BOOK REVIEWS

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 20, 18 October 1944, Page 5

BOOK REVIEWS

Achievements Of The Free Navies

*‘T<avi.es in Exile/* by A. D. Divine (London: Murray). Mr. Divine, a British naval correspondent xvith a number of popular books on the war at sea to his credit, tells in this latest volume of the achievements of the navies of allies xvbo have been forced to light outside their own countries. They are the navies of Poland, Holland, Belgium, Norway, the Fighting French, Greece and Yugoslavia. Some of them have played a vitally important part iu matching the . Axis strength; the efforts of others may seem insignficani iu comparison with those of the major Powers, but all have given of their best in the face of terrific difficulties and their gallantry is unquestioned. Ships of the Polish navy were the first from these dispossessed fleets io join the British. In the first place there were five of them. Three were destroyers, two of them the last xvord in modernity, which were removed from the Baltic before Poland was invaded, a courageous decision which robbed the Polish coast of much of ils protection but which more tlinix justified itself in the wider war that was to come. The other two vessels were submarines which later survived the incredible hazards of the shallow sound between Copenhagen and the Swedish coast and escaped to. Britain. The exploits of one >of them in particular, the Orzel, have been widely publicized. Two of those five ships, the destroyer Grom and the Orzel, have since been Jost, yet the Polish navy is now stronger than it has ever been. Of the Norwegian navy only 13 small ships escaped to Britain and only one of these, the little destroyer Sleipner, was modern. But out of them, and with the aid of the magnificent merchant marine, the greater part of’ which was still secure, a new navy was fashioned. XVhcn war came to Holland the main portion of her small but modern navy was stationed in the East Indies. The ships that were in home waters fought bravely till Holland was overrun and an astonishing evacuation then began of everything afloat that could be removed from German clutches, even half-fit)ished vessels being towed across Io Britain. Denmark’s navy, on the other baud, was overwhelmed in the first hours of the country’s seizure. Some of her ships, however, were at. sea, aud from them and Danish personnel abroad a Danish section of the Royal Navy was formed last year. A Belgian section had been formed in April, 1941. Yugoslavia’s contribution to the naval war began with the escape in April, 1941, of two motor torpedo-boats and a submarine from Kotor, «n escape effected by boldly blufling the Italian forces in the Adriatic. The immensely valuable work of. the Fighting French naval units is too well known to need recapitulation here. There remains to be mentioned-the Greek navy. It is, perhaps, sufficient commentary on its gallant record to note that, while at the start of the war against Italy-the Greek navy numbered 200 officers aud. -700 men with more than 30 fighting ships aud as many auxiliaries, it is now twice that size. In relating the activities of these exiled navies, some of them now restored to (heir homeland, Mr. Divine provides a lively narrative aud tells many stories of daring exploits. “Military Operations in the Netherlands from May 10-17, 1040,” by P. lu. G. Doorman, translated from the Dutch by S. L. Salzedo (London: Allen and Unwin for the Netherlands Government Information Bureau). This history of the “Five Days is based upon the material nnd data in the possession of the Netherlands Department of War in London. It contains all the information available about the campaign and is equally, suitable for students of military history and interested members of the general public. Holland realized her danger as early as 1936 and affirmed her attitude of strict neutrality and also her determination to defend her territory in the event of aggression against it. With this in view she reconstituted her almost defunct army and brought its numbers up to approximately 27,000 men. disposed mostly at frontier stations. Holland’s great difficulty, however, was to obtain arms, for which she was dependent upon foreign Powers. Her orders from Germany were delivered very tardily aud ammunition was not forthcoming. Thus on May 10, 1940; though in no wise surprised by the attack, the Dutch had to start giving ground; The air force was speedily overwhelmed, aud, in the absence of antiaircraft defence, on the fifth day the commander-in-chief of the Dutch forces ordered his men to lay down their arms, the Germans having threatened to destroy Rotterdam and Utrecht from the air. The forces in Zeeland continued their resistance for a few days longer. The Dutch had rendered what assistance they could-to the French and British fighting in Belgium by delaying the German advance for a week.