Tuesday,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
June 18, 1940.
IMAGAZINE PAGE.
The Line We Must Never Surrender
By Major-General J. F. C. FULLER, formerly Chief Staff Officer, Tank Corps
THOUGH the Channel is unbolted, its door is as yet no more TH
than ajar. We have suffered a severe reverse: we and our Allies have been driven from part of the western const line of the North Sea and the Strait of Dover. Nevertheless, that narrow strip of water will remain English so long as our Fleet commands the sens and our Air Force the air. Therefore, let us remember these old words, which are full of wisdom:
"Fear is Failure and the Forerunner of Failure: Be thou therefore without Fear; for in the heart of the coward Virtuo abideth not."
ONCE Clive and 3,000 soldiers with their bucks to a flooded river fooed Siraj-ud-Daula at the head of 50,000 warriors on the plain of Plassey. Once Wolfe with 8,000 men faced Montealm's 14,000 'over the broad St. Lawrence with a a pre- cipitous cliff to climb. Those were the grin facts of June 23, 1757, and September 14, 1759, and be cause these two brave men did not tremble two empires were won,
Let us then, in our present pre- the simple dicament, remember words of Wolfe, when, having leapt natiore, he gazed upwards through the night and exclaimed: "I don't think we can with aný possible means get up here, but, however, we must use our best endeavours,
THOUGH the landing of a great army on our shores, as dreamt of by Napoleon in 1803, is out of the question—because, Calais or Calais, our fleet commands the sco —an air ältäck is obvious, and, as
no
It is likely to take the form of a blockade, we must expect con- contrated attacks on our ports, our airfields, our dockyards and our centres of manufacture.
That in these assaults the civil population with suster in certain, but that they will mainly bc directed against the civil will to- stead of the civil stomach. I con- skler improbable.
That our enemy will once again make use of parachutists must be reckoned with; but
8, In
my humble opinion, anything ap- proaching the
Fifth so-called Columns, which so greatly assisted him in Norway and Holland, does not exist in England, unless these "bolts from the bhie coni be backed by German troops their fallure will be patent.
Lomt ogo now I considered this problem. but the reverse way round-in-a-lecture-on-The
German Air
Air Strategy
By Dr. HERBERT ROSINSKI, formerly Lecturer
in the German Naval Academy
AIR Ministry reports show that
tu the intense air battles in France and Flanders our Aghters have inflicted heavy tosses on the enemy and have themselves. außered relatively Ught lusses, Man for man, and machine fur machine, the British are much superior to the enemy,
This article by Dr. Roginski shows that the Germans have staked everything on sumèrical superiority, aiming to exercise their utmost force from the air and not by fighting in the air.
it power was developed in Germany with a strategy of its own to fit into the larger war strategy of mobility and surprise. This was thought out before the huge мине machinery required-per- sonnel, ground and defence organi- sation and the aircraft industry- was planned as one system.
Itans at superiority in the air, not by great battles with opposing alecraft but by bombing bases and; if possible, occupying opposing alriteks.
Moss effecl rather than in- dividual effort perineates the whole ystem. Types are simplied to the utmost, and the number of
kept as small as possible. The Nighter s are designed intercept opposing bombers not to meet their Oghters. Thus the chief German fighter, the Messerschnitt 100 is much weaker in urmament than Is British counterparts, the Spitfire and the Hurricane, This is niso true of the more efficient Messerschmitt '110,"
10
Similarly the bombers, unlike the Wellingtons and the Blen-
not
helms, are
armed strongly enough to force their way through fighters; they hove to reply for safely upon evasive tactics—dis- appearance in cloud, or low flying (near the ground or
or the
sea).
The sue principle appiles to personnel. There is lack of Jaredevil pilots, drawn 'from the litter youth air training organisa- tion numbering 100,000, but the
rapid
system of training does not adequately ft them for air ghi- log. (This, at least, is the opinion of many Allled airmen who have bad encounters with them). Night fighting appears to be unknown to them.
Through forcing the system of training to un excessive degree many lives have been lost. In the rapid expansion of construction, too, many a series of aircraft have had to be sent to the scrap heap because of errors which became apparent only during actual trials.
ព
To-day the strength of the Ger- mun-air force is estimated at 9,000- first line and 7,000 second line (including reconnaissance training machines.
·35
and
Ti is backed by 30 airplane and engine factories, with 110 seperate works, employing over half-a-million people. The month- ly production now attained, it is believed. is well over 1,500 air- craft.
With 650 airflelds, 500 of which have permanent staffs, the Air Command is able to concentrate or disperse its forces with the utmost flexibility, making. It difficult for the Allies to ascertain with any certainty where the bulk of the aircraft are located.
