DEADLY YEAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25202, 15 May 1945, Page 5

DEADLY YEAR

PERILS OF 1941 , EIRE'S ATTITUDE j ASSISTANCE WITHHELD ' BRITAIN'S BESUBGENCE i LONDON, May 13 j Referring to the year 1941 in the , course of his war review, Mr 1 Churchill said: "We had only the north - west approaches between J Lister and Scotland through which to bring in the means of life and ; send out our forces of war. "Owing to the action of Mr de Valera, so much at variance with the temper and instinct of the thousands of Southern Irishmen who hastened to the battlefront to prove their ancient valour, the approaches which Southern Irish ports and airfields could so easily have guarded were closed by hostile aircraft and U-boats. Courageous Irishmen "This was indeed a deadly moment in our life, and if it had not been for the loyalty and friendliness of Northern Ireland we should have had to come to close quarters with Mr de Valera or perish forever from the earth. "However, with restraint and poise to which, 1 venture to say, history will find few parallels, we never laid violent hands upon them, which at times would have been quite easy, and we left Mr de Valera and his Government to frolic with the German and, later, Japanese representatives to their hearts' content. "When I think of these days I think also of Lieutenant-Commander Ksmonde, V.C., D.5.0.. Lance-Corporal Kenneally, V.C., Captain Fegen, V.C., and a score of others I could still recall. Then. I must confess, that bitterness for the Irish race dies in my heart. I can only pray that, in years which I shall not see. the shame will be forgotten and peace will endure, and the peoples of the British Isles will walk together in mutual comprehension and ! forgiveness." Sea and Air Power Mr Churchill paid a tribute to the i devotion of the merchant seamen and to the vast, inventive, all-embracing j and. in the end, all-controlling power of the Royal Navy, with its ever more potent new ally, the Air Force. "We were able to breathe." he said. "We were able to live. We were able to strike. "Great anxiety was felt by President Roosevelt, and indeed by thinking men throughout the United States, at what would happen to us in the early part of 1941. The President felt that the destruction of Britain would not only be a fearful event in itself, but would also expose to mortal danger the and as yet largely unarmed potentialities and future destiny of the United States. "But we were in a fairly tough mood by then and felt very much better about ourselves than in the months immediatelv after the collapse of France. Our lSunkirk armv and field force troops in Britain, almost 1.000.000 strong, were nearly all equipped or re-equipped. We had ferried over the Atlantic 1,000.000 rifles and 1000 cannon from the United States, with all their ammunition, since j the previous .Tune. Hitler's Ghastly Mistake "In our munition works, which were becoming very powerful, men and women had worked at their machines till they dropped senseless with fatigue. Nearly 1,000,000 men were armed at least with rifles, and were armed also with the spirit of 'conquer or die.' " , , Mr Churchill recalled how in 1941 Britain sacrificed her conquests in North Africa in order to stand by Greece, repressed the German-instituted rising in Irak, defended Palestine, and, with the assistance of the Free French, cleared Syria and Lebanon of Vichy followers, , lL i Then came the time when the tyrant j Hitler made the ghastly mistake which altered the whole balance of the struggle. On June 22, 1941, Hitler, master as he thought himself of all Kurope, and, indeed, possibly of the worlcf, treacherously, without warning, without the slightest provocation, hurled himself on Russia and came face to face with Stalin and numberless millions of Russian people. Then at the end of the year Japan struck her felon blow at the United States at Pearl Harbour and at the same time attacked Britain in Malaya and Singapore. Thereupon Hitler and Mussolini declared war on the Republic of the United States. Years Like Decades

"Years have passed since then," Mr Churchill reflected. "Indeed, every year seems to me almost a decade. But never since the United States entered the war have I had the slightest doubt or fear but that we should be saved and that we had only to do our duty to win." After referring to the Allied landings in France and the meeting of the Western and Eastern Allies in the middle of Germany, Mr Churchill said: "It happened that in three days we received news of the unlamented departures of Mussolini and Hitler and in three days surrenders were made to Field-Marshals Alexander and Montgomery of over 2,500,000 of this terrible warlike German Amy." Mr Churchill paid tribute to the power and exertions of the United States Forces, 3.500.000 of whom werr now deployed on victorious battlegrounds in Europe. More than 90.000 find been killed, he said, and added: "For our part, the British and the Canadians, we have had in action about one-third as many men as the Americans. but we have taken our full share of the fighting, as the scale of our losses shows. "We therefore have played our part and our Navy has borne incomparably the severe strain in the Atlantic Ocean,

