NANCY
OH, SLUGGO, WILL YOU HELP ME CLIP SOME OF THE HEDGES AND BUSHES ?
SURE---I'D
DO ANYTHING FOR YOU. MISS RITZ!
Saturday,
HONGKONG-TELEGRAPH
CLIP CLIP
September 7, 1940. By Ernie Bushmiller
JAL
MAGAZINE PAGE.
TROOPS WERE AT LUNCH WHEN NAZI BOMBS
HIT THE LANCASTRIA
ME
[EN of the B.E.F., rescued from the French Atlan- tic port of St. Nazaire after the collapse of the Western Front, were at lunch in the Lancastria when one of the bombs which wrecked the 16,000-ton liner tore through the ceiling and floor of the dining saloon as they sat at table.
No one was hit. But thirty minutes later the great ship was at the bottom of the sen.
On boned had been about 5,000 aoldiers and airinen, refugees women I well as men and the clubleen, as well as a erew of 300 Nearly 2,300 are known tr bove
been savit
Others are believes to have got German 3161 and fellen
nativt
handa.
Only three or four rivi-
Hans are insinut.
The troops had begun tr aboard at 8 am, embarking from
The slip stood waiting for them, about fis miles but What happened afterwards is pieved fus gether from the narratives of Nis VİVDER
relays, started Lanch, in many
There had been an air-raid
early
alarm, but no sign of planes
Ship "Straddled
With Bombs"
Those who could not find seals huddled on the bont deck The sky was unbroken blue, the sun mercilessly hot
Lunch was still being serves at 4 pan, when the first airplanes a peared. They attacked the Lan- enstrin ineffectually for half 1 hour
But suddenly they straddied the Malp with bombs.
ilsted She righted herself, listed again, sel- ting all the tune. Then she turned turtle and sank.
20
Shattered beats, Un hals -all the khaki Ogures bittered the suddenly turned from blue to black by tons of oil. French Lungs and British warships took many of the struggling folk on board, took us many more to another troopship already packed with soldiers.
When the survivota reactied ü west coast port their faces were stil black with oll, their clothes in Lattern.
Captain Shouted
66
'No More"
This is the story an Army officer fold:-
"I was on deck saying goodbye to two friends when the airplanes first came over. My friends had Intended to board the Lanenstrin, but the captain was shouting No more,' and they had to go over to the other troopship,
"The planes were only 200 feet
I thought they were British. One dropped a clutch of four bombs right over the other troop- ship. 1 said to myself 'Oh, ho! This doesn't look as If it is going to be much good to you, and grab bed my tin hat.
"Then the Lancastria was hit, As she went down I waited until her deck was awash, then stopped into the sea. I still had on my tin hat. It was just as well.
"Because when we were all in the water the planes still went on dropping bombs. As they hit the sea their force lifted us right out of it,
The most dreadful thing was the cries of those who couldn't swim and there weren't enough lifebelt to go round. You heard 'Help me! I can't swim-and you couldn't do anything.
"But the courage shown was magniflecht. Those who
sang as they swam. swim
could.
"I managed to get into a lifeboat, but it was soon so overcrowded that It turned turtle and we were all back in the sea. I clambered on the keel, holding a paddle I had yonchow collected.
with it I pulled more men up with me. But they all crowded to one end, and suddenly the keel up- ended and we were in the sea for the third time.
After that I started swimming and was pleked up by a tug. Sho tranferred me to a troopship."
The officer told this story in the west country part. Ho wore a "borrowed pair of tight trousers, a
Among
گو
shors, kinki gi shirt, art, for teen bandaged round him fret
elvillan refugees hunday
who 212071 formerly
Foirey worked at the ariation works t Gosselies. Belgium
With their famibes they trekking from there started May 12 They walked, mud rode trains, watif they cars and boarded
1eatrla the
al si Nazaire un June 17
One of them, Mi Claude Five - man, and his young daughter were
in
Lift
ked up by one vessel, his wife By amthet He thought she was dead until she walker Sinds thre sume hotel half an hour after his Arrival
This is Another story, told hy Miss Fernande Tips, another rr- fuges from Gossellos!
with 111
another. 1wo brothers, and a mnd in the dining- room when the ship was tonibru. We all
all wore hebelts as we ate
"As earl bomb fell all we could ser was a sort of shadow, followed by thousands of splintess Some thing hit me very hard in the eye ared there wasa a fervifle bank
"We tried to stick togethet Wr west planting stairs to the theek After thut { list trace of my nother and brothers My mothers: swam about for three hours before she was picked up."
