THE CHINA MAIL, DECEMBER 14, 1940.
CHINA MAIL Can Britain Still
WINDSOR HOUSE
GENERAL HERTZOG
General Hertzog
who
resigned in a huff from
These views on the possibility of|
·
..
a German invasion of Britain
appeared in "News Review",
(London) of September 5:—
Can it be sancly said
ignoring the lessons of its
Invaded?
Be
big.
Iventions; that "the fiction of
attack was invented as a means to heighten. British prestige," ac- cording to the "Frankfurter Zel- 'tung" ́n - week; ago.
that Britain is once more the ports of Dover and Folkestone, anywhere on the invasion coast- the leadership of the Re-
have had their unloading facilit-¡line. A story that "Ave, divisions The weather is to a Briton's own history by waiting fortes left untouched, Deliberately? | of troops reported to be massed on conversation what roast beef, united Nationalist Party!
an invasion which may not come? Or because the Nazi pilots are the French beaches opposite the Yorkshire pudding and two veg..
unable to hit them anyway? south-east coast ready to be em-aré to: his diet-practically a has now resigned his
The Prime Minister is a wise
barked for an attempted invasion necessity.. were bombed and completely dis- membership of Parlia-man, but is it possible that he is
organised by the R.AF" was em-
Yet the weather has never been following the example of previous
phatically denied by the Air Min-
so important to Britain. If Hitler 'Germany's most powerful strik- [istry. ment and retired from British rulers who have been mis-
taken as to the chances of inva-ing-weapon has already been
is to attempt an invasion with one chance in ten of succeeding, he thrown into the Battle of Britaing Private Individuals and military must have "Hitler Weather-the further political activity. ston? Or does he seek by his Whether they are out to blockade men watching the French coast kind that by Nazi tradition always
powerful glasses and almost non-stop reiteration of the the Island kingdom, or to test its through
air defences, Nazi pilots have been telescopes say that they can some graces the Fuehrer's efforts, even attacking steadily since August 8. times see old fortification works shine on him as he adcepts a if the sun is required only to Back at home, the training of and small troop movements go- parachutists has continued, Eerlin ing on, but on nothing like the bouquet from some flaxen-haired
little-tot. boasting that its paratroops will scale necessary for an invasion. not miss the signposts which have
But the admittedly revolting been removed because "they exch
During the past few weeks con- British have three cases of maps and centrations of troops in Norway little Hitler Weather, and most of.
climate provides very plans."
have even been moved back to 1940's is already past. The leaves Germany again. German soldiers are thinking of turning brown; the The appearance over Britain for still live and sleep on 30 or 40-evenings are drawing in; red four-engined machine seems also Trondheim, apparently to accus-blackberries in the the first time recently of a ton fishing smacks moored near blackberries are becoming black- hedges; the
Don't Relax warning to keep Brit- ons on the alert, knowing that the threat of invasion is the best possible incentive to high-speed production?
No-one will question the wisdom of the decision.
The parting of the ways between General Hertzog
Such speed of production is es and his following occurred sential for the plans of a Britain
| which definitely intends some day
when the latter refused toj to turn and rend the aggressor in adopt General Hertzog's his own country, and in the coun-to indicate that the Nazis intend tom themselves to sea conditions swimming pools are closing
to try to land troops from the air, and overcome sen-sickness. A down. and are testing out their transport sea-sick army landing on the planes to see how they will get British coast would certainly be
tries which he has conquered.
programme providing
Every single piece of evidence equal rights for English-for and against the chances of in- vasion is laid on the Cabinet table. speaking and Afrikaans- speaking people. The rac- ial division between these two sections of the people which indicates that it may come has been for the last quar- is the intense training of German Army units for attack against ter of a century a contest-strongly fortified shore positions. ed issue in South Afri- is said, in the use of rowing boats.
The biggest straw in the wind
Nazi troops are being trained, it
and in climbing the high cliffs of
and high cliffs are twin brothers
in dim history been joined together
can politics. Fusion was Brittany, where the coastal strips temporarily achieved in to those of England, having 1932-33 by the Nationalist by nature's act of union. followers of General Hert-
Hitler apparently believes that
fled hills close behind them, for in
zog and General Smuts' Britain's coastal defences have South African Party form-weak outposts with heavily-forti- ing the United Party mock attacks carried out by Ger- which governed the coun-in other places, the first-line de-
man Army units near Dunkirk and
as easily
try till the outbreak of the fences were dismissed
overcome, Using heavy mortars,
war.
anti-tank guns and machine-gums, the brave invaders walked boldly When the Union de-up the beaches and then settled down to a “hard struggle" for the clared war against Hitler, hills behind, which soon fell, of course, before the invincible mil- General Hertzog was suc-itary might of Germany. ceeded by General Smuts
were
A funny picture is conjured up|
These are little things, but they [are signs that very soon the skies in the short daytime will be too cloudy for good bombing, and that the waters of the English Channel and North Sea will be too rough for the flat-bottomed scows of the hotchpotch Nazi ar- mada.
Why shouldn't the Hun come over in November, when the fog screens the seas, and the waves are temporarily stilled? ask some | "far-sighted" fearful-thinkers, `
He cannot come in November, because the weather is more un- suitable for air warfare then than at almost any other time.
come
Well, why shouldn't he over in the frosty weather around Christmas, when the air is clear and airmen can. see? argues, the persistent pest,
Because the rough seas would do what was done to the last ar- mada to approach Dover's off- white cliffs; because of the cold: because of the shortness of the days; because Germany will have
Europe in subjection through the winter months; for
very
many other reasons
through the British defences. The too easy for any sporting British its hands full keeping a starved only Luftwaffe aeroplanes to sport commander to attack. four engines, apart from sea-
to the Channel coast and cover the invasion of Britain.
