THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 25, 1941
CHINA MAIL
-WINDSOR HOUSE
FURY OF THE AIR WAR
The finer nights of spring in Western Europe have seen the opening of new air offensives on both sides, and on a scale which foreshows the ghastly nature of the struggle te be waged during the com ing months. Both Britain) and Germany have been gathering their bombing, -strength during the win- ter, improving their de fences, and generally pre- paring for the intensified air warfare now begun. What surprises the Nazis may have in store we do not know, hut, immense as their aircraft production is known to be, it is cer- tain that they will not en joy this year some of the advantages which they possessed last autumn Then, the Luftwaffe was SO confident of its strength that it sought to over-power the British Fighter Command by' sheer weight of numbers. Never since the great bat-: tles of August and Sept- | ember has it dared to re- new the mass day raids! which the R.A.F. broke to pieces. The spring offen- sive has started with a
Yates
LEGAL
GOV'T
PRISONER OF ANOTHER “VICTORY."
General Sir Archibald Wavell, K.C.B.
continuance of night It you remember a film called this sort of remark, might have|
modelled will been
Wavell.
bombing, but the Get-"A Yank at Oxford," you mans can no longer rely forgive if I paraphrase from me-
upon
relative immunity
that
mory
The American is in
the
for first term. Opposite han is hus
what eventually, though Matting
"You could take the whole of
for their bombers flying train on his way to Oxford high in the darkness and. scattering explosives more neither knows it, turns out to be or less indiscriminately on his future tutor. selected cities. Recent at- tacks have shown British ground defences have improved, and that the night fighter is a weapon to be reckoned with. The raids cannot be checked, but they can be
range,
"All right, Gentlemen," said
(11 General Wavell, "there
be This type of mind cannot
hun.grouN. But calied witty or
devastating the that emanates from it.
commun-setise
Don't blow the
is
your answer,
wells up. Put
I thirty tons of Epsom
them "
ist Just
Again, when Derma, the
they
Italians,
Salts into
evacuated instead of
the right moment. is so rare in laying a pipe-line to Benghazi, this age of muddled thinking, brought a lot of new-fangled dis- Jorries and 'hat it romes like it refreshing tilling machines on
and makes you laugh, proceeded to disul sea water for
drinking purposes.
these islands," says the Yankeeze "and put them seven times over into the state of Kansas "
the
Pro-
"Doubtless," replies fessor, pulling his pipe, "but with
what object?"
1t is very pecuharly English.
The R.A.F. soon discovered this So much so that only we have a
the word 15 and not unnaturally wanted to word for it, and "droll In order to display this blow them all sky-high.
Of Donegall
no
One
"Please don't do that," said Wavell at a meeting with the R.A.F. Chiefs. "at least not until I ask you to. If you do the enemy will only lay a pipe-line. Mean- time, I suggest you make triply certain that you can blow the whole lot up at a minute's notice."
The
made more costly; and,j The tutor in that film, in-50- By The Marquess most important of all, far as he was continually making Britain's power to hit back has grown materially, in
since man cities are destined to weight and
The result, of course, was that share increasingly the faculty to its full advantage it is
usual to feign denseness or slow the R.A.F. blew them up just as large-scale raiding began.|
Then, when losses which Britain has thinking.
our troops were to attack. Whereas Germany has had to endure. No longer is expecting it, you hit the nail enemy had no time to lay a pipe- but to sur- right on the head with shatter-line and no choice
thirst-maddened, varied her air tactics al-is the grim competition ining precision.
render or run, to Benghazi. That's the beauty most from month to bombing to be so one-sid- General Wavell does not have of Wuvell. It's all so simple but
whether it is the difficulty is to think of it. month, searching for the ed as it has been in the to feign anything:
ski- weak places in the defen past. With great Ameri-strategy, hunting, shooting,
Sir Archibald Wavell is ing or fishing, his mind just works
the scholar of He always does ces and trying to break can bombers reinforcing like that.
Winchester-the most difficult school in England at down British resistance, the British machines, the thing that was utterly obvious
so obvious that to most people, it which to achieve a scholarship. the R.A.F. Bomber Com-war will be carried deeper comes completely unexpectedly. His chief reading is military his-
tory and he wrote
famous biography of Lord Allenby.
true.
the
"
a
mand has struck unceas- and deeper into the Reich, The only excuse for the fol- ingly at the sources of whose people will be given lowing story is that it is
In this biography there occurs a enemy military power. an opportunity to show Also it is typical of Wavell,
significant passage bearing on the Some of its resources have whether they can stand In the early days of the cam-recent rout of the Italians from. Benghazi. Allenby had to be spared for the up to the horrors of mass paign now turned in our favour, Derna and
the Italians were about to oc had routed the Turks in 1918, The almost continuous ham- bombing as stoically as cupy Sidi Barrani. At a General passage runs, quoting Allenby as
Staff Conference, Wavell's officers saying:-- mering of the "invasion the British civilian popu- had decided that the natural wells
before
"In pursuit you must always ports" and other objec-lation has done. Though must be blown up
stretch possibilitles to the limit. tives in German-occupied the course of the air war Italians occupied the town.
Troops having beaten the enemy will want to rest. They must be territory, but the raids in-cannot be safely predict- **Just a minute, Gentlemen,'
are as Lord said Wavell, and asked for the given as objectives not those that to Germany, scientifically ed, there
Chief Commissariat Officer, who you think they will reach, but the review
they could possibly and resolutely conducted, Beaverbrook's
duly arrived. Wavell asked him farthest reasons whether the wells were used for, reach," have throughout had de-shows sound
our troops. He was informed Has not Wavell been practising. finite military objectives. why Britain can look into that owing to the highly aperient
had precisely what Allenby "preached considerations the future with: confid- nature of the water they and he recorded? Other
The R.A.F. saved only been used for medicinal apart, there has been no ence.
purposes. Wavell sent for
Wavell is the world's greatest surplus strength to spare Britain against heavy chief Medical Officer. for "reprisals", as such. odds last year, and the "How much Epsom Salts have could quite safely make him Earl But it is evident from the nation's faith in its spirit you got?" he asked. He was told of Libya, to-day. Not that he opening rounds of the and power is stronger that there was 40 tons and that would care tuppence about that- only, 10 tons were needed as a but it might annoy Mussolini a
little. new campaign, that Ger- than ever to-day.
reserve.
the
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