T
TAT OUR WH
ت
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,
"That man's just had more for his dinner than I have in six months at home."
X
Fram Giles in New York
SPECIAL
OPERATIONS
into the methods of the Gestapo, economie.
Besides the blowing
to make it ensier to outwit up of railways, canals, bridges was when the
British them; experiments in dropping and power stations and sink Commonwealth stood special stores from aircraft. ing of ships in harbour, these alone and on the defensive These jobs were done before the were a few of the picked jobs, in 1940 that the Special Opera- first man was sent, and research
carried out elther by local tions Executive was born. and development went on right
groups or raiders from British buses: People read of the audacities through the war.
The men and women were
of
SATURDAY, JULY 17, 1948.
Singing Mice & Barking Birds
O mice sing? One of a litter of young house-mice was heard to givo "a remark- ably exact rendering" of the chirpings of a canary, but some naturalists attribute the which singing to the wheezes of bronchitis, afflicts mice like men.
Many birds are excellent mimics. Starlings can mew like cats, imitate barking dogs, grunt like pigs,. quack like ducks, blcat like sheep, and gobble like turkeys.
They have been heard to imitate the ercaking of a gate, a train whistle, the rumble of 'cart-wheels, and the whirring of a circular
anw.
- No
Do swans sing when about to die? evidence that they do has been gathered; but some swans have a range of a full octave.
But there is no evidence that a swan's wing can break a man's leg. Its bill will inflict a painful wound, 'say Fred Kitchen and Clifford Greatorex in their book, "What the Countryman Wants to Know" (Gollancz, 8. Gd.), to be published shortly.
Dragon-flies. which travel at 40 m.p.h., do not sting. They are among man's best friends In the insect world, as they devour flies and, that gardener's pest, the cabbage white butterfly,
There was 'sabotage on Belgian railways to
The tick of the death-watch beetle, commonly believed to foretell a death in the house, is enused by the beetle knocking its head or jaws against wood- work.
Naturalists say, "It is a means of communication be tween the sexes."
Glow-worm's Glow SEX attraction is one cause of
the glow-worm's glow. This also acts as a searchlight in the nightly search for snails. When dangor threatens the beetle puts isolate the battlefield, out its light.
to How fast do birds fly? When destruction on Danish railways prevent the passage of reinforce-migrating, plovers and curlews ments southwards, sabotage of Nor- wegian railways to force the Ger- manson to sea routes where they the targets of the would become Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
France: destruction of 1871 of British troops and agents in nearly all from the armed
Not always was it necessary to destroy; sometimes it was necessary occupied countries; they knew forces of the Allies, with a big airscrew factory at Toulouse
British and and of the power supply to Leto preserve. For instance, Antwerp nothing of this master organi- proportion
men: Creusot, France's biggest arma- port was saved from German demo- sation which linked and direct. Dominion officers and ed so many stealthy and de- some had been turned down by ments works; demolition, two ition, (only three cranes out of 802 the the Services because of age or years running, of the Gigny were destroyed) thanks to a Belgian moralising assaults
small infirmity.
barrage on the Saone, holding reserve Beutenant employed in the up E-bont traffic to the Mediter- Port Administration who worked out
a tactical plan to protect it. ranean for five critical weeks each time; demolition of Radio-
(111
enemy, on his own ground,
11
Recruits
given were Operations
with month's preliminary course, un- set up Was
from many der strict supervision and with
The Special
Executive
contributions
Aur
whose
is, And sti!! GENERAL
was. name
directed the unfamiliar to the man-in-the-street wartime Special Operations Executive, which organised raids and sabotage in occupied lands and helped to build up secret armies. His name: Major-General Sir Colin Gubbins, KCMG, DSO, MC.'
Many of the brilliant and perilous exploits of General Gubbins' agents have been described before, but only recently was the story told by the man at the top, in a lecture to members of the Royal United Ser. The article on this page-condensed vices Institution- from that lecture-puts the whole story of the Special Operations Executivo into perspective.
