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GREATEST VALOUR

FEATS OF ALLIES REARGUARD ACTION ALL FORCES CO-OPERATE WEAKNESSES OF ENEMY VALUABLE INFORMATION (Bloc. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 1.30 p.m. RUGBY, May 31. During to-day the troops evacuated in the operations in which the British and French land, naval forces and the] Royal Air Force co-operated with such,magnificent effort, continued to arrive jn England. Tired, but cheerful, many had passed within a few hours from the furv of battle along what is now generally referred to as the “Corunna Line" to the quiet of the Homeland. On that, line, the British and. French units are side by side and their presence together is said to have produced heroic .emulation which lifted both armies to heights of greatest valour.

British and French .naval units likewise are co-operating, in the evacua-. tion. the memory of which will live long in military and naval annals. In many cases, embarkation baa bedn...effected from beaches in small parties and troops have been transported to the home port in innumerable craft of, eyeijy sjz.e and type. The cxtfdmely shallow wafers and sluicing tides demand the greatest skill from the navigators. Men of the merchant navy played, a gallant part in thd transport of evacuated troops. . Without the protection afforded by the Royal Air Force, the intensity of the enemy air attack would hpve rendered these operations well-nigh impossible. Thus the courage and efficiency of all three services have contributed. Inferno And Noise Jfrom the statements of officer?, and men, returning after a fortnight of continuous fighting against the Germah forces it is becoming possible to drd\v certain conclusions regarding’ 1 thc[ technique of the attack upon which the Germans seem to be staking so much Witnesses with long experience of campaigning v. ho fought, right through the' last;] war. attest that the .inferno ana noise let loose in dive-bombing does —at least intil the troops have •sortie experience of it—produce a marked mental stunning. On the other hapd. it is a fact that appears to be corroborated from numerous different spujrces that actual casualties directly mulcted are surprisingly small. The effect, in fact, depends on the advantage which the, ground forces of the enemy are able to take of the confusion by the air. attack. yie experience of the stubborn rearguard actions, which have been fought, in the last few days suggests the, possibility that the training of German troops in mechanised warfare may JhayeJjeen too specialised, .Ah qxrterieneecV British officer remarked of the German tank crews: "Once you get him out df His tank the German soldier of to-day is nothing like the man he was' in the last war.” Tanks Not Invincible Stories of returning soldiers demonstrate. moreover, that these German tanlcs themselves are far from invincible. One British officer knocked out a heavy German tank with an antitank rifle—a feat*ne accomplished, in the, words of a well-informed commentatpr. ‘by keeping and using his head.” Iji the defence of Dunkirk, another German tank though not a heayy one —yias knocked out by a Lewis gun firing at it through the slits. The following story is related by an eye-witness who has returned from France.Vr “On May 11, the second day of the ir.vpsion of Belgium, we continued oiir retreat with the remnants of a Belgian division which had had very heavy fighting the previous day. We had beep bombarded and machine-gunned from the air continuously from dawn, as many as 30 or 40 planes being over us at a time. "In the evening we were being bombed by 16 Dorniers when suddenly four Spitfires appeared. They engaged the enemy and within six minutes brought down four Dorniers. The others broke off and dispersed. One of the Dorniers fell within a few yards of our column. The pilot and crew were burnt before we could reach them. One of the machineguns was intact. My sergeant dismounted it and took about 700 rounds of ammunition in drums from the plane. Bisley Shot's Feat "We continued our journey and eventually camped in a wood for the night, where one of the fitters mounted the German machine-gun on the side of a car. Two days afterwards we were bombed at dawn by a Hein-

kel. We had with us a trooper who was a Bisley shot. Using the German machine-gun, he brought it down. When we went over to the wrecked plane, which had fallen about a mile oil,; we got another machine-gun from it, but this was damaged. But, what was, even more precious, we got another 700 rounds of ammunition which could be used, we hoped, in a subsequent encounter. "When we were about to embark, the enemy had been bombing the quayside trying to get our small boat all day. Just at dusk the last German plane brought down one of our fighters. Tiie British pilot parachuted and was actually in the air coming down when the German plane circled down low over the sheds where we were sheltering. We got in a burst of machine-gun fire and the plane crashed. The pilot in the parachute coming down was shot at the same time. We sent our motor cycle to pick up the British pilot whom wo toolf on .board and brought back to England that night.”

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19400601.2.95

Bibliographic details

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20262, 1 June 1940, Page 8

Word Count
878

GREATEST VALOUR Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20262, 1 June 1940, Page 8

GREATEST VALOUR Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20262, 1 June 1940, Page 8

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