EXPECTANCY IN BRITAIN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 99, 26 March 1942, Page 5

EXPECTANCY IN BRITAIN

MORE TALK OF AM OFFENSIVE. LONDON, Mar. 25. The tension in Britain is one ol expectancy that something will be attempted this spring or summer. It is lelt that the period of purely deicusive action has passed.

Powerful offensive blows arc predicted by Admiral Sir Roger Keves. "I think we are coming to the time when the Navy, Army, and Air Force will' combine in appropriate offensive operations," he said. "I am confident these operations will shake the world, shake the enemy, and put us right back to the zenith of our prestige and power." The topic dominating every conversation the Englishman holds, whether with soldiers, workers, or intellectuals, is the desirability ol opening a second front in Europe, says the Times' Moscow correspondent. It serves no good purpose to ignore this mood and the growing impatience. An article in the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda recently stated: "It is difficult to reat'sc from afar the tenseness of the March lighting in Russia, but if our friends cannot see how thickly the German divisions are gathered on our front, then they need onlv to use binoculars and see how thinly the Germans stand on the Atlantic coast." NEW GLIDER FORCE.

■ The Officii' Wireless says that the Army Air Corps, the formation of which was announced yesterday, is for the present composed of army personnel and trained as glider pilots. Their job is to ferry troops into action in the same manner as the Army Service Corps. These pilots are to serve in the new glider pilot regiment—the first regiment of the Army Air Corps and at the same time it is stated that an air-borne division has been formed, composed of parachutists and air-borne troops. The latter have been trained to operate in either gliders or troopcarrying aircraft. All power-driven aircraft engaged in the air-borne division remain in the R.A.F. and there is no intention of forming a separate air force under the Army. The Army's needs in aircraft are provided by Army co-operation under the command of the R.A.F. ANTI-INVASION PLANS.

The Official Wireless states: Speaking in the House of Lords about the duties of civilians in the event of an invasion of Britain, Lord Cranborne said: "Should the enemy come here I think he will be under no illusion at all. He will find the people as united, bold, and resolute as in Russia or any other country in the world. But if the best results are to be achieved we must not tumble over each other and get in each other's way. Each must have his task allotted him. That is the object which the plans outlined in the Government's statement are intended to bring about."

He added that the Government was aware of important rehearsal preparations against an invasion. Many large and important exercises had already been held and would continue to be held, during which the military with the civil side would be fully tested. A rehearsal which included the whole population was not easy to arrange and might do more harm than good, but these were matters which the Government had very much in mind. Sections of the civilian population had already taken part in exercises and it was intended to continue and expand such rehearsals as far as could possibly be done. The essential was for each person to know what his part was if and when the day of invasion came. "If we achieve that I think we need not fear an invasion," concluded Lord Cranborne.