THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Tuesday, April 2, 1946. MAN OF WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26117, 2 April 1946, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Tuesday, April 2, 1946. MAN OF WAR

War is not romantic. The exploits of war which make the basis for the most thrilling stories are often bitter in the minds of those who took part in them. Anyone would be simpleminded who accepted the laconic heroics of a Noel Coward film as the representation in life of the death of the K-class destroyer Kelly, which turned over at 32 knots, her guns still firing, in the battle for Crete, with the loss of more than half her crew. Commando operations, which threaten to provide the material for the majority of books about the war lately ended, were often desperate, brutish affairs, costly in bravfe lives and sometimes as militarily futile as at other times they were valuable. Command of a warship under attack by two dozen Stukas required nerve and courage of a high order; the directionof Combined Operations called for ruthless thinking and tactical audacity; an Allied Supreme Command post could be filled only by a man with ability to plan on a continental basis, for literally millions of men, a man with the virtues of a diplomat as well as of a soldier. Admiral the Lord Louis Mountbatten has proved himself in all the roles enumerated, and so can be credited, without the intention of flattery, with the qualities stated. If, therefore, he is welcomed to this city as one of the most romantic figures of the war, it is in the best sense that this word can be applied to military leaders. He has, in the current phrase, glamour, because he is the personification for very many people of the great traditions of the Royal-, Navy and of British arms. There will be small need to urge the people of Dunedin to attend at the Town Hall this evening, and at the other public functions which Admiral Mountbatten will be attending. The aura of romance which surrounds this hero of a reallife kinema tale, this reckless genius of Commandos, will assure that his public appearances, and those of Lady Louis Mountbatten, are fully attended. It is well that those who are, attracted by the name and reputation of Lord Louis should recognise also the background of hard work and sober planning that brought him to eminence in the Allied High Command. In his early days as a' naval cadet, when he applied himself to wireless in its pristine days, in his attention to air power, dating back to the Great War, and in his practical interest in undersea craft, he laid the broad foundations of specialised knowledge that were to serve him and the Allies notable. His achievements impelled Mr Churchill, “ pedants notwithstanding,” to invent a term to describe him—“a complete triphibian •—that is to say, a creature equally at home in three elements, earth, air and water, and also well accustomed to fire.” His is a story from which every schoolboy can profit.