1940-05-16 — Page 24

PAGE 4. HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

Continuing the remarkable BANSE Revelations

BELOW is another. pertinent extract from

"Raum Und Wolktriego",

Volk

Im

the indis-

creet publication by Pro. fessor Ewald Bante, Nazi professor of military science at Brunswick Technical College, who is recognised to-day as the whose strategist upon. theories Nazi military action is based.

Banse is the successor of General.Schlieffen, who prepared the plans for the German invasion of France through Belgium in the last war.

As such, what

he has to say is 'n clue to Nazi thought and, possibly, Nazi action.

In previous chapters, of the Banse wrote

methods Germany should employ in invading Hol- land and Belgium, and the reasons why such inva- sions would have to be car- ried out by Hitler,

To-day, he writes of the other German dream-the invasion of England.

ENGLAND'S position just off the middle of the west coast of Europe makes her the natural gate keeper and overseer of the French, Belgian, Dutch, German, Danish and Norwegian coasts and of the seas which wash them, the Channel and the North Sea.

As

This explains the changing face of British history. long as the Atlantic coast was Europe's rear, England was doomed to comparative in- significance; it was, in fact, an unpretentious land of pen- sants and shepherds. which exported wool and imported manufactured goods, and not. in its own ships either.

But once the crossing of the Atlantic and the discovery and settlement of its further Ameri made Europe's can shore had west coast her main front, it de pended entirely on the capacity of the British people whether the sudden change in their position. which was now extraordinarily advantageous from the commer- olal point of view, would result in the development of overseas trade and in political expansion or not.

The British proved equal to their opportunities; they are an out ambitious race and carry

immense their projects with energy and unfailing success. Since the end of the 16th century they have reached out across the colonial ocean and built up a empire, which has endowed them with immense resources in the ahape of raw materials for their industry and food stuffs for their population.

And in 1846 they took the step, so fraught with consequences for their security, of ruining their own agriculture by the Introduction of the trade, which placed free nation's food supply in dependener on imports from overseas and, on great the other hand, gave

survive for a month m her home production; in the event

2

yesus to industry, England con

of war, therefore, she is faced with import starvation unless she сага foodstuffs or has hoarded immense stocks.

Superiority

At Sea

this short Even from

survey emerge important facts certain regarding England's position in matters of national defence. Her situation as an island just of the enables Atlantic coast of Europe her to keep an eye on it and particular to watch over the Chan

and the North Sea; it gives her. a military security Lo addition, caloyed by no other country of Europe.

in

How Hitler would

INVADE

Juzz

1:0000000

-- suhema „Scarpe Natural forward-basea and

thes of advance,

NE Tertiary MWY Chalk

Shortet erossing for an invading force.

Principal industrial area and centres of population.

From the military point of view England's field of action les out- side her coast line so long as no chemy has crossed the latter. This that England's European mcons theatre of war lies on the sea or even on one of its further coasts; from Julland to the Gronde, to with and perhaps subse- begin quently on the neighbouring Istand of Ireland.

Approach From

The Sea

Great Britain is easily approach- ed from the sea owing to its many bays and short but deep rivers nor does its interior, apart from Scol- lard and Wales, present obstacles to communication. the Pennine Chain in the north of England forms no barrier, being sort of raised plateau

many Even

covered with sheep runs.

In general there are three main densely populated industrial (and shipping)

the main areas:-(1)

the axle-tree running

from London to Cardiff, with its centre of gravity south of England right across In the vast London area; (2) the Midlands, an area bounded roughly aline joining Liverpool, Bir- by # mingham, Hull,

Leeds and

and

containing rich deposits of coal and fran; the Midlands are the seat of heavy, smelting and the principal, texille Industries of the .country, contain a considerable proportion of its population, and are respon sible for most of its foreign trade; the small lowland area in (3) the. centre of Scotland, with its coal and iron deposits, its shipbuilding and other industries, which con- fains Glasgow and Edinburgh and almost the whole population

Scotland.

