ARMED FORCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1942, Page 4

ARMED FORCES

BRITISH TROOPS OVERSEAS REPLY TO CRITICISM. WAR SECRETARY GIVES FACTS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 10.50 a.m.) RUGBY. February 19. Speaking in the House of Commons, Captain H. D. R. Margesson, Secretary of State for War, referring to criticism which he had heard that Britain showed a certain reticence in sending her armed forces overseas said: “With all the emphasis at my command I deny this insidious and wholly false suggestion.” Details which he proposed to disclose were intended only as a refutation of this suggestion and in no sense as a deprecation of the efforts of those who helped from outside Britain, he said. In the Middle East Command, which comprised the whole of Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Persia, half of all the troops were from Britain, rather more than a quarter were from the Dominions, something over a tenth from India and the balance was made up of Colonial and Allied contingents. As to the composition of the Eighth Army during this present battle, fifty per cent of all the troops employed were British, nearly one-third were provided by South Africa and New Zealand and more than a tenth by the Indian Empire. There were also a small number of Australian troops and the remainder of the force was completed by units provided by our Polish, Free French and Czech Allies. All the armoured tank brigades were British. The armoured car regiments were all British except for two from South Africa.

Of every hundred men killed or ■ wounded in land fighting since the beginning of the war up to January, 1942, said the Minister, about seventy per cent came from this country. Critics should not forget that in naval warfare and, of course, amongst the mercantile marine the vast majority of casualties had been inflicted upon our seamen and the same was true of the R.A.F., which in spite of the magnificent contributions of the Dominions and Allied forces, had suffered far more heavily than any of them. The despatch of British troops to foreign theatres of war, said Captain Margesson, depended fundamentally on two things, firstly, the absolute necessity of defending Britain as the heart of the Empire and the bridgehead for future operations against Europe, and, secondly, the availability of shipping. As regards the equipment position in the last twelve months, Captain Margesson said it had shown a marked improvement but the result was not yet satisfactory. Both at home and abroad the year had been one of steady progressive administrative development. The most important development had been the complete reorganisation of forces in this country. This reorganisation had not been apparent to the general public. It had nevertheless been of great extent and significance. It was not. until the autumn of 1941 that sufficient equipment began to be available to enable us to convert large numbers of infantry units into artillery, armoured, signal, R.A.O.C. and R.A.M.C. units, of which we were so woefully short but plans had been laid a long time ahead and though reorganisation did not begin until the autumn, it was possible to carry it out with great speed and much progress had been made. We had formed a large number of new armoured formations, including armoured divisions and army tank brigades. We have strengthened armoured formations in the Middle East by the provision of new units and this process was continuing. We had formed a number of field regiments of artillery, which were required to complete forces already overseas and provide corps and army troops for forces in Britain. We practically completed the formation of the required number of anti-tank regiments. We had converted a considerable number of infantry battalionn into anti-aircraft regiments for the field army. A start had been made with organising airborne troops and we now had a number of parachute and air landing units. Captain Margesson concluded his speech with a detailed review of new methods for discovering the special abilities of men joining the army, so that they may be sent to particular units which would make the best use of their qualifications.

Such of the cable news on this page as is so headed has appeared in “The Times,’ and is cabled to Australia and New Zealand by special permission. It should be understood that the opinions are not those of The Times” unless expressly stated to be so.