Evening star., 1941-02-28
By LELAND STOWE.

by LELAND SlOWE'
Like Napoleon at his supreme
moment. Adolph Hitler now rules
most of Europe. but he has only
a few cards left to play. Unless
Hitler gets the jackpot before 194l
slips past, the game will be up for
Nazis and Nazi-ism. In this CO.
fbssal and fateful gamble, the Brit
ish Isles represent the jackpot and
Hitler stands to lose everything he
has conquered if he fails to take
them. It's extremely important to
remember that Hitler has already
failed once.
Although this statement may sur
prise some persons, it is true never
theleSs. You may have very divided
opinions about whether Germany
made an actual physical attempt
to invade Britain last September.
You may even be convinced that
the Nazis made no such attempted
invasion. Two sharply icicled facts
remain. All last summer Nazi
leaders of every category were con-
f1dently announcing that by Sep
tember l or by September 15-and
finally before October the Brit
ish Isles would be smitten, crushed
and occupied. Nothing remotely
resembling this doomsday prophecy
ever developed, or has yet developed
after the nearly eight months that
the British have fought virtually
alone.
First Pre-AnnOunced Failure.
Fact No. 2: This was the first
time in this war of blitzkriegs
that the Nazis have told the whole
world what they and their mighty
military machine were going to do
and then failed completely to
fulfill their time schedule. We are
entitled to ask why After all, If
Hitler had fulfilled the boast of
Berlin and occupied Britain last
September. he would have finished
the fastest. most devastating and
most incredible war in history and
would have had the added satis-
faction of soaring the living day
lights out of civilized mankind in
every other part of the globe.
After all, If Nazi arms had been
capable of doing the Job then-if
they had been-why should Hitler
have deliberately passed up the
chance to make Alexander the
Great, Caesar and Napoleon look
like second-raters in the record of
the ages?
1t doesn't quite seem in Hitler's
wise, to have SideStepped an op-
portunity like that-if he really
could have pulled it off. If the
Nazis really had $4,000 or 10000
war planes (as has been reported so
persistently) why didn't they crush
Britain with one terrible blow. as
they said they would do?
My own conviction is that Ger
many did not possess anything like
sufficient superiority in the air
to pull the trick. and also that she
made a start toward invasion but
had 10 give it up for a variety of
reasons. In regard to the first item.
here is the statement of a trained
military observer, stationed in Ger
many until quite recently, who en-
joyed the confidence of Nazi lead
ers. I cannot identify the man
further, except to say that he is one
of the most impressive citizens. I
have encountered anywhere since
went to the war.
Beaten by British Strategy.
This expert told me:
THE Germanys failed in their
attack on Britain primarily be-
cause the British refused to let
their fighter craft be drawn out
and destroyed. The NaziS possessed
about 10000 pursuit planes against
some $500 which they credited to
the British at that time. They
sent their bomberS over in success
sive heavy waves in mid-September.
They thought they would pull
hundreds of English fighters into
the air and then destroy them.
Instead. the British let their towns
and cities take cruel bombing pun
ishment-but they never allowed
their fighter defense to be crippled
or cut in half as Berlin had hoped.
That was strategy in the grand
style More than anything else, it
made it impossible for the Nazis to
invade Britain"
Later on. highly placed officer
of the Royal Air Force gave me a
frank confirmation of the essence
of this declaration.
Somewhere, in my recent wander
ingS, I also encountered a foreign
military authority who had been in
Germany long time. He said:
The Germans tried September
invasion. They had prepared it for
weeks in the coastal ports and they
even showed some of us just what
they were doing. Hundreds of
barges, packed with thousands of
Nazi troops, were sunk in Dutch,
Belgian or French ports"
Somewhere, an R. A. F. flyer de-
scribed to me how he had flown
over ports, jammed tight with
barges and conveys, and how every
bomb had to be a hit.
The words of these witnesses had
the ring of authenticity. On the
other hand, If the Germans suffered
a very considerable disaster of this
kind, I don't pretend to know why
the British government did not
make publicity out of it at the time.
What is certainly far more impor-
tant and much more convincing is
the fact that Nazis all over the
Balkans spent the summer telling us
they would be in London in Sep
tember, and then suddenly carefully