INVASION OF BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1917, Page 6

INVASION OF BRITAIN.

GERMANY PLANS TO LAND SO,OOO SHOCK TROOPS. BEFORE FINAL DIE IS CAST IN GREAT WAR. "The whole German navy implicitly believes that a fixed plan exists for" the invasion of Britain, and that it will be put into execution before the final die is east in this great war," So says Axel Bjorsen, a Scandinavian seaman who was in the German submarine and destroyer ■ service, and has lately been writing a series of articles for the San Francisco 1 Sunday Chronicle. His story regarding the invasion plans comes in very aptly in view of the German landing on the big Russian island, of Osel, and of the references in the cables recently to the rehearsals of the landing of troops in Jargo numbers that have been going in the German navy for some time. By the way, Bjornsen's account of the •Hampshire affair is quite at variance with the Admiralty announcement of a day or two ago that the cruiser sank through striking a rock. He swears he talked with friends of his on the submarine which sank the Hampshire. He ridicules the story that Kitchener was taken aboard the submnrine, but says , that it has been quietly and cleverly spread by the German authorities, and the peoples' fears have been calmed by the suggestion that the famous British soldier's life is a hostage against indiscriminate air raids upon German towns. - A perennial subject of conversation at Kiel was the invasion of England. For weeks at a time nothing else would be talked about, and half a dozen times we were confidently told that such a thing had actually happened. GERMAN NAVY HAS BELIEF IN WILD DREAM. The whole German Navy implicitly believes that a fixed plan exists for the invasion of Great Britain, and that it will be put into execution before the - ;final die is cast in this great war. The evidence of the manoeuvres of a decade and of the war-time experiments : goes to show that the plan involves probably the sacrifice of every capital ship Germany possesses, and the fixed inten- * tion of the navy is to exact as heavy a price as possible for every ship. It must be supposed that a period of reckless mine-laying will precede the great attempt; and in this connection it should be liotcd that the construction of mine-laying submarines has been one of the features of Germany's shipbuilding in recent times. A great air raid upon every accessible point of the English coast will no doubt be organised for the same night. At the same time the German fleet will sally boldly out and engage the Grand .Fleet of Great Britain in a running fight, making a desperate endeavour to draw every possible ship away to the north as far as possible. From Zeebrugge whole hosts of torpedo craft and small submarines v.ill pour out, attacking chosen points on the English coast, and attracting the patrols from all directions to the defence. TO LAND ON BRITAIN OR 'PERISH IN ATTEMPT, In the midst of all the confusion the transports, with their convoys of cruisers, submarines and torpedo craft, will make boldly for the British coast, through waterlanes protected, with mines as far as the submarine mine-layers can make that possible. They will carry from 70,000 to SO,OOO picked men, of the sort who are now being selected as "shock troops" on the western front. Their mission will be to land upon the British coast, or perish in the attempt. Such is a rough sketch of the German navy man's idea df the invasion of England, in which every ship and every man , is grimly determined to play an allotea •part, though it involve extinction, Tf you poini- out that it is a desperate plan, they say that it, will not be executed until Germany i<s in a desperate position; and into such a position they can see the Fatherland is fast drifting. Attacks at a dozen places at once, and confusion, and* panic in all directions, are expected. In the midst of all this disorganisation and confusion the invaders will set about their work ferociously and ruthlessly. With all possibility of retreat cut off from behind them, they must strive for a quick and sensational success. "They will capture London, and bring the accursed English to their knees," is the invariable, conclusion of this German dream. It is a dream as the Spanish Armada was a dream; but it is a dream which the dangerous madmen of German high control will attempt to make a reality.