Pacific Nwes-Review
pp. 3-4 · Read in the full issue
Notes And Comment On
The Progress Of The War
From May 15 To June 13
May 15: British forces are continuing the pressure against the remaining Italian forces in Abyssinia, southward of Addis Ababa, and another 500 prisoners have been taken. The British mechan ised forces in the Western Desert are constantly harassing German columns at Solium and around Tobruk.
May 16: A German military mission and an Italian delegation have arrived at Bagdad to aid the Iraki usurper, Raschid Ali. They travelled to Irak by way of Syria, with French connivance.
May 16: Reports from Turkey insist that a large-scale attack by the Ger mans on Crete —now garrisoned by the New Zealand division—will be made soon, with the enemy using the Ger man Air Force and the Italian Navy. A German attack on Egypt through the Sudan is also thought to be likely.
May 16: The sensation caused by the arrival in Britain on May 10 of Hitler's Deputy, Rudolph Hess, is now dying down. Few people, however, are able to offer any reasonable explanation of his extraordinary visit. He is now a prisoner of war. The soundest theory seems to be that this man, who is a complete and unrepentant Nazi, wholly devoted to Hit ler, and very conceited, conceived the idea that if he made a personal appeal to the authorities in Britain he might be able to bring about peace conversations.
May 17; As the result of the Franco- German collaboration announced by Marshal Petain (which, it is believed, gives Germany the use of French bases) more than 12 ships, including the huge liner, “Normandie”, have been taken into protective custody by USA.
May 17; It is revealed by the Japanese that the terms suggested by General Chiang Kai Shek for peace talks include the withdrawal of Japanese troops from China, to be followed by negotiations between China and Japan, through USA.
May 18: As it is clear that Germany is using air bases in Syria to assist the Iraki rebels against Britain, RAF bomb ers have systematically attacked the French bases in Syria. The RAF also attacked German planes at Mosul (Northern Irak).
May 18: British forces have now sur rounded the district in northern Abys sinia, where the Duke of Aosta (Italian Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief) and his remaining armies have taken refuge, and the Viceroy has sent emissaries to the British to ask terms of surrender.
May 19: It is reported that German and Italian planes are using Syrian aero dromes on their way to north Irak to help the rebels, and that trainloads of French guns and ammunition are being sent from Syria to Irak, also to help the rebels.
May 19: The Duke of Aosta, Viceroy of Abyssinia, and 7,000 officers and men surrendered to the British to-day. The whole of Abyssinia, Eritrea and Italian Somaliland is now conquered and in occupation of the British, except a com paratively small Italian force southwards of Addis Ababa.
May 19: While Vichy France appar ently has yielded completely to German pressure, news from Spain indicates that General Franco is continuing to main tain his independence against the pro posed Nazi infiltration.
May 20: German air-bome troops in great numbers to-day began an attack upon Crete, and a big battle is develop ing between Germans who are landing by parachute and aeroplanes, and the defenders of Crete, mainly New Zealand ers and Greeks.
May 20: Although reports indicate that about 50 German planes have reached Irak, through Syria, the British forces in Irak are now striking out in all direc tions and have captured an important town on the road to Bagdad.
May 20: Almost every night the RAF carries out heavy bombing attacks on towns in western Germany and upon the Channel invasion ports. Swiss news papers say that the RAF is attacking night after night with an increasing number of machines.
May 21: The overwhelming attack by German air-borne troops upon Crete con tinues. It is estimated that the Germans yesterday attempted to land 7,000 men by aeroplanes and 1,500 by parachute.
Large numbers of these were killed imme diately, but other large numbers suc ceeded in getting a footing and bitter fighting is proceeding in the north-west.
It is indicated, further, that dive-bomb ers in very large numbers attacked the protecting British warships, which suf fered heavily.
May 22: The Germans have established themselves m north-west Crete, and Irre gular fighting is proceeding in many places. There is no clearly defined front.
British headquarters says the situation is well in hand, but all indications are that the Germans are bringing in large numbers of air-borne troops.
May 23: Although no sea-borne troops have been landed, the Germans are be ing constantly reinforced in Crete by air, and although they are being staunchly resisted by British, New Zealand, Aus tralian and Greek forces, the situation is very critical.
