PHYSICAL FEAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24411, 24 September 1940, Page 7

PHYSICAL FEAR

NAZI AIR TECHNIQUE SIGNAL FAILURE IN BRITAIN PEOPLE NEVER MORE UNITED "•Rrittsh Officia' Wireless)' (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) , : RUGBY, Sept. 22. (Received Sept. 23, at 7.30 p.m.) ' The Nazi method of carrying out aerial bombardments over a wide area by single machines or small formations undoubtedly imposes a severe strain on the civil population and necessarily causes damage, but by its very nature the military gains are small. In a large area such as London, which as a centre of population has grown up gradually and absorbed what once were satellite towns and villages, "military targets " in the broadest sense of the term are inevitably scattered throughout residential and commercial areas. Consequently, of the number of bombs indiscriminately dropped some are bound to land on such places as gasworks and factories, as well as hospitals and railway stations. The greatest number burst on what forms the highest proportion of the target's surface—roads and streets These, of course, cause damage of varyine degree to the surrounding buildings, the vast majority of which when hit suffer damage which from a military point of view is not commensurate with the cost incurred in hitting it. German Technique Probably it is for this reason that the German High Command—know-, ing that' its pilots are unlikely to reach that high degree of individual efficiency and courage which distinguishes R.A.F. pilots and crews and enables them to deliver successful attacks one after another on genuine military objectives—regarded and probably still regards night air operations as militarily ineffective. German technique is. a crushing blow delivered by mass formations, and the German High Command has shown by its two efforts that it would,. if. it. could, apply this method to mass daylight attacks. Both these endeavours have, however, been signally defeated by the R.A.F., and while- the Luftwaffe chiefs are thinking out a third set of daylight mass tactics night bombing seems to be regarded as a cheap —so far as losses are concerned — harassing alternative. Attack on civilian morale is, however, a well tried weapon in the political armoury of the Nazi. Hitherto disruption from within has been found to be sufficiently effective, "especially if accompanied by some measure of Physical brutality, the latter being increased proportionately to the inability of " idealogical " subversion to bring about the requisite state of interna] confusion. Ideals of Freedom 1 In applying their methods to Britain the Nazis found but poor soil for their seeds of discord. British people, whatever may be their individual political views, are for practical purposes unanimous in their hearty dislike of Nazi doctrines and their determination to resist them. The ideals of freedom are too deeply rooted, consequently the weapon of physical fear is employed in endeavours to break down resistance by nervous exhaustion. Just as the mass air attacks failed and the endeavour to produce internal discord met with no success, so does it appear that the weapon of terror is not only blunting its own edge but is itself forging a counter-weapon which will utterly destroy and root out from the world for ever the malignant growth of Nazi practice