September 3—A Year Ago

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 208, 2 September 1941, Page 6

September 3—A Year Ago

LONDON, Aug. 31. j j A year ago to-day was the first anni- j versary of the outbreak of war. Turn [ |up an old newspaper and you will see j that the Battle of Britain was still raging over the southern counties; the j J R.A.F. offensive over Germany had hardly begun; Italy was a foe to be [reckoned with; our army was not yet I fully re-equipped after the losses of : Duuxirx, unu improvised barriers of | | derelict cars and tree trunks were reminding us at every turn of tne road ! of the thinness of our defences against a German invasion. To-uay with the spectacle before our , eyes ot mounting British strengtn, we look back encouraged to see that time j has wreaked some of its inevitable 1 1 revenges. None of them is moro com-J , piete than its exposure of Hr* Goebbels, j some of whoso propaganda chickens ! | uavo come home to roost with a yen- . Igeance. this time a year ago his daily , | stunt was a victory roll over the air ;, lor the battle that had not been won. ! •‘The R.A.F. have always proved in-r ferior, and their resistance is becoming . hopeless.’’ (German broadcast to Engj mud, beptember 7,194 U.) - Equally wide of Sue mark—when read in tne light of British bomb Hashes on | targets in Germany—are his coasts of Britain’s inability to tiy over the Con-1 I linent. **it is quite out of the question j that air fights should take place over! | the Channel as English fighters never venture beyond the.r own coastline.” j (German home broadcast, September 3, I PJ4O.) With the rout of Italy’s licet and Italy's armies in North Africa we can afford to recall that a year ago Dr. ■Goebbels was bdfisting ‘‘the strategical I importance of the conquest of British Somaliland lies in tbo removal of the i , British threat to Abyssinia.” (German! broadcast to Africa, August 4, 1940.) Or again, “The British have lost all control of the Mediterranean since, , even with the use of very powerful i forces, they are unable to send a convoy I through, in Africa the Italian position !is more favourable in every respect I than that of Britain. The operations have demonstrated tho superior organisation and morale of tho Italians, who cannot bo stopped by any obstacle.” (Muuchncr Noueste Nachrichten, Sep- 1 tember 4, 1940.) j While we proudly welcome home our Prime Minister, who has sailed ooth ways across the Atlantic in tho safe keeping of tho British Navy, we smile to think that on September 4, 1940, the - Nazi Labour Minister, Dr. Ley, was i telling his peoplq that “Germany has erected an impenetrable wall around I the British Isles, and will not let a fly : through.’* I His companion claims of August 26, 11910, that “Germany is now mistress of the seas: Her blockade has com- 1 | pletely encircled Britain,” is put in its I place when we read that Mr. Churchill, while on board H.M.S. Prince of Wales, j inspected a convoy eight miles long, and that tho whole of the convoy is j now safe iu port. To-day, when tanks and aeroplanes (from the U.S.A. and the British Do- , minions are arriving in Britain and in • the Middle East week by week, and in ; ever-increasing flow, we remember how | far off and insignificant that help seemed to Dr. Goebbels on Beptember 6, >1940. “Those fifty antiquated Ameriican destroyers are merely a flash in the I pan. Before they reach the other side |of the Atlantic the final decision may (have been reached iu Great Britain.” (German broadcast to England.) Germans to-day are counting their losses in Russia by hundreds of thousands. Only a year ago tho German radio was celebrating the anniversary of Hitler’s pact of eternal friendship j with .Russia. “And if any hope arise that sooner or later tension might occur between Germany and Russia, those hopes are English and, therefore, stupid.” (Der Augriff, August 23, 1940.) Three days later Dr. Goebbels was boasting, perhaps with greater rashness. “Neither Germany nor Russia can be broken by any power on earth ' ,as long as they are Allies.” (German I broadcast to Eire, August 26, 1940.) ' i A year ago Dr. Goebbels was thinkI ing of the invasion not of Russia but o'i° Britain. A year ago he was puuc!tuating his broadcasts with “marching 1 against England,” a song whidh we no | longer hear. He reached his highest • flight on September 1: “Soon our infantry will return home after tho final • victory has been won; then they will | relate with pride how they were among •the first to set foot on English soil and I ! to hoist the swastika flag on the Eug- • lish mast.” | In twelve months since that boas. • was uttered by the hopeful Nazi bro*dJ caster, Britain htß* had plenty of time • to prepare a hot reception for a would j be invasion.