May 23: A rigid blockade of France and French territories is the first result of Britain’s new attitude to the Vichy Government. There is increasing evi dence that France is now giving aid to the German war-machine.
May 23: It is officially estimated that 3,560 members of the AIF were killed, missing or taken prisoner in Greece.
May 25: To-day, in a naval engage ment off the coast of Greenland, the battle-cruiser, HMS Hood, 42,100 tons (the largest ship in the British Navy) was sunk. She was exchanging shots with the Bismarck (Germany’s newest battle ship, 35,000 tons) when she was struck by a 15-inch shell, which apparently entered her magazine. An explosion completely destroyed the ship and only two or three of her complement of 1,350 men were saved. The Bismarck and other German ships departed at high speed, and now are being pursued by British warships.
May 25: Germany’s air-borne troops secured a firm foothold in and around the airfield of Malemi, in Crete. Ex tremely bitter fighting is going on. The position at Malemi is dangerous.
May 26: The Germans in north-west Crete are making a concerted attack upon the British positions, and are being assisted by masses of fighting and dive bombing aircraft, while the British troops appear to be without any air assistance whatever. Severe fighting is proceeding, but the Germans are slowly getting the upper hand.
May 26: The King of Greece and his Ministers have arrived in Egypt. They remained in Crete until the principal towns were menaced by German para chutists, and then escaped by crossing the island and being embarked on a British destroyer on the south coast.
May 26: British warships are pursuing the German warships led by the Bis marck. The Germans are making des
perate efforts to get back to German ports.
May 26: The tribesmen of Irak are now rallying numerously to the support of the Regent, Emir Abdul, and are revolting against the pro-Nazi usurper, Raschid Ali.
May 27: British warships this morning sank the new German battleship Bis marck, thus avenging the loss of the Hood. The Bismarck, which was claimed by the Germans to be unsinkable, was “officially” 35,000 tons; but naval officers engaged in this long-drawn-out battle say that she was nearer 50,000 tons. The German cruiser Prinz Eugen, which was with the Bismarck, is being pursued.
May 27: Renewed attacks by German air-borne troops, heavily supported by aircraft, have compelled the British in Crete to withdraw to the south and east.
May 27: The British Navy, in opera tions around Crete, has lost the cruisers Gloucester, Fiji, and York, and four destroyers. All appear to have been sunk by air action.
May 29: British reinforcements have been landed in Crete, but the Germans are using large masses of aircraft in co operation with their ground troops, while the British have no air assistance, and the position is exceedingly grave.
May 29: The battle in Crete is described by a New Zealand officer as “old-style fighting on the ground, with everything new in the air”. In man-to-man fight ing, the British are easily better than the Germans, but the Germans have all the advantages of aircraft assistance.
May 29: The RAF and British mobile forces in the Western Desert are cease lessly harassing the German columns in Libya. The Germans advanced in con siderable strength on Monday, but did not proceed beyond Solium and Halfaya Pass, both of which they captured.
May 29: President Roosevelt, in a long-awaited speech, declared that the United States would give every possible assistance to Britain and other democra cies fighting aggression, and would actively resist every attempt by Hitler to extend Nazi domination to the Western Hemisphere. He proclaimed a state of unlimited national emergency, which means that the President has assumed full wartime powers and that the nation is placed on a war footing.
It is plain that the President has gone as far as he can. He cannot declare war—under USA Constitution that is the function only of Congress. It is obvious that the President is awaiting some act of Germany which would automatically create a state of war between USA and Germany. If he asked Congress for a declaration of war it is apparent that, in the present state of American public opinion, the argument, pro and con, would continue for many weeks.
May 29: The situation in Crete is now officially described as “precarious”. The British have made further withdrawals.
It is said that in the Crete operations the British Fleet was attacked for 15 hours by 500 German planes.
May 29: An enemy convoy, carrying troops and supplies to Libya, was caught and destroyed by British warships. An 18,000-tons liner, and a 5,000-tons tanker were sunk, and a 5,000-tons transport and a 4,000-tons tanker were probably sunk.
May 30: After some delay, the British forces in Irak are spreading out over the country, and there is every indication that the revolt will end soon. Nazi
agents are fleeing the country. The British are only 20 miles from Bagdad.
