BRITISH ISLES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 157, 4 July 1940, Page 6

BRITISH ISLES.

PLAN OF ATTACK. BANSE'S STRATEGY. BY AiR AND SEA ARMADAS. ICOBFOUK-STTTTQUK AS BASS? William the Conqueror wia tile last enemy successfully to invade Great Britain. Hβ assembled TOO open barges at St. v"aiery-jur-«oirniie. waited for a _ fair wind, ami embarked .>Oofl men. IαJ chiding 2000 mobile armoured anita— I mounted kniglrw ami their *qniri»s. Ovei-nigJit tlii.-i armada sailed across the English. Channel, landing at Peveusey ! tile following- aiorninjr. ; William marched immediately -■■> Hastings, w'ainfa. he start*L to ror-ify. , Although. -.je British, nmier Kins Hamlii. iiaii been drawn away by I another invader '.n the ea.-st insist, Hi..J w»3 Harold of }i'-,r\' ay . and he w.u ; beaten as :~tamford Br.djrc. Ritiirainii b.iirriiiiily to the Caaimel. nh.«* liih'lj--arnwi Saxim *ildieni reU an *iuy pray to r.he moaatftii iirtaiiursrl yirm.in.--. I WLilLun proi:w»'.lrtii iriU'irelj *o uiniiun. j where lii» wad crowned, oa Clirii^uiiis j Day, LOrtrt. Sucll was r.iw L 1.5" etfeiitiTfl invasi<>n 'of Emiand. Tliree »nrtini«3 have iinnii | j seriousiy tllrHateiied Great Britain. The I first. Pnilip 11. of Spain, builr. a scrsar, ' i anaadrt.- but it wa-a wT«cfcad by battle! I and storm, near tJie British, coasts. Tli* : ! aecoori. Sn poison. thrHateaed from Bonj lojfne ia IBGS. "but his inept navy A.n.d j h.ii eLaborace feint to draw tile Britiili NavTr to tile Weat Indies failed miser-! ably. Tile tliird. Hitler, is already put- j j ninjr out prslimiiiary Meiers over j i England. ! VJewa of Experts. '

The military piwsilliUtiea of Hitler""a 4r«im are diaeoaaed in. the American news magazine "Time." If tiie attempt were tna.de. esperta ciHisidereri it would be laiincileii frt>ia Diitefa. and. B<?lsian ports, from Xorwegian beaeli heads and perhaps from Eire, wliers beach heaii.i be eata.bliafi.ed with tile quisling eonni-vance of s]ie Irish Republican | Army. Experts expected. laa<iing parties to eofwentntts oa the soatli-east! [o-wlanfia of Engianti—Kent, the Tianies Valley. Eeaes; Saifolk and NorfoUc —with, diversions in the Scottish lowlanda and- in Wales, for the invasion*.* ntani target wtHild be the munitiona-makiag itidlanda.

This plan has been openly recommended by Ewald Banse, profesaoir of Baiiitary science at Brunswick Teclinolegieal Inetitute. whose- writings Have great weight in. Jfazi war conncils. In an invaaioQ the German Att Force would have the task of razing the naval baaea at Harwiek. Slleeraess, C&aitnaaii, Raanagate. Dover. Portsmoiith. Soat&aLaiptoii. Cowea and Plymstrtn- Britain's Fleet air armv Coastal Command of ths Boyal Air Force, and anti-aireraft batteries would have to protect Britain's naval bases ** best they eoold. Prelinaiaary Na2i bombing in Essex and Yorkshire was poesiMy to test and spot tiese defences. German coastal cajmoa planted at Calais. Cap Grii >fez and Boulogne miglifi aid in trying to reduce tfle British bases. Britain's coastal batteTiee have loag r*nge_ bun are old. Heavy units ot the Royal Navy. seareelv daring to contest invading forces in the narrow straits area, would probably withdraw to stations up the west British, coast. To lizht unite, though vulnerable to air bom.be, w00.14. fall a large part of the defensive work.

From Air and Ssa. Allied soiarces estimated—possiblj-over-estimated —that Hitler has 20,000 parachutists in reserve tor such art invasion, and 2000 transport r planes capable of ferryina almost one division per hour of reiru-Uir intancry across che 13<>mile distance from the European to the British lowlands, adds "Time." , But the rail power oi the invading troopa — armoured equipm-ent aa-.! artillery— would have to go in surface transport*.

BritUh mines threaten these, so before the parachutists take off. phase two of the German pian would be m.rnesweepinir. Several narrow ehanneis throngh thv- minefields might be =wept in one diirk nig-ht. The Xazi mine-

sweeper- would be jjuaTtie>i bj swiit. i shallow-draapfht aiotor torpedo boats. . ligbt units of the British Fleet woold j face a test of vtßrilan'ce aad darins that I niaiit and the next dawn, when the j transports and their German naval and i air escorts set out on William the Con- I queror's path. As the waves of the ocean would be , the waves of German bombers—heavy. ; lisht and dive —which would precede the ! sea ferries and air troop transports- j Professor Ban*e lons a.-zo recommended ! Norfolk-Suffolk as a base for the German Expeditionary Fonre because """.he : great Quse. which flows into the Wash. '• and a number of streams flowing oq to the Biaokwater estuary . . . make the peninsula into a re-jrnlar island, which provides an invauincr army with safe ■ and roomy quarters from which it can ! threaten London, which is quite olrxse and without natural defence* on that : swie—and also the Indastrial Midieads." , i Professor Baruse concladed: "We con- i fe«s that it siv->> us pteasare to meditate on the destruction that triui-t sooner '■ or later overtake this proud and seem- ' insly invincible nation. . . . The above j sentences would appear monstrous, nay. rank blasphemy, to every Englishman and Enirliihwoman in the world—if thev \ ever saw them." " ■