Bombs Cannot Defeat Britain

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 247, 18 October 1941, Page 11

Bombs Cannot Defeat Britain

JOHN T. WHITAKER. noted American war correspondent who was ejected from Italy, has been writing a series of stories covering the European scene for his Chicago newspaper. In one he joins the throng of observers who state positively that bombs cannot defeat Britain. Referring to tjjjie people of Britain and their High morale, he declares: "Standing Tin the ruins of their homes, - le s r * re lifting their fists and •wearing to 'dish it back.* " British morale, plus American aid, bu made an Invasion of Britain Impossible In the past and too costly v, for Hitler to undertake In the immediate future, he declares. That i 3 why Hitler has invaded Russia in !;£ Preparation for a showdown with America and why, with the Russian |||; campaign once terminated, he will attempt to clear the Mediterranean, conquer Africa and establish U boat and bomber bases against the United || ; t States. fill Morale Germans in Italy, Spain and Por- . tugal are confident that America will not enter the war now. They predict later, when Hitler is in a posi"°n to deal with America, the morale || of this country will collapse. They say With absolute confidence that fS li 1 " fifth column is paralysing democracy in America already, and that it will ultimately force Washington to call for a British surrender, ineir confidence already has won 2*® r . important Frenchmen and as well as Italians with wnom I have talked—that is the only reason why Petain went over to the xff®an camp—and I imagine thatis uie oasis of Japan's present policy. .J® short, the Germans have decithat the American people, not British, are me weak blockhouse in the beleaguered fortress of demo?racy* I think that the Germans nave sized up Americans wrong. I ttiat they have got ' Britain After spending one month the British, I marvel that anj' ™ the world can achieve such moral*. I found no defeatism in any " v ' group in England. The heart ®ir-city after city is razed to the ; i?e[pnnd, but instead of being terrified P/pombs the people have disco. -red Jp JB* thsy "can take it." ;• Wasn't half so bad last winter JJ*Mir imaginations led them v & W J®PfCt.° r . as they add, "half as bau » Roing to be this coming |||||p winter. Standing in the ruins of

their homes, they are lifting their fists and swearing to "dish it back." This is the spirit of the British aristocrat, once pro-German, whose lovely debutante daughter was killed by a German bomb as she drew tho blinds of her London home. That is the spirit of a formerly Communist dock worker in Plymouth who said: "Jerry killed my wife and child. That's why we worker? on the docks carry on whether he s bombing now or not. We don't so down to the shelters." Bricks for Hitler There is the British bombing pilot, a former schoolteacher, who showed me a pile of bricks under his cot at the bomber command. "It's part of the masonry of the home in which the Germans killed my mother," he said. "I take a brick and drop it on Germany every time I take over a load of bombs. I've dropped 122 bricks and we haven't half started yet. We have to teach Jerry, you know." That Is the spirit of the young mother wheeling her baby in a pram*along the Dover sea walk which "Jerry" shells every day and strafes with machine-gun bullets every week or so. "Why should. Ibe takin' baby along 'ere? r ' she said. "And why not? Baby's a blitz baby, 'e is. Born on the 14th, and wasn't that a bad blitz, now? 'E's a little nervous. All blitz babies are. But ain't 'e a darlin'?" The old woman I met in Bristol showed the same courage. Her son died as a sailor at sea; her daughter died under bombs with two children. "But that ain't the worst of it," said the woman. "Me old man turned against me. Said we o\*gbt to kill ourselves; said we didn't have anything else to live for. 'What!' I said to him, 'kill Ourselves and let 'Itler win?' I must see that man beat!" That is the spirit of the man I saw standing ruefully before the smoking ruins of his house in London's East End. I offered sympathy. "It might have been worse," he said with a shrug. Consider the figntlng pilot who has the D.S.O. and 20 German planes to his credit—a former newspaperman. We discussed the mathematics of the chances for a fighting pilot to live. He had made his peace-with death long before, he explained, and every fight sihce was "just another gratui-tous-day: of life." The same spirit wasshown by the leader of a crack bombing squadron. "We've enjoyed '■living you here at our command,' said. "We want you to jpromise j come back and visit us when you return to England. We'll all be gone but the squadron will still be here."

Thai is the spirit of every man, womaii and child with whom I talked in hundreds of daily conversations—the spirit of Dunkirk, which Germany's most important aeroplane manufacturer described to me as "the greatest feat of military history, with the possible exception of the German conquest of France—which was psychological rather than military." The popular Press of Britain has been demanding that Britain bomb Germany so hard that Hitler must bring, planes back from the Russian i'ront and start the nightly terror over Britain again. One air "raid warden, when Hitler's planes returned after a six-week layoff, cried to the people in the neighbourhood: "Just like old times—Jerry's back again." A cab driver who answered my telephone call in the midst of an air raio and took me across town to the East India Docks, with bombs falling in the streets, refused my double-{6re tip. "Just a normal trip, sir. We've all got to carry on, you know, sir." Then there's Margot Asquith. When I pleaded that she ought to move to the country and not spend another winter In London, this great old lady answered: "I shouldn't like a lyone to say that the widow of a wartime Prime Minister had moved away from danger." That's the spirit of Lady Astor as described by one of her servants: "My lady made au all join her in prayer when one bomb blew in the front door, another the back of the house, and a th.rd blew an automobile upon the roof. Then the Germans began to drop fire bombs. My lady sprang to her feet. 'Where in the hell is the fire bucket?' she cried, one second after praying, as she led us all to the roof." England Exptcft,.. l ittle tjoys of 10 and 12 climb the roofs to throw down incendiary bombs. That's the spirit of Britain. The people-of Britain to-day know nothing of the soul-searching indecision and doubt that affects Americans. To them the problems have become simple, starkly simple. England expects that every man will do his duty. It is that simple. That morale has convinced the German.-; that ar Invasion of Britain is too-rieky. Add to it two facts. American planes, tanks, arms and foodstuffs are reaching Britain in quantities at last. American warships -are now escorting these supplies as far as Iceland, and the sinkings have fallen off abruptly. Those two things mean much to morale. Unless tne Germans can stop the supplies and force Washington to recall the warships the people of Britain can stand anything the Germans bring against them tnis winter —bombings, gas or invasion. The British cannot take the offensive in the immediate future without American manpower, in my opinion, but they cannot be beaten by Germany unless American aid is stopped. I think Hitler's got America wrong. I know he's got Britain right if he thinks British morale is too high for an invasion effort now.