EVE OF VICTORY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 7 April 1945, Page 5

EVE OF VICTORY

BITTER ORDEAL NEARS END

RESTRAINED JOYFULNESS IN BRITAIN (By James Lansdale Hodson) London, Apl. 4. I am writing on the eve of the war’s ?hd In Europe. The German war inleed is virtually over, though sporadic fighting may drag on for weeks. Dn the other hand, nobody would be surprised if the finish were much swifter. Mr. Churchill has been on and icross the Rhine obviously enjoying himself more than if he were on the Serpentine in Hyde Park, albeit a shell dropped only fifty yards away from him. We in the South of England cannot stop our heart from singing- aipl Why should we try?—notwithstanding that V bombs may still come over and that Britain has parted with 900,000 tons of food stocks to starving Europe so that our own supplies are jeopardized somewhat. Our mood is one of restrained joyfulness. When the war«is declared to be officially over—and this may happen before the filial isolated shots .are fired — we shall drink a good deal of excessively thin beer and a smaller amount of whisky at from 25/- to £5 a bottle, and London’s streets will be choked with scores of thousands who do not know whither exactly they are bound or precisely Whitt to dp. nut I do not think we shall lie as hilarious as we were iu 1918. On that occasion boy scouts marched around Piccadilly blowing the all clear, pipers paraded up Kingsvvay, soldiers beat tattoos on their tin hats. Big Ben Was illuminated and Pln.ved the victory chime, girls kissed strangers in the streets and subalterns rode about on the tops of taxi-cabs.

Flags burst from buildings as though a miraculous spring had passed that way and strangers stopped one another and said “It’s peace” as though they made a new discovery. People stood on roofs, and from the windows of Government buildings showers of papers fluttered like a stage snowstorm and 1 saw Mr. Churchill stand up in his car near the Ministry of Mituhions and call to the girls hanging out of the Ministry windows. "You cun nil go home.” Yet in the midst of pandemonium there were cases of quietness in which men thought of their d«?nd sons and women thought of their lovers or their husbands who would never return. Yes, we shall be quieter fliis time. We began thinking it was a dirty, grim job that had to lie done, no vainglory, no going off lighthearted to new adventure. Men said "we know what wars now mean.” Yet what a triumph it has been ! This British army which is now speeding to Berlin holds the same 51st Highland Division which was partially captured at St. Valery on the French coast in the summer of 1940. The same Royal Ulster Rifles 1 visited in Louvain in May. 1940, and who hud to withdraw from there, are over the Rhine, and many of the same "Desert Bats” who twice went to Benghazi and twice had to retreat before they Went a third time under Montgomery, are now pursuing the enemy down the roads of Germany. 1 see an historian asserts that in no war over a period of nearly 300 years has our army passed through such crises as in this one. The first crisis was Dunkirk, where it lost all its equipment; then came the desert triumphs and disasters, the withdrawal from Greece aud Crete and the retreat from Singapore and Burma. The turning point was the great advance from El Aldmein to Tripoli and thenceforth the inarch was pretty steadily forward— Tripoli to Tunis. Tunisia to Sicily, Sicily to Rome, and beyond—triumphal eam-PBl-is in which the Dominion’s troops Plfffd n suuerb part. Bitter Fruits of Blitzkrieg. There had been a long build-up to the Middle East to make the successes possible —a build-up which ill its early stages left Britain almost defenceless apart, from the Royal Navy, R.A.F., and Home Guard. There was a second long build-up—in which the United States played so vital a part—which preceded D-day in Normandy. Our armies have needed as milch patience as they have needed Courage, and of the tWo, patience is harder to come by. But finally men, whose fathers befuie them had fought in France and Belgium and who had themselves fought there in 1940 and been overcome, have now returned to win victory on the same soil. Men who had had nothing but puny hand grenades to throw against tanks, and bayonets to oppose panzer divisions, afe now showing the German enemy what blitzkrieg really is. N'o progress in this fantastic war has been swifter than theirs now. and no conquest has been so overwhelming. The Germans, who have brought greater misery and desolatiun on the world than has ever been known in all its history, are themselves now learning what misery and desolation are. There is deserved retribution in this, and there is justice in it. but there is little joyfulness for us. What We have got to do is not to destroy Europe, but to save it, and What we want to do with the German people is not to destroy them but reform them. In that reform, however, suffering must have its part. We have by bitter ordeal aud endurance and incredible feats of organization and of bravery £hown them at last that war does not pay. That was the deepest lesson that they had to be taught. By the time fighting stops I really think we shall have hammered that into their thick heads. There will be no reifl peace in the World till (hey believe that fact as the British Commonwealth believes it. There will be no real peace till the whole wofkl believes it, and, till the time comes when it does, those who believe it must take steps impose their will on those who do not. Promise of San Francisco. I hope this notion will be rooted in the soldiers who come home. 1 ain interested to see that Air Vice-Marshal D. O. T. Detmett, our youngest man to hold such a rank (be is 33), who is standing as a Liberal candidate, says that within three months of the cessation of hostilities the armed forces of the United Nations ought to be merged into one. I think so, too, but 1 do not imagine it will happen. Most nations are far too jealoUs of their wno sovereignty, aud harbour too much suspicion of other folk. We are making progress—San Francisco will tell us bow much—but it is not very fast. We ourselves learnt a lot during World War 1. Others learnt nothing. Let us hope that Germany, Japan and Italy will know, now, what We knew in 1918. Meanwhile, Mr. A. P. Herbert has been advocating that we use Dunkirk in reverse, a host of little ships to take bundles from Britain instead of bundles to Britain. He feels as do some others, that short as our commons are we can still spare something to those who are literally starving. Again there is the argument among liberal minded people on whether we are .wise to order “no fraternization” with tlie Germans. It is an order that is, I think, right at this moment. The Germans must bo made to realize their sins, but non-fraternization will not endure for ever. The human nature that is British or American is not given to long hatred. Most of our inon will themselves suffer in treating the people as pariahs. A liberal-minded argument is • that it is far better to show the wrong-headed Nazis what decent people vve are and how hopelessly mistaken the teaching of Goebbels has been. Personally I believe that that will show through our acts, however stern they are. It is not in us. We shall certainly have to keep both eyes open and not weaken in our resolution to keep Germany disarmed. Twice during this war Krupps has been rebuilt or. partly rebuilt. German energy and skill is extremely high. We must not be complacent. Anotner interesting sign of this eve of victory in the west is the disclosure bit by bit of the feats accomplished in achieving our present situation. The latest is that we flew tighter aircraft from the decks of freighters in Atlantic convoys so that airmen rose and alighted from decks that looked the size of postage stamps. I knew about this when writing the official ‘‘Merchantmen at War.” but could not say so. There still remain untold stories about the Russian convoys that are epics or valour. Similarly, what our meu did in the hills of Crete after we had evacuated the island is known only to a few, and many strange feats of our submarines will one day thrill us all. For many a year the incredible truths of this war and man’s endurances in it, ns the unknown is divulged, will stir our hearts. As for Mr. Churchill’s own memoirs, what a story that will be! Yes, all in all, tales of heights to which many men and women have risen in this war will go ringing down the ages to lift up men s hearts and strengthen their arms in times of adversity. They shine like patches of brilliant light on the dark and sombre chequer board of this past live and a half ..rears.