BRITAIN’S PART

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25444, 27 January 1944, Page 6

BRITAIN’S PART

ALLIED WAR EFFORT A REVEALING COMPARISON MELBOURNE, Jan. 14ii American estimates that America will provide 73 per cent, of the-land forces when the Allies invade Europe may not be precisely accurate, but it is a fair picture of Allied man-power needs. According to the Melbourne Herald’s London office, British people are not surprised by the figure, but they are surprised that there should l>e» astonishment, verging even on resentment, in some American quarters where the magnitude of Britain’s fouryear war effort is still not comprehended.

In the light of this attitude, a Melbourne Herald representative has sought what facts can be made public in Britain. Some of the latest figures present the problem in its true perspective. . .' Great Britain has a population of under 48,000,000, compared with America’s 132,000,000. The ratio of British people of military age is much lower. -

On population figures the percentages—United States 73 per cent. and. Britain 27 per cent.—are in proportion. Britain’s population was approximately. 27 per cent, of the total of the_ two countries. Britain’s full mobilisation is nearly, 25,000,000 men and women. The fighting services figure is secret, but it can be stated tfiat the R.A.F. alone is certainly more than one-half the size of the British Army in the Great War, when about 5,000,000 men were enlisted in the British Isles. '

Large Force in Middle East Britain began the war with an army of 518,000, of whom only 218,000 were regular troops. This necessitated drastic conscription of man-power to build a modern mass army,*but most of this army is not available for the ’“ second front.” Eighteen months ago Mr Chlirchill revealed that more than 1,000,000 British troops were in the Middle East and that there Were more British troops in India than ever, before. ; Since then the Mediterranean and South-east Asia Commands have 'been heavily reinforced. '■

The maintenance of big garrisons at Gibraltar and Malta, in. Cyprus and Palestine, at Aden, and in Abyssinia, Madagascar and Ceylon and many other outposts has taxed Britain’s manpower in a manner none the less real because all forces have not been continuously engaged. ... , . British service casualties until last December- were nearly 550,000. (while civilian casualties from bombing exceeded 100,000. one-half of which were fatal). America’s total casualties so far approximate those of Australia (given officially the other day as 55,89 j since the war began). The output of Britain s war factories, at least until recently, exceeded America’s output, although millions of British war workers are devoting much of their time to A.R.P. and Home Guard duties and iiv other ways supplementing the work of hundreds of thousands of their fellow-countrymen engaged in full-time home front duties, such as the observer, corps, ack-acx, astd coastal defences. ■ ■ Man-power has been further taxe?l by the task of* clearing up bomb ■debris, repairing vital factories, and maintain ing^Communications, - besides compensating for production hours lost duto alerts the disabilities of blackout and curtailment of civilian : But this is only one-halferf! the sstoryv British crews man the bulk of the vast Allied merchant fleets. The Royal Navy, which to-day is greater than ever before, does most of the patrolling Sd convoying in the Atlantic Mediterranean, and Indian 0c^ n \, ample, the British Navy did the whole job of convoying the. North African invasion force, and it would un-. doubtedly share with the R.A.F. tne brunt of the task of clearing and guarding the sea and skies for a second front” landing. . .„ . The creation of a second front is largely a shipping problem. for Bntish ships and British crews. . Probably a dozen 10.000-ton . ships are needed, to transport a single division overseas, and about 1500 railway trucks to move it overland.

Shipping Requirements , And this is only part of the problem of maintaining -a division jn the field. An armoured division uses .daily 70,000 gallons of petrol, 350 tons of ammunition, 120 tons of food, and 50; tons of spare parts. . , i, , If 60 mixed divisions were landed at the outset in Western Europe, they would require more than 6,000,000 tons ol shipping. It would be Britain s task to ensure that these men, stores, and "equipment were marshalled at British springboards 'and transported across the Channel. - „ , ... If the United States supplied threequarters of the ground combat forces, she would play a decisive role, but not more decisive than that of Britain. .

The American magazine Life recently stated that most Americans had the mistaken idea that the United States was already engaged on a gigantic scale, whereas the number of American troops actually fighting was less than the number of Rumanians fighting for Germany. It added: ‘ Only 15 American divisions have yet seen action, and no more than six or seven have been engaged at any one time.