INVADE BRITAIN-HOW?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 159, 6 July 1940, Page 6 (Supplement)

INVADE BRITAIN-HOW?

THE long-heralded blitzkrieg — 1 - against the British Isles has begun. Nazi bombers are raiding sporadically from the Scottish - border to the v south downs of Sussex. Heavy guns are being mounted on the French Channel coast, and if the German grip on Boulogne and Calais can be maintained, those guns will make the narrow waters perilous for the units of die British Navy and can, ih Hitler feels that way, shell Dover and Folkestone. * * German naval officers are reported to have been with the German mechanised forces which fought their way into the French channel ports. The Fnehrer is

reported to 'be holding 20,000 crack para* chutists and 2000 transport 'planes ready for the supreme blow of the war—the

blow designed to carry death and destruction to the British Isles. There are rumours of new weapons, including light artillery units which can be dropped by parachute, tanks which can be transported by air in sections and assembled within a few minutes of striking English earth, and giant 00-ton amphibians able to swim across the English Channel, crawl ashore at Pevensev Of,'-Rye,- on' the .fiat Sussex coast (where tliis writer was" born), and smash their way to London before the "crafty English" discover what hit them. Maybe the German invading army will also be well supplied with liquid cement, to "freese enemy troops in their tracks," as Ut unknown proposed the American army should be equipped. No rumour is too wild to receive credence. Danger Lang Realised " Once. Great_ Britain ceased,_strategically, to be an island (which happened when Bleriot flew the Channel) there no longer remained any valid reason why that country should continue to be insulated from the horrors of modern war. That the British realised this fact is shown by a statement made to me by • high-ranking staff officer at the time of the Munich settlement. '

"Tell me whether London can success* fully be defended, and I will tell - you whether the Empire dare fight," he remarked, over coffee in a London club.

"The next war will almost certainly be fought over or on British soil."

Hitler's pathological hatred of England is nothing new in history. Napoleon did not warm to the English, either. For centuries the French felt the same way about it. Not entirely unsuccessfully, for whatever history books say, the last occasion on which foreign troops landed on British soil had nothing to do with William the Norman or 106G, but with t French forces which landed at the Cinque porta of Rye and Winchelsea in the | seventeenth century, held them for weeks, looted a stretch of the Sussex coast, and withdrew, carrying off with them as spoils of war the clock from St. Mary's Parish Church at Rye. This testimonial to French raiding prowess was erected in the belfry of a church outside Calais, , from which the men of Rye rescued it sixty years later. The French met the British face to face. Hitler's "Falschir •. Bataillon" will arrive via parachute, pants first. But for all that, those faceless men will not prove as easy to deal with as the French; who last set foot on the English coast. Neither, it may be predicted, will the English prove the sort of over-ripe plum, ready to fall into the grasp of-the Fuehrer, that some panicky writers predict. According to the pessimists, the invasion of England, in these days of dive bombers and parachutists, is like rolling off a log. One just has to install heavy guns at Calais, lay a barrage on ,'the English coast opposite, r and behind this curtain of fire land storm troops | hurried across the Channel by those natty 50-mile-per-hour speedboats, the while the German Air Force bombs the British back areas, and parachute troops, dropped in clouds at strategic points in Kent and Sussex and around London, raise general hell.

Maybe. But it all sounds too easy. England it. not Norway or Holland. No barrage on earth could enable German

Hitler's legion* are preparing to ' fail against England." This survey of the British defences against invasion teas written by a British journalist, now in Seic York, who served as a tear correspondent t cith the Japanese and Chinese armies in the Orient and in Spain during the civil tear, and teas in Poland up to the outbreak of this tear. He sees «'n Eire the major weakness in Britain's defence*.

Bp - - Hessell Tillman

invading troops to land successfully at the South Foreland or Beachy Head, chalk ramparts of old England which make the beaches of Gallipoli look like kid's play. It is in the highest degree improbable that the apostles of "Schreckliclikeit" will- thus obligingly commit suicide. If Flanders is the cockpit of Europe, the flat sandy Mast fringing the Cinque of Kent East Sussex, and the Komney Marshes behind it, form the traditional invader's road to the heart of England. The Romans passed that way; the ■ roads they constructed can still be traced across the downlands. William, the Norman, landed nearby. So did the French, when they tried to twist the lion's tail. Napoleon had the same big . idea, but muffed the trick. The Nazis will probably follow suit, possibly with feints at other points, when the hour strikes to try conclusions with the English on their home ground. Latest news from London supports this view. Kind Edward ll.'s old town of Rye and Winchelsea nearby have been hurriedly plaeed in a state of defence. The only way to invade a country is to occupy its territory and defeat the defenders on land. And it is directly one gets out of the realm of mere "schrecklichkeit" and considers the task

facing any invading army, necessarily possessing only a small supply of blitzkrieg equipment, that the magnitude of the undertaking becomes apparent.

