FIRST YEAR OF WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 September 1940, Page 5

FIRST YEAR OF WAR

SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN’S EFFORT

CONFIDENCE IN OUTCOME. DESPITE INITIAL CHECKS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 2. At 11. o’clock on Tuesday morning Britain enters upon the second year of a war in which, as a united nation, she took up arms to defend those principles of international conduct upon which the peace, prosperity, and happiness of all peoples depend, and to which the whole ideology of Nazism stands opposed.

The first year of the war has brought many disappointments from a military viewpoint, but far from being disheartened and dismayed the British people start the second year of hostilities with their confidence confirmed and their determination even more set than 12 months ago. Within a week of the outbreak of hostilities the War Cabinet made its famous decision to “base its policy on an assumption that the war last three years or more.” That de-' claration has been justified again) and again by events. The knowledge that it was based on a fundamentally and essentially true appraisal of the factors underlying the strength of the British Commonwealth and the weakness of Nazi Germany won for it the approval of the whole people, and the thought of it has brought renewed faith at every crisis.

It found its last echo a fortnight ago in a speech by Mr Churchill to the adjourning House of Commons. “Our offensive springs are being slowly compressed,” he said, “and we must resolutely and methodically prepare ourselves for the campaigns of 1941 and 1942,” campaigns which , as he later remarked, will be by no means exclusively defensive. The confidence of the British at the start of another year is not the result merely of obstinate complacency, but arises from a reasoned conviction that Hitler's blitzkrieg technique was always one confined to war on land and in the air, and that established British sea power and. potential British air power confronted him with difficulties which could not be overcome by lightning strokes.

SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN’S

EFFORT

SEA & AIR POWER. The unchallenged supremacy of the Royal Navy and the qualitative superiority of the R.A.F., which is now being demonstrated hourly by day over Britain and each night as far afield as Berlin. Munich, Milan and Turin, while British industrial power carries it each week nearer to quantitative equality, give to every British man and woman an assurance of final victory. The Nazis have exhausted the advantage which careful and concentrated preparation for aggression gave to Germany’s military forces. They are now faced with the irresistible, growing strength which Britain has summoned for their overthrow and behind which stand not only the faith of the British nation, but the hopes of oppressed peoples and the goodwill of freedom-loving countries of the new yorld.

The British Navy in the first year of the war has been faced with, and has in each case mastered, three distinct forms of attack from the enemy. For days before the outbreak of war German U-boats had been posted all over the world on the most frequented trade routes. Thus during the first weeks British merchant vessels, still scattered, as they were, in the ways of peace, were highly vulnerable to German submarine attack.

But, with the introduction of the convoy system and as a result of the vigorous action taken by the British Navy—in the first 20 days of the war over 100 attacks were made on U-boats —the German U-boat campaign was clearly seen to be failing to achieve its objective of crippling Britain’s overseas trade.

Realisation of this failure by the German authorities was manifested in two ways —ruthless warfare against neutral merchant shipping and violent propaganda and threats directed toward compelling neutral shipping to eschew the safety of British convoys.

ENEMY FAILURES. Then, just after the middle of November, Germany began to employ her so-called secret weapon —the magnetic mine. Again Germany met with some initial success, but a corhbination of great skill and gallantry brought the secrets of the magnetic mine to . light and the provision of the necessary counter measures was a mere matter of time. Soon Germany's mining campaign was relegated to the ranks of the many costly nuisances which could have little bearing on the outcome of the war.

Finally, came air attacks on shipping —attacks which included lightships among their targets and manifested other forms of ruthlessness which shocked the whole world. But the gunners of merchant ships and of the convoy escorts became more and more proficient and they inflicted many losses on the enemy, and, like the U-boat campaign and the mining campaign, the air attack proved indecisive and expensive. The well-established principle in war that sea control can only be attained and exercised on the sea has been once more proved valid by events in the past year. The Norwegian campaign alone virtually deprived Germany of the chance of seriously challenging the British Navy with her own sea forces, for in that campaign a substantial part of the German Navy was destroyed. Eleven German destroyers met their end at Narvik and two others, were probably lost elsewhere, three cruisers were sunk, the battle-cruiser Scharnhbrst and the pocket-battleship Admiral Scheer received serious damage. and losses were also inflicted on her U-boat and other craft. The most outstanding naval event of the first year was the historic action of the River Plate, in which the greatest traditions of the Royal Navy were vindicated in a gallant attack upon the pocket-battleship Graf Spec, which was chased into Montevideo and which scuttled herself to avoid further action with the British forces.

BRITISH AIR ACHIEVEMENTS. It has been in. the air that the most serious fighting of the first year of the war has taken place and it has been in the air, significantly enough, that Britain’s most outstanding successes have been gained. In the early days of the war the R.A.F. was mainly concerned with dawn to dusk escorts for convoys, the success of which was shown by the amazingly few ships which were ever attacked in convoy, and with extensive reconnaissance flights over enemy territory extending as far as Vienna and Prague, and with overseas hunting for U-boats. To counteract to some extent the numerical superiority of the German air force the R.A.F. sent to help the French Army and Air Force more squadrons than had been promised in the winter and, as events grew worse, more than double its assistance to the extent of seriously weakening its own home defences.

During the retreat British fighter pilots found themselves from dawn to dusk carrying out six or seven sorties daily. It was during these encounters, and perhaps even more clearly during the week of terrific air battles over Dunkirk at the time of the retreat of the 8.E.F., » that the world witnessed the superiority of British machines and men over their German adversaries. It became clear that once parity in striking power was attained the war in the air was won.

Today's superiority of the R.A.F. is being shown in engagements over Britain, where. during the past few weeks of large-scale German raids, the proportion of German machines brought down to British has been steadily in the neighbourhood 01. three to one. Since June 111. when the first largescale raids began, some 1500 German aircraft have been certainly destroyed and probably a further 50 per cent. Even more important is the loss to Germany of such large numbers ol trained Hying personnel, which, in Hie same period, must amount to some 3750. *

R.A.F. attacks night after night on military objectives in Germany, Italy. Belgium, Holland, Norway and German-occupied France have unquestionably been causing a considerable dislocation of German industrial life and the German war machine. THE EMPIRE SCHEME. Meanwhile, the Empire air training scheme is now in full operation and in' June the first contingents of colonial and colonial-trained pilots and

crews began to take part in the fight for Britain.

The Empire training scheme. Empire aircraft production, and the large orders placed in America for all kinds of aircraft guarantee for the future a huge supply of aircraft and. crews built and trained under peaceful conditions which will never be available to the enemy. In the first year's war on land British forces have met with several serious reverses, but these, cruel blows though they were, are already being viewed in longer perspective, and it can be said that the British military leaders and soldiers as well as the British people, are satisfied that . the experiences of the British Expeditionary Force show that in other, circumstances and when fully equipped the British Army would not be unequal to the tasks which lie ahead. The defence of Calais and the rearguard actions round Dunkirk have added to the British military annals many instances of heroism whose fame will be imperishable.

ARMY EXPANSION. With the inclusion of one million and a half Home Guards the strength of the British Army has grown from 850.000 on the eve of war to 3.000.00 men under arms in the United Kingdom alone. With the exception of the units specially equipped for local defence this army is being prepared for an offensive action. Meanwhile, all the Home Guards employed on duties which require that they should be armed with rilles hav<« already been issued with them, and Home Guards are also being trained in machine-gun mortar and anti-tank technique.