WAR NEWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 May 1941, Page 6

WAR NEWS

CREDIT BALANCE FOR 1941 MANY SUCCESSES. ADVANTAGE WITH BRITAIN. In war time our sensations are blunted by overdoses of news. Memory grows short and faulty, and the latest item tends to blot out all that went before. Thus, wife) this year's run of Allied successes was broken by news | of German divisions 1 ' in Libya and a German advance in Greece, people forgot' the old assets in their concern over the new liabilities. An interim balance on the year shows that this latest impression is wrong. The advantage is on our side:— — At sea: We have so far in 1941 alone sunk more than 545,000 tons out of the total of 2,300,000 gross tons of enemy shipping we have accounted for since the beginning of the war. In the Atlantic: Our convoys still ply to and fro. We are receiving food and munitions from almost every quarter of the globe. Despite Hitler’s threat (February 24) that his spring blitz had started, the weekly average of British Allied and neutral shipping sunk in the first quarter of 1941 is only 78,301 tons. Compare this with an average of 71,911 tons weekly during the the year 1940. or with the figure of 545,282 tons —approximately 136000 tons weekly—for the month of April. 1917, alone. In the Mediterranean: We have since January I reduced Italy’s cruiser strength by 15 per cent and Italy’s destroyer strength by 21 per cent. In the Red Sea: We have by the capture of Italy’s naval bases removed her threat to our vital Eastern shipping lane, so that the Rod Sea is no longer a combat zone and American ships laden with war materials can sail to our very back door. In Cyrenaica: On the map we are almost back where we started from, but we have between times put out of action an Italian army of 200,000 men and have accumulated masses of valuable war material.

.In Greece: We have inflicted tremendous casualties on the enemy. Sir Alexander Godley, who commanded the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the last war, speaking at a meeting of the Royal Empire'Society, on April 22, said: “In. the rearguard action the Germans have hurled their troops in masses against the Anzacs and the Greeks, and they have suffered out of all possible conception.” Sir Alexander went on to point out that these unexpected losses and destruction will have a considerable effect on the enemy plans for the next phase of the war. Our two armies—lmperial and Greek —operating as one. have proved that man for man we are a match for the German soldier. We know now that once we arc weapon for weapon his equal also the myth of his invincibility will disappear. In lhe air: Since the beginning of the year up to April 21 we have accountedfor more than 230 machines over and round Britain, 47 over Northern Europe, and more than 760 in the Middle Eastern theatres of war; a total of 1,037 at a loss of only 314 machines to ourselves. Our air offensive is gathering momentum. We have as from midApril put into operation our new bomber, the fastest, longest ranged and most powerful unit in use by either side. Our night defences have in April alone destroyed 71 Gorman bombers. Our /day fighters still keep the daylight. raider off our coasts. Hitler’s uneasy associations with Gestapo-controlled "Allies” is set against an. Anglo-Graeco-American record of help freely given and loyally maintained. “Germany’s weakness in this war is the other European nations occupied and unoccupied, and it is against these weak and always staggering outerworks that the enemies’ death blow will one day be struck.” (“Morgenposten,” Stockholm. April 17. 1941.) i We derive strength unattainable by i Hitler from the knowledge that our ' centuries old Anglo-Greek friendship ' is as much of a bond as ever and from ’ the certainty that our American con- 1 sins mean business when they shout) '■ across the Atlantic that their willing'.' shoulders are to the wheel. I