NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 135, 10 June 1942, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

WARNING BY THE 8.8.C,

INVASION OF FRANCE

The warning given by th© 8.8.C. to the French people to evacuate the whole coastal region of France from the Belgian frontier to the Spanish frontier to clear the ground for an invasion may or may not be worth its full face value. Assuming that it is, that preparations are so far advanced that an invasion can be attempted, the warning does not give the enemy any useful information, for neither time nor placeis indicated, and the Germans must prepare to hold- a coast-line nearly 1000 miles long. This requires an enormous garrison. Even in the. ab» serice of any immediate threat, the Nazis have had to maintain troops on the coast, an embarrassing burden; and. when these troops have been attacked in various commando raids they have not shown the quality of the best soldiers—nor have they been backed up by their unwilling hosts. :,. ; Bluff and Double Bluff. The warning may be a pure bluff, but the Germans, one hopes, cannot know; so they must prepare in any case. The Axis theory of bluff has been to protest friendliness and otherwise disarm the opponent, and then strike; the 8.8, C, stunt is a threat which, as a "single bluff," tends to enforce defensive effort and keep the enemy on tenterhooks; or as a double bluff tells the literal truth, in the hope that the enemy, though forced to prepare defences, will still be so. dubious that those defences will be inadequate. In any case, whatever response the Germans make by diverting strength to the French, scoast will be a relief to the Soviet armies, The threat of a new Western front is equivalent to a fraction,' and perhaps a good fraction, of its actual existence. Th© enemy's concern over the pos* sibility of an invasion of France, which has become far more menacing since the United States entered the war, must be increased by the attitude of the French people. Evidence that the French are becoming more actively hostile to the enemy is growing, and if the populace of 20,000 square miles or so of France takes the 8.8, C. warning seriously and starts to move inland, the Germans will have to shoulder an administrative job that will give them no end of trouble. The report published yesterday stated that the enemy have been preparing j defensive positions not only in the coastal regions, but inland, and have made plans for the evacuation of the French from1 the affected areas. ' j Japanese Aireraft-Carriers. The two big Japanese aircraft-carriers which figure in Ensign Gay's remarkable eye-witness story of the battle of Midway Island are the Kaga and Akagi, which are—or were—the most important carriers in the Imperial navy. They are both of 26,900 tons, but are not sisters. The, Kaga, launched in 1921 and completed in 1928, was designed originally as a 'battleship, and has battleship lines and speed— 23 knots. The Akagi, launched in 1923 and completed in 1927, was originally a battle-cruiser, with a speed of 28.5 knots. Both ships were given exceptionally heavy armament for ships of their category: The Kagi ten 8«y sixteen 4.7 in anti-aircraft, and twenty machine-guns, and the Akagi ten Sin and twelve 4.7 in anti-aircraft guns, No othe aircraft-carriers of which particulars are available have.such powerful batteries; the nearest approach is the United States ships Saratoga and Lexington, of 33,000 tons, 34 knots, which carry eight Bin and twelve sin, and several smaller guns. If both these ships have, as seems probable, been destroyed, two of the most dangerous enemy units in the Pacific have been "liquidated.'* - No other Japanese carrier so far described carries guns over s<|in, but some new ships have probably been completed. There are half a dozen other aircraft-carriers in the Japanese navy with speeds of 23 knots or more; three of them are ships of 10,000 tons carrying 40 aircraft each; and three 9000-ton new seaplane carriers.