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The Seaforth News, 1942-03-26, Page 6THURSDAY, MAROH.. 55, 1945 There's a -Lung of the barrack -square or parade ground in this type of drill c— battle -drill! Here are Canadian troops In Great Britain learning actual fighting methods and hardening themselves for the tough fighting that lies ahead of them, At the top left a wily Bren-ginner makes use of cattle on the sky -line as Dover for his stealthy advance. The "three musketeers" will land running below the fence and drive their bayonets home in .the targets in front of them. ' Lower left shows a bridging unit putting the roadway in place on a "box -girder" bridge while, lower right, shook -troops take cover during a house-to-house advanee through an "enemy village". Grimly 'Threatens Invasion Army (by Kim Beattie) With the Canadian Army (Over- seas):—As another invasion season —perhaps more dangerous, certainly still crucial—rushes upon the British Isles, the Canadian Corps is a wait- ing threat of eager, even hopeful bel- ligerency. There is a new sense of urgency and expectation about them. Hong Kong is in their hearts. The distant roll of other men's guns is in their ears, from Russia, from Lib- ya, from Malaya, Borneo and Sing- apore. They curse every campaign as if the very name were a taunt. But now there is an air of belt - tightening, of inner girding, even of secret licking of lips of men who have been deprived of action. They are satisfied now that they hold a position of first importance in the world conflict. hey have no illu- sions about the terrible intensity of the attack on England if it comes. They are weighing the possibilities and wagering on the chances. Wi11 Hitler invade England this spring as his last hope for a cleanout Nazi victory? Or will he risk a long -drawn war against mounting Allied might in the meagre hope of snatching half a vic- tory from the wreckage of half a world? pects, it is surprising how little ef- ed horde? Will he try to repeat feet the entrance of Japan, the Crete on a gigantic scale? world's tempestuous war -stage, has had on the real crux of the conflict. A. year ago, Hitler had three roads he might take. (1) He could fight a prolonged war and attempt to come out at the end with the bulk of his spoils, perhaps his most danger- ous strategy even then. 1(2) He could take the big risk and attempt to crush the British Isles, but the danger of _ com- pleter defeat as penalty for fai- lure deterred him. (3) He could assault Russia, gain control of the Ukraine and the environs of the Caucasus and the Black Sea, and provid- ing the rovid-ing,the Axis could also control the Mediterranean, he could then, create a gigantic Nazi em- pire, economically self-contained and immune from outward at- tack, which might have stood for 100 years. It did not require a skilled strate- gist, even in the spring of 1041, to see the obvious course—Russia. Hitler had tried that third road, and has lost both phases. He failed to wrest the necessary rich oil and grain regions from the Russians, though he poured men and equip- ment into the battle against frost, Every Canadian private soldier always knew in some degree, vaguely or clearly, why the Canadian Corps had been held, these long but valu- able training months, as first-line de- fence troops. They always sensed that Hitler could win this war if he knocked out Britain; and that he might try. But now the great Nazi crisis is upon Hitler. (Japan affects it little, but Russian resistance and the ent- rance of the United States a tremen- dous deal.) They realize that a suc- cessful invasion is more than ever a first essential to Hitler triumph. They think it has become the only—and last—hope of a frantic gambler to snatch victory before the swelling power of Allied men, guns and gear can overwhelm him. And that is something as irrevocable as fate. Will Hitler mount that all-out in- vasion of England? Or, bloodily thwarted in his de- signs on the immense and essential war resources of Russia and the Caucusus—and with Russia now a menace instead of a potential victim —will the most reckless warlord of modern times be content to play safe? To cling to the slim hope of holding his gains at some remote peace conference? Hitler now has only those two de- cisions. In that respect the gambler is much worse off than he was in the spring of 1941 Then he did not have the full might of the United States piling up against him for a black future. Rus- sia was contemptuously considered a secondary campaign. The British Empire could not yet see final vic- tory shining at the far end of the bloody corridor of Time, at its win - battled nations now Gan. And in the