Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1940. HITLER’S FALSE PROPHECY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 August 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1940. HITLER’S FALSE PROPHECY.

THIS is the day on which Hiller, according to his own prophecy, was to parade triumphantly in Whitehall, assuming control of a Britain subdued by lightning war. In all the history of mankind there has been no greater contrast than between that vain boast and the reality visible to the whole world today—the reality of a Britain not merely undamaged and unsubdued, but with her people throwing themselves unitedly into a mighty military effort which gives the German gangster leader and those who obey him ever} icason to tremble.

If has been said by a London newspaper, modestly and certainly with no exaggeration, that from the results ol the latest phase of the war—the air battles thus far fought otei the British coasts—it is possible to draw temperate encouragement. Whether Nazi Germany is in a position to achieve results more damaging to Britain, and to those standing with her, by using greater air forces can be determined only in continuing experience, but it is well established that in the furious air battles fought since Thursday last the Geimans have fared badly, and instead of approaching their purpose have suffered losses out of all proportion to those they have been able to inflict simultaneously on Britain.

Some damage on land and sea of course is being done by the German bombers and, apart from combatant losses, a number of civilian casualties are occurring in Britain from day to day. i\luch as they are to be deplored, the losses and damage thus suffered will in no way weaken, but rather will increase and stiffen the fighting power and resolution of the British nation.

Against all that is being suffered, there is to be set the commanding fact that British airmen, both in repelling German attacks and in bombing raids on areas extending from Norway to the Bay of Biscay, are setting standards of skill, resolution and fighting power which their Nazi antagonists have failed remotely to approach. Consider,, for exhinple, the record of the Spitfire squadron Which shot down seven enemy aircraft on Monday and thirteen on Tuesday and in the process did not lose a machine or a pilot.

While the record of the British fighter pilots is expanding magnificently, it is clear that the bomber pilots and crews are. acquitting themselves every whit as wed in their long-distance attacks on enemy objectives heavily guarded and defended. Seeking out their targets in defiance of all difficulties and perils, the officers and men of the British bombing formations are striking smashing blows at the enemy by day and night and are steadily cutting down his resources and fighting power. They are not doing this without loss, and on Tuesday their losses—sixteen machines in all —were exceptionally and .grievously heavy. In spite of the formidable character of the German ground defences, it is well and conclusively established, however, that the British bombers, in attacks methodically planned and carried out, are doing an amount of damage vastly greater than raiders on Britain and on British shipping have been able to accomplish.

The story of four days of intensive air battles, including those of Thursday last, fought over the Channel and British coastal areas, sums up for the Germans as one of defeat and failure. In these four days, using hundreds of planes at a time in massed attacks, they lost, in all 265 machines. Their greatest recorded loss to date, at time of writing, was on Tuesday, when 78 of their bombers and fighters were shot down. Leaving to be determined the maximum air effort of which Germany is capable, these figures bear witness to a powerful, effort and to an effort that has failed. The facts of the position are not yet conclusive, but from Britain’s standpoint they are most decidedly of hopeful import.

With the northern summer waning, it becomes increasingly probable that the Germans are in fact afraid to stake their total resources upon an attempt to overwhelm Britain. Hints from Berlin that a war of attrition is to be substituted for the blitzkrieg rightly are looked upon with the utmost suspicion. 'lt is much more by deception and intrigue of a disreputable kind than by fighting power that the Nazis have achieved their present measure of success on the continent of Europe. Anything they say is to be mistrusted. On the facts of the war, however, as distinct from Nazi talk, it already seems rather improbable that an invasion of Britain will be attempted. Tn any attempt of the kind the enemy air force would have a supremely important part to play. The fashion in which German massed air formations have been dealt, with in the battles fought since Thursday last goes far to demonstrate that the enemy air force is incapable of the achievement that would make an invasion of Britain possible.

It is not in doubt that if Hitler and his fellow-gangsters saw any prospect of ending the war at a stroke they would at once make the most of it. It is chiefly because of their desperate need of early victory, and because they can so ill afford to face the prospect of a long war, that the possibility of their attempting some desperate stroke cannot yet be dismissed.

AN ITALIAN HATE CAMPAIGN.

"WTIITjE her senior partner in the Axis professedly is anxious to avoid extending the war into the Balkans, Italy is busily maniitactiiring what can only be regarded as pretexts for an attack on Greece and possibly on Yugoslavia as well. As a ■whole the news of the last day or two indicates that Italy is preparing to make territorial demands on both Greece and Yugoslavia—it has been stated by a spokesman in Rome that such demands will be made by Mussolini “sooner or later,’"’ and in Italy no one speaks in tiial strain save with the consent and approval of Hie Fascist dictatorship. Meantime Bulgarian Communists are alleging that plans have been shaped in Berlin for the creation of an “autonomous Macedonian Slate under the influence of Rome’’—a territory which would include portions of Greece, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, linking up with an Albania enlarged to include further slabs of Greece and ’Yugoslavia.

That Italy would gladly prosecute such designs with the support of her Axis superior need not be doubted, but that either of the Axis partners will venture to move on these lines al the present juncture seems highly improbable. Account has to be taken not only of the Balkan States immediately concerned ami of the support they would get from Britain and probably from Turkey as well, but also of Russia. There has been some tail-: of Hitler offering the Soviet further sections of Boland in return for a free hand in the Balkans. Much, however, as Stalin and his colleagues appear at present Io bo content with their policy of imperialist opportunism, under which they are gathering in the greatest possible gains at Hu* lowest possible cost, it defeats the imagination to suppose that, the Soviet would on any conditions whatever grant the Axis Rowers a free hand in the Balkans.