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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1943-09-02, Page 6TEE S1AFORTH NEWS Dunkirk and After By Arthur Bryant in "Britain." The days between May 29 and June 8, 1940,: were the turtling point in the history of mankind. In those days the' British Navy, with the help of the 'Royal ..kir Force, saved a British Army—at that' mo- ment virtually the only British Army —from what seemed certain destruc- tion. Dunkirk Was a kind of British victory, and as such has tended to obscure events that preceded it. But the occasion of Dunkirk itself was the greatest military disaster in Bri- tish history, An array of more than one-quar- ter of a million men with practically the entire available field equipment of Britain, was surrounded and penned in with no apparent choice but immediate surrender or death. It marked the apparent collapse of all values which an easy-going parliamentary democracy had stood for. In that moment the miracle oc- eurrecl. It was like a sudden rainbow at the climax of some terrible storm. In the midst of it long columns of leen, tormented, utterly weary and in deadly peril were seen going down unperturbed to the water's edge. Their only way of escape was a single port blasted by enemy bombs and shells and a line of exposed beaches with shelving shores from which an evacuation would have been impossible in anything but dead calm. Those men stood there in long pa- tient queues, as though waiting for the last bug home, or sheltered in impromptu holes evacuated in the sand, while overhead dive -bombers roared and screamed and fantastic air battles were fought in the midst of immense pillars of drifting smoke and fountains of water. They waited with a kind of dogged faith, and pre- sently their faith was justified. Guarded by lean, crowded destroyers hundreds of little boats came out of England and bore them away. For five clays and nights the mir- acle continued until no one remained on the beaches at all, save the dead. The living came back out of the de- lirium of modern war to the quiet and ordinariness of England; to the near railway carriages and the smil- ing policemen and girls holding up cups of tea. And there they lived to fight another day on the sands of El Alamein and in Tunisia and Sicily. The name of one general who cov- ered their retreat against the victor- ious Teuton hordes and who was himself among the last to embark, was Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander. Among those who took part in the evacuation was another general by the name of Sir Bernard L. Mont- gomery. On June 17, while every road to the southwest of Europe was block- aded with refugees and the panzer surge swept unresisted into the Rhone Valley, the men of Bordeaux, after Premier Reynaud's last vain, despairing appeal, made their abject surrender. In the eyes of the over- whelming majority of mankind at that moment there seemed nothing else that they could possibly do. The world prepared itself for the inevitable. But the voice which came out of England at that moment was neither repentant nor submissive. It was the voice of a man angry, defiant, utter- ly resolved—or rather of forty-seven millions looking in a single direction, and that direction seawards, and in- toning in their hearts words which one man spoke for all: "We shall de- fend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches; we shall fight on the land- inggrounds; we shall fight in the fields and in the streets; we shall fight in the hills and we shall never surrender," It sounded to the world the wild- est extravagance, for outside the British Empire and the White House M Washington there was scarcely anybody to whom such words at such an hour made sense. The Her- renfolk, who were far too busy counting their gains and herding their prisoners into pens to listen, announced them to be the drivel of a broken-down drunkard in the pay of impotent money -lenders, and they contemptuously offered the English- peace nglishpeace in a global concentration camp. Mr. Churchill and the British people did not hear them. With a minimum of fuss and chatter and a Maximum of speed they were girding on their armor. They knew that Hit- ler would do his worst. But they were not thinking about what he could do but about what they could do, No one who lived in Tngland through that wonderful summer of 1940 is ever likely to forget it, The light that beat down on her green meadows, shining with emerald love- liness, was scarcely of this world, Tbe streets of her cities, soon to be torn and shattered, were bathed in the calm serene 'sunshine; and in the forge and factory, on the form midi in the. mine her people with a Rem, nnl'esthlg yet (inlet intensity worked as they hail never worked before in history.' Inn every village primeval earts that might have barred the way of Napoleon's grand army, wreathed with farmyard wire were placed across the roads, Signposts were ta- ken down and trenchesand gun em- placements were dug in the fields. In the city and in the country mil- lions of citizens strove to make themselves soldiers. Factory hands and retired ambassadors, graybeards and boys in their 'teens, middleaged men holding themselves taut after twenty years of easy living in the memory of their former prowess in war, paraded side by side in working clothes with armlets LDV. Many of them wore medals. Many made arms during the daytime which they learn- ed to use in anticipation at night. For strange though it seems, and this was part of the miracle of Dun- kirk, the British people were already thinking not of averting defeat but of earning victory. Never in all her history had vic- tory seemed more remote or improb- able to Great Britain than in 1940, Yet in the very hourwhen in the midst of unparalleled disasters he of- fered his colleagues blood, toil, sweat and tears, Prime Minister Win- ston Churchill defined his country's goal. "You ask," he said, "what is our aini. I can answer in one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in. pite of all terrors, victory, how- ever hard and long the road niay be. Fon' without victory there is no sur- vival." Already with empty arsenals and housewives mobilizing their pots and pans to make enough fighter planes to save London from the fate of Warsaw, Britain was laying down her