Nazi Plan
What are the chances of a Ger- man attempt at an invasion of Britain?
A day or so ago I asked one of the R.A.F. chiefs for his opin- ion. He had no hesitation In saying that the threat of invasion was as great to-day as it has been at any time since the collapse of „France,
The Service That Never Sleeps. efficient means of communication, ried out completely by mechan- That is the 11e earned by the In this age of mechanisation,
Signals, one of the hardest-working and Royal Corps of
the employment of pigeons might least appear
almost primitive, but publicised units of the British these winged messengers are a Army.
very reliable means of communi- cation.
No feats of fighting valour
adorn the pages of their records;
field.
The speed of this laying im- pressed me immensely when I accompanied a crew of four men and an officer on a training spin across country.
on an
If Germany's air blitz during August and September had sur- corded in breaking down the R.A.F. fighter opposition there is no doubt that the attempt would already have been made.
30,000 Perished
There were persistent rumours a couple of months ago that such an attempt had, in fact, beers inade, and had failed. They arest from reports that:
The Avoid Gunfire
"layer" is a mechanical device which looks much like a Extensive experiments were at sinall agricultural implement one time carried out in the use with its driver perched of pigeons equipped 10 carry extended metal seat, with wheel
worked by auto-in hand and foot on brake small cameras matic time-shutters to secure though steering a plough. photographs of enemy positions. to
There were, however, obvious defects in such a system, which gave way to more modern means.
instead, mere accomplishment of British people: tasks
which, nevertheless, call "Keep your shirts on - he' for the same courage and heart is coming."
that make heroes There was
of the battle.
no boast, as there was
Their weapons are the 'instru- last September, that the ments they employ in supplying Luftwaffe can "drop the major fighting body.
the communicating arteries
150,000, 180,000, 300,000, No matter where the battle 400,000 kilograms of rages, there must be communica- bombs and more" on Bri- tish cities in a single day whenever it chooses to do
50.
tion; without it would be chaos
Still, the pigeon remains an and defeut, And so it devolves active member of the Corps, used on the "Signals" to establish and
maintain a continuity of contact.
Never before has the great There was, instead, value and necessity of such com- the promise of a new sub-munication been shown as in the marine campaign.
Egyptian and Libyan campaigns,
Faster Signals
By William Gibbons
the last war as a currier. The only dif-
Hitler cannot be trusted How was it done? The answer, in anything he says, or in short, is: by the synchronisa- fails to say. It is quite of the
tion of progress in the methods as it was in
"Signals" with the ad- message possible that his failure vancement of the war machinery. ference to-day is that the small
Mechanisation
In the mide of September. the Germans were having a full- dress rehearsal. Nearly 200,000 fully-armed troops had been loud. ed into hundreds of flat-bottomed, engined barges anchored number of what are now known 48 invasion ports, notably Le Havre and Cherbourg,
1
Just as the operation was being earried out R.A.F. bombers made a terrible attack, blasting men and barges to picces,
Between 30,000 and 35,000 Ger- man soldiers were killed, and for more than a week afterwords their bodies were being washed French the Northern
up along
Const.
That was how the rumour got about.
of
Undoubtedly, our attacks on the invasion bares, and on the
distribution great
centre Hamm, have seriously interfered with Hitler's preparations to land But it is cer- troops in Britain. tain that there still exists a com- plete and detailed plan to co- ordinate land, sea and air attack, in the hope of getting thousands of soldiers ashore. These would probably then be supplemented by airborne troops, carried either in Junkers 52's or towed in large gliders behind these huge troop- carriers.
Army's Role
The authorities believe that at the first sign of a relaxation of vigilance on our part Hitler will make the attempt. He would, no doubt, be willing to sacrifice a great many men to achieve his great dream.
Then the real show-down would come between the R.A.F. and the Luftwaffe. If Britain's airmen could repeat the wonder- ful show they pût up at Dunkirk, Hitler would have gambled his highest card and lost.
Against such time as an attempt is made It is essential that we should go on making our coast- life more secure, and that we should maintain a strong stand- ing Armỹ at home, as
No doubt the troops would much prefer to be "having a crack at the Ities," but they have the consolation of knowing that their presence is one of the ob- stacles which Hitler fears would make his invasion venture a ghastly failure,
It is mounted on the lorry, and its 14 h.p. engine drives a pulley system of rollers and belts.
