THE CHINA MAIL,
CHAPTER FIVE
SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 1955.
Cloak and Dagger Squadron
JOHN REDFERN goes behind the barbed wire fence of a prison camp for this beside-the-news report on the biggest problem facing Mau Mau land today
THE COURAGE OF WOMEN BOAST OF
JAN AND
AND LIET
N August 1944, the Resistance movement
in Warsaw rose in
open revolt against
the Germans.
By Leslie Montgomery
{As Told To Gordon Thomas)
་ཐཱ
Twisting and
namming, wċ The first shot was fired in them, it was nothing more
than a job of
Such thook the fighter of Suddenly work. soon after good-looking
courage was quite usual.
smoke and flame lirket from Lieutenant Jan Nowak was But charm-especially if it: the bomber. A fire was burcing parachuted into his native is weman's often beats la the bemo Tack.
We Poland by the Cloak and, courage. I learnt that time
spiralled towards the a desperate attempt again. Take the case of "A round in Dagger Squadron. Nowak Anthat
was her code to doute the blaze. Frantically wag an ace among agents. name had
Dispatcher both. Small and the
and myself she would have struggled to beat the fire out. He had become a guinea well-shaped,
But as room as the pilot eased pig, testing his wits against been equally at ease posing for
a cover girl picture or cooking it at hedge level, the Hames the Germans.
In a modern kitchen.
iato life
again Like
locked Odette Churchill, her
black-until personality
che of those, inexplicable events magnetized us from the moment she bearded occurred that always make life
night ore the Halifax
t in the alr unpredictable. The February 1943. Beneath her burning part of the bomb rack shapeless overalls, Ance wore a
reatly away from the Hall- tailored subst straight from fax.
In this way, he discovered snaps so that otherapies wery,
to avoid them. AN
Only his brilliant nerve and cunning saved him trem capture.
A poop as he reached Wor saw, he gave the arder to touch off the Men
ther
She even had earrings flown specially from the fashion centre by pigeon post a few days beforehand.
SEARCHLIGHTS
well-planned upricing. Paris. www women and children all courageously hurled themselves against the Germans. Quickly, kly, helsted the purple and whit: Polish flog over The battled-scarred buildings.
Jan Nowak
scarcely slept during the first bestic days, of the battle. He crganised strig points, planned ambushes and fought in the front line.
him battled Beside
pretty Let Jadwiga, List wa
was in her late teens, but already she had
Her
expensive suede court shoes, her friin handbag, bey nylon undies-all were stowed in specious pockets in the over- alls. Her faked papers said the was a night-club dancer.
Kings
Ansibar, few seconds--and we would have made a fery pyre on the ground. It was my elbgest
have
few
After some of the other jobs. it, scanded easyamtil I had a kak at the map.
“Beth Sardinia" and Corsica are extremely mountainous. Both were effectively patrolled
German
fighters based on. by Sicily. We wo
would probably be under fire during the whole of the run-in. Enemy radar would plot our course. A look
at the weather
THORS charts. and hazares popped up.
It had
arranged that we would drop our supplies in the mountain valleys. But often heavy mists shrouded tkem. And there
treacherous air currents to cope with.
IL
bren
were
WORRIES
. The
Resistance
MURDERING
come
across
.
T is quite something to The incentive of shorter Mra working hours and moré per- mits to visit the camp shop (to Clodagh Alison in the spend the ed, a day pay) help, 1,000 acres of dust and bring confession from many sweat At Kamiti prison others.
The wardresses in a uniform camp.
rather like a Girl Guide cap- Her tunic is immaculate.-tain's, are strapping, cheerful her slacks well pressed. Her women-although those who complexion glows and the are Kikuyu have received word hot breeze carnot dull
her that they have been sentenced to death by the Mau Mau couris attractive hair.
Nairobi, 13 miles away.. Calmly, efficiently, this
Behind the prattling of the good-looking woman from
children and camp's 350
the Lymington. Hants, gets on singing of the women is the with the job of looking after whispered threat. some of the wickedest But, as everybody in Kenya women in the world the agrees, the Kikuyu women must 10 killer women of the Mau be
Kenya ia changed i change. Mau.
