SURPRISE ATTACKS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 194, 25 May 1940, Page 5

SURPRISE ATTACKS

LESSONS FROM NETHERLANDS.

THE PARAGHUTE TROOPS.

NEED FOR PREPAREDNESS

(United Press Association. —Copyright.)

LONDON, May 23. Air Marshal Sir Philip Joubert do la .Forte, a member of the staff of the Air Ministry, broadcasting, said: “The great lesson of the attack on Holland was that we should he prepared against surprise attacks by troops parachuted and landed in troop-carrying aircraft. “In Holland the .Germans used up these aircraft and crews in a lavish way. As long as the soldiers were landed successfully the Germans apparently. did not care \what happened afterwards. The losses of these troop-car-riers were very heavy, not only from air attack and by sea bombardment as they lay on Dutch beaches, but irom crashes in landing. “The Dutch fought most, gallantly, but they were prevented from making a successful resistance by the swift,, heavy blow dealt at the heart of their country, and we could not go to help them until they asked for assistance. “The Allied , line east of Brussels was threatened by the events in Holland. The Allied air forces did their utmost to arrest the German thrust, and made most determined and gallant attacks, which made possible the orderly withdrawal of the French and Belgian forces. This movement towards the French frontier, which is still going on, has been supported in every way by tho Allied air forces.” The small Belgian Air Force had shown prodigious courage, of which Air Marshal de la Ferte gave an instance. A Belgian major was taking off from an aerodrome when ho was attacked by a German fighter. Very serious damage was inflicted on Ids aircraft, and it was obvious that a crash was only a question of seconds. So, without a moment’s hesitation, lie swung his aircraft straight at the German fighter and collided with it. A tangled mass of wreckage fell to - Mo ground. Out of it, alone, stepped the Belgian major, limping from a sprained ankle. Air Attacks on Enemy. The withdrawal in Belgium was not forced on the Allies by the German troops before them, he added. French light tank forces had most successfully fought with heavy German mechanised columns, and whenever an encounter was mado the Germans got the worst of. it.

, Unfortunately, the situation in the south had become more threatening. A river front, believed to be very strong, was penetrated by the Germans 1 , and the rate of withdrawal there forced the Allies to attempt to. perform that most' difficult of evolutions—a flank march in the face of the enemy. Speaking. of the effect of tho air forces’ attacks on enemy communication, Air Marshal do la. Ferte said that prisoners captured within the last two days were very exhausted and had been three dayp without food as a result of .the dislocation of their supply system. That, the situation was most soiious none could deny. The history of the last 12 days in the air, however, was one of small, highly-trained courageous forces taking on with the utmost enthusiasm immense masses of the enemy, both in the air and on the ground. Whenever the Royal Air Force met the Germans in fair fight, that was to say, one British aeroplane to three or four, Germans, victory had been on the Allies’ side.

“We hayo been rather obsessed by Germany’s industrial power and ability to turn out an immense number of aircraft. ‘What neither she nor any other nation can do is to go on producing trained crows at the rate at which they have been lost by her in recent fighting. “Our bomber, losses have been successfully made up, and although rvo have lofit a number of fighter aircraft, our losses in trained pilots have not been severe, and have also been made up. Above all, the spirit of our new pilots is the same as that of rheir predecessors, and they take on the Germans on the sanio terms as before.”—British Official Wireless.