NAVY'S PART

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24878, 27 April 1944, Page 3

NAVY'S PART

INVASION OF EUROPE ADMIRAL'S RETURN TRIP LONDON, April 19 The man who brought the British troops home from the Continent at Dunkirk-time is now getting ready to take them, with their Allies, back again. He is Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay, Allied Commander-in-Chief of Invasion Naval Operations. Nobody, not even General Eisenhower, will have bigger initial responsibilities than this 61-year-old Englishman, whose highly integrated AngloAmerican command is now engaged on a thousand and one problems of anticipation, timing and deployment which the crucial opening days of the offensive will bring. During that grave period whole armies will be passengers and how the assaults fare in their early stages will largely depend upon how Ramsay and his variegated fleets fare. Admiral Ramsay, who organised the naval support for the North African landings and who planned the Sicilian and Italian naval assaults, should, according to those close to him, fare well. He is not the type to leave anything to chance, nor to allow ragged detail to mar the general strategy. Primarily, he is a top-to-bottom organiser. Dunkirk Evacuation His handling of the Dunkirk evacuation, when urgency was supreme and improvisation essential, suggests, moreover, that he is a sufficiently agile tactician to meet any sudden calls arising from mistakes or "muck-ups" flexibly and swiftly. It is for Dunkirk, incidentally, that Britishers chiefly know him. They called him then "Dynamo Ramsay" after the codeword fo.- the Dover Command, and dynamo, according to his personal staff, is not such a bad description. Ramsay is short and compact in stature] bird-like, quick and decisive in manner and action; neat and fastidious (although not in a pernickety way) in dress, speech, and habit; and equipped with an amazing memory and grasp of detail. Like other Allied invasion "big chiefs," he has a staff fairly evenly split up between British and Americans. You might not think that works out very well—with the Royal Navy as one of the partners. It does, but whether because Ramsay expects it to work and insists on it one cannot say. Back From Retirement Ramsay, the beach operations specialist of the amphibious nations, was, like Admiral Sir James Somerville, the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Fleet, nearly lost to the Service. Like Somerville, he was retired before the outbreak of war, but was recalled soon afterward to prove that admirals on the brink of the "sixties" are not necessarily inefficient die-haiJs. He had been attached to the Dover Patrol from 1915 to 1919, at one time commanding Admiral E. R, G. R. Evans' famous Broke, and throughout the war storing up knowledge of the Channel and the French coast which stood him in such good stead at Dunkirk-time —and which is doing so now. He accompanied Admiral Lord Jellicoe on a visit to Australia and New .'"ealand in 1919, and later served on the China station. In this war he returned to Dover to establish himself in that multi-tele-phoned monastic control chamber which became known to all Britishers as the "dynamo room." After the brilliantlyplanned Mediterranean assaults he worked with Admiral Lord Louis .Mountbatieu on Combined Operations, the Allied technique of which now will make or mar the Continental landings that are just around the corner. TRAINING EX-SOLDIERS SCHEME IN AUSTRALIA MEN WHO WILL BE RELEASED SYDNEY, April I'\ Plans to rehabilitate Australian soldiers after demobilisation are revealed, on broad lines, by what is now being done by the Demobilisation Committee set up by the Commonwealth Government, 'l.'lie scheme envisages all types of training—professional, university, tech- ! nical, general and vocational. A liberal scale of allowances will enable plans to be developed on a widespread scale. Assistance already operating or in the stage of advanced planning includes — demobilisation furlough to facilitate readjustment into civilian life; modification of conditions governing entry into certain occupations; advances to secure tools of trade and purchase businesses; provision for reinstatement in pre-service employment and revival of apprenticeship rights; training in all aspects; vocational guidance service to assess aptitudes; payment of sustenance, pending recovery and finding of employment; special provisions for the incapacitated. The Demobilisation Committee, representing the Post-war Reconstruction Department, Repatriation Commission, Manpower, Labour and National Services, and the three fighting services, will be assisted by the report of an inter-Service Directorate of Demobilisation. Wholesale demobilisation is not contemplated. Basis of release will be on considerations of age, length of service and family problems, compassionate grounds, physical condition, eligibility for training, and occupational classification. A Reconstruction Training Committee will advise on preliminary training to be given by the services. RED ARMY HONOURED POEM BY JOHN MASEFI ELD A poem by Mr. John Masefield, Poet Laureate, entitled "Ode to the Red Army" and written in honour of the valiant Russian soldiers on the occasion of the twenty-sixth anniversary of the Red Army, was sung publicly for the first time to music written by Sir Arnold E. T. Rax, at a concert in the Albert Hall, London. The words are: Though ranks were turned and centre gone You stood for home and struggled on; A star of hope within you shone. You struggled through a shaking time, Enduring loss and grief and crime, Each making hope the more sublime. Among your ruins and your dead You stood and fought or froze and bled; The hope still burned, the star still led. And now you reap reward: the line Conies west again: the foes_ decline. 0 hope, burn on: 0 star, still shine.