THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 19, 1940
News Snack Bar
ICE BATTLE ON
THE WESTERN FRONT
I HAVE JUST SEEN an unforgettable close-up of war as it is being fought now on the Western Front. It was not the picture of war on the grand scale, writes a correspon- dent with the French army.
But this
It concerns, in fact, fewer than a dozen men. experience seems to hold the essence of drama, of courage and of chivalry.
It was after I had explained to French officers that I wished to share, if only in a small way, the conditions and risks of the men I write about, that I won permission to visit a certain advance post.
With a quick marching officer set- ting the pace I ploughed up mountain sides through deep snow and ice until we reached the crests.
ON THE ALERT
We were constantly on the alert for Germans. At the last but one of the outposts we learned that a French party had preceded us to ambush a German patrol.
Boom after we had quit the out- post I heard the crack of rifles in the valley.
More warily than before marched allently, In Indian
When the Red Cross men came with the stretcher, one of them dressed the soldier's feg wound.
He pinned the bandage, smiled and said, "That botter, old fellow?" They got him on the stretcher and let him rest awhile.
A soldier talked to him. The words were meaningless to the prisoner, but we could see he knew they were friendly.
I went on to the advance post. There I saw a German ambulance drive we along the road near the scene of the
Page
"Mr. Hitler's' neutrality” ("New York Herald-Tribune").
file, ambush. Four stretcher parties went Nazi Flyers' 1 A.M. Dash
guarded in front and at the rear by out and brought in their wounded. soldiers with rifles and light ma-
chine guns.
*
Suddenly from a nearby wood there Knights Of The Beret
dis-
Three German afrmen have been interned in Switzerland after landing was the sound
of footsteps and of
in France by parachute and then flég- breaking twigs. The moment of an-
A French regiment which has ing across the Swiss frontier. xiety ended when a French soldier tinguished itself by its valour has It was revealed in Zurich that the emerged. He was one of the ambush been given permission by the Com- three airmen, all suffering from slight party.
mander-in-Chief to wear the large injuries, crossed the frontier at Capitaine, mon Capitaine," black Basque beret instead of its pre- o'clock in the morning. he called. "We have put the patrol sent round peaked cap. on the run and we have two prisoners.
"Mon
**
*
One is wounded, and we are carrying Danes Honour Dead Pilot Unrehearsed
him up here. The other is an officer. He is not hurt.”
CHIVALRY
The party bearing the wounded man came up the mountainside. They car ried him on a canvas ground sheet, laid him on the snow.
one
bad
Military honours were accorded by
A German propagandist had the Danes at the funeral of a British luck yesterday on an "outside" broad- pilot whose badly-burned body washed ashore at Klitmoeller, on the
was cast from a Polish village near Cra- north-west coast of Jutland.
*
"Degrading" Defined
With a fine sense of chivalry the r four soldiers took off their over- coats and their jackets in bitter cold and made blankets and a ̈ pillow for him.
He was wounded in the leg and the shoulder, pale from cold and loss of blood.
The behaviour of the French soldiers at this moment was an interesting study. It was half jubilation at their success over the patrol, half sympathy for their wounded prisoner.
Cow.
HE LEFT THREE
OLD SERVANTS
A HOUSE EACH
Three men
whose length of service for him totals nearly . century have been left house each in the will of Mr. Richard George Gatehouse, brewery di- rector, of Abbot's Grange, Lower Bebington, Cheshire.
The men are Mr. Gatehouse's Questioning a German inhabitant for
butler, James Hawkins, employ- Polish ill-treatment propaganda, he
ed by him for forty years; his asked:
chauffeur, Alfred "And have your children been
Rogers, senr, forced to go to a Polish school?"
thirty-five years; and his garden-
years.
-----One of the latest and most popular--"Oh,~no,” was the answer. "We've~ | |-or,--Bidney · Blanthorne,-nineteen-
of the songs sung by German soldiers, a very good German private school in "We go against England," is not to be our village." played as a dance tune. Party off- The broadcast was immediately fad- cials explain that this would be "de- ed out. grading" to the song.
咖
*
Black-Out Find A
The officer who led the ambush Gestapo Badge?
le in peace, a priest, and member of a missionary order.
Germans himself.
po.
Postcard From
Germany Charge
Every servant at the Grange was left £10 for each
year of service.
A member of the household told the press that Mr. Gate- house bought the threa houses for them some time ago.
Mr. Gatehouse left £283,000,
A postcard from Germany figured Pray Don't Do It
in a case at Hull when Samuel Apple-
A metal Swastika badge picked up He had watched the Germans for in street at Brighton is puzzling the days, and when he was certain of their police. movements he formed the ambush It is similar in design to that of the yard, aged forty-four, ship's steward, During his announcements in the party. He brought down two of the official badge of the German Gesta- of Clee-road. Cleethorpes, Lincs, was Parish Church at Ashford, Middlesex, remanded on £5 ball accused of hav- the Rev. E. Streete, vicar, told his Mr. Roy Moreton, of Herbert-road, ing it in his possession.
congregation: Brighton was walking home in the He is alleged to have received the head cautiously above a rugged ledge black-out when he saw the badge card at Rotterdam in reply to a com- ing put into the offertory plates, but and was almost stupefied to find him- sparkling on the pavement in the lights munication he sent from there to please don't take them off the has self looking down the barrel of a of a car. French rifle Afteen feet away. He He took the badge to Brighton Police surrendered.
Station.
HE WAS STUPEFIED The German officer had raised his
X
Germany.
Detective-Sergeant Rhodes, of the Special Branch of Scotland Yard, said that Appleyard told him he had an
"I have no objection to buttons be-
socks,"
explanation to offer, and a statement Shakespeare On The
was taken from him in writing.
Raiders To Be
Met With Song
If ever German raiders visit Shef-
Black-Out
For my part, I have walk'd about the streets Submitting me unto the perilous night.
• "Julius Caesar," 1.3
*
field they will be greeted with such a The Funeral Party
volume of song that they will think a
choral reception has been arranged for
them.
Funerals and, weddings are to be-
The idea is the Education Com- shown special consideration under
Norway's food rationing, according to
denca, had
mittee's. They are planning
the city ring with patriotic
an air raid..
ing taught four
choruses
"Fifty-five thousand child
sugar, nót
of each: