THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 15, 1941.
EPIC OF THE SEA
"WHAT MORE COULD A
A MAN WANT?"
(By A Special Correspondent)
THIS IS THE STORY of a little ship. The story has been written before in the annals of British naval history. It was immortalised when the Re- venge set sail against the Spanish Fleet.
WOMAN
STRUCK BILLET OFFICER
Two women who did not want This time instead of Philip's fifty-three galleons to take in evacuces were fined at Berks, onc for the ship met twenty of Hitler's Heinkels, but the Maidenhead,
hitting a billeting officer, The odds were much the same. She took them on single-other for not obeying a billeting handed just as her predecessor tackled the Dons 350 order.
Mrs. Ethel Florence Hicks, of years ago.
St. Margare ́s Road, was Aned
£1.
Her commander was a little bald man with a quiet voice. A few months ago he was um- versity lecturer Then he be came a Lieutenant in the R.N.V.R.¦
But he was bred in the same tradition Sie Richard Gren- ville. He had the same motto, "Fight on!"
Fired On Nazis
He deliberately fired on: wave
o Nazi bombe... to keep them
it
"Peking up
a lump of cotton weol I bunged
and put some plaster on it. They told me later it was the worst thing that could have been done, as cotton wool sucks out the blood.
"But by some amazing chance the man recovered in hospital.
was
а When
small boy brought to her house she threw the bille ing order to ground and struck the officer.
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She left a little boy with his bundle outside in the cold and
So instead of killing him 1 her husband took, the buy back saved his life, though there's no credit for doing so.
to the billeting office.
"Husband Forbade It”
My mistruments had all been mashed and our course had to For more than just hours we
went гару In ping along. You can't guess!
When they said another.
from sinking a cominy aid di- . lip set by the sun. verted their attenfant for twenty thirty minutes.
They dropped the bombs on what it fell like him in tead t on the merchant¦ land was in sight. ships.
With his little 4.4 gun he brought down onc Nazi 'plane before Spitfires chased the rest back to the French coast.
The little ship was leaking
badly. On her deck were dead and dying men. Her guns were out of action.
But her
commander refused to abandon her. Somehow he managed to get her back to an English port.
Somehow he lived to tell the tale of victory against impossi-
ble odds.
This is his story: "We were out in the Channel, over thirty miles from land on a special mission. We had a crew of fifty.
"A convoy was passing in single file and we were near the tail of it.
"Suddenly the sky was black with enemy bombers. Three waves swooped to attack the convoy. We were just within range of the last twenty.
"We opened fire with our 4.4 gun. It worked. The Nazis were so annoyed that they turned and left the convoy and dropped their bombs on us.
"They hit every single thing on the ship it was possible to hit.
"Why they didn't send us
straight to the bottom I can't
imagine.
"For a few minutes it was dif-
ficult to realise what was hap- pening amid the hat of bombs. But before they hit our gun we sent one of them: crashing into the sea.
"The man on the bridge next to me was killed. I caught him as he fell áŋd. my uniform was soaked with his blood.
"Me?" For the first time the little man besitated "Oh. I was Only a few cuts and
all right. scratches,
I don't
But I'm o here
Promoted
that
My
mind admitting bombing shook me up a bit. nerves were dicky for a few days, but they sent me straight back to work, and that was absolutely the best cure I could have had.
"Reward? Well, of course,
I
was pleased when the Admiral sent for me next day and con. gratulated me on bringing my ship in. I never expected that.
"But now I'm perfectly happy. They've made
lieutenant- commander, so I've got promotion and a
new command. I'll soon be back on the job again, What more could a man want?"
TRIBUNALS FOR THE RESERVED
Business executives, of- fice workers and men in some other reserved occu- pations will no longer be automatically exempted from the Forces.
a
Each will soon have to satisfy committee that bla firm's work is of national importance, or that he cannot be replaced by anolder man or woman.
The setting up of advisory com-
"About half the crew were on deck. Only about five of them es-mittees to consider this change in caped uninjured, · The rest were killed or seriously hurt.
***Like A Colander" "It was worth it all. to see our Spitfires come up and chase the Jerries away..: Those pilots are grand lads.
the reserved schedule is annoub- ced by the Ministry of Labour.
The first committee to get to work will examine the position of men in the London area-who are regis ered as office or de- partmental managers jobs for which the reserved age is thirty.
The advisory committee consists they'd all gone | of Professor Ď. T. Jack, Professor the ship was like a colander-It of Economics at King's College, was so full of holès,”
“But when
..
Newcastle-on-Tyne (chairman); Mr. J. S. McLean, a member-of "The chief engineer crawled the executive council of the As- up on deck and sald. we should {sociation of British Chambers of have to abandon ship, as one Commerce, and Mr. W. Stott, boller had gone.”
a former general › secretary of the "I told him we were going to Railway Clerks" "Association." make port and ordered him to get up steamn somehow. He did
Six occupations are added to. the reserved. list. They are:
At thirty, Dry↑ miller (cement manufacture) and cargo supervis sor; at twenty-five,” salvage. manager or officer and assistant salvage manager or officer. Men We had ho dostor on board. | in these jobs, who are already in One man's brains were atloking | the Forces or called up will out of his shandy.
"It seemed like a miracle when we started moving, though we were limping along at about five knots
be released.
Mrs. Hirks said she already had one child evacuer and her hus- band had forbidden her to have
an
Airs
Ashling. Margaret
Antony's elderly woman, of St. College Road. was fined £3. Though she has seven roams she; had escaped the inconvenience of billeting since June,
When a mother and her little boy went to the house they were refused admittance,
Billeting Officer Nora Grey said Mrs. Ashling pushed her downstairs and declared: *། won't have them."
Mrs. Ashling said she had no one to look after them. Her maid looked after the house.
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