the heavily armed zone near the sea the first thing which struck me was that uncanny, tense silence which I have always noticed near the front line—in France in the last war . . . and this . . . and in Spain—as if the very ground were listening. This silence, against which the cries of seagulls sounded so loudly, gave the deserted promenades and bandstands and ornamental gardens an almost dreamlike quality. Only the intensive military preparations seemed sharply in focus. Bathers on the sands had given way to barbed wire; concrete took the place of concert parties. Where children splashed and shouted in the sunshine last year was only the steady tramp of armed sentries on the shingle. But every so often, as on a auiet day on a land front, I heard the dull rumble of distant gunfire. Once, a few miles along the coast, I saw a huge yellow flash leap high up from the ground. A dense cloud of smoke rolled up into the air—a deep roar sounded along the beach. Again and again every eye turned instinctively to the peaceful expanse of sparkling summer sea—from which might come at any moment a series of attacks leading to some of the fiercest battles in the history of ; the world. . .i "' No "One-way ' Maginot Line

While the sea coast was heavily defended with long-range and shortrange guns to bombard approaching ships, and with many blockhouses, pillboxes'and other defensive positions to deal with landing troops, I was glad to find that this was not regarded as a " one-way " Maginot Line. Officers there are fully aware that this town, like any seaside or seaport town, might be attacked from the rear; by troops which have landed elsewhere and come in from behind, or have been landed by parachute, aeroplane carrier or seaplane carrier at points inland. It is essential that every inch of our vulnerable coastline should be heavily protected to prevent or hinder the Germans in landing; but any idea that the country 30, 40 or 50 miles behind that coastline is protected by those defences is foolish. It is an idea which led to so much disaster in France. That is why every village and town and important railway junction or factory must be strongly protected—and why able-bodied civilians everywhere should be encouraged to build defensive positions. Cheerful Men

I was glad to be told that civilians in the district I visited to-day are helping in such work. At some points bodies of men hurried to the seafront in 'the evening after their work, and at once took over the task oi filling sandbags and digging .positions from soldiers, who then had some wellneeded hours of rest. All the soldiers I saw to-day were very cheerful and in excellent spirits, ready for whatever, may come. The officers, young and middle-aged alikemany of them in civilian occupation when war broke out—impressed me very ■ much by their keen: enthusiasm, initiative and imagination in devising defence positions and in camouflaging them. .•;• . ~ „ To-day 1 have seen some oi tne cleverest camouflage work I have ever known. Even hardened American correspondents were deluded by.some hidden posts only a few yards away. This spirit of the officers and men is far more important even than these blockhouses and pill-boxes and guns. For in the end it is not these that protect Britain against an attack which may come anywhere at any time, but the British men—of the armed forces and the general public alike. ".