General Gubbins was a field gunner in World War One, and afterwards served in Ireland as a brigade major during "The Troubles." Today he is director of a trust company.
church Recently he attended a
ceremony, in Knightsbridge, London, in honour of the women secret agents who were parachuted into occupied territory-- some to be tortured and killed in German concentra- tion camps.
Major General Sir Colin Cubbins
Resistance groups south of the Loire delayed German reinforce- of ments to Normandy an average 48 hours. The 2nd SS Panzer Divi-
sion, stationed north of Amiens on D-Day, took two weeks to reach the bridgehead at a crucial time. Cut to rallways meant Tiger tanks hud travel to battle by rond and got. there late and not in fighting condi- tion; troops arrived, exhausted and disorganised. It would have taken the whole Allied, air forces, doing
else, to nothing
Cause the damage to the railways.
same
A ROBIN
the most difcutt
Vird to draw
240 to reach are estimated m.p.h. A bluethroat, the size of a robin, does 180 m.p.h. and covers 1,800 miles in a night.
The booming of a bittern has been heard a mile away. Some birds, including the peregrine Lalcon, can spot their prey five miles off.
How long does it take a bird to Quickest on build its nest? record was a wren, which-did- it in five hours.
The nest of a long-tailed tit- found to contain mouse was 2,870 feathers in its lining,
The common earwig is a de-
Besides diverting and delaying enemy troops, Resistance helped the main operations by sapping enemy voted mother, and courageous," confidence, disrupting tele-communi- too.
cations, allowing Allled formations
to advance faster by relieving them
It out being told why they were Paris, used for jamming and Japanese on their lines of communi- Government departments..
that if they were propaganda. had two jobs: to create a run- wanted, so
drain dismissed they could not be ning sore which would the enemy's strength and dis dangerous. They were paid nt
with tage. help ordinary Service rates, perse his forces and to the armies of liberation when paarachute pay. Signallers who the Continent was at last in operated wireless sets
given the rank of Corporal or vuded.
higher.
The first meant sabotage, subversion, violent raids, which would attract the attention of the Gestapo and the SS; the second meant the creation
women
of
fulls horses, dogs,
She sits on her eggs like a of flank protection and mopping up, hen till they hatch, then tucks giving military intelligence, and the young earwigs under her providing guards in liberated areas. body when danger threatens.
She has been known to de- In the Far East, SOE operations fend them vigorously against started when a group of officers went evacuated Inland instead of being
an enemy many times her size. from Singapore. They fought the
Dogs From Wolves cation until stores ran out: then
cock partridge, in defence of they took to the mountains to or- A his brooding mate, attacked a
mowing machine. Terns and Denmark: shipyards enbo- canine resistance.
black-headed will strike at catile, There were other "stay-behinds" Norway: destruction of
In Burma. When 14th. Army was and other animals which enter their heavy-water factory and stocks racing towards Rangoon, the
Karen breeding grounds.
100 Miscel-thrushes will at Rjukan, of torpedo and oil Resistance, 10,000 strong, with stocks at Horten, of ball-bear- British officers and men, held up the and a naturalist photographer lost
Division for two
an eye through an injury by a brown ing works at Oslo; demolitions Japanese 17th
critical days, killing, 10,000 Japanese. owl when attempting to photograph at the Orkala pyrites mine.
Its nest. Two countries in Europe
In Borneo, most distant front on SOE "treat- Greece: rail and road demoli- needed special
diversion from the which British troops fought, o small group, their only link with the ment." France, divided into oc- tions as cupied and unoccupied zones, Allied invasion of Sicily in world a tiny wireless set, lived with had no government outside the 1943; kidnapping of General head-hunters, trained them and led then successfully against the country, only. General de Gaulle Kreipe from Crete.