four -engine bomber program which was to wipe out cities of Ger- many in 1943. With invasion hourly expected she was sending out her only armored division on the long sea passage around the Cape of Good Hope to guard the Nile Valley and lay the foundations of a land offensive which was to chase Mar- shal Erwin Rommel from El Alamein to Enfidaville and pound Colonel General Jergen vo Arnim into ultim- ate surrender. Meanwhile, the angry Germans, slowly and incredulously realizing that the British would not snake peace, prepared with Teuton thor- oughness to smash them to a pulp. The men of Bordeaux, who had good reason to know the might and ruth- less power of Germany, supposed that island state that had withstood Napoleon would have its neck wrung in a few weeks like a chicken, as one of them said. And by the standards of mathe- matics it appeared only too - likely. The swastika rose over the Channel Islands; Mussolini's legions, outnum- bering General Sir Archibald Wav- ell"s intrepid few by ten to one, marched into Egypt; the Japanese sharpened their swords at the gates of Hong Kong, and the victorious graycoated hordes danced and revell- ed in the streets of a dazed and rav- ished Paris preparatory to the final triumph amid burning villages and the smouldering debris of London. All the while the long procession of barges floated down the rivers and canals of Europe towards the Chan- nel ports, endless columns of gray and steel moved to their appointed places and the great, black laden airplanes gathered in their thousands on the airfields of northern France, Belgium, Holland and Norway. And as the world watched it suddenly realized that England was going to fight. "Hitler knows," Britain's inspired leader said, "that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into the broad sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister and perhaps more protracted by the lights of a pervert- ed science. "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its commonwealth last for a, thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour,'." Production of Alfalfa Seed (Experimental ]'arms :News) Successful alfalfa seed production depends upon a number of factors,. some of which are within the grow- er's control and others upon a favor- able 'season, says D. 3. Armstrong, Central Experimental Farms, Ottawa. The stand should be free from nox- ious weeds, especially those that are difficult to remove in seed -cleaning, Thin stands of alfalfa yield more Seeds than think stands. While this latter faolor le not entirely under the grower's control, especially whore, Production of hay is' the primary con' sidoratioii and seed production Mehl - ental, nevertheless where conditions, such as winter -killing or a dry spring have brought about a thin stand, the chances of a good seed own are in. creased, A profitable seed. crop also depends on a season with low soil moisture that prevents too rank and rapid growth and encourages plenty of bloom. After the onset of blooming alternating spells of cloudy and sun- shiny weather with moderate wind and occasional showers are consid- ered most favorable for pod -setting. In Dreier that Rowers shalt set pods, they must be "tripped." Tills is brought about by the visits of such insects as bumble -bees (honey bees are relatively ineilectise) or by bright weather. Tripping due to ivea" Cher conditions results in a high 1110 - portion of self -fertilised seed , which is undesirable from the standpoint. of vigor in the next generation.' Considering the importance of wild bees in seed production possible nesting sites along fences and woods should be left undisturbed, TiHUFISDAY, SEPTaMSaR Z 1943 A good seed crop of alfalfa de- pends upon a thin stand 08 'weed -free alfalfa. The season must he favorable throughout and at flowerii8 time there must bo a sufficient population of effective tripping fllseets snob, as wild bees. Due to the acute need for ` forage sped, farmers should oarefnily con- sider the possibility of nutting sec- ond crop p'lfalfa for seed for home use, Those who wish to grow reed, eyed seed should get information from Production Service, Dominion Department of Agriculture, Ottawas Noting the high price charged for a silver fox fur, a matron invested in a fox ranch, placed equipment, hired an expert to run, then asked: "Flow many times each year can we slain the foxes?" His answer, completely satisfying to her, was: "Well, it's safe to skin them two or three times a year, but after that they begin to get a little sore," Want and For Sale Ads, 1 week 25c Invasion Barges Latest "High and Wide" Rail Loads Tstn problem of the transportation by rail of huge single -unit mate- rials needed for Canada's war effort has presented a challenge which has been met and mastered by the in- genuity of Canadian railwaymen. These "oversize" shipments are mov- ing daily over rail lines in all sections of the Dominion. To railwaymen.they are known as "high and wide" loads. They require special care and skill in loading and many of them also neces- sitate special operating arrangements. The. Canadian 'National Railways recently handled what is said to be the largest single -unit freight ship- ment ever carried by a railway on this continc e. This was a 150 -ton tank loaded on three flat ears which was transported.. from.,Montreal.to the Government's new synthetic rubber plant at Sarnia. The latest "high and wide" loads carried by tic Canadian National are invasion barges, now forming such an essentinl part of the equipment of illus' lighting forces. The upper picture sherds one of these invasion barges loaded on flat cars enroute to a ('nw di:"m port over,the lines of the National System. Other unusual freight .loads Illustrated in the drawungs are: 1. An army laundry unit. 2. A. sixty -foot tug built at Owen Sound and shipped by C.N.R. to the seaboard. 3. A Nage propeller enroute to a shipbuilding plant. 4. A marine boiler 'which required a specially equipped car and fixtures to prevent rolling. 5. The big tank loaded on three flat cars,for the record trip. Gonne Check Book • We Are Selling Quality Books Books are Well Made, Carbon is Clean and Copies Readily. All styles, Carbon Leaf and Black Back. Prices as Low as You Can Get Anywhere. Get our Quotation on Your Next Order. • The Seaforth News SEAFORTH, ONTARIO,