Mau Mau is leaning heavily "She is surrounded by today on the women. It is they
the "hyenas," "goats," "calves," who feed lone gangster and lions. These are the lying in wait on the outskirts
of villages. names used, unofficially, to
The women of Kamitt are cut the convicts and patriots classify
of the battle. But Mrs Alison detainees,
is right in the other battle- The hyena detestable the battle for their deliverance utter blackness · di and filthy; the goat-ready from the to follow anyone; the calf Mau Mau. in need of guidance; the; lion brave and self- reliant.
would only be able to use hand torches to guide us over the dropping point. It would be like looking for a reedle in hayrack.
briefing. Intelligence
pro- duced more worries. The Ger- mans
would probably try to fool us with faked drop areas. But we were determinet to get
To compensate for it, a days Jater came my biggest thrill King George VI and the Queen inspected the Squad- the had to make the trips on
to
This was to be her cover, role in Parkhe most hazardous avu
Anne was to be one of
the
heavily
we
cloth.
-
TOUGH, ROUGH
wireless links between the Pari working clothes when we met thing but un easy task.
ran at Tempstord. It was a big honour.
for Royalty
winan oright moonlit Dights, so`
Here among the 2,300 wo- vitited
have a better chance of operational squadrons. There Was
cur pot time for us unloading cargo at the men is Kenya's biggest change before Their right spot. I also meant that problem, parcelled
up in Majesties drove past the the German would have a bet-barbed-wire and white prison
On the quarded station gates. ter chance to spot us. Mary of US were solled whole it was going to be any- the first in May I road North- trip across asked no questions
Wisely, the King and Queen African coastline,
warra Mediterranean sea. about our werk. For we had strict orders At any minute we expected
Palermo-based to tell nobody what we did-
enemy fighters not even Cabinet Minimes or 16 come screaming towards the Royalty.
learned to carry a side alung city in Europe for a spy, over her shoulders in much the women same way as ordinary carry
handbags They fell in love—a romance born cut of the struggle for
Warsaw. But by now the tide was turning against the patriots as the Germans threw that sands of troops and vehicles into the battle. Ther
against
this shell-scamad background, Jan asked List to marry him.
WEDDING
The two were married. In a
the
patriots and Landen. She would and transmit the vital receive information that would brief
the Underground movement for their volt.
forthcoming D-Day re-
The Halifax's engines rared louder and louder for the take eft. Soon the Channel gleamed in the moonlight. We few co lent that the men of the sea fered into the aircraft
A
sudden flash of search bombed chapel in the front lights patterned the sky. We line. It wasn't a quiet wedding. Mad reached the French coasta German fire was echcentrated Suddenly the round the chapel Within tapped Anne's hand. The seconds
couple covered with choking dust from The plane screamed through were dropping point was coming up. the crumbling buildings near the air, its shadew outline by.
on the ground. Over the murmurings of the priest rose the screams of the injured and dying. A screeching, shell blasted one of the chapel walls to the ground. Gunitre became
brave This
couple's wedding anthem.
There
WILLS
***
the Royal couple, but they didn't seem to mind..
Late
Halifax
។
the
:
But none came.. We sped over the inky-blue Sea that lapped
The Queen spent a long ame chatting to the airwomen in the
amp. Quickly,, she broke down Tyrrhenian their reserve with her famous, the hostile Sardinian shores. By
enom radar now.
eseny tracking us; must be on the
But roze came.
smile.
IMPROMPTU
waiting.
But he
www.
must
be
or-1
The women who are merely detained wear dinary clothes. Those who are convicted wear dresses with the broad arrow as the only touch of decora- tion.
white
They look like a lot of| peasants but they are so much more. They are the murderers, the Man Man court judges, the oath ad-) ministrators, the committee members, the thugs' girl int friends.
Sghters
.
was arrested in 1952..
