WEAPON TURNED AGAINST NAZIS

Southland Times, Issue 24533, 6 September 1941, Page 7

WEAPON TURNED AGAINST NAZIS

Attacks On Shipping (8.0.W.) RUGBY, September 4. The speech made by the Secretary for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, yesterday is regarded generally by the British newspapers as a most heartening tonic for the start of the third year of the war. But the warning is given that the greatest danger of Britain at the present time is the possibility of an unjustified feeling of complacency. The Manchester Guardian says: “Though the German armies straddle over enormous and menacing territories in Europe the war continues to show developments which were never contemplated as part of the German plan. As Sir Archibald Sinclair showed in his speech, last year’s Battle of Britain in the air has been transformed into this year’s Battle of Western Germany with not the slightest prospect of that second battle developing to Germany’s advantage. The Luftwaffe, which was able to decide so much in Poland, has decided nothing in Britain and is now unable to protect Germany itself. AXIS SUFFERS AT SEA “Another disastrous, uncontemplated turn for Germany has been the sea war. As Sir Archibald Sinclair showed, it is the Axis which lately has borne the brunt of commerce destruction at sea. Ninety-two vessels amounting to 468,000 tons were destroyed or damaged during July in the North Sea and the Mediterranean and a further 52 ships of unknown tonnage also suffered. That process, as we know from later reports, has been continued in more recent weeks. Commerce and transport raiding is a weapon which has been turned against the enemy, who himself designed to draw such great advantage from it. “Nevertheless, our satisfaction gives no ground for complacency. We shall have German night, raids to meet again and Russian heroism will not bring final victory for Britain. There can be no complacency while, in the face of inevitable nightly losses, we are producing trained pilots much more rapidly than the united factories of Britain and America can produce aircraft for them to use against an active and uncrippled force.”