A NATION AT BAY

Opotiki News, Volume III, Issue 319, 4 October 1940, Page 4

A NATION AT BAY

THREAT TO BRITAIN DEFENCE AT HOME ATTACKS MADE ABROAD In all the accounts of British war activities since the _collapso oi France and the withdrawal to tne British Isles two features are emphasised—the intensive prepara tions for defence against an attemptr ed invasion, and the continuous raids into Germany and occupied territory. This course has been summed up by a military expert m a phrase, the strategic defensive and the tactical offensive. The German plan has been that of the strategic offensive, pressed with particulai vigour and success in' Poland ana' France. Great Britain, it ha. been pointed out, has been forced into the position of the strategic defensive under present conditions. Everything has combined to create the circumstances. The withdrawal from Norway was a starting point while the evacuation of the Ghanne Islands removed the last distraction from the essential task of defending the British Isles.

To this, the theory proceeds, hai been added the notion of the tacti cal offensive —a concentration of aii attack on specific objectives in Germany and German-occupied territory. AH fits into a general scheme. As the German idea is a lightning mobile offensive, the British strategy is to resist such an attack when launched, while tactics are devotee to reducing its efficiency by a policy of attrition at its source. Historic Plan Followed In this view the persistent raid; into Germany are proceeding ac cording to a defined plan. Fuel depots, marshalling yards, canals, barge concentrations, docks ano aerodromes are all the targets o. bombing attack. In a word, they are directed at the source of German activities.

To this view can be added the reflection that the plan followed is the historic, indeed the classical, method of facing a threat from the Continent. One example seems particularly apposite. Toward the end of the seventeenth century Tudor England—not then Britain—was menaced by the power of Spain.

King Philip was assembling the great fleet which afterward sailed as the Armada. While the English people lay behind their sea ramparts awaiting the. attack, the Elizabethan seamen carried on a tactical offensive against the ports ana ships of spain. Drake’s exploit at Cadiz, when he “singed the King of (Spain’s beard,” is the best■known of these-operations. When, after, being seriously delayed by such tactics, the attack was finally launched, the Armada was defeated and scattered, the threat of invasion was dissipated. Sea and Air Power Similar conditions existed when Napoleon was laying his plans to invade the shores of England. Here again the tactical offensive was prosecuted at sea, the hostile fleets being bottled up at their bases, their effective assembly prevented, and every possible measure taker to scotch the offensive at its source Finally, Nelson destroyed Napoleon’s ambition at Trafalgar, ana the hope of a successful invasion died. In the present situation the combination of sea power and air power is being utilised to prosecute the tactical offensive, while in the gath ering of a mighty army in the British Isles the strategic defensive it being carefully fostered. New methods, new equipment and a vastly greater scale of operations make conditions differ in detail, but in broad principle there reappears the historic situation, the naton at bay in its island home, yet striking swiftly, boldly and effectively against the preparations for attack.