D

of

The remainder of the island is good deal more sparsely popu lated and is of no great importance for the economic life of the coun- try, which is, in this

Her economic dependence on her which own, but distant empire, proceeds from this sense of secu- xity, le only made feasible by her country. possession of

Fang

case, the

follows that any hostile

' bli merchant fleet the notuál invasion must be

all

a navy "superior to This fact along make

the sworn foo of my power which alms at possessing an equally large fleet. In her case, therefore, the security of the State is bound with undisturbed maritime up trade and a strong navy none of these things is posible without the other; but one drops, dut, the whole structure falls to pieces.

Its two main pillars are the

the WAVY, and, of course, swerving determination of the

English people.

TELY

at one of these three

almed aress, and if possible against the most Important one, the. Mi- lands, which are also the prin elpal centre for the manufacture

The south earl of England also deserves special attention, as it is most easily reached from the Con Unent and, as the seat of the copital, 14 of paramount impor- tance politically. South-eastern

ex England forms the northern tremity of the Paris, basin, though, of course, now separated from it by the curving in of the Channel.

* is zivided. Into two branches, which fork north east and south east somewhere bo- thetween Oxford and Sallsbury: their narrow lines of, hills, rucning in walls, the necessary time to raise these same directions, form

second rampart facin

facing north-west, an army.

upshot of this is, the navy la much

ITHA. that for It the worst, comes to the worst the navy hai (as happened in the world war) to procure

their “ English, secure babind

mohan - Hunny The chalk-country-

for..

Thursday, MAY 16, 1940.

PEPSODENT

TOOTH PASTE and POWDER

CONTAIN

IRIUM

FOR GREATER CLEANSING POWER

ENGLAND NY.K.

capable of being put to military uses and further strengthened by various rivers.

Besides the Thomes valley, south castern England contains one other low-lying area, namely, the broad blunt peninsula formed by Norfolk and Suffolk, a relatively sparsely populated agricultural district.

This region is so noticeably cut

off from the rest ofsaid, in-

by the Wash and its inland extension, the convert- Fens Conce a swamp, now ed into marshland), by the lower other various mames, and by rivers, that it is necessarily of the greatest Interest to any invading army.

cluding even the south

are

In fact, the Great Ouse which Dows Into the Wash, and a mumm- ber of streams flowing lato the Blackwater estuary, whleh only separated from the source of the Ouse. by a few mules, make the peninsula into

a regular island, which provides an invad- safe and roRY army with

which quarters from threaten London, which is quite close and wlihout natural de- fences on that side, and also the Industrial Midlands not Away.

English And

The Scots

to

for

the

the

The English nation-and same applies in general Scots, the Mediterranean, Goelle- speaking element being very small and uninfluential-was originally a Saxon und of Lower

COLELLAN igrants; later on #

Normun

came under the sway of upper class, which introduced the French language as well as Nor- wegian blood, so that modern Eng- Hah

a art of old Low German is withs Latin additions.

the

between The small differences the English and the Scots are thlefly to be explained by absence of the Norman element, so for which never penetrateco north

left Scots in a sense more German. Racially the British Isles belong to the Nordle group, but in

of land, at home or sea power and colonies abroad.

This is accompanied by a certain slowness, which cungs to the old -as-long-as It can be made to work

somehow a

vand is very unwilling to alter its ways or develop, prefer- ring to surround itself with an ex- traordinary hotch-potch of most modern inventions and the most ancient traditions.

But the most marked feature of ali the incredible tenacity with..which the English, once

they

have adopted an objective, never let it out of sight for a any moment, and use absolutely means of getting to it without the slightest compunction.

on English The main object of boy's education is not, as it is of a German boy's, to stuff a maxi-

Into of knowledge mum amount

(a) to harden him, to give him, but hlm resolute, self confident. character, and (b) to incorporate. the individual in the great British nation, which God has called to rule the world.

