1940-06-12 — Page 13

Wednesday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

MAGAZINE

The Way to Defend

WWO points stand out from Teller in France. The enomy are conducting 11 major operation, and, so far. the Allied counter-attacks ap- pear to he only local.

The notion that the thrust of the Nazi prmoured divisions was glorified “rald" is utter and danger- qus nonsense, Belgium and northern France are not a motor bandit's swag. They are the key points.In the fate of three Great Allied armies,

We need vitally two things to win this struggle. An Idea and a method Firi we must grasp the fact that the war of "lines" is as out-of-date as the war of Greek phalanxes. The "line" has been exchanged for the **zone." The

area that yerlerday was known as the rear is to-day as much a baitle zone as the front There is in fact only une front, and it is that created by the mobils fort which is the tank and the armoured car.

There is only one way to counter lile devastating idea-use it our- selves. It was a British officer who thought of it first, It was a French officer, Andric Lafargue, who in 1015 got the idea of infltration, which is the genesis of the whole thing.

•

THERE is actually only one real anti-tank weapon. That 1

-

June 12, 1940.

PAGE Britain Against

Parachute Troops

other tank. Why should you la- boriously fi out your infantry with anti-tank rifles? You have silll gat to transport them to keep up with your adversary. The beat way to do that is to put your men in a tank themselves and arm them, not with a ride, but a cannon,

The German lanke dely most of our prezent, anti-Jank kung. To their surprisirig size and speed they add a tremendous armour. It is called "concrete-steel" and will re- sist the fire of 114in. anti-tank

·weapons al 200 metres. This armour 19 nade at the Foldino-II factory ai Kladno near Prague, and at Vitkovice in Moravia.

The unfortunate Czechs Arc labouring under Nazi domination at fank production in Üres uther great centres, I estimate their forced output alone at 5000 tanks a year. To this must be added the vast stream from the German factories.

Y WILL not discuss the situation fu France this evening except to point out flat the Germans there are subject to nilack by air, land Let us turn to the matter and sea.

which preoccupied another grat enemy. Napolron, when he camped

Fortress in the

Desert

By RONALD MATTHEWS

CAIRO.

NY troups that try to attack

A walk-urch

This is my conviction after two days spent at Merso Matruh, the Anglo-Egyptian, fortress which tars the route into

from the const.

the country

From an instructed look at the think that the

mag you would

Italians could enter Egypt any- where along the Libyan-Egyption frontier.

This is an error.

For 10 miles south of the Medi- terranean coust the desert rises to

o great escarpment-a sheer, sandy cliff. 800 feet high and unscalable by the most agile tank.

Sixty miles south again cliffs descend, and another possible way to an invader would seemi open through the frontier Shw# oasis.

the

This is connected by a truck to the Enhariya ousis, within 12 hours run of the Nile.

Ona.mon_this, too, looks eny, But the Sha-Bahariga Cross a desert region, which would be as kind to tank as Dart- anor is to Ignorant hikers.

On either site ut the bark-- which could be easily destroyed- stretch pitiless expanses of soft somt.

Any means of transpont hat the cored would be begged in a matter of :econds.

Mersa Matruh, therefore, stands at the edge of the only feasible way Into Egypt, and it bars the only metal rond to the East,

It is quite the friendliest fortress

I have ever visited.

The little town, consisting of tine and two-storey villas, was füid aut in methodkały squared streets by the Jute King Fuad to be Egypt's miniature Brighton.

It is situated on the edge of a agoon harbour, hemmed "in by encireling promontories, and barrest by a reef with a single nurrow entrance.

This reef is under constant ob- servation {rom the shore, andi covered by guns.

At sunset 'the harbour Jooks much like a Hollywood representa tion of the South Seas.

Yel up the gentle slopes from the water's edge lies a chain of defences sweeping in an II-mite circle round the town.

Key points are now constantly

manned.

Across the desert, which is here. like a mud pie, entangling dork _grey_strands of barbed wire, are.

stretched,

Parallel with the barbed wire locm the grey conical shapes of anti-tank pylena.