versts and Soviets with blind. disre- gard for the penalty of ignoring the arithmetic of slaughter. Even if he had succeeded, he has still failed to gain free use of the Mediterranean —which he must have to make his giant dream -empire workable. For, so long as Britain stands a menace in the Atlantic, the basin of the Mediterranean for Nazi shipping is imperative if his great economic do- main is to be safe and self -sustained. So, in the spring of 1942 there are two roads left. At least, that is how the Canadian Corps has been looking atf the world map and seeking to guess enemy strategy. They are seeing it with Hit- ler's eyes. They have been pondering a way out of his trap for him. They see that Time, that factor always so po2werful in struggles between na- tions, again holds the scales, against Hitler, if he waits. And British arms and the resolute spirit of an unawed people, are against him if he dares the great gamble, He might, but it is only a hope, still win that half -victory by avoid- ing the all -or -nothing hazard of an assault on the British Isles, which it would likely constitute. But if he shinks from it he risks the results of the long roll of events. And the ir- resistible strength, one, two, or three years ahead, of the combined man and munition -power of the United States, Russia and the British Em- pire, must loom like the " engulfing night of doom itself. That way, it seems certain, lies unconditional sur- render at the blood -bought end. The Canadians can only see that one road by which a desperate man —and Hitler is one by both temper- ament and situation—can still hope to attan victory—England! Will he mine -wall the English channel, seek to create a passable surface corridor., and also come overall sweep of his changed pros- swarming over England with a wing - The most confirmed sceptic agrees that there is at least a 50-50 chance that Hitler will make his great gamble. There are those who remem- ber his reckless propensities and his utter callousness toward the human cost, who argue that the chances are greater than that. Some think that a Nazi invasion of the British Isles is almost a certainty and at once, that the promise had al- ready been made to Japan before Nippon launched its attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan, they say,. is led by a reckless military caste, but they would not have been that foolhardy without Nazi assurance that a grand scale assault on Britain would be made before Japanese resources could be depleted. Still others declare that a spring invasion will be mounted, if only as a measure to deter any offensive plans we may have in mind in the west, while the death -grapple contin- ues in the east. ' But all are generally adherent to the belief that the Nazi . invasion, if it is attempted, will not be a :.mere delaying assault. They envisions Hit- ler hurling clouds of his most fanat- ical.followers over chosen areas in suicidal transports and sacrificial gliders. They think lie will be prep- ared to lose seaborne troops in tens of thousitnds in the channel in the effort' to establish a surface bridge- head. They believe it will be swift and terrible, but not prolonged. Hit- ler will either win in a single, world; shattering coup, or he will suffer such appalling casualties in the first few hours that even the Butcher of Berchtesgarden will recoil from the carnage. Canada Sends Her "Sawdust Fusileers" "The most interesting military unit in Britain," wrote the American journalist, Quentin Reynolds, after a recent visit to Scottish camps where over 4,000 volunteers' of the Cana- dian Forestry Corps are at work. They call these men the "Sawdust Fusileers." Every man is an expert woodsman. And every man has been trained into an expert soldier. These men reached Scotland from Canada one hundred per cent equipp- ed. Theybrought everything with then, from axes to tractors and mills, and established a virtually new industry among the virgin wood- lands of :the Scottish Highlands. Ameng their equipment are semi- portable mills, specially suited for small log production, which can be taken down, packed, moved to an- other area and set up witldn twenty- four hours; They have built their own earnps, with log cabins well designed to keep out the damp Scottish winter ---which they find far colder than the "below zero" temperatures they were accus- tomed to back home, Lumber is a "number one" mater- ial in wartime. Without it the pro- duction of a thousand essentials, from rifle -stocks to shelter bunks, Its impossible. Britain used to import ninety-five pper cent of the 8,000,000 tons of lumber which she needed every year in peace time. Various reasons made it more