in the narrow seas and in the Arctic convoys to Russia. I mention these tacts only to show that we have our place in these superb, deathless annals of the English-speaking world. "Never did the forces of two nations fight together side by side and intermingle with so much unity, comradeship and brotherhood as have those who had served under General Eisenhower, Field-Marshals Alexander and Montgomery and Generals Bradlev and Mark Clark." Referring to the future, Mr Churchill said: "On the Continent of Europe we have yet to make sure that the simple and honourable purposes for which we entered the war are not brushed aside or overlooked in the months following our success, and that the words Freedom. Democracy and Liberation are not distorted from their true meaning as we have understood them. There would be little use in punishing Hitlerites for their crimes if law and justice did not rule and if totalitarian or police governments were to take the place of the German invaders. World Organisation "We seek nothing for ourselves. But we must make sure that those causes which we fought for find recognition at the peace table in facts as well as in words and, above all, we must labour to ensure that the world organisation which the United Nations are creating in San Francisco does not become an idle name, does not become a shield for the strong and a mockery for the weak. It is the victors who must search their hearts in their glowing hours and be worthy, by their nobility, of the immense forces they wield. "Beyond all lies Japan, harassed and falling, but still a people of one hundred millions for whose war lords death has few terrors. I cannot tell you how much time or what exertions will be required to compel them to make amends for their odious treachery and cruelty. We have received horrible injuries from them ourselves, and we are hound by ties of honour and fraternal loyalty to the "United States to fight this great war at the other end of the world at their side without flagging or failing. "We must remember that Australia, New, Zealand and Canada are all menaced by this evil terror. They came to our aid in our dark times, and we must not leave unfinished any task which | concerns their safety. "I told you hard things at the beginning of these last five years. You did not shrink, and I should be unworthy of your confidence and generosity if I did not still cry, 'Let us go forward unflinching, unswerving and indomitable until the whole task is done : and the whole world is safe and clean!"

BRITAIN'S ESCAPE MULTIPLE ARTILLERY LONDON, May 13 In the course of his war review Mr - Churchill dealt with one danger from which the collapse of Germany saved Britain —continued and increasingly heavy attacks of flying bombs and rockets. "But," he proceeded, "it was only when our armies cleaned up the European coast and overran all points of discharge, and when the Americans captured vast stores of rockets of all kinds near Leipzig, and when preparations being made on the coasts" of France and Holland could be examined in detail, that we knew how grave was the peril, not only from rockets and flying bombs, but also from multiple long-range artillery which was being prepared against London for the autumn. Only just in time did the Allied armies blast the viper in his nest. Otherwise the autumn of 1944 might well have seen London as shattered as Berlin." THREE IRISH V.C.'S HEROIC ACTIONS RECALLED Two of the three Irish Victoria Cross winners mentioned by Mr Churchill in hjo war review were serving in the Navv at the time of the award, and the third was a soldier. Commander E. S. Fogarty Fegen was commander of the merchant cruiser Jervis Bay. His ship was escorting a convoy of 38 vessels when a German pocketbattleship was sighted. Commander Fogarty at once drew out from the con- "* voy and made straight for the enemy. H.M.S. Jervis Bay, on fire and repeatedly hit by heavy salvoes, held the enemy's fire for nearly an hour before she went down, but at least 33 ships of the convoy were saved. The second naval officer mentioned was Lieutenant-Commander E. Esmonde, of the Fleet Air Arm. Lieu-tenant-Commander Esmonde took his six Swordfish aircraft to attack the Prinz Eugen, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau when those ships, with 30 surface escorts, passed through the Straits of Dover on February 12, 1942. The aircraft were attacked by enemy fighters, but flew on to launch torpedo attacks. LieutenantCommander Esmonde was shot down almost immediately and none of his flight returned. Lance-Corporal John Patrick Kenneallv won his Victoria Cross in the Tunisia campaign of 19 K3. Firing a Bren gun, lie ran alone down a bare slope to attack a German company forming up to attack. His gallantry and dash upset the enemy and the formation broke up. The exploit was repeated a few days later and Lance-Corporal Kenneally caused so many casualties that the enemy effort was frustrated. He continued fighting in spite of being wounded. GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRIA (Rccd. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 14 The provisional Government of Austria, first announced by Moscow two weeks ago, last night broadcast a declaration of independence abrogating the forcible annexation of the country by Germany in 1938. This Government is" a subject of discussion by Britain and the United States, and has not yet been officially recognised bv them. The Austrian radio announces that the new Government has dissolved the Austrian Nazi Party and confiscated the property of all Nazi organisations. Heavy penalties are being imposed on Nazi' Party members and supporters between 1933 and 1938.