SPUR TO HITLER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20477, 11 February 1941, Page 5

SPUR TO HITLER

ECONOMIC PLIGHT POSSIBLE INVASION BID BRITISH PREPARATION AIR, LAND AND SEA (Elec Tel. Copyright—-United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.; Fleccl. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Feb. 10. The Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir John Dill, had given warning that Herr Hitler might be driven by economic and other conditjens in Europe to try to invade Britain in the. near future, said the Prime Minister. Mr. Winston Churchill, during his broadcast address last evening. This was a warning which none could disregard. Actually stronger now than ever before, and incomparably stronger than in July, August and September, the navy was more powerful and the flotillas more numerous. In the air also Britain was far stronger actually and relatively than when British fighter planes beat off and beat down the Nazi attacks last August. The British Army was more numerous and more mobile and far better equipped and trained than in September. and still more so than in July. Faith in Defenders Mr. Churchill said he had the greatest confidence in the Commander-in-Chief and men of proved ability who were under him, but most of all he put his faith in the simple, unaffected resolve to conquer or die which would animate and inspire nearly 4,000,000 Britons with serviceable weapons in their hands. It was not an easy military operation to invade an island like Great Britain without command of the seas and without command of the air, and then to face what would be waiting on the shore for the invader.

Mr. Churchill stressed the risk of over-confidence or slothfulness, and said that a Nazi invasion of Britain last autumn would have been more or less an improvised affair. Herr Hitler had taken it for granted that when France gave in Britain would give in, but she did not. and Herr Hitler had to think again. Careful Planning

An invasion now would be much more carefully prepared with landing craft and other apparatus, all of which would have been planned and manufactured during the winter months. They must be prepared to meet gas attacks, parachute attacks and glider attacks with constant forethought and practised skill. Mr. Churchill emphasised that what General Dill had said and what he himself had pointed out last year was that, in order to win the war, Herr Hitler must destroy Great Britain. He might carry havoc to the Balkans; he might tear the great provinces out of Russia; he might march to the Caspian and to the gates of India, but all that would avail him nothing. __