CHANNEL FRONT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 218, 13 September 1940, Page 4

CHANNEL FRONT.

THE AIR BLITZKRIEG. GRIM WELCOME FOR NAZIS. LONDON, August 17. The long-expected battle of Britain has broken out in earnest. That is the definite opinion of men taking part in the fierce air fighting that has been raging on the south-east coast since last Thursday. "We are now right in the middle of the blitzkrieg," said an officer of high rank to me yesterday. He was admirably qualified to give judgment. "There can be little doubt about it," he added. "Daily the Germans are throwing in from "000 to 600 aircraft against us on the south-east coast alone. "Nothing could be more satisfactory than the manner in which we are inflicting heavy losses. A determined attack is in progress and it is not succeeding. The magnificent way in which the R.A.F. has met the challenge is providing the most heartening news we have had since the war began." I have just returned from a two weeks' stay in some of the "hot spots" on the south-east coast, and it may be instructive to indicate what is taking place. People who are outside the area can realise the position only dimly. Everything we used to know has changed. Hundreds of thousands of solu.urs stand behind a great mass of fortifications of all kinds. They are ready, day and nigLt, to meet a threat of invasion that has suddenly quickened. Big Events Ahead. At some points that are regarded as particularly vulnerable there is a front line atmosphere every bit as marked as any we can remember in France during the last war. These fortifications, extraordinarv in their thoroughness, are manned for instant action. Not the slightest risks are taken. Men are plainly told that their positions. must be held if necessary to the last man. The feeling that big events lie immediately ahead is widespread. It is in the midst of this that air fighting on an unparalleled scale is now taking place. It has been going on steadily without any real break for a week. The Germans, beyond reasonable doubt, are making desperate attempts along the whole of the south-east coast to conquer our air defences. The K.A.F., by sheer brilliance, is r :nding down the raiders at a rate that any other time would have been looked upon as quite fantastic. Our officially recorded ccesses, in fact, have been so amazing that many persons have even been speculating whether they can actually be true.

It may be said at once that these official figures, far from exasperating, ar© an under-etstimate. The number of German machines being brought down each day is considerably in excess of the claims made. Throughout its history, the R.A.F. has insisted rightly on the corroboration of pilots' claims. "Wherever, there ha« been a doubt the claim has been disallowed. T!his does not cast any reflection on the pilots, but represents an effort to ensure exactitude. Nothing could be finer than the calm of the armed defenders. In a hundred ways tliey are showing daily their confidence to meet any attack. One thing has been made very obvious in t.'o last few days—the Germans are extremely annoyed by our balloon barrages. Although they- have (brought several balloons- down,/they return to find" that> others" have been put up in their place', and the barrier to thedive bomber remains. This form of defence has proved most acceptable to the sailors whose convoys are being provided with them. ... p Watery No Han's Land. No praise can be tdo high for the men of the Merchant Navy, who go grimly on with their job with a nuiet doggedness that earns the admiration of everyone. Tliey sail out with their painfully slow convoys, and when they return from hard adventure will usually dwell 011 some" 1 amusing incident, rather than 011 the terrific attack to which they may have been subjected from the air. | The Channel has become a veritable I No-Man's Land. There is something forbidding about its clear-swept' stretch of water, with the French cliffs easily observable opposite. "Tliey seem much too near for comfort when you are in the Channel," said the. commander of a motor torpedo boat -when I met him enjoying a brief spell ashore." These M.T.B.'s are placing;!? very gallant part in the present battle. | "If any of; our'pilots happen to come down 'in the ditch,'" he said, "we like to give a helping hand. Their spirit is amazing. I came across a Spitfire pilot who had come .down by parachute and was trying to swim home against a heavy tide. He was frankly surprised that anybody should have been sent out to collect him. "The controls of his machine had been sliot away and he had to bale out. He had hurt his knee, and his only concern was that he might have to 'cancel a date' he had made that night at a West End hotel. He was in great glee, because this, was the third time that he had had to make a parachute jump, and he roared with laughter at the thought. German E Boats Kept Busy. "But Germans who have come down in the watet are far more numerous than any of our men. Our casualties in comparison have been very few indeed. The Germans have : lost so : heavily in this respect and seem to regard it as a .matter of course they; will be sent down that they are evidently becoming quite concerned over arrangements for picking them up. "German E boats have been used to rescue them. I saw one of these craft the other day alongside a bomber than had been shot down. The machine was blazing so furiously they could not do very much." Although ground watchers are well used to air raids, there is always a search at the end of each one for souvenirs in the form of shell fragments or machine-gun bullets. This is a dangerous habit in the case of shells that may have come from Messerschmitts without exploding. They have to be handled so carefully that special warnings have been sent out that they must be left alone. One soldier lost his hand when the shell he picked up exploded, but another man carried a similar shell about in his pocket until he was informed of the risk he ran. Bombing is being directed to an increasing extent against military objectives, including big aerodromes, but the results achieved by the enemy have not been at all commensurate with the needs of the situation if invasion is seriously contemplated. ' •