1941-07-09 — Page 39

THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 9, 1941

CHINA MAIL

WINDSOR HOUSE

ACCORDING TO PLAN

One of the few things that one can say with certainty about this

war

is that almost no aspect of it has gone according to plan.

To begin with, Hitler thought Britain would carry appeasement to the point of accepting his in- vasion of Poland-in fact he thought Britain would. not fight. He was sadly disillusioned.

In the next place, it was assumed that war, it came, would necessar. ily take the form of a pro-¡ longed mutual siege alongj the Maginot and Sieg- fried Lines. Everyone knows how futile those masses of steel and con- crete and inertia turned out to be.

The French collapse] was a shocking surprise! to Britain as it was to most of the Frenchi people.

But what very few people realise is that it was also a surprise to the Germans. They believed that they could conquer France. They believed that they could do it by means of a relative “Blitz- krieg"; but they did not for a moment think that they would conquer France so rapidly as they did.

U.S.

GREENLAND

of

ICELAND