May 30: Training will begin on June 7 in the United States of the first of 8,000 British and Dominion airmen under the important Anglo-American plan recently announced. Four thousand of them will be trained according to USA Army methods and 3,000 will undergo the RAP training programme under the supervision of British officers. The re maining thousand will be navigators, to be trained at the Pan American Airways schools. USA provides the cost of equip ment, but most of the charges will be met directly by Britain.
May 30: Japan announces that she is dissatisfied with the results of 8 months’ negotiations with the Dutch East Indies and is now putting pressure on the Dutch territory to enter into a trade agreement under which the Dutch will guarantee to sell to Japan unlimited quantities of oil, rubber, tin, etc.
June 1: Britain announces that, after 12 days of the fiercest fighting of the war, it was decided to remove the British forces from Crete. About 15,000 British troops have been withdrawn to Egypt.
The German communique claims that Germany has taken 12,000 British and Greek prisoners.
Thus ends the Battle of Crete, which represents the most complete and severe British defeat in this war. In a strategic sense, the loss of Crete is very serious— it opens the coast of Libya (Tobruk), the coast of Egypt (including the naval base of Alexandria), the coasts of Palestine and Syria, and the British colony of Cyprus to direct air attack from the Germans Not only have the British lost from 8,000 to 10,000 of their best fighting troops, but they also have suffered a disastrous loss of warships. The British, with much superior troops, and dominant sea-power, could not hold Crete against German air-power—a very significant and alarming fact.
June 1: As British troops were en circling Bagdad (capital of Irak), the people of Irak sought and obtained an armistice, and thus the Nazi-inspired re volt collapsed. The British are now rapidly taking control of the whole of Irak —probably with a view to organising a defence against German activities through Syria. Raschid Ali and his asso ciates, and all the Germans who had reached Irak, have fled the country— some to Turkey, others to Iran.
June 1: German bombers made an early morning raid on Dublin and, in a severe blitz, some 40 people were killed and 100 injured. There was great damage, and big fires were started.
June 2; Hitler and Mussolini met yesterday on the Brenner Pass and con ferred for some hours. These conferences, on every occasion, have been the prelude to some important development of the war.
June 2: The British troops evacuated from Crete suffered great hardships.
Many of them had to walk 40 to 50 miles across the island to the south coast, where they were embarked upon all sorts of little naval vessels. During the voyage to Alexandria, they were con stantly bombed by countless German machines.
June 2: The completeness of the British occupation of Irak is shown by the fact that the Mosul oilfields are now in our hands, and apparently little damage has been done to the important oil industry, June 3: It is expected that the Ger mans, following their victory in Crete, will lose no time in developing their attack upon Egypt, and the Suez Canal.
Simultaneous thrusts at Cyprus and Syria, on the one hand, and through Libya, on the other, are expected.
June 3: There is comment on the fact that the German air force has carried out
no large-scale air attacks upon Britain since the night of May 10, which was the night of tne terrific air blitz against London, and which also was the night that Hess parachuted down into Scotland.
British combers, however, continue almost nightly to make raids upon ob jectives among the German-occupied ports and in Western Germany.
June 3: There are numerous and in creasing reports that German technicians and shock-troops are being infiltrated into Syria, with French connivance, and at the same time it is clear that the French Vice-Premier, Admiral Darlan, is negotiating a Franco-German agreement under which France, in return for relief from some of the harshest clauses of the Franco-German armistice, will give com plete collaboration to Germany.
June 4: Wilhelm 11, the former Ger man Kaiser, died at Doom, Holland, to-day, aged 82.
June 4: President Roosevelt is having long discussions with the United States Ambassador to Britain, Mr. Winant, who has flown to Washington from London.
It is believed that Mr. Winant is urging upon the president the need for early, as well as effective aid for Britain, if Britain is to survive the terrific assaults from Germany within the next four months.
June 5; A heavy raid upon Alexandria by German aircraft caused the death of 100 persons. There is no report of damage to the naval base, but much damage m the city.
June 5: Numerous reports from Turkey continue to insist that the flow of Ger mans into Syria on ’planes and occasional freighters is increasing. It is reported that British forces are massed on the Palestine frontier, ready to cross into Syria. The Vichy Government announces that it will defend, even if this means fighting against the British.
June 5: The Japanese are insisting that the Netherlands East Indies Government give some satisfactory and decisive an swer to Japan’s demands for an economic and trade agreement.