"I cannot swim, but I had un a Bre-saving belt. I saw the huge bulk of the ship with its propellers sticking out of the water above me
pocket swing as fast as I could.
When I hnd got about 250 yards I looked back Aft of the promenade deck I saw a corporal hanting on by one hand and fring
Firen
other Run with the
at The German planes
None of the sea disasters of the war kely to surpass in human the wreck of the 1am netria Hundreds сег those struggling in the water were suf- forated
by
fuel ul the
which envered #1, two or three feet deep. as the ship's tanks blew up.
Hundreds DX
suldiers weary packing the decks were killed as the bbs struck. Hundreds of others were trapped below went down with the Jiner
and
One inan told me of n soldier who, blinded by the force of the first explosion, was being led along to the sup's hospital. Just as the doctor
was attending to han second bomb fell, killing every one there, about a dozen, including the ductor.
1
D
Another an sak he BAW soldier in the water grab a young Kiri, both of whose legs had been broken He swam with her, and huth were picked up, but she died later in the rescuing ship and was buried on the voyage over.
One of the clew of the Lancas- trual
As trading a book when it all happened I had got too tired of continuous alarms to get up on deck, so I stayed where I was. But suddenly there Was is terrife explosion,
"A bomb had fallen not far from where I was sitting. The table im which I was leaning, bookshelves and everything else went up.
He Only Needed] "Man In Front Of
A Hatpeg
A SEAMAN, thrown into the water when the Lancastria went
down. found himmelf
Hear
saldier who was still wearing his sir has a well an bin Ilfe-Jacket.
Soldier: Can you swim, mate? Battor: No. Can you? Soldier: No,
What shall 1
do with my iin hat?
"Get rid of 1"
“How 7"
"Hang it up."
The
heroism inseparable
from
any disaster in which our lighting men are involved was the burden of many stories told by survivors, Bend this one:
The
for
Who spattered with khak! Bgures, swimming. rowing their lives. Suddenly above the shouts of command, the cries for help, cne the sound of sing- Ing.
The struggling men looked back towards the stricken ship. At least h hundred Tommies were clinging to her upturned side. They were alning Roll Out The Barrel."
of
The tune died away, and there was a lull. The silence was broken by one of the same band soldiers, "There'll always be on England," he sang in a rich bari lone voice. The others joined in.
That
was the Lancastria's re- quiem. Soon only the end of her stern was still above the wayes.
"Absolutely
No Panic"
Me Was Killed"
**In complete darkness, I groped 10 companionway. Un the next deck 1 tried with another man to open some of the portholes so as to jump through, but they were barred.
"We scrambled up สต deck. stripped, and jumped overboard. A man just in front of me was hit on the head by flying debris and killed on the spot.
been
"Beneath where I had been sli- fing I know there were at least 200 RAF. men, and they must have been lost. They just hadn't Д chance.
heard the terrible sound of their cries as pushed my way up.'
Another of the crew said: “As BUT AS we were struck my way towards one of the bouts. Already it was full right up with men. When I had eventually moved them others surged towards the boal, hoping they would get a place aboard.
"Just then the Lancastria gave a terrifle lurch to part, and all the men were thrown from one side of her to the other. I slid on my buck down the deck, which was an enormous-slant, and was dung Into
the sea.
"It looked like an almost solki mass of men, clinging together like Alles, and covered with thick, black oll. All the time the planes were stin above us, continually swooping and bombing, and machine gun- ning every one. I believe, they were Italian."
One of the planes was shot down Inter by a British vessel, and the
"There was absolutely no panic," plot, uninjured, taken prisoner.
said one of the men on board. "Wo
all
came out of the cabins and stood in the corridors. An order. came along for every one to stand on the right and not move.
"We stood there while hält dozen women and children went by to get on deck. Then it was our turn
Colonel Wears
Sallor's Trousers
Some of the survivors spent ivo hours in the water, clinging to up- a turned bouts und any plecs ef wreckage they could find. They were covered inches thick with oil when they were brought ashore,
Most of them walked about, the quayside barefooted, many were clad only in blankets, the majority were still too dazed to talk of their Y experiences.*.*/
"When I got on deck there was already a bad list. In one of the boals about to be lowered was a French-woman who kept · calling *monchlen. A soldier picked up the dog and threw it into the boat, and the cuddled it to her.
"There did not seem to be any more room, so I slid down a line into the sea. I didn't feel it at the time, but the line cut my hands and legs.
