THE CHINA MAIL, AUGUST 6, 1941.
CHINA MAIL
WINDSOR HOUSE
THE SHADOW OF
NAPOLEON
Through the fog of claim and counter-claim the certainty has emerged that the Germans have sustained a check. Per- - haps it is only momen- tary, and the battle will roll on to-morrow; even so, in six weeks of heavy fighting they have achiev- ed no strategic success comparable to the Sedan break-through, they have clearly failed to cut the Red Army into fragments or paralyse any great sections of it. So Napo- leon, advancing in the famous summer of 1812, with his earlier version of the same tactics of speed and encirclement, con- sistently failed to close his pincers, to bring off his combinations or secure the decisive battle on which he counted. And so the pale ghost of that earlier corporal looms, just a little larger than before, just a shade more ominous, over the Hitler field headquarters.
-
MM
H.K.V.D.C.
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN AN “OSTRICH” KICK?
"Shooting War" Seen
have
1940,
Hitler's barge fleets ap- peared in the Channel by a small force of Cana- ports we all saw Napo-dans, later by a larger
force. The strength of the leon's
flatboats at
British
War.
course
By Hanson W. Baldwin
of
be
It is curious how that shadow has grown.
We The war has reacted two mat- American troops, who will as effective—a great increment
will its strength
be added to the jor crises As the greatest cam- sume sole responsibility for were reminded of it
during the paign in military history approa- defence
of British attempt to defeat Reichs- fuehrer Hitler's counter-blockade. years ago, it now seems-es its climax in Western Russia, the
But these things is
cannot port. in Spain. With the first United States sailors and marines
Reykjavik, Iceland's have landed in Iceland, 600 stat- 950 miles from Julianehaab, done, Iceland cannot be guarded crash of bombs on Polandute miles from German-occupied Greenland,
of where America' indefinitely without shooting; it was evident that these, Norway.
troops are already stationed, and; this there is no doubt. They were makers of history Julianehaab in turn is 1,000 miles American objectives in il in a sense that was never For the American occupation of from St. Johns, Nfld.. another "shooting war" are not yet defin-
iceland mut
mealculable American outpost, true of 1914-'18, were
which in turned, however, Are we still fight- consequences upon the course of is 1.250 miles from New York. - Napoleonic times.
ing a war of limited liability, a When the war.
As planes must fly-with stops strategically defensive war, in by at Teeland has been occupied
these intermediate Decan which some of our n.ilitary British troops since May,
for the strength is to be used
an out- purpose of preventing
of Great right German defeat Britain and the British Empiro? troops at their maximum Wad
Or is the occupation of Iceland Boulogne; and when he estimated popularly at 60,000 to
the first step in what eventually 80,000 men, but it is doubtful af
is to become an "all-out" offen- switched his 'planes and
it reached more than one-third
sive effort, not only to prevent tanks from the invasion to one-half of these figures.
the
defeat of Britain, but to These British troops, who have
insure the defeat of Germany? of Britain to sudden, been guarding Iceland against
Until these questions are answer- German the possible
seizure and crashing victory in
therefore, ed the extent of U.S. participa- hence a German threat to the Balkans, it was Napo-northern sea approaches to
3,200 miles away, a distance that tion in the war cannot be gauged. the
is shortened by direct, great- But it is already evident that leon, swinging suddenly British Isles--670 miles away -
circle routes to about 2,834 miles. that participation, regardless of
considerable.: objective, must be eastward to Austerlitz, all will now be withdrawn gradually
Held Implied
to Iceland The garrison sent - over again. But it could Although the British will retain
probably must eventually grow use Iceland as ú Geographically and strategically to the equivalent of at least two not be; everything was the right to
naval base, and possibly as an there are differences of opinion divisions, perhaps more. It must different, politics, tactics, air base, the British garrison as to whether or not Iceland is
will be entirely replaced by part of the Western Hemisphere. anti-aircraft regiments and coast weapons, economics, pro-
This does not now matter. For artillery. The latter may take paganda. The parallel
Iceland, whether or not it was over the coast defence guns thei a patent illusion. lying motive. And just as pertinent to Western Hemisphere British
already have installed was already protected (though an ammunition problem Yet, with all the differ- the last years of the Napo- defence
United ences of time and tempo, leonic empire saw it meet- by British troops who are probably would be involved) but
better trained and equipped for States troops will probably bring relatively their own anti-aircraft guns and
was
and freed for duty elsewhere.
outposts-Iceland
is,
include a considerable number of)
the parallel only grows, ing the main shock upon such a task than the will relieve all other equipment with them.
them.
nouncement.
"I have
the
communications in the
and
naval
British