1
·
THE CHINA MAIL, AUGUST 20, 1941.
CHINA MAIL
"WINDSOR HOUSE
BOMBS OVER MOSCOW
No capital in the world| offers a target to the bomber as conspicuous as the Kremlin. This is a city within a city, the secret fortress of a Gov- ernment which the Com- missars of the People took over from the oldest and most absolute Czars. The high walls are broken by towers and turrets that jut sharply into the sky. Within the vast enclosure are palaces and churches crowned with spires and bubbling domes that are, doubly reflected in a wide bend of the Moscow River. It would be strange if the German raiders failed to score a hit on this shining mark in their initial attack, as the Rus sians claimed. The Nazis said that twelve bombs struck the "Kremlin area" and started fires in Soviet administration buildings. Whatever the truth, eyewitnesses agree
that
the Luftwaffe
WHILE THE GOING'S GOOD
DUNKIRK
EPIC
TO
OF
THE
THE
BISMARCK:
SEAS
unthinkable. From the unbeliev- has
has failed to inflict From the unbelievable to theber of times in which the Navy | the promotions that have follow- serious damage on the
delivered powerful blows ed upon recent successful naval able miracle of Dunkirk to the against the enemy without it-operations carried out at relative- city or to demoralise the unthinkable destruction of the self suffering any loss at all.
ly small cost. unsinkable Bismarck lie twelve population.
There was the Battle of Cape months of which, in the words Malapan, in which Admiral Sir Besides offensive operations, of A. V. Alexander, "our naval | Andrew Cunningham's force des- carried out
on 2 line The hardy Muscovites history has probably never seentroyed a third of the effective that stretches from the
the like."
strength of the Italian fleet.
Lofoten islands of Norway to The end of May, 1940, to the The British ships returned to Mogadishu in Italian East Africa, end of May, 1941, was for the Bri-their base with not a scratch or upon the Navy has fallen the task tish Navy a year of stirring, glori- a dent to show that one of the in the past 12 months of being ous achievement.
most memorable battles of the war prepared at any moment, at the had been fought.
shortest warning, to smash any Tripoll-Italy's chief naval base attempt at invasion by sea, and in North Africa-was pulverised at the same time to meet the full by our guns without the slightest weight of the offensive launched has such loss or damage to our own forces, by Germany against our Atlantic before by a Vice-Admiral Sir James Somer- | supply line. The full
bear the ordeal of the blitz with calmness and courage. But what are the reflections of Joseph'
Deprived of its French ally, it had to carry out alone a task
Never in history
a
story
The Navy's Year
single fleet, or even
bination of fleets.
by a com- ville took the Renown, the Ark of the Battle of the Atlantic Royal, the Malaya, and the Shef- cannot yet be told, but the sinking And yet, notwithstanding losses, field right into the jaws of Genoa's of the Hood off Greenland reveal-
to-day, as Chur-shore batteries and sailed away ed the fact that we are using- it can be said chill could say but a few weeks again without as much as the loss capital ships to patrol the Allan- ago, that the Royal Navy re-of a single man after wrecking tic. mains essentially as intact as it was in September, 1989,
That gives the measure of the enormous burden placed upon the Navy during the past 12 months. There are no idle ships in this war, no rusting keels
Stalin, supposing he which, In 1918 was shared by keeps vigil in the Kremlin five fleets. while Hitler's incendiaries burden been borne rain on the roofs of the Soviet capital? Moscow was the last city that was expected to be bombed. Stalin had manoeuvred to turn the tide of battle away from Russia. He had plotted, to insure the Soviet Union against in- volvement in a struggle which was to ruin the
the famous Ansaldo arms factory, setting are to oil tanks, putting rest of the world and leave. The Bismarck was destroyed, the main Genoa power station out Russia immune from at- unfortunately at the cost of the of action, and causing havoc in Hood, but a striking feature of docks, railway yards, and among tack from any quarter naval engagements of the past the Italian ships in the harbour. Since June of last year not only and all-powerful when year-a year packed with naval
The sweep of the Adriatic early has the Navy had to meet and history has indeed been the num- this year was carried out, includ counter the full force of the Ger the belligerents were ex
ing the bombardment of Valona, man offensive in the Atlantic, it hausted. If his thoughts sia as a means of stopping without loss or damage to any of has had to keep the supply lines open to the Near East, assist in turned back to another the war in the west, if he the ships taking part.
The sweep of the Eastern and land operations and keep the Ita- night in the Kremlin hoped that his enemies Central Mediterranean in Octo-lian Fleet bottled up; it has also when he rubbed his would be diverted from ber last, during which three Ita- found time to shell Calais, Dun- lian warships were caught in the kirk, Ostend, Cherbourg, Valona, hands in satisfaction as their purpose provided he net and destroyed, was accom Genoa, Kismayu, Mogadishu, Sidí Ribbentrop and Molotov turned the full weight of plished at the cost of a few casua- Barrani, Sollum, Bardia, Derna,
ties on board the cruiser Ajax.
Benghazi and Tobruk, as well as signed the fatal pact that his war machine on the The amazing exploit at Cher cooperate with land operations in started the war, the first Soviet Union, he must be bourg, when British warships, Greece and Crete.
their engines roaring at full speed; || German bomb must have cruelly disappointed to dashed into the enemy-occupied Not all naval operations, how- harbour, pounding it with 10,000 ever, have been without losses. fallen on his ears like the see that this grandiose tons of explosives, was a dares And here there is a lesson to be crash of a great boomer plot has failed. The rum- devil action which cost us noth- learned. If the loss of the Hood is excluded, it can be said that ang. Perhaps his citadel ours of peace talk in this ing in ships or men
the greater part of our naval
have been in was unscarred, but Stalin vein that spread in All these were successful offen losses sat nevertheless amid the Ankara and other centres sive actions completely upsetting waters, such as in Norway and the old theory, which among the Greek islands, where has its adherents in the manoeuvrability of ships is wreckage of his policy suggest that the Russian still and the ruin of his plans campaign, like all its pre- some quarters, that you reduced and where the proximity have a naval victory without of enemy shore bases gives enemy The flares dropped on decessors, was under heavy losses!
aircraft a local advantage. Moscow were the inexor- taken in a final desperate In 1800 Admiral Cochran was But the Navy has faced this refused a request that one of his new factor of naval strategy un- able backfire of the shells attempt to end the fight officers should be promoted after flinchingly. It has carried out its that in days past exploding on Hitler's terms. If an engagement in which a super-duty, intervened where necessary
lor Spanish force was captured on regardless of danger. ed over Warsaw.
this is true, and if the ef- the grounds that the small num- On three historic occasions, in The thoughts of Adolf fect of the drive east is ber of men killed (14) did not Norway, Dunkirk and Greece Its Hitler could hardly have only to strengthen and The gallant old admiral re- ler's land campaigns from achiev been less grim and bitter encourage the forces of torted that Nelson's ship, the Vic-ing their full purpose the anni as he launched the attack resistance, then bombing city had come out of the de- hilation of a British expedition-
cisive Battle of Trafalgar with ary force
in 12 months the Navy has. on Moscow. For if he con- of Moscow spells also the even fewer losses
That standards have changed saved nearly 400,000 troops from ceived the assault on Rus- failure of Hitler's policy since Cochran d-days is shown by what seemed an inescapable doom
..
warrant promotion!"
can't
narrow
Intervention has 'frustrated Hit-