1940-11-29 — Page 55

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THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 29, 1940.

CHINA MAIL The British

WINDSOR HOUSE

THE PARADOX OF VICHY

"I think of it always,

Legion

side with Britain.

Page

Foreign Of The Air

speak of it never." These ever before this Foreign Legion we'd been for a long time."

There has been, nothing like it and came back. "happier words may well express of the Air that brings free men the representa- from many lands to fight side by tive Frenchman's attitude toward his country's fu- ture to-day as they did that of Leon Gambetta after. 1870.

Poles and Czechs who a few English are dally helping to de- months ago spoke no word of fend the skies over London nightly assisting the R.A.F. drive home its body blows

than within six weeks of its forma- They have distinguished inem- tion, when, over Nazi-occupied selves both in combat and în at- Belgium, it struck heavy blows to tacking several U-boats. They've had further satisfaction avenge the rape of its fatherland. since. The two. Polish fighter

The Norwegian legionnaires are squadrons, stationed

Lon- The Czech fighters, led by an serving with the, Coastal Com- don, are helping to defend the English squadron leader, shot, mand in much the same capacity capital and the Thames Estuary. down four Dorniers and two, as the Dutch,

Messerschmidts as one afternoon's work, losing but one pilot two Hurricanes in doing it.

near

or One squadron alone destroyed to in 181 days 71 Nazis. In our on "marvellous Hurricanes" they are

avenging Warsaw.

may

and

during

For the things spoken Germany,

Yet another Czech squadron is of in France nowadays Dutchmen and Norwegians with

striking at Mussolini from a de- sound strange. For exam- intimate knowledge of their own Pole to receive an R.A.F. award members are a classic example of Sergeant Josef Frantisek--first sert camp in the Middle East. Its coasts and countries are servingshot down five in a week. ple, Marshal Petain re- with our Coastal Command, whose

what free men will do to "Aght cently said he had spoken chief duty is to blast the enemy

with the R.A.F. anywhere." Honours for some others earlier in the language of out of occupied harbours and not be announced till after the

bomb him out of the sea.

Several served as volunteers in a father, but now speaks

war. The Nazis pretend to res- Poland. Then began months of in the language of the

Actually adventurous Free Frenchmen, working un-pect brave opponents.

travelling, they wreak cowardly vengeance which they traversed thousands of der de Gaulle, are forming squa- on their innocent and helpless re-miles leader, that his ministers drons for service on special tasks latives.

through enemy-occupied! are responsible only to aimed at ultimately liberating

and neutral countries. him and that he alone

promises sure will be judged by history. A volunteer All-American squá- deliverance to the Czech people. It was like an echo of one RA.F. You have read how they Britain's Foreign Legion of

dron is taking the air with the The Czech pilots and crews of of Hitler's pre-war offered themselves en bloc-The Air are helping to hasten speeches.

Eagle Squadron they are calling day.

Yet in the same address in which Marshal Petain

their country.

themselves.

All are qualified pilots, famil- iar with American 'planes, and some of

them are ex-pilots of Uncle Sam's own Air Force.

Scores of other Americans are

serving as individual members of

R.A.F. squadrons. So are pilots of several more nationalities.

spoke like a French Fuehrer, he gave details of arrangements made in ne- gotiation with Herr Hitler. These are now shown to represent the rejection of the peace terms offered to Laval and a stiffening of icss experienced, this entails in- the Vichy regime against tensive preliminary training. With

others it is little more than Nazi pressure.

Such a formality. hardening of the French attitude toward the Nazis was to be expected.

The whole reason for the new firmness is not

One and all pass the stiff R.A.F. test before joining up. With the

Free Helpers

Many other pilots of free

a

!

Mr. Churchill

Flying Dutchmen

Except for the Americans, the Free Frenchmen are the newest recruits to the Legion, and every those who flew here with their week adds to the numbers of

'planes when France fell, or scrumbled aboard British ships.

A constant stream of newcom- ers find that an excellent landing 'ground still. exists at Gibraltar despite Mussolini's much-vaunted raids. In one week not long ago, found their way from France to a batch of nearly forty pilots the Rock,

Past escapades of Scarlet Pim- pernels pale beside the exploits that have brought some of these The Flying Dutchmen of the Frenchmen, Poles, Czechs, Dutch- the Foreign Legion belong to Hol-men, Norwegians into the glorious the land's Naval Air Service, and, company of Britain's Foreign Le-

when their homeland. was over-gion of the Air. run, they flew their own aircraft to Britain.

Czech Successes

War- From the four corners, These Czechs, like the

saw to 'Frisco, Oslo to Oran, they Poles, Ever since then they have been have come somehow. mastered the R.A.F. training with cooperating. with Air the aid of interpreters.

Chief The Flying Legion of Libera- Their Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill's tors! bomber squadron was in action' Coastal Command.

J. C.

Five Checks To Invasion

Our powerful opponent in the, communications by canal and I advantages present war has a peculiar asset river with the inland territory. unknown to former Powers am- or

occupied countries serving bitious of hegemony in Europe.

are

This asset, peculiar to our mo-

Deep-Water Ports

very

are already greatly reduced, and are`more and more reduced every day,

1. The season is increasingly

Britain by flying. R.A.F. trainers from factories to aerodromes, or

These lesser purts abound, the against him. He had already been known. But part of the helping to keep going our civil ment, is command of the Con- whole way, from the Pyrenees to baffled by the seasonal gales. flying services over 37,000 miles tinental ports and coastline (in- the North Cape. Many of them in reason could well be that of routes in five conuments and cluding the Channel Islands) and Scandinavia, though not provided France is seeing more twenty-four countries-only five

most of the useful ports upon that with ample wharfage, have deep

clearly what the Nazis in-per cent. less than pre-war. coastline.

water.

