ASSAULT AND ENDURANCE
" WHEREFORE take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand." Every man must decide for himself how he interprets the first words of that exhortation, and the day of prayer appointed by the King for next Sunday may afford a fitting opportunity. Few men and women, however they may express their thoughts, or leave them unexpressed, can be unconscious of the need of some spiritual support if they are to withstand in the evil day that has come with full force upon them, and, having done all, to stand. For that is what Britons and Frenchmen are called on to do before all things at this crisis of their lives. Later, perhaps sooner than we dared to hope, it may be a question of flinging back the enemy to the place from whence he came. Today it is a question simply of bringing his onslaught to a standstill. In some sections of the front that has been done already. In others the impetus of the first attack has been slowed down. But in the quarter most dangerous to the maintenance of liaison between the French and British armies the advance con- tinues, and with every mile that the German tanks crash on, with aeroplanes blasting a way before them, Allied anxiety must increase. A successful counter-offensive might change the situation radically, but until it comes, and has achieved its desired end, the outlook remains critical in the last degree.
Fortunately there is little disposition to disguise that. Some tendency, it is true, there has been to derive fallacious comfort from the fact that what the Germans have broken through is not the Maginot Line proper, but its more or less improvised extension along the Belgian frontier. That, no doubt, is so, but the governing fact is that by their thrust south from Mezieres the Germans are threatening to turn the Maginot Line completely, and leave it as useless as if its forts were ground to powder. The threat is still unexecuted, and General Weygand can be counted on with some con- fidence to frustrate its execution, but to minimise the gravity of the break-through from Belgium would be folly that could only precipitate disaster. No one has empha- sised that more strongly than the Prime Minister in his candid and courageous broadcast of last Sunday. He made no concealment of the danger of the German thrust towards the Channel ports, or of the ordeal the people of this country may have to undergo if the fronts in France stabilise, and Hitler decides the time has come to gratify his chief hate of all, against Great Britain. His aeroplanes then will inevitably be released for raids on Britain. They will do great damage. There will inevitably be serious loss of life. But they will not defeat us. Endurance under bombing will be a stern test, but we have had ample time to make defensive preparations, and the success of our fighters in repelling attacking aircraft so far has made it certain that, while in a mass-attack some bombers must always get through, they will pay heavily for their en- deavours, and may fail more than they succeed.
There is no firm basis for predictions about the next few weeks. The area the conflict may cover is quite uncertain. Italy may or may not intervene. The probability now is that she will, and it is as well to assume the worst, and consider what consequences that would have. Italy's strength is very different from Germany's, but if she attacked France now it would mean a serious diversion of Allied effort at a critical moment. On the other hand, Britain and France would at once gain the active support of Turkey, which in itself would be a sufficient addition to the strength they command in the Mediterranean to leave little doubt about the ultimate results of a conflict there. But here again en. known factors, such as the attitude of Russia and all he Balkan States, may upset calculations and change opinions about the outlook. Nearer home, moreover, there are problems which it is dangerous to ignore. Ireland occupies a strategic position such that in every past war it has been deemed essential, as much for Ireland's own sake as for ours, that the island should be included in our own defen- sive system. That is not so today. Southern Ireland desires it otherwise, and we have scrupulously respected her neutrality, even though it involves the maintenance of a German Legation, with all its apparatus of propaganda and espionage, within sixty miles of our shores in what is tech- nically regarded as a British Dominion. The existence in Eire of a formidable organisation, the I.R.A., hostile alike to Mr. de Valera's Government and to this country, creates a situation about which it may be prudent to say little but reflect the more.
On the other side of the balance-sheet must be entered the stimulus which Germany's latest crimes, and the danger in which the Allied forces stand, have given to the deter- mination of the United States to support us by every means short of armed action, and of the Dominions to give in- creased support in every form, including armed action. Canada, Australiaa, New Zealand, have all redoubled their efforts, and a sharp acceleration of the aeroplane output of the United States has been assured by the conferences the administration has had this week with the leading manufacturers. That is the supreme and urgent need, but we must rely on our own exertions first. This is no time for recriminations or arraignments, but as we salute with almost incredulous admiration the exploits of our young airmen it is hard to think without bitterness and anger of some Ministers in the past, whose failure to recognise what scale of production would be necessary is compelling our pilots, in order to keep the ratio of the opposing forces steady, to shoot down two or three of the enemy's machines for every one we lose. They are doing it, and their achieve- ments show no signs of slackening, but the strain is all but intolerable, and we are asking of them what no one has a right to ask. Everything depends today on production, and whether the leeway can be made up in time. The new Ministers are grasping the essential task with expedition and resolve. Lord Beaverbrook, as Minister for Aircraft Production, has already made his forceful personality felt. Mr. Bevin is inspiring Labour to work, in his own expres- sive words, like hell. Mr. Morrison is organising the business of supply at a new tempo, and America is ready now to send aeroplanes without limit as soon as they can be constructed. But the construction is the trouble. Aero- planes cannot simply be voted nem. con. Their frames, their engines, their bomb-racks, their machine-guns and the rest have to be separately produced and then assembled. And we are still producing far too few and far too slowly.
For that the civilians of this country, as well as the air- men, will have to pay. Immense supplies are in prepara- tion, in Britain, Canada and the United States. If we can hold on till they come their arrival will spell victory. But the interval will expose us to a searching test. England and Scotland will be attacked as they have never been attacked before. Invasion will almost certainly be attempted. Plans for it have no doubt been worked out in every detail. We need not fear it will succeed. A sober review of all the factors justifies the belief that it would be a hopeless enterprise. But if there could be no full success immense material damage, and serious loss of civilian life, would be inflicted. That must be faced, as it is being, with steadfast hearts. We have been expecting air-attack and preparing our defences against it for months. We have seen what it means in Poland and Norway and Holland, and while we have no claim to escape the suffer- ing that those nations bore we know in fact that we are far better protected than they were and shall have no such ordeal to face. And in spite of everything we can still see past the ordeal to victory. If in the evil day we can endure, the resources accruing to us as our factories and America's move to peak production will sweep back the engulfing tide. Hitler's hope is to batter us into submission before help comes. M. Reynaud thinks that if the Allies can last a month they will be three-quarters of the way to victory. It may be so. If not they must last longer. Never was the fighting man's proviso " pourvu que les civils tiennent "—if only the civilians can hold out—more rele- vant. They can hold out, and will.
Previous page
