1941-05-08 — Page 39

THE CHINA MAIL, MAY 8, 1941.

CHINA MAIL

WINDSOR HOUSE

THE PRESENT OUTLOOK

Most of the gaps in Mr. Churchill's story of the Balkans campaign have been filled in hy Mr. Eden. General Wavell was able to invest in the Balkans roughly three divisions and a certain strength of air force in

order to sustain the heroism of the Greeks, bring in the Yogo slays and the Turks and so establish a south easter front. The forer was small and the attempt lailed.

This does not Men that 1E was a waśłe to make it. Excepti for the hoops and equipment lost in Cheece (4 small percent age of the whole) we are in no AVC would worse position than

have been hak! we remained passive; but the Germans are. ! The Nazis are on the Aegean:] beat whereas they would have i anned there, hand we hused to go to the and of Greece, in prise and in full command of an on damaged Commande.flota

Dat

though the Balkans, they have actually arrived only at a beavy Lost in life and machinery, with the whole country disrupted be hind them, and filled with em bittered peoples,

112022

On hulance, the attempt has unquestionably gammed than it has COSE, But it is also) true that the tailure has created

.1

TREATY

NO KID GLOVES

RASCHID ALI

Mechanised Warfare

The campaigns war have made so vital

importance

of

H

aric

the "army

It

of

of the current, could not solve the problem of her same as that of HOW situiben. Britain bas

manifest

de the national defence except by hay-shock-troops" which Gaulle lost her last for hold 02 the.

is of ning, in addition to the mass of re- had projected in 1834. using. Continent;

the same time. modern warfare, mechanised | serves

recruits, "slow to further interest that a year after she has pard a linavy price

go-France saw the publication of his in force and of applying tacticni prom- mobilise and clumsy to

of troups, book there appeared in a German prestige which doubles the diffi ciples based on the speed of theting," a special body

the highly trained, mobile, protected ¦ military periodical an article Culty of securing a re entry,

of the tactics

troops methods of by armour and ready for instan- Whatever hope there maybetion of this new weapon, some- taneous action in combined opera- which was later followed by

have been in either Vichy Weygand seems now to be gone for good: Italy has been to some extent revived: Spain will doubt less fall whenever Huler chooses

this is dubious at best.

force that the question

11 origin, mature

1

armoured

01

an-

and, finally, by a special mechanised war- study in which fare was described in even greater

times called the motor-air cum-tions with aircraft, the creation of other bat team, has become not only of which had been made possible by professional but of general inter- the enormous progress of modern est.

As far back as five years before the beginning of this present war.

A

Apparently, Egypt and Suez by France's

and, later on, by the Brit-

By A. M. Nikolaieff

detail than in the volume here re- viewed.

Page

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health & energy

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There is, of course, no way of telling whether General de Gaul- to demand it; unless Britain cani General, then Captain, Charles de

le's book had influenced the Ger- Gaulle who since the surrender

man author, an officer by the find the force to intervene soon of France has been the leader of

name of Guderian, who, inciden- West Mrica and Dakar will the "Free Frenchmen," wrote

in English,

tally, was that general who com- manded one of the probably follow; and while Mr. book, now published

mechanised in which he stressed the import-

columns in Poland and was sub- í Eden, who is as good a

ance, and urged the creation of a

sequently in command of the position as any to judge, is con picked mechanised and armoured

"completely motorised" corps force, seeing

the in it Turkish fident

only of

resistance,

which broke through at Sedan. He adequate means of national technique, and there are many who feel that defence.

he further sets may have been impressed by the Such il force was

and | earlier exponents of mobile war forih what the composition used in the present wär employment of that mechanised | fare, such as von Secckt and even adversary in Europe force should be and what kind of before him the French Gen- have been saved from the threat ish in Africa, in both cases with

leadership it demands.

eral Buat, who was probably the In his arresting analysis he first to proclaim that through North Africa, and it is results so disastrous for their res-

the appearance of the motor on can foresaw that it would be in we reasonable to expect that these pective opponents that

the Imperative "terrible breach" in North- battlefeld, mobility has regained plainly see now how

full of its "age-old weakness

importance." positions, together with Crete, was the need for the formation east,