These are not continuous through- out winter, but they are fierce and repeated. Further, there is the not easily calculable but very real of In company with its ally, the

But it was the fully organised effect of temperature upon the tory over France. Berlin this Greater Foreign Legion

the Air. now stresses French "war Within that is the Foreign Le-government in Rome, the govern- deep-water ports, with their am- only possible mode of invasion,

tend to do with their vic- Each is proud of his place in

guilt" as grounds for col-gion proper the squadrons comment of Beriin is directly or in-ple-equipment for transferring which includes

posed entirely of pilots of one directly possessed of every im-heavy material (including the

training.

drome echoes

21 portant harbour, save those of the heavy tanks

upon which the Iberian peninsula and the Greek enemy chiefly relies) which he and Turkish coastline, on the Mediterranean.

with the strange

could

Now this advantage seemed at

By Hilaire Belloc

lecting from France the nationality, with or without costs of the war, and like- British leader. Still more are in ly the costs of the present German occupation of Somewhere a countryside nero- French territory. Such a voices of men who in September, policy can easily be tran- 1930, fought in the skies over Po- slated into systematic land, escaped to Rumania, Syria, one moment decisive to him. He France, then came on here. madé certain, after overrunning

• confiscation of French

Scarcely any of them

the Low Countries, Denmark, and property and supplies as these may be needed by engaged so

speak English. Interpreters were France, of deciding the victory that they could un-against us by invasion, or even by the Nazis.

derstand R.A.F. instructors, who were training them to man Bri- the threat of it, France's apparently re-tish bombers. viving morale may also be traced to the heartening by hand signs.

so far as the enemy enter- influence which the Bri-¦

Soon they picked up bits of tained such a hope he was dis- tish-stand has exerted on broken English, eager to learn to appointed. The overwhelming sen advantageous a position, which peoples still striving for bomb back. freedom from the Nazi overlordship. Since the

Some of the coaching was done

Scars Of Tragedy

of tragedy, knowing that his fam-

R.A.F.'s Triumph

landing troops through water on shallow beaches.

It would have to be carried out by troops heavily and increasingly | handicapped through cold,

II. There is the obvious but none the less to be repeated and principally depended upon for in- insisted upon increase of the de- vasion. These included Amster-

fensive through the effect of time. dam, the Scheldt, Ostend, Dieppe, the great enclosed roadstead of This is especially important with Cherbourg, Le Havre, and Brest; en aim to training. while the great arsenal of Lorient

It means that units pass con- round the corner of Brittany was tinually from a lesser to a greater A prepared for any form of con-degree of efficiency in action. struction in weapons or transport. the enemy, reaches

long-established force, such as is a peak of There was a drawback to

value, beyond which it does not. progress. But, on the contrary,

SO

depreciates through inaction.

power of Great Britain, dependent was the time required for organ-

III. The same consideration as not only on numbers but on a long ising transport in every shape and

obviously applies to the accumu- Through such professional tradition, accepted for collecting it.

lation of all material reserves. bombing of London has Nearly everyone bears the scar the challenge, and though the new delay opportunity was afforded to Supplies of food and of munitions failed to produce the re-ily, it alive, is suffering oppres- Air Arm offered a new weapon the further development of the and armaments, organisation of British defensive scheme. This defensive plans and (what is most sults predicted by the Na-sion and cruelty.

for attacking England, the R.A.F. delay, for one reason and another, important) increasingly acquired zis, there has

last familiarity with their conditions. been a

proved magnificently equal to the was protracted from the They are proud that over their

saw the "firming" of sentiment in station the British and Polish en burden suddenly thrown upon it. weeks of June, which

French collapse, to the first week IV. To all this may be added many lands, France must signs fly together on the

of August. It was followed on the slow but steady factor of de- halyard. They have their own

August 8 by a preliminary violent fensive increase represented by know of this, and doubt-Polish commanders with the rank

air attack lasting for ten days, the arrival of young men to. the less can read something of Wing-Commander.

age where their training can be- other than Axis prowess

That attack was signally defeat- gin. It is what the Continent has ed by the skill and daring of the called "The New Classes."

same

Within three weeks of their

in

for his plan.

under heavy inferiority in num- V. A fifth point with which we perfority in quality, both of the no emphasis is the continuous de bers, but soon proved their su- are now so familiar that it needs aircraft and their crews..

At the moment when this op- portunity for invasion provided by the control of Continental ports was at its height, there were two in the fact that Hitler: two squadrons being formed, they categories of ports available to British Air Forces. They began. and Mussolini have been cooperated with the R.A.F.

bombing Hitler's "invasion" bases supplies and transport available the enemy for the collection of -obliged to seek new fields' in' the south while those'

struction of wharfage, lock gates, docks and barges by the more and in the north remain un-Vichy to copy National

A second air offensive followed more formidable strength of the The first. category was that of In September. It was decisively R.AF.: conquered,

Socialism and Fascism.the shallow harbours, nearly all defeated in its turn..

All these main factors and many: Whatever the explana-, One cannot readily ex-of them tidal, that is, drying out

minor onas permit the conclusion tion, France appears to be plain the phenomenon. A or nearly drying out at low tide.

sometimes too easily made in adopting a policy toward paradox hides in it some-

The enemy, by possession of the the past, but certainly applicable. Berlin that is inconsis- where. Can it be that Leon

The second category was that deep water ports, whartago and to-day-that the continued check tent with the at least os- Gambetta's words con pie wharfage and docks, each of advantages

of the deep-water ports with am communications, especially inland to the enemy's scheme of invasion water-communications; "hus the works against him and in favour here ́detalled,' or, of the defensivo by which it will tensible willingness of tain the key?

which had oxcellent inland water rather, has had them; But those be met.

Main Factors