1940-10-02 — Page 24

THE CHINA MAIL, OCTOBER 2, 1940.

Oh grandmama!

THE tight frilled bodice and the flared crinoline skirt have come straight out of the old family album, but the figure is her own. Great grandmama could never have achieved this slim athletic line without the high-pressure help of a sturdy lady's maid, but she achieves it by watching her diet and her drinks. Her cocktail for example is always a "Gimlet" because she knows that the girl who insists on Rose's Lime Juice today avoids a headache and a Rubens conteur tomorrow.

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A striking ploture of a British convoy under the protecting wing of a Short "Sunderland" flyingboat. The "Sunderlands" with four Bristol Pegasus engines, developing a total of 3,360 h.p., are armed with multiple gun turrets fore and aft and two further gun positions in the top of the fuselage, hence their description as "battleships of the air." German, fighters who have tackled them have received a rough handling. They formed the backbone of the strength of the Coastal Command, their hazardous duties including spotting and attacking submarines, es- corting convoys, and occasional rescues such as that of the eight-day survivors of the "City of Benares."

Cooperation In Defence Against Invasion

From A Special Correspondent

ONE OF THE things that most impress one after periodical visits to troops engaged in preparations for defence against invasion is the way in which plans for the counter assault are steadily becoming standardised and a definite technique evolved.

Another, and this is encouraging for more than one reason, is the increasing degree of cooperation that exists between the full-time troops and the Home Guard.

The public ought now to be let into the secrets of the way in which the last three months have been spent experimenting in the development of plans for throwing the invader back into the sea should he gain a foothold. It can now be stated with confidence that whenever the call is made it will be answered in a methodical rather than a haphazard manner.

commander b Home Guards manning, an observation post, but not strong enough even to pin the enemy to their landing spot. So the mobile company was sum- moned. First came the motor-cycle platoon scouts and advanced guards, then the Bren-gun car- riers, followed by two platoons in trucks. Beyond them came the fourth platoon. The company had the wireless car with it, and was Static And Mobile self-contained fighting unit ever down to its supply trucks and field When the military authorities ambulances. The infantry carried first took stock of the problem of their 2in. mortars, and behind defending the country, the duties barrage of these they advanced to of the troops seemed to fall into the final assault. Presumably the two categories, static and mobile, rest of the battalion would be rea The static defence was the simpler sonably close at hand as reinforce- to prepare. It meant the construc-ments should the mobile compan tion of the beach and other de- prove less successful than they ap- fences which have been described | pear to be in this mock action. on previous visits to the troops 'engaged. The job of the static de- fender is equally simple, and could not be better described than 'in the instructions to a post held by a company of the Home Guard of a north-western town. It runs, "If the post is attacked it (the gar rison) will resist by every means and remain until relieved. If the garrison cannot remain alive, it will remain dead; but in any case it will remain,”....

tive mobile force? How should it

"Tank-Hunting Flatoon"

ANTI-JEW HINT

IN FRANCE

First open hint of anti-Jewish measures

I

in France was made by the "Paris-Soir."

"We witnessed the virtual occupation of France by Jews, and the total solution of the Jewish question is one of the essential conditions of our re- covery," it says Bri- tish United Press.

"

Obviously, at all the highly vulnerable spots there are static defences in the charge of the more experienced infantry, but over a wide area it is the Home Guard, in whom the local High Command has the utmost

con-

idence, who must take the first

strain.

Not Spectacular

A surprisingly high degree of cooperation exists between the General Staff and the Home Guard battalions in this area, organised even to their own tank-hunting platoon, mobile reserve, am- bulance service, supply columns, and regimental police. They have Another development-is the their defensive zones, their local "tank-hunting" platoon of the in-arcas, their battle. positions, and fantry battalion. This force, on their road blocks. Incidentally, being told that tanks are in the one of these was recently tested neighbourhood, has to shadow the by a real heavy tank, and the invader, commit it to a previously exercise was called off when the prepared route, or get sufficiently issue lay between breaking, the ahead of it to prepare an ambush.block and doing several thousands The troops are finding all this of pounds worth of damage to the The questions arising from a great fun, particularly if, as with vehicle, decision to form mobile forces | The South Wales Borderers, an During these exercises-the local were difficult, What should be the imitation tank is used, for there is population gets as near as it is strength of the smallest yet effae always a chance of sending an un- allowed to see the fun. Enthusiasm be constituted? How should it popular. N.C.O. of another com is nicely balanced between cheer- operate? In the last two months pany over the handle-bars of aing the blank rounds fired by the the answers have been given, and cycle by a judiciously placed trip tank as it makes to charge the they now, await a practical test, wire when he is playing barrier, and applause for the home "enemy scout," And you can side when it lands a wooden bomb which may come more quickly also pelt the occupants of the with a healthy wallop on the tank. than is usual with military theory dummy tank with chunks of wood And such is the technical know- other missiles shaped like ledge of the wives and families bombs. (WITHIN

has that they appreciate father's Yet this: is a various function marksmanship, when he aims at> Onà hàg scan the mobile.com-

now allotted to the infantry, the more vulnerable parts of the pany of two battalions station-

Had these small forces-been vehicle ed in a north-western area: One

used against the tanks which was a unit of The South Wales

advanced along the Somme, the 3. Gormane might hava, been hold Borderers. Just over three weeks ago we witnessed a similar]

up, long enough to enable the exerciso carried out by a bat

Aitled forces to deal with them. tallon of The Black Watch;; so

But the important feature about that it was possible to note the the defensive plan in this part of big forward stride that had the country is that the full-time been made in the loterval. tops would be called in to sup In the latest example of the port or to take over from the local work of the mobile company news | Home Guard-who, in a variety of youngsters among them, and re- of a surprise landing was supposed circumstances, might have to bear freshingly few very elderly gentle- to have been given to the battalion the first brunt of the invasion. [men in senior positions.

Big Strides

or

But all the worlt of these Home Guards is not so spectacular. They đó patrol and guard duties once of twice in every six nights, and put in two barades a week leurning musketry, map reading, bombing, and demolition. With the majority it is only a case of brushing up their knowledge, but there are a surprisingly large number of