The two-mile drum of cable Is slipped on a spindle, which is actuated by S belt from the engine directly on to the spindle rollers.
It was a simple enough process when the right men were on the job, and I soon saw they were that all right. The layer engine was started up, No. 1 of the crew gave the signal to the driver, the lorry moved off, and as though in a complete motion, the cable was "spewed" out in a fountain- like manner.
to container attached has meant message
of speedier signals operations, and its legs is bakelite instead the coincidence of these big aluminium. strides in warfare
has been no
now even to mention the possibility of an invasion and his failure to boast of German air power as the decisive factor in this Take the methods of communi- able to them. war are intended deliber-cation. ately to
tallans,
There
the
He knows too, that if he gam- bled and failed He would lose caste" with his own people, and if and when that happened the end would be near.
done
Shipping Threat Meanwhile, if it has nothing more, the repeated threat of invasion has diverted many British bombers from his sorely tried industrial areas on to the invasion ports.
While he is forced to keep his army inactive, Hitler is inten- sifying his war on our shipping.
The R.A.F. Coastal Command
This is partly due also to the success of the raids on the sub- marine base, of Lorient,
other
Night Bombing
Until one side or the Ands a solution to the problem, night bombing is likely to con-
Close Contact
Pigeons, as a matter of fact, The layer driver adjusted his small factor in the rout of the | could well be used in the
East, speed to that of the lorry, and at is already being strengthened to where the climate is most suit- one time we were laying cable combat this menace to our food along a stretch of roadway skirt-supplies, More and new machines are being put into service, and But there is telephone, are
one drawback ined by hedges at 25 miles an hour!
been the reduction which has telegraph, and teleprinter lines, the presence of large numbers divert attention radio telephony,
Any slowing-up of the lorry noted during the past three weeks and wireless of hawks. Once they get wise to from plans he has in view. telegraphy, visual (lamps, flags, the course taken by the pigeons, was taken up by the layer driver, in our shipping losses is likely to
heliographs, and ground strips they wait in pairs and prey on who, with hands and feet in per- become more pronounced.
fect unison, throttled the speed Nevertheless, for what his these in conjunction with the them.
of the pulleys and operated his despatch words are worth, from the R.A.F.),
riders, and The main advantagés in
hand-brake to check the run of pigeons.
use of pigeons are their speed
the cable drum. point of view of the mor-
And, actually, most of these and stamina. They fly with a ale of the German people, could be utilised in the existing following wind up to 60 miles an For the return trip pulley belts conditions atmospheric espect-hour, and can cover distances up were reversed on the rollers so it is at least significant ally in the Middle East.
to 600 miles.
that the drum revolved anti- that he now promises no early end of the war, to be achieved by a miracul- ous new weapon. His em- phasis is back on the same old weapons of the same old regime that once be- A wireless transmitting set can fore led the German ped-
be located by the enemy; - Sö. It ple to complete disaster the submaritie and the slow war of attrition.
-
Hence the tremendous value of They are not affected by gun-clockwise, and the cable was the "Signals,"
fire or gas (they would fly well wheeled in. above it), and are difficult to in-
For normal operations the layer tercept.
lorry is followed by "builders" The Corps of Signals to-day two lorries, each with a crew of have their mobile, lofts ench two housing 80 pigeons, which are
whose task it is to erect built on trailers and towed by houses, etc., and make the cable poles at crossings, farm gutės, Torry from place to place:
Circumstances, of course, dic tate the form of signalling to be adopted, but line and cable com- munication are commonly used. There is one big advantage here wireless in that greater over secrecy can be obtained.
is that wireless telephony Has In recent times; been brought into use to a midir greater extent. **Radio, all the stine, will always fake Ith place as one of the most
Laying Cables
secure.
tinue, unabated. Both' nations are to invent working their hardest something which will enable the defenders to find the bombers in the dark.
There is no single remedy, but reason to believe that Britain will be the first to dis- cover how to make night bomb ing too expensive. Already some. progress has been made, Thé Heinkels and Dorniers are finding
the
So you see how it is, with the many efficient methods of com- Cable-loying is one of the major munication, that such a close 'opérations' In high-speed signials ||jaison is maintainét, right · from | it increasingly difficult to force work. Even the laying of cablès headquarters to units in the fore- their way through to the moro along the hedgerows is now caf- Irdit of the battle,
strongly defended zones.