The Nazl intelligence men can-planes, are the Junkers 89 and 90,
But many of the troops have as Premier. The Hertzog not therefore be doing their job and the Focke-Wulf Condor, all returned to Danzig, Stettin and over-well, for the British defen- capable of carrying troops, but other German ports in the large and Malan Opposition ces-in-depth begin at the pebble also fitted as bombers.
Baltic steamers which were to nearest the salt water, and end
have been used for the invasion. thereupon set itself to nowhere in the country.
Training in attacks against rocky coasts have practically ceased in wreck the Government's
this war arena, possibly because
Then why not now, in the last War Measures Bill but by news that German troops are Thousands of new gas sprays ten per cent. of the men being few weeks of good weather?, failed. The Smuts Cab- taking mass instruction in breast-and containers intended to be trained to jump off cliffs on horse
stroke swimming along the Baltic dropped from the sky have been back and swim out to sea became Because Hitler, as the evidence
The gas casualties.
above goes far to prove, is
not inet, on the other hand, coast. By the left, ein, zwel, ein, built by the Germans.
zwel
they contain is of the arsenical
ready; and because, even if he daily gained strength by
type successfully used against the Other indications that Germany were, he would face the risk of Funnier still is the report that Liege forts, but rendered harmless does not intend invasion imme- having to carry on his campaign its efficiency and the re-Nazi soldiers are learning to use by the new fittings on civilian diately are many. One that has through the long winter months, created some interest is an an-with all the snags attached to straint with which it met the bag-pipes captured from the masks.
51st Highland Division which was
nouncement by the German auth- such a rash venture. obstructionist tactics. surrounded at Saint Valery, pre-
Invitations have gone forth from orities that their aircraft have
It takes a wishful-thinker or a sumably in order to swing their the Berlin Propaganda machine to mined several British harbours.
man to state, when General Hertzog's hopes way through Scotland un-noticed. journalists in many European Such mine-laying would hamper courageous
most of Britain expects, an at- How would # killed goose-step countries-especially Spain to go German invasion moves.
tempted invasion, that Hitler will: of a political come-back look!
chiefly based on
Similarly, Hitler seems to have not invade this year; that he will spoilt his own plans by opening wait until next year, when it will the possible defection of
Tucked safely away In Kato-fire with some of the guns which be far too late. Nature would wice, German-occupied Poland, he has ranged along 50 miles of help us to beat off an attack in the Afrikaaners who have
Nazi Liar Josef Goebbels snarls: the French channel coast. These 1940, and by 1941 we shall need joined General Smuts, on
On the sea, Germany seems to "Various British voices have been guns were to have been used to none of her help.
But (and there nearly always the war issue. The split in be holding her naval vessels in raised, recently which give the provide a barrage-flanked corridor reserve for Der Tag. Not overmuch impression that London is getting across the Channel down which
The invading transports would pass is a "but" in dealing with That the opposition has there-is heard of the U-boats, and even impatient of waiting for it.
less of the much-vaunted E-boats, German Army will give a smart (NR. August 29.) The positions Man) it may well be that mad- fore strengthened the or fast M.T.B.'s. Germany is re- answer to these eager gentlemen of these batteries would not be hatter Hitler will press the inva
parted to be, massing large num- at a given time the Fuehrer given away until the arrival at sion button this year in sheer
Der Tag, but when the guns open-desperation or foolhardiness. hands of General Smuts. bers of flat-bottomed scows fitted determines the right hour."" ed up in an abortive serics of at-
It is certain that when he be tacks on British convoys und¦ Meanwhile the party of with engines and capable of carry-
ing 36 men each. These scows Napoleon also talked of the coastal towns, the RAF were gan the blitzkrieg Hitler planned which General. Hertzog are stacked in bigger ships one given time, and of the right hour. soon able to locate them by their for the end of the war by this summer. But for British heroism on top of another like half-pint
and cunning at Dunkirk and Oran, was leader is embarking glasses piled ready for use, and would be floated from the mother
his plans would have been much on a course described by ships about 15 miles off shore.
Unless they are more examples closer to fulfilment, for Britain thought capable, The British Secret Service of Nazi trickery, the arguments would have been in a very ticklish him as the road to perdi- They are not sorting oven one well what it is about, and now being produced in the Ger- position indeed. It would have tion. He has himself got light tanks, or other mechanical a major concentration of troops man Press would seem to indicate taken a lot of muddling through
equipment.
anywhere could not remain unde- that Germany does not intend in- to win the war minus the B.E.F. out in time to regain some
tected by it. From its reports, vasion. These articles claim that men and the French Navy, If Germany intends to use authoritative London circled state the German Army Command has 1951 the respect he lost in tanks agomst Britain, she must that no evidence whatever has never had any idea of attacking With his plans thus miserably pursuit of narrow anti- leave
good quays upon which the tanks invasion is imminent, or that there the various dates fixed for the native but to attack this year, may be unloaded. Oddly enough, are large concentrations of troops attempt have all been British in- whatever his chances of succoss,
war extremism.
flashes.
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