COMMANDO RAIDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 11 August 1942, Page 5

COMMANDO RAIDS

OFFICER IN NEW ZEALAND BLOWS AGAINST ENEMY ALLIES MUST STRIKE HARD Auckland, Aug. 10. One of the first five officers to be appointed to the combined operations branch of the Royal Navy, from which has grown the organisation which is now responsible, among other things, for what have commonly been called commando raids on enemy strong points, is at present in Auckland. He is Lieutenant-Commander H. J. C. George, well-known city solicitor and a former commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. LieutenantCommander George has taken part in a number of the raids, including the one on the Lofoten Islands in March. 1941, and in this year’s attack on the Boulogne-Le Toquet area, when he was in command of the landing operations. Lieutenant-Commander George joined the combined operations branch in June 1940. immediately after his arrival in Britain and since then he has served in both the North and South Atlantic. The combined operations branch. Lieutenant-Commander George said yesterday, had more or less spc cialised in raiding. THE NAVY’S STRIKING FORCE It was a very big branch and was commanded by Lord Louis Mountbatten, holding the ranks of vice-admiral, lieutenant-general, and air vice-mar-shal. Under him were striking forces oi the three services, fully co-ordinat-ed for combined operations. At the present moment the branch w r as the only full-time striking force of the Royal Navy, all other branches being more or less on the defensive in such work as patrolling, convoying and sweeping. Of the combined operations raids Lieutenant-Commander George said their general purpose was to strike at and test enemy strong points on the coast or near thereto, the destruction of such things as fuelling and submarine bases, munition works and various attractive targets, and strategic points. The raids had been generally successful. They were not child’s play. “The enemy is pretty ready, pretty well prepared,” he said. Each raid was preceded by several very carefully worked out rehearsals. All raids were carried out at night, everybody had to know their jobs perfectly and be trained to go about them like clockwork. ‘They have to be ashore at the right time and at the right position,” he said, ‘‘and everything has to work to a split second. For in stance, in some of the raids there ha? been air co-operation. If things were not worked and carried out to a perfec' timetable the bombers w'ould be bomb ing our own men.” FORCEFUL LORI) MOUNTBATTEN Lord Louis Mountbatten, who, he said, was the youngest admiral in the British forces, was described by Lieu-tcna.nt-Commander George as having plenty of force and plenty of initiative, and he inspired all his officers with un bounded confidence. He himself and another Aucklander, Lieutenant Keith Hall, of Devonport, were, so far as he knew, the only New Zealand officers in the combined operations branch, but two officers who w-ere working under Lord Mountbatten were well known to New Zealand. They were Rear-Admiral H. E. Horan, former Chief of the New' Zealand Naval Staff, and Rear-Admiral M. J. C de Meric, u'ho served in New j Zealand as a captain.” j ‘‘ln my opinion,” said Lieutenanti Commander George, speaking of the j war generally, ‘the Allies will have to I strike and strike hard to win. To do | that means a terrific amount of preI paration and specialised training on the | part of the striking forces of the services. The British Army, as are the other services, is fully alive to the exigencies of the situation and is putting in a lot of training in the desired direction. All of the Dominion armie? have to do the same. MUCH YET TO BE DONE ‘‘l do think that the people of New Zealand have a long way to go before they realise the situation. ‘ It is serious. We will win, but we have much to do before victory is ours Everybody has not only got to tighten their belts but they must see that they do not take too many of the resources of the country for what they do. It may even have to come to the stage of following the example of our enemies putting all labour under strict w-artime conditions. But apart from production we haw- to have trained armies Everybody has got to get down to the pro duction of armies to strike with at the earliest possible moment.”