WEEK-END HERO
E prelude came last week, after the endless anxieties of collage radio sets, cutting crucily Into the never-to-be- forgotten spring.
A volce, unused to telephoning, telephoned in the morning from the market Lown three miles nway.
"He's all right. lie's all right.” "Who?" We switched off the 8 o'clock news the belter to hear. "It's the sister of his young lady speaking. She has just
heard from Jalm. She wants you to be good enough to send down to tell his mother. He is back from France, and he is coming home here."
This ploughman's son played for the village cricket team last summer, was a passable land in the second dart team, and was learning the craft of East Anglian beam and plaster building when he was not driving the bulkler's Jorry.
Ilo was the first to be cons scripted; and he went out from these parts for the first line in his Iffe, a rawky, shy milaman. It was bad luck, they said, for he'd never make a hero, though ho would be seeing London, and the World.
This week-end he walked back a hero, like thousands of other country folk who returned from the D,E,F, to their villages:
Hls Journey, which began at Arras, ended here in the farm- yard, when he walked in, straight from the bus,. and shook handia with his Dad, who was just lead- ing out the farm horses to gruas. "for" the week-end.
He has filled out, the French sun has lanned him, he is no longer gawky, this hero whom everyone in the village is walling to shake by the hand,
Yes, he was through it all.. driving his orry, firing some- body else's rifle, using a Bren' gun, and lying walling on Dun- kirk sand. Next to him his pal was filed, the last he saw of his officer was just before a bomb fell. He Kaw a dead child lying beside the road. ·
He grins and chats; and the elders and wiseacres are silent; and his mother, who never says, much, is remembering overy word sald before his golog back on Sunday night.
He says, "That champagne, now. That's the stuff I'd nover had, and it's all right when you get the laste,"
"I suppose you get it now and then,"
"Why, It was all we had for 'food and drink for two days at the end, male." It was soon over, this Spring week-end in the still-scoure beauty of the coua- tryside, with its customary, aero- planes on guard, of which he said, "I wish I had seen as many over there."
Last night a little group of them sat in among the cow-pars- ley at the roadside, walling for the bus to take him back. 'He' jumped in, grinning and self- Assured, to be greeted by other soldiers travelling to the market town and beyond.
This week he will be remem- bered and quated in the fields and round the dart board, while he 'falls in and gets on with the job.
JOHN PUDNEY
Development of Sen Warface on Land and Ita Influence on Future Maval-Operations," given at the Royal United Service Institution on February 11, 1020, among other things, I said:
"Let us all, this time, get into uur astral aholl
"We see a stretch
of weary sand-it is the Baltic const. We sea curious ships racing through the Skaggerak. They ore now standing out a mile or more from the coast, for the water is shallow. Thire is a rumbling sound, then from their prows squat objects splash into the water-they are moving rapidly towards the shore line: from the water they crawl on to the sands; they are Tanks, and Warnemunde, 150 miles from Berlin, is ours. Wo materialise and find some commotion going on amongst the enemy's armies on the Western Front."
Has Hitler go such a weapon up his sleeve? I do not know, but I do know that it can be made.
Such a machine does exist-the self-propelled amphibious tank, using tracks on land and a pro- peller when 11 the water. It might easily be launched from a cousta? motorboat, which
could cross the Channel in linlf an hour. And though, should one crawl up Brighton beach. Hove will un- doubtedly be thrown into panic, there is little cause that we Eng- lish should fear such a machine. because, unless command of the sea is guined by the Germans, its sole object will be to slack cur nerves.
THEREFORE, my fellow coun- trymen, at this hour of crisis, lel us contemplate these words of a grent Englishman-Lord Bacon:
very
Walled towna, stored arsenala and armouries, goodly races of horse, charlots of war, clephants, ordinance, artillery, and the like: ail this is but a sleep in a lion's skin, except the breed and dis- position of the people be stout and warlike. Nay, number itself in armles importeth not much, where the people are
of weak courage for as Virgil saith, 'I never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be."
Therefore let outk countersign be, as it was on September 14, 1750- "ENGLAND."
Louth
Z
Boston
Lyan
Peterborough
Bishops tortford
Cambridge
NORWICH
Thetford
Ipswich
Sudbury
LONDON
SOUTHEND
rgate:
ROYDONY
Tunbridge
Anistone
Folks
Dove
CAFESEIE
CHEA N=N=E÷L=
Great
Zeebrugge
Ostend
akich
unes
Routers
S:Omer
Menth
Boulogn
Armentières Puk
Etaples
|Montreuil
Béthune
tens
Dou!!
