Window on the world; Rear Admiral A.D. Nicholl

The National Association of educational broadcasters in cooperation with the British Information Services presents a window on the world a tape recorded series of talks by eminent British citizens. This week our speaker is Rear Admiral A.D. Necco a leading strategist and writer. His subject western strategy for defense. Here now is Rear Admiral A.D. Nicko. Today the defense of Britain and the defense of Western Europe mean the same thing. It's fully realized in Britain that the Allied plan to defend Western Europe as far to the east as possible is of vital importance to the United Kingdom. For if an enemy should once more hold the soil of Western Europe the British Isles would be in a position of the greatest peril. British defense policy like NATO policy has three aims to hold firm in the Cold War to provide the maximum deterrent to aggression. And if in spite of the deterrent war should come

to win it. During World War Two Britain and the United States worked together in a magnificent partnership for most of the time. It was an equal partnership although in the final stages when the phone part of America had been developed the United States became the senior partner since the war. I think there's been a tendency in the United States to regard Britain as just one of the European powers. In fact Britain though less strong than the two greatest military powers the United States and Soviet Russia is not so very far behind them. When you're thinking of the possibility of war Britain means the British Commonwealth. There are no written treaties or agreements among the members of the Commonwealth family. But no one in Britain has the slightest doubt of the support the Commonwealth would give to the mother country if anyone looked like attacking.

The British Commonwealth has vast resources. It is rich in its widely dispersed raw materials and most important of all where the possibility of war is concerned. It provides a chain of ports bases and airfields across the world which would be of the utmost value to the free nations in a world war. The basic aim of the free world is to maintain peace. The Western alliance doesn't believe in the use of force to settle international disputes but it's determined to maintain sufficient military strength to resist any attack on its territory or freedom. When data was first formed one of the greatest acts of confidence was the pooling of information on Soviet Russia the close link up amongst the Allies in intelligence matters has gone on and has of course formed the

basis of the official estimates of Soviet strength which have been given from time to time. We've got quite a lot of information. The Soviet army is immensely strong. It has about 175 line divisions and another 40 anti-aircraft artillery and so on. It's the largest and most powerful army in the world much stronger than the Soviet needs for defense alone and its strength lies not only in its size but in the great number of tanks and guns. Yes there are for example about 30000 tanks with the Soviet Army and another 25000 in reserve. The role of the serviette army in war would almost certainly be to overrun Western Europe and the advanced bases from which allied aircraft cooperate could or could operate. And in this task the Russian army would expect to receive

valuable help from local communist parties in the allied countries. The Soviet Air Force has a strength of about 20000 aircraft more than half of them are fighters or jets MIG 15s and MIG 17 and their primary role of course is defensive but they're all capable of being used as fighter bombers with the army in an aggressive attack. The Soviet Air Force has about a thousand piston engine bombers rather similar to the American B-29 which I describe as obsolescent. But Russia at the moment has no modern jet bombers comparable to the American B 40 7s Soviet Russia also has a most formidable Navy and the Soviet government obviously realizes that the whole war effort of the free world and the survival of the countries of Western Europe depends upon the control of the sea

routes. The main strength is in their huge submarine fleet their great capacity for laying mines. There are large number of naval aircraft and in their powerful cruisers which have a very large radius of action. Those are the weapons with which to attack shipping and with the aggressors advantage of being able to choose his moment for attack. The Soviet navy would be capable of bringing a very great scale of attack against shipping in all the oceans of the world at the outset of an aggressive war so far as nuclear weapons are concerned. It's believed that the Soviets have so far tested by explosion a bomb of only intermediate power and so Winston Churchill has expressed his opinion that Soviet Russia is perhaps three or four years behind the free world in nuclear weapon development hence no doubt the tremendous efforts of Russian diplomacy

to have the bombs back. Russia at the moment has probably no long range rocket capable of reaching Britain from Soviet or satellite soil but they may possess stocks of weapons similar to the German V-1 and V-2 rockets of the last war so far as this type of attack on Britain is concerned therefore everything would turn on the success of the allied forces in holding the territory of Western Europe. Very long range rockets capable of being fired across the Atlantic are very much a weapon of the future. It may well be 10 years or more before they begin to come into the picture. Nieto was formed to meet this great Soviet threat NATO's immediate military object so far as Western Europe is concerned is to build up a shield mainly of land and air forces strong enough to hold

