Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 1941. A NEW WAR CHAPTER OPENED.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 1941. A NEW WAR CHAPTER OPENED.

TX itself and in the possibilities it opens up the daylight attack X made by British aircraft on enemy aerodromes and other objectives in the Pas de Calais area on Friday last is a momentmis even! in the war. This was the first great daylight attack by a strong British force directly and deliberately challenging the enemy, although in the past course of the war there have been many daring daylight attacks by small British lormations on particular objectives. In Fridays operation, the l.vitish bombers and their escort of a hundred lighters made a deliberate progress over the enemy-occupied areas which were the object of their attack, carried out their purpose almost without opposition, though three enemy machines were shot down and a number damaged on the ground, and returned home onl\ when that purpose had been fully accomplished.

A remarkable contrast appears between the character and results of this enterprising expedition and the experience ol the Germans when they launched much greater forces in air attacks on Britain. It is said that on Friday the Germans were taken by surprise, Iml they wore al no greater initial disadvantage in this respect than Britain was in August and September, the months of the Gorman air debacle. From August S to September 30, 1940. a period which covers that ol the great enemy daylight attacks on Britain. Germany lost over and around Britain 2.185 aircraft and several times that number of airmen. In the same period, Britain lost 613 fighting planes, but the pilots of 313 were .saved. It will be recalled that on August 15, 180 Gorman planes were shot down in Britain at a cost of 34 British machines, with half of their pilots saved. On August 18, 153 enemy aircraft were shot down —as against 22 British fighters, with 12 of the pilots saved.

Friday’s sweep of British aircraft over one of the French Channel coast areas which the Nazis seek to develop as an invasion base has already been followed by another reported today. The enemy is not obviously well placed to defend himself against such attacks. In occupying almost the whole western coastline of continental Europe, from Norway to Spain, the Germans have acquired many bases for air and sea attacks on Britain and on British commerce. All bases oi this kind, as well as many inland areas, have become, however, possible objectives of attacks like those made by British air squadrons on Friday and Saturday. There seems to !)(’ no possibility of the enemy building up al these numerous and widely separated points any such effective defensive organisation as his own formations encountered in their air attacks on Britain in daylight.

Germany already is hard hit by the clients of the persistent bombing by the 11.A.F. of military and industrial targets in enemy and occupied territory. The daylight sweep made by British planes on Friday may well prove to hi* tin 1 opening move in a new and highly important phase ol the air offensive already developed’and extended with so much gallantry and success. Apart from the extent to which German war industry in general has suffered under British bombing, as well as naval bases, ports and other objectives, the oil position wears a very serious aspect from the Nazi point of view. Eighty per cent of the oil refineries of (lie Reich have been and are being bombed methodically by the R.A.F. and experts anticipate, the “Manchester Guardian slated some six weeks ago, that “Germany will be in oil difficulties within the next six months and Italy probably before then."

In combination with this factor and others, prospects of a new and punishing development of the British air offensive in Western Europe may be expected to make Hitler more than oyer inclined to stake all his hopes on some desperate bid for an early decision. His jackal ally is being beaten badly, as Dr Hugh Dalton has observed, in Libya, Albania, on the sea and in Hie air, and Germany’s own position, relatively io that of Britain and her Allies, is deteriorating steadily in a number of respects. Hitler in fact is in a situation in which failure to make some great and early effort for victory would he t.inia mount to admitting the inevitability of ultimate defeat. AMERICA AND THE ALLIES. f pHAT history-making measure, the Aid to Britain Bill, which is now before the United States Congress, does not ojx-n up a new |>olicy, but provides for a great, vigorous and enterprising expansion of a policy already in operation. Under President Roosevelt's leadership, the United States has been from an early stage of the present war a non-belligerent ally of Britain and of other countries that are lighting to smash totalitarian aggression and tyranny. That being so, talk by the Nazis tu the v!!eet that their attitude towards the United States will be determined by the volume of American aid given to Britain and her allies, and by the rate at which it is given, becomes purely nonsensical. President Roosevelt, in the words of a current commentator. has made it plain that ;f Hitler likes to see an act of war in what the United States is now doing, he is quite al liberty to do so. The same facts provide an answer io criticisms of the Aid to Britain Hill by representatives of the isolationist minority in the United States One or two isolationist Senators have said that the Bill authorises the President to declare war and a similar view has been expressed by Mr Thomas Dewey, who was at one time a prime favourite in the running for the Republican Party Presidential nomination, but who was turned down eventually by the party because it was recognised that his isolationist ideas were not acceptable to the nation. The actual position, m»w well defined. is that President Roosevelt, with the backing of a great part of the nation, believes that a free call on American material resotiret s m assixtinj! Britain and her allies will make it t.nm-cessai ( Er the United States to enter the war as a belligerent. <r at all v'.'cnl'- will reduce the likelihood of her having to do If the attitude of the isolatioiii.-1.-- mean: an) ’Jung, it no m- ‘.hot if they had their way they would withhold aid from Britain am! the Allies or restrict it within much narrower limits that are provided for in Jhc Aid to Britain Bill It is precisely this policy >.f ; ,-<t; i.-t.-d assistance to the democracies, however, that has l»-<-n rejected, m', only by Prexjdtnt Itoos.-ve!',, but by a great niapllty <1 Allie! dm h' - Pie and their representatives in Cotigre.<ai the ground that it would undermine and endanger the -t-curii) of the Umu-d Statm. Wth the America!, nation behind him. Pre: .dent R'«- eve!’, h;c •aidiThirikmg in terms of today and tomorrow, 1 make the dine: statement to the .Amei lean people that there is tar h-chanre ■ ( ti:«United States getting into the war if wi- cio ail we can m-w • ;ija ■ -rt the nations defending thciniulvi ■■: mailin’. atUii i: by the Axi- than if we acquiesce in their defeat, submit tamely tn ;m As vmtmv. ..- ■» await our turn to be thy obp-vt of a’.’ack m an,other war I,. 1 .. s Tile Aid to Brilam Bill gives full i:N et :•> the p- licy h<-re mm-’ a policy which lain account primarily of the ipt'-rc-’? ;?<•. ■■ ‘ United Suites. It is no doubt quitr true that a pohey under which a British battleship might be repaired if i.e.-H be m th<- p,. .Ama Xe.y Yard, i- from th, Nan '■ nd] oin! highly pr The .ih; • 11. g fact liov,-t r. that. !<•■' the.r ..i <. '.he Aim'liCim ; a <. a" - ' afford I-- be ariythiiig ch..- th.m pruvocaUVe tuA'ard' the g;nu> da ‘ 'V. .1, A .'!.»■ r.'.o- '• . .ol.i’.H 1..! <' <. ’ Iler fI ,- -. t ■ .- <!<•!., ' ‘ : ' • ;.i J to a belief I!;..! th'. ■ a a<- • a ■ ■ pipe..ted, or arc 1,r«.-p.ir<-d t ' • Xp- .<• till :r <-'..;:;t:-s l - • to f.jfht (of it 1 ' life ai and ’.maided