COPYING NAPOLEON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 19 June 1941, Page 3

COPYING NAPOLEON

HITLER'S FLAT-BOTTOMED BOATS Hitler’s idea of an invasion of England by means of Hat-bottomed boats is no more new than the idea of the invasion itself For instance, during the 20 years of war that resulted from Napoleon’s ambition for world mastery, the French Ermeror had a great fleet of flat-bot-tomed boats, with which he threatened to invade the British Isles. But he procrastinated in respect to the use of the barges, as to-day does the German tyrant, whose craft are moored ready in French ports—at least those of them that have not been battered by the R.A.F. Napoleon’s craft were dubbed “cof-

fins” by the French, who boasted that after the invasion the barges would be used to receive the dead bodies of the many thousands of Englishmen who would be slaughtered during the landIn the first verse of ‘‘The Volunteer.' 7 Thomas Hood humorously recorded the existence of the French invasion fleet thus:— ’Twas in that memorable year France threatened to put off in Flat-bottomed boats, intending each To be a British coffin, To make sad widows of our wives And every babe an orphan.