This

1

of huroduces an admirable 'type

In so far as it com- bines free manhood with complete Incorporation in the stale und somi ciety, so that the government can rely on popular support at any rate in all questions of foreign policy. The old German individualism. which among the Germans penet- rates and (from the public point of view) vitiates everything, has been overlaid and transformed in Great Britain by the strict Norman discipline, till it has come to

to form a politically reliable quantity. .....In matters of culture this is, of course, a limitation, so much so indeed that a wearisome, if in it- descends self beautiful, sameness

In

on everything, in lite us in thought. It should be noted that in the Scotsman the individual element is more strongly esprit de corps, than I the Icas strongly developed

outlook is Englishman, whereas his outle even more materialistic.by'n long iras ence Scots meanness way; hence become the subject of innumer- able joltes and stories in England.

There is one other highly signi- feant tralt which springs from the

of this character, namely, Behind a cold and self-controlled exterior the Englishman conceals a distinctly Bery nature which tries to conceal its true features and has gradually learnt how to let an in- ner reality, which but too often has good reason to shun the light of day, run riot beneath a well preserved facade.

National

Solidarity

Let us now attempt to evaluate the character we have sketched above from the point of view of military paychology.

bre

The English probably surpass even the French in national soli- darity, particularly as they free from the latter scepticism; With them a rational grasp of the fact that the existence of Britain is at stake fulfils the same function as the Frenchman's faculty quick enthusiasm,

The English nation, pursues. Its vital aims with bulldog pertinacity and will never let its enemy go it hat lald him low; this it has usually succeeded in doing, from the Spanish Armada to Napoleon and on to Veranilles

The Individual English soldier" also

shows the same steady, if slow determination; in the hundred days' battle in Flanders in the summer of 1017 he England

he was the mainstay of the Allies, who were beginning to under the combined strain weaken underl

film of the Mediter

ranean blood of the earlier in-.. habitants stil persists; it mani tests itself in the comparative, and In recent years increasing, fro- quency of dark hair. Wales and Ireland are fir homes.

The

Anglo-Scottish

national character is in all essentials that of the Lower Saxon pensant, only Impoverished by less favourable agrarian conditions and further limited by an Innilar situation.

Hence we and great capacity for work and great circumspection; very materialistic attitude to the things of this life, combined with clear foresight; and an egolistical alust for power which seeks to grab everything for itself, be it a pitco

of the Russian collapse, the

the mutiny. In the French army, the failure

shake hands with him, perhaps even to feel pity for him; but be- fure that stage is reached, they will stick at nothing. from stander to starvation and from bare fists to tanks, and they spare nothing and

to the nobody belonging

nor enemy, neither combatants women nor even children.

The English nallon always thinks in wholes: what it

sees enemy is not the individual soldier but the nation plus its entire en- vironment, including the physical aspect of the country name.

its economic

life and even its

as

The Engilah were the first people to adopt this new attitude, which they have put fato practice in countless colonial campaigns as well as in the Great War, and they have, thereby created a new one that conception of war and has come to stay.

ta

Henceforward, war is no longer

crossing of swords with the enemy, as it used to be, but the military, economie, psychological and moral destruction and exter- mination of the enemy nation.

It was England who instituted the war of starvation, the war of econ- -omie- -ennihilation-and-the-war-ot

11es alongside the war of armies and scored

BUCCOBS a resounding with them.

One does not know whether to be horrified at the vileness, or to ad- mire the clear-headed logic and unshakeable Iron. determination which this reveals; the latter at- titude will probably carry a nation with its eye on its future further.

