HITLER AND NAPOLEON

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23086, 31 July 1940, Page 8

HITLER AND NAPOLEON

General Smuts recently reminded us that Napoleon was once master of the whole ol Europe, yet he ended his days as a prisoner on St. Helena. ■ The Prime Minister rightly added that Hitler’s efforts to-day for world domination would also be frustrated. It is fitting that we should, at this juncture, take courage from the past. To secure world domination by sheer military aggression Napoleon set up a mighty organisation. In a most striking manner history to-day is—mutatis mutandis —merely repeating itself. Nation after nation went down before Napoleon’s terrific onslaughts. He proved himself a genius in military strategy. His main policy was always the same. His army was well equipped, his plans carefully prepared, he selected the weakest points in his enemies’ lines; then came intense troop concentration and attack, attack, attack. As these attacks were always sustained with tremendous intensity, Napoleon won victory after victory, and conquered country alter country. Only England stood between him and. world domination. ■ “Give me the English Channel for six hours,” he said, “and 1 will be master of the world.” But then as now the British Navy did not give the freedom of the English Channel for even six minutes—and Napoleon s dream of world domination ended on that lonely island in the Atlantic. The Corporals Napoleon came into power in much the same way as Hitler did. France, torn asunder by revolution, exhausted bv internal dissension and mob rule, attacked from outside by supporters of the monarchy, was quite ready to rally round anyone who would take the reins, restore order, and give a strong load. The “little corporal’ of artillery seized the psychological moment. 'With his famous policy of a “whiff of grape shot,” and making full use of the organising and executive ability of men'he found ready to ms hand, he soon established himself as a successful leader, rallied his countrymen and became their master and their idol. „. . In clue course he was made first Consul for life. Having established himself firmly at home, he turned his attention, to aggression, beyond the boundaries of France, and later sumed the title of emperor. Hitler, too, was a corporal. He saw his country defeated in the Great War. He. too, seized the psychological moment. The German people—depressed to despair by their unexpectec defeat and their war misery, suffering under the terms of the Peace Treaty, torn asunder by “internal dissension and warring factions threatened by Bolshevism and mob rule” —were only too ready to listen to and rally round a plausible and forceful rehabilitator So Hitlerism was born. Having firmly established himself at home, Hitler at once turned his attention to outer aggression. This policy occasioned no surprise. In his book. “Mein Kampf,” he had already told the world that he intended to embark on a policy of world aggression. And so came the invasion of Austria, Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark. Norway. Holland. Belgium, and now France. Hitler’s Gestapo is well known. But Napoleon also prohibited freedom of expression against his . rule and suppressed the press. His word became the supreme law. He was in fact the “Fuehrer.” “Jobs for Pals” Napoleon, too, believed in "jobs for pals.” No sooner did he “protect” Holland than he made his brother, Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland. Three conquered territories—Hesse, Cassel, and Hanover—were lumped together and called Westphalia, and brother Jerome was made King of Westphalia. Another brother, Joseph, was made King of Naples, the rest of Italy, including Rome, being annexed to France.

A Parallel From History BRITAIN’S ROLE [By the HON. THOMAS BOYD ELL in the “Cape Argus.”] The parallel between Hitler and Napoleon has been the subject of many discussions. The following article considers some of the more obvious similarities between the Europe of 1807 and 1940.

But still there were more wop<as\lo conquer. Napoleon made a paeiWifc Spain and agreed to divide Portugal between them. The reigning flouse of Braganza at once fled to Brazil. But no sooner was Portugal seized tha» Napoleon double-crossed Ferdinand and seized Madrid. Having no mote brothers to go round, for the ablest of them, Lucien. was estranged from hi®, brother Joseph was forcibly persuaded to become King of Spain—and so the merry game of monarch-making went on. His brother-in-law. Murat, took over the Kingdom of Naples. Previously Napoleon had soundly defeated the combined armies of Austria and Russia at Austerlitz, and crushed Prussia at Jena and Auerstadt. Denmark also came under hh “’protection.” But in this case Eng. land was determined that he should not get the-Danish fleet. So she seat a naval force to Copenhagen, and after a fierce naval battle brought Denmark’s fleet back to England. Then, as now. Britain had two traditional policies. The first was at all costs to keep command of the seas. The second was to send one expeditionary force after another to try to help the victims of Napoleon’s aggression In this way Britain felt that she was not only - helping the weaker nationi against a bullying military tyrant, but that it was also the most effective way in which she could protect her own freedom and independence against ul* limate aggression. Napoleon determined that, com# what might, England had to be con* quered. This, he said, could only bk done in England itself. So he organised a gigantic expeditionary fore# with which to invade that country. H# assembled more than 100.000 picked soldiers at Boulogne ready to cross the Channel. He also had ready a host of flat-bottomed boats to take his men over and land them on the south coast beaches. Everything was ready for the invasion. The only thing left was to get his soldiers across. Beyond the Pale Meanwhile England, like to-day, prepared herself for the attack. A volunteer force of .over 300,000 was got ready to resist and fight the invaders, England’s total population at that time was only 15,000,000. Thanks to the British Navy Napoleon’s invasion never came off. The naval strategy of the French admiral was to divide his fleet and draw Britain’s fleet away- on a wild-goose chase towards the West Indies. Meanwhile the main portion of the French fleet, supported by the quick return of the decoy fleet, was to protect the crossing of the soldiers. The British fleet was lured away, but Nelson brought it back again just as quickly as the decoy fleet. The result was the Battle of Trafalgar. And the “invasion” of England by Napoleon ended before if started. After Trafalgar the war on land still went on. But at last Napoleon overreached himself. His military might did not long survive his march to Moscow, though some of his most brilliant feats were performed with a handful of troops, vastly outnumbered, in tbs campaign of France of 1814, to which there could be only one end. He returned from Elba, but before he met his final defeat at the Allies met in solemn conclave. They made a declaration which emphasises how history does repeat itself. It reads: “The Powers therefore declare that Bonaparte has placed himself outside the pale of civil and social relations, and that as the general enemy and disturber of the world he is abandoned to social justice.” William Pitt, exhausted and worn to a shadow by the strain and work of the war years, died a few months after the battle of Trafalgar—at the youthful age of 47. Almost the last words he uttered in public were:— “England has saved herself by her courage. She will save Europe by her example.” ' ■ And eventually, with the assistance of her Allies, she did. ' '