Imperial Valley press., 1943-06-21
BY HUGH BAILLIE
President of the United Press,
Now in London


This is the pause before the
storm. But it is not a complete
pause by any means, since Germany
is being savagely mauled by Allied
air power
The last time I sent one of these
informative notes from London
there was another pause-that of
the phony war which ended on
May 10, 1910, when Hitler fell upon
the low countries and France.
This pause will end with the Al
lies falling upon the European Axis
in such a manner that, as President
Roosevelt said, the enemy won't
know their stern from their bow.
The atmosphere now, however, is
entirely different from that pre-
vailing when the German blow was
impending. Now there is no feeling
of uncertainty nor yet of false Sc
curity. Instead there is a vast sense
of rapidly accumulating power mil
itary redispositions swinging into
line for action. The teams are on
the field for the second half, and
the one that is wearing the new uni
forms possesses plenty of replace
ments is confident of victory, but
aware that it won't be tesy.
CAN'T SPECULATE
There is no telling, of course,
where the blow will be struck first,
but it is a pretty safe bet that the
British and american armadaS'
steadily increased tempo and their
pulverizing operations and engulf-
ing important German military
areas in a hell-fire of destruction
and in time will be putting Ger
man refugees on the roads similar
to those in Belgium and France. 1t,
is also a safe bet that the names
Eisenhower and Montgomery soon
will be in the headlines again.
Here in London where so many
important military decisions are
made, you have the feeling of be-
ing on battlefield which has been
fought over and which might be
again if the Germans try something
desperate. Indeed, it is a battle
field having been the center of
the battle of Britain, and looks it.
The structural face of London is
battered and shows many ugly
scars, but the people are grim and
confident. Most of the ruins have
been "tidied" up and forgotten un-
til after the war. The fact is that
while at first yoE are shocked, es-
pecially by the ruins of historical
edifices which are the common
heritage of all English-speaking
people and which have been so
cruelty desecrated, you soon cease
noticing them. People who have
been through the blitz resemble
members of some fraternity who
have bond in common which no
outsider can understand.
HEAR RAID SIRENS
This is a community where you
hear air raid sirens often in the
middle Of the night, where you see
ack-ack winking like sudden stars
and then learn that a bomb has
fallen here of there and killed peo-
pile; yet everybody surges ahead
practically oblivious. The present
German hit-run raids are barely
noticed in the London newspapers,
but after all of the complicated air
raid drills in New York, it gives
the visitor strange feeling to hear
the brief doleful wailing then the
distant rumble and rumble of the
gl'ls. When you see the wink wink
wink of the shells and hear the
drone of enemy planes, you realize
that this is small sample of the
real thing. There is no excitement
whatever; in fact, there is more
concern shown over trying to get
taXis than over a lone Nazi up in
the sky.
With all this seeming leisure,
there is no real lapse of actual Of
fensive preparations. There is
stern Encouragement Of anything
smacking of over-optimism. There
is an implacaDie determination to
destroy anything standing in the