Evening star., 1940-08-11
Fighting Fronts

The Germans flew from the continent
toward the British Isles to bomb Eng
lands shore and English Channel and
the North Sea shipping. Not since
Philip II of Spain sent his hapless ar
mada against England have so many men
attempted assault on the Isle of Albion.
What happened even yet is not clear. 1t
is certain that the battle was spectacle
and that the large number of German
greater massed raids.
Eight hundred German planes headed
on one day at different times toward
England, and scarcely half as many
English planes went forth to meet them.
The Germans attacked in
Greatest waves of 80 planes each.
Air Bottle To hear the English tell
it, 60 German planes were
destroyed, at cost to England of only
1e planes. But the Germans say in Ber-
lin that they lost only 10 planes, while
the cost to their enemy was 40. Who was
right? Some day the wars history will
be written from official documents, and
the history will illuminate our contem-
porary darkness. Spitfires and Hurrt-
canes fighting for England; Messer-
schmitt 109s, Heinkel 113s, Junkers 87s
and 88s and an occasional Stuka in
vading through the sky for Germany.
Planes swooped as near as 1000 feet to
the ground and rooftops, and the anti
aircraft guns on the English coastal
margin spit out their ammunition to-
ward the enemy in the clouds.
This battle Thursday, which was
followed on the remaining days of
the week by lesser aerial invasions,
meant little But for the British
government it had certain impli-
cations for sthe time to come.
Since this war is invariably a war with
future prospects and present doubts,
these implications are of vast importance.
Newspapers forecast raids by 500 Ger
man airplanes at time. The govern
ment indicated its expectation of actual
invasion of ground soldiers, and its lead
ers spent the week in steeling the British
people for this climax of the German
effort at downing it's last great enemy.
In France, where is stationed most
of the German force awaiting the signal
to start against England, the newspaper
lie Temps at Vichy concluded at the
weeks end that the long-awaited mass
German attack on England was immi-
Ient. Neutral military observers in Lon
don agreed that the intense campaign
begun by the Italians against the British
in Africa coincident with the great air
invasion might be the opening gun OF
real undertaking against England. They
agreed generally, however, that the inva-
sion of Britain would be attempted only
after week or 10 days of protracted
bombing.
In this connection, it is important to
remember that the air assaults of last
week involved little bombing.
Now the chief governmental effort OF
the English at home is to keep the Eng
lishman in a mood Of expectation for
invasion. The government wants none
of the citizens of the isles
InvosiGn to fall into the habit of
Awaited taking it for granted that
because the Germans have
not yet come against the islands, they
will not come.
The military authorities of London
expressed their confidence that the
services are secure against surprise. To
prepare the man in the street, Prime
Minister Churchill himself opened the
campaign of warning ng-against-t -the-worst
q week ago by decrying the slightest re-
Taxation of vigilance or moral alertness" :"
Since then, First Lord of the Admiralty
A. v. Alexander has warned that hard
knocks, stern trials and grievous tribula-
tions are ahead" David Lloyd George,
World War British Prime Minister who
writes on this page, has said that such
tempest as Britain has never before
encountered Is about to break upon her"
Millions of Britons found under their
doors late last week pamphlet from
the Ministry of Information abjuring
them to "stay where you are" or run
the danger of death. The leaf1et was an
"order from the government" Refugees,
the grim leaf1et warned, undoubtedly
would be machine-gunned by German
flyers and certainly would be turned off
the roads by British troops. The advice
to persons in battle areas was to "go
into shelter and stay there" If para
chutists should fall from the sky, house.
holders have "the right of every man
and woman to do what he can to protect
himself, his family and his home"
The British nighthawks in the Royal
Air Force visited Germany during each
days dark hours and dropped bombs,
then returned to British bases. But it
was far from home that the
Action British airman and the
In Africa British soldier last week
saw, and foresaw, most in
tense action. Africa became stage for
grand battle.
For Great Britain. Africa is part OF
empire and a guardian of the British
lifeline The trade route to England
from the Orient and the Pacific, from
India and Australia, runs through the
Red Sea. At the seas south end is the
Strait of Bah ell Mandeb, leading into
the Gulf of Alden. At the seas north
end is the Suez Canal, leading into the
Mediterranean Sea. On the African side
of Bah el Mandeb is Eritrea, which is
part of Italian East Africa, and south OF
Eritrea is French Somaliland and British
Somaliland. In this area the italian OBJ
jective is domination of the southern
coast of the Gulf of Alden in order to con-
A~.1I a. H.