June 6: United States has informed Vichy that if France weakly gives way to Germany, she cannot expect to retain diplomatic relations with USA.
June 6: The United States Maritime Commission has assumed complete con trol of the American merchant marine shipbuilding. It has compelled shipping companies operating on the Atlantic and Mexican coasts to contribute half their tonnage to “emergency needs”. This means that about 35 ships will be made available for British use, June 6: The Admiralty announces that four German ships and an armed trawler whose job was to provide supplies for the Bismarck and other German warships which were overtaken by the British off Greenland, have been rounded up and sunk.
June 6: British ship-repairing yards are breaking records for speedy workmanship.
In one week ships totalling 1,000,000 tons were returned to service.
June 8: At dawn to-day, Free French Forces under General Catroux, and British Forces under General Sir Henry Maitland-Wilson, crossed the frontiers of Palestine and Trans-Jordania into South Syria, while other columns from Irak crossed the frontier into eastern and northern Syria. The Free French leader issued a proclamation to the people of Syria, asking them to join the Free French Forces and guaranteeing the indepen dence of Syria after the war. The British Government formally associated itself with this promise.
The Anglo-French invasion of Syria is warmly welcomed in Britain and United States, and newspapers in Turkey say that if this had not occurred, the Ger mans within two weeks would have had enough men and materials in Syria to menace Palestine.
June 8: There have been many con ferences at Vichy and reports are con fusing; but it is clear that General Weygand refused to associate himself with the Vichy Government’s deter mination to fight the British in Syria, and he returned to North Africa. There is very little about Petain; but it is clear that Darlan and Laval are now in close collaboration with the Germans.
June 8: The British naval base at Alexandria was again raided by German aircraft on Saturday night. Casualties and damage in the city have been heavy, but there is no indication of the effect of the air-raid on the naval base and the ships therein.
June 9: The Anglo-French columns in Syria are advancing steadily on Beirut, Damascus and Alleppo. They are being welcomed by the native inhabitants, but here and there they are meeting con siderable resistance from the French troops. This resistance is increasing as they get nearer the principal towns.
June 9: The Netherlands East Indies Government has formally rejected the trade demands of Japan. There is some anxiety and considerable speculation as to the next development.
June 10: The Anglo-French columns in Syria are now on the outskirts of Damascus and Beirut. There has been rather violent fighting with the French at some points. In other places the French joined the Free French Forces after only a show of resistance. One report says that a British naval squadron is operating off the coast of Syria and co-operating with the forces ashore. The Anglo-French columns have plenty of assistance from aircraft and no enemy aircraft have been met.
June 10: For the 14th night in suc cession, the RAF has bombed Benghazi, the Libyan port, from which the German and Italian columns in Libya are draw ing supplies. It is the purpose of the British thus to harass the columns which are threatening Egypt.
June 10; An American freighter, “Robin Moor ’, was torpedoed and sunk by the Germans in the South Atlantic; 11 survivors were rescued. The incident is regarded seriously in Washington.
June 10: It is announced that during the Crete operations the British lost, in addition to the ships already mentioned (3 cruisers and 4 destroyers), one cruiser and two destroyers—making, in all, 4 cruisers and 6 destroyers definitely lost.
All were sunk by enemy aircraft. This is easily the worst loss suffered by the Navy since the outbreak of war.
June 11: According to the Spanish radio, German long-range bombers are now operating from bases in West Africa, which have been made available to them by France.
June 12: Many newspapers insist that Hitler is forcing a crisis with Russia. It is said that about 100 German divisions now are lining the frontier between Germany and Russia, from the Baltic to the Black Sea. It is considered signi ficant that the British Ambassador in Moscow has flown to London, to confer with the British Government, and that the Russian minister in Turkey has suddenly departed for Moscow.
June 12: The Allied forces approaching Beirut and Damascus have met with much stiffer French resistance and con siderable fighting is reported. There has been indecisive fighting between French and British destroyers off the coast of Syria.
June 13; A leading American commen tator says we must anticipate a further heavy German effort in the Middle East, either against Cyprus, Syria or Egypt.
Diminishing attacks against Britain, while Germany concentrates on the Mediter ranean, show that Hitler is not equipped for a two-front war.