No Military

Talent

The aggressive spirit is not high- ly developed in the English, nor have they ever shown much talent for military operations on a large scale,

Their slowness at the Marne, where the English army might have landed the German right in queer stract

by a rapid and resolute thrust between the First and Second Ger- man armies, xays enough.

in

On the other hand we may In- stance as typical British perform- ances: (1) the exhibition of en- 1917, durance in Flanders already referred to; and (2) their methodical advance extremely

the Sinai which was Jeross judiciously but not

boldly Judiciou planned and carried

Ike out: Car Kitchener's

against expedition the Mahdi In Nubla, it was made to depend on the construction of u railway, and, in this cuse, of a water supply system too, which In both cases brought the British slowly and unheroically-but-surely- to their goal.

In the tree use of mobile masses In open country, and in the rapid following up of an initial tactlen success 1 Is assumes strategir proportions, English generals have usually failed.

The individual soldier in the fleld is not expected to overwork himself either; he is treated like a sentleman, who cannot ret on without comfort and well being: the small extent to which the un- expectedly successful tank attack at Cambral in November, 1817. was followed up is proof enough,

The British soldier, of whatever rank, always does just as much as he thinks necessary to preserve the Empire, and no more "the Em pire" meaning comfort and security for the English at Home; martial glory means nothing to him.

Whatever the Englishman is do ing, he never loses sight of his ob- jective once he is convinced that It is the right one, never (as the. German sometimes does) confuses the means with the need.

England's nával strategy in the North Sea, which kept the battle fleet in the northern harbours, was an righi as it was, therole why risk the precious fleet, the bulwark of England's world power and of her domestic security, V the object of the War, the des

could be traction of Germany, achieved in an easler and len dangerous fashion?

It was the clear realisation.of the object of the War, namely, the de-. truction of Germany In the tereals of England's future security --especially after unrestricted sub- marine warfare had shown how very real the danger was which was the source of the material and metal strength with which the English people endured the unex pected hardships of the long strug gle, among which compulsory mill- tary service with Its Inroads on Individual iberty, was no doubt: much more keenly felt than the (by no means severe) rationing.

The unrestricted submarine wat Zare which allfened England's back broke ours, in saying which we previously been subjected to very much the greater strain.

of Italy, and the fury of our unmust not forget that the latter had

warfare. U-bout restricted

The Englishman's type of hero- Ism is passive rather than active;

ho rematas calm in the face of danger, but he does not leap wildly into the fray; he prefers to explore the enemy's weak side carefully and then to strike a smashing blow at I

On the other hand, it is not the English way to pursue an enemy

Reaction. To,

An Invasion

It in Very Important to make up, our eninds how the English chang ter may be expected to react to at hostille invasion mod

The nation will ceriainly ruli

to, his last, gorpusby all means letto ama one man and with

him live oil, provided, he is, no longer dangerous.

The English are very ready to

herola obrtinacy, will les fiself be mown down in front of the line at the Ouse we the chalk, and

·

t.

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Jurassic hills, before it is forced back step by step.

But it is questionable whether the English could face starvation. Physically they have been ex- tremely pampered for centuries and would find it very hard to adjust themselves to real priva. tion (such as they never ex- perienced during the War in splie of food cards).

Some of them would no doubl patriotically endure even that," but others might throw up the game, which would have ceased to be one for them, sooner.

We confess that gives us pleasure to meditate on the des- truction that must sooner or later. overtake this proud and seemingly Invincible nation, and to think that this country, which was last conquered in 1063, will once more foreign master or at any obey rate have to resign Its rich colonial empire.

The above sentences would ap- pear monstrous, nay, rank blas phemy, to every Engilshman and Englishwoman in the world- if they ever saw them.

The Position

Of Ireland

Ireland's function is merely to back up the main operations which would take place in the east of Eng- land. Only in the last named case would Ireland acquire importance indeed, great and decisive import-

is ance. The English commander likely to find dificully in mani-

considerable army pulating two fronts in the over-populated rabbit Midlands.

Warren

of the industrial Moreover, English war industry, which has its chief centres in this particular area, would not be 'nule to support an army of millions concentrated in this narrow space and keep it supplied with munt- tions.

