1939-08-10 — Page 18

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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, Thursday, AUGUST 10, 1989.

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'Phone 26615 August 10, 1939

On Guard

THE demonstrations by Bri-

tain's armed forces Eng- Hland is witnessing this week are a comforting reminder that our Homeland is fully prepared and able to meet any sudden challenge from the Totalitarians,

The aerial and naval man- ocuvres now taking place are the greatest combined defence operations the world has ever witnessed. His Majesty the King yesterday reviewed over 130 warships comprising the Re- serve Fleet, whilst 1,300 planes have taken to the air in mass altack and defence on

a scale that no other nation has at- tempted.

Mobilisation of the Reserve fleet alone has entailed the call- ing up of an additional 12,000 retired naval officers, reservists and pensioners, and it is com- puted that nearly 1,000,000 men and women have been mobilised air in connection with the defence testa.

Even more significant than the scope of the manoeuvres is the fact that they have started this year several weeks earlier than is customary. In short, these vast displays of aerial and naval power coincide with the period of the year when peace or war may be decided,

The British combined man- oeuvres are certain to be char- acterised as "provocation" in the Axis Press. Yet in fact they are the logical and neces- sary reply to the mobilisation of troops which has already taken place in Germany and Italy and is still going on. Just in casc Herr Hitler or Signor Mussolini are preparing to make trouble, Britain has prepared to meet it. The decision for peace or war in Europe rests still, as it has rested for so long, with Herr Hitler and with him alone. If he decides for peace, the British manoeuvres will run their course and the participants will go home again. If he decides in favour of a now adventure in aggression, at least he knows what to expect.

The impressive exercises now under way (they will continue, in the case of the Navy, unti October) leave no possible ground for misunderstanding about Britain's will and capacity to act.

-Strube in the "Daily Express”.

IF BRITAIN WERE ATTACKED-

by

AIR COMMODORE L. E. O. CHARLTON

€.B., C.M.G., D.S.O..

who is a leading expert an air defence and modern war- fare. Has had wide experi- ence in the frent ac as well

on the General Staff. Was Chic Staff Omcer of the RAF in Iraq, and has been air attaché at Washing- ton. Author of several books

on air warfare,

CHAMPION OF LOST CAUSES

R.A.F. and the Blitzkrieg *

THIRTEEN

hundred Royan! Air "Nor is this all. Developments are Force planes are participating this taking place in the Dominions, week in the greatest aerial particularly Australia and Canada, Britain has witnessed. which will not only make those It is, in effect, the coming of age of smailer Air Forces a powerful Im- the modern R.A.F

manoeuvres

At the end of the Great War the air power of Britain was supreme, but, true to our tra- a dition, we began to lower our

defences as soon as hostilities ceased and our Air Force was the first to suffer.

It gradually sank to fifth or sixth place, and, but for the revelation of its weakness when we were at odds with Italy over Abyssinia, it might have gone down lower still.

There was no escaping the hard fact that we were outdated in the air, and since then we have been busy on a series of reconstructive programmes so that we might re- assume the position of an Air

SHALL just call him Bill for I know he would hate pub- licity. The first time I saw him Power to be reckoned with." he was crouching behind a pile of sandbags, covered with grime and caked blood, and blazing away with a rifle at the troops of the legally elected Govern- ment of Brazil.`

It was during a revolt in Sao Paule, and although the rebels had captured the town they were losing steadily, and it was obvious that their enuse was lost.

I heard B cursing in English, with a pronounced Scottish accent, so I paused in my cautious crawling behind the barricade and asked what he AVAR doing. Bill just grinned.

I reached the compárúive safety of a shop, and was resting there for a moment when Bill came in. He was off duty for an hour; so we talked.

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At first he did not seem inclined 'to explain what he was doing taking part in the internal quarrels of a foreign country. He tried to put me off with the excuse that "it was fun." and that "he just found, him- self in it."

When I pointed out that he had no right to be taking part in an affair which did not concern him, he became annoyed. "Darn it all," he said, "it's 80 to 1 against the rebels. The Government has sent up fresh troops. The rebels haven't a chance! I couldn't help feeling they needed some help,"

He said.some other things, too, and. 1 began to understand. "So," I sald, "You are a champlon of last causes." Bill looked Bke an uncomfortable schoolboy, and murmured something about "the underdog,”

I

Tin wholly fitting, there- fore, that the coming of age of the R.A.F. shoula arrive with the completion of the programme as originally con- ceived, equipping the national de- fences with a Metropolitan Air Force which numbers 1,750 first- line aircraft of modern, type.

Was

Last May that gure stepped up to 2,370, and there appears to be every hope that this new total will be reached in twelve months.

Behind th frontage there will then exlt, moreover, a back area, as it were, of industrial and Minis- terial activity to ensure that, in material and personnel, this first- ilne forco CALZA maintain its strength notwithstanding the severe losses which are anticipated in air warfare of the future.

Bir Kingsley Wood's speech in presentation of the Air Estimates, and the full-dress debate in dis- cussion of them has displayed to the world at large an imposing facade of British air power.

