BRITISH ARMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 October 1939, Page 5

BRITISH ARMY

TRIUMPH OF EFFICIENT ORGANISATION

COMBINATION OF OLD AND NEW.

INCALCULABLE CAPACITY FOR DEVELOPMENT.

LONDON, September 30. A special correspondent of the “New York Times,” in a dispatch from British general headquarters, somewhere in France, describes the transport of the British army to France as a triumph of clock-like synchronisation and smooth working beyond praise. “The ‘brass hats’, worked with efficiency,” he says. “The experienced officers were young enough to try new methods open-mindedly and keep the balance between experiment and routine. This is not the old British army. It is a most efficient combination of old and new, with an incalculable capacity for growth and development which is most impressive, a point indicating most emphatically that Mr Chamberlain was not bluffing when he said it might be a three years’ war. “It is impossible yet to indicate its fighting spirit, but the British never lacked that when needed. Their army is even better in many ways than all its famous predecessors.” A communique from the British Ministry of Information states that Eyewitness from France recounts the progress of British training. The infantry are practising route marching on country roads and others are paying attention to camouflage exercises and weapon drill. French visitors are complimentary. A Daventry broadcast yesterday stated that a Paris radio station had announced that there were no new German troop concentrations on the Western Front and suggested that the troops withdrawn from Poland were being kept in the interior. AIR FORCE ACTIVITY SUCCESSFUL RECONNAISANCE • OVER GERMANY. TWO ENEMY FIGHTERS SHOT DOWN. . (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 9.55 a.m.) RUGBY. October 1. The Air Ministry announces: “The Royal Air Force carried out a further successful reconnaissance last night

over Northern Germany. All our machines returned. It can now bo stated that in the course of yesterday’s air battle high over the Western Front, in which a small formation of our reconnaissance aircraft were engaged by a strong force of enemy fighters, two German fighters were shot down in flames. One of the enemy losses was confirmed by French troops. POSITION IMPROVED (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) PARIS, October 1. A communique states: There is improvement in our positions in the region south-west of Saarlouis.