Germany $ "Best Bets"

Having consolidated her hold on the European coastline from Narvik to Boulogne, Germany is obviously in a position to attempt the invasion of the British Isles at any spot from Caithness, in the far north of Scotland, to Plymouth. While tha coasts of Kent and Sussex offer the best hope of "neutralising" tlus punch packed by the, British Navy (which, it may be well to point out, is still afloat and still the most powerful naval force in the world), the narrow "neck -of the Channel has the disadvantage that on the English side the coast consists either of strongly fortified "doors" like Dover and Ramsgate, or high chalk cliffs which, it is safe to predict, have been fortified and would prove a death-trap, unscalable either by tanks O" —*- . . V / Germany's best bets for forcing an . entry from the sea (and all authorities | agree that sufficient troops cannot be './transported v ~' air to occupy even the •southern portion of the country) consist , of the flat shores of Essex, the region around th" C'nque ports of Kent and | Sussex, or further west, along the Dorset coast near Southampton port, , whhowever, would mea-i the negotia- : tion of a sea passage of some 200 miles , from the French coast. The red cliffs of would "--'rride a tough nut for the Nazis to crack, and are located far from London or industrial centres. 1 Wherever the main Nazi blow against ; Britain may fall, it is probable that . covering landings may be attempted in . Lincolnshire or on the sparsely-populated , Scottish coast. Possibly also in Wales, 1 if the scheduled prior rising of the Irish , Republican Army creates a situation favourable to Hitler in the emerald isle.

All these operations would synchronic with a terrific bombardment from the air of munition plasta, communication*

and key-points, and the landing of a parachute force, which may number 20,000 men, somewhere in the vicinity of London.

Once England is reached, by whatever route, the invading force must fight the British in their own backyard. The Nazis will be dependent on air communications, plus a highly-precarious sea route, for every shell, bullet and man, and for every cupful of gasoline for such mechanised equipment as it manages to get ashore. This time it cannot hope for much aid from "Fifth Columnists."

It will be exposed, day and night right round the clock, to the attacks of the Royal Air Force, which has developed "fighter" strength at the expense of bombers for just such an emergency, and be forced to operate against British armies having at their disposal strongly fortified positions, plenty of airfields, end a faith in their star. Plus munitions in plenty and, probably, a five-to-one superiority, for the first time in this war, in equipment. Compared with the task awaiting that Nazi invading force after J" 18 thumbed its nose at the British Navy, Gallipoli was a pushover for the Allies.

Eire Is Danger Point Pew military experts would predict anything but irretrievable disaster for the Germans. Unless the German Air Force can simultaneously destroy British morale, the invaders would be fortunate if they managed to secure and hold "bridgeheads" on the southern coast of the island. Reported German estimates that they would lose half their effectives en route to England, and half the remainder within four days of landing on English soil, show that the German General Staff realises this quite well. But, say the Germans, cannon-fodder is cheap.

Despite the Nazi contempt for human life, however, it is possible that direct invasion across the Straits of Dover, if attempted, will prove in the nature of a red herring, designed for its moral effect. Two other possibilities, one of which is virtually certain to be attempted any minute, may be found to constitute the real Hitler plan for forcing the "insolent English" to surrender—a, parachute invasion of Eire, and a concentrated aerial attack against industrial England.

Eire represents, apart from Hungary, the last helpless neutral.in Europe waiting to be blitzkrieged, with the added advantage that it has possessed an antiBritish "Fifth Column" for the last seven centuries. The Irish Republican Army, the precise strength of which is unknown, forms the sort of natural ally which Hitler must see in dreams. It is also as unarmed as was Denmark and, like Denmark, offers the opportunity of another punishing raid on Britain's larder, plus harbours for U-boats, and airfields within easy fighter-'plane range of such important ports as Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow. With Sean Russell, "Gauleiter" of the 1.R.A., and his men waiting to welcome and conceal parachutists, Southern Ireland is what may be termed a "natural."

Eamon de Valera, President of Eire, will fight. But the President's hands are tied by his repeated declarations that Eire will never light beside England while Ulster's seven counties remain outside the boundaries of the Free State, thus perpetuating an "unnatural partition of Ireland. Even on the day that Xazi "Falschir Bataillon" begin to drop like rain over the green valleys of Eire, it is doubtful whether de Valera would dare invite British armed forces in Ulster to march into Southern Ireland. If he does not accept British aid, and quickly, the Free State v. due to have a Nazi "Gauleiter," at least for the duration of the conflict, and maybe for keeps. Thus, by all indications, may two centuries of bungling statecraft on the part of British Governments give Hitler his chance.

The Nazis have, in the opinion of well-informed observers, only to drop machine-guns and ammunition over Southern Ireland; the "To hell with England" lads will do the rest. Once that coup is carried out, not only will Great Britain be cut off from all food supplies from neighbouring countries, but the threat of invasion will hang over that country from the west as well a» from the north and east. Britain will be ringed with the forces of "the inevitable enemy." The peril will have become a peril indeed. Not knowing where the blow may fall, defences will have to be manned from Land's End to John o' Groats—a task which would tie up a million armed men.