Inside Ireland itself special at- tention needs to be paid to Ulster, which would have to be con- quered or hermetically sealed up at the same time as the invasion of the northerd, Midlands, took place.

as

most benefit from an Irish In- vasion of the latter,

When we consider the won

the ders we did achieve and trouble we spent on lens essential objectives, we are forced to the conclusion that our fallure to Dccupy Holland and attempt A landing on the other side of the Channel in the last war was a grave error.

Till the

of 1916 the begiraing of English, as we know now, assured that we should be able to land 160,000 men, as the Grand Fleet could not get into action within less than

24 hours of the trans orts being sighted.

They were here thinking of a force. coming: from Germany. Sa that we may assume that we could have got 250,000 men across from the Bel-

the glan and Dutch const before Grand Fleet could interfere. The linc of

Grand Ouse to the west the of Norfolk

80 and Suffolk is some miles long; it would not have been

ports

very strongly held with 250,000 men, but sufficiently strongly to cope with Enigish home defence troops.

Crossing

The Channel

the

To get an army across Channel to the Kent coast should prove a relatively simple business, particularly if the attacker is in possession of the French Channel ports of Dunkirk, Calals and Bou logne, from which he can clear the Channel of English ships with artillery, the shortest sen passage or so of between the ten miles French coast from Cape Griz-Nez to Sangatte and Dover being only 21 miles.

there During the world war were two opportune moments for first in German landing: the

1815,, 1014 or the beginning of when the English army at home was still small and untrained; and the second in the spring of 1917, when

submarine unrestricted

warfare started

At that time the British higher and bellaved that U-boat falled, Germany would be bound either to attempt an in- vasion of England at the cost of her feet, if need boor sue for peat the

If conquered, it might be used a starting point for an attack on the densely populated Glasgow district of Scotland, which is quite close and of great Importance from the point of view of war industry: even if such attack were only carried out by a small force, would have the effect of keeping considerable portions of the Eng-. lish army busy up in the north, until a decision was

reactice, Tur ther south. A metaln The coast-line of Great Britain

about. and Ireland extends over

the 6,875 miles, but as long as Grand Fleet is functioning, there are only two places worth con- sidering for a hostile landing the lik-funk-hala:" then

ont of her float." Is that not eloquent of an latex- haustible energy, an iron deter- the goal, reach mination to which we lacked?

The cautious behaviour of our. High Sons fleet did at least one. good

thing for us it compelled strong amy st England to keep

reached a home, which in 1917 total of about 400,000 men, hall of them unit for active service, no doubt. But what a difference an

would invasion

liave madel

brond East Anglian'

protected on the flank by the Wash and the estuary of the Thames, which lends itself well to defence; and the peninsula of Kent ent and

lying betiveen the SURKCX, Thanics, estuary and the Channel, by ap the occupation of which enemy would be a still more direc threat to the capital.

Both schemes ́ of invaason, of course, presuppose that Germany will have the Belgian and Dutch

this

disposal as a base of

operations.

In case of doubt, the occupie Lion

of. Edet Anglis is the prefer- ablo plan; "for" "Il matsune to Shreaten-both Londen aadi. Endi tal- trial Midlands, which are of crucial importando for England's resistance, and would also derive

Grand

In the first place, the Fleet would have been lured from English

army France (all of it in 1014, most of it in 1017) would have tho baça recalled, whereupon French would have been unable to go on holding the Western Front by themselves; moreover, colonial troops would have been called in, thus removing the pressure on our

Macedonia,

solonies," on Ali Türke and 1}{~

blow..

of delivering 3. Instead of

which had every chance of such dess and would have "sirpok k the heart of tho~Allies, as well na delivering Franoninio our hande, we involved ourselves in Piecemeal operations all over the place, which could het bring the War to an end

-To-morrow ITALY