firm in the event of a sudden attack and for long enough to allow the allies to deploy their full strength. The shield isn't yet as strong as we need but progress in the build up has been steady and encouraging. One of the really good things is that a complete command system is in existence covering Western Europe the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and the armed forces of the allies have learned to work together excellently in past wars. It is usually taken allies about two years to get together two years in which weaknesses in co-operation have cost thousands of lives and untold amounts of treasure. One of NATO's greatest achievements is that this period of trial and error would be avoided if there should be another war. But in the course of the need to build up two things have come to light. First it was clear from an early stage of the planning that no sound

defense system could be made without the participation of German forces Western Europe must be defended as far to the east as possible and it would be quite unworkable to defend western Germany without the active participation of the West German people. The other factor which has become apparent is the impossibility of Natoma matching the Soviet strength in conventional forces. The hard realisation has come that in the event of an aggressive attack it would be necessary for the West to use nuclear weapons to redress the balance. Last year saw the emergence of the hydrogen bomb. And in February of this year the British government announced their intention of proceeding with the development and production of hydrogen bombs. There is no question of nuclear weapons not being used unless they were first used against the West. There's been education in some quarters

no doubt highly welcome to the Kremlin that some such restrictions should be put on the use of nuclear weapons. But the British government certainly holds no such view. Strategic air power. Armed with nuclear weapons is the strongest element in the deterrent. Until fairly recently nuclear weapons were regarded as weapons of mass destruction but no weapons with a much more limited destructive area have been developed. The weapons of mass destruction would only be used by the West to meet an all out attack which they were convinced was the opening move of World War 3 tactical atomic weapons wouldn't be used except for major military activity. The final decision on the use of atomic weapons of any kind is of course a matter for governments and not for military leaders. And one of the most urgent problems of the neato Council at the moment

is to work out satisfactory arrangements for keeping control in political hands while at the same time avoiding restrictions which might hamper or delay defense if a sudden aggression occurs. Meanwhile the Cold War is likely to continue almost indefinitely and as the value of the of the deterrent increases there will be more likelihood of what one might call nibbling tactics on the part of the communists and I include nipples which might be as big as the aggression against South Korea. The free powers can only meet this type of aggression with conventional forces or at most with tactical atomic weapons with limited effect not with hydrogen bombs. So the allies must maintain a pool of striking power of land sea and air forces available to meet a threat anywhere in the world. The chances of trouble developing

are perhaps more likely in the Far East than in Europe and this places particular importance on control of the sea. The British Commonwealth with its worldwide chain of naval and air bases is a great source of strength to the Western alliance in this respect. The Communists follow mainly a lead and strategy. The free world follows a land maritime and their strategy and its pillars are Western Europe. The Middle East the Pacific and the sea routes there must be no weak spot in western defenses for the communists to exploit. This means that Britain and her allies must have landed their strength to hold firm in Europe and reserve strength to meet danger in the Middle East. The Far East or anywhere else in the world. There's also the defense of the home base to be considered Britains

fighter and anti-aircraft defenses have a vital part to play in holding off or reducing the intensity of an attack. The civil population must have the will the courage and the discipline to survive. In Britain most of us feel that determination to face the threat of physical devastation is preferable to giving in to communism and also that any show of weakness or his IT Asian to use all the means of defense at our disposal. Whatever the consequences would only increase the risk of our being attacked. We're all in it. We must all play our part. We must maintain our discipline and our will to survive. That I'm sure is the outlook of the British. And I'm also sure that one of the great assets of the Western alliance is the spirit of the British people. You've been listening to Rear Admiral Adrian Nicol a leading British strategist speaking on

Western strategy for defense. Listen next week when a window on the world will presents or Albury Gascoyne former British ambassador to Russia his topic a British view of world communism. This has been a tape recorded presentation of the National Association of educational broadcasters in cooperation with the British Information Services. This is the n AB Radio Network.