NAZIS PREPARE ATTACK

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1940, Page 8

NAZIS PREPARE ATTACK

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.

BRITISH PUBLIC WARNED

Rugby, bept. 11. rpjjE Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, in a broadeast to the nation this evening wamed the people of the determination with which the enemy was pursuing his plans for the onslaught upon Britain, for which they therefore should prepare themselves, with special pride and. care, to do their duty. At the same time he rallied the people's confidence with an account of Britain's strength in arms and men, and above all in courage, of which the citizens in the bombed areas of London had given such a shiningexample.

"When I said in the House of Commons the other day that I thought it improbable the enemy's air attack in September could be more than three times as great as in August I was not, of course, referring to the barbarous attacks on the civil population, but to the great air j battle which is being fought out between our fighters and the German air force," said Mr. Churchill. "You will understand that whenever the weather is favourable waves of German bombers protected by fighters, often 300 or 400 at a time, surge over this island, especially the promontory of Kent, in the hope of attacking military and other objectives in daylight. They are met by our fighter squadrons and nearly always broken up. Their^ losses are on an average three to one in machines and six to one in pilots." "This effort of the Germans to secure daylight mastery of the air over England is, of course, the crux of the whole war. So far it has failed conspicuously. It has cost them very dear and we have felt stronger and are actually relatively a good deal stronger than when the hard fighting began in July. Using Up Ffghter Force. "There is no doubt that Hitler is using up his fighter force at a very high rate and that if he goes on for many more weeks he will wear down and rain this vital part of his air force. That will give us a very great advantage. On the other hand, for him to try to invade this country without having secured mastery in the air would be a very dangerous undertaking. "Nevertheless, all his preparations for an invasion on a great scale are steadily going forward. Several hundred selfpropelled barges are moving down the coasts of Europe from German and Dutch harbours to ports in northern France, from Dunkirk to Brest and beyond Brest to French harbours in the Bay of Biscay. "Besides this, a convoy of merchant ships in tens and dozens is being moved through the Straits of Dover into ihe Channel, dodging along from port tp port urider the protection of new batteries the Germans have built on the French coast. Shipping Gathering. "There are now considerable gatherings of shipping in German, Dutch, Belgian and French harbours all' the way from Hamburg to Brest. Finally, there are some preparations made for ships to carry an invading force from Norwegian harbours. Behind these clusters of ships or barges there stand very large numbers of German troops awaiting the order to set out on a very dangerous and uncertain voyage across the seas." "We cannot tell ^hen they will try to come," said Mr. Churchill. "We cannot be sure they will try at all. But no one should blind himself to the fact that a heavy, full- scale' invasion of this island is being prepared with all the usual German thoroughness and method, and it may be launched at any time now upon England, upon Scotland, upon Ireland, or upon all three. "If this invasion is going to be .tried at ali it does not seem it can be long delayed. The weather may break at any time. Besides this, it is difficult for the enemy to keep these gatherings of ships waiting about 'ndefinitely while they are bombed every night by our bombers, and very often shelled by our warships, which are waiting for them outside. Therefore we must regard the next week or so as very important weeks in our history books. "But what is happening now is on a far greater scale and of far more consequence to the life and future of the world and its civilisation than those brave old days. "Every man and woman will therefore prepare himself to do his duty, whatever it may be, with special pride and care. Our fleets and flotillas are very powerful and numerous, our air force is at the highest strength it has ever reached and it is conscious of its proved superiority, not indeed in numbers but in men and machines "Our shores are well fortified and strongly manned, and behind them ready to attack the invaders we have a far larger and better equipped mobile army than we have ever had before," said Mr. Churchill."Besides this, we have more than a million and a-half men of the Home Guard who are just as much soldiers of the Regular Army in status as the Grenadier Guards, and who are determined to flght for every inoh of ground in every village, in every street. "It ' is with devout but sure confidence that I say *Let God defend the right.' Bombing Part of Invasion Plan. "These cruel, wanton and indiscriminate bombings of London are, of course, part of Hitler's invasion plans. He hopes by killing large numbers of civilians, women and children, that he will terrorise and cow the people of this mighty imperial city and make them a burden and anxiety to the Goverament, and thus aistract our atteption unduly from the ferocious onslaught he U: preparing. Little does he know the spirit of the British nation or the tough fibre of Lor.doners, whose forebears played a leading part in establishing parliamentary institutions and who have been bred to value freedom far abo"e their lives. "This wicked man, the. repository and embodiment of many forms of souldestroying hatred, this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame, has now resolved to try to break our famous island race by a process of indiscriminate slaughter and destruction. "What he has done is to kindle a fire in British hearts here and all over the world which will glow long after all traces of the conflagration he has caused in London have been removed. He has lighted a fire which will burn with a steady, consuming flame until the last vestiges of Nazi tyranny have been burned out of Europe and until the old world and the new can join hands to rebuild the temples of man's freedom and man's honour upon foundations which will not soon or easily be overthrown. Time to Stand Together. "This is the time for everyone to stand together and hold firm as they are doing. I express my admiration for the exeniplary manner in which all A.R.P. servlces are being discharged, especially

the fire brigade, whose work has been so heavy and also dangerous. "All the world that is still free marvels at the composure and fortitude with which the citizens of London are facing and surmounting the great ordeal to which they are being subjected, the end or severity of which cannot yet be foreseen. "It is a message of good cheer to our fighting forces on the seas, in the air and in our waiting armies in all their posts and stations," declared Mr. Churchill, "that we are a people who will not flinch or weary of the struggle, hard and protracted thougli it will be, but that we shall rather draw from the heart of suffering itself a means of inspiration and survival and of victory won not only for our own time t-'.t for the long and better days that are to come,'