Arras
Abbeville
Attert
Páronno
AMIENS
Fécamp:
Neufchlgel
LE HAVRE
Montdidier
Noyong
Gournay
"Hogfieur Trouville
BROUEN
Benivais
[Clermont
Compiegne
Senlis
Miles
10 20 30 40
50
For
Pontoise
Three Things Assure
the Gap, the Loop, and the line.
PART of the glorious, and print for the Battles of the Balge,
terrible, story can be told. The very last chapter of the bloody foreshares of Dunkirk,
This is not the place, and I havo not the power, to pay the Just tribute to the armies who super- bly carried out this evacuation. Three things toiver out of the wreckage that give assurance of future victory.
turn.
(1) British and French troops bore equal brunt together and in General Prioux'a devoted divisions covered our retreat from the larger loop Into the lines of Dunkirk, permitting as to begin embarkation in good order. A British rearguard held the last posts through which the French remnant retired. The entire re- treat by a stubborn and furious resistance, diverted the German offensive from the Somme-Aisne.
(3) The steady, disciplined valour of the young British Army is matched only by that of the 1914 Expeditionary Force. So say those who “served in both. At no time in 21 days'
did British battle, troops break.
..
(1) The resolution and the resource of officers in fearful jams never falled. There is magnificent talent available for the big com- mands in the armies that are forming.
80 much for to-morrow. And now for yesterday. How did we come to imperit this great army?
Exvery report tells of the colos- sally superior enemy tank and alr power. Then there are the para- ebule divisions, and the motor cyclists and never forget them- the Fifth Columnists. All con- tributed to our misfortunes. All had been prepared for years..
Responsibility for our own long- term unpreparedness will be in duo course assessed, and placed.. I cannot be charged on the present Adminstration or Command. More- over, since the most urgent effort at repair la now going forward in ait branches of production and supply mere recrimination adds nothing and itself amounts to a hindrance.
THE vital, and Immediate ques- tion is: have we yet fully grasped the correct conception of the war Hiter is waginat・ Wo hear it sald that it is like no other. In fact it is very like - tiree -- other' wars at any rate, in cutline. Spain. Abys- Einis and Poland provident the blue-
•
---- Marstal Badogito, when he could' assemble his airplanes on the Tigris front, and General France, when he could collect enough airplanes from Italy and Germany, on the Ebro, smashed through the All-equipped native levies and militla opposite by using aircraft as artillery.
▸
In Poland the Germans did as much and more. They replaced cavalry by armoured divisions and they motorised their infantry. By combining the old Ideas of cavalry raiding with the last war practice of infantry infiltration they re- volutionised war. Not only. the "front" became the front; not only the flanks become the front, the rear became the front.. Henceforth the word "line" must disappear from the military vocabulary and "zone" take its place.
Herein we find a weakness in our recent dispositions. The so-called Marinet Extension, from Luxem- burg to the North Sen, was a half. baked, half-built line. No harm in saying so now, since the Germans possess it. This line incked depth Indeed, It wanted strength. too. The Germans simply pasked over the top of it.
Behind our "lines" there were lacking garrisons such as would certainly have held "zones" The Germans infiltrating troops dashed up to the railway stations and there were confronted by the station- master and a handful of sappers or Kervice corps men. These are the
GUNNER'S VOW FOR DORAN
SQuenting
SDenis/Meus
ARIS
Chite Ther
Victory
results of the German revolutionary strategy. The lesson has been painfully learned by the fighting "troops" so ̈miraculously ̈returned to
135.
LET us here carry this knowledge forward. Britain, too, is a zone of war. Now if Hitter should in- vado us, where would he strike? At the point where the attack could do most damage. Which would doubtless be the point least expected.
An Invallon would either be a major assault or else mere raid designed to create temporary pante and DIVERSION. General Fuller on this page disposes' of the first prospects. Consider the second.
Parachutista dropped in or near our clics would quickly be ob served and pinned down. They could cause trouble, but it would be only local,
But parachutists dropped, say, on the wild and lonely Welsh moun- tains might attack the dams of the huge reservoirs in Elan Valley. If these were blown up a countryside would be flooded and the great elty
80 miles away, cut.
of Birmingham supply of water. off from le If the dems of Lake Vyrnwy went down, Liverpool, 60 milles away, would be parched. Half a hundred bombers over either of these mighty findustrial centres could hardly wreak the same dis- location and destruction,
REMEMBER. In this war Use "front" is not only around 11:0 coasts, but in the sky above n. THERE IS NO REAR.
Strike Over Two C.O.'s
CAPTURE of Britain's No. i bomb- ing nee,' Squadron-Leader Doran, made his gunner and radio operator, Objecting to working alongside Corporal Tom Hoggard, Vow ven-conscientious objectors, employees nt) geance on the enemy.
tho Ocenn Chemical Company's Tom has kept his vow. He has works, Ramsbottom, where 05 per won the DF.M.
cent, are ex-Servicemen, some with Dorna was shot down and later ona who will be called up, have for) made a prisoner of war during a rald 24 hours been on strike. on Stavanger.
