MODERN WARFARE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 107, 1 November 1941, Page 10

MODERN WARFARE

The belief that many people had been hypnotised by the word "break through" and "blitzkrieg," and that, as the result of enemy propaganda, newspaper headlines, and radio comment, had been led to believe that the words" signified a crushing mechanised machine against which no force was any use, was expressed by Brigadier O. H. Mead, Officer Commanding the Southern Military. District, during an address to the Territorial Association of Otago on Thursday. The wonderful resistance put up by Russia, however, had shown that to be wrong, Brigadier Mead said, although the Russians had not yet been able to slow up the enemy. "Mechanisation has revolutionised warfare," he continued, "and in the Battle of France we saw what it could accomplish, although it was against old weapons of war and against weakness rather than strength. The example of Russia has shown us that a mechanical army is not necessarily invincible, but it is too early yet to speak much about it. We ought not, however, to be hypnotised by the words 'break through' and 'blitzkrieg.' "