SEPTEMBER 3

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1941, Page 2

SEPTEMBER 3

SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF WAR COMPARISON WITH YEAR AGO. POSITION FACING NAZIS. A. year ago today was the first anniversary of the outbreak of war. Turn up an old newspaper and you will see that the Battle of Britain was still raging over the southern counties; the R.A.F. offensive over Germany had hardly begun; Italy was a foe to be reckoned with; our army was not. yet fully reequipped after the losses of Dunkirk, and improvised barriers of derelict, cars and tree trunks were reminding us at every turn of the road of the thinness of our defences against a German invasion. Today with the spectacle before our eyes of mounting British strength we look back encouraged to see that time has wreaked some of its inevitable revenges. None of them is more complete than its exposure of Dr. Goebbels, some ol whose propaganda chickens have come homo to roost with a vengeance. This time a year ago his daily stunt was a victory roll over the air for the battle that had not been won. “The R.A.F. have always proved inferior, and their resistance is becoming' hopeless." (German broadcast to England. September 7, 1940.) Equally wide of the mark—when read in the light of British bomb flashes on targets in Germany—are his boasts of Britain's inability to fly over the continent. “It is quite out of the question that air fights should lake place over the Channel as English fighters never venture beyond their own coast line." (German home broadcast, September 3, 1940.) With the rout of Italy’s fleet and Italy’s armies in North Africa we can afford to recall that a year ago Dr. Goebbels was boasting “the strategical importance of the conquest of British Somaliland lies in the removal of the British threat to Abyssinia.” (German broadcast to Africa, August 4, 1940.) Or again, “The British have lost all control of the Mediterranean sin.ee even with the use of very powerful forces they are unable lo send a con-

•s voy through. In Africa the Italian posip tion. is more favourable in every rc-s--o pect than that of Britain. The operations have demonstrated the superior organisation and morale of the Italians who cannot be stopped by any obstacle.” (“Munchner Noueste Nachrichten,” September 4, 1940.) While we proudly welcome home our Prime Minister who has sailed both ways across the Atlantic in the safe keeping of the British Navy, we smile to think that on September 4, 1940, the 1 Nazi Labour Minister, Dr. Ley. was 3 telling his people that “Germany has e erected an impenetrable wall around 2 the British Isles, and will not let a fly - through." 1 His companion claims of August 26, - 1940, that “Germany is now mistress 1 t of the seas; her blockade has complete- i 1 ly encircled Britain” is put in its place L ? when we read that Mr Churchill, while j I on board H.M.S. Prince of Wales, in- i ■ spected a convoy eight miles long, and j • that the whole of the convoy is now j Qsafe in port. < •j Today when tanks and aeroplanes | ! from.the U.S.A, and the British Domi- 1 Unions are arriving in Britain and in the : ’ Middle East week by week, and. in , '(ever increasing flow, we remember ] J how far off and insignificant that help 'l seemed to Dr. Goebbels on September 6, 1940. “Those fifty antiquated Amori- ! can destroyers arc- merely a flash in the pan. Before they reach the other side of the Atlantic the final decision , may have been reached in Great Britain.” (German broadcast to England.) Germans today are counting their ' losses in Russia by hundreds of thou- , sands. Only a year ago the German radio was celebrating the anniversary of Hitler’s pact of eternal friendship ‘ with Russia. “.And if any hopes arise that sooner or later tension might occur between Germany and Russia. , those hopes are English, and, therefore, stupid.” (“Der Amgriff," August 23, 1940). Three days later Dr. Goebbels was boasting, perhaps with greater rashness. “Neither Germany nor Rus- • sia can be broken by any power on earth as long as they are Allies." (Ger-1 , man broadcast to Eire, August 26.1, 1940.) A. year ago Dr. Goebbels was think- x ■ ing of the invasion, not of Russia, but of Britain. A year ago he was punctuating his broadcasts with “marching ; against England," a song which we no ! longer hear. He reached his highest flight on September 1: “Soon our infantry will return home after the final ' victory has been won; then they will i relate with pride how they were among i the first to set foot on English soil and j to hoist the Swastika flag on the Eng- | lish mast.” ( In twelves months since that boast | was uttered by the hopeful Nazi broad- I caster, Britain has had plenty of timeh to prepare a hot reception for a would- "» be invasion. 1