‘Whenever the weather is favourable waves
of German bombers, protected by fighters, often three or four hundred at
a time, surge over this Island, especially the promontory of Kent, in the
hope of attacking military and other objectives by daylight. However, they
are met by our fighter squadrons and nearly always broken up, and their
losses average three to one in machines and six to one in pilots.
This effort of the Germans to secure daylight
mastery of the air over England is of course the crux of the whole war.
So far it has failed conspicuously. It has cost them very dear, and we
have felt stronger, and actually are relatively a good deal stronger, than
when the hard fighting began in July. There is no doubt that Herr Hitler
is using up his fighter force at a very high rate, and that if he goes
on for many more weeks he will wear down and ruin this vital part of his
Air Force. That will give us a great advantage.
On the other hand, for him to try to invade
this country without having secured mastery in the air would be a very
hazardous undertaking. Nevertheless, all his preparations for invasion
on a great scale are steadily going forward. Several hundreds of self-propelled
barges are moving down the coasts of Europe, from the German and Dutch
harbours to the ports of Northern France, from
Dunkirk to Brest, and beyond Brest to the French harbours in the Bay of
Biscay.
Besides this, convoys of merchant ships in
tens and dozens are being moved through the Straits of Dover into the Channel,
dodging along from port to port under the protection of the new batteries
which the Germans have built on the French shore. There are now considerable
gatherings of shipping in the German, Dutch, Belgian and French harbours,
all the way from Hamburg to Brest. Finally, there are some preparations
made of ships to carry an invading force from Norwegian waters.
Behind these clusters of ships or barges there
stand large numbers of German troops, awaiting the order to go on board
and set out on their very dangerous and uncertain voyage across the seas.
We cannot tell when they will try to come; we cannot be sure that in fact
they will try at all; but no-one should blind himself to the fact that
a heavy full-scale invasion of this Island is being prepared with all the
usual German thoroughness and method, and that it
may be launched now — upon England, upon
Scotland, or upon Ireland, or upon all three.
If this invasion to going to be tried at all,
it does not seem that it can be long delayed. The weather may break at
any time. Besides this, it is difficult for the enemy to keep these gatherings
of ships waiting about indefinitely while they are bombed every night by
our bombers, and very often shelled by our warships which are waiting for
them outside.
Therefore we must regard the next week or
so as a very important period in our history. It ranks with the days when
the Spanish Armada was approaching the Channel, and Drake was finishing
his game of bowls; or when Nelson stood between us and Napoleon’s Grand
Army at Boulogne. We have read all about this in the history books; but
what is happening now is on a far greater scale and of far more consequence
to the life and future of the world and its civilisation than those brave
old days.’