The second item of the Nazi programme — an aerial mass offensive against key points in England—is certain, whatever the fortunes of war for the Nazi storm troops on the Western Front.

No one doubts that an extewion of aerial fright fulness to the English suburbs and lanes waits only for Hitler's word and is within the capacity of Goering's air armada to carry out. No one with any experience of aerial warfare doubts the bombers, or some of them, "will always get through," as even the somnolent Stanley Baldwin predicted complacently during the years while the British Government watched the Nazis tuning up their war machine without doing anything about it.

Would It Be Worth It? The fate inflicted on one square mile of the city of Rotterdam indicates what is in store for the 673 square miles of Greater London when the signal is given. What is doubtful is whether the game will prove to be worth the candle.

The County of London, with a population as great as Greater New York, is defended by a balloon barrage, more than a thousand of the most modern anti-aircraft guns, and by hundreds of super-swift Spitfire and Hurricane fighter planes. Those fighter planes are declared by impartial American aircraft experts to be superior to anything Germany can pit against them. They can pull virtually straight up into the sky, reaching 10,000 ft within 4.8 minutes of the alarm and 20,000 ft in nine minutes. Their batteries of eight machine-guns fire a terrific blast of 600 bullets a minute; so devastating is that volley that examination of German bombers .shot down in this war has revealed the bodies of the crew cut in half by a burst of fire.

The British are realists; they have never denied that Goering's air armada can make a nasty mess of the denselypopulated cities of Britain. They inskt, however, that the Royal Air Force will, equally inevitably, make a nasty meae of the German Air Force. The losses of the British air fighters in France and Belgium during the opening weeks of the western blitzkrieg were below the rate of replacement. It is confidently declared that at least half the bombers which venture across the Englwh coastline wiH never return to Germany. One of the major weaknesses of the Allied war machine on the Western Front arose out of the huge superiority in bombers possessed by the Nazis, due to the fact that, as is generally known, the British have concentrated their main energies on punsuit planes for defence of the British Isles. In fighter planes the Allies possess something approaching parity with Germany. Up to date that'fact has operated disadvantageouslv to the British. Expected mass raids on England which they were built to repel did not happen during the opening phases of the conflict. Now that the time has come for Goering's boyr to "sail against England," the advantages of Britain's aerial strategy should become apparent.

"Defence Is Stronger" For the last year British munition works have beeu turning out heavy anti-aircraft guns "like peas." Whether or not the thirteen anonymous scientists who form the brain-trust of the Royal Air Force have invented any secret weapons, the British air staff is equal to any in the world, while the Royal Air Force has for two years been the pampered child of the defence services. Talking with British aviation experts in London a month or so ago, I was informed that "nothing can be known for certain except this—that in the air defence is at the moment stronger than the attack."

If anything concrete has been proved by the story of aerial warfare—which began on July 29, 1937, whe« the Japanese opened a new chapter in frightfulness by bombing the open city of Tientsin, in north China, and continued via Nanking, Canton, Chungking, Madrid, Guernica, Barcelona, Warsaw and Rotterdam to to-day—it is that the efficacy of aerial blitzkriegs, as a means of smashing civilian morale and forcing the capitulation of a nation, may eaaily be exaggerated. Since the July day in 1937 when I watched Japanese bombing squadrons laymg their eggs on Chinese strong points in Tientsin, I have had personal experience of more than two hundred concentrated aerial bombings in China (including 62 raids in 15 days at Canton, with no defence craft available), and in Spain. And I have yet to meet anv civilian, however thoroughly bombed, whose morale had not been stiffened by the horrors of aerial mass-murder according to labour-saving principles. Britah Cmn "Tilt ft"

China and Spain were, admittedly, mere pale rehearsals of the sort of blitzkrieg perfected by the Nazi air force. Canton differs from Rotterdam and Louvain as radically as chalk from cheese. But so do the defences of the British Isles from the almost nonexistent defending forces of China and Spain. And, I may add, so does the capacity of the British people to take it—and sing back. Invading England, whether by air or on land, ffr both, Hitler's men Will be up against a people that does not know the meaning of the word defeat; a people accustomed to " muddling through" grave dangers and somehow winning "the last battle." A hation of shopkeepers which contemptuously dismisses Hitler as "balmy" may be bent— or bombed—hut it will take punishment without flinching. This question of morale, moreover SM*? J* 1 "* w »ys. A lot is heard of Hitlers threats against England; less of the fact that the first bomb to fall on London will be the signal sending the British bombing squadrons to spread destruction on Berlin amd other German cities. If that grim competition opens, would anyone declare that the German people, despite all f'ie glittering victo"!f °' the Fuel::-;-, will prove as solidly united behind the Nazi regime as are the free men and women of England behind their rulers? It is at least possible that Xazi aerial frightrulness may (together with the publication in the Reich of casualty lists from the Western Front) prove a boomerang which will hit the German Government in its weakest spot—the home front. — (Copyright: North American tiewaptpw Allianc«4