GENERAL BROOKE CONFIDENT

Southland Times, Issue 24235, 19 September 1940, Page 7

GENERAL BROOKE CONFIDENT

Ability Of Forces To Handle Invaders GERMAN SHIPS SCATTER IN ROUGH WEATHER (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) LONDON, September 17. General Sir Alan Brooke, Comman-der-in-Chief of the Home Forces, said: “There is no doubt that our forces are able to handle any German invaders. I would actually welcome an invasion and the opportunity of throwing them back into the sea. They , have done it to us twice. It is about time we got some of our own back.”

The first autumn gale was blowing in the Straits of Dover during the night. A south-westerly wind reached gale force. Big seas were running and pounding the beaches and the weather generally was bad. This break in the

weather, producing conditions unfavourable to an attempt at invasion by the Germans, is reported to have caused keen disappointment among British troops on the coast, who are eagerly waiting for the battle to begin.

From dawn today reconnaissance aircraft of the Coastal Command have been combing the enemy coastline over the entire Channel area, states an Air Ministry bulletin. Searches on a large scale had been organized overnight to ascertain sudden changes in the disposition of the German sea forces. These changes were imposed on the enemy after a day of harassing bombing action and in consequence of a strong westerly wind which swept the Channel throughout the night. It blew at gale force in exposed places where German surface craft had been last sighted. POSITIONS LOCATED Most of the Channel was very rough, and, as was expected, enemy ships and small craft had scattered, scurrying to seek shelter. Their new positions were quickly located today by the Coastal Command.

These operations are supplementary to the routine anti-submarine and convoy escort patrols, on which 15,000 miles are flown in a few hours, notwithstanding the general bad weather. Today Coastal Command aircraft gave escort to many large convoys of merchant vessels and there was not a single enemy attempt at molestation by air or sea.

In an interview with Press correspondents yesterday, Colonel Frank Knox, America’s Secretary of the Navy, stated that he was cheerful about the British chances of defeating Germany, whose opportunities for successful invasion were gradually lessening. To make her invasion, he said, Germany must first destroy Britain’s air power, and this she has not done. “Her initial three to one advantage is being diminished and she is losing, more men than the British, whose pilots are returning to fight again,” he said.