NAZI DILEMMA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 December 1940, Page 5

NAZI DILEMMA

NEED OF ACTION IN NEAR FUTURE POSSIBILITY OF INVASION ATTEMPT. MATTER OF GREAT INTEREST IN BRITAIN. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 22. A great deal of space has been devoted in the Press to speculation as to the necessity for Hitler of making a striking military move in the near future and the possibility that invasion of Britain may be the prime consideration. Between the would-be master of Europe and the fulfilment of his ambition stands the British Empire. In order to surmount this obstacle Hitler, following in the path of the previous “men of destiny,” must subjugate Britain herself. Nothing else will do. Adventures which do not individually contribute to and collectively bring about-the capitulation of this island are not worth the enemy’s consideration. Hitler’s conquests from North Cape to Hendaye were all part of this grand design, and the vast coastline gives Hitler three main advantages: It strings out the British Navy; it has provided him with innumerable bases for the attack on British shipping; and, should he elect to take the risk, from any point along it he can launch a series of assaults with the object of actual invasion. What his next move will be is a matter of intense interest to all in Britain today. Hitler is faced with the gradually contracting steel ring of the blockade, outside which the British Empire is quickly accumulating vast armaments and an overwhelming air force and adding rapidly to her sea power. Germany’s situation is becoming such that, as the Prime Minister has said: “Hitler has a great need of doing something now or soon.” AN EMBARRASSING PARTNER. The active participation ,of his junior partner may well cause him acute embarrassment. As long as the Italian forces compelled the further deployment of British arms, reducing the forces in Britain, it is possible that Hitler might have relied upon what must be a very long-term policy of attempting to reduce Britain by starvation. The untoward events in the Mediterranean and North Africa may well force Hitler’s hand and compel him to undertake now what he hoped to accomplish last September before his air force was so trounced as to make his plans, as then formulated, unworkable.

The intervening months are regarded by some commentators as time used for what one of them describes as “ad hoc research” carried out on several weak points in Britain’s defences, and it is suggested that the wheel has come a full circle. Should Hitler decide on an invasion this school of thought believes that the method will again be by concentrated day bombing directed against the British fighter stations followed by troop-carrying aeoplanes whose operations would be impossible unless the British fighter squadrons were first rendered harm--IGSS’ HAZARDOUS GAMBLE. The essential hazardousness of this manoeuvre is not disguised, but it is pointed out that there is plenty of evidence to show that Hitler is always prepared to pay for his gambles. Though it is fully recogmsed-pro-bably as well by the German staff as anyone else —that the odds are great y against success in such an adventure, it is pointed out that the hope is not so forlorn as to allow the Bi itish peoples to “sit back” behind the fortifications and in their turn gamble on the chance of the attempt never being made. All military history shows that nothing is impossible in war. The careful planning at which the Germans excel almost to a point of weakness, an element of surprise and an unexpected form of assault, have before now accomplished a spectacular victory. What happens in the Mediterranean or Africa does not matter if Britain is defeated. The next few weeks, or possibly days, are full of danger. One thing, however, is certain: The people of Britain have shown their courage, determination and calm under the almost nightly German raids. The last months have not been wasted, and if Britain remains “true to form” the issue is hot in doubt.