Japanese.
were
"
the Anal
attack cats,
the sea
Our dogs have come from wolves or jackals, and not foxes as is com- monly supposed.
unless do not bark, Wild dogs they leam to do so from domesti- caled dogs.
from horse-hairs? Do cels come
still believe secret armies, to do which it trying to rally Frenchmen to Meanwhile factory workers
Many country boys this to be true. was essential to avoid attract his fing. The Executive kept
alow, were going
producing
twelfth Between its sixth and of tho clandestine
for ing German attention. But, charge
Realslance, says General Sir Colin faulty parts for vital machinery side by side, the two jobs went operations there and when it or omitting to deliver parts. Countries the chance actively to tnice and so, on to the Atlantic. It spawns
Gubbins, gave the people of occupied year the cel sets but
and dies.. on until half a million men was found that General de
Land-locked ecls may be seen German-and Gaulle had a big following he Laden railway wagons journey- part in the war and to lift their in
meadows and and
rough of traversing victory came. The presence
nd on
dark nighis in the Japanese-occupied lands were was given the task of building ed off into the blue because heads in pride when engaged in Resistance; there up France' secret armies, with their destination labels had been British officers and men and women ground quietly changed. German showed them that the British were nutumn.
When they reach rivers they rest soldiers found encouragement prepared to take the same risks as
to enable blood might have been more, but for the help of British officers.
they were being asked to run. for some months, the
for malingering or desertion. difficulties of getting-
so that they changes to take place
withstand the greater pressure supplies to them.
The greatest of the secret "I should like to mention particu- of deep-sea.
From the ancestral breeding The other special case" was armies was in France; where larly the British other rank W/T When SOE was Grat formed, Denmark. The Nazis tried to in the first week after invasion, operators, all of cource volunteers, grounds come the millions of elvers there was no contact with the make the country a shop 960 railway demolitions out of who kept their schedules with 'baro' 14,000 go to 1b, at one stage of
from the icy mountains of Jugoslavia their growth. countries in which it was to window for the New Order but a planned 1055 were Buccess- or the rain-sodden jungles of Malaya Which bird does an artist And
cheerful, always operate. The first men to go by 1943 sabotage, under British fully carried out.
most difficult to draw? When redbreast an authority snys: back would be parachuted guidance and with Danish help. In June 1944 the Resistance always giving of their best.
were brought "blind" with no prepared recep- had reached such heights that were keeping 5,000 Germans large parts of Europe were liberated, "Traching of a truthful
Germans evicted Training schools and the
the busy in the Correzo, 11,000 with furnishing and rest; many had baxing the pecuilar expression of this
Been favourite bird has proved to research stations were started Government, sent the whole artillery in Vercors: late in up to two years in enemy territory. beyond the skill
they
artist." to produce, special equipment police force to concentration July they were holding the 11th But when their leave was up,
volunteered as one man for the Far and wireless sets; all the pieces camps and appointed a German Fanzer Division in Dordogne. East and within three weeks thrushes and other birds-attack of paper necessary for life in governor. Sabotage increased In all 800,000 Frenchmen were reaching India they had parachuted German-occupied Europe had a hundredfold..
arms in organised again into Burma, or Melaya, to be provided, including cur? Targets for sabotage in formations; 24,000 of them Slam back on the job. Soma
officers, their task in France com- rency; there had to be research Europe were both military and died.
pleted, also went East."
tion.
under
and
Burma
for
can
Or the
outilne or
be
of almost every
When atorlings, blackbirds, song. fruit they are thirsty, A saucerful 80 of water placed near the bases of trees will usually says the fruit.;, BERNARD DREW
or
11
Should a young wife be practical
"0"
about money matters?
course I'm practical about money matters
I have to be! I may not understand high finance, but I am the one who must budgot the home expenditures,... It's my job to stretch the dollars to feed and clothe a growing family.
"That is why I look upon my husband's Life Insuranco as a joint responsibility—his and mine. If I should ever lose him, it is the children and I who would suffor without an incomo to replace his carnings,
"So we plan our Life Insurance together to provide an income that we agree would be necessary for me in case of need. His responsibility is to carn money
mine is to seo that some of it is made available to meet the premiums as they fall duo.
"If I had not been willing to play my part, my husband would have found it impossible to provide the financial protection that our family needs."
THE
MANUFACTURERS LIFE
HEAD OFFICE ?
INSURANCE COMPANY,
(Established 1887)
[TORONTO, CANADA
HONG KONG BRANCH WINDSOR HOUSE
Tel. 34156, 34157
E. J. R. MITCHELL, Manager for South China.
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