Invasion Problems

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22792, 17 January 1944, Page 4

Invasion Problems

MR CHURCHILL is credited with having once said that modern armies have become so mobile that they are practically immovable. T. E. Lawrence said much the same thing about the unsuitability of modern equipment in Arab warfare. The extraordinary apparatus required to move modern forces over long distances of water has been the main limiting factor in the strategy and timetable of the Allies since the process of mobilisation and industrial output reached a sufficiently advanced stage to make attack possible. This was the theme of the Prime Minister’s statement to the House of Commons in September. On ihe .one hand, in this task of deployment, there has been an outstandingly favourable factor, the defeat of the submarine offensive — which could not, of course, be counted upon at Casablanca in January when sinkings were still serious. There has been a dramatic change. The abatement in the sea menace has made it possible to lay up great stores at home and overseas for the next offensives. Even with this advantage, in its suddenness and completeness almost as much of a “windfall” as the surrender of Italy, it was apparently not possible to hasten the timetable of attack more than has been done. Mr Churchill’s explanation of the implacable limits set by the logistical problem of moving modern forces in large-scale amphibious operations seemed at one point to place the main responsibility upon a shortage, not of ships, but of landing craft. >’ t i •. > .it f •

The gap between the Battles of Sicily and Italy was set, it seems, by “the time necessary to disengage each landing craft from the beaches of Southern Sidy”; they had to be repaired, re-loaded and ordered and arranged for the next expedition. If it is true that the speed and diversity of Allied deployment in the new European theatre is determined—whatever other resources are available and whatever the degree of sea superiority possessed—by the number of landing craft available, the question obviously arises whether the supply of these vessels is sufficient. It was a bold step to start their design and construction in 1941 when the time for their use was still distant, though some had suggested it even in 1940, states the Economist, and it would be more than a pity if other claims upon labour, plant and materials were now to hobble, for lack of landing craft, the great forces that stand poised to spring.