ENGLISH A YEAR OF WAR

Serial Waves, Volume 1, Issue 3, 3 September 1940, Page 3

ENGLISH A YEAR OF WAR

At 11 o-RcLock- today Britain entered...on. the„2nd-year of war as a unite! nation, she took up arms to defend those principles of international conduct upon which the peace prosperity and happiness of ,_all peoples depend, and to which the whole ideology of Nazi-ism stands opposed. The first year of war has brought many disappointments from a military point of view, but far from being disheartned or displayed, the British people start a 2nd year of hostilities with their confidence r confirmed and their determination even more set than 12 months ago.. Within a week of the outbreak the Wax 4 Cabinet made the famous decision to '‘base their policy on the assumption that the war will last for t 3 years or more,-. That declaration has been justified again and again by * events. Knowledge that it was based on a fundamentally and essentially » true appraisal of factors underlying the strength of Britain and the weakness of the Nazis won for it the approval, of our whole people and Pthe thought of it has brought renewed faith in every crisis. It found its last echo 14 days ago in the speech of the Prime Minister. 0 Our offensive springs are being slowly compressed and we must resolutely and methodically prepare ourselves for the campaigns cf 1941 & 1942 - campaigns which, as he remarked later, would be by no means exclusively defensive. The confidence of Britain and the Empire at the start of another-year is not the result 9 in many,of obstinate complacency, but arises from a reasoned conviction that Hitler’s Blitzkreig was always •.-one confined to war on land and in the air and that established British sea power and potential air power confronted him with difficulties which could not be overcome by lightning strokes. The unchallenged supremacy of the Royal Navy,and the quality of the R A F .... will .give to every British man and woman the assurance of final victory . The Nazis have exhausted the advantage which careful concentrated preparation for aggression gave to the German military forces. They are now faced with the irresistably growing strength which Britain has summoned for • their overthrow, behind which stands the faith of all the British Nations of the world.