DESTROY

ants!

Lasect pestenwich 4 Page=

Jav sprinkle of Kenliegʻon

the trustad Inoneticida for

50 учета...

KEATING'S KILLS

-BUT IT MUST BE HEATING'S

are

Then there

broad deep Trenches into which tanks of any imaginable size would plunge.

Within the lines of wire and pylons are the defensive positions of the garrison.

I wandered through the trench systems and peered through the Run apertures of the Bren pll- boxen,

Each pill-box, incidentally, is connected by telephone with H.Q.

descended the cool vaults of concrete underground casualty sta tion.

I

Finally I was shown the brains of the whole fortress tens of feet underground.

✰

*

Here the staff, aided by tele graphists and telephonists, can cummunicate with both the front and the outside world.

The defensive positions

sur- rounding the hulment town where _the_quærison_lives in peace-time are

a number of separate lines,

"We'll hold them all right," a duur Secttish sergeant assured me.

might be asked what would happen if an invader tried to side- step Mera Matruh by sending Troops across the desert to the north.

That is why mechanised troops are waiting in the neighborhoo ready to move at instant notice to intercept any mobile attackers,

Mechanised light craft-the crews use nautical termmology-- are ready at the harbour-side.

Not far away, but equally ready, ave warships.

Every day lanes of the far- dung; patrols of the Egyption fron- tier force scour the desert, watch- ing for suspicious netivities.

By A MILITARY CORRESPONDENT

so long upon the that crowns the anclerit town of Boulogne. The "Invasion of England."

"Consider the' parachutists; the real "storm troops" of this war. They are the pick of Nazi youth. Fit. strong, resolute, remarceful fighters, armed with automátics that throw a belt of fire around them. We are proposing to modliise ggainst them a militia armed with rifle and Why not with bows and bayoort. arrows and with the Lord of the Mfanor mounted on one of the estaje horses?

The beautiful theory now is that on the arrival of the Invaders, we shall "call out the Watch"

ani draw a corden around the invaders matil Die Regulars come up. But what we need are shock troops armed with tommy-guns, who will Immediately assault and prevent the paraekullats ever dispersing. first In fact, we should organise a Jine of this Porashot, forer on the hasis of the Assault Guard of the Spanish Republle: that is, police troops of the highest quality and trained for exactly this sort of

Could

THE prospect of armed

men

lancing in Britain on a scale suficient to constitute an invasion -ar distinct from raids by para- chutists or other guerillas in disturbing thought, but it is highly important to differentiate between "raids" and "invasion" proper.

Events mily prove те wrong, but in my opinion Britain cannot be "invaded" as long as we retain

the sea. This congmund of equally true whether the invadler were to innke his jump-off from any point or points along the const- line of Western Europe, from the Far North down to the Bay of Bis- cay,

in the past, trany Euro- dictators, from Philip

baille.

A seran line would serve well enough as patrols.

Right now the troops at present training in Britain should be form- ed into fighting'units and disposed as such. For Britain also Is a' "battle zone,” it is not just the

"read" behind the Channel.

The country should be divided Into sectors. Strong, points shouk be set up and connection estab- Ished. Thus it will be possible to deal with "Infilmilton" from the afr in the same way that ships can deal with "Infiiration" from the sea, that is by watirtight compart- ments. When the et zmy penetrates you simply close the compariment affected, and then PKJ, TP HIM OUT AT LEISURE.

Only regular troops van handle fils taelle, And I point out again that this tactle is préelsely the most useful that infantry can be required to master,

Let us further set about armour- In some trains. The shipyards are capable of provide the plates sufletent for resisting the fire of automaile Fines. Let 14 create. armoured trai crews, and keep Ther constantly, wider arms. Let

us armour a host of small motor- care and place them in the same force.

NOW for another luston. Here It is. The parachutisis, having to base, can quickly be mopped 'up. We have only to put all our Fifth Columnists under lock and key and all possible reinforcement hero' will -be eut off." -Bunk.

