GERMAN TACTICS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 June 1940, Page 6

GERMAN TACTICS

AIR & TANK WARFARE CRITICISED BY BRITISH SOLDIERS. COMPARISONS WITH LAST WAR. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.45 a.m.) RUGBY, May 31. From the statements of officers, and men returning after a fortnight’s continuous fighting against the German forces, it is becoming possible to draw certain conclusions regarding the technique of attack upon which the Germans seem to be staking so much. Witnesses who also fought in the last war attest that the inferno of noise let loose in dive-bombing does —at least until the troops have had some experience of it —produce a marked mental stunning. On the other hand, it is a fact that appears to be corroborated from numerous different sources that the actual casualties directly inflicted are surprisingly small. The effect, in fact, depends on the advantage which the ground forces of the enemy are able to take of the confusion created by the air attack. The experience of the stubborn rearguard actions of the last few days suggest the possibility that the training of German troops in mechanised warfare may have been too specialised. An experienced British officer remarked of German tank crews: “Once you get him out of his tank, the German soldier of today is nothing like the man he was in the last war.”

Stories of returning soldiers demonstrate, moreover, that these German tanks themselves are far from invincible. One British officer knocked out a heavy German tank with an antitank rifle, and another German tank, though not a heavy one, was knocked out by a Lewis gun, firing at it through slits.

MECHANISED EQUIPMENT

GERMAN LOSS OF FORTY PER CENT.

(Received This Day, noon) WASHINGTON, May 31

It is disclosed the Chief of Staff, testifying before the House Military Committee, estimated that 40 per cent of Germany’s mechanised equipment had been destroyed during the invasion of the Low Countries. The estimate is based on reports from military observers in Europe.