1940-10-07 — Page 11

(30-57-88

39-40-2-1

Librarsi

DONALD DUCK

Monday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

MAGAZINE

C.I.G.S.

He's the Architect of all

our War plans

BY F. G. H. SALUSBURY

D

War Correspondent.

particular difficulties—at least for the duration,

On the other band, he must not be too much of a soldier to be in- capable of recognising helpful Imagination in a civilian brain.

In making chose remarks I am thinking in no way of Bir John DIII, but of instantes in' our 'history when such dimeulties and clashes have vecurred We have no ttune fot them now.

We have no time for the somno- tent smugness which characterised the Allied High Command during the Winter and Spring

URING the present lule

not to be confused with lullaby, as was done by the last Government and the Allied High Command- there is one military officer whose advice to the War Cabinet is of the utmost importance.

He is General Mr John Dill DA years old, tallish, lean, moustached Waterman and ex-infantry omeer -Chief of the Imperial Oeneral Staff, and his functiona ore posalbiy the most mysterious to the etyilina public of all those in the hierarely of the Army.

We remember him as the com mander of the ist Corps with the B.E.F. as a general with a great record in Palestina during the dim- eult years of 36 and 37 who has the profound respect of the fighting soldier. Now he has retreated be- hind a screen.

SPINS A WEB

One thing can be said definitely of him in his present omietal position. He does not command troops in the loosely accepted sense of the phrnae; he is nat a leader of armies.

Rather does he alt in the background and spin a wab of strategy.

Above all, he must be a thinker, a cunning thinker: and the lower the eunhing-in this age of international gangsters--the better.

There has not been a Commander in-Chief of the British Army for a long time. That function is exercised roi- fectively by the War Cabinet. la niso the command of the Royal Navy and of the Royal Air Force.

The First Lord of the Admiralty, the Secretary of State for War, and the are the Becretary of State for Air ministers responsible for the efficiency of their respective departments: and they, in turn, are advised by their Chiefs of Staff,

Now the 0.10.8-the initials by which the army knows the holder of Bir John Dill's once-would not be in active command if the enemy invaded this country. That, presumably, is the job of Lt. General Sir Alan Brooks, who commands the Home Defences.

But the 0.1.0.8. has been very much in at the birth of the strategy which govern the Home Commander's dis positions

Let me put it in the simplest, bides Way. The War Cabinet has decided to defend us from invasion. It calls for expert advice, and the 0.1.0.8. speak Ing for the Army, has provided the Secretary for War with a plan.

NO SMUGNESS

TOO MUCH " CAN'T

Itler had given us the perfect object lesson in his strategy and tarties when he overran Poland.

The best method of meeting such an attack is with your own aircraft, tanks and artillery. But we suffered froin a genetal shortage of material.

The next best method la with a fort). Aed line, supported by quick-Oring artil fery, behind which you can proceed to remedy your shortages at express speed, The French had their uncompleted Maginot Line: but the Allied strategista proceeded nellier to rush through any serious extension of 12 nor whole heartedly to remedy our shortage of material

Was there a school of thought which advocated this kind of shield until we were ready to attack? There was t waa discouraged.

Flanders mad," said They.

You can't build a Maginot Line In But you can; there lan tried American method which operates by freezing the muả.

Anyhow," said They, you can's build one on flat ground," And, when a ite was then suggested on higher ground in the Vimy region, it w derided as involving the surrender of too much territory to the enemy-an objection which has a satonic humour in the light of events,

IMPERIAL PLANS

80 we return to the present task of the OLOB., who has entered the coun- cil room armed against the future with the lessons learned from a record num- ber of political and military fatuities perpetrated by others.

He has to plan and advise not only for the war as it affects the army in Great Brian, but, imperially, for the Empire.

A scheme may arizo anywhere—in the Cabinet, in the Services When it ha been hammered out it has the authority of the War Cabinet, but it has been per rected technically by the Chiefs of Staf Committee, consisting of the C105. and the Naval and Aff Chiefs of Staff.

the

If it involven a Dominion--if 11 kas originated in a Dominion there will have bren discussions with Dominion's staffs, and agreement will have been reached on local con mander and the forces available.