So long did the Royal visitor
Then Corsica loomed Dispatcher gossip,
that the King many eight. Black and ugly, it reared turned and implied me out of the sta. times
But within its Here is Sara, a midwife husbands, he hated to be kept men and women who were preyatta's favourites before he should get a move on Like all mountainous heart were many who was one of Jomo Ken-i
parer to die rather than be under the Nazi jack- had his own te around
recognising airmen boot. e had decorated at Bucking Suddenly, the tension reachen ham Palace carlier in the war, mapping point. The dropping It Was amazing the way he area had been reached. It was could remember faces he had in a tricky spot at the bottom seen for only a few reconds, of a cliff summounded valley. perhaps
many months before, fran- The impromptu Royal visit
Another top from the patcher. This was the arranged. signal for her to put on a rub- ber crash-helmet. Then the Dis- patcher made signs for her to pick up something.
She shrugged her shoulders
Game-of
receplica. His signals grew morz 210 There was only enough food for c. Then she understood. Her was a pleasant break for all of meal a day. A quick kiss, parachute wasn': fastened, as it us from the geim; work of spy- one and the newlyweds were back sficuld have been, by a rope to in the firing line.
Carrying a boli in the plane.
On May 1943, ESCAPE
A
undeeting was
r. W
came that awept the past from mind. my
Leave for the Middle East. Special Mission!"
AUDACITY.
There was no time to debate whether it was a fake. The urgently flickering pinpricks of light from the ground warned us, there was no time to waste. Carefully and steadily, the pict brought the cumbersome bomber down, down, down.
Here is Jomo's wife by a Kikuyu tribal marriage, en aging woman
who gives little trouble,
Here too is a girl friend of Dedan "Fleld Marshal Kimathi, the toughest and roughest of the surviving terrorist chiefs.
moves
Like him the girl is tough and rough, and when she about the camp she has ne forest in her walk.
HORRIBLE OATHS.
ifers" who Quitidy, the
We were completely temmed in by cliffs now. Our engines echoed and re-echoed off them like thunder.
The
By now the German are und intensified into a ceaseles bar-
The zage.
patriots were driven deeper
and deeper into War
In another few moments she saw. Bitterly, Jan Nowak knew
would have fallen to her death. Special. Mission! Time and that the revolt was doomed.
Antë smiled wanly at the nace again these words shot through vas called of Jast
my mind as the black painted scape. leaders. Nowak
cord she jumped Halifax winged its way towards was secured, and was told that he must leave at
She had started on a thrill- the Middle East. ance for London, with meret
packed
After career that might easily
skirting round the of vital importance. documents
end in death. Like co many Pyrenees, the aircraft nosed like a startled horse.. We had Desperately he searched for List. And together they s out the last I heard of her.
10 others I took over, that was, towards Algiersant the
muddy landing strip of Mawson dropped the supplies. The lights
from
flashed on the ground gauntlet
and off
The Resistance quidly It had been an old
were saying "Thank you!"
We returned safely base,
to 'had hoodwinked Ornans, No doubt they
10
run
the
Frene!
airfield, and had rickety hang-
But I know you'll agree that Blanche. escape route was to be
be through the rat-infested sewers the lock outstanding couge to only exit from Warsaw. Jan had or as a charming dancer be
for an enemy she was plotting an injured arm, and the scoret documents were hidden inside to destroy". his bandages.
ars and no proper runways.
On May 11, 1943, I knew the
ding night wading through evli by night. Each trip produced major role in the reation, der
the Halifax
bucked
ked
By now, there weren't many what the Special Mission was believed that nobody would be The couple spent their wag parts of Europe I hadn't, visited We had been picked to play a ce
water and futh that the unexpected. smelling
Once atten came up to their necks. Mary times they stopped to listen, to make sure that the
Germans hadn't entered the sewers and were trying to seal Them
Wading
and through mud opze, the couple edged forward. Jan held his bride's hanc to encourage her as they inched along the grim escape route.
Then, they were cutside the torn city. Behind, they could hear, the incessant, polina- ing of guns and see the berserk flashing of exploding shells..
war.
