THIS WONDERFUL YEAR!

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 144, 20 August 1941, Page 4

THIS WONDERFUL YEAR!

A YEAR ago to-clay Mr Winston Churchill, speaking in the House of Commons, paid his celebrated tribute to the airmen who were then winning "The Battle of Britain-' His words on August 20, 1940, were : "The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen, who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never m the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." That was a year ago. "The Battle of Britain" lasted from August 8 to October 31, 1940. As a result of the stout defence put up by the Royal Air Force the Germans lost 2375 aircraft—that is the total known to have been destroyed in daylight. The R.A.F. lost 375 pilots killed and 358 wounded. So ended what was to have been the preliminary to Hitler's invasion of Britain in 1940. It was just as big a failure as the attempt of the Spanish Armada to invade England in 1588. A year has passed since "The Battle of Britain" began. What a year! It has been a wonderful year for Britain and .a bad year for the Nazis. For one thing, the threat of invasion of Britain looks a "long way off —next year, some time, never ! Hitler now has a war on two fronts and by the end of this year may be as unhappy about his march on Moscow as Napoleon was. The threat to Egypt, so very real a year ago, has been removed by campaigns in East Africa, the Western Desert and Syria. The "Battle of Atlantic" still; goes on, with no sign -cf the Royal Navy's grip on the seas being in any way shaken. In the Far East the situation is no worse than a year ago, in fact, it is better, because Britain and the United States are standing together. Altogether, it has been a, wonderful year. New Zealanders who in August, 1940, listened with considerable alarm to the London news on the radio, have now a feeling of great confidence. The "Battle of Britain" won by the Royal Air Force inspired that confidence in us.