So we reach the stage when the plan la put into operation, and the general In command takes the responsibility for its success on his shoulders.

Thereafter the 0108-unless the plan is revised-playa the part of an

This plan, however, has been in fluenced by two other members of the Army Council-the Adjutant-General investor who has financed an enterprise, who is responsible for finding the men, and the Quartermaster-General who to find fresh funds. supplies their arms, food and equip ment

"On the nice cohesion of these three branches of the staff depends the suc cess of a campaign, provided always that the strategy of the campolen hat been planned with cunning imagination. Which brings us back to the D.LGS. and his limitless responsiblülitica.

and may be called on at any moment

We are now in a Oghting, aggressive mood, all of us, no matter what our rote in the war. We are looking forward to our Invasion of Europe, and short of that to expeditions, like Drake's, which will singe Hitler's moustache,

Last winter I reported from France the true story of a soldier-an old sweat -who overheard a general say to an officer in the front line, " And then you will advance according to plan.”

He speaks for the Army, and he must be strong enough to speak his mind, to "shout it very loud and clear," if the * Ah," said the old sweat, "so there Army's needs are being cheated by fa a ruddy plan! ** political parsimony, or expediency.

That where Sir John Dill comes in, We have, however, surmounted those and carries on

LETTERS TO TEACHER

MA

TANY teachers keep a

collection of strangely worded and painfully-written notes in their desks, sent by parents as "excuses" for their children's absence from school. Some of them are well worth preserving for the unwitting humour they contain.

Another and letter ran: "Sir,. for she's cut her haund on a bottle Maggle canna come to the schule, which I've poultised. Her Mother."

"Dear Sir," wrote another mother, I canno send oor Jenn tovin the schule as I'm sorry to say she's ta'en a dislike to ye

An Inveterate plunker was told by an angry teacher that he must bring an excuse for absence from

THIS POEM STILL RINGS

Is ninety years since

Wordsworth died. Famous as a nature-poet, he was no less a fervent patriot. Such strains as the following might have. been composed yesterday.

We are left, or shall be left,

alone:

The last that dare to sirupple

with the foe.

Tis well! from the day forward

We shall khow

That in

好厂 ourselves

must be aught;

Lafety

That by our own right hands it

be wrought.

must stand unpropped,

That we m

OT

be laid low

O Dastard, whom much foretaste

doth not cheer!

We shall

Br

exult, if they who rule the land

isho hold its many Then, blessings dear,

Wise, upright, vallant; not а

servite band,

Who are to judge of danger

which they fear,

And honour which they do not

understand.

Who to the

murmurs of an

earthly string

Of Britain's acts would sing. Hic with enraptured volge telli

tell

Of one whose spirit në Trverse

conlit queli:

Of one that 'mid the failing

never fail'd

•

There is a bondage worse, far

worte, to bear

Than his who breathes, by sooj,

and floor, and wall,

Pent in.

Thrali.

ᄆ Tyrant's litery

Tis his whia walks about in the

open air,

One of a Nation who, hener-

forth, must tocar Their fetters in their

Jouis,

For who could be, Who, even the best, in such

condition, free

From self-reproach, reproach

that he miut share With human nature?

be it oura

Never

To see the sun how brightly it

will shine,

And know that noble feelings,

manly CE,

Instead of gathering strength,

mnat droop and pine;

*

And earth with all her pleasant

frutis and flowers Fade, and participate in man'k

decline,

What if our numbers

could defy

barely

The drithmetic of babes, must

foreign hordes, Slaver, vile as ever were be-

fooled by words,

Striking through English breasts

the anarchy

Of Terror bear us to the groundi, ❤

and le

backs

Our hands behind our with felon cords. Ylelúi everything to discipline

of swords?

October 7, 1940.

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By Abner Dean

·DEAN

"Happy birth-day to you-u-u-u, happy_birth-day, to

you-u-u-u?"