But the Initial blow greatest significance lies in the can be held. The Nazis have of the "imaginary" force advocat-France," that

the would fall, the shortest and easi- fact that, unlike France, the Ger- demonstrated that no difficulties ed by General de Gaulle and

themselves adoption of the principles laid est path being that toward the mans did not confine of terrain and no half-armed re-

down by him not only for France sources of the Oise, near which at to paper expositions of the tactical sistance, however glorious, can but for her allies as well,

Sedan, less than fifty miles away, powers of the armoured divisions, took but as early as 1935 they began stop them anywhere on the

cadres of the motorised companies tinent, so long as they are author tells how France, because could not afford to lose even £1

since that would of the Reichswehr, which was ad- allowed to choose their field and of the geographical disadvantages single battle,

mentioned have time to prepare

characteristic the

frontiers, mean Paris put to fire and sword. mitted in the articles

He said that it would be absurd above. to build the country's defence That the French were slow to solely on the "resistance of forti- create a mechanised force, and at plies should continue to be sent.fications manned by novices," and the same time modify the estab But Britain cannot hold out on he arrived at the conclusion that lished ideas and the technique of no doubt, for and above-mentioned one thing, to the instinctive

fear of every and the remarkable ing without delay, winning all army, particularly of a victorious at the very army, to undertake fundamental speech by, Col. H. L. Stimson important victories

such oufset, on which the development | reforms,

ás changing its indicates that that is well under-

of future operations would so structure and tactics. But the much depend.

qutstanding answer to that qies: It is impossible not to see how tion is apparently to be found closely the merely theoretical where de Gaulle, speaks of the in this general conditions under which principles, expounded book such as the use of initia-France functioned in -the pre-war one place the author tive and speed and the launching period. In of surprise assaults, all cited as says that there had "developed in

+

Con- In six brief but brilliantly writ-the breakthrough actually

ten sections of the volume the place. He pointed out that France to create such divisions out of the

On-

on

"

slaught. There can no longer be any reliance on allies, limited campaigns to stiffen this people or ** arouse " that one. In the meanwhile, the out-

come of the war will continue to hang upon the endurance of the citadel of the British Isles.

re-

of her

without

words alone or on 'planes and there could be no French defence warfare was due,

the tanks consigned to the bottom of mechanised force, capable of act- understandable

the

sca,

Hitler would now scem to stood in Washington. have two alternatives-to press the war at both ends of the There is every likelihood now Mediterranean, with the idea of of carly action by the United splitting the empire and States to secure the lifeline by establishing the Italians before naval cooperation. turning on the British Isles, or The defeat in Greece spelt the conditions inherent to victory) our people an anti-war psychosis switching back his main forces end of all half-measures. Hider. resemble the actual principles on which is being carried to excess," which action by mechanised forces while in another we read that for an immediate all-out assault can win this war, unless the was based in the war now go- "there are so many discussions and on Britain. In either event, the democratic world now puts all ing on. But the resemblance is so many contingencies in public strain upon the people of Britain it has into preventing it, unless even more striking when wo com- life that the best activities, even pare the imaginary attacks vivid- when they are set in motion, over the next few months is the United States fearlesslyde, ly described by General do Gaulle, seldom lead to results." In short going to be a terrific one, both livers the goods" as well as with the lightning tactics used by the situation was one very close to

Germany in Poland and Western paralysis." materially and morally.

makes them--the goods to hold France. As one significant detail; Under these conditions, though President Roosevelt has given the British outpost now, and to we oven and that the strength of General de Gaulle ended his pro- an emphatic "yes" to the ques accumulate later the crushing the armoured force used in the phetic study with a hope that a tion of whether Britain will hold force which we now see to be Polish campaign, which is esti- change "must come his hope for

mated at some six or seven panzer I belief, as

as has since been out, and whether American sup the only answer to Hitlerism.

divisions, was substantially the plain, was without foundation.

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