Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-11-19
Defenses Are Many, Damage
Slight in English Countryside


rolled along slowly-at 80 to IS miles
an hour, down a road with few
civilian cars on it, army trucks
passing us sometimes in groups of
a dozen or more, soldiers on motor
cycles, civilians on bicycles. Almost
Immediately we began passing
through tank traps, usually con-
crete abutments on either side OF
the road with 500-pound cylindrical
blocks Of concrete with great rings
set in the top piled by the side of
the road, for hauling out into the
highway.
Roadway Mined.
On either side of the emplace-
ments on the road there would be
bitches or barbed wire or concrete
poles set in the ground-fanning out
20 or 80 feet. They did not seem to
me very substantial. I asked the
army men with me about this.
They said that all the defenders
cared about was to force the tanks
of the road into the open country.
They also pointed out to me new
laid pavement on either side Of
the tank trap-cobble stones or
packed dirt Mined" they said.
In the fields on either side of the
more pretentious traps were circles
100 yards or more in diameter Of
barbed wire. There was evidence
of something purposeful in the
center of each sandbagged
breastworks or camouflage. Strong
points," said my military friends.
They are scattered about so that
the machine guns in each can
enfilade troops attacking any OF
the others In some places there
were concrete blockhouses with slots
through which to fire.
Soon we began to pass fields in
which there were all manner of
strange goings on. One would be
crisscrossed irregularly with bitches
not deep enough to be trenches.
Or alternating bitches and mounds,
obviously made by a heavy scraped
digging down a foot or more as it
ran along for a 100 yards and then
piling its dirt above ground for
another few yards, then going back
to dig.
People Go About Business.
We figured these were to destroy
the fields for landing enemy air.
craft. In other fields there were
scores and scores-perhaps hun
dreds-of heavy posts set irregu-
larly 20 or 80 feet apart. Across
others battered wrecks of cars had
been scattered as If flung by the
giant handful.
1t was a beautiful autumn day
with only a few fleecy clouds above
The towns through which We passed
were filled with people going about
their buSiness-on the highway. with
much honking of horns. A few of
the towns-not all-had the begin
nings of street barricades of bricks.
Shoppers walked around them. Every
few miles we wouldpass a camp of
some kind. We could not tell for
what purpose they all were meant,
although scattered through one We
saw little tanks, camouflaged. One
We recognized as on the edge of an
air field, although it was beyond
hedgerow and we could see no
planes. We recognized it because its
shape was right for an air field and
because in one corner, Struggled half
into the ground and half behind
sandbags was q heavy machine gun
nest. its nose pointed skywards. We
could just see the helmets of the
crew. They were looking upwards
Always Looking Up.
All anti-aircraft gun emplacement
crews look a little like enlarged toy
soldiers, for they are always looking
up. quite immobile. They must al
ways look up, for 1t only takes
few seconds for a plane to dive out
Of the clouds. The aviators with
me kept hearing the noise of planes
flying. None Of the passerbys or
soldiers in the fields paid any at
tention.
Presently the road began to run
under a series Of regularly spaced
contraptions made of iron piping.
On either side of the road were
pairs Of pipes, perhaps 20 feet high,
parallel to the road, stuck in the
ground is feet apart, their tops
crossed in the air. Laid in this
cross was another pipe that bridged
the road. The whole apparatus was
held in place with guy wires out to
the side. I diagnosed these as de-
vices to keep enemy planes from
landing on the highway. The
American Army corrected me. They
were standard signal corps prepara-
lions for laying field telephone lines
under fire. Should the signal corps
have to lay wires across the road
while troops were using 1t length
wise-and lay them in hurry-they
had simply to hoist their wires up
over the traf1c onto one of these
light bridges.
The officers explained to me that
one would have to know the terrain
intimately to understand the method
to all this. Defenses- Constructions,
strong points, etc.-would be ar
ranged 30 as to make use Of the
terrain. Ones own army must be
able to move rapidly and yet the