Evening star., 1942-08-20
Ruid or Invasion?


The exciting news of large-scale
landing of commando troops at the
French Channel port or Dieppe opens
broad vista of intriguing specula-
ton. Inevitably, the question rises:
Raid or invasion?
That burning query is not neces-
sarily answered by the immediate
outcome of this particular operation,
which is to be clearly distinguished
from its predecessors. Those were
+ all hit-and-run affairs, obviously
limited to inflicting local damage in
the shortest time. The Dieppe land
ing, with it's employment of field
artillery and light tanks, and its
massive umbrella Of planes, must at
the very least be classified under
what military men term reconnais-
sance in force-an operation designed
to test out both the enemy defensive
arrangements and the offensive abil-
ity Of the attackers. The assault was
preceded by the heavy aerial pasting
OF Rouen and was accompanied by
the similar pasting of Abbeville. Both
are links in the rail and highway
communications leading to Dieppe.
These air maneuvers enhance the
thoroughness of the Dieppe opera
ton as an intensive laboratory ex-
pertinent, persisted in for almost an
entire day and apparently skillfully
concluded.
The lessons OF the experiment are
doubtless being rapidly digested by
the eAnglo-American high commands
as determinants of future operations.
II the landing was relatively easy
and the German counteroffensive
was not too rapid, this may be the
first of a series of similar raids at
widely separated points on the enor-
nous stretch Of Nazi-held coast ex-
tending from northern Norway to
the Spanish border. And those raids,
in turn, may be the precursor of a
genuine invasion attempt, should the
German defense system prove de-
fective or the strength Of the German
covering troops be found to be in
sufficient. A series of such tests
logically would precede so great a
military gamble as the landing OF a
large expeditionary force on the
Continent.
At the same time, even a series OF
such raids should not be taken as
proof that a genuine invasion i'm
pends. The German defense system
is based on the twin principles of
elasticity and depth. Realizing that
- landings almost anywhere on the
coasts cannot be prevented, the Ger
man high command has perfected a
series of tactical reserve nuclei which
can be mobilized for quick counter
attacks, with strategic reserve pools
to deal with more serious emerg-
encies. Nothing less than a real in
vasion presumably would force the
Germans to use more than local
covering troops, still less to divert
=, units at, or earmarked for, the east
ern front.
So much for the purely military
aspects of the situation. However
there is an important psychological
side. Even this one raid, on an un-
precedented scale, has sent wave
OF exultation rolling from Britain
to the Soviet Union, and over all the
Nazi- dominated lands of the Cont
nent as we'll Conversely, it has
added to the anxieties of both the
Axis high command and the Axis
peoples. In gruelling struggle like
that which seems to be reaching 9
bloody climax this summer, rela.
lively small imponderables may weigh
heavily In the wavering scales. Thus
both as fact and as a portent, tn,
Dieppe raid has real significance.