"GREAT RISKS MUST BE TAKEN"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 11, 13 July 1943, Page 4

"GREAT RISKS MUST BE TAKEN"

"In an amphibious operation," declares a significant passage in the news giving the story of the successful Allied landing in Sicily, "the Navy has complete charge till the troops actually put their feet on land," and, it adds, the Navy "overcame the many difficulties magnificently." It has often been said that a landing operation, on a large scale, is the most difficult and most dangerous of all the multifarious jobs that come within the scope of warfare. The Navy."has charge," but it is not a free agent as it is in a purely naval battle, because its first duty is to cover the landings and protect to the utmost extent the multitude of troops and the masses of material that have to be put ashore. Naval vessels taking part in such an operation have to manoeuvre in limited and perilous waters, possibly sown with mines, but usually shallow, all the while exposed to the fire of- shore batteries and, in these days, to even more serious assault from the air. Of the perils of such landings Gallipoli, 1915, is the chief example in modern times, but the seapower of Britain has had to undertake many such jobs in the past and in the present, on a smaller scale, as at Narvik in 1940, and later Diego Suarez in Madagascar and Dieppe in France. The American navy has .also had its full share of experience of this type of warfare, as shown recently in the Pacific

The Allied landings in Sicily, on hostile shores where they must have been expected sooner or later, are the biggest thing of this kind in the history of war. They are also memorable in British naval history for the message to his men taking part in the operation issued on the eve of the adventure by the Naval Commander in Chief, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham. "We are about to embark," he said, "on the most momentous enterprise of the war —striking for the first time at the enemy in his own land." "Our primary duty," he continues, "is to place this vast expedition ashore in the minimum time, and subsequently to maintain our military and air forces as they drive relentlessly forward into enemy territory." This precisely expresses the task of the Navy—a task that must be faithfully and completely discharged if the enterprise is to succeed. The orders the Admiral then gives to all ranks recall the days of Nelson and his message at Trafalgar familiar to all: "In the light of this duty great risks must be taken and are to be accepted. The safety of our own ships and all distracting considerations are to be relegated to second place, or disregarded, as the accomplishment of our primary duty may require. On every commanding officer, officer, and rating lies the personal duty of ensuring that no flinching in determination or failure of effort on his own part will hamper this great enterprise. 1 rest confident in the resolution, skill, arid endurance of you all, to whom this momentous enterprise is entrusted." How well the duty was discharged is clear to all the world in the success of the landings. It has been a glorious example of the co-operation of all arms, under inspiring leadership.