Evening star., 1941-04-13


War Correspondent DreU Middle
ton, home from London on vacation,
has dralOn graphic iCord picture OF
his conception OF the Battle of the
Beaches" if Germany should launch
her long promised inUaSion OF Britain.
Mr.. Middleton UaS NTH the British
Erpeditionary Force in Belgium and
France last spring. and since has
% studied the British home defense set
up Here is his imaginative story of
tUhat inudsion could be like.
TT COULD be like this:
l. Some neutrality-suspicious. next week,
next month-the bleak Office of the
director of military intelligence in the
War Office in Whitehall will slide from
its usual studied nonchalance to the
tenseness it has exhibited on such days
as September 2, 1899, and May 9. 1910.
There on the old. highly polished desk
will lie the evidence, the reports of ques-
tionings of German pilots shot down
over Britain in the past 48 hours, terse
messages from SunderlandS flying over
the North Seas wastes. crisp reports of
fighter pilots back from combat patrols
over the French coast.
The evidence adds up to one word
invasion.
Captured German pilots promise q
mighty blow by land, sea and air. The
Sunderlands report rendezvous of
transports in Norwegian fjords. Fighter
pilots see columns of trucks creeping
along the arrow-straight French roads,
barges thick as water bugs in the bat
tered Channel harbors.
Grand Fleet Moves to Sea.
Across Whitehall, where Nelson's
statue broods over the destinies of his
successors, the Admiralty is awake, too
Destroyers and motor torpedo boats of
the Low Countries scout German sub
marine concentrations.
From the Admiralty's secret radio sta
ton the First Sea Lord makes a signal"
In some far northern harbor the anchor
chains of the grand fleet grind as the
Royal Navy prepares to send its finest
weapon to the defense of Britain.
Further down Whitehall the Air Min
istry flashes orders to hundreds of hid
den airfields where in twos and threes
the Spitfres, Hurricanes and Whirlwinds
wait. Elsewhere the little trucks trundle
out the bombs. The Wellingtons, Hamp-
dens, Halifaxes are loaded and the crews
standing by in the sunshine.
The army puts in motion the delicately
balanced plan with which it hopes tc
smash the invaders. Tommies nestle ir
rifle pits and pillboxes along the coast
line, with extra ammunition at theil
sides. Far from the coast, gunners cleal
their weapons snouts of camouf1age.
BY evening the portents are more plain
The r. A. F. has encountered unusually
heavy anti-aircraft fire along the roads
leading to the French coast There are
fleets of German fighters where none
was before. The heavy German guns
are speaking across the Channel with
new authority.
Night Raidless Despite Moon.
It is raidless night despite the bright
moon. Tired staff officers stand outside
the War ONCE and look down past the
Cenotaph toward the silent Thames.
The telephone rings in the false dawn:
A heavily guarded German convoy i:
steaming southwark through the North
Sea. German bomers have for the first
time heavily attacked the military forti-
f1cations that bristle along England's
eastern and southern coasts.
British destroyers shadow the convoy
silent and sinister. The heavy bombers
breathe on flying fields waiting for flying
orders.
Morning breaks. People 60 to work ir
London. Commuters turn their mind.
from war to other spring mornings wher
Saturday meant golf and tennis or ar
afternoon at Lords for the cricket.
The day wears on. Winston Churchill
stamps to the microphone and, in thu
graphic language for which he is famous