Scores of badly injured men were brought ashore on stretchers, and for two or three hours, every available ambulance in the port was pressed into service to take the wounded to hospital." (
A colonel had managed to retain
the lancasTRIA—"listed, righted herself, listed again,
setiling all the tíma, . .
his tunice, but was wearing a pair of sailor's trousers. Some of the men wore women's jumpers and women sandals.
Captain R. Sharp, the Lances- trin's communder, who was saved. I been with the Canard Com- pany Thirty yours and aniled in every ship in their fleet. He is married, with two sons, the elder Beutenant in the Navy.
"1 was on the bridge when the ship sank, and I was thrown into fae water," he said.
"I was sup- juurtest for four hours by my life- heit, then I saw one of my own ship's lifeboats in charge of Mur-
an tristi
quarterinoster, und MeLeod, a Scottish quartermaster.
"Murphy called
McLeod Italy woke, there's the captain. There were a number of French- men in the boat, und with their help they hauled me aboard.
to
"I am a heavy man, and I was as slippery us on cel because of the off on my clothes and the lifebelt." this melan- As a postscript to choly tale, read this story of two Church Army sisters. They were taken aboard the Lancastrin after a dash for the coast in a military convoy which was attacked five lines by planes. Troot and Cham- ley are their names.
"Through an open porthole we saw a black cloud in the sky, mov-
Ing very fast," they sold. "It was planes and as soon as they were over the ship
then they lei Ko bombs.
Soldiers Leap
For Lifebelts
"We rushed on deck, heard the order, 'Women and children first." and got
As we Intelfeboat. moved away from the side of the ship soldiers at a porthole saw we
lifebelts. were wearing our
'Give shouted,
Ux
11
thod we took off our belts
and flung them into the sea.
jumped in after them.
They
Two old Belgians and a little boy were in
In the water. The child was saying his prayers, while the othern encouraged afloat. They were saved.
Al
to keep
"We threw our oars overboard to help others, and soon R.A.F. planes arrived and dropped a number of lifebelts."
The Church Army sisters sald there were about 100 women, chil- dren and soldiers in their boat. Some of the other boats sank as they were lowered, owing to the liner's heavy st. They ended:
"When the first Bettish warship arrived there was great cheer, All around one heard the cries. "The Navy's here?"
Will Main War Theatre
be
MEDITERRANEAN
By GENEVIEVE TABOUIS
A former foreign editor of L'Ouovre, Paris; now a voluntary exile in London.
(Written for the United Press)
LONDON, Aug. 29 (UP).—We have just been in- formed that owing to the tremendous difficulties that he is encountering in his battle against England, Chan- cellor Adolf Hitler has decided to play his war game in the Mediterranean.
Within a few days, he is going to transfer a sub- stantial force to the Mediterranean in order to reinforce the Italians. Thus, he will try to beat the British on sea at Alexandria and on land in Egypt.
The Fuchrer is going short of petroleum. He feels that if the Axis could obtain supremacy in the Mediterranean,, England would be deprived of petroleum which is now obtained from Iraq and Iran. This would also do away with the possibility of the Balkan countrias, the Soviet Union and Turkey turning against the Axis if the situation becomes unfavourable for Germany,
"
•
Well-informed circles here see the situation as follows, If England succeeds in holding her own on the Mediter- ranean and the North Sea, she will face the winter under the best conditions possible, because Britain ruling the Mediter- Tancan means that Germany can only obtain her petroleum through Rumania via the Danube.
Germany's production is absolutely insignificant, since the Soviet Union does not give her any petroleum.
•
On the other hand, if Britain were to lose the Mediter- ranean, she will face a very serious winter and very precarious conditions. Her only hope will be the United States.
►
A third hypothesis-which no one believesis that Hitler would win his war against England at once. But many are convinced kerc-In fact, some very reliable sources, have it. dictated in any case that during the course of the winter or some time before the beginning of April at the crux of the great. European famine, Hitler will probably offer London some peaco. conditions,
These would guarantee that Britain could temporarily maintain her colonies and fleet, but she would have to accept the reorganisa-" tion of all Europe under. Germany's domination. At this time, Hitler will use every means of propaganda at his disposal to in- fluence Washington to definitely encourage Britain' to accept Ger- many's conditions.
Incidentally, this action is considered, to be first in Hitler's .con“ templated conquest of world hegemony. According to his own pre- dictions, the second would be a campaign against the Soviet Union and the third against the United States
Naturally America will find herself in a very difficult position in regard to her démocratio institutions when Europe, submits to Germany, Am Such to the manner in which well-informed circles sum up the situation
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