EVACUATION FROM FLANDERS

Camp News, Volume 1, Issue 29, 28 June 1940, Page 7

EVACUATION FROM FLANDERS

Great British Spirit ■ ■ . - * ‘ ' ' LD SOLDIERS’ COMMENT ON ACTION ;ew Zealand has its share of ' that rld-wide affliction, the prophet of b but he received many a rebuff ■erday from the wave of courageous fidence that swept over the people ;he news of the wonderful success what . may have been' the greatest .•guard action in history—the evacumof the British Expeditionary co from Flanders. 'he buoyant spirit was. particularly Evidence among ex-servicemen, whose of the quality' of the nation, by reason of experience, is >bably keener than the average, laid an old Anzac who fought in the Uipoli landing, and at the Daisy ch, and was in the evacuation : “The iof the invincibility of the Geris, through their weight of machines land and in the air, has gone, jler’s- boast that through mass air thing the British Navy . cannot 'ate in narrow’ waters is completely moved.”

.other ex-soldier who was a Conitible remarked: “In his book >’r said that Germany must avoid ict with the British, because he L that we are stickers. . Well, he not avoided the conflict, and now las had another lesson in the city of the British soldier, the et of which lies not only? in training (inheritance, but also -in that trefoils asset of our system—the ‘t of mutual respect which exists I?en officers and men.’’ The Navy ■his asest in high degree. So also ’the Army, and particularly -the hr Army. Hence the amazing stan- )’ of co-operation and 'the sense of jnal -responsibility throughout

' . Airman Smiles. . An airman with Home experience . • ‘ Yes, we’ve got it on the Hun all right, but believe me he has "not yet ound out what is coming to him in the air,”, he said. More on the subject of air warfare he would not say, but the aura of confidence that emanated, from him could almost be felt. ... 1 feel like telling some of my friends that they should knock off listening to the radio, otherwise in the future when men are" talking about hat they did in this war they will have to say they were regular listeners,” he said. "Anyway, if they .insist on making listening more than a sparetime job they should not inflict their gloomy reactions upon others. The radio jitterbug is infectious and the disease is bad, particularly in this remote little country,’ where not enough of us are doing anything that matters. Sometimes I would like to be whisked off to England to get cheered up by people; who are facing it with the great traditions of the centuries to uphold them.”.

A New Zealand soldier of the last war recalled a story .he heard in an English country house from a gunner officer who had' been in the retreat from Mons. “One morning,’' the officer said, ”our O.C. gave us a little talk, and declared that the time had now arrived when the battery must sacrifice itself for the army. We prepared to die as gallantly as’ possible, but after fighting all day .we managed to withdraw to a new position at night. The next morning he again told us that we must now sacrifice ourselves. Again, we fought and got away. Next morning he repeated his conviction, but again he was wrong, and. by the time the line was established we .'began to wonder if the O.C. was rather disappointed that'the'battery had not won special fame by sacrificing itself.’ ' Through this levity one felt the spirit of Alons, and today all over Britain and on every craft that helped in the evacuation of the B.E.F. the’ same kind of story is being told with the same touch of levity, - proclaiming the. same old spirit. Hence the general confidence, the inner light of the soul of the' British people, against which the : enemy ' cannot prevail. Finally, a sailor of the'last war*

“Get it into your head” —and he spoke | with intensity—••that if the Navy says ' it can do a job it will do it if allowed. ! If Roger Keyes says the Navy can take a port up a Norwegian fiord or take j troops off a beach under fire, it .means that the thing can be done. Our admirals do not guessthey know? ! And the lower deck knows they know.’