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Show A NEEDED VICTORY Britain's decisive victory in Iraq makes good news she couldn't afford to lose her oil wells and pipelines there, as they are almost literally the lifeblood of her military and naval forces in the east. Other good news was the destruction destruc-tion of the Bismarck by a tremendous concentration of British naval units that has to be done, to buck up a British Brit-ish public which was aghast at the sinking of the Hood, pride of the fleet. But the Crete debacle was almost as bad as it could be. Again, the Germans demonstrated the power of their air-arm air-arm again they showed the finest kind of staff and supply work. In losing Crete, the British lost much of her Mediterranean Mediter-ranean power. Some commentators think the battle of Crete may have been a Ml dress rehearsal for invasion of Britain herself. There is a similarity in conditions. The Nazis had to come over water, and they had to rout out strong detachments of intrenched, defenders in rugged country. However, an invasion inva-sion of England would hardly be so easy. The luftwaffe would be given plenty of opposition by the R. A. F. and Eng-land is far better defended, from the point of view of men, positions and weapons, than was Crete. The fact that, according to reporters on the scene, German loss of soldiers and planes in Crete was staggering, indicates just how tough over-water invasion is. |