Hilaire Belloc

Believes

GERMANY'S TIME GROWING SHORT

Recent weeks have been marked by a fairly rapid in- creuse in the intensity of

enemy

air work against Britain and corresponding in- tensity in our own defensive.

the

We should do well to examine the probable reasons for this new phase of intensity and its probable duration. Before considering these points, however, let us repeat the ndvantages

enemy $1!11 puatesses leat, in examining his reasons for haste, we should ex- oggerate in our own favour the conditions of the struggle during Its present phase.

The one prime advantage which the enemy holds is that of num- ters. It is a point we have in- sisted upon over and over again, and there is the more necessity for such insistence frem, the fact that, partly

from lack of proportion, partly frem the effect of pro- paganda, the full meaning of these numbers is not clearly present to the public.

The main fact underlying all the rest is the fact that the enemy, quite apart from his Mediterranean alliance, was originally much more · than equal numerically to the French and English combined,

le man di good as man, none

towo, none high? Nor discipline nor valour can

withstand

1. Since the French forces were The shock, nor quell the in-eliminated, the enemy's recruiting

evitable rout,

field--that is the ultimate mar power, on which he can draw-js

When in some great extremily

breaks out

A people, on their own beloved »

Land

Risen, like one man, to combat

in the sight

Of a fust God for liberty and

right.

often. with disastrous results--in the hope of jeuking both teacher and parent. "One' of these classics read: "Flease excuse Tam for be Ing absent yesterday. He had a touch, o scarlet fever." Needless to say, the "Lotich" did not pré- vent the truant from enjoying him- self with his own, ploys. 1

pers

Another classic banded to a teacher read: "Dear: Str,"wee Mary ate something that didna agree wi her inside."We kept her at home to see if she was poisoned. Yours very obedient, Her Mother

the try school one day, bearing the awa' frue hamne, sir," was the row.... A warning letter, reached following a strange epistle: "Dear" "ply"f'n need to get une frae ma teacher one day Dear Bin let Jean PASIUN LAJU fld warn ye, no' to falther the phone me BEZI by harm the day, because. I

dult bor/Wull on the back as he de sometimes the erring scholars think she has the mendes on her.

Cofuposed the latters" "memse

A new pupli arrived at a coun- the head of his family. “She's

!

and trained pilots. Every day we approach more nearly to parity.. and that with the added advantage of, on the whole, better machines and certainly better trained pilots.

st We are

a long why off equality in numbers, but the ap- proach to it is ceaselesa. Unless the enemy has won his campaign before numerical superiority in this vital arm passes to our side, he has lost the war.

Need For Speed

That is one reason for the re- cent accentuation of his pace in air work. Another is the uncertain margin of good weather remain- ing to him. When, the storms come aft work will be very differ- ent, and the difference will not be In his favour.

Now, not only must the enemy act quickly in the time at his dis posal, but he must obtain a com- plete decision within that time.

This is a consideration that must have haunted the enemy General Staff ever since the attack on Poland was launched a year ago.

Increasing success, increasing occupation of territory, even the vustly increased numerical advan- tage obtained by the collapse of French resistance, -are still con- ditioned, and more and more conditioned,, by the necessity for a rapid victorious conclusion.'

much more than double our own. Enemy's Advantages

The Mass Attack

But having said so much, and fully considering that handicap against us (a handicap which has adversely affected neutral opinion. of our chances), we may justly turn to the other side of the question

It is evident that the enemy is accelerating his pace. He is push Ing. his preparatory attack hard.

To obtain such à decision his old original advantages are still with him, the remarkable, excellence of ternal government, the perfection his staff work, the unity of his in- of his Intelligence department.

This last advantage we should do well to bear in mind continually. When the enemy was tracking down the King of Norway last year-they were informed of his every move, It la much more than the testing", and he

My cacaped with, his he narrowly which he has claimed it to belie

They have It is rapidly becoming something wh

heen Informed or like a mass attack, so far as the most of our moves, far, more than preliminary airwork is concerned, we have been informed of theirs, knost remarkable at all, and is an acceleration in quality arand well as in quantity, for the enemy. nothing of great moment in their envisages a steadily increasing at plans has ever leaked out. tack upon our vital civilian bentres, the new tanks which were the of victory Inst May our urban population as well as our air bases, ports, and munition

did the deat

Ten Why this accentuation of pace Pirat-there is, the

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