.Production mounts by leaps and bounds, the types on order are as good as scientific ingenuity can devise, the training establishments ate full, and recruits are pouring

in.

S

UPPORTING the Regu lar

Aro units

many auxiliary and volunteer formations calculated at one end immediately to replace casualties and at the other to provide a mass reservo which after further train- ing may be drawn on to all the

the

perial reinforcement, but will convert them into reservoirs of material equipment to supplement home manufacture,

Finally. In

background, stands the U.S.A., likely at the very least to be benevolently neutral, with a huge productive capacity available to us.

All this points to the belief that our resources are vast enough to bear down any enemy combination in the fong ruti, and no one realises that position better than Hert Hitler.

Over there they are pinning their faith on the "blitzkrieg.' as they call it, or a lightning war, and the German wheels of industry arc turning on that account alone. We can hardly hope to overtake their output in actual preparation for the stroke, for they have gained a long lead on us.

A country which is straining every nerve to encase itself in armour, which is as highly indus- trialised as we ourselves, which has a labour scarcity instead of grley- ous unemployment, and which can name the day, is hard to overtake In armament production,

This fever of preparation is in the nature of a gamble, depending for success on what is hoped to be the pulverising effect of mass boni- bardment from the air. But it this hope be disappointed, then the very carnestness of the preliminary

★ German for a lightning war

efforts will rebound on their own heads.

They will have spent themselves, before war breaks, for a machine which is geared to the highest pitch can do no more, and when overstrained by the dialocating effect of internal hurry which war brings in train it is likely to do

much less.

TE, on the other hand. provided we survive the

Worst resounding blows,

can speed up our machine with the prolongation of hostiliiles and have it running smoothly on top gear when the other is creaking badly. I did not see Bill for some time)

Our resources are limitable. afier. But I read about him. A

Confronted with a situation of British subject was arrested in gaps.

that kind, we have to be more than Buenos Akes for obstructing the

careful in the composition of our police in the execution of their duty to China to help to defend Man-

air power. Logically, and long and for assault. It was Bill, of churin. course, and his. only excuse Was After that I neither saw nor heard before such a situation arises, we that there were three policemen try-of film for a long time. I did hear should have imposed on ourselves ing to arrest one man and

using of him, finally, bock here in Scot- a two-Power standard in the air as physical force.

land. He was working heroically once we did at nea. Bill had just joined into level for national peace organisation! I things a bit. He spent three months was somewhat puzzled by this unill I realised that here was another in an Argentine jall for that.

enuse likely to do last.

Time passed and I met him again, Years after I heard of him being. mixed up in another South American He was as full of enthusiasm as over. revolution, and again he was on the He was off to Spain to fight for the losing sido. And once, I got a letter Government. I could not resist ask- from him when he was on his way}" PLEASE Turn To Page 7.

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air power to anything like equal- ity with that of Germany, let alone {1 two - Power standard; while parity is merely a vague expres- slon. We let slip the opportunity when we had in our grasp.

All we can do now is so to adjust the balance between our fighter and our bomber forces that each can play its part in the service of our national defence, remem- bering that equally with the head and heart of Empire, which are the British Isles, we must protect Its veins and arteries, which are our sea communications, and its extremities and lower limbs, which nce our 'Dominions beyond the Beas,

N

OW. in aur peculiar necessity + properly balanced air force is a matter of delicate adjustment, for we are vulnerably situated and our capital lies on the threshold of the country. It is our base of opera- tions and must, at all costs, be made reasonably secure. But not to the detriment of our bombing capacity.

Without ability to carry war to the enemy we are merely covering up and allowing him to raid us when and where he cares, without the power on our part of taking adequate reprisal. The enemy is Just as apprehensive of air attack as we are, but if it came to his knowledge that we were develop- ing our nighter arm, purely for home defence, at the expense of our own raiding power it would re-. lleve him from much ahxlety on that score and enable him to con- centrate on bombing.

The public is reassured to hear of our growing air power, but it presumes that it will be built up according to the needs of strategy, and with a view. to knocking out. the other side.

Our

HIS cannot be if it is mainly designed to meet the raider overhead and stop him getting through. base of operations must have, of course, suifclent Bghters, but there arc other means of protecting it, such as by, anti-aircraft fire, tho balloon barrage and reliable forms of A.R.P.

Air warfare has a cruel togle of its own. We must expect to be knocked about as long as the onemy has power to deliver the blows, but the extent of his acti¬ vities in that respect will depend on our capacity for returning dit

for tat.

Such is the background of the colossal expenditure on air defence and of the Votes which are now agreed to.

We can' produce the aircraft, we can enrol the mon, and we have the money, too. It is only now to- bo hoped that the functioning Is properly... understood and that, above all, the bomber force should not be denuded in favour of the Aghter for the sake of an appearance of security which is

gratulate ourselves that our house, will be very soon in order.

The threat of air attack by superior ale power can be, as we have lately seen, a weapon in itself It i is undeniable that a sense of alr inferiority, and the spectre of the

omber over Frenes and England, falso. Otherwise we may well con- enabled Ilitler to call our bluff at Munich.

It is too late now to build up our