There are two conscientious objee, Hoggard, who is twenty-four, tors at the warks and the strikerk! wan in Doran's regular crow and allege that one is doing a job former? had been with his daring leader only held by a young married man who all his telps, including the Kiel has been called up for service, Canal and Bylk
A nooting with representatives of But, for Stavanger rald, Doran the firm was held, and the men de- took a new wireless operatór
and elded to resume work. gunner. "Hoggard won on legvo.
leave, but he Insisted on remaining agreed not to retain men registered |
Doran...too, should have been one-firm, it is understood, have on duty and lending his squadron. ns conscientious objectors.
PARLOPHONE
PRESENTS
A PROGRAMME OF SWING MUSIC
R2393 Willie the weeper.
Woury bluca..
R2258 Blues with a feelin'.
Misty morning.
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Squeeze me,
R 2782 Lady of mystery. Early session hop.
R2743 Blue skies.
Royal garden blues.
2720 Sassin' the bos8 .....
Who did you meet last night.
R 2447 Melody in Rif.
Monotony.
2438 Swing as it comes,
"Swinglis.
2611 Two sleep people.
New Orleans.
.Lould Armstrong and orch.
.Due Ellington and orch.
...Gene Krupa and band.
...Louis Armstrong & Hot Five.
„Teddy Wikon and greh.
Johny Kirby and orch, Jiminy Launceford and orch,
Eddie Carrol & swing music.
".
„Bert_Firman's swing five.
Ella Logon & Hoagy Carmichael.
TSANG FOOK PIANO COMPANY Marina House. 19 Queen's Road C.
Phono 24648
Parisian Grill
Air-Conditioned
Music during Lunch & Dinner
Tol. 27880 for reservations.
The
Open till 1 a.m.
Hongkong Telegraph
Tenth Annual Amateur Photographic Competition
June-September, 1940.
Two Silver Trophies
Awarded
by ILFORD LTD.
for the best and second-best entries,
Four Silver Trophies Awarded by EASTMAN KODAK Co.
First Prizes in cach of the four Sections.
$250 CASH PRIZES $250
SECTION ONE
General Pictorial: Land and Seascapes: Architecture: Street Scenes, etc.
1st. Silver Cup. 2nd. $30. 3rd. $20. 4th. $12.50.
SECTION TWO
Portraits: Informal Close-ups: Human Studies. 1st. Silver Cup. 2nd. $30. 3rd. $20. 4th. $12.50. SECTION THREE
Still Life and Table Top Studies..
1st. Silver Cup. 2nd. $30. 3rd. $20. 4th: $12.50.
SECTION FOUR
(Craftsmen's Section)
The whole of the work entailed in the production of every entry must have been done by the competitors who Each will be required to make a declaration to this effect.
entry must have pasted on the back a special entry form. obtainable on application from The Hongkong Telegraph or from the Hon. Secretary,, Hongkong Photographic Society. Subjects at the discretion of competitors..
1st. Silver Cup. 2nd. $30. 3rd. $20. 4th. $12.50.
RULES
The following Rules will govern the Competition: 7.
1The Competition is connned ex-
clusively
photo- to amateur graphers. 2-No employee or member of any fiou in the photographie trade in permitted to compete.
The prizes li bo awarded to the compelltors sending in what are adjudged to be the best photo- graphs in each. Section Each entry must be accompanied by a form which will be published during the period of the Com- petition. and which must be pasted on back of entry. The right to publish any or all of the entries la reserved to tho, Hongkong Telegraph. 5-All photographs entered
have been taken in the Colony of Hongkong. Photograph which have been already, entered in other Competitions are ineligible -No responsibility will be accepted for non-delivery of, loss of, or damage to entries.
SECTION
NAME
ADDRESS
must
7-All entries to be either black, sepla, or toned plaiurea, and mus be mounted. - Coloured photo- graphs are ineligible,
Pictures submitted ja' sepła tones should
be accompanied by... smaller print in black and white. 9-No picture to entered in more
than one bection.
10-Mounts to be only white or cream. must be of one of the following aize: 10X12, 10×20.
11 No correspondenes will be entered
into in connection with the Com- petition.
12. Members of the Staffs of the Hongkong. · Telegraph and The South China Morning Port are not permitted to compete.
13-The decision of the Judges shall
be final.
14-AL the conclusion of the Com- petition, entries will be returned to competitors on - application at the Telegraph offices within seven doya
ENTRY FORM
Please use block, letters and paste this on back of each. Entry in Sections 1, 2 and 3