Parachute troops had already been added to the new mode of attack, as at the bridges over the Meuse and at the airfields near Rotterdam, and in Norway, but "these parachutists were only auxiliaries intended to seize and hold until support arrived within a short time.—Now events have moved forward, and the air-borne attack on Crete was the climax in that here air-borne troops were used to force a decision by themselves. Parachutists and crash-landing troop carriers rapidly and effectively organized complete equipment for effective offensive action, As they had no real assistance except. from planes, the new method of attack has obviously been carried a step farther.
Now people are asking when the next major German attack takes place what can the defenders expect to meet? Let us imagine that the defender has to hold a land having a coast 200 miles long, backed by a desert; along this coast, let us say; there is a capital, a harbour, and a military base; the main lines of communication run along the coast.(and the reserve bases may be 300 miles in the rear. Where will the enemy strike? Twenty years ago the answer would have been clear—the defenders would have to worry only about their main forward defence lines provided they kept reserves strategically posted so as to guard against a flank attack. But today they would face converging attacks of columns of mechanized troops, fierce forays by air-borne troops of varying and unknown strength anywhere within the whole depth of the defence, and fierce bombing attacks on their main positions and communications. What could he do in reply?
As long as the enemy maintained the initiative he would be obliged to dispose his defence to meet a fluid. three dimensional attack and here is covery of the cable and wire cutters.
The arrested men revealed during questioning that they had participated in many wire thefts and that all the stolen wire had been disposed of at various brass shops in the Settlement and Western District. The two men also implicated another man and he was arrested in Wuting Road. where a large quantity of copper coins and lead wire, believed to have been stolen from the Shanghai Telephone Ca. were found.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.