economical. But, with the coming of war, and the cutting off of Scandinavian supplies, she found herself faced .with the necessity of building up rapidly a great new in- dustry of her Own. Without these thousands of expert volunteers who willingly left their jobs and the familiar comforts of their own countries, she could never have done it. By the summer of 1941 these for- esters had fifteen mills in full prod- uction and each mill was producing an average of 17,000 feet of lumber. every day: a total of about one ship- load of lumber. Their work is not only saving tonnage for other vital purposes, but also indirectly saving ships, cargoes and sailors from U-. boats and bombers, Their C.O. is Brigadier -General J. B. White, who knows all there is to know about wood. Vice President of the Canadian International Paper Co., during the last war he was de- puty director of timber operations in France. These lumberjacks were quick to pick up the use of arms, for all of them were good, and some were ex- ceptional, shots, accustomed to "live on their guns" for weeks at a time when at home. As one observer wrote of them,. "If invasion comes they will drop their axes and their saws and pick up their rifles. I'll tell you, they'll pick off the shrouds of a para- chute at five hundred feet. And if all else fails, they'll drop the rifles and pick up their axes, and they'll show the Berries how Canadian woodsmen fight." From all accounts they are fine at improvisation. When the Duke of Kent visited one Canadian camp in Scotland recently, he was surprpised to hear a "Royal Salute" of twenty- one guns. He asked if the men were equipped with artillery in their camps. They were not. But they were determined to salute their Royal vis- itor in the proper .fashion. So they had filled twenty-one tomato cans with sand and dynamite, attached fuses of varying length—and impro- vised. The other forestry contingents are not as large as that from Canada, though the Newfoundland unit is now more than 2,000 strong. Most of the original Newfoundland volun- teers went over one six-month con• tracts, but now they eign on for the duration, They, too, have built their own camps and cabins. and .settled down well. New Forest's to Replace Old These, expert woodsmen form the core of a growing army offores- try workers, for many workers from other jobs are being taken into camps and trained in all departments• of forestry work. Thd result of this great lumber drive has been a really tremendous increase in home production, At the end of one year' of war it„had in- creased four -and -a -half times. Today the increase has been estimated at anything from seven to twelve, times. There are good stocks of timber in the country. But in times of peace the country's lack of rivers to float logs down to the mills prevent- ed the development of the industry. Road, rail and tractor transport' was. so costly that one expert estimated that it would dost more to transport timber the short distance between London and Birmingham than to bring it from Eastern Canada or North Russia. In emergency the economic aspect counts for little, but it seems unlike- ly that British timber will compete seriously with that from the Empire when normal conditions return after the war. To satisfy the wartime demand for lumber to build factories, army huts, air raid shelters, furniture for the bombed -out, aircraft, trench props, railway sleepers and the like, great tracts of British woodland are being felled. But already precautions are being taken against the denuding of beautiful wooded country. Under the direction of the Forestry Com- mission, thousands of men are plant- ing new trees as fast as the old are cut. Two men who lived next door to each other, but were not 011 very good terms, were exchanging un- complimentary remarks across the garden fence. At last, one of them said, "Now, look here, old man, if you don't stop annoying me, Ill buy my wife a new hat, and then you'll have to buy yours one, too:” AUCTIONEER F. W. AHRENS, Licensed Auction ger for Perth and Huron Counties Sales Solicited. Terms on Application. Farm Stock, chattels and real estate grope"ty. R. R. No. 4, Mitchell. Phone 634 r 6. Apply at this office HAROLD JACKSON Licensed in Huron and Perth coun- ties. Prices reasonable; satisfaction guaranteed. For information, write or phone ,Harold Jackson, phone 14 on 661; R.R. 4, Seaforth. EDWARD W. ELLIOTT, Licensed Auctioneer for Huron. Correspond• ence promptly answered. 'Immediate arrangements can be made for Sale Date by calling Phone 203, Clinton. Charges moderate and satisfaction guaranteed. Counter Check Books We etre Sellincq` 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,