Parachutista can be sustained by Iroop-carrying airplanes. And by trains of gliders, the kind ein- played by the Nazis in the fighting along the Albert Canal, Six to eight men can be carried on every glider, and alx to eight gliders can bo towed. While the German bases were in Germany this manoeuvre was attended with for too mock risk. Established on the French

the coasts diminished.

is drastically

It is not easy to eject men armed with automalle weapons once they Ask are' entrenched in a house. any G-man. Indeed we might well abisia from the United States both advice on this problem and arms.

In 1016 six hundred men locked themselves In the Dublin I'ost Ofee. They. had only rifles. They held the post for five days and were ejected eventually by artillery. Blx hundred Nazi parachutists would hardly be disposed of in five days if they were allowed to run loose lu Eire to-day.

Hitler Invade

Britain?

01

ever many of these he might be able to land.

Tanks. heavy artillery and mechanised equipment would be by the Intruders to save needed themselves from destruction capture, stil more to enable them

{x to advance inland. These impedi- ments must be brought across in comparatively large ships, and they could be put "ashore only by the aid of dock incllities, cranes, ele.

Huge quantities of oil in its

been, to date, palley. If the Feet were compelled to operate in walers much nearer the main German air bases, such 08 the Flanders const or the Dover de- Me, We

heavler might suffer

to be that remains losses, but proved. Yet as long as that Fleet remains undefeated the German dictator cannot attempt a proper invasion oversens without incur- ring risks from which self-confidence must flinch.

even his

From the days of Ancient Rome down to our own time history has shown no single instance of suc- cessful invasion by sea in the teeth of a superior encuny deel. This is rule to which no! # single Important exception is on sequels to Napoleon's descent on Egypt, Hoche's expedi-

Desde for a Hector Bywater resort. The cant ch

of Spain to Napoleon, and perhaps,

have toyed with the ideo

of subjugating Britain by invading her. Philip tried the plon, and Every schoolboy kaows the fate of his invincible Armada.”

*

110

Napoleon kept for months a huge army sprawled aking the French Channel const, ready to cross in

lat-botton boats, but try as "might be could not fout the inexor- able taas of get-naval strategy, for between line and England lay the British Fleet-Those distani, storm-battered ships on which the Grand Arny never looked, stood between it and the dominion of the world."

Not even Hiller en evade those laws. The parachutists and "Fifth Columnists"**

create local Tay havoc and confusion, but such sporadic operations cannot, acord- fig to all the leachings of history, he decisive.

1

Modern warfare has assumed a in- real ure which makes vasion of this country more dự- ficult than ever. An vader would requirg PROTE than troops. how-

Says

No

various forms, munitions and sup- plies would also be essential, and they could only be brought over In the needful volume by surface ships.

would Meanwhile, what the British flowe Flect and its attaclied squadrons and fiolilias= at least three times more numerous tha Hitler's whole naval force- and the R.A.P. and the Fleet Al Arm be doing?

to hly

Even Hiller must gain at least temporary or local command of the sen before he can invade us in decisive force. He has no visible or imaginable

nable prospect of gaining such

command. Thanks adventure in Scandinavia his fleet bas, to quote our Prime Minister's phrase, sattered "nuasive mutila- tion," which the utmost exertions of his shipyards and arsenals can- not make good this year or next.

The total results of his alr offensive against our Fleet have

lion

to Bantry Bay and to the Italian attack on Lissa all ended in disaster to the aggressor.

Dogmatism is ; pitfall into which no serious commentator on war fare should fall, but when a rule has dononstrated its absolute ~ -lexibility_over_the_whole spun, uí. world history as we know it, one may be pardoned for accepting it as unbreakable-though I agree that the air has introduced an en- tirely new factor which might con- reivably upset all previous calculn- tions.

I venture to predict that no German military force, other than sabo- parachutists or individunt leurs, will be apen on British soil in this war as long as the Allied Beets remain virtually intact and their armies undefeated. Even in the latter contingency there is nu reason why British territory should be violated by a German army

with

of the the consent British Government and people.

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