MAKING READY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24133, 27 November 1941, Page 10

MAKING READY

DEFENCE OP MALAYA

AUSTRALIAN TROOPS VITAL SECTOR OCCUPIED SINGAPORE, Nov. 22 The Australian Imperial Force in Malaya is preparing for war —net merely training for possible war. The Australians have just moved into an entirely new section of the Malayan defence system. It is not far from Singapore, and is one of the most vital strategic areas on the peninsula. If war reaches Malaya it is here that the fighting will be most furious, for the Australian Imperial Force will know that the safety of Australia from attack will depend on the result. The A.l-F. already is learning the shape of the countryside. It is training for an offensive, being taught not to rely on defensive tactics. Strict attention is being paid to the lessons of the German campaigns. Mechanised exercises are being carried out daily, although it is recognised that this country is not suited for total mechanised war, and much will depend on the individual. Although the A.I.F. is in its own distinct- area, it is in close contact with the British troops and training is being intensified for the best possible co-opera-tion. The new camps are within a few miles of the palace of a sultan who already has mixed freely with the A.I.F. and says he is delighted that thev are there. Nearly all the men are in cool, wooden, thatch-roofed huts, surrounded by tropical trees, bushes and jungle. The Japanese Consul in Singapore. M. Obamoto, commenting on a report from Batavia that Japanese had been warned to leave, said: "I do not intend at present to tell the Japanese people here to go home." He added that there were still 1700 Japanese in Singapore and another 1000 outside the city. AUSTRALIAN TROOPS UNIFYING INTO CORPS DECISION OF CABINET (Reed. 11.45 p.m.) CANBERRA, Nov. 26 In all future engagements in the Middle East the Australian troops will fight as a unified corps instead of being cut into units operating on different, sectors. The Minister of the Army, Mr. Forde, stated that the Federal Cabinet had agreed to this course, which was recommended by General Sir Thomas Blarney, Commander-in-Chief of the A.1.F., and deemed it highly desirable. General Blarney visited Canberra to-day for final consultations with the War 'Cabinet prior to returning to the Middle East. It was announced to-day that practically alb the Australians have been withdrawn from Tobruli and will be linked up with the main A.I.F. Reinforcements are reaching the A.I.F. on all fronts at a rate enabling it to maintain its fighting strength at the fullest efficiency. BRITISH LANDING COAST OF NORMANDY PATROL RETURNS INTACT LONDON, Nov. 25 The Ministry of Information, says the British official wireless, states that the enemy is betraying anxiety about British intentions in regard to the coast of occupied territory, and hopes, by making exaggerated claims, to elicit information which will be withheld from him. It is learned in London that to-day's German communique—which said that on Saturday night the British made an attempt to land on the French Channel coast with boats, but were successfully repulsed with heavy losses by German coastal defences —probably refers to a small British patrol which landed on Saturday night on the coast of Normandy. This patrol, returned complete. The only casualty was one man struck in an arm by a machine-gun bullet. Very little has been announced by the British Government concerning the activities of British raiding forces on the coast of Flanders and of France. At various times, however, some American papers have published circumstantial reports of raids, without disclosing the sources of their information. One such enterprise is stated to have taken place at Le Touquet, a seaside resort south of Boulogne, where a British party was credited with having taken prisoner a large party of German officers in a local dance hall. It has also been stated that British raiders have penetrated the occupied area as far as Amiens and one report even credited an officer and a sergeant with having made an excursion to Paris in British uniform. The British Government last year gave a brief report of a, raid on St. Malo, a popular French seaside resort in Brittany, to test the German strength during the time when the invasion of Britain was in the air. More recently, in August last, it was reported by the Berlin Propaganda Ministry that German sentries on the sand dunes near Calais had opened fire on two large British motor-boats full of men 60 yards from the shore. The British replied with trench mortars and caused Gennac

AIR ACTIVITY

SWEEPS OVER FRANCE GERMAN RAIDER SHOT DOWN (Reed. 5.5 p.m.- LONDON. Nov. 'j(> • An Air Ministry communique states that one of our fighters on patrol yesterday morning machine-gunned enemy aircraft on an airfield at Marck, near Calais, destroying one and damaging others. In the afternoon Blenheim and Hurricane bombers, escorted by fighters, attacked an enemy aerodrome at Mor- I laix. None of our machines is missing from these operations. Two aircraft of the Coastal Command are missing from a patrol over the North Sea on Monday night. One enemy raider'was destroyed over the west of" England last night when the raids were widespread, but not on a large scale. Bombs dropped in the south-west of England caused _ some damago and a number of casualties. Polish airmen operating from British bases have so far destroyed 'llO German aircraft and have damaged 160 others. Tlie docks at Brest and Cherbourg were heavily raided by a small but powerful force of British bombers last night. No machines are missing from these raids. CANTEENS PRESENTED LONDON, Nov. Q5 Mrs. W. J. Jordan, wife of the New Zealand High Commissioner in London, in the absence of Mr. Jordan in the Middle East, presented to the Salvation Army two mobile canteens, for which friends of the Salvation Army in New Zealand—mainly Salvation Army members —subscribed. The Chief of Staff, Commissioner A. G. Cunningham, aci cepted them on behalf of the Salvation Army.