BRITISH DEFENCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1940, Page 6

BRITISH DEFENCES

STRENGTH & INGENUITY

VISITING JOURNALISTS IMPRESSED. TRAPS FOR THE ENEMY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, August 29. Journalists who were taken on a

tour of coastal defences under the Southern Command are most enthusiastic about the strength and ingenuity of what they saw. The entire southern coastline abounds in every conceivable form of trap for invaders. One device, the nature of which is a close secret, is described as terrifying. A news agency says the latest of many ingenious methods of confusing the invader, installed in the far west, “gives the toe of England the kick of a mule.’’ “The Times” says: “Behind the defences there is an- army on wheels, which can travel 70 miles daily, now preparing for an offensive. Men are being withdrawn from behind the fortified beaches and trained for mobile warfare, as automatic arms replace rifles.”

SCATTERED RAIDS (Received This Day, 12.35 a.m.) LONDON, August 29. Air raiders were over a south-west-ern town and an south-eastern inland area tonight. The G.0.C., Lieutenant-General Auchinleck, who led the Narvik expedition, declared :“We will improve on German methods and beat the enemy at his own game. Such an astonishing amount of defensive work has been achieved since the middle of June that the enemy will find it just as forbidding a task to land troops on the south coast as any other part of the country. There are very few stretches of sand not covered by guns,.wire and other unpleasant surprises. There are few useful beaches on the Atlantic seaboard. The great seas themselves offer protection. Many divisions in the area fought with the B.E.F. Their experinece against German tanks and whistling bombs is proving invaluable to the younger recruits.”