Germany’s Lightning War

Northland Age, Volume IX, Issue 65, 24 May 1940, Page 1

Germany’s Lightning War

Editorial Point of View

"pHE rapid over-running of Holland added another to the long list of Hitler’s triumphs and conquests. Count them up—Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, Norway, Holland —and think of pre-Hitler Germany, with bitter memories of defeat and humiliation at the hands of the Allies, and compare it with the present apparently triumphal progress, and the startling change provides strong reasons for the blind faith of the Germans in their chosen Leader. That these triumphs have been won mainly by bad faith and a total disregard of the moral laws that civilised men honour and obey seems to count for little in the eyes of the Germans. In their Nazi creed whatever makes for Germany’s profit is right and just; other nations have no rights which Germany is bound to respect. It is the law of the wolf, whose blood-thirst can never be glutted. Germany has become a wolfnation, and until her ravening course is stayed and her Nazi creed destroyed the world can have neither peace nor security. The Downfall of Holland The conquest of Holland is understandable though its rapidity was unexpected. It is a country very difficult to defend and very little preparation had been made to* defend it. The Dutch are a peaceable people; their only experience of war since 1815 was their brief and unsuccessful attempt to prevent Belgium breaking away from Dutch rule in 1831. They are a rich people, with a large empire won when they were more aggressive than they are to-day and when they were the rivals of England both in commerce and empire-building. But

their ingrained thriftiness made them grudge the huge expenditure necessary to make their flat land, lying open as it does to modern mechanical invasion, impregnable, after the fashion of France and Germany. They trusted in observing a scrupulous neutrality that kept them silent when Dutch ships were sunk and Dutch seamen murdered lest worse befall them. Holland is a small country, with some 12,700 square miles of dry land and a population now of a little under nine millions. Its area is slightly less than that of Belgium, its population slightly greater. The standing army was small, about 16,000 men, but there was a modified system of compulsory service under which all males between the age of 19 and 40 were liable to be called upon to serve in the army or navy—if required. The training was short and poor, and military service unpopular. After months of warning of a probable invasion and the calling out of all the reserves these amounted to 400,000 men, of whom, according to the Dutch Commander-in-Chief, 100,000 perished without being able to strike an effective blow at the German invaders. If that is true—and it is hardly believable —they must have been slaughtered like sheep. The plan of defertce had been to abandon most of the country and retire to what was called “Fortress Holland,” the provinces of North and South Holland, with parts of Zeelund and Utrech. Two-thirds of this area is surrounded by sea, and the centre is the great city of Amsterdam, with nearly 800,000 people, well fortified. The land side on the east and south could be defended by flooding as in previous wars. When in 1672 the French under Louis XIV invaded Holland with a great army these defence tactics proved successful. According to Macaulay’s account: “The dykes were opened. The whole country was turned into one great lake from which the cities and their ramparts and steeples rose like islands. The invaders were foi'ced to save themselves from destruction by precipitate retreat.” But the modern Dutch had not the desperate courage of their ancestors to face the destruction this method of defence implied, and Germany’s huge air fleet gave the invaders a weapon the French lacked. The tactic of dropping troops from planes by para-chute—-a method invented by Russia, but which worked badly in the Finnish campaign—was tried out more successfully by the Germans in an attack on Rotterdam, whose 600,000 people seemed to have been paralysed by a few troops in Dutch uniforms dropped from the skies. The threat to bomb their rich and populous cities —The Hague, the capital, has half-a-million people—sent the Government and the Queen scuttling from the country to safety in England and to an ignominous surrender of the army and the country. With the fate of Poland before their eyes, the Dutch were not disposed to follow the example of Belgium in the last war and incur the consequent suffering and loss. If the Allies win the war they will recover their country. If they lose then Holland would —like New Zealand—be lost too. Better to make

the best of a bad job; quite a Dutch principle. One portion of the country was exempt from the surrender—the province of Zeeland. This province should be of interest to New Zealanders for our country was named after it by the patriotic Dutchman, Abel Tasman, whose sleek and dandified torso adorns our current two-penny stamps. Yet no country could be more unlike its namesake. It comprises a group of islands stretching from the mouth of the River Scheldt —on which Antwerp stands—to the mouth of the Rhine, which is Dutch from the German border to the sea. It also includes part of East Flanders on the mainland, and has altogether about a quarter of a million people. The islands are Walchuen, North and South Beveland, St. Phillipsland, Schonwen, Duiveland and Tholm. The soil is a rich red clay, but much of the land is below sea-level, the sea being kept out by some 300 miles of artificial dykes. These islands are absolutely necessary for the defence of Antwerp, and were desperately defended. Germany’s Gain The gain to Germany is great. She has secured an abundance of air bases within a few minutes’ flight of England and valuable submarine bases for her attack on British commerce. These are likely to be utilised to the full. Germany is making one desperate bid for world power or downfall; she is throwing the whole weight of her resources and manpower into this campaign and will stick at nothing to win success. That she has not taken advantage of her tremendous superiority—in number — in air power to carry out the threat to lay British towns in ashes is due to the knowledge that it would provoke swift and terrible reprisals. Meanwhile, with a reckless disregard of the lives of her soldiers, she has suc-

ceeded in breaking through France’s outer defences and is pouring a huge army into Belgium. She is risking everything for a success, for time is against her. No one can deny the courage of the German soldiers, the skill of German generals or the tremendous military resources at their command. The struggle will be desperate and may be long. On both sides it is. a war to the death in which there can be now no compromise. The winning of early battles will be no clue to the end, for in the last war Germany had a long list of victories yet was beaten at last. Napoleon in his day entered in triumph practically every capital in Europe, built up a huge empire with kings and princes as his dutiful subjects, yet finished life as an exile in St. Helena. The only opponent he could not conquer was Britain, which for twenty long years with dogged tenacity fought him on sea and land; never lost heart though coalition after coalition against Napoleon crumbled before his genius; yet Britain won out

at last. And Britain is still the same to-day in spirit with the same determination to succeed unshaken by checks or defeats. She has a good cause, she has the good will of the world, the triple strength that comes from fighting in a righteous crusade. For all that it would be folly to cherish an easy optimism as to the result; the struggle will call for every ounce of strength Britain—-and we with Britain —can mobilise if victory is to be won. Germany is going all out to gain her ends. We must do likewise to check her. The peril is great, the stakes are the downfall of either Britain or Germany. For the sake of the world, for the sake of the German people themselves, Hitler must be defeated.

It is not so much the size of the dog in the fight as the size of the fight in the dog. ☆ ☆ ☆ Interned Germans in Hongkong are to be sent to Australia, probably to Queensland. Their wives and children may accompany them. * * * The German Air Force is “a weapon of destruction against all those who have criminally shattered peace,” says Marshal Goering. * * ☆ Bread, macaroni, rice, olive oil, butter, sugar and other commodities have been increased in price in Rome from 2 to 12% by a sales tax. ☆ * * Erish farmers are on strike against summer time, which has been introduced earlier this year. They say it upsets their farming operations. * * * A report on an infantry training centre in the North-west of England states that of young soldiers “very few” drink beer, those who do, drink “very moderately,” and tea is the main drink. Two Hearts in No Time “She’s very clever. She learned to play the piano in no time.” “Yes, I’ve noticed she does.”