HAZARDOUS"
With
faked papers, Nowak
was able to get two grats on a German train speeding west. The papers rald that he was a
the
and
so foolhardy their
as to send a single. "of Halifax
well- Corsican
defended tines on a moonlit we were just climbing Underground movement.
But once night, Loads of captured German had underestimated the
again, they away from a Belgian dropping
Cloak when zone
a night, fighter as and ammunition were to and Dagger Squadrons.·· jumped us. It roared out of a be flown to the islands and cloud bank and fired a long, dropped to patriots. We would raking burst through the Hall- help to soften up
the Get- fox's waist. It sounded like rain mane on the islands before the on a tin roof.
great Alliez advances started.
NEXT SATURDAY:
One Of The Finest Coupe Of The War
Another Red State is in turmoil and back from Hungary comes RALPH HEWINS
a spot-news report:
with
PRECIOUS FEW CARS AND
NOT
A BICYCLE
skilled foreign worker eppw the perpetual hard-luck suffered in
story. In my travels across covered"
TTUNGARY is the land of Finland, which also bled and cally no private cars. What few
ed by the Germans in Warsaw and, after being wounded, was
sent to
hospital,
German
Orien the train stopped that the jering German
admit
the war have re- there are, go to show-businest stars, to top sportsmen, and The Communist Party and omelais. The few miserable little half the length and breadth Government
that the taxis are falling to- **pieces.****** of the country every Govern- backwardness is not entirely Buses and trams are filled to ment official and Old Guard due to a super hangover from a bursting and you never see Communist apologised to me da
people reading newspapers on "Every day the papery scream thern partly because there is Outside Berlin, the couple for the backwardness, M "self-criticism. In the factories, no room, but also because the left the train. With a pocket I was constantly remind the workers are accused of "lack newspapers are so dull (circula
rupants could witness exec
tions.ct: brave Polish patriosa.
headed
for
Scme of the
women
fellow boast to prisoners about killings they have been at. One or two have cut themselves to get human blood for Mau Mau ceremonies inside the barbed wire. Many have been through the horrible, horrible oath ceremonies.
In her whitewashed office, Mrs Alison copes with all-and with no sign of shock or dis- taste,
Not that it can be easy for, her. She is the stepdaughter of Mr Arundell Gray Leakey, who was kidnapped and buried alive by Mau Mau terrorists.
listening With her husband in, she tells me about the screening carried out at Komiti Mr Charles Alison is in chargé
Is
of the whole camp and his wife responsible for the women's section.
Some of the hyena" "women have refused for more than a year to respond to the after- tions of the screening panels, old and wise Africans who seek a confession...
QUNJUN
on
S'RAPHAEL
compass to guide them they ed that Hungary was feudal of respect for State property tions are kept up only by com
advancine the
because they don't look after pulsory reading classes in offices Alles. It was a hazardous until 1946 with 3,000,000 tools and machines.
and factorie). App Journey, every step fraucht Ignorant landless peasants
Despite the time and
with
Even
papers were
on the borderline of starva- All this written and oral "self- adequate caused by In
criticism" is claimed as a sign. 2 bleytisport, ¡1: never saw-
That
systern
sudden danger. They had to avold
all towns tion so, their
In Budapestar checked many chres. But they
every bridge across the of strength, so much healthier
countryside is still in the through. In all, they had Danube in Budapest was than Bushing up mistakes as horse and buggy or foot-slogging covered about 500 miles before destroyed by the ficcing Ger- happens under the capitalist age. The tickety pony frape and they met an Allied patrol mans; and
unpainted farm, hwagons were That the entire savings of the Yet production lage far bebind medieval. But a so Within days, they were in Lon- That
of the dan-and the papers with flares were lost in the world's the rare lad down if such key horses ridden cowboy style to the hands of the Free Polish biggest Inflation.
Industries sa agriculture (the from works were Government E
True enough-But 1945, is 10 basis of Hungarian economy), cent. They always have been ryoday, lan and ware, man years ago. And other small, coal mining, and oil refining. That is a herkaze from the Lional: harpes in Poland. But countries, such as Holland and In Budapest, there are prac« derided parta
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